Valeria knocks another arrow and scans for any sign of the dwarf.
__________
Valeria fires another arrow into the dwarf, hitting him square in the blurred chest.
__________
The dwarf slump over, unconscious. His body floats next to the ceiling dripping blood for a couple of minutes until eventually it drops down to the floor.
A search of the dwarven wizard's corpse turns up a potion, a cloak, 87 gold pieces, and two scrolls. As well as a dagger, and light crossbow with 10 bolts.
A search of the campsite reveals a ratty bedroll, a small pack filled with dried meat, preserved fruit, and some moldy cheese (6 days of rations), and a chipped 6-inch-tall marble statuette of a humanoid throwing a spear. The dwarf's spellbook contains acid splash, color spray, detect magic, detect secret doors, erase, fog cloud, ghost sound, mage armor, magic missile, invisibility, read magic, resist energy, shocking grasp, and silent image.
"We should probably rest here. It doesn't appear that we're going to make it out of here in one day, and I for one am tired."
Aneiva and Aravashnial nod in agreement. "My leg's killing me," Aneiva comments.
Horgus looks disgusted that he'll have to sleep in a cave, but says, 'I suppose there's nothing for it. My feet are quite sore, and I can't remember the last time I was this dirty."
The elf chimes in, "It sounds like the dwarf had been living here for some time, so it should be relatively safe. Still, we should set up a system of watches while we rest. Don't want another critter to sneak up on us and murder us all in our sleep."
Valeria walks over to where her wayward arrow laid upon the ground and retrieved it. She then returned to the conversation taking place.
"I agree. I've had enough killing and trying to be killed for one day..."
She thinks back to how insane the day had turned, and slips over to a corner by the fire and slumps down, placing her bow and pack to her right and pulls her knees up to her chest, clutching them with her arms.
With all that had happened, from the death of Terendelev to her horrific vision and all the fighting they had gone through, she couldn't help but start to cry silently. She did her best to keep her emotions to herself, but anyone paying her any attention could easily see her shoulders shaking from her silent sobbing.
|
Nat shakes his head a little over the dwarf's body and sighs for a moment. Then, straightening, he turns. "This body will soon enough start to smell, and the kind of creatures we've faced down here seem the perceptive sort. We should bury him, or do... something, I don't know." He shrugs a little. Looking aroung to Valeria, he notices her distress and wavers, uncertain. Eventually, all he can say is "I'll... I'll take first watch."
Twitching his nose distastefully, he says, "It probably won't smell too much worse than it already does within the next eight hours, but it couldn't hurt to have Bart drag the body into the other room, if you're willing."
The rest period passes without incident. It's hard to say what time it is as everyone wakes up. The eternal dark of the underground passages creates a timeless effect. Once everyone's awake, Ruarc says "I'll scout ahead if you'd like."
Once Valeria falls asleep, she is haunted by more nightmares. However, these images seem like she is half human, half monster. At times she is firing a vile, wicked looking bow into innocents. Others, she sees herself tearing helpless victims apart with her hands, now transformed into hideous looking claws.
When she finally awakens, she feels as if the air has taken a sudden chill, though the sensation quickly passes. However, anyone near her can feel an unnatural heat radiating from her body.
When the dark warrior offers to take the lead, Valeria nods her consent to allow him to lead the group onward.
Ruarc goes to take a look down the other passage, and returns after a moment. "Ahead, it looks like some kind of natural vent, it goes up out of sight. We should climb it."
Tiknesr dusts himself off when he awakes, and spends an hour staring at Halea'a, his scorpion, before he really acknowledges anyone else. Then he smiles at Fidget and gnaws on the moldy cheese they found.
When Ruarc returns the ratman nods at Ruarc's suggestion. "Ok then," he says, getting to his feet. "Let's get out of here!"
A steeply inclined tunnel leads upward to the north, its walls lined with numerous nooks, handholds , and dozens of iron pitons that have been driven in to the walls long ago. After climbing for 60 feet, the shaft levels out and heads northwest for approximately 2,500 feet . The tunnel opens in to a large cavern, about seventy feet across. Cylindrical rock formations along the walls arch up to make a dome like chamber, but the walls and floor are riddled with cracks. At the center of the cave, a stone tower that may once have reached the fifty-foot- high ceiling has collapsed
on to its side.
the tower's rubble, wary of causing accidental collapse.
Now and then they call out, and a muffled voice in the
rubble answers back.
Valeria moves forward with the group, but when she hears the sounds of other people talking, her excitement of finally escaping the tunnels takes over and she moves forward faster to try and see. In doing so, she sends a few loose rocks skittering across the floor. She freezes once she realizes what she's done, too late to stop the echoes of the stones bouncing around the cavern.
__________
Hearing Valeria, the two mongrels drop into defensive stances. They turn and spot her, but are not aggressive. One of the mongrels is a hunchbacked woman, her face so warped by tumors that she must be
incapable of intelligible speech. The second is a man. He's a tall, thin creature with a face that melds the features of an attractive elven man, a goat, and a lizardfolk. His oversized fingers end in dull, spadelike talons.
He greets Valeria in a raspy voice, speaking in strangely accented but quite eloquent Common, and asks their intentions. "If your intentions are ill, we ask you to move on and leave us in peace. If they are good, then perhaps you can help. As you can see, misfortune has befallen us," he says motioning to the collapse.
Fidget pushes forward to Valeria's side. "Our intentions are good!" Fidget assures the man, slightly mispronouncing "intentions." "We only want to get out of these tunnels safely, and help anyone who needs it along the way." She gestures toward the ruined tower. "What happened?"
"You must be from the city above? There was a large earthquake yesterday, and the watchtower collapsed onto our friend. He's trapped beneath the rubble so we're trying to free him. There's just this boulder left in the way." the mongrelman says, patting a huge rock. "The two of us aren't strong enough to budge it. Can you all help us?"
Tiknesr hangs back, watching...both to see what the mongrels will do, and to note how his companions will treat them.
When Nat and Bart move the rock he scurries foreward to get a look underneath.
Valeria looks on the scene, partly relieved, but partly terrified at the mutated people before her.
The nightmare just keeps going and going...there is no end.
When Nathaniel and Bart move the rock, Valeria cannot help but watch approvingly as the half elf performs an incredible feat of strength.
He's really strong! I didn't him to be able to do that, the lion man barely seemed to help!
Nat and Bart manage to move the boulder and release a third mongrelman from the rubble. He is just as hideous as the other two, bearing a combination of crustacean and insectoid features. He introduces himself as Crel, and he and Lann (the goat-lizard man) thank the crusaders profusely. Lann continues to act as the mongrel's spokesperson. "We live near here in a settlement called Neathholm. You're welcome to accompany us there. You could rest a bit and maybe figure out a way back to your homes? I assume you don't want to be down here. We don't get many willing surface dwellers, and most of them are demonic cultists I'm afraid."
Ruarc growls when he hears this, muttering "Ivory templars..."
Fidget smiles jovially at the mongrelmen, her mind starting to wander. I wonder how they got that way? So lizard people and rat people and other people can do THAT ONE with each other? Very strange. What's an ivory templar? Something bad, probably. Fidget takes a step away from Ruarc. He's too scary!
Tik decides to step forward and shake Lann's hand with his own small paw.
His hairless tail swishes unconsciously as he talks. "Tiknesr Th'th'th'th'th'slifp. Pleased to meet you. While I'm not sure the surface is going to be an improvement for us at this point...yes, we're trying to get back there. You say you've seen others? Do you know how they arrived? Or -- more to the point -- if and how they returned?"
"No we haven't seen others lately. What happened up there in the quake?" After listening to the Crusaders' reply, he continues. "The chieftain will know more, you should come with us to Neathholm and speak with him."
"By all means then, take is to your leader."
Valeria steps forward apprehensively, staying near to Nathaniel as she does so. So close that her shoulder accidentally brushes his arm. "Cultists? What are cultists doing down here? And what is an Ivory Templar?"
Valeria steps forward apprehensively, staying near to Nathaniel as she does so. So close that her shoulder accidentally brushes his arm. "Cultists? What are cultists doing down here? And what is an Ivory Templar?"
"I don't know what city you've been living in, but Kenabres and the crusades were, and probably are still, infested with demonic cults. The worst of which is called the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth. They serve the demon lord Baphomet. I've had struggles with them in the past. It's my life mission to root out and kill them. What happened on the surface hasn't changed that. With Ragathiel's aid, I will free Mendev of their taint."
Ruarc hasn't strung so many words together since the other Crusaders met him. His gravely voice is harsh on the ears, but rings with the conviction of a true believer.
Numerous tunnels lead out from this area - Neathholm chose this cave as a guard post for this exact reason, but the tremors collapsed the tunnel that once led directly to Neathholm. Fortunately, the mongrels know of an alternative route through a tunnel leading to the southwest, and lead the crusdaers in that direction. After winding roughly southwest for 1,875 feet , the tunnel reaches a significant obstacle.
Ahead, a wide chasm splits the tunnel floor. The floating rock dust in the air and the groans as the tunnel walls settle indicate that the tunnel split recently. "Oh no! We need to go this way," Lann says with dismay.
The chasm is 10 feet across, 70 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. The tunnel continues on from the chasm's opposite side about 40 feet east of the entrance.
|
|
Massaging some aching arm muscles, Nat grabs his sword and follows the group with Bart, catching up. He lets Ruarc and the rest talk as he tries to figure out if these new people are trustworthy.
Nat peers over the edge and lets out a low whistle. "Dangerous." Reaching into his back pack, he pulls out some fine silk rope. "I have fifty feet of this, has anyone got more?" He looks around for something to tie it to.
Tik cocks his head left, then right, then back to the left again, making an excited clicking noise with his teeth as he considers the puzzle before them.
"I don't have any rope, I'm afraid -- and I'm terrible at climbing -- but I have an idea. What if the best climber amongst us is lowered down into the chasm, and then climbs up on the other side, and secures the rope? We can secure the rope on this end.
"Then it's time to give that cloudwalking scale a test. We think it can be activated three times a day. Do we know yet how long it stays active for? I'd guess at least a few minutes, and that it can hold at least a few hundred pounds. What do you think about this? Fidget activates the scale, and then grabs hold of someone. Then the two of them pull themselves across the chasm. Fidget comes back and carries the next person across, and so on. This should let us get even our blind and limping wards across safely...as well as rats who hate the thought of climbing and ropes.
"I'm suggesting Fidget because she's quite light but looks strong enough for her size. If it turns out that the scale can support two of you big folks, we could have Nat activate it, since I think he's just proven himself to be the strongest of us all. What do you think?"
The ratman grins, a big yellow-toothed grin, clearly pleased with his brainstorm.
"I have a rope! Big sister said never to leave home without one! And she also said to sneak past that wardstone, so sometimes she says dumb things," Fidget says, her tone quickly changing from excited to thoughtful. "But the thing about the rope was a good idea!"
Fidget tries to listen carefully to Tik, but by the time he gets to "so on," her mind starts to glaze over a little bit. Then, when the rat finishes speaking, she notices everyone staring at her. "What's that?" she asks. She sees Valeria pull out one of the scales and hold her hand out, offering the scale to Fidget. The spacey gnome looks at the chasm, then at the scale, then back at the chasm, then at Tik, then at Big Lion for some unknown reason, then back at the scale. "Oh! So I can fly across!"
Utilizing their wits and equipment, the Crusaders manage to get everyone across the chasm with little difficulty.
The tunnel continues along a mostly southeastern course for about 1,400 feet before reaching a circular cavern.
Lann stops the group, "The chamber up ahead is rarely used, because it has recently become the den of a deadly fungal creature, a spore cougher."
"You know, like a mushroom," Lann says, seeming confused.
"Is there a way around it?" Tik asks.
"Makes you crazy, then beats you to death," Lann comments to Nat. "Nope. But we should be able to take it," he says to Tik.
The tunnel opens in to a circular cavern, roughly forty feet in diameter. Thick sheets of fungus grow in the cave, and several tunnels branch off. All of these save one in the north wall lead downward; the northern one leads upward. What appear to be two dead bodies lie on the ground in the middle of the cave, next to a strange heap of ropy green fungus.