Hi,
The three-headed dragonsnail turned out to be a fearsome foe, twisted by many Chaos features. Wounding it badly enough would wrack its foe with empathic pain, stunning them. Killing it, or one of its heads, was likely to render its slayer unconscious. It nullified magics on it, except Fraud's Ward Chaos spell that helped save the day by stunning it for a while. Its icy exterior emanated frigid cold that almost felled Bog. In the end, Bog and Fraud lay comatose from taking out two heads, leaving just Miguel and Boamund to finish the task. As each person fell, and as the dragonsnail finally was defeated and began bubbling back to its primordial ooze, they felt the Night Dragon's power infuse them and leave behind a 1-use magic: Bog could Eat Anything, Miguel could become One With the Night, Boamund could Burn Chaos, and Fraud, hmm, he (like Bog) had a new connection with the Night Dragon as its “Effluvia” (an agent sent to destroy Chaos and other foes), but there seemed to be more to it than just that? Anyway, while people recovered Boamund inspected the area; Miguel was still blind and just watched the fallen.
With some investigations, here is what you learned in the end: The left wall's stonework illustrates a huge, tail-biting dragon's outline with its interior outlined as a series of passages and chambers- with an appropriate Easy (i.e. normal chance) Cartography/similar roll it is realized that this is a map of the complex (attached!). The runic inscriptions around it, in Darktongue, explained the chambers as parts of the Night Dragon (Eyes-Mouth-Throat-Stomach-Guts-Effluvia[exiting]); but more importantly there is mystic significance here that, with about an hour's focus (Bog entranced, and soon Fraud via connecting with him as fellow Effluvia here) you gained general insight into this complex's role: A conduit to the Night Dragon during the 2nd Age; and still now. Draconic and EWF emissaries used it, hidden here behind Darkness magic, and Godlearners tried to infiltrate it (but failed) whereas Arkati managed to investigate (and even ally themselves) here. It was (and is) used to (1) receive/store dreams from the Night Dragon; (2) represent its myths and provide Heroquesting inspiration; (3) house its adherents until the right time; (4) allow for rituals and training to be conducted (including for new allies of the Night Dragon; “Effluvia”); and (5) defend against interlopers who might misuse its power. It represents the repository for dreams of the Night Dragon that focused on what it deemed Wrong Action at the time (late Second Age), and thus wanted dead. And you Effluvia know that these dreams of Wrong Action are resurging in these Hero Wars of the Third Age: the Night Dragon sees Wrong Action in the world and it is angry. But hidden amongst this map is another map, which Fraud spotted and Miguel ultimately interpreted. This depicts Second Age Seshnela: it shows eastern Tanisor (not far from Miguel's ancestral home), with a Darkness and Dragon rune inscribed noticeably onto an illustration of a crack in the earth-this corresponds to the location of the Night Gorge. Night Dragon arose from here during the Fourth Action– Ordelvis the creator duplicated the Prime Objects and made from these duplicates 'The Perfect World' which is called Danmalastan (an aspect of Solace-in-the-real-world); Ordelvis was AKA Malkion the Founder, creator of the first Malkioni peoples (Waertagi etc.). The Night Gorge is where a Dream Dragon of the Night Dragon was rumoured to sometimes haunt these days. Miguel happened to know a lot of tales about it, for such an obscure place: Since before Time, a great gash remains in the earth, a canyon over a key-mile in length, and 250m at its widest. No river runs through the parched gorge. Steep cliffs surround it and there are no easy paths to its base. The cliffs are hundreds of metres high, casting a perpetual gloom into the depths of the gorge; hence its name to locals. Very little grows there, but numerous caves penetrate the cliff walls, where they form the roosts for thousands upon thousands of bats. At night, the bats rise from the gorge like a cloud, obscuring the stars before spreading across the countryside in search of food. Witches are known to frequent the place, and some say worse. Proper Malkioni do not go there. (“Night Gorge” has multiple meanings to you now- not just a gorge of darkness, but a darkness that gorges; and one that eats knights?) But maybe you could, and heroquest to connect with the Night Dragon? The puzzle inscribed in the wall made Bog and Fraud think so. And they thought that this place could help do it. With meditation, Fraud intuited that this place was the only seat of power of the Night Dragon on Giraine. The right wall's stonework illustrates the Black Dragon curled around a mountainside, with the great Uz sorceress Cragspider the Firewitch at its peak, surrounded by great trolls and dinosaurs. The runic inscriptions around it, in Darktongue, explain that the Black Dragon sends itself to mortals to be revered as the Night Dragon (its original Godtime aspect, before it became her servant), and those that it favours shall be its Effluvia to wage war upon the world of wrongness when its rage is unleashed. Boamund noticed a troll amongst them, with a third eye in its forehead, that is making odd gestures (two-fingered darkness-truth rune) toward the dragon and bears a huge leaf-shaped sword… it is a version of Black Arkat (see some nice pics attached; and for Fraud's benefit, an extra document on Black Arkat). Fraud contemplated this, revealing that Black Arkat and the Night Dragon have a bond on the Hero Plane. Perhaps that bond can be reached from here somehow, he thought? Soon enough it was spotted that Bog the “troll” had false tusks which had fallen off when he fainted, and in reality he was just a big, mean trollkin (but puny for an Uz); warped slave-race from Nysalor/Gbaji's curse (the Curse of Kin) that had plagued the troll-mothers since the First Age. Fraud offered to ignore the whole matter in return for Bog's help in the chamber, and this helped ease tensions. The lead box contained two obsidian velociraptor statues inside (of about the size of a child's doll). On contacting them (Boamund could not feel this but Fraud and Bog could), Effluvia knew they can activate the statue's power for 1 MP anytime and it will come alive once, to do as they command (understanding even complex commands), for up to 1 hour before collapsing into ash. These are gifts of the Night Dragon dreamt into existence to begin unleashing its fury on the world. (see Giraine PC Dropbox for nice stats!!) So Bog and Fraud now each have one.
Eventually Fraud pushed too hard trying to connect with the Night Dragon in its ritual circle, and it seemed to have enough of that. You were all very uncomfortably disintegrated as it digested you and farted you back onto the mortal plane outside, by the tall black obelisk. As you regained your bearings, you heard a groan from the travois. Ahappi rose there, but he had been transformed-reconstituted by the Helldragon, Western aspect of the Night Dragon, and foe of 'good' Malkioni! It had seen his potential. As his dead spirit walked toward Hell over the past day, it sank into the Fosnoir and witnessed something fascinating in Hell: a vast fleet of undead Waertagi dragonships, fully crewed with zombies, was rising. Seeing this too, the Helldragon bad him to serve it as its Effluvia: he must act to stop this Wrong Action! Dead dragonships must lie dead. But the prophesized rising of the Boat Planet threatened to bring them up, and this was Wrong. Ahappi was changed physically, too- he was black-skinned, still finned, but with a stout tail and more draconic in features- like a “mer-dragonewt”, but still recognizable if wholly inhuman and discomfiting to behold. No longer could he walk amongst men without raising alarm- he was a monster in all ways; a “krjalki”, as Westerners would say.
Amazed, you welcomed him back. And knowing that Sacred Time was but a day and a half away, you debated your actions. Sacred Time would involve a 7 day descent into doom-the world would almost literally become the Greater Darkness, with past events replaying at least symbolically here. And then there would be 7 days of rejuvenation. Normal Malkioni would spend the first half fasting, mourning losses, and praying fervently; then the second half celebrating, feasting and casting great magics to bring goodness in the new year. But heroic Malkioni could journey forth at the start of this time and renact great myths, or get caught up into them. The risks here in Great Toad Food were many: you did not know the local myths, and there were many bad things that could be re-enacted here: the Shattering, the coming of the Menacing Mists of Iphara, and maybe worse. And bad choices could even cause terrible side-effects like those the Godlearners made; warping myth itself with their RuneQuest Sight. But Ahappi convinced you to be heroic rather than rush for the sanctitude of Siphula's Child. You would explore this land and see what fate brought you.
So, you went east along the coastline. You met a Giranois hunter named Ilk, from the Loorb clan who lived on the border to the southeast. He was lost here, and desperate. Boamund gave him food and offered to escort him to safety, but he did not want to go where you were headed: back whence he came, where he said there was a deep canyon (like the Night Gorge??) riddled with tunnels, with patches of ice (of all things! Very strange) and haunted by demons and monsters, which he'd snuck through but barely. Miguel gave him some mandibles that Ilk liked; he said they'd make a good bride-price. You directed him to follow the coast to the southwest as the best way out of Good Toad Food.
Later, there was a rumbling like small local earthquakes, and Boamund saw some smallish holes like burrows, which you saw had claw-like marks on and hints of the stone itself being dissolved away on its edges. You proceeded carefully, and then a rumble came, approached Boamund, and out of the ground popped a fearsome brown arthropod like a mix of centipede and mantis. It spat a hissing stream of powerful acid and Boamund rolled aside. The rest of you charged it, spells blazing, and Boamund avoided a clumsy strike by the monster well enough that he regained his footing. With a few more strikes from the group, Fraud brought it down with a massive blow from his sword. Miguel took some of its huge, sword-like mandibles as a prize while Bog crunched noisily on its meaty legs, whose acrid flavour was well-suited to an enlo's discerning tastes. Further along, the mists suddenly parted, revealing a steaming crater within them; only about 2m diameter and pulsing bright orange with heat. Boamund didn't see anything worth investigating; you just avoided it. The land here was very rough, dry, and blasted; you were far now from the luxuriousness of the mushroom forests or swamps.
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