1.2 The Tarrasque and more

[St.Drewcifer]

The battle is drawn, Crow breaks the other door allowing Brin to slip through and follow a deceitful dwarf. The beast charges Thule and a general melee ensues, contrary to popular belief the creature does not lay waste to the party and in short order is beaten to the ground. If Thule keeps his followers in good spirits and plenty of ale we need never tell another soul about his bout of stage fright whilst facing the Tarrasque.

Plots are hatched to keep the Tarrasque dormant and later to be unleashed on the horde, but eventually the logistics prove too difficult and the party content themselves with further exploration of the huge caverns. It is noticed that the pervading dark does not penetrate into these caverns and the party is so overcome with fatigue they gleefully collapse to the floor into a deep sleep leaving Crow and Brin to watch over them.

Brin notices Crow succumb to the drowsiness and allows him much deserved rest. Several hours into the rest period heavy thumping footsteps are heard by the keen eared Elf and he enthusiastically starts kicking the sleeping party awake, ready to take on a large Blue Dragon which approaches, after a blasting the party with a huge bolt of lightning the dragon is chopped to pieces and Cometheus steps out of the corpse. He greets the party and mentions that he is more refreshed now that we have been able to dream. He tells the party that their gods are not going to interfere with the world of man; they will let the affairs of man turn out as they may. He tells them that he is not god, nor is he man. You will find him to just be an energy or soul travelling the planes free to do as he wishes, but that freedom for him will soon be lost if these ways of this world continue as his connection with man sustains him. The party wake up and find there was no Blue Dragon and that Cometheus had come to us in a dream even Brin had fallen asleep. The party also finds a bag of healing potions and a ring with a wish stored in it

Excellent use of a stone tell by Matrix helps the party to decide which path to take from this vast cavern.

Many wide corridors and wide caverns are passed through before a large room is noted with battlements at the far end, the two scouts in the party start to make their way stealthily up the sides of the chamber; meanwhile Ditch gets impatient and moves up the centre of the room taking Brock and Thule with him. Caerlith stands open mouthed at the unconventional bravery of his comrade’s actions. Sure enough the expected ambush is triggered. Duergar and Derro hiding behind columns confront the band of fighters in the middle of the vast room; Caerlith moves into the room to assist and quickly comes up against an invisible wall cast by a hidden Derro mage. Crow intercepts 3 of the dark creatures and Brin starts peppering others with flaming arrows. Matrix, Wack and Dancing Bear are cut off in the corridor, but eventually realise with the hemispherical nature of the force wall that there is space at the top to fly over.

A flying Matrix activates an item and becomes a terrifying sight to behold, he flies straight to the end of the room and attempts to scare the living bejesus out of the crossbow firing dwarves and their mages behind the battlements. The dwarves look at the crazed cleric, look at each other questioningly, shrug their shoulders and proceed to bounce crossbow bolts off his armour. Matrix flies back around contemplating plan B.

Three dark flitting creatures have entered the combat seemingly on our side; they are noted to be pawing ineffectively at the dark dwarves. No-one is too sure of their origin but Wack seems to be gesticulating in their general direction.

The opposing forces are slowly whittled down and one of their mages starts fireballing the party, eventually dropping the fireballs at ground zero (himself) in an attempt to injure us. Their leader, who Caerlith has been fighting, offers to surrender, when the Paladin accepts he is attacked with a knife but doesn’t connect before being skewered by flaming arrows and Ditch’s sword. The fight is over and we dress our wounds

We continue through the underground labyrinth, everywhere we go dark dwarves get out of our way on hearing of the defeat of their best men.

Eventually the party need to rest and barricade themselves in a side room, after a seemingly refreshing night’s sleep they awake and prepare themselves for another long trek to reach the other side of the underground passageway.

Upon rounding a corner a massive Pit Fiend charges the Party. Matrix mutters something about Cometheus and promptly disappears, meanwhile the battle is short lived and again Cometheus appears before us. More dire prophecies are spoken – “Men must dream. Without the ability to dream at night they will go insane, for some, due to strength, age, or abilities, this takes longer than others. At first there will be just a loss of ambition and a gloomy feeling but I can only guess what will happen eventually and my best guess is this. Unless this Shadow over the world is removed Dra-goth needs to do no more. As man will in one way or another wither away to nothingness, possibly end up part of Dra-Goths horde as they may even turn into the walking dead. I cannot speak…. it is too much… me this weight for….” As he talks the image flickers on and off and suddenly ceases all together. At that point the darkness in the cave changes firelight is dimmed, torchlight is dimmed, the Shadow Veil has found its way through the magic’s of the stone.


Just before the group can exit into the fresh air one last challenge awaits them, two chained Basilisks guard the final room – not wishing to be petrified, Fire Elementals are summoned by Dancing Bear and Wack whilst Matrix turns into an Earth Elemental, they take on the foul creatures and with some sneaky archery through a gap in the doors the monsters are killed.

The party exits the Mountain to find the desolate frozen wasteland they are trying to save. Once more the gloom settles over the party and Brock appears a little crazy for it. The sound of the ocean does little to settle the party’s nerves and upon glimpsing icebergs and dead fish it seems that Erath may well be doomed. We proceed to the Keep of the Doomed where the one hope the party hold may be found.

A quick scouting is made of the Keep, immediately it is noted that the gates and doors stand wide open – not exactly a high security prison then!

The party enters and not knowing what to expect proceed cautiously. An open journal is discovered and the entries therein are very worrying. Apparently the Clerics of the Moon were paying to keep a prisoner there and were torturing him for information; this may be the person we have come to seek. The upper levels were rushed through and little was found. Then the party went to the lower levels including the dungeons where the Shadow Veil has not yet penetrated. Heavy portcullises were lifted with ease by Crow and the party filtered through. Soon voices were heard beyond and all haste is made, a horrifying scene of torture is met with a hooded executioner slaying a helpless prisoner, a large rock is hurled to crush the mans head and the party enter to see they are too late to save the prisoners life, he had been blinded some time previously, Brock hurries to the ante room, where the executioner was fleeing to when two large stone type creatures appear blocking off Brock from the rest of the party, also two Clerics of the Moon together with three familiar looking Nosferatu appear in the main room. An epic battle ensues and it is discovered that magic is being drained somehow from weapons and armour as the most magical items are losing some strength.

No sooner is one cleric nearly beaten before he activates a crystal and is magically healed. Dancing Bear is struck several times by one of the Nosferatu and falls to the floor lifeless. One of the Nosferatu is blinded by Matrix and proceeds to lose his sword, this is quickly picked up by Wack who turns corporeal and escapes from the pursuing undead. Finally the two stone creatures are dealt with and one cleric is killed when the leader of the Nosferatu uses a powerful wish to bring the playing field more level, the remaining cleric is magically healed as are his comrades, the sword disappears from Wacks shadowy grasp and reappears in the Nosferatus hands. Caerlith and Thule fight resolutely side by side in front of the main creature and struggle to wound it whilst taking fearful blows themselves, three times Caerlith uses healing on himself and Thule to keep them alive.

After being assailed by two fearsome Nosferatu and fireballs Caerlith falls down dead. One of the Nosferatu is held in place by a blade barrier, he turns gaseous to escape and Wack nails him with a spell to force him out of his gaseous cloud, causing major damage by the whirling blades, as soon as he stumbles out of there he once more assumes gaseous form and escapes. The Nosferatu who had previously lost his sword does so once again and decides to flee before he gets to his sword, the last Nosferatu is finally beaten down by a flurry of hurled axes and arrows, he also disappears in a gaseous cloud.

The party draw their breath and witness the carnage around them and watch as the dungeons of the keep are also swallowed up by the gloomy darkness.