Aspirants of the Diamond Throne

The group decided to head south, crossing the two east west corridors and entering a room that was covered in rotting food and other detritus. A stairway, which had been covered in this gunge, rose into the darkness above them from the southeastern corner of the room. Ke-Herram attempted to see what was within by dragging his grappling hook along the floor of the chamber. He had hoped to snag something more interesting than the bones and furs that caught on its hooks. Migar threw a rock into the darkness beyond the range of their lamplight but failed to rouse any creature within. It was not until they entered the chamber and moved towards the stairs that their illumination revealed the presence of a fungal creature about twenty feet up the stairs themselves. It moved quickly to attack them with its six tentacles that sprayed out from beneath its purple cap. Voern managed to fire at it with his bow before the creature reached Ke-Herram wounding it slightly. Only one of the creatures tentacles struck the giant, but its rasping touch tore at his skin badly and he felt an awful burning sensation. The rest of the group then all laid blows or missiles on the creature and in fell dead before them.

Gingerly approaching the top of the stairs, the group saw that there was some illumination spilling down from above. Someone had attached a lamp to the wall of the corridor ahead. When Ke-Herram reached this light, a bolt sped out of the blackness beyond and struck him squarely in the shoulder. Salesat realised that they were exposed by the lamplight and, ignoring the opening to his left and the rubble to the right, he ran straight ahead towards the origin of the bolt. Voern, meanwhile, seeing the injury to his giant companion, channelled some of the power of the Green, knitting his wounds together somewhat. Salesat had reached a corridor, but opposite him was a five foot high wall that had been built from rubble. He could see the crossbow resting atop this wall and he knew that he had no time to waste. He scrambled over the wall and attacked the human he found there with his dagger. Perhaps it was his anger or the surprise of the human, but he fell dead with one blow.

The others approached this rough barricade and joined Salesat behind it. As they started searching the fallen human痴 body, Voern heard the approach of other people. Migar and Ke-herram just had the time to position themselves in front of the opening behind the barricade as five more humans arrived to see what had become of their comrade. The first two stayed within the corridor to ensure that they could not be outnumbered, both landing blows on Ke-Herram and Migar respectively. Realising that he was not effective from where he was, Salesat, again vaulted the barricade and circled around trying to come at the back of the attackers. Those in the second rank of the attackers were equipped with shortbows and they fired on the giant and the human, missing initially. Both of these failed in their next attacks and Migar then fell to the floor, bleeding, from a slash of the shortsword of one of his attackers. Two others then pressed this advantage, dropping their bows and pressing into the room beyond. Voern was injured in this rush. Luckily the enemy attacking Ke-Herram missed and the giant was able to land a heavy blow. Salesat had managed to get around behind their attackers and the last one dropped his bow to face the litorian. Voern also managed to slash his opponent and Salesat and Ke-Herram did the same, to no great effect. First Voern, then Ke-Herram fell to blows from the guards, just as Ke-Herram managed to kill the first of his opponents. Salesat also received his first injury, but he was now grossly out-numbered and had to change his tactics.

He ran. His attacker was somewhat surprised and failed to benefit from the opening that the litorian had left, seeing him disappear around the corner without further injury. Salesat was making for the narrow passage that they had been ambushed in earlier. There he used the cover from the rubble to ensure that only one of the guards could attack him at once. It was a slow process, all of the combatants� limbs were heavy from wielding their blades, but Salesat had the upper hand. He slew the first to come at him quickly, his blade neatly cutting in below the ribs of his assailant. By then the next two had arrived and jockeyed for position. Salesat didn稚 care which he faced, but was more concerned by the sight of the third, arming himself with a short bow again. He finished the next one with two cuts, but not before an arrow had shot through his left shoulder, spinning him off balance. But the human before him could not take advantage, and Salesat smell the fear rising off him and this gave him hope. The guard痴 desperation must have lent him an edge, for his short sword cut across the litorian痴 thigh as another arrow missed his head by inches. Salesat finished him off with a savage slash to his neck.

The litorian looked up, but the bowman was nowhere to be seen. He ran across the corridor and leapt the barrier for a third time, seeing no one, apart from those who were bleeding and helpless on the ground. Then he saw the blood of his last assailant down through the corridor and heading west. Salesat followed, knowing that if this guard raised the alarm, he could not stand against another foe. He ran around the corner that he had used to circle the other and followed a passage that he had not used, finding the human slumped against the wall fifty feet further down. The guard had enough strength to raise his sword to protect himself, but he could not block Salesat痴 final strike.

Dragging this guard痴 body Salesat padded back to his comrades, finding that Migar had perished from blood loss, but that the other two had stabilised. He dragged these two, down the slag heap stairs and across the lower level of the complex to the top of the stairs from the lake. He left them there for a moment to see if the statue that had previously healed them would manage to repeat its performance. Unfortunately it did nothing when Salesat touched it. After much further heaving and dragging, the litorian had manoeuvred the giant and the faen onto the raft and slowly paddled away from the complex. He made for land at the place where the path from Gahanis reached the shore, tying up the raft where they had found it and hauling the unconscious pair over into a ravine out of sight of the path and the lake. There he tended to their wounds until they were conscious again, but unable to walk. Then he left them to watch and slept.

The next morning, Voern had recovered sufficiently to heal the others somewhat. Then they rested there in the rocky defile, slowly recovering and gathering their strength. After midday, they heard the slow splashing of oars or paddles and a low murmur of conversation from the edge of the lake. Salesat risked a view of the shore and saw that a raft bearing four humans was approaching. They beached their craft and tied it up, before moving to the path and examining it. Salesat and the others kept very still, hoping that they would not be discovered. The four interlopers finished their scan of the local area and returned to their raft, but then Salesat noticed that they were taking the other one as well.

Ke-Herram and Salesat loosed a volley at the rearward of the two rafts once they were about twenty feet off the shore. One of the paddlers was injured by both Salesat痴 arrow and Ke-Herram痴. He folded over, dropping his paddle. Voern took this as a good sign and joined his comrades in missile fire, but they were largely unsuccessful this time, only scoring a minor hit on the remaining human on the rearward raft. Rather than remaining as sitting ducks, those on the rafts realised that they could not paddle out of range before they were all picked off, so they responded in kind. They picked up their own bows and fired back at the party, wounding Ke-Herram with one arrow while the rest flew wide. The bandits and the party exchanged volleys repeatedly, with those on the rafts having more success than those on the shore. Voern was the first to fall, an arrow taking him just as he was about to loose one of his own. At this Ke-Herram and Salesat hid completely behind the rocks, but this only allowed the bandits to beach their rafts and come at them from other angles. One other bandit fell before Ke-Herram and Salesat were subdued.

Salesat awoke first. He was trussed up, his wrists and ankles tightly tied together behind him, these knots being tied to each other and secured to a metal ring on the wall. Voern and Ke-Herram were similarly bound, too far from him to reach. When he realised that he could neither slip out of his bonds, nor break them, he tried to gnaw at the rope securing him to the wall. He was making some progress on this when he heard someone approaching. The human entered the room and started questioning the litorian. Salesat did not answer. His gaoler eventually resorted to a mace, bloodying Salesat痴 temple, but gaining nothing from it except his unconsciousness. When Salesat awoke his ropes had been replaced and he found that he could not twist enough to bring his teeth to bear. He started raving, calling out the name 溺eegtaraat� again and again. No appreciable response could be determined. After some time he dosed off muttering. Voern was the next to awake. He found that he could extricate himself from the clumsy human knots and soon he had freed the others. He then channelled the power of the green into his companions, awakening Ke-Herram and making Salesat lucid again.

They ventured out of the chamber and found a dead human in the passageway outside. They took what weaponry and armour that they could use and moved on. They slowly traced their way through a number of passages and chambers, discovering that they were on the same level of the complex by the lake where they had been ambushed by the archer. They picked up a hodgepodge of weaponry on their way through, finding a number of dead bandits, who looked as if they had been killed by some hideously barbed weapons. They found their first live opponent in the northwest, a twisted small human who lived near the bandits� horses. He leapt out to attack them and Ke-Herram killed him with a stroke. After this, they found large doors to the west which seemed to lead outside, an armoury, and a kitchen where they fed, quickly and without ceremony (even for Ke-Herram). They felt rather nervous about whoever had slaughtered the bandits, but determined to finish their task.