RC No. America (Wed) - Khundrukar

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"A helmet? Well if nobody else wants it, I'll take it."
With a glance towards the departing Knomal Gaspar turns towards the others. "He's right, we shouldn't spend so long in one place. Let's go before he gets to far ahead."

 

Nimbul tosses the helm to Avarahtar and stuffs the rest of the items in his newly found backpack..."Let's go! I'm interested to see what else we find in here..."

 

"Thanks Nimbul," Gaspar replies. Having no where else to put it, Gaspar plops the helm onto his head and turns towards the next chamber. "Now lets see what we can kill next."

OOC. Don't mean to complain, but Baldak could you please tell use what we are seeing deeper into the cavern?

[This message has been edited by Avarahtar (edited April 09, 2002).]

 

As the party moves eastward down the hall, they come to a large cavern that opens toward the south. Around the cavern they can see many stacks of crates and several crude tables and chairs. The area extends beyond the light present in the hall (there are torches on the hall wall) but another passage can be seen leading further south while the main part of the cavern extends east.

 

Nimbul walks towards the crates to inspect them.

 

Ooc: Getting internet today, I think(I'm at school right now)

IC: Iris follows along, looking around with wonder.

 

Gaspar follows Nimbul towards the crates. "Need any help there?"

 

It became all to apparent to the group that these Orogs had obtained quite a cache of goods from the merchant caravans they had been raiding. Within the various crates, they found most every item they could purchase in the adventurers shop in Sundabar except for armor and weapons, but including arrows and bolts. Gaspar and Nimbul used this opportunity to re-stock their supply of arrows. During the rummaging, Nimbul discovered a passage hidden by a particularly large stack of crates. It lead to a large Chamber blocked by a locked iron gate, rusted but still strong. In the center of the chamber they could see an opening in the floor, a hole of sorts.

The rusted lock proved to be too badly off to pick, so Gaspar and Knomal used the portable ram to smash the gate. After the first try, they heard some flapping noises, followed by 5 stirges emerging from the hole in the floor. The party ducked out of sight and the stirges returned to the depths. The second attempt to break the gate open cracked the lock and the third attempt dislodged the gate from its hinges sending it crashing to the floor. The stirges had returned and attacked. Nimbul was waiting for them, but the little creatures proved harder to hit than he thought. Knomal fired off a shot killing one and Nimbul’s second shot killed the next. Two of the remaining stirges attached themselves to Gaspar and one attached to Iris. Gaspar dropped onto his back, crushing the two and knocking one out while Iris killed the one on her with a quick Magic Missile. Knomal punched the one remaining stirge attached to Gaspar and Nimbul managed to grab a hold of and detach it. Knomal produced a sack that they used to hold the creature along with the other unconscious one.

The opening in the floor proved to be a stairway hewn out of a natural cavern passage leading down. Traveling down, the group came to an underground stream that cut a passage across the stairs. They continued on down the stairs for a few more feet when the passage opened up into a large cavern. Knomal heard more familiar flapping as a group of four more stirges attacked. Iris killed one with a Magic Missile followed by Nimbul dropping another with a quick bow shot. The two remaining stirges attached to Knomal and Iris. Iris killed hers with another Magic Missile and Gaspar grabbed the one off of Knomal and subdued it, placing it in the sack with the other two.

Ten feet further down the passage they discovered the remains of a dwarf, long since dead. He carried a pouch of 35 gp and a wand (Identified by Iris as a wand of Light w/20 charges remaining). This large Cavern has 4 passages leading out of it and the group chose to exit through the passage in the southeast. The short passage wound for 40 feet and opened up into a gigantic chamber. A strange luminescent fungus lined the crystalline walls of this beautiful chamber lending an eerie glow to the scene. Twenty-three dwarven sarcophagi occupied the north west portion of the cavern and Nimbul determined that all were empty save for four, three of which had dwarven engraving on the lids.

The three marked tombs were engraved with the names of the occupants, Borgol “The Elder”, Gharin “Orc Doom”, and Numik “The Unlucky”. Nimbul managed to open up the first one, Numik’s, with a show of super-halfling strength. Inside he found a cursed Talisman, which he managed to remove without being damaged, and a set of lock picks, strangely clean and rust free. In Ghorin’s tomb they found a Dwarven War Hammer. The third tomb, Borgol’s, was trapped by a magical fire trap which Nimbul managed to bypass. Inside, the hand of Borgol wore a ring. A gold and platinum circle depicting a dragon holding its own tail. Nimbul noticed another magical trap and again was able to bypass it. Iris was only able to determine that the ring would remove some Stasis Curse, but she knew that it had more powers than that. She would have to wait to learn more until she could replenish her spells. The last tomb, the unmarked one held a single human, with all gear. He was strangely life-like, seeming to be asleep rather than dead. On Nimbul’s suggestion, Iris placed the ring on his finger. The human opened up his eyes and sat up.

“Where am I? Who are you? What day is this? What YEAR is this? Where are my companions?”

The strain of being in stasis for the long years drained the human quickly and he fell into a semi-conscious state, babbling about the events of his recent past some twenty years earlier just after the Time of Troubles.

Each party member receives 400 experience.

 

Nimbul puts away his shortsword and splashes the man with some water..."Who are you? It seems you've been down here a long time. What happened? What was the last thing you remember?"

 

"Who am I? Who am I ..... Why I'm Robidolian Bascarius, servant to the Sun, Healer, and Spiritual Guide to those who have, like me, given up devotion to the mere mortal Gods and look instead to the greater power of Ao." Robidolian looks around. "Could I have a drink of water? I am very thirsty all of a sudden. My head hurts and my joints are stiff. The last thing I remember is a theif telling me that it was safe to grab a ring we had seen in a sarcophagus. After that .... nothing."

 

ooc: sorry about yesterday. I got disconnected and couldn't get back on. My dad told me how to fix it, so maybe next time it won't be such a problem. What does "stasis" mean anyways?

ic: "Wow... I do believe you have been in stasis for however long. Anyways, at least you aren't dead. I've smelt enough of that smell. Yech. Here, have my waterskin." Iris said as she offered her waterskin to the man.

 

It sounds like your "acquisition expert" - thief seems so disreputable - was a little fumble fingered. Well, I assure you that you shouldn't experience such catastrophies with a more capable person clearing the way. By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a ring of fire resistance? No? Oh well, it's probably not important...(Nimbul looks innocently at Gaspar and Iris )

What brought you this hole in the first place so long ago, perhaps you could give us more information about Glitterhame?

 

I guess you people need a priest to go with you...did everyone stop worshipping altogether? I realize that the so-called gods are not as powerful as some thought, but ...

 

OOC: Baldak - I didn't try to get that warhammer (or was it a mace) from that one sarcophagus. Can we RP it here before next week so we don't have to waste too much in game time?

Normal drill: search for traps, and disarm any found. I'm not sure where I am on hitpoints, last I checked I was at 13. PLease feel free to do the rolls and post the outcome.

Rob - give us a little background on your character here to...That way we can get back to the dungeon when we play next Wednesday...

~Bel/Nimbul

 

Robidolian-- My background? Uh...let's see. I'm a priest, yeah, that's it! That's the ticket! But I serve the greater good via Ao.

Um...I think I mentioned that already. Hold on. It's still a little fuzzy. I came here with some other people to search out the ancient Dwarven stronghold. We were in a room with a lot of sarcophagi...

Oh, yeah. You know that too... We waded through a lot of orcs and killed their leader. After 20 years, I suppose they may have come back. I've got my trusty morningstar right here! Kind of resembles my sun emblem on my holy symbol, see!!! (pulls out silver holy symbol with sun).

Let's see, what else...? We had to beat up a lot of stirges, but we never found the nest. Are those pests still here?

We also were getting plagued by some stinking (litterally) troglodytes. Are they still around? We had been looking for something...maybe it will come back to me later...

 

"Stirges? We have run into a few of those. Knomal over there seems to have started a collection of them," Gaspar says as he points his thumb at Knomal. "Haven't come across any troglodytes yet. Maybe they have all gone," he says with a shrug.

 

"Hm... definitely. Troglodytes. Well, since we haven't encountered them, Gasper is most definitely right, they might not be here anymore. Anyways, how about getting brushed up? Afterall, it's been about 20 years at least for you." Iris says.

 

Following the re-awakening of the cleric Robidolian, Nimbul secured the last remaining weapon from the sarcophagi, a War Hammer, while the rest talked briefly to their new acquaintance. After a brief rest, the party continued further into the caverns descending some rough hewn stairs that led into a dazzling cavern of crystal. To the north, a passage could be plainly seen while a stairway led off to the south. A path headed eastward through the cavern, but the far side could not be seen. The party continued their descent and took the stairs which led them into another cavern. This one had a river running through it from West to East, emerging from the west wall, and ending at a waterfall that cascaded into a sinkhole. Along the northern edge of this cavern, a path led to yet another stairway that wound into the depths.

The stairs opened into a small cavern. In the northwest corner, the waterfall collected into a pool which turned into a stream that exited to the south. A passage lead out to the south and there was a cut stone wall in the east, two doors adorned the wall. Not wanting to lose his edge, Gaspar wasted no time in removing his portable ram. He began bashing his way through doors. The rooms seemed to be ancient storerooms that produced little. In the second storeroom, a Gray Ooze had settled down when Gaspar charged through causing the ooze to attack. The party was able to dispatch the slime creature with little trouble save for some minor acid marks on their weapons. Knomal did manage to find one of Durgeddin’s blades, a short sword. Iris realized at this point that she was getting a little fatigued and needed to replenish her spells so the party rested for a while.

Continuing on, the party explored several more rooms, and discovered a pair of rotting bodies. One looked like one of Robidolian’s friends from his earlier adventure. Two potion bottles were found beneath the two bodies, one was a potion of invisibility. In another room, several usable crates of supplies and ten bottles were discovered. Each bottle contained the body of an insect. Robidolian took the bottles while Gaspar opened yet another crate and found a small viper which bit him and latched on. Knomal cut it in half with an axe and Robidolian was able to neutralize the poison before it could do more harm.

Returning to the cavern with the pool, the party moved south through the passage and entered another long cavernous passage that led eastward. A river flowed through here from East to West, disappearing in a dark hole on the western end. A stone bridge connected the two banks, and the party moved across it. A short distance to the east, a set of stairs again headed south. They descended to discover several more store rooms. The last room had a desk and chair in it, but the desk was devoid of drawers. A long tunnel led out of the last room heading east and slightly upwards. Peering up the passage, light could be seen. It appeared that this is where the Orcs originally tunneled into the Dwarven Stronghold during the siege.

Each party member receives 250 experience points.


[This message has been edited by Baldak Oakfist (edited May 02, 2002).]

 

Iris, how about checking these bottles with insects. There is some kind of magic going on, but being a cleric, I can't discern the exact nature. They might prove useful later on...

 

Iris takes the bottles and inspects them. "Let me see..."

OoC: Baldak, my roll for K:Arcana - 27,12,10,10,20,29,24,25,20, and 26... Or do I need to cast "Identify"?