Chapter 13: Session 02

Chapter 13: [Cities of the Dead, Part 1: The Violet Path]

Fleeing the oncoming assault of dragons, Soreiss ports the party back to the crossroads where first they had left off their trail in pursuit of Orin Lamir's path. Rin opts to stay behind and scout, having some suspicions about the heavy spined brambles that grow on all sides of the road. Meanwhile, Soreiss, Lugh, Slip, Kestra, Mitu, Arius, and the soldiers return to the Bulls' base at the town of Westroad.

Wounds are bound and Mitu makes some adjustments to his armor. Soreiss casts a charm of finding on a blade belonging to Orin, hoping it will lead them to him. The seriously wounded are left at base as the remainder promptly return to the trail of Orin through another teleportal gateway of Soreiss's.

There is no sign of Rin upon their return; however, hidden low in the briars is a piece of red cloth. They investigate further, and find that it marks a very large circle of camouflaged wooden planks that hide some kind of tunnel access. The party opts to descend, but realize that the mercenary soldiers will be hard pressed to fight in the much more close quarters tunnels. Yet another teleportation gateway dismisses the mercenaries back to Westroad, with only Kestra remaining to help rescue her leader.

The party believes that Rin has passed through here, and find similarly red-cloth marked passages as they pass. Following the trail set by Rin, and matched by the Finding Charm of Soreiss, the party moves deep into the tunnels and eventually come upon a door, behind which both Slip and Soreiss sense arcane wizardry. Mitu notes that the party wants to get through the door, and takes it upon himself to try and tear it from its hinges.

However, while the big Ogren busts open the door, sundering a wooden bar on the far side, he makes himself an easy target. A bolt of blue-white flame impacts his chest, and Mitu staggers... then loses control for the first time in over a year. He charges into the chamber -- where four armored Ogres are rising to attack, and another, smaller Ogren in fine clothes, is half obscured by a stalagmite while arcane flames dance around his hands. Mitu impacts against a magical barrier just into the chamber... He lunges at it, bursting through it with a mighty swing of his club, and continues forward until colliding with a second barrier that surrounds the smaller Ogren spell caster.

The fight is on, as spells fly and a massive, fiery explosing covers most of the party. The spellcaster taunts Mitu, seemingly able to stymie him at every turn, and distracting him enough for on of the Ogres to land enough hits to knock him cold. Hurt and shaken, the party fights on, forcing the magic slinging Ogren -- who seems quite wary of Soreiss and his odd necromantic aura -- and his Ogre pals onto the defensive. When it seems all is about lost, he disappears...

...and a few minutes later, a projection of his voice seems willing to parlay. The party demands Orin, but the Ogre says that he does not have the man. Instead, he recommends that they seek deeper, to the regions controlled by the giant troll or by the dragons. He adds, the dragons never take prisoners. Since Soreiss's finding charm seems strong, it would indicate that Orin remains alive. Which means the trolls must have the party's friend.

The party agrees not to push any more fighting with the arcanely gifted Ogren or his troops, and in return they are given safe passage though to the deep tunnels.

The party moves steadily through the area, eventually passing once more into an area without troops or guards. The tunnels become quite grisly, smeared with blood and who knows what else, with skulls set here and there in various stony alcoves. They note an occasional red cloth -- Rin is still marking a path that coincides with their own directions. For almost an hour, the party pushes forward, and eventually hear the sounds of rushing water. The passage widens and at the edge of an almost sheer cliff, Rin sits huddled in the corner, gasping for breath and obviously hurt from the lack of plentiful, moving air. Past Rin is a vast chamber into which a trio of waterfalls cascade. Small islands of stone are connected by lashed together bridges far down at the bottom. A steep staircase leads down on this side. At the chambers height is a small aperture through which a faint ray of sunlight streams, and from which what little fresh air that circulates spawns. Dozens of Trolls mill about the islands below.

Most strangely, though, is that this place is a pure Water Node, and Slip feels the boost to his elemental abilities. Rin, they decide, is far too hurt and far too vulnerable down here, and open a gateway for him back to the surface while the rest of the party considers their plans.

Slip and Soreiss note other passages on the chamber's far side, past the various Trolls. Picking the passage that is set roughly in the same direction, Soreiss opens a gateway, and the party translocates just behind the furthest set of visible guards. Knowing the Trolls have keen senses of smell, Kestra decides to keep the chance of their detection to the lowest likelihood and casts a shroud of invisibilty upon the party -- hiding them and their voices. Now the Trolls will have only their senses of smell... and while they do indeed smell something odd, they pick out the Ogre scents and think it is just something from the Ogre band from nearer the surface. However, the party moves quickly down the tunnel, getting away before the Trolls get curious enough to investigate.

This tunnel begins as another grisly path, with skulls (three of which are fresh from the mercenary soldiers) and gore coloring the area. However, this soon ends when the path abruptly turns perfectly smooth. Lugh's affinity with stones reveals this area once was shaped by an earth elementalistm nearly half a millenia ago.

The smooth passage leads into a perfectly round, domed chamber with three other exits. In the center of the room is a posted guard, a troll covered head to toe in gleaming steel scale armor wielding a broad-headed Bardiche. The guard seems vigilant, even canny, which is an unlikely trait for most Trolls. He smells the Ogre scent on the party, and first assumes the Ogren wizard from the shallows was sneaking around again. However, when he catches the scent of humans, he becomes more agitated, intuiting some kind of ruse or betrayel.

Not giving him a chance, Arius and Mitu charge the Troll. Spell casters offer distance support, especially Slip who uses his expanded power to pull the water from the Troll's body, leaving him tired and constantly pained. The fight is short but brutal, leaving all fighters battered and bruised. However, the party is victorious, and Mitu strips off the Troll's armor after Arius decapitates the fallen warrior. They incinerate the body as they look around.

The finding charm is acting strangely, and eventually Lugh points out that the charm is indication that Orin is somewhere below them. In an adjoining chamber, they find the means of opening a hole in the floor, and trigger it. Mitu, Lugh's wolf, Kestra, and Slip all fall down the open chute, with Slip using his water powers to catch himself and Kestra, who seems to flutter down slowly using her magical cape. Mitu and the wolf, however, hit the ground hard almost forty feet below. Arius spikes a rope and climbs down to join them, while Lugh, Slip, and Soreiss follow.

The level of carnage increases, with thousands of bones (and a few wet chunks) littering the floor and pushed up against the walls. More skulls adorn the upper walls, and a red, smoky flame sputters from a short way down the hall...

Lugh senses imbalance and corruption, and both Mitu and the wolf are overcome by the stench of old blood. As the party nears, both Soreiss and Slip can sense faint traces of magic up ahead, the sound of heavy breathing and laughter can be heard by all.

In the chamber a gigantic Troll sits lounging on a makeshift throne. At his feet are a pair of spiny, unnatural looking dogs. Across the chamber is a pair of trolls and a naked, human man spiked to a wooden "X". The man is recognizable as Orin Lamir, though he is covered in blood and large portions of his skin are flayed from his torso. The trolls seem to be torturing Orin at their lord's command.

The massive troll laughs, and tells the party that if they come nearer the man will die.

Lugh tosses Mitu and Arius a potion each, even as the pair are moving quickly ahead without consulting the party. The pair quaffs the potions and turn invisible as Kestra mutters the words to a spell that heightens the physical speed of several people. Mitu grows even more determined when the voice in his head informs him that this massive troll is demonic in nature, and refers to it as Mitu's cousin.

The demon troll does not see Arius and Mitu, but his dogs do. They dogs breath flame, but have little effect on the two warriors. Slip, however, moves forward and into the demon troll's line of sight -- Slip has little time to act before the troll flicks a long, sticklike object his way which turn into a long streak of lightning in mid air. Slip is struck hard and slammed backwards into the wall. The elementalist slumps down, knocked into a coma.


Arius and Mitu strike, barely wounding the demonic creature, who responds by punching Arius hard in the chest with his spiked fist and knocking the young man sprawling. Mitu leaps back as the Troll rises and swings about, lifting the sword that had been leaning next to him on the throne's edge. Mitu harries the demonic Troll, who it turns out is also a product of the Pain Demon, Tolixenos. Arius, who remains on the ground, regains his senses, gasping for breath and waiting for his moment to strike. Soreiss teleports behind Orin, and grabbing him, teleports away again before the Trolls have a chance to kill him. Lugh's wolf squares off with the demon dogs (LORDS OF LIGHT!), and Lugh moves forward to try and take shots at the demon troll. Kestra readies a magical barrier in front of herself, even as Soreiss returns. The pair of wizards use spells to tear chunks from the demon Troll' flesh from a distance. Mitu keeps the bastard distracted, and Arius strikes with blow after blow to the creature's Stomach and Vitals.

The demon's henchmen see Soreiss across the room and begin to chase him around, though he basically ignores them by using his magical defenses to keep out of their reach. Eventually, between Mitu's constant avoidance and taunts, Arius's vital strikes, and the incessant minor damage and distance harrying by the spellcasters, the demon troll is overwhelmed and stunned from a particularly vicious blow.

Lugh's luck takes over, and using one of his cold iron tipped arrows, embeds a shot in the monster's skull. With his death, the demon dogs (LORDS OF LIGHT!) disappear in a plume of flame.

Though Arius, Mitu, and Slip are all seriously wounded, and Kestra and Soreiss are all but exhausted, they turn to face the Trollish henchmen. The pair of trolls look frightened, and in halting Talish, plead "Surrender?". When told to drop their weapons they comply, and are then told to run. A gateway openned by Soreiss returns the party to Westroad, where Orin and Rin both are resting. Lugh binds Arius's wounds, and the young warrior sets about tending to others of the wounded. Mitu and Lugh handle the most seriously wounded, especially Orin, who is the recipient of many applications of healing balm. Everyone passes out, hurt and exhausted, but finally safe.

The party rests their much needed rest...