Only a few more weeks till Halloween! I don’t know about you, but I’m excited. I know that last week I said I would look into more print on demand companies, but I just haven’t had the time to write up anything useful on that. When things calm down, you can be sure I’ll be revisiting that topic.

For this week, I finally finished up the Low Rolln’ Paladin story. Check out the story below to see if they saved the missing child or had to bury him in the crypt.

Next week will be a mystery post as I am too tired to think what I’ll be doing then, lol. Until then, here is the long awaited (maybe?) conclusion to this Dungeons & Dragons tale. That being said, there may be more tales later as the band of adventurers continue their adventuring. Who knows?

As told by Helkara – female ½ dwarf – fighter/cleric
Dungeons & Dragons 1^st Edition

Cautiously, the party set out once more. Liam, who’d already fallen into two pit traps and was perhaps a bit more sensitive because of it, easily located a new pitfall trap. The group moves on, and Tantalus discovers a door as he turned a corner. Goblin voices could be heard on the other side.

As Tantalus opened the door, the goblins yelled, “Kill the dead walkers!” Several arrows were loosed, and the goblins hid behind a barricade of items.

Helkara yelled back, “We ain’t dead walkers!”

“Kill the humans!” came the goblins’ unanimous reply.

Tantalus closed the door, but not before Winterhawk and Liam went unconscious from the volley of arrows. The group then decides what to do as they are now down two fighters, and everyone is still banged up from the last fight.

“Anyone have any oil?” Lena asked.

Helkara did and she threw a jar of it into the room. Lena waited for the jar to shatter, then she cast a simple cantrip of flame. They closed the door again, but it didn’t take long before the goblins began squealing with fright.

While the goblins were distracted with putting out the flames, Helkara, Tantalus, and Lena made their way around the barricade and found six goblins to fight. Aragorn stayed by the door to guard his unconscious companions. Gio, the groups main fighter, decided the paladin could handle keeping watch on his own, so he rushed into the room and climbed on top of the barricade.

From his high ground, Gio fired his own volley of arrows at the enemy. He did his best to help, but Tantalus took one too many hits and went down. Lena quickly poured a potion of healing down his throat, but the distraction cost her. As Tantalus recovered, Lena lost consciousness. Tantalus concentrated, a difficult thing to do during a battle, and was able to use his psionic abilities to help Lena recover.

Gio continued his rain of arrows while Helkara slashed away at the goblin foes. She had little choice as Tantalus and Lena were busy taking turns fainting from loss of blood. Just as it seemed like they were (somehow) on the verge of victory, a goblin flung a pouch at another goblin.

“Get this to Garrik!”

The goblin with the pouch left the battle and ran for the door.

“Stop that goblin!” Helkara and Gio shouted as they heard the not so secret message. Luckily, goblins weren’t so smart.

Aragorn heard his companions shout and took it a bit too literally. The paladin stood imposingly in the doorway as he attempted to stop the goblin from leaving the room. Gio shook his head at the odd, though not incorrect, tactic and fired an arrow into the goblin’s exposed back, ending the miserable creature’s life before it reached Aragorn.

The bloody battle came to an end shortly after that. Smoke from the fire had filled the room and surrounding area with a thin haze. Once everyone was back on their feet, the party quickly retreated out of the room and back into the hallway, where they encountered two much larger goblins. Despite their size, the two large goblins fell swiftly, much to the relief of the battered adventurers.

Victorious as they were, the party retreated to the peaceful room (the one room they had specifically chosen not to loot from) and rested for the night. During breakfast, Helkara looked inside the bag meant for Garrik. Inside she found a map of the Keep with a secret entrance marked on it.

“I think we found the map Franlkin wanted us to retrieve,” Helkara said. There were some half-hearted grumbles of acknowledgement as everyone was too tired and sore to say or do anything. Although, Aragorn did find the energy to point out that finding the child was still more important.

While they were loath to leave the only peaceful room in the crypt, they eventually carried on their search for the missing boy. As tired and run down as they were, sneaking wasn’t a high priority. Had they known what awaited them in the first unexplored chamber, they might have pushed past their fatigue and been more cautious. As it was, they walked into a room with a very large undead creature with three zombies by its side.

“Protect the boy,” it hissed at its zombie minions.

Liam quickly activated the gem that would protect them from evil. Yet, it was Aragorn’s quick thinking that saved them. As the paladin showed the large creature the amulet, it backed away and pointed to a side room.

Tantalus went first and found a small alcove. Inside, a boy did his best to hide behind a ladder.

“Your mum sent us,” Helkara said to reassure him, but while she did her best to sound friendly, it didn’t go well. Just when it seemed that the boy might call the undead to his aid, Aragorn arrived and showed him the amulet.

“Mom did send you.”

Helkara did her best not to roll her eyes or to scold the child. Thankfully, Tantalus needed her assistance. He had gone up the ladder and promptly found a latch he couldn’t open on his own. Happy to have a distraction from the doubting child, Helkara promptly assisted Tantalus in opening the grate. Moonlight flooded the area as the grate opened to the outdoors. 100 yards to the east was the Keep where they had started their journey into the crypt.

Everyone eagerly climbed the ladder to freedom, and once outside, they spotted the light from a nearby campfire. Cautiously, as they were still not fully recovered, they ventured near and discovered the owners of the Keep sitting by the fire, much to everyone’s relief. The boy left the group and ran ahead to his mother and father. Everyone else walked or did their best to hide their limping as they too made their way to the campfire.

Photo Credit: moein moradi