Nicodemus Dirt

It was Monday, 16 January, and four from the fields we know found themselves in view of the ruined castle. The caravan had stopped again, and wouldn't move til dawn. Blixa, Darf, Dodekatheon Spider Priest, and The Intrepid Randy all stood ready. They hired one of the caravan outriders, Gunter, to come along as a man at arms.


They chose to enter the Great Hall again, inside the inner bailey. Perplexed by the absence of the remembered windows on the side of the edifice, Blixa made his way up the rope to the ruined 2nd floor. From there, they found the stairway down into the centre of the building. Emerging into a leaf-strewn corridor, they decided to examine a new area, the room opposite the stairs.

Gingerly opening one of the several doors into the room, they saw a massive, once-grand throne room. Either side, under twin stone balconies, they saw huge stone statues, 12 feet high. The reluctant but well-payed Gunter steeled himself and walked toward the distant thrones, at his employers' request. Half the distance had been trod, when the statues began to shed their stony countenance. Now giants of flesh with sparkling blades, they converged on the hapless travelers.


Thinking quickly, Randy brought forth the preserved head of Vanessa the Medusa. Despite their obvious resistance to being turned again to rock, five of the giants were frozen in stone. The remaining trio hammered into the travelers. After a hard pitched battle, and the heroics of Abe the talking hound, the giants had fallen. But so had the Spider Priest's trusty manservant, Ike. Not wanting his sacrifice to be in vain, they piled his split remains on the thrones to test them for oddities.


And oddities they found. Opening behind the thrones, a steep stair gaped downward into darkness. The travelers were not staid by this, but plunged into the black abyss. Following a long and winding stair and passages, they managed to uncover a guardpost manned by fearsome bugbears. Randy stoned half their complement, cowing the rest.