Hi,
You faced four things like mangy pale wolves with a flowering of giant maggots where a head should be. Miguel danced around and avoided one that came after him, while Boamund and Fraud made short work of the other two. Oddly they were not chaotic (Wrack Chaos spell did nothing), and they certainly were not draconic, so it was left a mystery why they were there or whence they came. You were free to inspect the site. The obelisk had Dragonewt and Darkness runes winding around it, looking as if they moved on their own accord. Boamund touched the obelisk and was blasted by frigid darkness (harmless, to him) and visions of being devoured by a titanic black dragon. He ran screaming away, back whence you came, and it took you hours to find him, by which time night had fallen and he lay panting in exhaustion, returning to his senses but still plagued by what he'd seen. You couldn't find a better spot to camp so you stayed there, and luckily the night brought no trouble. By morning everyone felt rested and recuperated.
You returned to the site and Fraud pondered what to do. He experimented, finding that the Truestone he had would pass through the obelisk, and he partly could, but it was still semi-physical and resisted him just walking inside. Eventually he cast his draconic claws magic and pulled the obelisk wide from left-to-right, opening a portal into a dark passage paved with black stone. As he walked in, a puny, ugly troll in lead armour, bristling with weapons, leapt toward him screeching piteous cries. He let it embrace him while Boamund entered and talked in Darktongue. You learned it was called Bog, and was a Zorak Zoran worshipper from the Second Age, slumbering here for >600 years as if it had been just 1 night! It was a sad, desperate creature that struggled with its hunger and its concern that you were Godlearners. Boamund, with effort, convinced it that he was honest and no wicked Jrustelan, and fed it a little. It offered to raise the Captain as undead and for a moment that didn't sound so bad to some of you, blasphemous as it would be. It agreed to come along, although you still knew little about it and it did not say it knew anything of this place except that it would be your doom.
The stone passage was lined with grey frescoes of marching dragonewts, with tactile Darktongue script woven between them; none of you could read that. With a few steps, you noticed Fraud's sword glowing to warn of undead, and you saw a great rotten Wyrm lying in the chamber ahead. A picture of a giant black dragon wound all the way around the chamber, biting its tail on the far side. In each corner stood a skeletal dragonewt in old armour, a klanth in hand. Bog stepped in proudly and the Wyrm raised its head, hissing in Darktongue that “It sees its food!” and the five undead moved threatening to you. The Wyrm roared and Bog trembled in fear, but Boamund brandished Karkovoch's shield and all of the undead backed away, letting you pass. A short staircase to the right led down to another, unadorned, chamber, where a black stone plinth and two clay jars stood to the right, and a dark circular portal to the left. Again Bog stepped in, headed to rest at the plinth, but the floor dropped out beneath him and he plummeted onto a ring of jagged black spikes, shaped like a dragon's mouth, that maimed him. He lay there pathetically until you managed to use a rope to climb down and bring him up, where he was bandaged so he could (barely) use his right arm again. Boamund tried touching the plinth and withdrew uncomfortably, so Fraud touched it with his claw and was blessed with new knowledge of Darktongue, including literacy. Bog, too, eventually got this benefit by bonking his head against the plinth in frustration. He then felt better- the Night Dragon was favouring him now. Beyond the black portal was a 12m vertical shaft with spiralling script in Old Seshnegi on it. Fraud investigated and saw evidence of charring on the walls, and a big lead Dragonewt rune at the bottom, with an exit passage on the floor. So you hoisted him down on a rope and he confirmed it was safe to descend; one by one you followed.
Boamund read the script: “Night Dragon saw the ending of the Greater Darkness, and saw its time for Right Action in the world ending– for now. While it slept, its intense dreams entered mortals, coming from the Throat of the Dragon, so that they would carry on those dreams. They fought. It won. It had seen Unity. They would too. And then in Time they would not. Yet once an Age it would rise for Right Action and bring Unity, or total destruction, to chosen mortals.”
There was another chamber beyond the shaft and this one presented many options. A circle of Darkness runes enclosed many other runes embossed in a beautiful coloured mosaic on the main floor; presumably a ritual circle of some kind. A lead plaque was on the far wall by a stout wooden door, and there was a passage to your left that was lined with four doors and ended in another; then a passage on your right that turned a corner. You read the plaque: “When Yelm the sun died and went to Hell, Night Dragon drew upon the powers of Darkness to rise up and fight the Chaos creatures that sought to steal the world again, led by Wakboth the Devil. Night Dragon battled with many Chaos gods and ate many of them. It fought with Krarsht and banished her to the depths of the earth; he buried her so deeply that only her children can chew their way out. She hated Night Dragon evermore for that, and taught the Krarshtkids that hatred. Next, Night Dragon fought with Mallia and stole from her the secrets of infection, thus ensuring that all dragon kin would resist her diseases. She hated Night Dragon ever more for that, and taught the Broo that hatred. Next, it tried to confront Cacodemon, son of the Devil, but the fiend was scared away, far to the east, and even with its new ally Zorak Zoran, whom it had given Death to, it could not find it. Night Dragon sought wisdom in the Darkness to find new ways to hunt elusive foes, and discovered within itself the mystery of the Black Waltz that it would use to great effect to find cowardly hidden Chaos.”
Bog opened the door and beheld what he correctly surmised was a giant Shade (Darkness elemental) so he stepped into its cold embrace and was unharmed. He wandered down a great staircase and waited there, but you had no idea he'd done this, so you pondered what to do with this threat. First Boamund and Fraud investigated the right-hand passage, which ended at a door leading to a small chamber with a stone slab and much Darktongue writing, but a big troll mummy stood up, hefting a maul, and Boamund bode it retreat while he and Fraud returned to the first chamber. They then explored two doors on the right- one chamber with a stone slab held a skeletal human form that sat up crosslegged and made mystic sigils, so you slammed that door and later moved to the next doorway, in which a troll zombie was reclined on a slab and it stood up, bellowing a challenge as it waved two maces and beat its chest. Boamund again used his shield to send it back after it pursued you. He dared to step into the Shade and it attacked him, trying fear-shock and then freezing and finally crushing but to no avail, but Fraud then stepped forth and asked it to let you pass and it withdrew. You went down the staircase, Miguel still towing the dead Ahappi (and having much difficulty here being blind as nothing was alive!).
In the next chamber there was a spectral human in Zzaburi robes that spoke Old Seshnegi, then stood passively, making a Law rune symbol with its fingers: “Smor-Eel the Helldragon hunted in the Darkness, finding its prey in the skies and on the land, but leaving the waters to others to hunt in. Those that it consumed became terrible nightmares in Hell, haunting its innards to torment its digesting food. Darkness first chose Order to separate itself from the Chaos Void, and so the guts of the Helldragon made Order of its contents until they were nothing but runes; and Chaos was sent as a sludge out of the universe and back to the Void. Thus even the Helldragon embraces Lawfulness and rejects Error, although it is not Lawful but Cosmic, and is not of Solace but Hell.”
You explored a chamber to the right of the entrance, which was a small storage space for ceremonial supplies in a lead chest. Then Bog again led the way and opened the door at the far side of the chamber, which resulted in him taking a terrible blow to the leg from a spectral dragonewt (wraith) that was waiting just beyond. Boamund and Fraud faced it then, and together (with Fraud switching to use an iron shortsword) you destroyed the ancient guardian (for now?). Another staircase descended into the bowels of the earth, and into a chamber that was bare except for a huge Disorder rune carved into its floor; and script on another lead plaque by a door ahead: “Night Dragon was not perturbed by Disorder, which had affinity to Darkness. Yet any deceit was irresponsible and brought it vengeful dreams. Night Dragon went to Eurmal and punished him with whips from its tail, because Eurmal had followed Night Dragon when it showed Zorak Zoran how to evade Death, and Eurmal had then stolen Death to give to Orlanth. Night Dragon had no patience for fools and thieves. It demanded responsibility– duty and debt– and harshly chastened Wrong Action, a waste of existence and experience. Disorder brings irresponsibility, thus Wrong Action.” You could see a warning here, and as you moved ahead (Bog now taking the rear), you heeded it.
The next chamber had a big obsidian door at its end, with no hinges or handle, and a huge roaring dragon's face embossed on it. Treasure of gold and silver and gems lined the floor by the walls, and your leaders shouted not to touch what looked like a dragon's hoard. The plaque read: “Night Dragon's former ally Storm Bull found and destroyed the fiend Cacodemon, and the Devil and its armies soon fell too, with much eating of the foul Ooze being done. And so Night Dragon saw peace coming with the resurrection of Yelm and the advent of the Great Compromise. And so it merged with the Earth and slumbered, sending its fierce dreams into the Underworld, until its time to revel in destruction with its cleansing flame would come again. It saw trouble looming among its own followers and dreamt angry dreams that would burst forth, but also saw beyond into the bubbling up of the Ooze again from the Void, and those seething dreams it dreamt were even worse. It would not come to Danmalastan [one Malkioni term for Solace/heaven], but its dreams reached far. To this place wandered its dreams of doom unto the irresponsible, and instructed them to bury themselves to pay their debt and perform their final duty.”
Fraud used his dragon-claws to pull the doorway open left-to-right. Beyond was a huge, impressive chamber with vaulted obsidian flying buttresses. Across the room was a huge obsidian statue of the front half of a menacing dragon, emerging from the wall with its wings spreading. That statue hung over a ritual circle inscribed into the floor in lead, with a Dragon rune set into the centre and a 3m tall cylindrical obsidian plinth, heavily rune-inscribed, at the centre of that rune. To the left and right of the dragon and circle, the walls bore intact, beautiful gem-inlaid colourful depictions of (left) a dragonewt warrior prostrate before a great black dragon on a mountainside, and (right) a troll warrior bellowing as it smashes its maul into a goat-broo, amidst a huge battle. The chamber's expansive left and right walls bore complex bas-relief stonework inscribed with runes. In the far left corner there was a large leaden box. Bog headed for the lead box but then felt the presence of the Night Dragon staring at him via the statue, and so stepped into the ritual circle. Immediately a voice spoke to him in Darktongue: “The Effluvia of the Night Dragon shall go forth and sear this world of the Ooze.” And something appeared within the circle: a slimy gigantic (SIZ > 30) snail, covered in icicles and sporting three scaly, slavering draconic heads. You knew it as a Dragonsnail: a piece of the Devil, and the only way to deal with it was to kill it!
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