SESSION 5 - CRACKENMORE

Still within the room w/ the crystal outcropping, the party talks through what they have just experienced, not sure if this is the same room or not.  Leif takes out his waterskin & pours a bit of noticeable water on the ground.  At the same time, Amadi holds the gnoll map up to the crystal while shining his lantern at it, but nothing happens.  The party files out into the corridor around 2:20 PM, & once again find themselves disoriented.  They could have sworn that they entered this room northward from an E-W passage, but now, as the door closes behind them, they find themselves standing @ the south end of a N-S passage w/ a slight dead end to the east.  Their immediate reaction, while once more consulting their map, is that the room must be turning.  They decide to wander a bit through the corridors, taking careful notes, trying to trace back to something recognizable on their map.  This proves to be more difficult than they first thought as things just seem too different the further they get...  Moving northward, they soon enter a corridor leading to a turn eastward.  As they enter this short corridor, Leif senses something off about the western wall of the corridor.  The party halts as he searches the wall further, ultimately locating a secret door, the ridges well hidden within the smooth, black rock.  The party notes the door on their map, but choose to continue on w/ the task @ hand:  getting back to something noticeable.

They cut eastward for a good 100' before it turns south.  They follow the corridor, ultimately turning west once more which wraps them around inwardly until they funnel into another E-W passage.  The passage dead ends to the west.  The party decides to examine the dead end & go about throroughly searching it.  They locate nothing.  As they get ready to move on, turning eastward, they  notice 2 Orcs, one w/ a morning star, the other w/ a club, headed their way.  Though the Orcs dont look necessarily hostile, once they see the party bracing for battle, they ready themselves as well.

First out of the gate is Djarel, as a sudden hate for his orcish side seems to be surfacing, despising the chaotic strain of his blood, he swings his hammer w/ wild abandon @ the Orc w/ the club, getting a solid hit in there, but for only 1 damage...  At the same moment, the other Orc plants his morning star w/ a nasty thud into Magus' chest, knocking him back for a brutal 6 damage, he's just hangin on, tries to swing his battle axe in reply but misses dreadfully.  Leif then skirts around for position & feeling he has the shot, flings off an arrow @ the Orc w/ club, but things dont go as planned, & the arrow actually comes close to both Magus & Djarel but hits the rock  & splinters out.  Amadi then runs @ the Orc w/ the morning star, swirling his staff in a cyclone motion, landing a killer blow to the orc's head; it crumbles dead...  Gnollan, seeming a bit confused, rushes to Amadi's side.  The remaining Orc then swings his club @ Djarel, but misses.  Leif then having moved a bit further over, looses off another arrow, but again, this one misses, crashing into the rock wall, breaking.  Djarel has now regained his steady hand, but his rage is apparent in his face as he once again focuses his hammer on Orc flesh, this time w/ a disgustingly righteous hit the hammer folds into the Orc's face, so that when he yanks it out, the Orc's face pulls off & stuff goes everywhere, it is nasty, but effective.  They search the bodies surprised to find quite a bit of gold among them (35 gp), as well as a yellowish liquid in a vial.  Leif, still down a number of hits from the gnoll battle the day previous, grabs for the vial, remembering Magus quick drain of the last.  He smells it, the soft scent of daffodil, & then sips it, feels invigorated, then nothing.  He then drinks half of the potion, which is indeed a potion of healing, & he gains back 3 (or was it 4?) HP.  Djarel then nears Magus & begins humming & saying words no one can understand, moving his hands around, he touches Magus & suddenly Magus feels a good bit healthier, gaining back 4 HP from the Cure Light Wounds spell.

Collecting their things, the party continues east down to corridor to a door they noticed when entering the passage.  Amadi kicks the door open & they file in.  What they find is an Implement Room of sorts, everything from large iron vises, ropes, chains, mallets, unfinished arrows, wooden pegs & hacksaws, the party glances about, taking it all in.  They discuss items they may wish the leave w/.  Magus wonders over to the SW corner of the room, searching a bit deeper, where he sees a shiny shield behind some long iron bars, leaning over, reaching for the shield, he pulls it up, & while lifting it, also unrevealed is the tentacled face of a Carrion Crawler that is hidden along the base of the room behind stacks of empty barrels...  Leif gets a jump just as the Carrion Crawler slithers up, rearing up from it's prone position & pokes it in its body w/ his knife for 1 damage...  But this does not keep the Carrion Crawler's 8 tentacles from swarming & slapping Magus' dwarf figure numerous times, though he drops the shield, he is frozen otherwise, paralyzed...  But then, it's...  Gnollan! swinging his sword, missing [I cant remember if it was Leif or Gnollan that first hit the CC.  Do yall remember?] & also Amadi, sliding up, brandishing his staff once again & planting it solidly into the back of the Carrion Crawler's "head" knocking it out, dead, w/ impressive damage.  Leif congratulates Gnollan in gnollish for his efforts.  The party inspects the shield closer, noticing its exquisite craftsmanship, & also, in Common, toward the bottom, an inscription that reads, "Kinchen Forever".  The party decides to rest a bit, & so they take a load off, inspecting the items in the room, packing some of them, while watching for any change in Magus' condition.  It is about an hour later, @ 4:30 PM, when Magus begins to slowly move once more, grumbling something in Dwarvish, not happy in the slightest...