Chapter 10: Secret of the Sleestaks

[jemmus]

Ko-Nan could probably just chop through that door, but it would be noisy, Mungo says. Too bad I already used my Silence spell. He inspects the ugly, bad taste wall hangings. Are they just bad art? Or something else? He touches one of them with his forge glove, and checks for a way to remove it from the wall or flip it around so that the back is showing. If nothing else, he won't have to look at the kitschy "art"work.

[ChubbyPixie]

Fiefo sighs and mentally prepares to be disappointed when they can't get the southern door open no matter what they do it's never going to work he should have known it's fine.

Noticing he feels a bit weak in the knees, he'll remove one of the bottles he recovered from the Gygax Tower (the blue one) and take a small sip at exactly the same moment as Finver does a room away, unbeknownst to him.

[Rex]

Draupadi

Draupadi remains on watch until Finver and Maskelyn exit the room and move to the other, then she follows.

[redwarrior]

Connak will try his luck with the east door while the stragglers come from the other room. I really hope we don’t have to break down any doors this early

[Bluetongue]

Sheriff Yul

"We could try an alternative way."

He remembers how the Phaser sliced open the alien and so points that at the lock, shooting a ray the door that resisted the lockpick attempt.

I could be wrong but I thought it may fire silently not a 'blast'.

[jemmus]

Gadgeteer Mungo casts fascinated and covetous beady eyes (behind his thick-lensed goggles) on Yul's laser weapon.

[Urson]

Maskelyn
Feeling better, Doc?
Maskelyn moves to the corridor, watching the proceedings at the door.

[ravenn4544]

Ko-Nan backs away from the magical beam. He is reminded of the wizards tower and he knows from balls to bone that it is the tool of cowards.

[redwarrior]

Seeing Yul pull out the hand weapon, Connak thinks that he really needs to get himself one of those. In the meantime, it looks like we're going south... So he'll get his bow ready and watch their backs.

[SilverBen]

Maskelyn
Feeling better, Doc?
Maskelyn moves to the corridor, watching the proceedings at the door.

Finver puckers his lips and frowns thinking for a few moments before responding... "Well, no, and it's not very thirst quenching..." looking very disappointed at first and then a more satisfying realization dawns on him. He shares, "Ya know what I think these are, Maskelyn? By tha color and taste of 'em, I wager its an underwater breathing potion? Let's take these to the others and make our way back to tha lake for some fishin'"

He corks the potion, returns it to the gnome and hurries to join the rest of the party.

[jemmus]

When Finver enters the room, Mungo's headlamp's beam plays over him and he notes that he's not looking so good. Finver, you're not looking so good, he says. Draupadi, how are you doing for cure wounds spells? I've got one left.

[Rex]

Draupadi

"I have 4, does someone need healing?"

[SilverBen]

FInver winces in the beam of the head lamp and replies, "Yes, Lady Draupadi, please hand me one."

Thanks Rex, needed that!

[Inferno]

City of the Sleestaks, Deep Beneath the Barren Wasteland
The Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Ten. Night? April 5th, 912 CY








Sheriff Yul quickdraws his strange crossbow of the gods and fires! With a ghostly wail, a magical ray of cold starlight scorches the air and burns away the lock in the southern portal! Ko-Nan looks on, seething and smoldering like the molten slag that remains on the door.

Anticlimactically, beyond lies merely an empty antechamber. (room 37)

Fiefo carefully tests one of the sorcerous concoctions found in the bizarre alchemy lab of the Skyscraper of Xygax the Wizard:



It tastes like a powerful restorative.

Draupadi offers healing to her injured companions as Mungo peers behind the oppressive Sleestak tapestries and finds nothing lurking there.

Connak pads toward the eastern door. No key on the jailers' keyring opens the lock, but his picklocks do. The feline rogue carefully opens the double door onto a towering vast chamber! (room 43)




Crumbling pillars line the great hall, and so do six Sleestak sentries, standing in their eerily quiescent hibernation state!





At the eastern end sleeps the Sleestak King upon a strange throne of weird tendrils which seemingly grows out of a large, irregularly-shaped dais!




All is as quiet as the Hours of Mystery!


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible, all else is from memory.
PCs are purple. Sleestaks are green. Altrusians are orange. Ambrose is brown.

Behind the DM Screen:

Connak: Open Lock on Eastern Door (33%): [1d100]=31 Success!

PC Status:

Connak: Cat-Man Fighter/Thief 2/3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 19/19
Draupadi: Human Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 22/34, Spells: 4/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl
Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 11/26
Finver Karstlander: Dwarven Fighter 3: Move 6", AC: 2(1), HP: 15/31
Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 25/39
Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 3: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: 14/14, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Mungo: Mole-Man Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: 20/34, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl, Lantern
Sheriff Yul: Robot Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 31/38

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)

[Rex]

Draupadi

Draupadi casts CLW on Finver.

CLW [1d8]=5

[Bluetongue]

Sheriff Yul

This is going to be a great time for the wake up call gong to sound.

If we want to investigate the pool and whatever is beneath it, that might take some time. What do we think of the suggestion to retreat back to the cell, locking the doors behind us. Wait to be 'released' then we could wander a bit more freely perhaos than skulking about?

[SilverBen]

Draupadi

Draupadi casts CLW on Finver.

CLW [1d8]=5

FInver sighs with relief. "Thank you, Lady Draupadi, kindness is yer hallmark."

Sheriff Yul

This is going to be a great time for the wake up call gong to sound.

If we want to investigate the pool and whatever is beneath it, that might take some time. What do we think of the suggestion to retreat back to the cell, locking the doors behind us. Wait to be 'released' then we could wander a bit more freely perhaos than skulking about?

Finver approaches Sheriff Yul and quietly replies, "Fine, Sheriff, I'll play along, and hope all goes well for us to explore tha lake. But don't forget we'll have some explaining to do about that mutated Sleestak we dispatched in Ambrose's cell - and I don't think tha ape man will agree to go back into his cell again." He looks towards Ambrose studying his temperment.

[jemmus]

Mungo
And then there's the issue of those guards we locked up. What if they start making noise when they wake up?

[Rex]

Draupadi

"I am sure they will, best to put some distance between them and us."

[SilverBen]

Mungo
And then there's the issue of those guards we locked up. What if they start making noise when they wake up?

"Ya, ya, ya, Mole-man..." Finver adds, "but no one will know we locked 'em up until those guards change shift, so we got a little more time. I think our best plan is ta follow tha Sheriff's plan an' pretend we're just their guests, until we know tha game is up. Then, we'll run or fight. Make sense to ya?"