AnAdventurousIntroductionToLeilm part 14

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As Sjer, Afalar, and Ezek are gathered talking beside the concealed trapdoor, the upper door opens and a rope ladder is thrown down. Another rope descends with a lantern attached to it. It sways midway up from the floor. One man descends halfway and a woman follows. Another woman begins to descend. They all carry naked blades. They swiftly discover that three of us are without bonds and they also discover that they recognize Afalar, Sjer, and Zali'haro. Mazidi is one of the three women. They are on a scouting mission down here. They ask who we work for and what specifically we are after. They rough up Afalar and threaten to get the truth out of him via torture and then they leave. We know they will return to cause us damage.

We decide that we had best escape now and so we escape our bonds once more with Afalar's assistance. We descend to the lower chamber and close the trapdoor behind us. It won't confuse them for long, but even a few minutes can be precious.

Sjer illuminates a piece of rope and cautions that it is the last time today that he can do it. We hastily look to find some rocks and a club, anything to help if we are cornered by the inevitable pursuit.. We all then head out down the tunnel. Afalar arrives at the point of the tunnel where the break is. We form a human chain down the 20 foot chasm, plus the extra 10 foot from the break in the ceiling. Only twice did anyone have trouble, Afalar caught the eldest boy once and then Afalar slipped as well. Once we are all safely down we begin to look around. At one end of the room is a stone door, at the other a wooden door. Zali was able to burst through the wooden door; on the other side was a corridor. Afalar tried to get through the lock on the stone door, but the lock has been iluding him for 10 minutes or so. It is a high quality lock which has been here unused for over 100 years and all he has to work with is an old belt buckle of Zali's. Meanwhile Sjer has managed to get 5 boxes out of a recessed shelf which Afalar discovered on his previous expedition. One holds a scimitar in a Kurdrun inscripted box. One holds a ring, one has a spoon in some powder. One has three white pearls and one black pearl. One holds a silk shirt; and its box killed Ezek when he opened it.

Eventually Afalar succeeds. Behind the stone door was a room with some patterns in the floor. To the left are four inset squares, each about two feet on a side. To the right is a circular pattern of lines radiating from a central depression. I would hazard a guess that liquid is needed to activate any inherent magic in this place, but as none here are shadow mages we will not try out any theories. As Sjer steps inside this room he is brought to his knees. He sees visions of running through the forest. When Zali'haro pulls the shirt off of Sjer, he is restored to himself. We go look at the rest of the place. Sjer finds a bottle and Afalar and Zali each discover a skeleton. Afalar gains some gold rings and a necklace. Afalar and Zali believe that the skeletons we found here were of men who died of starvation or thirst after being trapped in here by the Council. There was a collapsed staircase at the far end of the long corridor.

We eventually decide that the best course of action is to barricade ourselves in the little room behind the stone door. As the rest of us try to get some sleep, Afalar holds the stone door against the attempts to pick the lock by our pursuers. It is a tense night spent by Afalar but with some rewards as he manages to foil their attempts to gain access. We are able to determine that they do not know for sure if we are in here or not. They eventually try the door with a battering ram. After 20 minutes they give that up. It is plain that we are safe for now. We sleep the rest of the day away.

The next morning, if it is morning, we try to get ourselves out. We open the door with some difficulty and noise. If anyone is down here in the dark we have just alerted them to our presence. Afalar goes forth and determines that there is a person at the top of the ceiling break. Apparently they have begun putting boards across in an effort to barricade us down here in case we were hiding behind the door.

We decide to try to kill the person at the top of the barricade, then continue on down the tunnel in hopes of coming out at last. Sjer asks Afalar and Zali'haro to remove their boots and then he gives them the ability to climb as a spider would. They walk over to the walls and begin moving up. They creep silently across the ceiling and then dissappear up the crack. The person on top is peering down intently, but for now her lantern is aiding us more than herself. Chance often plays fickle to men in desperate situations. She will present you with golden opportunities and then snatch defeat from victory without any remorse. Such was the case now. Afalar and Zali crept upwards so silently and cleverly that Sjer, who had watched them go, lost sight of them on the way up. Mazidi, for it was her at the top of the barricade, never saw or heard a thing. The two crept up past her on the back wall, two strange and fey creatures moving with deadly intent. Her first warning came as Afalar and Zali, who were by now hanging from the roof of the cave above her, launched their attacks. And so fate decreed that the first stone should miss, alerting Mazidi to the threat. And it is to her credit that she turned and parried Zali's blade as it swept toward her as he landed on the boards behind her.

The two tried bravely to put her down, as they had outside on the shifting sands, but Afalar and Zali'haro were still hampered by the wounds of that battle, while Mazidi looked well-rested and fully restored. Sjer tried to follow what happened above, but the boards were too numerous to see or throw rocks through.

Zali did his best and cut her a time or two, but her renewed vigor outlasted him and he fell to her blade. Afalar rushed her hoping to knock her off the boards to the waiting floor below, but a well place blow by Mazidi knocked him back. Seeing Zali fall, spurred Sjer to come up and join the battle. If Afalar was defeated as well, then they would all truly die down here. Sjer came up from below and attempted to knock the board that Mazidi was standing on and make her lose her footing. This allowed Afalar to retrieve Zali's sword. Mazidi thrust at Sjer but the boards between them made it difficult for a direct attackt, and Sjer's attempts to push Mazidi off were unsuccessful owing to the surety of her feet. Afalar made the contest moot however, with a final swordthrust into Mazidi's back.

We managed to stabilize Zali'haro, but the wounded warrior will be unable to assist us as we make our escape. Perhaps with Mazidi's old shield we can drag him through the tunnel without making extreme amounts of noise. As it stand now, we have to get Torazi's family up from below where they await the outcome of our battle and then still escape these tunnels. Both Afalar and Sjer are still carrying wounds, Zali is the worst off and indeed is still unconcious. None of the children have been injured, and the woman appears in good health. Indeed, she even accused us of murder when Ezek was killed by the magic of the box that held the shirt.

Our situation looks grim and continues to get worse with every passing hour. Sjer is wearing the ring, which appears to make him hard to focus on when he remains stationary. Afalar is currently wielding the Kurdrun sword, although it is Zali' by right when he awakens. Afalar also has Mazidi's sword and the brooch that we found, although it's function other than matching the colour of Ajalar's eyes is as yet unknown. Sjer also is wearing the silk shirt from the box, which killed Ezek. We have not yet done anything with the pearls or the powder.

[next: AnAllyAppears]