Editing Journal - The Hunt for Kellerot (section)

== Back in Lizard Territory ==

We looked around to find that Falcor had already left by the door we had first entered by, clearly wanting to move on and not spend time with me. Arad tried to say that he understood what I'd been through, but he really didn't. He tried to carry me, but with my new weight it was easier for us to jog forward together, both behind Falcor who had advanced to the javelin room. He listened but didn't hear anything, allowing us to catch him up, I approached sheepishly, not sure how he was feeling, but he was all business, saying that I should check for traps first. I didn't find any, so I opened the door. A corridor branched left and right just beyond the door, torchlit as before.

We moved up to the corners, noticing that it was silent to the left but that there was some noise to the right. Falcor headed left, seeing some iron railings farther down the corridor. We followed, with Arad checking behind us. The corridor split right and left ahead, and Falcor moved up to the corner to take a look. There was a closed door to the right, with the corridor continuing beyond some iron railings to the left. On closer inspection the way west was barred by iron gates, two parts secured with a lock made up of tight bars and horizontal struts to reinforce them. Falcor tested the strength of the bars, signalling me towards the door, but the bars wouldn't budge.

Arad let us know that he was guarding the rear, and set about checking the door for traps, not finding any. We gathered by the door and, when everyone was ready, I opened it. There was a small room beyond with a door on the far side. A table with a book on it stood before an armchair with an older looking lizard creature who was not obviously armed or armoured sat in it. It wore a chunky gold chain around its neck. A brazier was smouldering beside it. It had obviously been waiting to see who entered, because as soon as I opened the door darts of magical energy shot into me from its hands, causing pain without any visible wounds.

Falcor charged forward, but by some witchcraft his blows would not land on the creature. Arad sprinted to the side and put an arrow into the lizard, missing with his second. I charged forward as well, going the other side and stabbed it then followed up with a sword cut, leaving it sagging with pain. It desperately started to chant some incantation, but Falcor cut it down before it could finish. We quickly looked around for any more threats, then started to check the walls. Arad took the chain off its neck and checked the rest of the body, and Falcor checked out the book on the table ("Politics of Power" by Lorenzo D'Omici). Arad started stripping the robes off the lizard, perhaps looking to help Falcor with his modesty. The brass tripod holding the bowl with burning coals was also of interest to Falcor, who actually put his hand inside and jiggled it around, although not finding anything. I finished checking the walls, not finding any runes.

Arad gave the clothes to Falcor, as I expected, and he admitted that they could always be of use to him, throwing the robe on to everyone's relief. Arad closed and barred the door behind us, telling us that he was doing so, and I moved to check the door in the north, finding nothing. Arad moved up to cover it with his bow and Falcor joined him. I opened the door, revealing an unoccupied room, like a sleeping quarters attached to the previous room. There was a bookcase, a bound and locked chest, a bed, and a glove laid on the chest. There was also a tall cupboard, empty with the door ajar next to the bed.

I moved up towards the chest, as the others were wary of it, and Arad checked the body again for any sign of a key. Falcor took a look at the bookcase contents, whilst also rummaging through any robe pockets for a key. As I was inspecting the chest I found a key stuck to its back, trying it in the lock and turning it with a click. I cracked it open, finding a few things inside but Falcor warned me to hold as he inspected the glove from on top of the chest - the fingertips were discoloured, as if partly bleached, suggesting that there might be a contact poison somewhere.

Using the glove he took the contents out, finding three scrolls, a leather bag, a small velvet bag, a glass vial, flask of oil, and a metal pot. The bags held some pearls and some gold, and the scrolls Falcor described as "Hold Portal", "Invisibility", and "Fly". I took the vial, which was colourless and odourless so not particularly helpful! Falcor hadn't found any volumes on the bookcase that related to magic, but took them anyway, hoping to learn something from them later. Falcor also believed that one of the pearls, a smaller one, was magical in some way.

We checked the walls as usual, finding nothing, so headed back to the corridor. I checked the key we found in the gate lock as well, not really expecting it to work... I wasn't disappointed as it was completely the wrong size. Instead I took my tools out and set to work on it, getting a satisfying click in short order. We continued in what we thought was a Westerly direction, finding stairs leading down a short way further on. The corridor continued at the bottom, with a branch to the left turning back on itself and a door a little further on to the right. As we got closer we could see that there was also door in the right wall of the corridor leading south. I didn't like this - too many directions we could be attacked from!

Arad moved right up to the junction, seeing doors on both sides of the corridor to his left, but what worried me was the noise I could hear behind the door to our right. As I approached quietly to warn Arad, a lizard opened the door and I could see that there were others behind it - all armed. At least it looked surprised to see us! Falcor moved up to my left and let an arrow fly before it could react, finding his mark, but firing over my head again! As the lizards gathered their senses and closed on us, I threw a dagger, but it bounced off its armour. Arad joined the fight, intercepting the one trying to close on me. I moved up as well, whipping my sword out and slashing the lizard that Falcor shot, dropping it to the floor as it tried unsuccessfully to stem the bleeding. Arad landed a hit on another one and Falcor followed up by putting an arrow in it, killing that one too.

At that point a new creature approached from the corridor ahead of us. It was well appointed, with a gold ring, leather clothes with pearls and gold filigree, carrying a net and trident. It looked somewhat fishy due to its scaly legs, but it did have feet. It was tall, about seven feet, but my attention was on the lizard right in front of me at that point. I struck the lizard as it moved to attack, and the fish man called out as I did so. I didn't understand, but Arad later said that he was trying to say "Hold your weapons and declare your alliegance!" in a strange dialect similar to the tongue of the Elvrabor.

Arad stowed one weapon and dropped another, calling out: "We are for Karmana and the Creator!" Despite this there was still a threat, so he dived at the lizard, grappling with it, getting a good hold but not able to bear it down. Instead it smacked Arad with a morning star. Seeing that he was in trouble, but trying to subdue it, I changed my blow into a flat blade to its head, but I was too strong and it went limp in Arad's arms, dead. Falcor ran forward, pointing his bow at the fish man, saying "calm down!" in common. Now that the immediate threat had passed I could see that where the new arrival was standing the floor changed from the muddy stone we were used to here to a smooth flagged stone just behind him, like some kind of boundary. I could also see the edge of an underground body of water farther back, with the roof opening up into a natural cavern.

Arad picked up his sword, stowing it, and said: "Hail and well met! Are you of the Elvra?" in his native tongue. It responded: "You are tree folk?". Arad nodded and replied: "Yes." The Elvramar (as we were quickly working out) turned his head towards the rest of us and said: "These?" Arad responded trustfully: "He is of the earth, and he is of dragon kind". Our new "friend" stepped back at that, so that he stood on the very edge of the water. Others of his kind appeared quickly behind him, still in the water but with their upper torso held erect above it with no apparent effort. A look of confusion was on the leader's face... "He? Not she?" he asked. Arad confirmed that he was indeed "He". He accused Arad somewhat desperately, saying that "treefolk always lie", disbelieving him.

Arad was relaying some of the conversation in common, and so when Falcor felt a probe on his mind he thought "Welcome, I am He" and we all had a flash of a vision with Him (in dragon form) coming out of a huge volcano. The Elvramar was visibly shaken, saying that he washed his hands of the lizardfolk, and that a pact had been broken.  A message came back to us as Arad tried to reach out with his mind, saying: "We have been misled, we have been lied to, we have made mistakes, we need to think." Falcor responded with regret that the Elvra were not united, including the Elvradhil, getting some kind of positive feeling back that they were closer than we think. Then, without any pause or effort, he backflipped into the water, his feet becoming webbed as he hit the water, and he swam off with his mates. Well that was positive, I guess, if not actually useful.

Arad decided that he would leave some pearls for the Elvramar as an offering, the ones we found in the lizard shaman's room (although I think he kept the one that Falcor had noticed might have some dweomer about it). Then we went back to the room the lizards had emerged from, finding it barely furnished with a simple bench and weapons rack. The rack held one morning star and one shield. We found no traps or runes on the walls, and it seemed to be a guardroom (and one where not much trouble was expected I would say).

Falcor took a belt from one of the lizards to help with his clothing issues, for which we were all grateful, and then we moved on again. Turning south we first checked the door to our left, which was not trapped or locked. I opened it to find a dark room looking a bit like a junk store, and one that smelled dank at that. Still, we started searching and soon discovered the body of a dead Elvrahum! He had worn padded armour, now in bad condition, and had a belt pouch with a few coins, a chunky topaz, and a scrap of parchment with a word written in faded ink "Quaerere". The remains of a backpack held a scroll ("Lock" according to Falcor) and some thieves tools amongst the decayed supplies. In his hand was a 6" long ivory stick. I took the tools, as my own were of strange proportions now, and Falcor took the stick and scroll. I wondered if the word on the parchment related to the wand-like stick, but left that to Falcor.

We remembered for some reason about the scrying we had endured earlier, and Falcor warned that we might still be under observation. After a moment of concentration, Arad suggested that it might be Custor watching this time (had he heard us talking about Falcor being "Him", or had that passed him by?) and everyone relaxed a little. We started scraping the walls again, but found nothing. Instead we crossed the corridor to another door, which was locked. I was able to spring the lock and it revealed a similar sized room but in much better condition. There was a bed, a chest, one table, and a couple of chairs inside. There were quite a few items scattered between the table and the bed: a dish with fruit and nuts, a leather purse with a chunk of uncut amber almost as big as my head, a dagger in a scabbard, a mug, and a pitcher. There was nothing on the walls again, and I found that the chest was not trapped or locked. The only thing really of value was the amber, which Falcor took.

We moved farther south to another door on our right, but as we did so more lizards appeared from a side coridor ahead, moving from our left to right, but unfortunately spotting us as they glanced across. Falcor loosed an arrow, striking true, and Arad charged forward to engage them. I followed closely behind, seeing Arad stick a short sword into the one Falcor shot, which killed it. As they closed ranks and moved forward, Arad struck again, almost running one through and causing it to stagger back. Falcor put an arrow into the one to my left, although I was struck in the chest with a morning star. An arrow flew at us from one that had held back, clanging off Arad's armour. Falcor let fly with a second arrow into his original target, piercing its neck, and it dropped dead.

A morning star connected ineffectually with Arad's armour, and an arrow flew in from behind them, somehow managing to miss everyone in the melee. We could be sure now that there were three fighting us up front, with another at the rear with a bow. I stabbed one on my left, but had to duck away on the right as arrows from Falcor flew close overhead, although one connected with their archer. Arad finished off the one between us, so I turned to the one on the left, stabbing it again, and following up with sword. I cut so deeply that the blood spurted over me as it collapsed. I immediately had a flashback to my time with Lost, retching slightly as the painful memory returned, wiping desperately at the blood on my face before shaking myself out of it and recovering my senses.

Falcor charged through the gap we had created, heading for the archer. It tried to shoot him, but missed and Falcor stabbed his dagger into it as he covered the distance easily. Arad noticed that I was disorientated and stepped between me and the nearest foe, sacrificing his attacks to defend me instead. He did take a blow, but again his armour deflected it and he was not hurt. The archer flailed at Falcor with its bow, striking his armour but doing nothing effective. Falcor dispatched it almost casually, as Arad cut down the last lizard.

I apologised for a moment to Arad, hoping that he could consign these souls to the Creator. I stepped forward to protect him in case of more foes, seeing Falcor continue ahead to check the other side. Behind me Arad prayed, this time felt a chill in his bones, sagging to his knees. He felt as much as saw a dark and cold lifeless place with ranks upon ranks of warriors clearly dead but lined up ready for war. I noticed Arad sag, and caught him under his arms. He said that he had seen where they (the lizards I guess)( go - that they were taken to come back to fight as undead. He said with conviction that we must stop them, that it was chaos and must be opposed. He was a little shaken, and I asked if he was alright, which he assured me he was.

Falcor found another door in a square room, and also noticed that in the far corner the floor changed again, as it had where we met the Elvramar. We quickly moved up, checking a door near us, finding it locked. It resisted my attempts to pick the lock, and was surprisingly resistant to our attempts to force it. In the end Arad set to it with his hammer, eventually battering the lock loose enough to force it open. Beyond was another small bedroom with no real items of interest, certainly not worth the effort to get it! We checked the walls, or course, but then moved on to the larger room where the lizards had come from, which was like a barracks. It was unremarkable but for the beds and personal items. The walls were clear of runes, but we did find some rope and a flask of oil to replace some of our losses. We also found a curious perfectly smooth polished quartz sphere, slightly smaller than a head, that Arad took.

We explored a little further, moving around the corner to where Falcor had gone to meet the archer, with Arad and I going to the door to check it out as Falcor checked the south wall for any runes. At the end of that he looked out over a stone ledge with an underground pool beside it, and steps leading down into it. Perhaps this joined up with the one we had first seen? The door and the lock were very heavily reinforced, and I was unable to unlock it. I remembered that there had been some iron spikes in the backpack of the Elvrahum corpse, and although in bad condition they would certainly help us to force the door. Arad used them with his hammer to force the hinges off and then we were able to make the door open the wrong way to squeeze through. A short staircase behind the door led down and then opened into a long room extending to our left.

There was a series of five doors in a row, like cells, each reinforced and with a small barred opening. Falcor went back to look for any keys on the bodies we had left as we investigated what was behind the doors. Behind the first was one of the lizard folk, who shouted incoherently when we looked in. The next two were empty, and the next was also empty but we noticed that in place of the solid floor was a pool of water. The last door had an amphibian thing behind it, which was like the one we had found speared to the wall with javelins earlier. As we looked in he said excitedly in common "Save me, save me! They hate me!" This was the beginning of a non-stop verbal suck-up to Arad. He hailed him as a "clearly wise and great warrior", urging and pleading with Arad to free him. He claimed to worship the "great tree dragon god in the sky", clearly talking nonsense and trying too hard to claim that he worshiped things that Arad respected. When quizzed on Karmana, he claimed that it was the "greatest tree in forest" so clearly knew nothing.

In terms of his race, he claimed to be Sahaugin, claiming (more nonsense) to be guardians of the trees. Falcor had found the keys somewhere, and handed them to Arad, not wanting to leave the thing but also not wanting to take responsibility for it. Arad said a prayer to the Creator and then released him. The thing dropped at his feet and said that Arad was "very wise" before looking at Falcor and calling him a "great dragon lord". Falcor looked around as if innocent, saying "no"! The thing quickly adapted... "not dragon lord? Death lord then?" Arad decided to name him Birt.

Arad tried to speak to us with his mind about Birt but suffered as a result, sensing a blankness and feeling pain. He slumped before us, unresponsive, but all we could do was wait, with no way of reviving him. It took a minute or so before he came to, and Birt said "Tree Lord in Death Place?! Death place bad!" Instead Arad told Birt that he was free to go, and Falcor gave him a dagger so that he would not be unarmed. He was nervous about taking it, suspecting a trick perhaps, but eventually accepted it and made his way to the stairs out. As soon as he was at the corner, though, he straightened up and said confidently: "You arrogant fools! My Lord Kraldar will have all your souls!" He ran off, with Falcor chasing him, and dived into the water to the south. Falcor had dropped his bow to leave his hands free, shouting for someone to pick it up as he sprinted away.

I sprinted after them, grabbing Falcor's bow on the way. Arad also ran forward, saying a quick prayer to the Creator as he neared the water. I wasn't able to keep up, getting a painful stitch as I tried to climb the stairs. We had some luck, though as it seemed Arad's prayer was answered... Birt was floating in the water paralysed! Falcor dragged Birt out of water, but noticed there were lizardmen in the water farther in approaching fast, and shouted a warning. The lizards surged through the water and erupted out onto the ledge, attacking Falcor.

Falcor reacted just in time, landing a slash across the neck of the first one that opened an artery and it fell back, gurgling. Arad dropped his sword to ready his bow but Falcor was now obscuring the only target so he stowed his bow and drew his hammer, advancing to help Falcor. More lizards appeared from the water, only the narrow ledge stopping the others from being surrounded. Arad smacked one of the new attackers with his hammer, then finished it off with a sword thrust. Falcor stabbed the one that first attacked him, but was struck with a trident in return.

I managed to reach the top of the stairs, ready to give Falcor his bow, but it was pretty clear that he didn't need it just then! Falcor cut deeply into the one that stabbed him, almost severing its head, then spun around Arad and stabbed into his attacker, pulling the blade out with a spurt of blood. He continued his motion, running down the ledge towards another lizard that had emerged further on. Arad shouted that Birt was still alive, and that he could only hold him for a few more minutes, so I moved up to guard him as the others pressed their attacks. Falcor was the farthest forward and drove his sword into another lizard, killing it, but could see swarms of other creatures rising up towards him from the depths.

Arad finished off the one he was fighting, the last lizard at our end of the chamber. Falcor conjured a spray of colour above the creatures, his armour disappearing as he did so... this time, though, he sensed an icy chill and a probing attack on his mind when it vanished. A voice laughed and said "I have it now" before fading away in his head. At least the colourful display stunned some of the creatures. The remaining creatures started to swim away to the north, possibly flanking? Arad ran up to one of the unconscious creatures and smashed it with his hammer, doing severe damage, then stabbed a second one that was also unconscious. Did we really have to attack them if they couldn't fight back?

Heeding Arad's warning, I straddled Birt and threatened him with my swords, saying that he should stay still or I would kill him, and then have my friend send his soul to the Creator. Although unable to move, I felt a wash of power over me as he attacked with his mind, thankfully not affecting me. Arad was right - they were still a threat! I thrust both weapons in to him so that he died quickly, vowing to have Arad bring his soul to the Creator as I promised.

It turns out the things swimming north were just going to get their bigger, harder mates. The squat aquatic things lumbered forward along the ledge towards Arad as Falcor fell back towards me. Another fishy thing burst out of the water behind Arad, trying to cut off his escape route. I jogged over to Arad's discarded sword (Falcor had retrieved his bow to cover Arad) and tucked it into my belt, drawing my own bow to help Falcor. Arad tried to sprint towards us, but the fish creature knocked him to the floor as he tried to get by.

Arad swiped back from the floor, knocking its legs from under it, then followed up with his sword and killed it. That allowed him to get up and sprint back to us yelling: "There's loads of them, slow but well armoured"! Falcor weaved some dweomer silently with hand gestures, and I moved up past Arad as he withdrew to watch the path with my bow. Shimmering lights appeared at the end of ledge, with something moving within, but I couldn't see clearly what it was. I loosed an arrow anyway, but it pinged off a rock just before it struck.

I relax bow and move back to Arad, saying we should get away from the water and asking Arad to consign the souls of these creatures to the Creator (as I promised Birt). Arad stopped for a moment and said a prayer, then stood still for a few moments more... Arad's sight had gone black for a moment and he heard a voice saying: "They are mine, leave them alone or I will come for you. I see you now"!

Falcor ran back shouting that his dweomer would end in a couple of minutes and we had to keep moving. I didn't want to abandon Birt, but his body was too heavy to carry. I settled for hacking his head off, hoping that his soul would be in some way attached to it so that Arad could do some rites later. Then I hurriedly followed the others to the east.

We climbed some stairs to our right, reaching another iron bar gate, with Falcor covering the rear. Arad fumbled for the keys but eventually found the right one and unlocked it. I climbed the stairs and reached the top as he opened it, and Arad stood holding it and urged us to hurry through. Falcor saw a head peek around the corner back near the water, and with a fantastic shot he managed to put an arrow in it, dropping it dead. He ran up the stairs, and Arad closed and locked it as soon as we were through.

Just down the corridor was a door on our left, which I checked and then opened. It revealed a small room with a short hallway on the far side with a door at the far end. The room was unoccupied and seemed to be a fairly well appointed living quarter. A table in the centre had four chairs around it, and nuts and dried fruits in a bowl on top. There was a small cask in the corner smelling faintly of alcohol. A lantern, hooded but unlit, stood near it with a flask of oil. A fine metal (electrum) bowl filled with a clear liquid smelling faintly of ammonia and a silver goblet were the only things of worth that we noticed.

Arad covered the corridor as Falcor entered, and he pointed at the liquid in the bowl, warning that it had some dweomer about it. I decided that it might be an opportunity to stop Birt's head dripping blood everywhere, and dipped the neck into the liquid. This seemed to upset Falcor for some reason! It worked, though, as the wound was cauterised so I could stuff the head in a sack in my backpack without worrying about the mess. I tipped the bloody liquid away and put the bowl in for good measure as it seemed to have some value.