Hi,
One by one you ascended the arrow-grapple's rope into the shell's lower “flute-hole” and vanished, finding yourselves sucked down a spiralling, slippery chute into the depths of the shell, and able to arrest your descent by grabbing the one side passage deep within. Boamund's Glow spell proved invaluable down there, and with haste you entered the passage because although the breeze in the storm-chute was oddly gentle, its effects on your minds were powerful, slowly churning your brains into a stormy soup.
The passage was wide enough for one of you to proceed at a time, so Boamund led to a crossroads. Immediately he was beset by three wraiths, of an ancient Zorak Zorani troll, an Orlanthi barbarian and a Magastan merman (Ludoch/dolphin-kin). This was a bad position to be in, so eventually he was able to back off into the passage rather than get triple-teamed, and two of the wraiths travelled through the spirit plane to get through the walls to attack Miguel and Ahappi. While Boamund was sorely wounded, with some magics and Miguel's manoeuvring back into the chute to allow Fraud to help, you dispatched the wraiths one by one.
Next you investigated the passage to the right of the crossroads, which widened into a chamber-like set of passages (All carved into the shell itself, like everything here) that zigzagged sharply. Everyone except Boamund was struck with terrible headaches that left them moaning, but he continued onward and found that the passages made the shape of a Water Rune, and at one end there was a hidden trap door in the floor, which he pried open. Ahappi went down there, as the chamber below was flooded with rank seawater. Inside, it was hard to discern what the chamber held but there were bars or grills that seemed to form side chambers, all flooded with this murky, debris-clogged water. He called out, hoping to find live prisoners, but there was no reply. Seeing only a passage outward that led back into the “storm-spiral” and thence either down into the exit of the shell or back up the “slide” whence you came, he returned to you and you went back to the crossroads.
There, Boamund chose to climb up the left passage which was a corkscrewing, tight tunnel straight vertically. As he emerged into a chamber at the top, he saw a shiny metal sphere shoot a big harpoon at his head, just in time to drop down and slide back down the tunnel, avoiding it. More warily now, he crept up, using his shield to protect himself, and blocked another harpoon as he stood on the rectangular chamber's floor. One by one the harpoons kept coming, and he became hopelessly pincushioned with them (in four different body parts!), so he sank to the floor covering himself with his shield. Meanwhile, Ahappi had climbed up and charged it, dealing some powerful spear-blows that endured the tough metal armour of the strange hovering machine. Fraud joined in, blocking its harpoon-shot at Boamund and then taking an impaling wound to his leg, but also dealing the final blow that clove it in twain. It was made of fine silver with elegant, alien mechanisms within (Miguel, climbing up, saw what seemed like a mechanical brain, muscle-like lever appendages for harpoon-shooting, and an Air rune-carved magical hovering mechanism?), so you bagged it up for loot. It had been a desperate fight so you spent time extracting impaled harpoons and healing. There was no exit from this plain chamber except another iron portal which seemed to only be openable magically; and it probably led back to/toward the hut.
The last passage from the crossroads led briefly downwards then levelled off to enter a larger crossroad-chamber with a pall of gloom about it. Boamund saw a strange skull embedded in the floor, encircled with Death Runes, so Miguel shot it with a Firearrow. That brought forth a roar from the left side of the chamber and a horrid thing came shuffling out to attack you, facing Ahappi and Boamund together. It was barely humanoid, as big as a troll but with four arms ending in huge claws, covered in patches of scales and metal and pachyderm-like hide, and topped with a skeletal shark-like head whose eyes were beset with glowing white crystals. (Crystals embedded in inhabitants here became a clear theme for how the Shell Island complex functioned) It was a terrible foe, implacable in its furious hunger to destroy, and it tore open Boamund's abdomen armour and kept clawing at it while it fended off your blows with its other arms. It also proved invulnerable to magics such as Fraud's Darkstrike. But Ahappi kept hewing at it with his harpoon, and Fraud squeezed around Miguel to engage it from the side, so you whittled it down and eventually stove in its head with multiple blows, ?Fraud dealing the final one. That was another challenging battle, and more healing was supplied. The chamber turned out to be shaped as a Death Rune, with two more skulls embedded in opposite ends: a man's, and what must have been a merman's, matching the wraiths encountered below. Ahappi immediately surmised this and you agreed, and it became clear how this Godlearner place had huge runes carved into it-by this “digging beast”, whose claw marks were evident at one far end and elsewhere, to enchant its powers over Water, Death and (via the spiral shape itself; a Storm Rune) Air.
But now there was no way to go except up- you explored the “slide” down to where Ahappi had swam in the cage-chamber, and saw the great whirlpool that was at the exit of the shell, which Ahappi warned must be lethal to enter. The storm-chute was a slow climb and its mental-storm was slowly, awfully ripping your minds asunder. Yet you ascended to the peak of the spire, where the chute narrowed and terminated (there was only an opening where the air came inward here). Wisely, Boamund looked for a hidden portal and found one: it was a circular panel set into the shell wall, with hinges but not a clear way to open it. Hurrying, he swapped places with Miguel who figured out how to twist it back and forth, sending it spiralling inward to open it. A blast of foetid air assailed you-centuries of rot unleashed. Inside, a foul caricature of a human stood up from what might have been a chair. It was covered in yellow-green mucus, had empty eye-sockets with an unspeakable aura of nihilism projecting from them, sported terrible talons, and was armour-plated, with a glowing red crystal set in its chest. The once-human flesh of its body swirled with its own bizarre storm, mirroring that of the Island. To one side of it stood the Caretaker, scowling furiously, and he commanded it to slay you as he taunted you with your impending doom, gesturing to a skeleton of an ill-fated “heroquester” that lay to one side of the chamber and proclaiming that this island's task imparted by “Marinto Blue” would not be stopped by you, either. Battle was on!
And it was the most difficult battle yet. Ahappi tried to charge the Caretaker but the Thing was there to stop him, and it did-it cut loose with a flurry of blows that dropped him with a bite to the face, which it held onto. It proved to have nigh-impenetrable armour especially on the crystalline chest. Boamund ran to help as Ahappi fell, and he tripped it but it kept fighting mercilessly (and skilfully). Fraud reached the Caretaker just in time to smack him with his sword (the wizard had tried to block the blow with his cane but failed), ruining the sorceror's massive “Warp Flesh” spell he was about to throw on all of you (ohh that would have been bad!). The Caretaker himself had sorcerous Damage Resistance that protected him strongly. Yet then Miguel, who had carefully nocked his Adamant arrow, let it fly. It flew true, striking the Caretaker in his forehead and killing him instantly! As he fell, the black-glowing crystal set into his chest beneath his thin robes fell apart, into three inert red, green and blue parts. So just as the battle had seemed to be headed toward your doom, it quickly turned. Fraud ran to help Boamund, who was suffering from multiple wounds, and he struck the Thing in the arm that had gripped Boamund's leg, severing it and sending the Thing into shock. With a well-aimed blow, then, it wasn't hard to finish it off, and its glowing chest-crystal died. Miguel had fetched back his precious arrow and then applied first aid to awaken Ahappi, who conjured a great Regenerate spell to heal you all.
You dared not return into the storm-chute, as the Island still seemed to be operative, but stayed in this wretched upper chamber to recover. Everything here was coated in that mucus, and on inspection there was ancient furniture: a set of shell-formed countertops set into the “M” form of a Mastery rune, and they had rune-carvings beneath them and the smashed remnants of gadgetry. The Thing had stood up from a bronze chair shaped like a Stasis rune (“D”) in the middle of those counters. There were no windows or other exits.
But Miguel checked out the fallen heroquester's body and found, beneath the mucus-coating, that it still wore a fine suit of iron chainmail (fits SIZ 11-15) and had held a nice silver broadsword (basic stats but is enchanted silver; harms magical things etc), and wore a black ring embossed with a Darkness rune on one finger (??). Touching these things to put them into another loot-sack, he was struck by a vision from recent years: a tall, athletic man in fine foreign attire over his armour stepped forth from a swirling magical portal into this chamber, his eyes blazing with dark energy. Magical runes of Law and Darkness danced around him: he was an Arkati heroquester! Miguel had a brief insight into the man: he was Talion Dark-Eye from the Ralios city-state of Safelster, attempting to contact one of the hero-forms of Arkat (Liberator) on a heroquest in search of his lost weapons, but terribly wounded in body and spirit on the hero plane by mysterious enemies. He tried to flee via the quickest route he could find, and so stepped out here-and fell victim to the Thing, which had lost its soul but used the Chamber's power to draw his into it, giving Shell Island newfound power although its focus remained random, as Chaos taint seeped into the Thing. But now, with the death of the Caretaker and Thing, that power was broken-and you had freed Talion Dark-Eye's soul! He now went on to the Solace of the Arkati Underworld. (for an informative read on Arkati and a cool pic: <a href=“https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/ask-and-ye-shall-receive-the-seven-faces-of-arkat/” target=“_blank”>Ask and ye shall receive the seven faces of arkat</a> )
Up to Gordon's decision: that contact with the raw power of Arkat may or may not have influenced Miguel; he could gain a Passion if you want, but this is optional for how you want your PC to develop…
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