[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: The group located a cache behind a hidden door. Sadly, Daphne was the one who 'found' the door by accidentally falling through it, triggering the stone ceiling to fall on herself, Shiho, and Cara. Inside the cache were a number of possibly magical items, but since Shiho refuses to use her magic, the status of the items is unknown... ...Cara identified one item, however, in the process changing her hair from reddish-purple to blonde. Hope it's only temporary. Aside from that, they found a lot of doors, but only took a few.] [Now, the three are headed back into this dungeon, daring again to challenge it in hopes of fame, fortune, and a way home.] [Session Start] * Daphne heads in! * Shiho follows closely. * Rocky is asleep in Shiho's pack. Yay! * Cara follows a bit behind, as usual. Let's go down that first hallway. Judging from the map, it probably connects with the one we were travelling on before. * Daphne shrugs. "Sure." She goes that way. Okay. ^_^ Keep an eye out for traps. * Daphne keeps an eye out, too, although she doubts it'll do her much good. * As you proceed down the corner you could see from the second door you found in this place, another door confronts you, at the end of a short hall, on the west wall of a turn to the south. Hm. * Daphne looks the door over. Careful. * Unlike the others, this door is simple, unbound wood, and doesn't look very sturdy at all. * Daphne frowns. What's around the corner? ...too easy. Gotta be more to it than that. Maybe we should check there first. * Daphne shrugs. "Sure, I guess. We can come back here later." I suppose, but I don't think it'll make a difference. Is this one locked? * There is a lock, but it appears neither sturdy nor particularly complicated. * Daphne shrugs. "I guess I could give it a shot." * Daphne carefully tries the handle/knob. May as well. We're going to have to check everywhere anyhow. * The handle breaks off in Daphne's hand. * Daphne blinks. That's different. I could prolly knock this thing in easy, if it's all that frail. * Shiho nods. "Don't charge at it, though." Right, right. A kick it is. Kick it, or something. I don't want you to charge through and find a pit full of spikes on the other side. * Daphne tries to kick the door in! * The door explodes inwards into fragments. * Something starts screaming. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" * Daphne steps back from the door. Wah! * Your ears hurt. That...that must be a banshee! A *WHAT*? Run! * Something continues screaming. You can barely hear each other even when you yell. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" * Cara yells at the top of her lungs. "RUN!" * Daphne runs! * Cara takes off back towards the entrance. * Shiho runs. * Daphne heads for the entrance, too. * Something stops screaming after about ten minutes. None of you appear to be dead, or otherwise affected. Except that everything seems a bit quiet. Well, at least it stopped. Bloody... whatever. * Cara breathes heavily. "That was scary." ;_; Maybe it was frusterated with all the traps. Maybe it was pissed I kicked it's door in. Hell, maybe it *was* another trap. * Shiho grins. "Maybe it was the spirit of the guy who made the traps. He made so many he forgot where they all were and got caught in them. Whatever it was, though... * Cara frowns. "I still think it was a banshee, like Tithian said." Ha! That'd make a good folk story, there. * Shiho looks towards the door. "We're going to have to go back in there." Yup. But... Ready when you two are. When you're ready... But...I thought Tithian said not to fight a banshee if we ran into one... We'll have to avoid it. It might not be a banshee. We'll see. We should at least protect our hearing, somehow, if we're going back. Y'know... * Cara scratches her head. "Yeah, he said to run away, unless we're more powerful than we look." We'll avoid that hall. Y'know what, tho... Circle around the way we went the first time. Hm. What, Daphne? I don't think that was a banshee. Sounded more like... I dunno, an alarm or somethin'? An alarm? I don't think so. Yeh, an alarm. Like a fire alarm. Loud and annoying without quite being the sort of wailing you'd expect from a banshee. It must've been a banshee. Tithian said we'd probably see some here. Doesn't mean everything that makes noise down here is a banshee. Doesn't mean it's not, either. And have you ever heard a banshee before? How would you know the difference? 'Sides, if it were a banshee, wouldn't it be coming after us by now? For all we know, they might sound like elephants. Maybe it doesn't want to come onto the surface. Or even leave its lair. We'll probably be fine if we just avoid that stretch of hallway. * Daphne sighs. "Whatever." I'm goin' back down. * Shiho nods. "Alright. Back the way we went the first time." No, I think we should check the room out again. If something leaps out at us, then we can come back up here and cower some more. What if we don't have the chance to? * Daphne heads down. "That'll be too bad, then, won't it?" But... But we'll never know for sure unless we try. Or unless another banshee comes along to croon for us so we can compare that to the sound down here. But I doubt that'll happen anytime soon. * Shiho sighs in frustration and follows Daphne. "If that's the case, why don't we just head back to Tyr and fight that magician. Brian said we wouldn't last a second against him, but how would we know unless we tried? I'm just saying we should be cautious. Okay, then let's be cautious. But I'm going back there. * Cara bites her lip. That's completely contradictory! Not really, no. * Daphne continues heading that way. * Cara gulps. "If...if you're going, then I'm going with you." Glad t'have you along. ^_^ * Daphne heads to the mystery screamer location. * Shiho grumbles and follows along. * Cara follows at the back. * Daphne approaches the broken door. * It's dark inside. She is unlikely to be eaten by a Grue, however. * Daphne stops before setting foor through the door, and looks to see what she can see from outside. * Shiho points an arrow towards the door. * Daphne sees a number of short barels. Hmmmm. * The barrels are arranged along the wall as far as she can see. D-do you see anything? I see lots of barrels. Or... maybe kegs. ^_^ * Daphne gigerly sets one foot into the room. * Something starts screaming. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" * Daphne withdraws her foot. >_< * Cara puts her hands over her ears. * Your hearing is apparently still dulled a tad, and it hurts a bit less this time around. * Shiho pushes past Daphne, weapon ready. "Run! You two get out of here!" * Cara starts to back up. * Shiho scans around the room. All she sees are rows upon rows of racks of some sort with barrels spaced around the perimiter of the room. * Daphne would cover her ears, but she's holding the torch. * Something continues screaming. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" * Daphne does not run, but does slip her knuckles onto her free hand. * Nobody seems to be dead just yet. * Shiho stands in the room anyhow, keeping her weapon ready. "Damn. I don't see it." * Daphne steps into the room too, and looks for whatever's making that racket. Daphne? I told you to run! * The screaming is coming from the west end of the room. * Shiho dashes that way. * Daphne heads that way. * Rocky wakes up with a screaming headache. (pun intended.) @_@ * The screaming gets louder as you head toward the source. * Cara stays out of the room, still covering her ears. * You're about halfway down the length of the room now. As that end of the room comes into range of the torch you can see a large mushroom, about four feet tall, its cap just as wide, that is vibrating wildly. It is placed between the barrels that line the walls. * Shiho puts an arrow in it. * Daphne goes forth to hit the goddamn thing and make it shut up. * The sound is getting painful now. * Shiho easily endures the pain of the horrible shrieking. Daphne, on the other hand, stumbles for a moment, but grits her teeth and keeps going. * Shiho has to adjust her aim for Daphne's charge, and her arrow skips off the stone wall over the mushroom's cap. * Daphne's fist goes straight through the mushroom's cap and its shrieking trails off, leaving you in relative silence after just a few seconds. * Cara takes her hands off her ears. "It stopped..." * Cara runs into the room. * Rocky pops out of Shiho's backpack. "I'm up! I'm up!" What happened? * Daphne pulls her fist out. "It stopped! Thank GOD." * Daphne tries to shake whatever goo got on her hand off. Huh? What was it? * Cara looks around. * Shiho looks for that arrow. Uhg. * Daphne starts looking around at the stuff in the room. * Shiho mumbles as she searches for the arrow. "Why didn't you run?" * The arrow is, unfortunately, broken, and the arrowhead actually bent. It'll be a bitch to salvage. What, and let you face whatever the hell it was alone? That was the idea. * Daphne smirks. "Heh. Maybe your idea. Why didn't *you* run?" Because I-! * Shiho closes her mouth. "No, nevermind." Let's go. There's a lot more to do. No, go ahead. Because you what? What is it, Shiho? * Daphne keeps looking around. What Shiho wants to say but is too chicken to is that y-mph! * Shiho grabs Rocky and puts a hand over his mouth. "Not another word." * Daphne grins. * All the barrels are open on top and appear to be full of a couple inches of crud. * Shiho looks to the others. "We're not going to find anything here." Eh. I think you're right. Too bad. * Daphne pulls out one of her skins and has a good healthy chug from it. So, what was the screaming thing? A friggin' shroom. Shroo...a mushroom?! * Shiho puts Rocky in her backpack. He seems content to let the subject drop. Wonder if they have fungicide sprayers or somethin' on this planet. Yeah, a mushroom. A really loud, obnoxious mushroom. * Cara scratches her head. "Weird." ^^; And...I saw another door just around the corner, outside. Sounds keen. You guys wanna go thataway? May as well. You first, Daphne. * Cara nods. "I'm so glad you were right about the screaming, Daphne." ^_^ * Daphne goes that way first, then. So it wasn't a banshee. But it COULD have been. * As you come to that corner... * The hall stretches off to the west, and at the edges of your torchlight, you can see rubble strewn across the floor presumably from the fallen ceiling that lies in that direction. The door going east is iron bound, and looks somewhat familiar. It is also locked. Hey, alright. * Shiho checks the familiar-looking door. * Cara looks over Shiho and Daphne's shoulders. Hmm. That down there looks like the trap that I set off. Heh. And this door looks like the one that, uh, goes east, from south of here. * Cara looks at her map. "Maybe they lead into the same room." Maybe. It looks like one of the ones from that room with the big stone bar. Well, the one after the room with the stone bar. You know, the locked one. Yeh. Probably lead to the same room. Is this one locked? Hmm... * Daphne shrugs and tries turning the handle. * The handle does not turn. The door is locked. * Shiho frowns. 'Slocked. Figures. So, do we go somewhere else? Or do you want me to spell this one open? Yeh. You feel up to opening a lock, Cara? I'm curious, but... * Shiho shakes her head. "No, save your magic." If I use up my energy, we can always just go back and rest... Eh. Rest doesn't sound bad anyway. But we just came back in. True. Let's go down the western hall first. We can get this on the way back. Sure. Okay. * Shiho waits for Daphy to go first. * Daphne goes first. * Shiho goes next. * Rocky gets a free ride ^_^ * Cara follows Shiho. I think Cara should make Shiho's hair silver, so it'd be shiny. * Cara giggles. But I'd probably mess something else up, and her ears pointy or something. ^^; Besides, I don't have anything to color with. * Shiho rolls her eyes. * Daphne snickers. * Rocky grins and grins. I could try to make YOU shiny, Rocky. ^_~ * As you near the second fork, you can see around the corner that the south fork doesn't go far. It's really just a five foot alcove with a door leading south. * The west fork still vanishes into darkness beyond your torchlight. Huh. * Rocky muses thoughtfully. "Wellll..." * Shiho juggles her backpack. "Don't even think about it." @_@ * Cara giggles again. * Cara notes the southern door on her map. * Shiho points to the south door. "Let's go here first." 'kay. * Daphne heads to the door and checks it out. * This door is looks much like the door into the shroomroom did. It's unbound wood, very weak looking. It lacks a lock, however. It's not locked. May as well open it. * Daphne shrugs and tries opening it. * This knob also snaps off in Daphne's hand. * Shiho keeps an eye out for traps. * Daphne sighs. "I'm gonna kick it in. Shiho, get ready to shoot mushrooms, eh?" * Shiho nods, drawing an arrow from her quiver. * Cara clutches her sketchpad to her chest. * Daphne kicks the door! * The door explodes inward. * Shiho peers inside. * Daphne peers in, too. * Cara stands on her tiptoes to see over their shoulders. * Inside, shrouded in shadow, are a pair of large, slightly angular... somethings, and nearer you, immense piles of... stuff. * Daphne steps in, looking at everything in the torchlight. * Shiho keeps her weapon ready. She's been doing that a lot, lately. * The piles of stuff are rather dingy, but appear to have once been brightly colored rolls of something, perhaps cloth, stacked up in gigantic pyramids. Hmm...looms...so they must've made their fabric and stuff in here. * Now that your light source is insie, you can see two other doors out of here. I've given up trying to apply logic to this place. One going east, from the northwest corner, and one going south, slightly east of the southwest corner. East one first. * Daphne looks at Shiho. "Just now? I gave up on logic a long time ago." South first. Right. Okay. ^_^ * Daphne heads to the south door, looking it over when she gets there. * Cara looks around, sketching the room out, and poking a bit at the piles of cloth. * Cara hums absently. * The south door is in considerbly better repair than the one you took to get into this room. It's VERY sturdy looking, bound in heavy iron, with a pair of sturdy locks. Hello. Whatever's behind here must be important. Of course. We just know EVERYon wants to steal carpets. * Cara blinks and walks over. "Oh, wow." * Cara giggles. "Maybe Dwarven carpets were highly prized." ^_^ Heh. Hmmm. * Shiho inspects the carpets. "Maybe... I wonder if we could sell these?" Maybe we could, Shiho. They do look kinda' nice. * The cloth is rotted, unfortunately, and would be REALLY hard to transport. * Well, mostly rotted, anyway. Or, maybe not... Eh. Hm. Wanna give this door a shot? * Shiho thinks. "I suppose. I doubt we'll find two keys in this place, let alone one." Yeh. Haven't had much luck with keys so far. Cara? You up to it? Sure. ^_^ * Cara sits down on the floor and starts a picture of the door standing open, drawing power in as she does so. * Cara draws for a minute or so, and Shiho can easily feel the power building around her, being drawn in from the plant life outside these walls. The power builds, and builds, and then Cara slips and punches her writing implement through the paper, tearing the drawing apart. The door explodes, and Cara crumples to the ground, mercifully unconscious for the moment. * Shiho takes a step back. "What in the world?!" I think she goofed. ...shit! Daphne, can you carry her? We need to get outside. Yeh, I think so. * Daphne picks Cara up. Or tries. Careful with the torch. * Cara groans and starts to wake up in Daphne's arms. Uhn... Cara? Hey, you alright? * Cara slowly opens her eyes. "Ooooh...my head hurts." You goofed, right? Did...did I do what I think I did? You wanna head topside? I'll be okay...just give me a few minutes... * Shiho glares at Rocky for a sec, then looks to Cara. "We'd better get you outside." Are you sure? * Cara starts to nod her head, then winces. Same as with the zombies. * Shiho eyes the next room, just to make sure nothing is coming after us. Just...gotta wait for the headache to go away. Hmmm... * The door leads out into a hallway that proceeds west. * Nothing has emerged, as of yet. If you say so. I think we'd better avoid using your magic to open doors from now on. Uh...okay... * Daphne sets Cara down, then. * Cara stands, a bit shakily. Hate that. Even when I'm not trying to break something, I break it by accident... Don't worry about it. S'just annoying. * Shiho nods. * Daphne nods. Are you sure you'll be okay? Uhuh. Just gimme a few minutes. Alright. * Cara massages her temples a bit. I think Cara needs a raccoon to help her focus. And a magical pen that changes her outfit whenever she draws something. * Cara laughs weakly. "Maybe." Heh. Okay...I think I'm ready to go on now. If you're sure. * Cara gathers up her dropped drawing implements. * Daphne peeks into the door Cara explodified. * Shiho nods. * The door leads out into a hallway going west. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, it doesn't go west far. It almost immediately turns south. Uhg. 'Nother corner. ... I can't WAIT to see the updated map for this one. X.x Let's go. Sure. * Daphne goes! * The corridor proceeds south further than your torchlight reaches. * The corridor appears bare, however, and there are no mysterious clicking sounds. * Cara mumbles something distinctly less than cheery about dwarven building. * Cara maps out the corridor anyway, though. * Daphne steps forward and has apparently gotten complacent in her Adventurer's Stomp, as she utterly fails to notice the pit that she just stepped in until she hits the bottom. ...huOWH! Daphne! God DAMMIT! Daphne! * Shiho peers down. "You okay?" Yeah. 'Fact, 'so nice down here I think I'll move in. * Cara runs up behind Shiho and looks over her shoulder. * Daphne feels her legs to make sure they're not broken or anything. Can you stand? * Daphne does not have any broken limbs. I think so, yeah. * Daphne gives standing a shot. Dammit, this is the second time today, too. I'm like a fucking trap-magnet. * Shiho hops to the otherside, then offers Daphne a hand. * Daphne looks up. Stupid dwarves. Stupid, stupid dwarves! Heh. * Shiho nods at that. * Daphne tries to jump up and grab the ledge so she can pull herself out. * Daphne makes it out easily. Oookay. Let's give that another shot, shall we? Uh...can you guys move for me? ^^; * Shiho moves for Cara. * Cara backs up a bit, then runs and hops over the pit. * Cara's head throbs and she crashes into Daphne's waiting arms. Gah! Careful there. * Daphne makes sure Cara's not going to fall in the pit or something. Sorry, Daphne. Don't worry 'bout it. * Cara blushes with embarassment. So! Let's get goin', then. * Cara looks down the hallway. * Daphne goes back to the Adventurer's Stomp, and is extra careful this time. c_c * The hall still extends past the range of your torchlight. * Shiho follows Daphne. Watching for traps. And pits. * Cara follows a few feet behind Shiho. Daphne! Watch out for that pit! * Daphne slams her foot down on the ground and deftly keeps her balance, even as Shiho notes the presence of the pit. Whoo. * The floor disappears as Daphne's foot contacts it, revealing another pit, this one filled with rather nasty looking spikes. ...uh. Damn. I'm *real* glad I didn't fall in that. Yeah... What? What? Spikes. * Cara 's eyes widen. How nasty! No shit. Uh. You guys think you can jump this pit? No wonder the dwarves who lived here went extinct. * Shiho nods. "It's not a problem. * Daphne jumps across. I...well... Hm? * As Daphne hops across the pit, a door comes into the light at what must be the end of the hall. Hello. I almost fell in the last one... You want me to try to catch you? Yeah. Alright. * Daphne nods. * Shiho helps Cara across the pit :P * Cara is helped across. * The door down the hall, as far as you can see, is not secured at all. It has no apparent lock. * Daphne Adventure Stomps (very VERY carefully) towards the door. * Cara waits just a few feet from the pit while Daphne and Shiho check ahead. * In spite of Shiho not noticing it, Daphne keeps her balance admirably as the floor disappears beneath it, revealing another pit, this one with nasty _barbed_ spikes that glisten wetly in the torchlight. ... ... This place sucks. I agree with the raccoon. * Cara walks to where the two stopped. "Is it another pit?" * Daphne hops over the pit. Yeah. Uhm. Hm... ...shit. * Shiho readies her bow. "Open it." * This door appears to be unsecured. It has a simple, gleaming brass knob. Jump back if you need to. * Daphne turns the knob. Daphne, wait! * Daphne waits! * Daphne stops with her hand less than an inch off the knob. Don't touch it! * Daphne stands very, very still. "The knob? What's wrong with it?" It's shiny! * Shiho nods. "Too shiny. Like it's wet." * Cara hugs her sketchpad to her chest fearfully. "Wha-what's wrong?" ...yeah. Hm. ...poison? * Shiho eyes the shiny spikes. "Same with those." I don't know. Maybe. Christ. Good eye, Shiho. Uhm. Hm. Need something disposable to turn it with. I think. Maybe you could kick it, but... Hm. I don't want to kick it when I'm standing this close to barbed, poisoned spikes. I really, really don't. * Shiho frowns. "Well, if you've got something you can use, go ahead." I think we're going to have to come back, though. Maybe Amy could do something. So should we go back and go somewhere else? I think... Hm. Unless you have ideas, we're going to have to. How much paper do you have left, Cara? Quite a bit. Wait! The last room had a lot of cloth...we could go back and get some! ...hey, good idea. ^_^ * Shiho nods. "Sounds like a good idea. But that cloth was rotting." I'll uhm, stick around here. The less I have to cross El Jagged Spiked Pit here. Um... You've got the torch, Daphne. Oh. That's true. Damn. If you don't mind being left in the dark for a bit, just pass it to me. * Daphne makes like passing the torch. "Here. Take it and get back enough cloth to cover my hand. * Shiho nods. "Cara, do you want to come or stay here?" I think I'll stay. ^^; * Shiho nods. "Alright. I'll be back soon." * Shiho goes to the cloth room! * Cara sighs. "This place is scary." Yes? It's messed up, 'swhat it is. * Shiho retrieves a large enough bundle of cloth that Daphne probably won't get any of the 'poison' on her. * Shiho returns. "Here." Be careful, though. We don't know for sure that it's poison. * Shiho passes the cloth to Daphy. * Daphne graciously accepts the cloth. "Being careful." * Daphne gingerly tries turning the handle with the cloth. * The handle turns. * Shiho aims towards the door, just in case. * Daphne tries opening the door, then. * Light floods out into the hall as Daphne opens the door. You can clearly see across to the other side of the room, where there are four short pedestals, one shorter than the others. Three of them measure at 4 feet tall or so, and the other at about a foot tall, each with a handprint engraved into its upper surface, which is tilted at a 45 degree angle towards you. * Daphne blinks. * Daphne gingerly sets one foot into the room. * Daphne does not die. * Shiho eyes the pedastals. "Wonder what they're for." * Daphne steps into the room more fully, then, looking around. * The room is bare stone, save for those four pedestals. Wow. * Shiho hops across the pit when it's clear. * Cara smiles sheepishly. "Can you help me again, Shiho?" * Shiho nods. "Sure." And she does. Yay! * Daphne carefully walks over to the pedestals and examines them. * The pedestals are apparently made of the same stone as the walls. * Cara looks at the pedestals. "Hmm..." * Shiho eyes them as well. * IN a flash of industrial light and magic, Amy deplushifies. * Amy lands on her bum right next to Cara. Amy! Hi! ^_^ * As Amy deplushifies, another four foot tall column rises from the ground. * Daphne turns. "Oh. H'lo, Amy." ^_^ Welcome back, Amy. Hi. What's going on? * Shiho raises an eyebrow. * Strangely, the columns are all still evenly spaced on the back wall, despite having one more, and having been evenly spaced before. We're having great gobs of fun. * Cara blinks at the new column. "Weeeeeeeeeeird..." Uhm, alright. Everyone get one. You too, Rocky. Wait a second! You don't even know what they'll do. What's going on? Um...should we maybe try that detect traps scroll first? ^^; * Amy looks confused. We're in the dungeon, Amy. ...yes, that might be a good idea. We just got to this room. * Shiho frowns. "Yeah, but if we do that, I won't be able to learn the spell from it." Oh. Uhm. Hurm. * Cara scratches her head. "Well..." Hmm... Eh. I say go for it anyway. ^_^; I guess... * Shiho pulls out the scroll. Nono, I mean just try the pedestals. Oh. * Cara turns to Amy. "This place is scary. They have pits full of spikes and poisoned doorknobs and lotsa nasty stuff." I guess we can. I've got a bad feeling about this, though. Ah. * Shiho looks to Amy and Cara. "What do you guys think? Uh.. sure.. Um... I dunno... * Shiho folds her arms in thought. Okay, I guess we'll try it. At worst, we'll just die. Or maybe just lose our hands. Okay. I guess if they want to keep us away from it, it wouldn't be something bad. * Cara walks over to one of the columns. * Shiho goes to another. * Amy goes to one. * Rocky peeks at the small one. "How come mine's so short? I feel inferior." * Daphne goes to one of the columns. And doesn't say anything to Rocky's comment. Alright, on three. Ready? Ready. Ready! Ready. Ok. One Two Three! * Shiho puts her hand on the pedastal. * Cara places her hand on the handprint. * Daphne touches the handprint. * Rocky puts his paw on the handprint. "Ripoff...." I got gypped, I'm telling ya! * Amy puts her hand on the handprint * As you all slap your hands down on the handprints, the colums light up, glowing bright white. A band of white metal forms on the index finger of the hand you slapped down, and around Rocky's wrist. The dungeon starts melting. [Session End]