The Gate to Runeforge

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Rise of the Runelords episode
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Episode no.	Episode 85
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell
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This is a work in progress.

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File:Xin's Stairway.png

The stairs.

Nathaniel woke me early the next morning. I couldn't understand how he could get up so early every morning, even though he was up late last night. I got up and warmed breakfast from the bag of holding. I missed Kaven preparing the breakfast. Not because it was much to do, but he did it better. As we got out of the magical camp it disappeared. Looking around in daylight I found a stairway a little further up, leading along the arm of the mountain-man. We left the druid circle and headed for the stairway.

As we went up the stairs the ground suddenly shook and huge earth elementals emerged and tried to throw us off the cliffs. There was a battle but we defeated them and they crumbled to dust. We continued up and reached a gaping cave. Its entrance was through the mouth of the mountain-man. I thought of how poetic it was that the earth would swallow us. Inside there were several big statues standing like guards along the walls. Or perhaps like teeth waiting to chew us. I sneaked up to the nearest one and took a closer look at it, but it was just a statue. I couldn't find any trap. Continuing through the room we saw how a slope continued down the throat of the mountain-man. I approached it and saw that there was a ledge that was very hard to see next to it. I suspected some kind of foul play and suspected a trap. I was right. The slope was very slippery and if someone fell down it I guessed that it would very hard to stop and not knowing how it ended it could very well kill you. I told the others:
"It's a trap."
"No. It's fun." Honeypot answered and went down the slide.
We could hear her shout fading as she quickly raced down. Nathaniel and I followed along the ledge that was just wide enough to walk down. I drew an arrow on the wall with my eternal chalk. When Velicia was finished with her studies and would come following us she would see it and follow us down the ledge. I held the chalk to the wall as I walk down drawing a line. I really like it and especially the color. The slide ended in a big hole that was several hundred feet deep. The fall would surely kill anyone unfortunate enough to slide down, but not Honeypot. Luckily she had magic things that could help her fly. With magic some people can survive even if they are too reckless. It could have ended in a wall with spikes and then she wouldn't have been so lucky. The ledge continued winding down along the wall. We went on looking down. At the bottom there were seven big stones in a circle and a pillar in the middle. There was a frost covered pile up to the pillar. It was glittering in the dim light. It was not only from frost. I quickened my step and put away the chalk. There was a dragon's treasure waiting for me down there. I love dragon treasures.

There were lots of things in the pile. Everything chosen by the dragon to be worth to keep. Who was I to question a dragon's ability to appraise what it found. But everything was placed in a pile of coins. There were thousands of coins. I had done it before. I poured the copper and silver pieces into my pouch of platinum transforming them into platinum pieces. I made sure not many gold pieces joined them. I like gold at least as much as platinum and with our bags of holding and handy haversacks we could bring most of it without too much trouble, but we had to make room for the things. There were tents, arrows, a belt, a box with stuff, a cloak, a flamberge, an armor with onyx ravens on the shoulders and a halfplate with wolf motif on the chest. There was a torch of power, six potions of recovery, bracers of archery and more. Many of the items looked to have a nomadic look with wolf motifs.