From the Journals of Rowan, Druid of Eaglesford
August 7th
We’ve finally got a chance to talk with Slythia again, and now I’m as convinced as ever that the Gods are not to be trusted.
After Slythia answered Torsten’s question, lots of other ones came to me. Is this Creator the Kobolds’ Kikkut? Is the Creator the Nameless One, the god from whom all the others are supposed to have come? Perhaps so, since this is the place of beginnings. That would mean that the “Old Ones” might even be the gods we ourselves worship, since they came before even the Div. But then, what do I know of religion. How I wish we had Thaile here to help us unravel this mess.
Eventually Torsten asked Slythia how priests who do evil keep their powers.
Again, the naga seemed confused, and declared that she doesn’t like this church that we speak of. Humans seem to have made a mess of things since the last initiate passed through, according to her. She worries about the humans.
After a while of talking with her, I remembered that I needed something and excused myself. I ran back up the stairs to the maze section from the Mystery of Purpose. I knew we had left Riva’s body in our little hidey hole. He smells much worse in death than he did in life. I cut off a chunk of his beard and tucked it into a belt pouch and got out of there as soon as I could. I think that I can still reincarnate him.....maybe I’ll give it a try, sometime.
We talked to Sylthia for a little while longer, then we moved on toward the Mystery of Endlessness. As usual, Slithia was shocked to see the rubble choking the entrance to the test. She, of course, demanded that we remove it, because it “should not be there”. I don’t like this “not noticing” thing of hers too much. She didn’t notice the entrance was collapsed before we got here? Hello?
I went into bear form and Mor’Elandi and Tieran attached the rope harness to me and we began moving rocks. It took a long time.
After a short stretch, we found a doorway of sorts. It was a stone door-frame fitted right into the corridor; the corridor continued beyond, filled with rubble. Tieran called it a “threshold”. Okay.... We took care not to go through it until after someone examined it. Then we figured Torsten should go first, he is, after all, the warrior.
Tieran, Mor’Elandi, and I looked together at the runes on the doorway, determining that it has something to do with planar travel. Tieran did a detect magic on it and decided that was a really bad idea. Very powerful magic. He had quite a headache after that. I was less than helpful until I turned back into myself, seems that they still don’t get what I am trying to tell them when I’m in animal form.
Torsten stepped through the doorway and we could still see him on the other side. He stepped back and we figured it was fairly safe for the rest of us. So, we moved to the other side of the doorway and cleared the rest of the rubble. It was all pretty small stuff and went quickly.
As we moved the last big one out of the way and stood for a moment to catch our breath, suddenly something leaped out from behind the last of the rubble! It was a strange looking thing, definitely unique. It was babbling and shrieking and then it bit me, twice before anyone could react!
Mor’Elandi readied an arrow, but was unable to get a shot off with the narrow corridor and so many people between him and the creature. Tieran used a magic missile, to avoid all that “people in the way” nonsense. His missiles slammed into it, but it still attacked me. Torsten stood behind me and was unable to do anything until I moved out of his way, but Kytum-up took a shot with his crossbow and the creature crumpled.
We dragged the corpse out to show Slythia and asked her if it belongs here.
Slythia helpfully told us that the creature is called a “Chaoskin” and is made of chaos. Oh, and it, like the rock, the steam wenches, and many other things, should not be here. She was pretty indignant about the whole thing, but then, she seems pretty particular about what is allowed down here and what is not.
The thing looked like it was made out of parts left over from several creatures, a clawed paw on one hand, a pincer on the other, weird furry patches. Very strange and very unnatural.
We went back into the hallway of the Mystery of Endlessness, through the magical threshold, along another short hall section we had cleared of rubble, and out into some kind of large chamber, filled with mist. Tieran kept muttering something about “ethereal mist”. I guess this must be part of the ethereal plane. We moved along the wall to the left finding that it curved, but when we should have been behind the hallway we just came through, given the curve of the wall, we weren’t. Space seems different here.
We backtracked to the door and found it easily enough. We also noticed something we had not seen before. At the end of the hallway was an arch, which we had unwittingly passed through to get out here in the mist. On the defaced arch were metal clamps. Sixteen metal clamps each embossed with the symbol of one of the gods. The clamps were also of various metals, copper, brass, cold iron. They seem to have been put on the archway after it was built, they are clearly much newer. We tried, but were unable to pry any of them off, so we left them be and moved on into this “room”.
We attached ourselves together with rope as we had in the maze during the Mystery of Purpose. We attached the end of the rope to a smaller rock, with a light spell cast upon it, sort of an anchor behind us. We moved into the mist, looking, listening, trying to figure out what the test might be when we heard a cracking sound, as if someone had broken a large and very dry stick. It was accompanied by a flash of blue-white light.
Torsten had not noticed the sound and light because he, at the front of the line, was looking at the floor. Where most of us were still standing on worked stone, he found that the ground ahead (and under him) had changed to a more spongy ground. We turned 90 degrees to face the direction the sound and light had come from, after noting the difference in the ground.
As we turned and stretched ourselves out, we heard babbling and shouting. Two Chaoskin moved in on us, attacking Torsten while another moved up to attack me. They each got in a bite before we could react. As they attacked, we heard noise from behind, three more were closing, moving toward Kytum-up, Mor’Elandi, and Tieran. Mor’Elandi downed one before it could reach any of us.
Tieran cast a spell, but it fizzled when it struck the creatures. Meanwhile Torsten, Kytum-up, and Mor’Elandi seemed stunned by the babbling and just stood, dropping their weapons, allowing the creatures to attack them. Oh, and we were all tied together, making it much more difficult to fight. I took some time to untie myself. A Chaoskin took hold of the rope, trying to unbalance me. It failed. I saw an opening to attack it and it went down with a blow from my quarterstaff.
Asmathias bit one, Tieran, Torsten, and Mor’Elandi were bitten by the creatures attacking them. As the creatures attacked, Torsten, Kytum-up, and Mor’Elandi seemed to come out of their dazed condition and picked up their weapons to defend themselves. Torsten whacked one right away and Kytum-up shot one that was menacing Tieran with his crossbow.
Tieran used his flaming sphere spell -- and found that fire doesn’t seem to affect them as much as it does most creatures. Mor’Elandi fired arrows with his usual speed and precision, taking several down from afar. I managed to hit one really well, pretty much squishing it. It was most satisfying, since that very creature had just bitten me. About the same time, Torsten whacked one so hard that it turned into a rather gory paste.
The one Chaoskin left was dispatched quickly and we prepared to move on, in the direction of the noise and flash.
Tieran had other ideas however, asking if we could stop here for fifteen minutes while he changed some spells around. We agreed, but were not surprised when a few minutes into this little break we heard the crack and saw the flash, followed soon by six more of the creatures. This time we also noticed a whispering sound, just before the crack.
We moved into position and prepared for the arrival of the latest batch of these things.
Mor’Elandi took out the first one we saw. Kytum-up missed with his crossbow bolt as one ran toward him while I cast a spell (Brambles) to make my quarterstaff a little more effective. The other Chaoskin ran forward and attacked. Luckily, this batch seemed a little less effective, missing each of us.
Torsten was stunned by the babbling, dropping his weapon. I moved to flank one of them, but missed anyway. Kytum-up hit one, Tieran burned one with his flaming sphere, and Mor’Elandi peppered another one with arrows.
Torsten came out of his stupor and retrieved his weapon, and whacked one of them after two of them had clawed and bit him. Asmathias hit one, I missed another, while again, Mor’Elandi used his arrows to great effect.
Torsten, feeling better by this time, took two of them down and hurt a third with his gnomish hammer. There were two left and we finished them off quickly, preparing to move again in the direction the noise and flash had come from, hoping to reach the source before the next attack.
We moved quickly and soon saw a metal disc bolted to the floor. It seemed to be made of bronze, held to the ground by six silver bolts. It looked very like Kerchik’s disc, two feet in diameter. Tieran told us that Bronze is a good “planar” material. Mor’Elandi told us that if anymore attack, we should keep at least one alive, since they don’t seem to come until all the previous ones are dead.
As we drew close we heard a loud voice.
“Leave or the Lords of all spirits will destroy you—there will be no more initiates!”
We didn’t leave. Instead, Torsten moved forward, his gnomish hammer ready to pry the bolts up. Before he could get close enough, 16 disembodied hands reach upward from the disc, ripping open....well, space. Six more Chaoskin dropped out.
The voice spoke again too.
“Followers of the True Faith; Followers of the Gods—LEAVE!”
Each of the hands bore a symbol of one of the gods on its back. They disappeared as the creatures tumbled out onto the floor.
The voice again spoke to us: “Followers of the Spirits—Come! We will show you what your spirits are made of!”
Mor’Elandi let fly with arrows, and wounded one of the creatures. Tieran, noting that the creatures were nicely grouped for his convenience let fly one of his famous thunderballs. One of the creatures fell, all but one looked to be injured by it.
Torsten charged one of them, hitting it. Kytum-up brandished his sword and wounded one. The creatures attacked then, two of them biting and clawing Torsten. Another one missed Tieran.
Asmathias bit one of the creatures as I moved forward to try to grab the disc. It was bolted down securely and I was unable to budge it.
Tieran used an acid splash on one of them, hitting it. Torsten stood....stunned again by the creatures’ babbling! He took claws and bites from two of them again. Both Tieran and I were bitten by creatures. Mor’Elandi was missed, and Asmathias sunk his teeth into a another one, his poison weakening it.
Mor’Elandi stepped back, then killed the one in front of him with arrows. Tieran withdrew, badly wounded. Torsten came out of his stupor and hurt one of them a little.
Kytum-up hit one, then Asmathias got a bite in on another as it moved to follow Tieran. When it reached Tieran it bit and clawed him.
The two attacking Torsten both hit him, Asmathias moved to attack one of the creatures attacking Torsten was I moved the body that had fallen on the disc and cast bull’s strength on myself to try to get the disc up before more of the things appeared. Torsten tumbled out of danger, pulling out a healing potion as he did so.
Kytum-up took one of the remaining two down, whacking the other, which took another swing at Torsten.
I tried again to move the disc and failed. It was really bolted down securely! Mor’Elandi moved to aid me, but even together we were unable to move it.
Tieran threw his staff, hoping to knock out the last creature. He missed, but Torsten managed a swing that took it down.
Torsten moved up and used his hammer to pop each of the bolts holding the disc down. As he pulled the last one, we heard the whispering sound and realized that it was about to activate again, even though the last creature was still alive.
The last bolt popped and we were able to grab the disc and head for the door. Actually, we each took one step and found ourselves at the door. Very strange, we had gone much farther.
We took another look at the clamps and found that two of them were loose. The clamps, Tieran told us, radiate a strong aura of abjuration and conjuration. The disc has a lingering aura of the same. As Mor’Elandi and Torsten worked on prying the clamps off, Tieran and I went to see Slythia, disc in hand.
Slythia did not like the disc or the idea of the clamps. Neither was supposed to be there. She explained that removing the disc was not part of the test, we were supposed to see the “outside”. So, we realized that the test was not over, actually, we had not even begun it.
When we returned to the others, two clamps had been pried off. None of the others would budge.
We saw a flash and heard a crack from a different direction. This flash was green, where the other had been blue. We also heard hissing from the mist.
Now what?
IS that so much to ask?!?!!?
