Under The Mountain
Having returned from their epic adventure against the Allerzoi, Zionestes and Saladin were in Krim when a wave of magical item thefts took place. It was the talk of the city when a taunting message arrived signed by a wizard thought dead for a thousand years. In it the owners were more or less invited to come and get their gear back from beneath White Plume Mountain, a volcanic peak to the North East.
Pausing only to recruit Elf fighter magic user Alabasta Andoch, (you can call me Al or Alan) an old friend who had just moved in to the neighbourhood, they set off to recover the three missing weapons. Zionestes takes up the story:
We left our horses in a cave and entered the great mountain through a cavern from which scalding hot steam blasted periodically. It took a long time but eventually we found a hatch revealing a spiral stairwell below, and we descended, the way lit by Saladin’s magic sword.
We found ourselves in a corridor wading through foul algae strewn water that concealed who knew what. Rounding a corner we came upon a sphinx who posed a simple riddle that Saladin answered immediately. She then directed us down one of three passage ways where she said lay Blackrazor, first of the fabled items. We were still wading through the brackish water and Saladin, probing the murk discovered a pit.
Alan came up with a plan involving his sorcery and we floated over the pit after establishing its extent with dancing lights, standing on Tensers floating disc. This took us hovering over the water to a length of corridor with copper lined walls. As we entered our metal objects began to heat and we beat a retreat before they became life threatening.
We stripped off our armour and metal equipment and placed it on the disc. I used resist fire that seemed effective in terms of allowing me to keep hold of my mace and holy symbol and we passed through the corridor into a room beyond, only to be ambushed by eight abominations; ghouls that defy our lord. I turned them which should have been a matter of routine for me but somehow they resisted and both Saladin and I were quickly paralysed as slashing claws and teeth rended our unprotected flesh.
Only Alan was immune and he in desperation fired a lightning bolt into the water down the corridor. The filth and muck conducted a killing strike that wiped out all the ghouls and injured us still further, though it did also jolt us from our paralysis. As we had a healing session in the ghouls’ hidden room and recovered spells, I examined amulets that the fell creatures wore: These were clearly some form of protective amulet that had warded against the power of my turn. I crushed the dastardly creations and added it to the list of fell crimes against the lord of Death perpetrated by our quarry.
After a long rest we re-emerged but were immediately attacked by an unseen foe who targeted Saladin. Whatever it was it too resisted my attempt to turn, hopefully not a daemon then but perhaps it too wore an amulet. We fought hampered by the invisibility of our opponent who could be detected only by the splashing of the water, sound and eventually one of Al’s arrows sticking in it and we finished it off relatively quickly, Saladin’s two handed sword being particularly effective.
The invisible stalker’s body (for such it was) fell and returned to its own plane and we took stairs up out of the water at last, finding a long room with two pits and an oddly shiny surface to the floor and walls. We resorted to the disc again and passed through without incident to the exit, surmising that the floor was slippery and any attempt to cross would send us crashing into the deadly pits which were filled with impaling spikes.
Alan discovered an illusory wall at the end but it seemed to serve no purpose and we continued beyond reaching a T Junction. We turned left and Al with his keen elvish senses somehow spotted a concealed keyhole in one wall but try as we might we could find no way of opening it. Continuing onward we found a huge multi layered room, a room whose existence had been hinted at by the message that brought us here.
Saladin having forced the door was peppered with tail spikes fired by three Manticora at the base of the room. The room was stepped with a descending series of ten foot wide terraces. Two layers were water filled containing who knew what horrors, a third layer contained scuttling giant scorpions.
Al and Saladin cooked up a detailed plan involving us flying in on the disc protected from below by the huge oak door which Al would levitate below us with Al and I standing on it, hanging on to the disc to connect us like some sort of ramshackle Heath Robinson flying carpet. Saladin would also help by embedding his pick in the door from the disc.
So flying we entered the room passing to the far side of the ground floor level where we could see an exit and descended under fire. On landing Al created a wall of fire around himself which kept off the monsters and we burst into the room beyond. As we did so the wall of fire ignited elements of the room and a Halfling warrior who stood there.
Undeterred we piled in to attack, Al firing flaming arrows first then flanking the creature who clearly was not a Halfling and it was quickly overcome. We doused the flames and looked about finding much treasure, but we were interrupted by the regenerating Ogre Mage/ faux hobbit attacking us, hitting Saladin with a bolt of cold energy before we managed to finish him off, this time burning the corpse to prevent another unwelcome return.
We found coin, electrum and platinum, several handsome but sadly non magical pieces of jewellery, a couple of magic rings worn by our late friend, some armour, a potion, scroll and Blackrazor, a talking sword that Saladin took. It described itself as a weapon that ate its opponents and transferred the power of its enemy to the wielder on a killing stroke. Saladin was salivating at the prospect and anxious to try it out but we had to delay to heal and recover magic again. Less happily Al tried on the armour which was cursed but I was able to cast a spell that enabled him to remove it.
The rings were shared by Saladin and Al, Saladin’s turned out to be protection, Al’s power is unknown as is the scroll which Al kept without showing to me and potion which is in my care.
We left by reversing our entry technique, leaving behind wounded Manticora and a looted treasure chamber. We healed up and restored spells yet again before returning to the inscrutable sphinx who asked a second, somewhat harder riddle involving brothers who lied and told the truth, and a choice of paths; Al hit eventually on the one question that would reveal the safe path and we headed down the next passage, in search of Wave, the second weapon.
5.8.17
Experience awards
Alan
Ghouls 650
Use of Tensers disc to negotiate 18 100
Use of Tensers disc to negotiate 22 1000
Use of Tensers disc to negotiate 26 3000
Wall of fire to contain Manticora 100
Ogre Mage 375
Invisible Stalker 450
Answering second riddle 225
Secret door/ Illusory wall detection 50
Dancing lights use 20
Treasure area 27 4400
Ring area 27 1200
Obtaining Blackrazor 2500
Mapping 130
Total 14,200
Saladin
Detecting the pit at area 18 50
Answering the first riddle 25
Use of the door as a shield area 26 100
Invisible Stalker 450
Connecting the Ziggurat to room 26 25
Using Door as shield 250
Ogre Mage 375
Treasure area 27 4400
Ring of Protection 3000
Obtaining Blackrazor 2500
Blackrazor 6000
Characterisation and roleplay 50
Total 17,225
Zionestes
Healing 100
Resist Fire area 19 25
Invisible Stalker 450
Remove curse 50
Ogre Mage 375
Suggesting passing area 19 armour free 100
Treasure area 27 4400
Potion area 27 200
Obtaining Blackrazor 2500
Total 8,200
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