Your luxury cruise through the marvels of the Underworld continued…
The shores and the Path of Silence disappear into the distance as the Boat Planet continues down a widening River Styx. Now you've entered a bleak and blasted landscape of the Underworld , with fumaroles and craters hissing vile sulphurous vapours, and where the water turns thick and red, boiling and belching, with patches of angry flames bursting from bubbles here and there both ashore and on the water itself. Jeset the Ferryman or Ferry-Uz reappears by your side, whispering that you have passed into a dread region of the Hells: the River of Hate. A place where those afflicted by violent passions might be condemned, and a popular haunt of many infamous demons, but not a sought-after afterlife for any normal faiths. Particularly egregious victims of the River of Swords get swept here for further anguish. Zorak Zoran and other gods quested here to gain horrible infernal powers; or face them as foes (e.g. Lodril). At first you see no inhabitant beings, but slowly some come into sight in the distance-fiery demonic forms bent over writhing broken souls of the accursed, angry ghosts, and more. An uncomfortable feeling grows; it is unclear whether it is caused by the presence of those beings or if it draws them. It rasps at your emotions, probing for feelings of loathing and disgust. Jeset watches as many aboard struggle with these feelings.
Bog is happily comfortable, familiar with these feelings as a Zorak Zorani. It's like a wonderful Sacred Time vision! Shrett and Fraud feel hatred of Vadeli welling up, which distracts them as they see Boamund and Ahappi stand still, their faces contorted for several seconds. Those two find their souls drawn by their hatred into the greyness of the Spirit Realm, where a bleeding rotten corpse of the Red Vadeli Erythagulos faces Ahappi, and a rotten skeletal goat-broo faces Boamund. Ahappi remembers how this foe and his minions captured them on their island and held onto that hatred for many years; Boamund recalls his experience with a parody of a gorp that snuck up on him outside of a Godlearner ruin and ate much of his armour. They face off-Ahappi strikes a strong spirit-blow and his foe begins losing essence; then he hits his enemy with all his hatred and compels it to parley: he offers it servitude for one deed then it may depart, and, cowed by its repeated defeat, the spirit of Erythagulos concedes, seeing an opportunity to bring suffering one more time. It inhabits the clawed hand of the Red Vadeli Shark-Demon that Ahappi has long had, and that hand now has its own eerie animate unlife… Boamund soundly defeats his enemy, also bleeding it and striking it very forcefully with his will, so soon it falls to pieces, screaming back to The Chaosium. (and well he did! Not only did it do 1d10 MP damage, but its Chaos Feature was to do 1d10 HP damage if it hit, too!) The two gain stronger passions as a result of their victories, and return to their bodies.
The River of Hate enters a deep, broad chasm; the shores of demons and sufferers are far above the War Boat now. This continues for some time, then there are hints of an opening ahead. Then, waves of heat wash across the decks. People are confused as to the source; even the crew are agitated. Soon enough, there are clues though: ahead where the chasm widens more, there is a flickering orange glow lighting the waters and edges of the cliffs. The Deck Officer stomps around the deck, shouting for vigorous work at the oars and the song, her great brow furrowed deeply as she casts glances ahead. You sing and row your best, but some of you suffer burns from the scorching heat.
The walls of the chasm begin to pass as the Boat Planet surges forward along the River of Hate, and the ship enters a different body of water but with some similar properties. Jeset manifests to whisper that it is the Sea of Flame; an abomination that came down from the Middle World. Indeed its main properties are that it is aflame everywhere, roiling with furious currents and eddies. There is no time to inspect it, as the true source of the glow seen from the River of Hate becomes obvious: on the horizon, incalculably far or near, rises a monstrous seething mass of fiery water. Everyone knows it for what it is. It is a Fireberg; spawn of Tanian the water god of fire. Bog hurls himself under his rowing-bench and cowers in abject terror. He does not emerge until calm returns to the ship later. Boamund however is inspired by the Fire of Justice.
Waertag the Reaver comes forth from the Forbidden Door again, many eyes looking to him in this crisis. “It seeks us. We have unfinished business. I have new tricks, but in its nine hundred years of travels it will have some too. We will try evasion; if we can escape to the Ocean of Despair it will not go further. But it will take all of us, working together.”
The War Boat continues, its crew calling orders around. New sails and other structures appear jutting from the ship; it reforms itself more suddenly and obviously than it normally does. You row and you sing. What keeps you going? You marshal what passions motivate you and brace yourselves for what comes next. For Ahappi, it's personal; this is a great foe of his people. But how can you fight a Fireberg? Can you? Waertagi implies not.
The Fireberg has managed to close with the Boat Planet despite everyone's best efforts. The Sea of Flame sports ferocious waves and howling whirlpools that push or suck the ship toward it. But another unpleasant surprise comes. A great ship, its hull bound with rings of iron and its deck sporting pinnacled Zzaburi towers, approaches from the starboard side. Jeset whispers that this is a Leviathan Warship; a drowned vessel of the Svagad Fleet of the Godlearners' sects of the Just Shipbuilders and Free Men of the Sea-ancient foes of all Waertagi and heroquesters of Tanian. Calls arise to prepare for battle-aid is needed on the foredeck against fiery things bursting forth from the Fireberg, but also on the starboard side against whatever threat the warship brings. You prepare for battle; Fraud and Shrett going starboard, Ahappi and Boamund going to face the Fireberg.
The Fireberg not only emanates terrible heat but also jets of flame that take a semblance of life and fly forth, using not only powers of Fire and Water but also Air, on flapping fire-wings. They blast the ship and people with bolts of their own scorching breath, shrieking madly. Ahappi suffers some burns from the heat. As the Fireberg-demons come in, Ahappi hurls his trident at one, hitting it in the head and sticking there, but not felling it; its demonic fury keeps it in the fight. But after its fire-breath goes wide, charring a section of empty deck, he leaps up and pulls the weapon free, ripping the horror's head apart, and it falls. Boamund faces his foe, evades its breath and stands back up then fights it in melee, dealing wounds to its wing that Ahappi comes in and incapacitates, so it falls and must crawl about to fight, but is rapidly dispatched by them both.
Meanwhile, the armoured ship endures a rain of missile fire from the War Boat as it closes, not immediately returning the assault. But then as defenders crowd the gunwhales to defend any onslaught, it unleashes two things. First, a rain of darts of frozen flame hails down on those defenders, causing painful wounds. Second, as those projectiles hiss down, they leave behind arcs of ice that heavily armoured, silent marines charge across at sorcerously enhanced speeds. Melee is soon joined! Shrett dodges the missile that comes his way, while Fraud, attempting to block his vitals with his shield, is hit twice by burning ice-fire-darts and almost has his right arm crippled. But he fights on as the enemy comes aboard. And he fights well, beheading his enemy in short order. Shrett disarms his enemy thrice, humiliating him; the foe is left to desperately try to grip him in its gnarled hands, but then is knocked prone. Fraud comes in with another decapitation blow to finish him. [the undead-Marines had great magics: hasted speed, and quick melee: extra shield-bash and extra weapon-parry; and their special obscure combat style “Brute” gave them the option to choose Maximize Damage w/o a Critical! Sadly they did not get a chance to use that; they were far less skilled than you. :) )
The crew expertly pilot the Boat Planet safely away from the Fireberg, marshalling dozens of undines to push it onwards. Meanwhile the defenders on the starboard side push back the undead Godlearner marines and knock down what bridges they can. It goes even better when loud crunches and thuds come from the warship, and everyone gets glimpses of multiple things-finned, tentacled, clawed and mawed-grabbing the ship's hull and tearing at it, finally rending openings in the hull that let the Sea of Flame inside. Was that Pellinoresbane amongst them? Burned themselves from their fighting, the summoned sea creatures descend back into the depths, pulling the slowly sinking Warship down with them. It has drowned for a second time! And the War Boat, again victorious, is free to leave; victory cheers erupt across the decks.
The bodies of the Fireberg-demons turn to ash, then melt into grey puddles. Ahappi feels a new realization strike him, and it is awesome. His Inner Dragon has imparted to him the wisdom to see that Caelaca, Tanian, the dragons known in the Sky Realm (defeated Aroka, Sh'harkzazeel, Black Dragon), Lorion-they are all much the same; as one thing; aspects of the Inner Dragon that awoke in them. Even Orlanth found this out; and others. The Inner Dragon can reconcile opposing elements like Fire and Water; they can exist together in what even could be called harmony. Caelaca demonstrates this: she is of fire and water, the hydrothermal vents' volcanic energy underwater, and she is of nature. Even Tanian existed before the Godlearners meddled with him, but was obscure to mortals and was twisted via their heroquests into the avatars called the Firebergs. Other, more benevolent seekers found peaceful sides of Tanian, such as the Empire of the Wyrm's Friends, misguided as they were. So now Ahappi has reconciled Fire and Water within himself. He can breathe flame, at least once, to demonstrate this. He has new feelings of ties to the Sea Dragons, who can wield Fire powers on the Water with impunity.
The Godlearner zombie-marines (for that is what they were; Shrett had seen their eyes burning like coals and their withered grey skin within their corroded Jrusteli armour) turn to dust and blow away on a hot wind, but leave behind some things. Shrett finds a small bronze box with Spirit and Magic runes inscribed: opening it releases a bound magic-spirit that infuses him with new magical energy, hurrah! He uses some of that to heal others. Fraud finds a strange soft black, fist-sized sphere that he ponders, showing the others, but no one is sure what it might be. This all reminds Shrett of the 30cm clay pot he has from Caelaca's temple, so he opens its lid and finds a green peppery spice inside. Cautiously tasting it, he deduces that it has some intoxication properties-it certainly is valuable to the right buyer or as trade/gift, could be used to poison or otherwise surprise someone, might augment you in some way, and the clay pot itself could be hurled with it as a missile. An interesting find; he seals it back up.
You'd be able to piece together basic facts about the Firebergs, Tanian, those Godlearners, etc., like here: <a href=“https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Tanian%27s_Victory” target=“_blank”>Tanian's Victory</a> and relevant to <a href=“https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Waertagi” target=“_blank”>Waertagi</a>
What would disturb some of you (e.g. Ahappi, Bog?) is that you saw the Fireberg with the Leviathan Warship. It can be no coincidence. The latter must have been guiding the former or something; to ambush you like that on this quest. That the Fireberg is found in Hell is no great surprise, but Waertag said they've travelled… are they still travelling? Where are they going? Are the remnants of the Godlearners taking them anywhere, or just in circles here on the Sea of Flame?
But wait as the Boat Planet sails on, word goes around deck that there have been rumours that Firebergs have returned to the Middle World???s oceans in recent years! Somewhere far off to the East though; you are unfamiliar with the names.
-John
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