Road to Kiev, Chapter Eleven

The Last of the Cat Monsters and Some Elvish Justice
Friday, October 14, 987 AD

A blast awakes us in the morning, but when we go to check out our Glyph, there is nothing there. Since we are quite rested up, we decide to go explore the remaining segment of this dungeon. Almost immediately out of the gate, we encounter a cat monster that doesn't seem to be doing to well. We deduce that this was the creature that set off the Glyph, and we easily kill it. We continue exploring the rest of the dungeon until we run into four more cat creatures. These seem a little bit different: they do not immediately attack. Thalia, in her ever ongoing search to find a pet that will get us killed in every civilized city, attempts to calm the creatures further and make them our friends. Only one of the four seems at all interested in this offer, and only cautiously so. Reynaldo wants to unleash his lightning bolt, but wants them to be in a line, so he waits to see if Thalia will do this unintentionally. She cannot do it, but decides this is too much trouble to befriend a monster, so Reynaldo lets loose and the rest of the party makes short work of them. We continue on our way.

We find a staircase going down in the next room, and another in the next, but agree to stay on this level until we finish it. We continue along and find a room containing many broken ceramic pieces, as well as three large ceramic jars. Reynaldo finds a piece of ceramic with Elvish inscriptions on it. It details how 'trials' worked in this Elvish society. A group of elves suspected of crimes were thrown to the cat monsters. Those that were killed were found guilty and those that made it out alive were found innocent. We continue on our way, finding the end of the level in a brig containing the bones of an elf long forgotten about. We decide to go rest in our fortified position so that Anna can take Detect Magic so that we may safely open the ceramic jars.

Another Ridiculous Monster and a Not-as-Ancient Elven City
Saturday, October 15, 987 AD

After rest, Anna takes her Detect Magic and we march back to the room with the ceramic pots. She casts the spell, but spies no magic. Reynaldo opens the pots and finds rice and oats in two of them, with the third being empty. We leave and go down the first set of stairs we encountered. There is a door bearing a crescent moon on it. We take the object of the same size and shape that we had found earlier and apply it. The door opens and we find ourselves in a four way intersection, the staircase behind us being the fourth arm. We go left first and find the way blocked by many leather thongs with small bells on them. We then go up the middle. First, we find a large plate of sorts. Anna's still operating Detect Magic finds none on the plate, so we decide to take it with us, just in case. The corridor widens into a room and a curtain appears in front of us. Gunther cuts it down, and a second curtain lies behind it. Gunther checks behind it and sees another curtain. He cuts down the second curtain and proceeds to the third. He lifts it to check behind it and a large spider-like creature with the arms of a man and the head of a fly comes through and body checks Gunther. The party fights bravely and destroys the creature. Gunther cuts down the final curtain and sees only a bed of straw behind it, and a wall behind that. The party searches for secret or trap doors, as well as any treasure laying about. Thalia finds a secret door on the right side of the room and we go through it. It is a long corridor that turns left twice and then abruptly ends. We once again search for secret doors and Reisha finds another one. We open it and are startled to see two very pale Elven guards. They begin speaking Elvish and Reynaldo jostles his way forward to speak to them. The rest of the party asks God why only Reynaldo can speak for them.

Reynaldo: Fancy meeting you here.
Guard One: Who the hell are you?
Guard Two (blowing horn): Wooooom!
Reynaldo: You really didn't have to do that. I thought we were friends.
Guard One: We're just getting our CO. Who the hell are you?
Reynaldo: I'm Reynaldo the Courageous, and you are...

At this moment, a female elf in red armor with a few more guards behind her shows up. Reynaldo bows and quickly checks to see how many guards there are. He sees about six.

Female: He is merely a guard. You must all come see the Queen.
Reynaldo: Ehh... Why doesn't she come here, instead? We really don't want to come further into what is obviously your home.
Female: What did you do with the Harvester?
Reynaldo (internally): Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
Reynaldo: *gulps* Ahh... The what now?
Female: The Harvester? The large spider-like creature?

At this moment, Ivan, who had been keeping an eye on their rear, notices an Elven soldier peeking his head around the corner down the long corridor through the first hidden door. His hands are attempting to block the light from the apple. Ivan relays this to Gunther.

Gunther: We're done talking.
Reynaldo: Are you fucking kidding me?
Gunther: No. They're attempting to flank us with a pincer maneuver. If I had my toy soldiers, I could show you what that means. For now, shine the light in her eyes.
Reynaldo: I'm going to regret this later. [Ed. note-- In fact, he does.]

Reynaldo lifts the hood from the lantern containing the second apple and blinds the female as well as her guards. Ivan leads the charge down the corridor as the rest of the party follows him. Catarina webs the other corridor so that we don't get flanked. The elf at the other end decides to say some crazy word, 'Traig,' and present a silver stick. Immediately, Ivan and Reynaldo get scared for their lives. Reisha tackles Ivan before he runs into the web behind them. Catarina does the same for Reynaldo. Gunther, Thalia, Edward, Wong, and Anna push the attackers out of the doorway so as to fight better. After a lot of gruesome fighting, Ivan shakes off the fear and picks up the silver stick. The web that Catarina had set up is burned down and two elves show up, one of which throws five flaming darts. Ivan says 'Traig' and presents the silver stick. This is almost a bad thing because Catarina and Nicolae feel the fear creep up, but it doesn't hold. One of the elves at the other end does run. Another web appears in the corridor and catches Reynaldo, but Catarina quickly cuts him out. In the main battle, the warriors kill many of the elves and the rest flee. The party decides that we should take the weapons and armor, but we do not want to waste the time stripping the corpses, so we take the corpses. A voice suddenly says, "Leave!" Reynaldo translates for the rest of us and we do leave. We go back to our defensible position. Edward, who happened to be carrying alive elf, accidentally sets off the last Glyph we had when his prisoner doesn't say the word. The elf, of course, is pulped. We go and attempt to rest with the same defenses as before, minus two Glyphs.

End Chapter Eleven
Previous: Road to Kiev, Chapter Ten
Road to Kiev, Chapter Twelve