Characters: Tienarth (Tre), Ferris (Henry), Azrak (Nick), Ghevont (Jeff), Nebula (Audrey), Globo (Oliver), Nodo (npc)
The party found Yazzi the merchant and his assistant camped out at the crossroads. Their wagon of goods, including a huge cask of ale, were offered for sale. They noted that owing to Tienarth’s Raiders, the road was generally safe and a good business was being made selling to travellers. Azrak questioned the safety of the road, and to prove him right, they were attacked just before dawn by four gargoyles. Naturally, the party did not recognize them as such, never having fought gargoyles. They called them demons at first.
Globo spotted four man-like shapes with wings flying towards camp, about one hundred yards distant. He immediately set about waking the rest of the party. Azrak and Nebula dashed to put their armor on. The merchants and Nodo hid beneath the wagon. Ferris let fly an arrow that deflected harmlessly off the limb of a gargoyle as it lit on the ground. Globo also found his halberd to be of no use.
The shouted consensus: only magic or silver weapons can harm these magical demons. Globo made ready to draw his magical sword while Ferris raced back to Azrak to grab the magical hammer. Azrak protested, but gave in. He was still dressing. Meanwhile, Tienarth let loose with a Hold Person spell. Instantly three of the gargoyles froze. The fourth, still flying, glided down directly to Tienarth. Globo cut down one of the gargoyles and it shattered into gravel.
At this point, Ghevont was befuddled. The monsters appeared to be gargoyles yet Hold Person should not stop a gargoyle because that spell is for creatures classified as humanoids, a label never applied to gargoyles in ancient church texts. Furthermore, he was certain gargoyles do not shatter into chunks of rock. Nevertheless, he hesitated only momentarily, stopping the last gargoyle with a Hold Person of his own. The party concluded that these were lesser gargoyles or some such perversion of normal gargoyles. The case was made stronger by noticing that they struck with but one claw swipe and not with speedy attacks with both claws.
Back to the dungeon, the party happened upon a room filled with webs. Ferris managed to avoid being tangled as he stepped in the room and a giant black widow spider jump forward. Despite the danger of poison, Azrak stepped forward to battle with the spider, noting the his will to face death. The party made quick work of the spider who scarcely had time to flee.
The next room they found contained giant flies that swarmed around Globo. And then, a room containing two ghouls. These were minor battles with few remarkable details.
Exploring a hallway, Ferris fell 20 feet down a pit. He managed to keep the lantern in his hand from shattering, and Tienarth used his magic rope to pull Ferris back up. The party looped back through the room of now dead flies to find a room that moaned after they entered. This mystery was not solved, though they feared monstered being attracted to the sound.
Nearby, they found an empty lair of some sort and then a quizzical encounter with an elf maiden. She only interacted with Tienarth, offering him food and comfort. The party was very suspicious. After leaving the room and returning, it was empty.
After this, the party approached a door that was barred from inside the room. In turn, the stronger characters attempted to bash it in, as there were no locks visible. Finally, Ghevont smashes his way through and was rewarded with an ambush by four ghouls. He was immediately paralyzed by the touch of said creatures, but was saved from sure death by being dragged back out of the doorway. Ferris tossed burning oil in the doorway, a sure deterrent to the ghouls, but ghouls are not stupid. The door, barely hanging on its hinges was pulled down and placed over the burning spot. The fire was snuffed out.
Before the ghouls could get out, the party prepared to rushed in. A ghoul wrestled Globo into submission and dragged him into the room, paralyzing him. Ferris stepped up and grappled that ghoul while Azrak and Nebula cut down the others. In short order, the four ghouls were dead. They party waited out the paralyzation and then left the dungeon for Morgansfort. They met no resistance on the road.