Good morning,
You left Burnt Priests Hill, leaving Boamund behind for a while so he could have private conversations with the Sharde clan, but agreeing to meet up again soon in New Arv. It was only an easy day's journey there but it turned out not so easy: a page of parchment with burnt edges blew in on a breeze and lodged itself in a bush ahead of you, and you discussed what to do, knowing it was trouble. Then three ruby motes blazed on the page, and evil green vapours poured forth from it, manifesting into a big three red-eyed demon with four clawed arms and green armour plated skin, dripping with bubbling slime and hissing with acrid vapours. It was the Demon of the Book of Eyes, come for vengeance! You prepared spells as it gestured at the ground with a cruel grin and caused the earth to heave forth a bubbling gorp at its bidding. Then it spat a smaller gorp onto Bog's shield, which Ahappi stabbed with his Stinging Spear and killed.
The demon took a leisurely stroll into melee with the other gorp, which Ahappi also dispatched; but then another one was called forth and it enveloped Ahappi, eating much of his nice aluminium armour as he battled it and the demon, with Bog and Fraud joining in while Miguel cast spells and prepared his firearrow-bow. The fight was brutal; the monster's acid-covered skin damaged your weapons and it absorbed a Ward Chaos spell from Fraud, only growing faster and deadlier as a result (it had the power to reverse the effect of sorceries-eek!). But you beat it down with a flurry of attacks eventually after killing the gorp with frost-flail attacks and more. Miguel's firearrow on the parchment burned it but had no other effect, although his next shot wounded the demon, which seemed susceptible to fire. Bog got in the lucky killing blow and knocked it out! As you hacked the demon's head off, its remains sizzled into the ground and into foul fumes and it all vanished. You cursed the thing, with Ahappi wondering if it would come back again; and you wished Boamund had been there with his demon-slaying sword, too.
But you made it to New Arv, where the talk of the town was all about the bad news on the mainland, where Seshnela was making steady victories. You rested, healed, and Bog prayed at his sewer-shrine, and you restocked your gear including new armour for that destroyed by the demon and gorp. Bog described the layout of the upper and deeper sewers he, Bradde and their helpers had explored. Knowing that much of it was underwater, you had Boamund cast a Skin of Life spell on you before you entered the watery tunnel down into the Deeper Sewers; he awaited you in the main, dry sea cave above. The larger underwater sea cave before the tunnels was marvellously beautiful and thronging with reef-life. There were two tight squeezes through the flooded, haphazardly twisting tunnel downwards, and you had to remove your armour to get through them but did so without much trouble.
The tunnel emerged upwards into a damp but not flooded hall of great proportions and fine old masonry work, clear from grime or signs of ageing. It was 7m high and 12m wide, and 24m long chamber with three rows, most of seven statues each, in lines lengthwise along the chamber. The statues showed some damage that might be ageing or other defacement, but almost all were recognizable as fish-folk: either Waertagi or merpeople of Ludoch or Ouori species. The Waertagi varied widely in their fishiness. All of the statues are in heroic poses, making gestures of magical invocations and embossed with numerous runes of Law, Water and more. Ahappi was pleased to be there to see these impressive works. Miguel spotted that, in the middle of the hall, lying in a pool of blood after a short trail of bloody splotches there was a dead Waertagi in torn sailor's garb, her vital organs eaten, as you saw when you approached. At the back of the hall, in place of where the final 3 statues in that row might be, squatted a giant statue of an elongate snaky or fishy thing with a flat, broad, massive head and needle-sharp teeth, tiny front legs, and stubby hindlegs, followed by a heavy finned tail, atop a plinth ringed by Water and Fertility/Life runes. Miguel had heard a scratching or scraping sound from back there and saw some splotches of blood on the floor behind the statue, but nothing more. The statue emitted a strong feeling of magical energy.
Behind the odd giant eel-like statue, the back of the hall opened to one side, sloping down to a cave; and to another side, going forwards into a dry, natural tunnel. You went to the cave first. Here, water lapred at the dark shore in a great cave, and dimly purplish-glowing stingrays glided about the underground sea beyond. At the shore sat a low, sleek boat crafted from pale spars of bone, such as those from whale ribs or other great sea beasts'. It lacked oars or benches or other furnishings, except beautiful carvings of sea creatures along its gunwhales, bow and stern; and frequent motifs of Law, Water and Movement runes. This was a Waertagi fastship, Ahappi knew; but Bog had said there were two when he last was here weeks ago, and Miguel saw a lot of tracks showing comings and goings both ways, and at least one more fastship having been beached there. Ahappi stepped onto the fastship and saw movement at its stern. A great pinkish-purple squid was lurking there in the water, and held its tentacles ready to snare someone. Ahappi recalled that fastships were propelled and defended by such sea-beasts, so he cast his Placate Squid spell and calmed the great creature, backing off safely. Asked where the Waertagi were, it motioned with one tentacle back into the big sea cave. You decided you'd leave this place be for now but maybe return later to follow up on the Waertagi.
Returning back to the statue hall, you took the dry tunnel, which gently meandered through the bedrock of the underbelly of Giraine until it suddenly became fine, clean, grey-stone masonry again and then forked immediately, widening on one side into another long hall; and opening after a short distance on the other side into a square chamber of the same stonework. Bog said the latter place was the fountain room, which Fraud was excited about because it sounded like Froalar/Seshna were involved with it. So you entered there. The 10m cubical chamber here had a central green-stone fountain still running with fresh water, with stony snake designs curling around it, and embossed with Magic, Water and Earth runes. Some of the water seeped out of the fountain and trickled toward the back wall in thin rivulets. Stinking heaps of refuse had clumped there, gathering the festering reek of stagnant sewage. At the back of the chamber past the refuse and mostly choked by it, the lower 50cm or so of the wall was open, with a narrow cleft sloping downwards, slick with muddy sediment, and quickly vanishing out of line of sight. Bog said that refuse was not there before-had sewage washed down here and blocked off the fountain and cleft?
You had no time to consider this, as Miguel's Sense Life spell alerted him of forms in the refuse and behind the great fountain. They sprang forth just as he shouted a warning. One was a horrific chaos-monstrosity with toothy jaws set in a rotund body topped by an eyestalk, and bearing two thorny tentacles and four squat legs (yes, a D&D Otyugh equivalent! So sorry). The other seven were mercenary-types: tall, pale-skinned, oddly handsome Warerans in half-plate with longswords, shouting a battle-cry as they rushed you. The chaos-monster trotted up to Miguel and slapped at him with tentacles, eventually giving him a slight wound. Ahappi called forth a huge undine, sending it sliding down the tunnel into the chamber and knocking down Fraud, Miguel and four of the warriors (three had held back casting magics). The leader, a woman they called “Kim” or “Kruushla” as they called to each other (this rang a bell as the battle ended) tried spells on Ahappi but failed. One warrior called out in a harsh tongue and warped magics appeared on his leg, swelling it to double its size. They were chaos cultists! Ogres, you quickly reasoned. Now the dead body of the Waertagi made sense. The ogres fought bitterly with Fraud and the undine, slowly becoming crushed or drowned as the battle went on, but they didn't make it easy. Bog was whacking away with his frost-flail and Ahappi soon helped out Miguel with the monster, which was killed soon enough by another clever blow by Bog. The leader faced Ahappi in melee and he ran her through after knocking her down and disarming her. It was all over soon enough, but another fight that left you gasping for breath and battered and feeling fortunate to be alive.
The fountain room was now open to your exploration… Tonight! [Tim, if you're better, we can get Boamund back into the action easily enough-hope things have improved.] John
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