You plan your hunt for the Chuckling Babe/Umbrodriith, while spending some time resting and training and even engaging in rather rote missions of hunting some stray Seshnelans. Toadhaven has been abandoned, with the Seshnelan forces speedily retreating westwards-they have no real fortifications past Humbertsvile until St Thosos. The Giranois avoid the ruined Monastery as cursed, and are reluctant to pursue the Seshnelans much right now, but show interest in assisting with the final assault on St Thosos if it comes.
Tusynta says to Shrett that she has tasted Quick Sister's spirit in the Little Gunge swamps near Toadhaven, and that the demon Chuckling Babe has its “nursery” there, too. For the former, she told him of a place to look, but the nymph is in hiding there. For the latter, there is a cave in a rocky hill; it surely could be found by tracing the undead that vomit from it at night. Tusynta gives Shrett directions to both. She says that the Chuckling Babe has long since devoured its parents, the hapless Pithdaran peasants Jibril and wife Ishraq. It now cheerfully burbles out to Quick Sister, claiming to be her husband-in-waiting, but she has held firm in her hiding. Yet her distrust of all has deepened; she seeks safety in isolation; and she likely will remain so until the threat is gone.
You track increasing signs of wandering undead throughout the day in late Fire Season. Eventually, mid-afternoon you find a consistent trail that leads you to the site you seek, on a dry rocky 5m tall hill that has erupted from the ground, surrounded by some stinking muddy swamp. The rough natural stone here is of a mottled brown colour. Two entrances (northwest and southwest) are 2m circular tunnels in the side of the hill. They stink from a coating of pus-like fluid; all but Shrett manage to hold their breath as they come close, but Shrett gets enough of a lungful that he vomits until he is dry heaving and weakened. Boamund casts Skin of Life to protect everyone.
The entry tunnels lead quickly in to caves; you cast spells and head in, single file. First you come to a 10m wide cavern with an Undeath and Law rune-carved pillar in the southwestern corner, draped with hangings of rotten heads. Bog's Detect Enemy spell and Fraud's sword give you just enough warning as four half-corporeal things, tall and gaunt with spindly fingers that suck at flesh and souls nearby, come gliding forth with wails of hunger, and two engage Fraud. Two others wait back. Fraud tries shield-bashing one to force his way deeper in, but his shield does not budge it. Eventually you all force your way in, wearing the undead things down slowly, but suffering some nasty wounds where your flesh is flayed off and your souls drained. Shrett uses St Avlor's blessing. You grind them down and eventually overwhelm them, but it was a tough fight. Immediately you hear grunting, shuffling noises from a cave just to the north; there is a sloping passage to the east but you feel the need to move to head off any danger northwards.
As you approach, Bog warns you that he hears trollish sounds. You go double-file across some rough tunnel ground to a cave mouth. This is a 12m long cavern, 2 m high and with uneven ground, with steplike cave floors leading up to tunnels to the east and south. There is a dark grey altar-like slab in the southwest wall where shadows blaze with dripping red flames, from runes of Undeath and Law. Three fiery flayed-skinned reddish giant troll-things wildly confront you, at no concern to their own safety even when hewed by Fraud's iron undead-slaying sword. Shrett calls in a shade to help, and you make short work of them, grateful that they did not get their wicked claws or jaws on you. Something about them made it clear that these weren't just troll zombies; they thirsted for blood.
But then there are more sounds from ahead, this time anguished cries in Seshnelan just down a northern tunnel. This leads to a 14m wide cavern, 3m high, also accessed by the entry tunnel from the northwest. There are two enslimed 2m cubical crates here with barred doors on one side each: a brutally slain, bloody Seshnelan is in each, naked, filthy and with old signs of having slowly been fed upon bit by bit. Five “Blood Martyr” undead servants of Umbrodriith had prepared an ambush here for you, but again Bog's magic warns you just before they spring their trap, and so you move to face them. They are heavily armoured in iron across their head and torso, with thick leg bandages and rune-carved greyish skin on their arms, and they bear bloody magic clubs in each hand. They try to fight with cunning, and are skilled as well as having some magics, yet the latter prove ineffectual against most of you. Bog is hit by a Shock spell that leads his head ringing with energy, and he pulls back from the fight after taking a bad leg wound, later trying to throw some Styx water on a zealot-apprentice but missing. Shrett redeems himself after an unlucky start, by supporting the front ranks from behind with his spear. You batter the acolytes down, pushing your way into the room as you begin to outnumber then, and then it's soon all over. Boamund does a fine job freezing two of them with his sword, and Fraud's sword again wreaks considerable carnage.
You go back to the middle cave, where there is a tunnel leading a short distance east. From here, a strange bronze-plated bridges crosses a lake of bubbling pus far below, to a central column of stone. There are two other bridges; a northeast one barely visible opposite this bridge. They sway in a calm rhythm to a singsong humming tune that echoes throughout the cavern. A bridge from the southeast is below the others, leading to a lower part of the central column. The column is 10m in diameter, of natural stone but with worked archways leading inside from the bridges. From the architecture, it appears to be Second Age. It is about 10m to the roof of the cavern and thus top of the column. You cross fine at first, but then Shrett, last to cross, slips and Bog barely grabs his hand, hoisting him back to safety and averting certain, gruesome death.
There is a 6m diameter chamber inside the doorway from the bridge. Ruined furniture clutters along the walls and a shaft with an old bronze ladder leads up and down from the north wall. The rhythmic noise echoes from that shaft. There are Purification runes of Zistor carved into the walls around the chamber. But you have no time to investigate, as two hulking figures shamble their way from positions stuck to the walls. They seem like bipedal piles of rags, flesh, and metal junk, and make uncouth wordless wheezing noises as they hold hook-ended thick arms up in violent threat.
Until next game! -John
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