Mahiro Satsu
First Post
Episode V INTO the LOST CITY part 2
Eleint 11
Another four hours walking in the mines, and we came upon what we have sought. The cave opens into a space, a very large dark space, and thundering, rushing water can be heard off to the right. The waterfall from the map?
We pick our way past old ruins, fields of broken stone walls. There’s a huge pillar of stone, and beyond a forest of deep fungi—mushroom “trees” fifteen to twenty feet tall, “underbrush” of mushrooms, creepers, vines, phosphor moss. Looks positively deadly. We turn left.
Walking along at the front of a row of four enormous pillars. Between them, we see that the fungus forest is quite extensive. The fourth pillar is carved into the shape of an enormous booted foot, with a leg stretching up into the gloom. The Pillar of Iolar? We can’t be sure in this accursed darkness, but there’s a wide, black river on the other side of it. Big albino fish in there.
“Don’t fall in,” advises Bronny.
Again we turn left, following along the shore. Half of us are blind, hands on the shoulders of their seeing-eye dwarves. It’s a dangerous way to travel, and it makes me nervous. Better than advertising ourselves with light, though.
Abruptly we’re surrounded by rank, nauseating vapor. Gods, the stink! We get clear of it, and eventually the retching stops.
“What was that?” No one can answer. Bronn thinks it was a spell. We move on.
Bursts of magic, four of them, pulse from beneath the water. They strike without error, and they wound, but not deeply. Something sinuous moves in the dark water...and is gone.
We move on. Whatever it is, it’s toying with us.
Soon we can see a bridge up ahead, spanning the river. It’s really a marvel that Clan Darkfell could span a two-hundred-foot wide river with a stone bridge. Not everyone is as impressed as I am. Bah. Rickety wooden supports are enough for humans, I suppose.
The others try to decide where we are on the map. We cross the bridge, and find at the other side a pair of towers standing sentry in the dark. The one on the left seems mostly intact, the one on the right crumbling; not all of Clan Darkfell’s engineering marvels have stood the test of years.
A whish in the dark. Javelins fall around us, wounding some. Flung from the battlements atop the open portcullis. We rush forward, out of harm’s way, and burst into the right tower.
They are waiting for us: reptilian creatures that exude a horrible, strength-sapping stench. Their leader flings spells at us, but to no avail. We rush through the tower, a killing wind.
After the battle, Snowcap goes outside to check the tower perimeter while we search the bodies. The inner walls of the tower are covered with primitive scrawls: the word MEERSCHAULK repeated endlessly, along with crude snakelike shapes. A leader?
A crackling of white light from outside, a roll of thunder. Snowcap comes screaming into the tower, hair standing on end, scorched and smoking. “In the water!” he wails, “a human head on a snaky body! Horror!”
We decide it’s time to leave. Now.
Straight back across the bridge, straight across a plain of broken stone, past the ruin of a stone building (hoping we’re headed in the right direction, since they’re trusting me to lead them) and Clanggeddin be Praised we reach the side of this massive cataract. Slip into a cave with a ruined mine wagon in its mouth. There’s a dwarf skeleton with goblin arrows lodged amongst his ribs. A reminder to me from the Axe Father? When the time comes, I will do what you wish, Silverbeard.
(later)
They are chanting, chanting in the dark, from the direction of the tower: “Yss-fara...yss-fara...yss-fara...” I roll over and plug my ears.
Eleint 11
Another four hours walking in the mines, and we came upon what we have sought. The cave opens into a space, a very large dark space, and thundering, rushing water can be heard off to the right. The waterfall from the map?
We pick our way past old ruins, fields of broken stone walls. There’s a huge pillar of stone, and beyond a forest of deep fungi—mushroom “trees” fifteen to twenty feet tall, “underbrush” of mushrooms, creepers, vines, phosphor moss. Looks positively deadly. We turn left.
Walking along at the front of a row of four enormous pillars. Between them, we see that the fungus forest is quite extensive. The fourth pillar is carved into the shape of an enormous booted foot, with a leg stretching up into the gloom. The Pillar of Iolar? We can’t be sure in this accursed darkness, but there’s a wide, black river on the other side of it. Big albino fish in there.
“Don’t fall in,” advises Bronny.
Again we turn left, following along the shore. Half of us are blind, hands on the shoulders of their seeing-eye dwarves. It’s a dangerous way to travel, and it makes me nervous. Better than advertising ourselves with light, though.
Abruptly we’re surrounded by rank, nauseating vapor. Gods, the stink! We get clear of it, and eventually the retching stops.
“What was that?” No one can answer. Bronn thinks it was a spell. We move on.
Bursts of magic, four of them, pulse from beneath the water. They strike without error, and they wound, but not deeply. Something sinuous moves in the dark water...and is gone.
We move on. Whatever it is, it’s toying with us.
Soon we can see a bridge up ahead, spanning the river. It’s really a marvel that Clan Darkfell could span a two-hundred-foot wide river with a stone bridge. Not everyone is as impressed as I am. Bah. Rickety wooden supports are enough for humans, I suppose.
The others try to decide where we are on the map. We cross the bridge, and find at the other side a pair of towers standing sentry in the dark. The one on the left seems mostly intact, the one on the right crumbling; not all of Clan Darkfell’s engineering marvels have stood the test of years.
A whish in the dark. Javelins fall around us, wounding some. Flung from the battlements atop the open portcullis. We rush forward, out of harm’s way, and burst into the right tower.
They are waiting for us: reptilian creatures that exude a horrible, strength-sapping stench. Their leader flings spells at us, but to no avail. We rush through the tower, a killing wind.
After the battle, Snowcap goes outside to check the tower perimeter while we search the bodies. The inner walls of the tower are covered with primitive scrawls: the word MEERSCHAULK repeated endlessly, along with crude snakelike shapes. A leader?
A crackling of white light from outside, a roll of thunder. Snowcap comes screaming into the tower, hair standing on end, scorched and smoking. “In the water!” he wails, “a human head on a snaky body! Horror!”
We decide it’s time to leave. Now.
Straight back across the bridge, straight across a plain of broken stone, past the ruin of a stone building (hoping we’re headed in the right direction, since they’re trusting me to lead them) and Clanggeddin be Praised we reach the side of this massive cataract. Slip into a cave with a ruined mine wagon in its mouth. There’s a dwarf skeleton with goblin arrows lodged amongst his ribs. A reminder to me from the Axe Father? When the time comes, I will do what you wish, Silverbeard.
(later)
They are chanting, chanting in the dark, from the direction of the tower: “Yss-fara...yss-fara...yss-fara...” I roll over and plug my ears.
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