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-
- *****
- * The 8 player characters contained in these writings are copyright
- * 1992 by Thomas Miller...copying and distribution of these stories
- * is permissible only under the condition that no part of them will
- * be used or sold for profit. In that case, I hope you enjoy them.
- * The dungeons and non-player characters contained herein are from
- * TSR's module, A3, and are copyright 1980 by TSR, Inc. Specific
- * text and maps from them have been avoided, and I encourage anyone
- * who enjoys reading about them to buy and play the whole "A" series.
- *****
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- THE PARTY:
-
- Alindyar, 6th level drow elf mage (N)
- Belphanior, 5th/4rd/5th level high elf fighter/mage/thief (CN)
- Ged, 5th/5th level grey elf priest/mage of Boccob (NG)
- Halbarad, 6th level human ranger (NG)
- Mongo Thunderhead, 6th level dwarf fighter (CG)
- Peldor, 7th level human thief (N)
- Peyote, 5th/6th level half-elf fighter/druid of Obad-Hai (N)
- Rob, 6th level human priest of Trithereon (LG)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- Date: 4/21/570 C.Y.
- Time: early morning
- Place: the city of Suderham, hidden in the Drachengrab Mountains
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- XXXII. Challenges Galore
-
-
-
- The party had broken (walked) into an abandoned (?) house and
- decided to stay there for the night. It didn't hurt at all that
- they located a secret hatchway. How very convenient. Morning
- saw them eating a hasty meal and preparing to brave whatever was
- below.
-
- Mongo: Damn. I'm out of eggs.
- Rob: Huh?
- Mongo: Nevermind. They were all smashed up anyway. No use but
- to attract ants.
- Belphanior: (sitting in a corner sharpening his sword)
- Halbarad: Let us clean up and be on our way.
- Peyote: Merry way.
- Halbarad: Right.
- Ged: (to Belphanior) Not hungry?
- Belphanior: Nah. I never eat before I go underground. It makes
- me sick.
- Alindyar: Odd.
- Mongo: I don't see how in the bloody hell you can stand to go
- without breakfast. Me, I'd get eaten by my own belly before too
- long!
- Peldor: (checking his gear) I'm ready. Let those below tremble
- in awe of the mighty Peldor's coming!
- Ged: Yeah, right.
- Halbarad: (grasping the ring to the hatch) Let's get this cover
- up...
- Mongo: Sure, I'll help. (helps the ranger lift the hatch, exposing
- a dark, square shaft and a ladder, both going down)
- Rob: Gee, it sure is _dark_ in there.
- Belphanior: (considering pushing the priest down the tunnel) Nah.
- Might need him later. Hey, I'll go down first!
- Ged: What noble logic.
- Rob: (lights a lantern, illuminating a floor about thirty feet
- below) I'm ready now!
- Belphanior: (loosens his sword in its sheath and descends, soon
- followed by the others)
-
- The shaft did bottom out below, and a ten foot square, horizontal
- corridor led to the west. They began to follow it.
-
- Rob: Phew! It sure does stink in here.
- Mongo: Hey, it wasn't me.
- Belphanior: <cough> (draws his sword)
- Peyote: Quaffer...
- Ged: Try to control yourself next time, Rob.
- Alindyar: This corridor seems to have been long unused.
- Mongo: (examining the stonework of the walls) It's fairly
- recent. Maybe ten years old. Sort of looks like a sewer
- passage...
- Halbarad: Hark! The way turns ahead.
- Peyote: Way...(draws his sword)
- Mongo: (he and Belphanior round the corner) There's a big room
- up ahead. We're going in. Right, elf?
- Belphanior: Check. I'm with you.
-
- A short distance ahead was a large hexagonal chamber. The
- ceiling was higher here - maybe twenty feet - and covered with
- some sort of mineral deposit. It appeared quite wet. A giant
- figure stood in the center of the room; it appeared to have metal
- skin.
-
- Mongo: Nope, this definitely isn't any normal kind of sewer.
- Belphanior: (fearlessly strides forth)
- figure: Flee now, or I shall breathe poison death upon you all!
- Belphanior: (backs up) Death?
- Rob: (raises his lantern) Death?
- Ged: Is that a GOLEM?!?
- Alindyar: 'Twould appear so...an iron golem.
- Ged: Maybe we should reason with it.
- Alindyar: Meybe we should leave.
- Mongo: Fuck that! (approaches the thing) Who are you?!?
- figure: (unmoving, regards the dwarf)
- Mongo: What do you want?!?
- figure: (still does nothing)
- Mongo: To hell with HIM. (heads for a passageway in the southern
- wall) I'm going elsewhere.
- Belphanior: (skirts the figure cautiously, keeping it at swordpoint
- all the while)
- Halbarad: Um...follow them, but keep to the fringe of the room.
- Ged: Maybe some of us should go around the other edge of the room
- in case it breathes.
- Alindyar: Sensible idea.
- Peyote: All right!
-
- Halbarad, Alindyar, and Peldor went along the east wall; Ged, Rob,
- and Peyote went along the west wall. Throughout all this, the thing
- in the middle of the room remained impassive.
-
- Mongo: Hurry up, guys! There's a whole new passage to be explored
- over here!
- Belphanior: (peering into the darkness)
-
- Soon, they regrouped at the southern passage and went down it.
- Peldor kept a lookout to the rear in case the would-be golem came
- after them. After about two hundred feet, the new passage led to
- a ladder going up thirty feet to a hatch...
-
- Ged: Looks familiar.
- Halbarad: We could not have come far.
- Mongo: No way, maybe three hundred feet south of where we came in.
- Halbarad: We are no doubt still below the city. I would suggest
- that we avoid resurfacing just yet.
- Ged: I agree. What would be the point?
- Belphanior: Maybe that golem-thing is guarding a secret door.
- Peldor: Let's go back. I'll search while you all cover my back.
- Ged: Fat chance.
- Rob: I could try to turn the golem-thing.
- Peyote: Get out of town! Hold that lantern and keep quiet.
- Halbarad: Back we go, then. (they all return to the larger room)
- Peldor: (starts searching the wall)
- Belphanior: (he and Mongo start searching the other wall)
- Rob: (addressing the golem-thing) Who sent you?
- Ged: (watching both of them warily)
- Halbarad: (looking around nervously) I feel that we are missing
- something...
- Peyote: (sword drawn, strolling about looking at the ceiling) Ho-
- hum...
- Alindyar: (regarding the golem) Shoddy construction, in my humble
- opinion.
- Peldor: Bingo!
- Rob: Huh?
- Peldor: (chipping away limestone with a chisel) This door is, err,
- was, concealed.
- Mongo: What's that, a passage behind it? (walks up and pulls on a
- sheet of thin stone, exposing a good bit of the door)
- Halbarad: This is definitely a new way to continue.
- Peyote: It's the choice of a NEW generation...
- Belphanior: Let's take it. Out of my way. (heads into the new
- passage)
- Mongo: Hey, wait up! (he, and the rest, follow)
- Peldor: (watching the still-unmoving figure in the room behind)
-
- The passage was once more ten feet square. It led a short way to
- the west, then turned sharply left and went on for at least a hundred
- feet.
-
- Belphanior: (in the lead with Mongo) Hold that lantern higher! We
- need more light up here!
- Mongo: Or turn the damned thing off. My infravision would work too.
- Rob: Okay, okay.
- Belphanior: Make it snaAAaaaaaa...(falls into a now-open pit)
- Mongo: Yie! (falls too)
- Halbarad: (looking down into the pit, where the pair are laying not
- eight feet below, in a bed of soft sand...) Hmm...
- Belphanior: I hope there's not an ant lion underneath.
- Mongo: Ant? Lion? Is that like an owlbear?
- Peldor: (in the rear) Eh? (notices a large section of stone from
- the wall right behind him slide away; a gleaming nozzle is exposed,
- and strange hissing sounds are coming from it) Eh?!
- Alindyar: What is that?
- Peldor: I don't know, but I don't want to know! Out of the way!
- (he runs forth and attempts to jump the pit)
- Ged: Uh-oh! (also runs for the pit)
- Peldor: (clears the pit's rim easily and rolls to his feet on the
- opposite side) I think I'll keep backing up...
- Ged: (tries to jump across the pit as well, but misses the far edge
- and slams into the wall, then lands in the powdery sand) Agh! My
- back!
- Belphanior: Quit whining.
- Mongo: What the hell's going on up there?! What are you people
- running from?
- Alindyar: Hmm. Yonder contraption has some fell purpose, I am sure.
- There is no time for the carpet...(runs and jumps right into the
- pit, with suprising grace) Oof!
- Halbarad: No time at all. I shall jump too. (sails clumsily into
- the pit)
- Peyote: What is that nipple?
- Rob: (looking around wildly, trying to decide what to do)
- Peyote: That pit seems awful full. I think I'll stay up here, man.
- Rob: (runs toward the nozzle) I'll stop it!
- Peyote: (backing up to the edge of the pit) Get back here, pinhead!
- You don't want to be THAT close!
- Rob: I can make it! I'll just plug it with my flail! I'll-
-
- << WHOOOOOSH!! >>
-
- Peyote: (caught by a huge gout of flame, crisped somewhat mildly,
- and falls back on top of everyone in the pit) Whoops. BAD call.
- Ged: Well, look at that flame overhead. Wonder where Rob made his
- last stand against it...
- Belphanior: Serves the imbecile right.
- Mongo: The poor little guy.
- Peyote: (putting out tiny flames on his shirt) I tried to warn him.
- Alindyar: Observe - the flame ceases.
- Mongo: Hey, someone get on my shoulders and climb back up.
- Peldor: (looking over the far edge, down into the pit) Are you okay?
- Halbarad: We are. The priest...well, that is another matter.
- Peldor: I see him over there. He's actually moving around. Looks a
- lot like a big charred worm though.
- Halbarad: (climbs out of the pit on Rob's side) Priest?
- Rob: Uhh...
- Halbarad: Don't try to move. That was a stupid thing you did. Brave,
- but stupid.
- Rob: I'm okay, I'm okay.
- Ged: (peeking over the rim of the pit) Boccob's beard! The dolt
- lives! (various adventurers are emerging from the pit now)
- Peldor: He managed to dodge to one side as the flame came. Sort of.
- Rob: (totally black, his outfit is shredded as well as burned, and
- all the metal of his armor is blackened; some small bits have
- actually melted and run) I think I avoided the worst of it.
- Peyote: NOT! Heh heh.
- Ged: (regarding the smoking priest) Rob, your hair is all burned
- away.
- Peyote: Crispy critter...
- Rob: I shall live on. It takes more than that to put away a holy
- man such as myself.
- Belphanior: If you say so.
- Rob: (feeling his stubble)
- Alindyar: (floating up on his carpet) We should ensure that yon
- flame-spouter is extinct...
- Ged: It's not making any more noise.
- Peyote: Must be all blasted out, after Rob. Ho ho.
- Mongo: Hey! Someone get me out of this pit!
-
- Soon, they were all across the pit. Rob healed himself of the
- not insignificant wounds he had incurred. Peldor had scouted ahead
- just a bit, and reported a door with no noise audible from behind
- (actually he was sick of finding no treasure and hoped to come upon
- some before everyone else joined him). Alindyar stayed in the
- center of the party on his carpet, about four feet above the floor.
-
- Mongo: I'll open the door. Hey, it's unlocked! Oh well...
-
- Beyond was a forty foot square room, with a twenty foot ceiling
- again.
-
- Alindyar: Ah! Freedom of motion!
- Belphanior: I see two doors in the far wall. I'll take the eastern
- one.
- Mongo: I'll take the western one, then.
- Halbarad: Caution. They may be trapped.
- Rob: Watch out for nozzles in the walls...
- Peldor: (looking around for secret doors or treasure) Ho-hum.
- Mongo: (headed for the western door) Hm? Hey! HEY! I can't
- move! My feet are stuck!
- Ged: How...?
- Mongo: Aaaagh! I hate being stuck! (rough tendrils are rising
- from the floor and batting at him) What the fuck?!?! Where in
- the hell did THOSE come from?! (swinging his hammer around)
-
- Belphanior: Seems like I picked the wrong door...(leaps to the
- dwarf's side, hacking at the brownish bludgeons) Huh?
- Alindyar: 'Tis a mimic!
- Ged: Hey! I was about to say that!
- Alindyar: My apologies.
- Ged: Boccob damn it! What spells have I to deal with a monster
- like this?!
- Alindyar: That creature is no easy mark...
- Belphanior: Hey, I'm stuck too! (trying in vain to move his feet)
- Mongo: (slams the ground with his hammer) Take THAT, living
- floor!
- Belphanior: (severs a blob from its tendril) Whee!
- Peyote: Gnarly! Just gnarly! (moves closer, sword drawn, but
- watches the floor suspiciously)
- tendril: (whacks Mongo hard, snaring his hammer arm in the process)
- Mongo: AGH! It's got me good now! Help!
- Halbarad: (lays into the thing with his axe and dagger)
- Alindyar: (sitting cross-legged on his carpet, digging in his pack
- for something)
- Rob: (dashes forth to attack, but his feet get stuck too, and he
- falls over) <ROLLED A 1 ON d20...> Ooooops...!
- Peyote: (chops at the floor, wounding the mimic) Lo! I found it!
- Or part of it!
- Halbarad: Good work! Keep at it!
- Peldor: (attacks a stray tentacle, cutting it, but is careful not
- to get mired to the floor)
- Ged: (sputtering in anger) I'll bash it, by Boccob! (runs up and
- slams his morningstar into the monster heavily)
- Mongo: Hey! The blasted thing lost its grip! (starts pounding the
- now-flaccid mimic/floor/tendrils with his hammer)
- Peyote: Good going, elfdude. You dealt with it.
- Mongo: You killed it! (looking around) Yea!
- Ged: Well, I...
- Mongo: (shaking Ged's hand) What a true heroic feat! We'll make
- a warrior out of you yet!
- Rob: (trying to stand up without slipping) What happened?
- Ged: Do you need healing?
- Mongo: Nah. I'm barely bruised. It takes more than that thing to
- stop a Thunderhead. Save your magic.
- Ged: As you will.
- Belphanior: This door is false (has opened the eastern door to a
- blank wall).
- Peldor: (at the western door) This one isn't. Let's take it.
- Rob: (was going to remind the party to search for treasure under
- the mimic but thinks better of it)
-
- They went through the door and almost immediately turned leftward.
- Before them was a long corridor lit by fiery torches set into the
- wall every ten feet or so. It was quite warm in here.
-
- Mongo: (plodding off down the passage) Give me something I can
- fight! No glue monsters, just a giant or two! Or even an orc,
- for crying out loud!
- Halbarad: Orc?
- Belphanior: I have a feeling that you won't be disappointed before
- too long.
- Alindyar: This heat grows nigh unbearable...
- Ged: No shit. Whew!
- Peldor: Puny mage.
- Peyote: (sweating profusely) I can barely stand this dire heatwave,
- dudes. Let's mosey on out of here.
-
- Suddenly the walls to either side slid away, and a pair of large
- black hounds emerged, one to either side. Without warning, they
- breathed gouts of flame at the tightly-packed party. All were hit,
- for various degrees of injury.
-
- Alindyar: Fire-breathing hounds! I have heard tales of these.
- Ged: Indeed.
- Alindyar: Some say they come from the hells.
- Ged: Shall we philosophize on the matter, or help the others?!
- Alindyar: Ah, of course. (begins spellcasting as his carpet
- rises a bit) Wait...I have no useful spells for close quarters
- such as these. (starts looking for his wand)
- Mongo: Agh! We're like sardines in a can here!
- Belphanior: (charges one of the things, batting Rob out of his way
- as he does do) You'll pay for that, mutt!
- hound#1: Grr...
- Halbarad: (attacks the other hound with his axe as it prepares to
- breathe again - his armor is smoldering) Foul vermin! Away with
- you!
- Rob: (backs off, to the west, and starts casting a spell)
- Peldor: (trying to sneak into the alcove of hound#1)
- Peyote: (moves with Halbarad to double-team hound#2)
- hound#2: (bites Halbarad, wounding him only slightly) Grr...
- hound#1: (breathes fire at Belphanior)
- Belphanior: Agh! Die, motherfucker! (slashes the beast, wounding
- it a bit) I'll kill you for that!
- Rob: (taps the crazed elf) There.
- Belphanior: Stay away from me, you! Can't you see that I'm trying
- to wage war here?!
- Rob: But...I have given you a spell of resistance to heat and fire.
- Belphanior: Oh.
- Alindyar: (blasts hound#1 with magic missiles from his wand)
- hound#1: Yoooowl!
- Ged: (casts blindness on hound#1) Boccob take your sight, evil
- beast!
- hound#1: (blinded) Awoooowl!
- Ged: This just isn't your day, is it?
- hound#1: (trying to get a good guess as to where to breathe)
- Peldor: (finds that he can't get by the two warriors battling the
- second hound, and starts moving further down the corridor)
- Mongo: Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em! (can't find a place to fit into
- the melee) Shit.
-
- hound#2: (breathes fire on Halbarad and Peyote, singing them again)
- Halbarad: Agh! (chops the monster, but his dagger stab misses)
- Peyote: Woo! (slices the hound...it falls, dying) Natch!
- Halbarad: What was that?
- Peyote: Nothing.
- hound#1: (breathes fire on Belphanior)
- Belphanior: (protected by Rob's spell, he feels no pain) Ahh. This
- is too easy...(hacks the monster to death within two minutes)
-
- Meanwhile, Peldor had advanced to the end of the passage (it turned
- rightward) and was peering carefully around the corner. Unfortunately
- he was only human and as such had no infravision. Thus, he had no
- warning when a three foot long crossbow bolt flew out of the darkness
- to the north and pinned him to the wall, transfixing his arm. All he
- heard were heavy footfalls and a slammed door somewhere ahead.
-
- Peldor: AAGH!
- Mongo: Hey! The thief got ambushed!
- Ged: Serves him right. But, let's go help him out.
- Halbarad: Aye. (they all run westward to the corner)
- Belphanior: (stays behind, having spotted gem-studded collars on the
- hell hounds) Ah...
-
- nearby...
-
- Peyote: What happened, dude?
- Peldor: Someone shot me, what does it look like?! Agh!
- Mongo: Nailed you to that wall good, too.
- Ged: We need some clippers, or something.
- Peldor: Bah. Just get me off of this wall.
- Mongo: (grabs the tail end of the inch-thick bolt) You sure?
- Peldor: I can take it.
- Mongo: O-kay...
- Halbarad: When Mongo breaks the bolt, we'll pull the thief off of it.
- Peyote: Sure thing.
- Mongo: Grr...<SNAP>
- Peldor: YEAAAAARGH!!!!!
- Halbarad: (he and Peyote get Peldor safely to the ground)
- Ged: That's a nasty hole there (pressing a cloth to stop the blood
- flow)
- Peldor: AAAARGH!
- Peyote: Medic!
- Rob: I'm here. Don't worry. (heals Peldor, twice) Do you feel any
- better, brave thief?
- Peldor: Ahhh.......yeah. Oh yeah.
- Ged: Enough. Let's get some light on this passage to the north.
- Halbarad: (explores said area, finding a lengthy corridor leading to
- a heavy door)
- Rob: (to Peldor) I know how it is to do one thing when everyone else
- is doing something else. I sympathize with you.
- Peldor: I owe you one.
- Rob: Think nothing of it.
- Ged: Say, who's missing?
-
- Suddenly, a loud cry of pain came from the east. Belphanior was
- staggering toward the party, a gem-studded dog collar grasped in one
- hand...
-
- Ged: Wha...?
- Belphanior: <gasp> Poison... (falls to his knees)
-
-
-
-
-
- next time: minotaur madness; cubic jello; the muck-thing; serpents;
- the doom of the party...
-
- ANONYMOUS FTP SITE: tybalt.caltech.edu (in pub/adnd/fluff/adventurers)
- ***********************************************************************
- NOTES: Well. It's been only two days, i.e. about 48 hours, since my
- last posting. The distress signal did not go unheard. I got no less
- than 36 email messages, all of them positive and encouraging. So: I
- think I was having a slight case of the "cry wolf" syndrome. I just
- was in momentary doubt as to whether or not there were still fans out
- there. However, I doubt no more. Do not worry, the stories will
- continue. If I was in a slump then, I'm on a high wave now. Funny
- how these things work out...I extend a heartfelt thanks to all who
- sent me mail.
- I will wrap up module A3 with the next posting (part 33) and get
- into A4, the best of the series in my opinion.
- ***********************************************************************
-