This session one of the Players again bought the pizza for another Honor point. This time he got half sausage and half pepperoni.

Next game is Today on Tuesday 25 November at 5PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601.

++++ START OF SESSION ++++

It seemed that as long as the Players did not bring attention to themselves the large Bull like creatures were content to circle around the corral. It wasn't really a corral, being underground, but rather a chamber with two wooden gates and a fence painted around the sides of the room. Much like a cheaply done themed restaurant. For the record, these were Bullweilers, cattle from hell, able to breath fire and do double damage after charging on a critical hit that may sever a limb.

Giving the Party as much lead time as desired (they had the whole week), spells have to be determined first. So Numrendir decided to cast Monster Summoning I, targeted at a far corner of the corral. Let it be said that this spell is the weakest of this family of spells and as it turned out, Numrendir received the weakest monster of the lot, a Giant Shrew Mouse (quantity 4).

From the Manual: "Shrew Mice are the forgotten members of the rodent species. Small and inoffensive, they make of this weakness by being completely willing to die. 35% of all Shrew Mice encountered will already be dead. ... if they flee the chance of accidental suicide is 15%."

Since four mice were summoned, I named them Liz, Dick, William, and Petruchio. Liz and Dick arrived dead when summoned, William tried to flee and committed suicide in the process, while brave Petruchio stood his ground only to be trampled by one of the raging Bullweilers. Since one of the Bullweilers was thus occupied, the party took the chance to attack the other which was too close to charge.

After this it was standard combat although sustained 21 points of damage when the 2nd Bullweiler charged. Huang and Honda got Honor credit for both kills. An after search of the corral found nothing.

Down the hall and to the right they encountered their next travail. Huang opened a door to a 20 by 20 foot room backed up by Honda. Looking in they find a giant disembodied claw resting on a pillow. While Huang signalled the others to get ready for major combat, it flew to Huang's throat and lifted him up towards the 30 foot ceiling. Everyone else staying in the hallway could do nothing.

On the next round, another huge hand appeared in the hallway, grabbed Honda and started crushing her. Honda, normally able to attack with two weapons could only use one. The original claw, still holding Huang broke his neck.

On the 3rd round a third giant fist appeared and attempted to punch Elefus and missed. Weasel, taking a cue from the previous encounter successfully cast a Polymorph spell on the second hand turning it into a Shrew Mouse which promptly commited suicide, saving Honda in the process.

On the 4th round a fourth giant hand appeared and shoved Weasel down the hall several feet, and any party members who also happened to be behind him separating them from Elefus, Numrendir and Huang. The original giant claw dropped Huang and went looking for another target. The giant fist also punched Numrendir for 3 points.

On the last round the original giant claw grabbed Numrendir in the hall and started to lift. Numrendir decided to hold on preventing his neck from also being broken. Honda recently freed, swung and swung at the original claw for 18 points. Elefus delivered the final blow killing it.

As surmised by the Players, killing the original hand caused all the other hands to disappear. A casual search found some of Wizard Zaraffin's notes in common but other than the pillow and the notes it was an empty room. A reading of the notes reported that Zaraffin made some casual observations of the claw when under his control. In summary the notes reported Zaraffin could not get the hand to do anything except some rude hand gestures.

The aftermath also had them pondering what to do with Huang. Elefus was out of Raise Dead spells, the good news was they only had to wait 30 minutes to Midnight for his spells to be renewed. The secular spell-casters also decided to hole-up in this room for the night and re-memorize their spells and rest.

How they determined time without a clock deep underground is still a mystery, I had them sleep late so the spell casters could account for their memorization time at 10:00AM.

Raising Huang became a bit of an issue. As any role-player knows there is always a chance you can fail your resurrection-survival die roll. In HackMaster and old editions of D&D, it is rated on your Constitution score. Huang needed a less than a 95% and failed as he rolled 98%. This left the Players scratching their heads as you can't just cast another Raise Dead spell, the result is final.

Players traded cards and Huang's player came forth with a Mulligan card granting him a re-roll. Huang thus duly raised continued on but was reminded his Constitution score and honor just went down one point.

Coming to an intersection, they could go left or straight. So the they turned left and came to another intersection in 30 more feet where they could go straight or right. Turning right they came to another door in 30 feet then the corridor made a mandatory left. They could see further it made a right so they decided to examine the door. The marching order seemed to always have Huang in front luckily for him, it turned out to be nothing more than a broom closet, including buckets, soaps and brushes.

The party continued in loose order down the hall making one more left turn after the previous and the hallway ended in a door. Huang once more in the lead opens it and a huge stone ball could be seen being dropped from the ceiling of the room and commenced rolling towards the party like an Indiana Jones movie. Everyone ran for their lives. The stone rolled at a constant rate of 12 so almost everyone except the Gnome and the Dwarf could outrun it (or maintain parity) and those two were picked up by Elefus while he used his Winged Boots of Flying to get out of the way. Everyone except Weasel made it to the last intersection where the giant stone ball decided to turn down another way.

Strangely enough Weasel stayed put. Over is shoulder while he was still running Huang could see Weasel get crushed. Going back to reach Weasel's body, it disappeared. On the other hand Weasel shouted from the room whence the stone came. "It was all an illusion." Weasel is immune to illusions you see.

Dusting off their pride (as Weasel got 3 honor points for humiliation) the party continued past this room and the hallway opened up on the left for 50 feet and ending in a wall of blue-gray metal, smooth enough to reflect the party's image. Careful examination revealed a square eight inch indentation in the wall about inch deep. Determining this was some sort of door key the party attempted to force an opening to no avail. Faced with this clue, the party determined to find the key and headed back.

Arriving back at the first intersection after the claw room they went down the straight path previously not taken which went 70 feet ending in a door. Once again Huang is in the lead and opens the door to a 40 by 50 foot room and a door at the opposite end with strange symbols inscribed on the floor in every ten foot section.

Avoiding any obvious trap by walking across the floor, Weasel flew to the other door and opened it. Elefus performed the same task, ferrying party members on his back one by one. Once over, they path turned right for 90 feet and turned right with a door on the corner.

Opening the door they found another closet full of coats.

Passing this door to the right and then left 30 foot each, they opened another door to an empty 30 by 30 foot room. Singularly crossing over to the other side Huang opened the opposite door opening the pit trap in the middle of the room had the party entered the room as a group. Passing through they entered a 90 by 90 foot chamber with a sarcophagus at the far end. The way to the sarcophagus was lined by 16 lifelike Bugbear statues. There was an opening on the left hand wall and an opening opposite.

Seeing as the Bugbears were not moving Huang & Honda decided to explore the passageway to the left as soon as they left the first 4 Bugbears animated and started attacking. As soon as Huang & Honda came back a second set of 4 Bugbears awoke and attacked. Amidst all the combat (which is still in doubt), Numrendir cast two more Monster Summoning I spells and got 3 Bottomland Orc and 3 Spine Spiders to be used next week.


++++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++++

++++ CHARACTER ROSTER ++++

PLAYERS

Count Elefus, Human Male Deacon
Sir Weasel, Human Guild Soldier, Enchanter, & Myrmidon
Sir Kmaregh Dismal, Human Evoker
Sir Huang - Human Monk Sub-Master
Dame Honda - Human Samurai Bushi
Numrendir - Human Coercer
Arnold - Human Rutterkin.
Krazzek Thunderkeg - Dwarf Tracker.
"Lucky" Seamus McFitzpatrick - A Gnome Rutterkin


NPCs:

Slim, an Elf Presdigitator/Apprentice.
Special Ed - A Human Risk Mage

MISSING CHARACTERS (captured)

Junkbot Jackson - Tracker/Adept
Gerry Castagere, Human Fingersmith, and ever loving devotee of Elefus
Fundisha - Half-Elf Swordsperson