During a period of nearly two weeks, Tienarth’s Raiders rested at the homestead near St. Orlan. Tienarth himself spent most of the time alone in his lab, making another attempt to enchant Jerker’s suit of armor. As before, he failed. Aderian and Jerker spent their time in the taverns, talking about adventures on sea. Jerker refused to set foot on a ship until his armor was enchanted due to the risk of drowning. Aderian quizzed many bar patrons about magical means of waterbreathing. Drunken conversations touched on spells that could be placed into potions or rings. An old man from the north told a tale of a ring of water walking. A halfling with the annoying habit of over-explaining gave the two fighters a lecture on the waterbreathing abilities of gogglers.
Several months of loot were poured from the sentient bag, Irenduel, and divided up. The golden manat was hacked into equal pieces for Ollie, Jerker, Urgesh. Aderian, Tienarth, Nate, and Ferris. Ollie buried 3,000 gp worth of gold in the nearby woods. Urgesh argued for equal shares of all loot perhaps out of loyalty to his tribe. Several of the party who were not present when the golden manat was recovered were excluded from the share. Fortunately, Urgesh was not quite capable of judging the size of the loot portions, else a fight might have followed.
On the fourth day of the eighth month (Elephant), the party was reorganized and they headed for Doukreg. Goblins were spotted at night while they were at the tower, but they ran off. On the way to the river camp they witnessed a battle between two groups of giant bats. The bat scattered after the larger group killed the smaller group.
On the 6th, they reached Doukreg and descended directly. Using maps kept by Ollie, they assembled in the chamber near the motionless iron golem. Tienarth took the form of a golden dragon and let loose a lightning bolt. The fighters rushed the golem to pummel it before it could respond. A moment later, Tienarth cast his famous haste spell and the blows came down like the trill on a drum. The iron figure tumbled into pieces before it could even react.
Unfortunately, Urgesh had wound himself up into a rage in anticipation of the battle and the found himself unable to calm down. Jerker wrapped his arms around the half-orc, but the squirmed out. Then Aderian caught him and Ollie placed manacles on his wrists. Meanwhile, a stone in in the barbarian’s fist bounced on the floor and turned into an ostrich. Hocuspo cast a sleep spell on the ostrich lest it cause trouble.
Presently, three giant spiders crawled from the web of the adjoining room. They were cut down without trouble. And by this time Urgesh came to his senses.
Aderian grabbed the sack that was at the feet of the golem. It contained a number of coins and ornamental stones. Those were poured into his magic bag. Among the coins was a glass vial with a needle on one end. An unrecognized liquid sloshed around inside.
The ostrich fade out of existence as they set off after Ollie who lead them deeper, down through the tunnel to the level where they found a hoop of steel filled with green fire. On the way down the tunnel, they met another animated construction. It was a sphere of metal balanced on a single wheel. Two snake-like arms ended in needles. A mechanical voice projected into the dwarf’s mind, “produce preferred limb.” Ollie offered his palm and the automaton plunged the needle into his palm. Aderian repeated this experience. Urgesh refused but was stabbed in the leg anyway.
Jerker slipped on his ring and peered in side the sphere as it headed past the group. The insides were filled with wires and a jar. He picked up the construction and smashed it against the sandstone wall. It broke apart. Jerker pulled it apart and extracted the small jar of blood and offered to Ferris.
They moved on to arrive at what they thought was the lowest level of the complex. They discovered two more chambers that made announcements: “Persevere and be rewarded!” and “Encourage others to follow the one true way!” These areas were empty.
Near where they defeated The Avenger golem, they came to a flooded area. Urgesh swam out into the dark waters and found a room around a corner where a prostrate body lay before an altar of silver. Light of all colors raced around the altar. They found it to weigh 250 pounds and made of solid silver. With some coordination, they were able to get it past the deep water by using a length of rope attached to iron spikes.
The body in front of the alter wore a purple robe embroidered with golden manat symbols. Ollie folded it up and stuffed it in his pack. The final room found on this level contained another mummified body in a purple robe. Nearby was a manat made of sapphire hanging from a leather strap. Aderian pulled it down and wrapped it in the second purple robe.
The altar was lugged to the surface without incident, and they spent that night in the mine. In the morning, they traveled back to St. Orlan. Orcs were met on the road, but they were deamed unworthy of extermination. They were let go.
By the ninth (8/9), they had returned home. Ollie studied his maps and concluded that there must be much more to the Doukreg tunnels because they had never returned to the level where they fought ankhegs. Also, the first level still offered unexplored areas. The dreams of the beautiful lady trapped under glass continued, offering further proof that the quest was yet incomplete. Also, the mystery of the manat symbols teased at the corners of their thoughts.
End Notes
- Days
- 7/22 – 8/3 Downtime in St. Orlan
- 8/4 – 8/6 Travel to Doukreg and explore
- 8/7 – 8/9 Return to St. Orlan
- Treasure
- 400 cp
- 200 sp
- 1,100 gp
- 100 pp
- 13 ornamental stones (10 gp/each)
- Vial of liquid with a sharp point
- A jar of blood pulled from the Sampler Bot
- Two purple robes
- Sapphire manat
- Silver altar with swirling lights (25,000 sp in raw silver)
- Combat 4,590 xp
- Iron Golem 3,890 xp
- 3 Giant Black Widow Spiders 175 xp each
- Sampler Bot 175 xp
- Characters 383 xp
- Aderian (fight) 425 xp
- Ferris 421 xp
- Hocuspo 421 xp
- Jack 421 xp
- Jerker (fight, strength) 429 xp
- Nate (fight) 425 xp
- Ollie (underground, fight , leads) 394 xp
- Saul and Lion 421 xp
- Tienarth 383 xp
- Urgesh (tribal loyalty, choose combat, fight, rages) 398 xp
- Ylyndar 383 xp