Several of the party members drank healing potions to restore their health after the last assault, they wanted to reserve Jaggenoth’s spells for emergencies, and ensure his other helpful magics were available.
Morgul, Shoon and Folix took the first watch, everyone else bedded down, exhausted after their last 24 hours. They were ahead of the Star Knight so it was a short, 4 hour stop, but they needed it.
The ranger walked the perimeter of the camp, pausing at the cave mouth to peer into the blackness, after 30 or so feet he could see nothing. There was a long, winding passageway that led to this cave, Jaggenoth laid down a glyph of warding , Ahrn a fire trap, and Wend cast a spell that filled up the first 250 feet or so with an illusory forest of mushrooms like he had seen where the illithids attacked.
The area looked impassable, and concealed the glyph and fire trap.
The illusion was too far ahead for Folix to see it.
Like Morgul, Folix had learned to listen as much as look, the tunnel outside their side cavern was very quiet, there was virtually no water, moss or insects in this part of the caverns, so Folix listened for approaching creatures against a background of still silence.
A whisper of wind.
Nothing.
A creak and a moan: a hard gust from ahead made the brittle salt pillar stalagmites that fringed the passageways shiver. There was a sea of air that flowed through the underdark, it carried scents and sounds that could not escape the dome of rock above.
Folix breathed in, you would smell trogs, ghasts and trolls before you would see them down here.
Still nothing there.
A snap, then a crunch, and between crunches a smacking sound.
Folix pulled out a hand axe and his longsword. He cocked back the hand with the axe, ready to throw then follow up with his blade.
He peered into nothing...
Snap, crunch.
One of the giant snow spiders emerged out of the darkness in front of him like a revenant, and spit out the bones of some unfortunate underdark denizen.
Folix remembered that Wend recommended letting the spiders wander while the party slept, they were bred as loyal mounts and stayed close to the party (within 50' or so) but provided an early warning system and deterred some wildlife.
The spiders would eat them if they were ever killed, Folix was sure of it. Better that, however, than being left for a necromancer to raise, he thought. The drow would have necromancers, Ahrn had shared that tidbit during dinner yesterday, at that point Folix started eyeing the spiders. Folix continued his circuit, steps as silent as he could manage, listening...
Morgul sat with the sleeping party members while Shoon and Gilak were nestled on a small rock shelf about 10 feet up the far south wall. He had organized the sleeping area for the party such that he could enclose it with a wall of fire, he had a small bottle of phosphorus at his hand as he watched.
Then the air was pierced with a ragged scream.
Everyone was up with a bolt, Shoon scanned the ground and saw nothing.
Morgul whipped around and also saw nothing.
Then Essern heard gasping, and a moan, and looked over to see Gint convulse and... blood plume into the air.
"Gint is under attack!" he bellowed, others were closer than him.
Jaggenoth sprung over without his armor on and bardiche in hand, not sure what variety of underdark monster assaulted his comrade.
He gasped in horror as he saw the barbarian's chest, the broach he insisted on taking had burrowed into his heart and... ate a hole through it.
Gint lay dead on the cave floor, in a pool of his own blood.
The "scarab" scuttled across the ground and into the darkness.
Everyone stood around in shock.
Morgul was the first to respond, he shouted, “Folix, Carver and Wend, watch our perimeter, Essern, cast your spell that allows you to see hidden foes, we need to be sure that there are no enemies about to spring upon on when this happened, Ahrn, send your shadows out into the darkness to look for foes.”
The three men moved to the perimeter of the camp, Ahrn dispatched his shadows and Essern cast the spell as Morgul requested, peering out into the darkness for signs of enemies approaching.
Jaggenoth walked over to the paladin, “He insisted on wearing that damnable thing, he refused to believe my augury. He has seen my magic used many times, why did he not believe?”
Morgul had no answer.
“His wounds are beyond my ability to cure, I could only bring him back as a mindless husk”, Jaggenoth added.
"We have used our one option to bring back the dead already, it seems the ring might be a good idea", Lenides was nervous about the ring, truth to be told he was hoping they would use it while here and be done with it, all of the lore he had ever heard about wishes suggested they were a risky proposition.
Ahrn nodded, "If we want him back this is the way to do it, and honestly, it's probably better than a priest bringing him back, no offense Jaggenoth, as the barbarian would resent being brought back by some god not his own. He is in this predicament as he didn’t trust your god."
“He will resent being brought back by magic no matter where it came from, yes?” added Wend.
Morgul nodded, “Yes, I suppose so, but if it bothers him that much we could always dispatch him to his god easily enough.”
Lenides was about to laugh but stopped, Morgul was serious.
“We need his strength, and his sword, he has been there for us many times, I say we owe him to try and bring him back”, Zintar felt a debt to the barbarian.
Ahrn stepped up, “For what it’s worth, the barbarian held the heart to be the seat of courage and strength, remember how he ate the hearts of his defeated opponents a few times? I am fairly sure he would not want to die this way.”
Lenides was shocked that Lockyer had paid that much attention to the barbarian’s beliefs, but perhaps it was a case of knowing your enemy.
“Agreed”, Morgul added, “the ring then.”
Jaggenoth looked at the ring on his finger, the party had trusted him to take care of it, and now it was to be used.
“We have to be sure of the wording of the request, using this ring is a huge risk.”
Everyone agreed.
Folix joined the men and reported, “The perimeter is secure, Essern has seen nothing of note.”
Morgul nodded.
They waited for several minutes and the shadows returned, sliding flat across the ground then pulling up into their full, three dimensional humanoid forms. They spoke in dark whispers to Ahrn, none of the others could hear them.
“They found nothing”, Ahrn reported.
Morgul nodded, “Jaggenoth, it is time.”
The group spent several minutes discussing the wording of the wish, they didn’t want Gint returning with no mind, or in a defective body, or any one of a number of other things they could think of. Finally, after some back and forth, they decided on a simple and straightforward request.
They all prayed it did not go awry.
Jaggenoth spoke the words in an even, controlled tone.
“I wish that Gint Longtusk of the Steppes Tusk Tribe be restored to the state he was in before his life was taken by the magical scarab.”
The ring, a simple gold band, began to glow, first slightly then intensely, casting a soft golden light that illuminated the entire cavern in a sunset of pure power.
Jaggenoth blinked, when he opened his eyes the barbarian was very much alive, his chest intact, and asleep like a baby.
Everyone laughed, a giddy, terrifying kind of laugh. This was a power they could not even grasp.
Then they noticed that the scarab was back on his chest. Essern reacted the fastest, snatching the scarab and throwing it to the ground. Morgul, following his lead, called out “Helvete” and his sword burst into blue hot flame, and he struck the scarab repeatedly, until it ws smashed into tiny pieces.
Jaggenoth walked over and woke the barbarian.
He looked startled for a second, assuming he was woken as they were under attack. He then calmed and looked around.
“Why are you all staring?”
“You were dead, my barbarian friend, that scarab you wore came alive and ate your heart.”
Gint looked around at everyone, it was clear that Jaggenoth was serious, and everyone seemed to believe him. He felt around for the scarab but could not find it. Lenides pointed to the smashed scarab on the ground.
“It… ate my heart?”
Jaggenoth nodded.
“Who brought me back, was it you, priest?”
Jaggenoth shook his head and tapped the ring on his finger.
Gint took out his dagger and drew it across his open palm, he held out the knife and Jaggenoth held out his hand, Gint did the same to his palm and they grasped hands.
Gint nodded, “My thanks then priest, and my sword is pledged to you. To die in this way, with my heart destroyed, would have kept me from Valhalla. To die in battle, that is my desire. You have risked your life and saved my soul.”
“I’m a priest, barbarian, what’s another saved soul eh?”
They both smiled.
Morgul turned to Shoon, “We need to know how far ahead we are, can you scry on the Star Knight again?”
Shoon nodded, “Just remember he could become aware of us, any time we do this.”
Morgul nodded, “Understood, but we need to know.”
Shoon took out a small crystal bowl, and poured water, filling the bowl. He then whispered the words, ”Mutasd meg nekem” three times over and dipped his fingers into the water, then took out his fingers and pressed them to his closed eyes.
The surface of the water in the bowl revealed an image, the others peered over his shoulders to see what was happening.
They saw a chaotic scene, the Star Knight and his party were in heated combat, the slaad were firing off bolts of energy from the snake-like metal weapons around their arms, and the Garudin were hurling javelins from above. On the ground a group of levitated drow were returning fire at the Garudin using hand crossbows, while others cast spells at the Slaad.
A fireball went off in the midst of the slaad, lighting up the caves for several seconds like a miniature sun.
The slaad appeared unfazed.
Shoon spoke up, “I think I recognize that cave, see that purple moss all over the ground, and the stream passing through, the snow spiders ate well there, they are a least a few hours behind us, if not more. If the battle delays them, or forces them to stop and heal, we will have more time.”
Morgul nodded, “We leave now, preserve our lead.”
Everyone was weary of the drive forward but agreed, the Justiciar was usually right about these things, so they saddled up the giant spiders and left the security of their cave, heading back into the main passage.
The next few miles were uneventful, Ahrn sent ahead his shadows to scout for possible enemies and Wend transformed into a small bird to do the same. They encountered no other travelers for several hours.
Then, the group noticed a slight glow from ahead, indicating a cavern with luminescence.
Wend returned from scouting and landed, transforming back into human form, “There is a cave ahead, large, poorly lit but artificially lit nonetheless, so we are likely going to meet resistance.”
The group proceeded with caution.
Eventually they arrived in a large cave, this one stretched forwards into darkness, but they could see further into it due to the presence of fire beetles in cages on the walls, they provided weak but sufficient illumination to see about 60 feet ahead.
The party entered the cave and proceeded slowly.
They had made it about 50 feet or so in when a torch light appeared in the distance to the west for a moment, then disappeared into a side cave.
The group charged forward to find out the source of the light, if it was a sentry of some sort it could alert others to their presence, so it had to be neutralized.
The group dismounted at the cave mouth and sprinted in, weapons drawn.
The torchlight was just ahead of them, and it was illuminating… something they could not quite make out.
Then the torchlight disappeared, and the party heard a terrifying noise, it was loud, clearly some sort of creature, and it was the sound of rage.
Jaggenoth cast a continual light spell above them, and the bright light, as bright as a midday sun, illuminated the cavern. There were several large objects which looked like eggs lying around the room, and in the middle was a very large, very angry purple worm.
The worm’s head rose into the air and its foul maw opened, revealing rows of jagged, filthy teeth, it then launched itself at the party, crashing into the ground without hitting anyone.
Shoon cast a shield spell on himself.
Ahrn was the furthest back, flanked by his shadows, and took out a small bag and a candle, he opened the bag, held it out with one hand, and waved the candle back and forth in front of him four times, then placed the candle in the bag, closed it up, and spoke the words "Izom, ín és a csont , tedd, amit parancsolok , majd hazamegy”
Gint charged to the beast and hit it with his scimitar, sending a dark, ochre blood spraying through the air.
Carver hit it with his sword, in his newfound body he was quite strong, and the beast took another hit.
Zintar fired off four magic missiles at the creature, each smashed into its body, damaging it.
Wend swung with his hammer and hit.
Essern fired his crossbow and missed.
Morgul knew this was a powerful beast, and decided to use his most powerful weapon, he took out a javelin from his quiver and hefted it at the beast, once thrown it transformed into a bolt of lightning that soared through the air to strike the side of the beast, sizzling and spitting out blood from the jagged wound it left in the beast’s side.
The purple worm wailed in pain.
Brother Naranjir struck out with his Lucerne hammer and tore another hole in its side.
Jaggenoth charged forward with his bardiche and brought it down in a two handed blow that sliced open the worm, causing it to shudder in pain.
Folix stabbed it with his longsword and left an ugly wound in its side, and Lenides clawed at the creature, his instincts taking over due to the proximity to the massive thing. Chunks of flesh flew to the ground.
Wend swung and struck with his hammer but the blow was ineffective.
The beast was now bleeding from multiple attacks, and it reared up then shot down, roaring as it went… and it ate Shoon in one large fanged bite. Its maw closed and the warlock disappeared from view.
Morgul shouted, “Shoon has been taken, slay the beast NOW!”
Folix struck hard with his sword a second time, tearing open a huge gash in the beast.
Jaggenoth hit it again with his bardiche, causing the beast to twist and writhe.
Morgul lit up Helvete and swung the sword at the worm, tearing open a huge gash and almost splitting the beast in two. Blood poured out onto the floor in buckets and there was a horrible screaming noise.
The beast convulsed, almost crushing Essern, and then it died.
Shoon, who was very close to the wound that Morgul had inflicted, clawed his way out of the creature through the seam of Morgul’s sword stroke. He was covered in guts and blood, and looked utterly shocked. Shoon was rattled but surprisingly not badly hurt. The beast had swallowed him whole rather than biting him in two, so he counted himself lucky.
Jaggenoth grabbed him before he fell, steadied the warlock, and when he nodded that he was ready cast a create water spell above him, drenching him and cleaning off most of the viscera from his body.
Morgul shouted, “We were led here, which means we are discovered, we must leave NOW!”
Everyone headed out of the cave and mounted on their giant spiders, while Jaggenoth’s continual light spell illuminated the carnage of the cave in perpetuity, the spell would last forever, a grotesque tribute to the daytime from the bowels of the underdark.
As they rode out without any idea of what lay ahead, the party could hear a sound from the southeast of the cavern, from deep in the darkness.
It was a slavering, gibbering sound, harsh and violent, and accompanied by the shuffle of feet.
“Which way do we go!” Essern shouted.
Morgul didn’t know what lay ahead, but he felt confident that they had to move away from that noise.
“Priest, I would see our opponents, light up the cave!”
Jaggenoth cast another continual light spell, this time he cast it into the space south of them, towards the noises, as far ahead as he could.
What he saw chilled his blood. Just outside of the illumination of the spell he could see a large group of creatures, tall and grotesque, he recognized their shambling gait well.
Trolls, about a dozen of them.
Morgul shouted, “Follow me!”, as he directed his giant spider north.
The party followed as quickly as they could, fortunately they were faster than the trolls on their spiders, but they needed something more.
“Phantasmist”, Morgul shouted, “cover our exit!”
Essern reigned in his giant snow spider and turned, he took out a pinch of split peas and spoke the words, “Stěny mlhy“.
Suddenly, to the south of them, and enveloping all of the trolls, was a thick, opaque wall of fog.
Morgul renewed the charge north.
As they rode north they reached an exit to the cave, they could also see several other exits, but this one was closest so they stayed the course.
As the entered the passage Gint shouted at them all, “Incoming from the left flank!”, the barbarian had noticed movement in the distance to their left and caught a glimpse in the shadows of a giant slug, larger than an elephant, and the slug spit a noxious stream of liquid in their direction.
Everyone managed to avoid the spittle but Zintar, who was hit across the back.
The lizard man screamed in agony as the acid ate at his skin.
The party rode on as the slug was too slow to follow, Zintar folded down on his giant snow spider’s back, alive but wounded, as they left the area.
The trolls had been slowed slightly, and the passage narrowed to about 40 feet in width.
Shoon shouted at Morgul, “I can slow them down!”, he reigned in his spider and took out a cluster of webs from his belt pouch.
Zintar sat up and grimaced, then did the same.
The two warlocks spread out the webs between their fingers, like a cat’s cradle, and spoke the words, “Jobbra-balra , fel és le , az én csapda , akkor óhatatlanul” and blew through the webs in their hands. The webs disappeared from their hands and reappeared across the passage, each mass of webs was 40 feet wide, 20 feet tall and 10 feet deep, making a barrier 20 feet deep for their pursuers to push through.
Morgul shouted, “Now, forward!”
They rode forward, and from a side cave a group of 7 bugbears appeared, however they did not attack, instead, they moved towards Ahrn and stood in front of the conjuror, waiting.
His monster summoning spell had culminated.
Essern heard noises from deeper in the side cave where the bugbears had appeared, the spell had summoned them from their lair.
Ahrn did not hesitate, and sent the bugbears back into the cave to delay any others that might appear.
The party rode on just past the bugbear cave, and Jaggenoth turned as they were heading up the passage to see how their pursuers were advancing, and what he saw took his breath away.
He could not count with exactness, but there were at least 40 trolls approaching the first web, slavering and growling, thirsty for their blood, and they quickly began to tear through the webs.
The priest cursed loudly “Kali ke daant!”
Shoon heard his curse and turned to see the trolls tearing at the webs they had cast. A wave of terror flooded over him, he saw the foul things behind them tearing open his flesh with their filthy fangs and teeth.
He stopped his spider, reached into his component pouch and took out a pinch of dark red powder. He smeared it on his fingers and held his hands straight out and touched his fingertips together, he then pulled his hands out in a wide arc behind his back where his fingers touched again.
The red powder glowed red, then orange, then yellow, then white.
He spoke the words, “Láng magasan”, then pulled his fingers apart and swung his hands back around in a circle again, as they swung back at the same time a thick wall of flames formed out of thin air and immolated the webs and the trolls that were tearing through them.
The air vibrated with the screams of the burning trolls.
They heard the sounds of bugbears fighting bugbears in the nearby cave.
Shoon shouted at Morgul, “That won’t stop all of them, someone cover me!”
Carver and Folix came over and put themselves in front of the warlock as he took out a scroll and began to read it. The words on the scroll shimmered and waved, disappearing as he spoke them.
Suddenly, a large wall of iron appeared between them and the bugbears and trolls, it sealed off the entire passageway, blocking any pursuit.
Morgul smiled, his henchman may not have been the most powerful warlock he had known, he threw no fireballs and cast no lightning bolts, but he had proven his worth today, and right after being swallowed by a purple worm!
“Now!” Morgul shouted, “we ride!”
The party rode away from the wall as fast as they could, the sounds of screaming trolls and the clash of fighting bugbears muted behind the iron.
By the time the wall of fire was exhausted many of the trolls were dead, but the drow who had lured the party into the purple worm cave had avoided the flames, he and two others approached the wall of iron that Shoon had placed across the passage.
One of the drow cast a dispel magic spell against the wall, hoping to abjure it, but it was ineffective.
He turned to the others, “Send a rider to one of the other passages out of the main cave, it branches off in several places, one of those branches will bring him back to the main passage, either catch up to these men and follow them, or head forward to the next checkpoint and alert them to their approach.”
Another one of the drow laughed, “You will be skinned alive for this, they killed the worm and passed through on your watch.”
The first drow spit on the ground, “I will skin them alive for this myself.”
*************************************************************************************************
The party made its way forward as fast as they could, none were sure if they were going to be pursued or not, and there were other exits from the cave they had left that could connect back up with the main passage.
Zintar had been badly burned from the giant slug spit, but Morgul laid on hands soon after they fled and healed the burns almost completely. Shoon had taken some damage from the purple worm as well, and he was given a healing potion which addressed most of it. Their supply of healing potions was dwindling fast.
Still, everyone was tired from pushing through to stay ahead of the Star Knight, and the warlocks had not been able to rememorize spells.
Despite being tired, they did not want to slow down for fear of being overtaken by the Star Knight’s party, so they pressed on in the main passageway. After passing through the last cave the passageway had narrowed slightly, but only slightly, they still couldn’t see either side of the passage unless they moved all the way over to one side, and if they did that they still didn’t see the far side.
The darkness was pervasive, and Morgul insisted that they ride “dark” to avoid alerting every living thing in the passages to their presence, which made it all the worse. Zintar and Lenides had infravision, which was somewhat helpful, but it didn’t extend far enough ahead to give them any great confidence, particularly as the various denizens of the underdark likely had greater infravision than they did.
It put the party at a constant disadvantage, one which had led to them being surprised several times already, by the drow and the illithids.
The only real advantage that they had was the giant snow spiders; they moved almost completely noiselessly, Wend could transform into innocuous animal forms and scout ahead, and Ahrn had two charmed shadows he could send ahead that were unlikely to be seen in this abyssal place.
Everyone down the line was on edge.
In particular, Essern was challenged by the environment. For the phantasmist to create illusions, he channeled his sensory experience into the spell, it used his sensations to make the illusions more convincing. How else to explain that sometimes even an illusion with no heat can cause a man to die, thinking himself immolated? The spell tapped into the victim’s mind and the illusionist’s mind, fusing their experiences into something that seemed real.
Because of this Essern was very connected to his senses, he was always watching, listening, tasting (Zintar teased him that he must have a magic belt, as he ate so much food and seemed to stay the same size), for the phantasmist this was a world of sensation, and he was a sensualist, immersed in it all.
However, there were times when the lack of visibility, combined with the smooth ride on the giant snow spider, made Essern feel like he was floating along through the air, disembodied, disconnected from his sensations. It was a strange, alienating feeling, and only contributed to the loneliness of the place, and put Essern off his game.
Two things helped him cope, the first was the periodic passage of large swarms of luminescent insects. Essern had taken to cataloging them as he rode, so far besides the fire beetles which he was familiar with, there were large bee like fliers, green and black in color with glowing yellow wings, creatures that looked like butterflies with a gold spiral pattern on their wings that trailed a cloud of glowing orange smoke, and long segmented insects that switched between jet black and steel blue in color as they flew, making them “blink” in and out of your vision.
The second was sound, since the spiders were light footed and none of the armor wearing party members were marching, the surrounding noises were far more pronounced, augmented by the lack of visual input, stimulating the hearing to greater sharpness.
The main passageway was a riot of noises, yet all were muted, perhaps due to the acoustics of immense caverns, noise travelled, even the quietest. Snickering, clicking, creaks and croaks, hissing, growling, humming and buzzing, distant barks, yowls, trickles… almost constant trickling of water in some parts of the cave, in others a cackling stream.
This place was a garden of unearthly delights.
They pushed through the darkness for hours, Morgul set a grueling 12 hour march ahead, with short stops every hour to allow them to rest and for the spiders to feed.
The spiders, none of them had anticipated what it would be like to ride on them for extended periods of time.
Essern wondered if he would ever forget the sight of the spiders when they came upon a stretch of the passageway filled with dog sized animals that looked like a cross between a boar and a spider, with ten leathery legs and a furry midsection, with a head like a boar with a spiders eyes and four 6 inch fangs. The snow spiders went into a frenzy at the prospect of eating, some parts of the passageway had been bereft of feed for them. The sight of the feast that followed, with the giant snow spiders gorging on their smaller brethren would haunt the phantasmist forever, and he would portray it in an illusion only against those he truly hated.
Their giant snow spiders had large saddles and allowed riders to lean back and sleep on the spider if the ground was particularly inhospitable. The marching order was 6 deep and 2 wide, and everyone in the party on this extended march took a rotation on the middle two spiders, and leaned back and slept. These spiders were tethered to those in front of them, and they kept up the pace. Jaggenoth was amazed at how comfortable it was, the spiders were incredibly smooth in their movement, and they had furs and blankets left over from their venture to the glacial rift, so they managed to cover a great deal of ground and still get some rest. The spiders needed a 10 min rest every hour or so, and then to feed every two hours or so.
Essern was amazed at the ability of the spiders to cross rough terrain and move around obstacles, they could even climb walls.
They had a brief scuffle with a pair of frost giants. The Jarl had sent two after the party, as he was interested in seeing what transpired between the Star Knight and the men.
The giants caught up to the party about halfway through their 12 hour run.
Ahrn, who was on watch, saw them coming as his shadows reported their impending arrival. He cast a charm upon them when they were close enough, charmed one, and had him beat the other to death.
The conjuror showed no mercy, as they would show him none.
The charmed giant was wounded badly enough that Jaggenoth ended it’s life with a single blow from his bardiche, and he took some of his teeth from its severed head as an offering for Rudra, burying the teeth with a blessed arrowhead and then setting them afire with holy oil.
He whispered, “bijalee ke lie” over and over in prayer as it burned.
Ahrn, Zintar and Shoon all extracted fingers for use in spells, Essern started working on a sculpture of the giant from a piece of blue rock he had found pliable to his knife.
“This is unexpected, it would have been useful to speak with them and ask why they were following us, has the Jarl betrayed us?” Morgul looked concerned.
No one had and answer, so they set out again.
At the six hour point the party saw a distant glow.
Essern was then pleased as the party entered the next section of the main passage, there was a clearly delineated path ahead, slightly winding but going forward. The main passage here was about a third of a mile across, and the terrain ahead was filled with large pools of water, some more than a hundred feet in diameter, all dark, dark emerald in color. The path wound between them.
There was only one kind of plant there, a tall flower with a black stalk and branches, and leaves that looked like full sphere dandelion heads but purple in color. They emitted a dull purple glow through the chamber.
But the real light came from the insects.
Millions of them filled up the passageway, and for as far as the eye could see, perhaps a half mile or so, the passageway was lit up like twilight from their glow.
Some insects were brighter than others, indeed, to the point of being painful to look at directly, but those were rare, the vast majority were luminescent on a spectrum from barely visible to as bright as a log fire at its center.
Essern wept quietly, his eyes felt like they had been bathed after a walk in the desert.
“This is magnificent”, Morgul whispered, as if afraid to disturb the scene with his sparse words.
Jaggenoth breathed in deeply, and prayed.
None of the insects flew amongst the foliage, Essern noted, all were above it.
Brother Naranjir breathed in, and as they approached, leaned over towards the trees, then he thought the better of it. The trees were about 10 – 12 feet tall, and the insects stayed above that, so the party was beneath a suspended ocean of glowing insects, Brother Naranjir stood up full in his saddle so he was close to it’s waves.
Brother Naranjir’s mastery of his body extended to his mind. He could communicate with animals, simple exchanges, but insects were hard, very jumpy, flying ones moreso.
He shouted, “How may we pass?”
A large pinwheel insect appeared, it was segmented and each segment had a leathery hard skin, but they were connected in a wheel with spokes of the same form, at the center was a glowing worm with two large antennae. At each fulcrum of the ring there was a pair of gossamer wings, waving like a hummingbird’s.
As it spoke its brightness and color changed from candle to inferno, and through the spectrum, with each word spoken.
“You may pass by the path, none other.”
“Stay with us as we pass?”
There was a pause, then.
“Yes.”
Morgul rode ahead of Gint, forming a single line back, as the path was about 15 feet across.
“Are there beasts here to harm us?”
“No”, a small fire of indigo.
“Do the trees wish us harm?”
“The trees would consume you” a red spark then a yellow blaze then an emerald sunset then an indigo sparkle and an orange glow assailed the senses.
The monk and the insect discussed matters further for the entire time they passed through the passage, bleeding behind them a trail of bright color.
Jaggenoth was tasked with watching Gint, to ensure the barbarian didn’t enter the trees, he looked eager to test them.
They passed through the chamber unmolested.
Finally, the group camped near the edge of the illuminated area in a small cave..
It was decided to have Shoon use the crystal bowl again.
He opened the scrying gate and the party saw a scene that chilled them.
The Star Knight stood in a large cave, it was lit to low levels by hundreds of caged fire beetles in hundreds of cages. There were drow there, many, many troglodytes, and some gargoyles as well. There were a lot of bugbears, and a number of giant lizards they had never seen before.
The Star Knight’s Slaad and the Queen’s guards all hovered on their discs.
They were in parley with the drow.
They could had been talking for hours considering the time the party left and not knowing when they arrived.
There was silence at the moment, both parties standing. It appeared that no one was itching for a fight.
The Star Knight then spoke, “How often?”
“Daily, sometimes more than once a day, but there are also magical means if needed.”
The Star Knight nodded.
The Jaguar Queen spoke next, “Magical means can be detected, how long if you just use runners?”
The drow were used to women taking commanding roles and asking questions, so they responded easily to the Star Knight’s consort.
“We can have a message to the next checkpoint in an hour, then the next checkpoint an hour after that, right up the line. If they remain mounted we will be able to overtake them in about half a day, maybe less. Once we are that close we can track them easily, or perhaps divert them into a dead end.”
The Star Knight nodded, “We could overtake them directly, but my queen has advised me that these men may be from the city we left. Her instincts are very good.”
The drow laughed, “Do you fear them that much?”
The Star Knight did something that Shoon had never seen him do.
He laughed, loudly and with much passion.
“I spent some time in the city, I spoke to powerful men and women asking questions about what I seek, it only stands to reason that one of those I spoke to might want to find it first, to either use it or to demand concessions from me to get it. This is basic strategy, is it not, obtain that which another wants and you have the advantage.”
The drow looked skeptical, “Why not hit them when they are not expecting it? The advantage would be yours.”
The Star Knight looked at the Drow and frowned slightly, “Your thirst for violence does not serve you well. Perhaps they know the destination of what I seek and I can let them lead me to it? Or, alternatively, they can fight with the various underdark monsters that bar our way to our destination first, weakening their resistance to us at their expense.”
The drow paused and smiled a wicked smile.
“It is agreed then, we will send ahead runners to track the progress of the group, and you can follow at whatever distance you want.”
“We need to stop for several hours, find us a tolerably dry cave large enough for all.”
With this Shoon broke contact, terrified of being discovered.
“They have paired off with the drow, that can’t be a positive development”, Folix offered a rare but crucial observation.
“They are at least 10 hours behind us at this point, I think we should bed down properly and get some real rest, rememorize some spells.”
While they were looking around for side caves and concealed areas, Wend landed on Lenides’ back, in the form of a large raven, and cawed loudly.
Brother Naranjir spoke in response, “Apparently the drow wait amassed for us up ahead.”
Morgul looked over, “Is that what he said?”
The raven shimmered and wavered and then suddenly Wend was standing there.
“I said nothing of the sort.”
Brother Naranjir and Gint both burst out laughing.
“There are no drow ahead, but there is something else amazing”, Wend waved them forward.
They arrived in a wide open area, light here was provided by luminescent insects that flew in a fairly thick cloud over a river that stretched off into the distance to the left and the right, as far as the eye could see, and appeared to be about 80-100 feet across in the middle. The waters of the river were jet black, like some bitter god had stained them in retaliation for dragging it down into the darkness.
In addition there were luminescent fish in the water, some jellyfish like with unusual colors and patterns, some more fish like but exaggerated in size and varying from fish whose entire bodies reflected any light that caught them, to fish who had glowing tails, antennae or fins, to still other fish that colored the water behind them with sparkling, iridescent swirls. Several of the fish would periodically leap from the water, maws open and snatch insects from the air.
Wend was amazed at the variety of living things he saw, the underdark was a cacophony of life. He looked down into the black depths of the river, “The bright fish let you see the occasional glimpse of the depth of the river”, he pointed just downstream and Morgul looked down to see a bright fish that was clearly quite a bit further down than he had originally thought. It’s light threw shadows on larger… things below. The river looked to be at least as deep as it was wide, if not deeper, given what the paladin could see.
And dimly visible across the river was a barge with a fish man atop it.
Morgul turned to Wend, the druid was back in human form and stretching, “He’s the ferryman I take it?”
Wend nodded, “I was about 2 hours ahead of all of you by flying before I started flying back. I stayed here for an hour and watched him ferry across two groups, one group of about 20 kua-toan pilgrims and another a small drow merchant caravan. You get on, pay the requested amount and he takes you across. Seems harmless.”
"I do not like the idea of trusting ourselves to that bargeman", Lenides looked sceptical about the fish-man, as did Zintar and Shoon.
Morgul looked out over the water and sighed.
"I don't either, we are too vulnerable on the water", Morgul turned to the warlocks, "so what do you propose?"
Folix left the group and moved back towards where they entered the cave, he tagged Brother Naranjir to come with him, both the woodsman and the monk were particularly good at spotting foes, both were sharp and alert. Folix didn't want to be caught unprepared again. And he had no interest in the discussion, let the others determine what to do, he was focused on keeping them alive…
He stared back into the corridor they came from, all he could see was inscrutable blackness with flashes of insect light appearing for brief seconds then fading as if swallowed by the dark.
Back by the water the discussion continued, "I can enchant Vacanga to fly, he takes 4 others, Lenides can enchant himself to fly and take 2 others. Then Morgul returns for the stragglers."
Shoon interjected, “and what of my familiar?”
Morgul spoke up, "I can make it back over and take the beast on Vacanga's back, I can levitate beside Vacanga, leaving all the space for your familiar. Will the spell last long enough for three trips?”
Lenides nodded, “Absolutely, many more than that.”
Morgul nodded, “Good.”
"What about the spiders?", Carver added.
"They can swim", Wend suggested, "they are large and intimidating enough that they should be fine.”
Gint screwed up his face and blurted out something, he had been unusually quiet since they brought him back, the enormity of what happened to him was sinking in slowly.
“The spiders need protection, we are in trouble if they are hurt.”
The men began to debate Gint’s claim when Ahrn spoke up, “Longtusk is correct, those spiders are too important to lose, I may be able to address this.”
The conjuror waved at Carver and he walked over, “Stand in for Folix if you please”.
Carver nodded, “Aye aye.”
Carver the ogre took out his sword and positioned himself beside the warlock, if anything was to molest him it would meet the fighter’s steel head on.
Ahrn sat cross legged and took out a small bag and a candle, he opened the bag, held it out with one hand, and waved the candle back and forth in front of him four times, then placed the candle in the bag, closed it up, and spoke the words "Izom, ín és a csont , tedd, amit parancsolok , majd hazamegy”
He sat with his eyes closed for a minute, then the water split and four creatures emerged from the frigid blackness. The tops of their heads appeared, first, slick and grey with ears that were tight to the side of their heads and pointing back, eyes of flickering green, as if encrusted with emeralds. Their noses were slits but their mouths were a cage of razor sharp fangs, dirty yellow in color. They were humanoid, and covered with scales, each had webbed hands and feet with hooked grey claws, and fins on their foreams and lower legs. On their backs were large wings, somewhat like bat wings, that they used to propell themselves through the water.
The four creatures stood in a semi-circle in front of Ahrn.
”Interesting” the conjuror mouthed.
”What are they”, Essern asked, he had never seen anything like these creatures.
Zintar responded, ” Kopoacinth, I believe they are called, water gargoyles, I’ve never seen one, but I’ve read about them.”
”These will accompany the spiders, ensuring the water is clear for them.”
They proceeded according to plan, Zintar cast a fly spell on Vacanga and the giant lizard wailed for a moment as it began to raise into the air, Morgul stroked his neck for several moments and spoke soothing words to the beast until it calmed, then he pointed down and the lizard slowly floated down to the ground near the water. Shoon, Carver, Essern, Jaggnoth and Gint climbed on at Morguls direction, he then activated his boots and grabbed Vacanga by the halter, and pointed to the other side of the river.
They flew through the air slowly but steadily towards the other side.
As soon as they took off the ferryman dove into the water, and disappeared from view.
The arrived on the other side shortly, and all disembarked.
The spiders entered the water with the Kopoacinth going in around them, Gilak also jumped in at the same time, desperate to make it back to his master, the water gargoyles deterred any of the other creatures from assault and they made it across safely.
Once they were across Ahrn dismissed the water gargoyles and they walked into the water, the blackness swallowing them as their heads disappeared from view.
Lenides cast fly on himself and took over Ahrn.
Vacanga returned with Morgul in tow and picked up Brother Naranjir, Folix, Wend and Zintar.
They ferried across safely.
Everyone mounted back on the giant spiders and continued forward into the semi-darkness, the next section of the tunnel started to descend noticeably, and mosses, tall grasses and some clusters of lichen became prominent all around a well marked trail. But most noticeable were strange trees with blood red bark and burnt orange blossoms that split into fours and had purple serrated edges, dripping ichor to the floor.
The ichor dripped syrupy from the blossoms and when it hit the ground would sizzle and send up a cloud of deep red-orange smoke that drifted upwards and formed a large cloud that lined the ceiling of the corridor for about a half mile forward. The adventurers could see it as the red-orange smoke gave off a glow, the whole corridor looked as if bathed in the light of a roaring pyre.
Essern dubbed them ”unajawal” trees, bastardizing the names of two plants he knew that had similar colors to the trees.
The insects tapered off here to one major variety, a butterfly like thing the size of a kobold with soft sapphire colored wings striated with yellow, and a long spike tail. There were butterflies every hundred feet or so, they planted their tail spikes into the tree blossoms periodically, using them to drain liquid from the bloom.
Wend transformed into a small jackdaw and flew over the trees for a short time, then landed on Brother Naranjir’s shoulder and the two conversed for a short time, caws were interspersed with the monk’s soflty spoken words.
”If we follow the trail to the left it ends in a copse that can only be approached by the one path, every other way is blocked by thickets of trees that will make intruders noticeable as they pass through. It’s defensible.”
Morgul had been discussing shelters with Wend as the druid had become the party’s default scout, he was getting better at identifying good sites for bedding down.
They travelled for about 10 mintues off the main path and found the clearing, it was ideal and completely invisible from the main path.
Morgul smiled, ”Wards and watches, Gint and Wend are up first!”
Ahrn found a spot and reclined on his giant snow spider, he had taken to sleeping atop the creature as it was comfortable and allowed him a fast egress if needed.
And those spider eyes, they missed little…
His two charmed shadows collapsed down from standing to flatten across the ground and flit back and forth in the darkness around the conjuror as he slept, ready to strike at any who would harm him.
Jaggenoth laid down a glyph of warding near the entrance to the path to the clearing, then he walked to the center of the clearing, sat down and put his bow in his lap. He began to chant the words ” aatma mujhe dekhane ke lie” over and over again to himself, and fell into a trance. He then placed his hand on his chest over his heart and shouted the words one more time, pulling out his hand it trailed a black smoke, Jaggenoth thrust his hand out and the smoke corkscrewed out of his chest and collected itself in front of him, looking vaguely like a dragon or a wyvern.
The ”wyvern” reared its head up then appeared to float in the air above the party, it’s head moving around every so slightly as it sat, as if it were scanning the area.
Jaggenoth looked at Morgul, ”I haven’t used that as I thought it might spook the spiders, but it will keep an eye over us and attack anything that gets too close.”
The party slept for 6 hours, that was the most Morgul was willing to countenance, and when they woke they rememorized spells and prepared their mounts.
The party set out on the path between the looming unajawal trees on their arachnids, their dripping ichor a staccato marching beat for their eightfold legs.
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