Session Notes for 2005-03-04

150 Seed

-64 +2 Dexterity

Uuugh. Paaaaain. Head hurt. Pressure. Dark. Chanting. Something about a stolen stone, and getting it back. "Long have I waited, and long have I sought..."

I come to. Who am I? Oh, yeah. Dueg. Ground moving, rolling like waves. Uuuuugh. The floor is cod stone and sloped. There is a pool of water in the corner. The room is round. The walls have white marks, looks like drips. A pair of torches blessedly provide minimal light. It's humid, kinda nice. There are other people laying on the floor as well.

There is a tall, paunchy human male with brown hair. He's wearing some sort of dark blue uniform and a funny domed hat. He's got a straight club and wears leather armor. (Karyn, Sen)

There is a dark skinned human in battered leather. (Dan, Mad Dog)

A young , scrawny, olive skinned human woman with dark hair and eyes. (Eva, Anna)

There is a male human in leather armor with a short sword. He's got wavy brown hair. (Chuck, Ernie)

I try to stand. Tricky.

The humans start chatting. The noise is painful. They seem confused as to why they're here.

There are two archways out, one wide, one narrow. Two wooden doors is partially submerged in the pool. There is a staircase leading up around a large central pillar. It lacks a railing. The stairs lead up into the ceiling. The brown haired human heads up, he returns and says there is a door.

Strange diagram found on the floor.

Standing up and looking around, there is a strange pattern on the floor in colored chalk. A bunch of circles and lines. The entire thing is about twice my height.

The human woman finds a pouch and empties it onto the floor with a clatter. Uuugh. They are small dark wood tiles with golden squiggles on them. One vibrates in place. Grrr, less noise. I smash it with my hand, it continues to quiver under my hand. The woman mutters something and points at the bag. I let go of the thing and she tosses it back into the bag.

I check down the wide passage, it quickly ends in a stout, ajar, wooden door. I open it. There is a smaller room. It's full of sacks and jugs. There are cooking supplies. I tear a sack open, grain spills out. I open a jug. There is no smell. I pour it out, some sort of oil.

One corner is painted blue, mist pours off the wall. Meat, cow perhaps, hangs from hooks. There is an archway roughly back toward the round room. A door heads elsewhere.

I head to grab some meat. Things are squirming in it, four suddenly burrow into my flesh. Aaaaah! They're blue transparent things. I hack at one. I squish it, but hack a gouge out of my hand. Aaaaaaah!

Map of the basement where we woke up.

The dark skinned human draws a dagger and say something. I back away from him. The maggots burrow into my flesh, I can't see them anymore. They're bitter cold inside. I smash my arm into a shelf. It hurts, and jars fall to the floor and shatter.

The cold moves slowly up my arm. The dagger wielding fellow approaches me again, this time without a dagger. He touches me and some of the pain subsides, but I can still feel the cold in my fore arm.

The dagger fellow has a torch. Warm! I try to grab it, but he backs away. He's good, but not as good as me. I snatch it away, barely holding onto it as the cold continues up my forearm. I stick my arm into the fire. Aaaaah! The cold moves up past my elbow, but it's slightly less cold.

I burn my elbow. Finally, the cold worms stop.

5

I race back to the round room. The water is pitch black. Maybe I won't stick my arm into it, it might have more worms.

The dagger man yells something from the storeroom. People begin regrouping in the round room.

The dagger man does something and touches my arm. It feels better. He says something, I think he says his name is Mad Dog. The strange hatted fellow is Sen. The woman is Anna. The last fellow disappeared up the stairs.

Thinking about it, although language is still a bit too hard to parse, but I remember the voice in my head, like fire in my mind.

Long have I waited,
and long have I sought;
A vigil soon ended
by the geas I have wrought.

By this spell I do summon,
bind, compel, and so send
To recover a treasure;
So long loss may amend.

A stone of great beauty;
The stone that is light;
A stone that was stolen
By a thief in the night.

Now Glitterstore's travels
Draw him to my demesne.
Find the stone he has stolen
For your freedom to gain.

'til midnight I'll abide;
Bring my stone to the pool.
Drop it under the waters,
Or face a vengeance grown cruel.

For long have I waited,
And long have I sought.
Now my vigil's soon ended;
By this geas you are caught.

Even in memory it gives me a headache.

The woman points to some crates by the wall. Looking behind there is an iron door. Dog looks in in the crates, looks like they contain woodwork for door edges. push the rest of the boxes out of the way.

The last fellow returns. He announces that his name is Ernie.

Anna looks in the pouch again. She takes out the tile that was shaking. It catches on fire and turns to ash. Part of my wooziness disappears.

20

Dog says he hears a wagon rolling by, but I don't.

Anna examines the iron door. It has no handle or hinges. She pushes at it to no avail. I give it a push, it doesn't budge.

Mad Dog says that above is a haunted kitchen with whispering noises.

The group seems to want to go down the narrow passage. It forks immediately. There are short stairs at each fork leading to doors. We head right. The door opens easily.

The small room beyond has a body laying near the wall. It's a male human dressed in the same dark blue uniform that Sen wears. The body is wet and pale. Mad Dog thinks he drowned. Suddenly the corpse sits up and reaches for me. Dog attacks it without real effect. It tries to grab me, but it just hits my chain shirt. It stands up. I cut into it with my axe. Dog finishes it off.

5 1 zombie

Curiosity strikes. I eventually convince Anna to let me see the bag of tiles. I look at them for bit, then return them. Odd things.

Beyond the room is a set of halls. Exploring to the left we see a six foot turtle standing on its hind legs. It's wearing a grey jacket and boots. Dog greets the thing. The turtle pulls something from its neck and blows into it. A shrill whistle. Aaaaah! Stupid turtle! Ernie charges him. The turtle flees into the darkness, still blowing the accursed whistle. I howl and give chase, easily catching up to him. The room is full of stuff. Whatever. The turtle's gonna get it. He continues to run, shouting for help. He's stopped by a set of iron bars with a bar gate at the end of the room. A snake appears out of nowhere and moves up to the turtle. I charge the turtle and take a gouge out of its shell. The turtle bites me. Ow! Nasty snapping turtle.

Beyond the bars four humanoid figures show up. They've got heads like hyenas or jackals. Their clothes look familiar. Two have crossbows. They fire past me. I hear Dog yelp. Whatever. I stick my axe into the turtle's side, it slumps against the bars.

"Oh my god, they killed the watchman!" "I'm getting reinforcements!" Great.

Anna notices that the gnolls are armed and dressed almost identically to Ernie.

Dog summons a pillar of flame, slaying the three gnolls.