Dwimmermount with Middle Schoolers -- XX

Tuesday was our twentieth session exploring the Dwimmermount megadungeon and we had a full table of six players.  Here are our explorers:

• Vale the Magician (level 3 wizard) made her return, still severely weakened from the lingering effects of brain fever caught in the stews of Adamas.  If she doesn't fulfill her oath to Saint Tyche soon, she's liable to succomb completely
• Ivor the Opener of Doors (level 4 fighter) the one-time henchman has come into his own, even leading short expeditions in Vale's absence.  Though he is lethal with his greatsword, Ivor isn't the man he once was thanks to the terrible, strength-draining touch of Dwimmermount's shadows.
• Y'draneal the dungeon Queen (level 3 elven thief & cartographer) was back in full force, confident that his superior speed and mobility would allow him to escape most dangers.
• Hurtis the Spearman (level 2 fighter) another henchman who has joined the "Fabulous Five" as a full member
• Sergei the Axe Thane (level 1 fighter) a brave, loyal, and steady novice to the dungeon and veteran of battles
• Kenny the Magician (level 1 wizard) an unsteady novice
• The two dwimmerlings (dwarves) recently rescued from beastmen joined the group, pledging a fortnight's service in repayment for their release (unimpressed by Kenny's inclination toward panicked homicide, the pair had discussed taking their leave, but Vale used magic to listen in and cleverly remind them of the obligations at just the right moment ... again demonstrating that a 17 Charisma can trump an 18 Strength)

After a bit of shopping in the humble market square of Muntburg, the group headed straight for The Reliquary level in hopes of finding the lost luck shrine of Saint Tyche.

"Dis is a shakedown, see?"

They paid the now-standard toll to a band of sentient rats (Vale did the negotiating) and, noting traces of luminous slime on the walls and floor, they began to poke around some unexplored corners of the dungeon's second level.

Eventually, entering a chamber heaped with moldering sacks, the group was cheered by the prospect of some easy loot.  The adventurers spread out in a scramble to tug open the sacks and lay hands on the goodies ... and were shocked when withered, grayish hands reached out of the sacks!

Suddenly the party found itself surrounded by shambling deadites*!  A fierce battle ensued as Vale back-peddled to the doorway and started a count down to unleashing her Burning Hands Spell.  Kenny wasn't inclined to wait, however, and threw his Sleep Spell.  His jaw dropped when two of the fighters slumped to the floor, but the merciless dead remained completely unaffected!

"Argh!  They're immune!"

As Sergei was dragged to the floor with decayed teeth locked in his calf, Vale unleashed her inferno, destroying the battered dead in a single strike.

"Bernie Sanders Hands!"

Beyond all hope, despite being reduced to zero hit points, Sergei managed to pass his fifth and final death check, meaning that he was maimed, but would live.

Bearing their wounded and pausing only to rout a roving pack of beastmen with Vale's Turms Termax impression, all eight members of the Fabulous Five trooped back out of the dungeon and to the sanity and safety of Muntburg. 

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* I'm adamant in each of my campaigns about NOT using the Creole word for animated corpses, feeling that it both misses the pseudo-European feel of the setting and leaves the players with a bunch of OOC expectations.  Instead, all corporeal undead get described as "deadites."  Not knowing a mummy from a ghoul without careful observation maintains the tension nicely.