And we’re back…
When we left I’d entered the dungeon seeking the glorious
prize for surviving to the end. I’ve
encountered many traps and enemies.
Freed a prisoner who told me the secret to victory, discovered some
fancy gems and currently am uneasily allied with one of my competitors. Currently we’re heading north after having
discovered it hidden at the bottom of a pit that had blocked our way.
While heading north we found on the wall a small shelf
holding two dusty old books, one red, one black. Throm the barbarian scoots away, his distaste
of the written word and the unknown clear.
I open the black book and it crumbles from age. What I manage to get out of it is a few
papers detailing the weakness of the Bloodbeast. The other book is a false book containing a
small vial which I take my chances on and drink which works out as I gain +2
luck. We move on north. Eventually the tunnel curves east and Throm
stops me. He hears footsteps approach
and we hide in the shadows. Two cave
trolls come down the hall and we surprise them.
We come out victorious though I took a good lashing or two. One of the trolls had a ring on a piece of
leather around his neck. Throm says he
recognizes the symbols on it and would recommend leaving it where it is and
refuses to touch it. If my competitor
says its evil and won’t take it I’ll accept his word, we move on east.
We eventually reach a larger cavern with stalactites and
mites everywhere. We decide to search
around in case there is something here we’ll need. Throm finds a leather pouch and as he picks
it up, a mouse scurries out of it which makes him laugh. The echo brings many stalactites crashing
down from the ceiling and we must run for our lives to the exit on the other
side of the room. We make it out
unscathed and he apologists for his indiscretion which I accept and we move
on. Finally, we come to a large wooden
door. We enter and inside is a room with
no clear exit other than the one we came in through and a dwarf siting in a
large stone chair. He says that he is a
Trialmaster and that there can only be one winner of the challenge and he must
now test us to see which one of us can move on.
Clearly, I’ve been warned of the Trialmasters and Throm doesn’t trust
him either as he whispers to me that we should attack. We both rush at him, but the dwarf is quicker
than he looks. He leaps from his chair
and throws a dart at both of us which paralyzes us. Afterwards he asks if we’re ready for his
tests now which we must begrudgingly accept.
He takes me to a different room through a secret door.
He rolls two dice and gets an 8. Then asks me to roll them but to first guess
whether my number will be lower or higher.
I stick with averages and say lower which happens to be correct when I
roll the dice. He then dumps a deadly
cobra out of a basket onto the ground and says I must test my reflexes and grab
the snake under its head. I reach out
but the cobra is faster and strikes.
Luckily it hits my leather wrist guards rather than me. I try again, successfully this time. I put the snake back in the basket and the
Trialmaster leads me back to the room with Throm. We then exit through another secret door
where I’m told to wait. I am in a small
arena with a sandy floor and a balcony above.
The dwarf eventually appears on the balcony and drops two pieces of
paper down. Unscramble the words and
choose one of the beasts to fight. The
papers read: No Crop Is and Ruin Moat.
Easily deciphered as Scorpion and Minotaur. I’m sure the scorpion isn’t going to be the
garden variety but you never know so I choose it.
A massive black scorpion is released from behind an arena
door. Dammit… I quickly wish I’d chosen minotaur as I have
to not only fight a claw, but meanwhile fend of the other and if the scorpion
ever rolls double 6’s turn to a different page.
My assumption is that if this occurs I probably get the stinger which I
can’t imagine ends well. After burning
through a significant amount of my luck for extra damage I manage to defeat the
scorpion. Beaten and bloodied the dwarf
congratulates me. He drops down a bag
with a chicken and some wine and bids me rest and await his return as he
leaves. I have no real choice and the
food is a good repast, along with some of my own provisions I’m nearly full on
health again and now I sit and wait.
Sometime later the dwarf finally returned and claims to have
a bit of a problem. Meet your next
challenge he says as the door opens to reveal the barbarian. The cobra bit him says the dwarf but he is a
tough one. I curse at the outcome here
but have no choice. My luck is low and
not worth wasting on this as it will likely fail so it is up to the dice. Throm is 1 point higher in skill than myself
but I’m starting the fight with 7 more hit points than him and it turns out
this is what carries me through to victory.
I’m down to 11 by the end of the fight but I do survive. The dwarf trains a crossbow on me and
congratulates me while also telling me that while I might like to kill him it
isn’t worth the attempt. He’s already
proven himself as a capable opponent and he’s got the drop on me with the
crossbow so I continue through a doorway to the north that he opens for me
before wishing me luck.
I move north and come to a west passage way from which there
is a loud buzzing noise. It reminds me
of the large fly I managed o avoid earlier so I pass it and continue
north. I eat 2 more of my rations here
to replenish some health before moving on.
I find a dark room filled with cobwebs and in the dimness trip over a
wooden coffin. Seems like I have no
choice so I open it and find inside a small velvet bag containing a shiny
pearl. I move the rest of the way across
the room to find two doors. I choose the
right one and exit into a hallway. I
come to two cherub fountains, one on each side of the hallway spilling cool
water into small basins. I can drink the
refreshing water, but one is clearly a bad result. Odds left, evens right, I roll a 5 and get
lucky. It is refreshing and I gain 2
skill and 1 hit point back. Continuing
northward I come across a pair of stilts chained to the wall with a padlock and
a sign. For stilts, insert 1 gold into
the lock. Considering the box at the
beginning of the dungeon gave me the only 2 gold, I have I assume these will be
needed so I do as instructed, taking the stilts with me.
Still going north, I come to a section of the hallway filled
with green ooze covering the floor.
Dipping some cloth in I find that the ooze is acid. I use the stilts to cross the pool sinking
ever further into the ooze as the stilts dissolve. I reach the other side but the stilts are now
useless so I leave them and continue north.
Soon I reach a door on the west side of the hallway which I open. Inside is a dead knight on the floor with a
large diamond nearby. The potion I drank
from the false book earlier was a potion of trap sense and it warns me off the
room so I pass on. At the end of the
hall I find a wooden chute or slide.
Seeing no other option I slide down into a large cavern filled with
bubbling slime pools and the dreaded Bloodbeast!
Remembering what I’ve learned earlier in the dungeon I know
its true weakness and after a few rounds of combat I strike at one of its true
eyes. It reels back in pain writhing in
the pool and I run past it to the exit of the cavern. The next room I face a Manticore. Again, given the information from the
skeleton earlier I know my defense here and can avoid its deadly spikes.
The fight is long but I am victorious. Past the manticore is a large stone door; the
real exit! There is a gnome here who
says he is another trialmaster and congratulates me on making it to the
end. To open the door, he says though, I
must use 3 gems on the locking mechanism.
An emerald, a sapphire and a diamond!
No! I don’t have a diamond, and
in fact the only diamond I saw was in a trapped room that I was forced to
skip! This just isn’t fair. He apologizes as he informs me that I am now
part of the maze, to work and modify the maze for future contestants. My adventure has come to an end.
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