Varrid was content at seeing a blue sky, verdant grass and breathing in fresh air. The field the party found around them was lush and beautiful. It appeared to be untouched by either human or animal. Arvien send Summergale up and around to scout the area. Summergale returned with unwelcome news. There was no evidence of habitation of any kind. No smoke, no farms, no villages, nothing, not even trees that had been felled by anything other than weather.
Baru looked around and decided the party should head east? Which direction was which anyway. Who knew how the sun moved in this world. So they rest of the party fell in line behind Baru and Seglun as they led they was trough the three foot high grass plain.
Before long night fell, the air was cool and damp, and a fog had drifted into the area. The group made camp, pulled their covers up over them and dozed off, except for Varrid, who never slept, and Baru. The two on watch could see little in the mist, so they sat next to the fire and listened for night sounds, which did not occur.
As the night wore on, the fog thickened and even crept into the heroes dreams, flowing like syrup over the ground and whiting out the world until they were each left alone int he heavy mist. The dream seemed so real, and the reality seemed so dreamlike. Were they asleep or awake? It was difficult to say.
As a precaution, they reached for their weapons, but the weapons couldn't be found -- the equipment was missing. Each began to feel around in the fog. The silence was oppressive; nothing was heard except the beating of each heroes heart.
Then, they each could make out a quiet sound, nearby yet out of sight. It was rapid sniffling, like an animal with its nose to the ground, and it was tracking each of them. It was hard to say which direction the sound was coming from, but each hero turned and stumbled off with their hands out in front of them, trying to put some distance between them and the hunter. Their legs dragged as if they were trying to run through water, The sniffling was homing in on them.
Suddenly, each hero bumped into a large, bald man. He was only a featureless silhouette in the white fog, but they could see enough to realize that he was drawing a weapon from his boot and assuming a battle stance.
Each Dream Adversary drew the characters favorite weapon from his boot and attacked the hero. The heroes found that they did not have their favorite weapon and besides every weapon they tried to attack the Adversary with passed right through the incorporeal figure. The Adversaries attack was damaging though. Arvien couldn't cast most spells since she didn't have components, but she could D door away, but when she arrived there, the Adversary was waiting to attack. Drovic finally resorted to bare knuckle attacks and actually did damage to the Adversary. The fight continued and when Seglun finally "killed" her enemy she tried to find her fellow adventurers but was not successful, though she could faintly hear a battle raging.
With a jolt, each hero snapped to a sitting position. The world spun around their eyes for a moment, but quickly they caught their breath and then discovered their companions nearby, also wide-eyed and shaken, their covers tangled around them. All except Varrid who lay still. Thankfully all the heroes equipment was right there, next to them ... but the surroundings were completely unfamiliar.
A pale reddish glow silhouettes the horizon in every direction, like a 360 degree sunset, shedding cold dusk on the new surroundings. The midnight blue sky was cloudless, but there were no stars. As they lowered their eyes, there were no trees of bushes in sight; only a pale, blackish-yellow grass sprouted in thin patches on the crater-pocked ground. There were no sounds or signs of animal life anywhere, even Summergale and Dirk were missing.
Twisted, angular rocks were the only things that seemed to grow in this climate. They shot out of the ground and bent in impossible directions, as if they were soft clay slabs mangled by some lunatic god and then scattered across the realm.
A low, constant, metallic drone was in the air. It was not loud enough to be distracting but it seemed as though it would begin to grate on the heroes nerves if it didn't stop. The hum doesn't seem to be coming from any particular direction.
Jagged, bar mountains rose high in the distance and fell to the flatlands in a broken heap, as if the range were one gigantic, razor-edged rock pile. Smaller mountains rise to each side of the party while the flatlands stretched behind them.
A river flowed past, draining from the foothills. Its water was clear.
The party set found that their wound were non existant, except for Baru and obviously Varrid. Ralom set about to revive Varrid and heal Baru. Arvien started to study her spells and found that she could not learn any spell above 4th level. The party also felt somewhat weaker but it was a vague feeling. The drone continued its metallic hum.
Baru and Ralom felt a distant, fading message from their patron deity ringing through the back of their heads, "Beware, faithful one! Evil and this land are one. Commit NO act against your faith, lest the land make you its own" A shrill squeal pierced their brain, forcing them to clutch their head, cutting them off from their god.
The party started to explore the area, Arvien calling for Summergale, seeing no way to escape. After a few minutes of orientation, a scream of pain pierced the air. It sounded as though it came from the southeast(?) and the party slowly moved in that direction trying to keep quiet. The misshapen boulders that littered the landscape, were easily climbable, and provided cover. From the top of a couple of them Varrid, Drovic and Arvien discovered eight duergar, 12 drow and one human standing in a rough circle around a creature lying on the ground. Ten of the drow were wearing black chain mail, the other two wore soft black clothing and cloaks with red accents. The duergar were wearing plate mail and held battle axes. Aside each cloaked drow was a giant spider mount.
The human was a large, bald man with a black mustache. He wore a leather jerkin over a dark shirt and leather pants. There was a medallion around his neck and he was holding a long, smooth staff. The staff's bottom tip was capped with a bayonet-style point. He was thrusting it into the creature on the ground.
The creature on the ground was part human, part beast. It wore only shredded clothing over slick dark skin. There were six tentacle where its mouth should be and the back of its head was swollen like an octopus's.
The human thrust the point of the staff into the creature, it wailed and begged, "Stop,stop!"
"Tell me what you did with the Rod," answered the man, "and I'll end this quickly and mercifully." The drow and the duergar laughed and nodded approvingly at one another. "Tell me!" snarled the man and he twisted the staff again. provoking another scream of pain.
Ralom and Baru moved closer between to rock piles and as Ralom jangled, the human suddenly held up his hand, calling for silence, He cocked his head slightly and then looked toward the party with a mixture of confusion and rage. Quickly, he put his fingers to his lips and blew a piercing whistle. There was a crack in the air and a black cloud of smoke billowed next to him. A snort and a hideous neighing sound erupted as a bony, black horse appeared in the thinning cloud. Its eyes glowed orange-red, and flames leapt from the ground where it stompped its hooves.
The battle started as Arvien cast invisibility on herself, Seglun and Baru charged into battle. The bald man leapt upon the horses bare back, it reared up on its hind legs with another hellish screech, and then the two of them evaporated into thin air.
Meanwhile, the drow and duergar move to counter-attack. One of the duergar paused long enough to blow upon a horn. A frieball exploded among the party followed by crossbow bolts. All of the duergar and drow turned outward from their previous circle so not all of them attacked the heroes at once. Arvien cast her own fireball and the duergar attacked Seglun, Baru and Ralom. Grunyar fired his bow continuously. Another fireball erupted in the center of the party and Ralom was next seen lying on the ground. Varrid flanked duergar and drow while the party battled for their lives, the cleric was apparently down and out. The two drow mages climbed aboard the spiders and sped off away from the battle. Some of the other duergar and drow also wandered off away from the heroes. The battle seemed to take forever but eventually the heroes killed all the enemy.
With the chaos of the battle finished and the cries of challenge and agony past, the land grew deathly still. All that remained int he air was that constant low, persistent drone, like a giant, angry wasp circling around the parties head again and again.
The misshapen creature lay flat on the ground where Varrid, Drovic and Seglun soon investigated. Arvien and Baru headed to Ralom's body. Baru laid his hands upon Ralom to stabilize and hopefully revive him but no pulse was found. Arvien searched for Ralom's Staff of Life and used it to revive the fallen cleric. Meanwhile, Drovic cast healing on the prone creature, who awakened with a start. It cried out at the sight of the heroes and tried to scramble away. Drained of strength, and held by Seglun, though, it collapsed back to the ground and trembled. Its eyes were sunken deep into a scarred, elongated skull, and were wide open and fearful.
Then it laughed, weakly but defiantly. "Kill me," it said, " and tell Von Zarovich that I will never give up the Rod!" Its tentacles writhed as it spoke, oozing a whitish mucous that ran down its chest. It was apparent that the pitch of its voice was probably female; its body was too disfigured to tell otherwise.
"Kill me!" she repeated angrily. "I will not speak again!"
It took some time but the party finally convinced the being that they were not aligned with Von Zarovich to the drow and under the soft guidance of Arvien they were able to extract the creature's name, Annitella. She had been tortured by the fiend until she became what she is now. The monsters hate her! Annitella rambled nervously, and she flinched at every movement around her, like a slave that had been constantly whipped.
Annitella related that she was the great "liberator of stolen goods." She is an agent of an order called the Brotherhood of Contemplative Power. The Brotherhood are a group of monks in Barovia, who are developing a "new magic" that springs purely from the mind. They are one of the few bastions of Goodness in all the domains. She and Drassak, her dearest friend, were here in Bluetspur to steal back the Rod of Houtras. It was stolen from the Brotherhood by a traitor. She stole the Rod right from under Von Zarivoch and hid it where they will not find it in the complex.
Drassak is still a prisoner in the complex. The fiend means to make him a living egg incubator. Annitella curled her tentacle-like fingers around Arvien's wrist. Tiny suction cups pulled at her skin, making it prickle, and her slimy skin made Arvien's skin crawl.
"Drassak is the greatest foe of evil in all the realms! His death will mean the birth of a race of mind flayer vampires! These creatures practice psionics, like the Brotherhood of Contemplative Power, btt they are purely evil. Imagine what would happen if they learn to part hte Misty Borders and have free reign throughout the domains!
Annitella also related that the bald human was Bonespur, a servant of the fiend. His is a diabolical hunter who knows the way of the Vistani and travels through the mists at will. The complex is under the mountains, there are many slaves there with Drassak. The Rod is the key to a machine that the fiend is building. The machine is a transpossession machine, that is powered by lightning. The Rod is required to make it work.
"Such mighty ones as yourselves I never doped for. It is a sign. You are chosen to return the Sacred Barrier to its altar. You are appointed to save us all! Please! Help us!"
Annitella painfully gets on her knees, "Please, help us!"
Grunyar noted that the sky had turned completely dark. The pinkness on the horizon was gone. There were lightning strikes in the mountains that were moving in the direction of the party. Annitella said that it was now "night" in Bluetspur. The storms occur every 12 hours and last for up to 12 hours. There is total darkness and the lightning falls like rain. The endless drone continued as Drovic cast a Sylvan Hideaway for the party to rest in.
The Sylvan Hideaway was an excellent shelter, it kept out the lightning and thunder and allowed resting. But after 8 hours when Drovic peeked outside the storm was still raging, if fact it looked exactly the same as when they entered the Hideaway. So the group waited longer, still no change outside. Baru stepped out, the lightning storm grew closer and he felt the battle fatigue return. Arvien still could only memorize spells of 4th level of lower. With no idea of what was happening the party left their cozy Hideaway. Annitella indicated that there was a cave nearby, where I hid from Bonespur. We should be safe there.
The longer they were in this realm, the more eerie and desolate it felt. The endless drone, the perpetual night, the unnaturally twisted rocks that thrust through the ground like warped and fractured bones -- everything about this barren world left the heroes both alone and feeling as if something was watching. Each footfall ground and echoes around the party as if the very land was calling out to them, starved for signs of life.
Baru carried Annitella so that the party could move more quickly as the lightning now started to surround them. As they approached the cave opening some party members were hit by the lightning and it was real.
The entrance was quite narrow, so backpacks had to be removed as they entered one by one. Inside the cave opened up with a downward sloping floor. The thunder rumbled continuously overhead, and there were sharp explosions as the lightning continued to strike nearby, but it is all more distant and less threatening down in the cave. There were cracks and crevices in every direction, none large enough to crawl through. Grunyar explored the cave and found no other exit. After a few minutes of settling in, the same humming sound that distracted the party outside was present. It seemed to issue from the stone around, coming from no direction in particular.
The storm continued above, but the thunder seemed to grow quieter as time wore on. Perhaps the party was adjusting to the constant booming. Annitella lay down to rest as the party felt the need for more recovery. Varrid again was on watch as the background drone left her feeling cloudy headed and made her eyelids feel heavy. With nothing but the thunder to listen to, her mind started to wander...
DM's Notes: The experience for the adventure up to this point will be awarded later.
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