Diaglo's Latest Debaucle - Rogue's Run

[biorph]

You Don't Want to see me, When I've Just Woken up

The used the immovable rod to make a sort zip line down the trapped corridor. No one wanted to test whether or not ALL of the darts were illusions or just most of them. At the end of the corridor the found the remains of a door fashioned entirely from bones, mush like the one they had used to enter the corridor.

“Wow,” said Omar “That must have been some lock.” Ruen and Solafien were beaten up pretty badly. They said the door itself animated and actually attacked them. It was easy to see why though. The room beyond was something worth guarding. It smelt of fresh air and ripe fruit. As he entered Kem felt his spirits lift somewhat. It was certainly a beautifully crafted room as well. White marble columns, a gently flowing fountain, and a vine with fruit of different kinds lining the walls, some of it glowing. In the center of the room was a gently smoking censer, it gave off a low glow and made the room warn but not uncomfortable.

Everyone was amazed at the beauty of the room, but no one wanted to trust it. The most suspicious of all were the eight feather pallets on the floor. The looked warm and soft and almost called out to the party to rest here and soothe their weary muscles. No one was quite sure what to do or what to make of things. Everyone started looking around the room, pointed ignoring the vine, lest they find out its favorite fertilizer was blood and bone.

Solafien searched the walls for secret door but couldn’t find any. Kem approached the fountain. He had a hunch and was going to play it. Sargazzo and Omar investigated the censer, Kahlil and Ruen looked at the pallets. Taking a penny out of his numerous pockets he threw it into the well and said “I wish we knew what to do next.” In the blink of an eye a set of dishes appeared. Each of them made of gold and a fine wine goblet beside each one, but no knives or other utensils. “I guess we eat, he said to the party at large.”

No one else was willing to try to get some of the fruit so Kem volunteered. He grabbed for one of the regular peaches. Everyone, including himself was surprised when nothing happened. No movement, no poison darts, no anything. He put the fruit on the plate. As it touched the plate it immediately fell apart into eight equal slices. Kem tried one of the slices, it was juicy and good. He finished off the peach and grabbed another, this time a glowing one. He didn’t put it on the plate this time and tried just eating it raw. It was good, better than the first one in fact. As he ate it he felt some of the weariness and pain from the Baylenar’s poison leave him. “It’s good to eat,” he told the party, “Apparently the glowing ones have curing properties.”

“Lady Blue did say that there would be safe places to rest” said Kahlil, “Maybe this is one of those places.” The rest of the party shrugged in response, everyone was tired and weary after tramping around the hot jungle all day. They all picked some fruit and ate it. There were more than just peaces through, there were bundles of grapes, melons, dates, figs, and various other assorted fruits. Omar tried some of the water in his hands. Like the fruit it was strangely refreshing. He put one of the gold goblets in the water and came back with a cup full of wine. He tried putting one of the figurines they had found into the water, but nothing happened.

“Sargazzo wants to know what we do now” said Omar “There doesn’t appear to be a second exit to this room”

“Well there’s one more pallet than we have people,”” said Kem, “maybe if we sleep something will reveal itself, either that or we can try fooling around with the censer in the center of the room.” After some debate the party agreed to post watch and have Sargazzo stay up most of the night, since he needed much less sleep thanks to his magic ring. The party settled in, Kem and Omar tucking in the Medusa babies. Kem didn’t want to push his luck asking for sippy cups that turned the water into milk instead, who knew what the wishing properties of the fountain were of how far they could be pushed.

The party settled down for a quick nap, with Ruen waking Sargazzo after two hours.

The next morning found everyone surprised. Everyone, including Sargazzo was naked in their pallets, their clothes washed mended and folded, their weapons were cleaned, oiled, and neatly arranged by their beds. No one was quite sure what happened, especially Sargazzo, who didn’t seem happy to have fallen asleep on his watch. Kem couldn’t blame the half –orc though, it was clear that they were all under some new enchantment of the room. The biggest surprise was Zyff. Red horns, wings, and blue skin; he looked like some sort of demonic elf.

“So that’s what you look like” said Kem “Good to know.”

Zyff ignored Kem and Looked at Solafien, who had a noticeably darker skin tone “The darkvision, the interest in the drow skeletons and armor, the love of killing, I KNEW IT! I knew you were a half drow.”

“Of course Zyff” said Omar “It took you this long to figure that out?” Omar gave Zyff cocky smile and flashed his ring of detect thoughts.

Solafien gave them both a look, making it clear that the assassin had not yet mastered the art of killing with a look, but wished he had.

Looking around at the room full of naked men getting dressed, only one smug satisfied thought crossed Kem’s mind. ‘Heh heh heh, guess I win THAT contest’ he thought to himself picking up his quarterstaff ‘No wonder everyone else felt it necessary to carry SOOO many weapons.’

As everyone dressed, Kem decided to give the room another quick once over, and found the door Solafien had overlooked. After checking it for traps, he opened it. A skeleton fell out of the door, revealing a hallway behind it. “I guess we’ve found the eighth person” said Kem.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Two pages and no TPK? I have trouble believing this is a Diaglo game. Judging by party dynamics, though it looks like it'll happen sooner or later.

 

[biorph]

The Rouge, The Rouge, The Rouge is on Fire

It was another elf skeleton, ‘You couldn’t throw a rack around here with smashing the skeleton of some dead elf,’ thought Kem, ‘They were like cockroaches’. The elf had a nice sword with him though, it’s hilt was composed of moving gears and it had writing on it in gnomish, something about being the bane of clockmakers. Zyff used his wand to identify it, it was a magic sword, definitely of gnomish make. It aided those who wished to search out and disable traps. But it also had the ability to sunder objects it’s user wished to destroy. Kahlil toot it, since he was the most trained at disabling traps. Beyond the skeleton was a darkness past which no light would penetrate. Solafien and Sargazzo went first. They didn’t respond when they reached the end of the hall. Omar thought it might be another teleporter, so he tried scrying on them again. He pulled out his mirror and saw Solafien and Sargazzo standing in the bottom of an earthen pit looking around. “They seemed alright, it looks like it’s another teleporter.” Following Omar’s advice the party went through one at a time finding themselves in the bottom of a pit with high rock walls on each side. However before they went they left the babies in the chamber with some mashed up peaches. It was probably safer for them here, and hopefully they'd be alright. until they got back.

Just within the range of the light was an opening in the wall some 30 feet up. Omar mentioned that Sargazzo could also see another opening a little beyond that one. Ruen volunteer to climb up and check out the first one, and Kem was more then happy to let him, after all, it would help to get a good estimate of the abilities of the ‘competition’. Ruen had some abilities, but nothing spectacular. As he entered the cave there was a large gout of flame and Ruen went flying onto the opposite wall but caught himself and slid down to the bottom. Traps like that were the reason an acrobat never volunteered to go first in a climbing mission if he could help it. Thinking like that was one of the reasons fellowship of the acrobats were nicknamed ‘weasels’. Ruen climbed up the wall again, filling this time tying a rope off so Kahlil could climb up with him and search for traps. They both went up but a few seconds later Kahlil came flying out in another large gout of flame, hitting the wall and falling to the ground. The poor kid was not very good at climbing and had gotten knocked cold from the fall. He left Kahlil to the care of Omar who had training in such things, but took the sword they had just found, and free climbed up the wall, ropes only made things too easy. Ruen had apparently pressed himself against the wall avoiding getting blasted out again. Kem searched the entrance for traps. It was strange but when the held the sword the pressure plate that set off the trap was outlined in blue light. He wondered how Kahlil could have missed it. Knowing he had no ability in shutting the thing off, he called down to the rest of the party to throw him some chalk from Kahlil’s backpack. Then he outlined the pressure plate in chalk and made a note not the step there for the rest of the party.

The rest of the corridor was untrapped. It led into a large spherical room thirty feet in diameter. In the center was a large black orb. No one wanted to touch it, but the problem was, it just seemed to scream the word ‘KEY’ in Kem’s mind. The other problem was how to get to it. Kem thought he saw a solution to both dilemmas. “Sargazzo, kahlil is pretty light, why don’t you hold him up with your hands above your head, and let him use Zyff’s wand to identify this thing?” said Kem. It seemed like a reasonable enough idea so they tried it. Strangely enough the spell couldn’t identify the magic on the black ball, but it told the party that part of its magic aura was incomplete or missing. ‘Definitely a key’ Kem thought to himself ‘or at least part of one’. The ball was easy to move, but if allowed to float freely it simply returned to the center of the room. Meanwhile Kem searched the walls and ceiling for traps or more likely, more secret doors. On the very top of the ceiling above the ball was an opeing, barely larger than a finger. The outside of the opening had some sort of oily black soot on it. Kem couldn’t tell what it was, but had Zyff use his wing talons to climb up and look. “Hmm,” said Zyff, “It’s alchemist’s fire, I wonder what it is that ball really does.” They both climbed down and zyff asked to examine the ball. Kem had a hunch what that ball could be used for, but no one in the party was so injured he was willing to try it yet.

“Look” said Zyff waking Kem from his thoughts, “There’s something inside you can almost see it if you hold up the light.”

 

[biorph]

It Slices, It Dices

There was surprisingly little argument over whether or not to try to open the ball. If it was a key, it was a key or part of a key, and they could always smash it open later if they needed to. If they were wrong though, they couldn’t very well put it back together. The couldn’t find anything else in the room so they decided to try the next cave up. The cave led to a similar passage, but no fire trap this time. Kahlil went forward searching for more traps. Solafien seconded the idea. Kahlil, the baby medusae, apparently the assassin didn’t like children. Kahlil found another pressure plate before a circular depression in the tunnel. The plate activated something in the sides of the depression. Apparently there were large blades in the sides of the depression that would close in and slice off whatever was on one side from whatever was on the other. Kahlil thought he had been able to disarm it and tried to go through. He was mistaken.

Thankfully Kahlil just lost part some of his calf, in the blades, not the whole leg. He was injured but it was nothing that simple magic couldn’t heal.on the other side there was another plate for the trap. Kahlil pressed this one and the blades came out of the wall again. “Hmm, Kahlil” said “Solafien, stand on that other plate for a second I have an idea. Solafien stepped on the plate as Kahlil stood on his. The blades came down but only part way. Apparently the trap didn’t work properly with weight on both plates. The rest of the party was able to make their way through, but it would leave Solafien stranded on the other side unless he thought he could be faster than the trap. Thankfully Kem had an idea. “Use the immovable rod on the pressure plate. Use it on the plate as you stand on it, and the plate won’t rise up when you step off.” It worked, and everyone managed to get thorough. They might have a bit of a problem getting out again, but they could burn that bridge when they came to it.

As before there was a room at the end of the tunnel, but it was definitely not what anyone had expected.

 

[biorph]

Once and Fiuture King

The party stepped out of the tunnel into what was apparently a child’s play room. There were toy soldiers on the left and a VERY large stuffed dog guarding the entryway. No one was quite sure what to make of it, but Kem at least was definitely afraid it would become a real dog if they did something wrong. Ruen apparently had an idea though. He went up and hugged the dog. There was a strange shift, like a moment of time sliced where the dog was there, and was then suddenly replaced by an even larger dog, with three heads, which was very VERY real. Before anyone could react, each of the three large heads bend down to Ruens level and opened their mouths. As their glistening teeth shone in the torch light the dogs struck light lightening before anyone could react…

Soon, Ruen was covered in the slobber of a very large, very real, very friendly, three headed dog. Kem had to admit he was impressed. Apparently the warmonger had bigger balls than might otherwise be indicated first thing in the morning. He wondered if he had even considered joining the acrobats. The dog was very friendly and simply moved aside when Ruen asked it to. Solafien wasn’t taken in and appeared to study the creature intently.

Beyond the dog was a brick corridor. Kahlil volunteered to go through first searching for traps. As he set foot in the corridor he appeared to almost fall and then catch himself. Kahlil wasn’t sure what had happened and neither was anyone else. Everyone try tapping the floor to see if they could find what had happened but no one saw anything, the floor seemed perfectly solid.

“It’s an illusion you dolts” said Zyff “Look, I can put my hand right through it, it’s not really there.” And sure enough, one Zyff started putting his hand through the seemingly solid floor it disappeared, leaving only emptiness beyond. For Kem anyway, some of the others in the party took longer to penetrate the illusion. There appeared to be something at the end of the corridor, but no one could quite make it out.

“Unfortunately the immovable rod was otherwise occupied,” said Zyff, “So that plan is out.”

“Not at all.” said Kem, “Watch.” Kem climbed back up into the entry corridor and took a running leap over both pressure plates. He took the immovable rod off, which caused the blades to quickly slice in and out, thankfully with him well out of their way, and the took a running start and did it all again. “See, no fuss, no muss, simple solution. Now tie me off and we’ll use some pitons and the rod to make a rope across the same way we always do.” They used a rope and some pitons to make a bridge across. Kahlil went over and after a few seconds pulled out his sword and started trying to bash the door in. A bout a minute later he called for Sargazzo’s help. Kem couldn’t see very clearly but there was a loud sound like the smashing of glass. Kem went across the rope to see what had happened. Kahlil and Sargzzo were sitting in an empty room with shards of glass on the floor. Sargazzo was watching as Kahlil was trying to list a sword larger than he was and put it into his backpack.

“Kahlil, dear.” began Kem
“No, it’s mine I found it, I’m keeping it.” Replied Kahlil angrily

Upon closer inspection Kem could see why. It was a large heavily jeweled sword there were chains on the bottom of the hilt that attached to a large gold ring that was being held in the moth of a lion. Kem liked large expensive things as much as the next thief, but this thing was clearly almost as heavy as Kahlil himself. Besides it didn’t make sense for the boy to keep it when he could barely use it, especially if there was a burly half orc in the room the had been trained in it’s use.

Taking a gentle but stern tone in his voice Kem said “Come on Kahlil, it’s bigger than you are. Let’s give it to the nice half-orc, who might actually be able to lift it off the ground rather than drag it around.” With that Kem lifted the sword out of the boy’s grasp. It was definitely heavy, at least 25 pounds if not more. Kem carried it over to sargazzo, who picked it up by the hilt. The moment sargazzo touched the blade the ring fell out of the lion’s mouth and detatched from the chains. The lion emitted a thunderous roar. Across the corridor Omar called, “Whatever you did, it sure scared the big dog. Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine” replied Kem, “But send Zyff over with the wand, we’ve got a doozy here that needs identifying.” As Zyff made his way over, Sargazzo put on the ring that fell out of the lion’s mouth. As he did, the chains of the sword seemed to attack his wrist. They grew suddenly longer and wrapped around his wrist leaving the sword and reconnecting to the ring. When it was finished, it looked as though Sargazzo’s hand was covered in a larger silver bandage, but made entirely of fine mithral chain. Zyff and Omar both made their way over as did the rest of the party. Everyone wanted to look at what Kahlil and Sargazzo had found. Both Omar and Zyff studied the thing. In Sargazzo’s hands it was extremely light, like it barely held any weight at all.

“It’s a fine sword” said Zyff after casting the spell, “Apparently the swords belong to the ancient orcish barbarian kings who tribes roam the wastelands. Only one of their blood can activate such a change. It is enchanted to do more damage against certain types of foes and can be quickly drawn when used with the gauntlet. The gauntlet provides magical protection against blows. There is some other regalia that goes with it, but I don’t know what. The downside is the gauntlet will never come off of a living body, only a dead one.” “So it looks like you’re stuck with a powerful magical item attuned only to you.” Said Zyff jokingly “You’ll have to thank Lady Blue when we get out of here”

Omar was strangely quiet through the entire exchange. It was odd, Kem thought he would have shown more emotion over such an improvement in his bodyguard’s abilities, but then Omar was of the Fellowship of Thought Stealers, and who could ever tell what they were thinking anyway. Sargazzo seemed pleased however.

 

[biorph]

Blow Me

Once again he was in a small room and once again he found himself searching for secret doors on the ceiling. Once again he found himself discovering one.

It led up a ladder to a triangular room. On one side were a large pair of doors. In the corner opposite it was a statue of an angel holding a glittering trumpet with puffed out cheeks looking ready to blow.

Solafien practically drooled at the sight of it, Kem had to admit it was tempting, the horn was covered in more jewels than Sargazzo’s new sword. Solafien went up to it looking for traps on it.

“It looks clear” said Solafien “Come to –“

“BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM”

As Solafien touched the statue a note was released from the horn filling the room

The sound of the note still rang in Kem’s ears for several seconds afterwards.”

“DO YOU WANT SOME HAM” cried Omar “I THINK MY JELLY FILLED CAKE BREAD!”

“THE DOG IS ON FIRE” Shouted Kahlil to Solafien “JUICE BUILDING FELL RED CARPET”

“LIES BAND FEAR BLUE” replied Solafien “SKY DRINK MY CABBAGE SEARING”

After a few minutes everyone managed to get their hearing back. They got it back in time to hear something scratching on the other side of the doors. Apparently the horn acted as a dinner bell for something. Apparently the house specialty was careless rouges.

Omar had a plan apparently. He could use magic to block all sound around the area of the statue, then they could get the horn easily. Omar cast the spell and Sargazzo and the half-orc whet to get the horn. The plan went off without a hitch, and Zyff soon identified the horn a something called a greater horn of blasting. They still had the problem of what to do with the other side of the door and the creatures beyond it.

Solafien looked under the door, and went pale when he did “We’ve got a problem, those things are going to be bad news if they get into here. Even the drow fear them” They needed a plan fast before those things broke in. Everybody was in favor of using the horn on them. They just hoped that Sargazzo, Solafien, and Ruen would be able to take out the survivors. They positioned everyone behind the horn. Zyff used his magic to open the doors from a distance, and in the creatures rushed. There wasn’t anything to them really, just legs and hair, spider legs and what Kem could only assume was spider hair. As soon as they entered the room Omar let the horn blast. One of them caught the full force and was blown into pieces. Two more were blown back but the force. The last one however was unaffected being just outside of the blast radius.

The warriors rushed forward and pressed into the mass of legs. The legs fought back apparently having sharp talon at the end. Another one went down and the creatures were forced out into the hall. The legs ran down the hall through a large opening in the wall and closed a large set of brass double doors.

“We need to stop them before they have time to heal or call for reinforcements.” called Kem and charged down the corridor, with the others following. When he reached the door he found them shut and they creatures were obviously stronger then he was. “Kahlil” he called “Give your sword to Sargazzo again, we’ll need to break the doors down.” As they ran Kahlil gave the sword over. When they reached the door Sargazzo landed a mighty blow collapsing the door inward. Again the groups fighters waded into combat, but not so easily this time. The creatures were strong and the party was still injured from the horn’s first blast. Thankfully, though bruised and battered, they managed to persevere against the creatures. The room the spider legs creatures lived in was barren. Again they searched the room. They found a hidden door with the strange blackness behind it, like that of the teleporters. Solafien entered first. Omar scryed him and found in back in the center room. The rest of the party soon followed, they could use a rest back in the safe room after that battle. Too bad they needed to go back right away to find the rest of the key, and time was still slowly running out.

(we now return you to your regularly scheduled author)

 

[diaglo]

Update

So the party rested, replenished spells, and prepared for the return. They fumbled around a little and climbed, climbed, climbed. Eventually they discovered more traps and another piece of the puzzle. The key was getting bulkier. They also found more tunnels and portals.

One such portal took them into the pyramid again. This time at the top. Here Ruen admitted he found the Sun gem and the gold coins. The party also found several unopened sarcophagi and chests. Which the noisy Weasel and the petty thief soon rectified. Treasure abounded. Unfortunately, Solafien vanished opening one chest. A mirror of life trapping. Omar studied up on his lore. And discovered the words to free the drow assassin. Khalil played with one of the metal figures the party had found much earlier. It became an elven priest. The party also unintentionally freed 3 Mummy Lords. A battle ensued and the party was victorious. The items on the corpses were very valuable.

 

[diaglo]

After some debate the party tried a few more places and left the place. They had finished what they had set out to accomplish here. So they made their way back thru the jungle and finally to the central room via the portal of Sun. From there only the West corridor remained untempted. Solafien and Khalil led the way. Three harrowing traps later they stood in front of a door. A bolt of lightning leapt out and zapped the street urchin. Omar warned the party to be ready as he fought the power of the enchantment.

The party moved thru the door and into the room.

"Will of the Wisps," Omar shouted. "Don't let them get close they are very tough."

The party won the day. The defeat of the glowing balls of light was hard on Sargazzo, Solafien, and Omar. But none of the party fell. Even Kem was a master melee combatant this day. His new weapon off of the Mummy Lord's cut deeply.

 

[diaglo]

Khalil found a doorway on the far wall. It was a cartouche of sorts. And the little scallyway almost pried the keys out of place. Luckily Solafien kept him in check. Omar was able to discern the right method for opening the door. A portal to another demiplane. A rapid jaunt across the Astral plane and poof...

"YOU DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE KEYS," a voice warned.

"How many keys do we have?" Sargazzo signed.

A pair hands signed back, "Four."

Five rooms with Five pedestals. They tried the items they had recovered in them. Sargazzo was the first to succeed. He inserted his Greatsword into a splinter crack. It locked in place. Solafien placed the bone rod into another pedestal. Khalil and the many faceted pieces of jade, black, and gold fit another. The Sun diamond didn't fit either of the other pedestals. Two remained, but which two and which of the keys did they have...

"So the two keys we had when I asked were: the bone scepter and...?" Omar asked. He had an idea he knew, but he wasn't willing or going to guess out loud.

Sargazzo and the others started emptying all their items out around one of the pedestals. Omar placed his lamp. It locked in place. His fears were true.

"Where is the last key?" Solafien signed.

"Back the way you came," a very feminine voice replied.

"Of course, we didn't search the last room," Kem smacked his forehead.

Only he and Zyff were unaccounted for in the trial. One of them was important while the other was unknown.

 

[diaglo]

Omar warned the others he would be unable to return them to the exit again until after he rested. The party dashed back thru the Astral portal. Solafien and Omar were soon resting.

A shriek woke Omar. A very large Vargouille was attacked and slain in the middle of the room. Kem stood still in fear. Omar rolled back over. Ruen woke him a few minutes later.

"Omar," the soft spoken warrior said. "Khalil found the key." He pointed at a golden helmet on the floor with a weasel poking its head out.

Omar shrugged and went back to sleep. When he was ready, he cast off the spell that had trapped the urchin. He then opened the portal back to the exit. The party made their way to supposed freedom.