| |
The party looks around the pleasant
room and Morin casually fills a water flask as he gazes about
and takes a good drink. The room is as you had previously
surmised as you inspect it in more detail - a few small mammals
scurry or burrow into hiding but it seems to be a fine garden,
and well looked after.
The exits lead into further greenery and larger trees, glancing
though the arches – there are three options (north,
south and west). The western option drops down a little to
a narrow river that runs through the garden beyond these walls.
It would appear to go for some distance and there is a boat
moored just through the archway. The southern route seems
to be a small area where seedlings and shrubs are being nurtured
and this joins smoothly into the 'main' garden
The northern archway leads to a second, much bigger garden.
The four adventurers head this way and gain a better overview
of the entire surroundings. The river runs all the way across
the garden and keeps going beyond the walls, it appears.
From the outer garden, it is a steep 15ft drop to the water.
There is no bridge but the smaller garden allows dry passage
from one side to the other.
The outer garden has large trees and considerable density
in certain areas as well as two exits heading further west
and north. There are also three large statues standing tall
on stone plinths.
The first statue is approached cautiously – the plinth
is tall - almost four feet high - and atop it is a well-made,
heroic stone statue of a human warrior, made to around 125%
scale, wearing splint mail and postured dramatically with
longsword thrusting forwards, left hand bent and pointing
back and upwards to perfectly balance the lunging right arm.
It seems to have the word “Edrun” in elaborate
letters on a plaque set on the plinth. As Morin ponders the
possibilities of wordplay on the first statue, Suva ambles
off through the greenery, wiping a lightly sweating brow and
approaching the next nearest statue.
It is evident as he approaches that
this is also a heroic figure, in much the same design as the
first except that this one is an elven warrior in leather
armour, sleek and impressive.
He is leaning forwards with a bow and arrow notched, aiming
somewhere towards the east wall, so that it looks as though
he is firing forwards on the run.
There is a metal plaque on the cylindrical plinth but even
as Suva is getting close enough to read it, there is sudden
movement from the copses of trees to either side. What can
only be described as lizard men – scaled green skin
and long tails, alligator heads with sharp teeth - suddenly
dart out of the trees and run, zigzagging quickly off towards
and through the north and west exits.
It's all so quick that it's difficult to tell how many there
were – perhaps 10? - but also because some effort is
needed to defend yourselves from quickly flung spears. They're
hardly cutting-edge design but they're thrown well and Suva
does well to avoid too much contact with them. Still he is
caught and lightly wounded by three.
Balin tries hard to contain himself and the party make sure
Suva is okay before checking the final statue. This one is
a dwarf, chainmail-clad with a large helm. Both hands grasp
a large axe, pointed to the front of the dwarf's body as if
sizing up courageously to a waiting foe. This one has a plaque
that reads “Lwfm” to go with the elf’s “Faha”.
With astonishing alacrity, Suva sees a solution:
“If you arrange the letters in the following way the
meaning is revealed.
EDRUN
LWFM
FAHA
Read downward from top left and you get “ELF, DWARF
and HUMAN”
What this means however, is not realised until Morin notices
that the plinth on each of the statues will actually rotate,
given some effort.
Balin, Kin and Morin take a statue each, corresponding to
their race and Suva stands more centrally. Nods and glances
indicate all are ready and then Kin begins: the statue is
heavy but the oiled mechanism is in remarkably good condition
and after a few moments the whole thing, statue and base begin
to move on the swivel with loud accompanying noise.
It's intense work but is soon accomplished; the elven archer
has his arrow pointing, to the best Kin can judge, directly
at the dwarf.
All remains still, so Balin takes his cue and eventually
has the dwarven axeman pointing at the human warrior. Morin
takes a breath, gives a sarcastic thumbs up to Suva and then
sets about rotating the human swordsman.
No sooner is the statue pointing at the elven archer than
there is suddenly a rumbling beneath the ground (and from
the west, Suva notices) and a sound like iron teeth grinding;
it's short-lived though, and in seconds, the garden returns
to normal. Nothing appears any different, although, perhaps
incited or attracted by the noise, a couple of lizard men
did momentarily appear in the northern archway before slipping
away again.
With the next step not entirely obvious, Morin heads off
to gain reconnaissance beyond the western archway and returns
soon after to inform his comrades that there are 20 or more
lizard men waiting in ambush about 100 feet in at some ruins.
Beyond them in the distance is a jungle and mountains further
still; the place is too vast for Morin’s liking!
This seems like a good time to regroup, so the party head
back to the inner garden and after a little discussion, decide
to move on to find the rest of teh party, rather than awating
their return..
The party heads out of the curious tropical region into the
more mundane corridors. As the t-junction is reached, decision
of direction is made by the noises coming from the east.
Instinct takes over and the party moves swiftly on: Jarek
would surely have checked for traps and this is where the
sound comes from so it must be them?
The eastern corridor quickly ends with a widened room and
an archway - there is no time to take in the details, but
you are aware that beyond the arch, there is still a perfect
insane sky but it is dark, starry with unrecognisable constellations
and moonlit.
A hard crescent moon provides the light in this area, ample
to see by, and clear enough to show a room cluttered with
masonry and broken furniture. At the room's end a door is
open and here the noises come from but are now less in volume.
Swiftly, ignoring details, and with concern, the party moves
on into the beckoning room to find, with some relief, the
rest of the party.
It's much, much colder here.
It is at the south door that the party stands. Darius is
still leaning his weight against it as Jarek moves away, quite
clearly having finished locking it.
Dalrylshana is trying to entice Sybelius over to her and
looks a little hassled, whilst Jiriki looks furious. And is
bleeding. |
 |
Moving off Darius, Dalrylshana,
Jiriki and Jarek soon pass the turning to the corridor they
entered by and reach another t-junction as their compatriots
begin to explore about the garden.
North, the bright corridor widens diagonally until finally
ends in large, ominous double doors. East, the corridor continues
some distance before reaching a small room with an archway;
the four move eastwards to investigate further.
The area beyond the archway is lit by moonlight. There is
sky again above the high walls, but this sky has dots of unrecognisable
constellations and a bright crescent moon which, ample illumination
to see by. It is a very curious effect to see two entirely
different skies, separated only by the width of an arch -
all the sky above looks blue from one side of the arch but
all the sky beyond it is moonlit.
Through the archway is a long room. There are the remains
of damaged chairs and a table here and there. Bits of masonry
are scattered on the floor, suggesting that there were once
stone bats or some similar creature attached to the walls.
It's cold here and it looks unkempt and abandoned; a door
opposite beckons.
Jarek checks the door and discovers it to be safe and actually
very slightly ajar. Peeping through the small gap, the room
beyond seems large and grim but empty of any obvious threat.
It looks like a garden but is almost the antithesis of the
one you have seen: moonlit as it is, it's quite clear that
a number of the plants are actually black.
Stepping cautiously into the garden, the party advance. Sybelius
and Jax are very quiet - there's something eerie on a level
that concerns their natural instincts here. There are four
pools, one at each corner, which balefully reflect the moonlight
and stars: the clarity of the sky should make this quite pleasant
but the cold is beginning to the bite and the ground-level
surroundings are too bleak to allow relaxation. Doors are
in the north and south walls.
There are ferns and flowers and shrubs all about but every
last one of them is black, from stem to leaf to petal.
In the centre of the garden, there is a table with what look
like a selection of bottles upon it - and perhaps a piece
of parchment.
There are a number of glass tubes in a wooden rack, mostly
empty now, and six small glass bottles, three of which are
cracked and empty. However, one tube has a viscous liquid
still in it and three of the glass bottles still contain some
dark liquids, each one different.
The parchment is sat on the table with two of the cracked
bottles at its corners. Some writings still remain, although
damage and fading has removed most of it. The little that
can still be read, reads as follows:
"....no matter what I try. The moon magic is sucking
all the nature and vitality out of this subworld but however
I bend it to my will, still the affliction remains, without
remission. Perhaps the sun......"
"...more than just blackness; something lurks, waiting
and plotting. I can feel its imagination, alien and fetid,
pressing a.."
Leaving the glass bottles and the table for now, and urged
on by curiosity and Jiriki's unfailingly light spirits, the
odd ambience given up by the black garden is overcome in favour
of pressing onwards through the door south, which Jarek has
unlocked.
The door opens into a room which looks similar at first –
black plants under the moonlight. But it is quickly obvious
that there is more here. There are remains of bodies dotted
about, a skeleton in armour leaning against a black tree over
here, finger bones pointing up at the silvered crescent from
an arm bone set in the soil there.
There's the hint of a breeze and it brings dry, dusty air.
Darius and Jiriki head towards the body of a fallen warrior
(one more cautiously than the other) as Jarek and Dalrylshana
head into the room to investigate other remains.
The party are but a few steps in when a sound makes them
go quite still: it's like the clicking of cockroaches. A number
of wisps of dark grass suddenly flip and reveal themselves
to be the legs of four large spiders. Their bodies are thin
and hard-looking and they clearly are about to attack from
scant feet away, one to each member of the party.
Jarek and Jiriki both suddenly feel stabbing pain in their
stomachs and a cold sweat beads across their foreheads - they
remember the giant spider in the vampire's catacombs; its
poison has not fully left their blood and they are struggling
to quell an unnatural fear, particularly Jarek whose brow
furrows harshly as he focuses his will.
A shrill but rasping voice drifts into the air like shattered
bloody bones being dragged over stone: "Some of you carry
spiderkin in your blood; we will honour you and eat you last."
The earth behind the four spiders moves and a red glow spreads
into the moonlit room giving an eerie additional colour to
the dark plant stems. A large body lifts effortlessly upwards
to reveal a huge spider creature. Two humanoid skulls, glowing
red, sit awkwardly at the front of the beast and glare eyelessly
down as one of the skulls speaks again.
"My master will have your soulssssssss."
The second skull grins malefically as the teeth clack open
and shut.
Jiriki's response to the situation is that which only one
of barbarian blood could muster - freeing himself from fear
that he knew he should not have (and aiding Jarek into the
bargain), he leaps forward, eager for battle and revenge at
being so humbled. The spider nearest him is almost attcked
but at the last moment, Jiriki leaps across it, using it as
a step, to battle its master.
As he steps on the beast a cracking sound gives up how frail
they really are.
Dalrylshana has already reacted and magic dances around her
arms as Jarek and Darius move forwards, weapons drawn.
Abruptly there is a sound to the left, like crunching breaking
bones, an awful sound. The four spiders seem unaffected but
by now the party are already starting to realise that they
are little more than automatons. The main figure's speaking
head moves momentarily but then snaps forwards quickly levelling
itself at Dalyrlshana as the second skull changes from glowing
red to ebony black.
Jiriki recovers its attention with a scything blow that has
black ichor jetting across the room. Jarek and Darius have,
with one blow apiece, levelled their own assailants, if momentarily
distracted and bitten by virtue of the noise from the left.
They are recovered and ready enough for their next move to
see Jiriki fearfully struck by a vicious leg and
knocked 8 feet back.
Dalrylshana is still concentrating when the now ebony skull
unleashes a bolt of darkenss, glinting in the moonlight, that
staggers her backwards and leaves her coughing up bile.
Darius has seen enough and harshly orders a retreat –
Jarek follows as Darius moves towards the door and Jiriki,
though keen for battle, is not stupid and will not give himself
up as the only combatant. Within seconds, the hissing of the
spider beast behind, the party are back in the room with the
pools, Darius leaning against the door as Jarek locks it again.
|
|
