In both the southwest and northwest corners of the stables were two spiral staircases. They were each standing outside a door. There were also two dors on the north wall and three on the south. Which way was I to go?

. George stopped reading.
“What happened next?” Bard said.
“Yes,” said Britt. “Do not leave off here. Just when it gets interesting.. Are you too tired to continue?”
“That is not it, said George. “This is the end of the journal. I am on the last page.”
“You mean to tell me that he never finished the journal?”
“Maybe he did not have time to write any more in the book,” Balon said. “Once he was in the castle, he probably did not have time to do anything except thinking about surviving.”
“What is that paper on the floor?” Massacharamar said.
George reached down and picked up what looked like a letter. “It must have fallen from the journal.
George opened it up and saw that it was written in the common language. It read:
“If you are reading this journal, you used a read spell on it and are obviously reading it in the common language. If you read it in the hobgoblin or ogre language, you mostly likely did not get past the first few sentences and were too embarrassed to read any further.
“Obviously you have intruded in my and Stephan’s abode. If you have survived my traps so far, congratulations. In my first entry, you will notice that I mentioned that I packed journal’s in my unworthy backpack. I have filled them with my adventures in that haunted castle and have them hidden throughout the caverns of Kilda Aalda.
“If you find the other journal, even though I never liked intruders, you are worthy adventurers and deserve it. The only thing I am going to say is to look for the journal in a dry place.”
“Joban, the Powerful.”
“Well,” George said, miffed. “That was a very sneaky thing for Joban to do. What did he think, that people would just take his things without asking.”
“Joban, the Sneaky, that name does fit him,” said Britt.

Chapter Ten
?

“Where do we explore next?” Britt asked the group the next morning after they woke up and ate a small breakfast.
“We should start from where we first entered the fortress,” Balon said. The lounge and the dining room are just to the east of there and the Wizard’s annex is to the north. Still there are other areas to the north and south of these. Then we still have the entire west wing.”
“Let’s get down to the main entrance,” Britt said. “Don’t worry George, we will not have to hear that warning again; we will not go outside.”
“I am so glad that we are now sleeping in the library. I was starting to get a headache from hearing that same warning each time we camped outside.”
Within a few minutes, they gathered their gear and were standing outside the kitchen. George was studying his map. “Let’s go north of the wizard’s chamber,” he decided.

“Here are some stairs,” Johanna said. “They may go down to the lower lever.”
“Good job,” Britt said. “I never thought we would find it.” They climbed down the steps. “The funny thing,” Britt said, “I thought they would be steeper and dangerous that these. I also thought it would be darker. It seems just like we never left the first level.”
By then, they reached the landing and were on the lower level. “Um, Britt,” George began.
“What is it, son?”
“We are still on the upper level.”
“What do you mean? We just climbed down a flight of steps. Maybe the lower level is finished. It was rumored that it was never completed, they were mostly caverns and hardly any rooms.”
“Britt,” George said, trying not to laugh, “over there is Joban’s chamber.”
“George, you are right,” is this another teleporting room or something.
“Let’s try the stairs once again.” As they climbed, George looked at his feet while they were walking.
“I am sorry, George, for not believeing you,” Britt said as they walked.
“Oh, I am not mad. I think I know what is happening.”
They were once again standing on the landing, not far from Joban’s chambers.
“It is the way the steps were constructed,” George said. “I noticed that they do start by slanting downwards when we first started climbing them. We were actually going down.”
“So how do we happen to still be on the upper level,” Bard asked.
“I did not notice it the first time we climbed the stairs,” explained the thief. “However, this time, I noticed that after about five stpes, the steps started to slant upwards. This change is so slight, if you are not paying attention, you will not notice it.”
Britt barked out a laugh, “I would have been climbing steps all day and not getting anywhere if you were not here, George.”
A female’s scream pierced the fortress. Thinking it was a pahtom, they were surprised to see Johanna grabing at thin air as the floor under her feet opened up. She grasped with her hands and grabbed a corner of solid floor.
“Johanna!” Bard and Balon yelled and ran up to her. She was hanging by her fingers, trying to pull herself up. However, she was too weak.
“I can’t hold on!” she cried.
Forty feet below her was a pool of water that was about eight feet deep. If she fell, her equipment would weigh her down and she would drown.
“I got you!” Bard yelled, grabbing her wrists. Even though he was strong, he could not get enogh leverage to pull her up. “Somebody help me!”
Balon ran to his side and lay next to him. Grabbing the cleric’s hand they slowly pulled her up. Britt, Massacharamar and George got behind the magic-user and Bard and pulled them away from the hole in the floor. Soon Johanna was safely in Bard’s arms. He held her until she calmed down enough to kiss him on the cheek. “Thanks Bard, I knew you would be my hero.”
“I wonder if this is the way to the bottom level,” Britt said. “George, you are the lightest one. Maybe you can rapeel down on a rope and scope things out.”
“Sure. Now which one of us has the rope?” he asked. “Never mind, I think we have to find another entrance down below,” he said as the doors suddenly sprang back up and closed. George, carefully tapped the area where the trap was with his foot, ready to spring back to solid floor if it sprung open. However, the floor did not open again.

“I bet my life this is where Stephan and his men did their training,” Britt said looking around the room
“This look like the room at the warrior school,” Bard said.
Against two walls were large archery targets. Massacharamar looked at the holes in the walls where arrows had pierced when their shots were off. “I guess they needed all the practice they could get.” She walked a distance away and put her arrow on the bowstring. The arrow took flight and made it mark, dead center in the bullseye.
“Your shot are always on,” George said.
Bard walked over to some bars lying on the floror. Trying to pick one up, he gave up before he hurt himself. “These men must have been very strong,” he said.
“What is this bar for? Johanna asked. There was a bar attached, seven feet off the ground, between the east and west wall. Bard walked up to it, reached his hands upwards and jumped. Grabbing the bar with his hands, he started doing pull-ups and chin-ups. “This is more my style,” he said.
“This is for me,” said George. A rope was hanging from the ceiling that was twenty-five feet over their heads. He grabbed the rope and shimmied up it to the ceiling.
“We always knew that you were part monkey,” Britt called, when the thief reached the top of the rope.
Balon looked at different weapons that were lying around the room. “I guess they were also trained to fight.”
Bard walked over and picked up a shield and battleaxe. The shield was similar to the one he carried. However, it weight twice as much. “This was an excellent way to build their arm muscles quickly,” he said, as he noticed that the other weapons were just as heavy.
To the right of the training area were three rooms.
“This is pretty boring,” George said when they stood in the middle of the first room. Sparsely furnished it only contained a simple bed, table and chair. Even the walls were not decorated.
“Let’s go to the middle room,” Britt said.
Once again they were standing in a room that was a duplicate of the first one they were in.
“Is this another teleporting room?” Bard asked.
“I do not think so,” Balon said. “ I did not have that feeling that I experienced in the teleporting room.”
“Me neither,” said Johanna and Massacharamar said at the same time.
They left the room and were standing outside the door of the middle room. The third room was identical to the other two.
“I am just wondering,” Bard said. “If Stephan and Joban had all these people helping construct this fortress and fighting in the Barbarian Wars, where did they all stay.”
“These look more like guest chambers,” Britt said. “There must be an area on this upper level that we have not explored yet. We should go back to the library and look at the map. Maybe there is a room that we have to return to.”



33. BARRACKS. This large, open room is the dwelling place
for the guards and men-at-arms of the stronghold (most of
whom left on the last adventure with Rogahn and Zelligar).
Scattered throughout the room are about 40 common beds,
and about half that numbr of chairs and stools. There are
several large wooden tables along various walls, and at the
south wall is a large wooden chest of drawers which is empty
except for a few old socks, some common footwear, a few
cloth vestments, and other similar items of no special value.
In the southwest corner of the room the floor slants toward the
wall steeply and an opening (too small to give any access)
leads into the wall. From the faint smell, it is apparent that this
is some kind of crude toilet area.
The walls of the room are rough stone, but there are wall
sconces designed to hold torches, and various pegs upon
the wall. There are some odds and ends hanging from several
of the pegs: an old battered shield, an empty canteen,
a 20' section of light chain, a sheathed sword (old and rusty),
and a bearskin.
Monster:
Treasure & Location:
34. ARMORY. This irregularly-shaped room is designed to
house the arms supply of the stronghold. It is mostly empty
now, however, since many of the arms were taken along on
the last forway of the inhabitants of the hideaway.
When the room is entered, a slight whistling sound can be
heard if the adventurers stand quietly. If the door is closed
(unless spiked open it will close automatically one round after
everyone has entered, and even if so secured, there is a
50% chance that it will close anyway) and the second exit is
likewise closed, a howling wind will immediately result, with
an 80% chance of putting out any torch carried by the adventurers,
or a 50% chance to extinguish each lantern carried.
The wind will cease whenever either or both of the exits
is opened. Upon examination of the ceiling of the room
(which is a full 20' from the floor), two sizable vents will be noticeable
(neither providing usable access) to show that this is
a natural, rather than magical, phenomenon.
The rock walls of this room are mostly smooth, and there are
carved ledges within several of them. Wooden pegs also
abound, and there are some items still left in place on the
wall: a number of battered shields (several broken and in
otherwise poor repair), bits and pieces of body armor (in uniformly
poor condition), several crude bows (-2 "to hit" if
used), a quiver of normal arrows, two swords (one in good
condition), a dozen spears, two hand axes (one with a split
19
handle), a flail, a two-handed sword with broken blade, and
a dagger. None of the items appears remarkable, although
the flail, the dagger, and one of the swords seem to be usable
and of normal value for such an item.
In the extreme southwest corner of the room are two locked
chests, but they are empty. Both are large and bulky, as well
as heavy.
Monster:
Treasure & Location:


Chapter Twelve
George’s Dreams
After checking to make sure the door had no traps, he unlocked it and peered inside. It looked like this was another hallway and not a room. He listened, thinking he heard something.
“What is it, son,” Britt whispered.
“I think there is something in this corridor.” There was another sound, like a grunting.
“Balon and George, you stay in the middle. Britt, you cover the rear.”
They moved slowly and quietly down the hallway. After a few silent minutes, Britt halted the group and he peered around the corner. “I can see them up ahead. There are three orcs and they are fighting each other over something. One of them looks sick.”
“Should we try to talk to them?” asked Bard.
“No they are never good to try to persuade unless if you are involved in the black magic,” he said looking at Balon.
The magic-user shook his head. “ I know the dark arts but I avoid using them. There are always serious consequences when you use them. If I did, I would putting all of us at a great risk.”
“Do they have any weapons?” Johanna asked.
“One has a crossbow and the other has a battleaxe. If we attack, I must warn you they are like berserkers and like fighting in close combat. They will fight to the death and rarely retreat or surrender. They are not like goblins, who are cowardly.”
A smell reached Bard’s nose. “That smells like wine,” he said to himself. “Hey!” he whispered to Britt. “I think they have been drinking.”
“That will give us the advantage,” Britt said. “I do not see any chieftains; the look like they have been separated from their tribe. If things go wrong, we will retreat back the way we came. Massacharamar, get ready with your bow. When we turn the corner, we will rush them.”
When they stepped the corner, the three orcs did not notice them. The were fighting over a piece of fish. The one that look sick, just sat there with his back against the wall, sending grunting remarks to the other two once in a while.
“Massacharamar, take out the one with the crossbow.” The elf shot the arrow and the orc fell down dead, with the shift protruding from his heart.
The sick orc leapt to its feet and the one holding the battleaxe let out a blood thirsty yell and rushed towards the group.
Britt and Bard attacked the stronger orc. When it swung at Britt, Bard protected the dwarf. At the same time, Balon used his magic to fight the sick orc and Johanna used her mace against it. “Fire!” Balon yelled an the orc was consumed in flames. It screamed at it burned but continued to burm. Johanna struck it head and it fell to the ground, dead with a crushed skull.
The larger orc was harder to handle. It swung its battleaxe, trying to cut into the fighter and dwarf. Even though they were able to defend against themselves, they were unable to strike effectively against it.