Flash FloodChapter Six
	We figured we better get this sword, before night fell, being in a place 
of the undead is no where you want to be after nightfall. Though, we hadn’t 
seen any sign of undead…, yet. I was feeling pretty well rested, though pain 
was still throbbing through my skull. Bud and Glug were both, quite 
exhausted, but their heavy armor had protected them from suffering any real 
injuries from the giants. We proceeded cautiosly down the passageway, Glug 
leading the way, with his Shield of the Orc before him. 
	The passageway turned left, and opened quickly into a finely made 
large room. The details of it were plain to see, as it was lit from within by 
three trenches of magical fire. The entire room sloped upwards from our 
vantage point. Three trenches of magical fire crossed the room, splitting it 
into four tiered levels. A set of stairs crossed the flames and climbed to the 
next higher level, right up the axis of the room. Each level was as wide as the 
room, but there was no more than ten feet from one set of stairs across to the 
next. It would have looked rather imperious, if it weren’t for the menacing 
mage statues on the next two tiers, and the large raised fist on the topmost 
level. We stood on the lowest level and faced a set of stairs that went up to 
the next level. That level had a statue of a mage, against each wall, pointing 
their wands towards each other, and consequently, toward anyone attempting 
to cross from one set of steps to the next. The next level had the same 
arrangement of statues, and the final set of steps led to the topmost platform 
with the giant fist. From our vantage point, it looked like the room ended on 
the platform with the fist. 
	We came to the conclusion that this was almost definitely a magical 
trap, but since none of us could cast any counter or protection spells, we 
figured we’d just have to run the gauntlet. I felt like I had let the party down 
in the last battle, so I volunteered to go first. Fire appeared to be the theme, 
so I pulled out my dragonscale kite shield, prayed for luck and began up the 
first set of steps. I stopped just short of the first level. The statues looked 
menacing. It would only take a second to sprint across the floor to the next 
set of stairs. I raised my shield and threw my self across the floor. Sure 
enough, fire leaped from the wands of the statues, but with the help of my 
shield, I ended up on the next set of steps none the worse for wear. The 
flames did not last, and were gone, when I looked back. Bud and Glug 
looked up from above. Neither wanted to try my maneuver. I decided to 
proceed on, if I needed help they would be close by. 
	I paused again at the top of the next steps, across the floor from me 
was the third and final set of steps, that led to the fist. I braced myself for the 
flames and made a run for it. Lightning streaked from the wands. The blue-
white arcs forked around me in a dazzling flash of light, but failed to harm me. 
I stopped on the bottom of the steps. My hair was standing on end, but I had 
made it past both magical traps unscathed. I reached the top of the steps, and 
noticed for the first time, that at the back of the wall, behind the fist, was a 
door. I stepped onto the platform and inspected the fist. It seemed to be 
metallic in nature and was about three feet in diameter. I relayed the 
information to Bud and Glug, and they reluctantly agreed to come up the 
stairs. When they dashed across the first platform, nothing happened. No 
flames, no nothing, those dirtbags owed me. The next platform also failed to 
attack them. 
	They arrived on the top and we all inspected the fist. It was 
immovable, and we decided to proceed through the door. It opened without 
difficulty, and revealed a long dark tubular cavern stretching away out of 
sight. A narrow strip of rock ran the length of the passage’s axis. It sloped 
downward on either side into dark murky water. There was no light source in 
this passage, and we had to rely on our own night vision to guide us. We 
could only proceed in single file, and it appeared that if we strayed from the 
center of path we could easily slip into the water and drown in our heavy 
armor. Glug led the way with his shield and battle axe, while Bud held his 
great axe at the ready, and I decided that my glaive could help as a weapon 
and as a walking stick. 
	We proceeded slowly listening for any sounds. After going, what 
must have been, about 100 feet, of curving passage, we were attacked. Scaly 
humanoid forms climbed up out of the water on either side of the causeway. I 
was facing three of the creatures, and I’m not sure how many were ahead. 
They held spears in their hands, and we were cutting into them before they 
had gained their footing. Though we were outnumbered, we were better 
armed, and obviously the more skilled combatants. Our armor was obviously 
difficult for them to defeat, so they tried to make it work in their benefit, and 
attempted to trip us and send us into their element. We had defeated most of 
them, their must have been around seven, before one was able to successfully 
trip Bud. I was able to grab Bud while Glug finished off the last of our 
assailants. The fight had been one, but the three of us were in various states 
of exhaustion and injury. We saw water moving, and threw caution to the 
wind, and sprinted down the path. 
	We shortly arrived at the end of the tunnel, a landing with a door in 
the wall We caught our breath and slowly opened it. A large natural cavern 
spread out before us it was both wide and high, nearly 100 feet in diameter. 
There were various stalactites and stalagmites, and large rocky outcroppings. 
At the far end, Bud could vaguely make out the shape of a door. Glug didn’t 
notice see the heat of any living creatures, so we crept across the room. We 
reached the far door, only to find that it was locked. Just as we were 
contemplating picking the lock a noise behind us caught our attention. We 
turned to see a fantastical beast fly down to the center of the floor from across 
the room. We were trapped.
	The creature looked like a large lion with two extra heads, one was a 
dragons head while the other was a goats. It had large leathery batlike wings, 
that it had used to fly down from its perch. I recognized this beast from 
stories I had heard, it was a chimera. I leapt to the right as a great blast of 
flames came at us. I had dodged the flames, unfortunately Bud and Glug had 
not been so fortunate. Bud appeared to have taken the brunt of it, Glug had 
been partially shielded by Bud, so was a little better off.. As the beast 
gathered itself for another blast, I sprinted around to its right charging its 
flank with my glaive. Bud could only manage to crawl behind a boulder, 
while Glug raised his shield and charged. The beast blew another fountain of 
flames, directly at Glug. His shield must have helped, for he survived the 
blast. At the same time I drove my glave into the chimera’s side. The goat 
head whipped at me with its horns. Glug was soon on it, and the battle 
begun. I was opening wounds along the creatures flank, and Glug landed a 
massive blow with his battle axe, nearly severing the dragon head from the 
creature. Both Glug and I were being butted and clawed, and Bud was able 
to launch a few arrows into the beast from the cover of a boulder. Though, 
we were taking injuries, it was obvious that the creature could not sustain the 
massive wounds we had given it, and it quickly succumbed. We all dropped 
with an incredible feeling of elation. Bud was near death, and both Glug and I 
were exhausted and hurting. 
	We gathered ourselves after a short rest and a meal, and attempted to 
pick the lock on the door. No luck, it would not yield. I climbed up to the 
ledge where the chimera had been hiding, and searching the bones, found 
another key. We tried it in the door, but again, failure. We decided to go 
back and try to figure out what part the fist played in this whole thing. We 
got to it safely, apparently the lizardmen were weary of attacking us again, 
and did a thorough search of it. We found a keyhole. The key from the 
chimera’s lair worked. After turning the key, the fist began to magically open, 
revealing another key in the palm of its hand. We took this key, and hurried 
back to the door in the cavern. It fit.
	We cautiously opened the door. Inside was a large square room, four 
statues stood guard against the side walls, and an ornate sarcophagi sat in the 
center of the room. This must surely be our destination. We prepared 
ourselves for another statue attack, and headed over to the stone coffin. 
Together we pushed off the lid, and spun to defend ourselves. Nothing 
happened, the statues remained still. We turned back to the sarcophagi and 
looked within. Sure enough a skeleton lay there, with a two handed sword 
laid out on his chest. Glug wrested the sword from his grasp, breaking its 
fingers in the process. Bud and I stripped the skeleton of a few pieces of 
jewelry, including a ring and necklace. I tossed the bones to the side and 
searched the bottom of the coffin for a secret door that may lead to more 
treasure. I found one! Inside were four flasks with glyphs of magic upon 
their seals. We stowed the items we had found and quickly departed the 
tomb. The sword must be worth far more than we were being offered to have 
been guarded so well. We decided to learn more about it before, deciding to 
hand it over to that pompous noble wench.
	We made it safely and without event to the fresh bright air. Of course 
I was much happier to be in the sun again, than my two comrades, but they 
were quite happy to be clear of the tomb. The last time we had entered one, 
two of us had not walked out. There were at least four hours left of sunlight, 
so we decided to pack up and get a good distance away before setting camp. 
We had gone no farther than half a mile, when a troop of soldiers came down 
the side of an embankment, cutting us off both ahead and behind. We were in 
no condition to fight, so we waited to see what they wanted. The answer 
came soon enough. The noble wench came riding down the hill with the 
captain of the guard. 
	“I see you have my sword, I’ll take it now.” She said. Her manner 
was fairly cordial, but the weapons aimed in our direction informed us of the 
seriousness of her request. We handed over the sword. She cordially thanked 
us, and then as she was about to leave, she turned her horse back around to 
face us. 
	“Oh, I almost forgot, your reward.” She tossed a small bag of coins to 
the ground then turned once again and left. 
We waited till the soldiers had all departed before making any move. 
Once they were gone we picked up our pitiful reward, and swore to bring her 
down, and foil her plans for power.
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