| Player | Characters |
|---|---|
| Corky | Kayla, Harlford |
| Mac | Helena, Gil |
| Jon | Victor, Crush |
| Andie | Hachi, Theo |
| NPC's | Rhonda, Sgt. Markham |
They were still gathered in the Travelers Free Zone when Rhonda came out from Meat Pies and Stuff leading a military officer. She looked around with intent and her eyes fell upon the group of adventurers who had removed her rat blight. She brought the military man to them and introduced Sgt. Markham of the town guard. He told them the city maintenance crew had gone to the caves leading from Rhonda’s home and had left telling a tale of some really weird thing and more giant rats. The Sergeant asked if they wanted a job. He was offering 75 gold each with supplies paid for by the town. The discussion drew some additional attention and with it a few extra hands that specialized in healing. A new party of 8 was formed and off they went. They picked up new supplies, Kayla prepared a Natural Armor spell and the next day Rhonda treated them to a fine breakfast before heading back in to the wall caves.
At Rhonda’s they met with the maintenance team who removed the blocking material keeping the hole covered. The barrier was removed and in they went. In the cave the first chamber revealed a large heat source like before. This was another rat pile but it did not include any of the enormous variety. They left the pile as it was and creeped around the outside of the chamber. Crush led the way, spear in hand, to the exit leading to the chamber they encountered the blob creature. Crush peered in using his infravision and saw nothing of note, called it all clear and continued moving on towards the other tunnel out. But as the remainder of the party passed the tunnel Hachi and Helena, the last two in line carrying the lanterns, peered in and saw something that looked amiss. They could not put their finger on it but something was not right.
They stopped the party and led the way in the side chamber. Here they found the remains of the blob and carcasses of the dead large rats which had deteriorated much more quickly than the short time would typically indicate. When Helena touched one of the rats it crumbled in to ash, devoid of any fluid. On closer examination Hachi spotted the jelly creature undulating. It was still alive somehow. Gil poured one of their oil flasks on it and they made a circle around the thing with more oil, then set it afire. The oil had run off some area of the thing and pooled in others but they all burned. As it did they could hear a faint screaming that emanated from the jelly like thing. The screaming died away at it burned. They waited for the oil to burn itself out to be sure. Helena then took an arrow and poked at the thing finding the consistency different, more congealed. Convinced it was now truly dead they moved on.
Back through the other chamber and down the untraveled tunnel, Crush once again led the way. This tunnel was even tighter than the others forcing the party to move forward on hands and knees. He heard skittering ahead, prepared to attack and skewered a larger rat as it charged around a corner at him. This rat had left a trail down the tunnel. Other smaller rats were chasing down it as well. Crush led on turning a corner finding a sharp slope leading down to another chamber. It was a difficult drop to make but he managed to slide down using his spear to brace his fall.
At the bottom of the drop was a new chamber, lower in height than the others with a few stalagmites breaking up the terrain. He could not stand upright as he gathered himself spotting a number of large rat shaped heat sources in the area. They did not set in on him immediately which gave others a chance to descend and prepare for a battle. When the combat started they were ready and had a good number of their force primed for action. Kayla started it with a Spiritual Whip. Victor stabbed and dropped the first, Theo the second with his saber, Harlford the third with his darts. Gil was the last one down, his two handed sword not truly appropriate for the situation, he slid it down the slope having Crush catch and move it out of the way so he could drop safely.
Kayla followed up with a Sleep spell, disabling 4 of the rats. Helena took the opportunity to finish off two more with her crossbow. Harlford, Kayla, Hachi and Crush all joined the relatively easy kill team and Hachi finished off the last of them. The low ceiling chamber now cleared they collected their spent missile weapons and looked around the entire space. Unfortunately they found a larger blob like creature in an alcove space of the chamber. Hachi and Vic shot arrows at it but the ammunition was merely absorbed by the thing. Gil used his two handed sword to poke at it. The thing surprised everyone when it shot out a pseudopod arm at Gil grabbing his hands.
The creature started to pull Gil in towards itself. Crush reached over and grabbed Gil by the waist and Hachi grabbed Crush. They struggled to pull against the thing. Harlford used his mental power again, hitting the creature with a Psionic Blast. It released Gil, the pod arm snapping back leaving what amounted to acid burn damage where it had grabbed him. The creature now inert, Gil poked again with no reaction. Helena moved in and sliced off two samples of the thing placing them in two of the sample jars she had brought. Gil and Harlford took the time to douse the ting in more oil and seal it in the alcove area with a supporting line of oil. As they prepared to set this one ablaze it awoke, reaching out and grabbed Gil again. Harlford used yet another mental blast, this time with far more apparent effects as the thing stopped moving entirely. Helena cast Cures on Gil and they burned the thing once again waiting for the oil to complete to verify the death of … whatever it was.
The chamber now clear they looked around and found yet another small tunnel once again requiring crawling on hands and knees leading away. Crush took the lead inching along the tunnel. When he reached the tunnel opening to a larger chamber here he saw a strange sight. This chamber was larger, sporting room enough for the party members to stand. At the far end were two burning braziers bracketing a small altar stand. Scattered around in front of these elements were a number of yet even larger rats. Hooding his lantern he crept in to the room trying to no disturb the rats. The group followed in a similar fashion with most of the group getting in to where they could act before Kayla tripped. This drew the attention of the rats and they charged the waiting group.
Harlford was the first to strike with his darts but in the exchange he was also bitten. Kayla became the second bite victim as Theo scored the first kill on a masterful strike. Crush speared another, knocking it down as Kayla cast a Bless, catching the entire party. Helena moved in to heal Harlford and Kayla clubbed a rat to death. Crush speared a rat, killing it as did Helena with her crossbow. Vic was not so fortunate as he was bit bad enough to fall over. Kayla used her club to squish the rat. Crush skewered another. Theo scored a kill with a saber / knife combination strike. And Harlford, not back off the battle a bit turned to his Bardic ability and began to sing, providing support to the team.
The largest of the rats joined the fight. Kayla cast another Spiritual Whip to kill a rat and Crush attempted to throw his spear but fumbled it at his feet. It charged in and bit Gil who shrugged off the effects of some effect. Theo engaged and with one swipe cut off the front left leg of the creature then dispatched it with a following stab of his dagger.
The creatures now dead they had time to examine the chamber. They could see a large red gem sitting atop the small altar. Harlford attempted to Detect Magic with his psionics with no success. This was followed by an attempt to disbelieve what they were seeing with no effect. Helena used a Detect Magic spell which revealed the gem itself was magical. They asked Vic to check the altar for any traps searching and coming up empty. After much discussion of what to do Helena picked up the gem, feeling it pulse in her hands, and wrapped it the bandages she had brought placing it in her pack. Continuing their examination of the area they looked more closely at the braziers. They were burning coal which led the group to conclude there must be someone that came in to the chamber to attend to this material. They tried to douse the coal with dirt only to find the coals were magical, reigniting after a brief moment. They tipped one of the braziers over, spilling the magical coals on the ground. Kayla stomped on one causing it to explode with enough force to fatally wound her. Gil quickly cast Heal spells to revive her. The braziers now off the table for inspection, they examined the rest of the area and found nothing of note.
They gathered themselves and made their way back out. They did check on each of the blob creatures to verify, to the best of their satisfaction, they were truly dead this time. And they were. Exiting the tunnel they found Sgt Markham at the end of his day. They passed along the samples and the gem, collected their pay, returned the extra supplies they had nt used and arranged for the follow up inspection of the area.
All in a days' work…
The (hopefully sometime soon to be great) Bard Harlford enshrined this adventure in song....
Next time ...
This page and its contents are presented solely for the purpose of the RPG game events conducted by a private group. Any references to people or places is explicitly within the context of these RPG games and has no connection to any other similarly named source.
Bob Senkewicz / Howell, New Jersey / senk@optonline.net