As we stood gathering the immense riches from the draconic monster, there was a sudden sense of stillness which came across me, and then there came a voice in my mind.
“Less than 6 hours until Kyuss emerges. Meet me at Mage Point. Urgent.” It was Manzorian using a spell of sending, and I responded as truthfully as I could. “Coming. Got to get out of the late Dragotha’s lair. On foot. A bit stuck.”
We backed up to the worm-dripping corridor, and I used an illusion spell to project a version of myself up into the dripping mess at the point of the stairs; I was able to see through the eyes of the image, and then from there find a point to teleport us all.
After the flash of magic, we found ourselves in yet another massive hall with a polished stone floor. The walls were lined with 19 alcoves, each of which contained a glowing golden portal. Much of the western wall was taken up with a towering 15 foot tall fountain which gushed with green liquid, topped with a ten foot tall statue of a strange worm-like man. To the east stood a truly colossal 20 foot wide door made up of writhing and crawling worms.
Flynne pranced across the reflective floor to the huge door and beckoned Fez over; we all went across to join him, and once close to the wall, Janga cast a spell which wreathed us all in a multicoloured ball of light. The small area of the worm-door quivered, and then collapsed to the floor. We stepped gingerly over them, and Janga let the spell fade – as the huge door re-assembled, we found ourselves on the outside.
We were standing in an immense volcano-crater, the base and walls of the vast expanse lined with thick slime and phosphorescent fungi. A huge slimy lake rippled eerily ahead of us, clearly filled with worms and various sinister and crusty masses. Behind us was a vast natural fortress.
We were out.
.oOo.
Suddenly, from the thick fog overhead came a shriek. A figure dove into sight – a humanoid clutching a glowing trident mounted on a wyvern.
It stretched out its left hand and a bolt of eldritch energy lanced down to sap Janga of some of his life force.
Fez (recently healed of his many ailments by the powers of Fahrlanghan), bellowed back up at the creature and hurtled upwards, his hands hovering over a huge selection of weapons he was now carrying before selecting a heavy (and heavily enchanted) axe. As he went, I sang and cast a hastening spell, and then Janga cast a spell in turn. The mounted rider above us then flung a different bolt – a pale white energy struck Fez for no obvious effect whatsoever.
As the wyvern circled overhead, Flynne began to pepper it with arrows, but to his immense annoyance some of them either passed through or simply missed the distant target. I produced the Staff of the Magi once again, and started to activate one of its greater powers. Fez, meanwhile, hurtled upwards with the powers of his Boots of Flying and Janga cast one of his spells to try and reave away any magics on the wyvern’s rider. Nothing seemed to happen.
The wyvern flew upwards, and the rider again fired another ray at the closing form of Fez, who shook off the sinister pale ray. The rider then flinched as a volley of Flynne’s arrows seemed to pass straight through his face.
Before me materialised a 60 foot tall whirlwind. I pointed up at the wyvern and rider and simply told it, “Go,” and the massive air elemental hurtled up into the skies above my head, snaring up both rider and wyvern and holding them in the air awaiting the arrival of my comrades.
Suddenly, from another corner lanced a completely separate blast of eldritch fire, stinging Fez for very little effect other than further irritating him. Realising that the figure we had been fighting was some kind of illusory projection, Janga read a scroll of Invisibility Purge, ridding the air around him of any hidden creatures, and then hurtled up into the air to try and close on the clearly invisible second enemy.
Flynne’s arrows continued to lance through the visible wyvern, before Flynne realised why the rest of us were scanning the skies for another target, and screamed aloud in frustration.
Targetting a random spot in the air close to where the most recent eldritch lance had originated, I used a small spell to create a glowing blast of flickering golden dust, before triggering yet another power of the Staff of the Magi which made the Glitterdust burst outwards in a massive and dazzling pyrotechnic display. Meanwhile, I called up instructions in the auran language to send the air elemental searching for the true wyvern rider.
Up in the air nearby, Fez quaffed a potion and joined in the hunt; but he rapidly fell behind the questing air elemental which hurtled off – clearly on the trail of the wyvern rider using some delicate senses of its own.
We regrouped, and I gazed carefully at the walls to decipher its magic. We were indeed out of the teleport-limiting field, and so Janga was quick to teleport us all to Mage Point, and we hastened to approach Manzorian’s tower.
.oOo.
Manzorian’s assistant Celeste met us near the edge of the bridge to his tower, and led us straight to Manzorian’s study. Although the room itself was unchanged, the archmage appeared haggard and worried.
“The news of Dragotha’s defeat is tremendous,” he announced as we entered. “However I have worse news. The city of Alhastor is under siege – the streets are overrun with worms, and scrying shows a vortex is churning over a ziggurat which looms over the town.
“We in the Circle of Eight have plans to cut off his power from within his home dimension, which is of course not without its own risks. This will leave the god himself greatly weakened and unable to return – but we would be trapped until Kyuss himself could be destroyed here. To do this the monolith would have to be shattered. I believe that it will be mounted atop the completed ziggurat.”
We nodded glumly – it looked like the dirty work would fall to us once again.
Taking a few moments to ourselves, we hastily teleported to the Free City, where I cashed in several large items and a vast array of treasure to trade for a small handful of easily available and useful-looking items, before hurtling back to Manzorian. There, he handed me the recently liberated portion of the Rod of Seven Parts, wishing us all luck and pausing before giving us one more piece of advice.
“I don’t really know what sort of effect it might have on a being of Kyuss’ power, but you may find it useful to have access to a Sphere of Annihilation.” As he spoke, he produced a small painting of a devil’s face recessed into a wall, its mouth a void of inky darkness.
“There is such a think in the Tomb of Horrors, and this painting should take you directly to it. I would suggest, however, that you leave obtaining it until the last possible moment – if something of that power materialised in the city, I anticipate that Kyuss would react, and do so violently.
“Oh, and one final gift. These scrolls should help you react to any sudden changes in the environment.” As he spoke, three scrolls passed hands, and my enchanted spellsight blurred at their power. I unrolled one at random, and my jaw dropped at reading the heading – Wish.
“Do not,” he continued, “expect Kyuss to react as any ordinary undead. He will most certainly have a singular level of powers and abilities.”
With those comforting words ringing in our ears, we prepared for departure.
.oOo.
Before we left, I activated two massively powerful talismans from my Bag of Holding, gaining two more wishes to be used in the next few days; I was certain that they would be needed once we had arrived at Alhastor.
Then we stepped through a portal summoned by Manzorian, and were in Alhastor in an instant.
