In circumstances that only make sense within the Barrow Maze, we've had a new member join our adventures. Niki was healing herself and Ronan from their injuries while Chalkboi healed himself with his Paladan ability, when I looked around for Armatzi, only to find that he was nowhere to be found and instead there was an unknown mountain dwarf standing with our group. I honestly have no idea where he came from (aside from the mountains, obviously) or how he got here so quietly but he introduces himself by saying, "I'm Sergius Radizki, and I'm a mountain dwarf."
Someone asks, "What can you do?" and he says, "Uh, I'm really strong?" Everyone kind of shrugs, says "OK" and boom, he's part of us now. I think that Arnd is pretty excited to have another dwarf in our midst, even though Arnd is a hill dwarf and not a mountain dwarf. Of course, I'm none too clear on the distinction there, so maybe they're actually as compatible as Hookhill and Hochoch are (ie only on the surface, with a ton of unseen conflict underneath). I hope that things keep going smoothly, since some snarky banter like Niki and Armatzi share is pretty funny but having companions that actively look down on others (or even hate them) is way more drama than I want in my life.
Anyway, Lhoss examines the spell book that the recently defeated necromancer had left behind and discovers that it holds three spells. Sleep (which is unsurprising since he'd used it on us), Magic Missile, and an unknown spell. She says that there are also several additional blank pages, so maybe one of our magic users will be able to use it as a backup? I don't know, since while I've heard tales of rangers that prove their dedication to nature enough to be able to do Druidic magics, I'm nowhere near that level yet, so I'm not worrying about it at the moment.
Niki dutifully uses her pole to sweep the room for traps and pits finding none. There are four tall marble pillars holding up the ceiling, and in the middle of the room is a rune-encrusted obelisk that gives off waves of malevolence. The writing is a combination of Elvish, Dwarven, and some sort of ancient common in addition to the cryptic runes. Lhoss can read enough to let us know that it's describing nasty rituals in the worship of Nerul. Immediately, everyone except Calbach decides that the evil thing needs to be toppled. Calbach himself is still very wary about statuary dedicated to the death deity, recalling his injuries from trying to destroy that goat-headed bust that was guarding a hallway.
Lhoss quickly scrambles up the 30-foot obelisk with a 50-foot rope that she ties in place, then while she and the others begin to tug, Feno and I use sledgehammers to break up the base. Our efforts are soon rewarded with the stone crashing to the ground and breaking into chunks, the largest of which is a mere four feet long. I'm glad my companions are as nimble as they are since Sergius came close to being smashed beneath the rubble. As we watch, a smoky black shade with glowing red eyes solidifies above the wreckage, glowering balefully. Everyone tenses in alarm, but the shade doesn't attack; it simply dissipates into the Aether. Once it's gone, we all go toward the door to the south. I whack the largest chunk with my sledgehammer as I pass, causing several chips of stone to fly off.
The passageway past the door is dark and murky, and it has several doors in pairs off either side for as far as I can see. The doors are decorated like burial crypts rather than like what we now consider to be standard Barrow Maze doors. My lantern begins to gutter, so I quickly refill it with oil, and several of the others in the group light fresh torches to improve visibility. The first door we come to is unlocked, and when opened reveals a dirty but otherwise nondescript room. There are not even any places to search for treasures. The second door is locked, but Lhoss examines it and says that there doesn't appear to be any traps. When her lock-picking skills aren't up to the job, Feno just uses his great strength to force it open. The second room is equally dirty and dusty, but there is a slab of stone where a shrouded skeleton is lain out. We've been attacked by skeletons many times in the past, so are on guard, but this one seems to be inanimate. Niki sweeps the room for dangers and discovers a runic tablet on the floor. I feel a bit nostalgic for a moment, remembering when Armatzi and Tatania would sort of compete to see who could read the most runic tablets, but feel no desire to read this one myself. Sergius, on the other hand, snatches it up and quickly reads it. As I feared, a negative effect quickly begins, with a grey mist appearing and attempting to penetrate Sergius's head. Fortunately, he seems to have some natural resistance to such attacks since he fairly casually shakes the mist off and remains unaffected.
Feno and Lhoss decide to examine the skeleton closer, but don't find anything of note. Feno goes so far as to remove the shroud, but the skeleton has its arms crossed over its chest in peaceful repose and remains still. With a shrug, Feno puts the shroud back and tucks it around the resting skeleton. We close the door behind us and continue to search down the hall.
Lhoss checks the next set of doors for traps and doesn't detect anything out of the ordinary. The door on the east side of the hallway is cautiously opened, revealing a damp room with water dripping from several spots on the ceiling. There are four sarcophagi arranged around the room, absent lids but filled with slimy peat-colored water. It's impossible to see what, if anything, is in the stone boxes so Feno attempts to push one over to drain. The dripping water has caused a lot of mineral calcifications, sticking the sarcophagus rather firmly to the floor and it doesn't want to move. Before anyone could go offer assistance, an equally calcified skeleton arises from each of the sarcophagi and spikes fear in all those who were unfortunate enough to be outside Chalkboi's holy aura's radius. The skeleton closest to Chalkboi swings its mineral-encrusted sword at Chalkboi but misses him by quite a bit. Niki retaliates with her war hammer, breaking off bits of the skeleton. Ronan is right there with his cudgel in an attempt to assist, but his swing goes wide as well. As we've come to expect, Feno turns his foe into powder with a single hit and Sergius proves his claim of being "really strong" by doing the same. Arnd misses his attack, followed by Lhoss attempting to utilize her spider-crawl to arrange a back-stab which she likewise misses on. I use my magic sword, Dynasty, to smash the third of the skeletons and nearly stumble into the icky water so I miss seeing who takes out the final skeleton, but I know someone did it since it's gone by the time I recover my balance. Now that the skeletons are no longer an issue, Feno resumes pushing on the sarcophagus to dump out the water while Arnd, Niki and I work on a second one. Ronan, Chalkboi, Lhoss and Calbach tackle the third and Sergius manages the final one by himself. The rush of fetid water is accompanied by the jangle of coins hitting the floor. A quick search gathers a total of 72 gold pieces which we quickly divide between ourselves.
The door across the hallway is locked, but Lhoss uses her lock picking skills to open it. Feno opens the door but when a skeleton inside stirs, it raises a cloud of yellow mold dust that billows towards the doorway. I'm very grateful for Feno's superhuman level reflexes since he gets the door slammed shut before even a single spore of the mold can escape. Something, probably the skeleton we'd seen in there, is scratching at the door and trying to get out, but it can't. Lhoss readies her "Continual Light" spell since we've seen that it can neutralize the deadly yellow mold and Sergius prepares to attack the skeleton, hoping to catch it by surprise. Timing everything to perfection, the door is swung back open just as Lhoss's spell is cast, sanitizing the mold and leaving it a dull grey in color. Unfortunately, Sergius didn't catch the skeleton by surprise, nor did he even hit it, but it had no better luck in attacking him. Lhoss proves how nimble she has become with her new gauntlets by scrambling right over the skeleton and attacking it from the rear, but it moved just at the wrong moment, and she didn't get her strike to connect. As I was right there in the correct place, I use Dynasty to shatter yet another foe. Niki is preparing to sweep the room with her pole but before she gets a moment, Calbach stumbles his way into the room and slips on the mess that was left over from denaturing the mold, falling hard onto his back and rattling his brain. He is rather dazed for a bit but recovers quick enough. Hopefully he won't do that again, since repeated concussions will lead to brain damage which is not something that any sort of adventurer can afford. Nothing more is found in that room, so we move on.
The next doors appear to be the final set in the hall, and Lhoss checks them over for traps. She is pretty confident that the door on the east is in fact safe from traps, but it has a lock that is beyond Lhoss's skills in lockpicking. Feno tries to use his strength to bust in but doesn't quite manage so Sergius applies his muscles and finishes the job. This room holds another sarcophagus, which isn't much of a surprise all things considered. Niki successfully sweeps the room, finding no pits or other traps, and Lhoss decides to check the sarcophagus for traps as well. Unfortunately, in doing so she surprises a trio of spitting cobras that had set up house there, and they surprise her in return by spitting at her with their venom. The venom falls short, so Lhoss is uninjured. Feno quickly beheads two of the cobras with his sword and uses his wisdom and dexterity to harvest their poison sacs. He knows that he can take the prized items to the Temple of Merikka where they use such things in making helpful potions. Unfortunately, the third cobra was bashed with Calbach's mace, and the poison sac is too damaged to be harvested. Checking out the empty nest, Calbach spots a pair of gold chalices which he puts into the bag of holding for later.
The final room of the hallway is opened to the disgusting sight and sounds of a pair of ghouls gnawing on the bones of a previous victim. Sensing fresh prey, they both attempt to bring down Feno, but they are sorely outmatched and badly miss in their attacks. Niki tries to get one of the ghouls with Mr. Paws, but just doesn't seem to be as effective with the weapon without Jack beside her, and she fails to do any damage. Feno isn't about to let the ghouls have another chance at him and so he slaughters the nearer ghoul while Sergius destroys the other. I kind of wonder what our next step is going to be since I suddenly remember that we were supposed to find the Font of Law in this area of the Maze, and not only didn't we find it yet, but we seem to be running out of places to look for it. I can only hope that Chalkboi is open to promptings from St. Cuthbert, since without Armatzi here, Chalkboi is our only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment