(Adventure) The Island of Varras'zul (Manzanita Judging) (Concluded)

Scun stares at the corpse and comes out of his angry state. Shaking his head, he nods numbly at Ogrin and attempts to help search the area.

A casual glance revealed that this place was indeed the living area of the late Mephit. There was a good deal of rubble around this room. The remnants of its furnishings or just pieces of the walls and ceiling made for difficult searching. There was an odd arrangement to them that spoke of the Mephit's meddling. For instance, a pile of pebbles and stones in the corner of the room looked to be the creature's bed. There were also some bite marks upon the wall opposite the door.

"The two creatures above were probably water elementals" Mona answered Ogrin with uncertainty in her voice. She was more confident of her next theory. "The master of this place did dabble in the Realms without. Perhaps the wall that divides this world from the others is thinner here. We would do well to expect more extra-planar opposition"

As if on cue from Mona's words, Golgol's corpse began to shrink to half its size. The transmutation reminded Nezrak of his Enlargement spell when the magick expired. The shrinking did little for the stains on their clothing though. Mona regarded these and the corpse with disdain.

Scun and Ogrin's search yielded fruit. They found a small metal chest inside Golgol's bed. It appeared unlocked and used very often by clawed hands.

The halfling of Hyrag put down her tent from her back. "Are we going to continue or should we rest first?"

ooc: 150 XP each PC

"Bloody... Ye didn't have t'die... 'Tis all yer fault, ye know. We told ye, din't we? But no, ye had t'fight, had t'be a mean ol' thing. Now look at ye. Ye din't deserve t'die, though, pathetic thing..." Rasereit mutters more to the corpse of Golgol as the party searches his living quarters. Without making any move to clear his face of Golgol-goo, the battered dwarf lifts the creature's body and moves it to his rocky bed. There he moves the stones around and buries the earth mephit in the rock. In the ancient dwarven tongue of his fallen clan, he whispers a short prayer. "From earth we come, and to earth we return." As he places the final stone over Golgol's barely recognizable face, Rasereit says, "We were more alike than ye think, ye greedy pirate." After completely covering Golgol's body, Razh announces to the group, "Oy, mates, Ah'm going up to clean me face off in the water, Ah'll be back in a jiff. If Ah'm not, come lookin' fer me, a'right?" He trudges up the stairs.

Golgol's body was a light weight to carry, especially for one such as Rasereit. As he lay the creature to rest in its bed, bits of Golgol's blood and flesh began to slide from the dwarf's face marking his steps in dark red.

When Rasereit went to the pool beside the stairwell, he found it to be an artificial formation. His stonecunning told him that the depression was actually a crater from some long ago battle. The walls adjacent to the pool confirmed his suspicions. The pool took in water primarily from the floor above them then drained it to the level below and to a hole in the one of the walls..

Despite the fact that it was run-off rainwater, the pool was murky with dust. The pool floor was slippery and slimy. But the water did its job, washing away Golgol's remains from Rasereit's face and body.

"Ah've returned, mates. No need to worry about meh, eh? Ha harr!" Razh flashes a toothy grin at his friends who appear to be preparing a camp. "Bed time, eh? Some one wake me up when it's me turn to watch." He finds a dry and somewhat flat spot on the floor, throws out his bedroll, and is soon snoring as he leans agains the cavern wall.

Ogrin will examine the metal chest for traps, then open it. He'll also take a look at the claw maks on the wall and poke through the "bedding" with his dagger.

The metal chest opened without ill result.

Glittering gold filled the chest. Amongst the coins (numbering 215 when counted) were a five small precious and semi-precious stones.

After moving Golgol's body, prodding the Mephit's bed yielded no other fruit. The claw marks on the walls appeared to be random and arbitrary. Perhaps, these were signs of boredom.

"Hm. Well, if the price has been the same for as long Golgol has been here, I'd say at least twenty-one and a half persons passed this way before us." says Ogrin to the others.

"I could be wrong though. Should we split it now or should I carry it for the time being?"

ooc: Please take note of the expenditure of rations. Also take into account the previous day. So far, you've been in Varras'zul for four days.

Day 1: Arrival
Day 2: Quicksand
Day 3: Entrance into Ruins
Day 4: Current

Mona used up all of her remaining healing power on Rasereit (Healed: 2, 8/15) before she moved into her tent.

Nothing disturbed the party's rest save for the water. There was no light to be had, though two of the watchmen needed it not. Mona offered her lantern for those who weren't blessed with Darkvision. Obviously, she returned Rillian's lantern to him with a kind "Thank you".

Drip. Trickle. Pour. The sound of water echoed across stone walls, enhanced enough to drown softer and more distant sounds. As far as they could tell, it was still raining above them.

When it was about dawn, Scun received his divine energies. Nezrak had already refreshed his spell storage a few hours before. Mona oil stores were almost out, her hooded lantern having about one more hour's worth before it was spent.

Mona emerged from her tent a few minutes after Scun finished his meditations. She was free of injury (though not of dirt) and prepared to move on.


ooc2:

Code:

Nezrak  4/5
Ogrin     undamaged
Rasereit  9/15
Rillian      undamaged
Scun     6/9

ooc3: Besides the distribution of the treasure, is there anything else that needs to be done before moving on? As for moving on, is there anything special you guys want to do beyond the standard "search inside each room then continue"?