Adventuring is hard 19JUN20
22
JUN/20
The Mimic and the Bull:
Selise stood at one of the two chests. The group had heard of the great treasure to be found within the mine and this was likely what that crazed wizard was looking for. Most of the group were excited to see what was inside. Oni moved to the far side of the room. He was looking for food or water or safety for the tribe and did not see value in the treasure the chests might hold. He half-heartedly proclaimed that they might want to move away as chests are often trapped. Everyone spread out as Selise moved in close to examine the chest.
The chest exploded into life and attacked Selise. Oni looked back in stunned shock as the chest now had a giant mouth and was trying to bite his sister. He had a mix of panic and fear as he just stood there for a moment. Joe screamed, “Get off my sister,” as he charged in to attack the mimic chest. Joe’s bravery was just enough to break Oni’s fear and he charged in as well. They freed Selise from the mimic. The other chest started to move and jerk.
Yas moved up to finish off the first mimic and moved on to the second one. Oni had never felt more afraid. These creatures that looked like ordinary objects one moment and a fierce toothy maw the next moved panic through his thoughts. Even as he attacked the second one the panic brought his skills down and he could not even touch it. The rest of the younglings were not as afraid, and they were able to finish it off.
They searched the room. Oni, and Rain moved the door. They were still wanting to make sure nothing in the hell mine came up behind them. Oni was still a little shaken. He looked over to Rain for a little strength. Rain stood there strong, looking out into the larger chamber. Oni drew in all his inner strength. He did a couple of deep breaths, moving his Ki throughout his body. He did not want Rain to notice his fear and panic. He hardened his stance to guard the door.
After searching the room, they all moved back into the large chamber. Joe lead them back into the dark. Rain and the group lingered in their light bubble. They exposed the entire room. It looped around two pits. They would need to come back to the pits, but Oni noticed what looked like Obsidian at the bottom of the smaller pit. That would be valuable to the them and the tribe.
Off the main chamber was a tunnel. The pits would need to wait as Joe moved down the tunnel in the dark. Oni felt the danger in the still air. He reached his hand to the wall and moved up to back up his brother. Swoosh, Grrrrrl, and Joe screamed. He came running back out of the tunnel. Rain moved the light up to the tunnel. It was now filled with a slightly glowing huge monstrosity. Yas and Oni moved up to block the creature into the tunnel.
They all attacked. Oni yelled, “the weapon attacks are not harming it in any way.” Selise screamed, “let’s get out of here.” Mar’iya in his normal overly calm voice replied, “no, it will just chase us down and kill us. Keep it pinned there, and I will attack it.” Oni stepped back to use the power of the sun. Selise used some psychic power she now had. Oni yelled again over the sound of the battle, “that seems to be working.
Yas was hit and hit hard. She moved back as her attacks were not working. Oni was afraid the creature would get out into the chamber and attack them all. He moved up to block it again. The creature smashed him to the ground and stepped out into the chamber. Rain healed him again but was now vulnerable and was smashed by the creature. Selise wanted to run again, but Mar’iya’s calm voiced kept her in the fight.
Oni hit it again with a sun bolt, and it hit him so hard the entire room burst into light. The light was so bright it lit the ceiling finally revealing the creatures that were over their heads. They were made of some sort of mist with veiny wings. They fled the light. Oni screamed about them, but he was the only one that saw them.
The creature finally dropped and turned into dust. It was like all of time caught up with the creature. Turning all that time on to it in one moment. Rain started to heal up the group as he could. Oni thought the dust might be valuable and gathered some in a pouch.
As they walked out of the mine, Joe explained that the beast had been chained in the cave, but was able to move after him. The chains did not seem to hold him in any way.
Rest, opens new possibilities:
After the fight with the giant magical beast, the group was hurt. They needed to rest. They moved back out into oasis. The tribe was hard at work. They stayed on the west side of the pond rarely coming to the east. The youngling mostly stayed on the east side. The group had naturally segregated. The old failed tribe on one side and the new reborn youngling on the other. They had entered the desert and been reborn. They were now something more. They were the future, while the tribe was the decaying past.
Mar’iya had moved over to the old rotted ship. It was not rotted though. It was the bones of some great vessel, but it was not rotted. The desert and time had changed the great wood beams into near rock. It was now solid rock beams. Oni looked over at the stairs. Those beams holding back the sand could very well be from this ship. Oni wondered if they should hide the mine.
Mar’iya grabbed Yas and started to pull out good beams. He wanted to make barricades. He and Yas started to place them in different parts of the great rocks on the east side of the camp. Making the west side of the oasis defendable was near impossible, but this side could be better. This could be a much better place.
Oni wanted to help, but he had other things on his mind. He needed Selise. He found her. She was in a nice shady spot, out of view from the rest of the group. She looked up at him, “Oh you found me.” She was wanting to not work, as she would need to do girls work and she had no desire. She wanted to do important work, not just girls work. Oni nodded, and said, “yep, and I need your help. I know you think it is dangerous, but I need you to open the lock on the book.” She smiled and jumped up. This seemed like important work and was just the kind of work she could do. They moved to mask their activities from the tribe. Eastside vs westside.
She took the book in her hand to examine it again, “yeah I think I can do it this time.” Oni looked at it with her. She set it on a rock, like a table. She pulled the small tools Mar’iya found for her out of pocket. Oni could not tell where they came from. She had them perfectly hidden on her body. She was moving the tools to the book. Oni warned, “No, work on this piece first. I think that is why it made you fall asleep the last time.” She shifted the tools and started to work on a slightly different part of the lock. It popped open. Oni looked up and the tools were gone. She had moved them into their secret location before he could even look up. A giant smile appeared on her face. She could hide the tools, but not her own joy.
She stomped off with pride. Oni was glad to see that level of pride in her. She had now been reborn. Without even looking back, “I am going to find a shady spot to hide; to avoid work.” Oni could not see her face, but he knew it was still holding a smile from ear to ear.
Oni opened the book. He could not read anything in it. He found a shady spot as well. He sat in the style Ippi had taught him to study the book. He still could not read it. He could not stop studying it, even though he could not read it. He just kept studying it and started to see things in it. He could not read it per se, but he thought he was understanding it.
Mar’iya walked by with a large plank. He stopped as he was walking by. Oni looked up expecting to see him angry that he was just sitting there. He was not. Mar’iya looked down, “you find anything.” Oni looked up with a smile to respond, “Maybe. It is a spellbook. I think it is really old. Much older than Jokhal. He must have found it.” Oni lifted the open book and pointed at some symbols in it. Look here, “Jokhal or someone added notes years after the book was written. Look here” This looks like some kind of spell called Fog Cloud. Now it was changed later. There is no way to pull in the magic to do a Fog Cloud, so it was changed slightly with these hand movements, and is now a Dust Cloud.”
He looked up. Mar’iya looked at the book and was now feeling he should not have asked. He slurred out, “great.” He was done with Oni, and as he walked off said, “keep it up.” Oni took the book back and fingered the book more. He almost yelled to Mar’iya as he was walking off, “and it has a bunch of pages. If we find ink, I might be able to add new spells to it.”
Oni thought about the statement he just made to Mar’iya. It sat in his brain. He Did not know how to make ink. He went over to the supplies on the far side of oasis. He dug though until he found two small tortoise shells, a candle and some cloth. He tore the cloth into tiny strips. He braided them together. Using a little water from the pond he made them wet. He pulled and stretched them as much as he could. He placed the two shells together, one slightly inside the other. He wove the braided cloth around the two shells as tightly as he could. He placed them up on a rock baking the water out of the cloth and sealing the two shells together making a bottle to hold his future ink.
Oni snuck back into the cave with a candle. He did not want his friends to know or worry. He moved quietly into the room with the chest mimics. He looked over them. Could they help him. One of them was covered in something really stickey. He thought to himself. That would work perfectly to seal the bottle. He grabbed the edge of his bottle and smeared the sticky glue on it. The other one was leaking some oily substance. He gathered that into the bottle, hoping it would be useful in making his ink. He did not know what he needed to make ink; he just hoped the magical properties of this creature might help.
They all worked lightly the rest of the day.
The great Pit:
The next day the youngling moved into the mine. Paulu and Agis had given their concerns the night before, but they were now adults and made their own choices. They walked around the main chamber one again. Joe wanted to check out the pits. Oni was not paying close attention, he was only looking up into the darkness, hoping to see the creatures above. He wondered what they were. Rain was examining a wall on the east side of the main chamber. He ran his hand along the wall, “this looks like it was built later and is not original rock from the cave.”
The group had split. Oni was one group all by himself. He was deep within his own thoughts. He was in that small chamber beneath the old town, reading by candlelight. Ippi, had giving him a skill and he was using it like no other skill he had ever had. From many of the reports and logs, they all said you should never slit up the group. Joe was moving to the bottom of the pit as one group, Oni was daydreaming in his group, and Rain the rest were looking at the cave wall.
That was when the cry came out for Joe. He was in danger. The separate groups moved together to rescue their friend and family. Mar’iya closed his eyes to work within his own mind. Rain spoke the words to the Sea. The strange three-legged, three-armed creature bit down on Joe. Oni and the other launched the attacks they could from above. Mar’iya lifted Joe from the mouth of the creature and Rain healed him in flight. Oni and the other attacked again. Joe was brought up to the next level to safety. Oni looked down to the creature as it burrowed down under the sand, just like the Bullette. Oni moved to one edge of the light and yelled, “Spread out.”
They all stood at different parts of the room. They are all waiting to see where the creature popped up next. Even the Hum of the Hurrum, that Oni now loved stopped. It was so quiet Oni thought it was unnatural. For the long moments they looked at each other, just waiting for the action to start again. Lucky for them, it never came. Oni looked down into the pit. The sand in the bottom just gently moved around. It was just going to wait down there. It was like the trapdoor spider. Oni felt safe up here as long as they didn’t go down into the pit.
The group moved to the wall. Rain was correct. The wall came down fairly easily, revealing the tunnel beyond. They wanted to move down that hall, but Joe wanted to check the other pit. They all stared down at it, looking for the moving sand. Nothing moved. Joe moved down and was able to recover a few Obsidian shards. They would be able to make some good weapons and tools with those.
The Horny Undead ends in tough decisions:
Joe was injured but still our best point person in the dark. He moved down into the dark. From time to time giving a clicking sound to indicate Rain bring the light forward. Oni and Mar’iya stayed on the very edge of the front of the light. Even from their very different backgrounds they seemed the most similar. As the light crept forward, they moved, listening for danger. From time to time Oni would close his eyes, reach his hand out to the wall and move into the darkness. He was trying to sense everything he could. The dark was not Joe’s enemy, it did not need to be his either.
Mar’iya looked over to Oni, and whispered, “I need to be able to see in the dark.” For Oni it sounded just like the whisper he heard in the desert that night now a week ago. He was still processing that night. He was still not sure what to do with it. Oni thinking again about Ippi, responded, “don’t use your eyes, you can’t trust them.” Ippi was the wised person Oni had known. Who knew, wisdom imparted 4 years ago had reference today. Ippi was not even here to make this journey with Oni.
Joe came back into the light. He was breathing hard and his sword hand was resting on its hilt. “A large horn headed skeleton ahead. I do not think it saw me,” he said through a very breathy voice. Selise whisper shouted, “Let’s run.” Oni was starting to put together a plan. This mine was part of the plan, and it needed to be safe. Oni looked at his sister, trying to give her the strength and resolve he now had, “No, we need to make this place safe for the tribe.” She nodded, not sure if he was right or driving them to their doom.
They moved down the hall to engage the large skeleton. As they turned the corner, they found two. Oni looked at Selise. She might have been right, but he was trying to give her more strength. Oni looked over to Yas. It was good to see her here. She had left him in the fight with the giant beast earlier and hoped she was in the fight until it ended. Oni smiled at her, giving her strength too. One of the Skeleton smashed into her just like a charging Iinx. She stood her ground as the beast hit her. A toothy grim was now seen across her face. She loved this part of the fight. She cut into it.
The party started to search the room. Yas and Joe were sifting through the remains of the two skeletons, looking for anything useful. Oni longed for a way to repair Yas’s shield. Mar’iya was in a side chamber. I found something. Oni ran into the chamber. He and Mar’iya were only excited about the same things and Mar’iya was excited. Oni wanted to know what was in there.
Oni stood over a crumpled skeleton with a scroll still visible in his hand. The body looked like it died here with the scroll in his hand. Mar’iya paced around the body, looking and examining it. Oni reached out to grab the scroll. Mar’iya sprang his hand out to stop Oni. His was still looking. His hand came down as he looked up at Oni to speak, “I do not see any traps.” Oni was trying to lead this group and protect it. It was his job to take this risk. Without hesitation he grabbed it and pulled it up to open it. It was not paper. It was made of some kind of leather or skin. Oni could not place where it came from.
He unrolled it to reveal a map. It was a map of a pyramid. Mar’iya looked at and pulled out the map from Jokhal. Oni did not know he had that map. He wondered if he had anything else from him. He would need to ask him, if he had a key from that crazed wizard. Mar’iya wanted to new map fragment. It fit perfectly into his torn map. It glowed briefly, and the hum from the Hurrum beetles filled the room. There volume increased to a crescendo as the map mended itself and added the new section to it. This was what Jokhal must have wanted and we now have it.
Mar’iya eyes went blank for a second. He looked at Oni, and said, “It spoke to me, like the whispers in the night the other day.” Oni looked at him, “What did it say.” Mar’iya said the words as if they had been magically imprinted on his brain perfectly.
“Some of the most fabulous treasures lost in the desert were the Star Gems. Of great power and tremendous wealth, they were part of a prophecy concerning the release of evil across the desert and the return of power into the land.”
He handed it over to Oni to hold. Oni grabbed it and said the words out loud as he heard them so everyone could hear them.
”There are obelisks in the desert that speak of greatness, but they are evil places where death awaits. None who have gone forth to study those ancient stones have ever returned.”
Oni then handed it to Rain.
”Beyond the hills the world ends in a bottomless sky. There death stalks in ships that sail the clouds and attempt to bring the souls they capture to their ancient City of Damnation.”
He handed it to Yaz
”A mighty pyramid lies to the south, rumored to have been built with white stones, all who have tried to steal from it have never been seen again.”
She handed it to Joe
”A palace of gold and gems once glittered as a beacon on the southern horizon. Many men have seen its spires of gold, but to this day none have ventured in their direction.”
Joe looked to hand it to his sister. She looked at him and it. She could not believe he had grabbed it. She was about it to walk away without grabbing it, when he pushed it at her again. He wanted her to try. She took the map in her hand with layers of concern in her eye. Oni did a double look at her, as she looked just like their mother in that moment. She started to say the words as they were told to her with disdain in her voice.
”One of the greatest Pharaohs of the ancient days cursed his land and set to ruin all his fertile domain. Yet even after his death, the people worshipped him — for he had a power even from beyond the grave.”
When she was done, Oni took the map from her. He slowly walked over to a spot in the cave where he was on a slight rise. He started to speak, using the swinging of the map for emphasis.
“I am heading south to find this pyramid. I hope all of you will go with me. I know it will be dangerous and we might even die. By Tiamat’s Red Rage, we might just die in the desert itself. If you all want to go with me, we need to do a couple of things here first.
- Make sure that magical chain is safe or collapse that cave so they will not go in there.
- Move the pieces of the old ship, to mask the entrance of the mine
- Make sure the misty, veiny creatures are not a danger – I am not sure how to do that
- Gather up two weeks of food and water on the two camels, and head out.“
He paused for a long time, letting his words sink in. He looked at his sister, as he knew the only way Joe would go, was if she went. He continued.
“Rain had done what Agis asked him to do. You brought the tribe to a safe place of water. Now we must do the same for the world. This place needs a rebirth. Sooooooo,
Are you with me?”