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The Story, next part

Ok, this is Ariel.  Let me tell this part of the story.

This level kind of stunk.  It smelled like something rotting.  The circlet was neat.  It made it hard to surprise the wearer and it let me see further through the dark.  While the last level was kind of dusky, this level was pretty dim.  Like being in an alley at dusk, while the last level was like being in an alley when the clouds were overhead on a badly overcast day.  The circlet helped out that way, and that kid, bless his heart, was able to bring light to his fingertips.  It would come of of his fingers and then crawl around to behind his head.  It was like having a lantern or a couple of good torches.  With our gifts from the stars, we could see just fine.

We made pretty steady progress.  We would advance until we spotted something.  Things would go in clusters and the kid was finally scared enough that he wasn't talking much and he wasn't running off.  When we spotted something, we would decide what it was and get ready.  Mostly we would close on the things and then it was sword and staff work.  We also collected more moss.  This level had mostly the stuff that restored magic points with some that you could actually eat.  It was out of the other kinds -- the spiderkin had pretty much stripped it out.  They didn't seem to like eating moss any more than we did (and had some other source of food) and they did not like the magic point moss.

We also started putting all the wraiths we met to rest.  I got a gold ring that way, so while Ariel had the circlet she gave me, I had a ring and a torq I gave her.  It was pretty neat -- it gave me some armor against fire and against fear and it stored magic energy.  I also felt refreshed as if I had taken a nap when I put it on.  We were releasing them out of kindness, but it was neat to find that ring.  There was also a fair amount of gold here and there (the key magic for some of the animations is a piece of gold), but we left all of that behind -- we really did not want to be weighed down.  

I wasn't sure what good the ring would be (though I liked the way it was carved with runic script on the inside and outside) until we met the first of the ghouls.  They let loose with howls that would turn your blood to water.  I felt scared, but it didn't change the way I was acting.  Since they were chaos tainted, I made pretty short work of them, to discover that Amber and the kid were no where to be found.  The howls cause a magic panic.  I was really glad of the ring.  Next time we saw some, we blasted them with magic at a distance -- there were too many, and chaos or not, I did not relish the possibility of being swarmed by them while my support ran away.  

We actually started skirmishing with the spiderkin we met.  One group spotted us and attacked.  They were pretty hostile and from what they said as we fought it was obvious that they were trying to establish a home here, planning to kill anything else that they found in their "nest" and that they intended to feed us to the moss after drinking our blood.  We just couldn't keep up the glamor or count on seeing them before they saw us.

On this level we passed several fountains, as we did on the last level, but these had water in them.  For me it didn't matter, but in one the water was pure, but stale.  Most cities have a few fountains or statues that used to be in parks or places of respect that are now in forgotten or hidden allies.  That was the case here. We made a meal of water and moss.  It wasn't the best meal I've had, and I can't remember worse, but we really needed it.

There were a lot more spiders on this level.  A lot is subjective.  There were a few spiders on this level when we had not had any on the last level.

Move and stick, move and stick, fight, move and stick, fight and heal.  This was not my idea of fun.  I'd say we went about six or seven miles of that routine and I was ready to rest.  We found a ledge and a part alley about twelve feet up a wall and we decided to sleep.  Amber set her sword to watch and I found that I only partially slept.  Strange magic, but restful. Good thing I wasn't fully asleep, as I woke up before a spider had completely webbed us in.  I strung my bow and shot it.  I was careful of my arrows, since I was afraid to run out, but this was an arrow well used as the darn thing blew up as the arrow impaled it.

It wasn't too much longer before we came to a broken statue in a large plaza.  It looked too long, which warned me that the thing was probably the passageway to the next level.  Then the volcanic glass shards of the statue came to life as a moving, shifting form of obsidian.  Headed for us, and when we started our spells, they just kind of bounced off.  That wasn't good at all.  As we started dodging, I could see that it was made of shadow and obsidian shards.  Like the brick monster had lots of vines and stuff holding it together, this one had lots of nothing.  An arrow through it did not a blessed thing.  I realized though, that if something got inside of the monster, it could tear it apart from the inside.  Of course whatever it was would have to fit into gaps the size of an inch or so -- maybe a swarm of glass eating gnats would do the trick.  

Then it hit me, though I hated to do it, but I unleashed the large darkness elemental I had prepared.  I could tell nothing else would do, and it worked.  It froze and broke the creature from the inside out.  As it burst, I saw a belt that held it together. I made sure that Amber got it, she was so busy watching the kid she would have missed it all together.

After that, we were ready to go to the next level, but I spotted a pathway, more of a crack in the wall, and we went exploring, or at least I did.  It was too small for Amber and the kid was thinking twice about his investigations.  I followed it in and found the remains of the shrine to Starry Knowledge.  The star shrine was long gone, and the guardians were passive towards me, but there was a small book, with vellum pages, about 7" x 9" and about thirty pages or so.  Several of them had spells written on them.  I folded it up in the cloth that it had been wrapped in, and teleported out -- my finding the book had removed the last anchor that the level had.  I met Amber and the kid at the beginning of the next level.

This was much like the last level, only the grisly remains were fresher, and by this time the vampires were not as hungry for flesh as they were for blood and power.  As a result, the bodies that stirred to life were more likely to be zombies. There were also left over skeletons from when they had begun to animate the bones of their victims. The good thing was that bones pretty much quit coming to life.  The skeletons shuffled around and you could see them before they sensed you.  Left over enchantments and second grade equipment.  At one time the city's masters had thought to replace their army with skeletons until they discarded them.  Here they were.  The zombies were pretty obvious too, after a while.  If it had flesh on it and was still, it was going to rise as a zombie.  If it had flesh on it and was moving, it was a ghoul.  The ghouls were finishing off the last of the bones that weren't petrified.  Some were the "toxic waste" of the type of sorceries that were going on, the others were those who had embraced the beast -- it made them unpalatable to vampires (a dog ghoul repulses vampires -- they are just unpalatable) and it gave them a life style and a place in the city's underclass. Encounters this area: Random wraiths, attached to piles of bone.  1d3 points of damage to the bone piles dispels the wraith, easily walked around, twisting in place. Moss Trolls (on this level too). Enchanted Skeletons spear and shield armor, sword and shield Spiderkin -- exploring males light skirmishers recon patrol Zombies Rotting Zombies (pretty much worn out) Petrified Zombies (flesh turned very hard and desiccated ) Hungry Dead (Zombies) (like ghouls, except they crave the flesh of the living instead of the dead). Enchanted Zombies with arms, armor. Ghouls Dog Ghouls (beast+undead) (pretty much interested only in eating zombies, but they won't hesitate to make fresh corpses if pushed wrong, not to mention they eat the other kind of ghoul). Undead Animations  (chaos+undead) (hungry for flesh, dead or alive) Spiders wolf spiders undead wolf spiders (animated zombie creatures, like wolf spiders except POW=1, all cutting weapons do half damage). web spiders (these cast webs). Final Encounter Obsidian Spirit.  No chaos gifts.  STR 10d6, CON 9d6, SIZ (mass) 8d6, SIZ (reach) 7d6, POW 6d6, DEX 5d6, APP 4d6, INT 10 (fixed), 1 point armor.  Spirit infested obsidian (kind of like an troll).  1/4 damage from fire or cold, 12 points armor vs other magic damage, any attack against it does a maximum of 3+d2 points, it attacks either with its claws (2d8 -- like greatswords for damage) or by casting shards of itself like daggers (thrown daggers, d6+1 at a time, cost of 1d2 of hit points, each does d4+1 damage).  Hit points = SIZ+CON.

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