Stackman's Adventures (Chapter thirty-three)

[bsftcs]

Shooting Crabs

Being the thirty-third chapter of Stackman’s adventures

In which the zenmaster accidentally and in a very brief moment contemplates the thought of inter-species relationships and in which the party is awe-stricken with the ingenuity of ancient Collasian infrastructure.

Swimming east from the main entrance hall (room B on the Collasium map at Xignal’s Site) the party came via a two-storey lobby through a corridor. At the end of the corridor there was a revolving door with exits to the west, the east, the north and the south. Just to the left of the party there was a small receptacle in which the valkyrie placed one of the glowstones. This would open the door to the east exit of the revolving door.

The party stepped into the revolving door (room F) and stepped out into the east corridor. This led them to a room with four cages (room G). The cages were opened by operating a switch next to each of them and it turned out that three of them contained a crab. The party was astounded. It was rumoured that the crabs inhabiting the seas of the Gael Serran generally lived to a ripe old age. But these three had been incarcerated by the time of the fall of Collasium. They were many hundred years old. And the time spent in incarceration in their somewhat limited confinement had done nothing to appease them. On the contrary: They were quite aggressive, which, considering the power of Stackman’s party, meant that they were soon quite dead.

On seeing that the crabs had been alive by the time of the fall of Collasium the barbarian started to wonder what other ancient creatures were also living down here… In one of the cages there was a hole large enough for the party to swim through. This they did and soon encountered yet another crab of which they quickly disposed. They were in a tunnel which led to a spa room (room H). Here the elite Collasians had probably met all those years ago and discussed political matters, here the real decisions concerning the Collasian fleet had been made, and here the senate leader Senex Corruptor had had his daily bath, and here, perhaps, the citizens had sought refuge by the time of the Great Flood. Now the creatures of the sea had taken over. In a treasure chest there the bard found the second Tablet of Cet.

The party soon stood by the revolving door again. In the wall nearby there was another glowstone receptacle. The valkyrie placed the second glowstone there thus making the north corridor accessible. Passing through the north corridor the party soon found themselves in a room with two flights of stairs. Between the stairs was a door in the shape of a cockleshell. This led to a passage through which the party would soon venture anyway, so they took the stairs.

Through a winding corridor they came to a pool of water on which was floating a cockleshell-shaped decoration. The party jumped into the water and found themselves face to face with perhaps the oldest living creature in the Gael Serran – the legendary Mother of Crabs, the ancestress of the Gael Serran crab population, the toughest match for the party thus far, and yielder of a great many experience points. She was wearing rather well, and the zenmaster, who was on a regular basis having weird ideas due to too much asceticism, could not help but thinking that had he been a crab he would at this very moment have started excercising his best pick-up lines.

Killing the giant crab took quite an amount of time even with excessive use of offensive magic but then she yielded enough experience points for all the party members to level up. She also dropped the dagger called Talon’s Fang which Miruth had sent them out to find.

To the east a three way underwater passage led to the cockleshell-shaped door mentioned above and to an otherwise inaccessible treasure chest. While the bard looted the chest the rest of the party stared through a barred window into a room where a lone giggly mermaid was swimming around.

To the east of the Mother of Crab room (room K) there was a corridor leading to the central transit hub of the Collasian government building infrastructure (room L). A suspended cart, made brittle over the years, gave way before them and fell to the floor. On each side of the room there were three passages which had in previous times connected the building complex with other parts of Collasium. Now they served only as inlets for the cold waters and sharks. Fighting off a pack of the latter the party made their way to the third inlet on their left which was the only one from which they were not repelled by the strong currents. There was a treasure chest there. Inside it the bard found yet another glowstone. (Just to recapitulate: The locations of the three glowstones are posted by Bungleau on Page seven of the Best Tips).

[ 11-28-2003, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: bsftcs ]

[Bungleau]

Cool stuff! Looking forward to more... including more dialogue!

And I learned something else tonight... I would have thought that "recapitulate" meant to surrender again, but it actually means to repeat in a more concise form. I'm used to the expression "recap", which basically means the same thing, but never realized it was an abbreviation. Thanks! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Wyvern]

Wow!!! Another great one, bsftcs!!!

These chapters are coming fast!

She was wearing rather well, and the zenmaster, who was on a regular basis having weird ideas due to too much asceticism, could not help but thinking that had he been a crab he would at this very moment have started excercising his best pick-up lines.

I would NEVER have thought of that one! lol!!!


Wyv

[bsftcs]

Originally posted by Bungleau: Cool stuff! Looking forward to more... including more dialogue! And I learned something else tonight... I would have thought that "recapitulate" meant to surrender again, but it actually means to repeat in a more concise form. I'm used to the expression "recap", which basically means the same thing, but never realized it was an abbreviation. Thanks! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Glad to be of service. [img]smile.gif[/img] It has always felt natural for me, as a Dane, to use the non-abbreviated version of the word in English, since we use exactly the same term ("rekapitulere") in Danish. [img]smile.gif[/img]