The Lakeview Chamber of Commerce The Tale of The Streets of Intrigue, Part the Second Douglas B. Jackson 2/5/02 Cast of Characters: Golan Elderberry - Douglas Jackson Selma Velis - Andrew Walsh Ratbone Bane - Jeremy McMillan Game Master: John Sasso

I am currently unobserved so an update is in order.

We just had another meeting at the Lakeview chamber of Commerce. It appears that there is going to be a certain unruly organizer appearing at the ship wrights hall tonight to talk to the workers. We have news of this happening in other places before, and it has always been bad for business. Our job is to make sure he doesn't show up for the meeting. We are not to link this back in any way to the Chamber of Commerce.

Selma and I meet up with Ratbone Bane. He will be accompanying us on this venture. On a dare from Ratbone I pick up a couple of swords and try to juggle them. Wow! I can. I feel a little more confident now. Ratbone comes up with a plan for this evening; we will ambush the organizer as he travels down Scumm street with his protectors. He will be the one in the blue robe. (Blue robe?)

We hightailed it to Scumm street and find the stable where the organizer will leave his carriage. Our plan is to place some barrels at the top of the street, and when the carriage shows up, roll them down the street to surprise and confound the guards.

The plan went off without too many problems. We surprised the guards and killed them, but when it came time to take care of the organizer, he vanished in a puff of smoke. Selma noticed a little blue beetle scampering away from the scene. We took the carriage and left town for a couple of days to allay suspicion.

We returned a couple of days after the incident and went to talk to Papa. He seemed a little put out about our inability to take care of the beetle blue robed organizer, but he came up with a solution. He is sending us to a certain ruin in Snarl swamp to retrieve a jade mask hidden there that grants its possessor control of snakes. Ok.

We start planning the trip to the swamp. Each of us hires some sherpas I hire three, Ratbone hires four and Selma hires six. It seems a bit excessive but we may need them.

We make it to the swamp without incident, and Ratbone shows a talent for tracking. Thanks to his skills we managed to avoid a large party of swamp elves. We really don't want to run afoul of them. I have heard many things about their leader Elgar, none of them nice.

Another party is narrowly avoided, a group of six Lizard Men. After we were sure they didn't detect us, we snuck up on them and attacked, killing the lot of them. Fewer to hassle us in the future.

It has been one week, and we are still wandering around in the swamp. I am not sure, but the frequency of swamp elf patrols seems to have increased. They seem to know that someone is here.

We found a small ruin this morning with an intact stairwell and decided to explore it. We took the stairs down and found an entry hall. Our lights frightened some bats, and the sherpa ran off. We thought we'd catch up to them later and trash some sense into them. Then we moved forward into the hall which was four inches deep in bat guano. At the end of the hall was a shattered statue. Selma examined the base and found the goddess Frogert's head in the rubble. We turned left and entered a chappel. It had a statue of the goddess Infusia in the center. As we examined the statue we heard something slinking in the darkness, two giant centipedes come loping towards us at a terific speed. We ran! Unfortunately we ran from the centipedes into a room full of Lizard Men. We ran back! We ran past the startled centipedes and back the way we came. As we ran we heard the Lizard Men encountering the centipedes and starting to battle each other. Better them then us.

After a brief rest break we started moving again. Ratbone found a secret door with a strange inscription on it "-- the -- this -- through -- Mortimor -- help -- God -- seek -- pass -- for -- only -- booson -- seek -- cherish -- -- Elgar -- -- -- aarrghhhhhh." We opened the door and entered the hallway. The door behind us vanished so we continued on and on down the hall. We finally encountered a curtain in front of us and pushed our way past it. It appeared to be a temple with eight black marble benches and three seated figures seated facing away from us. They seemed to be dressed in Snake Cult robes. As we approached them the three figures seemed to quietly sigh then they fell to dust.

We left the temple via the southern door and started down the hallway. Halfway down it a strange glowing red-eyed skull told us to join it in death and vanished. We continues on and encountered a pair of double doors. Opening them revealed a large round room with a haxamagrom inscribed on the floor. Floating above it was a skull with a bronze mask upon it. In a booming voice it asked us who we were. Ratbone cried out that he is a member of the Snake Cult and presented his snake tattoo to the skull. "Good enough" it stated, and floated down to give us the mask.

We went back the way we came in and tried to find the way out. Somehow we became disoriented and instead entered a strange room with a yellow cast to it. It seemed to have been an odd yellow mold of death. Six skeletons rose up out of it and jumped towards us to attack. We defended ourselves and vanquished the skeletons. Where they rose up we found a stone box, inside of which were some coins and a strange wand with a demon head. Selma took the wand, and Ratbone and I divvied up the coins.

We thought we found a way out. We came across a crevice that was crossed by a rope bridge about forty feet away. As we debated how to get to it, I heard the sound of wings, and we were attacked by giant bats. We managed to drive them away and also come up with a plan. I tied my lucky dwarven belt buckle to a rope, and we tried to catch the bridge. We caught it. I tied the rope off and we started crossing the rope to the bridge. Ratbone and I made it over with no problems, but as Selma was crossing, the bats returned and managed to dislodge her. She fell into the crevice. The last things we heard was her screaming from the depths followed by a flash of light and a booming sound.

Ratbone and I took the bridge to the other side and found the way out. We are going to round up the sherpas and start the return trip.