Well well well… that was an eventful session.
You heeded the mental warnings of the Lone Eel/Xentusion, opting to return the stone skull with the shiny thing in it. Miguel volunteered to strip down and use the crawlspace near your resting spot to bring it back to the creature-he was overcome with his curiosity, seeing parallels between this thing and Quick Sister, who fascinated him. He had a moment of panic in the little slimy tunnel: its ooze coating was eating away at him, and he got stuck in a tight squeeze; but with effort he wriggled free and through to the “audience cavern”.
[Miguel knows this and imparted a brief summary to the party, but not details] Uncomfortable in the hungry, leering gazes of the scaly-Giranois, he greeted the Lone Eel and offered the skull back. It beckoned him forward to place it amongst its little “artworks” on the shoreline and then it gently draped a caustic tentacle across his back-there was a moment where he wondered if he'd become food like the Giranois body that still lay nearby, but it released him as he stammered that he was also here to respectfully ask for permission for you to rest in that side-room for some hours. It said “One forbids its slaves from feasting upon these curious visitors as they take respite in the back halls, for one cycle of the dead Emperor.” So you had a day to rest, and backing off cautiously, Miguel brought that good news back to you. [he has taken 1 HP to all locations and will need healing/first aid at some point! He did use Cleanse] Miguel, however, got little rest as he had hallucinations of a bitter, acrid taste making its way into his throat and was left dry-heaving from it for most of the night. The next morning, you opted to leave- the place did bring everyone uncomfortable visions.
You chose to continue west (on map toward #5 then 4). The terrain dried out as you headed upland, and the fungi became less common. Near midday, a horrible thing happened. Out of nowhere, amidst some scree in the badlands, a great black shape darted forth and seized Ahappi around the waist, crippling him as he let out a pained cry. It was a massive (SIZ 41!) black snake, coated in vile ooze encrusted with pebbles and other debris, and scintillating with magical colours. Its eyes and nostrils were swapped in locations. In retrospect, it clearly was a Chaos monstrosity, and you speedily learned that it was one of the worst ones you'd met. It cancelled any magics used nearby, and its jaws were kept clamped firmly on Ahappi while you hewed at it- but your blades kept sticking into its gooey coating, slowing your attacks. Miguel slowly loaded his bow and fired some shots that helped a little, but without Ahappi in action the battle against this massive monster was a brutal struggle. Meanwhile, the thing looped its writhing coils around Ahappi's chest, crushing him to death and then changing its jaw-grip to begin swallowing his remains. Luckily, before it could swallow him entirely, your final blows to its tail caused it to become mortally wounded, regurgitating the Captain and snagging its guts on the rocks nearby, so it disembowelled itself in a bloody mess.
But Ahappi had fallen, and so swiftly! You all voiced your sadness and concerns; Miguel moaned at how the monsters of Good Toad Food would now find you easy prey without your monster-killer. You debated what to do: burn him now? But no, Miguel had a Preserve spell that could keep the body fresh for up to 4 weeks, so he cast that and made a travois again, to carry the body onwards, where you might throw it off the cliffs into the Fosnoir- you reckoned you could reach that area today, turning northwards (toward #7 on my map).
Along the way, you came across a small, beautiful canyon of rainbow-coloured rock layers with fossils of ocean life (marine reptiles, coiled ammonites, etc). Giranois totems abounded here. You did not tarry, but noted it. Next you spotted the ruins of a fountain, with some water still pooled in it. Miguel tried the water, coughing and sputtering as it seared his chest with dehydrating power (he took 4 HP and then healed himself). Nasty old magic!? He then noticed some Fire and Water runes on the stones around the ruin, and a conspicuous absence of tracks in the moist ground around here. Ahh. OK. The animal life had learned to avoid it. But he opted to take a waterskin full of the fluid, and that did seem to work OK for now.
A couple of hours later, Boamund spotted a large shape drifting down from the sky, above the mists. It was a grey-green three-headed draconic thing with wolfish visages and many long whiplike tails; it was SIZ 20 (like a small wyvern). It approached and circled around you as you waited warily, and you heard it speaking to itself in Auld Wyrmish, then you caught it say some Old Seshnegi words to itself and you spoke up, as it didn't seem to be immediately hostile. This provoked it to have a quick conversation with itself: “This one thinks they be lost.” “This one thinks the other one is thinking they'd be tasty if fried.” “This one thinks they should be asked things.” You offered to tell it about the lands you'd wandered-it was curious about what you'd seen. The three heads consented to talk to you, then: “Yes, we learn three things and they learn one.” It told that it was called the Urvyrn and you learned it had been here since the 2nd Age, knowing two fallen Empires (presumably the EWF and the Godlearners). You told it about Siphula's Child and the Lone Eel's abode and the evil mists that chased you, and other adventures you'd had; and the “snack” of the dead snake that lay some hours away. It was pleased by all of this.
You asked about the Menacing Mists of Iphara here and it said that they came over the cliffs from the Fosnoir but seemed to have no specific source, and it could guess little more thus it would not consider this to be its one truth to provide. So it instead related some information, when you asked what lay ahead to the north, where it said it had been lately. With a little discomfort it explained that in centuries past one of its masters had bade it to investigate a place there, near the cliffs, where a black obelisk still stands. There, it knew that dragon-cousins had done much work in the prior age and remained there, and indeed the power that lingered was that of the Night Dragon: specifically, an entry to the “guts” of the Night Dragon, whatever that meant. It said there was much danger there. Little did you know… Then it got distracted by muttering about its own nature and history, and how the mists had sapped its mind and memory, and it flapped off without further adieu. You had surmised that it was knowledgeable and perhaps cunning, and certainly curious, but clearly warped by its experiences and maybe cursed by this land. A sad being, wandering Good Toad Food for six centuries, masterless and confused. Hmph. Well, you figured you should investigate this place and either toss Ahappi off the cliff there (his sea-wife might access his body then?) or feed him to this Night Dragon power somehow.
You progressed northward, and found the cliffs, where Boamund soon spotted the black obelisk shape in the distance. The mists here, just metres from the cliffs down into the Fosnoir, swirled in fantastic shapes around a bare grey stone platform with a central black (perhaps obsidian) stone obelisk rising 10m high into the mist. Boamund noted that the shapes in the mist were draconic! Approaching together, you saw that the platform was etched with obscure, intricate geometric designs, and Fraud Shaven knew that they were a diagram of the night sky, with the obelisk at the centre. But there was no more time to contemplate this: now spots in the mists around you began to congeal and drip into dark, misshapen entities. They were not draconic, no, not at all. They were something Wrong and they had come for you; come to feed.
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