Realms of Dread Chapter Two

[ewancummins]

front of the house and beneath the porch-

Threan charges into the dark opening under the stairs, yelling like madman, swinging his knife! Sounds of combat, meeping and gibbering, gnomish curses, and the dull thwack of a steel knife chopping flesh can be heard coming from under the porch.

Blaise is beginning to move a little, moaning softly. He's injured.

Ironheart can still act freely. He sees the brave gnome disappear under the porch, but cannot see how the fight is going.


Shana can hear Threan coming, but her head isn't positioned to see him- besides, it's too dark under the house for her to see much of anything. She can feel claws and teeth ripping and tearing at her body. She's wet- is it her own blood or the ghouls' spittle? She grows cold...

[ewancummins]

Eager to proceed on the house and find if Delthrin has kidnapped a child Inovidil just says:

"We have more serious things to do right now than think about the spells."

There was no chance letting the cleric look at the spellbook before her, but there is no need to fight on that right now.

As waiting Rardi to heal Archedius and then him to free the mindflayer she looks more carefully the lab, the alhemical bottles and the scrolls.


OOC> Ino cannot take necromancy spells, but she wants to look at the spellbook mostly because she is curious to see the spells that are in and because well...she is very interesting in magic and anything that has to do with magic and spells.

Inovidil finds several odd items during her search of the lab:

--a set of three steel cannisters, with about a gallon of free volume inside each one and some sort of strange refrigerant device built in the base. Whatever it is, it isn't magical, but it keeps the cannisters cool to the touch- almost freezingcold inside! Each can has a screw-on top, with a carrying clasp built into its upper surface, so that the cans could be suspended from a belt or strung on a line.


-a lead box, locked and reinforced with wizardly magic. This is heavy. It's only about a cubic foot in size. Something rattles if you shake the box.

-a childsize slipper, for a left foot, fashioned of leather and dark blue lace.

- a big icebox with two headless , naked, corpses inside- one man and one woman.

This isn't counting all the hundreds of gold pieces worth of alchemical equipment, spell components, weird specimens in jars,etc.


The alien creature from the cage is now free. It leans weakly on Archedius, as if unable to support itself. Its wounds don't bleed so much, as just ooze a small amount of blue ichor.The only sounds it makes are soft whistling and burbling noises- wholly unlike human speech. The creature motions towards Deltherin with an open right hand,the three fingers and the elongated thumb making a grasping motion.

[Archedius]

Archedius steadies the mind flayer and puts a waterskin under its tentacles, "Drink, you need the fluids."

[ewancummins]

at the Old Shell


Jamethon turns away from Alain for a moment to attend to the blind musician. The old fellow has fallen asleep on the table, face down and drooling like a baby.

''I'd better put Old Gondegal in his bed. The ale is too much for him. You think you could help me move him upstairs? He's heavier than he looks- mostly muscle. He must have been a laborer or a footsoldier before he took up minstrelsy. ''

Jamethon stands up and lifts the graybeard to his feet with a grunt. The old man mumbles to himself, still half asleep:

''soldiers...fight...all lost...all gone...''

[ewancummins]

Archedius steadies the mind flayer and puts a waterskin under its tentacles, "Drink, you need the fluids."

The creature reaches with its facial tentacles to take hold of the bag and then proceeds to very noisily suck out all the water.

[VAN]

Ino takes as many alchemical and spell components she can put in her pockets and in her spell paunch. Then pointing the headless bodies and the slipper says:

"Look, I have evidence here! Now we can say that Delthrin has to do something with the murders or at least that he has gotten the bodies. We need to hurry, maybe the child is still alive."

[kintire]

Shana tries frantically to cry out, to make any noise: as a last resort, to breathe louder

[steveflam]

Rardi approaches Archedius and the Illithid. "Well, I can't say I've ever really been up close to one ye kind afore. Honestly I heard tales about ye, but none too kind. That dun matter none now. Ye be injured, so hold still, I gonna be healin ye wounds."

Rardi lays her hand upon the mindflayer's chest and with her other hand grips her holy symbol tightly. Moments after, energy flows from her hand through its body.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2170571/

26 hp restored. I hope we don't regret healing it

[BigBadQDaddy]

at the Old Shell
''I'd better put Old Gondegal in his bed. The ale is too much for him. You think you could help me move him upstairs? He's heavier than he looks- mostly muscle. He must have been a laborer or a footsoldier before he took up minstrelsy. ''

"Of course." Alain gets up from his seat to give Jamethon a hand. He makes his way to the opposite side of the old man, placing Gondegal's arm over and across his shoulder to better heft the old man to his feet.
"On three."

[ewancummins]

the crawlspace

A wave of exhaustion rises up to engulf Shana. She hovers at the verge of consciousness. The chill in her blood creeps from her limbs to her core. Just a little more, and she can sleep forever...no more pain...no more anything.


Shana hears a far-away voice, speaking an alien word. A burning feeling rips through her body, setting every nerve ablaze. Her eyes open onto blackness; she's still blind in the dark. Something is grabbing at her face! The childsize hand is warm to the touch, quite unlike the cold and lifeless ghouls. The hand abruptly comes away and Shana hears the sounds of a desperate melee, almost on top of her body! She is knocked about by the combatants, rolling across the cold earth floor. Then, she feels the power of movement restored to her limbs! She is no longer frozen.

[ewancummins]

on the lawn, near the opening to the crawlspace under the porch

Blaise feels the effects of the ghoul's touch wear off. He can move freely now!

Ironheart has crushed and destroyed what remains of the ghouls out here- but what of the ones who took Shana under the porch? It sounds like a ferocious battle is occuring there in the dark, as Threan fights them all alone.

[ewancummins]

in the lab-



The illithid remains still and quiet as Rardi works healing magic on it.

Ino continues to search the lab. She finds a key that fits the lock on the lead box. Inside the box are three small, rough, green rocks; which glow softly with a light of their own. Ino feels hot and itchy in the proximity of the weird rocks.

After Rardi has healed the alien creature and Ino has opened the little lead chest, all three of you hear a voice, flat and cold, in your heads:


I WILL NOT HARM YOU, SURFACE CREATURES. YOU MAY REGARD ME AS AN ALLY. OUR ENEMY IS DELTHERIN. WE MUST DECIDE HOW TO DEAL WITH HIM. HE HAS ACTIVATED CONTINGENCY PLANS, BEFORE ENTERING THIS ROOM. HIS MINIONS WILL ARRIVE SOON.

[Archedius]

After handing Inovidil the key to the cage, Archedius walks over to Deltherin and blindfolds him with a bit of cloth.

"Just in case."

"I wonder how his minions would act if I had my sword right on his neck...if we killed Deltehrin would his minions become free-willed?"

[steveflam]

"Archedius, I think it won't matter to them. He does control them but they are mindless, so it shouldn't matter one bit. If we run into them, I'll just turn em agin. We looking around now, or returning to the city with our idjit in tow?"

She moves right up to Delthrin and prods him with her foot, then kicks him for good measure.

[Archedius]

"Hate to say it, but we can't take Deltherin with us. I think it would be fitting to leave this decision up to Okithruu."

He turns to address the Illithid, "Where do you think your belongings are?"