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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ilgatto" data-source="post: 9668695" data-attributes="member: 86051">Duergar & Daemons Part I: In Search of Adventure – ContinuedAnd so Sir Eber and Navarre climb back into the pit, put their swords and two torches on the floor and wait, their backs against the wall, for the ice troll to come charging out of the tunnel. And sure enough, it does. The chevalier shoots at it twice, hitting it once – to some effect even. With Sir Oengus readying a kettle with boiling water and Sir Suvali executing some intricate maneuver with some ropes in an attempt to entangle the ice troll and failing, Navarre lights and throws the first of his fire bombs at the monster, hitting it full on – and now a loud hissing happens when the creature actually seems to start melting. Eber lights his bomb, rolls a “1”, slips, and all but drops the thing, hitting the wall behind him and forcing him and Navarre to jump clear of the spreading flames.But now the ice troll starts back to the tunnel, hissing and blowing steam and frantically trying to douse the burning oil on its body. Navarre misses it with his second bomb but Sir Eber does hit it and now the ice troll is seriously melting. Taking this as his cue, the chevalier starts down the ladder.Navarre throws his third bomb and misses again, as Sir Eber hits the monster again with his – and it’s a good’un! The ice troll is now almost wholly ablaze and all it can do now is flail about with its arms as it weakly stumbles into the tunnel.When the chevalier fails his saving throw and flees back up the ladder again, Navarre and Sir Eber pick up their swords, advance, and finally pass their saving throws. They charge after the ice troll into the tunnel until Navarre takes a mighty swing at it – but he only manages to land a glancing blow while Sir Eber does not hit it at all. But now, still burning, the ice troll does finally sag to the floor, where it melts away and the flames die.The tunnel is about two and half yards in diameter and it gradually widens into what seems to be a larger room several yards away.“Take this,” Sir Suvali says, extending two burning torches as he stands in the opening of the tunnel. Navarre takes a few steps back, takes the torches and advances again. He hands a torch to Sir Eber and the noble duo slowly move toward the larger room. They soon come upon what appear to be four bodies on the floor – the frozen corpses of stocky, bearded creatures in black metal chain mail armor. Our noble heroes subject them to a cursory inspection.“They must be the smiths from upstairs,” Sir Suvali says behind them.“You think?,” Navarre wonders. “What are they anyway? Dwarves?”“They seem small enough,” Sir Eber says. “Interesting armors.”“I say we see what’s what up there first,” Navarre says, nodding to where the tunnel – or room – seems to continue. He has grown tired of failing saving throws and doesn’t want to get back to the others and risk having to make one all over again when he has to get back into the tunnel. He moves further into the room, Sir Eber and Sir Suvali right behind him. A second opening seems to be in the wall at the other end of the room.“Ahoy!,” Sir Oengus’ voice comes from behind.“Ahoy!,” Navarre yells back. “We’re still alive!”“Let’s go,” he says to Sir Eber as he starts for the second opening. “I want to know what’s down there.”“What’s with the sudden urge to lead?,” Sir Eber asks. “Let’s wait for the others.”“They’ll be here soon enough,” Navarre says, moving into the dark tunnel. “Let’s continue at a slow pace.”“Is it safe?,” the voice of chevalier comes from far, far away.“Yes!,” Sir Suvali yells, following Sir Eber into the tunnel.And so the chevalier enters the pit, fails his third saving throw and starts up the ladder again in great haste.Moving further into the tunnel, Navarre and Sir Eber notice something sparkle in the distance. Ice? Crystals? Advancing cautiously, they reach another cave-like room, this one wholly covered in ice and icicles and with several large, crystalline, vine-like plants filling most of it, everything sparkling in the light of their torches like a winter wonderland. Holding their breath in wonder, the noble duo exchange some glances until they notice the nauseating stench again.“Is it the plants?,” Sir Eber asks.“It would seem so,” Navarre returns, scanning the floor ahead. “I see no corpses or anything.”Without stepping into the room, he has a closer look at the plants.“I say!,” he all but whispers after a moment. “The plants bear fruit. What are they? Apples? Globules?”“Best be careful,” Sir Eber says. “Plants can be dangerous.”Navarre hurls his torch into the cave, hitting one of the plants. Several of the globules explode, releasing a crystalline powder that all but instantly fills the cave. Several saving throws must be rolled, most of which Sir Eber and Navarre fail. At the same time, an unearthly, insane scream comes from somewhere behind them.“Get back!,” Navarre yells, shivering to the bone and struggling to wrestle past the ranger behind him, who is trying to wrestle past Sir Suvali in turn. “Get back!”Unable to see much with but a single torch at their disposal, the noble duo stumble back through the tunnel, back into the pit, past Sir Oengus, and up the ladder again. Sir Eber runs to the smithy and starts rinsing his mouth with water, coughing, gagging, and throwing up again. Navarre decides to do the same, even though he doesn’t quite know why. Come to think of it… there is little else he seems to know. What is he doing here? Who are these people? Who am I? What is that creature cowering in the corner over there? Why is that ruffian shouting at me?“Lord! Lord!,” the ruffian yells. “It’s your Oerknal! He’s gone mad!”Navarre has to sit down for a bit and notices that the big man next to him does the same – a look of wonder in his eyes.“He started screaming!,” the ruffian yells, pointing at a squat creature cowering in a corner. “What in Ulm’s name is going on?”Back in the tunnel, Sir Suvali has somehow managed to cause the explosion of at least one of the other fruits. Obviously having passed his saving throws, he is presently moving across the room. Sir Oengus is behind him and there are no more explosions, although the plants do move to ‘face him’ when he passes.It takes Sir Eber and Navarre some time to gather their wits and, when they do, Olaf tells them that Sir Oerknal suddenly started screaming and then became catatonic again. Our noble heroes try to get the creature to tell them what happened but they do not get a reaction of any kind.“Take care of him while we’re gone,” Sir Eber says, lighting a torch. “We may be a while.”“I’ll see what I can do,” Olaf says, glancing uneasily at Sir Oerknal.When the noble duo leave the smithy, they run into the chevalier.“You coming?,” Sir Eber asks.“You will not get me into that tunnel if seven elephants would drag me!,” the infuriated chevalier fumes.It just doesn’t seem to be his day.Fortunately, Navarre and Sir Eber do not have to pass saving throws when they enter the tunnel again and they reach the room with the frozen dwarves without incident.“Areu!,” Navarre yells into the darkness ahead. “Chaps! You in there?”“We’re past the plants!,” Sir Suvali’s voice comes from far ahead. “Move very slowly! That works!”“They froze to death,” Sir Eber says, on his knees next to one of the corpses. “They have no wounds. Maybe the evil force causes catatonia in all dwarves? It would explain what happened to Oerknal.”“Perhaps they came prepared,” Navarre muses, shining his lantern at another corpse. “Any strange items on them? Witch brews?”The noble duo investigate the corpses for a bit and then Navarre spots a puddle of water creeping past him on the floor in the direction of the room with the crystalline plants. He wonders why it hasn’t frozen – and why it is moving at all – and then Sir Eber also notices it.“The remains of the ice troll,” he says. “Torch it!”He puts his torch to the puddle, which hisses and steams until it is gone.“What is this place?,” Navarre wonders, shaking his head as the weird events keep unfolding. “What is this world?”“The ice troll may have a connection with the plants down there,” Sir Eber says. “I’ve heard stories.”Thus confronted with yet another weird phenomenon, Navarre shakes his head again and turns his attention to the corpses once more.Not long before this, further down the tunnel and past the room with the crystalline plants, Sir Suvali and Sir Oengus reach another cave-like room, this one with several low, ridge-like sections running across the width of the floor. In the room are four ice trolls, smaller than the one that was killed earlier, with the largest standing only some three feet tall and the others about two feet each. When they spot the noble duo, the smaller two panic and start clambering over the ridges to get away from them.“We mean no harm,” Sir Suvali says, gesturing at the larger ice troll with his torch and advancing slowly. The creature hesitates for a second but then panics and attacks. Reacting quickly, the sorcerer tries to push his torch into its face fails and then Sir Oengus starts hacking away at it, landing a mighty blow that actually makes a part of the creature break off.Back in the first room, Navarre and Sir Eber have not found anything on the dwarves that looks like it could provide them with some protection from the crystalline plants. They did find several items of the same strange, black metal the chain mail armors are made of, most notably hammers and a crowbar.“They were looted,” Sir Eber says. “No money, no nothing. Only things of little value or too inconvenient to take along.”“Still, these items are of some quality,” Navarre remarks, inspecting one of the hammers. “I do not believe I have ever seen such quality in metalwork.”“My thoughts exactly,” Sir Eber says, adding a hammer and the crowbar to his ever-growing collection of strange tools.“Anyway. They have nothing that could get us past the plants. Let’s torch the cave before we move through.”Our noble heroes drench some pieces of cloth in oil, put them to flame and toss them into the room with the crystalline plants, hurl the half-empty bottle of oil after them for good measure, and start for the room with the corpses at speed as muted explosions sound behind them.When they return to the room with the crystalline plants some ten minutes later, they find the air full of ice crystals. They watch the room for some time and presently conclude that all of the globules have exploded.“After you, old boy,” Navarre says. “Wouldn’t want to keep you from leading from time to time”.The ranger grunts and steps into the room. When he gets to the exit on the other side, nothing much has happened.“I’m thr-ou-ou-gh!,” he croons.Minutes later, Navarre has also crossed the room. The crystalline plants did not react much, although they still moved to ‘face him’ when he passed them.Further ahead, Sir Suvali and Sir Oengus have managed to kill the larger ice troll. However, the fight has not been without consequence for Sir Oengus, who is now quite badly hurt. With the smaller ice trolls still falling over each other to get to safety, the noble duo move on.“Areu!,” comes Navarre’s voice. “You still alive up there?”“Ice trolls!,” Sir Suvali yells. “Small ones! You can avoid them!”“Why didn’t you kill them?,” Sir Eber hollers.But the sorcerer does not answer and when Navarre and Sir Eber reach the cave with the cowering ice trolls, the former once more shakes his head in wonder. Do ice trolls actually have children? “Hello?,” he hollers to the creatures, approaching cautiously and keeping them in the light of his lantern. “Do you speak? Can you hear me?”The ice trolls do not respond. When they see their way clear, they scamper past the noble duo and run off to the room with the crystalline plants – or whatever is now left of them.All the way back up in Albert Murphy’s cave, the chevalier takes a deep breath and enters the pit again. He finally passes his saving throw and reaches the room with the four corpses. When he searches the bodies and finds nothing of any apparent value, he murmurs to himself in disappointment before he decides to pocket one of the hammers anyway. He calls to his noble fellows, hurries through the room with the damaged crystalline plants and the cowering ice trolls and eventually catches up with the others in the room with the ridges.Reunited, our noble heroes follow the tunnel for some time. It seems to them that they are moving ever deeper into the earth and they notice numerous strange elevations in floor and ceiling at regular intervals, a hundred yards or so between each. Proceeding with caution, our noble heroes discuss the phenomenon and everything else that has happened today. They recall some of the older stories their nannies and aunts told them when they were children, which speak of the people of The Forest having ‘fled from the darkness on “boats” before they came to The Forest’. Other stories, fairy tales rather than of any historical significance, speak of a place called ‛the Underdark’, a fey, underground realm that is supposed to be the home of dwarves and gnomes.“Quite,” Navarre says at some point. “Are we in this ‘Underdark’? Dwarven corpses? I do declare! Are we to believe that fairy tales are true? Dragons? Elves? Griffins? Do they all exist down here?”“Of course they do,” Sir Suvali says irritably.“Dwarves exist in any case,” Sir Eber says. “I’ve always known.”“Have you?,” Navarre wonders. “How so?”“Have you forgotten Oerknal?,” Sir Eber asks. “He is a dwarf.”Navarre looks at his noble fellow in utter astonishment. The thought had never crossed his mind.A closer inspection of the strange elevations does not reveal any clues as to what they might be. Where they occur, there are no differences in the bedrock.“Perhaps they were made by a large worm,” Sir Eber suggests at some point. “Earthworms do the same.”“I’d say that’s a bit strong even for a faerie world,” Navarre says, albeit rather weakly.Our noble heroes continue down the tunnel for about an hour until they reach a fissure of some sort.“There seems to be no end to this place,” Navarre says, shining his lantern across the fissure and seeing that the tunnel continues beyond it.“Back to the smithy,” the sorcerer says. “We have to prepare for this.”When our noble heroes get back to the smithy, they discuss the events of the day.“The tunnel leads to the mountains,” Sir Suvali says at some point.“Does it?,” Navarre wonders. “I somehow gathered that it would take us to this ‛Icy Waste’. Strange worlds leading to strange worlds and all that.”“It could have been a worm,” Sir Eber says once again. “Worms retract and extend their bodies when they move through the earth. Maybe this one uses its body as some sort of coil.”“The worm came from the hole in the pit,” the chevalier says at this, obviously lost in thought and otherwise quite inebriated. “Then it went into the rift. It is a Primordial Beast.”Nobody is really sure what he is on about and then the DM volunteers that ‘the dwarves also came from the tunnel’.This seems to herald the end of the session and so our noble heroes subject the armors and weapons they found to a closer inspection. Navarre tries on one of the dwarven armors and concludes that it is a bit of a tight fit but that he can wear it after some minor adjustments. It is about 10% lighter than his own armor.“Can’t say that I’ve seen anything like it,” he says, as he continues to inspect the armor. “A dwarven-forged armor. Has a certain ring to it, what?”Sir Eber spends some time hitting another of the armors with his new hammer, finding that he cannot even scratch the metal.“Looks like the armor and hammer cannot be damaged by anything,” he says.</blockquote>

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