From Slaves to Heroes in the Making (Heroes of Destiny)

[Taboo]

The cold they felt on the other side of the door was reflected in the room. The next thing they noticed were three dusty sarcophagi standing on end in the strangely silent chamber. Two on one wall and one on the other. Turk, Kierwin and Thorin headed for a shrine carved from dark stone at the far end of the chamber, the others walked into the chamber, but stayed near the door. The sarcophagi were carved to resemble noble elves similar to those they had seen statues of in the corridor where they had found the Dragon Priest.

Strangely, on the shrine, a single candle burned. Thorin went to examine the stonework on the sarcophagi while Turk knelt at the alter and prayed to Pelor.

“Pelor, give this party the strength and the guidance to perform our mission, give us the insight to know what we should do. How we shall proceed, what actions shall lead down the path of righteousness and which shall turn towards failure. Help us, guide us, give us strength against thine enemies.”

Minx cast Mage Armor on herself.

Turk went to the closest sarcophagus and tried to open it, hoping he wasn’t defiling some long dead hero of the past, but it wouldn’t open.

Thorin was at the one across the room examining the stonework, and Kierwin stayed at the shrine. She noticed that the shrine was carved with dragons, it had a shelf that held the candle, and next to the candle, were a small whistle and a flask. Turk came back to the shrine by Kierwin, and picked up the whistle to examine it.

When Turk picked up the whistle, the three sarcophagi opened and three undead elves stepped out. Not really skeletons, zombies, or mummies; these were undead that none of them had encountered before, dry and very well preserved. They were wearing extremely nice armor, shields and two carried swords, the third carried a battle axe. They closely resembled the carvings on the lids of the sarcophagi.

Back near the door, Snap attacked, blasting the one closest to Turk with a magic missile.

Thorin stepped up to the one nearest to Kierwin with his war axe, carving a chunk out of its side, distracting it while she prayed.

Kierwin attempted a Greater Turning and felt the holy power of Ehlonna flow through her, but the undead were untouched. Whatever these creatures were or whoever they used to be, they were beyond her ability to turn. They were going to have to fight their way out of this one, and it looked like it promised to be quite a fight. She had her sword ready.

Geirmund stepped into the room and attacked the one closest to him. It ignored him for now, attacking Snap as soon as it got a chance, and wounded him with its longsword, drawing blood.

Before Thorin and Kierwin got a chance to finish off the one they were fighting, it managed to score a hit with its axe on Thorin, but both Thorin and Kierwin hit it in concert cutting it in half. It collapsed in two piles of dust. Thorin moved over to help Snap, seeing that he was in trouble.

Turk decided to try out the whistle he’d found to see what it would do. He blew the whistle, but seemed to get no reaction from the undead. When that didn’t work, he smashed the candle, still with no foreseeable reaction.

The other undead elf took a swing a Turk, but missed him completely.

Minx was preparing her own attack while Turk was busy at the other end of the room. She cast Magic Missile on the undead fighting Snap, it groaned in anger at the wizard.

Geirmund nicked the one he was fighting that was closest to Turk. Turk had another trick up his sleeve and tried breathing fire on it! It didn’t like that very much, letting out a roar when the fire hit it, but it ignored Turk and stabbed Geirmund, who had attacked it several times. By now Geirmund and Snap both had blood splattered on the floor beneath them, the undead were accurate with their blows, and were dealing out punishment as well as taking it.

Minx pulled out her bow, but the arrow just missed the undead elf she was firing at, it bounced harmlessly off the wall just inches behind it. Snap bit and clawed at the undead he was fighting, but his claws scraped off its armor.

Thorin attacked the one that Turk had been fighting and nearly cut it down. They could see a huge gash open in its side. Kierwin brought her sword around to the one that Geirmund and Turk were fighting, but missed as it turned unexpectedly towards Thorin. It seemed to have realized that Thorin had done the most damage and made him its new target. Fortunately, its hit bounced off of Thorin’s armor with a resounding clang. Turk took a step forward and using his greatsword, he took a swing at it and cut it down in a heap of dust.

Snap was alone with the remaining creature, his claws scraping harmlessly off of its armor again, but his bite did some damage this time. Thorin quickly got over there and finished it off with a final blow from his war axe.

They had destroyed all three foul creatures, and Kierwin sat down with Thorin and prayed to Ehlonna to heal his wounds, followed by Snap and Geirmund. Everyone else had escaped without injury. Then, they proceeded to inspect the rest of the room, and search the bodies.

Turk tasted the liquid in the flask from the shrine, but couldn’t tell what it was, they could see that it was green, but that was it. They put it away until they could find out what it was. Closer inspection of the whistle revealed something written on it.

Minx interpreted it as “Night Caller”; written Dwarven. Turk put the whistle on the alter, picked up a shield and tried to smash it as hard as he could. It damaged the shield, but not the whistle. He told the party that when he’d blown the whistle earlier, he’d gotten a very unsettling feeling from it. Thorin, realizing it was made from nephiliam, said that it is found only in the rarest of veins in areas saturated with magic, it was like transparent iron. After hearing Thorin’s explanation, Minx remembered something she’d heard about ancient Dark Dwarves making several such whistles for several groups in ages passed.

Now that they realized what they were doing, Thorin told Turk he needed to use a war hammer to do a decent job. Thorin hit the whistle three times with his war hammer and finally smashed it. He collected the pieces, to see if he could do anything with it later. Kierwin was carrying the flask they’d found, hoping to identify it somehow.

The images on the coffins were identical to the statues found in the hallway by the Dragon Priest and the undead were clothed exactly like the carvings and statues. Satisfied that they had fully searched the room, they were ready to move on.

 

[Taboo]

After a very short rest, they got into their familiar marching order, and started down the hallway. Thorin could see a doors on both sides of the hallway, and they were marked on the map. The map didn’t indicate what was on the other side of the doors, however, and they had already discovered that the map was incomplete, at best. The map indicated which way the goblins were, but they didn't trust it. Turk pointed out that they should check behind the door on the left just to be sure. They didn’t want an ambush coming up behind them.

Geirmund checked the door, telling them with absolute certainty that it wasn’t locked, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t trapped. Thorin listened at the door, and didn’t hear anything, so he opened the door. The room was desolate, full of rat filth, stank, and nearly made them sick. They went ahead and crossed the room to the door on the far side. When they opened the door, it knocked over a pile of cans that went scattering across the floor making quite a bit of noise. They realized that was a mistake, they’d obviously just announced their presence. The floor was covered in caltrops and a roughly mortared wall about three feet tall was farther down at the other end. They quickly backed up and closed the door behind them. Geirmund figured out a way to lock that door behind them and they went back to the main hallway.

They could see six doors in this section of the hallway, three on each side. The first one they came to was slightly open, just enough to let something small in or out. They couldn’t see inside, it was too small and dark to see into. Thorin could hear some kind of noise coming from behind one of the doors.

Turk and Thorin tried to move quietly up to one of the doors, ready to blast into one to surprise whatever was in there. Unfortunately Turk’s armor was too noisy to move quietly, so they ran into three large rats that were ready for them when they rushed into the room. Turk sliced the first rat in half from the right to the left spraying blood across the walls with one stroke of his greatsword, praising Pelor for guiding his hand as he struck it down.

Thorin swung straight down with his war axe at the second rat, killing it with a single blow. Its guts spilling out onto the floor at his feet.

One rat remained in the room, and Snap cast magic missile at it. It tried to go for Turk while he was busy dissecting its former buddy, but it didn’t get through his armored boot.

Kierwin saw the rat head for Turk, and stepped into the melee, she slashed at it with her longsword and finished it off.

The next room was abandoned, but the room beyond that was full of rats that were waiting for them. One pounced on Thorin and another went straight for Turk, both missed, fortunately. Kierwin prayed to Ehlonna for her blessing on the party. Thorin killed the rat that had attempted to bite him with one hit. Turk swung at the stomach of the rat that had pounced on him, spilling its guts across the room, killing it instantly.

There was one rat left in the room, it attacked Thorin, and missed. Thorin paid it back for trying to bite him, and split it nearly in half. They entered the bloody room to search the rats’ nest, and found a few gems and gold the rats had packed away.

They got back together and were off to the next room, which was also full of rats. Snap had his crossbow loaded, and shot at one of the rats, killing it. Thorin hit the rat in front of him with his war axe, cutting its ugly head off, its beady red eyes going dim. Then, Turk struck the last one straight down with his greatsword, striking it straight through the heart.

 

[Taboo]

They headed for the room at the end of the hall. They saw a cobblestone floor with two trap doors blocked open by iron spikes. They were obviously well made traps, and they were glad that whoever had been through here and spiked them open. One wall in the room held a dry fountain carved with a base relief of a dragon.

Thorin went to the fountain to search it, and to inspect for inscriptions. When he found an inscription written in what appeared to be in Draconic, Snap came in to read it. He barely wanted to tell them out loud what it meant when he translated it, afraid to set off a deadly trap. It meant “Let there be death.”

Kierwin, was standing back, studying the inscription, and not realizing she was speaking out loud, sounded out the word. Gas came pouring out of the fountain. The cloud of gas came just far enough out to envelope her, Turk and Snap, but the three of them finally managed to overcome its effects. She realized that she must have spoken what she'd been thinking and that her mind wasn’t on what she was doing.

Kierwin tried to focus her thoughts, unable to believe she'd nearly gotten them all killed. She felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for what she'd nearly done to both her son and to Turk. She couldn't live with herself if she caused any harm to come to either of them. She shook her head, realizing that she had been thinking about not only Turk, but Darial, and she knew was endangering them all.

Everyone ran from the room, deciding there was nothing in that room except death. They left the fountain, the inscription and the death trap behind them.

Now, they had to decide which way to go, unable to trust the maps from the goblins. Turk had a could feel they were getting closer to trouble, and said they had to take it even more slowly and cautiously than they had been.

 

[Taboo]

Working their way down the hallway, Thorin opened the next door carefully after Geirmund declared it safe. He opened it slowly, and found more of the diseased dire rats waiting. The group barely had time for a glimpse of what waited for them deeper in the room, it was larger than the others, diseased, covered in puss-filled sores, filthy, and obviously the mother. They were also assaulted by the sickening stench of rotting meat.

Snap fired his cross bow, missing as the bolt skittered off the floor just inches from its mark. Thorin brought his war axe down in an arc slicing open the one in front of him, killing it instantly, its innards gushing out onto the floor underneath it, and stepped in to clear the doorway for the others. Two rats raced for the fighters, and the first managed to get through Turk's armor before he could fend it off , while the other went after Thorin.

Turk quickly put his greatsword to good use, cutting the head off of rat that bit him, ensuring that the rat would never bite anyone again. Geirmund moved up, eager to get into the battle, but was blocked by the fighters in the door, in melee with the rats. Snap reloaded his crossbow, prepared to fire, given an opening.

Thorin swung his waraxe at the rat that had bitten him, and missed, and Kierwin stepped up to the doorway near Geirmund, waiting to fight or heal, watching the battle carefully, assessing the wounds.

The huge female dire rat, Guthash, had an opening and attacked. While Turk was engaged with the last two rats, the large female managed to bite him. Ignoring the pain from the wound, Turk attacked the rat on his left, killing it, but swung too high, missing the rat on his right when he followed through. Seeing his opportunity, Geirmund made it into the room and killed the rat that Turk had missed. Leaving the large, hideously diseased female dire rat for them to fight.

Thorin gripped his war axe, swinging it in a powerful arc as he hit the mother rat, killing her with one, absolutely perfect blow. The others looked at him, stunned, barely able to believe that he struck such a blow to that bloated, diseased creature.

They went to work searching the room, it was obvious that the secret door indicated on the map by the goblins did not exist. They found some silver, some gold and some gems in the filth and nests, but then after searching through the mess for some time, they found a body. Upon close examination, they managed to identify the body as that of the Ranger Karakas from the original party that they were looking for. His gold ring had his name engraved on it. They took the ring as evidence that they had found his body, Kierwin took the purple potion and Turk took the flask of cure light wounds that they found on the body.

Minx and Snap stood by the door to the room, speaking privately, well away from the rest of the party.

Turk could not just leave Karakas body lying on the floor, and was determined to build a cairn and to pray over it. As he began using the crumbled stone strewn across the floor, he noticed a hole chewed in the wall by the rats. He asked Thorin to guard the new entrance that he had discovered. Thorin responded by saying that if anything, especially a rat, attempted to enter through that hole, its head would immediately be separated from its body. Kierwin and Geirmund stood guard with Thorin, Geirmund trying to get Thorin to explore outside the hole, while Kierwin was doing her best to discourage him. Thorin didn't crawl through the hole, but did get a better look through it. He discovered that it led to the outside of the citadel, back to the chasm they had climbed down to enter the place originally.

After Turk had finished the cairn, placing Karakas' body to rest, and Kierwin was satisfied that Thorin was going to stay put inside the citadel, she walked over to pay her respects. She filled Turk in on the destination of the hole they'd found. Unfortunately, it did them little good at the time, they really had no need to go outside the citadel.

Turk finished the cairn as best he could with the materials available, and prayed to Pelor, while Kierwin bore silent witness. "Pelor, I know not the god this one followed, but see if you can take care of him in the afterlife, and lead him to goodness and righteousness. Give us strength that none of this party, even Minx, shall fall upon this fate, which this brave lad Karakas has met. In his name, follow his light and his godliness. Amen"

"Shall we move on in our quest, to save the other three?" Finished, Turk who was ready to go. "And also, of course, to find the apple, so we shall be able to help Osa's niece. And... if we may quarter the apple, we could even, perhaps help Minx."

Kierwin added, "And Thorin!"

Turk did not know about Thorin, "You are injured?"

"Aye, it was the mummy, same as Minx...." Replied Thorin, who was nowhere near as sick as Minx was.

Kierwin healed the fighters as best she could before they left the room, no matter where they went, they were walking into battle with goblins, if not worse.

 

[Taboo]

Goblins!

"We have two paths that lie before us. To go back through the door where the cans were, because that appears to be one way, and the main entrance into the goblins' lair. Or we can go all the way out and try to go in through the other door, and try to go over the pit. It would be my sense that the goblins have reinforced that area."

Kierwin interrupted, "And it will be just as dangerous as this door."

Turk agreed, "If not more. Now remember, there were caltrops on the ground which will impede us, we'll have to move slower. Simply do not run through the area, then you would definitely endanger yourself. Then, there was a wall or something, which I will assume the goblins will have guarded with missile fire, bows, javelins, spears, perhaps, which they will attempt to impale us with as we move forward. Does anyone have a shield?"

The answer was no.

"Hmm. So we will just have to take our chances and move forward. Thorin, I suggest that you and I lead the attack. Spellcasters, do any of you have any sleep spells?"

Electra did, but Kierwin only had Clerical spells that morning. Minx wanted to know why Turk wanted to know.

"We are moving into the goblin area. Cloaked one..." He was trying to get Snap's attention. "Do you have any of these sleep spells?"

Snap had been ignoring him, and finally answered that he did. He also had more spells to cast than Minx did, which ended up causing a discussion about the difference between wizards and sorcerers. Turk was still learning about spellcasters, since it had not been addressed at the academy.

"My suggestion is, we open the door, and let Minx and Snap cast their sleep spells on the area just past that wall to knock out any defenders. Then Thorin and I will walk over to the wall, look over, see what awaits us, and at that point we will decide whether to move forward or not." Turk had outlined a solid battle strategy, based on the fact that they did not know how many defenders would be waiting behind the partial wall. "Thorin, let's you and I take the lead, then we'll move back as quietly as possible, letting the spellcasters act first."

"Let's let our enemies bleed and die for their evil gods, while we live and conquer for our good god, Pelor. Pelor, give us strength."

Turk whispered to Kierwin, "Why don't you be rear guard in case anything comes up behind us."

She walked to the back of the group with Geirmund, sword out and watching for movement behind them.

With that, Thorin listened to see if he could hear anything on the other side, not hearing anything, they opened the door. The room was empty, except for the same mess they had encountered before, especially the great quantity of rat droppings. There were recent tracks through the room, it looked like a couple of goblins had come partway into the room, and then gone back into the hallway.

They moved over to the door that led to the hallway that the goblins guarded. It was slightly ajar. Turk could hear some sort of noise, but couldn't make out what it was. When they opened the door, movement caught Turk's eye as they opened the door. His hand shot out, catching a stone that had been placed on top of the door, and knocked off when they opened it, preventing it from alerting the goblins that the door had been opened.

There were speartips visible above the wall at the end of hallway, so they knew that the sentries were indeed at their post. Minx cast sleep and they saw one of the speartips fall. They heard surprised noises coming from one of the goblins, who couldn't figure out what had just happened to its partner. Snap cast the sleep spell he had prepared and the startled goblin joined its partner on the floor. Then Turk and Thorin made their way up to the wall, being careful of the caltrops that littered the floor.

Turk and Thorin made it to the wall, and using the wall as cover, got weapons ready to slice and dice. Turk drove his greatsword into one of the goblins, killing it before it could awake from the spell. Thorin took the other goblin out by separating its head from its body. They made sure the rest of the area was clear before motioning the others on.

Turk scaled the wall easily, and helped Thorin over. There was a doorway on that side of the wall, so Turk and Thorin guarded it while the others joined them after clearing the caltrops out of the hallway in case they needed to make a hasty retreat. They found wine skins with really nasty wine in them. The smell alone nearly made Thorin sick.

They opened the door that Turk and Thorin had been guarding, Kierwin and Geirmund continued to watch behind them in case of an attack. As soon as they opened the door, they heard goblins. When Turk heard the goblins, he took off with his sword out, ready for a fight. There was a short hallway that turned and opened into another room. That room was divided by another crenellated wall, and the goblins were standing guard behind that wall.

Turk, having left the others behind, got there first. He peaked around the corner, and saw several goblin faces peering over the wall, chattering to each other. At the end of the room, near where he was standing, were several human-sized stuffed manikins and broken javelins littered the floor. He took stock of the situation, and quickly moved up to the wall, slashing back and forth with his greatsword to terrify the goblins. He called to Thorin come and share the glory with him as they killed the evil goblins.

Three goblins stabbed at Turk as he moved to attack them alone. He dodged two, but the third hit, just grazing his left shoulder. Now Turk had a target, "You die first, putrid one!" He decided on a downward thrust with his sword, to work around the cover the goblins had from the three foot tall wall. He plunged his sword down through the heart of the goblin that had dented his armor with its javelin, and it slid off the blade, dead to the floor. He brought the sword up to hit the goblin next to him, but had lost momentum when he'd pierced the first one through. He just missed the goblin he was aiming for on the upswing, and nicked the wall.

The goblin Turk missed was screaming and jumping around with its javelin and trying to hit Turk. In its excitement, or terror, it missed.

Thorin had joined in the fight while Turk was fighting, and managed to take the head and an arm off of one of the goblins.

Turk said "Surrender or die!" And one of the goblins threw a javelin at him, then both of the remaining goblins ran for the door. Turk managed to bring down one as it turned to run, then stepped over the wall trying to keep the last goblin from getting away.

Thorin saw the goblin open the door, and did the only thing he could think of. He threw his waraxe. The goblin fell with the axe embedded firmly in the back of its head. Thorin climbed over the wall to reclaim his axe and clean the goblin brains off it.

Kierwin and Geirmund had gotten there in time to see Turk and Thorin kill the last two goblins and climbed over the wall to join Turk and Thorin. Turk called for Minx and Snap, who were still back in the room at the other end of the short hallway. They finally joined the rest of the group, and didn't offer any explanations about what had held them up.

 

[Taboo]

The discovery of the dungeon

Turk wanted to explore beyond the door the goblins had tried to escape through, but Kierwin didn't want to leave any doors unopened, or at least unguarded behind them. Kierwin couldn't hear anything through the door, but had Geirmund check it out. He thought he could hear mumbling or scuffling noises, but couldn't make anything out. Kierwin walked over to Turk and told him they really needed to check behind that door first, and that there were noises coming from behind it.

Turk asked Kierwin and Geirmund to watch the first door, while he and Thorin found out what was behind the door she was concerned about. Thorin tried to open the door, but it was locked, so Geirmund tried to pick it, which took him a few tries, but he got it. Thorin opened the door to find a dark and filthy dungeon.

Near the entrance, they found three kobolds tied to a spike by crude, rough ropes. As Turk stepped up so that his light shone into the room, they could see a few crumbling skeletons, of some poor, forgotten inhabitants, then they saw the back wall of the room. A battered looking dwarf was locked inside a rusty iron cage.

Turk and Thorin both headed straight for the dwarf at the back of the room. Thorin spoke to the dwarf in Dwarven.

"How long have you been down here? What's going on?"

"Get me out of this cage, and I'll talk! I can't even stand up straight! My back hurts! I need some water, or better yet, some beer! Son, have ya got some been on ya?"

Thorin called Geirmund, needing him to pick the lock on the cage. Geirmund went in to pick the lock, and said it was a tough a lock! Kierwin talked Snap into guarding the door for her while she went after the torch that Geirmund had taken with him, since he'd left her in the dark and helpless. She retrieved the torch and returned to her post.

Now Geirmund gave them a silver flask and a key that he'd found on the goblins. He'd been looting the bodies while they'd been busy in the dungeon. The flask was of dwarven make, and when Thorin opened it, it smelled bad.

"I am Reyk! Reyk the Timbers! Give me an axe and I'll chop 'em down!"

"My name is Turk Wildhands, it is a pleasure to meet you, an honor sir." Turk bowed to the dwarf. "I do not know if we have an extra axe, but these goblins have javelins. You could take some of their putrid armor for some protection. Were you captured by these goblins or something?"

"I was out doing a little exploring, you probably saw some of my friends out in the main hall, all dead on the ground. I've been here for awhile, I don't know how long, I've lost track of time."

"Have you seen anyone else? We are looking for a Paladin, named Sir Bradfor...."

Rek interrupted, "You mean a human in shiny armor all puffed up with himself, and his hot little sister?"

"That's the one."

"Yeah, they came through here about a week ago."

"And they left you here tied up?"

"Yeah, see, that big ugly guy, with the scar down his face, kinda hairy, looks kinda scary, he said 'I've got no use for that.' and left me here for the goblins. He took them off."

"Was his name Belak?" Asked Turk.

Reyk thought for a moment. "I can't remember... The name sounds familiar, I've probably heard the goblins mention it a few times."

"This puffed up one," Turk asked, "Sir Bradford, did you happen to see a boy and a girl with him who looked alike, or appeared to be brother and sister?"

"Yeah, the boy had a gash in his head and had bandages all over. They took him straight past."

"But they were alive? How long ago?"

Reyk answered, "About a week."

"A week, there is still hope then, my friends, and...companions." Turk said, getting a withering look from Minx.

Thorin asked Reyk if he would like to join them.

"Yeah, let's kill the scum! They took my Holy Symbol and I want to get it back! Moradin would never forgive me if I didn't. " Reyk was more than ready to get going, and get his vengeance on the ones who'd locked him in the cage.

Turk was quick to catch the reference to the Holy Symbol. "Are you of the Clerical persuasion?"

"I AM A WAR PRIEST! NOTHING IS FINER THAN CLEAVING GOBLIN SKULLS AND DRINKING BEER!"

"Aye!" Thorin agreed enthusiastically.

Turk was quick to add, "Except giving thanks to Pelor for his goodness!"

"Pelor is good because he grows trees, so we can hew them down!" Reyk was still shouting, he was so excited about going after those who had kept him prisoner. "The better to make axe handles with!"

"Well, each has their own way of traveling and doing justice for good," Turk said. "So as long as you fight in goodness name, I'll be proud to travel with you. Let's go forward with Pelor and destroy the evil, before they have too much chance! So far we have been very lucky and we have not been discovered down here."

Reyk pointed out the other prisoners, "What about these little guys?"

Turk thought for a moment, "I care not for them, we may let them go. They are subhuman."

"Wait a minute!" Thorin jumped in. "We should see if we can speak their language, they might be able to give us some information!"

Reyk said, "They brought them in, not too long ago. It's hard to tell the hours, but maybe half a day."

Thorin and Reyk were talking at the same time, while Thorin was calling for Minx to come in to talk to the prisoners, that he thought were called kobolds, Rek was saying something about a poor little one being drug off by the big ugly man with the scar, and not being at all happy about it.

Minx couldn't figure out what Thorin was talking about, in his excitement, and Turk told her that he said they had prisoners for her to talk to.

She went in the room, leaving Keirwin, Geirmund and Snap on guard in the outer room. Turk left with Reyk while Minx talked with the kobolds, he was on a search to find armor that would fit the dwarf, unfortunately, after trying piece after piece of armor, nothing would fit.

"They're weany little goblins, man, I'm am a stout oak! They're weeds!" They dug through all of the abandoned armor, including those on the dead bodies. Your shirt, though, it looks like it might fit!"

"This shirt is blessed by Pelor himself!"

"Oh, it's a nice weave, there..."

"I know, this is my shirt! See this dent right here?"

"It must have cost you a pretty penny! You must have lots of money! I'll let you buy me beer!"

"Help me destroy the goblins, and we are here to retrieve an apple. Help us and I'll buy you all the beer you can drink in an hour."

"Let's kill the goblins!" Rek finally forgot about Turk's armor, now that his mind was on been and killing goblins again.

Finally admitting defeat, they settled on grabbing javelins and hoped to find some armor that would fit later. Kierwin offered her Morningstar, which Reyk tried out, then beat to a pulp on the stone walls, complaining it was a goblin weapon, and handed back to her.

Meanwhile, Minx spoke to the imprisoned kobolds. When everyone got back together, she filled them all in. Apparently, their actions in the citadel had had quite an impact on the kobolds. After they'd left to go back to town, the goblins, led by Belak came through the side passage and attacked them.

Belak confronted the queen and told her that he would wipe out the tribe if they continued to help the group. Meepo had been taken to Belak down below. The queen sold him out as an ally of the group. The kobolds didn't have any idea what happened to Meepo after he'd been taken down below, and as far as the queen was concerned, she didn't care if they were dead, she wouldn't bat an eye.

Minx asked the kobolds if they let them go, what they'd do to the queen.

"Nothing! She's mean! She'll stick us in the head and stand on our necks! And shoot bolts of energy from her fingers!" The kobolds were screaming they were so scared of the queen. They weren't about to go running to her.

"So if we let you go, what are you going to do?" Minx asked them.

"Go back to the tribe, where else are we gonna go?" They asked, like it was a stupid question.

"But she sold you out!"

"She's the queen. She has to do what she has to do, for the good of the tribe."

"So killing the tribe is for the good of the tribe?" Thorin asked, after Minx translated.

"If your arm becomes infected you would cut it off to save your body."

Minx told them she was going to let them go, and untied them. She told them she hoped Meepo was alive. They said they hoped he was and felt bad for him, that he went down the hole.

Minx wished she'd let Meepo stay with her when he'd asked. He'd wanted to go to town, and they'd made him stay at the citadel. Now they didn't know if he was alive or dead, and he was down below with Belak.

After they let the kobolds go, Reyk told them a little more about what he'd heard from the goblins while he'd been imprisoned down there. He'd heard the goblins talk about the Twilight Grove down below. It was an enchanted garden, and he'd seen a man in robes, carrying a scythe, headed down that way a couple of weeks ago. His guess was that he must tend the garden. There was something about the fruit and not being able to get out in time, because it was going to be mature in a day or couple days, and the little guys, the kobolds were blocking the way.

Turk was excited, "Good the fruit is ready to be picked! We can get it and help Osa." Remembering Minx, he added, "We can help you, too. We can help Minx, and definitely we can help Thorin."

"I thought we made an agreement to be nice to one another, Turk, and I'm working pretty hard to be polite to you, cause I could say a few things now, but I'm biting my tongue!" Minx stopped to breathe.

"I've been extremely polite to you, considering all the facts." Turk said evenly.

"Ah, facts, shmacts." Thorin put in. "Let's just go kill something."

"I haven't said anything. Did I not just say, we could heal you?" Turk asked.

Minx pointedly ignored him.

"Now we're not speaking?!" Turk said in exasperation.

"Let's get going!" Thorin was pushing them, trying to keep things from escalating. It worked.

Thorin opened the door that the goblin had tried to escape through before he'd so neatly nailed it in the back with his axe. They found a hallway with two doors, one at the end, and the other on the opposite wall from the one they had opened. Turk immediately went for the door at the end of the hall, and just as he reached it, the floor dropped out from under him.

 

[Taboo]

My apologies for such a long delay, it's been unavoidable, unfortunately. I'm back and am going to try to post regularly now. Things are just now getting exciting!

*********************************

Lightening quick reflexes saved him from the pit trap, managing to jump back to safety just as it opened. He looked down, seeing fragments of bone and a layer of filth lining the bottom of the trap.

Turk let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you Pelor, for looking over me and protecting me in my moment of need, and giving me the quickness of a cat to withstand such a ...."

Thorin was talking about the filth at the bottom of the trap, and the others could hear him saying something about it being full of crap. The next thing anyone heard from him was, "Oh crap!"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, surprising Turk and Thorin, and they heard goblin voices raised in anger and alarm. A nauseating wave of stench came flowing from the room, washing over the two heroes in the hallway. The goblins in the room were tripping over each other in their rush to get out of the room and to kill the outsiders in the hallway, but Thorin was in their way.

The goblins were trying so hard to attack and get out through the doorway that they kept bumping each other, and wound up missing Thorin with their first wave of attacks. Turk pushed Thorin out of his way as he reached the goblin bottleneck, and attacked the goblin closest to working its way out the door. In his haste, and with the door blocking his best chance of attack, he narrowly missed his foe. The goblin took advantage of that miss by hitting back, nicking Turk as he stabbed it through the stomach. Turk twisted his blade as he pulled it back out of the goblin, aiming for the head of the creature next to it, but missing as the goblin quickly dodged to try to take its fallen partner's place.

Thorin waited for an opening, and dodged past Turk into the room full of goblins. He quickly dispatched one near the door as he came through it, nearly severing its head from its neck with a well placed blow from his axe.

Goblins flanked Thorin, four of them attacking at once, but hardly together. In their haste to kill the dwarf, they attacked too quickly always missing. Thorin made quick work of the goblins surrounding him, with Turk stepping into the room once the doorway was cleared and shoving Thorin to the side in his haste to attack the foul creatures. Rek quickly joined the fray, quickly killing a goblin of his own, yelling for revenge against those who had held him captive for so long. Between the three of them, Goblin heads went flying one direction, bodies and limbs flying another, with blood quickly painting the room red.

Now that the goblins inhabiting the room were dead, the heroes could look around the foul smelling room. Thorin had been correct with his observation about the room's stench earlier when the goblins had surprised him. Aside from the foul smell and the filth that caused it, they saw half-eaten legs of animals, and battered cooking equipment around an obviously much used fire pit. The goblins had tattered hides lying around the room mixed in with garbage and rotten carrion and worn out armor. Rek did find a couple of hand axes that were in fair condition. There were no exits in the room that they could find, disappointing Turk. They headed back to where Keirwin was guarding the only door they had not explored yet.

They got back to the room where the others waited, Turk going immediately to Kierwin's side. "Kierwin, we have been victorious! We have cleansed this area of the goblin threat."

"You weren't hurt, were you?" She was looking him over, worriedly checking for wounds.

"A tiny bit. This one punctured my armor, here, scratches here and here, and a small cut upon my thigh, but otherwise no, I am just slightly damaged. Pelor has filled me with his strength."

Satisfied that he was ok, she remembered Thorin and Rek were also in the battle. Feeling guilty, she told Turk she should have asked if Thorin was ok. Turk replied, "Thorin? He's a tough little dwarf, he's fine."

"Thorin, you didn't get hurt did you?"

"Nothing a couple of weeks topside with some beer wouldn't fix." Was Thorin's reply. "Lots of beer."

"Kierwin, I hate to tell you this, but I think you're standing in the doorway we have to go through next. So my lady, if you'd be so kind as to take your gorgeous body and move five feet to the left, so the brute Thorin and I may stand here and bash it through, we would appreciate it. Come, Thorin! Let us take your axe and my great sword and clear the way!"

Thorin listened at the door and didn't hear anything coming from the other side. They checked the door and it wasn't locked, so they opened it, rather than bashing it down. They saw a square room that looked like a storage room. There were barrels and crates stacked to the ceiling along the walls with a clear path to the door on the other side.

"I wonder if any of these barrel have beer..." Thorin headed for a nearby barrel.

"Well, you check the barrels, I'm going straight to the door." Turk headed for the door on the other side of the room.

Thorin opened one of the barrels, it had something funky in it. Other barrels were leaking some kind of nasty water on the floor. Some light was shining on one of the barrels, it was filled with oil. Thorin could see writing on another barrel, in goblin, it said "Elf Pudding." They didn't know what he read, but he exclaimed "Oh Yuck!" when he read it, the others decided not to ask what it was.

Thorin joined Turk at the door, checking to see if there was any sound behind it. Not hearing anything, Turk opened the door. They immediately recognized the smoky room behind the door. It was the last room they'd gone into before heading back to town, the room where they'd faced so many goblins and hobgoblins. When they'd returned to the Sunless Citadel, they'd gone the other direction.

Turk took the left, Thorin took the right and Reyk and Kierwin went up the middle of the room. Geirmund stayed in the rear with Snap and Minx who were making a point of staying together away from the others. Thorin came to a door, listened briefly and opened it. Turk couldn't see what Thorin was up to and kept moving down the hallway. Rek and Kierwin followed Turk, but stayed toward the middle of the hall. The smoke was so thick that they couldn't tell if there were any enemies about, and none of them had any idea that Thorin had gone into a small room by himself.

Kierwin realized that she'd lost Turk, he was off down the hall by himself, out of sight. She whispered to him with no response. She could barely tell what Thorin was doing, but she knew he was getting ready to go into a room or hallway alone and she didn't know what to do. Go follow Thorin or try to find Turk?

Thorin saw a room adorned with stuffed and mounted animal heads on the walls, including cattle and rats and even Kobolds. A rather sick assortment and poorly done. Smashed and broken cabinets were along the walls on the floor as though something had smashed through the room breaking everything in its way. There was a rusted iron spike stood askew in the center of the room with a broken chain hanging from it. This sections of ice coated the walls, the floor, and the debris in the room.

Thorin closed the door and walked down the hallway, not realizing what he had just overlooked. They all reached the end of the hallway, where Turk stood guarding the door at the end.

"I saw more doors, back down the hall. Someone should guard this door, while we go check those." Turk whispered to the others.

Kierwin stayed at the door at the end of the hall. Geirmund noticed something moving in the room that Thorin had briefly investigated and told Turk, who promptly went to the room in question. "Kierwin, stay here and guard the door, we don't want anything sneaking in behind us. Where is it, Geirmund? I'll find it, I'll kill whatever it is." With that, he was gone, in search of whatever quarry was hiding in the icy room.

He walked into the room, surrounded by smashed furniture. Suddenly, he was surprised by a dragon that hopped up from behind the wreckage.

"It's the white dragon! Thank you, Pelor!"

Turk barely had time to register that the dragon wasn't exactly white. It had a mauve color to it, radiating throughout the white. As the odd coloring occurred to him, the dragon let him feel it's icy breath, but it burned, too. The dragon breathed ice, but there was acid in it too. Turk yelled as the ice and acid hit him. The dragon followed that up by biting Turk, pressing his advantage, refusing to back down.

 

[Taboo]

The White and Mauve Dragon-acid and ice

Turk tried to pay the dragon back by skewering him with his greatsword, but the bite had thrown off his aim, he missed.

Kierwin heard the sounds of the dragon and Turk's cry of pain. She ran for the room wishing she hadn't let him take off on his own, she knew he was going to get himself killed one day, it looked like it was going to be now. She hoped she was wrong.

Thorin made it to the room, the dragon was flying around biting at Turk. He managed to hit the dragon in spite of its wild antics.

Snap ran into the room trying to maneuver into a position to breathe fire at the dragon, but afraid of hitting Thorin, Reyk or Turk. The dragon took advantage of Snap's indecision to breathe icy/acid at the group of enemies it was facing hitting them all.

Thorin swung his axe at the dragon, striking it hard. While Thorin had the dragon distracted, Turk, finally free of the dragon's jaws swung his greatsword in a powerful arc, connecting with a solid blow. "Ha! Take that you evil, ice, acid breathing beast!" Turk yelled as he slammed into it with his sword.

Geirmund and Minx waited in the hall as Kierwin measured her chances of getting to Turk who was bleeding, but on the other side of the dragon. She stepped into the room, followed by Reyk.

The dragon flew out through a hole in the wall up toward the ceiling. "Come back here, you beastie!" Turk yelled futilely behind the dragon, frustrated that it had escaped them, for now anyway. Now, they just needed to find it again.

Minx asked what color he was, Turk answered, "White with mauve, kind of cute in a way. The coloration was rather interesting. Stupid dragon."

Kierwin practically ran to Turk to see how badly he was hurt. "I am a bit injured by that beast, that evil creature." Turk was rinsing off blood and the melted icy acid crystals from the dragon.

She whispered to Turk, "That was extremely brave, but I told you to be careful. You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I didn't know it was in here!"

Kierwin put her hands on Turk and prayed for healing. Turk sighed, "That feels better."

"Minx, Thorin's injured, do you happen to have any healing for him?" Turk asked, knowing that Kierwin had just used the last of hers on him.

"Sure." Minx went over to Thorin, healing the brave dwarf.

Snap could see that both Thorin and Turk still had some open wounds, and cast healing spells on both of them.

Turk was still complaining about the dragon. "Stupid dragon. Got away."

"Unless it's in one of the next rooms." Kierwin ventured.

"Yeah! Very smart, Kierwin." Turk perked up a little. "That hole has to go somewhere! Here, let's put that table underneath that hole, and I'll stand here."

Kierwin was horrified, thinking Turk was going to look in the hole. "No, no, no, I'm going to wait here in case something comes out. Thorin, you go in the room next door and check it out."

"Wait, I have endure elements, who should I cast it on?" Kierwin jumped in while they were making their plans.

"Cast it on Thorin, since he's going in the room."

"Turk, was it more ice or acid?" After deciding it felt more acidic, they decided protection against acid would be best, so Kierwin cast the spell on Thorin.

Thorin opened the door next to the room they were in. He found a five foot wide corridor that was about 10 feet long and opened into a 10 foot wide corridor. There was a hole in the wall about 8 feet above the floor. Thorin took off following the corridor. When he realized Turk was telling him to send the dragon toward him, he finally yelled over to them that there was a corridor and the dragon must have escaped down it.

Turk was grumbling about the dragon getting away again, and they all headed over to the corridor following Thorin. Turk wanted to know if the hole in the wall in the corridor actually did go in the other room. "Here, Thorin, let me boost you up."

Thorin was far from thrilled about that idea, so Turk changed his tactics. "Ok, you push me up. I want to see if this goes in the other room. Here, lean over, and I'll climb up and look."

 

[Taboo]

The others stood back, expecting Turk to get a face full of acid. Turk couldn't see into the tunnel, it was dark. "Thorin, I'll push you up, you can see in the dark."

"Alright." Thorin reluctantly looked in the hole, expecting to be attacked, but he knew that Turk had looked through there and hadn't gotten himself killed. He couldn't see anything but an empty tunnel that curved around to where he couldn't see anymore. It looked like something had dug its way through there.

"So, it's probably not in there anymore. Let's go down the hall, let's don't let it get away." Turk took off down the hallway, with the others trailing behind him.

They came to two doors. One at the end of the hall and one on the left side of the hall.

Kierwin said "I don't see anymore holes anywhere and both doors are closed."

Turk nodded. "So the dragon knows how to open up doors. Smart dragon."

They heard voices behind one of the doors. Turk motioned for Kierwin to walk over to him. "I hear voices behind this door. I don't want to be surprised by anything coming through the other door. You stay here at that door and guard it while we open this one and deal with whatever's behind it."

He quickly opened the door, heading in. It opened to a large, circular chamber with a large hole right in the middle of the floor. There was a dim violet light shining up out of the shaft, revealing sickly white and gray vines coating the shaft's walls.

Against the far wall, was a throne made out of stone upon which sat a very large goblin, next to the goblin chief, sat the white and mauve, young dragon. On the other side of the throne, there was a sapling growing in a wide stone pot, it looked more like a bundle of sticks than a tree. But just as noticeable, if not more so was the room full of goblins in front of them.

Turk saw the dragon, and immediately yelled "He's mine, he's mine!"

Snap had his eye on the dragon, too, it had escaped before and he had no intention of letting it escape again. Fire might just do the job. He inhaled deeply, exhaling a line of fire, aiming for dragon and hoping to take out a couple of goblins at the same time. The dragon was right in the path of flame, struck down, scorched, along with a goblin unlucky enough to be too close to it and in the flame's path. As the dragon fell, the group cheered.

Several of the goblins surrounded Snap, yelling "Get him!"

Suddenly, Snap was surrounded by goblins. Fortunately for Snap, only one drew blood, they were in too big of a rush to get too him.

Turk stepped in, praising Snap (who ignored him) even as he attacked the goblins. "Good shot, Snap, you brought that evil beast to a burning death, like Pelor's sun bringing fire into this evil cavern. And now using the flame of the burning body, watch it twinkle off my sword as I hack and slash and cleave these evil ones." During his impassioned speech, Turk managed to dismember one of the goblins, twisting to take out another, but just missing the vile creature.

Seeing the new threat posed by Turk, several goblins surrounded him, attacking before he could attack again. They tried to overwhelm him with sheer numbers, but in their haste and clambering over each other, not one of them managed to hit him.

"Ha ha! The light of Pelor's goodness has blinded you! If you all surrender now we shall spare your evil lives, for we have done what we came for, we have slain the evil dragon. I give you one chance to surrender."

The chief spoke up, "If you have done what you seek, then leave...we will let you go."

"I need the apple and then we will go."

"In two days time, we shall come and sell it to you."

Minx mumbled that she didn't trust them. Snap spoke up, determined. "Let's just kill them all."

Turk sensed that the chief was telling the truth, he just wanted them to leave and he planned to sell them the apple. He asked the others if they could afford to buy the apple, and asked the chief how much.

"200 gold."

"Have we got 200 gold?" Turk asked the others. "Temporary truce...nobody kill anybody!"

The group argued about the funds and what they were willing to do. The fee would break them. Reyk just wanted to kill all the goblins, forget the nogotiations.

While they were arguing, Reyk was standing in the back loudly voicing his opinion about his captors. " I say we kill the bastards! Let me at 'em. I'll split 'em in two! You can't trust the little bastards! They're goblins! You can't trust the little weenies... Thorin..." he whispered, "Thorin, lets kill 'em, we CAN'T be makin' deals with the goblins." He continued, but nobody was listening to him.

"We can't afford it, let's kill them." Snap was busy arguing with the others, himself. He was determined not to strike a truce, the goblins all had to die. "We should kill them." He repeated while Turk was trying to make a deal with the chief after determining they couldn't afford the price the chief was asking.

While they were standing there arguing, the chief got a very nice short bow out and strung it. Loading an arrow that he leveled at Turk. He didn't fire, just stood there looking at them waiting on the decision.

Turk wanted to buy part of the apple, the chief wasn't going for it. They'd only sell the whole apple.

"I have one request, and your people can live, and we will avoid any wounds, which are painful to us. There are three people we are looking for, a brother and sister and a paladin. Release the prisoners that you have..."

"And Meepo!" Minx threw in.

"You mean Belak's three pink wood-stiffs." The chief corrected Turk. "Ha ha ha ha ha....you don't want them back, now."

"Are they alive?" Turk asked, puzzled by the chief's answer.

"Yes"

Then I want them back."

"You'll have to go down the hole to get them." The chief informed him. "But, if I don't try to stop ya, Belak will have my hide. I'll tell you what, 100 gold and I'll give you free passage IN."

"But then I won't have the money to buy the apple."

"You're going down where the apple is."

"But you said the apple won't be ready for 2 days. Can we pick the apple before it's ready?"

"Actually, I don't know if the apple can be picked early or not. Belak gives us the apple."

"If you give us free passage, and we can stay down there as long as we want and we'd have free passage back, and you shall not engage us in battle?"

"For 100 gold pieces, I'll let you down, and for 100 gold....maybe...I'll let you back out."

"We have deal."

"Alright! Clear a hole boys." The goblins scooted back out of the way. Kierwin gave the 100 gold to the chief.

In Draconic, Snap and Minx were talking about Turk. "He sucks." Snap was really angry. Minx answered him, agreeing, "I've been telling you the whole time, he doesn't know what he's doing!" "I should have saved my fire...."

Turk on the other hand, had no idea what they were saying about him. He was very proud of himself for negotiating the truce and the way down below.

Reyk was still complaining, "Let's kill 'em, these are the bad things that locked me up!"

Minx was yelling, "Did you ask him what happened to Meepo? Where's Meepo?"

"What's a Meepo?" The chief answered.

"We'll save Meepo, too." Turk was ready to move on. Not realizing just how much Snap was grumbling in Draconic and how angry he was about the negotiations with the goblins. "Reyk, we rescued you, and now you're an important member of our party."

"Fine, I'm a lawful, upstanding citizen and I'll bow to your leadership, but if they cause any trouble I'll kill 'em!"

"If they break their promise, we'll then kill them." Turk agreed with Reyk.

"Meepo's my friend." Minx answered the chief when he asked what a Meepo was.

"As unique as that must appear, what does it look like?"

Turk answered, knowing they weren't going to get anywhere at this rate, "It's a kobold."

"Oh, down the hole...."

"Was he still alive when he went down the hole?" Minx asked.

"Tasted like it."

"WHAT?!!!"

"Ha ha ha....I mean, he was still warm. He was moving and squirming a bit."

"Did they eat him?"

The chief answered her, "I didn't eat him. Belak wanted him, he took him down himself. Belak, he doesn't eat...most things."

"Oh, well, that's reassuring." Minx didn't sound very reassured.

"Thorin, you be the last one that goes down, you be rear guard. I'll go down first."

While Turk was planning their decent, the chief started speaking to Snap in orc.

"You want a cut of the gold, sonny? You stick around, we'll make a deal!"

Snap told Minx, "We ought to join their party, it'd be a lot more fun."

The chief continued, "What are you, a slave? What are doing with that human?"

Turk climbed down the vines, watching for trouble and waiting for everyone else. But not everyone joined him.

 

[Taboo]

Down the hole to the twilight grove

They climbed down the shaft, noticing a luminescent fungus clinging to the walls and the ceiling making the cavern glow with a purple light. The vines they climbed down were sickly white and the air smelled of decay. The floor was covered with soil, rotting vegetation and the remains of animals such as rats with mushrooms and other types of fungus growing throughout the cavern. They noticed saplings growing in the area, and two gaunt, cloaked figures shoveling the earth into a rusted wheelbarrow.

When they reached the bottom, everyone was there but Snap, who never climbed down. No one knew where he'd gone, not even Minx. He hadn't said anything, just didn't follow her down, apparently choosing to remain with the goblin chief as he'd threatened, or striking out on his own, dissatisfied with the decisions that were made or leaving before his anger got the better of him and he did something he might later regret. They didn't have time to make sense of it now, there was pressing danger at hand.

Recognizing the saplings, Turk quickly made his way through the detritus strewn all over the floor to destroy them. As he approached, they started moving. They pulled up feet from the roots, and what had at first looked like branches looked more like claws. Turk swung his greatsword, from the left to the right, with his favorite move, splintering the first and following through to smash a second one.

Thorin saw Turk moving toward the saplings and headed for the gaunt figures, realizing they were skeletons as he approached the first one. He managed to break off some ribs from the one he attacked, barely damaging it.

Turk rushed forward, too quickly through the debris all over the floor, slipping on some mushrooms and his armor clanged loudly as he fell flat on his back.

Kierwin, seeing that the two figures were undead, she called upon the holiness of Ehlonna to destroy the undead and send them back to hell where they belonged. Both skeletons crumbled into dust.

Turk got back on his feet, deciding he'd better be more careful running in the garbage laying all over the floor.

Suddenly, there was a loud shout and heavily booted feet coming toward them from a tunnel off to the side of the cavern. Minx stepped back behind the rest of the group, nearly out of spells and with little protection just as a big bugbear accompanied with huge rats came rushing into the room, shouting and angry.