Barrowmaze IV: Delving for Power and Glory

[OGRE MAGE]

Gulp!

Man I am glad I didn't make someone else to do that.

[sastaz]

Gerdal

"*SHRIEK*"

After overcoming the initial terror, gasping for air and getting her sight back after the blaze, Gerdal searches frantically for Smokie. How does he react? Does he live?

[Spearmint]

several of the pieces of the sarcophagus bounce across the chamber like little cubic bricks being tossed by a giant rolling six sided dice ...

[sastaz]

Oh, okay, Gerdal would naturally wait that out. And get out of the way, should anyone bounce into our chamber.

"Move everyone!!"

Or are they bouncing as in really bouncing?

[Spearmint]

Smokie by name and by nature, is bouncing and leaping as he drops and rolls to put out the sparks which singe his fur.

He howls and runs in circles, chasing his tail.

no, once the explosion happened the coffer shattered that is all. There are no animated rocks.

[sastaz]

Gerdal approaches Smokie slowly and tries to calm him, putting out any sparks in his fur with some cloth and her water bottle.

She bends down and talks to him, growling as she does so. casting speak with animals

"Tafadhali niongoze kwa bwana wako, pamoja tunaweza kupata binadamu."

"Please Smokie, it is important that you tell me: is your master still alive? Can you feel him? Do you know where he is?"

So, if I got that correctly, Speak with animals spell is not retained since it's from the druid spell list and not covered by the mage "retain spell" rule?

[Spearmint]

yes, correct.

Smokie wallows in the pouring water, giving a little roll in the dirt. There actually is no blistered fur or burn wounds, just grains of hot dust in his matted coat.

When 'spoken to' by Gerdal he looks quizzical then paws the ground, giving a baleful howl and with a long drooling tongue, he answers under the duress.

"Hooman fell into the Abyss, a hell below, did you not see? Now Master wanders, in the corridors as a lost soul. Just like Jerome. I feel his pain, his loss, his sorrow and joy.

Witchwoman pledged to Kali, mistress of the dead. Maybe Hooman gets comforted in her many arms and voluptuous breasts? Ask her, she will know."

[sastaz]

Gerdal gives Smokie the GOOD BOI patting routine. if he does not object

"Yes Smokie, maybe I will, maybe I will."

Gerdal gathers Orgoth and Isvand in a corner and quickly tells them what Smokie just said to her. No need for the holy men to hear all that abouth the abyss and so on, right?

"What do you think guys?"

Will pause a bit and let redwarrior and Rex pitch in. Or OM if you want to pitch in for Rex as per agreement?

[Spearmint]

Rex, looks aghast. Almost like the undead grotesque, his face wrinkled in tears.

Truro intones a holy chant, “Per istam sanctan unctionem et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per visum, audtiotum, odorátum, gustum et locutiónem, tactum, gressum deliquisti.”

Amos, "Perhaps we should gather his remains to pay our respects." he pulls out a large sack body-bag then thinks perhaps few remains will be found so takes a small sack instead and noticing that whoever has cleaned the chamber earlier, a sweeping pan and dust-brush has been left by the entrance door.

Maybe Isvand or the gnomes can test the structural integrity of the coffer slab that remains and see what remains flotsam can be recovered from the molten stone or around the blown open trapdoor.

[redwarrior]

Isvand takes a deep breath and, trying not to think about what the wolf said... Will cautiously approach the site of the big boom, and attempt to see what he can see....

Not really sure what to roll, so....
FaRT target 25 [1d100]=37

Today has been the day from heck, so I likely won't be on again until tomorrow.

[Spearmint]

The Mound of Silas.

The sudden explosion, a fireball glyph triggered when Sven opened the trapdoor caused a huge mess. With all the party save the mage and his familiar sheltering behind the walls of the entrance chamber, the combustion blasts only ears and the bear coffer. Where before you had a deep sarcophagus and a 3x3 trapdoor, you now have an eight by three hole in the barrow mound and the ceiling of the room below. The edges of the hole are disfigured from being turned into molten rock, still sticky and warm to touch. The chamber is littered with stone fragments from the blasted apart coffer but little, in fact no remains are found of the incinerated mage.

Looking below, you see the metal spiral staircase that wound up to the trapdoor has been unfixed from its moorings and teeters in place. The once grey enamel paintwork now a rusty flaky colour, dull and oxidised. A few dusty sparks float around the room, embers of what once was. The landing is about 20'ft below.

Despite the explosion, it is quiet on the landing, no guardians hurrying to the scene.

It is after 5.00pm. A long days trek from Helix. Smokie at least is more settled, pulling at the backpack of Sven's to snatch the bedroll which he rolls in, comforting himself with the last scents of his former master. A wild thing, what will become of the creature in your midst now released from his bonding? For the last few weeks it has accompanied you and been fed and treated well. Maybe this otherwise feral creature can become a tamed living memorial to the orange haired mage.

The hirelings now look to the characters for direction.

what would you like to do next?

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Lets try and find his remains to bury."

Orgoth searches for Sven's remains.

[Spearmint]

Searching the smaller sarcophagus chamber you do not find any evidence of Sven, not a scrap of notepaper, not a singed hair, no splatters of blood or body gore. Amos sweeps up the loose stones and places them in the sarcophagus of Silas, almost in hope that as if by magic, the mage might be lying in state there. He is not.

After a couple of minutes the lava effect has dimmed from the blasted stonework leaving a large coffin shaped hole in the base of the bear sarcophagus. Through this, Orgoth and Isvand can see down to the landing below. The spiral staircase that was fixed to the wall and ceiling has come apart from its fixings. You can climb down if you wish to explore below.

What marching order do you use?

[Rex]

Orgoth

"No evidence of him at all, something doesn't seem right here. What is our next step?"

[sastaz]

Gerdal speaks up

"Everyone! I'm certain Sven is not dead. Not yet anyway. Everything points in that direction. He must have been somehow transported to another realm, perhaps not even a physical one. Remember this Jerome that was said to stalk these corridors with his living presence? Maybe this is what have become of Sven as well. Anyway, we owe it to Sven to go to any length to find out if there's some way we can bring him back."

She pauses for a while.

"I say we try Jerome's chamber first. Or did Sven carry the key? Damn! We, or I, can also try to commune with the snake goddess. Or if Orgoth and Isvand wants to try their luck again in the water realm? Any other ideas? Either way, we have to start travelling in small groups so that we don't expose ourselves to this kind of firework any more. I suggest Isvand and Amos takes point and lead our way."

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors

5.15pm (pm for post mortem).

Lanterns: Drew, Truro.
Bullseye Lantern: Amos

Lowering themselves through the blasted hole where before was a coffer and trapdoor, Isvand and Amos scout ahead as the rest of the group file behind.

Drew can add Sven's backpack to his burden.

The first thing that the duo encounter is that as soon as the added weight of Amos steps onto the spiral staircase after Isvand, the whole rusty metal fixture wobbles on unsteady legs, threatening to topple over. Amos makes a grab for the lip of the hole above him and without further movement, steadies the staircase. Isvand can step down onto the landing but it becomes clear that the heavier human sized party members will have to descend with more care.

You could attach a rope to a railing and wrap it around the second sarcophagus to secure it steady. That will take a couple of rounds.

In the meantime, Isvand you find yourself on the landing next to a huge tortoise shaped creature. But this is no lettuce munching Testudines. It has several scaly carapaces rather than a shell and a long, flexible bony tail with a club like end, shaped rather like a fishtail. Ideal for swatting intruders. On the side of its beaky head which peeks out from under the front scale plate are two long feathery antennae with which it caresses the nuts and bolts of the staircase fixings. As it touches them, they begin to flake and oxidise, turning a russet brown-red, matching the colour of the grazing beast.

actions please

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth will help lower whoever down.

[sastaz]

Gerdal has Orgoth lower her down before the rest.

As she sees the beast, she gasps.

"What a rare specimen! It seems to be feeding on the bare metal. You'd better watch your precious metal item, both of you. It must have been attracted by the sound of the blast and found its way here. It does not seem overly hostile, maybe we can lure it away by throwing somethig made of metal? I have some plates in my backpack by Drew. Although we must assume the creature will consume the staircase in its entirety."

She looks at Isvand and Orgoth for advice.

"Maybe this is a price we have to pay? We will more or less be committed to finding another exit then. At least if the rope will be destroyed or removed by the time we get back."

Does it seem like we would be able to pass it, given that it won't attack us? Or if we throw it a "treat" into a corner, would that help us, space wise?

[redwarrior]

Isvand pulls his bow and nocks an arrow, while yelling Creature! to those above. He'll back away from the creature will fire if it follows/attacks while he looks around the room for doors or corridors.

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors

Isvand must have forgetting more than mermaids since his last visit here if he needs reminding of the entry point into the Barrowmaze.

You stand on a flagstone landing 10x10'ft square. In the northeast corner, a slim 5x5'ft wide rusty metal staircase ascends, turning a couple of corkscrews to where it used to connect in the ceiling and the trapdoor in the sarcophagus.

An archway to the west has stone steps which descend 20'ft into a north-south corridor. At the north end, a sodden door hangs loose, water pooling on the floor. The door is closed but there are a few inches gap between door and frame. It is dark in the room beyond, no light shines through the gaps. You hear the sound of water trickling and what could be described as intermittent drag noises such as you might make when hustling a piece of heavy furniture from one side of your room to another.

Looking south, you have a corridor almost opposite where the exploding skeletons got zapped by a bolt from the blue from Gnimish. Past that a locked fancy door with verdigris design and finally the corridor joins the east-west passage that links a small half collapsed hallway, (with Arnaud's pit in front of it) and to the right, a long diagonal passage that leads to either a cultist sacrificial pit or further rooms of snakes, ale pools and flaming knights.

"Back so soon?" a spectral voice in your heads echoes, "Has the apprentice mastered any hands? Perhaps you would like to play for questions and answers?". You have a little vision in your mind of a spectral card dealer spreading some face down cards in a long fan on a veneered table, inviting you to sit and play as he chugs merrily upon a fat cigar.

You shake it away as the strange creature hisses at you, banging the floor with his club tail and swishing it over his head in case you get close. It seems more interested in warding its territory and food supply and as other folk begin to slowly ascend, it scurries under the metal railings.

Gerdal, you note that your pile of expedition hammers and picks, left behind on the landing before have all been chewed up. The iron heads rusted and gnawed upon. The ceramic oil flasks broken, excess supplies looted. You can pass the rust monster to join Isvand on the steps by the corridor. Amos comes next, followed by the hirelings with Orgoth and Smokie bringing up the rear.

There is no sign of Sven, no bloody trail to follow or burned embers left behind to indicate he passed this way.

where would you like to go?