Session 53

The adventurers meet an unusual character in the underground tomb.

10/05/08

Players: Gante (Jon), Epona (Elizabeth), Kerwyn (Will), and Glod (Adam F.)

14th of Summer’s End

The party is gathered around an opening in the ground. The scent of stale, earthy air is hardly noticeable among the recently charred zombies in the area. It’s pitch-black below, so Epona casts daylight on a nearby stone and hands it to Kerwyn. The shaft descends about ten feet or so. Glod takes some rope from his pack. Kerywn ties it around the large stone slab they removed from the opening and carefully makes his way down into the ground. The room is about thirty feet to a side. The ground is mostly earth, with a bit of undergrowth. On one side, an opening in the wall leads to the north.

“Come on down, nice and cheery.”

The rest of the team follows the rogue into the pit. The roots and plants on the ground impair their movement Careful not to trip in the tangled mess of plants, they move northward. The opening leads into a tunnel-like hallway, ten feet across. Kerwyn leads the way, stopping suddenly halfway into it.

“Wait,” he says, kneeling down. A small gap where no roots are growing catches his attention. After a quick examination of the area, he finds that the ground ahead is merely a woven mat of vines and branches with no dirt beneath it. By putting just a bit of weight on it, the roots fall inwards like a cut rope-bridge. Below, an array of finely-pointed sticks jut upward menacingly. Three skeletons below motionlessly smile at at the team, the spikes sticking through them at several points.

“We may need to find some other way across,” Gante says.

Glod peers over the edge. “If your willing to wait a minute, I think I could get us across without to much trouble…”

Borrowing a sword from Kerwyn, Glod spiderclimbs into the pit and begins breaking down the wooden spikes. Meanwhile, Gante and Epona search for any alternate routes, but find nothing. Glod, having broken through most of the spikes, takes a moment to investigate the skeletons in the pit.

“Hmm… Elves, I think. They’ve been here a long time, at least.”

After breaking off the last spikes, Kerwyn climbs down. Glod merely spiderclimbs out to the other side while Kerwyn climbs up the roots against the other side. Gante and Epona help Marlak across, and the team soon finds themselves in another cavern. There’s no visible exit, but there are a considerable number of insects crawling about. Not a swarm, but more than they’d expect to see. As they enter the room, a triggered magical trap creates four massive spiders on the other side of the room. The adventurers draw their weapons and prepare to fight.

Kerwyn rushes into the fray, but one spider manages to get a bite of his shoulder. Poisoned, he falls back behind the next wave of attack. With a well-placed slice, Gante cuts the spider through, which lets out a high-pitched cry of sorts as it hits the floor. Marlak shouts out an incantation, and a large sphere of fire appears across. It quickly rolls around the room, catching the nearest spider in its path. The spider quickly burns to the ground. Epona calls forth the celestial bombadier beetle to attack the spiders while Glod continues to fire from his crossbow. Finally, the last spider falls.

Kerwyn holds his arm, putting pressure on the twin punctures where the spider poisoned him.

“Kerwyn, how are you feeling after that bite?” Gante asks.

“Eh, not too great.”

“Let me take a look.” Gante examines the wound, and decides to cast lesser restoration. With the effects of the poison nullified, Kerwyn moves on to search the room for any hidden exits. Gante and Epona search the floors while Kerwyn and Marlak check the walls. Glod keeps an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. After an initial check, nothing is found.

“Well guys, I doubt this is the end of the road, there has to be something around here…”

As he speaks, Marlak locates a passage. Behind a thick layer of roots, there appears to be an opening. With a quick slice, Kerwyn opens the way to another tunnel. The team enters, weapons ready. They feel a drop in temperature as they continue.

“I have a feeling our troubles are nowhere near over,” Gante says.

After at least a full minute of walking, they see some dim light at the end of the tunnel. They finally arrive at a surprisingly large cavern. The undergrowth does not continue into the room. A throne-like chair sits against the center of the wall. On either side, a candle is burning. Large, black roots protrude from the ceiling above the throne; they appear dead. Sitting on the chair is a skeletal humanoid in a black robe. It still has much of its flesh intact, though it is just barely there. It is presumably not dead, as it watches the adventurers enter and politely nods as they do. It’s dressed in a deep blue robe. It watches them with a pair of… not quite eyes, really, but merely dots of red light.

“A fine morning to you, travelers. Or evening, perhaps. I’m honestly not sure.” It speaks slowly, and with a great deal of attention to pronunciation.

“A fine afternoon, actually,” Epona says. “…Sir,” she adds. Gante quietly concentrates during the conversation, attempting to detect any evil in the area.

“It’s been… quite some time since I’ve seen another,” the figure says. “Forgive me that I remain seated.”

“It is quite alright, we were just surprised to see someone down here,” Epona says.

“What brings you here? Random chance, or specifically to see me, perhaps?”

“Well,” Glod says, “we saw some zombies walking rather purposefully over here.”

“Ah, I see. They didn’t happen to mention anything about coming down to greet me, did they?”

“Couldn’t get a word out of them.”

The creature laughs with a sound more like loud breathing. “Hhhha, yes, not conversationalists, generally speaking, but that’s the lower undead for you.”

Gante quietly makes known to the others that the being they’re dealing with is evil, and that there seems to be some other evil aura just beneath him.

“Not to pry,” Glod says, “but what are you doing here, anyway?”

“Well, I’m a bit late in getting here really…” he says calmly. “I was actually expecting to be here some hundred years ago, I believe.” He begins to thoughtfully stroke his beard in thought, but comes to the realization he has no beard.

“You don’t say,” Kerwyn says. “Any reason for the delay?”

“Hhhhhahhhha, yes, though it’s a bit unusual, I was actually a tree for the past century. How unexpected…” The skeletal creature looks thoughtfully into space, admiring the peculiar circumstances he had been in. “It’s a long story, really. Perhaps I’ll tell it some other time…”

Glod finally tires of just beating around the bush. “Look, here we are at the bottom of a trapped tomb talking to a skeleton with an evil aura about it. That’s sufficient cause for a lot of adventurer types to just attack, but frankly we are all curious as to what’s going on down here. And since you haven’t actually been hostile we are giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

He inhales a laugh with a toothy grin (as if a skeletal creature has a choice). “Well, I do appreciate your decision, at the least. In all honesty, I’d have probably killed you as soon as you entered, had I the strength right now…”