Journal Entry 08.01 - Return from the Mountain Realm

Entering the mountain through a mud-filled lava tube, the party comes to a hallway splitting into three hallways.   A powerful sphinx is guarding the head of the tunnel. She asks a rather simple riddle  

Round he is, yet flat as a board,
Altar of the Lupine Lords,
Jewel on black velvet, pearl in the sea,
Unchanged but e'erchanging, eternally.

  Aja answers quickly, ‘ a moon.’ The sphinx pauses weighing the answer and then allows them to pass.   The party takes the first passage heading right and retrieves the first item – an artifact hammer. During this trip, Urik is taken down by an imprisoned vampire, apparently killed. Fortunately, the party is able to resuscitate him. While the party thinks he was just severely wounded, Urik secretly believes he might have been slain. No one seems overly surprised to find that the rest of the vampire’s treasure has just the right mix of magic scrolls to restore Urik to full health.   Returning to the sphinx, she entreats the party to leave and accept their fate in this realm. She cryptically makes the statement, “Young party, you are free to leave if you want. Codesta has already brought one of you back from the brink of eternal night. She will not be able to offer this service again and encourages you to sincerely think about her offer.”   Ignoring the offer, the party heads down the middle path. Along the way, Graykar is charmed by a kelpie and falls in love. The party kills the second kelpie before she can charm anyone herself. The party is able to run the kelpie off without killing her, thus freeing Graykar from a quandary of who to be loyal to. Graykar is able to suppress his feelings long enough to continue with the party, though they now make occasional references to Graykar’s new girlfriend. Graykar simply muses he has had stranger girlfriends.   Toward the end of the middle path, they encounter a werewolf sorceress and her companion. The party has little choice but to slay the companion as he seems so intent on killing them, while they are able to subdue the werewolf. She relays her name as being Snarla after she turns back into her human form. During their interrogation, along with other clues, the party becomes convinced that the inhabitants of this dungeon are possibly previous explorers who have become imprisoned and are now forced to guard the dungeon.   Continued questioning of Snarla reveals little more. Her memory is not fully intact. She remembers she belongs here, she knows she is imprisoned, and she knows it is her job to roam the dungeon helping to deliver food to the other inhabitants. She feels some remorse for her now dead companion, however doesn’t seem overly alarmed by it. She truly doesn’t remember his significance to her. She also seems to think he might return to life at a later time and his death isn’t permanent.   As the party finished the second path, they gain the second item, a trident. When they see the sphinx this time, she is much older appearing to have aged to her mature years. She once again asks them to leave dungeon before it is too late. Once again ignoring the plea, the party heads down the third and final path completely focused on their goal of escaping this realm.   Down the third path, after successfully navigating through more puzzles, the party is ambushed by several men. Graykar believes he recognizes the leader of the men as Sir Caladanis – a wanted man in Chrailis with a warrant for his live capture. Sir Caladanis has a unique scar down the front of his face where his nose was split in two near its tip. Conveying the warrant information to the others, the party fends off the ambush and manages to capture Sir Caladanis and three of his men alive.   After binding Sir Caladanis and his men, the party reviews what Graykar remembers about the knight, which is little.   Graykar remembers it was about six or seven years ago, he was implicated in a slave trade of kids to the sea orcs from a couple of the local orphanages. Graykar remembers it as being a rather big scandal at the time. Before he could be captured, Sir Caladanis simply vanished along with several of his people. There was a reward for him of which Graykar doesn't remember how much except for it was to be delivered alive for judgment. Graykar isn't absolutely sure of the knight’s identity until one of the waking soldiers confirms this during the initial questioning.   The party proceeds to interrogate Sir Caladanis. To aid matters, Aja secretly curses him so that if he lies, he will sneeze. Later on, as Aja realizes just how potent and permanent her curses can be, she feels a slight pang of guilt.   Listening in, Morvion whispers to Graykar, in earshot of Urik and Aja but not the others, “Do you know when Dame Imoken was knighted? Was it in the last seven years?”   Graykar turns to the group and quietly mouths an answer. ‘fifty or sixty years,’ he thinks. Graykar remembers the story quite well, it was a major rescue into orc waters rescuing several careless nobles which had been captured.   About the time the party is halfway through the interrogation, Morvion who has been studying a magic stream of water floating in the air through the room notices what he thinks might be writing on the wall of the room. He immediately interrupts the conversation with the knight and brings everyone’s attention to the marks on the wall.   Every brick has the same scratches, looking like a faded cuneiform. Now that it's been pointed out, Aja can make something out in the scratches that might be writing. Aja casts a quick spell, and as the magic takes effect, the scratches suddenly become clearer. Letters start forming, then words. Each brick has the exact same cryptic message. This room has the same message repeated hundreds if not thousands of times.  

Storms of moon’s progress
Chisels the locust’s way.
Way of sap, sustenance of ash.
Way of blood, sustenance of dust.
Dark orb flees, fire chases.
Dark orb flees, fire chases.
Game ends when comes the man,
Nemesis embraced, passion drowned
Lovers merged, hemlock emerse.
Fulfilling the locust’s way

  Completely forgetting about Sir Caladanis, Aja is now fully caught up in the riddle. Aja taps her chin, deep in thought. After a couple of minutes, she turns to the rest of the group and launches in an elaborate reveal. “Both sap and blood refer to life, while ash and dust refer to death, usually due to the passage of time. Perhaps ‘Storms of moon's progress’ refers to the passage of time, as one or more moons progress across the sky.   Locusts are mentioned twice, and I am reminded of the deterioration of the walls and floor we have been seeing. Maybe it's emphasizing that this place is falling apart?   Embracing one's nemesis could be seen as a way of drowning passion, assuming that passion was hatred. Possibly an allusion to how the denizens of this place can eventually be convinced we mean them no harm.   Lovers merged is certainly a pleasant thought, but it's countered by poisonous hemlock. Emerse isn't a word I recognize. Perhaps the author meant "immersed" or "emersed", the former of which represents being below water and the latter of which represents the part of a plant that grows above water.   Hemlock is often found growing along streambeds, so I'm inclined to assume it's the latter. I'm not sure what dark orb fleeing and fire chasing is about. The way locust is mentioned almost at the beginning and at the end leads me to believe it's especially significant, possibly the driving force behind this place. Might we be fulfilling the locust's way?”   As Aja finishes up her quickly assembled dissertation on the riddle, Urik jokingly scowls, “You use a lot of words to say ‘I don’t know.” Aja, in turn, scowls back in annoyance at him stealing some of her glory.   The party debates it for the rest of the evening, more or less ignoring Caladanis and his men. Having rested up from the night to recharge their spells and energy, the party is ready to finish this dungeon once and for all.   They finish the final challenge and retrieve the final weapon, a black sword. Now with all three weapons of power, the party decides that each will carry the weapon most closely aligned with their character. The sword is definitely dark and edgy – so goes to Urik despite its strong leanings toward chaos. The trident seems overly direct and vengeful – to Morvion it goes. And finally, the hammer just wants to rule but seems neither good nor evil. And while Graykar isn’t particularly fond of hammers, he carries it just in case all three weapons are needed.   The party is preparing to haul Sir Caladanis and his men out of the mountain when it starts to rumble. The walls which were already starting to appear decayed are now actively spalling with fine flakes continually falling off. Streams of dust are starting to pour from between the bricks in the ceiling. Realizing they don’t have much time, the party abandons their attempt to haul Sir Caladanis out and focus on their own escape.   Arriving back at the central juncture near the entrance of to this dungeon, they now find the sphinx ancient and near death. With her last breath, she makes a final plea to leave the items in the dungeon.   Exiting the dungeon, the party emerges from the mountain to see a few hundred elves standing in front of them. They are the elves from this world’s Canton. In front of them stands Varkus. They all stare expectantly at the party. While no one is smiling, there seems to be a sense of relief on their faces.   As the two groups stare at each other, a large figure starts to materialize between them. He appears elven and bald, a muscular man with dark reddish bronze skin. He is clad in a tan wrap around skirt (Egyptian style shendyt) with a fine gold belt. Other than that, he is only wearing fine sandals with string straps. Several of the elves bow down, softly saying ‘Majalacturis.’   Looking only at Morvion, he stretches forth his hand. “You have succeeded in recovering the fractured parts of my soul. Well done. Rejoice all, we are now finally free of this prison.”   The same purplish mist which had appeared in the world gate when they first arrived now reappears and grows thick around everyone. The stranger stretches forth his hand and the three artifacts float from the hands of the party members carrying them. They simply let go, there is no effort made to resist.   Graykar will later state, “It was as if it was my unconscious decision to stretch my arm forward and let go of the weapon. No thought was behind it, just like when like no thought is given when walking, you just put one foot forward in front of the other.”   Urik will then respond, “It was an evil god – we were less than gnats and are lucky we weren’t inclined to resist, else we would of a certainty be dead. And now I can plan his death. It’s a good day when an orc kills an upstart god.”   The three items move toward Majalacturis, they begin to merge into a single weapon slightly resembling a sword. The mist continues to thicken until the world goes dark.   The next thing the party realizes is they are standing on the other side of the gate. Already there is activity. Looking around, most of the Coterie soldiers are standing in a similar spot as when the party just gated out. The stranger in the brown robe is striding forward toward Majalacturis who now stands nearly 20 feet tall in front of the gate. Next to Majalacturis, near his feet huddled down is a female of radiant beauty. She is bloodied and obviously hurt, the glow emanating out of her skin fading by the second. She is quite large herself, if she were standing she might stand nearly ten feet tall.   The Coterie stranger commands with his non-voice, a loud command heard directly in the minds of all surrounding, “Dark being, you do not belong in this world.” With that, both of his hands start moving independently – he is simulcasting two different spells. Four fiery balls of magma fling forth from his right hand as a rainbow of colors bursts from his left hand, both targeting the towering Majalacturis.   The god waves a hand and the magma balls fade from existence before striking while the rainbow ray seems to have no effect when it strikes him. He then lifts his open hand and makes a fist, bringing it down in a quick motion. The stranger bursts into a magnesium colored flame and within less than a second he is reduced to ash.   The party, now getting their bearings looks around. They see Sir Caladanis still tied up several feet from them, along with three of his men also tied up and no sign of the others the party had killed. They see Snarla sleeping in wolf form another twenty feet, she is just now waking up. A very attractive green and blue-haired river spirit is standing nearby looking confused and starting to get frantic, calling out for her companion. Additionally, they see eight well-armored brutes who they think might be bugbears, though none have ever seen such a creature. Along with them are another seven individuals, two more humans, three elves, one dwarf and one halfling.   Surrounding the clearing are the roughly two hundred elves which had greeted the party when they exited the mountain. And beyond them, stacked neatly four high, they see the thousands upon thousands of clay jars which the elves referred to as batteries.   As soon as Majalacturis is satisfied that the brown-robed stranger is dead, all of the Coterie men drop to the ground, writhing in agony. Majalacturis turns now to Morvion and says, “My servant Malice, be ready. You will raise with my children in dominion over all other races. As you and your children will bow down to me, so to will all others bow down to you. There will be darkness and there will be blood.”   He then turns to the roughly two hundred elves which also appeared in this large clearing around the gate. “Gather up these men and place them in the vessels. They will remain immobile until the lids are sealed.”   Within the party, the urge to say something, anything, to react to this dark being, starts to grow, however, try as they might, they all stand there and just stare, powerless to do anything.   Finally, Majalacturis looks to the woman near his feet, and then reaches down and picks her up one handed by the neck to look at her. “Codesta – you knew that this day would come when I would be freed, surely you didn’t think you would be my captor forever. Is this how you imagined it?” He then pauses for just a second to think, them smiles as lifts her up higher then slams her to the ground. With a quick move, he raises a foot and stomps in in the chest. As he does so, she disappears in a bright flash of golden light and energy. Most of the energy funnels directly into Majalacturis, however small streamers of brilliant light spin-off and careen into each of the party members along with even smaller tendrils flowing into the other escapees from the mountain. None enter any of the Canton elves.   Majalacturis seems to have grown another five feet after the surge of power, then looks skyward. “I must prepare, I will return. Varkas, get these elves to Canton. It lies that way,” and he points in the direction of Canton. And then he is suddenly gone. Whatever restraints were paralyzing the party disappear.   The elves are now rolling barrels over and starting to place the Coterie guards inside. The party wrestles with some of the elves and manage to free three of the guards, however, the elves are able to get the other eight guards into the barrels and seal the lids. As soon as a barrel is loaded, two elves lift the barrel in a rope kit and start moving in the direction of Canton.   The party realizes the only way to free the rest would be to resort to open combat. With there being close to two hundred elves, even though they seem poorly armed, the odds don’t seem good. Additionally, Morvion seems really reluctant to raise arms verses these elves as they might be his kin.   Despite their malnourished look, the elves depart quickly heading in the direction of Canton. Morvion wastes no time in making plans with the party. He will return here in a month if they will hold the gate for his return, but for now, he needs to go to Canton and see if he can’t salvage this situation. The elves and Morvion have now departed.   The party quickly decides that they need to keep Sir Caladanis and his men bound, they will haul them back to Chrailis for judgment.   Snarla, resuming her human form, speaks with a strange accent and introduces her real name as Kalisha. “I know not of this Chrailis. However, my homeland is Borez of which none of you seem to know. If it is ok, I will travel with you.” She then transforms into a large wolf, appearing content to be alone with her thoughts.   Of the water spirit, she seems to have calmed down. Graykar tries to talk to her and she mostly ignores him, only saying, “I must find a river, there is a great river to the south. That is where I must go.” And she transforms in an avian shaped cloud and starts flying south, water falling behind her like rain.   The eight bugbears confer among themselves. For a brief moment, they seem intent on attacking everyone else. Then one of them, the leader points north and says in an almost indecipherable dialect of Rictat, “We go that way.” And then with almost no sound, they all pad off heading north.   Of the final seven escapees from the mountain, two of the elves are from Chrailis. The other five appear to be an adventuring party. One of them casts a spell so everyone can communicate. They are from a distant city known as Kraylin, however since they know not this land, they also like Snarla/Kalisha agree to go back to Chrailis.   And of the three rescued Coterie people, one is Candice, the leader of the expedition on this side. She is quiet and says little, except, “We must go back. There is much to answer for.”   With that, Aja pulls out her notes and recreates the runes needed to open the gate to Chrailis. The gate opens, and they all step through.