"Ooh. Tha'un." The skinny man grimaces. "Oop un ta sheep, doon ta tha hold. Don touch no'in."
Narun nods and starts heading up to the ship before he pauses.
"I... I couldn't help noticing your friend.... Uh, I suppose he can't talk, but I was wondering why his lips are....?"
He trails off, unsure of what else to say.
The dwarf gives a grin, and the elf just stares, "Elps im fight. Nevva seen annyboddy dangerous as Whip-Mouth Smith en battle. Pray ye nevva get on is' bad side."
Narun's fingers unconsciously go to the short sword at his side as he glances at the elf.
"Right. Well, I suppose I'll try and stay on your good side. I'd hate to, uh, cross swords with you."
With a backwards glance, Narun quickly boards the ship, heading for the hold, with his rather silent companions in tow.
"Swords? Hah!" The dwarf laughs, "Trus' me, yoole wish e was usin' a sword ef ye got en 'is bad side!"
You walk onto the ship, stepping carefully over the splintering floorboards, and leaving the children behind. The wood is strange, a type none of you have ever seen before, cracked and blackened as though burnt to a crisp.
You go to the hold, a dark, foul smelling place, and as you step through, you smell a strange odor in the air, and a flash goes in front of your eyes, and everything goes black...
You feel the cold hard stone beneath you, and as you open your eyes, you see the ceiling. It is grey, as most stone is, and reminds you of nothing other than a stone ceiling. You sit up, feeling cramped and aching from your time asleep, and see that you are in a 10 foot square room, with 3 identical wooden doors, one on each wall. It feels cool in the place, and you can tell that you are far underground.
Narun jumps up and immediately checks to make sure his companions are breathing.
What in Kyro's bloody name just happened?
"Jared! Valcone! Get up, we're not in the ship anymore! We're.... Well I'm not entirely sure where we are, but it's underground. We have to check these doors."
Narun walk up to the closest door and puts his ear to it.
The door appears to be locked, and made of wood. You think you could break it with your weapon, or possibly by just smashing it. You hear a faint hissing beyond.
"What,where are we?" Jared says slightly confused.
"I feel a little,sick."
Jared walks up to Narun.
"Do you hear anything?"
Narun glances at Jared.
"Sounds like hissing. I'm going to try to break this door down."
Narun pull out one of his swords and smashes it against the door.
Narun smashes open the door, and the smell of sulfur drifts out, and the hissing grows louder. 2 snakes you recognize as cobras, but with eagle wings, drift out and attack! They attack, and one of them manages to pierce his skin through the leather he wears, and he feels poison coursing through him.
Narun casts Ensnaring Strike, then draws his second short sword and slashes at the snake that attacked him.
Narun slashes at the monsters, and chops them both in half. Vines grow out of his weapon and ensnare the corpse of on of the snakes, holding it in place.
The room beyond is 15 feet from left to right, and 55 feet from front to back. There is one door on the far end, and a door plus a portcullis on the right hand side and the far end. There is a fireplace with wood in it, and a cracked hammer head lying on the ground.
A quick glance at his companions shows that they won't be moving from the room for quite a while.
I suppose it's up to me to get us out of here then.
Narun sighs and walks into the room carefully, heading for the door on the far end. He leans in and listens at the door for a moment.
He hears nothing...
Narun reaches for the knob and turns it.
It is unlocked. He opens the door, and finds a room that is 55 feet from right to left, and 25 feet front to back. There appears to be no monsters in it, and the floor is slightly slimy.
There is an altar to a god you do not recognize in the middle of the room, with a staff leaning up against it, and several sheets of paper on it.
Narun walks towards the altar and looks at the papers and staff.
I wonder who built this altar.... And to who they built it for....?
The papers appear to be sheet music, to a song you actually recognize! They are an old folk song written by halflings, titled; 'the ogre wench and the halfling.'
There is another door directly across from the entrance, an open passageway on the far right side, and a portcullis on the same wall as the entrance but on the far side.
Narun picks up the sheet music, leaving the staff behind. He walks towards the open passage on the right and enters it.
This is almost relaxing, just walking through these rooms. I only hope the children are alright....
His expression darkens at the thought of the sailors and the children.
You walk into the room, passing through the narrow passage which only just admits your shoulders. The room has a homey feel. There is a wooden table, a bed with fine-looking blankets on it, and some chairs. There is a suit of plate armour standing beside the table that looks to be in bad condition however, and there appears to be rotten wood scattered around it. In the rotten wood, you see the glint of gold coins.
The room is the same size as the last one, with a wooden door to the left, and another wooden door on the far left.
Narun checks the ground for gold coins. He glances around the room and his eyes catch on the outline of a door. He walks towards it, and lightly pushes on it in an attempt to open it.
Narun reaches down to grab the gold coins, and as he is scooping them up, the armour comes alive and takes a swing at him! One of it's strikes hits, and smashing into the unsuspecting man!
Narun cries out in surprise (and possibly in pain) and draws his swords yet again.
One of the Aasimar's strikes lands, and he armour dents under the attack! It retaliates, but the Aasimar easily dodges it's clumsy attacks.
Narun grins at his easy dodge and slashes at the armour again.
Narun, grinning, manages to get his swords into a chink in the armour, and he tears some of it's parts off. It seems to be on it's last legs (literally), but still manages to get off a lopsided hit on the ranger's leg, returning the favour.
The grin on the Aasimar's face widens as he lunges once more with his swords.
"You aren't near as skilled as you look, you walking piece of scrap metal!"
Narun, in a movement that seems almost casual, steps forward and sticks the armour through the head, which pops off and falls to the ground.
Narun tosses the gold in his coin pouch and takes a short rest. After that, he checks the strange outline of a door on the wall. He pushes on it gently, as if to open it.
The door appears to be locked. However, Narun notices a key on the table. When he puts it in the door, it opens into the next room.
The room is 35 foot square, and has scattered goblin fangs all around it. On the left hand side, there is a shelf, with a slightly ajar chest beside it. On the shelf is a jar of white powder, and several books. Inside the chest, you see a glinting...
There is a wooden door on the wall you came in, and also a portcullis on the far side.
Narun puts the white powder in his bag and looks through the books. After a few minutes he turns his attention to the chest and opens it up.
The beginning of the books read thusly:
The false god of the Aasimar known as ‘Kyro,’ is a foolish and irresponsible concept. The god is nothing more than a rumour perpetuated by angels to give them the ability to control the Aasimar, and their human relatives. If anyone is reading this book, I urge you to heed these words, and keep it secret. If you are known to have this knowledge, the full vengeance of the heavens will fall upon your head, and you will be destroyed, along with this irreplaceable text
When Narun opens the chest, he sees much money, a lot, of f**king money. And some jems as well.
The the chest, there is; 2000 cp, 800 sp, 50 gp, Azurite (10 gp), Banded agate (10 gp), Hematite (10 gp), Malachite (10 gp).
Narun reads the book and smiles to himself.
Can't say I'm entirely surprised, the angels always did seem rather controlling in the stories.
He slips the book into his bag and walks to the chest. When he opens it his mouth falls open in shock. One could easily assume from his expression that he had never seen so much money in one place. He slips the gems in his coin pouch. The rest, he deposits with his still useless companions. With a quick warning to them about not losing the money, he heads backs the way he came. Upon returning to the room, he heads to the portcullis on the far side and attempts to open it.
Narun attempts to open the portcullis, but it does not go easily. On the other side of it, he can see a bucket.
Narun heaves an annoyed sigh, wishing the large Goliath were with him.
Well, here goes nothing, he think to himself, attempting to force the portcullis open.
He fails abysmally, nearly pulling a tendon on the attempt. It is clear that he is not getting in this way.
Narun gives a haughty look at the portcullis before turning away, heading towards the wooden door and trying to open it.
Narun opens the door, and walks into a room that is 15 feet front-to-back, and 55 feet left-to-right. He is standing on the far left side. There are two doors on the wall to your left, presumably leading to the room you found the secret door in, a door on the opposite wall near the middle of the room, and a door on the farthest right across corner.
The room appears to be empty, except for a bundle of sticks arranged in an odd pattern around a dead fern sitting in the middle of the room, and the overpowering smell of manure.
Narun walks to the middle of the room and kicks the fern with his foot.
It smells like someone died in here
He then heads towards the door on the far wall, and tries to open it.
When he pushes the fern, it explodes, showing him with rocks. A clawed hand reaches out from the floor, as if from a ghost, and a large dragon lifts itself up.
It roars and slips through the ceiling in the same way it left, grinning at Narun on the way out.
After it is gone, the sticks begin to move. They start to form letters, and eventually they read as; ‘NOT REAL DRAGON STUPID! YOU’VE BEEN GREMLIN’ED!’ The Illusion of a laughing gnome appears, and just as quickly disappears.
Narun jumps back and nearly falls down in shock when the dragon appears. Only once the sticks show their message does he start breathing again. After a few minutes his heart stops beating a mile a minute, and he makes his way shakily to the door on the wall opposite him.
He manages to open it without any trouble, and find a room with a ceiling barely high enough for him to stand up in, and everything below his foot level is a dark abyss of water, black as far down as the eye can see.
Narun is on the far left. The room is 25 feet front to back, and 45 feet left to right. From where you are standing, you can see 2 open entrances (not flooded) on the far side, one across from you, and one on the right. There is also 2 doors on the right hand wall, both metal, and seemingly scratched from the inside.
Narun freezes, facing the dark water. He can see the not flooded tunnels from where he stands. He realizes that he either has to swim, or go back to the crazy illusion room.
"Kyro, damn this! First a town on the f**king water, now a flooded tunnel!?"
The angry words sound rather alien on the graceful Aasimar's toungue. After a moment, he seems to calm himself.
Glancing back at the water, Narun suddenly recalls the ring of swimming the party got from the king. He reaches into his backpack and pulls it out, slipping it on his finger.
"Well, there's no point in delaying this...."
He steps into the water and swims as quickly as he can to the dry tunnel on his right.
As he swims past, he feels a slight slimy brush on his ankle...
Narun gasps and trashes a little in the water.
"What the hell is that?"
"Hey Valcone? You know we could maybe clean this place up,search for items,this could be our own little home so what do you think?" Jared says.