Freeday, 14 Flocktime

It did indeed start to rain and we all felt the need to get to shelter. We headed east a bit to a small tavern, but upon entering found that there was a little too much noise inside to get a peaceful nights rest. The noise did have a very intriguing sound to it though… maybe I could reproduce it for others to listen to. Drusilia forced the creatures away for a short while, and we determined that we should leave and find a better place to stay.

We decided to return to the ruined house with the sun symbol on it, and to venture into the catacombs. As a group we jumped into the 60 ft. deep shaft, and I cast feather fall. We landed safely at the bottom in a passageway that headed East and West. Drusilia noticed a small sun carved into the wall towards the east, and our group headed that way. The hall rounded a corner and led to a larger room, with a ghoul in it.

This particular ghoul was the Urkel that we were looking for. He offered us refuge for the night and we gladly took him up on it.

I had another strange dream tonight. I was sitting in a peaceful glade and Amroth was with me. He said to me “I am with you brother, so long as you have the sword, you shall be fighting by my side. You are blessed by Corellon Larethian to have it, and should you honor it, it shall protect you...”

I pray that this vision is not some demon playing in my mind.

After I woke from the dream, I spoke with Urkel about the history of Aurn-tosa. He explained that Arkon was the last of the city-founding mages who had driven off the Dwarves of Barraktor.

Urkel is a servant of Pelor who arrived 25 years ago to fight the undead here. He was unsuccessful in his quest and was unfortunately turned into a ghoul. By no small feat of willpower, though, he maintained his grasp on reality and his faith in Pelor, and was able to help others who came to this cursed city.

He gave Drusilia the weapon and holy symbol that he had used as Pelor’s servant, and several spell scrolls that he had prepared. Both were of outstanding quality, and he explained that the holy symbol could cast a spell called holy smite.

He gave me a map of the catacombs, complete with all the information we were going to need to get in and out of them.

He then told Drusilia that he had completed his quest and wished to go and meet Pelor face to face. I am certain that Drusilia did not wish to kill him, but did grant his request reluctantly.

After collecting Urkel’s dusted remains, Drusilia placed them in a bag with her wooden holy symbol, and began deciding who to restore health to. She then reopened the bag of Urkel dust and found that it had been transformed into diamond dust, so she took time to restore the health of the whole party.
We then headed across town back to the tower of vampires. Pockets found the trapdoor that the map said should lead to the catacombs, but he didn’t let me know that it had been trapped, so I managed to find the traps…

The first was a gas that sprayed out when the trapdoor was opened. I found it suddenly very hard to move, but then shook the feeling off. Below the trapdoor was darkness that even an everburning torch could not dispel, so Drusilia used a light spell to cut through it, revealing a short 10 foot ladder. Looking back, a 10 foot ladder over a 60 foot drop does have TRAP written all over it, but I stepped onto the ladder and immediately fell 60 ft. to the ground below. Thank Corellon Larethian for feather fall…

The party then sent Aramil (!?!?) next to support me should I be attacked. I would have been much more comfortable with Ghelt or Drusilia…

Of course, while the rest of the party argued about how to get down, Aramil and I were attacked. Fafnir then decided to mention that he had feather fall memorized as well, and the party fell down the hole to help Aramil and me below.

Drusilia landed on top of Aramil (definitely helping him) as I jumped out of the way of the rest of the falling party. Drusilia then leaped to her feet and turned the two creatures to dust with her new holy symbol.

We then headed down the hall only to be attacked by tons of dire rats.
I found that sonic damage works wonderfully against rats (though it does create quite a mess) and I managed to destroy a hallway-full of them. Drusilia handled another hallway-full with a well placed holy smite from that new symbol of hers, and Ghelt cleaned up the few that were not killed by our spells.