The Mamma Rat

They woke up the next morning feeling a bit better and well rested. Thank goodness nothing bothered them during the night, so they were anxious to keep going and find the other 4 people.

As they continued down the dark hallway, they came to another larger room with a door to the left and a longer hallway going south. This hallway had 6 doors; three on each side and they guessed that maybe it was a jail at one point long ago.

They went into the large room area and left the door alone for now and looked down into the dark hallway. Ropin, as usual, went to his knees and looked closely at the ground. After a few moments, he turned to the rest of his companions and said: "From what the tracks show, 4 of them went down, but only 3 of them returned this way. Perhaps one of them was killed, so we must be on our toes!"

Ropin then stood up and started down the dim hallway. He stopped at one of the closed doors (three of them were open) and listened. Nothing seemed to be there, so he pushed on the door to open it. As it creaked ajar, he was ready for something to leap out at him, but it was just a thought he had. The door opened to a small cell with dirt and grime and shackles against the back wall. That was it.

By this time, Masiry was near the door opposite Ropin and pushed that one as well, but it seemed locked. He pushed again and this time the door hinges gave way and the entire door crashed down into the small room with a loud smack! They had hoped to move along here as quietly as they could, but now it was too late. But this door had nothing behind it as well except the painful memories of old prisoners cries.

They moved along to the other doors, but before they could open any more doors, something scurried out one of the doors and headed right towards Ropin. Another Dire Rat! It went quickly and bit Ropin on the shin and left him more angry than hurt. Ropin then quickly took out his long sword and killed the rat in 2 strokes.

However, with the sounds of the dire rat's squeaking, more came out of the rooms and soon, the adventurers were faced with 3 more large rats - whose bite was not as dangerous as the disease they carried if they bit through skin....

Soon, all the dire rats were killed, although Ropin and Relord both got bitten. Only time would tell if any disease made them sicker....

They made sure that the other cells did not have any more rats and looked through the dirt and rocks to find some gold and silver. They also found a hand that was partially eaten. Where could that have come from?

They continued further down the hallway and came to another large room with a door half closed on their left. There was another fountain towards the back of the wall and some rubble and rocks on their right. Also, interestingly, they saw two pit traps that were kept open with pieces of rock. Perhaps the others had found them accidentally or on purpose and kept them open to remind themselves of the danger. Masiry looked down both of them and found nothing but dirt, dust and many spikes.

It was the fountain that Kasas was interested in though and he made his way around the traps to the fountain. He saw that it had another Draconic inscription that said "Let There Be Death", and the fountain was built a little bit differently than the previous one. He remembered what had happened at the other one, so he stepped back towards the wall and said the words in Draocinic language. Nothing happened. He stepped closer, but something told him that he would need to be hear the fountain to say the magic words, so he stepped closer to it and chanted the words again.

This time, before he could react, a green mist sprayed out from a series of small holes and would have poisoned him, if he were not so quick, jumping out of the way. He dodged the mist well, but almost landed in one of the pit traps in back of him. Thankfully he regained his balance and did not fall in.

The others were eager to get going and when they started to get to the door, they heard some noises from within. They decided to open the door and then stand in back of the put traps to let whatever it was behind the door come at them. It seemed like a good plan.

Relord and Ropin went to the door and opened it a little and peered inside. They did not see anything and were going to move back....when suddenly what looked like 4 more Dire Rats started to move at once and bit Ropin and Relord. Oh No, not again!

Ropin and Relord were able to move back a little to let Masiry and Kasas shoot with their bows and spells, and 2 of the rats went down quickly. But as the other two rats moved to take their place, a large skulking figure also came out of the darkness. It was a HUGE mother rat! This even looked like the size of a small horse and had a terrible set of dirty broken teeth and large paws....and it was coming right at Ropin.


Backing away more, Ropin and Relord were having a harder time dealing with the smaller of the rats, while the mother rat was going towards them. But finally, after a painful struggle, all the rats were dead and thankfully no one had fallen into a trap or was killed. They decided to go into the room to take a look.

They were saddened to see the body of a dead human on the floor, without a hand. So that was where the hand had come from. Ropin looked around more and found the rat's treasure on a large pile of dirt and bones. They also looked at the human's body and took most of his items; he had 6 daggers, a leather armor jerkin (badly eaten), some gold and silver and a potion of cure light wounds, which unfortunately did not come in handy to him at the time. They also saw a ring with the name "Karakas." This name did not mean anything to them, but they thought that maybe it was one of the 4 people that they were supposed to find. Relord took the ring and promised to keep it safe.

Since the room was a dead end, they would have to return as the others did. But where would they go now?

The Secret Room

Ropin saw a small ornate table towards the back with 5 vertically placed coffins lined up two on the left and 3 on the right. The coffins had carvings of what looked like elves on their fronts.

He entered the room warily, since he did not have a good feeling about this place. For one, the other adventurers had not found this room and for two, it smelled almost as bad as the other secret room they had found in the entrance to the Sunless Citadel. So he was very careful and quickly looked from side to side and gingerly stepped on the old dusty tiles on the floor.

He got to the table and nothing happened. He was relieved and looked at what was before him. There were 2 candles flickering on either side of a strange dark glass object - he could not tell what it was. He also saw a flask of something that might have been a potion, but he did not study magic potions - he would have to give this to Kasas or Relord to find out what it was.

The table itself was interesting. It was made of polished black obsidian, which is a very rare and hard rock - he wondered who could have carved the ornate and complicated carvings he saw outlining the table. As he was looking, he was also looking for traps and did not touch anything. Thankfully, he saw two small slits in the walls near the table and thought that if was not careful, that was where a trap would be.

He continued to search and carefully felt along the legs of the table and found a small button. Feeling lucky, he pressed it and the trap did not activate! Instead, a little secret drawer opened and he saw 6 beautifully carved dragon-like gems. He took them without thinking and stood up.

Meanwhile, Kasas, Relord and Masiry were watching the progress and ready in case anything happened.

Ropin then looked at the potion and the dark glass object and picked it up. This time, when he did so, he heard a low rumbling and to his amazement, all of the 5 lids of the vertical coffins opened and crashed on the ground. Uh oh....

He quickly looked around for a way out, but just as sudden as the coffin lids crashed down, the 5 skeletons rushed out, powered by dark magic. They all came out and moved towards the one who disturbed the things on the table.

Ropin was caught near the back of the room and 3 of the skeletons rushed towards him. Two others went towards the door where Relord and Masiry were watching.

Ropin's eyes opened wide when he saw the three skeletons coming towards him since even though they would be easy to destroy, he was weak from the wounds made by the rats. If one of the skeletons made a great hit with his hands, he would be near dying!.

Thankfully, some of the skeletons were not as nimble as Ropin and missed him completely. However, a few sharp hands did slice at him and hit his chest, drawing a little blood. He thought about running away, but he knew that the skeletons would each get a special bonus chance to hit him and he did not want that.

Meanwhile, Relord and Masiry wounded one of the ones they were fighting and Masiry came to help his brother.

Finally, the three skeletons were down after a tiring and hectic fight. Relord was having a littlel trouble hitting his skeletons since he dropped his war hammer and had to find it. Also, Kasas was trying his best to use his Magic Missle spell, that shot out small blue balls of energy that never missed their mark.



Eventually there was only one wounded skeleton left and he was destroyed by the power of all 4 adventurers. They were scratched up and wounded themselves, but they knew that with a little rest, they would get back some of their health before setting off again.


Meepo was relieved that they had taken care of the skeletons but was anxious to sleep in the place where the skeletons had just come from. However, the adventurers thought that nothing more dangerous would happen there, so they choose to sleep there.

However, before they did Ropin looked at what they found and took the dark glass item in his hand. It looked like a cup or a flask or a whistle, but he could not figure it out. Finally, he put it to his lips and blew it. At first nothing happened, but then, one of the skeletons started to get up.

Everyone started to reach for their weapons again, but the skeleton just stood there looking calm. Ropin said to go over to the wall and it listened to Ropin's words! Wow, that really was a whistle and it could call skeletons to help you.

Kasas was also interested and wanted to blow it too, but Ropin was not sure that was a good idea. Kasas did anyway, but at the same time another skeleton started to reanimate, Ropin's skeleton crumbled onto the floor, dead again.

They all decided to get some rest before they headed out down the passageway......

The Pool of Fire

Meepo led them through a large door in the back of the Hall of Dragons. There were quite a few other doors in the Hall, but Meepo did not open them or tell them what was in there. Meepo opened the door and led them in another darkened hallway.

He brought them around a corner and to another door and then waited. "Meepo, no hear monsters, but maybe the stinky goblins are there! We be careful, yessssss."

So Ropin and Kasas and the others got ready and quietly opened the door. It was dark and black, and they heard and saw nothing. The room opened out to be a little bit bigger than the hallway they just came from and had some dirty rags in one corner and some small bones in another. Ropin also noticed some footprints leading to another door.

Directly in front of them, was the door. They walked up to it and quietly listened and searched for anything that might hurt them. It seemed safe and sound, so they opened this door as well.

This room was similar to the one they just came from, but instead of another door in front of them, they saw a hallways disappear into the darkness. The footprints also went down into the hallway into the darkness. As they entered the room, they also saw an old broken fountain on their left. Kasas and Ropin were interested in the fountain, so they looked at it and Kasas saw some words written in Droconic above the fountain. Kasas brought his torch closer to the words so he could read them. When Ropin asked what it meant, Kasas told them it said "Let there be Fire!"


He was about to leave it alone, when Meepo said that some words are magical: "You say magic words, say and magic come maybe, yessss! You try, you try!" So Kasas said the words he saw above the fountain in Droconic: Nethilac! Suddenly, some red thick, goopy liquid started to come out of the fountain. It was collecting in the fountain's basin. Meepo was excited, and so was Kasas, since he thought that he knew what this red stuff was: Alchemist's Fire!

He then decided to throw his torch into the red liquid and ........

WHOOSH!!!!! CRACKLE!!!!!

......the fire from his torch ignited with the red liquid and burned very quickly and very brightly. So quickly that the fire's flames climbed up Kasas' sleeve and started to burn his arm. He quickly put out the fire, but was shocked at the power of the Alchemist's Fire. Everyone else rushed over to see if Kasas was alright, after their eyes adjusted to the bright light that they were now in.

The fire continued to burn in the fountain. As this was going on, Ropin was searching around the room and found another secret door - he was getting better at finding those doors!

He opened the door and looked inside. He knew the other adventurers had not gone in here since he did not see any footprints. In fact, he thought that no one had been in here for a very long time. He must be careful!

In the Chamber of the Kobold Queen

Meepo led the 4 adventurers to the front of the large Hall of Dragons, where the Queen was waiting. There were quite a few more kobolds in this room and they were all surprised to see humans with them, but they did not attack. Even though the humans were much taller than they were, they did not seem scared, only nervous.

But Meepo brought them before the queen. However, four heavily armored kobolds with large spears barred the way. Meepo knelt before them and hoped the adventurers would, too, but they did not know and did not kneel. Meepo said: "This is wise Queen Ysdrasl, master of all Kobolds and Great Leader in the Hall of Dragons!"



Finally the Queen got up from her chair and said in a high pitched voice: "Meepo, who are these tresspassers in our Hall!?" Meepo looked down in courtesy: "Tresspassers, yesssss, but they no hurt Meepo, they no hurt usssss, they help us, yessss! They help find Calcyax! They will find him, I know it!"

The queen seemed angry: "YOU lost the dragon and YOU will find it - but perhaps these humans can help. The others have not come back yet, so maybe they will be luckier."

Ropin started to ask many questions: "Have you seen other humans? Did they come this way? Where are they? What can....."

"Enough!" the queen said in her high voice. "Yes, I have seen the other stinky humans and they came this way and almost fought with us! I do not know where they are now, but I am sure that The Outcast has either taken them or killed them....and they have taken our Prize as well! So, is Meepo telling the truth? Will you help us get back our Prize from those terrible goblins?"

Kasas looked at the Queen and said: "Yes, we will find your lost dragon, too. We were sent to look for the 4 humans, but we will also help you. Do you know where the dragon is?"

"No, we do not, but the goblins came and stole it into their part of the Citadel or in their lower level. I do not know, the dragons do not tell me...." and her voice sounded sad as she looked at a jade statue of a dragon near her Queen's chair. Suddenly, she said: "Yes, you will find Calcyax for us - and Meepo, you go too! You help them find the dragon or NEVER come back!"

Meepo was scared when he heard that and started to shake: "Yes, my Queen! I find Calcyax! We come back soon! Come, Come!" and he got up and started to pull the adventurers towards a door in the back of the Hall of Dragons.

Meeting Meepo

Masiry and Ropin checked the plain door for traps and monsters on the other side, but did not find anything dangerous. So they opened the door and saw a dark hallway going down about 50 feet, with 2 doors on each side, opening up further on, but it was too dark to see down there.

They went forward slowly and carefully. They decided not to open the doors on the sides, to see what the hallway was opening up into. As they got closer, they listened and heard some soft squealing further on. They were even more careful now and slowly inched their way on.

As they got closer to the end of the hallway, a large room opened up. In the room, they saw a large cage that looked broken, a door at the back and a table with some small things on it in front of the cage. They also looked and saw what looked like a bed with some pillows or dirty sheets on it.

Strange, that was where the noises were coming from, but they could not see anyone there.

Ropin went to go look at the door at the back, Masiry and Relord were looking at the cage and Kasas took his crossbow and shot the bed. It thunked into the bed and suddenly the bed started to move and a small creature came out and started to yell: "AH! AH! NO! NO! Meepo, NO!" He started to run away to the back, but Masiry and Relord were quick and caught him. They did not shoot him, since he did not look like he would hurt them, but they pinned his arms together and started to ask him some questions.

He was very scared and looked like he was going to pee in his pants. However, Kasas and Masiry asked him who he was and what he was doing. "Me Meepo! Yes, Meepo, No! don't hurt Meepo! Me was sleeping, so tired! No, No hurt!" he said in short, whiny bursts with a high pitched voice.

Meepo is a Kobold, a descendant of dragons. However, Kobolds are much much smaller and can not fly nor breathe fire. They usually like to live in dark places, usually under the ground and live with many kobolds together for protection.
However, it looked like Meepo was alone.

But not for long! Soon, 3 other kobolds rushed out through a nearby door and were going to attack, but Meepo told them not to. Them Meepo told the adventurers to come with him to the Queen and she would answer all of their questions.

So, they agreed and Meepo, the adventurers and the 3 other kobolds walked through the dark tunnels (Kobolds can see in the dark) until they got to a large room. The large room had about 20 stone pillars in the middle of the room and each of the pillars had very beautiful and ornate carvings on them of dragons.

This was the Hall of Dragons!

The Two Doors (plus one)

The 4 adventurers now stood in front of the tower door. Since Ropin had fallen into the pit trap just in front of the door, they were all a bit nervous about other traps. However, after searching a bit more, they determined that there were none left (at least by the door).

Relord and Kasas started to go to the door and opened it slowly. It opened inward and everything around was pitch dark. It was hard to see, so Ropin and Relord lit some torches and Kasas, with his better vision in the dark went to look inside. Everyone was ready for something to come out at them, but when nothing did, they started to go inside.

As their eyes got used to the dark (with torches), they saw 3 dead goblins on the ground and 1 dead goblin with a spear through his stomach still stuck to the wall. They also saw 2 doors leading out; one was an ornate door that had scuplted dragons on it (to the left) and one was more ordinary and plan, but looked solid (to the right).

They were disappointed that the goblins did not have any money on them or good weapons and guessed that the other 4 people they were sent to find probably took it. So at least the people did come this way.

Kasas was VERY interested in the dragon door and saw that it had a small opening that went into a dragon's mouth. He thought that this was the way to open the door and put his hand inside to feel around. However, that did not work and he pulled his hand back out. He spent more time looking at the door, trying to think of ways to get in with out the key.

Meahwhile, Ropin and Relord were looking around at the walls and floor, as well as looking up. They saw the remains of a broken staircase that went up to higher levels, but the floors of those higher levels were broken and so they could not see the ceiling of the tower entrance.

As Ropin was looking around, he also noticed that part of the wall was strange and he felt around it. It started to move and he pressed harder and it opened! They had found a secret door.

They peered in and the first thing they smelled was a strong deep scent. They then saw 3 skeletons lying on the floor with ragged bows right next to them. Ropin and Relord looked at each other and were about to go in, when the skeletons eyes started to shine with a bright red light. Worse still, they started to move and get up towards the door.

Relord quickly stepped back and brought out his god's necklace and started to chant the words he used to call St. Cuthburt's blessing. It worked, and the skeletons turned away to go towards the inner wall, but not before one of them slashed at Ropin's face.


After they took care of the skeletons, they decided to leave the Dragon Door for now and went to the other plain door.

Oh Drat!

The 'meat' turned out to be three Dire Rats, as Ropin and Masiry found out when they landed on the first top platform leading down to the Sunless Citadel.

As Ropin climbed down the rope and jumped off the last part to land on the platform, 3 Dire Rats moved in, as if they were waiting (since they had smelled the adventurers coming down the rope). Ropin quickly went to one and sliced at it, staggering it a little. Masiry then jumped down, too and was about to make another leap to get behind one of the rats, but stumbled and fell down some of the stairs to almost the second mid platform. He was lucky that he did not tumble off the edge, since the drop off was over 80 feet high - which would have killed him. Luckily, his monk training helped here.

Kasas slowly made his way down and Relord brought up the end, making sure nothing would get them from behind. After a quick fight, the 3 Dire Rats were cleaved and killed. However, both Kasas and Ropin suffered some minor injuries, so the start of their adventure here was not without incident.

Patching themselves up the best they could, they continued down the stairs, looking out all the time for more rats. There were no more on the stairs, so they made their way down to the main section, which was quite impressive.

Each of the adventurers mouthed a surprised 'wow' from their lips as they looked at what was now a huge castle under the ground. They were told that this castle was pulled into the ground by some powerful magic and it must have been powerful indeed. As they stood on the last stair platform, they gazed at the small courtyard and a tower that was almost 3 floors high.


By this time, it was mid afternoon and the sun was going down, so they decided to hurry and try to get in the main door, they saw going into the tower.

Ropin went first stright to the door, when suddenly.......

.....he was gone!

He had fallen into a pit trap that lay in wait for anyone coming to the main door. He had rushed too much to notice it and now he fell into a hole about 20 feet deep. There were scattered rocks and he also noticed a dead goblin - that must have been there for a long time.

However, as he looked around, he also heard something in there with him and he noticed the long sinewy tail of another Dire Rat! He quickly got out his sword and tried to find the beast. It was a quick job for Ropin since the Dire Rat was also wounded.

Then, Relord, Masiry and Kasas were thinking of ways to get him out. Masiry used his rope to make knots in and they threw it in. Ropin grabbed the rope and pulled himself out. He will now be much more careful when looking at doors!

The Large Hole in the Ground

The 4 adventurers left early in the morning the following day, after talking to Garrick at the Old Boar Inn. They were excited and ready to go and left without having breakfast, saving that for the road.

They walked southwards for awhile, past fields and small woods. They did not see or hear anyone and it seemed the farther South they went, the more like a desert the land became. They were making good time and were humming songs to keep boredom at bay. All the while, Steropes kept flying above them, making bigger and bigger circles in the air.

A little after they rested for a late lunch, Steropes shrieked, telling Kasas that something was up ahead. They all got up and looked, but could not see anything except distant mountains and clouds in the sky.

They kept walking and then they did see something strange - some posts in the ground that bordered a large hole in the ground. As they got closer, they saw that the hole was HUGE and it was many miles long.

They had made it - This was the entrance to the Sunless Citadel!





Ropin looked around the ground where the posts were and determined that some people had come through here recently and had left a fire. Could this be the 4 adventurers before them?

Kasas was looking around at the posts and noticed that there were words carved into the wood - it was in rough dwarven, probably written by goblins, that said: "Stay Out! Don't Come In!"

Masiry looked, too and saw a rope that was tied to the post, going down into the chasm (large hole). He looked down, but it was deep enough that he could not see clearly to the bottom and was worried about falling in.

Kasas then told Steropes to go down and take a look. He did and tried to explain what he saw back to Kasas: "3 lands, 3 lands and meat! Meat! I'm hungry! Big meat, to walk - can I eat? Can I eat?" Kasas did not really understand, but he told him to eat the meat, if he wanted and Steropes flew down and there was a shriek and the sounds of a small fight. Steropes returned with a clump of hair to show and said "Big meat, angry meat! I want to eat, but big, big!"

Finally, they decided to go down the rope to see what this 'meat' was. Ropin was first, then Masiry, then Kasas and then Relord.