Our heroes, accompanied once more by the dwarf Uncle, decided to follow the piece of map they had found on the body of the zombie-hunter aboard the Eve of Destruction. En route, they made peace with both the ettercaps-- finally triumphing over the terror of the desert, the giant fire beetle Klikslyth-- and the kobolds, who had been angered to hear about the killing of the young dragon in the dungeon beneath the Tomb of Gnollish Kings.
In their travels, they discovered a dried-up lake, in the middle of which sat a palace made of coral, surrounded by the skeletal remains of a giant sea serpent. They decided to explore its environs at a latter date, and to press on to the destination marked on the map.
That destination was an ancient fort, manned by skeletons and undead. The group managed to fight their way into the fort, and in their subsequent investigations discovered that the site was cursed. Each night, a horde of zombie gnolls would attack the fort, and the human zombies would fail to protect it. In the morning, the human zombies would rise again and prepare for that night's attack.
Our heroes found an unfinished letter intended for a jilted bride, and having finished the letter themselves, they gave it to the weeping skeleton. She found closure, and her own personal curse was lifted. Tralamin decided to take the skeleton's dress, and Jarmangle had earlier absconded with another skeleton's cursed mustache.
Feeling they could lift the curse for the entire fort, our heroes decided to prepare themselves for the zombie gnolls. The dwarf Uncle was not so certain, and ran away, rolling himself down the hill upon which the fortress was situated.
Showing posts with label klikslyth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label klikslyth. Show all posts
12.06.2010
9.26.2010
4. Death-Ride to Justice!
In the weeks following the dissolution of the Distaff Temperance Society and the demise of their gambler-patron, the vampire Lord Jasen, the wretched cesspool of Hodam has returned to its potent mix of drinking, gambling, prostitution, and violence. It's not quite as lawless as it used to be-- the newly self-appointed Sherriff Feer and her deputy, the tiefling Jarmangle, have seen to that. And while Hodam's famous brewery is back in business, now under the, uh, unique management of the eladrin warlock Tralamin, the economic damage done by the Distaff Temperance Society is still acutely felt: pubs and inns have no money to buy the brewery's goods, meaning they must do so on credit; likewise, their penniless patrons must have it put on their tab. A vicious cycle that shows no signs of stopping.
Tralamin, taking the advice of the madam Melany, decides it might be advantageous to open trade with other settlements and allow them access to Hodam's famous brew. The arrival of the outlaw Aratin provides an opportunity to do so; claiming to have repented his evil ways, he seeks safe passage to the city of Justice so that he might stand trial for his crimes, and likely be hanged. Enticed by the hefty reward and the possibility of opening trade, Tralamin gathers his friends Feer, Jarmangle, and Robyn. (The wizard Irving is nowhere to be found, or, perhaps, does not desire to be found, given his disagreements with their somewhat lax morals.)
Preparing for the journey
Tralamin puts Melany in charge of the brewery in his absence; Feer and Jarmangle, perhaps unwisely, appoint the developmentally-disabled dwarf Darface as a deputy. Jarmangle suggests that they not only take Aratin and their famous potable to Justice, but also the six best of Hodam's whores. Feer and Jarmangle commandeer two large wagons, one for each of their industries, as well as enough food for the four days journey round-trip. To pull the wagons, they hit up the stables. Inventing a fictitious law about horse-breeding, they threaten the stablemaster until he has surrendered all of his horses. Thus prepared, they head off to Justice.
Cult of the Cloth
As they ride across the dry, barren earth, two bizarre figures begin trailing them on foot. They are shaped vaguely like men, but are covered completely with rags and patches that have been clumsily stitched together. They have no eyes, no mouth-- just vague silhouettes made of cloth. Tralamin and Jarmangle, riding behind the wagons, take note of them, but say nothing, as they're moving much faster than the cloth-men, who are unlikely to catch up.
At least, until a giant beetle appears in front of the wagons. From the scars it carries, Feer and Robyn identify it as the same mother beetle they fought weeks before. Then, they had driven it away from the ailing civilized gnoll. It, too, recognizes them as the creatures that had butchered its two offspring. Enraged, the beetle begins to attack.
The group tries to maneuver around it, but has no luck. As the beetle attacks at the front, the two cloth-men quickly bring up the rear. One wields a powerful wizard's staff, and a bolt of electric power strikes the wagon containing Aratin and the prostitutes he was entertaining himself with. The wagon turns over and the cloth-men close in.
It's soon apparent why, as all of their attacks and movements seem focused on Aratin the moment he leaps from the wreckage. With their mouthless voices, they demand in unison that he surrender "the stone!"
The battle is tense but light on casualties; when one of the cloth-men falls to Tralamin's magicks and Aratin's blows, the one wielding the staff retreats in a puff of smoke. Jarmangle makes several attacks against the she-beetle Klikslyth, but many of his blows do not land or cannot pierce the beetle's tough hide. Feer and Robyn have slightly more luck, and soften the beetle up enough that Jarmangle is able to put out one of its eyes. The beetle is enraged but retreats, leaving our heroes to lick their wounds and investigate the destroyed wagon.
Amazingly, none of the passengers have sustained lasting injury. Room is made in the beer wagon, and they press on-- mindful to give the direction the beetle was headed a wide berth.
The "massacre"
As afternoon gives way to evening, our heroes come across the ruins of three wagons-- the handiwork of gnolls, if the giant turtle-tracks and gnollish markings are to be believed. Aratin, however, reads gnollish and reports that the markings are gibberish; not the work of gnolls, but the work of those seeking to blame them.
Searching one of the wagons alone, Robyn discovers some pieces of familiar-looking egg-shell. It's the same sort of mysterious egg that Jarmangle found in Firepalm. Robyn realizes what sort of creature lies within, and grabs an item necessary to train it. She does not tell Jarmangle this, thinking perhaps he will part with the egg in lieu of paying his monetary debt to her. In the same wagon, she finds an Owlbear Trap, which she gives to Tralamin-- who is eager to capture such a beast, so as to replace the rug he had cloaked himself in but had fallen into a miles-deep pit below the Tomb of Gnollish Kings.
The storm
Carefully examining the environment, Feer realizes that a sand-storm is brewing, and will soon be upon them. The group brings the ruined wagons closer together and herds the horses within. All of them-- the four adventurers, the outlaw, and the six prostitutes-- hold up in the beer wagon. Before the night and the storm come, Jarmangle borrows Tralamin's trap, setting it up outside the wagon as a precautionary measure.
The storm beats against the wagon, threatening to topple it, but it proves steadfast even when filled over capacity. What follows is a long night of drinking and debauchery, with Aratin and Tralamin both availing themselves of multiple prostitutes. Jarmangle, for all his bluster, does not indulge in that particular appetite.
Come the morning (and the hangovers), the group makes a horrific discovery; the sand-storm blew the owlbear trap through the air and into the face of Robyn's horse. Robyn is clearly not pleased, and is even less pleased when Tralamin asks Jarmangle to skin the horse so that he might wear it as he had the owlbear rug. Loathe to let the rest of the horse go to waste, Jarmangle cooks the meat, and the party-- except for Robyn-- consumes it. Now in addition to repaying his monetary debt, Robyn tells Jarmangle that he owes her a new and better steed. She'd be willing to forgive the debt, of course, if he would give her his egg. He refuses.
Fighting with a hangover
Their bickering is cut short by the sudden appearance of a group of human bandits. It turns out that the "massacre" site not only wasn't done by gnolls, but wasn't a massacre at all. Instead, it's a trap meant to lure the curious and altruistic so that these bandits might relieve them of their gold, goods, and lives.
Before they can do so, however, they are killed-- by cloth-men, demanding again that Aratin surrender the stone. Again, they focus their attacks almost exclusively on Aratin, making it relatively easy for the others to pick them off. When all of the cloth-men have been killed, reduced to harmless piles of rags (which Tralamin gathers up, insisting that he will make use of it), the group questions Aratin about these cloth creatures.
Aratin admits that he knows the stone they're after, and that he stole it, but that he doesn't have it on him any longer. He even offers to let the others search him. Tralamin performs a thorough search of Aratin's body but does not find the stone.
Friend to the gnolls
A gnollish huntress comes upon the group and believes that they have killed the human bandits that had defiled her culture to lay their trap. The group does nothing to correct this assumption, and Feer accepts the gnollish longbow that is offered as a token of thanks. "By this bow, you will be recognized as a friend to the gnolls."
Part II
Justice
Towards the end of their second day, our adventurers find themselves in the city of Justice. This walled city is shaped like an "X" and populated by seemingly upstanding, if self-righteous, folks. At the center of the town is a prominent and well-used gallows. They relieve Aratin of his weapons and begin looking for the sherriff. But before he is to be turned in, Aratin excuses himself to heed the call of nature.
Tralamin finds a pub and immediately begins negotiating with its owner with regards to the stocking of Hodam's beer. The pubmaster tries to haggle, even making thinly-vieled attempts to intimidate them, but the group gets him to agree to a fair price. The pubmaster goes inside and returns with a sack full of coin in exchange for exclusive rights to stock Hodam beer in Justice.
As he and his men get to work unloading the wagon, the quartet head to the necessary to check up on Aratin. They find him attempting to crawl out of a window. They prevent him from doing so.
He explains that he hasn't been completely honest with the group. Too many of his fellow outlaws had met their end in Justice, and he wanted a little vengeance. And he had had that stone the Cult of Cloth was after; he had ingested it, not knowing that it served as a sort of homing beacon, calling to them. Now that he was in Justice, he had passed the stone through his bowels. Soon, the Cult of Cloth would be here in full force-- an army of single-minded animates possessing untold destructive power. Aratin would have his revenge on Justice.
The heroes briefly consider coming to the city's defense, but then Robyn discovers that the gold they have been given is fake. The heroes rush to confront the pubmaster, who has unloaded half the wagon. It is about to come to fisticuffs when they see the swarms of cloth on the horizon. They leave the unloaded beer with the pubmaster, pack up the rest of their wares, and flee the town, running over one of the cloth acolytes.
Once they're a safe distance, they watch the carnage as the sun sets over Justice. Aratin bids them farewell, and they head back towards Hodam.
Tralamin, taking the advice of the madam Melany, decides it might be advantageous to open trade with other settlements and allow them access to Hodam's famous brew. The arrival of the outlaw Aratin provides an opportunity to do so; claiming to have repented his evil ways, he seeks safe passage to the city of Justice so that he might stand trial for his crimes, and likely be hanged. Enticed by the hefty reward and the possibility of opening trade, Tralamin gathers his friends Feer, Jarmangle, and Robyn. (The wizard Irving is nowhere to be found, or, perhaps, does not desire to be found, given his disagreements with their somewhat lax morals.)
Preparing for the journey
Tralamin puts Melany in charge of the brewery in his absence; Feer and Jarmangle, perhaps unwisely, appoint the developmentally-disabled dwarf Darface as a deputy. Jarmangle suggests that they not only take Aratin and their famous potable to Justice, but also the six best of Hodam's whores. Feer and Jarmangle commandeer two large wagons, one for each of their industries, as well as enough food for the four days journey round-trip. To pull the wagons, they hit up the stables. Inventing a fictitious law about horse-breeding, they threaten the stablemaster until he has surrendered all of his horses. Thus prepared, they head off to Justice.
Cult of the Cloth
As they ride across the dry, barren earth, two bizarre figures begin trailing them on foot. They are shaped vaguely like men, but are covered completely with rags and patches that have been clumsily stitched together. They have no eyes, no mouth-- just vague silhouettes made of cloth. Tralamin and Jarmangle, riding behind the wagons, take note of them, but say nothing, as they're moving much faster than the cloth-men, who are unlikely to catch up.
At least, until a giant beetle appears in front of the wagons. From the scars it carries, Feer and Robyn identify it as the same mother beetle they fought weeks before. Then, they had driven it away from the ailing civilized gnoll. It, too, recognizes them as the creatures that had butchered its two offspring. Enraged, the beetle begins to attack.
The group tries to maneuver around it, but has no luck. As the beetle attacks at the front, the two cloth-men quickly bring up the rear. One wields a powerful wizard's staff, and a bolt of electric power strikes the wagon containing Aratin and the prostitutes he was entertaining himself with. The wagon turns over and the cloth-men close in.
It's soon apparent why, as all of their attacks and movements seem focused on Aratin the moment he leaps from the wreckage. With their mouthless voices, they demand in unison that he surrender "the stone!"
The battle is tense but light on casualties; when one of the cloth-men falls to Tralamin's magicks and Aratin's blows, the one wielding the staff retreats in a puff of smoke. Jarmangle makes several attacks against the she-beetle Klikslyth, but many of his blows do not land or cannot pierce the beetle's tough hide. Feer and Robyn have slightly more luck, and soften the beetle up enough that Jarmangle is able to put out one of its eyes. The beetle is enraged but retreats, leaving our heroes to lick their wounds and investigate the destroyed wagon.
Amazingly, none of the passengers have sustained lasting injury. Room is made in the beer wagon, and they press on-- mindful to give the direction the beetle was headed a wide berth.
The "massacre"
As afternoon gives way to evening, our heroes come across the ruins of three wagons-- the handiwork of gnolls, if the giant turtle-tracks and gnollish markings are to be believed. Aratin, however, reads gnollish and reports that the markings are gibberish; not the work of gnolls, but the work of those seeking to blame them.
Searching one of the wagons alone, Robyn discovers some pieces of familiar-looking egg-shell. It's the same sort of mysterious egg that Jarmangle found in Firepalm. Robyn realizes what sort of creature lies within, and grabs an item necessary to train it. She does not tell Jarmangle this, thinking perhaps he will part with the egg in lieu of paying his monetary debt to her. In the same wagon, she finds an Owlbear Trap, which she gives to Tralamin-- who is eager to capture such a beast, so as to replace the rug he had cloaked himself in but had fallen into a miles-deep pit below the Tomb of Gnollish Kings.
The storm
Carefully examining the environment, Feer realizes that a sand-storm is brewing, and will soon be upon them. The group brings the ruined wagons closer together and herds the horses within. All of them-- the four adventurers, the outlaw, and the six prostitutes-- hold up in the beer wagon. Before the night and the storm come, Jarmangle borrows Tralamin's trap, setting it up outside the wagon as a precautionary measure.
The storm beats against the wagon, threatening to topple it, but it proves steadfast even when filled over capacity. What follows is a long night of drinking and debauchery, with Aratin and Tralamin both availing themselves of multiple prostitutes. Jarmangle, for all his bluster, does not indulge in that particular appetite.
Come the morning (and the hangovers), the group makes a horrific discovery; the sand-storm blew the owlbear trap through the air and into the face of Robyn's horse. Robyn is clearly not pleased, and is even less pleased when Tralamin asks Jarmangle to skin the horse so that he might wear it as he had the owlbear rug. Loathe to let the rest of the horse go to waste, Jarmangle cooks the meat, and the party-- except for Robyn-- consumes it. Now in addition to repaying his monetary debt, Robyn tells Jarmangle that he owes her a new and better steed. She'd be willing to forgive the debt, of course, if he would give her his egg. He refuses.
Fighting with a hangover
Their bickering is cut short by the sudden appearance of a group of human bandits. It turns out that the "massacre" site not only wasn't done by gnolls, but wasn't a massacre at all. Instead, it's a trap meant to lure the curious and altruistic so that these bandits might relieve them of their gold, goods, and lives.
Before they can do so, however, they are killed-- by cloth-men, demanding again that Aratin surrender the stone. Again, they focus their attacks almost exclusively on Aratin, making it relatively easy for the others to pick them off. When all of the cloth-men have been killed, reduced to harmless piles of rags (which Tralamin gathers up, insisting that he will make use of it), the group questions Aratin about these cloth creatures.
Aratin admits that he knows the stone they're after, and that he stole it, but that he doesn't have it on him any longer. He even offers to let the others search him. Tralamin performs a thorough search of Aratin's body but does not find the stone.
Friend to the gnolls
A gnollish huntress comes upon the group and believes that they have killed the human bandits that had defiled her culture to lay their trap. The group does nothing to correct this assumption, and Feer accepts the gnollish longbow that is offered as a token of thanks. "By this bow, you will be recognized as a friend to the gnolls."
Part II
Justice
Towards the end of their second day, our adventurers find themselves in the city of Justice. This walled city is shaped like an "X" and populated by seemingly upstanding, if self-righteous, folks. At the center of the town is a prominent and well-used gallows. They relieve Aratin of his weapons and begin looking for the sherriff. But before he is to be turned in, Aratin excuses himself to heed the call of nature.
Tralamin finds a pub and immediately begins negotiating with its owner with regards to the stocking of Hodam's beer. The pubmaster tries to haggle, even making thinly-vieled attempts to intimidate them, but the group gets him to agree to a fair price. The pubmaster goes inside and returns with a sack full of coin in exchange for exclusive rights to stock Hodam beer in Justice.
As he and his men get to work unloading the wagon, the quartet head to the necessary to check up on Aratin. They find him attempting to crawl out of a window. They prevent him from doing so.
He explains that he hasn't been completely honest with the group. Too many of his fellow outlaws had met their end in Justice, and he wanted a little vengeance. And he had had that stone the Cult of Cloth was after; he had ingested it, not knowing that it served as a sort of homing beacon, calling to them. Now that he was in Justice, he had passed the stone through his bowels. Soon, the Cult of Cloth would be here in full force-- an army of single-minded animates possessing untold destructive power. Aratin would have his revenge on Justice.
The heroes briefly consider coming to the city's defense, but then Robyn discovers that the gold they have been given is fake. The heroes rush to confront the pubmaster, who has unloaded half the wagon. It is about to come to fisticuffs when they see the swarms of cloth on the horizon. They leave the unloaded beer with the pubmaster, pack up the rest of their wares, and flee the town, running over one of the cloth acolytes.
Once they're a safe distance, they watch the carnage as the sun sets over Justice. Aratin bids them farewell, and they head back towards Hodam.
8.29.2010
2. The Secret of Steampunk Gnoll
Having fled the town of Firepalm in the middle of the night and made camp en route to the notorious city of Hodam, our adventurers awaken to discover, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the sociopathic elf Kylia has left-- taking with her all their food and gold. With a steely nerve that belies his usual calm, the wizard Irving volunteers to "deal with the situation", and that he'll meet the others in Hodam.
The remaining five break camp and start in just that direction when they spot two figures in the distance, engaged in a duel: crossbows at twenty paces. Both of them are dressed in the finest style of the East; one is a human and a stranger to them. One is known to them, and a gnoll-- the very same gnoll who offered some cryptic advice in the Firepalm Mine.
The human fires first, and his bolt goes straight through the gnoll. The gnoll's body shakes and quivers, and then he straightens his arm and unloads his own shot directly into the man's brainpan. The human falls stone dead; the gnoll crumples to the ground in agony.
First Aid
While the others rush to the side of the gnoll, Jarmangle-- perhaps being less trusting-- goes to the human body.
Feer uses her expertise in the art of healing to remove the arrow: first, she sits the gnoll up, then she sets the front end of the arrow aflame, then she grasps the back end and pulls it through, cauterizing the wound. The gnoll is thankful, but the ordeal is not over; Jarmangle, having examined the crossbow, determines that it is laced with a deadly venom.
The gnoll explains that he and the human, Edward, were engaged in a duel of honour, and that there is bound to be an anti-venom in human's home. He knows the way, but will have to be carried.
Suddenly, there is a terrible rending noise; they look to where the human's body once lay and see that he has been devoured by a hideous fire beetle. It is flanked on the left by another fire beetle, and on the right by a larger, older she-beetle.
A battle ensues, and the five adventurers manage to protect the ailing gnoll from the sharp pincers and deadly spray of the attacking carrion. They kill the two fire beetles, but the she-beetle Klikslyth-- the survivor of many battles in the past-- scurries off to fight another day.
Cracking open the shell of one of the fire beetles, Filliam constructs a makeshift stretcher for the gnoll. Somewhat beguiled by gnolls in general, and this very modern gnoll in particular, Filliam seems unusually concerned for its well-being.
The House of Wonders
Filliam and the others take the gnoll upstairs to the bedroom so that he might rest while they search for an anti-venom. Filliam elects to keep watch over the gnoll while the others explore the house.
There are many queer things to be found in this house: a violin mounted on a shield with a blade that doubles as a bow (perfect for a bard like Robyn!); a mechanical box that keeps food from spoiling, and another that modulates the temperature of the room; a library full of books and a machine that can duplicate them. Some are less enraptured with these wonders than others; Tralamin, for his part, is mostly interested in an owlbear rug, which he appropriates, despite its ungainly bulk, as a cloak.
In the kitchen, Feer and Robyn find two baby ferrets rummaging in the cupboards; Feer having been especially desirous of a pet is quick to adopt the baby. Feer also finds a book on gnolls in the library; written by an Easterner, it's bound to be a little condescending and inaccurate, but she figures it will provide a solid-enough grounding in the customs and history of the gnollish tribes.
In the cellar, Jarmangle finds a strange metal puppet. At first, he mistakes it for a Warforged, but Tralamin-- an astute student of history no matter how much else he gets wrong-- determines that it can't be a war-forged. It might be something else entirely, some sort of lifeless "steam golem".
They also discover three vials of unidentified anti-venom. Jarmangle compares them to the venom found in the human's crossbow, but cannot find a match. Robyn consults one of the books in the library and determines that the venom in the bow is actually a mixture of three venoms, and that mixing the three vials would create an antidote.
However, when it comes time to administer this antidote, she misreads a crucial passage and-- to the disbelief of the others-- injects the antidote directly into the gnoll's skull. Knowing that his time left on this earth is short-- and lamenting having been so cryptic in the mine-- he asks that his body be buried with the Gnoll Holy Dead, some miles west of the Firepalm Mine. The group agrees, and watches, sad and curious, as he drifts away.
The Steampunk Gnoll is dead, and his secret died with him.
Part II
Funeral For a Stranger
They arrive at the burial grounds of the Gnoll Holy Dead at dusk. They create a plot and gently lay the gnoll's body to rest. They feel a need to say a few words, but no one has much to say about this figure that came into their lives, and left it, so abruptly.
Tralamin finds himself drawn to the massive Tomb of Gnollish Kings and, perhaps unwisely, suggests that they investigate it. Jarmangle, always ready for adventure and/or sacrilege, is up for it; Filliam is appalled but his curiosity about all things gnollish gets the better of him. The quintet decides to go in as a group.
Legend of The Three Gnollish Kings
Using her book of gnollish history, Feer explains that this tomb is supposed to hold three legendary tribal leaders, akin to Eastern kings: the King of Peace, the King of War, and the King of What Will Be. Legend says that the three kings died voluntarily on this spot to seal up a great evil; when the time has come to destroy that evil once and for all, the two lesser kings will rise from the dead and awaken the King of What Will Be.
Pressing forward into the tomb, they come into a great alabaster hall. There is a hallway bearing off on either side, and a massive door on the other end, with two thrones each facing a hand-crank. These cranks are too heavy to be moved by their hands, and Jarmangle intuits that this great evil might be on the other side. The group decides instead to investigate the two hallways bearing off from the great hall, starting with the one on the left.
The Chambers of Peace
They come to a room with a massive pit, some thirty feet across and miles deep. On the other side, there is a door from which emanates impossibly bright light. The doorway behind them is suddenly blocked by a massive stone door, and they realize they have no choice but to cross.
Jarmangle winks at Robyn (much to her apathy) before breaking out his grappling hook. He whirls it above his head and tosses it clear across the chasm, finding delicate purchase in the stone floor. Filliam elects to go first, moving hand-over-hand across the way. Once he reaches the other side, he unhooks the grapple and ties it more securely to a chunk of rock jutting out of the ground. Feer is next, and she passes without trouble.
Tralamin, however, is another story. He refuses to remove his heavy owlbear rug cloak and very nearly falls to his death. Robyn and Jarmangle are unable to keep their end of the rope, and Tralamin swings over to the other end of the chasm. The others beg him to drop the owlbear, but again he refuses. Irritated, Filliam and Feer grab hold of the rope and hoist the obstinate Eladrin warlock upwards.
They toss the dangling end of the rope to Jarmangle and make sure the grapple is fixed securely. Without warning, and much to her dismay, Jarmangle circles Robyn's supple waist with his arm, grips the robe, and jumps out into the chasm.
He slams into the wall, losing his grip on her waist. At the last second, Robyn grabs hold of his ankles. Not willing to listen to his excuses or to put her life further at risk, she tries to climb over him; she slips and now only has one hand gripping on one ankle. Thankfully, the others are able to hoist them up to safety.
Jarmangle gives Robyn the eye, but she is not amused. Attempting to prove his bravery, he marches towards the bright light, only to find his arm catching on holy fire. It is a holy place, and though it brings the others peace, it is forbidden for a tiefling.
The other enter the room, and find not a gnollish king, but the incorruptible corpse of a gnollish queen. Serene in repose, she fills them with a sense of calm. Tralamin, relying on his "Eladrin senses" and "holistic training" claims that this must be the tomb of the Queen of War. Robyn looks to the others and shakes her head.
They notice that her body rests on a sort of pressure plate, and that the gnollish queen holds a scepter. Feer shouts out to Jarmangle, knowing that he possesses a Charm of Nebulous Shape and Size that can be switched with any small object and fool the owner unless they inspect it closely. Jarmangle tosses it in, and Feer exchanges it for the scepter.
However, the scepter has no living owner, and the pressure plate is not fooled. Fortunately, it is not a trap but quite the opposite; the weight of the holy scepter having been removed, the floors of the adjacent room have moved just a smidgen closer together. Jarmangle alerts the group to this, and after a brief and tense discussion, they remove the body from the plate. The floor closes over the chasm completely, and the stone door cranks back up from the doorway.
They return from the hall, and place the gnollish queen on one of the two thrones. Then, they move into the next room.
The Chambers of War
The next room is much like the one in the other wing-- same dimensions, same door with light peering out on the other end-- only there is no pit. But as soon as they enter, heavy stone doors slide over both openings, and those two walls begin to move towards one another. Within but five minutes, they will be smashed between them.
Noticing the crackled tile on the floor, Jarmangle immediately sets to work trying to pry it up. He discovers, to his horror, that underneath the thin floor is another miles deep pit. They can't go down to get out of this one.
But maybe they can go up? Tralamin notices that the ceiling is about a foot higher than the moving walls. Jarmangle grabs his grapple and attaches it to the top of one of the moving walls. He starts to climb up it, but the rumbling walls unsteady his balance and he falls on his back. The tiles make a sickening crackling sound; the moving walls is too much stress for them, they will not hold.
Robyn doesn't even bother to wait for Jarmangle to get up; stepping right over him (much to his delight), she too attempts to climb the grapple, and she, too, falls (ditto). Tralamin then suggests that they form a "human", or, more accurately, a "human-elf-tiefling-eladrin" ladder, each one on top of another's shoulders. It's a goofy idea, but it seems to work: first Feer, then Filliam, then Robyn, then Jarmangle all get up successfully, leaving Tralamin to try his luck with the rope and grapple.
Feer and the others discover that the moving wall isn't solid, but rather a plate being moved by a sort of piston. Assured of safety on the other side, Tralamin starts climbing the rope. His owlbear rug again proves to be a problem, and it appears time is running out: only desperate seconds remain before he's destined to become a red stain. Convinced of the seriousness of the situation, he reluctantly casts off the heavy owlbear rug and shimmies up the rope. He seems quite despondent.
Just before the walls are about to close in, Jarmangle leaps back down after the owlbear rug. The floor directly beneath him at last gives way, and the walls smash together with a heavy thud.
Jarmangle, however, is still alive. He's hanging on for dear life to the last tendrils of rope from what used to be his grappling line. The others, peering over the newly-created pit from the other side, toss him a line, which he catches with his feet. Always the show-off, Jarmangle does a backwards flip and then shimmies up the rope.
The first thing he does is give another one of his looks at Robyn; she is still quite unimpressed. Tralamin, for his part, is rather miffed that after all that, Jarmangle failed to rescue his owlbear "cloak".
The elf and the eladrin now attempt to enter the actual tomb, but finds that it gives them the same burning sensation that the previous one gave to Jarmangle. (This confuses Tralamin, who still maintains that the first chamber was of War, and so why would the chamber of peace be unholy to elves and eladrin?) Jarmangle enters the tomb, and finds the Gnollish King of War there, resting, his body incorruptible, much like the queen, on a pressure plate. Instead of a scepter, he holds a cursed sword. Jarmangle pilfers the sword for himself, and instantly discovers a strange bond with it, almost as if the thing itself were alive.
He picks up the king's body; the pressure plate rises up, and a secret doorway opens in the room with the others. They move through the doorway and find themselves back in the main room, where they place the king on the second throne.
Suddenly, and of their own volition, the two cranks begin to turn, and the door rises up.
The Empty Tomb
There is a pressure plate in this third tomb, but there is no king there, no sign that a king had ever been there, and no relic, be it holy or unholy. What the room does contain, however, is an ancient door, exactly like the one they found in the Firepalm Mine. His ritual stone glowing, Tralamin rightly intuits that this is what he was being drawn to. They have another piece of the puzzle, but still do not possess the knowledge and experience necessary to put it together.
Before they leave, just for the hell of it, Jarmangle jumps on the pressure plate-- and is quickly struck with four arrows that fly out from the walls. They are only flesh wounds, and after a moment he feels almost as good as new.
Filliam suggests that they depress the plate again, to see if it serves any other purpose. He asks Feer and Robyn if either would place their ferret on the plate. Both are horrified. He is quick to assure them that he values the lives of ferrets, but not as much as the lives of the civilized races.
Fire Dwarfs Redux
As they exit the tomb, they find themselves surrounded by a group of insane fire dwarfs-- and one buxom tiefling, who catches Jarmangle's roving eye. The tiefling appears to be working with the crazed fire dwarfs, and Tralamin-- showing his usual firm grasp on the exact opposite of what's going on-- solemnly declares that the dwarfs are there coincidentally, and that there's no way that they, too, could be drawn to the ancient door inside the crypt.
A battle ensues, and though these dwarfs are as simple-minded as their brethren from the mine, they prove much more dangerous when not trapped on small islands surrounded by water. The battle is fierce and hard-fought-- perhaps made more so by the tactics of the female tiefling, who Jarmangle, perhaps unwisely, does not engage in combat. Indeed, even when she attacks him, he persists in making passes at her. Whether or not this bothers Robyn was not a question anyone concerned themselves with, as they were, indeed, fighting for their lives.
But as the tide of battle turned, and the fire dwarfs started to dwindle in number, the tiefling temptress made a run for it. Without her keen assistance, the remaining dwarfs were quickly routed and defeated.
Denouement
Our heroes decided to continue to Hodam, so that they might meet up with Irving. Filliam, however, displayed hesitance, and announced that he was thinking instead of taking up residence in the house of wonders-- to study its mechanisms, read at his leisure the books in its library, and perhaps even to attempt the resurrection of the strange "steam golem" that lay forlorn in its cellar.
The remaining five break camp and start in just that direction when they spot two figures in the distance, engaged in a duel: crossbows at twenty paces. Both of them are dressed in the finest style of the East; one is a human and a stranger to them. One is known to them, and a gnoll-- the very same gnoll who offered some cryptic advice in the Firepalm Mine.
The human fires first, and his bolt goes straight through the gnoll. The gnoll's body shakes and quivers, and then he straightens his arm and unloads his own shot directly into the man's brainpan. The human falls stone dead; the gnoll crumples to the ground in agony.
First Aid
While the others rush to the side of the gnoll, Jarmangle-- perhaps being less trusting-- goes to the human body.
Feer uses her expertise in the art of healing to remove the arrow: first, she sits the gnoll up, then she sets the front end of the arrow aflame, then she grasps the back end and pulls it through, cauterizing the wound. The gnoll is thankful, but the ordeal is not over; Jarmangle, having examined the crossbow, determines that it is laced with a deadly venom.
The gnoll explains that he and the human, Edward, were engaged in a duel of honour, and that there is bound to be an anti-venom in human's home. He knows the way, but will have to be carried.
Suddenly, there is a terrible rending noise; they look to where the human's body once lay and see that he has been devoured by a hideous fire beetle. It is flanked on the left by another fire beetle, and on the right by a larger, older she-beetle.
A battle ensues, and the five adventurers manage to protect the ailing gnoll from the sharp pincers and deadly spray of the attacking carrion. They kill the two fire beetles, but the she-beetle Klikslyth-- the survivor of many battles in the past-- scurries off to fight another day.
Cracking open the shell of one of the fire beetles, Filliam constructs a makeshift stretcher for the gnoll. Somewhat beguiled by gnolls in general, and this very modern gnoll in particular, Filliam seems unusually concerned for its well-being.
The House of Wonders
Filliam and the others take the gnoll upstairs to the bedroom so that he might rest while they search for an anti-venom. Filliam elects to keep watch over the gnoll while the others explore the house.
There are many queer things to be found in this house: a violin mounted on a shield with a blade that doubles as a bow (perfect for a bard like Robyn!); a mechanical box that keeps food from spoiling, and another that modulates the temperature of the room; a library full of books and a machine that can duplicate them. Some are less enraptured with these wonders than others; Tralamin, for his part, is mostly interested in an owlbear rug, which he appropriates, despite its ungainly bulk, as a cloak.
In the kitchen, Feer and Robyn find two baby ferrets rummaging in the cupboards; Feer having been especially desirous of a pet is quick to adopt the baby. Feer also finds a book on gnolls in the library; written by an Easterner, it's bound to be a little condescending and inaccurate, but she figures it will provide a solid-enough grounding in the customs and history of the gnollish tribes.
In the cellar, Jarmangle finds a strange metal puppet. At first, he mistakes it for a Warforged, but Tralamin-- an astute student of history no matter how much else he gets wrong-- determines that it can't be a war-forged. It might be something else entirely, some sort of lifeless "steam golem".
They also discover three vials of unidentified anti-venom. Jarmangle compares them to the venom found in the human's crossbow, but cannot find a match. Robyn consults one of the books in the library and determines that the venom in the bow is actually a mixture of three venoms, and that mixing the three vials would create an antidote.
However, when it comes time to administer this antidote, she misreads a crucial passage and-- to the disbelief of the others-- injects the antidote directly into the gnoll's skull. Knowing that his time left on this earth is short-- and lamenting having been so cryptic in the mine-- he asks that his body be buried with the Gnoll Holy Dead, some miles west of the Firepalm Mine. The group agrees, and watches, sad and curious, as he drifts away.
The Steampunk Gnoll is dead, and his secret died with him.
Part II
Funeral For a Stranger
They arrive at the burial grounds of the Gnoll Holy Dead at dusk. They create a plot and gently lay the gnoll's body to rest. They feel a need to say a few words, but no one has much to say about this figure that came into their lives, and left it, so abruptly.
Tralamin finds himself drawn to the massive Tomb of Gnollish Kings and, perhaps unwisely, suggests that they investigate it. Jarmangle, always ready for adventure and/or sacrilege, is up for it; Filliam is appalled but his curiosity about all things gnollish gets the better of him. The quintet decides to go in as a group.
Legend of The Three Gnollish Kings
Using her book of gnollish history, Feer explains that this tomb is supposed to hold three legendary tribal leaders, akin to Eastern kings: the King of Peace, the King of War, and the King of What Will Be. Legend says that the three kings died voluntarily on this spot to seal up a great evil; when the time has come to destroy that evil once and for all, the two lesser kings will rise from the dead and awaken the King of What Will Be.
Pressing forward into the tomb, they come into a great alabaster hall. There is a hallway bearing off on either side, and a massive door on the other end, with two thrones each facing a hand-crank. These cranks are too heavy to be moved by their hands, and Jarmangle intuits that this great evil might be on the other side. The group decides instead to investigate the two hallways bearing off from the great hall, starting with the one on the left.
The Chambers of Peace
They come to a room with a massive pit, some thirty feet across and miles deep. On the other side, there is a door from which emanates impossibly bright light. The doorway behind them is suddenly blocked by a massive stone door, and they realize they have no choice but to cross.
Jarmangle winks at Robyn (much to her apathy) before breaking out his grappling hook. He whirls it above his head and tosses it clear across the chasm, finding delicate purchase in the stone floor. Filliam elects to go first, moving hand-over-hand across the way. Once he reaches the other side, he unhooks the grapple and ties it more securely to a chunk of rock jutting out of the ground. Feer is next, and she passes without trouble.
Tralamin, however, is another story. He refuses to remove his heavy owlbear rug cloak and very nearly falls to his death. Robyn and Jarmangle are unable to keep their end of the rope, and Tralamin swings over to the other end of the chasm. The others beg him to drop the owlbear, but again he refuses. Irritated, Filliam and Feer grab hold of the rope and hoist the obstinate Eladrin warlock upwards.
They toss the dangling end of the rope to Jarmangle and make sure the grapple is fixed securely. Without warning, and much to her dismay, Jarmangle circles Robyn's supple waist with his arm, grips the robe, and jumps out into the chasm.
He slams into the wall, losing his grip on her waist. At the last second, Robyn grabs hold of his ankles. Not willing to listen to his excuses or to put her life further at risk, she tries to climb over him; she slips and now only has one hand gripping on one ankle. Thankfully, the others are able to hoist them up to safety.
Jarmangle gives Robyn the eye, but she is not amused. Attempting to prove his bravery, he marches towards the bright light, only to find his arm catching on holy fire. It is a holy place, and though it brings the others peace, it is forbidden for a tiefling.
The other enter the room, and find not a gnollish king, but the incorruptible corpse of a gnollish queen. Serene in repose, she fills them with a sense of calm. Tralamin, relying on his "Eladrin senses" and "holistic training" claims that this must be the tomb of the Queen of War. Robyn looks to the others and shakes her head.
They notice that her body rests on a sort of pressure plate, and that the gnollish queen holds a scepter. Feer shouts out to Jarmangle, knowing that he possesses a Charm of Nebulous Shape and Size that can be switched with any small object and fool the owner unless they inspect it closely. Jarmangle tosses it in, and Feer exchanges it for the scepter.
However, the scepter has no living owner, and the pressure plate is not fooled. Fortunately, it is not a trap but quite the opposite; the weight of the holy scepter having been removed, the floors of the adjacent room have moved just a smidgen closer together. Jarmangle alerts the group to this, and after a brief and tense discussion, they remove the body from the plate. The floor closes over the chasm completely, and the stone door cranks back up from the doorway.
They return from the hall, and place the gnollish queen on one of the two thrones. Then, they move into the next room.
The Chambers of War
The next room is much like the one in the other wing-- same dimensions, same door with light peering out on the other end-- only there is no pit. But as soon as they enter, heavy stone doors slide over both openings, and those two walls begin to move towards one another. Within but five minutes, they will be smashed between them.
Noticing the crackled tile on the floor, Jarmangle immediately sets to work trying to pry it up. He discovers, to his horror, that underneath the thin floor is another miles deep pit. They can't go down to get out of this one.
But maybe they can go up? Tralamin notices that the ceiling is about a foot higher than the moving walls. Jarmangle grabs his grapple and attaches it to the top of one of the moving walls. He starts to climb up it, but the rumbling walls unsteady his balance and he falls on his back. The tiles make a sickening crackling sound; the moving walls is too much stress for them, they will not hold.
Robyn doesn't even bother to wait for Jarmangle to get up; stepping right over him (much to his delight), she too attempts to climb the grapple, and she, too, falls (ditto). Tralamin then suggests that they form a "human", or, more accurately, a "human-elf-tiefling-eladrin" ladder, each one on top of another's shoulders. It's a goofy idea, but it seems to work: first Feer, then Filliam, then Robyn, then Jarmangle all get up successfully, leaving Tralamin to try his luck with the rope and grapple.
Feer and the others discover that the moving wall isn't solid, but rather a plate being moved by a sort of piston. Assured of safety on the other side, Tralamin starts climbing the rope. His owlbear rug again proves to be a problem, and it appears time is running out: only desperate seconds remain before he's destined to become a red stain. Convinced of the seriousness of the situation, he reluctantly casts off the heavy owlbear rug and shimmies up the rope. He seems quite despondent.
Just before the walls are about to close in, Jarmangle leaps back down after the owlbear rug. The floor directly beneath him at last gives way, and the walls smash together with a heavy thud.
Jarmangle, however, is still alive. He's hanging on for dear life to the last tendrils of rope from what used to be his grappling line. The others, peering over the newly-created pit from the other side, toss him a line, which he catches with his feet. Always the show-off, Jarmangle does a backwards flip and then shimmies up the rope.
The first thing he does is give another one of his looks at Robyn; she is still quite unimpressed. Tralamin, for his part, is rather miffed that after all that, Jarmangle failed to rescue his owlbear "cloak".
The elf and the eladrin now attempt to enter the actual tomb, but finds that it gives them the same burning sensation that the previous one gave to Jarmangle. (This confuses Tralamin, who still maintains that the first chamber was of War, and so why would the chamber of peace be unholy to elves and eladrin?) Jarmangle enters the tomb, and finds the Gnollish King of War there, resting, his body incorruptible, much like the queen, on a pressure plate. Instead of a scepter, he holds a cursed sword. Jarmangle pilfers the sword for himself, and instantly discovers a strange bond with it, almost as if the thing itself were alive.
He picks up the king's body; the pressure plate rises up, and a secret doorway opens in the room with the others. They move through the doorway and find themselves back in the main room, where they place the king on the second throne.
Suddenly, and of their own volition, the two cranks begin to turn, and the door rises up.
The Empty Tomb
There is a pressure plate in this third tomb, but there is no king there, no sign that a king had ever been there, and no relic, be it holy or unholy. What the room does contain, however, is an ancient door, exactly like the one they found in the Firepalm Mine. His ritual stone glowing, Tralamin rightly intuits that this is what he was being drawn to. They have another piece of the puzzle, but still do not possess the knowledge and experience necessary to put it together.
Before they leave, just for the hell of it, Jarmangle jumps on the pressure plate-- and is quickly struck with four arrows that fly out from the walls. They are only flesh wounds, and after a moment he feels almost as good as new.
Filliam suggests that they depress the plate again, to see if it serves any other purpose. He asks Feer and Robyn if either would place their ferret on the plate. Both are horrified. He is quick to assure them that he values the lives of ferrets, but not as much as the lives of the civilized races.
Fire Dwarfs Redux
As they exit the tomb, they find themselves surrounded by a group of insane fire dwarfs-- and one buxom tiefling, who catches Jarmangle's roving eye. The tiefling appears to be working with the crazed fire dwarfs, and Tralamin-- showing his usual firm grasp on the exact opposite of what's going on-- solemnly declares that the dwarfs are there coincidentally, and that there's no way that they, too, could be drawn to the ancient door inside the crypt.
A battle ensues, and though these dwarfs are as simple-minded as their brethren from the mine, they prove much more dangerous when not trapped on small islands surrounded by water. The battle is fierce and hard-fought-- perhaps made more so by the tactics of the female tiefling, who Jarmangle, perhaps unwisely, does not engage in combat. Indeed, even when she attacks him, he persists in making passes at her. Whether or not this bothers Robyn was not a question anyone concerned themselves with, as they were, indeed, fighting for their lives.
But as the tide of battle turned, and the fire dwarfs started to dwindle in number, the tiefling temptress made a run for it. Without her keen assistance, the remaining dwarfs were quickly routed and defeated.
Denouement
Our heroes decided to continue to Hodam, so that they might meet up with Irving. Filliam, however, displayed hesitance, and announced that he was thinking instead of taking up residence in the house of wonders-- to study its mechanisms, read at his leisure the books in its library, and perhaps even to attempt the resurrection of the strange "steam golem" that lay forlorn in its cellar.
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