Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="robberbaron" data-source="post: 1730297" data-attributes="member: 14771">Perhaps.Dramatis personae update:Li Kung (Male Human Monk from Xingua)------"Who are you? Are you one of the two adventurers who came down here?”“I am Li Kung, seeking bounty". "That's a long name", says Gaelle."Come.. over.. here.., closer." says Cord, slowly and loudly, as Li Kung is obviously foreign and a bit dim.They took a few minutes to discuss their respective experiences down here. After a discussion about pulling Chiku's body from under the pile of rubble (a hand was sticking out into the main passage), they decided it was not worth the trouble. He was poor and probably flat.Seigfried looked bemused as he understood none of what they were saying.They told Li Kung where the exit was, meaning for him to leave, then moved off down the passage.Li Kung had other ideas and, after a moment, followed them down toward the blue luminescence."You following us?" asked Gaelle. "Not understand" said Li Kung."If you are going to follow us, can you do anything useful?" asked Cord."Fight" came the answer."So, you going to fight then?" asked Gaelle."Yes. For now I guard the rear. You may be excellent fighters and not need me. Then again you might"."If you fight, you get a cut of what we get from now", said Gaelle."OK"The passage opened into a large cavern with a column of rock sticking up in the middle. The column seemed to contain a spring as water trickled down the side into a pool around it, a stream flowing across the cavern and out through a hole in the wall.Some sort of fungus encrusted the column, the source of the blue glow.Siegfried noticed writing on the pillar and recognised it as something religious and Orcish.They also noticed that the water was foul, but Gaelle could not tell if it was because of the moss.The party heard a mumbling and, suddenly, Gracientus screamed and ran out of the cavern, leaving a nasty smell behind.Looking up, they saw a figure standing on the top of the column, obviously the cause of the cleric’s fear.Li Kung readied a shuriken against the figure casting another spell, missing almost immediately.Cord felt his limbs freeze briefly, then return to normal and he, Gaelle and Seigfried began running up path around the column, with lantern fully open.Li Kung threw more shuriken at the figure on the top, missing again, one of his weapons bouncing off the column and disappearing into the dark, smelly pool.A pool of darkness appeared at the top of the column, just as Cord arrived, shrouding the unknown adversary.He ran up to the figure, swung and missed. He just couldn’t get a good view of his opponent due to the wispy shadows that filled the air.Gaelle moved up and opened the keg of oil and Seigfried ran up to the figure, also missing.They could still hear Gracientus screaming, though he was definitely getting fainter.Running out of shuriken, Li Kung jumped across the water and ran up towards the combat.The Orc cleric, Jakk, swung his mace at Seidfried, clipping him round the ear.Cord stepped forward, swung and again missed due to the darkness.Gaelle moved up and tried to splash the oil on Jakk, missing, but leaving a 5’ puddle of oil on the floor. Someone could come a cropper on that.The fight 5-foot-stepped around the column-top for a few moments, with Li Kung taking a mace to the face.The monk, staggered, decided to kick (miss) Jakk rather than tumble away, falling unconscious from the effort. Oops.Carefully avoiding the oil slick, Cord stepped up and, as neatly as one can with a sword of unfeasible size, filleted the Orc.Gaelle dropped the bow she had been preparing and chopped off Jakk's head, just to be  sure.The party waited for 10 minutes and Gracientus had not returned. The screaming had stopped, though. Must be a good sign.They relieved Jakk's body of all his goods (steel shield, mace, armour and a scroll) before burning him in the puddle of oil and waiting another 10 minutes, hoping for the darkness to dissipate. It didn’t.A further 30 minutes later, the light level returned to normal darkness pierced by lantern light.They noticed that the water was now flowing clean and the only smell they could detect was burnt Orc.Figuring that he must have lived around here, they looked around for the Orc’s “lair". They found a few stinking blankets in a small alcove in the cavern, but nothing more.Returning to the blocked corridor from whence came Li Kung, Gaelle beheaded the 2 long-dead kobolds (waste not want not).Having recovered Li Kung's shuriken from the pool, Gaelle washed herself in the now-clean spring water.While washing, Gaelle and Li Kung heard a faint and plaintive "Heeeelllppp!" from Gracientus who, while running away scared, had failed to clear the pit.Gaelle considered throwing the unconscious Kron into the pit to open it up, but they decided it wasn’t the best course of action. They might have hurt Gracientus.Hopping across, unsuccessfully, Gaelle opened the pit but managed to grab the edge before falling in.Cord alighted on the far side easily. Too easily for Gaelle’s liking.Releasing Gracientus, they made their way outside, picking up all the ore they could carry, which was pretty much all of it.Seigfried suggested using the blankets from the kobold nest to carry a sack-worth of ore so Gaelle swapped her average cloak for the one with the hole (as it was better than hers, even punctured) and used the old one to carry the ore.When they emerged from the mine, it was dark. Luna was a sliver of silver in the sky and Leos was not visible at all.*Gracientus cast his remaining heal spells on Kron to bring him round and the party divided the spoils.After a little rest, the party went back into the mine, to retrieve the heads of all the kobolds (32) and some of the poor quality kobold light crossbows, then headed back to Darak.Gaelle distributed the kobold heads around the group, keeping hold of Kron's as the Uruk doesn't really understand money. He's not thick, just a bit uncomplicated. OK, he is a bit thick.Kron appraised the gem from M'dok and reckoned it was worth at least an axe. Maybe even a very good axe.Back in the town, Gaelle knocked up the mayor. It was 11pm, but she didn’t mind.After a couple of minutes, the mayor opened the door, having hastily donned some clothes. He had looked out the window and recognised the group.Gaelle gave him the sack of heads and asked for a free night in the inn, or at least the rest of the night. The mayor, half asleep and confronted with a smelly group of adventurers in the middle of the night, agreed and they all toddled off to bed.Kron thought he could drink his fill for free as well, but the bar was closed at that hour and Gaelle convinced him that in his condition (0 HP) it would not do him much good. Muttering miserably, Kron subsided into a loud sleep.After a restful night, the party were greeted with a bright sun beaming through scattered fluffy clouds. And a slap-up breakfast.However, they were still plagued by the plague, picked up from all the filthy Kobolds and zombies, many of them feeling decidedly weakened despite the enormous fry-up at hand.They discussed with the blacksmith about making silvered weapons for them - Gaelle wanted some arrowheads and Cord and Kron wanted silvered Fullblades.It would take some time and he would have to get someone to smelt the silver ore, which would take another couple of days, so they didn’t bother taking it any further.Resting in Darak for 4 days, they all got cured of the plague and Corvan gave them a bonus of 100GP for solving the mysteries of the mine. Most people in the town seemed to be getting better. Not that the party particularly cared.They wanted to sell the ore, but the best person to do the deal couldn't speak the language so it fell to Li Kung who didn't fare very well and may not have got the best price.Cord wanted to sell the crossbows, along with the Orc Cleric's steel shield, but they thought it would be better to go to a larger town.Gracientus cast Comprehend Languages to find out how useful the scroll was (it was written in Nhagashk – the language of the Orcs), and decided to find someone to teach him the Orc tongue so he could use it.Seigfried suggested asking the Uruk, at which Gracientus looked blank (Kron is, after all, an illiterate barbarian).May 11thThe party took their leave of Darak and headed back down the estuary towards the bridge. "Remember the name of Gaelle", Gaelle told the mayor. He wasn’t sure what she meant, but promised to do as she asked, to be safe.Reaching the copse of trees where they spent a restless night on the way up, they decided to give it a wide berth and camped in the open.Despite not finding a particularly good campsite, the dry weather meant that they had a good night's sleep anyway.May 12thReaching the bridge at midday, Gaelle engaged the guard in conversation, getting directions to the nearest town and information about whether they might be able to sell their spare weapons there.Apparently, an arms trader went past a couple of days ago, and he may still be there.Reaching the town, a market was in full swing. Looking around, Li Kung spotted the arms trader immedietely.Going over to him, Cord asked "Do you have any silvered weapons and will you buy these?""Certainly", he said, exchanging a silvered longsword and 2 daggers for their kobold crossbows and Cord's hide armour (he’s wearing the Orc cleric’s chain shirt now).Not wanting to stay in the town as they now wish to get to Starros and deal with the Hark, they moved off up the coast road.That evening, not finding anywhere to stop, they pressed on through the night. It began to rain around midnight and got heavier towards dawn, soaking them thoroughly.Disconsolately, they trudged on until lunchtime when they rested and ate "breakfast".Arriving at another small town, Cord headed to a stable and bought 6 horses, managing to bargain the trader up to 10% over retail (nervous smile and take the money before the enormously muscled warrior with the SOUS (sword of unfeasible size) realises what he’s done), to speed their journey to Starros. The others arranged spaces in the inn’s common room, so they could sleep the sleep of the dead .Straight after eating and sleeping/resting until the next dawn, they rode off towards their bounty.After 3 days hard riding, they arrived in Starros, a fair-sized town with a large and busy harbour.* Erth has 2 moons: a large one, Luna, has a period of 28 days and gives quite a lot of light when full. A much smaller one, Leos, has a period of only 8 days and is only a bit brighter than the brightest stars.</blockquote>

Verification