Musings

We have now spent two full days in this underground place, and I am getting no more used to the closeness of the walls than I was at the beginning of this little adventure. I could really go for a few days time above ground, preferably in the woods somewhere.

I think we have only explored a few rooms, but what we have found in those rooms, and our group’s way of dealing with them has added a lot to the amount of time we have spent here.

Generally, Rosorc and Tassar try to run ahead of the group so they are ready to fight whatever may jump out at us. Of course that also means that they set off any traps that are in their path too. This is all well and good, but Theona could certainly find them and maybe even disable them without setting them off.

Tassar still tries to make as much noise as possible when fighting, by either shouting his name or “Tempus” or the number of kills he has. Rosorc has been humoring him and keeping track as well, though I think Rosorc has the advantage as of right now. Anyway, I really wish Tassar wouldn’t b yelling so much right now. We need to get out of here as quickly and quietly as possible. Tassar’s yelling is much more likely to bring a mountain of orcs down on us. Tassar also claims to have found Drow here, though hopefully we will not encounter any.

Deitricha has been saddled with the role of medic because of our careless, or maybe I should say suicidal fighters. She has used nothing but healing spells since we got here from Sigil, and she has done little fighting as well. I know she is a capable fighter, as I have seen her fight before, but she has had little opportunity to show her skills here.

Rosorc is an amazing fighter himself, which is no surprise. Fighting comes as naturally to him as flying does to Nianque. He still needs to be less careless, though. He has not had much more than a trap or two go off on him, but all it takes is one trap to kill. I would hate to lose such a valuable adventurer in such a careless mishap.

William has proven to be a very adept mage. He seems to understand that he will not be any match to someone in melee, and as a result, has been staying away from close combat and lobbing spells in to help us out. I know I was worried that his over eagerness would get him killed, but he seems to have learned where he fits in to be most effective.

Theona is still a source of confusion to me. She is a capable fighter, and very good at hitting people where it can quickly take them out of a fight. I have seen her use magic items, though she has no training at all to use them, and I am sure that if she were given the time to look, she would be able to find and disable almost every trap that we came across. The group seems to ignore her abilities as a whole though, and everyone seems content that way. I don’t see why she doesn’t put everyone in their place and tell them to stay behind her. Maybe we would be able to adventure about for more than an hour because we have run out of (healing) spells.

Perhaps it is the feelings that I have developed for Theona that are causing me to write like she is undervalued. I know that something has changed between us, though I am still unsure what it is that has changed. Even in these caves I feel more at peace when I am with her…almost like I am meant to be with her. Perhaps I am and the bond has not formed entirely between us.

I shall ask Solonor Thelandira tonight in my meditations. Perhaps he shall give me some guidance….

Short Trips!

We had a quiet rest. Praying to Tymora, I was able to heal Tassar some more. While doing so, I heard Rosorc suggesting that we try to track down the orc mage! He told Theona that there would probably be lots of loot involved; he’s certainly learned how to get her attention!

With no idea where the orc mage was, however, we simply began opening doors and checking out the hallways. Randomly picking one, we headed down a sloping ramp. The first thing our searchers found was a hole - in the ceiling! Rosorc was certain it was a dwarven trap - lucky for us, already tripped. Sure enough, we passed the crushed remnants of a body on our way to the bottom of the slope.

A large stone cylinder explained the rest of the trap to the non-dwarves, and then movement down one of the hallways at the bottom caught our attention! Rosorc knew what the new creatures were right away; rust monsters, which quickly picked up the scent of our metal gear and rushed down the hall for a snack! Arrows were soon winging their way, and William began to cast spells. I used my sling, but didn’t do much at all to slow the things.

Theona managed to shoot one to death even as Rosorc stepped behind us and reloaded his crossbow - although Tassar insisted the move was simply to protect his spiked armor. I tried smacking the remaining thing with my wooden staff, also to no effect, but William finished it off for me. Poor William, however, had taken the brunt of the attack - losing his armor and shield in the process!

Guessing that there would be no more rust monsters from that direction, Tassar made off down the hall they’d come from. Before we got too far, both Theona and Areon noticed a secret door in the wall! They quickly had it open, and we turned down the new passage, ending in another door - also soon open. To our surprise, as we entered the new room, we heard a ‘click’ as William closed the secret door behind us! He heard about that, I fear, but it hadn’t occurred to any of us that he would take such a chance of locking us in!

We were quickly distracted by new trouble; the floor of the secret room began to move, and a huge earth elemental formed! Rosorc attacked, Theona stood screaming, Tassar charged. He was immediately kicked across the room! The thing then attacked so fast that it hit every fighter, hard, including Tassar, who didn’t get up. I don’t know what posessed me, but I dashed into the thick of battle, grabbed him, and ran for the dubious safety of the passage before the elemental could strike me, too. Tymora’s blessings were upon me! Meanwhile, Areon managed to push Theona into the hallway, too, and ran into the fight to get hammered by the thing.

Theona, seeing our friends in real trouble, leaned out of the doorway and shot the wand of enfeeblement at the elemental. It actually seemed to work! I healed Tassar back onto his feet even as the others attacked with renewed hope. The dwarf broke into song, the halfling flung his war fork through the battle (narrowly missing the elf), and the mage cast magic missiles into the crumbling mass. Theona gave it another shot, and Areon was able to hack big chunks out with his sword, as I healed Tassar enough to see him head back into the fray. Rosorc, unfortunately, took one blow too many; next thing I knew, I was dashing by the monster for the second time, relying on Tymora’s grace to do my duty. I dragged him to safety as Areon smashed the elemental to bits.

Tassar’s healing wand came in handy for the last time, as I did all I could to get my party back in decent shape. Tassar had a snack while I worked. Theona found a new hall, another trap (unsprung), marked it with chalk, then checked the door William had closed (thankfully, it opened after all), while the rest of us settled down for another rest. She searched the room while we slept, and Tassar graffitied the place with her chalk. I woke up with the power to heal Rosorc much more, and turned to Tassar, only to see him walk beyond the marked trap and set off another! He reached for a door handle and promptly fell through the floor!

I flipped out, insisting that someone trip the door again so we knew what had happened to him! It seemed a very long time before Theona had the door open and I could lie down and holler down what turned out to be a long chute in the floor - only to hear the sounds of fighting, then silence. I lowered my rope only to find that it didn’t reach far enough. Rosorc then carefully climbed down, bless him! He soon called for someone to drop another rope, which William did, and apparently that was just long enough; they both climbed back up the chute. Tassar had some new toys from his battle with three drow! He told me all about the battle, showed me his new black dagger and sword that’s taller than he is, and suddenly fell asleep from their poisoned arrows even as I healed his wounds. Knowing he’d be out for a while, and unable to help for that day, I picked him up and followed the others down the hall.

Theona had found yet another door, untrapped, through which we discovered the old armory (there were arrow slits across the way; we ducked below them as best we could, fearing more traps). A few weapons had survived the ages, and we collected them while she opened yet another secret door. This one led to the other side of the wall and the arrow slits, another hallway, and another secret door! That one opened to a room full of cobwebs, which Rosorc set to burning away, when we were, naturally, attacked by the inhabitants. The giant spiders were soon killed, despite the fact that Tassar wouldn’t wake up, and Rosorc was bitten several times and considerably weakened (not to mention accidentally shot by Theona, while William’s spells flew overhead!).

We have to rest, yet again. Rosorc is awake, but can hardly move, though he seems happy to just gaze lovingly on Theona. Theona, on the other hand, is looking a little claustrophobic from being underground so long. She hasn’t been the same since that earth elemental! I hate to let her down, but until Tassar wakes up and I can pray to restore Rosorc’s strength, we’re stuck. May the time pass quickly!

Out to Lunch

Around and recovered, I tucked my journal in my pack. Pulling out some hard tack, I slowly chewed a large hunk. Then, as I surveyed my companions, I pulled a large draught from my favorite ale flask. Feeling the edge taken off, I walked over to Tassar and Deitricha.

They were discussing something quietly, so I decided not to disturb them. Continuing on towards William I asked, ”Are you recovered yet? You took quite a pounding from the Ogres.” He just smiled and said, ”I’ll be all right.”

As I went over to speak to Theona, I noticed Tassar had gone wandering already. He was yelling something about ‘cool and neat’. No time left to speak to Theona, I filed my questions for a future point and took off after the halfling.

As I chased him with the others down the halls I started to sing to myself. Seems my soul and inner being were wrestling with something major. I had not sung the song of “Troubled Times” in a long, long time....

“....Greatly outnumbered the sky had grown dark...Hushed whispers of fear ran through their hearts...Clutching their axes and swords to thier breasts...the Dwarves and the Elves braced themselves for death...From on high the horns sounded as the dark horde came...Driving the valiant defenders from life to their grave...”

As I heard Tassar yell that there was something coming from ahead, I snapped out of song. I looked up in time to see two rust monsters charging at us. Quickly pulling my crossbow, I fired at the closest one as it charged. Not being a true shot, it bounced harmlessly off the hard shell.

William stepped forward to meet the charge. Within seconds, his armor and weapon turned to rust at his feet. Areon stepped forward next, landing several quick blows on one. Theona then fired her bow. Somewhere in the mix of hits, the first rust monster fell.

Not having time to reload my crossbow, I stepped behind the people who had less metal on them to reload. After dealing with this type of creature for years in the mines back home, I knew what to do. We used to take turns chasing them out of the mines with leather armour and strong wooden staffs, to keep them from destroying all the metals being mined.

I realized that they were no real threat to our persons, though they would destroy our armour and weapons, something that would hurt us later on if the fighters of the party were to be weaponless and without armour. Before I looked up from reloading, the second monster had already dropped.

Rehanging my crossbow, I noticed Theona looked at me kind of funny. With my limited knowledge of this glorious woman’s inner workings, I just kind of shrugged it off and flashed her a wink and a smile.

Soon, we were continuing down the hall. I was following Theona closely when she found a secret door. Areon pushed the panel and it opened easily.
It opened into a medium size room. As we walked into it a large earth elemental rose out of the floor. Being a dwarf I tried to speak to it. I hollered that we wished to pass in peace and respected its place as guardian. All I recieved for my efforts was a pummeling fist to the chest.

Tassar came charging into the room. He took a major swing and then was pounded by one of the elemental’s large fists. Before I could prevent it, he received two more blows and lay still on the ground. Magic missiles flew, arrows struck home, but the elemental didn’t waver.

Deitricha was rushing forward to pull Tassar away, so I drew its attention towards me. Reaching deep within myself, I swung my axe for all of my worth. A large hunk of sod flew from its side, though it repaid the wound with blows even I could not withstand. As the third fist struck my world went dark....

The day was beautiful and sunny. The clerics were dressed in ther finest ornate robes. All who stood in circle were dressed for the festive occasion. Theona stood in the middle of the circle wearing a beautiful white gown, decorated in silver and trimmed in mithril. Her beauty rivaled the sun’s, the moon’s , and the heavens themselves. Rosorc stood at her side, very well dressed in a nobleman’s attire. Beard and hair braided, mithril and silver interwoven into the braids, beaming as he basked in his soon-to-be-bride’s presence.

A chorus of voices began to sing. The two clerics began to speak in unison. “Do you Rosorc take this woman to be your bride? In sickness and in health? Through good times and bad times? Under the trees and the mountains; so say you?” Piping up with love in his voice, Rosorc answered, “I do.” The clerics continued,”Do you Theona take this man to be your husband? In sickness and health? In good times and bad times? Under the trees and under the mountains?” Smiling warmly, Theona answered.......

“Hey Rosorc, wake up. Are you all right?” Theona asked. “I guess”, I stammered; Deitricha was laying her hands on me as I felt a warm healing energy wash through my body. Looking around, I saw the earth elemental was laying in a lump on the floor. Looking back to Theona, I could picture the sun illuminating her face.

A few moments passed. I then heard Tassar yelling,”Weeee!!!!” No matter what was really going on, that couldn’t be a good sign. I ran off with the rest of the group to see what mishap had befallen our comrade. Rounding the bend, we saw a pit trap open in the floor, with a very steep chute leading off into the darkness.

Deitricha dropped to the edge of the pit and started hollering for Tassar but he didn’t answer back. Then a fifty foot rope was produced and lowered down into the hole. It was not grabbed from the other end. Everyone feared this was the end of Tassar.

Not giving up hope, I jumped into the pit and rode the chute down to the end of the 50 foot rope. Here I grabbed onto it and tied it around my waist. I started calling for Tassar myself. I could hear him yelling, though not to me. Seems he was engaged in some sort of combat. So I hollered above for another 50 foot rope to be lowered to me. When I received it, I tied one end to myself and lowered the rest beneath me. Within a few moments I felt a few tugs. Then Tassar yelling.”It’s about time! Those Drow wanted to kill me.”

Upon arrival at the top Deitricha with great relief on her face gave Tassar a big hug. Everyone else broke into the “Tassar, watch out for traps!” record.

After which he burst into his tale of how he killed the Drow with his crossbow and lasso’d and drug his body over to his cage bars so he could steal his weapons. All in all it was a good story. With the blacksteel weapons to show for his effort he was quite proud of himself.

Moving on, we opened the next door. As a group, we started down a short hall that opened into a small weapons cache. Fearing the arrow slots were traps on the far side of the room we skirted the edges. Gathering all of the usable items from the room we continued down another short hallway.

Theona and I walked in together. It was a barracks style room. The whole thing was covered and filled with spider webs. Calling back, someone handed me up a torch. Lighting it and holding it with my shield hand, I pulled my axe. With Theona guarding my back I started to burn back the webs. As I heard Theona scream, three large spiders dropped down and attacked me.

I held one off with the torch. I hit one with my axe and then I was bitten three times within seconds. I felt the poison rush through my veins. My body fought to stave off the effects. Then the weakness set in. I dropped to a knee. My head started to swim for me to keep my senses. Something sharp hit my back. I started to fall forward.....

”I do.” Tears of joy streamed from their eyes as they embraced at the ceremony’s end. Holding his wife to his chest Rosorc knew that his life path was now complete.....

“Is he out again,” Tassar asked. Then continuing, “Figures, he gets all of the good spider venom. Look at his eyes. He must be really out there.” Deitricha answered, ”That is the look of love. I don’t think the spider bites have anything to do with it.” Quickly she glanced Theona’s way, then looked back and gave me a knowing wink.