Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
November the 25th
I must apologize to the future readers of this tome that it has been begun in the midst of things; would that I (or one of my predecessors) had thought of recording this volume sooner, but only just now did I realize the value that such writing may carry in times yet to come. My only hope is that I survive to finish the job I have undertaken.
Let me begin by introducing myself, and then explaining the situation. My name is Aranarth. I am an elven bishop, seventeen years of age, training in the “Proving Grounds” of Lord Trebor. I am not so naïve as to believe his claims that he had ordered the Maze to be built himself, but here I am still, aspiring for glory, honour, and fortune—to die perhaps. So many have died only in the ten days since I have arrived here—too many to list, but I shall try: there were Aragorn, Denethor, and Boromir, all human fighters; Gandalf and Saruman, both human bishops, and both greatly powerful before they were lost; Meriadoc and Peregrin, hobbit thieves; Gimli, Glóin, and Thorin, all dwarfish fighters; Isildur, Elendil, Legolas, Glorfindel, and Eldacar, all elves like myself, and all mages except the last two, who were bishops; and Bombadil and Roheryn, both gnome priests. I am certain that there are several others whom regretfully I have forgotten, probably a couple of fighters and priests (for a time, the beasts of the Maze were cutting us down like saplings), and I may have mistakenly placed a name with the wrong profession; I did not know all of these men personally. Several of the deaths were under what some might call “interesting” circumstances. One mapping expedition, of which I was a member, was wiped out in the “Monster Allocation Center” of the fourth level; one member of our team, Thorin, was mysteriously lost, not even given a chance to be resurrected at the Temple. Also, I have heard stories of a priest who accidentally blasted the bodies of two of his companions to ashes with a misspoken spell of Di, so upset was he at their deaths, and at the fact that the Temple of Cant’s success rate at the time was practically nil. In the aftermath, the Temple lost their ashes, and they were never recovered (among the trainees on these grounds, the Temple is affectionately referred to as the Temple of “Cant-do-anything-to-save-him,” although the priests have thankfully become more adept at their jobs lately, restoring my life not three days ago). But perhaps the strangest death of all was that of young Gildor, who died in his sleep from what the priests at the Temple of Cant called “old age,” although he was only 15 years old, and showed no visible signs of illness.
Our current roster consists of eleven people (I use the term loosely, as only one is human). Éomer, a human fighter, is the captain of most expeditions, being the most experienced among us. Sandyman, a hobbit thief, has also been seeing some action of late, although he had been sitting out for a time (another hobbit, Sméagol, has been sitting out for even longer; however, he holds onto most of our loot for us, in case tragedy strikes). Meneldil, an elven priest, knows every spell in the book except for Kadorto; he plans to begin training as a mage after he learns it. There are two new recruits, Farin and Léofa, a dwarf fighter and gnome mage respectively, and of course there is myself.
Sadly, the remainder of our entourage has been in the Maze for a full day now, and we are certain that they have met with disaster. The Temple tells us that they can only detect four spirits, and that the other two have already been lost forever, unrecoverable. It appears that the two missing spirits belong to Óin and Celeborn, both of whom were masterful warriors in their own respect, Óin being a dwarf fighter and Celeborn an elf bishop. The others of the missing are Balin, who, although less experienced than Éomer, is simply the strongest dwarf whom I have ever seen; Durin, another dwarf who had attained the title of samurai even before arriving at the Proving Grounds; Valandil, a gnome priest who, like Meneldil, knows almost every spell in the book; and Arantar, an elf priest, who is also fully trained as a mage and knows nearly every spell in both books. We are greatly indebted to these six, as they are responsible for our current funds and, almost as important, most of our maps of the Maze. Before we lost contact, they had drawn extremely accurate maps down to the eighth level of the Maze, and were presumably in the ninth when ruin befell them. Thankfully, if we can recover their bodies, the tithe at the Temple will be no problem; I hear tell that on one expedition, Celeborn found and successfully identified a Ring of Death without invoking its curse! I would have liked to see the look on Boltac’s face when they showed it to him and told him what it was (no doubt he already knew, but would rather have told them for a hefty fee)! They sold it to him for two hundred fifty thousand gold pieces, and our monetary woes have been greatly reduced ever since.
You may think that with all of these riches, we would divvy the gold, turn around, and walk away from here, living the rest of our lives in luxury, but this is not only about money anymore. The seven of us who remain are struggling to gather the strength the reach the ninth level and find our fallen comrades, and then to enter the tenth and crush the wizard Werdna, whom we have discovered is the true force behind this infernal dungeon; I would like to drag him out of his Maze by his ears, just so he can see my face by the light of day as I destroy him. There has been too much death doled out in this land since he appeared.
As far as our quest is concerned, we have no plans to enter the Maze again tonight. We have helped instruct Farin and Léofa in the way of things so that they can handle themselves fairly well, and we plan on doing more of the same tomorrow. Once Léofa learns the spell of Malor, we will teleport down to the ninth level and Balin’s lost team. With any luck, the Temple will be able to revive them.
—Aranarth
November the 26th
We lost Sandyman today. He was decapitated by a vorpal bunny on the third level of this blasted dungeon only minutes after setting out, and the Temple failed to save him. Unfortunately, we do not have time to mourn him properly, as with every passing moment the chances of rescuing Balin and the others become more slim; still, their chances are greater than Sandyman’s now. Despite this, we do not plan to delve even to the third level again until after Léofa masters the spell of Makanito.
And now we are left with a void to fill. Sméagol would be the obvious choice for our sixth man, although he is not enthusiastic about the possibility of death, and since survival is more important than treasure hunting at this point, we are prone to allow him to continue managing our finances safely from the Castle. Instead, we have found a new fighter to take Sandyman’s place, a human named Targon. He says that he is intent on becoming a ninja, and he seems to be well on his way already, but we’ll see how that endeavor pans out.
—Aranarth
Sooner than expected we set out into the “deep,” as Léofa learned Makanito after the first training mission with Targon. The vorpal bunnies should no longer be a problem. (I hope.)
(Alas, Targon doesn’t seem to be strong enough in certain areas to become a ninja; Farin seems a more likely candidate. Still, much time will pass before we see for sure.)
—Aranarth
November the 27th
early morning, surprised by ninjas, Éomer decapitated but recovered
noon, surprised by ninjas again, Éomer and Targon both decapitated, Targon lost
after some time searching, found a stout gnome fighter, Gwaihir
expect Léofa to learn Malor soon
Farin almost qualified for lordship; rather have ninja, but seems impossible
surprised by ninjas yet again, no casualties
more surprising ninjas, Farin lost
forced to halt again, found a promising dwarf fighter, Tarcil
late night; becoming too much to bear, Éomer decapitated for the third time in less than 18 hours, and it was us who surprised the ninjas (only four of them)!; finally his luck runs out and he is lost. Entire front line roster has been replaced in only one day. Éomer replaced with Grór, a dwarf; with luck, he may become a lord in a short time; as stated above, becoming a ninja seems an impossible dream
Grór is an odd fellow; although a dwarf and a fighter, his strength seems to be decreasing with training; Meneldil has learned Kadorto, but will remain in training as a priest until Léofa learns all his spells, and then they will trade professions
—Aranarth
November the 28th
finding a band of ninjas suddenly at your back is a truly frightening experience; no casualties to report this time, however
all goes well, Léofa seems quite cheerful, may learn new magic later tonight or tomorrow
Tarcil decapitated, but recovered; too dangerous, but still we cannot become stronger without going deeper into the Maze
Gwaihir in particular has grown much stronger. Resisted the temptation to become a samurai. It will take a long time, but he could become a lord; if we wait it out even longer, maybe a ninja (luck is his only weak point)!
we had a scare; surprised by a herd of bloodthirsty ninjas; Gwaihir killed, but recovered; close call
Léofa has learned Malor; he will wait until he has learned Tiltowait before becoming a priest (it doesn’t seem necessary to wait for Mahaman; in any case, it will come eventually), but now we can rescue the others!
looking back on the mission, we are lucky that we all survived; it seems more of a fiasco than a recovery operation
Grór, Gwaihir, Tarcil, and Léofa went; first, they forgot that Léofa only had enough power for the trip into the Maze, and then they realized that they had forgotten to bring the blue ribbon necessary to return to level 4 though the elevator, and couldn’t escape through the stairs because they didn’t have the bear statue. Meneldil, Sméagol, and I made two trips in to rescue them and the ones they had retrieved from level 4. They then returned to level 9 for the others, confident that they could escape, but were nearly devoured by a group of chimeras that surprised them and doused them in flame. They ran for their lives the rest of the way out, for they had also neglected to bring the potions of Dios that we have collected. they also realized later that among the junk they had taken with them, the blue ribbon still could not be found; they had forgotten it again! They made a quick detour through level 5 and then left the long way, since this time they at least had the bear statue to escape from level 4 by themselves. Fortunately, everyone made it out okay who went in that way today. Balin, Durin, and Valandil were recovered, although it seems that Balin was drained of some strength; sadly, the most experienced magician to ever brave the Proving Grounds was lost…farewell, Arantar. Meneldil was going to remain in training as a priest, letting Valandil become a mage, but frankly, Valandil is nowhere near intelligent enough to take on the task; Meneldil will have to do it. Léofa is still going to become a priest as well; both of them still need some time before changing professions, but perhaps someday they will both be as skilled as Arantar was. We are wondering where our ribbon went to, though; we may have to risk reentering the “Monster Allocation Center” on level 4 to obtain another. However, now that Balin’s team is as recovered as they can get, they will soon begin exploring new areas again. Perhaps I will be a member of the party.
We have decided that the new adventuring party will consist of the following: Balin, Gwaihir, Durin, Meneldil, Léofa, and myself. Eventually, we will try to talk Sméagol into coming with, perhaps replacing me; he may find something useful that we could not retrieve on our own.
late night; returned to the Monster Allocation Center, found another Rod of Flame and Ring of Death! whoever survives will be rich beyond his wildest dreams
level 9 has now been completely mapped, but no entrance to level 10 is visible; it must be a secret panel of some sort which we have not stepped on. we debated whether or not it would be prudent to search for the entrance now, or to wait for Meneldil and Léofa to change professions, and decided that we just might survive the journey as we are. I leave this journal here on the surface so that it may be finished by another soul, in case that hope proves ill-founded…
—Aranarth
tenth level is quite well hidden; stepped onto every panel on ninth, and still could not find it. There must be a door hidden in the wall somewhere, but there are many walls to check. The map reveals many wide open spaces which could possibly be hidden areas of the Maze.
I can’t believe we missed it the first time, but now we have found the secret chute to the tenth level! Mapping our way will be difficult, for Dumapic doesn’t seem to work. We deemed it safer to simply check our position first; looking at our map, we saw that level 3 has no areas of solid rock, and is therefore safe to teleport into from anywhere, so we cast a Malor to move 7 levels directly up in order to orient ourselves. Now we begin perhaps our most difficult task; the endgame approaches!
My hand still shakes; I met my death again today…surprised by mages on the ninth level…I must steady my hand and face my fear; we leave again soon.
Gwaihir killed by a hatamoto on level 10, but recovered; the most fierce fighters I have ever seen; much worse than ninjas, for certain
Gwaihir killed again, but recovered; mortals aren’t meant to see the same person die more than once, or to die more than once themselves; the mental strain is incomprehensible
—Aranarth
November the 29th
We were almost wiped out early this morning, surprised by a group of dragon zombies; we could not risk running, so we attacked full force with our most powerful magic and destroyed them before they could attack again.
On a more cheerful note, Meneldil has now finally become a mage! Valandil is replacing me for a time, at least until Meneldil is fairly well-trained; this way, a fully-trained priest is still on duty. We have no plans to return to level 10 for some time. (As an aside, it absolutely astonishes me how effective Valandil is in combat. It may not be nice to say, but it is true—compared to the rest of us, his intelligence level could be likened to that of a rock. A well-trained rock, yes, but a rock nonetheless. Also, his strength leaves something to be desired; he can barely hold his own head up, much less the staff he carries as a weapon. Still, despite these faults, his vitality and his piety are unsurpassed!)
Since I will be on the surface for a time, I will take this opportunity to detail our most important findings about the Maze. On the first level were found two keys, one of bronze, the other of silver. Also found was a statue which housed a spirit which called itself “Murphy’s Ghost” before attacking. Although its attacks were not very strong, I’m told that its defenses were quite difficult to break in the first encounter. Also found was a man performing some sort of incantation; what he was doing is not known for certain, for he cast the explorers out of the Maze before they could see anything; in the same general area, an elevator was found that passed through closed-off sections of levels two and three down to the “Testing Grounds Control Center” on level 4.
On the second level, two doors were found which, when opened, began spewing strangely colored, smothering fog, forcing the explorers to turn back. Later, it was discovered that while holding the keys from the first level the fog did not appear, allowing safe passage. Inside one room was found a statue of a bear, and in the other was a lively mechanical frog. Sméagol holds onto the frog most of the time, although I don’t know how he can bear it; it is constantly dancing and singing a strange song, and no one can get it to shut up, or even muffle the sound. However, it still proved somewhat useful, as it was found that both the bear and the frog gave the explorers the strength necessary to push open certain doors elsewhere on the level, opening the way to a golden key. (Oddly, this key does not seem to serve any purpose, except maybe to mislead; we haven’t used it yet, and I can’t fathom what could be done with it on the tenth level.) The third level, although it is where we do most of our training, contains nothing worth mention.
The fourth level, as stated before, is home to the “Testing Grounds Control Center,” which contains the “Monster Allocation Center” and “Treasure Repository”; the former is filled with monsters, although the latter is not filled with treasure. Inside the Allocation Center there is a strange room in which the voice of Trebor can be heard, where one can procure a blue ribbon that allows one to enter the “Private Express Service Elevator,” which gives quick, easy access to all levels between four and nine. Perhaps Balin could have gone directly to the ninth, but it was decided that the intermediate levels should be mapped as well.
Levels five, six, and seven contain nothing worth mention (although the sixth level contains a long hallway, in which a strange marking was found, the purpose of which is unknown; it seems to have nothing to do with either the keys or the statues), but the map of level eight reveals a curious design: it appears that the initials “R.J.” are carved directly into the shape of the passages of the Maze. What meaning these symbols have in such a context we cannot begin to guess. Also, it was found that the only escape from this level was either through the Private Elevator or through Malor, as the stairs leading from level seven suddenly dropped off and could not be reached in order to climb back up. Also, no stairs could be found leading downward. Of course, the elevator could also be ridden downwards, to the ninth level, where the only landmark worth mention is the secret chute that drops into level ten, which is located near the elevator.
The tenth level appears to be quite straightforward, as long as one can recognize a spatial distortion when one sees it. Space is continuously folding back in on itself, and in each new room, one must be careful when walking about so as to not accidentally return to the entrance. Dumapic spells do not work so deep in the Maze, so in order to orient our map, we must Malor directly up to an open level (one with no areas of solid rock) to check our position whenever we pass through a “warp zone,” as Durin calls them. The level appears to consist of a chain of separate winding passages, with each link connected to both the next link and the first. Werdna resides somewhere deep inside; at the entrance we saw a plaque which stated as much, and that he was so confident in his defenses that he would give us a clue. The clue he gave was “Contra-dextra Avenue”; none of us has the slightest idea what it could mean, but I have faith that we will find him soon and end his madness (unfortunately, I don’t believe that this will alleviate Trebor’s madness as well).
—Aranarth
all three front line soldiers killed but recovered, each on a different outing; decapitation happens much more often than being beaten to death; if only some way were found to defend against it.
Gwaihir and Balin both killed in one battle, both recovered; the Temple of “Cant-do-anything-to-save-him” is gone
Léofa has learned the last of his mage spells, but still has not met the requirements for priesthood. We hope that he could reach them with time, but we may be able to speed the process; however, it is quite dangerous. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk. In any case, instead of waiting for his piety to increase as a mage, he could begin training as a fighter, which he is qualified for. Since he is a gnome, his piety would still be relatively high, the same after changing as it is now. When beginning a new profession, strengths grow quickly; he could be qualified for priesthood in hours instead of days. However, time plays strange tricks in this realm, and this would cause him to age much more than would otherwise be necessary, and if Gildor died of old age at 15 years, the best course of action may be just to wait it out.
Léofa is also qualified for the profession of samurai; this unexpected opportunity offers another excellent possibility for his training and for our party formation. Yet another possibility would be to convert a powerful magician into a thief; he could stay in the back ranks while still serving a purpose in battle, and he could still open treasure chests safely to procure more powerful armaments and increase our already vast accounts. In order to get the most out of him, it would be best if the thief/magician knew both mage and priest spells—Meneldil could be the man for the job. Alas, this would make Sméagol obsolete, but I doubt he would mind. But as mentioned before, this may increase Meneldil’s age past an acceptable level; and also, what would the rest of the back ranks look like? Room enough for a priest and a mage, but no place for a bishop to identify the goods that the thief finds.
After much careful deliberation, two plans are produced. In the first, Léofa becomes a priest; Valandil then becomes a thief, and the basic lineup remains unchanged. This gives access to a fully-trained magician of each branch, and lock-picking skills. In the second plan, Léofa becomes a samurai and replaces Balin on the front lines. The empty space in the back rank is filled by myself. Meneldil becomes the thief, leaving Valandil as the fully-trained priest. This does not leave us with a fully-trained mage, although two party members will have all available mage spells, and two others will have much experience with low-level mage spells. It is difficult to judge which is the better formation; however, the second plan seems more likely to be put to use. If Léofa continues training, but his piety decreases somehow, priesthood will be out of his grasp for quite some time, but so will the profession of samurai; both options would be lost, and that may not be worth the risk of spending the time to train him. However, in this formation, a powerful magician is placed on the front lines and is vulnerable to attack; this is an obvious weakness in the arrangement.
Léofa has given the plans some thought, since they both hinge on his choice of profession, and had voiced his wish to become a samurai. It seems that the second plan is to be put into action immediately. As an added note, Gwaihir may yet become a lord, which will add even more magic to the party’s ability list. He could also become a ninja in the future (it seems quite possible, only very time-consuming), but then Meneldil’s class change would prove premature and unnecessary.
We’ve decided to go forth into Werdna’s lair
I met death again, at the hands of a mage’s Madalto, but these obstacles must be overcome. Fear of death must not stop us.
Another meeting with fate on ninth level; Meneldil alone survived the encounter, fighting against incredible odds to pull us out of the Maze. Amazingly, all of us were recovered! Not a single party member was lost.
—Aranarth
November the 30th
Finally! We have done it! The Amulet has been recovered from the evil Werdna! We have been rewarded with fifty thousand gold pieces each, which brings our funds past the point of one million! Also, we have been inducted into Trebor’s Elite Guard. We all left the battle with Werdna quite drained; I was the only one to die in the battle, but imagine my joy when I was resurrected and told that soon after I had fallen, the wizard had followed!
We have heard of a land called Llylgamyn that is in danger; perhaps we will go there and see if our experiences in the Proving Grounds can help.
—Aranarth
December the 1st
It hardly seems worth mentioning now, but I have deciphered the meaning of Werdna’s clue, “Contra-dextra Avenue.” The words originate from an ancient dead language, and loosely translated they read, “Against the right, come forth.” A quick glance at our map shows that, whenever entering a chamber of the tenth level, a step directly to the right of the door leads the unwary intruder back to the beginning of the level. I noticed this while mapping, but did not immediately make the connection back to the words.
—Aranarth
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