Melissa lay on her back, cautiously cataloging her appendages and finding she does indeed have the same number of arms, legs, wings and heads that she had this morning and they all appear to be in the correct place and orientation.
"I need a drink." she says at last, not moving. "Did we loot anything alcoholic?"

“Look, look Beardy One! Travel seller happy to see Kade this time!” Shining the rich gold glow towards the dwarf.

His discovery seems to gave woken him up some.



“Oil!” shouts a happy voice from the room next door. After consideration : “Dead juice!” accompanied by half of a tanned, blond halfling peering out of the door frame... with a smile of sudden recognition.

“Insect Girl back! Green One is genius!” That last one towards Dypfri.

Still cradling the wounded fairy in the palms of her hands, Thea smiles and says, "You gave us a good and proper scare there, my friend."  After a pause, she asks, "Will you be able to fly, or does one of us need to give you a lift for the moment?"

While waiting for the fairy's response, and as the others check through what they can take with them from the room, the young human mage will turn her Wizard Sight as she can, and as needed, toward the boots and other goods to determine if anything her companions choose to take has any magical dweomer. She can't really do anything else at the moment in terms of spellcasting, but it makes her feel slightly better to know that she is contributing, even if only in the smallest of ways.

OOC: casting Detect Magic as much as she is able under the given circumstances

Thea senses magic coming from the chest that Biror opened, but its not coming from the cloak or boots. Weird.

OOC: Updated for clarity.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:09, Sat 08 July 2023.

OOC: you mean the box that Kade opened, right?

OOC: No, the chest that Biror opened that had the cloak and boots.

A look of slight confusion appears on the young wizard's face.  "Biror, the cloak and boots there have no enchantment on them as far as I can discern," Thea says, "but the chest itself appears to be some sort of magical construct."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 15:26, Sat 08 July 2023.

Choosing to disregard what the halfling is saying, Biror investigates further the chest. He looks at any decoration, and checks if there is a hidden compartment or a false bottom in it.

Biror investigates the chest, but can't find and sort of hidden compartments.

Thea senses that the chest itself is not magical, but there is something in the chest that is giving off magical energy.


11:59, Today: GM, on behalf of Biror, rolled 3 with the Tunnels & Trolls, Saving Throws system.  L1 SR IQ13.

Walking over toward Biror so that she may examine the chest more thoroughly, after a moment's consideration Thea says, "My apologies, I was somewhat in error.  I can now see that the chest itself isn't magical, but rather that there is something inside the chest that rather is giving off some sort of magical aura."  She will then look even closer, trying to see if the cause is some small object inside that has not yet been dislodges, or failing that, getting a sense of where in the chest whatever invisible object would be, describing to Biror what she senses as she does so.

“Not rest *here*?” asks Kade with his usual explicative gestures. “Safe-safe here, Pretty One... Safest! Even us cannot get out!”

The greatest of arguments.

Guided by her magical senses, Thea examines the interior of the chest. She spots a tiny concealed latch on the bottom. Pushing on it, a portion of the floor of the chest lifts out to reveal a hidden compartment. Inside is a leather bound book with a ring sitting on top. The ring emanates magic. Thea examines the book and finds it contains details needed to learn several spells - an incredibly valuable prize!

OOC: The spell book contains all 10 second level spells. Each spell caster (wizard and rogue) of the appropriate level may attempt to learn each spell once in a place of safety using the Teacher method described in the House Rules thread.

09:25, Today: GM, on behalf of Thea Schreiber, rolled 8 with the Tunnels & Trolls, Saving Throws system.  L1SR LK17.

"Is it a spell book? If so, that's what I call a score. Nice work!" Slattery enthuses. The rogue seems very happy at the possibility of seeing a spell book.

Upon studying the tome, Thea's face starts off with a cautious look, which gives way to open astonishment upon realizing what she holds in her hands, muttering softly a few choice expletives in Elvish as she does so.



"It is indeed," she responds to Slattery's query.  "And a valuable one for us, at that... at least for us spellcasters, although that means we can better aid the men-at-arms among us as well, once we have had a chance to study through it properly.  All eleven of the most common Enchantments of the Second Rank, the ones you can learn from the Wizards' Guild, for their usual fee.  I strongly suggest we make our way back to Dunnold where we can do so, as well as rest and recovery, and sell off what treasures we have managed to acquire."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:51, Tue 18 July 2023.

While the others ooh and ahhh over a pile of square leaves with black squiggles on them, Kade casually scoops up the golden ring and tries it on for size.

OOC: Any effects?

Kade slips on the ring and vanishes.

"Nice trick, that one," Drypfri says as we enters the room. "Invisibility rings can be handy." The wizard walks by Kade and pats him on the head. "Against most at least."

"Anyway, I'm feeling better now and can help you out with those items you found. Let' have a look."

Drypfri spends some time examining the items and reports on their uses:

Invisibility ring - makes the user invisible once per day for a number of turns equal to Luck.
Enchanted robe - takes 10 hits of physical or magical damage
Amulet - deflects 1st level spells
Enchanted dagger 3D+5
Headband - increases IQ by 1 (this was in the jewelry case from the hidden compartment in the large idol)

You also take a moment to look in the pouch you found the in the large idol and find it is stuffed with an assortment of 20 average sized jewels.

"That's quite the haul," Drypfri says sounding mildly impressed. "I believe I also agreed to teach you three spells. "After that, once I've rested a little more, I can send you all back to Dunnold for a bit of a rest."

Drypfri looks around expectantly.

"So, what'll it be?"

OOC: As a reminder, for a complete list of the treasure you've acquired, see the Experience and Treasure thread.

OOC: In terms of spells, current magic-using PCs are Thea (wizard), Slattery (rogue), and Biror (rogue). When you get back to Dunnold, Thea and Slattery will be 3rd level and Biror will be 2nd level. So you can learn up to 3rd level spells. You had originally intended to ask for Slush Yuck to fight the rock troll. Drypfri will only teach each spell once. Later you could try to use Teacher to spread the spells around.

"Can - hide good now!" pipes up an enthousiastic piece of empty air. "Who Dun? He very old?"

When it's explained to him: "NO. Can't go! Must find family!" Distress.

"Kade, wait" Thea says, to the halfling, "are you saying that your family is somewhere in this dungeon?"

The little warrior gives Thea a puzzled look – which nobody can see : "Horrible-Terrible monsters – three - took all family? Big-BIG. Bag on – on shoulder. Like this! One go down steps to *here*," stomp, stomp, stomp, "in big stony house thing. Dark. No see... Kade told all already?"

He's mimed the whole thing again, judging by the air-noises and his erratic changes in position.

OOC: As originally told in thrilling issue/post #126 </Unknown Editor :)>

Thea thought back, and now vaguely remembered that Kade had indeed spoken of this before - but at the time, between her mental exhaustion from her spellcasting and coming down from the adrenaline of the fight, combined with the halfling's word-salad speech pattern, she hadn't really processed and understood what he had been saying.

"Forgive me, Kade," the young mage says, "at the time I was somewhat... distracted.  If you want to stay and search for them, we won't stop you."

"But the rest of us need to rest and recover away from here, to train and improve ourselves so that we can better face what threats this dungeon holds when we return."

"If your family is still alive," she could think of no kinder way of saying that, "then they would have been captured for some purpose, and therefore will hopefully still be alive for some time to come.  If you are willing to wait a bit for us to do what we need to do, then we can return to this place together, having strength in numbers, and we would be better capable of facing whatever it was that took your family from you, and to rescue them from this place."

"Family ALIVE! Kade knows!" But then there's a bit of silence....

"How many Angry One down here? Kade could kill maybe three-four...?" And the Terrible Monster was veeery big...

"That doesn't sound like anything I've encountered on this level or the one below," Dryfri says. "If they went any deeper that's bad news. You wouldn't last long. Tell you what. You did me a favor, so I'll keep any eye out and let you know if I see anyone like you down there."

With just a few more reassuring words Kade is now fully onboard, adding his own oil to the fire: "Yes! Come back with MANY peoples! Strong like Big One! Smart-hard Beardy One-zes! Great bzz-woosh-burn-glowing!" He might or he might not be pointing at Melissa, Odhran and Thea.


Realization. "Oh. OH! And DOG - DOGS! Riding and smelling and finding! Kade bring back many-MANY, Green One, like home family. FIND home family. With noses near ground... Easy!"

Plan made, it's a happy Halfling that eventually reappears: sprawled out over most of the dead necromancer's bed, tangled-up in covers - and the expensive cloak too for some reason - , mouth open, already fully asleep...

And quiet...


OOC: Rest up and then start heading out?

"I suggest we we retreat to someplace safe - preferably away from the mass of rotting bodies," Thea says, "where Dryfri can teach us the aforementioned magic spells, and after that he can be on his way about his business."

"Yes, let's do that," Drypfri says. "I feel able to escort us back to my chamber."

Drypfri walks up to the portcullis that blocked the exit to the temple, touches one of the bars ad the entire thing disintegrates.

You make your way down the corridor, out the secret door and back to the south. As you walk down the halls, you occasionally get the sense that something is lurking beyond your torchlight, but then it passes.

Finally you make it to Drypfri's chamber where you can rest.

After some time Drypfri rises, looks your group over, and rubs his hands together.

"Now, let's get on with the payment. First, as a bonus, let's deal with your curse Slattery."

Dryfri looks at Slattery and mutters a few words. Slattery suddenly grows back to his original height.

"Try not to play cards with mysterious entities in the wasteland. Trust me, the game is rigged."

"Now for the spells. Once I teach them to you I will transport you back to Dunnold."

Drypfri spends time with Thea, Slattery, and Biror teaching the incantations necessary for the spells they have selected. It all seems so simple to you, it's a wonder the Wizard Guild charges so much.

"Now that our business is concluded, I wish you well."

With a wave of his hand everything gets blurry and you feel as though you are falling. In another moment you find yourself standing outside of Dunnold.

OOC: I'll work out total adventure points for each of you and tally up your total haul in treasure. Look for that in the OOC thread.