Diaglo's Latest Debaucle - Rogue's Run

[biorph]

Spider Spider Burning Bright

The party managed to make quick work of the beasts, which was good because their bites dissolved flesh. There were 5 of them and 6 of the party. Omar and Ruen each held their own, but Solafien needed help. Apparently his training as an assassin in no way prepared him to deal with a spider. “What a useless assassin Kem thought to himself, he couldn’t hit the broadside of the palace with a can of paint.” Kahlil and Kem ended up having to do most of the work to save the assassin’s bacon. Everyone else was managing to hold their own. As Kem expected the assassin with the big swords had no ability to use them try to hit the spider though he might. When Kem and Kahlil finished off theirs, Kem moved over to help Omar finish off the others, not that the half-orc needed the help. Apparently his training in the guild of Warmongers was quite accomplished. They had managed to kill the last one just as it was trying to escape. When the battle was over the assassin was crying like a kid with a skinned knee, Kem found it amusing that the elf, the oldest one in the party, was acting like he was younger than Kahlil. When Omar took care of everyone’s wounds, Kem had an idea. Perhaps the key they sought was at the spiders’ nest. Kem had Kahlil retrieve a torch from his backpack then lit the web on fire. Sure enough in a few seconds, the entire forest was alight with trails of fire, like a network of black powder fuses, followed by a deafening BOOM! Even at this distance they could see a large fire in what must have been the spiders’ nest. Eager not to waste time, they hurried to the source of the fire before it burned itself out. Before they headed off, Solafien quickly took the poison glands from the dead spiders, eager to give any survivors a taste of their own medicine.

They delved into the jungle, creating their own trial, since none existed, using only the still burning nest to guide them. As they approached the scene was one of absolute carnage. Charred flesh lay everywhere. Bits and pieces of spider parts lay strewn about the ground, as though the fires has caused the spinnerets of the spiders to explode, thus blowing up the spiders themselves. However on the ground still moving even after an explosion which denuded all the trees for five hundred feet around, there lay the queen, menace in her eyes, and 4 of her deadly legs beckoning, as if to welcome the rogues. It was at this point that Solafien tried to put it out of it’s misery…by walking up to it and pointing a weapon at it. The rest of the action was a blur, but Sargazzo and Ruen did most of the work and helped rescuer the assassin after the queen had him pinned and was trying to bite off his head. Kem took a few good whack at her and Kahlil and Zyff sent a few arrows it’s way, while Omar inspired them all. Solafien stood there and whined about how he couldnn’t move and how all the money in his pouch better still be there after he got unstuck from Kahlil. Even thought it was a rough battle but by the end of it everyone was thankfully still alive, even if the cobwebs the queen shot, did bind Kahlil and Solafien closer than most newlyweds on their honeymoon.

 

[biorph]

Knock Knock

When the party had rested for the night they still had no idea what to do or how to leave the jungle. They really had only one clue. Something Sargazzo had noticed on his watch. The sun never set here. It never seemed to move in fact. Kahlil suggested that perhaps something had happened to the stones while they slept. Solafien was the tracker, but again the assassin proved unable to perform even the simplest of tasks. As they tried to head back to the clearing they had entered they ended up only further in the jungle. The fog thickened here, until eventually it was almost impossible to see your hand in front of your face let alone the rest of the party. Solafien was lucky he had decent reflexes as he managed to catch himself before the land they were walking almost blindly on suddenly stopped short into a set of stairs. With no other option presenting itself, they decided to follow the stairs. Thankfully as they descended the fog thinned. And they could see that they were entering some sort of a canyon. At the end of the canyon were a set of 20 foot tall stone doors as wide as the canyon itself. However no keyhole openings or other mechanisms presented themselves for a means by which to open the door. Omar suggested Kahlil try the chime of opening they had found in one of their treasure hordes. Kahlil took the chime out and rang. A second later the entire party ran out of the way as a the large doors fell outward into the canyon nearly crushing the party, thankfully everyone managed to get out without being trapped. Beyond the doors lay a strange sight. A wall of solid blackness, much like the hemisphere of blackness they had used to enter this jungle. Was this another teleportation device? Should they all go through this one as they did the first? Their questions were answered when three giant sized arrows flew out of the darkness toward the party two of them hitting Ruen square in the chest.

 

[biorph]

eep

{deleted repeat}

 

[biorph]

Behind Black Walls

Pinned down by the arrows, no one was sure what to do. Solafioen as usual withdrew. Zyff and Kem climbed the canyon walls high into the fog to avoid being seen by the archer behind the black wall. Sargazzo and Ruen both charge into the darkness. Neither of them said anything. But a few more straw arrows hit the walls. A few second later Ruen came out badly wounded with even more arrows sticking out of him now. He fell prone trying to get to safety from the archer’s attacks. Kahlil apparently fearing for the half orc, rushed into the blackness. The boy cried out “MEDUSAS! LOOK AWAY!” before there was a loud scream and the sound of a thump hitting the ground. “This is going badly, Kem thought to himself. We need to end this quickly, whatever a medusa is it’s too good with those arrows. Kem slid down the wall and moved through the blackness. He took Kahlil’s advice and looked at the ground as much as he could. He saw Kahlil slumped on the ground, injured but his wounds were still bleeding. There were three other sets of legs, the half-orc’s and two covered in scales. He moved over to Kahlil’s prone form, he had apparently taken the brunt of the arrows. He managed to stop the bleeding, and called out to Omar that they had a man down. As the bard rushed in he dared a look at the half-orc. Sargazzo was bleeding badly, but s was the snake haired archer. The other set of legs belonged to a monk Sargasso was having trouble hitting. Kem knew he needed to take some pressure off the half orc and moved to engage the bowwoman. She was ready for him though and move out of his reach just in time to fill Kem full of arrows. The bow was bigger than she was but she wielded it masterfully. Kem knew that they needed to take her down quickly, he had felt something strange when he had looked at her, his heart almost seemed to stop but he fought it off. Whatever magic this woman had, it affected you just by looking at her. He called out to Sargazzo to cover him then did three standing back flips over the medusa to prevents her from being able to retreat further. Omar came rushing in and managed to get Kahlil awake again. The boy used his wand to fire off three missiles into the archer. Sargazzo moved opposite Kem and the archer was distracted enough to open her defense. The problem was, she still has some wall of force surrounding her, it was deflecting some of Sargazzo’s attacks. Thankfully one did manage to get through, but both Kem and Sargazzo were on their last legs. If the archer didn’t fall soon, both of them would. Kem fell back on an old trick he’d learned in the streets. Using his legs he knocked the medusa’s knees out from under her, and then summoning all his strength he brought his short sword crashing down upon her skull slicing it in twain. As the Medusa dies, her companion seemed to dissolve into nothing, leaving only a puddle of goo and some trinkets on the floor. Just them Solafien decided to join back in the fight, just in time to make Kem roll his eyes in disgust.

 

[biorph]

Rock-a-bye Baby

Omar and Kahlil healed the party using their wands. And they decided to proceed down the long hallway the medusa’s had obviously been guarding. Apparently, Solafien decided to put himself in harms way and take point for once. Kahlil followed after him, not trusting the assassin. The two had been sniping at one another since they had met. Kem had to admit, he was growing to respect MOST of the party. Solafien whispered that he heard some noise down the hall and he was going to investigate. Kahlil decided to follow him. They were both very difficult to see as they went down the corridor to the first opening on the right. A minute later it sounded like a fight was breaking out between the two of then “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU CAN’T KILL THEM!” they heard Kahlil’s voice shout. If Solafien replied they didn’t hear it. The rest of the party ran to see what the commotion was. As they entered they saw the two tussling in front of three bassinets. Apparently this was where the medusas had made their home, and it came complete with family. An argument broke out. Apparently Ruen and Solafien were all for killing the children so they wouldn’t be a burden; while Kem and Kahlil were dead set against such a thing happening. Thankfully Omar and Zyff proved the voice of reason before it came to blows. They reminded everyone that they still had life debts for training and shelter to pay off to the circle and the baby medusas went for a good price on the black market. They could put the medusas toward their debts to the circle easily and pay off a good portion of them. The circle would raise and train them like any of the other orphans they took in. Kem had no problem with this, though, Kahlil seemed a bit apprehensive but agreed anyway. Ruen and Solafien were more than willing to accept this agreement. Kem cut up some of the silks that were used for pillows and curtains and fashioned some crude carriers for the babies. He then made some little sleeping masks for them, Omar had mentioned that if you meet their gaze they can turn you to stone, which explained some of the decorations in the room, the 4 very lifelike statues that the medusa had apparently used for a clothes hamper. Unfortunately there was nothing the group could do for them now. The rest of the party searched the floor and walls while Kem searched the ceiling. He really wished that he wasn’t the one who always had to do that but apparently no on else had even THAT basic training either. Sometimes it was such a burden. Not that he got a thank you when he found the trap door hidden there.

 

[biorph]

Shafted

The door was locked and since Kem didn’t usually need to open locks, after all how many people locked their windows 5 stories in the air, they had no way to get the door open by normal methods. They brought out the chime of opening again. The door opened up into a shaft, the shaft left straight up with rungs set into the walls the help climbing…for those that needed them. Off to the side were two more openings. The whole place just radiated traps from Kems point of view, but Solafien and Ruen refused to listen. Kem figured that he’d better go and help them before they got themselves killed. As they climbed up, they decided to ignore the other passages for now and head on up. Kem’s instincts proved right when about 50 feet up he encountered a breakaway rung. Kem managed to catch himself on the wall. It was a good thing he was on point, otherwise one of the other two would be falling right now and probably breaking their neck. This didn’t bode well but he decided to continue onward for now. In another hundred feet, the rung came out of the wall again, but this time with a click. Kem watched in horror as they door at the bottom slide shut trapping them in.

Kem had had enough, He knew he was right and given the height of this shaft he had a pretty good idea what the next trap was going to be, high and deadly. Kem slid down the wall past Solafien and Ruen. “That’s it, I’ve had enough” he said “I know this music, and I’m stopping the band before they get to the finale. You all can get yourselves killed, I’m going to be trying to get out before we all die in here.” Solafien and Ruen shrugged and continued climbing. Kem waited at the bottom sitting on the trap door, trying to get the attention of the rest of the party. He was hardly surprised when about a minute later all the rungs snapped back into the walls and he heard the screams of Solafien and Ruen falling down the now smooth shaft. Ruen had managed to catch himself, but the assassin fell the whole way and landed hard. Kem smiled an ‘I told you so’ at the assassin and helped him up. All of the healing was on the other side of the trap door however. The assassin though injured was undeterred by the smug acrobat and began free climbing the walls back up. Ruen and Solafien met in one of the off shoot passages and decided to explore those rather than try to free climb all the way to the top. Sensing what was coming next from this comedy pair of rouges he started pounding harder on the trap door for his party to find some way to let him out before these two ended up getting him killed. He could hear Ruen and Solafien talking to each other as they crawled down the side shafts. Kem continued to pound away at the door. Apparently the rest of the party had Kahlil standing on Sargazzo’s shoulders trying to open the door but it wasn’t working. “Hey what’s this door in the floor?” he heard Ruen’s voice echo. “I don’t know said Solafien, let me check it for traps.” A few seconds later Solafien said “It doesn’t appear to be trapped, but there is a strange clicking noised coming from behind it.” Kem’s face went white. He called out to the two to please wait until he was out before they got themselves killed setting off traps. They thought he was joking but agreed. Kem pounded furiously on the door until finally he heard a familiar *ting* and the door slid open. Apparently the chime had used all it’s charges, but Kem was glad they had one left to get him out. He braced himself against the wall so he wouldn’t fall and then dropped into the room with the rest of the party. He warned them away from the open hole and called out to the two of them in the shaft that they could go ahead now. Kem started counting to himself mentally. 3…”Hey the door’s stuck, help me Ruen” said Solafien. 2…”There’s that’s got it” said Ruen. 1…”What are these little black things, there’s a bunch of them,” said Solafien. “Aaaaaaaaand now” commented Kem to himself as screams started erupting from the shaft a moment later. “RUUUUUUUUN!” they heard Ruen shout as the echoes of clicking got louder and louder. In a minute they saw the source as thousands after thousands of beetles fell from the shaft splattering on impact when they fell the sixty feet into the ground of the room.there must have been a million of them total, the room was covered in much for almost a foot by the time the rain stopped. “Everyone okay?” Omar called up the shaft. “Fine” they replied in unison “sorry about that.”

 

[biorph]

Golden Showers and the Thought Police

Solafien had apparently learned his lesson, but Ruen still wanted to see what was at the top. Since he was willing to do it the hard way, no one really objected. As Ruen climbed up out of sight, 10 minutes later they heard what sounded like the ocean. And then with a sound like a wave crashing onto the shore coins began to pour out of the trap door in the ceiling. As they landed the bounced everywhere forcing the party to take the babies and take cover outside the room. After a few seconds the coins stopped. A minute later Ruen came down looking very pleased with himself. “Grab all you can guys, it’s all for us.” He said. The party wasted no time filling their pockets witch as much gold as possible. They even pried up the coins covered in bug guts from the beetles. When they finished they found they had over fifty pounds worth of gold. Even Kem had to admit, Ruen’s instincts had been right on, and it was certainly more than generous of him to share his treasure with them. They would have gone back for more, but the shaft had sealed once Ruen left, and no one felt like trying to open it again.

Gold and children in hand the party continued further down the corridor. They avoided a collapsing ceiling and reached what appeared to be a dead end. He was hearing voices in his mind, but only for a few seconds. He got an image in his mind of Ruen grabbing a giant diamond and a room with a sarcophagus. He asked Ruen “Where did you find a giant diamond” and the warmonger got all edgy and defensive. The party erupted into an argument about who heard what and what was going on. Apparently Kem was not the only one hearing the thoughts of others. And when Omar tried a healing spell, all the wounded people in the party received healing instead of just one. “Ruen piped up, I saw the outside of this place when I was up in the shaft, it’s a big pyramid. Maybe we’re under the apex now and that’s causing something to happen.” “I’m more interested in this giant diamond you saw while up there,” said Kem “What happened to it?” “I left it there” said Ruen, “You’re free to go back and try to get it if you want.” Kem wasn’t sure that he believed the rogue but let the matter drop. After much arguing the party eventually decided to try their way to the top of the pyramid and see if anything was there.

 

[biorph]

Soak up the Sun

The party made their way out of the pyramid and back into the box canyon. They tied together all the ropes they had and Zyff tried to fly to the top of the pyramid. While he was gone, Omar shared a secret with the party. “I don’t think we should trust our friend Zyff, I think he’s a demon in disguise, back in the pyramid I read his mind.” Kem wasn’t sure what to think but he wanted confirmation of this. A thought stealer accusing a face dancer of deceit was certainly the pot calling the kettle black.

(OOC note: Thought Stealers and Face Dancers are two of the fellowships in the thieves guild we are all part of. Thought stealers are just that interrogators and secret finders. Face Dancer are like the spy masters and infiltrators. Zyff is a face dancer and Omar is a thought stealer. Both are masters of deception)

When Zyff returned Kem asked him flat out “So Zyff, what’s this Omar tells us about you being some sort of evil demon? Is that why you have wings?”

“Zyf looked shocked as he responded. “I’m not evil” he said “Although the blood of the infernal does run thick in my veins, I’m no different than others of ‘mixed’ parentage.” He said looking meaningfully at Solafien.

“Are you implying something Zyff?” Solafien asked his hands going to the two swords at his belt.

“Only that you didn’t seem to have a problem in that shaft when the lights went out after the door closed, or in any of the rooms where it was hard to see. Most elves do well with little light, but few do well with none at all. So maybe I’m not the only one of mixed parentage here is all I’m saying.”

“Whatever” said Kahlil impatiently, “did you find the top? What’s up there?”

“The fog breaks about fifty feet below the apex of the pyramid. The sun is up there, at the top of the pyramid, but it’s not hot, it just provides a lot of light, it doesn’t even hurt to look at.”

Using Ziff’s immoveable rod, and some pitons from Kahlil’s climbing kit they made their way up to the top of the pyramid. The light was unusual, it seemed an almost solid sphere. Like the wall of darkness below but in reverse. No one really wanted to go in, but Ruen thought he would try it. After about a minute, the entire world went black, like nightfall all in a second. Sargazzo whispered something to Omar and the bard looked at Ruen. “What’s that you put in your pack?” he asked, “It looks like a large rock.” Everyone turned to look at Ruen. He didn’t deny it, and took out a giant diamond that was gently glowing.

“Hey, you found one of the keys” said Kem

“Why do you think that?” Said Ruen

“It’s a big diamond that holds the sun of this entire section, it just screams KEY to me.”

With the sun out, they saw a pedestal where the sun was, it looked like it was able to hold a large object.

“Is that where what was holding it?” asked Kahlil “This whole thing was lit buy a big diamond?”

“No” replied Ruen “I found this at the top of the shaft, I figured since I let you guys keep the gold, it seemed more than fair for me to keep this.”

As they argued the whole party was starting to notice that with the lights out a whole new set of sounds were starting to come out of the jungle, and most of them sounded like thay came from hungry or angry animals.

“We still don’t know what to do, and we can barely see” said Omar he pulled out his lamp said rubbed it saying “I wish for light.” As the small flame came up Omar seemed transfixed for a minute staring into it. Then he moved to put the lamp away carefully and said, “I’ve had an idea, I think we should head back to the clearing and see what happens, I think something will have changed now that the sun is down.

“But how do we know if we’ve found all the key for this section yet?” asked Solafien

“Let’s just ask” said Omar and he called out “I’m going to use my one question now. How many keys do we have left to find.?”

“You have 3 keys left to find.” Said a voice from all around them.

“Three?” said the entire party in unison.

“I guess that statue with the unidentifiable aura from when we fought the snake thing was the first one.” Said Kem “Hey we’ve already found two and not even a day has passed, we’re in luck, let’s hope it lasts.”

The entire party was hoping it would last as they slowly descended the pyramid in the darkness.

 

[biorph]

There and Back Again

The group made their way back to their trail, hoping to find where they had gotten lost the first time. The air around them was full of noise, this jungle definitely came to life at night. Solafien couldn’t find the trail back to the clearing, but strangely Ruen could. When he tried to show everyone else the tracks and no one could see them it became obvious that they were being mislead by magic.

There when they entered the clearing there was no denying something had changed. The entire place was softly lit by the four stones in the trees. But even as they entered the clearing they still weren’t quite sure what to do. Kem suggested taking the diamond out but o no one listened to him. In frustration Ruen called out “I am using my one question now! How do we leave this area?!” And all around them a voice spoke “The sun must rise again.”

Taking that literally the party trudged back to the top of the pyramid, and replaced the stone restoring light to the jungle. But nothing happened. They then returned to the clearing, but again, nothing happened. Kem tried suggesting again “Why don’t we try shining the light in the clearing, maybe that will do something, we’re out of other ideas.”

The party with no other options, readily available agreed, and once again went back to the top of the pyramid to retrieve the diamond. The returned to the clearing with it and found the tree stones glowing once again. When they took the diamond out they entire light of the full sun filled the clearing, not the soft light that they normally saw when they pulled out the diamond. In an instant the party felt the pull of teleportation again and found themselves back in the center room where they had begun with the diamond glowing softly once again.

 

[biorph]

What's Behind Door Number 2

“Okay” said Kem, “we’re down one section and two keys, which one’s next?”

“Let’s try behind the bone door” suggested Solafien “I got all the way to the end of the trapped hallway and the second door.”

“Great” said omar, “so is it locked?”

“Umm…” replied the assassin.

“is it unlocked” as Ruen?

“wellll….” Replied the assassin

Kem could feel the beginning of a pounding in his head. He wondered if this was one of those ‘migraines’ some of the magically inclined acrobats talked about. “You forgot to check didn’t you?” he asked?

“Well I was a little busy dodging the poisoned darts at the time,” said Solafien “Let’s see how clearly you’re thinking when you have 80 darts whizzing at your head Monkeyboy McPoofypants”

Kem just continued to rub his temples like he’d seen others do. “It’s irrelevant now, we’ll need to get past it eventually, we may as well do this one next, at least we know the way past the traps in this corridor…don’t we?”

“Yeah” replied the assassin sarcastically, “don’t get hit, that technical enough for you?”

“Maybe it’s another pressure plate trap” suggested Zyff trying to keep the peace “Why don’t we use the immovable rod again and make a bridge like before.”

“Fine” said Solafien “Why don’t I go since I have the most experience in the room anyway.”

“I’d better go with you” said Ruen “Just in case there is something waiting on the other side of the door.”

The two went out of sight expertly dodging the hail of darts that came at them from the walls.

“Look at this.” Said Kem picking up a dart. “They look poisoned, but they aren’t real. The minute you blink they disappear.”

“Interesting” said Omar “Illusions, perhaps we should tell our friends about them?”

“I don’t think it matters now” said Kahlil, “I think they’re there.”

Indeed Sargazzo, gave Omar the ‘thumbs up’ to indicate they were okay. But then a look of concern crossed his face. He quickly started signing something to Omar.

“What’s that?” said Kahlil being a smartass, “Little Timmy’s trapped in the well?”

“Sargazzo sees something, but he’s not sure what” said Omar “But something’s wrong.”

In a minute they all heard it, it sounded like some sort of chopping, not like steel on steel, but metal on sticks or…bone? Just in case, Omar started singing. Then they started hearing shouts of pain, but in a seconds it stopped.

“We’re through the door” called out Solafien “You guys have gotta see this.”