[NOTE: A LONG SECTION IS MISSING HERE. THE PLAYERS REALIZED THE CENTER
OF THE TOWN LOOKED LIKE A GIANT SPIDER, AND SEARCHED THE BUIDLINGS AT THE
MOUTH, REMEMBERING THE MADMAN'S WORDS. THEY FOUND A HIDDEN ENTRANCE TO AN
UNDERGROUND DUGEON AND TIED THIER HORSES OFF IN THE WOODS. ENTERED THE DUNGEON,
FOUGHT THEIR WAY THROUGH SEVERAL ROOMS, FINDING A URAKAI CHIEFS SWORD AND FOUR
CHILD SIZE SWORD/DAGGERS, AND A BOWL THAT APPEARS TO SHOW AN OVERVIEW OF THE
CITY ABOVE AND OUTLYING TERRAIN WITH A APPROACHING ARMY OF HUMANS. THEY ARE ON
THE THIRD LEVEL, FINDING TWO ROOMS, ONE WITH SILVER, ONE WITH A SCROLL, EACH
WITH ANOTHER DOOR. THOSE THAT TOOK THE TREASURE HAD THE FEELING THERE WAS MORE
TREASURE BEHIND THE NEXT DOOR, BUT THE PART DECIDED TO SEARCH OTHER ROOMS. THE
ROOM THEY JUST ENTERED HOLDS FOUR SMALL COFFINS]
We will assume for the moment that El Sid has the dagger and the bowl.
The group moved quickly and quietly through the open door in attack formation, then paused, watching the four small coffins nervously. Short glances to the right and left revealed no threats from those directions. El Sid thought for a moment. The silver, and the scroll, were too obvious. Tristan and Glorm both had felt intuitively that a far greater treasure waited behind the doors in the other rooms; a feeling that had come apon them as soon as they touched the items that seemed totally unguarded. It had to be induced, not natural greed. And yet... whatever this place represented, it clearly had great power. If the original purpose had been to get the intruder who touched the treasure to move to the next room, why make it a suggestion instead of a command? There were many medium level spells that would be more effective in forcing the party to move directly to the next room, instead of allowing them to explore the other two.
Perhaps the obvious age of the dungeon had weakened the spells? Hard to say, but the coffins were the only other obvious choice left.
He silently motioned the group forward, but a few steps toward the coffin brought a sudden grating sound. The coffin tops slowly pivoted out and fell to the ground with a crash. El Sid crouched, dagger in hand, the unfamiliar tang of beaded sweat running into his mouth. As he watched, the ghostly forms of four small Urakai children slowly rose from the coffins, then gently floated free and settled to the ground. A crossbow bolt from Dom Perignon sailed gracefully through one of the phantom shapes, its course unchanged until it hit a wall some distance beyond them.
The small, ghostly figures moved suddenly toward Aron, who made an aborted swing at one, then stood as if paralyzed. Tristan was prepping a spell when Aron spoke. "No Tristan, it is all right. They haven't harmed me."
After a few moments, it was obvious that the large man was indeed fine, and people relaxed a bit. El Sid moved a bit closer, but the apparitions moved so as to keep Aron between themselves and him. He stopped, puzzled. "They seems to like you, Aron" he remarked.
Aron frowned. "They...want something." The figures stood in a pose that conveyed eager anticipation.
El Sid moved again, but the figures countered, constantly keeping Aron between him and them. He stood for a moment, raised one eyebrow, and spoke. "Suggestions, anyone?"
Aron, struck by a thought, pulled one of the small daggers they had found on the first level of the dungeon and held it out to one of the figures. The small, ghostly shape grabbed it away greedily with surprising force. With a shimmer, the body became more substantial, a translucent version of a small Urakai. One after the other, Aron handed out the four daggers to each of the ghosts with the same affect.
Tristan spoke up. "They are still waiting for something."
Aron nodded. "But what?"
Glorm suddenly spoke up. "There were the four small sets of armor we left behind..."
A half hour later, Glorm and Delrin returned from a foray to the upper levels to retrieve the abandoned platemail. Once again, Aron offered them to the Urakai children, and once again, they moved eagerly to him. This time, they simply moved into the armor as if it were air, then solidified into what appeared to be flesh and blood. Soon, four small armor plated figures stood next to Aron.
El Sid moved to one side, then the other. The figures moved warily, keeping Aron between themselves and him. "They are still frightened of me. Perhaps it is because of the bowl and dagger of human manufacture I am holding." El Sid handed the items to Dom Perignon, then once again moved toward the children. This time, they did not flinch or flee at his approach. He took the items back from the Dom.
El Sid looked from face to face. "We have some additional knowledge, but I'm certainly not coming to much in the way of conclusions. Anyone have any ideas?"
Tristan looked at Aron. "Aron, what do you know about Urakai burial rituals? Are above-ground coffins the norm?"
Aron looked thoughtful. "No, but it is merely unusual, not especially significant. Typically, Urakai burials involve a wake where the dead's friends tell tales of his heroism in battle while drinking heavily and occasionally stabbing or beating the body... the general concept being that the more heavily wounded the Urakai is when he gets to Grukulla, the Urakai equivalent of heaven, the more honored he will be. Usually a white cord, blessed and treated with special herbs, is tied around the head of the dead Urakai as soon as possible after his death, and is cut after the wake. Supposedly the cutting of the white string tells the Urakai's spirit that it is time to leave the body. Afterwards, the empty shell is usual discarded by burial or burning with little additional ceremony."
Tristan took a careful look inside the coffins. "No sign of a white cord here."
El Sid spoke up. "Hard to tell how significant that is. We don't know much about the conditions this dungeon was built under... there may have been no time for ceremony. In fact, given the lack of actual remains, I doubt this was the real resting place of the corpses. Still, we should look around a bit."
They investigated the rest of the room, and checked the coffins carefully, but turned up no further clues.
After a short conversation, it was decided to return the bowl and dagger the Urakai children were afraid of to their original resting place, and to continue through the door to the west. Once again, the party formed up for action, with Aron in the back rank and the Urakai behind him. A swift kick of the door and forward thrusted torches revealed a room that looked almost exactly like the one they had just exited. In the center was a plaque with Urakai script engraved on it. El Sid cast his read/speak languages spell once more, and puzzled out most of it.
Wise Urakai,
You have msddwq the test of spirit,
ogghqrpk the siren call of mopzsr
in your search for the answer.
One nekoowla remains before
the final yhjtzhnunuihj.
Six is the mwotyp that you must have
kqbb is death for all concerned
"Hmmmm... the siren call of... wealth?" said Krinn slowly. "I think the concept is that we did the right thing by avoiding the doorways in the other rooms."
"Be not sure that there is no back door to these treasure rooms" added Glorm anxiously. He felt certain there was something behind those other doors. These Urakai were sneaky, conniving creatures. Perhaps they had left a sneaky conniving way to get to the valuables.
"Perhaps, but I think Krinn is right about the obvious entrances. We can keep our eyes open for other potential back doors." responded El Sid. "But what about the rest? The final ... that has to be something like task or confrontation... Six is the... number?... that you must have, more is death for all concerned? Or maybe less? But six what?
Tristan shrugged. "People?"
El Sid looked around. No one else spoke up. "Alright, I guess we send six people through, at least until they see something that confirms or denies that translation.
In short order they were ready. Glorm and Tanaka kicked in the door, Dom and El Sid taking blocking positions to the sides and Tristan and Krinn standing ready to fire heat beams into the other room. The door swung open with a crash, but the torch light showed only another small diamond shaped room with another set of doors in the west wall. This one held nothing unusual, although the spider webs that had appeared on this level of the dungeon appeared to be slightly thicker. The six adventurers moved in cautiously. Glorm immediately noticed a small door in the southern wall as the people with torches passed through the entrance and lit up the rest of the room. He waved the rest of them over silently.
Using a similar technique, they moved into the east room. This time, the torches showed a empty square room with a single item in it, a shield of Urakai make held suspended on the far wall. A rapid search revealed no secret doors or traps, and they cautiously pulled the shield off the peg it was hanging on. Twisting and pulling the peg to check for secret doors did no good, and a detect magic revealed the shield to be non-magical.
They retreated into the diamond shaped room and paused to tell the rest of the party, still in the room with the inscription, what they had found.
Aron looked at the small Urakai ghost children, although they now appeared to be fully corporeal, and perhaps "ghost" was no longer an appropriate description. They seemed... anxious, as if they were waiting for him to do something. "Give me the shield" he said, knowing somehow that this was what the children wanted. Glorm handed the heavy metal shield to him, and he practiced with it for a minute. It was slightly heavier than a standard Kethem shield, but certainly not a problem for someone of his strength. "I think the... children want me to carry this" he said.
El Sid frowned slightly. "What makes you think so?"
"Can't you see it on their faces?" asked Aron in surprise.
El Sid raised an eyebrow. "No, but you know Urakai expressions better than I, I suppose."
Aron continued thoughtfully "you know, six people or not, I have to believe these children are part of the puzzle of this dungeon. Maybe they don't count as part of the six people. But I think I should be part of the party that explores forward from this point, since they follow me."
El Sid nodded thoughtfully, along with the rest of the group. "Alright, Dom, you get lucky and can stay back with the rest. Aron is in the back rank... we don't want to have to push through these ghosts... kids... whatever they are if he gets in a jam. Otherwise, I think the plan is unchanged. Comments?"
There were none, and they proceeded through the west door using the standard technique.
A ten foot wide corridor lead north, and they moved cautiously down its length. After sixty feet, it opened to the east into another large diamond shaped room almost a hundred feet across. To the north was a large staircase leading down, unusual in that it was fifteen feet wide instead of the ten foot corridors and staircases they had seen thus far. In the center was the standard black and red pedestal, with something on top of it that was coiled like a snake. Holding swords at ready, they moved closer, until they could see clearly the object was lifeless. El Sid walked up slowly, reached out and touched the handle of a decaying whip.
There was a sudden shriek from behind them, and everyone spun around. Even El Sid could see the Urakai children were terrified. Aron quickly calmed them, then spoke with them in Urakai for a few moments, now that they appeared capable of making sounds. They steadfastly refused to answer him, although they seemed to cluster around him for comfort, and he turned back to El Sid with a shrug.
El Sid turned back to the pedestal and continued his examination of the whip. "Nasty piece of business." he commented. "Little metal barbs are woven into the whip itself... this isn't a tool for punishment, it is a tool for a long, ugly death by flaying the skin off someone."
"The kids?" asked Aron.
El Sid nodded. "One would assume so, given their reaction. Well, we have presumably finished this level, given that we were supposed to avoid the treasure rooms... and that is the only thing I am sure we've done right. The question is... what next? I'm not excited about splitting the party up on two levels."
Glorm grunted agreement. "Be damned this six whatevers. I say we just take what comes as a party and handle as best we can."
There was no argument, and soon the entire party was joined in battle formation at the head of the stairwell. As they started down, Glorm used his torch to clear the spider webs out of the way, the ever thicker strands burning away quickly with a acrid smell, but little smoke.
"Damn" said Krinn as she stepped on one, then another spider. "The little bugs are getting more aggressive."
Tristan frowned. "Thicker and more aggressive. These are still not a threat, but if it gets much worse than this and these things are poisonous, we are going to have a problem. We certainly can't afford to sleep down here, even with guards."
Just then, Glorm called out. "It is opening up down below... I think it is a room..."
As the group cautiously approached the bottom of the staircase, the light from the torches fell on shadowy figures. Weapons came up to a fully ready stance. A moment later, Glorm recognized the figures as statues of Grukel, more demons from Urakai mythos. Tanaka, Aron and he slowly entered the room. As they did, Tristan shouted from the back rank "What the!!!... the Urakai children... they're turning transparent again..."
Before anyone could react to this news, a strange grating sound came from the statues, and what appeared for a moment to be a trick of the flickering torchlight became clear movement. Two screeched with an ear piercing sound and suddenly fractured into thousands of small pieces of stone.
The others suddenly called out with voices of gravel. "I am Sword". "I am Shield." "I am tptv ." "I am Bowl."
The first one to speak continued. "Dagger and Armor have crumbled to dust and are yu more. This is the tufwo test, Urakai, utywr you meet the oaenuv. Where are the items you must have to pass ?
They spoke like automatons, echoing speech rather than really understanding it, and everyone felt intuitively that they would not engage in further conversation.
Aron called out "Sword, Shield, Bowl, Dagger, Armor and... whip! Whip! Damn, it wasn't six PEOPLE, it was six items!"
El Sid yelled out quickly "Back up, back up the staircase... I don't know what the hell these things are, but we can get the whip and bowl easily enough." The party began backtracking, but the statues closed with unexpected speed. Tanaka, Glorm, and Aron moved together to form the front rank.
Aron was down almost instantly, one of the figures striking with unbelievable force. More surprising, the figure froze in the middle of the blow, turning what could have been a deadly attack into one that still left the large man unconscious. Glorm faired better, scoring minor hits on his opponent and managing to dodge or deflect it's blows. Tanaka made one solid hit, parried, struck again, and was suddenly skewered by a well timed thrust by one of the statues, falling prone and clearly in a bad way.
TRISTAN
In desperation, Tristan jumped down the stairs and grabbed the sword from Aron's hand. The statue that had attacked Aron had frozen when it had touched the Urakai shield Aron had been using, and clearly these things were somehow related to the items they had been picking up in the labyrinth. Perhaps the sword would have a similar affect.
One of the statues swung at him, or at Aron, who was down and unconscious. Tristan dodged, and Aron took the blow, which was solid enough the severe the man's arm cleanly from his body. Sickened, Tristan jabbed at the thing, a glancing blow that did nothing. He blocked a return blow with his shield, then went for a different statue on the other side of Glorm. Glorm was too busy warding off blows to even attempt a counterattack. Tristan's blow whistled over the Dwarfs head and connected solidly, with a shock he could feel through his arm. The results were gratifying; the thing stopped in its tracks, frozen in the act of swinging at Glorm. Tristan barely had time to congratulate himself when the first creature he attacked thrust cleanly by his shield and drove the point of its blade straight through his heart.
KRINN
Tristan was down, down hard, along with Aron and Tanaka, with what looked like a death wound. She had no time to think about it. She finally had some room to maneuver, and the spell she had held prep on for two turns went off spectacularly. The lightning bolt was well clear of Glorm but caught one of the two still mobile attackers squarely. Hot sparks and sharp chips of stone flew where the bolt hit, and the thing staggered backward slightly, then came on again. It was looking a bit the worse for wear but she had no idea how much damage it could take.
Glorm took the break to scamper up a couple of steps. There was a momentary pause while the two frozen statues were knocked out of the way by their companions, then they advanced up the stairs after the dwarf. Glorm dropped his weapon, turn and ran. Krinn hastily dropped her second prep and followed suite... there was no way she was going to face those things in hand to hand! They were fast, very fast. Krinn, less encumbered than the Dwarf, watched over her shoulder as one reached Glorm near the top of the stairs, sword hand pulled back to attack Glorm's unprotected back. With a scream that was at best half human, Fuji leapt the thing in a flying tackle, straight over Glorm's head, not even attempting to use his sword. A human catapult stone, he hit, and despite the creature's obvious weight, it tumbled backwards. It caught the one behind it at the knees, and the three of them tumbled down the stairs together. Unbelievably, Fuji was up and running before the statues were, sprinting madly up the staircase. He made the top a few feet ahead of his pursuers, then turned with sword ready.
Krinn was suddenly pushed to the side by El Sid, brandishing the whip. It was unnecessary; the statues did not enter the room, but stood at the doorway. If Krinn had not seen them in action, she would have believed that they were indeed solid stone.
El Sid was cursing loudly. "The bowl, we need the damn bowl..."
"No time" answered Krinn, "I think Tristan is dead, but we might save Tanaka and Aron if we can get to them fast enough."
"No" answered Glorm. drenched in blood from the blow that had taken off Aron's arm. "Aron is dead. Tanaka, maybe."
El Sid gritted his teeth, then walked to within a few feet of the statues. He uncoiled the whip, and struck savagely at the two. They did not move. El Sid spoke thoughtfully. "Dagger and armor are dust... we've used the whip, shield, and sword... but the bowl is up a level." Then, with more frustration, "One of these things is still a problem. Krinn, Delrin, fry both of them!"
Krinn prepped while Delrin prayed, but the end result was the same, jagged blue bolts of electricity that left sharp fractures and glowing hot spots on both statues."
"Again!"
This time, Krinn's attention wandered, and her spell failed. Delrin hit the statues again, however, with similar effects.
Fuji suddenly ran up and slashed at one of the statues; the other one suddenly moved and contemptuously smashed the Kandayan to the ground, fortunately knocking him back out of range, but also unconscious.
El Sid grimaced. "Dom, get the bowl."
"Tanaka..." called Delrin.
El Sid shook his head. "We can fry these things forever... but we can't afford any more party members down. I'm sorry, there's just nothing we can do."
Dom was already on his way, and it was only a few minutes before he returned with the bowl, but even a few minutes was a long time for wounds pouring a man's life blood in bright red streams. When the Don finally arrived, El Sid took the bowl and simply threw it at the statue that had hit Fuji, then cautiously approached the stairwell. Neither statue moved, and he motioned the rest of the party forward.
The stairwell was slippery with blood, and El Sid picked his way carefully down it. Tanaka was dead, as was Aron and Tristan. He thought for a moment. Continue on, or rest? He and Dom where the only ones with any real experience with this kind of slaughter, and even he was shaken. Krinn looked close to collapse. Delrin was white as a sheet, but apparently dealing with the situation. Glorm appeared undisturbed by the death of three of his companions... El Sid wondered if it were a cultural thing, or if he really was that detached from the group. Fuji was down; Delrin was applying bandages and some kind of poultice, but it looked like it would be a while before the man was ambulatory again. On the other hand, resting here was untenable; the spiders were everywhere, and he wasn't taking any bets on their potential lethality. Their food and water supplies were very low, and they only had a few torches left. Light spells would only last them a few hours per day, and they were running out of time.