From Slaves to Heroes in the Making (Heroes of Destiny)

This is written from Kierwin's (the Cleric) viewpoint.


It was a beautiful, warm day, and Minx and Kierwin had decided to spend it at the beach, it was a common enough place to find them this time of year, they weren't there all the time, but it was peaceful and sometimes it just seemed like the right place to be.

Kierwin had recently returned from a long stay at the Temple of Ehlonna, and the two had decided to come to the beach to catch up on everything they had missed while she'd been away. She was a little quieter than usual, as though she had something on her mind, but they enjoyed the day and frolicked on the beach and in the ocean in the warm weather and the pleasant surf.

One thing about Minx, she was strong-willed. She didn’t have a lot of friends, but neither did Kierwin. They were both too dedicated to their studies. To those friends Minx had, she would fight to the death to protect them, but she always felt that her values were the values that everyone should have, and she tended to jump to conclusions very quickly.

Kierwin hoped that Minx would get along okay in a party if she joined one in the future when they went on quests or adventures. She passed judgment on people very quickly, and didn't tend to change her mind once she'd made it up.

The day had been beautiful, the two elves loved nature anyway, but the sun, the warmth and the slight breeze made it all the better. They had both tied their long, dark hair back behind their ears to help keep it from blowing in the breeze and keep it out of their eyes. Kierwin was used to having her hair down, but when she was practicing her swordsmanship or if the weather called for it, she followed Minx’ example and pulled hers back.

Minx had worn her green dress, but Kierwin had worn her traveling clothes. She seldom dressed up, since she spent so much time out in the woodlands. She always tried to be prepared in case of danger, that was one lesson that her brother had taught her. She seldom dressed up, it made it much too hard to fight if she was dressed up. She was a fast learner. As a cleric, there were many times she might have to fight up close and personal, and a dress would just get in the way. She'd certainly gotten the scars from Gerald to prove it.

Minx was a wizard, young for an elf, but older than Kierwin, she was the big sister that Kierwin didn't have. The only person Kierwin was closer to than Minx was her foster brother, Gerald. Minx was willful, beautiful, and learning her craft fast. Even though she was a wizard through and through, she had learned a few clerical spells from her best friend. She had, in turn taught Kierwin a few spells that she thought the Cleric could use. Kierwin was both in temperament and in her heart a true Cleric, but she had learned the spells the wizard had taught her quickly and well. They hoped that the extras would help them out when they were older and out on their own on adventures to help others. Of course, they didn’t plan to adventure out for several more years, at least that was the plan.

They were both dedicated to their calling, but still young enough to have fun. They still played the occasional practical joke now and then, the adults tended to look the other way knowing that the two girls were approaching adulthood and would soon face dangers that would keep them from remembering what fun was. Of course, most of the elves in their village enjoyed pulling pranks now and then.

They saw a ship drop anchor off shore, about a hundred yards or so. The naive young elves didn’t think much of it, other than to listen quietly to the music being played and notice the dancing among the crew or passengers. They figured it was a merchant ship or something along that line and decided not to worry about it. If they’d known what awaited them, they would have run all they way home right then, leaving their things behind.

From Slaves to Heroes in the Making

For some reason, they thought about Snap. Actually, Snap was short for Snap-Crackle-Pop. They’d forgotten his real name by now. He’d been gone for so long that they hadn’t thought about him for a long time. He was a sorcerer and his nickname came from all the spells that sizzled when he cast them. By the time he'd left years ago, his skills were getting much better, but the nickname had stuck, and was still deserved at times.

The elves had taken Snap in when he was just a baby, and he'd been raised with Minx, in fact. He was also a half-orc, most "people" wouldn't have even taken him in, they would have preferred to let him die. His nature was kind and gentle, but of course, most people were terrified of him. Little did most people know that he was the one who was terrified of them!

Minx and Kierwin talked late into the night tending their fire and staring into the flames. They talked about Snap, wondering what he was doing, what had become of him. They listened to the music coming from the ship. As they listened, they could tell that there was obviously drinking going along with the dancing and music. They shook their heads at the foolishness of the humans on the ship from the sounds they could hear. They meditated about 4 hours before dawn. Kierwin planned to pray at dawn to Elhonna and Minx planned to study her spells. Of course, what do they say about best laid plans?

Kierwin was absorbed in her prayers to Elhonna and didn't notice the longboat come ashore. In the middle of her studying, Minx was interrupted by a sailor. Another sailor tapped Kierwin hard enough to get her attention. As they stood, they noticed the two sailors asked if there was a water source nearby, saying that they had been on a long voyage and needed fresh water.

As they talked, Kierwin noticed a second longboat pull up next to the first and before they could do anything, they were surrounded. Sensing danger, she signaled to Minx and as they prepared to cast a sleep spell on the group, two very good looking male elves walked up in front of them.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you, ladies.” One of them, said. “We’d like to invite you to breakfast on our ship.”

Minx answered firmly “Thank you, but we really must get back to our village, it’s just through the trees and they are expecting us. In fact, they’ll be looking for us any moment. We’re late getting back as it is.”

“I’m sorry, but we really must insist”, answered the other one, “and we would really hate to put scars on those beautiful faces. Unfortunately, we will do anything we must to get you to have breakfast with us.”

Kierwin spoke up (at the same time trying to sense motive). “How about if we fix you breakfast right here, and we all have breakfast together? We are pretty good cooks. You look like reasonable men. I’m sure we can work things out.” All the while the two young women were trying to think of a way out of this. Unfortunately they were coming up blank. Running was pretty much out of the question and the two of them didn’t have a chance of fighting their way out.

They weren't sure about their spellcasting abilities since they were interrupted so early in their prayers and studies anyway. Of course, they were willing to try if they had a chance of getting out of this alive. (Kierwin's Sense Motive didn't help her much other than to reinsure her that they did indeed want them on that ship, one way or another!)

“Nice try, but I’m sure by now that you know exactly what I mean. Our employer has given us strict orders and you figure into them quite nicely. Now, shall we do this the easy way, or the hard way? You are, quite outnumbered. We really don’t want to hurt you, but we will if you leave us no choice. One way or the other, you are coming with us.”

From Slaves to Heroes in the Making (part 3)

Kierwin thought briefly of her stepbrother, Gerald, only 28, but an adult for a human. She wished she had him and his sword to help her out of this one. He'd left to follow in his father's footsteps and protect the royal family in Gildor. Wishing certainly wasn’t going to help her now, she wondered why he came to mind, probably because he could almost always best her when it came to their duels, not that she’d ever let him know how impressed she was by his swordsmanship! Of course, he would probably be disappointed in her for giving in so easily, he would have fought to the death, but Kierwin believed in living to fight another day when it was appropriate.

Minx and Kierwin looked at each other and the look said it all. They had no choice to but to go with them. The men took their weapons, all their gear, and tied their hands. When the longboats reached the ship, they were thrown into the hold and chained to a couple of other “guests” who were unconscious at the time. As far as they could tell, their gear was left in the longboat, from what little they’d seen on the trip over to the ship, there was other gear stowed on the longboat as well. Before they reached their destination, wherever that was, a few more people were thrown into the hold and shackled to those already down there.

They tried to speak to those that they were chained too. Plans of escape were put on hold until they docked or until a more opportune time presented itself. No one seemed to know where they were, where they were going, or why.

One person stayed in the shadows and would not speak. He seemed to be a big man, his features hidden behind a scarf pulled across his face.
A woman who seemed to be in a deep state of shock and would not speak, but ate and drank when told.

A man named Turk, who had been captured in the city Aguila when city guards had slipped something into his drink, took on the role of protector for her and even gave her a name, “Rowena.”

Turk was young, and a fighter. He was built for fighting. However, he seemed to know next to nothing about magic. He relied on his fighting skills. He was gallant to the ladies and it seemed he would lay down his life for his friends. Good looking, well built, chivalrous, obviously a ladies man, he sounded like he was used to having money. He was probably the son of a nobleman, but the air about him could have come from his looks and his way with the ladies rather than his upbringing. All in all, he was rather arrogant, but so charming that surely most women forgave him for his arrogant streak or didn't even notice it.

Of the others in the hold there isn't much to say as yet.
The first to speak of was a dwarf named Thorin, far from home and with a story to go into after they escaped these slavers and got to a more appropriate place.
A former slave whose back was covered in scars, named Geirmund “the Hare.” He was quick, most likely from ducking the whip and scurrying to retrieve what his masters wanted. He seemed like a quiet man, likeable, but not quick to speak up.
Osa, a merchant who had been on a quest of her own, and a few others, though they were quiet and kept pretty much to themselves.

Thorin and Osa had been on their way to Oakhurst when they were captured. Osa was on her way there following up on rumors about a special apple that would hopefully cure a young lady in her homeland. The young lady had taken a bite of a white apple that had caused her to slip into a coma of some kind that nobody had been able to bring her out of.

Rumor had it that once a year, at the summer solstice; goblins brought a single apple to sell at Oakhurst that would heal any ailment. Osa hoped to be able to obtain it (one way or the other, perhaps). The details on how the sale was conducted were not clear and she had hoped to enlist help if needed to try to be the one to buy the apple. Thorin had just happened to catch that coach. Not long after Osa had introduced herself, they had been pulled over by bandits and ended up in the hold of this ship, so nothing else about it was found out.

Whether the slavers (pirates?) had been after the woman or the dwarf they didn't know, but they captured both and dumped them in the hold with the rest. Chained securely to the others.

Fortunately, the healers had time to heal everyone who needed it, and be on guard waiting for their moment of opportunity to arrive.

From Slaves to Heroes in the Making (part 4)

They were not sure how long they were at sea. For the elves it had been at least a week, maybe longer, for the others a few days.

Turk wondered about his horse. He had left her at a stable in Aguila before being kidnapped. He had tipped the lad at the stable quite well. He hoped the lad was as honest as he seemed and would take good care of her.

Justice (his horse) was his prized possession, his best friend quite honestly, and he hated the thought of losing her. Enough of that line of thinking for now, getting out of this mess was what was important, there was time to take care of Aguila once they were all free.

Their plan was simple, watch for an opportunity to escape and act on it. Minx and Kierwin continued their regular routine, 4 hours of reverie (meditation) followed by praying to Elhonna for Kierwin and studying for Minx.

After all this time, they still hadn’t learned anything about the stranger who kept to himself. He kept to the shadows, spoke little and they still didn’t even know his name. Any attempt to speak to him ended in him trying to withdraw into the wood of the ship itself it was even possible, as though he was ashamed of his appearance or afraid of what they would do to him if they saw him or spoke to him.

Kierwin couldn’t help but feel compassion for this stranger whose life must have been so terrifying to make him afraid of contact with others. She was determined that, given time and a chance, she would help him out of the terrible place that his mind and soul were in.

Those thoughts would have to wait as other things became more pressing. Right now, escape was the most important thing for all of them. They would all have to work together if they wanted to get out of this mess alive. The question was, why were they here and where were they?

The prisoners (slaves?) were for the most part young, most of them able to fight or of some magical ability, but the trick would be for them to try to work together. They barely knew each other's names, let alone be able to fight at one another's sides. They knew that Rowena couldn't fight, so if an opportunity did present itself, they would protect her if they could. Osa was a little older and had a little advice for them on how to fight as a team.

Finally, they felt the ship slow, and heard the sailors preparing to dock with another ship. That didn't sound good! They were hoping for shore. Time to get their plan ready and prepare for action, not to mention their freedom as well as their very lives.

Chapter 2 The slavers arrive

They were chained to each other hand and foot and a collar around their necks. They were drug up the uneven wooden stairs rather roughly, onto the deck of the ship. They had to squint at the sudden light after being in the dark for so long. The slavers yelled at them, yanked the chains knocking a couple of the men and women down, and then one of the two elves who had helped capture Minx and Kierwin noticed what was going on.

“Stop it! We don’t want anyone hurt right now if we can help it. Not YET anyway. Wait until we get our money from the deal, be more careful! If anybody here causes us to lose money because of something stupid like that, it’ll come out of your hide!”

Kierwin and Turk looked at each other, they’d noticed the emphasis on the word “YET.” So they were to be sold. What for? Who to?

They glanced around the ship as well as they could. It was nothing too special. The main sail was decorated with a huge tiger. It didn’t mean anything to anyone as near as Kierwin could tell.

The prisoners were trying to communicate quietly with each other. There were no flags flown other than the tiger on the main sail and no way to tell where the ship was from. They had no way to tell where they were. Kierwin felt like she was far from her home on the Misty Isle, but she had no idea how far or in what direction. Minx was the first to notice another ship coming closer to them. It was much larger than the one they were on.

As the larger ship came closer, they could start making out details. They couldn’t see much, they were kept close together and guarded which made it hard to see very far. Mounted prominently on the bow was the figure of a beautifully carved, naked, woman. Her hair and lower body seemed to flow directly into the wood of the ship. It looked like the woman actually was part of the ship, and that she kept a lookout wherever the ship would go.

The minute that Minx saw the naked woman, she had a fit. “They ARE going to sell us as slaves! Probably to a harem somewhere. How disgusting! I WILL make them pay. They will all pay. Only the worst of slavers would flaunt their trade so disgustingly!”

Kierwin tried to calm her down. “Minx, we don’t know what they want with us, they’ve got all ages here, both sexes, and different races. The figurehead could mean anything. Slavery is wrong no matter what it’s for, and we WILL get out of this and we will take care of the slavers if we can so they can’t do this to anyone else ever again. Our first priority is to get everyone free and out of this alive. Don’t jump to conclusions, and don’t panic.”

Minx answered her, “I’m not panicking. I just can’t believe that I’m being forced into such a disgusting, horrible, and morally corrupt situation. These people will pay with their lives as well as everyone that I can find connected with this!”

“Now everyone, we’ve got to work together, watch for your chance. Somehow we have to find a chance and take it. We need to signal each other about what to do, so we need to really pay attention. This isn’t going to be easy. I pray to Elhonna for the strength and wisdom to do the right thing.” Kierwin prayed for all their sakes.

The ship finally got close enough to tie the two ships together. Now, they could see just how much bigger the newer ship was than the one they’d been imprisoned on. It was at least 3 times the size of their current ship. As a group of men boarded the smaller ship, The Minx and Kierwin stared in shock. They’d never seen elves that looked like these. They were definitely elves, but not like any elves they’d ever seen. Tall, muscular, pale skin, and pale hair. They had blue eyes, vibrant blue eyes, unlike any eyes that either of the two of them had ever seen before. It was like they were from a race of elves that they had never even heard of.

Their captors went over to talk to the strange newcomers. With a formal bow the Captain siad “Lord Lorkander, here is a selection matching what you ordered. They are unharmed, and I believe they fit your criteria. There are a few extras just in case you want them. If not, then we can trade them at the next drop, but we’ll give you a good price for them if you take the whole lot.”

“We have our ways of finding out if they are the ones we need. If they are, you will get a fair price. If not, we do not care what you do with them. We will examine them and discuss this further.”

When the Elves came over toward the captives, Kierwin noticed a strange creature held captive on a golden leash. The creature almost looked like it could have been an elf at one time, but now was shrunken and twisted. Kierwin felt pity for it, and wondered what could have caused it to become so deformed. She didn’t detect any malice from it, but that didn’t mean it was willing to help.

One elf, who seemed to be in charge, spoke to it in a language she didn’t quite understand and it went to the end of the line.
It started “sniffing” them. It spent more time on Turk, Minx, Kierwin, and the large, quiet stranger than the rest. Then it went back to Minx and Kierwin and looked closer at them, looked into their eyes, smelled of them again and whispered to Kierwin "Be ready.”

“Well?” His handler sounded impatient waiting for his results. He hurried over to him with a twisted half run.

“Oh yes, they are the ones, perfect, all of them! Oh yes, THEM! YES! They ARE the ONES” The handler “shushed” him “not so loud! I don’t want to make them think they can make us pay more!”

“I’ll give you 200 for the lot” He said to the captain of the ship they’d been prisoners on for so long.

Minx was offended “200 gold! I’m worth at least that myself! I’m a very accomplished wizard, not to mention beautiful, I’ll have you know! My people will pay more than that to have me back! You’d be better off asking for ransom!”

The pirates ears perked up.
The strange elf in charge didn’t want to argue, “ok, 200 for the wizard and then 200 for the oth…”

“Wait a minute!” Kierwin quickly interrupted - deciding to see if she could put any more tension into this. “If little Minx here is worth 200 gold, then a Cleric of Elhonna with My family' blood line has got to be worth at least that much. I’d say at least 500 gold or more.”

The pirates decided they wanted to renegotiate the deal.
The stranger who was intent on buying them did NOT look happy. “Come over here and we’ll settle this. NOW!”

To the little creature, he said “Go over there and watch them. Keep them quiet. You know what I’ll do to you if you misbehave.”

They looked at each other, what choice did they have? Everyone was busy bartering, actually arguing was more like it! Turk asked what they needed to do.

Meanwhile, Thorin and Minx were keeping a lookout and saw another large ship coming their direction, and were telling them to hurry!

The pirates lookout finally noticed the ship also, a wave of panic spread accross the deck.

The captain yelled at Lorkander "It's Your fault they are here! They must have followed you...fools! I don't want to die..."
Lorkander slaps the captain accross the face, knocking him to the deck, "Silence fool or you will die here."

He barked an order to his ship in a strange language and several armed troops came accross the plank. He looked at the captain and said "I'll be taking my goods now," and with that a fight broke out.

The creature hurried toward the prisoners. He went to Turk and Kierwin. He motioned them down toward him. “Quickly, this is our chance. You help me escape, I help you. OK? Hurry, hurry!”

He told them to quickly get in the long boat and he needed a little blood. That sounded distasteful to them, but there was no going back now. They scrambled into the longboat and lowered it down into the water. They started using the oars to get as far away from the ships as quickly as possible.

The sailors noticed the escape attempt and were quickly trying to get a longboat into the sea to come after them.

Turk cut his hand and the twisted little creature licked the blood clean, he seemed to really enjoy it.
"Oh your blood is very strong!"
Turk and the others were more than a little sickened watching that, not too mention worried.
Suddenly it was like a black tear opened in front of them and the row boat lurched forward, as they drew closer Kierwin blacked out.

When Kierwin awaoke they were washed up on a beach still in the longboat .

They couldn’t see the sun, everything was grey. The next thing they noticed was that the little creature that had helped them escape was gone. No time to dwell on that, they needed to get out of the chains and far away from here.

Wherever here was.

They were in luck, this was the longboat that the pirates had left their gear in. Their luck continued, since Geirmund could pick the locks on the chains.

They got their armor on, donned their weapons, and talked about heading into the jungle.

While they were, they heard shouts. Looking out into the mist they could see the pirate ship had crashed into the rocks surrounding the island. The pirates had dropped their remaining row boat into the water and headed for shore. It was filled to capacity with pirates.

The group needed to get to a defensive position. Better yet, lose the slavers altogether. So, they moved out into the jungle at their best pace.

They set set off into the jungle, everybody on alert. No telling what was in these trees. Nothing looked familiar to any of them. They couldn’t even tell which direction they were going since they couldn’t see the sun.

They continued on, hacking through the denser parts of jungle until, with a clang of Thorin's axe hitting stone, they were stopped. It was densely covered with jungle vines. The party split up to explore each way and see how far the wall went. They agreed on 100 yards each way and then would meet back at the starting point.

The wall continued on each way with no end in sight. The dense jungle made for slow going. They met back at the starting point with nowhere to go but back or up. Being the quietest and the fastest the “Hare” (Geirmund) went back to see if they’d been followed.

They were a long ways back, but the slavers were definitely trying to follow. Fortunately, the slavers hadn’t been able to pick up on their trail, so they were having some slow going.

'Hare' reported back and the decision was made to try to climb the wall. The roots and vines were pretty thick and looked like they’d hold. The wall seemed to be about 10 feet high. Turk went first, then helped the ladies. The rest of the men followed. They walked a bit, hit another wall. They back tracked a bit toward the edge of the wall they’d climbed.

As they got over to the edge to get a better look to see out over the landscape, hoping to get their bearings, there was a rumbling sound followed by the earth dropping out from under all of them. Once the dust had settled and everyone had either gotten up and dusted off or been healed from the fall, they took a count to see if everyone was there.

Turk, Kierwin, Minx, Thorin, Geirmund (now officially known by his nickname the “Hare”), Osa, Rowena, and the quiet stranger.
While Throin and Turk headed towards the far end of the chamber, Kierwin, determined to at least find out his name, went over to him.

He was lurking back in the shadows away from the rest of the group. She very gently laid a hand on his shoulder, and in a quiet voice she said, “You have nothing to fear from us, let us help you. My name is Kierwin Ravenstar, my friend here is Minx, I’m a Cleric of Elhonna and Minx is a Wizard. We mean you no harm. Can you tell me your name?”

He reached up and pulled down his scarf and turned to Kierwin. “Kierwin? Is it really you?”

“Snap?!” Kierwin blinked in shock, she could hardly believe her eyes.

Kierwin and Minx nearly yelled at the same time quickly hugging the half-orc. “What’s happened? Why have you been hiding?” Kierwin calmed down quickly and lowered her voice. “I’m sorry, my friend, I don’t want to overwhelm you. We’ve been so worried. If we’d only known it was you. Can we help? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m Fine!" Snap hissed caustically "I can’t talk about it, not now.”

Snap was nothing like the Snap they had grown up with! The other ladies were silent durring the exchange staying out of it, but listening with great interest. They couldn’t hear everything, but could catch a few words here and there.

The only other thing Kierwin did find out was that Snap had been captured in Aguila the same time (or around the same time) as Turk. He had been jumped in an alley and beaten senseless. The next thing he knew, he had regained consciousness in the hold of the slaver's ship, chained like the rest of them.

During this, Snap had still stayed in the shadows, only Kierwin and Minx had really seen him and he seemed intent on keeping it this way for now. They honored his wishes. Kierwin said to him “Ok, but as soon as you feel like talking, please do. I don’t like seeing you hurt like this. Something terrible must have happened to you while you’ve been away from the village. You know that Minx and I love you like a brother. We’ll protect you and care for you. I believe that the others here are trustworthy, but I can understand that you feel the need to give it time to believe that. We will not tell anyone anything about you that you do not want us to share.”

Kierwin told Turk that she needed to talk to Minx for a few minutes undisturbed. He agreed that he would keep the others busy, away from them and from Snap.

Kierwin and Minx agreed that something very traumatic other than the kidnapping by the slavers had happened to Snap. He was obviously ashamed of the way he looked and was afraid of the others finding out he was a half-orc, or at least that’s what they thought. Living with the elves, he’s always been accepted for what he was, but before they had gotten him, he’d been neglected, beaten, nearly killed. He was so young when they’d taken him in that they didn’t think he could remember that. Something terrible must have happened over the past few years that he had been on his own.

They would take special care of him and watch him closely. As withdrawn as he was, he could be a danger to himself as well as the rest of the party. They loved him too much to let him self-destruct, so they would try to gently coax him back into his life. Minx had always been closer to Snap than Kierwin was, and would watch over him and try to help keep him out of trouble. The would both try to keep him safe, but maybe Minx could find out more about what had happened to him.

Turk decided to take command of the situation. “If no one here has a problem with it, I think we need a leader. I have some experience here and would like to offer my help. Of course, everyone here has their specialty, so we all need to pitch in. I just think I can help keep things moving along smoothly. Does that meet with everyone’s approval?”

Everyone agreed, for now, at least. They decided they should find out each other’s strengths and weaknesses and start exploring this hole they fell in.

Upon closer inspection, once some light was provided, thanks to lanterns and Turks ever burning torch, it turns out this was quite a room. The room was covered in elaborate frescos, showing rituals, wars, deities, and various types of religious and unrecognizable symbols.

The room was fairly large with a dome in the center. Kierwin, Turk and Thorin tried everything they could think of to look through the dome or find some trigger or mechanism to open it, but finally gave up and decided to examine the walls instead. The dome was just not going to cooperate! It was angled wrong to see through and refused to budge.

The elaborate frescos on the walls were amazing. It was obvious that whoever had built this place had labored hard (most likely slaves had labored hard) and the paintings and mosaics were extremely lifelike.

As Thorin looked at one of the depictions of a Shepard tending a flock of sheep, he noticed that the Shepard’s staff stood out slightly from the rest of the picture. He felt around, heard a click and it popped off into his hand.

At the same time, Kierwin was checking out a fresco of a religious scene. She noticed something strange, but wasn’t too sure she wanted to go poking around with it. She finally did, and it turned out that it was a small pyramid with some kind of runes on it. They were familiar enough to seem religious, but of no religion that she knew. Nobody else in the party recognized them either.

They searched further, finding other scenes depicting other clues to life in this area. One showed two tribes fighting, one tribe obviously winning and completely annihilating the other.

Another showed the natives fighting a bear. The bear’s claws were made from some type of metal. Snap was going to pry the metal out, but decided it was just too thin to mess with. By the time he got it loose, it would have just been destroyed.

Another showed the people gathering corn, and tending fields. The room looked like a history of the people, their lives, their wars, their religions. A couple of the other mosaics held some semi-precious items, such as gems, and they took those.

There was one last fresco that held a divine scroll, Snap had helped to find it, but couldn't read it. Kierwin didn't recognize the deity, but after some heavy duty studying and praying (not to mention frustration), she finally recognized the spells as Bless, Cure Light Wounds, and Spiritual Weapon.

That pretty much took care of the whole room.

Now, the question was, how do they get out of here? After a thorough search, they found what they thought was a door. Girmund could pick locks, but couldn’t find a way to pick this one. Thorin took a look at it, then, thinking about the little staff he’d found, he tried it in the keyhole. “Click” and the door swung open! Now THAT was very satisfying for that dwarf!

Turk said “Very good! Now we need a marching order and some light!” We should also have the elves on opposite sides of each other, checking for secret doors and things like that. I have a torch, does anyone else have light and any other ideas?”

So, Turk got his torch out, Rowena got behind him, Thorin beside him, and Kierwin behind Thorin. Those four started taking the lead with the rest falling in behind. Minx always followed Rowena so that Rowena was defended and so that Minx and Kierwin were always on opposite sides of the party. And so, they started their decent into darkness.

Crab Battle

They walked down a ten foot wide corridor, they figured they must have walked at least 100 feet or more, then it finally took a left and only a left. So, Thorin went ahead a ways and peeked around the corner first, since being a dwarf, he was the only one who could see without taking the torch down there and warning anyone who happened to be lurking down there that they were coming. He didn’t see anything except a room with a boulder in the middle and stairs leading out of each side. He motioned for the rest of the party to come on down the rest of the way.

Instead of waiting, Thorin went on in, his typical style as the rest of the party was to find out, aside from a couple of inches of filty, stinking muck in the room, and the boulder in the middle, all he saw were a couple of small crustaceans. They were just a few inches long, and thinking nothing of it, he squashed them. Not the best idea…..

The boulder suddenly unfolded! What he THOUGHT was a boulder was a rather large crab like creature. Thorin was lucky that it didn’t get hold of him and crush him, but it did slice him up a little before he could get out of the way. He managed to yell for help and the others came running.

The crab hit him again while he was trying to get himself together for an attack of his own. He deflected most of the blow with a clang when the claw hit his armor, but he still got hit. He hit it with his axe and the crab didn’t like that very much! He heard a satifying crack and green ichor started to seep out of the wound.

Turk had arrived and tried to get around to flank it, but try as he might, he couldn’t get far enough, so he settled for an attack, but just barely got through that hard shell with his sword.

Kierwin came in and seeing that Thorin was ok, she went for the attack, she hit, but her sword just bounced off, rattling her from her sword to her shoulders, that shell was just too hard (she decided she either needed to work out more or get a bigger sword)! At least the noise made it sound like she hit it hard.

Meanwhile, that crab was getting madder! It went for Thorin again, and hit him, but he still didn’t go down. Red blood was starting to drip to floor and mix with the gray muck. Since it had another attacker on the other side, it decided he deserved some punishment too, but it failed to get through Turk’s armor. Right now Turk was really glad he spent extra money for this armor!

This time, Thorin got in a perfect hit and the thing went down for good! green ichor sprayed all over the room from the force of his blow. Kierwin decided she was going to wash her hair at the first available moment.

“It’s too early for dinner, but what do you guys say about a big crab dinner tonight?” Thorin asked as Kierwin healed his wounds. “Anybody have any butter?” Asked Geirmund.

They checked the rest of the room and other than muck all over the floor, (and the squashed crustaceans Thorin had stepped on in the first place) there wasn’t anything else in there.

They decided to head for the stairs on the left, which they were pretty sure was north.

They descended the stairs, using Turk’s continual flame torch for light. He tucked it into his belt so that they had their hands relatively free for weapons and shields for those that had them.

The steps were slick, there was some kind of nasty slime and mold all over the walls, ceiling and floor. In some places there was muddy water standing all over the place. This made it slow going while they worked their way down in what they could only guess was the pyramid they were starting to climb before they’d fallen into the room outside.

Rowena still wasn’t talking, but she followed Turk closely or did what she was told. Minx, Osa and Kierwin also helped take care of her, but Turk had made her his responsibility, she had really bonded to him and seemed to feel more secure with him.

Everyone was careful not to touch anything slimy or moldy, they had no way of knowing what kind of properties it held. They still didn’t know where they were, whether they were even still in there own world for that matter. They finally came to a new corridor, and the floor leveled out. It was drier in here. At one end of the corridor, was a statue, and at the other end of the coridor was a door.

They decided to investigate. Turk, Thorin, and Girmund went down to the statue to check it out. Thorin searched thoroughly (as high as he could). The statue was about twelve feet tall, had large obsidian orbs for eyes, and seemed to be someone who may have been a ruler or something along that line. Other than that, there was nothing too remarkable about the statue, other than the fact that he was holding some sort of tray.

Kierwin and Minx were investigating the door and had heard somekind of noise from behind it. They decided not to open it. Plus, it was locked. It also seemed awefully slimy on this end of the hallway. They made their way back to the rest of the party.

Turk decided to see if he could reach up high enough to grab the tray and pull himself up to see what was on it. Everyone left Turk and Thorin alone with the statue to try this little maneuver.

Turk got ahold of the tray, and just as he pulled himself up to see what was on the tray, the statue toppled forward, narrowly avoiding crushing Turk. Thorin on the other hand, did get a glancing blow when one of the arms broke off and flew right into him!

Kierwin checked to make sure nobody was seriously hurt, Thorin was ok, just a light wound, easily healed. There had been nothing on the the tray, but the statued revealed a secret tunnel!

“Ok, folks, we have a decision here, looks like we either go back up the stairs the way we came, try the door that doesn't sound very inviting over there, or we try the tunnel. Which way do we go?” Asked Turk.

The decision was to try the tunnel. It was a tight squeeze for a few of them, but they finally made it all the way through. After they got to the end, they realized that they’d forgotten to get the obsidian eyes from the statue. Minx and Snap volunteered to go back. The rest of the party waited for them.

When Minx and Snap got back to the smashed statue, they found glowing slime on the walls, but no source of the slime. It looked like the sort of trail a slug would leave, but if it was a slug, it was huge, and a kind they'd never heard of! They hurriedly looked for the orbs, and raced back for the others, telling them about the slime they’d seen. The noise from breaking the statue must have attracted something.

“I think we’d better stay away from there for now, and we’d definitely better be watching out for anything that could leave a trail like that!” Turk said to the party in general.

Everyone agreed with that, wholeheartedly.

This hallway opened both left and right, so they chose to go to the left. They continued down the slimy corridor, still being very careful not to touch the walls, and watching as much behind them, as they were ahead of them.

They came at last to a door. Turk tried it and it was locked. Thorin had an idea, and tried the “staff” he’d found. He heard a satisfying “click.” They opened the door. Along one wall was that glowing slime trail that Snap and Minx had seen before, but still no clue to the culprit. On the far left side of the room, there was standing water, but they couldn’t tell how deep. The right side of the room held the slime. Of course, the doorway in the room to get out of the opposite side of the room was on the left side where the water stood and was all the way across the room.

The decided to stay away from the slime, but out of the water for as long as possible. They made it to the end of the room without incident. Turk turned to walk toward the direction of the door. He'd gone several steps in water up to his thighs, then stepped off of an unseen ledge and disappeared under the water!

Thorin was still on the ledge, when suddenly Turk's sword broke the surface of the water! Unable to swim, and having sunk straight to the bottom thanks to the weight of his armor, Turk drew his two handed sword and thrust it upwards in hopes that one of his companions would use it to pull him up. Thorin, being the strongest and closest, did just that.

Turk came up out of the murky water sputtering and coughing.

Minx and Kierwin helped rinse his eyes with fresh water while he rinsed out his mouth and tried to get the rest of the muck out of his lungs and stomach. They all decided to head back out the way they came and go the other way. Quickly!

They followed the hallway back the way they had come. This time, at the end of the hallway, it made a right. The most unexpected sight awaited them…

A beach, a pond, and a naked, beautiful mystery woman?

cool start. I like the setting... and the way the party got together was very creative!! keep up the good work!!