Fight to the Death

by Jarl!!!!
The Flames stood in a line on top of an embankment, the ruins now free of the Horror behind them. After the previous night's fighting and the victory over the monstrous jellyfish like Horror and its bone construct, Cyrellion was accepted as a Flame and they were once more up to five. Overlooking the bay, and taking turns looking through the Crystal they spot the fleet of various mercenaries, airships and the ominous silhouette of Rasmussen's might ship - all hunting them. Raan, the ghost spirit they had managed to convert to their cause, was rallying a group of fifty or so spirits the Flames had liberated from their bond with Ferros.

Still covered in gore, cuts and wounds, and quite a few baubles and jewellery - we knew that our fighting in this damned swamp was not over. Not by a long shot. Our mission here, what we have accomplished so far against the odds stacked against us - unravelling an eons old legend in the process - is surely the stuff of legendary bards tales. Our mission here though requires one more component, the seeing crystal on the deck of Rasmussen's ship. With Wolf possibly weeks away from picking us up, we made plans and looked at our options. A lot of discussion ensued and slowly a plan was made. We decided we should forge ahead and get the crystal, luring Rasmussen to a place we can ambush his ship and using our spirit legion to our advantage. The plan was to light up the temple, luring Rasmussen's men into the temple and dispatching them with traps and brute force. Once that is finished we would move out of the temple and give the command to Raan to attack the ship. Things didn't go as expected.

We build traps, Elessar casts bone-circles in strategic spots in the temple, Ivor summons a bridge over the pool. We prepare for battle and nod silently to each other as the dial is turned and the dome opens. The light ray from the pool focuses along the mirrors and juts out into the night, whip-lashing in the night sky. We wait to see if the fish takes the bait and within the hour Rasmussen's ship floats above us. We hold our weapons tighter as we hear the shouts above, and lock the entrance door and dome trapping them in with us.

Minutes pass, Rasmussen's men have spotted us and advance with caution, we took our positions in the pool room below. The shouting increased, Elessar's bone circles ghosts were taking their toll on the air sailors. After quite a wait - a group of ten men emerge from the tunnel mouth and to our great surprise Rasmussen is with them, ready for battle with a huge sword on his back - flamboyant and proud as usual. Combat ensued, violent and with no quarter. The fight ebbed and flowed, we were outnumbered but we immediately hit at Rasmussen; inflicting heavy damage with ranged spells and arrows. Some of his men also went onto Ivor's summoned bridge and ended fighting for their lives when he dispelled it, a bone ghost fighting the struggling men as they desperately swam back to the edge of the pool, only to meet their end at Ivor's flaming hammer.

After our initial success things started to go against us, their numbers wearing us down even as the group fought against our spells, arrows and blows. Just as soon as we thought we could possibly survive, five more men climb down into the fray - now we where outnumbered three to one and Rasmussen was using all his sword skills against our fighters. Ahmok received heavy blows from enemies on all sides, but it was our archer that took the worst as he was mobbed to the ground. To our horror a well placed stab from one of the air sailors goes through 'leather armor and out the other side. He slumps on the sword then on the ground, lifeless. Seeing this Elessar courageously leaped in to protect the body, just as Rasmussen bites the dust from an onslaught of spells from Elessar and myself and blows from Ahmok. His men immediately give him a healing potion just as we keep laying more hurt on them. One by one Rasmussen's men perish and after a well placed flame strike on Rasmussen, I finally burn the pirate lord to a dead charred pile. His men keep fighting, desperately, but we regroup and Cyrellion revives from the dead with an application of one of the Last Chance salves - he immediately lays back vengeance with his bow. Just as we are dispatching the last couple of enemies, the hairs in the back of my neck rise as an eldricht wave of void energy wafts from Elessar's outstretched hands, a bad time to fail in spellcasting given the Horror taint surrounding us. I hold my breath expecting the worst, and as soon as the last enemy falls, the glow from the pool decreases ominously. The black souls of the fallen air sailors rise out from their lifeless bodies as we stare and give a glance at each other to prepare for more.

Killing a Horror

We went down cautiously, knowing that we could encounter a horror just about anytime. As soon as we arrived at the bottom of the slope we saw a sort of clearing, what used to be the pool area. Right at the center of it were the pool used to be stood the horror. We quickly opted to charge upon him and try to smash it down as fast as possible and so we did. I charged in first, the horror as soon as it saw me enraged. From one of its tentacles a spell was cast hitting me directly in the chest sending me staggering back. With the help of Elessar's spells, as well as Cyrellion's fire support, we manged to close in upon the horror. The pain was still hard to bare, not withstanding I stood up and charged fiercely towards it. I swung my Dolcral's hammer overhead and brought it down upon the horror sending the huge monster some feet back.

Ahmok struck fiercely at the tentacles and gashed quite few. But then the Horror, using its long tentacles, entangled us. I managed to free myself using the blazing flame of the hammer but fell into the water. I was drowning the weight of the armor was dragging me down. I raised my hands and prayed Upandal to grant me the power so as to build a tower that would fill up the whole pool. Feeling the energy surging inside me, I recalled the element of the earth and with the power granted I built a tower. The water spilled out and we just waste down in water. At last I could breath again.

We continue to hit it causing the horror to further enrage.. It entangled me once more, only this time I went unconscious with the blow. A voice was heard in our minds echoing, saying that if they wanted me to live they were to stop fighting instantly. Using the blood charm Ahmok gathered all the power he had in his limbs, and with one ferocious strike, he opened a wide and deep gash in its center sending it to rest dead on the ground.

After some patching up and some potions I regained consciousness. We opted to look around and search for the loot there was. Lots of corpses lay dead in the pool together with valuables and some bits of armor and weapons. On one side one could see what might have been a study area. In there we have found many valuables mainly a single arrow in a box, which after some in depth study I recognize, together with some numbered discs. At the corner there is a pedestal, the same as we had seen at the entrance.

The single arrow was built by a very old weaponsmith nethermancer named Kavia. He was famous in forging weapons of death and a legend said that he was almost an agent f death itself. However he did not forge them for himself but was commissioned to forge such weapons.

With further searching we also managed to find multiple potions, together with some books and notes. Upon further inspection by Jarl, we found a note saying:

The day is beside the earth,

Which is ablaze with the flame,

The precious rests beside the sea,

Which swings above the air.

It obviously aimed the puzzle with the different colors resembling the elements we had found earlier. We opted to rest as we were tired and somewhat beaten up.

The day after we woke up, place the key in the pedestal and turn the mechanism, clockwise. Whilst doing so the brass wall started to open up allowing the rays of the sun to enter and fill up the whole place. The fresh air we were missing, suddenly filled our lungs. Whilst heading up Elessar contacts Wolf and tells him all about our findings and killings. Wolf tells him that the hand is all out for the hunt for our heads. We are also told that it is impossible for us to win over Rasmussen alone as it would take an army to fight an army. But Wolf assures us that an army is massing up so as to fight against Rasmussen.

The spirit asked us to melt the discs, so when up I immediately headed towards a tree and started to chop it down so as to make shift a forge. With the help of the others and a day of hard work, I managed to build a makeshift forge and melt the discs together with fixing up the oricalcum rod we had found.

DUNGEON CRAWL!!!!

As we crossed the threshold, stale air rushed towards us filling our lungs in the almost unbreathable atmosphere; this place had been closed for quite some time. We decided to go in with all the equipment and if needed leave some behind inside. It turned out to be the right choice as when we were inspecting the three man wide corridor, the entrance we came through started to close again. We ended up in pitch darkness. We used our two quartz crystals to light the place and some torches too. We took in our surroundings and the corridor in front of us. The left turn beyond the main door led to a sort of circular corridor. Curiously the right wall was made of coppery/brassy metal. At the time we were wondering what was the purpose of such a wall. We would discover that later. The structure was definitely man made as the walls showed signs of name giver intervention.
We proceeded cautiously onwards and on our left found a small room that seemed to be an old guard room. Empty, broken weapon racks lined one of the walls and broken furniture was all over the place. Most of the furniture was smashed as if intentionally, the place was ransacked in days of old. Moving an overturned bunk, we found a skeleton wearing some sort of uniform. It had several puncture wounds on its torso but there seemed to be a huge gash just underneath where the heart would be, that would have been the fatal blow. Elessar decided to cast a spell on the bones of the unfortunate guard. The spell, he explained, was the same one he used on the slain corpse of Aubrin Forrest back in Daiche. It would reveal the last moments of his life and hopefully his assassin. It turned out that this poor guy was killed by a comrade who, we surmised, was either possessed due to his facial expression while driving his sword through this guys chest; a look of complete indifference. This was not good news at all. The last time we brushed with ghosts it turned out quite nasty with me possessed, Ivor on the brink of death and Elessar quite dead; both at my hands. Had it not been for Jarl's spells we would probably not be in this dungeon today. That said we had to keep going as the way out was blocked anyway. We just made sure that I stayed as rearguard.

We continued on through the circular corridor and on our left again was a staircase leading up. Upon investigation it led to a balcony overlooking a large, dark hall. Meanwhile Elessar was continuously casting spells to detect any undead creatures, especially ghosts. The balcony led nowhere else so we decided to go back to the corridor which eventually led us to the entrance of the main hall we had seen from up there. We realised that the floor was covered with scattered bones of fallen guards and other civilians. From their attire we assumed that these were civilians and the large hall was a ballroom. Elessar detected a pair of undead creatures that turned out to be two cadaver men; a troll and an elf. Cyrellion darted on the opposite side of the hall to take a good position to shoot with his bow. Ivor and Elessar advanced towards the two cadaver men while Jarl and me stayed back in the doorway just in case there were ghosts. Jarl cast icy surface around the two zombies and from out of nowhere came skeletons with razor sharp claws or wielding weapons. The combat was swift and deadly, especially to the undead creatures. Elessar took the brunt of damage from one of his spells while trying to lock the undead troll in a battle of wills. The rest of us were relatively unharmed barring a few scratches and light wounds. After the skirmish, we searched the hall and found a few trinkets worth a few hundred silvers. Onwards through the corridor we found another staircase that led to another balcony similar to the one we saw previously.

Further on, always on the left, was a small corridor with three doors. The middle one, according to Elessar harbored an undead creature. After dispatching the skeleton that rushed towards us upon opening the second door, we found out the rooms were probably state rooms that were once lavishly furnished and decorated with tapestries and frescoes. Moving ever onwards we find another two sets of similar rooms. In one of the rooms, behind a makeshift barricade we also found the corpse of an adventurer who seems to be an elf thief from his gear. His decomposing body also revealed the cause of death. Through despair or maybe as a last ditch attempt to save his soul, the poor adventurer cut his own throat and stomach open before succumbing to his wounds. Reluctantly we search his body and find a set of true earth shards similar to the squarish key we had found in the swamps, the one that opened the door to here. I muttered a silent prayer before leaving the corpse and taking his two ornate daggers to put them to better use.

While treading onwards we also realise that the corridor is also sloping downwards ever so slightly, almost imperceptible. We also find a dining hall. Entering the hall we find a rows of tables and on the middle one a huge mound of bones and weapons. On our left we see two fake fireplaces that were probably lit magically to emanate heat. Upon investigation the mound starts floating upwards
and menacingly moved towards us. Without beating an eyelid Cyrellion shoots a flaming arrow at the creature striking its core and dealing lots of hurt while I rushed the 'beast' hitting it very hard from underneath. With a combination of sword blows, arrows and spells the Bone Shambler falls to pieces within a few seconds of the first attack.