Nerd Dice: Chapter 3: The Wood of Sharp Teeth

Safely in the town of Berdusk, the paladin of Torm departs from his companions and buys two platinum rings. After performing a spell, he has a vision of a great white warhorse grazing in some trees. He returns to the rest of the party, who are resting up after their battle with the orcs.

The group confer and next head out on the road toward Greenest. They have heard several rumors of interest to lead them on this path. Both a follower of Torm and a cleric of Tyr have been said to have disappeared somewhere within the Wood. And there were indications that the Zhent-aligned wizard Darkblade had been seen around Greenest and southward.

It takes them three days of travel to arrive at their destination, but the trip was quiet, and the party only once encountered a pack of hungry wolves, which Laucian was able to persuade away. When they arrive in mid-afternoon, they see a small village inside a palisade with perhaps 200 people. It is a quiet enough town that as strangers the party attracts notice, but no one seems particularly unfriendly.

They settle into the one inn for refreshment and a place to rest for the night. Laucian, eager to find out what Darkblade had been up to with the stolen Giant Owl chicks, questions the innkeeper and a sturdy looking dwarf who is the town's blacksmith. They both have seen Darkblade in the inn, and thought he had gone south into the Greenfields. The dwarf also mentions his own adventures in the past, and indicates an injury that keeps him from wandering too much these days.

Then the ranger enquires after the rumours of a Paladin of Torm gone missing in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. The dwarf points out a young woodsman named Rutiger who had recently seen something strange there. According to Rutiger, he had been hunting for small game in the wood with his father when they came across a huge, beautiful white war horse. They followed it to catch it, but were drawn by it into a clearing deep in the woods. They spotted a strange low stone building that looked like it lead underground, inside which they saw something moving. At this point, Rutiger was far into his cups and became somewhat unintelligible, but mentioned that they fled from the building, getting an evil feeling from it.

Rutiger's father then enters the inn, and after scolding the lad for getting drunk relays a similar but more accurate story. He also gives Laucian some specific directions to the Wood and the ominous stone building inside.

Meanwhile, Leythan introduces himself to the town elder and also asks about the missing paladin of Torm, and also the servant of Tyr. All the elder has heard of is an old story about a missing knight from 20 years ago. Leythan thanks him and heads for the town's temple, which was built for Ilmater. There he helps cure several townsfolk who have been injured or sick. The cleric of the temple doesn't seem particularly experienced, and is grateful for the assistance.

The next day the part set out for the Wood of Sharp Teeth, following the woodsman's directions. It takes them some time to travel, but on the evening of the second day they can see the wood about a mile away. They make camp well outside the wood, but that night on the second watch, Lomion signals to Laucian that she has spotted something moving. Sergor and Laucian can both vaguely hear and see something large moving around outside the camp. They wake the others just in time to see two Dire Wolves preparing to pounce. The battle is tough, as the wolves attack from two different sides, but the group manage to slay both of the huge wolves. As they drag away the carcasses, Leythan takes a huge fang from the male of the pair as a trophy.

The next morning they head into the wood and travel cautiously, now all to conscious of the type of danger to be found in the shelter of the trees. Halfway to their destination, they find signs of creatures worse than dire wolves-- huge carcasses, and acid sprayed on the trees. Not too distant sounds of fighting reach their ears, and they hurry off away from what is likely a battle between too huge creatures.

They reach a small, overgrown clearing with a stone building in the center that resembles a tomb. All over it are evil symbols of necromancy and other signs to indicate it is an old place of worship for the tyrannical deity Bane.

Mirabelle leads the way inside, using her skills to spot traps in the dark passageway. They find a few traps with poison-tipped arrows, and just beyond that they see a corpse who had apparently fallen prey to one of the traps. Searching the body, they find a holy symbol of Torm and a set of armor, a sheath, but no sword. Obviously, the missing paladin had not survived. Unable to do anything for him at the moment, the group continue on slowly down the passage, doubly cautious of any more deadly traps.

The adventurers wander futher down into the earth and dark, encountering animated skeletons and further deadly traps. They take care to destroy as many symbols and statues of Bane as they go. In a cavernous room they find a huge skeleton of what was once a troll, holding a massive wooden club. As Sergor approaches it, the bones swing into movement, attacking, but the skeleton is quickly dispatched with attacks from the swift monk, the paladin's sword, and some Magic Missiles from Thorne.

They continue on, and uncover a pit trap full of blades with surprisingly little evidence of humanoid remains in it. Skirting the trap they enter a seemingly empty room, only to be ambushed by a huge number of ghouls and a ghast. Milos casts the Turn Undead spell and manages to disintegrate three ghouls, but four remain, not to mention the ghast, which wears a symbol of Bane.

The ghouls are one of the hardest enemies the party has encountered. After a few slashes from a ghoul, its poisonous claws infect Sergor and paralyse him. The noxious odor wafting from the ghast overwhelms Milos and Laucian and they double over, depositing their breakfasts on the floor. Thorne comes to the rescue with a floating sphere of fire, which begins burning the vicious undead attackers, and a round of Magic Missiles, which finish off the ghast. The tide begins to turn, and one of the ghouls attempt to flee, but Leythan swings his sword and it dies. Its companion slashes out and paralyses the paladin with its claws. The ranger and the cleric recover their stomachs and join the fight. The two ghouls left are cornered, and one flees down a flight of stairs, but not before being hit by an acid arrow. The other is killed by Thorne with his quarterstaff.

The party rest there and wait for the paralysis to wear off Sergor and Leythan. They search the bodies of the undead, and find a set of keys on the Ghast. Then they follow the stairs further down underground, passing the corpse of the ghoul that had fled. Passing through a corridor at the bottom of the stairs, they enter a huge room that was obviously used to feed the ghouls, by the amount of chained skeletons attached to large pillars. In their search of the room, Laucian finds a magical gold ring hidden in a chink in the mortar of one wall. The only other thing they find are images of Bane carved into the walls.

Searching further through the lower level, they find a booby trapped door which leads into a room filled with evil magical books and paraphernalia. It appears to be the chambers of a high priest of Bane. They also find a ledger which records details of the temple's history. Its many traps and dangers are used to ensare adventurers and other unlucky souls and steal their valuables to be used for Bane. The last entry in the ledger mentions a Paladin of Torm, and how his greatsword will be put to great use for Bane.

Continuing through the temple, they find a well traveled corridor where all the tracks seem to stop for no apparent reason. The footprints converge toward a spot in the wall that seems solid. Searching around, the party finally find the panel to open the hidden door and follow the tunnel that was dug through the earth. Mirabelle sneaks ahead silently and finds a chamber full of treasure, but most noticeably above that treasure hovers a rotted looking beholder. She backtracks and warns the rest of the party, and they turn back to the main corridor as silently as possible. Upon reflection, Sergor recalls from his arcane learning that the creature must be a Death Tyrant, a zombified beholder. They agree it is safe to leave the room alone for the moment, since the creature would not likely be intelligent enough to pursue them.

Following their original path westward, they find the final room in the unholy temple. In it stands a huge jewel-covered stone statue of Bane. In front of the statue a pentagram is inscribed on the floor, and in the center of it sits a figure encased in matte black armor, holding a massive morningstar. Beyond the pentagram another Ghast holding a shining greatsword kneels before the statue. Flanking the door are six zombie acolytes holding clubs.

Thorne sends a huge fireball from his hands into the evil room and blows up two of the zombies, burning another and the ghast. Laucian finishes the ghast off with a well-placed arrow, while the Paladin and the Rogue make use of bottles of Holy Water. Milos uses a spell to turn two more zombies into dust. Soon the zombies are decimated completely. In the middle of the ruckus, the figure in black armor stands up smoothly, readies his morningstar and walks unhurriedly toward the fight. From inside his helmet his eyes burned with green fire.

The party quickly find that some of their weapons do no good when used against what must be the high priest of the temple. They realize that only magical weapons seem to cause the unholy knight any damage. Leythan shatters his sword against the Death Knight's armor and picks up the greatsword dropped by the destroyed ghast. Laucian grabs the paladin's mace from his pack and swings it, while Thorne shoots Magic Missiles. They manage to beat down the Death Knight, but not before he blasts the group with dark magic in a parting shot.

Shaken and battered from the fight, but still in one piece, everyone begins to search the chamber where the statue of Bane still stands. Sergor notices that the mortar under the statue is relatively new compared to the rest of the room, so the stronger members of the party aid in pushing the accursed image over. Below is a pit containing a skeleteon which has a sword with a symbol of Tyr. Here must be the knight that had gone missing so many years ago. They carefully remove the sword and the skeleton, and then smash the statue of Bane.

As soon as the jewels on the statue begin to crack, Leythan notices that the evil emanations from the building subside. They see a ghostly shape rise up in the air; he looks like a cleric of Tyr. In an ethereal voice, he introduces himself as Glorifen, and speaks to the party of his failed attempt to clear the temple, and how he had been killed by the high priest and his blood was used to consecrate the statue of Bane. Sealed under the statue, his spirit was unable to ascend and join Tyr.

At the end of the story, the spirit disappears in a flash of glimmering lights. The group sees that their wounds suddenly heal and feel completely restored. Milos takes Glorifen's sword, seeing that he has ascended and no longer needs it. Returned to health and secure that the temple contains no other evil, the group plans to go back to the cavern with the treasure, and the Death Tyrant guarding it.

They reach the hidden corridor and Mirabelle guards the party's back at the entrance as the rest of the adventurers follow the winding tunnel to its end. Sergor and Leythan each drink a potion of invisibility, and Milos casts a silence spell around them to sheild their approach. They move up to undead orb floating over the treasure without being detected. The party start their attack, and do a fair amount of damage to the creature. Leythan and Sergor become visible as soon as they strike at the Death Tyrant-- the paladin from one side and the monk from beneath it. However, aiming one of its eyes, the Death Tyrant casts a charm on Milos and he begins to attack Sergor. Thorne uses his fiery sphere to burn the Death Tyrant, and then hits it with the ever-reliable magic missiles. The zombie dies, but as it falls lands on the monk who doesn't have time to roll out of the way, but survives the squishing.

The adventurers find a good horde of valuable items that had been stolen from those who never made it out of the temple alive. They do their best to clean out the remains of undead creatures with fire, and retrieve the bones of those tortured and killed for a proper burial, including the cleric's and the paladin's.

They reach the surface without incident, but arriving again in fresh, clean air, see a great white warhorse standing near the entrance. It carries with it a sense of age and wisdom, even though it doesn't appear physically old. It looks over the party and demands to know why Milos is carrying the sword of his former companion, a cleric of Tyr. Milos explains what has happened inside the temple and that Glorifen is finally free from his imprisonment. The horse seems pleased, and then turns to Leythan, sensing something unusual. Leythan reveals his vision of a white horse in the woods, and the horse believes that he is destined to assist Leythan in future adventures. The two agree to continue on together.

The party head out quickly, eager to get away from the dire animals in the woods and the few lingering traces of evil from the temple. Just as they believe they have escaped without harm, they encounter a heavily wounded Dire Bear. Enraged by its injuries, it attacks the party without prejudice, but as it is already fairly weak, the group manage to subdue and kill the animal. Leythan takes a fang from the bear as well. Laucian suspects that the bear was one member of the fight they heard on the way into the forest, the other party being something like a hydra.

They gather up their horses where they were left safely outside the dangerous wood. The party manage to make their way back to Greenest without further incident.

Huh - this really helps to refresh memories. And it'd be too embarassing to ask 'Where am I?' before we start playing.