4-28 Yarthmont - Interlude

 The return to Auriga was uneventful, for which Broneslav was grateful. The mage was very pleased at the havoc Broneslav had caused and let Broneslav stay long enough to heal all his wounds. As a reward for his heroics, Auriga identified the various items Broneslav had found along the way. After five days, Broneslav was fully healed and ready to leave. The Cynidiceans filled his pack with food and water for him, and he left the pyramid with instructions on how to find his way back to settlements where he could get further aid.

For two blazing hot days, and two freezing cold nights, Broneslav followed the directions given by Auriga. On the third day, he caught sight of a small dot in the distance moving at speed in his direction. Soon it was close enough to identify that it was a person on what appeared to be a carpet. He was not going to outrun it, so Broneslav drew his sword and readied himself.

Soon the carpet and its rider were upon him. Its rider hailed Broneslav and he relaxed. It was Arnulf who appeared to have bought a very expensive carpet from his share of the profits on the last trading caravan. The two caught up as they travelled together. By the end of the day they were at Selenica and Arnulf had persuaded Broneslav to return to Specularum with him, where he was going to meet Sindar. Broneslav begged Arnulf to let him rest a day in Selenica before they travelled on. He needed time to buy some new clothes. Arnulf agreed.

Broneslav went shopping. He did not have time to get properly tailored clothes, but he dressed himself as well as he could and soon he looked like the scion of a major trading family should look, though rather more battered than the average pampered 16 year old of those families. Arnulf approved of the change, and especially of the bath that Broneslav took.

The next day was a very early start and a late finish as they pushed hard to reach the fortified town of Penhaligon. Another long day and they were at Specularum. Arnulf set Broneslav down outside the gates and then headed to his own country house a short distance outside the city. Broneslav was familiar with the routine here. He approached the gates, bound his weapons as the guards dictated and paid the 8 Crona tax to enter the city. The streets were bustling and noisy, as Broneslav remembered, but he ignored the temptations of the taverns and returned home.

His family were pleased to see him, especially as he was obviously making something of himself. He had passed the test of the Shearing Ceremony and had clearly matured in just the few months he had been away. He was no longer quite so taken with Milka's rose red lips or pale skin either. Suddenly she seemed soft by comparison with the life he was now leading.

He reflected on the Shearing Ceremony too. Many families paid only lip service to the tradition. They sent their children away to camp out for the night, and then to return in the morning as if they had achieved something great. He knew that poorer Traladaran families often relied on those children to work alongside the adults, so a full quest was not an option. His own family could have done the same, and many wealthier families did. He was quite glad that his family had sent him off in this manner though. It had been painful but he had learned. He had a better idea of what he wanted to do now, and it did not involve sitting around the fire drinking ale and telling tall stories.

The next day, he banked much of his wealth and called for the tailors to measure him properly for new clothes. He would need them to fit in with those around him. Then he set about finding buyers for some of the more exotic items he had found. A week later, he had sold all the items he wanted to sell. It turned out that mercenaries and adventurers had a lot of use for this type of thing, although he did not get great prices for the scrolls. Even with the cut that the Duke's tax collectors would take, he was quite wealthy in his own right now.

With his shopping done, Broneslav decided to wait until after the Festival of Lucor before he rode out again. It would be a chance to relax, and he needed the time to chase up some leads. There were opportunities within the family, which traded all over Karameikos and beyond, but there might be something more exciting available too. Anything that would help him be financially independent. He loved his immediate family, but the politics of the wider Torenescu family and its rivals was a snake pit that he did not wish to enter, so any amount of independence was to be valued. But first he would help out with the business in town and then the Festival of Lucor.

4 Yarthmont - It's the pits

 Having caught his breath, Broneslav left the storeroom and followed the corridor south. Halfway down, he found a branching corridor. At its end was a room with bunk beds in, clearly someone's quarters. It was empty, so he carried on. The corridor turned eastwards and shortly came to a crossroads. Broneslav decided to check left first. As he stepped into the junction, the floor gave out from under him and he plunged 10 feet into a pit filled with spikes. Twisting to try to avoid the spikes, he still hit the ground hard (2 DAM). He cursed. Getting to his feet, he leapt as high as he could and tried to grab the edge of the pit. His powerful legs drove him upwards and his fingers closed on the lip of the pit. Scrabbling for purchase with his feet and drawing himself up slowly with his arms, he managed to roll out of the pit, effectively if not elegantly.

He continued northwards as he had originally intended. The door at the end of this corridor opened into the large chapel, so he returned to the pit and turned left, leaping easily over the corner of the pit now that he knew it was there. The corridor ended in a T-junction. Left led to the secret door that still stood ajar. Right led to a door. The room revealed by opening the door seemed oddly damp and appeared to shimmer slightly, as if seen through water. The room itself contained nothing of interest: a bed, some chairs and a table. Suddenly the room seemed to move towards Broneslav. He ducked as a clear, jelly-like pseudopod slapped the air where his head had been and backed up fast. A huge cube of translucent gelatinous material was oozing slowly towards him.

Seeing no reason to fight this thing for the rewards this room almost certainly did not contain, Broneslav backed up faster and headed towards the pit. If the creature did catch up with him fast enough to attack, he reasoned that it would struggle to cross the pit. His route then took him back to the consultation room.

Puzzled, Broneslav looked around. The place looked like there had been a fight and there were bodies on the floor, but he had no recollection of creating those bodies. Was someone else here? This thought worried him. Carefully, he searched the room in case they had not been as thorough as he was wont to be. He was rewarded by finding 3 gems which he immediately pocketed.

In the next room, he saw that the door on the other side was wedged open. He moved quickly through this room to investigate what lay beyond. His newly found potential adversary must have wedged the door open, but he had no clue why or who they were. In the next room, he found the bodies of two large snakes. The human body that lay in this room had not been looted, and Broneslav pocketed the necklace around her neck. He wondered if this was his mysterious adversary. Had she fought and defeated the snakes but succumbed to her wounds?

He recognised the next room. This was where his last memories before coming to surrounded by bodies were from. He remembered feeling like he had been struck when he picked up the white cloak he was now wearing. He was astounded to find all his possessions here too. Gratefully, he shrugged into his pack and belted his sword at his side once more. The mace was relegated to his pack too, having done its duty.

He searched the room in case he had missed something. He found a secret door. Beyond it was a small room with a tapestry on the wall and a large treasure chest. Nice. He moved to the chest to check it. Suddenly the tapestry lashed out at him (2 DAM). He fell backwards in the face of this attack but rallied himself quickly. His sword flashed and pieces of 'tapestry' fell to the floor. Undeterred, it lashed out at him again (1 DAM). Once more his sword lashed out and more of the creature fell unmoving to the floor but it cut slices from his arm just the same (2 DAM). Desperately, Broneslav sliced again at the creature but it still seemed tattered but undeterred and cut him again (3 DAM). Broneslav's wounds were bleeding freely. He knew he could not take much more. He gritted his teeth and focused a mighty blow at the creature ... and missed. But the follow up backslash tore it in two. The whole thing fluttered to the floor oozing black ichor.

He fell to his knees and gulped in huge breaths until he had recovered enough to bandage his wounds. Then he shifted the creature's body where it had fallen on the chest, and examined the wooden box before discovering that it was unlocked. Clearly the creature had been the primary defence for the treasure within. This treasure comprised a large number of gold coins and a full potion bottle. He recognised the potion as being a Potion of Invisibility like the one he already had. He filled his pack and returned to Auriga on the level above.

4 Yarthmont - A pain in the side

 Broneslav left the corpses of the rat people and wondered what the pyramid would throw at him next. WereToads? WerePetunias? He chuckled slightly to himself as he stalked the corridors of the pyramid westward, and then turning north. As he approached the next door, he could clearly hear noises from within. Banging and growling noises and the occasional shouted word, usually followed by more banging. The door was already ajar, so he peered in.

Within he could see three bestial human-like creatures. Each of them towered over him by a good way. They appeared to be eating candles! What he could see of the room suggested it was a storeroom of some kind. He decided to sneak away and leave them to it. There was little in the room that suggested it was of interest to him. Unfortunately, just as he was about to sneak away, one of the creatures turned around, perhaps tipped off by the light of his shield which he was trying to cover with his cloak.

Broneslav braced himself for the inevitable attack. At least by remaining in the corridor only one or two of the creatures could attack him directly. That might even the odds, for it looked like their mighty thews could crush his bones with just one blow. As he ducked back, he swung desperately with his mace and wounded one of the ogres. Then they were upon him. A huge fist slammed into him and made his head ring (1 DAM). He ducked a second blow and riposted. His mace crushed the chest of one ogre and it collapsed to the floor dead. He reversed the swing and wounded a second. The two remaining ogres redoubled their efforts and Broneslav had to duck quickly to avoid having his head taken off by one fist, but that led to another hitting him in the side, crushing his ribs (4 DAM). The pain was agonising, but he still managed to knock one more ogre senseless, shaking the corridor floor, and wounding the third. Ducking further back into the corridor, he avoided its enraged blows but failed to land a hit himself. As he rolled under another blow, he managed to break the monster's arm causing a grievous wound before finishing the thing off as he dived to one side to avoid its clublike fists. The monster staggered a step and died.

Broneslav cursed at the pain and bandaged his wounds. Then he searched the room and the ogres. His haul included a ring and 200 gold coins. Little enough to show for such a fight. His search of the room also proved his initial assessment to be correct. It was a storeroom for what looked like cheap religious symbols and paraphernalia. Nothing her for him. He rested a moment to let the pain in his side subside and then set off again.

4 Yarthmont - Rats as big as cats?

 With the sour taste of the wine still in his mouth, Broneslav headed back into the big chapel and out of the opposite door. A short way up the corridor he was now in, there was a junction to the left. Pausing to look around at the junction and wary of ambush, he suddenly noticed a difference in the wear patterns on the floor. Further investigation revealed a secret door that took him little time to open. Being a secret door, Broneslav assumed that it hid something of interest to him, so he went through and followed the corridor.

The door at the end opened into a room that looked like it had once been a guardroom at the top of some stairs but was now repurposed as living quarters. Four beds were arranged along the walls. A table occupied the centre of the room. One of the tables hit the floor as Broneslav stepped in. It's occupant was a person dressed in red robes and wearing a rat mask. The other three people in the room were also dressed in like fashion.

The people looked at each other just as Broneslav began to greet them tentatively. Then they leapt for him, transforming into human-sized rats as they did so. Broneslav was borne back under the onslaught but still managed to fend off all bar one of the wererats (1 DAM). His response was to crush the skull of one of the rats. He followed that up by slaying another of the monstrous rats and badly wounding a third. Furiously using his shield to block them, he then cut and smashed at the creatures who died quickly in succession.

Broneslav bandaged his wound and searched the room, finding what he presumed was a reasonable hoard of ill-gotten gains: 350 silver coins and 4 gems worth about 100 royals each. He then checked the stairs, but found them blocked by rubble just a short way down. Nothing for it but to head back out and along the other corridor.

Broneslav has now gained enough experience to go up a level. He gains +1 Attack, 4 HPs and 1 trait point. I am tempted to give him a point in 'connections in Cynidicea' or even Cynidicean as a language to memorialise this adventure, but I decided to increase his Keen Vision trait because he has done moderately well at spotting secret doors in this dungeon. I assume he has learned from this and will be even better at spotting them in the future.

4 Yarthmont - Well owlbear darned!

 Broneslav had four options. He could return the way he had come, or he could leave via one of the three other doors. With nothing to choose between them, he opted for the door on the north-west side of the chapel. The corridor beyond led to a dead end with a door on one side or down a side corridor. Broneslav chose to follow the side corridor first.

It led to a room filled with a noxious, bubbling liquid. In the centre of the room, on a pedestal that stood just a foot above the liquid was a chest. Broneslav looked at the liquid, considered his options, which amounted to little more than trying to leap across the room and grab the chest. He did not rate his chances, and cursed the luck that found him without anything but a bare minimum of weapons and no equipment.

"Well, that's that then," he muttered to himself as he discarded the idea of doing that. With no other immediate options, he returned to the main corridor and the door at the end. It opened into a wine cellar. Rows of casks and barrels filled the room, while bottles and jugs were stored on tables. The floor was covered in wine and splinters of barrels. The reason for this was immediately obvious. A large bear-like creature with the head of a giant owl was guzzling the wine. It responded to Broneslav's incursion by roaring drunkenly at him and staggering towards the boy, obviously intent on adding some meat to its diet.

Broneslav whipped his mace up and clubbed at the creature's face. It batted the weapon away with little effort, but Broneslav's powerful thews redirected the mace towards the creature's body and smashed it hard enough that he could hear the crushed ribs breaking even through its thick hide. Using his shield, Broneslav blocked the monster's attempts to maul him and launched a new offensive. The owlbear knocked him back and he failed to hurt it at all. Fortunately, he was able to get his shield between him and the creature once more and it's attempts to eat him were thwarted although the claw marks on his shield told the tale of what could have happened to him instead. the ferocious back and forth continued. Both combatants were bloodied and the drunken owlbear showed no signs of giving up, but then Broneslav got his mace through its defences. Stepping into its grasp, he swung upwards, breaking the creature's beak and followed up with a hard blow to the side of the head. He stepped back quickly to avoid retaliation. He need not have feared. The blow was fatal and the creature collapsed almost immediately.

Breathing hard, Broneslav grabbed one of the bottles of wine from the store and opened it. He deserved a drink after dealing with this creature. Seconds later, he spat the wine out again. It was corked and tasted foul. No wonder the owlbear was in such a terrible mood.

4 Yarthmont - Foxed and confused

 Broneslav had no clue where he was or why he was surrounded by so many bodies, nor why his shield was glowing with a bright light. However, he was a practical soul and quickly decided that there was little reason to wonder, and no treasure to be had, so he need not worry too much about it. He was whole and the gamblers next door were obviously not interested in him. As there was no obvious way out of the room he was in, he passed through the gamblers, ignoring their cries to join in and opened the door to a room with nearly a dozen dark-robed people standing in a circle. The figures all wore masks of creatures from nightmare yet none seemed aware of his presence. He had no clue what to make of this. There was nothing to guide him, so he picked the right hand door at random and strode past the scary, still people.

Pausing briefly, he listened but all he could hear was the nightmarish murmuring and occasional screams of the people in the room with him. He pushed the door open and was greeted by the sight of people in bright costumes and colourful masks dancing in silence and many with no visible partner. Some stood to the side drinking while others chatted in the Cynidicean language that he had heard much of since getting lost in the desert. The people did not react at all to his bloodstained appearance or the naked blade in his hand. There was no exit from this room other than the door he had opened so he returned to the other door and opened it.

Stepping through the door, he had a sense of deja vu, although he was certain he had never been here before. His sharp eyes spotted an unevenness in the floor. He stalked forward carefully and hopped over the uneven lump. Past it, things looked more normal and the corridor floor was flat without that one lump. Perhaps it was a trap. Who knew but best to be careful anyway? This place was uncanny and he could easily find himself in trouble before he knew it.

He followed the corridor round to where a door in the wall stood ajar. It was clearly meant to be secret, but someone had left it open. Peering through, he saw a corridor with a door at the end. He committed the door's location to memory and followed the corridor he was in further to where it turned to the right and then ended in a door a short while later.

Pushing the door open, he found himself in a huge chapel with three statues at his end of it and rows of pews disappearing into the distance. Just in front of the dais on which the statues were standing, were two fountains, one on each side of the chapel.

Two red-headed strangers stood talking near the statues. They looked up as he entered. The light from his shield had given him away.

"Oho, a brave warrior," chuckles woman, "How delightful!"

She looked him up and down lasciviously chanted a few words, and he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to do whatever she said, because she was clearly his best friend. This felt wrong just the same and he slammed his fists into the nearest statue. Something went pop in his head and the compulsion went away as his nose and knuckles began to bleed.

The woman cast Charm Person and Broneslav failed his saving roll so he opted to Defy Death (2 DAM) to avoid the effects.

He leapt towards the pair, recognising their duplicity. Horror dawned in their eyes as they realised he had overcome their spell. He crushed the woman's head and smashed the man hard to the ground. Blood dripped from the man's head. Even as he fell, the man's body started to twist and change. Suddenly, where the man had been there was a fox, also wounded in the head. It bounded away towards the far end of the room faster than Broneslav could follow.

The youth paused a moment to listen. Did these people or whatever they were have friends close by? He heard nothing but moved carefully towards the female. She was definitely dead. No doubt about that whatsoever. He moved pantherlike to the big corridor. The fox was not in sight.

Moving slowly up the corridor, Broneslav listened carefully but heard nothing. At the end of the corridor, he tried to use the corner as cover while he looked for the fox. The room he looked into was a large hall with vaulted roof and pillars. Huge double doors stood partially open at the far end, but completely blocked by sand. The fox could not have left that way. No other exits were visible, so it must be hiding behind one of the pillars.

Suddenly the fox appeared, as suspected, from behind the nearest pillat and sprinted towards Broneslav at full speed. It dodged around him, looking for a way out. Unfortunately, Broneslav was quick enough to make a wild smash as it passed and it collapsed to the ground, tumbling slightly because of its momentum. Even as Broneslav moved towards it, it breathed its last. When the last breath had left its body, it transformed back into the red-headed man.

He'd heard tales of werewolves who shifted between human and wolf form before, so these two must have been werefoxes. He'd never heard of that. When he got home, he reckoned this would be worth a kind word or two from his parents. And the jewellery they were carrying would earn him another kind word, he mused as he robbed the corpses of necklaces and other items that looked rather valuable.

4 Yarthmont - Feeling crushed

 With his cuts cleaned up, Demetrius threw open the door to the consultation room and strode up the corridor. At the junction he turned right, and then turned left at the next junction. Faced with a blank wall, he stepped on a slightly protruding flagstone in one corner of the corridor and pushed the wall ahead of him. It swung open to let him into another corridor. Right, then left and a longer walk before he turned right. The door to Darius' chambers lay ahead. Demetrius strode forwards and suddenly the walls crashed in towards him. He dodged but not quickly enough and cried out in pain (5 DAM).

The noise was huge and he felt sure that Darius must now be warned of his approach. Speed would be to his benefit now. If he were quick enough, he might reach Darius before he was fully prepared. Casting cure light wounds, he healed the damage the trap had done (Heal 6 HP), reflecting how Darius had beefed up the defences here since he had been alive.

Kicking the door in ahead of him, he was confronted with the strange sight of ten people in dark robes and masks representing nightmare creatures all standing in a circle, motionless and not reacting to Demetrius at all. Suddenly one of them screamed in terror. Demetrius jumped, but he recognised people in thrall to Zargon and knew they were harmless unless he attacked them. Darius' chambers were to his right, so he moved swiftly to the door on that side of the room and kicked that one open too.

This room too was full of people, this time all masked as animals and dressed in brightly coloured robes. They were all involved in card games and dice games. The atmosphere in the room was convivial apart from the fact that none of them acknowledged Demetrius' violent entry. Assessing the threat, Demetrius decided there was none unless he triggered it himself. He marched straight across the room to a section of the wall where he pushed a loose stone low down near the floor and the wall swung open. Here was Darius with his followers in the newly revealed room. They were armed and ready, but Demetrius was on the warpath and would brook no delays in his vengeance.

Deciding that he needed to neutralise Darius as fast as possible, Demetrius cast Hold Person at him. Darius froze.

That was close. Darius failed the save by 1 point. Lucky that Demetrius focused the spell on Darius so that he had a penalty to save. I was tempted to try to slow down more of the baddies, but chose not to.

Demetrius then swung his mace with savage and brutal intent, and slew two of the hobgoblins that were Darius' guard. That left four more hobgoblins and a dozen human guards. The remaining guards swarmed Demetrius, who retreated to the doorway to provide some measure of cover. With Darius neutralised, he had time to deal with them all safely. He blocked the attacks of those who could reaching him and counterattacked unsuccessfully. A brief exchange of blows left no one hurt, then Demetrius attaked with renewed vigour and three of the hobgoblins fell to his blows. The extra effort nearly cost him, but he just managed to block several blows and turn those blocks into attacks that cost a hobgoblin and a Cynidicean their lives.

With the hobgoblins dead, Demetrius faced lesser opponents. Three of the humans fell swiftly to his mace and he advanced into the room. In no time at all he stood panting amid the bodies of Darius' bodyguard. Only Darius remained, still paralysed by the spell.

Demetrius could see what was to come in Darius' eyes. The hatred and the fear were clearly present, even though he could not move a muscle. Demetrius swung his mace and crushed Darius' skull. The priest of Zargon fell to the floor.

4 Yarthmont - Snakes in a Pyramid

Demetrius pulled the door open to the room beyond. He now stood in his (long abandoned) kitchen and dining room. Dust covered the cupboards, chairs and tables. The door from this room stood partially ajar. Two snakes with brown and yellow scales lay coiled around the body of a person in a rabbit mask. Seeing Demetrius, they uncoiled and slithered towards him.

He called once more upon Usamigaras and words of power poured from his mouth, even as he leapt to the attack. The Snake Charm took effect and one of the snakes stopped, raised its body up and began to sway gently. As he loosed the power of his god upon the one snake, he swung his shield at the other, catching it a firm blow. The snake was stunned by the blow, and he followed up with a blow of the mace. The snake snapped at him but he was easily able to evade it. Demetrius finally crushed the snake's skull with his mace, and turn and kicked the other snake firmly in the head as it started to recover from his spell and followed it up with a blow of his shield. The snake was clearly woozy as it tried to bite him but he blocked the blow easily. However, dodging the blow put Demetrius off balance and he only caught it a glancing blow. He dodged the next attack by the snake and crushed its skull with his mace. He was clearly out of practice because these snakes should not have taken so much time to defeat.

Sadly, while possessed Broneslav will not be earning experience or these snakes would have been a very nice stash of XPs indeed.

Demetrius ignored the body and headed to the opposite door. His mission to kill Darius would not wait. He had an idea where Darius should be, so it was just a case of getting there as quickly as possible.

Through the door was Demetrius' living room. He propped the door he had entered by open with a chair from the dining room and headed straight through to the only exit from this room. This opened onto a corridor that ended in a door with his former consultation room beyond. The room was set up with a desk in the middle and a row of chairs facing the desk. The desk chair looked comfortable, the others, well, not so much.

"Oh," Demetrius thought, "Those statues are new. Who has been using my office?"

As he moved to leave the room, suddenly the statues moved. Both gargoyles attacked in a flurry of claws and rock hard teeth and both bit him hard (2 DAM). Demetrius responded by smashing one of them with his mace and shield. Black ichor started flowing from the cracks in its skin. He followed this up in similar fashion and the gargoyle crashed to the floor, it's head caved in. Demetrius then blocked and evaded the other gargoyle's attacks, turning its momentum against it and bludgeoning the creature fiercely. The gargoyle got past his defences and clawed him (1 DAM). However, it was wounded badly and struggling. Demetrius easily killed it. He paused to bandage his wounds before moving on.

4 Yarthmonth - What Lies Beneath

Broneslav dropped quickly through the trapdoor and found himself in a small empty room with stone walls and floor. There were no exits, so Broneslav immediately began to search. Soon he found a secret door that opened into a larger room beyond. This new room had clearly been inhabited and was as its owner had last left it. But it was dusty too, and looked like the owner had not returned in some time. A white hooded cloak lay cast over a wooden chair. A bed, a wooden chest and a table completed the ensemble. On the table was a wooden carving of two intertwined snakes.

It was a bit weird that the secret door would open into someone's bedroom. Broneslav could not fathom why this might be unless those in the pyramid above were denied entry to this section, or were only permitted entry by the gatekeeper in this room. He decided he could go round in circles trying to work out all the possible options and that the best approach would be just to accept that this was the way and continue his explorations.

Broneslav opened the chest. It contained clothes for a slighter man than he was. The cloak on the chair looked good though. That was the advantage of cloaks; one size pretty much fits all. Picking it up, he staggered as a psychic force hit him.

4 Yarthmont - A Fresh Start

The Magi healed Broneslav, and let him rest fully before returning to the lower tier. They even identified the potion he had found as a Potion of Invisibility, all in the name of helping him to help them defeat their rivals and the evil Zargon.

Broneslav returned quickly to the corridor near the embalming room and continued onwards. The next room he came to had a two foot wide hole chewed through the door. Teeth marks were clearly evident. He decided to leave well enough alone and continue down the corridor. Suddenly three giant shrews leapt out of the hole in the door and assaulted Broneslav. The frenzied assault left Broneslav with a bite on his leg (1 DAM), but he slew a shrew in return despite the welling fear that left an iron taste in his mouth. He then fended off further assaults from the two remaining shrews, managing to kill both of them quite quickly.

Figuring that this meant the room was now safe, he entered and found scenes of a man giving advice to kings and queens painted on the walls. The coffin in the centre of the room had been gnawed to pieces and nothing remained of the body within. He left. He had only one more corridor to search, based on his map, and this was where the X was.

The X proved to be the site of a trapdoor. Seeing nothing else to take his interest and now route to the centre of the pyramid, he opened the trapdoor and began to climb down.

Despite his tracking skill and sharp eyes, Broneslav has managed to fail to spot the two secret doors to the centre of the pyramid where the big treasure lies. This area was not detailed on his map, so he is unaware of what he is missing out on. Ah well, such is the life of the murder hobo.

3 Yarthmont - Lurking in the shadows

 With the zombies dead, Broneslav only had one direction to head in, and all the corridors on his map pointed there now. 

The first room he checked contained a white ivory coffin. The walls were painted with scenes from court life, focusing on the life of the ladies-in-waiting at the queen's court. The coffin was empty and the room contained nothing else.

From there he headed towards the centre of the pyramid where he found a preparation room for corpses. Suddenly, a black presence loomed out of the edge of the torchlight. Broneslav ducked back, but not quite fast enough as one of the creatures grazed him (1 DAM, -1 STR) and an Arctic chill coursed through his body. He swung his sword in return and grazed it with the first stroke then sliced it in two with the second. It dissolved as if it had never existed. Furiously fending off the others, he still took another cut to the arm and the chill in his body increased (1 DAM, -1 STR). With the adrenalin boost brought on by this latest cut, he sliced furiously at the remaining shadows and two more dissolved under his onslaught. Even with only two left, he was hit again (1 DAM, -1 STR), but now the odds were more in his favour and he more easily dissolved one more. One on one, Broneslav more easily defended himself and was quickly able to bring the fight to a close with a quick slash and stab that saw the last of the shadows dissolve as if it had never existed. Breathing hard and feeling weak, he shut the door behind him and rested against it so that nothing more could come in and surprise him.

After a little while, he had recovered his breath, although he still felt weak from the shadows' attacks. He searched the room, finding a sack of silver coins and a glass vial containing a silvery potion.

Feeling battered and bruised, even Broneslav's optimism and teenage self-confidence could not fail to conclude that he needed to rest up before continuing. He made his way back to the Magi, ducking into an empty room when a small party of baboons appeared in the corridor. Once they had gone, he reached the Magi without trouble.

3 Yarthmont - Dead Enders

 Broneslav returned to the junction he had passed earlier. Turning down it, he soon found himself at a dead end. The map showed a room on the other side of this wall, so maybe there was a hidden door here. He started checking the wall carefully. After carefully going over the walls to either side of the end, and the end itself, he found signs of a hidden door in the end. He had soon found a loose stone that opened the door when pushed, and entered this new room. As he did so, his feet crunched on something.

The entire room was filled with bones. If looked like a dozen or more people had died in here. Other than the bodies, there was a no sign of anything untoward here. The young hero was now faced with a choice. The room had two exits other than the way he had come in. The first would take him back towards the boulder. The other would take him onwards. He chose to backtrack.

Taking a route towards the boulder, he soon found the corridor that ended at the boulder and followed it to another door. He pushed this door open to find a room whose wall paintings showed signs of a man signing documents and organising tax collection. The wooden coffin in this room had been smashed open and six shambling humanoids were standing around. As the door opened, they turned towards it and shambled towards Broneslav, who backed slightly into the corridor. This way, they could only attack him one at a time. As they approached, Broneslav used his superior speed to cut the head from one zombie and smash the brain of another before retreating back into the doorway. Despite the hindrance of all the other zombies trying to get at him simultaneously, one zombie clawed him hard across the body (2 DAM). Broneslav returned the favour by laying it to rest permanently, but the other zombies were unrelenting and it took all his efforts to hold them at bay until he had an opportunity to cut another one down with two quick strokes of his sword. His efforts to defend himself while doing this were not enough and he took another nasty gash (1 DAM) before cleaving the remaining two zombies in two.

With the zombies dead, Broneslav checked the room quickly, but found nothing. It had already been looted and destroyed.

3 Yarthmont - Rolling stones

 Broneslav weighed up his choices. Mentally flipping a coin, it came up ships and so he turned left. The corridor turned right after a short while, and then right again after about eighty feet. It continued for another eighty or ninety feet and ended in a door. Warily, he pushed the door open to reveal a sarcophagus in the centre of the room. Pillars surrounded it, arching inwards towards the centre to form a cover over the top of it. At each end of the sarcophagus, brass jars had been placed. Flames burned in them to light the room.

Broneslav searched the room and found a brass tube containing a parchment map. It appeared to be showing something, but he was not sure what. There was no key to tell what the X marked. However, it did show him the layout of this tier and he could make more informed choices about his direction. Obviously, heading towards the large, ominous X on the map would have to be his goal.

Broneslav headed over to the other door in the room and opened it. Thanks to the map, he knew there would be a corridor on the other side of it. Suddenly the ground began to shake. There was a rumbling noise and crunching of stone on stone. Broneslav looked desperately around, trying to work out what was going on. Suddenly he realised. The massive boulder rolling down the corridor at high speed was a significant clue. He dived back into the room just before the boulder rolled past.

With the help of the map, Broneslav knew that the door over the corridor opened into a room and that the corridor he was now standing near led back to the area he had previously explored. He opened the door to the room over the way and closed it again quickly without going in. The room was full of junk and stunk. There was a big pile of junk in one corner. Rustling and squeaking noises came from the pile. That sounded more like a chance to get hurt than a chance to get rich. He turned around and followed the track the boulder had taken.

This was a long corridor with just one corridor leading off it and its end was blocked by the boulder just past a door on Broneslav's left. He knew from his map that the corridor continued on to the right after the boulder but had no way past, so he decided to check what was behind the door.

Within lay an elaborately jewelled coffin. A worm-like creature nearly ten feet long with may legs and a mouth surrounded by tentacles was curled up around the coffin. It looked up as Broneslav entered. He leapt forward swinging his sword as he did so, and brought its edge down just behind the creature's head. With just one blow he had cleaved the monster in two. Yellowish ichor sprayed from the cut ends.

Pausing, he considered the jewelled coffin and decided to leave it alone. He was already carrying significant treasure and had no idea if the coffin's occupant might take exception to removing the jewels, which might well just be paste for all Broneslav knew. Time to head back to the junction and try a different route.

3 Yarthmont - I have a bone to pick with you!

 Broneslav left the entrance room and turned right this time. The bird people who had flapped around him had gone in this direction. Immediately ahead of him the corridor became a T-junction with a door on the opposite wall. Broneslav opened the door a crack and peered in.

A mummified human in plate armour stood with a halberd against the wall to his left. An honour guard of  nine skeletons surrounded the mummy. Each had a sword in its hand and each stood to attention too. Suddenly they moved. 

Broneslav dived into the fray, smashing one skeleton down with a shield charge. The skeletons responded by attacking him. It was fortunate that only a few could get to him at any one time, and he was able to dodge or block their blows. He took another skeleton down, only for one of the others to take its place. Two more skeletons fell in quick succession but one of the remaining ones got through his defences (1 DAM). The pain galvanised him and four more skeletons were crushed by his shield and smashed by his sword. One remained and it was easy to destroy without its allies.

Throughout all this, the mummy had not moved. Looking more closely at it, Broneslav decided that it would not move either. With nothing else to seize his attention, Broneslav bandaged his wound and left the room, turning right.

He followed the winding corridor until it ended at a door. Broneslav pushed the door open carefully. His light showed that the room was inhabited. Two large white apes were sitting on a large sarcophagus. Rubble and debris surrounded them, as did the bones of their meals. The walls of the room were painted with scenes of warfare. An unnaturally handsome man in armour, clearly a noble, was the central focus of all these paintings.

As he looked in the apes began to beat their chests and howl. Broneslav took the hint and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him. That left just one direction to investigate. he walked back past the room with the skeletons and reached a junction where he could either go straight ahead or to the left. There seemed little to choose between the two so he mentally flipped a coin again.

3 Yarthmont - Ghost Walk

 Being a young man with no real sense of his own mortality, Broneslav decided that he would push on while he could. There would be time to return to the Magi and rest up later. After all, his wounds were not that bad, and he was sure he could deal with anything he found.

He returned to the main corridor and turned left, still heading away from the mad bird people he had encountered before. The corridor turned right and then left and then left again. Walking stealthily and carefully, Broneslav advanced steadily until he saw something glowing ahead of him. Two human-sized shapes. He slowed his steps but continued to move forwards, prepared to fight. The figures did not move.

As he got closer he could see more details. Both figures were translucent and dressed in expensive clothes. One was a man and the other a woman. Each wore a crown.

The male figure spoke in heavily accented and antiquated common, "GO NO FURTHER OR THE CURSE OF KING ALEXANDER WILL OVERTAKE YOU!"

The female figure spoke after him, "I AM QUEEN ZENOBIA. TURN BACK, FOR ONLY DEATH AWAITS YOU!"

As the male figure spoke, fear began to build in Broneslav. As the female figure spoke, the fear built further. Suddenly, Broneslav found himself running away from them and back toward the room he had entered by. Only as he climbed the ramp did he regain his wits and stop running.

After catching his breath, he decided that following the bird-people might not be so bad after all. Even knowing the spell put on him by the two figures he had seen, he could not be certain to overcome the compulsion to run, so he would try a different route.

3 Yarthmont - Requiem for a Jester

 Broneslav walked carefully down the ramp. The walls of the room he entered were painted with scenes of a royal court. The centre of attention in these paintings is a dwarven jester. The paint was peeling and faded, but a lot of effort had been expended in its application, so the jester must have been someone important. A small, brightly painted coffin rested by the wall. In each corner of the room stood a  large brass jar.

There seemed little threatening here, and Broneslav did not wish to tempt fate, so he moved quickly to the door in the north wall and opened it. Beyond lay a long corridor. As he crept pantherlike down the corridor, he heard voices from ahead of him. Their squawk-like voices carried and it was clear they had seen his light as they rushed towards him.

From the dark emerged  four people flapping their arms and squawking. Each wore a bird mask and a feathered cape. None was armed, so he relaxed a little. As they neared Broneslav, they started squawking more urgently in a bird-like version of the language he had heard the Magi use. Not knowing what they were saying, Broneslav stayed quiet and did his best to appear non-threatening. The people flapped around him a bit and then flapped off again in disgust, throwing what must have been insults in Broneslav's direction. He had noticed this about the Cynidiceans. They seemed to inhabit a different world from him, and he had no clue what was up with them, not even those who were close to normal, like the Magi.

With the people gone, Broneslav stalked down the stone corridor of the pyramid. The people had run off to the right down a side corridor, so Broneslav kept going straight on. Soon he was faced with a choice of going straight on or turning left. He opted to turn left. He found himself in a short corridor with a door in one wall.

The door and the end of the corridor were soot-blackened. The image of a human-sized humanoid form on the wall marred the otherwise perfect sootiness of it. The door itself was open a hand's width. It was dark within, as far as Broneslav could see. Figuring that anything within would have been alerted by the light from his torch, Broneslav kicked the door open.

The walls of the room within were covered in murals depicting a priest performing ceremonies. In this room, the priest was clearly the focus of the paintings. The priest was also clearly the focus of three humanoid creaters with grey skin and long claws on their fingers. As Broneslav stepped into the room, they looked up from their grisly repast. His injuries from the day before still bothered him, and Broneslav only nicked one of the ghouls. The three hideous monstrosities immediately leapt towards him. Despite his best efforts, one of the ghouls raked his arm with its claws (1 DAM) and another bit him (1 DAM). A cold like the chill of the grave started spreading through his veins. Mustering every ounce of determination he had, Broneslav willed himself to keep going (Defy death after failing to save versus paralysis, 1 DAM).

This time he was able to behead the ghoul he had wounded before, but it was clear his wounds and burns were bothering him. The eldritch poison that the ghoul's touch injected was really not helping either. Fending the monsters off was proving hard, as one of the ghouls raked his body with its claws once more (2 DAM). Once more the ghoul's poison chilled his body and slowed his movements. Once more Broneslav mustered every ounce of willpower to keep going (Defy death again, 1 DAM).

Drawing on everything he could, Broneslav fought on and skewered a ghoul to leave it twitching on the ground, while knocking the other one back. It renewed its attack, but with just one ghoul left, Broneslav was able to fend it off easily and to ripost with a stroke that cleaved it from shoulder to waist.

Breathing hard, he looked around to see if any new challenges had emerged. Seeing nothing around, he closed the door to the room and bandaged his wounds. Searching the room, he found a valuable necklace and a pair of valuable-looking bracelets. He put them in his back, being all in favour of highly portable wealth.

Where to now? Should he return to the Magi and rest up to heal his wounds, or should he risk carrying on a bit further?

3 Yarthmont - Welcome to the Magi

 Broneslav awoke in a room full of snoring people. It took him a moment to realise where he was.

"Well," he thought, "At least I wasn't murdered in my sleep."

He left the room and returned to the chamber where the ritual had taken place. Auriga was there already.

"I hope you slept well, initiate," Auriga greeted him, "I have your ring here. Wear this ring and the Magi will recognise you as one of their own. This means that they may call upon your services, but it also means that you may call on theirs too. You may always return here to rest, if you need to. Consider this a safe haven for you, but beware of the treacherous Brotherhood and Warrior Maidens. They will take advantage of you, if not worse! Now, I shall show you out of here. If you can journey further into the pyramid and weaken them, then we Magi will be able to deal with the Demon Zargon who stole our home from us. Now, let me show you the way out of here. The other rooms of this tier are the homes of the Brotherhood of Gorm and the Warrior Maidens of Madarua. It might be unwise to antagonise them, although we will always be happy if you weaken them."

Auriga showed Broneslav to a door with a button beside it. The carving beside this one was different from the last one he had seen. Auriga pushed the button and a familiar grinding noise was heard. When the door opened, Auriga explained that this was a revolving corridor. Each of the eight buttons inside the corridor corresponded to an exit. Pushing the right button would turn the corridor to that exit so that Broneslav could head off in that direction. Broneslav memorised the symbol for this exit, and spotted the symbol from the door where the room with the statue was. He did not recognise the other six.

"This button here will align the shifting corridor to the route to Zargon's realm below," declared Auriga, "Follow the corridor to the room with the shifting floor and you will be able to enter the tier below. Any damage you can do to Zargon will be rewarded."

Auriga bade him farewell, and Broneslav pushed the button Auriga had indicated. He felt the revolving corridor kick into motion. Then it stopped and he opened the door at the other end. The corridor beyond ended in a T-junction. Auriga had failed to mention this detail so Broneslav mentally flipped a coin. Right. He turned right and followed the corridor to where it turned to the right again. There was a door here. He could here nothing through it so he entered the room carefully. It appeared empty.

Looking around, he saw an old chapel that had clearly been trashed at some point in the past. Something was scrawled on the wall. It seemed to be words to Broneslav but he did not recognise the language it was written in. One area of the floor seemed clearer of rubbish than the rest. He went to investigate and found that it tipped gently downwards as he stepped on it. This was the way to Zargon then. He hitched his sword belt up and walked down the ramp.

There are a few issues with it, but here is a higher resolution map of the whole of Tier 3 of The Lost City. I'm still getting to grips with aspects of CC3+ which I had not touched since last I played this solo Scarlet Heroes campaign ages ago and which I had never mastered, so I shall continue learning by mapping the next level down, and hope that Broneslav does not die so that I have a reason to keep mapping the dungeon.

2 Yarthmont - Behind the Statue

After twenty minutes, Broneslav had eaten his fill and was feeling rested enough to continue, although the burns from the beetle's attach were very distracting. He carefully opened the door from the storage room and looked through into the corridor. The choking gas appeared to have dissipated. He stepped through and sniffed carefully. There was a slight smell of the gas, but he did not choke as he entered the passage. The corridor looked the same as it had before apart from the smell. The wand was still twisted to the right as he had left it when he fled.

Thinking about the situation, Broneslav decided to investigate the door first. He listened but could hear nothing. He tried the handle. It turned but the door would not open. Taking a deep breath, Broneslav tensed as he tried the button beside the door. There was a grinding noise and then silence again. He tried the door once more and this time it opened onto a corridor ending in another door. Just inside the corridor were eight buttons. One of them had the same symbol carved above it as the button he had just pressed. Clearly there was a connection but he decided to mull that one over while he checked the statue again.

Broneslav had concluded that the statue would not have got that shiny if it was just a trap for unwary explorers. Therefore, it seemed likely that the wand was meant to turn widdershins instead. Holding his breath and tensed against whatever might happen he twisted the wand to the left. Nothing happened immediately, but then there was a slight grinding noise and the statue, together with the wall behind it, started to move away from him. When it stopped, a long corridor was revealed with a door on the right hand side.

Not one to be overly careful, Broneslav moved quickly to the door. He could hear faint chanting from within. He paused. Thoughts of what might be going on in there filled his head. With a certain amount of trepidation, he decided to enter, prepared for whatever he might encounter. Pushing the door open as gently as he could, he peeked inside the room.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that," he thought.

The room he was peering into had tapestries hanging on the walls. They showed all the major constellations. A stone altar stood towards the far end of the room and thirteen people in rainbow-coloured robes were gathered before it. They were all wearing silver masks featuring the face of the child whose statue he had seen. A stout figure front and centre of the group was also wearing a silver crown. The chanting continued as Broneslav took stock of what was going on.

The previous encounter had gone badly. He presumed it was because he had surprised the other people, so he sheathed his sword and stood waiting at the back of the room until the ritual was over. Once it was over and the people looked like they were preparing to finish, he spoke up.

"What ho, fellow pyramid dwellers," he tried in Common.

The stout figure rounded on him and said something that he did not understand.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. I am a lost traveller who found his way in here."

The stout figure replied in Common this time, "Why do you wear the mask of Gorm then?"

Broneslav took off the mask, "This? I found it in the tier above."

The thirteen figures relaxed a little at this. Broneslav was soon able to explain that he was lost and found his way into the pyramid after a sandstorm. He inadvertently mentioned the men he had slain who wore the mask he had been wearing and the atmosphere in the room became decidedly more welcoming.

"Welcome to the chamber of the Magi of Usamigaras," declared the stout figure, "I am Auriga Sirkinos, leader of the Magi. It seems to me that your footsteps have been guided here by Usamigaras himself. If you, doughty warrior that you are, will pledge yourself as an initiate of Usamigaras, then we shall pledge to help you. Your aid as an initiate can surely help us lead Cynidicea back to greatness, even though you are only a warrior, and not a great mage like we are."

Broneslav accepted the suggestion to become an initiate.

Auriga explained that Usamigaras was the god of healing, messengers and thieves and that the Magi were the only ones capable of restoring Cynidicea's greatness. The Brotherhood of Gorm were all slow-witted warriors, while the Warrior Maidens of Madarua were all too soft to do what needed to be done. He also explained that Broneslav would need stop wearing his golden mask and that an apprentice Magus would return with a silver ring to mark his pledge to the cause. Broneslav should rest in the Magi's quarters while the apprentice ran the errand. This would take half a day, they said.

Seeing no alternative, and thinking that a good sleep would really help, Broneslav acquiesced and went along with their plans. Soon he was snoring away on a bunk bed in the Magi's dormitory on this level.

2 Yarthmont - A Statuesque Conundrum

Broneslav strode over to the door of the storage room and listened at it. His exceptional hearing picked out nothing on the other side. He eased the door open and peeked through. The corridor beyond was dark, lit only by his own torch. He stepped through and followed it a short way to a T-junction. To his left, the light of his torch glittered off an 8' tall statue of a winged child with two snakes twined around its body. In one hand, the statue held a wand, while the other had been carved holding a few coins. Broneslav noticed that the wand was shinier than the rest of the statue, suggesting that it was touched or polished by whoever lived here. He wondered who this statue was meant to represent.

To his right, Broneslav could see that the the short corridor ended in a door. Beside the door was a button with a squiggly symbol carved above it. The young warrior thought quickly. The door was the obvious way out, but the statue showed signs of use. He would check it first before leaving via the door.

With quick, panther-like strides Broneslav approached the statue and studied it. The wand was the obvious part to check. It had clearly been handled more than any other part, so he checked it carefully. On looking closely at it, Broneslav could see that it was hinged at the wrist of the statue, indicating that it could possibly be turned both sunwise and widdershins. The question was: which way? Looking more closely, he could see no clues, so he was just going to have to try and see. Sunwise was usually lucky, so he took hold and pulled. The wand moved easily.

Suddenly clouds of choking gas started pouring out of the statue's mouth. Broneslav sprinted back away from the statue and towards the storeroom. He held his breath as he did so, and only breathed out when the door was safely shut behind him. Panting, he sat on the floor with his back to the door and collected his thoughts. Should he wait and see if the gas cleared? His one brief breath of it had left him choking, so going in while it was still there was not really an option. That said, he could try holding his breath long enough to get to the door he had seen, but he had not idea what was on the other side. That could leave him both fighting for his life and out of breath. The final option was to return through the secret door and see where the corridor led.

Broneslav decided to wait (the first option scored higher on a die roll than the other two by enough to make it a clear choice despite the danger). He needed a rest anyway, so waiting was less of an issue, and it would probably be good to grab food and a drink while he was in a room replete with both. He blocked both the doors with crates and settled down to a good meal of what appeared to be dried mushrooms and some other preserved vegetable matter. The wine helped a lot though. That was a decent drink, although it too carried a slightly strange aftertaste.

2 Yarthmont - Delving deeper

Faced with the prospect of returning to the surface or delving deeper in the hope of finding better help, Broneslav chooses to venture deeper into the pyramid. He returned to the stairs he had found earlier in his explorations, reasoning that the man who escaped might be waiting below the trapdoor in the room he had found.

The stairs down ended in a door. Broneslav paused and listened before opening it. Beyond lay a corridor which he followed around a corner. The wall on his left at this point looked slightly odd to him (hard spot check succeeded), and there were scuff marks on the floor that made it look as though people had been walking through the wall. Broneslav tested the wall and eventually found a stone that pushed in. A section of the wall then swung inwards and he could see into a storage room packed with barrels and crates.

Broneslav's eye was drawn to four large beetles that were gnawing at the wood of several of the barrels. There was obviously something in the barrels that the beetles wanted, so maybe there was something for Broneslav in there too. He stepped forward, sword drawn. As he did so, the beetles turned to face this threat. Broneslav leapt towards the beetles. His sword flashed like lightning as he cleaved two beetles in quick succession, and kicked a third into the wall. The injured beetle and its one remaining mate raised their hind ends and noxious oil sprayed towards Broneslav. Our hero was too fast though. He stepped aside, whirling past the spatter of oil to impale the the uninjured beetle on his sword. As he did so, the injured beetle expressed its displeasure by covering Broneslav in a caustic oil (1 DAM plus -2 penalty on all actions until the burns are healed). He responded in kind by stamping on its head. As the beetle twitched its last on the floor, Broneslav poured the contents of his waterskin over his burns in a bid to dilute the caustic oil, and bandaged his now blistered skin (Healed 1 DAM).

With this done, he had time to take stock of his surroundings and to investigate. The crates and barrels were full of wine and dried food. Broneslav replaced the fresh food in his pack with dried rations and refilled his waterskin with wine. With this done, he had a choice. He could return to the corridor and follow it further along, or he could leave the room via the only door which lay opposite the secret door he had entered by.