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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster |
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21. The main body headed across from (15) to (21), where they found a 15’ reading room that was once very cosy with a brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling which would have provided excellent light for the six comfortable reading chairs spaced around the walls, each of which was equipped with an attached lectern. Once comfortable and well-made, they were now tattered and decayed. The remains of a beautiful carpet could be seen on the floor, though little of it was left.
20. Borax, still avoiding the Baron as much as possible, went back to (14) and through into (20), finding another reading room effectively identical to the first. He'd nudged Meepo and asked him to go along, which the little kobold was glad to do, still a bit starry-eyed from his gifted telescope. Borax' impatience with Meepo seemed to have evaporated a bit; perhaps with the Baron to dislike, he was less inclined to disparage someone who actually seemed to genuinely like him.
23. Finding nothing interesting in that or the next one (19), they turned towards the light spilling from a differently shaped room and entered an unexpected garden. It had once a beautiful green space with decorative plants sustained by a magical crystal in the ceiling which was 15’ up. Now, many of the plants had died but some had mutated or had run rampant, filling most of the room with overgrowth. The crystal still shone down from the ceiling, resembling daylight most closely. Metal pipes, punctured with holes, ran over the entire ceiling and met at a metal box next to the crystal.
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Hefting Meepo, Borax tossed him upwards, allowing the kobold to easily grab one of the metal pipes near to the crystal. Kobolds have a knack with traps and mechanisms, and Meepo managed [nat 20!] to extract the gem from its' setting and slide it into his shoulder bag. At which point something smacked Borax hard between the shoulderblades, making him stumble forward a step.
Turning, he saw parts of the thick vegetation in the SE corner mounding up and moving towards him; or rather, a horrible slimy mass of putrefying plant material that had been lurking inside. Two long tentacles were reaching towards him - one of which had already attacked him - and a pair of putrid yellow eyes were visible on a vinelike stalk protruding from the top. Meepo squeaked and tightened his grip on his pipe.
The Hammer of Vengeance flashed as it crushed the tentacle, and Borax stepped inside the reach of the other one. It drew back to strike again, but he smashed the hammer down and crushed the centre of the thing in, killing it immediately.
The others had been checking the northernmost reading room and heard the disturbance, reaching the Garden just in time to be revulsed by the horrible stench of the smashed monster. Borax pointed at it and commented, "They usually have treasure inside that they've swallowed," despite never having seen one before. While Brasshelm was persuading his knights to cut it up with their swords, he slipped the crystal into Ruby's Bag of Holding. The creature's belly produced some gemstones, a hand crossbow, a chain shirt and a beautiful golden talisman, enchanted as a key. Ruby offered to carry this, and bagged it.
There was a debate about where to go next; down the stairs N from (23), down the stairs N from (7) or E through the arch from (21). "Maybe someone else could ask the jar for more detail on the artifacts?" asked Borax. "Could do," said Ruby, "What would you ask?" marking the first time anyone had considered planning what to ask it. In the end, they headed back to (21) and through into (24).
24. Nothing was to be found here [well, there has to be one Room E]. The E wall had a large crack in it, and some of the wall had crumbled onto the floor. There were stairs down to the S so they headed for those.
25. This was another stack; eight square pillars contained books on all four sides; they rotated when pushed, with difficulty and grinding noises. Shelves lined the perimeter, several high, with more books intermittently racked. A movable ladder on wheels could run around the perimeter on a metal track, though it looked pretty corroded. A small pool of water was visible against the S wall, above which the wall was cracked. “Theology” was inlaid into the floor in gold.
The air in here was very damp and all the books were write-offs; Borax, watching from the stairs as the knights searched, eyed the damaged stonework and judged it weak. Sir Mazbadir knelt down and prised out a bit of the gold lettering, a couple of marks' worth. He tried to palm it but Borax [with slight hypocrisy!] commented on it and he sheepishly transferred it to the sack.
The knights and baron left the room, but Borax hung back, approaching the damaged wall. He prodded it with his hammer, and several bits fell off and water began to spurt through the gaps. Turning, he sprinted for the stairs just in time as the piece of wall collapsed and deluge of tainted water gushed in. Anyone closer would have been knocked over; as it settled out at five feet deep, Ruby commented that Borax would have been underwater had he stayed, earning a flat stare.
22. Back at the garden, they headed down the stairs to the next stack. This one was marked "Plant Lore". All the stacks were full of ruined books except one, which had an entire face of intact books, easily twenty. Examining them, Calvis noted the curious fact that they were all yellow; all the others had been varied colours. Ruby tried to read a spine, but the outlines and details of the books seemed somehow blurred. Brasshelm, curiosity piqued, reached out and grasped a book. It crumbled as he pulled it free - as did all the others. The rest of the party scattered as all the yellow books collapsed into a billowing cloud of dense yellow vapour. Coughing and choking, he backed away, struggling to brush the stuff off. Borax watched with interest to see if he fell over dead, but was disappointed. Brasshelm continued to cough and spit yellow phlegm as they moved on however.
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17.Turning west, they passed the next arch into another room. This was lined with wooden structures, frames creating diamond-shaped pigeonholes for rolled documents. Most were crumbled fragments, but a great many were not. Ruby's Monocle revealed pretty much all of them were indeed spell scrolls. Everyone gathered them, and Sir Mazbardil packed them carefully away in his sack.
10. The next room to the W was lined with similar racks, though these were much larger, and proved to contain the remains of maps. Most of them were ruined, but four remained; three were maps of ancient Sildor, and one of Viridor – but a Viridor before it was settled by elves fleeing the Dragon. After looking at them, Brasshelm rolled them up and added them to his bag. Borax objected, protesting that his statement, "to seek out certain artifacts of Sildor Elvish magic and craft and knowledge" meant artifacts, not maps, and that these should be treasure. Brasshelm counteres that they came under "knowledge" to which Borax retorted that he'd lied; "typical of your kind - and humans," he said with contempt. The Baron didn't rise to this, but did not look pleased.
By this time, Sir Shifan was looking a bit better, also to Borax' disappointment. He lagged behind, and in whispered conversation with Ruby raised the suggestion of breaking their contract. "It'll mean a fight," said Ruby. "That's fine, but it will end in a fight." Borax didn't press the point - yet.
8. Carrying on west, the next stack was labelled "Craft Lore", and Ruby's hopes lifted for a moment - elvish smithcraft was the stuff of legend, and books on that - such as the Journals of Elverandil - could help her enormously. Sadly, none had survived.
9. On beyond that was a square room again; it appeared to be an art gallery. Six paintings were mounted on the walls, and on both sides of a partial partition in the middle. These depicted landscapes, and they couldn't escape the feeling that some items in the depicted scenes were moving.
The scenes were of long-vanished Sildor, and were beautifully painted. As she stood and stands and regarded one, she saw the scene start to move realistically; grass waved, streams flowed, animals wandered around, trees swayed and so on. After a few seconds, she felt her point-of-view move into the scene, and she experienced it as if she were there. A little concerned, she tried to 'pull back' - and the effect ended, leaving her standing in front of the painting once more.
These were a massively valuable find - but also massive full stop; ten feet across and six high. With effort, Ruby managed to get one off the wall, but it was going to be a heavy job of work to get all six up the stairs and out of the library. "If we can," commented Brasshelm - and Borax braced himself for the man to reserve this as well - "it'll do all our prize money no harm at all." The knights grinned with pleasure as Calvis, a little dazed, reckoned somewhere between ten and a hundred thousand each depending on where they were sold.
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26. Returning to the Plant Lore stack (22) and carefully skirting the patch of yellow mould, they descended another short flight and discovered the sculpture gallery. It displayed a wide variety of pieces of sculpture of assorted sizes. All looked to have survived the centuries reasonably well. The centrepiece was a half-submerged hand, the fingers of which moved gently back and forth.
Most pieces were far too big to move - and indeed, a mystery as to how they'd been installed - but some smaller pieces looked most valuable and these were collected for prize money. Calvis was beginning to gibber a little at the level of value being collected.
Before leaving, Ruby went and stood inside the fingers of the Hand. As it moved, she felt a caring caress pass across her, not over her skin, but deeper inside. She felt warm, comforted, cared-for. It was strangely troubling for a child of rape given a home against the odds, and made her think of Banith and Cotella. Without comment, she stepped out again and walked away.
Finally, they returned to the scroll room (17) and examined the N door. It was unlike the others, had a tiny keyhole, and according to Calvis was Wizard Locked. After some rummaging, the small silver key from (2) was produced. It was turned, and the door opened of its own accord. Brasshelm's eyes brightened at the sight of the words "Magical Lore" inlaid on the floor in gold.
As elsewhere, most of the books were lost, but three weighty magical books, and one non-magical one, remained. The magical ones were labelled in gold elvish letters on the spines; Manual of Gainful Exercise, Manual of Quickness of Action and Tome of Clear Thought. Ruby, suspecting what these were, innocently suggested she carry them, and slid them into the Bag.
Meanwhile, Brasshelm had picked up the non-magical book, and was looking at it with an expression approaching awe. A moment later, he had bagged it. "What was that one?" asked Borax sharply. Brasshelm pulled it back out readily enough, turning it so the dwarf could see the runes on the cover, perhaps forgetting that Borax could not read elvish. Behind him, Ruby read out the words; "On the Magical Properties of Various Gemstones and their Application" which sounded a bit dull.
Voice thrumming with reverence, Brasshelm said quietly, "This was actually written by Glathien Nilmarien. Imagine!" They had to; no-one else in the room had ever heard of this person. He tucked it very carefully away, and nobody objected again.
In the north wall of this stack was an arch, beyond which were stairs descending further than the ones they'd negotiated up to this point; presumably to the Second Level the eyeball had mentioned.
It had been a long day, and spells - mostly diagnostic - were running low. The suggestion was made to return to the surface for the night, rest eat and sleep, and to tackle the second floor the next day. Brasshelm slapped Shifan heartily on the shoulder, making the man wince. "It's been a successful day!" he boomed, "You've all done well."
Back on the surface, the expedition was reunited, with the delvers spinning tall yarns - in some cases nothing but the truth - to their fellows of what they had experienced. Dinner was prepared - by the cart driver Corwyn, who was not the world's greatest chef - and a few flagons broached as the company set watches and turned in.
The next morning, Borax and Ruby offered to lead a team to recover the pictures from the art gallery. Together with the surviving seven knights, they strained and sweated for three hours until they had finally hardballed all six pieces up the stairs and down the corridors to the cart, which was now packed full. "But where am I going to sleep now?" lamented Borax a bit theatrically. A second breakfast was their reward, apart from congratuatory words from the Baron.
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That done, the same team descended the stairs to the second level of the ruins of Proudstone Library.
At the bottom of the stairs the words "The Vault. No Unauthorized Access" were inlaid in the stone of the lintel. "Oh, well, I'll be off," joked Borax. Beyond was a room 20x15, apparently empty, with an archway to the W through which steps down were just visible. Ruby unpacked the Daylight gem from the garden and handed it to Meepo. "It's better than the candle," said Borax, "and we've had it all the time." Meepo nodded co-operatively though whether he completely understood was dubious.
1. Calvis, as usual deputed to go first and check for traps, finished checking the archway and stepped into the room - failing to notice the subtle holes dotting the walls, floor and ceiling beyond. With a loud metallic shinnng! inch-thick metal bars slammed out of roughly half of them, spearing across the room at various angles and slamming into the holes opposite, filling it with a lattice of steel bars.
Calvis was impaled by two of them, speared through an arm and a leg and left with the choice of staying there or cutting his limbs off; he was too busy screaming to discuss this, however. Something occurred to Ruby, and she stepped up to the bars and pulled the golden talisman from her Bag of Holding. With a slightly quieter metallic slither, the bars retracted, and Calvis collapsed.
Fortunately, Lynien accepted his rather feeble coin flip as he cast a Cure Moderate, and his wounds closed over.
Rather cautiously, Calvis and Ruby ventured back in, relieved to find the bars remained where they were this time. Calvis easily found the mechanism, sensibly located on the far side of the room, and Ruby said "Disable that," loudly. Calvis bent to unpack his tools. "Pretend to," Ruby added in a whisper. Calvis cocked an eyebrow, and Ruby, back to the others, rolled her eyes towards the Baron. Calvis, no stranger to dodgy deeds, nodded in understanding and set to, announcing in a couple of minutes that all was safe as he'd jammed the mechanism. Ruby was impressed; it looked as though he had to her. [Allan rolled a Nat20 for Calvis' Bluff here as he pretended to disable it]
2. Rather nervously, the company crossed the atrium - Borax holding Meepo back til last - and headed down the steps, emerging in a much larger and less empty room. It was in poor condition; the SW corner had collapsed and was a sloped heap of rubble. A breach in the W wall had let some water in that had pooled in a couple of places. Some stone shelves in the SW corner had also collapsed. Three wooden barrels standing in the NW corner appeared in far better condition than anything else.
Brasshelm was very interested in the barrels, which when tapped sounded full of fluid, and Meepo reported were magical. He directed Sir Mazbadil to open the top of one, revealing a dark red liquid, which the knight sniffed appreciatively. "Smells like wine!" he said appreciatively. Brasshelm unpacked a camp cup and scooped some out. "All your health!" he toasted and drank. "Very good wine!" he reported. "Very good, and completely fresh." The lid went back on easily, and despite their five-hundred-pound-plus mass, it looked very practical to haul them up and out with ropes and muscles. For now, they were left where they were.
While he was preoccupied with this, Ruby updated Borax on the possibility of leaving the Baron in the Vault, maybe even skewered, with artful use of the talisman and the Bag. The dwarf grinned at the idea, but didn't bother Meepo's minimal subterfuge with the secret.
Searching the rest of the room, Calvis paused. "Anyone hear ... footsteps?" he asked. Gathering in the north end, all could now hear slow, heavy treads to the north, approaching, then fading, then approaching again, over around a five minute cycle. The door there was featureless, with no mechanism or handle, and Ruby approached it with the talisman. It opened, and she looked inside - to find she was not alone.
3. Walking slowly toward her was a humanoid figure, slightly larger than man-sized. It trudged towards her along the corridor and did not seem to notice her. Torchlight glinted off its beautifully cast surface, which was made of many differerent metals – steel, brass, gold and copper. As she watched, a little nervously, the golem - for such it was - plodded up to her, turned, and headed north. As it reached the north door, it opened automatically and the golem plodded through, the door slamming behind it.
The room now empty, Brasshelm and Borax came in to have a look. A small altar stood against the N wall, with a bas-relief of Mithlendel on the wall behind it. Two white candles burned eternally on the altar, dimly illuminating the room. Brasshelm, and the knights, felt welcomed and comforted within the radiance of the candles; Borax and Ruby were unaffected.
The consensus was to go south first. This door was unlocked, and led to a 10x15 room which seemed merely decorative; small statues stood in the two N corners, and a magnificent tapestry covered the entire S wall. Woven of a mixture of bright colours and metallic thread, it depicted the Elvenhost about to take the field at the Battle of Thallan.
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Brasshelm's brow furrowed; he knew something of the history of the elves. "Odd subject," he said consideringly, "the elves lost the battle of Thallan. Only time they ever lost to humans. Maybe that's why it was put in a cellar." Ruby eyed it. "Wonder if there's anything behind it," she said, reaching up to pull it aside just as Calvis started to say "I say, the greens are very bright and not all in the right place - " at which point it disintegrated and the green slime which had grown on the back dropped all over Ruby.
Her armour and flesh began to sizzle and dissolve, and with a cry she clawed out a dagger and desperately scraped away to get it off. It came away, but left her hurt and with her armour badly eroded. Cursing, she gave the remaining pool of slime a wide berth as they went on down the passage.
6. At the end of the slightly downsloping corridor was water. Beneath it as the room opened before them they could see that the floor underneath seemed to have collapsed, leaving it shelving sharply away to deep, murky, unpleasant-looking water further in.
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As they regarded this, the Baron shook his head and said, apparently to no-one, "That's a stupid idea! No!" Everyone looked at him. "More wine, my Lord?" asked Borax sarcastically. "Some voice ... in my head, suggesting I go and drown myself," he said puzzledly. "Yeah, me too," said Calvis, breaking off as Ruby shouldered past him without speaking and started wading into the water. As she did, Calvis cried out as three Magic Missiles, apparently from nowhere, slammed into him. Seeing this, Meepo hastily cast Mage Armour. Calvis, recovering, worked a Blessing as a hideous creature came into view and out of Invisibility; a long, serpentine body with - cruelly - the head of a beautiful elfmaid atop it. As they watched, it squirmed as it cast another spell - and Ruby, recovering, backhanded it viciously while it was occupied. Suddenly, there were four of them - each sporting a nasty wound. Its - her - mouth opened and she hissed, revealing myriad needle-like teeth.
In the middle of the string of the company jammed into the 5' corridor, Brasshelm and the knights had their swords drawn, but were unsure what was going on. Borax, standing at the edge of the water, looked at Ruby who was chest-deep and knew he couldn't get to grips with the thing. He pulled a hand axe and hurled it, and one of the Mirror Images popped out of existence. He flung another one but all three remaining Nagas swayed aside and it missed. The thing was casting again as Ruby attacked, bursting another mirage, but nothing immediately visible happened. Ruby's second attack removed the last image, leaving just the creature herself, just in time for Meepo to slap two Magic Missiles into her. Borax unslung his crossbow, loaded it and shot at her; for his pains she lunged past Ruby and bit him savagely. Teeth sank into his shoulder and he felt something pumping into his bloodstream; but his rocklike dwarvish constitution shrugged it off.
Ruby turned and struck critically from the side, tearing a great gash in the side of the Naga; and then Meepo, from way back in the party, cast one of his newer spells and a Scorching Ray tore straight through the serpent body and killed the Naga instantly. It didn't die easily, though, twining and thrashing and writhing for long minutes. Borax siezed it and dragged it out of the water and watched it thrash until it finally lay still, illuminated in flickering, random light as Meepo capered about at the back giggling and squeaking, "Yes! Yes!"
Before wading back out, Ruby felt along the bottom of the pool, coming up with a metal casket of probable loot - which she slipped into the Bag - and Borax' hand axes which she passed back. She felt peaky, and suggested they withdraw and allow Calvis to ask Lynien for Restoration for her before they thought of tackling a Golem.
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Session Date: 27th July 2026 |
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