Meanwhile, the mystic stalker named Mike was a bit confused. Who was this poor person, who seemed to drag trouble to himself like a lantern attracts flies? The dungeons were certainly boring, when everything that was alive was dragged to the wimp and he was left to loneliness with the worthless artifacts lying around. The only entertaining event in this boring cave happened when he finally caught the man sent to kill him, and tought him a lesson. Petrus, that idiot who had banished him a while ago just because one of his wives was bored and wanted an adventure, had hired the assassin but Mike had proved to be a bit smarter than the poor guy. After knocking him unconscious with his Saal'thul, he had summoned a few wolves to eat the poor fellow. Anyway, he was starting to feel rather uneasy, since the new moon was coming closer and his lycantrophy (what it is, don't remember) had already been doing tricks a few nights. His body hair and beard had never grown this fast, which was in a way nice since he didn't have to use a gambeson under his chainmail anymore. But his breath smelled unbearable... The only person who he knew of that could cure this horrible disease, lived in a small village outside these stupid, empty but long caves on a pitiful island. And in both ends, the tunnels divided into a maze, and he had to spend hours to find the passages up and down, again at both ends... Well, this far nothing bad had happened and he trusted his luck. He had tried to keep this fellow alive for some time now, but the last attack by the Coblins had left him a rather nasty wound to his right arm. He would have to find a safe place and bind the wound, so the wimp who could help him find the passage was on his own for the next few minutes. Finding a safe place was no problem, since bad events rushed to the wimp, but wimps life had already been saved by Mike twice. He hoped for the best, and headed into the darkness. Chad's in trouble now, I'm sure of it. If I know you correctly, whoever's the next person... But let's not kill him. Yet. :twisted:

Random Garcia finally managed to say something intelligible: "Help me, for Petrus' sake!" Chad has no idea who Petrus was (having not discovered a shrine or read any books yet), and besides had problems of his own. What if those wolves started nibbling on HIS intestines? No, Chad was gonna play it safe. He discovered a little cubbyhole in the wall and decided to get out of sight of the wolves and the pathetic remnants of the screaming triplegic. /shape of cubbyhole/ XXXXXcXXXXXXX XXX c = Chad As Chad nestled himself into the hole, he heard a "THUNK!" and an unbearable pain gripped his chest. Or rather, a copper bear trap causing unbearable pain gripped it. Random Garcia dragged himself past the cubbyhole without noticing Chad. The wolves, in ectasy over tasting human entrails, did not notice Chad either. Random Garcia seemed quite stout, and continued to crawl out of the room with the wolves trailing him. As blood poured out of Chad's chest, he strategized how best to extract himself out of this trap with his remaining limbs...

Soon, after a few tries to force the beartrap open barehanded, Chad had also got his right arm stuck. The wolwes were howling in the nearby tunnels, and Chad couldn't hear Random's pleads anymore. It was evident that he had died... Chad wondered if the wolves were still hungry, and became even more worried. So, he picked up a rock from the floor with his other hand and hit the beartrap with it. It had two effects. First, the rock left a satisfying mark to the beartrap; he could get free this way. Second, it made a nice banging sound, and Chad could've bet that it was heard all the way to the surface. Chad's heart raged, and he stood completely still. The wolves were still howling, but a bit quieter than before, as if they had moved a bit futher away. He backed as far as he could, but the beartrap was connected to the wall with a chain so he didn't get far. He was just about to hit again, this time a bit more carefully, as he noticed the previous goblin looking at him and pointing the tip of Chad's sword at him. The Goblin was definetely as afraid of him as Chad, and it seemed to be badly wounded too. To make things clear, this is Chad's condition now: - All bodyparts wounded and he is weak * Missing a left leg * Torso and right hand trapped - Knows no gods yet - Has a lantern

Chad SLAMMED into the beartrap again, it made a MUCH LOUDER sound, but it started to chip! Chad was starting to gather attention however, and the clanging was starting to scare the goblin, the goblin WITH HIS SWORD! Chad threw the rock with ALL his might RIGHT into the fleeing goblin's head. The goblin went flying through the air, and tumbled, snapping his neck. He looked around for another rock to break it with, but he realized he was starting to get the attention of the other monsters! He grabbed his lantern from his trapped hand and and used it as a makeshift rock. Slamming it into the beartrap with the metal part made it broke, but it also made a nasty dent in the lantern, as if it mattered much. More monsters began to close in, so he hopped for all he was worth down that corridor, tripping occasionally, but getting up fast, because he knew his life was at stake.

Chad hopped like mad down a long corrider, but the monsters just seemed to be getting closer, and there were a freaking lot of them! Soon he was overcome by a veritable tempest of buffeting wings. What he had heard converging on his location was a swarm of bloodthirsty bats. The swarm strafed his back as they flew past, scoring his back time and again with bloody marks. Chad hopped like there was tomorrow; he hopped even faster and with more determination than when he won first place at the Atnam Banana Growers' Professional Hopskotch Tourney (he slyly remembered setting bear traps next to the beds of all the competing players the night before while they were still asleep. Perhaps this was divine retribution for his sins). The bats had circled back around to feast on his front side, but he was ready for them this time. Two sides of his glass-paned lantern were broken and spilling out flamable fuel. As the bats veered in for their strafing run, he swung the lantern in front of him hard in a 180-degree arc, peppering them with the flaming oil. The bats did not like this at all, and took a left down another passage, screaming "eeeh!" "Eeeeh!" After the haze of little flying predators has lifted, Chad discovered that he had hopped himself right into the front of a giant octagonal room. in the very center was a large, white, marble fountain. Chad was thirsty as hell, and hopped over to the rim of the fountain to take a sip. Right at that moment an orc rushed in, screaming "Me want your scalp!" Surprised, dropped his lantern and and suddenly gulped what he had sipped. As the orc's 2 axes converged on his head, he fealt a sudden locational jolt. He had been teleported to a pitch black room (his lantern was still in the fountain room).

"Yeah, well.. They always said that your eyes are not worth taking with you in the tunnels. But still, this is getting ridiculous!" he thought in total darkness again, as he tried to feel his way around the place he had landed in. It seemed to be a tunnel, and went straight ahead and to the other way. Well, he thought, since I have no idea where to go, I'll just go this way. Chad started hopping, feeling his way with his hand. Suddently he kicked something, and it rolled a few meters forward. Chad found it, and put it into his pocket. A potion of some kind, maybe it'll be of some use... After few turns and more hopping, Chad saw a light in front of him. A lit room! He had been starting to dislike the darkness, but as if the rest of the tunnels had been sucked empty of monsters he hadn't encountered any! He was curious, but even more afraid of repeating the horrors what happened a while before. So, he closed in veery carefully, and arrived to the room. He peeked inside, and the light hurt his eyes but he saw nothing dangerous. He stepped in. The room was remarkably well decorated, with pictures of hammers and other tools. On the floor there were several hammers and iron tools, and in the end of the room, there was an altar. Chad picked up the items, and walked upon the altar. As he did, he felt a special divine sensation, one that he had never felt before. He begun to examine the altar, and soon found out about the rites and myths conserning Loricatus, the god of smithing and machines. He sacrificed a few hammerd and iron tools, and felt his new god smiling down upon him. He only pocketed a lantern he picked up from the wall and an iron pickaxe and after a moment of consentration, he walked out from the room and started walking to the direction he hadn't come from. Chad's condition: - Relatively healthy * Missing a left leg - Knows * Loricatus - Inventory: * Lantern * An iron short sword +1 * A potion * An iron Pick Axe Do you find it annoying or good to start posting "Chad's condition"-tables after each post? Otherwise we'll just get confused about his inventory and stuff...

Chad walked for about 5 minutes and heard a clomp-clomp sound in front of him. He immediately brought his short sword to guard position and advanced ever so slowly. There were no paths of escape to the right or left, and if he turned around this point, whatever the sound was would have a free shot at his back. The clomping came nearer. Finally, something moved within the radius of Chad's lamplight. "Hi, me name be Mirthful Eviscerator!" Chad saw that his legs stopped at his knees--apparently he had lost both of his lower legs to the perils of this dungeon. Mirthful had cauterized both of his half-legs to prevent infection. Other than his legs, Mirthful was a fine specimen of warrior-hood, and had quite built biceps and rather long arms. "I see ya' be lookin' at me legs! Or rather lack 'o them!" He seemed a cheerful enough fellow for a biplegic. "Ya see, I drank from this fountain back wee that way, and was teleported to who knows where. After I was transported this orc swung this huge-ass axe at me legs and they just went bye-bye. But Mirthful has a mean sword arm, and I decapitated him just as I was sinking to my new height! Anyhow, now I've got me a chance to build up me arm muscles even more with these bladed crutches!" Mirthful waved 2 improvised crutches outfitted with serrated blades. They sparkled with a strange iron color, but didn't seem to be iron. Even though Mirthful was handicapped, he didn't seem to have any problems handling himself. "Say, matie, you want a bite of floating-eyeball meat? Damn tasty, these orbs!" Chad made good on Mirthful's offer and they took lunch together. Chad's condition: - Relatively healthy * Missing a left leg - Knows * Loricatus - Inventory: * Lantern * An iron short sword +1 * A potion * An iron Pick Axe Mirthful Eviscerator (friendly to Chad) - Full health * Missing both legs below kneecaps - Knows * Loricatus * Mellis - Inventory: * Lantern * Can of mushrooms * Can of Bananas * (2) adamantine crutches outfitted with serrated blades (equal to two short swords in combat) * Sharpened granite rock * Stethoscope

"Soo, watcha doing in de gaves, Skinman?" Mirthful asked, as they feasted with Mirthfuls' food. Tha man came up with the name by looking at him and his clothes (a bloodstained colth to cover his most intime piece of equipment), but no matter how many times Chad repeated his real name to Mirthful, it seemed that the name Skinman had already sunken in. Chad gave up and told him about the letter. "Ii letter? Intresting.. Me not likes that Decos guy too much. Once went to da town to buy food, and he ripped me to da skin as taxes.. Promised to show him one day, me did." So they chatted, and started wandering around again, as they suddently met a Kobolt. Mirtful's eyes started to burn, and with a smile he said "Let me handle zis!" as he raged past Chad to behead the kobolt. After a few steps he suddently fell down, and Chad saw the reason. A beartrap had stopped him, and he had fallen down. The Kobolt smiled grimly as it stepped over Mirthful, and stabbed with it's spear. The spear broke to small spikes as it hit Mirthfuls Ommel Hair armour, and Chad had a chance to attack the confused looking kobolt without any fear of the Kobolt blocking his strike. Chad screamed "Aaiiiyyeee!" and the slash cut the kobolts right arm off. It turned to run, but before it got any steps further, Chad stabbed it to the back and it died silently. Chad started removing it's Hardened leather armour, as he heard Mirthful sigh "could you give me a hand, mate?"

The Beartrap had completely swallowed Mirthful. As Chad pushed the trap outward with his arm and foot, Mirthful pushed outward with both trapped arms. His formidable biceps came into play here. With Mirthful bulging like a titan, the trap finally gave way and broke! "Thanks me matie, I couldn't have gotten dis without your help! Here, take this scrap 'o bear trap and use it as a shield! It's good as an improvised club as well! Now, let us be gettin' back to eating! Have some banana meat. If you be wanting more, just let me know and and I'll ask Bigman Mellis for some!"

The tunnels went on and on, as Chad was to discover a moment later. The tunnels got a bit more humid too, but dried again after only a while. There were plenty of things lying around, and soon Chad had a full set of armour, though it was quite a puzzle, with all parts from different sets of armours. Nevertheless, Chad had never felt himself this rich, though Mirthful had been smirking to the sight of him. Suddenly, the tunnel took a turn. Mirthful had gone to another tunnel, and they had agreed to meet up later. Chad woke up from the trance of hopping forward and picking up everything worth taking with, and took the turn to the left. There stood a damned plant, that instantly bit his left arm - hard. It fell to the side, and Chad screamed. He swinged his sword, and hit the plant, but it stroke again, luckily chad was aware this time and dodged the attack. He took a hop backwards, but it was no good, the plant reached him from behind the corner. So he hopped as fast as he could a few ten meters backwards and calmed himself down. "Just a plant, like an appletree or a dandelion! Come on, you can take it out without Mirthful." he thought to himself, turned around, and started hopping forward again. As the turn came closer, he saw the carnivore dandelion-appletree. It seemed to drool, but Chad wasn't sure if he was just imagining things and went on. It attacked, but chad bloked it's attack by cutting it's body in two. It flopped a moment, and tried to bite Chads kneecaps. After five minutes of salad-making, Chad decided that the plant was dead and looked around the corner... He saw a tunnel that went forward, and a few paces to the right, stairs going up! (To UT3, to be exact) Chad's condition: - Relatively healthy * Missing a left leg * Left arm unusable - Knows * Loricatus - Inventory: * Lantern * A scroll of detect material * A bottle of troll blood * An iron Pick Axe * A wand of striking - Wielding: * Leather boots, gloves (+2), armour * Iron helmet * Ommel hair belt * An iron short sword +1 Doesn't anyone else want to write to the story? Come on, new people wanted!

< OT> i dont feel like that for the moment. heh. But come on ernomouse, dont do the trick of the senseless character separation like we see in all horror movies xO ) < OT >

Wouldn't even gross my mind. =D