The Underground City, Beneath the Great Pyramid of Xuthalhotep
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Nine. Long after Midnight?, 22nd day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Through sorceries impossible, Kiri Khutan of the unknown East suddenly scales the wall with the ease of a giant ant!
He climbs up the long, colossal shaft of the titanic anthill...
...and finally escapes it!
Setting his grapnel at the peak, he throws down the rope to his waiting companions who then pull themselves up. After a strenuous grueling climb, the pilgrims to Pandemonium summit the mound. They reel up the rope, cast it downward outside, and descend the steep anthill slope to freedom!
They recover from their arduous labor and find themselves back in the eerie netherworld of the Underground City, at the edge of the brooding ruins of the ancients. They know not where.
Looming cyclopean megalithic towers dwarf the immense anthill; forlorn, silent and decaying with the ravages of desolate eternities.
High above them hangs the vast darkness of the enormous cavern's rooftop, infested with phosphorescent moss whose cold luminous glow serves as the only constellations that the mad native underdwellers will ever know.
Could they navigate by these lichen stars?
A scattered handful of such ragged, wretched souls stagger aimless as ghosts nearby, wearing naught but masks and loincloths over skeletal forms the color of bleached skulls. Lost in their dreamworlds, they ignore the explorers, walking on through endless night without sun or moon or stars or hope.
Tjoruy croaks ruefully, "Come to the city, ye who wish to live in horror, in forgetfulness, in darkness, and in death."
The adventurers turn and see they are near the labyrinthine ruin's hinterland, at the border of a vast forest of gigantic mushrooms.
The field of towering fungi might have been a farm once. Now it is overgrown and wild from centuries of neglect.
Upon getting his bearings, Tjoruy cries, "The mushrooms! Let us feast, my brothers, in His blessed spaciousness and light!" and lopes toward gargantuan toadstools as high as redwood trunks.
Actions?!
Underground City Map:
PC Status:
- Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 6/14, Spells: 4/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 39/45, Torch
Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 26/26, Laying Hands: 1/1
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 19/19, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl, Torch
Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 25/25, Torch
Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 12/12, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
Tjoruy: Verulian Osoran Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 7/31, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl
Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 16/16
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/29, Candle
- Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
Invisibility (Mako): Target: self
Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 33 rounds.
