Thirteenth Entry

A 5x5 vertical shaft leads 20 feet down. Last in the hole, I peer out from the trap door, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever comes through the eastern wall to our north. It is 5 Orcs in white robes, carrying lanterns. Two come south, toward our location. Still hidden in the shadows outside their lamp range, we decide to come back up to fight. While the others wait in the darkness, I circle the southeastern cage with a view to performing a backstab with Shred.

Before I get there, the Orcs spot my comrades. One of the Orcs flings a spell at Trax and Silverleaf, both of whom fall to the ground, dead asleep. Retaliating quickly, I cast my own Sleep spell: “Orcs in white, say good night…”, and put them down.

The three other distant Orcs, hearing the ruckus, flee for the east door. We launch missiles: I hit one with a sling bullet, Sidonia launches a magic missile, and the others use bolts and arrows. Trax charges and kills the last two with her battle axe.

Exploring east from whence the Orcs came, we come upon a GIANT kitchen, with huge chairs, and giant quantities of cooked food …recently cooked. We cannot risk an encounter with giants of the living variety, so we quickly decide to retreat back into the cavern and down the trap door, exploring an even deeper level of this dungeon.

A room with sloping floors, a chest at its base, proves an irresistible temptation. I volunteer to be lowered down the slope on a rope. Once at the base, the room proves a trap: mist coats the sloping floor, making it impossibly slippery, and a vast swarm of bugs appears and attacks. I am pulled up to safety, suffering only minor bites, and salvage the chest, but alas, it is only a prop.

In the corridor west, we set off an invisible trip wire, and a heavy portcullis drops behind us. In front, we avoid another trap in the floors and walls. I locate a concealed door leading to a corridor which ends in a room that has what seems to be a darkness spell cast in its centre. It is impossible to penetrate the darkness, even with our infravision. As we approach, from the darkness writhes a giant snake head, then another, then another! One of the heads bites Sidonia, and then retreats into the darkness. Sid is poisoned. I run. The others back off, none foolhardy enough to battle a multi-headed giant snake blind. As the snake is constrained by the width of the room, we manage to kill it by hurling numerous missiles into the darkness.

Behind the snake room we stumble upon a most amazing discovery. In a large library, we locate, written in the Common Tongue, two precious spell books: an annotated guide to all first level spells, and a similar guide to all third level spells. This is indeed a most excellent treasure! Sidonia and I rub our hands together with glee. We are eager to transcribe this vast knowledge into our spell books at the earliest opportunity. I carefully pack away the Prestidigitator spells, while Sidonia keeps the Thaumaturgist spells. It will be some time before either of us is learned enough to use those enchantments. Feeling relatively safe in this library, we do take the time to rest a bit and I relearn my Sleep spell.

A secret door behind a bookshelf leads to another library focusing on Arepo, God of Death. I search for secret doors and find one. It has a latch, but my thief’s eyes notice something strange about it. Using my skills, I am able to detect, and then remove, a poison needle trap. Thinking back, the route bringing us to this location has been simply chock full of tricks and traps (not to mention a few fearsome monsters). What could it be that is so worth protecting? The spell books perhaps…..?

We soon have our answer. Behind the secret trapped door, a 20 foot corridor ends in a pedestal atop which sits an open tome. Another spell book? We approach cautiously, and carefully examine the volume. We are dizzied to discover that it no ordinary book. It is a book of which we have all heard tell, a fearsome book, a book which no man, dwarf or elf should lightly take hold. It is the Book of Arepo, a volume that could hold the secret to unleashing vast evil. To our relatively puny minds, it could be of no practical use, no more than a Conjurer’s scroll could be used by a goblin. But to a learned high priest (good or evil), or a wealthy merchant, this tome would be worth a fortune in gold. And that is exactly what we shall have!

We hasten back through the corridors past a door with an inlaid symbol of Death, and stumble into a room full of mummies. Those of us in the rear light torches and hurl them overtop our fighters in front. The fighters each shove a mummy back into the room – as we force the heavy door shut, I glimpse a mummy, on fire, flailing wildly at the back of the chamber, running into another mummy, which in turn is set aflame. We wedge the door shut as the stench of burning mummies begins to seep out into the corridor.

Returning after the air clears; we step over the smoldering mummies and find a concealed place containing a key. A short time later, back at the portcullis trap, and after carefully navigating the nearby floor and wall traps using my dexterity, I test this key and find that the keyhole near the portcullis glows when the key is held near. Upon insertion in the keyhole, the end of the key burns and disintegrates. Our spirits fall, but just then, the portcullis rattles open loudly. We are out. Given all the tricks, traps, and fearsome beasts we have just encountered, and the valuable treasures they protected, it is clear that we have succeeded in penetrating far farther into this dungeon than its denizens could have expected or imagined. It is more than obvious that NOBODY was supposed to have penetrated into the chambers we have just visited.

Our party proceeds through another door at the end of the corridor. Inside is a room with a map of Yalarad on the wall. The map has markings around the Goblin areas of the northeastern area, as well as on Human and Orc areas. Allied areas? No Dwarven, Gnomish or Halfling areas are marked. Another map on a table displays the middle section of the western continent: the northern Human territories, Plains of Kurach, and Mountains of the Orcs, all cities, and the main roads, and has markings referring to an attack on Imperial Ward.

Next we find what appears to be a dispatch room, containing desks, ledgers, ink, and parchments. Beyond that an antechamber contains a pool of thick red liquid, and three burning braziers. One contains ash, another water, another fire. We surmise that this is a mummification facility. Further on, we behead two more zombies, laid out on stretchers. Finally we come upon another door, and having listened and heard muffled groaning inside, we enter carefully and come upon a shocking sight. It is an Orc bedchamber, well-appointed with tapestries and a large bed. Upon the bed, an Orc appears to be raping a pale elf female. Infuriated, we burst into the room and I hurl my dagger. As the missiles fly, the Orc jumps to his feet, yelling “Wait – Stop!” and waving his hands. Fearing that he is a magic-user attempting to cast a spell, I rapidly put him to Sleep. Meanwhile, the “elf” that had until now been pinned under the brute calmly rises and walks slowly toward an exit on the back wall. We quickly realize that the elf is yet another zombie, placed here, like the caged beasts in the cavern above us, for the entertainment of Orcs traveling through the mountain passes. We follow the zombie into a side chamber, where it sits down with 3 other, similar zombies.

We interrogate the Orc, now bound with rope. “I paid for my hour! Leave me alone!” he snarls. Upon further questioning, it is clear that he assumes our party has been sent by Clerics of Arepo to harass him. Given his confirmation that this facility requires payment for its services, we search the vicinity high and low for any sign of a cash box. Our efforts are rewarded when we locate a chest behind a well-hidden secret door. Finding no traps, I open the chest and we divvy out the loot contained inside: 3900gp, 940pp, 4 gems worth 500gp each, 2 gems worth 1000gp each, and a bearer certificate IOU from the Bank of Imperial Ward, signed in Elvish by Nathal Forin and payable to Bearer in the amount of 15,000 gold pieces.

Imperial Ward be damned. My only concern now is getting out of here with this treasure. And, as well, whether my comrades can be entrusted with its safekeeping…