NIGHTWICK ABBEY: The Purple Eater of People, Session 18

After weeks of study, Mayfly returns to these hell-haunted halls...

Previously on Nightwick...

Cherwe (Cleric 1)

Sotar (Cleric 2)

Corfu (Dwarf 1)

Mayfly (Magic-User 2)

Ianthi (Changling 1)

Jek (Fighter 1)

Hirelings: Tieze, Cunrat, Bartel, Mach, Assmus, Pawel, Grolmus, Manhardus

AT THE MEDUSA'S HEAD...

Mayfly walked into the bar sporting two new silver daggers with deerman antler handles. 

(PC NOTE: Adornment X SP = 1/2 XP up to 200 SP/week; but just 50 XP shy of Mayfly leveling so have to delve at MU 2)

The group decides that they want to explore the West Tower again given the previous success in engaging deermen. Plus, most of the party wanted to take a second crack at the screaming heads.

...THEN DOWN TO THE ABBEY...

WEST TOWER: The party drops down into the Abbey and heads south without incident stopping in the very familiar DINING ROOM. So far, so good...

DINING ROOM: The room contains four doors. The north door is how the party arrived into the room. South door leads to parts unknown. East door, the party feels, will just lead toward the EAST TOWER which is not where they want to go. West door seems to lead closer to The Butcher given the THWACK! THWACK! that can be heard on the other side. The party chooses to head through the south door.

FOUR COLUMN ROOM: Through the south door leads to a smallish room with stairs to the south, a statue to the east, and more stairs to the west. The south stairs just lead to another scabbed-over wall such in the way of Nickwick Abbey. The party turns west up the short flight of stairs and finds themselves in a long hallway echoing with the THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! of the Butcher.

LARDER, RUINED SHELVES, & ROTTEN FIREWOOD: Traveling north up the long hallway, the party sticks to the exploration of three west-facing doors that open into mostly empty rooms of supplies for the Butcher. traveling north the THACK! lessens.

DOUBLE DRAGONS: The players reach the top of the hallway and are confronted by two stone dragon mouths sticking out of a wall- east and west. Ahead, north is a door. Glurp confidently steps forward...a "click" is heard...and jets of flame erupt from the dragons' mouths! Glurp's frog reflexes cause him to leap backward, but alas he falls unconscious with a hideously burned arm (PC NOTE: 11 weeks Gurp will be resting and sometimes a statue of a dragon's head is just that and sometimes it does breath fire.)

A little messier this time

F*%&^KING DEERMEN: The party did not want to leave empty-handed so they returned to the DINING ROOM to try one last recon effort up a small stairwell to the northwest of the ALTER ROOM. Up the stairs and turning west they encountered a filthy room with ochre plasma on the floor and the littering of deermen. Continuing west they are greeted by deerman arrows! Manhardus kills one but is slain in the following volley. The party's counterattack is effective with Cunrat, Lanthe, and Sotar each putting one in the grave. In a surprise, the deermen seemingly had collected 300 SP worth of silver baubles.

With Glurp groaning in pain and a good bit of silver gained, the party decides to head back. Mayfly casting floating disk to carry Glurp.

But the Abbey would not release the group just yet. Another herd of deermen met the party just right before the entrance. Mayfly cast light to blind the lead monster, but the magic seemed to slide off of it. Ianthi followed up with sleep, dropping 5 of the 8 deermen which sent the rest running! (PC NOTE: Seriously, morale checks are a key component to, especially, low-level play)

...BACK TO THE MEDUSA'S HEAD

PC NOTE: Not a lot of silver but enough to get Mayfly to level 3! And what new spell did Mayfly learn from his new mentor Halfdan? I was given a choice between detect invisible or ESP. Since the deermen have been a constant source of problems for the party, I chose Mayfly to ESP.  Might be useful to have a passive radar potentially.