Soon, you are back in the comparative warmth of the pyramid.
You head back down to the large temple with the doors and passages leading off of it.
"Did everyone memorize the spells that they said they would? Are we ready to look at that chest again?" asks Illyana.
You return to the room with the chest surrounded by the pool of acid.
Farad turns ethereal, then floats over to the chest and attempts to move so he can see inside.
He returns to the Prime a few moments later, and reports that the chest is filled with coins: several tens of thousands of silvers, he estimates. There is also a scroll in there.
"So do we want to stay and see if we can figure out how to get the chest open, or do we want to just continue to explore the lower regions of this place?" asks the cavalier.
Aldarin replies, "If we have the means, I suggest we go ahead and retrieve the chest."
"The problem is do we have the means. I am all for the levitate spell but we have the problem of getting it over here once levitated." says Kelar.
Farad nods. "I'll cast levitate upon myself, and move myself along the ceiling till I'm over the chest. Then someone else cast levitate on the chest. Raise it up to my level, and I'll toss a rope around the chest and you can pull it over to land."
Farad points to the area where the chest is. "Only myself, a fairly strong person and another magician should be in the room when we do this. If a trap is sprung and the acid begins to rise, I can take two others into the ethereal with me to escape it."
Aldarin replies, "I also have a levitate spell in memory now. I'm willing to cast it on the box if need be."
So, Farad levitates himself, and then propels himself along the ceiling. Once he is over the stone box, Aldarin casts levitate on it.
The box slowly floats upwards. You note that the pedestal that it was on rises slowly as well, then stops when it has gained about a foot in height.
When the box touches the ceiling, the grey elf loops a rope around it, then returns to the edge of the room and drops the other end to Aldarin and Kelar.
They pull the box along the ceiling...then down the wall and through the doorway.
Aldarin brings the box back down to ground level just outside the door, and cancels his levitation spell. Farad does likewise with his.
When you open the box, you find that it is filled with 20,000sp, and a scroll.
Aldarin comments, "Nice teamwork."
"Well that wasn't so bad. Hopefully it didn't trigger something further along. Shall we continue then?" asks Kelar.
You decide to continue exploring to the east of the secret door that led to the stairs heading down, so head over that way.
After 60' past the secret door, the passage turns north.
You look north.
From the back wall, the passage runs for another 60', turning east after 50'.
You head north and look east.
The passage runs east for 10' and ends at a door.
Gamvik hears nothing at it, so you open it.
Beyond is a room (30' X 40': 10' north, 20' south, 30' east). Shelves line the walls of this place. Stored on the shelves are items used in religious ceremonies (candles, incense, clerical robes and whatnot). Three huge, fearsome, human-like creatures wearing animal skins have smashed open a box of candles and are eating them. You recognise these fellows to be ogres, and they recognise you to be something more tastey to eat than candles.
They turn and move to attack, but you have initiative.
Humphrey gets in front of the non-fighter types for their protection.
"Let's have them come to us, so the mages can have their fun!"
Both of his swords are ready to greet the ogres.
Kelar draws his scimitars and waits to see what happens.
Gamvik pulls a small, furry object from a bag and throws it at the ogres. It explodes into a wolverine.
"Sick 'em!" he says, gleefully.
Ayazin does not rush in, but readies his scimitar in case an ogre should attack him.
Sharone leaves the ogres to the mages and fighters.
Raz fires a magic misslie spell into the creatures before him. His four missiles badly hurt an ogre.
Farad also sends a spell's worth of magic missiles to soften up an ogre, and then moves in with his sword. His three missiles also injure an ogre.
Beth unloads a magic missile spell at the ogres, too. Her three missiles tear into the last ogre.
Britan readies his sword and waits until the mages finish casting spells.
"Once you mages are done let me know and us fighters will go in, But I for one do not want to get caught in a cross fire."
Aldarin quickly mumbles a few arcane words, extends his hands, and fires off a burst of colors into the onlooking ogres.
Two of the three ogres stop dead in their tracks, mesmerised. The wolverine is likewise affected, as well.
The last ogre meets with Humphrey. The smiling warrior cuts him down with a single swipe with his glowing shortsword.
Once the mages are done, Britan charges in and attacks. He kills one of the hypnotised ogres, and Farad quickly deals with the last one.
You search the bodies and the room. The room contains nothing of monetary value. The ogres, though, each had a huge leather sack. Going through them, you find 500gp, 500gp and 400gp respectively. You also find a ring and a scroll.
Sharone collects quantities of the candles and incense from the shelves. She also collects the books and papers for reading at a later time. "Perhaps I can find out more about the people who once inhabited this pyramid. "
That done with, you continue on your merry way, returning to the intersection with the passage heading south, opposite the secret door. This passage ran south for 60' and on.
You head down there.
Before you, it runs for a further 60' and on. However, in the 0'-10' section of the west wall is a passage running west. Looking that way, you see that it runs for 40', and ends at a door.
As the atom-sized black hole that has been floating around Oerth anhillating non-participating and redundant player characters drifts slowly down the passage towards you from the north, Farad points to the door.
"Lets check that."
You head west, as the black hole floats through the intersection and continues on its way south.
At the door, Gamvik listens. After a moment he announces that he hears several voices from within, conducting a conversation. They sound like human voices.
Farad waves everyone back. "If it is the fox people, I want to see if they attack lone travellers. Don't worry, I won't attack unless they start it. Come running if you hear combat or I call for you."
"I don't like your plan Farad," replies Raz, "but I also don't see what harm it can do. I'll be waiting if you need me."
"Hey, if Farad wants to play the hero I got no problem with that. Just hope he has time to yell before something big and ugly can get him," says Kelar.
He moves back around the corner and draws swords in case Farad does get in trouble.
Humphrey says, looking bored, "Ok, Farad go have your fun. If we do not hearing anything in 4 minutes then we are coming after you. Just in case you understand."
Gamvik moves back part way and hides in the shadows.
Britan finds a place out of sight but still in ear shot where he can rush in to his aid in case Farad is attacked.
Ayazin, feeling not particularly stealthy, hangs back with the group and waits for Farad to holler.
The rest of you move back. Tassier ducks around the corner and is suddenly sucked into the black hole, which has drifted back, and is gone.
Once they are back, Farad opens the door, but has his sword safely sheathed. The words of a sleep spell are ready though.
Sharone prepares a hold person spell. "Might let us capture one of these people for questioning."
Illyana twiddles her thumbs.
Raz gets out his cards and starts flipping through them.
Beth comes bustling down from the north passageway, rushing to catch up with you. "Did you guys see that? That was a small black hole! I could tell by the pattern of the Hawking radiation! I think I was able to detect the frame dragging... but it almost got me!"
"Well, anyway, I got these things up to date. Hard to keep up with all this running around and killing thigs we do." Beth waves the maps she's been making of the passageways in the pyramid.
"Here's where we are," Beth continues. "What's going on anyway?" She looks around the corner were Farad is heading toward the door.
"Oh!" she exclaims, as a finger moves to over her lips. "Shh... and all," she says, in a stage whisper. She stops to wait to see what happens next.
Raz looks over to Beth and give her a warm smile.
From down the hallway you hear Farad opening the door. Then, you hear voices, including his.
Next, you hear the door close again.
You sneak a peak around the corner.
There is no sign of Farad.
Humphrey starts counting heartbeats as soon as Farad disappears out of view.
Britan looks over to Gamvik . "Gamvik, you want to go listen at the door to see if you can hear what is going on?"
Gamvik bustles over to the door and presses his hairy ear to it.
Beth glides up behind Gamvik, and when he's had time to listen, she says, "What do you hear? Should I try to ESP?"
"Oh, oh! Fight!" squeals the gnome. He backs away from the door so that no one will open it on his head.
Hearing Gamvik say there is fighting going on inside, Britan moves up.
"Stand back, Gamvik."
Humphrey stops counting.
"Well that didn't take long." Humphrey gets ready to charge in with Britan. "Let's go rescue him."
"He won't like that," Beth says, as she prepares to assess the situation and apply spells as necessary.
"That's okay. He never likes anything if he isn't the one who thinks of it," says Kelar.
"I agree. If the room is empty, I want the doors covered," says Illyana.
"Not to sound like a smart ass but if there is a fight I would expect there to be something in there making the noise."
Britan draws his sword, opens the door and enters the room prepared to fight.
Raz puts away his cards and follows Britan.
Kelar moves in after Britain ready for anything.
Seeing all the drawn swords heading into the room, Ayazin decides to provide a rearguard against any nasty surprises.
It takes a moment to bash the apparently latched door open. When you do, you are greeted with a strange sight. The room is fairly large (40' X 60': 20' north, 40' west, 30' south), but contains only three bunks. In here are four people: two are human females, going by their builds, wearing yellow robes and the masks of a tiger and a wolf. The last two people are...both Farad!
You see two Farads circling each other, engaged in battle. They are identical...right down to their glowing weapons and the superior smirks on their faces.
"Help us!" say the two women.
"Oh my," Beth says. "I rather expected that when Farad met himself, he'd want to swap compliments and form a mutual admiration society rather than trying to kill himself."
Obligatory cheeky comment out of the way, Beth begins casting a spell.
One of the Farads turns toward the party. "Dopplegangers, the lot of em. Don't be fooled!"
The grey elf that was speaking doesn't bother trying to identify if he is the true Farad or not. He's sure it will be easy enough to sort out.
"Kill him!" says the other Farad, as he presses the attack on his counterpart, "He's the doppelganger!"
"We're not dops! We're prisoners!" says one of the women.
Aldarin immediately mumbles a few words and fires off a Web spell, attempting to engulf the inhabitants of the room, hopefully before any others enter.
Raz waits to see the effects of Aldrain's spell...and follows suit if needed..warning the others to stand back as he casts a second web spell upon the two Farads.
"Raz be sure to get the women also. If it is true that they are all doppelgangers then we don't need anymore of us looking the same," says Kelar.
Raz nods in reply as he concentrates on casting the spell.
Ayazin shouts to Farad, "Raise a mental defense, Farad!" He waits for a response before doing anything more.
One of the elves shouts, "No. I can't raise a defense and fight at the same time. Let the mages web them. We'll sort out who's who later."
The other elf says, "He's lying! He can't raise a defense because he doesn't have one!"
The elf smirks.
"Come on mages would you cast already...." Kelar says smiling. "Hey Farad, who killed Sasha?"
One of the Farad's grins. "Ask me again once the fighting is done, or we are safely separated and can't be confused with each other. I don't want to waste a good question and then start rolling in the dirt and you'll have to think up another."
The elf smiles. "Not that I'm too worried. This fellow might look like me, but he's no match for my blade. Remember what we have seen and done, and my comments about how this dungeon has challenged us thus far!"
And finally he laughs. "And don't worry about me being the dopple and actually killing the real Farad. I'm guessing some of you would prefer the dopple!"
You note that this Farad is actually rather beaten up...the other Farad is uninjured thus far.
The other Farad smirks, and presses his attacks.
The injured Farad delivers a quick thrust to the uninjured Farad, who misses with his weapon. Aldarin's spell lets loose. One of the Farads is only barely caught while the other is held fast. One of the women is also completely held, while the other struggles free.
As the first Farad steps out of the web, Beth, who has been staring at him with a concentrated look on her face, extends her finger and launches a magic missile spell into him. The missiles blast into this Farad, blowing him apart. As he dies, his flesh changes...taking on a very unelven appearance. His glowing sword, for instance, seems to have been a part of his body, as were his clothes and armour.
The remaining Farad, meanwhile, slowly fades away into the ether.
Raz's web spell goes off next, entrapping the women completely.
Farad rematerialises outside of the webbed area, and sticks both women with two quick sword thrusts.
"Well, that takes care of that," Beth says. She looks over at Farad. "I used a spell to read his mind. I saw thoughts of humility, charity and restraint, so clearly it wasn't our Farad, so I blasted him."
You search the room, and the bodies of the three doppelgangers. All you find are nine gems, worth 166gp each.
You leave this room, and continue heading south.
From the intersection with the westbound passage, the south passage runs for 140', turning east after 130'. Following it east, you soon wind up back at the 4-way intersection with the pit trap in the middle.
Looking at Beth's map, you see that you have now explored everything on this level but for the wide passage running north out of the temple hall. You return to the temple, then, and go up this passage.
It runs north for 80' before opening up into another large chamber.
Upon exploring it, you find that it measures 100' X 120' (120' north, 40' east, 40' west; 20' double doors in middle of the north wall; double row of pillars running north-south down the length of the chamber, 20' out from the east and west walls, respectively). The chamber has a high, arched ceiling, supported by the pillars. Each pillar is carved into a statue of a king or queen of Cynidicea. A series of mosaics decorate the walls of the chamber. These start in the northeast corner and continue clockwise around the room. The doors to the north are of stone, and are hinged to open outwards. At the base of the doors, the floor is partly covered with sand.
You walk around the chamber inspecting the mosaics. You realise that they depict the story of Cynidicea. Starting in the northeast corner, they show:
1. A tribe of squat, heavily-browed humanoids weilding crude stone weapons worship a lizard-headed god.
2. A large band of tall, black-haired people battle the humanoids and take over their hunting grounds.
3. A village rises over the scene of the battle. In the arid lands around the village are fields of grain and vast herds of cattle and sheep.
4. A great leader arises in time of need and gathers the villagers into an army that destroys an enemy army of snake-headed humanoids.
5. The victorious leader is crowned king, thus founding the line of the rulers of Cynidicea.
6. The stone city of Cynidicea is built on the site where the village stood.
7. Scenes of the splendor of the kingdon at its height.
8. The births of King Alexander and Queen Zenobia.
9. The great pyramid is built.
10. Slaves digging under the pyramid uncover the foundations of a prehistoric temple.
11. The death of King Alexander and Queen Zenobia and their burial in the pyramid.
12. The worship of the old gods Gorm, Usamigaras and Madarua is replaced by the worship of a large humanoid-shaped god with many tentacles.
13. Life becomes a year-round carnival for the Cynidiceans. All Cynidiceans are now masked.
14. The Cynidiceans meet a barbaric golden-haired people.
15. The final picture is not a mosaic. It is a crudely painted sketch that shows the golden-haired tribesmen looting Cynidicea.
There is room on the wall for more pictures, but the space is blank.
Suddenly, Aldarin notices a secret trap door in the floor of the chamber, in the northwest corner.
Britan looks around the room at all the mosaics, intrigued.
"Very interesting history these people have here, but I wonder who the golden haired person is?"
When Aldarin finds the secret passage Britan perks up.
"Hey, cool. Let's see where that leads to."
He walks over to take a gander.
Humphrey looks at the pictures as well. "Well this place has been looted once I see. I too wonder who they are." Humphrey then turns to the secret door. "Well let's check this out."
Ayazin says, "It appears to me that we have finally found the main entrance to this pyramid -- though I doubt it is still useful. Below, then, should be the beginning of the underground world, which should be much larger, and much more challenging. See this underground temple here in the mosaic -- this is where we are headed, the domain of Zargon, who I assume is this tentacled god."
Farad heals his wounds and nods. "Well, let's not take all day about it. Let's get busy."
With that he opens the secret door.
Through the door is a steep flight of stone stairs. These only go down for about 10', then you find yourselves at the end of a rough passage.
You set out, Farad leading.
The passage winds back and forth, then begins a steep descent.
You walk for a long time, always descending as the passage meanders. Hours pass. It is late in the day, you imagine, when rounding a bend in the passage, three gargoyles drop off of a hidden ledge above you and attack!
Farad swings his sword and attacks the closest. "Save your spells. Let us fighters handle this. Wounds are easy to heal, but this far down I don't want to be caught spell-less."
"Yes. Let us make short order of these flying pests."
Britan sheaths his long sword and draws out his military pick to attack the gargoyles.
Humphrey says, "Finally," as he greets one fo the gargoyles with his two short swords.
Illyana draws her longsword. "You know, this isn't fun anymore. Just really boring."
Beth kicks back and watches the fighters do their stuff. She looks over at Gamvik. "I guess we bring them along for something, huh?"
Gamvik cackles as he stays away from the fight.
Raz nods to Beth, a glimmer of laughter in his eyes.
Aldarin steps forth and attacks one of the gargoyles with his flaming sword.
"Hey don't these guys need magic to affect them?" asks Kelar as he starts to move forward with his nonmagical swords.
Farad shrugs. "Think so, but I have a magical blade."
Without looking, Britan says, "The last time we encountered these things we needed magical weapons to hit them. That is why I changed to my pick."
"Well then you can have mine. I can't touch them," says Kelar with a smile.
Ayazin guards the rear, as usual.
The gargoyles descend on Farad, Humphrey and Sharone.
Farad dodges an incoming claw attack and swings his longsword. He strikes it, hurting the monster badly. It in turn claws him for 1 hit point.
Humphrey closes and easily connects with his glowing shortsword, also badly injuring the creature. It claws and bites him for a total of 3 hit points.
Sharone backs up, swinging one of her glowing flails at the last gargoyle. She misses badly. The gargoyle also misses with every attack, as well.
Britan hurries to the aid of the maiden. Deftly weilding his pick, he nails the gargoyle.
Aldarin helps out Humphrey, and the gargoyle goes down in flames.
Illyana rushes to the aid of poor Farad, and a second gargoyle dies.
Sharone manages to connect this time with her flail, and the gargoyle flutters. Britan finishes it off.
Continuing on your way, you walk for another hour or so before finding a small side cave. There, you decide to camp for the night.
"Woah!" Beth says. "Suddenly, I feel my intuitive understanding of magic increasing, a quantum leap in my power manipulation potential! I will have to find somebody to train me next time we're back in Sandas, or wherever we go. I hope that we've found enough treasure to pay for it."
Farad looks up. "What Order of magic would you then be?"
"Well, nowhere near as good as you, of course, but if I can get my little eyes back into the Guild's library in Sandas, I ought to be able to start casting cool polymorphing spells, and walls of fire and ice, and things like that," Beth says to Farad.
Farad raises his eyes and gives Beth a humorous look. "A bit testy are we? I have never claimed to be a master magician. Indeed, I'm probably one of the least skilled here, in part due to my dual training as a warrior, and also due to my encounter with Umboth's vampiric mistriss. Also, seeing as how you joined us from a group that is more skilled than our own, I am not surprised if you could cast far more powerful magics than any of us."
Raz watches the exchange continue with a wide grin on his face.
"If I may ask, couldn't Raz or one of our other astounded mages train you here, without you having to travel back to a main city?" asks Britan.
Raz looks thoughtful. "I suppose I could. It would depend I guess. Let me think about this for a minute.."
Raz thinks for more than a minute. After a bit he starts to snore.
Otherwise, the night is quiet.