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Gashelle's glaive rips into the fungi on the ceiling and it's tentacles go limp.
Sahsa runs in and swipes at the Shrieker with his sword silencing it forever.
You shake your heads to clear them as the echoes of the shriek die away
This room is empty apart from a jumbled pile of rocks in one corner.
Eltariel
Moving up, Eltariel examines the fallen funghi.
"Oh ..." Eltariel uses a word in elvish her parent's considered 'naughty'.
"I ... I've only read about things like this, but from what I can see of this fungus ... well, it's not from around here. It's not natural." I call up my firebolt and blast the thing at my feet, leaving it unscathed. "It should be violet, and vulnerable to fire ... but it it's red and well you saw. Those are traits of something bred on the lower planes. There are said to be demon lords that rule over slimes, moulds, jellies and oozes," I shiver. "I confess, it's a very worrying precedent as to what we may find if we go deeper, and if the gnomes unearthed something from the abyss or the nine hells ..."
I leave the statement unfinished.
"Of course I could be dead wrong," I add brightly after a moment. "I've no first hand experience. But whatever else is here, you can rest assured it knows we are here after this racket."
"Mushrooms from hell?" asks Tristan skeptically.
"Well you were right about one thing Gashelle." he continues, "This ring is definitly cursed. It feels like I am trying to move through a room full of pudding." Tristan tries to take the ring off.
"We Should search this place. Try cutting open the fungus and also searching through the rubble over there." He indicates the fallen rocks in the corner.
Gashelle says nothing for a long moment.
"Th- this is m-m- more than a border c- crossing by the dwarves. I- it would be w-w- well for us to let M-M- Magister Rydell know ab- bout f-f- fiendish f-f-* things, growing on h-his lands."
"I agree, but we have a duty to deliver a complete report. There maybe more here, or this may be the residue of a wizards experimentation years gone by ... and as I say, I may be wrong." I speak as if it's an intellectual admission I don't believe. "As it has yet to significantly challenge us, I say we press on and find out as much as we can. If we do not, Lord Rygard may simply send us back to do so. Frankly, I'd rather make the journey just the once."
Now I wish I had prepared the spell of protection from evil ... ah well, nothing to be done about that now.
I glance at Tristan.
"If that ring is truly cursed, my friend, it will be very hard to remove," I warn him. "I'm afraid I don't have the skill or know the spells to free you of it - you may need to petition Lord Rygard on our return."
I stare as the fungus fades away to it's home plane.
"Alright, I was right. Oh poo ..." I scrape at the slime and lichen on the floor of the chamber with my sickle. Some of the lumps and bumps may be former victims, but I doubt it ... this place has been isolated too long.
Well, Gashelle hasn't cast Detect Magic yet today. Let's see if it provides any guidance.
"it's c- clear. To the south, then?"
"To the south," I agree, "but stand ready to aid Tristan, he's not as swift as he or we would like. Tristan, if fighting starts, it may be wise for you to fall back and use your bow."
Tristan nods at Gashelle's suggestion. "Maybe we will get lucky and find a scroll to remove the curse." he sounds unconvinced.
Tristan leads the way south back to the previous room and then into new territory. He begins searching for traps when they cover new ground.
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Moving down the southern passageway you find the rumbling noise increasing in volume as you go forwards.
Two doors sit on one side to the tunnel their presence almost totally obscured by the moss and slime that infests the place but not enough to hide them from keen elven eyes.
The rumble proves to come from a simply glorious sight At some time in the past an underground river has broken through above the passageway and it cascades downwards in a phosphorescent waterfall that thunders into a deep crevasse. You can dimly see the passageway continuing behind the falls but passage through the flow might be risky.
"Let's investigate these doors first," I suggest, "then consider crossing that flood. I suspect this has ocured since the mines were abandoned." I examine the doors carefully ...
"Thank you, Sasha."
Just checking, Wellard. Can someone else remove the ring from Tristan's finger?
Tristan clears the muck away from the doorframe and proceeds to carefully search the door for traps (). Then he will attempt to disarm, unlock, open the door as needed.
"Everyone ready?" He asks before opening the door.
"Ready," I nod, prepared for ... well it'll be fungus, undead or automaton in this environment.
I squeeze through the door and examine the room carefully.
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Eltariel moves into the room, Avinar close behind her as always. She casts her eye around the room seeing nothing unusual.However the slightest scratching noise alerts the elves to the presence of something in the wardrobe just before it flies open and a skeleton steps from within. Two more emerge from beneath the beds.
The skeletons are larger than the goblins but smaller than human size.
No surprise round
Skeleton 1 gets initiative of 23.
Avinar gets initiative of 17+.
Gashelle gets initiative of 17.
Tristan gets initiative of 16.
Skeleton 2 gets initiative of 15.
Sasha gets initiative of 13.
Skeleton 3 gets initiative of 9.
Eltariel gets initiative of 6.
The first skeleton swings at Eltariel with what seems to be a rock wired to its hand but misses wildly.
Avinar throws holy water at one of the other skeletons which obliges by collapsing into an unmoving heap of bone
He hurls the other flask of holy water at the nearest skeleton.
Gashelle casts Disrupt Undead again, missing badly with the ray of positive energy.
Eltariel darts back from her attacker and draws up her firebolt and casts it at point blank range.
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Elatariel scrambles back her movement ending up sprawled on the bed behind her..the fire bolt hits true and scorches the skeleton but it swings again this time at Avinar.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
A thunderous sound echoes throughout the room as the stone on the undead creatures hand connects with Avinars body for 3 damage.
The stone gone from the skeletons hand
Avinar and Sasha seem slightly stunned by the sudden thunderclap
Revised initiative.
Skeleton 1 gets initiative of 23.
Gashelle gets initiative of 17.
Tristan gets initiative of 16.
Avinar gets initiative of 13.
Sasha gets initiative of 9.
Eltariel gets initiative of 6.
Shriekers, waterfalls, thunderstones. There can't be anything alive on this level; it would never get any sleep.
Gashelle recasts her spell, this time it strikes the skeleton, for 4 points of damage.
Tristan will check the box on top of the wardrobe for traps before searching it. He also suggests that they search the rest of the room and take the thunderstones from the skeletons hands.
"That was loud enough to wake the dead," I shake my head to clear the ringing in my ears. "Let me carry those ... they may come in handy if we meet something that isn't an automaton."
I look again t the wardrobe.
"The skeleton in the closet ... somebody has a really bad sense of humour."
The skeleton in the closet ... somebody has a really bad sense of humour.
"I c-c- concur. The fungal sk- keletons in the b- barracks room could have animated m- merely as a side effect of some evil m-m- manifesting here, like m- maybe the t- tentacle thing. But this: this was a deliberate t- trap. Someone d- desecrated the remains of these p- people and set them here to g- guard something ... or," Gashelle looks down the hall, "to warn someone."
"I doubt anything that wasn't already alerted by the shrieker fungus would have been disturbed by that ... but we had best keep an eye over our shoulders all the same."
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Eltariel
There are no traps on the box...within you find 3 silver rings(50gp each) and a masterwork Silver Dagger..nothing detects as magical in nature
"This is odd ... these are like dwarves but different; their eyes are larger and the skull is misshapen ... perhaps some kind of deep-dwelling dwarf? And why would they be sharing a home with goblins? We must find out more ...."
Gashelle gestures to everyone to enter the room and closes the door.
She's accustomed to communicating with more meaning coming through the non-verbal channels, and she's used to being patient when she tries to get a point across.
"Tristan is slowed by the m- magic of that ring. Avarian, Sasha, you've g- gone deaf. We're not getting wounded, we're g- getting weaker. B- Before we explore any farther, I think we need to remove some of these b-b- burdens."
"Sage words ... except I do not think there is much we can do for Tristan at all, and all we can do for Avinar and Sasha is wait," I point out. "A few minutes and their hearing should return, if it is going to return at all."
Easier for us to withdraw to where we can rest properly and eat, and Eltariel suggests as much: If we go back to just beyond the pit, we can rest properly and clean ourselves up a little. As we've left pitons and ropes at the pit it's not a major obstacle.
Gashelle concurs.
"Somebody else can go first this time," I declare firmly. "Tristan, can you do the honours on the door? Assuming it isn't stuck fast like the last one."
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Once again the door is not trapped
The door gives way to reveal a room filled with dripping curtains of green and yellow mold. A large growth of purple puffball mushrooms
dominates a cot in the nearest right hand corner.
There is a pair of sarcophagi on a dais in the center of the room, divided by a decorative screen. Several chairs are set in rows leading
up to the dais.
Gashelle points to the cot with the puffballs, indicating that it's our first priority.
I nod slowly.
Puffballs are very dangerous, they burst when dry to scatter their spores and the spores could be dangerous.