The illustrious members of
Local 509 were taking their breakfast in their rented villa, the
Stormwatch. As usual,
they were discussing what they would do that day. Dromar and Katrina
seemed particularly interested as the night
before they had finished their spell writing which had occupied their
complete concentration the first week they
were in the city.
"So, you all got some nice
items!" said Katrina. "I hope there are still some good stuff left for
us to buy."
"I'm sure they bought all
the good stuff" grumbled Dromar. "I doubt there is a single magical
item
in the whole of Waterdeep that is still for sale. Local 509 is like
locusts to the wheat crop when it comes to
anything magical."
"That's not true, Dromar."
replied Galranwyn with some heat. " Well, maybe it's mostly true, but
there are some items for sale still that we know of. When we were
visiting the various stores I was making a list
of what they had so we wouldn't forget something. Here is the list. The
items that are not checked are the things
that are still for sale. Of course, something may have been sold since
we were at the store."
Dromar perused the list
quickly then casually tossed it to Katrina.. "Dross and baubles.
Nothing really GOOD,
but I suppose we should check things out."
Katrina picked up the list
and studied it while the rest sopped up the excellent country gravy
that had covered
the breakfast ham steaks with the remains of the dense wheat bread made
fresh that morning..
"I see some interesting
things here. What do you remember about them Galranwyn?"
"It depends on what the
item was and whether I was interested in it or not. But if you have
question about
anything on the list, we should go back to the place that had it and
you can see it for yourself."
"Suits me!" cried Katrina
excitedly. "Who all wants to come with?"
By the time they had all
eaten as much breakfast as they could, they had all decided to re-visit
the places they
knew still had some special items for sale. The first stop would be
Xoblob's as they wanted to give him some more
help and see how the repairs to his shop were going. Some of them were
still guilty about the Efreet they had released
which burned a portion of his shop.
By this time, they know
the way to Xobolb's well and it took them only a quarter hour to make
their way through
the early morning throngs to the shop. Along the side of the building
were piled wooden posts that they could see
would be used to replace the burned beams, and several stacks of wooden
shingles. From the street in front of the
building they could see workmen standing on the roof, sawing away at
the unburned section of the supporting beams.
A large piece of canvas covered the rest of the hole in the roof.
They went to the door and
knocked. In a few moments, the door opened and revealed the smiling
face of Dandealus.
"Ah, come in my friends. Things are going well with the repairs as you
will see." Turning to Dromar and
glancing at Katrina he added "I don't believe I have had the pleasure."
"Dandealus, these are the
last of the members of Local 509. They have been working the last few
days and this
is their first opportunity to see the city since we arrived. This is
Dromar and this is Katrina. They are both
very adept in the ways of the Arts Arcanum."
"It's a pleasure to meet
you both. But don't lets stand on the doorstep; please come in."
He gestured for them to
enter. As they walked in they looked around at the repairs under way.
Progress was begin
made. A fine shower of sawdust drifted down from the workers on the
roof and landed on the bed sheets that covered
the display cases. On the floor above, workmen were chiseling at the
edges of the remaining supports creating the
dovetail joints that would connect the replacement beams to the
existing one.
"Things seem to be going
well." said Stallen in a cheerful voice. "What can we help you with
this
morning?"
"You are most kind to lend
us a hand so readily." said Dandealus. Even his wife had ceased to
glare at
them and if she didn't smile, it was probably because she was
unaccustomed to doing so. "If you please, the
workmen told me it would be a lot of work to get the large beams up to
the ceiling where they are needed. If you
could help with that, it would much speed the day's work."
"No problem" rumbled Jon
Keel. "I'll be glad to carry them upstairs for you."
"Unfortunately, that won't
do. They are too long to make the turn at the head of the stairs. They
tell me
that they will need to rig a hoist with a block and tackle to get them
up" explained Dandealus. Jon looked
disappointed.
"I think I may be able to
help with that" said Galranwyn. "I can cast a Levitation spell and lift
them to the top, if there are people on the roof to grab them and pull
them over. Remember, the spell will only
work vertically; I can't move things an inch horizontally."
"Then I will go up to the
roof and put them where ever the workmen want them" Jon said with a
satisfied
tone.
"That will do wondrously
well." Dandealus said. "Not that that is settled, I would guess that
you
have also come to allow me to show your friends some of my little
wonders am I not right?"
"Right you are." said
Dromar. "If you still have anything left that the rest of these magic
hungry
people haven't bought yet.
"I do still have some
things left and despite being officially closed, I have been brought a
few new things
of interest."
While Dandealus showed
Dromar and Katrina his wares, Galranwyn and Stallen went outside and
Jon Keel went up to
the roof with the workmen. While Galranwyn cast her levitation spell,
Stallen pulled out his new harp and played
a song about a man who loved his house. The beams lifted themselves
slowly to the roof where they were Jon Keel
tied a rope around them and pulled them over to the building. He then
grabbed them with his huge hands and maneuvered
them to the spot indicated by the workmen. In a half an hour, the heavy
beams were all on the roof and ready for
use.
Meanwhile, Dromar and
Katrina had seen the wares of Dandealus and the delivery of them was
being arraigned. Krom
had deicided to buy something too, and everyone was smiling.
After many expressions of
thanks, Dandealus allowed them to leave and they headed off into the
city to the other
shops known to have special items for sale. The rest of that day was
pleasantly spent revisiting shops. Despite
Dromar's pessimistic view, there were a few interesting items for sale.
At the Halls of Hilmer
(one of the cities most outstanding weapon smiths), Katrina was shown
the sword that Hilmer
called "The Sword of Farrinae". This was a very beautiful sword that
had tempted many in the Local 509.
The unfortunate thing was that the sword had a mind of it's own.
Whenever someone had touched the sword, it had
begun to scream with an almost human voice! Despite the failure of the
others, Katrina picked up the weapon. To
the surprise of all (including Hilmer) the sword did not scream.
Instead, Katinra's eyes began to go out of focus
and looked like she could hear something that none of them could hear.
As she stood holding the sword almost trance
like, she said to no one in particular "I am Katrina, who are you?".
Then "Yes, me too" and
"Oh, OK". Just as some of the others were beginning to worry about
Katrina's state of mind, she again
became aware of her surroundings.
"I'll take the sword" she
said "if I can take it with me now." The hurried sale of the wonderful
sword was arraigned as was the payment to Hilmer from their funds at
the money changers. As they left the Halls
of Hilmer, Katrina was smiling broadly.
"What's with the sword
Katrina?" inquired Dromar.
"It likes me! It really,
really likes me! It is a truly powerful sword. It talks to me and is
named Ressna.
I am sure it is one of the so called "Intelligent" weapons. Fact is, I
think the soul of the woman Ressna
has been placed in the sword for some reason, but I didn't get the
whole story. I did find out enough to know that
the two of us will make a powerful team."
Several of the Local 509
had heard stories of such "Intelligent" weapons before and had a
healthy respect
for their power. They had also heard tales of weapons that took over
the minds of their wielders, and made a mental
note to keep an eye on Katrina's state of mind over the next few weeks.
Katrina however had not thoughts of danger
and spent the rest of the day in a happy fog, drawing the weapon to
just look at it with the pride of ownership
glowing in her eyes.
Stallen in particular was
thinking of this as they walked down the bustling streets of Waterdeep
on their way to
the book sellers. He was also wondering how she was going to wield such
a weapon. He knew she didn't have much
practice with such a weapon. Hopefully, she would find someone to train
her. He reflected on whether he would go
to the trouble of learning how to wield an unfamiliar weapon if he
found one as powerful as she had.
It wasn't a long walk to
get to Serpentil's Books. They arrived still in high spirits, reacting
to Katrina's excitement.
Galranwyn looked at the un-impressive building that housed one of the
most famous stores in the city. Every mage
knew of the place even if they couldn't afford the cost of the wonders
he sold. You would think that he could spend
a few coppers to give the place a coat of paint and shore up the
sagging roof. She supposed he couldn't be bothered
with such trivialities.
The small sliding panel at
the top of the door was open, but looking in revealed nothing due to
the gloom of the
room inside. All of the windows of the building were shuttered closed
and the shutters were crudely nailed shut.
Galranwyn stood at the panel and said "Hello, may we come in?"
A grumbling voice answered
her. "Patrons I hope. I'm far to busy for curiosity seekers. Oh well,
come in."
The door opened and
revealed an old, old man. He was dressed in once fine clothes that were
now dirty and tattered.
His face was wrinkled and his hair was sparse, but his eyes shone with
youth and the excitement of his never ending
quest for information. He gestured them in, then turned his back on
them to return to a stack of books on a desk
that was almost completely obscured with papers and books.
The room had no wall space
that was not covered with books. Books in bookcases, books on the floor
in 5' highs
stacks, books piled on top of piles of papers and books leaning up in
corners. The smell was the distinctive musty
dust of antiques and moldy paper. Although they looked carefully at the
spines of the books reading the titles
they saw, they could make little sense of the titles organization.
After a few minutes it was obvious that they
would need help to find anything. The ancient bookseller was rustling
papers and peering at them as they looked
around.
"Ahemm!" said Dromar. When
he saw he had obtained the booksellers attention he continued. "I
understand
you have some magical tomes for sale, or so my friends tell me."
"I thought I recognized
most of you from the other day. Yes, I still have a few things of
interest and perhaps
a couple of items I have received since last you were here. Was there
something in particular you were after?"
"Actually, we are
interested in anything magical" said Dromar "but I'm most interested in
the Book
of the Magister. I have heard of this volume as has any Illusionist
mage. If you really have one, I would be most
interested in that."
"If I have one? Of course
I have one! Such an expensive and powerful book can only be sold to the
most rich
and daring of customers. Are you one such?"
"Perhaps. I would see this
marvel first."
"It is here. One moment if
you please" said the bookseller a little testily.
In a few moments he
brought forth a large book with Mother-of-Pearl covers. It was thick
and the pages inside were
thick too. Dromar accepted the large volume dispassionately and looked
for a place to set it down to inspect it.
Not finding one, he set it on the floor and knelt down. When he stood
up again after a time, he had an excited
look in his eyes. He asked some questions of the bookseller and he
liked what he heard. Within a few minutes, he
had come to agreement regarding the cost of the item.
There were some other
items of interest that the party purchased there as well, and all of
them left Serpentil's
satisfied. They stood on the porch just outside the door talking.
"Well, what now?" asked
Galranwyn.
"That about does it form
me." said Dromar. "I'm broke!"
"I've had enough shopping
too. How about a drink?" asked Krom.
"Sure, that sounds good. I
think the Yawning Portal is not far from here. How about that? We can
see if the
place has changed." said Stallen.
They all agreed and the
set out around the corner to the only known bar in town with it's own
dungeon entrance.
The long building didn't
look like it had changed at all in the year or so since they had last
been here. The 2
story building was not remarkable from the outside. It was a humble
clapboard structure with the bar on the ground
floor and rooms for rent over it. The right side of the double door
entrance stood open, so they walked in. It
was much as they remembered it, except there was now a wall and a door
closing off the round well-like entrance
to the dungeon. Remarking about this new feature, they found an empty
table and all sat down.
The place was full of the
usual population of adventurers and well to do merchants. There was no
one they knew
there, so they passed the time by drinking and talking. As they talked,
their conversation turned to the other
times they had come here and the times they had ventured into the
dungeon below. It is a measure of their restless
spirits (or was it the Devils curse?) that turned their talk to
venturing below again. By the time night had fallen,
they had decided to try their luck below once again.
They must have been
talking more loudly in their excitement than they realized. A one-eyed
man of past middle age
approached the table moved toward them after making friendly eye
contact with Stallen. Asking for and receiving
their consent to sit with them, he b3egan to talk.
"I couldn't help
overhearing that you were thinking of venturing down into the
Undermountain. And there is
no doubt that you are well to do folks; that show from your clothes. As
it happens, I might have something of interest
to you."
"Oh, really" said Stallen
in his most non-committal voice. "What would that be?"
"If you are interested, we
should talk more privately. I would hate to have it stolen from me and
any one
of the folks in this place could have it off me for nothing if I'm not
careful."
"Sure, lets talk
privately." said Stallen. He, Galranwyn and Victorex followed the
one-eyed man to a
private room off of the common area. The man closed the door and showed
them to a chair around a wooden table.
He fixed them with a steady gaze from his one eye.
"I have a map for sale.
It's not cheap, but it might be very helpful to you. I can't tell you
where I got
it, but I will say that I came by it honestly. It is a map that shows
the way down to the third level of Undermountain.
Been there before?"
"No, actually we have only
made it down to the second level before." explained Victorex.
"Then this will be a big
help to you. I'm only asking 300 gold pieces for it. Not much I think
for the likes
of you, but it will let me live in the way to which I'm accustomed to
for a couple of years.
"Interesting, let's see it"
He pulled a couple sheets
of tattered cheap paper from leather wallet he had hidden under his
doublet. He un-folded
them and laid them out on the table. The drawing was crude and not
particularly legible, but from what they knew
of their investigations down in the dungeon, it looked genuine. They
looked at each other and silently agreed that
they should buy it.
"So who's gonna pay for
it." asked Stallen. "I'm about tapped out as you know."
"I'll pay for it now, but
I want some money back from the party if it works out" said Galranwyn.
"But
you should know that I'm not going down with you this time, and I don't
think Kilana will want to either. We have
things to do." she ended mysteriously.
"Suit yourself." said
Victorex gruffly. "I'm going to try it. Pay the man if you would be so
kind."
Galranwyn fixed the
one-eyed man with an ominous gaze. He quailed a little, but didn't
flinch. "You will regret
it if this is not what you say it is. You understand this?"
"Naturally. As if I would
try to cheat killers like you lot!"
With that she passed over
the coins taken from the bag at her side, and the man counted them
carefully as they
waited.
"You're square. Thanks!
Best of luck down below." and with a nod of his head, he left the room.
They
went out with him and saw him nod happily to the bartender and then
walk out the door with his head high.
The three negotiators
rejoined their companions around the table and told them what they had
purchased. With this
their enthusiasm increased and they talked for quite a while about
their plans to go back to Undermountain dungeon
the next morning. By the time they had returned to the Villa
Stormwatch, they had a plan to begin early the next
morning. They went to bed early.
---
True to their words, they
were up early the next day and spent a couple hours preparing for their
foray into the
dungeon. They sharpened their weapons, memorized their most deadly
spells, made sure they had food for a couple
of weeks in their pack, and made sure they only took a small amount of
their fortunes with them. Being very used
to the routine, they were ready to leave well before mid-day.
They attracted a few
curious stares as they made their way through the early morning
streets. Small wonder with
their large backpacks, heavy armor and exotic weapons. No one got close
to them and several people moved to the
other side of the street as they passed. Local 509 took no notice of
this. They were used to this kind of reaction.
In fact, this was one of the milder reactions to their appearance they
had experienced.
They arrived at the
Yawning Portal and walked in. They saw only one table occupied. They
took the empty table next
to them. As it was early and they had already had their breakfast, they
ordered a single glass of port each when
the waitress came by. They were familiar with the working of the
entrance to the dungeon under the bar, so they
knew they needed at least four people to operate the winch that lowered
the platform ninety feet down. They observed
the party at the table next to them and eves dropped on their
conversation. They had the appearance of men who
were going to bed very late rather than being up early. They were
bleary and sounded more than a little drunk.
"Wanna go up?" - "Huh?" -
"D'ya wanna go up?" - "Up what?" - "Up stairs."
- "Upstairs?" - "Emmm." - "Huh?" - "What" - "Huh?" - "Huh
what?" and so on. They did not look like good candidates for handling
heavy machinery. They beckoned the waitress
over.
"Where is everybody?"
asked Victorex.
"I don't know. It's not
unusual to be mostly empty this early in the morning. Looking for
someone?"
"No one in particular. We
want to go down to the dungeon."
"Oh! Well," she glanced at
the drunks at the table next to them, "I suppose you'll have to wait
until someone gets here."
Stallen grinned as an idea
came to him. "We don't have to wait. We can do it ourselves. We have
the spells
and the necessary mussle."
This set off a round of
proposals and counter-proposals. They talked about several ways they
could get down without
help, and decided (After an hour and a half) that they would need
Galranwyn to cast some spells for them so they
didn't waste spells they might need later. Kilana had come with them to
see them off although she didn't intend
to go down with them, so she left to return to the villa and fetch
Galranwyn. In a half and hour, she returned
with a rather put out Galranwyn in tow.
"This had better be good.
I have things to do and I can't keep showing up like this just to get
you guys out
of jams!" she said.
Stallen answered her. "We
want to go down to the dungeon, and there isn't anyone here to lower..."
Just as he was speaking, a
group of five adventurers came into the bar. Stallen looked at them,
then looked at
Galranwyn and then sheepishly down at the table. He looked back up and
met Galranwyn's scowling gaze. He shrugged
and said "As long as you're here, you might as well help anyway."
"Typical. This is just so
typical." said the elf in her most scornful voice. She sighed and said
"I
think I can guess what you want me to do. A couple of feather fall
spells right?"
"If you would be so kind."
replied Stallen with a rueful smile.
"OK. Let's get it over
with"
They stood up and began to
get their gear together. The waitress came over and said "I can see
some helpers
for you now. Are you ready?"
"We have our own way down,
but yah, I think we're ready."
The waitress turned to the
other in the bar and said "We have some volunteers to brave the terrors
of Undermountain
here!"
"Huzza!" cried the other
patrons almost with one voice. "We shall stand ready to render all
assistance
needed."
"A drink for luck!"
proposed one. And in spite of their protestations, everyone in the
place had a tankard
of ale in their hands within a moment. "To good luck and your continued
good health." shouted the toastmaster,
and they all drained their tankards dry this being the accepted custom.
Local 509 with all their
gear and the newly arrived sober adventurers walked back to the new
door that led to the
room wherein the well hole down was located. They all crowded into the
smallish room. One of the other adventurers
began to unwrap the rope to the winch.
"Uh, we aren't going to
need that." said Victorex.
"What do you mean?" asked
the one with the rope.
"Actually, we will need to
raise the platform enough for us to get under it." said Stallen.
"Raise it?" the one with
the rope asked him.
"Victorex, Krom, Ember
give me a hand." said Stallen.
Moving the other confused
adventurers out of the way, the named people grabbed the ropes to the
winch and pulled
until the round platform that fit inside the round well hole was about
4' above the level of the floor. They tied
them off on the large metal cleats.
"Four of you stand around
one edge of the hole." instructed Galranwyn. The other adventures
muttered
questioningly among themselves.
"Right. Jump!" shouted
Galranwyn. And they jumped.
"Holy gods, they jumped!"
cried one of the adventurers as they ran to the edge of the hole to
look down
at the people falling.
"Hukis alisakem" said
Galranwyn as she threw a feather into the air. The downward plummet of
the ones
in the well quickly slowed to a leisurely pace.
"Man, I thought they were
dead!" said another of the adventurers as they watch the ones in the
hole drifting
toward the invisible floor some 90' down.
By this time, the
remainder of the dungeon delivers had arraigned themselves in the same
way as the preceding group.
"Jump!" shouted Galranwyn,
and they stepped off the edge of the well.
"Whoa! There go the rest!"
The adventurers were laughing and slapping each other on the backs now.
"A
full 10 points for style, I'll give them that." said another admiringly.
"Hukis alisakem" Galranwyn
said and threw another feather into the air where it was consumed in a
flash.
"Bye, Bye. Have fun and come back in one piece." She waved until the
last had slowly sunk out of sight
into the darkness. Then she turned and walked out of the Yawning Portal
shaking her head and scowling.
----
The brave members of the
Local 509 floated as lightly as a feather down to the gravel floor at
the bottom of the
shaft. They took out their magical rocks that shed light without
burning and Victorex flipped up the panel on his
helmet behind which lay a smaller rock. The walls of the room became
brightly illuminated.
The walls were made of
well cut blocks of the local granite about 18" by 24". They were laid
one on
the other without mortar. They had been almost completely covered with
graffiti. It was the custom that everyone
would write something there on their first venturing into the dungeon.
There were also dozens of shields hanging
from spikes driven between the blocks. Most of them were in terrible
shape; beaten into junk or with only the edges
intact. But some were in serviceable shape and a couple still bore
brightly colored coats of arms. The gravel that
covered the floor contained numerous bits of broken glass and shards of
metal.
There was a smell, similar
to a basement full of ancient cast off junk, but with an overtone of
something rotting.
It was not pleasant, but not overpowering either. They were soon used
to it and stopped noticing.
Dromar knelt on the gravel
floor and took out the map the party had made of the place. Next to it
he place the
map they had purchased the day before. The others gathered around and
together they discussed how to proceed. This
took some time as their map and the map they had purchased differed in
some significant but subtle ways. They decided
to walk south and compare what they found with what was on the maps.
They walked through a
corridor to the south as it turned a couple of times, then widened to
20'. As they walked
down the wide corridor, their light rocks revealed a stairway down into
a very strange looking room. They stood
at the edge of the stairway and looked into a widening room crowded
with a forest of stone pillars. They could
see archways in several walls. Dromar took out a candle and lit it
saying "This is a magic dead area, so our
light rocks will stop working when we go down the stairs. At least
that's what it says on the map."
They walked down into the
room and their light rocks did indeed wink out, but the candle being
non-magical served
to illuminate the room. As they passed into the center of the room,
they could see a snake skeleton that was wound
around a pillar to the north of them. In the center of the room they
could see that all the archway exits led up
a flight of stairs. A faint glimmer of light seemed to come from the
archway to the west, but otherwise it was
very dark. They were not used to the faint light the candle gave off.
They headed quickly toward the southern archway.
On the wall next to this exit were words that seemed to have been
written on the wall with a spent torch. They
said "CERTAIN DEATH, THIS WAY." Local 509 had seen this writing before
and had passed this way and lived,
so they paid little attention to the warning. They walked up the
stairway.
When those in the front of
the party (Dromar and Jon Keel) had reached the point where their heads
were just above
the level of the floor ahead of them, they saw a crouching humanoid
figure.They stopped suddenly and Dromar raised
the candle to try and illuminate the figure better. But it was up and
sprinting down the corridor to the south
before they could get a good look at it.
"Might have been a goblin"
said Dromar to those behind him "but it could have been a hobgoblin
too."
"Are they poisonous?"
asked Jon Keel as he tried to peer into the darkness into which the
creature had
fled so quickly.
"No, but they are a pain
in the ass" replied Dromar. "Thieving pests they are, and can be
dangerous
in numbers. Wish we could have gotten the drop on that one. Oh well,
lets keep going."
When they had reached the
top of the stairs, their light rocks began working again and Dromar put
the extinguished
candle back in his pack. Jon Keel was looking at the floor just ahead
of him.
"Hey, somebody dropped a
gold piece." said Jon Keel. He drew his sword and flipped the coin
over. He
looked around then bent down to pick up the coin. The instant his
finger touched it, the coin turned into a brilliant
blue flame about 4 feet high which engulfed the unhappy giant. With a
surprised cry he leapt ahead to get out of
the flame. He was able to put out the several small fires that had
started on his clothing quickly and without
much damage being done. He rubbed his burned forehead and watched as
the blue flame continued to burn.
By this time, the rest of
the party had come up the stairs to get a look at what was putting out
all the blue light
and were clustered around the blue flame.
"It's burning right into
the stone!" exclaimed Dromar.
"It stinks bad too" added
Katrina.
And the flame continued to
burn. In a couple of minutes, the flame was a foot or so shorter and
they though that
it was going out. But in another couple of minutes they could see the
coin was actually a burning a deep hole through
the floor. Walking carefully around the ever shorter blue torch, they
watched as it burned the rock until the top
of the flame was even with the floor. The shimmering of the light
passing through the heat told them it was still
as hot as when it had first started. They all had their hands over
their nose and mouth as the smoke was very acrid.
"Ever seen something like
that before?" asked Jon Keel as they continued to walk to the south
down the
blue lit corridor.
"Oh yah, but you can't
tell the burning gold from the normal gold. You just gotta take your
chances."
said Dromar.
"Uh huh." replied Jon Keel
doubtfully with a sideways look at Dromar to make sure he wasn't making
fun
of him.
They followed the turnings
of the corridor until they began to hear a strange rhythmic sound.
"Thump, thump,
thump - Thump, thump, thump" it went. They slowed and shielded their
light rocks as they approached so they
would not be as obvious. When they came around a corner of the
corridor, the reduced light revealed an opening
not far ahead of them. Kneeling down in the opening were a pair of dark
humanoid shapes. They were pounding with
their fists on something laying on the stone floor.
The dark shapes leapt up
with a low grunting growl and began running toward the party. Katrina
began to encant
her quickest spell as Dromar and Jon Keel drew their swords. The dark
shapes were Ghouls, nasty stinking creatures
that were once men. They had been killed by other Ghouls and had become
undead themselves. Ghouls ate people and
it looked like they thought that Local 509 would make a fine meal. They
were barely clothed in disintegrating cloth
and smelled of dead rotting flesh.
Dromar and Jon Keel met
them with steel. As the creatures attacked the pair with horrible
looking black clawed
hands, they hacked at them. At the same moment, Katrina completed her
spell and several small balls of energy leapt
from her outstretched fingers to crash against the undead creatures.
They howled as burn marks appeared where the
balls struck them. But the howling only lasted for a moment as the
swords of both Dromar and Jon buried themselves
in their chests. With a last murderous look the Ghouls sank to the
floor and lay motionless; now they were truly
dead.
Before Jon could ask
Dromar said "Now those are poisonous. If their claws hit you they can
paralyze you and
then they have you for dinner."
"I thought they looked
poisonous" Jon replied sagely.
"Ya better search them"
reminded Katrina. Jon and Dromar bent down and began going through the
rags they
wore. Dromar found a leather wallet on his. Looking inside, he found
some papers which he thrust into his pack
without looking at them. Jon shrugged as he stood up.
"Nothing on this one" he
said.
"Let's move on then"
answer Dromar and they continued into the room.
Glancing at the maps,
Dromar swore. "Damit, these don't match up. What the hell's going on
here." He
showed the others and they discussed several options, but Dromar
insisted that they take the first opening in the
south as it was clearly indicated in the map they had purchased. The
corridor turned a couple of times and they
came into another corridor that had stairs at both ends. Dromar swore
again as neither were indicated on the purchased
map. Guessing, Dromar took them to the south again and they opened a
door.
From a corridor to the
east, candlelight shown brightly. They saw a long passageway lined with
lit candles. But
the candles had no sconces or holders; they were floating in mid-air.
Jon Keel felt a faint shiver run up his back
at the strange sight. Dromar swore. "Another fucking unmarked
corridor!"
The proud but confused
Local 509 continued to flounder around, trying to locate their error
and find the area indicated
by the inaccurate map they had bought. In one area they found a very
ugly creature that had the head of a badger,
the body of a stag, the feet of a goat and the tail of a lion. Although
it attacked them, they suffered no damage
and quickly dispatched it.
After an hour of
confusion, false starts and dead ends, they found an important flaw in
the map they had bought.
Once they had figured this out however, their way was clear. By that
time it was too late to save Dromar's good
spirits. He was cursing the map maker and grumbling about the wisdom of
buying maps from strangers. He angrily
corrected the map and led the way to the south through a twisting maze
of 10' wide corridors.
They came to a door which
they opened and revealed a room beyond lit with strange purple light.
It was a very long
room and on both sides were statues of men seated in thrones. The
statues glowed with a bright golden light.
"About fucking time"
exclaimed Dromar; "this actually matches up!" and with this final
profanity
it was agreed that the members of Local 509 would return to their
mundane lives until the next adventure began.