Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard
SMASH, a dwarfley cleric of root cellars
We awoke in the dank cave and set out to discover our way out of it. Not wanting to brave the waters again, and not finding any secret passages, we headed up the stairs we did find, only to find they ended at the bottom of the 60 foot deep pit which we had discovered at the end of the catacombs the day before.
We discussed many crazy plans, but finally settled on SMASH, er, smashing a hole in the grate at the top of the pit with his Phantom Shovel and Bilbo climbing the walls and tying on a rope for everyone to climb up. This plan would have worked just fine, except Bilbo was mauled by giant rats upon reaching the top of the pit. The rats messed him up pretty good, but he was able to shimmy down the rope to (what he thought was) relative safety a few feet down from the rats. Alas, one clever rat found it's way down the rope and viciously attacked him, knocking him senseless and all the way down the pit. A well-timed Grease spell from Orsek caused the rats to tumble from the grate to their ultimate demise. The spell-casters survived the rat-and-hobbit rain, revived Bilbo, and we continued on our way. But not before Orsek replaced his animated Flaming Dead Rat companion...
Our trip out of the castle was largely uneventful. We found the cemetery; the graves were all disturbed - some from within, some from without - which was disturbing. We fought some vampire bats in the small mausoleum, and SMASH recovered an ancient shield with powerful protections against undead, which he now carries (his previous magic shield will bestowed upon Mossmullet when that dwarfley priest returns).
Wanting to test out the new shield, SMASH brashly called out for any nearby zombies. But his calls were only answered by more giant rats, which proved to be surprisingly tough foes. But we did eventually defeat them and live to delve another day.
Party Experience Gained
Combat: 170 each
Exploration: 55 each
Plus, we all gained 17 or 34 experience for clearing the Ruins, depending how many sessions the character participated in
