At the end of last session, we left the party lurking and resting in a cave about a day’s journey from Fangwood Keep. After a week’s rest, during which time Tzaran communed with nature and gained a new snake companion, the party returned to the keep.
After a brief discussion, they decided to loot the upper levels before exploring the cellars. Without opposition, the party explored much of the upper levels of the keep. They discovered no living occupants and precious little treasure. In the mess room, though, they discovered the flagstones had been pulled back and a great pit dug. At the bottom of the pit, an ancient set of stairs disappeared deep into the bowels of the earth.
After making their preparations, the party descended. On the stairs they discovered the bodies of those who had come before. One was decapitated, two were burnt to death and four were petrified. The party pushed the petrified explorers out of the way and continued on. Eventually, they came to a chamber at the bottom of the stairs. Blood and body parts coated the floor and amid the carnage capered a small humanoid wielding a huge scythe. The creature – identified as a recap – was singing to itself and as the party appeared attacked. It moved with incredible swiftness and managed to bottle the party up in the stairway. It wielded its scythe with devastating strength and speed and soon Delvier was badly injured. In an attempt to get her comrades into the fight she tumbled past the creature. She made it past, but sadly no one else managed to get into the room.
Delvier was badly injured, but fought on. Sadly, eventually her wounds proved too great and she fell. During this time, Ulmo had been hurling magic missiles at the redcap– and injuring it – but the creature seemed resistant to most weapons and even healed its wounds in front of the party’s eyes.
In desperation, Dregak tried to smash the creature’s scythe. Eventually, he managed to break it, but by then Delvier was dead. With the redcap’s scythe broken, the party surged into the room aided by summoned elementals brought forth by Ulmo. Once they had, the redcap made a run past them and tried to get away up the stairs but was stopped. Eventually, Tzaran’s snake companion grabbed the redcap and began to squeeze it to death. Krorz managed to strike the final blow and finally the battle was over.
Lamenting the death of their companion – and almost completely out of spells and healing – the party retreated to the surface..
