Present:
- Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
- Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
- Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
- Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
MARMALADING Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
Munch Ease - Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
- Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
- Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
- Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl
by Darryl
At the start of this update, we find our faithful, illustrious group of adventurers at the bottom of a 40-foot pit with multiple exits from it, a dead adventurer at their feet, in what appears to be some sort of Hob temple — and the fear of wraiths tugging away at the spectre of courage cowering in their hearts.
The body of the dead adventurer is searched, and two prong-looking weapons are in his possession, one of them being Munch's. So he retrieves this and passes the other over to Jack, as it looked very much like the one he was using in previous chapters and is now not working.
The group then discusses for some time what to do next and in which direction to head, finally choosing one of the two exits from the pit. They head down a tunnel and come to a T-junction, with the hairs on the back of their necks starting to rise. This, along with the fact that marmalade was slowly seeping from the corner of Ardern's mouth — and her being the only turner of undead — prompts the group to retreat back to the pit and head along the other exit.
This direction held greater promise, as the group passed through a couple of small rooms and finally arrived at a large chamber with a great pile of bones heaped up in the middle. Three exits from the chamber and a shaft going up are observed, and the group, though nervous, begin to act in their usual adventury manner. They sidle carefully around the edge of the chamber, doing all they can to avoid the large pile of bones, and arrive at the first exit. The exit is actually an entry into a room, and there is a thin channel cut into the entrance with iron filings resting carefully in the channel, and the group stops.
The whole room cannot be observed, but a quick check by one of the mages detects magic somewhere in the room. Munch checks for traps, and when he notes none, Tom steps through and sees two dead, very decomposed bodies on the floor. Jack follows him through, and they notice that the dead bodies appear to be a couple of adventurers, but there is no sign of injury on them. Cody checks for magic, and one of the weapons the adventurers were carrying is magical — a large two-handed axe, which everyone agrees could be quite useful, and so Rock decides to carry it for the present. The group decides to rest and respell here, as the room looks reasonably defensible. This works fine for the mages, but the priests are unable to make connection with their gods; the power of Hob is strong here and interferes with all other connections.
After rest and recuperation, the group decides that the best option from here is to explore up the shaft, as they had noted that it went higher than the shaft they had come down from. However, the spirit of chaos and the evil laughing-elf of stupidity ran quickly through the group, tapping Tom on the shoulder as it passed through, so he decides — as the group steps out to begin their strategy — to throw a rock into the middle of the large pile of bones. A silent groan emanates around, and the real sound of clattering skeletal feet can be heard coming from two of the tunnels that lead to the chamber. The group prepares for battle, and two fireballs are sent down the tunnels, to great success. Only two skeletons emerge from one tunnel and one from the other, significantly fewer feet than what had been heard.
These skeletons are quickly dispatched by Esme and Jack. However, as Jack bends over to pick up his weapon, which he had dropped during the melee, he notices some other figures coming down one of the tunnels. The hairs on the back of everyone's neck begin to rise again, and suddenly three shadows are seen racing towards the group, and they begin attacking Tom, Cody and Rock. For the first couple of rounds, the luck of the dice triumphed over the despair of fate, with two of the shadows being taken out quickly, but the final one fought on bravely. The four fighters of the group were able to surround and eventually dispatch the creature, but it was able to attack and wound Tom, who suddenly felt his constitution fall dramatically, and this was not restored to him for a number of hours. [ This creature was a Shadow. ]
With that attack out of the way, the original plan of exploring the shaft came back into focus, and Munch was given a large crawly spider to swallow (no munching allowed). As it slowly crawled down his throat, and his gag reflex in high tension, he suddenly felt able to climb quickly and easily up the shaft [Spider Climb]. Arriving at the top, he peeked carefully over the edge of the shaft and saw a lightened room. There was nothing in the room, but there were 12 or 13 doors, all but one with a barred grill high up on the door itself. To Munch, they looked very much like cells, but all was quiet, so he thought this could well be a way out. So, on his way down, he rigged up a staging post where the others of the group could be hung out to wait after climbing half the way up using Munch's magic rope.
Now, of course, with the usual impatience, the group do not wait to see what Munch comes back with on the information front. Instead, some of them wander off into the tunnels from where the skeletons and shadows came, and they come across yet another chamber — it too with a shaft in it. Cody, after swallowing a very, very small spider, climbs up, and at the top he finds an empty torture chamber full of all sorts of implements used in this practice. They return to the original chamber, and Munch fills them in on what he has seen and the setup for getting up. After some discussion, the group finds themselves at the top of the shaft, in a room leading to various cells. A couple of the cells have heavily decomposed bodies in them, and one of the cells has a door in the back of it. After the usual checks and so forth, it is entered, and the group finds a torture chamber with a shaft in the floor — the same one that Cody had climbed up.
The only way forward appears to be the door without bars on it, so Cody sneaks out the door and along a short passage. The passage is very strange, with horrible creatures peering at Cody, who begins to realize the horrible faces looking at him are, in fact, himself. The passage is a passage of mirrors, and as the group joins Cody, they too have a little fun with the images on the wall, though there do appear to be other figures within the mirrors beyond just the group. A door is found at the end of the passage, and Munch does his usual checks before he opens the door, which opens on to a room with a large Hob image on the floor, flames licking out of it, and two imposing stone statues in the corners, carrying large, imposing-looking weapons. The group is rather reluctant to enter the room, so before proceeding forward they spend some time searching the mirror passage and, lo and behold, a secret door. Munch checks things again, and with a click opens the door.
Before Munch is a series of steps leading up about five metres, and he carefully sneaks up them. At the top he sees a room, hideous masks on the walls, heat everywhere, and most importantly of all, in one wall, a pink glowing portal. Munch sniffs the air and begins to feel woozy, but with a mighty effort, and the training he has had with respect to poisons, is able to shake this off and return to the group and fill them in.
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| Jack's mask |
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| "You have caused me great trouble." |
As the group is experimenting and waiting, things are progressing for Esme. As she is putting on her armour, a man and a woman enter, and as Esme passes into unconsciousness she hears the words, "You have caused me great trouble."
Cody was next through, and he is met by a man he recognizes — a senior member of the Porn City Mages Guild. He is ordered to put on a collar, an anti-magic collar, and after a bit of back and forth Cody realizes he has no choice, so reluctantly does as ordered, and he is led from the room.
This is how things went for the remainder of the party, except for two, Tom being the first. Magic is cast on Tom — sleep, most probably — but Tom has amazing anti-magical abilities and resists, and resists again. In fact he is able to resist seven times before the mage in front of him pulls out a collar and says, "Wear this or die." He dons the collar and is removed from the room. Lois was the second, and she is met by her mother, who leads her away with frustration on her face.
Twelve hours later, the party all awake with collars on, except for Lois, and the group is led off to a meeting room where Lois's mum, Ms Price, is waiting for them all. She informs them she is very upset, and that the group have lied and upset all her plans. The group, including Lois, hold their ground, and a vigorous discussion is held with neither side giving way. Ms Price then informs the group that she is a Throak by birth and remains completely loyal to the goals and ambitions of the Throak family, and that the group will now do her bidding. After further discussions, it is revealed that she is a deep and genuine follower of Hob — hence the portals to one of the great Hob temples — and that she is looking for six items from the various orbs in order to completely rebuild the one orb she has in her possession.
The six items she is missing are:
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| Life Weave Sphere |
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| Sentinel Frame |
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| Forge Unit |
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| Archive Spire |
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| Horizon Array |
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| The Core |
We hand over the gem ("Core") and she is happy about this, but overall she is in a foul mood. She tells us we are in Porn City and to return tomorrow for further discussions. The group, still wearing their god-awful collars, shuffle out onto the streets of Porn City, talking and discussing the position they find themselves in, deciding that the best option would be to have a few drinks at their usual watering hole and to discuss what was next for them.
