Session Eleven
28th Flocktime
1st Wealsun
Session Twelve
2nd Wealsun
3rd Wealsun
10th Wealsun
11th Wealsun
12th Wealsun
14th Wealsun
17th Wealsun
Session Thirteen
18th Wealsun
Session Fourteen
18th Wealsun (con't)
19th Wealsun
20th Wealsun
Session Fifteen
21st Wealsun
25th Wealsun
27th Wealsun
As the door was opened, it resisted as if some force was trying to hold it closed. There was a brief sucking noise as the door finally opened. A stale odor wafted out, but it lacked the dustiness of the air from other rooms in the castle. Beyond the door was revealed an extravagant bechamber which showed much less decay than other areas of the castle the party saw thus far. There was a distinct vanity, a wardrobe, a huge canpoy bed and a bedside table. Lying face up in the bed was a mummified corspe, jaw hanging agape, sunken eyes apparently closed. The bedsheets covered him up to his chest, and he was wearing a crown upon his brow. The crown was golden with sparkling precious gems inlaid, and looked quite valuable. No dust was apparent anywhere. As the party entered, they noticed the room was quite cold. They approached the skeleton in the bed and as they got near they could see their own breath. Snf'L and A'Ha assumed they were dealing with more of the brownish "Cold Mold" they had run across earlier. Even after the appearance of playful Siroth (who was hiding under the bed) they assumed they had Cold Mold to contend with. Finally it was determined that the cold came from Siroth playing with rats, and there was nothing to fear. The crown was gained and determined o be quite valuable, as well as a matching gold ring. A secret tunnel was discovered that Siroth used to gain access to the room via the wardrobe.
As we left off the party was about to check for secret doors in the room...
First of all for the experience. The Huge Centipedes fought by the party were worth a total of 280 xp. This works out to 70 xp for each character. The party has been using a much wider range of talents in recent adventures, so I am splitting the experience evenly through the classes. X'Ylo has taken a much more active role as the healer of the party, spending entire days attending to the sick where he might have been doing something else, so I am giving X'Ylo 25xp for his cleric side as well. Also A'Ha and Snf'L did the thief thing in non-combat situations, and I am awarding them each 15xp for their thief class. Not to leave El'Fross out, I am giving him 21xp just for role-playing. Although everyone roleplays very well, if I had to vote for someone for last session as doing his best, I'd have to vote for John. So El'Fross gains 21xp spread among his classes. I am going to try for awhile choosing one character who stays in character the best and roleplays well and ALSO makes the game more enjoyable for the others at the same time. Comments are welcome on this issue.
Experience Breakdown:
A'Ha - 23 MU, 23F, 38T - experience entered, equipment entered
El'Fross - 30 MU, 30F, 30T - experience entered, equipment entered
Snf'L - 23 MU, 23F, 38T - experience entered, equipment entered
S'Rang - 0 (the lazy book readin' bum!)
X'Ylo - 23 MU, 23F, 48C - experience entered, equipment entered
X'Ylo comes to after a night of rest and he lays his hands upon A'Ha, bringing him to consciousness. X'Ylo then tends to the poor giant's stomach troubles, but can do nothing for poison consumed so many hours ago. He cares for the giant and for poor A'Ha and his acid-burned flesh. El'Fross looks to the dried peas in one of the barrels and suggests they dig a fire pit, then once the fire is out they place the peas around the edge of the hole. Then when the white dragon comes to take a pea, they kick him in the ash hole. Really a very ingeneous trap...
Snf'L spends the day making pants and a shirt for A'Ha out of A'Ha's thistledown tent. The material is not ideal for clothing, but Snf'L makes a set of very good pants out of it. The shirt is not nearly as good, being quite ugly and uncomfortable. A belt and headband are made from the remaining tent material. Snf'L also works on his bow some more, and feeling weighted down he gives the shortsword to X'Ylo. A'Ha checks it to see if it is magic, but it is not.
The party decides to explore more of the castle. They enter a room where they hear scurrying. X'Ylo fires off a Faerie Fire
Faerie Fire at the scurrying, only to find that he has lit up El'Fross (standing with him in the doorway) in a purple haze instead. El'Fross promptly lights up X'Ylo in blue. The party waits around patiently for a few minutes for the spells to end.
They explore further and find a small room with a bed and bedside table. A'Ha looks under the bed and finds the monster that always hides under the bed. 8 huge centipedes start out after the bedspread is moved. A'Ha rolls away from the bed to avoid the insects. Each party member is attacked by 2 of the icky critters. El'Fross and A'Ha get paralyzed (again) but X'Ylo and Snf'L stay in the fight. X'Ylo is bitten, but perhaps his Goddess is protecting him,because he is again not paralyzed. The things are not tough, but they are so many that the party could be in trouble. But the two remaining party members dispach the remaining centipedes without further mishap. They carry the two paralyzed party members back to Mykell's room. Then hey go back for a chest X'Ylo found under the bed. The chest is stuck to the floor with some icky substance. They get it back to Mykell's room using some odd (useless looking) daggers they found in a room full of bricks. They can't get the box open and El'Fross refuses to try and pick the lock. S'Rang wants nothing to do with this group that seems intent on killing itself. Pryig the box open isn't working because the box keeps moving. X'Ylo grabs the box to hold is steady for Snf'L and his fingers go right through the damp box sides. They destroy the sides of the box open it, and set the lid aside. El'Fross walks up and now picks the lock easily, grinning at his own irony.
Books are found inside, mouldy and soaked. Snf'L sets them out to dry.
They explore the castle some more and find the entrance to the dragon's lair (if there really is one).
They decide to hunt for food for the white dragon. They head back along the dry gully toward the lake. They encounter a giant talking owl who calls itself "Who". After speaking with the party for a bit, it suddenly flies off. When it returns it has a scroll in its claws. Who says that he was supposed to give the scroll to the party if they showed that they were worthy. A'Ha checks it, and the scroll is magic. Fishing yields 4 fish for supper. Not a lot when you've got a gian to feed. El'Fross agrees with Snf'L's suggestion to teach Mykell to fish. "Teach a giant to fish, he eats forever."
Spend day teaching Mykell to fish. Mykell kills a deer "bowling for deer".
Put deer at front of area and Snf'L writes in elven on the wall with chalk: "Dear Mr Dragon we are friends of S'Roth. We have brought you dinner please don't kill us." He hears a snort behind him and leaves without even checking it out. El'Fross and A'Ha watch the dead deer while Snf'L shows Mykell how to fish in return for Mykell's hunting techniques. X'Ylo shows S'Rang how to turn undead in turn for S'Rang showing X'Ylo how to cast Magic Missile. S'Rang debates that he cannot yet turn undead, so X'Ylo isn't done teaching him yet.
Eating and cooking, sroth's scroll, deer always come here, anything else I missed or forgot?
Experience: A wonderful game with bravery, daring, compassion and laziness. :) Although the characters did not resolve the white dragon situation the way I had envisioned it, it was actually solved in a much better fashion (at least so far) that the way I had it figured. So the 500 hundred character experience points I had assigned to the dragon encounter (as long as she was not killed) goes to the party, with a bonus 100xp points for solving the problem in a manner I had not anticipated. 600 xp divided among the 4 characters is 150xp each, with 50xp going to each class of each character. This week's experience bonus of 24xp for good role-playing goes to X'Ylo the whiny cleric. These xp will be divided among his classes.
A'Ha - 50MU, 50F, 50T - entered and updated
El'Fross - 50MU, 50F, 50T - entered and updated ... Now a 2nd level thief!
Snf'L - 50MU, 50F, 50T - entered and updated ... Now a 2nd level thief!
X'Ylo - 58C, 58F, 58T - entered and updated
Snf'L decides to work on his bow while the party waits to see if the dragon will eat the deer or whether or not it even exists. El'Fross and A'Ha decide they want to "learn something" from S'Rang, who prompty whacks them both unconscious with the flat of his sword. "That'll teach them," mutters S'Rang, under his breath. Snf'L looks up from the last stages of the creation of his custom composite longbow long enough to shake his head at his unconscious friends. X'Ylo brings A'Ha and El'Fross around with his healing skills.
X'Ylo persters S'Rang about teaching him to cast magic missile, which S'Rang refuses to do, since X'Ylo has not yet taugh him to turn undead. X'Ylo protests taht he has indeed shown S'Rang the proper way to turn undead, its just that S'Rang is not a cleric and therefore cannot do it. S'Rang says he has not been shown how then, but X'Ylo argues that the technique has indeed been taught. So S'Rang shows X'Ylo the proper "way" to cast magic missile, but does not teach him the spell itself. "When I can successfully turn undead, I'll teach you the rest," he tells the young priest.
A'Ha and Mykell go out and get a deer (bowling for it), which Snf'L skins and sets the leather aside to cure. They have roast venison for supper, augmented a bit by a herb X'Ylo found in the forest, once he quit whining at S'Rang and decided to do something else with his time.
S'Rang is learning about X'Ylo's Goddess. El'Fross is acting just like S'Rang. El'Fross says S'Rang is his hero and he's going to be just like him. S'Rang says he's gonna be sick and El'Fross wsays, "Me too!"
Meanwhile, Snf'L finally finishes the final finish on his strength-adjusted Composite Longbow and strings it for a test. It is indeed a fine quality bow. He begins curing the leather they acquired the day before, figuring it should take about a week.
Nothing much happens for that entire week. The party wants to have their armor spells up for when they go and see if there truly is a white dragon living below the castle and whether or not it is friendly. The leather ends up useable, but not fine enough to hold a bless spell and be effective for the armor spell. Snf'L instead uses the fine leather for an excellent backpack for A'Ha, who lost his during the "Floaty Pokey Thing" fight.
S'Rang is asked about casting an armor spell on El'Fross and A'Ha. He refuses at first, but as the party keeps bugging him he realizes that he does need the lads, and if they are insisting on going to visit the white dragon, then they might need to be protected to survive. The party enters the area where the deer is rotting. Mykell does not like the smell. Mykell, El'Fross and X'Ylo hold two ropes attached to Snf'L and A'Ha as they go in to look for the white dragon. They hear some grunts and some heavy breathing, determining that the dragon is just over some rubble to the East. As they approach, something loudly tells them to "Go away!" They continue forward to see the huge face of a white dragon come looming over the rubble and breathe right down on top of them! A'Ha turns to Snf'L and says goodbye as the frost envelopes them. But after the ice, Snf'L is still standing while A'Ha is down in a shivering heap. The dragon collapses on top of the rubble and weakly tells the party to go away again. They ask it abourt S'Roth and for the first time the dragon seems to notice that the elves are white-skinned. The dragon is not convinced that they know S'Roth and it asks them of S'Roth's wife's name. The young elves know that S'Roth was married to a Ranger years ago named S'Tlene and that she died adventuring before they were even born. The dragon now accepts them as friends, but still does not trust them to approach her lair. She does confess that the heat of the spring and impending summer is killing her and she has no strength. They soon find out why she has not left for colder climes - she is sitting on two eggs that have not yet hatched. She has refused to leave them and cannot carry them. Her mate, Dugg, left her with the eggs, and she has a mistrust of males of any species now. The party begins work with the dragon's permission to put up a small barricade which hopefully will keep the cold in and keep her comfortable, since the cold air seems to stay low to the ground and flow out through the front cave.
The dragon reluctantly lets X'Ylo cast an endure heat on her, and the dragon reacts instantly, gaining much strength back. The ruins become suddenly much cooler, and the dragon in her exuberance blasts the inside of her tower with her breath. A'Ha is caught at the fringe and goes down again as the air around him freezes. She apologizes as X'Ylo comes to the rescue and drags A'Ha out into the sunlight. The dragon fishes about in her icy lair and come up with a popsicle in a glass vial which she says will cure A'Ha. The popsicle of healing is taken out to thaw with A'Ha.
Pall the dragoness says she saw Drow Elves in the past winter, seemingly intent on adventuring within the castle, but they fled when they saw her. The party asks for the book S'Roth had left with her, and she reluctantly (after a little convinceing) gives it to them. It is completely covered with ice, and no member of the party thinks it is magical as they examine it for such. But after the ice is melted away and the Thistledown covering is removed, A'Ha declares it to be magic. El'Fross concurs, although he does not handle the book again. They open the book and peer over A'Ha's shoulders to view the contents of that which they have sough for so long. Suddenly a huge brownish creature rears up out of the book as they look at the glyph on the first page, and it attacks El'Fross! El'Fross is not caught unawares, however, and skips out of the attack area. The monster puffs into a big cloud of dun-colored smoke and the party is lost from each other for a brief time. A'Ha thinks to check the book again and finds it is still magic. The party worries about other traps within the book, but plan to read it anyway. It is unreadable to them at this point, so they try a comprehend languages spell, and are now able to read it. They plan to have someone read it aloud each day.
El'Fross tries to learn the spell comprehend languages but cannot fathom it any better than the magic missile spell he tried earlier.
After three days of reading the Arcanae Nebloth to each other and Pall, the female dragon gives an uncharacteristic "squeek!" and jumps off her nest. The party is witness to the hatching of a baby white dragon, who immediately focuses on A'Ha and goes toward him until A'Ha flees the area. The baby dragon is too small (although he is 2 feet long with 4 feet of tail at birth!) to get over the barrier wall to follow, and soon orients on his real mother. Pall names him Siroth after her departed aquaintance and the mentor of the elves who saved her life.
Mykell and Snf'L go out to get another deer. They have to search a bit harder, as the normal spot for deer is thinning out. Snf'L tries his new bow but cannot get one. Mykell bowls one for the party after a bit more of a search.
Good Game tonight! I really enjoyed getting back to "explore the dungeon" basics. For experience, I gave 120xp for the Giant Rats, 645xp for the lizards (575xp for the giants and 120xp for the babies or regulars) and 500 for the magic, which is much less than its real value. The total experience for the party is 1265xp (or 316xp ea.). Since all classes were represented well (except maybe the Wizard class) I split the xp evenly through each character's classes. I also award this week's 24xp role-playing bonus to A'Ha and his amazing talking sword!
A'Ha - 113MU, 113F, 113T ....entered and updated! A'Ha now a 2nd Level Thief!
El'Fross - 105MU, 105F, 105T ....entered and updated!
Snf'L - 105MU, 105F, 105T ....entered and updated!
X'Ylo - 105C, 105F, 105MU ....entered and updated!
The next day the group decides they will explore the remainer of the castle, starting with the lower levels. They first explored an ancient bedroom with the remains of a what looked like it must have been a bed. There in the corner where there was pleny of rubble, they were attacked by Giant Rats! The battle raged, Snf'L trying to fire his bow into intimate melee whilst his friends battled hand-to-hand. One of Snf'L's shots went wildly wrong as he lost his grip on his new bow, and the arrow pierced his leg. The pain was too much for him, and Snf'L passed out. A Giant Rat bit A'Ha as he knocked another of the creatures senseless. X'Ylo did a lot of fighting in this battle, but not much hitting. The rats seemed just too fast for his javelin thrusts.
Eventually the rats were defeated and party carried on. They first discovered the rope that led from the bottom of the stairs across the top of the Bedroom where the rats had lived, then they were cautious and checked the bottom of the stiars very extensively for traps. Then they followed the stairs to discover that they led back up into Mykell's room.
Not long after this they entered another room. This one had a set of tracks that went partway into the room and then stopped. These tracks then went back the way they came from. As Snf'L went to investigate, he set off the arrow trap in the room and was almost skewered by an arrow! They set the trap off several more times, since it reset each time, and Snf'L managed to get 18 arrowheads in fair condition (although the shafts and flights were quite shoddy).
The party then went to see how the trap worked, but were confounded by a locked door to the area where the trap was. The door was also trapped so that a large fist encased in a glove would shoot out and bop the person in front of the door if the lock was messed with. It took the adventurers several tries before they managed to disable the trap, but they still could not get the door open.
They discovered a room with 3 Giant Lizards. They tried to flush them out with dancing lights but to no avail. They then decided to bait the Giant Lizards with dead Giant Rats from the previous encounter. A huge battle resulted with even the babies (or perhaps they were smaller cousins) of the Lizards joining in. Everyone but the dead Giant Rats avoided the jaws of the Giant Lizards, but El'Fross was bitten by one of the small lizards before they were all killed. They did not appear to have been poisonous, as El'Fross is fine at the point this game session ends.
Sorry guys, that game was lacking, as I am totally bushed from working both jobs this past weekend. It'll be better next week. The Brown Mold was worth 15xp according to the books, but that's dumb for something that can kill you instantly, so I'm giving 60xp for the Mold and the solution the party came up with to deal with it. That is 15xp per character, divided evenly among the classes. The zombies were worth 65xp each and I'm giving that one to each person's warrior xp only since that was the solution used on the Zombies, except for X'Ylo who gets that experience on his cleric side for the attempted turn. So that's single class xp of 33 each. My roleplaying vote goes to John this week with his "teaching Snf'L to be lazy" routine. 24 xp for El'Fross to be divided evenly through his classes. I am also giving the three thieves 15xp for all the traps and locks they dealt with and 15xp extra to X'Ylo's cleric class as he was always ready to come to the aid of the thieves when they screwed up. Kinda low xp this game, but I blame myself for dragging my butt a bit. Maybe I should give experience for empty rooms :)
A'Ha - 5MU, 38F, 20T ....entered and updated!
El'Fross - 13MU, 46F, 28T ....entered and updated!
Snf'L - 5MU, 38F, 20T ....entered and updated!
X'Ylo - 53C, 5F, 5MU ...entered and updated! (Still not quite there!)
5:00PMThe lizards are cooked up for Mykell's supper and the skins are saved for 3 seperate batches of leather that Snf'L is going to try (with slightly varying curing conditions) in an attempt to make more finely cured leather, needed for the armor spell the party relies so heavily upon. No more happens that day, and even "vengeance" seems at peace.
Mykell and S'Rang go out "bowling for deer". A'Ha goes along, but "Vengeance"s incessant chatter becomes annoying to him. Mykell uses his single "throwing glove" to heft several rocks until he finds one he thinks will be suitable and they carry on to the area the deer frequent.
El'Fross decides he will just enjoy himself and have a "lazy day". He politley requests from his reclining position that Snf'L begin to teach him the "common" language. Snf'L agrees if El'Fross will in turn teach him something. El'Fross offers to teach Snf'L the fine art of laziness. Meanwhile, X'Ylo chats with Pall the white dragon. Little Siroth is already learning to talk and is trying his darndest to get out over the ice wall.
Mykell and S'Rang return with a deer for Snf'L to skin and to share with Pall. The Giant does not get to near the dragon, and this seems to agree with the dragon's sentiments.
Suddenly Pall screams and the air becomes quite cold. She has discovered that during the night she must have shifted and her remaining egg is destroyed. Inside was the remains of an underdeveloped baby dragon fetus. The egg was dead for some time it seems. Pall gets over the death of her second baby rather quickly and begins to talk about getting "home". She wants to fly North as soon as Siroth is able. She even suggests that the party look after the little guy while she heads home. She would be back in the winter to get him. The party politely refuses, as they "don't know nothin' 'bout raisin' no dragons" and we don't really want the name of the campaign to change to "Four Elves and a Baby Dragon". That's a joke. You know, like Three Men and a Baby? But I digress...
The party discusses their options and their quest. What should their next move be? S'Rang wants to prowl the Fellreev in search of any other survivors, round them up and get them to a safe place. The others agree that this is important, but mention that S'Roth wanted them to find other Schef Elves in a place called "the desert" (whatever THAT is). S'Roth does not mind taking on the round up quest on his own, but where should they meet later? The castle is nominated by someone, and seems the ideal place. Mykell is a deterrent for most attacks on the castle, and Pall winters here, which makes things even more secure. S'Rang comes to a descision that he will begin his quest very soon, and has a lesser errand he must do that will take maybe a couple of weeks, and he will start the following day.
S'Rang preparing to leave, but he does not know how long he might be, nor does he offer up exactly where he is going. He bids the party farewll, giving A'Ha a parting present of a prism, the spell component for read magic. A'Ha thanks him and the party bids him good-bye. S'Rand does not seem himself, as he does not even bother to insult the young elves as he leaves, even waving to them after a hundred yards of travel or so.
The rest of the group decides to continue their exploration of the castle. Ruins such as these often yield up valuable treasure or magic items, and besides, they could use the weapons practice that comes from meeting real live evil critters and malicious animals. The party narrowly avoids a pit trap filled with spikes. Down in the trap are two skeletons. Snf'L goes down to find the one is quite ancient but the other has a belt pouch and a rusty shortsword. There are no other useful things on this second body. Inside the belt pouch are a silver key and 6 ancient silver pieces.
In the next area the party encounters a piece of brownish mold that seems to steal the heat right from A'Ha's body. They play with various aspects of this odd mold that can freeze even the stoutest K'Needian Elf, to whom cold means very little. On Snf'L's suggestion they exit the castle and cut down a 10' length of sapling after checking with Pall to see if she would like to interact with such a mold. She says she has heard tell of something similar that this may be and is curious. They go back and scoop some mold into a leather sack improvised by the leatherworker. They bring some to the dragon and carefully bring it into contact with her. She is unaffected and seems dissappointed. But as one of the adventurers gets too close it flares up in cold waves and she gets very excited. Maybe there is a way to use this stuff to fly home in comfort! Another experiment, however, reveals that the stuff dies in the sunlight.
They leave Pall to her renewed meloncholy and resuem their exploration. Through a set of double doors they find the dead bodies of two 1 foot tall humanoids with oversized ears and noses. They investigate, finding only that the creatures were killed by shoddy arrows (much like those in the pit trap they found on the 18th of Wealsun) and that there is a third arrow that hit the wall instead. Nothing else can be discrened about the death scene. Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him?!
The next room is empty, but has a single locked door on one wall. Snf'L does a very poor job of picking the lock, and even breaks a pick! He is now at -1% for picking locks until he can replace the pick.
The party gives up on the door, leaving Snf'L's broken pick in the lock. They advance through another empty room and discover a room with stairs leading down "guarded" on either side by two identical statues of warriors. Snf'L and A'Ha check them closely (but not TOO closely) to see if they are magic. Snf'L determines that the one on the left is magic but not the other. H'Ha determines neither is magic, but trusts Snf'L's assessment of the one on the left. Feeling they have found the stairs going down to the level that Snf'L surmised must exist, they retreat to check out the remainder of this level. They find a room that contains the rusted remains of several large pots and finally give up as they are getting fatigued. A bit of a rest is in order.
Experience Breakdown: Sorry about the Osquip thing guys - I'll pay a little more attention to the actual monsters and not just the coolness of the monster rollup proggy. The only real experience for tonight's adventure was the crafty little trap that I figured would get one person at least. I decided that 400xp was good for the trap back when I designed it. Since the party were all involved in the trap situation and many different class abilities were used, the 400xp is divided by each player and by each class. 33xp per person per class is given.
As far as role-playing experience: John voted for Darryl, Fred voted for John, Darryl voted for Murray. After speaking with Murray, he decided to vote for John. So John gets the 24xp for roleplaying.
A'Ha - 33 MU, 33 F, 33 T - entered and updated
El'Fross - 41 MU, 41 F, 41 T - entered and updated
Snf'L - 33 MU, 33 F, 33 T - entered and updated
X'Ylo - 33 MU, 33 F, 33 C - entered and updated - Oh, man, so close!
The next day the party sets out again to finish their investigation of the castle. The party starts with the hallway they left off at. They open the door and after checking it for traps. They check out the hallway from the door, but it seems safe enough, despite the disturbing shadows and the rubble from the roof and walls. As they pass the midway point of the hallway, Osquips (that's a 6-legged species of very viscious rat) attack them from their holes. The party is not surprised, but is quickly overwhelmed and killed by the ugly yellow creatures.
Dead as he must be, X'Ylo is awakened by the coldest tongue he has ever felt washing his face and saying over and over again, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!". He opens his eyes to see little Siroth on his chest, looking at him with those funny little dragon eyes. X'Ylo then sees the Osquips close in on him and they bite him back into unconsciousness. Siroth wakes up the party members one at a time, and eventually one manages to see through the illusion. Once Snf'L and A'Ha have seen that the Osqips are a very clever illusion and quite realistic, they take Siroth back to Pall. She does not seem that concerned about him running off, and the party despairs she will just leave him one day because she does not care as much for him anymore. A'Ha and Snf'L return to help the others see through the illusion. The toughest nut turns out to be Elfross, who seems to flatly refuse to believe that the Osquips are not real.
The party checks the hallway for secret doors and finds one. They cannot figure out how to open it for quite awhile, however. After they spend 2 and a half hours searching for the trigger, X'Ylo walks up to a wall not 25 feet away from the secret door itself and finds a torch sconce that pulls downward, opening the secret door.
They find after awhile that if they let go of the torch sconce it goes back to its original position and the secret door closes. El'Fross uses the floating pokey shortsword to hold the sconce in position. Beyond the secret door is another hallway area. This one has a single door in the North wall. It opens away from the party since there are no hinges visible. There is a large crushed area about the size of an elven head in the door at hip height. There are
many bones about in front of the door that are quite old. There are at least three bodies, since three skulls are visible, but the bones are quite jumbled and there seem to be quite a few. Snf'L carefully examines the area for quite some time, trying to figure out from the arrangement of the bones and the other physical evidence exactly what the trap will do (without trying to figure out what triggers it). After some examination and searching he discovers a 12 foot long panel in the roof which ends at the West wall. The party then searches the area for traps very thoroughly to find out how the trap they know is there is set off. They finally determine the door is the trouble, but still don't know exactly what the trap consists of.
The party decides to spend whatever time it takes to make sure the area is safe. They begin to bring rubble in from other areas of the castle to build pillars by the door and a small wall directly underneath the Easternmost part of the panel in the roof.
Four days later the work is done, but the party decides after all that there may be an easier way past the trap. They move their pillars and walls around so they can check each wall for secret doors. This takes them another 2 days to move and then replace all their work.
All is in readiness. El'Fross has determined earlier that the door's lock and/or handle is the way o set off the insiduous trap. A'Ha goes into the little hallway area while Snf'L and El'Fross hang back just back from where the roof panel begins and X'Ylo hangs back just beyond the secret door, ready to administer healing and medicine to any who become injured.
Both El'Fross and Snf'L have tried to remove the trap already, but were not successful. A'Ha decides to try a different approach than the others, going with the idea that the keyhole is the area to concentrate on. He maneuvers his tools about in the hole, trying to capture the trigger piece and neutralize it. Suddenly there is a clicking sound from the keyhole, followed immediately by a click in the ceiling. El'Fross and Snf'L leap back toward the secret door, while A'Ha tries to get out of the way. The panel opens up in the ceiling and a huge blade on the end of a pole comes out and swings down, ready to slice A'Ha into probably two seperate halves. It crashes down onto the retaining wall the party has built, crushing it slightly and knocking much of it down. But the wall wins out in the end, stopping the momentum of the giant blade and saving A'Ha. The party breathes a collective sigh of relief.
The entire party troops in, but they hang back, as they believe the trap may have two parts. Snf'L cannot get the door open, and El'Fross comes close - but it seems almost as if some creature on the other side holds it closed. El'Fross and Snf'L working together finally get it open.