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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6149785" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>Of course, something was waiting for us; we had barely began to get ourselves organized for resting when suddenly, two nasty undead creatures glided through the wall. We had seen them before; they were the same horrible things that we had met in Dassen; under the palace of King Steppengaard in Bresk; when we had to sneak in through the sewers via the graveyard, these same undead had made an appearance; shrouded, misty, incorporeal, underneath their cowls they looked as if they had a thousand faces, flashing eternally through their visage and all of them screaming their agonies of a thousand years; their touch was deadly, leaving a chill through the soul.</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, Felix reacted quickly and put a powerful spell on Longhelim’s weapon. The paladin and Victor proceeded to confront them. As this was happening, a dreadful keening shriek tore the air; it was so overwhelming that everyone froze for a moment; except Longhelim, thankfully, who still engaged one of the undead. The other attacked Victor while he was fairly helpless and the warrior visibly sagged. Then the door suddenly shattered and a new creature was revealed: this one was big, humanoid and with strong looking limbs; that was where the resemblance to a humanoid stopped. It had a long neck and the head of a vulture! Oh, and large wings. I recognized it immediately; it was a vrock; a demon! Having both demons and devils in the same location went against accepted doctrine. It was written that if they were anywhere close to each other, they would actively seek each other out and have an argument; generally a fairly terminal one.</p><p> </p><p>Then again, I don’t think accepted doctrine had ever experienced anywhere quite like Castle Korstull.</p><p> </p><p>Well, however odd its presence, its appearance seemed to shake Victor out of his stupor and despite his pummeling at the hands the undead, he stepped forward to confront this new enemy. Longhelim had managed to destroy one of the transparent undead courtesy of Felix’s magic. It made a very satisfying sight as it completely dissipated with a final wail after one of Longhelim’s blows.</p><p> </p><p>Despite his weakened condition, Victor was holding his own against the vrock, in fact even striking several telling blows on the demon, causing it to shriek angrily and strike out with beak and talon. I managed to cast a spell of force missiles at it; it was difficult to get my spell to affect it but finally, they sank in. Longhelim had confronted the other undead and with his next strike, dispatched it, again thanks to Felix’s spell. The paladin took a moment and cast his own spell on his sword. Then, cunningly keeping the demon in the doorway, the two warriors took turns to confront it through skillful movement which ultimately ensured that it was hacked back to whatever abyssal pit had spawned it.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as it had gone, Felix strode forward:</p><p> </p><p>“Here, let me look at both of you!” he said as he examined both Longhelim and Victor.</p><p> </p><p>He dismissed the paladin:</p><p> </p><p>“You’re fine”; then he turned to Victor: “You’re not. Those undead have affected you very badly but once we finish resting, I’ll be able to do something about it.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor looked relieved. We tidied up our possessions inside the magical hut and then settled down again.</p><p> </p><p>Some time later, we heard noises but also managed to discern gnomish voices from a distance. Wisely, they were making noise deliberately, just in case we were here; that way, we wouldn’t have a nasty surprise as they marched into the chapel and simultaneously, there was little danger of an adverse reaction from our watch.</p><p> </p><p>I stirred as I was sleeping and heard a murmured conversation between Jorine and whoever was on watch. Then I turned over and fell into a deeper sleep.</p><p> </p><p>Upon awakening, I, together with Felix and John began to prepare our spells; despite his late start, John was becoming an adept spell caster of a most unusual type. However, before we did so, we put our heads together to make sure that we had certain defences to cast on everyone; the main one being the spell for protection against fire. There were various other spells cast on various individuals of our team which I have described before but this time, Felix also summoned a great feast; it took us some time to eat it as it was so sumptuous and there was enough to invite the gnomes as well.</p><p> </p><p>It was at this point that I realised that there didn’t seem to be as many members of the Illorn clan as previously:</p><p> </p><p>“Victor, what happened to the other gnomes?” I whispered to the warrior.</p><p> </p><p>He just looked at me and shook his head. I was saddened and a little appalled. I have to confess that I had forgotten the names of those who had fallen. Oller, Grellfin and Jorine were still there; the three missing ones were sell swords but they had shown great courage in participating in this expedition.</p><p> </p><p>As I was still thinking about this, Felix cleared his throat:</p><p> </p><p>“Ladies and gentlemen, my new magical feast will feed eleven people; there are twelve of us. I am afraid that members of my team will all participate so one of the members of clan Millorn will not be able to partake; I will let you decide to who that will be.”</p><p> </p><p>The gnomes had a quick consultation amongst themselves and it was finally decided that Ernest would be the unlucky fellow to be excluded. Once that decision had been made, Felix continued:</p><p> </p><p>“This food is rich; it will feed you for the day; it will also give you courage, the likes of which you have never encountered; no poison will have any effect on you and the fare will also strengthen your inner resolve. It is also said to boost the skills of a warrior. Soldiers say that an army marches on its stomach so it only stands to reason that an exceptional feast would provide exceptional warriors.</p><p> </p><p>Now, let us all give thanks to Farlanghn then begin!”</p><p> </p><p>While Longhelim was our great orator and spokesperson, Felix was not bad either, when he put his mind to it.</p><p> </p><p>The priest was quite right; the food was exceptional and I felt amazingly buoyed by it. After we had all finished, I began to cast a spell on the last rod hanging in mid air where the doors to the chapel had been. Again, it took me some time but finally, I was able to gather the nature of the command word and grasping the rod, gave it to John, after sharing the information with him.</p><p> </p><p>John had also used his time to magically divine the magical horn we had found:</p><p> </p><p>“Hey guys, watch this!”</p><p> </p><p>He went to a corner and blew on the horn. A cloud of fog blew out of the other end, obscuring that corner.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked dubious at this but Felix said:</p><p> </p><p>“That spell saved my life when that goblin sorcerer and his warg were chewing me into little bits!”</p><p> </p><p>John stowed it and the rod away among his possessions and the Longhelim turned to me:</p><p> </p><p>“The gnomes told us it will take some time before there is enough water pressure for the pumps to start working properly. This should give us time to find out what is going on in that damnable party.”</p><p> </p><p>I nodded but then said:</p><p> </p><p>“We should try to finish those hell wasps first. I learned the spell with the acid again just for them.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, I’d forgotten about them. Yes, let’s go there first.”</p><p> </p><p>The gnomes decided to stay here for the time being and we went back to the room where the hell wasps resided. We proceeded to repeat our routine; John opened the door very quickly and I cast my spell. We waited for a few moments and then opened the door again and found that there were no more hell wasps left. They had all been dissolved. Whatever else had been at the bottom of the pools had also been dissolved; in fact, after the two clouds, fairly much everything in the room had been dissolved; although, we could see that the two pools were filling with water.</p><p> </p><p>Investigation of the door led to a spa but this one was completely empty.</p><p> </p><p>We came out and then, for the sake of completion, found another secret door, which we knew must have been there. This led to another narrow corridor, allowing watchers to see through spy holes into guest quarters. This was a parallel corridor to the one we found after fighting the strange creature which had been wearing a belt and which nearly bit Longhelim in half.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, that only left the double doors from which had sounds of merriment could be heard. I just knew that whatever it was that was amusing to whoever was behind those doors, was not going to be funny to me. Castle Korstull was that kind of place.</p><p> </p><p>As we neared the doors, John stopped us and motioned us back:</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve got that spell again; the one that allows me to see what’s in a room without opening the door.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim replied immediately:</p><p> </p><p>“Good place to use it.”</p><p> </p><p>So John began his casting; as previously, it took a little time and then he concentrated, closing his eyes. After a little time, he opened his eyes and told us:</p><p> </p><p>“Well, that was a waste of time; or maybe it wasn’t. I cast my spell just behind the doors; and found that all I could see was stacks of wood and things; it took me a little while to understand but it seems that whoever is in there has piled up a lot of furniture and whatever else they could put their hands on against the door. We’re certainly not going to be able to just charge in there.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor took off his bag and began to rummage through it. I knew he was looking for his hammer.</p><p> </p><p>“I could smash through it I suppose,” he said, though he sounded a little dubious.</p><p> </p><p>I realised that it was a question of time. Yes, he could smash through bit it would take time and give however was in that room time to respond.</p><p> </p><p>I thought for a moment. Then I said:</p><p> </p><p>“Hopefully, we won’t have to. Let’s go around the corner. I hope this is a large hall. “</p><p> </p><p>We moved down the corridor in front of the doors and then around the corner. A little distance down this corridor, I said:</p><p> </p><p>“It’s a bit of a gamble but, I believe that behind this wall is part of the banqueting hall. I can make a hole in this wall.”</p><p> </p><p>The others just stared at that part of the corridor.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim frowned:</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure about this Faden? About this position in the corridor?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m a dwarf. I know these things. We dwarves are born with innate instincts about stone work, corridors, caves and things.”</p><p> </p><p>This was said slightly tongue in cheek. I had never been underground prior to my adventures with this lot and I may have been stretching things a little about my instincts since my family were merchants. The closest thing my father had to instincts about stone work was getting the best price for a gemstone. Still I was sure that this was one of the walls of the banqueting hall.</p><p> </p><p>The others were already beginning to get ready. Drudge swung his arms slightly, his bow in his hand. Victor and Longhelim were squaring their shoulders and then the paladin nodded at me. I tried this new spell. Theoretically, it created a hole in a wall that would allow passage into the space beyond for a single person. Thankfully, that was exactly what it did. The hole appeared, light streamed in from John’s spell and illuminated a scene from the very pits of abyss.</p><p> </p><p>Victor and Longhelim stepped through followed by Felix and Drudge with John and I guarding the rear. Even before I moved in, I heard Felix’s voice dripping with disgust:</p><p> </p><p>“Ghouls!”</p><p> </p><p>In many ways the vilest of all undead, and there was a lot of competition for this title, these creatures were cursed with insatiable hunger; and their favourite food was human flesh although they would eat any humanoid at a push. That was why they were amongst the most reviled of all undead abominations.</p><p> </p><p>I stepped through and saw a scene out of a nightmare. We had surprised some sort of feast; several ghouls were already trying to jump on Victor and Longhelim but most of them were still sitting at tables, shouting, whooping and yipping; they were also waving knives and forks around, some of which had gobbets of something on their prongs. If the ghouls were true to form, that was human flesh they had but I had no idea where they had obtained it. Then I remembered the poor missing gnome and halfling sell swords from Jorine’s group. We never did establish how they had perished and ghouls, as well as being merciless killers, were also expert scavengers.</p><p> </p><p>One of the disgusting creatures was standing on a table and strumming a lute parodying a bard while the worst abomination of all lay on a throne overlooking this spectacle. A mound of…..something, some sort of quivering substance; as it twisted and shook, a flash of white suggested that it had the remains of bones within it; there was also an ioun stone circling its throne; it would be difficult to say it had a head.</p><p> </p><p>There was uproar as all the ghouls kicked back their chairs and looked at us…..hungrily. I motioned with my hands and cast another spells which I didn’t use very often; a forest of black tentacles emerged from the ground and began to wrestle with the ghouls at the back of the room; snaking around their legs, arms, torsos, necks, the creatures went into a frenzy, scratching, biting and screaming but the tentacles held them fast, including the one playing the lute, who screamed in a high soprano. </p><p> </p><p>Then, a voice emerged from the mound on the throne:</p><p> </p><p>“Humans! Stop! I wish to parley! Aid me!”</p><p> </p><p>Victor’s response to this was to advance to the throne and strike at the mound. I couldn’t blame him. Something that was in charge of a bunch of ghouls suddenly telling us to stop and leave them alone? I couldn’t see either the paladin or our priest acquiescing to this; and Victor’s actions spoke louder than words.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim joined Victor and attacked the mound which flailed with tentacles but was ultimately no match for the two warriors; I was a little puzzled as to how something that weak had survived here for so long but did not give it a great deal of thought as Felix used a burst of his holy power and most of the ghouls turned into dust.</p><p> </p><p>The singing ghoul was still trapped in the tentacles, together with several others but they were finally strangled, vanquishing all visible enemies. I turned to Longhelim:</p><p> </p><p>“Did you hear that thing? It was trying to talk to us.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes. I’m sure it was. I am also sure those ghouls would have eaten us given the slightest chance. That’s what they do. They cannot control themselves. It’s their curse. For future reference, I’m not going to talk to anything that’s in charge of a bunch of ghouls; or to ghouls either for that matter. Trust me Faden, talking to ghouls is the easiest way to get eaten!”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6149785, member: 6692807"] Of course, something was waiting for us; we had barely began to get ourselves organized for resting when suddenly, two nasty undead creatures glided through the wall. We had seen them before; they were the same horrible things that we had met in Dassen; under the palace of King Steppengaard in Bresk; when we had to sneak in through the sewers via the graveyard, these same undead had made an appearance; shrouded, misty, incorporeal, underneath their cowls they looked as if they had a thousand faces, flashing eternally through their visage and all of them screaming their agonies of a thousand years; their touch was deadly, leaving a chill through the soul. Thankfully, Felix reacted quickly and put a powerful spell on Longhelim’s weapon. The paladin and Victor proceeded to confront them. As this was happening, a dreadful keening shriek tore the air; it was so overwhelming that everyone froze for a moment; except Longhelim, thankfully, who still engaged one of the undead. The other attacked Victor while he was fairly helpless and the warrior visibly sagged. Then the door suddenly shattered and a new creature was revealed: this one was big, humanoid and with strong looking limbs; that was where the resemblance to a humanoid stopped. It had a long neck and the head of a vulture! Oh, and large wings. I recognized it immediately; it was a vrock; a demon! Having both demons and devils in the same location went against accepted doctrine. It was written that if they were anywhere close to each other, they would actively seek each other out and have an argument; generally a fairly terminal one. Then again, I don’t think accepted doctrine had ever experienced anywhere quite like Castle Korstull. Well, however odd its presence, its appearance seemed to shake Victor out of his stupor and despite his pummeling at the hands the undead, he stepped forward to confront this new enemy. Longhelim had managed to destroy one of the transparent undead courtesy of Felix’s magic. It made a very satisfying sight as it completely dissipated with a final wail after one of Longhelim’s blows. Despite his weakened condition, Victor was holding his own against the vrock, in fact even striking several telling blows on the demon, causing it to shriek angrily and strike out with beak and talon. I managed to cast a spell of force missiles at it; it was difficult to get my spell to affect it but finally, they sank in. Longhelim had confronted the other undead and with his next strike, dispatched it, again thanks to Felix’s spell. The paladin took a moment and cast his own spell on his sword. Then, cunningly keeping the demon in the doorway, the two warriors took turns to confront it through skillful movement which ultimately ensured that it was hacked back to whatever abyssal pit had spawned it. As soon as it had gone, Felix strode forward: “Here, let me look at both of you!” he said as he examined both Longhelim and Victor. He dismissed the paladin: “You’re fine”; then he turned to Victor: “You’re not. Those undead have affected you very badly but once we finish resting, I’ll be able to do something about it.” Victor looked relieved. We tidied up our possessions inside the magical hut and then settled down again. Some time later, we heard noises but also managed to discern gnomish voices from a distance. Wisely, they were making noise deliberately, just in case we were here; that way, we wouldn’t have a nasty surprise as they marched into the chapel and simultaneously, there was little danger of an adverse reaction from our watch. I stirred as I was sleeping and heard a murmured conversation between Jorine and whoever was on watch. Then I turned over and fell into a deeper sleep. Upon awakening, I, together with Felix and John began to prepare our spells; despite his late start, John was becoming an adept spell caster of a most unusual type. However, before we did so, we put our heads together to make sure that we had certain defences to cast on everyone; the main one being the spell for protection against fire. There were various other spells cast on various individuals of our team which I have described before but this time, Felix also summoned a great feast; it took us some time to eat it as it was so sumptuous and there was enough to invite the gnomes as well. It was at this point that I realised that there didn’t seem to be as many members of the Illorn clan as previously: “Victor, what happened to the other gnomes?” I whispered to the warrior. He just looked at me and shook his head. I was saddened and a little appalled. I have to confess that I had forgotten the names of those who had fallen. Oller, Grellfin and Jorine were still there; the three missing ones were sell swords but they had shown great courage in participating in this expedition. As I was still thinking about this, Felix cleared his throat: “Ladies and gentlemen, my new magical feast will feed eleven people; there are twelve of us. I am afraid that members of my team will all participate so one of the members of clan Millorn will not be able to partake; I will let you decide to who that will be.” The gnomes had a quick consultation amongst themselves and it was finally decided that Ernest would be the unlucky fellow to be excluded. Once that decision had been made, Felix continued: “This food is rich; it will feed you for the day; it will also give you courage, the likes of which you have never encountered; no poison will have any effect on you and the fare will also strengthen your inner resolve. It is also said to boost the skills of a warrior. Soldiers say that an army marches on its stomach so it only stands to reason that an exceptional feast would provide exceptional warriors. Now, let us all give thanks to Farlanghn then begin!” While Longhelim was our great orator and spokesperson, Felix was not bad either, when he put his mind to it. The priest was quite right; the food was exceptional and I felt amazingly buoyed by it. After we had all finished, I began to cast a spell on the last rod hanging in mid air where the doors to the chapel had been. Again, it took me some time but finally, I was able to gather the nature of the command word and grasping the rod, gave it to John, after sharing the information with him. John had also used his time to magically divine the magical horn we had found: “Hey guys, watch this!” He went to a corner and blew on the horn. A cloud of fog blew out of the other end, obscuring that corner. Longhelim looked dubious at this but Felix said: “That spell saved my life when that goblin sorcerer and his warg were chewing me into little bits!” John stowed it and the rod away among his possessions and the Longhelim turned to me: “The gnomes told us it will take some time before there is enough water pressure for the pumps to start working properly. This should give us time to find out what is going on in that damnable party.” I nodded but then said: “We should try to finish those hell wasps first. I learned the spell with the acid again just for them.” “Oh, I’d forgotten about them. Yes, let’s go there first.” The gnomes decided to stay here for the time being and we went back to the room where the hell wasps resided. We proceeded to repeat our routine; John opened the door very quickly and I cast my spell. We waited for a few moments and then opened the door again and found that there were no more hell wasps left. They had all been dissolved. Whatever else had been at the bottom of the pools had also been dissolved; in fact, after the two clouds, fairly much everything in the room had been dissolved; although, we could see that the two pools were filling with water. Investigation of the door led to a spa but this one was completely empty. We came out and then, for the sake of completion, found another secret door, which we knew must have been there. This led to another narrow corridor, allowing watchers to see through spy holes into guest quarters. This was a parallel corridor to the one we found after fighting the strange creature which had been wearing a belt and which nearly bit Longhelim in half. Finally, that only left the double doors from which had sounds of merriment could be heard. I just knew that whatever it was that was amusing to whoever was behind those doors, was not going to be funny to me. Castle Korstull was that kind of place. As we neared the doors, John stopped us and motioned us back: “I’ve got that spell again; the one that allows me to see what’s in a room without opening the door.” Longhelim replied immediately: “Good place to use it.” So John began his casting; as previously, it took a little time and then he concentrated, closing his eyes. After a little time, he opened his eyes and told us: “Well, that was a waste of time; or maybe it wasn’t. I cast my spell just behind the doors; and found that all I could see was stacks of wood and things; it took me a little while to understand but it seems that whoever is in there has piled up a lot of furniture and whatever else they could put their hands on against the door. We’re certainly not going to be able to just charge in there.” Victor took off his bag and began to rummage through it. I knew he was looking for his hammer. “I could smash through it I suppose,” he said, though he sounded a little dubious. I realised that it was a question of time. Yes, he could smash through bit it would take time and give however was in that room time to respond. I thought for a moment. Then I said: “Hopefully, we won’t have to. Let’s go around the corner. I hope this is a large hall. “ We moved down the corridor in front of the doors and then around the corner. A little distance down this corridor, I said: “It’s a bit of a gamble but, I believe that behind this wall is part of the banqueting hall. I can make a hole in this wall.” The others just stared at that part of the corridor. Longhelim frowned: “Are you sure about this Faden? About this position in the corridor?” “I’m a dwarf. I know these things. We dwarves are born with innate instincts about stone work, corridors, caves and things.” This was said slightly tongue in cheek. I had never been underground prior to my adventures with this lot and I may have been stretching things a little about my instincts since my family were merchants. The closest thing my father had to instincts about stone work was getting the best price for a gemstone. Still I was sure that this was one of the walls of the banqueting hall. The others were already beginning to get ready. Drudge swung his arms slightly, his bow in his hand. Victor and Longhelim were squaring their shoulders and then the paladin nodded at me. I tried this new spell. Theoretically, it created a hole in a wall that would allow passage into the space beyond for a single person. Thankfully, that was exactly what it did. The hole appeared, light streamed in from John’s spell and illuminated a scene from the very pits of abyss. Victor and Longhelim stepped through followed by Felix and Drudge with John and I guarding the rear. Even before I moved in, I heard Felix’s voice dripping with disgust: “Ghouls!” In many ways the vilest of all undead, and there was a lot of competition for this title, these creatures were cursed with insatiable hunger; and their favourite food was human flesh although they would eat any humanoid at a push. That was why they were amongst the most reviled of all undead abominations. I stepped through and saw a scene out of a nightmare. We had surprised some sort of feast; several ghouls were already trying to jump on Victor and Longhelim but most of them were still sitting at tables, shouting, whooping and yipping; they were also waving knives and forks around, some of which had gobbets of something on their prongs. If the ghouls were true to form, that was human flesh they had but I had no idea where they had obtained it. Then I remembered the poor missing gnome and halfling sell swords from Jorine’s group. We never did establish how they had perished and ghouls, as well as being merciless killers, were also expert scavengers. One of the disgusting creatures was standing on a table and strumming a lute parodying a bard while the worst abomination of all lay on a throne overlooking this spectacle. A mound of…..something, some sort of quivering substance; as it twisted and shook, a flash of white suggested that it had the remains of bones within it; there was also an ioun stone circling its throne; it would be difficult to say it had a head. There was uproar as all the ghouls kicked back their chairs and looked at us…..hungrily. I motioned with my hands and cast another spells which I didn’t use very often; a forest of black tentacles emerged from the ground and began to wrestle with the ghouls at the back of the room; snaking around their legs, arms, torsos, necks, the creatures went into a frenzy, scratching, biting and screaming but the tentacles held them fast, including the one playing the lute, who screamed in a high soprano. Then, a voice emerged from the mound on the throne: “Humans! Stop! I wish to parley! Aid me!” Victor’s response to this was to advance to the throne and strike at the mound. I couldn’t blame him. Something that was in charge of a bunch of ghouls suddenly telling us to stop and leave them alone? I couldn’t see either the paladin or our priest acquiescing to this; and Victor’s actions spoke louder than words. Longhelim joined Victor and attacked the mound which flailed with tentacles but was ultimately no match for the two warriors; I was a little puzzled as to how something that weak had survived here for so long but did not give it a great deal of thought as Felix used a burst of his holy power and most of the ghouls turned into dust. The singing ghoul was still trapped in the tentacles, together with several others but they were finally strangled, vanquishing all visible enemies. I turned to Longhelim: “Did you hear that thing? It was trying to talk to us.” “Yes. I’m sure it was. I am also sure those ghouls would have eaten us given the slightest chance. That’s what they do. They cannot control themselves. It’s their curse. For future reference, I’m not going to talk to anything that’s in charge of a bunch of ghouls; or to ghouls either for that matter. Trust me Faden, talking to ghouls is the easiest way to get eaten!” [/QUOTE]
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