Episode 2.4

Greg, Wendell, Brad, Kathy, Ernie

(at Wendell's House)

The group continued to explore the caves, deciding to head over towards the "Sun Hole." They ran into several monsters along the way.

The first group they encountered was three wights, who charged at them from out of the darkness. They surrounded Greg, striking him once. He felt the chill of death begin to drain his life force away, but managed to resist the effect. Ernie then turned them...into dust.

Further on, they were attacked by swarms of bats. Kathy dispursed the first two swarms with a fireball, but the last swarm surrounded part of the group and began biting them. Everyone spread out but continued to attack the swarm. Greg eventually disbursed the final swarm with a swipe of his sword. Greg, Wendell, Brad and Ernie had all been injured and found that their wounds kept bleeding and that they were still taking damage. Ernie used most of healing spells to stop the bleeding and repair everyone's damage.

Since it was on the way, they decided to make another stop at the ruins, where they killed the troll, to take a much-needed rest. The cave was now occupied by three more wights. Wendell tried to sneak into the cave, but was noticed. He decided to move out into the room with the torch, so that the spellcasters could see and attack the wights. Kathy followed through, hitting a wight with her lesser sonic orb wand and Brad fired his crossbow. Before Ernie could act, the three wights surrounded Wendell and attacked. They hit him twice and caused one negative level. Ernie then stepped up, called upon his deity, and destroyed the wights.

The group rested and the next day, Ernie cast as many helpful spells as he could on Wendell to aid him in throwing off the negative level. Wendell recovered and the negative level went away.

Moving on to the "sun hole", they found an opening into the mountains. The "sun hole" was at the bottom of a sinkhole that had opened where the bases of several mountains intersected. Water ran down the sides, some of it disappearing into a crack in the earth, while the rest ran down the tunnel the party had entered. The area was lush with vegetation, ferns, moss, shrubs and small trees. It was also teeming with animal life. The group spotted some eagles circling overhead and several small animals scurrying around the hole itself. The sides of the hole were very steep, making a climb out very difficult.

They explored the area carefully, staying together. When they reached the far side of the shocked to discover a gargantuan snake curled up amongst the ferns – shocked by how big it was and how close they had gotten to it before seeing it. Unhappy about being disturbed in it’s lair, it towered above them taller than any tree in the area. Greg boldly stepped up to face it while the rest of the party scattered like so many frightened rabbits. He plunged his glowing green sword into it’s belly, unleashing his full psychic potential. The snake hissed angrily and tried to bite him in retaliation, but missed. The rest of the party hung back, shot missile weapons and cast spells. Greg decided that being so close to the snake may not be such a good idea, so he hopped back and threw his blade instead. The snake again tried to pursue and bite him and again missed completely. After another round or so, Ernie cast Briar Web and the unfortunate snake became trapped in the thorns. Before it could escape the thorns, the combined attacks of the party killed it. The party stared in disbelief for a moment, unable to understand how they managed to kill such a massive beast without suffering so much as a scratch, then they searched for treasure. They found a potion, a magical shield, a necklace of missiles and a mithral shirt.