Demon's Winter: Part 1 - SSI/US Gold

There were five of us; all brave adventurers. Well, to be honest, 
all  but  one of us were brave,  but more of our  cowardly  dwarf 
companion later.

The  strongest  amongst us was a Ranger who went by the  name  of 
Lone.  Tall he was,  and fast in battle.  Our cleric was a fellow 
called Clarence,  He worshipped the god Illo.  Illo is the god of 
life  so  we knew Clarence's ability to return the dead  to  life 
(when  his  god  heard his prayers) would come in  handy  in  our 
quest.  You'd think that Clarence would be a man of peace because 
of his god's distaste for battle  but,  don't you believe  it.  I 
was surprised to see how often he threw  himself into  the  front 
ranks of some our biggest battles. 

What  can I say about the next member of our band?  Fidget  is  a 
dwarf. He's quite strong, moderately fast, certainly not stupid - 
and the biggest coward in Ymros. But his skill at disarming traps 

would  be  useful so we put up with  his  whingeing.  Apart  from 
anything else, he made a good pack-horse!

Our  wizard was a canny fellow called Izzy.  Izzy is a dark  elf, 
skilled in item lore and learned in fire runes. And me? I'm Zeke, 
the  leader.  I may not be the fastest or strongest but  I'm  the 
smartest  and when you're hunting big game,  brains can  be  very 
useful.

We  met up by the ruined village of Ildryn.  Clarence  bowed  his 
head at the sight of the ruins but the rest of us (except Fidget) 
were  itching  to  get our hands on some weapons  and  bash  some 
heads! So our first stop was the nearby town of Seaside. I bought 
myself  a  short sword and Lone grabbed a mace  while  the  other 
three settled for knives.  A quick stop in camp outside town  and 
we were equipped and ready for a scrap.

While we were in Seaside, we heard a useful rumour in the tavern. 
Evidently,  an  evil priest,  name of Jesric,  had gone off on  a 
quest for a powerful crystal. He was working  for someone  called
Eregore. Clarence  said we should remember those names in case we
met up with them in the future.

Our  next  stop was the College of Hunting where Lone  learnt  to 
hunt.  We knew it would save a lot of gold if he could supply our 
provisions  rather than us stocking up at the tavern  and  paying 
their exorbitant prices.  For the same reason,  we agreed to camp 
out whenever possible rather than staying in inns.  The sooner we 
got a decent amount of gold behind us, the sooner we could hire a 
ship  and set sail for more adventures.  Even Izzy  seemed  quite 
excited at the prospect of a bit of sea-travel.

The  town  of Elborat was our next  stopping  place.  And  there, 
things started to get interesting.  In the tavern,  an old  woman 
told  us how her house had been burnt to the ground  by  kobolds. 
Their  camp was to the south and their leader was a brute  called 
Uffspgot.  I  saw  a gleam in Lone's eye and we grinned  at  each 
other.  "Come  on",  I said,  and,  as one,  we turned  and  left 
Elborat, heading south.

The kobold camp wasn't far and inside were several camp fires and 
tents.  We prowled round cautiously. Several tents were empty but 
others contained living quarters for the  kobolds. In  another, a
woman  was  being harassed by some of the foul creatures. None of
the groups  of kobolds  lasted  long!  The  woman  thanked us and 
rushed out of the tent - who could blame her?!

One tent contained maps which showed that towns other than Ildryn 
had  been attacked.  In another,  Clarence spotted  something;  a 
scroll half-burnt in a fire.  He read it out to us. "It's hard to 
make out the words" he said "It's very badly  charred.  Ah,  hang 
on,  ....  cult worships Xeres .... catacombs under the Temple of 
Gamur" he looked questioningly at us, but none of us had heard of 
it  either.  "Here's  another useful bit" he  added,  "ermm  .... 
codeword -x-".  Izzy gave one of his rare smiles and said "better 
look for this temple then". 

Continuing round the camp,  we finally found Uffspgot's tent.  He 
had  2  kobolds  and 2 orcs with him  -  no  problem.  Before  we 
attacked,  we  heard him say to one of the kobolds,  "we  do  not 
attack  again till my master Xeres commands it".  By the time  we 
had finished with him, his master would have to shout  very, very 
loud  for Uffspgot to hear him.  

By now, we were feeling pretty good. I celebrated by learning the 
mace  at the College in Akistu.  Izzy suggested we head  for  the 
Guild  in New Gleon to see if we were ready for  advancement.  We 
were!  On  our  way back across the island,  we  stopped  at  the 
College of Potion Lore for Izzy to do some studying. I won't bore 
you with our minor battles,  though some were quite spectacular - 
and lucrative. Just let me say that we found plenty to occupy our 
sword-arms  and we NEVER ran away,  not even  Fidget,  though  he 
tried to keep out of the action as much as he could.

Travelling north again,  we found a tunnel leading under the  sea 
to an island.  We walked warily through it. In one side room full 
of  mist,  an  old man met us.  He warned that the  one  we  were 
seeking  was  just  a puppet.  He added that  the  puppeteer  was 
eternal and his talons far-reaching.  Leaving him,  we  continued 
onwards.  At the end of the tunnel,  we saw a message painted  in 
blood.  Fidget read it out and blanched.  "Beyond this point lies 
the temple of the Death Lord,  not a place for those who  cherish 
their  lives".  Lone just  managed  to grab  the back of Fidget's 
trousers before the cowardly dwarf headed back for the mainland!

Inside  the  temple,  we gave the codeword and were  shown  to  a 
stairway  at the back.  Lone pushed Fidget to the front to  check 
for traps.  I must admit that considering how much his hands were 
shaking, he didn't miss one.

Down the south corridor,  we found the words "gloriosus  victime" 
carved on a wall. In a room further down, Izzy found a scroll and 
we  moved a bookcase to find another exit.  Through this  doorway 
was  a morgue of sorts.  A man lay in a glass case  in  suspended 
animation.  "Leave him till later" suggested Izzy so we went back 
to the corridor and turned left.  In a laboratory, a cage of rats 
caught  Fidget's  eye  (he must have been  hungry)  but  Clarence 
picked  up  two vials of serum,  one red and one  blue  which  he 
handed to Izzy.

Back  to the stairway and north.   Past another trap and  into  a 
guardroom.  A quick scrap, then on to the next fight with a group 
of Xeres' followers in another room.  Then we retraced our  steps 
to the other branch of this northern  corridor.  In one  room,  I 
noticed  a  trail of footprints leading to a  wall  and  stopping 
dead. Closer investigation showed us a secret tunnel.

It was hard to map and several times we got lost.  But eventually 
we  came  to  the  end of  the tunnel  and  a  Skull Room.  Three 
passages led off.  Two of them split, each leading to an armoury. 
In  each one,  a piece of  weaponry or armour lay begging  to  be 
taken.  But  hovering round them in each case were  some  glowing 
spheres.  Should we try to take them?  While we hesitated in  the 
first  room  which  contained a special  mace,  Izzy  solved  the 
problem and grabbed the mace.  At once, he was surrounded by will 
'o  wisps.  But they were easy to defeat and soon all four  items 
were ours.

In another room,  we found the words "forward 3 and right 1  will 
get  you out of a crush" carved into the floor.  We had  no  idea 
what  it  referred  to but I felt we'd  missed  something  so  we 
returned to the main passages.  Back in the lab,  Clarence (bless 
his  bald pate) found a secret passage.  We found a food  storage 
area and a workshop with,  among other things,  a mallet.  At the 
end of the corridor was a temple. Moving the altar, we discovered 
yet another secret passage and cautiously proceeded down it.

Part way along,  I heard the whirring of massive machinery. "This 
is it,  guys",  I said,  "remember the carving .... forward 3 and 
right  1" and dashed forward following this pattern,  the  others 
hard on my heels.  A bit further and we came upon a black doorway 
carved with gold runes.  Listening, we could hear chanting coming 
from behind it.  A hobgoblin stood between us and the  door,  but 
not  for  long,  and with him  dead on  the  ground,  we  hurtled 
through the doorway..............

To be continued in a future issue of SynTax.