Aramin’s Travelogue Y55FA18 [DM note – that’s Year 55 Fall 18) (17 May 09)
We set out again for the mine, but first stopped to buy some gear from our usual sources.
A new problem has emerged.The normal sources for war equipment have dried up.It seems that production of war gear is way up, Smolosue the smith was unbelievably busy when Red stopped in to buy extra arrows, but little was for sale.She picked up a last dozen or so, and we have not been able to buy anything else since.All production is now going directly into the Marshal’s armory.
What is going on is not known, but I see yet another sign things are ramping up around here.
Luckily we have a largish amount of excess gear of our own stashed away right now.All this equipment is left from the gear of all the people that have died as part of our party.That means that we can still keep up our operations for now but we will find ourselves short on things in the near future.Luckily, I have some skill as both a bowyer and fletcher
Once we were done shopping, we again set off for the mine.The trip there was uneventful and we entered by the northern entrance that I am most used to.Evidently there is a central entrance that used to be quite common use for earlier incarnations of our group, but none of us newer people have ever used it.We traveled our normal route to the barricade and took the stairs down.
This time in the trip, I was half watching for evidence of others in the dungeon, but not paying particularly close attention.This is something I need to spend more time in the future on this subject.I want to watch for activity by the other ‘party’ that is supposed to be running around in this mine as well.I haven’t heard any new rumors about these people in recent history, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t around somewhere.
Legally there is no reason for other people not to be here as well, but I personally call it poaching.If we ever meet in this mine, I won’t guarantee that they will be leaving here alive.Not that I promote murder or anything, but this IS our site, and if they run afoul of us, that is their problem, not ours.
Maybe we should send them out after the troll bridge.I think that would be fitting.It’s not like we are excluding them or anything but if they came and asked to join our group on our trips, I am almost certain the answer would have been yes.We have accepted anyone so far who could carry their weight.
Back to the mine -
We are nearly the bottom of the mine and Kee discovers a secret door at the turn of the stairs.There seems to be an advantage to coming and going to these mines.If we came and camped down here until we were done, we would pass this way just once or so and would never notice these secret ways.Passing through here constantly gives everyone many chances to notice everything, and find things that were not noticed before.The down side is that any traps we miss the first time through, we get many more chances to set them off as well.
It took only a few minutes and a crowbar to get the stone door open.Immediately inside was a room where several more of the Dwarven skeletons and spirits (Whights/Wraiths?).the fight against them should have been fairly uneventful, but the fear effects of the spirits sent me and a couple of other people running.This included Ogdin who ran up the stairs and slipped off the ladder we placed to help facilitate crossing the gap in the stairs.He fell from there and died from the fall.Whether he broke his neck, head, or back I don’t know, but whatever happened, he was badly broken up when we finally found his body.
Once we destroyed these beings, we moved out into a small labyrinth of interconnected halls and rooms.This is where we came across one of the stranger things I have ever seen or heard of.We were in a room holding some mechanical gear and were attacked bysome sort of constructs.They seem to be built around a large steel ball with several that had two arms that bent down from the top.At least 5 of them attacked us, but seemed to be fairly easy to destroy.They also seem to be suffering from corrosion and suffered several minor breakdowns while trying to attack us.
Further into this area only lead us to more of the dwarven undead we have dealt with before.In one the last room we found in this section, there was an old bronze table heavily covered with dust that seemed to have some sort of map inlayed on it in gold.I moved by the table to watch down the hall at the other end and was only 15 feet or so away with my back turned when it happened.Red went to brush away the dust and disturbed a large and mature pack of yellow mold bodies.She was immediately engulfed and infected by the spores. It took nearly an hour for her to die.We neither had time to get her out of the mine, nor any kind of equipment to save her.There was nothing we could do.
At this point, we decided to leave and return to the village.
The gate guard acted in normal form and robbed us of about 20% of all the treasure we acquired while in the mine. I can not tell how much money that we lost to the city so far.What I do know, is that the funds we have been forced to surrender to the city now far exceeds the 25 Gold pieces that the original members of this group were paid for giving information to the Marshal.The next day we buried Red and rested while our clerics did whatever they said they needed to do.
Three days later we returned to the mine.This time, we came across another party of Kobolds patrolling the area.According to a member of the party who new their language, they were trying to find out if they could get back into the mine.Evidently, someone other than us has been working on the kobolds and helped us force them out.
We managed to pull off a decent ambush with bows and managed to knock off most of the patrol without having to melee them.
Since we took them out with casualties to us we moved off into the mine down to the lower level and into the new area we were exploring.While we wandering around near the room where Red died from yellow mold spores, we set off a new trap that brought down three portcullises.These gates fell over all the entrees to the room, trapping Kee and myself inside.I could have jumped when the gates came down but I pushed Kee and myself forward instead, placing us both in the room (safely I might add, but trapped nonetheless).It was possible that the room full of mechanical controls operated these gates so those of us not trapped went back to mess with them.While they were getting us out, (the mechanical room was responsible for the gates) five more of the annoying little dwarven skeletons showed up.Luckily, a new cleric that joined us named Alana had the power to turn the Skeletons and force them into the room with the table covered with yellow mold.We promptly dropped the gates again and trapped them in there.
The final piece of excitement we Had that day, was when we entered a cavernous area and Ragnar was attacked with a wet sloshing noise.We did not see what made the attack, but I convinced everyone to fall back.
Not that much convincing was necessary.Invisible squishy things do not lend themselves to large amounts of bravery.When we moved into regular tunnels again, I immediately saw the shiny surface and recognized a Gelatinous Cube.They are large single celled… things that wander around underground areas (they don’t like light much) and clear the areas of carcasses vermin and anything else that can’t get away.
I know these things because my father was a mine manager and these were a problem that cropped up from time to time.They normally only became a problem, when large cavernous areas get opened up.Cubes and molds and other vermin area constant problem in mining situations anywhere access to larger cavernous areas are available.This is a sign that a healthy biological population of underground beasties is around somewhere.This has both good and bad points.
Anyway, the instant I saw it, I ran back the way we had come, not in fear but to get time to work.I filled my helm with oil and threw it on the cube when it caught up with us.A bucket full of coal oil actually works better, but neither a bucket nor coal oil was available at the time.Burning these things out is the easiest way to deal with them, and it worked, except that before it died, it managed to slam first Ragnar then Parabellum into unconsciousness.I grabbed Ragnar, threw him over my shoulder and ran for the exit.At the point that I got Ragnar and turned, Parabellum went down as well.I am a strong man, not to brag, but carrying two adult males is a bit much even for me.Luckily, the Cube expired at that point and he was saved.Cubes collect their food by paralyzing it and rolling over the victim and dissolving the creatures once they are inside its body.The mere fact that it expired saved our wizard from certain death.If it had moved over his body and engulfed him, he would have had a minute very possibly two before he took so much abuse as to die.
This shows a problem I see with my fellow party members.Not to be too rude or anything, but no one moved to grab Parabellum and drag him out.Someone SHOULD have grabbed him, but no one did.Now this is the second time Kee let other people lie there and did nothing.
The first time was when we hit by the Cone of Cold by the troll we ran into.There may have been some other survivors, I did after all pull her body out of the area and brought her back too consciousness, but I wasn’t tracking entirely straight myself.After all, we had just left the meeting with the princess and I was still suffering from a certain amount of dazzle from her beauty, but Kee never so much as checked anyone else to see if they were alive.It seems to be the same when Parabellum went down.I kept expecting somebody to grab him and at least drag him away, but nobody so much as moved in his direction.
If Parabellum had died, there would have been severe consequences.We loose enough people to things we can’t stop to have still more people die from general sloppiness is unconscionable. The fact that Parabellum attacked the cube with nothing but his dagger has no bearing on the fact.While you do not expect wizardsto be terribly powerful melee types and stay away from fights as much as possible his actions shows a very high level of personal bravery (or foolishness) any warrior can’t help but be impressed by.
All this brings me to find very disturbing that some people (not to be named here) seem to be pushing for more of the “democratic and orderly” garbage that I had thought died when most of the party left to join the princesses retinue.Anything that strikes of more organization and rules for how our party operate can’t do anything but cause me to break out in hives. {out of game note:Aramin is CHAOTIC good} A few simple points are only required here.
More effort is needed by various party members to cover those in the party who are in trouble (unconscious, trapped, under severe attack, etc.).Basically, what I would like to see is every effort to save the lives of anyone in trouble.
Also, there was something of an argument by several members of the party that there are several places where we are expecting to find treasure, and they think that they should get a share of anything we find.
Personally, I think they are asking a bit too much.If they want to get a share, they need to come with.A number of people in the party only go with us on every second or third trip we take.This whole line of argument was brought about by a map that I found that indicates a large treasure is very close by the area we were forced to stop because it was getting late in the evening and we had to get back to the village before dark.The area where the treasure was supposed to be seemed to be right near by on the map I found.It is important to note though that despite making two trips to mine since then, we have still not found the so called treasure…
I am in the interest of fairness, holding money for both Harold and E’thal.I however have decided to refuse to release the money to them until they accompany us out on another expedition {out of game note:That they show up for a game}.This money is proceeds from the gold statue and some gems we had found when they were last with us.Although, if they don’t come with us soon, I MIGHT decide to just share it with those members who actually go with on adventures (and have already received their cuts).
I am, right now, the party mapper and accountant.I am mapper by virtue of the fact that I am present for most of our excursions and am literate in several languages including Goblin.I have also developed a relationship with the Jeweler that seems to be workinh to both of our benefits.By acting as our agent, he helps us get rid of some of the larger and/or more esoteric items we find without the officials of Enonia getting involved.He is not our Fence but seems to find our relationship as useful to himself as we find it.We have actually gotten several very useful services from him.Right now we are still awaiting word from further in the kingdom from people who may be interested in buying some of the ‘Dwarven artifacts’ we have found to date.Right now the items have very little value to anyone in Enonia, but we find researches, collectors or similar persons that will pay use a decent price for them.
Now I have ranted over long on many subjects but this is the only source for many of my opinions and ideas and will continue in this vane as long as I can
Aramin