CHAPTER XIX
in which the group storms the Centaur army, and Haas goes face to face with Leshrac...
Previously (07/24)
The group:
Accidentally wandered into a hostile Tusker city and killed a bunch of Tuskers who were being pricks.
Found an offshoot cavern of rival Tuskers, enemies of the prick Tuskers.
Fighting with the Goobers
Using Krom's new ability from Reck to manipulate earth substances, the team began digging a tunnel upward from the large cavern outside of the entrance to the rival Tuskers. Soon the ground began to grow wet, and the team reasoned that they were coming up on an underground lake, which they were going to punch through to and drain. Haas, agreeing to wait below in case something drained came up to attack us, shape-shifted into spider form, promptly causing Eierryn to mentally shut down. Krom opened up a hole to the lake with his earth quasith, and after the whole group helped with a little finessing of a boulder clog, they eventually made it up into drained lake.
Inside the drained lake was a giant, 8 foot, black ball of tentacles and eyes named a "goober" by Eierryn, with a penchant for wailing loudly in a dying baby cry, and puffing out its tentacles in a threatening manner at Haas. Glad decided he had seen all of the goober that he needed, and blasted it with his lightening. Krom made sure it stayed down with a powerful hammer swing. Then the cavern started echoing with the cries of more goobers. Taking Doug the raft up for a better look, the group saw that they were in a large cavern that housed several small lakes, and about half of them had goobers bobbing at the surface. One of the goobers launched itself at the raft, sending Krom over the edge. Quick action by Haas to jump after Krom and take the brunt of the fall by shifting into a hard shelled turtle, and quick thinking by Glad and Eierryn you kinetically slow their fall by pulling up on Krom's armor, resulted in a safe landing back in the first lake.
Krom and Haas squared off with another goober that launched itself into the empty lake, while Eierryn and Glad battled and killed two lake bound goobers with a kinetically created water tornado and lightening blasts. After that, 5th goober jumped and hit the raft. No one fell off this time, but Doug was greatly injured and had to be lowered to the cavern floor. Back in the empty lake Krom used his body enlargement to fight the goober with his hammer and shield, and Haas went to fight with the goober that struck the raft. She was able to strike it with her trident, but it was too big and accepted the hit in order to draw her in close. Krom finished off his foe, and hurled his hammer at the goober wresting with Haas. Glad found the 6th goober floating in another lake, and began a barrage of lightening strikes, but the goober retreated underwater. Krom rushed the goober he had thrown his hammer at and fought it with one of his indium axes. With Eierryn keeping the goober Confused, Krom was able to use his size and strength to split the goober in two.
Meeting with Leshrac
After Phrixus and Elias did their best to patch up Doug, the group continued on until they were close to the surface. Phrixus made it so that whatever Haas could see, the group could see as well. Glad magnetized her belt buckle, and then she went up to meet with her centaur contact. The group watched her being led into a tent that was far larger on the inside than was possible for the size of the tent on the outside. It was then that she was introduced to a large, fearsome looking Centaur that Elias confirmed was Leshrac to the watching group. This information was relayed back to Cadence, who immediately responded by urging the group to abort.
Tension and unease built, so the group decided to change plans. Instead of waiting for Haas there, Krom began to make a new tunnel, parallel to the surface and headed under Leshrac's tent. While tunneling, the group saw Leshrac reveal that he somehow had the pillar of Equinos with him, in the tent. As the tunneling went farther, a misty red and purple light, the colors of Equinos, began to fill the tunnel, thicker and thicker the farther they went. With the appearance of a pillar far removed from its location, underneath a tent that was far too big on the inside, Krom had a suspicion that if the group was to surface here they might not make it into the tent, so they traveled back to where the entrance to the tent was believed to be.
Just then Leshrac made his move in a failing attempt to overcome Haas with Suppression. In turn the group decided to make their move, exploding up onto the surface in a rain of dirt and rock that stunned the surrounding Centaurs. Another Centaur (Leshrac's son?), Thorn, tried to grab Haaszander, but she shrunk in size and grabbed onto her magnetized belt just as Glad pulled it towards himself. A tiny lizard Haas came flying through the air, riding a magnetized belt, and smashed into Glad with enough force to turn her big again and to knock them both down. Shouts came, as well as an arrow into Krom's shoulder, and the group retreated into the tunnel as fast as possible, which started to cave in behind them as they fled. On their way down they felt several attempts at Suppression on them. Once, Krom was taken and raised his hammer to strike at the group, and once Eierryn was taken and stabbed out at Glad, but both times Haas snared each with her newly enchanted Revoking net, breaking the Suppression.
Quickly the group continued to flee in the direction given to them by Cadence, towards what sounded like a heavy drilling sound. Out from cavern wall burst Sovelus riding a giant, lion-like beast with a drill-like horn on its head. Then the beast transformed into a giant bird of prey, complete with handles for the group to hold on to, and the group was flown back up to surface in what appeared to be a new camp of the Duke's. The bird transformed again, into Cadence this time, who led off a very shaken up Tova to get some rest. The rest of the group went with Sovelus, who cracked open a keg of ale, and told the group that their actions were the sort of which songs were made.
Post Game Summary
The group:
Succeeded in tunneling up from a lower lake filled cavern into a further up lake filled cavern and eventually further up beneath the Centaurs.
Ran into and fought off a pack of intelligent, tentacled beasts that they named Goobers. Most were slain. At least one survived and fled.
Helped Haas infiltrate the Centaurs and quickly bailed when Leshrac revealed the roaming pillar of Equinos and his grand designs.
Important information learned:
There are intelligent creatures in the lower caverns that can wield quaisth.
Leshrac can move the pillar of Equinos and believes he can attain other pillars with the same, as yet unrevealed, method.
Leshrac is not antagonistic towards all pillars. He sought to ally himself with Vulsh's representative.
Sentinel-ship, or its equivalent, may have an alternative method of succession.