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The party finish off their dealings in The Market. I'kanta and Roderick
trade some more spells, getting rid of a couple they are incapable of
learning in exchange for some others. Roderick succeeds in learning
'sleep' and 'colour spray'. With all the new items acquired, people find
themselves overburdened. I'kanta (after a long discussion about the
relative merits of bringing a grappling hook or a pile of extra food) is
forced to leave the grappling hook behind, it being too bulky for him to
carry both it and his tin man. Synd too has too many weighty iron rations,
but Sinema agrees to carry some.
The group prepare to be teleported, destination, someplace called
Greyhawk. Everyone finds themselves outdoors, on a windy day. Except that
the wind is coming from below. The party are falling, it seems, through
bottomless blue space. The plummeting continues, some people link hands,
others just scream. Something is seen far below, which quickly becomes
land, plains, a small castle is spotted, which soon grows larger and
larger, until the group find themselves crashing into the roof of a small
room.. intact.
A man, conventionally describable as a wizard, greets the party. He seems
glad that his teleport spell has worked, and asks people are they
ready. The group point out that they were teleported from somewhere else,
and by someone other than him. Caradec tries to explain what is going
on. To his knowledge he has teleported a group of heroes to help in the
struggle that his people are currently fighting. The party remember seeing
fighting as they were falling through the air, or being teleported, or
whatever it was, and in truth, the sounds of battle can be heard in the
distance. Caradec needs his group of 'heroes' to recover some gems,
apparently essential to his side (Greyhawk) winning, or even surviving the
war.
When asked why he cannot do it himself, he explains that due to
the nature of the gems, they can only be recovered by one not from these
lands. Apparently it is only a matter of time before the castle falls, and
Caradec wants to teleport the group to a set of caverns, where a number of
gems are known to reside, and to recover them. Caradec is wearing one of
the gems, at his neck, and explains that they come in seven different
colours, and that anyone touching one of them will come under its power,
or be influenced by it, or be forced onto one side or another, or
something. He provides the group with gloves, and a fur bundle in which to
place the gems. He also provides a wand for checking the gems, which needs
to be waved over them to prove their nature. Finally he provides a
different gem, to be uncovered when the party wish to return home, which
will teleport all people within 10' of it when it is revealed. Apparently
the Furiondi (the bad guys) are also looking for the gems, as well as
creatures of a non-partisan, but equally dangerous, nature likely residing
in the caverns.
With that, he waves his hand, and the group find themselves standing in a
15' by 15' stone room. The walls are stone, the ceiling is stone, the
floor is stone, there is no door. A search reveals nothing, other than a
set of bumps all the way along the wall at the height of about 1' and
another series of bumps at about 14'. Pressing the bumps does nothing,
even the upper ones, after Gwyfrie does well to climb and check.
Thankfully the party have lanterns, but the air does seem to be
getting a little thin after about an hour of searching with nothing
revealed. Synd takes a copper coin from her beltpouch, and throws it
towards the ceiling. It disappears. The experiment is repeated with
another coin, and an arrow from Telar's bow. Both disappear. Roderick
casts 'jump' upon Gwyfrie, who stands in the middle of the room, and
bounds towards the ceiling. His head strikes the ceiling with a bump, and
he crashes to ground. Curious. Again an arrow is fired at the ceiling,
this time tied to a length of string. The arrow breaks as it hits the
stone ceiling. Gwyfrie again climbs the walls, this time trying to climb
up through the ceiling, but is stopped by solid stone.
Synd tosses a copper coin against one of the walls. It bounces off
with a *clink*, and disappears as it hits the ground. An idea occurs to
Chest. He places a coin on the ground, holding onto it. It remains. He
lets go. It disappears. The bumps on the wall. Anything wholly under (or
over the upper set) the bumps on the wall disappears. Placing his backpack
on the ground beside him, Chest lies down flat on the ground. He
disappears. I'kanta follows next, carefully holding one of the lanterns.
Sinema isn't too sure about this disappearing into the floor business, and
besides, his breast and backplate are more than a foot wide when
worn. Telar lies down next, and he too disappears into the floor. Gwyfrie
lies down and disappears too. Roderick, Synd and Sinema remain. Sinema is
at this point taking off his armour, and Roderick unsure of whether to go
down through the floor. Nonetheless he does, and Synd is left to wait
while Sinema removes his breastplate, and replaces his armplates. During
the wait, noises are heard from below. It doesn't seem like fighting, just
general shouting really. The shouting and banging continues, some of which
seems to be telling Synd and Sinema not to go down through the floor, so
they don't.
After a while, the head of I'kanta's tin man appears through the
floor. Synd waves, and explains what has been happening on this side of
the floor, knowing I'kanta can see and hear her. Shortly after, the floor
disappears, and everyone crashes about 5' to the ground. The tin man has
managed to flip a lever, which apparently ended the illusion, or whatever
it was. The tin man is still in operation, and I'kanta explains that it
can see up above the ceiling of the now 5' deeper room and that it is not
fooled by the illusion. The new room is about 5' wider at the sides too,
leaving a shelf under which people can sit. Everyone is slightly bruised,
but basically intact. Gwyfrie has a search of the room, and comes up with
two items of interest. The first is a small compartment in one of the
walls, containing a red gem. It is checked, and is the first of the seven
the party are looking for.
The second is a paving slab of a different type in the centre of
the room. Telar has a crowbar, and has a go at wedging the slab
upwards. He only manages to chip off some of the rock, but with Chest
helping, they get to the point where Telar has the slab lifted upwards
about an inch, basically flush with the floor on all sides. Chest tries to
slide it across, but to no avail. Sinema has a go, followed by a rending
noise, a crunch, and the slab jerking away from him. It was attached to
something underneath. A small shaft leads downwards into the darkness. In
the centre of the shaft is a spiral, apparently formerly attached to the
bottom of the slab.
The metal spiral moves quite readily, turned one way seems to drop into
the hole, the other it climbs upwards. I'kanta and Chest lash the crowbar
to the top of the metal screw with some silk rope. More rope is tied to
the ends of the crowbar, and used to spin the screw upwards when it gets
above reaching height. The screw continues upwards, and when it reaches
the illusory ceiling, the ceiling disappears. Now everyone can see upwards
to a second, higher ceiling, which I'kanta (through the tin man) has
confirmed is real. The screw is spun upwards as far as it will go, and
then brought back down. Gwyfrie removes his armour and backpack, and
throws the silk rope over his shoulder. The plan is for him to climb up
and tie the rope to something secure so the rest can climb up. Gwyfrie
does well to climb the flat stone walls, and reaches the top with relative
ease.
Gwyfrie can be seen at the top of the pit for a while, but nothing he
shouts down can really be made out, the same with anything the party
shouts upwards. The rest wait at the bottom of the pit for the rope to be
lowered down, or for Gwyfrie to climb back down. Telar and Chest are
standing in the centre of the room when something appears at the edge up
above. Telar is knocked aside, and Chest knocked hard to the ground, as it
begins to rain furniture. Telar does his best to move back under the
ledge, but all Chest can do is crawl on his hands, his back seemingly
broken. I'kanta covers the edge, ready to cast 'magic missile' and Synd
moves to heal Chest. Synd manages to confirm his back is broken, but when
Gwyfrie's corpse comes down with the next volley of furniture, moves to
deal with the more pressing matter.
It takes a round, but Gwyfrie's corpse is moved under the ledge
where Synd can tend to him. Synd doesn't really get a fix on how injured
Gwyfrie is, but one of the potions of extra-healing is the best bet, and
she pours it into him as best she can. Only about a third of the potion
goes into him properly, and despite it's potency, it is not
enough. Gwyfrie is dead.
In the meantime Chest is doing his best to scramble to safety, and I'kanta
manages to hit one of the creatures up above with a 'magic missile',
causing it to plummet to it's death, thankfully not landing on anyone.
Synd manages to cast 'cure light wounds' on Chest, restoring a
couple of hit points, but his back remains sore. At this point Synd
meditates for more healing spells, and Roderick meditates to learn
'jump', that the party may finally leave the pit. I'kanta (with Roderick's
wand of 'magic missiles') and Sinema (with his new sturdy helm) keep watch
up above while the others rest and meditate.
Synd and Roderick finish meditating, and Synd sets about healing Chest and
Telar. Both are restored to full health, and although Chest can walk, he
is much less mobile than before. Roderick is to cast 'jump' on Sinema and
I'kanta, but the first spell fails, and only Sinema makes it to the
top. He lowers down the smaller silk rope, and Chest starts to climb. He
makes it about halfway up before he slips and falls on top of Telar,
re-breaking his back, and injuring both of them. Again Synd heals Chest to
full health, but again, his back is a little worse than before. Still he
is the most likely to make it to the top, and this time, succeeds.
Again Synd heals Telar, and he makes it to the top. Eventually everyone
makes it to the top. A couple of people are bruised, and Roderick even
rendered unconscious from the bumping he got when being hauled up, but
everyone is basically okay. The party are on one hand side of the pit,
in appearance the same as the other, a wide corridor leading to a door.
The door on the party's side is open, and leads to a room, now devoid of
furniture. The group settle down to recover spells and health.
After everyone is pretty much rested up, the area is searched. A large
bump on the ceiling, when pressed, causes the corkscrew to arrive on its
own, and two ledges (in conjunction with the missing slab on top of the
corkscrew) make a narrow bridge over the pit (but with a bit missing in
the middle).
Telar also finds a secret door in the wall, leading to a rough-hewn
corridor. I'kanta fires up the tin man, and sends it in to
explore. I'kanta reports that the corridor turns after about five feet,
and after about another ten, comes to a small circular dead-end, through
which runs a small stream. Telar then explores the corridor, but his
infravsion is rendered useless by the extreme heat. It is reckoned that
the small steaming stream might be molten metal of some sort, but it is
not known for sure.
The group return to exploring the rooms. The door out of the furnitureless
room leads to a short corridor. One door directly in front, two at the
other end. Sinema is in the lead, and opens the nearest door first.
The rest of the party in the corridor are somewhat startled to see
two great hulking figures in the room beyond, but Sinema just says
"Great!" "Ogres!" and draws both of his longswords. Sinema heads straight
into the room, and attacks the first ogre with both of his longswords. The
first hit scores across the ogre's knee, the second rips its throat out.
Telar and Chest rush to the front that they might get a chance to
swing a sword before the fight is over. Sinema has hit the second ogre a
couple of times before Telar arrives, and finishes it off just after Telar
misses a swing at it. Immediately Sinema begins inspecting the bodies, the
colour of their skin, eyes, the fact that they're not wearing boots. It
all seems very interesting to Sinema, but all anyone else sees is dead
ogre corpses. The group have a search of the walls, find nothing, then
press on to door number two.
An ornately carved stone room greets the party. A large stone table at the
end of the room is the only item of interest other than the carvings on
the walls. They don't seem at all pleasant, with depiction of what seem to
be undead stuff and other nastiness. It is at this point that smoke seems
to flow out of the walls, and materialises in humanoid form. One of them
appears beside Roderick, two beside Telar, and two on Sinema.
Roderick falls almost immediately, and Telar and Sinema are both scraped
for paltry damage, but experience a strange chill as they are hit. Sinema
and Telar both hit one of their opponents, and towards the end of the
round the creatures have a third attack, Sinema and Telar both finding
themselves bitten.
I'kanta casts 'magic missile' at the one that attacked Roderick,
and Chest hits one with his rapier. The next round of claw attacks fail to
hit Sinema, but Telar is again scraped, and this time freezes, paralysed.
Sinema slays the second of his opponents, leaving Synd facing no creature
to make an attempt at turning these presumed undead. Telar is still
frozen, and one of the creatures climbs onto him to bite him, then throws
him to the ground. Room is getting scarce, and Chest draws his stiletto to
pierce the creature as it was climbing on Telar, succeeding. Again Sinema
is missed by two claw attacks, and follow up by hitting twice, killing the
remaining creature.
Synd quickly moves to tend to Roderick. He is dead, but readily
curable. Synd casts 'cure light wounds', and it is up to Roderick to
survive the shock to his system, which he does, and the resurrection
process, which he does not.
Synd is caught by surprise when a clawed hand reaches up and scrapes her
arm. Synd is hit, and paralysed.
The ghoulised Roderick is dispatched by the others, who proceed to
search the room, and wait for the paralysis to wear off, they hope. About
8 hours later Synd comes to, but Telar just seems to slump, still
paralysed. Synd casts 'cure light wounds' on Telar, and he comes to. One
of the gems the party are searching for has been found when Synd and Telar
were out, and the group return to the top of the pit to rest and meditate
before opening door number three. People meditate a total of three times,
or about a day resting, before everyone is at pretty much full health, and
full spells.
Telar opens up door number three, and is met by what seems to be a vine
covered corridor, except that further down the corridor it seems to get
more and more lifelike, the carvings of forest scenes becoming actual
forest. A large mushroom stands about 20ft down the corridor, and after
some discussion, Telar fires an arrow at it from outside the
corridor. Nothing unusual occurs, and I'kanta fires up the tin man to send
it down the corridor. The tin man has to bash through most of the mushroom
to get past it, and as it is doing so a small little man appears, and
starts ineffectually attacking the tin man, cursing it for wrecking his
house.
I'kanta recalls the tin man and the little guy moves to the end of the
corridor beside Telar, and starts attacking him with his stick. The little
man is upset over his broken mushroom house, and insists the party try to
fix it.
Everyone files into the corridor to find themselves standing on a
narrow ledge across a vast cavern. Up above, from out of the darkness,
flies what can only be described as a red dragon. Everyone is met by an
unstoppable urge to throw all of their gold into the cavern. That
completed, a very scared party find themselves back in the vine corridor,
except now it's just a dank and musty corridor with no forest, little man
, or mushroom.
Telar urges everyone to leave the corridor. Sinema, at the front, does,
but the rest of the party stall, and everyone finds themselves back in the
cavern. Again the dragon is seen, and this time people are met by an urge
to throw away their gems. The coloured gems are lost, the gems for
operating the tin man are lost and the return home gem is lost. This time
everyone leaves the corridor.
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