Nim was almost lost as, even though he was being healed, he was continuing to suffer horribly in the wretched claws of this ghoul. When all seemed lost, Akkiir went after the monster dragging Nim away, and with a masterful attack scored a vital hit that dropped the creature, and Nim’s life was saved.
I tried to crawl back up out of the pit even as a swarm of biting insects began rushing out from the earthen walls intent on having me for lunch. Janlynn helped me out of the pit just as the most horrific pain wracked my body as hundreds of insects bit into me all over. I swooned from pain as Janlynn began sweeping off and crushing the insects. I am unsure how long I lay there, but soon Janlynn brought her healing skills to bear and I was able to get to my feet.
While my drama was playing out, Akkiir, Uphir and Tetsuo managed to finish off the remaining ghouls. These undead minions of the damned had scored severe blows to many in the troupe, so we decided to retreat to rest for a short while. When we felt our strength renewed we continued our search of the remaining tunnels.
Our exploring soon brought us to a room with shackled skeletons draping the walls and a statue on the far wall of a severe looking man holding a crystal in his hand and a large wolf at his side. Investigating the statues revealed no secret doors or caches. Akkiir volunteered to see if the crystal orb could be removed, and as soon as he lifted it, several shadow-forms peeled away from the walls to attack us all!
The sight of these shadow creatures was enough to strike fear into the hearts of the bravest human man, but our courageous fellowship fought through the fear and fought bravely. Two things became quickly apparent – Their touch could drain the energy and strength of a person; and physical weapons seemed to have a lessened effect on them (If any). I knew that we were in a desperate situation.
Since leaving the safe confines of my homey burrow in Glimmerglade, I have been quietly practicing the mental exercises and intonations taught to me by my secret and mysterious patron, Glyndraal the Farwalker. He revealed to me secrets to draw energy directly from the Feywild and form that into a powerful force on Toril. It seems that in desperation I found the success I had been seeking – I called forth from my hands green Fey Blasts that ripped through these shadows with great effect! I was as shocked as everyone else to see this have such success against them.
Soon the shadows were defeated, but all of us felt slightly weaker and with a heavy feeling in our hearts we decided to press on. We came to a stout door that turned out to be so much more. Listening at the door quickly revealed this living door’s predatory nature as long, toothed Pseudopods began to emerge from the door to attack. Tetsuo quickly jumped to the attack and soon had his foot stuck in the maw of this impossible beast.
Fighting with all his strength he was able to extricate himself as Akkiir attacked the door with a series of thrusts. A successful strike was perhaps successful in wounding the beast, but it would also cause the weapon to become stuck to the door. Rather than fight to release his weapons, Akkiir just kept switching between his various assortment of weapons, leaving them stuck in the creature. Nim fired his crossbow deeply into the creature and called for me to come forward (Assumedly to use my Fey Blasts upon it).
The combination of attacks from the group, including my Fey attacks, caused the death of the creature as it melted into a pink pool of bubbling acid. All of the weapons stuck into the door were quickly dissolved by the strong acid. After this fight, rather than continue beyond, we fell back to have another rest to catch our breaths. We went back to the room with the large table in it.
Seeing something moving in the corner of his eye, Tetsuo went to investigate a strange rock formation on the ceiling. As he prodded it with his staff, it revealed itself to be a large, toothed worm and struck out at Tetsuo, capturing him in it’s maw. The group sprang into action attacking with everything they could. As the creature tried to pull Tetsuo up into it’s ceiling lair, it was amazing to see Uphir rush forth and grab the thing in her mighty arms and not only stop the Worm from taking Tetsuo, but begin pulling it down from the ceiling.
Our mighty attacks soon overcame the giant worm and the rest of its long body slithered out of it’s hole and coiled upon the floor, dead. All of our healing being used up and Tetsuo now gravely wounded, we decided to backtrack all the way up through the attic and back down to the Den on the first floor of the house. This time through we noticed that the rest of the house had succumbed to the ancient rot that was represented in the other levels before. Gone were the library and the finery of the first floor. Any items we had previously taken from these areas of the house were also found to be rotted with centuries of age.
We needed to see another morning for us to be recharged and for Janlynn to receive the full blessings of great Lathander. We settled down to rest, wait, and eventually sleep restlessly once again.