(G67 09/10/09 BG - Graham GM)

DAY 117 cont

After that I went over to the Nixie and had a word with Lavinia. I told her that the captain
and Tare had guessed we'd be here a couple of days before the Wyvern was seaworthy again
so she said - Why didn't I just move over to the Nixie for a while? Well I jumped at the chance!
I had my chest, harpsichord, Molly and Mr B taken over later that day.
It did mean I missed out on all the fun later, but I got to hear about it.

In the morning Urol played several practical jokes on Nobby, including a bucket of water over
the door, then some hot sweets and when she went to dry herself, a towel full of soot.
Eventually she went and took a bath and the gnomish courtship was delayed when more serious
matters took over.

It started with Skald sensing some terrible evil while meditating in the crows nest although
he did not mention this until later. Next Moss was talking to the pirate captain when one of
the other captured pirates let out a scream as he woke up from a nightmare.

It wasn't until Meree mentioned a similar bad dream to Moss over lunch that he began to
get concerned. Shifty decided that the best thing to do was search through my stuff looking
for books that might help, but Nobby happened to be there and soon put a stop to it.

Skald had noticed an actual connection between the evil presence and Shifty so Moth called
a meeting in the captains cabin to discuss the matter. It was decided that in the evening
he would be sent over to the Nixie as a sort of experiment.

Nobby got her second soaking of the day when Moth accidentally tipped her into the sea when
they came across to the Nixie. I have to admit I was rather short with Moth when he explained
the situation to me, I was rather busy with Lavinia at that time.

Also today Meree spotted something winged over the ruined fort and Shlump was sent swimming
under the ship to see if there was anything sinister down there. There wasn't. Moth and Nobby
also organised a search of the ship but found nothing out of the ordinary.

It's nearly the full moon tonight.

DAY 118

During the night most people were woken onboard the Nixie when there was a loud sinister
groan.
The Nixie's were quite keen to get rid of Shifty at that point, but not before Leamay cast
a Detect Magic spell on him and saw some sort of mystic sigil on his forehead.

At dawn, he'd still not slept at all, so he also saw something flapping around over the ruins.
When she woke up Nobby cast Remove Curse on Shifty but with no discernable effect.

Anxious to get people who were not directly involved with repairing the ship out from under
her feet the captain was happy to see Shifty, Nobby, Moth and Lirith take a boat back to
the shore to have another look around the ruins.

First the searched the ettercap bodies from the previous fight onshore and then
they looked around and Nobby cast Detect Magic. They then noticed for the first time
that there were perhaps more statues around the ruins than you might expect from your
average castle and became deeply suspicious of them. However, when it was seen that they
were clearly genuine statues of naked women carrying urns and the like any plans to
pull them down with ropes were abandoned.

Next Shifty climbed up to a high vantage point and took a good look around. He heard a
word on the breeze. It was 'then'.

Finally they decided to go down one of the holes they had discovered and choosing a likely
looking one Moth went down first. He came down at one end of a sewer that was now full
of stagnant rain water. He heard a splash but shouted for the others to come down the
chimney. Shifty decided then that he would stay above ground and keep watch.

Once the others were down Lirith saw something move in the water and took a shot with her
bow. It hit something and a large slug like thing with teeth slithered out of the water
onto the walk way. They now had a fight on their hands as two more carrion crawlers revealed
themselves and began to lash out with their paralysing tentacles.

Lirith found herself tumbling further and further back into the darkness to avoid her foes
attacks while Moth fought with his back to the wall. Lashed many times he amazingly was never
paralysed although he was bitten.

Nobby however was pulled into the water by the tentacles and then under the surface. In
rather a panic though she managed to cast a Sun Beam spell underwater and was the first to
slay a crawler, its body literally exploding into bit in a big fountain of dirty water.

Moth leapt over to the other walkway and threw a shuriken, finally killing the one he was
fighting and then went to drag the soggy gnome from the water. When they turned to help
Lirith they just had enough time to see her being paralysed and then pulled under the
murky water.

Making up his mind to help her Moth leapt in and began to poke about with his sword.
When he saw a part of the monster he managed to slay it and then pull Lirith out
as she regained use of her faculties.

The battle over, they then found the creatures nest, which had quite a few rotting old
bones in it as well as some treasure. Nobby gathered up the remains of a gnome into a sack
for later burial and found a gnomish ring.

There were two passages leading from the sewer, one a rough hewn tunnel and the other a
natural cave. Choosing the cave, Moth was the first to sneak in and once he had got to
the entrance to a cellar he overheard the following conversation :

'So what did you do then, Nige?'
'I et him of course, 'e din't like that much Ted'
'Oi bet he didn't Nige, wot did his misses do then?'
'Oh she screamed and shouted, you know what those hooo-mans are like. De ones wif
the lumps on the front'
'Wiv the lumps on the front Nige?'
'Yeh, you know, the lumps, the boobies.'
'Oh right yeh, the boobies, then wot?'
'Well I gave her a slap din I? Putting me right off me nosh that was. Worse than
elves they are.'
'Oh yeah I hate them. I usally just break their necks first them. Stop em wriggling.'
'Yeah, Ted. Hardly worth bothering, those elves, if what you is doing is eating em alive.'
'Yeh'
'Yeh. Now give me a dwarf or a gnome. Good for eating them although I find dwarves
a little tough'
'Well yeh, Nige. Wif gnomes tho you can't go wrong. Everyone likes gnome don't they?'

And so it continued.
He then snuck back and explained what he heard to the others. Together they concocted an
elaborate plan to lure out whatever was in there involving a bucket, a glowing shuriken and
a ten minute wait.
But the dungeon dwellers were more patient and eventually Moth went and shone his light
within. He saw a dozen grotesque statues and then decided to shoot at them one by one
until something happened.
He fired several arrows but eventually one went 'Ouch!' and then lurked further back into
the room.

Now Nobby came up and decided to escalate things into action by casting a Wall of Fire
across the entrance. This certainly got things moving as almost immediately two singed and
angry gargoyles rushed out.

Battle was joined. Nobby cast spiritual hammer, which was to batter one of the gargoyles
badly throughout the rest of the fight. Lirith, who's bow had been made magical by Nobby
a minute ago, got off a couple of shots but was quickly clawed and gored to the ground
by the two gargoyles.

Moth, realising his weapons were of no use, still managed to protect Nobby long enough
for her to get off a couple of Flame spells which felled one of their foes. The other
fought on though until it was hit by the hammer and it ran off back through the wall
of flame.

Lirith was revived and they waited for the flames to die down and searched the statue
room. Among the treasure the found a rune carved quarterstaff.

They decided to leave the other tunnel although they had a look down it and detected
a strong odour of dog. Gathering up the things that they wanted to take back with them
they climbed back up the chimney (in a sewer? To be honest I think they were climbing
up and down a latrine!) to find Shifty asleep in a shady nook.

They then rowed back to the ship to divide up their loot. In the evening Meree and
Shlump were sent back to the beach to light a brazier.