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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 432527" data-attributes="member: 83">Session 18 (Part Five)Greetings All!Thanks to all the long-suffering fans (all 3 of you that are left). I have been tremendously busy with business start-up over the last 6 weeks, but managed to catch a few minutes to pound out an update! The updates will be a bit spotty over the next month or so, but I should get a breather around Thanksgiving. I am now officially THREE sessions behind (19, 20 and 21).We had Session 21 over the weekend and it was an absolute hoot (apologies to the silver furs). We are playing a "double-session" on November 16th, as my wife will be out-of-town at a baby shower!Since it has been s-o-o-o-o-o-o long...Our intrepid band, after being "flushed" by Maythrax and the Shadowblades, discovered an ancient dwarven shrine deep underground. They encountered hostile silver furred creatures, a mad dwarven priest and a ballroom full of dancing dead men. After several strange altercations with the priest, they entered a shadowy pocket dimension within a tapestry to seek a way to end the sound that seemed to be the source of the priest's madness.Whilst there, they found a glass-walled tower, battled bizarre furniture and tentacle creatures and found the source of the sound. Reaching a truce with the tentacle creatures, they brought one back through the tapestry to confront the priest, but the tentacle creature played them false and betrayed them. The creature invoked magic from a crumbling scroll and bound the priest's form in crackling black energy.A mighty battle ensued, with the silver furs breaking into the shrine and the spirit of the dwarven priest entering Brother Lew. The battle ended with the death of Sextus, his miraculous return at the hand of the possessed and the utter confusion of Quintus...Questions, Answers and Yet More QuestionsTension hung heavy in the air for several grains before Rowan stepped between their new companion and the furious Quintus.“My friend, we have just witnessed the most amazing of miracles…Lew brought Sextus back from the dead!  The power of the statue and Brother Lew has returned your brother to life.”The nose of the crossbow dipped slightly as Quintus looked at his brother’s bloodied and supine form.  Sextus grinned and waved weakly.  The sorcerer’s eyes darted from bard to dwarf and then to the disappearing form of Lew far above.  “Somebody tell me what happened.”A quarter turn of the hourglass later, Quintus shook his head for the twentieth time.  “It still doesn’t make sense!  Even if this…dwarf…fought with you, his companion attacked us several time and possessed Lew.  If that doesn’t reflect evil, I don’t know what does!  Ever since we entered this accursed place, we have been assaulted, tricked and misled.  How do we know this isn’t another trick?”Sextus, reclining atop a makeshift bed of gear, countered, “Brother, I understand your wariness, but I was dead!  I saw the same black gate as Rosë, my feet were upon the onyx path, yet I was called back.  I feel, in my heart, that the power that enabled my return walks in the Light.  The warmth and peace I felt as I was brought back is like nothing I have ever known!”Rosë and Rowan added their voices in support of Sextus’s position.  The heavily armed and armored dwarf stood stoically to one side, listening intently and eying Quintus warily.  The elder Scipio continued stubbornly, “So we are just supposed to abandon Lew?  We should go after him and we should force this dwarf to show us the way!”The dwarf shifted slightly, “Ach…I have a name.  It’s Cragen and I would appreciate it if you didn’t refer to me as ‘dwarf’!”Cragen spoke in Old Emorian and the companions understood about half of what he uttered.  Frustrated by the quizzical looks, he thumped his fist to his chest.  “CRAGEN!”The conversation continued for some time, with communication gradually improving and Quintus’s hostility lessening slightly.  Finally, an agreement was reached to take stock of their situation and look for a way out.  Cragen, doing his best to follow the conversation, grinned through his bushy beard and hitched up his weapon belt. “I know the way out,” he beamed.They scoured the Shrine for useful items, paying special attention to the upstairs rooms where they encountered Volakir and where the black chrysalis still pulsated.  Everyone steered clear of the humming cocoon.  Everyone, that is, but Quintus.  Unable to suppress his curiosity, the sorcerer stretched out his spear.Crackling black energy surged up the shaft and engulfed Quintus.  His body arced in pain and he screamed.  The spear, unable to handle the energy, shattered into a thousand shards and sent the sorcerer spinning into a wall.  He remained motionless for a few grains, groaned and rolled to his hands and knees.  He realized, in a panic, that several spells were gone from his mind and he felt very weak.(DM’s Note: Quintus has a bad habit of touching or picking up negatively charged items.  When he grasped the amulet of the zombie formerly knows as Luc, many sessions ago, it almost killed him!)Sextus and Rowan comforted Quintus while Rosë and Cragen continued their search.  Cragen uncovered a small cache of low-powered clerical scrolls, but little else.  Nothing remained in the hiding places he remembered from his youth in the shrine.  Communication required patience and hand gestures, as the dwarf’s heavily accented and archaically stilted Old Emorian only partially overlapped with the Tradespeak used by the rest of the party.The group decided to rest inside the shrine to allow the Scipio brothers to recover from their respective mishaps and for Cragen to call upon Moradin for additional healing miracles.  Their rest was disturbed from time to time by “hoots” echoing from outside, but no further assaults were mounted.Rowan and Cragen’s healing skills returned the party to semblance of health and, thankfully, the draining effect on Quintus proved to be temporary.  They prepared their gear and rapidly moved out of the shrine.  Cragen stopped before the doors and intoned the name of Moradin, along with other syllables in dwarvish.  Faint violet light flared around the doors and loud metallic click echoed through the cavern.The party hefted their weapons and followed Cragen’s lead to the left around the underground lake.  Their presence was soon detected the silver furs and ‘hoot-hoot’ began to waft down from above.  Within a turn of the minute glass, clumps of silver furs began demonstrating on the party’s right flank, with groups of half a dozen charging to within a stone’s throw of the party, thumping their chests and retreating.Whenever a band got too close, Quintus intoned his Ghost Sound, emulating the wailing of young Gordius Vercinox (Rosë’s son) at a monstrous pitch.  The cacophony quickly drove back any advance and the party continued unmolested.Cragen led them into a small fissure on the north end of the underground lake.  Rowan lit a lantern as the luminescence from the water faded into darkness.  Several faded runes were carved into the rock and Cragen traced his fingers over the etchings, hefted his hammer shaped holy symbol and spoke words of power.  Violet light sputtered and receded.  The dwarf grunted, drew himself up and repeated his action.  The light flared brighter and a portal creaked open in the wall, revealing shallow stairs leading up.The party moved through and Cragen called upon Moradin to seal the portal behind them.  Satisfied, the dwarf pushed through to the head of the column and led the way up.  A turn of the hourglass later, they stood on a small landing before another rune-accented wall.  Cragen’s faith carried them through and they found themselves in a musty, worked stone tunnel.  Rowan flashed his lantern left and right, looking at the floor and walls.A grin spread across the ranger’s face.  “I know where we are!”To Be Continued…Next: Déjà vu All Over Again</blockquote>

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