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March 11, 2004

Holes in the Front, Holes in the Back…

Tassar's Journal

Hello again pit….

After a bit of waiting for the ladies to de-goo, we began looking around the room that the flittering creatures came from. We didn’t find much. Some of the party thinks that the super mosquitoes are the cause of death of the local farm animals. I am not so inclined to believe them. As I remember the dead cow that was drained of blood, the party had pointed out the lack of footprints from what had killed it. Truth be known, there wasn’t any cow prints either. I don’t believe that the little creatures we fought could have lifted a cow.

Theona began her “checking for traps.” It took me a while but I figured out what this long drawn out process really means, it means “Tassar can you lead the way.” So as she started looking at the steps down, I rode past and looked around a room at the bottom. Moments later the party joined me. The room was scattered full of bones and debris. It is as if a major battle had taken place here many years ago. There was a few weapons and armor, which had been beyond usable for a long, long time. Otto seemed to like the bones though.

As I looked around the mess for a goody of some kind, the new guy came in and cast a spell that can detect magic items. While we looked in the room the rest of the party went down a small hallway to a door and beyond to another room. When I caught up I viewed a room with many statues along the side walls. Each statue was of a magic user casting a spell, strange but no two were alike. Statue after statue seemed to be in the process of casting a spell. To me, it was a little creepy.

But the statues were of little interest for the room contained two dead bodies. A magic user and a fighter, they appeared to have killed each other. The warrior was in the middle of the floor and the mage was pinned to the wall by a sword. We examined the bodies and concluded that they must be part of the party that had come this way a little while ago. They had a couple of weapons that were better than just usable; in fact I took a short bow that is a fair bit better than mine. Oh, and a shield that is twice the size of my own. It is made of fine steel and I have taken a fancy to it.

During this time Deitricha seemed a little miffed with me. Theona said that it was my fault. She also said that human women do not like being told that they ‘look like hell.’ I took the message to heart, although I do like arguing with Theona, this information seemed to be given to help me.



End of a fine companion…

The group was ready to move on and I followed Theona, we talked about the fact that it was odd; the two dead did not have coin pouches. And if they were a party, where were the rest of them? I then guided Otto into a small hallway and began toward another room, and then the floor fell out from under us. I have fallen in a few pits in my time, but never with a mount. Poor Otto took it bad, for the pit was lined with spikes. I took a good bit of damage. When I pulled myself off of the last spike I looked at Otto, his loyal eyes were staring back at me as he breathed his final breaths.

I didn’t have too much time to miss my companion as I noticed I was not alone in the pit, next to me was a dead human rogue. Before I could do much more in the way of investigating I was forced to run across the spiked pit to catch Deitricha, who had fallen in the pit while trying to get me out. Her god must have been smiling on her as I somehow crossed to where she fell and caught her before she hit the spikes. In her joy from me catching her she had given me a hug and kiss that nearly knocked us over. Then she told me I ‘looked like hell.’ We shared a small laugh. Together we examined the corpse of the rogue and found a few more items that we could use, including a few potions of healing.

The crew above the trap finally figured out how to keep the trap open and lowered a rope to us. We eagerly climbed out and joined our friends. It is then that we were faced with another problem, how to cross this open spiked pit. Now in hindsight I see that we were quite stupid.

First Theona tied a rope to herself and let Areon hold the other end. They only gave her enough slack to cross the pit, but not enough to reach the bottom of the pit. She then got a running start and jumped. It wasn’t much of a running start as we didn’t have much room, again this was noticed in hindsight. She got about half way across and then swung like a pendulum into the pit wall with a smack that I believe broke her nose.

As they hoisted her up I decide that I could jump the pit and got the same running start that Theona got. I remind you again that we were stupid at this point. I made it about half way across when I notice my momentum beginning to change. I looked down at the spikes and said to myself “Yup, this is going to hurt.” At least Deitricha didn’t try to come in after me for there is no way I could have gotten up in time to even attempt to catch her, as I took a bit of time pulling myself off the spikes this time.

Theona and Areon thought they had figured out the jump and I looked up in time to see her leap the pit and land on the other side. I then tossed up my rope to her and she helped me climb up. While she had the rope I was on, she backed up into the new room, which became a bad thing. As she had noticed some more of the statue of mages, she also noticed two statues of armored knights. The knights began to move and came after her. I arrived at the top of the pit just in time to run in front of her to protect her. I am not saying that she cannot fight well, just that she seemed no match for these creatures. And after all, if something happened to her, who would I argue with?



An ugly battle…

Now the fight was on as both statues engaged me. Theona who was still tied about the waist decide to jump back across the pit. I did not see her go, but I did hear the familiar thud as she hit the wall in the pit. At least she didn’t make the same, wet, blood splattering sound when she hit.

Normally I would love this situation, a good fight and my friends in a safe spot, but as it happened to be I was in bad shape from my two visits to the bottom of the pit. I didn’t let on; in fact I found a corner to fight in and yelled at both of my enemies. They didn’t seem to be affected. It seems my fame hasn’t yet reached some old abandoned dungeons.

I held my own for a good bit, the statues only seemed to be able to nick at me. It appears that I have become a tough target with my new shield. The problem was I couldn’t really go on an offensive as I was busy trying not to slip on the floor, which was covered in my blood. Eventually the nicks and scrapes added up and I collapsed into blackness.

In that time the party realized I could use some help and this is also about the time the stupid part stopped. Apparently one of them asked Theona, “if you can keep the trap door open, can you keep it closed?” Quickly the trap was closed and pinned in that position. The party crossed the hall and Deitricha blessed me with a healing. She also took the time to let me know I ‘looked like hell.’

The statues had gone back to there stances along the wall; it appears that they only fight things that move, and while I was unconscious I must not have moved too much. Now that Deitricha and Theona were in the room and helping me up the two statues came once again to life and began toward us. I once again jumped in between the statues and my friends, although it seemed to mean more to me when I was protecting Deitricha.

I told the ladies to stand behind me, which Theona was happy to do. Deitricha let me know she could handle herself and told me to stop being chauvinistic. This lead to a bit of bickering that seemed to do more to make her angry than to do anything creative. She then leaped from behind me and engaged one of the statues. And while it was nice to have a little help, she was about the last one who should have been in the front of this melee.

I yelled at her, she yelled back. Moments later she was hit with several tough shots from the statue that sent her to the ground. Thankfully Areon came up and helped her with one of the magical healing wands. Deitricha then crawled out of the way as I yelled over my shoulder to her that she ‘looked like hell.’ Areon then joined me in the front. The fighting was vicious but the statues and I were well armored and shielded, leaving most of the deadly blows as no more than a twinge of metal on metal.

Soon I realize a very bad thing, the healing that Deitricha had given me was very light and had left me in a dangerous state for this battle. As I began to plan to split these two statues into two separate battles I was sent once more into floor as a spell hit me full in the back. Deitricha was quick to my side again and had me on my feat and back in the battle in a few moments, with a now comical you ‘look like hell.’ I had not gone unconscious this time and had quickly figured out what had happened. I let a few curses out at the new guy; he seemed indifferent as I heard nothing in return.

Armed with a new fury I began tearing a bit more viciously into the statue in front of me. My fury got a little worse when after only a couple of seconds I was struck in the back again. This time Theona had accidentally hit me with her crossbow. To her credit she was apologizing to me before I once again hit the floor, nearly going unconscious. While I was down Deitricha tried to keep one of the statues off of me and paid the price. With a powerful cleave, the statue sent her to the floor. She was seeing the darkness of unconscious before she hit the floor. I was in no shape to move but I tried my best to go to her, this led me to join her in the darkness.



Post battle…

Luck was with us, as while two of us where out, our companions managed to finish off the statues. I came awake after a bit of healing from Areon. Deitricha and I crawled over to the nearest wall and just sat for a bit. Neither of us had the energy to get up or really do much else, except one thing. Yup, I asked Areon to bring over my backpack and I pulled out my ale-skin. Deitricha and I shared some spirits and talked about how the rest of the party ‘looked like hell.’

This lead to a few good chuckles, which hurt a bit, but we accepted the pain for the laugh felt so good. Near the time that the ale ran out I remembered the new guy magic-ing me in the back. I let out a little bit of a steam about it, loud enough for him to hear. I thought I would get an apology then; I thought wrong. He seemed to be indifferent to the result of his actions and to my comments about it. Now Tempus does not have many rules to govern a warrior’s life, but one is to not suffer fools in battle. I decided to teach the new guy a lesson, perhaps a slap to the head will do more than the talk I had had with him on the day we met.

Most of the party was making camp when I gave the new guy one last chance to apologize, when he didn’t I made it clear what I was going to do. No one made any move to get in my way, although Areon made a humorous attempt to stop me: as he said, “No don’t do that give the man a chance, it was an accident”. Now the funny part was that he said the entire thing while laying out his bedroll, and not once did he lift his eyes from his bedroll while saying it. Then he lay down, covered his face with his cloak and proceeded to laugh his elven butt off.

While I walked right at the new guy, he just stared at me, made no move of any kind. So, I launched my shoulder into his right leg. This brought his face closer to me as he instinctively bent over to grab his bruise. I then put everything I had into a well-timed and well-placed uppercut. I believe the lad was seeing stars before his body hit the floor. I looked around for complaints, but didn’t get any. Having expressed my opinion, I walked back over to my bedroll and got some sleep.

A while later I awoke to hear Theona talking about the hole. I tried to help, I dropped a torch in and it vanished after twenty feet. Then I got some stuff on the end of a rope and dropped it down in, and found the hole did have a bottom. Then I lost most interest and went back to get more rest. There was no use playing there until the entire party was rested and ready to move on.

Posted by Jim at 16:35 | Tassar’s Journal