Eleven days had passed on The Naked Isle with little of interest to report. With Tienarth’s help, Nate figured out the potion he’d recovered was some sort of holy water, though certainly not blessed by a priest of The Anointed One. Urgesh spent his time training his crew of 10 elf women to better sail his ship, The Ranger, and to fight if need be. Ever present were the dwarf boy, Rory (né Roreamal), and Jonja, buxom dwarve lass and former concubine from Tuiria.
Jerker and Elaria spent time testing the limits of Vaelden’s Cube. Elaria held the cube with Jerker nearby so that the cube encompassed them both. She pressed the side that blocked non-living matter, then cast a levitate spell upon herself. The force of the spell pushed her upwards, and the floor of the cube pushed up on Jerker’s feet. Elaria could feel the strain of the spell lifting the two of them, as she knew that the levitation spell was meant to lift a single person and their personal effects. The weight of an adult man and his elf bride with nothing more than the clothes they wore was close to the limit of the spell. They felt some satisfaction knowing that the cube of force remained centered on the smaller cube in her hand and remained cohesive under the stress of lifting them. It was reasoned that Jerker’s boots, being non-living matter, were unable to pass through the floor.
On the first of Cricket, the eleventh month, a party was organized to return to the cave where they sought the guardian of the mystic, iridescent pendant. Among them were Tienarth, Urgesh, Aderian, Nate, Ferris, Jerker, Elaria and Hocuspo. They made their way without incident through the swamps, to the tower and then through the portal into the cave where they found the hidden passage. Down the stairs they went, arriving at the chamber where they slew two giant pythons. The bodies were no longer there.
Some discussion was made about when to begin a fight, a recurring argument between Tienarth, who was seen as overly cautious, and the more battle-focused fighters, who tended to rush in to clash swords without coordination. Urgesh professed confusion about when to fight. Tienarth said he had to know when. A solution was proposed: a code word. Several unique suggestions were made, but they finally agreed to shouting “fight! fight! fight!”
Taking the passage to the left, they arrived at the door that Aderian had spiked closed nearly two weeks before. The spikes were gone. Dents in the door indicated they had been forced open. Naturally, there was a strong desire to fight. Aderian flung open the door, surprising a group of cyclops inside. He hurled a boulder, of which there were many scattered about. This began a long battle at the door.
As one of the cyclops died, it cursed Hocuspo for blasting with magic missiles. Grotesque visions clouded the wizard’s mind, and he spent half the remaining time incapacitated. Urgesh summoned a tiger from his bag of tricks who fought along side them until it disappeared about ten minutes later.
As the battle began, one of the cyclops shouted, “the prophesy!” as it ran through a door on the far side of the room. Through the door, they could see the giant waving its arms, summoning a fire elemental. Still, these fearsome foes were no match of the brave band. Out of desperation, a cyclops threw down his club and grabbed Nate by his limbs, dashing him to the floor, then throwing his massive body down upon him. Aderian stepped up and thrust Hestrin’s Chisel into the side of the giant. The flesh around the wound began to turn gray and before a moment had fully passed, the entire cyclops was made of stone, indistinguishable from a statue, though one in an inelegant pose. Nate was still trapped in the now stony arms, but he was able to wriggle free with some strain.
With the urgency of battle subsided, Irenduel the Bag, attached to Aderian’s belt spoke aloud, “I smell gold! Deliver it to me, pirate!” Suddenly, the will of the bag overcame Aderian. He smashed open a clay vessel and began scooping handfuls of gold into the mouth of the pouch which made joyful gurgling sounds with each mouthful.
Meanwhile, in the next room, they observed a burn pit with a shaft above. It was from this area that the fire elemental was summoned, and the ashes here were still warm, as was an iron door on the south wall. This door was flung open to reveal several snake-like creatures with dragon heads. They were fire salamanders. The door was slammed shut again, but the heat from the door became intense, driving Jerker way. Fortunately, Urgesh, protected by a magic ring, was immune to the heat and held the door closed. From behind it came demands to open the door and promises of wishes granted.
Back in the other rooms, a search was made. A body chained to the wall among blocks of ice was feared to be undead but proved to be simply a dead body with flesh falling from the the bones into a pile on the floor. Presently, a door burst open and three ice devils flew into the room. These were easily dispatched, but the flame salamanders followed behind. Urgesh responded with rage, largely facing the salamanders alone. When the last one fell, Ferris struck the barbarian with a sap but it failed to knock him out. He ran from his imminent demise. Fortunately, as Urgesh followed, Hocuspo was ready with hold spell that rendered the half-orc immobile.
When the battle was over, a thorough search was made. Aderian collected more coins for Irenduel as well as a red potion that was later found to be potion of fire resistance. Behind a hidden panel, they found a tower shield, 4′ tall and bearing the emblem of a single eye. They also found a hidden door in the salamander room that was not opened. They were satisfied by the day of labor, gather their loot and returned to town.
The next day, Tienarth analyzed the potion, previously noted as being one of fire resistance. He also found the shield to be magical. Hocuspo still suffered from the cyclops curse, and Nate offered to pray for his release, but it was more convenient to find relief from Zhargrave.
The statue of the prone cyclops was brought back to town along with a severed cyclops head. The latter with which they hoped Ollie would converse, using his magic ring.
End Notes
- Days
- 10/19 – 10/31 Downtime
- 11/1 Fighting cyclops
- Treasure:
- 1,500 cp
- 1,100 sp
- 4,100 gp
- Potion of Fire Resistance
- Tower Shield +1
- Combat: 24,370 xp
- 7 cyclops 2,285 xp ea
- 1 fire elemental 3,385 xp
- 5 flame salamanders 875 xp ea
- 3 ice devils 205 xp ea
- Characters (7 shares of 3,481 xp)
- Aderian (human, fight, in front) 3,899
- Elaria (hireling) 1,741 xp
- Ferris (human, thief skill, surprise) 3,899
- Hocuspo (hireling) 1,741 xp
- Jerker (human, fight) 3,864
- Nate (human, faith, fight) 3,899
- Tienarth (avoid combat) 3,516
- Urgesh (half-human, action-oriented, fight, strength, rage) 3,794
Urgesh didn’t “largely” fight the salamanders alone. He TOTALLY fought them alone!
I guess that’s true. There was one flame salamander that stayed behind. The door opened, and I guess Urgesh killed that one alone? Then the other four came around from the other side behind the ice devils. No one else even tried to fight them? I didn’t have the best notes. Too much going on.
Also, as Jeff told reminded me last night, I didn’t talk about how the fire elemental came up to the doorway where Nate was standing beside Aderian. Nate’s protection from evil 10′ radius kept the elemental from attacking them, but since the protection is a sphere, there was a corner of the double doors that was open. So the fire slipped through the gap behind them where Urgesh was going to fight it. But then Elaria turned on the cube to protect Urgesh because she thought he was too hurt. (He had taken a lot of damage). Then Urgesh tried to bash out of the cube but couldn’t do enough damage.