Into The Lands Of
Shadow
As the people of Farshore cleaned up the swath of
destruction wrought by the assault, our heroes took a well-earned rest and
waited for Lavinias call. After a couple of weeks, it came. To paraphrase, she
had discovered from the pirates records that the shadow pearls were being
supplied from a cove to the north. By a happy coincidence, she also needed to
placate a dragon turtle called Emraag in the same cove and she felt the party
were the best people for the job (how unnerving is that!).
They set out in the Sea Wyvern and had an
uneventful voyage to the north, anchoring up outside the cove and attempting to
call the turtle by declaiming in loud voices. When this mysteriously did not
work, they hopped in the jolly boat and moved into the cove. this tactic proved
far more successful at attracting his attention, as they realised when a head
the size of a house popped up out of the water and glared at them. After an
initial false start, Sancho soon convinced the turtle to leave all of Farshores
vessel alone, turn vegetarian and try to learn Greek (well, one out of three
isn't bad). The turtle was so impressed, he pointed out the cave they
wanted.
Landing at a disgusting and rotting jetty, they
disembarked into a cave, only to find it occupied by a ferocious and short-lived
dinosaur. During this brief disagreement (Jack thought the dinosaur should be
dead and it disagreed), four troglodytes joined the fray (again, not for very
long). Without really paying any of this much attention, apart from the black
stones which appeared to have held shadow pearls at some time, the group
moved further into the caves ad tunnels under the Isle of Dread.
After a four mile walk down a corridor lined with
disturbing Trog imagery of the creation of the pearls, they came to a gate.
Analesia opened it to be confronted by a trog covered in bandages. before it
could attack, she moved to the back of the party and Arry moved forward. As the
trogs moved to defend their home, the heroes were caught in a corridor fight
until Jack bull rushed it into a rather easier combat, which was soon
over.
Their attention was soon caught by a prisoner in a
cage near the middle of the cave. In it was a Trog, who introduced himself as
Irgzid Uzeye and begged them to release him. He told them that the disease the
trogs were suffering from was Laogzeds blessing, from the trog god Laogzed. When
they mentioned the shadow pearls, he offered to take them to the source of these
dark objects and was swiftly released. As the party realised that they had just
killed the nurses in a hospice, their typical adventurous side took over and
they followed Irgzids directions to go down a dodgy lift shaft, leaving the
terminally ill trogs to starve to death.
After yet another lengthy walk, the party came to
another cavern, where they encountered an elder black pudding. It promptly
grappled Jack and stripped the armour (and some weaponry) from Jack, Arry and
Laureli. However, with some effort (and a lot of hit points) the monster was
eventually taken down.
Eight miles further on, after an encounter with
some spectres which was swiftly terminated by the power of Laurelis faith, they
came to a deep fissure in the path. Irgzid directed them down a steep ledge. As
they neared the bottom of the chasm, they were attacked by a roper, which
latched on to Jack, Analesia, Arry and Laureli and commenced reeling them in.
This proved a big mistake, as as soon as they were close enough, it got
mullered!
A Bad Day (or Two) in
Paradise
Moving on from the Roper, the party moved ever
deeper underground. After a further 16 miles of walking, they came to a blue
sheet of light, which blocked the tunnel. After ascertaining that it was highly
magical and probably was the Cerulean curtain they had heard of, they ambled
through it with nary a concern and continued into the caverns. After some more
walking, their guide advised them that the mongrelfolk village of Barbas was
nearby and it might be an idea to go visiting. Taking his advice, they came to a
maze full of moulds and fungus, discovered by the age old method of ambling into
it and coughing a lot. Analesia guided them through the deadly moldfield and
they easily got to the far side, where they encountered six hook horrors
guarding the village. Striding forth, Sancho shouted 'Hello, I am sancho Grubb'.
This diplomatic call so frightened/impressed the guards on the walls behind the
hook horrors that the party was greeted into the village by the
headman.
They spent a day and night (difficult to tell which
is which, really) in the village, exchanging tales of derring do with the
townsfolk.The headman told them of an ancient battle between fish demons and
surface dwellers had ended when a great gift from the god Tlaloc had caused the
caverns to dry up. Before they left the village, the headman took them to see
one of the fish demons, which they realised was in a state of suspended
animation rather than dead. Their guide left with the villagers, who were
planning to move home, as a great disaster was impending.
Another 16 miles later, they reached a large temple
like cavern, with the ghost of a troglodyte high priest standing on a ledge.They
soon realised this was an illusion but decided to leave the aboleth which cast
it to its own devices. The aboleth tried to persuade them to destroy Tlalocs
tear, as the only true way to stop the creation of shadow pearls. Surprisingly,
give the trust worthy source, they decided to ignore his advice.
Only seventeen miles later and they came to a cave
full of insects, some as large as horses. A great to-do did beset them and much
running around saying yuck spiders later, they defeated the threats and moved
on.Finally they reached the living, Cthulhuesque
city of Golismorga. In order not to put anyone off their dinner/lunch/breakfast,
suffice it to say that the city resembles an inside out whale. They met a
devourer, had a nice chat and then a bit of a barny with him, with the expected
result. Ditto a small band of kopru. Two shaboaths gave them more problems
(these are water dwelling elementals) until Arumil rather nerfed their potential
with a wall of stone.
They made their way to Tlalocs tear, where they had
a disagreement with a brain collector. It was here that Arumil, flying above the
party, was accidentally caught in the range of a cone of cold and expired high
above the group, before settling to ground once the spell expired. They laid him
to rest in the crater, before Sancho decided to sit on the top of the stone
head. Having visited, they left the head intact and set off to find the home of
the lords of dread.
They found a great ziggurat, partially stone clad
and swarming with kopru, nagas and troglodytes, where they were joined by Keth
Longstrider, a fighter and cavalryman. Deciding that fighting their way in was a
bit silly, they air walked/flew to the top, where three kopru behemoths stood
guard. An irritating combat ensued, with Arry and Jack dominated and various
party members badly wounded. As the last of the kopru tried to escape by taking
a potion of flying, he got well and truly mullered by far too many attacks of
opportunity.
After healing and recovering their wind, they
turned their attention to the valve which appeared to be the door into the
structure. Eventually, Analesia noticed that there were four apertures with what
seemed to be buttons at the bottom. They depressed all four simultaneously and
the valve opened.
Lowering themselves in by various means, the party
assembled inside the ziggurat, in a living, pulsing room with a hole in the
floor. Jack started down the ladder to the next level, only for it to fill with
water as he reached the middle of the ladder. Ignoring safety and commonsense
(there is a theme here somewhere) he continued, only to spot a dangerous looking
kopru cleric. A lengthy and complicated battle ensued, which I can't remember in
detail. Jack nearly died as he lost consciousness in the water and was saved by
the swift attention of Laureli, who got him conscious and then got him out of
the water to the tender mercies of Sancho in the room above. After a very brutal
fight, in which most of the party came close to death, the cleric was defeated
and the water level swiftly fell.
Moving on to the final level, they met the creature
that created the fould shadow pearls, a bilewretch of holashner. A truly epic
combat took place, with the three fighters only just standing by the end and
most of the rest of the party in a less than healthy state.
Secure in the knowledge that they had disrupted the
lords of dread, the party began to leave the ziggurat. Sancho flew up invisible
and distracted the kopru guards while Arry and Jack climbed out. On noticing
them, twio of the kopru moved to attack them, while the third flew down into the
ziggurat to take on the rest of the team. The party, separated and unable to
work effectively, were in dire peril, particularly when a dark naga joined the
fray, and in the ensuing chaos, Jack fell to a series of mighty blows from one
of the kopru. Shortly after, the battle was won, but too late for Jack, and the
remainder of the team made their way back to the surface with heavy hearts for
the loss of Arumil and Jack.