Session 9

Back to previous session - Session 8

The adventurers found an entrance to the stone column through the prison area of the level of ruins directly under the officer's quarters. There was a secret door which led to a hidden torture chamber, which had its own secret door, which led to a marble spiral stairwell that descended at least 80 feet underground.

The whole group descended underground, with Maggey, Dave and Greg taking up the rear. Maggey was still stinging from her encounter with the enormous gelatinous cube and so she and Dave opted to keep out of the front combat line this time.

When they hit the bottom of the stairs, they found themselves in a large oblong room with two force fields blocking their path. There was a level on their side of the first force field, a lever between the force fields (and a couple obvious spigots or nozzles between the force fields) and a lever on the other side of the force fields. Sam went ahead and pulled the first lever, which dropped the first force field.

Now everyone started to get nervous. Greg, Maggey, Dave and Erin hung back on the stairs so they could head up in case things went bad. After an extensive search of the room, Sam and Lassier found a tiny marble rocker switch on the wall opposite the second lever. After some consideration, Lassier decided that the best way to disable it was to smash it with the pommel of his sword. He did so, to the protestations of the rest of the group, and amazingly the second forcefield dropped and no one died horribly. Everyone *RAN* through the room.

Quickly they found another room, with the way through barred by another force field. In the room were four pedestals with tiny holes in them. After some thinking, they decided to insert the skeleton keys that Maggey had found into the holes. Turning them at once dropped the force field, and they were through! They couldn't remove the keys without reactivating the force field though.

Soon they found themselves at a T intersection with the new path running north and south. Fifteen feet to the north was a heavy iron door. Fifty feet to the south was another heavy iron door. Sam, Lassier and Paul opened the north door, and found an alcove room with a giant pair of marble lips on the wall.

Paul triggered a trap and the a huge iron plate slid down a track and sealed off the door. Then the marble lips started saying "You can't breathe" over and over, and then started exhaling poison gas. Not cool. Paul managed to stop the gas with an ice spell, but not before he and Lassier were feeling considerably weakened.

Maggey, Dave, Erin and Greg banged away on the iron plate to try to help their friend, but had nothing that could get through it. Eventually Paul, and Sam figured out how to unlatch the top of the door, and the group was slowly able to muscle the door up enough to let the three men (two men and a manly elf?) escape.

They headed south down the corridor and quickly discovered a pit trap. Paul, carrying a rope, enacted a 'jump' spell and gave a mighty leap that put him about 15 feet past the end of the pit trap. Lassier gave another great leap, falling about four feet short of Paul's mark... and discovered a second, better hidden pit trap. As a last ditch reflex, Lassier managed to grab Paul's rope and keep from falling twenty feet down onto the rusty spikes below. Using the rope, they managed to haul the rest of the crew across safely.

After traveling through the underground corridor another 150 feet or so, they saw another pit trap up ahead. Paul, still powered up with his jump spell, sprinted ahead to leap it... and found that some cunning bastard had put a really well-hidden pit trap right in front of the obvious one. Paul managed to grab the lip of the trap door as he fell and pulled himself to safety. Again with the rope, the gang managed to ferry everyone across to safety.

They took no chances now, trying a heavy hammer to a rope and tossing it out ahead of them as they went, finding two more pit traps.

The corridor led to a huge room with a giant iron chest on a raised dais in the center of the room. At the far end of the room was a locked door. They discovered a magical ward on the chest and decided not to mess with it. With some effort, Erin managed to pick the lock of the door and they leaped back as Paul swung the door open. In the corridor beyond the door, they discovered three car-sized insectoid creatures that Sam and Lassier identified as Rust Monsters! The creatures had been in some sort of crystalline stasis field, which rapidly melted away. Hungry, the rust monsters attacked, turning the iron door to rust and ruin in seconds. With Erin's fire spells, Paul's electro-punches, and Lassier slicing up the beasts with the wooden sword, the group made surprisingly short work of the rust monsters, though Sam just couldn't seem to manage a telling blow on the aberrations.

The Rust Monster chamber had another secret door behind it that led to another corridor. And this corridor led to another force field with a lever on their side of it. Also near them were a series of painted runes about four feet away from the force field. Past the force field was what looked like the inside of the tower.

Paranoid of more traps and wizardly tricks, the group decided to head back to the surface and rest.

Continue to Session 10