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<blockquote data-quote="Zad" data-source="post: 2815152" data-attributes="member: 90"><p><strong>Life's Bazaar - Chapter 2</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Life’s Bazaar – Chapter 2</strong></p><p></p><p><u>OOC Notes:</u></p><p>Experience is 300.</p><p></p><p>We’re joined by a new character – Tzaddik. I’ll amend the introduction and give some details once his character design stabilizes. During the actual game he was a ranger but that might change or be refined.</p><p></p><p></p><p><u>This Week’s Adventure:</u></p><p>Just as they were getting ready to descend into the darkness, there was a loud knock at the door. Keegan nearly jumped out of his skin and wouldn’t go out. Astrid went and opened the door and found an elf there.</p><p></p><p>“Are you Astrid?” he asked. “The church of St. Cuthbert sent me to help. My name is Tzaddik.” As evidence of his claim, he held up one of the marked potion bottles that Jenya had given the others.</p><p></p><p>Since the church was ordering this mission, there was little argument offered if they wanted to send along extra help. Tzaddik was filled in on the discoveries to date and of the passage below.</p><p></p><p>Looking him over, I wasn’t impressed. He carried a bow lightly in his hand, but looked as if he’d been in the wilds for some time and just arrived. But then again, this group as a whole wasn’t that impressive to look at so he hardly seemed out of place.</p><p></p><p>They lit lanterns and sunrods and descended the stone stairs. It was completely dark, and filled with dust and cobwebs, and it seemed I was the only one who wondered why there were so many cobwebs given the traffic these stairs were reputed to have seen lately. The stairs went down three flights and emptied into a large room. The room was far more interesting if you just didn’t look at it.</p><p></p><p>To listen, it was filled with sounds – chirping birds, rustling leaves, laughing, pleasant whispers, and so on. I was actually a little disappointed to turn the corner and see a fairly plain stone room. Gnomish illusion craft – I suppose I should have expected it, but still…</p><p></p><p>The room had several masks hanging on the wall, each a smiling happy gnome face. As Bellsin got close to one, it began speaking, it’s round cheeks smiling happily. </p><p></p><p>“Welcome to Jazadirune! </p><p>Behold the wonder </p><p>but beware ye who seek to plunder. </p><p>Traps abound and guardians peer </p><p>beyond each portal and behind each gear.”</p><p></p><p>The room had two gear-shaped doors to the south, one of which had been wedged open by a couple feet. Surely these were the gears about which so many warnings had been given. It wasn’t even necessary for me to offer a reminder about this – everyone present was already wary of the doors and wanted little to do with them. Glyphandar noted that there was a rune on each – a letter of the gnomish alphabet. </p><p></p><p>But the wedged-open door was of note. It seemed that someone, fairly recently, had managed to pry open the door and then wedged it open. Glyph’s curiosity won out over his caution at that point and he stepped through the open door. And he was promptly stabbed by two skulking creatures inside.</p><p></p><p>I can only hope that his caution grows stronger in the future because of it.</p><p></p><p>The creatures had been stuffing their faces with spiders and apparently Glyph had interrupted their lunch. Their rapiers lashed out and nearly ended Glyph’s life on the spot. Astrid grabbed him by the sleeve and practically threw him back into the room with the rest of us, Elizabeth stepping up to cover the door, with Krisfallion covering her. Through the opening, they could see one of the creatures run off down a tunnel, adding a new urgency. The girls exchanged a nod, and Astrid dove into the room blocking quickly and drawing the creature’s attention, then Elizabeth stepped in behind her and cut him open.</p><p></p><p>Krisfallion went to Glyph, and uttered a few words. As he did, a breeze blew through the room, and while gentle was enough to draw the blood off of the wounded artificer and his flesh was whole underneath again.</p><p></p><p>No one knew if the interlopers would run away, or if the group would soon be attacked by waves of the creatures. This room had two tunnels leading out of it – they were crude and clumsy and it suggested that the new arrivals had dug them. Elizabeth quickly scattered caltrops down the tunnel that the first creature had run down, and they braced for an attack. </p><p></p><p>The attack didn’t come. At least not right away. Now that I think about it, these creatures don’t seem the type for direct confrontation. So the group hustled down the other tunnel with the notion of being somewhere unexpected. They moved down a good deal of tunnel, which made me wonder what had been doing so much digging down here. One passage branched off and lead to a large open chamber that was filled with sunlight. Four large trees and several smaller shrubbery and hedges filled the room looking like a lovely glade and birds chirped quietly above. All an illusion of course, but you had to admire the gnomish spirit in making it.</p><p></p><p>Some of the group wanted to investigate the room further, but Elizabeth was agitated and insistent they move on. The prisoners, she reasoned, were in danger since the group’s presence was known. The attackers might be fleeing, or they might be massing for an attack, or they might be killing the prisoners, but whatever they were doing, they weren’t here. She argued they should find the prisoners first and investigate later, and no one could find any fault with that thinking, so they moved on.</p><p></p><p>Another tunnel opened into another finished room. With some quick sketching and deduction, they realized that the tunnels seemed to interconnect with different areas of Jazadirune and they were seeing where they were on the map that Keegan had given them. Perhaps the tunnels were used by the new arrivals to bypass gear doors or other traps. As Elizabeth entered the room, she disappeared. </p><p></p><p>To everyone else at least. To her, everything was fine. Astrid started poking her halberd cautiously forward, and Elizabeth grabbed the haft and tugged her to come forward. There was a great deal of talk about falling victim to the Vanishing plague, but after a bit of bumbling and stumbling, the magically educated folks reasoned that there were some areas of invisibility in the room that would make you wink in or out to those watching.</p><p></p><p>The group moved cautiously forward, but the tension was broken by a loud gnomish voice, yelling something about intruders and producing a great deal of clunking and clanking. The group fanned out, and Tzaddik found a large mechanical thing – the central body was a large cone with a tunnel through it, and it had sharp wings to the sides. And it wasn’t happy to see anyone.</p><p></p><p>They had to move up carefully or risk stumbling into the thing. The girls got close around it and were swinging madly but their weapons kept being deflected off the metal skin. After hissing and squealing, it let off a high pitched squeal that made me want to explode. Half the group was bleeding from their ears and nose and some of them were reeling from the noise. Maris just collapsed on the floor in a heap.</p><p></p><p>Spells and weapons were flying around in a flurry but most of them did little good. Bit by bit, the clockwork creature, which may have already been damaged, started to suffer from the beating. Astrid stabbed hard into a dent in the skin and wrenched the head of her halberd around and must have cut something important and the thing flew apart into pieces.</p><p></p><p>Krisfallion did everything he could for the injured, and managed to get everyone at least walking again. But the fight hurt the group badly. If the sneaking creatures attacked, they’d be in no position to fight them off. Resting in Jazadirune was out of the question for the same reason. So they agreed to return to the surface as quickly as possible.</p><p></p><p>While Kris tended the wounded, Glyph meticulously examined the construct. He found a small steel rod that had a gnomish rune “A” on the end and notches on the other end – perhaps a key to the gear doors. And he found a gemstone that was previously some vital part of the construct and surely worth something on its own.</p><p></p><p>The group withdrew quickly the way they’d came. To their relief and my surprise, there was no ambush waiting for them in the entry room. Tzaddik said there were tracks indicating someone had moved into the caltrops but not all the way through them. They went up the stairs but found the door blocked.</p><p></p><p>Bellsin knocked, and called to Keegan, who in a fit of stark raving terror had barricaded the door. He hesitantly moved this furniture and let the group in, and they promptly barricaded the door behind him. Rather than being angry, they applauded Keegan for his good thinking.</p><p></p><p>The group was injured, and their spells spent. Krisfallion said that he could heal everyone but it would take all his blessings to do so, and he would not want to go below again without resting again. Instead of waiting two days, they formed a better plan.</p><p></p><p>Elizabeth stayed at Keegan’s shop (which was no end of comfort to Keegan). The others went into town and requested aid from the church of St. Cuthbert. Since town seemed more interesting I snuck off with them. Jenya was happy to provide aid, and sent a small group of clerics to heal the party so that they could re-enter the enclave the next day once rested. She was concerned to hear of the discoveries so far, and was relieved that the group intended to return and complete their rescue mission. They also wanted to see about selling the recovered gemstone, perhaps to purchase some kind of healing magic. </p><p></p><p>Much to my surprise, there was no contention or objection. Whether due to a spirit of cooperation or a general fear of injury, there was no quibbling about the use of what would turn out to be a substantial sum of gold in this way. More than anything, this was what made me think this group might have a chance after all.</p><p></p><p>Keegan suggested that a merchant named Tiggit would be the one to speak to about selling the gem. They found Tiggit’s shop with some asking around and entered. Tiggit, an elderly halfling, was napping in a chair in front of fire with a dog at his feet. When the group entered, the dog looked up.</p><p></p><p>“Tiggit. You have customers,” it said.</p><p></p><p>Tiggit woke with a slight start. The group just stared. Glyph muttered “A blink dog?”</p><p></p><p>Maris wasn’t really interested in what it was. She was a girl and it was a dog, and that was all she needed to start petting him and scratching his ears. The blink dog had no objections to this at all and seemed quite happy with it all.</p><p></p><p>Tiggit ignored most of this, and took to appraising the offered gemstone. If he was impressed at the size or value of the stone, he gave no signs of it, and nonchalantly offered five hundred gold for it. There was no sense of haggling or negotiation from him – the offer was the offer and that was it, especially where strangers were concerned. The group accepted and Tiggit gave a letter of credit for the promised sum, claiming not to have such sums on hand. (Nor, I think, would he hand it over to strangers if he did.)</p><p></p><p>The group then discussed where they might be able to find potions or even perhaps a wand of healing. Tiggit overheard this and suggested Sky, a former adventurer that catered to the kinds of needs the group seemed to have. </p><p></p><p>Sky was a female gnome, and I was starting to think that every merchant in this town was required by law to be under four feet tall. Her shop not only boasted some interesting items, but also a great number of trophies and souvenirs from other adventuring companies. I couldn’t help but wonder if those groups were all deceased. I would have asked but I doubt the answer would have made me feel any better.</p><p></p><p>Sky was eager for the group to sign her guest book and after that was done they got down to business. She was able to offer the group a “slightly used” wand of healing, plus some potions in exchange for the letter of credit plus a bit of gold to even out the transaction. As with Tiggit, there was no haggling involved with strangers. Cauldron, it seemed, was a take-it-or-leave-it town.</p><p></p><p>So the group returned to Keegan’s shop, and asked if he would mind terribly if they spent the night here to guard the passage. Keegan was enthusiastic, to say the least, about that idea and welcomed the group and did everything in his power to make them comfortable. </p><p></p><p>The night passed without any bumps. As the group was preparing to leave, one of the St. Cuthbert clerics arrived at the shop and he and Bellsin went outside to speak.</p><p></p><p>Some may call me rude – I prefer to think of it as a healthy sense of curiosity driven by a keen sense of self-preservation. So I followed.</p><p></p><p>The priest seemed nervous. “This is not allowed you know. But I believe strongly in what you’re doing and I worry for those children.”</p><p></p><p>“I understand,” said Bellsin. “But you have my word that I will only use the spell as you would have yourself. Think of it as ‘borrowing’ if it helps,” he smiled. “Besides, you would have healed us if it would help, because you believe it to be the right thing to do. But this way you don’t have to go yourself.”</p><p></p><p>“In this case, what is just is more important than what is allowed,” the priest agreed. “But ah… will this hurt?”</p><p></p><p>“Not at all, though it will feel… odd,” Bellsin told him. </p><p></p><p>The priest nodded, and Bellsin reached out and touched him on the wrist. There was a bit of a ripple in the air, and then nothing. The priest shook his head for a moment, then was fine. “Thank you,” Bellsin said.</p><p></p><p>“Use it well,” the priest replied, then left.</p><p></p><p>I wasn’t sure what I had just seen. But it didn’t seem like much to worry about so I went back.</p><p></p><p>The group crept carefully back down the passage and into the foyer, ready for an ambush at any moment. It didn’t come. But as they crept with their backs to the wall, Tzaddik noticed something on the wall, and in due time found a secret door. There were no indications that the intruders had discovered this passage and therefore it offered an option to come at them from an unknown front. That made it attractive, and the group went through.</p><p></p><p>The passage led to a room that was on the map, containing several gear doors and a set of locked iron double doors that they could find no way to open. However another secret door led out and they used that instead.</p><p></p><p>As Bellsin crept along ahead, suddenly the floor gave way underneath him, and the floor ahead of him flipped up and over, dropping him into a pit below. Lucky for him, there were short spikes on the walls, but not on the floor. Unlucky for him, the fall hurt him badly.</p><p></p><p>Bellsin stuck his spear through the opening, trying to keep the lid from closing on him. Tzaddik scrambled to get a rope out, but before they could get it to him, the entire room Bellsin was in spun. The wall was the floor and he went flying towards the spikes. </p><p></p><p>This just goes to show you that a gnome won’t be happy unless he makes things complicated. Why put spikes on the floor when you can just spin the room and put the victim on the spikes? I’m surprised it even worked after all these years.</p><p></p><p>Bellsin managed to land on his feet rather than being impaled on spikes. Everyone scrambled to get Bellsin out before the room spun again. While they were working, Bellsin invoked the blessings of St. Cuthbert and healed his wounds.</p><p></p><p>And now it all made sense. Bellsin had somehow “borrowed” a healing spell from the friendly priest. And a good thing too.</p><p></p><p>With some hammer and rope, they finally hauled Bellsin out, and spiked the floor shut so it couldn’t drop anyone else in. Past the trap they found the armory, still holding a fair bit of gnomish weaponry and armor which was carefully collected. And in the armory was a chest.</p><p></p><p>Once the trouble of the lock was out of the way, they found a number of sundry and alchemical supplies. But nobody was convinced. </p><p></p><p>“Secret compartment?” they all asked at once.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, there was a small tube concealed in one of the iron struts. Inside was a wand, which was handed over to Maris, whose excitement was scarcely contained. Nobody was sure what it was, but it didn’t seem to matter much to Maris. It was a magic wand! She started pointing it at armor stands in a menacing matter and Kris had to get her to relax with it before she blew us all to pieces. She pouted a bit but didn’t argue too much once she realized he could be right.</p><p></p><p>“There’s something bothering me,” Astrid said. “Keegan said his rat was being held about a mile down, right? But we’re only maybe a hundred feet or so below his shop. If we’re going to find his rat and presumably the prisoners, we need to find a way down. Way down.”</p><p></p><p>“Only one problem with that,” Elizabeth said. “Wouldn’t ‘way down’ be a volcano?”</p><p></p><p></p><p><u>Loot:</u></p><p>Suit of gnomish half plate</p><p>3 small steel shields (small size)</p><p>2 light picks (small size)</p><p>3 hooked hammers (small size)</p><p>1 heavy pick (small size)</p><p>1 padlock (hey, we’re first level – it’s valuable.)</p><p>16 crossbow bolts (probably not normal)</p><p>2 smokesticks</p><p>1 thunderstone</p><p>1 tanglefoot bag</p><p>wand, evocation magic.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zad, post: 2815152, member: 90"] [b]Life's Bazaar - Chapter 2[/b] [b]Life’s Bazaar – Chapter 2[/b] [u]OOC Notes:[/u] Experience is 300. We’re joined by a new character – Tzaddik. I’ll amend the introduction and give some details once his character design stabilizes. During the actual game he was a ranger but that might change or be refined. [u]This Week’s Adventure:[/u] Just as they were getting ready to descend into the darkness, there was a loud knock at the door. Keegan nearly jumped out of his skin and wouldn’t go out. Astrid went and opened the door and found an elf there. “Are you Astrid?” he asked. “The church of St. Cuthbert sent me to help. My name is Tzaddik.” As evidence of his claim, he held up one of the marked potion bottles that Jenya had given the others. Since the church was ordering this mission, there was little argument offered if they wanted to send along extra help. Tzaddik was filled in on the discoveries to date and of the passage below. Looking him over, I wasn’t impressed. He carried a bow lightly in his hand, but looked as if he’d been in the wilds for some time and just arrived. But then again, this group as a whole wasn’t that impressive to look at so he hardly seemed out of place. They lit lanterns and sunrods and descended the stone stairs. It was completely dark, and filled with dust and cobwebs, and it seemed I was the only one who wondered why there were so many cobwebs given the traffic these stairs were reputed to have seen lately. The stairs went down three flights and emptied into a large room. The room was far more interesting if you just didn’t look at it. To listen, it was filled with sounds – chirping birds, rustling leaves, laughing, pleasant whispers, and so on. I was actually a little disappointed to turn the corner and see a fairly plain stone room. Gnomish illusion craft – I suppose I should have expected it, but still… The room had several masks hanging on the wall, each a smiling happy gnome face. As Bellsin got close to one, it began speaking, it’s round cheeks smiling happily. “Welcome to Jazadirune! Behold the wonder but beware ye who seek to plunder. Traps abound and guardians peer beyond each portal and behind each gear.” The room had two gear-shaped doors to the south, one of which had been wedged open by a couple feet. Surely these were the gears about which so many warnings had been given. It wasn’t even necessary for me to offer a reminder about this – everyone present was already wary of the doors and wanted little to do with them. Glyphandar noted that there was a rune on each – a letter of the gnomish alphabet. But the wedged-open door was of note. It seemed that someone, fairly recently, had managed to pry open the door and then wedged it open. Glyph’s curiosity won out over his caution at that point and he stepped through the open door. And he was promptly stabbed by two skulking creatures inside. I can only hope that his caution grows stronger in the future because of it. The creatures had been stuffing their faces with spiders and apparently Glyph had interrupted their lunch. Their rapiers lashed out and nearly ended Glyph’s life on the spot. Astrid grabbed him by the sleeve and practically threw him back into the room with the rest of us, Elizabeth stepping up to cover the door, with Krisfallion covering her. Through the opening, they could see one of the creatures run off down a tunnel, adding a new urgency. The girls exchanged a nod, and Astrid dove into the room blocking quickly and drawing the creature’s attention, then Elizabeth stepped in behind her and cut him open. Krisfallion went to Glyph, and uttered a few words. As he did, a breeze blew through the room, and while gentle was enough to draw the blood off of the wounded artificer and his flesh was whole underneath again. No one knew if the interlopers would run away, or if the group would soon be attacked by waves of the creatures. This room had two tunnels leading out of it – they were crude and clumsy and it suggested that the new arrivals had dug them. Elizabeth quickly scattered caltrops down the tunnel that the first creature had run down, and they braced for an attack. The attack didn’t come. At least not right away. Now that I think about it, these creatures don’t seem the type for direct confrontation. So the group hustled down the other tunnel with the notion of being somewhere unexpected. They moved down a good deal of tunnel, which made me wonder what had been doing so much digging down here. One passage branched off and lead to a large open chamber that was filled with sunlight. Four large trees and several smaller shrubbery and hedges filled the room looking like a lovely glade and birds chirped quietly above. All an illusion of course, but you had to admire the gnomish spirit in making it. Some of the group wanted to investigate the room further, but Elizabeth was agitated and insistent they move on. The prisoners, she reasoned, were in danger since the group’s presence was known. The attackers might be fleeing, or they might be massing for an attack, or they might be killing the prisoners, but whatever they were doing, they weren’t here. She argued they should find the prisoners first and investigate later, and no one could find any fault with that thinking, so they moved on. Another tunnel opened into another finished room. With some quick sketching and deduction, they realized that the tunnels seemed to interconnect with different areas of Jazadirune and they were seeing where they were on the map that Keegan had given them. Perhaps the tunnels were used by the new arrivals to bypass gear doors or other traps. As Elizabeth entered the room, she disappeared. To everyone else at least. To her, everything was fine. Astrid started poking her halberd cautiously forward, and Elizabeth grabbed the haft and tugged her to come forward. There was a great deal of talk about falling victim to the Vanishing plague, but after a bit of bumbling and stumbling, the magically educated folks reasoned that there were some areas of invisibility in the room that would make you wink in or out to those watching. The group moved cautiously forward, but the tension was broken by a loud gnomish voice, yelling something about intruders and producing a great deal of clunking and clanking. The group fanned out, and Tzaddik found a large mechanical thing – the central body was a large cone with a tunnel through it, and it had sharp wings to the sides. And it wasn’t happy to see anyone. They had to move up carefully or risk stumbling into the thing. The girls got close around it and were swinging madly but their weapons kept being deflected off the metal skin. After hissing and squealing, it let off a high pitched squeal that made me want to explode. Half the group was bleeding from their ears and nose and some of them were reeling from the noise. Maris just collapsed on the floor in a heap. Spells and weapons were flying around in a flurry but most of them did little good. Bit by bit, the clockwork creature, which may have already been damaged, started to suffer from the beating. Astrid stabbed hard into a dent in the skin and wrenched the head of her halberd around and must have cut something important and the thing flew apart into pieces. Krisfallion did everything he could for the injured, and managed to get everyone at least walking again. But the fight hurt the group badly. If the sneaking creatures attacked, they’d be in no position to fight them off. Resting in Jazadirune was out of the question for the same reason. So they agreed to return to the surface as quickly as possible. While Kris tended the wounded, Glyph meticulously examined the construct. He found a small steel rod that had a gnomish rune “A” on the end and notches on the other end – perhaps a key to the gear doors. And he found a gemstone that was previously some vital part of the construct and surely worth something on its own. The group withdrew quickly the way they’d came. To their relief and my surprise, there was no ambush waiting for them in the entry room. Tzaddik said there were tracks indicating someone had moved into the caltrops but not all the way through them. They went up the stairs but found the door blocked. Bellsin knocked, and called to Keegan, who in a fit of stark raving terror had barricaded the door. He hesitantly moved this furniture and let the group in, and they promptly barricaded the door behind him. Rather than being angry, they applauded Keegan for his good thinking. The group was injured, and their spells spent. Krisfallion said that he could heal everyone but it would take all his blessings to do so, and he would not want to go below again without resting again. Instead of waiting two days, they formed a better plan. Elizabeth stayed at Keegan’s shop (which was no end of comfort to Keegan). The others went into town and requested aid from the church of St. Cuthbert. Since town seemed more interesting I snuck off with them. Jenya was happy to provide aid, and sent a small group of clerics to heal the party so that they could re-enter the enclave the next day once rested. She was concerned to hear of the discoveries so far, and was relieved that the group intended to return and complete their rescue mission. They also wanted to see about selling the recovered gemstone, perhaps to purchase some kind of healing magic. Much to my surprise, there was no contention or objection. Whether due to a spirit of cooperation or a general fear of injury, there was no quibbling about the use of what would turn out to be a substantial sum of gold in this way. More than anything, this was what made me think this group might have a chance after all. Keegan suggested that a merchant named Tiggit would be the one to speak to about selling the gem. They found Tiggit’s shop with some asking around and entered. Tiggit, an elderly halfling, was napping in a chair in front of fire with a dog at his feet. When the group entered, the dog looked up. “Tiggit. You have customers,” it said. Tiggit woke with a slight start. The group just stared. Glyph muttered “A blink dog?” Maris wasn’t really interested in what it was. She was a girl and it was a dog, and that was all she needed to start petting him and scratching his ears. The blink dog had no objections to this at all and seemed quite happy with it all. Tiggit ignored most of this, and took to appraising the offered gemstone. If he was impressed at the size or value of the stone, he gave no signs of it, and nonchalantly offered five hundred gold for it. There was no sense of haggling or negotiation from him – the offer was the offer and that was it, especially where strangers were concerned. The group accepted and Tiggit gave a letter of credit for the promised sum, claiming not to have such sums on hand. (Nor, I think, would he hand it over to strangers if he did.) The group then discussed where they might be able to find potions or even perhaps a wand of healing. Tiggit overheard this and suggested Sky, a former adventurer that catered to the kinds of needs the group seemed to have. Sky was a female gnome, and I was starting to think that every merchant in this town was required by law to be under four feet tall. Her shop not only boasted some interesting items, but also a great number of trophies and souvenirs from other adventuring companies. I couldn’t help but wonder if those groups were all deceased. I would have asked but I doubt the answer would have made me feel any better. Sky was eager for the group to sign her guest book and after that was done they got down to business. She was able to offer the group a “slightly used” wand of healing, plus some potions in exchange for the letter of credit plus a bit of gold to even out the transaction. As with Tiggit, there was no haggling involved with strangers. Cauldron, it seemed, was a take-it-or-leave-it town. So the group returned to Keegan’s shop, and asked if he would mind terribly if they spent the night here to guard the passage. Keegan was enthusiastic, to say the least, about that idea and welcomed the group and did everything in his power to make them comfortable. The night passed without any bumps. As the group was preparing to leave, one of the St. Cuthbert clerics arrived at the shop and he and Bellsin went outside to speak. Some may call me rude – I prefer to think of it as a healthy sense of curiosity driven by a keen sense of self-preservation. So I followed. The priest seemed nervous. “This is not allowed you know. But I believe strongly in what you’re doing and I worry for those children.” “I understand,” said Bellsin. “But you have my word that I will only use the spell as you would have yourself. Think of it as ‘borrowing’ if it helps,” he smiled. “Besides, you would have healed us if it would help, because you believe it to be the right thing to do. But this way you don’t have to go yourself.” “In this case, what is just is more important than what is allowed,” the priest agreed. “But ah… will this hurt?” “Not at all, though it will feel… odd,” Bellsin told him. The priest nodded, and Bellsin reached out and touched him on the wrist. There was a bit of a ripple in the air, and then nothing. The priest shook his head for a moment, then was fine. “Thank you,” Bellsin said. “Use it well,” the priest replied, then left. I wasn’t sure what I had just seen. But it didn’t seem like much to worry about so I went back. The group crept carefully back down the passage and into the foyer, ready for an ambush at any moment. It didn’t come. But as they crept with their backs to the wall, Tzaddik noticed something on the wall, and in due time found a secret door. There were no indications that the intruders had discovered this passage and therefore it offered an option to come at them from an unknown front. That made it attractive, and the group went through. The passage led to a room that was on the map, containing several gear doors and a set of locked iron double doors that they could find no way to open. However another secret door led out and they used that instead. As Bellsin crept along ahead, suddenly the floor gave way underneath him, and the floor ahead of him flipped up and over, dropping him into a pit below. Lucky for him, there were short spikes on the walls, but not on the floor. Unlucky for him, the fall hurt him badly. Bellsin stuck his spear through the opening, trying to keep the lid from closing on him. Tzaddik scrambled to get a rope out, but before they could get it to him, the entire room Bellsin was in spun. The wall was the floor and he went flying towards the spikes. This just goes to show you that a gnome won’t be happy unless he makes things complicated. Why put spikes on the floor when you can just spin the room and put the victim on the spikes? I’m surprised it even worked after all these years. Bellsin managed to land on his feet rather than being impaled on spikes. Everyone scrambled to get Bellsin out before the room spun again. While they were working, Bellsin invoked the blessings of St. Cuthbert and healed his wounds. And now it all made sense. Bellsin had somehow “borrowed” a healing spell from the friendly priest. And a good thing too. With some hammer and rope, they finally hauled Bellsin out, and spiked the floor shut so it couldn’t drop anyone else in. Past the trap they found the armory, still holding a fair bit of gnomish weaponry and armor which was carefully collected. And in the armory was a chest. Once the trouble of the lock was out of the way, they found a number of sundry and alchemical supplies. But nobody was convinced. “Secret compartment?” they all asked at once. Sure enough, there was a small tube concealed in one of the iron struts. Inside was a wand, which was handed over to Maris, whose excitement was scarcely contained. Nobody was sure what it was, but it didn’t seem to matter much to Maris. It was a magic wand! She started pointing it at armor stands in a menacing matter and Kris had to get her to relax with it before she blew us all to pieces. She pouted a bit but didn’t argue too much once she realized he could be right. “There’s something bothering me,” Astrid said. “Keegan said his rat was being held about a mile down, right? But we’re only maybe a hundred feet or so below his shop. If we’re going to find his rat and presumably the prisoners, we need to find a way down. Way down.” “Only one problem with that,” Elizabeth said. “Wouldn’t ‘way down’ be a volcano?” [u]Loot:[/u] Suit of gnomish half plate 3 small steel shields (small size) 2 light picks (small size) 3 hooked hammers (small size) 1 heavy pick (small size) 1 padlock (hey, we’re first level – it’s valuable.) 16 crossbow bolts (probably not normal) 2 smokesticks 1 thunderstone 1 tanglefoot bag wand, evocation magic. [/QUOTE]
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