Orcs, Stage Left!… The Halls of Tizun Thane Pt. 2

After a much needed rest, the bold group of adventurers are curious about the large stairwell that leads down into the darkness from their encampment room. They carefully toss a torch down the stairs to get a better look and find a closed pair of giant, ornate iron doors at the stair landing. The thieves agree to investigate further, and creep down to the doors and are able to peek through a thin slit where the doors meet. All they can make out is a flickering fire and some metal "clanking" sounds beyond — obviously something is going on beyond this portal.

The party, however, decides to hold off from exploring the lower level of the palace for now. Instead, they opt for a rune-covered door within the skeleton chamber where they had been camping. Beyond it they find the magical workshop of what might be a necromancer, due to the morbid items and various body parts they discovered. A huge magical symbol is etched into the center of the room's smooth stone floor, covered with semi-dried blood (and other fluids) and well-used, melted candles encircling the symbol — very dubious indeed. In the NE corner of the room, amidst a bas-relief wall carving, one of the thieves discovers a secret door armed (and disarmed!) with a deadly acid trap. Beyond the secret door is a small room containing several motionless, armored figures. Thinking the statues could be more animated skeletons (as per the previous room), the cleric attempts to take the initiative and smash them before they can start the melee. Just as he hits the closest figure, the floor collapses below his bounding foot to a steep stone ramp into a pool of dark, murky water. The cleric, in his platemail, loses the battle with gravity and immediately falls down the ramp, into the water, entangled in the closest suit of armor (with no skeletons within!).

Quickly, the party grabs a rope and tosses it to the cleric as he sinks like a stone. Making a successful dexderity check, the cleric grabs the rope before his head drops below the water surface. Thrashing about and trying to move back towards the room, the cleric feels something in the water attempting to latch on to his leg, which causes him to panic and begin to thrash about the water. One of the thieves climbs the wall of the room to get a better look and can see a giant lamprey trying to get a hold of the cleric. The half-ogre and a few others pull the rope and try to get the cleric out of the pool — but as they do the lamprey latches on successfully and begins to suck blood from the cleric's thigh.  Now they are pulling the soaked cleric, the attached giant lamprey and a full suit of platemail armor entangled on the cleric's other leg — a rather hefty load. They are able to rescue the cleric, and slay the lamprey before it drains more blood than the cleric can spare!

Meanwhile the thief who was climbing the room's southern wall discovers a secret door in the SE corner. As the thief opens the secret door, a sword-wielding zombie quickly strikes at him, barely making contact. The thief successfully jumps to the north wall as two zombies pursue him and fall into the water below. Now on the wall diagonal from the open secret door, the thief can see two more zombies within the room the secret door led, quickly advancing. While attempting to get a better vantage point, he fails his climb roll and falls into the water, now between the two zombies that are thrashing about the murk.

He begins to swim, while the rest of the party starts a volley of arrows into the room aiming at the attacking zombies, while Valmont and the wizard leave the room in an attempt to find a back entrance into the room which the zombies are emerging.

The thief almost makes it out of the water to the top of the ramp before one of the zombies slashes him in the back with his axe, knocking him unconscious. The two other zombies quickly fall out of the room and into the water pursuing the rest of the party atop the ramp.

At this point, the second thief attempts to climb the walls in this room as well to attack the slashing zombie from above, but fails and falls into the murky water below, directly on top of the pair of zombies. The attacks from the party vanquish the hideous undead, while the unconscious thief is rescued before drowning.

Valmont and the wizard find the small room where the zombies has emerged, and discover a locked chest and return with it to it back to the magical workshop. The thieves disarm an electric shock trap and lock, and discover a handful of potions inside (four of which seem to be of healing — which the party begins to utilize with their injured members. They also discover more hidden treasure in another chest within a trapdoor in this room's floor.

The adventurers lock themselves in the workshop and set up camp again, not planning on having been engulfed in some chaotic melee prior. While taking turns on guard duty, certain members could hear movement back and forth outside of the room's single door, seemingly moving up and down the set of stairs throughout the night.

Once fully rested and healed, they take their chances and open the workshop door. Luckily the room with the stairs is empty, but they feel they cannot proceed within the palace without first investigating this lower level, especially after hearing so much activity throughout the night.

They quietly creep down the stairwell to the other iron doors and slowly open them to get a peek at what lays beyond. It opens to a curved hallway to the left and right, but directly across from the doors is an archway that opens to a large torture and smithy chambers where at least a dozen orcs (some living, some undead) are going about their business — a group is torturing a badly mutilated (but still living) elf on a rack; some are making crude armor and weapons, piling up around them (enough for a small army?); while the undead ones are involved in some sort of manual labor of moving supplies around.

The wizard commands his psuedo-dragon to stealthily fly around this curved hallway and chamber so he can use his mind's eye to see what is out there beyond the iron doors. The dragon does so, and the curved hallway completely circumvents the torture chamber, and is outlines with prison cells — some of which hold living (and undead!) prisoners. That hallway is also manned by several armed orc sentries.

The party realizes that they may be able to gather more information around their quest if they had access to the prisoners, plus saving the elf is as noble a cause as any! From the mind's eye of the dragon, the wizard is able to determine that from the door's vantage point there are two orc sentries that are in range if they were to enter the passageway. They quietly do so, taking out one of the guards with a deadly arrow shot, while the other is charmed and pulled back into the stairwell — all done without notice from the torture chamber occupants.

The charmed orc informs them that his tribe is commanded by Sega and Diker Thane — Tizun's necromancer brothers — who are amassing an army of living and undead alike, but he is unaware of for what reason. They also ask him about the merchant's daughter, and he mentions that she might be found in Thane's harem quarters somewhere beyond the open courtyard the had seen two days earlier, and that Diker's quarters is on the second floor of the palace. Sega... they have already dispatched (and whom the cleric is wearing his armor).

Using this charmed orc to their advantage, they command it to get the attention of the orcs with the cleric disguised and playing the part of Sega Thane from afar — specifically targeting the orc chieftain Krognak (who is among the group who is torturing the elf) in the torture chamber to lead them up the stairwell to vanquish them. Unfortunately the chieftain orders a band of his underlings to investigate the matter, and they are quickly subdued — but not before one of the orcs screams out, alarming the remaining torture crew... and battle ensues!!

The gnome illusionist casts colour spray down the stairwell as the chieftain and his guards attack, and he is blinded while the others are knocked unconscious in glorious fashion — and subsequently put down swiftly.

After a well-earned victory, the party rushes to the elf, who gasps out "...in the tower..." before he succumbs to his countless wounds. What could this mean? What's in the tower?

They investigate the cellblock and discover a human fighter, a halfling thief, an insane, mumbling dwarf, an imprisoned orc, and several animated undead (humans, orcs, etc.) that have been kept locked up. The human and halfling grab available orcish weapons and armor (at least what could fit) and happily join the party.  (They release the dwarf, who runs about the cellblock muttering gibberish.) They claim to have been captured by different bands of orcs originating from this palace several weeks past, and have been imprisoned here and tortured for fun. They think that the "Night Things" that the villagers have been fearing are actually these bands of orcs, kidnapping travelers, townsfolk, and adventurers — possibly to slay for this undead army that the charmed orc spoke of?

Now they had to find the merchant's daughter. What was her fate? Was she still alive?

They backtrack to where they first encountered the open courtyard — an area of the palace that was ensnarled with thick vines and massive overgrowth, and was open to the outside world above. In the south part of that room was a door which they had not yet breached. Perhaps on the other side was where the harem was kept...

As they proceed through, past a large pool that has been consumed by the plant life here, the vines come alive with arcane magic and ensnare the cleric — as he investigates the pool for treasure — at an incredible speed and veracity, pulling him taught above the pool. The party chops away at the vines, but they are too many and too nimble to overpower. With delicate hands, the party lobs a few molotov cocktails into the vine bases and consumes them with oil and fire, burning them immediately and releasing the cleric.

Smoke fills the room and escapes out of the open-air roof as the party escapes to the south into a wide patio strewn with large silk cushions, empty wine jugs and debris. The north wall of the patio is lines with small rooms, one of which has an ornate door that is heavily padlocked. The thieves easily pick the lock and gain entrance to the bed chamber where they discover the merchant's daughter — drugged and unconscious. They also score some treasure hidden by the girl and the half-ogre throws her over his shoulder as they leave.

Curious about the other doors within this patio, they open the next one and come face-to-face with a massive ogre — a harem guard and the bodyguard of the girl. After a fierce battle, the ogre falls! The sounds of the battle alert a band of orc troops (led by a one-eyed brutish orc chieftain!) who attack from a larger master bedroom from the east, and are brought down with a volley of arrows and bolts!

The band of adventurers high-tails it out of the harem area and through the courtyard with merchant's daughter in tow — with a plan to bring her back to town, find reinforcements, and return to the palace! They backtrack through the secret door into the audience chamber and then into the banquet hall, where the human prisoner bars the double doors behind them with his bardiche.

As they head towards the massive double doors that lead out of the palace, the doors are flung open and the party comes face to face with a human figure decked out in shining black platemail, wielding a massive black mace that has a pitch aura and a low-end hum as it's twirled.

Is this Diker Thane?

Surrounding him is a group of orcs and several chieftains. Behind them is the iron minotaur golem brandishing his giant trident.

As the party goes to ready their arms, the figure commands them to halt.

"You're surrounded..."

The party looks up to find a slew of orcs in the room's upper balcony with arrows trained on them, and the sound of what seems like a throng of undead bashing at the barricaded double doors behind them.

The man informs the party they can leave with the girl and whatever treasure they may have found, but only if they perform a single task for him — they must destroy the arcane evil that lives in the tower.

The party ask him why they should trust his word... How do they know he won't just kill them?

He simply says, "You have no choice..."