Darves Hill Sept 2012 Summary (Last Session)

 DH #58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfCnl8J9IvQ

They started out on Level 4. They traveled through the rooms and they saw that many of the rooms were recently emptied of monsters… it felt empty and that somehow was worse. Francis the Frail returned to the group and reported the death of Martriss the Elf that was killed by the spreading Death Effect around the ruined town of Nahm. He also saw Gronn the one-eyed Giant/Ogre thing had survived and was possibly the cause of the death and destruction there. He had followed Francis to Darves Hill as well.

Kergil the Dark Dwarf looted all of Goddess’ potions from her temple. Two other Dark Dwarves decided to stay on with Blevins the Halfling as his retainers. The rest of the the Dark Dwarves fled to the mountains to the North.

The first stairway they came to on the 4^th level was covered in the skin of human slaves. This skin was actually the faces of the dead. As they stepped down them the faces muttered words and curses. On the middle of the stairwell one of the faces cast Sleep on them, and most of them tumbled down the stairs asleep.

Below the stairwell they found a room that was covered in silver discs that were nailed in the center. Kergil interrogated one of the faces and it said that the Sleegos made them, and that they shouldn’t touch them. Abraham touched the walls, and almost was petrified. The coins jingled and the sound passed down the hallway and into the distance. They assumed that this was a warning to those further in the dungeon.

The group decided to run down the hallway, but they found no one there waiting for them. They came to an area with massive hallways that were tall and wide who’s edges were not even visible. They saw evidence of more fighting, and assumed that the Withered Legion was here as well. Their skeleton foot prints were there in the dust.

The eerie silence of the dungeon began to disturb the members of Grunka’s Company. They then thought they heard the sound of small wings. Stinky the Quasit Demon returned… but it would not land on Cyr’s shoulders because of the girls possessing him and Targ.

The group started to feel waves of strange heat from the Hellfire pits that were starting to erode away the layers of the dungeon. As they would go further down they would find more and more of the lower levels being destroyed in this same fashion, as if Hell itself was encroaching up to the mortal world slowly but surely. They found a hole drilled down to the next level. In the process of lowering themselves down one of the Dark Dwarves fell and managed to survive the fall. Abraham died from the fall… but then his healing amulet popped and cured him of the damage instantly, though he was still very sore.

The Hellfire pits felt worse and just wrong on the lower levels. They felt like they were slowly being corrupted or perhaps getting sick when they were near to the edge of them. They came upon a disgusting corrupt green underground river and they felt that this river also went down to lower levels. They decided wisely to avoid the putrid river to find another stair down to the next lower level.

They went out of the way to investigate one of the side passages and they found hundreds of human slaves that were horrible slaughtered. Kergil cast Animate Dead and animated 6 skeletons to aid him and carry him like an Emperor.

An Otyugh was blocking and guarding the stairway down, and after a fireball and the onslaught of attacking skeletons the creature was no more. It took some effort to get around the burning carcass of the creature and then headed down to the next level. The group thought they heard The Withered Legion.

Two Wyverns attacked Percival since the rest of the group fled at the sound of the pit. Percival cast Pyrotechnics on Hellfire and horribly wounded the Wyverns. Percival died in the process. Another Otyugh was blocking the next stairwell down. Abraham died in the smoke inhalation from Francis’ Fireball spell killed the creature.

The group found some ancient Dwarven wrighting that he couldn’t read. Then they found a silver axe of Haste. They then heard the sounf of dying Wyverns. They heard cursing in Giant. They then heard bones breaking. They thought it might have been a Minotaur or Gronn.

Gronn the one-eyed giant/ogre was running towards the group and hit Cyr’s Protection from Evil spell that prevented the demon possessing him from crossing it. As he fell 4 of his “God Rocks” rolled out from his bag and this seemed to change Gronn’s personality. Kergil stabbed him in the eye twice blinding him. Francis cast a web spell, and Targ read Gronn’s mind. Targ learned that Gronn had the Demon trapped within him but the God Rocks had broken the Demon’s hold on Gronn.

One of the Dwarves grabbed the Black Death sword and he was disintegrated. Black Death was then grabbed by Blevins and used like a lance and used to attack the Otyugh which eventually died.

Perfect gold filigree was everywhere and looked like it was made by Demons. Hellfire pits were everywhere. Onyx tiles laid out the ancient symbol of the two primal Gods Mar and Umar. The symbol was holy and the girl’s possessing Targ and Cyr told them that the symbol was keeping Lekorh on this level.

Francis then tried to make a deal with a Demon to kill Lekorh… but his fellow adventurers killed him and threw his body into the Hellfire pits. The Demons said they would not intervene in the future battle.

DH #59 (Last YouTube Video, End of the Last Session)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=codjQtMCdc8&feature=watch_response

The group saw a strange pathway of red stones lead off into the Hellfire pits where the girls possessing Targ and Cyr told them to go to find Lekorh's throne room. Lekorh's throne room seemed to be straddling two planes of existence. There was a large archway leading into Lekorh's palace. Two Withered Legion guards were standing on either side of this archway. They were holding long poleaxes that had a black hawk motive with sharp wings. A gray tunnel appeared and lead off into the misty distance. The tunnel was approximately 1 mile long.

At the end of the gray tunnel they entered a large pillared room and in the distance they saw some strange glowing angelic light. The group got an idea that this beautiful room was Lekorh's prison.

In the throne room they saw Xernatha the Necromancer, a horribly mutated Old Manx, a beautiful dancer, a small metallic automaton, a Slavemaster, and finally Lekorh dressed in white glowing robes that also seemed like part of his prison. The group approached and the figures were strangely silent.

There seemed to be a strange spell in the room that made it hard to reveal the truths of Lekorh and the throne room. One of the possessing girl spirits told Cyr that there was a depression under Lekorh's throne where the two broken pieces of Cyr's coin artifact needed to go.

Xernatha the Necromancer began to cast but a Fireball spell went off in the throne room that wounded many of the things in there. El Rashid tried to run up to throw Lekorh off of his throne, but he hit an invisible wall of force and was hurled to the ground. Targ used his Frostbrand sword at Lekorh... and missed. Lekorh was covered with small shards of frost and ice. Blevins charged Xernatha the Necromancer with the sword Black Death (held like a lance) and he killed the twisted magic-user without him being able to get a single spell off. The Dark Dwarves attacked the Automaton, and he proved easy to hit but hard to damage. Stinky appeared on the Dancer's face and stung her right in the chest with his stinger. The group wasn't sure why he chose to attack... her.

Lekorh cast Power Word Kill on Cyr, but instead of Cyr dying... the girl possessing him took his place in death and Cyr didn't die. The Dancer grabbed Stinky by the tail and smashed his face against the corner of one of the platforms. The Autamoton tried to leave but the Dark Dwarves kept attacking him. The Slavemaster stabbed one of the Dark Dwarves in the chest with a poison sword and he died.

The Dancer was swinging Sticky around by the tail and she hit El Rashid with him. Old Manx poured out of the barrel and flopped onto the floor. Old Manx told them to kill the girl. A giant crushing hand enveloped Cyr. The Gereral of the Withered Legion then appeared. El Rashid then attacked the Slavemaster but missed. Blevins rammed Black Death into the guts of the Dancer. Targ slashed at Lekorh and hit. Blevins noticed that the Dancer was “bleeding” black dust. She pulled out the sword and hit Blevins in the chest with it. The remaining Dark Dwarf kept hitting the fleeing Automaton. El Rahid dispelled the Crushing Hand and Lekorh's Protection Sphere spells.

El Rashid cut the top half of the Dancer off and it spun and flopped on the ground. Lekorh then screamed horribly. Lekorh's bones fell out of the cloak and he ceased to be and a horribly disgusting frog-like demon side-stepped out of him. The girls assumed that a more powerful Demon would have been in him. Cyr and Targ connected the coins and pressed the artifact into the Demon which hurled it back against the wall.

The General of the Withered Legion hurled himself into the battle and attacked Kergil the Dark Dwarf Cleric. The screaming hawk weapon made Kergil fill ill even when it missed. The Hezrou Demon lunged across the room and slammed into El Rashid. Targ and Cyr threw the throne over and put the coin artifact into the depression in the floor.

Targ was covered in holy light and blasted the Demon with a mighty blow of his weapon. Cyr attacked and killed the Hezrou and it shattered into a thousand ice crystals which then melted on the Helfire warmed floor. The General, the Slavemaster, and the Automaton were the only targets left standing.

El Rashid was disintergrated by the General's Black Hawk Pole-axe. The Automaton was fleeing and screaming, “Darves Hill is going to collapse!” The Slavemaster pulled out a dagger and jabbed it in Blevin's throat, but the tough little Halfling survived the wound. The General then horrible missed Cyr.

The ground started to crumble around everyone and Hellfire light was starting to bathe the room in reddish light. Darves Hill was crumbling around them. Kergil fell down through the cracks in the floor and died in Hellfire. Blevins with Kergil's curse on his forehead but he managed to save vs. death and lived.

One of the Dark Dwarves, Blevins the Halfling, Cyr, and Targ all made it out of Darves Hill before it collapsed in a violent display of hellish fury. Blood, bodies, Hellfire, and chunks of buildings flew into the air and then only a very small hill was left where Darves Hill once was.

The group then headed back to the town of Nahm to see what had happened there. Gronn the now blind Giant was rolling the 4 God Rocks toward the center of town, and that seemed to be slowly removing the Death Circle that was emanating from the center of the ruined town.

The last remaining members of Grunka's Company helped Gronn and then they left to go kill the Goblins that had previously committed genocide vs. the Elves.

THE END OF DARVES HILL

Thanks for playing everyone, I had a ton of fun running this game.