#21 - Tunnel and Tomb

Here the narrative is picked up by the shifter Cyzicus of the Eldeen, a Loreguard ranger.

* * *

Now that my companions and I have found a place of shelter, there is enough time to reflect on our situation and how we came to be here. 

As we raced away from the bone bridge, we were gratified to hear the effects of Xoma’s summoning of magical darkness—the sound of some of our pursuers hurtling down to the giant worms in the moat below. Rendar and I half-carried, half-pushed Halbazar down the corridor towards the glowing door ahead, while Magnus and Doongul noted that the ghoul pack trailed us by a scant 30 feet. The length of the corridor seemed to contract, then to expand, as some magical force assaulted our senses like a sudden attack of vertigo, causing Rendar and Cypher to lose their balance and crash to the floor. Perhaps the druidic teachings of my master, Koruun, helped me, or perhaps my luck ran true this time, but I was unfazed, and easily able to assist Rendar. Xoma did the same for Cypher.

The door seemed to be made of brass or iron, not bronze as it had appeared from a distance, and was covered with glowing, crystal panels. Rendar and I quickly realized opening it would be best left to those with knowledge of the mystic arts, and we moved back down the corridor to face our pursuers as Cypher and Xoma moved up to the door. Although Halbazar offered us no aid in our flight, at least now he was content to stand near the door without hindering anyone. Perhaps his recent wounds made him docile. It both saddens and angers me that this is the best we can hope from our comrade under whatever malevolent influence now controls him.

Magnus and Rendar moved to hold the corridor against the onslaught, while Doongul invoked the power of Onatar to repel one of the foul creatures, and I took a position giving me a clear line of fire with my crossbow. We sought to focus our attacks to bring the ghouls down one by one, and use their corpses as a barrier against them, but they easily clambered over the fallen to close with Magnus and Rendar. Magnus took a couple of wounds, but was unfazed by the ghouls’ paralytic touch. We would manage to return at least five there number to true death before the combat was over.

Cypher tried the Emperor’s Key to get the door open—to no avail, perhaps because it didn’t appear to be the work of the Dhakaani hobgoblins. Next, Cypher drew on one of those skills of his that are simply beyond my ken to analyze the door’s properties. He divined that it needed some form of arcane energy to open, though he was not able to figure out the exact variety. This led to a flurry of spellcasting as he and the drow did their best to unleash every type of magic they had at their disposal. Finally, Xoma resorted to the bottle containing the vampiric cloud, and, with a laugh, opened it. The cloud drew life energy from Cypher, bestowed it on Xoma, and incidentally provided the necromantic energy the door needed to open.

Xoma took a look inside the chamber, reporting it contained six sarcophagi, double doors opposite our entrance, and a strange figure in the center.  The figure appeared to be a statue, wrapped in something that could not yet be discerned.

At this point, the rest of us spotted one of those nasty blade-fingered creatures approaching and realized we’d best withdraw immediately. I continued to fire bolts while retreating toward the newly opened tomb. Cypher brought the lightning-bolt wand into play, incinerating one of the ghouls, but exhausting the device’s charges once and for all. Eventually we all made it into the tomb, with Magnus and Rendar the last to enter. 

They attempted to close the door, but met with resistance from the oncoming undead. I joined them in the contest, and together we managed to slam it shut, severing some of the bladed claws of our foe. Then the door that had been so solid during our struggle, immediately disappeared, to be replaced by a new, darkened passageway empty of foes.

Meanwhile, Cypher and Xoma had found that the double doors were goblinoid work, and had a tomb seal on them, indicating that we had somehow popped up inside the tomb in question. Cypher again employed the Emperor’s Key, and as the doors opened, he and Xoma spotted two hyena-headed humanoids that we identified as gnolls forty feet down yet another corridor. Before the gnolls could do aught but utter a few yips, the length of the corridor opened up below their feet, dropping them onto spikes thirty feet below.

Cypher and Xoma heard barking noises and noted that the passage extended sixty feet, all of which was now completely open to the spikes below, before giving way into caverns from which more gnolls appeared and opened fire with bows. We quickly closed the doors, and I happily retrieved a couple of gnoll arrows for my own use.

As we examined the tomb more closely, Doongul observed that the stonework was crude, orcish work. The strange, central figure proved to be the corpse of an orc wrapped in petrified vines. My training with the Gatekeepers of the Eldeen led me to believe this orc had been punished for some crime, and that the vines binding him had been directed by druidic magic. The stone sarcophagi most likely contained guardians to watch over the orc’s imprisonment. I advised the others that it would be best not to disturb anything, but that we would not incur the guardian’s wrath by resting here.

We all agreed it was time for a rest, and with no threats arising from the open passage thus far, this looked like the best spot we were likely to find for some time.

As we settle in, there is one stray detail that may be worthy of note. All of the ghouls we fought from the cavern of the green worms were elves clad in rags that indicated they originated from Valenar. I have no idea why Valenar elves would mount an expedition to Paluur Draal, but the question may bear further consideration.

#20 - Sarcophagi and Skeletal Devices

Continuing with the story, as told by Magnus, Seren Barbarian and Bringer of Fire.

Rope.

We needed a rope bridge to cross the moat full of crawlies. Just one touch from one of those things had left me limp as Halbazar’s brain. And now there were dozens of them down there, trapped by the slippery walls, which was good for us. So far.

Luckily, Rendar had a handle on the situation and used Hal’s rope to rig up a bridge. It wasn’t long before Cyzicus crawled across, then me and then big and clanky. In the meantime, Xoma left us to explore the snake sculpture and the crypts.

Once we were all together, Xoma called out to let us know where he was out there in the dark. We formed up and made our way around the big skeletal snake coil and found Xoma talking (!?) to the hobgoblin-vampire mist, which had returned, and was apparently not attacking him. We sort of gathered around for a minute and spent some time saying things to the mist, nothing happened. It moved around a bit, but that’s it.

Cyzicus stayed put to keep an eye on the mist, which was keeping a misty vigil on us. The rest of the group turned to inspect the sculpture of bones, which really looked a lot like a couatl's skeleton. The couatls were lost long ago when they sacrificed themselves in the binding of great demons. Or something like that. This is more evidence that this whole mess is older and bigger than any of us.

Anyway, Cypher and the others were trying to see what the skeleton had to offer, and Xoma suggested doing a little lighted search of the area. I went with him with my lantern. It wasn’t long till we found that lots of the sarcophagi were strewn all across the floor of this great chasm, and Xoma suggested we open one up.

I wasn’t about to let some new stinking corpse attack us without letting the gang know what was coming, though. Rendar came over to see it through. After a few false starts, Xoma and I moved a sarcophagus lid a few inches and were rewarded by an awful smell and some flailing tongue slithering out at us. I tried to get the lid back on but the thing inside was too fast and strong.

The lid was shoved aside and two dead elves attacked us, staying inside their crypt. Rendar killed one ghoul outright with his swords, Doongal cast some spell that burned the other one and then Xoma hit the whole thing with his thunderbolt.  All dead (again).

In the meantime, Cypher discovered that the couatl sculpture was some kind of magic mechanism, maybe transportation? But he didn’t see how to work it. With nothing much here, we decided to make out way across the floor to the glowing windows. We soon noticed that the one of the windows had a figure in it. Size, large. As we started to walk, we saw even more figures appear in the windows. Then, what seemed like a door opened up and lots of large man-shapes started charging us. The mist moved toward them and was lost in the dark. We started to think that getting out of here was a good idea. I took a careful look and I’m pretty sure we were facing about ten of the things. That is, until the crypts started to open up and disgorge more of the living dead.

It was definitely time to go.

We all ran back into the bone sculpture. The brains went inside to try to start it up and Rendar, Cyzicus and I set up to watch the opening/door. This was going to be bad. Lots of baddies headed our way in the dark.
Xoma started feeding some hill giant skulls under Cypher’s direction. It wasn’t long before Xoma started feeding them blood. That seemed to work. The writing on the skulls gave us some ideas about where we could go and we argued for a few seconds about which to use, settling on the "western mountains," hopefully! The baddies were getting close and Xoma told us all to bleed (a lot!) into one particular skull.

A glowing mist too shape in its eyes and spread throughout the couatl's spine and then the bone bridge re-formed.  But the other side was different from the dark passage we had left: there were ever-bright torches and some light at the end of the tunnel, for instance.

The baddies were getting much too close, time to RUN.

And run we did, out of there, chased close by the HORDE of rasping, quiet dead, including more of those long-fingernail-killers from before. As we crossed the bridge, Xoma cast a darkness spell to try to slow the bad guys and keep them from crossing the bridge.. hopeful to the end. We fled headlong into the unknown…..

#19 - Bridges and Bones

Too deep underground to tell.


Bridges of defiled bones...
Motes of cavernous carrion carriers...
Disturbing hobgoblin vampires...
Yet too deep to tell or care...

A tale of woe and foes by Doongul "Ironfoot" Soronath, dwarven warrior-healer of Onatar, Sovereign of Fire and Forge. Long lost dwarf of Soranathhold, cornerstone of the Hoarfrost Mountains and all the Mror Holds themselves. Doongul, brother and protector to the late Aeol “Master-Hammer” Soronath lost during the great battle of Cliffs Edge by Cyran scum and warforged fools who knew not who they were dealing with.

If it was not for the foolishness of our brave, “yet touched in the head” Captain Argun and the luck of the great forge of Onatar, I would be standing on one fine leg to tell you this tale.

So let me start off by saying my traveling companion and friend Magnus the barbarian needs to stay off the smelling salts and take to rehabilitation. Stop dreaming of dragons and fire as he is not going to find what he's looking for anywhere deep in these stinking holes built by other races that would be better served with dwarven influence and expertise…. Ugh…

Ahh, so where was I…. Ahh yes… we looked around the slime left in the pit of acidic doom left by our "friend," the dying Khyber Cube. Why was he our friends say ye… well let me say now, that corrosive cube was holding a rather powerful hobgoblin undead nasty. In the name of Onatar, the only good that has come out of this mess is the finding of the magnificently useless magical plate mail that our black elf plucked off the bottom… as well as a pretty, mithral symbol of the Silver Flame that will need to be studied at another moment. Although I am not currently in the best graces of this elf Xoma, he has proved himself a good ally and equally difficult foe. Deep in my heart, I feel there is something unholy and twisted within the elf, that a few smiting hits of my Onatar-blessed hammer “Aeol” might just set straight―however, he is on our side so I will just keep both eyes and one leg on him.



Magnus―chivalrous, battle-scarred, siege weapon of a barbarian that he is―rolled forward and asked me to open the other glass door… Looking to my left I see Xoma squeezing his bony, sinewy body into a ridiculously tight crevice in the rocks… Crazy elf… even with half sense he should have known better. You would never see a respectable dwarf doing such a thing.

In short time the group reformed and moved forward down a corridor… With the dark elf, Xoma in the lead we slowly made our way out to a balcony of sorts. We all stood in awe of an enormous, cavernous room before us. It felt nothing like the halls of my kin. This place was the work of something worse even than the orcs of Jhorash'Tal in the Hoarfrost Mountains. In the distance we saw red square-shaped forms as well as a 12-foot bone sculpture of a snake, a twisted macabre sight. This room reeked of unholy filth, mumbled Cyzicus.

In front of us stood a bridge of tightly-packed bones reaching across an equally tricky moat of carrion bate. A stench that cannot be described rose from the moat. Rot, old and new. Dead things that had better stay dead. Upon further investigation Cypher and Xoma notice magical glyphs upon the stone edges of the bone bridge―not unlike the one the warforged saw back in the "bone closet." With much debate from our group, I moved across the bridge with one leg. "I best not fall in," is all I could think. The walls of the moat proved to be supernaturally slick. Much like Halbazar's grease spell.

I scrambled to the other side with Xoma, Rendar, and Halbazar the Useless right behind me. Just as we reached the other side, who showed up but the same bony hobgoblin! Unfortunately, Cypher’s back was turned to the creature, who attacked in typical gutless fashion. Aye, but this time our party is out for blood ―or at least hobgoblin bones. Magnus attacked in barbarian fashion, making the dead goblinoid drop his weapon, in an all-out killer-undead-vs.-half-witted-injured-barbarian brawl―a fairer fight! Luckily for Magnus, our party rained holy vengeance upon the creature. Just when we had the wretched creature where we wanted him he managed to scramble across bridge and activate the glyph on the far side. The bridge of bones fell apart.

I watch in disgust as Rendar “Wyvernslayer” and his leashed dog Halbazar fell almost forty feet into a crumble of bones and filth.  Magnus and Xoma succeeded in leaping back onto the balcony, leaving me alone with the hobgoblin―with its fangs and inability to die properly, how can it not be a vampire?―on the far side. Smiting the unholy creature in the name of Onatar, I shatter his bony maw once and for all. At least I thought. His bony corpse hit the ground but dissolved into mist.

While this was happening, Rendar scrambled up to find large green maggot-worms moving towards him… Glowing purple scimitar in one hand and short sword in the other, he quickly dispatched the one to his right as Cyzicus made short order of the other with arrows from above.

Just as this last horror was over someone yells out “Carrion crawler! Watch out for their poisonous tentacles!" It was quite large, 10-ft. long, and rearing up with numerous legs and flailing mouth-tentacles. With great dismay, I watched as Magnus did not heed our shouted warning. He jumped down along the edge of the the slick moat and took the oversized worm head on! It bore down on him and lashed him with its poisonous tendrils. We watched as the barbarian went wide-eyed limp before the beast. Xoma, Rendar, and Cypher all rushed to his aid. With haste they quickly dispatch the gigantic creepy-crawly and scrambled up the walls of the moat with the ropes we were wise enough to bring. Just in the nick of time―as more of the gigantic green flesh-eating worms scurried and slithered in toward us.


There I stood with Xoma, Rendar, and bloodied Halbazar on the far side of a moat now swarming with carrion crawlers, looking at Magnus, Cypher and Cyzicus upon the opposite side balcony, wondering what to do… too deep in the ground to tell where we are and too tired of bones and the macabre to care.

So goes this tale of woes and foes by Doongul “Ironfoot” Soronath, faithful servant of the Sovereign Host.

#18 - Gelatinous Doors

Here the narrative is written by Xoma of the M’jai family, a drow wizard from a long line of Vulkoori chieftains in the jungles of Xen'drik.

*          *          *

I love bones. The presence of numerous bones reminds me that I am alive, and that my enemies are dead. Of course, these bones were of hapless fools who fell when attacked by an undead creature with enormous skeletal claws.

As we sat examining the bones and the chamber of the creature, Cypher set off yet another trap. This one was some sort of glyph that caused a force to exert pulling pressure on bones. Fortunately for him, due to the fact that he possesses no bones—one would have to be alive, or at least undead, to have bones—he was unaffected.

But then another trap went off, a pit in the floor. Cyzicus, Rendar, and Halbazar fell in, though I arrested the momentum of Rendar, who was holding Halbazar. For some reason, my feather fall spell seems to have diminished in power. Perhaps it is some effect of being so deep underground. Regardless, it did not help Cyzicus, who fell on some spikes and was moderately injured. I regret having to choose between companions, though I will not lose sleep about it; when two can be helped instead of one, I choose two. Split-second conflict requires split-second decisions. 

Meanwhile, Magnus, Doongul, and I fought against the pull of the bone glyph. Cypher remained unaware of what was happening. Using rope, we managed to lower ourselves down into the pit without landing on any spikes or other unfortunate protrusions. The area below the bone chamber was crusted in a strange lichen typically only found deep below the earth. I do not believe we are that  far down, but perhaps there is some sort of mystical connection between our location and Khyber.

We followed the lichen tunnels. It became clear that there was some strange mystical influence about the place. Eventually, the tunnel came to a pit. There was a small rim or ledge around the pit on either side, leading farther into the tunnels. The entire pit area and ledge around it were covered in slimy purple moss. A quick check revealed that we could not burn our way through through it without consequence. A fire spell produced nothing but choking fumes. I suspect that the fumes are a natural defense mechanism of the fungi to prevent its destruction.

We manage to eventually creep around the ledge. Doongul sopped up much of the slime in his beard and the others made a handy passage, so I just walked around. The tunnel continued for just a few yards beyond the slime area before it was blocked by two crystalline walls, enclosing a figure. Within the walls was a armor-encased hobgoblin skeleton propped up by… wire? Or string? It was hard to see.

Doongul tried to use the "emperor's key" to open the door, but that yielded nothing. He opened it manually, and that is when we discovered what had really happened. The skeleton was actually suspended within an enormous cube of slime. A Khyber cube, by the Common tongue. I had heard of such creatures, had seen one firsthand before, and had no desire to see my flesh melted off by its acidic surface, so I roared a thunder spell at the creature, slamming it back, so that we could retreat to the slime chamber.

Unfortunately, not everyone managed to elude the cube before it surged forward. It dealt grievous harm to the already-addled Halbazar. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was dead. 

We all maneuvered around the pit, trying to avoid touching the creature, while pelting it with spells and missile attacks. Eventually, the cube slid and fell into the pit. But that’s not where the confrontation ends.

There was something in the pit. It started to damage the cube from within until the creature collapsed from lack of internal stability. Then it leaped out of the pit. It was the hobgoblin skeleton suspended within the cube! This cannot be good!

We fought the skeleton, but it was nimble and quite strong. It seemed to be regenerating as we fought it, growing new flesh and shrugging off any damage we dealt it. This is not going to be an easy foe to dispatch! But perhaps it is not invulnerable. It fled before us, and though Magnus gave chase, it rounded the corner beyond the prismatic door and disappeared in the narrow cracks of a natural cave.