IronFort: MedievalGame2001Mar11

Ref: MedievalGame - Session 011 - 11th March 2001

: Recap on the game for those who missed it (if I can remember back that far!)

Tucked up in the cave entrance, resting a few of the group decided to investigate further into the complex. In the end only Krayon stayed behind to prepare food while the others took a few tentative steps ...

J'hanna took to playing scout and was first to discover a magnificent cavern a few tens of meters along the narrow crawlway at the end of the entrance cave. The ceiling was high, the air was cool and slightly damp and a terrace of still-water pools slowly stepped down and away from where she stood. The torchlight glistened on the just-wet rocks as water trickled into the cave down stalactites and dripped slowly to fill the pools below. A tiny trickle of water ran softly from the last pool down the very gradual slope and along the corridor that exited the chamber.

The rest of the group caught up and marvelled at the room (briefly). Cautiously they set to move to the back of the cave an enter the tunnel at the back. Being Hemnat, they had to stoop a little to continue, and after much fussing about tying ropes to secure themselves from slipping on the damp and slightly sloping surface, they decided that it really wasn't worth the hassle and J'hanna proceeded cautiously.

A few meters in, she noticed some finger sized holes at random points around the surface of the tunnel; above, below, left and right. Wary, she stopped and the rest caught up a few moments later. They examined the holes and noticed a thick, gooey substance around some of the holes and so Tracebe cast a detect life spell (amongst others). He noticed a life form moving slowly behind the rock surface. He advised the others where it was, and eventually it poked its head out of a hole. The group looked at it curiously. A few inches protruded and it opened its maw (think sandworm in Dune only a lot smaller). Abhorred (maybe), the group cut it off at the point it exited the hole and the mouth part dropped to the ground.

J'hanna scouted ahead aware of a couple of other of the creatures moving behind the rock as she scouted past the holes and on into the darkness. As she went into the darkness around a corner, Tracebe looked down at the severed end of the creature and noticed that it was now solid rock with no visible signs of a mouth.

J'hanna moved swiftly through the darkness and rounded a sharp corner into a very large chamber. There was a pair of empty alcoves about 6 feet high on each side of the entrance to the chamber and it was clear from the walls that it was not totally natural - man-made doesn't seem quite appropriate but that's basically what we're getting at :)

The gang caught up and looked into the room together. Atop four small steps on a large flat area were four slabs which could only best be described as gravestones. On each was an unknown symbol and Valdamean began to interpret writings while the rest searched the cave for any possible exit as there appeared to be none.

After quite a while, Val translated the symbols to be (in order left to right) PATH LEFT LIFE BLACK. After some rumination, a few thin cracks were noticed on the back wall of the cave that appeared to be straight and "man-made", however, there was no indication of a door mechanism until the other discovered that the gravestones could be pushed down. Tentatively they pushed them down one-by-one (in order of course), clicking each in place and hearing the sounds of some old mechanism whirr above and within the rocks.

Hesitantly pushing the fourth down, a panel of rock slid up to their right revealing a finely hewn corridor heading off beyond. They investigated and found a release mechanism inside the corridor and decided to quietly continue. However closing the door also made a very loud crunch, as if all the opening noises hadn't given the game away that something was going on!

They walked down the corridor and came to an iron gate. Beyond was a few steps leading down into a large room with a door opposite. Opening the gate they stepped down to survey the room. At the back were piles of what looked like rubbish from this distance, and in between around 20 prisoner cages hung from the ceiling, swinging slightly in a soft breeze. In each slumped a skeleton, each of various size from small (like the goblins) to large (like the ogres).

Ever cautious, Tracebe detected spirits and saw an apparition apparently tending the cages. He called it and a brief dialogue ensued (which I can't recall exactly) though I think it went kind of "go away or you'll end up in the cages" said the spirit, "no" said the group. And then all hell broke loose.

A number of skeletons animated and opened their cages, walked slowly over the back of the room and picked up old swords and shields. They then turned to attack. After a few spells from the group and a little combat, they discovered that the skeletons weren't that easy to kill and so Chl'Lak cast a forcewall in front of them and lured the skeletons down the corridor, casting another forcewall behind them and creating a nice skeleton sandwich - powdered bone aplenty. After two more sorties into the room, all the skeletons had been animated (and crushed).

Proceeding to the back, they found that the "rubbish" was actually piles of bones, rags and a few minor bits of treasure. Scavenging these they opened the door to see a hefty rope hanging down from a small point of light high above. Throwing a stone down to see how far it went, the vertical pipe seemed bottomless. Around the outer edge of the hole were footholds at regular intervals going up and down.

After some debate, the group decided to press onward and head into the darkness below as this was probably the best way to get to the city. However, not being the best climbers, the first to go fell, swung on the rope, crashed into the side wall and was hauled up almost unconscious. Not a good start.

The next to go had better success, and when at the end of the parties safety rope noticed an entrance a few meters below emitting an eerie reddish glow. A feeling of warmth began to rise accompanied by a foul smell. The heavy rope also began to move. Sensing danger (and something probably coming up the rope after them), the group hauled the character back into the room and slammed the door, waiting for the end to come ...

Deciding that down was not a good option, they chose to try up instead. Climbing hesitantly up on the footholds, one character arrived at a mark on the wall. Three letters (Hebrew for the players benefit, but not the characters) began to glow in gold. A pentagram encircled them in bright silver illuminating the character and the tunnel. A soft "ooh" was herd from below. I don't remember if they touched it or not. I think they did.

Anyway, I do remember Chl'Lak shimmying up the pipe rapidly and touching the glowing mark only to be blown back across the pipe, smash into the opposite wall and plummet past the open doorway being abruptly stopped from falling too far by the un-bungee like qualities of hemp rope and being hauled back up almost unconscious.

Apparently defeated and not having a clue what the symbols meant they wrote them down and retreated back to the safety of the cave entrance and some warm food.