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Author
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Comment
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Kenner
Draxim
Posts: 146
(11/28/02 8:06 am)
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Re: The Tower
Draxim hurriedly follows Madragars direction, and also applies the remaining oil soaked blanket strips to stoke the blaze. "Ruig get ready with the wood."
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 601
(12/2/02 9:38 am)
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Re: The Tower
The oil spreads over and through the wool garment and quickly bursts into a smokey flame. The air becomes thick with a mixture of the black smoke and the greenish vapors of the ooze. Still struggling to keep the creature at bay, everyone begins to cough and gag, their eyes watering and noses evacuating gobs of mucous. The environment is nothing less than torturous.
Miraculously the pool of bubbling slime quickly recedes, writhing away from the burning cloak. In doing so, however, it begins to spit out a steady stream of the toxic gas as well as bits of acidic slime. Everyone is suddenly covered in flecks of burning ooze that scorch the skin and dissolve through clothing and leather.
Madragar, keeping his eye on the exit through the tears and smoke, manages to croak out "run" as an opening appears. The four explorers burst through the smoke of the chamber and scramble up the twisting tube. The tunnel is slick with a trail of slime left by the creature so it is a filthy and exhausted group that emerges into the larger chamber above and falls to the ground gasping for breath.
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 122
(12/2/02 2:20 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Gasping, the tattooed mage looks about for anything that will burn. If he sees nothing, he moves to discover whether the ooze is following them.
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 602
(12/2/02 2:22 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Madragar spots the cluster of corpses at the base of the main ramp, but grimly decides, at least for the moment, that he could live without pawing over yet another corpse.
Peering down the tube Madragar sees no sign of pursuit, though healthy clouds of black and green smoke are trailing up from the depths.
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Kenner
Draxim
Posts: 147
(12/2/02 5:33 pm)
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Re: The Tower
"We need fresh air! Draxim begins dragging himself toward the surface, hacking like a coal miner. "We can find burnables in the woods nearby and return. I hope it doesn't get to cold or one of you will discover me sharing your bedroll." his good natured laughter quickly turns to hacking and spitting. "I must be feeling light headed from all the smoke," he murmurs. "I'm getting as flighty as an elf..."
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 123
(12/3/02 2:51 pm)
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Re: The Tower
"I am loathe to leave without getting what we came for," Madragar says, standing his ground and putting out a hand to stay the dwarf's passage. "And that was knowledge of what the broo were after. If it is here, we must find it. And destroy that Chaos-spawn, to boot."
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 603
(12/3/02 3:10 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Ruig rises, knocking bits of still steaming ooze from his clothing. Then, after a final cough, approaches Madragar and Draxim.
"Look there," he says, pointing east toward the far end of the cave. "The beast crawled from the pit and made straight for us." In the dim torchlight a thin trail of viscous slime is apparent leading from the mouth of the descending tunnel directly to the lip of the dark pit.
"I don't know what the broo came for, but they didn't stick around very long down here. The barrels were intact and unmoved as far as I could tell. There was no sign that the ooze had emerged from its pit either."
Ruig shrugs and turns to keep an eye on the tunnel.
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 124
(12/3/02 9:05 pm)
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Re: The Tower
"Then either the key lays with those untranslated runes or with something we have yet to discover - likely in this very chamber. I suggest we spread out and re-examine the walls and floor. Except you, Kezib. Be so kind as to keep watch over the tunnel from below."
Madragar starts to look very carefully around the chamber, particularly near the runes.
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doggius
Kezib Ahitub
Posts: 89
(12/3/02 9:38 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Kezib stands ready for anything that might pop its head into our business. Kezib, strains to hear anything out of the ordinary, while letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. Kezib remains silent watching over his companions waiting for anything that may cause harm.
Kezib turns and opens his mouth to ask a question, but turns back, to leave his friends to their work.
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 604
(12/4/02 9:02 am)
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Re: The Tower
Madragar returns to the inscriptions, giving them another look under the orange light of his torch. They remain, however, as they were - silent and indecipherable. Passing his free hand over the wall Madragar searches for any moving parts, or perhaps a hidden door, to no avail. It is as solid as it appears.
Draxim and Ruig move along the north end of the room, peering into the stagnant pool, which is only a foot or so deep where it meets the north wall. The water itself is still and seems to withold no secrets.
From back at the tunnel Madragar hears Kezib, "ahem." Looking, Madragar can see that Kezib is standing in total darkness. His makeshift torch has burned out and without a light source of his own he can barely see himself, let alone what might be slithering up from below.
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 125
(12/4/02 5:31 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Madragar shrugs. "There are days when the wise admit defeat. Come. We can return another day with oil and torches to destroy the beast and then make a proper study."
He heads decisively for the exit.
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doggius
Kezib Ahitub
Posts: 90
(12/4/02 8:57 pm)
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Re: The Tower
Kezib turns and notices that Madragar is heading towards the enterance, turns and heads back to the group. Ready for the glorious beam of sunlight to wash over his body, to wash off the chaotic stench that consumed him while underground.
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 606
(12/5/02 2:27 pm)
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Re: The Tower
[Giving Draxim a chance to chime in.]
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Kenner
Draxim
Posts: 148
(12/7/02 11:44 am)
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Re: The Tower
Draxim with barely concealed relief and a heavy swallow, fights down his weakness and nausea, and heads for the exit with the rest.
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 609
(12/7/02 5:59 pm)
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Re: The Tower
The group sullenly marches up the entrance tunnel, through the thick stone doors and up the rope to the surface. The trail of vapor has thinned to an almost invisible whisp and much of the morning mist has burned away. In the clear light of the morning you all notice that the slime creature, in its agitation, sprayed each of you with bits of acidic ooze. All of your garments are rent with hundreds of tiny holes, and are generally discolored by the unnatural substance. Everyone's faces are also blacked by the thick torch smoke. It isn't a pretty sight.
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 126
(12/7/02 7:32 pm)
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Re: The Tower
"Oog," says Madragar, giving vent at last to his queasiness. "Not a clue richer, and considerably more threadbare. So much for the life of an adventurer."
"Let us seal the entrance again and repair to Grugni's house. I need an ale."
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doggius
Kezib Ahitub
Posts: 91
(12/7/02 11:58 pm)
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Re: The Tower
"Ahh, the light reveals the evils that spread by chaos. I do agree, let us go back and see how the others faired, if they have returned" Kezib says with relief.
Looking to the sky, Kezib says a quick prayer of thanks.
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Jubilex
The Faceless Lord of Chaos
Posts: 612
(12/8/02 8:49 am)
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Re: The Tower
Ruig and Draxim ease closed the massive stone door, but there doesn't seem to be any way of sealing or even barricading it shut.
"I don't believe that creature will try to escape during the day, but by nightfall we need to come up with a more permanent solution," Ruig cautions.
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doggius
Kezib Ahitub
Posts: 92
(12/8/02 9:28 am)
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Re: The Tower
"I dont know if I said this before we went down, but there seemed to be some type of wax sealant that sealed the trap door down, when Sangraal and I first came up here. Whether or not it was special, I know not and I doubt that Sangraal knows, yet he did know that the breaking of the seal was a bad thing."
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Tarondor
Madragar
Posts: 127
(12/9/02 1:10 am)
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Re: The Tower
"This gets better and better," remarks Madragar. "None of us have the skill to close that door. So we must either evacuate the village or kill that thing by day. Fire seems to hurt it. I suggest we create a very large fire, indeed."
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