Phar removes an intricately decorated book from his backpage. Flipping to the back, is many blank sheets of vellum. He draws out a knife and carefully cuts out a page for each person in the group.
"Hopefully, the Gloom will not destroy the entire book."
He then casts a spells and his hawk, Featar, disappears into it.
While I have no means to subdue opponents, I can attempt to hinder enemies and slow them. Any other spells that direct harm will be lethal. Therefore, I will endeavor to keep secondary enemies away from those who are dealing directly with Eike. If the Vrock appears, do not waste energy on it unless I fail to banish it.
I can cast fly and haste but their durations are fleeting.
He draws out his Avital's Sacred Mithrill Mace of Warning and prepares to enter the Gloom.
After Maur releases the inevitable from its obligation, the creature chooses to escort the horses back to the ruined temple of Bogphin. There is tension between the called outsider and the dwarven champion leaves you to find your own way into The Gloom. It would have only have agreed if Maur had sought the council of Moradin, and he felt it was more important to press on. Before the inevitable leaves, you all make sure you have gathered everything you'll need from the horses.
There is some debate about whether the group should take the time to adjust memorized spells, but all agree that time is of the essence. Phar hands out the vellum to each person.
"So, will this sheet protect us completely?" Aureus asks.
"Unlikely," Qi notes.
"Hopefully, it will last long enough to keep the demiplane's blight from infecting us all."
Aureus looks a Phar.
"Will one sheet protect the Star Arms too? Should Angus, Quinn, and I carry more than one?"
Phar considers the idea but isn't completely sure.
Angus waits until everyone is ready and then turns towards The Gloom's barrier, takes a deep breath, and leads the way into the demiplane.
"Here we go, lads and lass!"
You take off into the demiplane. Passing through the barrier is a sickly feeling and you can feel the power of The Gloom try to infect your bodies and minds. Once on the other side, the sun in the sky becomes an eerie pinprick of twilight, the colours of the ground and sky become muted, and the air smells musty and dry. The magical vellum does its job, but Phar notes that his sheet is already losing its colour.
Aureus asks for a second sheet to wrap around Qi.
Angus can feel the deadliness of this place. The centaur keeps Maur's magic,
Valiant Spirit, in the back of his mind to use at just the right moment.
The terrain shifts from hills to dry dusty scrub plains to low mounds of blowing sand across rocky ground. Then there are more higher hills, which are more like angry mounds of dust and rocks piled together. The ground cracks underfoot but there aren't any fissures that you can see. The air becomes hot and humid the deeper you go into the demiplane. Soon the visibly cursed lands leading into the dense and dark bogs and forests that the inevitable warned you about come into view. A miasma seems to hang over the nearby marsh and you avoid it and The Wraith to the south completely -- cutting in between the two.
Aureus ties a cloth over her nose and tries not to retch.
The landscape become a maze of dusty hills and dried out gullies, as well as blistering pockets of badlands, broken fissures, and pools of reddish smoking liquid that seems to boil up into shallow pits. The air smells of brimstone and the ground is covered in sharp rocks. Mist hangs a foot over the land... everywhere.
Soon, Angus is forced to stop and pick bits of kicked up
sticky pebbles out of his long hair and pull a long sharp stone out of one of his hooves. The sliver-like stones embed themselves into boots and unprotected feet (forcing Aureus to either wrap her feet or ride on Angus). While the stone slivers aren't sharp enough to do real damage, the shards slow you down.
"I hate this place!" Aureus groans.
In the distance to the northeast, the bog ends, and the line of trees deepens into a dense cluster. The limbs of the trees appear to almost be humanoid like with grasping finger-like tendrils writhing and rising into the air. The distant howling of wind begins to feel closer now. The protection of the vellum might be keeping the Gloom Blight away, for now, but the eeriness of the plane still threatens to overwhelm your minds.
Then, you hear something... else, howling. Whatever it is almost sounds like it is in pain. Or, could it be a trick of the wind? Just east of you is a mound of sharp crags jutting up from the ground. You can see a large crag spilling out putrid reddish ooze that looks almost like blood. There are several 5-foot wide puddles of the liquid near the base of the crags. To the south and east of you are strips of low badlands interspersed with deep fissures. Beyond them are more sharp crags and pits of oozing, bubbling liquid.
Then, the nearest oozing crag begins to rumble and steam fires up into the air and hot oozing liquid shoots up around it. The liquid covers an area of 10 feet around it. Luckily, Angus is not close enough to get splashed by the liquid, but the nearby ground sizzles where the liquid touches it.
"Some sort of magma," Cruel Justice warns.
"Or maybe acid... or both."
Another oozing crag spews its contents into the air. It stand about 100 feet away but is hard to see with the hazy fog clinging to the ground all around you.
Then, there is another howl. This time, you're sure its not the wind. You hear what sounds like maddening laughter as well. Whatever it is, you cannot see it. Then, the laughter becomes a roar. You hear heavy footfalls from somewhere nearby, but you aren't sure where as sound seems to echo wildly among the crags and fissures.
"What Do I Smell?" A deep voice resounds across the landscape.
"Chicken Or Fish?" Then, the voice laughs at its own stupid joke.
"Meat For My Stomach... YESSS! Horse, Maybe? Ooohhh, Yum!" There is another roar.
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OOC:
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How many can ride on the sled at once? I need weight totals for everyone to know how fast Angus can move. Taran noted on the OOC thread that you're not going to use the sled right away. Uhm, I though the point of the sled was to reach the shrine faster. I'm confused.
@TaranTheWanderer, is Phar going to fly instead? I need to know how this is going to work.
Also, which other PCs are casting protective magic besides Maur?
Oh yes, roll for initiative.
Once you guys confirm that you're using the sled, then I'll post the battle map for this encounter. If not, I'll remove the parts relating to the sled from this post.
Reminder! A single vellum page will protect only one character. If those PCs who are carrying Star Arms travel with only one sheet, the sheet will only last half as long. The Star Arms are separate intelligent beings that need to be protected individually. The vellum can be wrapped around hilts or put inside scabbards to provide this extra protection.
I'm assuming the vellum will protect the PCs from the initial 1d3 points of Taint for entering The Gloom. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be how it works, but I'm just going to rule it does. Maybe I should be rolling 1d3, and the resulting number comes off the length that each piece of allocated vellum lasts. So, if I rolled a 2, then the protection last 5 days instead of 7 days.
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