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The Fall of Civilization
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4603676" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>After they finish resting, the party presses on. It does not take long at all for them to run into trouble- trouble in the form of a group of mixed orcs, kobolds and goblins. </p><p></p><p>The Six-Fingered Hand!</p><p></p><p>The party falls upon them, engaging them with a vengeance. They have a lot of frustration and anger at the Hand, and this is one of their first opportunities to vent it. The orcs pull out sunpowder pistols and open fire, filling parts of the battlefield with ephemeral clouds of smoke and sending balls of lead at the heroes, but the party quickly overwhelms them, slaying the orcs and kobold (who seems to be the leader, strangely) and capturing the goblins (whom they tentatively plan to pretend to have as slaves while they travel through the xvart city, adding legitimacy to their presence). Torinn is dubious about the entire slave idea, as is Heimall. They turn to Nowhere Jones for support, but he just shrugs. “They’re goblins.”</p><p></p><p>“We can always let them go on the other side of the city,” says Nixie.</p><p></p><p>“Let them go?” exclaims Vann-La. “We’re at war with them. We should kill them.”</p><p></p><p>The party argues for a time, and finally decides to keep the goblins alive, as slaves, or at least as presumptive slaves, for the moment. Nixie names the goblins Iris, Daisy, Posy, Sodomy, Snapdragon, Laura and Chrysanthemum.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The party continues moving slowly through the Underdark beneath the mountains. Finally, they rest again, setting a careful watch and ensuring that the goblins are kept securely bound or chained.</p><p></p><p>During the night, the party is assailed by a collection of Underdark reptiles, beginning with several crocodiles from the dark waterway that our heroes are traveling beside. Towards the middle of the battle, more lizards come from down the hall; these prove to be blue shocker lizards. The battle is neither quick nor easy, as the attackers try to eat the beetles hauling the party’s wagon. Nixie effects a quick rescue of it, mounting up and flicking the reins; and the party manages to slay the hungry lizards and crocodiles before anything worse than a few wounds happens. </p><p></p><p>The party finishes their rest and then moves on.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, behind a cleverly-constructed fake section of wall, small grey eyes watch the party. Dry, leathery lips purse. The viewer moves aside, and another takes his place, peering out to observe the group as they move out. </p><p></p><p>Silently, the first taps on the second’s arm, his fingers making complex rhythms and patterns. An interrogative. <em>Marks?</em></p><p></p><p>The second figure nods and taps back: <em>The Twists.</em></p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Vann-La cocks her head. “Hey,” she calls out. “Hold on, do you hear that?”</p><p></p><p>Everyone stops and listens intently. “Is that- music?” asks Torinn. </p><p></p><p>Heimall frowns. “What would music be doing down here?”</p><p></p><p>“Oi, could be anyone,” says the cook. “Dwarf, gnome, goblin, giant- everyone needs music. Drumming travel long way in Underdark, long range communication. Music very common.”</p><p></p><p>“Who cares?” Kratos barks. “We’re not here for music. You’re letting yourself get distracted. Let’s go.”</p><p></p><p>“He’s right,” agrees Nixie. The others murmur assent and the party continues on its way. But about ten minutes later, they happen upon something even stranger: a glimmering, shimmering curtain of light. </p><p></p><p>“Now what do you suppose that is?” wonders Nixie. </p><p></p><p>Sta’Ligir hops off the wagon and strides over. “Let me see.” He studies it, then shrugs. “Some kind of fey magic, looks like.” </p><p></p><p>Torinn whistles. “Hey, I can see through it. There’s some kind of passage...” Experimentally, the dragonborn pokes his hand through the shimmering field. No harm seems to come to him, and he is able to pull his hand back free easily. With a shrug, he steps through the gossamer curtain. “You should check this out,” he calls out. Movement in the corner of his eye catches his attention, but when he turns his head, nobody is there. He frowns. Slowly, he moves in the direction in which he thought the movement might have been going. </p><p></p><p>And the floor drops out from under him.</p><p></p><p>For a moment, Torinn wheel in the air before landing on a steep ramp; and a moment after that, he spills out onto a great pile of sand. </p><p></p><p><em>Zing!</em> A shortbow arrow whizzes past him arm, barely missing.</p><p></p><p>Almost half a dozen xvarts begin to fire their weapons at Torinn.</p><p></p><p>“Hey guys, you should come down here!” he yelps in pain. There is a noticeable hint of panic in his voice. “This is fun!”</p><p></p><p>The xvarts rush in towards him.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>From behind a wall, Zelcair the svirf watches through a peek hole as his xvart allies quickly bring the dragonborn intruder down. He lets out a long breath and then hurries off to his right, following the secret passage behind the wall of the Twists of Zelcair towards the entry from which he can go to, and examine, the intruder that his xvart allies have taken. </p><p></p><p>The Twists are only augmented and enhanced by his, and his folks’, talent for illusion. When the party had advanced beyond the first lure, he had been surprised. When the dragonborn had fallen into the second, he had been gratified. It had been a while since the last time he had met someone new. Someone who wouldn’t suspect Zelcair’s cruel jokes. Zelcair smiles a ghastly smile. Oh, yes; he has a few interesting pranks to try out. To refine. Let’s see if the dragonborn can puzzle his way out of the Bear Trap!</p><p></p><p>As long as he is quick, he can spirit the dragonborn away before his friends have a chance to rescue him. As long as they aren’t moving quickly- and when last seen, they seemed more prone to move on a little and let Torinn catch up later. </p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>They were indeed. The wagon is slow but steady; the party lets it move forward, driven by Kratos, while Torinn investigates the passage. His first cry makes the others exchange a few glances amongst themselves. The following sudden scream of pain from below is all the summons that the rest of our heroes need. They move in to the passage that Torinn had entered a moment before and find the pit trap; below, they can see that it hits a steep slide.</p><p></p><p>Heimall brings out a rope and starts to tie it off. Vann-La readies her shield and hammer and simply jumps into the pit and onto the slide. She shoots downward and shoots off into a great pile of sand, landing on a xvart and knocking him down. </p><p></p><p>“Xvarts!” she shouts. “They’ve already gotten Torinn! You’ll land in a sand pile!” She struggles to her feet before the xvart by using him to push herself up. Then she pounds her hammer into him, then staggers around and smashes another of the blue-skinned little humanoids!</p><p></p><p>The xvarts crowd around Vann-La. The one that she knocked prone stabs her deeply; she twists away and manages to fend off the attacks of the other two already on her. </p><p></p><p>Then Heimall shoots down into the room, dropping down the rope very quickly, and bowls another xvart over!</p><p></p><p>The party starts to drop in in force, and Kratos manages to immediately slay one of the wounded ones. Iggy, in the middle of things, fires <em>magic missiles</em> to cover Heimall, as he shouts, “ON YOUR FEET, SOLDIER!” Torinn groans as the warlord roughly pulls him up and shakes him. “You can’t give up! The Empire needs you!!” Torinn’s eyes open and his jaw sets. </p><p></p><p>“Thank you,” he gasps, taking inspiration from Heimall’s words. He stands firm, whipping his spiked chain about.</p><p></p><p>Now that the party has come to his rescue, the battle swiftly turns one-sided. It’s a slaughter. </p><p></p><p>Nobody sees Zelcair slip away in the shadows.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>“Now what?” asks Nixie.</p><p></p><p>“We could explore...” Torinn begins, but Kratos cuts him off.</p><p></p><p>“This isn’t helping us achieve our goals.”</p><p></p><p>There is a general consensus that he is right. Using the rope, our heroes escape the xvart trap (actually, though they don’t know it, a svirf trap) and continue on their way.</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Our heroes navigate the Crystal Gallery and to Xvaangensleff at last!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 4603676, member: 1210"] After they finish resting, the party presses on. It does not take long at all for them to run into trouble- trouble in the form of a group of mixed orcs, kobolds and goblins. The Six-Fingered Hand! The party falls upon them, engaging them with a vengeance. They have a lot of frustration and anger at the Hand, and this is one of their first opportunities to vent it. The orcs pull out sunpowder pistols and open fire, filling parts of the battlefield with ephemeral clouds of smoke and sending balls of lead at the heroes, but the party quickly overwhelms them, slaying the orcs and kobold (who seems to be the leader, strangely) and capturing the goblins (whom they tentatively plan to pretend to have as slaves while they travel through the xvart city, adding legitimacy to their presence). Torinn is dubious about the entire slave idea, as is Heimall. They turn to Nowhere Jones for support, but he just shrugs. “They’re goblins.” “We can always let them go on the other side of the city,” says Nixie. “Let them go?” exclaims Vann-La. “We’re at war with them. We should kill them.” The party argues for a time, and finally decides to keep the goblins alive, as slaves, or at least as presumptive slaves, for the moment. Nixie names the goblins Iris, Daisy, Posy, Sodomy, Snapdragon, Laura and Chrysanthemum. *** The party continues moving slowly through the Underdark beneath the mountains. Finally, they rest again, setting a careful watch and ensuring that the goblins are kept securely bound or chained. During the night, the party is assailed by a collection of Underdark reptiles, beginning with several crocodiles from the dark waterway that our heroes are traveling beside. Towards the middle of the battle, more lizards come from down the hall; these prove to be blue shocker lizards. The battle is neither quick nor easy, as the attackers try to eat the beetles hauling the party’s wagon. Nixie effects a quick rescue of it, mounting up and flicking the reins; and the party manages to slay the hungry lizards and crocodiles before anything worse than a few wounds happens. The party finishes their rest and then moves on. *** Meanwhile, behind a cleverly-constructed fake section of wall, small grey eyes watch the party. Dry, leathery lips purse. The viewer moves aside, and another takes his place, peering out to observe the group as they move out. Silently, the first taps on the second’s arm, his fingers making complex rhythms and patterns. An interrogative. [i]Marks?[/i] The second figure nods and taps back: [i]The Twists.[/i] *** Vann-La cocks her head. “Hey,” she calls out. “Hold on, do you hear that?” Everyone stops and listens intently. “Is that- music?” asks Torinn. Heimall frowns. “What would music be doing down here?” “Oi, could be anyone,” says the cook. “Dwarf, gnome, goblin, giant- everyone needs music. Drumming travel long way in Underdark, long range communication. Music very common.” “Who cares?” Kratos barks. “We’re not here for music. You’re letting yourself get distracted. Let’s go.” “He’s right,” agrees Nixie. The others murmur assent and the party continues on its way. But about ten minutes later, they happen upon something even stranger: a glimmering, shimmering curtain of light. “Now what do you suppose that is?” wonders Nixie. Sta’Ligir hops off the wagon and strides over. “Let me see.” He studies it, then shrugs. “Some kind of fey magic, looks like.” Torinn whistles. “Hey, I can see through it. There’s some kind of passage...” Experimentally, the dragonborn pokes his hand through the shimmering field. No harm seems to come to him, and he is able to pull his hand back free easily. With a shrug, he steps through the gossamer curtain. “You should check this out,” he calls out. Movement in the corner of his eye catches his attention, but when he turns his head, nobody is there. He frowns. Slowly, he moves in the direction in which he thought the movement might have been going. And the floor drops out from under him. For a moment, Torinn wheel in the air before landing on a steep ramp; and a moment after that, he spills out onto a great pile of sand. [i]Zing![/i] A shortbow arrow whizzes past him arm, barely missing. Almost half a dozen xvarts begin to fire their weapons at Torinn. “Hey guys, you should come down here!” he yelps in pain. There is a noticeable hint of panic in his voice. “This is fun!” The xvarts rush in towards him. *** From behind a wall, Zelcair the svirf watches through a peek hole as his xvart allies quickly bring the dragonborn intruder down. He lets out a long breath and then hurries off to his right, following the secret passage behind the wall of the Twists of Zelcair towards the entry from which he can go to, and examine, the intruder that his xvart allies have taken. The Twists are only augmented and enhanced by his, and his folks’, talent for illusion. When the party had advanced beyond the first lure, he had been surprised. When the dragonborn had fallen into the second, he had been gratified. It had been a while since the last time he had met someone new. Someone who wouldn’t suspect Zelcair’s cruel jokes. Zelcair smiles a ghastly smile. Oh, yes; he has a few interesting pranks to try out. To refine. Let’s see if the dragonborn can puzzle his way out of the Bear Trap! As long as he is quick, he can spirit the dragonborn away before his friends have a chance to rescue him. As long as they aren’t moving quickly- and when last seen, they seemed more prone to move on a little and let Torinn catch up later. *** They were indeed. The wagon is slow but steady; the party lets it move forward, driven by Kratos, while Torinn investigates the passage. His first cry makes the others exchange a few glances amongst themselves. The following sudden scream of pain from below is all the summons that the rest of our heroes need. They move in to the passage that Torinn had entered a moment before and find the pit trap; below, they can see that it hits a steep slide. Heimall brings out a rope and starts to tie it off. Vann-La readies her shield and hammer and simply jumps into the pit and onto the slide. She shoots downward and shoots off into a great pile of sand, landing on a xvart and knocking him down. “Xvarts!” she shouts. “They’ve already gotten Torinn! You’ll land in a sand pile!” She struggles to her feet before the xvart by using him to push herself up. Then she pounds her hammer into him, then staggers around and smashes another of the blue-skinned little humanoids! The xvarts crowd around Vann-La. The one that she knocked prone stabs her deeply; she twists away and manages to fend off the attacks of the other two already on her. Then Heimall shoots down into the room, dropping down the rope very quickly, and bowls another xvart over! The party starts to drop in in force, and Kratos manages to immediately slay one of the wounded ones. Iggy, in the middle of things, fires [i]magic missiles[/i] to cover Heimall, as he shouts, “ON YOUR FEET, SOLDIER!” Torinn groans as the warlord roughly pulls him up and shakes him. “You can’t give up! The Empire needs you!!” Torinn’s eyes open and his jaw sets. “Thank you,” he gasps, taking inspiration from Heimall’s words. He stands firm, whipping his spiked chain about. Now that the party has come to his rescue, the battle swiftly turns one-sided. It’s a slaughter. Nobody sees Zelcair slip away in the shadows. *** “Now what?” asks Nixie. “We could explore...” Torinn begins, but Kratos cuts him off. “This isn’t helping us achieve our goals.” There is a general consensus that he is right. Using the rope, our heroes escape the xvart trap (actually, though they don’t know it, a svirf trap) and continue on their way. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes navigate the Crystal Gallery and to Xvaangensleff at last! [/QUOTE]
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