Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:18 pm
Using the amulet to open the door was a cool experience all by itself, “When [the amulet] is placed in the depression in the center of the seal, the magic. . . flickers across the runes for a second, dims, and then bursts asunder with a flash and a sound like the shattering of a crystal goblet. And then the door slides open.” That is cool.
They pass into the befouled corridor filled with waist-deep water mixed with sewage and slowly made their way to the rotten wooden door “adorned simply with a blue painted skull.” The strange sounds of whisperings coming from behind the door means in their opinion, trouble. They decided to have the elven archer and the witch wait back about twenty feet with the witch holding the lantern while the elf covered the ranger with her bow. The ranger waded along to the door to find it locked. Nightwing just knows the door is trapped and tells me his ranger “checks for traps.” Of course nothing is found so he begins to break the door down only to discover the trap. An electrical current flows out of the door and hits him. The others were far enough away they only felt a tingling.
Behind the broken door are stairs leading out of this nasty water. Up they go. The next room is really amazing. They see an empty stone carved room with some sand and beetles moving about and door on the far end of the room thirty feet away. Carefully they entered and the PCs are no longer in the room. Behind them is the archway leading to stairs down but all around them is a desert wasteland. Far off in the distance, miles away, the elf spies the door, that moments before, was but thirty feet distance.
They debate about what to do. One of them declares this has to be an illusion but can’t really tell me why this has to be an illusion except for “it just can’t be. We are still in the room.” So whoever it was, sorry my memory is lacking here, they roll a save and still sees the desert waste. The party isn’t really ready for a desert adventure but the ranger figures if the door is really thirty miles away they will take two or three days to cross it. Rangar1965 says water isn’t a problem since his PC will memorize create water. The major problem for the players is that they were investigating the murders and the gnome gem merchant, Jonas, asked them to be with him when he sailed to Majoor in just a few days. Jonas is in terror of this curse pursuing him and hopes the PCs will be there to defend him. Should they press on to see what lies beyond the far away door or retreat now even though something has beckoned them to “find me, free me”?
What to do???
They vote to press on. They hope Jonas will be okay on the boat ride and they’ll try to catch up to him. The curiosity got the players and they need to see what lies beyond the door.
They travel across the burning desert for two days. The ranger was unable to find anything to aid them except to show them basic survival skills. Although we didn’t role-play this for the evening was drawing to a close and I wanted to complete the adventure, Ragnar1965’s spellcaster was indispensable in this trek. He had her memorize both create water and food type spells along with endure elements. The elf never lost sight of the door and the desert was eerie with little to no breeze and, except for beetles, no life was to be seen on land or in the sky. [I changed the original write-up here for the sake of expediency.]
They finally arrived at the far door and exited this desert realm. One of them was still sure the whole thing was an illusion. I just can’t remember who! The door led to a small corridor with a door on both the right and the left. They chose right. The corridor through the door had dust all over, a door at the far end, and “a carving atop the lintel, strange runes surrounding a bright yellow gem embedded in the stonework.” All three said “TRAP!” and retreated from this corridor to try the door on the left.
The left door also led to a corridor. This one had a door on the north side and further along the passageway it ended in yet another door. The north door opened into a circular room that had sewage leaking in. It may have been a torture chamber from the wall frescoes. The fight in this room with the water beast was great. Being attacked by walls of sewage laced water and not knowing if the Lord Tulwar’s longsword or Whisker was actually doing damage to the entity made for a great fight. Magic missile was Rangar1965’s best friend in this combat. His witch actually cast, I’d say, most of her memorized offensive wizard spells if not all of them. This was a dangerous encounter.
After besting the animated water, they left and avoided the ceiling trap with a well placed search. The circular, rat-infested, empty tomb puzzled the players. However, Ragnar1965 either suspected this was false or he remembered playing I3—Pharaoh several years ago and learning that the Egyptian rulers often created a false tomb to throw off tomb raiders. Anyway, he wanted the PCs to carefully search everything for signs of secret doors. He said since they had missed the boat with Jonas they would take hours if need be. Something isn’t right! The statue at the back of this tomb was none other than that of Sezrakan, the arch-mage whose tower they had plundered (from DCC #29—The Adventure Begins, “Tower of the Black Pearl”). What was Sezrakan’s statue doing here? This makes the party really start thinking. What is down here and why does it want freed? The players remembered Sezrakan had been a good wizard before turning to evil and somehow transforming into a multi-headed dragon if the carvings deep within his tower were true. Did a good man entrap something evil here, or did an evil man vanquish something benign? I loved the back and forth the three of them had. It only grew worse when I informed them the elf had spied a secret door behind the statue.
Curiosity won out again. All three couldn’t resist the pull of exploring further. They pull aside the statue and braved the darkness.
They pass into the befouled corridor filled with waist-deep water mixed with sewage and slowly made their way to the rotten wooden door “adorned simply with a blue painted skull.” The strange sounds of whisperings coming from behind the door means in their opinion, trouble. They decided to have the elven archer and the witch wait back about twenty feet with the witch holding the lantern while the elf covered the ranger with her bow. The ranger waded along to the door to find it locked. Nightwing just knows the door is trapped and tells me his ranger “checks for traps.” Of course nothing is found so he begins to break the door down only to discover the trap. An electrical current flows out of the door and hits him. The others were far enough away they only felt a tingling.
Behind the broken door are stairs leading out of this nasty water. Up they go. The next room is really amazing. They see an empty stone carved room with some sand and beetles moving about and door on the far end of the room thirty feet away. Carefully they entered and the PCs are no longer in the room. Behind them is the archway leading to stairs down but all around them is a desert wasteland. Far off in the distance, miles away, the elf spies the door, that moments before, was but thirty feet distance.
They debate about what to do. One of them declares this has to be an illusion but can’t really tell me why this has to be an illusion except for “it just can’t be. We are still in the room.” So whoever it was, sorry my memory is lacking here, they roll a save and still sees the desert waste. The party isn’t really ready for a desert adventure but the ranger figures if the door is really thirty miles away they will take two or three days to cross it. Rangar1965 says water isn’t a problem since his PC will memorize create water. The major problem for the players is that they were investigating the murders and the gnome gem merchant, Jonas, asked them to be with him when he sailed to Majoor in just a few days. Jonas is in terror of this curse pursuing him and hopes the PCs will be there to defend him. Should they press on to see what lies beyond the far away door or retreat now even though something has beckoned them to “find me, free me”?
What to do???
They vote to press on. They hope Jonas will be okay on the boat ride and they’ll try to catch up to him. The curiosity got the players and they need to see what lies beyond the door.
They travel across the burning desert for two days. The ranger was unable to find anything to aid them except to show them basic survival skills. Although we didn’t role-play this for the evening was drawing to a close and I wanted to complete the adventure, Ragnar1965’s spellcaster was indispensable in this trek. He had her memorize both create water and food type spells along with endure elements. The elf never lost sight of the door and the desert was eerie with little to no breeze and, except for beetles, no life was to be seen on land or in the sky. [I changed the original write-up here for the sake of expediency.]
They finally arrived at the far door and exited this desert realm. One of them was still sure the whole thing was an illusion. I just can’t remember who! The door led to a small corridor with a door on both the right and the left. They chose right. The corridor through the door had dust all over, a door at the far end, and “a carving atop the lintel, strange runes surrounding a bright yellow gem embedded in the stonework.” All three said “TRAP!” and retreated from this corridor to try the door on the left.
The left door also led to a corridor. This one had a door on the north side and further along the passageway it ended in yet another door. The north door opened into a circular room that had sewage leaking in. It may have been a torture chamber from the wall frescoes. The fight in this room with the water beast was great. Being attacked by walls of sewage laced water and not knowing if the Lord Tulwar’s longsword or Whisker was actually doing damage to the entity made for a great fight. Magic missile was Rangar1965’s best friend in this combat. His witch actually cast, I’d say, most of her memorized offensive wizard spells if not all of them. This was a dangerous encounter.
After besting the animated water, they left and avoided the ceiling trap with a well placed search. The circular, rat-infested, empty tomb puzzled the players. However, Ragnar1965 either suspected this was false or he remembered playing I3—Pharaoh several years ago and learning that the Egyptian rulers often created a false tomb to throw off tomb raiders. Anyway, he wanted the PCs to carefully search everything for signs of secret doors. He said since they had missed the boat with Jonas they would take hours if need be. Something isn’t right! The statue at the back of this tomb was none other than that of Sezrakan, the arch-mage whose tower they had plundered (from DCC #29—The Adventure Begins, “Tower of the Black Pearl”). What was Sezrakan’s statue doing here? This makes the party really start thinking. What is down here and why does it want freed? The players remembered Sezrakan had been a good wizard before turning to evil and somehow transforming into a multi-headed dragon if the carvings deep within his tower were true. Did a good man entrap something evil here, or did an evil man vanquish something benign? I loved the back and forth the three of them had. It only grew worse when I informed them the elf had spied a secret door behind the statue.
Curiosity won out again. All three couldn’t resist the pull of exploring further. They pull aside the statue and braved the darkness.