RC Karyst: Under the hills

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The cave entrance leads to a well-made passageway. The passageway travels a fair distance into the hill-side, eventually opening into a large chamber. Strewn with garbage and refuse, a lone bugbear sits near a well-used fire pit.

Once the creature is dispatched, the party searches through the refuse, finding a colletion of silver (35 sp) and a blood-red gemstone. The chamber connects to several others, along the walls of which are tattered remnants of ancient tapestries. The depictions are faded, and little can be made of them. Continuing to explore the series of interconnected chambers, the party comes across a small band of goblins and a bugbear. However, once Varg kills the bugbear, the goblins quickly surrender to the party.

In yet another chamber, a handful of goblins are surprised by Varg, including a spell-casting goblin. However, the goblin trio is quickly defeated. Searching about the room, Juhn locates a concealed door hidden behind a wooden panel, while Devious unlocks a small iron-bound chest only to be cut by a small dagger-trap. The chest contained a large sum of silver (500 sp).

The metal door, ancient and rusted, opens easily and leads down a long dark passageway to another room. On each of the east and west walls of the room is hung a single tapestry. While the east is too tattered to make out what it once depicted, the west is an illustration of several dwarves in wizard's robes. Recessed into the south wall is a stair well that leads down.

The stairs lead down into a large chamber (35' x 35'). The southern half of the room is divided into three additional alcoves (one to the west, the east and the south). Within each stands a large metallic sphere, with a brassy red colour. Behind each of the spheres is a door. When the party approaches the alcove on the west side, the sphere in that area whirs and clicks, sprouting four spider-like legs and a strange metallic skull with a single, large blue-coloured eye. The creature stands and a voice from within addresses the party, challenging them with a simple riddle:

"Born each day, I die at night; I creep about the edge of light."

When Devious offers 'shadow' as the answer, the creature returns to its spherical form, leaving the doorway clear for them to pass. Behind the door, another stairwell leads the party further down into the hill-side, coming out in a room apparently once used as a library. Shelves of tattered books line the walls, and a desk and table stand between them. While most of the books are in poor condition and mostly illegible, a journal is found resting on the desk (the contents of the journal can be found here: http://www.karyst.com/tower/dwarven_journal.html ). Juhn also finds a small collection of scrolls, a few of which he is able to decipher.

(Varg, Juhn and Devious receive 325 xp each)

[This message has been edited by Gnolyn Lochbreaker (edited July 06, 2002).]

 

(Making room for the next recap)