The Manticore Keep Campaign The Death of Teeba Douglas Jackson 3/7/2000 Cast: Dwayne - Douglas Jackson Alister - Martin Shaver Funbar - Andrew Walsh Teeba - Martin Melhouse

A reading from the Books of Stone as dictated by Dwayne the Dwarf.

In those days we were in the employ of no one but ourselves. We were in possession of Manticore keep, a bear cave that housed a mystical pool, a diabolical device for transmuting flesh and a cryptic instructional manual. We had just come into possession of twelve steel swords and thought their former owners, two evil Nagas we had met in the ruins of Drek's temple wouldn't need them anymore.

We had just returned to Manticore keep when there came a pounding upon the front gate. It seems that one of my countrymen had made the journey to join us. He introduced himself as Funbar, but we had a hard time getting more than that out of him, he was more recalcitrant then most of my race. Once we had made him comfortable we filled him in on the background of the keep and the surrounding environs. We are running out of protective jewelry but we were able to scrounge up a crown for Funbar to use.

While Funbar was getting settled I spent some quality time reading from The Book as we call it. The cryptic manual for the machine actually mentioned some names that sounded familiar. One we recognized as being the Mayor of Bervin. It turns out that he was feed to The Machine over 150 years ago. Good things were also written about a group known as The Witches of Lawn Oaks. I will have to puzzle over that later, time for us to go.

We were going to attempt another penetration of the Temple of Drek. Once more we walked the single kilometer staircase to the temple. We passed over the rotting Naga carcasses, if we keep these expeditions up I'll have to do something about them, and continued on to the temple. In the middle of the temple stood a huge statue of Drek surrounded by many columns. The temple appeared to have been picked over and abandoned, there was nothing of value left. Funbar searched the temple from floor to ceiling looking for valuables but was unable to find anything.

We were just getting ready to abandon our search when Teeba found a priest's vestment. She listened at the door then opened it. To our everlasting horror an army of skeletal warriors bounded forth from the open door and started to attack us. We put up a valiant defense but we were only four against a multitude. Funbar and myself were able to put up a credible defense but Alister and Teeba weren't so lucky. Within the first few minutes both had perished. Funbar and I fought our way to the door and retreated to the surface world. It was a long sad trek back to the keep.

We rested. Oh how we rested. Both our minds and bodies were in pain. But like all things that end, so did our. It was now time for vengeance! And as if in answer to our need we have two new members, the wizard Rodamace and Tara Nightshade. With their doughy help we would win the day. We were now totally out of protective jewelry, our last two items were lost in the Temple of Drek, a ring and a scepter.

Before we set out we journey to the bear cave so that Rodamace and Tara might drink from the pool and be rewarded. Then it is onwards to Temple of Drek.

This time we are prepared and have a plan, we will fight them in as small a group as we can lure out at a time. We journey down the stair and open the first door, three skeletons jump to the alert and attack. We dispatched them but more came in, I killed seven by myself but one got behind me and I was dealt a horrific blow from behind and passed out. I have it on hearsay that Rodamace slew the skeleton that gored me and carried me out to the stairs. It was a route we were once again out numbered and lost the battle.

I spent eight days to healing from my wound. During that time we traveled to Vinschadt to sell the Naga swords. We were able to command 240 gold for each of them. We spent the remainder of our trip shopping. We stopped by the smithy for armor and visited the local apothecary for some potions that were claimed to healing or protect the imbiber.

In what will be said was not our brightest hour, we headed back to the temple a Third Time, we are nothing if not persistent.

Once more we entered the fray, I quaffed one of the protection potions before we opened the temple door this time. I went into a killing rage and was able to defeat twenty-four skeletons. Unfortunately Rodamace was wounded during the battle, but one of the healing potions seemed to help him.

Once we had cleared out the skeletal infestation we found a long [long, long, long] tunnel that was leading back towards Vinschadt. We spent one day walking down it exploring but were stopped by a cave-in. I was able to shore it up to that it was safe to proceed. We started down the tunnel again but Tara had a little accident. She fell into what appeared to be a Goblin storeroom. It seems that this tunnel runs adjacent to a Goblin city. Tara was able to cover up the evidence of her intrusion so to not give us away. When the owner of the storeroom come by to see what the ruckus was we ambushed him. Looks like this was the warehouse of a pub, with a little disguise and some magical help we setup Tara to replace the bartender and headed back to Manticore keep.