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The Fall of Civilization
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4851621" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>The maze turns out to be crawling with strange beetles with horns that look remarkably like those of a bull. These minotaur beetles are uncomfortably large- about 6’ long, on average. And, as soon as they detect the party, they begin converging to attack them. </p><p></p><p>The party at first moves forward to meet them in the larger spaces available to them, but as more of the beetles arrive, they find themselves falling back. The beetles thoughtfully help out by charging into and bowling over several of the heroes at one point or another. But in the end, they are beetles, with roughly the intellect of a stick, and our heroes cut them to pieces. Cook smacks his lips as he looks them over, but the others insist on continuing to move along, so he doesn’t have time to harvest any beetle flesh (or whatever it is that one would eat out of a giant beetle). </p><p></p><p>The maze proves to have several small rooms within it, but no exits. The party returns to the entrance, then falls back further to the initial T intersection, just outside of the room from which they entered this level of the dungeon. They keep going, taking the right path (as measured from the entry) this time. The passage turns to the left, and then a wide stairway descends to the left. The passage continues, and branches again just ahead, to the right. </p><p></p><p>“Let’s hold off on the stairs until we explore this level completely,” suggests Heimall. The others murmur agreement, and the party heads down the passage to the other branch-</p><p></p><p>Where two more mezzodemons await, as well as several hobgoblins. </p><p></p><p>Immediately, violence breaks out. The first demon strikes at Vann-La, who is in the party’s lead, and skewers her on the tines of its trident. “Not again!” she cries, blood flowing from her midsection as she struggles. This time, however, she is close enough to stab at the demon, but its insect-like carapace turns her blade. </p><p></p><p><em>Throat-Ripper</em> jabs into the demon as Heimall moves into position. “Vann-La, tear yourself free!” the warlord cries, but the elven fighter struggles ineffectively against the skewering tines of the mezzodemon.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the demon in the back grumbles to itself. The hall is too narrow for the demons to stand together*, so it can only lean forward and jab Vann-La, who is halfway around the corner. Better than nothing, but not the glorious bloodletting that the demon desires. </p><p></p><p>Behind the demons, the hobgoblins start to fire crossbows as one of them shouts, speaking Goblin, “Intruders! Imperials!”</p><p></p><p>One of the many doors along the hall opens up. </p><p></p><p>“King Morl! There he is!” shouts Vann-La, even as the goblin king makes an <em>underhanded throw</em> that lands a dagger in Heimall’s chest. The warlord gasps, and Morl slips back out of sight.</p><p></p><p>“That sneaky bastard,” growls Heimall, as he pulls the blade free of himself and lets it drop to the ground. Blood stains his hand, and Torinn utters a <em>healing word</em>.</p><p></p><p>The party gets down to business.</p><p></p><p>Their target is in sight- well, just about, anyway. And King Morl keeps darting in and out of view to make <em>underhanded throws</em> at people while the mezzodemons and hobgoblins have them pinned down. When the demons start belching clouds of poison out into the hallway, they seize an early and sudden advantage in the battle. </p><p></p><p>Iggy hurls a <em>fireball</em> down the hallway by way of reply, and several of the hobgoblins, caught in the burst, burn and die. </p><p></p><p>A quick, vicious fight ensues, with the hobgoblins dropping easily to the party’s might. The mezzodemons are a lot tougher, almost always having either Vann-La, Heimall or both skewered, and often held at arm’s length so that they cannot attack. The party focuses their attacks, and finally, a <em>cloud of daggers</em> from Hkatha finishes one of the demons off. The other suddenly finds itself alone, facing the entire party by itself, as King Morl slams the door to the room he is in shut. </p><p></p><p>Quickly, then, the demon falls, and our heroes throw open the door, whereupon Morl surrenders to them. </p><p></p><p>Success!</p><p></p><p>The party binds him, then questions him, demanding information about the . He doesn’t actually know much, however- or so he claims.</p><p></p><p>”You expect us to believe that?” demands Iggy. “All right, get the pliers.”</p><p></p><p>“No, it is true, I swear! You must understand,” Morl wheedles, “I am only a figurehead. It was Heshwat the Eviscerator who controlled our army. He needed me to keep the other goblins in line.”</p><p></p><p>“Sure he did,” replies Iggy, unconvinced.</p><p></p><p>“I was not the first, since the siege began! I was the fourth!”</p><p></p><p>That admission convinces even Ligir. “Still, he must know something, if we only knew the right questions to ask,” mutters Hkatha. “Well, we should return him to Fandelose for further questioning by the general’s men.”</p><p></p><p>“Should we finish exploring this place first?” asks Cook.</p><p></p><p>“Hey goblin, what else is in this place?” demands Vann-La.</p><p></p><p>“I don’t really know. I swear,” he squeals, seeing the look on Vann-La’s face, “I just came here for protection. I was just using the minotaurs! There are probably more of them, and maybe other things, I don’t know!”</p><p></p><p>“We certainly can’t trust anything he says anyway,” Hkatha reasons. “Let’s stick him in a box and check things out.”</p><p></p><p>The party does just that, shoving the protesting goblin king into a box from one of the chambers they have already explored and then weighting the top with several heavy barrels. </p><p></p><p>“Don’t even try to get away!” orders Torinn from without.</p><p></p><p>“It’s pretty cramped in here.”</p><p></p><p>“Too bad,” growls Vann-La.</p><p></p><p>The party keeps exploring, heading down the wide stairs that they had bypassed in attacking the demons and King Morl. The broad stairs drop down into a large circular chamber about 30’ across. Opposite the stairs are a huge set of double doors, and there are two other doors along the wall as well. Within the room itself are two cages of steel bars, each about a 5’ cube. A scrawny goblin is in the chamber, examining a table, which holds the strapped corpse of another goblin, restrained by the wrists and ankles. </p><p></p><p>The goblin cowers back and begs for its life. “All right, what are you doing here?” demands Torinn. </p><p></p><p>“Why did you kill that guy?” asks Ligir.</p><p></p><p>“It wasn’t me,” snivels the goblin. “It was the evil... dead... not dead... minotaur mean lord!”</p><p></p><p>“What do you mean?” asks Torinn. “Describe this minotaur... ‘mean lord’.”</p><p></p><p>“Well,” the goblin says haltingly, “he is wrapped in bandages.”</p><p></p><p>“A minotaur mummy!” Hkatha adds a curse. </p><p></p><p>Vann-La speaks up. “Where is this mean lord?”</p><p></p><p>“Through there,” the goblin says, cringing back as it indicates the double doors.</p><p></p><p>“What about the other doors?”</p><p></p><p>A shrug. “Storage. And a back way to... to the mean lord.”</p><p></p><p>“All right, don’t go anywhere.” The party climbs up the stairs about halfway to discuss what to do with the goblin. It turns out that their discussion is academic, however, for when they return, the goblin is gone, and the double doors are ajar. The party retreats up the stairs and changes plans. </p><p></p><p>Time to rest. </p><p></p><p>They retreat to the store room in which, they find, King Morl is still securely boxed. </p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> The party continues to change plans!</p><p></p><p></p><p>*Though I understand that mezzodemons have since been errata’ed to be medium, not large. However, being large makes the skewering tines soooo much cooler.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 4851621, member: 1210"] The maze turns out to be crawling with strange beetles with horns that look remarkably like those of a bull. These minotaur beetles are uncomfortably large- about 6’ long, on average. And, as soon as they detect the party, they begin converging to attack them. The party at first moves forward to meet them in the larger spaces available to them, but as more of the beetles arrive, they find themselves falling back. The beetles thoughtfully help out by charging into and bowling over several of the heroes at one point or another. But in the end, they are beetles, with roughly the intellect of a stick, and our heroes cut them to pieces. Cook smacks his lips as he looks them over, but the others insist on continuing to move along, so he doesn’t have time to harvest any beetle flesh (or whatever it is that one would eat out of a giant beetle). The maze proves to have several small rooms within it, but no exits. The party returns to the entrance, then falls back further to the initial T intersection, just outside of the room from which they entered this level of the dungeon. They keep going, taking the right path (as measured from the entry) this time. The passage turns to the left, and then a wide stairway descends to the left. The passage continues, and branches again just ahead, to the right. “Let’s hold off on the stairs until we explore this level completely,” suggests Heimall. The others murmur agreement, and the party heads down the passage to the other branch- Where two more mezzodemons await, as well as several hobgoblins. Immediately, violence breaks out. The first demon strikes at Vann-La, who is in the party’s lead, and skewers her on the tines of its trident. “Not again!” she cries, blood flowing from her midsection as she struggles. This time, however, she is close enough to stab at the demon, but its insect-like carapace turns her blade. [i]Throat-Ripper[/i] jabs into the demon as Heimall moves into position. “Vann-La, tear yourself free!” the warlord cries, but the elven fighter struggles ineffectively against the skewering tines of the mezzodemon. Meanwhile, the demon in the back grumbles to itself. The hall is too narrow for the demons to stand together*, so it can only lean forward and jab Vann-La, who is halfway around the corner. Better than nothing, but not the glorious bloodletting that the demon desires. Behind the demons, the hobgoblins start to fire crossbows as one of them shouts, speaking Goblin, “Intruders! Imperials!” One of the many doors along the hall opens up. “King Morl! There he is!” shouts Vann-La, even as the goblin king makes an [i]underhanded throw[/i] that lands a dagger in Heimall’s chest. The warlord gasps, and Morl slips back out of sight. “That sneaky bastard,” growls Heimall, as he pulls the blade free of himself and lets it drop to the ground. Blood stains his hand, and Torinn utters a [i]healing word[/i]. The party gets down to business. Their target is in sight- well, just about, anyway. And King Morl keeps darting in and out of view to make [i]underhanded throws[/i] at people while the mezzodemons and hobgoblins have them pinned down. When the demons start belching clouds of poison out into the hallway, they seize an early and sudden advantage in the battle. Iggy hurls a [i]fireball[/i] down the hallway by way of reply, and several of the hobgoblins, caught in the burst, burn and die. A quick, vicious fight ensues, with the hobgoblins dropping easily to the party’s might. The mezzodemons are a lot tougher, almost always having either Vann-La, Heimall or both skewered, and often held at arm’s length so that they cannot attack. The party focuses their attacks, and finally, a [i]cloud of daggers[/i] from Hkatha finishes one of the demons off. The other suddenly finds itself alone, facing the entire party by itself, as King Morl slams the door to the room he is in shut. Quickly, then, the demon falls, and our heroes throw open the door, whereupon Morl surrenders to them. Success! The party binds him, then questions him, demanding information about the . He doesn’t actually know much, however- or so he claims. ”You expect us to believe that?” demands Iggy. “All right, get the pliers.” “No, it is true, I swear! You must understand,” Morl wheedles, “I am only a figurehead. It was Heshwat the Eviscerator who controlled our army. He needed me to keep the other goblins in line.” “Sure he did,” replies Iggy, unconvinced. “I was not the first, since the siege began! I was the fourth!” That admission convinces even Ligir. “Still, he must know something, if we only knew the right questions to ask,” mutters Hkatha. “Well, we should return him to Fandelose for further questioning by the general’s men.” “Should we finish exploring this place first?” asks Cook. “Hey goblin, what else is in this place?” demands Vann-La. “I don’t really know. I swear,” he squeals, seeing the look on Vann-La’s face, “I just came here for protection. I was just using the minotaurs! There are probably more of them, and maybe other things, I don’t know!” “We certainly can’t trust anything he says anyway,” Hkatha reasons. “Let’s stick him in a box and check things out.” The party does just that, shoving the protesting goblin king into a box from one of the chambers they have already explored and then weighting the top with several heavy barrels. “Don’t even try to get away!” orders Torinn from without. “It’s pretty cramped in here.” “Too bad,” growls Vann-La. The party keeps exploring, heading down the wide stairs that they had bypassed in attacking the demons and King Morl. The broad stairs drop down into a large circular chamber about 30’ across. Opposite the stairs are a huge set of double doors, and there are two other doors along the wall as well. Within the room itself are two cages of steel bars, each about a 5’ cube. A scrawny goblin is in the chamber, examining a table, which holds the strapped corpse of another goblin, restrained by the wrists and ankles. The goblin cowers back and begs for its life. “All right, what are you doing here?” demands Torinn. “Why did you kill that guy?” asks Ligir. “It wasn’t me,” snivels the goblin. “It was the evil... dead... not dead... minotaur mean lord!” “What do you mean?” asks Torinn. “Describe this minotaur... ‘mean lord’.” “Well,” the goblin says haltingly, “he is wrapped in bandages.” “A minotaur mummy!” Hkatha adds a curse. Vann-La speaks up. “Where is this mean lord?” “Through there,” the goblin says, cringing back as it indicates the double doors. “What about the other doors?” A shrug. “Storage. And a back way to... to the mean lord.” “All right, don’t go anywhere.” The party climbs up the stairs about halfway to discuss what to do with the goblin. It turns out that their discussion is academic, however, for when they return, the goblin is gone, and the double doors are ajar. The party retreats up the stairs and changes plans. Time to rest. They retreat to the store room in which, they find, King Morl is still securely boxed. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] The party continues to change plans! *Though I understand that mezzodemons have since been errata’ed to be medium, not large. However, being large makes the skewering tines soooo much cooler. [/QUOTE]
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