[This is the fifth part of the story I heard from my brother Corum about an unlikely band of adventurers known as the 'The Habibi Club'. They were:
Ewiz the Great a human wizard, Sir Buttskii a gnomish bard, Tate a halfling rogue, Kayne a human sorcerer, Goobus a rather fat human bard, Gilbert a human monk and Walter the White a half-elf druid. They had now met my father at the Kryptgarden Estate and had made their way into the forest to confront a baddie called Zallater the Half-fiend Durzagon.]
DAY 4 cont ...
While all the nonsense at the crypt was going on, Wendy the Wizard and Goobus the Bard had arrived. They had been on a special mission, but had hurried to catch up, not wanting to miss any of the excitement.
Just as they were coming up to the under-construction tower in the forest, little Tate had succeeded in opening the gate of the crypt. Some sort of Mutated Displacer Beast leapt out and attacked them. Just like regular displace beasts this was a large cat with four sort of tentacles on its back. Usually these were used to create illusions, but this one had the power to teleport people!
It leapt about and teleported away Wendy the Wizard, then Tate, then Goobus, then Gilbert and then finally Walter the Druid.
They found themselves in a dungeon room. In reality they had not gone far, no more than 200 feet away, but at that moment they did not know that. They were underground, in a small chamber made of freshly cut stone. It had that 'new dungeon' smell about it.
In a corner of the room was a weird looking idol, a squat monkey sticking its tongue out. There was an offering bowl in its hands. It all looked very magical. Tate was the first to go over and he put three gold in the bowl. He felt slightly stronger! Like he could take more hits during a fight. Walter, seeing the magic hit Tate in a positive way went over and put in a whopping fifteen gold! He expected to get a greater effect for the money but he appeared to get the same. He put in another two, but nothing happened. Goobus was next and he put in three. There was now 28 gold coins in the bowl!
Tate shrugged and took the lot. Everyone stood back, but nothing happened. Well not in any obvious way. Tate was obviously the sort of young scamp that liked to take risks.
Wendy the Wizard, always on the look out for opportunities to be silly went up to Tate and said in gruff voice - "Gimme the money!" and swung with her staff.
Tate was angry and kicked her in the knee (he was a halfling fighting a human after all). She was hurt but did nothing more than step back and shed a single tear.
Tate laughed and went over to the other side of the chamber where he had spotted some mushrooms growing. While he was doing that, Gilbert - a more sensible sort of fellow - went over to one of the doors in the room and tried to open it. It was locked so he kicked at it until it burst open.
After taking a few mushrooms, Tate joined the others in leaving the chamber and went forward down the corridor. As a rogue it was his job to check things out first, and he did his job very well by triggering a trap that fired darts at him. He yelped in pain and stepped back. He then stepped forward and triggered the trap again! He had a lot to learn about dungeons.
They were all going off in different directions at the junctions they found, but Walter was the first of them to open another door. Inside were three zombies. He called the other over and drew his scimitar as the undead attacked.
Goobus played his lute and sung a stirring battle-song, its magical power helping all of his friends. Wendy stepped inside and blasted a zombie with a Magic Missile.
Walter was swinging wildly, what he lacked in swordsmanship he made up for in wild enthusiasm. Unfortunately one of his swings hit the wall and his scimitar broke.
Gilbert came rushing in and started kicking and punching, driving back the zombies. Wendy used an Acid Splash spell and Tate tumbled in after everyone.
It was a large melee now, and when they all pulled together it really looked like they made a good team, surrounding the zombies and slaying them one by one. Gilbert felled two of them with powerful kicks sending the zombies flying into the wall to lie their silent and motionless.
From this chamber, they moved on down the corridor and opened the door to the next. Inside were three kobolts. They were armed with swords and spears, but were not threatening.
'Can we pass?' asked Walter.
Initially they asked for 10 gold for each of the kobolts, but this was negotiated down to 24 gold total and a nice song from the bard (Goobus).
Tate offered them some "hot chicks", whatever that meant, as he did not have any roast chicken in his pack, but the kobolts seemed to like the idea and this brought the price down to 20 gold and a song.
Walter continued talking to the kobolts, but Tate had lost interested. He started skulking around behind Walter, trying to find an angle for a quick pick-pocket.
'Stop that!' cried Walter in exasperation.
Tate had had enough of negotiations and didn't want to part with any of the money he had recently pilfered from monkey's collection bowl.
Tate kept skulking and Walter kept turning to keep him in his line of sight.
Finally he got so annoyed he swung at the annoying halfling with his staff.
Tate stepped nimbly aside and drew his dagger.
'It's like that is it?' he said as he stabbed with the blade.
Everyone else stepped back as the druid and the rogue now started fighting.
Tate was ever the troublemaker and seemed to be enjoying provoking the druid, but Walter had finally lost his temper with the annoying little halfling and he was trying to hit him as hard as he could.
Still, it was stunning to everyone when Tate took a misstep and put his head in the way of one of Walter's wild swings. The crack of wood on skull was very loud and Tate hit the floor like a bag of potatoes. He was stone dead, his blood and brains leaking out across the tiled floor. There was gasps of shock from the others. Walter went over to see what he had just done, as surprised as anyone that he had just slaughtered his adventure-mate.
Let this be a warning to other young adventurers. The Monkey God does not like to be stolen from, even just a few gold coins - and its revenge while it may come from an unexpected source - is always certain!
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