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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2176906" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Party Gets a WishOur heroes quietly pad through the wet tunnels around them.  The caves beneath the Pit of the Healing Springs vary in thickness, but all appear natural, with none of them showing any signs of being worked or braced.  Water drips everywhere.  The cave is unusually warm, for a cave; Martini credits the thermal actions that keeps the springs hot down here.  As the group retraces its steps to the chamber that they didn’t take a left out of, the smells of strange salts and minerals tickle their collective noses.Down the left passage, then, in the hopes that it will lead them to a more... instant... cure for the impaired vision that both Beau and Jawbreaker are suffering.  Will their eyes heal on their own?  It seems likely, yet it seems equally likely that it will take weeks or more.*After a short connecting passage, our heroes find themselves at the top of a slope that seems to have a series of natural steps in it.  It is smoothed and moistened by water, and it is very obvious to our heroes that a lack of caution could lead to a deadly fall.  Balancing carefully, our heroes descend about 30’, until a more level side passage extrudes from the natural stair to their left.”It’s left,” remarks Beau, and the group exits the stair and starts moving down the level cave.  Water dribbles down on them here and there.  Small shallow pools have formed on the floor in the lower spots over the eons.  The passage curves around sharply to the left (“A good sign,” Beau observes), then splits in a T.  Without even pausing our heroes head left, and soon another, wider passage leads off on the right side.  Martini glances down it, then draws back in surprise.  He motions the party to a halt.“I think there’s something down there,” he whispers.  He slinks ahead of the group and starts moving just outside the edge of their light, with them following a few dozen feet behind him, but the ‘something’ he saw proves to be, though intriguing, not dangerous.“A campsite,” Naomi says in surprise.”Who the hell is down here?” wonders Achtung.“We are,” comments Martini, “but... did the elf up above mention anyone else having gone down here?””Yeah, but she didn’t say anything about someone not coming back,” Beau replies.“She did say it was dangerous down here,” Martini muses, but Jawbreaker, examining the camp, calls out.”Campsite old.  Years old.”Our heroes make a thorough search of it.  There is a long-abandoned tent, brittle but still standing.  It appears to have been set up on a small elevated shelf along the right hand wall.  The remains of a fire pit, long cold but undisturbed for decades, are near it.  A few rotten bits of wood mark the remains of some sort of table or something, and a pile of corroded iron spikes lies near the tent’s entrance.  Finally, a long coil of mildewy, rotten rope is coiled in the midst of the rotten wood fragments.  After comparing notes, Martini and Jawbreaker declare that the campsite has lain undisturbed for perhaps a century or thereabouts.“Interesting,” grunts Naomi, gnawing on a sausage.  “I wonder what happened to whoever it was that was down here.””I wonder if we’ll ever know,” Martini says.  “But whoever it was, he or she wasn’t a halfling.  Look at the size of the bedding and the tent.”  He gestures.  “More like a dwarf, or a human.”Unable to discern more about the old campsite at this time, our heroes continue past the chamber, for the tunnel they entered via continues out the other side of the chamber.  Soon it splits into two passages radiating in a Y shape.  Naturally, the party continues to the left, and after about a 30’ walk they enter another cave.Their light spills across the chamber.  They can see that it is about 40’ across to the opposite wall, but to the left the cavern fades into darkness.  To their right, however, they are surprised to see a small wall of stones, obviously put together artificially.  Behind it is a steaming spring, its water glistening in the torchlight; and before it is a crude altar set with a strange rune.  Beau casts a spell, and after a moment, he reports that the spring is magical.  “Does anyone recognize the symbol?” wonders Sandy, and Ezeekiel speaks up.”It’s the symbol of Cyldon, the god of mysteries.”Meanwhile, at the end of the chamber opposite the pool, Jawbreaker and Achtung find another exit.  “Passage,” Chief Jawbreaker calls.  Our heroes form up and head down the passage, which opens into a very large chamber with several exits.  It is lit by the large fire elemental within the room, which stands next to both an earth and a water elemental.  “Eek,” exclaims Thelonious, and the party retreats.  The elementals have not reacted to their presence in the slightest.“Well, we don’t want to go in there,” comments Naomi.“Where should we go back to?” wonders Thelonious.  “There are a lot of other passages.”A debate begins to break out, so Naomi hastily interjects, “Well, if we’re going to sit here and talk about it, let’s at least eat while we do it.”  She proceeds to stew some vegetables in the magic spring.  As the place is wet and there is no firewood, it proves impossible to build a fire; but the spring is hot enough to serve as a crude cook pot.  After a satisfying meal, Achtung decides to bathe in the spring.  He finds it soothing and relaxing.  Slowly the tension leaves the urd’s shoulders as the mystical properties of the spring seep into him.  His old scales slough off, and he rubs himself against the jagged rocks, scratching all his hard-to-reach areas.And, in the best tradition of magical pools, he gains a wish.**He mulls it over for a while, basking in the pool.  Then he sighs, “I wish I was more like the god-progenitor of all kobolds.”He feels his claws toughen.  He feels his snout elongate and his body shift a little.  When he emerges from the bath, he is changed.  Better than ever!“Wow, check him out,” says Naomi.  “That pool made you look good!”  She wipes drool off her chin, and then starts munching on a sausage.Naomi and Beau both bathe as well.  When she emerges, Naomi realizes that she can see a flickering golden aura around Thelonious, Ezeekiel, Hortense, Jawbreaker and Federico.  She frowns.  It’s very strange, and it fades when she stops focusing on it.  She feels a strange fatigue-like sensation, but she’s pretty sure she can do it again once enough time has passed.  Similarly, Beau perceives a flickering aura around Jawbreaker and himself.Achtung jumps back in and takes another bath, and in the best tradition of magical pools, getting greedy leaves him sadly lessened.  Although his physique has changed to be more like his deity’s, his mind now dulls.***The party moves in, taking the other branch of the Y, which is now to their left since they are traveling back.  They follow it to another pool, in which the same three bathe.  To their surprise, it makes them feel full, as if they’d just had a big meal.  Naomi stays in it for a long time- so long that she surreptitiously pees in the pool.No other exits lead out of this chamber, so our heroes return to the last other branching they have not explored, at the T.  That leads to a chamber with a gradual slope downward to the right.  At the bottom, a steaming pool of water has gathered, and a substantial number of stalagmites and stalactites is clustered there.  Our heroes start searching the area.  Jawbreaker probes the water and discovers that it is scaldingly hot.  He moves to the walls, and Hortense moves up near the pool, peering across it.  “Hey, I think the passage continues beyond it!” she exclaims.  “I don’t know how we could get across, though- it has to be twenty-five, maybe thirty feet... Fensor’s shield!”Something horrible is coming, sloshing heedless through the near-boiling water.  Hortense screams aloud, a piercing shriek, and tries to turn the horrible monster, to no avail.  The horrible creature stinks of the grave.  Its grey flesh hangs from the frame of what looks like some kind of human-sized goblinoid, except for the two pale tentacles that writhe beneath its arms.  Oozing sores cover it, weeping a white liquid.”I come to drink your bones,” it croaks, its tentacles writhing at our heroes.Next Time: Our heroes battle the bonedrinker!*Remember, a week is nine days long in Cydra.**He had to roll a d12 to determine what happened and he rolled a 12.  Yay Achtung!***-2 to int, wis and cha.  Ouch, he rolled a -1 (yeah, there’s a penalty for getting greedy.)    <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /></blockquote>

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