Murtul 2, 1374, Undermountain, continued

After tying a rope around the lever, Shoshiro pulled it and the lever moved. Nothing happened. So, we tried it a few more times, with the same results. So much for that! We wandered a bit, and found a room with a large door and a big magical seal on the floor. Flic asked me to check them for magic, and sure enough, I could detect summoning and binding spells. This was apparently too interesting, as we chose to leave them in quest of safer fare.

Another spate of wandering brought us to some big double doors— nothing could be heard beyond them. I am not sure why this was, because, upon opening them, we were confronted by an entire goblin army, complete with campfires, in a chamber that must have been about 80’ by 150’. As my comrades hastily closed the doors and prepared to run, I cast Calm Emotions on the goblins that were first to reach the door— they could hold back the rest of the army for a minute while we made our escape.

We ran for quite a distance, eventually running right into a room with two sarcophagi in it. I quickly noted that one contained something that was undead, and convinced my new friends that it would be worth opening and providing true rest to the creature within. It didn’t hurt that magic was detectable in both that and the other tomb. The first opened (the one that didn’t have an undead creature in it) contained a skeleton in full plate, with what appeared to be a dragon helm and a greatsword. All carried magic. One quick tug on Eleioni’s armor later, and our aasimar warrior was donning fine new armor and carrying a new sword. Next, we turned to the other sarcophagus. As my friends pushed back the lid, a red-eyed, rotting woman leapt out; my goddess’s divine power quickly had the undead thing cowering in a corner as my comrades finished it off with a ranged assault. We had to, actually, because poor Eleioni discovered he could barely move, covering only about 10’ between attacks!

The battle was over almost as quickly as it started. Flic grabbed the three magic items on the creature, pocketing a silver circlet, slipping on a gold ring, and, after blasting one of the room’s walls, declaring the wand the wight had possessed cast Magic Missiles. He seemed pleased.

Eleioni was not so pleased with what he acquired. We could not remove the helm or the armor, and odder still, what we thought had been a draconic motif, upon closer inspection, appeared to be more “duck” in nature.

There was nothing we could do about it, so we went back to wandering the random passages of Undermountain, hoping to happen upon something good. We managed to not get attacked by some orcs as we passed them, and eventually came to a 5’ crevasse in the floor. There was a glint of metal at the bottom. I cast light on a pebble to get a better look— below us were a skeleton and a bronze pendant, and— movement! Suddenly, a dozen or so disembodied hands leapt out of the pit at us, grabbing and scratching with filthy nails. I spent most of the ensuing battle healing my comrades as they each in turn (with the exception of Flic, who managed to evade the things) looked as though they would succumb to their wounds.

Things were finally starting to go well when those goblins caught up to us. Four of us had no trouble leaping across the pit to (relative) safety, where we could continue to fight the remaining crawling claws without so much interference. Eleioni, who was not only wearing the cursed duck armor that sapped his speed, but was carrying, by his estimation, at least 150 pounds of additional stuff, attempted to lunge across the pit as well. He dropped like a stone, making a sickening crack sound as he hit the bottom. As I scraped a remaining hand off of Shoshiro, Flic took off after two lingering goblins (he’d been picking them off with Magic Missiles). I then looked down and could see that Eleioni was still alive. But, he would not toss his gear up to us, and there was no way we were strong enough to pull him and his gear up— plus, he had the only unused rope left among us. Flic came running back letting us know that more goblins would be in pursuit, so we told Eleioni to be quiet and dowse his light, while we ran off through the nearest doors.