| Dean and the others left the grove in late afternoon when the Mist-rainbow Bridge appeared once again and headed north toward the cave that Jemerall had told them about. The cave was about two days travel. The first night Dean set the magic alarm again, just in case. The night went by with out incident. The travel on the second day however the group saw something that seemed to be following them. Danyelle doubled back to check out what it was. It turned out to be Suzara
who was following us against her father’s wishes. The troupe arrived at the cave about late afternoon. A lake spread out in front of the entrance and they had to walk around. Dean and the others, except Suzara
, entered the cave. Part way into the entrance was covered ankle deep in some sort of smelly substance, and the walls and ceiling seemed to ripple and move. Dean cast a spell to shed light and Danyelle drew his sword, which he had received from a ghost after speaking with the king, which shed light also. It was soon discovered why the ceiling was moving. BATS! The bats started to fall from the ceiling like rain and before Dean knew what was happening he was being ripped and clawed by hundreds of tiny teeth and claw. Everyone else had dropped to the ground. So that’s what that substance was it was bat guano. Dean was finally able to dive to the ground, face first in the guano. He rolled over on his back and let loose a ball of fire toward the ceiling, to distract the bats, so that everyone would have a chance to get to the back of the cave. Dean had also gathered up a bag full of the guano, as it was very helpful in both Alchemy and magic. As the group neared the back of the cave they noticed a change in the structure, where the front was natural, the back was constructed. The passage ended in a stone door that Dean saw was imbued with magic. The troupe then sat wondering how to open the door when Danyelle spoke up. “Hey, doesn’t guano catch fire?” Of course that was it. So Dean set Jerick to chipping out the door and sent Danyelle back to get another sack of guano, as Dean set about rolling a piece of his parchment tightly. Dean then packed the portion Jerick had chipped out of the center of the door tight with the guano and inserted the rolled parchment in the middle; Jerick lit a tinder twig and set the parchment alight. The group ran down the hall and waited. Then all of the sudden a large BOOOOM sounded along with a crashing. The party then walked back down the corridor and sure enough the door had split in two. The group entered the room beyond to find…no one. The room had extravagant furnishings and two doors. The group moved into the room and split into two groups Alawan and Dean on one door and Jerick and Danyelle on the other door. Danyelle opened one of the doors, that was locked, through the skills he had learned on the street, but when he went to open the other he was pricked by a small needle that popped out of the handle. Everyone set about exploring the surroundings. Dean was looking down the set of stairs when he heard a creaking noise. A few seconds later he saw some shadows on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. “Um, guys there’s something down those stairs.” He said. Sure enough three dark elves were coming up the stairs the next time Dean looked. A great battle ensued, in which Alawan was charmed, and Dean was suggested to stop fighting. Finally, Dean regained his wits, as Jerick held them at bay with a holy symbol of Aesia, and began to march the dark elves back down the stairs. Dean snatched Danyelle’s wand from his belt and started using its magic to shoot missiles at the elves while Danyelle chopped them with his sword. After the battle was over Dean set about exploring the rest of the place. He found that the Dark elves were actually vampires; the coffins were at the bottom of the stairs. Dean also discovered a chest of money and gems with a letter stating that Elana had been taken through a portal to a place called Atma. In the other room was the portal. It was horrifying, made out of skulls and bones, with some sort of strange writing on it, which was not magical. The group left the cave to seek help from either Jemerall or Aranor. The bats seemed to be calm on their way out, as they were no longer under the control of the vampires. Suzara
was waiting out side with a cure for the poison that had been inflicted on Danyelle, who had also been grievously injured during the battle. The party then set of back to Demerol’s grove. |
