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Seldarn Empire - The Mega-Module Jam
- Thread starter arwink
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arwink
Clockwork Golem
Wednesday, August 23rd, 508 AF, continued
Calmert is cleaned by a quick prestidigitation from Warwind, and everyone spreads out to explore the tangle of short crypts and hallways that lead from the entry chamber to the dungeon. There is but a single door from the area that they have not explored, and with a great deal of cautiou Yip lays his ear against the slightly rotting wood. He can hear the soft murmor beyond, and the shuffle as armored creatures move. The sound is faint, hard to hear, and Yip doubts any but the most keen of ears could have caught it. Even as he reports it back to his companions, he wonders if he might have been mistaken.
Everyone gathers around the door, weapons at the ready. At a nod from Durhon, Yip swings the door open.
On the far side, a naked human has been strung up between to pillars. Taught ropes are attached to his arms and legs, holding him steady a foot off the ground, and small cuts in his arms and legs cause a slow trickle of blood to drip off all four limbs. Black cloth binds his mouth, preventing him from speaking, but there's a pleading look in his eyes as he catches sight of the opening door.
Behind him, a cloaked figure wearing black armor is kneeling over a cloth covering, hurridly trying to cover a small collection of items. Behind the fire stands more gnolls, swords at the ready and snarls on their lips.
Calmert barely has the time to whisper a horrified "Ezekial," before a feminine voice orders the gnolls forward.
Calmert is cleaned by a quick prestidigitation from Warwind, and everyone spreads out to explore the tangle of short crypts and hallways that lead from the entry chamber to the dungeon. There is but a single door from the area that they have not explored, and with a great deal of cautiou Yip lays his ear against the slightly rotting wood. He can hear the soft murmor beyond, and the shuffle as armored creatures move. The sound is faint, hard to hear, and Yip doubts any but the most keen of ears could have caught it. Even as he reports it back to his companions, he wonders if he might have been mistaken.
Everyone gathers around the door, weapons at the ready. At a nod from Durhon, Yip swings the door open.
On the far side, a naked human has been strung up between to pillars. Taught ropes are attached to his arms and legs, holding him steady a foot off the ground, and small cuts in his arms and legs cause a slow trickle of blood to drip off all four limbs. Black cloth binds his mouth, preventing him from speaking, but there's a pleading look in his eyes as he catches sight of the opening door.
Behind him, a cloaked figure wearing black armor is kneeling over a cloth covering, hurridly trying to cover a small collection of items. Behind the fire stands more gnolls, swords at the ready and snarls on their lips.
Calmert barely has the time to whisper a horrified "Ezekial," before a feminine voice orders the gnolls forward.
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Capellan said:
Shh, Zeke, your holding up the storyteller. See the cross look he's giving you? BEsides, we all know you were just pretending to plead - Calmert's such a soft touch and so eager to smite evil that looking helpless was the best way to get him moving. And it's not like there were any pretty ladies to impress with your stoicism and bravery...hey, wait a second, why are you over here listening to stories? I thought you were supposed to be my manager, and I haven't played a gig in weeks...
-Laggo, Master Minstrel, Loyal Friend and a Tiny Bit of Forshadowing
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Wednesday, August 23rd, 508 AF, continued
Ezekial holds his breath for the space of a few seconds, waiting for the intruders to make their move. Four days of captivity and slow blood loss have weakened him, but his binding has been less of an obstacle that the constant presence of foul gnolls and clerics that watch over him.
He hides a smile as the armoured form charges through the ranks of intruders by the door, sword held high, until he crashes against one of the gnolls standing guard. A kobold is next, a Yip monk by the robes, and the small creature is quick to flank the gnoll and hammer it with its fists.
Ezekial's smile only gets wider, and he twists his arm and hand back and forth in an attempt to escape the wiring. A dwarven form rockets across the room, great-axe swinging in a low arc to take a gnolls legs out from under him, and a ball of flame rolls across the room to fling itself at the cleric.
Ezekial looses sight of the fight, but his keen ears can make out what goes on. The grunt of the gnolls as they swing heavy weapons at their attacks, the clank of an armoured cleric stepping backwards and casting a spell. The flaming ball hisses, leaping through the air, and the smell of gnollish fur fills the air. Weapons are swung, and there's a sudden bounce to one of the cords that binds his limbs as a shrill voice yelps "Yip free." For a few minutes Ezekial actually thinks the attackers will slay the cleric and her gnollish allies before he's freed, then the sound of a spell echoes through the room and a feminine voice utters the word "Flee" through a great helm. Seconds later Ezekial watches the dwarf charge across the room once more, succumbing to the cleric's magic. The imprisoned man watches the dwarf charge towards one of the closed doors to the room, bending the magic's control as much as he can to avoid the open doorway and the elven wizard standing in its shadows.
"No," Ezekial yells, already aware of what's behind the dwarf's chosen path of retreat. It's too late, and he sees the armoured figure come to a stop in front of the horde of human and ogre skeletons the cleric had been storing in the room.
"Some rescue," Ezekial mutters. One of the ropes snaps as the kobold gnaws through it, and the change in leverage is enough that Ezekial can free himself from the rest. The kobold is already moving, executing a stunning series of back-flips that puts him toe to toe with the surviving gnoll and cleric. Ezekial briefly contemplates fleeing from the scene, but reason over-rides instinct and he instead dives for the small pile his captors had made of his equipment. He finds his rapier in short order, pulling it free of its sheath and diving forward to aid his rescuers. The cleric is wounded, but surrounded by a dark light that indicates some form of foul blessing protecting her. The gnoll is in worse shape, but is faced by nothing but the small kobold as the armoured cleric of Heironous turns to aid the dwarf with a well-timed turning.
"Thank ye," the Dwarf rumbles as Ezekial hears the popping sound of zombies exploding, then the squelch of a battle-axe dropping something large and already dead. Ezekial's blade finds a gnollish lung, dropping the creature to its knees where a flaming sphere is quick to immolate him. Only the cleric remains, and she puts up a fair fight for someone already smeared with blood and bereft of allies, but the combined assault of five warriors is to much for her and she falls to the floor.
"Freedom," Ezekial thinks, and he savours the taste of the word for a few seconds while the others catch their breath. With his most sincere and welcoming grin, Ezekial turns to thank his rescuers. The site of the Cleric's face once he's taken off his helm is enough to give Ezekial pause.
"Ah cousin," Calmert says, "In a spot of trouble I see. It's a good thing I came to look for you, isn't it? Now, I know you've probably put a good deal of effort into forgetting this, but it's Miatta's wedding in a couple of weeks time and she's always thought of you as her favourite cousin, a lack of taste on her part perhaps, but I think it's best we clear this temple-raiding quickly and make an appearance, don't you?"
Ezekial holds his breath for the space of a few seconds, waiting for the intruders to make their move. Four days of captivity and slow blood loss have weakened him, but his binding has been less of an obstacle that the constant presence of foul gnolls and clerics that watch over him.
He hides a smile as the armoured form charges through the ranks of intruders by the door, sword held high, until he crashes against one of the gnolls standing guard. A kobold is next, a Yip monk by the robes, and the small creature is quick to flank the gnoll and hammer it with its fists.
Ezekial's smile only gets wider, and he twists his arm and hand back and forth in an attempt to escape the wiring. A dwarven form rockets across the room, great-axe swinging in a low arc to take a gnolls legs out from under him, and a ball of flame rolls across the room to fling itself at the cleric.
Ezekial looses sight of the fight, but his keen ears can make out what goes on. The grunt of the gnolls as they swing heavy weapons at their attacks, the clank of an armoured cleric stepping backwards and casting a spell. The flaming ball hisses, leaping through the air, and the smell of gnollish fur fills the air. Weapons are swung, and there's a sudden bounce to one of the cords that binds his limbs as a shrill voice yelps "Yip free." For a few minutes Ezekial actually thinks the attackers will slay the cleric and her gnollish allies before he's freed, then the sound of a spell echoes through the room and a feminine voice utters the word "Flee" through a great helm. Seconds later Ezekial watches the dwarf charge across the room once more, succumbing to the cleric's magic. The imprisoned man watches the dwarf charge towards one of the closed doors to the room, bending the magic's control as much as he can to avoid the open doorway and the elven wizard standing in its shadows.
"No," Ezekial yells, already aware of what's behind the dwarf's chosen path of retreat. It's too late, and he sees the armoured figure come to a stop in front of the horde of human and ogre skeletons the cleric had been storing in the room.
"Some rescue," Ezekial mutters. One of the ropes snaps as the kobold gnaws through it, and the change in leverage is enough that Ezekial can free himself from the rest. The kobold is already moving, executing a stunning series of back-flips that puts him toe to toe with the surviving gnoll and cleric. Ezekial briefly contemplates fleeing from the scene, but reason over-rides instinct and he instead dives for the small pile his captors had made of his equipment. He finds his rapier in short order, pulling it free of its sheath and diving forward to aid his rescuers. The cleric is wounded, but surrounded by a dark light that indicates some form of foul blessing protecting her. The gnoll is in worse shape, but is faced by nothing but the small kobold as the armoured cleric of Heironous turns to aid the dwarf with a well-timed turning.
"Thank ye," the Dwarf rumbles as Ezekial hears the popping sound of zombies exploding, then the squelch of a battle-axe dropping something large and already dead. Ezekial's blade finds a gnollish lung, dropping the creature to its knees where a flaming sphere is quick to immolate him. Only the cleric remains, and she puts up a fair fight for someone already smeared with blood and bereft of allies, but the combined assault of five warriors is to much for her and she falls to the floor.
"Freedom," Ezekial thinks, and he savours the taste of the word for a few seconds while the others catch their breath. With his most sincere and welcoming grin, Ezekial turns to thank his rescuers. The site of the Cleric's face once he's taken off his helm is enough to give Ezekial pause.
"Ah cousin," Calmert says, "In a spot of trouble I see. It's a good thing I came to look for you, isn't it? Now, I know you've probably put a good deal of effort into forgetting this, but it's Miatta's wedding in a couple of weeks time and she's always thought of you as her favourite cousin, a lack of taste on her part perhaps, but I think it's best we clear this temple-raiding quickly and make an appearance, don't you?"
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Wednesday, August 23rd, 508 AF, continued
Introductions are quickly made, and Ezekial is re-united with the bulk of his equipment as Warwind and Calmert sort through the booty taken from the slain gnolls and cleric. There isn't much on the bodies - a few gold coins, and some potions and scrolls, but the items strewn across the blanket prove to be very interesting. Layed out seperately are an iron torch, three black cones, a black sceptre with violet gems, a small black sphere and a black metal tube. A detect magic quickly identifies the iron torch as magical and the black bead as carrying some unknown dewoemer. The black tube is a scroll case, with a scroll bearing some unfamiliar writing inside. Quick examination doesn't identify the language, but Calmert recognises it as some kind of ritual. All of it is quickly stowed for later examination, even the non magical items after Durhon reminds everyone that if the evil folk want them, they must be worth stealing.
After the loot is split up, plans are made. THere appears to be no other exit from this room, or any other part of the dungeon that the party has seen, but Calmert knows that the clerics used a door in the seemingly blank wall. A quick search turns up a secred door, and after some deliberation over whether to continue on or search the rest of the dungeon for similar devices everyone proceeds down the dark corridor beyond. Ezekial and Yip share scouting duties, the kobold pleased to discover that the lithe warrior is the quiet, stealthy comrade he's often wished for when the creaking armor of his other comrades has given them away. Even better, Ezekial's keen eyes are the first to catch sight of a portcullis hidden in the ceiling of the passageway and he proves skilled enough to disable it before it falls.
"Ezekial very skilled," Yip comments blithely, despite a momentary twinge of instinct when he notices Ezekials skills at traditionally illicit arts. Ezekial winks at him.
Eventually the passage brancehs off into a T intersection, both directions quickly twisting and turning to prevent easy determination of what's beyond. The two scouts wait for the other veterans to catch up.
"Left or right?" Ezekial asks. "I don't know what's up this far."
"Left," Durhon grunts. "Always go left first."'
The left passage leads into a small chamber, a room with three doors on the far wall and a passageway leading off into the darkness to the parties left.
"Split up and search," Ezekial asks Yip. The kobold nods, and they both move quietly accross the room to examine the doorways. As everyone else filthers into the room, as quietly as they can, the two scouts fall back to confer with them.
"The first two are trapped," Ezekial says.
"Last one too."
"I can't tell what kind there is, but I might be able to jam it enough that we can open a door," Ezekial says. "There could also be something nasty on the far side, so I'll want you close by in case I succeed and they rush me. The choice is yours."
"Easy then," Durhon grunts. "Ye work on the middle door, we wait by the other two just in case. If ye be turned into a smokin' corpse, yer cousin here can fix ye up fast."
Positions are taken as Ezekial starts pulling a variety of hooked and barbed tools from a kit kept in his beltpouch. With a breathless care, he starts to manipulate the mechanisms inside the door and its lock.
"I think I've got it," he mutters. "I think I've got it."
There is an ominous click from the door as he jiggles one of the tools a quarter inch. Ezekial swears and hits the floor fast, waiting for whatever death is awaiting him. Unfortunately,the trap lies not in the door that he's working on, but in the doors his companions are crouched near as they watch him work. Bolts of energy arc out from both portals, and although Yip manages to leap free of the blast the other three are nearly fried by the blasts.
"I'm goin' to kill ye," Durhon growls, shaking his head to keep his beard from steaming. "Of all the stupid, half-arsed..."
Whatever is going to follow is lost as an arrow flies past the dwarf's head. Wounded and angry, Durhon turns to see his attacker, and two grinning gnolls stand in the shadows of the passageway with loaded bows.
"Intruders die," they howl, and their notched arrows are let fly.
Introductions are quickly made, and Ezekial is re-united with the bulk of his equipment as Warwind and Calmert sort through the booty taken from the slain gnolls and cleric. There isn't much on the bodies - a few gold coins, and some potions and scrolls, but the items strewn across the blanket prove to be very interesting. Layed out seperately are an iron torch, three black cones, a black sceptre with violet gems, a small black sphere and a black metal tube. A detect magic quickly identifies the iron torch as magical and the black bead as carrying some unknown dewoemer. The black tube is a scroll case, with a scroll bearing some unfamiliar writing inside. Quick examination doesn't identify the language, but Calmert recognises it as some kind of ritual. All of it is quickly stowed for later examination, even the non magical items after Durhon reminds everyone that if the evil folk want them, they must be worth stealing.
After the loot is split up, plans are made. THere appears to be no other exit from this room, or any other part of the dungeon that the party has seen, but Calmert knows that the clerics used a door in the seemingly blank wall. A quick search turns up a secred door, and after some deliberation over whether to continue on or search the rest of the dungeon for similar devices everyone proceeds down the dark corridor beyond. Ezekial and Yip share scouting duties, the kobold pleased to discover that the lithe warrior is the quiet, stealthy comrade he's often wished for when the creaking armor of his other comrades has given them away. Even better, Ezekial's keen eyes are the first to catch sight of a portcullis hidden in the ceiling of the passageway and he proves skilled enough to disable it before it falls.
"Ezekial very skilled," Yip comments blithely, despite a momentary twinge of instinct when he notices Ezekials skills at traditionally illicit arts. Ezekial winks at him.
Eventually the passage brancehs off into a T intersection, both directions quickly twisting and turning to prevent easy determination of what's beyond. The two scouts wait for the other veterans to catch up.
"Left or right?" Ezekial asks. "I don't know what's up this far."
"Left," Durhon grunts. "Always go left first."'
The left passage leads into a small chamber, a room with three doors on the far wall and a passageway leading off into the darkness to the parties left.
"Split up and search," Ezekial asks Yip. The kobold nods, and they both move quietly accross the room to examine the doorways. As everyone else filthers into the room, as quietly as they can, the two scouts fall back to confer with them.
"The first two are trapped," Ezekial says.
"Last one too."
"I can't tell what kind there is, but I might be able to jam it enough that we can open a door," Ezekial says. "There could also be something nasty on the far side, so I'll want you close by in case I succeed and they rush me. The choice is yours."
"Easy then," Durhon grunts. "Ye work on the middle door, we wait by the other two just in case. If ye be turned into a smokin' corpse, yer cousin here can fix ye up fast."
Positions are taken as Ezekial starts pulling a variety of hooked and barbed tools from a kit kept in his beltpouch. With a breathless care, he starts to manipulate the mechanisms inside the door and its lock.
"I think I've got it," he mutters. "I think I've got it."
There is an ominous click from the door as he jiggles one of the tools a quarter inch. Ezekial swears and hits the floor fast, waiting for whatever death is awaiting him. Unfortunately,the trap lies not in the door that he's working on, but in the doors his companions are crouched near as they watch him work. Bolts of energy arc out from both portals, and although Yip manages to leap free of the blast the other three are nearly fried by the blasts.
"I'm goin' to kill ye," Durhon growls, shaking his head to keep his beard from steaming. "Of all the stupid, half-arsed..."
Whatever is going to follow is lost as an arrow flies past the dwarf's head. Wounded and angry, Durhon turns to see his attacker, and two grinning gnolls stand in the shadows of the passageway with loaded bows.
"Intruders die," they howl, and their notched arrows are let fly.
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