Captain Anorak's Guide to Gaming
The Tower of the Obsidian Prince
by Lot Smordyce
Part 5
They rode out from the ruined thing, bearing seventy-five degrees, and after a while a tower-like shape appeared on the horizon ahead and to the right, a broken tower like a single rotten tooth. They rode toward it and reached it some time late in the afternoon. When they got close, they saw that it was made of huge obsidian blocks, twenty feet on a side.

'That must have been expensive,' observed Finandriol.

'Maybe there's an obsidian quarry nearby,' said Ellion. 'Maybe obsidian's the local stone.'

They rode up to the front gateway. Two collapsed gates, each a single huge obsidian block, lay in the gateway. The hinges that had once held them were a mass of rust. Beyind lay a courtyard, and the tower's empty doorway. They rode in, dismounted, tethered their horses in the yard, lit torches and stepped inside. Inside was a cluttered corridor, heading off to the right and to the left. Random debris, bits of timber, the rotten remains of tapestries, and lots of dust and cobwebs littered the sides of the corridor. But the middle of the corridor was clear. It was a little dusty, and boot-prints could be seen in the dust.

'Someone's been here,' said Tholdak. He was carrying his two-handed axe, which was totally infeasible for use in an enclosed space like this.

The corridor curved off either way, following the outside of the tower. On the inner side of the corridor were doorways at intervals. These had wooden doors in them, worm-eaten but still intact. Tholdak opened the first one. Inside was a huge web, with bundled objects in it. In the middle of the web was a giant spider, larger than a man, which immediately rushed forward. Tholdak stuck the head of his axe through the door and waved it ineffectually about. The spider reared and hissed, bared its fangs and tried to bite the axe head. This did not meet with much success. Tholdak retreated, and the spider tried to get through the door. It was a bit of a squeeze. As it tried to wriggle its fat abdomen through, the two fighters began to hack at its legs. Skarn fired crossbow bolts into it and Finandriol threw a fireball at it. It died.

'There's corpses in its web,' said Finandriol. 'let's search them.'

'We might get stuck in the web ourselves,' warned Ellion.

'But they're bound to have gold pieces!' wailed Finandriol. 'We can't just let them go!'

'That was a really stupid spider,' said Skarn. 'Why did it make its web in a place where it couldn't get through the door properly?And who are all those people in its web?'

'Treasure hunters like us, I expect,' said Ellion.

Skarn counted the bodies in the web. 'There are six bodies in there. I assume this spider only keeps them in the web while they're fresh. That means the spider's caught six people recently. I thought no-one had been here for centuries.

Tholdak got bored and opened the next door. Inside were five orcs, hulking man-like creatures with green-brown scabby skin, tusks, an appetite for cruelty, and no sense of personal hygeine. They were sitting around a table playing dice. They were wearing leather armour and helmets. As soon as the door opened, they looked up in surprise, then grabbed swords and shields and made for the door where Tholdak stood. 'Orcs!' grunted Tholdak, and rushed into the room, his axe tasting orcish blood. The others rushed in and after a minute or so the orcs lay dead. Finandriol set about using magic to heal some minor wounds picked up by the others members of the party.

'This is fucking weird!' exclaimed Skarn. 'Why didn't they hear us shouting when we were fighting the spider?' The others were busy searching the bodies. They found twenty-three gold pieces and a small gemstone which Finandriol reckoned to be worth about thirty. 'And what are they doing here anyway?' continued Skarn. 'They're all armed. Why would a bunch of orcs be sitting around in a ruined tower in full armour playing dice?'

'Perhaps they're a raiding party and this is their base,' suggested Ellion.

'Raiders? Where would they raid? There's no-one about for at least three days' ride. The nearest inhabited place is where we came from, the town of Harg, and when we were there I didn't hear anything about orc raiders. Did you?'

'No,' said Ellion, unconcerned.

'Well then they must have been here for us! Don't you believe it now? Whoever sent the ogres for us sent some deaf orcs here as well! The bodies in the web must've been orcs that the spider caught. That means there was eleven - plus any that might still be lurking around. Somebody sent at least eleven orcs here to stop us. And they picked deaf orcs, which is just weird.'

The others ignored Skarn, tired of his prattling about cause and effect.