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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2909777" data-attributes="member: 11">11 sessions to go. . .Session #92 (part ii)“Is this the modron station?” Martin the Green asked as he stepped out of the portal. This time there were no unpleasant side-effects.  It seemed that something about trying to go through too slowly or touching another living thing was what caused the stunning effect.“No, this is clearly Hell,” Roland said, hearing the watch-mage’s question as he came into the room as well.  He was still in panther-form and he scrunched up his muzzle as the sulfurous smell of the air of the room filled his sensitive feline nostrils.  “At least, it smells like it.”They were in a darkened room.  A fifteen foot wide path led to another of the black portals seventy-five feet across the chamber.  The ceiling here was much lower than it had been in the audience chamber, only about twenty feet.  The center of the path widened to create a kind of central room enclosed by partitioned walls that made the narrow halls that branched around the outside of the chamber to the left and right. (1)  The center area was illuminated by a dull red light that stung the eyes ever so slightly and ruined Ratchis’ and Kazrack’s darkvision. The tridrone had procured a feather duster from some corner and was brushing off some objects resting on shelves built into the inside other angular partitioned walls that created the center area.Martin the Green walked over to it, looking around with paranoia as he activated the rune of light medallion about his neck with a word. There was a heavy sense of doom in the air here that the light of the medallion could not dispel, even when Dorn activated the one he wore as well.”Tridrone-9, please show us to the modron station,” Martin said to it.“Dirty. Must. Clean,” it chirped.“Oh Bast, don’t tell me this thing is not functioning,” Roland complained of the pyramidal creature, creeping forward silently on his padded paws.“Must show us to the modron station,” Martin repeated, inadvertently adopting its cadence.  “So said the Decaton.”“Secondary designation.  Primary designation. Clean,” the tridrone said, cryptically.Martin turned to Roland, shrugging.  “I think it is working as well as these things ever work.”Ratchis and Kazrack came walking over when suddenly everyone froze. There was a momentary scream of agony that came from the far side of the room to the left.  It was a hoarse scream that cut short.“There may be someone kept prisoner in here,” Roland said.“Or being punished,” Martin said.  “We may have discovered the reason why this room is called ‘Hell’.”The Keepers of the Gate hurried past the central area, making a note of the objects found in there.  On the left shelf was a silver flask with a black cap, and on the right one was a worn leather satchel.  On the black stone pedestal in the center of the area, which the tridrone had been dusting, was a large black sapphire about half the size of a man’s fist.  It rested on a black velvet cushion and the black metal plate it rested on was carved with some kind of runes.  But they left it behind, making their way around the left partition wall to the small room in that corner.Ratchis was the first to look in but the area beyond was dark to him despite his darkvision.  When Dorn walked over the light of his medallion was swallowed by the darkness of the room and suddenly Ratchis could see in the gray tones he was used to. Finally, when Martin arrived with his light the room was illuminated. (2)  The barren room beyond had two twenty foot long perpendicular rear walls, but the wall the entrance was in was at an angle, halving the room’s effective size.  There was a man dressed in a plain white tunic made gray with dust and dirt.  He was writhing around on the floor of the room.  He brought his hands to his head and rolled over and then shook with spasms and then seized up.  He grabbed at his hair and then covered his ears, and then curled up into a ball.  All along the man looked as if he were screaming in agony, but no sound emerged from him.   Martin turned to say something to Ratchis, but no sound came from his mouth either.The man seemed to take no notice of them.  He continued to shake and writhe and sob silently.  Sometimes he would try to get up only to collapse again.The party gathered outside of the room to talk.“He probably stumbled out of the range of the silence momentarily and that was why we heard him,” Martin speculated.Kazrack frowned and walking into the room grabbed the man by the shoulders and dragged him out.  From the moment they emerged from the area of the magical silence the man’s screams became almost too much to bear.  Over and over he screamed, sometimes saying something that almost sounded like a name, but mostly it was unintelligible. Kazrack tried a cure minor wounds, but nothing seemed to calm the man.   Roland called for Bast to give him the power to see magical dweomers and the cried out in alarm.  The magic emanating from the man was overwhelming!  He went in and checked the room while the spell was still active and noticed a strong aura coming from something on the far left wall.  It was a framed document scrawled in what could only be blood, but the language was unknown to Roland.  Martin the Green went in and examined it and then came back out.“I cannot read it without aid of a spell, but it is certainly the infernal tongue of Hell,” Martin said to the others.  “My guess is that it is a contract of some sort.”“So this man is suffering because he signed himself over to Hell?” Roland asked, rhetorically. They dragged him back into the silenced room so they would not have to hear him while they decided what to do about him.  The tridrone walked over and then into the room, reaching up to dust the framed contract.“As much as it pains me to do this, we have to leave this man here,” Ratchis said.  “We do not know the reason why he is here or in this condition, and we do not have the means to save him now anyway.  We need to focus on finding the modron station.”“Well, it seems our guide must clean this room first,” Roland said, annoyed. “So we might as well take a look around.”They walked back the central area of the chamber to find Gunthar already there.  He had the satchel in hand and was undoing the button that kept it closed.“Gunthar! Stop!” Martin hurried and placed a hand on the Neergardian’s arm.  Gunthar pulled away angrily.  He reached into the satchel and his face took on a puzzled look for a moment and then he drew a longsword of masterwork quality from within it.  The sword was at least three times longer than the apparent depth of the bag.“Is it magical?” Gunthar asked Roland.“No,” Roland replied.  “And at best it is useless to us, but it is probably cursed.”“You’re lying,” Gunthar spat.“Gunthar, we shouldn’t touch anything,” Martin said.  “We don’t know what unforeseen consequences taking things might have.”“Bah! What’s the point of coming to a place from the Age of Adventurers if you can’t take anything?” Gunthar complained.  He shoved the sword back into the satchel and placed it back on the shelf without buttoning it shut.Kazrack was looking at the black sapphire on the pedestal with a frown.  The runes about it were a name in dwarven.  It said, “Dwitek Chem Agh-Lorgh.” The name was familiar to him, but he was unsure why it would be on the metal plate beneath the gemstone. (3)“Roland, is this gem magical?” he asked.“Yes,” the Bastite replied.Tridrone-9 emerged from the silenced room and began to walk into the room in the far right corner which was also obscured by magical darkness.“We should keep it in sight,” Martin said.  “We do not want it leaving the room without us knowing which way it went.”The Keepers of the Gate went into that room.  It was similar to the silenced room in shape and was barren except for a great chair carved of the same black stone as the walls of the chamber.  The rear of the chair leaned back, so the pale naked man laying upon it was nearly lying down.Martin turned to Ratchis, “I leave any decisions regarding freeing any of these people to you, as you are a priest of Nephthys.  I defer to your wisdom on these matters.”The Friar nodded.   The tridrone was now dusting the naked man and the Keepers of the Gate approached to take a better look.  He was very pale, nearly albino, but with black stringy hair and no eyebrows.  He had broad shoulders and was well-muscled.  The man’s eyes were closed.“He’s not breathing,” Martin said, pointing to the man’s chest.“Could this be the ‘Gilbart’ the lead modron mentioned?” Ratchis asked.“Doubtful,” Martin pulled his hand away from his own face, as he had been unconsciously picking at the gray scabs of his disfigurement. (4) “Uh… He’s too muscular to be a wizard’s apprentice.”“My! Martin, but that’s magist!” Roland said.The watch-mage shrugged his shoulders.  “I went to a whole school full of mages,” he replied.  “Let’s just say the athletic program was an elective.”“Elective?” Roland asked.“An optional class,” Martin explained.“Oh, why would any one opt to take a class?” Roland purred.  “I always found school so boring, and experience a much better teacher.”“Can we concentrate on the task at hand?” Ratchis asked with venom in his growling voice.Martin kneeled beside the tridrone.  “If I help you clean can we move on and you can show us to the modron station?”The tridrone did not respond.  It continued to dust.   Martin spoke an arcane word and with a prestidigitation he cleaned off the naked man.The tridrone turned three times as if confused and then left the room.  The others moved aside to let it by, and then as a group the whole party followed the modron.  Tridrone-9 walked around the central area and disappeared into the darkness of another corner room.Bastian and Dorn stopped at the entrance to the room, the light of the latter’s medallion swallowed by the magical darkness within.  Kazrack walked over, being able to see into the room with his darkvision. Ratchis was right behind him and could see something reflective for a moment.There was a long silence.  “So what’s in there?” Dorn asked Ratchis.  There was no answer.“Ratchis?” Dorn asked again.  “Kazrack?”  There was still no answer.  “Martin! Something happened to Ratchis and Kazrack!  They’re gone!”With an arcane word in a dwarven dialect, Bastian cast light upon his shield, and now this second spell illuminated the small room beyond.  Martin and Roland were on their way over when there was a strange flash and the light was gone.“Bastian?  Dorn?” Martin the Green said, coming forward.“I don’t smell them,” Roland said.  “I don’t smell any of them, except…”There was a shuffle and a snort from within the darkened room. “They are all gone, and something is in that room that isn’t any of them,” Roland said.  He and Martin retreated into the red light of the central room, where Gunthar was looking at the flask.There was a thump of a heavy bare footstep and another snort and the sound like a large fist slamming against a chest.  A great ape leapt out of the darkness into the red light.  It was over seven feet tall and had blue-black fur on its head and shoulders that slowly became gray towards the legs.  It snarled and swung over on its great knuckles.  Martin gasped.  The top of the thing’s skull was gone from just above the eyes and there a great swollen green and blue pulsating brain emerged.  Its moist eyes shone blue-green.“I told you not to touch anything,” Gunthar admonished, drawing his partially melted longsword.“We are free,” the gorilla said in a husky voice.  His teeth were bright white and his fangs very long. His nostrils flared and he stuck out his chest as he got even closer.  Martin took a step back. “Human! Where is Hurgun?”“Wuh… We do not know,” Martin replied.  “We seek him ourselves.  I am Martin the Green of the Academy of Wizardry, and we seem to have lost our companions.  Would you know where they might be?”The gorilla snorted.  “We care not for your human academies,” he replied. “Ming, King of the Dakkons, only cares to find Hurgun so we might get our revenge on him.  Beware him, if you truly seek him, humans, for he is a crafty foe that has no respect for his betters.”“Uh, you said you were free?” Martin ventured.  “Where were you captured?”“Within the mirror of trapping, left to stare at our glorious self for a seeming instant, which now in my memory weighs as an eternity,” Ming said.  “It must be full now and your companions looking into it must have freed us.  How ironic that the stupid luck of humans would free the King of the Dakkons!  When we rule Aquerra again, we shall remember to keep some of your kind as slaves in honor of your own stupidity.” (5)“Rule it again?” Martin asked.“Bah!  We must find Hurgun!” The gorilla straightened up and craned his head looking for the ways out, acting as if the three adventurers were beneath his notice.  “Wait!  How can we get our friends out of the mirror?” Martin asked.“Heh.  Why should we help such lowly humans?” Ming thumped his chest once and snarled.“We helped you, even if by accident,” Martin replied.  “Plus, it would anger Hurgun.  Wouldn’t you like that?”“Yes… Yes, it would please us,” Ming said.  “But Ming does not help humans for nothing.  Give me those rings you wear.  We see their dweomers.  They would please us.”“Uh, I need these rings,” Martin said.  “Well, I  guess I can part with one…”  He took off the Ring of Marked Excellence eager to stop hearing the ring’s begging in his mind that began the moment he mentioned the possibility. It did not want to be handed over to a huge gorilla with an exposed pulsating brain.  “I shall give you this ring and you shall tell us how to free our friends.”The ring was dropped in the gorilla’s great palm.  “Smash the mirror,” the gorilla snarled, enclosing the ring within his fist.  “Smash the mirror and they shall all be free.”  Ming snorted and puffed up his chest again and, slamming it twice, took off for the portal out the other side of the room.“I don’t know if we should believe him,” Roland said after the gorilla was gone.  “Smashing it seems like it might be the way to have them be lost forever.  Perhaps there are instructions for the use of the mirror somewhere in the Maze and we can go find them and return.”Martin shook his head.  “We have no way of knowing if such a thing exists, where it might be, and if we could ever make our way back to this room if we leave without them.  I think we have no choice but to trust the ape and smash the mirror.”“What about…” Roland stopped himself.  “No, that would not be right…”“What?” asked Martin.“I thought we might use the tortured man or the breathless man to try to activate the mirror,” Roland explained.  “If what Ming said is right and the mirror is full, then when someone gets sucked in someone else will come out.”“Except…”“Except we don’t know what order they will come out in, and if it is first in first out then we will not have enough bodies lying around to get to Ratchis and Dorn and the others,” Roland said.  “Not to mention the nebulous morality of using those men for that purpose anyway.  Or… we could use the tridrone.”“No, that would not be right either, if they are even affected by such a thing,” Martin replied.  “No, we must smash it.”“What if take the mirror off of the wall and use it as a shield against the next foe we face? We get them to look into it and have someone else come out and so on until we get Snuffles, Stumpy, Beardy and the other guy out of there,” Gunthar spoke up with a suggestion.“No, we should smash it because I think that is what Ratchis would say to do if he were here,” Martin reasoned.  “I’ll do it.”“No,” Gunthar put up a hand and stopped the watch-mage as he stepped towards the mirror room. “You are the brains of the group and if there is a bad consequence to breaking it we should not put your dough-ass on the line.  Roland should do it.”“I’m not going to do it,” Roland replied.  “I’m just a pussycat, remember?  Maybe you’re one too?””No, I am not,” Gunthar said.  “But it seems I was right about you.”  He hefted his slagged longsword and walked into the darkness.  “Here goes nothing!” His voice echoed out of the small room, following by the sounds of breaking glass.End of Session #92-------------------------------------Notes:(1) See the map of the ‘Hell’ room for a better idea of what it looked like.  Again this is a scan of the scale map I made for use by minis.  The room needed to be pre-drawn for easy ability to switch between them without having to draw each time.  The place is not called a “maze” for nothing.  The map is behind the sblock to protect against spoilers. [sblock]<img src="http://www.aquerra.com/OOTFP/images/hell.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The darkened corners are the smaller rooms that each held a kind of prisoner.[/sblock](2) The four corners were cloaked in permanent magical darkness.  The first light counter acted the magical darkness leaving the area cloaked in normal darkness which Ratchis could see through, but it took a second source of magical light for the place to actually be illuminated. (3) ‘Dwitek Chem Agh-Lourgh’ is the name of the last "official" king of a united dwarven nation.(4) Remember Martin the Green’s face has been slowly shriveling away, exposing raw yellowed flesh beneath and black veins just under the skin.  He also lost most of the teeth on the right side of his mouth and his fingernails have become black.(5) Ming the Dakkon King is actually from an alternate Prime version of Aquerra that is ruled by the psionic philosopher gorillas known as Dakkons.</blockquote>

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