028: It's Raining Adventurers

The water in the pit continued to rise. As his companions struggled to reach him, Artur fought on alone against the trio of skeletons.

To the north of the pit, several of the adventurers–Luther, Hell'en and Horsa–frantically searched for the mechanism to the secret door which Luther had earlier spotted.

Meanwhile, to the south Caiden began smashing the trap's lid with his portable magical ballista–causing it to climb the wall nearby and hurl itself at the floor. This tactic–at first fruitless–began to tell and cracks spread through the floor.

The arrival of Colzo–drawn to the sounds of shouts and the clamour of battle–changed everything. He unleashed a cacophony  of magical sound at the floor. Huge chunks of stone fell away. Caiden's ballista again hurled itself at the floor–finally shattering it. The ballista–now destroyed–plummeted into the pit. Caiden leapt after it, landing on the pile of rubble and badly twisting his leg.

By now, Artur was completely submerged, but luckily the water hampered the skeletons' attacks. While he had suffered a few additional scrapes the doughty paladin remain conscious and kept fighting.

As Caiden prepared to help Artur, he was struck repeatedly by falling companions–a veritable rain of adventurers–jumping into the pit to help. First Colzo and then Hell'en struck the young artificer as they plunged into the water.

Chaos descend. Colzo gave Artur a potion of water breathing in case the badly injured paladin should fall unconscious while Hell'en battled the skeletons with her trusty dagger. Above, and seemingly in response to Colzo's thunderous magic, a low, mournful wailing began to the north. Horsa who was beyond the pit was the first to hear the sound. The moaning concerned the wizard, but lucky his keen ears detected it was not getting closer.

By now, Luther had discerned the secret to opening the hidden door to the north. With no time to check for traps, the ranger braced himself and pushed open the door. Nothing exploded or fell on him–much to his relief. Beyond, a narrow set of dusty stairs led down to a rusty iron door. Three levers jutted from the wall. With no clue which one to pull, the ranger started randomly pulling them–and he was lucky! The first lever he pulled stopped the flow of water into the pit. The second opened the remains of the pit's lid and the third unlocked the door.

While Luther had been experimenting with the levers, the four heroes in the pit had finally destroyed the three skeletons and Artur was saved. Meanwhile, the moaning to the north had not abated, but was (at least) moving no closer.

The party was, though, in no shape to continue–several of the heroes being badly hurt (in Caiden's case solely by his companions). Thus the party retreated to their camp to rest and recuperate.

While resting they sorted through the treasure they had thus far retrieved and identified the potions and scrolls looted from the gargoyles' treasury. Caiden also investigated the ring he had found in the chamber of bones. Horsa identified it as a ring of mind shielding, but when the artificer cautiously put it on his finger he discovered the ring was possessed! A rambling whine and confused jumble of words telepathically assault him. Horsa then belatedly remembered that if someone died while wearing a ring of mind shielding their soul was drawn into the ring. Thereafter ensued a confused and rambling telepathic conversation with the clearly mad soul trapped therein. He was called Kultimo. Terrified and mad, Kultimo begged the party to keep him safe from the "iridescent slime thing" that haunted the city and to stop Mauri destroying him. Caiden related what he could of the telepathic conversation to his new friends who tentatively identified the city as the Twilight City and Mauri as the ghost they slew in the room of bones in which they found the ring.

Talk turned to what to do next...