Past Meet Present - What Masterful Sculptures!

Last night concluded yet another night of gaming for the "Royal Karameikan Fist Adventuring Company" and our adventurers have found themselves a fight that has left them in a bad spot.  We'll pick up right from the beginning and get right into the recap...
Looking about the large cavernous area the party quickly decided to split into three groups, with Shadow and Daisy going to the North to check on the section that had collapsed as well as the tunnel to the North, Temeris and Crispin going towards the south to examine that ledge, and Atvan and Forsev remaining to watch the way they came.  As Shadow and Daisy returned from the passage to the North which ended shortly after entering, and Temeris and Crispin returned after a quick look down another passage, Atvan suggested that Forsev return to the surface to watch over the horses which he eagerly did.

After talking only briefly they decided to head towards the Southwest, down the rock face to the floor fifteen feet below and to check out the branches of the cave system that went on from there.  Taking the closest branch the party headed off, working their way along having to occasionally backtrack as they found a short dead end and occasionally studying larger than normal rat tunnels that seemed to weave about the area.  Soon however they entered into a section with walls that had been worked and inside laid the ruined remains of defiled wooden coffins.  Initially worried about the bodies getting out, a quick examination showed that they had been broken into and nothing, not even the bodies, had been left behind.

They found that they had to back track once again and take another branch, and after weaving through the tunnels for a while they soon came to another area of worked stone.  This area was similar to the other in that within the worked walls were wooden coffins, desecrated, defiled, and destroyed ... and also emptied of their contents.  It was different however in that there was a wooden door against the far wall.

As Crispin looked through the coffins and the rest stayed back watching, Temeris rushed forward to the door and after breifly looking it over and finding nothing odd about it, pulled out his lockpicks and expertly unlocked the door.  Opening the door he found a worked stone room on the other side with no other apparent exits but two wooden coffins did rest inside.

He moved forward quickly to examine these, the only two they had come across that hadn't been tampered with apparently.  He noticed that they had symbols of Tyr and Helm upon them.  He debated a short time with Crispin and the rest about if they should or shouldn't open them to look for the Earth Blood, but soon he found himself morally committed to leaving the coffins alone and only looking within them if they had no other choice.  Leaving the room he locked the door behind him.

Continuing on the party found numerous other dead ends in which they had to backtrack, and numerous rat tunnels as well which seemed a maze themselves but led nowhere when followed.  Soon however they entered into a passage that sloped slightly downward and continued on for some distance.  After traveling a ways down it they noticed that it began to open up again into a huge cavern partially lit by a sinkhole on the opposite side leading to the surface.  The room was fairly plain itself with a couple possible exits and the rat tunnels they had seen throughout, but one feature did strike them as odd as their eyes scanned the room.

Near the center of the room stood a man-sized statue.  From a distance that they could tell that it held a lantern and a sword, but as they approached they could begin to see lifelike detail in the skin, the armor, the clothing ... in nearly every aspect of the statue.  Temeris marveled at the craftsmanship, but Crispin suspected a Medusa and spoke as much. 

"A real live medusa?  Just imagine our fame if we could kill the infamous medusa and we could use its gaze against our enemies!" Temeris exclaimed.

"There is more than one medusa and they aren't a good thing to mess with" Crispin retorted.

The deliberated briefly and as they did Temeris chipped at the stone to see if there was skin and blood beneath the stone, but the statue was stone clear through.  After talking about the famed medusa for a bit longer, and after a brief disagreement with Shadow about the value of going on knowing what lay ahead, the party continued.

Not far down one branch of the maze of tunnels they soon came to a section of the cave where the stone and dirt flooring looked as if it had been dug up and churned.  Temeris approached cautiously and as he started to walk out on the upturned earth the ground before him began to bulge and suddenly a massive insect like creature with massive mandibles and multiple legs burst forth from the dirt.  Even half buried still it stood nearly as tall as Temeris.

Temeris froze momentarily not sure what to do, introducing himself to the creature unsure if it was intelligent or not, and in his delay it spit a stream of green goo at him.  As it headed straight at him Temeris was able to step aside and the goo hit the ground behind him with a hiss.  He stepped forward attempting to stab at the creature but his dagger slipped from his hand and flew past the creature, and as Daisy stepped forward to swing at the creature her foot rolled and she stumbled sideways.

From the back Shadow put a couple of arrows into the creature and Crispin quickly used magicks to pick up the lost dagger and return it to Temeris who moved to try to flank the creature as he grabbed his dagger.  As he tried to rush past the creature turned and bit into his torso, ripping into flesh with a powerful bite that burnt with acid.  The fight continued only seconds longer and after another pair of wounds on the creature it quickly retreated back below the earth.

As it moved off and the ground stopped moving the party found that only a single wound had been suffered but it was a bad one that would leave Temeris's new magical armor scarred, and even with the healing given by Shadow to stop the bleeding and clean the acid a small trace of a scar would remain on Temeris himself as well.

The Fist continued on through the maze of tunnels, again occasionally checking out rat tunnels that were over sized, occasionally having to double back as they ran into dead ends, and often leaving a tunnel behind unexplored as another continued on.  With more and more frequency however they began to find more earthen areas that were upturned but yet didn't encounter any more of the strange creatures Atvan believed were called "ankhegs".  More disturbing however was the increasing frequency that they encountered the lifelike statues however.  A woman in robes here, a traveler in adventuring gear there, a dwarf covering his eyes with an axe, and as they went on they became more frequent.

Soon they stood in a section of hallway that had a number of statues, and ahead in the darkness they heard something large move.  They stopped and talked quickly about how to fight a medusa and decided it was best to cover their eyes and not meet its gaze.  Making blinds from scraps of clothing they prepared to move forward, Temeris in the lead.

Soon they entered a section where the passage turned north and south, and while they could hear the movement to the south a large statue of a lizard with a 6 foot body and a tail equally as long, with spiny protrusions from its back, caused them to pause and look it over.  They didn't wait long however and Temeris soon turned down the passage to the south, and as he did so he saw the tail of a lizard like creature moving off out of the room.

He moved forward cautiously and saw the tail of the creature disappear into the darkness down a corridor.  He asked everyone to stay back and he would check it out, and as he moved forward quietly he noticed a statue of a halfling sneaking along the wall with dagger in hand.  With a quiet chuckle for the humor of him doing exactly what this halfling was doing as it became stone, he continued on.  Soon his light revealed a large lizard, not quite the size of the statue but still sizable, laying apparently resting before him.  He turned and returned to the party.

"There's a big lizard down there but I think it wants to sleep.  Let's check another tunnel," Temeris reported.

With that they turned south again, towards the opening there, and soon found that the cavern while continuing on did open up and there was a pile of coins and other things just sitting there.  Temeris rushed forward and the others followed carefully behind, Shadow hanging back confused and suspicious of a pile of treasure just sitting in the middle of a cavern floor.  Soon she decided as the others looked through it that it must be safe if nothing had happened yet and they began to figure out how to carry what was before them. 

They began filling a sack and stockings with coins, gems, and jewelry but soon they heard a loud movement coming their direction from further down the corridor.  They stood to face it with only Daisy closing her eyes and Atvan remembering the blindfolds they had created.  As the lizard emerged into the light Temeris exclaimed with relief "It's only a lizard, not a medusa!" but as they looked at it Temeris and Crispin turned to stone almost instantly.  Shadow nearly met the gaze of the creature as well but managed to turn her head at the last moment.

With a roar Daisy rushed forward, eyes closed, and began swinging where she heard the noises.  Just behind her Atvan had done the same thing as his badger rushed forward trying to get behind the beast.  Shadow loosed two arrows before pulling her blindfold down.  The battle lasted only moments as the lizard seemed unable to strike out at the party despite their sightless state, and a couple of lucky shots later and with help from the badger the party heard a thud, but at that time Shadow also heard a large movement off to her left.

Guessing that the other lizard must have been drawn by the sounds of the battle Shadow turned and fired arrows blindly in the direction she thought the sounds had come from.  Daisy yelled out for everyone to move away and rushed forward to swing blindly, but stopped short and missed everything.  Atvan realizing the danger they were in decided that they were best off if she used her druidic ability to summon creatures to aid them.  As the badger rushed behind the lizard to attack he summoned first a minor fire elemental and then a trio of dire rats to assist. 

Under the combined attacks of the summoned creatures and the badger, and with a lucky shot or two thrown in as well, those left standing heard another loud 'thud' as the beast collapsed to the ground.  As Daisy and Atvan pulled their blindfolds away and opened their eyes however, they found that Shadow had suffered a number of bites and lay bleeding on the ground.  Atvan rushed to her side and quickly cast a curing spell on her, and while some of her wounds healed and she stopped bleeding she still lay unconscious.

Atvan and Daisy stood to look over things.  The battle had gone badly for them as two of their friends now stood as statues, and while Atvan was sure that it could be reversed it wasn't something within his power.  They looked through the pile hoping something there would help, but found little.  They did put the rings on the finger of Crispin that they could hoping one would reverse the situation but nothing did.  They tried smearing some of the lizard's blood on one of them but nothing happened with that either.  They traveled back through some of the areas they hadn't gone before and some they had but soon decided that they should return and watch over Shadow until she could awake and then they would decide what they should do next from there.


So our party now sits with Shadow unconscious and, worse yet, Crispin and Temeris turned to stone after encountering a couple of lizards with extraordinary abilities.  Where does this leave the party, what comes next, and what will they do about this?  Is this the end of Crispin and Temeris?  We won't know until next week it at least...