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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 17150" data-attributes="member: 202">Temple of Elemental Evil - part 8 (session 8)Temple of Elemental Evil - part 8 (session 8)-------------------------------Milo politely ignored the quietly heaving elf near the door and gestured to the orc corpse.”I dunno if ghasts can spawn, but you may want to do your thing with your axe on that orc corpse.” he said to Brigit.”Aye.” was her simple reply.Brigit set to work on the orc corpse, rendering it so much ground meat in a matter of moments.  Meanwhile Milo kicked around the room, pushing garbage, rotten clothes, and bones about in search of anything of value.  Not finding anything shiny or interesting he focused his attention on the walls.  He ignored the various disgusting murals and searched for any secret niches or doors.  Moving along the length of the wall slowly and carefully he found a loose wall sconce.  Upon further examination he could tell that it was loose by design, there was some sort of mechanism that the sconce worked in the stone wall.  He peered closely at the sconce, jiggling it just a little from his vantage point near the bottom of the wall.  Determining it relatively safe, he triggered the mechanism.  A low rumble sounded from deep in the wall.  Slowly, a large portion rotated around a central axis, leaving two openings on either side of the turned portion of stone.  Mazi tempted fate and the gods of sour stomachs by speaking up.”That’s got to be the ::urp:: one way door we found ::urp:: in the harpies’ lair.  ::HURP::” she managed to squeak out before a renewed fit of retching rendered her speechless.Mazi had been keeping careful track of their whereabouts with her parchment and ink.  Milo appreciated the effort, keeping them from getting too lost and completely off track.  He nodded his agreement and let swiveled the sconce back into place.  The stone rumbled to a close, barely distinguishable from the rest of the wall.Brigit had finished her work and the orc was no more.  She even went the extra measure and made sure the ghoul and ghasts wouldn’t be making a repeat performance.  By mutual assent the party moved back into the previous room where they had originally encountered the ghouls.  Milo noticed a dull shine beneath some of the rags piled on the floor.  He kicked the old clothes to the side and picked up a platinum piece.”Paydirt!” he cried as he brandished the coin.  ”There’s more of this around, I’d wager.”  With that he bent closer to the ground and resumed his search.  Brigit and Jeremiah joined in, both stooping down to find more coins.  They found various denominations scattered about the room with the highest concentration near the broken chest in the corner of the room.  All told they had accumulated more than 50 gold pieces worth of coins.  Milo did a careful once over of the room before they backtracked to the harpy room.  No other secrets revealed themselves to his keen eyes.  He reminded his friends of the pressure plate near the entrance of the room and carefully skirted the trap.  Figuring more of the same was ahead, Milo stayed five to ten paces in front of the group to find any other devious traps.The group took the right at the four-way intersection down from the harpies’ room.  The dimly lit corridor led straight for a few paces before jogging to the right, then continuing straight again.  A passage branched to the right at an angle from the main corridor.  Keeping with tradition, they chose the right-hand passage.The hallway opened into a hexagon-shaped room.  A broken stone chair dominated the room midway to the rear, opposite from the southerly passage they entered from.  Broken furniture once again littered the ground.  It was getting so Milo wouldn’t know what to do in a room free of splintered wood and torn upholstery.  The stone chair, perhaps a throne at one time, was fashioned from the same brown marble veined with black that they had seen in use around this area of the temple.  Milo began to have an inkling about the nature of this portion.  If it was elements, this had to be Earth.  The ceiling stretched above them, supported by arches as its dome raised into the darkness.  Milo stopped the others before they entered and checked the entryway from traps.  Open hallways into empty rooms always made him suspicious.  He found no obvious traps and pronounced the entry safe.  A few steps into the room and Milo felt more than suspicious, he felt watched.  He peered around the room, trying to find the unseen eyes.  He and Mazi spotted them at the same time.Milo’s hand was already on his crossbow, fetching a bolt to load.  Mazi pointed to the ceiling and said, ”Bat-sized shadows.  I hate bats, they’re just rats with wings.”There was no time for a response as a large number of winged shadows detached from the ceiling and winged their way towards the adventurers.  ”Stirges!” Milo groaned.  ”Let’s see how they fare in a little turbulence.”Milo concentrated and raised his fingers in the direction of the approaching stirges.  He chanted a litany that had served him well in the past.  The air around his fingers coalesced into tiny solid shards.  The miniature knives sprung from his hand and sunk into the cloud of stirges.  A thirty-foot spray streamed from the focal point of his outstretched fingers.  The inhuman sound of the stirges’ screams filled the vaulted ceiling of the room, echoing from the top of the dome.Thirteen stirges fell to the floor, dead.  Milo watched in satisfaction as the other eight flapped up to the ceiling, out of sight.”There’ll be no blood for you birds today!” He scoffed at the retreating creatures.  He turned quickly to his companions still standing in the doorway.  ”Mazi, Jeremiah, you two take out your bows and cover Brigit and I.  We’ll give this room a thorough search before the stirges gather their strength and come back.”Mazi and Jeremiah nodded quietly, their eyes still on the thirteen dead stirges on the floor.  Milo grinned boyishly and turned to investigate the marble throne.  He and Brigit couldn’t find anything special about the broken and cracked chair, other than it was made of a marble they had never seen before.  Brigit glanced at the wall behind the throne, thinking she saw something.  Milo looked at the wall closer, noticing a slight crack running up between the floor and ceiling.  He found a loose stone that moved to the side slightly.  Fearing the stirges would get brave and not knowing how many more roosted in the rafters or cracks of the ceiling, Milo chanced the sliding stone.  Another deep rumbling could be heard from within the wall.  Milo hopped back and watched as the wall swung out towards him.  A short hallway was revealed behind the throne.  He motioned to Mazi and Jeremiah to follow him and Brigit through.  They ducked and ran into the hallway barely behind the dwarf and halfling.  The dank hallway led to a blank hallway.  After a quick search Milo found another sliding stone.  He pushed the stone to the side and watched as the wall slid forward, into another room.  They filed through, closing the door, and the stirges, behind them.This room was unique.  It was circular in shape and fashioned out of polished black stones.  Another exit led off directly opposite from the door they walked through.  An eerie glow illuminated the room, provided by a phosphorous material coating the ceiling.  In the center of the room was a circular depression, taking up a large portion of the area.  Around the depression was a low bench, the perfect size for a halfling facing outwards, or a human if he were facing inwards.Milo and Mazi both felt a prickling at their necks.  They were sure this place had some sort of quasi-mystical purpose.  Milo moved closer to the depression, examining it from a distance and taking a better look at the low bench.  There was nothing abnormal about the depression, but Milo did find drawers carved into the stone of the bench.  He checked the first drawer for traps before sliding it open on its stone track.  It was completely empty.  Milo examined the next with the same care, making sure it wasn’t trapped before drawing out the compartment.  It was also empty.  There were six other drawers of identical make.  Milo figured if two weren’t trapped, neither were the rest.  He methodically opened the drawers, only to find them as empty as the first two.It was the last drawer that finally yielded something.  Inside were geometric shapes, out of wood.  There were cones and rods among other assorted models.  As Milo examined them he felt a strong urge to pick them up and toss them into the depression, to get a better idea of their nature.  He cut that line of thought off as quickly as it occurred to him.  Something about the shapes made him want to throw them in, and it wasn’t his own latent curiosity.  That invariably meant trouble.  ”Something makes me want to throw these in the circle.” he told the others, addressing Mazi specifically.  ”I don’t think I should, considering the fact that it’s not something I would normally do just out of the blue.”Mazi shrugged but Brigit agreed, ”Aye, I remember tha wall in tha caves, if it ain’t ya wantin ta do it, then don’ do it!”Milo slammed the drawer shut, sealing off the tempting shapes.  ”That’s it then, nothing more to see here.  Let’s get out of this room.” he said with a shiver.</blockquote>

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