The EARTH story - May 15, 1372
In the morning you awaken refreshed.
After eating and preparing your spells, you head out.
After a fairly short walk, you arrive at the entrance to the dungeon.
At this point there is a four-way intersection with a 10' wide passage running north-south. Its walls are of neatly cut and dressed stone, and you see many doors along the passage. The 20' wide passage continues west, of rough, mostly natural, stone.
Finally, there is a life-sized statue of a richly robed man standing in the middle of the intersection, facing east. Farad, Mikodin, Aldarin and Jo-owrn recognise it now to be a depiction of a younger Razamataz.
The statue suddenly speaks.
"Ah, visitors! Here to take my treasure, no doubt. I am away on business, but I am sure that my little guardians will keep it safe. But try, anyway! Good luck, and beware the doors!"
"Well, we know what that warning means, now," comments Jo-owrn.
The party has already explored the passage to the west. It leads to the caves where you battled the mimic and crayfish. You had also started exploring the rooms leading off of the south passage, to the east.
Sharone says quietly that she has prayed for a locate object spell.
"Magic, yes, but weapons that help us hit them is whole nother ball of wax," says Kelar, grinning. "Magic weapons will help most of us."
Listening to Farad's comments, he adds, "Farad, who doesn't mind taking on a master vampire but is scared of a archmage who gave you guys permission to scout around his dungeon."
Farad smiles. "He didn't exactly give us permission and I did not want to offend someone we most definitely will have dealings with again in the future. But as I said, if one of his former companions thinks its a good idea, then I'm quite alright with it."
"Then how come I am...a little intimidated?" says Kithus with slight amusement in him voice.
"I have no idea," says an exasperated Lothar, "I'm not intimidated. Let's just get in there already!"
"I'll take the blame," says Jo-owrn with a reassuring smile.
"Well, heck then, we're there!" Beth exclaims.
Sharone takes this as her cue, and casts locate object...looking for piles of gold.
She picks up a weak signal from the east-northeast.
She picks up a very strong signal from the northeast...and a slightly weaker one from almost the same direction.
She picks up two weak signals to the west-northwest.
There is also a more distant signal to the northwest.
To the southwest is a very weak signal, with a stronger one nearby. Just to the left is another signal.
She also picks up a faint signal to the west-southwest.
Beth says, "I hate to be obvious, but... let's start northeast. Strongest signal and all."
"Sometimes the most obvious is just exactly that, and no more," interjects Mikodin cryptically. "But I agree; go for the strongest signal first. Besides, we have nothing else to go on at this point. Let's just watch out for teleport traps."
Aldarin pipes in, "Sounds logical to me."
"Sounds good to me," Brennon says, following Beth.
"I think we should head to the weaker signals first. For some reason, I think there are going to be trouble in the stronger signal area, so we might want to get all the weaker weapons first, so we stand a better chance," says Kithus to the others.
"No way," says Lothar, "Let's get the good stuff right away. What's the marching order? I want to go first so I can kill something."
"What about the one that is right to the left there?" asks Kelar. "It seems closest. But if you all would rather northeast I am game for that also. Who ever leads probably should have a detect magic running just in case of those teleporters."
"Northeast it is, then."
Jon starts northeast slowly, looking for traps and searching for magic with Geerzo.
At all doors he listen and tries to pick locks. Jon will unlock doors and retreat for the fighters to open doors and to go into rooms first.
Mikodin will follow behind Jon, to help in picking any locks and to find/disarm any traps that may be present.
Lothar, ready for battle, gets in the first line to be the first, or one of the first, to go through the doors.
Farad looks at the clerics. "A detect traps spell would be helpful right now if you have not already cast one."
The elf casts Detect Magic as well.
Raz waits, a lighting spell ready at his fingertips.
To the north, the passage runs for 60' and into into darkness. You see four doors up there. The first is in the left wall, 0' - 10' section. The next is in the right wall, 20' - 30' section. The final two are across from each other...in the 50' - 60' section.
You head up to the first door to the right, Jon and Mikodin leading.
Sharone - her locate object spell still running - tells you that the strongest signal lies slightly east of northwest from this point.
You continue up to the second door on the right side. Looking up the passage you see that it continues to the north for 60' and on. You see only one more door: in the right side, 30' - 40' section.
At this point the cleric tells you that the strongest signal is very slightly north of due east.
She casts a find traps, but detects none. The door does not radiate magic.
Jon looks for a lock on the door but there is none, so he steps aside and Lothar bashes it in.
You are looking into a 30' square room (10' north, 10' south, 30' east). There is a door in the centre of each wall. In the middle of the room sits an enormous chest, closed and locked.
Sharone reports that she senses no gold within the chest. The strongest source of gold lies slightly north of east...perhaps through the east door. There is a weaker signal to the northeast...with a stronger signal right beside it.
Sharone spots no traps on the chest, and neither Jon or Farad detect any magic.
"Well, let's open the chest."
Jon goes to work on the lock on the chest.
"Someone listen and open the east door. We will do the chest and catch up."
Even with his limited intellect, Lothar does not believe that a huge chest standing completely unguarded in the middle of the room is as safe as it appears. Lothar stands over the chest with his axe, ready to wack anything that comes out of the chest or wherever.
Aldarin says, "Beware. I do not believe this chest to be anything but a trap. It makes no sense to place valuables in such an obvious place and behind an unwarded door. It is possible that this is one of those creatures that can take the form of a chest or door."
With this he unslings his bow, and fires an arrow into the chest.
"Good idea," says Lothar and smashes the top of the chest with his battle axe as hard as he can.
"Hopefully he did not damage any valubles in the chest with that axe," says Kithus, then he whispers, "Or triggle any traps."
As the axe decends Jon dives for the closest wall, getting as far away from the chest as possible.
Mikodin, horrified at the turn of events and the chaotic way they are being done, yells, "Watch the doors. With doors on all sides, I think it likely that the 'trap' will be something coming through each of them."
The arrow embeds itself into the chest and the blade chops into the wood.
No traps are triggled, either.
Mikodin merely smiles, after he gets up from the corner where he threw himself. Like Jon, he feared the worst, and hardly expected a chest standing in the middle of a room to hold much in the way of 'good' treasure.
Turning to Jon, he asks, "Which door should we try next? North or East?"
Farad shakes his head. "The find traps and detect magic spells won't last that long. Lets check out as many rooms and mark what we can before we go into detailed exploration that will waste time."
"Good idea." says Kithus, "We can cover more ground if we split up. Should we do that and meet back here in one hour?"
The elf gives the newcomer a sugary sweet smile. "Amazing how you can take my idea and complement it, and then utter such profound insanity and drivel. You and your large friend with the axe can go a different way if you wish. The rest of us will stay together where we can all benefit from the detect traps spell and other active magics."
"Direction of strongest treasure first." The elf moves to head that direction if the smashing of the chest doesn't bring other goodness into our lives.
"How about we open the chest now?" says Lothar.
Lothar opens the chest or chops the chest open if he cannot merely open it.
"How about you just smash the lock on the chest instead of destroying the whole thing?" says Kithus.
"Wait a minute, if there is a lock, why doesn't some sneaky thief type dude open it?" asks Lothar, looking around.
Jon, the thief type dude, says, "Lothar you're there now. You open it. I will listen to the other doors and then take the lead from the mapper, as to which one to open."
"I guess none of you listen at all...Farad may not be the greatest of people around here but he is quite wise at times...LEAVE THE CHEST for now. We can come back. It isn't going to go anywhere and we have plenty of other stuff to find before our magic runs out," says Kelar as he moves to go with Farad.
Farad opens the east door after a few whacks. Kelar and Sharone are with him.
Jon listens at the north door.
Lothar smashes the chest.
Farad, Sharone and Kelar find themselves looking into a smaller room (20' square: 10' south, 20' east; door in south wall west corner, door in east wall south corner, door in north wall east corner). This room is bare, but for a solitary platinum piece lying on the floor.
Sharone points to the north.
Jon, meanwhile, has heard nothing through the north door...perhaps becayse of the racket that Lothar is making as he bashes in the chest.
Finally the warrior succeeds in making a hole in the lid of the chest. He is rewarded for his efforts as a snake launches itself out through the hole at him...fangs bared!
It is only Lothar's stout armour that saves him from suffering what could have been a fatal bite.
At the same time, though, the south door flies open, and in roll two of the strangest-looking snakes that you have ever seen, apparently attracted by the noise. Each has two heads (one at either end), and they are grasping their respective necks and rolling about like hoops!
Their intentions do not look benevolent.
Lothar roars in delight, kills the snake from the chest with his battle axe as quickly as possible and checks out what is in the chest.
The snake is faster than the warrior, though, and, finding a chink in his armour, bites Lothar for 1 hit point. The poison it injects into him does a further 5 hit points, as his hand starts to swell up.
Lothar, in turn, misses the agile snake with his axe.
"Let's see what these are made of," Beth mutters, as she sends a volley of magic missiles off into one of the rolling snake-hoop-things.
The missiles blast into a snake, opening up four gaping wounds in the creature.
"Agreed," Brennon says who up to this point has been standing by minding his own business. He lances one of the rolling snake creatures with a spray of magic missiles.
His missile dings the other snake.
Aldarin points a finger and lets fly a magic missile spell into the closest one.
The elf's three missiles blast into the second snake.
Raz watches to see how the snakes are effected by Aldarin's missles.
Ayazin, not wishing to directly harm the animals, but knowing that he is powerless to stop the conflict, bravely guards the rear of the party against attacks from creatures who may be attracted by the noise of battle.
Farad watches and sees how the snakes fare against the force already used against them. Seeing that they aren't immediately killed, he moves to join the fray using his sword.
Kithus stands back with his sword half drawn, while watching the fireworks.
"What a waste of time..." states Kelar as he prepares to go and kill some snakes. "Sharone you might want to have a remove poison ready."
Unsure of how to handle rolling, two-headed snakes, Mikodin will simply attack the second one into the room, using his hands and feet. "Can someone tell me why we had to stay here and fight, when we could have moved on to real treasure?" he asks of no one in particular, as he kicks at the snake.
Jon - invisible - tries to hide and stay out of the way of the snakes while moving slowly and quietly to follow Sharone and the others.
Kithus and Kelar square off against one snake; Aldarin, Farad and Mikodin attack the other, and Lothar battles the snake from the box.
As the fighters move in the snakes let go of their respective necks, and attack a person with each head.
The lightly armoured ranger is bitten for 3 hit points, but he shakes off the effect of the poison. With his two-handed sword he lands a massive blow, almost killing the snake.
Kelar, on the other head, is also bitten for 3 hit points. He also avoids a painful death. The elf then misses with both weapons.
Aldarin dodges a bite, then fans with his blade.
Farad moves quickly and chops the second head off of the second snake, killing it.
Lothar is again bitten for 1 hit point, and the burning pain from the poison from this second bite causes him to scream and then pass out.
Kithus moves to finish off the remaining two-headed snake then shouts to the others, "Does anyone have a cure poison spell?"
Ayazin regretfully informs his companions, "I have no Cure Poison spells in memory today..."
He then attempts to cast Animal Friendship on Lothar's snake, since no one seems to be engaged in combat with it.
Jon keeps away from the battle and the snakes.
Mikodin moves to kick and punch at the snake nearest him.
"Yeah, this is going really well," grumbles Kelar as he swings again at the snake.
Aldarin continues to attack with flaming sword.
"Tougher than they look," Beth muses quietly to herself, and then fires off a second volly of magic missiles, hitting the strongest looking snake.
It takes only one missile to finish off the last two headed snake.
Meanwhile, Ayazin is making like a swami with the snake which bit Lothar. The snake, however, is unimpressed by the druid and lashes out at him, fangs bared. It misses, of course, and Brennon sends his next magic missile spell into it, badly injuring it. Mikodin kicks at it but misses. Kithus swings his sword at it, though, and chops the snake in half.
Jo-owrn, meanwhile, has been tending to Lothar. Casting a spell into him, the warrior groans and regains consciousness.
"The poison doesn't seem to be strong enough to kill the lad," the ranger says, straightening up. "I think he'll be fine by tomorrow."
Out of the smashed chest you pull a string of pearls (1100gp).
Jon detects for magic around the smashed chest.
"No magic!" says the sword.
"Let's move on," Beth says. "Where next?"
"Shouldn't we heal up the fighters first, Sharone?" Jon ponders.
Jon then follows Beth and the rest.
Aldarin moves to follow Beth, turns then speaks to the rest of the group.
"Since our detection spells are limited in duration then I believe we should have some type of plan to follow as we come across items of interest such as this chest. With a group as large as ours, the individuals with the detection spells could have continued while a few of us stayed behind to explore the chest. This would have allowed us to utilize our resources more efficiently and stop a lot of backtracking which increases our chances of running across more wandering denizens. Let's continue now and have the healers see to the injured on the way."
With this he turns and continues to follow Beth.
Brennon follows Beth as well.
Mikodin, looking around at the others, decides to follow his old friend, Brennon, but does stop to say, "I do have some abilites with traps and locks, if such skills are necessary. Perhaps I should take a position near the front, just in case a trap is detected."
Aldarin nods, "Ahhh, a voice of reason. This is what this group needs, more logical responses to our shortcummings instead a constant barrage of rhetoric after the fact. I think your skills would serve us better if you were near the front, Mikodin."
Beth gives Aldarin an arch look before looking backto Mikodin and saying, "Do."
Nodding to both Aldarin and Beth, Mikodin moves silently toward the front of the group, and awaits the need for his talents.
You head over to the east doorway, where Sharone awaits you. Through the door is a 20' square room with a door in each wall. She points to the north door, and informs you that her locate object spell has just run out.
Jon and Mikodin inspect the door for traps, but find none.
Farad steps up and opens the door.
After several attempts he gets the door open. Through it you see another room, though its dimensions are hard to judge due to the fact that an enormous giant slug blocks your view.
The slug spits slimy saliva at Farad, but somehow it misses.
The pool of spittle lands on the floor beside the elf and bubbles.
Farad waves his hand at the others indicating he'll take care of it.
Jon take evasive action and keeps out of direct sight of the slug if possible.
Sharone moves out of the line of fire. She then removes a glass vial from her back pack to collect some of the saliva for future study.
Kithus backs off a little so that the saliva would not hit him.
Farad unleashes that look of his on the poor unsuspecting slug. The monster suddenly explodes, showering you all in chunks of slimy slug-meat, and covering you in slug goobers.
With that little threat taken care of, you examine the other contents of the room. The room measures 20' square (20' north, 10' west; door in east wall north corner, door in north wall west corner, door in west wall north corner). In the northeast corner near the door are two dead otyughs, which the slug was apparently nibbling on when you came along.
There is no sign of any treasure, though.
"Ewwwww," Beth says. "Farad, can we close the door next time? Your funky mind stuff works through closed doors, doesn't it? If not, we'll close you in the room with the yucky thing."
"Can I suggest some exploratory surgery on the otyugh remains?" pipes up Sharone after carefully sealing her vial.
Aldarin also removes a glass vial from a pouch and begins scraping some of the slugs spittle into it using a stray stone or such to be sure he doesn't get any on his gloves.
Beth asks the assembled group, "Now that Sharone's spell has run out, does anybody else have any divinatory spells that might guide us through this place? If not, I guess it's time to start doing the exhaustive search."
Aldarin replies, "It seems that we are back to our normal mode of operation; bashing in doors and seeking all valuables."
Mikodin shrugs, looks around at the others, then volunteers, "I have no spells, but I can find traps. The treasure we will have to find the old-fashioned way, I guess." Then, brightening suddenly, he says, "But that's the fun part, isn't it?"
"Fun, isn't it," says Kithus sarcastically. "Maybe we should wait for Sharone to rememorize that spell?"
Brennon pulls the wand from a fold in his robes. "Lets see if there is anything of value in here. Detect."
The wand pulses and points at the otyughs.
Farad casts the second detect magic spell he memorized for the occasion.
"This time let's not waste it."
Farad's second spell also picks up magical emanations coming from the otyugh remains.
Jon detects magic and looks for loose stones and treasure locations.
Moving into the room with Geerzo (who can only detect magic within 10'), the elf also picks up emanations coming from the otyughs. At close range, though, he discovers that the otyughs are not real. In reality they are highly detailed inflatable rubber replicas of dead otyughs...realistic right down to fake flies and maggots on them.
Aldarin replies, "Slice them open and let's see what we find."
Mikodin wonders aloud, "Why would someone go to the trouble to make fake otyughs? To hide.....what?" He then adopts a defensive posture as the rubber creations are sliced open.
"No, let's take some time if we have no spells running,"
Jon closely examines these inflatable rubber replicas looking for a valve or opening as such.
He spots a couple of standard plugs, and surmises that if pulled, they will deflate.
"I think we should go to the next 'treasure', before this spell runs out. We can alway get back to this thing or we can maybe bring it with us." says Kithus.
Farad comments, "We have a spell running right now. Let's move on to the next room. Detect magic is the only way we can know if a door is a teleport trap you know."
Farad heads to the next room.
"Let's just bring this thing with us and let's move on."
Using gloves, Jon ties the monsters up and tries to take them along with the group for investigation later...without opening them.
However, they are way too heavy for the elf to move.
Farad and Kithus start bashing at the north door, assuming that Sharone's spell was actually pointing to something through it.
Jo-owrn shakes his head and smiles, as he walks over to the fake otyughs, drawing his sword.
"Elves," he comments with a sidelong glance at Farad. "They live forever but they're still impatient."
With that his pricks each inflatable otyugh with the point of his sword.
They pop and deflate.
A few good hacks at them and suddenly they split open, and a river of gold pieces, jewelry and other goodies pour out.
You count out 10,000gp, 5 sapphire-studded necklaces (8000gp ea.), two potions and a scroll.
Meanwhile, Farad and Kithus have opened the north door.
Through it you see another room (10' X 20': 10' north, 10' east; doors in east wall and north wall, west end).
In the centre of this room is a sack. It is bulging with something...
You detect no magic from this room.
Jon carries the potions, scrolls and the necklaces. "Can someone carry all this gold? It's too heavy for me. Besides that, the only tresure we have been finding recently has been fake."
Jon enters the other room and checks for traps and magic.
He detects neither.
"What should we do about the sack? The last time the chest contained a snake. I am not sure it is wise to open this sack." says Kithus.
Farad shrugs and moves to poke it with his sword gently to see if anything moves inside.
Nothing moves or wiggles inside. In fact, it makes a pleasant monetary jingling sound.
Mikodin, following along silently in this room, now says, "Why not just open it, then? Once we have ascertained that the sack contains only money, we can leave it here or take it along, whichever is easier."
Farad opens the bag to see what lies within. "Heh, might as well take our time now. By the way, I'll be the one to test any doors. If I get teleported, I know I can get back here within a day, whereas others of you might not."
Inside the sack are 500gp.
Jon looks around for leadership from someone. He looks at Sharone for any significant hint of life.
"Well, which door are you going to test first?" says Kithus.
Jon looks around and wonders, who's carrying the money?
Aldarin picks up the sack with the 500gp in it and secures it in his pack.
Jon moves to the second back row of the group...while Farad and others are leading.
Farad precogs the matter and goes with whichever decision appears to be more in his best interest.
"You might want to do for the whole group; not just yourself, Farad," says Kelar with a grin. "Always just thinking 'bout yourself."
Aldarin steps up to point toward the north door, "Let's try that one."
Mikodin simply shrugs, and will follow the first person to actually move through a doorway (and doesn't disappear).
You wait for Farad to finish thinking.
Jo-owrn has lunch.
Sharone tries to understand the doors.
"Does a detect magic identify the teleport doors?" she asks.
"'Spose so," says Jo-owrn, chewing on a piece of dried porcupine meat, "Assuming they're magical."
"If so then does the wand that detects magic enable us to also identify the doors we need to avoid?"
"Probably would."
She takes out her small pot and puts water on to boil. She will join Jo-owrn for lunch.
Beth watches Farad think. She looks vaguely detached in so doing.
Raz watches Farad with a smirk on his face and then glances about a little, looking for a water source. Raz wants to be ready in case Farad's head starts to smoke from the effort of thinking so hard.
Kithus makes a mocking frown and sits down on the ground, waiting for some action.
Farad picks the north door and heads through.
Seeing as a decision has been made, Brennon breathes a sigh of relief. He'll wait with the others to see what Farad has to say about what lies beyond the northern door. If the others follow Farad, Brennon will also.
Farad attempts to head through the door. However, he is not yet a ghost, and the wood is unyielding. But, he is a strong elf, in his prime, so with a further shove manages to smash an opening right through it...of course in the exact shape of his silhouette (just like in the cartoons).
He finds himself in another room. The rest of you move forward and peer through the opening. The room is 30' square (20' east, 30' north; door in south wall east corner; door in middle of east wall; door in middle of west wall; doors at each end of north wall.
There is nothing in this room, though the air seems to be a bit damp in here.
Farad precogs again using the same criteria. You finish your lunch.
This time he directs you to the other south door.
Opening this door, you find yourselves looking into a 10' square room (doors in south and east walls). In here you see two large pottery jars, with lids atop them.
Jon detects for traps and magic.
Moving into the room, Geezo still detects no magic and Jon spots no traps.
Mikodin stealthily enters the room, and commences to check for traps near or on the jars.
The monk does not locate any traps, either.
Aldarin says, "Pop the tops and let's see what prizes we have come across this time."
Kithus yawns and follows the people through the door and looks at the jars for any hint of any trap.
"Well, heck," Beth says, and moves forward and looks in the jars.
Aldarin, Kithus and Beth lift the lid off of the jars and peer inside.
As they do so, they feel the floor shift slightly as they trigger a trap that both Jon and Mikodin missed.
Three darts fire from the walls at the people around the jars.
Aldarin is struck in the behind for 3 hit points.
Kithus is struck for 2 hit points.
Beth takes it in the buttocks as well for 2 hit points.
The trap triggered, you dump out the jars and count the loot.
You find 1000ep, 4000gp and 1 gem (100gp).
You gather up the goodies, and realise that you are carrying about 125lbs of treasure apiece.
Farad shrugs off the weight, but sees that others are more burdened.
"Perhaps I should take this treasure to Sandas for safekeeping."
Jon looks around.
"Can we leave or transport the treasure somewhere safe?"
"I can get it to Sandas quickly. Should be safe enough with the bankers there."
Beth nods. "Do."
"If you can do it quickly, perhaps that would be our best choice," affirms Mikodin. "The rest of us could wait until your return to continue exploring."
Jon says, "Good idea. Please provide the details on your return. We will find a spot to camp waiting your return."
Farad moves over and heals those who were injured by the trap.
Sharone offers to help Farad with the load if that is possible.
Aldarin seems a little wary about allowing Farad to touch his rear but then considers that the dart may cause some kind of infection and allows him to go ahead.
"Uhm, thanks... Farad."
Farad heals the wounded completely, so Sharone saves her spells.
Thus set, you head out of the dungeon, and return to the nearby cave where you slept last night.
Jon assumed the group picked up the 10,000, Jon is carrying the two potions and scroll and is waiting till we have a break to investigate them.
You take out the unclaimed magic and examine it:
Farad speaks up, "I know a person we could probably sell that too. Probably get more than the asking price from Ray Jay to boot."
Beth says, "If we can wait here a couple of days, I can memorize some identify spells overnight and see if I can figure anything out about these things."
"I need to train, right away," announces Lothar. "And since I am strong, I will carry some of the loot to Sandas and visit the Warrior's Guild."
"Nothing personal there Lothar, but I am sure not going to wait around out here for two weeks while you train in Sandas," states Kelar.
Looking over to Farad, he continues, "We probably should keep the jewlery here rather than selling it...never know when it could come in handy. I can also help with the id's."
Jon, however, is impatient.
Jon tests potions and reads the newest scroll near Sharone.
The scroll comtains the third level magic user spells infravision, fly and fireball (2 dice).
Upon tasting the first potion, Jon feels like a used dungeon salesman.
Upon tasting the second potion, Jon gags, vomits, turns a disgusting bilious green in colour, breaks out in pustulent boils and begins to smell in a most unpleasant fashion.
While Farad, and the others leave to take the treasure, Brennon will use this spare time to relearn his spells, and enjoy a meal.
Aldarin will do the same. If time allows he will also do an equipment check and make sure the drow armor and items he has, have not begun to deteriorate too much.
Jon does the same.
They have deteriorated noticeably.
Kithus removes his armour and draws his sword. He will polish the sword so no dent or any marks made by battle will be there. Then he check his armour or tears and try to mend them. Finally he will stretch and try to get some rest.
Mikodin stretches, stands up from his sitting position where he had been meditating, and, looking at Farad, asks of all, "It seems I now feel the need for some training. I feel awkward bringing this matter up at this moment, but I was hoping someone might have an idea how we may resolve this difficulty."
Jon says, "Perhaps we should wait until there are a number of people in the same position...Can you train by yourself Mikodin?"
Jon takes a count of the gold and items before the Farad and the others leave. Jon is especially interested that the gold, including the 500gp in Aldaran's pack, is counted correctly.
Jon offers to keep a list for the party from now on.
Ayazin kicks back and relaxes, re-memorizing his spells for the following day.
Mikodin, after a short meditation, addresses the group, "I am able to self-train, but will have to offer a significant amount to my god. If it is allright with all of you, perhaps Farad could donate about 6,000 gp in my name to the temple of Tyr while he is gone, and I will repay the group from my share. That way, I need not be gone, yet still will gain my level, becoming more capable and beneficial to the party." Smiling widely, he continues, "And even faster on my feet."
Farad sighs. "If several of us need to train, we might as well all head back to Sandas. I'm sure no one wants to be cooling their heels here while others are enjoying the Drunken Dwarf each night."
"Well I certainly need to train," Brennon says. "I am a few levels down from where I should be. It would take me some time to complete it all though. As well as be expensive."
Jon agrees, as he to could do some training which he had been putting off. "Is the Drunken Dwarf where we all stay or an Inn?"
"Both," says Jo-owrn.
Jo-owrn looks at Brennon.
"With all of the mages lying around this party, like Raz, Beth, Kelar, Aldarin and Farad, why don't you ask one of them to train you? Gee, they might even give you a discount. Same for you, Lothar. I'll bet Farad or Kelar would love to train you."
"I sure like discounts. How much will either of you charge me to train me?"
During the next day while Farad is communiting to Sandas, Beth will memorize a full suite of "read magic" spells as her first level spells, and (silently) read all of the scrolls to see what they are. Assuming we have time for her to recover from the fatigue, she'll also spend a couple of days casting 2nd level Identify-2 spells on the other items.\
Aldarin will help Beth in these aspects also.
Beth says, "I already know all of these -- does anybody want to copy them into their spellbook? If not, our least experienced mage should hold onto them as something to use in case of an emergency."
Jon asks, "Does anyone mind if I try on the cloak?"
There are no objections, so Jon tries on the cloak for size.
It is a fine fit. He has tried it on previously.
Jon asks, "Beth would you please provide the details of the scrolls and magical items to record in the group log?"
Jon takes out his pencil and prepares to write...waiting patiently.
With a chuckle, Beth says, "You're going to get some pretty severe hand cramps if you're going to wait. I have to rest my mind overnight before I can even memorize the spells, and then these spells take time to cast. Even if Aldarin, Raz, and I all work on it, it will probably take us a couple of days to complete the castings."
"Okay, Beth...perhaps I could copy another spell from your spell book that I don't have in the meantime...How long does copying a spell take???"
He knows that it takes one hour per level of the spell.
Jon next asks, "Beth can I copy some spells from your book and thus keep the scroll?"
Farad looks over at Brennan. "Well, actually I will be needing to train as a magician as well." He looks over at Beth and Raz questioningly. "Perhaps you could train us both?"
Beth raises her eyebrows. "I don't know if I'm qualified to train you; perhaps Raz is. I'm a seventh order magician myself, for what that's worth."
Farad nods. "That will work. I'm only learning 6th order powers myself. I've only just recovered from the loss due to being attacked by a vampire back when we were visiting Umboth's city."
Mikodin shrugs, and joins those going to training, since the thought of spending 6000 gp he doesn't really have is not very appealing, and it seems others are going for training, also.
Beth takes a second look at the scroll with the 2d fireball. "This is interesting," she says. "It sounds relatively useless, but I'd never figured out how to throw such a small fireball."
Looking around at the party, she says, "If nobody else minds, I'd like to claim this one. I want to study it further."
It looks like both Beth and Jon are interested in the scroll.
Jon takes the potions.
You settle down for the night, then.