Session 9

ADVENTURE 9: Wrath of the Rakshasa: Sithdar and Karl made their way back to town, and in the tavern they met Plendok the sorcerer, his familiar monkey Furious George, and a warrior named Joseph, who was acting as a bodyguard to Plendok. Oddly, he carried no weapons, and seemed an expert in the shield. The sorcerer was here because he wished to discoverer the statue remains of the sorceress Akbeth, as well as her magical ring. Both characters decided to accompany the party, as they made a brief sojourn back to Nenkal Isle, to get their dead raised. A week and ten thousand gold later, Ashrem and Tyro were back to life, and the group was headed back to Rappan Athuk. (Minus all of Tyros equipment). Sithdar managed to perform his first real assassination job, and easily dispatched of a simple merchant in town, though the others knew nothing of this.
Back at the dungeon, it seemed like the gargoyles, although stupid beasts, were starting to catch on to the characters tactics. One of them chased Ashrem out of the area when he tried shooting them, and the ranger was forced to solo the monster, although the others got through just fine. Ashrem crawled through the rat tunnels, and after being bitten by a few of them, he found his way back to the southern end of level one. Oddly, as he looked across the river, he saw many rats, swarming over the lone figure of a woman. It looked like the exact same sight he had seen on his first trip to Rappan Athukor was it? Quite odd. Had the dungeon reset itself in some magical way?
Meanwhile, the others went through the main entryway. Upon checking for traps between the undertakers room and the skeleton in a chair room, Sithdar oddly found that there was no sign of any stair trap. As he climbed down, though, he almost caught himself on the seventh stair. Yet when he looked again, it seemed the trap was on the fifth stair, as usualvery odd. In the next room, there was no longer a skeleton in the chair. Bloody footprints lead back to the stairs and stopped. Suddenly, the characters heard a loud groan behind them, in the main hallway. Going back, they were greeted with a fiendish sight: an undead abomination with two heads and four arms, looking like the combined remains of their two dead friends, Ruklon and Welby. The thing attacked. As it looked about to die, however, its wounds suddenly disappeared. At the same time, Karl was surprised to be shot in the back by a wererat that had snuck up on the group from the other direction. As the were-rat was slain, its body simply disappeared. This caused the knowledgeable sorcerer to shake his head in disbeliefit was obviously an illusion. As he disbelieved it, the undead thing disappeared, and the were-rat body appeared. Clearly, it was their old friend, Scramge the tiger-man. As they made their way into the corridor that lead to the dung monsters lair and the cavern, Sithdar walked around the pit-trap, or so he thought, as he fell into the real pit, which had been disguised by illusion. He barely got out as an invisible figure hurled some greek fire into pit. In the hall, the party was attacked by another illusionof the dung monsters itself, which they quickly got around. Now in the cavern, Ashrem examined the rats swarming everywherethis too seemed illusory, as they made no noise, and seemed to be cycling through the same motions and actions. As Karl got into the room, he immediately filled the helpless woman full of arrows, sending her to the ground dead. At the same time, Ashrem attacked the ratswho all vanished. The woman, now dead, was no woman at all, but the long-dead corpse of some peasant man, covered with another illusion. Already annoyed, the PCs decided to go and bring some justice to their feline adversary. He attacked them first, leaping from behind an illusionary wall near the stairs, assisted by three were-rat henchmen. This time, however, the characters were ready for him. Tyro enchanted their weapons, which were now able to hurt the monster, who soon ran away at a breakneck speed. They decided to raid his lair, confident in their abilities. An unenventful trip took them back to level three, where they could hear the rumblings of more purple worms under the ground, though none attacked. In the tiger-mans lair they began opening the chests, finding many interesting treasures, along with small teakwood box that they couldnt figure out how to open. Just then, Ashrem was attacked by an invisible opponent. It was Scramge! To be continued

DM’S COMMENTS: I decided to liven up level one a bit, since most of the denizens are already dead. Basically, in the week they were gone, Scramge moved up and charmed a bunch of wererats and tossed a few illusions over the place; moving around traps, making some passages disappear. The dungie illusion would have been great had it worked, using a fake dung monster to push them into the lair of the real one. Basically, they kicked the Rakshasa’s arse this time around–though after he’s killed four PCs, they deserve payback. He’s very powerful if he can get the jump on you, but if you’re ready for him, Scramge is kind of wimpy, especially in a direct fight. Still, he won’t go down too easy. For you guys: the ‘Scramge’ who just attacked at the end of the adventure is not the real one, but a were-rat under an illusion. The real Scramge will try to hang back, invisible, and cause them to kill each-other again, by doing some crazy illusion stuff. He’s kinda low on HP, so they’ll probably beat him, but not without losses, I think.