10:38 PM, Heatmonth the 17th. With the Wall of Force in place, we had a chance to move on, but it would not last long. Could they Hellfire Transport through it? Was there another way down? What would Helen bring to bear? We paused long enough to dole out the little healing we had left and move on, looking at the walls of the 500 years of goblin history, displayed in pictograms.
We went into the hut and got clothes, shields, and arrows. At some point Nate asked Ghostbear about him coming back and coming back weaker. The Medicine Man explained that passing through the veil of death robs everyone and those lucky enough to have their hoop restored, finds it a bit smaller and more fragile. He tried to explain about the missing hit points. Everyone else who had come back had come back with some health but he came back at just barely alive.
Ghostbear admitted flat out that that was by design. Why? He leveled a finger and reminded Nate of his tirade against him a few days ago and that they did not need his help. He promised to withhold it on a going forward. The deal was to keep you from death and have your soul slide to the Umbra for now, that was all he was going to get. Things went back and forth ad got a bit heated and then Connal interjected insulting the medicine man about not wanting to listen him on his soap box when Ghost bear exploded in anger.
Your people take and take and give no thought to the things they make happen. He doesn’t have to do a fucking thing for you, you, or you (pointed specifically to Nate, Connal, and Shim – the original 3 who picked a fight with Ghostbear days ago) – and after watching their actions in getting Geronimo killed during the battle because the forced him to make the jump at the Rust Monster – so they didn’t have to risk facing it. Geronimo did make the jump, he can be influenced to do things if enough people pressure him, did kill the monster and some goblins there, but was 30’ behind enemy lines and surrounded and his jump skill requires him to be free, and ended up dying.
Does he go to the Umbra? No. No he doesn’t. Ghostbear can Shadowstep to the Umbra and take others there but he needs to be touching them to make the walk to help them escape death and Geronimo was too far away. He’s dead. His hoop is broken, and it was the party’s fault it had happened. He did not want to make the jump and said so 2 times before the group pressured him to doing so. And now his friend is gone. He was spitting blood he was so angry. Shim and Nate were talking afterwards, making plans and contingencies. It was not a pretty sight.
We ran on to the end of the corridor some 200’ away and came to a shaft heading down into the gloom. A scaffolding set of wooden steps circled around the pit, going down the rest of the way. We gathered around and ran on, eventually getting to the bottom. It seemed like a labyrinth of some sort. Ceiling was 15’ tall and passage ran off to the northeast and southeast. Walls seemed to be sort of worked, pumice, concrete looking. Unsure of options, Nate used his Trident to scout for any dangers nearby. To the east, through the walls and at the limit of the range, he ended up seeing a tall giant figure working on some weaponry. Pale of skill and white hair.
We decided to head northeast. After some time the passage had the ceiling rise and we ended up seeing a decent sized chamber here. What appeared to be an oversized Hematite cubic crystal dominated the center of the room, stretching up 11’. We did not enter and Eoghan was able to let us know that there were tracks in here, goblinoid, and they seemed to hug the edge of the chamber, the sides were smeared on one another. Magentic?
Darius tested it out, taking a nail he took aim and tossed it to the hematite crystal. It slowed down, hung briefly, and then flew back VERY fast, ringing off his shield. Magnetic – but backwards? He tried it again, hoping to see if there was a sideways way to go through but the nail flipped over and rang back again. We could get through, but we’d have to remove all our metal armor – and who knows what’s on the other side. The decision was made to NOT do this and instead head back to the other passage.
We went southeast this time and around midnight, Heatmonth the 18th, came to another open chamber. 2 or 3 other ways out, but a 1 and ½’ wide column 22’ feet from floor to ceiling – made entirely of salt. Damn it – no one wanted to touch that either. We were discussing who and how to get by, or going back to the other passage and trying the death magnets, when Shim volunteered to summon something. Good answer! So a quick summon followed – and we got a Giant Toad. Nice. He commanded it to hop along.
As soon as it got about 18/15’ from the column, it gave a strangled yelp, moisture was sucked from it, splashing against the column, and it crumbled to a husk before dying. The column did turn to stone though. Nice. We waited about 3 minutes and then it turned back salt. We figured we could all get by in time, but instead of murdering another sentient creature, Wilhelm called to Shakak and created a spring of water about 18/15’ from the column.
Sure enough, the water flew from the stream as if sucked from a straw for almost 2 minutes into the column until before the spell ended (10 gallons) when it returned to stone again, and the last of the water just wall on the rock floor. We ran past, making sure we were beyond the 18’ mark on the other side. Had a choice – northeast or south east, and we went north east – relying on Shim and the Desmondian Diamond.
There were about 20 or so very dried up goblin bodies here, husks devoid of water. Past here were 4 possible ways to go – 1 to the north east and 3 parallel passages heading north. All still 20’ wide, ceilings were 25’ high or taller in places. We went northeast. Before we did so, we used a piece of chalk to mark the ground on the off chance anyone came through here, they would smear it. We travelled a bit and the passage opened to the south to a large chamber. Bed, table, stand, some weapons, book rack, and a 22’ tall handsomely bearded humanoid figure wearing roman gladiator armor and sporting a short (for his size) sword.
He was watching us and we stopped. Talking revealed that we did not speak Giant, and the giant did not speak Common although it understood it. His name was Galain and we guessed he was here because Queen Helen Back had hired him for some length of time to be here and fight for her when called. He was a Storm Giant (as evidenced by his size as well as the demonstrable bolt of lightning he shot for us). But he was honorable and for now agreed that he would not fight us. In fact, after sharing some mood and drink with him, agreed that if Helen did call him and they were there, he would slow walk his arrival for as long as possible. As for the other giant (as seen in the Trident warning), that was another one and he was the weapon maker here. For now he would have to let Queen Helen know that someone had shown up (agreement and all), but would give us 10 minutes or so to vacate the area. We thanked Galain and moved on.
We returned to the 3 choices and took the next of the northern passages. Corridor went on for a while and then turned. An alien creature was here – 8’ tall, shaped like a barrel, 3 arms, 3 legs, eyes set strangely in its body, smells hot and spicy, serrated spiral toothy orifice on the top. It stopped us, Eoghan letting us know it was a Xorn, powerful, strong, elemental plane of earth, and dangerous.
It would let us pass if we gave it mineral to eat. It thought and answered silver. So we started with a few pieces and placed them on the ground and it hunched over them, sucking them up and kept waiting. So we gave more and it seemed to know when we had more to give. It was not going to let us past, and I seemed we could not back up without pissing it off. So we went through out inventory, coins, daggers, forks, even silver chain armor. And finally it relented. Grinding a bit of it down, it fashioned a ring to allow us to pass next time.
We followed the corridor to the north east and it ended at some sort of strange subterranean tavern. 2 Old women were here, Olga and Helga, they offered us stew for a bit and a place to rest without being disturbed. We felt they might be aspects of the Norns. They were here because something had happened and they wanted to leave something nearby to keep an eye one it. We guessed the Maw and the presence of the Native American milieu being here as catalysts. After eating the stew we grew tired and slept.
Awoke later, fully rested (no hp back again) but ready to go. Olga and Helga? No where to be found. We backtracked past the Xorn to the passages and tried the next northern one. When we spied 2 16’ tall stone giants in that chamber we backed out and rethought our plan. We decided to head back to the Column of salt. A create water spell got us past it and from there we went southeast. Corridor wandered a bit, turning northward and then north and then came to a 12’ stone looking figure of a goblin warrior, sword at the ready. Yeah. Don’t think so.
Another summon spell followed, waking the statue up and the party began hitting the damned thing. Hard. Darius took some of the more brutal blows from the construct but the party poured on the fight and the statue fell over at the end of round 3. 1:15 PM, Heatmonth the 18th.
Beyond here was a set of stairs 20’ wide, going down 30’ to the humongous cave. Phosphorous fungi illuminate the cave as far as we could see. ¼ mile north to south, 3/5th of a mile from here west. The floor slowly sloped down in the distance until was 200 plus feet to the ceiling there. Here it was over 60’ . 100’ from here was the maw, except here in this time, it was different. 15’ in diameter, the hole in the ceiling spun like a pulsar, each revolution opened up a glimpse to another world. And we could hear something around the gate getting bigger and coming out.
We devised a fast plan. Stoneribs and Shim would run north where they would get to the wall and then follow it up and to the ceiling to the gate. There, Shim would use the diamond to close the gate. Last time we did it, it took Shim 1 minute per foot to close it – so 15 minutes max. That was a lot of time. We would lure whatever the feeder was away from the gate so that Shim would be unbothered. If Helen showed up, Darius would use the Sword of the Unlikely Hero on her. Everyone else would pour damage if they could on the Feeder or whatever else might come (Giants? Goblins?).
The gnome and native hero were already running when the Feeder emerged. 30’ long, 20’ diameter tube covered in slimes and sores and festering wounds and dribbling mucus, a dozen over sized eyes situated about its form over ragged carnivorous lined toothy maws. Tentacles hung down 40, 50, 60’ from its main body, dragging on the earth with horny growths and teeth and serrated body ridges lining it. It was like nothing…nothing anyone had ever seen or heard of before. A figure of pure chaos, from before the universe existed.
And it was here now, and drifting towards us, howling whispering gasps of painful pleasure radiated out from its maddening approach. Heatmonth the 18th, 1:35 PM.
It’s time.
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