Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
After a restless night in the Whispering Cairn, lying on rocks and wafted with a breeze sharp with the tang of dragon’s blood, we prepared ourselves as best we could for whatever might lie beyond the pitch black portal. The surface was viscous, trying to pass through it was like trying to shove through an over-filled wardrobe.
Taking our time, we cast almost every spell we could think of on Igmut before sending him through the portal to take on whatever might lie on the other side. As he passed through the glossy black surface, it snapped solid behind him, refusing any of the rest of us passage.
With no choice, we waited, before he returned nearly half a minute later, unceremoniously dumped two halves of a dark-skinned and spike-covered ghoul on the ground then dived back through the portal. A moment later, a solitary ripple passed over the surface, and Maynard the monk was once again able to pass through into the unknown.
Left alone with Flynne, he passed me a scroll which I happily read over a selection of arrows and crossbow bolts. In an instant, they were enchanted with an incendiary spell, before Flynne also pushed his way through the glossy back portal.
Finally, another ripple passed across the surface, and I also shoved through the strangely gelatinous black surface. Spending a frightening amount of time in a cool lightless chamber, I pushed forwards and emerged into a light, noisy stone-lined chamber. The sound was appalling – screaming sounds emerged from a series of pipes on either side of the room, whilst the chamber itself appeared to be filled with a choking thick gas and flapping wings. Strange gas-monsters were assaulting my comrades, and whilst I dashed across the room they tried to force their way into my throat as I inhaled.
Maynard was systematically smashing the shrieking pipes with thrown sai, whilst Igmut hacked and Flynne fired flaming arrows at the belkers. I joined in the assault, firing a shot from my crossbow, and as Igmut’s sword scythed through two of the creatures, my flaming crossbow tore through the centre of the last, killing it in an instant.
.oOo.
Leaving the now silent and still chamber behind us, we entered a large stone room with three sealed doors on the other walls. Each of those doors was flanked on either side with stone statues clutching small bowls.
In two patches on the floor we could see patches of carved rocky spikes, as well as a massive series of carved runes across the floor which spelled out “Glorious Icosiel”, and spoke of the “incomparable armies at the battle of Pesh” in the language of the element of air.
As Maynard, Igmut and I gazed at the floor Flynne looked with a practiced eye at the doors. Getting too close, the bowls suddenly started to spurt forth a massive volume of white smoke, enveloping a suddenly coughing Flynne and cascading across the walls. Slowly, the white smoke began to twist and wreathe under the power of a spell, showing slowly moving images of the wind-duke Icosiel fighting with demons, allying with a Marut and clutching a large seal and lengthy staff – the Rod of Seven Parts.
Suddenly, as he moved to one side to get a better view of the writhing images, Igmut yelled as he was hurled into the air by a sudden blast of wind. He was thrown towards the stone spikes but collapsed just short of them under the weight of his heavy armour. At the same time, Flynne emerged coughing and trembling from some power of the smoke.
After a couple of restorative spells from Igmut, Flynne was able to look once again at the door, and found what it was that had caused the gas to flow out so readily. He and Maynard used Igmut’s spear to poke and prod at the doors; 2 of them opened readily, but the third stayed firmly locked.
Unwilling to risk triggering the lethal smoke, we used a spell to walk through a magical door down one corridor to a point just beyond a crossroads with a statue of a celestial standing in the centre of it. Once we stepped through the mystical Dimension Door, there was the sudden noise of a gong ringing around us assaulting our senses – we were all able to shake it off.
The gong rang once again as we inspected the statue, clearly trying to assault our minds with its spell, and so we turned away and looked at a door.
“It’s locked,” announced Flynne as he turned to explain things to us. Suddenly, however, his eyes went wide with alarm. We snatched at our swords as we turnedto face whatever he had seen.
A tremendous black and grey spider was squeezing its way down the narrow corridor. As it drew closer we could see that its body was thick and dark, yet somehow insubstantial. Each of its legs flashed towards us, casting shadows down the corridor which it seemed to slip into as the beast dashed towards us; 8 black eyes gleaming hungrily as it came.
Flynne fired as the beast was still approaching, but his arrow hurtled straight through the centre of the creature. A second arrow struck its abdomen. Maynard raised and flung a fistful of shuriken, but all of these flashed through the shadowy creature’s form. It responded by biting down on the air near the monk, and then Igmut’s heavy sword leapt through the air. He missed initially, but then struck true onto the beast; then his enchanted blade flashed brightly with the stored light spell.
I cast a spell to speed up my comrades, and Flynne swiftly fired a huge number of arrows. Only one struck the beast; the others simply slid through its heavy body.
“Intruders,” yelled the shadow-spider. “Defilers! I shall slay you all!”
Maynard suddenly leapt from stillness to deadly action. His hands blurred the air as he pummelled and kicked at the monster, leaving it battered and leaking charcoal-coloured blood.
In response, the beast’s legs flashed out and battered Maynard before it lowered its massive head and bit him deeply on the shoulder. In a second, the monk looked pained and his flesh turned green. His muscles turned stiff and he stopped moving.
“Defilers,” came the throaty voice of the spider. “How dare you? Thieves and robbers!”
“Die, evil spider scum!” Igmut’s response was simple and brief. “We not steal. We look wizard!”
As the half orc yelled and swung his sword, he also took a moment to toss a scroll over his shoulder to me. I seized it up and read from it, and in an instant Maynard was free from his magical paralysis.
Flynne’s arrows sank deeply into the beast, and it was then pummelled severely once again by the vengeful monk.
“I will return to defend Icosiel’s tomb!”
With these curious words, the ghastly black spider turned to flee down the corridor, but Igmut hacked a single blow through its hindquarters and abdomen. As it fell, it whispered its last curse upon us.
“Plunderers and thieves, you will pay… I promised the good servants of law that I would guard…”
And with that, the vast black spider was dead.
.oOo.
A few moments later, Flynne swore. The door behind us was a fake.
We pushed past the cursed statue; prepared this time, I was able to play a complex counter-song which stole the power from the gong’s magic and allowed us to pass safely.
Once past, we pushed open a second door. This opened into a black-walled room with a dark wrought iron gallery ringing the edge some ten feet up. The floor was lined with neat matte black tiles, and 4 purple crystal chandeliers lighting the room from above. Hovering in the centre of the room was a black sphere.
Initially terrified by the look of the sphere, we paused to examine it closely. The sphere was simply an illusion – and also the symbol of the ooze para-elemental general Bwimb. This great warrior had allied with the Queen of Chaos prior to the Battle of Pesh.
Frescoes in the black tiles showed Icosiel forging an alliance with the tall form of an inevitable, who was being presented with a square rune-covered stone which was presented to him on a platter carried by a triumvirate of glowing creatures.
Across the wall, a second series of frescoes showed the surrender of innumerable demons surrending to the wind-dukes, or else warding off dark spheres with loop-capped rods which looked suspiciously like the item we had found in the ‘Tomb’ elsewhere in the Whispering Cairn.
Igmut, furthest of all of us into the room, suddenly stiffened and sniffed the air a moment before a large black puddle reared up, all-but invisible against the black tiles of the room. A single pseudopod lashed out at Igmut, and he yelled in pain. His skin instantly reddened and blistered as the terrible acids burned him. The lashing tendril wrapped around Igmut, but slid off him as though unable to find any purchase. As Igmut’s clothes rotted away, he produced a dagger and stabbed at it.
With a wet tearing sound, the huge black pudding split up its centre before sinking in two neat halves to the floor. Igmut stared in horror at his dagger, which dissolved before his eyes. He looked down at his armour, the enchanted mithril was already pitted and scarred almost beyond recognition by the single blow from the vast pudding.
Looking almost… scared, Igmut backed away out of the room.
“Should I close the door?”
“No,” I called back whilst scrabbling at the ties on the back of my pack. “Shoot it. Reduce it into as many pieces as you can!”
Behind me, I could hear Flynne’s bow humming and saw Maynard pulling out shuriken and hurling them towards the black pudding. When I stood back up straight clutching a staff in my hands, the room was positively filled with 8 acidic oozes.
I twirled the staff in my hands and triggered it, bathing the room with fire. When the inferno had died down, so had the puddings.
.oOo.
As Igmut replaced his destroyed clothing, Flynne climbed up the ladder to investigate the door out of the black room. Beyond the door lay a steep slope which ran down and around a corner to a second door.
Once Flynne had picked the lock to this, it swung open to reveal a rectangular room with intricately carved walls. White light spilled out from chandeliers in the ceiling. There were stairs leading up and out of the room, as well as a series of doors. There were two sets of blue double doors, and one single door leading out of the room.
“After you,” said almost everybody at once.
Taking our time, we cast almost every spell we could think of on Igmut before sending him through the portal to take on whatever might lie on the other side. As he passed through the glossy black surface, it snapped solid behind him, refusing any of the rest of us passage.
With no choice, we waited, before he returned nearly half a minute later, unceremoniously dumped two halves of a dark-skinned and spike-covered ghoul on the ground then dived back through the portal. A moment later, a solitary ripple passed over the surface, and Maynard the monk was once again able to pass through into the unknown.
Left alone with Flynne, he passed me a scroll which I happily read over a selection of arrows and crossbow bolts. In an instant, they were enchanted with an incendiary spell, before Flynne also pushed his way through the glossy back portal.
Finally, another ripple passed across the surface, and I also shoved through the strangely gelatinous black surface. Spending a frightening amount of time in a cool lightless chamber, I pushed forwards and emerged into a light, noisy stone-lined chamber. The sound was appalling – screaming sounds emerged from a series of pipes on either side of the room, whilst the chamber itself appeared to be filled with a choking thick gas and flapping wings. Strange gas-monsters were assaulting my comrades, and whilst I dashed across the room they tried to force their way into my throat as I inhaled.
Maynard was systematically smashing the shrieking pipes with thrown sai, whilst Igmut hacked and Flynne fired flaming arrows at the belkers. I joined in the assault, firing a shot from my crossbow, and as Igmut’s sword scythed through two of the creatures, my flaming crossbow tore through the centre of the last, killing it in an instant.
.oOo.
Leaving the now silent and still chamber behind us, we entered a large stone room with three sealed doors on the other walls. Each of those doors was flanked on either side with stone statues clutching small bowls.
In two patches on the floor we could see patches of carved rocky spikes, as well as a massive series of carved runes across the floor which spelled out “Glorious Icosiel”, and spoke of the “incomparable armies at the battle of Pesh” in the language of the element of air.
As Maynard, Igmut and I gazed at the floor Flynne looked with a practiced eye at the doors. Getting too close, the bowls suddenly started to spurt forth a massive volume of white smoke, enveloping a suddenly coughing Flynne and cascading across the walls. Slowly, the white smoke began to twist and wreathe under the power of a spell, showing slowly moving images of the wind-duke Icosiel fighting with demons, allying with a Marut and clutching a large seal and lengthy staff – the Rod of Seven Parts.
Suddenly, as he moved to one side to get a better view of the writhing images, Igmut yelled as he was hurled into the air by a sudden blast of wind. He was thrown towards the stone spikes but collapsed just short of them under the weight of his heavy armour. At the same time, Flynne emerged coughing and trembling from some power of the smoke.
After a couple of restorative spells from Igmut, Flynne was able to look once again at the door, and found what it was that had caused the gas to flow out so readily. He and Maynard used Igmut’s spear to poke and prod at the doors; 2 of them opened readily, but the third stayed firmly locked.
Unwilling to risk triggering the lethal smoke, we used a spell to walk through a magical door down one corridor to a point just beyond a crossroads with a statue of a celestial standing in the centre of it. Once we stepped through the mystical Dimension Door, there was the sudden noise of a gong ringing around us assaulting our senses – we were all able to shake it off.
The gong rang once again as we inspected the statue, clearly trying to assault our minds with its spell, and so we turned away and looked at a door.
“It’s locked,” announced Flynne as he turned to explain things to us. Suddenly, however, his eyes went wide with alarm. We snatched at our swords as we turnedto face whatever he had seen.
A tremendous black and grey spider was squeezing its way down the narrow corridor. As it drew closer we could see that its body was thick and dark, yet somehow insubstantial. Each of its legs flashed towards us, casting shadows down the corridor which it seemed to slip into as the beast dashed towards us; 8 black eyes gleaming hungrily as it came.
Flynne fired as the beast was still approaching, but his arrow hurtled straight through the centre of the creature. A second arrow struck its abdomen. Maynard raised and flung a fistful of shuriken, but all of these flashed through the shadowy creature’s form. It responded by biting down on the air near the monk, and then Igmut’s heavy sword leapt through the air. He missed initially, but then struck true onto the beast; then his enchanted blade flashed brightly with the stored light spell.
I cast a spell to speed up my comrades, and Flynne swiftly fired a huge number of arrows. Only one struck the beast; the others simply slid through its heavy body.
“Intruders,” yelled the shadow-spider. “Defilers! I shall slay you all!”
Maynard suddenly leapt from stillness to deadly action. His hands blurred the air as he pummelled and kicked at the monster, leaving it battered and leaking charcoal-coloured blood.
In response, the beast’s legs flashed out and battered Maynard before it lowered its massive head and bit him deeply on the shoulder. In a second, the monk looked pained and his flesh turned green. His muscles turned stiff and he stopped moving.
“Defilers,” came the throaty voice of the spider. “How dare you? Thieves and robbers!”
“Die, evil spider scum!” Igmut’s response was simple and brief. “We not steal. We look wizard!”
As the half orc yelled and swung his sword, he also took a moment to toss a scroll over his shoulder to me. I seized it up and read from it, and in an instant Maynard was free from his magical paralysis.
Flynne’s arrows sank deeply into the beast, and it was then pummelled severely once again by the vengeful monk.
“I will return to defend Icosiel’s tomb!”
With these curious words, the ghastly black spider turned to flee down the corridor, but Igmut hacked a single blow through its hindquarters and abdomen. As it fell, it whispered its last curse upon us.
“Plunderers and thieves, you will pay… I promised the good servants of law that I would guard…”
And with that, the vast black spider was dead.
.oOo.
A few moments later, Flynne swore. The door behind us was a fake.
We pushed past the cursed statue; prepared this time, I was able to play a complex counter-song which stole the power from the gong’s magic and allowed us to pass safely.
Once past, we pushed open a second door. This opened into a black-walled room with a dark wrought iron gallery ringing the edge some ten feet up. The floor was lined with neat matte black tiles, and 4 purple crystal chandeliers lighting the room from above. Hovering in the centre of the room was a black sphere.
Initially terrified by the look of the sphere, we paused to examine it closely. The sphere was simply an illusion – and also the symbol of the ooze para-elemental general Bwimb. This great warrior had allied with the Queen of Chaos prior to the Battle of Pesh.
Frescoes in the black tiles showed Icosiel forging an alliance with the tall form of an inevitable, who was being presented with a square rune-covered stone which was presented to him on a platter carried by a triumvirate of glowing creatures.
Across the wall, a second series of frescoes showed the surrender of innumerable demons surrending to the wind-dukes, or else warding off dark spheres with loop-capped rods which looked suspiciously like the item we had found in the ‘Tomb’ elsewhere in the Whispering Cairn.
Igmut, furthest of all of us into the room, suddenly stiffened and sniffed the air a moment before a large black puddle reared up, all-but invisible against the black tiles of the room. A single pseudopod lashed out at Igmut, and he yelled in pain. His skin instantly reddened and blistered as the terrible acids burned him. The lashing tendril wrapped around Igmut, but slid off him as though unable to find any purchase. As Igmut’s clothes rotted away, he produced a dagger and stabbed at it.
With a wet tearing sound, the huge black pudding split up its centre before sinking in two neat halves to the floor. Igmut stared in horror at his dagger, which dissolved before his eyes. He looked down at his armour, the enchanted mithril was already pitted and scarred almost beyond recognition by the single blow from the vast pudding.
Looking almost… scared, Igmut backed away out of the room.
“Should I close the door?”
“No,” I called back whilst scrabbling at the ties on the back of my pack. “Shoot it. Reduce it into as many pieces as you can!”
Behind me, I could hear Flynne’s bow humming and saw Maynard pulling out shuriken and hurling them towards the black pudding. When I stood back up straight clutching a staff in my hands, the room was positively filled with 8 acidic oozes.
I twirled the staff in my hands and triggered it, bathing the room with fire. When the inferno had died down, so had the puddings.
.oOo.
As Igmut replaced his destroyed clothing, Flynne climbed up the ladder to investigate the door out of the black room. Beyond the door lay a steep slope which ran down and around a corner to a second door.
Once Flynne had picked the lock to this, it swung open to reveal a rectangular room with intricately carved walls. White light spilled out from chandeliers in the ceiling. There were stairs leading up and out of the room, as well as a series of doors. There were two sets of blue double doors, and one single door leading out of the room.
“After you,” said almost everybody at once.
