Dear Gilra,
The last hours have been tense, after our group reformed, we continued exploring the dungeon and soon came upon two more sprigans and a horned guy playing a flute who I think was a satyr. As soon as we entered he started playing a charming tune, but luckily for us, none of us was impressed and within seconds we were attacking the sprigans with our usual ferocity. After the sprigans were down, it only took a few hits before the satyr had enough and surrendered, offering us information about the castle in return for his life.
According to the satyr called jaxir, the castle was three floors and a dungeon high, with the main tower being even higher. On the first floor there where barracks for the troops, on the second floor a ball room, a roof garden and a kitchen and on the third floor we would find the queen's chambers and the armory.
Armed with this new information, we snuck up the stairs to the first floor where we once again prepare to rush through a door to surprise those behind it, unfortunately while we were sneakily getting ready, Draco accidentally made a ruckus while calling some lightning, which turned out to be a bit louder than expected. Still, it made no difference to the sprigan on the other side of the door, as he was down within seconds just like the others before him.
With our surprise ruined and a charged lighting running through Draco's veins, we decided to forgo stealth and just run into the next room, which turned out to be an empty courtyard. At least, it looked empty at first, right up until four carved plants came alive and turned out to be topiary gargoyles. They put up quite a fight, even making some of us retreat while others charged, but after a strong battle we did manage to defeat them.
We barely had time to breath before Draco once again urged us on from the rear lines, as his charged lightning bolts would not last much longer, so without delay we decided to take the main door further into the castle.
I was once again up ahead to try and find any traps before my allies triggered them, but the rushed move must have distracted my senses, for one moment I was sneaking through a 20 feet wide corridor and the next I was hanging sideways in a narrow pit, under attack from thorny vines which held me tightly in place. It seems, in hindsight, that there was a hidden trapdoor in the middle of the hallway, with a shaft below it leading down to the plateau with all the skeletons and equipment we found earlier in the underground tunnels. In that shaft there where three assassin vines waiting for anything that fell into the trap, dropping their victims only once they were dead, leading to the skeletons we found before. And now they were trying to do the same to me.
As I suddenly disappeared from my party's sight, they quickly rushed closer, Kinley managed to dodge the vines attack, but Draco got pulled into the pit too, but not after managing to discharge one more of his lightning bolts, which only taught us that the vines were immune to lightning.
Since both of us were now hanging inside a narrow shaft and the vines could reach out of it into the nearby area, our companions had a dilemma, if they wanted to do anything against the vines or for our rescue, they needed to get closer, which also meant they would be in the vines reach.
Luckily for us, some of them risked it and before long Kinley was lowering his animated rope while Gnomy and Worf were trying to hit the vines. By the time the animated rope was attaching itself to me, Draco had wrestled free, fallen into the cave bellow and moved to a safe distance, only suffering a few scratches and bruises from the high fall.
Meanwhile some acid arrows had hit the vines and proven useful, and made Draco think that unlike lightning, fire might help too. So while Kinley was holding a firm grip on the rope, ready to pull me up when I broke free, and Worf got grabbed by the vines for getting to close to the edge, Draco was thinking up ways to roast all of us that were stuck in the shaft.
Luckily for me, I got free before Draco's plan came into effect, and thanks to Kinley's pulling I quickly ascended out of the shaft, climbing out next to Manon, who slapped a needed healing on me now that she could once again reach me.
So while I was balancing on the edge of the pit next to Gnomy, Kinley and Manon, with Worf dangling below me in the vines grasp, Draco at the bottom of the pit had finally summoned a fire elemental, thinking that was the easiest way to get some singing fire tangled into the vines. That this would also singe anything we had dangling the the shaft must have escaped his mind, as I'm sure Worf was now getting hotter by the minute.
The vines I just escaped from didn't want to give me up that easily though, as they once again grappled me on the edge of the pit. Luckily this time I was still attached to Kinley with the rope, and his valiant pulling managed to pull both me and the vine farther away from the pith, allowing all of us to hit and kill the vine out in the open.
The other two vines in the pit were however still alive, with one of them holding Worf and the other trying repeatedly to grab the fire elemental, our party soon resumed it's attack on them except for Kinley who once again lowered the rope for Worf.
It seemed like the gods of chaos were watching us, as by the time the rope attached to Worf, the vines had grappled the fire elemental, pulling him up and singing both Worf and the rope. Worst of all, it seems the vines were quite resistant to fire too, so our fire elemental was more trouble to us than to it's intended target. To make matters even worse, Kinley who was now trying to pull Worf up tripped and fell into the pit too, dropping like an armored brick past Worf and the fire elemental, he soon landed in the cave with a resounding clang, probably waking everyone who hadn't heard our struggle yet.
Realizing that a fire elemental might not be such a great idea, Draco finally dismisses him and started summoning an air elemental instead, after all, one of the elements was bound to have some success.
By the time the air elemental appeared, we had killed another vine, releasing Worf to fall to freedom too and making it so only one vine remained. The air elemental soon started a whirlwind in the shaft, just as the last vine grabbed Gnomy from the top. Luckily the grab didn't last long as the last vine withers, and Gnomy surfed down the whirlwind into the cave below to safety.
With the vines exterminated, we once again grouped up in the courtyard and decide that a rest was heavily needed.
Until soon,
Maruk
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tl;dr: Continued exploring the basement, encountered two sprigans and a satyr called jaxir, who surrendered and told us about the castle. (3 floors + basement. 1st floor: barracks. 2nd floor: ballroom, kitchen, roof garden. 3rd floor: queen's chambers & armory. 3 towers, main/middle tower is highest). Snuck up a floor but blundered into a sprigan anyway. Fought four topiary gargoyles in the courtyard and fell into a trap while scouting the main corridor. After escaping/killing the trap, resting was needed.
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