Hello everyone,
We're gaming again this Friday so I need to catch up.
You returned to the Gathering Ground before nightfall, dragging the giant snake-ball's corpse. Three worms wriggled to the surface, intertwined, and squirmed hungrily, nuzzling the corpse-“Yes, this will feed the host of Swems for many nights. And the Earth sighs in relief with another monster gone. Your heroism earns its due reward- complete Siphula's mission and you may be on your way from the Gathering Ground.” The worms set to slowly nibbling at the body, and you felt their growing unwelcome to your presence. You planted the little lichen, which quickly grew to a patch a metre across, with colourful fronds and layered plates. The ground grumbled with the seething of Swems's worms but the deal was done. They would have to share a little space with Mee Vorala now.
Finding a good spot to shelter overnight nearby, you camped. Fraud spotted an eerie phosphorescent shape approaching you after night fell and prepared to attack while waking the others. It was a cylindrical fungus-being with wriggly tendrils and glowing bits, and tried and eventually succeeded in touching him with a tendril. This connected its Mindlink and you were able to communicate, haltingly due to its very alien mind, in Darktongue. It meant no harm (Boamund had to talk Fraud down from violence) but was confused, having emerged from Wonderhome this Sacred Time and wandering the land. It asked of what gods you were and you admitted you were not them, but you directed it toward Siphula whom it seemed to recognize. Before it left, its tendril traced a glowing Harmony rune on your arm and conferred a powerful 1-use Harmonize miracle.
The following day (5th day Sea Season 1623) you made some haste northwards, first to “location 4” on the map which was new ground for you. You came to a narrow, long, straight, dry, rocky canyon with a few blind side-canyons, which arrived at the canyon's end where it began sloping upward to higher ground, which precipitously rose as if the ground itself had been wrenched aloft (perhaps in the Shattering). There, on the left (northwest) wall of the canyon was a gaping dark hole in the ground, about 6m diameter and perfectly circular. A straight stone tunnel led beyond it, but scattered around the hole and just within it were six mutilated bodies with bloody stains around them.
On closer investigation, Miguel found that the bodies were Giranois (adult hunter/scouts; no clear clan affiliations), about a week or so dead. They had not been scavenged, and oddly no insects or other things fed upon them. His Sense Life showed that the area was dead, without even brush or lichens. The deaths were from being ripped asunder or something--- no minor wounds or large bruises were seen, so nothing grabbed or hit them- the only injuries were catastrophic dismemberments. The body orientations seemed to mainly be headed out from the stone tunnel, as if they were leaving (or hurled out). This did not bode well and you were (wisely) very cautious, amplified by the fact that some of your magics did odd things when cast or simply did not work. Throwing things into the hole caused them to fly back out at extreme velocity.
Finally you decided to go in, although experiments showed that the apparent hole was some sort of portal or illusion that warped space and the interior was not quite what it seemed. Passing through, you had an extremely uncomfortable feeling, as if the body died and was reborn; or similar. Some of you were momentarily stunned. The tunnel was bored smoothly out of solid grey rock; perfectly straight. All surfaces were smeared messily with blood, and Miguel saw huge fingerprints. Halfway down the tunnel was something pulverized to a barely recognizable paste of flesh that was smeared all over as gobbets. But there was no time for further exploration. Some force seized ?Miguel and tried to rip him apart, and almost did, so you beat a hasty retreat and barely made it out alive. That convinced you to abandon this site. You knew you were weak and Boamund wanted some new armour. So you set off for "location 9"'s ruin where you were confident you could find bronze for Miguel to sculpt; if nothing else.
You returned (passing locaations 7,8 safely) to the ruin before nightfall and came to the northwest side where there were large double doors leading into a room where you'd seen a circular pit caked with ooze, and with a corroded and scarred interior. Some more silvery magical beings appeared and followed you. Not wanting to venture further, Miguel used his magic to craft a bit of new armour for Boamund, and you left, aiming to travel to location 10 nearby at a more cautious pace again. You had a feeling that perhaps around there you might find something valuable, such as Crolar's presence. From there, the northern/eastern-most extremes of Good Toad Food would be open to you and you might finish your explorations. But would you find enough safety and rest to do so?
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