Past Meet Present - The Strange Door

Last week's recap was removed when Blogger was doing their maintenance however it looks to be back in my drafts so I could re-post it.  Thanks Blogger for retrieving that!  On to the recap for this week however, the last week we'll play for a while as I'm off to be wed soon.  :)

Where we left off last week was with the party split into two groups separated by a wraith-like "guardian" in the hallway outside their doors.  That is where we began this week...
With our group now separated by the strange apparition like guardian, Temeris turned from shutting the door to find that Crispin had tripped and hit his head on a crate in the room and laid on the floor unconscious.  After doing what he could for him to make him comfortable he began looking through the room.  He found many empty boxes, vials, flasks, many filled with dust and tattered or ruined goods from long past, but he also found dyes, inks, lots of spices of different types and also some vials and flasks with contents he could not identify.  As he searched Crispin awoke and after a brief back and forth he helped in going through the room contents.

Meanwhile the rest of the party wedged the two doors they knew of shut using pieces of a rotting workbench and as they planned what they would do next Shadow looked over the room.  She soon found another door that the others had overlooked, and after pointing it out to Karath they managed to find the stone to open it hoping that they would find a passage on the other side that would lead them to the others.

The glow of the stones that they had been able to use as a dim light source up until this point however didn't extend past this doorway for some reason.  They heard movement beyond however, and soon Karath with his ability to see in darkness saw a raptor like shape move.  As he relayed this information it snarled at him and let out a high pitched growl.  Another joined it and stalked back and forth not coming closer as the party and the creatures stared each other down.

The party attempted to step back, hoping to draw them into the light but the creatures stayed put as if guarding something beyond.  The dwarf threw an axe missing one of the creatures but it stepped forward and snapped the area just in front of him before drawing back a bit again.  Karath then decided to try to draw one of them into the room where they could shut the door by stepping forward to attack and then withdrawing.  However when he stepped forward so did Howler, and then Daisy, and the fight began right there.

As they fought the first raptor the second stalked behind unable to join in because of the size of the creatures compared to the size of the hallway.  During the fight Crispin stuck his head out the door to see the guardian back at the alcove.  Not seeing that it was turning towards him he began North down the hallway, however Temeris behind him saw that it noticed them and screamed out to run and he ran North as fast as he could.  As he did so he rushed past the surprised raptor in the back but his torchlight revealed two others just a bit further on.  They missed him as he rushed past but he then found himself beside a door and a dead end with two raptors behind him.

Crispin further down the hall used the distraction of Temeris rushing past the first raptor to charge forward himself, ramming his morning star into the side of the large beast.  Soon the battle was intensified with a pair of raptors fighting the party and two others having cornered Temeris, who blindly lept through the door and found himself in a room with perhaps a dozen young raptors feeding on something.  They ignored him to feed, but one raptor forced his way in. 

The party managed to drop the first raptor and advance on the second which was taking quite a beating before the guardian joined the fray.  Soon the second raptor was down and Daisy deftly dodged the guardian's attacks as they were able to kill the third raptor, all the while ignoring what they couldn't hit to deal with what they could.  However the battle was taking a toll on the party as Crispin had taken a vicious bite from a raptor and lay bleeding amid the chaos.

With just the guardian, one last raptor and the young, and the party remaining, Daisy rushed toward the final raptor engaged with Temeris.  As she turned her back on the guardian however it struck her back and took much of her health with it.  She struggled forward however despite feeling weakened.  Howler struck a couple of vicious blows from the last raptor's back and soon it was in bad shape.

Shadow, now with the guardian turning towards her, yelled out for the rest to open one of the secret doors and after attempting to throw a healing potion at the thing ran down the hallway.  The guardian followed, and at that time the final raptor also fell.  Temeris jumped from the room with the young and shut the door as Daisy headed for the door to open and Karath tended to Crispin quickly.

Shadow reached the door intending to enter through it but it was still locked and he was face to face with the guardian.  However Daisy soon opened the door and as the thing lashed out at Shadow he jumped through the doorway and they shut it behind him.  Karath meanwhile moved Crispin into the secret room, followed by Temeris, and they shut that door as well.  Unsure of where they would go from there and injured they decided that they would rest there and go on in the morning when a bit better prepared.

The next morning after Karath managed to help with some wounds suffered by the party they decided to return and check the door that Temeris's grappling hook had disappeared from.  As the group approached the door through the butcher area Temeris noticed movement from behind a raptor carcass in the corner of the room.  The creature, a small humanoid maybe 5 feet tall and covered in green and red splotches, realized that he had been spotted and seeing the party before him tried to flee.  Just before getting out of the room however Crispin cast a sleep spell upon it and it fell to the floor. 

The party tied it up and as they waited for it to awake Temeris and Shadow went on through the door.  They found what appeared to be the thing's sleeping quarters beyond, and seeing a mound below the covers that appeared to be a figure Temeris approached cautiously.  Reaching the mound without it moving they threw back the covers and found it to be nothing more than a decoy.  They searched the room and found little of interest.

Outside in the other room meanwhile Karath began playing a tune that would fascinate the humanoid in front of him as it awoke.  Soon Crispin joined him and as the thing awoke he cast a spell upon it to charm it.  The thing sat calm looking at those in front of him, and initially when they attempted to speak with it they had little success.  However when Karath attempted to speak to it in the goblin tongue it seemed to understand.  They questioned it but it seemed to know little and the language seemed to either be not its native language or a different dialect as it couldn't communicate well.  They did learn that it knew little of the area or the Chitine, and that it didn't know how it had come to be here or how long it had been here.  They then released the creature.

Meanwhile Temeris and Shadow went on through the next door where they found a room with nothing in it other than an iron door with figures and skull engraved upon it, and with three iron skulls with eternity symbols above it.  Also below the central skull was a stud emerging from the wall.  They returned to the other to find that the humanoid was giving them raptor meet from the spits he had set up and they informed everyone of what they found.  The party went to investigate, meanwhile the humanoid walked off the other way.

They studied the post, the door, and the skulls for a while, Temeris doing a thorough search of them, however they found that there was nothing to be done with any of them except the post.  Crispin attempted to use an Open spell to open the iron door, however it failed to work.  Deciding the last course of action they had was to press the stud Karath attempted to use mage hand upon it, though unsuccessfully.  In the end Temeris, who was eager to push the stud since finding it, was finally given the chance.

As the stud was pushed in it clicked into the wall and the eye sockets of the central skull began to glow.  The party looked around expectantly but nothing further happened.  Temeris looked over the skulls again but found nothing different.  He decided to look into the glow but other than his eyes hurting from looking into a bright light saw nothing.  He attempted to put gems into the sockets but they didn't have any gems that truly fit nor did the sockets seem to be made to hold a gem.  Not knowing what else to do, and worried of the guardian still lose in the hallway they decided to return to the area they first entered to try another passage.

The party noticed that the secret door they had closed had been re-opened but decided to continue on.  They soon passed into the hallway with a door at either end and after opening the far end they were reminded that raptors were in this initial room as well.  Feeling as if their magical abilities were stretched thin this day they decided not to attack at this time and instead decided that they would attempt to have one person lure the guardian around to another door while the others observed the end of the hallway.

It was a risky plan but they decided to try anyway and returned to the secret room.  However upon their return they found that the door into the hallway was open as well, however the guardian wasn't there in the hallway.  Not sure of what to make of it the party continued on down the hallway to the door at the end.  Beyond that door they found another like the last with an iron door.  The central skull above it had eye sockets that glowed blue, but in this room the stud jutted out below the right most skull.  Temeris stated that he felt that he knew what this was, that the doors were locked by these studs and there must be a third somewhere else.  He stepped forward and pressed the stud and as it clicked into place the right most skull glowed as the central one had.

And that is where we stopped for the evening.  The party has found a pair of doors with a strange magical lock.  They are certain a third exists somewhere that will allow them access beyond, but what is beyond?  What happened to the humanoid or where did he go, and what happened with the guardian?  What else lies below ... and how close are the Zhentarim parties to the location of the "treasure map"?  Plenty of questions, but some answers as well.  It will be a while before we find out what happens next, but it should be enjoyable...