A strange sad journey

I woke to darkness, cold stone, and manacles on my hands and feet. I could hear the others whispering, which was a relief. Then, footsteps outside our prison. To my shock, it was Tassar, the mind flayer, and two guards! Before I could express my relief that he was alive, he laughed at us! “Well, you’re in a bind!”, he said, before giving the illithid a sack of coin, and permission to do whatever it wanted with us. They all turned and left, then, leaving us in the dark in more ways than one.

Oh, Tymora! I wept. I could hear Theona muttering about Zhents, and I wondered if he were under a spell of some kind. Or, did he sneak off to lead us to this, knowing we’d follow? I can’t believe it! Struggling to think clearly, I told Theona (who was next door) that I might be able to transport myself out of my cell, but that I couldn’t get anyone else out (or see, for that matter). She didn’t answer except for some rustling and clicking; next thing I knew, she’d picked her locks and was out of her cell.

Of course, she couldn’t see, either, but she didn’t need to for picking locks. While she worked on the others, I tried dimension door, landing unmanacled in the hallway. The fighters kept their chains and manacles for flails, while Theona and I picked up femur bones from previous prisoners to use as clubs. Slowly, we worked our way down the hall, Rosorc in the lead. We reached a locked door, and Theona started to work. She quickly stepped back, however, when she heard it opening from the other side!

Thank Tymora, I suddenly remembered that I could cast light. My holy symbol seemed appropriate, and I held it above my head so the others could fight the three hobgoblins in the doorway. Rosorc was already battling one as Theona dodged away, making room for Areon. The third hobgoblin ran, but Beowulf called to Shadow, and the wolf sped off after it. We could hear him fighting several creatures in another room as we pushed through the doorway and stripped the hobgoblins’ bodies of anything useful. I shoved my club in my belt and grabbed a short spear while holding my light aloft.

Beowulf called Shadow back; the wolf arrived looking much worse for wear, and followed by two ogres! Rosorc slammed the door shut on them and Theona locked it with a set of keys she’d found on a hobgoblin. I pointed out another door to her, and we quickly checked it out while Rosorc and Areon did their best to hold the door shut, and Beowulf healed Shadow. The new room was a fright - full of skeletons and illithid-maimed skulls, and a huge stone statue. Theona checked it fast, found nothing, and we headed back to the cells to make sure we hadn’t missed anything in the dark.

Finding nothing there, we headed back into the room full of bones (trying to ignore the thumping from the other side of Rosorc and Areon), and this time Theona steeled herself to scoop bones aside on the floor. Sure enough, there was a trap door in the floor behind the statue. We shouted to the fighters and none too soon - the guys came running in as the other door was smashed to bits, and locked the statue room’s door behind to slow them down again. We all piled down the ladder (luckily not too deep for Shadow), and headed up a narrow stone passage.

It wasn’t long before we heard pounding on the trap door. Praying the passage was too narrow for ogres, Rosorc and Theona went ahead to search for traps. Off we went! The passage was only about a quarter of a mile long; soon it sloped up, and then, daylight! To my surprise, we were on a rocky slope across the valley from the cave of the ettin! I wonder how differently things would have gone if we’d found this entrance first.

Sadly, the party then got into an argument. Some wanted to head for civilization, some wanted to find a way to get our gear back. Beowulf got us all to agree that we needed rest before anything else! Areon found shelter - or at least, enough for us to huddle together. It was a long, cold night. I spent it trying to decide which was worse - travelling unprotected, or risking facing the mind flayer again? In the morning, Areon must have realized that he and Beowulf were the only ones really capable of survival in the wilderness. He didn’t argue when Beowulf changed to a bat again to check out the chambers of the ettins’ cave and below.

Rosorc again walked into the cave while the rest of us waited. Soon, the bat gave the all-clear for the first level, so we walked inside while he headed below. Gradually, we worked our way through the tunnels. We picked up leather armor and an axe and sword for Rosorc and Areon, javelins for Theona, and a morningstar for me, from the bodies of the goblins, gnolls, and gnome. None had been disturbed. Beowulf crawled out from under the closed door to the laboratory and gave the all-clear, then hung from the ceiling to watch as Rosorc and I entered.

It was dark. I cast light on my morningstar as the others entered, and we waited while Theona searched. Sure enough, she found a secret door; we knew we must have been carried somewhere after the mind flayer stunned us! As she opened it, Beowulf flew inside and down the stairs, only to return and transform to say that a very big ugly thing was on its way! The first ogre to come up was killed immediately by Rosorc and Areon; the second lived long enough for me to throw my spear at (and miss). I decided it was better to just hold the light while Theona searched the bodies. Finally, we headed down the new steps, into a room that was obviously the other side of the door Rosorc and Areon held shut for so long while we found the trap door out! There was one more new door, however, so in we went, expecting the illithid at any moment.

We found a bedroom. And the two bugbears. They crowded Rosorc into a corner and the rest of us had trouble getting inside to help! Areon was able to javelin the one in the door a few times, when we heard Rosorc go charging off into the room (and yelling to stay off the rug, whatever that meant). Guessing that the mind flayer had arrived, Beowulf and Shadow charged inside as Areon killed the bugbear in the doorway and something caused Theona to drop to the floor next to me! Praying for strength, I dashed into the room, around the rug, and ended up behind the mind flayer, which was being attacked by both Rosorc and the wolf (which was on the rug. Oops. He seemed OK, though). Before I could do anything, it disappeared! This left the bugbear for Rosorc and Areon to finish off.

Shadow continued to check where the illithid had been, but I swung my morningstar through the air and met no resistance. We checked out the room for a while; when Theona snapped out of the fog the mind flayer had put on her, she stepped inside and rolled up the rug. It still defied expectations - nothing underneath. She finally found a secret door in the wall. We crowded around, hoping that it would lead to a storeroom with our gear so we could get out of there before the illithid returned! Theona opened the door, and..

Oh, Tymora! Everyone disappeared except for myself!

The room did turn out to be full of our gear, but it wasn’t much use to me - all I could think of was, where are my friends? I checked the doorway and around the room for any switch or sign of the trap that got them, and finally lit upon a green gem across the room from the door. Praying the mind flayer would stay away, I stared at the gem, and tried to think of anything I might have heard about such traps. Picking it up, I could see the tiny figures of my friends inside. Finally, I decided that a dispel magic might work. The only other option was to break the gem outright, and that would hurt them pretty badly. I cast my dispel magic, and..

Nothing. This left me with a dilemma. I could wait for the next day and try again (and see the illithid long before then, I was sure). I could gather as much gear as I could, and try to make it back to Silverymoon on my own for other magic-users to dispel it (me? alone? how laughable!). Or I could break it and hope for the best. I knew what my only option was, but I hated to do it!

There was a large explosion. Gladly, I saw that everyone was back! Theona was hurt especially badly, so I ran to her and healed her while apologizing to everyone else. I turned from Theona to find Areon holding his blue winged cat. Bless her, she was far beyond my help, poor thing! I did my best to apologize to him, but he just nodded. Finally, we put our own stuff back on and Theona searched through the rest of the mind flayer’s haul, finding some potions and a new quarterstaff for me. Now, before it returns, we must bury the cat, and be on our way.