Postlude to Adventure Sixteen "Charming Fellow Isn't He?"
I helped T'Rojan back to the Slattern. He was in bad shape, and quickly fell asleep in the downstairs bed. Even though it was quite late at night, I couldn't sleep. Not just yet. I sat at a table looking over the jewelry we had taken from my princess. I looked at the lovely necklace that so recently hung between her beautiful bosom, just beside her heart. I could still feel the last of her warmth on it, and couldn't help but think, "what if the situation had been different?" What if we had met under different circumstances, maybe there would have been a chance for us. Finally sleep called, and I dozed off, but my dreams were very unsettled, and I felt wracked with guilt over the loss of Her life.
The next morning, I woke up earlier than I should have, given the activities of the previous night. But a plan began forming in my mind. Maybe it wasn't the end for Her and I. Maybe, there was something I could do.
T'Rojan woke soon as well, looking somewhat better than last night. We decided to investigate the items that had been in her possession. I was quite impatient with the process of identifying the magic items, but I had to play along or T'Roj would guess that something was up. The dagger he had, turned out to be a magical dagger that had some type of direct link to Orcus. An evil piece of metal to be sure, but for some reason, T'Rojan decided to hold onto it. The bracers were magical defensive bracers of limited magic, and the ring was an extraordinarily powerful ring of protective magic. The only problem was that it radiated evil as well, and apparently would be less effective in the hands of non evil persons.
T'Rojan decided to take the dagger home and get some more rest. He left me with the rest of the treasures. I had to act quickly or I might be too late. I waited about five minutes after Trojan left, then I ran and grabbed a blanket and jumped on my horse. Galloping down the streets, I arrived at the temple of the evil priestess. I jumped down with my blanket and rushed in the door. I thanked Rudd, for Luck was with me, my beloved lay where I had put her, undisturbed from the night before. Quickly, I wrapped her body in the blanket and threw her lifeless form across the back of my horse, Sally. Ensuring that my package was secure, I trotted back through town to the Slattern.
I was soon safe inside with the doors locked. My package lay across the table in front of me. I pulled back the blanket to reveal her lovely face. Beautiful even in the repose of death. I could look no longer, so I carried her to the guest room and lay her body in bed. The next step of my plan would now begin.
It was early the next evening when word got to me that the kind of person I needed had been found. It had been a real long shot that such a person would exist in Rel Mord, but luck was apparently still on my side. I sent a note to this person describing the services that I required and a hint of the riches I was willing to pay for them.
The next morning, I went to get a piece of the puzzle that I would need to accomplish my plan. Although it was not overly difficult, I was happy with my success none the less. Now the only thing left to do was wait, and hope that my offer was accepted.
I received an invitation to meet with the man who I needed for my plan to succeed. I was a bit scared, having never dealt face to face with a man of his power before. We met in a public inn, and an agreement was reached. Apparently his greed was a useful lever in obtaining his service. I would meet him the next day with both items.
I could hardly sleep that night. Tomorrow, if all went according to plan, I would never want for love again. The next morning, I rented a wagon, hooked up my draft horse, and then placed my love in the back among a soft bed of furs. Her body remained tightly wrapped in a blanket to conceal her from onlookers. I made my way to the agreed upon meeting place. An acolyte helped me carry her in to a temple. It seems there are even more temples dedicated to the worship of evil gods than I would have guessed in a big city like Rel Mord.
The high priest came out, glancing me a sneer. I wondered if I could really trust one such as himself. But the payment was more than worth it. After all, how often does one get the opportunity to receive a rare and powerful magic item for the cost of one simple human life. The odd thing is that he would be giving back a life, rather than taking one. The ceremony went quickly and before my very eyes, breath raised my beloved's chest and her body stirred. The high priest turned to me and said.
"It is done", a fierce feeling of deja-vu hit me, I couldn't help but feel that some god had smiled down upon me. "I will take my payment now."
I didn't even look at him as I handed over the evil ring of protection, as I moved toward my beloved, eyes glued to her heaving breast. The acolyte once again helped me carry her out to the cart, but this time, she was alive, and I left her face uncovered letting the warm spring air blow across her face.
I couldn't get back to the Slattern quick enough, but I made sure to take precautions and took a circuitous route, being careful to watch for a tail. At last I got my precious living cargo to the warehouse. Carrying her limp form inside, I set her in bed, clasping the potion in my hand and sat waiting for her eyes to open.
It was an eternity, but finally, she awakened words weakly came to her as she looked upon me through slitted eyes.
"Hush dear, drink this it will help you" I said, as I uncorked the potion and offered it to her luscious lips. In her weakened and confused state, she accepted the potion and drank from it. Slowly her beautiful brown eyes grew wide and a smile graced her face.
"Thank you honey" she said.
The tables were now turned. She had charmed me, and now, revenge would be mine, and how sweet a revenge it would be. Quickly I told her that she had fallen victim to the powerful pull of evil, and that I had rescued her from the clutches of Orcus. I could see a look of terror appear on her face as a painful memory flashed across her mind, then she fainted off to unconsciousness. She would be weak for some time.
Slowly I nursed her back to health, feeding her, bathing her, and pouring the last bits of the Philter of Love into her precious mouth. My plan was both devious, selfish, and an act of love that even I could not find fault with. I couldn't help but think that the god of luck had been shining on me. A religious man I had never been, but that changed as love came into my life for the first time. I continued to convince Milliviel that the way of evil was wrong and that continuing along that path would lead to an untimely and permanent death. Oh, excuse me, I never formally introduced you to Millie have I? Well Milliviel is a stunning brunette, with skin so soft and pale and eyes the color of a raging flood. Her heart was mine, and mine hers.
The week following the raising of Milliviel left me with a lot of time to contemplate my life. I had done nothing to deserve the love of this beautiful creature, in fact I had ripped it from her heart by means of magic, but I did not intend to give it up. I decided that Rudd, the goddess of luck must have answered my prayers. I felt compelled to show her my appreciation by visiting a temple of hers and praying.
While praying, I feared that I might lose Millie, and that her magically enhanced love for me was probably not strong enough to lure her away from Orcus. Just then a lovely priestess of Rudd passed near me and asked if there was anything she could do to help me. It was then that I decided that just maybe there was. I quickly told her that the love of my life had fallen victim to the evil draw of a demon prince, and that I had recently rescued her from his clutches, but that I would need help keeping her from succumbing to his evil lure again. The priestess offered her help, and as soon as I was able to get Millie walking, I brought her to the temple of Rudd, and left her to converse with the priestess there.
It took some time, but eventually, the persuasiveness of our love, the words of the priestess and the brief period of time that Millie's soul had spent in the horror of the Abyss, convinced her that the way of evil was no longer the way for her.
In the meantime, Refanij finally arrived from the Flinty Hills and our mission to rescue the gnomish treasures was put into action.
Adventure Seventeen "Return to the Scene of the Crime"
Refanij arrived, finally, though he claimed that he had left immediately upon receiving my message. His stubby little legs just can't move him very quickly over land, and his pony isn't much faster. Well we caught up on things, having not seen him in a couple of months. He was saddened by the news of Kordacc. The others had told him when they delivered my letter, but Reff had been the closest of the entire group to Kordacc. They had even gone out and gotten tattooed together.
I quickly told him my plan for retrieving the buried treasures. I'd even purchased many items in preparation of the trip, including potions, scrolls, and lots of mosquito netting. I had used up all my available resources, and needed some of Ref's and T'Roj's to complete my prepatory shopping. In a couple of days we were ready to go. I sent word to Trojy, at his old man's place, to come meet us at the Slattern, as we were ready to depart.
I had introduced Millie to Ref, as my wife. He was somewhat bewildered, but accepted it as something foolish folk like us humans would do. He just wondered how what such an attractive woman would be doing with a slug like me. I worried that Millie would start to feel the same way herself.
Trojan arrived, the night before we planned to leave. While he, Ref, and myself were sitting in the common room sitting around a table, Millie walked in from the guest room and out through the lab door. T'Roj's jaw just dropped open. He sat dumbfounded as she walked past.
"You've met my wife of course?" I said.
Looking at me with wide eyed confusion, he asked, "Your wife? That's not who I think it is? Is it?"
"I believe so. You remember killing her don't you?" I answered.
Shaking his head in bewilderment, T'roj mumbled, "I don't want to know, I really fucking don't want to know."
At this point Ref was confused as well. He turned to T'roj and asked, " You killed her?"
"I don't know what happened, don't ask me." Responded Toejam.
Ref looked at me with this total look of "what the hell is going on" expression. I just smirked and shrugged my shoulders. "Illusions are a wondrous thing, aren't they?" I said, as I stood up and walked over to the cask of good ale. "Anyone else want a refill?"
Figuring that what you don't know can't hurt you, T'Roj and Ref avoided discussing the female for the rest of the night, and we stuck to talking about our planned departure the next morning. We all headed for bed, planning on leaving early in the morning. T'Roj went off back home while Reffy and I retired at the Slattern.
We set out, as planned, and headed on down to Oldred. The trip was about as exciting as watching feces being consumed by flies. In Oldred I resisted the temptation of frolicking with a trollop, and we set out the day after that for the caves. Two more days and the cave entrance was in sight.
The first phase of our plan was about to go into effect. We had to go back through the crabmen cave to gain access to the tunnels. I had gotten a little information from a sage in Rel Mord about these crabmen. Apparently they were rather dumb, but quite fascinated by silvery metals. In preparation for this, I had pounded approximately 100 silver pieces into thin flat discs, so as to increase their overall "silveryness".
We walked up to the entrance, and approaching cautiously, we entered, with sack of silver in one hand and a handful of the coins in the other. It wasn't long before we ran into two of the walking lobsters. The held their ground and hissed and clicked in their bizarre language. I tossed some of the coins at their feet. They eyed them and started scrambling them up. I advanced, and they retreated. Soon others joined the ranks, and we were at the entrance of their main cavern. The "women and children" scattered, while several guards stood between us and our intended destination. I emptied out the rest of the bag of silver onto the cave floor, and watched as the crabmen scooped it up. Slowly we made our way around them. They seemed very tense, but we were able to move past them, deeper into the caves without incident.
The first hurdle had been passed. The second would be the denizens of the caverns, that had so recently taken the life of Kordacc. We made it to the large cavern where he had made his last stand, and moving cautiously ahead, Ref and I scouted out the area. Half-way into it, Ref spotted something and pointed it out to me. It was a cave fisher sitting atop a rock formation in the middle of the cavern. I decided to web the monster up, so we could move past it without incident. Unfortunately We didn't notice the other four cave fishers situated about the edges and ledges of the cave.
Ref got nailed by a tongue and was being drawn towards it. A tongue flashed by me, narrowly missing, and T'Roj came out to help. A skirmish broke out, and before it had ended, several cave fisher had died, and I had foolishly charged headlong at one in a rare moment of both courage and foolish overconfidence. The other two remain unharmed, while I took some damage slaying one of the giant insects with my swords. It was a reminder that I am not a warrior.
We made our way safely through to the gnomish area of the caverns. Heading toward the invisible bridge, we came upon a rather intriguing obstacle. Completely blocking the passageway, right before the chasm bridge, was a freshly constructed brick wall. Someone had been here very recently. In fact they probably were still here. Apparently there would be more competition for the gnome treasure than just the traps themselves. Pulling out one of the large heavy crowbars we had strapped to the back of our magically strength enhanced pack gnome, otherwise known as Refanij, we began to smash a hole through the brick wall. It was only two layers thick, so it didn't take very long. We peeked through the hole, and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary on the other side. T'Rojan then cast reduce on the wall, and we pushed it over with a loud crash. Surprisingly, the whole thing stayed together. Strong mortar we surmised. We moved on to the invisible bridge spanning the great chasm.
I made my way quickly across the bridge, while the other two fools creeped along, quite concerned about the integrity of the invisible structure. Trojan was especially worried, and kept a white knuckled grasp of Refanij's shirt the whole way across. The metal gate that had been an obstacle before, had been removed from its anchors in the wall and was leaning in the passageway. Whoever had done it, had skill in working with stone, and plenty of time. We squeezed past the iron obstacle and soon came upon another brick wall. About that time, I began to hear the buzzing of the mysterious swarm outside.
Ref and T'Roj had heard talk about the swarm but had not actually experienced it. We all got scared and quickly pounded through the brick wall. We passed through it as quickly as possible, and headed up towards the first room. Just as we neared it, we saw two short skinny looking humanoids with great big eyes. They were staring right at us, and then went running off to the left. None of us had any idea what type of creeps they were.
I decided to try and sneak up and get a better look at them. Moving as silently as death, I made my way into the circular chamber. It had four entrances, one at each of the cardinal points. The tombs were down the corridor to the left, the same direction the big-eyed bastards had run down. I crept down the hallway, and soon spotted two of the buggers peering around a corner. I stopped, hoping they hadn't seen me. Two mini crossbow bolts heding my way informed me of their powers of observation. However their archery skill was not nearly as impressive, unless their intent was to wound the tunnel wall. They immediately took off down towards the tombs, and I hurried to the corner they had been hiding behind. Looking down, I could see a distant flicker of fire light, and I decided to return to the other two.
I got back to them and began appraising them of the situation. Ref decided that he'd go check it out himself, while T'Roj and I tried to come up with a plan. Just about that time, we heard a scurrying sound coming down the passage to our left. In a heartbeat Ref was beset by a herd of glowing eyed beetles. He danced about firing his daggers, and T'Roj and I began casting spells. Moments later a couple of crossbow firing big-eyed freaks showed up as well. T'roj summoned bats to attack some of the beetles, while I color sprayed some of the enemy. They were knocked unconscious by the spell, and T'Roj started going after the downed ones with his staff.
More big eyes showed up, and I decided it was time for some real magic. I cast a phantasm that made it appear that the swarm of bats that T'Roj had summoned, had multiplied until they filled the entire room. The big eyes that were standing ran screaming from the room, unfortunately both T'roj and Ref thought they were real as well. Sometimes I can be almost too good at what I do. Unfortunately beetles are impervious to illusions, and a bunch of the six legged things started biting away at me. I finished them off with another color spray, as T'roj cowered behind me, having had his ass handed to him by the bugs. We crushed the carapaces of the unconscious and finished off the bigeyes. Every one of us needed some refreshing. Luckily this had been planned for and I passed out the extra strong potions of healing.
It was time to take out these creepy grave robbers for good. Hopefully there were only a few more left. We moved down the passage toward the tombs, passing one of those worm holes. Inside there was a tar coated ball of cloth burning away. These little buggers had planned this out well, protecting themselves from the giant tunnel worms. We got to the main hallway of the tombs. A quick scan revealed that the little bastards had broken into two of the tombs and had been working on a third. Three others were still untouched. Several wormholes ran out from this area as well. Every one of them had a fiery ball of flame in them.
Ref and I decided to crawl through some of the wormholes in search of the big eyes. They had to be somewhere nearby. It didn't take long for us to find them either. Sticking his head around a corner, Ref almost got it filled with bolts. Luckily they missed, mostly. I quickly crawled over him and cast a sleep spell at the rotten bastards. I received a fine bolt in the face for my trouble. Luckily they weren't very big and were fired from small hand sized bows. It hurt like a bitch, but did little real damage. I saw a couple of them drop from the spell.
As fast as we could, we crawled into the room they were hiding in. Tumbling out of the wormhole, Ref and I engaged the three who were still standing. T'Roj came crawling in soon after, and the battle was quickly over. We stood in one of the tombs of the gnomes. It had been breached by the tunnel worms, and the casket had been cracked open. Apparently, it had just been cracked open, for the treasures of the gnomish lord remained in the casket. Carefully we placed the three pouches into a bag. We'd have time to examine them later, when it was safer.
Crawling back out the hole, we did a thorough search of the area. The two tombs that had their doors cracked open, had also had their treasures taken. There was no sign of the treasure on any of the big-eyes bodies. We found a chest full of the pitchy cloth balls that they were burning in the holes. Deciding that we had eliminated the local threat, we chose one of the empty tombs to rest in. Taking turns to watch, we rested.
When we were refreshed sufficiently to memorize spells, we geared up to finish opening the vaults. To make a long story short, we successfully opened the three remaining vaults through use of reduce magic, muscle and dispel magic scrolls. We carefully removed all the treasure, but paid special attention to leaving the bodies in an undisturbed state. If only we could seal this area off for good. Hopefully removing the treasure would also ensure that others would leave the dead in peace.
Oh yeah, Ref got blasted by an electrically trapped tomb. Apparently the Dispel Magic scroll hadn't worked. He looked pretty funny with all his hair standing on end. Its too bad he was under the protection of a Protection from Fire scroll at the time. We also got careless and didn't put a fire in one of the worm holes. T'Roj paid the price when one of our old friends shot out and grabbed him around the midsection and began rending his flesh. I threw up a circle of flame that engulfed the beast and Ref fired daggers, while T'Roj screamed like a woman during childbirth. The big insect apparently couldn't stand the noise, for it released T'Roj and retreated into the hole. I hurtled in after it, wanting to end the damn thing's life once and for all, but it was much faster than I, and quickly escaped. Not wanting to get caught by another one, I quickly got back out of the hole.
The rest of our stay was uneventful, and as soon as we collected all the goods, we got the hell out of there. We made it all the way back to the crabmen cave without further incident. We were at the homestretch. I put an illusionary wall of fire around us and we made our way through the crabmen area. The fire kept them at bay, and we were able to make it through without any bloodshed.
Fresh air at last, it was good to be out of the caves. We had finished what we came here for, now it was time to get back home. As agreed upon, we split the treasure into four shares. We each would get one share, and the remaining share would go back to the gnomes. There were four magic items and eight pouches of gems. Most of the gems went towards reimbursing us for the expenses we had laid out for supplies. The rest would easily hold me through to next fall. Of the magic items, I selected a brooch that granted me a few skins of stone each day. T'Rojan grabbed a torc that allowed him to recall a spell he had cast already during that day, and Refanij selected a ring of Haste. The last remaining item was a wand of shadowy magics that would be turned back over to the gnomes with their share of the treasure.
The trip home was even less exciting than the trip down, but a safe trip is a good trip. We were finally finished with the caves that had taken so many lives. Hopefully an earthquake would collapse the entire thing.