climb from the roof onto the open door and
lower themselves to the ground. Agnes,
The Colour of encumbered by her heavy plate armour, slips
and crashes awkwardly to the floor. Still there
Evil is no sign of the rats and dire rats. Hurriedly
they light a lantern and enter the ruins,
dragging the heavy door shut behind them.
The wide hallway is still choked with rubble,
leaving a narrow passageway that snakes off
into the hillside. A little way ahead there is a
by Mick Hand junction. A side tunnel leads to the right. That
is the way to the “false waiting room” where
visitors can be watched and attacked through
Email: Mick@hand666.freeserve.co.uk slits in the carved stone walls. The only way
out of that room is through a secret door that
can only be opened from the other side. The
Session 011 door handle is a wheel that turns to shoot
bolts into the surrounding stonework on all
sides. Scarlag thinks he might be able to open
Back to Karak Bulbass such a door with sorcery.
As they enter the tunnel they dimly see rats’
After camping in the marshes overnight, our
eyes in amongst the rubble. The eyes vanish,
heroes travel south, wearing green armbands
retreating into the rubble away from the
to avoid goblin attacks. After a day and a half
lantern beam.
they are approaching the ravine when they
notice that the sounds of animal life are
They follow the side tunnel, past an open pit
missing. Although even the raven, Omen,
into a wider chamber. Glamil, the professional
can’t see anything in the bushes, they are
treasure hunter, remembers that there is a pit
sure something is hiding in there.
in the centre of the room and avoids falling
Unfortunately they have to go into the bushes
into it this time. During their last visit they
to tie a rope and climb down. Nothing stirs
had managed to throw two monsters into that
until Ash and Scarlag have climbed down and
pit – summoned monsters that had seemed to
Agnes is half-way down the rope. Alone at the
be immune to non-magical weapons. Glamil
top, Glamil is jumped by three wererats who
walks up towards the heavy door leading into
were hiding in rat form under the bushes.
the “waiting room” but is snatched back at the
They rip into him with sharp yellow fangs.
last second by Scarlag, Blood of the Dragon.
The norseman has cast a spell to reveal the
The dwarf goes berserk and soon downs the
presence of magical energies and can see a
first of the attackers with his silvered
fine tracery or magic across the corridor
battleaxe. It falls back into the bushes, still
between them and the door. He can also
twitching. His backswing hacks the head off
detect magic a few inches beyond the door.
another and the body falls and transforms into
a goblin. The last one proves to be much
Thinking back to their first visit they
tougher. They circle each other, slashing and
remember that there was a glyph in just this
biting, round and round. Agnes manages to
position. It had summoned a Dretch, a minor
clamber down onto the roof of the ruins and
demon that cast Stinking Clouds and
Ash races back up the rope to help the dwarf.
Darkness. Expecting something similar they
prepared to trigger the glyph and then bundle
Glamil’s fury begins to fade and his strength
the creature into a blanket and push it into the
begins to falter just as the monk arrives.
pit. Agnes lay across the edge of the pit to act
Between them, silver axe and silver
as a trip.
candlestick, they smash the monster’s head
in. It too transforms into a goblin. Quickly
They were somewhat shocked when three
they clamber down the rope and with a flick of
Dretch appear in the corridor, squat white-
Ash’s wrist they bring the rope down with
fleshed humanoids with drooling mouths and
them. As they prepare to enter the ruins
long, filthy nails. Ash manages to hurl the first
Omen informs his master that the third
one towards the pit. It stumbles over the
wererat (the one that didn’t turn back into a
prone figure of the priestess and vanishes into
goblin) has vanished. It must have only been
the pit. Scarlag, who triggered the glyph,
stunned.
spins and rushes the second monster,
knocking it back right to the edge. As it passes
Agnes uses healing magic to heal the dwarf’s
the monk he lashes out with a foot and it too
wounds. She notices the rancid filth in the
trips over Agnes and vanishes into the pit,
bites but manages to use her skills and
landing with a sickening crunch on the head of
healer’s kit to prevent infection.
the first.
Into the ruins
Meanwhile Glamil attacks the third monster
There is no sign of the expected dire rats in
with his axe. It can clearly be damaged by a
the rubble of the ravine floor. Cautiously they
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2 of 2 Black Coast: Karak Bulbass
silvered weapon, but Glamil fails to kill it.
Suddenly the chamber is half filled by noxious
fumes. The heroes have to scramble out of the
fumes, holding their breaths. Glamil still
manages to hack at the remaining Dretch and
this time he butchers it. With a pop, the
hideous thing vanishes. For a few more
seconds the ones trapped in the pit send more
fumes and darkness up into the chamber but
soon there are popping sounds from down
there as the spell of summoning wears off.
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