Rabirius - Beginnings, a first entry
For reasons I shall address later, it has fallen to me to be record keeper for our band of adventurers. I should begin with an apology however, for I must relate a tale that has already begun, and I start in its midst...
Some background...It began on a normal summer night in the United States of America. Several of my friends, known formerly as Dave, Shane, Jim, Wes, and myself (Ryan) entered another friend(Matt)'s basement to play D&D. While we waited for our DM (Matt) to join us, we talked of beginning a new campaign, being fresh out of school, and enjoying our summer vacations. After some time, though, when Matt never appeared, we became concerned. Looking around we realized that we were in fact no longer in the same basement, though it looked vaguely similar. Intrigued and a little scaried, we made our way out of the corner in which we'd been waiting to discover a shocking sight. Several men dressed in black and freshly dead were impaled before us on spikes that had shot up through the floor. Infront of them was an open safe, behind them an open window. It seemed like an easy scene to piece together (these were thieves trying to rob this house and had been caught in the act, but we were still confused as to where exactly we were...afterall, who kept spike traps in their basement?) After some debate we decided to take what was in the chest (a long object wrapped in thick cloth) and make for the window. Hearing noises upstairs we did this quickly and ran from the house, into a thick wood. Looking back from the house we'd just exited it became quite clear (as if men in black cloaks and spike traps were not enough) that we were no longer in our small town in southern New Jersey, just across the delaware from Philadelphia. This was another world entirely
There is much to tell, and I apologize for not being more detailed, but this is a recount from several months ago straight from memory and, as I said I was not originally to be the records keeper, though I shall do my best.
To make a long sotry short, we discovered that we were in the small mining town of Duvik's Pass in the middle of intense political strife between the locals and the ruling Hellic Empire, which had recently taken an interest in the silver mines just out of town. It went deeper then politics, as the priests of the imperial god Helios were at odds with the locals who worshipped a nature deity (Oberon) and wanted the empire out. We at first sided with the locals, but then were arrested by the empire and taken by the imperial Lord Mayor of Duvik's Pass (Christofarius Sendar) to the closest empireoutpost, a citadel by the name of Kerrak. While traveling, Christofarius informed us that we were not the only people of things to suddenly appear in this world from other places entirely. He was under orders to find such people and take care of them from the Emperor himself (a man called Tarquinius, many thousands of miles away in the capital and center of the empire, Heliopolis) Christofarius informed us that we could enroll at one of several guilds in Kerrak to recieve training, that we may better serve the empire. We agreed, eager to gain skills and knowledge (though as to whether we would use those skills to aid the empire remained to be seen). Myself, Jim, and Shane joined the Lyceum Arcani, a guild dedicated to magic and spellcraft. In doing so, I decided to shed my mundane old name ("Ryan") and took up the name of Rabirius, Jim similarly became Firanus. Shane chose to remain Shane. My other two friends joined Custos Hellica, a guild dedicated to skill at arms and honor. Wes and Dave became Villaeus and Wildcat. Shane later joined the Templum Hellica, the state religion, making him a priest of Helios (he holds membership in both Lyceum Arcani and Templum Hellica). Wildcat similarly gained dual membership in Custos Hellica and Lyceum Arcani. Thus was the table set for our training to commence.
That was several months ago and we have seldom had more then a few days' rest between excitement of some sort. Our skills have developed since that time as well. Bringing the reader up to date...
Villaeus is a fearsome fighter by our standards. He has learned to tap into a burning hate that seemingly roils within him and fights with the rage of a mighty barbarian. This is a blessing and a curse, however, as he is quick to anger and often scares more people then he should. He is a powerful ally, if frightening at times.
Wildcat is skilled with both bow and spells. A master of Illusions specifically, he also makes use of many charming effects. With his mindbending powers of charm and illusion, he is certainly a dangerous foe. When the situation calls for brute force (something he seems able to avoid almost always) he can make use of his long bow and is deadly from afar.
Shane, being a priest of Helios is the only magical healer among us. His spells can produce terrible pain as well however, as he is also a mage (favoring Ice as his damaging element). An aspiring bowmen as well as mage and priest, he is easily as capable of bringing pain to his enemies as he is at relieving it in his allies.
Firanus is a magus of great intelligence. The smartest of our group, easily, he favors Fire as his element of destruction. His keen mind allows him to Divine and Scry as well, often solving problems we encounter in our travels. He has taken a Raven familiar, though the bird is not yet used to its new master (Firanus is generally seen covered in Raven fesces).
Finally Rabirius, myself. I am, as Firanus, a Magus purely. I dabble in many disciplines, not specializing in any, but of late I have become very interested in the transformative potency of magic. I intend to persue the transforming of myself, others, and objects further when I get a chance. When pressed, I rely on the forces of elemental air to damage my foes. I have recently aquired a squirrel familiar. The poor creature is quite afraid and unsure of his situation, preferring to stay in my pocket so far. I trust in time he will come to understand.
That is the current makeup of our party, though we have recently added two female thieves (we caught them trying to steal from us while we slept and though Villaeus nearly crushed their skulls on the spot, we decided to enlist their aid in the dungeon we are currently exploring). A word about our current quest: we are seeking a ruby known as "My Lady's Heart", we expect that it is here but have not yet located the stone. We have been inside several days and have encounters many enemies, as well as a few friends. I will describe in detail below...
We entered through a swamp, coming into the mountains and finding this abandoned keep two or three (I believe three) days ago. We left our guide outside with Villaeus' horse and decided that he was to wait until one day had passed and if we did not return, he would go home. Inside we found our way barred by several portcullises (and eventually would find many more behind them). Working together, we were able to lift them alright and made our way into the keep. The first resistance we encountered came from an unexpected source. A small crystal clear pool lay in a natural rock chamber. Villaeus ended up falling in (trying to walk around the narrow ledge to get behind it) as did Firanus who was following him. Suddenly, bubbles attacked the two of them. Villaeus managed to pull himself out, but Firanus was stunned and began sinking toward the bottom of the pool. Thinking heroically, Wildcat tied a rope around his waist, handed it to Shane and myself and dove in after our comrade. He grabbed Firanus and was them stunned himself, but we pulled them both out by the rope, Wildcat hugly tightly to Firanus. After that it was a simple matter to pop the bubbles with my walking stick as they floated on the surface. Moving on, the next peril we ecnountered was a room filled with purple moss. It smelled very sweet, but as Shane moved carefully into the room to investigate, he suddenly collapsed, falling dead asleep. We pulled him out and Wildcat then remembered that he had heard in his researching of dungeoneering that Purple Moss is a dangerous plant that causes victims to sleep and then eats their flash. Intrigued, I scraped a sample off the wall, and put it into my plastic Dannon water bottle (it had been with me when we crossed over). We soon found another room filled with the moss. this one had a dead body in the corner and Villaeus and Firanus (seemingly against logic) felt compelled to enter the room to search the body. They found nothing, but did manage to cover themselves in the dangerous moss. We scraped it off them as best we could (the moss would rise again, however).
Shortly thereafter, we found a torure chamber with fresh blood on the floor. It didn't take long to discover its spiller, as a crazed man with a bloody cleaver came charging from down the hall, screaming madly. We closed and barred the door to buy some time. He seemed intent on getting in and would not leave, so we prepared to fight him. I cast spells to boost the fighting skills of the party, as well we enhancing Villaeus' weapon, Firanus enchanted the weapon of Villaeus as well with a fire spell. Thus prepared, we took our positions and Villaeus opened the door. Even our preparation couldn't prevent Villaeus from taking a cleaver to the face as soon as the door was cracked, but he struck back at the man mightly, yelling his rage and inflicting what should have been a terrible blow. The frenzied man seemed not to notice. We mages pummeled him with our deadliest spells, but still the man looked unfazed...his body was in bad shape, but he refused to notice. Again he struck out at Villaeus, but Villaeus' response was furious. He drove his mace deeply into the mans skull, dropping the freak instantly, and stood breathing heavily over the now prone body as he came out of his bloodfrenzy (none of us dared touch him while he was in such a state). Taxed from the bubbles, the moss, and the crazy man, we found a clean room (presumably the man's sleeping chambers) and decided to rest for the day. In searching the room we discovered that the man was called Travis. We also found the treasure he had been raving about as he attacked us; a small ornate box with 2 rubies, 1 large emerald, and a jewled dagger. We escorted our guide into the dungeon and all slept in Travis' bedroom, with the doors barred.
In the morning we took the guide back outside and told him to wait another day. Villaeus' horse (Cherokee) was missing, and our guide said he would look for the horse while we were inside. We went back inside, exploring tunnels we had not yet traveled. Before we had gone too far, howver, Villaeus tripped a trap and both he and Wildcat were caught in the effect, shrinking down to about 6 inches. About the same time we noticed that the moss had covered Firanus and Villaeus over night and the could feel it beginning to itch, no doubt it would start eating them soon. We couldn't scrape it off, so protective spells were cast on Firanus and we put a torch to the moss. This worked well and Firanus emerged unscathed. We duplicated the procedure for 6 inch Villaeus. However, they were both now naked so we headed to Travis's room to get some new clothes for them. Firanus found a set but Villaeus was forced to settle for a sock until he returned to normal size. Heading back down the same tunnel, we eventually encountered goblins. Shane showed them the goblin dagger he had recieved from an eariler exploit, marking him as Goblin-friend and they proved to be quite helpful. They told us of the makeup of th dungeon, warning us of the dangers upstairs (monsters they called "Ubwehs"), as well as a ghost in another part. We took our leave of the goblins after investigating the ghost room (a bath house). We found a golden key and a keyhole in the floor, but we feared to open it after one of Firanus' divinations implied we would likely be attacked if we did. We decided to come back to it later. In another part of the keep, we discovered a heavily barred and locked door. Using a mirror slipped under the door, we determined it was a few inches thick, but had open space behind it. Villaeus agreed to let Firanus teleport him beyond the door. After a few tries he got through and discovered a series of jail cells. He was unable to open the door from with in, and called to Firanus to join him on the inside (Firanus complied). In the cells they found all full of dead bodies but one. That one had two monkeys in it as well as steel chests. Firanus used his fire roast the monkeys after they stole the Everburning Torch (my Everburning Torch) that Villaeus had carelessly held too close to the bars (there is now a bunrt monkey palm seared into the handle of my torch...Villaeus holds it now). Firanus spent a good deal of his magical energy teleporting himself, Villaeus, the chests, and the fried remains of two monkeys out of the jail and back into the chamber where the rest of us waited (Shane had been entertaining us with shadow puppets). We were unable to spend much time trying to open the chests before we heard voices coming. Wildcat used his magic to conceal out presence and the men left in confusion, sure they had heard something. Fearing they would bring others, we quickly left that area, finding another natural cave, this one with a barred window on the far wall, leading to an area of stinking black water.
Shane volunteered to check it out, so I turned him into a snake, allowing him to get through the bars easily. Villaeus wanted to go as well, so I did the same for him. As Villaeus went through the bars, tho, Shane was attacked by a monsterous crocodileish monster, narrowly avoiding its jaws. The beast could only be called an abberation, possessing 8 eyes, and 4 jaws (two openening normally, and two more laterally). As Shane bolted for the grate, Villaeus, conviced his could destroy the beast stayed inside, breaking my spell and turning back into a human. I thought this a terrible idea, but tried to help him as best I could if he was determined to fight the thing. I cast my buffing spells and prepared to attack the beast with magic when it reappeared. It did reappear, and though Villaeus delt it a mighty blow, it dragged him down into the water. Firanus teleported just inside the grateing and began madly teleporting huge portions of the black water outside onto our heads (we then discovered the nature of the color and smell...this was sewage water...Wildcat was sick and threw up several times after swallowing a good deal of the sewage water). After several tries (those outside had retreated to the far end of the room) Firanus jumped into the water and cast his spell, this time finding the Crapodile (as we affectionately called it) and Villaeus in its jaws, almost out of breath and almost dead. With the beast in the open, we layed into it, managing to kill it before it could grab anyone else, but it was too late for Villaeus. (Here I might add, is the point at which I became the scribe. Villaeus had been doing it, but not only was he dead, his notebook now lay ruined, completely covered in sewer water. Shane told us he could raise Villaeus, but at great cost (both personally, for it was sap much of his life force, and monetarily for it required a great sacrifice of valuables). We pooled together all of our plunder to date...the rubies, the emerald, the jewled dagger, another dagger, the contents of the chests from the jail cell (we pried them open to find coins, weapons, and jewlery), as well as the gold from our pockets. With all the valuables arranged before him Shane used an excruciating technique, whereby the caster uses his own life force to enhance the spell being cast and allow him to cast spells far more powerful then he normally could, to raise Villaeus from the dead. Soon after this ordeal, we heard a group of men coming again, this time there were more of them.
We confronted them this time, and they revealed themselves to be clerics of some elemental order. They cared for a temple on the second level and told us we were free to loot and steal anything from the first level, but that we may not go up to the second or they would be forced to kill us. They left us and we were convinced that they were hiding something. We resolved to finish searching down here, but if we failed to find the ruby we would have to go upstairs. Going back to the goblins' area to rest, we were awakened from our sleep by 2 young women, apparently in the process of stealing our posessions. We easily convinced them to drop their weapons once we were all awake (except Wildcat who slept through the whole ordeal) and though Villaeus was close to killing them on the spot, we decided that some of their ilk might be beneficial to our efforts in the dungeon. With caution, we agreed to travel together as we both sought My Lady's Heart and could use each others' help. I have been keeping my eye on them, and still do not fully trust them, but they have proven worthy companions thus far.
With a larger party, we decided to test the ghost, taking the key and fitting it into the hole. This revealed another keyhole on the wall, which we (Villaeus) summarily fitted with the key. Upon doing this, the wall dissappeared and revealed a floating glowing sword. Firanus identified some illusionary contingencies on the weapon, so we proceeded with caution. The rest of us left the room, standing in the doorway, as Firanus telekinatically lifted the sword. As soon as he did this, the fall wall came to life and a mosaic of a man in armor stepped out of the wall and charged, driving straight for Villaeus who was in front. Luckily he missed his mark and was hit by a battery of spells, as well as Villaeus' sword. The mosaic knight fell, becomeing a lifeless mosaic again and Villaeus picked up the sword (he wields it now).
We made our way to where we knew the entrance to the 2nd level to be, fighting several Raiments (undead spirits inhabiting otherwise empty clothing, grappling with and choking their victims). Wildcat was able to daze them and I blasted most of them to pieces myself. Moving on, we found the entrance (presumably) to the 2nd level...a portcullis blocking stairs. We decided that before we went up stairs we should gather our strenght, for we knew we would encounter stiff resistence. We told our guide still in the swamp to go home (we'd be several more days and we believed we could find our way back...no sense in paying the man when we don't need to). We went back inside to rest before ascending to the upper level, we are doing so now, it is my watch as I write this journal, though thankfully I shall soon get some sleep, the next watch will come shortly, when I wake Wildcat.
- Rabirius, entry the First
For reasons I shall address later, it has fallen to me to be record keeper for our band of adventurers. I should begin with an apology however, for I must relate a tale that has already begun, and I start in its midst...
Some background...It began on a normal summer night in the United States of America. Several of my friends, known formerly as Dave, Shane, Jim, Wes, and myself (Ryan) entered another friend(Matt)'s basement to play D&D. While we waited for our DM (Matt) to join us, we talked of beginning a new campaign, being fresh out of school, and enjoying our summer vacations. After some time, though, when Matt never appeared, we became concerned. Looking around we realized that we were in fact no longer in the same basement, though it looked vaguely similar. Intrigued and a little scaried, we made our way out of the corner in which we'd been waiting to discover a shocking sight. Several men dressed in black and freshly dead were impaled before us on spikes that had shot up through the floor. Infront of them was an open safe, behind them an open window. It seemed like an easy scene to piece together (these were thieves trying to rob this house and had been caught in the act, but we were still confused as to where exactly we were...afterall, who kept spike traps in their basement?) After some debate we decided to take what was in the chest (a long object wrapped in thick cloth) and make for the window. Hearing noises upstairs we did this quickly and ran from the house, into a thick wood. Looking back from the house we'd just exited it became quite clear (as if men in black cloaks and spike traps were not enough) that we were no longer in our small town in southern New Jersey, just across the delaware from Philadelphia. This was another world entirely
There is much to tell, and I apologize for not being more detailed, but this is a recount from several months ago straight from memory and, as I said I was not originally to be the records keeper, though I shall do my best.
To make a long sotry short, we discovered that we were in the small mining town of Duvik's Pass in the middle of intense political strife between the locals and the ruling Hellic Empire, which had recently taken an interest in the silver mines just out of town. It went deeper then politics, as the priests of the imperial god Helios were at odds with the locals who worshipped a nature deity (Oberon) and wanted the empire out. We at first sided with the locals, but then were arrested by the empire and taken by the imperial Lord Mayor of Duvik's Pass (Christofarius Sendar) to the closest empireoutpost, a citadel by the name of Kerrak. While traveling, Christofarius informed us that we were not the only people of things to suddenly appear in this world from other places entirely. He was under orders to find such people and take care of them from the Emperor himself (a man called Tarquinius, many thousands of miles away in the capital and center of the empire, Heliopolis) Christofarius informed us that we could enroll at one of several guilds in Kerrak to recieve training, that we may better serve the empire. We agreed, eager to gain skills and knowledge (though as to whether we would use those skills to aid the empire remained to be seen). Myself, Jim, and Shane joined the Lyceum Arcani, a guild dedicated to magic and spellcraft. In doing so, I decided to shed my mundane old name ("Ryan") and took up the name of Rabirius, Jim similarly became Firanus. Shane chose to remain Shane. My other two friends joined Custos Hellica, a guild dedicated to skill at arms and honor. Wes and Dave became Villaeus and Wildcat. Shane later joined the Templum Hellica, the state religion, making him a priest of Helios (he holds membership in both Lyceum Arcani and Templum Hellica). Wildcat similarly gained dual membership in Custos Hellica and Lyceum Arcani. Thus was the table set for our training to commence.
That was several months ago and we have seldom had more then a few days' rest between excitement of some sort. Our skills have developed since that time as well. Bringing the reader up to date...
Villaeus is a fearsome fighter by our standards. He has learned to tap into a burning hate that seemingly roils within him and fights with the rage of a mighty barbarian. This is a blessing and a curse, however, as he is quick to anger and often scares more people then he should. He is a powerful ally, if frightening at times.
Wildcat is skilled with both bow and spells. A master of Illusions specifically, he also makes use of many charming effects. With his mindbending powers of charm and illusion, he is certainly a dangerous foe. When the situation calls for brute force (something he seems able to avoid almost always) he can make use of his long bow and is deadly from afar.
Shane, being a priest of Helios is the only magical healer among us. His spells can produce terrible pain as well however, as he is also a mage (favoring Ice as his damaging element). An aspiring bowmen as well as mage and priest, he is easily as capable of bringing pain to his enemies as he is at relieving it in his allies.
Firanus is a magus of great intelligence. The smartest of our group, easily, he favors Fire as his element of destruction. His keen mind allows him to Divine and Scry as well, often solving problems we encounter in our travels. He has taken a Raven familiar, though the bird is not yet used to its new master (Firanus is generally seen covered in Raven fesces).
Finally Rabirius, myself. I am, as Firanus, a Magus purely. I dabble in many disciplines, not specializing in any, but of late I have become very interested in the transformative potency of magic. I intend to persue the transforming of myself, others, and objects further when I get a chance. When pressed, I rely on the forces of elemental air to damage my foes. I have recently aquired a squirrel familiar. The poor creature is quite afraid and unsure of his situation, preferring to stay in my pocket so far. I trust in time he will come to understand.
That is the current makeup of our party, though we have recently added two female thieves (we caught them trying to steal from us while we slept and though Villaeus nearly crushed their skulls on the spot, we decided to enlist their aid in the dungeon we are currently exploring). A word about our current quest: we are seeking a ruby known as "My Lady's Heart", we expect that it is here but have not yet located the stone. We have been inside several days and have encounters many enemies, as well as a few friends. I will describe in detail below...
We entered through a swamp, coming into the mountains and finding this abandoned keep two or three (I believe three) days ago. We left our guide outside with Villaeus' horse and decided that he was to wait until one day had passed and if we did not return, he would go home. Inside we found our way barred by several portcullises (and eventually would find many more behind them). Working together, we were able to lift them alright and made our way into the keep. The first resistance we encountered came from an unexpected source. A small crystal clear pool lay in a natural rock chamber. Villaeus ended up falling in (trying to walk around the narrow ledge to get behind it) as did Firanus who was following him. Suddenly, bubbles attacked the two of them. Villaeus managed to pull himself out, but Firanus was stunned and began sinking toward the bottom of the pool. Thinking heroically, Wildcat tied a rope around his waist, handed it to Shane and myself and dove in after our comrade. He grabbed Firanus and was them stunned himself, but we pulled them both out by the rope, Wildcat hugly tightly to Firanus. After that it was a simple matter to pop the bubbles with my walking stick as they floated on the surface. Moving on, the next peril we ecnountered was a room filled with purple moss. It smelled very sweet, but as Shane moved carefully into the room to investigate, he suddenly collapsed, falling dead asleep. We pulled him out and Wildcat then remembered that he had heard in his researching of dungeoneering that Purple Moss is a dangerous plant that causes victims to sleep and then eats their flash. Intrigued, I scraped a sample off the wall, and put it into my plastic Dannon water bottle (it had been with me when we crossed over). We soon found another room filled with the moss. this one had a dead body in the corner and Villaeus and Firanus (seemingly against logic) felt compelled to enter the room to search the body. They found nothing, but did manage to cover themselves in the dangerous moss. We scraped it off them as best we could (the moss would rise again, however).
Shortly thereafter, we found a torure chamber with fresh blood on the floor. It didn't take long to discover its spiller, as a crazed man with a bloody cleaver came charging from down the hall, screaming madly. We closed and barred the door to buy some time. He seemed intent on getting in and would not leave, so we prepared to fight him. I cast spells to boost the fighting skills of the party, as well we enhancing Villaeus' weapon, Firanus enchanted the weapon of Villaeus as well with a fire spell. Thus prepared, we took our positions and Villaeus opened the door. Even our preparation couldn't prevent Villaeus from taking a cleaver to the face as soon as the door was cracked, but he struck back at the man mightly, yelling his rage and inflicting what should have been a terrible blow. The frenzied man seemed not to notice. We mages pummeled him with our deadliest spells, but still the man looked unfazed...his body was in bad shape, but he refused to notice. Again he struck out at Villaeus, but Villaeus' response was furious. He drove his mace deeply into the mans skull, dropping the freak instantly, and stood breathing heavily over the now prone body as he came out of his bloodfrenzy (none of us dared touch him while he was in such a state). Taxed from the bubbles, the moss, and the crazy man, we found a clean room (presumably the man's sleeping chambers) and decided to rest for the day. In searching the room we discovered that the man was called Travis. We also found the treasure he had been raving about as he attacked us; a small ornate box with 2 rubies, 1 large emerald, and a jewled dagger. We escorted our guide into the dungeon and all slept in Travis' bedroom, with the doors barred.
In the morning we took the guide back outside and told him to wait another day. Villaeus' horse (Cherokee) was missing, and our guide said he would look for the horse while we were inside. We went back inside, exploring tunnels we had not yet traveled. Before we had gone too far, howver, Villaeus tripped a trap and both he and Wildcat were caught in the effect, shrinking down to about 6 inches. About the same time we noticed that the moss had covered Firanus and Villaeus over night and the could feel it beginning to itch, no doubt it would start eating them soon. We couldn't scrape it off, so protective spells were cast on Firanus and we put a torch to the moss. This worked well and Firanus emerged unscathed. We duplicated the procedure for 6 inch Villaeus. However, they were both now naked so we headed to Travis's room to get some new clothes for them. Firanus found a set but Villaeus was forced to settle for a sock until he returned to normal size. Heading back down the same tunnel, we eventually encountered goblins. Shane showed them the goblin dagger he had recieved from an eariler exploit, marking him as Goblin-friend and they proved to be quite helpful. They told us of the makeup of th dungeon, warning us of the dangers upstairs (monsters they called "Ubwehs"), as well as a ghost in another part. We took our leave of the goblins after investigating the ghost room (a bath house). We found a golden key and a keyhole in the floor, but we feared to open it after one of Firanus' divinations implied we would likely be attacked if we did. We decided to come back to it later. In another part of the keep, we discovered a heavily barred and locked door. Using a mirror slipped under the door, we determined it was a few inches thick, but had open space behind it. Villaeus agreed to let Firanus teleport him beyond the door. After a few tries he got through and discovered a series of jail cells. He was unable to open the door from with in, and called to Firanus to join him on the inside (Firanus complied). In the cells they found all full of dead bodies but one. That one had two monkeys in it as well as steel chests. Firanus used his fire roast the monkeys after they stole the Everburning Torch (my Everburning Torch) that Villaeus had carelessly held too close to the bars (there is now a bunrt monkey palm seared into the handle of my torch...Villaeus holds it now). Firanus spent a good deal of his magical energy teleporting himself, Villaeus, the chests, and the fried remains of two monkeys out of the jail and back into the chamber where the rest of us waited (Shane had been entertaining us with shadow puppets). We were unable to spend much time trying to open the chests before we heard voices coming. Wildcat used his magic to conceal out presence and the men left in confusion, sure they had heard something. Fearing they would bring others, we quickly left that area, finding another natural cave, this one with a barred window on the far wall, leading to an area of stinking black water.
Shane volunteered to check it out, so I turned him into a snake, allowing him to get through the bars easily. Villaeus wanted to go as well, so I did the same for him. As Villaeus went through the bars, tho, Shane was attacked by a monsterous crocodileish monster, narrowly avoiding its jaws. The beast could only be called an abberation, possessing 8 eyes, and 4 jaws (two openening normally, and two more laterally). As Shane bolted for the grate, Villaeus, conviced his could destroy the beast stayed inside, breaking my spell and turning back into a human. I thought this a terrible idea, but tried to help him as best I could if he was determined to fight the thing. I cast my buffing spells and prepared to attack the beast with magic when it reappeared. It did reappear, and though Villaeus delt it a mighty blow, it dragged him down into the water. Firanus teleported just inside the grateing and began madly teleporting huge portions of the black water outside onto our heads (we then discovered the nature of the color and smell...this was sewage water...Wildcat was sick and threw up several times after swallowing a good deal of the sewage water). After several tries (those outside had retreated to the far end of the room) Firanus jumped into the water and cast his spell, this time finding the Crapodile (as we affectionately called it) and Villaeus in its jaws, almost out of breath and almost dead. With the beast in the open, we layed into it, managing to kill it before it could grab anyone else, but it was too late for Villaeus. (Here I might add, is the point at which I became the scribe. Villaeus had been doing it, but not only was he dead, his notebook now lay ruined, completely covered in sewer water. Shane told us he could raise Villaeus, but at great cost (both personally, for it was sap much of his life force, and monetarily for it required a great sacrifice of valuables). We pooled together all of our plunder to date...the rubies, the emerald, the jewled dagger, another dagger, the contents of the chests from the jail cell (we pried them open to find coins, weapons, and jewlery), as well as the gold from our pockets. With all the valuables arranged before him Shane used an excruciating technique, whereby the caster uses his own life force to enhance the spell being cast and allow him to cast spells far more powerful then he normally could, to raise Villaeus from the dead. Soon after this ordeal, we heard a group of men coming again, this time there were more of them.
We confronted them this time, and they revealed themselves to be clerics of some elemental order. They cared for a temple on the second level and told us we were free to loot and steal anything from the first level, but that we may not go up to the second or they would be forced to kill us. They left us and we were convinced that they were hiding something. We resolved to finish searching down here, but if we failed to find the ruby we would have to go upstairs. Going back to the goblins' area to rest, we were awakened from our sleep by 2 young women, apparently in the process of stealing our posessions. We easily convinced them to drop their weapons once we were all awake (except Wildcat who slept through the whole ordeal) and though Villaeus was close to killing them on the spot, we decided that some of their ilk might be beneficial to our efforts in the dungeon. With caution, we agreed to travel together as we both sought My Lady's Heart and could use each others' help. I have been keeping my eye on them, and still do not fully trust them, but they have proven worthy companions thus far.
With a larger party, we decided to test the ghost, taking the key and fitting it into the hole. This revealed another keyhole on the wall, which we (Villaeus) summarily fitted with the key. Upon doing this, the wall dissappeared and revealed a floating glowing sword. Firanus identified some illusionary contingencies on the weapon, so we proceeded with caution. The rest of us left the room, standing in the doorway, as Firanus telekinatically lifted the sword. As soon as he did this, the fall wall came to life and a mosaic of a man in armor stepped out of the wall and charged, driving straight for Villaeus who was in front. Luckily he missed his mark and was hit by a battery of spells, as well as Villaeus' sword. The mosaic knight fell, becomeing a lifeless mosaic again and Villaeus picked up the sword (he wields it now).
We made our way to where we knew the entrance to the 2nd level to be, fighting several Raiments (undead spirits inhabiting otherwise empty clothing, grappling with and choking their victims). Wildcat was able to daze them and I blasted most of them to pieces myself. Moving on, we found the entrance (presumably) to the 2nd level...a portcullis blocking stairs. We decided that before we went up stairs we should gather our strenght, for we knew we would encounter stiff resistence. We told our guide still in the swamp to go home (we'd be several more days and we believed we could find our way back...no sense in paying the man when we don't need to). We went back inside to rest before ascending to the upper level, we are doing so now, it is my watch as I write this journal, though thankfully I shall soon get some sleep, the next watch will come shortly, when I wake Wildcat.
- Rabirius, entry the First
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