The party spent more time in the mine where food was plentiful so long as one still had a hunger for worm meat. They got to know some of the miners, notably a dwarf called Umi (short for Umistrek) who posed a question about the breads of giant animals. Why, he wondered, were their both giant bats and what most considered normal-sized bats. His theory was some sort of magical explosion set in motion a change in many living things, warping them and in some cases growing them. And if the ordinary bat were the standard, perhaps humans and elves were also the product of this wild magic. His view of the dwarven body as the natural a best size was acknowledged but not debated.
On the 26th day, the party felt rested and considered that the three days given them by Turgon had passed. Perhaps the ogremaster wizard had raided the old vault in the previous days. They expected he’d gone into the pit with his crew by now. Tienarth was curious about the vault, so they went to see if was disturbed.
The wizard-locked door was intact, but in the chamber below they found many corpses and two items missing. The corpses were all human fighting men, most of them tied up with necks broken. Of the 14 glowing domes, two were now missing items. Both were the green domes. They also noted a large, open trap door in the center of the treasure room. Twenty-five feet below was a frozen body. By dropping objects, they determined the blue liquid at the bottom instantly froze whatever it touched.
They hauled the body up and it began to thaw very slowly. In all, there were ten other bodies. Most of them showed only a few bruises and the killing blow of a broken neck. Three suffered burns of different types. Tienarth set about pondering for quite some time, much to the aggravation of the more action-oriented party members.
Presently, the temptation to try something got the best of Urgesh who plunged his hand into a red dome to snatch a potion. Fire shot up his arm, but he wore a ring of fire protection and the flames caused only small damage. Emboldened, he took a small bag from under the other red dome. Once again, he suffered only minor burns.
Inside the bag he felt a ball of fur. When it brought it out, it quickly grew in size to be a tiger which growled at anticipated combat, then calmed when no battle was being fought. Urgesh ordered the tiger to grab a rod from under a blue dome. Instantly, the tiger turned to stone. Several minutes later, the tiger statue faded away and was gone.
Aderian attempted to use his grappling hook to fetch an item. Being overly cautious, we tossed it and let go of the rope before the took could make contact with an item. The hook sailed directly into the pit and was lost.
Next, Ashy, one of the young fighters who’d come along with Urgesh boldly tried to snatch the rod from under the blue dome and turned to stone himself. His body tipped over and into the pit to smash into pieces.
Urgesh eyed a folded chain shirt and went for it. The orange dome sprayed acid up his arm. Blood oozed from several wounds, but he did manage to extract the chainmail. Aderian went for a sword under a yellow dome and felt a terrible shock. He was momentarily stunned, but was able to hold onto the broadsword. Yellow lightning ran up and down the blade as he held it.
Ollie tried throwing the frozen corpse at a blue dome. It bounced off the wall and fell into the pit.
Tienarth transformed himself into a black dragon and plucked a potion from the other orange dome. He was unhurt. But Urgesh and Aderian were quite hurt and needed rest. They retired to the mine and used healing spells. Tienarth and Hocuspo used the Haderaxian healing spells and Nate used the power of Nebro.
The next day, they returned for more experimentation. Aderian pull the leg off of a corpse and hurled it at a indigo dome. Urgesh saw that the leg was unharmed by the indigo dome, so he went for a wand under the other deep blue dome. A wave of madness played over his face. He turned to Tienarth and let loose a murderous growl. Fortunately, Nate stepped up and cast a spell to hold him in place.
They bound Urgesh well and wrapped him in a net. By his various turns behaving aggressively and then spouting gibberish, they surmised he’d turned mad and that no healing they could perform was resolve this curse. Tienarth transformed into a dragon once again and flew Urgesh to Lah.
He arrived at the retreat in only a few hours, greeted by the holy man himself and his astonished monks. Lah was content to curl the barbarian of his madness and spoke at length with him. When Urgesh asked about his departed mother, Lah assured him she was at peace in a place he called heaven. This was a novel idea to the half-orc, and he seemed comforted.
The next day, Tienarth flew Urgesh back to the mine to rejoin the others.
They thought about the remaining items. A rod and a ring were still protected by blue domes. A vial remained under a yellow dome. A wand and a large gem were under violet domes.
End Notes
- Days
- 5/19-5/25 — Downtime in the mine
- 5/26-5/27 — Exploring the vault, Healing
- 5/28 — Tienarth and Urgesh flying back to the mine
- Treasure
- Potion from under a red dome taken by Urgesh. The liquid was ink black.
- Bag from under a red dome taken by Urgesh. It was fur-covered and held closed by a leather thong.
- Chainmail from under an orange dome taken by Urgesh. Spiked pauldrons were attached to the shiny shirt.
- Broadsword from under a yellow dome taken by Aderian. Yellow lighting ran up and down the blade when held, producing the light of a candle.
- Potion from under an orange dome taken by Tienarth. The flask was shaped like a fish.
- Box of dust knocked from an indigo dome taken by Aderian. The box was teak and came apart in to pieces. The dust inside was gray.
- Wand from under an indigo dome take by Urgesh. A star topped the short wand.
- Combat: none
- Characters
- Aderian
- Ferris
- Hocuspo
- Nate
- Ollie
- Saul and Lion
- Tienarth
- Urgesh
- Four dudes named Geliz, Gerlich, Ashy (stoned) and Ashubo