Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tomb of Abysthor: The Shrine of Orcus

Recap from 9/10/05

We returned to the Tomb of Abysthor after a few forays into the place and run ins with more of the cultists and the dreaded red skeleton font.  While exploring the tomb we were ambushed by a rather large ogre in a hallway littered with fallen rocks. We eventually killed him and found some loot in his lair including a few magic items.

After that we followed the remaining passages and came to a room that had six sarcophagi in it. When we entered six armored skeletons came out of them wearing some kind of amulets. We started fighting them after two failed attempts at turning them.  While we were fighting them another creature came out of a doorway in the back of the room and cast a fear spell. Both Holzabog and Korhill fled the combat.  Lord Hammersmith rolled really well and managed to turn the wight which fled the room. We eventually managed to destroy the skeletons and Ian went back to retrieve the two characters that fled while Hammersmith and Brundel went after the wight while it was still turned.

When we entered the next room we noticed a statue and altar to Orcus along the rear wall and the wight was on the right side of the room having just recovered from being turned after ten rounds. Brundel cast produce flame and threw it at him but missed. He then tried to turn it but failed, no doubt because we were in a shrine of Orcus giving it a boost against turning.  We were engaged in melee shortly afterward and we found it was almost impossible to hit it due to its magical armor, which we later found out gave it the ability to cast the fear spell as a free action plus a high AC.

Brundel got hit and lost a level and withdrew to heal himself since he got hit pretty badly by the skeletons as well. He then cast a chant spell off of a scroll, quaffed a potion of Cat's Grace and re-entered the fray. By this time Hammersmith had done minimal damage to it and had lost a level. After both characters missed the wight several times it was apparent that we needed some help in getting past the armor. Brundel attempted to hit it with a cure serious wounds spell (positive energy) but rolled poorly on the touch attack and missed. It sucked another level off of Hammersmith. The next round Brundel cast his last cure serious and also missed (all I needed was a six and I rolled a four and a five on both spells) and I knew we were in trouble as it drained another level from Hammersmith.

Ian re-entered the fray with our two frightened companions in tow and moved up to fire at it with his bow. At this point the wight cast fear again and both Brundel and Hammersmith failed this time. By now Hammersmith was down to first level and as he fled he got hit again and fell. Brundel also got hit on the way out and lost another level bringing him down to third. Ian hit it once or twice with his bow and the last thing he saw before leaving the room was the body of Hammersmith rising to haunt the tomb as a wight!

There is no doubt that without that armor and the alter we could have defeated the wight.  Once again we fled for our lives from the tomb of Absythor!  Now we have two fallen comrades in that accursed tomb that have come back to haunt us.

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