AnAdventurousIntroductionToLeilm part 18

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"Some for the Glories of This World; and some

Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;

Ah, take the Cash, and let the promise go,

Nor heed the music of the distant Drum!"

It is the morning of the 69th.

We all meet at breakfast time.

We decide we need to bring 2-50' lengths of rope. 9 torches, 8 flasks of oil, a crowbar, and some lock picks on our late night rendevous with the rats.

We arrive at the dilapidated dock. With some work and a little patience we get ourselves and Volorn up the rusty rings of the old ladder.

The gate is closed and locked as before. Afalar kneels down and opens it. Zali'haro strides boldly in towards the middle with the rest of us huffing along in its wake. We head straight for the structure, but the walk seems to stretch out a little further than expected. In fact it seems 4 times as long as it looked from the gate.

We just cross the halfway point when, out of the darkness, the rats descend upon us. Both Sjer and the Volorn are mauled quite badly by the rats, but the other two escaped with relatively little damage. It was a hard fight with the four of us not quite working together as we should.

Once we reach the centre, the rats attack once more. But this time we seem better prepared and we dispatch them handily. Zali'haro is a whirlwind of fury killing 4 times the rats that anyone else does.

We start to work on getting the hatch open and discover that our last attempt to get in did not go unnoticed. The hatch seems much heavier and someone has put a caustic substance on the underside of the lip where Zali and Afalar's fingers need to grip and pry.

We get the centre hatch open and then decend the stairs. We get to the trapped step and can't seem to find the trap. After some dithering we decide to throw a rope on it and the shower of needles crashes harmlessly against the far side of the stairway. Afalar keeps one for later study.

At the bottom of the stairs is a locked door, which Afalar opens for us, but as he trips the lock a needle stabs out and jabs him. He falls back unconscious. Fortunately he had taken a dose of the Water Circle's healing potion a little earlier and it kicked in and revived him, but it is obvious that the needle was poisoned as Afalar continues to look a little paler than normal.

Zali'haro takes a look at the short hall and landing where we are while Sjer tends to Afalar.

Behind a closed portcullis is a short hall with murals and tapestries covering the walls. A chest stands at the far side. The paintings show scenes of the souls of dead people being guarded by large shining figures with different animal heads. Surrounding the group of souls and guardians are many rats. The rats are seen moving and and forcefully taking the souls away from the apparently less than adequate protection. The rats drag the struggling souls towards a large rat headed being who is stuffing them into jars. Perhaps they are for later consumption, perhaps when he gets enough he can do something special.

We decide to ignore the portcullis and chest for now and explore further down the stairs. We go through another door which is locked and trapped like the last one, but which Afalar manages to avoid. There are more stairs and we are watchful of another needle trap.

As we descend there is a loud click which galvanates Afalar into a downward roll and causes Zali to whip his shield up to protect himself. Both actions prove to be efficacious as the shower of needles misses Afalar, who is now down the stairs and around the bend, and bounces harmlessly off of Zali's shield, with only a few getting past to hit his legs.

Afalar continues to the bottom with the rest of us following cautiously. At the bottom on a landing of sorts Afalar sees a giant malformed rat. Quick as thinking he shoots it to maximum benefit. The rat does not seem as harmed as it should have from the bolt. The rest of us cannot yet see what is happening, but we have a pretty good idea and are preparing ourselves to rush forward.

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