How did a simple research assignment lead to this? Sent by Kelemis Dern to Hedrad to find information about the fabled Serpent Amphora, how did you wind up in the middle of the Kelder Steppes, admist a winter storm, caught between a flash flood and an orc war band? At least Stone tripped upon some shelter (ok, he fell 80ft, but still).Hilltop, surrounded by flash flood, huge crowd of orcs coming, Stone fell down hole. Dark shadows he can't really see through, keeps thinking something might be moving there, but when he looks, nothing is there.Something about the cave below, though, makes the hair on the back of your neck prickle. You've invaded ratmen warrens, haunted ruins and assaulted a demon in his lair, but that cavern gives you the creeps. Of course, it's looks more comforting then drowning or taking on a few hundred orcs...
Once again Stone sees something, or thinks he does, but when he looks, nothing is there. Chuck gets out his rope of climbing to get the rest of us down into the hole. Two shadowy forms dive down towards Stone - he shouts "Hedrada's nuts!"
Telryn casts a ball of flame down into the cave The bat dodges. Chuck tries to climb down the rope but falls, falling right through one of the creatures. Paks was prepared to leap, sword point down, but she sees this, she visibly changes her mind. The shadowy bats attack Stone and Chuck, missing Stone but hitting Chuck. Paks starts to climb down the rope. Miriel holds. Stone tries to hit one of the shadows, but misses.
Telryn casts Greater Magic Weapon on Stone. The bat dodges the flaming sphere again. Chuck stands up and pulls out Hoarfrost and his short sword. "Hoarfrost!" He swings both swords and gets a critical hit with the short sword and a max damage hit with Hoarfrost. The creature ignores the cold damage, but is still seriously injured. The bat attacks Stone again, but misses. The other one attacks Chuck, but misses. Paks climbs the rest of the way down the rope and swings at one of the bats, hitting it, wounding it slightly. Stone punches it twice, getting slightly off balance, but hitting hard. Miriel carefully starts to climb down the rope.
The bat dodges the flaming sphere again. Chuck swings and misses. The bat attacks Stone again, but misses. The bat attacks Paks and fumbles; Paks, Stone, and Chuck all take attacks of opportunity, but all fumble. Paks swings with both weapons and hits twice, killing one of the bats. Miriel finishes climbing down. Stone swings again and kills the other bat. Telryn yells down "where do you want the light to go?" Stone: "The chasm!" Telryn moves the sphere.
We look at the bas relief; there are strange humanoid creatures carved in the stone, they have long bald heads and look like they're enslaving humans. Telryn tries to climb down, but slips and falls. Paks tries to catch him and succeeds, but they're both pretty battered. Paks: "let's catch him!" Stone: "No" after: Paks: "Thanks stone" Stone:"I'm there for you"
Miriel heals Telryn. We see statues holding swords vertically, holding up arch with their heads. Through the arch is very dark. GP says he'll stay up with the horses and prisoner. Chuck calls for the rope and it unties itself. Telryn says he's never seen anything like the images down here. Paks heals herself. Stone kicks the head of the ogre skeleton into the chasm. It takes a long time to fall, bouncing a few times on the way down. Loking at the sekelton of the Ogre, theres a piece of burlap next to it - Stone takes it, it's a burlap sack, and it's oddly heavy, though empty. He rolls it up and sticks it into his pack.
The chasm is 10 ft wide - side with dark portal and two statues is 20 ft lower down. Chuck pulls out his glowing dagger and lights a torch, tossing the torch to Stone, as the flaming sphere has gone out. Down the passage is a lot of rubble; it looks like some of the ceiling might have collapsed. Paks moves past Chuck and Stone down the corridor. As she turns the corner past the pile of rubble, a large shadowy ogre jumps out at her and swings a shadow of a club at her, hitting her.
The shadow ogre swings at Paks again, but misses. Chuck tumbles in front of Paks and falls through the floor - it's a covered pit, 20 feet deep. The lid swings back up and closes him in the pit. Paks swings at the shadow ogre, but her sword just goes right through it. She steps back. Stone steps up and aims a flurry of blows at the shadow ogre, hitting once. The ogre ignores the damage. Stone: "Telryn, can you do that again?" Telryn shoots a magic missile at the ogre. Miriel moves forward and tries to turn the ogre, but it ignores her.
The ogre swings at Stone and misses. Chuck inspects the pit mechanism - it's a spring and a lever. He takes out his climbing rope and gets it to wrap around the lever. Paks calls out "Miriel, use your light!" Stone punches at the ogre again, fumbling and falling over. It swings at him and hits. He is injured and feels weaker from the cold shadow touch. Weakly: "Telyrn, help!" Telryn casts another magic missile at it and injures it. Miriel casts a Searing Light at it and banishes it back to the shadow plane.
The trap door opens and we see Chuck holding a rope. There are some bones and a jeweled scabbard in the pit. There's a rusty pitted sword. he picks it up and looks at it and is about to put it back down when. Paks yells "Take it"! Chuck throws the other end of the rope up and tries to climb up. Meanwhile Telryn and Stone pull out pitons and wedge the trap door open. Chuck climbs out.
Stone looks around the corner and down the corridor, but it's too dark for him to even see anything very far. He tosses the torch down the corridor. Miriel suggests that Telryn map where we go this time. At the end of the corridor is an oval cavern, with stalactites and stalagmites. Miriel heals Stone, Telryn gives him a mage armor.
Chuck moves in, searching for traps. Stone is lookin around, shadows are really thick, almost like a fog, or the shadow of a fog. All of a sudden, he feels a tendril of shadow grab at him. He feels a chill enter his body, but he shakes it off. He is entwined and struggles with it.
Telryn pulls out a torch and lights it. Another tendril reaches for Chuck, and hits him. He breaks free of its grab. Stone punches it, hitting twice. Paks moves forward and it hits her. Miriel blesses everyone. Chuck swings with Hoarfrost and the dagger and hits with the dagger, but just slices through thin air. He swings again with Hoarfrost and hits.
Telryn shoots a magic missile at it and injures it. Stone breaks free. It hits Paks. Stone punches it, hits, and fumbles. It tries to hit him, but misses. Paks swings at it and slices thorugh again. Miriel comes up and hands her magic spear to Paks. Chuck swings twice, fumbles once, and hits with the other, and the cold damage dissipates the fog.
Telryn moves the flaming sphere around to look at the cavern. Lots of rubble,and it seems like shadows are darting around, moving away from the ball of flame. Paks heals herself. The room seems significantly lighter now that the fog is gone. As Chuck moves into one cornder, some small tendrils sort of grab at him, but don't connect. He swings Hoarfrost at it and hits, cutting off a tendril. Stone calls to him to come back, but as he's about to move away, Chuck thinks he sees a sword on the ground past it.
We move back to the main cavern to rest, rain is pouring down through the hole. Stone looks into the sack. Miriel heals Chuck. Stone sticks his head in the sack. Muffled: "Mmmph dark mphm." He puts gold in the sack, pulls 'em out. Chuck offers the scabbard to other fighters. Stone keeps putting larger items into sack and dumping 'em out. No matter what he puts in, it weights 25 lbs. He can put 500 pounds of stuff in it - about 2x4 ft in size. When he turns it inside out, it acts like a reglar bag. We all give Stone our extra stuff.
We rest for 12 hours for Miriel and Telyrn to regain points. Miriel notices that her cloak is very drab now, so Chuck memorizes a cleaning spell to clean everything for her, and himself. GP shouts down "it's still raining." The watchers keep thinking they might see something out the corners of their eyes, but nothing attacks. Telryn detects magic and finds that there's background magic all through the room.
We got back to the cavern; Stone suggests that Chuck use the climbing rope to grab the sword, which amazes us all by working. It's interesting, almost looks like smoky black glass. Has symbol of Corean on the hilt. Paks triest it out - feels lighter than her other sword. She goes over to the small shadow and attacks it. She slices through one of the tentacles. Now she tries her non-magical sword, and it dissipates a tentacle. It grabs at her, but misses. Paks gives the spear back to Miriel. She activates it to give off regular light, which has no effect. We can see a lot of tentacles of shadow, but that's it.
We move out the far end of the cavern. Chuck checks for traps as we go. We come into a rectangular room, with one corner collapsed and filled with rubble. The room is half granite, half quartz, carvings on the walls, crystals on the floor. Chuck and Stone walk in. Stone picks up crystal, smoky stone. Stone gives Chuck a piece of rope and Chuck ties his dagger around his brow. We all start laughing. Telryn collects a pouch full of the crystals. He finds one much bluer than the rest. He detects magic, the crystal and sword are magic.
We move down the corridor back to the crevasse, and Stone leaps across, gracefully. He tells us there are some branches, and the main corridor turns to the right. Chuck tries to affix his rope to the ceiling and it stays, but then he passes it across the crevasse to Stone, they hold it so we can shimmy across. As he goes around the corner, a snaky tendril tries to grab him, but misses. He steps back. He gingerly goes up to the rubble pile to the oher side, holding the rope. He calls to us to come over and warns us about the shadow creatures.
Paks gets across and Stone is attacked by two shadows. One of them hits him, and he looks much weaker.
Telryn casts a lightning bolt at them and blasts them into nonexistence. Paks gives Stone a potion of lesser restoration. He looks a little stronger.
Paks helps hold the rope. Chuck has made a sling harness for us. Telryn crosses, then Miriel. Chuck tries to cross, but falls. He looks around the crevasse while he's down there, but doesn't see much. He climbs up.
We move into another room. We see another bas-relief. There is some knotty text running around the room. Telryn stops to copy down the text. Looking at the scenes, we see that they depict the gods and titans fighting the humanoids. Meanwhile the rest of us search the room. Miriel finds a pink quartz on the floor and gives it to telryn.
As chuck moves around, he triggers another trapdoor, but jumps out of the way. He looks in, sees only rubble, and disables the trap. Moving down, we find more statues; these are large and winged, with huge gems looking like horns in their foreheads, looks like a ruby and a sapphire. Telryn moves a bit closer and detects magic; the statues are magic, with strong enchantments on them. We look into a large room; in the center is a statue of one of the humanoids. There are some corridors branching off, and another arch. We're on a platform in the corner. Chuck pulls out his rope and sends it snaking towards the horns. The room is mostly crystal. Stone steps down and moves towards the central statue. As soon as Stone steps down, the central status animates and moves towards him.
Telryn casts Haste on Paks. Chuck tells his rope to affix itself to the legs of the animated statue. It moves toward them. Stone steps biack and prepares for his attack. He punches it, and says "Ow!" it hurts. He misses. Stone is slowed down. It swings at Paks and Stone, hitting Stone but missing Paks. Paks swings both swords at it she hits, but it just clangs and doesn't hurt it. She swings again, and again has no effect. Miriel blesses everyone.
Telryn Hastes Stone. Chuck falls down to the floor while trying to entangle with the rope. Stone moves towards it. He hits it, but it doesn't appear to be damaged. Paks hits, but doesn't hurt it. Miriel waits.
Telryn summons a wolf. It tries to hit the statue, but misses. Chuck stands up and triest to climb. Stone turns around and moves away. The stone golem takes two fists and smashes the wolf. Chuck has climbed up, and the statue just bangs at the side of the ledge. As we wonder what to do, it ambles back to its pedestal and stops. Stone suggests we lure it into a pit.
Stone jumps down again, but the statue doesn't animate. Chuck jumps down and injures himself a bit. As Paks moves within 10 ft of the blue statue, it animates.
Chuck sees the winged statue moving behind Paks. He prepares to shoot it in the horn. Stone leaps up to the ledge and waits for the statue to get in striking range. Miriel waits. The statue shoots a blue beam at Paks and she slows down. Paks swings at it twice, but misses.
Telryn shoots a magic missile at it. Chuck's shot misses. He pulls out acid and throws it, hitting the statue. Stone charges at the statue, trying to remove the horn, and succeeds in hitting, but doesn't remove the horn. He shoots the blue beam at Stone and slows him down. Paks hits it. Miriel sends a Shockwave at it and it falls over. Paks and stone take attacks of opportunity and hit.
Telryn shoots at it and misses. Chuck climbs back up, behind Paks. Stone aims a flurry of blows at it, but misses. Miriel moves towards the statues, keeping well away. The statue stands up and aims its horn at chuck, but he resists. Paks swings and misses.
Telryn watches. Chuck steps in, calls Hoarfrost, and swings at it, but misses. Stone punches it, but misses. Miriel tries another Shockwavei, but fails. The gargoyle bites at Stone, but misses. It claws Paks, but fumbles on Chuck. Stone and Chuck and Paks attack it, Chuck hits. Paks hits it; she calls for healing.
Telryn watches. Chuck swings Hoarfrost again, but misses. Stone punches and misses. Miriel runs over and heals Paks. Paks swings and misses. The gargoyle tries to spear Chuck with its horn and hits him, goring him badly.
Telryn watches. Chuck swings at it with Hoarfrost and hits. Stone punches and misses. Miriel heals chuck. Paks swings and misses. The gargoyle tries to spear Paks, but misses.
Telryn watches. Chuck swings and misses. Stone punches and misses. Miriel casts a Shockwave and knocks it over again. Paks, Stone and Chuck take attacks of opportunity. Chuck hits it and it shatters. The horn is still there; chuck picks it up and gives it to Telryn. Stone edges back to Telryn, staying away from the other gargoyle. We go to the corner to rest for three hours so Miriel can restore Stone. Stone is restored to full strength.
Stone, Chuck, and Paks go around the corner. Paks and Chuck are entangled in ropy shadowy tentatcles. Stone moves on a bit further to get out of range and falls into a pit. The roof closes.
Paks cuts herself free. Calls back to Telryn that there's a shadow thing and Stone fell in a pit. Chuck tries to cut himself free but fails. Stone pulls out the grappling hook and attaches it to a rope.
Paks tries to pull Chuck free, but fails. Chuck treist to pull free and fails. Stone throws the grappling hook and catches mechanism.
Paks cuts Chuck free. The shadow tries to grab her, but fails. Chuck tries to tumble past the shadow and fails. It grabs him again, but he throws his climbing rope into the pit, and Stone climbs out.
Chuck tosses oil to Stone. Paks cuts Chuck free. Stone pours oil aaround the shadow. Chuck lights the oil, but it has no effect on the shadow. Stone pokes his 10-ft pole at it, and it grabs at it, but he yanks it back.
Stone tumbles past the shadow again. We go down the corridor and find that the floor has shifted up 15 ft, so there's only 5 feet between the flor and the roof. Stone stretches a bit, warms up, gets ready. He jumps down off the ledge and activates the center golem and runs away from it, staying 20 ft away. Leads it towards the pit. Shadows try to grap it, but fail. It falls into the pit, with a huge boom. The door shuts. We hear it banging. "Did it work?" "Yes, I'm fine!"
In the room where Stone is, there's a pile of earthy material and a niche with some vials. Stone comes back and tells telryn: "There's your kind of room over there."
Telryn climbs down and checks out the pedestal. He copies down the writing. There are big granite double doors.
Stone tries to open the doors, with all of our help. We suceed. In the next room is a crystal pedestal with stone tablets on it. Telryn detects magic and finds that the tablets are magic. He walks in and over to the pedestal. He keeps detecting magic. THe walls are quartz, very smooth, general aura of magic in the room. He looks at the tablets without touching them. Looks like they're Draconic. He tries to read the top one. Looks like a scroll, but made out of stone.
He slides the top one over and looks at the next one, pretty much the same kind of thing. He lifts the top one off. Two pieces of crystal come up from the pedestal and trap his hands. He's caught in a crystal hand-stock!! A heavy crystal wall crashes down behind him closing off the exit!
Chuck tries to disable the doorway trap. Paks and Stone try to push the doorway up. Paks yells "Use the ring! Teleport!" but Telryn can't hear her. Meanwhile, in the crystal room, Telryn hears a hissing noise.
Chuck, Paks and Stone continue to strain to lift the door with no luck. Telryn tries to hold his breath to protect against the poison gas, but he feels himself getting weaker.
Chuck, Paks and Stone still can't lift the door, and Telryn's struggles are getting more feeble. He fights to remain concious.
Finally, using all their strength, the warrior lift the door a fraction. They hear gas escaping, but no one gets poisoned. Paks yells "Teleport!" Telryn suddenly remembers the ring of Spell Storing he took from the corpse of Tears of Her Enemies and that it contains a spell of Teleport!
Telryn teleports out of the room back into the hall with the statues. Miriel restores him.