Chapter 3b – Doorway

Chapter 3b – Doorway

They didn't fancy stripping his armour off for looting as they looked down at the acid fizzing away on the metalwork. But they did take everything else.

“Lets see if we can have a quick look about and see if there's anything we've missed”, said Norm “and get out of here if there isn't”. They weren't far away from the village of Poggollo, but time was wearing on.

They set about scouring the place for secret doors.
And, eventually, they found one – at the back of the chamber where they'd found a chimney leading up

“Elf construction” said Leggyass the Elf in Elfish “I've seen this before. Probably trapped”

“Elf construction” translated Norm in common tongue.

Leggyass nudged the door and a slow, grinding rumble echoed through the chamber as the door moved in and along revealing a room 20' deep with a staircase at the far end leading up. Peering inside, by the light of his torch, Rockall described what he saw

“...and there's a pair of skeletons, propped against the wall, next to the stairs on the left. They're wearing plate armour. They're wearing helmets. And they've got big swords”
“OK, I'm going in” ha said, and waving his sword in front of him, he stepped into the room.

Wham! A huge boulder dropped down from above. But Rockall was fast enough to jump back out of the way. But he was so quick that he surprised Bailey, following in behind him. As he dragged his sword back, he stabbed him hard in the shoulder, with his sword. The blow would have felled lesser men, but Bailey just yelled. Well - yelled really, really loudly.

The huge boulder rolled down a channel to the left. Rockall could see the track now, but was sure it hadn't been there before.

“I don't think anyone's been in here for a while” he said and he cagily stepped into the room once again. No boulder this time. Bailey followed in behind him. Then the two spellcasters.

They had a quick glance at the skeletons, They looked safe, didn't jump up at them. Rockall took one of the big two-handed swords from its scabbard. “Oooh” he said “as a golden light shone out from it, lighting up the room”.

Bailey took out the other sword and a similar glow emanated from it. They gave the rest of the arms and armour a quick once over and placed the swords back, looking to pick them up later.

“Up the stairs, then?” said Rockall, rhetorically.

They all moved upwards and into a smallish storage room. On the right were open barrels of ancient-runed arrows and on the right the remains of busted bows. On both walls, a crosses pair of rusted swords were prominent. But on the back wall, on a small plinth was a mesmerising crystal statue of an elf.

The room was eerie, in a calm and undisturbed way. The party crept into the room. Warily they eyed the room, no one daring to touch anything.

Eventually, the Elf picked up a bow from his right.

And as he did so.....the crystal statue sprung into life.

The two fighters were nearest it anyway, with their swords and shields ready. It only took a step and they were in a fight. Odd as it was to be fighting a glass ornament, they got stuck in and soon scored a hit. But the statue appeared not to notice and struck home with its two dagger attack, Bailey taking the brunt.

A few more swings later and the dangers were obvious. If the statue hit home with both daggers, it could kill either of the frontmen. And with both of them down, the magic users would be easy prey.

So Norm cast his sleep spell.

The sleep spell laid out everyone – the fighters, Leggyass and the statue. So Norm was the only one to see the statue exploded into a thousand or so glass beads as its crystal structure failed to cope with his cast magic.

Norm woke the other guys up. Together they started to pack up their booty.

It was Leggyass who first went to pick up some of the marbles, but once somebody started they all wanted some.

They filled up the barrels with them and there were still some lying around.

Getting out of the place wasn't that simple. There was the rope-bridge and then the stairs up through the tree. They managed to get most of the stuff out but dropped a barrel of marbles and a suit of armour from the bridge, down into the gully.
Next Chapter 4a