Blood of the Ancients

“Shhh! I heard something up there!” Jax hissed. They’d managed to ascend to the second level of the lost jungle pyramid known as the Sunken Queen, and had finally found a part of the structure that wasn’t totally submerged. But over the sounds of water squishing out of wet boots and rattling armor, Jax was almost certain he’d heard furtive sounds from a room ahead of them. Tomas nodded grimly – he’d heard it too. However, the interior of the pyramid was cloaked in inky darkness, save for the magical lights the group was carrying, and they did little but reveal that the hallway ahead opened into something larger, not what might lurk within. “Put out your lights!” Jax commanded as he slipped on his Red Mantis mask and activated its Darkvision ability. As the lights winked out, he could see others doing the same. He cast Greater Invisibility on himself and could hear other spells being whispered in the growing darkness. When all was black, he crept cautiously down the hallway.

He poked his head through the doorway into the large room beyond. On the right-hand wall, a crude wooden platform had been constructed to provide a horizontal surface above the steeply-sloped floors of the slanted pyramid. On it he could see several filthy straw pallets, along with some leather sacks and other personal effects. The creatures who slept on those mats were hiding about the room; on either side of the doorway, on and under the platform, and in the far corner of the room. They were amphibious looking humanoids, wearing hide armor and armed with large clubs (Nat would later identify them as Boggards). He remembered the abandoned village they’d seen as they flew over the jungle; perhaps these were the remnants of the original inhabitants of the Mushfens, recruited (or compelled) to serve Ileosa. Whatever their history, they didn’t look like they’d be interested in discussing a change of allegiance. He wished he had a way to warn his friends, but his invisibility prevented that. But he glanced over his shoulder and saw Tomas hold up two fingers. Tomas wasn’t technically invisible, but he moved so stealthily down the dark corridor that he might as well be. From his vantage point against the wall he could see two of the Boggards; having passed this on to those behind him, he drew his bowstring back to his ear, took careful aim, and let fly.

A stream of arrows flew into the Boggard crouched beneath the platform, drawing a loud croak of pain and fury. Nat, wanting to avoid the sounds of combat alerting anyone else who might be lurking about, cast Silence into the room, and the croak was cut off. As soon as she saw Tomas fire, Erin dashed into the room; she spotted Boggards on either side of the doorway, and took the one on her left. Shadow had cast Greater Invisibility on her before the fight started, and she took it totally by surprise, gashing it with Serithtial. Nonetheless, it swung its greatclub at the spot where the attack had come from, and managed to connect, slamming her into the wall with the force of the impact. At the same time, it let out a terrifying, ear-splitting croak; they were just outside the range of the Silence, and the sound sent chills down Erin’s spine, but her faith in Iomedae left her unshakable.

Jax was inside the area of Silence, so he was oblivious to the croaking. Utilizing his Tricky Spell ability, he cast Chain Lightning despite his inability to speak, and bolts of electricity ricocheted from Boggard to Boggard, and the one under the platform rolled forward, dead. Shadow moved to the doorway, just outside the Silence, and conjured a Lightning Arc that further zapped the pair of Boggards at the far end of the room. But the Boggard barbarians were tough, and they charged to the attack. The one on the platform beside the doorway leaped down to attack whoever was shooting arrows from the hallway, but collided with Jax before he’d gone five feet. It swung its club at whatever was there, and was rewarded by the solid crunch of wood on flesh and bone. The two at the other end of the room, seeing their buddies swinging at something invisible, charged up to join the fun; one missed Erin badly, but the other added another layer of bruises to Jax.

Tomas couldn’t see Jax, but the attacking Boggards gave him a pretty good idea of where he might be. He stepped forward, to get a better angle into the room, and feathered the Boggard who’d come from the other end of the room. Nat added a volley of Magic Missiles on that same target, and it fell limply backwards. Erin ignored her new attacker for the moment, and focused her wrath on the one in the corner, and it quickly joined its fellow in death. Jax had been confident in the ability of his Invisibility to keep him safe from harm, but now he limped invisibly away from the fight, making his way back to Wren, and healing.

The Boggard who’d come off the platform kept swinging blindly at the spot Jax had just vacated, not knowing his target had slunk away. His mate was swinging at the spot where Erin stood, but with no better luck. Shadow could see that there were two more exits out of the Boggards’ lair; one in the left-hand wall and another leading out of the far end of the room. He invisibly crossed the room to the far exit; he could see a hallway that continued another fifty feet or so before turning left. Seeing no danger that way, he spun, and fired some Magic Missiles into the Boggard still threatening Erin. Nat followed Shadow, then shot his own Magic Missiles at the other one. Tomas stepped forward and fired a volley of arrows into the Boggard on the platform. It bellowed in rage and charged, happy to finally have a foe it could see. It hammered its club into Tomas's left shoulder, then reversed its grip and slammed it full into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Nat and Shadow prepared to finish off the pair in the room, but the sound of bare feet slapping on stone drew their attention to the corridor behind them. Another Boggard came charging around the corner to the south, club swinging over its head as it ran to its friends’ defense. It ran headlong into Shadow, practically knocking him over, but missed when it swung its club at his (invisible) head.

Erin chopped down the Boggard beside her. Tomas was struggling to breathe, but he wasn’t out of the fight. He fired his first arrow at the Boggard who’d just hit him; it struck directly between its eyes, and it tumbled backwards, dead. Tomas turned and kept firing at the newcomer who’d just appeared in the far doorway, and four shafts suddenly sprouted from its body. Nat didn’t like being this close to something that could actually hit him; he slipped under its arm, stepped a few feet behind it, then blasted it with Empowered, Intensified Magic Missiles, sending the Boggard’s lifeless body sliding across the floor into the room.

As Jax guzzled healing potions, the others explored. The Boggards’ possessions were worthless, but Tomas followed the hall to the left. It led into a partially-flooded room in the center of the pyramid. A large crystal tube emerged from the water; he could see that it extended through the floor, possibly down into the area they hadn’t explored on the floor below. The tube rose up to the ceiling, where it split into dozens and dozens of small tubes that snaked across the ceiling before disappearing into the stone, presumably burrowing up to a level above. He shook his head; he had no idea what this might be. Across the room, he could see another passage; he waded to its entrance, the water growing deeper with each step down the sloping floor. The Darkvision from his mask allowed him to see there was another room beyond it. The water didn’t quite reach the ceiling in that room, and he could see another wooden platform had been constructed there, floating on the water’s surface. It held several large barrels, but he didn’t feel the need to investigate; Shorshen’s imperative was driving him forward.

While Tomas went into the center of the pyramid, Nat and Shadow kept heading south, where the other Boggard had come from. The passage turned left, seeming to run along the perimeter of the structure, but not far in another opening led back towards the outside of the building. Intrigued, Nat followed it. It apparently ended in a solid stone wall, but Nat’s Arcane Sight could see the aura of magic. He tentatively pushed his fist against the ‘wall’ and was not surprised when it passed right through. He stuck his head through the Illusory Wall, and found himself looking out at the outer face of the pyramid. The secret entrance was not only masked by magic, it was hidden behind a thick grove of mangroves, but he could see a narrow path through the tree trunks where someone could squeeze through. He stayed outside just long enough to place his Arcane Mark on the wall beside the opening, to ensure he could find it again, then went back to join the others. “Found the back door,” he informed them.

Meanwhile, Shadow had continued on down the hall leading back east, and discovered another partially flooded room very similar to the one they’d come into. However this one had a shaft leading up through its ceiling. The water below it was roughly chest-deep, with the ceiling some fifty feet overhead – and an unknown length of dark shaft to traverse after that. “Looks like whoever built this place didn’t have a problem with flying,” Nat observed, craning his neck to look up at the ceiling as the others joined them. “Normally, I’d say we could just Dimension Door up, but in this place … I’m not so sure that would work. How do you guys feel about flying?” The others nodded, and Nat cast Mass Fly on the party.

They ascended to the ceiling, then up through another thirty-five feet of stone. As they neared the top, they could see the glow of dim light beginning to illuminate the area. They emerged into a vast hall, one hundred feet from end to end. The air was strangely warm and pleasant, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were tiled with polished, rose-colored marble slabs. Near the center of the room, dozens of thin crystal tubes emerged  from the floor, weaving in and out of the walls as they rose up towards the ceiling. A soft glow of light flowed out of a passage just to their right; they could see soft light also spilling out of another opening on the right-hand wall at the far end of the great hall, and two more dark openings opposite these on the left.

Tomas strained his ears; he could swear he could hear a sound like rushing winds from the far end of the chamber. Nat didn’t have to use his ears; he could see magical auras floating in the air down there. He could also see another dark opening in the ceiling at the opposite end of the room. “There’s something down there,” he whispered as he fiddled with his Red Mantis mask to activate its See Invisibility. “Just a second … Holy shit!” As the Mask’s magical sight clicked on, Nat could see what was waiting for them. It was a huge, scarlet creature, some unearthly being – spiderlike in some ways, with many legs and bloated body, but with lobster-like claws and writhing tentacles. Its face (if you could call it that) was pocked with dozens of eye-like pits. Nat’s brain hurt just looking at it; he had no idea what sort of creature it was, save that it was from some nightmare realm beyond this reality. He knew that whatever it was, it was beyond anything Ileosa could have summoned, or her devils could have bargained. This thing was a relic of old Thassilon, but whether it had served the runelords, or they it, he could not say.

Even as the creature became visible to Nat, it cast a spell, and a thin, purplish mist appeared around the party. They’d encountered this before, in Castle Korvosa – it was Mind Fog, intended to cloud their minds and make them more susceptible to magical influence. But fortunately, the Life Bubble that still enveloped them prevented the magical fog from reaching their lungs, and they were unaffected. Tomas and Shadow flew into the entrance to the left-hand passage, activating their own See Invisibility as they went. Before the others could move, the red creature flew forward. It halted well short of the party but somehow, impossibly, one of its claws shot out and lashed at Erin, narrowly missing the unsuspecting paladin. An instant later, Tomas felt a stabbing pain in his brain and he looked around in bewilderment – where was he and who were these people? He shook his head – he should understand – he had to understand! Frustrated, he stabbed one of his arrows into his thigh, hoping the pain would help to clear his head.

Instead, more enemies appeared. An Erinyes devil came flying into the room behind Tomas and Shadow, out from a passage leading off to the north. It carried a flaming trident, and it stabbed it two-handed into Tomas’s back. Two more followed it into the room, their black eyes reflecting the flames of their weapons, while three more emerged from the left-hand opening at the far end of the room. Shadow spun, and cast a Fireball twisted into electricity that exploded around the three who were closing in on him and Tomas.

Nat was still struggling to wrap his mind around what kind of impossible anatomy had allowed the scarlet creature to reach as far as it had to attack Erin. He flung an Orb of Light that exploded in the thing's face, then immediately followed up with a Quickened, Empowered Orb of Light. Jax pulled out his Wand of Enervation and pointed it at the creature, but it seemed to have an unearthly resistance to magic, and the spell had no effect. Erin still couldn’t see what they were fighting, so she activated her own mask as she flew into the right-hand corridor; the scarlet monstrosity again narrowly missed her as she dashed past.

The huge creature flew a few feet farther south, then lashed out at Erin. The paladin ducked under a tentacle and blocked one claw with her shield, but the other claw opened a gaping wound in her side that gushed blood. Everyone nearby felt something pulling at them, and thin streams of blood began to flow from Jax’s eyes, flowing through the air and into the eye-like pits on the thing’s face, leaving him feeling weak and sickened.

Bralani Azata

Wren had begun a Summoning spell as soon as Nat had raised the warning, and now a trio of Bralani Azatas appeared in the room. One of the celestial warriors blasted the scarlet creature with a Lightning Bolt, but despite its huge size it nimbly evaded the bolt. Another fired a Lightning Bolt that caught the three Erinyes flying in from the far end of the room, while the third took up a position behind Tomas and Shadow and created a hurricane-force Gust of Wind to try to block the other Erinyes from reaching them. Wren considered using Banishment to try to drive the devils back to Hell (and possibly the other thing back to wherever it might have come from), but she knew that would also dispel her Bralani, so instead she cast Slay Living on the scarlet creature. But again, the magics of this reality had difficulty finding purchase on the outsider, and her spell had no effect.

Nat didn’t know what this creature was, or where it was from, but he knew they had to neutralize it, so he cast Persistent Feeblemind on it. It had no facial expression, so it was difficult to know whether the spell had succeeded, but its fury was unabated. It drew back its claws to strike at Erin again, but she was too fast. Serithtial flashed, and opened a gaping wound in the thing’s side. A spray of ghastly ichor flew out, but then immediately flowed back into the wound. Erin swung again, and again, each time crunching through the creature’s strangely resilient bloated body. The final blow split the thing’s ‘face’, slashing straight through the mass of tentacles that may have framed its mouth. There was a shriek that set their teeth on edge, and the creature fell to the floor.

But the fight was far from over. The Erinyes behind Tomas stabbed him with her flaming trident, then stabbed him again. The other two forced their way forward against the Bralani’s howling wind. One reached the doorway; she glared at Shadow (and with a shudder, he realized she could see him, despite his Invisibility), but chose to focus on the badly wounded archer, driving her trident into him with all her might. The third, unable to reach past her partners to attack, cast Unholy Blight directly behind the group in the doorway, catching Tomas, Shadow, Nat, and the Bralani in its greasy miasma. At the other end of the room, one of the Erinyes flew at Wren’s Bralani, easily dispatching it with a few thrusts of her weapon, while the other two made directly for Erin, who managed to block their blows.

Tomas had finally overcome his Confusion, but he was barely clinging to life. He wrenched himself off the devils’ spears, then dashed away before they could retaliate, flying straight for Wren. “I need help!” he gasped, and Wren could see in an instant that he was not exaggerating. Knowing she couldn’t rely on half-measures, she cast Heal on the ranger, and he heaved a sigh of relief as his wounds closed and his mind cleared.

Although blood was no longer streaming from his eyes, Jax was still feeling sick. However he fought down the feeling and circled around the Erinyes who’d converged on Erin, noting that their eyes followed him as he moved. Nevertheless, he managed to get in position directly across from Erin, and took advantage of the devil’s distraction to drive his rapier deep into a vital organ. Shadow, with a trio of bloodthirsty devils in his face, forced his way back a step against the howling wind, then cast Chain Lighting that caught all three Erinyes, and the one between Erin and Jax for good measure. Then he used Quickened Slither to transform into a shadow and slip well away from danger. The Bralani dropped its Gust of Wind and cast a Lightning Bolt that struck two of the devils, then its surviving partner flew in beside it and created a new Gust, hoping to hold the Erinyes at bay. The party had made short work of the Erinyes devils they’d faced in Castle Korvosa, but these were far stronger and more dangerous. They recalled the Infernal contract Ilesoa had signed, and how it had granted her the service of a number of named Erinyes devils. They had a strong suspicion they had just met those devils.

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The PCs earned 36,267 XP, putting them at 677,985 XP, with 850,000 required for Level 17. Next week will bring the final confrontation with Queen Ilesoa, and the culmination of The Curse of the Crimson Throne!