Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune.....
Sometimes I feel it must be an
affliction of Desna in my life. This desire to explore, search, and
learn more drives me onward. It can’t be just a selfish desire for
power, can it? Little enough of the supposed riches of the great
lair of Baba Yaga have we found. I begin to suspect that what the
crone knows, she keeps in her head. A bauble here, a bauble there.
Yes, you voices, they are indeed shiny, shiny baubles, yet hardly
something to shake the pillars or let one pierce the veil. In the
battle where we gained access to the hut I learned more about the
reality, or lack thereof, in the things we see around it than what we
have found here. Whenever we break to replenish our power, I talk
about these things with Grr. My Patron is wise, yet imparts little
wisdom beside trite words like “See beyond the deception of the
realms.” It makes my cry in frustration to feel so close to
understanding, yet so far away. Though they think I don’t see
them, but I see the strange looks my comrades give me. They begin
to question at my sanity. Well, even more than they did when they
found me fist speaking to the voices. Little do they know I question
it too…
As Tauvem enters the area, his
invisibility purge reveals another Hag. Calling upon her power she
quickly casts a deep slumber upon Tauvem and Snori, putting Snori on
the ground. Dalomar, who had remained hidden springs to the attack
and does a massive strike upon the hag. Realizing something is wrong
the rest of us advance as quickly as we can. Calling forth the
powers of life I touch upon Sadobras and heal him of some of the
damage done by the cursed broom. Calling his thanks to me he
charges forward to the attack on his warg. The hag strikes at
Dalomar and he evades striking back at a critical point on the had
nearly finishing her in just the second of his strikes. Sadobras
moves over to guard the defenseless and Snori. Tavum fires his bow
at the hag and having had enough of a fair fight she shifts herself
to the ethereal plane. Her shadow visage on the material plane
grins cruelly as she knows she is relatively safe from harm there.
Putting lie to that, I quickly cast the Blink spell and begin to
shift back and forth between the two planes. Cursing in frustration
the hag moves away into a wall, escaping with its life.
Surrounded by the Meniers I try to
summon the power to look out again across Artrosia, but can’t seem
to find the focus to do so. Calling upon my hex of fortune, I
bestow it upon Sadobras and he looks around, seeing little besides
some Giants traveling over the wall of mountains.
Feeling more ready to test the power of
the Asura we go back to the room with the strange stone trees. We
try to negotiate, but quickly the strange being attacks us. Dalomar
takes a hit, but shrugs it off. I try to use one of my new spells,
Phantasmal Killer, to tear at the Asura’s fears, but it shrugs it
off. The asura uses a ranged attack on Dalomar hitting him and
spraying his blood upon the floor. Dalomar strikes it back and
tries a flipping acrobatic escape, but it swatted in midair. Soon
enough we also realize this isn’t a battle just with the Asura.
The Hag that had escaped at the Meniers has joined the battle and put
Sadobras’s Warg to sleep. Tavum moves to try to find the hag,
while Yoska moves to attack the Asura. Seeing my chances to strike
directly at the Asura as minimal, I call fortune upon Gretta buffing
her chances to strike. Before she can do much though, the Asura
moves to attack her and she is cut again and again. After five
strikes, she drops to the ground. The hag attacks Snori inflicting
disease upon him.
The battle seems to be going against us
and I begin to wonder the wisdom of continuing to press the attack,
but then Tavum gets a serious strike on the hag with a cold iron
arrow that seems to seriously hurt it. Yoska casts haste on himself
and moves in to strike the Asura. Calling on luck again, this time
for Dalomar, he moves up and strikes at the many armed opponent.
Moments later Sadobras charges in, skewering it with his lance.
Realizing we finally have the better of it, the Asura disappears.
Venting our frustration on the remaining hag, Yoska blasts it with a
scorching ray while Tavum shoots her again.
The hag taken care of and the Asura
apparently gone we start moving on, but are attacked again by it.
This time we are ready and I call upon the evil eye to make it easier
to hit. Everyone else moves in taking their turns, Dalomar hitting
with a massive strike and the creature is no more. Taking the many
weapons dropped by it, we call upon healing magic and move on.
We go down to a door and unlock it.
Dalomar sees stairs going up. Up he goes and soon we follow, up and
find Jadranka standing on a platform. She appears pregnant this
time and acting as the mother. Around her are a bunch of Korreds, a
hairy kind of fay. She is upset with us that other invaders
appeared at the same time and blames us. Marislova has gone as well
further drawing her ire. She tells the fay to attack us. Dalomar
spring attacks one and the rest of us move up. The creatures do a
sonic laugh attack that stuns me. It seems they also can pass
through boulders and their hair is writhing like it can attack us.
Sadobras charges in doing a trample/overrun on one. It dives out of
the way, but Sadobras hits another one for damage. Dalomar attacks
again almost taking out one in one hit. I am stunned and can do
nothing. Tauvem moves up to strike and kills one. The Korreds
aren’t helpless and they move up and attack with their grabbing
hair. Yoska comes in and finishes one off. Gretta attacks and hits.
Sadobras's warg enlarges and attacks. Sadobras attacks and kills
one. Dalomar moves over to the one Gretta wounded and kills it. Tavum kills another. The last one laughs, stunning Dalomar. Soon
enough the last one is finished off. We search and then climb the
chimney that goes up. It seems to go to surface, but end is blocked.
Search we did for another way out and
found a long path. On and on it did stretch so we had Dalomar again
at the fore. Using a trick he learned to see through doors he lets
us know that beyond are several Andrazku and a female Frost Giant.
Dalomar throws the door open for us letting Yoska and Gretta move up
to flank one of the Andrazku. Almost out of spells I cast a
stinking cloud at the Frost Giant to try to weaken it, but it doesn’t
miss a step. Sadobras and his warg charge into the room, riding by
one Andrazku and killing it in one strike. The giant swings at
Sadobras, hitting with its axe while I move up to attack with a
sleeping hex. It shrugs it off, but Yoska and Gretta move in
bloodying it. Snori pees on a snowball and throws it at the giant
hitting it and forces it to wipe its face in disgust. The giant
strikes a massive blow to Gretta, almost killing her, but she
rallies to retaliate with a massive strike of her own. Yoska
charges up his sword with a crackle of electricity and finishes the
bitch off. Before we can all turn on the remaining Andrazku,
Dalomar springs in and finishes it off.
Standing there panting at the end of
the battle, I beg my companions for rest. All my major spells are
gone and even magical healing can’t make up for the stress of
battle. Moving to a safe area we rest the night, but in the morning
Dalomar wakes looking haunted. As he tries to pull himself together
a Night Hag appears and demands of him why she saw the Black Rider in
his dreams. Why did he die? We explain and she gives us a bottled
message before disappearing. We open the bottle and inside a
message waits us. The voice of a very old lady crackles forth, “If
you hear this, my own blood betrayed me. Jadranka has one key, the
other lies in the eon pit." We recognize the Eon pit is
related to the curse of Eons done by high level witches. We know it
is some kind of cursed area dealing with aging. We remember the
raven gave us some hints.
Dalomar may have woken tired, but I
find myself brimming with energy. Talking with Grr, I see I have
broken through to the Ninth circle of magic. Understanding and
power unlike I’ve ever know are mine. Perhaps this is the real
secret of Artrosia. Not the knowledge you find here, but the
challenge itself pushing you to new levels of strength. Rising from
my communion I turn to my companions and announce, “I’m going to
take a bath!” Taking much of the wealth the party wishes to sell
and one of my companions, I rip through the barriers of reality,
making here there and there here, teleporting into town. After some
time spent in the tubs, shopping, selling, and such, I return to
Artrosia and my companions.
On we decide to go to the crone area
and learn that we’ve made a mistake. Selling the Gem of
Brightness was the wrong choice. The area of the crone is almost
entirely sheathed in darkness and navigating its ways very difficult.
Soon we find strange three armed creatures climbing on frames and
torturing woodland animals. We quickly kill them all. Searching
around we find formula books for the various alchemical creations
they were making.
Dalomar scouts and finds another room
with totem poles carved with the learning faces of old women. The
floor is covered with skins and pelts. Walking around are strange
hoarpanther zombies and a Puckwudgie. The Puckwudgie we remember is
some strange creature that creates undead. For now we decide to
check out a different path.
Soon we find a table with a bowl and
flowers that radiate magic. Beyond it Dalomar tells us there is a
serious trap. Also there is a Crescent moon symbol and runes
surround it. Deciphering them I see they say “From one stage to
the next, let my light always guide my path.” In the bowl are
wildflowers and carvings of Maidens, nude and doing various tasks.
Remembering back we saw something similar where there were wreaths of
pinecones doing the same type of things. We arrange the items in
the same order from before and the trap disarms.
We decided now that the path is clear
to take care of the strange cat zombies and Puckwudgie. Snori and
Sadobras charge in while I summon a hound archon. Yoska casts a
fireball to roast many of the zombies. The puckwudgie shoots
poisoned quills at Yoska damaging his constitution and knocking him
out. I heal Yoska and he wakes again. My archon hits one of the
zombies, slowing it down. The Puckwudgie goes invisibile again and
the orders his Zombies all to attack. With the Puckwudgie
invisible, he’ll be able to make quick work of us, so I cast a see
invisibility spell and immediately start pointing out the beast,
shouting and pointing “He’s there! He’s there” Yoska moves
up to finish off the zombie while Sadobras and Gretta move up to
attack the Puckwudgie. Digging into my bag of tricks I call forth
glitterdust on the Puckwudgie making it permanently visible and we
quickly finish it off.
Finding little we moved on again and
this time we found where one fo the keys may lue. The eon pit lays
ahead of us and we begin our decent. Traps and such abound, but my
knowledge of Witchery comes in helpful for once. Down we move and
hopefully time will play no tricks on us…
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