Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Story So Far X



7th day, Greenheart the 21st, 1845
(evening)

The adventurers continued to search the dark corridors of the dungeon. They kept hearing the faint sound of furtive footsteps but upon investigation they found nothing. Stuffed away in a corner of an otherwise barren chamber they found some equipment that looked as if it may have belonged to a fellow adventurer. The gear looked as if it may have belonged to a dwarven bard as there was a pair of small drums and a suit of dwarf sized studded leather armor in the pile of goods. They questioned Devinal if he knew anything about this and he admitted that one of his former captured party members was indeed a dwarf and a bard. Devinal tried to take some tobacco from the pile of goods but Gjord angrily told him to let it alone. Galifynakus tried to mediate the situation between the two but Gjord won out and the halfling eyed him spitefully.

In another chamber they found a griffin statue similar to the ones that stood sentinel in the room with the magical "fear" circle. It was old and worn with time but the party could see that it was different than the ones they saw earlier in that it held a large key (that was immovable and part of the statue). Also, carved upon its pedestal in Draconic (the ancient tongue of dragons readable by the wizard Svarnos) was the following legend. "We must do that which we think we cannot." The party tried to make sense of this and began to investigate the statue further. Gjord even lifted it so the others could search underneath but they found nothing. Devinal suddenly said that he thought he heard something (possibly footsteps) outside the rooms entrance. Lono and Fionnula also heard it as well so the three warriors Galifynakus, Gjord, and Martijn drew weapons and stormed out of the room to investigate. While the fighters searched the corridors outside the room Devinal struck up a conversation with Lono in the secret language of thieves known as the Cant. He asked Lono why he would work with such a party of gullible fools that walked blindly into danger and battle and that things could be far more profitable for both of them if they worked together. He said that they should wait until the party was asleep and then when it was Lono's watch they could rob them and make away with their treasure. He told Lono that he had connections with a prestigious thieves guild in Senion and he could put in a good word for Lono if he helped him with this caper. Lono listened and feigned agreement with the halflings plan, although he really had another plan for the treacherous halfling. The rest of the party noticed that some sort of interchange went on between the two rogues but Lono would not speak of what was said to anyone...yet.

So the adventurers continued on through the dungeon. In a large dank bat-infested chamber they found a gruesome sight. The bodies of three horribly mutilated and half eaten people were strewn about the room. They appeared to be the corpses of a male elf, a male human, and a female human. The party began to hear a chuckling sound behind them and they found that it was Devinal. They watched in disbelief as he walked up to the elf corpse and he spoke to it saying, "Serves you right Galen, you bastard!" These bodies were obviously members of Devinal's former party. Gjord was enraged by the halflings attitude towards his former party members and he attacked Devinal. The halfling thief reacted first and fled out of the chamber and into the dungeon. Fionnula went after him but was unable to capture him. Lono said that his plan was to kill the halfling in his sleep the next time they stopped to rest and that he felt that he now missed his opportunity. He also told the party what had occurred in his secret conversation with the halfling rogue.

So, the adventurers turned their attention back to the room and they found a large moldy sack with some treasure (two potions, a finely crafted flail, a wolf pelt, a small silver griffin statue and some gold, silver and electrum coins). The wall opposite the entrance was carved with the image of pegasi flying over a raging sea. The two half elves (Lono and Fionnula) noticed immediately that there was a concealed door in this wall. The party opened it and went inside and it lead to two small chambers. One appeared to be a conjuring room as there was a cauldron in the middle of a pentacle in the center of the room. The other was a study furnished with a desk and chair and a vented hearth along one wall. They also noticed some dusty shelves above the desk and on them they found some arcane scrolls and a large blue metal key. They figured that the blue key might open the large blue stone door that they encountered earlier. They decided to make their way back to this door.

As they approached the concealed door Lono heard the sound of movement on the other side. It turned out to be two bugbears that were searching the room. Svarnos took one down with a Sleep spell (and Lono soon slayed the creature) and Gjord took out the other one with his warhammer. The party continued on to the blue stone door.

They opened the stone door with the key and they found what looked to be a wizard's alchemical lab and a magic circle carved into the floor with faintly glowing runes around its circumference. On a dusty table with various beakers, distillers, oil burners and whatnot on it they found some potions (three of which were labeled and one that seemed to have a swirling dust inside it that was unlabeled except for a cork with a rune upon it) and some jars of alchemical reagents. Svarnos was able to tell that the rune upon the unlabeled potion bottle was from the Abjuration school of magic. The party figured that the magic circle was possibly a teleportation device of some sort. They were deciding what to do when Martijn (in his usual bold manner) stepped into the circle. There was a flash and the knight disappeared. A moment later and there was another flash and the knight reappeared and he told his comrades what had happened. He was teleported to circular room with one 10' high arched exit and strange writing carved into the walls in large letters. This room had a magic circle identical to the one in the alchemical lab and when the knight stepped out of it and back into it he was transported back to the lab. The whole group then entered the magic circle and was transported to the circular room.

The writing on the walls was again in Draconic and Svarnos read it. It read, "Fortune favors the Brave." the party noted this but could not make sense of it. When the party tried to continue on to the arched exit a strange thing happened. A mouth appeared in the stone over the archway and in a stern voice it began to speak.

"Invader! Turn back now and flee if you value your life! I Gormoon have not left my chambers unprotected. The guardians have been awakened and they await you. This is the only warning you will get!"

The adventurers did not heed this warning and went into the exit.

They came to a large square chamber with a ten foot exit on the opposite side from whence they entered. The walls of this chamber were embedded with the skulls of various (mostly humanoid) creatures. In the center of the room was a trapezoidal pedestal with a expertly carved statue of a nude medusa, her body entwined with a large snake. There was a dark 8" diameter hole in the center of the trapezoid. The party could hear an ominous rattling sound coming from the trapezoid as if it were filled with rattlesnakes. Martijn, thinking that maybe there was a actually a medusa in the room, took a small silver mirror that the party had and walking backward entered the room using the mirror to see. As he approached the statue they heard a sound at the far end of the chamber near the exit. Four creatures were coming out of the wall! They appeared to be large skeletal snakes with human skulls for heads. The party readied for battle but the snake creatures did not attack right away. The creatures began to sway and dance and all who saw them were affected with a spell that made them stand still dumbfounded and hypnotized. Only Martijn, Lono, and Svarnos were able to resist it! Martijn waded into conflict with two of the monsters while the other two attacked Lono and Svarnos. The creatures were completely silent and they made no sound as they slithered forward and attacked. Martijn held his own well against the creatures but Lono and Svarnos were hard pressed. Lono was dodging every attack made on him but was not dealing much damage in return. Svarnos first tried a Sleep spell but he found that they were immune, he then tried to fight with his dagger. Martijn, in a hard battle, killed the two he was fighting and eventually the hypnotism began to wear off the afflicted party members. Galifynakus snapped out of it and took care of the one on Lono. Gjord and Fionnula finally were free and they killed the one on Svarnos. Svarnos was severely wounded but Lono made it through unscathed.
With the creatures dead the party began to search the statue. No light seemed to penetrate the 8" hole and there seemed as if there was a magical darkness within it. Svarnos figured that the whole thing was a trick to scare would be intruders away. So, with a little trepidation, he reached into the hole. Feeling inside his hand came across a sort of lever which he pulled. There was the sound of grating stone and the statue and a 5' diameter circle around it began to slowly descend into the floor. Martijn jumped upon it as Svarnos jumped off. Then the whole group jumped onto it (Lono took some urging). The heroes slowly descended to another chamber.

It descended into a large rectangular chamber with a lever on the wall closest to the statue that now rested on the floor of this room. On the far side of the room they could see a huge chest. Lono decided to check the chest for traps but as soon as he touched it he found himself stuck fast to it as if by some super adhesive glue. They suddenly heard a deep laugh come from the chest itself. a seam opened between where the lid and the lock met and the chest began to speak with this "mouth". It told them that if they wanted the thief to live and if they wanted to get out of the dungeon alive themselves they were to drop all their treasure and leave. the party asked what the creature was and it said they could call it "Mimic". Gjord feigned that he was about to comply when suddenly he attacked! The mimic creatures mouth lashed out with a pseudopod of teeth and bit onto Lono. Gjord struck and damaged the creature but he found that he had to keep pulling his weapon free of the creatures strange adhesive. The rest of the party attacked and all had the same problem with the glue. Lono was sorely wounded by the creature as it kept biting him and it also released more pseudopodia that formed into fists to pummel its attackers. The party defeated it however and as the creature cried out, "Wait!" Gjord dealt it a killing blow. Lono was released and the body of the thing melted into a puddle of ooze.

Searching the room the party found that the wall behind the creature was illusory and they entered into a small treasure chamber. Inside amongst a small fortune of precious items (some which were likely magical) they found the large fist-sized uncut sapphire! The treasures twinkled in the torchlight and the heroes felt that all their trials and adventures in the dungeons Gormoon's ruined tower were justified.


1 comment:

  1. Hey guys...nice work on the first blog. After reading it, I had a few ideas for us adventureres. FIrst off, I know Devinal ran off and we all wanted to kill him. Because he ran off, he would still be under the impression that Lono was on his side. After we leave the dungeon, we may be able to still find him, and trick him. Maybe we could pretend like we are sleeping and Lono can lure Devinal back to our campsite. When he arrives, we would have a little surprise for him, which would equal his death.

    The second idea I had pertains to us still being in the dungeon. When we were teleported into that secret chamber, we had the blue key on us. I wonder if we took that blue key back to the room with the four griffins facing eachother, and tried to teleport from that circle. That area has to mean something and can't just be a spell that makes you run screaming. There's also that other room with the blue griffin that Gjord lifted. There has to be some significance to that as well.
    I only bring this up now, because I don't want us to get together on Sunday and leave the dungeon without checking out these details.

    -Svarnos

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