gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 65, Part Three - Ignan & Sh%*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1q3LAnPEcw
The Ash Wolf had one of his cubs lead the unit to his lair – a mossy cave beside a river bank many miles from Bole. It was hidden in dense forest and there was no sign that such large creatures had come and gone (nor did the cave seem big enough for them to sleep in). Outside lay the slain cub – on its side, smoke still pouring out of various wounds. They quickly established that these wounds had been inflicted by very hot obsidian blades, but attempts at further divination failed. The cub who had guided them said that his brother had not been slain here, and they asked him to take them to the spot where he had been found. They were led through a patchwork of burning, burnt and unburned forest until them came to a clearing, where Uriel used the Spirit Medium abilities of his prior incarnations to establish what had happened.
But the powers wouldn’t work. There was an absence not dissimilar to the effect of the Stone of Not. Leon determined that a wish spell had been used! Together, he and Uriel worked to overcome this powerful magic, whereupon Uriel saw that the wolf had been slain by otherworldly creatures of myth and legend – fire salamanders from the plane of Jiese! When they travelled in the direction the salamanders had taken, and left the area that had been ‘cleaned’ by the wish, Uru was able to pick up the salamanders’ trail. The smouldering wolf, too, could now smell them.
“Intruders!” it growled. They sent the pup back with a message for the Ash Wolf. They would investigate and bring the wolf-slayers to justice (which, Rumdoom pointed out, exceeded the terms of their agreement).
After many, many miles, they came to an area where the trees were almost entirely consumed by fire, but still burned with an unnatural intensity. Once again, this appeared to have been caused by a wish spell! Gupta recognised the rough area from maps she had studied before coming to Bole: they were nearing the ‘layer cake ruin’ mentioned by Barnaby Krist. Uru ranged ahead on Little Jack, and passed over a defensive line of plated fire worms (which Gupta also recognised as thoqua). Leon opened up dimension doors to bypass them, and the unit came to the ziggurat.
What at first they took for a trick of the light, turned out to be true on closer examination: the whole structure had been turned to solid brass! A couple of falchion-wielding salamanders guarded the entrance. Uru slipped passed them. The ziggurat was incredibly hot, but the endure elements ritual Uru had used in the forest protected him (and the others). Within, he found more salamanders, talking loudly in a grating tongue. To the left and right, walls of fire blazed menacingly.
Uriel could communicate with Uru’s ghost-children telepathically. At his request they did their best to relay the salamanders’ words, which Uriel did not recognise, but recited out loud in case anyone else understood them. Gupta thought the tongue was Ignan, but could not decipher it. Korrigan decided to approach the salamanders directly.
With the rest of the unit a few paces behind him, he called out to the guards and demanded to know what they were doing here in Lanjyr. The salamanders scoffed and exchanged a few unintelligible words before one responded by hurling an obsidian dagger at Korrigan. He absorbed the blow, and fired the energy back at the salamanders. They were outraged and slithered into combat.
Uru emerged from hiding, killed one of the salamanders in the entrance chamber, and disappeared again. Leon teleported to the top of the steps, then down inside, where he cursed one of the remaining salamanders. The other attacked, but as soon as it struck him, he vanished.
Up top, Gupta had deciphered enough of their language to ask a simple question, “He move?” which brought one of the creatures to a confused standstill. They felled both of the outer guards in short order and – acting on earlier instructions – Rumdoom’s entourage rushed forward and hammered railroad spikes into their heads, to avoid them reviving thanks to the Blood of Ostea.
The unit swept inside and dispatched all but one of the salamanders in there too. Korrigan gave specific instructions, but had to loudly reiterate his order to keep one salamander alive for questioning, such was the enthusiasm of the entourage to trepan every fallen foe.
Leon quickly established that the walls of fire were also the result of a wish spell.
The captive salamander was reluctant to talk. It clearly viewed them as little better than animals and its responses were abusive and brutish. With permission, Uru used Korrigan’s cursed tea-pot to ‘teaboard’ the salamander – drowning it in cursed tea for each unhelpful response. While it gargled and spluttered in protest, a female form stepped through one of the fire walls.
This was Liesi, an efreet. She spoke to them telepathically and said that she had been a captive of the salamander sultan, Kuyler, for hundreds of years and sought their help in winning her freedom. Though she would be forced by her master to oppose them if they pressed further into the ziggurat, she pleaded with them to do so nonetheless, and gave them a detailed account of the scant forces at the sultan’s disposal. Just a handful of salamanders remained, she said. Many more lay beyond the portal to Jiese (which had somehow opened here during the Great Eclipse) but they were too far away to be of assistance. Kuyler had brought only a small expeditionary force, and was satisfied to merely burn this new word for now, while he lazily toyed with the prospect of invasion. Liesi warned them that there were human captives in pit to the west, and many fire walls between them and the sultan. “The only tactic Kuyler will use is to threaten these captives if you threaten him. Otherwise, he is quite stupid.”
They thanked her for her advice, and she left before Kuyler could notice she was gone.
They headed west to rescue the captives.
End of Session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1q3LAnPEcw
The Ash Wolf had one of his cubs lead the unit to his lair – a mossy cave beside a river bank many miles from Bole. It was hidden in dense forest and there was no sign that such large creatures had come and gone (nor did the cave seem big enough for them to sleep in). Outside lay the slain cub – on its side, smoke still pouring out of various wounds. They quickly established that these wounds had been inflicted by very hot obsidian blades, but attempts at further divination failed. The cub who had guided them said that his brother had not been slain here, and they asked him to take them to the spot where he had been found. They were led through a patchwork of burning, burnt and unburned forest until them came to a clearing, where Uriel used the Spirit Medium abilities of his prior incarnations to establish what had happened.
But the powers wouldn’t work. There was an absence not dissimilar to the effect of the Stone of Not. Leon determined that a wish spell had been used! Together, he and Uriel worked to overcome this powerful magic, whereupon Uriel saw that the wolf had been slain by otherworldly creatures of myth and legend – fire salamanders from the plane of Jiese! When they travelled in the direction the salamanders had taken, and left the area that had been ‘cleaned’ by the wish, Uru was able to pick up the salamanders’ trail. The smouldering wolf, too, could now smell them.
“Intruders!” it growled. They sent the pup back with a message for the Ash Wolf. They would investigate and bring the wolf-slayers to justice (which, Rumdoom pointed out, exceeded the terms of their agreement).
After many, many miles, they came to an area where the trees were almost entirely consumed by fire, but still burned with an unnatural intensity. Once again, this appeared to have been caused by a wish spell! Gupta recognised the rough area from maps she had studied before coming to Bole: they were nearing the ‘layer cake ruin’ mentioned by Barnaby Krist. Uru ranged ahead on Little Jack, and passed over a defensive line of plated fire worms (which Gupta also recognised as thoqua). Leon opened up dimension doors to bypass them, and the unit came to the ziggurat.
What at first they took for a trick of the light, turned out to be true on closer examination: the whole structure had been turned to solid brass! A couple of falchion-wielding salamanders guarded the entrance. Uru slipped passed them. The ziggurat was incredibly hot, but the endure elements ritual Uru had used in the forest protected him (and the others). Within, he found more salamanders, talking loudly in a grating tongue. To the left and right, walls of fire blazed menacingly.
Uriel could communicate with Uru’s ghost-children telepathically. At his request they did their best to relay the salamanders’ words, which Uriel did not recognise, but recited out loud in case anyone else understood them. Gupta thought the tongue was Ignan, but could not decipher it. Korrigan decided to approach the salamanders directly.
With the rest of the unit a few paces behind him, he called out to the guards and demanded to know what they were doing here in Lanjyr. The salamanders scoffed and exchanged a few unintelligible words before one responded by hurling an obsidian dagger at Korrigan. He absorbed the blow, and fired the energy back at the salamanders. They were outraged and slithered into combat.
Uru emerged from hiding, killed one of the salamanders in the entrance chamber, and disappeared again. Leon teleported to the top of the steps, then down inside, where he cursed one of the remaining salamanders. The other attacked, but as soon as it struck him, he vanished.
Up top, Gupta had deciphered enough of their language to ask a simple question, “He move?” which brought one of the creatures to a confused standstill. They felled both of the outer guards in short order and – acting on earlier instructions – Rumdoom’s entourage rushed forward and hammered railroad spikes into their heads, to avoid them reviving thanks to the Blood of Ostea.
The unit swept inside and dispatched all but one of the salamanders in there too. Korrigan gave specific instructions, but had to loudly reiterate his order to keep one salamander alive for questioning, such was the enthusiasm of the entourage to trepan every fallen foe.
Leon quickly established that the walls of fire were also the result of a wish spell.
The captive salamander was reluctant to talk. It clearly viewed them as little better than animals and its responses were abusive and brutish. With permission, Uru used Korrigan’s cursed tea-pot to ‘teaboard’ the salamander – drowning it in cursed tea for each unhelpful response. While it gargled and spluttered in protest, a female form stepped through one of the fire walls.
This was Liesi, an efreet. She spoke to them telepathically and said that she had been a captive of the salamander sultan, Kuyler, for hundreds of years and sought their help in winning her freedom. Though she would be forced by her master to oppose them if they pressed further into the ziggurat, she pleaded with them to do so nonetheless, and gave them a detailed account of the scant forces at the sultan’s disposal. Just a handful of salamanders remained, she said. Many more lay beyond the portal to Jiese (which had somehow opened here during the Great Eclipse) but they were too far away to be of assistance. Kuyler had brought only a small expeditionary force, and was satisfied to merely burn this new word for now, while he lazily toyed with the prospect of invasion. Liesi warned them that there were human captives in pit to the west, and many fire walls between them and the sultan. “The only tactic Kuyler will use is to threaten these captives if you threaten him. Otherwise, he is quite stupid.”
They thanked her for her advice, and she left before Kuyler could notice she was gone.
They headed west to rescue the captives.
End of Session