Session #3 as told by Inez

Session #3 as told by Inez

Read: Session #3 as told by Finn here

Well dear diary,

We found some moonstones, I have a moonstone, but despite all that, our errand has not been successful, far from it! Let me tell you!

As told before we had made camp at the last field and the halflings had fabricated a campfire from findings at the forest edge. The long awaited moon rose on the horizon, blood red, as if Selûne was fleeing, leaving this night to Shar. That must explain the smiling expression of the Idol that I could see hanging inside my tent. Quick as possible I closed the tent door, as a feeling of edginess crept upon me. Next I  made sure the cubs were alright, finding them like myself snappy, in their case both figuratively and literally, gnawing at my fingers! Was it me, was it the influence of the crimson moon, but the whole atmosphere had turned into an ominous chill. Before walking over to the halflings, I tried to lift my mood: We were going to hunt for moonstone! I would get myself some real magical ingredients to work with!

My companions, however, seemed not that keen on a search for stones of any type. Seated next to the campfire, Finn made remarks in the line of ‘having seen enough adventure for a day’ and ‘these two will cost me my head’... Meanwhile he was deboning the mother Owl Bear, throwing some pieces every now and then to her offspring, who had no problem swallowing these. I could see that this was upsetting Jonathan, so I took the priest with me to the center of the field, where a huge dark stone was standing on its own. The black monolith stood against the orange sky, void of any markings that could reveal its purpose. Against better judgment I attempted to cast the one spell that, well at least at home, I had more or less mastered, trying to find any clues on the stone. Using the little shard of crystal I scanned the surface, finding a pattern of runes that made no sense to me at all. With Jonathan interfering, asking what I was doing, I gave up in frustration, following him on the path upwards to the moonstone fields.

As we walked on, it seemed like in the distance, marching songs were sung or played from the other side of the hummock. It asked the halflings if they too heard this strange chanting. Both confirmed, and Finn warned us to be careful, like we were toddlers making our first steps! Both Jonathan, who was by now almost on top of the ridge and I, both ignored our  perpetually displeased associate. Jonathan now called out, reporting that he saw a field filled with Goodberry Bites, some glowing up in the dark. Those halflings relate anything to food or candy, dear diary!

As I dashed up to look for myself, I was almost frightened to death as from the bushes a figure jumped me, crashing right in front of my feet. As I looked down, I saw that it was Finn, who apparently had wanted to keep an eye on us (or just me, dear diary?) in secret. The great rogue he is, he failed miserably and now lay in front of me, staring under my skirt. As he looked even more embarrassed than me, I left it with a remark: “Dear halfling, I thought you had some more style! Though, I suppose a little peek never hurt anyone... except maybe your pride?" I even helped him up, offering my hand, which I regretted immediately as his hands were still bloodied by the boning of the cadaver. Cussing under my breath I cleaned my hands with the help of some grass.

Finn and I were now following Jonathan into the third field, where some of the stones (no candy in sight!) were glowing softly in a blue hue. Once more ignoring Finn, who urged us to stay on the path, I walked towards the nearest gleaming gem. As I tried to pick it up, I found it stuck to the ground, no matter how hard I tried. Frustratingly I had to ask close-at-hand Finn to help me, which he hesitantly did, after I promised him that with one stone I would be content and would follow him back to the camp. Of course, with just a few strokes of his knife he cut it loose, and handed it to me with both hands: “Here it is, be careful princess, don’t know why you needed me, it came off like the cork of a bottle of ‘Second Breakfast Brew’! However, it’s quite heavy, so handle it carefully!”. As I took it up, I had no problem lifting it with one hand, holding it in my palm to examine it. Finn and I stared at each other irked, probing if the other was serious or was trying to make one look like a fool. This contest was broken up by Jonathans joking at the expense of Fynn that a gnomish girl like me was stronger than the halfling rogue! 

Finn's irritation grew even more as his guidance and alerts were further ignored by Jonathan, who was walking further towards the next fields, and me, moving greedily towards the next glowing stone. Gesturing and biting his necklace, walking back and forth, Finn was having a bad day. I, on the other hand, was getting in a much better mood, as magical stones were lying around me for the picking! Sweet diary, I know I had promised, but those stones, they were beautiful and radiating magic, I just had to have them! The second moonstone was pluckable without the help of Finn or anyone, just a small one, but still a beauty! Then I went for the third, the biggest one, with my left hand; it turned out to be an awkward shaped one, appearing to be hollow, but glowing all the same. Showing them to Finn, he lost his last interest as he could not determine the value of these strange gemstones and decided to retreat to our camp. ‘A halfling on an empty stomach is harder to appease than a gnome woman.’ my father used to say, often followed by ‘with the exception of a certain young gnomish lady’ (Haha, father).

With Finn away, Jonathan came over, drawing my attention to our surroundings, as the strange music had stopped, and the other moonstones had stopped glowing. The priest asked me then if he could look at one of the stones, extending his hand. Dear diary, I’m ashamed to admit, but it took me a force of will to hand over the smallest stone to Jonathan. Jonathan, the most trustworthy soul I’ve ever met! Still, the stones felt that precious to me! After looking at it, he just smiled and gave it back, without saying a word (making me feeling even more guilty). Staring at the stones in my hands, I followed him back to the camp.

Arriving at our tents, we found Finn staring at the monolith. The black stone had started to vibrate lightly and the runes that I had managed to read with my spell, were now lighting up like a tinker's spark on a new gear. Both the halflings turned on me when I told them that I had seen those runes earlier, and maybe (Just maybe, diary) they had a point in that I should have shared that knowledge, but I was not having it. Luckily (?), the black statue started to drone like a dwarven water pump, preventing us from having a serious row. A scraping sound signalled the slow shifting of the stone away from us, exposing an opening where it once stood. It then ended its move with dry cracking noises, like skeleton hands were obstructing further .

All of the night Finn had not been his jovial self, biting his medaillon, and now he seemed at the verge of panic. Jonathan on the other hand looked overjoyed, using his priestly magic to light up a dart (The natural, easy looking way of him performing magic making me jealous again), revealing a staircase leading down into the hole. He gestured to me to follow him down, but to do so, I had to clear my hands of moonstones. The smallest one was easily secured, placing it within my cleavage, the second one I handed once more to Jonathan, who stored it in his backpack. The third and biggest one I just placed on the ground, hopefully I would be able to pick it up later. Satisfied with myself that I was able to part with the gems, I nodded to Jonathan. “Adventure!” he screamed, amazing me and shocking Finn even further, then he descended the stairs.

All in all we had to negotiate thirty to forty stair steps, human sized, before we reached the floor of a room. A stone table could be seen by the light of the dart, with three ceramic bowls placed on it (Once more a test devised by Aalborr?) was the only furniture. Despite being underground, the room did not smell moist or dampen. Rather it smelled and felt unnatural, like a perfume bottled by a witch. As Finn entered the room, stepping from the last stair, the staircase spun up and higher up, we could hear the monolith returning to its original position, sealing us in. Before I had the time to panic or despair, Jonathan was once more yelling, claiming he had found the solution to the puzzle. He placed the moonstone I had given him into the mid sized bowl, gave me a friendly punch, and suggested ‘Inez, you have to place the small one in the tiny bowl.’ Reluctantly I moved the gem from my dress, then replied: “But the third stone, I left it in the field upstairs”. Upon which Finn sighed, revealing the third stone, like he was the greatest hero instead of a savvy larcener, then placing it haughtily in the biggest bowl. With both men now staring at me, as if it was me who was causing problems, I unwillingly placed the last stone into the indicated bowl.

As the room now filled with light, like the walls were radiating it by themselves, the staircase started spinning and retracted upwards. Above us we could here the monolith move back, locking us in! A stream of curses was produced by Finn, luckily he got no magical or priestly powers, otherwise this gnome would have been transformed to an Owl Bear chick, dear diary. Thanks to Jonathan taking the brunt of the reproaches and reassuring Finn that it would turn out alright, he came back to his senses. 

The artificial light revealed a fully round interior. Besides the table there was a door on one side and a lever attached to some mechanism on the opposing side. As I was standing closest, I walked over to the door, but failed to open it. Even worse, I broke off the handle, driving Finn to once more burning his fingers on his boiling amulet. Jonathan joked about the lack of strength of his halfling companion compared to his gnomish girly one. Which both Finn and I did not take as a compliment.

Continuing in his all too cheerful mode, Jonathan walked over to the lever. Finn blocked him before he could manipulate it. The rogue insisted on checking for traps before the lever was pulled. And suddenly nothing happened. Both men were still staring at the lever as I wandered over, and though it was evidently not a gnomish construct, I reckoned pulling it back could possibly do the trick. And sure it did, the full room started spinning like the Cogwheel Carousel at the Nook carnival. When it stopped all three of us were certain of one thing: we had no clue how far we had diverted...

It was all too much for Finn, who while cursing gods, the city of Nook, his choice of friends, and the ignorance of a certain gnomish lady (No points for him there, dear diary) rushed over to the door and started to work on the lock. Incredibly, within the nick of time a ‘click’ could be heard and the door opened. Nevertheless it just revealed a pitch-dark passage. Jonathan handed him the dart, but as the magic was waning, it did not uncover much as Finn threw it into the walkway. As I revealed the torches I brought with me, Finn finally acknowledged that I brought some value to this party (Well, well). Using one to illuminate the corridor, we found that it led to another stairway, going up. We decided to try our luck with that one.

But I could not leave without at least one moonstone. Strangely, Jonathan failed to pick up the smallest one, where I could without difficulty, placing it back where it belonged, dear diary. Curiously, as the stone left the bowl, the original staircase descended as called for. 

One halfling, Finn, wanted to leave immediately, using the original one, while the other, Jonathan, was insisting on exploring the second stairs. The promise of treasure managed to convince Finn, but not with much enthusiasm. “You lead,” he insisted, pointing Jonathan towards the door. The halfling priest looked excited and enthusiastically got out in front. Finn followed him, obviously reluctantly, but still gestured to me to form the rearguard. The moment Joanathan crossed the doorstep, the sound of drizzling bounces could be heard. “Close the door, close the door now!” Finn was yelling, as a gelatinous cube attacked Jonathan. From somewhere an idea sprung up in my mind, and I raced for the lever, giving it the hardest pull I could muster. The room started spinning again, forcibly slamming the door shut and crushing the cube before it could enter the room. 

For a moment I felt heroic, as I had saved the day with my action. Then I saw Jonathan, who had been splattered with the acid remains of the cube! He laid on the floor, deader than a broken cogwheel. My stomach turned at the sight! Kneeling near him, I started crying, feeling responsible for his death. If only I had not pulled that lever, or even better, had aligned with Finn and had returned to our camp! Even though I had a moonstone already, why did I want to go exploring this hallway? Little lady Wishwinder, my mother would have said! And this was a real dungeon, not just a racing track set out underneath the city’s tavern! And now this poor halfing was lying there, like a broken Cogsorrow, just because I had lured him to join me...”

Then I was pushed out of it by Finn, shaking me forcefully: “Come on, we need to help him! Let me clean his wounds, while you search for bandages”. Together we started working, Finn using water to remove cuby acid, I using a dagger to cut bandages out of Jonathan’s cloak. (I know, I know, sweet diary, could have cut those of my dress, but this is a ‘The Upper Gear’ dress. And that cloak would not miss a piece, where this dress would have ruined. Case closed.) 

We decided on trying to get him and us out, using the stairs. But even a not too stout halfling as Jonathan is quite a load. Desperately I decided to cast a spell to help us, and once more I amazed myself, as I not only succeeded in evoking a servant, but also was able to sustain the spell for the whole ascend! From the bottom of the stairs, with each step, I was mumbling prayers to Azuth: “Please help me help my friend, ..”, concentrating on my task to control the magic energy and the floating body of Jonathan, while climbing up. Eventually we reached the top, and with my last breath and magical strength I settled Jonathan on the stone floor. The unconscious halfling was still breathing and I muttered a prayer of thanks. All I could think of was how I was liable for his condition, regretting all the stupid things I had done the last couple of days. Sweet diary, I almost prayed to Helm to take me back to my parents in Nook!

Till then I had been completely oblivious of my surroundings, but Finn poking and shouting at me made me aware that, well, that we were not where we were supposed to be! A big yellow moon shone its light at the ruins of an unfamiliar building.You’re right, dear diary, never before I left my hometown, so practically any building would look unfamiliar to me. What I meant was that we had never seen this ruin before!  Looking around past the crumbled walls there was a field, bordered by trees. No sign of the monolith or our camp! Finn was walking round us like a sentry, fiddling with his medaillon, then his knives, claiming these were boiling hot, then cussing and cursing, all of a sudden stating loudly: “Let’s find cover!”. Kneeling down next to the priest and me, he place a piece of his terrible reeking cheese under Jonathan's nose. Evidently inventing cheese magic, as the knocked out halfling bestirred and even ate the piece of cheese! Overcome with joy I kissed Jonathan on the forehead as he opened his eyes. Oh, dear diary, I could have kissed both men, and more, but Finn’s stern look made me stop (or was he just jealous)!

Apologetic I stood up and tried to make sense of our situation. A great idea came to my mind: I could call on the Owl Bear cubs! The past day I had trained them more or less successfully to gather at my whistle. Hence, I blew on my fingers, producing a harsh shrill sound as loud as I could. All too successful, as it was answered, but not by the cubs. A deep growling reaction came from out of the woods, followed by the sound of wings sweeping. “Back inside. Now!” Finn pushed us back towards the stairway down. “Can you walk?” I asked Jonathan, “Will manage, I think” came his reply. I let him and Finn pass, Finn taking the lead downwards, once more carrying the torch. Following them, I closed the hatch, hopefully preventing any the incoming Owl Bear of following us.

And that is how we ended up back in the round room, dear diary. Hopefully we’ll find us a way back to our camp and the cubs. For now, we’re stuck...