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Chronicles of Mesion: Considering Hiatus; Comments Needed.
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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2983194" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>The Gate of Madness: Ophidian ophidian ophidian</strong></p><p></p><p>“So, I say we go after them!” Enrique suggested, to the amazement of Luke and the general acceptance of the rest of the party, which only surprised Luke more.</p><p></p><p> “Why?” Luke eventually sputtered out. “We have to find the local humanoid tribes, not distract ourselves and probably get horribly killed by bothering the one thing that everyone we met in the Gate so far has agreed that should be left alone.”</p><p></p><p> “Oh, don’t worry about it; I won’t bother them,” Enrique said. “I’m just going to talk to them.”</p><p></p><p> “And kill them if we think we have a chance, right?” Elvis asked with an unusual amount of bloodlust.</p><p></p><p> This prompted a small argument, before Enrique shrugged and approached the door (so far, the replacement screaming creature ignored the party, possibly because they were already inside its sphere of alarm when it was released. “Well, we’re not going to figure out anything by just standing here.” So saying, he simply knocked on the stone door at the end of the hallway.</p><p></p><p> In an instant, the door opened, revealing at least a half dozen of the strange creatures. The door itself slid open sideways and didn’t even have a doorknob. In addition, a second, much stronger metal door opened just as the stone one did, with a small gap in the walls, floor and ceiling between the doors.</p><p></p><p> For a moment, both sides wouldn’t move; they simply watched the other in anticipation. Finally, after several minutes of peace, one of the Squeakers pushed a button on his side of the wall. With a soft whir noise, the doors closed, the party heard an audible ring now on the other side of the wall, like the peal of a bell, and then another rumbling sounds abruptly started before fading away.</p><p></p><p> Enrique tried to knock again, but to no avail. Finally, he and the others decided there was nothing more that can be done here, so they returned to the abeil in the hopes the could rest for the evening in the relative safety of his hive. Negotiations were difficult, but eventually the party agreed to exchange a potion they already required in exchange for a safe night’s rest. The night was uneventful, though Anastacia was greeted by an unpleasant realization that the water in her skin spontaneously turned to blood overnight! After refilling her waterskin and cursing the Gate of Madness in general, the party resumed their journey the next morning, when they returned to the central cavern of the Gate of Madness and tried another direction. This time, they decided to travel the northeast path strictly on a whim, since they saw no other traits that distinguished one of the remaining paths from the other.</p><p></p><p> Soon, the party came to a strange underground pond, where they met even more of the dungeon’s unusual inhabitants. Four strange reptilian heads rose out of the water, and while three seemed wary of the party and kept their distance, the fourth drew closer and spoke to the party. “What do you want ophidian?” it spoke in a raspy and irritated, but not necessarily hostile, voice. </p><p></p><p> Luke looked surprised, but he tried to maintain order, much to Elvis’ disappointment. “We are looking for some of the inhabitants of this dungeon. Do you know what is beyond this cavern?”</p><p></p><p> The lead reptile snorted. “Sure we do ophidian. Beyond here is the goblins ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> Anastasia already was getting annoyed. “Will you quit saying that?”</p><p></p><p> The reptile looked confused. “Quit saying what ophidian?”</p><p></p><p> Even Lorren was starting to get confused by these creatures. “What are you thing?”</p><p></p><p> “We are the Opidians ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> Finally giving up on the subject, the party decided to see if these creatures could be helpful to them. “Can you tell us anything about the goblins?” Luke asked.</p><p> </p><p> “Sure ophidian. They call themselves the Suncrush tribe, we think ophidian. They’re not really a tribe, though ophidian. They’re more an outpost for a bunch of hobgoblins ophidian. The goblin chief here gets them something special from here, so he makes a lot of money by trading with the hobgoblins ophidian.</p><p></p><p> “Does he ever deal with others groups?”</p><p></p><p> “Sometimes ophidian. Just a while ago, a man in black armor came this way, and he brought a whole bunch of goblins out with him ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> Luke quickly glanced at the others, who revealed they were thinking the same thing he was. “Was there anything strange about the man’s armor?”</p><p></p><p> “Yeah ophidian. It looked like it was alive or moving or something ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> The look on Luke’s face said it all. “Thank you for your help. Is there anything we can give you in return?”</p><p></p><p> “That depends ophidian. Are you going to fight the goblins ophidian?”</p><p></p><p> “It’s possible,” Luke admitted.</p><p></p><p> “Good ophidian. Bring any goblins you defeat back to us ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> Luke agreed to the deal, and soon the party was entering goblin territory. Unsurprisingly, the entrance was guarded, though initially it appeared that only three normal goblins blocked the entrance. As soon as the party approached, they leveled their weapons and shouted at the party with an angry and warning tone, though sadly no one in the party knew what they said.</p><p></p><p> “Well, what do we do?” Grim, who was again leading the party, asked. “We need information from these creatures, but we don’t understand their language!”</p><p></p><p> “We need to speak to their leader at least!” Luke suggested. “Even if he doesn’t speak Common, he must have some translator to do it.”</p><p></p><p> “But how do we even reach the leader?” Ik asked. “These goblins don’t especially look friendly.”</p><p></p><p> Elvis smiled as he drew his bow. “I recommend the traditional way!”</p><p></p><p> Grim groaned. “We can’t simply invade their home just to force information from their leader!”</p><p></p><p> “I’m sorry, are we talking about the same goblins that attacked MY home?” Lorren asked. “Because I’m pretty sure they deserve some retribution, if we’re talking about those goblins!”</p><p></p><p> Nobody could argue the point, so Grim quickly led a charge on the goblin guards. This was quickly followed by a retreat FROM the goblin guards when a trap was apparently triggered, shooting lines of electricity across the room! From the relative safety of the corridor, the party instead fired at the goblins while enduring the goblins’ own ranged attacks, but soon the party was victorious. This just left the problem with the trap, which had since reset. Enrique took a moment to investigate the floor, and while he could find a pressure point that apparently triggered the trap, he was unable to disable it without setting off the trap again.</p><p></p><p> “Anyone else have an idea?” a frustrated Enrique asked.</p><p></p><p> Grim quickly studied the room and responded. “I think I can reach the other side of the room without touching the ground. Did you notice the goblins were never hit by the electricity? I think there’s a safe place to stand over there. Once I get there, I can try to find a way to turn off the trap or help everyone else get a cross.”</p><p></p><p> After getting a running start, Grim easily cleared the room. However, he didn’t have any luck find a way to disable the trap on his side, either, and the rest of the party didn’t have as much faith that they could reach the other side of the room with a simple jump.</p><p></p><p> Finally, Lorren came up with an idea. After driving a dagger into the opposite wall, he tied one end of a rope to it and tossed the other end to Grim. “He can keep the rope taut, and the rest of us can climb across it to reach the other side!” The others agreed it wasn’t a bad plan, but they were less enthused after Lorren, who didn’t exactly have the upper body strength to easily cross ropes, volunteered the rest of the party into trying it first!</p><p></p><p> Finally, Enrique and Anastacia made it across, when they discovered another problem. There wasn’t any more room on this side for the rest of the party without taking the risk of standing where the goblins didn’t, and thus possibly setting off the trap again. Sick of waiting around, Enrique finally snapped and just opened the door into the goblin territory, where he discovered by a strange lever and a number of additional goblins. While Grim and Anastacia moved up to deal with the new threat (which was in doubt until Grim managed to pull the dagger from the wall again,) Enrique pulled the lever, hoping that it was the control for the trap.</p><p></p><p> The two close-range fighters in the party soon reached the goblins, but not without difficulty. As they traversed the hallway, a massive, barbed chain burst out of the wall and tried to trip them. They managed to avoid falling at such a crucial time, but not without a cost, as the blade managed to slice at each them. As the duo neared the goblins, the rest of the party cautiously took a few steps into the electrically trapped room, and to their relief Enrique indeed managed to find the trap release, letting them assist the lead members of the party. This proved very helpful, for moments later, another half-dozen goblins poured out of two side paths of the hallway.</p><p></p><p> The party was suddenly outnumbered. Granted, it was by goblins, but nonetheless it was a difficult situation for a party wounded by traps and still slightly recovering from past injuries. Nonetheless, the party prevailed. Many of the goblins were fortunately unable to get into the corridor with the party’s strongest warriors blocking their paths, letting the rest of Fra Dane’s unlikeliest heroes surround the goblins and pick them off using distance weapons or emerge behind any goblins that managed to get into the hallway and try to overwhelm the opposition.</p><p></p><p> The party was victorious, but they also had too many injuries to safely continue into the goblin’s territory. “I don’t like having to retreat this far into the goblin’s base,” Luke pondered. “They’ll be ready for us next time. But we can’t confront the goblin chief with any kind of authority if we can barely stand up, either. We need to find a safe place to rest.”</p><p></p><p> “What about Worker 89?” Ik asked. “He seems trustworthy. He didn’t do anything to us last time.”</p><p></p><p> Most of the party, though, looked reluctant. “Something about him really disturbs me,” Elvis commented.</p><p></p><p> “Besides, he’ll probably make us pay for it again,” Enrique added. “I’d rather not waste any more of our treasure if we can help it. What about the ophidians? They said we should bring the bodies of any goblins we defeat to them. Maybe we can work out a trade.”</p><p></p><p> Elvis didn’t look any happier trusting their lives to the lizard people than the bee person, but the rest of the party seemed to agree. They quickly stripped the goblin bodies of any worthwhile items they could find, including a note that was unfortunately also written in goblin, and then dragged the bodies back to the strange amphibious monsters.</p><p></p><p> “If we give you these goblins, will you let us rest by your pond?” Luke asked the creatures.</p><p></p><p> The only ophidian who can apparently speak common nodded. “Yes ophidian. The goblins won’t attack us here ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> “What do you want the goblins for, anyway?” Anastacia asked.</p><p></p><p> The ophidian grinned. “They’re delicious ophidian. We can’t eat fish all the time ophidian. But did you take any of them alive ophidian?”</p><p></p><p> Before anyone could stop him, Lorren asked “Why? What’s so special about living goblins?”</p><p></p><p> “We need them to make more ophidians ophidian. We aren’t many now ophidian. We need more to fight the goblins or return to the lower level ophidian”</p><p></p><p> Nobody seemed interested in learning more about how the ophidians reproduced, or at least they managed to stop Lorren from asking this time, but information about the lower level could be useful, they realized. “How do you get to the lower level?” Luke asked.</p><p></p><p> “The goblins have their own way ophidian, but we have a tunnel to our river below this level ophidian,” the lead ophidian replied. “But we can’t go down there now ophidian. Too many enemies would fight us ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> “Like what?”</p><p></p><p> “Our most hated enemies are there ophidian. We call them the inphidian ophidian. They’re very bad ophidian.”</p><p></p><p> Not eager to talk further (and really sick of the word “ophidian,”) the party let the creatures return underwater, and then made camp at the far end of the pond. They spent several hours planning the next day, and were well aware that if they wanted to escape the Gate region before winter, they only had only five days left.</p><p></p><p> When they returned to the goblin camp the next day, the party wasn’t surprised to see that new guards were at the entrance, and they were certain the electric trap was set again. What was surprising, though, was that one of the guards was shouting at the party as they arrived, and not in a hostile way. Instead, he was waving a piece of paper, and when the party was sufficiently confused by his actions into holding their attack, he slid the paper to the party. </p><p></p><p> Grim, being an unusually literate barbarian, quickly read the note. “It says that he goblin chief decided to speak to us,” he said. “He wants us to meet with him. Apparently we got his attention after our actions yesterday.”</p><p></p><p> Enrique snorted. “Yeah, we’ll just meet with him in the depths of his cave, with who knows how many goblins between us and the way out? If we’re going to do this without violence, make him meet us on our territory. What about next to the Ophidians?”</p><p></p><p> The party generally responded the same way, so Grim wrote the party’s response on the paper and slid it back to the goblins. The goblin that picked it up didn’t even bother reading it; he simply banged on the door behind him, and then gave it to the goblin that opened the door.</p><p></p><p> A few minutes later, a voice called out to the party in Common. “This is Geritch, the chief of the goblins. I understand that you have been responsible for some concerns within my tribe. I suggest, if you do not trust me sufficiently to visit my office, that we compromise and meet here. It will give us both a means to withdraw should negotiations break down.”</p><p></p><p> The party conferred before reluctantly agreeing. A few moments later, a goblin in unusually impressive clothing entered the room, accompanied by both more goblins and more exotic creatures. A bat, seemingly made of fire, rested next to the goblin leader. Even stranger, a mass of electricity in a semi-humanoid form stood in front of the goblin chief, serving as an obvious if unusual bodyguard. The party could even swear they saw a miniature storm cloud on the other side of the door before it inexplicably slammed it!</p><p></p><p> After finishing his obvious display of power, which as usual ruined Elvis’ plan to just kill him, Geritch opened the dialogue. “So, what exactly did you need from me so urgently that you had to kill my warriors to get it?”</p><p></p><p> Luke tried to take a conciliatory tone. “We are from Fra Dane, and we do apologize for the attacks on your tribe, but we came to see answers for your own attack on our city.”</p><p></p><p> Geritch nodded knowingly. “Ah, so that’s what this is about. Yes, some strange humans in black armor sought our assistance. We were supposed to work with some of the other tribes to procure something called the Jewel of Success.”</p><p></p><p> “Were they upset that you couldn’t get it?” Enrique asked, while barely hiding his smug tone.</p><p></p><p> Geritch shrugged. “They never mentioned it. I suspect they just wanted a diversion. I decided it was better not to ask.”</p><p></p><p> “And you don’t mind what happened to your people?” Grim asked with disgust.</p><p></p><p> “Not really,” Geritch replied with a laugh. “The payment they provided me made it more than worth it. My employers, if you will, provide me with enough men to make up for any losses.”</p><p></p><p> Anastacia was in awe of this. “They must have paid you a lot of money for such a flippant response.”</p><p></p><p> Geritch shook his head. “Oh no, they didn’t offer something as simple as gold. My skills and this location provide me with enough resources that mere money wouldn’t have made it worth it.”</p><p></p><p> “So what did they offer you?” Luke asked.</p><p></p><p> Geritch considered this, and then shouted in Goblin towards the door. “One moment, please,” he said pleasantly to the party. A moment later, a goblin carrying a small class case entered the room. The case seemed to contain a tiny wasp-like insect with a tail that glowed slightly.</p><p></p><p> “This is a phase wasp,” Geritch explained. “Our new ‘friends’ apparently breed them in mass. They offered me three entire hives worth of the creatures for payment. Only a few have reached maturity now, sadly, but soon, I’ll have an entire swarm of them! I haven’t decided if I should sell most of them to my hobgoblin brethren, or use them to consolidate power here.”</p><p></p><p> “Are you sure we shouldn’t kill him?” Elvis asked anxiously, but Luke brushed him off.</p><p></p><p> “We really have more interest in the people in black armor. If they organized the raid on our city, we must take our vengeance to them. Can you tell us anything about them?” Lorren asked.</p><p></p><p> “Well, they said their organization was called Effervo Vesica,” Geritch offered.</p><p></p><p> Lorren looked disappointed. “We knew that already. What about the names of the people themselves?”</p><p></p><p> Geritch replied, “Actually, we only dealt with one of them. There was apparently another member who was once in charge, but he first went to the kobolds, and, well, he didn’t come back. This second man was intelligent enough to treat both us and my kobold neighbors fairly. He had somewhat more trouble with the orcs on the next level, but he apparently cowed them into servitude as well. If you speak to the kobolds, you might be able to get the head of their less diplomatic ambassador. As for the one that spoke to us, I believe the orcs learned his name during the fight. He was a very unusual man, I believe. He wore some sort of strange living armor.”</p><p></p><p> Luke nodded excitably. “That’s our man!”</p><p></p><p> Enrique was less enthused. “So, let me get this straight. You can offer us nothing about him?”</p><p></p><p> Gretich smiled. “Oh, not at all. You see, while we were happy to work for these Effervo Vesica people, we don’t obey their every word. Specifically, he ordered us to never follow him back to his local base camp, so I had my little assistant here do it.” He pointed to the fiery bat, who shrieked on cue. “As a result, I have a very accurate map to a nearby base of theirs. I will be willing to part with it for, say, 500 gold. In addition, my lair has other features you may be interested in. We have control of the only physical staircase to the next lower level. If you plan on confronting the orcs, we can grant you safe access to it for another 300 gold.”</p><p></p><p> “We’ll definitely need that map,” Ik whispered after the party formed a huddle. “But I’m not sure if we need another way down. After all, the Ophidians mentioned they had a way, and we already are on good terms with them.”</p><p></p><p> Luke nodded. “Very well. We’ll give him five hundred gold for the map, and see if we can do business afterwards if necessary. After all, we nearly made five hundred gold just from the goblins we already fought.” He turned to Gretich. “We will take your, map, but not the access to the next level.”</p><p></p><p> “Are you sure?” Gretich asked innocently. “We can let you visit our sauna while you’re here. And I can show you the frescoes we discovered after settling here.”</p><p></p><p> “You have a sauna?” Ik asked with interest, but Luke shook his head.</p><p></p><p> “No, that will suffice for now. Perhaps we can make some sort of other deal later?”</p><p></p><p> “Maybe,” and Gretich’s eyes narrowed, “On one condition. I noticed that some of your friends aren’t so inclined to trust me.” Almost on cue, Elvis and Lorren started whistling as casually as possible. “If we want to remain on good diplomatic terms, I want you to swear to your god that you will keep your people under control and honor our truce.”</p><p></p><p> Luke hesitated, but he related. “Very well. In Ehlonna’s name, we will remain peaceful with you so long as you do the same to us.”</p><p></p><p> “Fantastic!” Gretich cheered, and he quickly wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Luke. Luke skimmed it, and realized it was a message written in both Common and Goblin that the holder of this note are to be treated well and not attacked by goblins. At least, that’s what Luke thought the Goblin part said, but he couldn’t really be certain.</p><p></p><p> And so, the first part of their mission was successful. They obtained information from the goblins about Effervo Vesica. Now, it was time to shake the kobolds down for whatever they could tell the party.</p><p></p><p> OOC Notes: One thing about the Gate of Madness that I enjoy is the ability to use enemies from nearly any source. The last two adventures had monsters from nearly every monster book I collected. The next few games should be fun, though, as I’ll be able to soon use monsters I made myself!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2983194, member: 9626"] [b]The Gate of Madness: Ophidian ophidian ophidian[/b] “So, I say we go after them!” Enrique suggested, to the amazement of Luke and the general acceptance of the rest of the party, which only surprised Luke more. “Why?” Luke eventually sputtered out. “We have to find the local humanoid tribes, not distract ourselves and probably get horribly killed by bothering the one thing that everyone we met in the Gate so far has agreed that should be left alone.” “Oh, don’t worry about it; I won’t bother them,” Enrique said. “I’m just going to talk to them.” “And kill them if we think we have a chance, right?” Elvis asked with an unusual amount of bloodlust. This prompted a small argument, before Enrique shrugged and approached the door (so far, the replacement screaming creature ignored the party, possibly because they were already inside its sphere of alarm when it was released. “Well, we’re not going to figure out anything by just standing here.” So saying, he simply knocked on the stone door at the end of the hallway. In an instant, the door opened, revealing at least a half dozen of the strange creatures. The door itself slid open sideways and didn’t even have a doorknob. In addition, a second, much stronger metal door opened just as the stone one did, with a small gap in the walls, floor and ceiling between the doors. For a moment, both sides wouldn’t move; they simply watched the other in anticipation. Finally, after several minutes of peace, one of the Squeakers pushed a button on his side of the wall. With a soft whir noise, the doors closed, the party heard an audible ring now on the other side of the wall, like the peal of a bell, and then another rumbling sounds abruptly started before fading away. Enrique tried to knock again, but to no avail. Finally, he and the others decided there was nothing more that can be done here, so they returned to the abeil in the hopes the could rest for the evening in the relative safety of his hive. Negotiations were difficult, but eventually the party agreed to exchange a potion they already required in exchange for a safe night’s rest. The night was uneventful, though Anastacia was greeted by an unpleasant realization that the water in her skin spontaneously turned to blood overnight! After refilling her waterskin and cursing the Gate of Madness in general, the party resumed their journey the next morning, when they returned to the central cavern of the Gate of Madness and tried another direction. This time, they decided to travel the northeast path strictly on a whim, since they saw no other traits that distinguished one of the remaining paths from the other. Soon, the party came to a strange underground pond, where they met even more of the dungeon’s unusual inhabitants. Four strange reptilian heads rose out of the water, and while three seemed wary of the party and kept their distance, the fourth drew closer and spoke to the party. “What do you want ophidian?” it spoke in a raspy and irritated, but not necessarily hostile, voice. Luke looked surprised, but he tried to maintain order, much to Elvis’ disappointment. “We are looking for some of the inhabitants of this dungeon. Do you know what is beyond this cavern?” The lead reptile snorted. “Sure we do ophidian. Beyond here is the goblins ophidian.” Anastasia already was getting annoyed. “Will you quit saying that?” The reptile looked confused. “Quit saying what ophidian?” Even Lorren was starting to get confused by these creatures. “What are you thing?” “We are the Opidians ophidian.” Finally giving up on the subject, the party decided to see if these creatures could be helpful to them. “Can you tell us anything about the goblins?” Luke asked. “Sure ophidian. They call themselves the Suncrush tribe, we think ophidian. They’re not really a tribe, though ophidian. They’re more an outpost for a bunch of hobgoblins ophidian. The goblin chief here gets them something special from here, so he makes a lot of money by trading with the hobgoblins ophidian. “Does he ever deal with others groups?” “Sometimes ophidian. Just a while ago, a man in black armor came this way, and he brought a whole bunch of goblins out with him ophidian.” Luke quickly glanced at the others, who revealed they were thinking the same thing he was. “Was there anything strange about the man’s armor?” “Yeah ophidian. It looked like it was alive or moving or something ophidian.” The look on Luke’s face said it all. “Thank you for your help. Is there anything we can give you in return?” “That depends ophidian. Are you going to fight the goblins ophidian?” “It’s possible,” Luke admitted. “Good ophidian. Bring any goblins you defeat back to us ophidian.” Luke agreed to the deal, and soon the party was entering goblin territory. Unsurprisingly, the entrance was guarded, though initially it appeared that only three normal goblins blocked the entrance. As soon as the party approached, they leveled their weapons and shouted at the party with an angry and warning tone, though sadly no one in the party knew what they said. “Well, what do we do?” Grim, who was again leading the party, asked. “We need information from these creatures, but we don’t understand their language!” “We need to speak to their leader at least!” Luke suggested. “Even if he doesn’t speak Common, he must have some translator to do it.” “But how do we even reach the leader?” Ik asked. “These goblins don’t especially look friendly.” Elvis smiled as he drew his bow. “I recommend the traditional way!” Grim groaned. “We can’t simply invade their home just to force information from their leader!” “I’m sorry, are we talking about the same goblins that attacked MY home?” Lorren asked. “Because I’m pretty sure they deserve some retribution, if we’re talking about those goblins!” Nobody could argue the point, so Grim quickly led a charge on the goblin guards. This was quickly followed by a retreat FROM the goblin guards when a trap was apparently triggered, shooting lines of electricity across the room! From the relative safety of the corridor, the party instead fired at the goblins while enduring the goblins’ own ranged attacks, but soon the party was victorious. This just left the problem with the trap, which had since reset. Enrique took a moment to investigate the floor, and while he could find a pressure point that apparently triggered the trap, he was unable to disable it without setting off the trap again. “Anyone else have an idea?” a frustrated Enrique asked. Grim quickly studied the room and responded. “I think I can reach the other side of the room without touching the ground. Did you notice the goblins were never hit by the electricity? I think there’s a safe place to stand over there. Once I get there, I can try to find a way to turn off the trap or help everyone else get a cross.” After getting a running start, Grim easily cleared the room. However, he didn’t have any luck find a way to disable the trap on his side, either, and the rest of the party didn’t have as much faith that they could reach the other side of the room with a simple jump. Finally, Lorren came up with an idea. After driving a dagger into the opposite wall, he tied one end of a rope to it and tossed the other end to Grim. “He can keep the rope taut, and the rest of us can climb across it to reach the other side!” The others agreed it wasn’t a bad plan, but they were less enthused after Lorren, who didn’t exactly have the upper body strength to easily cross ropes, volunteered the rest of the party into trying it first! Finally, Enrique and Anastacia made it across, when they discovered another problem. There wasn’t any more room on this side for the rest of the party without taking the risk of standing where the goblins didn’t, and thus possibly setting off the trap again. Sick of waiting around, Enrique finally snapped and just opened the door into the goblin territory, where he discovered by a strange lever and a number of additional goblins. While Grim and Anastacia moved up to deal with the new threat (which was in doubt until Grim managed to pull the dagger from the wall again,) Enrique pulled the lever, hoping that it was the control for the trap. The two close-range fighters in the party soon reached the goblins, but not without difficulty. As they traversed the hallway, a massive, barbed chain burst out of the wall and tried to trip them. They managed to avoid falling at such a crucial time, but not without a cost, as the blade managed to slice at each them. As the duo neared the goblins, the rest of the party cautiously took a few steps into the electrically trapped room, and to their relief Enrique indeed managed to find the trap release, letting them assist the lead members of the party. This proved very helpful, for moments later, another half-dozen goblins poured out of two side paths of the hallway. The party was suddenly outnumbered. Granted, it was by goblins, but nonetheless it was a difficult situation for a party wounded by traps and still slightly recovering from past injuries. Nonetheless, the party prevailed. Many of the goblins were fortunately unable to get into the corridor with the party’s strongest warriors blocking their paths, letting the rest of Fra Dane’s unlikeliest heroes surround the goblins and pick them off using distance weapons or emerge behind any goblins that managed to get into the hallway and try to overwhelm the opposition. The party was victorious, but they also had too many injuries to safely continue into the goblin’s territory. “I don’t like having to retreat this far into the goblin’s base,” Luke pondered. “They’ll be ready for us next time. But we can’t confront the goblin chief with any kind of authority if we can barely stand up, either. We need to find a safe place to rest.” “What about Worker 89?” Ik asked. “He seems trustworthy. He didn’t do anything to us last time.” Most of the party, though, looked reluctant. “Something about him really disturbs me,” Elvis commented. “Besides, he’ll probably make us pay for it again,” Enrique added. “I’d rather not waste any more of our treasure if we can help it. What about the ophidians? They said we should bring the bodies of any goblins we defeat to them. Maybe we can work out a trade.” Elvis didn’t look any happier trusting their lives to the lizard people than the bee person, but the rest of the party seemed to agree. They quickly stripped the goblin bodies of any worthwhile items they could find, including a note that was unfortunately also written in goblin, and then dragged the bodies back to the strange amphibious monsters. “If we give you these goblins, will you let us rest by your pond?” Luke asked the creatures. The only ophidian who can apparently speak common nodded. “Yes ophidian. The goblins won’t attack us here ophidian.” “What do you want the goblins for, anyway?” Anastacia asked. The ophidian grinned. “They’re delicious ophidian. We can’t eat fish all the time ophidian. But did you take any of them alive ophidian?” Before anyone could stop him, Lorren asked “Why? What’s so special about living goblins?” “We need them to make more ophidians ophidian. We aren’t many now ophidian. We need more to fight the goblins or return to the lower level ophidian” Nobody seemed interested in learning more about how the ophidians reproduced, or at least they managed to stop Lorren from asking this time, but information about the lower level could be useful, they realized. “How do you get to the lower level?” Luke asked. “The goblins have their own way ophidian, but we have a tunnel to our river below this level ophidian,” the lead ophidian replied. “But we can’t go down there now ophidian. Too many enemies would fight us ophidian.” “Like what?” “Our most hated enemies are there ophidian. We call them the inphidian ophidian. They’re very bad ophidian.” Not eager to talk further (and really sick of the word “ophidian,”) the party let the creatures return underwater, and then made camp at the far end of the pond. They spent several hours planning the next day, and were well aware that if they wanted to escape the Gate region before winter, they only had only five days left. When they returned to the goblin camp the next day, the party wasn’t surprised to see that new guards were at the entrance, and they were certain the electric trap was set again. What was surprising, though, was that one of the guards was shouting at the party as they arrived, and not in a hostile way. Instead, he was waving a piece of paper, and when the party was sufficiently confused by his actions into holding their attack, he slid the paper to the party. Grim, being an unusually literate barbarian, quickly read the note. “It says that he goblin chief decided to speak to us,” he said. “He wants us to meet with him. Apparently we got his attention after our actions yesterday.” Enrique snorted. “Yeah, we’ll just meet with him in the depths of his cave, with who knows how many goblins between us and the way out? If we’re going to do this without violence, make him meet us on our territory. What about next to the Ophidians?” The party generally responded the same way, so Grim wrote the party’s response on the paper and slid it back to the goblins. The goblin that picked it up didn’t even bother reading it; he simply banged on the door behind him, and then gave it to the goblin that opened the door. A few minutes later, a voice called out to the party in Common. “This is Geritch, the chief of the goblins. I understand that you have been responsible for some concerns within my tribe. I suggest, if you do not trust me sufficiently to visit my office, that we compromise and meet here. It will give us both a means to withdraw should negotiations break down.” The party conferred before reluctantly agreeing. A few moments later, a goblin in unusually impressive clothing entered the room, accompanied by both more goblins and more exotic creatures. A bat, seemingly made of fire, rested next to the goblin leader. Even stranger, a mass of electricity in a semi-humanoid form stood in front of the goblin chief, serving as an obvious if unusual bodyguard. The party could even swear they saw a miniature storm cloud on the other side of the door before it inexplicably slammed it! After finishing his obvious display of power, which as usual ruined Elvis’ plan to just kill him, Geritch opened the dialogue. “So, what exactly did you need from me so urgently that you had to kill my warriors to get it?” Luke tried to take a conciliatory tone. “We are from Fra Dane, and we do apologize for the attacks on your tribe, but we came to see answers for your own attack on our city.” Geritch nodded knowingly. “Ah, so that’s what this is about. Yes, some strange humans in black armor sought our assistance. We were supposed to work with some of the other tribes to procure something called the Jewel of Success.” “Were they upset that you couldn’t get it?” Enrique asked, while barely hiding his smug tone. Geritch shrugged. “They never mentioned it. I suspect they just wanted a diversion. I decided it was better not to ask.” “And you don’t mind what happened to your people?” Grim asked with disgust. “Not really,” Geritch replied with a laugh. “The payment they provided me made it more than worth it. My employers, if you will, provide me with enough men to make up for any losses.” Anastacia was in awe of this. “They must have paid you a lot of money for such a flippant response.” Geritch shook his head. “Oh no, they didn’t offer something as simple as gold. My skills and this location provide me with enough resources that mere money wouldn’t have made it worth it.” “So what did they offer you?” Luke asked. Geritch considered this, and then shouted in Goblin towards the door. “One moment, please,” he said pleasantly to the party. A moment later, a goblin carrying a small class case entered the room. The case seemed to contain a tiny wasp-like insect with a tail that glowed slightly. “This is a phase wasp,” Geritch explained. “Our new ‘friends’ apparently breed them in mass. They offered me three entire hives worth of the creatures for payment. Only a few have reached maturity now, sadly, but soon, I’ll have an entire swarm of them! I haven’t decided if I should sell most of them to my hobgoblin brethren, or use them to consolidate power here.” “Are you sure we shouldn’t kill him?” Elvis asked anxiously, but Luke brushed him off. “We really have more interest in the people in black armor. If they organized the raid on our city, we must take our vengeance to them. Can you tell us anything about them?” Lorren asked. “Well, they said their organization was called Effervo Vesica,” Geritch offered. Lorren looked disappointed. “We knew that already. What about the names of the people themselves?” Geritch replied, “Actually, we only dealt with one of them. There was apparently another member who was once in charge, but he first went to the kobolds, and, well, he didn’t come back. This second man was intelligent enough to treat both us and my kobold neighbors fairly. He had somewhat more trouble with the orcs on the next level, but he apparently cowed them into servitude as well. If you speak to the kobolds, you might be able to get the head of their less diplomatic ambassador. As for the one that spoke to us, I believe the orcs learned his name during the fight. He was a very unusual man, I believe. He wore some sort of strange living armor.” Luke nodded excitably. “That’s our man!” Enrique was less enthused. “So, let me get this straight. You can offer us nothing about him?” Gretich smiled. “Oh, not at all. You see, while we were happy to work for these Effervo Vesica people, we don’t obey their every word. Specifically, he ordered us to never follow him back to his local base camp, so I had my little assistant here do it.” He pointed to the fiery bat, who shrieked on cue. “As a result, I have a very accurate map to a nearby base of theirs. I will be willing to part with it for, say, 500 gold. In addition, my lair has other features you may be interested in. We have control of the only physical staircase to the next lower level. If you plan on confronting the orcs, we can grant you safe access to it for another 300 gold.” “We’ll definitely need that map,” Ik whispered after the party formed a huddle. “But I’m not sure if we need another way down. After all, the Ophidians mentioned they had a way, and we already are on good terms with them.” Luke nodded. “Very well. We’ll give him five hundred gold for the map, and see if we can do business afterwards if necessary. After all, we nearly made five hundred gold just from the goblins we already fought.” He turned to Gretich. “We will take your, map, but not the access to the next level.” “Are you sure?” Gretich asked innocently. “We can let you visit our sauna while you’re here. And I can show you the frescoes we discovered after settling here.” “You have a sauna?” Ik asked with interest, but Luke shook his head. “No, that will suffice for now. Perhaps we can make some sort of other deal later?” “Maybe,” and Gretich’s eyes narrowed, “On one condition. I noticed that some of your friends aren’t so inclined to trust me.” Almost on cue, Elvis and Lorren started whistling as casually as possible. “If we want to remain on good diplomatic terms, I want you to swear to your god that you will keep your people under control and honor our truce.” Luke hesitated, but he related. “Very well. In Ehlonna’s name, we will remain peaceful with you so long as you do the same to us.” “Fantastic!” Gretich cheered, and he quickly wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Luke. Luke skimmed it, and realized it was a message written in both Common and Goblin that the holder of this note are to be treated well and not attacked by goblins. At least, that’s what Luke thought the Goblin part said, but he couldn’t really be certain. And so, the first part of their mission was successful. They obtained information from the goblins about Effervo Vesica. Now, it was time to shake the kobolds down for whatever they could tell the party. OOC Notes: One thing about the Gate of Madness that I enjoy is the ability to use enemies from nearly any source. The last two adventures had monsters from nearly every monster book I collected. The next few games should be fun, though, as I’ll be able to soon use monsters I made myself! [/QUOTE]
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