Journal of Rollo Lavius 1

Entry #20 - Human bait

(G20 15/08/08 OR SS on Scott)

After that we all went back to the grisly torture chamber to check a door that Raz had seen.

In the room that we found, among other things, a foot locker containing gold coins and flensing knives.

We then went to the next unexplored area and found the dining hall. There was no one here, but there was a few cages with rather weary looking exotic birds in. From this room we found a latrine and then a training hall.

In here, so bright spark had the idea of laying an ambush for us and five of the thieves disguised themselves as training manikins. Their plan did work, in that we were deceived, but for them it didn't work out in the end. The fight was brief and bloody. Raz lay about with his axe and then stepped back to allow Eriss into the entrance of the room so she could cast Burning Hands. These flairs of flame lit up the whole room for a few seconds each time, sending the area into gloom again as soon as they vanished. But they did their work and several of the attackers were severely singed.

The rest of the fight was a confused scrum of blows and stabs in the dark. I managed to feather two of them, stuck as I was at the back, and before I could loose a third arrow it was all over.

One of the five attackers survived and I questioned him. He was just a lad, no more than seventeen I would have said and his name was Fip. I asked him about Vanthus and the Lady Dragon, and he told us what she looked like. Long red hair and green eyes apparently.

For the next room, Shifty wisely used a corpse as a human shield and as he opened the door the body was hit with two crossbow bolts. Raz charged in with his axe and the two chaps in here promptly surrendered.

Just two young fellows again. I questioned one, called Sash, and released him, as I had done with Fip. However I couldn't prevent Raz from dragging the other one away for his own form of interrogation. Well, when I got to them, he was still alive at least. His name was Zag, just another street tough.

Raz put a rope round his neck and sent him unwillingly into the next chamber. Inside was a rhodessa, one of those beastly insects, just like the one I have stuffed back at the shop. It took Zag in its jaws and started to maul him. Raz charged in and dealt it a mighty blow which made it drop Zag who then tried to escape.

But Raz yanked the rope and yet again Zag found himself in the beasts jaws! After that though we all made swift work of the creature and Nobby used some of her magic to heal Zag's wounds.

And so we continued onto the next chamber which was a map room. It had a table and chairs inside, and also a large map with pins on it, on the wall. We took this.

I learned something surprising here, as low and behold, Raz can read! He read the black board which was here and it said,

'Big Barbarian called Raz, Foreign Shaman - Rollo, Little Cleric Nobby, Some sort of Shifty Character. Vanthus - fix this please!'

After considering this we continued on down a corridor from this room and to another door. Raz repeated his room entering technique, namely, kicking Zag in first. I have to admit that I felt sorry for the lad, but on the other hand, it did have a funny side to it. Zag was pleading to let him go, but we callously joked that he was now the most useful member of our team!

Anyway, in he went and he was immediately felled by an undead bugbear. We all rushed in to attack. I traded a blow or two with it, but in the end, as usual the enemy was finished by a swipe from Raz's axe, splitting it down the middle so all its rotting innards fell to the floor.

The fight ended, we noticed that Zag had slipped his noose and ran away. It was probably for the best, but if he's stuck around I think he deserved a drink or two once we had finished down here!