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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2820156" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #81 (part I)“I still think we should seek out that lizardfolk and negotiate with him,” Martin the Green said, even as he concentrated to send Kazrack up into the cracked ceiling with a levitation spell.  It had been about an hour since they had communicated with Roland, or so they guessed.  “He may know another way out.  He may have information we need about Hurgun’s Maze.”Kazrack did not respond, but held the pouch of runestones about his neck and chanted in the tongue of his people, “Lehrothronar, please let me soften  this earth so it does as little damage to this cavern as possible, and help free us to do this task the gods have assigned to us.”Tons of earth and sand came rushing down once more, and Martin lowered a coughing Kazrack and they retreated once again. There was a resounding crack, as large portions of the north and east walls of the chamber came thundering down.  The three Keepers of the Gate doubled their pace as they noticed cracks stretching out above them just before they were enveloped by a cloud of brown dust.Logan saw the plume of dust coming from the crack in ridge explode into life, showering the area with small stones and making the spot visible for many miles.  He could hear the muted cries of alarm from the soldiers about it, and he could see their shining forms hurrying back.  The crack was so loud, Roland and Ratchis heard it back at the camp, and they both hurried to get a look at what was happening; Roland taking a moment to change into panther-form.The small circular crack had become a rent down the side of the ridge, and more portions of it were collapsing all the time, making it seem like it was storming beneath the earth.  There was soon a jagged scar that ran down the side of the ridge that looked very deep in places. Two soldiers were hurrying back up the ridge to the temple, while two others kept watch over the holes.  It was not getting any bigger, but there was still a steady plume of dust coming up and the occasional rumbling of earth.A few moments later there was a red flash, as the figure of the female wizard came flying out of the temple, staff in hand.  They could only tell it was a woman because the way the wind pulled her crimson robes tight about her body, for she wore her hair closely cropped and had a plain face.She hovered over the rent in the earth, obviously examining it.  She sent a small globe of light to dance about amid its crags.  It was occasionally blocked as it moved through the plume.“I say we take that bitch out right now from here,” Logan said, fingering an arrow in the bow Ratchis had lent him, but he did not raise it.“Do you have any more sendings?” Ratchis turned to Roland and hissed.“Mrowr?” the panther turned his head.“Can you speak? Can you cast it in that form?  If not change back and tell them not to come up the hole, the mage is over the hole!”“There’s light!” Kazrack choked, pointing to where the crack was in the ceiling.  The area that had once been the wall to their right was now several hundred feet below them and roiling with dust.  Breathing was difficult.  “Let us get over there and I will carry you as you raise us out.”“Are you strong enough to carry me?” Martin covered his mouth with a handkerchief.“I am strong enough to carry both of you,” Kazrack said, looking at Dorn.  “And I mean to.”There was another shudder of the earth and their view of the crack was obscured again, and they were forced further away by more falling rock.“Martin,” Roland’s voice was ice-cold in Martin’s mind. “We’re one hundred and twenty feet up the slope, meanwhile enemy mage hovers over the hole.  Are you prepared for us to attack her? ”“Stay hidden.  We’ll wait one hour for aftershocks and mage’s flying spell to end, then we’ll emerge.  If they come down, we’ll try and hide. ”“Logan, can you read?” Ratchis asked and the young Herman-lander nodded.  The half-orc pointed to the crude letters the panther had just scratched in the earth. “What’s that say?”“Wait one hour,” Logan read aloud and spat.Ratchis grunted his disapproval.“I didn’t think you were going to bring so much down,” Martin chastised Kazrack.  “So much for the egg chamber.”“I had to do what I had to do in hopes of getting as many of the soldiers around the hole as possible,” Kazrack said.”I do not think you got any,” Martin replied.“I had to try,” the dwarf said again.After a time, they made their way back carefully to where the hole in the ridge was, and now they could seem light more clearly coming from several places, but mostly from a ragged uneven hole about one hundred feet above them.Suddenly there was a voice from above. “Martin the Green!  Martin the Green!  We know you are down there! Parley!” (1)It was a man’s voice.From their hidden perch above, Logan and Ratchis watched more soldiers go down to the hole, including two heavily armored men they took for the leaders.“This is bad,” Logan said. “They are waiting.  We should kill them now when they least expect it.  You know that is where this is going, that is where these kinds of things always go, for better or worse, and that’s killing.”“We should hide!” Martin hissed when the voice came booming down..“We should parley,” Kazrack replied.  Martin’s eyes opened wide, amazed at how quickly the typically stubborn dwarf appeared to change his mind.“If they will listen to reason, we have to try,” Kazrack said.  “We had no reason to think they would parley before.”“But what if they use magic to charm or bind us?” Dorn offered.  “They might not really know where we are.  It could be a bluff.”“They would have to see us to cast a spell on us,” Martin said.  “And we can stand away from the hole where our voices would carry to them, but still not be easily pinpointed.”Kazrack nodded.  The three of them moved off to one side, where they could see the rent in the earth above them, but could not be seen.“We are ready to parley!” Kazrack called, cupping his hands about his mouth to project his voice.  Bits of earth and stone rained down from the hole due to the vibrations, and Dorn and Martin tensed up.“Martin the Green?” replied the deep voice of a man.“Who calls?” Martin cried up to the hole.“Ancellus of Anhur, High Militant of the Company of the Impervious Ward,” the warrior-priest called back.  “Give yourselves up!”“If that’s what they mean by parleying this is going to get us nowhere,” Dorn sighed.“You are in the employ of the king of Gothanius?” Martin asked back.“Yes!”“No good way out of this one,” Martin whispered as an aside to his companions.  He called up once more. “And you consider King Brevelan III to be the rightful ruler of this kingdom?”“If not his majesty, than who?” the militant of Anhur called back.  “He is the rightful sovereign of this kingdom, supported by his subjects and by the glory of Ra.  We are to bring you back to face his justice, and you only make it worse for yourself by resisting.  We do not want to take extreme measures to retrieve you, but we shall if we must.  Remember, you are the only one we need bring back alive.”“And if I agree to return with you to Twelve Trolls, I will be free to go once I have seen the king?” Martin asked.“If you are not guilty…”“What are the charges?”The militant cleared his throat and paused before listing them. “Dereliction of duty, conspiracy with foreign powers to practice sedition, and withholding evidence that was vital to the defense of Gothanius.”And if I come with you, my companions will be free to go?” Martin called.“We are to bring them all for questioning.”“Sorry, but I am too busy trying to save the kingdom and the rest of Derome-Delem in my duty as watch-mage,” Martin called. “And anyway, I am not guilty of those things, so this is waste of time.”“Whatever duties you may have to your Academy cannot come before the decree of the rightful monarch and the law,” Ancellus replied, anger creeping into his voice.“In my station as watch-mage I can ask you to stand down,” Martin the Green, gritting his teeth with desperation.“Whatever jurisdiction you may have had has been rescinded since there are official charges against you,” the Militant of Anhur said.“An exception must be made in this case…” Martin began.“The law does not bend,” the follower of Anhur replied.Kazrack’s voice chanted in the tongue of his grandfathers calling to Natan-ahb to soften the earth and stone at base of the rent in the earth above them.  There was another thunderous crack, and Martin and Dorn and Kazrack ran for their lives as the entire ceiling came down above them.---------------------------------------Logan, Ratchis and Roland had watched the parley and wondered what was being said.  Twice more Logan suggested acting immediately while the mercenaries were occupied and their leaders were vulnerable on the lower ridge wall, but Ratchis refused.“They may be talking to Martin and coming to some kind of agreement,” Ratchis reasoned.Suddenly, the scene disappeared in a plume of dust that erupted so violently they were startled.  Voices cried out in dismay, as the soldiers scattered out of the plume in all direction fleeing from the widen cracks all up and down the ridge.  The red-robed wizard swooped down and pulled one man to safety, while others leapt and rolled.   Miraculously, the two leaders in plate mail survived, throwing themselves down the steep slope.  They eventually emerged battered, but alive.“They lost at least two, maybe even five,” Logan said, trying his best to keep careful track.  “But I wouldn’t bet on more than two.”-----------------------------------“It is as I feared all along, we’ll have to fight our way out,” Kazrack was saying moments later as he, Dorn and Martin hurried back down the passage to the caverns closer to the catacombs and the temple.“Why didn’t you say that before?” Dorn asked, uncharacteristically sounding annoyed.“I thought it was assumed that we had to try another way if at all possible,” Kazrack replied.  “It is unfortunate, but I may have to slay all of them.”Martin laughed nervously.It was nearly an hour later when they made their way back up to the catacombs and the hallway that led to the door into the kitchen and larder.  Martin the Green used his arcane eye spell to scope out the temple, and found there were still many soldiers in the kitchen.  At least seven were guarding that lower room, and then he saw two more by the stairs, three at the top of the stairs and over a dozen in the main chamber, though some of these were resting.  Outside, he saw young pages tending to a half-dozen horses and mules.  Two of the horses were fine heavy destriers, their barding was off and was being scrubbed by one boy.  There were also more soldiers.  One was on the fragile roof of the temple, and others were set up in pairs at the corners of the open grounds and the rock garden.  There were still others he noted patrolling the woods beyond to the west.“We are not going to get out this way by fighting without being more coordinated with Ratchis and the others,” Martin finally said.  “This will have to wait for tomorrow.”“But I thought we already coordinated?” Kazrack was confused.”Yes, but we didn’t know the situation before, now we do,” Martin replied.  “When they see no alarm has been raised they will realize we are not trying to get out and they will wait, anyway they were expecting us to come from the crack in the ridge.  After that collapse, they can’t be expecting that anymore.””I hope you are right,” Kazrack said, as they began to walk back down to the caverns to hide for the rest of the day and night.Luckily, Martin was right, and as night fell and still there was no sign of their companions, Roland, Ratchis and Logan climbed quietly back up the black hill into the deep trees and slept.Kazrack found a small cavern with a raised floor that looked defendable and they did their best to make a camp as they had the two nights before.  While Kazrack loved the bare stone, the other two adventurers were cold and aching, as they did not have much of their camping gear with them.  And while Martin the Green was wearing his ring, Lacan’s Demise, he had only put it on two days before and the power that kept him from needing to eat or feeling hunger had not activated yet. (2)As they did their best to get comfortable there was a sudden vibration in the ground, as the floor of the chamber began to ripple near the center, as if the hard-packed earth and slabs of stone were liquid.  A bizarre creature rose from the swirling earth.  It was a little over three feet tall and had a squat body like a rounded cone.  Its skin was brown, gray and red stony scales, both like and unlike a lizard’s, and it had three arms, three legs and three large eyes spaced evenly about its body.  But perhaps most disturbing of all, was its three-lipped mouth of jagged teeth at the top of its body.  In a moment the rippling effect was gone and the creature walked on the solid earth towards them.“I think its time we face the lizard-priest,” Martin said quietly, and standing.  He began to look around for signs of more disturbances in the surrounding cavern.“Let us try and talk with him,” Kazrack said.  Martin laughed a nervous laugh again.  Dorn was loading his crossbow.“Nyaaah, nyahh! Destroyers,” the thing said with an echoing alien voice.“We will not destroy unless forced to,” Kazrack replied, hefting his halberd.“Come… Message from Snuchri send…” the thing said.“What is the message?” Kazrack asked.“He swears blood vengeance  on you and your kin… When the time of mourning is done expect him to come.  This is your only warning,” the creature’s voice displayed no emotion, and perhaps not even understanding of what it was saying.“I understand,” was all Kazrack said.“Destroyer of his line, there is no forgiveness,” the creature said and it came closer, turning and revealing that one of its clawed hands held something white and speckled.  Kazrack held out his two hands and the creature dropped two pieces of broken eggshell into them.The thing walked back to the center of the cavern and then melted back into the stone floor.Martin just shook his head.------------------------------------------Notes:(1) DM’s Note: Martin isn’t the only one with the arcane eye spell. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> (2) This takes seven full days.</blockquote>

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