Trying to drown the dwarf!?

Dearest Grun,

Once again, everything got hectic enough that I’m writing you several notes, days after the event!

We began the next morning with a trip to the stone elf. Drusilia wanted to try to turn him back to flesh - apparently she does have the ability, but feared that the statue of “pockets” had been too burned and melted during the battle to restore him to both flesh and health! Although the elf turned out to be dead, she had a chance to use a speak with dead spell, and learned all she could about him (not much).

Finally, we got back to discussing the minotaur. While we did so, “pockets” snuck down the stairs and checked the place out, and returned with the news that the thing was still quite alive and well - I think we’d all hoped it was back to being a statue in the corner. “pockets” still thought he had the means to distract it, borrowed my mithril axe so that we were all well-armed, and we all headed back down the stairs.

We started with a mage-handed marble, floating it around the thing’s head, but it was ignored. Pulling a weasel from “pockets”’ bag of tricks worked better; he threw it down the hall, and the minotaur turned and smashed the poor thing in a flash! That was the opportunity for us to attack it from behind. We got a couple of shots in, but wow, did it hit hard! I fell, but Drusilia cast a spell from the steps and I was quickly back on my feet. “pockets” and I were at the front, Drusilia and Aramil were sending light and fire spells over our heads, and Fafnir just wanted to know if it was dead yet. Irritated, I hollered, “No!” He offered to send us a fireball, and I hollered, “Yes!” Then I prayed he understood sarcasm. We were fighting in a narrow hallway, after all!

After quite a battle, the thing finally died - the whole hall shuddered with the sound of its fall! We found an iron key in the remains, while “pockets” announced that, of the three doors in the room, he liked the central one the best. The key fit, and vanished. “pockets” opened the door and suddenly decided to check the locked state of the others.. which of course were still locked. The new door held another staircase, so “pockets” collected his marbles from earlier, and we descended.

Strangely, we came to what looked like a waiting room - benches, lit torches, and everything! As we peered through the doorway, Fafnir decided to sit right down, and we heard a “click”. We feared the worst. “pockets” checked out the other benches, and the rest of us searched the room and the locked door at the end. Fafnir got up; nothing happened, so he sat down on the next two in succession! Of course, we heard two more clicks, so I gave the door a shove - and it opened.

There was a hallway to the right, and one to the left. The floor was dusty, and “pockets” headed in to look for traps. He decided that the traps to the left were too much for the party, and we turned right with him in the lead. Unfortunately, the place was well designed; when he found a trap, and leapt over it to disarm it for the rest of us, it turned out there was a trap on the other side, too. The floor tipped up and dumped him into a pit, and we all heard him scream! Fafnir cast fly on himself, and we got “pockets” out, but he was terribly weakened by whatever stuff had been spread on the spikes in the pit. We did work out how to weight the pivot (with ourselves, one at a time), and all made it safely across.

Next thing I knew, we’re arguing about whether to heal and restore “pockets” right away, or wait a day to see how much he healed on his own! I was worried he wouldn’t survive the next day without healing! “pockets” got bored and went exploring, and Drusilia sat down to pray while I stood guard. She gave him a partial healing when he returned to tell us that the next room had a bad thing in the middle. He described a tangle of tentacles in a well, and talked Fafnir into preparing a fireball for when he opened the door.

This worked well, except that in the middle of holding the door open for the spellcasters to attack the thing at a distance, “pockets” got a little odd. I don’t know how the thing hypnotized him, but he turned and attacked Fafnir! Aramil tried to stop his friend, while I tried to pull the door shut in the hope that it would help. I remember being forced to attack my friends by an evil being! We got tangled up in the doorway, but luckily, Fafnir was able to send magic missiles over us, and killed the thing outright. “pockets” immediately stopped fighting, and we explored the room and the well. “pockets” got a spear from the well, and Drusilia checked that and the medusa’s gear for magic (which involved shooting a door a few times, very subtle!).

The door we tried led down a short hall. The next door opened to a new room, but as we entered, a solid stone door slammed down, and water began to pour in! Ring of swimming or not, Grun, to be trapped in a closed room filling with water was more than I had bargained for. And then, the water elemental arrived. Aramil’s glowing rope went out and I waded, literally, into battle. Aramil tried his fireballs, Fafnir suddenly disintegrated the door, and I got hit a few times and went under. I heard Drusilia shout as I fell, and we all were suddenly back at the Temple of Pelor in Greyhawk!

“pockets” tried to heal me, which was a little disturbing, but Drusilia quickly took over and eventually we healed everyone up. Fafnir teleported us all right back to Red Castle, we descended to the hallway (which was wet but not full of water, thank Moradin), and “pockets” provided me with a pair of goggles before he walked right in and set the room off again! Of course, the elemental returned, too, so I headed into battle with arrows flying over my head and “pockets” and I got hit a few times. Drusilia stood up behind us, holding her holy symbol and a bar of soap high, and banished the thing outright. What a relief!

“pockets” turned back to the next door, the floor dropped out from under him, and he was gone.

I’ll continue this later, Grun.
With love,
Ghelt