llf@houxz.UUCP (L.FENG) (04/09/84)
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Subject: Cauldrons, Cats & Conflict - Issue 7
Intro: The newly enlarged band of Blunders, has just opened the
door to an unknown dungeon room, and no one was surprised.
As the door swung open, Brunhilde went berserk. The four ogre
fighters before her may not have been surprised by the assault,
but they were no match for the party. The conflict
lasted only a few moments, long enough for Brunhilde to eliminate
one and start on a second. Much to Allie's surprise, she suddenly
found herself confronting a huge black snake. Just at that time,
Gary managed to get a sleep spell off. Unfortunately, it put
Brunhilde to sleep too. Allie stood off to one side
gleefully making pin cushions out of the sleeping hulks.
This was not our sole concern, for unknown to our heros
a dark young woman stood casting a spell. As Odyssa, and Gary
moved forward to finish off the ogres, they stumbled and fell to the
ground, asleep. Alarmed, Alexis and Allie started thinking of ways to
get their friends out of the apparent area of effect. Alexis managed to
drag Odyssa out, and Allie broke her rope trying to drag Brunhilde
out. They were both puzzled, as they had the impression that sleep
spells were instantaneous. How could Gary have walked into his own
sleep spell? Surely, he wasn't as careless as that!
A woman's voice called out from behind the wall of the room. "Surrender
and your friends will live. Resist and they die!" Allie and Alexis
suddenly understood why their friends collapsed, a spell user! Allie
put an arrow in the snake as she challenged with an angry "oh, yeah?"
This induced a cry of anger as the woman stepped out from a hidden
door. She started casting a spell, but was thwarted by a near miss
of Allie's arrow. By this time, Brunhilde had come awake. Seeing her
fallen companions and the witch (for that was what she was), she
went berserk again. She chased the witch back into the room, brushed
aside all spells cast upon her, and smashed off the witch's head. Alexis
worked on waking Odyssa while Allie followed Brunhilde at a respectful
distance. She was delighted to see the witch dead, but was wary of
Brunhilde until she was sure the fighter calmed down.
The witch's room was searched, and everyone listened in amazement
to Allie as she bashed the witches cauldron to smithereens, simultaneously
delivering a sermon on the evils of poison. This commodity dispensed
with, and the sleepers now awake, the balance of the witches goods
were distributed and stowed in pouches and pockets for future
attention. There wasn't enough gold or monetary treasure in the
room to warrant an extended stay, and all were anxious to continue
examining unknown territory.
As our party exited the Witch's room, we met two more adventurers
in the hallway. Neither the half-elfin Ranger, Boromir, nor the white
Witch, Circe, with her tiny cat, were aggressive. In fact, they were quite
anxious to join forces with our party. Since the corridor of a dungeon
is a poor place to conduct extensive negotiations, a limited pact
was quickly reached, and we advanced down the hallway as a party
of seven (plus a cat).
The next door opened into a grassy room to revel two morse-like creatures.
They indicated that we were unwelcome, and all overtures of friendliness
were refused. Though Boromir was more that eager to do battle, the
consensus was to leave them in peace. The party moved on.
The next portal was opened by force, revealing a small bear-like
animal perched in a tree. Only Boromir wanted to attack the passive
animal, and despite ours attempts to dissuade him forged ahead.
After a significant amount of effort on Boromir's part, the animal
obliged the determined Ranger and attacked him. We who had thought
better of disturbing the creature in the first place stood watching
in semi-amazement until Boromir finally realized that he could not
defeat it alone, and that we were not kidding when we said we weren't
interested in attacking the creature. We slammed the door as soon
as Boromir managed a retreat.
Alexis and Odyssa went to the rangers side, using their cleric
skills to heal his wounds. Odyssa tried to reason with him, and
suggest that he work with the party in the future, but was quickly
silenced. Boromir looked up at Odyssa with obvious knowledge and
passed a short couched remark about how Odyssa should know a lot
about working together from her previous occupations. This brought
Odyssa abruptly to her feet, the blood rushing to her face. She
had just enough self control left to refrain from belting him
with her mace as she snapped about and walked away in disgust.
This was not to be an easy alliance.
[Next Issue: Lizardmen, Treasure Chest and Dissent]
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Edited by: Lynda Feng [houxz!llf] & Chris Sotinsky [houxe!chris]