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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 347648" data-attributes="member: 2785">Session Three, Part Seven”WOW,” SAID Tran, echoing the general sentiment among the adventurers. High in the mountains on their second day out from Phet Lo, they stood on a sparsely wooded slope amid waist-high grasses, staring at a massive ruin to the southwest. The mountainside they stood on sprawled far below, disappearing into a jungle-filled ravine only to rise again as part of other peaks farther west. Across the ravine, several miles distant, lay a mile-wide wedge-shaped gorge, and beyond that, the misty ruin of what must have once been a mighty city. Crumbling spires and alien minarets dotted the site, which evidenced much deterioration, even at this great distance. The jungle enshrouded the lower portions of the city, though a wall-like pattern could been seen encircling it. The portion of the city closest to the party appeared to have been swallowed up by the gorge, and in what had once – presumably – been the center of the ruin stood a towering spike of stone and marble, whose peak could only be glimpsed through occasional breaks in the clouds. “Wow,” whispered Tran again. Beside him, Tam nodded in agreement, lost in thought. “Whose city is this?” said Woo. Sensing a break in the torturous climb, he lowered his pack to the earth and began to massage his neck muscles. Everyone looked at Tam. The wu jen, old enough to be the father of any of the others, had proven to be more widely traveled than anyone had expected. When he failed to answer immediately, Lei grunted and sat down on a rock, digging into his pack for his waterskin. Mai glanced at Vinh, who squinted at the city, covering his eyes with his hand. She followed his gaze, homing in on the great central spire, glanced at him again, and began to study it. Tam nodded and whistled. “We do not know the origins of this place. Its architecture is unfamiliar to us, and we find it quite odd that such a city could have existed here. It is too far removed for commerce, and does not appear to have been built by any people we know.”“I see something,” declared Vinh. He pointed at the distant spire. “Around the center tower…flyers. Several flying creatures…they appear to have wings like bats, but they are…much larger.”“I see it too,” said Mai. Tam calculated sizes and distances in his head, and his eyes widened suddenly.“Let’s move on,” suggested Lei as he hefted his pack. For once, Woo agreed with him. Nobody argued.“We would like to come back one day to explore this city,” said the wu jen as they hustled up the slope. “Have fun,” Woo replied. That night they were attacked. Three monkeys, swollen to brutish size, rushed the group out of the darkness, only braying when they fell upon the groggy adventurers. Mai had been on watch, and had roused her comrades, who quickly leapt up half-asleep and scrambled for what weapons they could. Hien took a nasty bite on his hand, and Tam the wizard was also wounded, bitten on the foot. Mai, the only person wide-awake, exploded into action, a spinning dervish as she single-handedly slew two of the beasts before the others dispatched the third. “Is everyone okay?” Hien had asked afterward, ignoring his own wound. He called forth some minor healing spells and cleaned and dressed his and Tam’s injuries. The others examined the corpses of their foes. In the hasty torchlight, they discovered three black langurs of unusual size, with pronounced incisors and swollen chest cavities. “Abominations,” Hien declared, “Unnatural.” They moved camp and returned to sleep. The following day, they discovered a road. Ancient and weathered by time, the red bricks had shattered and the mortar had become riddled with weeds and grasses. What was left of the road meandered in the direction they were headed, so they followed it, convinced that they were closing on the forgotten monastery. It wandered up the mountainside at a favorable gradient, leading north along the western face. As the sun passed its zenith, Vinh, sweating, spotted something ahead. In a crease in the mountain’s slope, a bubble of total blackness clutched the mountainside like a cyst. It appeared to be several hundred yards across. He told the others, and soon they saw it too. Again, all eyes looked to Tam, and again he had no answers. “Powerful magic,” he nodded sagely. “You think?” exclaimed Woo, exasperated. As they continued, the slope flattened somewhat and they spied fallow fields on both sides of the road, which were in turn flanked by dense groups of trees. Ahead, the darkened region loomed close, perhaps two hundred paces away. Tightening their belts and loosening their weapons, the adventurers grimly marched on. Then they heard it. A rumbling, buzzing bass noise vibrated across the air, and as they closed, through their chests. “What’s that?” asked Tran fearfully. No one knew, but Woo was kind enough to whisper “Ssshh!” to the aristocrat, who winced. They crept down the road, feeling woefully exposed, drawing their weapons as they progressed. Eagle-eyed as ever, Vinh spotted the source of the noise first. Disbelieving his eyes, he nonetheless pointed and whispered “There” before returning his hand to firmly grip his kama-do. To the left of the road, about one hundred paces away, a gigantic hive of horse-sized wasps darted to and fro around a nest the size of a townhouse in Thang Long. It hung suspended in the tallest of the nearby trees, and the terrifying insects ambled in and out if it in a gross parody of normal-sized wasps. They were glossy black and brilliant yellow, their wings spanned twenty feet each, and their stingers mimicked shortspears. They did not appear to notice the party. Yet. “Go,” said Woo, “Slowly…go slowly toward the darkness.” He slipped forward and the others followed. If it occurred to anyone the irony of taking refuge from giant wasps within the cyst of darkness, they kept it to themselves.They had moved about sixty paces when Lei groaned, startling the others. “Over there,” he pointed to their right. They looked and Woo swore. Emerging from the tree line on the right of the road, another giant wasp dipped and darted through the air on tremendous insect wings, perhaps eighty paces away. It moved erratically, as though searching for food, in their general direction. “Run!” shouted the monk, sending Tran into a panic. The broke and ran for all they were worth, the echo of the giant wasp at their backs. If the monster followed, no one looked behind to check. Their feet pounded on the uneven bricks of the path, and one by one, the darkness swallowed them whole. Tam, the last to arrive, dove inside and nearly vomited from exertion. He bent over double, holding his sides and attempting to regain his equilibrium. Strangely, the air in here was cool, and it was not utterly dark. He rose and breathed in wonder. Around him, the other adventurers did the same, exclaiming softly.Within the cyst, night held sway. Constellations twinkled above, and the moon hung in its quarter phase. A cool evening wind rushed past them, and dead leaves rustled at their feet. Ahead, the road straightened and led to a three-story, arched façade recessed into a sheer cliff - the temple entrance. From within, they heard chilling, simian calls, distant screeches, hoots, and cackles. Dead trees flanked the entrance, and dead vines covered the façade, which appeared to depict strange scenes in relief.  Men in armor cavorted in battle, arrayed in formation, brutally killing their enemies. Tam took the carvings in, then glanced behind him, and started in surprise as he witnessed the outside world as a murky gray haze, diluted as though viewed through water. He blinked several times and shook his head, then walked forward and examined the sky as though searching for something. Minutes later, Woo interrupted Tam’s search. “Old man,” said the monk, “let’s go.” The wizard looked around him and saw his companions looking back, resolute. Except for Tran, of course. The nobleman looked more scared than anything. Tam nodded and fell in line behind the others, reviewing his readied spells. At the front of the line, Lei lit a torch and handed it to Vinh before moving on. Several others lit torches as well.The façade fronted a large open-air foyer fully sixty feet wide that extended into blackness beyond the paltry light of the torches. A huge pit, twenty feet across, ran the length of opening, separating the foyer from the grounds outside. Mai briefly glanced below her, but the darkness extended beyond the torchlight. Must be pretty deep, she thought. The air smelled of mulch, mustiness, and rancid meat, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. Around them, hanging vines swathing the temple’s exterior swayed in the breeze. Glancing at one another for affirmation, they stepped forward across the bridge, Vinh and Lei leading the way. Hien brought up the rear. As Vinh reached the far side, he stepped forward and felt the stone under his foot depress. Ka-shunk. Before he could wonder the meaning of it, the bridge flipped violently, sending six shocked adventurers plummeting into the void below.</blockquote>

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