Savage Tide Session 8

The party continued the expedition into the dungeons beneath the ruined plantation Mistamere in hunt of the wizard Bargle the Infamous. They started by burning out the spider webs in front of them to disturb a nest of giant spiders, which were quickly dispatched. Amongst the charred remains, they found what was left of a spellbook and what was left of a strangley enchanted pig with a medal inscribed 'Extra Healing'.

Before venturing into the lower levels, they retreated to clear out what remained in the upper levels first, dispatching a band of undead, and dealing with some vargoilles which were nesting in a disused chimney. Unfortunately, Antony became victim to their curse, and showed signs of starting the slow transformative degeneration into one of their kind. After more debate than Antony would have appreciated - including a protracted dialogue with a talking chest - the party retreated to Castle Rakin to find a means of removing the curse. The journey back included visitations from some fey, and some displacer beasts, and the party then descended to the lower levels to continue the hunt for Bargle. They found more imagery of the mage - a crude altar beneath a painting, an ornate tapestry, and several living crystal statues in Bargle's likeness that sprung to life. Several ogre guards were also present on this level, which, although cramped, battered the party around before giving Kathryn a new toy to play with - an ogre zombie - which proved a better pit trap detector than combatant.

The party ran into several copies of Bargle in the dungeon that turned out to be doppelgangers. The next challenge lay in a room with 4 sealed exits and a voice that threatened 'Choose correctly and you may live to face me'. All chambers appeared empty until a character stood inside them and was shut in. Stefanie found a strange oozing jelly within one, and Koravel the entrance to a throne room behaind another. The throne room was occupied by a strange albino elf figure and Bargle, who promptly altered his appearance to match Koravel's. Alone, Koravel managed to fend off the albino with some well timed critical hits until Zhedd arrived - to find two copies of Koravel grappling in front of him. In a disturbing display of masochism, with the doppelganger thwarting Antony's attempts to trick him into revealing himself, the doppelganger was dispatched.