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The Fall of Civilization
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5051436" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>Our heroes have gleaned all that they can from the art gallery. There are yet more exits from it, and they have not explored everything behind them yet. </p><p></p><p>“This place must be pretty big,” remarks Iggy.</p><p></p><p>Cook nods. “Oi, my people sometimes build complexes that fill entire mountains- and this place is dwarf work.”</p><p></p><p>The party returns to the classroom that they had previously seen. They still have one door that leads to an unexplored area to check. While they are there, they stop to eat lunch, since there are an abundance of chairs and desks. It makes for a comfortable meal; while they are there, Vann-La pokes through more of Professor Hammerhead’s papers and notices that the last entries in any of the dates material are from roughly ten years ago.</p><p></p><p>“So this place was some kind of college,” muses Hkatha, “and something happened to it a decade ago that shut it down.”</p><p></p><p>“Yeah,” says Iggy, “but what kind of college is underground?”</p><p></p><p>“A dwarf one,” answers Cook.</p><p></p><p>Once they are ready, the party moves on. The final door out of the classroom leads to a hall that opens onto a large area whose far and side walls are unworked. The natural wall is striated in colors, with nodules of crystal and the nubs of stalactites growing from the ceiling near it. Water trickles down from the ceiling 20’ overhead in many places.</p><p></p><p>Iggy draws and fires.</p><p></p><p>Near the center of the chamber are three creatures that the party recognizes as xorn from the sculptures in Professor Hammerhead’s office. Up on a ledge 10’ above floor level is a creature that looks more or less like a walking boulder. It is this that Ligir fires at, and the bullet hits. The creature gives a surprised grunt.</p><p></p><p>”Galeb duhr!” he cries. And launches a <em>fireball</em> into the xorn.</p><p></p><p>“Right,” sighs Hkatha, “let’s make sure we piss them <em>all</em> off so that we can’t talk to <em>any</em> of them.”</p><p></p><p>”There’s another one,” says Vann-La, “on the ledge at the far end of the room. But I can’t tell what it is- it’s low to the ground.” And she draws her sword and charges forward alongside Summer and Torinn. They start to duel the strange, trilateral monsters; but the elf keeps one eye on the other ledge. </p><p></p><p>Rocks start to slide down it- <em>a swarm of rocks?</em> wonders Vann-La- vibrating and rattling. They roll towards Vann-La, and she can feel the ground vibrating around it. “It’s some kind of living tremor!” she cries, and as it moves near her, the trembling ground slides beneath her feet. She pinwheels her arms and manages to avoid being moved too far; but even so, she can feel the shaking ground all around her, and realizes that it will be very difficult to move too close to it. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, two of the xorn each take a bite at Torinn. Each misses. The third one seems to try to bite his armor, but it also misses.* “Hey!” he cries out. “Watch out, they eat armor!”</p><p></p><p>Summer <em>thunder steps</em> over to the living tremor and attacks. Sudden frost erupts in the air around her as she assumes the <em>form of winter’s herald,</em> jabbing her spear into the pile of rocks. “I hurt it,” she announces. “It doesn’t seem resistant to weaponry- or cold!”</p><p></p><p>The galeb duhr, meanwhile, remains on its perch. It gestures, and a great hand erupts from the earth in front of Heimall. The galeb duhr clenches its fist, and the earthen hand grabs the warlord. He struggles valiantly, but every time he frees one limb, a great finger of rock folds over it. All he can do is curse. </p><p></p><p>Vann-La turns and charges towards the galeb duhr, rushing up to the ledge. She engages it with her sword, and Heimall cries, “Vann-La- <em>git!</em>” She strikes again; Heimall keeps struggling to get free to no avail. “Git!” he cries again. </p><p></p><p>With Vann-La gone for the moment, Torinn finds himself the only one attacking the xorn. <em>At least Summer is close enough to soak up some of their attacks,</em> the dragonborn cleric thinks wryly. </p><p></p><p>Indeed: one of the xorns bites her, while the others attack him, each making three attacks- one with each of its claws. He replies with a <em>righteous brand,</em> while Summer unleashes another frenzied attack on the tremor that knocks it askew. </p><p></p><p>To top it off, Heimall finally manages to break loose of the earth hand, which recedes back into the ground. The galeb duhr is clearly not happy with this, nor is it happy with Vann-La in its face. It tucks itself into a ball and rolls down off the ledge, bouncing into Torinn with a loud <strong>Crunch!</strong> </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the living tremor manages to shake the ground sufficiently to knock Summer from her feet. Vann-La rushes in, but not too close, and then tosses her head and cries, <em>“Come and get it!”</em></p><p></p><p>The xorn, tremor and galeb duhr all advance towards the blue-skinned elf. </p><p></p><p><strong>BOOM!</strong> Iggy tosses a <em>force orb</em> right into the middle of the bunched-up bad guys, and Heimall calls out, <em>“Surround the foe!”</em> </p><p></p><p>The party has achieved a sudden and deadly advantage. Their wizard hammers the group of earth creatures with spells, while Vann-La, Summer, Torinn and Heimall all rain blows on the creatures. The galeb duhr falls first, followed by the living tremor. The xorn elect to flee down into the ground, but Vann-La even manages to slay one of them with a deadly blow as it tries to escape. The other two, however, get away.</p><p></p><p>“That tremor thing was tough,” Vann-La exclaims.</p><p></p><p>The party looks around the chamber for anything of worth or interest. There are a lot of stalagmites, but nothing else. A second passage leads from the room, and they follow it to where it turns left. At the elbow of the corridor is a door. They first follow the initial hall around, finding that it connects with the magic circle room; then, opening the door, they find two passages, one to the right and one heading straight ahead. They choose to move forward first. </p><p></p><p>The hall spills out into a large, deep alcove in a larger room to the right. However, it appears that the larger area has sunken into a mudpit. The party cannot see the bottom from their location. </p><p></p><p>Summer edges forward to get a closer look, the others moving close behind. Torinn strides to the edge just after her.</p><p></p><p>The bottom is filled with muddy water. The warden studies it for a moment, and suddenly a large head pops up- and lets out a terrifying, ear-splitting roar.</p><p></p><p>“Aargh!!” cries Summer, reeling.** </p><p></p><p>Then what the party at first took to be a simple muddy rock starts to writhe, and tentacles lash out, one grabbing Torinn most forcefully.</p><p></p><p>“That’s a roper!” shouts Heimall, appalled. </p><p></p><p>“Not for long,” Vann-La says, and hacks at the tentacle holding onto Torinn. It jerks and withdraws; below, the roper snarls angrily. </p><p></p><p>“What’s that other thing?” asks Torinn, casting <em>weapon of the gods</em> on Vann-La’s sword.</p><p></p><p>“It’s a dire bunyip,” Summer groans, shaking her head- </p><p></p><p>And it roars again. This time, Vann-La, Summer and Torinn are all caught by the roar, each screaming in pain.*** The roper lashes out at Vann-La with a pair of tentacles, bloodying her and dragging her into the pit. “Uh oh!” she cries. “A little help?” She starts up her <em>rain of steel,</em> and as the dire bunyip lunges at her and attempts a <em>drowning worry</em>, she instead manages to pull off a <em>disruptive strike</em> that spoils its attack!</p><p></p><p>Summer, meanwhile, is barely still standing. She holds back, catching her <em>second wind,</em> and Torinn, recognizing a good time to use one of his newer powers, casts <em>mass cure light wounds</em>. Thus bolstered, the party starts to strike back, largely leaping into the pit to fight in terrain that heavily favors the enemy.**** It is what they have to do, though, if they don’t want to just feed the monsters Vann-La. </p><p></p><p>A terrific struggle ensues, with the dire bunyip tearing into our heroes, trying to force them under the water to drown and ducking under the water to escape the worst of their blows. The roper lashes and bites at our heroes, tearing open great wounds. The water and mud turn red with all the blood being spilled.</p><p></p><p>But as always, Heimall and Torinn keep the party members on their feet, and soon Torinn lashes his chain out one last time at the dire bunyip, smashing its head and brains to bits. </p><p></p><p>The roper, clearly seeing which way things are going, cries, “I yield!”</p><p></p><p>“It speaks?” exclaims Torinn, swinging at it. </p><p></p><p>“Apparently so,” Vann-La says, as she smashes it across the eye with the flat of her blade. The roper sags, unconscious. </p><p></p><p>“You didn’t kill it?”</p><p></p><p>“It yielded,” the elf explains, “and we need information. We don’t know what’s going on here, where to find Arawn, or how to get out.”</p><p></p><p>“You’re going to trust that thing?” asks Iggy.</p><p></p><p>“No- but I <em>am</em> going to question it.”</p><p></p><p>“We have already shown that we can kick its ass,” Torinn points out. “When it wakes up, if it gives us any trouble, we’ll just kill it.”</p><p></p><p>“Fair enough,” nods Ligir. </p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The roper is very helpful when questioned. It tells the group that the dungeon they are in is called the Terran Undercollege, but that it has been a dangerous area out of so-called civilized control for about a decade. “There are two wizards that are fighting over this place, but I don’t know much about that,” it claims. “I came in from the Underdark, and the bunyip you slew came in separately, but we worked well as a team when it came to killing prey.”</p><p></p><p>What it tells them jives with what they already know, and even if they don’t learn much, the bit about the two wizards contesting the area is something. </p><p></p><p>“Do you know of the Six-Fingered Hand?” Heimall asks.</p><p></p><p>“Who?”</p><p></p><p>“Never mind.” <em>Interesting. It seems that our concerns are not as widespread as we had assumed.</em></p><p></p><p>The party leaves the roper alive, and continues exploring.</p><p></p><p></p><p>*These are xorn of my design, from before the MM2 came out, and they have an attack that can damage or destroy your metal gear. </p><p></p><p>**That’s 56 points of aargh, to be precise. Oh, and have some dazed (save ends) with that, will you?</p><p></p><p>***53 points each this time. For the record, I just got lucky: the dire bunyip’s roar is a recharge 6 ability, and I rolled a 6 on round 1 (vs. round 0, the surprise round). </p><p></p><p>****Each mud pit square cost 3 squares of movement to enter unless you have swamp walk or a swim speed- neither of which our heroes had. The dire bunyip is all good in the water, and the roper doesn’t really need to move- it has a reach of 10, for Christ’s sake!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 5051436, member: 1210"] Our heroes have gleaned all that they can from the art gallery. There are yet more exits from it, and they have not explored everything behind them yet. “This place must be pretty big,” remarks Iggy. Cook nods. “Oi, my people sometimes build complexes that fill entire mountains- and this place is dwarf work.” The party returns to the classroom that they had previously seen. They still have one door that leads to an unexplored area to check. While they are there, they stop to eat lunch, since there are an abundance of chairs and desks. It makes for a comfortable meal; while they are there, Vann-La pokes through more of Professor Hammerhead’s papers and notices that the last entries in any of the dates material are from roughly ten years ago. “So this place was some kind of college,” muses Hkatha, “and something happened to it a decade ago that shut it down.” “Yeah,” says Iggy, “but what kind of college is underground?” “A dwarf one,” answers Cook. Once they are ready, the party moves on. The final door out of the classroom leads to a hall that opens onto a large area whose far and side walls are unworked. The natural wall is striated in colors, with nodules of crystal and the nubs of stalactites growing from the ceiling near it. Water trickles down from the ceiling 20’ overhead in many places. Iggy draws and fires. Near the center of the chamber are three creatures that the party recognizes as xorn from the sculptures in Professor Hammerhead’s office. Up on a ledge 10’ above floor level is a creature that looks more or less like a walking boulder. It is this that Ligir fires at, and the bullet hits. The creature gives a surprised grunt. ”Galeb duhr!” he cries. And launches a [i]fireball[/i] into the xorn. “Right,” sighs Hkatha, “let’s make sure we piss them [i]all[/i] off so that we can’t talk to [i]any[/i] of them.” ”There’s another one,” says Vann-La, “on the ledge at the far end of the room. But I can’t tell what it is- it’s low to the ground.” And she draws her sword and charges forward alongside Summer and Torinn. They start to duel the strange, trilateral monsters; but the elf keeps one eye on the other ledge. Rocks start to slide down it- [i]a swarm of rocks?[/i] wonders Vann-La- vibrating and rattling. They roll towards Vann-La, and she can feel the ground vibrating around it. “It’s some kind of living tremor!” she cries, and as it moves near her, the trembling ground slides beneath her feet. She pinwheels her arms and manages to avoid being moved too far; but even so, she can feel the shaking ground all around her, and realizes that it will be very difficult to move too close to it. Meanwhile, two of the xorn each take a bite at Torinn. Each misses. The third one seems to try to bite his armor, but it also misses.* “Hey!” he cries out. “Watch out, they eat armor!” Summer [i]thunder steps[/i] over to the living tremor and attacks. Sudden frost erupts in the air around her as she assumes the [i]form of winter’s herald,[/i] jabbing her spear into the pile of rocks. “I hurt it,” she announces. “It doesn’t seem resistant to weaponry- or cold!” The galeb duhr, meanwhile, remains on its perch. It gestures, and a great hand erupts from the earth in front of Heimall. The galeb duhr clenches its fist, and the earthen hand grabs the warlord. He struggles valiantly, but every time he frees one limb, a great finger of rock folds over it. All he can do is curse. Vann-La turns and charges towards the galeb duhr, rushing up to the ledge. She engages it with her sword, and Heimall cries, “Vann-La- [i]git![/i]” She strikes again; Heimall keeps struggling to get free to no avail. “Git!” he cries again. With Vann-La gone for the moment, Torinn finds himself the only one attacking the xorn. [i]At least Summer is close enough to soak up some of their attacks,[/i] the dragonborn cleric thinks wryly. Indeed: one of the xorns bites her, while the others attack him, each making three attacks- one with each of its claws. He replies with a [i]righteous brand,[/i] while Summer unleashes another frenzied attack on the tremor that knocks it askew. To top it off, Heimall finally manages to break loose of the earth hand, which recedes back into the ground. The galeb duhr is clearly not happy with this, nor is it happy with Vann-La in its face. It tucks itself into a ball and rolls down off the ledge, bouncing into Torinn with a loud [b]Crunch![/b] Meanwhile the living tremor manages to shake the ground sufficiently to knock Summer from her feet. Vann-La rushes in, but not too close, and then tosses her head and cries, [i]“Come and get it!”[/i] The xorn, tremor and galeb duhr all advance towards the blue-skinned elf. [b]BOOM![/B] Iggy tosses a [i]force orb[/i] right into the middle of the bunched-up bad guys, and Heimall calls out, [i]“Surround the foe!”[/i] The party has achieved a sudden and deadly advantage. Their wizard hammers the group of earth creatures with spells, while Vann-La, Summer, Torinn and Heimall all rain blows on the creatures. The galeb duhr falls first, followed by the living tremor. The xorn elect to flee down into the ground, but Vann-La even manages to slay one of them with a deadly blow as it tries to escape. The other two, however, get away. “That tremor thing was tough,” Vann-La exclaims. The party looks around the chamber for anything of worth or interest. There are a lot of stalagmites, but nothing else. A second passage leads from the room, and they follow it to where it turns left. At the elbow of the corridor is a door. They first follow the initial hall around, finding that it connects with the magic circle room; then, opening the door, they find two passages, one to the right and one heading straight ahead. They choose to move forward first. The hall spills out into a large, deep alcove in a larger room to the right. However, it appears that the larger area has sunken into a mudpit. The party cannot see the bottom from their location. Summer edges forward to get a closer look, the others moving close behind. Torinn strides to the edge just after her. The bottom is filled with muddy water. The warden studies it for a moment, and suddenly a large head pops up- and lets out a terrifying, ear-splitting roar. “Aargh!!” cries Summer, reeling.** Then what the party at first took to be a simple muddy rock starts to writhe, and tentacles lash out, one grabbing Torinn most forcefully. “That’s a roper!” shouts Heimall, appalled. “Not for long,” Vann-La says, and hacks at the tentacle holding onto Torinn. It jerks and withdraws; below, the roper snarls angrily. “What’s that other thing?” asks Torinn, casting [i]weapon of the gods[/i] on Vann-La’s sword. “It’s a dire bunyip,” Summer groans, shaking her head- And it roars again. This time, Vann-La, Summer and Torinn are all caught by the roar, each screaming in pain.*** The roper lashes out at Vann-La with a pair of tentacles, bloodying her and dragging her into the pit. “Uh oh!” she cries. “A little help?” She starts up her [i]rain of steel,[/i] and as the dire bunyip lunges at her and attempts a [i]drowning worry[/i], she instead manages to pull off a [i]disruptive strike[/i] that spoils its attack! Summer, meanwhile, is barely still standing. She holds back, catching her [i]second wind,[/i] and Torinn, recognizing a good time to use one of his newer powers, casts [i]mass cure light wounds[/i]. Thus bolstered, the party starts to strike back, largely leaping into the pit to fight in terrain that heavily favors the enemy.**** It is what they have to do, though, if they don’t want to just feed the monsters Vann-La. A terrific struggle ensues, with the dire bunyip tearing into our heroes, trying to force them under the water to drown and ducking under the water to escape the worst of their blows. The roper lashes and bites at our heroes, tearing open great wounds. The water and mud turn red with all the blood being spilled. But as always, Heimall and Torinn keep the party members on their feet, and soon Torinn lashes his chain out one last time at the dire bunyip, smashing its head and brains to bits. The roper, clearly seeing which way things are going, cries, “I yield!” “It speaks?” exclaims Torinn, swinging at it. “Apparently so,” Vann-La says, as she smashes it across the eye with the flat of her blade. The roper sags, unconscious. “You didn’t kill it?” “It yielded,” the elf explains, “and we need information. We don’t know what’s going on here, where to find Arawn, or how to get out.” “You’re going to trust that thing?” asks Iggy. “No- but I [i]am[/i] going to question it.” “We have already shown that we can kick its ass,” Torinn points out. “When it wakes up, if it gives us any trouble, we’ll just kill it.” “Fair enough,” nods Ligir. *** The roper is very helpful when questioned. It tells the group that the dungeon they are in is called the Terran Undercollege, but that it has been a dangerous area out of so-called civilized control for about a decade. “There are two wizards that are fighting over this place, but I don’t know much about that,” it claims. “I came in from the Underdark, and the bunyip you slew came in separately, but we worked well as a team when it came to killing prey.” What it tells them jives with what they already know, and even if they don’t learn much, the bit about the two wizards contesting the area is something. “Do you know of the Six-Fingered Hand?” Heimall asks. “Who?” “Never mind.” [i]Interesting. It seems that our concerns are not as widespread as we had assumed.[/i] The party leaves the roper alive, and continues exploring. *These are xorn of my design, from before the MM2 came out, and they have an attack that can damage or destroy your metal gear. **That’s 56 points of aargh, to be precise. Oh, and have some dazed (save ends) with that, will you? ***53 points each this time. For the record, I just got lucky: the dire bunyip’s roar is a recharge 6 ability, and I rolled a 6 on round 1 (vs. round 0, the surprise round). ****Each mud pit square cost 3 squares of movement to enter unless you have swamp walk or a swim speed- neither of which our heroes had. The dire bunyip is all good in the water, and the roper doesn’t really need to move- it has a reach of 10, for Christ’s sake! [/QUOTE]
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