Vulūne 6, 653 DR: The hog’s secret amulet. Dammon grinds a Chaos stone to dust. Fyrgol and Gældor rework the wagon harness. Looking into the cellar. Tunnels beneath Nolmanæ. Zrū guardians and a metal tank. Death of the egg. Bones of the lost Dwürden. Strange trinkets.

Continued from Children of the Worms, Part 2.

Iyldor, 6 Vulūne 653

Jak moved through the inn, driving the point of his spear into unconscious, moaning Zrū. Dammon was beckoned into the courtyard to inspect a chain buried within rolls of fat around the hog-thing’s neck. A green stone at the end of the chain swirled with Chaos magics. After some inspection, the magician placed the stone on a flat stone and dropped another rock from the inn’s upper window. The stone shattered into smaller green shards, but the magic did not leave. As Jak finished the last of the Zrū, Dammon returned to the upstairs to grind the broken shards into a green dust. Those not on watch were soon trying to sleep again, as Fyrgol wandered through the dark inn looking for something they had missed. After several watches, all were relieved to see the light of the morning sun.

Come morning, a few went out to find the horses. One of the horses was found on the hillside near the stables. As expected the other was missing. Fyrgol led the horse back toward the stable, asking the beast where the other horse had gone. The horse explained that the horse and a rider had escaped into the night, up and over the “high land”. The Feyri spent the rest of the morning reconfiguring the wagon harnesses for a single horse. In the inn, Tressta asked Dammon to examine her hand, which had begun hurting again following last night’s battle. The magician removed the bandage and found that the sealed-wound was red and swollen. Dammon asked Zildara if there was anything she could do. The priestess examined Tressta’s hand for a few minutes and tried to Channel a small healing. The pain subsided but the mark and swelling did not disappear.

By mid-morning, everyone was ready to leave the abandoned village. Jak tried in vain to convince the innkeeper to join them, but she restated her intent to stay until she could be reunited with her missing husband. During this conversation, the woman explained that she’d never seen the cellar before. Jak and the others found this odd, given the new hole in the main room that revealed a large basement area. Jak, Dammon, and Ērēus resolved to look at the basement before leaving Karæjya to her fate.

Climbing down through the collapsed floor, the three examined the empty cellar. After a torch was thrown down, they passed into the darker chamber beneath the kitchen. From there a smaller passage led deeper into the darkness, beyond the foundation walls of the inn above. With torch in hand, Jak led the group into the turning passage. After a gradually descending turn the passage opened into a wider area. A pair of evil green eyes reflected the torchlight from the darkness. As Jak gripped tightly to his spear, the Zrū moved into the fitful firelight. The room was dominated by a tall dark shape ringed with a series of shielded portholes. From three of the round holes, tentacles extended from the cylinder into the hole-riddled chamber walls. Between these stood four Zrū, barking and growling at one another. The monster closest to Jak wore a suit of ruined maille. A second creature wore the skin of an Yrūn man, its phallus hanging limply from the center of the monster’s chest. The third held a spear while the last held a staff that glowed with an eerie green light. The Zrū did not advance immediately; it looked like they were guarding the object in the room’s center.

After much growling and barking, the staff-wielding Zrū moved forward. Jak called back down the corridor for Fyrgol, in the hopes that the Feyri might be able to tell what the creatures were saying. Fyrgol listened to the staff-wielder’s bestial sounds and translated, “unclean invaders, leave this place or be torn limb from limb”. When the Feyri asked if this place was the source of their power, the Zrū snarled and responded “come forward if you wish to join us.” Fyrgol drew his sword and was startled to see it shedding scintillating colors. He remembered the sword doing this once before, but could not remember when. As he backed behind Jak, Dammon began Weaving a spell within the tunnel. At the sound of casting, the Zrū stepped forward and struck the end of his glowing staff against the hard floor. Green light surged through the shaft as a flash of emerald magic rippled through the air. Jak hesitated for a moment, as the expanding green wave flooded him with a terrible aching. The Oðan stepped forward and stabbed the goat-creature, who let out a painful howl. Within the chamber beyond, the other Zrū began banging on the large metal cylinder like a war drum. The drumming seemed to make the tentacles writhe and retract from the surrounding walls.

Sickened by the Chaos coursing through him, Jak dropped the blazing torch and stabbed at the staff-wielder. Dammon ushered Fyrgol back into the cellar, commanding him to retrieve the others and prepare torches. At the end of the tunnel, the Zrū struck the ground again and second wave of green light rippled through the air. The spear-wielding Zrū lunged forward, but Jak parried its careless attack while retreating into the tunnel. Behind the attacking goat-creature, the staff-wielder knocked the staff again. Again it flared with sickly light, and again a sickly wave streamed forward. Dammon, who had been preparing a spell, felt the sickening wave pour inside him. Focusing passed the nausea, the magician completed his spell and sent an arc of lightning at the nearest Zrū. Behind the spear-wield, Dammon noticed that the staff’s glow had greatly diminished since the mêlée began. Jak ran his spear through the stunned Zrū, dropping it to the floor. Pulling the barbed spear from the thing’s body, Jak step across its chest and sank the gut-spear into the staff-wielder. The second Zrū collapsed. Jak knelt to pick up the magic staff and a final flare surged along its length, filling the spear-man with a terrible sickness. With the last of its magic expended, the staff grew dark.

With the front Zrū dying on the floor, Jak and Ērēus charged into the room. Ērēus chop through one of the tentacles as Jak closed on the cylinder and stabbed his spear through an empty porthole. Fyrgol followed, stabbing at the last tentacle to retract from the wall before it pulled inside the metal shell. The remaining Zrū stopped their drumming and engaged Ērēus and Fyrgol. Jak prepared to stab again through the portal, but stopped, turned, and retreated calling for the others to follow. Tressta pushed forward into the room and joined Fyrgol against the tentacle and Zrū. As she stabbed with her saber, her bandaged hand began to hurt more and more. As she parried the Zrū’s attack, she noticed that her bandage was again crawling with blood-bugs, the wound had reopened! She stepped back, watching in horror as the bug crawled forward and solidified on her hand and arm, slowly creating an obscene red carapace. As the mind-controlled Jak insisted that the others follow him to safety, Fyrgol and Ērēus pressed the attack, killing the remaining tentacles and Zrū. When the fight had settled, Dammon came forward and Weaved an ice storm through one of the cylinder’s portholes. A loud childish scream issued from inside, but whimpered and grew silent as the icy barrage continued within.

After they figured how to open the container’s top, they lowered Fyrgol inside. Beneath the pulped remains of the tentacled monster the Feyri discovered a layer of bones that he could not identify. Amid the skeletal detritus he found an assortment of buckles, climbing picks, cloth scraps, a lensed helmet, a metal tube, and a silver medallion inset with strange red stone. Removing the items from the metal tomb, the group retreated from the cellar to investigate their findings in the daylight above. The helmet appeared to be steel with brass trimming, one of its round crystal lenses was fractured. The tube was sealed with a carved ivory cap fashioned into a compass with Dwürden runes. Fyrgol opened the tube to find three fine parchments covered with minuscule runes of the same variety. Dammon asked to see the pages and determined that there was a slight magical aura to them. The magician also discovered that the medallion’s stone was inset into a metal ring that could be rotated to one of four positions. At each position, the stone changed color turning red, green, blue, and clear. As the group took turns examining these strange items, Tressta stood to the side, her cloak pulled tightly around her.

Continued in Ruins by the Sea.

Characters

• Dammon Shroudson = 3 CPs (221)
• Fyrgol = 3+1 CPs (140)
• Jak of Cænden = 3 CPs (218)
• Tressta Drynsval = 3 CPs (211)
• Ērēus of Amra = 2 CPs (306)
• Familiar = Unkn.
• Gældor of Nyn = 0+1 CPs (163)
• Graiç of Mazzam = 0 CPs
• Grymgrykalya = 0 CPs (78)
• Karæjya (Innkeeper)
• Zêla ma Ler = 1 CPs (168)
• Zildara of Zalan = 1+1 CPs (198)

Played: 07 Oct 2007