# Bladesmith chronicles The Age of Worms (updated 3/7/07)



## BladeSmith (Jan 12, 2007)

Bladesmith chronicles The Age of Worms

Inspired by the works of a few others on these boards, I decided to once again take up my pen (keyboard) and chronicle the lives of 8 heroes as they struggle against the impending doom of the Age of Worms.  So without further ado...

Bladesmith presents, The Age of Worms.

*Table of Contents*

Prelude

*Chapter 1 - The Whispering Cairn*
A gathering of allies.
Into the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever
Out of the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever
Empty Tombs Do Not Remain So For Long
Roasted Bugs, Wolf Pancakes, and Eyeball Kabobs
Release Me
Tomb Spelunking
A Wet End and A Dead End
Gricks and Ghosts


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## BladeSmith (Jan 12, 2007)

*Prelude*

NOT THE STUFF OF LEGEND:

_Gorin_, dwarf, leader.  A devout paladin who was banished from his mountain home for teaching the ways of Mordain to outsiders, he hopes to one day regain his honor and his clan.

_Gwendolyn_, Gnome.  A skilled healer, her easygoing nature makes her a wonderful companion.  She is drawn to adventure for the experience and the fun.

_Amethyst_, elf, monk.  Throwing off the shackles of tradition, she sought a deeper path. However well intentioned her quest for enlightenment began, she has lost herself in the lands un-walked by ocean dwellers.

_Damon_, magic-user.  He loathes the fiendish origins of his power, but loves the power itself.  He struggles to maintain his control of it, lest the power rend his very soul.

_Sethrie _ _Moonmeadow_, Ti’ral’s sister, magic-user.  Naturally skilled with magic, she loves learning anything and everything.  The wizard to whom she is apprenticed insists that only so much learning can come from books, and that true knowledge comes with experience.  It is at his urging that she begins this adventure.

_Ti’ral Moonmeadow_, Sethrie’s sister, rogue.  The only thing sharper than her blade is her tongue.  Her elfish grace enhances her formidable talents at stealth and acquisition.  

_Crunch Half-Orc_, descendant of One-Ear.  His mixed heritage gives him strength unknown by normal men.  He dislikes fighting, but once engaged will dispatch his enemies with skill and efficiency.

_Janie Lorebringer_, Halfling, druid.  An ancient prophesy spoke of a girl born with a lightning bolt mark who would return lost knowledge to the world.  Janie bears that mark on her left shoulder.  

THESE EIGHT HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE THE WORLD, IF THEY CAN FIND IT WITHIN THEMSELVES.


Prelude:

To call Diamond Lake a muddy little smudge on the edge of the map is probably a compliment the town doesn’t deserve.  The crystalline waters of the lake from which the town derived its name have long since turned into a brownish polluted sludge.  Diamond Lake is a town wholly devoted to mining, and the entertainment of miners when they aren’t mining.  It is in this grimy city of immorality that we set the stage for our adventure.

14 years ago – City of Rastor – Deep in the Lortmil Mountains

	Gorin sat quietly, waiting in anticipation.  He was in the Great Hall, the only cavern large enough to hold the majority of his clan.  The hall was as quiet as any room filled with several thousand stomping dwarven boots could be.  High in the alcove, a door opened and the leaders of the council walked forward to address the crowd.  Gorin looked into the eyes of those leaders, and his heart sank.  He knew the answer they were about to give.

“Gorin of the Stronghammer Clan, Stand and face your accusers,” came the voice of Celene, High Priestess of Mordain and current Head of the Council.  “You stand accused of heresy.  We have heard the arguments from both sides and are prepared to deliver our judgment.  You taught the ways of Mordain, God of the Dwarves, to outsiders.  This is FACT.  By the laws of our people, this heresy is punishable by death.  This is FACT.  However, this council is not blind to the service you have done to the church.  You are henceforth stripped of all rank and privilege and BANISHED from our lands.  You may walk from these mountains with your life and your shame, but know this.  If you ever return, we will throw you off the highest peaks, Oath Breaker.”

	The old dwarf beside Gorin put his hand on the exiles shoulder.  “I’m sorry friend,” Dain whispered.  “Your family’s armor will be hidden for you near the springtime herding grounds.  I fear that you will need its protection in the lands of exile.”

10 years ago – City of Diamond Lake

A young elf by the name of Ti’ral quietly approached another young elf gently drawing in the sand.  Sethrie, who was none the wiser of her sister stealthily sneaking up on her, was thoroughly enjoying the breeze blowing lazily about the garden.  Ti’ral stood behind her for a moment, enjoying the game, before suddenly reaching out and grabbing her by the shoulder and whispering “Gotcha” in her ear.  Sethrie shrieked out a yell and spun around in alarm.  The magic coursed through her unbidden or called for and lashed out at her assailant in a flash of lavender light.  Ti’ral stood dumbfounded as a swatch of her dark brown hair turned a violent shade of purple.  “Wow, I didn’t know you could do magic Sethrie.  Do it again.”  Sethrie looked down at her hands as though they belonged to some strange creature and not herself.  “I didn’t know I could do it either,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

Allustan Neff, a friendly wizard and the smartest man in Diamond Lake, observed the scene from atop his horse.  He had felt the tingle of magic and paused to observe the girls.  A grin stole across his face.  “This is good,” he thought to himself, “I’ve been meaning to hire an apprentice, and it seems as though one has been provided for me.”  Less than an hour later he had a note penned up and delivered to the Moonmeadow residence. Sethrie began her lessons soon after.


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## BladeSmith (Jan 12, 2007)

*A Gathering Of Allies*

Chapter 1 - The Whispering Cairn

	Ti’ral looked at the money on the table, looked at her cards, and then cracked a grin.  These guys were so bad at Three Dragon Ante that she didn’t have to cheat.  She was playing an honest game and beating them soundly.  Working at The Emporium had lots of advantages for the young rogue with good slight of hand skills.  Her pay was based on a percentage of her table’s winnings, so she made sure her table won a lot.  Another bonus of the job was the ability to listen and know the comings and goings of the town.  Of all the places on the Vein to separate a miner from his money, The Emporium was by far the most upstanding and lavish, attracting the best and wealthiest clientele in town.

	Ti’ral laid her cards on the table with a flourish, “Silver dragon flight boys, pay up!”  Still grinning as she collected her winnings, she noticed three strangers enter the upstairs lobby.  The first was a well muscled and handsome man, obviously a fighter of some sort by the number of weapon sheaths he had strapped to him.  His weapons were most likely downstairs with the doorman as Zalamandra, the owner of The Emporium, maintained a strict no fighting policy.  He had on a magnificent red belt that featured a haunted woman’s face for a buckle that stood out in contrast to his highly polished blue armor.  Next up the stairs came a balding dark haired human with a high collared red cape over a green jerking and pants.  If Ti’ral had to guess, this man was a magic user, noticing the pouches and scroll cases dangling from his belt.  The third member of this trio was a female elf whose dark armor and hooded cloak spoke of somebody who liked the shadows.

	“Ok, gentlemen, I believe you have had enough gambling for the evening,” suggested Ti’ral.  She shooed them off to make room for the newcomers should they be in a gambling mood.  Sure enough, once the table freed up the three walked over and sat down.  “I’m Auric,” said the warrior, “and these are my companions Terra and Khellek.  We’re looking for some information.”   Ti’ral introduced herself and dealt him and Khellek a hand, Terra opting out of the game.  “What can I do for you?” Ti’ral asked while surveying her hand.  “We are looking for directions to the Stirgnest Cairn.”  Ti’ral played a black dragon, “Its a few days ride from here.  What are you looking for?  It’s just a musty old tomb.”  “We’re adventurers from the Free City and we’ve heard there was treasure in it,” said Auric while adding a white dragon to his flight.  “What on earth makes you think there would be any treasure in it?  Nobody is buried with treasure around here anymore,” Ti’ral said.  “Khellek here is a member of the—“, Auric stopped suddenly as Khellek kicked him under the table.  “Hrm—Khellek knows of a group of explorers that vanished in a Cairn near here seeking treasure some time ago, and we’re here to finish their work.”  “Yea, good luck with that,” laughed Ti’ral while laying a final dragon card onto the table to win the hand, “no seriously, the best way to get directions would be to head to the west end of town toward the garrison.  Dietrik Cicaeda is the cartographer there and he has maps of this area and well beyond.  I’m sure he can get you what you need.”  “Thanks for the game and the info,” Auric said with a bow and he and Khellek tossed their coins onto the table to cover their bets.

	This was exciting news to Ti’ral.  If they were looking for treasure, then there was still treasure to be found.  She just happened to know that the adventuring party that perished didn’t do it in the Stirgnest Cairn like Auric believed, but in the much closer Whispering Cairn.  The Whispering Cairn is a local haunt for all the younger people in Diamond Lake, because the wind blowing through the opening sounds very much like voices whispering on the wind.  The kids use it as a test of bravery to cross the very threshold, and only the bravest few have ventured into the tomb at all.  Ti’ral had noticed the ring Khellek wore, a golden shiny thing with an eight pointed star and a ruby gem in its center.  At first she noted it only for its value, but the mention of the cairns dredged up a memory of something Sethrie had told her.  A story of adventurers sponsored by the Seekers, tomb robbers who claimed to be archeologists, who perished deep in the Whispering Cairn that she had herd from her patron, the wizard Allustan.  That eight pointed star was the Seeker symbol.

	Ti’ral went looking for her companions that were also employed in The Emporium.  She found Amethyst hanging over the side of her tank delivering a story full of morals to the youth of the town.  Ti’ral didn’t really listen, but the tale had something to do with the consequences of disobeying ones parents.  “Now go home little ones, and remember to mind your elders,” she said and she gracefully slipped below the surface of the water and disappeared with a flick of her tail, gently splashing those children sitting closest to the tank.  Ti’ral smirked.  Once the children had departed, Amethyst hopped out of the tank, her tail transforming into slender legs before she hit the ground.  “Hiya Tira, toss me that towel.”  “Guess what,” Ti’ral asked, tossing her the towel, “It’s time for an adventure…I know where there might be some treasure still hidden in one of the old cairns.  Lets gather our friends and meet up at the old mine office off Elmshire Road.  Go tell Damon when he’s done making rabbits pop out of hats or whatever it is he does in that pyrotechnic show of his and round up the dwarf.  I’ll go drag my sis away from her book pile and find the others.  Let’s meet up around sunset.” And with that she was out the door so quickly as to have vanished into the very air.  “Ok”, Amethyst said to the empty doorway where her stealthy friend was standing seconds before, slightly bewildered.

	Amethyst found Damon wrapping up his show with a finale full of explosions that earned him the stage name “The Combustible Mage” and after a brief discussion agreed that they could both use a good adventure.  Convincing Gorin was a little more difficult, but that probably had something to do with the fact that they barged in on his daily devotions.  Gorin did eventually agree to go and assigned a low level knight\acolyte named Dobrun to cover for him for a few days.  They stopped by Commander Trask’s office to let him know that they would be stealing Gorin for a few days.  Trask gave him a few days off and requested that he send a message should he need longer.  “Hurry back though.  We can’t afford to lose such a fine dwarf for too long,” Trask chuckled.  “Bah, no amount of flattery is going to make me come back and help you with those performance evaluations my friend,” Gorin stated with a nod to the small mountain of paperwork on Trask’s desk. 

Sethrie was quite thoroughly enjoying herself, curled up by the fireplace as she was, enjoying a good book.  At least she thought it was a good book.  Most people would probably have said that the 1500 page Chronicles of the Choinese Empire would make a better doorstop than an afternoon read, but to Sethrie, it was a good book.  Sethrie noticed her sister enter, but ignored her until she had finished her page.  “So, you want me to become some tomb robbing adventurer,” she asked cynically when Ti’ral had finished her story.  “I still have a lot of studying to do,” she continued, cutting Ti’ral’s reply short, “I’m not ready for an adventure”

“Yes you are,” spoke a deep friendly voice from the back office.  This voice belonged to the Master Wizard to whom she was apprenticed, Allustan.  “You should go on an adventure, though I do have a few tricks I can provide to help you feel more comfortable with the idea.  Go get your spell book and join me in the garden please.”  Ti’ral decided to stay for the show and followed Sethrie and Allustan out to his peaceful herb garden.

“I know how much you enjoy blowing stuff up, but for this lesson a simple Light spell will do.  I happen to like this garden and don’t need any more of it burned, frozen, or blasted apart,” he quipped with a grin.  “Oh for crying out loud, how many times do I need to apologize for that?  The tree was dying anyway,” complained the teased apprentice.  “Ok, go ahead and cast a light spell on something,” Allustan instructed.  Sethrie gave her sister a sideways glance, dug some phosphorescent moss out of her spell component pouch, and clearly spoke the words of magic to the spell, _“Won Thgil.”  _ She spoke the words perfectly and her sister’s blouse began to glow brightly, causing her to yelp in surprise. “Nicely done Sethrie,” said Allustan while taking the moss from her hand, “now dismiss it and do it again.”  “The spell requires moss, or a firefly of which I have none.  How can I cast the spell without the components?” Sethrie questioned.  

“Who governs? You or the magic?  What would happen if you were in a dungeon and an enemy managed to take or destroy your spell component pouch?  Would you simply lie down and die?  It is possible to cast spells that require minor components without using them.  The materials act only as a focus for your mind.  I’m quite sure that your mind can focus well enough without it.  Now try it again.”  Allustan stood and waited.  Sethrie gathered her hair and twisted it into a quick knot to keep it out of her face while she concentrated.  _“Won Thgil,”_ she intoned again, this time with a look of concentration on her face.  Ti’ral’s blouse once again began to glow brightly.  “Would you stop that?” glared Ti’ral.  “This trick is only useful for mundane components.  If a spell requires something special or costly, it will still be required as the magic itself must pass through the object, and not simply your thoughts,” said Allustan with an approving smile.  “Come see me before you go.  I have a book that I think you might find useful.  Where are you meeting your friends?”  Ti’ral spoke up with the answer, “We told the others that we would meet them at the old Fant Mine office around sunset.”

“Oh really,” mused Allustan.  “Then perhaps you can do me a favor while your there Tira.  Ulgo Fant was actually a fellow scholar and friend of mine.  I was greatly saddened by his disappearance, which as you know, means untimely death in this town.  Such is the nature of being an honest man in a dishonest industry.  He found a relic of the Chaos War in his mine once.  He promised to safeguard the item lest it fall into evil hands.  After his death I searched both his home and his office for the item, but found neither hide nor hair of it.  Your chosen profession has undoubtedly made much better at finding and acquiring things than I would ever be.  Just keep an eye out for anything unusual while your there.  If you do find the relic, be careful with it.  Ulgo had some training in common with you, so the item or its surroundings will undoubtedly be trapped.”

Ti’ral and Sethrie found the rest of their companions enjoying a late lunch at the Spinning Giant.  Gwendolyn and Janie were engaged with a conversation over the use of herbs and plants as a supplement to the healing magic.  Crunch was engaged in a fierce battle with what appeared to be the remains of a ham sandwich.  It looked like Crunch was winning, but barely.  Ti’ral vaulted across the table to land gracefully next to Crunch, while Sethrie slid into a seat next to the diminutive healers.  Crunch and Janie were immediately up for the idea of a tomb exploration adventure, but Gwendolyn needed some more convincing.  “While the thought of an adventure does sound fun, why does it have to be some stuffy old tomb?” Gwendolyn asked.  “Because it’s a tomb filled with treasure, that’s why.  It’s also the best place to find some poor soul that needs to be returned to their final slumber,” said Ti’ral, knowing full well what that she had won the point with her last statement.  “Your right, the dead deserve to stay dead.  I’m in.  Any adventure that lets me vanquish undead is a good adventure.”

After some quick supply gathering stops, they headed toward the mine office to meet the rest of their companions.  Tira burst through the door with a flourish, causing it to slam into the wall with a bang.  A quick glance around the room confirmed two things.  First, that Amethyst had been successful in recruiting the rest of their friends for this adventure, and second, that this mine office was in dire need of some repairs.  “Shall we begin the journey to fame and fortune?  First though, Allustan asked me to help him try to find something that might be hidden here, but it should only take a few minutes.  Then we can go adventuring.”  After Tira explained the situation, they split up to quickly search the house. None of them wanted to delay too long with thoughts of adventure calling to them like whispers on the wind that blew through the roofless husk of a building.

[DM Note: This ends the story intro.  The tale now follows the whims and desires of the PCs.]


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## BladeSmith (Feb 12, 2007)

*Into the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever*

Into the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever

Tira spotted the hidden door buried amongst the rubble in the basement without problem.  The reason it was painfully obvious, was because it stood open, the rubble having been shifted out of the way by somebody prior to their arrival.  Through the doorway Tira could see a long hallway stretching before her.  She called to her friends, then began creeping down the hallway, searching for traps.

Just after the corridor took a left turn, she found a trap.  Again, it was easy to spot, because it had been sprung.  A double bladed axe hung down from the ceiling of the corridor like an evil pendulum.  There was blood on its edge.  Further down the corridor there was a singed and blackened section of wall.  Tira was unable to locate a trap here, so presumed it has already been sprung as well.

As the corridor continued to spiral inward, the companions continued to creep forward, allowing Tira time to scout for traps.  Tira continued to find sprung traps, including a scythe sticking out from a wall, an open pit, more scorch marks, shattered glass, an open pit with spikes, and poison tipped blades sticking out of the floor.  The open pits proved to be a problem for the shorter members of the party, but Crunch happily tossed them the distance without problem.  Gorin refused to be tossed and made the jump under his own power.  He simultaneously discovered that a five foot jump is actually farther than it looks and that dwarves aren’t very aerodynamic.  Gwendolyn caught him as he teetered on the edge of the really long drop.  They continued to move forward, Crunch bringing up the rear.  

Tira signaled for the others to hold and be silent.  She had reached the center of the maze and found a humanoid figure crouching over an object in the corner.  Ducking down, Tira stealthily crept up on the figure.  The corpse in the corner didn’t seem to care.  Further examination show the figure to be a human female in torn, burnt, and bloody clothing crouching over a chest.  From the looks of it, she survived the traps in the corridor only to succumb to the final trap laid on the chest.  The masterwork tools scattered about the floor quickly made their way into Tira’s possession.  

Gorin removed a few valuable items from the dead rogue including several masterwork weapons and a nice cloak that Damon said radiated magic.  Tira meanwhile studied the chest, determining that it was unlocked, but still trapped.  Aided by her new tools, she made quick work of the trap and popped open the lid.

Piles of coins and a very large diamond sparkled up at them from the chest.  This represented more money than any of them had ever seen.  Tira noticed the chest had a false bottom, and after removing the money pried it loose.  At the bottom of the chest lay a metal rod with an inscription winding around it like a tightly curled snake.  Sethrie studied it for a moment, and then translated:

_“My first is born but once and dies Nine Deaths. 
My middle is the Heart of Alarm. 
My last arranges locks of Golden Thread, 
And can be found on the Morning Caller’s head.
Putting the Three together into One,
You find a place of Sleep untouched by the Sun.”_

The companions pondered these words, and Damon affirmed that the rod was in fact radiating strong chaotic magic.  This was defiantly the item Allustan was looking for.  They agreed that the first part of the word was “cat”, but when combined with “lar” and “bow” it didn’t seem to produce anything.  Many variations were suggested, until Tira spoke up with “Cat-A-Comb”.  The rod activated at once, drawing upon the chaotic energies stored within it, and blasted Tira with a blinding violet ray.   As the sparkles faded from their eyes, the companions looked at Tira with various expressions ranging from shock and bewilderment to a huge grin on Janie’s face.  “You look good in purple Tira.  I bet you’ll be even harder to see in the shadows now”, stated the Halfling with laughter bubbling out of her huge grin.  

Looking at her skin, an almost identical color as the purple swatch of hair flowing down her bangs, she decided this was probably a good thing, but only time would tell.  She might have to work on her disguise skills some to avoid unnecessary attention.  “Ok, enough fun, we’ve found what Allustan wants, lets go,” Tira said as she closed the lid on the much emptier chest.  The lid closed with a slam, followed by an ominous tic-tic-tic-tic sound.  Gorin was still in the hallway and bellowed an alarm.  “Tira, help!  The traps are closing, and I think I’m standing on one.”


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## BladeSmith (Feb 13, 2007)

*Out of the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever*

Out of the Most Heavily Trapped Corridor Ever

Gorin felt the magical energies wash over him, trying to overwhelm his senses with foreboding and doom.  Mustering dwarven courage, he shook off the effects of the fear trap with a growl.  “Tira, come turn this thing off before we end up like that crispy rogue in the corner.”  Tira selected the proper tool from her kit and disabled the pressure plate upon which the slightly shaken dwarf was standing.  

Navigating the corridor in reverse proved to be a harrowing experience as the companions watched Tira creep forward, detecting and disabling the deadly traps.  Astounding her friends, Tira continued to disable the traps with a skill that they would not have given the young rogue credit for having.  Perhaps she grew over confident, or perhaps it is simply impossible to successfully disarm 12 traps in a row without making a mistake.  Either way, the result was the same.  Tira made two astounding mistakes on the final two traps.  Her friends watched from a safe distance as a huge fireball blasted her from the ceiling, and a scythe lashed out from the wall and tore a huge chunk out of her right shoulder.  She slammed into the wall with a grunt and slid down into unconsciousness.  Janie and Gwendolyn both rushed forward to help, but Janie got their first.  With a whispered prayer to Yondalla, Janie sent natural healing energies into her friend.

Tira’s eyes blinked open and she groaned, “That wasn’t quite the way I had that planned.  Lets try that again, but with out the flame and blades this time.”  One more near miss with the pendulum, and Tira had them safely out of the corridor of doom and into the basement.  Gwendolyn cast a few spells of her own and got the rogue back to full health.  

After the traumatic exploration of the trapped corridor, the companions decided it would be best to wait until the following morning to head to the Whispering Cairn.  Their healers were almost out of magic, and with their newfound wealth they could pick up some provisions that were out of their price range before.  Several members of the party went into town to pick up some alchemical supplies and potions that might prove useful, while Tira and Sethrie headed to Allustans place to deliver the chaotic rod to him.

Allustan took the rod from them gently, holding it the way one would hold a poisonus snake, as far away as possible.  “Unbelievable,” scolded Allustan.  “Sethrie, how could you let your sister speak the activation word on an unknown magic item?  I presume you know what it is now?  I don’t suppose you bothered to look it up in the Arms and Equipment Guide that I gave you?  No, of course not.  This is a Rod of Wonder.  Every time it’s activated it generates a random magic effect.  It can cause harmeless effects, like growing grass, or summoning a mouse.  It can, however, also summon powerfull magic, that could have killed you all.  Tira, I’m sorry to say the magic of this rod is well beyond my own.  I’m afraid you are stuck like that for the time being.  Now be gone, both of you.”

On their walk back to the mine office, Sethrie and Tira discussed the ramifications of being purple, and came to the conclusion that it might just be a good thing.  “At least you match,” Sethrie said with a yawn.  It had been an exciting day, and she was looking forward to spreading out a bedroll and sleeping off the effects of seeing her sister torched and slashed.  In the morning they could start on a real adventure, though all things considered, the day had been quite productive.  As they reached the mine office, the heard their companions talking excitedly about the potions and alchemy items the bought.  Things that were unobtainable this morning were now buyable with their newly acquired wealth.  Healing potions and alchemist’s fire were adventuring staples, and now they had them.  As conversations dwindled into the night, the group laid down for sleep, each person nursing their own thoughts of the wonders that an ancient tomb might contain.

Sethrie did manage to stay awake long enough to look up the magical cloak they found in her Arms and Equipment Guide from Allustan.  The cloak turned out to be a cloak of resistance.  Being the frailest member of their party, she decided to keep it.  A magic item and a good sum of money, and they hadn’t even left town yet.  All adventures should begin this way she thought with a smile as sleep took her into its embrace.


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## BladeSmith (Feb 14, 2007)

*Empty Tombs Do Not Remain So For Long.*

Empty Tombs Do Not Remain So For Long.

A few hours of brisk walking brought the well rested companions to the entrance of the tomb known as the Whispering Cairn.  Now that they stood on its threshold, they understood the name.  A sibilant whispering hissed out through the entrance.  The tomb entrance was little more than an archway into a dirt mound, but once inside, it appeared to be much more.  The hallway was enormous, leading into the darkness, with deep alcoves spreading out to the sides.

Sethrie was unnerved by the whispering wind, swearing she could hear words like “hopeless”, “sacrilege”, and “enemies” in the echoes.  The others heard no words, but were unsettled just the same.  The first alcove explored yielded a bundle of cloth about the size of a Halfling.  The younger members of the party remembered a girl who went missing a few years ago while spending the night in this tomb.  The savaged bedroll spoke of a brief struggle, and the blood spoke of its ending.  Janie noticed that there were a great many wolf tracks in the dust, and guessed that the girl had become dinner for a nearby wolf pack.

Another alcove contained a strange object shaped like an overly large nobles mirror, only the mirror was missing and the frame was broken.  Sethrie noticed writing at the bottom of the mirror and after a quick study determined that it said “Icosiol” in an ancient dialect of the air language, Auran.  She surmised that the mirror was once a teleportation ring leading to another cairn, presumably Icosiol’s.  The ring was long since broken and meant nothing to them now, so the pressed onward.  

They approached a room that branched out in two other hallways to the left and right of their own.  Tira was in the lead, and was therefore the first to notice the growling coming from the rightmost passageway.  She barely had time to yelp an alarm before they were upon her.  Three wolves ran out of the hallway, intent upon eating the interlopers who entered their domain.  Two of the mangy creatures looked like they hadn’t eaten in days.  The third wolf was larger than the others, and didn’t look hungry at all.  It had a scar bisecting its face into two very angry parts.

The wolves were upon their pray before anybody had a chance to act.  Biting and tearing they brought Tira to the ground and attacked her ferociously.  Amethyst, Gorin, and Crunch rushed up to help the prone rogue, while the magic users brought unseen powers to bear on the wolves.  The fighting drove Crunch into a rage, giving him the strength to split one of the wolves nearly in two.  The other wolves finally fell to a flurry of blows from Amethyst, and the fell energies of a blast from Damon.  It was a quick battle, but one that left Tira wondering if she might want to invest her money into some new armor.  

Searching down the tunnel the wolves came from yielded their nest, which was rank with the smell decaying flesh and wet fur.  Tira made quick work of the search, holding her breath for as much of it as possible.  Under a pile of bones that was unmistakably human, she found a backpack containing a few trinkets, and two items of curiosity.  The first was the index finger of a marble statue, and the second was a beautifully carved indigo lantern.  Damon tested the items for magic, and found that the lantern was magical.  A brief discussion ensued as to what to do with the lantern.  It was decided to light it, despite Sethrie’s warnings against operating an unknown magical item.  In the end, they produced nothing more than a beautifully flickering blue light.  This stark contrast to the green light in the chamber caused them to wonder the source of the green glow.  Looking for the source, they noticed that the north wall of the chamber wasn’t a wall at all, but an archway completely covered with thick spider webs, and that the flickering green glow was coming from beyond them.

As this search was ensuing, Gorin explored the other alcove.  From the center of the dais at the end of the other alcove, he could see a beautiful fresco in an almost 360 degree panorama.  The walls were painted as to provide the illuson of standing in a great chamber with 7 hallways branching out from it.  At the end of these hallways was a thick chain hanging form unknown heights, and a lantern.  There was a different colored lantern in each hallway, producing a rainbow of light; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Gorin had no idea what it could mean, but it was beautifully done.  

The others had meanwhile gathered in front of the doorway full of spider webs.  Tira was looking at them with no small amount of fear.  Gorin came forward and gave Tira a gentle shove, saying “In you go lass.”  Tira shrieked spun out of his grasp with a nimble twist and glared at the dwarf, blade at the ready.  “Don’t even think about it Gorin.” She spat. “I hate spiders.”  “Wuss” snickered Crunch as he swept aside the webs, causing a dozen spiders to skitter away into the flickering darkness.

The party, including a very nervous rogue, proceeded through the archway and down the stairs into a vast domed chamber.  Gorin stared at the chamber, and was immediately reminded of the fresco in the alcove he had just explored.  This chamber had seven hallways branching from it, each with chains hanging down.  There were lanterns hanging from most of the chains.  The green lantern was lit, which was the source of the flickering green glow.  The orange, yellow, blue, and violet lanterns where also hanging from their chains, but unlit.  The red and indigo lanterns were not present.

In the center of the chamber was a sarcophagus bearing a marble statue of a humanoid figure with elongated features.  This statue was missing a finger.  Gorin also noticed that the sarcophagus was shaped like an arrow, pointing toward the hallway containing the orange lantern.  Janie noticed that the statue of the funny shaped man was missing a finger, and wanted to attach the one they found.  Tira held her up, to do a quick trap check.  She found one, and successfully disabled it, then motioned for Janie to continue.  When the finger was in place, they noticed that it pointed toward the hallway with the blue lantern.

Gorin decided it would be a good idea to light all the lanterns, but was too short, so Damon did the deed, also placing the indigo lantern in the appropriate hallway.  With all the lanterns lit, the room glowed with a rainbow of light.  The ceiling of the dome became visible, and it was sprinkled with shiny reflective mirrors, providing the illusion of a star filled sky above them.

Tira opened the sarcophagus after having disabled the trap, but found it empty, not just of items, but empty of a corpse as well.  Sethrie studied the writing on the sarcophagus and determined the name of the man depicted, Zosiel.  All of the hallways seemed to dead end at their lanterns.  The party was disappointed at this lack of progression until they happened upon an interesting discovery.  The arrow shaped dais rotated.  As the arrow pointed toward the yellow tunnel, a circular column arose from the ground at the end of the yellow tunnel, and opened to reveal a chamber large enough for a single medium sized humanoid.  Gorin ventured a guess that it was a transport device, and volunteered to enter.  Nobody else was keen on being the first one down the creepy shaft in a tomb, so no resistance was offered to this suggestion.

Gorin tested the elevator with a coin first, and satisfied, entered the cylinder which immediately shut and lowered.  The companions waited for several tense moments, before the dwarf popped back up.  “There is a small chamber with a hallway headed away from the transport shaft.  I couldn’t see down it, there was a stone blocking most of the tunnel.”  The party debated exploring, but decided to first see what happened when they pointed the dais at other tunnels first.

Pointing the arrow dais at the next hallway, the green caused a minor earthquake and a grinding noise.  “It’s stuck,” suggested Gorin, “turn it away and back again, and see if we can un-jam it.”  The second time they tried it, the floor cover popped up a little, but got stuck again.  After the third attempt to access the green transport cylinder, there was a horrible grinding crunching noise, and the entire contraption and a large section of floor caved in and fell into the depths below.

Gorin peered over the edge to see what was below.  “See anything Gorin?” Crunch asked.  “Yes, I see a whole bunch of darkness,” came the reply. “Now hush, I think I hear something.”  Gorin returned to the party and warned then that he heard noise coming from the darkness, the sound of thousands of little crawly things chattering away.  There wasn’t much time to discuss the matter, as two swarms of beetles and a very large spider shaped creature with a single eye as a body came out of the newly created hole.  The beetles were making a lot of noise as they advanced, trailing yellow acid in their wake.  The companions looked at one another wondering what they could do.  “Got any spells that could help sis?” Tira asked quietly.  “None that I have memorized,” Sethrie replied.


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## BladeSmith (Feb 15, 2007)

*Roasted Bugs, Wolf Pancakes, and Eyeball Kabobs*

Roasted Bugs, Wolf Pancakes, and Eyeball Kabobs

The others turned to fight the spider creature, as Gorin quickly riffled through his pack looking for something.  “Ah-ha,” he exclaimed, “found it.  Burn critters.”  He hurled two flasks of alchemist’s fire with heroic accuracy, catching both swarms in the deadly conflagration.  They swarms screamed but continued to advance, but the nature of alchemist’s fire causes the flaming substance to stick to whatever it strikes, continuing to burn.  The swarms scattered, but it made no difference, they all burned.  The eyeball spider with pointy limbs succumbed easily to the martial prowess of amethyst and crunch. Sethrie and Damon added their arcane and eldritch talents toward the slaughter, both blasting it with powerful spells.

As the party recovered from the battle, Gorin and Damon continued to rotate the sarcophagus toward the other hallways.  The blue and indigo hallways yielded no interesting results, but the violet hallway raised another transport cylinder.  Gorin was again going to enter the tube first to ensure its safety when Damon laid a hand on his shoulder.  “Look friend, what do you see?”  “A transport thingy, why?” Gorin replied.  “Look closer,” was the only response he got from Damon.  Gorin was about to argue when he saw what it was that had caught the warlock’s attention.  There were bits of bone and flesh inside the cylinder.  “Trapped?” asked the dwarf.  “Only one way to find out,” Damon replied.  Fetching a wolf corpse from the corridor, they tossed the creature into the transport cylinder.  It sealed and lowered as expected.  Less than two dozen heartbeats later it rose again from the floor and opened.  The two looked down upon a very flat wolf corpse.  

Rotating the dais toward the exit, or the hallway with the missing red lantern yielded no more transport cylinders, so the companions decided to begin exploring the area under the yellow hall.  One at a time they were transported down into a small chamber, connected to a hallway blocked by a stone block.  The block was obviously a sprung trap, so they decided to tip it over and out of the way.  The strongest members of the party lined up and pushed on the stone slab.  Crunch pulled a muscle and was unable to help, but Tira made up for his disability without a problem.  The half-orc was unmercifully taunted by Janie for the rest of the afternoon for being shown up in a strength contest by an elf that was quite literally half his size.

The stone slab fell into the hallway with a resounding ka-boom, followed by a cloud of dust.  The hallway was beautifully arched and lined with statues holding their hands cupped, with expressions of adulation and homage.  Gas poured out of their open mouths, mingling with the dust cloud.  It was only then that Tira realized that the stone slab wasn’t a fallen block trap; it was a pressure plate trap, like the one she had failed to notice in the treasure chest.  She mentally scolded herself as she endeavored to not sneeze the dust and not breathe the gas.  She failed on both counts, as did several other members of the party.  The poison coursed through her body, sapping her strength.

The poison gas dissipated quickly in the windy chamber, though nobody could tell exactly where the wind was coming from.  As they passed the first row of statues, Gorin tossed a coin into their hands.  He was rather surprised when the coin floated above the cupped hands instead of clinking into their palms.  The companions played with the statues for a brief time, but could figure out no purpose for the levitating of small objects.  Gorin collected his coins, noticing that there were fewer coins in his hand than he had started with.  “Oi, rogue, cough it up,” he barked.  “Sorry Gor, just practicing.  Gotta keep the skills sharp ya know,” Tir’al said with a grin as she tossed the wayward coins to him.

The lurking strangler was hiding in an alcove behind the last row of statues.  It had been trapped in this tomb for over a week, and it really wanted to go home to its master, the Faceless One.  The retched creature had come exploring the cairns around Diamond Lake at his request, and had gotten stuck here a short time after.  It had fled to the corner as it saw the adventurers approaching.  Hoping that they would pass it buy, it planned to slip past them and escape up the transport cylinder that had come down with them.  Tira knew none of this, of course, and upon seeing the aberration lurking in the corner, let out a startled warning and drew her blade.  

Sethrie herd her sister’s cry and summoned the magic to her.  “_Edalb Tnatsisrep A Nommus I_,” she spoke causing a magical sword to float before her.  “Help my sister, slay her foe,” were her commands.  The sword sped through the hallway and tore into the back of the strangler.  The strangler’s single eye opened wide in shock and pain, causing it to lower its tentacles a little.  Never more than this instant had the lurking strangler wished it could speak.  It would have begged for mercy, it only wanted to go home.  These were its final thoughts.  Sethrie’s blade had distracted it, lowering its guard.  Tira took that opportunity to run her rapier straight through the single unblinking eye.  “Now that’s just gross,” Tira noted with disgust as she wiped the eye juice and blood off onto her trousers.

At the end of the statue laden hallway another hallway branched out to the left and right.  Choosing the right most path, the companions found an infestation of thick brown mold.  The mold radiated a cold so intense they could not pass.  “Got any cold spells Sethrie?” Gorin asked. “We used to get this mold back home.  Fire feeds it, cold destroys it.”  Sethrie concentrated on the words “_Tsorf fo Yar_” and a thin blue line erupted from the tip of her finger.  Pointing at the mold, she saw that Gorin was right.  The mold turned to dust and ash, obviously dead.  The source of the mold was an old washbasin full of thick brown paste that they surmised might once have been food.  There was writing above the arch just opposite the basin leading into a darkened room.  Sethrie translated, “Nadroc’s Workshop.”  

The companions were about to enter the room when they heard the scouting rogue, “Um, guys, I think I found another trap over here.”  Following the corridor which turned out to be a loop, they found what had attracted Tira’s attention on the far side of the center column.  There was a workbench, set into an alcove.  A giant stone block had fallen from the ceiling and lay nestled on top of the workbench.  The remarkable part of this scene was the pair of legs standing in front of the workbench, the torso of this person having gone missing somewhere between the workbench and the stone block.


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## BladeSmith (Feb 16, 2007)

*Release Me*

Release Me

Tira found the trigger for the block trap, which rose silently into the ceiling above.  The corpse, freed from the block, slithered to the floor, leaving pieces of broken ribs and skull behind on the desk.  Looking over the corpse of the dead Seeker, Damon determined that his chain mail shirt was magical, as were several of the uncrushed tools in the alcove.  Sethrie pulled out her book and began to quickly cross reference.  After several minutes of study she declared the mail to have a protective enhancement, there were two wands charged with arcane spells, and a pair of goggles that she said would let Tira find hidden things better.  Tira tried them on and was astounded; they magnified her vision, allowing her to see into nooks and crannies without having to stoop over to examine them.

The adjacent room was obviously Nadroc’s sleeping chamber.  A quick search yielded nothing of interest, which led them back to the workshop.  There was a large marble block that was taking on the visage of a wind duke wielding a seven segmented staff dominating the room.  There was also an egg on a pedestal in one corner; the egg bearing a strange symbol.  The companions turned to Sethrie, while Damon tested it for magic.  Sethrie wracked her brain, looking for this symbol, and finding it in a history of the chaos war.  “This was the personal device of Ogremoch, an elemental prince of evil.  His forces joined the Queen of Chaos during the battle at Pesh, the final battle of the law/chaos war.  This is obviously something evil,” Sethrie surmised.  “It’s nothing but a hunk of rock, it has no magic about it,” Damon said after looking at the egg for a while.  Tira searched for hidden compartments, running her hand over the surface of the egg.  Two eyes appeared at the top of the egg, looking almost as large and surprised as Tira’s.  As Tira fell back toward her companions, the egg unfolded itself.  Taking on a roughly humanoid shape, it became apparent that they were standing face to face with a survivor of the war, an earth elemental and an enemy of the Wind Dukes.  It opened its mouth and a sound akin to boulders crunching over gravel came out.  Sethrie understood the request.  “It said ‘Release Me’,” she told the others.  “Stand away from the doorway; I’m going to talk to it.”  Speaking Terran, Sethrie told the elemental, “Ok, I release you.  You are free to go.”

The elemental looked dubious, but headed directly for the archway.  As it neared the door there was a blinding flash of light and the elemental was thrown back against the wall.  “What treachery is this Wind Duke?” it spat. “I will serve you no longer.”  It swung a massive fist of rock at Sethrie.  Though Gorin couldn’t understand the words, he fully understood their intent, stepping between the wizard and the elemental she had pissed off.  The battle engaged swiftly, with the elemental giving a few good hits, but receiving many more in tern.  Weakened, the elemental slipped into the floor and vanished.  The companions looked around, but didn’t have to wait long.  Artophanx popped up behind the dwarf and slammed him with a vicious two handed blow to the base of the skull, staggering the dwarf.  As pain bloomed in the base of his skull, Gorin turned and repaid the favor to the elemental, tearing a great rend across the body.  The elemental crumbled into a pile of rock and stone at his feet, as Gorin put his hand to his head.  “Ow,” he grumbled.  “That thing packed a punch.”  Gwendolyn cast her final heal spell of the day, easing his pain.

Finding nothing else of interest in the room, the party had one final door to explore.  Opening the door with caution, the companions stared into the small chamber with surprise.  Inside the room was a very old toilet.  Having had as much excitement as they could for one day, they decided to set up camp in the now fully explored Lair of the Architect.  None of them were willing to use the bed of the wind duke, so they spread out their rolls on the floor and set the watch rotation.  Gorin couldn’t resist the temptation and decided to try out the toilet.  It reminded him of similar contraptions that existed in his home at Rastor.  The toilet had withstood the ravages of time, but it couldn’t withstand the remnants of dwarven appetite and promptly clogged itself, never to function again.


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## BladeSmith (Feb 16, 2007)

*Tomb Spelunking*

Tomb Spelunking

Having spent the night curled up on the floor of the architect’s bedchamber, the party roused themselves, feeling rested.  More rested that they though possible sleeping in a long forgotten tomb deep underground.  With a final look around this level of the tomb, they agreed that it was time to explore the other chamber they had discovered; the one that was occupied by acid spewing beetles and eyeball spiders.  Sethrie took some time to rememorize her spells to be more appropriate for the task, in case they met any more swarms.

The companions ascended the lift and went to the green hallway.  The first thing they noticed was that the chamber was entirely green; the torches in the other lanterns having gone out some time during the night.  The sarcophagus had also realigned itself to point at the orange hallway, with its extended finger pointing toward the blue.  Paying this no mind, they approached the hole where the transport cylinder had fallen, and the beetles had ascended.  Gorin could see nothing within the hole, even with his dark vision.  “One rope isn’t going to do it, we’ll need at least two, maybe more,” he mused.  Damon and Tira pulled out ropes and added their lengths to his to make a very large pile of rope.  Securing the rope proved to be a challenge, but Gorin managed to find a large section of floor that hadn’t caved in to loop the rope around.  The companions began their slow descent into the darkness.  As they approached the bottom, the wind that normally lifted the transport cylinder began to whip past them with great force.  Damon slipped from the rope, burning his hands as the rope slid past him with increasing speed.  Gorin, who was already near the bottom, reached out and caught the skydiving warlock by his backpack.  He released Damon to fall the final 15 feet, knowing that it wouldn’t kill him now.

Damon landed in a grateful heap on top of the remains of the broken transport cylinder and the floor of the upper hallway that had crashed down yesterday.  Everybody else finished their descent without incident.  The chamber they were in was unoccupied, and had a small hallway leading into the darkness.  Sethrie studied the markings on the fallen lift and announced, “Lair of the Laborers.”  Tira took the lead and the party explored down the hallway, which quickly branched out to the right and left, as well as continuing straight.  She chose the left most path and continued scouting.  The hallway opened into a large chamber with many rows of beds.  A giant statue wielding a large hammer stood at the end of the room, giving the impression of a sentry watching over the beds.  Most of the beds were empty, but two were not.  The southwest most bed contained a corpse wearing seeker armor.  This seeker was posed as if sleeping; only his head had been crushed, as if a single blow had struck him down in his sleep.  Tira noticed that the other occupied bed contained something not human.  As she surveyed the room, the other shape stood up and shook itself a little, waking itself up.  The monstrosity looked like one of the beetles they had incinerated yesterday, only it was the size of a large dog.

The martial members of the party advanced on the well rested beetle, intent upon providing it with eternal slumber.  Amethyst, Gorin, Crunch, and Tira all landed telling blows on the creature.  The beetle lashed out, spraying Gorin and Crunch with a caustic acid, burning them both badly.  Janie walloped it the head with a sling stone, staggering the beetle.  Damon pointed a finger at the creature, blasting it with demonic energies.  Sethrie added her talents to the fray by summoning a very tiny thunderhead which blasted the beetle with repeated lightning bolts.

Intent upon the beetle in front of them, the companions had scant seconds to react as another of the huge beetles came lumbering down the hallway behind them.  It was joined by a swarm of its smaller cousins.  Sethrie assessed the new threat and reacted first, causing hail to pelt down from the ceiling, decimating the ranks of smaller beetles.  The second beetle and swarm advanced rapidly, with the large beetle coming to bear on Gwendolyn, while the smaller ones attacked the first thing they found, Janie’s riding dog.

Her faithful companion stood by her through most anything, but being bitten by thousands of tiny acid spewing beetles was just too much.  The dog bolted from the scene, running and hiding beneath one of the beds.  Tira tossed her final alchemist’s fire at the swarm, but it flew wide of the mark, only catching a portion of the swarm.  Gwendolyn, Janie and Damon continued their assault on the second large beetle, while Gorin and Crunch finished off the first.  “Seth, cast your spell again.  You’re the only one who can damage the swarm now, we’re out of alchemist’s fire,” Tira suggested as she moved to engage the second beetle.  “I can’t, I don’t have the strength.  I’ve got nothing left that can hurt them,” Sethrie hollered back while trying to avoid the swarm.  Sethrie was frustrated, she couldn’t remember the words, and she just couldn’t cast it again.  She didn’t have the energy.  As she looked around the battlefield, her friends fought for their lives.  Sethrie withdrew from the fight and concentrated, drawing forth her final reserves of energy, searching her mind for the words to a spell that had been burned away at its first casting.  

“_Liah Fo Mrots A …._,” Sethrie began, but she simply could not find the final words in her memory.  “_Nommus I_,” spoke a small voice in her head.  With the voice came an image, a tiny dragon trapped in a jar.  She didn’t have time to wonder at the strange image.  She tapped into the last of her magical energy and spoke clearly, “_Liah Fo Mrots A Nommus I._”  She watched in satisfaction and hail blasted the remaining swarm to smithereens.  A grin stole across her face as she slumped into unconsciousness at the base of the archway.


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## BladeSmith (Mar 2, 2007)

*A Wet End and A Dead End*

A Wet End and A Dead End

Sethrie was quickly returned to consciousness by the tender ministrations of Gwendolyn, while Tira and Crunch scouted out the area for further threats.  Searching the hive area and sleeping quarters turned up more dead seekers.  The acid beetles had ruined most of their gear, but the search did produce a magical ring and a pearl.  Sethrie consulted her book for a moment and declared the items to be a ring of feather falling and a pearl of power which quickly disappeared into some hidden pocket in her robe.  Tira was the most likely to become the victim of a pit trap and was given the ring.  Further exploration of the Lair of the Laborers turned up a problem.  The tunnel ended in some stairs that descended into the depths.  The problem was the turbid water gently lapping at the top most steps.  Janie stared at the water for a moment before laughter escaped her tiny form.  “There must be another toilet here and it’s flooding thanks to Gorin!”  Her laughter subsided into quiet mirth as the party decided how to explore the flooded passages. All eyes turned to their aquatic companion.

“No way,” proclaimed Amethyst, “it’s muddy, gross, and who knows what lives down there.  Besides, it too dark and I won’t be able to see anything anyway.”  Her point about the light was valid.  Only the dwarf could see well in the darkness, and Damon could hardly see at all in the near darkness.  Only the flickering green light from the fissure a long way above them 

Tira quickly ascended the rope and got the green lantern.  Climbing down with the large lantern in tow proved to be a bit more challenging.  About half way down she slipped off the rope and began to fall.  The magic in her newly acquired ring engaged and she began to float down gently.  Amethyst heaved a great sigh as she accepted the lantern from her companion once she was again firmly planted on the ground.  She slowly crept into the water, becoming fully submerged before changing into her more aquatic shape.  The stairs descended into a hallway, heading both left and right a short distance.  She quickly discovered they both lead to a submerged shower.  There were spigots on the walls, and a dip in the floor she presumed was a drain.  It was clogged with mud and debris from the centuries.  

Two rooms spanned off the central chamber.  Amethyst swam toward the one on the right, her lantern casting weird emerald shadows upon the walls.  A water elemental was happily blowing bubbles in the far corner of the room which appeared to have once been a locker room with benches and cubby holes in the walls.  They stared at each other for a moment before the elemental spun itself into a whirling vortex of water, causing debris from the room to slam into Amethyst.  The debris slammed into the mermaid with enough force to cause significant damage, so she swam back to her companions as fast as she could.  Launching herself out of the water with a mighty splash she landed on the top of the stairs, startling her friends at the suddenness of her appearance, and the blood running freely down several cuts on her arms and torso.

After a hasty explanation, the party fighters stood at the stairs, waiting for the elemental to come to them.  It didn’t.  The only sign of the aquatic creature was a single stream of water that launched itself directly into Tira’s face, causing no damage but fully soaking the rogue.  “It’s probably bound to the room, like the other elemental we found yesterday,” grumbled Gorin.  “We’re going to have to go in after it.” 

Tira, Amethyst, and Crunch entered the water and began to swim down the hallway.  Gorin accompanied them, but being unable to swim in heavy armor he walked along the bottom of the hallway.  They didn’t take long to find the elemental and take the fight to it.  It tried to subdue them with another spinning vortex attack, but the narrow hallway shielded them from the worst of it.  Crunch was unable to find a way into the melee, so he swam around to the other side of the hallway and attacked the elemental from behind.  The fighting was strange, slow motion, and silent beneath the surface of the water.  It was enough to rouse the other inhabitant of the underwater passage.  The ghoul in seeker armor came up behind Crunch intending to paralyze him to eat later, but the attack failed.  Crunch abandoned his attacks on the elemental to face this new and terrifyingly bloated monstrosity.  It fell with ease to his axe, while his companions finished off the water elemental.

The others exited the water while their mermaid companion conducted a thorough search of the showers. Her search yielded some minor items, along with two magical items; a magical short sword, and the missing red lantern.  The party prepared to climb out of the now fully explored Lair of the Laborers.  Sethrie caught a whiff of the half-orc as he passed and she muttered to herself, “Ugh, he smells even worse when he’s wet.”  A simple cantrip fixed that, and seconds later everybody in the party was dry.  Back in the lantern room, they re-hung the green lantern, and put the red in its place as well.  They spun the arrow dais until it pointed to the now lit red lantern and waited expectantly.  Nothing happened.  “Great,” grumbled the dwarf, ”a dead end.”


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## BladeSmith (Mar 7, 2007)

*Gricks and Ghosts*

Gricks and Ghosts

“Tira, go do some of that rogue stuff and find us a secret door or something.  I know there’s more to this tomb, we just have to find it.  All the lanterns are hung and lit.  Something MUST have changed somewhere.  No way is this,” Gorin slammed his hand against the empty sarcophagus, “the final resting place of a mighty Wind Duke.”

Following Gorin’s suggestion, Tira began to search each of the now colored hallways, looking for new openings and clues.  The red, orange, yellow, and green hallways all yielded no new secrets.  The blue hallway, however, had a pile of bones she hadn’t noticed before in her quicker searches.  “Hey Gwendolyn, come check this out,” she called.  Gwendolyn studied the bones for a minute.  “Notice how many of the bones are broken?” she asked.  “I’d say he was either crushed, or fell from a great height.”  Tira looked up and noticed what she had missed before.  Where the other lanterns hung on chains that attached themselves to a domed ceiling at the edge of her vision, the blue lantern hung on a chain that vanished into the darkness.  The ceiling in this hallway was defiantly higher than the rest.

After testing the lantern’s chain for traps that might involve objects falling from above and crushing her, Tira climbed the chain.  High above the tiny spot of blue light, Tira found an opening in the wall, a hallway leading off into the darkness.  She scouted out a little ways, and then called for her companions to join her.  Crunch lifted the shorter members of the party onto the chain.  Only Gorin was unable to manage the feat, his heavy armor weighing him down.  Crunch hauled him up using a couple of ropes.

The corridor opened up into a most unusual room.  A narrow beam of petrified wood protruded out over an open expanse.  Down into the depths, the floor was an uneven ocean of iron balls the size of oranges.  There were a great many geometric patterns on the walls, but Tira noted that many of them were dark circles, probably holes.  “I think I understand.  It’s trapped.  Let me find the trigger before we cross,” she stated as she began searching the floor of the petrified walkway.  She found the trigger in short order and disabled it.  “The balls come out of the holes in the walls and probably bludgeon you to death,” she explained.  Continuing to the far end of the beam, she came to a slightly curved wall.  There was a metallic portion that she presumed was a door, but it had no handle, lock, keyhole, or even a seam or hinge.  She couldn’t find a way through the door, despite her best efforts.  “I can’t find a way through the door,” she hollered back to her companions on the far side of the ball strewn chamber.  “That’s because there isn’t one,” whispered a voice in her ear.  She turned quickly; whipping out her rapier so fast it seemed to materialize in her hand.  There was nobody there.  

Tira didn’t have time to ponder the voice however; as she noticed that something beneath the ocean of iron spheres was moving toward her companions like a sea serpent stalking a fishing boat.  Her warning shout beat the grick to her friends by the merest fractions of a second.  They had barely enough time to draw weapons before the green body lunged for them out of the balls.  It looked like a giant worm with four octopus tentacles for a face complete with a very sharp looking beak in the center.  Gorin and Crunch were the only two that could reach the grick from the hallway, and neither of them wanted to venture onto the unsure footing of the slender wooden walkway.  Crunch swung his axe with a mighty blow but the grick reared back out of reach.  “Good follow-through, but you can’t kill it if you don’t hit it,” proclaimed a ghostly whisper.  Ignoring the voice, they laid into their foe with mighty blows, but the damage they caused seemed to heal almost instantly.  “Blasted metal resistant aberrations,” bellowed Gorin, “Only magic can damage these.”

Sethrie and Damon answered the dwarfs call, blasting the beast with the best they had to offer.  Damon summoned the eldritch energies gifted him by ancient forebears, while Sethrie threw a ball of sound at the strange creature.  At each blow the ghostly voice cheered them or taunted them, depending on the outcome.  The owner of the voice was certainly enjoying themselves watching the companions battle the grick.

When the grick was nothing more than a smoldering corpse lying atop the ocean of iron spheres the owner of the ghostly voice showed himself to the companions.  A translucent blue teenage farm boy with a broken neck floating several feet off the ground materialized rather suddenly and introduced himself.  “Hi, I’m Alastor,” proclaimed the ethereal boy.


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