Adventure Twenty Three "What the Devil is Going on Here?"

Millie and I spent the night "celebrating" our freedom from the cave, and a nights rest on a soft bed.  Have you ever noticed how close the words celibate and celebrate are in spelling, but how different they are in meaning?  Anyway, the sun was high overhead before either of us crawled from under the covers.  Millie began preparing breakfast while I donned a pair of crotchless panties.  Just then T'rojan came in the door.

"Good morning! Good morning!  I hope you slept well,...nice underwear...anyway, are you guys ready to head back up north yet?" Trojenz asked.

"How are we going to get back up north?  I don't suppose we have a cave full of treasure to buy another trip through that crazy transmuting bastard's gateway again."  I responded.

"Actually, I was hoping you had an idea on how to get back up there" he said.

"Listen up boys," stuck in Millie, "I've had enough romping around in the cold north.  I think I'm going to stay here in Rel Mord, leave the frozen tundra to you fools.  If you had any brains, you'd stay here as well."

"C'mon, baby, you can't be serious, we need you." I pleaded.  "You're going to miss out on the adventure of a lifetime."

"We can talk about this later.   And take off my underwear, you look like an idiot."  She answered.

"Actually, I kind of like the way he looks in them," replied T'roj.

"Alright, that does it, I'm going to my room!" I said, and stormed off in a huff.  Damn, if Millie wasn't going, we'd be short of healing, which in short means, we'd be dead in two weeks.  I changed into some normal clothes then went back out to eat breakfast.  T'rojan had already left to see if he could drum up the meatheads and strike another deal with the transmuter.

Millie and I discussed going back up north in more detail.   She maintained her disinterest in returning north, claiming she would not be doing Rudd any service by wandering around in uninhabited mountains looking for a fictitious "moon gate".  She did agree to help us get back up there if we were still inclined to do so.  Apparently Sariana, the high priestess of Rudd here in Rel Mord, was capable of casting a spell called Dimensional Folding, that would open a passage for us to pass through to the north.  Millie would discuss it with her to see if she would be willing to assist us. 

T'Rojan finally came around, and I noticed that he was walking kind of funny as he came through the door.  "Sorry you had to see that," he said. 

"That makes two of us."

"Anyway, I've got some good news and some bad news," proceeded T'Roje.  "The good news is Mordagin's sugar daddy decided to raise him from the dead.  He's back among the living, and pretty pissed that you put a hole in one of his favorite robes."

"If that's the good news, then what could the bad news possibly be?" I asked.

"Actually that was both the good news and the bad news."

"Which part is which?" I asked.

"I'm not quite sure myself," replied T'Rojan.

"Well, I've got some good news of my own," I said.  "I know how we can get back up north."

I then went on to tell T'Rojan how Millie had spoken with Sariana and that she had agreed to help us out, on the condition that I promise to perform a service for Rudd, and that the rest of the party donate a large sum of gold to the church.  T'Rojan agreed with me that the terms were agreeable, and we went out to round up the rest of the party.

Two days later we gathered at dawn outside the tavern/church that Sariana preached from.  The casting of the spell went quickly, and before I knew it, it was my turn to lead Sally, my horse, through the magic portal.   I kissed Millie a quick good bye, then stepped through the gateway.  I felt space and time twist about me as I made the transition, it lasted for only a moment, and then I was standing just outside Purmil, with my horse twitching nervously behind me.   T'rojan, Mordagin, Cuhltron, Stenngar and Spada had all gone before me, and were all busy trying to reign in their horses as they pranced nervously about. The portal disappeared a mere second after I came out this side.

After settling down the animals, we mounted up and headed east towards the mountains, again, still following the scroll tube.

We traveled without meeting our pursuers or the army that had been camped out on the plains a week and a half ago.  Where the hell an entire army disappears to I have no idea, but they were not to be found.  After several days of parking my ass on a saddle, we had reached a point where we needed to make a decision.  We had started out moving eastward until the mountains forced us to alter our course slightly northeast.  The scroll tube was now pointing slightly off to the right of our direction of travel, and was slowly tracking more and more to the right with each passing day.  We would soon have to abandon the rolling hills and plains and head directly into the mountains. 

Stenngar informed us that there was a pass that lead southward into the mountains, just one days ride ahead.  If we took the pass southward we could get deep into the mountains before we would have to strike out on our own.  Besides, maybe we could find an old trail or something along the way that went in the direction we wanted.

We reached the pass and turned south, into the mountains.   After journeying for a day and a half, we came upon a small lakeside town in the middle of the pass.   As we neared the town, we began to notice a rather strange phenomenon.  The water in the lake started to slowly go down.  At first we though we were just imagining things, but the longer we watched, the more we realized that the lake was indeed sinking.  By the time we walked into the village, several feet of bank, which had been underwater up until very recently, was exposed. 

The few people who were walking the streets seemed far more interested in us than the mysteriously sinking lake.  We asked the first person we came across, a rather normal looking human male, where we could find an inn.  He pointed us to a nearby building, but refused to answer any questions regarding the lake.   We made our way to the inn, hoping to get a warm meal and maybe some information about that lake.

We dismounted and entered the establishment.  Deciding to take the subtle approach, (no really, I mean it) we ordered some food before we started asking all kinds of questions.  Finally we cornered the innkeeper and got him to spill his guts.   He said that the lake drained out every year at this time for a couple of days, for no reason anyone knew of.  He also said it was believed to be the work of Heironeous, their patron deity here in this town.  He suggested that if we seeked further answers that we should seek the advice of Father Maricon, the local priest of Hemorrhoidious.  

We finished up our grub, secured a couple of rooms for the evening, then went in search of the local priest.  It wasn't hard to find him either, seeing as the church of Erroneous was easily the largest building in town.  We quickly announced our presence by banging on the church doors. 

A young man opened the door and asked us our business.  We asked for an interview with the Father, in regards to the lake, and the lad ran off to get him.  A few minutes later, a middle aged man with a humble countenance (odd for a priest of Heironeous) introduced himself as Father Maricon.

"How may I help you today?" he asked.

"We heard you could tell us about the lake out their, and were hoping that we could be of assistance", replied T'Rojan.

"Hmm, well, come in, come in, I'll tell you what I know."  The father ushered us into the church and brought us to a private room where we sat down and he began his tale. 

Many years ago, the town stood where the lake is now.  In the town was a large church and complex where disciples of Heironeous studied.  A high priest presided over the facility, and the town was vibrant in the worship of Heironeous.  People from all around came to study in this secluded retreat of discipline.  Then, 90 years ago, some of the priests discovered that the high priest had been corrupted.  A board of inquiry brought the high priest to trial, and soon after, the town flooded with water, killing most of the towns inhabitants and drowning everyone within the underground complex of Heironeous.  It was a great tragedy from which the town never fully recovered.   And now, once a year, the lake would drain down, exposing the remains of what was, and reminding all the villagers of the sins of their forefathers.  Several groups of people have adventured to the sunken church on similar occasions, but none have ever come back with anything to report.  We were all fascinated by the tale. 

We quickly decided that we wanted to investigate this sunken town as well, surely there was something that previous adventurers had overlooked.  Father Maricon gave us permission to explore the premises, and informed us that an "island" with the old church would not be exposed until sometime early the next morning, and that we'd need a boat to cross the water to get there.  We thanked the father for his time and left the church, planning how we would proceed.

We found a couple of people with rowboats and rented them for the next couple of days.   They were happy to receive the money, as they would have little use for the boats with the lake bed exposed.  We then all readied ourselves for an early rise and got to bed early that night.

It was about 4 am when we departed the inn and walked over to the shoreline.  It was hard to see much in the dark, but the water was easily 100 feet lower than it had been the day before.  We dragged the boats down the muddy bank until we got to the waters edge, then climbed aboard and rowed out to an island.  We landed the rowboats near the dark outline of a building and went ashore, treading through the muck.

"Oh god, look at my shoes, they'll never be the same" complained T'Rojan.

"Shut up wizard!" ejaculated the barbarian.

We slogged through the mud, noticing three buildings in the area.  One was much larger than the other two, and from what we could make out, appeared to be a church.  Deciding that the church would be the best place to start, we headed directly for it.  We walked in through the front doorway, the inside was a mess, plants and fish lay gasping in the mud, refuse was strewn about. 

We were all inside the church when a hoard of small lizard like creatures started streaming through the windows and doorways.  We circled around each other and started throwing spells, while the meatheads drew weapons and started hacking.  It was over rather quickly, and I'd have to say that we overreacted.  The threat we perceived was much lower than the threat we experienced, and I wasted a web spell defeating them.

After concluding that there was nothing to find in the church, we spread out to look around the other areas of this "island".  T'Rojan and I searched the other two small buildings while Stenngar, Spada and Mordagin looked about a nearby cemetery.   T'roj and I hadn't found a thing when Spada started yelling for our attention.

We ran over to the others as they huddled about a small stone mausoleum.  It had a door, big enough for a full grown man to walk through, and on the stone threshold could be seen scrape marks in an arc shape, implying that the door had been opened with some frequency.  Spada immediately put his considerable muscle into it, and popped the door ajar.  Looking inside, we saw a circular stair leading downward.  We all looked at each other quite excitedly.

"Ah ha!  It seems there was something for us to find here after all", stated Mordagin.

We lit a couple of torches and prepared to enter the unknown.  The stairwell was surrounded by arrow slits at regular intervals, luckily no one was behind them.  We safely made it to the bottom of the stairs, which must have lead at least 30 feet down, and entered a small room with about seven doors interspersed with more arrow slits.  I guess these priests didn't take kindly to visitors.  We stepped into the room and began testing doors, each one we tried popped with a small puff of smoke of some long faded warding.  Eventually we found the one door that led onward.

As we advanced into the complex, we came across the remains of priests laying in hallways, many still in rotted armor with rusted weapons clutched in their skeletal hands.  Some of them had obviously been killed in combat.  We found several rooms that appeared to be the sparse living quarters of the disciples.  We also found another circular stair leading further downward directly behind a large pile of animal excrement, we had no idea where it came from.  We decided to complete the exploration of this level before going further down. 

Rounding a corner, we ran into another pile of dung from which sprung a horrible looking creature.  It looked like a moving pile of dung with tentacles and a gaping maw.  Mordagin yelled that it was some otty-goo thing and it lashed out at Stenngar and Spada.  Looking behind me, I saw another one of these horrors coming up from behind us.  Damn, I was going to be its first target!  I whipped out a wand of paralysis, which I'd acquired at the extinct mages home, and promptly dropped the walking goo in its tracks.  Looking back toward the head of the party, I saw that the other creature had a hold of Stenngar and was flailing him around like a rag doll, slamming him into Spada, and generally pulverizing him.  There were too many people in front of me, and the chances of me paralyzing Stenngar were about equal to my chances in hitting the monster, so I turned my attention to the beast I'd downed, and left the rest of the party to take the other one.  I started stabbing away at the beast with my short swords, but I had no idea where the vital organs were. 

By the time I was satisfied that I'd finished off the vile critter, the others had dispatched the otty-goo which had been beating on Stenngar.  We decided that we were in pretty decent shape, after giving the barbarian a potion of healing to quaff, and headed down the second set of stairs.

As we descended, we could hear a loud noise grow from a dull thud to a loud banging.   By the time we reached the bottom, we could hear a strange chanting sound as well.   The stair opened into hallway leading to the left and right.  The banging was coming from our right and the chanting was coming from our left.  We decided to investigate the banging first.  We moved up the hallway to its end, having passed about three doors along the way, until we stood directly outside the door from which the noise was emanating.  From this close, it sounded like the workings of a blacksmith.  

Opening the door, we saw two lizardmen working at an anvil.  They saw us and immediately grabbed weapons.  That was enough for Spada and Stenngar, who rushed to the attack.  I closed the door behind the meatheads and waited for the mayhem to reside.  It was over quickly, and T'Rojan, Mordagin and myself entered the room, rather than stand around in the hallway.  It looked like the lizardmen had been fashioning weapons, perhaps they were preparing for a raid on the unknowing village above.  I picked up a hammer and began beating away at the anvil, in an attempt to keep any nearby lizardmen from growing suspicious at the sudden cease in sound.  We decided that our next plan of attack would be to take out the chanting lizardmen.

Mordagin had a fireball spell memorized and it was decided that a large group of lizardmen in worship was just too juicy a target to pass up.  We came up with a plan, Mordagin would stand back from the chanting room and prepare his fireball, while Stenngar opened the door.  Hopefully we could take out most of the bastards in one shot this way.  We left the smithy and peeked in the nearby doors, just to make sure we wouldn't leave an enemy at our backs, and found a large empty arena and another smaller room, empty except for papers and books.  We snuck down to a set of double doors, the source of the chanting, and positioned ourselves.  Mordagin and Spada went around a bend in the hallway, giving them a straight shot at the double doors, as well as a bit of a cushion, while Stenngar positioned himself to open one of the doors.  T'Rojan and I stayed back by the stairs to guard the our escape route.

The plan went off just as we drew it up, well it would have, if we'd planned on fighting devils and getting caught in our own fireball blast.  With everyone in position, Stenngar whipped open the door and Mordagin let fly with the fireball.  A huge gout of flame came shooting back out of the room, blasting Mordagin and Spada.   Stenngar was mostly protected behind the door.  Immediately after the blast, I could see Spada firing arrows through the open door, when all of a sudden, all hell broke out, literally.  T'Rojan and I found ourselves surrounded by crawling masses of fleshy goo, a bunch of flying spiky demon things and 2 big pointed horny devil creatures.  Yes, I was very excited.

The little flying devils fired spikes and balls of flame at T'Rojan, while I had two sloughing mounds of flesh slowly advance on me.  I dropped one of the flying devils with a sleep spell and T'Rojan dropped two more with a color spray.  I don't know what was happening with the others behind us, but I could hear fighting from that direction as well.  Just then, T'Rojan stared at the one of the big devil guys, a look of fear shot across his face and he ran screaming up the stairs with three of the little winged devils chasing after him.  Oh shit, time for some drastic measures if I were to stay alive.  I whipped out a scroll with improved invisibility, and hastily cast it as the two slow blobby creatures tried to slam me with their fists.  Rudd's wishes must have been with me, for the scroll worked without a hitch, and I somersaulted away from the blobmen and dove behind the circular staircase.  Unfortunately, one of the big devils watched my movements even while invisible.

I had no idea what would work on devils, and hiding behind a circular staircase would not afford me safety for long.  I decided that I would try and throw blinding powder in one of the big devils eyes.  I circled around the stairwell, coming right up behind one of the devils and fired a handful of powder right at him from point blank range.  He couldn't see me anyway, so I don't know if it did anything, besides his partner could see me, even in my invisible state, and fired a ball of flames that hit me in the shoulder and caught my clothes on fire.   I retreated back behind the stairwell again, squeezing up against the stone in an attempt to get my clothes extinguished.

As I completed patting the flames out, more blob creatures came at me from either side of the stairwell.  It was time for me to get out of there.  I cast fly on myself and rose out of their reach and flew back into the hallway.  The two devils were still out there, along with a couple of the little flyers.  What the hell were Mordagin, Stenngar and Spada doing, I wondered.  I was facing two lesser devils, a couple of their flying soldiers and a handful of the blobmen, and so far I hadn't even scored a single blow against them.  My life started flashing before my eyes.  It was time to retreat to a safer location and think about digging out some more scrolls.   I decided to make a run for the arena. 

I flew out into the hallway, past the big devils, the one which had been watching me the whole time, fired his tail at me on the way by and sliced a gash open along my chest. Ow!  I made it to the door for the arena, and rushed through, quickly heading up to the top of the high ceiling.  After taking a moment to catch my breath, I realized nothing had followed me in.  Good, I was safe, for the moment anyway.  I downed a potion of healing and felt much better.  I analyzed the spells and magic items that I had, and quickly came to the conclusion that I didn't have a whole hell of a lot that would be useful.  Well, if I didn't get moving, the improved invisibility spell would wear off and I'd be a sitting duck, well flying duck actually. 

I headed for a set of doors that led back into the hallway, and opened them up.   On the other side were two more slopmen.  They immediately began swinging at the air.  I flew harmlessly over their heads and looked down the hall to appraise the situation.  At the end of the hall, near the stairs, was one of the big devils.   He was standing there looking up the hall, apparently he hadn't spotted me.   Flying just in front of him were two of the spiky little devils, and there were two more fleshblobs guarding the other door to the arena.  I cast stinking cloud over the big devil and one of the spiky flyers.  I couldn't really see what happened, but it didn't look like the big guy was affected at all by it.  I then fired a phantasmal lighting bolt down the hallway.  The closes flying spiker didn't like it too much and started quivering, the one in the stinking cloud dropped to the ground.  The big guy didn't even flinch.  I began to think that maybe it wasn't real.  It was just about that time that the improved invisibility wore off. 

The closes spiky devil finally had a target, and with little in the way of options, I pulled my swords and the two of us flew towards each other bent on killing each other.   Luckily the mid-air collision involved mostly the devil colliding with my swords.   He dropped like a 30 pound bag of wet devil.  The big guy continued to do nothing.  I was beginning to think he was being held by some spell or something.   I dropped the stinking cloud, and was finally able to see what was happening at Mordagin's end of the hall.

I could see Stenngar, Spada and Mordagin doing battle with one of the large devils and a bunch of the walking blobs.  Actually, I began to realize that Stungun and Neuter weren't doing battle with anything.  They both stood frozen in mid attack, while Mordagin tried to take on some fleshblobs with nothing but a dagger.  Now don't get me wrong, a dagger in the right hands can be a deadly weapon, Refanij could make mincemeat out of these devils with his daggers, but Mordagin had about as much skill with a dagger, as I have skill in giving birth to umber hulk sextuplets. 

Before me stood that lone unmoving devil and one of the spiky winged ones lay twitching on the ground.  I decided that the unmoving devil couldn't pose a threat to me, so I pulled my wand of paralyzation and flew past the big bad-ass.  My hunch was correct, and it never made one move at me.  I got within range and fired at the devil.   The luck of Rudd most certainly was with me, for the devil lost control of his body and slumped to the floor.  A huge wave of relief washed over Mordagin when his adversary dropped. 

"Where's the other one?" I yelled. 

"Other what?" responded Mordagin.

"The other big devil!" I shouted looking nervously about.  "There were two of them, and I think that one over there is just an illusion."

"The first one is dead" replied Mordagin, "Spada and Stenngar killed it."

Just then the body of the paralyzed devil winked out of existence.

"Those things can teleport at will," shouted Mordagin, still fighting off a fleshbobs pathetic attempt to hit him. 

I pulled my swords and proceeded to slice up more fleshbobs.  The damn things would fall down and get right back up again in a minute or two.  Mordagin and I continued to defend the unmoving bodies of our comrades against the unwanted advances of the fleshy mutants.  We had the near ones all down on the ground, but every minute one that had been dropped before would stand back up and shamble towards us. 

Finally Spada and Stenngar regained their ability to move.  They were both bleeding from many wounds, it was time for a hasty retreat.  We ran back up the stairs, avoiding the blobmonsters as we went, and finally made it back outside.   T'Rojan was sitting comfortably by the boat waiting for us. 

"Oh, I'm glad to see you made it safely to the boat," I said sarcastically.

"I was under the influence of a suggestion by a devil." stated T'Roj defensively.

"How convenient" replied Mordagin. "I used up every damn spell I had memorized trying to stay alive in there."

"Well by the looks of Stenngar and Spada, I'd say you didn't do a very good job of it", replied T'Rojan.

"Can I hurt the mage?" asked Stenngar.

"Easy, there big guy, we may still need him, plus it is possible he may be speaking the truth." interjected Spada.

"Lets just get back to town and get some rest," I suggested.

The group of adventurers that disembarked on the shore of the sinking lake was a much humbler group than the one that had embarked just a few short hours before.  We crawled back to the church and informed father Maricon of the disposition of the Heironeous compound and its new occupants.  He was quite shocked, of course, but willing to believe probably due to our many obvious wounds.  We got what little healing he could provide, then headed back to the inn for some rest.

"Now That's the Way to Kill 'Em!"

We were tired from battle and the fact that we'd arisen early in the morning to go get our asses kicked by devils.  It wasn't even necessary to discuss, we all planned on going back in there as soon as possible.  Leaving devils laying about, even in this remote location, was never a good idea.  The spell casters of the group needed to rest up and recover our mana before we could even think about casting any more spells, so we hit the sack while Spada went out into the town to see if he could drum up some silver arrows. 

Arising in the mid-afternoon, I went down to the Inn's common room to grab some grub and see who else was awake.  T'Rojan was already there, and Mordagin joined us shortly after.  We knew that going in after the devils was highly risky.   Personally, I would prefer to avoid risks like this, unless the rewards are very high.  In this case, we suspected that our very lives, as well as all those in this town, may be the reward.    T'Rojan, Mordagin and I put our heads together and decided which spells we thought would be most effective against the devils and prepared ourselves.  Stenngar stayed in bed for as long as possible, trying to get back as much energy as he could, before we set out again.  Spada had been moderately successful in acquiring some silver arrows.

Ready to face the evil once again, we picked up our gear, stopped off at the church and picked up some holy water, then headed for the rowboats.  We set out across the sunken lake under a clear blue sky, with the sun setting toward the nearby mountain peaks.   We made it ashore and quickly headed for the entrance to the underground compound.   

We started down the stairs, and heard noise from behind one of the arrow slits which overlooked our descent.  I immediately broke into a run, to try and intercept our would be watcher, leaping down the steps and running toward the passage that lead to that area.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find the sentry.  We gathered the group near the stairs which lead down to the next level.  I offered to scout ahead and see what I could find.  The rest of the group was agreeable, and decided that T'Rojan would hide near the bottom of the stairs to relay if he heard me in trouble. 

I had T'Rojan cast Strength on me, and then I cast walking unseen on myself and proceeded down the stairs to the level where we had attacked the praying lizardmen and had been attacked in turn by the devils.  I found the level to be devoid of sound or motion.  I cautiously walked around the entire floor, but found no sign of anything.  I decided to continue down the stair case to see what was below.  Just as I neared an opening in the stair case, at about the point where I would expect the next level to be, I came to water.  Judging by the amount of space from the water level to the top of the stair opening, I would say there was about 5 to 6 feet of water filling this level.

"Just great." I thought to myself.  I really didn't want to have to swim around in cold dark water, it scared the hell out of me.  Trusting that my spell would help keep me from being noticed, I proceeded down the steps, pausing just before my balls dropped below the waterline.  Oh! That water was cold.  I continued to walk down the steps until the water was up to my chin.  I hoped my feet were on the floor.   I ducked below the surface and felt around for the bottom of the steps.  Sure enough, the stairs ended, going no further down.  I went back up to the surface for air.  I could keep my face above water if I walked on my toes.  I stepped through the opening into the entryway, and discovered a small cloak room and some double doors.  Looking about, I heard nothing and when I tried the double doors, I found them to be barred.  There was little else I could do down here, so I went back up and informed the others of my findings. 

"Well, no one's home. I guess we can go now." I said.

"Not so fast, thief!"  said Spada.  "What exactly did you find?"

Reluctantly I told them exactly what I found.  Of course, you can imagine the reaction of Spada and Stenngar when I told them there was a locked door.  I think those two idiots find no greater joy in life than to kick open locked doors.  They immediately ran down the stairs, I think they were racing each other to see who could be the first one to open it. 

Mordagin rolled his eyes at the backs of the retreating goons, "Idiots", he said, and then followed down behind them. 

T'Rojan then rolled his eyes at Mordagin, "Shit!" he explicated "I'm always following morons", and then followed along after.

"Son of a bitch!" I said rolling my eyes at no one in particular, then followed after Trojanman.

By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, Sbada had already popped the door open.   Apparently he had enlarged himself in order to get to the door faster than Stinkar, and stood about 9 feet tall, his entire upper torso above the water.  Stenngar, being very tall naturally, was able to stand comfortably with his whole head above the surface.   Spadey started playing with his gauntlet of unquenchable torch, by stuffing his burning torch, held in the gauntletted hand, into the water.  I do have to admit, it was kind of cool to see a torch burn underwater, but at least I wasn't giggling like a loon.

Stungun took advantage of Spandex's temporary distraction to press forward into the large room beyond the double doors.  Spada, not wanting the barbarian to outdo him, was soon to follow.  As they entered the room, we could see that it was, and I stress the "was" part, a library.  Rotting shelves had an occasional rotted book on it, just frequently enough for us to realize what this place must have once been.  

As the two large meatheads raced each other through the water, Mordagin and Trojan began whining and sniveling.

"I am not going to get my robes wet."  Stated Mordagin emphatically.

"Just think of the creepy things that might be lurking in that water." said Trojan, in support of Mordagin.

"Yes, Quite right, Trojey, I definitely agree that entering that water is a risk we need not take." said Mordagin.

"Well then I guess we should cast fly, and protect ourselves from the danger." said T'Rojan.

About that time, I saw several shapes moving through the water in pursuit of the two buffoons.  Seconds later, much splashing was heard, and I could see that the two mighty door smashers were under attack.  Stenngar's head quickly disappeared below the surface, and Spade put his back to a wall and stabbed to and fro with his sword.  

"Hey idiots, what the hell are we gonna do, those two morons just got attacked." I yelled at the whining mages.

"Oh, they can handle a few lizardmen." said Mordagin. 

After watching the melee for a few minutes, I began to realize that Stengar was not coming up for air.  "Shit," I said, "I'm going to nail them with a lightning bolt."

"I suppose you should." said T'Rojan, who had been watching the outcome of the battle as well. 

Knowing that I'd hit my comrades as well as the lizardmen, I went ahead and blasted a bolt of lightning right at the area of the torch.  Instantly the water lit up with a giant glow, and then the frenzied splashing ceased.  The next thing I saw was Stengar's head break the surface of the water and heard him gasp for breath.  I saw a couple of ripples in the water moving away from Stengar and Spada, towards a dark corner of the large room.  Apparently the scaly little bastards had had enough.

Trojan and Bornagain finally cast fly spells and headed out towards the fighters.   I took to the water and swam after them.  If the lizard pricks jumped me, I'd teach them a thing or two about underwater combat.  As we got near them, Spada began complaining, "Who hit us with that lightning bolt?  That was totally unnecessary, I was killing lizardmen left and right!"

Stengar, still sucking in air loudly, just looked at Spada, with that "shut the fuck up" look in his eyes.  Normally Stengar hated being hit with spells, more so than most, but he was feeling mildly appreciative at the moment.

We made it to the other side of the library, and found another set of stairs leading up.  The fighters were anxious to be out of the water, so they proceeded up the stairs.  Mordagin and T'Roj flew up after them, so I decided to lag behind, in the event there was a devil waiting to snare the entire group in a spell. 

I didn't hear anything exciting happen, so I moved forward.  An archway opened into another level.  There were more dead remains of priests but little else of note.   My comrades moved out ahead of me looking in doors and heading down the main passageway.  Eventually we searched the entire floor to find that it was another level of living quarters, with little else of import.  Well except another stairwell leading up.

Once again the dunder heads proceeded the fly boys up the stairs, while I stood rear guard.  Seconds later I heard the unmistakable sound of Stengar's war cry and T'rojan's bladder emptying.  T'Rojan started casting a spell and I could hear the sounds of spines bouncing off of walls.  Those little spine throwing flyers must be up there.  I slowly made my way up the steps. 

When I got to the top, I saw that a room opened up with only one other exit.  Well a sheet of flames isn't something one would usually consider an exit, but it seemed to be the only way to get beyond this room.  There were several lumpy slugs and four flying spine creatures, the flyers were right up against the wall of fire, while the lumpers stood in front of them.  I could feel the heat of the flames all the way back to the stairs.  Spada and Stengar were engaged with the blob monsters while Mordagin and T'Rojan both let loose spells on the spiky fliers. 

Several magic missiles from Mordagin pierced one of the spine devils, dropping it to the ground, while a color spray from T'Rojan dropped the other three.  Knowing that the devils would not stay unconscious for long, I braved the heat of the fire and darted forward.  The heat of the fire wall was very intense, I could feel my skin begin to sear as I grabbed the three unconscious spikers by their tales and dragged them back towards the stairs.  As the luck of Rudd would have it, I avoided skewering my hand on one of their spikes. 

I made it back to the stairs, and T'Rojan and I quickly went to work sawing off devil heads with our enchanted weapons.  Just as we finished them, off, blobs of fleshy monsters came tumbling down the stairs.  Mordagin was dragging the temporarily dead blob monsters out of the room above and dropping them down the steps so that we could try and keep them from regenerating.  T'Rojan opened one of the vials of holy water and poured it on one of the blobs.  It started to bubble as the holy water burned it away.  Stengar and Spada made short work of the other fleshy creeps and we quickly were burning away a pile of them with our holy water. 

We could all bear the heat from the stairway, but stepping into the room for more than a second was painful.  We sat there contemplating how we were to get beyond that wall of fire.  I decided that the wall would probably dissipate after  a while, so I went below and found a place to rest.  I think T'Rojan decided to do the same, and after an hour or two, the others having failed to come up with a way to get past the fire forced us to get up.

While Spada discussed the possibility of using wet blankets to get through the flames, I came up with another solution.  I figured that if I could make everyone believe that the fire had gone down, they'd be able to run through it before it burned anyone to death, maybe a little mind over matter and they'd get through without being too badly injured.  Lets just say that my idea was not one of my best ones, but I was determined to try it.  I told everyone that I think I'd be able to use an item of mine to temporarily put out the fire.  I would go up ahead of them, put it out, then yell to them to come on up.  They all looked at me suspiciously, but let me proceed.

I went up the stairs and cast a phantasm that the fire was out and that a hallway went for 20 feet beyond before turning into a T junction.  I then yelled down to the others that they should hurry as the fire would not stay out for long.  Immediately Stenngar came up and ran down the passageway.  It worked!  Then he screamed in agony and dropped to the ground.  Uh, Oh, I guess it didn't work.

"You asshole!", shouted Spada, as he ran to get Stengar.  He groaned in agony as he passed through the invisible flames, grabbed Stenngar and heaved him up on his shoulder.  He then turned and ran back towards us.  Stengar's limp body still clutched his sword, its tip dragging on the ground as Spada ran back through the flames.   Spada cleared the flames, then took one last faltering step and collapsed to the floor, sending Stengars body and sword flying and my heart dropping into my stomach.   Oh shit, that definitely did not work.  That wall of flames was a lot worse than I thought it would be. 

I immediately ran forward to pull them from the heat, Mordagin came as well.  I grabbed Spada and dragged him to the stairs, while Mordagin grabbed Stenngar's charred remains.  When we were safely on the stairs, we quickly checked them over.   Spada was in bad shape, but he was alive.  Stenngar was burned badly, the trip back through the flames on Spada's shoulder had put him beyond the point of recovery.  

Mordagin poured a potion of healing down Spada's throat and he came too.   "More devils" he said weakly, just as another one of those big ones we'd fought this morning came walking through the flames.  I immediately grabbed Stengar's sword, stabbed it through his dead body, and thanks to the magically enhanced strength that I still possessed was able to put him over my shoulder and head down the stairs.   The other three were slowly backing away as the devil came towards us.

I made it to the bottom of the steps and ran out through the door and down the hall toward the stair leading to the sunken library.  I could hear the others running behind me, T'rojan yelling, "Go!"

I made it down the stairs and splashed into the water of the library.  The water lightened my load quite a bit, and I dragged Stengar's lifeless form behind me as I swam for the exit.  I made it to the stairs and dragged Stengar up out of the water.   I finally stopped to catch my breath.  I didn't hear anyone behind me, the others hadn't made it back down the steps.  Were they still alive, I wondered.   If I go back now, will I just be adding to the souls that the devils had taken?   After a minute of mental combat, I decided that I had to go back.  Maybe I could still help someone out. 

I swam back through the library and began moving up the steps.  Just as I peered cautiously down the passageway, I saw the other three come running, all still alive.   I turned and ran back down the steps.  We all made it to the other side of the water and we carried Stengar up in silence, the other three shooting me glares of most evil feelings.

When we finally got outside, Spada started swearing and cursing at me.  All I could do was apologize, but that really wouldn't do Stengar any good.  The last survivor of his clan was no longer among the living.  I'm sure Spada would have attacked me if her weren't so near death himself.  T'Rojan defended me, I'm sure only in an attempt to keep the peace, rather than out of any true feeling that my actions were defensible.

We took Stengar's body to the temple of Heironeous, leaving the priests to care for it.   I lagged behind the group as they made their way back to the Inn, desperately trying to figure out how to bring Stengar back.  Then it hit me.  Millie had a scroll of resurrection.  If I could get Stengar to Millie, she could raise him.   The next question of course was, how do I get Stengar to Millie.  The gate scroll!  I had a scroll with gate on it.  The spell was way above my abilities, but I had to try it.  I turned back and ran to the temple.  I told the priest that I needed to take Stengar's body now, and carried his wrapped form out of the temple.

I found the first open space, put down Stengar's body and pulled out my scroll.  I called upon Rudd to grant me luck, for now I was desperate like I'd never been before.   And for once it wasn't my own life that I was desperate for.  I cast the gate spell, and with Rudd's assistance it worked!  The shimmering gateway opened before me.  Hopefully the other end opened into the Wretching Slattern, at least that's where I wanted it to go.  I picked up Stengar and dragged him through the gateway.   Indeed I did end up in the Slattern. 

"Millie!" I yelled, "Millie, get in hear, I need you to resurrect Stengar!"

"Stop shouting", she said, from about three feet away, "I'm standing right here."

"Oh, sorry.  I need you to resurrect Stengar, I sort of killed him by accident."

"I can't resurrect him, that's way beyond my capabilities", she said.

"But you have a scroll, you can try it." I pleaded.

"Wait a minute, I don't have much chance of succeeding with a spell that high level." she replied.  "Maybe we can get Sariana to help us."

"Ok, lets go, now!" I shouted, "Before the gate spell wears off."

We quickly threw Stengar on the back of a horse and raced for Rudd's temple.  It took a little talking, but we got Sariana to agree to resurrect Stengar with our scroll.   She made us promise that we'd have to try to convert him to Rudd or she wouldn't help us.  We quickly agreed, Millie less quickly than I, but agree she did, and before you knew it, Stengar was filled with life, his burns gone.  In fact he was in perfect health. 

"How did I get here?" asked Stengar, looking about the temple confused.

"The devils hurt you pretty bad," I lied, "We had to take you back to Rel Mord to get you healed."

He seemed to accept that, and was very appreciative of the healing he had received, as he was now as healthy as he'd ever felt.  Millie and I discussed conditions for her to send us back to the others up north, as my gateway must surely have dissipated by now.   Sariana agreed to send us back, but she'd have to prepare for an hour first. 

Millie, myself and a living breathing Stengar made our way back to the Slattern.  I quickly caught Millie up on what had happened up there, and she decided that she would come back with us.  It was obvious we needed her help, and now she had a charge, in Stengar.  We gathered up our stuff and headed back to Sariana's. 

Two hours after fleeing the sunken compound of Heironeous with a dead Stengar, Millie, myself and a living Stengar walked into the Inn to the complete and udder shock of T'Rojan, Mordagin and Spada.

"What de fug?" stated T'Rojan in obvious disbelief.  "This better not be another fucking illusion."

"I assure you, they are real." I said, somewhat smugly. 

"What's yer problems." said Stengar, uncomfortable with the stare's he was receiving. 

Spada jumped up and hugged Stengar, "I can't believe it, you're alive."

"Course I'm alive, takes more than a couple devils to kill a man like me." said Stengar.

The rest of the evening was a happy reunion, even Spada lost some of his anger for me, some healing from Millie didn't hurt either.

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