WizarDru
Adventurer
3rd Update! Is He INSANE?!? (not yet, still have 78 SAN to spare, thank you).
After our panic subsided, we examined the image. It was a oblong head of a Ral’Shar, blue with a strange star shape on its forehead. It had two oval shaped eyes, angled away from the center of its face, and a strange mouth that appeared, to our eyes, to be smiling. Lowering our weapons, we began to attempt a way to communicate.
“Can you hear us?” asked Alden.
A short collection of Ral’Shar script appeared, colored green. This was Ral’Shar for ‘yes’, we believed.
“Have we met you before?” asked Tazendra.
A series of smaller, more angular Red characters appeared. This was Ral’Shar for ‘no’, we imagined.
We began a dialogue with our mysterious informant, trying to garner as much information as we could about the Ral’Shar and their situation.
Many of our questions (well, mine in any case) confused the being. Alden and Delwyn seemed to understand it’s thought processes better than the rest of us, although we all contributed questions. Delwyn quickly surmised that it was using Psionics (and powerfully) to communicate with us, and illustrated it quite simply: the image of the Informant had a star on it’s face, which was consistent iconography with the previous pictures.
We determined a variety of things. The yellow being was NOT Fharlangan, and the Informant found the idea upsetting, at the very least. It was not a divine being, as the Ral’Shar understood such concepts, though I’m not sure that they do. The Green were no more, slain by the She-Devil. The black corpses in the pictures represented the dead.
“Wait,” I said. “If the Greens are all dead, what did we free here?”
An image appeared of a Ral’Shar…but a BLACK one, with fiery red eyes. The implication was clear…they had been revived as undead, and that was the enemy we were facing. We were shown an image of me removing the cube. Again, it was plain to all of us that we were seeing the moment that I freed the Black Ral’Shar. I alone made that choice, and now people were dead for it. I felt like I could hardly breathe.
Tazendra: “So the cube was keeping them prisoner here?”
The Informant: YES.
Tazendra: “So who put them there?”
The Informant: SHE-DEVIL.
Alden: “Are they under her control now?”
The Informant: NO.
Alden: “Is she aware that they are free?”
The Informant: YES.
Delwyn: “If she finds them, she’ll be able to control them again, won’t she?”
The Informant: YES.
Me: “She wants to destroy us all. Every living thing on Avonshar, doesn’t she?”
The Informant: YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.
I swayed on my feet. How were we to face something like this? How could we even hope to stop it? I didn’t know. Then, an idea struck me.
“This yellow being: he protected the Blues?”
YES.
“Are you the last Blue?”
NO.
“Where are the others?”
An image appeared of the green disc it uses for Avonshar appeared, with a small yellow circle in the center, the symbol for the yellow being (a red/pink circle and two red vertical lines) inside it. It was surrounded by another circle.
“So, is the yellow being there, too?”
YES.
“Are they awake?”
NO.
“They’re in stasis?”
YES.
“Do they want to be woken up?”
A new symbol appeared, incorporating the ‘NO’ symbol, the symbol for the yellow being, and some new additions. We eventually determined this to be a ‘Do Not Disturb’ message, though there is some question of that.
“Why are they still in stasis, if the Blacks were imprisoned? Are they waiting for something?”
This question seemed to confuse the Informant. There was a pause, and then two symbols. First came an image of two different Blue Ral’Shar, one that looked as we knew them, and another that was…different. We guessed it might be one of their young…but this still didn’t quite fit, even now. The second was a clear ‘No’.
“Did the blues bring the Oriculum with you to Avonshar?”
Another pause, and then a new image. It was the Yellow Being, bearing an object like a blue rock. Oriculum. It muse have been a gift to them, possibly that and the knowledge to work it…the gift given in one of the previous images.
Alden: “So, where is this She-Bitch?”
An image of the green disk, the moon moving around it, and an arrow telling us to go there. In any other situation, I might have found the idea ludicrous. Not today. The Ral’Shar had done it before…but clearly no longer could, or they would have done so. I have to wonder…where was the craft they had used to travel here? Had it survived the trip? I wish I had thought to ask them about this Star-boat. I also wish I thought to ask why they had left their home. There was no indication of why they left their world to come to ours.
Delwyn: “Where’s the cube, right now? Can we just put it back?”
An image appeared, perhaps from a sphere. It was Goldbuckle, the dwarf we had met earlier. He was examining the cube, and appeared to have found a secret latch. Suddenly, it slid apart, like some sort of odd puzzle-box. A brilliant light shone from the inside, and Goldbuckle screamed in pain. His skin started to look like he had goosebumps all over. Then the goosebumps turned to sharp points, as bone-spurs erupted from his body, ripping his skin. In almost a split second after that, he exploded into thousands of bloody fragments. And in the box, something LOOKED BACK AT US.
I think I was sick then. I don’t recall. That was about fifteen minutes ago. When I next listened, I heard Rali talking.
Rali: “So what do you want US to do?”
A new image, one of charactures of us (with the women’s features highly exaggerated) battling the Black Ral’Shar. Rali’s Balderk was pictured…and I was depicted, well, differently. I realized at once why I was different. Where the others were more stick-figure drawings, I was more of an actual person. It took me a moment to realize that it had drawn me looking similar to the Yellow Being, with strange, glowing feet. Why? What did it think that I could do or was like that reminded it of the Yellow Being?
Rali: “What’s this nonsense with the women? I’d never need to swim, if I had these!”
Alden figured that the Ral’Shar either were asexual, or didn’t have external physical differences. The concept of a male/female form difference was difficult for it to grasp. We will continue to ask it questions, but I wanted to capture this while it was fresh in my mind. I see Casparo coming down the tunnel.
Day 32, Noon: I sit here in the nearly empty temple common room. Journeymen sit about me, waiting for another portal alignment, so they can return to another world. Currently, the Seven-League Portal points to Krynn, I’m told. I’m too numb at the moment to care one way or the other.
Mad Hoglip, the Dwarven Brewmaster here, offers me another pint of Clangeddin Red. I gratefully accept it. This will be my third since the return of a few hours ago. I have a bath, yet I don’t feel clean. I keep imaging the blood’s still there. I keep seeing those red eyes, hearing those voices.
While most of us had been busy questioning the Informant, Casparo had, at my request, remained above. It was a lucky thing for us he did, I suppose. Only Casparo saw what happened when the moon rose. They had been dicing, and Casparo and a couple of the rangers went outside into the darkness to smoke, or some such. Then they walked directly into the moonlight.
The suddenly became quiet and stiff, and their eyes began to glow red.
“She’s coming,” said one.
“What? Who’s coming?” asked Casparo, looking around warily.
“The Mistress,” replied the second, pointing to now threatening moon.
“Mistress? Who is your Mistress?”
“The Forsaken One. She is coming. Coming for us ALL.” They turned their dead eyes on Casparo, who backed away from them. The now moved slowly, not even bothering to give chase.
Casparo ran back into the cave, only to find more rangers standing about, as if adled or in a stupor. Their eyes all glowed red. He dodged amongst them, and took flight down the passage to warn us. Casparo had already had enough of enchanted crowds to last a lifetime.
We were just finishing our questioning of the Informant when he arrived. He slowed down from a dead run when approaching the entrance to the Chamber, almost skidding to an enforced casual pace. The two rangers seemed not to notice, but Casparo was keenly aware of them.
Neither ranger had glowing eyes. Not willing to risk it, he gestures several of us over. Tazendra and I walk over, followed by the others. Feeling a little bolder now that there are several of us present, Casparo tells us what he’s seen, and asks the first ranger if that sounds familiar. He stares at Casparo as if he’s insane. The ranger has no idea what we’re talking about.
“What about you?” Casparo asks the second one.
As his eyes turn crimson and wild, he replies, “Yes, my mistress is coming!”
I vaguely remember that he was going to say something else, but my reflexes snapped my quarterstaff right into his forehead. He reeled from the blow, and I yelled for Tazendra to knock him down. With lightning efficiency, she knocked the possessed ranger unconscious with single open-handed strike. The second ranger was near panic-striken, by this point. He had drawn his sword, convinced we had gone mad…perhaps ourselves controlled by the chamber. I calmed him down, but demanded his sword confiscated. I had Casparo bind the unconscious ranger, and his partner and I bore him up the tunnel.
None of us wanted to be trapped here. We reached the cave in about ten minutes or so. Casparo and Tazendra saw the remaining 19 rangers standing together at the back of the cave, bathed in the pale moonlight, their eyes each glowing deep red. They were swaying like grass in a breeze, hearing some music that only they could register. We were split on what to do. Enter the moonlight? Would we be similiarly possessed? Stay here and wait for them to do something?
Before we could decide, the remaining ranger gave in to the moon’s power, and attacked us. Tazendra yelled out, “I don’t know if I can stop him without killing him!” His face was contorted with insanity and hunger. As the unconscious ranger dropped to the floor and I readied my staff, I nodded a silent, grim assent. Tazendra’s kama bit deep, and then Rali’s Balderk finished the task. But he didn’t bleed. Why?
Our decision was then made for us. The rangers suddenly all opened their mouths, and black specks of shadows or insects swarmed forth, filling the air. They floated about, pulled back and resolved with shadows that were emerging from the walls behind them.
Black Ral’Shar. Five of them. The Winds of Death.
“Your goddamn church has gotten us all killed!” yelled an angry Casparo. I couldn’t argue the point.
As we watched, horrified, they each opened their mouths, which were full of razor-like teeth. They issued horrifying scream-challenges, and their teeth flew from their mouths, propelled by muscular tentacles. To our terror, each tooth found soft purchase amongst the bodies of the rangers. I realized then they weren’t swaying like grass, they were wheat…and the Black Ral’Shar had come to harvest them.
Even as Tazendra and Casparo charged forward to drop one of the rangers, it was too late. They were drained somehow, and dropped almost in unison, discarded and no longer wanted. I knew then that we were doomed.
When suddenly, I heard music.
Rali had stepped into the cave, and was now brandishing the Balderk…but the chimes attached to it were playing some sort of melody, of their own volition. Rali appeared as surprised as we were, but moved on nonetheless. Suddenly, I felt like we had a chance.
Alden summoned a construct and Delwyn threw his chain at one of the beings, but we were unable to land a blow against them. They moved slowly, but their shadowy nature made them difficult to pinpoint, our blows often going wide of the mark. I threw a sound burst to disorient them, but it had little effect. Alden summoned another construct, but both were unable to even make contact. The creatures moved forward, and gored Casparo and Rali. Alden entombed one in some sort of cocoon, rendering it harmless…but only for a few short minutes. I enchanted Tazendra’s sickle, hoping for a miracle.
Then Rali raised her balderk, intent on returning the favor. The strange, ringing music reached a fevered pitch, and the balderk swung around, splitting the creature in twain, instantly destroying it. Instead of stopping though, Rali’s powerful swing continued on, instantly killing the second. Suddenly, the battle had changed.
Casparo, however, had blood running down his chest. The Black Ral’Shar that had struck him badly, and he might not withstand a second strike. I ran over to him, and grabbed him by the wrist.
“May the walker guide your steps!” I yelled over the sounds of combat, channeling the healing power of Fharlangan’s spirit…when something curious happened that I didn’t expect. The bracer that we had found with the Sandts began to glow, with the orb suddenly increasing the energy I was focusing. Somehow, it enhanced the spell I cast, completely healing Casparo. Amazed, but too busy to question our luck, I ran to help Rali.
Delwyn managed to scratch one, and then Rali struck again, killing another and badly wounding the fourth Ral’Shar. Tazendra appeared from out of nowhere, and finished it off. With it’s partners gone, Alden released the cocoon, and Delwyn, Tazendra and Rali made short work of it.
“I’m naming you Tide Turner!” Rali told her weapon, which might just have played a tune to celebrate. It was hard to tell. Casparo took off the bracer and tossed it to me. “I think you can use this better than I can”, he said. My healing powers were enhanced, and I restored the party to full health. The remaining ranger awoke, and after he adjusted, explained that he didn’t remember anything of the last week, past when they first arrived. I confiscated his weapon all the same, and figured if he was OK by the dawn, then we should be fine.
But the moon still shone, and we were leery of waiting on it. After a lengthy argument, I capitulated that the best place to wait was the tunnel, with fires on either end, and to just wait the night out there. And so we did.
When Delwyn woke me during the second watch, I wasn’t terribly surprised. No rest for the living in Avonshar. A shadow of some horrific thing had been spotted by Casparo, lumbering in spurts towards into the cave, it’s shape distorted by the moonlight. Casparo had his bow ready, waiting. It loomed closer. Closer. CLOSER.
And then a frog hopped into the cave.
A large, oddly-color frog. It hopped about, aimlessly. It worked it’s way about the cave, with no particular goal in mind. It caught sight of the fire, and started hopping this way. Apparently, every single damn creature on Avonshar is attracted to flames, as opposed to being frightened of them, like just about everywhere else I’ve ever been.
“Well?” asked Casparo. “What do you want to do?”
I pulled out a sketchpad, and drew a rough draft of the frog. “Watch it. If it comes any closer, Kill it. Fill it full of arrows. I can always examine it’s corpse.” We’d grown a lot more suspicious of amphibians, of late.
He fixed me with an amused stare. “You know, that’s probably the first thing we’ve ever agreed on, priest.” And with that, he let a bolt fly. And merely grazed the stupid thing.
The Zapfrog then yelped, leaped into the air…and belched lightning. In the corridor, we might as well have just lifted our chins for it to hit. The bolt blasted among us, some dodged it as I did, while poor Alden, who was still half-asleep, nearly was killed. Casparo shot and killed the frog, and then his head snapped around.
“Oh, CRAP,” was all he said.
In the moonlight, we could see over a dozen more Zapfrogs, leaping about, chirping and croaking in the moonlight. Luckily, they were unaware of us. We took pains to keep it that way. We hoped in the morning, they might be gone, but no such luck. They still remained. With the dawn, my spells were renewed, and I restored any remaining wounded to full health. But we were trapped.
And then my training as a walker resurfaced. We’d been over-thinking the problem. The Zapfrogs were still just frogs. They weren’t undead, or Black Ral’Shar…they were simple animals, just like the tuskers. If we didn’t bother them, or invade their territory, they should just let us be. I instructed the group on how to behave, and how to skirt the frogs. The remaining ranger would travel with his weapon, now that he had returned to normal.
In the corridor, we saw a half-dozen entering the cave. It was now or never. If I had been wrong, we’d need to run for it. Luckily, I had been right. The frogs could care less. They might have changed their tune if they’d found the dead one, but we were long gone by then.
We moved with swiftness, and passed through the field of Corpses again…only to find them gone. ALL OF THEM. Something had taken them. Had it been the insects? I kept remembering the Black Ral’Shar and the rangers…and the horrible cloud they’d summoned. I inadvertently looked up, seeking the moon, and shuddered. Suddenly, Tazendra shouted. There was a portal up ahead, where we’d first arrived. That was unusual…more unusual was that it led right back to the city. Why? Had someone just come through, or were they expecting us?
I chose not to worry about it, just then. I led the group through to the apparent safety of the city. Strider Culain was there. He asked how we had done, and what we had discovered. I was about to offer some sort of reply, when the remaining ranger stepped forward, his eyes glowing red once more.
“Now my mistress knows where you ARE!” he laughed maniacally. Before we could stop him, he drew his knife and slit his own throat, a bloody red smile staring at us. His laughter became drowned out by his own choking, and he collapsed. His body suddenly started to become bloated, as if he was a waterskin being filled. We dodged away instinctively, as his entire body spontaneously exploded, showering us with blood and gore.
Amidst the silent carnage, the shocked Strider Culain tried to form a sentence.
“What was…how did….I just…he..he..he.”
I had had enough. I announced to the strider my intention to get a bath, a meal and some rest, and then I would tell him all we had learned. But most of all, I wanted some beer, like the fifth one I know nurse.
I have no idea what we should do next. We know the Black Ral’Shar can be killed, and we know WE can kill them. But where are they? And how will we find them? I will talk with the others.
After our panic subsided, we examined the image. It was a oblong head of a Ral’Shar, blue with a strange star shape on its forehead. It had two oval shaped eyes, angled away from the center of its face, and a strange mouth that appeared, to our eyes, to be smiling. Lowering our weapons, we began to attempt a way to communicate.
“Can you hear us?” asked Alden.
A short collection of Ral’Shar script appeared, colored green. This was Ral’Shar for ‘yes’, we believed.
“Have we met you before?” asked Tazendra.
A series of smaller, more angular Red characters appeared. This was Ral’Shar for ‘no’, we imagined.
We began a dialogue with our mysterious informant, trying to garner as much information as we could about the Ral’Shar and their situation.
Many of our questions (well, mine in any case) confused the being. Alden and Delwyn seemed to understand it’s thought processes better than the rest of us, although we all contributed questions. Delwyn quickly surmised that it was using Psionics (and powerfully) to communicate with us, and illustrated it quite simply: the image of the Informant had a star on it’s face, which was consistent iconography with the previous pictures.
We determined a variety of things. The yellow being was NOT Fharlangan, and the Informant found the idea upsetting, at the very least. It was not a divine being, as the Ral’Shar understood such concepts, though I’m not sure that they do. The Green were no more, slain by the She-Devil. The black corpses in the pictures represented the dead.
“Wait,” I said. “If the Greens are all dead, what did we free here?”
An image appeared of a Ral’Shar…but a BLACK one, with fiery red eyes. The implication was clear…they had been revived as undead, and that was the enemy we were facing. We were shown an image of me removing the cube. Again, it was plain to all of us that we were seeing the moment that I freed the Black Ral’Shar. I alone made that choice, and now people were dead for it. I felt like I could hardly breathe.
Tazendra: “So the cube was keeping them prisoner here?”
The Informant: YES.
Tazendra: “So who put them there?”
The Informant: SHE-DEVIL.
Alden: “Are they under her control now?”
The Informant: NO.
Alden: “Is she aware that they are free?”
The Informant: YES.
Delwyn: “If she finds them, she’ll be able to control them again, won’t she?”
The Informant: YES.
Me: “She wants to destroy us all. Every living thing on Avonshar, doesn’t she?”
The Informant: YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.
I swayed on my feet. How were we to face something like this? How could we even hope to stop it? I didn’t know. Then, an idea struck me.
“This yellow being: he protected the Blues?”
YES.
“Are you the last Blue?”
NO.
“Where are the others?”
An image appeared of the green disc it uses for Avonshar appeared, with a small yellow circle in the center, the symbol for the yellow being (a red/pink circle and two red vertical lines) inside it. It was surrounded by another circle.
“So, is the yellow being there, too?”
YES.
“Are they awake?”
NO.
“They’re in stasis?”
YES.
“Do they want to be woken up?”
A new symbol appeared, incorporating the ‘NO’ symbol, the symbol for the yellow being, and some new additions. We eventually determined this to be a ‘Do Not Disturb’ message, though there is some question of that.
“Why are they still in stasis, if the Blacks were imprisoned? Are they waiting for something?”
This question seemed to confuse the Informant. There was a pause, and then two symbols. First came an image of two different Blue Ral’Shar, one that looked as we knew them, and another that was…different. We guessed it might be one of their young…but this still didn’t quite fit, even now. The second was a clear ‘No’.
“Did the blues bring the Oriculum with you to Avonshar?”
Another pause, and then a new image. It was the Yellow Being, bearing an object like a blue rock. Oriculum. It muse have been a gift to them, possibly that and the knowledge to work it…the gift given in one of the previous images.
Alden: “So, where is this She-Bitch?”
An image of the green disk, the moon moving around it, and an arrow telling us to go there. In any other situation, I might have found the idea ludicrous. Not today. The Ral’Shar had done it before…but clearly no longer could, or they would have done so. I have to wonder…where was the craft they had used to travel here? Had it survived the trip? I wish I had thought to ask them about this Star-boat. I also wish I thought to ask why they had left their home. There was no indication of why they left their world to come to ours.
Delwyn: “Where’s the cube, right now? Can we just put it back?”
An image appeared, perhaps from a sphere. It was Goldbuckle, the dwarf we had met earlier. He was examining the cube, and appeared to have found a secret latch. Suddenly, it slid apart, like some sort of odd puzzle-box. A brilliant light shone from the inside, and Goldbuckle screamed in pain. His skin started to look like he had goosebumps all over. Then the goosebumps turned to sharp points, as bone-spurs erupted from his body, ripping his skin. In almost a split second after that, he exploded into thousands of bloody fragments. And in the box, something LOOKED BACK AT US.
I think I was sick then. I don’t recall. That was about fifteen minutes ago. When I next listened, I heard Rali talking.
Rali: “So what do you want US to do?”
A new image, one of charactures of us (with the women’s features highly exaggerated) battling the Black Ral’Shar. Rali’s Balderk was pictured…and I was depicted, well, differently. I realized at once why I was different. Where the others were more stick-figure drawings, I was more of an actual person. It took me a moment to realize that it had drawn me looking similar to the Yellow Being, with strange, glowing feet. Why? What did it think that I could do or was like that reminded it of the Yellow Being?
Rali: “What’s this nonsense with the women? I’d never need to swim, if I had these!”
Alden figured that the Ral’Shar either were asexual, or didn’t have external physical differences. The concept of a male/female form difference was difficult for it to grasp. We will continue to ask it questions, but I wanted to capture this while it was fresh in my mind. I see Casparo coming down the tunnel.
Day 32, Noon: I sit here in the nearly empty temple common room. Journeymen sit about me, waiting for another portal alignment, so they can return to another world. Currently, the Seven-League Portal points to Krynn, I’m told. I’m too numb at the moment to care one way or the other.
Mad Hoglip, the Dwarven Brewmaster here, offers me another pint of Clangeddin Red. I gratefully accept it. This will be my third since the return of a few hours ago. I have a bath, yet I don’t feel clean. I keep imaging the blood’s still there. I keep seeing those red eyes, hearing those voices.
While most of us had been busy questioning the Informant, Casparo had, at my request, remained above. It was a lucky thing for us he did, I suppose. Only Casparo saw what happened when the moon rose. They had been dicing, and Casparo and a couple of the rangers went outside into the darkness to smoke, or some such. Then they walked directly into the moonlight.
The suddenly became quiet and stiff, and their eyes began to glow red.
“She’s coming,” said one.
“What? Who’s coming?” asked Casparo, looking around warily.
“The Mistress,” replied the second, pointing to now threatening moon.
“Mistress? Who is your Mistress?”
“The Forsaken One. She is coming. Coming for us ALL.” They turned their dead eyes on Casparo, who backed away from them. The now moved slowly, not even bothering to give chase.
Casparo ran back into the cave, only to find more rangers standing about, as if adled or in a stupor. Their eyes all glowed red. He dodged amongst them, and took flight down the passage to warn us. Casparo had already had enough of enchanted crowds to last a lifetime.
We were just finishing our questioning of the Informant when he arrived. He slowed down from a dead run when approaching the entrance to the Chamber, almost skidding to an enforced casual pace. The two rangers seemed not to notice, but Casparo was keenly aware of them.
Neither ranger had glowing eyes. Not willing to risk it, he gestures several of us over. Tazendra and I walk over, followed by the others. Feeling a little bolder now that there are several of us present, Casparo tells us what he’s seen, and asks the first ranger if that sounds familiar. He stares at Casparo as if he’s insane. The ranger has no idea what we’re talking about.
“What about you?” Casparo asks the second one.
As his eyes turn crimson and wild, he replies, “Yes, my mistress is coming!”
I vaguely remember that he was going to say something else, but my reflexes snapped my quarterstaff right into his forehead. He reeled from the blow, and I yelled for Tazendra to knock him down. With lightning efficiency, she knocked the possessed ranger unconscious with single open-handed strike. The second ranger was near panic-striken, by this point. He had drawn his sword, convinced we had gone mad…perhaps ourselves controlled by the chamber. I calmed him down, but demanded his sword confiscated. I had Casparo bind the unconscious ranger, and his partner and I bore him up the tunnel.
None of us wanted to be trapped here. We reached the cave in about ten minutes or so. Casparo and Tazendra saw the remaining 19 rangers standing together at the back of the cave, bathed in the pale moonlight, their eyes each glowing deep red. They were swaying like grass in a breeze, hearing some music that only they could register. We were split on what to do. Enter the moonlight? Would we be similiarly possessed? Stay here and wait for them to do something?
Before we could decide, the remaining ranger gave in to the moon’s power, and attacked us. Tazendra yelled out, “I don’t know if I can stop him without killing him!” His face was contorted with insanity and hunger. As the unconscious ranger dropped to the floor and I readied my staff, I nodded a silent, grim assent. Tazendra’s kama bit deep, and then Rali’s Balderk finished the task. But he didn’t bleed. Why?
Our decision was then made for us. The rangers suddenly all opened their mouths, and black specks of shadows or insects swarmed forth, filling the air. They floated about, pulled back and resolved with shadows that were emerging from the walls behind them.
Black Ral’Shar. Five of them. The Winds of Death.
“Your goddamn church has gotten us all killed!” yelled an angry Casparo. I couldn’t argue the point.
As we watched, horrified, they each opened their mouths, which were full of razor-like teeth. They issued horrifying scream-challenges, and their teeth flew from their mouths, propelled by muscular tentacles. To our terror, each tooth found soft purchase amongst the bodies of the rangers. I realized then they weren’t swaying like grass, they were wheat…and the Black Ral’Shar had come to harvest them.
Even as Tazendra and Casparo charged forward to drop one of the rangers, it was too late. They were drained somehow, and dropped almost in unison, discarded and no longer wanted. I knew then that we were doomed.
When suddenly, I heard music.
Rali had stepped into the cave, and was now brandishing the Balderk…but the chimes attached to it were playing some sort of melody, of their own volition. Rali appeared as surprised as we were, but moved on nonetheless. Suddenly, I felt like we had a chance.
Alden summoned a construct and Delwyn threw his chain at one of the beings, but we were unable to land a blow against them. They moved slowly, but their shadowy nature made them difficult to pinpoint, our blows often going wide of the mark. I threw a sound burst to disorient them, but it had little effect. Alden summoned another construct, but both were unable to even make contact. The creatures moved forward, and gored Casparo and Rali. Alden entombed one in some sort of cocoon, rendering it harmless…but only for a few short minutes. I enchanted Tazendra’s sickle, hoping for a miracle.
Then Rali raised her balderk, intent on returning the favor. The strange, ringing music reached a fevered pitch, and the balderk swung around, splitting the creature in twain, instantly destroying it. Instead of stopping though, Rali’s powerful swing continued on, instantly killing the second. Suddenly, the battle had changed.
Casparo, however, had blood running down his chest. The Black Ral’Shar that had struck him badly, and he might not withstand a second strike. I ran over to him, and grabbed him by the wrist.
“May the walker guide your steps!” I yelled over the sounds of combat, channeling the healing power of Fharlangan’s spirit…when something curious happened that I didn’t expect. The bracer that we had found with the Sandts began to glow, with the orb suddenly increasing the energy I was focusing. Somehow, it enhanced the spell I cast, completely healing Casparo. Amazed, but too busy to question our luck, I ran to help Rali.
Delwyn managed to scratch one, and then Rali struck again, killing another and badly wounding the fourth Ral’Shar. Tazendra appeared from out of nowhere, and finished it off. With it’s partners gone, Alden released the cocoon, and Delwyn, Tazendra and Rali made short work of it.
“I’m naming you Tide Turner!” Rali told her weapon, which might just have played a tune to celebrate. It was hard to tell. Casparo took off the bracer and tossed it to me. “I think you can use this better than I can”, he said. My healing powers were enhanced, and I restored the party to full health. The remaining ranger awoke, and after he adjusted, explained that he didn’t remember anything of the last week, past when they first arrived. I confiscated his weapon all the same, and figured if he was OK by the dawn, then we should be fine.
But the moon still shone, and we were leery of waiting on it. After a lengthy argument, I capitulated that the best place to wait was the tunnel, with fires on either end, and to just wait the night out there. And so we did.
When Delwyn woke me during the second watch, I wasn’t terribly surprised. No rest for the living in Avonshar. A shadow of some horrific thing had been spotted by Casparo, lumbering in spurts towards into the cave, it’s shape distorted by the moonlight. Casparo had his bow ready, waiting. It loomed closer. Closer. CLOSER.
And then a frog hopped into the cave.
A large, oddly-color frog. It hopped about, aimlessly. It worked it’s way about the cave, with no particular goal in mind. It caught sight of the fire, and started hopping this way. Apparently, every single damn creature on Avonshar is attracted to flames, as opposed to being frightened of them, like just about everywhere else I’ve ever been.
“Well?” asked Casparo. “What do you want to do?”
I pulled out a sketchpad, and drew a rough draft of the frog. “Watch it. If it comes any closer, Kill it. Fill it full of arrows. I can always examine it’s corpse.” We’d grown a lot more suspicious of amphibians, of late.
He fixed me with an amused stare. “You know, that’s probably the first thing we’ve ever agreed on, priest.” And with that, he let a bolt fly. And merely grazed the stupid thing.
The Zapfrog then yelped, leaped into the air…and belched lightning. In the corridor, we might as well have just lifted our chins for it to hit. The bolt blasted among us, some dodged it as I did, while poor Alden, who was still half-asleep, nearly was killed. Casparo shot and killed the frog, and then his head snapped around.
“Oh, CRAP,” was all he said.
In the moonlight, we could see over a dozen more Zapfrogs, leaping about, chirping and croaking in the moonlight. Luckily, they were unaware of us. We took pains to keep it that way. We hoped in the morning, they might be gone, but no such luck. They still remained. With the dawn, my spells were renewed, and I restored any remaining wounded to full health. But we were trapped.
And then my training as a walker resurfaced. We’d been over-thinking the problem. The Zapfrogs were still just frogs. They weren’t undead, or Black Ral’Shar…they were simple animals, just like the tuskers. If we didn’t bother them, or invade their territory, they should just let us be. I instructed the group on how to behave, and how to skirt the frogs. The remaining ranger would travel with his weapon, now that he had returned to normal.
In the corridor, we saw a half-dozen entering the cave. It was now or never. If I had been wrong, we’d need to run for it. Luckily, I had been right. The frogs could care less. They might have changed their tune if they’d found the dead one, but we were long gone by then.
We moved with swiftness, and passed through the field of Corpses again…only to find them gone. ALL OF THEM. Something had taken them. Had it been the insects? I kept remembering the Black Ral’Shar and the rangers…and the horrible cloud they’d summoned. I inadvertently looked up, seeking the moon, and shuddered. Suddenly, Tazendra shouted. There was a portal up ahead, where we’d first arrived. That was unusual…more unusual was that it led right back to the city. Why? Had someone just come through, or were they expecting us?
I chose not to worry about it, just then. I led the group through to the apparent safety of the city. Strider Culain was there. He asked how we had done, and what we had discovered. I was about to offer some sort of reply, when the remaining ranger stepped forward, his eyes glowing red once more.
“Now my mistress knows where you ARE!” he laughed maniacally. Before we could stop him, he drew his knife and slit his own throat, a bloody red smile staring at us. His laughter became drowned out by his own choking, and he collapsed. His body suddenly started to become bloated, as if he was a waterskin being filled. We dodged away instinctively, as his entire body spontaneously exploded, showering us with blood and gore.
Amidst the silent carnage, the shocked Strider Culain tried to form a sentence.
“What was…how did….I just…he..he..he.”
I had had enough. I announced to the strider my intention to get a bath, a meal and some rest, and then I would tell him all we had learned. But most of all, I wanted some beer, like the fifth one I know nurse.
I have no idea what we should do next. We know the Black Ral’Shar can be killed, and we know WE can kill them. But where are they? And how will we find them? I will talk with the others.
Last edited:
