As you approached the sunken tomb of whatever force of anti-Life vexed Quick Sister, some of you began feeling itching from old bug bites that had long since been healed. In Cyroosta's case, these bites erupted into a skin-sloughing disease that caused her to lose some of her left arm's skin. Maugis treated the disease with some herbs and salves, then Miguel healed her and the infestation seemed resolved.
The mangrove tree was warped into a twisted spire with spiky branches, bits of skeletons incorporated into its trunk, and a foul crust of bubbling green swamp fungus/algae. Around it, muddy pools bubbled and fumed with stinking wafts of vapour. You shuddered, but even Miguel was not dissuaded from continuing your quest. There was a muddy hole where the root system of the tree should be, and the Captain and Boamund strode in after casting a few magics. Immediately they found that the tunnel leading below was flooded (no surprise in these swamps), so the Captain cast an Abjure Breath spell after you ascertained that this must be the only entrance. However, this spell was snuffed out by some suppressive enchantments on the tree/crypt.
With some experimentation, you found that only sorcery (even quite strong spells) was impeded, so you devised a new plan. The Baronet turned into his eel form, using his special magical miracle, and (under Cyroosta's protests) swam to investigate the flooded tunnel using his darksight. It corkscrewed down for about 30 meters, then came to an area where hot water jetted out of the walls where masonry protruded from the muck. He retreated, you debated a plan, and then agreed to take the Captain down with him (roped and holding onto the giant eel-Lord) with a Light spell on his harpoon. This worked- the Baronet dodged the hot water jets and swam through an archway at the end of a straight passage. That arch had wicked necrotic energies protecting it (and holding the water back), causing some wounds.
The small chamber beyond was moist and covered in more of the nasty bubbly slime-stuff, but it was not flooded. There was simply a giant stone slab occupying the centre, with a skeletal sculpture lying prone atop it, and many runes and carvings (you'd seen Undeath, Magic and Stasis as common runes throughout the complex). You translated some old Seshnegi writing atop the slab as:
“May black bile vomit from the Mouth of Hrestol. May the loins of the Army of Justice become spears that rip their matriarchs asunder. May the seas boil and bleed, choked with the flesh of rent merfolk. May the shadows weep in molten, flayed flames, the tombs of women birth only maggots that their children cannibalize with obese ardour, and the rivers run thick with pus. All these things shall come to pass when baleful Umbrodriith, the Nasty, Brutish and Short, shrugs off his slumber and brings merciless judgement to the traitors. We await Him here, shrouded in his power, fuming with hatred of Life.”
–Mouth of Hrestol refers to Saint Yomil, a famed Hrestoli prophet, and seemingly nothing to do with Yomil/Yomili of Giranois necromancer and foe-of-Granno fame. Army of Justice is the Pithdaran army that settled here in the 2nd Age. Umbrodriith meant nothing to any of you; the rest seemed to be symbolic of something else, but the whole area was unsurprisingly of 2nd Age design.
The brave Baronet took many eel-trips up and down the tunnel to ferry the whole party inside, with little mishap at all. There was only another archway on the other side of the room, and he saw that it led to a short straight passage. Most people swam across; at least Maugis was ferred again by the Baronet, and soon you were all through the next archway (these arches were different; they just made you shiver uncomfortably rather than raked you with death magic). Even Miguel dog-paddled across.
The second, oblong chamber was twice as wide and had arches filled with black energy on either side. The rest of the room contained a big pool choked with sludge and bits of flesh and other unpalatable things. Cyroosta was incapacitated for a while with vomiting. Ciddar, who'd come through after the Captain, checked out one of the archways and found that its thick dark magic resisted his passage and sent whispers into his mind that unnerved him. As he withdrew, and the others came spilling into the room, the Captain was curiously prodding the pond with his harpoon. Things inside reacted to it, stirring from centuries of slumber, and emerging as skeletal, humanoid reptile/amphibian things, short but strong and fast, with bony barbed tail-tips and many tiny sharp teeth and claws. A battle was on!
Three rounds later, after many heroics and scares, this was the situation: The Captain was beset by three skeletons, one of which was dispatched soon enough (after leaving behind its spear-tail, still stuck in the Captain's leg) but the other two wrestled him into the steaming pool, which began cooking him. They managed to drag him under for a while, then one slipped free and Miguel stabbed the other through its head, freeing the Captain. Others came to help as you dispatched most of the remaining skeletons, and the Baronet (back in human form, wielding the shining light of Menekeyil's Blade) threw a rope near the Captain. Ciddar had to run to escape a double-team of skeletons, but one impaled him and gave him a bad wound. Maugis's staff proved very effective at tripping and crushing them, and Cyroosta was exhorting you all onwards to victory. Ciddar and Cyroosta still face two skeletons together, and one remains swimming in the pool near the Captain. The fight has turned your way, with seven skeletal creatures shattered now. But what are they and why are they here? And will you extricate the Captain before he is a cooked, defleshed skeleton like them?
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