| The Biscuits | Dollin - Druid 7th Level (PC) Little John - Fighter 6th Level (NPC) Nicola - Cleric 6th Level (PC) Wed - Mage 6th Level (NPC) Yodavan - Mage/Cleric 1st/3rd (PC) |
| Locale | Onnwal Peninsula |
| Date | 4th day of Goodmonth, 585 CY (Common Year) |
| Time | morning |
The morning sun broke early on the beach. The Biscuits had landed somewhere on the northeastern coast of the peninsula, and just now they were standing in front of a smallish cave entrance.
| Nicola | The chalk marks lead this way. |
| Dollin | He couldn't have picked a taller cave ? |
| Yodavan | I don't see any problem. Heh heh heh heh. |
| Wed | I could cast a spell of diminution. |
| Dollin | No, that's alright. I'm just not used to caves. |
| Little John | Stick with this group and you'll get used to them. |
| Nicola | OK, people, Gimar's a little ways ahead of us now, so let's move out. |
Dollin and Wed pulled out rocks with continual light, and began to move in. Gimar's improved infravision allowed him to move somewhat silently a ways ahead of the party.
The first marks led the party down a branch corridor. It seemed smaller at first, but apparently Gimar's underground sense was accurate. The corridor expanded to a width of about twenty feet and sloped slightly downwards.
Near the end of the wide corridor were more chalk marks, leading to a very narrow corridor with a steep downward slope. At the bottom a crack led into a rough hewn corridor.
| Little John | Definitely man-made. |
| Dollin | Well, humanoid anyhow. |
| Wed | Over here, guys. |
Near the other end of the corridor were the bodies of three orcs. There were chalk marks leading through a rough wooden door, and high on the wall some carved words.
| Nicola | Rheaph would have frisked the bodies. |
| Little John | Yeah, but he's stuck in this bag. |
| Yodavan | It's just a few coins, we should keep moving. |
| Dollin | Good point. |
| Wed | Hang on, let me look at these other words. |
| Yodavan | What does it say? |
| Wed | It reads, "He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaaaaagggh". |
The door led to a rough wooden ladder leading upwards, but there were chalk marks in the shape of an X rune on the bottom rung. A quick search revealed marks near the bottom of the opposite side of the chamber.
The crack behind led further downwards, then suddenly opened into a perfectly round corridor. This time there were two sets of chalk marks, one leading one way and the other the opposite direction.
| Nicola | The runes leading that way are crossed out. |
| Yodavan | So he is fallible. |
| Wed | I wonder what sort of creature made this tunnel? |
| Dollin | Umberhulk, Purple Worm, a boring beetle, or many other options. |
| Little John | Obviously long gone. |
| Nicola | As we should be. Let's keep moving. |
The round tunnel led quite a ways, and by Yodavan's reckoning it mostly went either south or west, which was good for the party.
When the round tunnel took a deep dive underground, there were some crude steps carved into the downward slope. After a short while, the Biscuits found a crack. It had recently been widened, perhaps by a certain persnickety dwarf.
After a few more sets of chalk marks, the Biscuits found a pair of hobgoblin bodies.
| Wed | These guys look like advanced scouts for a larger army. |
| Yodavan | They aren't burrowing creatures. |
| Little John | Ready weapons. |
After two more pairs of hobgoblins, they found another door and chalk marks in the floor this time.
| Nicola | A trap? |
| Dollin | We don't have Rheaph to check for us. |
| Yodavan | Well, Gimar got past it. |
With careful steps, the party managed to avoid the pit in the floor. Following that, they found a party of five slain hobgoblins, and more steps leading upwards. These were marked indicating the party should follow, however.
| Dollin | Good, that was deep enough for me. |
| Nicola | Oh, I don't think we're out of this one yet. |
Only part way up the shaft, another branch corridor was found. This was very dusty and little used, with the exception of a recent set of dwarven bootprints.
The chalk marks led to a door, and circled a particular spot in the wall. Nicola reached up and obliged, pushing down on a roughly circular switch. Although it was barely noticable in the dressed stone, it gave way with a rough click and the entire dead end of the passage began to swing slowly open.
As the party followed further on, it was obvious that they had reached the former dwarven mine. The ceiling height never got above five feet, which meant nearly the whole party had to stoop.
Around the next bend they found a very curious thing - the small stone statue of a rust monster.
| Dollin | Well that's one way of dealing with it. |
| Nicola | It's just one little monster, how tough could it be? |
| Little John | Just don't go there. |
| Wed | I think we should bring it with us - it might have some value. |
| Yodavan | Hmmm, bring it with us. Carry it, I can! |
| Nicola | Oh, I think we can fit it into the bag of holding. |
| Little John | (unslinging the bag) Erm, yeah, but that's about it. We're almost full here. |
| Wed | Hmmmmm, I wonder if a mage could invent a bag that opened onto a completely different extradimensional space, a "bag world" so to speek. |
The party decided to press on a bit further before stopping for lunch. They had been working their way through the uneven tunnels for about four hours, but Nicola felt there was a chance that Gimar would double back for a noon-time meal.
Even though they weren't standing straight up, the Biscuits made much better time in the regular dwarven tunnels. In fact, they travelled for the better part of an hour without even noticing. The party was brought up short at another irregular tunnel junction, however.
| Nicola | What in holy light are those? |
| Wed | Hmmm, I've not seen anything like them. |
| Dollin | It's no species I'm familiar with, that's for sure. |
| Little John | I've not battled anything like that. And what a smell! |
| Yodavan | They're . . . they're . . . fish men! |
The paunchy pale corpses of four recently slain "fish men" lay on the corridor floor. The two heads that were present looked more like fish heads than humanoid heads, with bulging eyes and scales. They wore no clothing, but instead had leather harnesses with loops for weapons.
Nobody could quite decide just what they were, but everybody agreed that this would not be the place to have lunch. The party hurried down the indicated corridor and came to an unusual chalk mark - an arrow pointing to one side. Behind a small doorway they could just hear the crackle of a fire, and the humming of . . .
| Gimar | Say, you guys are just in time for lunch. Look what I found -- fresh spuds! |
| Normal Text | Character's words or descriptive text if part of a paragraph |
| Italic Text | Character's thoughts or actions if surrounded by parenthesis |
| Bold Text | Character is shouting. |
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