Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 68484" data-attributes="member: 202">Temple of Elemental Evil - part 17 (session 9)Milo and Mazi spent the following days scribing scrolls like mad.  Milo could be found pacing the clearing massaging cramps from his hand.  He wasn't accustomed to so much handwriting.  He hoped the scrolls would serve them well.  Jeremiah and Brigit spent the time training.  On one of his pacing breaks Milo noticed Brigit practicing with not just one, but two dwarven waraxes.  He could tell she wasn't as adept while holding both of the heavy weapons, but she was improving fast.  Jeremiah was intent on improving his accuracy and deadly power with his greatsword.Refreshed and ready to tackle the temple again, the party set out for the evil grounds again.  The temple's clearing seemed abandoned.  They could see no change in the surroundings, it didn't appear that anyone had come or gone.  The inside was the same, no evidence of passage other than their own.  They made their way to the same vestry and descended to the lower level.Rather than begin where they left off before they chose a different route from the first intersection.  The dank hall led them to another intersection with the passage stretching left and right.  A few paces to the right the passage opened to an abandoned room.  Skeletons of humans and gnolls lay intact and scattered across the floor.  Broken weapons lay next to the long dead corpses.  Milo moved in cautiously, fully ready for the bones to jump to life and attack.  Milo hated undead, really.As he ventured further in he let his attention wander to the walls, curious if they held any secrets.  Milo scanned the floor for any obvious traps.  He noticed that the engineers that built the temple seemed to favor the simple pit traps they had experienced before.  Scanning ahead, he placed his footing carefully, cautiously, right on a bare femur.  His foot rolled and he pitched forward into a pile of bones."Well if there is a trap in here, you just set it off." Mazi said with a laugh.Milo picked himself up, brushed off his sleeves and harumphed. "Everyone's entitled to their off days.  Besides, I could tell with my keen sense of observation that there was nothing under the bones." he said before sticking out his tongue at the elf.Whether by purpose or by luck, Milo was right.  No one came running at the sound.  More to his relief was the fact that none of the bones formed anything to attack him.  They all watched their footing as they searched the room.  Nothing but rusted and broken weapons and decrepit bones seemed to fill the area.  Down the passage past the intersection they found a room that mirrored the other in placement.  The contents of this room were markedly different than the last.  It was empty, completely bare.  Milo searched the walls and floor, certain that an empty room may as well been a huge sign reading: 'Secret stuff here!'  Apparently Milo was wrong, he found nothing.  Brigit and Mazi used their knowledge of stone work and innate ability for finding secret portals respectively with similar results.Milo left the room in disappointment, so far they hadn't found much of interest.  Backtracking and taking another turn of the main passage they came across another odd shaped room.  The walls were set diagonally to the entrance, creating a diamond room.  Garbage covered the floor, piled halfway up the room in the corners.  "Oh no, I'm not going in there." Mazi spoke up, "Garbage means rats, rats mean disease, disease means I'm the one that gets sick.""Suit yerself elfie, we found a couple O good things in tha last garbage pit, I'm checkin' it out." Brigit replied as she readied her twin axes."Just wait here Mazi, we'll clean out the rats then you can wade into the trash." Milo said with a grin.Jeremiah was already stepping into the knee-high garbage, his greatsword drawn.  The trash came up waist high to Milo, he wrinkled his nose and pressed forward.  Jer reached the middle of the cramped room and began to poke at the trash with his sword.  The garbage seemed to respond.  It was as if the whole room came alive at once.  Squeaking noises filled the air, Mazi was right, rats.More than two dozen of the vermin surfaced from the garbage, the dire rats attacked at once.  Jeremiah was completely surrounded by the hairy beasts.  He invoked the mystical properties of the Windsword and became a blur as he landed his blows.  The shrill pitch of the squeaking rose a few octaves as his greatsword claimed one rat after another.  Milo took a second to marvel at the carnage Jer caused.  He attacked with his own weapons, slicing into two rats in turn.  Both fell, adding to the growing pile around Jeremiah.Brigit swung with her two axes.  Where her blades fell, so did the vermin.  The rest of the rats scattered, finding cracks under the garbage to flee through.  Not one of the heroes had been touched by the filthy beasts.  All told they had brought down over a dozen rats in the space of seconds.  They decided to leave the room before the rest of the rats rallied.  Milo couldn't see anything of value, no nice necklaces on a pet rat this time.  He waded out of the garbage to see Mazi at the entrance, slightly pale.  "Why so white Mazi?  No problems here!" Milo asked."I hate rats." came her only reply.Brigit seemed reluctant to leave.  "Come on, It's jus' a few li'l rats!  Ya pansies!  I bet there's tons O stuff down here!""I don't think so, Brigit.  I'd say we've terrorized enough rats for one day." Milo responded. "Besides, I want to save the remaining charges in my staff for when we really need them.  Let's find someone else to bother."They continued through the labyrinthine halls of the lower temple.  Milo had come to think of it as the earth floor, considering the elementals and symbols they had found.  They found two more abandoned supply closets, one with moldy grain and old traveling supplies, the other with empty and broken beer kegs lining the walls.  Crushed casks of bad wine were strewn across the floor.  "That's tha saddest sight I've ever seen." Brigit lamented at the spilled spirits. "Woulda been worse iffin it was good dwarven ale I s'pose."Continuing on they found a door set in the passage.  Milo checked it as he usually did, searching for traps or locks.  The door was clean, quite unremarkable compared to others they had come across.  Brigit opened the door cautiously and entered.  That's when the gnolls attacked.</blockquote>

Verification