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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 453697" data-attributes="member: 5400">Part 2: In the Sewers of Holly Canal.After our run in with the umber hulk, we were all in the mood for some payback. Most of us stood watch and discussed what to do while Harmony treated Aria’s wounds and then ministered to Telara, who had twisted her ankle badly during the fight. Kakita was unhappy that the beast had caught unprepared so easily and so spent several minutes examining the dirt where it had emerged from the ground and also, where it had descended, parting the earth as easily as a swimmer breaks the surface of a mill pond. He was looking for any possible indication that he could watch out for, if it should come again.Mark wasn’t interested in discussions. It seemed that he felt some kinship with the lizard folk and so he climbed rapidly into the shaft in the lizard holy man’s hut. Descending thirty feet, he found the tunnel at the bottom, which ran from the shaft back east, towards Holly Canal. He followed the tunnel for several hundred yards, before starting back to the party.In the meantime, Harmony and Kakita insisted that we had to save the holy man. While we weren’t completely agreed on this course, when Kakita discovered that Mark was miss he immediately assumed that the umber hulk had take him and went straight to the tunnel. The company quickly followed. The tunnel was barely five feet wide, so we walked single file, though the roof was nearly seven feet above and so we were able to stand. In the flickering torch light the tunnel seemed very like a rabbit or mole hole, just an empty shaft that wended and wound its way in basically the same direction. It seemed as if it had probably been just dug by the umber hulk in order to carry the lizard folk priest through the earth. This must have been the reason, because otherwise the umber hulk would have had no need of such a construction, since it “swims” through the earth. The tunnel gave us hope that the lizard man was still alive.Pressing through the darkness, we came upon Mark, who had found some of the umber hulk’s blood upon the ground. Mark scouted ahead, while the party came up with torches some distance back. After about a mile of travel underground, we arrived at a T junction, where our rough earthen tunnel intersected with a stone walled construction running N/S. A hole had been torn in the wall of the stone tunnel to allow access and there was the sound of running water. It seemed that we were entering the famed sewers of Holly Canal.Keeping the rest of the party well back, Mark jumped quietly through the opening and pressed himself into the shadows of the tunnel wall opposite. Peering into the gloom his slitted eyes made out a figure, somewhere in the distance, trudging towards him through the mucky water. His cautious observation turned to surprise and astonishment, when he realised that it was in fact Oralec. The gnome was muttering under his breath about being lost and feeling stupid. So absorbed in his own anger was he that he almost stumbled across Mark before he knew that he was there. Oralec nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Mark’s voice say his name. “Mark?” said Oralec, peering into the gloom. “Is that you?”“Yes.”“What are you doing here?” asked Oralec.“I’m here with the others.” replied Mark, as the rest of the company emerged from the hole in the sewer wall. “What are you doing here?”We all listened intently as Oralec explained that he had gotten a contract to investigate the sewers here for the possible presence of a secret society. He seemed evasive about what sort of secret society he was looking for and refused to tell us from whom he received the contract. We explained what had happened with regards to the umber hulk and our mission to contact the lizard folk holy man. Oralec was happy to take up with us, since he had gotten himself lost. We all headed off together, with Mark tracking the passage of the wounded umber hulk.The tunnels of the sewers were impressive, formed of such regular stonework that they seemed all the same. It soon became obvious why Oralec had become lost down here. For the time being though, we were not worried, since the trail we were following would allow us to back track. With Mark and Oralec scouting ahead, we were making excellent time. When Mark thought that he had heard a noise coming from an intersection just ahead, he ducked into a rubbish filled alcove to hide and see. Oralec followed him and just as they were crouching out of sight, Mark though that he had seen something, like a flickering light in the garbage around them.Oralec and Mark tried to search through the surrounding garbage in the alcove, but Mark lost sight of it and Oralec felt suddenly unwell. In fact, Oralec felt very ill, as though he had just contracted a really bad case of demon fever, and he fell back into the sewer, shaking with fever, aches and chills. It was all he could do to sit up, and the company was very concerned about this outcome. Several members of the company advocated pressing on after the umber hulk, especially Kakita, who was afraid that if we did not hurry, we would be too late to save the lizard holy man, whom Kakita was convinced was still alive. The company continued to follow the blood trail for a short while, but Mark stopped and decided to go back. He was convinced that there was something of significance for him there and he intended to find it. As a warrior of the mind, I am sensitive to intuition myself, and I was more than willing to allow Mark to follow his hunch. Shrugging their shoulders, the rest of our number followed as Mark and I made our way back to the garbage filled alcove.We dug with our hands, risking the infection that had claimed Oralec, and soon found that the alcove was in fact an entry way to a room, which was blocked by a rusted gate, against which the garbage had been pushed against. The flickering light which Mark’s sharp eyes had perceived was in fact a flame which was burning in a censer in the centre of the room. The censer was of embossed bronze and the flame within burned with a warm, sun-like radiance. It was strange enough that there should be a still burning flame hidden here in the dark, but stranger still was the fact that within the fire was a white chrysanthemum, growing and not being consumed by the flame.As we entered the room with this mysterious flame, a voice sounded within our heads, like the use of telepathy between psions. “Welcome,” it said. “It has been too long since I have had visitors. I am the Flame of the Hearth of Worlds. I exist to heal and to protect. If you would be healed of your hurts or blessed for your trials then rest awhile with me.”Mark did not hesitate, but knelt before the Flame. Following his lead, each of us knelt, and were healed of all hurts and wounds. Some were even surrounded in a glowing radiance. All of us knelt, except for Oralec and Aria, who looked at us with puzzled expressions. “What are you doing?” asked Oralec.“Kneeling,” said Mark. “Just like the Flame said.”“The Flame said?” asked Aria. “The Flame is…talking to you?” It was plain she felt that Mark must be crazy. However, looking about group, she and Oralec could see that they were the only ones who could not “hear” the flame talking to them. With some hesitancy the two of them began to kneel. They heard a sudden voice in their heads crying out.“Hold,” spoke the Flame, telepathically. “Do not seek my blessing unless you would show forth fruits worthy of righteousness.”In response, Oralec claimed that he had such fruits, and quickly related the story of how he had saved Telara from drowning during a sea voyage from Landfall to Fareach. Aria said nothing. Both of them continued to kneel and were healed, but within themselves they felt a change, a shift in their personalities which made them feel less self focussed and more willing to consider the feelings of others. This strangeness settled about them and they were subdued as the company stood and left the Chapel of the Sacred Flame, healed, refreshed and blessed.All except Harmony. She was touched by the Flame in a way that she could not describe and, in return for its blessing, she asked it if she might perform a service in return. “I have but one service I might request,” replied the Flame. “But it is no small thing. The cost is great.”“I am unafraid of the cost,” replied Harmony.“I require a steward,” the Flame explained. “A servant to carry forth my power to the world. To heal the wounded and to defend the weak.”Something powerful was passing between the Sacred Flame and Harmony because she responded by saying, “I will be your Steward.”With these words, the Flame grew and enwreathed Harmony, as a part of the fire of the Living Sun, the Hearth of Worlds, detached itself and came to dwell in Harmony’ soul. She and the Flame were now bound tighter than husband and wife, than mage and familiar. They were two, dwelling in one body. As Harmony emerged from the shrine into the sewers, the flames in the bronze censer died away and the chrysanthemum crumbled to dust.Encounters with spiritual beings, either a blessing or a curse, nonetheless have with them a strange sense of otherness. Though we had just experienced a wonderful moment of spiritual blessing, we returned to our hunt for the wounded umber hulk as though awaking from a pleasant dream, giving our experience no more thought than that. Excepting, of course, Harmony, who was now changed forever.Continuing to track the umber hulk’s blood through the sewers, we come to a long stretch of tunnel which enters a sluice room. There’s another of the ubiquitous alcoves in this room and a second tunnel exiting. From down this second tunnel came a series of gurgling noises. The whole party was alert and ready, moving single file through the room. Mark and Oralec moved ahead, just inside the range of our torchlight. We kept our eyes open, looking for trouble. Even so, when it came, we just weren’t ready for how.As we moved down the tunnel towards the noises we could hear, two shapes detached from the walls. They were the shape of large lizard folk warriors but their skin was the colour and patterns of the walls themselves. It was as if they were lizard folk made from the walls. As the came at us, the strange colour and pattern faded and the lizard warriors took on the ordinary hues of their kind. From their heads hung two thick tendrils, like two ponytails made of flesh. Whatever these beings were, they were no ordinary lizard folk warriors. While two of them attacked our flanks from alcoves to the side of the tunnel, we heard Aria cry out that a third one had surprised her as she was just exiting the sluice room.The lizard folk warriors came at us with steel halberds, which they wielded with surprising aptitude. One of them struck at Kakita, while another lunged at Pax. Kakita’s heavy armour proved an impediment in the narrow tunnel, for he could not dodge the blows. He took two slashing strikes which bit deeply into his flesh. The lightly armoured Pax was more alert however and she weaved lithely away from the attacking lizard man, her spiked chain whipping about her.I was standing second to last in the line, next to Aria, and I saw with dismay the lizard warrior’s halberd catch her a glancing blow in the shoulder. Knowing that she was ill prepared to stand toe-to-toe with such a powerful warrior, I touched her shoulder, telling her to switch places with me. She waited for the right moment, and then with a deft motion, we switched places, putting me in the front line, as it were. The lizard halberdier was unfazed as to which target he was attacking and pressed me as hard as he could, slashing away. I responded in kind, and my long sword drew more blood than his halberd.Back in the middle of our line, Kakita was making repeated strikes at his opponent, his katana leaving slash after slash in the lizard warrior’s unarmoured torso. Kakita was appalled however, when he heard a low pitched hum, and the creature’s skin seemed to close some of its wounds automatically, as if healing that would take days, was happening in seconds. Unsure how many times the lizard man could achieve this healing, Kakita redoubled his attack.Pax continued to rake her enemy with the taloned end of her steel chain. Dancing and weaving with astonishing grace for one so tall, the fey-touched barbarian held her opponent at bay, only once receiving a strike in return.Shut out from the combat by his position in the front of the line, Oralec nonetheless was resolute in his desire to strike at these foes. Waiting for the right moment, he dove beneath Pax’s legs and then tumbled past the halberdier wielder to stand at his back, in a perfect flanking position. The sudden movement by the halfling rogue distracted the lizard warrior and he strove in vain to protect his flanks as Pax continued to attack. He should have paid more attention to the smaller foe, for Oralec’s dagger found the lizard man’s vitals with the kind of strike that only those familiar to the shadows can make. With Pax’s foe slain and Kakita’s falling beneath a storm of steel, I lunged forward at my opponent, only to find that my foot had become wedged in a gap in the stones on the floor. I fell heavily, and lost my grip on my sword. I tried my best to keep my head, rolling out of the way as swiftly as possible as my opponent hammered his halberd down at me. I was searching for a moment to safely re-take my feet when Pax’s chain whipped over my head and ripped its way across the lizard man’s throat. He collapsed to the flagstones, his life’s blood flowing into the mucky water.While the battle raged, Mark snuck forward to see what lay at the end of this tunnel. Peeking through an open doorway at the end of the corridor, Mark looked into a large chamber, filled with strange objects which looked to be equal parts living beings and magical devices. Across the chamber Mark could make out the shape of the umber hulk, standing so still it might well have been a statue. Behind it, against the wall, were a number of humanoid figures, chained and bound. There were tables which seemed to have been grown from bone and pools of water made from membranous flesh. Something large and distressed writhed in a large, fleshy bag hanging from the ceiling. It looked as if it might well have once been the organ of a living thing, as though a giant had swallowed a man and then the stomach had been cut free and hung from the roof like a sack. Moving back and forth in this biological madness, seemingly oblivious to the noises of combat coming from up the passage, was a single figure in leathery robes. Mark’s blood chilled as the figure turned in profile to a lamplight and he saw the four whipping tentacles hanging from the humanoids mouth and chin. A mind flayer!</blockquote>

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