D&D Campaign Session for January 20, 2001

Played with 3rd Edition Rules

Non-Player Characters:

Cedasar, Half-Elf Male Paladin of Pholtus, 3rd Level
Deina, Human Female Cleric of Pholtus, 3rd Level
Targ, Dwarf Male Cleric of Clangeddin/Fighter, 4th Level/1st Level
Einin, Dwarf Male Fighter, 2nd in Command, 4th Level
Belfendd, Nalum, Okum, Mountain Dwarves under Targ's Command, 2nd Level

By Pholtus' Light!

"We gots 'em!" exulted a hairy, black-nosed bugbear, flinging a stone across the brush-covered hillside. "Now it's Nzurg's job." He growl-cackled, unconcerned about hiding for the moment; he had just seen the rest of the humans, elves and dwarves go into the orc tribe's cave, and the basin was empty of intruders.

The smaller female beside him grunted. "Get back inside. Us make sure they finds Nzurg." She grinned, her sharp canines projecting attractively. Squinting against the harshness of daylight, she scanned the ravine carefully, finally watching the fanged cave of Beltar. Signalling to some unseen watcher, she scrambled over the rocky hillside to disappear into the secondary entrance, the male following closely behind.

With the rumble of the avalanche fading as the dust rose to thicken the air around them, Cedasar's head swam. Praying for guidance, he closed his eyes against the swaying of the tunnels and murmured under his breath, "Pholtus, grant your light to your faithful..." The mutterings of his companions told him that they, too, were finding the tunnels hard to focus. He was sure it was evil magic, but they could hear the screams of the prisoners and he could not in conscience give up the chase. "We move ahead," the paladin finally decided, and the dwarves grunted approval.

For the moment, they travelled what seemed to be south, knowing all the while that they were simply lost. Faint screechings reached their ears, mingled with lingering screams; they turned toward them at each junction, only to lose them at the next bend. Then a new sound came -- hooves on stone, the rattling exhalation of breath through large, bull-like nostrils.

"We've got company," muttered the ranger, readying for battle; the dwarves held their crossbows firm and Cedasar glanced to Deina as they both offered up quick prayers to Pholtus. His longsword felt good in his hand.

The minotaur was lit by the gleam of lichen and some unknown red glow. Its unhesitating attack was expected and fierce, and in an instant the halls rang with the clash of steel and the battlecries of dwarves.

The beast charged, its horns goring the paladin and gashing him within an inch of his life, but though he bled, he kept his ground and returned the attack. Quickly, the dwarf team surrounded it; it pushed Einin to the ground. Less than a minute later, the beast bellowed its fury as it collapsed under Einin's gleaming axe, and Cedasar staggered.

The tunnels no longer seemed to move and distort, but the minotaur had not been an easy opponent and he took a moment to catch his breath and allow the cleric a chance to treat the party's wounds. Prayers to Pholtus were answered and, renewed, the group moved forward. The screams had faded into the caves, and knowing they were too late to save the prisoners, the adventurers could only follow their course through to its end.

Shining her lamp into the large cavern, Deina drew a choked breath in horror. Corpses littered the floor, in various stages of decay; the light screeches they had been hearing were revealed as a few stirges, bat-like bloodsuckers, lumbered, full, away from their latest meal. The prisoners, obviously; and they were by then thankfully dead.

A few of the pale reddish creatures were disturbed at the lights, their paired wings fluttering down through the spacious cavern to dive and attack. One was speared through by a dwarved crossbow bolt, and its half-bloated body popped like a ripe tomato. The rest, undeterred and smelling fresh blood, angled in. Curses in various languages hissed under the party's collective breath as they sprang to cut down the menace and prevent the parasites from flapping close to attach themselves to their victims.

As Cedasar surveyed his blood-splattered companions after the fight, he and Riis were being treated by Deina for stirge-bites. "You'd think elves tasted better than dwarves," the ranger commented wryly. "So much the better for us," came a joking remark from one of the sturdy fighters behind him.

Deina remained serious; they were in the middle of a grisly scene. "We can't leave all these remains like this," she reminded all of them. "These humanoids are raising possibly armies of undead."

"Anything we do now will be just as easily undone if we don't clear the humanoids out first," Targ, the dwarven leader, put in calmly. With reluctance, both Deina and Cedasar had to agree.

They found another passage leading from the tunnel, exploring it back to find a junction they recognized; now that the caves seemed solid, exploring them was almost simple, since they could easily find their own tracks on the earthen and rock floors. Within minutes, they were back at the cave-in again, so by lichen-light and lamp, they wound their way underground, tunnels rising and falling. In some places there shone an eerie red glow.

"Beetles." Their clicking opponents, glowing red on their heads, were identified by Nalum. His crossbow bolt found one, and it hesitated. Its two companions kept coming, mandibles seeking; but it was short work to crack their carapaces and still the immense insects. The dwarves then began to harvest the glowing glands.

"This one'll keep for most of a week," Belfendd estimated, tucking it into a sack that began to glow faintly red from its contents.

Other passages led out of the oddly-shaped cavern, and they picked one that seemed to glow; soon enough they heard Riis' bow twang. By the time they arrived to assist their scout, two more beetles lay dead and the cavern was secure.

Exploring further, they began to leave red glands as markers in the caves. As they rounded a bend which led away from the minotaur's now well-lit corpse, they heard a light scuffling of feet, a clattering of weapons. Whispered curses in goblin -- "Nzurg dead?!" -- told the party they were being tracked. Choosing to pick their own defensive ground, Cedasar ordered the party back to the last cavern, despite the fact that they'd only explored one of its entrances.

"Stupid dwarves are easy to follow," a bugbear, weirdly tattooed and painted, gloated to his companion as they heard a warning shout from the adventurers up ahead. They knew they had the invaders cornered; Nzurg was only a single minotaur, but they were a full tribe of bugbears and would swarm them from all sides and leave the dwarves' blood to decorate the cave. The signal to move came from the shaman's bodyguards, and the hairy cultists followed eagerly.

Echoes were weirdly distorted among the stalactites and terraces of the natural cave, and suddenly most of the party discovered, as bugbears poured in from all three of the cavern's entrances, that they were surrounded. Cedasar's eyes met the wild, red eyes of the shaman, and each stepped forward to attack even as the rest of the tribe charged through the cave into the dwarves. Riis and Deina positioned themselves for the onslaught, meeting the battle with grim determination. The cavern filled with battlecries, axe and sword ringing loudly in the ever-growing din.

Weird, dark energy crackled from the blades of the shaman's gauntlet, hooking it in through the paladin's armor to claw into his flesh. Weakness surged through his body and his sword failed to strike home. "Pholtus," he prayed, lifting his sword to strike again, "Let not this evil survive!"

"Cedasar!" Deina fought to the paladin's side as he slumped off of the shaman's wicked gauntlet. Bugbears charged her on the flank and as she turned to hold them at bay, she caught a glimpse of the shaman's bodyguards lifting axes; she could not stop them. The shaman leered triumphantly over Cedasar's lifeless body, chanting words of desecration.

Yet the tide of battle already was beginning to turn. Einin, Belfendd, Nalum, Okum and Targ each called upon ingrained skills, chopping down bugbears and fighting their way into a solid, defensible line. Great swaths cleared before Einin while Deina barely held her ground; as the shaman chanted, the dwarf cut a path directly to her. "By Clangeddin's Beard!" His axe flashed through the darkly gleaming energies she commanded, cutting the shaman in twain. A gasp whispered through her bodyguards and cultists for the barest of instants; Einin sunk his axe deeply into one of them before the shaman's blood began to pool.

The bugbear chief strode behind the line of battle to confirm the whispers; the new shaman was dead. His hatred for her blossomed. She had forced her god upon them, and now they were free of her power. "Kill the cultists!" The order issued, those bugbears nearest the few remaining tatooed and painted worshippers of Beltar advanced to cut them down.

One snarled, his chest gashed and the fur stained with blood. Evading his attacker, he leaped for the chief, black dagger outstretched. "Beltar will have you!" The chief turned to ward off the attack with a backhanded swipe, but the cultist's blade sunk deep into his chest for a mortal blow. Both collapsed, suprised, and life fled.

The remaining bugbears were fewer in number than they liked, and facing the dwarves, elf and human was turning out to be tougher than they'd thought. "Finish them!" growled a large, burly fighter, pressing home an attack on a weakened dwarf. Still the line held, and more of the tribe fell to the shining blades of the adventurers. One group of three humanoids fled the scene, running for their lives.

Prayers to Clangeddin and Pholtus strengthened the adventurers for the final push; the remaining bugbears, unwilling to risk retreat, threw themselves into a desperate attack and lost. With the last slump of a hairy form to the rocky ground, the echoes fell quiet.

Deina knelt by Cedasar's bloodied form, knowing there was nothing to be done for him; she offered a prayer and arranged him more peacefully in death, sword upon his breast. The time for rites would come, but the Caves of Chaos had not yet let them out and there was much to do to prepare for nightfall.