Chapter 10
Lord Skyppen's Mansion

After the glorious saving of New Pavis, Kaid-aw read some books in the A-TEAM library, which were taken from the Schestekost library, and found an interesting letter to Lord Skyppen. The great mansion on top of Blind Kings Castle, has no owner, but the one with the deed can claim the mansion to himself. The claim is in Skyppen's treasury. In the book, from where the letter was found, was a secret compartment, with a jewel laid key. In the letter was also hint to attune the gem to see the actual mansion and the door there. There was also the following rime:

The spiral staircase is the start of your quest.
West is your first goal, but South must preceed your westerns travels.
The North may hold great treasures, but wealth does not come easily.
The octagonal corridor is the key to the East, East is your eventual goal.
The second right leads to a wall, then a second.
You must always descend, stairs up lead to peril.
The well may help. Water holds much danger, but much aid. Crossing will ensure your success.
At the base of the steep steps, rights must be followed by lefts, no matter what direction you seek.
Your quest ends with the death of my servant

After this interesting letter, the A--TEAM started to search for more information about the Blind Kings Castle. A recognition trip to the Mansion was first made, to get some understanding of the place. On the way there, Kaid-aw and Raven noticed that a swarm of small bats were following the A-TEAM. One of the bats had POW of about 25, Kaid-aw noticed, and he cast a sun spear on the bat, as it most definitely was an allied spirit of somebody who wanted to observe the A-TEAM intentions. All the bats were fried up with the sun spear and nothing was left of them. On top of the hill was the mansion, surrounded by a 10 meters wide moat, and 10 meter high walls, with towers in each corner. A drawbridge, now closed leads over the moat. The area of the castle is 180*130 meters, so it is a huge area. Nearby is an old Flintnail fort, and from there five scorpion men attacked the A-TEAM. Dolxx immediately attacked two of the scorpion men, but the first one he attacked made a critical parry and was saved. The other did not do it and was killed by Dolxx with a single blow. Dolxx made a second attack on the first enemy, and this time Dolxx killed also him. Axjack, had troubles and was hit unconscious, while Kaid-aw's enemy fumbled and was three rounds out of action and therefore easy to kill for Kaid-aw. Dolxx went and split Axjack's enemies head into two as a revenge of incapacitating Axjack. The last of the scorpion men tried to run away, but caught him and beheaded him in one blow. After this the A-TEAM returned to their Inn.

The rest of the Storm season, went by and after sacred time it was time to celebrate the first anniversary of the A-TEAM Inn. All the well known entertainers from New Pavis were paid to entertain the guests. The party lasted for two days, and on both days there were two singers, and the a magician made tricks the both days. Kaid-aw arranged permits for these two days for anybody to pass into the Big Rubble, and extra escorts were hired from the Humakt temple to secure the transport between wyvern gate and the A-TEAM Inn. It was a magnificent success and during those two days, the Inn made a profit of 2000L!

The Indigos family held the next day their traditional party for all guilds master and other important people. The A-TEAM was invited for the first time to the party. It was here the businessmen made the deals for the next year and agreed who could do what type of business where and also the prices were agreed over. many discussions were held, one Dolxx had was with one of the Indagos family about a permanent room on the A-TEAM Inn. Kaid-aw met a man, Lord Skyppen, who's allied he had killed. Lord Skyppen and Kaid-aw discussed very politely, and suddenly Lord Skyppen made a gesture, and one of Kaid-aw's biggest enemies in the council brought a glass of wine to Lord Skyppen, Kaid-aw and his wife. After this the member went back to his former discussion, as nothing had happened.

After this powerful presentation of Lord Skyppen's powers, Lord Skyppen, Kaid-aw, Dolxx and Raven went to conference room to discuss some business items. Lord Skyppen had two issues he wanted to discuss, one was about 'oriental herbs' in the Suntown and a second much more difficult subject. Lord Skyppen wanted an oath on something from the A-TEAM, which he did not specify yet. This, as also the previous subject could not be agreed on. Lord Skyppen gave three days time to think before he wanted an answer from the A-TEAM. After it was very clear that no agreement could not be made, they returned to the main hall to the party. Kaid-aw was very worried about his wife, and saw that she had been bitten by a vampire during the meeting. After this Kaid-aw and his wife left, as also Dolxx did. Raven tried to make a brawl here but did not succeed. He was not able to start a fight with the guards either. After this Raven left the party.

The next morning when they A-TEAM came to their Inn, they heard that nobody had seen their Inn keeper, Tarleti, during this morning. The door to Tarleti's room was broken down and she was found dead sucked out of all blood. Kaid-aw was informed and came as fast has he could to the Inn from his house, and took Tarleti's corpse with him. He resurrected Tarleti, and questioned her. She told she AHD talked to two dark men, but didn't remember anything after this. Kaid-aw started then to gather information about Lord Skyppen. He was a rich respected businessman and very, very old. He came here as a sorcerer, and became very important businessman because of his trade in 'oriental herbs'. After this A-TEAM had a meeting and decided to go to Arlaten to get help from him in removing this evil vampire. It was obvious that he was also a vampire, and probably had Lord Schestokost went to him for the revenge he cursed upon A-TEAM, when he fled from his caverns. Arlaten listened and in the end decided to help the A-TEAM. He gave two rings to the A-TEAM, one to Kaid-aw and one to Dolxx. He also gave a powder that should somehow be eaten or drunk by Lord Skyppen. After this a very special spell would be cast upon Lord Skyppen and he would be dead for a full day, during which time the heart had to be found and a stake driven through it, to kill Lord Skyppen. To see to cast the spell, he cast a projected sight on Kaid-aw's helm. Arlaten needed a day to prepare the spells, so one day was spent making preparations.

Early in the morning Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Raven left for the mansion on top of Blind Kings Castle, where Lord Skyppen was said to live. Some 'entrepreneurs' had put a gate over the main road which the A-TEAM was using to get to their goal. The 'entrepreneurs' wanted a lunar for passing the gate, but when A-TEAM came closer the men started to point their fingers towards the A-TEAM, and lifted the gate before the A-TEAM and did not demand any toll for passing. The A-TEAM's reputation was widely known inside the Rubble, and very few wanted to know the wrath of the A-TEAM. Just before the bridge over the river, the A-TEAM met 8 beginning Orlanthi adventurers, who were on their way to take the treasuries found in the troll stronglands. Kaid-aw and Raven really tried to agitate them to do it, but Dolxx used all his prestige and status as Wind Lord and got them into other thoughts, and they went to Gimpy's to meet Krogar Wolfshead there. After this good deed, the A-TEAM came easily to the Mansion. Raven used his Griffin and flew over the walls with a rope with him. He tried to open the drawbridge, but it was too stuck even for Raven to open. Instead Kaid-aw and Dolxx climbed over the walls using the rope. Kaid-aw who had attuned the key, used it to see the right view of the mansion, and he could see where the door to the mansion was. He then used the key to open the door.

Inside was a big room, with two stairs up, two open doors and one closed. Raven wanted immediately try to open the locked door and pushed it. But it was a trap, and Raven fell down twelve meters into a water filled pit. No panic, even if Raven was the beneath the water as he had a ring, which enable to breathe under water. A rope was thrown down to Raven and he was lifted up. One of the open doors was chosen, and it lead to a second room with four closed doors. One of the doors were silver laid, and this was chosen. It lead to corridor to a new locked door. Behind the door was a big room, used as a smoking room, from there was two doors, one to a closed sized as a normal room for tobacco, while the other lead to a blue room with an huge stone slab in the middle of the room. Behind the next door was a big, but simple room. As behind the next one. Then there was a library with thousands and thousands of books. This was probably the biggest library in the whole of Prax! A spirit started to manifest itself in the room, but nothing happened with the spirit. Kaid-aw found a secret door extremely well inlaid into the wall. He tried to open it, but it was impossible without the right key.

The next room was a gallery with many portraits on the walls. Lord Skyppen talked to us from one of the walls, through a sight projection and asked what were we doing in his house? He tried to take control of Dolxx, but failed. The party fled from the room, but Lord Skyppen emerged again. He threw a burning ball against the party, who fled again. A different corridor was chosen again, when in the next room Lord Skyppen sat playing his organ, and when the party entered, he invited them to breakfast. The party could do nothing but agree and followed Lord Skyppen through a corridor. But before they entered the dining room, the party chose a different corridor and went to a different room. From there on they walked through many rooms. Lord Skyppen came soon and asked where did you get lost? Raven tried to hit Lord Skyppen with a blessed cross, but Lord Skyppen dodged it and left angrily, muttering: "Is this the way to thank for a invitation?" The party opened the next door and entered a huge room used as a chessboard. There were a door which led to the storage of the chess pieces. All were man-sized, made of white and black marble. The different pieces were made as different races of Glorantha. From the next corridor the door opened to another big blue room. in the other end of the room, was mirror with the following rune Luck

. Back to the corridor, and just as the party were about to open the next door, an old man opened the door. He was Lord Skyppen's cleaner for the rooms, but he knew nothing about Lord Skyppen's background. He started to ask questions, but the Raven got angry and killed the man with a single blow. The room was a dining room. When they went forward the corridor, Lord Skyppen suddenly emerged and threw three venom's on the party. Dolxx and Raven did not make it and became almost dead, while Kaid-aw stood against the venom. Raven needed only one healing potion, while Dolxx needed several to get back up.

After this the party went to have the breakfast with Lord Skyppen. He led the way to a huge room, with a Death

rune made by Humakt. Lord Skyppen clapped his hands and soon two servants brought a very exclusive breakfast. The party gave to him as a present the prepared wine with the powder, and poured it into a glass and gave it over. Lord Skyppen drank it as a toast, while the party drank Lord Skyppen really good wines. Kaid-aw showed the agreed gesture to Arlaten and he cast the 'Raft of Golden' spell into Lord Skyppen. Very soon Lord Skyppen exploded with a big bang, and nothing remained of him. At the same time Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Raven attacked Lord Skyppen's two helpers, also vampires. Dolxx attacked one single-handed, while Kaid-aw and Raven attacked he other helper. Dolxx immediately made a critical against his enemy, but he was parried and the critical did the minimum possible damage, it did not hurt the enemy. Meanwhile Kaid-aw threw a lightwall between him and the other helper to further minimize the chances of the helper. Dolxx made a new hit, and maimed the first helpers leg, but the helper maimed Dolxx's leg and both fell down on their backs. Dolxx made a third try and this time it was enough, he killed the helper before it changed to mist form. Kaid-aw killed immediately after the second helper. After this two spikes were threw through their hearts. Now the party had 24 hours to find the heart of Lord Skyppen, before he started to regenerate back to life again.

Of the two corridors out of the breakfast room, one was chosen. Raven found a sleeping woman in a small room, and he smashed her head immediately. Many empty small rooms followed. Two servants came and they were questioned. The servants were in some kind of trance, and wanted only to continue doing their duties. Raven got mad, when they could not answer properly and he killed them both. In an empty room, a secret door was found to a room with twenty empty coffins. Dolxx found a small key in the room.

They went all round the rooms, but after three hours searching they found a second secret room. Nobody had been there for years, dust and spider webs all over. On the floor was door down with bars across it. Beneath the bars, two meter below started a spiral staircase downwards. The party opened the bars and climbed down, and started to follow the stairs down. In the room where the stairs ended, six door led out, and after a search, four secret doors were also found. The southern secret door was chosen, but there were four ghosts, who attacked. Raven defeated his ghost completely, while the other managed to send the ghost to the spirit plane. The corridor descended rapidly. In the corridor there were boot marks, which were not older than one week. The corridor ended in a door. Behind it was a room, where a basilisk was chained to the wall. Kaid-aw immediately backed out from the room. Raven closed his eyes and went to the room and took the basilisk in his hands and broke its neck. The basilisk tired to bite Raven, but did not manage to pass Ravens armor. The iron box, and the iron chain, where the basilisk had been chained, was taken away from the room. On the box were two runes, Air

and

. Inside the box is a 5 cubic meter sylph. Dolxx has to learn command sylph to use the box.

The party went to the main room again and this time took the western secret door. Again the corridor descended and ended in a room with water. Kaid-aw went first, but two meters before the other wall, where a niche, with a small box, the depth of the water increased to more than five meters. Kaid-aw's hawk familiar flew to the box and took it. Inside the box was a scroll teaching swimming. Turning back from this corridor, the party went back to the main room, and took one of the western corridor's. It eventually ended in a room with a coffin. Inside it was a note: "Brain, not brawn, must help you on". Beneath the coffin was a trapdoor. The corridor led 87 meters west, where it ended and hatch could be opened. Above was a temple for Oakfed. A blue spirit was summoned and it told the story how he would defend this temple. The party thanked the spirit and continued with a new corridor, which turned back to east. Kaid-aw who led the party triggered a trap, but managed to dodge it, and it therefore hit Raven, who was second. Dolxx allied spirit healed Raven, when the spear was taken out of him. Two troll skeletons surprised Dolxx, who immediately killed owe, while Raven killed the other skeleton. Later Dolxx triggered a trap but managed to jump away. More corridor's, and some comes back to earlier ones. Some led back to the main room.

In one of the corridor's a secret door was found and entered. It ended into a huge room with six statues 80 meters away. The statues represented the Lightbringers Quest, as they depicted Orlanth, Chalana Arroy, Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, Eurmal and the Flesh Man. There was no statue which could represent Ginna Jar. Otherwise the room was very good looking with blue mosaic floor depicting heroic events from the Lightbringers Quest. Inside the room was three dragonsnails. The party went back into the corridor and cast all spells on, and charged on the dragonsnails. Dolxx and Kaid-aw chopped a head of each, while Raven killed immediately the third. Then Dolxx was surprised by a fourth dragonsnail, but he made the first attack, and clew it into two parts instead of being ambushed.

The party decided to run further, as they had all possible spells on, and passed through three doors to a second room, with five other dragonsnails, a demon with four arms and pointy teeth and a humanoid. Dolxx killed immediately one dragonsnail, as also Raven did crushing the head of another. The demon chose Kaid-aw, while the humanoid, a priest by its looks chose Dolxx and the two last dragonsnails attacked Raven. Kaid-aw made a critical into the head of the demon before it had time to use it's many attacks, and killed it with one blow. Raven killed one of the dragonsnails, while the priest stood gallantly against Dolxx. On the next round Kaid-aw and Raven killed the last dragonsnails, and the Priest of Cacademon wanted to make a deal for his life, as he saw the terrible effectiveness of the A-TEAM.

In three rounds, with only six attacks, the A-TEAM had killed all his five dragonsnails and his ace, the demon. He tried first to offer money or items, but that was not of interest for the A-TEAM. But when he told he knew where the heart of the vampire was, a deal was made. He would give the heart to the A-TEAM, and they would not kill him immediately. He would get two rounds of lead and if he survived, he would never ever again come to Pavis or the Rubble. Next time the A-TEAM would see him, he would be killed. Raven was very hesitant to making a deal to a Chaos priest, but gave away in the end. The priest led the party back to the room with the statues, and opened a box in the Orlanth statue, where the heart was. He gave it to Kaid-aw, while Dolxx held on Raven. Immediately when Kaid-aw got the heart, the priest ran for life, and Raven broke loose of Dolxx grip and ran after. Unfortunately the priest had a big mobility and got away. Meanwhile Kaid-aw and Dolxx put a stake through the heart, which stopped beating. Was this really the heart of Lord Skyppen? It had to be a heart of a vampire or other evil creature, as the heart could function without the rest of the body.

In the room where the party had met the priest and his minions were three stone pillars, size of 3 * 0,3 meters, up to the roof. All these were now littered with chaos runes. Also the altar was filled up with chaos runes. From the room left two doors, one to the north and one to the south. In the room to the north was a big snake, but Dolxx and Kaid-aw prepared multi- missiles and fired against the snake. Of nine missiles all in all, there were four (4!) critical's and one special hit to the snake! It didn't have a chance and died immediately. Beneath the snake was a pile of treasure. After looting all the treasure, Raven had to go outside, so the party went back up to the first floor. There they saw Axjack in the garden, looking for a way inside. When Axjack came in, Raven went out of the building and left for some urgent business.

The other three, Axjack, Dolxx and Kaid-aw started to look for the deed again the cave- complex below the house. When they had reached to the main room at the end of the stairs, they chose a new corridor leading down. This corridor was filled with smoke and smelled acid, so they turned back from it. In another corridor they found the runes, Fire

and

, on each side of the wall. When they walked on, a noise of burning could be heard behind them. A salamander had materialized behind them. At the same time a shade materialized in front of them. Dolxx went forwards to meet the shade, while Kaid-aw and Axjack went to face the salamander. Both the elemental's were big ones, 7 or 8 cubic meters. The shade demoralized Dolxx, but he continued fighting anyway. He gave 30 points of damage to the shade with his first hit. After the second hit, the shade died. Meanwhile the salamander divided itself into two parts, one engulfing Axjack and one engulfing Kaid-aw. The salamander engulfing Axjack got Axjack immediately unconscious, because of the heat attack. Kaid-aw had no problems as he had thrown a spell which made him resistant to fire and heat. The second half attacking Axjack left him laying unconscious and turned itself towards Dolxx. Dolxx is not as heat resistant as Kaid-aw and knew he had to kill the salamander very fast or he would be burned to death. The first hit was a mighty one, but not enough, while Dolxx got such bad burning wounds, he couldn't resist more than one attack from the salamander. Luckily the second hit was also a mighty one and it killed the salamander. Dolxx was on the brink of unconsciousness, but had made it. Meanwhile Kaid-aw hit one time after each other and killed the other salamander in the end. The last healing potions had to be used, but still Dolxx was only at a third of his normal hit points. Axjack was not in much better shape. The corridor ended and a new corridor had to be chosen.

In the next corridor they walked on for a while before it ended but there was a secret door in the end of the corridor and it was opened and continued through. Again there was a secret door, which was opened. Inside it was a small room with a tray on the opposite wall. In the tray was a dark liquid. Two stone statues of humans were also in the room. On the wall over the tray there was the Chaos

rune and an inscription "Drink and become immortal!" Nobody wanted to taste the liquid, which probably was Cockatrice venoms, so the party continued forward. Kaid-aw triggered an trap and got acid on him, which destroyed some of his armor. Not very long after this, Kaid-aw found again a secret door. In the room inside it was green mist on the floor, and the mist was really, really cold. A second secret door could be spotted across the room. When Kaid-aw tried to put his spear end into the mist, it froze immediately! Forward along the corridor, and it eventually lead back to the octagonal corridor. A new corridor was chosen. It ended again in a secret door, which lead to new corridor that lead back to the octagonal corridor. On the eastern side of the octagonal corridor was a once again a secret door. In the new corridor materialized two wraiths. Kaid-aw cast a spirit block 2 and fought the wraiths in a couple of rounds. After this he followed Dolxx and Axjack who had gone further. The corridor ended and a chest with some treasure was there. After this the party had to walk back to the octagonal corridor.

Behind a new secret door very steep steps lead down, but as the party had used much of the day and needed rest, they chose to go upstairs instead. A very nice meal with exclusive wines was taken from Lord Skyppens kitchen, eaten with silver cutlery. After the meal the party went back to the blue room, to look again at the stone slab there. Dolxx noticed that some of the runes have been used earlier. Dolxx and Kaid-aw tried to touch their runes. Kaid- aw regained his senses after ten minutes, and said he had been on a wonderful trip. Dolxx was senseless the whole night. Axjack understood that everything was not well with Dolxx and he touched also runes. He found and rescued Dolxx back to the physical world. Meanwhile Raven had returned from his business and he rejoined the party.

After this the party went down to the steep steps and down with them. Here they took to the right, and then to the left, but it ended in a wall. Into the next corridor and to the left. At the end of it, Kaid-aw found a secret door. In the corridor he found a second secret door. Over the door is an archway with the runes, Illusion

and

. Kaid-aw touched the runes and entered, with the others following him. Everybody started to see their dreams come through when they entered the room, they sat down and relaxed and felt immortal.

Arlaten noticed many hours later that something was wrong, when his side-projection on Kaid-aw's helm is just showed a small room. He saw Axjack and threw a mindspeech on him, and thereby got Axjack out of the room. Axjack found some pebbles and threw them on Dolxx who didn't notice them at all. Axjack threw a lasso around Kaid-aw and dragged him out from the room. Then they dragged our Raven and lastly Dolxx. Dolxx re-entered the room with a rope around his waist, to get the party's equipment and weapons which were left behind when they were dragged out of the room. Dolxx found also some money and some extra weapons in there, which he took for the weaponry in their Inn.

They continued along the corridor and went through a secret door and then a second secret door. After this the corridor went downwards for a while. First right and then left. Raven and Axjack heard suddenly many small paws coming towards the party, and they went back to the stairs down. When nothing happened, they continued forward again and saw how many, many Rubble-runners wanted to into a hole in the wall. After all Rubble-runners had disappeared into the hole they continued forward. The corridor ended as usual in a secret door, but when Axjack tried to disarm the trap, he triggered it and got poison in him. He had to healed or he might have died. The corridor ended into a huge room, 90 * 70 meter, with a river through the room. There were also small huts in the room, near the river. When the party entered the room a huge net fell down on them, but Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Raven managed to jump away from the net. After this about twenty small humanoids attacked the party. All three killed one each on the first round as also on the second round. After this humanoids backed away to the river. Axjack was cut loose from the net and the party backed out of the room. The wanted a deal for letting the party pass through their cave. The party had to meet in single combat their champion, a woman, and if they won they would have free passage, but if they lost, one of them should stay here for ever for breeding purposes. The others may pass this one time but never return again. The party could not accept the terms and Raven wanted to burn down the huts, but he suddenly was hit by a critical spear hit and passed out. After this a tactical retreat out from the room was made.

The party searched through the other corridors after this. One ended in a 6 * 6 m room which was 10 m high. In the ceiling was a hatch, but it was impossible to get there. A couple of other corridors just went around and ended back in the main corridor. After some secret doors again, one room had a rope-ladders. As Raven was sleeping, he was put to one of the secret rooms until he would wake up. To be able to follow the rime, the party had to pass the river, as after them would follow the steep steps. Not the ones which the party had taken for the steep steps earlier. After this the door to the big room was opened again, and a peace sign was shown for talks with the mutated humans of the cave. When they entered the room, Dolxx identified Eurmals mushrooms in one of the plant fields they had. The people still wanted to have their fight, but a different kind of deal was made to ensure safe passage through the cave and back plus help in passing the river to the other side of the cave. Also everybody of the party should get one Eurmals crumb mushroom. But the party accepted to do once breeding to one woman each.

The party was safely helped over the river in the cave and after this led to a 10 * 10 * 5 meter pit with steps down to the bottom. On the bottom was three beds with two normal sized women and one big woman, probably their champion. Kaid-aw as the biggest in the party bred the champion, while Dolxx and Axjack bred the two other women. On the south wall was a Death

rune with some text under it. The humans never had read the text as they were afraid of the death rune. The text which was written was as follows:

Through me the way into the woeful city,
Through me the way to the eternal pain,
Through me the way among the lost people,
Abandon every hope, ye that enter.

A search was made under the text, and Kaid-aw and Axjack found two secret doors, but Dolxx found five of them. First the second from the river was chosen, and Kaid-aw opened it. It ended in a room with two of each type of swords and axes on racks in the walls. Nothing else in the room. Everybody made search in the room and Kaid-aw checked also for magic with a detect magic spell, but here was nothing. He noticed that the leader of the people in the cave had an earring which radiated magic. The second door on the list was the fourth from the river. Dolxx entered again after Kaid-aw had opened the door. There was short corridor with a new door. As Dolxx opened the second door, and was about to enter the room, he noticed that the floor was a big pit trap. Nothing on the walls, but hooks on the ceiling in the room. Back to the last door from the river, but nobody found the mechanism to open the door and the middle door was chosen instead. It also was a corridor and second door into a room. In one of the corners was a pile of rubble, and suddenly from there jumped two three-armed chaos monsters who attacked the party. Kaid-aw retreated to the back line and started to cast a spell, while Dolxx and Axjack confronted the monsters. Dolxx' monster first dodged Dolxx attack, but on the last of its four attacks it fumbled and fell down for one round unable to parry or dodge. The attacks that had hit Dolxx didn't make it through the iron plate. Kaid-aw threw a cleansing spell on Axjacks enemy, but Axjack was in trouble, as his attack was easily dodged and all four attacks hit him. He was hit with them to -4 hit points and on the brink of dying. Kaid-aw had to heal him, while Dolxx had to fight both the three-armed monsters. Dolxx used IronWind

and hit the sitting monster maiming his leg useless and removing his dodge. The other enemy was also wounded, but not enough to maim anything important. Both the monsters hit Dolxx, but as normal hits could not pass Dolxx armor, only the last kick attack from Axjacks previous assailant was important. But even it failed to pass the tough armor Dolxx had. On the third round Dolxx first easily beheaded the sitting monster, and as Kaid-aw took away the dodge of the last remaining monster, Dolxx killed also it with his second hit. Axjack had to be healed more to get back up again. A search of the room gave a little treasure and a worthless duck statue, nothing else. The closest door to the river was opened, but here was nothing of interest either.

As the door furthest away from the river could not be opened normally, brute force had to be tried. Kaid-aw and Axjack took axes from the weapon room and started to hit the door. Suddenly some of them happened to hit the right spot, and the door opened. It once again lead to a corridor that ended in a door to a room. In the room was fine tapestries on all walls. The arty could not evaluate the price of the tapestries, except they were very valuable. Dolxx got a 01 in search and found the secret door everybody was looking for. It opened up to really steep steps, so the party was getting closer to the goal. The steps descended for fifteen meter to the east and then turned right and descended a further more of thirty meter before ending.

At the base was two corridor's, one to the left and one to the right. A big argument started between Axjack on one side and Dolxx and Kaid-aw on the other side to which direction they should go. Axjack wanted to count the right turn in the steps as the first right, while Dolxx and Kaid-aw did not count it as the first. Dolxx made up his mind and went to the right corridor and Kaid-aw followed. As Axjack did not go alone he had to follow the others. Soon came a second crossing with two corridor's, one to the left and one to the right. This time it was easy to chose the left as the correct one. The corridor went first many small turns to the left and the to the right. After this came again a place for arguing, as corridor went straight forward, but from it left two other corridor's to the left. As it was the right turns time Dolxx took the straight route for right and the others continued to follow him. Suddenly the corridor ended, but a search revealed two secret doors. Dolxx chose the left as he considered this to be the way again. It continued but ended with a skeleton lying in the end of the corridor. Beside him was a blue crystal. Axjack took and attuned it. It was a gem that would always return to the owner until the owner would die. A search did not reveal any new secret doors, so the party was not on the trail, but somewhere else.

Axjack got his mind through and the straight passing with the two new corridor's did not count and therefore they backed back up to the previous right crossing and took there right instead of left as they had done. Again it divided, but now into three different ways. The left most was chosen and it ended in a cave with stalagmites and stalactites. There were also three big rocks. In the end of the cave was water and three humanoids sitting at the water. The party did not feel this was Lord Skyppens servant and left quietly. But, but where to go now? Now they backed up back to the base of the stairs and took there left instead of right as they had done previously. They walked and walked, but nothing except ending corridor's were found. In one corridor, they found the corridor leading upwards, and eventually it ended in a door. The door opened as a secret door, just before the big, big room with the stream.

When they came back down again, another corridor they chose lead to a room. As they entered the room a trap was sprung, and bars started falling down across the entrance. Dolxx and Kaid-aw jumped back outside the bars, but Axjack did not make it and became trapped behind bars. They all cast all strengthening magic on, but could not lift up the bars blocking the door. In the other end was four niches and a lever on the wall. Axjack pulled the lever and four mummies came out of the niches, and started to attack Axjack. Dolxx and Kaid-aw drew their missiles and shot on the mummies, but it did not harm them very much. Axjack went back besides the door in such way that Kaid-aw could use his spear between the bars to injure the mummies from the outside. Dolxx first enhanced Axjack with first a good protection and then a good bladesharp and after this, he started to cast ignites on the mummies. Axjack made a good hit and severed one leg immediately, but then he fumbled and lost grip of his axe. He continued to parry and got back his axe and again severed a leg on another mummy. Then he beheaded first one and soon afterwards one mummy, while Kaid-aw killed the two other with his spear after they were weakened by the fire Dolxx had ignited into them. In one of the niches was a key, with which the bars could be lifted up again. After having used most of their magic points, the party decided to trigger the trap and sleep behind the bars safely. Raven was still sleeping and impossible to waken up after the poison from the spear that hit him.

The next morning, they started to look for new corridor's they hadn't walked previously in. On the way, Dolxx noticed a bat flying just below the ceiling of the high corridor and alarmed the others. Axjack cast a disruption on the bat, Kaid-aw some special spell, and then when the bat was turning back from the direction it came from, Dolxx killed it with an arrow. A previously ignored secret door was opened, and inside it was a statue of a dwarf. In it's head was a secret compartment with some treasure. In the other end was second secret door, which made it a shortcut around some corners. They also went in a room, which also was previously ignored, where was two coffins in one end. Obviously these might be vampire coffins, and Dolxx took a stick, while Kaid-aw and Axjack moved first one the lids. Inside was a vampire, but Dolxx immediately killed it by putting the stick through the heart and severed the head. The same procedure happened with the second vampire, in the second coffin. Behind a panel was a small silver box with the Death

rune. Inside it was some treasure.

They walked on and entered new corridor's. One corridor had a big Death

rune on the wall. Axjack went around the corner, while Dolxx and Kaid-aw stayed a little back. Axjack talked continuously as he went towards the end of the corridor, which ended in a dead end. Suddenly something bright flashed and Axjack's voice stopped. Dolxx and Kaid-aw peeked around the corner and saw Axjack lying on the floor. Dolxx followed as Kaid-aw went and rescued Axjack. Kaid-aw saw two small Death

runes on both sides of the corridor which had probably made Axjack unconscious. With some healing Axjack was OK again.

The last unvisited corridor ended in a door, but ended again in a dead end. Kaid-aw found secret door which opened itself to a room with four pillars. On one side was a homing circle where something started to materialize. The floor suddenly opened, but Dolxx and Kaid-aw jumped on safe ground. Axjack fell again down and was killed by the gnome engulfing him. Dolxx and Kaid-aw's weapons flew suddenly out of their hands, and two ghosts appeared. Also two stone creatures came out of the wall and started to close in. The Ghosts tried to attack Dolxx and Kaid-aw in spirit combat, but could not harm them and the ghosts were therefore ignored. Dolxx cast his flight spell and started to fly towards their weapons, while casting other spells. Kaid-aw drew his gladius, as his spear was up in the air. Kaid-aw faced the two stone creatures, as Dolxx noticed a Stoorworm materialize in the homing circle. Dolxx got his hold of his weapon, but could not at first rip it back into his own control. The second time he took it easily and flew towards the Stoorworm, which had started to emit poisonous gas. As Dolxx entered the poisonous gas he made a critical holding his breath and could fight well against the Stoorworm. The first mighty hit from IronWind

chopped off half of the tail of the Stoorworm, but it did not stop it. The mighty teeth of the Stoorworm bit hard on IronWind

, but could not pass through the iron. Dolxx decided to make his next attack aimed to the head to finish the Stoorworm off in one blow. The Stoorworm therefore got a second attack, but again it was deflected by IronWind

. Then Dolxx got in his mighty blow and clew off the head from the Stoorworm in a single slash. Kaid-aw had meanwhile fought well against the stone creatures, and was finishing off the first one, when Dolxx came to help. Dolxx needed again only one blow to finish it off. Then they both killed the gnome. The ghost were easily taken care of and sent back to the spirit world. After all enemies were killed, Dolxx and Kaid-aw dug up Axjack and resurrected him [In real life, the guy playing Axjack had fallen asleep in the late hour, but when we said: "Now we will resurrect Axjack", he woke up like he was also resurrected!].

Inside the pillars were a secret compartment in each one, and they had valuable treasure. In one of them was an iron box with a big gem on top. There looked there was no lid on the box, and nowhere to open it up. Eventually they tried to open it up by giving it magic points, and eventually it opened when the right conditions were met. Inside it was two scrolls, the deed to the mansion and the surrounding grounds and a second scroll which had Eurmals name on it. This was read, but taken with them for analysis at the Lhankor Mhy temple in new Pavis. In one of the pillars was Rockmolders axe, a as famous axe as Balastors axe, made of adamant. It is a even more tough weapon than Balastors axe, which already is powerful. If any dwarf would see it, they would immediately start to haunt the person having it, to get it back to them.

When the deed was now safe, the party went to pick up Raven, and the treasures they wanted to carry with them, and returned safely back to the A-TEAM Inn.

The annual Trollball tournament gave some action for the A-TEAM.
Did you read how the A-TEAM saved New Pavis with the Blue Bat HeroQuest?

Chapter 10 Lord Skyppen's Mansion

Chapter 10
Lord Skyppen's Mansion