Continued …
Standing over the bloody remains of one gnome, and the snoozing bodies
of five more, the question became what to do next. While Kern quietly slipped
the temperamental cleric away from the scene, the rest of the party tied up the
gnomes, leaving the leader free. This fellow they shook awake, and then Erijay
cast a charm spell to try to
magically clear up the misunderstanding to get information out of the little
men. Alas, the leader Hulgi was more resistant
than expected, and did not fall under the elf’s command. Kern and Darnorth then
tried Plan B; a combination of subtle threats and a promise to bring the dead
gnome back from the dead if Hulgi would help them find the Rod of Narissa. Or
at least not prevent them from searching. With some moaning and complaining,
Hulgi agreed. He told them to return to the tunnel entrance in the morning, but
to get out before he changed his mind.
As the party withdrew from the tunnels, who should appear but the long
lost Turrick with a tale of woe and a desire to get back into the adventuring
life. With Turrick rejoining the party, they
retreated to Booh’s tower for the night. The first order of business was to
feed the giant so he didn’t come looking for a snack later that night. Next
morning, leaving the still recovering giant in his bed, the party returned to
the sand tunnel entrance. There they were met by a dozen gnomes, loaded down
with axes, crossbows and heavy armor. While Hulgi lead the party, the squad of
gnomes frog marched them into the tunnels. Once inside, Riley called on Habuu
once more to help him locate the Rod.
Getting no sense of the location of the artifact, the party proceeded to
explore around several more of the houses the gnomes had uncovered before
letting Hulgi lead them deeper into the diggings. Along the way, the party
questioned Hulgi as to why the gnomes were no longer digging (carefully avoiding
the question of WHY they were tunneling). Hulgi reluctantly informed them that
the gnomes had broken into a chamber containing a strange sand creature, which
had slain two of their kin and forced the gnomes to backfill the tunnel and bar
it with doors and gates. At which point, the party arrived in front of said
door, which Hugli unlocked and opened, then opened the portcullis beyond and
led the party another 30’ to stand in front of a dead end tunnel. When Kern
asked the gnomes for help in digging through, Hulgi had a pair of gnomes go
back and fetch shovels, which were handed to the party for their use. At which point the gnomes left the party on
their own, closed and locked the door, leaving instructions that the party
knock to be admitted should they return.
After a short time digging, the party broke into a large chamber caved
out of the sand, but without the pit props and timber supports seen in the
gnomish tunnels. Here Riley finally sensed the Rod toward the east. Keeping to
the walls, they part moved towards the eastern exit. Before they made it too
far, however, they noted the sandy floor began to ripple towards them. In
moments, the floor seemed to rear up in a giant sandy pseduopod and struck. A
short but furious fight ensued, which saw Foxy the War Dog do most of the
damage and get slammed to near death in the process. With the danger now past,
a quick look around reveled nothing more than a dead gnome (looted by Turrick),
so the party moved on again to the east. A short tunnel led to a set of stone
stairs, closed in by sand walls. At the top of the steps were a set of double
stone doors, carved in scenes of bountiful harvest. Riley quickly identified these
as motifs of the goddess Saule, albeit of an older style. After Kern checked
for taps and locks, Erijay pulled the doors open with a screech. On the other
side was a room, partly enclosed by sand, with a dry fountain and stairs leading
down. Checking the sand showed in was at least several feet deep, so the party headed
downstairs.
Once down the stairs, they found another set of stairs going up, but
which was blocked by sand. One wall was covered in crypts, and three doors
exited the room. Choosing the closest set of double doors, Erijay opened them
and she found herself standing on the edge of a great black void. Looking left
and right, up and down, nothing could be seen. Straight ahead could be seen
another door, set in a earthen wall with roots and rocks protruding, and
looking for all the world like the two walls of the void had been forcefully
ripped apart. Curious, the elf dropped a copper piece down to try gauging the depth.
After waiting some minutes, no sound was heard. Kern tried a similar trick, flipping
a coin up. It never fell, which immediately confirmed this was no ordinary hole
in the ground. No one wanted to find out what happened if a person fell into
the darkness, so Turrick deftly threw and hooked a grappling hook onto the
opposite doors pull ring. Darnorth, using his boots of levitation, then pulled himself across and set up a three
rope bridge for the rest of the party to cross. Once across, he could also now
see a tunnel opening in the side of the void, some 30-40’ below the door.
Ignoring that for now, the party opened the opposite door. They found themselves
in a large, many pillared chamber, with two more sets of stairs heading up. Before they could investigate further, they were
set upon by six skeletons, encased in a swirling flesh of sand. These quickly proved
to be no ordinary skeletons, as several starting throwing balls of sand that
blinded or slept their targets. After
dispatching the last of the fiends (and washing out the blinded Erijay’s eyes
with holy water), the party climbed the stairs to find themselves in another
part of the surface temple. A statue of Salue stood on a high dais. In her
arms, the goddess held a sheaf of grains. When Darnoth levitated up to
investigate, he discovered a green malachite gem the size of a fist resting on
top of the sheaf. Choosing to let the
expert try his luck, Darnorth passed the boots
to Kern, who deftly lifted the prize from the statue with no ill effect.
With no exits visible, the party headed back downstairs to investigate
the tunnel in the void. Again, Darnorth took the lead by levitating down to the entrance. Here he found a round tunnel that
looked, much like the void itself, as if someone or something had ripped it
from the cold earth. Scouting carefully forward, the dwarf soon found the
tunnel branched, and at the intersection found a vile looking creature blocking
the way. It was a sickly yellow, man sized hedgehog, with a skull like face.
Darnorth choose not to advance further, instead heading back to the party and
proceeding to build another rope bridge down the tunnel entrance. That done,
the party stated to descend. Stepping foot in the tunnel once more, Darnorth in
the lead was now confronted by the same foul creature. It now stood at the
tunnels edge and determined to push the dwarf into the black void. Darnorth
raised his shield and rushed the beast, successfully pushing it (and himself)
back from the edge. The other party members began to arrive and assist him in
the fight, including Erijay who caught the beast in a web. Everyone then backed up and slew the struggling creature with
arrows before it managed to break free. In death, it seemed to dissolve into a vaguely
hedgehog shaped mass of clay (of which a sample was collected for future research).
Carefully exploring further, a series of similar tunnels and rooms were
encountered. One large chamber was found to also contain some sort of pit,
filled with a whirling mass of sand and soil. Around the pit were set flat
stones carved with unrecognizable runes, interspaced with green malachite gems
(about a hundred in total). Twitching with greed, Erijay knelt to pry one up.
It came easily, but then climbing from the pit there also rose another group of
sand skeletons. These were fought back, but not before doing serious damage to
the party. Thinking the treasure guardians were now eliminated, the elf and
Kern again knelt to pry more gems, only to see more sand skeletons climb out
and attack. Another very close fight and the party emerged triumphant in spite
of blindness and sleep that knocked
out several. Wisely choosing to leave the gems (for now anyway), the party retreated
to a dead end chamber to rest, lick their wounds, and prepare for another day …
To be continued …
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