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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ilgatto" data-source="post: 9678372" data-attributes="member: 86051">Duergar & Daemons Part II: Descent Into the Depths of the World – ContinuedDay 31: When he wakes up, Navarre checks his memory to find that nothing has changed. Annoyed, he joins the others at their breakfast. Sir Oerknal has woken up from his catatonic state again and says that he knows nothing of the cave and its secrets, except that he somehow ‘knew’ about the secret door and felt compelled to enter it. He also knows nothing of the dwarves who lived there, supposedly his parents. What he does say, is that the black metal armors and hammers found on the corpses belong to ‘other dwarves’.“What’s that?,” Navarre asks. “Not you or your parents?”“Naah,” Sir Oerknal says. “Not of my kind.”“So there’s two different kinds of dwarves?,” Navarre wonders. “Whatever will be next?”Our noble heroes spend the rest of the day preparing for their descent into the depths of the earth. Sir Eber also occupies himself with converting the magical darts to tips for arrows and bolts, handing out the finished products to those with weapons to fire them.Day 32: Early in the morning, our noble heroes return to the tunnel to the Underdark. They have left Sir Oerknal in the smithy for technical reasons, with Olaf to take care of him.Now fully geared up, it takes our noble heroes three hours to reach the fissure where they turned back last time. When they get to the other side, they find that the tunnel continues for some fifteen minutes before it opens into a small room where part of the ceiling has collapsed, forming a pile of rocks that takes up most of the floor. They cross the room and continue for another fifteen minutes until they reach a room wholly filled with rocks, like marbles in a bag.“We’re going to have to squirm through like ants,” Sir Eber says, glancing at Navarre. “I’ll go first, then, shall I?”“By all means, old boy,” Navarre replies, grinning. “I’ll be right behind you.”The ranger starts wriggling through the rocks, trailing a rope and finding the going quite tough at first. He also has some trouble deciding which way to go until he notices a mark of some sort – perhaps a smear – first on one of the boulders and then on another. He follows the marks and eventually emerges in a tunnel at the other side of the room.“Next!,” he yells. The others crawl through one by one and it takes the lot of them some fifteen minutes to join Sir Eber in the tunnel on the other side. Much to his chagrin, the chevalier has had to remove his plate armor and drag it along after him on another rope.While he gets back into his armor, Sir Suvali and Sir Eber discuss the notion that the tunnel seems to be moving slightly to left, toward the mountains.“Does that mean we are moving away from Diamond Castle and not towards it?,” Navarre asks.“Looks like it,” the ranger says.“So there is no link between here and the mine,” Navarre muses. “I wonder if that means that Albert Murphy did not connect with your ‘source of evil’ here.”“Time will tell,” the ranger replies, shrugging.Some twenty minutes later, at around half past ten in the morning, our noble heroes reach a point where the floor has collapsed, leaving a hole some three yards across and with the tunnel continuing on the other side. A lantern is tied to a rope and lowered into the hole, to reveal a small stream below, running perpendicular to the tunnel at the bottom of a narrow, lozenge-shaped tunnel.“Mon Dieu!,” the chevalier cries, peering down into the hole. “Insects! Small spiders! Messieurs, there is life down there.”“Indeed,” Navarre muses. “I somehow did not quite expect that.”“There’s holes in the walls,” Sir Eber says, pointing at the left wall and taking his dwarven hammer from his belt. “There and there. Anchor points for a rope. Anyone got pinions?”When it turns out that no one has thought to bring any, Sir Oengus suggests using the magical darts. But now Sir Eber tells the others to stand back. He moves back into the tunnel, runs back to the hole and jumps across – managing to do so only just. He is thrown one end of a rope and, after some effort, our noble heroes have created a rope bridge.Navarre is the first on the bridge and he has a good look into the hole. Sticking his head down, he notices what can only be a vague glow in the distance to the right, perhaps best likened to the haziest of daylight on a foggy day. Still, it is a light, the first light not produced by him and his noble fellows he has seen since they entered the tunnels.“There seems to be a light down here,” he says. “I say we go see what it is. A light in this dark world must be worth exploring, what?”The others sort of agree and Navarre attaches his own rope to the rope bridge before tying it to his belt. Slowly, ever so slowly, he works himself into the lozenge-shaped tunnel, now dangling from the rope bridge like a pendulum. And sure enough, perhaps some one hundred to two hundred yards further downstream, he definitely sees a light, if only ever from the corner of his eye. All around him are the signs of life the chevalier mentioned – faint traces of webbing, tiny spiders, tiny flying insects, all of them white or perhaps translucent and only barely visible to the naked eye, especially in these conditions.“I’m going in,” he announces, strangely enough to the considerable annoyance of his noble companions. “There is definitely a light down there.”He lowers himself into the water, ever so careful, onto a bed of pebbles on the bottom, the water barely up to his ankles. He moves to a shallower area to the right and has a good look around with his lantern.“It seems to be mostly granite down here,” he calls back to his noble fellows up in the tunnel. “I’ll see if I can get closer to the light.”He unties the rope from this belt and starts moving, slowly, through both deeper and shallower parts of the stream, which barely has a flow to it. Even though the light doesn’t appear to get any closer – or perhaps because of it – he feels the tension rise. He experiences several ‘moments’ – he slips, stones and rocks falling; pebbles sliding underneath his feet; small eyeless snake- and scorpion-like creatures jumping into the water or crawling out of the way as he advances. Every now and then, he calls back to his noble fellows up in the tunnel, who have now started to cross the hole.Navarre continues for about half an hour and then discerns what can only be a huge stone grating in a brick archway in a man-made wall of rocks and stones blocking the tunnel. Creeping closer in some considerable excitement, he notices what seems to be a thick layer of spider webbing on the other side of the grating, apparently even further reducing the brightness of an already weak light beyond it. He stares at the construct in wonder and trepidation, finding himself unsure of what to do. Spider webbing of these dimensions? Surely this ‛Underdark’ is not home to gigantic spiders? Then again, who’s to say it isn’t? Literally anything seems possible these days.He advances a bit until he can clearly see the entire construct and notices a smaller, man-sized door in the grating.“By Olm!,” he whispers. “Who lives here?”He has a closer look at the smaller door and notices there's a handle on it. Now, he decides that he has to open the door – if only to avoid Sir Eber’s scathing comments when he would return and didn’t. He pulls the handle and a metal latch or small bar tumbles noisily onto the floor – obviously a part of a larger latch or bar. He manages to open the door with some effort, takes a deep breath, draws his dagger, cuts a small hole in the webbing and has a peek through.He almost stops breathing when he sees a large, circular cavern formed in what must be pumice or perhaps coral. The walls are highly irregular, riddled with holes large and small. A hill-like section takes up most of the floor in the middle of the cavern and a huge, white, egg-like structure sits on top of it. The egg must be thirty yards across and at least thirty yards tall and much of its lower half is buried in the masses of fungi, lichen, molds, and mushrooms of all sizes that blanket the raised section. Traces of what must have been a path lead from a ways into the room up to the egg.The raised section, or hill, is surrounded by a moat-like body of water right in front of him and reaching up to the outer walls of the cavern in most places. A short, submerged bridge leads across it from the grated door to the overgrown path. Plants, algae, kelp, and grasses grow and wave in the water and some large, pale fish dart about in it. The cavern seems to measure at least one hundred yards from one end to the other and perhaps two hundred to the ceiling. A faint, grayish twilight permeates the entire area and seems to come from somewhere on top of the egg. Indeed, the whole cavern and everything in it appears to be some shade of gray.“What in Olm’s name is all this?,” our noble hero whispers.Eager to tell the others, he hurries back to the rope bridge. When he is about halfway, he sees a light approach – his noble companions have gone after him when they no longer heard his hollering after some time.“That you, mon gars?,” comes the voice of the chevalier from behind one of the lanterns.“Friends!,” Navarre whispers, barely able to hide his excitement. “Follow me! You are not going to believe this!”And so Navarre leads his noble fellows to the cavern with the huge egg, to their astonished exclamations. When the initial excitement has subsided, our noble heroes set their first tentative steps into the cavern, one by one, immediately noticing a raise in temperature – it must be about 8 °C in the cavern. Sir Eber crosses the submerged bridge and tries to identify the fungi on the hill, soon concluding that he does not recognize any of them. Sir Oengus tries to identify the fish in the moat and concludes that they must be large carp of some sort, entirely white and without eyes.Sir Suvali only steps into the cavern after all of the others have entered. He unfolds his wings and starts for the ceiling, noticing that the walls glisten with water that comes trickling down them and creates the moat below – even more so than the stream coming from the tunnel.Navarre is still trying to take in what he is seeing when he hears the sorcerer’s voice come from above.“Gentlemen,” the sorcerer hollers. “There is a gate in the egg.”“There is a what?,” Navarre exclaims.“There are multiple gates in the egg,” the sorcerer says.Always the first to charge into the unknown, Sir Eber starts moving up the hill, roughly along the overgrown path leading up to the egg. He hasn’t moved more than a couple of yards when he must roll d20 – apparently a ‘Perception Check’, whatever that may be – rolls a “1” and notices four small piles of stones to his left. Graves? He starts removing stones and soon uncovers what seem to be the mummified remains of a dwarf. When he starts digging into the second tumulus, both Navarre and the chevalier feel the need to protest.“Monsieur,” the latter says frostily. “Is desecrating graves the right way to go about this?”“They were buried in haste,” Sir Eber says, continuing to remove stones. “Picks, spears, shields, hauberks, no chain mails. All in a jumble. They seem small even for dwarves. Slim rather than sturdy like Oerknal.”Pulling a face, the chevalier passes the ranger and advances up the garden path, noticing that there must be steps underneath the fungi, perhaps even between low walls to each side. He climbs some twenty yards until, sure enough, he arrives at one of the gates mentioned by Sir Suvali.In front of him is a set of double doors, seemingly made of iron and dotted with a myriad of copper eyes that follow his every move.“Eh…, allô?,” he says, his voice wavering ever so slightly. “Monsieur?”When there is no answer, he has another look at the doors and notices that they are slightly ajar. When Navarre and Sir Oengus reach him, Sir Suvali, still in the air, informs them that there are eight gates in total.“Do they have eyes?,” the chevalier asks.“All of them,” the sorcerer yells. “I’ll see what that light on top is.”He finds it to emanate from a hemispherical, crystalline sphere embedded in the top of the egg and reports his findings.The chevalier puts his ear to one of the doors and, now, Navarre can constrain himself no longer.“Do step aside,” he says impatiently, pushing past the chevalier and opening the doors. These move much more easily than he would have thought and he notices that a metal bar behind them has obviously been cut in half at some time.And then, much to their astonishment, Navarre, Sir Oengus, and the chevalier see what can only be described as a street with buildings to the left and right and leading off toward the center of the egg. Although made of stone, the buildings have a strange, almost organic quality to them. There seem to be two of them to each side of the street, the ones closest to the ‘shell’ being taller than the ones further down the road. The buildings only have doors – no windows – and their walls feature runic pictoglyphs of some sort. The light is only marginally brighter here than outside but it is still grayish, like everything else inside the egg.It’s a city.“It’s a city!,” Navarre exclaims. “By Olm!”Forgetting himself, he steps into the street and then some demonic baying happens. More saving throws must be rolled and Navarre is pretty chuffed to pass his on an “18”. Not so the chevalier and Sir Eber, who flee the cavern in all haste, back through the grating and up the stream.When the baying does not stop, Navarre and Sir Oengus, the latter still outside, exchange some glances and draw their weapons. Navarre has advanced only inches when two gi-normous, hound-like shadows come shifting in at unbelievable speed, materializing as they do and each attacking one of the noble duo. The beasts stand at least two foot tall at the shoulder and they must weigh at least a hundred pounds each – mastiffs of the largest and most monstrous kind.“Bloody hell!,” Navarre exclaims, swinging his sword and managing to roll a “1” – old habits and all that. And what was that about finally passing a saving throw, you idiot? Still outside, Sir Oengus has managed to shoot two arrows into the mastiff zooming in on him, which, unfortunately, even though they do inflict some considerable damage, do nothing to prevent the beast from locking its massive jaws on him and pulling him to the floor. All things considered, this ain’t looking so good for our noble duo and things do not get much better when Navarre misses again – it’s a “2” this time – and is bitten by his opponent as Sir Oengus is mauled some more and also misses his opponent.But then, Sir Suvali appears and he fires a magic missile at Sir Oengus’ mastiff, causing some serious damage. Sir Oengus is mauled again for massive damage and now, surely, he won’t last much longer, especially since he doesn’t manage to damage his opponent – again. Navarre, who doesn’t seem to be having his day, also misses (On a “5”. Cheer up! It’s progress). Sir Suvali fires another magic missile at Sir Oengus’ mastiff and now the beast sags to the floor. With Sir Oengus scrambling to his feet, Navarre manages to miss his opponent again. Sir Suvali fires another magic missile and so he is the first to inflict some damage on the second mastiff, followed by a serious blow from Sir Oengus.Fortunate that the beast hasn’t been very effective in its attacks against him yet, Navarre finally manages to hit it, being the only one to do so this round – Sir Oengus misses and Sir Suvali has run out of magic missiles and has started shooting arrows at it, to no effect.It is around this time that the fleeing nobles regain their senses and Sir Eber starts back to the cavern at speed. The chevalier moves his hat to a jaunty angle and starts after him – which costs him a round, thank you very much. Back at the egg, each of the noble trio manages to damage the last remaining mastiff, with Sir Oengus delivering the killing blow.“Bloody, bloody hell!,” Navarre breathes heavily, shaking Sir Oengus’ hand after the monster has gone down. “Well done! Well done, old boy! What a fight!”The noble duo all but sag to the floor in relief and Sir Suvali tends to their wounds. However, there is not much the sorcerer can do to improve Sir Oengus’ condition – he is in a bad state. Our noble heroes are still reeling from the fight when Sir Eber appears.“Ah!,” Navarre manages to utter in a feeble attempt at some light banter. “Look who’s finally here!”“Better kill them off,” the ranger says. “They may rise.”Somewhat bewildered, Navarre and Sir Oengus stick their swords into the mastiffs and now, sure enough, both monsters dissolve into shadows. Navarre witnesses the event in astonishment. What witchcraft is this? Were the creatures even real?“Gentlemen,” Sir Suvali says. “We must retreat and prepare.”“Prepare?,” Sir Eber scoffs. “How?”“Oengus is in a bad state,” the sorcerer says. “I advise against him going on in this condition.”“Damned nuisance but I agree,” Navarre says. “He bore the brunt of the attack.”Day 32 to 44: And so it was that our noble heroes made their retreat only a couple of hours into their first foray into the depths of the earth and spent the next twelve days recuperating and preparing for their next outing. They originally planned for some seven days of this but getting the right supplies turned out to take quite a bit longer than expected.Lists were made and Sir Suvali said that he would try and contact the Coven of Ilm to see if he could get more of the healing salves, ointments, and potions the novice gave them on Captain Clifford’s barge.“I will need a lot of money,” he said.“Well?,” Navarre replied. “You’re in charge of the coffers yourself, old sport. So how much is there?”“Not enough,” the sorcerer said. “Everybody has to chip in.”“I am sorry to say that I only have some seven hundred and thirty gold coins,” the chevalier said, his face expressing both a reluctance to part with the money and an air that seemed to convey the notion that the sum was barely worth mentioning.“Well, old fruit,” Navarre said, looking at his noble friend in some amusement. “Then the only question would seem to be whether you are going to hand it to the sorcerer here, what?”When the chevalier had reluctantly handed over the money, Sir Suvali said that he would be back as soon as he could.“How are you going to get to the coven anyway?,” Navarre asked him. “I thought nobody knew where they reside?”“I’ll have to write letters,” Sir Suvali said. “Spoke to the rector earlier. That sort of thing.”“Quite,” Navarre said, annoyed at the sorcerer’s obvious reluctance to reveal more of the matter. “Best leave it to you then, shall we?”When he returned some days later, Sir Suvali informed his noble companions that getting the potions would take longer than he thought.“We’ll be in here for twelve days instead of seven,” he said. “I have ordered seven potions and each is about four hundred gold. So I need more money.”“Well, I cannot help you there,” Navarre said. “Haven’t seen a copper in yonks.”“Anyone?,” the sorcerer asked. “Scaralat?”The chevalier coughed uncomfortably.“I may still have some… bibelots,” he admitted. “Mere bagatelles, I assure you. Hardly worth the trouble.”“How much?,” the sorcerer asked.“A trifle, no more,” the chevalier said, emptying his pockets with a tortured look on his face.And so it was that the chevalier added another thousand gold to the coffers of the party.“Good,” Sir Suvali said, after pocketing the trinkets. “That’s nine potions.”The chevalier threw up his hands in desperation.“Je suis un clochard!,” he exclaimed.“Ha, ha!,” Navarre laughed. “Noblesse oblige and all that, old fruit! Welcome to the club!”Day 44: Sir Suvali returns early in the morning, bringing more supplies: fire bombs, similar projectiles filled with acid, food for two ten-days, some Lillac, the promised potions, and then some. He starts handing out numerous flasks to his noble companions.“That’s two potions of extra-healing each,” he says. “You can drink them in one go for full effect or in portions of three to top up. And here are doses of Sir Eber’s oil of enchantment for each of us. I have divided it up into portions that will last for a limited amount of time only. Use in emergencies only.”“Arr!,” Sir Oengus says, back to his full hit points again. “Sails away, lubbers!”</blockquote>

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