29th Day of the Deepwinter: (January):
In the Aquifer of Runedardath Part 1
Into the Aquifer water chamber:
Frimly goes first into the Aquifer, Galan also has continual light cast on his Dagger. We swim around to the other side to get a feel for the scale of the chamber. Suddenly something comes rushing up from below! Green and in the water! They attack with metal pronged tridents! They look a bit like water Ogres?
They drop their tridents to take advantage of their multiple attacks. But not before first Frimly strikes, then Mirafir unleashes 5 bolts of ‘Magic Missile’ for a large amount of damage, then Galan with his multiple attacks delivering another 20 points of damage! All this while underwater in the Aquifer.
Mirafir gambles and casts ‘Magic Missile’ again, the water Ogre narrowly loses the initiative and Mirafir launches all 5 missiles into him! Not much damage but luckily the ogre misses him on all 3 attacks.
Galan strikes his and cuts it down! Green blood billows into the water of the Aquifer.
Galan moves into the one fighting Mirafir. Frimly parries against his.
In the next round Galan does a large amount of damage on the Ogre again and kills it. Mirafir casts another missile and 5 darts jolt into the last remaining water ogre. Frimly then finishes him off!!!
Frimly grabs the sinking corpse and floats down into the depths of the Aquifer, using the Merrow as cover. They are Aquatic Ogres.
The other two adventurers follow, descending about 200’. There are two more dead ogres here and lots of boulders and bleached white bones of many different types. Mirafir leads the adventurers towards the middle of the chamber, with Frimly walking at normal speed rather than swimming. 3 Merrow suddenly attack again, failing to gain surprise!
They miss with their tridents! Frimly strikes first, and then Mirafir casts ‘Mirror Image’ creating 4 copies, then Galan strikes and does loads of damage. Galan slaughters his opponent! Mirafir casts ‘Magic Missile’ again, all 5 darts going straight into his direct opponent. The Merrow attacks and destroys the last of the mirror images before biting Mirafir while Galan strikes back with a 20! He annihilates the Merrow! Mirafir takes a ‘Potion of Extra-Healing’ to reduce the damage taken (6).
The 3 adventurers make their way through the Aquifer and towards the wall of the cavern rather than move towards the middle again in a circular movement, looking for possible caverns or entrances. After about 3 rounds, looming out of the darkness we see a massive pile of rocks forming a pillar tapering upwards. This was made by something. The adventurers circumnavigate the pillar round the back of it. There is a sudden rock fall within the Aquifer which the adventurers narrowly but dexterously manage to avoid! Suddenly 7 aquatic humanoids attack! They manage to get a hit on Mirafir who is paralyzed!
Galan manages to take one of them down. Two of the creatures grab Mirafir as the others continue to attack. Galan and Frimly do more damage. Galan kills another one. The creatures are taking the illuminated Mirafir further away into the Aquifer as Frimly parries and Galan attacks!
Galan has killed all 3 he is fighting before moving in on the ones fighting Frimly. Frimly uses the ‘Ring of the Ram’ and blasts one of the creatures. After slaying the last of them, Galan and Frimly swim after Mirafir whose light is no longer visible. They spot a pit and swim over to it. It is darker than the rest of the already dark cavern. At the bottom there is a mass of bones.
The bones are of very tall humanoids could they be these Merrows?
Frimly finds a black dish shaped object, nice and shiny. Perhaps a Dragon Scale?
Frimly and Galan continue to swim around the chamber until they find a large opening (spotted by Frimly). They swim through it. It is guarded by 2 of the Merrows. They unsuccessfully try and sneak past them, instead engaging in combat… They charge but both heroes parry their attacks. Galan strikes with both weapons causing lots of damage. They miss again with all their attacks. Galan slays one! Frimly continues to parry. Galan finally kills the second one after Frimly takes a hit…
Galan spots a strange distortion in the water. It is a solid wall and beyond it is air. A wall of force. Impenetrable.
Frimly spots some wet patches on the floor on the other side and looks closer to where they are. It turns out there is an opening on the right-hand side. He pushes through and appears in radiant light on the other side!
There are three Aquatic Ghouls holding Mirafir, whose paralysis suddenly ends!
There is also a Dwarf at the back and a Merrow!
Mirafir casts invisibility on himself, the Merrow picks up the dwarf while the two ghouls nearest to him start to look for him! Mirafir becomes visible after one of them hits him!
Frimly uses the ‘Ring of the Ram’ to blast the Lacedon who charges him. Galan hits the one next to him and both are still up. The Merrow stumbles away with the dwarf while the ghoul puts a bag over Mirafir’s head.
Mirafir manages to cast Wraithform and escape from their grasp. Galan and Frimly continue to fight the remaining aquatic ghouls while Mirafir pursues and hears the sound of rock being excavated – it sounds like they are trying to collapse the tunnel?
Galan finishes off the last of the Lacedon. Mirafir sees that just as it narrows there is a different texture to the wall in the way it has been excavated. But further up it has different grooves in the walls. It appears to be gouged rather than dug?
No spade was used.