A5

Treachery and Traps

As the party (Avan, Ignatius, Jack, and Nemo with Jilt and Ara) continued on its desert journey, Jilt informed them that they were going to trade with a tribe of desert orcs. This was in payment for the orc ruler of Ubrarktan allowing him to cross his domain. The party was very wary of this but it was too late to turn back.
     A couple of days later, they finally encountered the orcs mounted on riding lizards. Speaking only orcish, Jack translated the orcs shouting for the rest of the party. The orcs were extremely hostile and threatened to kill them on the spot, but with some effort Jilt was able to convince them to take him to their leader Detch. Detch was the brother of Walthari, warlord of Ubrarktan (�Great Orc Land�). The orcs seemed pretty certain Detch would just kill them.
     The orcish base was near a large cactus, the only landmark for miles. The orcs lifted the hidden hatch after stamping a password and led the party (minus the minor guards, the caravan, and the boy Rigg) into a pitch-black labyrinth. Moved around in the dark until they were thoroughly lost they ended up in a large storage room lit by a lone candle. Detch and his two double-axe wielding bodyguards met them there.
     Detch was if anything even more hostile and quickly seemed to decide that he was just going to take the caravan. At this point, Nemo began to nudge Jilt inquiring what to do and as soon as the word was given he sprang into action, throwing a quick drawn dagger at Detch. A melee broke out and Detch�s charge at Jilt the next round toppled the candle plunging the room into darkness. Avan quickly cast light though remedying the situation. While most of the party dealt with the orcish warriors and rangers in the room, Nemo, Jilt, and Ara fought with the bodyguards in melee. Though concerted effort, Detch was brought down and in the end even his bodyguards healing attempts couldn�t save him as Ignatius ground his throat into a pulp with his boot. The barbarian Ara, though fell, killed in mortal combat with the last bodyguard.
     Disheartened and weakened by combat, the party barred themselves in the room while they planned their escape. Jilt plundered the orcs and stuffed Ara�s corpse into his bag of holding. After using the potions found on the orcs to heal they decided the door they did not use to enter the room. After dispatching Detch�s pet dog, they found themselves in a relatively well-built bedroom. Avan put his elven heritage and architecture skills to good use and quickly found the orcs� treasure hoard. Gathering this up and barring the door behind them they fled into the labyrinth in an attempt to escape. As they rushed through the narrow passages the wall open up, and orcs began to come through. Nemo held the passage and eventually scared off the orcs while Jilt found the exit.
     Once above ground they had to deal with the two orc lizard riders. While the orcs were easily dispatched, Avan enraged one of the lizards by attacking it. Jilt used Avan unconscious body as bait luring the lizard over the hidden trapdoor and then killed it with an inflict wounds spell. Meanwhile, Jack calmed the other lizard and they all rode into the desert.
     Over the next couple days the party tentatively questioned Jilt of his faith, to no avail. They healed and got farther from the desert. On the second day, a pack of earth sharks attacked them , mauling Avan and chewing on Ignatius�s wagon. Little harm was done and they continued on.
     Two days later another dust storm began to blow up. This time Jilt found them some shelter in the ruined of an old tower. The tower seemed deserted and consisted of an empty first floor, ruined upper level that were strangely not accessible from the inside and stairs leading down. Jilt sent the party down in the interest of making sure it was safe.
     The stairs led to another empty room with a hall way leading off. Halfway down a scything blade smacked into Jack as he investigated some bones on the floor. Disabling the trap they moved on. Near a T-juncture a pressure plate released a puff of dust that condensed into tiny spiders. At this point chaos erupted as some people attacked the spiders, ran, and in one case tried to disbelieve them. In the end they fled, only to find the spiders pursuing them. By the time they reached the ground level, the spiders thankfully crumpled into simple sand.
     Traveling with even greater caution, they where able to avoid the boulder that dropped from the ceiling in one of the passages. The nature of the boulder was problematic, because it seemed to reset itself after passing by. Convinced it guarded some valuable treasure, they contemplated climbing the walls around it or leaping over it. Avan finally attempted to shatter it but the spell was ineffectual. Ignatius seizing the moment, disbelieved it and demonstrated its illusionary nature by letting it roll through him. Sadly the trap only guarded yet another empty room.
     Frustrated, they headed down the last corridor and were easily trapped by a falling portcullis. As they began to figure the best way out they saw skeletal warriors approaching in the large multilevel maze like room at the end of the hall. The skeletal warriors proved to be skilled opponents, using their twin masterwork short swords to deflect blows. One attempted a flying bull rush against Jack, leaping into him only to be deflected and crash into the ground. After Avan managed to turn them, Nemo dealt with most of them.
     Meanwhile, Jack headed for an ornate pedestal with a bejeweled wand on top of it. Successfully defeating the needle trap on the structure, he was surprised when the pedestal itself took a swipe at him. Quickly realizing his weapon were useless against this stony foe, he used his grappling hook to trip the pedestal. He then jumped to a lower level and with Avan�s hauled the animated object off the ledge. Unharmed it sprayed them with needles. In the meantime, Ignatius used the unhand spell (from Eldritch Might II) to disarm the pedestal of the wand. At this point the party broke off and let Nemo batter the pedestal apart.
     The party collected the short swords and went back upstairs to rest. The wand appeared to be made of some dark root and contained a dark gem set into it.