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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beale Knight" data-source="post: 2457350" data-attributes="member: 7033">Deep in the depths - two grand discoveries!From up-river three lizard-men rode small logs into the room, spears ready to throw. From behind the pillars came two drakes, the smaller type that walked upright. The battle was on!Bessie immediately took a step back and began a long chant as Ren pulled his bow and shot at the approaching lizard-men. Aneirin joined Dumb Bear at the channel’s edge and waited for the drakes. They soon had their targets. The drakes ran and jumped over the water, but neither quite made it all the way across. As they scrambled to climb out of the water the warriors attacked. Aneirin’s sword cut through one drake with ease, and Dumb Bear’s flail smashed the other one. The drakes made feeble swipes with their too-short arms, but the warriors barely felt the claws. They pressed the attack and soon the two drakes were so much pulp, sliding back into the flowing water. Meanwhile, Bessie had called forth a water elemental and set it after the log riding lizard-men. It rose into a great waterspout and slammed first one, then another lizard-man. Both of their chests were crushed from the force of the water, and Ren’s arrows sent the last to his watery grave. “Easy Meat,” Dumb Bear said with a grin. “Not so much,” Bessie said. She leaned down to look into the up-stream tunnel. “There’s many, many more eyes looking this way. They’re just waiting for us to get vulnerable again.”They’ve got the numbers too,” Aneirin grumbled. “And probably the patience to wait us out.”“Dumb Bear rope,” the elf said, holding his hand out. He glanced at the twenty foot expanse of water. “Jump.”The other three looked at each other. “If any one of could make it, it’s him,” Ren said. “We could secure the other end on Avarshan. She’s about the only one that could hold it firm when we went across.”They talked about the specifics for another few minutes. No one was especially happy with the plan, they were certain to be attacked as they crossed, and the mounts would have to be left, but finally no one could come up with a better plan. So one end of the rope was secured to Avarshan, and held more secure by Aneirin. Dumb Bear took the other end of the rope, ran to the ditch, pushed off the edge, and jumped. He very nearly made it. But not quite. Dumb Bear splashed in right at the far edge of the waterway. Though he climbed up quickly and easily, his splash was the catalyst for more attacks. There was another great screech from up-stream and another set of three log-riding lizard-men swam down to attack. They threw their spears, missing the Heroes wildly. One was killed from Ren’s arrows and Bessie’s bolts, and the other two escaped down-stream and out of reach. With Dumb Bear safe on the far side and holding his end of the rope tightly, Ren jumped into the water and grabbed hold of the rope. He quickly swam across, but unsurprisingly his splash brought another set of log-riding lizard-men. Bessie killed one of them as they floated by, making spear attacks that nicked and bloodied Dumb Bear and Ren. The druid was next. Once Ren readied his bow, she jumped in the stream and used the rope to speed her way across. She lost her grip at one point, throwing a scare into everyone, but she quickly caught herself. Ren managed to kill two of the three lizard-men that floated by that time, but not before they drew some blood from Aneirin and Bessie both. Finally it was Aneirin’s turn. He made it into the water safely enough, but his armor proved a little too much. Avarshan gave a step and Aneirin’s grip slipped. Ren dove in after him as another set of lizard-men came to attack. Bessie shot one dead as it hit her hard with a spear. Meanwhile Ren, one hand on the rope, reached out and grabbed Aneirin’s hand. Avarshan gave another step, but with Ren’s aid, Aneirin was soon safely on the far side with the others.   Soaking wet and bloodied from the relentless attacks, the Heroes of Maissen were finally on the other side of the underground stream. After half an hour of work, they had progressed twenty feet. It took that long again to dry themselves and their gear. As they did they noticed something unusual. First Bessie and then the others realized just how hot it was. It was far hotter than it had been just down the hall. And that strange, immense breathing sound, continued unabated. “Look at this,” Ren said. He’d circled around to the back side of the pillars. Very relieved there was no ambush waiting there, he found something quite odd. “What is it?” Bessie asked as she and the others walked up. Ren held up the light to focus it on his discovery. “Wheels,” he said. The hunter pointed to a large wheel, like that of a ship, mounted midway up the column. There was an identical one on the other column. Bessie bent down for a close look. “They’re covered with gunk and grime," she said. "It looks like they haven’t been used in years. Decades even.” She tried to give one a turn, but couldn’t. “They’re stuck fast.”“Let’s see how fast,” Aneirin said. He stepped up to one but Dumb Bear put a hand on his shoulder. “Me,” the big elf said. Aneirin smiled. Dumb Bear had made the jump that got them here, if he wanted to take the first chance to make these things work, Aneirin wouldn’t stand in his way. Dumb Bear stood before the wheel and flexed his muscles for a moment. Staring at the wheel he threw both hands on it and turned. The wheel resisted for just a moment, then with a metallic groan it turned. The elf turned it until it stopped, and by then the Heroes could see what it had done. The water level was going down. With a smile, Dumb Bear bounded over to the other wheel and repeated his impromptu ritual. The second wheel gave under his strength as the first had. This time there was a loud, metallic “THOOOMP!” sound from downstream somewhere. “Well that’s quite something,” Ren said. He frowned. “Still no way to get the mounts across though, even with the ditch empty.”Aneirin was frowning too. “We’ll have to leave them there.” He sighed. “They’re both trained for battle though. They ought to be able to take care of themselves.”Ren nodded. “Yep.”Bessie thought they both sounded an awfully lot like they were trying to convince themselves of what they were saying. With that, they turned their attention to the continued exploration of this ancient temple place. The rear of the room squared off and gave them three options. Each back corner opened into a hall, and there was a third hall directly in the middle of the rear wall. With no hints about which way would be best, they went right. That hall turned and soon opened up into another chamber too huge for their light to take in at once. They could make out massive pillars dotting the front part of the chamber, but no more. “Plenty big,” Ren said. “This would be a good place for defenders to make their move,” Aneirin said. “But  we need to go on through.”The warrior’s judgment proved dead on. As soon as the Heroes set the first foot into the room the attack came.With a loud “screeeech” a hoard of lizard-men ran out from behind various pillars. Some had real swords, some axes, some just their claws, but at least one had a bow. From the darkness to the back of the room a light shown and flew toward the fight. It clattered on the floor, doing no harm, but lighting up a wide area. “This’ll help,” Ren muttered as he fired an arrow into one of the charging lizard-men. Aneirin gutted a sword wielding foe. “It’ll help them all find us without trouble!” he shouted. “Dumb Bear! Here!” He pointed with his sword to the floor beside him. The elf understood and the two of them formed a short front line. From behind, still in the hall, Bessie and Ren held back and shot at choice targets. The lizard-men came on and on and on. There seemed no end to them. They soon flanked Aneirin and Dumb Bear, and others were able to slip passed the warriors to directly engage Bessie and Ren. The hunter did his best to slice open the lizard men with his sickle, but he was getting sliced up himself by two of the lizard-men’s axes. Bessie’s fire magic bought him much needed breathing room, and he was finally able to get one from behind. Up front, Dumb Bear and Aneirin were slaughtering lizard-men in bulk, but the elf was paying the price for it. Barely moving, his feet were soon coated in blood, his own as well as the lizard-men. Finally there were no more lizard-men attacking. From the sounds at the back of the massive room, many escaped, but the Heroes had higher priorities at the moment. Except for Aneirin, for once, they were each deeply wounded. “We’ll have to get into the potions and scrolls to heal these wounds,” Bessie said. “Knowing we’d be fighting I prepared battle flavored spells today.”Watching for a renewed attack, Aneirin asked, “how’s the supply of those?”Bessie shook her head. “Dwindling, but I see no other choice. We can’t go on so wounded.” Aneirin nodded and Bessie distributed the healing magics as best as she could. With everyone’s wounds magically tended as much as they were going to be, the party readied their gear and pressed on. The pillared room was huge, larger than the first room of pillars. At the rear was an alcove that opened into a hallway going even deeper. A few steps ahead of the others, Ren heard frightened whimpering as he approached the alcove, and soon saw the source. Gathered in the alcove was the pathetic sight of frightened lizard-women, huddled together and avoiding eye contact with the Heroes as they came up. “What should we do?” Bessie asked.Ren shook his head. “There’s all kinds of solid reasons to slaughter them here where they sit, but….”“But there’s no Good in it,” Aneirin finished for him. “Mercy?”The other humans nodded. Dumb Bear took an extra moment to process the signs, but then he nodded. “They go.”It took the Heroes several moments to get the lizard-women’s attention, get them to stand, and direct them to go. They stared at the strange invaders for a long minute before it sank in that they weren’t about to be slaughtered in cold blood. Then they ran full speed away, down the way the invaders had come. Beyond the pillared room, the hall quickly turned into a mess of twists and turns, as though someone was planning to build a maze but never got very far along with it. From the trash, filth, and junk in these halls, they were clearly the lairs of the hoard of lizard-folk. There was one central hall turning left or right every few steps, and two side halls that did much the same thing. The side halls may have been symmetrical like so much else of this place, but from the crude, “just enough to not get lost” map Bessie sketched it was hard to tell. Both came to sudden dead ends though. The central hall came to an end by opening into a good sized chamber that the lizard-men had turned into a temple. On a pedestal at the rear of the room was a statue about the size of a large sport ball. It depicted some blobbish lizard-man god and looked to be made of gold! “I’ll go up for a close look,” Ren said. “Keep me covered.”Aneirin nodded. “I don’t think there’s anyone left to keep you covered from. We’ve seen no signs of life since the pillar room.”Ren found the pedestal rigged for a trap. The top of the pedestal looked as it were a solid piece of stone, but a close look discovered it was two, a central circle inside an outer one. “I think it’s a weight based trap,” Ren said. “Get a bag and fill it with pebbles and stuff until it’s about this size.” He demonstrated with his hands a size equal to the statue. He was only guessing that the weight would be right, and that he could switch the bag for the statue fast enough. When the bag was ready, everyone else backed away. Ren placed one hand on the statue and had the bag ready to take its place as soon as he pulled the statue away. But he wasn’t fast enough. He pulled the statue off, but even as he was dropping the bag into place the pedestal flashed with fire! The fire singed Ren in several places, but he came through it whole and smiling. “It was worth it,” he said. “It was more than worth it. This thing feels like it must be solid gold. Solid! A few healable burns? A bargain!”There was nowhere else to go in that direction, so the Maisseners turned and made their way back, debating if they should return to town and come back a third time or press on. They’d had reached the second room of pillars when they heard shrieks of animals in pain. The mounts were under attack!Racing back to the stream room they found Sandy the war lizard was being attacked by a half dozen of the females the Heroes had just granted mercy! The lizard-women had apparently found and turned the proper wheel, for the water was gone. Aneirin and Dumb Bear jumped most the way across the ditch, Ren shot from the far side, and Bessie took a slower, but more reasonable, way across the ditch. Sandy, bless the elves that trained her, more than held her own. After three of the female lizard-men were killed the rest fled. That was enough of a sign for the party. They decided to return to town, see about some healing, and come back to the Drake Temple sans mounts. As they were leaving, Bessie said, “Do you realize it was cooler in the lizard-men’s lair that it was in the stream room?”“Another mystery for us to solve on our next visit,” Aneirin said. The town was in wonderful spirits when they returned. As the Heroes made their way over the wall they saw why. A ways out to sea were three single mast ships. The promise of last night’s flare was coming true. “Looks like your folk will be here soon,” Aneirin said to Jon as they began walking toward their quarters. “Within the day we think,” the guard answered. “You didn’t use the signal arrows, but I see you’re wounded. You left more of them dead there then?”Aneirin nodded. “A hoard of the lizard-folk lie dead in one of the chambers of that place.”“We did get hurt pretty bad,” Ren said. “Is there anyone in town that know some healing tricks?”Jon nodded. “Poepah,” he said. “You’ve not been introduced to him. He’s a priest of Simus, and so old he rarely gets out of his bedchamber anymore. But I’ll take you to see him.”The priest was every bit as venerable as Jon indicated. But his eyes were clear. When Jon told him the tale of the Heroic strangers, those eyes lit up and he nodded. With mumbled words the Maisseners couldn’t understand, he healed each of them, and Sandy as well. Then he patted each of them on the head and nodded, smiling. “This – this puts quite a different spin on the day,” Ren said. Bessie nodded. “Yes. We’re healed to full strength, and I’ve still plenty of spells uncast. I say we head back now.”“Indeed,” Aneirin said with a sly smile. “They may know we’ve left, but they certainly won’t expect us to return so soon. We may catch them by surprise.”Fifteen minutes later they were back on the trail to the temple. Nothing had changed in their brief absence, not until they reached the stream room. The water there was flowing again. “Clearly we haven't eliminated all the inhabitants,” Bessie said.“Or some that fled, returned,” Aneirin said. There were no eyes peering down from up-stream, so once again they gave Dumb Bear the rope and he jumped across the stream. This time he cleared the water with room to spare. Dumb Bear turned off the water flow and the rest of the party crossed over, ready to see where the other two corridors led. They scouted the one going “west” as far as its first intersection. There were no signs of life, but it grew even hotter that way. After a moment’s discussion they decided to backtrack and take a look down the central hall before going any further. This one didn’t go far. It led right to a wide room that was blisteringly hot. The mysterious breathing sounds were coming from this room – somewhere.“Are those wells?” Bessie asked. She pointed to three low walls in the floor in the middle of the room. “They’re the right size,” Ren answered. Spread out and ready for an ambush, the party made their way to the closest wall. “They’re surrounding holes in the ground,” Ren said – the warriors still had their eyes peeled for an attack. “But I can’t see anything but dark down in them.”Bessie threw in a pebble, making Ren jump. He hadn’t noticed she was about to do that. The two leaned partway over the pit and waited. Bessie counted to six before they heard the pebble hit something. “So there is a bottom,” she said.“And it’s not water,” Ren added. “Let’s get one of those torches.” He lit a torch and dropped it. He and Bessie watched as it tumbled down some one hundred feet or so. When it clattered on the bottom it illuminated a frightening sight. “What do you see?” Aneirin asked. “Eggs,” Bessie answered.Ren nodded. “Lots of eggs. They’re lining the floor and go on out of sight. Come on and look.”Aneirin and Dumb Bear joined Ren and Bessie in staring down into the abyss just in time to see something down there move. And then the breathing sounds stopped. The scaled head of a drake came into the light. It was much like what they’d seen and killed before, but this head was bigger than Anierin. And it was purple. The Heroes  had a moment to stare. The purple drake sniffed at the torch and then snorted – blowing it out. Automatically the Heroes all stepped back from the well wall and waited for disaster. None came.“What if we leave now?” Ren asked. “A fine strategy,” Aneirin answered. Once out of the room, their collective heart rates slowed to normal rhythms. “So it looks like we found the purple drake the kobold prisoner spoke about,” Ren said.“And it looks like there’s ittle doubt about either of his claims,” Bessie said. “That monster’s as big as a house. If it attacked the town there would be no town left.”Aneirin frowned and nodded. Then they all fell silent. They’d seen the horrible threat of the temple depths, but what they could do about it – they had no idea. So they went on and explored the last hall. The heat grew as they progressed, finding at least two dead ends before reaching a large, empty room. It was even warmer here, and there was something else. A squeaking sound from down the last hall out of this room.That last hall turned twice and led to another square room, and there the Heroes came upon a sight unlike anything they’d seen before. Eight long chains, one from each corner of the room, held a human figure over a pit in the floor. A prisoner, but not any man that they’d ever seen. This figure was made of metal, with metal wings partially ripped apart, legs completely gone, and coated with the dust of decades, perhaps centuries. He was the source of the squeaking; every few moments he would release a silent burst of energy into the pit, rattling the chains and himself. When the Heroes entered his room the metallic man looked up to them. In a hollow voice that sounded as if it were coming from a metal cave, it said, “By Simus’ uncaring eye – kill me!” Next – Radical Actions (I promise this time) and “oh by the way….”   POST 159Soon – Babrack and Moving On</blockquote>

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