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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 1311543" data-attributes="member: 463">Leo's accountCrimson ShadowsAs the group approached the ancient reed boat in the middle of the Temple, Leo again marveled at the artistry of this ancient culture. Torches flickered casting a thousand shadows. Hundreds of red-eyed statues of snakes of all types and sizes seemed to follow the group of adventurers as they walked. Some seemed oblivious to the atmosphere. Aos had his now usual fervent stare fixed on the High Priest. Cho’s face was inscrutable. Elros could not be seen. Sigurd was still trying to catch the eye of the priestess and Tarquin was silent, watching the by-play. Suddenly, Tarquin stumbled and seemed distracted. He then approached Leo and whispered in his ear. Leo frowned and called out. “Your reverence, we have just had some news. Please would you indulge us? We have been informed that Sigurd is urgently needed in our city for a mission only he can perform. Fortunately we have also been told that two more of our colleagues in the city wish to join us. However, we will have to go somewhere where we can be seen from a great distance so they can be transported here. Can you wait for a little time?”Sethem nodded without speaking. Chari Chep and the two priestesses led the group out of the temple into the avenue of Sphinxes. Suddenly there was a brief shimmering in the air and Saphie, Xiang and Elros appeared. A moment later Sigurd disappeared, casting a regretful look at the priestess. The others approached the three newcomers and there was a certain amount of greetings and camaraderie. Then Aos quickly filled them in as regards the situation the group was in. Cho also exchanged a short conversation with Xiang in their language. Leo assumed that she was telling him of their assumptions about the Temple and the imprisonment of Amitha in one of the cells. The group was then led back to the room with the strange reed boat. “Your reverence, can you tell us how long will we be in the boat before we reach to place with the demon crocodile?” Leo asked.“Yes; the journey is very short. It will take only a few minutes”.“In that case, could we wait a brief period of time while I cast certain spells on myself and others to make our task easier”.The High Priest nodded.Leo began casting. He didn’t really care that much about the spells with the exception of one. He took out a scroll and read out a spell and then scanned the room. Yes, the High Priest, Chari Chep and the two women radiated evil of varying strengths. Considering what they knew about the situation, this did not come as a great surprise to him and he kept his face impassive. Using the code phrase that had been agreed before, he turned to the others and said: “Come ladies and gentlemen, evil awaits.” This let the others know that their guides were evil as had been suspected. A new sense of readiness enveloped the group although Leo noticed that Sethem Nephthah also seemed less affable than before. The group got into the boat, Elros vacilating for a long time. Finally, slowly, he also climbed aboard. As soon as the group was fully on, Sethem cried a word of power that no one could understand and a strange translucent sphere surrounded the craft. Then it began sinking. It sank only briefly onto water in a tunnel and then it moved with unearthly speed. As it moved, the others curiously looked to the front, wanting to see where they were going. However, warned of the danger, Xiang and Aos stayed close to the priest, ready for any danger. Then Leo heard Aos’s voice in the rushing air. “Hold”. He turned around to see that Aos had stabbed the priest but to no avail. The Aryptian disappeared. Leo cursed. His first thought was to get out of here. He put it to the others that now was the time to try to get back but everyone else wanted to see if they could still continue. A few moments later the boat slowed down and came to a stop in a large dark cavern. The odour was truly offensive, the water looked fetid. In the distance there seemed to be a structure. Before the group could make out what it was though, Aos shouted out a warning. Swimming strongly towards them were four creatures out of their worst nightmares. More than thirty foot long, they had the bodies of huge crocodiles, the heads of massive hippos and tusks that were more than a foot long. They moved through the water with uncanny swiftness and attacked Cho, Elros, Xiang and Aos. Just looking at these monstrosities, Leo realised that this was going to be a brutal battle. Their plates of bone was incredibly good defensive armour, their size meant that they would be very difficult to overcome with certain spells and their otherworldliness gave them powers that he could only speculate about. One of these was immediately apparent. Aos, as usual, had incredibly fast reactions and he slashed at the thing with his rapier. Not only did the fire effect of the weapon seem completely ineffective against the beast, but his weapon only seemed to annoy it. The four creatures were slow and ponderous but the rest of the group was suffering from shock at seeing such unearthly monsters and the beasts took full advantage. All four grabbed their victims in their maws and proceeded to try to pull them into the water. Finally the group reacted. The most dramatic result was obtained by Tarquin. Uttering divine syllables, he strode forward to the beast with Xiang in his maw and touched it. The creature simply disappeared, leaving an unbalanced Xiang on the boat. Aos managed to wriggle out of the grip of his attacker. However the other two dragged Cho and Elros under the dark water although Cho had done considerable damage to her opponent. The group then concentrated its firepower fully on the beast fighting Aos as it was the only one they could see. Saphie loosed her fireballs time and again at it. Acid burst from Xiang’s spear and scorched its length, Aos still stabbed at it with his rapier which was beginning to score more effective hits, Leo hit it with a black ray which made it more sluggish. Xiang then stepped forward and unleashed the might of the Black Spear against it. The weapon seemed almost to be humming at fighting such a major opponent. The beast was still incredibly dangerous but did not seem to be as strong as its companions so Leo turned around and unleashed his most mighty lightning bolt into the water, hoping to the hurt the two that were drowning his other two companions. He was rewarded when he dimly saw two shapes outlined by his effect deep in the water. The last beast on the boat was finally dead so Leo did it again but catastrophically, the two creatures had left the area, obviously through some underwater tunnels. Leo was still worried that the creatures could come back so he cast a variety of defensive effects on himself.The group looked at each other silently. They were shaken and shocked at the speed and brutality of the attack. Two of their companions were gone, almost certainly dead. Leo looked at Aos and Xiang. Xiang was still fervently looking for something to kill, upon which to vent his rage. Then he spat: “I am going to raze and pillage this place if it’s the last thing I do.” Aos was also still looking dazed but also determined. “Amitha is still missing.” Leo thought. Then he said: “We have to think about this. Two or our companions are missing. Our priorities have changed. We have to get back their bodies as soon as possible. Our best chance may be back in Gaxmoor”. Xiang and Aos looked dubious. During the conversation, the boat was still drifting towards the structure. A stepped stone jetty led to a colonnaded platform with a square building in the middle of it. Xiang pointed. “Whether we go back to Gaxmoor or not, I think that the bodies may well have been taken to that building. We should at least investigate that.” Reluctantly Leo agreed. There was a possibility that it was the case. As the boat docked on the jetty, the group saw the head of a huge serpent rise out of the water and stare at them. The group rapidly left the boat. They were so vulnerable to drowning. As they stepped onto the jetty, angry purple and crimson points lit up on the stone blocks under their feet and in the stones close to them casting crimson shadows. The whole effect was the stuff of madness. The columns had bas relief scenes of the triumphs of Set. Demons cavorted with unwilling women. Evil races drove thousands of human slaves into building monuments of worship to Set. Several scenes showed mass human sacrifices and above all, the columns showed all the other deities paying homage to the Great Serpent. Approaching closer to the building they could discern four stone sphinxes. However these were parodies of the mighty statues on the Avenue of Sphinxes. Even in their stone form, the group could see that the stain of madness lurked in the eyes of these beasts. Leo first sent one of his Prying Eyes towards the door of the stone building. As soon as the eye approached the statue animated and let out a stream of gibberish. Leo couldn’t quite make out exactly what it said but it asked the warriors of the group to lay down their weapons before entering the stone building. Leo then sent his eyes to each of the other three doors and received variations of this gibberish. Leo then asked Saphie if she could open the door magically from a distance. She tried but then said that the building was defended with powerful magic and the spell hadn’t worked. The group was pretty certain that the statues were going to attack them as soon as they approached the doors. Aos did so and it duly happened. The statue animated and maniacally attacked Aos and Xiang who had both gone forward. However, this opponent was not the same calibre as that of the hippo headed demons and both warriors soon made short work of it. Immediately, the another one animated and again the two warriors finished it within a few seconds; then it happened again and then finally for the fourth one. All four statues had been dealt with. Then Saphie summoned a Hound Archon to open the door. The group got ready and the celestial duly opened the door. A huge four headed statue of the snake headed god was inside. As soon as the door opened it cried: “Welcome worshippers. I will give you wealth and power beyond your wildest dreams. Lay down your weapons and your items of power at my feet and worship”. The words were sweet, seductive and for a brief moment Tarquin was overcome. The stress of losing his friends, lack of sleep and of trying to keep everyone alive with his healing led him to briefly lose his sanity and he knelt down in front of the statue. The Archon then stepped forward and hit the statue. It shattered into many pieces. The effect on Tarquin stopped immediately, the angry crimson lights went out and the bas relief sculptures on the columns seemed to melt and change in front of their eyes. Upon closer examination they showed the worship of Osiris and above all the defeat of the minions of the Great Snake. Leo even noticed a section of the relief showing an uncanny likeness of members of the group driving back the worshippers of the Evil One. At the same time, a glowing narrow green bridge appeared from the back of the platform leading to the wall of the cave. Finally, in the remains of the statue everyone noticed a book together with a little crimson statuette of a snake. The archon informed the group that both were objects of great evil. The book itself was one of the great evil objects needed to invoke Rahotep. It was safely stored away and the statuette was shattered with the Black Spear. Leo suddenly thought. If the power of Set was broken in this section there was a possibility that the titanic entities in the water may have gone. It must be worth checking. Quickly a plan was formulate and Saphie, with her magical stone that allowed her to sustain herself without air dived into the water. Almost immediately, she appeared again through magical transport means. “They are still there. I barely got away.” Everyone looked glum. A careful search in the building revealed nothing, so the group stepped carefully onto the strange green walkway. A huge snake again raised its head to look at the group but did not attack. As they reached the far wall, the group could see that there was a carving of a large portal, with again relief of the four mad sphinx guards defeated earlier by the group. The group searched the wall and Leo found that the heads were moveable. It was decided to move them in the order that the group met the statues. Silently, the portal slid open revealing a dark corridor leading up into the darkness. Positioning themselves in fighting formation, the group strode forward. Having moved several hundred feet into the darkness, suddenly everyone felt a wrenching sensation. A sibilant hissing, like a thousand snakes with the malevolence of time immemorial seemed to chuckle: “Now you are mine. Welcome to my world. Prepare to worship me, minions. Tremble before me puny humans.” With that Leo felt a wave of coldness, a soul destroying coldness of a type he had never encountered before and of which he had never even realised was possible. Then a warm presence dispelled this coldness and a bell like voice, pitched at a contralto, countered: “No, Set, you cannot have them. They do not worship you and they have yet things to do.” With that the group found themselves in a heap in front of a shield guardian and a surprised apprentice of the White Way. They were back in Gaxmoor. Everyone took a few minutes to recover. The experience had been unearthly and not one Leo cared to repeat. However, practicality asserted itself. There were various priorities that needed to be addressed. Tarquin went back to his temple. He had a good idea of what was going to be done and he had to get ready. Saphie went to the Margrave, her brother to report what had happened. Titania and Aos went back to the Sultry Siren. Dovistar and Leo consulted deep into the night discussing how best to combine magics to try to find out what had happened to the two missing companions. Leo and Tarquin worked deep into the night and then had to rest to recover their spells. The next day everything was as ready as it was going to get. Both Leo and Dovistar chanted in unison. They met great resistance which drained Leo in particular but they managed to overcome it and at the end of the ritual a badly mangled female body appeared in the tower. It had been partly digested. It was covered in acid burns, with bones showing in sections of the limbs and almost hairless. Cho was unrecognisable. The corpse was rapidly taken to the temple. Again, Pretorius and Tarquin worked together. The rite was long and complicated. The body had to be healed and then the soul had to be returned to its shell. Fortunately, Cho had a strong soul and suddenly she coughed and heaved. Surrounded by everyone else, she opened her eyes; and the diamonds disappeared.  The next day these powerful preparations and magics were repeated for Elros. However this was much more problematic. When the body appeared, it was discovered that the corpse was missing its head. It had been digested. There was nothing even Tarquin could do for the elf. The group mourned their archer. He had been a boon companion. The Margrave then asked the group for a meeting. When the group arrived with a still pale Cho he greeted them one by one and asked for a report on the activities in Arypt. He frowned several times and then said: “Whilst I admire your attempts to help others in the deep south, I would ask you to remain in Gaxmoor for the near future. Spies have told me that Heracules has been spotted in the Doskan Heights. This time he is trying to forge an alliance with Frost Giants. If he manages this, he will again threaten the borderlands.” Kanor smashed his hand against the table. This uncharacteristic outburst served to emphasise his frustration with the cambion. “He must be stopped once and for all otherwise all the deaths in the Battle of Jerrakig will be for nothing. I would like you to mount an expedition to the Heights. If he manages this alliance then it will be a winter campaign. Please mount it before then. An old friend of yours has volunteered to guide you into the area. Ghysk, the hobgoblin.”Xiang nearly spat out his wine. The others were not quite so obvious but everyone looked dubious. Cho was no doubt still remembering his description of her as the “Mongali chick” and Aos may also have been thinking about Ghysk’s kidnapping of the Margravine Eloise. The wily hobgoblin was a byword in treachery, deceit and rudeness and if there was one thing guaranteed, it was that Ghysk considered himself to be his number one priority and anyone else came a long way down. However, he also had unrivalled knowledge of the Heights and a great deal to gain if Heracules was finally brought down. Both Tarquin and Leo were keen to go to the Heights but before they went, both had to do some research and crafting to do. It had now become very important to them. Both felt they could finally attempt to craft some items of great power. Finally, when the meeting was over, Aos approached everyone and said.“I don’t know how to say this but here goes. Without meaning to, we have actually succeeded in achieving our main aim in Arypt. I have been told by Isis that Set Rahotep needs the Nine Objects of Power to rise. We have three of them. So long as he does not obtain those he will never become the power he threatens to be. His whole ploy depended on luring powerful adventurers with strong souls to both bring him the objects and feed his hunger at the same time.”Leo didn’t know what to say to this.</blockquote>

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