Chaos Revealed - Entry 8
Entry 14
In the morning we return to the house and begin our search for Rineheart and his oldest son.
On the steps is Boris. He says he came out here, as the only one who would, to let Tristan know that his father has passed away. Tristan thanks Boris for the information, but no emotion seems to cross his features.
The Dwarf spends some time talking to Boris and finds out the poacher is also a follower of Thor. Boris gives him a holy symbol of the god and promises to leave a war hammer in the chapel. Providing we survive long enough to claim it.
We are passing through the dining room, returning to the library when someone begins tapping at the window. The dwarf admits a human, who claims to be a ranger and a follower of Thor also.
The Paladin is the first to descend the ladder from the library and she calls up that she has encountered two skeletons. The sound of splintering bones floats up through the opening followed by her cheerful “nevermind.”
We proceed down the ladder and enter a dungeon area. To our right is a secret door that opens up into the wine cellar. We ignore the door and proceed down the corridor.
Another door opens up into a large pool. Across the water is a small ledge and a screen with tiny slits. Behind the slits, we can see movement as two creatures appear to be working some sort of pump. We move on.
The next room contains a sloping floor leading to a pool of liquid. The sides appear to be slick, possibly caused by a layer of mold. Under the liquid, gleam several coins and weapons, still appearing to be in outstanding shape. Hermione volunteers to retrieve the items. I help her tie the rope around her waist and anchor myself at the doorway, just beyond the slippery sloping floor. The dwarf adds his weight to the rope as I carefully lower the thief. Without warning, the liquid rises up and grabs Hermione, pulling her into its depths. This was no pool of water, but a large gelatinous cube. I curse myself silently that I did not recognize the signs. Hermione immediately begins fighting to pull herself back up the rope and I tightened my grip and begin pulling, setting my weight and strength against the strength of the cube. It takes several minutes, but we finally manage to wrest the thief free of the cube.
Moving on, we come to a large chamber, with a number of remains scattered around the edges. Fragments of skeletons hang from the rusted chains in the wall. In the center of the room is an area where the stones are shattered. We divide into two groups and work our way around the room. Tristan and the Sorcerer remain at the entrance.
As we pass a group of bones, I see something bright glittering in them. Glancing at the floor and the ceiling above us, I ignore the temptation.
As the two groups pass through the archway at the other end of the room, a rustling sound catches our attention. From out of the shattered rock of the floor come two swarms of ants. They stop at the archway and do not pass through it. Tristan steps into the room and the swarms immediately move toward him.
We play the back and forth game for a few minutes, and then Tristan jumps over the swarm closest to him and sprints to our side of the room. The Sorcerer does the same.
The Paladin thought she saw something moving in the hallway ahead of us and we proceed in that direction. Passing past one of the doors lining hallway, Crystal pauses, saying her detect evil spell has detected something in the room. We look closely at the doors and realize these are holding cells.
Being the person she is, Crystal can not pass the cell by. As cautiously as we can, try to check the cell before opening the door and fail to see anything in the room. Hermione opens the cell and we find ourselves facing a ghoul. The cleric moves further down the hall and hits a trip wire that opens all of the remaining cell doors. Out of several of them comes other undead creatures, as well as two humans. The group splits and engages the creatures, as the two humans appear to be unarmed, we ignore them for now.
After we defeat the undead, Crystal charges one of the humans. The Cleric steps between them, and I grab for Crystal’s shoulder asking her to hold back for a moment. She pauses, but I see the hatred boiling in her eyes. The cleric continues questioning the human, who now demands safe passage for the information he has. We convince Crystal to allow the man to leave and take his chances on getting out of the house. We tell the human we will only guarantee that he will not be attack by any member of the party and he is on his own as far as any other dangers in the area. He agrees. He tells us he is a pirate and his captain has been dealing with 2 undead creatures here. 1 is unknown the other is called Carver (it was he who imprisoned the pirate here). Carver apparently practices a combination of alchemy and necromancy. The second, while he has never dealt with him he believes is a lich. A lich who has not completed all of the rituals and must kill all members of the Duval line to complete his transformation. I glance at Tristan. His father has died and he is now the LAST of the Duval’s. To prevent the evil from fully entering this world he must be protected at all costs.
Before he leaves, the pirate tells us to beware what walks on 4 legs, but has more. I stand by Crystal as the pirate leaves, placing myself between her and him. She gave us her word to not attack, and I trust that, but she is a paladin and he was an evil person – best not to take chances.
We find other person huddled in the corner of his cell. He refuses to give us his name and Crystal detects no evil on him. We offer to let him come with us, he agrees. As the man has no armor or weapons, the Dwarf gives him one of the two handed swords he carries.
We finally move to the end of the hallway. Another set of the iron bond double doors face us, along with an open steel door to our left. We step through the steel door. Just inside a small hallway we find a pile of armor and weapons, these belong to our friend from the cell. He quickly dons his equipment. The small hall opens into a room with a mirror along one side. A ray of light flashes on the other side and we see what appears to be movement. Working together, we are able to break the three layers of glass and find ourselves in a laboratory. On a table is a body or mismatched body parts part worg, part tiger. I immediately strike at the creature, attempting to severe one of the two heads. From the right a vial flies onto the creature and it begins to awaken. To our right we see someone pull a level then leave through a second steel door. The door clangs shut and we realize it has locked.
The members of the party who followed us in yell that the first door has also locked with Hermione and Gandalf on the other side. Sabin moves back to the first door and begins working with Hermione, on the other side, to pick the lock.
The constructed creature attacks and we are hard pressed for several minutes against it. Two worg heads snapping and six legs with claws slashing at us. Under the fur are bone plates giving the creature a form of natural armor.
We finally are able to dispatch the creature and the cleric moves to try and open the door. It is locked and the mechanism has disengaged. We appear to be trapped. The Dwarf has us stand back a bit and he attacks the door. From outside we hear laughter and a mocking voice call out “That room was designed to keep things in.” I glance at the destroyed construct and realize we may be in trouble.
I move to join Sabin at the other door. Hermione calls out that the double doors are opening. Another failure with the door. I suggest she and Gandalf find a place to hide as Sabin and I continue working on the lock.
The corridor falls silent and we pray our friends will be safe.
(The sorceror cast an invisibility spell and Hermione darted into one of the cells. Carver locates the sorceror despite the spell and attacks him.) We hear him cry out on pain then begin a casting. Eventually the sounds move away from the door)
After several minutes, the door starts to rise, then slams shut again.
(Hermione finally leaves the cell and moves back to the door. She tells us there is a lever on the outside of the second door and she moves to engage it.)
The door opens and we dash out into the hallway. Carver stands at the end of the hallway just inside another corridor leading to the right. As we move to engage the creature, we hear a loud crash from the corridor to the right. Another person immediately engages Carver, along with the Dwarf. Together, they dispatch the undead creature.
The new person introduces himself as Ferdinand Vernase in undercommon. He is wielding a Hammer of Forging and Crystal notes that it radiates evil on occasion. It would appear to be an intelligent weapon.
Ferdinand darts about opening doors and pulling out equipment that he dumps at our feet before vanishing with the human we rescued from the cell. He takes the time to tell us about everything he gives us.
Inside the room he came from, lies a huge skeleton almost dragon like but not. The huge head has been shattered and Gandalf tells us that Ferdinand put it through the door, before bashing the door down. Also in the room is the body of Rinehart, the paladin and his equipment. Crystal is entranced by the plate mail and the sword. Ferdinand tells her it is an intelligent weapon which will bond with one faithful to Arayelle. We also find several potions.
In the items Ferdinand removed from other areas is a periaft of poison. My mind immediately remembers the assassin that may still be stalking us and I claim the item.
I take the time to check the body of Carver and remove 4 daggers, a +2 scalpel with keen (15-20), a ring of alter self (another protection against the assassin as I may be able to disguise my features as a full elf). He is also wearing +2 leather armor. I replace my studded leather with the magical leather.
As a group, we return to the chapel to rest for the night and I pass my studded leather armor to Sabin as it will provide a bit more protect than the regular leather he is wearing.
It is still early in the day and we take the time for our cleric of Athena to perform the proper burial rituals for the Duval family. We then carry the bodies to the cemetery and place them in the family crypt then return to the chapel.
In the morning we return to the house and begin our search for Rineheart and his oldest son.
On the steps is Boris. He says he came out here, as the only one who would, to let Tristan know that his father has passed away. Tristan thanks Boris for the information, but no emotion seems to cross his features.
The Dwarf spends some time talking to Boris and finds out the poacher is also a follower of Thor. Boris gives him a holy symbol of the god and promises to leave a war hammer in the chapel. Providing we survive long enough to claim it.
We are passing through the dining room, returning to the library when someone begins tapping at the window. The dwarf admits a human, who claims to be a ranger and a follower of Thor also.
The Paladin is the first to descend the ladder from the library and she calls up that she has encountered two skeletons. The sound of splintering bones floats up through the opening followed by her cheerful “nevermind.”
We proceed down the ladder and enter a dungeon area. To our right is a secret door that opens up into the wine cellar. We ignore the door and proceed down the corridor.
Another door opens up into a large pool. Across the water is a small ledge and a screen with tiny slits. Behind the slits, we can see movement as two creatures appear to be working some sort of pump. We move on.
The next room contains a sloping floor leading to a pool of liquid. The sides appear to be slick, possibly caused by a layer of mold. Under the liquid, gleam several coins and weapons, still appearing to be in outstanding shape. Hermione volunteers to retrieve the items. I help her tie the rope around her waist and anchor myself at the doorway, just beyond the slippery sloping floor. The dwarf adds his weight to the rope as I carefully lower the thief. Without warning, the liquid rises up and grabs Hermione, pulling her into its depths. This was no pool of water, but a large gelatinous cube. I curse myself silently that I did not recognize the signs. Hermione immediately begins fighting to pull herself back up the rope and I tightened my grip and begin pulling, setting my weight and strength against the strength of the cube. It takes several minutes, but we finally manage to wrest the thief free of the cube.
Moving on, we come to a large chamber, with a number of remains scattered around the edges. Fragments of skeletons hang from the rusted chains in the wall. In the center of the room is an area where the stones are shattered. We divide into two groups and work our way around the room. Tristan and the Sorcerer remain at the entrance.
As we pass a group of bones, I see something bright glittering in them. Glancing at the floor and the ceiling above us, I ignore the temptation.
As the two groups pass through the archway at the other end of the room, a rustling sound catches our attention. From out of the shattered rock of the floor come two swarms of ants. They stop at the archway and do not pass through it. Tristan steps into the room and the swarms immediately move toward him.
We play the back and forth game for a few minutes, and then Tristan jumps over the swarm closest to him and sprints to our side of the room. The Sorcerer does the same.
The Paladin thought she saw something moving in the hallway ahead of us and we proceed in that direction. Passing past one of the doors lining hallway, Crystal pauses, saying her detect evil spell has detected something in the room. We look closely at the doors and realize these are holding cells.
Being the person she is, Crystal can not pass the cell by. As cautiously as we can, try to check the cell before opening the door and fail to see anything in the room. Hermione opens the cell and we find ourselves facing a ghoul. The cleric moves further down the hall and hits a trip wire that opens all of the remaining cell doors. Out of several of them comes other undead creatures, as well as two humans. The group splits and engages the creatures, as the two humans appear to be unarmed, we ignore them for now.
After we defeat the undead, Crystal charges one of the humans. The Cleric steps between them, and I grab for Crystal’s shoulder asking her to hold back for a moment. She pauses, but I see the hatred boiling in her eyes. The cleric continues questioning the human, who now demands safe passage for the information he has. We convince Crystal to allow the man to leave and take his chances on getting out of the house. We tell the human we will only guarantee that he will not be attack by any member of the party and he is on his own as far as any other dangers in the area. He agrees. He tells us he is a pirate and his captain has been dealing with 2 undead creatures here. 1 is unknown the other is called Carver (it was he who imprisoned the pirate here). Carver apparently practices a combination of alchemy and necromancy. The second, while he has never dealt with him he believes is a lich. A lich who has not completed all of the rituals and must kill all members of the Duval line to complete his transformation. I glance at Tristan. His father has died and he is now the LAST of the Duval’s. To prevent the evil from fully entering this world he must be protected at all costs.
Before he leaves, the pirate tells us to beware what walks on 4 legs, but has more. I stand by Crystal as the pirate leaves, placing myself between her and him. She gave us her word to not attack, and I trust that, but she is a paladin and he was an evil person – best not to take chances.
We find other person huddled in the corner of his cell. He refuses to give us his name and Crystal detects no evil on him. We offer to let him come with us, he agrees. As the man has no armor or weapons, the Dwarf gives him one of the two handed swords he carries.
We finally move to the end of the hallway. Another set of the iron bond double doors face us, along with an open steel door to our left. We step through the steel door. Just inside a small hallway we find a pile of armor and weapons, these belong to our friend from the cell. He quickly dons his equipment. The small hall opens into a room with a mirror along one side. A ray of light flashes on the other side and we see what appears to be movement. Working together, we are able to break the three layers of glass and find ourselves in a laboratory. On a table is a body or mismatched body parts part worg, part tiger. I immediately strike at the creature, attempting to severe one of the two heads. From the right a vial flies onto the creature and it begins to awaken. To our right we see someone pull a level then leave through a second steel door. The door clangs shut and we realize it has locked.
The members of the party who followed us in yell that the first door has also locked with Hermione and Gandalf on the other side. Sabin moves back to the first door and begins working with Hermione, on the other side, to pick the lock.
The constructed creature attacks and we are hard pressed for several minutes against it. Two worg heads snapping and six legs with claws slashing at us. Under the fur are bone plates giving the creature a form of natural armor.
We finally are able to dispatch the creature and the cleric moves to try and open the door. It is locked and the mechanism has disengaged. We appear to be trapped. The Dwarf has us stand back a bit and he attacks the door. From outside we hear laughter and a mocking voice call out “That room was designed to keep things in.” I glance at the destroyed construct and realize we may be in trouble.
I move to join Sabin at the other door. Hermione calls out that the double doors are opening. Another failure with the door. I suggest she and Gandalf find a place to hide as Sabin and I continue working on the lock.
The corridor falls silent and we pray our friends will be safe.
(The sorceror cast an invisibility spell and Hermione darted into one of the cells. Carver locates the sorceror despite the spell and attacks him.) We hear him cry out on pain then begin a casting. Eventually the sounds move away from the door)
After several minutes, the door starts to rise, then slams shut again.
(Hermione finally leaves the cell and moves back to the door. She tells us there is a lever on the outside of the second door and she moves to engage it.)
The door opens and we dash out into the hallway. Carver stands at the end of the hallway just inside another corridor leading to the right. As we move to engage the creature, we hear a loud crash from the corridor to the right. Another person immediately engages Carver, along with the Dwarf. Together, they dispatch the undead creature.
The new person introduces himself as Ferdinand Vernase in undercommon. He is wielding a Hammer of Forging and Crystal notes that it radiates evil on occasion. It would appear to be an intelligent weapon.
Ferdinand darts about opening doors and pulling out equipment that he dumps at our feet before vanishing with the human we rescued from the cell. He takes the time to tell us about everything he gives us.
Inside the room he came from, lies a huge skeleton almost dragon like but not. The huge head has been shattered and Gandalf tells us that Ferdinand put it through the door, before bashing the door down. Also in the room is the body of Rinehart, the paladin and his equipment. Crystal is entranced by the plate mail and the sword. Ferdinand tells her it is an intelligent weapon which will bond with one faithful to Arayelle. We also find several potions.
In the items Ferdinand removed from other areas is a periaft of poison. My mind immediately remembers the assassin that may still be stalking us and I claim the item.
I take the time to check the body of Carver and remove 4 daggers, a +2 scalpel with keen (15-20), a ring of alter self (another protection against the assassin as I may be able to disguise my features as a full elf). He is also wearing +2 leather armor. I replace my studded leather with the magical leather.
As a group, we return to the chapel to rest for the night and I pass my studded leather armor to Sabin as it will provide a bit more protect than the regular leather he is wearing.
It is still early in the day and we take the time for our cleric of Athena to perform the proper burial rituals for the Duval family. We then carry the bodies to the cemetery and place them in the family crypt then return to the chapel.
posted by Carol Hightshoe | 1:42 AM
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