Greetings,
You parted ways from the Wolf Pirate fleet soon enough, escorted onwards by Frel's Icewind ship. As you drew close to Old Pasos the next day, Mularik had your two ships affixed together for a conference. He explained the plan, giving you a map of the Old Pasos ruin area you'd enter. His group would watch remotely (his iron eye must grant him some scrying ability) and would descend to meet you at the core of the temple complex once the exterior was secure; and then you would all enter the core together. You arrived as night approached. Mularik explained that your job was to use your powers of Water, Darkness and Movement to reach the Temple, clearing a path inwards from the eastern side. He expected you might meet the local Ludoch and could more easily negotiate with them than his band could. There was an undertone that he was testing you to see how you performed in your element, and he hinted that he wanted an escape route cleared too in case things got out of hand, but most importantly he didn't want everyone just to drop in vertically to the temple core without ensuring it was externally secure first; no sense in being surrounded by angered guardians in an unfamiliar sacred place while trying to get a ritual started. Ahappi also reasoned that this was simply part of the heroquest: proper heroes of the sea would lead boldd adventures like you were to do. Anyway, Amur moored The Shadow safely off the ruins and you held onto Ahappi's mosasaur or swam down to the ruins.
Ahappi immediately spotted Ludoch coming for you from a collapsed building on the ruins' edge. He greeted them– a party of about a dozen male and female Ludoch, accompanied by three killer whales and another dozen or so dolphins circling about. Their leader, a fierce burly Ludoch male (Ahappi saw him bearing Water, Death, Movement runes of Magasta) with coral trident and riding orca, addressed you in Seaspeech “Turn back, travellers. You may have good intent or not, but we the Ludoch of these coasts are charged with guarding this fallen place from trespass, and I Ungtrill the Unloving am true to ensuring that duty is kept.” But Ahappi easily got him talking more, as Ungtrill recognized Ahappi's name and the invocation of his common Magastan faith. Ungtrill pressed for more information, though, wary. He wanted to know why you'd go to the ruins in Magasta's name and seek the Boat Planet here. Ahappi explained that you sought Caelaca, and Ungtrill was resistant, saying her temple was holy to the Ludoch and forbidden, as these ruins held secrets the Middle Sea Empire had abused and the Ludoch now cared for. Ungtrill said something about Caelaca being a being with affinity to fire/sky and water runes but not more; yet when asked he warned that she had special guardians imbued with her powers and they may not easily let trespassers in. Ungtrill let you go, saying his people would be watching you, warning that Caelaca must be dealt with using the utmost respect. Ungtrill didn't sound thrilled with the idea of the “iron people” coming after you but Ahappi tentatively vouched for them. He gave Ahappi a magical starfish to aid him on his Magastan quest, and the Ludoch gave way.
You entered the ancient ruin complex, marvelling at the fairly intact structures of Old Pasos: characteristic grandiose architecture of the Second Age Jrusteli style, with elaborate towers, domes and arches displaying their virtuosity in geometric designs. Reefs had overgrown many of the ruins, and algae or other flora coated most surfaces, obscuring most art or runes, turning the ruins into a strange, almost biological entity like one giant organism. Cracks rent most structures, surely signs of the huge quakes that had shaken this place and torn abysses to the north and west of you, which Mularik had warned held terrible magical curses. Rubble piled over some other structures that hadn't survived the past Age as well. You made your way west into a wider alleyway where the surfaces of walls were cleaner for some reason, showing Trade/Communication runes that identified the space as a former market. It was then that Ahappi saw from his vantagepoint atop the mosasaur that eerie spectral faces were peering through the walls around you; addressing them in Seaspeech he mostly received more malevolent leers but one voice spoke out in Old Seshnegi, that they were no sea beings but the souls of the drowned and they hungered for your essences-and out came six wraiths of dead Godlearners to extract their evil prices! You each faced one but had a little advance warning from Ahappi. Bog struggled, as his mace was useless in these depths; soon he fell victim to an icy spectral sword of a wraith, sorely wounded. But Shrett rushed in and saved him, leaving him able to hobble behind Fraud, and soon all of the wraiths were destroyed by your weapons.
You moved onwards, reaching a north-south alley along the great external walls of the temple. Ahappi was looking around when, from the shadows of a ruined building at this corner, a floridly decorated giant sea slug (nudibranch) quietly slid out, having stalked you for a while, and grabbed his leg in its rasping jaws, giving him a nasty wound. You surrounded it soon and battered it from all directions, and quickly hewed it down. Ahappi felt its venom speedily seeping into his wound but his strong body fought off the spreading paralysis, and the battle was won. Ahappi took the mosasaur up to scout the walls and northern gate complex of the temple, seeing no imminent threats. There was a strange greenish wavering glow of magic at the ruined gates, which otherwise lay open; and he could see the temple core which was shattered on the northeast side and let out a stream of bubbles and a dull purplish glow from within. Then you scouted around to the southeast side, meeting no resistance along the way, and saw that the open gateway there was clouded by some sickly phosphorescent pinkish haze, so it didn't look welcoming either. Hmm.
For Friday!
-John
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