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I am not happy with myself.

Seren’s Journal

We sat in the Three Pearls nightclub, looking around and listening to the acts. Soveliss ordered food... again. Roywyn’s bat told her to tell me that moths are attracted to my glowing skin, which was how he managed to eat one by mistake. I patted the bat on the head and told him to relax, but the little thing just chittered to itself until ‘Wyn took it off on a tour of the room, listening for tidbits of gossip.

I was enjoying the music and comedy acts when the food arrived, which prompted us to ask about what alcohol was available, too. Soveliss and Flin decided to try “dragon bitters” - stingy Flin wasn’t sharing so I called him on it, then bought the table a round. He was quite cheerful in short order! ‘Wyn came back to tell us that she hadn’t heard much, but learned that many famous bards got their start on this stage. I quickly encouraged her to go on, too!

Leaving the guys to their bitters, we went looking for a manager. We were pointed toward a pudgy human man, who chatted with ‘Wyn for a bit, then told her to go on up. I sat back down with my party while she headed for the stage and began to sing for the crowd. When they threw things, I was mad! I ran up and found out that the crowd was throwing money, though, which couldn’t be bad, so I waited while she sang two more songs, then collected the coppers while she took her bows.

Flin then ran up and began to dance before the next act. He was hauled offstage while being pelted with a few coins. And, when he sat back down at the table, his drink tipped itself over into his lap! He burst out laughing, and took a fresh beer over to a table nearby, where a well-dressed stranger sat laughing. I wondered what that was about, but was afraid to ask. We ended up wandering back to our inn for the night, Flin pretending to stagger drunkenly, and turning various unnatural colors for the amusement of passerby.

Once back at the inn, I stopped to check the message board; seeing nothing new, I went to bed. In the morning, we prepared to search the sewers properly -‘Wyn even thought to ask the guards for a map. They gave us a letter to take to the plumbers’ guild, who gave us a copy (and we promised to “update” it for them!). After a quick perusal, we decided to start our search by climbing down the sewer grate nearest the Three Pearls nightclub.

‘Wyn had chalk with her, and used it to mark our way. We were soon back at the “oak tree chamber”, which boggled Soveliss - he hadn’t seen it, before! Flin giggled madly over that story, while we reminded him that we needed intact ghoul heads to claim the reward money. We reached the smaller tunnels without incident, and back to the chamber with tunnels that had scuttling noises... which were louder this time! I pulled my sword and waved it to warn the others as something came down the tunnel at us.

A six-legged hairless ratlike thing came into view, causing me to raise my sword - except ‘Wyn then tried to speak to it, so I held back to see what it would do. I don’t know if it listened to her, or to Flin’s threats to “Stop or I’ll shoot!” but it turned back and ran away from us. Flin shot an arrow after it, and I ran after, trying to see where it would lead us. We ended up in one of the rooms with eight exits, and poles (no victims chained up, this time). ‘Wyn marked which exit was “ours”, and we followed the rat-thing into another.

It didn’t go far up the passage before turning into a tunnel that looked very unlike the rest of the construction down here. Many new-burrowed passages could be seen up ahead, as well. I peered down one or two and caught sight of lots of flashing teeth, and heard a lot of hissing and rustling! We backed off, marking the new warrens on the map for someone else to worry about. The others were dismantling the poles and chains, and I searched the entrance to each tunnel for any clues as to what’s been happening down here.

‘Wyn and I heard it at almost the same time - but no time to warn the others as a monstrous looking thing crawled down one of the tunnels and into the chamber, a ball of flesh that looked sort of like a brain on tentacles, with a big mouth, and many many eyes all over it! We attacked without a second thought! Soveliss hit it first, so it charged at him, while a second thing followed it into the room. I charged that one with my sword, missing, and ‘Wyn cast a bright light at it, but it bit me.

I don’t know what happened, but to my great shame, a panic came over me that I could not fight. I screamed, dropped my sword, and ran for my life.

Thank Shaundakul that no one was killed - I’d have felt responsible forever. I mastered my fear, eventually, and made my way back to the chamber to find that Soveliss killed both the things, and saved my sword, too. Apparently, he was the only one not struck by fear when the things struck out! Warily, we prepared to search for the source of the flesh-balls...

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I walked up the tunnel, glowing brightly for the others, watching for more of the strange balls of flesh. When I reached a fork in the tunnel, the right-hand branch showed some disturbance, so I turned that way. Another fork in the tunnel some hundred feet away, and no sign of anything at all passing through either. Hmmm... a secret entrance that we missed? We searched all the way back to the first fork with no luck, and finally gave up.

Someone mentioned hearing noises from other tunnels in the room with the posts, so we decided to follow up on that next. Before we set out, something invisible moved my wings! I quickly pulled my sword, slicing through the air around me in a vain search for the culprit. Probably because the culprit was looking innocently around while Soveliss pointed at him! After giving Flin the eye, I began to look and listen at the two tunnels noises had come from.

One curved away to the left, the other curved off to the right. We argued over various ways to check both, then sent the bat up the left-hand tunnel while I started up the right-hand one. We quickly reached another T junction, so I pulled out the map to see where we were. To the right from the T was a sewer grate to the surface - good! Straight ahead was another of the junction rooms, with two exits. For the sake of Soveliss’ back, we headed for the junction room and its higher ceilings.

The room had the two exits shown on the map, plus two more posts with manacles. They were soon torn down, and Soveliss stretched while I noted on the map all the junction rooms that had been altered to hold prisoners. Then, while looking into the tunnel across the room, I heard movement! I waved to the others, who quickly had their bows out, and Roywyn began a quiet song. We’re getting better at getting ready for a fight...

This time, the movement stopped before we could see the source, and something began to tap upon the stone walls. Fearing it was a code to call more trouble down on us, I charged into the tunnel, sword drawn! The passage curved, but I ran until I saw an undead crawling in the low tunnel, away from us! I shouted to the others, and Soveliss responded that it must be a trap, and I hollered back “Not if it’s dead!” which sounded good but now I had to back it up.

In that time, the undead had stopped backing away from me, and now I traded blows with it before flattening myself to the wall so the others could shoot past me and hit it. Flin got in the lethal shot, and I quickly took the head off and into a haversack for later. I then clambered over the body to check further up the tunnel, while Flin and ‘Wyn dragged the remains down the tunnel so Soveliss could pass. ‘Wyn kept muttering about getting a spell that will make him small enough for all these three-foot-high tunnels!

The bat came along with me - it must have forgiven me the moth incident. We found another junction room, thirty feet across, and several more posts with two more people. I dimmed down and looked at the map quickly, marking both the new posts and the nearest grate to get the people out by. Then, I moved a little closer, glowing brighter to find out if the people were live, dead, or undead. One stirred as I neared - it was undead! As it lunged at me, I found out that it was NOT chained up, this time! Here came the second, also unchained!

I shrieked lots, also trusting the bat to let the others know I’d walked into Soveliss’ trap after all. I ran for the passage to the nearest sewer grate - and ran into more undead crawling in! I held up my holy symbol and turned the ones ahead and behind me... then turned back to the junction room, knowing the others were on their way. I ended up killing the second undead and bagging its head, while hearing the others fighting and shouting in the tunnel about their own kill.

Unfortunately, Flin arrived in the junction room at the same time as yet more undead. We were being overwhelmed! I tried another turning, and it had no effect at all. ‘Wyn came singing and fighting into the room, while I warned Flin that more undead would probably come down the tunnel behind me when my first turn wore off. Then, I was fighting again. Badly. ‘Wyn was having a hard time, too, so I tried to turn yet again, and - nothing!

As I ranted at Shaundakul - what have I done to anger him? One of the undead finally managed to paralyze me. While the others fought, the ghoul dragged me off to a corner, obviously planning to eat me alive. The others noticed, and came to my rescue, I don’t know why. I am so discouraged by my failures as a cleric and a fighter...

Soveliss’ immunity to paralysis came in handy, as ‘Wyn was struck down and, although some undead were killed, more arrived every minute. Even the stinky undead lizard folk reappeared - through a secret door, no less! The battle continued long enough that Soveliss began to look really beat up, and I actually came unparalyzed. I quickly held up my holy symbol for one last try at scaring the things off...

...I should have known better.

By the time everything was over, we were all dragged off through the secret door, either paralyzed or unconscious. We woke up chained to poles, our gear missing, and wondering what will happen next?

Posted by Kate on November 18, 2006, 00:24 | Seren’s Journal