The cast of heroes
Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party
Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscleKnil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker
Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout
Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard
Kima (Black Domestic Cat) – his familiar
Davon (Human Paladin) - the Warrior of Din
Rioja Returns (day 42 - continued)
Upon completion of his training, Rioja had returned to the
tower in the Blasted Forest
Meanwhile, in the glade in the marshes, the party were
trying to figure out how to gain access to the large diamond within the box
without setting off the storm alert. A portal, similar to the one they passed
through to get to this dreadful marsh, appeared before them. Not sure what to
make of it Korum poked his ten foot pole through it. He encountered no
resistance and it came back whole, thus rendering itself safe in his mind.
Rioja was just returning to his studies with a shake of his
head when another portal appeared before him with the end of a pole sticking
out of it. Curiosity got the better of him so he advanced just as the pole
disappeared and was replaced by the head of Korum.
Not sure whether this was some magical trick he asked Korum
to identify himself. Nothing would convince him this was the true Halfling
Thief, so he asked the question, “What would Bardan most like to do to a bunch
of merchants in the local town?” The response was that he would most likely
round them all up and burn the town with them in it convinced him of the
genuine nature of Korum, so he followed him through the portal.
He was greeted warmly on the other side by all of his
companions and brought up to speed with what had been happening. He then
identified the magical items each member of the party was carrying and worked
out how they could at least take the gem with them. The metal chest was firmly
attached to the altar, but with Bardan tugging and the others levering it up
with a crowbar in Korum’s pack, the chest came off with a screech of metal on
stone. They tied it to the back of one of the horses and headed on out. The
good weather followed them at the same fixed radius of the grove all around.
The Mausoleum (day 42 – late afternoon)
The journey to the final destination was uneventful, and the
party were glad of the good, dry weather that accompanied them although the
going under foot was still boggy. When they got to within half a mile of the
mausoleum, Knil and Korum scouted ahead to find a way in, investigate the local
environs and check out the weather for comparison’s sake. It had begun to rain
quite heavily outside the influence of the magical boundary provided by the
chest and gem, and the wind had started to pick up. The mausoleum was only a
very short distance from the cliff faces at the end of the valley, so there was
nowhere else the party could go other than into the stone building.
Knil signalled for the party to join them, so they all made
their way to the door of the sepulchre. They hobbled the horses and took down
the chest – they were not going to leave it outside for any random passer-by to
take! The great iron-bound oak doors (the only entrance into the building they
could discern) proved simple for Korum to open, so he ventured inside. He was
surprised to see two large skeletons bearing down on him; they must have been
activated by the very act of opening the doors as he had not trod on any
tripping devices or pressure plates. Quick as a flash he threw one of Bardan’s
fire-bombs, that went off next to one of the skeletons, setting its dry,
decaying rags on fire. Seeing Korum in trouble, Knil let loose a couple of
arrows that hit true and Rioja launched one of his newly acquired Fireball
spells into the room. The explosion and resultant heat made everyone take a
step back. The first skeleton went up in flames and crumpled to the floor but
the second skeleton was now able to attack Korum and hit him soundly. Knil’s
next shots missed due to the after-image left on his retinas so, pushing the
mage out of the way, Bardan and Davon piled into the room to protect their fellow
adventurers. Shaking his head to clear his vision, Knil’s next shots flew true
which caused the skeleton to slow its advance giving Bardan and Davon time to
engage in combat. Korum, meantime, had managed to recover himself and get round
behind the animated cadaver. The fighters managed to hit a few more times and
Knil’s arrows again flew true leaving the skeleton confused. It missed its
attack on the warriors in front of it but opened itself up to a sneak attack
from the thief. The damage caused was just enough to slow it so that Bardan
could execute the coup de grace.
Looking around the room, Korum noticed that there was
nothing else but a door in the opposite wall. A quick mental calculation
confirmed that the door was probably a few feet before the back of the building
true, so was most likely not a door to the outside that they may have missed on
their earlier reconnaissance. Korum surveyed the door but accidentally set the
trap off that caused the door to fall inwards. He just managed to jump out of
the way in time before it crashed to the floor where he had been stood but a
moment earlier. The fallen door revealed a second door behind it. Obviously
shaken, Korum was unable to pick the lock so asked Bardan to try to kick it
down. The door budged a little but the lock held. Bardan hacked out the lock
with his axe. Once the lock had dropped to the floor, he again kicked the door
open but it sprang back as if on a very tightly coiled spring. Bardan managed
to stop the door before it closed and, with Davon’s help, Korum spiked it open.
Korum quickly investigated what lay beyond and called back
that there was a spiralling staircase that led down and back beneath the room
they were in. As things were getting late, Arken called for the party to rest
up for the night and set three watches. Korum and Bardan took first watch.
Nothing seemed to happen, so curiosity got the better of Korum’s inquisitive
nature. Bardan warned him not to go down the stairs, but too late, the thief
had sprung over the resting fighter and onto the top of the stairs. The stairs
led down beneath the room the party were camped in and along a short corridor
before stopping at a cylindrical pit. There was a metal walkway around the lip
of the pit that led down into the darkness. Korum tentatively tried the stairs;
they would hold his weight but made an awful screeching noise as the metal twisted
in its holdings. He quickly applied oil to some of the worst places but the
task to quieten all of the joins would have been Herculean, so he made his way
back to the top of the pit. He looked down, but could not quite see the bottom,
so spat over the edge and listened. The resulting splat timed the fall to about
40-50 feet, with a stone floor at the bottom. Korum decided that cautiousness
would be the better form of valour for this task, so returned to get some rest.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, except for the scolding Bardan gave
him on his return.
Into the Depths (day 43)
The party awoke fully refreshed, with all spells learned and
wounds healed. They broke their fast and started on their way down the spiral
staircase around the pit. Metal squealed at every step, but they all made it to
the bottom safely. Set into the wall opposite was another door. Korum was able
to open this door easily, which revealed a long corridor with another door at
the far end. The corridor was full of rubble on the floor and was lit somehow
by dim natural light; possibly filtering down from the marshes above?
Proceeding cautiously, prodding the floor ahead of him with his pole, Korum
slowly made his way along the corridor.
About halfway down, he must have hit a pressure pad as a
large blade swung from one wall across to the other, taking the end of his pole
with it. How had he missed that trap? He decided to look closer and espied
another two sets of opposing slits in the wall further ahead, about five feet apart.
He prodded around to find the nearest pressure pad and set the trap off again.
This time he was able to work out which particular stone set the trap, so he
marked it with chalk. He stepped over the pad and crawled beneath the lowest
height of the blade as it had swung (about 2 feet) and stood on the other side
of the trap. He then advanced on the next trap cautiously.
After a little searching he found the next pressure pad. He
set it off, but this time the blade at the next set of slits swung across the
corridor. He marked the trigger off with chalk again and cautiously advanced to
the next pair of slits in the wall. Again, he found the trigger stone but this
time it set off the trap five feet back; so these two sets of traps worked in
opposition. He motioned the party to come forward and told them to avoid
stepping on the stones marked with chalk. The party followed through but also
made sure they crawled under the arc of the blades just in case. The party
reached the door at the far end without injury.
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The Antechamber
The door was opened easily by Korum and he took a peak
through the small gap he cracked it open to. Inside he saw that it was dimly
lit with a door in the opposite wall only 20-30 feet away. Just as he was about
to open the door fully, a skeleton walked into view. Korum let loose a shaft
from his crossbow but the shock of being discovered caused him to miss. He
pulled himself back behind the door and closed it. He was in the middle of
explaining that there was a skeleton in the room when a large rusty sword was
thrust through the door’s timbers. Upon Arken’s command, the party carefully
retreated behind the traps in the corridor to await the approach of the
animated bones. It did not take the armoured skeleton long to hack through the
door and enter the corridor, but it is also swiftly followed by two more of the
same! The first skeleton swiftly closed the gap only to be smashed asunder by
the swinging blade of the first trap triggered by Korum. This turn of events
caused the second skeleton to falter, but the third one advanced none-the-less
only to meet the same fate at the second trap, also sprung by Korum. This time,
the blade became trapped in the wall slit, entangled in the arms and armour of
the decimated skeleton. The remaining skeleton, eyes burning blue fire,
advanced again upon the party, not setting off any traps as they were now
sprung. Combat was engaged and the cleric tried to turn the undead being. His
attempt failed so the skeleton picked him out as the main target. After several
feints by both the party and the skeleton, Arken was hit a couple of times
causing him to stumble back out of the fight. Bardan fumbled with his axe as he
saw his companion stumble back, but Davon swung his mighty two-handed sword and
cleaved the skeleton in two with just the one blow.
The party advanced over the smashed skeletons and back
through the door into the chamber beyond. There was nothing else to be found
within the room, only another large door opposite the one they had just entered
from.
The Chalice
Korum, his nerves now calmed somewhat, set to work on
looking for traps on the door. He discovered that this door employed the
door-fall trap that was encountered earlier in the dungeon. There was no way of
circumventing the trap, so he made sure the rest of the party were clear before
setting it off safely. The door boomed to the floor, thus snuffing out any form
of surprise the party may have had, even if the previous fight had not been
heard.
Unfortunately, luck was no longer with Korum as the door
behind the false trapdoor had a very difficult lock on it; so difficult in fact
that he broke his favourite lock picking tool in it. This meant that Bardan had
to hack the lock off.
Kicking the remnants of the door down, Bardan strode into
the torch lit room. He could see the room was empty except for a raised dais in
the centre which could be approached by a set of steps at each cardinal point,
a cylindrical column upon the raised dais, and upon that column was a golden,
jewel encrusted chalice. Unfortunately, behind the column and chalice there
stood a robed figure, face hidden by a deep cowl, bony skeletal hands held
aloft mumbling an arcane incantation.
The rest of the party quickly made their way into the
chamber and loosed a barrage of arrows, bolts and vials of Greek Fire at the
figure. These missiles all bounced harmlessly off of an invisible barrier at
the edge of the raised dais.
This shocked the party into inaction, but Arken approached
the cowled figure and requested the return of the chalice on behalf of his
goddess. The robed necromancer laughed at the cleric and put his hands into two
deep pockets, removing them and flinging an item to either side of the dais,
intoning “If you can defeat them, you can have it.”
The robed being cackled as two heavily armoured skeletons
erupted from the ground. The scouts of the party had their bows ready and
loosed their shafts at the skeleton on the right hand side, Arken and Barden
advanced upon the second skeleton to engage it in combat and Davon made a
bee-line for the figure upon the dais.
The fighter and cleric engaged the right hand skeleton in
combat whilst the ranger and thief loosed more arrows at the left hand one.
Korum had used one of the bolts with a slender rope attached to it this time.
Davon, meanwhile, tried to push his sword through the invisible barrier
protecting the robed figure. The sword began to glow and smoke but did not get
anywhere, so he decided to drop the sword and try to step through the barrier.
Arken saw what Davon was trying to do and pulled himself
from the combat to go after him. The barrier had stopped Davon getting through,
so he started to doff his armour. Meanwhile the other combats carried on around
the chamber with Bardan holding his own and the archers piling in more shafts.
By now, the left hand skeleton had reached the archers so
they would have to drop their bows and draw their side-arms soon. Korum, drew
his magical short-sword and grabbed the rope trailing from the skeleton, but
Knil kept a hold of his bow seeing what his companion was now up to. Bardan was
beginning to overpower his opponent and Arken had now reached Davon’s side, but
Davon thrust his fellow worshipper aside and advanced upon the robed figure.
The rope that Korum had plucked up he now wound around the
skeleton advancing against him and Knil, which reduced its combat effectiveness
and made it an easier target for Knil, who promptly put two shafts into it.
Bardan traded blows with the other skeleton whilst Davon was struck a massive
magical blow emanating from the hands of the necromancer. Arken went to his
aid, casting various Cure spells upon his friend, but all to no avail.
The bound skeleton could no longer advance due to the rope
binding it, so stopped in its tracks allowing Korum time to sever the spinal
column causing it to collapse in a shower of dust and bone. Knil switched his
aim to the skeleton fighting Bardan. The two shafts and great axe struck the
skeleton down.
The necromancer, upon seeing its comrades’ fall, raised its
arms, chanted a short spell and collapsed into a cloud of dust leaving the
party as the victors in the fight.
Arken, although saddened by the loss of the paladin, left
his body on the floor of the chamber and tentatively advanced up the steps to
the cylindrical altar. He was able to pass through the place where the invisible
barrier caused so much anguish to his compatriot. He grasped the chalice from
its place atop the altar and went to put it into his sack. The Dragon Orb began
to glow; perhaps this was the third item they were after on their quest?
The party searched the room for any further items or exits
but found none so, picking up Davon’s body and armour with due reverence, they
made their way solemnly back to the mausoleum at the surface. They found the
metal chest containing the diamond where they had stashed it, so picked it up
to strap back onto the horses outside. When they emerged into the sunlight,
their horses snickered to greet them. At the edge of the area of calm the party
saw another of the portals of Din. Without hesitation, Korum strode through.
Aftermath
The party emerged from the portal back at the wizard’s tower
in the Blasted Forest
Arken immediately set down Davon’s body and cast Talk with
the Dead, asking his shade what he would like the party to do for him. He
responded that he would like to be returned to the Temple
of Din
The party arranged Davon’s body on the cart and set off with
heavy hearts to the Temple of Din
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