Stackman's Adventures (Chapter thirty-six)

[bsftcs]

The Liberation of the Stack

Being the thirty-sixth chapter of Stackman’s adventures

In which the hordes of Cet’s minions have so far no success in bringing down the party and in which the zenmaster worries about the mental abilities of his old sinsei.

The party left Stackman to his own thoughts and descended through a small shaft leading to the interior. After about an hour of crawling in the dark the party reached a torch-lit chamber. The room was decorated from the ceiling to the floor with hieroglyphs. In three places portions of the wall were missing. The three tablets. The warlock retrieved the tablets found in Collasium from her bag and placed them in the holes.

The door leading further into the pyramid was unlocked as if by magic, and the valkyrie flipped the lever on the wall. The adventurers were anxious; they knew this was the last time they would flip a lever in this adventure, and they had no clue as to how this would all end… or as to how famous they had become on the Ironworks Forum. They stared at each other until the loading sign obscured their view.

It soon became apparent to them that an anomaly had occurred. Checking the warlock’s self-turning hoursglass revealed that they had again suffered memory lapse. They were puzzled… What experiment could Stackman possibly want to conduct at this stage of the game. Looking forward to seeing the appendix to the chapter the went on seeking to rid the greatest Stack in the Gael Serran of all evil.

From the entrance room (room A on the pyramid map at Xignal’s Site) the party went through a small corridor to a room with two lines of pillars (room B). The door on the other side of the room was locked. Suddenly six adorned stone rectangles on each side of the room slided to the side revealing six rather aggressive mummies. The mummies were quickly dispatched and the door opened. That was a foretaste of what was in store for the party here inside Cet’s inner sanctum.

Through another corridor the party came to a room with two statues of Cet placed in niches on the west wall. The party went to the right statue and the barbarian lifted the seemingly heavy statue as if it were made from inflated plastic and moved it. Behind the statue was a lever formed as a jackal’s head. The valkyrie flipped it thus opening a secret room in the south wall in the eastern part of the room (room A on the pyramid map posted by Wyvern). It contained a treasure chest. There were also other treasure chests in the room. In these the bard found several empty flasks. He knew he would find yet more flasks in the chests to come. He took some.

In the next room (room C on on the pyramid map at Xignal’s Site) a welcoming party waited for the adventurers. Pit fiends and demon imps in abundance greeted the not so unsuspecting party. The zenmaster buried the creatures in a torrent of snow and hail. They were in a large hall. In an annex room to the west was a pool of water – holy water. Quite out of place in this demonic place, the valkyrie filled a couple of the empty flasks with the water knowing it might come in handy later. Perhaps it might even prove to be more valuable than they had ever imagined. They never knew who and what they might encounter…

To the south a corridor led the party through another room to a room with a pit. A fire hound was down there, but it was quite still. It had not yet been triggered. The assassin disposed of it, and the party walked on right into the trigger: Part of the floor gave way beneath them and they plunged into the pit. Fortunately a ramp on the wall led them safely back up again. They found themselves in an octagonal room (room D). Knowing they could also come here through another way they went back to the holy fountain room (room C).

From there they took the north corridor which eventually led them to a room from which two corridors enxtended westward. The northermost of these led to a balcony directly above the octagonal room. There was a treasure chest on the ledge here. It contained the book of “artifact of fiends” as a fixed treasure. The southernmost corridor wound back to the octagonal room (room D).

On the south-west wall of the room was a small lock opening a hidden room in the south wall (room B on the pyramid map posted by Wyvern) . To the north a corridor led through a room with an iron-framed hole in the floor and two trap doors on each side of the hole. On the other side was another small room with annexes on each side containing treasure chests. Eventually it ended in a small corridor connecting two rooms shaped like the number eight.

At the end of the room to the east there was a small gap in the wall but seemingly no way to enter through. They went through the west room and into a bloodstained corridor. Suddenly they had to run fast as portions of the floor were raised and threatened to crush them against the ceiling. At the end of the corridor was a jackal-shaped lever which the valkyrie flipped. They were now able to walk back without any further incident.

At the end of the hallway they were in for a shock. A demon lord lay in wait for them. Disposing of him the party noticed the place he had come from. Flipping the lever had opened a hole in the west wall. Inside a small room (room C on the pyramid map posted by Wyvern) the bard uncovered the fourth and final tome of creation, The Tome of Earth, inside a treasure chest. (The whereabouts of all tomes are explained by Sazeracon Page one of the Best Tips).

The zenmaster started reminiscing about the time when he had brought those tomes to the dojo master in Brimloch Roon. To him it seemed unfathomable that one could attain so valuable a role just by retrieving the drivel written in the four tomes. Furthermore it was apparent that the dojo master was not very well versed in arithmetic: No matter how many characters became a zenmaster he or she would always become zenmaster number thirteen. The zenmaster worried about his Sinsei’s declining mental abilities.

The wall in the easternmost eight-shaped room had slided to the side and the party was able to proceed through there.

Secret rooms encountered:

Room A on the pyramid map posted by Wyvern accessed by flipping jackal-lever behind statue of Cet at point XA.

Room B accessed by operating lock at point XB.

Room C accessed by flipping jackal-lever at point XC.


Appendix B: Experiment concerning the Kraokendon and the Black Fire

Just for the sake of completeness it seems that only the Mavin and the Staff of Death are eligible for charging in the Black Fire after the Kraokendon was ruled out by my recent experiment.

[bsftcs]

I promised to release this chapter before the twenty-fourth. So here it is. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As you may have noticed, the map thread to which I link, does not yet contain the pyramid map. This is but a matter of time, I hope, and I only posted the chapter now because I had promised to do so. It was in no way my intention to put any pressure on you, Wyvern.

In fact I would like to propose three cheers for our beloved moderatress for her help and involvement in the Stackman Saga thus far.

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

[macoati]

For both bsftcs and Wyvern...

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

[Bungleau]

Nice stuff, bsftcs! I know I'm interested in seeing how it all ends up [img]smile.gif[/img]