Against the Shadows VII - A Faded Glory Story Hour (Re-Updated - 5/17)
- Thread starter Old One
- Start date
Session 16 (Part One)
Since it has been a long time since the last update, our intrepid band (now down to three effectives) is in a very old section of the sewers underneath the port city of Oar. An enemy wizard – whom they believe to by Maythrax – has escaped with Drusilla. The trail ends near a trapped “T” intersection.
Rowan, Quintus and Lew – all badly battered – stand over the unconscious form of Sextus and the miraculously revived Rosë.
Into the Unknown
Rowan dropped to his knees beside the Brigante. ‘The strain has finally gotten to Lew’, he thought to himself. Yet even his meager healing skills confirmed the priest’s claim…the barbarian was alive!
“He does live…” the ranger said, voice trailing off in disbelief.
Quintus’s brows knotted together, released and knotted together again. “Perhaps we should withdraw.”
Lew glanced up with an ‘I-told-you-so’ look painted across his face. “It’s no good. The magic holding the portal open has expired. We have no choice but to press forward and hope for the best.”
Quintus nodded and looked at Rowan. “Which way?”
“I think they went right, based on the operation of the levers on the pit trapdoor.”
“Then we go left.”
Rowan and Lew stared at Quintus in silent amazement. The elder Scipio took their accusing looks in stride and shrugged wearily. “You were right, Lew, we should have retreated. The best we can do now is to find a way out and get some help for Sextus and Rosë. Rowan, can you still carry him?”
“For another turn or two of the hourglass.”
“Very well, I will see to Sextus,” said Quintus. He unfurled a parchment scroll and intoned its magic. The scroll crumbled as Sextus’s body lifted slowly from the floor in response to a gesture from Quintus. The sorcerer answered the unasked question, “Levitation.”
They trooped off down the corridor – Rowan in the lead with bared blade and Rosë’s large bulk over one shoulder, Lew in the middle with a lantern and Quintus bringing up the rear, pushing his brother’s limp form along before him. They carefully skirted the trapdoor at the “T” intersection and took the left hand passage.
The corridor continued for some distance, then merged into shallow steps that led down. At the base of the steps, the passage began curving to the right and the bone dry wall slowly gave way to patches of slime and damp spot of water seepage. The familiar stench of Oar’s fetid sewers began to grow and they soon heard the faint echo of running water.
The echoes grew louder as the reached a four-way intersection. They all felt a slight breeze pressing from left to right, so took the left-hand passage in hopes of finding an exit. After twenty paces, they came to a roughly circular chamber whose walls rose to a dome-like roof. Rank water covered the floor and the path they were following skirted around the right side of the chamber to another opening – leaving the path partially submerged. In the center of the roof, ten paces off the surface of the water, was a large opening covered by an algae festooned, rusty grate.
Quintus’s practiced eye swept quickly over the chamber as Captain Rook’s warning about the tunnels flooding at high tide rang in his ears. ‘Damn, there’s no way to get up there.’
“Let’s keep looking.” The sorcerer’s flat tone brooked no argument.
They returned to the intersection and kept on straight. The passage turned to the left and they soon found themselves on the edge of another domed chamber, similar to the first. They could see the corridor continuing on across the water filled room.
“Lets’ try the middle corridor,” Rowan said, growing frustration evident.
The others nodded as the ranger led the way back. The middle passage continued straight for a number of paces and Quintus thought he detected a slight upward grade. His suspicions were confirmed as the dampness and slime lessened, and then disappeared. Ten paces later, Rowan came to a dead end. Exasperated, the ranger kicked the offending wall and was surprised to hear an oddly hollow sound echo back.
“I think there might be a door here,” he mumbled excitedly as he gently placed Rosë on the floor. “There, I think that might be…”
He trailed of as the wall section moved under his hand just as his ears picked up a faint chittering noise. The concealed door swung inward, revealing three pairs of bright yellow eyes. The light thrown off by Lew’s lantern also glinted off ivory colored teeth and metal. Panic welled up in the ranger, ‘Those are even bigger than the rats in the mine…and these one’s have weapons!’
Rowan fought the overwhelming urge to run and had enough presence of mind to reach out and pull the opening door shut with a resounding thud. A cacophony of shrill squeaks erupted on the other side. The ranger swept Rosë onto his shoulder and began sprinting back the way they had come.
“Run!”
Lew and Quintus didn’t even ask why…they just followed with all possible speed. Rowan didn’t stop until they had crossed over the “T” intersection where they had started. He waited until his companions were across and threw the lever to activate the pit trap. The companions readied their weapons and waited for the inevitable pursuit. Rowan kept muttering, “Rats…huge rats…rats with weapons and clothes and armor!”
(DM’s Note: This was pretty funny…they didn’t even wait to see what they were facing…they just hauled a$$!)
A quarter turn of the hourglass later, no pursuit was forthcoming. By unspoken agreement, the party continued on, leaving the activated pit trap behind them.
“Just remember that’s back there in case we have to flee this way,” Rowan called over his shoulder.
They quickly found the passage roughly mirrored the one on the other side. At the bottom of the steps, Rowan found two sets of booted tracks in the muck. “They went this way,” he said confidently.
Behind him, Lew rolled his eyes, ‘Even I can follow those tracks!’
The sludge and slime seemed much heavier on this side and they continued to follow the footprints even thought they passed several side passages. After 100 paces or so, the tracks suddenly vanished. Rowan called, “There has to be a door along here somewhere…start looking for it!”
Twenty grains latter, they stood on the far side of a poorly concealed door, looking down at muddy tracks on a patch of smooth stone atop some steep stairs heading down. Rowan flashed a quick grin and descended. The passage turned sharply to the left at the base of the stairs. The path made several sharp turns and the moss, sludge and dampness increase with each turn. Soon they were wading through ankle-deep muck.
Just at the outer edge of the lantern light, Rowan saw several steps, a small landing and a door emerge from the gloom. He turned to alert his companions, but froze when a high-pitched cackle echoed through the corridor!
“Ah…there your are. I was beginning to think your courage had deserted you!” The voice was emanating from a small slot in the door, “I was just saying to my companion…”
The grating voice trailed off as Lew set down his lantern, raised his crossbow and buried a bolt a finger’s breadth above the slot. A startled yelp rang from behind the door.
“I say…that was quite rude! Aren’t you going to let me finish my pretty little speech?”
Quintus howled in anger, “No, you dirty bastard, we are going to kill you!”
The nasally voice, dripping with indignation, responded, “Very well then, have it your way!”
The eye slot slammed shut and the party heard a faint rumbling noise. The floor under them began to shudder, groan and tilt forward. Rowan saw a gap opening between the floor and the stairs ahead and realized what was happening. He charged forward desperately, trying to reach the steps twenty paces distant. The slippery slime and muck underfoot gave little purchase.
Lew and Quintus followed Rowan’s lead. Lew nearly fell but managed to keep his balance on the sharply tilting floor. The sorcerer’s feet, however, flew out from under him before he had gone a dozen steps and he sprawled onto his face, losing his grip on Sextus in the process.
Quintus careened forward wildly on his stomach and chopped Lew’s legs out from under him as he slammed into the priest. Lew fell onto the sorcerer’s back and saw the limp form of Sextus hanging in midair. He made a desperate grab for the younger Scipio and managed catch the hem of his cloak before he and Quintus hurtled away.
(DM’s Note: Kris – Lew’s player – showed great presence of mind here. I made it pretty tough for him to do it, but he made both his touch attack roll and strength check to hang on, otherwise Sextus would have remained floating there!)
Rowan, staggering like a back alley drunk, was only five paces from safety. He gathered himself for a desperate leap before the angle of the floor made it impossible. ‘I think I can make it!’
Lew, riding Quintus like a sled, with Sextus trailing behind, hit the ranger at mid-thigh and sent him spinning out of control. They flashed past the stationary steps as the floor, acting like a giant fulcrum, tilted past 45 degrees and sent them sliding in darkness with ever increasing speed. As the quintet disappeared from view, high-pitched laughter chased them from above, urging them on.
To Be Continued…
Next: Session 16 (Part Two) – Of Bones and Marrow
~ Old One
Since it has been a long time since the last update, our intrepid band (now down to three effectives) is in a very old section of the sewers underneath the port city of Oar. An enemy wizard – whom they believe to by Maythrax – has escaped with Drusilla. The trail ends near a trapped “T” intersection.
Rowan, Quintus and Lew – all badly battered – stand over the unconscious form of Sextus and the miraculously revived Rosë.
Into the Unknown
Rowan dropped to his knees beside the Brigante. ‘The strain has finally gotten to Lew’, he thought to himself. Yet even his meager healing skills confirmed the priest’s claim…the barbarian was alive!
“He does live…” the ranger said, voice trailing off in disbelief.
Quintus’s brows knotted together, released and knotted together again. “Perhaps we should withdraw.”
Lew glanced up with an ‘I-told-you-so’ look painted across his face. “It’s no good. The magic holding the portal open has expired. We have no choice but to press forward and hope for the best.”
Quintus nodded and looked at Rowan. “Which way?”
“I think they went right, based on the operation of the levers on the pit trapdoor.”
“Then we go left.”
Rowan and Lew stared at Quintus in silent amazement. The elder Scipio took their accusing looks in stride and shrugged wearily. “You were right, Lew, we should have retreated. The best we can do now is to find a way out and get some help for Sextus and Rosë. Rowan, can you still carry him?”
“For another turn or two of the hourglass.”
“Very well, I will see to Sextus,” said Quintus. He unfurled a parchment scroll and intoned its magic. The scroll crumbled as Sextus’s body lifted slowly from the floor in response to a gesture from Quintus. The sorcerer answered the unasked question, “Levitation.”
They trooped off down the corridor – Rowan in the lead with bared blade and Rosë’s large bulk over one shoulder, Lew in the middle with a lantern and Quintus bringing up the rear, pushing his brother’s limp form along before him. They carefully skirted the trapdoor at the “T” intersection and took the left hand passage.
The corridor continued for some distance, then merged into shallow steps that led down. At the base of the steps, the passage began curving to the right and the bone dry wall slowly gave way to patches of slime and damp spot of water seepage. The familiar stench of Oar’s fetid sewers began to grow and they soon heard the faint echo of running water.
The echoes grew louder as the reached a four-way intersection. They all felt a slight breeze pressing from left to right, so took the left-hand passage in hopes of finding an exit. After twenty paces, they came to a roughly circular chamber whose walls rose to a dome-like roof. Rank water covered the floor and the path they were following skirted around the right side of the chamber to another opening – leaving the path partially submerged. In the center of the roof, ten paces off the surface of the water, was a large opening covered by an algae festooned, rusty grate.
Quintus’s practiced eye swept quickly over the chamber as Captain Rook’s warning about the tunnels flooding at high tide rang in his ears. ‘Damn, there’s no way to get up there.’
“Let’s keep looking.” The sorcerer’s flat tone brooked no argument.
They returned to the intersection and kept on straight. The passage turned to the left and they soon found themselves on the edge of another domed chamber, similar to the first. They could see the corridor continuing on across the water filled room.
“Lets’ try the middle corridor,” Rowan said, growing frustration evident.
The others nodded as the ranger led the way back. The middle passage continued straight for a number of paces and Quintus thought he detected a slight upward grade. His suspicions were confirmed as the dampness and slime lessened, and then disappeared. Ten paces later, Rowan came to a dead end. Exasperated, the ranger kicked the offending wall and was surprised to hear an oddly hollow sound echo back.
“I think there might be a door here,” he mumbled excitedly as he gently placed Rosë on the floor. “There, I think that might be…”
He trailed of as the wall section moved under his hand just as his ears picked up a faint chittering noise. The concealed door swung inward, revealing three pairs of bright yellow eyes. The light thrown off by Lew’s lantern also glinted off ivory colored teeth and metal. Panic welled up in the ranger, ‘Those are even bigger than the rats in the mine…and these one’s have weapons!’
Rowan fought the overwhelming urge to run and had enough presence of mind to reach out and pull the opening door shut with a resounding thud. A cacophony of shrill squeaks erupted on the other side. The ranger swept Rosë onto his shoulder and began sprinting back the way they had come.
“Run!”
Lew and Quintus didn’t even ask why…they just followed with all possible speed. Rowan didn’t stop until they had crossed over the “T” intersection where they had started. He waited until his companions were across and threw the lever to activate the pit trap. The companions readied their weapons and waited for the inevitable pursuit. Rowan kept muttering, “Rats…huge rats…rats with weapons and clothes and armor!”
(DM’s Note: This was pretty funny…they didn’t even wait to see what they were facing…they just hauled a$$!)
A quarter turn of the hourglass later, no pursuit was forthcoming. By unspoken agreement, the party continued on, leaving the activated pit trap behind them.
“Just remember that’s back there in case we have to flee this way,” Rowan called over his shoulder.
They quickly found the passage roughly mirrored the one on the other side. At the bottom of the steps, Rowan found two sets of booted tracks in the muck. “They went this way,” he said confidently.
Behind him, Lew rolled his eyes, ‘Even I can follow those tracks!’
The sludge and slime seemed much heavier on this side and they continued to follow the footprints even thought they passed several side passages. After 100 paces or so, the tracks suddenly vanished. Rowan called, “There has to be a door along here somewhere…start looking for it!”
Twenty grains latter, they stood on the far side of a poorly concealed door, looking down at muddy tracks on a patch of smooth stone atop some steep stairs heading down. Rowan flashed a quick grin and descended. The passage turned sharply to the left at the base of the stairs. The path made several sharp turns and the moss, sludge and dampness increase with each turn. Soon they were wading through ankle-deep muck.
Just at the outer edge of the lantern light, Rowan saw several steps, a small landing and a door emerge from the gloom. He turned to alert his companions, but froze when a high-pitched cackle echoed through the corridor!
“Ah…there your are. I was beginning to think your courage had deserted you!” The voice was emanating from a small slot in the door, “I was just saying to my companion…”
The grating voice trailed off as Lew set down his lantern, raised his crossbow and buried a bolt a finger’s breadth above the slot. A startled yelp rang from behind the door.
“I say…that was quite rude! Aren’t you going to let me finish my pretty little speech?”
Quintus howled in anger, “No, you dirty bastard, we are going to kill you!”
The nasally voice, dripping with indignation, responded, “Very well then, have it your way!”
The eye slot slammed shut and the party heard a faint rumbling noise. The floor under them began to shudder, groan and tilt forward. Rowan saw a gap opening between the floor and the stairs ahead and realized what was happening. He charged forward desperately, trying to reach the steps twenty paces distant. The slippery slime and muck underfoot gave little purchase.
Lew and Quintus followed Rowan’s lead. Lew nearly fell but managed to keep his balance on the sharply tilting floor. The sorcerer’s feet, however, flew out from under him before he had gone a dozen steps and he sprawled onto his face, losing his grip on Sextus in the process.
Quintus careened forward wildly on his stomach and chopped Lew’s legs out from under him as he slammed into the priest. Lew fell onto the sorcerer’s back and saw the limp form of Sextus hanging in midair. He made a desperate grab for the younger Scipio and managed catch the hem of his cloak before he and Quintus hurtled away.
(DM’s Note: Kris – Lew’s player – showed great presence of mind here. I made it pretty tough for him to do it, but he made both his touch attack roll and strength check to hang on, otherwise Sextus would have remained floating there!)
Rowan, staggering like a back alley drunk, was only five paces from safety. He gathered himself for a desperate leap before the angle of the floor made it impossible. ‘I think I can make it!’
Lew, riding Quintus like a sled, with Sextus trailing behind, hit the ranger at mid-thigh and sent him spinning out of control. They flashed past the stationary steps as the floor, acting like a giant fulcrum, tilted past 45 degrees and sent them sliding in darkness with ever increasing speed. As the quintet disappeared from view, high-pitched laughter chased them from above, urging them on.
To Be Continued…
Next: Session 16 (Part Two) – Of Bones and Marrow
~ Old One
Last edited:
Pillars of Hercules
First Post
Old One's Back!
Great to have you and the Faded Glory story hour back in business, Old One.
Man, the party is really desperate for a nap and some heal spells, eh?
Great to have you and the Faded Glory story hour back in business, Old One.
Man, the party is really desperate for a nap and some heal spells, eh?
Good to Be Back!
QB -
Thanks! It is good to back in action...their situation may be going from bad to worse
!
~ Old One
Quickbeam said:An excellent continuation of this fine tale. There just seems to be no relief or reprieve for our intrepid band of adventurers. You truly are worthy of the title RBDM Old One
QB -
Thanks! It is good to back in action...their situation may be going from bad to worse
!~ Old One
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