At the end of last session, we left the party lurking in front of another door deep in the cellars of Fangwood Keep. Before they could open it, however, they heard a sound from behind them. As they readied for combat, a human male – who identified himself as Garinor – emerged from the stygian darkness.
It transpired Garinor was a cleric and was searching for Krorz. As a renown hero of the realm, Krorz has been invited to the wedding of Prince Alain and Lady Evaleigh. Although the event was several months away (in Brewfest) the venue for the event was the capital of Ratik, Marner, and so the guests were being given plenty of warning. Krorz didn’t seem that fussed by the invitation and Garinor elected to remain with the group in the meantime. It was lucky he did.
With the social niceties out of the way, the party proceeded onwards. Beyond the door, they found a strange room replete with more odd machinery (later identified as water wheels). A tangled mass of vegetation grew here and amid it lurked a yellow musk creeper and three of its victims. Both Krorz and Tzaran’s snake companion were overcome by the creeper’s spores in the ensuing combat, but the creeper and its zombie minions were slain before it could send its tendrils questing into their brains.
Moving on, the party discovered another strange room. In this area, odd trees grew down from the ceiling. A huge dog – identified as a barrow hound – laired here. The dog gave Dregak a terrible bite wound once combat had broken out and shortly thereafter the party withdrew, protected by the druidic powers of Tzaran who managed to befriend the beast (to a certain extent). Ulmo’s powers in particular were almost depleted and several of the party had suffered wounds by this point. They retreated to rest and Montigue and Garinor tended their companions.
The next day, the party were sufficiently recovered to continue. They returned to the barrow hound’s lair, and after Tzaran gifted it a deer he had caught in the woodlands surrounding the keep it allowed them to pass through a door to the west. Here they discovered a room with yet another strange set of apparatus set against one wall. However, unlike the others this one seemed to still be functioning – a gray nothingness hanging in space within it. Three hobgoblin skeletons covered in blood lurked in front of the device. They lurched to unlife at the party’s appearance. A fierce melee broke out. Dregak burst though the zombies into the room, only to fall prey to the paralysing magic of a hitherto invisible cleric who bore the sigil of Ashandron on her breast. (Of all those present, only Krorz could guess at the significance of this symbol – the last time he saw it was two years ago in the Sunken Citadel). The woman used her fell energise to injury the party, but her undead minions were quickly destroyed. With a shout, she leapt through the grey nothingness and disappeared. Krorz immediately leapt through after her and slowly thereafter the rest of the party followed his heroic charge.
They emerged elsewhere atop a pinnacle of rock set amid the waves of a roiling sea. A glass bridge extended away from the rock to glowing towers of glass similarly emerging from the sea. Over their heads, thick clouds blocked out sight of the moons and stars. The gigantic skeleton of a sea serpent of some sort curled about the faintly illuminated glass bridge.
Here stood at bay the woman, her hand glowing with black energy. She made several attempts to strike Krorz but his steel-trap like battle reflexes kept him safe. The next through the portal was Tzaran’s snake and it fared less well. The woman’s fell powers almost killed the snake and only Garinor’s intervention saved it from utter destruction. By now, the rest of the party had arrived the woman was heavily outnumbered. When Dregak tumbled past her to block her escape, it was all over. Ulmo finished off their attacker with a blast of magical energy.
After catching their breath, the party began to take stock of their new surroundings…
