'round and 'round

This tunnel led to another cellar, but before we got there we heard a door open and hushed ourselves. Hearing steps on a ladder, we tried to hide the lights Astrid had been casting on rocks in the walls. Not fast enough - a masked face peeked into the tunnel, then ducked away. Forward!

Deaglan sicced the dog on the man, and we followed them out. The assassin was trying to climb back up the ladder; we tried to pull him back down. Astrid was yelling, “Halt!” but we had to stab and shoot at him until he fell dead. Checking the body, we found another ring and fancy dagger, plus a pouch with money and vials of healing and invisibility potions.

Astrid pointed out that the Lady was in someone else’s arms when they twisted the ring to disappear, so perhaps we could use one ring to transport everyone. Deaglan, Astrid, and the dog crowded close to me as I nervously put the ring on and gave it a turn.

We appeared inside a circle, in a strange chamber lit by torches. No one else was there, but there were doors to choose from. Before we could set the dog to search for Tythe, however, she also appeared in the room! Thank Irori!

She’d mostly been stumbling about in the dark. One room sounded like it had guards in it. Another had something that attacked and cut her, so she twisted the ring and came back to the circle. After we’d caught up with each other’s stories, we decided the best route would be to fight our way out through the guards.

The guards were sitting at a table slightly out of our sight around an L in the passage; Astrid cast a spell to grease the floor, and we began shooting. The guards came after us - it was a long battle, but we succeeded in killing all except one, who ran away. Follow!

and 'round we go

I performed a mass healing on the party, then went to watch around the corner while the others checked the guards’ bodies for anything useful. They got the usual gear and rings and even took the money from the card game on the table, reasoning that this was a dead enemy so it’s not really stealing!

The room beyond had two doors; Tythe checked the smaller of the two and found a room full of cloaks and bronze masks. Nothing in it was magical, and I felt it wisest to leave what looked like cultists’ stuff alone. The other door opened to a set of steps leading upward, which we followed while the others discussed the various ways they’d have liked to profane the cloaks and masks.

The steps ended at a torch-lit chamber with a circle of runes cut into the floor. There were no visible exits, so Tythe did the next obvious thing: she stepped into the circle and twisted the ring on her hand. She disappeared, and Astrid ran down to the other circle to see if she’d come back there again. Not this time! So, we all stepped into the circle of runes and followed suit.

Now we found ourselves in a ruined building above the Puddles. Thank Irori, almost home again! Of course, the Precipice quarters are dangerous and haunted, so we decided to hunker down and wait for sunrise, which was close at hand. Our luck held; instead of being left in peace, we were attacked by sturges, which drained our blood and our health!

We killed a few and the others flapped off once full of our blood. I healed us as best I could, and we staggered back to the Golden Griffon in the dawn’s early light. As we reached the inn, Astrid spotted more shadowy figures watching us. Great, more assassins, I bet; we need to get somewhere safe to rest and heal up.

The entire bar ground to a halt as we entered, bloody and battered. Astrid requested a bath, a meal, and a bed, and the owner couldn’t usher us out of the main room fast enough!

Will worry about the masked men later. Irori preserve me!