In our last session, the party fought off some ghouls and and evil
priest, coming back with a large sum of gold in the form of
jewels. They rested in Frostmark for a few days, then returned to
the dungeon beneath Giant Fall.
This time they were able to explore the north section, where they
found a secret room, inside which was the body of the old
Abbot. They recovered a key from his body, and continued on. The
key, they found, fit a door in the room where they had just defeated
the evil priest. Ambrose unlocked it, and saw a dark, circular
staircase down. They went down the stairs, perhaps 40 feet, and
walked into a small cavern. There were several exits – from the
north, they heard rushing water. To the south and west, all was
quiet. They discussed where to go and decided that south probably
was the source of the ghouls they had seen on the upper level. South
they went, through a narrow tunnel that ended in a rough set of
stairs down into a large, circular cave. The cave did indeed have
ghouls in it – seven of them, who rushed the party as they came down
the stairs. The narrow tunnel served as a bottleneck, and only two
of the ghouls could attack the front line of the party, that being
Ambrose and Roger. Unfortunately for them, the first two ghouls to
attack got lucky and hit both, paralyzing them. Imric read his
protection from undead scroll, while Zort and Rolgrim helped pull
Ambrose and Roger out of harm's way. Now with a bit of time to
think, the party hatched plan. They spread oil on the stairs, then
Imric dismissed the protection magic. They lit the oil as the ghouls
advanced, and peppered them with arrows and holy water from higher
ground. Soon all seven were killed, Ambrose and Roger were healed,
and the party advanced into the cavern.
The circular cavern was perhaps 60 feet wide and had a high ceiling
– they party could see the roof almost 30 feet overhead, just at the
limit of their lantern light. Inside they saw 12 crypts lining the
walls, all but one with a stone sarcophagus inside it. Rolgrim and
Roger set about opening each sarcophagus in turn, while Thom
illuminated just about the entire cavern from the center. They found
an exploding skeleton – which luckily did not injure Rolgrim or Thom
too much, some loose gold coins, and a potion bottle. One crypt was
empty, save for a circle on the floor. The circle was red and inlaid
with gems and runes about its circumference. Imric was able to
decipher the runes, noting that it was a summoning circle for a
“Servant of Nezzir”, known to Zort as a god of chaos. He also saw it
as radiating magic.
At this the party backed away, all but Roger, who could not contain
his greed. He reached down and pried a gem from the circle with a
crowbar. As he picked it up, the cave was plunged into darkness –
just for a moment. Now illuminating the cavern, from its center, was
a Balrog!
The party watched as poor Thom was immolated by the demon, standing
as he was in the center of the cavern. Flee! Run away! The party ran
for the lone exit. As they did so, the Balrog's whip flew out and
caught Rolgrim, dragging him in to certain death. Imric took a
moment to activate his necklace (DM Note: The necklace acts as a
protection from evil, 10′ radius spell, 3x per day), and he and the
rest of the party narrowly escaped up the stairs. They fled at top
speed out of the dungeon and back to Frostmark, intent on seeking
the counsel of the Wizard Adrazzias, as soon as possible.
## Referee Notes:
Every once in a while I like to throw in unbalanced encounters like
this in the spirit of old-school D&D. But in this case, I did not
actually expect the party to tamper with the summoning circle once
they had translated the runes. And indeed it appeared for a minute
as if they would just walk away. It just goes to show that you can't
ever plan where players are concerned. It was certain the party was
saved by Imric's protection from evil spell. In OD&D, that spell (as
typical for OD&D) is fairly vague. Here is the full text from OD&D
Volume I, Men & Magic:
Protection from Evil: This spell hedges the conjurer round with
a magic circle to keep out attacks from enchanted monsters. It
also serves as an "armor" from various evil attacks, adding a +1
to all saving throws and taking a –1 from hit dice of evil
opponents. (Note that this spell is not cumulative in effect
with magic armor and rings, although it will continue to keep
out enchanted monsters.) Duration: 6 turns.
I certainly viewed the Balrog as 'enchanted', but then the part
about keeping out attacks yet also evil attacks getting -1 to hit
dice (attack rolls) is confusing – does the spell allow weapon
attacks from enchanted creatures, or not? With the benefit of future
clarifications to this spell, we know it does (most notably in
Moldvay B/X. Holmes Basic clarifies the types of creatures that are
enchanted, but still has the confusing bit about evil attacks,
almost verbatim). But here I chose to assume it gave absolute
protection from enchanted creatures, with the weaker protections
given for attacks from standard, non-magical chaotic creatures, like
Orcs or Ogres. It seemed more in line with the literary roots of
OD&D – the lone wizard summons a demon, and is protected from all
attacks as long as his spell is active. Or I might just be getting
soft in my old age.
