Session #24 (part III)
“I’m afraid Kazrack will not survive the night,” Ratchis said.
“He looks stable to me,” said Jana.
The party was gathered beneath the gray hemisphere of the sheltering spell (91).
“I cast a spell on him earlier that increased his endurance, and later he drank something from his dwarven cup that increased it even more,” Ratchis explained. “I think if it weren’t for those he’d be dead, and when they run out his wounds will overwhelm him. Unfortunately, I am out of healing spells.”
“Then there is nothing we can do,” said Jana. “Except…”
“Except what?” asked Ratchis, barely keeping his eyes open.
“Well, we saved you with that potion the Menovian captain had,” Jana explained. “And we have another vial of some black stuff that belonged to one of those evil gnomes that attacked us that time. We can take the risk and try that on him.”
“I think we pushed our luck enough once for today,” Ratchis said, gulping.
“But if he is going to die anyway,” said Jana.
“I don’t know for sure,” said Ratchis.
“Well, I have a potion prepared for me by my brethren of Aze-Nuquerna,” said Tirhas cautiously. “But I am severely wounded, and planning to use it on myself.”
“But you are alive, and he may die,” said Ratchis. “Don’t you think you should use it on him?”
“And what good would that do me if we end up getting attacked up here and I die?” Tirhas said coldly. “Even with my potion he will still be unconscious and I will be injured. However, if I use it on myself I will benefit from it greatly, and therefore so will you if we have to fight or flee again.”
“On the other hand, Kazrack is too strong a warrior to let die,” Ratchis said, calmly. “If he dies the chances of any of us getting out of here alive is greatly diminished, let alone accomplishing what we came down here to do.”
“And if we both die, what do you think of our chances then?” Tirhas asked.
Martin just looked at the elf in amazement, unable to believe that she might allow their companion to die when she had the means to possibly save him.
“It is up to you,” Ratchis replied. “I cannot force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but I hope you will do what you think is right.”
Tirhas Tesfay was silent for a time.
Finally, she spoke again, “ Here administer it to him. All I ask is that if I die that you do not leave my body here to rot if you can at all help it. Bury me above in elven soil.”
“No one is going to die,” said Ratchis. “Not yet anyway.”
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The night was long. Or was it night? They lay huddled in the dim light supplied by the magical dwelling, feeling comfortably warm and dry, but they had no idea how much time was passing. In the next few hours Jana, Martin and Tirhas them took turns staying up, and Jeremy and Kazrack moaned and stirred, while Ratchis slept deeply, re-invigorating himself so that he might pray for and prepare the divine gifts granted to him by Nephthys.
Tholem, 4th of Dek – 564 H.E.
In time, Ratchis awoke and after spending an hour communing with his goddess, he lay his hands on the others and healed them with her power.
Finally, Kazrack stirred and slowly sat up, feeling as if there were a weight on his chest, and wincing as he tried to move his arm (which Jana had set).
“I am not dead?” Kazrack asked.
“No, you are not,” Martin replied. “But from the way you were acting I’m as surprised as you are.”
Kazrack frowned. “You should have run,” the dwarf said. “I was trying to give you all a chance to get away.”
“You forgot two things, Kazrack,” replied Ratchis. “Firstly, that Martin barely moves any faster than you do, and secondly we wouldn’t leave a friend behind to die.”
“I am not afraid to die, especially to help my companions,” said Kazrack.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of chances of try again,” said Jana scathingly.
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They continued to rest in the dark, beneath the cover of spell’s shelter. Martin had told the others it would last close to 18 hours.
In time Kazrack was able to regain his own spells and he lay his hands on Jeremy called on Rivkanal, the dwarven goddess of motherhood and the hearth to heal his wounds.
Jeremy stirred.
“Oh, everything hurts,” was the first thing Jeremy said.
“Keep it down,” whispered Ratchis. “This spell of Martin’s might not last much longer.”
“What happened to Silverback? He never cam down with us?” Jeremy asked.
“No, I am not sure how he would have made it down that ramp anyway,” replied Ratchis. “He is likely dead by now if he went through his plan.”
“Speaking of plans,” Tirhas interjected. “What is ours?”
There was no reply for a time.
“I’m not sure if we can survive an assault on the central chamber,” said Kazrack.
“I am fairly confident that we most definitely cannot,” said Martin the Green.
“So, we are leaving here?” Jeremy asked.
“After we rest some more,” Kazrack said.
“If we are going to leave, I recommend we do it right away,” Tirhas suggested. “The longer we sit up here, the more likely we are to be spotted or heard. I do not like sitting in one place for so long.”
“I heard Rahasia’s voice,” said Ratchis, suddenly. “Or what I thought was her voice, speaking in the language of those things, the quaggoths. It sounded as if she was giving them orders.”
“Do you think they knew she was coming? Or that she called them?” asked Kazrack.
“I doubt they would have had time to arrive here from the Plutonic Realms so quickly if she had called them somehow,” said Tirhas.
“Perhaps Richard the Red is in contact with other drow, perhaps he arranged for the creatures to be here to help her return to her people,” speculated Jana.
“If that is the case, she is likely beyond our reach by now,” Tirhas said.
“So, that means we leave?” Jeremy said again, groggily.
“We’ll wait until the spell ends and then we’ll make our way back to the dry riverbed and follow it out,” said Ratchis.
“I just hope we can get out there with no trouble,” Tirhas said. “I heard quaggoths pass through this chamber a few times while you slept. They are patrolling. Looking.”
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A few hours later they clambered down from the plateau, Kazrack requiring lots of help because his right arm was in a sling, and made their way as quietly as they could back to the riverbed. Jeremy had barely shrugged off the fatigue of his injuries when they set off.
They walked arranged in a straight line, with Ratchis in front with a rope about his waist, and Kazrack in the rear, with all those who could not see holding on to the rope to guide them in the darkness.
The going was very slow.
They crept along the riverbed, stumbling over each other, and occasionally hissing at each other angrily.
“We need light,” Jana insisted, after they had walked for over an hour, but had not made much progress.
“Yes, I think we do,” Ratchis said, surveying the area before them.
Jana spoke an arcane word, and in a moment light emanated from her dagger.
Before them the riverbed broadened, and sunk down into a wide depression filled with drying muck which was at the foot of a black stone cliff forty feet high that must have once been a waterfall. The cliff was flanked on either side by tall groupings of volcanic rock that created natural pylons that could be climbed.
The moved single file along the muddy bank to the left of the cliff, and Ratchis, taking the rope, went up first. The climbing was not too bad, though in places the stones leaned way over making getting over on top of them hard, but gave stable footing once upon them.
Ratchis was about three-fourths of the way up when the others spotted movement above him. A quaggoth hooted in the shadows above as he dropped a heavy stone on the half-orc’s head. Blood poured from his scalp, as he struggled to maintain his footing and pulling a dagger from his foot tossed it straight up. The quaggoths tried to knock it away, but the blade pierced his hand and he hooted again, more loudly and more angrily.
Tirhas had her bow out and an arrow nocked even as the stone was still falling. However, the arrow arced low and struck Ratchis in the small of the back.
Ratchis roared in anger.
Jana passed the dagger with the light spell to Kazrack, who despite needing to use his off hand tossed it up to the cliff to light up the shadowed foe. It was now illuminated, ad so they were able to clearly see him this time as he lifted another rock and dropped it on Ratchis’ head again.
The half-orc raised his hands above his big head to block the stone, but its weight and speed struck him hard and Ratchis tumbled backward, landing on the hard bank below and them rolled down into the muck.
Jeremy fired his crossbow, striking the hairy thing in the shoulder and this time it cupped its hands around its mouth and gave a long series of loud hoots. Martin scrambled to load his crossbow, snapped into action by seeing Jeremy fire. Tirhas continued firing arrows, but they continued to miss their mark.
Kazrack also struggled to load his crossbow, but the pain of his broken arm worked against him.
Jana spoke an arcane word, and the quaggoths hands went to his eyes.
The creature stumbled backward out of sight, as Kazrack ran down to Ratchis.
“He is bleeding to death!” the dwarf cried, as Jana cast light again, this time on her club. She then went down and bound Ratchis’ head wound.
“What do we do now?” Kazrack asked. “Between Ratchis’ unconscious form and my broken arm, getting us all up there and out of here is going to be much harder.”
“We have no choice,” Jeremy said, with unusual decisiveness. The Neergaardian grabbed the rope and placed a dagger in his teeth and began to climb up, as Tirhas nocked an arrow and kept it aimed at the top. In the distance, behind them the heard the echoed hooting of quaggoths seeming to answer the call of the one that had just fled.
“We have to hurry,” said Tirhas.
Kazrack, Martin and Jana pulled Ratchis out of the muck and back up the bank.
Jeremy pulled himself over and up on to the top of the dried waterfall, and stood just in time to see the quaggoth who had fled bull rushing him to send him back over the side. On instinct alone, Jeremy pulled the dagger from his teeth and thrust forward with all his might, bracing himself for the impact, but it never came. He opened his eyes to find the thing impaled on the dagger and gasping for breath as it collapsed in order to bleed out and die.
Jeremy sighed and thanked Osiris under his breath and turned around.
“I’m okay,” he called down. “I am going to see how close the exit is. I’ll be right back.”
The Neegaardian jogged down the cavern with his crossbow out. He had gone a few hundred feet when he saw that the corridor began a slow ascent. The ground was wet, and he could see some snow up ahead and dim light streaming down. He ran back.
“The exit isn’t far,” he called down. “I’ll cover you.” He watched as Tirhas Tesfey made her way up deftly.
The distant hooting did not sound so distant all of a sudden.
“Martin, you next,” Kazrack said.
The watch-mage did not argue, and tied the rope Jeremy lowered about his waist and climbed a bit, but mostly Jeremy pulled him up as Tirhas kept an arrow readied, keeping an eye open for the end of the radius of light for any approaching quaggoths.
They lowered the rope again, and Jana and Kazrack fastened it about and beneath Ratchis’ shoulders, and Jeremy and Tirhas carefully pulled up the unconscious form. They checked him over when they got him up to make sure his wounds had not opened again, and then sent the rope down.
“You next,” Kazrack said to Jana.
“No, you are injured,” Jana said. “I can climb on my own if I have to, but you need help. You go first.”
“No, I insist,” Kazrack said, stubbornly.
“Don’t be a fool, Kazrack,” Jana said.
The hooting of quaggoths was very close behind them now.
“Hurry!” Jeremy called, holding the rope as Tirhas readied her bow again and stood beside Martin.
“Just go!” Kazrack said, and stepped away from the rope.
Jana sighed, grabbed the rope and wrapped it around Kazrack’s waist.
“I told you to go!”
Now it was Kazrack’s turn to sigh. He stepped up to the stones and scrambled up a bit, but soon Jeremy was simply pulling him up slowly, hand over hand.
The dwarf was barely one quarter of the way up when two quaggoths came charging out of the darkness. Jeremy re-doubled his efforts to pull Kazrack up, as Tirhas fired an arrow, but it disappeared into the darkness behind the thing.
Jana, panicked, ran for the stone pilings and began to climb.
The quaggoth in the lead let out a high-pitched hooting shriek and threw its club with all its might at the young witch. It missed, but one of Tirhas’ arrows caught the creature in the foot. Martin pulled the trigger on the crossbow, but nervous he had not finished properly aiming. The quarrel went into his own foot.
“Damn it!” the Watch-Mage cried out, and dropped the bow on the ground.
Jeremy had to take a breath, leaving Kazrack dangling about halfway up.
The second quaggoth passed its companion and hiked its club over its shoulder and tossed it sidearm at Jana. She cried out and her fingers slipped off the slick stone and fell backward onto the bank knocking the wind out of her, and she slid down the bank into the muck.
The first quaggoth hooted with glee and charged down into the muck, and as Jana looked up she received a vicious claw to the neck and chin. Blood began to gush from her wound, as she collapsed unconscious.
The quaggoth still on the bank happily picked up the club he had just thrown and threw it a second time, and again he found his target. Kazrack was sent flying away from the stone wall and swung there for a moment as Jeremy tried desperately to keep the dwarf’s ascent as steady as possible.
“Let me back down,” Kazrack called. “I have to help Jana!”
Jeremy did not obey.
Tirhas fired an arrow at the quaggoth getting ready to rip out Jana’s throat for good, but missed. However, Martin thought this was the perfect opportunity to try one of the spells the elves of Aze-Nuquerna had taught him. He pulled a live cricket from a pouch and spoke the word ”dormu!”
The quaggoth near Jana tumbled into a sudden slumber, but the other charged up the side of the stones after Kazrack (having lost his club with the second toss). Tirhas leaned over the side and plunked an arrow right into its face. It fell off the stones and slid down into the muck beside Jana’s bleeding form.
Jeremy finished pulling Kazrack up.
He left the dwarf to watch over Ratchis and he and Tirhas hurriedly climbed back down. Jeremy went straight to Jana and tried to bind her wounds, but Tirhas took a moment to slit the throat of he sleeping quaggoth and then joined him.
They stabilized her and then Jeremy climbed again and slowly hoisted the young witch up. Tirhas followed.
Jeremy and Tirhas carried Jana’s unconscious form to the cave mouth. The cold air blew down on them sharply, but they felt elated when they saw the last bit of the bit of light disappearing in the open sky above them, and the snow-covered plain before them.
Jeremy ran back and sent Martin to the cave mouth, who then sent Tirhas back to help the Neergaardian drag Ratchis’ hulking form to the exit, accompanied by a sullen Kazrack, cursing his broken arm under his breath.
The party took some time to catch their breath, but soon they were shivering. At the base of the bluff, which was littered with cave entrances, they saw three cloaked figures. One seemed to be shaking the hands of the other two, and a moment later one was climbing up the side of the bluff by means of a narrow path, while the other two headed back southward.
“Should we call for help?” Jeremy asked.
“No,” said Tirhas. “We do not know who those people are.”
“We need to do something,” said Kazrack. “Let me go back to town and see what help I can get us.”
“No, let me go,” said Martin. “I will likely be more successful than you at that. No offense, but dwarves don’t seem all that well liked around here.”
“True,” Kazrack acquiesced.
“I’ll try to hurry,” Martin said.
The watch-mage made his way up the craggy path to the top of the bluff, which brought him right to the edge of town.
He hurried through the streets of Ogre’s Bluff to the inn, and as he opened the door and the smell of ale and burning fat struck him in the face, he saw Beorth coming out.
“Thank Isis!” Martin cried. “Beorth, hurry. We need your help!”
End of Session #24
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Notes
(91) This spell (Leomund’s Tiny Hut) has many different names. It is often referred to as Instant Hut, but it is thought it has its origins as a priestly spell provided by the halfling goddess Rhianwen, and called “Rhainwen’s Lodge”.
