The EARTH story - May 11, 1372
In the morning, May 11, 1372 back on Earth, when the spell casters and cleric are ready, you resume your exploration of the area. Jo-owrn suggests you return to the four-way intersection with the statue and open the door to the southeast. That way, if you find that the opposition is overwhelming, you can beat a hasty retreat to the east.
You do so.
The door opens easily.
Revealed is a large room (30' X 70': 70' east, 20' south; doors in the south as measured from the west in the 10' - 20', 30' - 40' and 60' - 60' sections). It is furnished with some chairs and tables, all sized for giants. This is fitting, as in here are two giants: enormous creatures with milk-white skin, silvery hair and black, penetrating eyes.
"GARRRRR!" they say, and move to attack at once!
Farad immediately starts to release a forked lightning bolt to strike both, followed by two magic missile spells at the closest.
He'll meet the rest with his sword.
Mikodin looses a crossbow bolt at the nearest giant, and backs up behind Farad and the other fighters to continue shooting at the closest giant.
His bolt flies wide. A giant laughs at him as he charges.
Aldarin stands firm with Farad meeting the giants' charge with flaming sword.
Sharone charges to help Aldarin, flail and shield raised.
Jon takes a shot with the drow crossbow. As he pulls the trigger of the crossbow, it snaps off, and the entire weapon falls to pieces. His quarrel embeds itself in the pinky of a giant, who complains bitterly at the elf.
Kelar starts to cast a fork lighnting bolt and then gets ready to meet whats left with swords.
"We shall see how this works," states Kelar as he begins casting.
Ayazin chucks a javelin at one of the advancing critters.
The half-elf's javelin flies wide.
"Arf! Arf!" says the wolf, tail wagging. Thinking that his master is playing fetch, he runs into the room to retreive the javelin, running between a giant's legs as he does so.
"@##%#%$^T&^%&^$&*!!!" curses the giant, as he trips over the wolf and falls flat on his face in front of Sharone.
The priestess swings her flail, bouncing it off of the giant's noggin...apparently without effect.
Aldarin and the other giant face off as the the first scrambles to his feet. The elf is crunched for 12 hit points, as he fans with his flame tongue.
There is a crackle, as Farad's lightning bolt cuts loose, catching both monsters high up on their respective anatomies. One giant is slightly shocked while the other takes a good jolt. Kelar lets his bolt loose, but both avoid the full effect.
"Lemme at 'em!" says Jo-owrn, as he pushes his way to the front.
Farad fires off his two magic missile spells at the giant confronting Sharone, then draws his sword and moves to assist her.
Brennon launches two daggers at the giant that is near Sharone.
Both dagger fly wide.
Raz follows Brennon's action with magic missles, also striking the giant near Sharone.
His first spell basts into the monster, who is starting to look hurt.
Aldarin continues to attack, this time attempting to dodge a little more successfully.
This time he manages to evade an incoming club, while also succeeding at missing his opponent again.
Mikodin continues to stare at the enormous size of the giants, and shoots his crossbow as rapidly as possible at the nearest giant.
His bolt misses.
"Good boy!" shouts Ayazon, "Sic 'em!" He then tosses another javelin at the giant, hoping to hit this time.
Ayazin again misses.
"Grrr," says his wolf, and leaps at the giant, biting the fellow on the shin. The giant howls in pain.
Humphrey goes charging with both swords.
Sharone thinks, 'maybe this magic flail is busted' then proceeds to swing it again to assure herself it isn't.
The giant is faster, though, and clobbers the priestess for 10 hit points, spoiling her aim with her flail.
By this time, Jo-owrn, Kelar, Farad and Humphrey have joined in the melee. The ranger lands a substantial hit on the giant assaulting Aldarin. Kelar fans with his falchion sword and then with his scimitar. Farad also misses with his glowing longsword. Humphrey misses with his magic shortsword, but connects with the non-magical one, leaving the giant attacking Sharone reeling.
The battle continues, the giants encircled.
Aldarin is walloped again for 11 hit points, before he connects with the flame tongue. Jo-owrn connects again, and the giant drops.
Sharone is also struck for one last time for 13 hit points. Mustering her strength, she finally connects with her flail, and the giants collapses, dead, in a heap atop his companion.
Looking about the chamber, you spot a sack. Opening it, you find 1500sp.
Jon searches for other treasure and takes some giant hair.
"Any magic, Geerzo?"
"No magic!"
"Damn..."
Ayazin collects his javelins and pets his wolf, then waits for the party's next move.
The wolf gnaws on a giant shank.
Sharone collects a vial full of giant blood.
Aldarin does the same, along with a bit of muscle that he wraps in an empty sack.
Then, Sharone sits down and begins to bind her numerous bruises and cuts.
"Farad, are you able to help with the groups injuries???"
Aldarin, also looking somewhat ragged from the battle, adds, "Yes, my friend. I also would benefit from some healing."
Brennon collects his errant daggers, and then follows the party.
Mikodin inspects his equipment to make sure that his crossbow is in good working order, then he begins checking the area to make sure that no other exits/secret doors/etc. exist.
His crossbow looks ready to fall to pieces.
There are three doors in the south wall.
Mikodin, wondering why he didn't notice the condition of his crossbow before, discards it and the few remaining bolts. The best weapon, his teachers had always told him, was himself. If that was true, maybe it was time the monk discarded the crutch of using an object to strike an opponent, when his feet and hands were always available, ready, and deadly. At least, Mikodin hopes that is the case, since he seems to have few alternatives at the moment. While pondering these facts, Mikodin busies himself watching the three south doors, just to make sure someone or something doesn't waltz in, surprising the party.
Jon checks his drow equipment closely and discards the bits that look useless.
All of the drow equipment is starting to look pretty worn, you now see.
Jon puts on the bat cloak and turns invisible again.
While watching the 3 exits, Mikodin practices his 'talking with animals' ability, and asks the wolf if it had learned those tactics by fighting giants before, or did they just come naturally?
"Arf-arf-arf!!!" replies the wolf, and offers Mikodin a chunk of slightly chewed giant meat.
Farad moves about the party, healing the wounds as best he can. When he is done, everyone is fully healed.
"Southwest door?" He listens at it will open it up once the party is ready.
As soon as any healing that is going to be done is done, Aldarin loads a poisoned bolt into his hand crossbow, holding it in his left hand and wielding his sword in his right. "Let us try the first door," he says nodding toward the first door, closest to the group.
The westernmost of the three doors in the south wall opens to reveal a 10' X 30' room (10' east, 10' west, 10' south; door in south wall west corner, door in south wall east corner, door in east wall). This room, though is completely bare.
You enter this room and go to the south door in the west corner.
This door opens to reveal a 10' X 20' room (20' south; door in east and west walls, south ends). Like the last room, this one is also bare.
You enter and go to open the door in the west wall.
You find yourself looking out into a passage running north-south. It runs north for 60', then opens up, evidently at the intersection with the statue of the mage in it. In the last 10' section on this side is an open door...leading to the giant chamber. To the south, it runs for 60' and on. There is a door in the east wall, immediately to your left, and another door in the west wall30' - 40' section.
Starting to get a feel for the place, you turn around and open the door in the east wall of the room. This reveals a 20' X 20' room (10' north, 20' east; door in south wall west corner, door in north wall east corner).
This room is also bare.
You open the south door.
This opens into a large (60' X 70') room (10' west, 50' east, 60' south; door in north wall middle section; door in north wall 10' - 20' section as measured from the east; four doors, located in every other 10' section of the south wall; door in west wall north corner).
Yet again, this room is bare.
You turn north, and open the door to the northeast, and find yourselves looking into the 10' X 30' room immediately south of the giant's chamber. You reenter this room and open the east door. Through this door you see a 10' X 20' room (20' east; door in north wall west corner; door in south wall west corner; door in east wall).
As you open the door there is a snapping sound, and three spears fire from a launcher at you! One bounces off of Humphrey's gleaming chain mail; another lands at Jo-owrn's feet; while the last embeds itself in Farad's ego, but fails to deflate it.
The trap taken care of, you open the north door, and find yourselves back in the chamber where you fought the giants.
You return to the trap room and open the east door.
Through here is a 10' square room (doors in north and outh walls). This place looks more interesting because there are a half a dozen skulls lying on the floor in here, sans bodies; their eye holes regarding you vacantly.
Before entering, Jon checks for traps.
He spots no traps from the doorway.
He asks Geerzo, "Geerzo magic please? Sharone, seems like a place for you to be up front...skulls and all."
"No magic!" exclaims the sword.
When entering the room after the fighters and cleric, Jon plans to move silently and hide in shadows, thinking so it is skulls at five paces...
However, no one in the party seems inclined to enter the room, until...
Mikodin carefully checks for traps, finding none, looks at the rest of the party, and volunteers, "I'll be glad to go in first and check it out. Well, not exactly glad, but I'll do it. My speed may be of help if something untoward occurs."
Taking the silence as agreement, the monk goes into the room.
Moving carefully between the skulls and taking care not to disturb anything, he reaches the far wall without being eaten by anything. Moving over to the north door, he opens it, and finds himself looking back into the chamber where you battled the giants. Going to the south door, he looks into another bare 10' square room (doors in south and east walls).
Jon asks, "Who's got the map?"
Aldarin nods toward the east door, "Let us try that one."
Mikodin moves toward the door in the east wall, checking for traps, and, looking around to the others for a sign they are ready, will open the door.
He notes no traps.
Ayazin says, "But wait! What about these skulls? Aren't you even curious about them? Perhaps they are clues, or something is hidden underneath them."
Aldarin says, "If you wish to check them out, then do so quickly. We will wait."
Brennon, puzzled by the existence of just the skulls and nothing else, examines the ceiling of the room, to see if that might lead to any other clues as to the occurances in the room.
It looks like a normal ceiling.
"Perhaps these are the unfortunate snacks of the giants back there," Brennon says.
Jon also moves through the skull room and joins Mikodin, checking for traps and then listening.
The rest of you move into the skull room to join the monk and Jon.
Suddenly, the skulls come to life, launching themselves at Humphrey, Jo-owrn, Farad, Raz, Sharone and Beth. You see now that the skulls are actually the heads of strange creatures with human-like but very rubbery bodies, which were concealed in holes in the floor...leaving only the "skulls" visible.
Humphrey is clawed for 1 hit point.
Jo-owrn is clawed for 3 hit points.
Farad is bitten and clawed for 5 hit points.
Raz is saved from damage by his stoneskin...then is clawed for 4 hit points.
Sharone dodges all of the incoming attacks.
Beth gets gnawed and clawed for 12 hit points.
The monsters press their attacks.
Sharone, shield and flail in hand, parries back out of range. "Perhaps we should fight these from a range. Who knows what nasty diseases their bites might give."
Aldarin leaps in to attack the creature on Beth with his flaming sword, "Get thee back, foul creature."
Jon yells, "Sharone try turning them...or leave the room!"
Mikodin practically swallows his tongue in surprise at the sight of such unusual creatures. But since they appear to be flesh-and-blood creatures, he launches himself into an all out assault on the nearest creature, hoping to stun it immediately.
Raz tries to step out of the range of combat, using his staff as needed to defend himself as he does so. He misses with a flourish of his staff, but manages to get out of combat range.
Once out of range, he will cast several magic missle spells and direct them at the rubbery humans. His missiles kill the monster which attacked him, and badly injure the monster on Sharone.
Ayazin draws his scimitar and shield and fights the horrid creatures.
"Egad! I will be curious no longer!"
Jon draws his sword and helps attack the nearest one from behind.
"Arrg," Brennon says at the sight of the strange attacking creatures. Using his dagger he will defend himself should any of the creaturers attack him. He will manuever towards the eastern door.
Brennon gets through the south door into the room beyond, and stations himself by the east exit from that room.
Meanwhile, the fight continues.
Humphrey lands a hit with his non-magical shortsword, and carves a chunk of meat out of the monster, then finishes it off with his other blade.
Jo-owrn connects with his bastard sword.
Farad does likewise with his longsword. Evidently these creatures do not have thick skins.
Sharone gets out of the way, amd Mikodin and Jon face her adversary.
Beth hurries back, and Aldarin moves up.
Jo-owrn nails his foe again twice and kills it.
Farad kills the next monster.
Mikodin is bitten for 3 hit points, as he misses his target. Jon stabs the same monster, and kills it.
Only one remains, and Aldarin and Ayazin attack it. The elf misses badly, as does the half-elf. Aldarin is clawed twice for a total for 4 hit points.
They try their luck again. This time, Aldarin lands a glancing blow with his flame tongue, as he is bitten by the desperate monster for 7 hit points. Ayazin again fans.
The rest of you gather 'round and take bets.
Aldarin lands another glancing blow, as her is bitten again for 4 hit points.
Ayazin then chops into the monster with his scimitar and kills it.
You search their holes, and find 1875pp and 10 gems (100gp ea.).
When you are ready, you go into the room to the south and open the door to the east.
Beyond is a 10' X 30' room (10' north, 10' south, 10' east), with no obvious exits. There does not appear to be anything in this room, but Mikodin goes in to look around, just in case.
As soon as he passes through the doorway he abruptly vanishes.
Jon charges through into the room to help his friend.
He disappears as well.
Farad yells, "Teleporter!"
He draws his blade and quickly jumps throught he door after his companion, ready to swing at almost anything once he goes through.
Farad vanishes...
"Looks like out of the frying pan into the fire," announces Sharone as she steps through after the others.
"Definitely..." Brennon replies as he follows the others.
He disappears.
Drawing his scimitar and shield in preparation for battle, Ayazin calls out to his wolf to follow him as he plunges intrepidly into the unknown.
"Arf! Arf!"
Ayazin and the wolf vanish.
Aldarin follows suit.
...and he disappears also.
Only Jo-owrn, Humphrey, Kelar, Beth and Raz remain.
Beth sighs. "So, do you think they all just jumped to their deaths? Or should we follow?"
Beth mentally flips a coin.
"What the hell," she says, and jumps through.
Raz doesn't like the situation, but follows Beth through the doorway anyway.
"Oh well," says Jo-owrn, with one last look at Humphrey and Kelar, and he steps through the door and is gone as well.
One by one, Sharone, Brennon and Ayazin appear at the edge of a stream, at a ford. A road crosses the stream at this shallow point. The country about you, as best as you can see, appears to be grassy prairie. A few trees grow along the edge of the stream. All of the plant growth looks to be fresh and green. The air is warm, the sky is clear, and the sun is shining. Some birds are singing in the trees.
In all, it is a beautiful spring day.
Brennon rubs his eyes, trying to fathom what he sees around him.
"Where do you thunk we are?"
Ayazin bends down and identifies the grass, then the trees -- trying to make sure we are still on Earth, and not Oerth.
Brennon takes in a deep breath of air, which is much better then the dank musty smell of the caverns.
Brennon kneels on one knee and touches the ground, making sure this isn't a dream, running a bit of dirt in between his fingers.
It is definitely regular dirt. The land looks to be quite fertile.
Quite thirsty, he says, "perhaps we should get a drink, while we wait for the others, pointing towards the stream.
"How do we propose to get back?" he asks.
"It seems one of two possibilities have befallen us: we are either dead, and therefore have arrived at the afterlife. While our friends have decided not to follow and therefore are not present; or that the room we traveled through see to have a random effect which means we might be suitably cut off from the others for some time," Brennon says to the others.
"Perhaps we should find a town of some kind to find out where we are, and perhaps find a way back to where ever we were. Since we are standing here, it does seem that the transport was one way."
"I suppose we should -- does anyone know this part of the country very well, or have a map? I can tell from the vegetation that we are most definitely in Nolthen, where we passed through last autumn, but I can't be more specific than that."
Sharone removes her warm clothing. "It's nice to see green grass and sunshine again."
She stretches to the sun.
"Ayazin, does it look like this ford is used frequently?? "
Going by the muddy tracks on this side of the ford, you would guess that it sees frequent use. You see quite a few boot prints, hoof prints, plus tracks made by wheeled vehicles.
Sharone then checks her backpack to see what she has brought with her.
Suddenly there is a bit of a popping noise, and Kelar suddenly steps out of thin air.
Brennon continues a previous conversation with nary a glance at Kelar, as if people popping out of thin air is an everyday occurance. Perhaps it is.
"I still think our best bet is to find a town, and see how we might be able to return to the others," Brennon says.
"Besides its good to get out of those dank smelling caverns for a little bit, and perhaps get some real food in our bellies."
"Let's go Northeast...if there are no objections?" states Kelar, immediately picking up the gist of the discussion. "What have you guys figured out since you came through?"
Sharone scans the horizon.
"Would it not be better to search the surrounding area just in case the others were dropped a short distance away??"
She packs her winter clothing into her pack.
"I don't think that they were. And here I was hoping it was just a illusion. Heck, we don't even know what planet we are on. The good news is we don't have anything trying to kill us right off," says Kelar as he continues to look around. "Our best chance is to find out where we are and go from there."
"I agree," Brennon adds. "This is definately not where we are from, at least I have never seen this place before. The sooner we find a town, the sooner, we can make plans for where to go from here."
Ayazin shakes his head. "We do indeed know where we are -- this world is Earth, and this land is Nolthen, where we passed through last autumn. I am not certain which part of Nolthen we are in, but the trees and grasses here are distinctive. The land never lies, nor disguises itself. We should find a town, however I am not intimately familiar with this region, and I seem to have misplaced my map. Perhaps following this road would tell us more about our location."
You set out walking northeast. The day is a fine one for travelling, the road is in decent shape, and so you make good time. You walk well into evening, finally making camp a short distance off the road in a copse of trees out of sight.