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<blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 5053084" data-attributes="member: 11574"><p><strong>Pray harder</strong></p><p></p><p>“I’m not going to make it son, you’re going to have to be the hero and save the lunatic from his own demons.” Gramps spat at Slyphwhipser.</p><p></p><p>“Are you drunk already? Why the hell would I save him? I’m hoping his carcass slows down the advance of those two stone guardians before we press on.” The gnome answers</p><p></p><p>“Fire in the hole!” Lord Horatius shouts as he shoves his way past the two shorter members and presses his way up behind the retreating against his will enermancer. With a mighty toss, Lord Horatius unleashes a vial of alchemist fire into the teeth of the wind. The gritty air grabs the glass container and flings it back at the pyromaniac who quickly ducks out of the way as the vial explodes against the wall next to Slyphwhisper and Gramps.</p><p></p><p>“We’ll never make it down there with the wind like that and with those two morons leading the charge.” Discordia muses.</p><p></p><p>“We need to get to the other side of the hallway but there’s no way either I or grandpa here will make it.” Slyphwhisper answers</p><p></p><p>As the trio mull over their next move, the enermancer and Lord Horatius meet the first of the two stone minotaurs and begin flailing blindly against the stinging sand.</p><p></p><p>“I got this chief.” Helga bear hugs Discordia, Gramps and Slyphwhisper and begins trudging through the sand down the hallway.</p><p></p><p>Helga’s wide frame plugs up the hallway behind her, creating a zone of breezy air as opposed to the cyclone that raged in front of her. The stone minotaurs were easily out maneuvering Lord Horatius and the enermancer, their heavy rock hooves allowed them to flank the duo constantly. Helga shifts Gramps to get him alone in her right arm.</p><p></p><p>“What’re doing?” Gramps wheezes</p><p></p><p>“I’m gonna toss you over the fight so you can help from behind.” Helga replies</p><p></p><p>“Dwarf tossing is illegal in this country, besides the gnome is build for this kind of work, I think the best move is to throw him.” Gramps answers</p><p></p><p>“What?” Slyphwhisper objects, but Helga agrees with the dwarf’s suggestion and drops him to the ground as her massive meat suction cups seize the gnome and launch the burglar over the combat. A stream of high pitched swearing streamed down the hallway and alerted all to the presence of a flying gnome. </p><p></p><p>Once over the combat, Slyphwhisper looked up and into the walking wind tunnel as the fresco slapped the gnome in the air like a hockey puck. Slyphwhipser’s stunned body slammed into the back of a stone minotaur, throwing it off balance with all the wind in the hallway. The enemy fell forward, allowing the enermancer, pyromaniac, asthmatic and exhibitionist the opportunity to crush the thing and they waste no time in completing that action. The enermancer presses against the wall and begins to close the distance on the animated fresco. Discordia and Lord Horatius use the downed minotaur as cover against the sandstorm, Helga keeps pressing on and meets the remaining stone guardian a few feet from where Slyphwhisper’s stunned body lay motionless face down in the accumulating sand. </p><p></p><p>As the enermancer got within fifteen feet of the fresco, the animated wall mural bent its head and blew its forceful wind straight down at the human, effectively immobilizing the enermancer to the hallway’s wall. The lapse in the sand blowing, gave Discordia the opportunity to eldritch blast the fresco from cover about sixty feet away. Shards of rock careen off the hallway as Helga presses her way up to the fresco swatting away the fragments like flies. Slyphwhisper continued to play the part of a lifeless carcass in the hopes that the fresco would overlook him. </p><p></p><p>Helga could see that the hallway dog-legged to the right. The fresco however took up the entire corner and made getting past him while he still stood a near impossible task. </p><p> </p><p>The fresco released the enermancer from the wall and as he sagged off of the wall, the fresco slapped him back down the hallway with the side of its blade. Ducking, Helga dodged the airborne man and heard him ricochet off of Gramps’ head and finagling coming to rest a couple feet from the prone Slyphwhisper. Lord Horatius scrambles up to Helga as he weighs whether to attempt a firebombing on the massive animated wall carving or attack with his sword. Helga’s girth answers that question for him.</p><p></p><p>“You go on ahead; I’ve got your back.” Lord Horatius assured the woman</p><p></p><p>“Uh gotcha chief.” Helga replied as her light bending frame raced towards the fresco</p><p></p><p>“Wait! I said I had your back, not that I would follow you to certain death!” Lord Horatius yelled after the woman.</p><p></p><p>Maybe it was the perfect shot from Discordia into the eyes of the fresco, maybe it was the sweat that greased the lumpy pillow through the small round opening. Whatever the case, Helga twisted herself sideways and squeezed past the abbreviated swing of the fresco as Discordia’s blast struck true. Helga positioned herself behind the fresco and in the cramped space in the hallway the fresco had wedged itself so that it could only face the party in the hallway. For several minutes it flailed in vain to swat Helga who methodically picked the stone art work apart. As Gramps, Lord Horatius, Slyphwhisper and Discordia made sure there was nothing left of the stone minotaurs to reanimate. </p><p></p><p>As the fresco crumbled to dust, Lavender and Tethys arrived with the captain to witness the aftermath. Slyphwhisper ran to Helga’s position to listen down the corridor beyond for signs of company. Tethys checks on the face down enermancer.</p><p></p><p>“Is it dead?” Gramps asks of the enermancer</p><p></p><p>“No, I think I can save him.” Tethys replies</p><p></p><p>“Don’t tempt the fates; if he’s meant to stay he’ll live.” Gramps replied</p><p></p><p>“I don’t have any healing spells prepared so all I was going to do was pound on his back to see if that helped and maybe left his legs above his heart.” Tethys answers</p><p></p><p>Gramps’ face contorts into a mixture of disgust and disbelief, “I’m sure that’ll be sufficient.” </p><p></p><p>“Maybe I should get Lavender.” Tethys muses</p><p></p><p>“Why? Can’t you perform final rights?” Gramps inquires</p><p></p><p>“No, I didn’t study any bardic techniques.” Tethys relays</p><p></p><p>“I’m going to need therapy if we get out of here.” Gramps whispers to himself</p><p></p><p>Tethys waves over Lavender who rescues the enermancer from certain death much to the chagrin of the dwarf and gnome. Once the party can walk again they all make their way to Slyphwhisper who’s peering around a corner down a long hallway. Slyphwhisper motions for the party to follow him as he carefully traces his path along the sandy floor, keeping a close eye out for anything that he might call a trap, spotting a depression in the sand Slyphwhisper calls the enermancer up to the front.</p><p></p><p>“I need you to go stand along that section of wall, I think there’s a lever trap in the floor and we need to balance the weight to avoid falling.” Slyphwhisper instructs</p><p></p><p>“The best way to counteract gravity is to use loadstones to make you out weigh the pull of gravity, the double negative weight created will cause you to be repulsed by the ground and then you can glide away.” The enermancer declares</p><p></p><p>“I’m repulsed by you already, get over there!” Slyphwhisper demands, pointing at the other side of the corridor.</p><p></p><p>Slyphwhisper watches as the enermancer steps in the depression and arrives at his destination across from the gnome. Perturbed that it wasn’t a trap, Slyphwhisper presses on.</p><p></p><p>“I thought you don’t do traps well.” Gramps wheezed</p><p></p><p>“That’s almost right; actually I don’t do them at all.” Slyphwhisper confirms</p><p></p><p>The group rounds a turn and Gramps perks up and alerts the team that his underground mining senses have revealed the location of a secret door in the wall behind him. Pushing the door inward the party enters a well travelled corridor with a closed and barred on the outside door thirty feet down the hallway on the right side. The hallway continues and makes a left turn another twenty feet beyond the door.</p><p></p><p>“Awfully odd to have the brace on the outside don’t you think?” Slyphwhisper asks of no one in particular</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know, my pantry at home had the bar on the outside and we always closed the arn door with the bar on the outside.” Helga explains</p><p></p><p>“So you’re contending this is either their food supply or it’s where they keep their chicken coup? Who would do that hundreds of feet from any water, grass, feed, light or fresh air?” Slyphwhisper questions</p><p></p><p>“Stupid people?” Helga replies</p><p></p><p>“Lantern archons would do that.” The enermancer chimes in</p><p></p><p>“What? Why would outsiders need to store chickens on the prime plane underground and behind a secret door?” Discordia counters</p><p></p><p>“If I go check it out would you whip me like the demonwhore I am?” Captain Eterie offers. The party turns back to face her, “just offering is all.” </p><p></p><p>Lord Horatius pushes his way through the party and marches up to the door. He grabs the heavy wooden bar and instantly pulls his hand away and looks at it for a brief moment before collapsing in a heap at the base of the door.</p><p></p><p>“Should’ve checked for traps.” Slyphwhisper announces as he glides up to </p><p>the door with a smile on his face that gets washed off as blasts of healing magic from Lavender erupt into the hexblade’s body. With a disheartening sigh Slyphwhisper examines the door.</p><p></p><p>A hard shove from his right flings the gnome ten feet down the hallway as Captain Eterie begins to fondle the door looking for the poison the affected Lord Horatius, “Don’t use up all your special sauce on him I’m going to be injured as well!”</p><p></p><p>Lord Horatius retched on the floor as the poison and healing magic battled each other within his body. The hexblade lost all bodily function control and spasmed on the floor in a paralytic convulsive state, foaming at the mouth and projectile spitting at the same time. Captain Eterie stops groping the door after watching Lord Horatius’ display.</p><p></p><p>Sweating and drained, Lavender drops to one knee and declares Lord Horatius saved. The heaving waste stained mass on the floor of the hallway began to twitch before its ragged breathing normalized and it lifted it’s head, “next time please just kill me instead.” He groaned</p><p></p><p>The enermancer walked up behind Captain Eterie and grabbed her hand, before the protesting captain could free her hand the enermancer had placed her hand on the wooden bar and shoved the bar aside.</p><p></p><p>“What the hell! Don’t ever try that again. You could’ve killed me, why would you do that?” The captain protested</p><p></p><p>“I always practice safe trap disarmament.” The enermancer replies</p><p></p><p>A muffled shuffling sound came from behind the door and the party readied for action. The enermancer flung the door open and rush of cool air blew out the sconce across from the door, dim illumination reached only a few feet into the room. The enermancer’s moved to the threshold, preventing more of the dim light from reaching the room.</p><p></p><p>“Unless you be of turnip parentage I believe now is the time to gaze upon your savior.” The enermancer gloated</p><p></p><p>“What the hell was that?” Slyphwhisper scoffed at the notion the enermancer did anything more than open a door. </p><p></p><p>A soft mummer quickly gathered strength as a group of beaten and battered humans stumble forward amid tears of joy at the sight of other humans. The party quickly ushers them out of their prison, three males and a female. All of them fawn all over the party declaring them their saviors and praising multiple deities for their good fortune. </p><p></p><p>“Are you Baron Muchausen’s kid?” Gramps asks the female</p><p></p><p>“Yes, did he send you to rescue me?” The woman ecstatically perks up</p><p></p><p>“More like he’ll be paying us when we deliver you to him.” Slyphwhisper responds</p><p></p><p>A knowing nod from the woman ended the conversation as Slyphwhisper retreated to the secret door and waved the others to follow him. Half way to the door the gnome raises his hand to urge them to halt. He curses and spits at the ground, “We’ve got company.” </p><p></p><p>“Back into the prison with you!” The enermancer yells and shoves two of the male captives back into their former room.</p><p></p><p>“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Discordia argues and shoves the enermancer away from the door.</p><p></p><p>Captain Eterie shoves Discordia. Discordia stands confused, “now hit me back really hard.” The captain demands. To which Lord Horatius complies, a double axe-handle chop to the back of the captain’s head staggering the woman. The baron’s daughter begins creeping back to her prison, fearing it the safer place to be than in the company of lunatics.</p><p></p><p>Slyphwhisper throws a dagger to the feet of the enermancer which causes the group to pause their internal conflict, “you’ve got five seconds to follow me or you’re on your own.” The gnome runs to his dagger and retrieves it, then heads down the passage to the left and disappears into the darkness. One by one the rest of the party, including the newly rescued, follows the gnome down the corridor. The gnome finds a rotting wooden door ajar midway down the corridor and ushers the rest of the party inside.</p><p> </p><p>Lavender creates a blue glow with her hands so that those without darkvision could see they were in a crypt, sarcophagi stretched out in a row to either side of the door along the left and right walls, “quickly find a hiding place, get low and don’t make a sound. Somebody put a sock in Gramps, I don’t want his wheezing to alert the gnolls about to spill in here.</p><p></p><p>With racing hearts the party scrambles to find suitable shelter, with everyone but Helga finding a hiding spot. The raised barking noises from down the hall told the party they would soon have visitors, Slyphwhisper told Helga to lay on her back at the rear of the room in the middle of the wall and act like a stone sarcophagus. Helga complies as the door to the room gets shoved open by a group of gnolls who peer through the darkness with eyes used to staring down prey in the night. Seeing no movement and unable to hear anything from all the panicked barking behind him in the corridor they continue on their way. After minutes had passed, Slyphwhisper steps out from his hiding spot and peeks down the hallway, seeing and hearing nothing he alerts the others that the coast is clear. </p><p></p><p>Syphwhisper tried to close the door but its hinges were rotted and the door slowly swung back open, frustrated the gnome knew they would need to move out of this room soon if they were to make it out with the baron’s daughter. Seeing his frustration, Tethys walked up to the gnome.</p><p></p><p>“What’s wrong?” The cleric asked</p><p></p><p>“This door won’t close nor lock, we’re going to need to move again unless we can get it locked somehow. I’ve tried everything I have to get it to stay closed.” Slyphwhisper relates</p><p></p><p>“You want me to wizard lock it?” Tethys offers</p><p></p><p>“Really? That would be awesome if you could do that. It would allow us to rest in peace.” Slyphwhisper accepts</p><p></p><p>Tethys comes up to the door and pulling it closed fumbles with the locking mechanism for a few seconds and then releases the door with a smile and pats the gnome on his head.</p><p></p><p>“That’s an odd somatic component to that spell; at least it was silent though.” Slyphwhisper sighs as the door slowly swings open, “Uh excuse me.”</p><p></p><p>“Yes?” Tethys answers turning to look back at the gnome</p><p></p><p>“The door didn’t lock nor is it shut, what the hell did you do?” Slyphwhisper inquires</p><p></p><p>“I wizard locked it.” Tethys answers</p><p></p><p>“Impossible, it’s not locked. If you had cast Wizard Lock it would be shut.” Slyphwhisper counters</p><p></p><p>“Cast Wizard Lock? No silly, I locked it. I’m a wizard and I locked it. Therefore its wizard locked.” Tethys smiled blissfully ignorant.</p><p></p><p>“Wizard Lock is a spell that’s what I thought you were doing!” Slyphwhipser shouted</p><p></p><p>“No silly, I didn’t pray for Wizard Lock, I prayed for fireball.” Tethys huffed</p><p></p><p>“What?!?!” The anger in Slyphwhisper’s eyes glowed in the pale blue light of Lavender’s hands, “What kind of wizard prays for spells?”</p><p></p><p>“Wizards don’t pray for spells goofy, clerics do.” Tethys said innocently</p><p></p><p>“I know that! What the hell are you doing praying for fireball then?” Slyphwhisper demanded</p><p></p><p>“Duh, it’s a cool spell; wouldn’t you want to cast it?” Tethys answered as she skipped away to talk to the baron’s daughter about fashion; “Let me know if you need my help again.” She called as she hopped away.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hairy Minotaur, post: 5053084, member: 11574"] [b]Pray harder[/b] “I’m not going to make it son, you’re going to have to be the hero and save the lunatic from his own demons.” Gramps spat at Slyphwhipser. “Are you drunk already? Why the hell would I save him? I’m hoping his carcass slows down the advance of those two stone guardians before we press on.” The gnome answers “Fire in the hole!” Lord Horatius shouts as he shoves his way past the two shorter members and presses his way up behind the retreating against his will enermancer. With a mighty toss, Lord Horatius unleashes a vial of alchemist fire into the teeth of the wind. The gritty air grabs the glass container and flings it back at the pyromaniac who quickly ducks out of the way as the vial explodes against the wall next to Slyphwhisper and Gramps. “We’ll never make it down there with the wind like that and with those two morons leading the charge.” Discordia muses. “We need to get to the other side of the hallway but there’s no way either I or grandpa here will make it.” Slyphwhisper answers As the trio mull over their next move, the enermancer and Lord Horatius meet the first of the two stone minotaurs and begin flailing blindly against the stinging sand. “I got this chief.” Helga bear hugs Discordia, Gramps and Slyphwhisper and begins trudging through the sand down the hallway. Helga’s wide frame plugs up the hallway behind her, creating a zone of breezy air as opposed to the cyclone that raged in front of her. The stone minotaurs were easily out maneuvering Lord Horatius and the enermancer, their heavy rock hooves allowed them to flank the duo constantly. Helga shifts Gramps to get him alone in her right arm. “What’re doing?” Gramps wheezes “I’m gonna toss you over the fight so you can help from behind.” Helga replies “Dwarf tossing is illegal in this country, besides the gnome is build for this kind of work, I think the best move is to throw him.” Gramps answers “What?” Slyphwhisper objects, but Helga agrees with the dwarf’s suggestion and drops him to the ground as her massive meat suction cups seize the gnome and launch the burglar over the combat. A stream of high pitched swearing streamed down the hallway and alerted all to the presence of a flying gnome. Once over the combat, Slyphwhisper looked up and into the walking wind tunnel as the fresco slapped the gnome in the air like a hockey puck. Slyphwhipser’s stunned body slammed into the back of a stone minotaur, throwing it off balance with all the wind in the hallway. The enemy fell forward, allowing the enermancer, pyromaniac, asthmatic and exhibitionist the opportunity to crush the thing and they waste no time in completing that action. The enermancer presses against the wall and begins to close the distance on the animated fresco. Discordia and Lord Horatius use the downed minotaur as cover against the sandstorm, Helga keeps pressing on and meets the remaining stone guardian a few feet from where Slyphwhisper’s stunned body lay motionless face down in the accumulating sand. As the enermancer got within fifteen feet of the fresco, the animated wall mural bent its head and blew its forceful wind straight down at the human, effectively immobilizing the enermancer to the hallway’s wall. The lapse in the sand blowing, gave Discordia the opportunity to eldritch blast the fresco from cover about sixty feet away. Shards of rock careen off the hallway as Helga presses her way up to the fresco swatting away the fragments like flies. Slyphwhisper continued to play the part of a lifeless carcass in the hopes that the fresco would overlook him. Helga could see that the hallway dog-legged to the right. The fresco however took up the entire corner and made getting past him while he still stood a near impossible task. The fresco released the enermancer from the wall and as he sagged off of the wall, the fresco slapped him back down the hallway with the side of its blade. Ducking, Helga dodged the airborne man and heard him ricochet off of Gramps’ head and finagling coming to rest a couple feet from the prone Slyphwhisper. Lord Horatius scrambles up to Helga as he weighs whether to attempt a firebombing on the massive animated wall carving or attack with his sword. Helga’s girth answers that question for him. “You go on ahead; I’ve got your back.” Lord Horatius assured the woman “Uh gotcha chief.” Helga replied as her light bending frame raced towards the fresco “Wait! I said I had your back, not that I would follow you to certain death!” Lord Horatius yelled after the woman. Maybe it was the perfect shot from Discordia into the eyes of the fresco, maybe it was the sweat that greased the lumpy pillow through the small round opening. Whatever the case, Helga twisted herself sideways and squeezed past the abbreviated swing of the fresco as Discordia’s blast struck true. Helga positioned herself behind the fresco and in the cramped space in the hallway the fresco had wedged itself so that it could only face the party in the hallway. For several minutes it flailed in vain to swat Helga who methodically picked the stone art work apart. As Gramps, Lord Horatius, Slyphwhisper and Discordia made sure there was nothing left of the stone minotaurs to reanimate. As the fresco crumbled to dust, Lavender and Tethys arrived with the captain to witness the aftermath. Slyphwhisper ran to Helga’s position to listen down the corridor beyond for signs of company. Tethys checks on the face down enermancer. “Is it dead?” Gramps asks of the enermancer “No, I think I can save him.” Tethys replies “Don’t tempt the fates; if he’s meant to stay he’ll live.” Gramps replied “I don’t have any healing spells prepared so all I was going to do was pound on his back to see if that helped and maybe left his legs above his heart.” Tethys answers Gramps’ face contorts into a mixture of disgust and disbelief, “I’m sure that’ll be sufficient.” “Maybe I should get Lavender.” Tethys muses “Why? Can’t you perform final rights?” Gramps inquires “No, I didn’t study any bardic techniques.” Tethys relays “I’m going to need therapy if we get out of here.” Gramps whispers to himself Tethys waves over Lavender who rescues the enermancer from certain death much to the chagrin of the dwarf and gnome. Once the party can walk again they all make their way to Slyphwhisper who’s peering around a corner down a long hallway. Slyphwhisper motions for the party to follow him as he carefully traces his path along the sandy floor, keeping a close eye out for anything that he might call a trap, spotting a depression in the sand Slyphwhisper calls the enermancer up to the front. “I need you to go stand along that section of wall, I think there’s a lever trap in the floor and we need to balance the weight to avoid falling.” Slyphwhisper instructs “The best way to counteract gravity is to use loadstones to make you out weigh the pull of gravity, the double negative weight created will cause you to be repulsed by the ground and then you can glide away.” The enermancer declares “I’m repulsed by you already, get over there!” Slyphwhisper demands, pointing at the other side of the corridor. Slyphwhisper watches as the enermancer steps in the depression and arrives at his destination across from the gnome. Perturbed that it wasn’t a trap, Slyphwhisper presses on. “I thought you don’t do traps well.” Gramps wheezed “That’s almost right; actually I don’t do them at all.” Slyphwhisper confirms The group rounds a turn and Gramps perks up and alerts the team that his underground mining senses have revealed the location of a secret door in the wall behind him. Pushing the door inward the party enters a well travelled corridor with a closed and barred on the outside door thirty feet down the hallway on the right side. The hallway continues and makes a left turn another twenty feet beyond the door. “Awfully odd to have the brace on the outside don’t you think?” Slyphwhisper asks of no one in particular “I don’t know, my pantry at home had the bar on the outside and we always closed the arn door with the bar on the outside.” Helga explains “So you’re contending this is either their food supply or it’s where they keep their chicken coup? Who would do that hundreds of feet from any water, grass, feed, light or fresh air?” Slyphwhisper questions “Stupid people?” Helga replies “Lantern archons would do that.” The enermancer chimes in “What? Why would outsiders need to store chickens on the prime plane underground and behind a secret door?” Discordia counters “If I go check it out would you whip me like the demonwhore I am?” Captain Eterie offers. The party turns back to face her, “just offering is all.” Lord Horatius pushes his way through the party and marches up to the door. He grabs the heavy wooden bar and instantly pulls his hand away and looks at it for a brief moment before collapsing in a heap at the base of the door. “Should’ve checked for traps.” Slyphwhisper announces as he glides up to the door with a smile on his face that gets washed off as blasts of healing magic from Lavender erupt into the hexblade’s body. With a disheartening sigh Slyphwhisper examines the door. A hard shove from his right flings the gnome ten feet down the hallway as Captain Eterie begins to fondle the door looking for the poison the affected Lord Horatius, “Don’t use up all your special sauce on him I’m going to be injured as well!” Lord Horatius retched on the floor as the poison and healing magic battled each other within his body. The hexblade lost all bodily function control and spasmed on the floor in a paralytic convulsive state, foaming at the mouth and projectile spitting at the same time. Captain Eterie stops groping the door after watching Lord Horatius’ display. Sweating and drained, Lavender drops to one knee and declares Lord Horatius saved. The heaving waste stained mass on the floor of the hallway began to twitch before its ragged breathing normalized and it lifted it’s head, “next time please just kill me instead.” He groaned The enermancer walked up behind Captain Eterie and grabbed her hand, before the protesting captain could free her hand the enermancer had placed her hand on the wooden bar and shoved the bar aside. “What the hell! Don’t ever try that again. You could’ve killed me, why would you do that?” The captain protested “I always practice safe trap disarmament.” The enermancer replies A muffled shuffling sound came from behind the door and the party readied for action. The enermancer flung the door open and rush of cool air blew out the sconce across from the door, dim illumination reached only a few feet into the room. The enermancer’s moved to the threshold, preventing more of the dim light from reaching the room. “Unless you be of turnip parentage I believe now is the time to gaze upon your savior.” The enermancer gloated “What the hell was that?” Slyphwhisper scoffed at the notion the enermancer did anything more than open a door. A soft mummer quickly gathered strength as a group of beaten and battered humans stumble forward amid tears of joy at the sight of other humans. The party quickly ushers them out of their prison, three males and a female. All of them fawn all over the party declaring them their saviors and praising multiple deities for their good fortune. “Are you Baron Muchausen’s kid?” Gramps asks the female “Yes, did he send you to rescue me?” The woman ecstatically perks up “More like he’ll be paying us when we deliver you to him.” Slyphwhisper responds A knowing nod from the woman ended the conversation as Slyphwhisper retreated to the secret door and waved the others to follow him. Half way to the door the gnome raises his hand to urge them to halt. He curses and spits at the ground, “We’ve got company.” “Back into the prison with you!” The enermancer yells and shoves two of the male captives back into their former room. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Discordia argues and shoves the enermancer away from the door. Captain Eterie shoves Discordia. Discordia stands confused, “now hit me back really hard.” The captain demands. To which Lord Horatius complies, a double axe-handle chop to the back of the captain’s head staggering the woman. The baron’s daughter begins creeping back to her prison, fearing it the safer place to be than in the company of lunatics. Slyphwhisper throws a dagger to the feet of the enermancer which causes the group to pause their internal conflict, “you’ve got five seconds to follow me or you’re on your own.” The gnome runs to his dagger and retrieves it, then heads down the passage to the left and disappears into the darkness. One by one the rest of the party, including the newly rescued, follows the gnome down the corridor. The gnome finds a rotting wooden door ajar midway down the corridor and ushers the rest of the party inside. Lavender creates a blue glow with her hands so that those without darkvision could see they were in a crypt, sarcophagi stretched out in a row to either side of the door along the left and right walls, “quickly find a hiding place, get low and don’t make a sound. Somebody put a sock in Gramps, I don’t want his wheezing to alert the gnolls about to spill in here. With racing hearts the party scrambles to find suitable shelter, with everyone but Helga finding a hiding spot. The raised barking noises from down the hall told the party they would soon have visitors, Slyphwhisper told Helga to lay on her back at the rear of the room in the middle of the wall and act like a stone sarcophagus. Helga complies as the door to the room gets shoved open by a group of gnolls who peer through the darkness with eyes used to staring down prey in the night. Seeing no movement and unable to hear anything from all the panicked barking behind him in the corridor they continue on their way. After minutes had passed, Slyphwhisper steps out from his hiding spot and peeks down the hallway, seeing and hearing nothing he alerts the others that the coast is clear. Syphwhisper tried to close the door but its hinges were rotted and the door slowly swung back open, frustrated the gnome knew they would need to move out of this room soon if they were to make it out with the baron’s daughter. Seeing his frustration, Tethys walked up to the gnome. “What’s wrong?” The cleric asked “This door won’t close nor lock, we’re going to need to move again unless we can get it locked somehow. I’ve tried everything I have to get it to stay closed.” Slyphwhisper relates “You want me to wizard lock it?” Tethys offers “Really? That would be awesome if you could do that. It would allow us to rest in peace.” Slyphwhisper accepts Tethys comes up to the door and pulling it closed fumbles with the locking mechanism for a few seconds and then releases the door with a smile and pats the gnome on his head. “That’s an odd somatic component to that spell; at least it was silent though.” Slyphwhisper sighs as the door slowly swings open, “Uh excuse me.” “Yes?” Tethys answers turning to look back at the gnome “The door didn’t lock nor is it shut, what the hell did you do?” Slyphwhisper inquires “I wizard locked it.” Tethys answers “Impossible, it’s not locked. If you had cast Wizard Lock it would be shut.” Slyphwhisper counters “Cast Wizard Lock? No silly, I locked it. I’m a wizard and I locked it. Therefore its wizard locked.” Tethys smiled blissfully ignorant. “Wizard Lock is a spell that’s what I thought you were doing!” Slyphwhipser shouted “No silly, I didn’t pray for Wizard Lock, I prayed for fireball.” Tethys huffed “What?!?!” The anger in Slyphwhisper’s eyes glowed in the pale blue light of Lavender’s hands, “What kind of wizard prays for spells?” “Wizards don’t pray for spells goofy, clerics do.” Tethys said innocently “I know that! What the hell are you doing praying for fireball then?” Slyphwhisper demanded “Duh, it’s a cool spell; wouldn’t you want to cast it?” Tethys answered as she skipped away to talk to the baron’s daughter about fashion; “Let me know if you need my help again.” She called as she hopped away. [/QUOTE]
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