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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ilgatto" data-source="post: 9786170" data-attributes="member: 86051">Duergar & Daemons Part XVII: Shrine of the DuergarIn which the DM informs our noble heroes that the rock troll has started regenerating and that they are actually seeing it happening in font of their very eyes.Night 154, continued: “I say, chaps,” Navarre says in some consternation, pointing to the wounds on the corpse of the rock troll, which seem to be closing. “What is going on there?”“What the hell?,” Sir Eber agrees. “Is it going to rise again?”“Should we take it to Dragon Point?,” Navarre suggests, taking a few steps back with the spectre of a never-ending fight before his mind’s eye. “Maybe the savants will know what to do with it?”“Perhaps you should send one of your team?,” the chevalier asks Sir Eber. “Inform the savants that there is a rock troll in their tunnel?”“That will take too long,” Sir Suvali says. “It’ll be as good as new in half an hour.”“We don’t want go alone,” some of the slaves say in halting tones. “We like take Lord Eber for protection.”“Scupper that,” Sir Oengus says. “Let’s bring it aboard and hurl it into the tent of the enemy on Apple Island.”And so, after some deliberation and at the instructions of Sir Suvali, the rock troll is stuffed into a barrel, and many spikes are hammered into it to ensure that it suffers continuous damage – effectively preventing it from regenerating.No, really.Next, after the chevalier has taken the saddle off the dead steeder and handed it to one of Sir Eber’s slaves, our noble heroes spend some time further inspecting their surroundings. Sir Suvali declares that the tunnel dug by the rock troll must lead duskward – in the direction of Apple Island, no less – and that the main tunnel therefore leads rimward. A close inspection of the walls of the main tunnel ahead reveals that they consist of strangely cohesive masses of rubble and gravel. The tunnel narrows to some four feet wide and high, just enough for duergar to pass through. Further down, they spy a stone archway of sorts, much like the wooden support one would expect in a mine.Facing the prospect of continuing in a single file – and crouching down at that – our noble heroes establish a new marching order: Sir Eber will lead with a lantern behind two of Sir Suvali’s dogs, followed by the chevalier, who has been on a bit of roll of late and has claimed the second line, and then Navarre, also with a lantern, Sir Suvali, Rodlu, and Sir Eber’s seven slaves. Sir Oengus will make up the rear guard.“All right up there all by your lonesome, Eber?” Navarre yells when the company start moving again.“Fantastic!,” the ranger yells back, twice, as he is about to enter the narrow section. The company spend about half an hour crouching and crawling, past rifts, crevices, crevasses, and cracks in the floor, walls, and ceiling until Sir Eber announces that he has reached a fork in the tunnel. A statue of a stylized duergar is cut out of the bedrock where the tunnel splits, its arms raised in support of what appear to be many strands of a spider’s web running along a stretch of the walls and ceiling of the tunnel the company are in and those of the section that continues to the left. He reports as much to his noble fellows behind him and has a good look down both tunnels, noticing that the one to the left is likely to be a continuation of the main tunnel and the one to the right some sort of geological fault connecting to it at a sharp angle.“Preferences?,” he yells over his shoulder.“Left,” Sir Suvali hollers.“What’s to port?,” Sir Oengus yells.“Looks like a fissure,” Sir Eber yells back. “Cracks, rough walls. Sees more use than the other.”“It is in the direction of the spidersilk clan,” the chevalier says, somewhat ruefully.“We can also go right and deal with the lot,” Sir Eber hollers, with more than a hint of eagerness in his voice.“Mon ami!,” the chevalier hastens to say. “On préfère to return to the surface.”“Tiens,” he continues more pensively. “We will have to leave the spidersilk for what it is.”And so the company take a left turn and continue on their way. The tunnel starts sloping up after some ten minutes and then widens another twenty-five minutes after that. Able to stand up straight once again, our noble heroes stretch their backs and legs and continue their journey to the surface. The walls remains cracked and torn for some time and it is obvious that the tunnel sees even less use than at any time before.“Way past eight bells, lubbers!,” Sir Oengus says after some time, yawning. “What ho! I says we drop anchor and batten down the hatches for the night!”“Is four days to Red Cave,” Rodlu says.“We were here before,” two of Sir Eber’s slaves venture, all but in unison.Navarre has another good look at the seven pale humans and, not for the first time, he realizes that he is going to have some trouble not inadvertently referring to them as asparagus at some point in the future.When, just about half an hour later, the company do decide to stop for the night as Sir Oengus suggested, one of Sir Suvali’s dogs on point suddenly growls, then yelps and dies. Four rodents the size of a dog each and with huge teeth have appeared, it seems, from nowhere, catching Sir Eber and the chevalier by surprise. It takes them a round to recover and, by then, the monstrous rodents are all over the front lines.But the noble duo make their attacks count as they start swinging their weapons and presently one of the creatures is cut down by Sir Eber, to their startled exclamations and ferocious squeaks of the remaining rodents. Navarre also manages to deliver a blow that counts, but it is not enough to kill his opponent and it retaliates with a critical hit, inflicting a grievous wound. Sir Eber and the chevalier continue to strike true and they each kill one of the rodents next, while Navarre struggles with his opponent once again, missing it on a “3” and fortunate not to be hit again. He remains on the back foot until the chevalier and Sir Eber join in the fray and the toothy rodent dies under their blows.“Bloody hell!,” Navarre exclaims, grimacing as he takes some painful steps. “Where did that come from?!”A quick inspection of the surroundings reveals some holes at ground level in the walls to the left and right. Not feeling much for crawling into the holes and running into more of the creatures in their own territory, and unwilling to risk further attack during the night, our noble heroes press on for some time. When they eventually make camp, Sir Eber pays the… his team some copper coins.“Thank you, Lord,” the slaves say, once again almost in unison.Watches are set after Navarre has quaffed his second potion of extra-healing and is feeling quite up-to-date again, with each of our noble heroes taking a shift in the company of one of Sir Eber’s slaves, who will be in charge of guarding the barrel with the rock troll and sticking a sword into it every now and then. The night passes without event.Night 155: After an early start, the company have been on the move for some four hours when the tunnel starts sloping up again and they enter a more humid area, the wall to their right even dripping with water. They haven’t covered fifty yards when they come across a set of double stone doors to their right, all straight and austere in style like most duergar doors. They advance with some caution and notice that the doors do not seem to shut properly – a faint green light can be seen shining through the narrowest of cracks between them.“Danger,” two of Sir Eber’s slaves venture when the company have regrouped.“Comment?,” the chevalier says. “Because?”“All who enter no leave,” the slaves say, shivering noticeably.“And what is there?,” the chevalier asks.“Temple of duergar. Do not enter. Nobody come out alive.”“Messieurs,” the chevalier says, turning to his noble companions. “It would seem that we have two choices. One, we open the doors. Two, we ignore them.”“Well, Eber?,” Navarre says, turning to his noble fellow when the latter does not proffer one of his belligerent suggestions nor, indeed, has already forcibly opened the doors. “What of it?”“Priests use spells,” Sir Eber says, glaring at a barely hidden smile from the chevalier. “Let Suvali decide.”“Mes amis,” the chevalier says. “I advise caution.”“Green light is evil,” the ranger says, when Sir Suvali doesn’t say a thing. “Things must be put right.”A vote is taken and when Sir Oengus, Sir Eber, and Sir Suvali quickly vote against moving on, the chevalier advances.“Allô?,” he calls, knocking on one of the doors. “Nous sommes des marchands! We request a parley…”His voice trails off as the door starts opening slowly, giving way, it seems, to his knocking. He sticks his head through the opening and sees a shallow vestibule giving into a cavernous room some forty yards across and with a domed ceiling fifteen yards overhead. It is permeated with a faint green twilight that seems to come from splotches of some phosphorescent growth on the walls and ceiling. A carpet of a strange, rubber-like grass, weed, or algae of some sort covers most of the floor, waving ever so slightly in a light, non-existent breeze. A tall tripod stands in the middle of the room, with a large spool of some kind attached to it, twelve foot long and six in diameter and with a rope coiled around it.“All-ô-ô-ô-ô-ô?,” he croons, inching into the vestibule. “Y a-t-il quelqu’un? Guests! Is there a farmer in the meadow?”To his right, he notices an opening in the wall of the cavernous room, with what seem to be three pillars taking up most of it. When there is no answer, he takes some tentative steps forward and calls again.Nothing stirs.He inches yet further into the vestibule and now Sir Eber also steps through the opening. Presently at the grass-like growth in the cavernous room, the chevalier gets on his knees and has a long look at it, noting that the grass does not reach all the way to the wall to his right, leaving, as it were, a walkway to and some way past the opening with pillars in it. He gets up and starts inching along the right wall toward the opening.“Archers!,” he yells to his noble companions in the tunnel.“Ready,” Sir Suvali replies, stepping into the vestibule and readying his bow.“Ready,” Sir Oengus replies, also slipping through the door and taking a position against the left wall, an arrow nocked to his bow.“All-ô-ô-ô-ô-ô?,” the intrepid chevalier tries once more, as he creeps further and further into the room. Or perhaps he is just testing the acoustics again – hard to tell.But still no answer comes and the chevalier advances further down the wall, soon noticing a second, utterly dark opening further down. When he reaches the first opening, the pillars he saw earlier turn out to be something like the duergar equivalent of caryatids, holding up the archway as they are and with snakes writhing around their arms.“Watch out for snakes”, he calls back to his noble fellows.“What,” Sir Oengus comes. “In the grass?”Behind the caryatids is another room, a cave-like affair containing an apparatus of some kind, an ornate altar of obvious and surpassing quality, a font-like structure underneath a cross-like contraption suspended from leather straps, all to his left. To his right is what looks to be a very well-equipped but basic workshop. At the back, more than half of the room is taken up by a pool.“Allô?,” he calls yet again. “I speak to the invisible person in the room! Have no fear! We are but merchants! You can show yourself!”But all remains quiet. He has another look into the atelier cum temple behind the caryatids and finds no signs of prolonged disuse. No dust or debris on the floor, altar, or workbench, no corrosion on any of the metal objects in it. He reports his findings to his noble fellows and now Navarre also enters the vestibule, crossbow cocked.The chevalier passes between the caryatids and has another good look around, noting that the cross-like contraption can be lowered onto or into the font by loosening the leather straps. He advances to the pool at the back and sticks his sword into the water, moving it around for a bit and causing some ripples – or is that a snake he sees? He takes a step back but the image is gone – if there ever was one. When Sir Eber arrives and starts inspecting the font, he leaves the room and heads for the dark opening further down the wall.When he is about halfway, a hammer hits him in the back of the head. He ducks – too late, of course – and lashes out at whatever is behind him, which is nothing. When he turns around, he sees a hammer floating in the air close to his face, glowing faintly in the green shimmer permeating the cavern.“Attack!,” he yells. “A hammer! Un marteau volant!”Sir Eber comes a-charging and he, too, lashes out at something that isn’t there.“Magic hammer!,” he yells, when the flying hammer strikes at the chevalier again, now hitting only his shield. Not really knowing what to do, the chevalier dives through the dark opening just yards ahead and he ends up in a pitch dark room, the hammer right behind him. Sir Eber follows him into the dark room and now tries to hit the hammer itself, with as little success as his earlier attempt as the hammer hits the chevalier on the head again.Unable to shake the flying menace, the unfortunate chevalier starts stumbling about in the room, crashing into a camp-bed, some amphorae, and ultimately into a largish statue. Showing no signs of abating, the hammer hits the chevalier again, to his ever more frantic cries. When Sir Eber unleashes another futile attack, the chevalier fumbles for one of his bags of coal dust and hurls its contents across the room, covering both himself, the ranger, and much of the room in the dust – but not revealing some invisible wielder. Crying out in consternation, he charges out of the room again.Duringst the meanwhile, Sir Suvali has cast Detect Invisibility from the spell book he found in Lost Yerichor but this, too, does not reveal some invisible entity wielding the hammer. He has advanced further into the room and has passed Sir Oengus, who has been inspecting the tripod and the spool in the middle of the cavern during all of this. The tripod is straddling a large slab of stone sunk into the floor. Sticking out from the center of the slab is a thick iron ring and a strange cable is wound around the spool. He decides that the spool must be a winch and then the cursing chevalier comes charging into the cavern, with both the relentless hammer and Sir Eber on his heels.“There is nothing I can do!,” the ranger yells in obvious frustration as he keeps hacking away at the hammer without any effect.“It’s a spell caster,” Sir Suvali says, quickly moving out of the way of the fast approaching noble duo.When the chevalier starts zigzagging through the room, Sir Eber runs to the opening with the pillars, inspects them for a brief moment before he enters the room beyond and starts hitting the water.Back in the cavernous room, the flying hammer turns its attention to Sir Oengus but misses him as our noble hero lashes out at it to no avail in return. Finally relieved of the hammer, the chevalier also runs to the caryatids and hurls the contents of another bag of coal dust into the room beyond, with results as expected. When Sir Eber starts checking the walls for secret doors, the chevalier gives up and runs back to the vestibule. When he turns around again, Sir Suvali almost crashes into him as he comes running into the vestibule.“It will run out!,” he yells as he pushes past the chevalier and exits the room.By now, the flying hammer has missed Sir Oengus a couple of times – and he it in return – and it presently turns its attention to Sir Eber, who has appeared in the cavern again. Hammer and ranger miss each other for a couple of rounds until the latter moves back into the room behind the caryatids and the hammer doesn’t go after him, suspended as it remains in mid-air only inches from the opening.“The hammer cannot get past the caryatids!,” Sir Suvali yells from the doorway in the vestibule.“Seriously?,” Sir Eber hollers. He steps back into the cavern to see if he can find some vantage point where an invisible spell caster might hide. The hammer moves to attack him again, but to no effect.“Can’t be long now!,” Sir Suvali yells from the doorway.And then, sure enough, when Sir Eber has advanced some way into the cavern, the hammer disappears.“The hammer is gone!,” Sir Suvali yells. “I will warn you if it reappears!”“You do that,” Sir Eber murmurs to himself.With the hammer gone, the chevalier enters the cavern again and moves past Sir Oengus and the tripod to the pitch dark room. Armed with a lantern this time, he has another good look around and finds some blankets and a pillow on the camp-bed and a total of three amphorae containing water, bread, and the marmite-like spread of the duergar. The statue resembles a duergar in heroic-realistic style, much like the one in the ‛temple’ back in Lost Yerichor. He exits the room again and joins Sir Oengus, who has now attached the rope on the winch to the ring in the slab.“Très bien, mon gars!,” the chevalier says. “Bon! Let us see what lies below.”He starts turning the winch and then Sir Eber, eager to join the bravery, comes running.“Hammer!,” Sir Suvali yells from the doorway.But the hammer has already struck true – and once more on the head of the unfortunate chevalier.“Retreat!,” Sir Suvali yells.Cursing loudly, the chevalier is already on his way to vestibule, Sir Oengus on his heels. Sir Eber, fully intent on staying as close to the action as possible just in case some invisible spell caster would turn up, heads for the caryatids instead.“We wait here,” Sir Suvali says, when his noble companions join him in the tunnel. “Sit it out. Get back in, sit the next one out, and so on, until he runs out of spells to cast. We’ll milk him dry.”Not quite cricket, of course, but perhaps needs must and all that.The hammer vanishes after about a quarter of an hour and so the chevalier steps back into the cavern again. No hammer appears. He advances to the tripod with the winch and starts turning it again, slowly lifting the slab off the floor after some moments. When there is just enough for him to put his hand into the opening, he gets to his knees and shines his torch into it, fully expecting the hammer to appear and start hitting him again. But no hammer appears and now Sir Eber and Sir Oengus join him and the first starts turning the winch again, raising the slab until a pit in the floor is revealed. No light comes from it and the ranger lowers the slab onto the grass next to it.“We have over two hundred feet of rope!,” Sir Suvali, apparently clairvoyant, yells from the doorway.The chevalier ties a lantern to a rope and starts lowering it into the pit. Its walls are rough and it would appear to be a natural phenomenon or perhaps one created by some digging or tunneling creature. So far, there are no signs of water having been in it at some point.“Un trou,” the chevalier murmurs, lowering the lantern ever further into the pit.Suddenly the strange grass surrounding the pit starts waving frantically, growing and grabbing at the noble trio with tentacle-like extensions. Cursing loudly, Sir Eber is the first to start hacking away at the bellicose growth, to little effect. The chevalier and Sir Oengus also start hacking at the grass but it keeps growing and writhing until the noble trio are wholly entangled in it, now unable to move until the grass suddenly stops moving after about ten minutes and they are free to move again. Sir Eber starts hacking at the grass again for good measure, again to little effect.Still, the grass does not move again and so the chevalier starts lowering the lantern further into the pit again – until it extinguishes. He reels the lantern back in and an inspection reveals that something or someone has opened it and doused the flame.“Tiens,” he says. “Someone is down there. A prisoner! Une oubliette!”He puts the lantern on the floor and stretches his neck to look into the pit, now dark as pitch again.“Allô?,” he calls. “We are here to free you! Mon Dieu! Quelle embarras! Quite a predicament!”“Go away!,” a voice comes from somewhere on the bottom of the pit.“We just want to talk,” the chevalier sighs, foreseeing yet another lengthy debate with some intractable creature. “Why make things difficult? You’ll get tired, we’ll get tired. No one will benefit.”“I’m busy!,” the voice comes again.“As it would seem,” the chevalier says. “Are you of the red god?”“No!”“Then who are you?”“Diviner!”“Merci,” the chevalier says. “Enchanté! Would you be able to assist us? We are looking for a way to the surface.”“No! Leave now or I summon power of Laduguer!,” comes the voice.“Not at all, not at all. On aime les duergar. There is no need for any rosseries.”“Leave temple alive now and see as blessing,” the voice comes. “Unique!”“We are humans. We would like to go home. We will go if you will help us.”“How you get here?”“Through the door, mon ami.”“Take same way back!”“Eh, bien. It would seem that we have reached a stalemate. Assist us and we will be on our way.”“Go now!,” the voice yells. “Go now or suffer Laduguer anger!”“You are repeating yourself,” the chevalier says.“I do nothing for human!”“Mon ami!,” the chevalier cries. “Why so hostile? We only seek your assistance”There is a moment of silence.“Where you want go?,” the voice comes again.“Up and beyond. Via the shortest way possible.”“I never up! Always down!”The conversation goes on like this for a while and our noble heroes are getting nowhere fast. They dare not enter the pit for obvious reasons and there seems to be little they can do as long as the implacable… priest?… remains where he is. To complicate matters, the unwritten laws of the game require some sort of solution to the problem other than just leaving – what with the possibility of the priest knowing of a way to the surface and having treasure and all that.Obviously someone has to give in, and eventually the DM opens the proceedings.“Go to Red Cave for exit!,” the voice suggests.“Are there no other ways?”“Yes! Like I said!”“Which would that be?”“I not know them.”Another stalemate and more of the same follows.“Your actions have caused us grief,” the chevalier presently suggests, in a somewhat questionable attempt to gain something from the situation.“You trespass!”“We did not realize we were, mon ami. You must compensate us for the harm you have done.”“Maybe he knows of ways deeper into the Underdark,” Sir Eber suggests.“Did you hear that?,” the chevalier asks, turning to the pit again. “Alors?”“You bring payment of slave for temple and I consider divination!”“Monsieur, you have misunderstood me.”“Great honor! Laduguer divination for humans unique affair!”“We have already paid. We have suffered much at your hands.”A burst of insane laughter comes from the pit.“Leave temple!,” the voice yells. “You suffer no more! That is my compensation!”“Monsieur,” the chevalier says frostily. “You are in a pit and this will remain so. Adieu!”“Yes! In pit! In pit until they hoist me up!,” the voice yells, now quite unhinged. “Bastards!”“You are a prisoner?,” Sir Eber asks.“I HERE OF FREE WILL!,” the voice screams.The chevalier walks to the dark cave in the far wall and returns carrying the amphora with bread some moments later, which he drops into the pit without further ado.“CURSES!,” the voice screams. “You are cursed!”“Pas du tout, mon ami,” the chevalier returns, after he has failed a saving throw. “It is to alleviate your plight.”“Thank you!”“You sure you don’t need anything?,” Sir Eber asks.“I have everything!,” the voice yells.The chevalier starts unwinding the rope from the winch, perhaps to deprive whoever is in the pit of a means to go after the company when they leave the ‛temple’, though more likely because he has spotted that the rope may be something more than it would seem at first. Obviously of the same opinion without ever having seen the rope, this is Sir Suvali’s cue to teleport in and the noble duo inspect the rope, noticing that several exceedingly long and thin iron wires are woven into it – something they have not seen before. Putting a knife to one end, the chevalier gathers he could probably cut the rope.“D’une qualité extraordinaire!,” he exclaims.“Thank you!,” comes the voice.“Avec plaisir!,” the chevalier replies.“More food?,” Sir Eber yells down the pit.“Something to wash down the bread with?,” the chevalier suggests.“Gentlemen,” Sir Suvali says, turning to his noble companions. “Let’s go.’And so the company went on their way again.</blockquote>

Verification