Greetings,
The shadowed sea erupts with no clear warning. The form is huge, and bizarre. A bloated, gnawed torso of a giant man rises with a roar from the wrecked hull of a ship half the size of the War Boat, together bobbing up from the depths with a dark foamy splash. His arms end in a spear-like mast and ram-head and his bedraggled grey beard is infested with pallid worms, which seem responsible for the gnawings elsewhere on his titanic frame, including his vacant eye-sockets. With a worm-like tongue, he bellows garbled words: “Imprison me here then dare to visit my prison, Waertag of the War Boat? Well then feel the wrath of Bon Jalos as I drag you down to my fate as I have done so many others of your line!” He shakes his arms above his head in furious challenge. Ahappi wonders what to do, recalling that Bon Jalos ultimately was killed in a duel by Waertag, so he looks to that Hero.
Waertag the Reaver calmly steps to the port side of the War Boat, looking up at this monstrous form of Bon Jalos the Pirate King, and replies: “I've beaten you every way a man can beat another, until you became no man at all. You forget that I have broken you, Bon Jalos. You take on the form of strength, but are feeble of mind and spirit. See?” A shining light comes from Waertag's forehead and strikes Bon Jalos between the eyes-and with a flash, the huge form falls apart in a rain of rotten flesh. Some chunks rain down onto the deck, and each chunk that strikes the deck becomes a miniature form of Bon Jalos, or a writhing hungry lamprey. The crew call out to all aboard to repel this sickening flood.
Ahappi and Fraud face fragments of Bon Jalos, who waddle and crawl across the decks to battle. The others each face an undead 2m-long lamprey-thing. These nightmares grip and gnaw quickly through armour in search of flesh, wounding Bog and Shrett as they fight. Fraud dispatches his fragment then goes to aid Ahappi; the others fight furiously and Bog soon comes to help Shrett (who got tripped by a lamprey tail-lash), and quickly it then is over.
The decks are cleansed and the Boat Planet rows and sings on. Ahappi sputters his song and finds a necrotic wound appears on his tail-ouch!
The Black Ocean narrows back to a River which descends through a vast, icy mountain range whose peaks and cliffs are all piercing and jagged. At the bottom of the mountains, where the black sand lies in piles, you can see from the lofty heights that the path then meanders deeper into the Underworld. Here, in the Mountains of Himile, the Ice Age or Lesser Darkness still prevails. You recall tales of the varied geography of the Underworld-there are certain regions like this, but they are not always met in the same sequence or even at all.
A stinging ice storm blows down from the highest peaks with a shriek, as the Styx becomes choked with jagged ice. The War Boat is buffeted about and everyone aboard struggles against this until calm descends, when realization sets in that the War Boat has been almost completely frozen in place in the slush. There are voices within the shrieking wind; or it is a voice; with Darktongue words audible in bits like sleet… as the crew calls out orders for more pulling and singing, those familiar with Darktongue piece the words together: “Warm souls come with the corpse of the Bright God, unwelcome to the kingdom of Fit Ea Act, Master of the Hollri. Let them know cold. Let their warmth ebb. Let them become one with the ice.” The ice storm swirls wildly about the decks and vague forms begin congealing from it. The crew shout to the Watchers to defend, and the Pullers to use their strength to break free of the ice!
Snaky, skeletal, semi-corporeal “ice horrors” fly through the ice storm to attack the Watchers, while Bog and Shrett pull at the oars. Bog does very well, whereas Shrett struggles with the icy, slippery oars. Bog sees this and casts a Might spell to aid hi, which it does. He then has an important insight from his knowledge of Zorak Zoran's myths: Fit Ea Acts seeks violence but is ally of Darkness– Darkness questers could claim friendship. He calls out to them, summoning his blessing of Himile to create an ice-statue of Fit Ea Act on the decks, marshalling his inner devotion to Zorak Zoran, and it is an amazing success! The Ice Horrors pause, then withdraw from combat (Boamund drew his flaming sword just in case but it only sputtered in the overwhelming Cold), forming a circle spinning around you as they watch. Shrett continues to try to pull the oars and finally makes progress, as does the War Boat, breaking free of the ice at last and moving onwards. The ice horrors withdraw, leaving behind a circular patch of rough ice on the decks around you and the statue Bog evoked: a Cold rune, which persists.
The River Styx courses through a range of what are realized not to be mountains, but rather immense giants the size of mountains, buried chest-deep or higher in rock. They come in all sorts-just giant humans, or horned, bestial, demonic and more. As the War Boat passes them, they rage, cry, plead, curse, and beg down at all they see, now focusing their attention onto the Boat Planet's passengers and crew. This attention provokes plenty of reactions from sympathy to outrage, but is ineffectual in any concrete terms. The crew just watches with calm detachment. You look quizzically, Shrett wondering what these giants are about but unable to really remember any tales of giants in the West; they are few. But eventually the War Boat passes through this strange scene.
Now the River Styx descends toward lower grounds at last, but passing through steep valleys where thin icy peaks tower high above, thick with snow. Some of that snow blows down, dappling it in drifts upon the War Boat as it winds its way through the valleys. The crew is tense, looking about all sides of the ship. Indeed, their vigilance is rewarded. Distant thunder rumbles. The mountain winds blow snow down harder, and there is a white brilliance to that driving snow that overwhelms the dark. Bog and Shrett are struck snow blind by the brilliant whiteout! People speak out, this is the presence of Inora The White Princess, daughter of Walind or Valind who can bring cool calm beauty or icy wrath and devastation. It now seems she is presenting both in sequence. As people stumble about the decks, the thunder booms more closely, and there are cries muffled by the snow and wind: “Dryduster! Demon Master of Avalanches!” The whiteness thickens around the ship and those who can see cannot help but widen their eyes at the awesome terror descending from the slopes: cubic miles of snow, sliding at great speed for the Styx and the Ship. There is little warning before it hits with a blast of wind and then the shuddering impact of smothering snow that engulfs the decks. Bog and Shrett are swept away and battered as they slide across the decks with the smothering snow, yet both of them soon dig their way out of the avalanche before they are swept off the decks. A few others on board are not so lucky, falling to their deaths in a torrent of snow that vanishes into the Styx. Luckily the War Boat is not stopped by the avalanche, and enough Pullers and Watchers survive to urge it onwards along the Styx before another comes. Sylphs and other magics are called upon to sweep the decks clear of snow and free the entombed, and in time the Boat Planet leaves the Mountains of Himile. Bog has his left arm crippled and no one manages to heal him, so he glumly retires to the Hold to rest; unable to find any Uz healers to help him, as there are so few Uz left aboard and the ones remaining are conserving their power.
At first you think it's thunder again, but no. The sound of ten thousand drums greets the War Boat as it rows into a wider stretch of the Styx; another part of the Black Ocean. The lands surrounding the waters remain tall and rocky. Bog recognizes the drums as Uz and returns on decks in time to see the scene unfold. The drumming gets louder further downriver, and under dark clouds of Dehori the source becomes evident: there are sleek black galleys by the dozen moored on one distant shore, and past them is camped a horde of Uz and their demons; an army numbering in the tens of thousands, extending far past all sight, but loud in their music and voices. As the War Boat gradually passes this imposing horde, they spot it and begin decamping, with some galleys quickly taking to the waters; seemingly not in pursuit, but following at a great distance. Mutters go through those on board the War Boat as to what their purpose is, but the crew do not appear concerned; even acting curious. Bog does not recognize these galleys, so he is unsure what they mean.
You continue to row and sing; Shrett suffers a wound to his abdomen (which he magically heals) and Bog also is injured even though he is not rowing.
The War Boat turns off of the Black Ocean down another River Styx and comes into the Nightwood, infamous as the woods of the Chaos Age or Greater Darkness. It is unusually shadowy and gloomy within bowshot of its outer edge. Further in, even Darksight becomes hazy, leaving only a gray gloom. Patches of fog drift about, and odd lights appear and disappear. There is an uncomfortable chill, even for Uz. And memories slip into your minds, as this place conjures your experiences in the Maggotweald. Much as the Mountains have a corresponding reality in the mortal world, so does the Nightwood. Boamund grimly keeps his hand on his sword. He really doesn't like this! And for good reason…
We will see the reasons next time: 23 July! Take care.
-John
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