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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 1329306" data-attributes="member: 5675">To His Eminence Pietr Orik,Temple of Ilmater,King’s Palace Square,Heliogabalus.    Your Grace,As usual, I left my previous letter with the Crusaders returned to Dagger Falls.  The last letter described how we returned just in time for the Dales’ Council, which was a welcome break for us; there being magic shows and fairs and all manner of joviality and light spirits.  However, we were not diverted for long, for the revelations we had to put before Respen were of too great an import to delay.Our information proved grave enough for it to be set in front of diverse representatives of the other dales, who were in Dagger Falls for the meeting of the Council.  They were unable to provide knowledge on the location of Maerimydra, but they could provide a sinister correlation:  Many priests working in the southern dales had noted strange effects, such as difficulty in casting blessings and hallowings, and healing spells that were weakened to the point of ineffectuality.  Ground zero for this disruption was the woods linking Semberholme to Cormanthor, around thirty- to forty leagues south and east of Daggerdale, on the Mistledale/Battledale border.It was therefore quickly decided that the Crusaders would further investigate these problems, in the hope that we would discover Maerimydra and stop ‘mother’s’ Great Revenance.  I proposed that we go overland to the forest in question, thereby arriving with the best possible speed. In further discussions, however, we were told that access to the Underdark was not possible in that location, this from Ilmeth’s delegate.  (For your information, your eminence, Ilmeth is the lord of the ‘town’ of Essembra, which is the ersatz capital of Battledale, even though it’s not within the borders of that dale!  Although there is no official form of government, Ilmeth does provide some rudimentary protection for the Battledarrans.)  Now I have information that would contradict the assertion that we would be unable to gain access to the Underdark from Battledale.  However, to reveal this, your eminence, would be to remind the governments, not only of Daggerdale, but a sizable contingent of the other dales as well, that there was a Damaran spy in their midst!  I kept quiet…  Therefore, it was decided that we would return to Szith Morcane and begin our search for Maerimydra from there.I must take the opportunity to brake off from my narrative to cover two points.  The first is that I must correct my previous letter on the subject of the demon.  You will recall that I described Miles as being the unfortunate recipient of the ‘demon’ tag, due to his haste in reporting the fire, last time the Crusaders were in Dagger Falls.  Well, apparently there was a demon after all, and it has brought out the best (to say nothing of fighting spirit!) in Lord Morn!  Apparently, the lord threw off his mental shackles (if ever any existed, your eminence; one wonders at the obscure motives of virtually all members of the Daggerdale government) and slew the demon whilst the Crusaders were finishing off the remnants of the cult of Kiaransalee.  Thank goodness no one mentioned our embarrassing lack of nous in misusing the Lathanderian commune spell.  By the Triad, I normally have more insight than this!  All the clues we were given: Adamo (a famous summoner) arrested as soon as we arrived in Dagger Falls last time, along with half the population chattering about the ‘demon’ before any talk of Miles’ appearance would have had a chance to percolate through the populace.  Sink me, even Sir Dundragon mentioned a demon, barely half an hour after Miles did his flying trick.  It should have been obvious!  Aye, me!  A demon, perfectly fit for smiting, and I let it slip away.  So now the Red Rock has changed its name to the Demon’s Head, and a pair of bright blue wings, fully four paces long, have been attached to the wall as a trophy.  And I took no part in it.  Ah, such is life.The second part of my interjection involves a very great thank you to the King for authorising the release of the bracers of St. Mikhail.  I cannot believe that he considers me worthy of such a relic, and that he thinks I should be inducted into the Emancipated Hand: Does he have a mission in mind for me?  Clearly, I have some training to undergo before I can pass the rigorous requirements for such a demanding school, but I certainly have the will, your grace.  I believe the Crusaders will have need of these skills before very much longer.Anyway, back to the report.  We stayed in Dagger Falls for a day or two further, as some of the party wished to recover their upgraded magical equipment from the Thayans.  Then, on the cold, clear morning of Tarsakh 27th, we returned once again to the crypts.  The journey from the crypts to Szith Morcane was made in a mostly uneventful fashion, arriving at our furthest previous ingress within the day.  The journey afterwards, however, became more difficult: The tunnels became more uneven so the going for the non-fliers was slowed.During our second sleep a new (to the Crusaders, at least) form of monster attacked us: troglodytes.  Although these creatures looked and sounded uncouth, they proved to be an able foe, one casting clerical spells whilst its two main bodyguards entered battlerage and, along with diverse other trog warrior types that made up the main body of the troupe, engaged the rest of the Crusaders.  However, we have now become a force of no little merit, and these creatures were dealt with in short order: Only two survivors managed to escape us.  Our most notable casualty was our sense of smell, which was virtually disabled for the rest of the day by the olfactory abuse perpetrated by the trogs’ stink!We shifted camp to escape the miasma, and then settled down to rest for the remainder of our allotted sleep period.  We then performed our usual rituals, and went on our way.  Our next battle was against giants, several in fact, which was a testing fight as they gave no quarter.  These giants were stone giants, not the largest by any means but still able to throw huge boulders, giving me a good bashing for my trouble.  Miles managed to carve up one or two, before he too had to drop back, but the battle soon turned after Adamo summoned a huge dire bear.  This creature made a horrible mess of the remaining giants, who were finally finished off by a series of fireballs from Halbrinn, and the attacks of Aeron.After a rest for healing, we ventured a little further into the giants’ cavern, noting a chilling of the air and strange echoes.  This, it turned out, was due to the fact that we had found a huge underground lake, the sizable one shown as the largest feature on our map.  Halbrinn performed his usual scouting duties, taking to the air to reconnoitre a shaft that could be seen at one end of the cavern, taking pixie form to make it nigh on impossible for any enemies to hit him.  He returned to inform us that several giants with some pet bears could be seen at the top of the shaft, and that it might be a good idea to leave them to it.  He then flew off to check out an island that could be seen just offshore.Whilst the gnome searched, we did likewise, checking out various cave paintings that the giants appeared to have drawn in times past.  Despite the primitiveness of the images a battle scene could be made out, showing giants fighting a squid-shaped creature, drawn in red and black and several times larger than each giant-image!  I quick, unsettling thought entered my head: Was this a representation of (Ilmater forbid!) a kraken?  And the colouring: Where had I seen red and black before…?  On his return, Halbrinn described similar pictures on a stone building seen on the island, this time of fish and fish-men.  Given the precarious location of the island, we chose not to visit it, but to continue with our mission.We found two rafts, clearly belonging to the giants, in the shallows by the shore, which we sabotaged to ensure we could not be followed.  We then dragged the corpses of our vanquished foes into the water, so that anything in the lake would be diverted to this carrion, not us.  Finally, Halbrinn conjured a boat using a magic item he had in his possession, and we all climbed in, with the intention of navigating the shallow borders of the lake to the far side, where the map showed an exit.  For my part, I checked the height of the cavern’s roof, and satisfied myself that anything that might be lurking in the depths would not be able to locate anyone who would choose to escape there…We made some progress following the walls of the cavern for some time, keeping to barely thirty feet from that rough surface, and all seemed to be going well.  However, as we passed a cave that the giants’ appeared to be using as a midden, we were surprise attacked by a lobster-man, which grabbed Adamo before he could throw a spell in his defence.  Through some insidious bite Adamo was rendered paralysed and the bizarre creature made as if to jump with his prize, a fate that would have ensured death by drowning for our mage.  Queue a massive concerted effort by the remaining Crusaders to ensure that did not happen, with even Miles throwing caution to the wind (and getting nastily ‘pincered’ into the bargain).  Finally, Stedd managed to stun the beast, causing it to release both our compatriots.  It then made its escape whilst I took a chance to drag Adamo away from its claws, and provide some emergency aid.Needless to say, your grace, that this fracas did little to help the intended silence of our passage across the lake, as almost immediately the boat was rocked by a large wave that had appeared from nowhere on the surface of the otherwise still lake.  Not long after this, Stedd quietly informed us that a huge form was following us.  This form resolved itself all too quickly into the last thing we wanted to see: a kraken!  Our last chance to avoid confrontation was to play possum but the kraken was having none of this, our bluff lasting just long enough for me to put on my ring of water walking and drag a potion of haste and a potion of jumping out of my haversack.  A whispered conversation proved what we all knew already; none of us had much mana in reserve so this was not going to be a fight we could win.  Running was the only option, if subterfuge failed…  Which it did in the next few seconds as the Kraken moved up to the boat and started toying with it!  Adamo enlarged the boat with a spell, to make it more stable and to give the rest of us more room to move.  Unfortunately, its response was to reach a tentacle over the stern, and I was the unlucky recipient of its attention!  In a flash of insight, as soon as I saw that black-on-red tentacle up close, I recalled where the colouring had been seen before: On the ‘door of death’, that being the disgusting fiendish mimic the Crusaders had encountered many tendays previous.  The conclusion: not only was this creature a kraken, it was also hellish.Now it would be better for my conscience here, your eminence, if I said that I vacated the boat to save the lives of my companions.  Krakens are notorious for their malevolent intelligence, and it seemed to me it would soon sense an aasimar amongst the group, and would not rest until all were eradicated.  Therefore, I should make myself scarce, so that the rest could buy safe passage from the beast.  The simple truth is, your eminence, that I disgraced myself by merely running blindly in fear from the fell creature.  By the Triad, its tentacles were so long, I could not see the entirety of the beast, within the range of my darkvision, at any one moment!  Adamo summoned up a huge sea creature, a whale I believe, and as soon as the kraken released me to return the attack, I quaffed my potions and sped from the boat.I used my ring of water walking, enhanced by the potions of jump and haste, to bounce for the nearby rock-face, which I sprinted up as fast as my slippers would allow.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the boat had been levitated, and was making at speed for our original destination, so I followed as fast as I could safely move.  I hid after every short burst and hoped the vision of the kraken could not penetrate all the way to the roof of the cavern, about a hundred foot above the surface of the lake.Finally, after about six hours, I managed to get to the far side of the lake, having spent all that time upside down.  Thank the Triad for my monk’s training, and the endurance granted to me by Ilmater.  Thanks also go to my friends, who had lit the way sufficiently for me to find a path to the tunnel exiting the cavern.  When I managed to discover my comrades, who had stopped a short distance from the tunnel mouth to wait for me, I was so tired I could barely speak.  After doing a count of my comrades and finding all were present, I immediately slumped to the ground, and remember no more until my friends awakened me in time for my ‘morning’ devotions.  Even my ring of sustenance didn’t wake me after that journey!The next day was uneventful, for which I was glad, as it gave me a chance to recover my sense of balance!  All three of the watches after we made camp passed without incident, and we set off on the following day with renewed vigour, having suffered no attacks and all being hale and hearty.  Miles even managed to summon up a joke, informing us that as the current day was a holiday (Greengrass), we should be on our guard, as we are always attacked on holidays.  His tongue was only half in his cheek, however, so whilst we smiled, we also double-checked our surroundings as we progressed towards Maerimydra.That night, we were indeed attacked!  This time, a disgusting slimy creature burst through the wall of the cavern we had set up camp in and proceeded to attack Adamo and Aeron.  Aeron’s armour was melted from him as soon as he conjured it into being, which apparently saved his skin, as Adamo was proving.  Horribly, his flesh started to melt as soon as it came into contact with the secretions produced by this dread creature, and it continued to burn into his skin for a sufficient time afterwards that he fell from those lingering injures before casting a single spell!  With a well-aimed riposte, Halbrinn blasted the creature with fire, ensuring none of the Crusaders were caught in the blast.  Finally, Stedd and I flanked the creature, allowing Miles to use his swords to best effect.  In a frenzy of whirling blades that lasted no more than a few heartbeats, this creature was reduced to little more than a mound of quivering jelly.  Messy!  I revived Adamo, and then the Crusaders vacated this patch of corridor, leaving it to the still-twitching corpse of our would-be attacker.  Those that were still in need of rest went back to sleep, whilst the rest watched in case of further trouble.When all were fit to continue, continue we did, further down the corridor towards our destination.  Soon, however, we came upon a cavern that was quite obviously a lair of some kind.  The roof of the cavern vaulted far above us, so Halbrinn became a pixie, turned invisible and flew up to investigate, whilst the rest of us ventured cautiously into the cavern itself.  Unfortunately, when Adamo cast a spell, an alarm was triggered.  Then Halbrinn cast a spell of his own, a fireball that illuminated the creatures that had responded to the alarm with such alacrity: gargoyles.Quickly, the Crusaders chose battle positions, with myself choosing to climb a nearby wall in an attempt to ambush any that would fly down to engage us.  Unfortunately, the gargoyle-men (I believe these particular specimens were the godless ones, your eminence, a fact proven when I tried to perform the Turning on a dying specimen later) spotted me, and threw a packet of gluey substance at me.  At once my movement was restricted, and although I tried to force these creatures off with my wand of searing light, another tangling bag hit me.  Realising that shortly I would be rendered completely immobile, I dropped from the wall, my retreat fortunately covered by Adamo’s summoned creatures.  This time the conjurer had called an air elemental to him, which successfully broke up the dive-attacks of the gargoyles.  Additionally, two birds that breathed lightning were also attacking our foes, whilst Miles slaughtered one gargoyle and Halbrinn encased another in a globe of force.  I brought one that was hovering out of reach to the ground by casting a holding spell at it; Stedd put the creature out of its misery, once it had hit the floor.Finally, the battle was over, with all the foes we could see accounted for.  It now just remained for us to climb the cavernous shaft above us.  This was not very enticing it has to be said: The tunnel ascended into shadows that could barely be penetrated with my darkvision.  Halbrinn commented on this, too: The shadows were almost tangible, he said, like we were close to the plane of shadow itself…  Then it became clear why this particular location was shown on the map as ‘Glouroth’s chasm’, when a large downdraft of air filled the shaft we were climbing, and an overweening sense of dread overcame me.  Halbrinn had obviously felt something first, for he cast an illusion of a dragon, and sent it up the tunnel.  Moments later, a grey-black dragon attacked it, closely followed by more of its gargoyle familiars!  As the crackle of negative energy played around the beast and the rest of the Crusaders cowered back, one thought crossed my mind: ‘Shadowdragon!!!’  After that, little else did, for all thoughts escaped me after the dragon fear took hold.  I was fortunate enough to be able to hide for precious seconds as various feints distracted the dragon.  Finally, with the beast mere feet from me, I jumped from the wall (I was fifty feet up at this point), and using all my monk’s training and a conveniently situated resilient sphere I tumbled and bounced to the floor and ran.  Stedd was already at the exit of the lair, and the rest of the Crusaders were not far behind.  ‘Discretion the better part of valour’ was our motto in those short seconds, although we did manage to take another one or two gargoyles out before beating our retreat.  Judging by the screams of rage and the rending of hard stone in our wake, one of the black gargoyles we killed was precious to the dragon, maybe a half-dragon son or daughter, methinks.  Oops!So this is our current situation, your eminence.  We have paused here in the tunnels, around two hours from Glouroth’s lair.  Now, we will pause here, as Aeron and Adamo have suffered badly from the breath of the dragon.  The tales are true, your eminence: The miasma disgorged by shadow dragons causes the body to wilt, skill to desert and memories to fade.  In this, it is much like the touch of the undead, but shadow dragons are not of the undead.  They are living, breathing creatures, and this makes them susceptible to a skilful blade.  Miles believes he can strike this beast dead with a single blow, if he can time it right.  So, with this in mind, we will plan a strategy for the defeat of Glouroth, while Aeron rests.  A few spells of restoring should bring back the vitality of our cleric and our conjurer.  Then, we shall see…I will write more, your grace, in time.  I’ll have to see if I can get hold of more parchment first, though!  Perhaps Adamo can spare some.Yvgeny.Ilmater save the King.</blockquote>

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