Dungeon of the Fire Opal, Part VI

CRGreathouse said:
"I can go on. Hey, what're you saying - you don't trust me?" Kytess eyes the group warily, like a cornered beast; she instinctively stands, putting weight on the balls of her feet. "There's nothing wrong with me, I'm fine! Ubaar, tell him I'm fine!"
OOC: Hate to do this, CR, but I gotta be true to the big lug ;)

Ubaar immediately chimes back when given the opening by the battle-maiden - "Uh... OK!
You're fine!
Damn, woman, you're fine!

You nice and loose now.... (;))
You're lotsa fun now."
 

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Somewhat suprised at Kytess' reaction to his suggestion, Jalon takes an unusually diplomatic approach to consoling the young warrior.

'No harm was meant by my comments, Kytess. I'm simply concerned that the ghost's touch may have caused harm that is not yet readily apparent. It may take a day or so to properly assess the extent of your wounds.'

'At a glance, however, it looks to me that you're in no immediate danger. I suggest we finish up down here quickly, then get you back to town for some rest.'

[OOC: I'm assuming that Jalon knows (at least in theory) the wisdom damage caused by the ghost's touch, and is merely being evasive to calm Kytess and not to overly worry her.

As to going back to town or not, my OOC response is probably to keep everyone down here in the dungeon. Unless there's some srtong IC reason to do otherwise I'd suggest we ignore Jalon's advice.

Even in-character Jalon would probably rather stay in the dungeon - it might have something to do with that ever-pesky sense-of-duty and self-righteousness. He only offered the suggestion in-case CRG had a problem RPing Kytess with such a low wisdom. It looks like that's not the case, so let's continue.]
 

Taz says: “Okay, let's get this done here quickly!”

Then she leans over to Jalon and whispers to him with a concerned look:
“Uhh... I don't think she's fine...”
 

"But um...Arh... Ok so we're continuing then." Murhid says, surprised at the fact that Kytess is going to stay with the group. Murhid then clicks his fingers in front of Kytess to try and get her mind onto something else, and in the process starts to amuse himself, and continues by making a little tune. Realizing he's wasting time he stops and says "Time to crack some skulls eh?"
Then remembering that the priest is still with the group Murhid turns to him.
"So priest, I suggest you head back to town, we'll be more than equipped to take out the rest of the vile creatures down here. Or would you like to come?"

[OOC: Haha, especially loved the bit when Kytess goes
CRGreathouse said:
Silence. She turns, meeting eyes in turn:
"Taz? Sollir? Iv?"
ROFL]
 


Jalon Odessa said:
'No harm was meant by my comments, Kytess. I'm simply concerned that the ghost's touch may have caused harm that is not yet readily apparent. It may take a day or so to properly assess the extent of your wounds.'

Kytess calms somewhat, head resting on hand, looking at - or through - Jalon.

Taz said:
Taz says: “Okay, let's get this done here quickly!”

Kytess brightens, half-smiling. (I do believe this is the first time she's smiled this adventure, yes?)

Taz said:
Then she leans over to Jalon and whispers to him with a concerned look:
“Uhh... I don't think she's fine...”

Kytess is wholly oblivious to Taz's whisper.

drs said:
Murhid then clicks his fingers in front of Kytess to try and get her mind onto something else, and in the process starts to amuse himself, and continues by making a little tune.

Kytess doesn't seem to notice Murhid at first, but clearly notices his little ditty (/music/sound/noise ;)).

"Sounds like my mother" she muses, as to herself but aloud

OOC:

Jalon Odessa said:
Somewhat suprised at Kytess' reaction to his suggestion, Jalon takes an unusually diplomatic approach to consoling the young warrior.

Take a young, inexperienced, somewhat fragile character like Kytess, and hit her with her deepest-set fear: inadequacy. Make sure to do it when her Wisdom drops to 1, so she's without common sense and self-control. :D

She's been somewhat emotionally unstable - understandably - but usually she's good at concealing what she feels. Now she's a veritable font of emotions.
 

"Err..." The monk says a little confused by everything.
Murhid then takes point and makes his way back to the monastery entrance. Then if no one says otherwise he will continue down to where the spiders were, taking extra caution (MS) when entering. Again if no one says otherwise Murhid will continue on down to where the ghouls were.


[OOC: Please don't think of the above post as railroading (Did I use that term correctly?). I just want to get things moving, if you want to continuing talking within the group just assume Murhid stops. Ah also I think I may have gotten a little confused in my previous post, I really don't know... :confused:]
 


Assuming someone checks the ghost's room before going, it held only a 4-foot tall bas-relief of a symbol of a large hand (which Jalon can identify as the symbol of Bane, the god of Tyranny) and a human-looking skeleton crumpled in a corner. Its skull and many other bones are utterly smashed.

After exploring this room, the party quickly explores the rest of the dungeon. At one point, a pair of ghouls attacked, but where quickly dispatched by the combined might of the adventurers.


(The finished dungeon map looks almost exactly like the one on page 127 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, by the way. Only difference is I knocked down a wall between rooms 24 and 39 to make room for the final battle with the priest.)

The dungeon is divided in two parts. The northern part, who was completely explored beforehand, and a southern part hidden by a not-very-secret door in the spider's room. Unlike the northern part, the southern part is fully illuminated by magical light still emanating from the ceiling after all these years. Its floor is also clean and not debris-strewn.

There are a couple of interesting areas in the southern half, as follows (I'm doing this because it'll take a month of real time easy to explore the rest of this level and it has no monsters or interesting traps except for the aforementioned pair of ghouls) :

- The hallway branching out near the corridor leading to the spider room (number 26) has a bas-relief on the northern wall showing corpses, and another one on the southern wall depicting skeletons. Under the bas-reliefs is an inscription :"That which is weak passes away. That which is strong endures." At the end of the hall are low stone tubs or vats and a chemical smell emanates from them. Quick experimentation revealed that they contained a very weak acid, now no more potent than, say, vinegar.

- Northwest from the ghoul's area is a winding corridor leading to a small room. This room contained undisturbed furniture: a cozy cot, a large chest, an enamel chamber pot, and empty weapon racks. It also held a pair of broken skeletons with the stingers and silvery runes. Searching the chest produced nothing of worth or importance, but the NE door held a secret door. The door led to two areas. One, to the east, held nothing interesting, but to the north, a stairway led down further into the darkness. Besides the stairway is a strange sight : a lit torch.

- To the southwest of the level lie a trio of rooms. The northernmost one (31) was a cell, with a strong door made to be barred from the outside and manacles chained to the walls inside. The door was not closed, however, and nothing interesting lay inside. The two others were bare, with bas-reliefs that depicted oxen, giants and monks performing feats of strength in the first room and in the other room, slave lords, conquering devils and a mighty monk standing over other monks in chains. The second room also had a skeleton in a corner.

- To the north of the room with the altar to Velsharoon where you fought the undead master, room 34 held tools and generic religious supplies, all very old.

- To the southeast was a small maze/catacombs with a couple of empty rooms. Room 35 had scenes of demons and devils as bas-relief and room 37 had a pair of old inanimate skeletons. The doors to both room 37 and 36 were bashed in. A secret door was also found leading to a small circular room (#38) containing an hexagonal altar unlike the one the undead priest was hiding behind. The altar was covered with dust and the sides of the altar were carved with shapes of daggers, one per side.

- Lastly, to the south of the room where the undead priest was is another set of stairs going down.



Here you go. If you have questions or things you want to do with any of those rooms, go ahead. You also have two sets of stairs going down to explore.
 

HeavyG said:
- Northwest from the ghoul's area is a winding corridor leading to a small room. This room contained undisturbed furniture: a cozy cot, a large chest, an enamel chamber pot, and empty weapon racks. It also held a pair of broken skeletons with the stingers and silvery runes. Searching the chest produced nothing of worth or importance, but the NE door held a secret door. The door led to two areas. One, to the east, held nothing interesting, but to the north, a stairway led down further into the darkness. Besides the stairway is a strange sight : a lit torch.

Taz will cast a detect magic spell to determine whether that torch is magical or mundane, and while she is at it, she'll scan the first stairway down while also searching for traps there.

- Lastly, to the south of the room where the undead priest was is another set of stairs going down.

“These stairs are near the place, where the ghoul priests was. I think there could be something important down here!”

Taz will also search those stairs for traps.
 

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