Book Nine, Chapter Two �In your head be it�
19/03/11
It
is the 2nd of Kelen and Zytsi has disarmed the trap and unlocked the
door. Sir Martyn may open the door in the next hour or so, after we�ve talked
about computer games, AIs, Games Workshop in
Open
the door and see a tunnel cut through fairly solid rock, not an Earthmaster
tunnel and not very recently dug. It�s 10 feet wide and
we go with Sir Martyn and Zytsi in the front rank, Bowlhead in the middle and
Aruth and Daniel in the back rank. Aruth sets a trap off; a heavy spear shoots
out the wall and hits him in the abdomen for 60 points of damage, 6 per round
and is at -25%. We mark the spot with a pair of pennies, or rather Bowlhead
does. So Zytsi tries to find the trap and pockets the two pennies. He can�t
find the trap and it goes off and does him 2 points of damage. Chalk marks the
spot. We could crawl underneath it with a routine manoeuvre, or get it in the
head. This was after 30 feet down the corridor. Sir Martyn says �In your head
be it� would make a good adventure title.
Moving
on we looked out for traps and secret doors. The tunnel goes for a 100 feet and
then T junctions. Aruth says we go right for about 100 to 150 feet to a
crossroads. Sir Martyn says there is a trap half way to the crossroads. Zytsi
can�t disarm it and it goes off, three spears out of the ceiling badly breaking
his arm. Lucky Bowlhead had lots of power points. Aruth gets through OK but
Daniel doesn�t. 114 points of damage, 3 SNP and at -75%, not forgetting lying
on the floor hit pointed. I must remember to say something nice about Bowlhead.
He gets across on the second attempt and no body else has any problems. Mark it
with chalk.
Aruth
says we have to go left, this is generally in the direction of the God Stone,
but 150 to 200 feet down. Sir Martyn doesn�t spot the next trap and Daniel sets
it off. 121 points of damage, 3 per round and -15%, in a heap on the floor
again. Quote Bowlhead �Watch where you put you feet twinkle toes.� It�s hard to
think nice thoughts about Bowlhead sometimes.
Crossroad
with Earthmaster tunnels, we�ve seen them before. Aruth says there are tracks
going straight on and left, not on the Earthmaster tunnels. We may well be
underneath the God Stone here. Trap here which we can�t find and it comes from
the front swinging down. Makes a mess of Zytsi, briefly. 400 to 500 feet there
are a lot more tracks at the next crossroad going left and nothing in the other
2 directions. The traps are getting worse each one, and we avoided it. Along to
a gap in the wall, this turns out to be a dead ended corridor. Ends in a rock
fall underneath a destroyed building on the surface.
We
ignore it and go on to the next trap. This time it Bowlhead who gets caught,
and we discover that unlike everybody else he hasn�t been taking into
consideration his armour penalty of -50 on the trap avoidance rolls. You know
it�s hard to think nice thoughts about Bowlhead sometimes. He is the last man
and gets knocked back and splattered over the corridor floor 4 hit points from
death from hit point loss, which is a neat trick. There were three swords from
each wall for a six sword blade barrier. Aruth fire some healing spells at him,
and eventually he stands up and takes his armour off.
<<Tea
break>>
Corridor
goes on for about 200 odd feet and turns right and then there is a gap in the
left hand wall, corridor eventually dead ends. The gap is a corridor of
different construction that meanders and is of Khuzdul construction. There are
no traps here but we still check anyway. It goes for about 1,000 feet, and we
are now heading for the above ground Khuzdul constructed area. Eventually
reaches a black steel door across the corridor. Sir Martyn finds no traps on the
door. Zytsi knocks on the door, sounds heavy. There is no handles and there is
a key hole. It is not locked. It can�t be pushed or pulled, it slides to the
right.
Four
ballista bolts are fired at the front rank (Sir Martyn and Zytsi), not doing
much to them. The corridor is 20 feet wide corridor and goes for 60 feet and
then it goes into a very wide hall. 120 feet away there two very large arrow
slits. It looks like Khuzdul workmanship, it�s rather like a castle
underground. There is a very bright blue marble floor (worth �3,000 a square
meter in the real world) which is well light and the hall is huge with doors, a
set of double doors and a spiral staircase. We rush up, some more ballista
bolts miss on the way.
Sir
Martyn has a listen and can hear voices, Zytsi thinks it�s a Khuzdul dialect;
meanwhile Aruth has put a Darkness spell on the arrow slit. A door opens down
the hallway. There was a round of spell warming, and then another one and then
some frothing Khuzdul come out of the door and start coming towards us. They
are Geordie Khuzduls, not in armour and wielding battleaxes, they charge up
with an attack. We get one each and Zytsi gets two. That gives us a problem and
spoils the bard�s Inspirations song, and nearly kills Aruth.
The
next round is pretty much the same but Zytsi killed one of his and knocked the
other down, and then Sir Martyn had 10 attacks.
<<Dinner
break>>
Three
dead and two knocked down. So next round the one on Daniel stands up and gets
hit for a lot of damage from the bard, and then Sir Martyn killed it. The one
on Zytsi has two broken shoulders and is at -90%, he tries to head butt Zytsi
on the way down and misses. Zytsi kills the one on Aruth, but he didn�t notice
and fights normally for 2 rounds before dying.
Then
we had to kill the frothing berserk Khuzdul, and Daniel Inspires +15 the party
for almost 3 hours. Aruth heals the Healer, Daniel eats some Mirena Berries
We
think that this may be under the towers in the Khuzdul area. The spiral
staircase where the berserk Khuzdul came from is blocked. The spiral staircase
in the hall is also blocked by rubble and Sir Martyn leads us into other rooms.
The first one is a closet, the next one is a food storeroom, a weapon
storeroom, and then we sneak past for the arrow slits and go the 20 foot high
double doors. There are bronze plaques either side of the doors. After playing
with them for a while Sir Martyn touches one with the conveniently severed hand
of a dead Khuzdul and Zytsi touches the other. The door slides open to reveal a
huge rather garish Throne Room about 100 feet wide and 200 to 250 feet long,
with a three step dais with a throne in the centre (slightly set back) double
doors in the side walls, staircases going up to higher level. The floor is blue
and purple marble slabs. Blue carpet on the dais. Room is empty.
We
take the double doors on the right hand wall. It is a plush drawing room, red
velvet furniture and plush tapestries on the walls. Daniel says that a piece of
furniture is 600 years old (approx), made by a human and from Melderyn! Fine
but not top of the range, human size. Back to the Throne Room, Human sized
throne and Zytsi wonders why no human in the party has sat in it. Very
impressive and not Khuzdul.
Next
set of double doors. An attendants� Robeing room. We decide to look through the
other doors before going up the stairs. We find another throne room with some
pillars and steam rising from behind some low walls (pits?). A wedge shaped
room throne room. Zytsi and Bowlhead go in look for secret doors. There is some
liquid that gives off tendrils of steam. They have to make saves versus poison.
Bowhead�s poison lore tells him that it won�t damage us.
There
are five buttons on the arm of the Throne. Zytsi looks behind the throne and has
to make a save versus Essence and goes blind. Sir Martyn talks him back to the
party. It�s a Rupert Murdock sorry Evil Overload chair with buttons and
backstab protection. It�s a magical blindness so Bowlhead can�t cure it. Sir
Martyn goes for Dispelling Evil Magic, and fails.
We
give up on the secondary throne room. Block the arrow slits with two Woodwalls
and look at the double doors the other side of the corridor from them. They try
to push them over but fail. The doors are very polished and locked. Well Zytsi
looks through Bowlhead�s eyes and he picks the lock. The room is full of
mirrors and it�s really confusing. Polished steel and chrome plates. Sir Martyn
steps in and a lightning bolt goes off and hits everyone.
Bowlhead
volunteers go first and is very unhappy, Aruth got away with it, Daniel was
very lucky and with Zytsi and Sir Martyn�s criticals were reduced out of
existence. We leave the room and the bolt ricochets around the room for another
two rounds. OK we leave the room.
Sir
Martyn soups himself up and Aruth adds a Woodwall into the mix to reduce the
damage. Sir Martyn goes in and the lightning bolt goes off for one set of
damage which essentially misses so he goes in. They Woodwall is extended a
couple of times. To reach the end he needs more Woodwalls, so Aruth goes in and
gets lightning bolted a bit. Woodwalls to the end, one side of the room is
essentially empty. Woodwall shuffle and the other side seems to be mirror maze.
We all go in and join Sir Martyn, the Woodwall cuts the damage down
considerably. Now there is a corridor around a central wedge area. This is the
prison area and where we need to go anyway.
It�s
gone 11pm and Martin needs to leave and pick the boys up.