Desert World Update 4!!
Oct. 23rd, 2010 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realsorienAnd here's the latest Desert World writeup. Better late than never!
In our last meeting with Our Heroes, they had returned to the ancient dwarven labyrinth to return to their explorations. While they seemingly did not gain further insight as to the cause of the mountain’s smoking, they did discover several things that had either been left by the makers of the strange place or that came in later. The worst, and last of these was a hideous cloudlike thing that fed on blood. In a protracted battle, the thing nearly killed both Nerash and Brahma; however, the thing was in the end destroyed by the strange explosive powder that Brahma had assembled earlier in a strange alchemical workshop they’d found.
After the tumultuous conflict, they initially planned to return to the entryway and rest; however, due to the severity of the wounds taken by Brahma in the conflict (and the time it would take for him to heal properly), they decided to return once again to Oasis.
The return journey is once again uneventful, and soon they pass within the city once again- this time it’s daylight, and they aren’t challenged. They make their way to the temple through the city square, and new eyes begin to track them. Unseen by the trio, a figure dressed in peasant’s garb starts to follow them, and enters the temple at their heels- he makes it in on the simple pretense of seeming to belong.
They are soon ushered to the healing chambers, and once there Nerash is the first to notice the stranger.
“... Who are you?”
“I am who I am!” Is the oddly cheerful response.
The others have noticed the man now, who seems to be an elf. Nerash continues to question him.
“Why are you here?”
“To help you of course!”
“What is your name?”
“I don’t think I know you well enough for that.”
Nerash snorts slightly. “Then I do not think you will be coming with us.”
The discussion continues with the others chipping in; Ravenae showing some interest in the attractive elf as well. In the end, she takes him off to speak to a superior about the propriety of his joining the group. During all this the healers have been at work putting Brahma back together.
Ravenae leads the stranger out til she sees the person she needs. She has him wait while she inquires about the matter, and as she does he seems to vanish! Or at least is no longer in sight. Ravenae starts in surprise at the disappearance, and given the mysterious behavior of the man, calls out the guard. He reappears, acting as if nothing happened and is quickly surrounded by grim men with pikes.
Ravenae calls off the guards, and her superior asks if he might question the motivations of the man, using the power granted him by XX to confirm the truth.
“Sure!” Is the response. In relatively short order its learned that his goals are loot, fame, glory and helping the Temple, in that order.
“Well, his priorities are a bit out of order, but he speaks the truth.” Ravenae nods at the words, and tells the strange man that he can accompany the group.
As the pair start back to the others, he tells Ravenae that he can be called by his family name, Whispervine.
Meanwhile, Brahma and Nerash are having a little discussion in the absence of Ravenae.
Brahma is flat-out pissed at Nerash, as from his perspective Nerash nearly got him killed in the battle with the strange mist-creature. Nerash counters with the fact that he didn’t know that his blows on the thing weren’t harming it, and that Brahma couldn’t be certain of that either. He explains that he has difficulty with abandoning allies, and it looked to him that Brahma was perhaps going to sacrifice himself, which Nerash didn’t want to happen.
This doesn’t calm Brahma in the least, and he snarls out that if Nerash ever acted as he did there again, he’d kill him. The result is that Brahma is still pissed and Nerash is annoyed and frustrated. Brahma storms out of the healing chamber just as Ravenae and Whispervine arrive.
He pauses long enough to let her know in growling tones that he’s going back to his men, then stomps off- which isn’t easy with hooves. Ravenae talks briefly with Nerash and introduces Nerash to Whispervine, and Nerash dubs him ‘Vine’ for short. The Gnoll then finds the sergeant-at-arms and asks a few questions of him concerning Brahma. Unfortunately, he doesn’t learn anything that he didn’t already know.
Eventually, the four reunite and one again return to the dwarven labyrinth. This time the journey has a difference- Ravanae chatters nonstop to Whispervine the entire way. This amuses Nerash and serves to annoy Brahma.
“Priestess.”
“Yes?”
“You have been talking nonstop for FOUR HOURS.”
“So? She responds archly.
Brahma doesn’t respond, just turns and lumbers into the dusty entryway.
Within, things remain as they’d left them, silent, dusty and dimly lit. Whispervine, who has asked by this point to be called Whisper, takes it all in as the group proceeds within, bypassing much of what they’ve already dealt with. The elf remains casual until he notices Brahma getting more cautious, and at the point he starts scanning for danger and hidden things.
Their first stop is at the alchemical lab. Brahma mixes three more jars of powder, Whisper also taking one. FInally arriving at an unopened door, Whisper is given the opportunity to prove his worth. Flicking out the tools of his trade, he sets to work on the lock... And his picks break.
He swallows and looks back at Brahma, who snorts. With apparently little effort the minotaur slams the door open. The chamber beyond is empty, and of roughly average size for the bizarre complex. Three doors lead out besides the one they entered through, two to the west and one to the south. Whisper has no luck with either of the western doors, and Brahma slams them both open. One of them turns out to lead back to the catwalk room, matching the remaining unchecked door there.
The south door turns out to be unlocked. Following the passage it opens to leads to a room with walls lined with pottery, and a huge boxlike thing in the center of the room. As they approach, Whisper draws his bow; Nerash follows suit, not knowing if the elf saw something or not, but unwilling to take a chance. He hangs back as the others go forward, watching the room for threats.
As his companions circle the room, Nerash spots movement. “There is something here- Fall back!” But his warning comes too late as something huge smashes down on Brahma from behind. Nerash looses his arrow at the thing, but the shot goes awry and strikes Brahma, though it does little harm. The creature then strikes again, driving Brahma down.
Nerash charges into the room, abandoning his bow and grabbing the thing from behind- he gets ahold of it, but while he’s strong, the thing is stronger. It seems to be a manlike thing, made of pottery! Brahma takes the opportunity to land a blow on the thing, but it seems to have little to no effect.
Ravenae manages to lay hands on Brahma, restoring him slightly. Once again the minotaur lands a blow, and again there is little effect- then Whisper sprays water onto the spot where Brahma’s fist is still touching it, and its surface softens!
With a wicked grin Brahma draws back and slams his fist into the thing at that spot again and again, a crack spreading across its surface from the point of impact. With the last blow Nerash wrenches the thing back, throwing it off its feet and into the pottery-lined shelving.
Unfortunately, the thing gains its feet almost immediately, and its massive fist nearly kills Nerash in a single strike, tossing him across the room with the force. Brahma hits it again, then it returns the favor and knocks the minotaur cold. It turns its attentions once again to Nerash, who has managed to heal himself while the creature was focussed on Brahma. He scrambles away from its strike, then heals himself a bit more.
Before he was struck unconscious, Brahma had called for a torch to be lit, with the idea to blow the thing up as they had the cloud thing; only Ravenae was in a position to do so, and now quickly gets it lit, somewhat too late. The fight continues, Nerash badly hurt still. However, there is hope- glimmering in the light of the torch, Whisper sees a strange little silver hammer on the side of the boxlike dais in the middle of the room. He snatches it up, and tries to strike the thing- two swings, two misses. A moment later the thing’s massive fist strikes, and he falls unconscious atop Brahma.
But while this portion of the battle has taken place, Ravenae has been healing Brahma! he wakes as the little thief falls atop him, and takes up the hammer himself! He swings, and the blow shatters the right arm of the odd creature! Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to slow the thing down all that much. Nerash leaps in and tries to hold the thing’s remaining arm back- he fails, and that same limb swings into him, knocking him out.
It almost seems like Brahma is cursed. He swings at the thing again and again, but he can’t seem to land a blow- finally he drops the hammer in frustration and punches... To no effect. Once again the thing’s fist drives pistonlike into Brahma, and he falls again. By this time Ravenae has used her power to heal Whisper.
Seeing the situation, he takes the hammer up again. “I hate being brave!” He yells, and attacks! He fails to hit, it doesn’t. Once again he falls crumpled to the floor as Ravenae once again dredges Brahma from unconsciousness. He again takes up the hammer, but his luck continues to be bad- and now Ravenae is alone.
While this last part of the fight took place, Ravenae lit the kiln at the back of the room with the idea that they could drive the thing into it- but with Brahma falling the plan cannot work- she’s simply not big enough nor strong enough. Using some of the healing pills Brahma carries, she wakes him. The thing then pounds her unconscious, and unfortunately Brahma soon follows; and all falls quiet once again.
Days later... Nerash awakes. Moving slowly, he sees the thing faced away from him, standing over the fallen form of Brahma. He thinks that his friends are alive; he can’t smell decay in the air as he would if they had died. Knowing that he has no chance to beat the thing in the condition he’s in, he makes a break for it. As soon as he moves, the thing starts after him! Fortunately, after a while it stops and returns to its chamber.
Nerash makes his way back to Oasis, water the only thing he pauses for. Staggering into the temple, he is met by the priests.
“May we help you?”
“Heal me!” He rasps.
“Where are the others?”
“It was a... Thing. A machine. They are hurt and still there- heal me!”
Finally, they do. As soon as he’s in any condition to do so, he charges back out and returns to the labyrinth. Keeping his panting down as best he can, he makes his way quietly back to the chamber where the pottery creature waits, standing over his compatriots. It seems to have somehow reattached its arm in the meantime, and is poised over Brahma. Nerash sees the hammer on the floor, and for a moment is torn as to what to do- if he fails to destroy the thing quickly, he knows it will take him apart quite painfully.
With no other real choice and his allies needing help, he makes up his mind. He charges in, snatches up the hammer and swings just as the thing animates to face him! He swings, and with the sound of shattering ceramics the thing shatters at the blow, to Nerash’s great surprise. He looks at the ruin for a moment, then gets the remaining healing pills from Brahma. He wakes Ravenae, then treats Brahma as best he can with the remaining pills.
Days go by, as both Ravenae and Nerash’s spellcasting capabilities have been exhausted, and everyone but for Nerash is still injured. Finally though, they are able to once again resume their explorations. Finding another corridor, they find another chamber packed with strange pipes and machinery- with an almost childlike ‘ooh!’ of delight, Ravenae shoots into the room and starts examining the strange devices.
“Priestess, perhaps caution would be wise?” Nerash says.
Ravenae ‘hmphs!’ in response, looking things over. She notices that there isn’t a way for the boiler to be charged with water, and mutters about it.
“I could piss in it,” Whisper comments, to which she absently responds, “it wouldn’t be enough.”
Nerash snorts and shakes his head. Brahma, however decides to humor her. “Will this increase the light in here?”
“It might. I don’t know for sure what this powers.”
“I will get some of our water so you can start it. We can replenish it from the river if need be.”
She nods and continues exploring the strange device, and Brahma fetches the water. She dumps it into the appropriate recepticle, throws a few switches, and waits. It doesn’t take long for the hiss of steam to be heard, and several arcanely-marked gauges shudder, the needles within rising quickly. Far too quickly. The hissing quickly rises to a howl, and they flee the room just as a burst of steam blasts out of the machine, searing them all to different extents.
The arguments start quickly, and end that way as well; Nerash wants (reasonably) to get the hell away from the machines, while Ravenae wants to shut them down. She knows how much power will be released when the system detonates. Instead, as he’s the hardiest of them all Brahma has her tell him what to do, and he shuts it off at the price of a few more burns. However, people are far less likely now to just let her play with any of the ‘toys’ they come across.
Nerash makes a few comments concerning common sense, to which Ravenae responds, “yes, father,” in a petulant tone.
They move on, Brahma carrying Ravenae like a sack to keep her from running off and throwing switches or the like. This is potentially wise, as they find a room packed with control panels and a chain that passes down through the floor via a pair of holes. Ravenae makes a token struggle to get loose, but doesn’t really try that hard. She DOES want to examine things, but knows that this soon after her little disaster her companions aren’t going to tolerate it.
At the far side of the room is another chamber directly adjacent. Here, Whisper spots a vast tangle of tripwires crossing the floor, each with a little bell attached as an alarm. There are far too many for him to disarm them all- eventually just from random chance he’d likely set one off.
Instead, Brahma takes the direct route and slices through a number of them. Immediately there is a scuttling sound from inside the walls- there are a LOT of little beings in the vicinity. Backing away a bit, Brahma slams the wall with a fist- the scuttling quickly moves away from them. He does this several times, apparently driving the creatures back.
He then goes back to the door and steps inside; as he does, a tiny humanoid creature runs out, climbs up his leg and steals a pouch! The creature makes it almost back to the hole it came from, but it killed by an arrowshot from Whisper.
This has an unintended effect- dozens of little darts, accompanied by angry, chittering voices, pour out at Brahma! At first they don’t seem to do anything other than annoy him- he picks up his pouch and starts walking back. He makes it almost to the door, then wobbles and collapses!
Knowing that he doesn’t want to be darted as well, Nerash attempts to hook him with his grapnel and drag him out; however, it gets caught on the threads! Before Nerash can free it, Whisper goes to get Brahma... And also gets darted unconscious. Nerash disgustedly yanks the grapnel loose. He drags Whisper, who is right at the door clear, then hooks Brahma with another cast and drags him out as well.
He and Ravenae start plucking darts out of the two prone figures, Nerash working on Brahma and she on Whisper.
“Do you have a comb?” Nerash asks.
“What?”
“Do you have a comb?”
“Yes... Why?”
“It would help to get the darts out of Brahma’s fur.”
“What? No! Eeyew!”
Nerash glares at her for a moment, grumbles and goes back to picking darts. Eventually, they get them all but both are still unconscious. They do eventually come out of it, fortunately.
Brahma still wishes to cross the room and check on whatever is beyond. To this end he starts cutting strings. Each one cut leads to a hail of darts... For a while. After the first few times of this one of the creatures pops out of hiding to scream unintelligible imprecations at them- for his trouble he gets skewered by one of Whisper’s arrows. Another hail of darts follows, but soon they stop firing with the bell rings.
Satisfied, Brahma picks up Ravenae and sprints across the chamber to what looks to be a passage from their viewpoint- it turns out to be a bare wall! Looking around quickly, he darts to a door to the side. This leads to what was apparently a meeting hall once upon a time. There is a huge hardwood table in the center of the room, and a dais with some form of control system at the far end of the room.
Knowing that the dart-throwers aren’t likely to let their return be as easy as the trip into the room, Brahma decides to arrange cover. he chops the table into two managable sections to use as shields, then goes over to the dais.
“Do you wish to see this?”
Ravenae is still petulant from earlier. “... No.”
“Good.” He tears the dais free of the floor, revealing twisting wires and tubes as it is wrenched loose. “I am glad that you didn’t wish to see it before I did this.”
This earns him a glare.
Brahma picks up the table-halves. “Stay close as we go,” he tells Ravenae, who does as she’s told despite her irritation. They make it back to their companions, and the decision is made to return to the strange flooding corridor that struck Ravenae down when they first arrived at the labyrinth.
Looking things over, Whisper is mystified. He’s never seen a trap like this before! His companions tell him everything they observed, but it really doesn’t help- this is outside of his experience. Deciding investigation is the only recourse, he uses his rope and grapnel to hook into the overhead pipes and goes down the leftmost of the three passages. As with Ravenae, the doors slam up at both ends and the water starts to flow in! He scrambles up into the pipes, and in the pitch black hangs on for dear life. Below him he hears the water cease rising, then a sound like thousands of angry bees is heard.
Eventually, this too stops and the water drains away, and the doors open. He scrambles like mad to the far end, finding himself in a small chamber. There is a door, and on one wall there are three levers. He describes this to the others, shouting down the passage.
“Which one should I pull?”
“Just pick one!” Is Ravenae’s answer.
He tries the middle lever, and the trap triggers. When it resets, he calls for someone to come down, thinking that there will be some time before it goes off again. Ravenae decides to go, and as it turns out there ISN’T much of a delay! It triggers again, and she barely avoids getting ‘stung’ again! When this happens, Whisper sees the levers operate themselves. However, its not over- the trap instantly re-triggers, this time the water rises all the way to the pipes! Ravenae is subjected to the strange effect again, but this time remains conscious. When the doors open she drags herself out onto Whisper’s side.
Whisper tries triggering the trap again, having seen how long things take. Brahma charges down the passage, just barely making it before the trap once again cycles. This leaves Nerash alone. He waits and charges just as the doors sink down flush, and makes it- but only because Brahma held the door from closing.
A moment later, there is an odd grinding sound and a red light glows above the levers- apparently Brahma broke something.
Whisper takes a few minutes and unlocks the door, which opens into a fairly small room. There IS a hidden door here though, and leads back to the elevator room- which is where they wanted to go next anyway.
Ravenae’s mood improves instantly when she sees the elevator. “Wait til you see this! Its an elevator!” She says this, nearly dancing to the strange metal-grating box.
“...What does it do?”
“It has a button, and moves up and down!”
They all enter the thing, and Ravenae with great glee hits the button. When it shudders and starts to move down Whisper jumps in fear; Ravenae just grins in enjoyment, while both Nerash and Brahma seem rather bored. At the bottom, its black as pitch. Nerash lights a torch, and the room they’ve arrived in is revealed.
A single passage is visible initially, leading off diagonally. Nerash then spots a hidden door at the end of the passage, which has its catch at Dwarf-height. They pass through into the next chamber and there are three visible doors besides the one they entered; then Whisper spots five more doors, hidden from normal sight. The complex certainly is a labyrinth in truth.
They check door after door, Brahma smashing through several. FInally, they come to a door that’s locked, and Whisper goes to pick it; Nerash comments, “didn’t he say something about traps?” Referring to Whisper’s boasts about his abilities when he first met them. In chagrin, Whisper checks for such, but finds none. At least until he works at the lock, and a needle pops out, pricking him!
He doesn’t even get a chance to say ‘ouch’ before he collapses, insensate!
They check him over, but find no clue as to what happened beyond the dot of blood on his finger. Thinking quick, Ravenae calls upon her power and slows the poison, giving them time- until that, Whisper hadn’t been breathing; now he is, in shallow rasps.
She digs into her kit, and manages to concoct a herbal remedy for the toxin, risking tasting it to identify it- fortunately, all it does to her is numb her tongue a bit. Soon, Whisper is back, shaken but alive. he lets Brahma deal with the door, and he does- one vicious punch drives the broken portal clean across the adjoining room, to smash open the door on the far side as well!
This gets the attention of something within that chamber- giant beetles! One by one they start to slowly skitter across to the attack. Only the first of the creatures inflicts harm, slashing both Brahma and Nerash with its mandibles viciously. After that, its a gruesome assembly-line of destruction as each in turn comes into range, gets feathered by Whisper and cut into fragments by the two warriors. Eventually, they run out of beetles.
“Can you use any of this?” Nerash asks Ravenae, who just looks green at the suggestion. They back off to heal what harm they’ve taken.
And there we break for the time being. Tune in for the next exciting episode, coming soon(ish)!
In our last meeting with Our Heroes, they had returned to the ancient dwarven labyrinth to return to their explorations. While they seemingly did not gain further insight as to the cause of the mountain’s smoking, they did discover several things that had either been left by the makers of the strange place or that came in later. The worst, and last of these was a hideous cloudlike thing that fed on blood. In a protracted battle, the thing nearly killed both Nerash and Brahma; however, the thing was in the end destroyed by the strange explosive powder that Brahma had assembled earlier in a strange alchemical workshop they’d found.
After the tumultuous conflict, they initially planned to return to the entryway and rest; however, due to the severity of the wounds taken by Brahma in the conflict (and the time it would take for him to heal properly), they decided to return once again to Oasis.
The return journey is once again uneventful, and soon they pass within the city once again- this time it’s daylight, and they aren’t challenged. They make their way to the temple through the city square, and new eyes begin to track them. Unseen by the trio, a figure dressed in peasant’s garb starts to follow them, and enters the temple at their heels- he makes it in on the simple pretense of seeming to belong.
They are soon ushered to the healing chambers, and once there Nerash is the first to notice the stranger.
“... Who are you?”
“I am who I am!” Is the oddly cheerful response.
The others have noticed the man now, who seems to be an elf. Nerash continues to question him.
“Why are you here?”
“To help you of course!”
“What is your name?”
“I don’t think I know you well enough for that.”
Nerash snorts slightly. “Then I do not think you will be coming with us.”
The discussion continues with the others chipping in; Ravenae showing some interest in the attractive elf as well. In the end, she takes him off to speak to a superior about the propriety of his joining the group. During all this the healers have been at work putting Brahma back together.
Ravenae leads the stranger out til she sees the person she needs. She has him wait while she inquires about the matter, and as she does he seems to vanish! Or at least is no longer in sight. Ravenae starts in surprise at the disappearance, and given the mysterious behavior of the man, calls out the guard. He reappears, acting as if nothing happened and is quickly surrounded by grim men with pikes.
Ravenae calls off the guards, and her superior asks if he might question the motivations of the man, using the power granted him by XX to confirm the truth.
“Sure!” Is the response. In relatively short order its learned that his goals are loot, fame, glory and helping the Temple, in that order.
“Well, his priorities are a bit out of order, but he speaks the truth.” Ravenae nods at the words, and tells the strange man that he can accompany the group.
As the pair start back to the others, he tells Ravenae that he can be called by his family name, Whispervine.
Meanwhile, Brahma and Nerash are having a little discussion in the absence of Ravenae.
Brahma is flat-out pissed at Nerash, as from his perspective Nerash nearly got him killed in the battle with the strange mist-creature. Nerash counters with the fact that he didn’t know that his blows on the thing weren’t harming it, and that Brahma couldn’t be certain of that either. He explains that he has difficulty with abandoning allies, and it looked to him that Brahma was perhaps going to sacrifice himself, which Nerash didn’t want to happen.
This doesn’t calm Brahma in the least, and he snarls out that if Nerash ever acted as he did there again, he’d kill him. The result is that Brahma is still pissed and Nerash is annoyed and frustrated. Brahma storms out of the healing chamber just as Ravenae and Whispervine arrive.
He pauses long enough to let her know in growling tones that he’s going back to his men, then stomps off- which isn’t easy with hooves. Ravenae talks briefly with Nerash and introduces Nerash to Whispervine, and Nerash dubs him ‘Vine’ for short. The Gnoll then finds the sergeant-at-arms and asks a few questions of him concerning Brahma. Unfortunately, he doesn’t learn anything that he didn’t already know.
Eventually, the four reunite and one again return to the dwarven labyrinth. This time the journey has a difference- Ravanae chatters nonstop to Whispervine the entire way. This amuses Nerash and serves to annoy Brahma.
“Priestess.”
“Yes?”
“You have been talking nonstop for FOUR HOURS.”
“So? She responds archly.
Brahma doesn’t respond, just turns and lumbers into the dusty entryway.
Within, things remain as they’d left them, silent, dusty and dimly lit. Whispervine, who has asked by this point to be called Whisper, takes it all in as the group proceeds within, bypassing much of what they’ve already dealt with. The elf remains casual until he notices Brahma getting more cautious, and at the point he starts scanning for danger and hidden things.
Their first stop is at the alchemical lab. Brahma mixes three more jars of powder, Whisper also taking one. FInally arriving at an unopened door, Whisper is given the opportunity to prove his worth. Flicking out the tools of his trade, he sets to work on the lock... And his picks break.
He swallows and looks back at Brahma, who snorts. With apparently little effort the minotaur slams the door open. The chamber beyond is empty, and of roughly average size for the bizarre complex. Three doors lead out besides the one they entered through, two to the west and one to the south. Whisper has no luck with either of the western doors, and Brahma slams them both open. One of them turns out to lead back to the catwalk room, matching the remaining unchecked door there.
The south door turns out to be unlocked. Following the passage it opens to leads to a room with walls lined with pottery, and a huge boxlike thing in the center of the room. As they approach, Whisper draws his bow; Nerash follows suit, not knowing if the elf saw something or not, but unwilling to take a chance. He hangs back as the others go forward, watching the room for threats.
As his companions circle the room, Nerash spots movement. “There is something here- Fall back!” But his warning comes too late as something huge smashes down on Brahma from behind. Nerash looses his arrow at the thing, but the shot goes awry and strikes Brahma, though it does little harm. The creature then strikes again, driving Brahma down.
Nerash charges into the room, abandoning his bow and grabbing the thing from behind- he gets ahold of it, but while he’s strong, the thing is stronger. It seems to be a manlike thing, made of pottery! Brahma takes the opportunity to land a blow on the thing, but it seems to have little to no effect.
Ravenae manages to lay hands on Brahma, restoring him slightly. Once again the minotaur lands a blow, and again there is little effect- then Whisper sprays water onto the spot where Brahma’s fist is still touching it, and its surface softens!
With a wicked grin Brahma draws back and slams his fist into the thing at that spot again and again, a crack spreading across its surface from the point of impact. With the last blow Nerash wrenches the thing back, throwing it off its feet and into the pottery-lined shelving.
Unfortunately, the thing gains its feet almost immediately, and its massive fist nearly kills Nerash in a single strike, tossing him across the room with the force. Brahma hits it again, then it returns the favor and knocks the minotaur cold. It turns its attentions once again to Nerash, who has managed to heal himself while the creature was focussed on Brahma. He scrambles away from its strike, then heals himself a bit more.
Before he was struck unconscious, Brahma had called for a torch to be lit, with the idea to blow the thing up as they had the cloud thing; only Ravenae was in a position to do so, and now quickly gets it lit, somewhat too late. The fight continues, Nerash badly hurt still. However, there is hope- glimmering in the light of the torch, Whisper sees a strange little silver hammer on the side of the boxlike dais in the middle of the room. He snatches it up, and tries to strike the thing- two swings, two misses. A moment later the thing’s massive fist strikes, and he falls unconscious atop Brahma.
But while this portion of the battle has taken place, Ravenae has been healing Brahma! he wakes as the little thief falls atop him, and takes up the hammer himself! He swings, and the blow shatters the right arm of the odd creature! Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to slow the thing down all that much. Nerash leaps in and tries to hold the thing’s remaining arm back- he fails, and that same limb swings into him, knocking him out.
It almost seems like Brahma is cursed. He swings at the thing again and again, but he can’t seem to land a blow- finally he drops the hammer in frustration and punches... To no effect. Once again the thing’s fist drives pistonlike into Brahma, and he falls again. By this time Ravenae has used her power to heal Whisper.
Seeing the situation, he takes the hammer up again. “I hate being brave!” He yells, and attacks! He fails to hit, it doesn’t. Once again he falls crumpled to the floor as Ravenae once again dredges Brahma from unconsciousness. He again takes up the hammer, but his luck continues to be bad- and now Ravenae is alone.
While this last part of the fight took place, Ravenae lit the kiln at the back of the room with the idea that they could drive the thing into it- but with Brahma falling the plan cannot work- she’s simply not big enough nor strong enough. Using some of the healing pills Brahma carries, she wakes him. The thing then pounds her unconscious, and unfortunately Brahma soon follows; and all falls quiet once again.
Days later... Nerash awakes. Moving slowly, he sees the thing faced away from him, standing over the fallen form of Brahma. He thinks that his friends are alive; he can’t smell decay in the air as he would if they had died. Knowing that he has no chance to beat the thing in the condition he’s in, he makes a break for it. As soon as he moves, the thing starts after him! Fortunately, after a while it stops and returns to its chamber.
Nerash makes his way back to Oasis, water the only thing he pauses for. Staggering into the temple, he is met by the priests.
“May we help you?”
“Heal me!” He rasps.
“Where are the others?”
“It was a... Thing. A machine. They are hurt and still there- heal me!”
Finally, they do. As soon as he’s in any condition to do so, he charges back out and returns to the labyrinth. Keeping his panting down as best he can, he makes his way quietly back to the chamber where the pottery creature waits, standing over his compatriots. It seems to have somehow reattached its arm in the meantime, and is poised over Brahma. Nerash sees the hammer on the floor, and for a moment is torn as to what to do- if he fails to destroy the thing quickly, he knows it will take him apart quite painfully.
With no other real choice and his allies needing help, he makes up his mind. He charges in, snatches up the hammer and swings just as the thing animates to face him! He swings, and with the sound of shattering ceramics the thing shatters at the blow, to Nerash’s great surprise. He looks at the ruin for a moment, then gets the remaining healing pills from Brahma. He wakes Ravenae, then treats Brahma as best he can with the remaining pills.
Days go by, as both Ravenae and Nerash’s spellcasting capabilities have been exhausted, and everyone but for Nerash is still injured. Finally though, they are able to once again resume their explorations. Finding another corridor, they find another chamber packed with strange pipes and machinery- with an almost childlike ‘ooh!’ of delight, Ravenae shoots into the room and starts examining the strange devices.
“Priestess, perhaps caution would be wise?” Nerash says.
Ravenae ‘hmphs!’ in response, looking things over. She notices that there isn’t a way for the boiler to be charged with water, and mutters about it.
“I could piss in it,” Whisper comments, to which she absently responds, “it wouldn’t be enough.”
Nerash snorts and shakes his head. Brahma, however decides to humor her. “Will this increase the light in here?”
“It might. I don’t know for sure what this powers.”
“I will get some of our water so you can start it. We can replenish it from the river if need be.”
She nods and continues exploring the strange device, and Brahma fetches the water. She dumps it into the appropriate recepticle, throws a few switches, and waits. It doesn’t take long for the hiss of steam to be heard, and several arcanely-marked gauges shudder, the needles within rising quickly. Far too quickly. The hissing quickly rises to a howl, and they flee the room just as a burst of steam blasts out of the machine, searing them all to different extents.
The arguments start quickly, and end that way as well; Nerash wants (reasonably) to get the hell away from the machines, while Ravenae wants to shut them down. She knows how much power will be released when the system detonates. Instead, as he’s the hardiest of them all Brahma has her tell him what to do, and he shuts it off at the price of a few more burns. However, people are far less likely now to just let her play with any of the ‘toys’ they come across.
Nerash makes a few comments concerning common sense, to which Ravenae responds, “yes, father,” in a petulant tone.
They move on, Brahma carrying Ravenae like a sack to keep her from running off and throwing switches or the like. This is potentially wise, as they find a room packed with control panels and a chain that passes down through the floor via a pair of holes. Ravenae makes a token struggle to get loose, but doesn’t really try that hard. She DOES want to examine things, but knows that this soon after her little disaster her companions aren’t going to tolerate it.
At the far side of the room is another chamber directly adjacent. Here, Whisper spots a vast tangle of tripwires crossing the floor, each with a little bell attached as an alarm. There are far too many for him to disarm them all- eventually just from random chance he’d likely set one off.
Instead, Brahma takes the direct route and slices through a number of them. Immediately there is a scuttling sound from inside the walls- there are a LOT of little beings in the vicinity. Backing away a bit, Brahma slams the wall with a fist- the scuttling quickly moves away from them. He does this several times, apparently driving the creatures back.
He then goes back to the door and steps inside; as he does, a tiny humanoid creature runs out, climbs up his leg and steals a pouch! The creature makes it almost back to the hole it came from, but it killed by an arrowshot from Whisper.
This has an unintended effect- dozens of little darts, accompanied by angry, chittering voices, pour out at Brahma! At first they don’t seem to do anything other than annoy him- he picks up his pouch and starts walking back. He makes it almost to the door, then wobbles and collapses!
Knowing that he doesn’t want to be darted as well, Nerash attempts to hook him with his grapnel and drag him out; however, it gets caught on the threads! Before Nerash can free it, Whisper goes to get Brahma... And also gets darted unconscious. Nerash disgustedly yanks the grapnel loose. He drags Whisper, who is right at the door clear, then hooks Brahma with another cast and drags him out as well.
He and Ravenae start plucking darts out of the two prone figures, Nerash working on Brahma and she on Whisper.
“Do you have a comb?” Nerash asks.
“What?”
“Do you have a comb?”
“Yes... Why?”
“It would help to get the darts out of Brahma’s fur.”
“What? No! Eeyew!”
Nerash glares at her for a moment, grumbles and goes back to picking darts. Eventually, they get them all but both are still unconscious. They do eventually come out of it, fortunately.
Brahma still wishes to cross the room and check on whatever is beyond. To this end he starts cutting strings. Each one cut leads to a hail of darts... For a while. After the first few times of this one of the creatures pops out of hiding to scream unintelligible imprecations at them- for his trouble he gets skewered by one of Whisper’s arrows. Another hail of darts follows, but soon they stop firing with the bell rings.
Satisfied, Brahma picks up Ravenae and sprints across the chamber to what looks to be a passage from their viewpoint- it turns out to be a bare wall! Looking around quickly, he darts to a door to the side. This leads to what was apparently a meeting hall once upon a time. There is a huge hardwood table in the center of the room, and a dais with some form of control system at the far end of the room.
Knowing that the dart-throwers aren’t likely to let their return be as easy as the trip into the room, Brahma decides to arrange cover. he chops the table into two managable sections to use as shields, then goes over to the dais.
“Do you wish to see this?”
Ravenae is still petulant from earlier. “... No.”
“Good.” He tears the dais free of the floor, revealing twisting wires and tubes as it is wrenched loose. “I am glad that you didn’t wish to see it before I did this.”
This earns him a glare.
Brahma picks up the table-halves. “Stay close as we go,” he tells Ravenae, who does as she’s told despite her irritation. They make it back to their companions, and the decision is made to return to the strange flooding corridor that struck Ravenae down when they first arrived at the labyrinth.
Looking things over, Whisper is mystified. He’s never seen a trap like this before! His companions tell him everything they observed, but it really doesn’t help- this is outside of his experience. Deciding investigation is the only recourse, he uses his rope and grapnel to hook into the overhead pipes and goes down the leftmost of the three passages. As with Ravenae, the doors slam up at both ends and the water starts to flow in! He scrambles up into the pipes, and in the pitch black hangs on for dear life. Below him he hears the water cease rising, then a sound like thousands of angry bees is heard.
Eventually, this too stops and the water drains away, and the doors open. He scrambles like mad to the far end, finding himself in a small chamber. There is a door, and on one wall there are three levers. He describes this to the others, shouting down the passage.
“Which one should I pull?”
“Just pick one!” Is Ravenae’s answer.
He tries the middle lever, and the trap triggers. When it resets, he calls for someone to come down, thinking that there will be some time before it goes off again. Ravenae decides to go, and as it turns out there ISN’T much of a delay! It triggers again, and she barely avoids getting ‘stung’ again! When this happens, Whisper sees the levers operate themselves. However, its not over- the trap instantly re-triggers, this time the water rises all the way to the pipes! Ravenae is subjected to the strange effect again, but this time remains conscious. When the doors open she drags herself out onto Whisper’s side.
Whisper tries triggering the trap again, having seen how long things take. Brahma charges down the passage, just barely making it before the trap once again cycles. This leaves Nerash alone. He waits and charges just as the doors sink down flush, and makes it- but only because Brahma held the door from closing.
A moment later, there is an odd grinding sound and a red light glows above the levers- apparently Brahma broke something.
Whisper takes a few minutes and unlocks the door, which opens into a fairly small room. There IS a hidden door here though, and leads back to the elevator room- which is where they wanted to go next anyway.
Ravenae’s mood improves instantly when she sees the elevator. “Wait til you see this! Its an elevator!” She says this, nearly dancing to the strange metal-grating box.
“...What does it do?”
“It has a button, and moves up and down!”
They all enter the thing, and Ravenae with great glee hits the button. When it shudders and starts to move down Whisper jumps in fear; Ravenae just grins in enjoyment, while both Nerash and Brahma seem rather bored. At the bottom, its black as pitch. Nerash lights a torch, and the room they’ve arrived in is revealed.
A single passage is visible initially, leading off diagonally. Nerash then spots a hidden door at the end of the passage, which has its catch at Dwarf-height. They pass through into the next chamber and there are three visible doors besides the one they entered; then Whisper spots five more doors, hidden from normal sight. The complex certainly is a labyrinth in truth.
They check door after door, Brahma smashing through several. FInally, they come to a door that’s locked, and Whisper goes to pick it; Nerash comments, “didn’t he say something about traps?” Referring to Whisper’s boasts about his abilities when he first met them. In chagrin, Whisper checks for such, but finds none. At least until he works at the lock, and a needle pops out, pricking him!
He doesn’t even get a chance to say ‘ouch’ before he collapses, insensate!
They check him over, but find no clue as to what happened beyond the dot of blood on his finger. Thinking quick, Ravenae calls upon her power and slows the poison, giving them time- until that, Whisper hadn’t been breathing; now he is, in shallow rasps.
She digs into her kit, and manages to concoct a herbal remedy for the toxin, risking tasting it to identify it- fortunately, all it does to her is numb her tongue a bit. Soon, Whisper is back, shaken but alive. he lets Brahma deal with the door, and he does- one vicious punch drives the broken portal clean across the adjoining room, to smash open the door on the far side as well!
This gets the attention of something within that chamber- giant beetles! One by one they start to slowly skitter across to the attack. Only the first of the creatures inflicts harm, slashing both Brahma and Nerash with its mandibles viciously. After that, its a gruesome assembly-line of destruction as each in turn comes into range, gets feathered by Whisper and cut into fragments by the two warriors. Eventually, they run out of beetles.
“Can you use any of this?” Nerash asks Ravenae, who just looks green at the suggestion. They back off to heal what harm they’ve taken.
And there we break for the time being. Tune in for the next exciting episode, coming soon(ish)!
