4: Under the Tower of Móric

[burke]

Seeing your companion in such mortal danger brings out the best in everyone (HPT: 61). Charles quickly skewers the gill-man and switches to his sax, hacking away at the tentacles and paving the way for Melanthios and Quinlan to deliver their attacks straight to the monsters body. Alwyn almost collapses from the effort of casting The Painful Exorcism, but succeeds in striking fear into the beast (-4 ST and 8 EP).

The tentacled horror begins to retreat into the waters, dragging the almost lifeless Drugan with it (Drugan takes 6 points of damage as he his choked and drowned). As all hope of saving Drugan seems lost, Varklud draws his sax, lets loose the high battle cry of the Heggs and dives into the water. Evading the flailing tentacles, Varklud swims up to the creature and with the last of his strength, plunges his sax deep into its yellow eye and up into its brain (damage: 20).

The creature bellows and trashes madly about with its few remaining tentacles and then collapses to float on the water. It still tries to lash out with its tentacles, but is too wounded to make any real resistance. As the initial astonshment of the victory passes, the warriors dash forward to dispatch the monster and retrieve their companions from the water.

(Whew, check the dice log, that's a lot of sixes! Everyone receives 74 EP from the battle + whatever you rolled in your SR's. Drugan receives roll x CON lost for being manhandled by the monster, that should make 36 EP I believe.

I've been studying the rules and I just noticed that magic-users DO regain their ST at a rate of 1 point per turn, just as in the later editions of the rules. The reason I didn't find it earlier was that its mentioned in the back of the book among the rules for berserk fighting.

Sorry, for going back on forth on this. Everyone is still alive, so I guess no real harm's been done.

As you catch your breath on the sandy shore, you have time to take in your surroundings. The cavern is roughly circular and approximately 70 feet across at its widest point. The stream curves a bit northward as it flows through the cavern but what lies on the other side is veiled in darkness.

The gill-men and the beast left nothing of value, except one serviceable trident.

(Please update your characters sheets, especially magic-users with makeshift staff's should be diligent, as the staff will foil any spell if it burns out while casting.)

[Hogscape]

Quinlan: "Egad those Heggs are mustard!"

[Porkbelly]

Poncho: "Indeed, that was a most impressive maneuver brother Varklud! I should have brought the wine."

Poncho lights up the lantern once again and begins exploring the cavern. Are there any exits south of the river? Is there is an easy way to cross to the northern bank or would there be any difficulty to swim it?

[burke]

There are no discernable exits on your side of the cavern. Crossing the stream should be easy, as the water is only waist high.

(One turn, i.e. 10 minutes, has now passed. Which means that those low on ST are one point stronger. Usually I count that one turn has passed every time I do a longer write-up. Poncho's lantern is now half-full.)

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Drugan soaked and sputtering claws his way onto the bank.

"Ok, so I Didn't count on an inbred octopus/gill-man thing"

"That reminded me of getting dragged into the cage with the masters tentacle beast during feeding time"

Saying this causes Drugan to shake visibly.

"Thanks for the timely rescue, I'm not ready to atone for my crimes yet.......er I mean go to my eternal reward"

"Now can we rest for awhile?"

"I don't know about the rest of you lads, but I'm about done in"

OOC: Lets retreat into the corridor and rest up for awhile, even an hours rest should restore our spell casting ability. Now that we know that Wizards regain STR as normal we should take advantage of it.

[danhem]

"That was nicely done," Charles says as he recovers his spear yet again from a slain gill man. "What sort of monstrosity was that? I've never seen such a thing."

"Yes, we could all use a rest I think. If we run into anything like that again we will certainly need more than steel on our side."

OOC: Just out of curiosity, why was my Strength SR a failure?

[ragnorakk]

"Hoi - Lucky shot! Let's move this creature to the shore, that it won't alert others by passing downstream," says Varklud. If it's not too heavy, I'll try to do so myself. "The room wont be necessarily safe for rest - the men of the deeps could come along at any time...we'll have to retreat to the tunnel. Once there, I can still draw the veil of Shugga over us, if need be..."

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

OOC: A question the gill-men had some sort of light source, what was it and what became of it?

P.S. I just noticed, this is my 1,000th post! ;D

[burke]

(

Aug 13, 2009 17:07:04 GMT -5 danhem said:

OOC: Just out of curiosity, why was my Strength SR a failure?

Because I forgot to add your ST to the roll. But do not fret, I did not treat it as a failure, Charles caused full damage.

Aug 14, 2009 0:29:44 GMT -5 Toad-Killer-Dog said:

OOC: A question the gill-men had some sort of light source, what was it and what became of it?

I did not mean for them to have any light, where did I say anything like that?)

You throw the bodies in the water and the current carries them away. The stream disappears into a large fissure in the west wall of the cavern.

You retreat into the secret corridor and make camp as best you can, sharing the food you took from the towers larder (AFAIK only Charles and Poncho took anything, so you are now out). Adventuring is hard work and you've been at it for over 5 hours straight, so as soon as your stomachs are filled everyone dozes off.

Judging from the oil level in the lantern, you had it burning on a small wick, you've slept for about 3 hours. Alwyn, Charles and Melanthios feel content, but the rest of you suffer from cramps and fitful sleep. (Everyones ST is in any case fully restored. Check your rolls from the dice log and record your EP accordingly.)

Drugan, who slept especially badly, thinks he might have heard some movement outside, a couple of hours ago. But he is uncertain, as it may just have been a fevered dream.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

OOC: Pardon I thought at one point it was said we say a light approaching from the distance.
Also we should still have some rations that we bought in the city right?

Drugan scratches at the bruises the tentacle creature left him with.

"Well lads it may have just been my imagination, but I could swear I heard something slithering and scratching on the other side of the hidden door while we slept"

"So we best be ready when we continue our investigation"

"I think our shield forward formation is working fine, though now that we need not be so quiet I think I'll keep my place behind the shields thank you"

Drugan gives a saucy wink as he gnaws on his rations.

[burke]

Aug 14, 2009 1:11:01 GMT -5 Toad-Killer-Dog said:

OOC: Pardon I thought at one point it was said we say a light approaching from the distance.

No, I just mentioned that the lichen growing on the walls is slightly fluorescent. Apparently the gill-men can see in the dark.

Also we should still have some rations that we bought in the city right?

You ate the last of those rations before reaching the tower. There should however be a lot of food left on the first floor of the tower.

[Hogscape]

<OoC> Plus there's any amount of squid floating around. Drugan has a tasty lump hanging from one of his open wounds. Season with a bit of moss, lightly fry over a fresh torch. Lovely.

[salass00]

Melanthios: "I think we should investigate what's on the other side of that stream. In addition to being prepared to fight whatever it was that Drugan heard someone should keep an eye on the stream in case more monsters come that way."

[burke]

You gather your belongings and ready your weapons. After listening to make sure the coast seems clear, Melanthios and Charles, who are in the front, pull open the door.

The cavern seems as before and all is quiet, except for the gushing of the stream. Charles uses his spear to ascertain that nothing is hiding under the surface of the water and when nothing jumps forth, Melanthios steps into the stream. The water is indeed shallow and the current is weak, and so Melanthios easily reaches the other shore. Heartened by his success the rest of the party follows and soon all are gathered on the opposite side.

Poncho's lantern reveals that the north end of the cavern splits into two narrow passages. One going northwest and the other eastward. Both look to be quite natural in origin and equally wet and slimy.

[salass00]

Melanthios: "Unless anyone has an objection to that I say we explore the northwestern tunnel."