A Tunnels and Trolls® play-by-post adventure run by khara_khang
To the three in chains, their forced march is more than they expected. The leg chains allow for only minimal movement and require each of them to take smaller steps to keep up.
"Oh, if only your mother were here to save us, Shippy [sic]," Taran grins, injecting a bit of sarcasm in rebuttal to Shipy's earlier comment about them needing Jax to rescue them.
"She's dead. She died of pneumonia while I was away."
"Oh, sorry. What about your brothers?"
"Killed by the plague."
"Doubly sorry. Did you have a dog?"
"Yes, my dog Pongo. Hit by a carriage and killed. I did have a goldfish named Goldie."
"What happened to it?" he asks, knowing there has to be more.
"Eaten by the cat."
"And your cat?"
"Choked on the goldfish and died."
Taran rolls his eyes and keeps shuffling along. Shipy does the same while smiling. The long wide corridors have high vaulted ceilings and walls that are stark white. Echoes from the rattling chains seem to be the only noise. A wall mural on the right side of the corridor catches their attention as they approach.
"Nice mural. It could almost be a map, couldn't it?" The comment even surprises himself.
Shipy scrunches his face up as he walks by it. "Yes it could. If it were a map, then that would put us near the eye of the bottom head." Inquisitive, Shipy reaches out as only a Hobbit can and touches the mural as they walk by.
Taran, Olvarin and Shipy reappear in some other corridor together. The undead creatures who were escorting them as prisoners are nowhere to be seen. The corridor gives off a faint magic light from above, comparable to a moonlit night. The three stand together, deciding what to do next.
Shipy smiles. "'Good riddance to bad news,' is what I say."
The Warrior at the gates turns slightly and points his sword at the invisible Quickly as if to give the Fairy one warning of what might happen. The Warrior's movements are slow and precise as Jax begins to speak. Quickly's innate ability to see invisible lets him see a very faint magical outline of a pentagram embedded into the cobblestone in front of the gates; the Warrior stands in the center of it.
"....I speak thus to you, one Warrior to another, in the hope that you will grant us passage."
The guardian cocks his head to the side to watch the invisible Fairy. His voice is plain and clear. "Many people have been banished from this place who never should have been. Many who deserved to live who entered here have been killed here: creatures who would have lived good lives, lives of meaning if someone filled with fear and ignorance and a little power hadn't come across them. Remember, that not all that can be seen should be feared. Embrace oblivion for a short period of time while you are here." The armored Warrior fades from view and the gates open to their widest aperture.
Jax and Quickly enter the gates to find a wide open courtyard lit by magical torches which line the inner wall. Beyond the courtyard is a city that surrounds the temple. Hundreds of buildings can be seen with dozens of streets, all of which lead to the huge temple in the center of the city. Some of the buildings are crumbling, while others stand in excellent shape. Jax and Quickly stand there for a few moments taking in the staggering view.
"So, someone please explain why we're trying to sneak up to the temple?"
Martek tightens his lips, tersely shakes his head and keeps walking, but his animated rope turns to look at Ebony. As snakelike as it appears, it is still just a magical rope.
"I know just enough to know that we don't need to worry what's on the outside, but what's on the inside of that temple. I know enough to know that I am not waiting back there in the jungle for Jax to return to fetch us." Martek knows the Mummy King is one heinous bastard and it is probably enjoying itself right now. Martek will not be sorry to destroy it when the time is right.
Ebony catches something in Martek's voice that she doesn't like, but she can't put a finger on it. She suspects his voice is full of warnings. It is as if everyone has their own agenda; many things are being left unsaid.
Jack, Ebony, Amroth, Megol, Jay and Martek approach the gates together. Finding them open, they continue on inside to find Jax and Quickly in the courtyard inside the gates as surprised to see them as they are.
What do you do?
[Group merge:
As soon as he realizes the jig is up, Quickly drops his own invisibility. Puzzled, he listens to the Warrior's speech, then tags in after Jax.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'm stumped. There's the temple, although... 'Embrace oblivion for a short period of time while you are here'? Maybe we should go see if there's a tavern still open around here. Surest way to embrace oblivion that I know."
Jax smiles a tusky grin at Quickly's quip, and lets his bewilderment (and relief) over the confrontational anticlimax subside.
"Well met, Martek," Jax turns at the party's approach. "You've just saved us a trip back. Quickly and I got past a Guardian at the gate. I'd like to say how we did it, but I don't know how---at any rate, the immediate coast appears clear. You got us to the Temple, but this place is bigger than first appearances; we could sure use any guidance you can offer. Nevertheless, even though you may have been expecting us back in the jungle, I doubt Grutoss has sent you and Amroth here to rescue Shipy, to say nothing yet of Shipy's original mission here. I propose that we lay our agendas on the table before we waste any more time, and decide who or what we're going after."
He adds, almost an afterthought, "If it isn't already obvious, I should add that Taran, Shipy and Olvarin's safe return to our numbers is my foremost priority."
Ebony doesn't like the feeling that there are so many different hidden agendas, but it is something she has grown used to with time. It is the nature of her profession; you can trust very few, and have to fill in the many blanks with your instincts, intelligence, and intuition.
In this particular case, her instincts tell her that Martek is intentionally hiding part of his purpose in this jungle. Her intelligence doesn't have enough information to form an opinion, and her intuition tells her that he is a good man, if shaded in mystery. So, I'm faced with a good man who's hiding something, and my life is somewhat in his hands. Ju-u-u-st great.
They approach the gates, which Jax and Quickly have apparently infiltrated. To her surprise, there are no bodies strewn about and no guardian chasing them down. She sees the others, waits and watches the group's reunion. In particular, she watches Martek, to see if he will give some clue as to his real reason for being here. He intrigues her.
"And your cat?"
"Choked on the goldfish and died."
That is bad news.
"So, someone please explain why we're trying to sneak up to the temple?"
Martek tightens his lips, tersely shakes his head and keeps walking....
Then Jay will helpfully refer her back to his post. :)
"I know just enough to know that we don't need to worry what's on the outside, but what's on the inside of that temple."
"Unless of course, there are a swarm of minions stationed outside the temple."
"Quickly and I got past a Guardian at the gate."
"Or other guardians."
"If it isn't already obvious, I should add that Taran, Shipy and Olvarin's safe return to our numbers is my foremost priority."
"All due respect, but preventing the release of a Balrog is my chief priority. If it gets free, things get a lot worse on a much larger scale really quickly. Fortunately, it seems we need to rescue the others to accomplish this. And while I'll do everything I can to make it happen, I have to confess that I'm not particularly concerned just yet: I don't know Olvarin, but the Hobbbit [sic] seems to have a talent for escaping trouble, and Taran is with him. I wouldn't be too surprised if the lot of them have already escaped."
"Oh, well done, my good Hobbit!" Olvarin laughs with relief. "Thanks to my inane babbling and your wandering hands, we have somehow escaped. You really are a lucky fellow, aren't you? And luck is just what we will need."
Getting his bearings as best he can, the Elf can see no immediate threats. "Master Shippy [sic], you have a great quest to complete. And it must need precedent. However, I seem to have lost a holy relic of my temple, that is my staff, along with all my belongings and your own, not to mention Taran's. Do you suppose we could reverse the teleportation after a certain amount of time has passed, so we could retrieve our goods?" The Elf looks around the walls of the corridor for a similar magical map to the one that brought them here.
"By the way, Master Shippy [sic], you seemed to recognize our former location from the dragon map. Can you tell where we are now?" While Shippy [sic] considers his answer, Olvarin tries to cast Knock Knock spells on their bindings.
All due respect, but preventing the release of a Balrog is my chief priority. If it gets free, things get a lot worse on a much larger scale really quickly."
"Well spoken, Jay. Martek, Amroth: in case you don't know, Shipy's agenda here (and ostensibly ours) is to prevent his father from taking an ancient relic held in this temple. The relic is a sword in which a Balrog is imprisoned, but Shipy's father doesn't know that if he liberates the sword, he will thereby liberate the Balrog. As for how both the Mummy that kidnapped Shipy and the disappearance of Taran and Olvarin fit into this picture, we have no clue. Do you?"
"Fortunately, it seems we need to rescue the others to accomplish this. And while I'll do everything I can to make it happen, I have to confess that I'm not particularly concerned just yet: I don't know Olvarin, but the Hobbbit [sic] seems to have a talent for escaping trouble, and Taran is with him."
"However, Jay, we cannot assume that Taran, Shipy and Olvarin are together, nor, for the sake of your argument, can we assume that we even need to rescue Olvarin and Taran to stop Shipy Sr., though I think their contributions toward the endeavor could be crucial. And even if they are all together, Taran's talent for finding trouble may more than compensate for Shipy's talent for escaping it. Regardless of whom we go after first, it's all moot if we don't know where to go to find them. This place is huge. At this point, our best tactic is luck."
Jax turns back to Martek to add, "I'm hoping you have a better plan."
"As for how both the Mummy that kidnapped Shipy and the disappearance of Taran and Olvarin fit into this picture, we have no clue."
"If they're related at all. Given the size of this place, there might be any number of artifacts or objects squirreled away, and a host of other reasons to pilgrimage here."
"...we cannot assume that Taran, Shipy and Olvarin are together..."
"You're right, of course. Since they clearly have or had teleportation portals, and we suddenly lost Taran and Olvarin completely, with no tracks or indication of where they might have gone, I made an erroneous leap that the Mummy would have them as well. A major flaw on my part."
"...nor, for the sake of your argument, can we assume that we even need to rescue Olvarin and Taran to stop Shipy Sr...."
"Also true. I had them linked to the hobbbit [sic]."
"And even if they are all together, Taran's talent for finding trouble may more than compensate for Shipy's talent for escaping it."
"You know them both better than I, so I'll take your word for it."
"Regardless of whom we go after first, it's all moot if we don't know where to go to find them. This place is huge. At this point, our best tactic is luck."
"Yes. It's unfortunate we didn't have a better idea of the scope of this place, or of possible (likely) areas the sword might be. Again, if one of the other mages has a spell handy for such an occasion, this is a good time to mention it."
"I'm hoping you [Martek] have a better plan."
"Or at least some more information."
"Good idea about going back," Taran says to Olvarin, the Elf and fellow chain-gang member, "if we could only bust outta these chains first." Taran focuses on the task at hand (and feet). He sits and grips the chain affixed to his left leg shackle. He pulls as hard as he can to try to break it. "With us surrounded and weaponless when we were with the undead freaks," he reasons aloud as he pulls, "perhaps these chains weren't meant for keeping us under wraps all by themselves." He grunts as only an Orc can under great duress. "Which means, ugh, maybe these chains can be broken by sheer might of muscle."
Taran looks for the source of the light. Natural light means access to a natural light source. Magical light means a magical light source, at least he reasons so. He scans the corridor periodically for any blips on his visual radar, HotVision™ or otherwise. "If you got that map in your head, Shipy," Taran agrees with the Elf, "point us in some kinda useful direction. This empty glowing corridor gives me the creeps." He then turns his neck to look at his own back. "Hey, speaking of glowing, I'm not glowing, am I?" he questions of the Talo Tatoo Worm on his back.
"Is this some kind of trick to sucker me into seeing a Full Orc Moon?"
"No, my back, not my rump, ya runt! The worm thingy! Oh, you weren't there for that, were you?" He explains briefly to Olvarin and Shipy about his magical back-side stowaway.
"Green Orc needs clothes, badly!" Shipy jokes in mock disgust, not having the Orc sensibility to appreciate such a finely toned rump.
"I'm hoping you [Martek] have a better plan."
"Yes, I think we all are," she says, smiling.
"Green Orc needs clothes, badly!"
Hee hee hee.... This just made my day.
"I propose that we lay our agendas on the table before we waste any more time, and decide who or what we're going after. If it isn't already obvious, I should add that Taran, Shipy and Olvarin's safe return to our numbers is my foremost priority."
"Who or what we're after? Heck, Jax-o, I think we're all after our own hides at this point. Whatever meta-reality point we were supposed to have picked up on I obviously haven't and I think we're sunk one way or another. If you wanna go in after Taran and Shipy, even I'd be hard-pressed not to go in with you, but it's a doomed effort, mate. I'll follow you, but make a good honest prayer to the ol' deus ex machina before we go headlong and headstrong, yeah?"
Jax finds himself in the unlikely role of cheerleader for the usually chipper Skeleton. And in spite of his own fears, he feels his courage waxing to compensate for Jack's reservations. Jax is grateful for the shot in the arm, even if Jack doesn't realize the effect he has on the Orc.
"Ah, chin-bone up, Jack. I'm a big believer in deus ex, though in our case, we can always fall back on a little Dea Ex Pecunia," Jax states wryly, drawing out his Get Out of Trouble™ token and walking it across the knuckles of his meaty hand.
After examining the door ever so precisely, Shipy Sr. stopped, standing on the steps in front of the door. "According to the inscription, this entrance is 'three by three by three by three high and right.' That can only mean nine steps up, and then... nine of some measurement that way."
Sirina shook her head when Shipy Sr. began feeling the sooth stone for a door, only to come to a stop with his hand on a small character carved into the stone.
Shipy Sr. smirked to himself. The Tiang character of the southern dialect for 'enter.' Smart, but not good enough. Pausing for effect, and then pressing on the sigil as hard as he could, Shipy Sr. could only take in his companions' stares of awe as an opening appeared in the seamless rock.
"There we are," he whispered.
"It's pitch black inside," muttered Sirina.
"I'll strike a torch. Just keep your eyes open." Shipy Sr. pulled a torch from his pack and struck his flint and steel. With the blazing light in hand, he led the way into the consuming blackness. More than a little disturbed by the flame, Sirina hung to the back of the group and cast a final glance back down the silent darkened corridor from which they had come.
Shipy Sr. had been walking for several yards when he whispered for everyone to stop. "Watch it," he cautioned, the dark seeming to steal the volume from his words.
Shipy was just about to continue into the room, when Kazad tapped him on the shoulder.
"What?"
Taking the torch, Kazad shined it on the floor to reveal a chessboard-type floor, but where each of the black squares would be, there was a twenty foot deep spiked pit. The two stood together in thought. Each square was ten by ten feet, but some of the white squares throughout the room had things on them. Sirina quickly lost interest in their work and turned around, peering into the inky darkness.
Suddenly, a skittering sound from somewhere in the room caught her attention. "Uh, Shipy Sr., did we pass by any side passages?"
Shipy Sr. didn't even look up from his thoughts, as he studied the room. "I didn't see any..." His voice trailed off into silence again.
Sirina stared harder into the shadows and Kazad walked up to join her. This time, they could both clearly hear skittering steps. Knowing that it could no longer be their respective imaginations playing tricks on them, they looked to one another with concern and both listened harder. Sirina was just about to turn around, when Shipy Sr. called, "I got it! Let's cross diagonal!"
She and Kazad nearly jumped out of their clothes. "Don't do that!" Sirina shouted back. "Ye scared us half ta' death! Shipy Sr., I'm sure there's somethin' 'round here!"
"What do you mean, 'round here? Oh, come on." Shipy Sr. took the torch back from Kazad, and they started crossing the room diagonally. The second square held an eight-foot tall stone figure that was shaped like a humanoid with great pointed teeth and claws, and a writhing mess of hair on the top of its hideous head.
"Damned ugly statue," commented Sirina. "Did I hear ye wrong, or wasn't this an Elven temple?"
"It was," answered Shipy Sr. He examined the statue more closely. "They needed to consult some decorators. This isn't somebody I'd like to meet in a dark alleyway."
"Or a dark temple?" prompted Sirina. Just then, a couple of rats came squeaking out from behind the statue, and ran off to get away from the torchlight.
Shipy Sr. tried his best to contain himself. "Was... that what you heard?" It was little use. He burst into loud, rolling laughter.
Sirina nodded in disgust. "Rats," she muttered. Still, both she and Kazad looked very relieved. "Let's get on with this!" Sirina huffed.
Shipy throws his arms up in the air, whoops and smiles flippantly at Olvarin's laughter.
"You really are a lucky fellow, aren't you? And luck is just what we will need."
"I am just glad to be free from Mr. Effectively Dead. I don't know how lucky I am, Olvarin. Most just think of me as an impudent waif. I don't try to be a hero like Taran or Jax. I want to be the one to walk away while the hero dies---that's my motto."
The walls here are very different than they were before. Instead of the stark white smooth walls and the odd wall mural, the walls here are a reddish color with pillars lining them, and no murals in sight.
"Do you suppose we could reverse the teleportation after a certain amount of time has passed, so we could retrieve our goods?"
"I'm sorry, Olvarin. Whelp, it could be worse. You could be a sacrifice. Besides, I've almost cracked Portals for Dummies; just give me some more time," he says, pointing at Taran's tattoo.
The chains holding the three together like an umbilical cord instantly come unlocked by Olvarin's Knock Knock spell, and they are easily removed. It is almost as if they are removed too easily, but none of them seem to complain. Easy or hard, freedom is still freedom.
"By the way, Master Shippy [sic], you seemed to recognize our former location from the dragon map. Can you tell where we are now?"
"Nice work on the chains big O." Taking off the unlocked chains and handing them to Olvarin, Shipy keeps moving. "If the wall color matches the wall mural map, then this puts us in the dragon's belly at the far left top, but that also means we are many levels above ground level."
The trio keeps walking together. A side corridor leads them to a door where writing can be seen above the door, carved into the stone.
Olvarin reads aloud the Elvish words carved in stone above the door: "Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine. The monkey chewed tobacco on a high wire line. The line broke. The monkey got choked. And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat." Olvarin grins. "It's an Elvish children's rhyme."
The moment Olvarin says this, the door unlocks and swings open, startling them. It reveals in the darkened room beyond (to Orcish HotVision™) a chessboard-type floor, with each of the black squares replaced by a deep spike-filled pit. Each square is ten by ten feet, but some of the white squares throughout the room have things on them. Far across the room, a faint light from a torch can be seen.
"Hey, speaking of glowing, I'm not glowing, am I?" he questions of the Talo Tatoo Worm on his back.
The only light source Taran can see is the faint magical light given off from the ceiling of the corridor. The room beyond is pitch black, allowing his HotVision™ to kick in. When Taran looks over his shoulder and mentions his Talo Tattoo Worm, the worm glows and suddenly a portal opens as if Taran commanded it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Taran knows the portal will only stay open twenty seconds or so. Taran also feels a little drained, his senses dulled. Through the glowing portal, the three can see their discarded equipment outside the great bronze Sphinx double doors.
What do you do? You have seconds to make a choice and act on it.
The group debates agendas while Martek listens quietly.
"I propose that we lay our agendas on the table before we waste any more time, and decide who or what we're going after."
"At the moment my agenda melds with your agenda, since wherever Shipy is, the Mummy is. When it doesn't, then I will tell you. Just don't, don't touch anything in here. You're all clueless." Martek's comment is brutally honest.
Quickly hovers along with the group as they keep walking through the abandoned city. The city streets are extremely clean, but the buildings range in different states of disrepair due to age and weather. Quickly flies over to one building sporting a sign in Elvish that says it was once a supply store.
One of the other PCs would need to translate the sign since Quickly can't read Elvish.
A broken window lets Quickly inside, and in the faint light he is surprised to see that the building is completely stocked, with a light layer of dust covering everything. Even a few dust-covered coins still lie on the counter as if someone were in the middle of a transaction.
If, Quickly, you take the coins or other items from the store, please add them to your next post. The store has all normal supply store things.
Quickly returns to the group. Building after building, it's all the same: items abandoned, things left behind as if people just disappeared. Quickly points whimsically as the group walks by the Dancing Unicorn Tavern.
Ebony and Jay keep silent. The echoes from their shoes add an eerie noise to the ghostly silent city.
"I'm hoping you have a better plan."
"Oh I do," he says, making hand motions like a dolphin swimming. "So we 'Jacques Cousteau' our way upstream into the temple. I know, my capacity for self-delusionment astounds even me! We use a show of force if we have to. It's the only thing that Klingons and Mummies understand! Try to avoid being muerte, dead, toast. If that fails, we use your Talo Tattoo Worm to move us where we need to be, and then take us home."
"Did Grutoss say anything to you before he left?" He turns his bleak Orcish eyes on Martek.
"He said, good-bye, good luck, good riddance." He laughs.
As the group approaches the temple, they see a glowing portal open up about a hundred yards away. It seems very familiar to Jax. A pain ripples through Jax's shoulder as something ancient whispers somewhere in a dark region of Jax's mind that the portal is of his brother's creation.
What do you do?
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