Sunday, June 17, 2007

Chapter 10: The Guard Room

Aurelious took a knee and began to give a prayer of thanks to his paytron god,Sol. As Thomas, haveing deemed that callenon was ok, just paralised, he began to pet and thank the wolf, giving it a bit of dried meat as a reward. The wolf took the meat without much pomp and circumstance, and he didn"t seem to mind being pet, but didn't seem to like it either. In fact the wolf did nothing except stare forward as if awaiting instruction. Thomas sighed and moved to the first coffin ad tried his best to right it.

"How long has it been since these catacombs were sealed Lorem? I wonder how many ways these creatures have to get in here or how many more there could be. I'd hope not many as they're still finding corpses to feed upon." He asked as he straigned at the sacophagus.

"These catacombs have not been unsealed sence the first age. I do not know how or why these creatures were here." replied Lorem as he aproched Lyn and Tordem who stood patiently awaiting instruction.

"The first age..." Thought Thomas. Thats thousands upon thousands of years ago. There must be great works of art kept in here from aichent times. Not to menttion stories. He had never heard of this place before, not in all his travels or stories heard. The bard noticed Aurelios rise from his prayer and aproch Calenon. He looked pale, but otherwise fine.

"I had wondered about the choice to carry four such blades at once, yet I hadn't imagined you've the strength and skill to use two at once. That's quite a feat Aurelious, have you always trained in such a manner? Perhaps training to carry the third in your mouth as well?" Thomas chuckled to himself, likely more amused than anyone else was at the comment.

Aurelious stood up from helping Calenon "Only one such blade as The Alexander exists, and there can be such times as I would wish not to wield it. Or, on occasion I would use my blades in a manner which may preclude their loss, or damage, such carelessness can never be applied to The Alexander. In certain rare cases a weapon may require... cleansing, before it would be right to draw upon it again. It is for such a circumstance, that I carry alternatives. As for why I would wield two, as opposed to focusing on one..."

He sheathed his sword and displayed his left hand. A fine silver chain wrapped around his left palm and fingers. The chain bears the symbol of Sol. It slightly obscures a strange mark on his palm.

"With two able arms, I could not let one only ASSIST in the service of Sol, and my own goal. They both serve, as do I."

"Two swords... what a waste of time." Richard chimed in. "Defeating your enemy with one stroke, before he even knows you're there... that is the mark of a fighter of TRUE prowess. On an unrelated note, does anyone know what those things did to me to make me feel as though I've been stricken with some illness and how to reverse it? Ugh... gonna lie down for a while..."

Richard ploped himself onto one of the unturned sarcophogi, much to Lorem's dismay.

"If you think true prowess comes from one well placed shot in stealth my gloomy friend, then I would call you mistaken. While you lose it all if stealth is unavailable or lost, those who train otherwise always have a chance. Not only is it common sense, but the stories that are passed around...they display the thoughts that ring true in mens' hearts about such things." Thomas replied. Then he paused momentarily."Don't think I look down upon you for such thoughts though Richard. For sometimes such advantage is truly the only way." Thomas then returned to trying to push the Sacophagus back into place.

"Lyn, Torden I thank you deeply for your service, but i fear i can not keep you. Return to where you came and rest well, for i may have to call on you again." Lorem spoke to his dogs.

"Aye, and don't hesitate to call either. We'll come too." barked Tordem

"after we've rested a bit" grumbled Lyn.

"Bah weakling, I haven't a scratch on me!"

"Because I took the hit for you."

"We'll discuss this latter. Now I hear the halls of Valhalla. Farewell Dwarf of the cloth may we meet again." and With a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder Tordem and Lyn dysapeared. Lorem then turned to Calenon and saw what he could do to help him.

Calenon had been poisoned, but he didn't seem to need healing, for the poison was just about to run it's course and unlike the others Calenon had managed to not let that foul smell affect him. He was bleeding profusely from a wound on his throat, but before Aurelious or Lorem could heal it, Calenon finally rose, with Lorem and Aurelious helping him to his feet.

"At least you didn't let me die from the bleeding throat wound," he said with only the smallest bit of sarcasm as he took out a potion and drank it. His would glowed with a soft blue light as the bleeding stoped and started to close, but failed to close completely before the blue light fadded.

"Ah, that's better." Calenon then looked around and seeeing the green in most everyone's faces quiped. "What's wrong with all of you? You look like you're going to retch all of you internal organs."

Aurelious and Lorem droped him and his shaky knees gave out. He landed with a plop on the floor. "very funny."

they went about the room placing everything right. The dwarves in the wals werte nothing but scelitons now and one could count over fifty lining the walls of the room. They all bore an aichent dwarven crest and a shield that laid attop of them. Every one caried a weapon of some kind with them into the grave, axes, short swords, longswords, hammers, all of exquisit make and quality. The Dwarves lying in the sarcophaguses all bore a warrios mantle and carried with them jewels neclases and rings. Four of the sarcophagi had been overturned, which, working together, managed to right. the bodies were still fleshy, despite the amount of time that had passed.

"The clerics must have blessed thier bodies to give them gentle repose." Lorem explained.

The four bodies had now been devoured by the two ghasts, but the remains were placed into the sacophagi anyway and resealed. Aichent Dwarven runes covered tyhe walls, out lining the alcoves. The runes on the sarcophogi were painstakingly etched and carvings of each dwarf were carved into the cover stone of each one.

"This is the bural chamber of the first guard of Queen Aym." Lorem explained. "They were of the few that remained loyal to her to the bitter end."

Thomas turned to Lorem. "Do you know the way, or must we test a path here?"

"I have never been here and plans to this place have long sence been lost. we must forge our own path. From what I can tell there are four exits from this room, one is the way we came, the others hold the unknown."

The companians stood tring to decide thier path.

12 comments:

JC said...

Init:13

(Dane if someone gives a legitimate suggestion before I speak, please tweak my dialog)

"I propose we take the nearest pathway first," said Thomas, "but it is based on naught but whim. If anyone has a reason for choosing another direction first I would love to hear it."


(Once a path is chosen and embarked upon)

With a dance to his voice that belied his excitement at such an old story, Thomas addressed Lorem.
"Loyal to the end you say? That whispers of an old tale to my ears Lorem. Would you mind sharing if you can recall it?"

Eric said...

I imagine they'll all be too dark to discern anything of importance, but for the hell of it I'll do spot checks looking into the entrances of the three paths that we're debating between.

17
1
12

I would ask Lorem if he thought it likely that we would encounter traps, in which case I would volunteer to take the point and check for traps along whatever path we take.

Eric said...

Rolled 16 for initiative, if it matters

Unknown said...

Init: 12

"Ah, it is a tale worth hearing, but not here with their corpses amongst us." [unless the dm give us some useful info]

Lorem checks the construct and build of each opening making note of subtle things such as the count of stones in each arch, weather the path is inclined or declined, if their is wind or oder carried through each path, ect... (spot: 19, 13, 7)

if he can discern nothing he agrees with thomas. and takes a position again at the rear of the party.

If lorem is at all unsure about traps he replies, "yes best be on the lookout for them from now on."

DM said...

You will notice the path closest to your enterance teds to slope down at a rate of five inches per ten feet. The path on the left across the room stays level and the path on the right across the room slopes down at a rate of two inches per ten feet.

Eric said...

As Richard inspects the three pathways in turn, his normally stoic demeanor seems to give way to a sense of foreboding upon checking the path to the right. Richard quickly backs up a few steps from the path's entrance, trying to gather himself.

JC said...

"Richard," Thomas steps towards him, "are you alright? Perhaps you should rest a bit more to recover from the ghasts? At the very least take a drink of water, you still look as if you've seen hell itself."

Unknown said...

"if we are going down we are going this way" motioning to the path closest to our entrance.

Unknown said...

Init: 9
Spot: 21
"I would imagine the orb would have buried itself deep, and so whichever path takes us down fastest seems logical." He then narrows his eyes at the rest of the party, looking around. "... And the first person who retches on me will have the rest of him splattered on the wall." He waits for someone to lead the way.

JC said...

"Logical...perhaps. But sometimes that which goes harder does not make the end, or to speak plainly in this case, the steeper slope not necessarily make it as deep. In some places, one may even have to go up to go down good elf. This closer pathway does appear to run steeper though so we shall find what there is to see." He then turns his attention back to Richard. "If you are well enough, lead on Richard. If not, I cannot check for traps but I would be willing to take point."

NWIFSER said...

"I will take the rear position. It would be best for us to make sure we have a safe way out, just in case."

INIT: 13

NWIFSER said...

(Well, stupid me, due to technical difficulties I could not post until yesterday, and, DM's new post contradicts what I just posted. We'll pretend this never happened, I suppose.)