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The Night Hag had been thrown off the roof, and now seemed to be dead;
at least, it wasn't making any noise. Under the assumption that it
had met with a timely demise, we went to explore the rest of the keep.
Navero, male human cleric, 4th level
Dania, female 1/2-elf MU, 4th level
Kortul, male human fighter, 4th level
Razuli, male human fighter, 4th level
Arlor, male dwarf thief, 4th level
Kory, male elf bard, 3rd level
Topash, male elf druid, 3rd level
Meth, male ? thief, 3rd level
We tried to keep the conversation business-related, and succeeded
to a small degree; Dania quit grumbling for a while. We went west
down the hallway to a corner, where it turned south; there was a door
in the south wall at the corner. It was perfectly ordinary, except
for a rug protruding from under the door; the room was carpeted. The
door wasn't locked, so we opened it and looked inside. The room
seemed to have been someone's chambers; typical chamber furnishings
stood about. They were all very old, but there wasn't much dust
anywhere. A humanoid's bones were scattered in one corner, with a
large wooden stake thrust into the rib cage; we elected not to disturb
them. The closet was empty, the bed collapsed when jostled, and all
the drawers were missing. A prolonged search revealed a roll of paper
hidden in one of the bedposts; it was a map, but not of the keep. It
looked like some caverns, with one place marked "Histidyn." We had no
idea what this meant, so we stuck the map in Navero's backpack and
forgot about it.
We left the room and went south. On the west side of the
corridor, arrow-slits and narrow windows looked out onto the hills;
the wind was starting to blow colder, indicating that the sun would be
setting soon. The corridor had one door on the east wall, which
opened onto a stairway leading down to the first floor.
Dania: "Alright, do we stay up here? I wanna find that Hag's lair."
Kory: "Well, I wanna find that bloody rock and get outa this place.
This is the most gawdawful place I've seen in the last few hours,
and I don't want to be here much longer than that either. Let's
go down, find the thing, rub our magic ring three times and GO!"
Topash: "Yes. The Hag may not even be dead. Time is of the essence."
Meth: "Err... look, even if it isn't QUITE dead, it WON'T be bothering
us. We are, shall I say, the least of its concerns at the moment."
Razuli: "Look, it's dead. Let's find its cash and get outa here.
Duke Dipshit can wait."
Dania: "There's nothing to stop us from looting the place. Let's go."
Navero: "Shouldn't we get the bloodstone first? I mean, night will be
soon, and this might not be a good place to be at night. And the
Duke did say he needed it soon, I think."
Topash: "Quite. There is indeed something to stop us from `looting
the place', and I suggest we use our remaining time wisely."
Dania: "Navero, if you see anything, dispel it."
Navero: "Huh?"
Meth: "Err.... Him, our mighty protector...?"
Razuli: "Wizzerd, do you see who you're talking to? If there's gonna
be undead I'd just as soon split. Ok, its decided! We'll go
down the stairs, get the thing, and get out before sunset. Ok?
Ok! Your buffness, you go first."
Kortul: "Catacombs."
Dania: "Huh?"
Navero: "Uh, yes. There would be catacombs down there, wouldn't there?"
Kory: "Of course! We'll have undead up to my pointy ears unless we
get out of here. Really, Dania, I can't see why you want to stay
in this awful place. Does it remind you of home?"
Dania: "Up to your pointy head, I think, and..."
Topash: "Children..."
Razuli: "Speak for yourself."
Kortul: "Sun setting. Find room with one door to defend."
Dania: "Yeah. We can clean the place out in the morning. Plenty of
time. Let's go look."
Navero: "What about that room back there?"
Razuli: "You want to sleep with a dead vampire? C'mon."
We went south to the corner, then east. There were more slits on
the south, and doors on the north. None of them were locked. The
first door opened into a room had many barrels, casks, and other
containers; some of them were leaky, and the smell was very
unpleasant. The liquids in the casks were reddish, smelly, and
unidentifiable. The barrels had many different things in them; bones
of unknown origin, bones of known origin, various internal organs,
powders (including some more cleansing powder) and slabs of rotten-
seeming meat. We didn't stay long.
The second door opened onto a large room with many old shelves; a
library. The shelves were mostly empty, except for a decaying lump
that might once have been a large worm. There were three doors in the
room, two from the south and one on the east. The eastern door opened
onto a smaller room whose floor and ceiling had collapsed. It was
very chill inside, and it was impossible to tell what the room had
been used for. We saw several largish spiders in one corner, but
didn't bother them. Then, one of the doors in the south wall of the
library creaked open.
Party: (Whirl around and bristle with assorted weapons)
2 Skeletons: RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE
4 Zombies: SCHLOPSH SCHLOPSH SCHLOPSH
1 Wraith: WAFT WAFT WAFT
Party: "AHH! Kill the Wraith!"
Dania: "BOLT!" (Staff fizzles, small spark stings her thumb) "SHIT!"
Navero: "By the Lords of the Correct and Unalterable Way, of whom I am
representative, go away!" (Rolls an 8. Skeletons and Zombies
leave through open door. Wraith hesitates.)
Kory: (Sings battle song)
"Fight fiercely Hahvahd, fight fight fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Albeit they are an ugly fright,
Nonetheless, we're ugly too!"
Kortul: HACK SLICE DESTROY ETC. AD INFINITUM
Wraith: (Exeunt)
Meth: "Hey, why don't we go someplace and hide for a while? I do not
like the situation, and these people don't party at all."
Razuli: "Where? The Dead Vampire room or the broom closet?"
Topash: "I think perhaps the Vampire room. It has two doors, but the
closet will be too small for us all to spend the night."
Navero: "Shouldn't there be a room here?"
Dania: "What?"
Navero: "I've been drawing a map. This section is totally blank, but
there aren't any doors leading into it."
Kory: "Ah HAH! A secret chamber! Where? (Looks at map) Oh, this is
easy! The hidden door is right here. Or maybe here. Or
possibly here."
Dania: "Gimme that. Where... Probably here."
Topash: "Have you noticed that to go there, we will have to cross
through this room, with the collapsed floor? Can you fly and
open a door at the same time, dear magic-user? I certainly
cannot."
Navero: "It's either here, from the corridor, or the larvae room."
Kortul: "Or the roof."
Dania: "What?"
Kortul: "Holes in roof. Go down."
Topash: "And the entrance should be much easier to find from inside."
Dania: "All right, good thinking. Let's get over there before any of
those things come back."
Out in the hall, we saw 2 skeletons and 4 zombies in a corner.
They fled when we appeared. We quickly went east, then north, and
turned the corner to go west. However, right around the corner, the
corridor turned black as night, and seemed to be moving.
Navero: "By the great goodness of our Lady of The Sunlight and
Flowers, begone!" (Rolls 18, all Shadows flee.)
Dania: "Good going! All praise our Lady."
Navero: "Um, yeah. Wow!" (Looks rather pleased with himself.)
Razuli: "Right, right. Lets go before any more show up."
The roof was deserted; we looked for a hole in the right place,
but they were all patched up in that particular section. Kortul
solved the problem by finding a weak part of the roof; the fall didn't
hurt him too much. Inside, he looked about with his Sunsword, but
nothing attacked.
Kory: "O Great Weight lifted from our shoulders? Do you see
anything?"
Kortul: "Small room. Smell very bad."
Topash: "Yes, we can tell. Is there anything in there?"
Kortul: "Several boxes, caskets. Some are opening. Get down here."
Dania: "Get some rope! Lower a lantern so he can see!"
Razuli: "Magic-user, he's got a glowing sword."
Dania: "Yeah! Kortul! Drive them away with the Sunsword!"
Kortul: (Grumble)
Navero: (Fumbles with rope. It has gotten tangled in his pack.)
Kory: "Here I come!" (Jumps down)
Undead: GARGLE SNORT DROOL (2 corporal undead appear from caskets.)
Kory: "Yuck! I didn't want my mummy!"
Kortul: "Shut up." (Hacks Mummy.)
Dania: "Burn them! Razuli, get in there!"
Kory: "Burn them?!"
Razuli: "Get in there!?"
Navero: "Return to the sleep you were supposed to have!" (Rolls a 5.)
Mummies: (Both shamble out of caskets, moving slowly.)
Kortul: (Two great whallops destroy his Mummy.)
Kory: "Ho Ha Guard Turn Parry Dodge Spin Thrust!" (Does 3 hit points.)
Meth: "Hey, you're dead. Be mellow."
Topash: "Your technique seems somewhat ineffective." (Pours flask of
oil on the remaining mummy.)
Kory: "Hey! Don't light that thing! We're down here!"
Navero: "Can't you just stay away from it?"
Dania: "Yeah." (Drops lit torch on Mummy.)
Mummy: (FLOOM!)
Kortul: (grumble grumble curse) "<racial slur>"
Kory: "Are you NUTS!? Get me outa here!!"
Navero: (Throws down rope.)
Mummy: (Attacks Kory, flaming all the while.)
Kory: "YOU STUPID BITCH!! WE'RE DOWN HERE WITH IT!! AHH!!" (Runs
frantically about, shouting many words which Navero does not
recognize.)
Meth: "That may not have been the smartest thing to do, you know."
Kortul: (Climbs up rope. Kory grabs rope, is pulled up.)
Topash: "Well, that was exciting. How long will it take to burn out?"
Navero: "Probably a while. Look, that box caught fire..."
Kory: (To Dania) "YOU DO *NOT* TORCH OTHER PARTY MEMBERS!!"
Dania: "Look, I don't like fire either, but it's the best way to kill
it."
Kory: "Oh yeah? Look: boxes full of stuff down there, right? The
Hag's treasure hold, right?"
Dania: "Right! What the fuck is the matter with you? It's a stone
keep, it isn't going to burn down or anything."
Kory: "The Hag used magic several times, right? So it must have
scrolls and spellbooks, right? Which are flammable, right?"
Dania: "Uh... maybe."
Topash: "Including, possibly, wands or staves? WOOD staves?"
(Pause.)
Dania: "Nav, how big is the fire now?"
Navero: "Well, everything in there was old and dry. Almost everything
is burning very hot now."
The party scattered to the edges of the roof. Flames licked out
of the hole in the roof, fierce and hot; mortar between stones caught
in a few places. Then, there was a tremendous **BOOM** and the roof
over the room flew apart into the air. The whole building shook and
rattled as a great sparkling ball of violet, flaming radiance blasted
up out of the room. It filled the sky and spread into the heavens,
for a moment lighting the area up like a small sun; then it faded away
in the night, leaving the smell of burning metal and ozone in its
wake. We got up and examined the room; the fire was out, and the
inside of the small chamber was completely covered with sparkling
ashes. No identifiable bits of treasure remained among the blackened
debris.
Kory: "Well, looks like they're all dead now."
Daniel Parsons
"I hate to think what will happen when she gets Fireball."
MAP - SECOND FLOOR OF THE RUINED KEEP
to roof
|
+-------------------|-------------------------------+
| | |
| +---/ ----------/ +--/ --------------/ -------+ |
| | | || | | /u| |
| / Dead vampire | || broom | secret |Larvae |^|---from first floor
| | room | v| closet | | ||| |
| |------------+ |up| | | ||| |
| / ----> down |--------------------+S+---------| |
| +------------| | | |
| | | / | |
| | storage | library | collapsed | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +---/ ----------/\------------/\--------------+ |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------+