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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6801149" data-attributes="member: 6777052">A strange feeling encompassed the four, as if they were falling without moving. The sky darkened and took on a leaden hue and a miasma that stank of death and decay seemed to rise from the ground at their stumbling feet. The castle became a parody of itself, as if the stones were merely heaped grey snow that had begun to thaw. It was like a nightmare, but one that they were all sharing."What is happening?" cried Clotbert, pulling out a flask of holy water and sprinkling it about vaguely, "I feel the presence of a great evil and very close by!"As if in answer, Tharivol screamed when the holy water touched his flesh and his face became the face of a demon, hideously twisted and distorted. The Demon-that-was-Tharivol spoke mockingly. "Puny elflings, you are in my domain now! Be afraid! Your swords will not avail you! Your spells have no power here!"BoldItalic was dismayed as his own staff writhed in his hand and became a serpent that sought to sink its fangs into him. He hoped fervently that they were in the grip of a powerful illusion and that all this was not real. He held fast and spoke a counter-spell. His staff became a staff again and Tharivol dropped to the ground like a broken doll, writhing and crying out unintelligibly. But yet the castle did not become solid nor did the air become wholesome."We seem to be in the Abyss, or somewhere very like it," the wizard announced, "But this is none of my doing. I know not how we came here.""Well," said Rylnethaz pragmatically, "If the demons have brought us here for reasons of their own, it serves our purposes nonetheless. Let us go forth." With that, he drew his sword Aryvelahr and held it before him as if it were a torch, shining out in a hideous darkness.Suddenly, Tharivol sprang to his feet, drew his own sword and struck out at the king. The two blades clashed and there was a flash of intense white light. The lesser blade shattered and Aryvelahr swung free in a mighty sweep that severed head from shoulders. The corpse that had been Tharivol fell to the ground, spraying green ichor from its stump of a neck. As it touched the earth it collapsed inwards on itself with a hideous squelching sound and became a heap of wriggling maggots.Clotbert looked on in horror and was about to make a blessing for the dead when Rylnethaz stayed him. "Save your pity," he said dourly. "That is not an elf."They watched as the maggots fell to devouring each other until only a single bloated monstrosity remained, like a quivering grey-green slug covered in filthy slime. With a heave, it burrowed into the ground and was gone."Let that be a warning to us all," said Rylnethaz grimly, "That in this foul place, nothing is what it seems. Now, we have a task to perform. We need to locate a place where the pillars that feed the chaos engines reach up into the sky. Any ideas, O Vizier?""If directions have any meaning, and distances are the same here as elsewhere, it should be some miles to the east," thought BoldItalic. "But in truth, I cannot be sure. It could be anywhere.""Then let us try first to the eastwards."After some hours, cresting a rise, they thought they could see brazen columns far away in the distance but it was hard to make them out in the murky atmosphere. But before that, lay a great lake of turgid water. Bubbles of foul marsh gas broke the surface here and there, sending ripples across the oily surface. As they watched, a hideous bird the size of a heron flapped down clumsily to seize something in the water but a mass of tentacles rose up, grasped it and pulled it struggling to its doom."Well, we have no boat and we cannot swim in those waters," said Rylnethaz. "We will have to go around by the shore.""The ground is higher yonder," observed BoldItalic, pointing to a low range of hills to the north. "If the lake does empty into a river, I fancy that will be on the lower side, south of here. Crossing a river could be as problematic as crossing the lake itself, so we should avoid that side and risk the hills.""An excellent analysis," agreed the king. "Let us hope that the hills are just hills."</blockquote>

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