I am now leaving Greyhawk, and I am no more certain of what I will find at my destination as when I arrived at the city gates. From what I have learned of the place, Diamond Lake has little to offer a visitor - it has little to offer a resident for that matter - but perhaps I can find out something of what I seek.
To be out of the city will be a relief. As much as I like the anonymity and the vitality in civilized lands, a person can get lost in Greyhawk, and it is too fecund to be immersed in for too long. The wilderness is harsher and lonelier, but I like not having to fit in, and besides – I can at least think without interruption.
Well, the journey was as uneventful as I had hoped. The Cairn Hills are not renowned for their safety, but the militia do a good job of keep the trade routes free of banditry. High Ery and Ery Crossings were mild diversions from the monotony of the Urnst Trail, but nothing of note occurred, and I was happy with the little attention I was given.
My first sight of Diamond Lake was one filled with dark, brooding clouds and non-stop rain. Coming round a bend in the trail I could make out a group of menhirs to the north, atop a small hill. To the south was a walled structure atop a similarly sized hill. Both were unremarkable to me. In between the hills ran the trail, into the town itself. I followed the trail into the town, hoping for a respite from the weather, and some ale.
The Spinning Giant was my first stop in Diamond Lake, and played a major part in my overall opinion of the place. The outside wall was adorned with a garish fresco of a dancing giant, either drunk or mad. Entering between her legs lead me to the bar – a rough and ready place frequented by what appeared to be the soldiers of the nearby garrison (the walled building I spied on my approach to this place).
After obtaining a tankard of what appeared to be watered down ale, I was given little attention, and to be honest I was happy to be ignored. It gained me the opportunity to watch the folk of Diamond Lake spend their money and free time, and I was not in the mood to be disturbed in any case.
I spent the evening there, nursing my drink and eating the bland, overpriced, but filling meal the place served. I asked the bartender where would be a place to stay, and was told of the Able Carter Coaching Inn, where I spent my first night in Diamond Lake. The following day, and for the rest of the week I learnt more about the place and thought to gain more clues about the purpose of my visit.
A lot of the life in this place revolved around drinking. Either that or whoring and gambling in any of the establishments set up to deprive the miners of their hard earned coin. You get what you pay for I suppose, but I feel the town would disappear without the taverns, gaming houses and brothels, no matter what metal lay underground.
The garrison soldiers were a hardy lot, and did little policing within the town – that was obviously under the control of the less than savoury sheriff. I befriended a few of the soldiers and found out that there was a need for a scout of my abilities under the leadership of Merris Sandovar. After a brief discussion between the warriors, I was told that a letter of introduction would be sufficient to gain a meeting with Merris, where I could convince him of my skills and my commitment to the safety of Free City. I was sure I could say the right things to appease him. I wrote the letter that night and gave it to the squad leader, Dobrun Trent, to pass to his superior.
The following day I was invited to the garrison to meet Merris Sandovar. “They must be desperate to gain better knowledge of the surrounding hills” I remember thinking at the time. My meeting was short and to the point: “Can you move without attracting attention?”, “Yes”, “Can you use a blade?”, “Yes”, “Can you use a bow?”, “Yes”…
“Get your orders from Dobrun, get your food in the hall, and get on with it.”
I suppose I could have been so imposing that he knew of my abilities, but I think I was just the nearest person to what he wanted. That suited me fine.
Since I threw my lot in with the force that controls the land around the lake, but yet not the town itself, my time has been relatively uneventful. My enquiries have come to nothing, my money has all but run out (a defining feature of places like this), and the work has been interesting but not dangerous.
I needed to get more knowledge of the area, and more funds to continue my pursuit of the truth. I became a regular at The Giant, looking for other individuals cut of the same cloth as me – eager to learn and eager to gain money and experience. This was not a trivial matter – Diamond Lake had little to offer the casual visitor, and the regulars were not exactly people of action and initiative. Nevertheless, I was sure something would turn up sooner or later.
It has been three months since my first week in Diamond Lake, and I am now utterly, utterly bored. I have food and lodgings at the garrison here and the work they offer provide for my various upkeep costs. Arrows from Venelle’s are not cheap, but better than those provided at the garrison. As for entertainment, I am fast losing my appetite for losing money at gaming, and the ladies at the affordable brothels are… worn, to say the least. However, at least I am no longer given the ‘visitor’s ale’ at The Giant – Dobrun mentioned my employment to Vondoch, and since then I’ve been enjoying decent alcohol – perhaps too much alcohol. I must find a way out of here soon!
Well, today has been an interesting day. Meeting compatriots, meeting competition, making plans and making money - not bad at all. It was a normal afternoon in the Giant – there were a couple of new dwarves visiting from Graysmere most likely, but sitting apart. Also there was the new paladin recently arrived at the garrison in for a drink. I hadn’t met him yet, but he looked and sounded like he could be easily led, if you know what I mean. Heironeous chooses odd champions sometimes – and then sometimes gets it perfect, with Mélinde for instance.
Anyway, with those and the usual regulars in attendance, we witnessed the arrival of some of our fellow Guardsmen – looking like they went one round too many with a bugbear. It transpired that they were involved in a brawl in the local sleaze-pit masquerading as a tavern, The Feral Dog. Apparently, an out-of-towner had challenged all-comers to an arm-wrestle, and had won easily. However, the denizens of the bar did not take too kindly to being beaten, and accused the visitor of cheating, whereupon the brawl started, with the guard being drawn in.
No sooner was this tale told when the champion arm wrestler and his friends came to The Giant, looking for ale. The guard were not too happy at his presence, but our new paladin, Malakai, made peace between them and invited them in. I took the opportunity to make my presence felt and ordered an ale on his tab – it might be the weak visitor’s ale, but it would be free. I tried to get one of the dwarves sitting near to me involved too, thinking a dwarf would like nothing more than free ale, but she turned down my invitation.
The champion was a human called Auric. He and his friends hailed from the Free City, and he was apparently a warrior of some renown there. I hadn’t heard of him during my time there though… His allies were close-mouthed and condescending, and I immediately distrusted them. One was called Khellek, and was obviously some kind of spell-thrower. The other was an elf, but beyond that nothing was forthcoming about her talents as she did not speak. According to Auric, they were passing through Diamond Lake, and had no business here. I knew that was unlikely though, based on that anyone passing through would carry on going when they saw the place, but I said nothing.
After a time of chatting, well after a time of this braggart giving us the benefit of his opinions, they made to leave, leaving a platinum piece to take care of the bill. I took care of the platinum, and the bill, and the resulting profit.
While this was going on, the second new dwarf had left the place – wishing to help out any wounded from the brawl. Malakai left to join him, and the dwarf I spoke to left also. I thought that the champion and his sneaky companions warranted more attention and I silently followed them to Lazare’s, where they had rooms.
They spoke as they went, and it was obvious they were here for a reason – to rob a previously unknown cairn of its treasure, and to keep the act as quiet as possible. After I gained this information, I realised that this was my opportunity – I would get the treasure for myself, in order to continue my search for the truth. However, one small issue became clear to me also – I could not do this alone. It was clear that these folk did not want or need a 4th team member, so I was at a loss as to what I could do.
As I pondered this, I was walking across the square back to the garrison and my cot. The Church of St. Cuthbert caught my eye, this was where a few others from the scene at The Giant had made off to – to tend to the injured and get the real story, presumably. It occurred to me that these may well be people who could help me – they were certainly inclined to take action rather than stand to one side certainly, and I headed over that way.
I found that the paladin, Malakai was there, along with the dwarven cleric, whose name was Alan or something – and who worshipped St. Cuthbert of all things! Also there, surprisingly, was the female dwarf who spurned my offer of a free ale earlier – she was called Tegan.
I decided to tell these folk of my overheard conversation, and to find out what they made of this information. I needn’t have worried. Through a combination of reasons, from 'it's a local treasure for local people', fears that they may uncover something evil, or just wanting to pay them back for being obnoxious, they wanted to try beating the Free City adventurers to the supposed treasure. I was more than happy to go along with all these reasons, insofar it helped me – and they seemed a trustworthy bunch too, so much the better! The female dwarf Tegan did look at me askance during the conversation though – something to think on later perhaps.
We had no idea where they were intending to look, since all the cairns and barrows known to us are long-emptied or collapsed. It was decided it would be too dangerous to ask them, or steal their maps, as this could tip them off they had been overheard, and possibly lead to a fight.
The dwarf priest suggested there may be a place unknown to the locals where the dwarf youths used to play when he was young. It had been their secret, after they uncovered it, though he had not been back for over 40 years. With his directions, I believed we could both retrace the path. It was over a day's march from the town, but the dwarves knew of an abandoned shack ('Ulgo's Place') along the way, whose owner had died decades ago, which could be a rest point.
The next day, myself and Malachai got up early, and walked into town. He quizzed the staff at Lazare's, while I peered into the guest room. The three City Champions had not set off; Auric and the mysterious elf were still sleeping off the effects of the previous night, while Khellek had got himself involved in a high-stakes dragonchess challenge, which could take at least another hour. We decided to collect the dwarves and set off immediately.
We had no idea where they were intending to look, since all the cairns and barrows known to us are long-emptied or collapsed. It was decided it would be too dangerous to ask them, or steal their maps, as this could tip them off they had been overheard, and possibly lead to a fight.
The dwarf priest suggested there may be a place unknown to the locals where the dwarf youths used to play when he was young. It had been their secret, after they uncovered it, though he had not been back for over 40 years. With his directions, I believed we could both retrace the path. It was over a day's march from the town, but the dwarves knew of an abandoned shack ('Ulgo's Place') along the way, whose owner had died decades ago, which could be a rest point.
The next day, myself and Malakai got up early, and walked into town. He quizzed the staff at Lazare's, while I peered into the guest room. The three City Champions had not set off; Auric and the mysterious elf were still sleeping off the effects of the previous night, while Khellek had got himself involved in a high-stakes dragonchess challenge, which could take at least another hour. We decided to collect the dwarves and set off immediately.
The journey to Ulgo's Place was uneventful, and we found a place to sleep among the rotting timbers, and set watches, in case the rival group passed by. No-one came, so the next morning, we had but a short walk to the dwarves' 'whispering cairn'. This was sheltered from view by being set in a depression and surrounded by clumps of small trees. The entrance tunnel was lined with blue and white tiles, with an intertwined knotwork pattern in a band around waist height, and it was obvious that this was much finer work than the other cairns I had seen. There was a constant whispering sound throughout the tunnel, which I could not pinpoint, but I put it down to the wind. There was a layer of dirt and signs of animal tracks leading in and out of the tunnel, but it was impossible for me to say how many.
We descended down the tunnel into the hill. It opened up on each side into two alcoves, one of which contained an old waxed tarp and bedroll. A further twenty feet in there were two more alcoves, one filled with rubble, and the other containing what looked like half of a large, broken, oval frame, set on a plinth. While I was examining this, Malakai said he could see the reflection of a flickering green light further down the tunnel, over the lip of a staircase at the end. He then called out a warning, as three wolves approached from deeper within.
They stared at us all for a moment; Malakai set down the lantern and readied his sword, while the dwarves stepped into the cover of the alcoves. I seized the initiative by taking a bow-shot at the largest of the trio, and clipped him. The wolves ran at Malakai, and jumped at his neck, tearing at his clothes and drawing blood. But he stayed upright, and hacked back at the leader. The dwarves stepped forward and swung their weapons at the wolves, hurting them, but they continued to focus on the paladin, cutting him again, and dragging him to the floor. I was unable to shoot into the melee without endangering my compatriots, and there was not space for me to swing my sword effectively. However, the trio acquitted themselves well, and cut down two of the wolves after a few more moments of fighting. The final wolf attempted to break free through the party towards me, but he was cut down by Malakai, from his prone position. He staggered to his feet and was healed by the priest of St. Cuthbert, but it was insufficient to close the two large gashes he had suffered.
We ventured further into the hill, with me taking the lead. We came upon a four-way junction, which ended at one side with an octagonal room containing a raised dais. On each of the seven walls was a colourful fresco, detailing in life-like detail a corridor that recedes away from the observer. In each picture was a lantern of a different hue – red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and orange. It was otherwise featureless.
On the other side was a pile of rubble with a narrow tunnel leading through it. Tegan began to investigate this, while I and the other two adventurers carried on down the main corridor.
The main corridor showed a few more glimpses of the green flickering light at the bottom of the stairs, but in the way was a mass of cobwebs, easily filling the entire stairwell. I took a torch and began to burn through them. This dislodged a torrent of spiders, but I was expecting this, and knowing them to be harmless I carried on.
At the base of the stairs the corridor opened up into a large, octagonal chamber. At the centre of the chamber was a sarcophagus by appearances. Atop the sarcophagus was an effigy of a bald humanoid in robes, over seven feet long. The statue had a finger missing and a brooch at his throat. Other features: 7 walls had short corridors leading out from them. At the end of each were chains hanging down from the roof. One of them had a green lantern lying on the floor, which was the source of the green flicker we saw earlier. In four others were hanging lanterns, each of a different colour: yellow, blue, violet and orange. Two of the chains had no lanterns anywhere to be seen. Judging by the scene in the other room that meant red and indigo were missing.
Tegan had abandoned searching at this point, and not leaving to leave an avenue unexplored behind us, and there being no threat in this room, I went back to go through the tunnel at the top of the stairs. I searched for a while and found a stone finger, a knick-knack, and an indigo lantern.
I emerged back out and by this point Alan, Tegan and Malakai had explored the downstairs room further, and found that the ‘blue lantern’ corridor had a wide shaft leading up at its end – the chain went up further than 60 feet.
As the only able climber in the group, I took off my armour and ascended. It was relatively easy, but I was continually reminded of the result of a fall at such a distance. Upon reaching the top I saw yet another shaft, horizontal this time, at the entrance to which was a skeleton wearing old, rotted clothing. Discovering this, I knew I need rope and some plan, so I returned to the others and we rigged up a three rope arrangement where they could support my ascent and descent. Again I climbed up the chain, and managed to get beyond the skeleton into the shaft. All the time I dragged the rope behind me, letting my compatriots know of my advance.
As I crawled along the shaft I noticed deep furrows scratched along the floor of the shaft. “Probably a trap” I thought to myself, and proceeded more cautiously. Further in, I saw the image of a face carved or drawn into an apparent dead end, indistinct at this distance and lighting. Supposing that a secret door might lay beyond, I continued my advance. Suddenly, the stone beneath my foot shifted and clicked, and I knew I had missed a trap being set off. Along with this realization came a sight and a sensation – the ‘eyes’ at the end of the tunnel started to glow, and I felt dizzy and strangely mesmerised.
A moment or two later I regained my composure, but it was too late. A furios wind had now started blowing down from the face’s mouth, and I was unable to stop it. I remember thinking “I hope those below are alert”, before being sent out into the void of the main shaft. I bounced into the wall opposite, but managed to twist so I wasn’t knocked unconscious. Still, the blow nearly broke my spine, and I was struggling to breathe through a bruised ribcage and lungs left empty from the winds in the tunnel. Then I fell. It was a moment but it seemed to last a lifetime, with me dropping with no ability to hold on to anything. After 20 feet though, I felt the rope around my waist yank me violently upwards. This caused my already complaining back to paralyse me with pain, and I lost consciousness.
I awoke with Alan looking upon me in a concerned way. I felt better, but that was mainly because I knew I wasn’t a pancake on the dungeon floor. After this was a disappointing return journey to the ‘face’ – accompanied by Alan this time. We ascended without a problem, and I managed to avoid the trap. But the face revealed none of its secrets, if indeed there were any.
Upon our return to the central chamber, we looked at the arrow shape around the sarcophagus and wondered if it was some kind of pointer. Pushing it, we found that it rotated, and we managed to get it to point at the blue lantern corridor. When it clicked into place a column arose under the lantern, and a door opened into it revealing it to be hollow.
Malakai thought about placing the body of one of the wolves we had slain into the column. Upon doing that, the door shut and the column descended. After no further events took place, we decided to move the pointer on to the next lantern – green. Upon reaching that point, the whole arrangement began to grind and odd noises and vibrations came from the floor. A moment later the floor of the green lantern corridor fell through, and we heard a skittering sound. We quickly assumed a defensive position to repel whatever came through, with me readying my bow.
Then, from the crack in the floor, a swarm of insects crawled up and out into the room. I quickly realised that my bow would be useless and put it away. Malakai, Tegan and Alan were similarly unprepared, but Malakai had the presence of mind to take out a flask of oil and throw it at the creatures. Not exactly the best shot, but it splashed onto a few of the bugs.
The next moment, Tegan threw a torch, which lit the oil. The creatures squealed from the fire, but the swarm carried on relentlessly. Malakai manoeuvred to a spot where he could attack the creatures, but did no damage. I took out an unlit torch and moved near to the flames, in order to light one to attack the creatures with.
It was then that the worst features of these bugs became known – as they swarmed over me and Malakai, and bit and scratched at our skin, a searing acidic burning accompanied their attacks. Malakai and I moved to escape, but whereas I managed to move beyond their range, Malakai could only get out from their immediate attacks and closer to Tegan and Alan.
Things looked grim for Malakai, as the beetles moved to cover him again, and their bites caused him to fall unconscious. I saw his position was irredeemable, but thought that a carcass of a dead dog would prevent the beetles further onslaught – I moved up the stairs. Tegan had no choice but to retreat also, her weapons would have minimal effect on these creatures. Alan however, had other ideas, and he noticed the swarm avoiding the lit torch next to Malakai’s body. He jumped down and grabbed it, intending to protect his fallen comrade – a worthy but pointless effort I thought.
However, I was proved wrong as with a final sweep of the flaming brand at the creatures, Alan managed to destroy the swarm, the remaining creatures skittering off out of sight. We all breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short-lived.
We heard another sound coming from the crack in the floor. This sounded like a fast tap-tap-tapping noise, and was getting louder every moment. We were obviously unprepared for another battle at this time, so we all made for the stairwell exit.
As we departed swiftly up the stairs, plunging through the cobwebs without heed, we got a look at the creature as it came up out of the floor: It was a human sized, many-limbed thing, with only a ball for its body, and a single large eye that stared out from that ball. It had six long legs, each ending in a vicious spike. The tapping of the spikes on the floor was the noise we heard on its approach.
Luckily, we were quite far away at this point, and we continued our retreat, leaving the cairn completely. We got back to Ulgo's Place without incident, and contemplated our options.
After lengthy discussions, we decided to return to town. The other group had failed to turn up, so it was a hopefully accurate guess that they didn’t know about this place. We needed supplies, healing, and a bit more information. Our journey back was uneventful, and we started our information gathering and purchases.
Malakai went to the garrison to consult with his superiors there. The two dwarves also went their respective homes, to get any more aid they could. I had a busy day ahead of me, so I parted company and went my own way. First I headed to Lazare’s as I wanted to find out the fate of the Free City band. At the entrance I spied the tail of what I thought was Khellek’s cloak in a booth. By sly manoeuvring, and a mistaken ‘blunder’ through the curtain shielding the alcove, I confirmed his presence. He was playing Dragonchess against a woman who I didn’t recognize, but was obviously of some importance due to her deportment and that she all but ignored my entrance. For a moment, we were all as statues, looking at each other.
Khellek was the first to move, and was surprised and annoyed to see me. Thankfully, he did not appear to recognize me from our chance meeting in the Spinning Giant a few days ago. I decided to press my luck.
“Do excuse me” I said “I did not know this booth was occupied”. “Well, now that you can see that it is, please excuse yourself that way” Khellek responded. I was prepared for this reply. “I am sorry of my interruption, but I was looking for a Dragonchess game I could observe”.
My words were all but lost on Khellek and the lady he was playing, so I decided upon a gambit. “I am here because my appointment with Dietrik Cicaeda, the cartographer is not for a few hours yet, and I wished to see what this town had to offer” I said. I knew that he was more noteworthy than Merris Sandovar within the mining town – as important as it is to explore and gain knowledge of the lands around us, to the folk here what is of importance is who owns those lands. The cartographer was the man who decided these matters.
All at once, Khellek was more than interested in my conversation. He invited me to stay at the table and watch and converse with them. The following period consisted of trying with little success to learn the rules of the game, and Khellek trying to prise information about the cartographer (about whom I knew practically nothing about).
I was introduced to the lady that was playing against Khellek, who to my surprise was Luzane Perrin, a mine owner of Diamond Lake. She was polite, but reserved. I also noticed an unusual ring upon Khellek’s finger, of a black, eight pointed star within a red circle. I presumed this was either a magical protection or a bequeathing by his family. After a time I think Khellek sensed that I did not know anything useful about the cartographer, but as I had gained what I had come for (that they were not heading out to the Whispering Cairn) I decided to leave in any case.
Noting that Luzane was losing, I attempted to get Khellek to mark this game as a draw. I did not want to earn the ire of a mine owner here, plus I knew that Khellek was at fault for letting me into the booth. I managed to convince him it was the right thing to do, but I do not know if Luzane noticed my influence here.
Upon turning to leave, I suddenly realized that I had an unwelcome admirer at the bar – the female elf who accompanied Auric and Khellek was staring at me. I had the impression she had been watching me awhile as I talked to Khellek. She gave me the look of a basilisk, and I knew it was pointless trying to talk to her. I did notice a huge welt on her neck, as if something had sucked at her flesh for a time. This was interesting, but hardly worthy of facing her ire. Oh well, time to move on.
After exiting Lazare’s, I went to Tidwoad’s, where I sold our meagre finds. From this I managed to afford some mining equipment, torches, lanterns, oil and 2 gold pieces for the other members of the party. A good return I thought, and went back to join the others.
They had all been successful in their respective tasks, and Alan informed us that he had learnt something of the glyphs in the cairn. They were all religious in nature, and related to Pelor, Heironeous and St. Cuthbert. We did not know what this meant, but it made Malakai and Alan even more resolved to find out the tomb’s secrets. We started back on our return that day.
An uneventful night at Ulgo’s meant we had a good start in the morning. I lead the way, right back to the room with the sarcophagus, and down the crack in the floor that the beetles and the many-legged monster had arisen from. I rappelled down and found nothing of danger in the room below. I called down the others to join me, after which I continued to scout ahead.
At a crossroads, I paused. To my left was a room with some furniture in it; and straight ahead were more tunnels. To my right were more of the beetles, feeding upon some orange gelatinous substance within a room beyond the light of my torch. I tried to avoid their noticing me, but their keen senses were too good for my meagre skills and they came for me.
I was swarmed by them, suffering many bites and the same acidic burn that I had suffered before. I managed to cry “Beetles” to alert my companions to the creatures, and they moved to engage the swarm. Malakai threw a flask of oil, which he then lit, and Alan followed up with a burning torch. Tegan threw yet more oil at the creatures.
I retreated beyond the reach of these creatures, and threw a flask of oil at the creatures, which was lit by the previously lit patch of oil from Malakai. The swarm squealed with pain, but did not retreat. A final blow from Alan with his torch sent them skittering off to their holes. It was a close combat, but a victorious one.
Our victory could not be celebrated yet however. From around the corner, the queen of these creatures came to assault us. Malakai celebrated that this would be a straight fight, so to speak, and moved to engage the gigantic creature, who was easily the size of a large dog. Alan and Tegan moved to help him, and they quickly defeated the massive beetle.
After this, we explored the room they inhabited. We found an insect nest, which we destroyed with fire, and also three skeletons amongst the orange substance. Upon them we found 3 potions, and that one of them was wearing a ring which had an 8 pointed black star within a red circle as its device. “Very familiar” I thought.
Having finished with that room, our attention turned to the left-hand chamber. This contained eight stone slabs, with indentations worn into them as though they were for sleeping on. The third slab on the left held a corpse in leather armour, and the half-octagonal far end of the room ended in a low dais. Upon this stood a tall (7’) red clay statue, of the same design as the figures in the wall carvings and sarcophagus, holding a heavy, blunt mace. Malakai entered the room, and moved up to investigate the body.
The body on the slab had its skull smashed, and the flesh had been devoured by beetles. Malakai called for us to enter so we could check the statue. Tegan and I walked in, after healing from Alun, who remained watching the corridor. It was then that I spotted another large beetle, crouched behind one of the slabs. With a cry I leapt onto a nearby slab and loosed an arrow at the thing, but the cover afforded the creature by the slab in front prevented me from dealing a deadly strike. Malakai then moved forward to strike it, but the blow glanced off its armoured carapace, the swing hindered by the slab in front of the creature. Tegan moved to block its escape, while Alun positioned himself for a swing. The beetle staggered around, and unleashed a cloud of stinging gas at me and Malakai, but I was on the edge of the cloud so escaped it’s effects, and Malakai’s stoicism helped him shrug off the cloud. This proved to be its last action as a shot from me finally pierced its exoskeleton, bringing ichor oozing forth. A blow from Alun ended the wretched insect’s life. I wondered if this was the king to the queen in the other room, or vice versa. My knowledge of giant insects living in ancient tombs is not extensive.
As the rest of group congratulated themselves on another kill, I became overcome with a feeling of lethargy, and sat down on a slab. Tegan followed suit. Malakai attempted to rouse us, but (I was later informed) we were not conducive to his exhortations, and lay down. The following incident I have pieced together through talking to Alun and Malakai, as my own recollection is not reliable. Malakai called for Alun to help him. Alun dragged Tegan off the slab, bruising her slightly, since she was too heavy to lift. He and Malakai deposited her in the corridor. Alun then came back in for me, and felt the same weariness, so sat down while I apparently fell asleep. Malakai propped Tegan up in the corridor, and attempted to wake her, but was called in by Alun, who had noticed the statue move. Malakai slung me over his shoulder, just as the club came down where my head would have been. Hampered by the weight, the only way he could defend himself was to hurl me out of the doorway, and fight a retreat, believing that once they were out of the room, the exhaustion would disappear.
He was correct. The next thing I knew of since sitting down was lying bruised on the floor, with Malakai between me and the red statue, which had come alive and was attacking! Directly above my prone form, Alun had grown himself to double size, and was swinging his mace over Malakai’s head. They both chipped at the statue, but could not tell if it was weakening, so Malakai worked his way around to its rear, to flank it. I moved with him, diving and tumbling through the gap in the archway. I hoped to get a shot in without hitting Malakai, and could not shoot over Alun’s massive frame. The statue focussed its attacks on Malakai, and dropped him to his knees, but it was finally shattered by Alun’s mace.
Tegan had found it impossible to enter the combat, so had kept watch on the corridor, fearing that the noise would bring reinforcements. She returned to tell us that she had found alcoves lined with empty hooks, and the main corridor ended in a set of flooded stairs, sloping down to slowly-moving water.
I suggested that a rope be tied to my waist, so that I could search the statue room without worrying about people coming in to collect my comatose body should I fall asleep. Unfortunately, I could find nothing of value, except the corpse’s fine studded leather armour and a further star-adorned ring, this time crafted of silver.
By this time, we were all injured, tired, or out of spells, so we decided to return to the old shack and come back the next day.
We all returned to the shack, with me utterly exhausted despite my ‘sleep’, and prepared to bind our wounds and bed down for the night. Alun noticed that some of the rubble had been disturbed, which surely meant that the rival explorers had found our resting place. Luckily however, we had not left anything here, and there was no obvious sign of our use of the hut, so I believed they would not suspect our presence. We manned, and in some cases dwarved, watches, but no-one disturbed our sleep.
The next day, I felt much more exposed walking back to the cairn. The hills were featureless and the few trees and shrubbery we walked through were not nearly enough cover for my liking. So I watched my back closely as we returned. Because of this caution, I noticed behind us a figure on the horizon, who ducked down in an attempt to stay out of sight. I alerted my companions to the figure, but none of us could tell who it was. We decided to make a circuitous route to the cairn to try confusing the follower, but I wasn’t convinced this would work. My thoughts returned to the disturbance at Ulgo’s Hut, and I thought of who in the team from the Free City could be the type to follow us.
Once inside, we descended through the hole in the floor of the green tunnel, and were standing once more in the wreckage of the elevator. Passing the rooms of the swarm and the statue, we came again to the flooded stairs. Malakai and Tegan tied ropes around their waists, and stepped into the water, with Alun and me taking the slack.
A minute passed, with us letting out the ropes slowly for our allies underwater. Then suddenly, there was violent tugging on the ropes. I knew that this could only mean that they were in danger and needed pulling out. I began tugging on to Tegan’s rope and called upon Alun to do likewise for Malakai. We both pulled on the ropes and began to drag the divers back, but this was not to be as simple as we had hoped.
I was keeping the rope tight, slowly bringing it back, when it suddenly jammed, unable to be pulled any further out. A moment later this happened to Alun’s rope on Malakai. We tried in vain to free the ropes to pull our comrades up, and we were momentarily lost for a solution.
I decided that our companions had saved my life enough times to pay them back a favour or two, and I dove into the water.
I discovered Tegan battling against an emaciated creature, her axe moving clumsily underwater. Behind her I could just make out Malakai in the murky water, slumped onto the floor and surely starting to drown. I knew my shorter, more precise blade would be more effective underwater and so I used the confusion of the environment to strike a telling blow against the thing, the waterlogged dead-looking flesh covering its body coming away in strips as I struck. Tegan attempted another blow, but could not move her heavy weapon fast enough underwater to connect. The monster, knowing that my skill would surely be its undoing, tried to swim out of range, but in doing so it left its side exposed, and I plunged my blade into its torso, whereupon it stopped moving and started to slowly sink to the floor.
During this time, I saw Tegan battling with what seemed to be an animated wave of underwater debris and muck, and even as I defeated one monster, this thing struck Tegan unconscious. Alan must have noticed that he could pull on the rope again, and Tegan was slowly being moved out of the water. I dived down beside the whirlpool of rubbish to drag Malakai out to the surface where he could at least breathe, although he was still unconscious.
Alun and I started dragging our friends back up the stairs, but were interrupted by the water creature, which I realised must be an elemental, which advanced toward us and struck us both while we were stood in the shallows. Neither of us could tell if our weapons were effective, and so Alun took the chance to cast a spell, managing to time it between the creature’s blows. Tegan started to regenerate her wounds, and regained consciousness with her head underwater. She fought to the surface, to find the enemy standing over her, pummelling her as she stood. She swung her axe into it, which opened up her wounds, and caused her to fall to her knees. Luckily though, she was saved from dying by the ongoing healing magic.
I was concentrating on getting Malakai on of harm’s way, but a stray brick thrown from the elemental smashed into my temple, and I passed out, but not before seeing Alun swinging his mace into the watery mass, dispersing it into harmless liquid.
Alun helped me up the corridor, and then dragged the rest of the party to safety. He then resuscitated the drowning pair, who eventually woke, though in no condition to continue. This was by far the hardest encounter we had faced in the cairn, and the worst part was the undead creature that ambushed my companions, and subsequently suffered my wrath. I resolved that no creature like the one I cut down would ever get the better of me in such a way.
Once we were out of immediate danger, we decided to rest up for the rest of this day and into the next. The problem became then where to stay? Our makeshift base camp had already been disturbed once, and with a figure stalking us I didn’t think resting in the open was a good idea. I suggested that we bedded down where the wolves had laired. With rocks blocking off the entrance I hoped that we could remain secure. I arranged what dust there was outside the room, in order to determine if someone had come down into the cairn behind us. With our preparations made and watches agreed, we waited for night to come, and then morning.
The night passed without event. We woke with a new sense of purpose and confidence. Outside the lair, the dust had been disturbed, but by who or what I couldn’t tell. We returned to the watery room, and searched the remainder of that area. In a side room we found another body, along with the Red Lantern. Upon our return above the water line we found tracks leading up and out of the cairn, bare-footed and with long nails. The trail was lost outside the entrance however. Now that this section of the dungeon was finished, we moved on to the yellow lantern and the elevator shaft below it.
We all ventured down one by one, and ended up in a room with a huge stone slab blocking the exit. With a combination of brute strength and clever leverage, we moved the slab out of the way, only to release a cloud of poison gas. Fortunately, I was the only one in any danger, and I moved out of the way rapidly enough to avoid its effects. We continued onwards.
Once beyond the entranceway, we were in a corridor with various statues in alcoves. Each statue was of the now ubiquitous, bald, 7-foot robed humanoid, with hands cupped in front of them. These cupped hands had air blowing up out of them, to what purpose I could not fathom.
Beyond this corridor of statues, we came to a T-junction which we found out eventually was a ‘room-within-a-room’. The room ‘inside’ was little more than a cupboard with an automatic door solid enough to crush the unfortunate we found within. Two archways lead into adjoining rooms at opposite sides of the outer room. The first one had little in it except for a stone slab with air currents coming up out of it. Overlooking the slab ‘bed’ was a fresco or bust of a bald, muscular humanoid, with his arms open above the resting area. Getting up onto the slab, I found the air currents supported my weight easily, and it was very comfortable. I got back down before I started to fall asleep and the statue above animated and crushed me.
The entrance to the other room was blocked by some kind of mould. The unusual, and by unusual I mean dangerous, thing about this mould was it sucked the warmth right out of our bodies, almost giving Alun frostbite as we discovered this. As we were looking at how we could remove this mould, Tegan came running up the corridor (where she had been acting as rear guard) screaming and with a horrified look on her face. Alun managed to grab her before she fled through the mould and Malakai and I moved to see what had scared her so.
As we did this, Alun cried out – he had felt a presence trying to affect his mind, but had managed to shrug it off. Even more cautious, Malakai moved down the corridor. He glimpsed something in the half-light of his temporarily illuminated sword, but it moved out of sight behind one of the alcove statues. I boldly moved further down the corridor, and managed to get a good view of the tiny creature – a pair of eyeballs connected by sinewy tissue. The thing tried to prise apart my mind with fear also, but I was made of sterner stuff and resisted its effects. It then tried to escape back to the elevator, but I was fast behind it.