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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2643227" data-attributes="member: 1210">A Brief SynopsisOur heroes are a group of adventurers from a small village (pop. 149) named Whitewater.  This village lies on the banks of a river in the Barony of Kamenda.  Upstream from Whitewater is the Goblin Gorge, an area long home to several clans of goblins.  Recently, a raiding party of goblins stole a bunch of goats from the Cooker Ranch in town, and our heroes (who include both the sheriff and the local petty knight’s son) followed their trail.  They parlayed, and in the discussion that ensued the party ascertained that the goblins had been driven from the southern side of the gorge by a terrible monster that had come from a ruin of the elves (who are nowhere to be found in this setting- they have long since disappeared, though ‘elfbloods’ (of mixed elven/human heritage) abound).  Our heroes slew the monster from the ruin as well as a cyst full of terrible, semi-humanoid creatures.  They destroyed the terrible cyst and have now moved forth to the elf-ruins, where they have encountered a vine that tried to strangle the sheriff in the garden, a pair of flying heads and, just a moment ago, a group of elven skeletons that assembled themselves from an ossuary, where most of the party now stands, catching its collective breath.  Two members of the party (Cur and Otis) are unconscious, but the others have just decided to press on for one more room.And so it is that, after determining that the ossuary has no other exits, our heroes return to the chamber which led them to it.  Back past the crypts they walk, and when they come back into the chamber with the eerie blue glow half-illuminating it, they can’t help but wonder: what’s behind that door with the seal?  Is it another of the terrible fire-monsters... or something worse?Well, they certainly don’t need to open it right now.  In fact, it seems that leaving it shut is their best strategy towards the door.  There are, however, both another door and another passage.  The party chooses the passage.  The last thing they need is something coming up on them from behind.  The passage winds about 30’ and then opens up into a rounded room with a locked chest in it.  “Treathure!” proclaims Sir Cedric.“I can probably open the lock,” volunteers Kyle.  There is a chorus of encouragement, and he moves cautiously forward.  He pulls out a pair of lockpicks.  The thought of a few coins makes him salivate.*  He leans forward, his remaining eye sweeping over the side of the chest looking for signs of traps.Then it punches him in the face and his lights go out.“What the hell?!” shouts Dahlia.The chest seems able to produce a pseudopod, and a single blow has done for Kyle.  But the others are not helpless.  Sir Cedric charges, landing a mighty blow from his sword, but to his chagrin the sword sticks to the chest!  Abruptly, he realizes how wounded he is, and starts pulling back.  Cara, meanwhile, dashes forward and takes hold of Kyle’s bleeding form and pulls him away from the killer chest.  As soon as she has a little distance, she drops Kyle to the ground and draws out her bow.  Cedric moves to stabilize Kyle while Dahlia launches a sling bullet and, though it doesn’t seem to hurt the thing, it sticks to it. “Uh-oh,” she says, just as its pseudopod swings around and smashes into the side of her head.  She grunts and staggers- but she’s stuck to it!  She gives a cry of fear and pain as it jerks her to it!Cedric cries, “By the power of my pinkie finger!”  He draws his battle axe and rushes forward, striking the chest again, and his axe, too, is stuck to it.  He gives an inchoate cry of rage and struggles to free it, but the chest throws him off, simultaneously crushing Dahlia.  Arrows ping off it until finally, with a curse, Cara rushes it with her rapier.  She gulps, seeing it crush Dahlia into bloody unconsciousness, and thrusts.  Though she pricks it, her blade sticks to it and is pulled free from her hands.  Grimacing, she tumbles away and whips out her bow.  A perfect shot.It pierces the chest in the middle of its body, and who knows what anatomy a chest might have; but it hits something important, something vital.  The chest gives out a strange high-pitched wailing yap and then sort of slumps.  Cedric acts fast, immediately attempting to stabilize Dahlia, and thanks Clymorian silently for his knightly training in first aid.  Once again he has preserved the life of one of his friends. He and Cara glance at each other wanly.  The ‘one more room’ was almost the death of them all.  Over the next few minutes, they bandage their friends, free weapons (and Dahlia) that are stuck to the chest, and are surprised to find that the chest actually does conceal coins. Cara gapes.  “I... I’ve never seen so much money!”“Indeed,” Sir Cedric says solemnly.  “It ith a treathure haul fit for a king.”“There must be... hundreds of gold pieces there.”Indeed.  A count determines that there are 1000 sp, 400 gp, 2 opals (which Kyle later appraises at about 75 gp each) and a bolt of phase spider silk (worth around 25 gp, the bolt weighs around 20 lbs).“We could retire,” suggests Cara. “Wait until we tell the otherth!” ejaculates Cedric.“Well, before anything else can happen, we need to rest,” Cara states.  “It’s time.”The couple retreats.  Cedric and Cara haul their friends in stages, going back to the upper level of the ruin.  The sun winks down on them from behind a thin sheet of clouds.  By the time they’ve lugged all their wounded friends back up through the trap door and out to the unenclosed areas again, a nap has never sounded so good.Over the next couple of days our heroes restore their strength.  Gradually they come around, one or two at a time, and once Dahlia awakes she hunts down what berries she can and uses her nature magic to create goodberries.Finally, our heroes feel well enough to continue exploring.  Before they return below, however, they decide to check out whatever is singing.  They have marked the location of the short ascent to the area from which the singing seems to be coming previously, and now they go back to it.  Before they ascend, Cedric plugs his ears (and takes a shot of liquor, to ‘fortify’ himself).  When the party moves up the stairs, they find a disgusting creature nesting atop the walls of the ruin.  Half old woman and half vulture, she instantly begins singing- and one by one, most of our heroes stop moving, entranced.  Then another voice springs up, laying across the vulture-woman’s song.  It breaks the rhythm, interrupts the flow.  Cara’s countersong tears the rest of the party’s attention from the vulture-woman.  A moment later and sling stones and arrows begins zinging at her.  She slices at Kyle once with a dagger, but already she is taking significant damage from the missiles.  Her face changes; fear replaces avarice, and she spreads her filthy, feces-coated wings and takes to the air. Swiftly, she wings to the edge of the ruin and drops below “She’s getting away!” cries Cur.  “After her!” cries Kyle.The party rushes back down the short stair, then to the entrance of the ruin.  It isn’t that far; they’re hoping to at least get a few shots in with their bows before she’s completely out of range.But to our heroes’ surprise, just outside the ruin is a group of people, waiting in what looks kind of like an ambush.Next Time: Enter- the Keepers of the Cerulean Sign!*The Year 272 Campaign has a very low treasure yield.  So far (i.e. to where we’ve played) the party doesn’t have a magic item, though it briefly had the scroll that Otis got.  The party’s total coin intake by this time in the story hour had prolly been around 200 gp plus a masterwork weapon.</blockquote>

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