Present:
- Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
Joe Manco (human fighter) - ShaneZephyr the Turk - MARMALADE: Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
- Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
- Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
- Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
- Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
- Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
By Walton
We were in the tunnels beneath Zephyr the Turk's saffron farm compound (two days down the Draser river from the city Draser). Zephyr was a famous saffron farmer whose saffron had unique characteristics. We had rescued all seven of his saffron pickers, young slave girls, from a life of slavery, and death; he ritually executed the poor pickers when they turned 18, and then dried and crushed their bones to make a magical powder, some of which was added to his saffron (to give it those characteristics). One of the girls was 16-year-old Selina Porshay, who had come to the attention of Simone and Tommo Fussell, Vingt-et-un agents and our employers. They wanted us to rescue her. Simone also wanted us to retrieve the accounts' ledger of Zephyr; which would be further evidence with which to accuse the Globe Casino of fraud towards Vingt-et-Un.
It was now two hours before light. We had formally decided to give up on ever recovering the ledger - a bridge too far. We had got the girls, and so were looking for a plan to get outta this place, if it were the last thing we ever do, girl, there's a better place for me and you.
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| Selina Porshay |
Sophia and I were down on spells, so the preferable thing to do would be to rest to regain some power. But there was not really any safe place in the tunnels.
There were two routes out of the complex: one was back through the tunnels, the way we came in, across the underground pool and past the leashed bear. The other route was through the abattoir and processing building, and then out through Zephyr's compound, past his guards, then across the fields. Both routes were non-trivial. Both routes were dangerous.
Just then, however, one of the girls mentioned that she remembered that there was an additional hidden room behind Butcher's cave. We had been in Butcher's cave earlier; we met and killed him. So, we went back there. Butcher's body was still there in a puddle of dried blood where we had left him. We had tried to make it look like he cut his radial artery while whittling, and then he bled to death. His body was carefully placed to mimic the accident. (This ruse may have worked one day, but we had killed many guards since then!)
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| radial artery |
Inside was a large store room with boxes and crates. It had a tunnel off it which was radiated cold ... and evil: "undead!" was the cry. On the floor of this tunnel, one pace in, was a neat line of iron filings. On the back wall, lit up by our torches (we did NOT cross that line of iron ! ), were three naked girls, of the same age as our rescued ones. They were blue with cold and hanging by their wrists, chained to the walls. No sign of breathing, but that was to be expected. We posted a guard to watch them, while the rest of us searched this store room.
We found a magic shield (large size [ STR of 14 needed] ), a suit of magic armour chain mail, a magic longsword, and a box of potions, four of which were magic.
Despite the alleged undead, this room made a good place to hide and rest. But, there was one problem - neither Sophia or I could recharge here. The undead influence from the cold room permeated into the room. However, we suspected we could safely rest in Butcher's room itself during nights (spell recovery was possible from there). Yes, we would both be comatose, but there was no reason the others in the group couldn't keep a good watch, and haul our limp bodies back into the store room if need be.
It was almost day now, and since we were going to stay here, I expended the last of my magic and cast Hide tracks on the Butcher room and the corridors outside. That would stop anyone tracking to the secret door.
Day Four
It was day. We stationed a roster to keep continuous surveillance of the Butcher room using the peep-holes.
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| Mr Quail priestess |
They all poked and prodded the dead butcher. We had killed him a few days ago, so the pool of blood around him (from his "whittling accident") was quite dry. As we expected, they weren't fooled by the ruse.
They all scanned around, searched for tracks, found none thanks to my spell, then left. We suspected that the secret door (we were behind) was the Butcher's special secret and even secret to them. The last one to leave was the gnome, who casts some spell on the entrance; I suspect Alarm of Glyph. We weren't leaving that route!
The Undead Girls' Chamber had another passage off it, so we cajoled Gandhi and Sophia to go explore it silently (careful not approach the undead girls nor disturb the line of iron filings) - those two were the quietest of our group, in their slippered feet. The passage finished at a dead-end with a shelf above, through which was a narrow tunnel, fifty paces long, which emerged outside, near the saffron fields. But it was extremely tight. Our big burly fighters: Joe, Donk, Slim and Red were too big to have any hope of squeezing through.
"They can be finding their own way out," mused Gandhi.
Upon relaying us all this information, it was another bridge to cross when we came to it. That did leave only the Bear path or the Abattoir path. But we would still rest a few nights to get our spells back, regardless.
Night four
There was no more disturbing of the Butcher's room during the day. But we did see Zephyr's guards moving past the mouth of that room.
As soon as it went dark, the three chained undead girls simply pulled their hands out of the manacles, and lurched over towards us. They did not cross the iron filings line - it was if there was a force field there stopping this. Sophia managed to turn them, using the divine power of Vingt-et-Un's lucky name, so they scurried away. She could keep them at bay at will.
After that, Sophia and I went into the Butcher's room, rolled out our sleeping mats. took a holy wafer each and passed out to recharge. The rest of the group took up rostered watches. It was a peaceful night. We recovered a bit.
Day five.
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| Slim's bane |
We weren't going to try THAT again.
It was about now that Sophia decided to test the potions. They all turned out to be Potions of Diminution. Praise Vingt-et-Un! So, this was a way to use that tunnel after all; it made perfect sense, because Butcher was a fat bastard.
So, now we did have a viable escape route.
More planning. Today was day five. The barge would arrive back first light of Day Seven. So, we had tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night to stay here. We budgeted on three-quarters of a night to move from here to the river rendezvous. So, three hours into tomorrow night we would need to leave. We could not go through the tunnels with the undead girls wandering around, so we would need to get into position, during the day tomorrow, an hour before dark. Gandhi and Sophia thought that the ledge before the narrow tunnel would be high enough to stop the undead girls getting up.
Night five
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| Vingt-et-Un holy wafers |
Sophia and I took holy wafers to recharge a bit more. It was a quiet night in Butcher's room.
Day Six
One hour before dark, we headed down to the tunnel end, all climbed up onto the ledge, and then pulled up the rope. It was quite a squash: our big party of seven and the seven saffron girls.
Night Six
Sure enough, the undead girls did wander down the passage below us, but they were not very perceptive and never looked up.
At the appointed time, we headed down the narrow tunnel. The four fatties in the group took half doses of the Diminution potions and could thus easily fit down this tunnel, which was quite a squeeze for even me. I went first, so that I could cast a Silence spell on the entrance.
We then rushed out into the night. There was a woodshed here and a rustic cottage. The cottage had lights on. When everyone had grouped-up, and the potion had worn off, I cast another Silence so that we could get a good distance away from this cottage. There were three plinths here - empty of any statuary. This turned out to be some ominous foreshadowing ...
The path out of here was obvious. There was a road here with the saffron fields on both sides. We knew there were ogre guards about, but we hoped that the (magical) single-wire fences surrounding the saffron fields would keep them in. So, we scurried down the road, looking about for any sign of movement in the fields.
But it was the skies.
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| Gargoyle |
Donk was smashed in his head by a flying stone gargoyle. It brutally knocked him down (critical), then flew around again for another strike. I shooed Gandhi away to take the seven girls to safety, plus the marmalading Red, while the rest of us stood our ground for the next strike. Donk took a cure from me, so he was up again, but still with a major wound (disadvantage). The gargoyle swooped and struck again. Joe this time, but it was only a flesh wound.
Slim happened to be carrying a net. He threw it, and entangled the creature, and then the three strong guys leapt on it, to try to hold it down. This was enough, and Joe and Slim could use their magic weapons to chop the stone body to pebbles (normal weapons had no effect).
Gandhi and the girls, carrying Red, crested the hill in the distance.
Sophia and I had just enough time to cast another cure on Donk, before the second gargoyle struck...
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