#23 - Shrouds and Songs

As told by Rendar d'Torrn, a bounty hunter of House Tharashk

With the beast down, we were able to take a moment and evaluate.  Cyzicus and I recovered some gnoll arrows, while Xoma set right to work cutting off the eyes and mandibles from the "under-beast"—what we have come to recognize as an umber hulk. If those grisly items come in handy later, he can gloat about it then; I still say they're not very practical.  Cyzicus also inspected the arrow that was loosed from above upon the beast, as it was a most unusual design, with spiraling, serpentine carvings. Unfortunately we could not recover the arrow, as it seemed to be dissolving as we inspected it. It would not be useful. 

Magnus and Doongul had the right idea, though—they spotted moonlight through a window some fifty feet or more above us. I gave them my grappling hook, and they set about using it and Halbazar's rope to get us out of here.  I took up a position at the mouth of the cavern, so as to spot any more gnolls who would hinder our escape.

As I took up my position, I heard the sound of the grappling hook hitting the ground. I glanced back and could see Magnus, rope in hand like he was climbing, and the grappling hook on the ground beside him. Before I could fault my barbarian friend for impatience, I could hear the others conversing with a woman high up about the ledge where they were throwing the grappling hook.  She spoke just loudly enough for us to hear, like she didn't want anyone else to eavesdrop. My companions just called as loudly as they could, calling her to let us up.  

Doongul switched positions and hurled the grappling hook up again, and this time the unidentified woman unhooked it!  She asked who it was that she would be letting up. I returned to my companions and we introduced ourselves. I could see she was a thin woman, with what seemed to be a pale green skin, almost like a half-orc but she was far too slender. She did not believe us when we said we came out of the tomb of the orc, and believed even less our tale of being teleported from Paluur Draal. She asked if we found any treasures in our exploits.  Xoma mentioned the vampiric-smoke decanter, and a few other trinkets were mentioned, but then she cited something called "the goblins' key."

I never should have set foot in that tavern—the Bookmark. Serving coffee instead of proper ale, books lining the walls instead of trophies and weapons. Bah! That key has been nothing but trouble. But as much as I would like to be rid of it, we cannot risk releasing it to those who serve the Dragon Below. Cypher snuck the real key off of his neck while we bargained with the decoy. We tossed it up and after  brief inspection, the woman tossed down a rope-ladder bridge to us and said to hurry, before the "shrouds" came.

A brief glance back the way we came and there was a figure there. Ghostly almost, silent, in the shape a man, but not quite. Wrapped in a black death shroud, no discernible eyes or face. We began climbing the rope bridge. Halbazar climbed at the rear with me, manacled, but not offering resistance. Perhaps our luck had changed.  

Our luck hadn't changed. We heard the sounds of a struggle above us, and a female scream. Then a gnoll appeared, and we knew we weren't getting out without a fight. Severely disadvantaged on the rope, we fought our way up, while more shades appeared behind us. Xoma quickly used his thunder spell, the force of which seemed to break one of the gnolls against the rock wall behind it. Unable to fire my longbow, I threw a hand axe up at the gnoll, but without much success.  Magnus scrambled to the top, and I could hear him raging, and a gnoll fell past us into the pit. Cyzicus also climbed up and began attacking the gnolls. Xoma attempted to stab one of the humanoids in the foot with his dagger, and then climbed over, only to be knocked back off. Cypher was able to catch him just in time, but was forced to drop one of the pieces of armor we collected in the process. Maybe we can go back to collect it....

Not likely. More shades were coming. I slashed at them with my scimitar, but it was doing little at best.  It took Xoma's magic Cypher's touch, and Doongul's spells to obliterate them. Then I heard singing up above, reverberating across the stone walls of the hollow tower we were emerging into. Haunting and beautiful and not necessarily a bad thing. It almost inspired.

When I managed to get to the top, I could see Magnus and Cyzicus had dealt with the nearby gnolls, but Cyzicus was acting...strange. He advanced on the gnolls calmly and what appeared to be an old woman with wings at the opposite end of the chamber, near another exit (Magnus was standing in the doorway of the near one) but he did not attack them. It was clear this bird-woman was working with the gnolls, he wasn't loosing his arrows, what was he doing?  Everyone else managed to get up out of the pit but not in time to stop Cyzicus from disappearing out the other door with the winged woman. A harpy! The source of the beatific singing, with a face uglier than Khyber.

Magnus charged on the gnolls as and felled one, but the other gnoll brought down Magnus with a hard swing of his axe. With Doongul too far away to help Magnus, we then heard Cyzicus scream in pain beyond the open doorway. Xoma managed to get close enough to Magnus to use the vampiric cloud-potion to revive Magnus. Bursting outside, we found Cyzicus had wised up to the harpy's tricks and was fighting her—though she'd already torn ribbons of flesh off him. 

After the harpy and her gnolls were dead, we took stock of where we were. It seemed to be an old watchtower, which had fallen into disrepair. Xoma and Cypher decided to walk through the inside again, to see if we could get that armor back. I walked along outside the south of the tower, while Cyzicus went along the north. Magnus and Doongul stayed where they were.

As Xoma and Cypher got about halfway through the tower, more shades began silently floating up to them.  The pair ran for the far exit, and as they exited, it seemed the shades could not. Tempting fate (no, that's too kind—mooning fate and yelling “Nyah nyah, can't touch this!” is more like it), the pair attacked the shades.  The shades then stepped from the tower and fought back. Magnus ran through the tower to flank the four shades, and as Cyzicus and I rounded the corner to see the fight, we jumped in and lent our aid. Doongul was no where to be seen. His peg leg really slows him down.  

We thought we could make quick work of the shades, but four more rose from the pit. Magnus was no longer two against one (which if they were flesh and bone opponents, I'm sure he could have handled easily) bu six against one. Even a barbarian cannot stand against such foes, especially a half dozen incorporeal, ghastly shades, against whom normal weapons such as swords and maces didn't do well.  

As Magnus made for the other exit, Cyzicus disengaged from the shades we were fighting, perhaps thinking we had everything under control, but likely not wanting to lose any more arrows. Cypher infused my scimitar with some sort of power, and ran after Cyzicus.

Magnus had made it out of the tower, and was rounding the north face, passing Doongul and the manacled Halbazar in the process. I feared the battle would be over before the dwarf got there with his undead-burning spells, but I was unable to land a hit on the shades. Xoma and Doongul put the remainder of the original four shades down with their spells, and we ran after Cyzicus and Cypher.  

As he ranged further, Cypher spotted a bow on the ground.  It looked to be a weapon that could have shot the spiraled arrow we saw in the umber hulk, as it was adorned with serpentine carvings and spirals. Magnus said he'd seen shapes flying off in this southern direction, and so we set off in that direction, giving chase, but also just relishing being in the fresh air again.

It was evening, with the gray moon Barrakas full in the sky, and to the north we could see the light of a camp beyond a low hill. Also in the north, difficult to see in the darkness, loomed the silhouette of mountains. We didn't know where we were just yet.