Being the brave and bold adventurers that they were, or perhaps because they felt a little bit guilty about unleashing an undead army, they soon returned to the site of their first adventure together. The monk and cleric stayed behind, because the rest of the party neglected to mention that they were leaving.

When they arrived at the entrance, they noticed that there had been some heavy traffic in the area since their last visit. Undaunted, they pressed on to the depths of the chambers, where they discovered that the entrance that they had blocked off was no longer blocked off. As they descended down the earthen ramp, they also noted that the innumerable undead had left these underground burial chambers vacant. They wandered around the immense crypts for a while, until finally coming across an archway to a smaller chamber.

Four columns ascended upwards into the darkness, and in the middle of the chamber was a stone altar, and a curious bowl on a pedestal. Observing some rust colored stains around the altar and the bowl, the brave and not-so-wise rogue immediately slit his finger and dripped some blood into the bowl. A shimmering field sprang into existence over the archway. They were safely trapped inside this room now, which was better than the two clerics and monk, who showed up on the other side shortly afterwards, in heated combat with a few zombies.

No, that's not quite right. One of the clerics was already in the room, so I'm not really sure who was on the other side. At any rate, the new cleric and the old cleric combined their abilities to channel positive energy and were able to bring the other group through the archway with them.

Anyhow, after thoroughly searching the room, and the next, they found a few scrolls, and discovered that one of the walls had curious holes in it, as did the adjacent part of the floor. The monk spent a great deal of time learning how to climb and pole vault, but that didn't get them much closer their goal, whatever it might have been.

Eventually they discovered a secret passage twenty feet above them. I can't remember who the fool was that went in first. Probably the rogue, but maybe the barbarian. Whoever it was got quickly munched by a ghoul. Actually most of the party got munched by a couple of ghouls, and they spent a fair amount of time playing undead ping-pong with the evil cleric who kept rebuking the turned undead.

Eventually the party won out, but only just barely. They narrowly avoided a couple of deaths, too.

Beyond this little chamber was a very spacious room, with heavy doors on the other 3 walls, and a curious statue in the middle. The writing around the statue was written in the celestial alphabet, but the language was hard to decipher. They gleaned the name of Khortel, which seemed to be the strange figure depicted by the statue. It was wearing robes which covered all but hands and face. The face was strangely blank, much like a fencer's mask. In place of fingers, the hand ended in long, slender tentacles.

Of course they dared. That's why they are called adventurers.

They descended the earthen ramp, and astutely observed that they were not alone. Indeed, for as far as the eye could see (and as they learned, much further, since it was pretty dark in there), animated corpses were stirring.

Wisely deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, the party backed up. Most of the party, that is. The brave-but-not-so-wise rogue, still nursing his sprained ankle, decided that he'd make a quick swipe at a nearby grave. That's why they call him a rogue.

A quick swipe he made, but that seemed to get the attention of the nearby undead, who hadn't paid much attention yet. He scrambled up the ramp, but was unable to make an escape, and the undead closed in on him menacingly. Fortunately for the rogue, just as the undead were about to recruit him into their ranks, the barbarian (?) charged in, threw him over her shoulder, and raced back up and out of the chamber of death.

The cleric realized that with the proper application of positive energy he might be able to reforge the broken seal. Unfortunately, he didn't apply the positive energy properly, so they instead they piled up the table and some heavy items from the previous room, which they thought might hold the undead at bay long enough for them to walk away and pretend that nothing had happened.

So... that's just what they did. They checked the last couple of chambers to see if there was any loot they could pillage, and then noticed that the storm had subsided, so they went back to town.

Death, more death, and undeath

Pox, the brave-but-not-so-wise rogue, was nursing a sprained ankle when the party moved down a narrow corridor to the south, and cautiously approached a room full of webbed objects. Not cautiously enough, however, as the barbarian(?) found herself trapped in a nearly invisible web outside of the doorway. Fortunately it was just a web. It would have been really icky if there had a been a big, hairy spider lurking nearby.

Oh yeah, there WAS a big, hairy spider, and it WAS lurking nearby. It dropped down and quickly incapacitated its victim with a well-placed bite. Someone got the bright idea that they could rush past a big arachnid with not 4, not 6, but EIGHT legs. I think they almost pulled it off, but ended up tangled on the ground with whoever it was that had been trying to occupy that space.

In the end, the poor, hungry spider was no match for the adventurers, who killed it dead. They searched the room and found an interesting pearl, but little else, so they went back up the narrow hallway to continue their adventure.

This time, they took a right and headed into a dark chamber with a large sarcophagus in the middle. They were eager to see what might be in a large sarcophagus, and probably not surprised to find that it was a large, dead thing. Mostly dead, at least. Undead, we'll call it. It rose from the grave and lumbered over to the party, who felled it.

During the combat, some other 'mostly dead' specimens joined the combat, and they, too, were re-killed by the party.

At the conclusion of the combat, the adventurers searched the sarcophagus and discovered an earthen ramp, of sorts, that descended deeper into the darkness.

Would they dare descend into the darkness?

It was a dark and storm night...

It was a dark and stormy night... several unsuspecting adventurers met together in the side of a strange tor, seeking shelter from a raging storm.

Ninja and rogue, monk and sorceress, barbarian and elven warrior(ess). And a cleric. They huddled for shelter while lightning ravaged the countryside. They made a tentative stormpeace and searched this strange cavern they sharing. There were three doors, but they were unable to open them, so sat down to wait out the remainder of the storm.

With a flash of lightning and a deafening crash of thunder, all three doors imploded, and a train of unusually large rodents fled from the newly open eastern doorway. The bold adventurers killed them dead. Then they decided to explore the newly opened passageways, because it was in the job description.

To the east they found a table in the middle of a large room, with a wet rope hanging from the darkness above. The sorceress(?), showing that valor was the better part of discretion, ran into the room, only to discover that a group of humanoids were already there, and much better prepared for the combat that would shortly begin.

Somehow, the sorceress managed to fend off the nasty hobgoblins, at the point of her spear, which apparently she DID know how to use. The party vanquished their enemies, and the rogue thought that perhaps he could limit their reinforcements by climbing the rope and cutting it. Someone had once told him that rogues always land on their feet, so after cutting the rope, he simply 'tumbled' down to the ground twenty feet below him. If he lives long enough, he might develop the grace to pull that off, but this time, it hurt him dearly. Did he learn his lesson? Read on, brave adventurers. My money is on 'no'.