OAWYM: Some Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/14/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 18
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

Last week we arrived in Highport, and our bard nearly got in a fight with another group of adventurers at the inn. Val calmed them down, bought them a round, and sat with them for a while.  She learned that they had recently looted some ruins, and were hoping to join the Iron Circle.  They finally left for the night, and we went to bed.  The next morning we realized that one member of that party was the Halfling we were supposed to contact in Highport.

We poked around town, greased some palms, and found our contact again in a boarding house called "The Swinging Man."  The Halfling was reluctant to see us at first, but we talked our way in with our usual charm. We showed him a note from the captain who sold us into slavery.  It took a bribe, but he finally told us about a nearby temple being used by the Iron Circle, and where to find the secret back entrance.

We watched the temple from a distance, paying attention to the patrols.  There was a lot of activity, with many beings going in and out of the main gates, including Orcs, Humans, and we even spotted some Ghouls.  We went around back and used the secret entrance, closing the door behind us as another patrol came into view.  We found ourselves in a narrow hallway.

We discovered a trapped secret door on our right, but walked on by because we couldn't disable the trap.  Another hallway was full of skeletons.  Malcer detected them as magical, so Val decided to decapitate them as she made her way through the room.  After dispatching the first one, the rest of them stood up to fight us.  It wasn't a difficult fight, but the narrow hallway did complicate things. 
 

Val killed one with a single hit, and Malcer damaged three with a sunlight spell. The melee fighters kept having to charge past each other, but each skeleton only took a couple of hits to kill.  During the fight, Val fumbled and broke her armor.  Once we'd killed the final skeleton, we proceeded around a corner where we found a charred door.  We broke down the door and entered the next room.

This room was a mess.  It looked like the ceiling had collapsed, and the furniture was charred.  We were attacked by several undead - five Ghouls and three "Dessicated Ones".  Most of the room was rough terrain, but it was a small room so not a lot of movement was necessary anyway.  Our enemies had attacks that would drain our blood, causing fatigue.  Malcer hit five of them with a meteor spell early on, greatly shortening the battle.  Tatio made the final killing blow.

We broke through another door, went through a short hallway, and looked into the next room.  In this one, the floor was mostly gone, giving us a good view into the cellar far below.  There was still a bit of a ledge around the room, and some fallen beams that could be used to cross.  But it looked very dangerous, and most of us don't have high agility.  We turned around, intending to more thoroughly examine the trapped door we'd passed earlier.

However, as we reentered the Ghoul room, we met an Orc patrol entering from the opposite door.  We saw five Orcs, all wearing Iron Circle armor, and we ended the session there.