Chapter 5: Subterrane of the Cyborgs

[ChubbyPixie]

Fiefo takes a jab at the undead cyborg with his fork and tries to remember why he ever thought Jeojand was cool...

Attack with Fauchard Fork (THAC0 19): To Hit: [1d20] = 9 Damage vs. s/M: [1d8] = 2, vs. L: [1d10] = 5

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

Well, Chaka, I guess I will look at the other door again. Plan A seems to have fallen through. If we can't get out the door we came in, time to try the other one. I don't much care to investigate the room below us. Do you have any ideas?

Once more she will check out the door (located next to "11a") to see if it can be opened. Plan A, getting back to the main group, won't work, so on to Plan B- the other door. The last resort is Plan C, getting down to the room below them, is a last resort. She does not think Plan C would be wise.

The wizard must have been a real nut case to create all this. She waves her arm, indicating the building.

[OGRE MAGE]

Chaka walks back to the closed door on his side of the pit one more time to see if it will open.

He continues speaking with Tullia, the olny comrade he has left at the moment.

"Chaka not know why doors wont open again. Chaka not like being trapped in here."

With a running start, the ape-boy leaps the pit doors to join the ranger on her side again. Dex Check (16) [1d20] = 13

"Maybe Chaka and Tullia will have to go down in order to join friends again?"

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Midday, March 27th, 912 CY







"...fresh parts..." groans the unsettling thing of flesh and metal as it slices the air between it and Jeojand the cat-man sorcerer.

Fiefo the rodent man's accursed ancestral fork misses again.

Then, in a bright spray of blood and hydraulic fluid, Ko-Nan the barbarian decapitates the clockwork cadaver in one terrible stroke of his merciless ax.



Beyond the white, octagonal chamber's sealed doors, Chaka the ape-boy, unable to trigger the trap door on this side, leaps over the pitfall to join Tullia on the other half of the thin white corridor.

Tullia the ranger examines the eastern door. It doesn't open. She murmurs that Xygax the dead wizard must have been mad.


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 4, Monsters: [1d6] = 5 Monsters win.
C8 attacks Ko-Nan? (1), Jeojand? (2), Adrock? (3): [1d3] = 2. To hit: [1d20] = 6, damage: [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3 Misses Jeojand again.

PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: 3/17
  Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 2: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 13/20
  Garamond Antiqua: Cyborg 2: Move: 12", AC: 8, HP: 11/20
  Jeojand: Cat-Man Magic-User 2: Move: 6", AC: 7, HP: 2/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 5/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 7/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: 7/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 16/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[Pulpatoon]

Garamond emerges from a cybernetic reverie, and takes in the situation. "Oh dear. Well, if we can't go back, I suppose we have to gently but decisively thrust ourselves yet deeper into these mysterious depths, and hope we find another path to our missing members. So to speak."

It approaches the door at the and of the corridor. "Is everyone ready? Do you need a moment?"

[OGRE MAGE]

Checking the doors again over and over, Chaka shrugs at his friend.

"Are we stuck in here? We may have to go down to the lower level alone after all, if we cant find the others."

He looks at Tullia, not really sure how to proceede.

"Or should we just wait to see if the others can find us first?"

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Midday, March 27th, 912 CY







Separated from the others, Chaka checks the eastern door again to no avail. He asks Tullia if they should wait here to be rescued, or venture down through the trapdoor.

Meanwhile beyond the sealed doors, with the deadly combat concluded, Adrock has a few minutes to reflect upon the strange words uttered by the amalgam of flesh and steel:

"...Xygax is... The Dungeon Master..."

The scholarly historian recognizes this venerated title from out of timeless antiquity. It exists within an elaborate game that the ancients of 'Earth That Was' once played. Of this antediluvian amusement, Adrock knows only what legends tell: It was possible to die in the game, or to win great treasure, magic and power. The sorcerer-priest shares with the other adventurers his vague recollections of bygone lore and myth.

Then Garamond approaches the eastern door and it suddenly opens of its own volition, disappearing into the adjacent wall! Beyond it, Garamond beholds a rank, deteriorated chamber, two stories tall and illuminated by flickering witchlights.



This level is a circular balcony with a floor of iron latticework. Two ladders, north and south, lead down to the floor 40 feet below. At this level, a door is set into the western wall. On the level below, a door is set into the southern wall.

The center of the large chamber is dominated by a 10' wide glass pillar rising from floor to ceiling, filled with a glowing green liquid. The walls are also lined with a variety of glass pipes. Some of these are full of the green liquid, some are broken and empty, and some are broken but appear to have oval lumps of glowing green matter jammed into them.


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.





PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: 3/17
  Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 2: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 13/20
  Garamond Antiqua: Cyborg 2: Move: 12", AC: 8, HP: 11/20
  Jeojand: Cat-Man Magic-User 2: Move: 6", AC: 7, HP: 2/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 5/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 7/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: 7/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 16/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

Chaka, it looks like Plan C is our only option. Let's look at this trapdoor and figure out how to get to the bottom safely. She will examine the trapdoor, to find out how to open it without falling down onto the cage.

[wolfpack]

LL will walk to the door into room 10 and push on it hoping it opens.


We will ever be pawns in the game of the dungeon master. Every room could be it's own adventure terrifying or exciting.

[OGRE MAGE]

Chaka ties his rope around his waist again and hands the other end to Tullia.

"Chaka take closer look below. See if there is other way out. Tullia pull up on rope fast if Chaka start screaming?"

The ape-boy triggers the trapdoor again and climbs down into the opening below, trying to make it to the top of the caged area again for a better look at the place.

[ravenn4544]

Ko-nan facing the traps and tricks of cowards longs for the simple clarity, although brutal, of life in the Mines.

[Urson]

Maskelyn

The Gnome, feeling used up, just wants to find a place to rest. We still need a secure room.... he grumbles. He'll follow the others into the circular chamber.

[Pulpatoon]

Sticking close to the wall, Garamond makes its way to the southern door. Along the way, it peers curiously into the glass pipes.

Garamond begins to circle the room, sticking close to the wall, switching its attention from the glass tubes to the various angles revealed of the area below.

[ChubbyPixie]

Fiefo will follow the others who go into the eastern room. He’ll try to discern what the green globs might be without getting too close.

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

I've got the rope. Let me know what else you see down there. Of course I will pull you up if you yell.

She ties the rope to her waist, and stands where she can play it out slowly over the edge of the opening, mountain-climbing style.

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Midday? March 27th, 912 CY





The adventurers cautiously enter the upper level of the two story chamber (room 16). The floor beneath their feet is a latticework of thin iron through which they can see 40 feet down to the wet floor below.



Maskelyn the gnome conjurer repeats his desire to rest and recover his strength.

Ko-Nan the barbarian reminisces on the simple, halcyon days of his enslavement.

Garamond the cyborg and Fiefo the ratman scan the details of the strange chamber's features. Without getting close to them, Fiefo is unable to identify the oval lumps of glowing green matter jammed into the broken pipes.

Adrock the historian-priest walks directly toward the eastern door and it opens at his approach! Beyond is another room whose every surface is white, smooth and glossy (room 22). It appears empty, except for a door.

Meanwhile, beyond the locked octagonal room, Tullia the ranger lowers Chaka through the trapdoor down into the chamber below (room 17). The nimble ape-boy alights atop the dangling iron cage. By his flickering torchlight, he sees this area is empty except for two doors, north and south.


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead. Lit areas were visible this round. All else is from memory.





PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: 3/17, Torch
  Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 2: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 13/20
  Garamond Antiqua: Cyborg 2: Move: 12", AC: 8, HP: 11/20
  Jeojand: Cat-Man Magic-User 2: Move: 6", AC: 7, HP: 2/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 5/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 7/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: 7/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 16/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[ChubbyPixie]

Hesitant to touch any more green, gloopy things, Fiefo instead walks to the railing and peers over the edge, looking for an easy way to possibly descend. If there is a ladder, he moves towards it.

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

She watches as she lowers Chaka down. Since she doesn't hear screems, she assumes the room is "safe."

What do you see down there? When he tells her it is empty, she will start looking for a way to tie off the rope. She would like to make it down safely, and be able to retrieve the rope for use later.

[wolfpack]

LL joins the others

I agree we must stop and rest, we should also find our other 2 companions and regroup.

[Pulpatoon]

Garamond peers over the railing. "Is the floor down there wet, or... um, deep? Deep enough to hide things?"