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Story Hour
The Liberation of Tenh (updated April 24)
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<blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 480435" data-attributes="member: 41"><p>Coldeven 7, CY 593</p><p></p><p><strong>16: "Well, there goes the accountant."</strong></p><p></p><p>Aiman tells the group that he doesn't know what the motes are, or why they are here, but he is sure they are Celestial, and completely harmless. He is also certain that the Iuzians would find some depraved use for these gentle beings of heavenly light, should the wicked priests learn of their existance.</p><p></p><p>He has been able to communicate with them after a limited fashion, but they adamantly refuse to move, or be moved. They tell him only that "We must be here".</p><p></p><p>The Aiman leads the way back to the room where the empty wine bottle sits. "That," he begins, suddenly sober, "is what you are putting at risk when you attack the mines. I believe you are pure, and the motes have proven it, but I do not believe you will succeed."</p><p></p><p>When asked why he would show his secrets to adventurers he felt had no chance, the Aiman cooly replies, "Because when you loose, I need you to die rather than be captured. If they catch you alive, you will tell them of us. You will tell them what they want to know. When you loose, when hope is lost, for the sake of those good beings - you must kill yourself rather than submit to capture. Do we understand each other?"</p><p></p><p>We do. The Aiman produces vials of a clear, acidic liquid. "When you fail, drink these," he says, "the death will be painful, but your throat will be destroyed, and thus your corpse can betray no secrets."</p><p></p><p>The Aiman pauses as his request sinks in. He gauges the steely looks he is receiving from the hardened adventurers. "But I cannot say that I have no use for swordsmen and sorcerers. If I asked a boon of you, would you agree?"</p><p></p><p>When assured that the party would help the good Tenha of Cur'ruth in any way they could, the Aiman continues. "Below our mines lie our crypts. Old they are, and my father's fathers lie there. For some time now, the wise men and women of my clan have been growing agitated. They have dreams that disturb their sleep. To a man, they dream of the crypts.</p><p></p><p>"One of my own have I asked to investigate. He did not return. I am afraid that something beyond our means is amongst the bodies of our ancestors. Would you go there, in our name, and if need be, avenge our kin?"</p><p></p><p>At last, a reason to be bold in this confusing place where the lambs lie down with the lions and act like foxes! Heydricus assures the Aiman that they will set right whatever is wrong in the crypts of Cur'ruth. Returning to the lads, Heydricus calls Curst forward. "You're coming with us." Curst is reluctant, but seems even more reluctant to look like a coward in front of Elijah. The party recovers their weapons and are led past the solemn matron mother into a dark and dusty area of the complex.</p><p></p><p>"Behind that door, the crypts." she whispers. "May the blessings of the Wise Ones be upon you. I will await you here."</p><p></p><p>The door opens onto the top landing of a long flight of stairs. Apparently even the dungeons have dungeons in Tenh.</p><p></p><p>The hallway at the base of the stairs is a narrow passage. Engravings and bas-relief decorate the walls and serve to illustrate the Tenha belief in the passage of the dead into the afterlife. Small hand-built shrines litter the hallway, old offerings withering away in the dry, dusty air. At the edge of the party's light a human hand can be seen, lying on the bare stone. The hand is blue and slightly swollen.</p><p></p><p>The group creeps closer, with Elijah in the lead, followed closely by Heydricus. Curst brings up the rear, clinging to Prisantha's skirt. Weapons are drawn, and even the breath of the heroes seems over-loud and alarming.</p><p></p><p>The corpse is fairly recent, and as Elijah turns it (him?) over it makes a wet sucking sound. There are a pair of wounds on the upper shoulders of the man, and a small hole missing from the top of his head. Judging by the lack of blood around the corpse, the heart must have stopped before the peircing wounds were made. As if he died of shock. Or fear.</p><p></p><p>Before the party can fully examine the corpse or the room beyond there is a high-pitched scream from Curst. Appearing directly in front of him, materializing out of thin air, is a massive spider, the size of a horse. The beast is covered in small, wiry hairs, and is colored grey like the surrounding stone. It's two long front limbs drip with a viscous liquid, and it is attempting to grab Prisantha, and impale her with a thorny proboscis that juts from it's mouth. Fortunately for her, her reflexes are quick, and she steps out of the way. Heydricus and Elijah push past her to attack the beast, with some success. Curst cries out in Oerdian and flees for the stairs.</p><p></p><p>Before the warriors can kill the thing, however, it dissapears, and all is once again quiet save for the frantic pounding of Curst's feet on the stairs.</p><p></p><p>"Well," says Elijah, "there goes the accountant."</p><p></p><p>The party looks about, and confident that the beast is truly gone, they proceed into the chamber beyond. This room is larger, and seems designed to hold ritual services for the dead. Three open archways lead off from this room into the burial-halls themselves. A series of engravings in the floor radiate magic, specifically enchantment and illusion.</p><p></p><p>Prisantha, concentrating on her <em>detect magic</em>spell, fails to notice the slight rush of air, as the spider appears directly behind her. It seizes her in its front limbs, and before anyone can stop it, the thing vanishes, taking the Enchantress of Verbobonc with it.</p><p></p><p>Heydricus and Elijah frantically search the area, waving their weapons in front of them, trying to find<em> invisible </em>creatures - but to no avail.</p><p></p><p>Reasoning that the beast must have fled, they dash into the northern burial-hall and find a shocking sight. The dead of the Tenha mines, generation after generation, are laid out in the massive hall. The room is shaped like an inverse ziggurat, with tiers rising in regular intervals. The most ancient dead lie to the back of the room, the more modern corpses to the front. In the Tenha custom, the bodies lie entombed, covered only with a thin shroud.</p><p></p><p>At the near tier, the another spider hunches over the corpse of a Tenha, its proboscis thrust into the skull of the body, with a strange greenish glow oozing from the thing. Heydricus and Elijah charge it, and catch it off guard, wounding it badly. By the time it recovers its senses, it is nearly done for, but it manages to vanish like the other, into thin air.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Prisantha has found herself floating in a grey, misty and insubstantial ghost-world. She is still in the clutches of the giant spider, but manages to wrangle free, and strike the beast sensless with her ace-in-the-hole: <em> feeblemind.</em></p><p></p><p>Prisantha can see the corridors and rooms of the crypts, but it is like everything has become thin, grey and insubstantial. She explores her new environment for a few moments, then, suddenly, another spider appears several hundred feet from where she floats! She crouches behind the drooling form of the spider next to her (well, it would be drooling, if spiders drooled), and watches the thing as it scuttles nearer her, seemingly intent on something she cannot see.</p><p></p><p>Heydricus and Elijah, after witnessing the spider dissapear, turn to run into the western burial-crypt, and sure enough, they see a third spider feasting on the corpse of a long-dead Tenha, it's disturbing proboscis oozing greenish light. Once again, they charge to the attack, and once again the beast dissapears. The duo, with barely a glance at each other, run into the main chamber, and place themselves back-to-back, awaiting the worst.</p><p></p><p>Prisantha sees a second spider appear, and now both spiders are converging on the central room -- curious, she floats closer to their convergence point, and there she spots Heydricus and Elijah. Her friends appear ghost-like and transparent, but there is no mistaking Heydricus' unusually long, powerful sword, held proud and firm in his hands . . . ahem, well yes. Prisantha tears her eyes off the sorcerer and assesses her situation.</p><p></p><p>Certainly, she cannot communicate with them to warn them, but she is not helpless either. She regards the spiders. One of the beasts seems to be rubbing it's front arms together, generating a putrid yellowish glow, and leaving its arms coated with some bubbling, hissing liquid.</p><p></p><p>The spiders position themselves near Elijah and Heydricus, one spider for each, and Pris moves out from her hiding place, spell components in hand. But she is too late, and the spiders fade into grey mist before she can bend their will to her own.</p><p></p><p>Elijah is grabbed, seized and held, then suddenly phased into the ghost-plane where Prisantha has prepared a <em>charm monster</em> spell. Before the spider can sink it's ghastly proboscis into Elijah's skull, Pris completes her charm, and the spider grows still, then scuttles to her side in a posture that must equate with arachnid affection. Prisantha quickly discerns that the beast can read her mind. It sends waves of loving thought, assuring her that it is not evil at all, but a bizzare being of alien mentality.</p><p></p><p>Elijah quickly adapts to her surroundings, and when Prisantha assures her that the beast is friendly, she takes a look around. She notices, sadly, Curst's limp form floating dead and still in the mist nearby. Apparently, the <em>feebleminded</em> spider gave chase, and drew the rogue here before killing him.</p><p></p><p>"Well, there goes the accountant," she mutters to herself.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, back in the real world, Heydricus has been grabbed by the spider dripping acid from its forearms. The viscous substance burns his skin, and shreds his clothes, but is not deadly enough to kill him. Heydricus gives as good as he gets, striking the creature twice with his mightiest blows. He severs the spider's wicked proboscis in one swipe, then slashes deeply into it's front-section with his return swing. He watches in horror as the proboscis simply reforms, and begins to glow green.</p><p></p><p>Prisantha manages to communicate mentally with her <em>charmed</em> spider companion that she wishes it to attack its companion. As these creatures have no concept of filial love, the thing quickly agrees, and moves next to it's companion, waiting to shift into the real world to finish the badly wounded beast. Elijah floats next to Heydricus, prepared to slice his foe should the thing shift into her reality.</p><p></p><p>What happens next would be enough to convince a superstitious fellow that his luck has gone sour. The badly wounded spider shifts into the ghost-realm at exactly the same moment that the ghost spider shifts into reality. Heydricus and Elijah strike simultaneously, and before you can say "trapped in the border etheric", both spiders are dead.</p><p></p><p>Heydricus is alone in the now-empty crypts of the Cur'ruth Tenha, and Prisantha and Elijah cast horrified glances at each other over the bodies of two spiders - one dead, the other <em>feebleminded</em>.</p><p></p><p>-----</p><p></p><p>Next: Heydricus alone in the wilds of Tenh, can the Liberators be reunited?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(contact), post: 480435, member: 41"] Coldeven 7, CY 593 [b]16: "Well, there goes the accountant."[/b] Aiman tells the group that he doesn't know what the motes are, or why they are here, but he is sure they are Celestial, and completely harmless. He is also certain that the Iuzians would find some depraved use for these gentle beings of heavenly light, should the wicked priests learn of their existance. He has been able to communicate with them after a limited fashion, but they adamantly refuse to move, or be moved. They tell him only that "We must be here". The Aiman leads the way back to the room where the empty wine bottle sits. "That," he begins, suddenly sober, "is what you are putting at risk when you attack the mines. I believe you are pure, and the motes have proven it, but I do not believe you will succeed." When asked why he would show his secrets to adventurers he felt had no chance, the Aiman cooly replies, "Because when you loose, I need you to die rather than be captured. If they catch you alive, you will tell them of us. You will tell them what they want to know. When you loose, when hope is lost, for the sake of those good beings - you must kill yourself rather than submit to capture. Do we understand each other?" We do. The Aiman produces vials of a clear, acidic liquid. "When you fail, drink these," he says, "the death will be painful, but your throat will be destroyed, and thus your corpse can betray no secrets." The Aiman pauses as his request sinks in. He gauges the steely looks he is receiving from the hardened adventurers. "But I cannot say that I have no use for swordsmen and sorcerers. If I asked a boon of you, would you agree?" When assured that the party would help the good Tenha of Cur'ruth in any way they could, the Aiman continues. "Below our mines lie our crypts. Old they are, and my father's fathers lie there. For some time now, the wise men and women of my clan have been growing agitated. They have dreams that disturb their sleep. To a man, they dream of the crypts. "One of my own have I asked to investigate. He did not return. I am afraid that something beyond our means is amongst the bodies of our ancestors. Would you go there, in our name, and if need be, avenge our kin?" At last, a reason to be bold in this confusing place where the lambs lie down with the lions and act like foxes! Heydricus assures the Aiman that they will set right whatever is wrong in the crypts of Cur'ruth. Returning to the lads, Heydricus calls Curst forward. "You're coming with us." Curst is reluctant, but seems even more reluctant to look like a coward in front of Elijah. The party recovers their weapons and are led past the solemn matron mother into a dark and dusty area of the complex. "Behind that door, the crypts." she whispers. "May the blessings of the Wise Ones be upon you. I will await you here." The door opens onto the top landing of a long flight of stairs. Apparently even the dungeons have dungeons in Tenh. The hallway at the base of the stairs is a narrow passage. Engravings and bas-relief decorate the walls and serve to illustrate the Tenha belief in the passage of the dead into the afterlife. Small hand-built shrines litter the hallway, old offerings withering away in the dry, dusty air. At the edge of the party's light a human hand can be seen, lying on the bare stone. The hand is blue and slightly swollen. The group creeps closer, with Elijah in the lead, followed closely by Heydricus. Curst brings up the rear, clinging to Prisantha's skirt. Weapons are drawn, and even the breath of the heroes seems over-loud and alarming. The corpse is fairly recent, and as Elijah turns it (him?) over it makes a wet sucking sound. There are a pair of wounds on the upper shoulders of the man, and a small hole missing from the top of his head. Judging by the lack of blood around the corpse, the heart must have stopped before the peircing wounds were made. As if he died of shock. Or fear. Before the party can fully examine the corpse or the room beyond there is a high-pitched scream from Curst. Appearing directly in front of him, materializing out of thin air, is a massive spider, the size of a horse. The beast is covered in small, wiry hairs, and is colored grey like the surrounding stone. It's two long front limbs drip with a viscous liquid, and it is attempting to grab Prisantha, and impale her with a thorny proboscis that juts from it's mouth. Fortunately for her, her reflexes are quick, and she steps out of the way. Heydricus and Elijah push past her to attack the beast, with some success. Curst cries out in Oerdian and flees for the stairs. Before the warriors can kill the thing, however, it dissapears, and all is once again quiet save for the frantic pounding of Curst's feet on the stairs. "Well," says Elijah, "there goes the accountant." The party looks about, and confident that the beast is truly gone, they proceed into the chamber beyond. This room is larger, and seems designed to hold ritual services for the dead. Three open archways lead off from this room into the burial-halls themselves. A series of engravings in the floor radiate magic, specifically enchantment and illusion. Prisantha, concentrating on her [i]detect magic[/i]spell, fails to notice the slight rush of air, as the spider appears directly behind her. It seizes her in its front limbs, and before anyone can stop it, the thing vanishes, taking the Enchantress of Verbobonc with it. Heydricus and Elijah frantically search the area, waving their weapons in front of them, trying to find[i] invisible [/i]creatures - but to no avail. Reasoning that the beast must have fled, they dash into the northern burial-hall and find a shocking sight. The dead of the Tenha mines, generation after generation, are laid out in the massive hall. The room is shaped like an inverse ziggurat, with tiers rising in regular intervals. The most ancient dead lie to the back of the room, the more modern corpses to the front. In the Tenha custom, the bodies lie entombed, covered only with a thin shroud. At the near tier, the another spider hunches over the corpse of a Tenha, its proboscis thrust into the skull of the body, with a strange greenish glow oozing from the thing. Heydricus and Elijah charge it, and catch it off guard, wounding it badly. By the time it recovers its senses, it is nearly done for, but it manages to vanish like the other, into thin air. Meanwhile, Prisantha has found herself floating in a grey, misty and insubstantial ghost-world. She is still in the clutches of the giant spider, but manages to wrangle free, and strike the beast sensless with her ace-in-the-hole: [i] feeblemind.[/i] Prisantha can see the corridors and rooms of the crypts, but it is like everything has become thin, grey and insubstantial. She explores her new environment for a few moments, then, suddenly, another spider appears several hundred feet from where she floats! She crouches behind the drooling form of the spider next to her (well, it would be drooling, if spiders drooled), and watches the thing as it scuttles nearer her, seemingly intent on something she cannot see. Heydricus and Elijah, after witnessing the spider dissapear, turn to run into the western burial-crypt, and sure enough, they see a third spider feasting on the corpse of a long-dead Tenha, it's disturbing proboscis oozing greenish light. Once again, they charge to the attack, and once again the beast dissapears. The duo, with barely a glance at each other, run into the main chamber, and place themselves back-to-back, awaiting the worst. Prisantha sees a second spider appear, and now both spiders are converging on the central room -- curious, she floats closer to their convergence point, and there she spots Heydricus and Elijah. Her friends appear ghost-like and transparent, but there is no mistaking Heydricus' unusually long, powerful sword, held proud and firm in his hands . . . ahem, well yes. Prisantha tears her eyes off the sorcerer and assesses her situation. Certainly, she cannot communicate with them to warn them, but she is not helpless either. She regards the spiders. One of the beasts seems to be rubbing it's front arms together, generating a putrid yellowish glow, and leaving its arms coated with some bubbling, hissing liquid. The spiders position themselves near Elijah and Heydricus, one spider for each, and Pris moves out from her hiding place, spell components in hand. But she is too late, and the spiders fade into grey mist before she can bend their will to her own. Elijah is grabbed, seized and held, then suddenly phased into the ghost-plane where Prisantha has prepared a [i]charm monster[/i] spell. Before the spider can sink it's ghastly proboscis into Elijah's skull, Pris completes her charm, and the spider grows still, then scuttles to her side in a posture that must equate with arachnid affection. Prisantha quickly discerns that the beast can read her mind. It sends waves of loving thought, assuring her that it is not evil at all, but a bizzare being of alien mentality. Elijah quickly adapts to her surroundings, and when Prisantha assures her that the beast is friendly, she takes a look around. She notices, sadly, Curst's limp form floating dead and still in the mist nearby. Apparently, the [i]feebleminded[/i] spider gave chase, and drew the rogue here before killing him. "Well, there goes the accountant," she mutters to herself. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Heydricus has been grabbed by the spider dripping acid from its forearms. The viscous substance burns his skin, and shreds his clothes, but is not deadly enough to kill him. Heydricus gives as good as he gets, striking the creature twice with his mightiest blows. He severs the spider's wicked proboscis in one swipe, then slashes deeply into it's front-section with his return swing. He watches in horror as the proboscis simply reforms, and begins to glow green. Prisantha manages to communicate mentally with her [i]charmed[/i] spider companion that she wishes it to attack its companion. As these creatures have no concept of filial love, the thing quickly agrees, and moves next to it's companion, waiting to shift into the real world to finish the badly wounded beast. Elijah floats next to Heydricus, prepared to slice his foe should the thing shift into her reality. What happens next would be enough to convince a superstitious fellow that his luck has gone sour. The badly wounded spider shifts into the ghost-realm at exactly the same moment that the ghost spider shifts into reality. Heydricus and Elijah strike simultaneously, and before you can say "trapped in the border etheric", both spiders are dead. Heydricus is alone in the now-empty crypts of the Cur'ruth Tenha, and Prisantha and Elijah cast horrified glances at each other over the bodies of two spiders - one dead, the other [i]feebleminded[/i]. ----- Next: Heydricus alone in the wilds of Tenh, can the Liberators be reunited? [/QUOTE]
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