We’ve spent the last few days down on the lowest level, recovering from our battle and completing our search which yielded absolutely nothing of interest. Vincent and Roustov were left in a cleared Murder Room on the next level up since their wounds prohibited them from accompanying us further and we continued on to the third level. It was there that we encountered The Statues of Death: four very large, human-looking statues set in alcoves along one side of a corridor. From the bones littering the hall all around the statues, we thought caution would be in our best interests, but “Felix” decided to have a go at it himself while we argued out how exactly we should proceed. This led to much scrambling to save his foolish ass once he’d gotten halfway down the corridor and realized that the statues had moved out of their alcoves and made to attack him. It was no easy task demolishing stone statues! In battle with living, breathing creatures, one has the “advantage” that armor does not cover everything. Stone, however, does not allow one’s blade to find that sometimes secret weak spot and deliver the killing blow. Nadon’s great skill lies in his bow, but his arrows literally bounced off and one even hit Nivak. Vladimir shattered his weapon and also his back-up. After much frustrating work, we managed to cut the statues down at their legs and continued hacking until all the limbs were dismembered. Only then did they stop attacking us. Baroushki suffered a shattered arm from this encounter and it was a few hours before we could move on – doctor’s orders. Baroushki was taken back to where we’d left Vincent and Roustov and coming back up the statues’ corridor, we saw that the rubble had begun to reassemble. Growlyn made a futile attempt to demolish the stone shins of one of the part-statues – the result was a large chip in his prized magical axe. He cursed and stomped quite a bit after that. Time was of the essence, so we quickly moved on. Nivak, Growlyn, and I took our turns as Trap Sniffers – a rather painful position and one I’d prefer not to take again. At least in battle, I can see what’s coming at me. It was at the end of this last corridor that we found something of interest – at last! An intersection ending with a door at three points: North, West, and East. The northern door seemed as good as any place to start. It opened into a small room with writing on one wall – a riddle – and a letter wheel beneath it to spell out the answer. The riddle read: “A dying thrash from a defeated beast capable of starving many, unable to be stopped, it attacks with little warning, nevertheless the flowers still come as long as the fires never go out.” The letter wheel suggests the answer to be one word, five letters long. We pondered a bit and decided to check the other rooms before committing to an answer. The western door opened into another small room, again with a riddle written on one wall and four letter wheels suggesting the answer to be a phrase with words four, three, six, and four letters long. This riddle read: “How to rule.” The answer comes to us at once, as one of the Professor’s clues was “The mailed fist of rule.” The eastern room opened into yet another small room, although, this door was already ajar and the room appeared to have been ransacked. There were multiple drawings on the wall including some that didn’t seem to fit in – a red claw marking. There was also an empty pedestal in the middle of the room – if this room had ever held anything of value, it was no longer there. We debated further over the answer to the first riddle and in the end concluded that “frost” seemed to fit best. It worked! A hidden door in the wall opened into a treasure room – gems and such in piles and piles and piles, covering the floor, as well a crown, necklace, and bracelet set upon pedestals. Leaving it be for the moment, we went on to the riddle room and set the letter wheels to “With the mailed fist” and a hidden door opens into an armory. We knew our time was short, so we had to just grin and bear any traps we might encounter. Caradryan and Axtrica volunteered this time and they took a few zaps in getting those lovely pedestal pieces. And after that, there isn’t anything else to report. We made it back to the safe room without further incident and our waiting wounded were just as we’d left them.
Battle Records: Lillay = 1 “kill”. Growlyn = 2 “kills”. Arvin = 1 “kill”. Vladimir = 2 weapons shattered in one battle (including Growlyn’s magical axe).
Day 2168 (the next day)
Caradryan’s declared that Baroushki’s arm will take about sixteen weeks to heal. He also declares that we’re not moving for another few days. In a weird sort of way, this Murder Room is kind of cozy. Or do I think that only because we’ve been down here for so damn long? I will be most happy to see the sun and breathe fresh air once again.
Day 2171 (3 days later)
We leave the injured again and search out the rest of the cave – it brings us back to near the opening we first came in. Absolutely nothing. One area turns out to be a moss-covered cavern and the other area opens into a cavern leading to the ocean. The good news is that we didn’t encounter any more evil creatures. The bad news is that we’ve obviously missed something. We had thought our first run-through was very thorough – apparently it wasn’t. We’re not sure where to go next.