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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 902074" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #41Part Two: An aborted Descent…The trio of heroes swung down with anger, trying to ignore the disturbing cry below which now faded into their cries. Ratchis brought his feet deftly down on the low wall that marked the lower ledge, and though he teetered for a moment, he kept his footing, slipping his chain belt from his waist to call on Nephthys’ power. Beorth’s boots struck the low wall and the paladin went flying back, twisting and spinning wildly.  Above, Jeremy, Helrahd and Derek cursed under their breaths as their hands burned with the twisting jerking rope.Kazrack was dropped too far and he slid past the lower ledge, where the shaft continued downward.  He looked back up at his companions as he passed them, crying out, “No! No! Too Low!”Ratchis jumped down from the wall, spotting one of the skeletal guardians moving towards him from the left, while another mover around a sarcophagus to take aim at Beorth’s spinning form.  This level like the previous had the rectangular stone coffins, but no masks.“Nephthys, please heed me and send my foes away,” Ratchis cried, spinning his chain, but the guardian on the right fired two of those bolts of black light at the helpless paladin.   Only the tiny figure on the floor moved away from the half-orc priest.  He saw it move at the bottom of his vision, so he tipped his head to get a better look before it disappeared behind a sarcophagus. It was a baby.But its skin had gray tone with no luster, and its little big head was split open down the front and raw with gore, fragments of skull sticking out.    It dragged one little broken leg, the bone sticking out the side of his chubby thigh behind it.But its skin had gray tone with no luster, and its little big head was split open down the front and raw with gore, fragments of bone sticking out.    It dragged on little broken leg, the bone sticking out the side of his chubby leg behind it.Ratchis gagged, as noticed the already protruding jaw, the black coarse hair and the ridge of bone down its back.  There was no doubt it had orcish blood.Meanwhile, Kazrack took moment of hanging too low to help to look further down the shaft, as a shuffling and murmuring sound drew his attention.  He could see that the shaft ended only twenty feet below this last ledge, but what was down there horrified him.The bottom of the shaft was filled with the blank and rotten faces of babies struggling to look up at him.  They crawled over each other’s sore-covered leathery flesh, their exaggerated jaws salivating; their little hands, most missing fingernails, some still having them twisted back and protruding from the dead flesh they punctured, reaching up to Kazrack as they took notice of him.   The dead babies bubbled like a cauldron of pure horror.  The dwarven rune-thrower could see that the babies were several feet deep, crawling over each other and pushing others down blindly in their vain attempt to reach him.  A handful of emaciated rats crawled in and out of the pile of tiny bodies nibbling on filmy eyes and tiny tender ears and toes, squeaking delightedly.Suddenly, one of the babies cried out that halting cry of hungry baby, and another took it up and then another, until they roiled and cried in a cacophony that rose up the shaft.“What the hell is that?” Helrahd asked aloud.Derek felt a chill wash over him and he shivered though he was covered in sweat. Golnar, Tolnar and Jolnar were having trouble interpreting the jerks on their rope, which Kazrack hung from.  Captain Adalar walked over. “Play it safe.  Pull him up.”Below Kazrack began to scream, “By the gods!  The babies are demons!  Pull us up!  Pull us all up!”There was a final hard jerk and Kazrack dropped closer to the pit of zombie infants, but then he began to rise smoothly up.He was in time to see the second skeleton guard, side-step to avoid Ratchis and fire two more of the dark bolts at Beorth. The paladin tried to keep his calm, even as he was buffeted by the necromantic bolts, and he did not cry out.  He reached out pathetically to press a hand against a support and steady himself, but he failed.“You fools!  Ascend!  Flee!” Kazrack cried passing them on the way back up.  He looked up to the top of the shaft and cupped his hands over his mouth.  “Pull us all up!”The armored skeleton turned back to Ratchis, and swung its sword at him only to have it blocked by the half-orc’s own sword, which threw off crazy shadows of the thing as he parried its blows.“Beorth!  D’naar!  Fall back!” Kazrack was quickly being pulled into the darkness above.Ratchis tried to move in such a way to put the sarcophagus between him and the undead guardian, but he over-extended him and the thing took the opportunity to swing, nicking the leaping priest in the thigh.   The wound burned, and Ratchis could feel a sheet of blood rush down his leg as he grunted angrily.But the dark-cloaked undead warrior did not concern the friar of Nephthys and woodsman.  It was the enslaved remains of an infant, trying to crawl into the wall to get away from him.  It repeatedly smashed its already split head into the wall, gurgling.“Nephthys, forgive me,” Ratchis whispered.  His vision was fractured for a moment by a swollen tear, but then he brought his sword down on its little head, cleaving it oven all the way down to its stomach, which exploded into hundreds of tiny insects that scurried into all directions.Beorth was finally able to steady himself in time to see Ratchis dive off the ledge wall.  He bounced twice, as Baervard, Blodnath and Kirla groaned.  The half-orc jerked the rope twice, so the paladin did the same.  In a moment, they were being pulled up.  But the skeletal guards walked to the edge and pointing up murmured their arcane words and fired more of the black bolts at Beorth.  He felt cold and weak, and bruises swelled up painfully wherever the things had struck him. (1)Ratchis reached into his bag and pulled out a flask of oil he had prepared with a strip of oil-soaked cloth and he lit it off of Beorth’s torch and tossed it down.It exploded and one of the guardians shuffled back and screeched.He lit another and dropped it straight down on the zombie babies, for a moment there was a flash that allowed him to see the crawling bodies twist and roll as they were engulfed in the splattering burning oil.   The wail rose in intensity, and the smell of burning flesh rose with it.  The scorched babies were swallowed and smothered in the ceaseless and futile crawling of the others, the flames going out as they were sucked down. And there was darkness again, from which the murmuring and crying emerged.Soon, all three of the adventurers were back at the surface; the top of the black stone monolith with the others.Kazrack was laying on his back on the black stone, covering his eyes with his hands, the rope harness still around his legs and waist.Ratchis fell to one knee and began to pray quietly to Nephthys, while Beorth simply stood head bowed silently.“Was it really that bad?” Jeremy asked, cautiously.“Yes,” Kazrack replied.  “There are horrors down there.”“This is truly a terrible terrible place,” Beorth added. “It doesn’t make any sense, how did all those… babies get down there?” Kazrack said, sitting up.Martin blanched.“It doesn’t matter,” Ratchis said, standing.  “We’re going to put them all to rest and destroy this place.”There was a long silence.“It doesn’t matter if it has anything to do with the gnomes or not,” the half-orc added with a barking tone.  “Though I am sure it does.”Beorth nodded in agreement.“Let us just hope our delay here does not mean more gnomish lives will be lost,” Belear said.“And what of Ephraim?” Derek asked.  “We have to warn the gnomes that the Gothanians might mistakenly try to make war on them.” (2)“It will take him some time to get to Twelve Trolls (3) and deliver his message, and even if the King decided to use force, Gothanius has not standing army.  It will take time to gather and organize the militia,” Martin explained.“It is a long walk back, and I am still weakened from our encounter with the shadow yesterday, as are we all wounded,’ Ratchis said.  “Let’s us go back and camp for the night and return in the morning.”“I am loathe to leave this place unrazed,” Beorth said, with a bit of visible frustration.“And patience will all allow you to see it razed,” said Belear quietly.  “The half-breed speaks wisely.  Let us return to the edge of this dead land and camp again to regain our strength, now that we know the true horrors that await us below.”So again they secured the ropes and hefted their gear and began the long march back to the dimpled scrubland that they camped at.“And tomorrow, let’s figure out a better way of determining who holds which ropes,” Jeremy announced, but no one reacted to his comment.--------------------------The sun bobbed up and down out of view behind the lip of the huge crater this dead land was in as they walked towards it.   The long shadows of the stone pillars crossed diagonally across their path, making it even darker. The sound of their boots crunching in the black ash and the occasional cough were the only sounds.  Derek found it unnerving and pulled his cloak closer around his shoulders and looked around.  He hated that there were no animal sounds, no sound of wind in reeds or branches; it was unnatural.Derek’s eye was struck by movement across a narrow band of light coming between two narrow pillars.  He turned his head to see a humanoid figure made of shadow emerging from the blackness and swooping at him.He ducked and cried out.  The rest of the troop was ahead of him and they all stopped and turned in time to see it fly up and turn for another pass.  Ratchis came charging from what had been the front of the group, and Golnar, Jolnar and Tolnar who were closest, pulled out their respective weapons.“There might be more!” Derek warned, worried that everyone was now looking in his direction as opposed to looking for another attack.Martin the Green turned to watch the front.The shadow flew down without effort, drifting like a leaf and ran a cold finger across Derek’s face.  The young man moaned as his muscles sagged and drooped as if meat had been sucked from his arms and legs.  He felt the weight of pack and his armor much more heavily.“Krauchaar, bless my weapon!” Captain Adalar cried out, hefting his great axe into the air, and for a moment the blade shone with divine light. (4)Golnar charged at the incorporeal undead as it moved to drift past Derek.  He was over-enthusiastic, however, and fumbled the warhammer as he hefted it over his head and it went flying back, landing at his brothers’ feet.Martin cried out as another shadow swooped at him, emerging from around the base of a large pillar.“Martin! What are you doing?  Put your back to something!” Jeremy cried out, drawing the Right Blade of Arofel and running to the front of the group, placing himself between the watch-mage and the undead thing.Tolnar fired his crossbow at the one dogging Derek, but the bolt flew right through it.“We must retreat from these things!” the young dwarf cried out, fear in his voice.Kiral harrumphed and charged as well, but the head of her flail also went through the thing.  She looked at her weapon with puzzlement.“Anubis!  Send these things away so we may destroy them in your name when we have regained our strength!” Beorth cried out, clutching the silver jackal’s head around his neck.  There was a wave of positive energy and the shadows screeched and took off straight into the air and the inkiness of the falling night.They all let out deep breaths and then wordlessly fell back into formation and hustled back to the site of their former campsite.They were all silent as they set up their tents and unpacked their bedrolls and lit small fires with what was left of the tinder they had brought with them.  They spoke the fewest words possible to arrange watches, and soon the only sound was the snoring of the dwarves and Ratchis.The night passed without event, but the next morning both Ratchis and Derek still felt the weakness in their limbs, and the priests in the group spread around their healing, along with Ratchis’ use of Lesser Restoration on Derek.  The rest of the day was spent in rest and idle speculation of what might be found even deeper in the place they had uncovered.“I just don’t understand how so many babies, half-orc babies could be in the same place at the same time,” Kazrack mused aloud.“I cannot even begin to conceive of how such a thing is possible,” Ratchis replied solemnly.“Soon their souls will be at rest,” Beorth commented.“But for now, how about we rest some more?” Jeremy said, crawling into a tent.The next morning they’d march back to the monolith.End of Session #41------------------------------Notes(1) DM’s Note: These were simply magic missiles with different flavor text to make them seem like the tools of an undead creature.  These skeleton guards were simply adapted Baneguards from Monsters of Faerun.(2) Ephraim was the only survivor of a mercenary expeditionary force sent to explore the area north of Greenreed Valley for further expansion of the Kingdom of Gothanius.  He claimed tall of his companions were killed by gnomes that used magic and undead.  (see session #39)(3) Twelve Trolls is the capitol of the Kingdom of Gothanius, named so because it was built on the site of the Battle of the Twelve Trolls – where human and dwarven forces called a truce long enough to battle a fierce group of powerful trolls led by the Troll King Frojack.(4) DM’s Note: Captain Adalar cast Magic Weapon</blockquote>

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