Book Three, Chapter Five, �Come on Larani, you bitch, give me aid!�

            17/01/98

Zytsi of Orinane turned up first, then the Universe, followed by Aruth Hempstead, then Daniel Fichelscher and the Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo turned up last.

The Agrik people are besieging the village, the villagers have give us our money back, Sir Martyn�s horse is re-shoed for 2d (daylight robbery, but what the hell). We are just about to leave the village by flying out over the lake at night. Do we go away for a bit and then come back later and do the Temple, sorry visit the Earthmaster site of Anisha in quest of the milky white orb. This we need to get into the Sunken City of Ridow.

23rd of Kelen (adjusting for the missing 6 days) and it�s still the day of the trial. Here is a weather report: it�s dry and cloudy and blowing a south-western gale. Oops. We have to leave by dawn the next day. The villagers have until dawn to hand us over, so they�ll open the gates at dawn. And all Sir Martyn thinks about is sex (the Agrik Priestess). So we�ll go to sleep (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) and leave at dawn. They want to lock us in a stable as they don�t trust us. Reasonable really.

We wait until the Agrik camp goes to sleep and leave. The wind has died down somewhat. The villagers watch us while we are still there. Sir Martyn leaves a note for the Agrik Priestess. We leave, flying out over the lake for 5 minutes loosing sight of shore, turn left keep going for 5 minutes, turn left again reach shore in 5 minutes, and come back behind the temple for 5 minutes, find a clearing and park.

Wander for 8 minutes in the dark to the temple. There is a tribesman in the bush. OK so we bug out after 5 minutes. So we go back to wagon, fly off for 20 minutes, and find somewhere to park in 9 minutes with 1 minute flying left. It�s an hour�s walk back to the Temple.

We get back to where we parked the wagon. So Aruth scouts the area. There is more than one tribesman. They are in a circle around the temple, 50 foot apart.

So Aruth sneaks up behind one of the guards, who may be asleep. Silently we move up and sneak past. Sir Martyn very nearly makes a noise but it wasn�t heard. The guards weren�t villagers, not sure who they were. We sneak up to some well-weathered pictogram covered thousand year old (says Zytsi) 100 foot tall pillars. ((Get the local map and the picture scanned in)). We want to go to the bit in the middle palace, not ruined. A sort of  raised platform with a building on top. Only one way up, a flight of stairs. Otherwise it�s a 25-foot climb up sheer stone, we all have one rank of climbing. More scouting of the area and then up the stairs onto the platform. A large set of double doors, made of metal. Zytsi says that his masonry skill tells him that they haven�t been opened for 900 years. And we rapidly come to the conclusion that they won�t open.

OK so there was a tunnel by one on the sewer entrances by the village. Investigate one of the ruined buildings, find nothing. Sneak out the way we came in, two roll downs and we still don�t get spotted.

Circle round to the mad woman�s hut. Sneak up to the hut. Zytsi bashes his head on a bush and finds some cheese sandwiches! Into the hut, look for the tunnel, find it and go down it. Taking the locking bar with us. Drains and a tunnel. We take the tunnel. 3-4 foot wide, 8 foot high. Walk, walk, walk. Very rapidly becomes pitch black. So Sir Martyn draws his sword, and yea it became light. A crossing sewer tunnel at one point. Down the tunnel until it is blocked by a large bush, grey, unpleasant looking bush.

Sir Martyn poked it, nothing happened. It�s a thorn bush with something nasty on the thorns, the dead rats are a give away. A bit more than 10 feet to main stem, so it will be over 20 feet of  poisonous bush. Sir Martyn starts crawling through, and made 3 poison saves. The 3rd one three times, it�s hard to poison a Paladin. So there he is in the middle of the bush. Can�t swing sword to cut it down. So Zytsi crawled in with hammer and chisels. Into the middle and hammer away, what a lot of poison saves he made. Just about 30 saves. Tie the rope to the bush and out. Now to pull it 4 or 5 hundred feet back down the tunnel to the crossing sewer tunnel. It takes us about 45 minutes. It then can be passed round. Back down the tunnel, and then there is another one.

So we do it again, or rather Zytsi does, and drag it out. Down the corridor and there is another one. So Zytsi goes in again and cuts it down with chisels again. The next one we experimented with fire, they burn very easily. Oh fire arrow. Whoosh up it goes, wash up goes the other one behind it, wash up goes the three in the culvert. We the good news is we reduced it from an �E� to �B� heat critical. Ouch Daniel�s leg is on fire. Fix that, more or less.

<<Then we had a balloon bursting break, Robin left the room for this. Rowena used to keep balloons behind the fireguard in a herd, where they used to breed - allegedly.>>

On to a split in the tunnel. Straight on East-South-East, or left northeast. Straight on then. Then turn right (south and east) then sharp left which goes straight east. There is a secret door here. It is trapped. It isn�t so much a sharp left turn as a crossroads, the secret door is straight on and turn right dug just not very far before it stopped by solid rock. The trap is rocks on the head trap. Zytsi disarmed the trap - neat trick he has no skill, but he rolled up. He opens the door and sees an eight-foot tall flesh golem that hits him. It was killed in two rounds. We are getting cocky, don�t get cocky.

Down corridor, ends in a door. It�s trapped. Sir Martyn opened the door and a stone slab fell on him. In the storeroom beyond are two clay golems. <<Dinner break>> Aruth fired an arrow and rolled up did some damage and his arrow broke. They picked up rocks. Another arrow not so good. Rock coming back at Aruth hurts. Zytsi charges to parry and Sir Martyn with spear for the next rank. It�s a plan. Aruth killed one with his arrows. Sir Martyn broke his spear, also known as a lance. The last one hugged Zytsi and broke his nose. Aruth then killed it. So two dead clay golems. Tatty barrels and sacks, old food store and wine cellar. Spiral staircase going up and a gap. We go up the spiral staircase goes up a reasonable distance and comes into a kitchen. With two side by side half doors into a large dinning room. Tables and chairs, not benches.

<<Crumble break>>

The next room is large ornate chamber with skylights, we are in the main building! Yippee! Sunken centre, stairs and dais all over the chamber. A lecture hall. Rows of stone benches in sunken area facing a podium. Stained glass skylights. Keep going same way. Central chamber, large, then another lecture area, with a storeroom rooms instead of dinning room and kitchen. So its sort of mirror image.

Back to the central chamber between the two lecture rooms and then the only way to go. And smack something hits Sir Martyn. That will one either side of the entrance. Big fist either side, Sir Martyn parried and they missed. Sir Martyn rushed into the room, and Zytsi advanced to where Sir Martyn was. So one on each then. Some form of metal golem. Aruth shot Zytsi�s golem a bit. Sir Martyn was hit twice, nastily. He used one of his totem tokens that allowed the 00 critical to be rerolled on him. Aruth killed Zytsi�s. Eventually Sir Martyn his with a precession dirty fighting technique sword pummelling attack.

Big chamber with stairs down. We go down. There is another one on a landing. It breaths poison gas at us and we run away. Aruth and Zytsi fail their saves, but Sir Martyn sorted it out. Then they charged back in. It�s an Iron Golem and magic weapons only, so no more arrows then. Aruth comes back. Poison damage each round. Hack, hack, Zytsi �Come on Larani, you bitch, give me aid!� Begrudging aid and an -10 to next poison save. �Bollocks missed� as Zytsi saved and Sir Martyn failed (Twice as he was running Poison Resistance for an extra save). Sir Martyn killed it. Zytsi failed his poison save (twice) but Aruth just pumped hit points into him for a long time - 15 minutes. Then 10 minutes for Sir Martyn.

Have you noticed Daniel isn�t doing much, or indeed anything? Well golems are not actually susceptible to any of his abilities and he�s a crap fighter. So he is actually not doing anything, but not using up spell points to save himself.

Down the stairs into a grey chamber, with a milky white orb and an Orcharim Golem. Sir Martyn and Zytsi charge, that�s two more of some other type of golem either side. Sir Martyn keeps going as does Daniel, but Zytsi stops. The two block the entrance. The main one spits acid at Sir Martyn.

Zytsi goes into room, they follow. Daniel circles round and Sir Martyn fumbles weapon for two rounds. The central one breaths on Zytsi, and he drops his war hammer, so he draws his dagger. Daniel grabs the orb. Aruth hits one of the two on Zytsi in the back. The big one breaths on Zytsi again. Daniel starts leaving, in fact he runs out of the room and up the stairs out of sight. Party stands for a round and then starts leaving. But rather slowly and without Zytsi�s weapon. Martyn�s shield gets nearly broken, useless until fixed. Zytsi staggers out seeking healing herbs. Aruth falls over exactly and Sir Martyn grabs him and leaves with him. Leaving Zytsi�s axe and Aruth�s staff. Zytsi falls over, Daniel picks him up and we keep going. Then we feed herbs to Zytsi and Aruth. We pull back to the storeroom where we came in.

Remember how many hits we have as it the end of the session. 6,000 eps for Daniel. We will have to go back for the war hammer and the staff - they�ll probably be on the table. Escape the temple, go to Trobridge fix ourselves come back and get the weapons - that�s the plan. Oh, look Sir Martyn is addicted to rook. Zytsi sells his last two rook to Sir Martyn for a promise to come back for his war hammer.