Well, the rest we needed so badly was delayed by Ghelt deciding to take her priestly duties one step further—she decided to start making a holy symbol for herself out of some of the coins she had and shape them with her metalworking tools on the altar floor (hammering very loudly too!!). Crazy dwarf! I was afraid that she’d alert more of the undead creatures that might be lurking about! Fortunately, when the coin smashing on the altar floor didn’t work, Ghelt decided to try going back to the ghouls bedroom and hack off a piece of the bedpost to whittle into a holy symbol. I then gave Ghelt my inkpot and quill so she could draw Moradin’s crest on her new holy symbol—hopefully it will work for her when we need it!!

I’m not sure whether the hammering of the coins or her slicing the bedpost apart woke the creatures, but we soon had more undead coming our way—very slimy disgusting ones I might add—looked like zombies! The new intruders broke through a door we forgot to wedge shut. Stupid me! I’m supposed to be a professional and I still forgot to make sure all the doors were secure. After Fafnir and I threw our daggers at the first zombie who came through the door, Drusilia tried turning the foul creatures while Ghelt charged and slashed at the lead undead. Who knows which attack killed the nasty beast, but it fell to the ground dead, leaving only two more of these putrid creatures for us to dispatch. Apparently Drusilia was able to turn the remaining zombies, because they both turned tail and began to shamble back down the passage behind them.

After I pulled the daggers from the lead zombies corpse, I followed my companions down the passage to chase after the remaining creatures. As I near a turn to the left of the passage, I hear what sounds like Drusilia screaming for Ghelt!!! Oh gods! What now? I forget about exploring some doors that are along the corridor to my right and decide to stand behind Fafnir who is near the corner. I peek around the corner and see Drusilia and Ghelt entering a room filled with more zombies! Yikes! Can this get much worse, there’s at least seven or eight more in the room!! Fafnir says that we should stay back here and “hold the line”. I’m with him!

Somewhat paralyzed with fear, I stand behind the gnome and try to watch for anyone sneaking up behind us. Unfortunately, when I turned back to say something to Fafnir, both him and I hear one of the doors in the corridor opening behind us. Nuts! We don’t need this! I start to turn around and feel a stabbing pain in my side as a human ghoul with sharp claws attacks me. He is dressed in elegant but tattered robes and is fixing me with an evil grin, while yellowish drool runs down his chin! I don’t like this at all! I barely remember to grab my sword from its scabbard and brace for an attack, when I am suddenly pushed out of the way by Drusilia. My hero! She whacks at this new threat and with the help of Ghelt (who has moved up to our position by this point) dispatches this undead monstrosity.

We then proceeded as a group into the room that the ghoul came out of. We don’t find very much other that some rotting clothes and broken furniture. Drusilia does find one interesting thing in the room, however. She discovered a leather bound book between the mattress and the bed frame. It appears to be some sort of journal. Hopefully it will mention what the heck happened here.

Our group then heads back to the altar room to hopefully get some sleep. We decide to push the altar in front of the door that these undead came through. I helped Ghelt and Drusilia push the altar—with much effort and a smashing thud—down the stairs and in front of the door. Unfortunately, I think we set off some sort of magic trap when we moved the altar because now I feel a little bit queasy. Drusilia and Ghelt are really looking a bit on the sickish side! I wonder what happened? We then settle down for the night while Drusilia reads from that journal. Maybe it has some useful info in it. Anyways, she’ll fill us in tomorrow if it’s important. I’m gonna bed down now. Hopefully, we won’t get any more unexpected guests barging in on us!