Chp. 8 - Please Save the Children!

[ChubbyPixie]

Wrenly the Brown, MU

Wrenly flinches in distaste at the sight of the bug filled passageway. "Goodness sakes! I also am in favor of looking into the opposite passageway before deciding. If it does become necessary to crawl through this filth, we could at least attempt a cleansing of sorts," he says, hefting another flask of oil from his satchel.

Seeing the effects of the wine on Gagel, he is sorely tempted to give it a try, if but a tiny one. Taking a second look at the mess that's been heaved up onto the floor, however, he reconsiders.

[thesniperknight1]

Gagel walks to the bugs filled entrance and checks for signs of undisturbed spider webs or squashed bugs to try and assess if this entrance has been used recently.

[saalaria]

Swilbosh having previously been thoughtfully watching the unfolding chaos around him suddenly speaks:

"How about the ssskeleton triessss the passage with the bugsss? He can come back and tell usss if it issss worth you humansss being troubled by the creaturessss."

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal lies on his back and stares at the stars on the ceiling. He shuffles his feet and slowly spins himself in a circle as he points out the different constellations to anyone that will listen.

[Hotgoblin]

Groyn pulls out a crusty handkerchief from his pocket, which he uses to blow his nose, then wipe his beard off. He coughs and spits some left over bile onto the ground.Well I should drinks nasty potions more often I feel ten pounds lighter, now me beards touching me toes and not resting on me gut!!! Where's Bene?

Bene responds over here Groyn, pull urself together, Slees' is in trouble, I gotta go to him.... Bene rushes down the corridor with the voices....

Groyn can't believe his ears.

[Grognardsw]

In another dimension between planes, unseen and unheard by the Borderland adventurers, Sleestak confronts a creature or unknown horror...

Sleestak, lizardman shaman:

When the all-powerful graven image's tantrum abated, Sleestak simply said, "We are far from distant Lemuria, my friend."

As he spoke, the shaman stepped out of the magnificently beautiful hallucinogenic dimension-scape and fell back down, down into the base, coarse, limited, material world of his birth.

The being of unbeing lunges forward as Sleestak wills himself to return to the material plane.

- Initiative: Monsters [1d6] = 1, Party [1d6] = 1
- Sleestak save [1d20] = 6 No

Time slows...

[Grognardsw]

...as the thing Sleestak calls infant...

[Grognardsw]

... steps into Sleestak

[Grognardsw]

...strange tingling...

[Grognardsw]

...fuzzy consciousness stretching his skull...

[Grognardsw]

...soul rippling...

[Grognardsw]

...vision doubling...

[Grognardsw]

...dimensions segue into each other...

[Grognardsw]

...body-in-body materializes...

[Grognardsw]

...stepping out from...

[Grognardsw]

...the Asmodeus palindrome...

[Grognardsw]

...in the hallway south of the great chamber...

[Grognardsw]

...time contracts, snapping back into the currents of now.

Sleestak is back in the cave, in full three dimension, standing before a shocked Wulfhart who thought he heard noises north. The lizardman is aware that there is a horror within him. There is terrible urge...

[Grognardsw]

Meanwhile, in the entry hall with the skull-headed statue...

Gagel the Wise, his left stick-figure arm dangling, peers into the east secret passageway. He observes no broken spiderwebs or crushed bugs.

The blackened Swilbosh recommends and Porphyry the satyr commands his skeleton to crawl down the small bug-filled east corridor. The undead does so. It crawls into darkness beyond the 30' reach of the torchlight. No sounds of crunching bones or anything is heard; several minutes later the skeleton returns unharmed.

Wrenly the illustrated wizard opens the west secret door. Beyond is a 10' span of dusty corridor that opens into a hexagonal chamber 30' wide. In the middle is a dry well that is 30' deep when looked down upon with torchlight. Each of the six walls of the hexagonal chamber bears symbols of Satanic worship, explains Gagel with some inner authority. At the same time he has an ominous feeling something is watching him.

Asherrion of the ink, absorbed inside Niles the paper knight, is contemplatively silent. Niles watches over Wrenly's shoulder as the magician peers down the west secret corridor.

The blackened Fingal, delirious in his own world, points out stars in the constellation of the ceiling only he can see.

Groyn limps along with his stick-figure left leg. Bene mumbles something under his breath as he supports his dwarf, and they move north following Wulfhart.

Wulfhart the barbarian, concerned for the wandering Sleestak, makes his way up the north corridor with its wall-inscribed palindrome of Asmodeus. There he sees the lizardman materialize from thin air!

Map

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal continues pointing.

That ones Herapees! Goddess of fornication. Oh, and there's Mikophus! Lesser god of potatoes.

The wigged out thief thinks he has solved the riddle to this accursed place.

Porphyry is obviously a god and Fingal must join in his army of undead minions.

If I could only figure out how to rid myself of this pesky flesh. I've got it!!!

Fingal gets on all fours and begins crawling towards the eastern bug ridden tunnel.

The bugs crawl in...... the bugs crawl out.
I'll tell master what this tunnel's all about.