Chapter #122
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+ THE ADVENTURERS +
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+ The various characters contained in these writings are +
+ copyright 1993 by Thomas Miller. Any resemblance to any +
+ persons or characters either real or fictional is utterly +
+ coincidental. Copying and/or distribution of these tales +
+ is permissible only under the sole condition that no part +
+ of them will be used or sold for profit. In that case, I +
+ hope you enjoy them... +
+ +
+ Thomas Miller +
+ tmiller@cimmeria.gatech.edu +
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+ THE PARTY: +
+ +
+ Alindyar 14th level drow elf mage (N) +
+ Lyra 10th level female drow elf mage (N) +
+ Belphanior 10th/11th/12th level high elf w/m/t (CN) +
+ Ged 11th/12th level grey elf priest/mage (NG) +
+ Arnold 9th level human warrior (NG) +
+ ? grey cat (familiar) (NG) +
+ Mongo 13th level dwarf warrior (CG) +
+ Flint 9th level dwarf warrior (CG) +
+ Peldor 16th level human thief (N) +
+ Rillen 13th level human warrior (N) +
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+ Date: 6/1/572 C.Y. (Common Year) +
+ Time: early evening +
+ Place: the ruins of Greyhawk Castle, north of the City +
+ Climate: cool +
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+ "Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success." +
+ - Christopher Lasch +
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CXXII. More Mysteries of Zagyg
After exploring parts of two levels of the Tower of Zagyg
the Mad, the party has reached the third level via a magical
fountain.
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____/ \__|
+____ * __
\ / |
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+ or . door NE
* fountain |
% bones NW-- --SE
# rubble |
SW
Mongo: (looking around) Which way to go this time?
Arnold: (kicks some old bones out of his way)
Belphanior: This way! (heads southeast)
wispy form: (appears behind the elf)
Ged: Boccob! (brandishes Lightbringer) Undead!
Lightbringer: Not quite.
wispy form: (about the size of a balloon, it orbits
Belphanior's head slowly)
Belphanior: Yow.
Mongo: What the hell is it?
Flint: What the hell does it want?
Belphanior: Hey, _I_ don't know.
grey cat: (regarding the floating thing) Meow?
Ged: (using his Detect Magic, which is _still_ in
effect) Boccob says it's magical...(uses his weapon's
Detect Evil power) And not evil...
Belphanior: How reassuring. (addresses the thing) So
what _do_ you want?
wispy thing: (takes off down the southeast passage)
Arnold: Maydbe he wands us to go dhat way too.
Belphanior: He?
Mongo: To hell with this. Let's go. (he marches after
the wispy thing)
They entered a squarish chamber, which had a door and
an exit passage. Of more interest, however, was the
black pyramid in the center of the room. It was about
five feet high, and was illuminated by a glowing point
of light on the ceiling. The wispy thing was floating
around the black pyramid, slowly; it turned to look at
the party when they entered.
Alindyar: (regarding the light) Clever...but still,
methinks, a mere Light spell.
Rillen: (notices that the entire room seems to hum)
Arnold: (looking at the black pyramid) Whad's this?
Belphanior: Doesn't look like metal...or stone...
Mongo: Shit, it doesn't even look _solid_.
Ged: Perhaps a magical portal?
Lyra: Or an odd device of some kind?
Peldor: (grabs a copper coin and tosses it toward the
pyramid) Let's see wh- Hey! (the coin disappears)
Belphanior: Hmm. (heads into the previous room)
grey cat: (growls at the pyramid) rrrr...
wispy thing: (backs away from the pyramid)
Ged: I need a Detect Evil...no, wait! (brandishes his
morningstar) Is that pyramid evil?
Lightbringer: (uses its Detect Evil power) Faintly,
yes. There are traces...
Ged: Of what?
Lightbringer: Some long-dead evil. But powerful enough
in its time to-
Belphanior: (returns from the fountain room, a large
bone in one hand) Enough talk! (he shoves the bone
into the pyramid, then yanks it back) Yikes...(holds
the bone up for all to see; that portion of it that
was inside the pyramid is now gone)
Peldor: (examines the bone half) Maybe we'd better go
elsewhere to play, folks. This is a really clean cut
on this bone.
Ged: (examines the bone) My guess is disintegration.
What do you think? (proffers the bone to Alindyar and
Lyra)
Alindyar: Indeed.
Lyra: Rather powerful disintegration, at that.
Arnold: Aaa. Give Ah-nold monsders to fidht, and his
wordth vill be proven.
wispy thing: (floats away silently)
They decided to skirt this chamber, and headed for the
door to the northeast. It led to another square room,
which had another door on its far side. This chamber
was inhabited by a huge oyster, some twenty feet across,
which rested in the center of the place, on the floor.
Mongo: Lunch!
Belphanior: (pokes at the thing with his longsword) I
think it's dead.
grey cat: (leaps atop the shell, and walks around) Rowr?
Arnold: (sheathes his sword, and grabs the lips of the
thing) Ungh!
Mongo: Here, let me help you with that. (he exerts the
mighty strength of his giant girdle, and forces the
thing open)
Peldor: Well, would you look at that...
Within the giant oyster was, appropriately, a giant
pearl. The shiny thing was easily the size of a person's
head, and the adventurers could only guess at its worth.
Peldor: I'd say ten thousand in gold, minimum.
Mongo: I wonder how we can get that thing out.
Belphanior: What's there to wonder?
Mongo: Well, the thing could slam shut on someone, while
they were getting the pearl.
Peldor: You're right, it's too risky. I'll use my ring
to snatch that pearl.
Arnold: I don'd tink we need the pearl.
wispy thing: (floats into, and then out of, the shell)
Ged: Well, someone try something.
grey cat: (rubs against Ged's foot) Meow!
Peldor: (waving his hands uselessly) Wha- Why-
Alindyar: What ails you, thief?
Peldor: The ring's not working!
Ged: The oyster shell must be resistant to magic. That,
or foolishness.
Rillen: (props his staff between the oyster's lips) Now
we can get the gem.
Peldor: (thinks briefly, then climbs in and grabs the
pearl)
Rillen: (watching his staff twitch and creak as the jaws
of the oyster shell try to close) Hurry!
Peldor: Yeah. (hops out of the thing, and Rillen pulls
his staff out)
oyster: (its shell snaps shut) <crack>
Peldor: Whew. (holds up the huge pearl) A thief's work
is never done.
Lyra: I'm trying to decide if that is a good thing or a
bad thing.
Peldor: (holds up the pearl, gloating over it)
Mongo: (holds out a small sack) Hey, wrap that baby in
this bag, and let's get it stashed in the portable hole
so we can get moving.
Peldor: Eh, right. (reluctantly hands the pearl over)
After exiting through the door, the adventurers found
themselves in a wide corridor.......
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v
__________...__________________________
_____.____ ______ . ___________._____
| | __| |__
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| | |oyster |
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| | __|.|__
____/ \__| |__ .
+____ * __ __ |
\ / |_______| | |
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+ or . door NE
* fountain |
% bones NW--+--SE
# rubble |
SW
They turned right, and took the first door on the right
after that. It opened into a huge chamber containing a
long canoe. The thing was some fifty feet long, and was
decorated with weird carvings. Oars at either side were
manned by dark-skinned savages, dressed in animal skins
and with red-painted faces. At the rear of the canoe was
a grass awning, under which sat a chief-type, wearing a
painted war mask. All of the savages were frozen in time,
unmoving and unblinking though lifelike.
Ged: Let's keep it that way.
Peldor: You mean nobody touch anything.
Ged: Yea.
grey cat: (cleans its paws, bored)
Arnold: Dhey look like those guys we foudht on the island
a while ago.
Alindyar: Verily. Except these ones do not have a large
stew pot.
Mongo: What is this place, anyway? Who collects stuff
like this?
Alindyar: Mayhaps a museum of some sort?
Ged: Zagyg's museum...oh, they're never going to believe
this back at the temple...
Belphanior: (thinking about backstabbing one of the still-
life savages) Hmm...
wispy thing: (bobs and weaves among the unmoving savages)
Fortunately, the adventurers managed to avoid disturbing
the fierce-looking barbarians, and instead turned their
attentions to the large double doors back in the big hall.
These opened into a square chamber, with stairs going both
up and down. The former way was blocked, though, for mass
quantities of rubble had fallen atop the upper stairway.
_______
|## % ==|
|### ==|
_______|__...__|_______________________
_____.____ ______ . ___________._____
| | __| |__
| | | |
| | |oyster |
| | |__ __|
| | __|.|__
____/ \__| |__ .
+____ * __ __ |
\ / |_______| | |
| |
|
+ or . door NE
* fountain |
% bones NW--+--SE
# rubble |
== stairs down SW
Mongo: Looks like a cave-in.
Belphanior: Gee, you're kidding.
wispy thing: (floats into the rubble, and vanishes)
Belphanior: What the hell _is_ that thing?
Ged: I don't really know, but I'd like to...
Alindyar: Perhaps a floating spirit of some kind?
Lyra: Could be. But a magical one? And not evil?
Flint: Who cares? The thing's not doing us any harm. I
say let it be.
Ged: We;'ll have to watch it closely, if it comes back.
Alindyar: (consulting his maps and notes) This would seem
to correspond to the area above, that one filled with
rubble.
Peldor: (peering down) But we can still go down.
Arnold: Yah.
Ged: Sounds good to me.
grey cat: (hunting for mice, unsuccessfully)
With that, they headed down the darkened stairs...
next time : action is had at last!
ftp site : ccosun.caltech.edu, in pub/adnd/fluff/adventurers
notes : Don't ask me why, but for some reason they were
totally intent on skirting the "puny" levels and
getting to the heart of the dungeon. I guess they
figured they could go down until they hit bottom,
and then work their way back up. In any case, the
lower three levels held more of interest than the
minor portion of the upper three that the party
explored.
As for the wispy thing, don't ask. I'll keep
it mysterious for a while.
Since it's only a day before my vacation, I see
that I won't finish this saga until mid-August.
I'll get parts 123-125 done then...
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next chapter (#123)