|
Adventure Log VI
From the Journals of Lexington Cheshire:
So our task was complete, or at least it seemed to be. We took some time to rest and set to tying up some loose strands. When I began to feel some of my energy return I took it upon myself to corral some of the
bandits’ horses. One had remained close to the Chateau and was easy enough to tie down. I spotted another lingering near the edge of the woods and convinced it to join the other.
It was then I caught sight of a third, this one a brilliant example of equine excellence. As soon as I stepped toward it though, the horse darted into the woods. With a smile I told the others I was going after it
and set on its trail.
Rain soon began to fall and it soon developed into a true storm which made the horse’s trail that much harder to follow, but not impossible. I carried on after him. From the depths of the woods there was an
unworldly howl, and then a second, a chilling reminder that one of the black devil dogs had escaped into the woods. However, it sounded far enough away that I didn’t worry.
But then the howls were answered by wolves. The black devil dog was gathering friends. This was worth worry. I debated for a moment before spying the horse once again and deciding that being this close I had to
keep after him. I slowly made my way closer and closer. The horse didn’t flee and hope of my capturing him rose.
I was almost close enough to rope him when there was a sudden crashing behind me. The horse bolted away as Kessan came thundering through the woods and into me.
The terror on the dwarf’s face spoke volumes. He stammered something about evil tidings back at the chateau and we headed back. There, Maze filled me in on what I had missed.
They had heard the howls as well, and saw a monstrous bear thing on the far side of the river. Then they saw some...somethings, "floating fuzzy things," floating to the ruined chateau, where the others had
piled the dead (except for Coacilia, whose shattered remains were in a bucket). These somethings gave off feelings of peace and safety, until they settled near the shattered mirror-portal to hell. Then the group was
washed in feelings of evil and fear as these somethings sped away and out of sight. Maze and Kessan went to investigate what had caught the somethings’ attention and made a horrible discovery.
We hadn’t stopped the evil the Sect of Sixty had initiated. The shattered glass of the mirror was changing. Maze had a piece secured in her pouches, but the rest had metamorphed into a liquid ooze and was coalescing.
Worse, whenever it came into contact with blood it grew, and it was moving with purpose to the pile of dead.
A trench hadn’t stopped it, and an attempt to move the bodies via a makeshift sled pulled by the two horses I’d corralled earlier failed -- the horses wouldn’t get close enough. Animals know when to be afraid.
Maze touched the mirror-ooze but said it only felt like water. Beating it with her sword had proved counter-productive, the ooze sucked up the blood on Maze’s sword and grew some more. Moments later the ooze
was actually standing like a wave. Kessan made some sort of mental probe upon it, which prompted the ooze to engulf the dwarf. Grolsch made a daring rescue, in a true half-orc fashion, by bashing through the ooze
and knocking Kessan and himself out the other side. It was shortly after this that Kessan thundered my way.
The others had about decided it was time to leave this place, and after hearing the tale I wholly agreed with them. We had disrupted the meeting and put a stop to what the Sect of Sixty was trying to do, but it had
proven to be only a stop gap measure. There was something more here and it was out of our league. We were four and all of us were sorely wounded. The most important thing to do now was to bring the news of this to
those with enough power to have a realistic chance of putting a true and final end to it.
The horses had fled. We proceeded post haste afoot.
Around us the storm continued to rage, but it had begun to change. The very clouds themselves were swirling around, centered above the chateau. This was indeed powerful evil at work.
As we progressed away from the chateau the storm slowly began to ease. Nonetheless we decided sleep was not an option and continued marching into the night, me depending on the night sight of my
companions. The hours ran together as we kept afoot, but after some time we came upon a raft. A quick examination of the nearby area showed that someone had come ashore on horseback.
This was good all around. We could take the raft and get word of the evil events to Deeptown all the sooner, and the one whose raft we were appropriating wouldn’t be stuck on foot in these woods. I jotted a
brief note of explanation and left it with three pieces of gold to pay for the raft. We loaded onto it and were away.
As we drifted down river to Deeptown we were able to get a little bit of rest finally. But the peace didn’t last. As the sun began to rise we heard splashes coming from ahead, around a bend in the river. We made the
turn and came upon an almost humorous sight.
A gnome was stuck in mid-river, clinging desperately to a push-pole that was stuck in the bottom of the river. His raft was nowhere to be seen. The gnome called out for aid because, as he said, he could not swim. My
instincts were to go and help, though my companions were less sympathetic. I was about to make my case for helping him when one of the others, I cannot to this day remember who. Said something about the water not
being all that deep if the pole was stuck as it was. I then took a closer, more critical look at the situation and the gnome himself.
There was something amiss. My gut told me the gnome was lying. Why, I couldn’t imagine, but I told the others what I thought. Then suddenly there was a roar from the gnome, and I was overcome with the deepest feeling
of primal fear I have ever felt. Without thought I jumped into the river and swam frantically to shore, barely noticing that Maze had done the same. I heard more splashing and yelling and excitement, but paid
it no heed. My only care was escape.
Maze and I had been bespelled. By the time I reached shore the others had as well and I realized what had been done to me. I turned and saw, striding through the river to us, a giant. What kind it was I didn’t know,
but obviously it could cast magic and illusions. It tossed a giant-sized spear at us, narrowly missing Grolsch. The giant also had some sort of giant toad assistant, which was swimming up to join his master.
The battle at the shoreline was fast and furious, but exhausted as I was. I remember few of the details. We all got hurt, Kessan was almost devoured by the toad, but we won in the end, killing this ambushing giant
and his oversized pet. With the giant’s sword and chainmail as spoils, cut its head off and continued to Deeptown. The raft had been ruined in the fight, so we were again on foot, but at least now
our goal was mere hours away.
Soon Deeptwon came into sight, but of course we were on the wrong side of the river. Thankfully barge-master Hem O’ Rage was on duty. We bantered a bit (he admitted to no knowledge of the giant upriver,
but he did know it was a Spriggan, and in exchange for the giant’s sword and chain took us across the river to Deeptown.
At the city gates two guards challenged us, but let us in when Grolsch showed them the remains of Coacilia. Within the city walls it was oddly quiet. The Festival of Plenty, in full swing since Iâ’d first entered
this town, was over. It seemed very strange to walk through quiet Deeptownian streets.
Nonetheless there were things to do. We all split up, determined to meet again very son to report to Rufus and collect our script.
I was going to head straight to the Church to report what had happened, when Grolsch handed me the basket with the mortal remains of Coacilia. He explained that his temple does not perform resurrections. I was
hesitant to request the Church of the Creator to spend such energies on one of another faith, but Coacilia had aided in the fight against the Sect of Sixty and this might be just the thing to bring him around to the
Faith.
At the Church, I found Father Cassius and told him all that had transpired. The Father asked if I had any proof of the Sect’s hand in things and to my shame I did not. That would make it a little harder to bring
swift and proper punishment onto them, he said. Nonetheless, he assured me that he would set things in motion to combat the evil at the chateau, and given Coacilia’s aid to the efforts, the Church was willing
to resurrect him.
I returned to the White Horse Inn and slept soundly for a day and a half. What the others did during this time I do not know. We all caught up with each other though, Coacilia included and still wearing the
white robe from the resurrection ritual. I told him when services were held but the elf seemed a little reluctant to commit.
We found Rufus and informed him of what had happened and that the "Powers that be" might also be interested in knowing. He thanked us, told us he’d pass the information along, and offered us beer. We
accepted and I made arrangements to get a keg of it. While we were there, Kessan made mention that he had taken a robe and a distinctive sacrificial dagger from the dead clerics back at the chateau. This was the
sort of evidence Father Cassius had asked for. I asked Kessan if he could part with them and he readily agreed. Despite his generously not asking for anything, I gave him the magic dagger that he had put to such
good use back at the chateau.
Delivering these items would have to wait though, next on the agenda was the Grand Temple of the Celestial Sai to collect our payment. There we met High Priestess Sune Yee who gave us our script and even turned it
into hard coin. She also had a proposal for us.
Other business drew Coacilia away, but he allowed Maze to speak for him. Odd that he didn’t pick the cleric of his religion; perhaps he was coming around to the Faith after all. Sune Yee told us the tale of a
one-time monastery of her Temple. It sat some ways north and had many years ago been overrun by gnolls. There were riches in the monastery and we could have them all if we brought one in particular back to the
Temple in Deeptown: a sacred gem called the Fire Opal. This all struck a chord with me, I remembered a snippet of information the Innkeeper Jalizar Saul had given me. Perhaps there was more truth to it than I had
initially believed. Perhaps that scrap of a map would be useful.
Time would tell. For the moment we all agreed to take on the mission. There was no immanent deadline, so we again decided on a meeting time and place and split up. We all had some money and plans for it. I made my
way back the Church.
Services were going on when I arrived, with Father Bob handling the proceedings. He spoke about Father Cassius was on a mission of grave importance and we should pray for its success. Knowing what the mission must be
I prayed ery hard, and gave a tithe of several platinum pieces. Afterwards I spoke privately with Father Bob and presented the items Kessan had secured from the chateau as evidence, if not proof, of the Sect
of Sixty’s involvement. He told me that the local members of the Sect were already spreading tales of some fringe elements of their temple acting alone.
It was just the sort of lie one would expect, but there was little to be done about it at present. Father Bob pointed out that the pamphlets given to Coacilia at his resurrection were in my rear pocket. He presumed
the elf couldn’t read. I, on the other hand, have growing doubts about his gratefulness at being brought back to the world of the living. There are only so many chances.
We all spent a day gathering new equipment and digging up rumors and information about the lost monastery. Most of my information came from barge-master Hem O’ Rage; it was for him that I’d gotten the keg of beer and
we spent most of the afternoon drinking it. Well, me drinking two mugs and him the rest, but that was the point. He’s proven to be a good person (especially for a bugbear) to know and I think it well to be on
friendly terms with a barge-master who has a monopoly on his territory.
When we met back at the monastery to compare rumors we found out, of course, much of the information contradicted the rest. There was everything from demons invading to the monks being evil to more
mundane reasons for the monastery’s abandonment. We spent a few minutes with our own deals. Coacilia had gathered some books back at the Chateau and didn’t really want some of the mundane ones. One
of those was written by one of the long ago masters of Quasqueton so I gave him a little gold for it. Maze offered him a gold piece for another, which she turned right around and sold for at least a hundred gold.
Equipped with fresh gear and some Holy Water from the temple we set out to find which ones were true.
Most of us that is. Grolsch was called away at the last moment with some business at his temple. Unsure of how long it would take, he told the rest of us to go on.
We did, but we didn’t get far. By noon Maze noticed a trip wire ahead of us on the path we followed. She loudly suggested. It was time for lunch and quietly told us of her discovery. We dispersed and got ready for
the inevitable. I got beside a tree, crossbow at the ready. Maze skipped ahead and over the tripwire and was then suddenly face to face with a purple haired woman.
"I only want the Cheshire scum," she said. I took a closer look and saw this was the same purple haired woman I had spied watching me the week before in Deeptown! Only now she was different. Her skin was
like flesh colored armor and boney spikes were growing from it.
My past had caught up with me. I tried to send it along. "There’s no bounty for you here. Go on home, " I shouted at her.
"I only want the Cheshire," she repeated, "the rest of you can go."
We went back and forth like that for another few moments. The others were of course confused about all this, but there was no time to inform them about my history. Besides, apart from the fact that this woman
was a bounty hunter after me, I knew nothing of her or what she could do.
After I didn’t surrender and my companions didn’t run away in terror from her as she apparently expected, she muttered, "They always want to do it the hard way." And hard it was. This bounty hunter proved
to be the most difficult combatant I had ever faced. She wore no armor but what her bizarre skin amounted to, and it was still nigh impossible to land a worthwhile blow on her. Her boney weapons grew from her skin.
She created spears and dagger-like things and used them with amazing efficiency. It was the four of us against her and we were very nearly overpowered! After a futile crossbow shot I charged and engaged her hand to
hand while the others shot arrows, bolts, and everything else at her. Between us all we did manage more than a few critical blows upon her but she would not fall. She finally hurt me enough that I fell unconscious.
Kessan was struck by her missiles but his mind powers kept him up and moving for awhile. It is to Coacilia and Maze’s credit that the purple haired bounty hunter finally fell. Words cannot appropriately express my
gratitude that they remained and fought at my side even after I fell.
We had won the fight but lost the day. There was no way we could manage our chosen mission for the Temple of the Celestial Sai now. Coacilia and Maze bandaged Kessan and I up and carted us back to Deeptown.
There the Church saw us to health and I filled in my companions about my history and just why there was a bounty hunter after me, and that there were good odds that there would be more. Whether they will want to
continue with me remains at this writing to be seen.
Top of page
|
