Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)

[Lazybones]

Story Note: following the suggestion given in the module, and the fact that the events here are following a time schedule that doesn’t really allow for retreat/rest, I allowed the characters to level during their progress through Jzadirune. All of the 1st level characters had sufficient xp to reach 2nd level after the spider encounter (except Zenna, who as ECL+1 will need 3000xp to reach L2). Readers familiar with the module will also note that the scroll that Mole found has an additional... surprise... that may become important later.

I'll post an update to the Rogues' Gallery before the next story post.

And now, without further ado, here's your Friday update and cliffhanger:

* * * * *


Chapter 17

“It looks like this complex is just a big ring around the center stairs,” Mole said, studying the map that they’d gotten from Ghelve. “It also looks like we’re not going to get anywhere without getting through some of those doors... at least not through the normal passages.”

“So it’s back to the skulk tunnels,” Zenna said. “Wonderful.”

They were back in the main hall, occupied only by themselves, the magical dancing lights, and the bodies of the skulks they’d slain earlier.

“Well, I think...” Ruphos began.

“I know,” Arun interrupted. “You want to go back to the surface, get help.”

Ruphos shook his head. “Actually, what I was going to say, is that we should see about finding the entrance to this ‘Malachite Fortress’. What did the skulk tell you about how to get down there?”

Arun looked hard at the cleric for a moment, then nodded. “He said that there’s a lift that connects the gnome enclave to the fortress. It’s accessed by a secret door, he said that it’s in the area occupied by the leader of the creepers, to the northeast.”

“Descend into the malachite hold, where precious life is bought with gold,” Zenna intoned.

Mole elbowed her. “Stop it with that, will you? It’s creepy.”

“Nonetheless, the divine message has not steered us wrong yet,” Ruphos said. “We should pay heed to its guidance.”

“Bah, I prefer a god who speaks clearly, and not in stupid riddles,” Arun said. He hefted his hammer. “Well, if we’re going to thrust our heads into the dragon’s mouth, let’s be about it, then!”

“Let’s try the tunnel that the first skulk took, the one that got away,” Mole suggested.

They retracted their steps to that room. Ruphos’s light spell had faded, but Mole had a few torches in her bag that she handed to the cleric to illuminate their way. Soon they were back in that first room off of the chamber of the masks. The room was dark now, the sunrod that they’d seen before lying expired on the floor where they’d left it. The body of the skulk, they instantly noticed, had been drawn out of the mouth of the tunnel and left to the near the adjacent pile of rubble.

“Somebody’s been along this way,” Arun warned, needlessly.

The dwarf led them into the new tunnel. This one stretched on for far longer than the ones they’d taken earlier, and they crept warily down its length for a good while before it crooked to the left and then back right again, drawing them gradually to the east. Finally they reached a fork, with the tunnel splitting off into identical tubes heading north and south. Following the directive given by the skulk prisoner, Arun led them to the north.

The tunnel continued for a good forty feet or so before it emerged on the eastern edge of a lengthy hall. The chamber stretched a good fifty feet or so ahead of them, and was perhaps twenty feet across. Arun, with his darkvision, could just make out another rough-hewn tunnel at the far end of the hall, and two passages that exited via the north and south walls. There was a pile of rubble stacked against the wall to their right, but other than that the place appeared barren, empty.

“And if you believe that, I’ll be sellin’ you a diamond mine I know of,” the dwarf grumbled.

“What’s that, Arun?” Mole asked.

“Nothing. Stay alert.”

The dwarf moved warily into the chamber, the others crowded into the mouth of the tunnel behind him. He’d barely managed a few paces, however, before a warning from Mole brought him up short.

“Arun!” she hissed. “You’re... fading!”

The dwarf looked down at himself—it was true, as he watched he found that he could see through his arm to the floor below, and a heartbeat later there was nothing, not even an outline of his bulky, armored frame. It was as if he had suddenly become disembodied, a ghost without tangible substance; except that he could feel his body around him, nothing had truly happened to him save for the shroud of invisibility that had drawn about him.

Belatedly, the dwarf realized that the others did not realize what had happened. “Arun! Are you...” Zenna cried out softly.

“I’m all right, just invisible,” he told them. He moved about, slightly relieved that he could still hear the sounds of his passage.

“Another persistent magical effect,” Mole said. She stepped out into the room, ignoring Zenna’s word of caution, holding up her hand before her so that she could witness the effect more clearly. Sure enough, the hand began to fade from view just a few moments after she entered the room.

She was distracted, however, at the sound of a voice that echoed clearly from the far end of the chamber. “Taral yan zyggek!” it said, the voice rough and masculine.

“Hey, that’s gnomish!” Mole said. As she was already invisible, however, her friends could not see the sudden look of realization that hit her face, as she realized exactly what in her tongue the words signified...

A loud creaking noise, metal protesting being forced into motion, filled the room. Its origin was close, close enough almost to feel the vibrations as a solid thump! followed the initial sound, followed a moment later by an almost painful metallic screech. Before any of them could react to these sudden developments, they heard yet another sound, a loud dwarven cry of pain that was followed by a clatter of metal falling upon unyielding stone. Arun’s hammer suddenly appeared, falling to the ground and skittering to a stop a few feet away, as did a spray of red droplets that hung in the air for an instant or two before falling to splatter on the stone floor.

 

[Black Bard]

Arun’s hammer suddenly appeared, falling to the ground and skittering to a stop a few feet away, as did a spray of red droplets that hung in the air for an instant or two before falling to splatter on the stone floor.

Oh, creepy!!!

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 18


“Arun!” Zenna cried. She nearly rushed into the chamber, but Ruphos held onto her, knowing that whatever had struck down the dwarf was still raging within the invisibility. As the noise of its initial assault faded, however, the air seemed to solidify from where the noises of creaking and whirring continued to issue, and the form of their attacker took shape.

It was a mechanical shape, a construct of plates and gears that had the look of an iron barrel, with squat legs and stubby arms that ended in heavy, pointed steel heads shaped like the ends of a flanged mace. It had no discernable eyes, ears, or mouth, but it clearly had no difficulty marking them as targets even within the aura of invisibility. It came forward toward the tunnel entrance, where Zenna and Ruphos watched in horrified fascination. Zenna hefted her crossbow, although it was difficult to see how a mere bolt could harm such a thing, while Ruphos stepped boldly in front of her, holding his mace tightly in both hands.

“Blasted hunk of junk!” came Arun’s voice, pain warring with anger in his tone. The hammer lifted off of the ground, wavering slightly before coming up high, poised to attack.

“Wait!” Mole said, her voice likewise issuing from thin air, but directly in the path of the automaton. “Mek taral neth! she cried, speaking in the gnome tongue. Halt, don’t attack!

The automaton lurched to a stop, the spinning heads on its arms grinding to a halt and dropping down toward the ground. Arun’s hammer came to a halt as well, directly behind the creature, still hanging ready in the air. “Well?” the dwarf’s voice came to them. “We smashing it, or what?”

Mole clapped her hands together. “It does what I say!” she said, gleefully. She gave it a command in gnome, and obediently the machine turned about, moving slowly in a circle. After a few moments the invisibility effect present in the room began to take effect upon it once, more, and the automaton faded from view.

“We’ve got ourselves a new ally, it would seem,” Zenna noted.

* * * * *

The companions quickly took stock of their situation. A bit of cautious probing uncovered the limit of the invisibility effect, which was apparently a sphere perhaps fifteen feet across. A second one was located on the far side of the room, where the command that had unleashed the automaton upon them had originated. The spheres were fixed in place, and only affected beings that moved into them; once they left the radius of the effect, the individual returned immediately to visibility.

Ruphos treated Arun, who’d been grievously wounded by the automaton’s assault. The dwarf did not complain, this time, as the cleric channeled healing energy into the stricken paladin. The four of them, trailed by the lumbering automaton, gathered in the center of the hall, where they could see each other free of the invisibility spheres. Mole was continuing to experiment with the device, giving it a variety of commands. The pulverizer was powerful, but unreliable; often it would hesitate or simply stand there for up to half a minute before finally lurching into action.

“What should we name it?” Mole asked the others. “How about, ‘smashy?’ You like that, Smashy?”

The automaton, of course, did not comment, but Arun, Zenna, and Ruphos shared a concerned look, standing close together and speaking in low voices.

“We can assume that the creepers know we’re here, and that they may be preparing an ambush as we speak,” Zenna said. “If they’re not watching us right now... with that invisibility effect, one could be standing right over there and we’d never even know it.”

“Well, that one that ordered the golem to attack either fled, or it’s hiding,” Arun said matter-of-factly. “Either way, it’s a coward.”

“We can’t underestimate them,” Zenna insisted. “Those tunnels are prefect for a surprise attack, and there’s little we could do to react.”

“I’m more worried about our resources,” Ruphos added. “My spells are almost depleted, and we don’t have much more in the way of healing. I have a single potion that Jenya gave me, but it is only good for one treatment.”

“Hey, I still have my potion as well,” Mole said, stepping into their circle. “And now that we have Smashy here, perhaps we can take a... different approach.”

The three taller companions exchanged a glance, and looked expectantly at the gnome.

 

[Lazybones]

"Smashy"

 

[wolff96]

Heh...

Nice description of Arun getting bushwacked in the invisibility!

With no gnomes (or anyone that spoke the langauge) my group had to do this one the hard way.

 

[Lazybones]

Wolff: I think the gnomes often get overlooked by designers, or minimalized (forgive the pun) as silly tricksters. I tried to go against the grain somewhat with Cal and now Mole, while still remaining true to the race as described in the PH and FRCS. Certainly I've seen few non-gnome PCs bother to take the language, but in this case the fact that Zenna and Mole both speak it has already been significant in a few places of the story.

* * * * *

I got Issue 102 yesterday, and the newest installment in the Adventure Path. I've only had time for a cursory look, but it appears as though our adventurers have some quite interesting challenges ahead.

Of course, first they have to survive Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress...

I'm ahead in the story, so multiple updates this week, starting with:

* * * * *

Chapter 19

Trust.

Trust was a double-edged sword, one that could turn on you and be thrust into your back when you least expected it. This was a truth that Yuathyb understood all too well, given what he was, and his current position.

The fact was, he was desperate, but he kept that fact well hidden from his minions. He’d always been suspicious of them, a wise precaution in any circumstances, but especially so given recent developments. Over the last few days, he’s seen the way that the creepers had looked at him, the furtive glances that seemed to be weighing options, opportunities...

He did not blame them for that. In their circumstance, he would likely be doing the same thing.

One of the creepers came over to him, nimbly avoiding the broken pottery and glass that carelessly littered the floor. Of course, there was nothing careless about it, but there was nothing to be done for it now anyway.

The creeper looked up at him with hooded eyes, the rest of its face covered by the enfolding wrap of his cloak. Yuathyb knew what it was thinking, knew it was trying to judge how far the sickness had progressed since their last meeting, but he refused to draw his own cloak closer around himself.

“Report,” he snapped.

“They have taken control of the automaton,” the creeper hissed. “They have a gnome among them. Mzrak is keeping watch, in the tunnel.”

Outwardly, Yuathyb betrayed nothing, but inside he cursed. He should have anticipated that the intruders might have a gnome among their number. He glanced at the skulk, who at the moment was living up to its name, huddling in a corner. The creature had been less than useless in terms of describing the intruders, failing to report even this basic snippet of information, but the stalker could not blame it, either; at least the blasted things were consistent in their cowardice.

Yuathyb turned back to his minion. “Tell Mzrak not to engage, but to monitor the progress of the intruders and report back. We will ambush them here, and put an end to their meddling in a single blow.”

The creeper nodded, an anticipatory gleam in its dark eyes as it bowed incrementally before darting away toward the tunnel entrance.

The stalker watched it depart. The two other creepers that remained eyed him with the same evaluating stare as their companion, but Yuathyb ignored them, already lost in the complex machinations of thought.

He did not believe that the creepers would betray him—not now, with a common enemy to fight. Perhaps after these enemies were beaten, if he were left sufficiently weak, but Yuathyb was too canny a veteran to let himself be drawn directly into a battle if minions were available instead. They resented him, to be sure, particularly so with the memory of the lesson he’d had to impart just a few days ago fresh in their minds. It was a pity that had been necessary; he could have used Zirtak’s skills in the coming confrontation.

A sound drew his attention, a metallic scrape that seemed to come from the direction of the gnome door in the south wall. His creepers and the skulks alike avoided all of the gnome portals with their resetting traps and defensive wards, still quite potent despite the decades that had passed since the gnomes had abandoned Jzadirune. Once Yuathyb had discovered the pulverizer, they’d been able to create new tunnels that bypassed the doors, making them moot.

The stalker gestured, and one of the creepers slinked over to the door, careful not to touch it, leaning close against the wood to listen.

Suddenly there was a loud CLANG! and the door shuddered visibly. Almost immediately, a dense cloud of cloying purplish smoke erupted from all around the threshold, engulfing the creeper and filling a good portion of the space directly in front of the door. Yuathyb himself drew back quickly, although it was clear that the smoke was not spreading further into the room. The noise continued, accompanied now by the sounds of splintering wood as the door gave way before what had to be the assault of the automaton.

It would appear that I underestimated them, the stalker thought grimly to himself. He watched as the creeper staggered out of the cloud, clearly suffering its effects, his face ravaged and blackened, his cloak sagging as the acidic vapors continued to burn through the fabric. The creeper he’d sent just a few moments before emerged from the tunnel well away from the door, and Yuathyb froze the skulk who’d already begun edging away toward the passage exit in the north wall with a cold look.

The cloud was already beginning to clear. The stalker drew his sword, pointing it to the ruin of the doorway where the pulverizer was just coming into view.

His minions moved into position.

 

[Black Bard]

Melee!!!!!

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 20

As the cloud of acidic vapors triggered by the trap on the door cleared, the four companions could see the pulverizer automaton, its metallic hide scarred by the gas, continuing its assigned chore of dismantling the obstacle of the portal. Its twin rotating drills had already bored a sizeable hole in the center of the door, and it was now quickly widening it, sending shards of stone and wood flying.

“Well, I’d say we’ve lost the element of surprise, at least,” Zenna noted dryly.

Arun moved up behind the automaton, trying to see into the chamber beyond. “Tell this thing to get out of the way,” he said to Mole.

The gnome nodded, and ordered the automaton forward. The golem lowered its arms, and obediently lurched forward. The grinding noise of its movements had grown louder; apparently the cloud of corrosive gas had damaged its internal workings.

Arun followed the automaton into the room, which had the appearance of a ruined laboratory or workshop. Crushed pottery and shards of glass littered the floor, and tables surmounted with the ruin of once-extensive glassworks, shelves, and miscellaneous apparatus were pushed up against the walls. Also present was a short, squat, gnomelike figure, clad in a cloak that was a ruin of shredded fibers that barely hung together about him. Beady, hostile eyes met Arun’s gaze, and he let out a terrible screech as he drew back, drawing a long dirk out from under his cloak. Arun hefted his hammer, but before he could do anything, the shadows around the creature seemed to thicken, gathering about him into a cloak of darkness that obscured his body from view.

“Your black sorceries will not save you from justice, fiend!” the dwarf shouted, stepping boldly forward into the room.

“What’s happening?” came Mole’s voice, from behind the door. The companions were pushing through the ruin of the doorway, but the jagged remnants of the portal that remained in the threshold were slowing their progress. Zenna’s face appeared through the gap, but then Ruphos pushed through, his mace in one hand and a torch in the other. Zenna was right behind him, holding her loaded crossbow at the ready.

As light from the burning brand flooded into the room, the shadow-cloaked creeper let out another angry cry. And the light revealed another short, cloaked figure who stepped out from the adjacent wall near the tunnel mouth to the left, right behind Arun...

“Arun! Watch out!” the cleric cried.

But the warning came too late, for even as he shouted, the creeper slipped up behind the dwarf and thrust his long knife into his side. The attack was devastating, punching through the gap in the dwarf’s scale mail under his arm and deep into the flesh and muscle and organs underneath. Arun staggered to the side, hurt badly, and the creeper cackled gleefully, his dagger slick with dwarvish blood along its entire length. The acid-burned one moved to join the attack, sweeping wide to come up on Arun’s far side to flank the dwarf.

Ruphos hefted his mace and prepared to come to the dwarf’s aid, but hesitated as a crossbow bolt lanced out from the right, narrowly missing him. He held the torch out in that direction, revealing a familiar tall form, its pale skin rippling with color to match the wall behind, already loading its bow for another shot.

“Skulk!” Ruphos warned. At his warning, Zenna lifted her bow and fired, though her hasty shot went wide and struck the table beside the skulk, smashing a clay beaker into a hundred fragments.

As if in response, another shadow stirred under a table near the wall just to the right of the door, the light from Ruphos’s torch refusing to penetrate its darkness as it started forward toward the two adventurers.

And it wasn’t as bad as it was going to get, either.

The light of Ruphos’s torch did not reach as far as the back of the room, leaving it a maze of deep shadows. From that direction a clear, angry voice filled the room. “Telath nur zyg’zet!”

And in response, the pulverizer, standing forgotten in the middle of the room, turned toward the dwarf, its drill-hands beginning once more to spin with their grinding cadence.

“Neth!” Mole cried, shouting at the automaton as she entered the room, biting off a curse as her cloak caught on the jagged edge of a shattered board. “Smashy, don’t!”

The automaton hesitated, caught between two conflicting commands. Finally it just stopped, lowering its arms, electing to do nothing.

From the back of the room came another command, spoken in a tongue that was rough and guttural, like pebbles being ground together. Arun was the only one among the four who spoke Undercommon, and thus understood the mandate directed at creepers and the skulk.

Kill the gnome!

“You’ll have to get through me, first!” he yelled back in challenge, sweeping his hammer with deadly force despite the grievous wound in his side. He assaulted the creeper in front of him, catching it with a glancing blow to its shoulder. The creeper drew back, summoning the magical shadow-cloak that protected its fellows before coming in again, its bloody knife darting in and out of the dark shroud at the dwarf. Meanwhile, the injured creeper came up on Arun from behind, seeking another weakness that it could exploit with a devastating sneak attack. Its knife came back, then darted forward...

And stopped, as the creeper, a dazed expression on its face, simply stood there, wavering. For several long seconds it hesitated, doing nothing, before it finally shook its head, clearing it of the mental fog that had descended upon it.

Just in time to clearly mark the hammer that came crashing down squarely upon its forehead.

Zenna nodded grimly as she witnessed the result of her spell. Arun turned to face his remaining opponent, but Zenna could not spare him any more aid at the moment. Ruphos had attacked the third creeper, while behind them, Zenna could see that the skulk had reloaded his crossbow, and was looking for targets. It staggered, though, as a bolt sank deeply into its side. The wizard glanced back and saw Mole, standing in the doorway, flashing her a thumbs-up before she started reloading.

Suddenly, out of the darkness, a long shaft came slicing directly toward her. Somehow instinct took over, and Zenna hurled herself aside, the javelin narrowly missing her before it slammed hard into the surviving jam of the door. Her heart pounding in her chest at the close call—she had no doubt that the missile would have killed her, had it struck her unawares—she lashed back without thinking, eschewing her magic for a more primal, basic power that was part of her very being.

A globe of pure blackness, darker even than the shadows beyond the radius of the torchlight, appeared in the back of the room. Zenna looked on in horror as she realized what she had done. She had tapped into the power of her mixed heritage—of the corrupt, shadowed side of what she was; a power that she’d sworn that she would never use. The taint that she’d hated all her life, ever since she’d learned what she was.

“Zenna! Are you all right?”

She looked up and saw Mole, her face a mask of concern. And also the shadow that rose up in the doorway behind her, a gleaming knife the only clearly discernable part of its form...

“Mole!”

 

[Broccli_Head]

I love it so far LB. It's got all the drama of the first one!

Can"t wait until you develop the characterization even more.

 

[djrdjmsqrd]

*Claps* - very happly....

Welcome back, LB!

I could not have asked for a better return from your writing.

For some resson, reading your SH's always put me in a better mood.

As always, Great Job LB.

Now, back to lurking in a new LB SH...

/lurk

djordje