(week 3) The black robes.

Private thoughts of the tall dwarf

"Man I can't wait to be out of this retched dungeon. Why can't we adventure in nicer holes? What the?!?! Why aren't several of my companions casting shadows? This can not be good. I suspect it is driven by greed but time will tell. ... What is the damn smelly ork doing? Oh please don't pick that up! ... Well at least we know it is the coins that are the problem."

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Seeing as how several of the party are not casting shadows, I made the decision to leave the dungeon alone in order to speak with Charles. Once out of the hole, I found Charles was not alone. Seems a load of towns folk were waiting to talk to us about our lack of resolution on the whole children thing. I spoke firmly to them and explained that we were doing our best and told them to back off. About that time the smelly ork stepped out of the hole, only to have several of the towns people notice she cast no shadow. To put it simply, we now have a solid source of torches and pitch forks. Finally I got a chance to talk to Charles, and he said he would think on it but basically destroying the gold coins would likely solve our problem. I left Charles to think and returned down the hole carrying the unconscious short dwarf, so we could stay together for the night.

That night we slept at the base of the hole and setup watches for the whole night. Near the end of my watch, something interesting happened. Several children fell down the hole and landed in the middle of the room, where they promptly faded out of existence. Knowing that there was nothing to be done about it, I finished out my watch. When I woke the elf for his watch, I informed him of the happenings and then tried to get some sleep. The elf would not leave it be. He woke the boyscout and told him of the children but he gave her much the same message I did, "There is nothing we can do about it now, we will have to wait till morning.". The elf then decided it would be a great idea to simulate the circumstances of the children's disappearance. At that point I sat up and urged him to please climb up and jump down the hole, that maybe it would shut him up. I then went to sleep.

The next morning I kicked the short dwarf and she came around but looked very beat up. We then made our way to through the dungeon to see if the coins had returned, they had. Seems that anything horror tainted that gets tossed down the windy hole returns. That can not be good. At least this time no one touched the coins, so that was a plus. We searched the area at the bottom of the trapped floor and found nothing. We then worked our way back out the dungeon looking for anything that might help us solve this puzzle.

When we got to the windy hole room, the decision was made to procure the rope ladder and search the hole. Charles agreed to lend us the rope for 1/2 the take of the dungeon. The stinky ork agreed without polling the party and soon the rope ladder was tied to the ring in the room and let down the hole. The elf and boyscout went down the rope but found nothing. On to the next room.

Searching the chest room uncovered a secret door opposite where the chest used to reside. Opening the door revealed a room full of rustling chains hung from the ceiling. Each was covered in hooks. Laying on the floor across the room was a small bag. The short dwarf decided to investigate and was knocked unconscious by the first chain he approached. Being a battle hardened dwarf, I trudged into the room. Once I reached the bag I noticed a hallway to either side of the bag and so I made for the northern hallway. The only damage I took was a small scratch on my shoulder. Seeing how easy it was to traverse the room, the elf attempted it but do to the wimpy nature of elves, he made it but fell at my feet unconscious. I gave him a swift kick and he woke up. Next came the boyscout and he too made it without any major problems. Lastly the stinky ork decided to leave the short dwarf in the chest room, and join the rest of the party. This didn't work out as well as she hoped, as she took damage from almost every chain she passed.

What is that? A squirrel down here? I felt like I had to follow it and did. I was mesmerized by the little buggers tail, man would that make a nice accept piece to my battle ax!