Adnar’kerz 5

Not quite fully healed, [HP: 97/121], but good enough to get back to it. According to the quest, we’re not quite half done. I’m not sure what more we have, though. Orcs and kobolds for certain, but what are the other four?

----

The next cave entrance was surrounded by twisted and bloated trees that partially obscured it. The growth did not look entirely natural, it had the look of magically assisted growth. The tunnel was unusual as well, with veins of black and red strata tracing the walls. There was an almost palpable feeling of evil in the air as they walked down the short tunnel.

It opened up into a large hall, well decorated with tapestries of apes & bananas and other small items on the walls. Across the room was a setback entranceway with double doors. In the middle of the room was a large wooden table with a few chairs around it. One chair was occupied by a large ape-like creature talking to two other ape-like creatures standing nearby. They were proportioned like humanoids, not apes. All three were wearing jade necklaces and loincloths. They even had swords hanging from the hip. One of the standing ape-men had a pair of leashes that led to two feral looking apes that were smaller than the ape-men, but just about the same size and shape as a normal ape.

One of the standing ape-men noticed us as we noticed them, and interrupted the speaker. “Visitors! Chawinga, we have visitors.”

The seated ape rose to his feet, baring his fangs. His gaze went to the openly carried weapons each bore and the smile faded away. “Welcome to the Shrine of the Ape Gawd, visitors. Are you worshippers?”

Duromar hesitated. “Do we need to be?” He brought himself a little closer, for the likely moment when hostilities broke out.

“Not yet. Why don’t you come in, and I can summon a shaman to meet with you.” He gestured to the far end of the hall, where another tunnel was visible. “Nando, would you go alert Agor that we have guests?”

At the word alert, Torendrock suddenly moved to attack, interpreting it as a signal to call for backup. On edge, Duromar actually managed to bring his swords up faster and struck twice [-26] taking down [-26] the apparent leader. The ape handler dropped the leads and gave a command that was unquestionably ‘Attack!’, as they did so immediately. The handler and the other ape-man clawed at Duromar to no effect, but there was an ugly cry of pain from Torendrock when the apes clawed at him. A spray of blood fountained from his abdomen, and he toppled to the ground, dropping his shield and weapon along the way. The two apes had been well trained, because they immediately switched to attacking Duromar, and one managed to bite him [Crit! Severity 11, Forearm, -7 dam, +116 E.P., +11 honor] hard enough he nearly dropped his weapon. He was almost certain it was the same one that had taken Torendrock down. He turned on that ape next [-19] and [-18] took it out. While he did so, Torendrock pulled out a potion of some sort and drank it down. With the apparently dangerous one down, the others failed to land any more blows. He then took out the one named Nando [-26] before he remembered [-25] he was supposed to go get help. Back on his feet again, Torendrock rejoined the fight.

Duromar took down the last ape warrior [-34], leaving just one final ape. It was putting up a fantastic fight against the dwarf, successfully biting and clawing through his plate mail armor, but he was chopping it even more successfully. Unfortunately, it seemed the battle had been loud enough to echo down the halls and summon more opponents, as a troop of eight creatures came into the hall from the distant tunnel. At first glance, they appeared to be half-orc and half-ape, some kind of crossbreeding of the two. At second glance, they were almost certainly that. While they charged across the room, he killed the final ape [-25], then sliced the [-19] leading simian orc as it reached him. They spread out around the two, wildly swinging battle axes. One slipped behind him and hit hard [-19 dam]. [Hackfrenzy! You must inflict 20 damage to others to end it.]

A red film seemed to cover his vision, and he turned on the one who had hurt him. In his rage, he fumbled and swung a blade too close to himself, slicing through his own belt and dropping his belt and scabbards to the ground. His second blade struck home [-17] but not hard enough to quell his anger. The next blow did [-14] not kill the orc, but the blow after that [Crit! Severity 17, Shoulder, -58, +1 honor] cut through all three of the injured orcs facing him. Coming out of the rage, he could see Torendrock had suffered several attacks and was in serious need of some help. He took out the final one in front of himself [-15] and then distracted one attacking [-23] the dwarf. With only three left, Duromar was starting to feel some relief that it would be over soon.

It was at that moment that a dozen more simian orc entered the room, led by a pair of ape warriors.

“12 more! Withdraw!”

Not wanting to be cut down as they ran, they tried to finish the three nearby before the others could get close. It didn’t work that well, as only one went down [-19] to the weak [-14] attacks. With just a few seconds, he tried again, and only one more went down [-13] to equally weak [-20] attacks. They pulled back to the entranceway, the final orc of the first group slipping a blow past the dwarf’s shield and hacking into him again as the next dozen crowded around them. The fresh orcs pressed them back further into the tunnel even as they took blows [-16] that didn’t [-18] take any down. Two went down [-28] as they [-15] stepped back again, now ten feet away from the hall. No more than two could reach them now, and [-19] another [-14] went down, then [-17] another [-21] one, one from the dwarf went down, another [-18] went [-20] down, one [-21] more [-13] down. There were half a dozen still pushing them back, but they were out in the sunlight now. The orcs flinched at the sunlight and with one final [-17] attack [Crit! Severity 24, Thigh, -58, +1 honor] that took out three at once, Duromar held his ground, letting Torendrock step back again as he took yet another wound. He could feel the fatigue from the long fight washing over him, but there were only three orcs left now. He fought off the weariness that was sapping his strength, and [-28] took out [-19] one more. He struck down the penultimate [-14], but his left arm, [Fumble!] perhaps weakened from the earlier critical hit, betrayed him and the sword dropped at his feet. He summoned up one last attack [-14] and the pile of orcs grew larger by one. [+3570 E.P., +3 honor]

They kept backing slowly down the trail, but nothing pursued them. A hundred yards from the cave opening they stopped and bound wounds while keeping a close watch out. Still, nothing came for them.

Torendrock muttered quietly, “Thought they had me there for a moment, I truly did.”

It was still early morning, and with the entire day to travel, even at Torendrock’s slow pace, they could be back to the keep before the gates closed. With no argument at all, they packed camp and did so.

----

That was brutal. Arrogance could have killed us both. If they hadn’t let us go…

P.S. [Damage: 609 E.P.] & [MVP: 1838 E.P.] Not sure I deserve that today. [Converting 16 honor to 4 Honor] Really don’t feel like I earned that today, but surviving to fight another day without fleeing, that’s still honorable I guess.

P.P.S. And that’s enough to level again.

----

Adnar’kerz 6

We’ve accumulated a rather large pile of treasure, so it’s time to sell. I claimed the 2H sword, and Torendrock claimed the scroll of spells. Might be about equal in value, I guess. Not worried about the exact value, though.

I found myself really missing the ability to cast fireball yesterday. Not that I’ve ever actually cast one outside of a game, but more than just that I loved the challenge of playing a wizard, it was that not having one around sucked.

Dediur can fix the minor damage to the armor today, so I’ll be able to take it with me tomorrow.

----

Knowing about the issue with gold coins, Duromar insisted on everything being paid for in gems, instead. There was grumbling about that, as it was clear that all the merchants had counterfeit coins they were trying to unload as well.

Despite this, when the pair of sellers didn’t haggle as hard as they could have, there were smiles when everything was done.

Keven was healed up. He was talking to other adventurers in the keep and trying to get together a traditional party. He’d visited the temple again and talked to the other acolyte, who was very keen on getting out into the world. Plus, one of the prisoners rescued from the bugbears turned out to be an apprentice wizard and he hadn’t even been frightened off of adventuring from that experience. They’d probably need a thief but were still looking for one.

They spent the evening in the tavern, and Duromar showed off his new forearm scar [+2 honor], bragging about taking on so many at once.

----

I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock, but selling the treasure put Torendrock over the top, and so we’re both heading to the kobar again. Classes start on the 8th, so I’m renting a horse to get Torendrock there on time. We simply don’t have two days to travel.

P.S. [Treasure: +3908 E.P.] It was a really good haul.

----

Adnar’kerz 8

We have sworn an oath never to speak of yesterday’s events. And the next bastard that tries to sell me a dwarven warhorse dies horribly. I have decided to posthumously name the vicious brute Noodle. For reasons.

School starts today, yay.

----

Adnar’kerz 15

School finished [+2 honor] yesterday for me, Torendrock is going for a second week. Today I need to go shopping, try to find a matching sword to go with the magic one I now have. Unlikely, but worth the attempt. Also, I need to replace my belt and scabbards.

----

Yeah, no luck. Sounds like I’d have to actually find a wizard willing to make one for me. Not sure how to go about that, honestly. I think I’ll save that for another day. I did learn something useful about the Ape Gawd. Bluntly, he’s evil. Mostly expected that but it’s good to know.

P.S. [Converting 4 honor to 1 Honor]

----

Adnar’kerz 16

Duromar ran. He was within half a mile of the keep when he turned and ran down the mining trail instead. It had been eleven days since the aborted attempt to clear out the ape shrine. But they hadn’t retreated because Duromar thought his life was at risk. No, it was Torendrock who had gotten unlucky, several times.

With that in mind, he didn’t want to risk anyone else in the shrine. Especially Keven, who wasn’t nearly as tough as Torendrock. So this was now a job for him alone.

An hour later, he arrived at the box valley of the mines. Nothing significant had changed on the outside. He considered checking the gnolls’ area first but dropped that idea quickly. While he was confident he could take on the gnolls, if any remained, he wasn’t sure he could do it without injury, and that put the task of clearing out the ape shrine at risk.

He crept quietly down the disturbing tunnel and peered into the entrance hall. All the bodies had been cleared out, and the room stood empty today. The double doors probably led into the chapel proper, so that could be saved for later. The side passage was more interesting. It branched into thirds, one passage, thanks to his new skill in mining, he knew had collapsed due to instability. Another led to a small lecture room, empty. The third led to a mess hall and from the voices, it was occupied.

Weighing the odds, he charged in. It was three of the large ape-men, not the orcs. One of the three yelled out “Halt!” and he did, halfway across the room. The second of the three charged at him instead, swinging a very painful looking club studded with obsidian chips. It missed every time since he’d only been commanded to halt, and not to be defenseless. The other two stayed back, leading him to suspect they were both shamans, not warriors. He attacked that warrior once [-24] before another command rang out “Flee!” but he resisted this one, hitting him again [-25] without dropping him. One of the two shamans fled into another room, perhaps the kitchen, but the other moved up to assist. He cut through the warrior [-28] and then hit the shaman as well [-25] taking both down.

Duromar headed into the kitchen, which was relatively neat and clean. There was the distinct pleasant odor of banana bread in the air as well. It was otherwise empty. Just to the side was a door, leading to a pantry. It was the only other exit from the room. He tried to push the door open, but something was blocking it from opening. Summoning up muscle, he hurled the door open. Crates of bananas scattered everywhere, and standing in the middle of the small room was the ape-man, holding a scroll of some sort and beginning to read from it. He leaped forward, striking [-32] twice [-32] before the spell could be cast. [+651 E.P., +1 honor]

He found another scroll tucked in the pouches on his belt, plus a potion and some pretty rocks. Two keys, as well. Back in the mess hall, he searched the other two, finding one key apiece. He dragged the bodies into the pantry, then, noticing the door locked, tried the keys until one locked it.

Through the small lecture hall was another tunnel that led to a corridor of doors. The first door led to a two-person room. Using his new looting skill, he tossed the room in record time. Under each of the two cots was a locked chest, but he already had the keys. One was empty of anything valuable, but the other had a few stones and another scroll.

The room across the hall also had a small locked chest, with some gold and silver in it. The remaining six rooms on the hall were empty, with half looking like they were unused, and the other half simply had nothing of value.

He retraced his path back to the entranceway. The hallways were silent, in a rather ominous way. Through the double doors, instead of an ornate chapel, it was a hallway, a very long one that ran hundreds of feet before going around a corner. Just in front of him though, was a door.

There was boisterous noise coming from behind it, sounding exactly like orcs having fun. He threw the door open and rushed in, trying to surprise them. It worked well, letting [-16] him [-18] cut [-16] down one and then [Crit! Severity 20, Shoulder, -59, +1 honor] two at once. By then they were up and moving, but he kept going [-17] on [-13] another. One hit [-9 dam], but that was to be expected when surrounded. With two swings [-17] there [-17] were only three left. Two [-21] more [-19] left two. Then [-14] there [-17] was one.

As he turned to cut down the last, eight more orcs came rushing in through the door.

Duromar felt a cold chill. He wasn’t near an exit anymore. He cut down [-16] the last [-13] just in time to be surrounded by the new horde. His first blows [-18] weren’t [-16] enough. He got lucky, though. He caught sight of a stab from the rear that should have landed and blocked it [-29] with interest. Following that, he [-17] took down [-15] two at once. Which was good, as [-10 dam] two [-14 dam] more struck him. He attacked one of them, taking [-14] him [-21] down. The next [-21] was tougher [-17], but just four were left [-12 dam] when he was hit again. Feeling the onset of fatigue, he [Fumble!] hit himself [-13 dam] before taking another [-17] down, but got hit [-10 dam] again. [Hackfrenzy! You must inflict 18 damage to others to end it.]

The next blow [-20] was enough to dismiss the frenzy but failed to finish that orc off. With three left, one was always at his back [-9 dam] and hits were inevitable. That ended with a hit [-14] as the fatigue set in hard. He fought through it, leaving [-14] just [-21] one orc up. And then [-13] there [-25] were none. [+2016 E.P., +2 honor]

Duromar strongly considered retreat. [HP: 63/140] But, no. Not yet.

Searching the room turned up silver coins, but not a single gold. Weapons, but nothing he wanted. Armor, one set of which was actually his size, but it was rusted. Counting the beds, there were forty. If he was right, he’d encountered thirty-six orcs so far. So, probably four more.

He took a short rest to allow the regeneration to deal with his fatigue, then continued.

Down the hallway, he went. Less than halfway, there was a cleverly hidden side tunnel with a small room at the end. There were two ape-men in the room, but they were kneeling down with their backs to Duromar. He crept along the passage, trying to surprise them. He got close enough to see they were working on making weapons just before he struck at the first one, [Crit! Severity 24, Neck, -114, +1 honor] decapitating both of them with a single blow. [+567 E.P.]

“Huh. Magic sword for the win.”

There was a door in that room that led to stairs going down. He closed the door, following his careful policy of clearing every floor before going down. Back to the long hallway, it took an angled dogleg before ending in a large temple chamber. There was a door to the side just before the temple proper, though. He argued with himself silently for a moment, then threw the door open and rushed in.

The room was long and narrow. Halfway down the room was a table, with three of the ape-men sitting around it. He made it to the fancier dressed ape before they could react. The fancy one panicked and tried to run, giving him two free attacks [-30], which were [-43] devastating. The warriors rushed to flank him, but couldn’t land a blow. He focused on one of them and [-22] took him [-29] apart. Perhaps it was the ape rage that helped, but then [Crit! Severity 3, Upper Arm, -13 dam, +32 E.P., +3 honor] a hard blow made it through. At the same time, some low growling sound came from behind him as [-3 dam] something [-4 dam] else [-3 dam] started [-6 dam] attacking. [Hackfrenzy! You must inflict 28 damage to others to end it.]

He finished the ape with a single blow [-24] and turned to face the beasts behind him, guessing them to be dire hounds or the like. He struck one [-14] as they came at him again. One went down [-19], but the other [-28] fought on. It snapped at him, but with his focus on it, it did not get through his defense and he hit it [-27] again. [+929 E.P., +1 honor]

He backed off and stayed ready. Unlike the gnolls, the temple guards here had been consistently paying attention, so he was more than half expecting another group to attack him any second now.

After a few minutes of nothing more happening, he went and closed the door, then looted the room, as quietly as possible. Unsurprisingly, the best gear was on the hooded ape and included the hood, which he suspected was magical.

Afterward, Duromar went out the second exit and found himself in the actual temple. There was an altar, with valuable looking goblets, a bowl, and a pitcher. Getting closer though gave such a sense of deeply palpable evil from them that he didn’t even want to touch them. There was one other tunnel exit from the temple, leading to a small room.

In that room was a glass case housing the skull of an ape, flanked by two standing corpses. Zombies, maybe. They didn’t move, until he stepped foot in the room, then both started at the same time, lumbering towards him. Overconfident as always, he surged to the attack [-26] and [-28] cut one down. The other swung at him like a wrecking ball, slow but deadly if it connected. He slashed at that one [-24] and [-32] cut it down too. [+1365 E.P.]

There was one final door, behind which was the skeleton of an ape. Entering the room did not bring it to unlife, so Duromar assumed it to be an ordinary skeleton. The room was otherwise empty.

With the first level clear, he headed to the stairs and went down. The stairs went down what felt like more than one floor, and finally opened into a huge chamber with a thirty-foot arched ceiling. As he stepped in, numerous candles set around a throne on the far side of the room lit up. The throne was set with four large gemstones but was otherwise plain. On the sidewalls of the chamber were large standing skeletons, clad in ragged armor and holding weapons. They did not animate when he stepped into the room.

He waited. The room stayed still as death.

“Yeah, I know how this works. The second I touch the throne, all four of you jump me. Not smart enough to flank, thankfully. But skeletons take half damage from slashing, so… ugh. Half of three dee six plus sixteen is, uh, like, thirteen I think, on average. But the hammer only does one dee six plus six, so that’s about nine. And two swords beats one hammer. Yeah, what was I thinking, these are always the best weapons!”

He strode across the room, watching closely. When he reached the dais, he turned and kept his eyes on all of them, then carefully stepped backward. As expected, all four suddenly came to unlife and started toward him.

He rushed to one side, trying to take one down before they could attack. He hit, but [-12] the [-14] blows were weak as expected. The first two swung as him, faster than a zombie but not quite as hard. He struck again [-14] and got a decent result [-23] taking one down. Three came at him, but by ducking and weaving not only did none strike him, one hit another with a bone-crushing smash. He struck at that one and [-15] it took very little to finish smashing it. Still, with two left and another weak blow [-10] he had to pay attention. Working on the same one [-11] left bone dust [-11] everywhere, but both still functioned. Once more [-14] and one was left [-10] with some minor damage. Confident, he stepped right into [Crit! Severity 3, Hand, -3 dam, +32 E.P., +3 honor] pain. It was [-18] soon [-15] over. [+2730 E.P., +1 honor]

The gemstones looked real enough with a close examination and popped out easily with a little leverage from a blade.

In the far corners were tunnels that led to crypts. He idly walked down the passage noting that some had empty slabs, some held corpses and that one had leapt up and was attacking him.

It wasn’t an ape zombie nor an ape skeleton, so it was likely an undead with level drain. He swung first, [-14], desperately, [Crit! Severity 17, Forearm, -40, +1 honor] and it crumpled. [+3150 E.P., +1]

Precision Cutting: +525 E.P.

MInes of Chaos: 6 of 11 regions cleared

Ogre (1/1) Goblins (196/196) Owlbear (1/1) Bugbears (39/39) Trolls (2/2) & Gnolls (60/90) Simians (49/53)

[+5 honor]

“Ok. Now I’m done. Done done done done done.”

The quest still listed four simians, so he walked with some care on the way out. But the halls were quiet, and soon enough, he was headed to the keep.

----

I really don’t want to know what that thing was at the end. Probably something with a hideous attack. But I’ll take lucky any day.

Armor is messed up again. This is getting tiresome. I need magic self-healing armor. But, I’ll get it fixed again.

P.S. [Damage: 1197 E.P.] Dang that was a lot.

P.P.S. [Converting 20 honor to 5 Honor] was followed by [Exceeded Great Honor, reached Too Much Honor]. That.. doesn’t sound great?

P.P.P.S. I think I figured it out. My E.P. has lost the +5% bonus. Am I supposed to do dishonorable things now? I did notice that giving things away was a loss of honor. Or I could ignore it and try to go up another level, that should help.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Name: Duromar

Race: Half-Ogre

Class: Barbarian

Level: 5

Next Level: 80001 E.P.

Sex: Male

Alignment: CN

E.P.: 65361

Str: 25/10

Dex: 22/94

Con: 20/53

Int: 7/52

Wis: 10/49

Cha: 6/49

Com: 3/21

Hon: 61

Fame: 31

AC

Hacking

Puncturing

Crushing

Front

-11

-9

-7

Flank or Rear

3

5

7

HP: 140 (½ vs. crushing)

Move: 16”

Reaction: +7

ToP: 70

FF: 10

Fatigue Check: 15

Weapon

Spd/RoF

Atk

S

M

L

BSL

2H Sword +2

-2

+10

d6+8

d10+12

3d6+17

11

2H Sword

-3

+9

d6+6

d10+12

3d6+16

10

Longbow

2

+3

d8+8

d8+8

d8+8

4

Flaws: HackFrenzy, Jerk, Loud Boor, Obnoxious, Self Absorbed, Socially Awkward, Value Privacy, Armor Prejudice: Elven Chain Mail, Armor Snobbery, Weapon Prejudice (2H Sword)

Scars: Lower Left Side, Lower Right Side, Left Forearm

Special: Infravision 30’, Racial hit penalties, Climb cliff & trees 70%, Hide in nature 35%, Surprise 5in10/6in10, Surprised 1in10/1in20, Back Protection 25%, Leaping and Springing, Detect Illusion 25%, Detect Magic 45%

STP: WP 2H Sword, WP Quickdraw 2H Sword, WP Advanced Two-Weapon Fighting, WP Lucerne Hammer, WP Longbow, Armor Maintenance, Weapon Maintenance, Looting (basic) 61%, Looting (advanced) 18%, Mining 20%, Rope Use 28%, Haggle 21%, Angawa Battle Cry 22%, Dirty Fighting 18%, Eye Gouge 29%, Pimp Slap 29%, Cricket-in-the-pea-pod 53%, Jugular Swipe 28%, Survival (underground) 23%, Holistic First Aid 17%, Outdoor Craft 16%, Tracking 56%, Wilderness Running 30%

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Name: Torendrock Oakaxe

Race: Dwarf

Class: Fighter

Level: 4

Next Level: 18001 E.P.

Sex: Male

Alignment: CN

E.P.(+15%): 9346

Str: 18/06

Dex: 9/56

Con: 20/73

Int: 12/18

Wis: 14/72

Cha: 10/22

Com: 6/84

Hon: 40

Fame: 16

AC

Hacking

Puncturing

Crushing

Missile Attack

Front

-6

-4

-3

-6

Flank or Rear

-2

0

1

0

HP: 79

Move: 4.5”

Reaction: +0

ToP: 39

FF: 10

Fatigue Check: 17

Weapon

Spd

Atk

S/M/L

BSL

+1 Battleaxe

+2

+5

2d4+7

5

Flaws: Strange body odor, Stutter

Special: 60ft Infravision, Racial hit bonuses, Stonecunning

STP: WP Battleaxe, WP Specialization Battleaxe, WP handaxe, WP short sword, [Open WP], Armor Maintenance, Weapon Maintenance, First Aid Skill Suite 17%, Basic Looting 18%, Gaming 19%, Haggle 58%, Dirty Fighting, Eye Gouge 16%, Cricket-in-the-pea-pod 39%, Axe Bonus