Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1086822" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Beginning of A Proud Tradition: Gnome on a Rope!When our ‘heroes’ (villains, more like, but the needs of narrative must win out) descended to the Coral Caves a second time, minus Dexter, were joined by two of Drake’s men again (although Sh!Larn declined to join them this time).  One, a dwarf who fancied himself a dread pirate, was named Roberts.  His massive forearms were tattooed with anchors; he was immensely strong.* The other was another elf, this one a mage of some small skill named Urick.  The entire group quaffed water breathing potions and descended over the side of the ship, swimming back to the caves below.Through the chamber where they’d slain the drowned ones our heroes descended.  There were two passages out of it; after a small amount of discussion, Roberts said, “I’ll scout ahead using my infravision.  Here, tie this rope to me; if there’s trouble I’ll tug on it.”  So saying, he sealed his fate.  Roberts went on ahead alone, never even noted the dangers inherent in the strangleweed in the next chamber and was promptly constricted to death by it while he was surprised; he never even had a chance to roll for initiative.  Thus began the long tradition now known as Gnome On A Rope in my campaign.A few impatient minutes later the rest of the party tugged on the rope, but to no avail.  It was completely taut, and it wasn’t moving at all.  Lyr and Urick scouted ahead after Roberts, but as soon as they saw his fate they turned back and rejoined the party.  “Strangleweed,” Lyr reported.  “We’d better go the other way.”The others agreed, and on their way they went- the other way, that is.  They encountered a weird psionic octopoid creature, but slew it before it could do more than activate its biofeedback power.  Advancing past a branching passage through the coral, they found a chamber with a downward-leading path lined with jagged coral sides.  It looked like it would be difficult, to say the least, getting past it; so they continued along their forward-leading path.  This took them shortly into another chamber, where they killed a giant crab and crowed that dinner would be good tonight.  More tunnels, leading ahead and below, and the group continued forward into a chamber full of horribly stale water, toxic to breathe, with many grimy-looking particles afloat in it. The next chamber was a larder.Floating within it they found a number of corpses, some of which had been gnawed at.  There were an aquatic elf, a dolphin, two sahuagin and a merellin.  Lyr poked about but since they were already dead she couldn’t very well sacrifice one to eat its heart or anything, so she left them be.  One more chamber completed their exploration of this corner of the Coral Caves.  It held what appeared to be a display of coral shaping artistry, with magnificently beautiful growths carefully shaped almost like a bonsai tree.  “Hmm,” Galiger said, “useless.  Maybe we should go back to the entrance and rethink our approach.” “There are other chambers we haven’t yet investigated,” Lyr pointed out, and he gave her a dirty look.  The group swam back to the entry chamber where they’d lost Oarin to gather their wits, and immediately Chanti cried a warning, pointing at the entrance.A fish-like creature was swimming in- no, dolphin-like.  It turned out to be another merellin, and as the group had already seen how helpful those cetacean-folk could be, they quickly made alliance, swimming to the surface to talk.  This one was Fliperandrax (Flipper for short), a priestess of the Sea Queen.  Once again Galiger found himself grateful to be in non-Galadorian religious company. “But what are you doing here?” Chanti inquired.“I’m looking for my brother,” Flipper told them, and immediately the rest of the group thought of the larder.  Shortly they showed the merellin corpse to Flipper, who was clearly shaken by the site.  It was indeed her brother, and she vowed vengeance in his name.  “Then let’s go,” cried Malford.  “Down below!”“Wait!” Chanti called.  “Before we go, let us sing a sea chanty!”  And they did, singing one of the chanties that Chanticleer had written.  Then it was back down with them...*Dexter’s player’s new character, strength (rolled in front of me) 18 (00).Next Time: The Conclusion of the Coral Caves!</blockquote>

Verification