April 17th
1932. BACK TO THE GROTTOS !
After a night in Buccaneer's we had a good meal in Outlaws Tavern and
then we entered the Grottos. But we didn't go straight to the deeper levels.
Now that Toronar had learnt some Elementary spells, especially the Teleports
spell which deactivated temporarily all teleports in the surrounding, we decided
to look what was to be found behind the teleporter array to the very north
of the first level. We went there but found only a can with some paint in
it. I was about to throw it away when Saba stopped me. She examined the paint
and found out that it was black eye-liner color enough for a lifetime of
a women. She tried it. We inspired her claiming that her eyes now looked
bigger and more beautiful.
With a happy girl amongst us we now were ready to go to the deeper grottos.
In the fourth level we first found another scroll of search demands. We searched
at the located spots and pulled the switches wondering what would happen
if we didn't. To the northeast we noticed a message that suggested to dig
in the Crystal Crypt. We asked ourselves what we would find there. Another
Crystscale ? Loads of magic crystals ? We knew that both would be quite heavy.
We had better armor and none of us had learned to use the magic crystals.
So we decided not to follow the suggestion yet. In another northern chamber
we found enormous Styxplate (735oz W9-A35-D2-S2-M85) even more protective
than the Manerobes. The Styxplate was well guarded. But with the sweet healing
water from a fountain that we found to the east we could recover. Fortunately
we didn't need the service of the raising water fountain we found in a chamber
to the west.
We went further to the north and found a side door in a long floor which
led into some small rooms. The rooms were extremely heavily guarded. We wondered
why. Then we found a little statue of a dwarf. We examined it and once more
Marina's touch of heavenly wonders brought the statue back to life.
It was an old friend of Mandrag who was caught by Thardans minions when
trying to free the Cassidian mage. He thanked for the rescue and told us what
he knew about the Grottos. Along to his words some sort of magic sphere prevented
intruding the chambers where Mandrag was imprisoned. He supposed that the
sphere was empowered by the mercenaries and myrmidons of Thardan and therefore
they all had to be killed in order to disengage the sphere. We shuddered.
If he was right we would actually have to chase them down ! But we had always
felt sorry for every single live we had to take along our way. We were sure:
there had to be another way to enter the prison chambers ! Maybe some of
the minions also were cursed by Thardan and could be saved once the evil
one was terminated. The dwarf didn't comment. He wished us luck and rushed
away. From far we heard his voice calling that in his room an item was buried
to the ground. We dug and found a brush which one looked quite uninteresting.
But it did fit to the eye-liner color, Saba informed us. Now she was able
to draw fine lines around her eyes. Well, now Toronar and I were the ones
that had no more comments to place.
We stumbled through the other small rooms, found another huge amount of money
and quenched our thirst from a clear water fountain. Then we returned to
the long floor and went further. We entered a room with two niches. We took
the right one and teleported to another part of the fourth level. Besides
another sweet water healing fountain and a curing fountain, there we only
found teleporters that sent us back to the first part of the level. Although
it began to stress our nerves it was a good fighting training. Finally we
accepted that none of the niches had a teleporter that led us to an interesting
place and went downstairs. The enemies down there were quite tough. Also
some tricky traps we hit. Fortunately a healing water fountain was to be
found. We didn't find any precious things. To the south some dangerous creatures
attacked us. Only by utilizing Marina's regeneration sphere we survived.
The sixth level was huge. At the entrance an inscription named it the Chamber
of Secrets. Cute boy that once wrote this ! The place was supposed to be
called the Labyrinth of Secrets ! We found many fountains of different waters.
We also found the teleport sphere the dwarf was talking about. Somehow nasty
were the big eyes that gazed at us from the walls. We felt inspected by them.
After a while I couldn't stand it anymore. By affect I took away Saba's
brush and paint and under her protest I drew some THICK eye-lines over the
gazing eyes at the walls. After a while the feeling of being inspected vanished.
But Saba was really angry. Only a tiny bit of her loving paint had remained.
The brush was ruined. She refused to talk to me for hours. And because the
others had been on my side she also refused to talk to them.
We found some interesting golden signs at the walls all over the level that
gave us some informations about mysterious jewels that had to be positioned
in three lines. Combined, these informations sounded just like one code.
Saba was angry but still with the quest and soon we were best friends
again. After a battle against Mastermages we found Cursegloves (17oz W5-A9-D0-S9-M27)
which rightaway went over into property of Toronar. The Mastermages were really
hard competition. One time Toronar was magically aged by one of them. Fortunately
we had a Youth potion at hand. Then I was magically burnt down to the bone
and only a series of healing spells of Marina could save my life.
After having explored every room and every niche of the level accidently
we came back to the teleporter array which formerly had brought us back to
the entrance hall. We tried again and realized that the teleportation sphere
had vanished. Now we simply could step over the teleporter. At the end of
the floor we found stairs down. We had found seven golden signs. Along to
the informations they gave us the seven described jewels formed a symmetric
configuration of two lines of three jewels each and one jewel in the middle
between the lines. The code seemed to be complete so nothing held us back
from going downstairs into the seventh level.
Down there we had to accept that no regeneration sphere worked. This was
quite dangerous because wild hordes of enemies attacked us from everywhere.
It took some time and blood until we made it through the labyrinth of backsetting
teleporters, one way doors and phasing walls. One wrong step was enough to
let us start all over. After one of the battles we found Wizgloves (7oz W1-A9-D9-S4-M20).
Finally we landed in a very strange Crypt. From a long floor many caves were
accessible through heavy iron gates. Behind them rumbling noise of dreadful
monsters could be heard. This really looked like a prison. At the end of
the floor another cave followed. But this one had some sort of locking mechanism
consisting of seven jewels each of a unique colour which seemed to be used
as buttons. Since we remembered the code of the golden signs the lock could
easily be removed. We entered the chamber and saw an old mage lying on the
ground. He was unconcious. We joined him to our party and Marina touched
his head. He moved a bit and we knew that he was alive but sleeping.
Since we were exhausted, tired and also seriously hurt we decided to
rest for some hours.
April 18th
1932. THE LAST CASSIDIAN !
April 19th
1932. FROM THE FAIRIES TO PIRATE ROCK !
April 20th
1932. SPIRALGEM AND LIGHTPEARL !
April 21th
1932. THE DREAMSTONE AND THE NORTHERN SEAS !
April 22th
1932. BLOODHAWKS TREASURE AND THE FAR SEAS !
April 23th
1932. INTO THE ZONE OF DEATH !
April 24th
1932. MERNOC DOOMSTOWN !
April 25th
1932. THE DAWN OF THE MOONWAND !
April 26th
1932. TRAINING AT KATLOCH BATTLEGROUNDS !
April 27th
1932. INTO THE LIVING CHAMBERS !
April 28th
1932. THE HEART OF STONE !
April 29th
1932. THE BIG TRIUMPH !
April 30th
1932. TRAPPED IN THE CASTLE CRYPT !
Mai 1th 1932.
FREEING THE MASTER OF ALL MAGES !
Mai 2th 1932.
A TRIP TO HELL !
Mai 3th 1932.
THE WITCH FROM HEAVEN !
Mai 4th 1932.
THE LAST STAND !
December 17th
1998. THE PRESENT DAY !
