Notes from Falzin’s adventures

   Well we are still at it. As I mentioned in my last Journal entry, we have cleared the first floor and are now trying to clear the ground level. Our slightly crazed gnome, Jeff, has rejoined us and seems to be in good spirits. As we continued to explore, I casted a “detect magic” spell and found a couple of magical auras nearby. (Maybe more traps) We decided to check out the closest one first. We stealthily snuck down the hall to a door (as stealthy as a dwarf in stone armor with a balance problem can manage) and checked it for magical traps. Krum, our barbarian and want-to-be rouge, checked the door for mechanical traps by opening it, which happened to lead to a large room with a desk, a book case, a sofa, some large urns and a chest. Good Job Krum. No traps.

   The welcoming party of skeletons was not surprises to see us and rushed up to greet us. My guess is that they might have heard the dwarf but there is no telling with skeletons. We managed to do in the skeletons after some sword play and then checked out the room. Suka started by searching the bookcase and found some interesting histories which she slipped into her pouch. About this time Jeff was having a serious talk with Ulfgar about the possibility that the large urns in the corners of the room might be mimics. Ulfgar’s first question was “What is a mimic?”. The conversation went downhill from there and it ended up with Ulfgar smashing the Urns to bits. He did find 12 copper pieces and a bloody sock. Ulfgar probably thinks a mimic is either a piggy bank or a laundry basket. He also did not seem too happy with Jeff for some reason. I can’t imagine why.

   Next we moved on to the large iron bound chest in the back of the room. I checked it out for traps and found none, but I did sense an aura of magic coming from inside of it. I backed off and let the rougebarians (Krum and Jeff) open the chest. They found an old musty blanket and underneath that a suit of half-plate armor, which looked in great shape, and a vile of green liquid. After evaluating the liquid I determined that it is a vile of acid. Jeff wanted to add this vile to his acid collection which was fine by me. Later I recall that Jeff was trying to get Ulfgar to drink the contents of the vile under the pretense that it would help him. Krum intervened and knocked the vile to the floor which broke on impact and promptly started eating a hole in the floor. I hope they don’t charge us for the damage.

   I checked out the armor which seemed strangely light. It turned out to be half plate of easy travel. (Armor that is designed to alleviate movement issues)  Being that I am a metallurgist and have the ability to create magical armor, the armor that we found was pretty easy to identify. I am not sure what it is made of but it is probably mithral. Suka said she would be willing to wear it to see if it meets her needs. (It might not being that reduces her dexterity) Being the modest elf that Suka is, she took the armor was going to change in the closet off this room. Unfortunately it had a chamber pot in there that had been recently used and that had left the room with a fragrant odor that changed her mind. So Suka took the armor out into the hallway to change.

   In the meanwhile, we tried to finish looking around the room when Jeff remembered the couch in the corner. As he has shown his dislike for the couches that we had encountered earlier, he continued his custom of the couch stomp. (I think that must be some sort of a gnomish dance) He runs up and leaps on the couch which promptly attacks him back. Somehow his feet are now stuck to the couch and these arm-like appendages swing out and start to pummel him. Seeing what was happening to the bard, Krum quickly brings his axe into action. He takes a mighty swing at this creature that had been masquerading as a couch and hits it solidly only to find his axe is stuck and cannot be withdrawn. This sound like a mimic and must be the one that Jeff had been referring to when he was conversing with Ulfgar.

   As Krum tries to withdraw his axe from the side of the mimic, the mimic manages to grapple Krum. I think Kum put all his strength into breaking his axe free, because we heard a loud snap and Krum is now holding a broken axe handle. Krum, being the smartest guy in the room, tries use the handle as a club and gets it stuck again and soon has a much shorter club. In the meanwhile Ulfgar realizes that this thing is trying to eat our party and runs off to the hallway (screaming like a little girl) to look for the ranger. I guess Ulfgar does not have much respect for a ladies’ privacy. I yelled at the dwarf to attack it with a range weapon to which the dwarf replied that he did not have one. He must not have wanted to get his dagger dirty. Dwarves are strange. I told him to throw his dagger at it anyway and he did. He missed the mimic and but nearly took Jeff’s ear off. I can see why he does not consider it a range weapon.

   Between Suka shooting it with arrows,  Krum trying to pummel it anyway he can(and getting more stuck than before), Jeff trying to get all his daggers stuck and I magic missiling it and hitting it with sling bullets,  we did manage to kill the poor mimic (who had been quietly sleeping in the corner). After a few minutes, the glue dissolved and the party members were freed. I found the pieces of Krum’s axe and used a “mending’ spell to repair it. Ulfgar wanted to repair Krum’s axe as well after seeing what I was doing, but he was too late and I was already done. Maybe he was just trying to be helpful. Maybe he was just trying to hide from Suka who stalked up on him and slapped him across the face, knocking him to the ground. I don’t think she appreciated the earlier intrusion judging by her vocabulary. After watching the dwarf struggling to get up, Krum had compassion on him and helped Ulfgar to his feet.

   After searching through the mimic’s remains and showing Ulfgar what a mimic actually looks like after it is dead, we found a small pile of coins, a rusty short sword and a small steel mirror. Suka finished putting on the last few pieces of her new armor and we got back to the business at hand. We went across the hallway and checked out the other door. It led into what must be a library because it was full of bookcases stuffed with old books. Suku’s eyes got real big and she started mumbling about a desire to buy this place. She must really like to read. In the room I found an old spell book that was partially destroyed. It was written in a language that we did not immediately recognize. I was able to decipher enough of it to realize that it might contain spells that I could use. I put this tome in my bag to be looked at later.

We moved on toward the back of the manor and found a staircase leading down to a basement. We decided to finish the rest of the floor first before going down there, so we moved on to the next room. This was another room with a table and another pile of skeletons. (I am starting to get a little annoyed with the necromancer that created all these undead.) Ulfgar managed to destroy most of these skinny guys by turning them. The one that was still moving was quickly dispatched by the rest of us. Nothing in this room of much value except some arrows we found for Suka.

More later