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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 1300885" data-attributes="member: 2591">Adventure 19Secrets of The Ard Nathrach...or Copoc Gets the Munchies...by Malcomb (Remi Treuer)"I must be insane!" I thought as I ran down the hall after the Dragon who had wounded me so terribly just moments before. I heard a great Splash and Kuldar's curse. Gudlag was just ahead of me, and, after a slight pause to confer with me, we both dove in, he as a porpoise, and myself, trusting in the magic of the torc around my neck, as a salmon. We swam frantically through the underwater cavern Cyranog had escaped into; coming to an opening, we breached the surface of the cool cave water, and took a quick glance around what must have been Cyranog's lair. Piles of coins, and busted chest, and many other items lay scattered around the dank hole, but Cyranog was nowhere to be seen. We continued our way along the underground river, and it finally burbled up from underground, the sunlight almost blinding me. Once again, no Cyranog. He must have gotten away.We swam back towards the cave, and came upon Copoc, Andreas, and Dario swimming towards us under the effects of a water breathing spell. We all came up in Cyranog’s lair, and, warily, lest the Dragon had become invisible again, advanced on the hoard of treasure. We didn’t meet a blast of acid, and continued toward the huge pile of coins, and . . . a coffin.The coffin had clearly been opened before, but before curiosity got the best of me, I turned and asked Andreas, “Where’s Kuldar?”“He ran off towards that sealed portcullis instead of joining us underwater.”“Ah well, what he doesn’t know what hurt him, eh?” I said, and broken into a wide grin, my hand sweeping around the room of loot. I then turned back to the coffin, and did a cursory check for traps. The top of the coffin appeared to have been ripped off a long, long time ago. Any traps had been set off then. Gudlag examined it with his magical vision, and inside the coffin there was a powerful magical force. We pried the top off the coffin, and revealed a body, clearly human, still armored in a beautiful set of plate armor and holding a sword. I checked the body, and again came up with nothing. I noticed Andreas glancing over the various symbols and signs etched on the corpses accoutrements.“By Logos, it can’t be! This is a body of a knight of Saint Uriah, the demon-slayer! The inscription reads ‘Selucius Megas Tagaris.’ ”“Excellent!” I exclaimed, “Who better to find before fighting a demon?”Andreas glanced at me, and wrinkled his head in thought, “What is an iconian knight, in so ancient a livery doing so far into Faerie? His coffin was moved here recently, but he has been dead at least two hundred years -- maybe more”“According to legend he came to the Cimbri lands to help fight a terrible demon. He apparently succeeded, but was never heard from again. This must be his famed sword.”Dario reached into the coffin and lifted the sword from the dry corpse’s hands. It immediately began to glow brightly. "A Holy weapon of St. Uriah,” he whispered, in awe. Gudlag rolled his eyes out of sight of the humans, but we all nodded, hoping we’d find more answers if we explored the rest of Cyranog’s cave. We collected the nearly 8,000 in gold (in various currencies) and swam back to main cave. Dario took the weapon and armor -- with a prayer to the knight and their shared god. When we emerged, Kuldar was nowhere to be seen, but the portcullis gate was smashed to bits, so it wasn’t hard to surmise where he was.There was a stairway downwards, which we dutifully descended. At the bottom there was a thick, sweet smoke coming from several torches and braziers. I had to fight off the wooziness, as did the others, or so I thought. A look that could only be described as… a grin, spread across Copoc’s face. His inscrutable expression seemed wide, and placid.“Are you alright, Copoc?” Gudlag asked.“I’m just fine, just fine…” hissed our now-baked lizard companion.We pressed ahead and came to a large room with four cages in it. Three of the cages held Cimbri of various stripes, while the last held a pack of stoned, yet still surly dwarves. Kuldar was trying to bring the dwarves out of the stupor caused by the sweet smoke (the smell reminded me of that old dwarven grandma’s cave back in Adaroth), but had not yet freed them. I fiddled with the locks, and freed them. The dwarves piled out and thanked Kuldar effusively. The largest was Tokar — the forgemaster that Kuldar had been whining about ever since we met him.We then turned our collective attention to the other cages of captives. When we addressed the cage with only four Cimbri in it, they smiled and changed into 30-foot-long snakes with huge ram’s horns! We had finally found the Ard Nathrach! I immediately freed them, and, assured by the Ard Nathrach that the other captives were their retainers and friends, released them, as well.The leader of the Ard Nathrach was named Tyrell, and he told us that the sword Dario was carrying belonged to an ancient Iconian hero,  who had come to help the Ard Nathrach put down a terrible demon named Galavesh. The hero defeated Galavesh – driving him into the tomb, but at the cost of his own life. The Ard Nathrach had buried the knight with great honor, and continued living, even though Galavesh had severely reduced their numbers.“Why did you need an Iconian to help you?” I asked, “You guys are huge!”“We are large, and though our aspect is fearsome, we are a peaceful people,” he replied, “We are healers, not fighters. Moreover, this creature that we call the Donas Nathair, the devil serpent, had a hide that protected it against our most powerful weapons and our spells were often ineffectual as well. Our king, Bel, cast a mighty ritual and asked the Fates for a weapon to defeat the beast. He had a vision of a human knight – creatures unknown to us at that time – which lived far to the south. Bel and some of the Cimbri Nathrach ventured there and persuaded him to come. He saved us."I looked abashed, “Where are the rest of your kin?”“We are the last Ard Nathrach,” Tyrell looked sullenly at the ground, “Galavesh has returned, with the help of his servants Krace. Galavesh murdered all but us, and sacrificed our leader, Bel, tearing his heart out at the altar of his unholy temple.”The room was thick with emotion.“We must drive this demon from our midst,” raged Kuldar.“Indeed!” said Gudlag, “But first we must leave this place and formulate a plan.”We all nodded our assent, gathered our large party, and set off from the cave into the swamp. Taking Tyrell’s counsel, we discussed our plan of action. Once we were in the swamp Andreas teleported, the forgemaster, and three apprentices, back to Vacomagus. Andreas would speak to the Queen about a plan of attack, and then teleport back to us. Tyrell would remain with us, and the other Ard Nathrach would take the remaining captives we had freed and hide in the swamp. They were apparently very adept at this, and we trusted they could keep out of trouble for the day or two it would take to end this little war. When Andreas reappeared, he brought tidings from the Queen. She had ended the war between the Silures and Brigantes by threatening to join the war on the Silures side if the Brigantes didn’t back off. It also turned out that one of the Yuan-ti had impersonated the Brigantes queen and almost succeeded in poisoning the King – we had little doubt our sorceress friend was behind this. Nighean had also assembled the Vacomagus army, and was going to teleport them behind the great fort/roadblock that we had passed earlier, and attack it from behind! They would be attacking tomorrow at noon, in order to give us time to plan.Andreas also brought us some Resist Poison potions and some oils to anoint our weapons. These oils would align our weapons as Good (as in Divinely Good), and hopefully make them more effective against an objectively Evil creature like Galavesh. We had requested these from Nighean, and, in her wisdom, she bestowed them upon us.We were quite happy with this turn of events. It would mean that we would not have to deal with that large force, but just the core of Galavesh’s force. If we were lucky it would just be Krace, Bethune, and Cyranog, and, of course, Galavesh itself. With our party together again, Copoc took us, including Tyrell, to the Spirit Plane.The Spirit Plane was wide, and riotous with color, with immense forests and air filled with pollen and golden dust. There seemed to be no real correlation between our positions in the ‘Real’ world. We healed extremely quickly, wounds closing, shattered bones knitting almost instantaneously. It was creepy, but peaceful. Copoc went about summoning the soul of the dead Ard Nathrach king, Bel, and when he appeared near our camp, at the edge of a small ghostly wood, Copoc spoke with him in whispered, revered tones.When he returned he told us that King Bell wished us luck, and that we should not attack Galavesh at anything less than full strength. Copoc also clenched his fist and hissed. He finally revealed that Galavesh was the same being who had razed the Kulkan civilization, and helped create the dread Black Kulkans as his servants. This worried us greatly, Copoc was no slouch, and to destroy his kind would be a monumental task. I blanched for a moment at taking on such an awesome foe, but was soon drawn into the planning of our assault.What we finally settled on was that we would ride Tyrell and Gudlag into the Nathrach town and attack the temple by air. When we touched down, the magic users would cast a number of spells on Kuldar, Dario, and myself. Chief among the spells was enlarge, which would give us both an intimidation and added hit bonuses. We would also be shielded from either Acid or Fire attacks. I would also have Bull’s Strength. Hopefully I wouldn’t be as thoroughly outclassed as I was in our last battle.Our party healed, and the spellcasters replenished, we came back to our customary plane of existence. We calculated it would take us two hours to reach the Nathrach village, and so we set off just under two hours from the Vacomagi attack. As we came into sight of the village, we heard, far in the distance, war horns sounding. I wished my brethren luck, quaffed my Bull’s Strength potion, and held on. The four guards in front of the multi-tiered temple in the village quailed as they saw us set down and fall upon them with our intense fury.We quickly disposed of three of the guards, but the fourth ran inside the temple. Kuldar bellowed and ran in after him. A blast of acid caught Dario in the face from inside, and suddenly a lightning bolt hit us from the side! That was Bethune’s signature! She was outside with us, but I could not see her. Kuldar engaged Cyranog, and an old face stepped out from the darkness inside the temple. Gann, my old companion, charged towards me, bellowing. He had changed, though. In addition to the protruding fangs in his mouth, his arms had been replaced by two writhing snakes, holding his customary falchion in their clamped mouths. I stood toe-to-toe with Gann, exchanging blows, barely conscious of what was happening around me. I could hear Gudlag and Andreas chanting and casting. I chanced to glimpse over my shoulder as Gudlag cast a spell that made the outlines of the invisible forms of Bethune and another (must be Krace!) appear in sparkling lights.I heard Kuldar curse, and wished him luck against his mighty foe. His curses turned to laughter, and I soon heard the clash of his greataxe against the tough draconic hide. Gann continued to pummel me, and I was near my limit, bleeding from a dozen deep wounds, when Gudlag called a small lightning bolt to strike him, and he fell in front of me. That’s when things got really bad. Tyrell, in the form of a great moving tree, was, along with Copoc, engaging Krace. Both were taking mighty damage from the Yuan Ti leader, but he seemed to be worse for the wear. Lightning and fire hit Krace and Bethune again and again, and finally Krace fell, but Bethune gestured and a wall of fire sprung up around our entire party (save Kuldar, who was too far away to be trapped). I almost passed out then and there, but Copoc healed me, and I staggered to my feet. Andreas and Gudlag continued launching spells at Bethune, but she must have had many, many magical shields and charms cast upon her, for none found their mark. I fired my great bow at her, to no avail. Finally, Dario charged through the great flame wall, and began hacking at Bethune. At last she fell under his attack and a volley of fire from Gudlag. At nearly the same time, I heard Kuldar curse again, and, wishing him great luck, heard his cry of dismay turn into a whoop of triumph. The great dragon screamed and fell in a great pile to the floor at almost the same moment Bethune did.Breathing heavily, I looked at my battered comrades. We had to decide whether to wait, and allow Galavesh the chance to escape (and almost certainly be killed in the encounter), or heal, and give the demon a chance to re-form his forces? All I knew is that I hurt, and that without Galavesh, it would only be half a victory. A quick scouring of the bodies of our enemies revealed a trove of treasures:BethuneWeapons: +1 shortspear, +1 Mithril Chain ShirtMagic: +2 Ring of Protection, Cloak of Resistance +3, Salve of SlipperinessPotions: Fly, Cure Serious, Remove Blindness/DeafnessCoin: 2,530KraceWeapons: +2 Shocking Greatclub, +1 Large chainmail for anathemaMagic: Ring of Mind Shielding, scrolls (create food and water, wind wall [5th caster], restorations [7th caster]), ring of sustenance, elemental Gem: water, Silversheen, Stone salve    Potions: Cure Serious, Remove Blindness/Deafness    Coin: 5000GannWeapons: +2 Falchion, +1 Mighty Composite Long Bow (+3), +2 Mithril Chain    Coin: 3000Copoc reminded us of Bel’s warning and he once again took us into the strange refuge of the Spirit Plane. Tomorrow, Galavesh would die, or we would die trying to slay him.</blockquote>

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