The EARTH story - July 5, 1372
It is July 5, 1372 before you rendezvous again at Laurie's stronghold, ready to finish off Razamataz' dungeon in the Underdark of Oerth.
"I am ready to go, it has been a restful two weeks and I am itching for the action!" Al says with a smile as he awaits the plan on how they are getting to the dungeon. During the two weeks, he familiarized himself with this stronghold and made it the focus for his word of recall spell.
Aldarin casts Stoneskin on himself before heading out.
It is a large party indeed who squeeze into Leslie's portable hole: Aldarin, Tully, Equinox, Ayazin, Jon, Mikodin, Brennon, Kelar, Jo-owrn, Sharone, Devlin, Beth, Tracey, Op Code, Al, Drinor, Vardui, Aon, Kithus, a wolf, a cougar and a mule. Once everyone is in, Leslie closes and pockets the hole, and Farad does the mental honours.
When the hole is reopened and you climb out, you find yourselves in a smallish cave. There is a pool of water at one end. An exit leads out into a rough stone passageway. Those of you who have been here previously know it as the cave which has been serving as your home base, near Razamataz's dungeon.
When you are ready you set out. Leslie stays behind in the cave.
You head west down the passage. After perhaps a quarter mile you come to a four way intersection. This 20' wide passage continues west, but now of finely cut and dressed stone, while a 10' wide passage of similar quality runs north - south. You see a number of doors along the latter passage.
In the middle of the intersection is a statue of a richly robed man. Al and Tracey recognise him as Razamataz the arch mage, though the statue shows a somewhat younger Razamataz than the one they met at Billian's home in Casablanca.
The statue 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!"
Having heard it all before, the EARTH party pays it no heed and leads you down the south passage. After 160' it turns west, and runs that way for another 370', before turning north again.
Beth, navigating with her maps, stops you before a door in the north wall 330' - 340' section. You open it, and enter a 30' square room. In here are a number of dead stirges, some dead zombies and a dead birdlike creature.
You pass through a door in the northeast corner and enter a 20' square room, go through a door to the east into a 10' X 20' room, then through another door to the east into another 20' square room.
At this point Beth takes a shortcut, pointing to a door in the northeast corner of the east wall. Devlin opens it, and you look into another 10' X 20' room (10' south, 10' east, door in north wall, door in east wall south corner). This place is bare.
Beth points to the north door, and when you are ready, Devlin opens it. Before you is another 10' X 20' room (20' north, door in north wall, door in west wall north corner).
Awaiting you here are the surviving four of the twelve wraiths that the EARTH party battled on their last visit to this place.
They immediately swoop to attack!
Aron pulls out his magical dagger and waits to see what the priests do.
Jon tries to look very small; hiding in shadows while invisible with sword in hand under his cloak to be used to parry if attacked.
"BY THE POWER OF THOR, BEGONE!" Al says forcefully, showing his holy symbol to the undead creatures.
Sharone grabs her holy symbol. "IDUN commands you foul beasts...BEGONE."
They retreat to the back of the room, shrieking and wailing.
Suddenly the door opens behind the wraiths. They immediately fly through it into the room beyond.
Three monsters step through the door, though, and confront you. Those of you who have been around a time or two recognise them to be xorn.
"Yo!" says one, sounding irritated, "What's the big noise? Make it good, or we'll be eatin' you!"
Aldarin draws his flaming sword and awaits to see if there is going to be a
melee.
"OOH!" Al exclaims as Claw appears in his hand. "We are just passin' through, is that alright?"
"Through to where, Mister Filet?" the xorn asks, licking his lips.
"Come get some!" Al says as he nods at the xorn.
Mikodin draws his newly-acquired bone dagger, and states calmly, "His statement is correct. Please stand aside to let us pass."
"Stand aside?" snorts another xorn. "What's in it for us?"
Aron pulls out his glowing dagger, "Will this do? If not, what would you like?"
"Your liver!" replies a xorn.
Meanwhile, Kelar is making magic.
"Actually, I have heard that you guys taste pretty good yourself," says Kelar as he releases a forked lightning bolt at them.
The forked bolt strikes the three monsters, hurling them back through the doorway.
An argument erupts.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Al asks Kelar as he watches him attack the creatures. Waiting for them to attack back, Al has his blade in his right hand and shield in his left one.
"Well, first off, did you see those wraiths that went by...they will be back. And second, I don't like being threatened," states Kelar.
"Yes, I did," Al replies, "Who do you think made them flee? Neither do I, but you must learn that every response should not be with force!"
Al sighs.
"How the hell long have you known me? I don't react with force all the time. That would be Farad," states Kelar.
"He has a point," admits Jo-owrn.
"Exactly," the grey elf says, as he sends a forked lightning bolt toward the Xorn after Kelar's.
His bolt also blasts them.
Brennon holds back to see how the spells handle the xorn.
The xorn, though seemingly not taking much damage from the two lightning bolts, bellow furiously...then seem to melt away into the floor and back wall of the room.
"And speaking of the powerful Farad," Mikodin interrupts, "I hope he can do something to these xorn before we're in hand-to-hand combat with them."
"I don't think we have met a creature down here that hasn't been a problem. Plus we were told to clean it out. So that is what I am doing. You have a problem with it? You didn't have to come," grumbles Kelar to Al.
"Fine, I am just a guest, all I am saying is you don't have to blast everything that you meet, but if the job is clear this place out, I am right along side of you!" Al says as he jumps into the room after the xorn.
Jon, in disbelief, moves towards the rear of the group and waits to see if more fireworks will go off.
Equinox says, "How about we stop arguing and just react to what the Xorn do now? If it were up to me, I would have preferred to let them be, if that were possible, but now that the horse is out of the barn, let's move on with it."
Jon, invisibly and sneaking, tries to find a spot out of the way until this is over. He has a bad feeling about this encounter and the way it's going. Let all the powerful people get to know one another....he looks around hoping the monk is as sensible.
Aron is also hanging back.
What with all of the arguing, by the time Al reaches the xorn they have vanished into the stonework. He looks about, seeing that he is now in a 20' square room (10' west, 20' north, door in west wall south corner). The wraiths are floating up near the ceiling in the northwest corner, still wailing.
Suddenly, though, that door in the west wall south corner is flung open, and in charge a half a dozen yeti from an adjoining room, attracted by the din and ready for a dinner.
"I agree that every response should not be with force, but isn't it more fun this way?" grins Kithus as he draws his sword and prepares for the follow up attack.
"Yeah," Al grins as he sees the yetis charge through.
He slashes twice with Claw at the nearest yeti.
"EGADS!" Brennon says when the door flies open. Seeing the greater threat he launches magic missiles at the lead yeti hoping it will help in allowing someone in slaying the beast.
The two missiles from his first spell blast into the yeti that Al is facing.
Equinox backs up to let the warriors take out the yeti and then tries to watch everywhere at once in case the Xorn are going to come back.
Op Code unleashes his two magic missile spells into the front leading yeti, then attacks with a fury.
The ranger's two missiles also blast into Al's yeti.
Aldarin immediately turns, speaks a few arcane words, throwing a hand out toward the door, and hurls a Hypnotic Pattern into the midst of the rampaging yeti.
Four of the yeti stop dead in their tracks, enthralled by Aldarin's display.
"See what I mean? Creatures just come out of the woodwork at us. And you wanted to stand around and talk to them," grumbles Kelar as he prepares for battle.
"Forget it," Al replies as he concentrates on slaying the yetis.
Al easily takes down the already wounded yeti.
Op Code and Kelar attack the remaining active yeti. The ranger connects with longsword #1, putting a sizeable dent in the monster. The yeti lunges at him, but Op Code's incredibly good armour protects him well. Kelar connects with his glowing falchion sword, then with his scimitar, and the yeti is looking pretty sick.
Mikodin, realizing that the invisible, hiding, Jon may have the best idea yet, and still somewhat fearful of the soon-to-be-attacking wraiths, keeps his magical bone dagger drawn and keeps a watchful eye out for the soon-to-be-returning xorn.
"Watch all sides!" he shouts to the rest of the party, hoping that yeti, xorn, and wraiths are all that the party has to worry about.
"That is a good point, Mikodin. Holler if you see anything coming," shouts Kelar as he wades into the Yeti with swords.
"Farad, now would be a good time to take some of these guys out. I don't want to get to bloody," says Kelar.
Farad nods, and mindblasts twice toward the yeti, drawing his sword to attack those who aren't affected by his keen insights.
The elf's insights blast not only the yeti but also Al, Kelar and Op Code. One of the mesmerised yeti sits down, stunned; another turns and runs screaming back through the door whence they came; and another bellows and lunges at Al. One yeti remains mesmerised.
Al shakes off Farad's insights and keeps fighting, as does Op Code. Kelar, however, sits down on the floor and starts to suck his thumb.
Ayazin draws his scimitar and orders his wolf and mountain lion to attack the yetis. He then guards the rear and watches out for the xorn.
"Arf! Arf!" barks the wolf, and dashes in to attack. The cat follows.
Drinor draws his flaming sword, but seeing the crowd of fighters around the yetis, instead keeps an eye on the wraiths, ready to turn them if they should cease being afraid (he has not attempted to turn them yet).
"Just a thought, they seem pretty ready to kill something. If we somehow get out of here, then they would have to kill each other if they are blood thirsty enough. Won't that be much easier for us?" shouts Kithus over everyone before people get trenched in.
Tully pulls out and and fires normal arrows at the Yeti.
Arcing an arrow into the room, he kills the mesmerised yeti.
Suddenly you hear a noise from overhead, and three xorn drop out of the ceiling head first, mouths open, aiming at hapless people below!
One lands beside Devlin.
A second one drops on Sharone, who suddenly finds herself swallowed up to her waist by a xorn. She is chewed for 14 hit points; then the monster claws her legs for a further 6 hit points.
The last one lands atop Tully, all but swallowing him whole, and inflicting a grand total of 25 hit points of mastication and claw damage into the bard.
"Next time get out of the way..." Farad admonishes Kelar.
"Op Code and I have the yetis!" Al says without turning as he hears a commotion in the middle of the group. "The rest of you help the others," he instructs as he continues to slash with Claw and deflect with his shield.
The cavalier buries his blade deep into the belly of the yeti, who howls and slashes him for 3 hit points. Al's next swing kills the monster.
Sharone elects to bleed all over her Zorn. As her arms are pinned by the luscious lips of the monster, that is about all she can do.
"MMMMMPH!" you hear her say from somewhere deep down the xorn's gullet.
The xorn chews on Sharone for 14 hit points, and you hear her bones crunching. Slashing her for another 8 hit points, the cleric collapses, unconscious.
Ayazin finds himself without an opponent and immediately begins a Summon Insects spell, which he will direct at the xorn swallowing Sharone. When that is complete, he mindblasts the xorn that landed next to Devlin.
Drinor bellows "Tyr!" and charges at the xorn attacking Tully, hacking away with his flaming sword.
The helpless Tully, meanwhile, is chewed and clawed for a further 27 hit points of damage.
Drinor's flaming blade bounces off of the hide of the monster.
Equinox throws his rope of entanglement at a Yeti and then tries to whack the Xorn currently eating Tully with MC Hammer.
The rope wraps itself around the stunned yeti, and the wolf rips his throat out.
"Yo!" says Hammer, as he conks the xorn.
Aron drop kicks the closest Xorn.
Attacking the xorn on Sharone, Aron breaks a toenail on the monster's thick hide.
Mikodin, assured that he was right originally to watch for the xorn, does the same as Aron.
Attacking the xorn on Devlin, Mikodin misses.
"This is how it is done," instructs Devlin, as he swings his bastard sword. It slices deep, and the xorn howls. It chomps at him but misses. The warrior connects a second time and the xorn dies.
Kithus tries to slash the xorn with Sharone in it. He is going to aim at arms or legs, try not to cut Sharone within.
The ranger bounces his two-handed sword off of the xorn.
"I'm going in." the grey elf says as he leaps after Tully, hoping that the large Xorn will probably be more than willing to swallow another enemy.
With his glowing sword, Farad carves a deep hole into the xorn.
Jon thinks to himself, I had a bad feeling about all this, but an impressive display by Sharone none the less. Better than being killed by a giant stepping on you. Jon can't see a back on these Xorn so he magic missiles the Xorn eating Sharone.
"I think Sharone needs a lot more help PLEASE ANYBODY!"
However, his nine missiles are enough to blast the xorn to bits, freeing the bleeding and badly injured Sharone.
Aldarin moves to attack the xorn on Tully. He fans badly, though.
Brennon fires his last magic missile spell at the xorn on Tully. His two missiles blast into it.
Op Code, meanwhile, is still fighting a badly hurt yeti. His first swing misses, as the yeti scrapes his claws down the front of the ranger's breast plate. Op Code connects with his next swing, though, and kills the yeti.
Op Code will next attack the xorn that Brennon's spell just hit.
"OOOOoooooOOOOoOooOOooo..." say the wraiths, still cowering by the ceiling.
"Oh yeah?" says Vardui, and opens up with every magic missile spell he has at them, blowing them away. He sends his last two missiles from his fifth spell into the last xorn, killing him.
You free Tully and patch up Sharone.
Sharone regains consciousness to find that she has been freed from the xorn, as has Tully. All of the monsters are dead, including the wraiths. Sharone is at -1 hit point, and will be out of action for a day due to her injuries. Her left arm is broken, as well.
Kelar still sits, sucking his thumb.
You find Ayazin's mountain lion in the room from whence the yeti came, eating the last monster, who is obviously dead.
The yeti room, by the way, is 20' X 40' (10' north, 40' west; doors in 0' - 10', 20' - 30' and 30' - 40' sections of north wall, west wall north corner, and 10' - 20' and 30' - 40' sections of the south wall). In here you find 3500ep and 3000gp. The xorn and wraiths do not appear to have any treasure.
Tully says, "What went wrong?"
"Nothing. It was great!" says Vardui. He then laughs. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Nothing like a good battle to perk up the senses," Op Code grins.
Drinor says, "I don't think we did anything wrong - xorn are tough opponents with or without the help of the yeti. And many thanks, Vardui, for finishing off the wraiths, they were beginning to make me nervous."
"Amen to that," says Mikodin, "Those wraiths drained me once, and I feared a second encounter with them."
Jon looks at Sharone, "Gee you was always the lucky one. When the giant stepped on me I was dead dead not dead living..."
Jon cuts up some of the xorn, takes some of its blood and gathers some dust from the wights.
"Never know but maybe someone will buy it." Looking up, he adds, "Well suppose I will check the rooms for treasure. Anyone want to come?"
Jon goes into each room and detects for magic with Geerzo and looks for secret compartments.
They find none.
"By the power of Thor, please heal this woman," Al says as he casts Cure Serious Wounds on Sharone.
Sharone is cured for 13 hit points. Her bones reconnect themselves. She is still out of action, though.
Sharone smiles weakly at Al.
"Thank Thor for me."
"Already done, I am but his humble vessel!" the cleric/cavalier explains.
Farad shakes his head. "You should have used that death's door first."
He heals the injured up as best he can. Everyone is healed and healthy, but Sharone and Kelar.
"Well, that was fun," Al says with an exhaled breath. "Where to next?"
The grey elf looks over at the feebleminded companion. "Can anyone do anything about this now, or should we leave him in a safe place while we move on?"
"Gooo Gaaa," goos Kelar switching to his other thumb.
"I cannot help Kelar," says Equinox while he retrieves his Rope of Entanglement, "But I have four light cure spells and one moderate curative magic for whoever wants some healing."
Ayazin nods gravely. "Only a Heal spell will return him to a normal state. That, or a Wish."
The druid then pets and praises his animals for the excellent job they did in combat.
"Weakling," mutters Devlin, as he takes out a length of rope and cuts it to size. Tying one end in a loop around Kelar's neck, he hands the other end of the makeshift leash to Sharone. "The two of you should stay at the rear."
Jon returns from looking for treasure and sort of looks at his feet and all around the place saying, "Ummm...Devlin, at the back of the group is a pretty dangerous place to be. So is being in the middle. Umm...can't we do something more for them? I know if I was in the position I'd hope people looked after me better. But I'm sure you know best. Ummm...does anybody else have any ideas? What about plane travel back to some where and we can pick them up in a day or so?"
Devlin looks at Jon, snorts, and turns away.
"Take them back to Leslie if you like," he says over his shoulder, as he heads for the northeast door in the yeti room. "She's in the base camp cave. When we are done we can return to Laurie's temple and she can heal them."
With that, the warrior kicks open the door.
With Sharone leading Kelar, you follow him.
Revealed is a distinctly different room than what you have been seeing in your explorations of this labyrinth (20' X 40': 10' east, 20' west: door in east wall south section; doors in north wall, 0' - 10', 10' - 20' and 30' - 40' sections as measured from the east; door in west wall north section; door in south wall west corner).
This room is actually nicely furnished and decorated as a formal living room or salon. There are three couches, five armchairs, and a number of tables in here. Rich tapestries depicting pastoral scenes hang from the east and west walls. There are paintings hanging from the north and south walls depicting similar subjects. Also along the walls are several large bookshelves, filled with books.
You search, but find nothing of immediate obvious value. The place, you realise, is dusty and somewhat dirty, indicating that it has not been visited by its original occupant for some years. Upon first glance, the books seem to deal with the subjects of mythology, lore and history...Earth history, you note, not Oerth.
When you are ready, Devlin, following his usual predictable pattern, heads for the first door to the right of the one that you entered and opens it. This is the door in the east wall, and it reveals a smaller room: a mage's or alchemist's laboratory (10' X 20': 10' east, 10' north; door in north wall).
In here are several long tables and counters with various articles of scientific equipment on them (scales, test tubes, beakers, mortar and pestle, bottles). There is a large cage against the south wall. You think about putting Kelar in it.
Searching, though, you find nothing of value in here.
Devlin opens the north door.
Now you see a bedroom (10' X 20': 10' north, 10' east; door in south wall east section; door in east wall). It is luxuriously furnished with a large bed, several tables and two chairs. There is a trunk at the base of the bed. Searching, you again note that the place has not been disturbed for a long while. The trunk contains men's clothing.
You open the south door.
This reveals a small room (10' square). In here is a sink inset in a marble vanity, a large bath tub, and a strange white porcelain chair. The function of the latter is not apparent to your medieval eyes, as the hinged seat has a large hole in the centre. Looking through the hole, you see a rounded bowl below, with a hole at the back.
Concluding that the chair must be some sort of instrument of torture or something of that ilk, you return to the bedroom and open the east door.
As soon as you do so, you are inundated by a tidal wave of coins, gems and other things. You are knocked sprawling to the floor and are buried under a glittering pile of goodies.
Surfacing, you realise that you have found Razamataz's treasure trove. The room that contained it until you opened the door, by the way, measures 10' square.
Op Code shouts gleefully, "So this is what it's like to be buried in treasure!"
"Holy Gungamunga!" Al exclaims, seeing all the treasure.
Sharone's eyes pop. Never in her life has she seen such a treasure trove.
Gleefully, you start counting.
It takes you the rest of the day to tally up the haul: 18,943cp, 20,389sp, 31,492ep, 56,023gp, 5717pp, 71 gems (10gp ea.), 60 gems (50gp ea.), 52 gems (100gp ea.), 2 gems (500gp ea.), 6 gems (1000gp ea.), 20 gems (9gp ea.), 6 gems (60gp ea.), 6 gems (150gp ea.), 2 gems (5gp ea.), 13 gems (200gp ea.), 10 gems (450gp ea.), 2 gems (80gp ea.), 2 jewelry (3000gp ea.), 1 jewelry (10,000gp), 4 jewelry (1100gp ea.), 5 jewelry (8000gp ea.), 4 jewelry (2100gp ea.), 8 jewelry (2200gp ea.), 18 jewelry (2000gp ea.), 13 jewelry (7000gp ea.), 5 jewelry (4000gp ea.), 3 jewelry (200gp ea.), 2 jewelry (900gp ea.), 2 jewelry (700gp ea.), 12 jewelry (300gp ea.), 14 jewelry (1000gp ea.); 9 potions; 11 scrolls; 4 rings; 1 rod; 2 staffs; 2 wands; a bag; a cloak; a set of bracers; a trident; a rug; a small ivory carving in the shape of a fan; a book; 2 shields; a suit of splint mail (human sized); a suit of plate mail (elven); a suit of plate mail (human); 5 longswords; a two-handed sword; a flail; a javelin; a morning star; an axe; 4 travelling spell books and 4 standard spell books.
"WOW!" Brennon says looking at the mounds of treasure uncovered. "I don't think I have ever seen anything like this. Would anyone mind if a take a look at those spell books? I would like to increase my spell knowledge while we head back to Laurie's Temple to get the others healed."
Ayazin carefully eyes the javelin and the trident, giving them a thorough but careful examination, and looks for labels on the potions.
The weapons appear to be of the finest quality. There are no labels on the potions.
Drinor is impressed by the treasure trove, but seems more interested in the mage's library. He says, "I wonder if there could be clues about our quest in these books of Earth history. Some of them look pretty old! Is anyone here a real quick reader?"
"I will help," offers Equinox, "But only after someone makes sure that they are not trapped or cursed."
Jon says, "That's mine and Geerzo's job...checking things out....but it will take some time."
Jon starts to check it all out for traps and magic. "Oooh, Does any one have a detect traps spell? It may be a bit faster!"
Jon eye's bulge out of his elven head while he detects magic with Geerzo.
As expected, the potions, scrolls, rings, rod, staves, wands, bag, cloak, bracers, trident, rug, token, book, shields, armour, swords and miscellaneous weapons all radiate magic.
He looks in the bag to see if it's empty.
He sees what appear to be a number of beans inside.
He plays eenie meenie minie moe and picks up a staff and ring saying, "Just trying them out..I'm the official curse locator, you know."
Nothing obvious happens when he picks up the items.
"Who's going to read the spell books? Well I'd like to take all the stuff for setting up the laboratory (scales, test tubes, beakers, mortar and pestle, bottles), if nobody else wants it and I can work out how to get it out of here."
Sharone looks for items of obvious religious significance, leaving weapons and armour for the people more likely to fight battles than herself.
"Can we move this treasure and identify it before we finish clearing the dungeon? So that we can test them prior to going on our quest for the artifacts of Saltar. I'd hate to find cursed items during a battle with Hecates minions," she smiles weakly and continues to comfort the strangely behaving Kelar.
"I say we take it all back and identify the items as well as find a new home for all these coins," Al says with a smile.
"Shouldn't we finish our job first?"
"Sure," Al replies, "People, is there more to the dungeon?"
"Can anyone think of a way we could easily and quickly move all this stuff to a safer place while we finish the job?" asks Equinox, "If not, then I think we ought to seal off this room."
"Considering the state of a couple of our party members," Mikodin states gravely, "Perhaps it would be better to go back, cash in our enormous treasure, identify the magic items, and use some of the money to heal up those less fortunate. I have some experience in adventuring while severely handicapped (I was level-drained), and I know it's not a lot of fun. We can always return once those tasks are finished, which shouldn't take too long."
Ayazin pats the rump of his mule. "My friend here can hold a lot -- but probably not all of it! Perhaps Farad could take my friend and I someplace safe, like Leslie's, or even Sandas. There we could dump a load and return for more."
"There's lot more to this dungeon," Jo-owrn replies, glancing at Beth, who up until this point has been the mapper. "Someone should fetch Leslie, because she has a portable hole. And maybe we should head back and get Kelar healed. He's not really a weakling," he adds, with a sidewise glance at Devlin.
"Who will go back and fetch Leslie?" Equinox asks.
"I will," says the ranger. "Be back in a half hour or so."
Jo-owrn departs.
Jon keeps the bag, ring and the most expensive looking staff.
"I hope you don't mind if I take a look at the two handed sword. Professional interest, you understand." says Kithus as he picks up and examines the sword.
Jon returns to the laboratory and book room and detects magic with Geerzo and makes sure nothing has been over looked.
There is nothing magical in those rooms.
Sharone would like to take as much of the furnishings as possible, starting with the tapestries, paintings and books.
"My home in Sandas is in desperate need of furnishings."
After awhile, Jo-owrn returns with Leslie.
"Ooo-la-la!" she says, then she lays eyes on Kelar and the injured Sharone. "It will take a couple of trips to get everyone and the money back."
She unfolds her portable hole, and you shovel the treasure into it. There is also room for the lab equipment, books, and some of the furniture.
Then, she and Farad depart...