Belak's Room?

As they went deeper into the vast citadel, the noticed that the small hallway was very moist and smelled of rot and decay. Thankfully, the stairs only went down for a short time and then after even continued to go up again. They counted the stairs and noticed that they were level with the previous room with Ashdaralon's statue, but they were a bit disorientated from the ups and downs and smells, let alone all the weirdness that they had seen.


As Ropin rounded the corner, he saw a very long hallway drift into darkness. He quietly stepped forward, which was not too hard since the floor was also splattered with moss and small grasses. As he got nearer to what looked like the middle of the hallway, he noticed 2 doors at the end. He beckoned the others to come - silently.

Ropin got to the first door and tried to see if it was trapped or locked. It was not trapped, but it was locked. He looked at the other door and noticed that it was neither trapped nor locked (or so he thought - since he is not really a rogue...). As they were getting ready to open the second door, Relord and Masiry got ready.

Ropin pushed the door open and then Relord stepped inside and found himself in what looked like a mushroom garden. The smell was quite strong and he also noticed a small goblin doing what seemed like gardening in the corner. He explained this to the others as quietly as he could, but the goblin heard and turned around to see who had opened the door.

Basically, quick fight and dead goblin. But they also noticed that some of the mushrooms seemed to glow, and some of them had various kinds of powders on them and they seemed to move a little when they were near them. They would have to be careful since Relord mentioned that mushrooms could both heal and harm you if you were not carfeful....

After looking around a bit, they noticed another small wooden door to where they guessed the other door in the hallwya led and a large wooden door that was actually 2 doors together leading somewhere else. Ropin was curious about the large door while Kasas was interested in the smaller one and both tried to open them.



Ropin was first and gently pushed open one of the doors. He was shocked at what he saw (and did not see). He saw what looked like a huge cave or cavern that was covered with grass and fungus as well as weird looking trees. He could not see farther, but knew that it extended even deeper into the darkness. He also unfortuately saw some other goblins, a hobgoblin and a few tree blights working in the garden area and gently closed the door again, so as to not make a sound.

Meanwhile, Kasas was not having luck with the other door. It was also locked and he could not seem to open it. Relord offered to try to break it open with his morning star (he picked up from the bugbear when they entered the hole) but it was agreed that breaking the door in the hallway would be quieter than breaking it here, especially since Ropin just explained the situation behind the door. In fact, did they really need to see what was behind the door? Shouldn't they prepare for the eventual fight with the monsters in the next room?

But curiosity is a powerful thing and it was decided that the door had to be broken.

After 4 loud clanging blows to the door, it shattered and they were able to go inside. They saw a small room, which looked like a bed room, living room and study area all in one. They thought it might be Belak's room and that he is most likely very close now.

Kasas was very curious as to what was in the room and looked around. He immediately saw some more bookcases, an experimental table and a regular eating table in the middle, a small fountain, a clothing dresser and a small unkempt bed. He noticed that on the experimental table were two halves of an apple, but he could not determine if it was a red or white one since the skin was peeled off and there were other powders and liquids around and in it.

As Kasas was looking in the room, Ropin was looking at the mushrooms, trying to figure out which were deadly and which were ok.

He did not have too much time, since suddenly the doors opened and in came the goblins and the hobgoblin! Oh no! They had heard the noise from breaking the door and now the fight was starting!



Would they be ready?

This IS a Dragon Temple.....

They made it through the night, but not the morning.

Just as everyone was waking up, they heard some chattering in the hallway. It seems that 3 goblins were looking for their master, the bugbear and found him lying in the doorway of garden room number 2!
Since some things can not be discussed or reasoned out, the party quickly decided to deal with these goblins before they could run off and warn others. Ropin jumped up and launched over the dead bugbear and Relord, managed to climb the dead husk and was ready at the top. Kasas and Erky were still in the back, feeling a little bit nervous after their near-death moments and Masiry was just coming out of his meditaiton exercise and was ready to go.


One goblin dropped dead from a nice shot by Ropin, as he came over the dead bugbear, and Masiry actually outpaced Relord by cleanly vaulting the body to help Ropin attack the other goblins. However, one of the goblins got scared and ran off down the hall.

They debated about running after him, but decided to go a little slower and prep for anything that may come back first since they already knew this area and did not know anything further down. However, after a few minutes, nothing happened. No one came back and no other sounds were heard. They then continued down the corridor, opening the one other door to the right, and noticed that it was another garden room with grass, purple moss, some strange fungus and small trees. This place was where they were planting things to eat or use....

They continued down to the door in front of them and came to a small broken down circular room with lots of purple moss on the floor, dripping walls and some broken sections of floor and ceiling. There was another door leading out of it and it was open. Apparantly, the goblin was too scared to close the doors on his way through....

They peered into the doorway and saw a hallway painted with stunningly beautiful - and gory - frescoes of dragons flying and destroying towns, dragons eating humans, dwarves and elves and dragons in all shapes and sizes doing what dragons do best - ravaging countrysides and hoarding treasure.

They all looked at each other and remembered that this citadel was in fact dedicated to a long lost dragon cult, not only a place where kobolds, goblins and weird humans did experiments with plants and trees!

Erky volunteered to quietly go down the hallway, since she said it seemed to open up at the end.


As Erky came to the corner, she peered into the room and froze. Ropin and the others were following her as well slowly and also stopped and readied their weapons. What did she see?

Erky's eyes quickly glanced over the room and did some calculations and guesswork. When she was done, she sighed and stepped more into the room. "It is alright! I see a dragon statue, a strange circle on the floor and another door. Oh, and that goblin we saw run down here looks dead. Don't know from what yet!" She did not mention that she had thought she was looking at a real dragon for a second, since the statue was so beautifully done as to resemble a real dragon.


They came into the room and were still leery. First, as they looked closer, they saw red glowing lights in the dragons' eye sockets, the marking on the floor was in Draconic and seemed to pulse with life, and the goblin was indeed dead, but they did not see any blood or weapons around him and it was not clear how he died.

Plus, the most important finding was when Kasas looked closer at the statue and said; 'My god! This is Ashdaralon the Great! This is HER temple and citadel. It was said that she got so powerful and controled so much that a cabal of sorcerers and wizards fought with her and banished her to another realm. But not only that, they used some dark magic to pull her entire temple below ground. There is something else that I am forgetting, but that is the main part!' Kasas was excited and wanted to go check out the circle, but the others mentioned that now would not be the best since they should continue on.


To save time and perhaps come back to this area later, they decided to look to see where the door leading out of this room led.

As Erky opened the door, which was surprisiingly not locked, she looked into a dilapidated, old, crumbing small library with many books and tomes and yet another door leading out. No one was all that excited about this discovery except Kasas, who started to look through some of the books and noticed that many of the titles had to do with dragons and dragon lore.

The others were content to keep going and opened the door into a hallway that lead to a staircase going down. 'How deep is this?' Relord said, while, Ropin, who has been impatient to find the humans said as if on cue; 'Where are the humans and Belak?'

Meanwhile Kasas was thinking how to take some (or all) of these books back to the surface, when he grabbed one and as he pulled it out of the shelf, grey powder spilled out from between the cover. These books were super old and distintgrated! After a quick search, with a few more books in that sorry state, he gave up on his idea and continued with the group.

Indeed, when will this end?

The Garden Rooms, Part 2

As they were heading back to the room - just a few feet away - the door that they had not opened yet suddenly opened up and they saw a large bugbear with a giant scythe in his hands.

Oh crap! Everyone stood still in shock, not knowing what to do. However, the bugbear seemed as if not to notice them and was on his way to just get some lunch. However, he sniffed with his large nose and looked down the corridor at the open door to where the party was and squinted (it seems that bugbears have bad eyesight). He either did not like what he smelled or saw since it seemed to dawn on him that something was not right.

He hefted the scythe in his large hands and lungered down the hall at the first person he saw - Kasas.

Kasas, knowing that 1 swipe from that weapon would be fatal, made a risky decision and bolted TO the bugbear to get to the room where the 3 goblins were killed and close the door, hoping that the bugbear would then choose the other people in the party.

However, the bugbear followed him, grunting and grinning and when he came to the closed door, kicked it open and made for Kasas inside the room.

Relord, Ropin, Masiry and Erky were all running after the bugbear now as well and tried to gang up on him. Kasas was able to dodge and weave the great arcs the bugbear made with his weapon, but only barely. Relord suddenly had a thought and cast Shatter at the bugbear and his weapon, hoping to break it. After chanting the spell words, a loud sonic boom was heard in the small confines of the room and everyone in the path of the sonic blast stood motionless for a moment. Kasas and Masiry were affected slightly, but the main job was done - the bugbear's metal bladed scythe shattered into many pieces and he was left with a wooden staff.

However, the power of Relord's blast had another unexpected result: the metal hinges on the laarge wooden door also broke and the door fell to the ground with a loud thud. Now that the bugbear was without his weapon (that he liked), the bugbear decided to pick up the door and use that (since he could get at leat 2 people in one swing and he was all about efficiency...

He was surrounded, but he not only had a large shield now, but also a pretty useful battering weapon to hit multiple targets, which he used as quickly as possible. Relord and Ropin each got bonked a few times, but the most serious was Kasas. As he was trying to get through the door again to get som espace between him and the bugbear, the bugbear got an Attack of Opportunity on him (a free hit) and smacked him hard, making Kasas roll out of the doorway on his back, just barely keeping his eyes open. Meanwhile, Masiry and the others each got some good hits on the beast and were able to take him down.

After looking down the corridor where the bugbear came from and not hearing anything, they decided to jimmy the door shut (they did not have the key) and rest as they were planning. However, they still did not want to go back to the room with the Thoqqua, so they decided that the room where they killed the bugbear was good enough even if did not have a door now. After a little debate, they pushed and lugged the begbear to the door entrance, making a mound in front of the door, as a way to make it difficult for someone or something to go over.


Finally, they were able to rest a little bit and each found their own private space to zone out in. Since Erky was still recovering from the shock of almost dying (as well as Kasas), she felt hungry and looked in her burnt backpack for something edible. Previously, she had found some strange apples in the experimentation rooms; 4 of them pure white and 5 of them a very deep red - all of them shiny and fragrant.

The fire had ruined a few of them, but there were still 3 red ones left and 2 white ones, so she picked a red one and started to eat it. With each bite, she seemed to gain more strength and vivality, and even the other adventurers noticed it. 'Wow, that was a good apple!' she said and offered them to the others. 'How about you Kasas? You look beat. Do you want one?'

Before Kasas could answer, Ropin and Relord both said: 'You ate the apple?!' 'What else do you do with apples?' replied Erky. But Relord mentioned that they were a little strange and should be careful. He then asked to see one of the white ones and concentrated on it but could not determine if it was just a white apple or something else. Then, his curiousity piqued, Kasas took a white apple and cast identify on it.

Holy Cow! After casting the Identify spell on it, Kasas almost dropped the apple on the gound. His face was almost as pale as the apple and he whispered: 'This apple has powerful magic in it - a Power Word: Kill matrix that I have only read about! Do NOT eat this apple! Give me the other one!' He grapped the other one and did another spell and this time he looked closely at Erky. 'And this one' he said, holding the red one, 'is also a powerful spell, but it cures all when eaten. We need to use these sparingly!'

Erky looked shocked at what she had done and looked at her scarred hands, seeing that they were fine now. Good thing she did not eat the other apples!

So, they could get a good rest now and after packing the apples away, everyone tried to get some shut eye.

Would they make it through the night?