The Garden Rooms, Part 1

'We MUST be getting close,' Ropin lamented and prepared to open yet another door to what looked like a very large underground lair. After being careful to listen for anything behind it, Ropin opened the door and peeked inside. All was clear.

However, the smell here was very dank and musty as if there were lots of grass or leaves all around in differing stages of decay and growth. It was quite wet here too, and some of the rocky walls even were leaking water down the sides in little rivulets.


There were 3 doors, and they opted to check out the middle door, since Kasas thought he heard something there. So they opened the door and saw 2 goblins and another of those weird Hobgoblin-plant creatures tending some plants in a medium sized room that was covered with moss, grass and mushrooms.
Not waiting to ask questions, they opened up on the workers and dispatched them easily. Then Ropin and Masiry wanted to check out the room heading South quickly since there might be more goblins that heard them, but Kasas and Relord were content to stay and loot the bodies (to which they found very little).

Ropin and Masiry as well as Erky went to the other door, listened and opened it quietly with bows ready. There was no one in this one, and while it looked similar to the room they just came from, there was a strange smell - kind of burning leaves or grass - and they also noticed black lines and some pot marks in the grass, showing the rock floor underneath. Towards the back, they also noticed a mound of dirt and rocks as well as a small hole in the wall. Erky went to investigate it.

When she got there, she looked around and started to poke at the mound to see if there was anything inside or useful there, as well as to scope out the hole in the wall.


In hindsight, that was not a very good idea.....


...since something suddenly jumped out of the hole right on top of here. 'Giant Worm!' She yelled and she was only half right. Since as the 'worm' was attacking, its nose glowed bright orange and started to burn Erky's clothes! 'What the heck IS that?' Ropin cried out as he waded into the room trying to aim his bow.


Actually, no one cared at the moment and watched in horror as Erky struggled under the 'giant worm.' However, Ropin's arrows did not find their mark and Masiry looked on in disbelief wondering how he was going to be able to punch THAT! Quickly, Kasas and Relord entered the room and Kasas, after doing a bit of planing, launched off a few magic missles and what would seem to be a terrible fight, was done in a short time.


However, Erky was not moving when they pulled the giant worm off of her and all of them had to put out small fires on her clothes and backpack. They looked at her in dismay since her skin was burnt and she was nearing death.

As gently as he could, Relord put his hands on her to cure her and hoped that would do the trick. It would heal the wounds, but the skin would take longer to heal. While doing so, Ropin was curious about this creature and examined it closely. He realized that this was a Thoqqua, a monster that actually can burrow through solid rock, eating the nutirients in the rocks. He then had an idea and cut open the belly, where he found 3 small gems that must have hardened in the Thoqqua's gullet. He resolved to give them to Erky as a momento....

After a few minutes of being close to death, Erky stumbled up and coughed a 'thank you' to Relord and the others. She said she was fine, but they felt they went through enough for one day, so they decided to rest, even though it was only nearing noontime.

They decided to go to the previous room to rest since they did not want to stay in this particular room.

What in the World??....

The adventurers found themselves in a large room after they climbed down the hole and killed the bugbear.

It was not what they expected, course, they were not sure what they were expecting - mostly they thought that they would see the humans that they were supposed to find - the main reason why they were in this strange dragon citadel in the first place! But no. At least not yet.

They looked around. It was very damp and moist and had vines and algae on all the walls and most of the ceiling. The algae cast a strange purple light, so they could see a little bit, but had to let their eyes adjust to the glow.

Apart from the hole, there were 3 other ways to go. Two of them had doors and one of them lead out into what looked like a cave or something.

They were not sure where to go, but they did wonder where the goblin king and queen were who had fell down the hole. They had expected to see them, along with the other goblins, but they were not there.

Anyway, all was quiet for awhile and they decided to pack their packs full of the purple algae for some quick and easy mini-medicine (even though it tasted terrible). However, as they were gathering up some of the purple algae, they must have made too much noise deciding what to do, since one of the doors opened and a small hobgoblin peered out into the room. He made a noise (what sounded like a question and then a yell) and then he quickly closed the door and ran back to where he had come from.

Realizing their mistake, the adventurers hurried to the door to prepare for yet another fight!


They got ready and then opened the door to look inside. It seemed to open up into a hallway, but it was quite dark and the purple light did not reach too far. As they were looking, a javelin came hurtling past and hit Relord in the chest. They did not see who had thrown it, but there were indeed other sounds further down the hall.


Relord quickly cast Light on a rock and threw it down the hall to brighten things up. It helped a bit and they saw 2 hobgoblins scurrying towards one of the middle doors.


They had fought many hobgoblins before, so they knew they were pretty easy to kill, so Ropin and Masiry ran to the door they went into. As they ran down to the door, they saw two other doors in the back open up as well, but did not look at what was coming out. They were concerned with the 2 hobbies in the room and Ropin lunged in first.

However, when he was there he saw a terrible thing: it looked like a small horse or a large rat had been experimented on and had a large cut on its belly. But not only that, it looked like there was a tree growing out of the stomach! After looking quickly (and not throwing up), Ropin saw the 2 hobgoblins rush at him to try to attack. But one goblin closed the door so Masiry could not help! Ropin was on his own.

In the meantime, Relord, Kasas and Erky had come into the hall and had taken up positions against some other monsters.


Erky and Masiry were trying to get the door open to help Ropin, but Relord and Kasas headed back to where the other doors had opened and something else had come out.....they looked and were surprised that it looked like a hobgoblin but with hard tree-like skin and branches that seemed to come out of his skin.

What in the world was going on?

It seemed like this Belak character was experimenting on hobgoblins and other animals to mix the tree blights and other animals! Terrible!

The worst part was that these hobgoblins, while slower were much harder to kill and had poison in their claws!

Also, as Erky and Masiry were trying to help Ropin, another weird horse/tree creature came out of another room and tried to bite Erky. Thankfully, Erky was nimble and escaped the bites.

Finally, Ropin emerged from the room himself and looked tired. He had killed not only the 2 hobgoblins, but the horse/tree creature that the hobgoblin set loose on him. It was a weird fight and once he got out and looked at the other weird creatures, they all were left wondering what was going on.....

What was going on?

And where were the humans?

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire....

After a bit of a rest to regain spells and health, the adventurers considered how to get down the hole; either by the vines or by some of the rope that they carried.

Kasas and Relord wanted to use their ropes, so they strung them up as best they could to some sturdy pieces near the hole and began to traverse down. It was not so difficult, but a little harder than they thought.

First, Kasas went down, sending his hawk first to investigate to make sure there were no monsters about. After Steropes came back with an "all clear" report, he headed down. However, when he was about halfway down, his hands slipped on the rope and he tried to hang on. He did, but he had slid a little bit and the rope caused his hands to burn, so he instinctively let go - not a smart move - and fell the remaining way, which turned out to only be about 10 feet. Still, he got a little wounded.

Next, Relord headed down and made it without incident.

Ropin, number three on th elist, was another matter. He thought it would be pretty easy and wanted to go a little faster, but he mistimed a handle and fell backwards into the hole when he was about 30 feet up! He tried hard to grab onto anything - rope, vine or wall, and fortunately he grabbed onto some vines. However, the force of his falling tore the vines off the wall and he kept falling......BLAM! He would have hit the floor very hard, but - thankfully - or not so much for Relord - he fell onto Relord. They both got injured a bit and Ropin had to tend to his sore leg that was pretty damaged in the fall, but he turned out ok.

Erky was next and was doing fine until....

....there was some noise from below. It sounded like "Hey! OW!"

Erky could not see what was going on, but it was clear that Ropin and Relord were fighting something in the eery purple lighted darkness.

2 large dire rats had sneaked up to the adventurers and took a bit out of each, so another fight ensued. Erky tried to climb down quickly.

Masiry was still up, watching to make sure nothing came at them from behind and also quickly sprang down the ropes in his casual monk style. However, when he landed, he saw something that he did not want to see: A huge bugbear creature with anterks on his head! Wait a minute - there were only rats! What was this guy doing here?

Anyway, he did not look too happy to have visitors and took out a HUGE morning star and started to aim at Kasas and Ropin.

WHOOOSH! The first swing nearly took off Ropin's head - if he had been hit, but thankfully, it just grazed his cheek and was not hurt - if the morning star DID connect, tho.....he would not want to think about that....

Quickly, the rats were taken care of, but this bugbear was ferocious and strong. Erky tried to stab him with a dagger and Masiry tried to do his monk magic on him, but all failed. Even Relord hit him quite hard, but it was only a scratch for him! Kasas, used his trusty magic missles though and hit him each time. The bugbear did not like that and went directly for Kasas. If the bugbear hit just once, Kasas would have been incapacitated for sure.

The bugbear took a huge swing and aimed it at Kasas. Kasas ducked, hoping that he missed the deadly morning star and turned back at the bugbear at the last instant. He was shocked at what he saw: The bugbear was still and not moving and had a terrible look in his eyes - and then he fell on the floor. What had happened?

Kasas looked around and wondered what he did!? Oh, Ropin was getting his 2 swords out from the bugbear's chest, wiping the blood from the blades. He looked as shocked as the bugbear since he hit the bugbear's heart directly and instantly killed the bugbear. He even was not sure that he had really killed him and struck him again, just to be sure.

Wow, what could have been a disasterous fight for the wounded adventurers ended up being an easy (and lucky) movie-esque fight scene where the hero gets the one lucky shot to kill the baddie.

Whew! They took a breather and looked around at the strange room more, now that they had more time.