Session 12:  "The Troll and the Basilisk”; Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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Cast of Characters:

Celceor The Wise; Elf Mage (Dave M.)

Nick; human rogue (Dave P.)

Wryan O’Malley; Human fighter (Kevin)

Bent Bullswaggit; Dwarf Mage/Bard (Brook)

Fafnir; Human Barbarian (Jon C.)

Werkle of Dinnsmere; Dwarf Fighter (Al)

Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood; Human Cleric (NPC)

Skwortch; Goblin (NPC)

Keygan Ghelve; Gnome Expert/Illusionist (NPC)

10 other various former slaves

12-13^th of the month of Ches

As last session ended, the adventurers had been struggling up long and labyrinthine underground tunnels, fighting blood sucking stirges and giant spiders and just seeking to stay alive. They had just entered a large, chimney-like cave room, 100 feet in diameter and of unknown height. A strong cold breeze blew down from the north end of the cave wall where they could see crystal formations and ledges that might constitute suitable handholds for climbing. Celceor had sent his familiar, the owl Rune, up to scout above and see how high the cliff might be. As they waited, Rune suddenly reappeared, in a dead-drop plummet, spreading his wings to soar across the cavern to warn his master. Given their empathic connection, it was made clear to the elf, Celceor, that Rune was saying there was danger above and it was coming down fast.

Before they could react, two gigantic bats, with wingspans 10 or more feet swooped down from the darkness above. One seized a hapless slave and cut the poor soul in half with a single bite of it’s razor sharp teeth, swooping off across the cavern and out of reach. Another took a chunk out of the dwarf, Bent Bullswaggit.

The bats would swoop down, deliver a devastating bite, and then swoop up again out of reach. Nick and Wryan helped herd the slaves over to the tunnel they had just entered, hoping that without the high ceilings the bats would be unable to attack. Celceor threw a Scorching Ray at one while Eggo cast Bless on the group. Fafnir attempted to leap on one of the bats and wrestle it down. Bent blasted another with a ray of enfeeblement.

Skwortch the goblin and Nick hid in the tunnel as the rest of the group of former slaves ran down the tunnel, away from the bats. After a melee with many spells hurled and blows exchanged, the barbarian, in a rage, cut one of the monstrous bats in two while magic fiery missiles from Celceor’s fingertips blasted the other one out of the air. The group was bloodied and exhausted but still alive.

The rescued slaves were reassembled and Eggo doled out what meager healing he could and the group piled a cairn of stones over the remains of the dead slave, a former struggling shoemaker named Jennath Sirlana, while Eggo said a few words of comfort.

The group agreed that climbing the cliff before them looked like suicide. Searching the foot of the cliff, they found the long dead bones on a dwarf in chains who appeared to have fallen to his death from above long ago. A thorough search revealed a secret door, which, upon being opened, revealed a small rough stone chamber, long unused, in which a large basket, big enough for several passengers, stood. A thick hemp rope was fastened to a framework on the basket and led up into the darkness. It was apparently some kind of crude elevator, but how did it work? Despite searching high and low, they could find no crank, lever, counterweight or other mechanism to make the basket rise. A thorough inspection of the rope indicate that it was quite old and would probably not bear as much weight as it once had. Nick suggested that only 2 people (or three small people) should ride in the basket at a time, assuming that they could figure out how to use it.

They returned to the main cliff cavern and searched again, looking everywhere for another secret door or a clue as to how to get the elevator to work. Nick found a small silver ring with a blue stone in a crack in the floor that detected of transmutation magic. He put it on and began to experiment by shouting ‘fly!’ and attempting to hold his breath and turn invisible, etc. None seemed to help. Finally he climbed about ten feet up the cliff face and leapt off, attempting to see if it was a ring that would allow him to fly or float. To his surprise, he shot away from the wall like a cricket; the ring was a ring of jumping! Unfortunately, he was still ten feet up in the air… he landed hard, injuring his leg.

Finally they formulated a plan. They tied two fifty foot ropes together to make a 100 foot rope and tied an iron hook onto one end. A magical spell was cast on the hook to make it shine like a lantern. Celceor cast a summoning spell and opened a hole in null-space. A celestial monkey, dressed in a bellhop uniform complete with pillbox hat and gold braid, stepped through and said, “Hello! I am Mister Chips! Do you have any bananas? No? Fruit of any kind? No? A pity. Well, how can I help you today?” Celceor indicated the rope and hook and asked Mister Chips to climb 100 feet up the cliff and fasten the hook firmly. “Easy peasey!” said Mister Chips and he scampered up the cliff, fastened the lighted hook to a handy stalagmite and then disappeared back into whatever dimension he came from with a pop.

After testing the rope with a firm tug, Celceor and Wryan climbed up to the hook, 100 feet off the floor. Balancing on a handy but narrow ledge, Celceor once again cast his summoning spell and once again the extra-dimensional hole opened up and Mister Chips stepped through. “Hello,” he said, “I am Mister Ch… oh! You again! Still stuck on the cliff? How inconvenient! I’d be delighted to help!” Once again, under Celceor’s direction, Mister Chips took the hook, climbed up 100 more feet and fastened it firmly, after which he disappeared again with a gentle popping sound. Wryan and Celceor climbed up again, and, knuckles white with fear as they wedged their toes into cracks in the wall 200 feet above the floor were dismayed to discover that the end was not in sight and Celceor was all out of Celestial monkeys.

Meanwhile, down below, Nick continued to search the basket and surrounding area, convinced he had missed something.

Suddenly, Celceor remembered a scroll he had stashed away in a pocket for just such an emergency; gripping the rope with his free hand and his toes clinging to a ledge, he pulled it out of his pocket, unfurled it and began to read by the light of his magic spell. As the magical runes faded from the parchment, the now familiar hole in null-space opened and Mister Chips stepped through once more. “You again!” said Mister Chips. “Let me guess, you still need help with your hook?” They nodded affirmative, and, wasting no time, Mister Chips grabbed the hook and scampered up the cliff once again, disappearing when the hook had been set.

Wryan and Celceor climbed the rope (Celceor burning up a hero point to do so without ending up a stain on the rocks below). Once they reached the hook, they were relieved to see that that they had made it to the top; a full 300 feet above the ground below. Yowsers! They were in a rough tunnel that sloped up to the north, but by searching carefully on the east wall, they found another secret door that corresponded to the secret door to the room with the basket in it below. This led to a rough cut room with a large winch over a pit, a hemp rope leading down into the depths below. Looking down the pit, they could dimly see the light of Nick’s lantern as he diligently searched the basket. Celceor began to turn the winch, the basket began to rise and Nick shouted with glee, “I did it!”

By taking turns, they eventually managed to get all of the people below winched up to the top. On the second to last trip, the rope snapped part way through and frayed, dropping the three slaves with a jerk a foot or two with fear inspiring creaks and groans from the overstrained rope and shrieks of dismay from the passengers in the basket. Fortunately, the old rope held, and, cranking carefully, they managed to get the last of the slaves to the top. Then the only one left below was Bent. Unfortunately, Brook had stepped outside to have a cigarette and had gotten engaged in conversation with the crazy neighbor lady, so the rest of the group decided that Bent would rather die trying to get up the elevator than stay at the bottom without food, water or light… he hopped into the basket and shouted, “Crank away… away…away…away…away…away!” Luckily, the rope held and finally everyone was at the top so no one had to explain anything to Brook when he finally returned.

After a nights rest in the elevator room, they began to move down the passage to the north, from which a slightly stronger cold but fresh breeze of surface air could be felt. The passage sloped upwards, and, after having followed it for a while, they came to a large cavern filled with the sound of trickling water. Bent and Nick both advanced carefully as point-dwarf and point-boy, and soon saw two goblins, one poised in the act of drawing an arrow from his quiver and the other turning with a look of fear on his face. Neither goblin moved, and, as they drew closer they could see that the goblins were an overall grey color and made of stone.

“I bet this cavern is inhabited by a medusa!” said Celceor.

“Basilisks!” said Bent.

“Gorgons!” said Fafnir.

“We are so utterly fucked!” said everyone else.

The point boy and dwarf advanced further and came to a bridge crossing a narrow stone river that flowed west to east. There were giant mushrooms, with caps five to six feet in diameter, growing on the banks of the river. Two stone orcs were standing on one side of the river, a statue of a man holding a lantern and a sword stood on the other bank. At this point the party was getting pretty spread out and there were multiple light sources in the cavern. Bent and Nick were at the bridge, Celceor and Fafnir were near to the bridge and the rest were bunched together in a knot at the entrance to the cave. Bent cast a ‘light’ spell on a pebble and handed it to Nick. They advanced a little further and suddenly saw a green troll, standing with it’s mouth open and it’s claws outstretched. Bent threw a stone and missed, but Nick fired off a sling stone and hit the troll squarely. The clack of sling stone on rock proved that the troll was also petrified, but covered in a wet slimy moss that made it appear to be alive.

They heard some mysterious sounds to the east, so Celceor cast a spell to summon a celestial dog. Again the portal into null-space opened as Celceor twiddled his fingers and spoke mystic words and a celestial-looking dog leapt out. Under the tall elf’s directions, the dog ran to the east to investigate the noise. The dog suddenly paused in mid step with a grating sound as its flesh hardened to stone.

“I’ve got to see what’s going on,” thought Nick. He hurled his light stone in the general direction of the sound just as the rest of the group shouted, “Don’t!” The light revealed a large, eight legged lizard with a horn on its nose and red glowing eyes crawling slowly towards the bridge. Everyone managed to avert their gaze in time except for poor Nick. With a crackling sound, he turned to stone, a scream frozen on his lips.

Things looked bad as Werkle tried (unsuccessfully) to shoot the basilisk without looking at it, Celceor tried summoning another celestial dog and the rest of the group rushed forward to mill around the end of the bridge. Bent was closest to the lizard as it crawled up to the bridge. With a solid ‘thunk’ he heard one of Werkle’s crossbow bolts bury itself in the creature’s side. Wryan was rushing forward with her spear, shouting for others to avert their eyes. Closing his eyes tightly, Bent attempted to tumble right under the basilisk’s nose to dodge behind the troll statue, but his toes caught in a crack and he fell flat on the floor. The basilisk’s teeth ripped a deep gash in his side, and, blood flowing over his improvised poncho, the dwarf managed to crawl behind the statue of the troll, barely alive. He could feel his limbs stiffening, momentarily, as the magic of the basilisk attempted to turn him to stone but he was made of stern stuff and he resisted the evil petrifying magic. He was now directly behind the troll statue and could feel the hot breath and hear the clatter of the basilisk’s claws as it slowly began to crawl around the statue, seeking to petrify the little dwarf who had just rolled under it’s nose. Pressing his eyes tightly shut and digging in his heels, the small dwarf leaned into the statue of the troll. With a mighty grunt, he felt the heavy troll statue, weighing well over a thousand pounds but balanced precariously on two clawed feet, creak in place, then, with a crash, topple over, directly on top of the basilisk. The rest of the party sent up a cheer; Bent cautiously opened his eyes to see the lizard crushed lifeless beneath the broken statue of the troll.

The second celestial dog summoned by Celceor sniffed around and determined that there were more basilisks down a tunnel to the east before popping out of this dimension and back to its own. Fafnir was all excited about hunting more of the basilisk creatures but the rest of the party thought they had gotten off easily and decided not to push their luck. Bent gathered some claws and incisors from the basilisk and Celceor took the creature’s eyeballs and nose horn for future use in magical experiments. Before leaving the cavern, Celceor observed the goblin, Skwortch, attempting to pocket something he picked up from the floor beside the petrified form of a wizardly looking man. After nervous, stuttered denials the goblin handed over a pouch that contained 12 small garnet gems, 4 pearls and a small amount of coinage.

Gathering up the petrified form of their comrade, Nick, they set off to the north once again, following the cold, clean surface air. The tunnel sloped up for miles. At one point, they found themselves treading on the brittle bones of long dead goblins and rusted remains of goblin weaponry. An inscription on the wall, dated 100 years in the past, stated that this had been the scene of a battle in which Zenith Splintershield and his companions had defeated over forty goblins. Bent mused that he would like to write a poem about the mighty dwarf but lacked pen and paper. Instead, he scratched on the wall that he would like to write a song about the mighty warrior Splintershield if he ever returned here in the future.

Still lugging the petrified Nick, they trod a few miles further. The hall still sloped up and the wind grew even colder. The slaves were shivering and they could see their breath in the cold air, but they saw dim daylight ahead. Eager for the exit, they quickened their footsteps. The tunnel opened up onto a ledge, open to the sky through a natural shaft above and descending to mists 100+ feet below. This natural shaft, perhaps once the main flue of a long dead volcano, was crossed by a gigantic log that stretched from the ledge on one side of the chasm to the other. On the other side was a large tunnel exit, and, growing out of the ledge beside it a scraggly and broken tree. A gigantic vulture, with moth eaten feathers, perched in the tree and regarded them with red rimmed eyes. The vulture squawked loudly and an immense giant, tall as two large men and as broad as three or four, came out of the tunnel opposite and looked at them with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. This one eyed giant was dressed in bearskins and hefted a tree trunk as a club. It took what looked like a human’s helmet from a fold in his furs and placed the chinstrap in the bird’s beak. The bird flew across the chasm and dropped the helmet at the feet of the group.

“You want for to cross?” shouted the Cyclops. “For to cross, you pay me, each one you pay me. You fill helmet with shiny coins or pretties, me let you cross, or else…” and he gestured meaningfully at the chasm below. “You no want to pay me money then you can give me meat. One for meat for one for to cross… me like dwarf meat, heh heh heh…”

With a sudden feeling of dread, the group realized that the majority of their coin was in the bag of holding currently turned to stone with Nick. Clearly some negotiations would be needed…

We ended here…

Map of the chimney room with bats Map of the Cyclops cave

Character / Player:	Race / Class & Level:	XP at start:	XP for session:	XP total:	Notes:
Eryn Bane / Mike D.	(half-elf / Thief 2)	2367	200	2567
Celceor The Wise / Dave M.	(Elf / Mage 3)	5862	400	6262	Level 4!
Nick / Dave P.	(Human / Rogue 3)	4618	400	5018
Wryan O’Malley / Kevin S.	(Human / Ftr 2)	2870	400	3270	Level 3!
Werkle of Dinnsmere / Al G.	(Dwarf / Fighter 2)	2806	400	3206	Level 3!
Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood / NPC	(Human / Cleric 2)	2572	200	2772
Skwortch / NPC	(Goblin )	150	50	200
Fafnir; Human Barbarian / Jon C.	(Human Barbarian 2)	1291	400	1691
Bent Bullswaggit / Brooke	(Dwarf Bard 1/Mage 1)	1291	400	1691

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