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The party continue their stuck-in-a-dungeon fun. I'kanta and Synd finish
meditating, but Synd fails to get her spells back, and Meltar's wounds are
now beyond recovery. Meltar is dead, and Telar just a little upset (what,
with losing both parents inside a week). The pit that was hampering the
party is now covered by a door, and the same corridor leads to the door to
the area that has not yet been explored (save for knowing that there were
unfriendly archers on the other side).
The plan is for I'kanta to cast 'wall of fog' outside the door,
and for Gwyfrie to run out and have a look-see. I'kanta casts his spell
successfully, and Gwyfrie opens the door into the corridor to rush
out. The thing is, when people realise it, there's no fog outside the
door, and nobody saw Gwyfrie run outside. I'kanta grabs one of the
torches, casts 'shield' upon himself, and steps into the cavern on the
other side of the door. There is no sign of Gwyfrie. There is, however, a
banging coming from behind the door, which is open, and flush against the
wall of the corridor. Synd closes the door, leaving I'kanta alone in the
cavern. Gwyfrie appears in the corridor, batting spiders off of
himself. Gwyfrie says he was in a small room behind the door, but all
that's there now is solid rock.
Again Gwyfrie tries to open the door, trying to avoid getting stuck behind
it. From his point of view, he does his best. To the others in the
corridor he seems to walk behind the door as it is opening and disappears
into the wall behind it. I'kanta is still in the cavern, and asks what is
going on. Synd explains quickly, and closes the door on I'kanta in the
cavern, causing Gwyfrie to reappear in the corridor, this time on fire,
and moving strangely slowly.
Synd does her best to extinguish Gwyfrie, and after both take a
little damage, succeeds. Gwyfrie is still slowed, and walking and talking
at about half speed. Gwyfrie opts to have a search of the small room,
which is now visible, but takes ages at the speed he is going at. The
wooden door over the pit trap is still unstable, but Roderick moves to go
into the cavern with I'kanta. Gwyfrie continues his slow searching, there
is a flash, and Synd and Gwyfrie find themselves trapped in the 5' by 10'
room, facing a snarling, red-eyed, dishevelled dwarf. The dwarf sets about
Synd with his axe, and Gwyfrie (slowed) and Synd defend themselves.
The fight goes on for a couple of rounds, Synd taking only glancing blows
from the dwarf, and managing to heal herself when necessary. The others in
the corridor hear the ruckus, and I'kanta closes the door on himself and
Roderick in the cavern, leaving Synd and Gwyfrie with a way out into the
corridor. Gwyfrie is trapped behind the dwarf in the small room, and Synd
flees, taking another blow that fails to strike home. Telar agrees to
cross the door, despite wearing heavy hide armour, to face the dwarf.
Telar kicks the door out from under himself as he rushes across, and ends
up in the pit, injured, but alive. The rest of the people in the corridor
see the dwarf emerge from the small room, and turn to open the door to
enter the cavern, which, naturally, lands him back in the small room with
Gwyfrie, who has by this stage, fallen. Again the dwarf steps out of the
small room (looking confused), sizes up Sinema standing on the far side of
the open pit, sets his axe, and charges. With that, he disappears.
Ignoring Telar's cries for the moment, Sinema replaces the door over the
pit, and Synd crosses safely to check out Gwyfrie's corpse. He is dead,
but readily cureable. Synd casts 'cure light wounds', and messes it up. A
weatherworn stick seems to distract Synd as she is casting her spell, and
as the spell ends, Gwyfrie is gone. Synd steps out into the corridor, and
a small chirping noise causes her to look back into the small room. It is
Gwyfrie, now approximately the size of a mouse. Synd picks him up,
apologising, and not really knowing what happened, but pointing out that
he is definitely more alive than when she found him.
Garde now crosses the pit, and has a go at opening the door into
the cavern and not getting stuck behind behind the door. He fails. Telar
is stuck in the pit, Garde is trapped behind the door. The rest of the
party move into the cavern to be on the safe side of the pit (which takes
Sinema quite a while, with getting out of and back into armour). I'kanta
begins meditating, and Gwyfrie scurries off to search the cavern, which is
now more like a really big cavern to him. Sinema has a go at hacking
through the door, to see if Garde can be seen behind it. He breaks a hole
in the middle of the wood, but all that is behind it is rock, feeling
slightly warm.
Garde is still stuck behind the door, and it is decided to deal
with this before trying to get Telar out of the pit. Synd leaves a sword
lying in the doorway, and opens the door. It works. The door is now
closed into the cavern, but slightly ajar. Sinema checks out the small
room. It contains a deep-fried corpse, holding a stick. Garde is
dead. Synd recovers the stick, and at last the door is dealt with, now
open, with nobody trapped behind it.
Sinema remains on the far side of the pit, and the spell using
types move to meditate for spells in the room where the torches don't seem
to burn down. I'kanta has a spell what greedy mages use to haul treasure
out of dungeons, 'Tenser's floating disc' and it is decided to use this to
fill the pit with rubble from the dwarven construction in order to free
Telar. It works. As this is going on, Synd is still meditating, and
Gwyfrie finishes a search of the cavern. It is basically a semi-circular
area of floor, leading to a sheer drop along the curved edge, with water
below, it seems.
As Synd is meditating, the stick is once again on her mind. Gwyfrie is
still mouse sized (but not slow) and he secures himself in Synd's
hair. Synd finishes meditating, gets up, walks to the edge of the cavern,
and points the stick out into the air. There is a flash, the silhouette of
a giant air bladder and basket, and darkness. The rest of the party,
carrying torches, cross to the edge of the cavern. Indeed, a large air
bladder, supporting a basket is floating there. Everybody piles in,
carefully, and I'kanta begins playing with the mechanism. He has just
figured out and down when there is a yelp, a scream, a splash, and no
Roderick. Everybody aboard, I'kanta lowers the bladder and basket down to
the water level. Roderick is still alive, and managing reasonably well. He
climbs aboard, just as the current is moving the device off, due to the
bottom of the basket being in the water.
Current is figured to be faster than cavern breeze, and the party
let it take them wherever it is going. The device is ushered along an
underground passage, river below and sheer walls (just wide enough for the
bladder part) on either side. I'kanta moves the device out of the current
to stop at a small ledge in the rock. He dis and re embarks, but all he
finds in a note saying 'questions'. The device continues along in the
current until an updraft is felt, wanting to take the bladder
upwards. I'kanta allows the device to go upwards, seemingly in a vertical
shaft just wide enough for the bladder part.
A large set of doubledoors are passed on one of the walls before
I'kanta can slow the craft down, and he realises that he can no longer go
downwards against the draft. The device is ascended slowly and stopped
when another set of doors are spotted. The shaft is still just wide enough
for the bladder, so the basket suspended below is still a good five feet
from the walls of the shaft (and also the doubledoors). The party argue
about trying to open the doors, but only Synd and I'kanta really want to
try, and the bladder is once again set on its way upwards. No more doors
are passed, and the bladder comes to a stop. It is stuck. I'kanta turns
the control up as far as it will go, and the bladder gets stuck some more.
Great. The party argue. Gwyfrie tries to climb the rigging to the top of
the bladder, but is stopped by the shape of the bladder. Eventually it is
decided to puncture the bladder, and Gwyfrie makes several small holes
with his now needle sized dagger. In time, this proves successful, but now
the bladder can only go down, I'kanta somewhat able to control the rate of
descent. The upper set of doubledoors are passed and missed before the
party have a chance to act. I'kanta removes some rigging and ties it to an
arrow. As the lower set of doubledoors come into view, Telar fires. He
sticks the door, and Sinema tries to pull them open. The arrow comes free.
The bladder continues to descend, and somebody opens the doubledoors from
their side. The party shout out for a rope. "For 50 gold pieces" comes the
reply. Gwyfrie squeaks the party's assent, and a rope ladder is lowered,
but the basket has almost descended below the bottom rung.
Roderick casts 'jump' upon Telar, who reluctantly leaps out and
grabs onto the ladder. The bladder is still descending, but Telar manages
to grabs some rigging on the top of the bladder. After agreeing to pay
another 50gp the party are winched up to the doubledoors. Telar steps
inside and the rest of the party are left standing on a small ledge which
is now jutting out into the shaft, and apparently under the control of the
man Telar is talking to.
All he wants is his 100gp's, or he'll let the party drop to their
deaths. He isn't interested in taking payment in kind, but reluctantly
accepts a nice Elven longbow and all of the money the party can scrounge
up as about 50gp. As for the other 50, he is quite prepared to let the
party drop until spellbooks are mentioned. I'kanta acknowledges that he
only has his spellbook thanks to the actions of Gwyfrie, but Roderick's
book is less valuable, and he reluctantly parts with it. The party are led
safely inside.
"So, you're here for The Market then" asks Ug, "Tell you what, I know the
book is worth more than 100, and if you come back to me within a couple of
hours with the money, I'll sell it back for 250."
With that the party are led down and out of a porthole, with the warning
to return inside a few hours with the money, or the deal is off. Wondering
where the hell they have been left, the party turn to face The Market. A
cavernous cavern looms in front of the group. In the air are all manner of
creatues, flying and floating, as far as can be seen, as far as a red haze
far up above. On the ground stretch tents, traders, barrows and sellers
beyond as far as anyone can see.
250 gold pieces in a couple of hours. The stick. Reasonably assumed to be
magical, and the party set about trying to sell it. With that, the party
find themselves walking into a shop entitled 'Logs'.
"So, you wanna buy some firewood?"
"Er, no."
"Then get out of my shop."
The party decide to search for somewhere that might sell magical items,
and, turning a corner, find one. Synd shows the stick to the proprietor,
now calling it a wand, who promptly examines it, declares it non magical,
and evicts the party from his shop. The same response is had from the next
trader, who refuses to even watch a demonstation of Synd firing it into
the air, so she doesn't bother. It occurs to I'kanta that he may be able
to sell a couple of his spells to come up with the 250, and the party find
their way to a small square, with mages sitting, reading and talking. Some
offer to buy spells, most are interested in trading. I'kanta figures he
could probably strip his spellbook bare to come up with the 250, but that
is back to the situation of losing the more valuable spellbook for the
less valuable one. A wizard named Kassle is talking to I'kanta about
spells and stuff when a large armour clad man enters the wizard area.
"Right. Who wants some?"
It seems as though he is looking for a fight.
"Which one of you poofter wizards wants to have a go?"
It seems certain he is looking for a fight.
"You want a little?"
Most of the wizards look away, but the party are amused by what is
going on. The armour clad man looks towards the party.
"One, two... six" "Six. Right. I'll take you all on."
"Seven." chirps Gwyfrie from Synds hair.
"Seven. Right. You want to have a go?"
I'kanta replies in the negative, but Sinema is clutching the hilt of his
sword tightly.
"Use the stick." "Use the stick." comes a voice in Synd's ear.
Unfortunately there is no balancing voice on the other shoulder, and Synd
turns to face the man.
"Leave us alone. We only came here to sell our stick. See?" *click*
And with that, the man's armour, and confidence, seem to disappear.
"Give me my armour back!" "You needed 250gp's?, there it is" as he throws
a pouch to the ground.
"I suspect the armour is worth much more than that, and besides, I don't
know how."
And with that, he attacks Synd with his 2-handed sword. A strange glow
seems to surround the party and the man, almost at the moment the fight
started, or it became clear there was going to be a fight. Synd is cut to
the ground before she can even point the stick again, and Sinema steps in
to attack. With a single blow he splits the unnamed man's chest open,
leaving a pile of steaming organs, and a corpse on the ground. I'kanta
picks up the bag the man had thrown down to find it containing a pile of
gems. Synd is still down, and a general offer of one of the gems is made
to anyone who can heal her. The Market being what it is, someone steps out
from the crowd, takes his gem, places his hand on Synd, and tells her to
stand up. With that, she stands up. Sinema is quite impressed with the
look of his fallen opponents 2-handed sword, so he picks it up, and straps
it to his back.
Kassle steps out of the crowd, inquiring about the stick. The party tell
their story, but have to hurry back to the porthole (with the new found
gems) to get Roderick's book back. Nobody has a clue about how to get back
to the porthole. Kassle offers to cast a location finding spell, and wants
to talk about the stick when the party are done getting Roderick's book
back.
The party agree, and head off to the porthole. Ug's less portly
friend greets the party at the porthole and despite his surprise returns
the book in exchange for one of the gems. I'kanta splits the gems,
allocating 2 to each party member, and keeps 3 as 'party' gems. The
location finding spell takes the party back to Kassle, and the group sit,
have a drink, and talk.
Kassle explains The Market, which is pretty much exactly as it
seems, but warns of the rising heat, which seems to occur every so often,
and kills anyone who hasn't prepared themselves. Kassle is really
interested in the stick, but he too detects nothing magic about it. This
is part of his interest, and he offers to buy it. He also explains the
gems the party have acquired. They are kind of like 'favours' which can be
used to buy anything reasonable.
Primarily the party wants to get home, and Gwyfrie wants to be
rebigulated. Kassle doesn't really know the world of the party, but has
heard of Glantri City and explains that magic on the party's world is
messing up, and he doesn't reckon that any teleport there would be
successful. By this point a young fighter named Chest seems to be tagging
along with the party. He, like Synd and Gwyfrie is from near Darokin, and
he too just kind of appeared here. Kassle can't really get the party home,
and he suggests using the gems for that purpose. On the other hand, he
does offer one item (likely magical, and suited to the individual) to each
party member in exchange for the stick. Gwyfrie wants to be rebigulated
and Prodor (from a place where magic works) wants to be sent home. Kassle
agrees.
Telar recieves a potion. Synd recieves a scroll of clerical
spells. Roderick recieves a wand of 'magic missiles'. Gwyfrie is
rebigulated. Chest recieves a magical shield. I'kanta recieves a tin man
(a magical automaton). Prodor is sent home. Sinema gets another magic
sword. He's well happy, he now has three.
Business with Kassle completed, the party set about exchanging
their favour gems for items at the market. The party gems are used to buy
general stuff, protection from the heat at an Inn (just in case), and to
pay someone to teleport the party to a safe place. Some place called
Greyhawk, seemingly similar enough to the world of the party. I'kanta and
Roderick spend their gems on a couple of first level spells. Gwyfrie buys
a healing potion, and gives his other gem for more first level
spells. Telar pays off an inter party debt, and buys some normal armour.
Sinema gets a nice horned helm, and Synd buys (on the advice of
Sinema) some banded mail too. One gem is exchanged for a bit of cash.
Business completed, the party prepare to be teleported.
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