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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhael" data-source="post: 563476" data-attributes="member: 5269">Player's Perspective (017)Party UpdateOnly change is that Mareth now is a Fighter/Mage.Rhael (Human Ranger/Cleric), Shadow (Human Rogue), Terjon (Human Paladin), Warramayl (Human Monk), Mareth (Elf Fighter/Mage), Taklinn(Dwarven Fighter), Hejkan (Human Barbarian/Cleric of Kord)The LoremastersThe rising of the sun told me that it was time to go back and see those supercilious know-it-alls who call themselves Loremasters.We all rose a little later than usual and had a hearty breakfast before Mareth and I headed off to the Loremasters to see if they had any information for our one hundred and fifty gold.  It seemed like a lot of cash at the time, but a much larger amount of funds had passed through our hands since then.The Loremasters informed us, with an upturned nose that before they would deliver their report we had to be deemed worthy of being the recipients of the information.  They went on to inform us that a certain cult that listed worshipping demons among their hobbies had established a presence in Taureth, albeit a relatively minor one.  They wanted us to prove our worth by eradicating them.  They were far from the most threatening presence in Taureth, but the Loremasters  found their presence to be unacceptable.  I shared their objection to the presence of demon worshippers in the town – I was apprehensive about facing a demon that was potentially far beyond my strength – but it was important to me that we did this and not only for the furtherance of our quest.“Of course we will undertake this task for you.”  I responded after an approving nod from Mareth.One of the Loremasters told us of the exact location of the demon-worshippers’ hideout – in an old building that had, in the past been an insane asylum, but more recently had simply been a warehouse.We collected our gear and the others and headed for the designated building.  It was a squat, iron structure that was built as the entrance hall to the asylum, which was predominantly underground.Considering that this was supposed to be a stronghold of demon worshippers and we hadn’t seen any guards or resistance to our approach, Shadow made a very thorough check of the front door.  Sure enough, he found two traps – one on the door handle and one in the lock.  He extracted his tools and set to work disabling the two insidious devices in a matter of moments.“Decent traps, but not terribly well hidden.”  He commented, more to himself than us as he stowed his tools.Terj and I readied ourselves for an attack as Shadow swung the door open.  Nothing.“Wow.  That was exciting.”  Remarked Mareth, dryly.  “Can we do that again, I don’t want to miss anything.”“Shut up, elf.”  Taklinn said, gruffly and gave Mareth a defiant look.  The elf sighed and let the jibe pass.I turned and put my finger to my lips. “Shh” I hushed, tersely. With a signal from Shadow, we ventured forth into the darkness, only the light of Shadow and Hejkan’s freshly lit torches guiding our way.  This level of the building was basically a large room with a desk at the far end and some waiting areas off to the side.  In the far, rear corners behind the desk were two spiral staircases, leading downwards.  A quick search of this level revealed nothing except the relatively recent footprints of the last people who came up the stairs and headed for the front door.“Well, something’s alive down there.”  Commented Taklinn when I mentioned the tracks.I quickly looked at Mareth, hoping to silence any witty retort he had and avoid any unpleasantness.  Luckily he caught my eye because the dwarf wasn’t as good at letting things slide as he was.Peering down the middle of the spiral stairs, which descended some fifty feet I could make out the barest hint of light.  I urged everyone to be as quiet as possible while heading down the stairs and we began climbing down.At the bottom, we were faced with a corridor that ended in a doorway, the walls were wood panelled and adorned with tapestries.  The door was slightly ajar and there was light shining through the opening.Shadow handed his torch to Warramayl and approached the door.  He poked his head around the doorjamb and looked around, after a few moments he signalled for us to approach and swung the door fully open.The room was certainly not what we expected.  It was expensively furnished and decorated, bookcases lined the walls and elaborate rugs covered the floors and was obviously once a very pleasant place to while away a few hours.  Once.Now, however the rugs and the couches were stained with the blood of the dozen or so black-garbed bodies that lay strewn around the room.  A large pile of books stood in the centre of the room where they had obviously been set alight and then doused with water.Shadow was close to tears.“Look at all this stuff!”  He said, through gritted teeth.  “It would be worth an absolute fortune if it hadn’t been for this destruction.  This was a surreal and slightly comical moment for me – Shadow’s reaction was somewhat similar to Terjon’s reaction to starving children and diseased or downtrodden people.  I could envision him kneeling near the pile of soggy books in the centre of the room, falling to his knees and shouting to the heavens “By the gods!  Why? Why?!”“They are only material possessions, my friend.”  Warramayl sensed Shadow’s distress and placed his hand on the rogue’s shoulder.  “They will not provide happiness.  True happiness comes from within.  Look within yourself and seek the riches inside.”They were truly profound words from our almost silent companion.  Shadow, however was unimpressed.“With all due respect, Warramayl, that’s bull<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.”  Shadow responded.  “Nothing within me is going to allow me to buy castles, mountains of food and wine and the hottest women in the Freeholds!”  Warramayl did not respond, Shadow’s gesturing was quite expansive as he continued.  “That’s what fat loot is for.  To be able tobuy whatever you want.  To be able to afford to wear the most expensive clothes and eat the most expensive food – ““And screw the most expensive whores?”  Mareth asked, mockingly.“Yes!”  Shadow replied with a raised voice.  “To screw the most expensive whores.  And drink the most expensive wine and live in the most expensive houses and live and travel in luxury.  To have people do the menial work for you and not have to sleep in the woods, always watching out for the next thing that’s gonna come bounding out of the forest to eat your liver.”  He took a breath.  “Nothing inside me is going to let me do that – unless one of you guys force-fed me diamonds while I was asleep.”  He looked hopeful.  Taklinn and Hejkan shook their heads.  Mareth and I were standing near the far door keeping watch and trying not to laugh and Terjon had long-since been distracted by something shiny and was examining it intently.“I’m sorry.”  The monk said, simply and returned to the back of the group, showing no emotion.  I had a feeling I knew exactly what he was sorry for and it wasn’t for what he said.“Come on, guys.”  I said, after a few moments of silence, allowing Shadow to calm down slightly.  “We’ve got a job to do and whoever or whatever in here has probably heard us by now.”  Everyone nodded their accedence and we headed out the far door.It lead to another corridor which turned sharply after a short distance and lead to another room, very similar to the last, in terms of the carnage but not so much the furnishing.  A room off to the side was a large storeroom which held all manner of mundane items as well as some tapestries and rugs which had Shadow salivating.“These would be worth hundreds of gold, each!”  He exclaimed as he knelt and conducted a more thorough examination.“That may be, Shadow, but we can’t do much about it at the moment.”  Shadow looked pained.  “We can grab them on the way back, if you like.”   I secretly hoped he would forget about them because I didn’t like the idea of the Loremasters finding out we had looted the place – just in case.We continued onwards, meeting no opposition, but finding bodies all over the place.  We had to light our torches again, when we descended further, beyond what I believed to be the original asylum.  The wood-panelled corridors became a rough-hewn tunnel with a pair of iron rails down it’s centre.  This corridor wound slightly and we followed it for what seemed like at least two miles.  Suddenly, there was light at the end of the tunnel and we could smell the ocean.  We cautiously approached and found that the tunnel opened up into a large cavern with a three-foot high stone wall splitting it in two, broken in only one place.  This room was to contain the first resistance we met.  We were suddenly attacked from all sides by men garbed in black.  Two flying creatures which my knowledge of demons revealed to be quasits were on the other side of the wall and apparently engaged in some other task because they were not paying us any attention.The battle was joined, the six men who attacked us initially fell back towards the only break in the stone wall once they discovered we were stronger opponents than we looked and three of their number had fallen.  As we advanced at varied pace across the floor after our assailants I mentioned to my companions that they would need magical weapons to do any real damage to the two flying creatures and I then cast a spell of enchantment on my own weapon.It wasn’t until a fireball exploded in our midst, severely hurting Mareth, Terjon and killing one of our black-garbed opponents that I felt like we might have been in trouble.  A figure emerged from a side room.  Humanoid, with large bat-like wings, about six feet tall was standing on the other side of the stone wall.  By this stage, Taklinn, Warramayl and I had traversed the room to the break in the stone wall and fighting off the remaining men.  One of the quasits had circled around behind us and was about to attack Taklinn as the last of the men broke and ran towards an opening in the far wall – only to be taken down by a well-aimed shot from Shadow’s bow.Terj turned his healing powers onto Mareth before the elf turned and charged across the floor directly at the creature, leaping onto the stone wall and thrusting his rapier at it’s head.  He missed.  The distraction, however gave Warramayl and I a chance to move around the inside of the wall and attack.  Terjon had joined Taklinn’s battle with the quasit and Shadow was firing arrows at whatever he could see from his hiding place behind some boxes.The creature, which upon closer inspection resembled a cross between a demonoid and a vampire didn’t manage to cast any further spells as we surrounded it and hacked it down.  As it fell, it became a cloud of vapour and floated towards the opening in the far wall.  The final quasit, which had attacked Terj and Taklinn disengaged and swooped Warramayl and myself, I managed to score a light hit as it flew overhead but it ascended to a height I could not reach and flew out the opening after the cloud of mist.We gave chase.We had no chance of catching either of them, and I wasn’t entirely sure what we would do if we did catch the cloud, but after a half-mile or so the passage ended at what I assumed to be the ocean, under an overhanging cliff.  A brief search revealed that there was no way of getting out of here aside from the way we came in, so we trudged back up the passageway to the large room. Shadow searched the bodies and found nothing of interest, aside from a few coins and we decided that we had probably done what the Loremasters had requested.  The rogue did forget about the goods on the way out and we didn’t have to bother about who was going to carry it out and we made it back to the Loremasters without incident.We made our report, describing the occurrences and the foes.  The Loremasters appeared satisfied that we had done as they asked and presented us with the report.</blockquote>

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