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Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies

Last week, the party ventured down into the slavers' lair once more. Or rather, three of them did, thanks to the small elevator: Clockwork, Rucks, and Talbot. When the elevator reached the bottom, they found themselves staring at a squad of heavily armed slavers. Emboldened by their previous encounters with the slaver guards, Clockwork and Talbot agilely lept forward. However, they quickly found that these guards were more competent than their predecessors - especially with the aid of the slaver mages who quickly came around the corner.

Their situation was precarious, but ninety feet up, the rest of the party heard the fighting and took action. Specifically, they recalled the elevator Rucks was standing on, so he began ascending the shaft without Clockwork or Talbot. Before the platform cut off access to the tunnels below, Muerdoc slid gracefully down the elevator shaft and lept into the thick of the fray. Krunch saw this, thought it was pretty awesome, and decided he could do the same thing. However, in defiance of all dramatic convention, he proved somewhat less adept at the finer details of wall-sliding. If Muerdoc descended like water flowing down a waterfall, Krunch more closely resembled a boulder in an avalanche. Instead of landing on the elevator platform, he landed at the bottom of the shaft, with little regard for the structure which ostensibly stood in the way - or for Rucks, who was now balancing (expertly) on approximately half an elevator.

When he arrived, the situation was grim. Clockwork was dispatched by a spell that gave him a powerful aversion to water, forcing him to flee (expertly). Talbot was severely wounded, with his escape route cut off, but before the killing blow could fall he took refuge in the only place available - the bag of holding he carried with him. Inspired by Krunch's example, Deekin bravely attempted his own descent, using his powerful "anti-Krunch hugs" spell to absorb the impact from the fall. With Deekin's spells, Krunch's terrifying krunching, Rucks' ranged assault from the rising elevator shaft, and Muerdoc's furious fists, the tide began to turn.

Sir Patty Cakes, trapped at the top of the elevator shaft, could not stand being away from the fight any longer. Muerdoc, Krunch, and Deekin had all managed the fall, so it stood to reason that he should join them. And so it was that the heavily armored dwarf lept from the edge... completely missed the elevator chain, banged against the wall, narrowly avoided destroying the remains of the elevator, and smashed into Krunch with the grace and majesty of an eagle with a cannonball tied to it.

It was at about this point that the slavers decided to retreat. Whether they retreated because of the terror that Krunch invoked, because Rucks lept into the fray with his fists to dispatch the mages, or because of the heavily armed dwarf crazy enough to jump down a hundred-foot elevator shaft, it may never be known. In any event, they backed around a corner, calling for reinforcements and trying to live to fight another day. As he pursued them, Rucks picked up the bag of holding and realized the significance of its contents. He pointed it at them with all the ferocity a highly disciplined warrior can muster while wielding a large sack as a weapon. From inside, Talbot unleashed a flurry of arrows as soon as the bag opened, striking the retreating soldiers.

Then Clockwork fired his ballista.

The bolt pierced past the soldiers and sped towards Rucks. He knew instinctively (that is, because the DM said so) that it was too large to deflect. But he was, at that exact moment, holding a portal into extradimensional space. With a quick movement, he directed the bolt safely into the bag. Safely, that is, for Rucks. For Talbot, who was standing at the very entrance of the bag, it was somewhat less safe, and he was struck by the world's first extradimensional ballista bolt.

The battle was more or less over at this point, with just a few slavers to mop up. But Talbot wanted to make absolutely sure the party was safe. Finally able to access the physical world again, he took a chunk of his starmetal and threw it to Teralindel, the living rock that fed on gems and metal. Teralindel eagerly ate it, and things got a bit... strange.

All around the party, the ground shook. Teralindel roared and glowed with supernatural energy, feeding on the immense magical potential contained in the starmetal. His body expanded, creating new rock from thin air to form arms and legs. As the ground settled, Teralindel demanded one thing: more starmetal. The party told him the location of the starmetal in Ssect, promising to help him get there. They also explained the concept of "slavers", and how the party was trying to stop them. Teralindel was infuriated, and said he would solve the problem. A massive earthquake struck, and off in the distance, a great number of screams were silenced as quickly as they had began. Teralindel fell dormant, his power spent, as a horde of freed slaves rushed towards the tunnel entrance. Apparently, the Black Hand was no more.

Show up this week to help the party figure out which of their four (or so) plot threads to follow next - and to distribute the loot!

Stupid Awards

Krunch Sir Patty Cakes Rucks Clockwork Talbot
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