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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 1110835" data-attributes="member: 743">The long journey to the heart of the river is quite uneventful. The group mostly spends their time daydreaming of getting back to their own era and the laws of nature that they know and understand. They do take the time to identify the magic items they have found, and divide them up amongst the group.During the last few days of their journey the party enters rough snowy mountains. The river they follow has long since turned black and devoid of life. Now in the mountains it roars past them deep at the bottom of a gorge. The group is forced to follow small ledges down the gorge itself. Some of the ledges appear to have once been roads carved from the rock itself, long since abandoned by the Alphatians that built it.The third day of their mountainous journey they see several large birds wheeling in the sky ahead. As they watch, the giant eagles get larger and larger, diving in to attack. When the first wave hits they are as large as horses. Tsura and Kismet fireball and ice storm the birds, while the remainder of the group engages them in melee. Rikus’s first ever attack using cutter slices a Roc in half with a single blow, and he exclaims quite loudly, “How often can you do that!?”Cutter’s response is, “I don’t know, I’ve only been a sword for two weeks.”The first wave falls, but the second wave proves to be tougher, perhaps because they are twice the size. They too are driven off, but the third wave comes down the size of apartment buildings, and almost kills Kismet. He dives for cover under Farlight’s carpet and the rest of the party finishes the Rocs off. A bit of healing later and the journey continues.A few short hours later they round a bend to see the path leading upwards to an opening in a cliff wall. Beside the opening are several large stone pillars, most of which are hanging out over the open gorge. Looking down to the sounds of a rushing waterfall below, the group sees a large heart-shaped opening deep in the chasm below. Jet black water shoots out of it, completely filling the opening.Before they can investigate, a wing of 15 saberclaws reveals themselves on the far side of the chasm, charging in to attack. The beasts rapidly drop Kismet and Tsura, the two least capable melee combatants. They are unable to truly hurt the remainder of the party, and after a long fight, these saberclaws finally fall. In unison they plummet into the gorge, their bodies turning to black water and being carried away by the rushing Saber River.Deciding its time to rest before pressing onward, the group flies up and out of the gorge, finding a large clearing in which to make camp. Fallen comrades are revived, and the next day they head back towards the Heart of the River. Deciding to scout ahead, they use Farlight’s Travel spell to turn ethereal and move down towards the heart of the river, where the black water flows.A bizarre growth has attached itself to the edge of the hole. It looks much like a sponge, except that it is much larger, black, and slick, and seems to radiate a sense of evil. The growth pulses with a rhythm much like that of a giant beating heart that suffers sickness and decay. While passing through the growth, streams of sickly black water join with the water of the river. They also writhe their way against the strong current. “I’ve got to cut that away, or the curse will never end,” says Cutter.The group talks to try to figure out a way to deal with the growth. They can’t simply rematerialize, as the water will shove them out into the gorge before they can hope to cut away all of the growth.  Cutter is more than willing to try this method, but is talked out of it by Rikus.They head deeper into the tunnel, hoping to find a point where they can block off the entryway with a wall of force. Unfortunately, the entire tunnel is too wide, and it finally opens out into a large lake in an underground cavern. The lake appears to be fed from a river pouring through the ceiling, but a moment’s observation shows that it must have another source, as the water coming in is nowhere near as plentiful as the water being forced out of the Heart. Along the shores of the lake they see large grooves in the ground that appear to be monstrous claw marks.They follow the water upwards and into a large hallway. To their left are two sets of large bronze doors, while at the far end of the hallway a small babbling brook drops down through the ceiling, flows along a groove in the floor, and finally drops into a hole to the lake below. The water here is free from the influence of the black sponge, and flows cold, clear, and pure.Continuing along the water’s path, they head up this fall and come into a large room almost completely full of water. Again the water pour in through the ceiling, while some passes through a tiny opening and into a larger chamber where it forms a small pond. The only thing in this small circular side chamber is a large piece of driftwood. Cutter spies a secret door to the south, and directs the party’s attention towards it. They investigate, and follow a staircase down to another secret door. Opening it they come face to eyes with a large beholder. It appears to be guarding this chamber, and luckily for the party it cannot see them while they are ethereal. They back out of the room and head beck to he main waterway.Upwards again to find a very large circular chamber. In the corner of the room is another large pool, and to the south and large bronze doors. Another pair of bronze doors are in the western wall. The party steps through the western doors and finds themselves in a dark corridor. A clicking and chittering sound can be heard, and as their eyes adjust to the dim lights they see countless horse-sized carrion crawlers lining the walls, floor, and ceiling. Were they not ethereal, they would be hard pressed to move through the chamber unmolested. Even flying through the center would be a tight squeeze, and not guaranteed to be safe from the paralytic tentacles of the scavengers.The far side of the hallway opens into a large chamber lined with pillars. A moment’s investigation shows it to be the area they saw from outside, so they head back in and through the only doors they have yet to explore.These two bronze doors open into a 100’ tall stairwell that leads down into a resplendent chamber. Mosaic tiles in white, blue, red, and black cover the floor. Twenty feet overhead are a hundred gleaming ivory tusks. Each tusk is planted base and tip in the marble tile of the ceiling so its curve faces the floor. The light is bright here even in the corners. Five columns of radiant gold divide the room into two huge chambers. Behind the golden pillars is a small pool of placid water. No ripples disturb its smooth surface and those who have bathed in pools in the past see the unmistakable dull gray glow of the Pool of Time.Looking around the room, they also see 30 saberclaws clinging to the golden pillars, ready to assault anyone that tries to enter the pool. The party retreats to try to decide how to confront these creatures so that they can bathe in the pool. They know they’ll have to be deadly and swift if they are going to avoid losing more friends on this quest.------Now all that's left is to describe the party's failure to end the curse and the complete rewriting of the history of Oerth that results from it.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /></blockquote>

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