You opened the bronze doors and saw a great sorceror's chamber/prison/torture chamber beyond, in a grand old stony hall. A cloud of darkness lay at the rear of it, and a stone table with the Baronet's moaning body atop it, and many hanging captives and other horrors— but worst of all, there was Yomil the Necromancer, who played the role of Malia but was so powerful he did not bother going by her name.
Yomil manifested as a semi-corporeal, long-armed dark spirit in elaborate, demonic sorceror's attire and visage. He wielded some of the most powerful necromantic sorcery you've seen- slinging a Palsy spell back at Maugis, trying to choke him with dark cords, ripping strips of flesh off the guts of Maugis and Inyana (and nearly killing, or perhaps briefly killing, Maugis toward the end), blasting people with necrotic bolts of death magic, and more.
Yomil was attended by some of his many demons- two bony draconic things that walked sometimes on 2 or 4 legs and could breathe freezing ice crystal clouds, and two shape-morphing tentacled things in chains, whose slimy tentacles ate through nonliving matter if they touched it. Ciddar, Cyroosta, Boamund and Ahappi faced off against these while Inyana sang or healed and Maugis tried various spells, while suffering some nasty magics from the necromancer.
You beat down the demons soon enough, but Ciddar lost his shield and Boamund his helmet to the foul slime. By the time Inyana rushed the sorcerer in desperation, with Ciddar, Ahappi and then Boamund close at hand, the deadly magics of Yomil were taking their toll. Yomil even caught Boamund's hurled spear and threw it back (although he missed), and he was holding his own against Ciddar and Ahappi while preparing one of his worst spells. But as he readied to cast that spell, and it looked like it might slay several of you, something very unexpected happened.
Out of the cloud of darkness that fed Yomil with magic and demons, the dark-skinned goblin-thing that had followed you through the underworld and stolen the Baronet's body leapt upon the wounded sorcerer, stomping on him and pounding him into the floor with surprising strength. Soon the necromancer was just a blob of darkness that squished into the cracks of the masonry and was gone. Tittering maliciously, the mysterious, treacherous goblin leapt back into the darkness and, too, was gone. You were left close to death, but Inyana's love for her husband invoked the power you'd seen unleashed from her before, and its light bathed and healed you, even returning Maugis from the brink of death!
You released the Baronet's body, healed yourselves, and ensured that the chamber was clear of foes or items of interest, and soon you had left the now-silent Shrieking Cells, rejoining the silent Darilios and leaving him behind (Cyroosta mustering her best rationale for not trying to bring him with/instead of her son). And so you returned, triumphant, to the Court of Silence!
The prophet Malkion greeted you and explained the challenges you now faced: to repair the Baronet's broken body (the necromancer had turned his head into partly undead flesh— ugh!) and to put the spirit back into it once clean, with a head reforged from river clay. Each of you had to play a role, and the stakes were very high but the tasks were not so difficult. You drank from the Font of Life to recover your own energy, but the Captain refused to. The Prophet recited your prior case for saving the Baronet, and gave you surprisingly little trouble about it- you had done well on your quest and his eyes had seen it all. He even granted you leave to whisper in the court.
The Sailor/Captain cut off the corrupt head of the Baronet, cleanly and with an expression of satisfaction, using Boamund's sword. The head flew over to land at the feet of the unflinching Prophet. Maugis Wizard, recalling his brief glimpse of Solace while dying, peacefully took clay from the River of Nothingness. Cyroosta/Wise Woman used her pottery skills and love of her family to make a new head for her son, one that seemed to look more like her husband… Ciddar/Veteran carried the body back to the court but had to pause along the way because the burden was so hard to bear. Boamund/Sir K gracefully, gently, ceremoniously washed the body in the Font of Life, and life began to return to it! Inyana/Queen then spoke poignantly to her love, choking back tears (of joy and sadness- she knew her fate was yet to be resolved), reminding him of his family members names and rekindling both his love and his memories of his former life.
The Baronet/Froalar was back! But Inyana, overwhelmed with emotion and crying out loud (raising the ire of the Prophet), fled the Court while the others felt their passions for the Baronet or his family ebb or grow. (Ciddar: add +20 to Loyalty to Shaven Family!) You were urged to leave the Court.
And when you left, you found a terrible price had been wrought by the quest. Inyana lay dead, speared through the back, with horse hoof-prints all around her. Yomil's servants had found her and exacted the ultimate price as “Malia”'s vengeance; the “Black Swelling” of the myth. Cyroosta knelt down and did a quick ritual that shifted Inyana's spirit into a clay pot she carried, but Baronet Shaven, crestfallen and disoriented, unclear of what your quest had entailed, confronted her and argued about this cold-hearted deed. Cyroosta, with some help from Boamund (and glares from Ahappi, who would have said something if he could), argued him to grumbling acquiescence.
So you left the Underworld, a family reunited but still rifted with discord!
You passed through not a wall of darkness as before, but a wall of light and heat (take 1 pt to all locations). One of you saw visions of sky realms when keeping their eyes open inside that wall (Ciddar?). Beyond the wall lay not Ethilrist's fortress, but a ruin of a golden fortress. There stood a fantastic being!
It was a Talanim, you all knew as Malkioni people would. An angel! Fierce and six-winged, four-headed, flamesword-bearing; a warrior essence from Solace, and most stern of disposition. All of you but the Captain kneeled before it in obeisance, but it looked on you with scorn and would speak only with the Captain! It told of how enemies of Makan had destroyed this holy fortress and Ahappi was blessed to be the agent of vengeance! He had been absolved of any sin from killing these foes– named as the Red Vadeli! Ahappi was touched on the forehead by the angel and glowed with its pure power, which washed his body clean of unsound essence– he lost his scales, his draconic leg, and even healed his peg leg and worm-eaten tongue! Glorious and shining in appearance, he strode out of the cave and you followed him, urged to “not get in his way” by the cajoling Talanim. You passed through ancient golden gates (the Gates of Dawn, not Dusk!), half-smashed, and into the Mortal realm again… somewhere else. Where? You would find out.
But the light of day revealed the end of your quest magics, and your identities returned to normal. All of you could not help but stare at Baronet Shaven. While his face still bore a semblance of Baronets Shaven (Fraud and Darilios both!), it was not human. It was a python-like serpent's head! The quest had wrought another great change: the noble Shaven lineage's ties back to King Froalar's line had been enhanced, and like King Froalar experienced, the serpentine power of the land had been imposed upon his body!
Relevant myth parts:
As they first saw the broken, tormented, groaning body of Froalar, Xemela wept and knew she would suffer the most for this, but they retrieved him and brought him to the Font of Life where his health would be restored and his body renewed.
Xemela and the family then spoke with the distraught, disoriented Froalar and had to remind him of his duties and dreams back in the land of the living, to draw him back from wanting death more than life. But they succeeded, and began to leave the Underworld together as a family renewed.
But Malia had plotted her vengeance, and they felt its power then; the Black Swelling was unleashed. However, the wise woman spoke calming words to Froalar, and he did not turn back to live in the shadows evermore, but strode forward with divine inspiration, albeit a heavy heart.
Departing through the Gates of Dusk, the family felt the first rays of Dawn strike them, and the full glory of the Invisible God struck them dumb with awe. Froalar had been chosen and blessed to lead his family forward, and he sought new paths to do so. In time, Xemela's sacrifice became legend to all the land. And although her body vanished and Froalar wept many a tear, hissing a pledge of eternal hatred for Malia, the power of her spirit lingered and would protect Froalar's homeland evermore, watching over them from Solace.
King Froalar, following the old woman guide's wise words, courted and won a new wife, Seshna Likita. Some back at home missed their former Queen Xemela and said they had heard foul rumours, that Froalar had been bitten by a snake which ensorcelled him to love this new wife and murder the old. Unshaken, Froalar spoke profound words in his castle to them that proved his love and honour to be true, and that the quest and sacrifice that had brought him back to the world was Righteous. The people cheered him and welcomed their new Queen. Froalar and Seshna then founded a dynasty that shook off the throes of the Greater Darkness. Together, with their loyal family ever by their side, they boldly led their land into the Dawn, with a powerful legacy whose echoes resound today. But that is another story.
Broader myths of Froalar that you'd all know and be talking about:
Froalar- Father of Hrestol and Ylream, the king of Seshneg at the Dawning married the pagan earth goddess Seshna Likita and was transformed into an immortal prophetic serpent with a human head.
The Serpent Kings were descended from King Froalar and Seshna Likita, pagan high priestess of the land of Seshneg. The first of their dynasty was Prince Ylream, who had serpents' tails in place of his legs; his successors were similarly and variously malformed. With overt assistance from their powerful ancestress, said by some to be a goddess, they took possession of all the lands where her power was recognised. After a hundred and fifty years of steady expansion, the whole peninsula of Seshnela was within their grasp; at this triumphant point the dynasty died out. In the next half-century, the Hrestoli Church established itself in the Kingdom of Seshneg. A revisionist movement called the True Hrestol Way was predominant; angered by Seshna's treatment of their founder, they condemned the corrupting pagan ways of the Serpent Kings, whose temple-tombs were sealed over. (*you had found one of these tombs last year on Giraine and plundered it for snake-crystals! Now lost?*)
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