The Realms of Enlightenment: The Grey Companions

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #410] In the Basement

Huzair grimaced up at the roughly sketched image and then drew his cloak around himself and turned away from it. "We should remove that symbol," he said. "It is horrendous." Karak snorted and marched forward.

"On that we agree, wizard!" the dwarf said and shook water from his brother's holy water flask onto the drawing. At once the symbol began to melt down the wall in black streaks.

"What do you suppose is down there?" Ixin asked, turning her attention back to the trapdoor.

"I'd just as soon not find out," Morier said plainly. "You made a good point outside about our depleted resources." He looked the group over then and said in a louder voice. "Remember the bigger picture; we've got the keys to reunite Dridana's heart and body, it would be a shame to lose them while chasing rabbits down rabbit holes." Huzair rolled his eyes at that and started to speak, but Ayremac cut him off before he could start.

"Morier, I have reservations about going in there as well," he admitted. "And you're right, we need to accomplish our main goal. But I have a bad feeling about this place, and I don't think we should ignore it."

"Your loyalty to the fight against Aphyx is admirable," Shamalin told the holy warrior. "Had we time, it would be truly satisfying to pursue the kind of evil evidenced here. But Morier is right - we hold powerful keys which cannot be risked. I think our one purpose now is to deliver them quickly and safely. It is in doing so that we make significant strides to forward the cause." Ayremac nodded.

"The importance of the keys is not lost on me, Shamalin," the Officer of Umba replied. "But these followers of Aphyx seem well organized, smart enough to keep this place a secret, and powerful enough to morph a giant and a beholder into a massive guard dog. I would cast my vote for rooting out the evil in this place before moving on, if not for the fact that it is just evil, then because it is close to New Mellorell and we cannot risk the lives of the people there."

"We are chasing bees again when I thought we were in agreement that it's the hive that needs to be our focus," Morier sighed and Ixin looked confused.

"Bees?" she asked, looking to Huzair for clarification. The wizard dragged a hand wearily down his face.

"Don't tell me you have not yet had the opportunity to hear Sword Boy's famous Bee Speech?" the mage snipped as he lit up a cigar. "I think you are just not paying attention, my dear. He gives the damned thing at least once a week. Every time he does not want to fight some evil that is right in front of his face." Morier sighed, exasperated.

"I can see your eyes twinkling with the thought of the treasures that must be lying in wait for you below this door Huzair, but in the grand scheme of things it's a reward that just isn't worth the risk right now," the eldritch warrior said in a conversational tone. "We have these four keys; we should press on to put them to use as quickly as possible. I'm sure word that they are in our possession has not eluded Aphyx and the Dominion. We need to keep moving before they have the chance to marshall forces that will stop us." Huzair snorted.

"And leaving an infestation like this at our back is the smart way to go?" the wizard scoffed, his ire raising. "That worked real well in Relfren! Remember Constable Tannen-baum? Remember me almost getting my firking face melted off when he showed up in Floxen?"

"Huzair..." Morier started but the mage pressed on.

"It is real easy for you to dismiss what I suggest by assuming my motivation is always greed. It is not, I assure you! It's just convenient for you!" he snapped. "And I think that is the real issue here. What is convenient for you and your narrow focus of what is important." Huzair laughed sardonically. "Do you know what Lela said to me once? She said that it doesn't have to be a great battle that tips the balance toward the side of good. She said that we spread good by our every action, by the kindnesses we choose to extend or the evils that we choose to ignore." Ayremac raised his fist.

"Here! Here!" he shouted, but Huzair scowled and turned away, embarrassed.

"Do not get too excited, Fly Boy," the mage grumbled. "I am just a little sick of the hypocrisy around here. It's getting a little thick even for my tastes."

Karak planted his axe and scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Hrmphf... Well, this is how I sees this. I actually have to agree with Morier, even if he did steal my battle," the dwarf grumbled, glancing sidelong at the albino Morier. "The way I see it we have two choices: we can either chase down every rabbit hole for every rabbit or we have to find the mother den. As much as I want to explore that tunnel, I think we need to choose. Are we chopping off all the eye stalks of the beholder or are we going for the throat?" Huzair grimaced.

"Aren't you the same dwarf who said back in Floxen that you have to first deal with the medusa's snakes if you want to cut off its head without getting bit?" the wizard asked. "Or is that metaphor no good anymore? I admit it's getting a little crowded with all the bees and rabbits and-"

"I admit I do nae know what be the right answer!" Karak snapped. "It could be that down there we disrupt a vital branch of chaos or finds great tools of power in our quest. I do nae know. But I do know this: Chaos seeks to divide us, make us question ourselves. It's nae all transmogrified monsters and such. So it could be that we are meant to go down that hole or it could be that we need to make haste toward our ultimate goal. I do nae know what is right, but I choose we go. If I am out-voted, then I will gladly lean my back to removing the tower beam and get down inta that hole."

"You all know my vote," Morier said. "We press on."

"And mine," Ayremac countered. "We root out the evil."

"I want to explore the hole," Huzair said. "I'm willing to go alone if I have to."

"You'll not be alone," Ixin said, putting her hand on his shoulder. Shamalin sighed.

"She's right," the cleric said, stepping forward. "I will not let you search the hole without accompanying you."

"What?" Morier groaned, incredulous and Shamalin shrugged.

"My role is to protect the party as much as I am able, and that doesn't mean sitting on the sidelines even when they make foolish decisions," she told him. "But we'll go tomorrow when my miracles are replenished."



They camped within the tower, confident that, with the timber in place, nothing could assail them from below and liking the defensible position it afforded if attack came from the forest. Morier did his level best to persuade the party to his way of thinking long after it became obvious that his cause was lost.

The night was chill but bright. Great Celune was nearly full in the heavens, sending her cold radiance to the ground below. To her right and low in the sky Merunna, the Handmaiden Moon, attended her, a silver crescent amid the stars. Anania stood watch outside the tower, well away from the firelight, alert for any danger. She heard Shamalin approaching before the cleric had even left the interior.

"Anania?" the half-elf called softly into the darkness.

"I am here," the scout replied, stepping into the moonlight with her bow held in one thin hand. Shamalin smiled at her but if she returned the expression, the cleric couldn't tell; the elf wore her scarf up over her face so that only her piercing eyes were visible above it.

"You heard us speak of many things today," Shamalin began and the elf nodded. "Past deeds and allies. Things we have not spoken of before."

"Yes," Anania replied. "There was much that I did not follow. But as my counsel was not sought I did not voice my questions. There was enough... disharmony without adding my uninformed voice to the melee." Shamalin nodded her agreement.

"Are you familiar with the tools of which we spoke?" the priestess asked. "The keys?" Anania's eyes probed Shamalin's for a moment before she answered.

"Only a little," she said. "Lord Hofralix told me that you went into the Tainted Cave seeking items of power to raise a goddess from the dead. He also told me that you, Ayremac, Morier and Huzair carried weapons of tremendous magical might. He supposed that these were the items you went in to find. Was that correct?"

"Yes," Shamalin said. Uncomfortable with how much the beholder had known about them without them being aware.

"Today, Morier said that you carried the keys to reunite Dridana's heart with her body," the elf went on. "Dridana is the name of the dead goddess, so it seems obvious that the items of power - your four weapons - are also these keys. I also know that you are afraid that your enemies will find you and take the keys. But beyond that I know nothing."

"You know much," the cleric said, notes of regret and uncertainty in her voice. "Have you made this information known to Lord Hofralix?"

"Not yet," the scout replied. "Once we move on from this place, I will make my first report to the Sovereign."

"How do you report back to Lord Hofralix and how often?" the Florian asked and Anania raised a hand to remove the antovar from around her neck. Beneath the scarf was a necklace of what Shamalin at first thought were finger bones. Peering closer she realized that the objects strung on the necklace were the same as the one they had discovered in their camp after the battle with rat elf mage.

"These are monitor eyes," Anania said, touching one of the short stalks so that the multi-facetted eye at its end caught the moonslight. "They see and hear everything that I do. When I remove one from the necklace it returns to Lord Hofralix and shares the knowledge with him."

"Oh," Shamalin said, a little bit of distaste creeping into her voice as she watched the eye stalks writhing gently in the dimness.

"And as for how often, the answer is whenever something of import to the Dominion of the Final Forge occurs," the elf said and began wrapping her scarf back around her neck. "There are a finite number of monitor eyes available to me, so I must act judiciously."

Freeday, the 19th of Fireseek, 1270 AE​

​

It was no small task to lift the huge timber off of the trapdoor. It took the combined efforts of Karak, Ixin and Ayremac move it aside, and even then, they were sweating and out of breath when it was done. True to his word, Huzair volunteered to go down first, once he'd checked the door for traps and found none. Karak, however, took the lead instead - being significantly more durable than the wizard, and just as Invisible once he'd secured Huzair's ring.

Throwing back the trapdoor revealed a shaft that went straight down as far as Karak's darkvision could see. There were handholds cut into the sides of the shaft, but the dwarf disdained them, relying on his Ring of Feather Falling to bring him safely to the bottom. Once there he quickly swapped that ring for the Ring of Communication as he looked around at an empty chamber with a pile of rubble in two corners and an opening to another room in one wall. A barely discernible, diffuse green glow outlined that doorway and Karak was pleased to be Invisible.

Quietly he stepped up to the door and peered in toward the glow. It emanated from a 10-foot wide by 10-foot tall archway filled completely with glowing green mist that Karak couldn't help but find familiar. Like the ones he'd seen twice before, the arch itself was composed of 29 stones. The two stones at the base were unadorned, but each of the other 27 was carved with a rune. The rune on the keystone was larger, inlaid with iron and corresponded to one of the other stones; its rune was the only one duplicated.

He raised the Ring of Communication to his lips and whispered into it, "I think ye'll want to see this."

 

[Burningspear]

Woooooooooo...... (softly wispered),
look at my shiny glowing portal-door-trap... ;-)

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #412] The Perilous Portal

"For what it's worth, these portals have not been our friends in the past," Morier said once the group had congregated in the chamber below. "Someone usually dies on the other end of them."

"Ruze," Ixin said as if in a dream. She stared unblinking at the bilious green vapor that filled the archway. "And Draelond." Of course, none of the others had ever met the two men of whom she spoke. Both had died battling a skaven-headed giant that had been guarding the portal in Spiderwood. Only Morier had an inkling of what the drakeling was talking about, but even he had joined the group in the wake of the men's deaths.

"Those were the two bodies that you and Vade burned in the caves outside Strenchburg Junction," the albino said and Ixin nodded. To emphasize his own point, he added, "They were killed by the portal's guardian."

"I assume the giant was this portal's guardian, but let us be on our toes just the same," Huzair suggested as he peered closer at the runes etched in each stone.

"We could have Morier use Stoneblade to wall up the portal," Shamalin suggested. "It might be an effecient way to deter the followers of Aphyx and then we can move quickly on." Once she had resigned herself to follow Huzair and indicated as much to the party, Shamalin expected her sense of uneasiness to diminish. But it hadn't. The giant with the beholder's head had been another apparition reminiscent of the gestalt monsters she had encountered in Rhadcliffe with the Speckled Band. And the memory of that skirmish carried its own weight. The past effected her far too strongly. And so she had allowed Ayremac's speech to sway her because she could not permit this party to confront such evils without her. Morier had been cool and even more detached since that decision, ignoring even Huzair's attempts to provoke him. Perhaps there would be time for further explanation. She hoped so at least.

"Now hold on, there!" Karak interrupted. "I want our mage and cleric to take a look at this thing before we go ruinin' things. Can either of you use your arcane or clerical knowledge to decipher if it will take us faster to our objective?"

"Has anyone taken the time to write down the symbols?" Huzair asked as he continued to study the symbols. They were simple in design, but did not seem to correspond to any language with which he was familiar. "Maybe we can figure out what they mean."

"What do you think it means?" Shamalin asked as she stepped up beside him. Huzair shrugged and grinned at her.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Do you?" She shook her head.

"Ixin, lass, do you know anything of these portals?" the dwarf asked, looking up at the sorcerer's face.

"Not really," Ixin admitted. "I entered your world through a portal, but it was not like this one and it was certainly not of my making. I think that I can activate this one if that is your wish."

"Bad idea," Morier said simply and Karak scratched, harrumphing once as he considered.

"Shamalin, now might be a good time for that divination spell, to see what awaits us on the other side," he said after a moment's thought. "Our past experiences with these portals have nae been good."

"I could do that," the cleric said. "But we'd have to narrow the scope of our question in order to get a meaningful reading. Perhaps we can choose a symbol and then see what the outcome might be if we chose to go through."

"Maybe Morier will feel a pull when we touch the symbols?" Huzair suggested and Morier shot him a scathing look.

"I definitely don't think I want to touch each rune to see how my head feels about it," he scoffed. "Too much could go wrong with that scenario."

"I say this, Morier, if ye can determine that our goal to bring the keys lies closer through that portal... well then I say we use it," Karak countered. "But this time we go through prepared. I go through invisible-like and scout out the area. You know, now that I think on it, we could use another invisibility ring so old Electric Sword can go through too."

"And I say this, there's no way I'm going to go through that portal," the albino stated. "I'll stay behind alone if it comes down to it."

"Is that a promise?" Huzair quipped, winking at the elf.

"Now, Huzair, I know you can get all prickly about lendin' out your magic stuff so if'n you want to go through first, well then go ahead an' be my guest. 'Cause I figure if you'n get stuck with a whole bunch o' arrows, well then our scoutin' be done and I'll just send ol' zappy sword flyin' through the portal on the opposite end of those arrows," Karak laughed to himself. "I crack me up sometimes."

"Are you not listening to me, Karak?" Morier snapped, scowling at the dwarf. "There's no way that you could convince me to step through that portal. Not even to get a better view at Huzair getting shot full of arrows!"

"Hey!" the wizard sneered.

"We at least need to activate the portal to find which runes lead to Spiderwood, Strenchburg Junction, and the Termlane Forest so we can put the runes on the map and start narrowing down the runes we don't know," Ixin offered. "If Morier can't feel a pull, I vote mark down what we know and get moving."

"Aye, if Morier's 'ead say this be nae the way, then let's up through this ladder, mark this on our map, an' be on our way," Karak agreed.

"Best idea I've heard today!" Morier said.



They decided to map the runes, and after a few moments' of trial and error, Ixin rekindled the knowledge of how to anchor to the power nexus and activate the runes. Almost half of them seemed not to function at all, as if the destination portal had been destroyed or the magic powering those runes had decayed too much. Another three looked in on areas choked completely with rubble. Another showed a scene underwater full of colorful fish and coral; a wrecked ship of some type dominated the middle distance, cloked in centuries of algae. All were impassable.

Five others they had examined before: one looked out on Spiderwood (and true to its name, several enormous spiders were crouching amidst some webs visible on the standing stones that Morier, Karak and Ixin all remembered); one was in a natural tunnel that was probably outside Strenchburg Junction; another showed the vine-choked ruins in the Termlane Forest; one showed a nondescript dungeon area in complete darkness; and the last looked out from a height on a vast coniferous forest.

The remaining six were more interesting.

The first showed a cramped cave of rough-worked stone dominated by a dark altar around which was clearly visible a coiled snake with a body bigger around than Karak's chest. That image kept flickering back into mist, unable to fully resolve itself.

The next showed an underground area lit by everburning torches set along the wall. A curved line of inlaid silver was set into the floor several dozen feet from the portal itself. The ceiling was lost in darkness above.

The next looked down from a mountainside again, but this time a cold, windswept sea was visible in the distance and between that point and the portal rose up an intricately-carved pillar of gray stone surrounded by a ring of large flat tables of similar material stained dark from blood-letting.

The next showed a scene similar to the ruins of the Termlane Forest with bleached and broken stonework. This ruin was given a sinister air by the presence of numerous humanoid bones heaped in clear view of the portal.

The next showed another ruin, but this one was canted at an angle as if the portal itself had settled greatly to the right. Steam and bubbling mud predominated and tendrils of green moss covered all the visible stonework.

The last showed an unremarkable dungeon room piled to the left and right with broken stone. A path had been cleared from the portal to a doorway that no longer held a door. A large chamber was visible beyond in which could be seen more rubble, but also some sleeping pallets and signs of current humanoid habitation, the whole lit by flickering firelight.

 

[Burningspear]

I like the details given with each of the Portal options... nice and varied, and some lively, even if no current activity.

(would be interesting to find out the lay of the network i guess (of the portals)

 

[Jon Potter]

would be interesting to find out the lay of the network i guess (of the portals)

Well, the PCs disagree with you, as we'll see in the next update.

 

[Burningspear]

Well, the PCs disagree with you, as we'll see in the next update.

Weird not to want an overall bigger picture of what is going on, and where... so by that you can actually try to find out where the body of the Hydra is
While using a 'elevator system' on a more serious note, you would like to know where it all leads to, don't you?, i know i would want to...

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #413] Following the Pull

Keeping her hand on the final working rune so that they could all see into the dungeon beyond, Ixin asked, "Well Morier, Do you feel anything?" He shook his head.

"I don't feel anything except a strong desire to get out of here," the albino told her with a dismissive waive of his hand. "And even if I did feel something, it makes no sense to put ourselves purposefully in jeopardy. So let's be off." Ayremac sighed, looking critically at the eldritch warrior.

"I have never been a fan of being stone walled, Morier, but it must mean that you feel very strongly about it," he observed and Morier threw his arms into the air.

"Halleluiah!" he said sarcastically. "At last, somebody's listening to me." He headed for the outer chamber and Ixin withdrew her hand from the runestone, allowing the portal to fill once more with opaque green vapor.

"Then let us make a good start on the day and go where your head tells us to go," the drakeling suggested. "Does anyone have any objections?"

"I must admit, that since I have taken up the sword, so to speak, I have enjoyed the thrill of going into the darkness," Ayremac admitted with a glance at the dormant portal. He sounded a trifle disappointed as he added, "But this is probably not the right time." Karak harrumphed.

"It seems to me that these portals be used by the enemy," he said, tugging thoughtfully at his beard. "The whole time I be thinkin' we just nae usin' 'em right, but now that I think on it, they be guarded by the enemy forces. Ya know? All sorts of transmogrified beasts."

"One more reason not to jump around blindly," Shamalin told him and Huzair nodded his agreement.

"As much fun as we could have here," the mage added. "I think we should follow Whitey's pull."

"Hold on a moment," Ayremac interejected, gesturing to the room around them. "This might be a bit extreme, but what if I stayed behind with Sparky to watch this tower? If a small band comes through, I could attempt to dispatch them, or possibly dupe them into believing I am on their side. If they are more powerful, I can escape on my wings." Ixin shook her head

"I don't like the idea of splitting up," she countered. "Bad things have happened to our predecessors when they chose to do that."

"But If I keep the Ring of Communication I should be able to stay in contact with you and Sparky can lead me back to you."

"There's no way that I'm leaving Sparky behind." Huzair snapped.

"Ayremac, it is my hope that by venturing into this tunnel and possibly by walling up the portal, we have appeased your desire to thwart the evils that are evidenced here," Shamalin said diplomatically, her well-chosen words reinforced by her magical Circlet of Persuasion. "And that now, with one purpose, we can all agree to climb out and follow the pull in Morier's head."

"Maybe Shamalin is right," Ixin considered. "Maybe we need to wall up this portal and any others we find as we go."

"Stoneblade could do that, right?" Huzair asked Morier. "It would slow them up and kind of say, 'Screw you! We know where you are hiding'. It may slow their spread a little bit too." The albino eyed the group from the other room and then stepped back into the portal chamber, his hand on Stoneblade's sheathe.

"I could do that," Morier said. "If you all can agree to leave at once after I do." There were several nods of agreement, but Karak just scratched at his beard and scowled.

"I think that us shuttin' 'em down be a good idea. On t'a other hand what if'n there be a short cut through there?" He continued scratching and eyed Morier thoughtfully. The eldritch warrior began to get an uncomfortable feeling as, Karak's muscles began to bulge and ripple unconsicously as if he were laboring at moving boulders. He took a step toward Morier. The dwarf continued to speak, but his voice was low, as if he were speaking to himself and no one else.

"It might work," he muttered. "We could just poke 'is 'ead through and I betcha we would know right quick if'n there be a short cut through there. Of course, the white elf won't go through voluntarily. I probably could muscle 'im through, but may need some help. Those wiry fighters can be quite lithe when the want to be. 'Course he nae be a dwarf 'cause when a dwarf do nae want to be moved then he nae be moved. But then again, I don't want to hurt Morier just see if his head can tell us which way is shorter."

"Hmmmm... we're not doing that," Shamalin said flatly.

"I do not like the idea of just looking through," Huzair agreed. "There has been a guard at most of the places these portals lead". Karak harrumphed and stepped up to Morier.

"Say, White One, I be thinkin' why'n you just poke your head through the portel there and see if'n that way be quicker?" Karak said, putting a companionable arm around Morier's shoulders. "I mean it could save use days of travel. An' I do think that Chaos does have the jump on us a bit, don' ye?" The eldritch warrior looked at him skeptically and Karak added, "I'll put my head through too."

"It's a tool of evil and I think destroying it is the best thing we can do," Morier countered, peeling Karak's arm off him and drawing Stoneblade. "If we understood its use I would have no reservations about using it against them... but we really just don't know enough."

"THE SCION OF STONE AWAKES!" the sword thundered, its inhuman voice neatly deafening in the small area. "WHAT ENEMY MUST I SMITE?!"

"We need a wall," Morier said, reversing his grip and burying the sword point-first in the floor in front of the portal. There came a grating noise and a barrier of unworked stone rose up to the ceiling blocking the portal entirely.

Without another word, the eldritch warrior yanked Stoneblade free and resheathed the sword before stalking toward the outer room and the shaft leading up. Karak harrumphed and touched the new Wall of Stone.

"I guess the elf be good for something," he snorted. "That be a good stone wall in short order. That should hold 'em back or be a surprise at the least when someone goes to step through. Ha... BAM! inta a wall."

"Let's go," Shamalin said. "I don't relish the thought of someone closing the trapdoor above and us getting trapped down here."

"Obviously we'll need to be particularly sharp from now on as we are likely to be followed," Ixin observed. She tapped Huzair on the arm and asked, "What is it you like to say, 'stay buffed'?" The wizard chuckled.

"See if you can't talk that sense into Morier," he said as they filed toward the exit.

Lagging a bit behind, Karak eyed the sealed portal and patted the head of his waraxe. "Now do nae you aworry, Shelia," he whispered lovingly to the weapon. "Ye'll get to bite yer frosty edge inta something soon, I promise."



They made quick work of their campsite and as they set off eastward again, Anania paused to remove one of the eyes from the necklace she wore beneath her antovar. She whispered something to the eye stalk and tossed it into the air. It began at once to drift westward toward the trees on the far side of the gorge. Karak watched it go and then grinned at the scout.

"Yo, archer. Next time you be sending back one of yer eye stalk message thingie's, tell old Many Eye to send us back another Invisibility Ring," he chuckled. "He'll get a kick outta that, heh heh heh." Anania eyed him appraisingly and pulled her scarf back up over her mouth and nose.

"I doubt that," she said, taking her position in the vanguard. "But he will know, just the same. Whatever I see and hear the monitor eyes see and hear."

Starday, the 20th - Earthday, the 25th of Fireseek, 1270 AE​

Travel became no easier for the Order once they had left the forest and begun marching eastward across the tundra. The treeless plain made it easy enough to keep a steady heading, but the number of lakes, streams and bogs necessitated frequent and lengthy detours. And camping on the heath amidst sedge and rushes made the windy nights frigid and inhospitable. Anania did her best to keep the group comfortable and well-fed, but it was a difficult prospect in such a brutal environment. Still, they pressed on, drawing closer by degree to the Risilvar Escarpment and the Altan Tepe mountains beyond.

On the night of the 25th, with both Great Celune and her Handmaiden, Merruna grown full in the sky the enemy came.



Morier and Shamalin were on second watch, huddled around a meager campfire on the shore of another nameless lake. A number of large boulders served them as a windbreak, but it offered poor comfort on such a clear night when the stars twinkled like ice amidst the black vastness of Merikka's vault.

To Morier, it was uncomfortably akin to the frozen hell of the Air Walk, but Shamalin knew nothing of such things and was instead reminded of many a night campaigning with the Speckled Band. Thoughts of Amaury filled her mind such that when Morier shouted alarm, for a long moment, she couldn't understand what was happening.

"We're being Scried!" he shouted over the wind, pointing at something in the air above the camp. She couldn't see what he was seeing, but a heartbeat later, a tearing sound - like sailcloth being rent asunder by a hurricane's winds - filled her senses and something seemed to pour out of the air some twenty feet above the campsite. It dropped to the ground like a torrent of liquid obsidian, taking as it struck the earth an undulant ophidian form. An unholy stench filled the air at the thing's arrival, but Shamalin had no time to waste worrying about the odor for the light of two full moons outlined clearly the creature as it gathered itself to attack. The quicklsilver thing slithered forward with an unbelievable speed and celerity of motion, opening as it came a toothless mouth of horrifying capacity.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

"We're being Scried!" he shouted over the wind, pointing at something in the air above the camp. She couldn't see what he was seeing, but a heartbeat later, a tearing sound - like sailcloth being rent asunder by a hurricane's winds - filled her senses and something seemed to pour out of the air some twenty feet above the campsite. It dropped to the ground like a torrent of liquid obsidian, taking as it struck the earth an undulant ophidian form. An unholy stench filled the air at the thing's arrival, but Shamalin had no time to waste worrying about the odor for the light of two full moons outlined clearly the creature as it gathered itself to attack. The quicklsilver thing slithered forward with an unbelievable speed and celerity of motion, opening as it came a toothless mouth of horrifying capacity.

This reminds me of the scene in Poltergiest 2 where Craig T. Nelson coughs up that undead transformed Tequila worm onto the carpet.

 

[Jon Potter]

This reminds me of the scene in Poltergiest 2 where Craig T. Nelson coughs up that undead transformed Tequila worm onto the carpet.

Well, that description is actually lifted almost verbatum from Clark Ashton Smith's "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros". I likes me some Cthulhu mythos.

 

[Burningspear]

I have no knowledge of Cthulhu, but is sounds yuckie :\ , lets stamp it into the carpet...

*Squish!, *Splat!, *Stamp!, and no..., 'Nibble', u cannot eat that....sigh