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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 905798" data-attributes="member: 5675">Yvgeny's 6th LetterTo His Eminence Pietr Orik,Temple of Ilmater,King’s Palace Square,Heliogabalus. Your Grace, I will continue straight on with the account of our travails in the stronghold of the Rudenheim’s as it ended in the previous letter. I will apologise in advance for lapses in grammar and narrative, for our enemies have sorely tested me—mentally as well as physically. I must count amongst these the staff I have attempted to mind-wrestle; this battle has proved the most tiring of all. I have a transcription of my tête-à-tête with this device, which I have included elsewhere in this report for your information. For now, I will restart my account with our taking a rest in the entrance of the stronghold… After getting an agreement with Khondar to appease the staff (I still cannot believe Khondar accepted this request; truly his behaviour is not as predictable as most dwarves!) it did condescend to offer limited help. We then continued with our watch until the sun’s rays lit the sky and it was time for prayers. We got a late start, allowing us some time to recover from the previous day’s hardships, then we returned to the room with the hole in the floor. Then, with a prayer to Ilmater, I joined the others in descending again into the hole; taking the steps back to the underground caverns. On arrival at the little river previously containing the merrow, we stopped. The cavern was dark; the ensconced torches having gone out some time before. We heard no sound, so I lit the end of the staff to facilitate vision for those not able to see in the dark. We waited on the path just beyond the river whilst Halbrinn, using the form of a bat, scouted the cavern. He returned to us to tell us that several ‘large living objects’ were waiting in the cavern below us; I instantly put out the light illuminating our position. (The green stone atop the staff continued to glow, however, and with hindsight, it was probably this that triggered the trap that was to come. I will discuss this later.) I also realised that we were in a vulnerable position: The cavern floor was rocky and the giant may be able to see in the dark too! We would be skittled off our narrow ledge in short order, if we didn’t move quickly. Indeed, as we were making decisions the giant threw rocks our way, fortunately none hit us. We therefore left the path, Miles and Stedd dropping to the floor of the cavern and following the rough edge of a wall for guidance, stepping quietly all the while. Khondar and I (both being blessed with night vision) continued along the path, which dropped at an angle to meet the cavern floor a small distance ahead. Adamo and Halbrinn opted to remain on the path, using as much of the ledge as possible as cover from the projectiles of the ogres and the giant. Our planned attack all came apart, however, when we were ambushed ourselves! Two ogres suddenly popped out of hiding, each lobbing a container of some burning, sticky material (pitch, as it turned out). The reason for this was not to burn us (although it did) but to describe our position to our enemies, which four ogres made use of immediately. All attacked Khondar, forming up in two ranks to fully exploit the reach of their huge halberds. Khondar went down very quickly, but the rest of the Crusaders were also swift to react, tumbling in around the ogres to make the job of finishing off the dwarf more difficult. I managed to stabilise Khondar with a simple healing spell, then demanded of the staff that it help me. It silently queried me why it should! I managed to get some aid from the thing, after promising that I would clean and polish it. Incredible! It gave me more minor healing and a suggestion: “Whack the thing,” referring to the giant. Doing so proved quite effective, delivering damage to the beast of some note. However, not enough: The giant returned the blow, which at this point in the battle was enough to plunge me into unconsciousness again! However, I was not the only one. All of our front-line fighters did not complete this fight standing: Khondar, Miles, Stedd and I all finished the battle on the floor, leaving it to Halbrinn and Adamo to complete the vanquishing of our foes. Halbrinn had uncovered a new weapon, apparently. He now has the ability to kill foes with a mere thought. I asked him how he achieves this: Apparently, he can create phantoms in the enemy’s mind, that makes it appear that his worst enemy is about to set on him. This can scare him so completely, that he simply dies on the spot! There is definitely more to the school of Illusion than meets the eye (pun intended, if you’ll forgive me, your eminence!) Anyway, this time it was decided that we would take an extended break. After revival, Khondar, Miles, Stedd and I were in such a state that we determined to take two whole days to recover, so we returned to the entrance yet again. There was hope that we had now broken the back of the ogre force inside the stronghold, having destroyed its leader and several of its most powerful minions… Not all, however, as our return was to reveal. On re-entering the cavern we had been stymied in twice, now, we discovered no living foes. Halbrinn again took the form of a bat, so as to scout the tunnel Miles had checked on our first incursion here, and returned with information regarding a many-headed beast, a huge be-chained giant and what appeared to be the rest of the Rudenheim clan. The many-headed beast was probably a hydra, we decided, but could make little of why a giant would be chained up. Either consideration was nothing compared to the information that there were still living dwarves here. Clearly, it was behoven of us to hurry to the rescue of the said dwarves, for it was certain they would be in poor health and delay would only bring additional deaths. We therefore straightway approached the caverns that the dwarves had been stationed in. Between the Rudenheims and us were the huge giant and it’s cronies, however, so we were obliged to deal with them first. The cave that this group were in was connected to the tunnels we were occupying by a narrow passageway. It was difficult to see how we could all approach, so we decided to send in a decoy to try and tempt them out. Miles chose this task himself, as he was clearly the best of the Crusaders at approaching unnoticed. His skill was such that he managed to get to within a dozen feet or so of a group of ogres, when one particularly eagle-eyed specimen managed to spot one of our group! It charged out, followed by diverse of its companions, leaving Miles stranded between the ogre commander and the ogre grunts, with us on the far side. The ogre grunts had not spotted Adamo, however, so he used this opportunity to enclose the rushing ogres in a mass of sticky webbing. Unfortunately, some loose strands managed to catch hold of me too. Whilst my friends prevaricated, I gave them permission to set fire to the webs, even though I was still stuck: Better a little injury through fire than to be held fast while foes beat you with impunity. With the webbing out the way, and just a little singeing to contend with, we joined battle with the ogres that were still alive. Miles had surprised the leader by now, and once he was dead, the other ogres soon capitulated without his guidance. None of us had taken much notice of the huge giant all this time. This was to change when we heard a dreadful clanging sound, and saw lengths of chain being catapulted across the floor: The giant had wrenched his bonds free of the hard stone cavern walls! We were now faced with a huge giant with two long, heavy chains for weapons, which was not an appetising thought by any means! Fortunately this giant, although even stronger than the others, was as stupid as a stump, and we managed to best it without anyone falling. The way was now free to help the Rudenheim dwarves. The dwarves had indeed rarely been fed, probably just enough to allow them to continue working the mines as slaves to the ogres. Halbrinn immediately offered to return to Dagger Falls via teleport to pick up food supplies, and requested the use of my ring of teleportation. Naturally, I agreed on the instant; seeing the poor state of these dwarves, there was no need to consider. However, the staff feellllt Damn, the staff has extennddddd INTERDICTION POLISH ME POLISHME POLISHMEPOLISHMEPOLISHMEP I cannot write or speak of it, not POLISHright now. I believe the staff is PPPOLIREVENTING ME. Today, I have control. Just looking at the preceding paragraph, it is obvious now that it was preventing me from describing events involving the dwarves, but it was not obvious at the time! The staff was gloaaattn GLOATING as I looked on the Rudenheim dwarves. It is now clear to me that this staff is a bane versus dwarves, and I have jeopardised our mission in clearing the ogres from the stronghold by removing it from our bag of holding. Still, it may yet prove useful in uncovering the power behind these ogres. I clearly have apologies to make to Khondar and his clan, once this is all over. We aided the Rudenheim dwarves, although the staff prevented me from entering the cavern to heal any of them. Halbrinn offered to teleport back to Dagger Falls to pick up some food for the obviously famished Rudenheims, and requested that I offer my ring of teleportation to facilitate this. Naturally, I proffered it on the instant, which I think helped to assuage the gnome’s opinion that I had been completely taken over by the staff: It would appear that the gnome overheard my conversation with the thing. Not to worry; Halbrinn is certainly trustworthy, as indicated by his rapid offer of help to the dwarves. I further offered reassurances by providing some of the gold required for the purchase of victuals appreciable to dwarves, as did all the others, to their credit. So, within a matter of hours the dwarves had food and ale, and we were able to turn our attention to the last remaining beast in these caverns preventing us from further exploration. The first item on the agenda was to discover whether we were truly facing a hydra. To this end, we approached the lair of the beast with due caution, until we were faced with a ledge of some twenty foot or so. This appeared to be the demarcation point for which area belonged to ogres, and which area belonged to the beast: Probably, the beast could not climb this ledge easily. Adamo scouted into the cavern, protected by the requisite spells to ensure he was not easily uncovered. When he returned he gave us the news: It was indeed a hydra, with seven heads. However, it was also orange in colour, marking it out as a non-standard member of its species. Recalling old legends, more than one of us voiced our concerns: This was probably a fire-breathing specimen, a pyrohydra! Immediately, we adjusted our battle plan: We would need a weapon with a cold edge, and we would have to avoid using fire in any spells. Fortunately, Khondar had just the weapon, an axe wreathed in cold flames. So, we planned to attack the hydra with ranged weapons, weakening it as much as possible, before unleashing Khondar and his axe on it. We had not stopped to fully mull over all the legends on pyrohydras, however, as we were to find out! Our first mistake was to approach without enough caution, attracting the hydra’s attention before we were in position. Therefore, we only got a few projectiles launched before it was upon us. It used one group of heads to breathe in one direction along the ledge, and the other group to breathe in the other, thus negating our ruse of spreading out to fill the cavern opening. I was quick enough to dodge the fire, but not every one was so lucky. Additionally, my sharp eye had spotted something the others appeared not to have noticed: The wounds from our sling stones and arrows had already gone in the mere seconds it took to reach the ledge! Worrying that it could heal faster than we could injure it, I immediately called for a retreat. But the rest of the Crusaders had entered gung-ho mode now, and ignored me. Khondar gave out a battle cry then jumped from the ledge, axe trailing cold blue fire as he swung it in a massive overhand arc to connect with the beast. And connect it did, and how! A massive chunk of flesh should have been gouged from the beast’s breast… But the meat did not fall away: The wound had healed on the instant the blade passed through it, leaving no discernable damage in its wake! At this point, I started to worry. Already the battle had turned against the Crusaders who had jumped from the ledge: Miles had followed Khondar to the floor of the hydra’s cavern, and had been flattened by the beast for his audacity. My first thought was to ensure that my comrades could return, so I went to Stedd’s pack for the magical rope that was there. Before I had a chance to remove it, however, Stedd had jumped down to the cavern floor, to circle around the hydra and punish it in a pincer. Adamo also returned to the fray at this point (having been severely burned in the hydra’s first flame attack) and conjured one of his strange beasts to do battle with the hydra. Halbrinn too was attempting to weaken the creature with spells, but it was not obvious whether any of the damage was having a permanent effect. Finally, with enough distractions, Khondar was able to scoop Miles up and attempt to climb the ledge. From all the growling and grunting, I would opine that he had forced himself into a towering anger, the better to charge up the twenty foot wall, and, by Ilmater, he achieved both! In a matter of seconds, the dwarf had scaled the distance, fully laden with two sets of equipment and Miles, too! With the stricken Miles now out of the mauling range of the beast, we chose to gracefully retreat at this point, Stedd quickly extricating himself from battle, leaving Adamo’s summoned thing to suffer the brunt of the hydra’s ire. Thence, we adjourned to the cavern of the dwarves, the better for me to treat the burns and wounds of the group, and for us to plan a better strategy. At this point I feel I should mention the usefulness of formian workers, as they are creatures I am sure we have overlooked in terms of their ability to heal. Apparently, if it is possible to gather a crew of eight together, you can get them to heal wounds of a serious nature. This applies to the summoned formians of the alternate planes, too, as I saw when Adamo called on some to help heal Miles. Triad be praised, Adamo’s spell did not go awry this time, although it does require at least two castings of the summoning spell to bring enough formian workers to perform the curing. It is useful to know that spell casters can provide healing, if they have the wisdom to memorise the right conjurations. Perhaps I will enlist the help of Adamo, the next time we visit a deprived area! We discussed with the dwarves whether the hydra had any weaknesses. Between them and ourselves, we managed to recall some details that would help us. The dwarves, with the wisdom of older minds, remembered that certain types of hydra could not be injured excepting the removal of all their heads. However, they added a warning to this: The heads would grow back in mere seconds if the stump were not seared by fire or withered with acid. However, we knew that this hydra was resistant to fire, so only acid would be any use! Halbrinn and Adamo were of the opinion that certain types of magic could also be used, but only potent types that kill instantly, so luck would be required as not many of those types of spells were available to us. We took stock: The dwarves were in no condition to fight, and Khondar was the only one of our group who typically wielded a weapon large enough to sever heads in a single blow. Miles was of the opinion that if he could catch the thing off guard, he could deal a blow of such severity with one of his swords that he could drop the thing on the instant. Quite how he could perform such a miracle with a blade of about a foot and a half in length versus a hydra standing twenty-odd foot tall was beyond my ken. Clearly, he has some mystical slaying ability (I just hope he only puts it to ‘good’ use!) Stedd and myself were best with our fists, and bludgeoning weapons would not remove heads easily. I voiced the opinion that perhaps this battle was not to be won, and we should attempt subterfuge to circumvent the beast entirely. This was decided as the best plan, with slaying spells to be used as a last resort. Miles was still not happy, however. It seems the beast had kindled his fighting spirit more than the ogres had: I certainly detected none of the reticence that had been in evidence since our arrival at the stronghold. Still, considering the hydra had flattened him swiftest in our previous battle, I guess he felt some payback was in order! So, after taking some time to rest and then to sleep, we made our preparations and then returned to the hydra’s lair. We had decided to use illusions and silence. I would provide a focal point for a silence spell to cover any noise as we crept about the cavern, while Halbrinn would set up a distracting illusion to draw the hydra away from our path. We approached to the ledge and then crept down, circling the cavern by following the wall with our left hands (it appeared this cavern was roughly circular—information from the dwarves). The hydra was attracted by our approach, using scent I assume. Our scent was quickly covered by Halbrinn, however, as he set up an illusion, with all the requisite olfactory components, of dire boars on the ledge behind us. Arriving at a door in the wall of the cavern, we quickly ducked inside, only to realise that Miles had dropped back to stay in a short, blind side tunnel that we had passed. Determining that he had a purpose, we left him to it, and explored the room we had entered. Luck was not with us, however. There was little in the way of anything of interest, this being nothing but a storage area for mining equipment. We now had to quickly decide what to do, as the hydra would soon be finishing its boar snack, and would be sniffing us out. Glad of the opportunity to escape the confines of the storage cave, I took a quick peek back out into the hydra’s lair, using the remains of my silence spell to cover the noise. Indeed, the hydra had given up on the boars: The spell had already dissipated. It could certainly sniff us out, however, although it appeared to be taking most interest in the tunnel that Miles had hid in. We had to act fast, or the beast would incinerate Miles where he hid (unless it already had; the sniffing would indicate otherwise though). We quickly formulated a plan to try and distract the hydra again, whilst simultaneously crossing the cavern to the only other exit we knew of. The silence spell had now faded, so we simply left the cave we were in at full speed, knowing that we were unlikely to remain undetected for long, anyway. Sure enough, the hydra took immediate interest, catching Adamo with several bites, even though he was invisible. Fortunately, I had been watching Adamo as he faded from sight, and invisibility doesn’t hide sprays of blood, or the thump of a body hitting the ground. Calling on Ilmater for strength, and deliverance from fire and tooth, I charged from the cavern and scooped up Adamo even as I ran. A maw knocked me sideways as I passed the beast, but it was insufficient to check my momentum, and I continued until I was well clear of the threat range of the hydra. There, I jabbed the wand of curing into Adamo back as he rested over my shoulder, and muttered the phrase of spell release. Setting Adamo down, I slapped at where I guessed his face to be, hitting him hard on the nose. That woke him up! In the meantime, Halbrinn had taken to the air in the form of a pixie! Dancing on air, out of reach of the hydra, he swooped in to deliver his ‘visions of death’ spell. We all held our breath, as the hydra began acting strangely… Then it keeled over! I hesitate to name the horrors that a regenerating pyrohydra would see in its mind’s eye, but whatever it was, the spell drew them forth, and the hydra died. With the beast vanquished, we all took a well earned breather, then explored the cavern of the hydra, finding many things of interest in the process, as well as the usual treasure. I then took the opportunity to complete my report, which is the missive that I have just completed and you are reading! So, we have one more exit from this cavern to explore, and then we can declare the second level of the Rudenheim stronghold secured. However, I do not count my vegetables before they are dug, as many a late frost has shown the wisdom of! So, I will ensure that the Clearwater Crusaders proceed with caution, your eminence, as I am sure you would be disappointed if the tale ended here! Yours, as ever,Yvgeny. P.S. I hear you are taking a tour of the provinces, so I will direct future missives to the Temple in Trailsend. Your eminence, once you arrive there, I would beg a boon of you. If you could retrieve any information from the Trailsend secret service concerning one Yuri Grigorsson I would be grateful indeed. He is deep throat as a slave in Thay, and I would fervently wish to hear anything he has found regarding my sister. Thanking you with the highest regards, your eminence. And look out for orcs when you travel to Ironspur; they favour this time of year for ambushes! Ilmater save the King.</blockquote>

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