Second Expedition

[Raven Crowking]

This seems to be an old, and not-oft used, passageway, for it is dusty with old shreds of cobwebs hanging in the corners, and the air is musty.

As soon as the corridor turns, there is an archway to the right, but it has been bricked up, requiring something like a heavy sledge to get through. Thereafter, the corridor turns to the left, a total of 10 feet past the initial turn.

[jferngler]

Avery takes a few cursory swings with his smith's hammer to see if the ancient masonry will give way to his admittedly childish blows.

Herman will peer around the corner of the left turning corridor.

[Raven Crowking]

It will take a mightier hammer than Avery's to break through those bricks!

Herman sees that the corridor continues southward 20 feet, then passes an archway. The corridor seems to continue beyond the archway.

[caveman]

Shhhhhh!!"
Following right along!

[jferngler]

All advance to the archway, Giant taking point.

[Raven Crowking]

What is the actual "marching order", please?

[jferngler]

Giant, Herman, Girt, Avery.

[caveman]

Then Milner, Silva, and Ballotelli

[Raven Crowking]

Did everyone else stay behind, then?

[caveman]

Or they're out n about this weekend...

[Raven Crowking]

Oh, yeah, right! Memorial Day! Long weekend in the USA! I've been living in Canada so long that I've forgotten the annual schedule. (When I first moved here, I had a hard time remembering when the Canadian equivalents were...Thanksgiving before Halloween really threw me for a loop.

(Having spent 4 years in the US Army, forgetting Memorial Day is especially poor form. )

[Lord Zack]

Char will be in front, Alexatros in the middle and Albert and George will be in the back.

[Raven Crowking]

Where the corridor turns south, 10 feet before the archway, there is an ancient covered pit trap. The first few walkers do not trigger it, but as Ballotelli crosses, the pit opens, dropping the hapless Ballotelli 10 feet down, onto spikes. He takes 6 points of damage from the fall (breaking a bone, had he survived), and is pierced for an additional three points.

Silva and Char, being on either side, may fall in. Please make a Luck check to avoid doing so (1d20, Luck or under succeeds). If you fail, I'll roll damage.

In any event, we learn from traps. 2 XP for any survivors in the party!

[jferngler]

(All three of my guys level.)

[Lord Zack]

How did you're guys get that much xp so quickly? Don't 0th level characters start with -100 xp?

My luck roll is 2, and Char's luck is 12, so he does not fall in. When he sees Ballotelli fall in he says under his breath, "Well, at least we don't have to deal with any more of his antics."

[jferngler]

(10 xp for First Level, Zack)

[caveman]

Rest in peace, sweet prince.

Silva, meanwhile, falls in after Ballotelli. This isn't looking good.

Also, in the final game, the XP is different. O-lvl starts with 0XP. 10XP is 1st level. 50 is 2nd.

[jferngler]

Herman hears the mohican drop, his sharp cry, and the sick squelching of his demise. He hustles back through the other party members to stand on the edge of the pit trap, staring down at the body below. He feels his skin prick at the sight of Ballotelli's corpse pinned by the spikes, the arrangement of his goods between. Toothy Herman digs the folio of parchment, the ink and quills from his pockets. He spreads the crumpled paper against the flagstones that edge the pit. He traces the outline of the corpse in the pit, and he knows this is a message from the Three Fates. This is how they wish for him to contact them! The body has other messages - The curling fingers on the outstretched arm, pierced above the elbow by a spike, forever reaching for the hilt of the dropped sword, Herman scrawls, and knows that with this mystic symbol, he can perhaps read magic; the pooling blood oozing from Ballotelli's wounds leaks down the spike and forms another shape, a crescent extending around the corpse in an arc, scrawled on parchment to engage a magical shield. Toothy Herman looks up at the others, not seeing looks of disgust, not seeing stones and death and darkness about him - Toothy Herman sees only power, and the sharp responsibility laid upon him by the Fates.

The boys come back, too. They loop a rope around Herman's waist and lower the wizard carefully into the pit to retrieve the mohican's sword and other valuables, and then his body. Avery whispers a prayer for the dead, commending the spirit of the slain to the god of peace, and both boys finish the prayer as Herman struggles up with the swords and valuable from the dead man. As the wizard lays gasping on the stones, the boys feel a lightness about them, a release of tension, and a feeling of utter tranquility touches them both. Certain mysteries of the god of peace are revealed to each, and they clasp hands, each an interlocking piece of the other, and of the divine whole.

[caveman]

Don't forget, Silva fell too, and he might be dead as well, which would mean he might be in need of having his Lawful soul healed...

[jferngler]

(No worries... if he's alive.)