JollyDoc's Savage Tide-Updated 10/8!
Ika_Greybeard
First Post
JollyDoc said:I'm going to remember that you guys said this, especially when you're still hearing about them six months from now!!
I look at it this way if you guys win that means we win too
If we get to playtest the 4e then I guess it might be worth hearing you guys. Only thing I am sad about is everytime you guys win you have come home with goodies some of which we get 
carborundum
Adventurer
Well done guys! Congratulations
carborundum
Adventurer
Out of curiosity (no pressure ) - is the next update going to be on Sunday, mister Doc?
) - is the next update going to be on Sunday, mister Doc?
carborundum
Adventurer
/does the dance of anticipation
JollyDoc
Explorer
TABOO ISLAND
The Legionnaires gathered around Samson’s final resting place, heads bowed. After a moment, Sepoto cleared his throat.
“I suppose it falls to me to say something, since I knew him best.”
When the others did not reply, the goliath continued, “I guess the best thing I can say about Samson was that he was a man of principle. From the first time I met him, shortly before we stole a boat from his former employer, I knew I was dealing with someone who followed his own personal code of honor. When we lost the boat, he insisted we make recompense to its owner, who would have never been the wiser if nothing had been said. That streak of honor never left him, as I’m sure you would all agree, even when it was…inconvenient. I’ve now seen many comrades pass this way…Ferox, Xerxes, Anwar, Basil, Thrisp…and I hope this will be my last. Good journey, dragon shaman. May you finally soar high among your ancestors.”
“Go with the Traveler,” Daelric murmured.
“May you never lose your herd,” Tower Cleaver rumbled.
“Luck in the next world,” Mandi sighed.
“Better you than me,” Marius shrugged.
_____________________________________________________
“So what now?” Sepoto asked. “Do we make for the island?”
“Maybe not just yet…” Mandi replied thoughtfully. “I have an idea how we can turn tragedy into triumph. I propose the rest of you return to Mantru.”
At the others shocked expressions, she held up her hands. “Don’t worry. I won’t be accompanying you. As a matter of fact, my plan is for you to tell the couatl’s that you discovered I was false, and that I was in fact the shape-changing demon that we fought. Say that the dress was part of the illusion I used. Tell them about your loss, and the death of Noltus. Apologize to them for your gullibility, and for having been deceived so easily. Perhaps then they will give you more information about the fate of the villagers.”
The others were dubious, but calculated that their standing with the couatls could not be made any worse that it already was. As the afternoon wore on, they made their way back to the abandoned village. Once again, no sooner had they set foot within the boundaries of the thorp, than the pair of winged serpents appeared before them.
“Why have you returned?” they hissed angrily, their slitted eyes glinting red. Daelric stepped forward and bowed deeply.
“We beg your forgiveness, holy ones,” he began, and then continued quickly, weaving Mandi’s tale. When he’d finished, Sepoto stepped up and tossed the corpse of Onailati on the ground before them.
“The fiend killed one of our own during the battle,” he said.
All the while, the couatl’s had listened impassively. Finally, they spoke, their voices icy.
“You have reaped what you have sown. You knew the elf woman to be of evil bent by the manner in which she adorned herself, yet you willingly stayed in her company. Your loss is regrettable, but not unanticipated. Perhaps you have learned from your mistakes. Perhaps not. In any event, our position remains unchanged. We will not suffer your presence on this holy ground.”
“This is ridiculous!” Sepoto roared, throwing up his hands. “We don’t need your permission! We’re here to find the truth about what happened to the inhabitants of this village, and we’re going to do that with or without your help!” With that, the big crusader began walking purposefully towards the nearest lodge.
“Stop!” the couatl’s shouted, and abruptly, two more shimmered into view. “You have been warned!”
“Fine!” Sepoto barked, not turning towards them. “I’m warned. The rest of you, get out of here,” he said to his companions. “I’ll be along shortly.”
Reluctantly, Daelric, Cleaver and Marius withdrew from the village, with the war mage lingering right at its border, his fingers twitching nervously. Sepoto peered into each of the huts on the shore, finding each empty in turn. Only one lodge remained, and it was perched on high stilts in the lake itself. The goliath’s enchanted boots lifted him into the air, and he flew towards the building and hovered outside its door. When he pulled the curtain aside, he saw the body of an old man, in full Maztican regalia, lying in state within. Before he could do more than register this, however, he felt the air around him grown suddenly warmer. When he looked around, he found himself surrounded by the couatl’s. In unison, they hurled scorching rays of fire towards him. The big crusader screamed as the holy fire seared his flesh. From somewhere far away he could hear Marius shouting his name, and then he saw a sizzling beam of emerald strike one of the divine serpents, removing a sizeable chunk of its flesh.
“Stop!” Sepoto roared. “You win!” he said as he lifted his hands and backed away from the lodge. “We will leave, as you have made it abundantly clear that you have no intention of aiding us, but know this…should we fail in our quest, and the demonspawn of this plateau spread to the lowlands, let it be upon your heads!”
With that, the goliath rejoined his companions, and they made their way back out into the savannah.
_________________________________________________
“I can’t believe you bungled that so completely!” Mandi ranted as she paced in front of Daelric. “What went wrong? The story I gave you was perfect!”
“Obviously not,” the priest snapped back, “or else they would have believed us, wouldn’t they?”
“I hate to interrupt this stimulating discussion,” Sepoto said as he applied salve to his burns, “but I think we’ve got company.”
In unison, the company turned, hands going to weapons or spell pouches. Approaching from the tall grass was a lone human male. He was obviously Maztican, both in appearance and garb, though he wore gleaming mail under his hides and skins. Twin scimitars were strapped across his back, and his face bore the ceremonial war markings of a Maztican hunter. Hands open before him to show he came in peace, he began to speak, first in his native tongue, and then in Common.
“I am Octurus of the Tiger Clan,” he said, his accent thick but understandable. “I saw you face the demons last night, and I have come to offer you my swords. If its demons you hunt, then our paths lie together.”
“Tiger Clan, you say?” Mandi asked, stepping forward. “That’s funny, since we were told by the last surviving Tiger Clan member that the rest had all been killed.”
Octurus’s eyes went wide. “Another lives?? Tell me his name!”
“Jakara,” Mandi replied. “Do you know him?”
“Jakara?” Octurus breathed, as though he could barely believe what he was hearing. “He was one of my war brothers! You say that he lives??”
“Last we saw him,” Mandi shrugged. “But that still doesn’t explain your presence here.” As she spoke, she motioned to Daelric, who quickly spoke the words to a prayer.
“He’s what he seems,” the priest said after a moment, his eyes glowing brightly.
“I am sure Jakara told you what befell our clan,” Octurus said. “I fought, as did all my kinsmen, but the demons were too many. We could not hold against them. I was forced to retreat, and I have been biding my time since, praying to the gods for some word of my brothers’ fate. Now you bring me tidings that are painful to hear, but this only makes my resolve stronger. I am bound by blood oath to avenge my clan!”
“What do you know of Mantru, and the couatl’s there?” Sepoto asked.
“The village was deserted when I last saw it,” Octurus said. “I saw nothing of the divine serpents. If they are there, then it is because Quetzalcoatl has sent them to watch over the site, which must now be considered holy.”
“Hmph,” the goliath snorted. “Your gods have a strange idea of right and wrong. In any case, we are indeed going to Taboo Island this very day. If you wish, you may accompany us, but you’ll pull your own weight.”
“Do not worry,” Octurus said, grinning balefully. “I think you will find my skills ideally suited to the prey that you hunt.”
____________________________________________________
The Legionnaires took to the air, soaring out over the lake by means of various elixirs of flight…all save one. Mandi elected to travel beneath the surface in the guise of an ice mephit. While her companions scouted from the air, she hoped to determine if there was an underwater route beneath the small islet at the lake’s far end. The water was murky and dim, even only a few feet down, as the sorceress was. Thus it happened that she failed to notice the gargantuan shadow that rose towards her from the lake’s lightless depths. It was upon her in a flash, a crocodile of titanic proportions. One flick of its tree-sized tail propelled it straight into her. Above, the others of the company saw the great beast breach as it engulfed the tiny mephit in its huge maw. Mandi never panicked. At her mental command, the boots she wore flashed briefly, and a moment later she was thirty-feet above the water, blood dripping from several deep puncture wounds. Below, she saw the shadow of the beast disappear back into the deep. She decided that she would remain aloft for the remainder of the journey.
As the companions approached the western edge of the isle, they saw clearly that a great entrance opened in the cliff ahead, some ninety feet in width, and just as tall. The red, marble walls within were lined with carvings depicting strange gods and ferocious animals. A pair of crude wooden piers extended over the waters of the lake from the entrance, where three canoes were tethered. A net stretched over a half-dozen thick pilings protected the approach, forming a semicircle around the stone landing. Beyond the cliffs, they could just glimpse the jungle canopy of the islet’s interior, and could see the top of a large ziggurat protruding above the tree line. Further in the distance, other such pyramids were barely visible.
“I think the obvious approach is a bit too obvious,” Mandi called to Sepoto. “Perhaps it would be best if we scouted out the interior approach first.”
The goliath shrugged. One entrance was as good as another as far as he was concerned. He had no illusions that they were not in for a fight no matter where they started. As they crested the cliffs, they got a better view of the pyramid rising majestically from the surrounding undergrowth to a height of seventy feet. The sides were decorated with countless carvings of a bulging-eyed reptilian head adorned with a feathered headdress.
“Tlaloc,” Octurus observed. “The rain god.”
“Yes, we’ve heard of him,” Mandi said dryly. She then motioned for the others to land, as they circled towards the base of the cliff as slowly and quietly as possible, yet hidden eyes still observed them.
______________________________________________________
Throgriff was bored. When he’d initially accepted his current posting from the Society, it had mainly been to save his own neck. In danger of being executed for insubordination, the tiefling had chosen what amounted to exile instead. In theory, he was there to represent the Society’s interests, and to make sure that the savages did not waver in their production of the shadow pearls. In reality, he was superfluous. Production had continued apace since he had arrived, and his presence seemed to be of no consequence to the demons. He was bored. So when the skinwalker came bursting into his quarters babbling about intruders from the sky, Throgriff was intrigued. Not eager to rush off to face an unknown foe, mind, but intrigued nonetheless. He ordered the skinwalkers to intercept the trespassers immediately, saying that he would follow. He had every intention of doing so, but he was not about to go unprepared…
______________________________________________________
When the demons attacked, they made no attempts at stealth. Howling and shouting, they erupted from the jungle, their leonine second skins roaring as they raised their obsidian-bladed weapons. This was their first, and last error. Sepoto and Tower Cleaver moved to intercept their charge even as a fiery explosion erupted in the midst of the fiends, courtesy of Marius. The trio of skinwalkers was undeterred, but when they tried to dodge past the big warriors, Sepoto’s chain held them at bay while Cleaver’s axe did its work. The pair were soon joined by Octurus, his blades a whirling dervish of death. On his own, he struck one of the demons in such rapid succession that his movements were a blur. All Sepoto and Cleaver saw was the bloodied, dismembered corpse of the skinwalker drop to the ground at the demon hunter’s feet. Both nodded appreciatively, and then went to work on their own foes. The remaining demons went down just as quickly, but perhaps not with as much flair.
It was at that precise moment that Throgriff arrived on the scene…much to his regret. The envoy knew he’d made a mistake and quickly fumbled in his belt for a scroll tube. As he unfurled the parchment, however, trying to insure his escape, Mandi loosed a jade beam of energy, reducing the tiefling to a pile of dust and gear.
______________________________________________________
Octurus managed to track the skinwalkers back to a group of three ruined buildings with flat, wooden roofs covered with palm leaves. One of the structures appeared to be a holding cell of some kind, while a second was obviously a barracks for the demons. The third, however, seemed to have been the quarters of only a single occupant. Though sparsely furnished, a ledger sat in plain view on a rude desk against one wall. Mandi retrieved it and quickly flipped through its pages.
“It’s an accounting of the number of victims sacrificed here over the past year,” she said at length. “One-hundred sixty all told, with twenty-three noted as ‘special.’ There’s something else…” she paused for a moment, her eyes flicking to her companions before continuing.
“The ledger also tracks how many shadow pearls have been ‘sent below’ for completion. The number for the past year is forty-four. According to this, all but nine have been sent on to some place called Scuttlecove. We recovered eight in Golismorga, and the one from Vanthus. That leaves thirty-five unaccounted for.”
She let the unspoken implication of thirty-five shadow pearls loose in world hang in the air.
“We best keep moving,” Sepoto said finally. “If anyone else heard the battle, then our time is short.”
______________________________________________________
They found a clear path leading through the jungle to the pyramid, but when they reached the ziggurat itself, its sides were bare, with no obvious means of entry. They made their way to the top, where they discovered a massive circular stone disk, its eight-foot diameter face caked with blood. At Mandi’s instruction, Tower Cleaver hooked his fingers beneath the edge of the disk, and with a heave of effort, dragged it to one side, revealing a large shaft beneath, which descended into darkness. Once again, the company quaffed their flight elixirs and entered the shaft in single file, flying down and down into the blackness.
They soon realized that the shaft was much deeper than it had appeared, since at the point where they should have reached the ziggurat’s base, it continued on, straight into the earth. For several minutes, they flew onward, until a blue light from below brought them to a halt. Bisecting the shaft was a shimmering curtain of azure energy, ghostly shapes swimming within it.
“The Cerulean Curtain…” Sepoto breathed. “Where are we?”
“I think I know,” Mandi said, “but let’s keep going a little further.”
They passed through the curtain and continued their descent until, after some ten minutes of flight, they emerged once more into the cavern of Golismorga, directly above the temple of Holashner.
“This must have been how they delivered the shadow pearls to the kopru,” Mandi observed. “They in turn took the finished pearls through the tunnels to the troglodytes, who then delivered them to the Kraken Society, presumably to be taken to Scuttle Cove.”
“Then the source of the pearls must still be above, somewhere in the temple,” Sepoto said grimly.
“So it would appear,” Mandi agreed. “Come. We’ve still work to do.”
________________________________________________________
The sorceress Teleported herself and the others back to the top of Tlaloc’s Crown and they climbed back down to the jungle floor. There, Octurus found a second trail, this one wider and more heavily traveled leading back towards the cliffs. Following the path, the company soon found themselves at a monumental entrance set in the rocky wall between two rows of seven-foot-tall stone slabs. The monoliths were carved in the likeness of ceremonial Maztican guards. A pair of fifteen-foot-high stone doors blocked the opening. The figure of a Maztican warrior with a feathered cloak and a ferocious grin was carved on both portals.
“No, I’ll handle this one,” Mandi said as Cleaver moved towards the doors. Drawing a slim wand from her sleeve, the sorceress touched one of the portals lightly. “Alohamora,” she said, and it swung easily open. Beyond was a long, dark hall, the walls of which were decorated with abstract designs made with brown, red and deep green ceramic tiles. The group spread out, with Tower Cleaver, Sepoto and Octurus in the lead. They had gone perhaps thirty feet down the corridor when an audible click came from beneath one of Cleaver’s hooves.
“Not again,” Mandi sighed as a fusillade of spears sprang from both walls, piercing the three warriors. Tower Cleaver groaned, sagging to the floor as a debilitating weakness came over him.
“Wyvern poison,” Octurus observed, examining one of the spear tips.
“Handle that,” Mandi said to Daelric, waving absently towards the minotaur as she stepped past him. “Mind your step next time.”
Once the young priest had tended the barbarian, the group continued, finding themselves in a large, squared chamber. The stone walls of the room were barren of carvings or decorations, but a horrible stench of decay hung heavy in the air. Three passages led from the area, and the smell seemed to come strongest from the northern most. Cautiously the company proceeded. The hall was relatively short, no more than thirty feet in length, and it opened onto an enormous octagonal room that reeked horribly of blood and rotting flesh. Under a domed ceiling, a great pit occupied most of the floor, leaving a five-foot-wide ledge around the rim.
“What in the name of Savras is that?” Sepoto asked in disgust as he peered over the edge of the charnel well. Mandi peeked curiously over his shoulder, and her face contorted with distaste.
“It’s a flesh jelly,” she said. The bottom of the pit was filled with an immense mass of stinking, fleshy tissue surrounded by a filthy membrane of skin, hair and fur. As it moved and undulated, a few loose bones inside it pressed against the outer membrane, causing the disgusting body to bulge in places.
“It’s a scavenger,” she continued. “Probably used as a wasted disposal system.”
“Should we kill it?” Marius asked.
Mandi shrugged. “Suit yourself. If it came after us we could easily outdistance it. I’m not overly concerned that it’s a threat.”
“Then we kill it,” Marius nodded, smiling in anticipation.
The others backed away as the war mage worked his magic, drawing a column of flame from out of thin air to slam down into the pit. The horrid blob below made no sound, but Marius saw it suddenly lunge towards the wall of the well and begin slithering up it.
“Stubborn one, aren’t you?” the mage said, and then he struck the jelly again with his flaming pillar. Still it climbed.
Mandi sighed heavily. “If you insist on doing this Marius, do try not to get yourself killed. Stand back.”
The gnome obeyed as Mandi cast her own spell, filling the chamber with a rolling, thick fog cloud.
“There,” she said in satisfaction. “That should immobilize it. Finish what you’ve started.”
Marius clapped his hands together eagerly and hurled a pea-sized orb of flame into the mist, which then detonated into a fiery ball. Suddenly, a pseudopod of dripping flesh reached out of the fog and slammed into Sepoto, who stood just at the edge of the bank. The goliath was rocked back, catching himself against the far wall of the corridor.
“Sorry about that,” Marius shrugged. “Best not get too close.” A second fireball followed the first, and this time the horrible appendage shriveled to ash and nothing further stirred within the fog cloud.
After Marius had had his fun, Mandi led the others back through the square room and down another wide corridor on its far side. This passage branched into a smaller one, running due west about halfway down, but Mandi continued south, intrigued by a strange glow coming from the far end of the corridor. They passed through a second square room, this one also bare of furnishings, but with its walls almost entirely covered by friezes depicting processions of ancient Maztican priests along pyramid-lined city streets. The floor was cluttered with hundreds of flat, copper rings, each about two-inches in diameter.
“This was a divination chamber,” Octurus said as he bent to examine one of the rune-carved rings. “The priests would cast the bands and then commune with the gods.”
Mandi was not interested. The glow from where the corridor continued on the far side of the room still had her attention. The hall ran a bit further before ending in a large vault, the domed ceiling of which was supported by a ring of pillars carved in the likeness of tree trunks embraced by coiling feathered serpents. A cycle of bas-reliefs on the wall represented battles between Maztican warriors and flightless dragons. The Maztican warriors were led by a heroic archer who wielded a bow that seemed to be made of lightning. He was crowned emperor after his victory in a carving on the southern wall. A design of three rings of circles was engraved in the floor. Three seven-foot-tall stone statues on circular bases had been placed around the circle, one to the west, one to the east, and one to the south. All three statues represented similar-looking men dressed in imperious robes and wielding scepters. The western statue’s scepter ended in a sun, the eastern’s in a moon, and the southern’s a star. Engraved on the floor between these three figures were three rings of circular depressions. Three stone spheres sat in three of the depressions. A sphere bearing a carving of a moon sat in the inner ring at the westernmost depression, while a sphere bearing a star carving sat at the southernmost depression of the outer ring. The third ball bore a carving of the sun and sat in the easternmost depression of the middle ring.
“This is it,” Mandi breathed. “This is the secret Innersol was seeking. Daelric, bring out the disc.”
The six companions looked at the stone disc that Jakara had given them, puzzling over the carvings upon it.
“It’s a map,” Marius said at last. “It’s a map of this room. You see, these eight circles correspond to the pillars. The chamber’s entrance is here, at the bottom, and the three figures are the statues.”
“They are Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Tonatiuh,” Octurus observed, pointing in turn to the statues with the star scepter, then the moon and last the sun.
“The bow in the center of the disc,” Mandi said. “It’s the same one shown on the wall. It must be here somewhere.”
“Octurus pointed to the image of the serpent coiling around the pillars on the disc. “This too represents Quetzalcoatl.”
“Yes,” Marius agreed, “and the direction he is traveling is as the hands of a clock move. And see here…there are images of stars, suns and moons carved around the outer edge…thirteen stars, twelve suns and eleven moons.”
“That must be the key then,” Mandi said. “Each of the spheres must be moved in a clockwise rotation a number of spaces equal to its number on the disc.”
Satisfied that they’d worked out the riddle, the group quickly repositioned the three spheres. As the final one was placed, blasts of wind blew through the chamber, and a spray of glittering starlight erupted around the statue of Quetzalcoatl, while a ray of sunlight surrounded the one of Tonatiuh, and a beam of moonlight engulfed the one of Tezcatlipoca. Each of the Legionnaires then heard voices speaking into their minds. As the first spoke, the starlight brightened.
“Our worshippers are few, and soon we will move on from this world. None of our children survive to free our ancient home from evil and rebuild our glorious civilization. Still, we can help you, strangers, in a fight that is both revenge for the past and hope for the future. Heed our words.”
Next, the sunlight flared.
“In time of need, call the hawk to hunt your enemies.”
Then, the moon.
“In time of need, call the wood to bend hostile weapons.”
The stars again.
“In time of need, call the wind to down the wings of evil.”
Last, all shown with equal brilliance.
“Take the bow of Macutotnal, hero of the Maztican people and first ruler of Thanaclan, and use it well in your battle against evil.”
The lights then streamed into the center of the room and condensed into the shape of a beautiful bow made of fine wood carved with spiraling motifs and encrusted with diminutive turquoises. The string sparkled and shimmered with electricity. It hovered in mid-air as the company stared at it in wide-eyed amazement. The Nimbus Bow…weapon of the gods!
The Legionnaires gathered around Samson’s final resting place, heads bowed. After a moment, Sepoto cleared his throat.
“I suppose it falls to me to say something, since I knew him best.”
When the others did not reply, the goliath continued, “I guess the best thing I can say about Samson was that he was a man of principle. From the first time I met him, shortly before we stole a boat from his former employer, I knew I was dealing with someone who followed his own personal code of honor. When we lost the boat, he insisted we make recompense to its owner, who would have never been the wiser if nothing had been said. That streak of honor never left him, as I’m sure you would all agree, even when it was…inconvenient. I’ve now seen many comrades pass this way…Ferox, Xerxes, Anwar, Basil, Thrisp…and I hope this will be my last. Good journey, dragon shaman. May you finally soar high among your ancestors.”
“Go with the Traveler,” Daelric murmured.
“May you never lose your herd,” Tower Cleaver rumbled.
“Luck in the next world,” Mandi sighed.
“Better you than me,” Marius shrugged.
_____________________________________________________
“So what now?” Sepoto asked. “Do we make for the island?”
“Maybe not just yet…” Mandi replied thoughtfully. “I have an idea how we can turn tragedy into triumph. I propose the rest of you return to Mantru.”
At the others shocked expressions, she held up her hands. “Don’t worry. I won’t be accompanying you. As a matter of fact, my plan is for you to tell the couatl’s that you discovered I was false, and that I was in fact the shape-changing demon that we fought. Say that the dress was part of the illusion I used. Tell them about your loss, and the death of Noltus. Apologize to them for your gullibility, and for having been deceived so easily. Perhaps then they will give you more information about the fate of the villagers.”
The others were dubious, but calculated that their standing with the couatls could not be made any worse that it already was. As the afternoon wore on, they made their way back to the abandoned village. Once again, no sooner had they set foot within the boundaries of the thorp, than the pair of winged serpents appeared before them.
“Why have you returned?” they hissed angrily, their slitted eyes glinting red. Daelric stepped forward and bowed deeply.
“We beg your forgiveness, holy ones,” he began, and then continued quickly, weaving Mandi’s tale. When he’d finished, Sepoto stepped up and tossed the corpse of Onailati on the ground before them.
“The fiend killed one of our own during the battle,” he said.
All the while, the couatl’s had listened impassively. Finally, they spoke, their voices icy.
“You have reaped what you have sown. You knew the elf woman to be of evil bent by the manner in which she adorned herself, yet you willingly stayed in her company. Your loss is regrettable, but not unanticipated. Perhaps you have learned from your mistakes. Perhaps not. In any event, our position remains unchanged. We will not suffer your presence on this holy ground.”
“This is ridiculous!” Sepoto roared, throwing up his hands. “We don’t need your permission! We’re here to find the truth about what happened to the inhabitants of this village, and we’re going to do that with or without your help!” With that, the big crusader began walking purposefully towards the nearest lodge.
“Stop!” the couatl’s shouted, and abruptly, two more shimmered into view. “You have been warned!”
“Fine!” Sepoto barked, not turning towards them. “I’m warned. The rest of you, get out of here,” he said to his companions. “I’ll be along shortly.”
Reluctantly, Daelric, Cleaver and Marius withdrew from the village, with the war mage lingering right at its border, his fingers twitching nervously. Sepoto peered into each of the huts on the shore, finding each empty in turn. Only one lodge remained, and it was perched on high stilts in the lake itself. The goliath’s enchanted boots lifted him into the air, and he flew towards the building and hovered outside its door. When he pulled the curtain aside, he saw the body of an old man, in full Maztican regalia, lying in state within. Before he could do more than register this, however, he felt the air around him grown suddenly warmer. When he looked around, he found himself surrounded by the couatl’s. In unison, they hurled scorching rays of fire towards him. The big crusader screamed as the holy fire seared his flesh. From somewhere far away he could hear Marius shouting his name, and then he saw a sizzling beam of emerald strike one of the divine serpents, removing a sizeable chunk of its flesh.
“Stop!” Sepoto roared. “You win!” he said as he lifted his hands and backed away from the lodge. “We will leave, as you have made it abundantly clear that you have no intention of aiding us, but know this…should we fail in our quest, and the demonspawn of this plateau spread to the lowlands, let it be upon your heads!”
With that, the goliath rejoined his companions, and they made their way back out into the savannah.
_________________________________________________
“I can’t believe you bungled that so completely!” Mandi ranted as she paced in front of Daelric. “What went wrong? The story I gave you was perfect!”
“Obviously not,” the priest snapped back, “or else they would have believed us, wouldn’t they?”
“I hate to interrupt this stimulating discussion,” Sepoto said as he applied salve to his burns, “but I think we’ve got company.”
In unison, the company turned, hands going to weapons or spell pouches. Approaching from the tall grass was a lone human male. He was obviously Maztican, both in appearance and garb, though he wore gleaming mail under his hides and skins. Twin scimitars were strapped across his back, and his face bore the ceremonial war markings of a Maztican hunter. Hands open before him to show he came in peace, he began to speak, first in his native tongue, and then in Common.
“I am Octurus of the Tiger Clan,” he said, his accent thick but understandable. “I saw you face the demons last night, and I have come to offer you my swords. If its demons you hunt, then our paths lie together.”
“Tiger Clan, you say?” Mandi asked, stepping forward. “That’s funny, since we were told by the last surviving Tiger Clan member that the rest had all been killed.”
Octurus’s eyes went wide. “Another lives?? Tell me his name!”
“Jakara,” Mandi replied. “Do you know him?”
“Jakara?” Octurus breathed, as though he could barely believe what he was hearing. “He was one of my war brothers! You say that he lives??”
“Last we saw him,” Mandi shrugged. “But that still doesn’t explain your presence here.” As she spoke, she motioned to Daelric, who quickly spoke the words to a prayer.
“He’s what he seems,” the priest said after a moment, his eyes glowing brightly.
“I am sure Jakara told you what befell our clan,” Octurus said. “I fought, as did all my kinsmen, but the demons were too many. We could not hold against them. I was forced to retreat, and I have been biding my time since, praying to the gods for some word of my brothers’ fate. Now you bring me tidings that are painful to hear, but this only makes my resolve stronger. I am bound by blood oath to avenge my clan!”
“What do you know of Mantru, and the couatl’s there?” Sepoto asked.
“The village was deserted when I last saw it,” Octurus said. “I saw nothing of the divine serpents. If they are there, then it is because Quetzalcoatl has sent them to watch over the site, which must now be considered holy.”
“Hmph,” the goliath snorted. “Your gods have a strange idea of right and wrong. In any case, we are indeed going to Taboo Island this very day. If you wish, you may accompany us, but you’ll pull your own weight.”
“Do not worry,” Octurus said, grinning balefully. “I think you will find my skills ideally suited to the prey that you hunt.”
____________________________________________________
The Legionnaires took to the air, soaring out over the lake by means of various elixirs of flight…all save one. Mandi elected to travel beneath the surface in the guise of an ice mephit. While her companions scouted from the air, she hoped to determine if there was an underwater route beneath the small islet at the lake’s far end. The water was murky and dim, even only a few feet down, as the sorceress was. Thus it happened that she failed to notice the gargantuan shadow that rose towards her from the lake’s lightless depths. It was upon her in a flash, a crocodile of titanic proportions. One flick of its tree-sized tail propelled it straight into her. Above, the others of the company saw the great beast breach as it engulfed the tiny mephit in its huge maw. Mandi never panicked. At her mental command, the boots she wore flashed briefly, and a moment later she was thirty-feet above the water, blood dripping from several deep puncture wounds. Below, she saw the shadow of the beast disappear back into the deep. She decided that she would remain aloft for the remainder of the journey.
As the companions approached the western edge of the isle, they saw clearly that a great entrance opened in the cliff ahead, some ninety feet in width, and just as tall. The red, marble walls within were lined with carvings depicting strange gods and ferocious animals. A pair of crude wooden piers extended over the waters of the lake from the entrance, where three canoes were tethered. A net stretched over a half-dozen thick pilings protected the approach, forming a semicircle around the stone landing. Beyond the cliffs, they could just glimpse the jungle canopy of the islet’s interior, and could see the top of a large ziggurat protruding above the tree line. Further in the distance, other such pyramids were barely visible.
“I think the obvious approach is a bit too obvious,” Mandi called to Sepoto. “Perhaps it would be best if we scouted out the interior approach first.”
The goliath shrugged. One entrance was as good as another as far as he was concerned. He had no illusions that they were not in for a fight no matter where they started. As they crested the cliffs, they got a better view of the pyramid rising majestically from the surrounding undergrowth to a height of seventy feet. The sides were decorated with countless carvings of a bulging-eyed reptilian head adorned with a feathered headdress.
“Tlaloc,” Octurus observed. “The rain god.”
“Yes, we’ve heard of him,” Mandi said dryly. She then motioned for the others to land, as they circled towards the base of the cliff as slowly and quietly as possible, yet hidden eyes still observed them.
______________________________________________________
Throgriff was bored. When he’d initially accepted his current posting from the Society, it had mainly been to save his own neck. In danger of being executed for insubordination, the tiefling had chosen what amounted to exile instead. In theory, he was there to represent the Society’s interests, and to make sure that the savages did not waver in their production of the shadow pearls. In reality, he was superfluous. Production had continued apace since he had arrived, and his presence seemed to be of no consequence to the demons. He was bored. So when the skinwalker came bursting into his quarters babbling about intruders from the sky, Throgriff was intrigued. Not eager to rush off to face an unknown foe, mind, but intrigued nonetheless. He ordered the skinwalkers to intercept the trespassers immediately, saying that he would follow. He had every intention of doing so, but he was not about to go unprepared…
______________________________________________________
When the demons attacked, they made no attempts at stealth. Howling and shouting, they erupted from the jungle, their leonine second skins roaring as they raised their obsidian-bladed weapons. This was their first, and last error. Sepoto and Tower Cleaver moved to intercept their charge even as a fiery explosion erupted in the midst of the fiends, courtesy of Marius. The trio of skinwalkers was undeterred, but when they tried to dodge past the big warriors, Sepoto’s chain held them at bay while Cleaver’s axe did its work. The pair were soon joined by Octurus, his blades a whirling dervish of death. On his own, he struck one of the demons in such rapid succession that his movements were a blur. All Sepoto and Cleaver saw was the bloodied, dismembered corpse of the skinwalker drop to the ground at the demon hunter’s feet. Both nodded appreciatively, and then went to work on their own foes. The remaining demons went down just as quickly, but perhaps not with as much flair.
It was at that precise moment that Throgriff arrived on the scene…much to his regret. The envoy knew he’d made a mistake and quickly fumbled in his belt for a scroll tube. As he unfurled the parchment, however, trying to insure his escape, Mandi loosed a jade beam of energy, reducing the tiefling to a pile of dust and gear.
______________________________________________________
Octurus managed to track the skinwalkers back to a group of three ruined buildings with flat, wooden roofs covered with palm leaves. One of the structures appeared to be a holding cell of some kind, while a second was obviously a barracks for the demons. The third, however, seemed to have been the quarters of only a single occupant. Though sparsely furnished, a ledger sat in plain view on a rude desk against one wall. Mandi retrieved it and quickly flipped through its pages.
“It’s an accounting of the number of victims sacrificed here over the past year,” she said at length. “One-hundred sixty all told, with twenty-three noted as ‘special.’ There’s something else…” she paused for a moment, her eyes flicking to her companions before continuing.
“The ledger also tracks how many shadow pearls have been ‘sent below’ for completion. The number for the past year is forty-four. According to this, all but nine have been sent on to some place called Scuttlecove. We recovered eight in Golismorga, and the one from Vanthus. That leaves thirty-five unaccounted for.”
She let the unspoken implication of thirty-five shadow pearls loose in world hang in the air.
“We best keep moving,” Sepoto said finally. “If anyone else heard the battle, then our time is short.”
______________________________________________________
They found a clear path leading through the jungle to the pyramid, but when they reached the ziggurat itself, its sides were bare, with no obvious means of entry. They made their way to the top, where they discovered a massive circular stone disk, its eight-foot diameter face caked with blood. At Mandi’s instruction, Tower Cleaver hooked his fingers beneath the edge of the disk, and with a heave of effort, dragged it to one side, revealing a large shaft beneath, which descended into darkness. Once again, the company quaffed their flight elixirs and entered the shaft in single file, flying down and down into the blackness.
They soon realized that the shaft was much deeper than it had appeared, since at the point where they should have reached the ziggurat’s base, it continued on, straight into the earth. For several minutes, they flew onward, until a blue light from below brought them to a halt. Bisecting the shaft was a shimmering curtain of azure energy, ghostly shapes swimming within it.
“The Cerulean Curtain…” Sepoto breathed. “Where are we?”
“I think I know,” Mandi said, “but let’s keep going a little further.”
They passed through the curtain and continued their descent until, after some ten minutes of flight, they emerged once more into the cavern of Golismorga, directly above the temple of Holashner.
“This must have been how they delivered the shadow pearls to the kopru,” Mandi observed. “They in turn took the finished pearls through the tunnels to the troglodytes, who then delivered them to the Kraken Society, presumably to be taken to Scuttle Cove.”
“Then the source of the pearls must still be above, somewhere in the temple,” Sepoto said grimly.
“So it would appear,” Mandi agreed. “Come. We’ve still work to do.”
________________________________________________________
The sorceress Teleported herself and the others back to the top of Tlaloc’s Crown and they climbed back down to the jungle floor. There, Octurus found a second trail, this one wider and more heavily traveled leading back towards the cliffs. Following the path, the company soon found themselves at a monumental entrance set in the rocky wall between two rows of seven-foot-tall stone slabs. The monoliths were carved in the likeness of ceremonial Maztican guards. A pair of fifteen-foot-high stone doors blocked the opening. The figure of a Maztican warrior with a feathered cloak and a ferocious grin was carved on both portals.
“No, I’ll handle this one,” Mandi said as Cleaver moved towards the doors. Drawing a slim wand from her sleeve, the sorceress touched one of the portals lightly. “Alohamora,” she said, and it swung easily open. Beyond was a long, dark hall, the walls of which were decorated with abstract designs made with brown, red and deep green ceramic tiles. The group spread out, with Tower Cleaver, Sepoto and Octurus in the lead. They had gone perhaps thirty feet down the corridor when an audible click came from beneath one of Cleaver’s hooves.
“Not again,” Mandi sighed as a fusillade of spears sprang from both walls, piercing the three warriors. Tower Cleaver groaned, sagging to the floor as a debilitating weakness came over him.
“Wyvern poison,” Octurus observed, examining one of the spear tips.
“Handle that,” Mandi said to Daelric, waving absently towards the minotaur as she stepped past him. “Mind your step next time.”
Once the young priest had tended the barbarian, the group continued, finding themselves in a large, squared chamber. The stone walls of the room were barren of carvings or decorations, but a horrible stench of decay hung heavy in the air. Three passages led from the area, and the smell seemed to come strongest from the northern most. Cautiously the company proceeded. The hall was relatively short, no more than thirty feet in length, and it opened onto an enormous octagonal room that reeked horribly of blood and rotting flesh. Under a domed ceiling, a great pit occupied most of the floor, leaving a five-foot-wide ledge around the rim.
“What in the name of Savras is that?” Sepoto asked in disgust as he peered over the edge of the charnel well. Mandi peeked curiously over his shoulder, and her face contorted with distaste.
“It’s a flesh jelly,” she said. The bottom of the pit was filled with an immense mass of stinking, fleshy tissue surrounded by a filthy membrane of skin, hair and fur. As it moved and undulated, a few loose bones inside it pressed against the outer membrane, causing the disgusting body to bulge in places.
“It’s a scavenger,” she continued. “Probably used as a wasted disposal system.”
“Should we kill it?” Marius asked.
Mandi shrugged. “Suit yourself. If it came after us we could easily outdistance it. I’m not overly concerned that it’s a threat.”
“Then we kill it,” Marius nodded, smiling in anticipation.
The others backed away as the war mage worked his magic, drawing a column of flame from out of thin air to slam down into the pit. The horrid blob below made no sound, but Marius saw it suddenly lunge towards the wall of the well and begin slithering up it.
“Stubborn one, aren’t you?” the mage said, and then he struck the jelly again with his flaming pillar. Still it climbed.
Mandi sighed heavily. “If you insist on doing this Marius, do try not to get yourself killed. Stand back.”
The gnome obeyed as Mandi cast her own spell, filling the chamber with a rolling, thick fog cloud.
“There,” she said in satisfaction. “That should immobilize it. Finish what you’ve started.”
Marius clapped his hands together eagerly and hurled a pea-sized orb of flame into the mist, which then detonated into a fiery ball. Suddenly, a pseudopod of dripping flesh reached out of the fog and slammed into Sepoto, who stood just at the edge of the bank. The goliath was rocked back, catching himself against the far wall of the corridor.
“Sorry about that,” Marius shrugged. “Best not get too close.” A second fireball followed the first, and this time the horrible appendage shriveled to ash and nothing further stirred within the fog cloud.
After Marius had had his fun, Mandi led the others back through the square room and down another wide corridor on its far side. This passage branched into a smaller one, running due west about halfway down, but Mandi continued south, intrigued by a strange glow coming from the far end of the corridor. They passed through a second square room, this one also bare of furnishings, but with its walls almost entirely covered by friezes depicting processions of ancient Maztican priests along pyramid-lined city streets. The floor was cluttered with hundreds of flat, copper rings, each about two-inches in diameter.
“This was a divination chamber,” Octurus said as he bent to examine one of the rune-carved rings. “The priests would cast the bands and then commune with the gods.”
Mandi was not interested. The glow from where the corridor continued on the far side of the room still had her attention. The hall ran a bit further before ending in a large vault, the domed ceiling of which was supported by a ring of pillars carved in the likeness of tree trunks embraced by coiling feathered serpents. A cycle of bas-reliefs on the wall represented battles between Maztican warriors and flightless dragons. The Maztican warriors were led by a heroic archer who wielded a bow that seemed to be made of lightning. He was crowned emperor after his victory in a carving on the southern wall. A design of three rings of circles was engraved in the floor. Three seven-foot-tall stone statues on circular bases had been placed around the circle, one to the west, one to the east, and one to the south. All three statues represented similar-looking men dressed in imperious robes and wielding scepters. The western statue’s scepter ended in a sun, the eastern’s in a moon, and the southern’s a star. Engraved on the floor between these three figures were three rings of circular depressions. Three stone spheres sat in three of the depressions. A sphere bearing a carving of a moon sat in the inner ring at the westernmost depression, while a sphere bearing a star carving sat at the southernmost depression of the outer ring. The third ball bore a carving of the sun and sat in the easternmost depression of the middle ring.
“This is it,” Mandi breathed. “This is the secret Innersol was seeking. Daelric, bring out the disc.”
The six companions looked at the stone disc that Jakara had given them, puzzling over the carvings upon it.
“It’s a map,” Marius said at last. “It’s a map of this room. You see, these eight circles correspond to the pillars. The chamber’s entrance is here, at the bottom, and the three figures are the statues.”
“They are Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Tonatiuh,” Octurus observed, pointing in turn to the statues with the star scepter, then the moon and last the sun.
“The bow in the center of the disc,” Mandi said. “It’s the same one shown on the wall. It must be here somewhere.”
“Octurus pointed to the image of the serpent coiling around the pillars on the disc. “This too represents Quetzalcoatl.”
“Yes,” Marius agreed, “and the direction he is traveling is as the hands of a clock move. And see here…there are images of stars, suns and moons carved around the outer edge…thirteen stars, twelve suns and eleven moons.”
“That must be the key then,” Mandi said. “Each of the spheres must be moved in a clockwise rotation a number of spaces equal to its number on the disc.”
Satisfied that they’d worked out the riddle, the group quickly repositioned the three spheres. As the final one was placed, blasts of wind blew through the chamber, and a spray of glittering starlight erupted around the statue of Quetzalcoatl, while a ray of sunlight surrounded the one of Tonatiuh, and a beam of moonlight engulfed the one of Tezcatlipoca. Each of the Legionnaires then heard voices speaking into their minds. As the first spoke, the starlight brightened.
“Our worshippers are few, and soon we will move on from this world. None of our children survive to free our ancient home from evil and rebuild our glorious civilization. Still, we can help you, strangers, in a fight that is both revenge for the past and hope for the future. Heed our words.”
Next, the sunlight flared.
“In time of need, call the hawk to hunt your enemies.”
Then, the moon.
“In time of need, call the wood to bend hostile weapons.”
The stars again.
“In time of need, call the wind to down the wings of evil.”
Last, all shown with equal brilliance.
“Take the bow of Macutotnal, hero of the Maztican people and first ruler of Thanaclan, and use it well in your battle against evil.”
The lights then streamed into the center of the room and condensed into the shape of a beautiful bow made of fine wood carved with spiraling motifs and encrusted with diminutive turquoises. The string sparkled and shimmered with electricity. It hovered in mid-air as the company stared at it in wide-eyed amazement. The Nimbus Bow…weapon of the gods!
carborundum
Adventurer
Alohomora - LOL!
Octurus seems to be earning his keep, and the flesh jelly didn't give them any bother either. They're back on form!
Nice update, JD - thanks mate!
Octurus seems to be earning his keep, and the flesh jelly didn't give them any bother either. They're back on form!
Nice update, JD - thanks mate!
