Saturday, January 12, 2013

002 - Under the Desert


The sand dumped us way into a large room, with pillars and pews and other such religious necessities. None of us were severely hurt.  We tried to get our bearings, and found ourselves to be in a buried temple to Vecna, the god of secrets and necromancy. Of note for later: an indentation in the wall looking to be set in by something diamond-shaped. Two doors, one off to the left and one to the right from where we fell. The sand had stopped pouring from the ceiling, but still that exit was way too high. We have to find another way out.

We opened both doors, but nothing was seen through to the other rooms. Not sunrods, not familiars. The Wildens raven didn’t come back to us from the room to the right. So we went left. When we passed into the darkness, we found ourselves in another room, lit and full seeable by the sunrod I tied to my side. Seemed quiet and empty, but drakes hung from the pillars and swooped at us. The little raccoon climbed one pillar and pulled one down to the ground, that sure was something to see. It was so much bigger than him. The Wilden doesn’t seem all that great a fighter, maybe his nerves, maybe he’s just scared of drakes or the darkness, but his spider mount can kill something fierce. As much as it terrifies me, I’m just glad I’m on the good side of its temperament for now. Of note for later: Also stay on the Wilden’s good side; he and the spider seem quite shared-minded.

The Wilden even stabbed himself with his own halberd. That made me laugh. I opened the drake bodies for supplies, and found some rings, too! The little raccoon raided the nests high on the pillars and found things. He brought down a mace, which he held up to me. I gratefully accepted and paid him a nice reward in coin for sharing his loot.

We took the left exit at the far end of the room, and we somehow wound up back in the room we fell in, but through the right door. We determined this to be teleportation magic, and re-entered into the left room to try the exit at the far right. This took us into a room with small pits all over the floor, walls, and ceiling. The little raccoon alerted this to us all, just in time for the Wilden to dodge a spear that shot up from one of the floor-pits. The whole room was trapped with floor-spears, flame jets in the walls, and boulders falling from above. The latter ones tore chunks out of the floor when they fell, leaving an opening into a deep pit. It was at the end of this room, we had to jump over one of the holes. It was small, 5-feet across. My gimped leg decided to act up just as I leapt, which tripped me up, and I fell into the pit.  As I fell though I was grabbed by most everyone. Not sure rightly how they all grabbed hold of me at the time, but they did, and I’m thankful. The little raccoon clawed into my face, though. Not my most dignified of pratfalls, but surely not my worst either.

When we came to leave the room, we found ourselves at the end of a long and narrow bridge over the same unlightable darkness between all the rooms. Carefully we tried to cross, but at times we all grew dizzy over the pitch nothing and fell (except the Wilden riding the spider). Fortunately, we were teleported from the abyss back to our end of the bridge, rather than just left falling. (What damned religion needs this in their temple I am left clueless as empty testes, but who am I to ridicule a god in his own house.) Vol had a great idea; he handed me one end of a rope from his pack, and took the other end with him as he bound across the bridge, natural as hunting. We each tied our ends to the door handles, and held tight to the rope as we crossed.

The next room we entered was steaming with a sight-deadening fog that lifted from a liquid that was pooled over the entire floor. I scooped some into a small jar for later. I figure I could learn to make something good from this, if not recreate it entiredly. Before I could stand I even saw figures making their way through the fog to us. We had to fight a small crowd of skeletons, and of what they used to be I could not tell you, because I am no bone scholar. The Wilden and his spider darted out of sight early, but I ended up sticking where I work best, with Vol my brother. We are a team, I suppose as much as he and his spider are. And to be truthful, I just don’t care much about them.  I forgot to write this earlier, but I put aside my callous remarks and introduced myself with a handshake. He shook mine, but refused to give his name! And he had the rocks to even ask my brother’s name, after that! So, secretly, I was wishing harm to him. (An old friend told me he believes I became a cleric to heal the people I wish harm upon, to atone for my ill prospect. I think he was full of horse shit.)

This was about the time the little raccoon swung his sword around again. Usually he centers himself between a few creatures and spins himself with an outreached blade, striking several of them. This time, though, the ratty bugger cut into me fierce. Probably not meaning to, but I never did get to know a typical behavior set of the raccoon. He cut into my leg, and I was terribly worried he damaged it even worse than usual, so I kicked him. It wasn’t a hard kick, but he did hit one of the bonemen pretty hard. I looked behind me to see Vol holding off a giant scorpion, with the help of the Wilden’s spider mount.  Vol was seized by its claws and rescued by the Wilden and his spider, and killed the nasty bugger. I looked through the scorpion (shudder) for humours and alchemical portions, as usual.

The far side of the room had a raised platform, in clear air, where there was no fog water puddled on the floor, so there we went, and it was there we found the door. And it was there I stopped writing because it was there I needed to rest for a bit.

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Vol and Reid
Death and Life

- Diamond dent in wall.
- What's in the room to the right?
- Rabies shots.

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