Hello,
Miguel tried to open the door… and couldn't. Panting, he stepped aside and Fraud, then Boamund tried, then finally Ahappi pushed it open, after much thumping. A short hall led to a junk-littered chamber, coated in slime, and passages to the left (north) and right (south). The southern one had plenty of doorways lining it while the northern one's passage soon turned a sharp corner. But darkness clouded the southern passage and out of it flew two spears, one of which missed Ahappi and the other impaled him in the chest, but only lightly injuring him. As Miguel pulled him away and first aid was applied, Boamund investigated and heard splashing sounds. Down that southern passage were plenty of doors, mostly rotted and stuck half-open or ruined, and small chambers with simple straw pallets and belongings (tools, weapons, Giranois totems).
Further down, you came to a larger chamber full of junk and remnants of a fine bed; with a dark pool on the southern corner, and a strange throne of stone dyed purple and carved with odd symbols, one of three parallel lines like a Harmony rune, but horizontally not vertically. Large scales littered the slimy area around it. Surely your assailants had fled down into that pool. Miguel searched the room's junk and found a strange carved-stone skull with three horizontal eye slits, a sphincter-like fanged mouth, and four snakes or tentacles along its sides. Spotting glinting within, you inspected and Ahappi probed it warily with his fingers but discovered it must be a keyhole mechanism, granting access to the hollow chamber within that held some clinking metal object(s); perhaps silver. You could not elucidate more and deigned not to smash it, so Ahappi kept it. The skull had features matching carvings on the throne, like the “eyes” and “tentacles”. Hmm.
Back to the northern passage, Boamund had heard slithering sounds and warned of it, but nothing was there. Ink appeared scrawling on the wall “Of King Nralar one knows much; none of it flattering.” and you recalled a First Age king of Seshnela, post-Froalar, who'd hunted the Arkati and various Elder races, causing much strife; and yet living to an old age via good living. He wasn't well-liked by many. Odd. Turning the corner you came to a door, and once again it troubled you but Boamund shoved it open at last-and unsurprisingly, two spears came flying at him! They were launched by two strange Giranois standing by a central pool in a rectangular chamber rimmed with stone countertops and heavily strewn with more junk of a past age. The spears missed or barely grazed Boamund in the head. The Giranois, barely recognizable as such, were hairless, utterly naked except for an extra spear and a dagger at their ragged belt, and covered in slime, with translucent pale skin that made them almost look undead. But they were not, and they shrieked furious hatred of you “necromancers” (Ahh that again) and “glory to the mastah!” as they charged.
Ahappi stepped past Fraud while Miguel aimed his bow (after missing one) and Ahappi's spear struck home, piercing one slime-Giranois's shoulder and shattering it to pieces, ripping the arm asunder and sending the hapless dying thing sliding across the floor toward the pool. The other lost heart (failed Serve the Master; succeeded Avoid Light passions!) and ran back to the pool, diving in with grace. You let it go; Boamund had been knocked off balance with one hit and Ahappi elected to be merciful. Indeed, you healed the Giranois-thing before it bled to death, but it remained unconscious. Looking around the room, there was plenty of wreckage and some ink-scrawled symbols all over the northern walls, and a passage to a door on the far side; plus an open doorway (absent door) immediately to the south/right side of the entrance. There was an uncomfortable dweomer when you tried to use magic in this room but it did not interfere.
But Ahappi had another plan. Taking the unconscious Giranois, and casting Abjure Breath spells on them both (and later Fraud), he slid into the black pool and swam down into the subterranean shaft below. Fraud turned into an eel and followed. There was a series of narrow tunnels, then pools (many surfacing back in chambers you'd been to before), and one uncomfortable squeeze that Ahappi barely slipped through with Fraud's help (and the slime-coating), but eventually you came back to a crossroads near that entry pool. There, a spectral eel-like form had appeared, swimming in place in the slow current here, and Ahappi tried communicating in Seaspeech. A voice spoke in his mind “ Mornastan penetrated and did not withdraw” and he recollected that the Vadeli's ancestors, the Viymorni, had lived there long ago in the Godtime (<a href=“http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Mornastan” target=“_blank”>Mornastan</a>) before it was shattered. Soon the spiritual form vanished.
You returned to your comrades, explained the situation, then went back to the waters and turned down a long passage to the left/east, which opened into a large natural cavern with two more tunnels exiting its depths. At the shore was a bizarre creature (~SIZ 30; see attached pics), with a huge tail-flipper, a thick eel-like body banded with purplish scales, three horizontal black eye-slits, a nasty sphincter-like fanged mouth, and four great tentacles that it wove calmly about, as if it were conducting the “music” of the dripping water that echoed through the low cavern. On shore were piles of rocks draped with slime that Ahappi reckoned were a form of “abstract art”, and also a dozen or so of the slimy Giranois including a much more scaly “elder” who began shouting for it to “Rip their minds asunder, four-armed master!” But it did not, although once it mindspoke its words were almost deafening in your heads. You were most disturbed when Ahappi showed it the Giranois you'd “saved” and it lazing reached for it with one tentacle, slowly dragged it over to it, and began munching on the comatose body. The Giranois on shore praised their clansman's glorious gift to The Master.
It began with stating/asking “Is it time.” Then after any response, “The seas have closed and opened.” Then “Again will the cycle come.” Then “You are here to serve the cycle.” Fraud was the only one who could understand it at first, and he responded in the affirmative, which seemed OK with it. Ahappi eventually learned it could speak many tongues (learned by eating the brains of many tongues, it said-eew) and joined in in Seaspeech.
It appreciated your politeness and, while very alien in its intelligence and seemingly mad in its conduct, it conveyed some vital information via much roundabout conversation. It had been here since before Time, having been isolated (as the “Lone Eel”, it was called, or more formally Xentusion) by the Shattering. Why it came to this complex was not clear, but it hated the Vadeli (when asked about Mornastan) and said it would love to eat them. It didn't like King Nralar, of course, and knew a lot about the history of the land but had forgotten one thing: a relative, who with questioning you figured out to be King Froalar. It wasn't so clear why this mattered but it said it would compose a song about this forgotten relationship and another time it would share it with you. Ahappi had spotted a golden rune-carved bracelet on each of its four tentacles. He reckoned these were former Froalar family artifacts; probably of huge value. One had a three-eyed fish-like picture on it; bearing runes of Water, Darkness, Earth. The Earth rune was interesting as that might link it to Giraine and Seshna Likita?
It was cousin to the Long Toad/Mud Eel of Sarvon, a river that passed by the former city of Sarvonessis (Arvonesse, you figured!), via a long genealogy that it was happy to rattle off. You knew that Magasta had plenty of descendants, but you learned some specifics that were relevant. It knew of the Old Gods well. Its cousins' mother was Deep Mother, and their father was Granno. It had two mothers (how?): Deep Mother + Robber/Sapana (well known to Ahappi as the mother of Wachaza via Magasta), and its father was Granno. It saw the Giranois as its servants, not kin, somehow. It also recalled it was distant kin to Waertag: his mother was Jeleka [mother of Luathans such as Aklor]; father was Malkion the Seer (father of all Western men); and brought this up because it remembered many of the Waertagi living around here— ahhh yes, those slimy Giranois do seem reminiscent of Waertagi, sort of, in a warped way!
You also got it talking about the lands around you. “It is a barren land of tombs,” it said in general. It told that to the west (Region 5?) there is “a dry gulch haunted by the worst nightmares, singers of doom-songs; gracious and artful receivers of your life-gifts.” Ahappi liked the sound of that. Further to the west, (Region #4?) there are “dancers to silent music, buried in the black; but malevolent eyes watch them; interlopers will be food for worms or food for worms.” OK, that's weird. It said to the north there were more lonely dead regions. It didn't know about elsewhere.
You repeatedly tried asking it if it would leave its home and come join the battle against evil; it knew of Yomil but said it was dead and didn't care about further details thereof. It did not want to leave. It was the Lone Eel and this was its lonely home; its quiet, dark abode for composing its favourite musics and such. As it was obviously not going to be reasoned with further on this issue, you politely left, being asked to do so and reminded that it knew of your other two friends elsewhere on shore (it was clear, it could see things happening in its home; its alien gaze saw much). By the time you'd left, the Giranois had fallen silent and sullent, watching your departure with anxious jealousy and barely contained malice. Clearly they did not like others getting the attention of The Master.
On returning, you found that the acrid waters had burned your lungs and skin (breathing it = 1HP to chest and head, quickly; swimming in it = 1 HP to all locations, slowly over time). Back with Miguel and Boamund, you relayed your tale and they showed that the ink-marks on the chamber wall must be musical notes, which Fraud figured out (a tune not unlike the arythmic patterns of the water-droplets in the “audience cavern”) and copied; they might be playable on his lute but anyone hearing them would think him totally mad! The chamber to the south was some kind of former storage chamber, with little left except more junk such as ruined containers. The other room must have been a laboratory or something. Then you managed, with effort, to pass the door on the far (eastern) side of the “lab” chamber and continue down a drier, less ruined passage turning right to a door in fine shape, with silver-inlaid carvings of Middle Sea Empire heraldry (very reminiscent of things you'd seen in sunken Arvonesse). That door produced a violent electric discharged when opened by Ahappi, blasting his chest (but he held steady, just wounded).
Inside there was a chamber full of more junk; and a crawlspace leading back to the “audience cavern” which you'd thought of entering before but elected not to because it was too much of a squeeze. There was also another fine door to the western side, and opening that caused no magical release but led to a small, dry room with many looted shelves of containers and such- another storage room? You searched but found nothing; yet feeling tired and low on mana, you elected to rest for the day.
As you rested, the Lone Eel sent a mental message to all of you, inflicting splitting headaches: “The ancestors' skull returns, lest heads split like rotten gourds.” … we'll pick up with that next time.
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