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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1860753" data-attributes="member: 99">There was no sign of any enemies at the gates and no indication that anyone had tried to repair them.  It was clear that The City of Endless Summer was all but a ghost town now that the invasion had been launched.  Nevertheless, the party moved cautiously into the Forge.It too was abandoned and the hole created in the ceiling by the Watcher remained, casting an ellipse of warm sunlight on the wall.  The sounds of exotic bird calls wafted down from above where the garden-paradise of The City reigned against the winter that gripped the Blackpeaks.  Suddenly aware of the difference in temperature, the group paused briefly to doff their winter coats and stow them in their packs.  No doubt this was partly for comfort but they also sought any brief excuse to delay opening the door into the Abattoir ahead.  Lacking any further reasons to postpone the inevitable, they approached the large doors.With weapons raised and spells at the ready, they pulled open only one of the thick doors.  Light from their everburning torches pierced the darkness beyond and they saw a sea of bones.  Although the smell was far from pleasant, there was surprisingly little odor coming from the huge room beyond.  But there still lingered a palpable sense of Evil at what they knew had happened here.(GM Note:  In case you don’t recall, Speaks cast an Insect Swarm into this room before they left it the last time.  It devoured the thousands of corpses down to the bones before dissipating).They waited for a dozen heartbeats to see if the bones would rise from their rest to attack them but none stirred.  Finally they began to cautiously move into the room, staying in a tight cluster and ready for any signs of movement.  It appeared that a shallow trench of crushed bone had been trod into the two foot deep tangle of skeletons that carpeted the floor of the huge, vaulted chamber.  It led off to the south."I'll be damned if I'm going to stride along atop this army of skeletons just waiting to pull me under like the tide!" announced Lazarius.  He worked some of his magic and floated off the ground, Flying just above the group as they proceeded.Moving along this channel amid the necropolis that surrounded them they could see at the edges of their torchlight that two other sets of huge doors led both east and west out of the chamber.  But they were here to confront the faithful of Bane left in the City and the group reasoned that it was they who had left this path among the bone.  They continued south.At the south end of the cavernous room they found another set of large doors and a nearby altar, drenched in blood dried black.  They paused and wordlessly regarded the focus of the Evil that was done here.  Then Marcus stepped off the trodden path and picked his way across the field of bone toward the altar.Marius called after him, “Marcus, this whole place is foul with Evil.  Just leave the altar and let’s go.”Marcus did not turn back and only said, “This shall not stand.”  He kicked his way through the bone that covered the steps to the dais upon which the altar rested and drew forth his mace.  He slung his Shield across his back and gripped his weapon in both hands.  “My Lord, give me STRENGTH!” he cried out as he raised high his mace and power flooded into his muscles.  The enchanted steel came crashing down upon the stone slab with a flash of light and a loud POP.For a moment the only sound in the room was the ringing of Marcus’ steel.  Then the grinding of stone on stone and a loud BOOM as the slab of the altar parted in the middle and fell free of its supports at the ends.  Without another word Marcus gripped his mace up near the head and turned his back on the ruined stone to rejoin the others.  Nothing was said as they left the Abattoir through the doors in front of them but they all felt just a bit better.</blockquote>

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