#107 - A Bear among Nagas

From the writings of a druidic stranger...

Upon waking, the first thing I remember was the shock of seeing the corpse of my companion, Duran. His arms and legs had been chewed off. I quickly understood that it wasn't the collapse of the ceiling that tore him asunder, but rather a most foul creature. The creature returned shortly after I awoke. It had the body of a serpent, easily twenty feet long or more, but the head that seemed to depict both human and demon in one. I have never seen one in person, but I knew it to be a naga.


I was in quite a predicament. If I didn't act swiftly, I might suffer the same fate, for I was sitting waist deep in a stagnant pool of brackish water, my hands were bound and sticky tendrils of some sort of water plant were fixing my in my current position.

The naga slithered towards Duran and continued to finish its meal. Perhaps Duran could still save me. Despite the gruesome sounds of my friend being consumed by a monster, I calmed my mind and focused into a meditative trance. This brief rest allowed me to regain my spells. I now had a choice, stay and fight, or flee.

Naga are no easy prey. They are immortal. The slay one is to merely forestall the battle, for legend says they will return swiftly: but when? A day later? A week? Mere minutes? I do not know. What's more, they are intelligent spellcasters, gifted with the magic of their creation. Perhaps with Iowerth at my side, I could best this unnatural abomination, but alone, I had no real choice. I had to escape.

My training saved me once again. I was able to meditate and prepare my spells even with my hands tied, some of which I could even cast. Freedom of Movement allowed me to escape my bonds and traverse the brackish waters with alacrity. I quickly discerned that a section of wall covered with the sticky kelp like substance was, in fact a passageway and I proceeded with as much speed as I could muster.

Luck was on my side, for the naga did not pursue me, though it reared up like a cobra, alarmed by its escaping meal. Perhaps I was too fast, or perhaps it was too full. I did hear it screeching out the Draconic language. I do not know precisely what it said, but the gist was clear, I was to be stopped.

Several small tunnels that I had not noticed before began to emit kobolds, minions of the naga. These kobolds were not nearly as fearsome as the creature that they served and I was able to dispatch them readily, but to my great dismay, I learned that I had not escaped unscathed. At some point during my unconsciousness, my most prized possession was taken from me. I must recover it. The rest of me had clearly been given over to the naga.

As I cut through the ranks of kobolds, they began to see their impending doom. One towards the back  climbed up the stone wall of the passage we were in activated an unseen level in the stone. Stone grated upon stone and a new passage was revealed, from whence came several gricks.

Gricks are large wormlike creatures with four tentacles at one end and a razor sharp beak. I have fought them in the past many times and always emerged victorious. Generally, they like to ambush their prey by blending in with the surrounding stones. This time, they had no such advantage.

I transformed myself into a cave bear and dispatched the gricks quickly. While I had a brief moment of respite, I knew that more kobolds would be coming, so I knew I had to press onward. Down the passageway was a set of stairs, at the bottom were two skeletons and the sounds of another battle.

Another battle meant my enemies had enemies. A trace of good fortune, that.

I paused for a moment to try to discern what was going on, but there wasn't a better way to gather information than to get my eyes on the situation. I charged down the stairs and launched myself into the room. Unfortunately for one of the skeletons, he was in my path. With one bite, I returned him to the ground from which he came.

In the center of the chamber was a jailed area with four doors. Beyond it, another passageway similar to the one I had entered from and a set of stairs. There was a track on the floor surrounding the jail. In the center of the jail was a large chest and across the way, several of the bars seemed to have been bent.

To my right was a badly-injured viridian naga, a female, slightly smaller than the one that I would have been feasted upon in the other chamber. There were a few kobolds near it with bows and arrows.

To my left was an all out war. A fuscous (more precisely, brown-, gray-, and black-banded), male naga was coiled and manipulating a strange, wheeled contraption. The contraption held the large, central eye of what is very likely a beholder, but where the body was and how they kept the eye alive is beyond me. Beside the naga was another skeleton. On the far side, engaged in battle with the naga was a towering human with tribal tattoos and bits of scale embedded in his skin and wielding a large bone of some sort. Next to the barbarian was an armored soldier wielding some sort of pike, a strange choice of weapon for such an enclosed space. To the left of her was a tall warforged unlike any I have ever seen. This one had pipes of varying sizes protruding from its back.

Attacking the soldier from the other side were two blackish oozes on the ground—black pudding, Iowerth called it. It is an especially caustic variety of monster that leeches up from the depths! Further back was yet another naga, only this one was bound to the wall with a myriad of metal straps and bands. A second warforged, smaller than the first, had scaled the wall and was applying some liquid to the metal.

I had only a moment to decide, left or right. I went right to finish off the more injured, viridian naga and raked through its body with my bear claws, sinking them deep into its flesh.

At this point a kobold, larger than any I have ever seen, stepped out from behind and launched an arrow at the adventurers. Luckily for them, it missed and the arrow sunk into the beholder eye instead. To be sure, I was uncertain of this one's loyalty. The soldier woman surprised me by whipping her polearm to and fro, cleaving the two kobolds in half and using the blunt end to smash one of the oozes. She is a formidable warrior indeed. The oozes retaliated by forming pseudopods and lashing out at her. One of the pods connected a mighty blow and she crumpled to the ground.

The brown naga was quite dismayed by the large kobold's shot and quickly closed a shutter over the eye, screaming "no, no, no!" I think that if we don't kill this kobold, he surely will. With the beholder's eye shuttered, he spat a fearsome spell at the large-piped warforged, creating a flux of dark energy. The warforged simply collapsed to the ground under its effect. Slain or merely incapacitated, I could never say. I do not understand the physiology of constructs.

This fight was not going well. I knew I had to dispatch some of these enemies quickly so that I could at least try save these potential allies. I launched an attack at the injured viridian, chomping with my jaws and slashing with my claws, but the serpent beast was to agile for me to actual do any damage.

The barbarian, enraged by the falling of his comrades, unleashed a fury the likes of which I have never seen. He swung his massive bone-mace over his head, twisted his entire body, and smashed the bone into the side of the male naga's head. White light trailed the attack. The naga's eyes seemed to roll back into its head and the sound of bone cracking was clearly audible, despite the noise of combat. The naga was dazed for a moment, which the human used to his opportunity to hit the naga once again, yet the mighty serpent did not fall.

The oversized and strangely-clad kobold, as if sensing that the armored soldier woman was near death, attempted to finish the job and aimed his bow at her, but he missed and hit the black pudding instead. Perhaps the naga need better minions, this one seems to be doing more harm than good.

The oozes once again formed pseudopods and surged at the unconscious woman. Even without looking at it, I could smell the metal armor she wore dissolving beneath their touch. Meanwhile, I was busy evading the attacks of the kobolds protecting the viridian naga.

At this point a strange metal dog-like creature scurried across the walls and ceiling and descended behind the female. The construct sank its fangs into the naga, eliciting a shrill scream, then climbed back up the wall. What manner of strangeness is this?

The brown male naga that refused to die lashed out in retaliation at the large human, spitting some vile poison at him. The glob of poison landed in the middle of his chest and with a single gasp, he also fell to the ground.

It seems that I may have signed my own death warrant by throwing myself in with this lot, but if this is how I am to die, then so be it. The female naga cast the same spell that the male had, this time directing it to me. The air rippled and the light dimmed, and I felt my energy sucked away. This banished the cave bear altogether, reverting me back to my normal form.

There were still many foes about, so I summoned the power of Eberron herself, conjuring a dark storm cloud just below the ceiling of the chamber. Connecting to the cloud, I brought down a bolt of lightning upon the brown naga and its nearby allies. The remaining skeleton was splintered into bony fragments and the naga received a nasty scorch mark, but still did not fall. Then, something truly unbelievable happened...

The oversized kobold withdrew a gemstone from his pocket and cast it upon the ground. In an almost familiar burst of telluric energy, a fearsome earth elemental rose from the worked stone! The kobold was too far away for me to hear what he commanded, but it did not bode well for those of us battling the nagas.

The second, smaller warforged, however, quickly climbed back down from the wall where he'd been working and, with a spell-like gesture, laid his hand upon the other warforged, reviving him in an instant. I now suspected the metal dog was bound to this smaller warforged.

If we can at least fell the two nagas, then we'll have a chance against the earth elemental. If we cannot, then I may see Iowerth sooner than I expected.

#106 - Domain of the Serpents

The Journal of Wynn Dennavar 

Zarantyr 24th, 999 YK

The naga on the balcony made idle threats I didn’t think were justified. We were told this was the Domain of the Serpents and that, if we groveled and cast our weapons into the pit, we would be granted an audience with our "betters." Although there was no chance of complying with its words, I remembered how the last nagas we faced escaped unharmed after wreaking havoc with their spells and acidic spit.

This time we were expecting them and didn’t heed its words.

We broke ranks. Magnus ran for the wall beneath the unoccupied balcony, I charged up the stairs toward the closed door. The clatter of approaching enemy reinforcements came from the side passages. I couldn’t see what creatures the others engaged, but they didn’t sound like mages. I needed to kill the naga before it could unleash any magic.

When the door gave way, I came face to face with a second naga. Before it could move I drove the Fang into its coils and unleashed the enchantment Talor had placed upon it. I don’t know whether that being would have approved this use of his blessing. While we were here to rescue the keep’s guardian naga, our motives for doing so were admittedly selfish, but in battle none of that mattered. I needed to make an impression on these arrogant serpentine spellcasters. And so I did. Nearly cut in half, its blood pooled on the ground and the creature screamed.

When the light and ringing from the blast faded, I heard an echo from below as someone–Simel – had the same idea about ending this fight quickly and decisively.

Magnus didn’t make the climb up to the balcony, but Clarion and Cypher did. Clarion tried to use the height to his advantage, engaging the first naga. Both snakes teleported away with cowardly magic, mine fumbling its spell in terror and hitting the ground thirty feet below with a distinctive splat. Clarion’s landed without further injury—until the warforged leapt down after it to continue the fight.

Descending the stairs, I finally saw—or at least became aware of—what the others were fighting. I felt strangely compelled to look at the monstrous creatures but that odd feeling made me wary about indulging it. One was larger than the largest dog, reptilian, many-legged, and many-toothed, and I later learned it was a basilisk—like the one in their Droaam stories. The other was an umber hulk, ogre-sized, insect-like and clad in the carapace of a colossal bug. Most of the others were averting their eyes from these two creatures, so I followed suit.

The battle ended a few short exchanges later. Throughout the fight I hadn’t seen Aleae, but the coat of acid covering some of the corpses look like the work of her spells. Magnus was in the worse shape; some of his dragon scales, which I think were intended to serve as some sort of armor, were dislodged and bent backwards from the gashes. It took most of our remaining resources to get him back up to any sort of fighting condition. Even so, it went better than I feared it would after how we had struggled against nagas previously. There would be more of them ahead, though.

While we patched up our wounds, Aleae had gone exploring while her invisibility lasted. She guided us beyond the balconies through narrow carved-stone corridors, past little crevice-like tunnels that only kobold-sized creatures could traverse. Maybe Simel in his distorted “king of the kobolds” guise could attempt it. (Why he was still wearing that guise after the kobolds we encountered were dead or fled, I don’t know. To be honest, it’s a little unsettling.)

We had to travel single-file. I was close to the rear, and at first could only listen to what the others said about where we emerged. The room was large, but we emerged into a narrow tunnel of bars approaching a cage (also entirely barred) taking up the center of the room. The cage had four doors, the one in front of us and across attached to barred tunnels, the side doors opening to the rest of the room. Dense fog blocked our vision beyond the bars. It smelled like incense. Familiar? Talor’s chamber had a similar smell, but this was more sinister and with a musky quality to it.

Not for one moment was actual treasure
suspected to occupy the chest.

A chest sat in the middle the cage, and none of us ventured to suggest opening it.

Magnus and I tried to bend the bars, but they were unyielding. Cypher unlocked the first door, checked for traps, and felt it safe to enter. A few of us did. Clarion sensed the presence of undead in one half of the room and took up a vigil, but they weren’t moving—had they not detected us? Unlikely.

From a certain point in the central cage a strange contraption could be seen against the wall opposite from the undead in a section of the chamber beyond the bars not obscured by the fog. It was akin to both a sculpture and a suit of armor: a series of plates and pipes welded to the wall, naga-sized, and very much occupied. We were certain that it was Arafin, whom we sought, for a female head with bronze skin and long hair was exposed. It was evident she was imprisoned within the serpentine armor. Aleae attempted to communicate with her, but she couldn’t speak and could only blink yes/no. Her answers weren’t particularly helpful.

It was right to suspect we were being watched. Once four of us (not counting Rungo perched on the wall of bars) were in the central cage, the enemy sprang the trap. A voice from the mist barked a spell, the chest flew open, and down became up.

We dropped toward the ceiling, which rose forty feet above us—suddenly below us! Aleae broke our fall with a quickly-enacted featherfall spell, so we floated up past Rungo, whose wall-clinging ability made her immune to gravity's reversal. Still in the barred tunnel, only Simel and Magnus remained fixed to the ground.

At Cypher’s command, the homunculus climbed down (up?) the wall and shut the chest, but the spell didn’t fade. Disoriented and unable to see our opponents, I had the feeling whatever happened next wasn’t going to end well.

#105 - Stalagmites and Stalactites

From the Analects of Simel, veteran of Karrnath 

Zarantyr 24th, 999 YK

This was no place to rest.

The burnt and blasted bodies of the gnolls, the undead orcs, the skeletal minotaur, and Halbazar lay, not where they had fallen, but where fire and ice had tossed them. The air thick with smoke and spent magics. We were, none of us, ready to face a new threat, but we had made too much noise and needed to make haste.

Cypher immediately began to recover Rungo from the ceiling where she had been stranded when Magnus's mace-powered ice storm had incapacitated her. Magnus, who seemed to have finally come to appreciate reach during battle, took the best gnoll bow he could find. I collected the salvageable arrows and stowed all I could carry in my pack. Wynn, who had been the target of a disproportionate amount of undead aggression, consumed healing potions and steeled herself for worse than what we had already seen.

During this process, a swarm of bats came screeching into the cave from one of the tunnels—the one in the direction of our primary foes—and seemed to divide in two. One group exited the tunnel toward an alleged chasm Talor had spoken of; the other exited in the direction we were going, toward the nagas. We didn't know what to think of this event.

Aww, c'mon.
This kobold surely wouldn't
hurt a fly,

We formed a single file and advanced down a rough stone passageway toward what we believed would be the prison of Arafin the Guardian Naga. Aleae and I led the column since we could see the best in the darkness, she with her eladrin eyes and me with my treasured night goggles. After a short march we came to a naturally-shaped cavern filled as far as we could see with stalagmites, scattered bones, and three natural wells. A particularly large stalagtite jutted from the ground at the opposite end elevated by a ramp, with two small humanoid bodies prone before it. The ground looked like it had once been filled with stalagmites but they'd been long cleared away.

Given a cave filled with the remains of the dead and our previous experience with deadly tentacled cave beasts that wore the shape of innocent cave features, none of us were ready to advance. I loosed two arrows at the large stalagmite formation to no effect. When I noticed that at least one of the small humanoids was still breathing, Aleae attempted to send a magical message of assistance in the Draconic tongue into its mind.  It took that opportunity to spring to its feet and dash up the ramp behind the giant stalagmite, revealing itself to be a kobold and very much alive and well.  Convinced that they intended to bait us in, I shot arrows at the second kobold and Aleae finished him with an icy blast.

"No, I'm totally a regular stalagmite."

If we were about to face a tribe of kobolds, I would give them something to think about. I altered the appearance, texture, and shape of my body, assuming a kobold-like form. While I could not reduce my stature to that of a true kobold, I would at least appear to them to be a giant of their kind. I should probably have informed my companions of my strategy as they are not yet used to my changes and were startled.

We were unwilling to test the dangers that awaited us in the cavern just yet. Magnus and Clarion both prepared magics of different sorts. I have never before seen the kind of ritual Magnus performed, but it seemed wise not to interrupt his meditation. After some ten minutes Magnus emerged from his inner world to tell us that he sensed that the chamber was filled with creatures shaped as stalactites—but not actual stalactites—and one large stalagmite beast hidden behind a bend in the wall. As one who can pretend to be what he is not, I could not fault them this strategy.

The suspicious formation at the end of the cavern was what it appeared—mere stone—but behind it was an exit tunnel. Much beyond that he couldn't ascertain as the natural stone of the tunnel gave way to crafted stonework which blocked his sight. I had only heard of earthly magics of this sort, but had been surprised to find my barbarous companion enact it himself.

With a clear picture of the dangers ahead sketched by Magnus and wary of the immobilizing tentacles we would surely face, Aleae volunteered to go first. With her ability to teleport short distances, an immobilizing tentacle would be less dangerous to her. She sprinted the length of the cave, dodging several stalactites that plunged from above and landing with organic thuds. The rest of us followed her path, avoiding being impaled by the the smaller cousins of the large stalagmite creature that came into view at last, tentacles whipping towards us. Aleae, Clarion, and Cypher were entwined by the sticky tendrils and held fast, then reeled in quickly after.

"Hi. I am, I believe, what the kids call a mofo."

I ran directly into the beast, smashing it with my shield. While my own strength would have been insufficient to the task, my shield's dwarven magic knocked the creature to the lip of one of the pits. I realized my mistake as my entwined comrades were dragged toward the pit with the toothy tentacled horror. If I had been more successful in my effort to push it fully into the pit, I am afraid my friends would have found out just how deep it was.

The creature's high pitched screeches didn't fit its rocky demeanor as its tentacles and body absorbed our blows. Seeing an opportunity, I stabbed at the beast's maw, but lost my footing. It clamped down, pulling my rapier from my hand. Switching to my bow I manage to plant an arrow deeply in its single livid eye.

"Okay, now this is a little awkward. No hard feelings?"

Cypher followed my arrow with a bolt from his armbow that discharged a dark energy into the creature, silencing it at last. The tentacles fell to the ground as the bulk of the creature sank into the pit. We were released, and quickly sprinted the remaining distance up the ramp and out of the cave. It took some effort to avoid the remaining the stalactite creatures above, which slowly shifted about in an effort to drop down directly above their prey. Those that had already hit the ground wriggled slowly, working their way back towards the wall, unable to attack again.

I would not leave without my rapier, so Cypher had Rungo retrieved it for me before we advanced up the continuation of the tunnel that had led us to this cavern.

After only a short distance the rough hewn tunnel smoothed before opening into a larger chamber of worked stone. Two more pits opened on either side of the walkway, while steps up to a door were flanked by a sort of raised balcony. Two more thresholds on either side of us led off into darkness.

I had hoped we would find a place to rest here, but before we could discuss our options a purple-black serpentine form slithered into view on one of the balconies above. This might have been one of the nagas we had encountered yesterday. If so, it had found time to rest as we had in Talor's chamber.

The naga looked disdainfully down upon us with its too-humanlike face. Then it spoke.

#104 - Halbazar the Infernal

From the Analects of Simel, veteran of Karrnath 

Zarantyr 24th, 999 YK

A fireball looks different from the inside.

A moments distraction searching for ammunition scattered about the charred remains of the gnolls was rewarded most unpleasantly. Even as I registered a chuckle from the darkness above, I found myself as the clapper inside a giant bell of blinding light and pain. I ran forward, squinting against the heat and brilliance, calling out for my companions to scatter, but couldn't hear my own words through the sound that had taken residence in my head. Despite the pain, it was obvious I had avoided the brunt of the blast. Magnus and Wynn had occupied its center, but neither were felled.

My bow at the ready, I scanned for the source of the attack and found two shadowy creatures scuttling down different walls of the cavern, their bulk belied by their speed. While I felt joy at having targets to punish for this latest unpleasantness and immediately loosed arrows at one, it was clear that they were not the source of the fireball. They showed no great intelligence or predisposition to “chuckling." Instead, they hurried towards us, mouths agape with prominent tusk-fangs gnashing openly, as if we were a long postponed meal. They were orcs but moved and fought like no living orcs I've seen.

None of my companions seemed in the mood to oblige the slavering beasts' hunger and ran to engage them. Magnus and Wynn both attacked my target and we rapidly ended the twisted orc-thing. Wynn, who was either familiar with the beasts’ vulnerabilities or, showing a disturbing window into her character, removed its head from its body with her partisan and kicked it some distance away.

Clarion and Aleae had engaged the other, and while I was not focused on their confrontation, Clarion appeared to interpose himself between his companion and their foe's slashing claws more than once.

"Don't worry, Magnus, you will die last," spat a voice from above from our fire-slinging chuckler. I would come to know that voice as that of Halbazar—erstwhile companion of Magnus and Cypher—but for now it was only confirmation that our attacker was not just concealed, but invisible. Cypher and Rungo used the cover of our combat to try to locate the unseen heckler, which, despite being the target of his attacks, they continued to do most methodically.

Aleae, once free of her opponent, guessed at Halbazar's location and unleashed a storm of ice which seemed to do him harm before she dashed out of sight. For several long moments as the battle progressed, it was clear that our enemy was a sorcerer and he dogged Aleae more than any of us: a dark wave of energy coursed into her from and she was forced to conjure her spell-shield against at least one blast. Even Cypher, who had continually searched for Halbazar, must have been targeted by a spell: the warforged stopped quite suddenly, briefly frozen in place.

His orc-dogs dispatched, Halbazar finally appeared, clinging to the ceiling as he uttered words which became a dazzling spectrum of lovely lights. And in that moment, it dawned on me: Halbazar was a friend, wasn't he? I had heard Magnus say as much once. Why I had not understood that earlier baffled me. He would protect us. There was no justification for this fight. I saw him standing there on the cavern ceiling, a human in nobleman's garb. Yes, he had been forced into a defensive vantage because we had persisted in attacking him.

I felt a joy at seeing him, the sort I have only felt when witnessing the life forcibly leave a Blood of Vol disciple. I smiled, and Wynn smiled back. Magnus smiled, I smiled back. I think they understood the folly of our actions, too, and stayed their hands. The dazzling colors continued to swirl about my field of vision like an afterimage of rational thought. They were so very lovely!

But Aleae was being unreasonable again. Even as she has fought with Cypher, she exchanged blasts of acid with Halbazar. Halbazar's ribs showed through his blasted chest and he was clearly pained by the devastating magic. Why would she do that?

Then Aleae strode up to me and struck me with her staff. WHY?!

Oh. Halbazar was no friend.

Understanding, I hurried to Magnus and punched him (it hurt me more than him), and I began to loose my arrows at Halbazar now that he was both visible and stationary. Rungo, still clinging to the ceiling like an insect, sprinter over and attacked the undead human. Magnus, shaken from the same spell of enchantment, bellowed what may not have been words and ran to the ground forty feet directly beneath Halbazar. He slammed his massive bone-mace to the ground and another ice storm erupted around him that reached to the ceiling engulfing both Halbazar and Rungo. I did not realize Magnus could conjure spells like this—least of all with his weapon.

Blasted by the ice and wind Halbazar fell to the cavern floor at Magnus's feet, moving pitifully. A living man might have broken bones from such a fall, but this was no living man—yet the spells had devastated his body. He said something too low for me to hear, seeming to appeal to Cypher, who had just run to his side. I advanced with my silver dagger out, fully intending to test Wynn's strategy by sawing the man's head from his torn body. Cypher staid my hand.

"Wait," Cypher said.

I turned away. "He was your friend, deal with him as you will."

Magnus pushed by me and, despite Cypher's protestations, separated Halbazar's head and body with one stroke. Magnus held the acid and ice-burned skull to eye level and screamed…  I am not sure what he screamed, but it was heartfelt.

A short while later, Magnus wore Halbazar's head on his belt. Bereft of flesh, the blackened human skull now rested beside a somewhat smaller, elvish skull. Oh yes, I remember the female vampire creature from a battle in the halls above. That was days ago, wasn't it?

I haven't been moved to ask Magnus why he is wearing their skulls.