Fifteenth Adventure: "The Passing of a Friend"
It was April Fools day when we set out on that fateful trip. A more fitting day for folly I doubt exists. We were all fresh and ready for some adventure after having been cooped up for the last two months waiting for winter to end. The day we left was a nice day, sun shining, warm, perfect day to head out on the trail. Myself, Turok, Mordagin, Grumble and Kordacc set out on horseback, headed for Oldred. A couple of days worth of uneventful riding, looking at the trees as their leaves were budding, and spring flowers blooming, it was a nice trip actually. We got to Oldred, and found a stable to leave our horses at. It would be a day and a half walk to the cave entrance, and it would take us a couple of days to get in and out of those caves, so we were unwilling to leave our horses out on their own for that period of time.
The first omen came our way on the second day of our walk to the caves. We were walking along minding our own business, no really we were, when some dark shadow passed over us. Looking up, what do we see? Holy SHit!! A RED DRAGON!!!! The fearsome beast circled overhead then heads right for us. As it approaches we all start shitting our pants. It lands with such a force that the ground shakes. We are all trembling with fear as it approaches to within about 20 feet of us. Luckily we are too scared to even think of drawing weapons.
It bellows, "Who among you can heal?"
Instantly four arms shoot up pointing directly towards Grumle, who immediately wets himself, the piss running down his leg onto his boots. With that, the dragon turns to us and roars, Kordacc, Turok, and Mordagin run off in stark terror, dropping their weapons and fleeing like they are being chased by a dragon. For some reason I find the resolve to not lose my hold on the fear, and stand my ground. Apparently Grumble is wanted, for he stands as well. The dragon then says to him, heal me or die. Now I know Grumble is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he makes the right decision pretty quickly. He proceeds to move towards the dragon and begins healing him. Only now do I notice that the dragon is in fact suffering quite mightily from some horrific looking wounds.
As Grumpy is healing the dragon, the idea that "hey, maybe I can take the dragon out, given his weakened condition" crosses my mind. Quickly realizing just how insane of an idea that is, I decide it best that I distance myself from the dragon just in case a stupid idea like that pops into my head again. I slowly back away, watching as Grumle does his best to heal the dragon. He must have done a decent job, for in a few minutes later the dragon says "That'll do dwarf" and leaps into the air, his wings buffeting us with such force that we are blown over. He heads off in the direction of my running companions and flies low over there heads knocking them to the ground as well.
Counting our blessings that we are all still alive, we pick our weapons back up, change our drawers, and get back moving. Later on Grumble informs us that he held back one healing spell from the dragon. We look at him like he must be the dumbest bastard ever to walk the Oerth.
That night we camp just outside of the cave entrance. Little happens while I stand my watch, and even less happens while I sleep. Luckily I wake up before my watch ends, that would have been embarrassing.
The next day we head into the caves. We travel a full day and we set camp underground. Again the night passes without mishap. We wake up and prepare ourselves to take on a herd of Orcs. They'll never know what hit them!
I'm scouting ahead of the party as we near the large cavern where the orcs live. I ended up sneaking up on 5 orcs that are hiding on the other side of the cavernous passage, looking up ahead towards the light that my friends are carrying. The orcs look unarmed and malnurited. They look entirely incapable of launching an ambush. Wondering what could have caused then to be in such a poor state, I decide that maybe I can talk to them and get some information, so I say, in orc, "Hi there."
The orcs whip their heads in my direction, and upon seeing me, turn tail and flee. Shit, now I gotta waste a sleep spell, I cast it and the two rear most orcs drop. I call the party forward as I tie them up. A quick questioning reveals that these orcs are no longer of sound mind or body. All they can say is something about the "curse of the gnomes", "they're all dead", and swat at imaginary attackers. Kordacc loses his patience and kills one. Both the orcs are covered with red welts, like they'd been stung by many bees or something. I begin to worry that maybe a huge flock of stirges have taken up residence in these caves. Moments later and Kordacc slays the second orc, I barely had time to step clear of his wildly flailing axe.
At this time I suggest that maybe we should go home, I don't want to face a swarm of stirges, bees, or anything else that can wipe out a bunch of orcs. I am overruled. Kordacc is particularly eager to avenge his clan's death at the hands of the orcs. The whole gnome curse thing is probably just some made up crap by the orc, since this place used to be a gnomish community before being taken over by the orcs, long ago.
Again we move forward, soon we come into sight of the four large towers guarding the cavern entrance. We approach cautiously, but not a motion or light can be seen anywhere. We find the bodies of a few armed orcs laying dead on the ground. They have been killed by some unknown assailant, their weapons are drawn, but no major wounds are seen. I climb a tower and find four dead orcs on top, armed and killed in the same mysterious fashion. Things are truly becoming scary.
We make our way into the huge cavern, its split into two by a giant crevasse running across its belly. A large bridge spans the crevasse. We cautiously make our way across the bridge, checking out any near by buildings, and finding more dead orcs wherever we go. Turok directs us toward a walled complex on the right where the leaders of the orcs lived.
We make it to the walled complex and find more dead orcs. There are three buildings and a tower, one of the buildings appears to be a temple, the others I'm unsure of. Kordacc and Grumpy enter one building, while I enter the temple. Mordagin and Turok stand watch outside. In the temple I can see a couple of dead shaman and many dead orcs. The temple looks like it had once been a gnomish temple, but has since been defiled. The altar looks as though it has recently been shifted, especially considering that the poles that were used to do it are still sitting next to the altar, and it looks like the orcs who were pushing on them are laying dead on the floor nearby.
I look at the altar and there is a stair going down underneath it. Obviously the orcs must have released whatever it is that wiped out all the orcs, when they moved this altar. I yell for everyone to come in here. At about the same time I can hear a faint buzzing sound in the cavern outside. Mordagin and Turok come running in.
"Do you hear that buzzing" asks Mordagin.
"Its getting closer" adds Turok, a worried look smears his ugly half orc face.
"Shit we're dead!" I say.
Then we start shouting in earnest for Grumble and Kordacc to get in here. The bugs start to arrive at the same time the two dwarves come sprinting into the temple. They are like locust, they start coming in through the open windows and doorway, flying all around, occasionally landing on ones arm and taking a little bite. A quick smack and they simply disappear. The buzzing continues to get louder as the main swarm has not yet arrived.
I shout, "Everyone, down in the hole, NOW!" and then run down the stairs. We all get to the bottom, we're in a large circular room with smoking braziers along the walls. The first thing we notice are two large levers in the walls. Turok and Kordacc immediately run to them and pull them down. A grating sound can be heard overhead as the altar shifts back into place blocking the hole. We are safe, at least for the moment. A quick glance around reveals no egress from this room other than the way we came in.
"Great" I say, we're trapped down here, there better be a secret door or something.
Then Mordagin directs us to the seven braziers lining the walls. None of them have anything in them, yet they give off smoke, and what's more, they seem to be giving off those nasty little bugs.
"Oh man!" whines Kordacc, "we're gonna get eaten by bugs anyway."
"No, no" responds Mordagin, "look at how infrequently they appear, it will take days before there are enough of them in here to pose a threat to us."
"Well, I don't care" I say, as I go over to a brazier and prepare to tip it over. The damn things won't budge, "Shit!"
Kordacc immediately begins searching for a secret door, soon enough we find two. One leads to a small room with nothing of interest whatsoever. The other leads to a room with gnomish glyphs drawn all over the walls, three columns in the center of the room, and seven crates lined against one wall, there is also a hallway leading away in the opposite wall.
We decide to cautiously inspect the closest crate. I don't find it to be trapped, so I cautiously remove the top of the crate with my sword and peer inside. It appears to be clothes. I start digging them out with my sword. The crate is full of neatly folded clothes, including shoes and belts. It looks like some kind of burial arrangement. Not wanting to disturb any gnomish gods, I carefully place the clothes back in the crate. Deciding to check just one more crate, just to see if it is the same, I pop open the top with my sword. A sharp pain hits me in the back of the neck. I reach up and pull out a slender dart. "Shit" I say, "not again", and then slump to the floor.
When I wake up, everyone is standing around me looking at me wondering if I'm alive or dead. Nothing else seems to have occurred while I was unconscious, and I don't feel too bad, given the circumstances, just a little bit woozy.
"How you feeling" asks Grumble.
"Oh just peachy. Did I at least get a good nights rest, and we are now out of the cavern?" I ask.
"Sorry, Ran" replies Grumle, "you've only been out a minute or two, and were still in this gnomish tomb."
"Damn!", I get up off the floor, my legs a little shaky. "Anyone check out that chest yet?" Heads all shake no. I head over and take a quick look through. Same thing, clothes. "These must be for the dead gnomes to wear in the afterlife."
"Could be" adds Mordagin uselessly.
"Well no point in checking out anymore of them, probably all just the same junk." I say.
Kordacc is skeptical, so he goes to the next chest and opens it up, nothing but clothes. We decide to investigate that hallway on the other side of the room. It soon ends in a "T" with seven "door like" stones spread evenly along the ends of the T. No other passages go from here. We all guess that those must be the tombs of the gnomes, who's clothes we'd been picking through. This looks like the end of the line, we haven't seen any other passages, so we decide to once again search for secret doors. This time we scour the walls all over, and in about 15 minutes, Grumble finds one on the wall opposite the crates.
Opening this secret door reveals a rough hewn passage that leads of on a slight curve. We crowd up the hallway until it dead ends. We again backtrack and search for secret doors. Again we find one, not too far from the end of the tunnel. We open it, and it leads to another tunnel. We get to a location where we can take a left or a right. We choose right, and after following along for a little ways, come out onto a ledge on the side of the crevasse. We are about 50 feet below the top of the crevasse, but still more than a hundred feet from the bottom.
Directly across from where we are standing, we can see another opening in the wall of the crevasse. I immediately think there must be an invisible bridge going across the crevasse, between the two passageways, and scrape together a handful of pebbles and sand and throw it out in front of the ledge. Some of the pebbles can be seen bounding off a hard surface. In deed there is an invisible bridge, about three feet wide leading off the ledge. I crawl out onto it and feel my way across. Soon I'm on the other side of the bridge standing near the entrance, it is blocked by a massive steel barred gate, with several locks on it.
The others crawl over the bridge and investigate it. I attempt to pick the locks on the gate, but am totally ineffective against these incredibly well made contraptions. Up above we can hear the continuous sound of the buzzing swarm echoing through the cavern. They do not sound as though they are approaching though, thank the gods.
Grumle and I discuss methods of overcoming this gate while Kordacc says he's going to go back and check something out. After a while, Grumby and I decide that a well placed Stone Shape can make an opening under the gate which we will allow us to slide under the gate. He affects the spell, and it works out as planned. About that time, we start looking for Kordacc.
Everyone squeezes under the gate, while I go back and look for Kordacc. I find him rooting through the gnomish clothing crates. Unfortunately for him, it looks like he sprang several traps as well. A spear leans against one wall, a decapitated metal snake lays on the floor and blood is using from a wound in Kordacc's chest.
"Hey dumbass, lets go." I shout.
Kordacc leaps in the air, as he had no idea I was behind him, "Don't do that!", he yells,"you scared me."
I just shrug my shoulders, "What the hell happened to you?" as I nod my head toward the spear and snake.
"Fugging traps. You guys get that gate opened yet?"
"Yeah, we're waiting for you to stop looking for gnomish underwear." I answer.
"Alright, alright, lets go."
We head back to the bridge and cross over, then squeeze under the gate. We all move up the hallway, finding seven statues along it, and then enter into a room with an exit in the middle of each of its four walls. Looking about, we decide to go through the left exit. The passage quickly T's. The right leg descends deeper underground and the left leg curves off to the right. We go down the left leg.
After walking about 50 feet, I run into a wall. Some kind of illusion tricked my mind into thinking that the hallway was longer than it actually is. Unfortunately, behind us, three transparent fields have sprung up, closing off the hallway behind us. One is red, one white, and the third is blue.
"Great we're trapped" I say, "Turok, why don't you go running through that red barrier" I suggest. Turok just looks at me like I'm insane.
"I'll do it" volunteers Kordacc, I guess he hasn't had his fill of springing traps yet today. He walks up to the barrier as everyone else backs away. He puts his hand into it, and it explodes in flames, tossing him back like a rag doll. Kordacc picks himself off the ground, "Damn, that hurt!" The red barrier is no longer there.
Thinking that I've got it figured out, I offer to "take care of" the next one. I then go rooting through my pack and pull out a scroll of protection from cold. Grumble suggests that I save my scroll for some other time, as he can protect himself from both lightning and cold. He mutters some prayer up to his god, Sheila Bright Ass, and then proceeds to walk into the white barrier. He gets blasted by a shot of cold and we can see frost form on his hair, and his ears turn blue.
"You okay", asks Mordagin.
Grumple just nods his head and steps into the next barrier. Arcs of lightning shoot between himself and the surrounding area, tossing him on his ass and making his hair stand up on end. Helping him to his feet, I can't help but laugh at how foolish he looks with his hair all sticking out. "You sure that didn't hurt," I ask.
"Ugh, (groan), ugh, maybe just a bit" the stubborn dwarf responds. I guess Shiela Bright Ass doesn't much care for her devoted follower Grumby Pickaxe.
Luckily, the three barriers were gone, so we made our way safely back out of the passage. Grumble stopped to heal Kordacc, so I went up to the center passage.
This passage ended in a T as well, just like the other passageway, so I walked up to the T, only this time, there was no T, another damn illusion. I bumped into a wall, about 10 feet short of the T, and triggered a nice little spear trap. About 20 spears shout out of the sides of the walls, a couple of them slamming into me. Damn that hurt. I extricated myself from the spears and headed over to the last remaining passage.
This one ended in a T as well, but this time I wasn't going to be stupid enough to go walking down it, so I picked up an arrow and shot it down the hall striking the back wall. Nothing happened, but not trusting that the arrow would set off any trap, I decided to not go down the passage. At about this time Grumble was done healing Kordacc, so I went over to tell them what I found.
Kordacc immediately went down that last hall, where I had just fired my arrow, stupid Dwarf. He got to just about the end when he suddenly stopped and asked weakly for help.
"What's the problem?" asked Mordagin.
Kordacc looked about him, then said, "I'm in a trap, the walls and ceiling are going to collapse if I take one more step"
"Well thats just fugging great" mumbled Grumble. "How the hell are we going to get you out of there?"
"How 'bout we shoot him with a harpoon arrow and drag his ass out." I offer.
"Very fugging funny." responded Kordaxe. "How bout you come up with a real idea, if I take one step in any direction, or even take my weight off where I'm standing, the whole place is gonna fall in on me."
At this point Grumble suggested that we use his potion of gaseous form. It certainly sounded like it would work, so I took it from the priest and slid it across the floor to Kordac. It went right to him, and he picked it up and threw it back. As soon as he turned into gas, the entire area where he had been standing came crashing down. If he hadn't been turned to gas, he'd have been buried alive in there.
We saw the gaseous shape float out from the wreckage. We yelled to him to go check out the rest of the place, since he was a gas bag, and watched as he went off down the descending passageway. The rest of us decided that we would rest here for the night. All of my and Mordagin's spells were offensive in nature, meant to take out a large number of orcs, and were wholly unsuited for helping avoid traps and the like. In about an hour Kordacc floated back into the room and eventually turned back into a dwarf.
He reported finding the real tombs of the seven gnomes, as well as some tunnels created by giant centipede like creatures. He knew this because he found a dead one that had gotten roasted after burrowing in to one of the tombs. We settled down for the night, if it was night, to rest up and prepare spells more in line with the defeating and detecting of traps. Grumpy sealed off the passage to the crevasse with a skinny stone wall, by using his Stone shape spell again. Hopefully it would keep out any insects that might try and find there way in here.
We kept a watch, but nothing occurred during our rest. It was another one of those uneasy sleeps, as every movement was magnified against utter quiet of a crypt. The continual light coin was kept under a cloak, with some light leaking out, otherwise the darkness would have been complete. Finally someone decided that we should get moving, how many hours we had rested, I have no idea, the dwarves said it had been about 6 hours, their used to telling time without the sun.
We prepared for the journey ahead, memorizing spells like detect magic, and unseen servant. Then headed off down the tunnel that descended opposite the red, white, and blue force field traps. Its descent stopped shortly and leveled off, then just a bit further on it rose again. We got up to the point where there was approximately a 3 foot hole burrowed into the side of the passage. From here the passage continued on a short distance, then branched into another T. Only this one had no outlets, but housed seven more solid stone slabs covering the tombs of the gnomish lords. Kordacc pointed to the 3' diameter tunnel and said that it lead to the tomb where the centipede creature had been fried, and that other burrowing tunnels branched off from there.
Kordass and Crumple decided to go investigate the tomb while we other three would stay safely out of any centipede tunnels. A few minutes later, Kordaxe and Grumpy came back arguing as they came crawling back down the tunnel.
"I'm not going to help you." Said Grumle.
"C'mon, those gnomes won't be needing their shit anymore." Replied Kodak, directly behind Grumble.
About that time Grumble's head popped out of the hole and he jumped down. "I am not going to violate the resting place of my brother gnome, and I suggest that everyone do the same."
Kordacc then popped out and looked to the rest of us. "Any of you guys want to see what these gnomes keep in their tombs? I can't quite lift the lid off by myself."
"Yeah, sure, what the hell?" I say, and look toward Mordagin, "how 'bout it, you gonna lend a hand?"
Mordagin hesitates, obviously not sold on the idea of grave robbing, but curious about what we might find. "Alright, I'll do it." He then avoids Grumble's glare. Then follows Kordacc and myself as we climb up into the tunnel.
The tunnel runs for about forty feet and then curves to the right, soon opening into a small room. We climb out and see the giant centipede carcass and a stone coffin sitting in the center of the room. Kordacc says, grab that other side of the lid, as he lifts up on one side. Mordagin and I move to the side directed, and in a moment we have the lid slid off on one side. It's gonna be a bitch putting it back on.
Inside the coffin we see the long dead remains of what I would expect to be a gnome, as well as three small pouches. Kordacc pulls out a dagger and splits them open. The first contains a few gems, the second contains a ring. At this time, I instantly decide that these are definitely worth taking, but not wanting to physically handle them for fear of a curse, and not wanting Grumble to make a stink about us taking them, I whip out my wand of teleport and zap the three pouches back to the floor safe in the warehouse lab.
Kordacc and Mordagin look at me, saying "What the hell did you do that for?"
I explain my reasoning, and assure them that they will get their share of the items. The reluctantly agree that there was some logic applied to my thoughts, but also suggest that the ring could have come in handy. I suggest that the ring could also be cursed. We all decide, that given the fate of the centipede that got flambeed entering this tomb, that opening further tombs could be just a tad bit dangerous, and that finding a safe way out of these tunnels should now be our priority.
We all crouch down and try to lift the lid of the coffin back on, but its too heavy. Having some respect for the dead, we all decide that if Mordagin casts a Strength spell on Kordac, maybe we will be able to pick the lid back up. Unfortunately it takes a long time to cast the spell, and during that time we get attacked.
Mordagin is about halfway through casting the spell when we hear a scurrying sound in the tunnel, and then a centipede shoots out and latches its giant pincers onto Mordagin. I immediately throw up a ring of fire around the three of us, and grab hold of Mordagin, while Kordacc hacks away at the beast with his axe. The centipede squirms as its body spans the flames, but it doesn't release its hold on Mordagin. All he can do is stab at it with his dagger, and try to be kept from being pulled into the fire. I keep a tight grip on Mordagin with my left hand and jab at the beast with a short sword in my right hand. The fire must have taken it's toll on the vile insect, for it releases Mordagin and scurries back down the hole.
Mordagin doesn't look too good, so we gather him up and crawl back out to Grumble. "Hey did you guys see a big nasty centipede?" I ask.
They respond in the negative. "Well take a look at Mordagin's chest, a few more seconds and his guts would be hanging out." I add.
Mordagin crawls out of the hole holding his tender mid-section. "You think you can do something about this?" He says to Grumble.
"Serves you little grave robbers right." Grumble mumbles under his breath as he inspects and then begins healing Mordagin.
We decide that the only way out of these caves is either through the centipede tunnels or back through the swarm. Neither is much of an option, but the centipede tunnels bear less risk than the certain death of the swarm. I suggest that we send Turok out into the swarm and have him run in the opposite direction as the rest of us, hopefully drawing off the swarm, and allowing us to escape the caves safely. Turok doesn't think much of that idea. We come to the conclusion that the centipede tunnels are the way to go.
Seeing as the tunnels are only about three feet in diameter, Turok being the largest person in the group, is forced to reduce his load considerably. He takes off his platemail, drops several polearm weapons which he somehow seems to carry on his back and prepares to climb around tunnels for days on end. The rest of us travel pretty light in comparison, and the dwarves are small enough to fit in the tunnel without removing their armor.
We climb up into the tunnels and start crawling along. We come to a couple of intersections, and generally stay to the left. A couple of hours later, and our knees are bleeding and hands are sore. We're so lost its scary. Every now and then the claustrophobia starts pressing in and you almost want to scream. Given no other options, we press on.
All of a sudden we hear a familiar scurrying sound, bracing for an attack, a centipede hits us from the front clamping on to Kordacc, moments later a centipede slams into Turok at the rear. A desperate fight ensues. I'm directly behind Kordacc, and aid him as best I can with my limited offensive spells, as he tries to pound on the insect with his hammer. Behind me I hear both Mordagin and Grumble casting spells to aid Turok as he fights the beast off with his knife.
Finally, after expending nearly all my spells, I have some now worthless detect magic and unseen servants spells left in my repertoire, the centipede that is tearing into Kordacc releases its grasp and retreats. Behind me, Grumble is finally able to drive off the other with a fear spell. Mordagin has expended his reserve of spells as well. Kordacc's once fine splint mail is now splintered mail. He shucks off the remnants still clinging to his body and asks if Grumble can heal him. Unfortunately Grumble used every last healing spell on Turok, who barely survived the ordeal. We are all panting and very scared. Another attack like that and we're all dead.
"Why the hell did you use up all your healing spells when you could have cast fear on the thing in the very beginning?" I ask. Like I mentioned earlier, Grumble is not the sharpest of priests, and very rarely performs feats of strategic genius. Now that I think of it, I've never seen him perform a feat of strategic genius.
Grumble just looks at me and begins to drool on himself.
"Shit!" I say, and then under my breath, "stupid priest."
We decide that since Grumble is the only one left with armor on, he will lead the pack. We also realize that the only weapons that can be used effectively in these tight quarters is a short sword, so I hand one of mine to Grumble. We continue down the tunnel spurred on by fear. A few more hours and we finally come to an opening into a cavern.
Hope comes to life as we realize that we are finally free of these tunnels. A hope that is extremely misplaced. The tunnel opens up about thirty feet above the floor of the cavern, but a pile of dirt and rock slope down from the tunnel's opening to the floor below. The cavern runs to the left and right of our position and is about fifty feet across. A couple other holes like the one we are in can be seen in the sides of the cavern, as well as larger passages at either end of the cavern that lead to some unknown location.
We sit and look for a moment, but see no signs of centipedes running about, or anything else. We decide that we would be much better off fighting them in an open location anyway, since we'll be able to bring our most effective weapons to bear. So Kordacc and myself scramble down the slope to check out the cavern, while the rest of the group stay on the ledge above.
This is when the true folly of our trip back to these caverns, the very caverns that claimed the life of Reiltis, would rear its ugly head. Just after reaching the bottom of the cavern, a boulder came to life, firing thick ropy strands around myself and Kordacc. Behind us I heard someone come tumbling down the slope, a tentacle had shot out and entwined Mordagin as well, pulling him down the slope.
The boulder like creature had it firmly in its grasp and pulled us slowly towards its hideous maw. My right arm was trapped against my body, so I hacked at the tentacle with a short sword in my left hand. I could see Kordacc furiously trying to chop the one holding him as well. A blaze of light sprang from a fire behind us as Mordagin threw up a circle of flames, unfortunately it did not force the beast to release its grasp of him. Grumble and Turok came sliding down the slope and sprang to our aid. Realizing that we were ineffective in chopping the ropy tentacles off us, we all focused our attacks on the body of the beast.
A couple more tentacle whipped out and grabbed Kordacc, lifting him into the air and placing him feet first into its gruesome toothy mouth. We were all swinging wildly at the creature, Kordacc's face was a mask of rage as the teeth started opening the flesh on his leg. I can only imagine the pain he must have been enduring. We all continued to rain down blows upon its stony exterior, rarely causing an injury to it. Mordagin was casting spells, but from what he could see, none were having any effect. A few moments later, and I heard bones snapping and finally Kordacc's body went limp, his axe dropping to the ground, his thighs were completely inside the horrible beasts mouth. With one last desperate thrust I buried the blade of my shortsword into the beast, it gave one last shudder and died .
We uncoiled ourselves from the ropes and pulled Kordacc's body from the beast. His left leg was completely missing, the other one had exposed bone in several places. I turned my head from the awful sight. Grumble was desperately trying to do something for him, but we were much too late to help Kordacc. A rage burned through me, my friend had been killed by this horrible thing, I pulled my swords and just hacked and stabbed at it. I wanted to kill it so bad that it's ancestors would feel it.
I don't know when I would have stopped hacking it if I hadn't seen the gleam of metal inside the beast. But low and behold, inside the creature were many coins, other metal objects, and a shining short sword. I reached in and pulled it out. It was a finely crafted weapon, I swung it a few times, and it felt extremely quick and balanced in my hands. The others gathered around and pulled the coins and gems from the creatures guts.
Then we decided to wrap up Kordacc's body and carry it with us. We didn't want his remains to become food for these giant centipedes, so we took turns carrying him. Turok got most of the duty, as he was the biggest and strongest of the group.
The rest of the day was kind of a blur as I couldn't get the death of Kordacc out of my mind. It had been the first time that I'd seen one of my friends die before my very eyes. Sure I'd seen plenty of people killed in my life, some on the end of my sword even. I'd even lost friends to violent deaths in the past, but that always seemed to happen when I wasn't nearby. This time I was looking right at his face when the lights went out. A more haunting image there may never exist for me.
Somehow we made our way through the caverns and ended up very near where we started. We traveled down a cavern that ran into the tunnel leading from the room full of crated up clothing. Originally we had taken a right at that intersection and had ended up crossing the invisible bridge. Well had we taken the left, we would have eventually gone to the cavern where Kordacc died. We all decided that this was a safe place to recuperate, so we sat down for a sleep. Turok went back across the bridge and got back his armor and discarded weapons from earlier, could it have really been this morning when we climbed into those tunnels?
That night I slept very fitfully, repeated images of Kordacc's dying face tortured my dreams. I was desperate to be free of the caves the next morning. We packed up our gear and Kordacc and went back towards the cavern of death. There had been a branch that we hadn't taken yesterday, hopefully it led to the surface.
Another long day of walking and scouting about, and eventually we came to a passage that led upwards, or so Grumble was convinced. We trod up that passage and it ended at a small underground stream. Having nowhere else to go, we plodded up the stream in single file. The water was cold on our feet. But we were definitely moving uphill, unless the water was magically flowing the wrong way.
We followed the stream to its end, well its end as far as we were concerned. It sprang from under some rocks and would be impassible for anyone but a fish. However, an opening in the side of the stream's cave was near and I scouted up ahead. Upon hearing some clicking noises, I returned to the party and reported my findings. We found some tracks, three clawed tracks, bigger than my feet, and figured we were up against some dangerous beasts. Again we moved up the passage as a unit.
We almost ran right into them. Crabmen, three of them, were coming the other way and we almost walked right into each other. One immediately scuttled off down the passage while the other two stood their ground hissing and snapping their claws at us. From what I know of crabmen, they only live by the sea, and seeing as we were nowhere near the sea, these must have been a different breed of crabmen. Probably evil cave dwelling crabmen, bent on slaying men and running off with babies.
I said, "Lets kill the bastards."
Grumble wasn't quite so anxious to kill them. It was obvious that they didn't want us to enter their lair, but it was the only way out for us. Turok and Grumble decided to offer them some silver and food. They placed it on the ground before them, and backed off. The crabmen picked it up, but continued to stand their ground. A couple more crabmen showed up and Mordagin's patience was no longer present, so he cast a sleep spell on them.
One of the crabmen dropped, spurring his brothers to the attack. A battle ensued, we hacked and bashed and stabbed and cast our way through them. Soon all the crabmen went running in fear from us, hiding in their tunnels. Hopefully they'd think twice about going out and stealing babies. We made our way through their lair which shortly led out to glorious sunlight.
I ran out into the sun, falling to the ground and kissing it. Free at last, why did I spend so much damn time in underground tunnels? The others came out behind me, happy to be free of the oppressive caves, only Turok, bearing the weight of our fallen comrade didn't look quite as pleased as the rest of us.
We made our way safely back to Oldred, and there, enlisted the aid of a priest to cast speak with dead. We asked Kordacc if he wanted to us to resurrect him. He said he was in a good place and wished to stay there. Grumble asked if he could have his axe "Eyesplitter". Kordacc told him to take it, for he had no use for it in death.
We arranged for the proper burial of Kordacc, Grumble performed the ceremony, tears came unhindered to my eyes. I'd miss that blue-bearded bastard, miss his complaints that I didn't kill the orcs, miss his whines about trying to avoid conflict, miss his requests for someone, anyone to go with him to get a tattoo, and most importantly I'd miss watching him charge headlong towards another enemy, with his axe raised above his head and screaming that bloody dwarven war cry.
We made a sad but safe journey back to Rel Mord. Upon our arrival, we pulled into the Retching Slattern and got some rest. The next day we had time to investigate those gems and ring that I'd teleported out of the gnome crypt. The gems were quite valuable and the ring was quite powerful, offering the wearer a good deal of protection from all of the elements. I also had a chance to investigate my short sword. It was a short sword of quickness. One of the finest weapons I could get my hands on. We all spent the rest of the week morning in our own ways. I did it by drinking to excess most everyday and stumbling drunk into the arms of a harlot, hoping the pain would fade.