Thus far in Arden Vul, Dorn and Aele have fought skeletons, giant rats, and beastmen. Their friend Exodore Swift was slain in the battle with the beastmen, in which the trio of heroes were overmatched and outnumbered. Before Dorn and Aele could fall to the beastmen, all of the remaining combatants were rendered unconscious by a spore cloud emitted by multiple myconid men who were drawn by the sounds of battle so near to their fungal forest.

Thoth favored the two surviving heroes, for when they awoke as 'guests' of the huge myconid fungal king styling himself The Sovereign, the Thothian priest Aele was able to leverage his knowledge of Thothian beliefs and protocols to obtain a very positive reaction from the fungal ruler. After witnessing the agonizing transformation of the captured beastmen into fungal servants, the two surviving heroes were given the valuables the beastmen had carried and were then given a myconid escort to the great stairs, which they descended into Burdock's Valley, from thence to return to the town of Gosterwick.

During their Downtime in the boom-town, each hero leveled up to Level 3. Aele's mastery of Thothian spirit-magic has led to his healing surges and holy blasts of wrath going from 2d6 to 2d10. He also has learned a second ritual, 'Thoth's Balm'.

Dorn rolled maximum additional hit points for achieving Level 3. His new maximum hit points are 34, and Aele's are 27. Invested with the passionate spirit of his deceased lover Exodore, Dorn's sword, now a named magic item - "Swift" - becomes a soul-bound weapon that will reveal increasing abilities as Dorn continues to gain levels.

The pair of adventurers have spent quite a bit of gold in their second (and most recent) Downtime in Gosterwick. They've purchased fine clothes that enabled them to pass muster at the posh Inn of the Stunned Acolyte. They've also acquired very high quality, gleaming chainmail from Torunn the Smith.

They now return to the mega-dungeon, Arden Vul. Dorn has sworn death to all beastmen therein, but this will require overcoming their leader and creator, the witch Deino; our heroes may not yet be a match for her.

Two miles outside of Gosterwick as the pair make their way back toward the twin colossi at the falls of Arden Vul, Aele calls a short break. "I have not yet enacted my rituals today. It would be a shame to need them and not have them prepared."

Now that he's Level 03, Aele can prepare two rituals daily. He does so now, preparing Thoth's Comfort and Thoth's Balm.

"Thoth's most freely given gift, valued not nearly enough, is wisdom. Thoth's eyes are upon his faithful. His words chime in their minds like the tinkling of silver bells. May Thoth bequeath the hidden knowledge to his servants. O Logos En-Amenti, Thoth-Hermes, Psuche-Stratos—Vibrate the Hidden Key. O Silver Tongue of the Night, who restored the Eye of Horus when it was shattered—hear me. As my blood meets the earth, let thy wisdom meet our wounds. From the void of the New Moon, bring forth the fullness of life." Aele finishes praying and pricks his left thumb with his belt knife.

Dorn has looked on and listened. "You have to cut yourself every time you invoke these rituals?"

"For Thoth's Balm, yes; though not for Thoth's Comfort, no."

"It's good that you're not queasy, then."

"All good things require sacrifice," Aele quips, and then the two proceed along the road. "It's curious. As I was invoking the rituals and hanging their potential energy in the arcanic effluvium, I noticed a cold-spot off to the west there," he says, gesturing off the road. "That's abnormal. Parts of other planes of existence are leaking into our prime."

"I'm going to pretend I completely understand what you just said," Dorn replies drily. "Come on, let's investigate this cold-spot of yours," and with that the warrior-rogue leads them off the road to the west. In the next dozen minutes, the two men cover half a mile.

"Do you smell that?" Dorn asks.

"Hmm, yes: sulfur."

They continue and soon top a rise and see an old abandoned shrine to Thoth-Cromm. It is overgrown with weeds, and surrounding it for several yards is muddy ground where gas bubbles occasionally bloat out and then pop. "Whew, there's the source of the stench," says Dorn.

"What a travesty!" Aele says, with feeling. "Someone has let this shrine grow dilapidated, but there's more. It has been defiled."

"And soon, your corpses will add their own stench to this paltry monument to your weak god," says a scratchy baritone voice, and then a man in a red robe steps from within the shrine and to the side of the entryway. Immediately another red-robed figure follows him out and pulls back his hood to reveal a swarthy-faced red-headed and red-bearded fellow. He pulls the morningstar from his belt and whistles, and this signal is answered by animalistic cries from the nearby trees, where four porcine beastmen have emerged and are now running to close the distance.

"I do believe we have been lured into an ambush," says Dorn, drawing Swift. "But this time, the outcome will be different!"

"Eulogeson tou Doulous-sou, O Thoth-Amon," Aele intones stridently, followed by tracing a crescent shape in the air between himself and Dorn, and adding, "Lah!"

Please note: some of the places where I post this serial installment do not permit links or image attachments. If you would prefer to skip over the blow-by-blow, round-by-round account of this confrontation, then you can scroll down to 'A Summary of Battle' below.

Let's set up some tracking for this combat:

Dorn gains 1d4 temp hit points upon drawing Swift. I rolled 3, so his HP at the start of battle are 37. His AC while wielding Swift is 21 — pretty decent for a low-level character. Aele's Thoth's Comfort ritual adds +1 to our heroes HP, for 38 (Dorn) and 28 (Aele). It also bonuses their armor class by +1, for AC 22 (Dorn) and AC 18 (Aele). A +1 bonus also applies to their saving throws for the next three minutes.

The wizard-priest's Thoth's Balm still hangs, on a hair trigger that Aele can pull if he and/or Dorn need healing during this combat.

Round 1: Dorn takes a 5' step and attacks Cultist #1, rolling a 16 (he hits) and 12 damage, which converts to 4-HD, killing the cultist. He then moves into melee range of Cultist #2, but unfortunately Dorn gets a 1 on Fray Die, so doesn't deal any hit-die damage to Cultist #2.

Beastman #1 charges Aele, adding +2 to the attack roll. He hits, and inflicts 6 damage on the wizard-priest! Aele retaliates with fiery radiant energy for 9 damage, which converts to 2-HD of injury. Aele's Fray die cannot be of use against the beastman since it is 4 HD, so Aele uses it against Cultist #2, reducing it to 2 of 3 HD.

Beastman #4 moves to engage Dorn and, surprisingly, hits Dorn successfully for 4 damage.

Beastman #3 moves into melee with Dorn, gets a good hit roll, but not good enough to overcome his current AC. Beastman #2 move northwest to line up a crossbow shot on Dorn. Dorn loses Dex and shield benefit since he's facing other foes (effective AC 19). But the beastman's shot doesn't penetrate Dorn's chainmail.

End of round #1 (Cultist #1 slain and 3 of the remaining 5 foes are injured):

I can see, after this first round of combat, that the Fray die usage needs to be tweaked. So, I will do so in round #2.

Round #2: Dorn attacks Beastman #4, rolling a modified 11, a miss. He then uses his 1d6 Fray die against the 3-HD Cultist #2, rolling 4. Cultist #2 drops to 8/12 hp. That's it, for Dorn.

Next, Beastman #1 attacks Aele, rolling a modified 14. That's not good enough, and Aele takes no damage. Aele retaliates with a glob of fiery radiant energy that inflicts 15 unless the beastman saves for half damage (he doesn't). Beastman #1, already injured, drops dead. Aele then uses his Fray die on Cultist #2 but unfortunately it is ineffectual.

Beastman 4, 3, and 2 then attack Dorn. Dorn parries #3's attack, blocks #4's with his shield, and his chainmail stops the crossbow bolt from Beastman #2. Cultist #2 hits Dorn with glowing blue bolts of force for 10 damage, no saving throw, and Dorn drops to 24 of 38 hp.

Round #3: Dorn skewers Beastman #4 for 10 damage, dropping it to 6 remaining hit points. He then uses his Fray die against the remaining cultist, dropping him by 1 hp to 7 of 12 hit points.

Aele moves so that he is directly opposite Dorn and they flank Beastman #4 — giving them each +1 on their next melee attacks. He then reconsiders and uses his final daily Surge to deal 9 more damage to Beastman #4, kill it. Aele is now out of daily Surges, although he could sacrifice Fortune Points for more.

Beastman #3's attack is absorbed by Dorn's chain and mail armor. #2 charges him and hits for 3 damage, dropping Dorn to 21/38. The magic of Dorn's sword, Swift arcs out and injures Beastman #2 in retaliation, inflicting 3 points and dropping it to 20/23 hp.

The remaining cultist again peppers Dorn with glowing magic missiles, inflicting 7 more damage, and Dorn is down to 14/38. He grunts and stumbles then rights himself. "The Balm of Thoth restore thee, friend!" Aele shouts, and Dorn regains 17 hit points, putting him back up to 35/38 hit points.

Here is the heroes' situation at the end of round 3:

A Summary of Battle Injuries occur all around, but Dorn and Aele give better than they get. Finally, Dorn intimidates the remaining cultist into surrendering. Sure enough, the two surviving beastmen obey. Interesting...

Round #4: Dorn yells, "Call off your dogs and surrender, red-robe, and we will spare your life!" Dorn is skilled in intimidation and half of the Cultist's forces have been slain. Morale 8 and I'm going to rule Dorn's threat and the cultist's assessment of the odds drop that to a 6. If he rolls less than a 6, he'll continue the fight: result of 2d6 is 8.

"Back off!" the red-robed cultist screeches. "Back away! Now!!" And the two remaining beastmen take a few steps back and lower their weapons. "I will surrender if you will agree not to press charges or haul me off to a cell in Gosterwick."

"Not good enough," Dorn says, taking a step forward and staring down at the man. "You're going to help us with a little project in Arden Vul, and then we'll give you the choice of jail or death."

"Or ... " Aele interjects, greatly daring, "there might be a way for you to avoid both, if you convert to the worship of Thoth and tell us everything — and I do mean everything — that you know about the Cult of Set in the mega-dungeon."