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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6002865" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>I squinted into the darkness, trying to see this “enemy” that Victor was shouting about. I was stuck behind Longhelim, who in turn, was second behind Victor. Initially, all I could see were two shapes moving rapidly towards Victor. </p><p></p><p>As they came into the torch light, I saw that they most closely resembled turtles; I had read about turtles, although I had not actually seen one in the flesh. This particular pair certainly did not match any description I had read; for a start, they had several more limbs than they were supposed to have; these limbs ended in claws. They also had vicious looking jaws, beaks almost; finally, they surged forward in a most un-turtle like manner, with crunching claws and snapping jaws.</p><p></p><p>With the water almost to my neck, I was in no great shape to cast spells, so I retreated up the corridor, letting the taller and more useful Felix take my place. There was a lot of shouting from the front with a great deal of cursing from Victor and:</p><p></p><p>“…..just what are these things armoured with……?” from Longhelim, slightly breathlessly and pausing at various times as he was obviously hitting them with his sword. </p><p></p><p>Cautiously, I moved forward again and this time I could see both Longhelim and Victor flailing with their weapons. They did not seem to be very adept at fighting waist deep in water; Victor was swinging wildly while Longhelim did managed to hit the turtle but mostly on its carapace, doing no discernible damage. Drudge, also finding it difficult to use his bow in the water, moved in with his sword and, not wearing metal armour, managed to get his arm badly snipped by one of the claws. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim finally managed to hit one properly, and once he managed to get under that carapace, it was surprisingly soft, requiring only a couple of solid cuts before it stopped moving. Drudge also hit the one next to Victor and Victor finally connected with the Living Blade of Innenotdar, managing to shear its head off completely. </p><p></p><p>As we entered the room, I looked at the corpses curiously. As I stated previously, they may have resembled turtles but that was as far as it went. I wondered if Lee Sidoneth had used his friends at Majestic Creations to change them as well…….</p><p></p><p>“Faden, stop looking at the corpses and concentrate! You can’t afford to drop your guard here of all places!”</p><p></p><p>I started guiltily at this admonition from Longhelim; he was quite right. No matter how interesting this new species was, this was neither the time nor the place for study. I looked around me and saw a large semi-submerged room, with an opening to our left, which was south, a corridor and two doors straight ahead of us, which was west and a door to our right, which as North. </p><p></p><p>Everyone else was looking at the various access points in Victor raised his falchion and pointed it in the direction of the open corridor ahead of us: </p><p></p><p>“The spell is pointing me that way.”</p><p></p><p>John spoke up then: </p><p></p><p>“Should we not check what is behind these other doors first? It’s just that if we move forward, meet something nasty ahead and then get hit from behind…….”</p><p></p><p>What he said made sense, so we decided to go to the Northern door first; Victor was going to open it and we positioned ourselves to support him should something nasty be on the other side. Opening it, a horde of swimming rats erupted from the door. However, rat hordes were something Victor was familiar with and he swung rapidly with his sword, dispersing the rodents; suddenly, the few remnants were doing their best to swim as far away from him as possible. </p><p></p><p>A brief inspection of the room beyond revealed nothing of interest; it was obviously derelict.</p><p></p><p>We decided that the next door to open would be the one just north of the open corridor. Everyone got into position again and when Victor opened it, another strange room was revealed. The water was a little shallower here and dead fish floated all over the place; consequently, it stank; there was the glint of coin through the water but at the far end of the room, there was a large, iron bound chest. Victor called everyone over and I first looked into the room, to make sure that there were no creatures lurking under the water. My vision in the darkness was greatly superior to anyone else’s, thanks to my dwarven heritage. </p><p></p><p>Once that had been established, John moved forward, cast a little spell and waited expectantly. Out of all of us, I knew what he was waiting for. I had managed to perfect the spell that allowed me to see invisible beings so I could see the shapeless force that he created. He willed it over to the chest and it seemed to envelope it for a brief moment but nothing happened. </p><p></p><p>With a mutter, John noisily stomped into the room and reached the chest. Then he took out his picks and began to do what he usually did when suddenly he gave a yelp and began to tug at his hand frantically. It seemed to be stuck to the blasted thing. Suddenly, the chest grew a tentacle which sped towards John and a mouth full of teeth appeared in its body.</p><p></p><p>I silently fumed. Half eaten fish….we should have known. </p><p></p><p>Too late now; Victor moved forward, followed by Drudge and Longhelim. The three of them surrounded the “chest” or whatever it was but it was remarkably tough. Hitting it was no problem, although Victor was having trouble keeping his balance in the water, but penetrating through that “wood” was another matter entirely. Then suddenly, the tentacles it produced previously flew out again and in moments, Drudge, Victor and John were all stuck helpless to this chest. No matter how much they struggled, they could not move. That left Longhelim who was hitting it with his sword and finally he seemed to be chipping away at it. In fact, it looked to be hurt quite badly. </p><p></p><p>It swung out one last tentacle at Longhelim but it missed and the paladin was able to hit it one last time and it slumped, letting go of the other three. John and Victor had been slightly hurt but it was more their pride than anything else. </p><p></p><p>Once recovered, the coins turned out to be nothing more than silver and copper although as we looked around, we could see that there was a shelf full of bottles with some kind of liquid; lots of bottles; we put those away into various containers. </p><p></p><p>Vacating this room, we then looked into the southern opening. This again led into a large room; the only unusual feature there was a body floating in the far corner. The invisible force that John had summoned could now carry our torch so we sent it forward to illuminate further but that was all it seemed. The force then poked the body a bit to see if there was a reaction but with no results. So, carefully, Victor advanced until he reached the far end. Again there was no reaction and a cursory examination revealed a partly decomposed corpse with a golden necklace; spoils of war. </p><p></p><p>The final door in this room revealed a brief corridor with a lever in the middle of the northern wall. John couldn’t resist. He sent his force in and pulled the lever down; nothing visible happened so we left the room and prepared to go down the corridor. </p><p></p><p>With John’s invisible friend holding the torch, we sploshed our way in; it became rapidly obvious that we had stumbled into an old cellblock. The corridor was narrow and as before the whole place stank of sea water and decaying debris. There were small spaces everywhere, divided by bars although these had seen much better days. They were pitted, many of them corroded all the way through, ending in jagged stumps due to age. </p><p></p><p>Any thought of stealth was pointless so we just went as quickly as possible. Then, as we neared an intersection, Victor stopped and pointed: a horrific skeleton was rising out of the water, dripping water, and other stuff. Like the bars, its bones were pitted and encrusted with mollusks and weeds. There was nothing wrong with its claws though as it slithered through the bars and launched itself at Victor. It was quickly joined by several others emerging from the water in various nearby cells. As Victor prepared, suddenly there was a plague of these skeletons stretching back beyond the light. </p><p></p><p>Then several of the nearest burst into shards as John waved his odd little mask around shouting: </p><p></p><p>“Roll them bones!”</p><p></p><p>I thought it was quite an unusual challenge but it seemed to work.</p><p></p><p>This didn’t stop the others though as they replaced those that had been destroyed. Victor was dodging and weaving until there was a deeper, more profound cry from Felix: </p><p></p><p>“In the name of The Traveller, you are released!”</p><p></p><p>This magic was a little more impressive as all the skeletons in sight suddenly burst into shards; we could even hear others bursting beyond our sight. Then four others ran into the light and surrounded Victor, squeezing impossibly through the bars and despite his weaving, one of them managed to scratch him. Then Felix called out the same imprecation and the last few were released, to use his own words. </p><p></p><p>Victor’s magic pointed him South or to our right and a corridor conveniently led that way. It led to a door but there was a significant change in the depth of water as this corridor sloped down; or the water depth increased; the end result was the same: I was under water and pretty much useless. </p><p></p><p>We reached the door and by this stage, everyone was under the water. Thankfully, Victor had no trouble opening it, revealing a large space. In front of us was a pathway leading East, or to our left; another diagonal bridge led southeast and Victor was pointing to this bridge, signaling that his magic was urging him that way. Cautiously, he stepped forward onto the bridge, stopped and then pointed down; as he did so, three creatures swum upwards at great speed. </p><p></p><p>I could make them out only dimly as underwater they were just shapes, but they swarmed around Victor who certainly did not have any trouble in hitting them. He managed to hit one and it stopped moving immediately, an inky cloud rapidly spreading around it. One other swum towards Longhelim and Felix. The former, nothing loth also swung and engaged his enemy; unfortunately, he was viciously attacked and scratched quite badly. These creatures were almost frenzied in their willingness to hurl themselves at us. The final creature had swum onto Victor and was at his head height, ripping with its claws and biting with its jaws. Victor used his left hand to rip it off his head and as it swum back at him with fanatical viciousness, he caught it with his sword with such a perfect stroke that he cut it in half. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim did not deal with his quite so spectacularly but he did manage to hit is several times and it finally floated down to the bottom, inert. </p><p></p><p>Victor turned around and, now surrounded by his own inky pool, he pointed determinedly to the exit, walking back the way we came. </p><p></p><p>Once we were out of the water he was his usual succinct self: </p><p></p><p>“We won’t get an opportunity to heal underwater. We better do so while we have the chance. The spell pointed me to a door on a level under the bridge.”</p><p></p><p>Felix and John healed both the warriors as this was likely to be their last chance. </p><p></p><p>As this magic was being performed, curiously I asked: </p><p></p><p>“What were those things?”</p><p></p><p>Victor grimaced: “I have no idea. They looked like men who had been turned into fish; or fish who had been turned into men. They were humanoid, with spines, large bulbous eyes and must also have gills as they had no trouble breathing underwater. They also had very sharp claws and teeth and certainly swum like fish. Oh, and they also had spines along their backs.”</p><p></p><p>Once the healing was finished, we strode under the water again, keeping a wary eye out for fishmen. </p><p></p><p>However this time we moved onto the bridge without any hindrance and jumped down next to the door. Once every one was ready, Victor opened the door. It revealed a room with a large shaft in the floor. Due to the changes wrought in us, we were unable to feel it, but the shaft looked fiery so presumably there was heat coming out of it. There was also a pulley system set up, obviously to lower people or things down the shaft. </p><p></p><p>There was no help for it; we would have to go down this hole.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6002865, member: 6692807"] I squinted into the darkness, trying to see this “enemy” that Victor was shouting about. I was stuck behind Longhelim, who in turn, was second behind Victor. Initially, all I could see were two shapes moving rapidly towards Victor. As they came into the torch light, I saw that they most closely resembled turtles; I had read about turtles, although I had not actually seen one in the flesh. This particular pair certainly did not match any description I had read; for a start, they had several more limbs than they were supposed to have; these limbs ended in claws. They also had vicious looking jaws, beaks almost; finally, they surged forward in a most un-turtle like manner, with crunching claws and snapping jaws. With the water almost to my neck, I was in no great shape to cast spells, so I retreated up the corridor, letting the taller and more useful Felix take my place. There was a lot of shouting from the front with a great deal of cursing from Victor and: “…..just what are these things armoured with……?” from Longhelim, slightly breathlessly and pausing at various times as he was obviously hitting them with his sword. Cautiously, I moved forward again and this time I could see both Longhelim and Victor flailing with their weapons. They did not seem to be very adept at fighting waist deep in water; Victor was swinging wildly while Longhelim did managed to hit the turtle but mostly on its carapace, doing no discernible damage. Drudge, also finding it difficult to use his bow in the water, moved in with his sword and, not wearing metal armour, managed to get his arm badly snipped by one of the claws. Longhelim finally managed to hit one properly, and once he managed to get under that carapace, it was surprisingly soft, requiring only a couple of solid cuts before it stopped moving. Drudge also hit the one next to Victor and Victor finally connected with the Living Blade of Innenotdar, managing to shear its head off completely. As we entered the room, I looked at the corpses curiously. As I stated previously, they may have resembled turtles but that was as far as it went. I wondered if Lee Sidoneth had used his friends at Majestic Creations to change them as well……. “Faden, stop looking at the corpses and concentrate! You can’t afford to drop your guard here of all places!” I started guiltily at this admonition from Longhelim; he was quite right. No matter how interesting this new species was, this was neither the time nor the place for study. I looked around me and saw a large semi-submerged room, with an opening to our left, which was south, a corridor and two doors straight ahead of us, which was west and a door to our right, which as North. Everyone else was looking at the various access points in Victor raised his falchion and pointed it in the direction of the open corridor ahead of us: “The spell is pointing me that way.” John spoke up then: “Should we not check what is behind these other doors first? It’s just that if we move forward, meet something nasty ahead and then get hit from behind…….” What he said made sense, so we decided to go to the Northern door first; Victor was going to open it and we positioned ourselves to support him should something nasty be on the other side. Opening it, a horde of swimming rats erupted from the door. However, rat hordes were something Victor was familiar with and he swung rapidly with his sword, dispersing the rodents; suddenly, the few remnants were doing their best to swim as far away from him as possible. A brief inspection of the room beyond revealed nothing of interest; it was obviously derelict. We decided that the next door to open would be the one just north of the open corridor. Everyone got into position again and when Victor opened it, another strange room was revealed. The water was a little shallower here and dead fish floated all over the place; consequently, it stank; there was the glint of coin through the water but at the far end of the room, there was a large, iron bound chest. Victor called everyone over and I first looked into the room, to make sure that there were no creatures lurking under the water. My vision in the darkness was greatly superior to anyone else’s, thanks to my dwarven heritage. Once that had been established, John moved forward, cast a little spell and waited expectantly. Out of all of us, I knew what he was waiting for. I had managed to perfect the spell that allowed me to see invisible beings so I could see the shapeless force that he created. He willed it over to the chest and it seemed to envelope it for a brief moment but nothing happened. With a mutter, John noisily stomped into the room and reached the chest. Then he took out his picks and began to do what he usually did when suddenly he gave a yelp and began to tug at his hand frantically. It seemed to be stuck to the blasted thing. Suddenly, the chest grew a tentacle which sped towards John and a mouth full of teeth appeared in its body. I silently fumed. Half eaten fish….we should have known. Too late now; Victor moved forward, followed by Drudge and Longhelim. The three of them surrounded the “chest” or whatever it was but it was remarkably tough. Hitting it was no problem, although Victor was having trouble keeping his balance in the water, but penetrating through that “wood” was another matter entirely. Then suddenly, the tentacles it produced previously flew out again and in moments, Drudge, Victor and John were all stuck helpless to this chest. No matter how much they struggled, they could not move. That left Longhelim who was hitting it with his sword and finally he seemed to be chipping away at it. In fact, it looked to be hurt quite badly. It swung out one last tentacle at Longhelim but it missed and the paladin was able to hit it one last time and it slumped, letting go of the other three. John and Victor had been slightly hurt but it was more their pride than anything else. Once recovered, the coins turned out to be nothing more than silver and copper although as we looked around, we could see that there was a shelf full of bottles with some kind of liquid; lots of bottles; we put those away into various containers. Vacating this room, we then looked into the southern opening. This again led into a large room; the only unusual feature there was a body floating in the far corner. The invisible force that John had summoned could now carry our torch so we sent it forward to illuminate further but that was all it seemed. The force then poked the body a bit to see if there was a reaction but with no results. So, carefully, Victor advanced until he reached the far end. Again there was no reaction and a cursory examination revealed a partly decomposed corpse with a golden necklace; spoils of war. The final door in this room revealed a brief corridor with a lever in the middle of the northern wall. John couldn’t resist. He sent his force in and pulled the lever down; nothing visible happened so we left the room and prepared to go down the corridor. With John’s invisible friend holding the torch, we sploshed our way in; it became rapidly obvious that we had stumbled into an old cellblock. The corridor was narrow and as before the whole place stank of sea water and decaying debris. There were small spaces everywhere, divided by bars although these had seen much better days. They were pitted, many of them corroded all the way through, ending in jagged stumps due to age. Any thought of stealth was pointless so we just went as quickly as possible. Then, as we neared an intersection, Victor stopped and pointed: a horrific skeleton was rising out of the water, dripping water, and other stuff. Like the bars, its bones were pitted and encrusted with mollusks and weeds. There was nothing wrong with its claws though as it slithered through the bars and launched itself at Victor. It was quickly joined by several others emerging from the water in various nearby cells. As Victor prepared, suddenly there was a plague of these skeletons stretching back beyond the light. Then several of the nearest burst into shards as John waved his odd little mask around shouting: “Roll them bones!” I thought it was quite an unusual challenge but it seemed to work. This didn’t stop the others though as they replaced those that had been destroyed. Victor was dodging and weaving until there was a deeper, more profound cry from Felix: “In the name of The Traveller, you are released!” This magic was a little more impressive as all the skeletons in sight suddenly burst into shards; we could even hear others bursting beyond our sight. Then four others ran into the light and surrounded Victor, squeezing impossibly through the bars and despite his weaving, one of them managed to scratch him. Then Felix called out the same imprecation and the last few were released, to use his own words. Victor’s magic pointed him South or to our right and a corridor conveniently led that way. It led to a door but there was a significant change in the depth of water as this corridor sloped down; or the water depth increased; the end result was the same: I was under water and pretty much useless. We reached the door and by this stage, everyone was under the water. Thankfully, Victor had no trouble opening it, revealing a large space. In front of us was a pathway leading East, or to our left; another diagonal bridge led southeast and Victor was pointing to this bridge, signaling that his magic was urging him that way. Cautiously, he stepped forward onto the bridge, stopped and then pointed down; as he did so, three creatures swum upwards at great speed. I could make them out only dimly as underwater they were just shapes, but they swarmed around Victor who certainly did not have any trouble in hitting them. He managed to hit one and it stopped moving immediately, an inky cloud rapidly spreading around it. One other swum towards Longhelim and Felix. The former, nothing loth also swung and engaged his enemy; unfortunately, he was viciously attacked and scratched quite badly. These creatures were almost frenzied in their willingness to hurl themselves at us. The final creature had swum onto Victor and was at his head height, ripping with its claws and biting with its jaws. Victor used his left hand to rip it off his head and as it swum back at him with fanatical viciousness, he caught it with his sword with such a perfect stroke that he cut it in half. Longhelim did not deal with his quite so spectacularly but he did manage to hit is several times and it finally floated down to the bottom, inert. Victor turned around and, now surrounded by his own inky pool, he pointed determinedly to the exit, walking back the way we came. Once we were out of the water he was his usual succinct self: “We won’t get an opportunity to heal underwater. We better do so while we have the chance. The spell pointed me to a door on a level under the bridge.” Felix and John healed both the warriors as this was likely to be their last chance. As this magic was being performed, curiously I asked: “What were those things?” Victor grimaced: “I have no idea. They looked like men who had been turned into fish; or fish who had been turned into men. They were humanoid, with spines, large bulbous eyes and must also have gills as they had no trouble breathing underwater. They also had very sharp claws and teeth and certainly swum like fish. Oh, and they also had spines along their backs.” Once the healing was finished, we strode under the water again, keeping a wary eye out for fishmen. However this time we moved onto the bridge without any hindrance and jumped down next to the door. Once every one was ready, Victor opened the door. It revealed a room with a large shaft in the floor. Due to the changes wrought in us, we were unable to feel it, but the shaft looked fiery so presumably there was heat coming out of it. There was also a pulley system set up, obviously to lower people or things down the shaft. There was no help for it; we would have to go down this hole. [/QUOTE]
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