(part I)
Session #36
“Jana!” Kazrack cried, as he desperately scrambled to climb the shear rock wall. He dug his hands into the dirt and stone in vain.
The badger mimicked his actions, but actually began to make some headway up the shaft before it suddenly disappeared.
Kazrack punched the stone wall and headed back.
Meanwhile, Helrahd frantically tried to keep Beorth from dying, looking over at the growing pool of blood beneath Jeremy nearby.
Martin still struggled with Ratchis.
There were several moments of near-silence in that cave, when all that could be heard was the rasped breaths of the dying, and shuffling of the hands of the healers, tying, tucking and sewing.
Finally, Kazrack came back around the corner, and in a few moments had called upon the healing graces of his gods to stabilize the three dying warriors.
Helrahd slumped one the ground and let out a great sigh of relief.
“Where is Jana?” Martin asked Kazrack, who stood in the middle of the cave with his face buried his big hand.
“She is gone.”
“Where did she go?”
“The thing took her away,” Kazrack said, tears rolled down his ruddy cheeks and disappeared in his beard. “She’d dead.”
“What do we do now?” Helrahd grunted at Kazrack.
“Why are you asking me?” Kazrack asked, looking down.
“You are the leader of this group,” Helrahd said.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Kazrack replied.
“You’re the only dwarf here aren’t you?” Helrahd said, as if that explained it all.
Kazrack let out a low breath, and then shaking his head as if the memory of it had just come back into his mind suddenly, he said, “Jana’s gone.”
“What? Was she the leader?” Helrahd asked callously.
Beorth stirred, and both Martin and Kazrack hurried over to him.
“Ratchis and Jeremy are down, Jana is dead, and the creature is still alive, but I am going to have Martin cast an illusion to hide us while we rest,” Kazrack said in a hurry, pulling Beorth up to a sitting position.
“Whuh?” Beorth mumbled, rubbing his temples.
“Ratchis and Jeremy are down, Jana is dead, and the creature is still alive, but I am going to have Martin cast an illusion to hide us while we rest,” Kazrack repeated himself in exactly the same tone.
Beorth stared at him dumbly. “Uh, I need a moment.”
Martin and Kazrack began to discuss the use of an illusion to hide themselves, but Martin insisted it would not work.
“We need to move everyone into the narrow end of the cave, where we cannot be surrounded, and I can guard us all in a narrow place,” Kazrack said.
“You’ll need help moving the pig,” Helrahd said, point to Ratchis. “He’s big.”
“Helrahd, I would appreciate it of you didn’t call D’nar a pig. He has proven himself to be my friend, and when you insult him, you insult me,” Kazrack, said, walking over to the other dwarf, just barely holding back an angry tone.
“Hrm,” was Helrad’s reply.
“I know how you feel about him, and I don’t expect you to change your feelings…”
“I don’t feel about him one way or the other,” Helrahd said, squinting and smacking his lips. “He seems pretty good in a fight.”
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They moved the wounded into the narrow part of the cave, and Kazrack made a barrier using Ratchis’ javelins. Helrahd checked outside and reported nearly two feet of snow had already fallen. They could not have left even if they were all conscious.
Beorth seemed dazed, but after a several hours of prayer by himself in a corner, he came over to Kazrack.
“What happened?” the paladin asked.
“The battle did not go well…” Kazrack’s voice trailed away, and then he cleared his throat. “My gods have shown their displeasure, and have withheld their blessing in battle. That is why I almost killed D’nar, and I foolishly let the creature slip past me as it carried Jana to her death.” (173)
“So there is no hope for Jana?” Beorth asked.
“None that I see,” Kazrack said, softly. He then straightened his shoulders and lifted his head, snorting back a bit of snot himself. “We should be prepared the creature may be back.”
“You think it will?” Beorth asked.
“I do not know, but I fear it will.”
Teflem, 20th of Onk – 564 H.E.
Kazrack, Martin and Helrahd took turns watching through the night.
In the morning, Helrahd made a fire by the entrance. He reported the snow had slowed down, but had not stopped. The entrance was covered.
“We will have to spend another day in here,” he said.
Beorth nodded, as he lay his hands upon Ratchis’ chest and called upon his god’s power to heal the Friar of Nephthys.
Ratchis awoke with a start, and then cringed as he felt the pain of the blow to his back. He lay on his side, breathing slowly.
“Last… Last thing I remember is a sharp pain in my back,” Ratchis hissed.
“We are still in grave danger,” was Beorth’s only reply.
“I guess that means that the creature is still alive?” Ratchis asked, managing to sit up.
“It is not dead,” Beorth replied. “But Jana is.”
Ratchis’ head dropped.
“Where is her body?” he asked.
“No body, the thing absorbed her in whatever way it does,” Beorth said. “At least that is how Kazrack described it.”
Ratchis crawled off to pray by himself.
“Oh, Osiris,” he said softly. “Please claim Jana’s soul, who died working in your service and spare her from damnation in Set’s Realm.”
Martin awoke screaming.
Beorth hurried over to him. “Martin! What is it?”
“Uh, uh…” Martin was speechless. “Uh, I dreamt I saw Jana, and I went to embrace her, and she exploded into a bunch of those tendrils like that thing shoots and they were grafted onto my flesh and I could feel my flesh melt away!”
He covered his face and shuddered.
Ratchis and Kazrack did what they could to heal all the injured, and soon Jeremy was conscious too. Kazrack, despite the fact that he was gravely injured refused any healing, and did not heal himself.
Soon, Jeremy was told about Jana.
“So, it just carried her off?”
“Yes,” Martin replied.
“How long has it been? A day?”
“Yes,” Martin said, again.
“Can we hope to defeat this thing?” Martin asked aloud. “Perhaps we should go back to town and re-gather our strength.”
“We should stay and destroy this thing,” Beorth said. “From what you said, I think we almost killed it last time. We just have to remember to use fire.”
“Why are we hunting this thing again?” Helrahd asked, and then spat.
“Because it is a monstrous abomination that will wreak havoc in any civilized or uncivilized land it enters?” Ratchis scowled.
“Mmm, that’s a good reason,” Helrahd said, flatly.
“It’s because of me,” Jeremy said, standing. “This is all because of me.”
The Neergaardian hobbled out to the mouth of the cave.
“Because of you?” Helrahd asked, but no one else said a thing.
Hour late, what dim light the sun could give through the cloud cover faded, and the winds picked up again, but the snow all but stopped.
Beorth took the candle that they had found left behind in the Glade of Hennaire (174), and after making sure it was not magical (by asking Martin) he set it out and gathered everyone round in order to have a memorial for her passing.
“Anubis,” Beorth called out. “I have no corporeal form for Jana. She was taken from us. I would like to burn this candle in memory of her. I hope she spends as little time with him as possible, and returns to us in a form befitting her spirit. I do not remember all the good she has done, but she was good to me…”
Jeremy spoke next, tears sliding down his sallow cheeks. “Jana, I’m sorry you had to come on this trip. Sorry about what happened to you. I know you did it… You all did it because of me… I can’t take your place, and I’m sorry. But we’ll make sure you didn’t die in vain. We’ll kill this thing, and if Rindalith shows his face here again, we’ll kick his ass for you.”
“Jana, your sacrifice for this cause has cleansed your soul,” Ratchis intoned. “You have earned the peace I know will come to you now.”
Martin merely laid down the tiny cat figurine he had been carving for Jana’s Festival of Isis gift in front of the candle.
Kazrack said nothing, but merely left the circle. He squeezed tears from his beard.
Helrahd grunted.
Anulem, 21st of Onk – 564 H.E.
The next day the snow had stopped, and the sun was shinning brightly. The front passage of the cave was flooded, and there was water trickling out of the rear chamber as well, where water poured down the shaft where the monster had fled with Jana’s remains.
Ratchis decided to climb the shaft and see where it led, and if perhaps the party might try to leave the cave that way.
“What if that thing is waiting for you up there?” Jeremy asked.
“He is not going to go all the way to the top, just as far as he can to see the top,” Kazrack said.
Ratchis shook his head and began to climb. “I’m going all the way up,” he called down.
Jeremy shook his head, and Helrahd did as well.
“Hrm. Are we going to have a plan this time?” Helrahd asked Kazrack.
“He’s juts going to see how high it is,” Kazrack replied. “We’re not doing anything yet.”
“Right,” Helrahd yanked at a nap in his hair.
Ratchis found the shaft opened beneath a bush on the hill slope where the party had found the gnoll tents (175). He came around and climbed back down and cleared the snow from the front of the cave and came back in.
“We might as well go out this way,” he said to the others. “We can’t delay any longer, that thing could be absorbing more stuff as we speak, and growing bigger and stronger.”
Everyone began to gather his or her gear.
“Do we have a plan this time?” Helrahd asked again.
“No,” Kazrack said, packing his things, and taking up Martin’s things to carry as well.
“You should make plans.”
“Yes,” Kazrack replied shortly.
“Not to be insulting, but as the leader you should offer them more guidance,” Helrahd coughed out the words as if they choked him.
“This is not a military unit, and we fo not give orders,” Kazrack said.
“You are a rune-thrower.”
“Yes, but they are not dwarves,” Kazrack said. He slipped his pack on his back.
Ratchis walked over. “We will look among the ponies, since that is closer and easier and if that fails, I guess we are going to have to trace the gnolls back to their main camp.”
“That sounds dangerous,” Helrahd said.
“Yes, it will be.”
Helrahd grunted. Martin shuddered.
As the party left the cave, Jeremy spoke up.
“Listen everyone, I want you to promise me something,” the Neergaardian said, shading his eyes with his hands. The morning brightness was reflected off of the white that covered everything. The air was alive with the sound of running and dripping water. “I want you to promise that if I am in trouble and it’d be dangerous to help me that you’ll just ditch me; forget me. I don’t want anyone risking their lives for me anymore.”
“I cannot make a promise like that,” Ratchis snorted. “My relationship with my goddess supercedes any human relationship, and she would not have me make such a promise.”
“I will not promise that either,” Kazrack said.
“Why? What’s your excuse?’ Jeremy asked, shrugging his shoulders.
“I will not give an excuse.”
Beorth just shook his head.
“Face it, Jeremy,” Martin said. “We are all in this thing together. We have to risk our lives for each other.”
“I won’t have you do it,” Jeremy insisted. “I won’t have you trade your life for mine.”
“Too late,” Martin replied, thinking of the Book of Black Circles.
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From their vantage point out on the small plateau in front of the cave mouth they could see the hill across the tiny vale from them. It had a nearly flattened top, and wild ponies were pushing their way through the deep snow to find some edible grass. Some small trees dotted the hillside, and one larger tree with long drooping branches was right on top.
“We should talk about how we are going to handle this before go over there,” Beorth said. “I mean, if it turns out to be one or all of those pones.”
“I will endeavor to keep it away from everyone else, by drawing as many attacks upon myself as possible,” Kazrack said.
“Your armor would help in that endeavor,” Ratchis snapped.
Helrahd’s grunt seemed to signal his agreement. Kazrack just shook his head.
“The thing seemed vulnerable to fire,” Martin suggested. “We saw that when we fought it in gnoll form.”
“Too bad we didn’t remember that when we fought it as the owlbear,” Beorth said.
“Jana might be alive if we did,” Martin’s head drooped.
“Well, let’s not make the same mistake twice,” Ratchis said.
They went about doing the best they could to fashion flammable arrows. Martin would be used as the point man for lighting other people’s arrows, using a torch.
Ratchis cast Endure Elements (Fire) on Beorth and himself, as they’d be likely involved in melee combat with the hopefully burning creature. Kazrack refused the spell.
It took them a long time to make their way down to the vale. Kazrack slipped at one point and went rolling painfully down the steep hillside. No one laughed.
The mid-day sun was high when they were waist deep in snow at the base of the other hill. The climb here would be too treacherous, so Ratchis went ahead. He made his way to the southside of the hill, jogging along atop the snow with Uller’s Boots. He then made the desperate climb up the hill’s south side, and made it to the top.
The ponies whinnied and moved awkwardly away from him in the snow. The half-orc looked around and saw no sign of the creature. The ponies all seemed to be real ponies on brief inspection, but he decided he’d get the rest of the party to the top before risking a closer check.
Ratchis tied a rope around his waist and tossed over the side of the hill where his companions waited.
“I’ll support the rope,” Ratchis called down; a bit of snow cascaded off the hill as if in reaction to his voice. Behind him, some of the ponies began to try to make their way off the hill. “Send Kazrack up first!”
Ratchis took a few steps back away from the edge and sat down in the snow, bracing his legs in the cold wet stuff and down into the ground. He held the rope with both hands.
Soon he felt the weight of Kazrack on the rope, and he held on tight. Ratchis leaned way back to get as good a bracing as possible, and then he startled in surprise.
Below on the rope, Kazrack cursed as he had to stop to hold on tight and keep from falling. Suddenly, the rope slid back down a few feet.
“I think there is trouble up there!” the dwarf called down to his companions.
Ratchis had hurriedly stood and turned, for what he has seen shocked him. There beneath the drooping tree branches was small human female figure. She was on her knees and sobbing silently, her face buried in her hands.
Ratchis pulled out his long sword, and took one step forward. Below Kazrack struggled to make it up the rope.
“Jana?”
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Notes
(173) See Last Session
(174) See Session #33
(175) See Last Session
