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Afternoon in Darokin City. Czevbourne has an appointment to keep with a
couple of cityguards for a drink, but the party first head for the
barracks, to see if any work is going. The soldier at the barracks says
that they might be able to find some work in Corunglain, which is still
being rebuilt. Fourn and Dyxs enquire about the training still owed for
the return of the mayoral chain, and the guard tells them to come back in
the morning. Czevbourne asks for the name of the party in the guard's
books to be changed. It is changed from 'Natok Slayers' to 'Baron
Czevbourne's Retinue'. Czevbourne's good welcome is still holding, and the
party are set up in the barracks for the night.
Everyone heads for the tavern and a few of the party's few
remaining coppers are spent on drinks. Conversation is bland enough,
talking of the small folk, mostly farmers, in the lands to the south. In
the morning, Fourn and Dyxs head off to work at swords for the day, to see
if they can be trained. They both can, and will need to spend the next two
weeks in and around the training area of the barracks. The rest of the
party are also put up in the barracks for the period.
As the two weeks draw to a close, Czevbourne finds himself
troubled, and wanting to return to Greenleaf Island. With nothing else to
do, the party oblige, and set back out for Acheros.
As a result, in three short days by foot, the party are back in
Acheros. Heading to the docks, the group check out the likelihood of
getting a ship to stop off at Greenleaf Island. The next ship leaving dock
departs in two days, and is going pretty much straight across the lake, so
Greenleaf shouldn't be too much bother. The captain isn't used to taking
passengers, but an offer of two silver pieces for the short trip persuades
him. The party tell him they'll be back in two days with the silver, when
the boat is leaving.
Czevbourne manages to secure the party accommodation in the barracks in
Acheros, but feels as though his welcome is wearing thin.
The party still need to rustle up the silver pieces, and it is
decided to sell Fourn's shortsword, formerly Reb's. Mat manages to find a
buyer, and the fair price of four gold pieces (in silver) is received for
the weapon.
At the appointed time, the party go to meet the boat. The captain has
bumped his price up to three silver pieces, but Fourn pays in any case. By
midday of the next, the party have landed on Greenleaf Island. Realising
the benefits of having the island a regular stop-off point, Fourn offers
the captain some silver to stop at the island on a regular basis on his
way back and across the large lake. Fourn hands over twenty silver pieces,
and a deal is written out whereby the captain promises to stop by every
six months for seven years.
Czevbourne is eager to talk with his master in the hills, and he and Haiko
travel up to his cave right away. The others variously put in a day of
work about town, helping out with the construction, or laze around. In the
evening, Czevbourne returns, worried about the fact that his master is not
there, nor any of the other crazy old men living on the island. He says
that the stone tablet was being kept submerged in a deep pool in his
master's cave, but he doesn't know if it was that that caused the
disappearances.
The next morning Czevbourne and Haiko plan to check the rest of the caves
for any of the other old men, and to have a proper search of the master's
cave. They return shortly after leaving, Czevbourne apparently having told
Haiko of a bad dream involving strange cat things, and both deciding it
would be a good idea to have all of the party along.
The party reach the cave of Czevbourne's master, but only
Czevbourne can enter, others being blocked by a strange invisible
wall. Czevbourne has another look around, but uncovers nothing
new. Everyone heads off to see if any of the other guys are around, and
Gruff takes the opportunity to replenish his supply of herbs along the
way. There is no sign of anything, and the party are back in town by the
evening, talking to Jeremiah the carpenter. He says that the town wall and
small pier are coming along nicely, and the only strange thing he reports
are strange red clouds in the shape of cats over the island about a week
ago. Obviously a freak weather phenomenon, from his point of view.
Again Czevbourne has nightmares, and the next morning the party return to
the main cave to check out the pool of water Czevbourne mentioned, and to
see if they can find a way for anyone other than Czevbourne to enter the
cave. When the group get back up to the cave, Czevbourne explains that the
pool of water is on the wall, but otherwise acting like a normal pool of
water, as far as he can tell. A rope is tied around Czevbourne as he
enters the cave this time, but none of the other party members are able to
pass the invisible barrier. Czevbourne throws a couple of stones into the
pool to no effect. Mat has the idea to try entering the cave whilst
holding Czevbourne's hand. It works, and all of the party safely enter the
small cave.
Indeed, there is a pool of water on one of the walls, by
appearances deep, and leading off into the rock. Haiko puts his finger
into the pool. It refuses to come out. He resists a bit, and gets his hand
in up to his wrist, still refusing to come out, and seemingly wanting to
draw the rest of him in. Czevbourne checks the pool with a stick, and it
too refuses to be pulled out once partially submerged. It sinks happily
away when released. Mat has a search of the rest of the cave, but to no
avail. Dyxs suggests to see if a burning stick is extinguished, and it
is. It seems as though the only choice is for Haiko to enter the
pool. Fourn ties a rope to Haiko and Czevbourne, who has decided to go
with him. They both jump in, and the rope flies through Fourn's hands. He
grabs the end, and lets himself be taken with them. Mat, Gruff and Dyxs
must decide what to do. They jump into the pool.
Everyone finds themselves slightly damp, and slightly injured, in a 15' by
15' room, with only a 5' high ceiling. A large stone slab/table is in the
centre of the room, and upon it are five items. A ceramic pot, a sword, a
metal thing, a crystal sphere and a piece of leather. Czevbourne feels a
little feint, and gets impressions from the first four items. Madness,
slicing, he doesn't remember and eyesight respectively. In three of the
corners of the room are stone carvings of humanoid cat things. The floor
of the room seems to be the same design as the broken stone tablet that
was meant to be at the bottom of the pool. In the other corner is a pool
of water on the wall, but it feels like stone to the touch. Czevbourne is
wary of the objects on the table. Dyxs picks up the sword, and nothing
happens. Czevbourne picks up the crystal ball. Nothing happens when any of
the items are touched or examined. The leather strip turns out to be a
note from Czevbourne's master, who has been taken by the cat people, and
asks to be rescued. The metal object is 3' long, and barely fits in Dyxs'
backpack when his other items are passed to Fourn. It is bloody heavy
too. Czevbourne takes the crystal ball and Fourn the other stuff. Dyxs
pushes the stone slab across the floor, and uncovers a hole leading down
into the darkness. After a bit of hauling up and down, everyone is safely
in the room below with all the stuff.
The room is about 25' long by 15' wide by 15' high, with a set of
doubledoors at one end and a gold studded velvet chair at the other. Mat
gets to work removing the gold studs, but only himself, Gruff and Dyxs
take any of them. Dyxs doesn't like the air in the room, and is sneezing
quite a bit. The doubledoors at the end of the room are locked, and he has
a go at forcing them. He fails. Mat calls for quiet, and says that he can
hear scratching on the other side of the door, but people figure that
anything out there has already heard them. Dyxs is getting tired of the
room, and starts bashing away at the lock with hammer and chisel. Haiko
realises his knowledge of locks will serve him better at the task, and he
takes over. Mat, Dyxs and Czevbourne decide to search the room while this
is going on, but don't have too long to do so, because the door opens from
the other side.
The door opens and about seven cat people are seen standing in a
semicircle around the door on the other side. The cat people don't do
anything immediately, and Dyxs steps to the front, a few feet inside the
door, lined up with Gruff and Fourn. Haiko moves back, and Czevbourne does
his counting 'spell', but nothing crazy happens. For some reason or other
it is decided that Mat go to the front in the next round, and try to talk
to them. As he moves in front of Dyxs, one of the cat people in the
corridor throws a cat at him. It grows in size 'till about the size of a
panther, but looking like a house cat.
In the next round, the cat attacks Mat. It hits early in the round with
one of two claw attacks, at just about the same time Czevbourne completes
his 'spell', and Haiko realises that Czevbourne is no longer behind
him. That was not the objective of the 'spell'. The cat attacks again, and
Mat falls to a savage bite. Fourn attacks with his net, hoping to pin the
cat down. He succeeds.
The next round begins, and Haiko realises that one of the cat men
is behind him on the chair. He strikes it with his Bo staff for four
damage and it begins whimpering before him. Dyxs attacks and hits the
prone cat for five. Gruff misses, and Fourn manages to keep it held. The
cat men in the corridor lash out their hands, and claws fly from
them. Dyxs, Gruff and Fourn are attacked in this manner. Gruff and Fourn
are mostly obscured by columns and Dyxs is behind the big cat. All of the
fired claws miss, and some even injure the big kitty.
Again the party act first, and Dyxs strikes the entangled cat for good
damage. Gruff attacks moments later with a good thrust from his spear, and
finishes it. The cat men fling those claws again, but only Dyxs is struck,
for a little damage. Haiko has decided to lay off attacking the whimpering
cat man, who tries to make his way past Haiko. Haiko blocks his passage,
and decides to try to knock the cat thing out with his fists in the next
round.
At the same time, Dyxs and Fourn charge into the corridor towards
the cat men, but they flee. Haiko renders the remaining cat person
unconscious with a punch, and as it slumps to the ground he realises that
he has been attacking Czevbourne. Gruff tends to Mat, who survives having
been dead thanks to Gruff's strange healing. Czevbourne is merely
unconscious, and brought 'round by Gruff's healing mumbo jumbo. Fourn's
net is in pieces. The group decide to head left down the left/right
corridor outside the room, cat people having fled in both directions. The
ceilings in the corridor are only 6' high, and all but Fourn and Haiko
have to crouch to varying degrees.
Around the corner and down the corridor a short way, a 15' by 15'
by 6' high room is reached. No doors are noticeable, but some of the cat
men definitely fled this way. Haiko notices something odd about a part of
the roof, but can't seem to figure it out. Nor can Mat. Dyxs tries brute
force, and it works. There is a crack, and he finds himself pushing
upwards a slab or trapdoor of some kind. Some of those claw things shoot
out from the edges as he lifts it up, and Dyxs lets the trapdoor drop back
into place. Everyone files out of the room into the corridor to discuss
things.
It is decided to head in the other direction, and in a short while a
T-junction is reached. About 20ft to the left is a dead end, and the
passage continues off to the right. Haiko and Mat have a search of the
dead end, but find nothing. Fourn steps back when something blunders into
him in the darkness away from the lantern. He realises it is a man, not a
cat thing, and Czevbourne calls out. It is Davros, Czevbourne's
master. Davros says that the cat things just let him go. He asks was his
note found, and people show him the stuff from the room. He says that the
potion will improve someone for a short period of time, and that the
crystal ball will let you see stuff if a 'spell' is cast upon
it. Czevbourne gives it a whirl, looking for another pool to get out of
here. He fails to cast a 'spell', then casts a 'spell' and concentrates on
finding a water pool. When he finishes he says there should be one behind
the wall of the dead end. Haiko has another look, and successfully locates
the door. All of Fourn, Dyxs and Haiko fail to barge it open, but Mat
finds the catch, and everyone goes through the pool on the other side.
Again, everyone takes a little damage, which turns out to be
enough to render Davros unconscious, but not dead. The party are once
again in a 15' by 15' room, with a door in the middle of each
wall. Czevbourne uses the crystal ball again. From two of the opposite
doors he gets nothing. One of the other directions just seems to be
corridors and rooms, the other feels funny. Dyxs opens the door he is
beside, one of the doors for which Czevbourne felt nothing. The 15' by 15'
room turns into a 15' by 5' wide strip in the middle of the room, the rest
giving way to a 20ft drop. The other walls seem to be gone too, leaving a
15' by 5' bridge over a pit, between two larger rooms. Several people were
standing on the parts that gave way, but only Czevbourne is too slow to
jump back. He and the unconscious Davros fall twenty feet down. Gruff
hangs and drops straight down, injuring himself to tend to Czevbourne
straight away. He has time to heal him naturally, before using his mumbo
jumbo, which works, and Czevbourne survives to be restored to
consciousness. Davros isn't so lucky, and Gruff doesn't manage his slim
chance of helping him. Unfortunately, Czevbourne's crystal ball is now
quite broken. After a few minutes people are hauled back out of the pit,
and everyone considers what to do next.
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