PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 16 - A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS
One by one the party awakes with memories of disturbing dreams. When they all rise, they start talking about the visions they had in the night.
Nowhere begins, "I dreamed a white unicorn visited, she brought me back to the time with my parents when everything in the world seemed colorful and good. Then there was a flash and a black centaur appeared, and my parents were laying face down in their home with hundreds of arrows sticking out of their backs, their blood pooling together on the floor. It was an exaggeration of how they died, but somewhat true."
Orryn continues. "In my dream I see a monstrous black centaur. It brings me to the small village of different races where I were raised. I was the smallest, and all the other children seemed gigantic, much more so than it was in reality. The centaur passes me a skull with the symbol of infinity in its teeth and glowing green eyes. I start to grow, and quickly start stomping on the other children, killing them in a smear of blood. Suddenly a white unicorn appears and the nightmare fades. I am tranquil again, in the forest near where we found each other, where I was living in seclusion. Animals visited, I you talked with them in that way I do, and it was peaceful and good."
Atlas then speaks. "I had a dream of the monastery I was training as a monk. It is a joyous day with a bright, almost white sky, and I was enjoying the hard work and camaraderie with my brother and sister monks. Suddenly the sky was full of black clouds and flashes of lighting. I am striking a target but my sensei keeps yelling at me 'harder, harder'. My hands turn bloody but he won't stop, and in my anger, I strike out at him and kill him - then I run into the darkness. A white unicorn appears and beckons me to come her way. I do, and I find peace like I have not known.
Seraphina begins, "During my sleep, I dreamt I was walking among some great stones, like the pillars of the Shattered Circle above this complex. There are many more of them though, and I are frantically searching through them, for what, I am not sure. I noticed a light to one side and see a white unicorn, the pillars in that direction open up to a peaceful meadow. In the opposite direction, the space grows dark, and a dark centaur stands guarding the way. I understand that way leads to powerful magic. Suddenly the pillars tumble, and before me stands a great raven. The raven tells you, in a female voice "either way, I will catch you when you fall, child. I believe this to be the Raven Queen, my deity, who I have been searching for, the most mysterious of the gods. Her voice was a blessing, and I am humbled."
Immeral tells his tale. "While I slept, a dream came to me. I was back in the wizards tower where I was a student with K'ronk. Bright white light streams in from the windows and I am at peace in my books and the safety of the tower. Suddenly, my teacher, master Simms is there, berating me over and over again for failure. A malevolent black centaur stands in the room behind him. "Take this", the centaur offers. It is a wand that glows green, and before I can stop it, I point the wand at my master and it blasts a hole in my teacher.
Dain goes. "I entered a dream where I stand before the wreckage of my childhood home, a dwarven stronghold deep in the mountains. Orc raiders slaughter my fellow dwarves, including my parents, and I stand by helplessly and watch, hiding beneath a wagon. I am weak and cowardly, and I hide. A black center approaches from one side. "I can kill them for you. Kill them all. Wouldn't that be just?". I am about to say yes, the rage boiling in me, but I hear more hoofsteps, and a white pegasus comes up to the opposite side and states "you cannot kill them all, or you will die yourself, and with you, all their hopes." Dain ends the story through teeth clenched and with fists balled in his lap.
K'ronk shares, "A dream came to me too. I was home in the Isles of Fireland, the place of my birth. It is dark, but there are torches lighting the street. The bigger, brawnier young dragonborn are taunting me, calling me weak, calling me worthless, laughing at my desire to become a wizard. A black dragon flies down from the sky, only I see it. I could warn them, but I don’t, I just stumble away as the monster consumes them all in a bright green acid. They scream and melt before me. "Power is how you survive." the dragon states "Do you want that power?" Before I can answer, the sky grows light and a unicorn approaches. "Might does not make right, or they would have been right to torment you. Forgiveness is power too. One of the dragonborn, still smoldering and melting from the acid, grabs my leg and won’t let go, and then I woke.
Clinker joins in his spritely drawl. "I had a terrible dream, I was helpless in the dark - and I could hear hoofs stepping and getting closer. A nice unicorn helped me, but she said I didn't need my flask and all my knives. She said I did not need the drink to hide from my pain, but she didn't take them away. Let me keep 'em. I don’t think she knows what kind of trouble the underdark can bring ya. I need my pain." but he looks at his flask sourly.
Lastly, teeth clenched, Vald joins in. "I dreamt of things I no longer understand, although I think I did know the sky once. And I do know the drow. The hated drow."
They wonder together about the light of this unicorn, and the choices they will have ahead. They decide to proceed the way they came, through the room of loose soil where they vanquished the ghouls. They consider digging down to see if there is anything below the soil, but notice that beneath the two stone doors leading south, flashes of light can be seen. They listen, and hear nothing, so Nowhere opens the door.
Stone debris clutters the floor here. It is difficult to tell exactly what the room contains, because of lightning flashing within, bright and erratic. Across a thirty foot space, two sparing unicorns face each other in the southwestern and southeastern corners of the roughly rectangular room, half-nestled into alcoves. Between them a passage with stairs leads down. Every few seconds, one of the statues strobes with light, then slowly fades into complete darkness. The overall effect causes shadows to jump and writhe strangely from the strobing light. The adventurer's darkvision seriously degraded in the flashing. The party lights a lantern, and peers down the stairs.
The strobing light lances down the stairwell from above, but even the brightest pulse is too short-lived to provide light to see very far. Between strobes, true darkness reverberates like the ebony heart of night. Something stands upon a landing, and from light pulse to light pulse it appears that the figure spontaneously shifts form between that of a white unicorn and that of a black centaur with a viscous horn on it's head and sharp fangs. It gives out a wail of inhuman proportions like the party has never heard before and races up the stairs to attack.
Nowhere engages the monster, bashing it with Lightbringer, but she is bitten by the creature, it's horrible teeth tearing into her shoulder. Orryn goes to attack, but in a flash the monstrosity is transformed back into the white unicorn. It signals something to the party and only Orryn, able to comprehend the movements of animals understands its plea. "Kill me!" it begs.
Orryn comprehends that there is no saving this creature, no matter what state it is in, it is being used by the evil force that has taken hold here. "Take it down!" Orryn screams to the party, and fires his crossbow, piercing the creature. It flashes back into a centaur and Atlas engages, reaching into his powerful Ki and unleashing a flurry of blows that breaks the ribs of the beast. Seraphina attacks, Immeral attacks, Dain attacks, and K'ronk lands the killing blow, but not before the Centaur strikes Nowhere with its vicious horn and bites Dain with ferocious teeth. The centaur falls and the others stand over the corpse, blood dripping from their wounds.
Rising from the corpse of the centaur, a spirit emerges, the spirit of the white unicorn. "Thank you friends, I am Mizar, and I was corrupted by the evil of the Foundingstone. My death on this plane has saved me. You have my thanks." and she fades from the world of the heroes.
Startingly, a clapping emerges from below. Two lone hands coming together at odd, almost sarcastic intervals. The group is hesitant to head further below, but they head down the staired passage, this time with K'ronk taking the lead with his lantern. He calls out, but there is no answer except the incessant clapping. The league ventures down to a landing where two more unicorn statues stand, shrouded in dust. They stop at the platform, fearful of what lies below, considering their options, when K'ronk ventures down for a look.
There is a large room below, blasted black by some powerful explosion long in the past. It is lit by several torches dropped on the floor. The red wizard you met some days before on the surface is here. He has his retinue of zombies, although there only seem to be eight of them. Behind them an open passage, from which they likely entered. They stand without movement "looking" with their dead eyes towards K'ronk, as does Hamun. He speaks, in his strange diction, hanging on syllables and consonants seemingly randomly “The adventurerrrrrrrrs! Quite sssssssurprising, quite indusssssstrious, quite remarkabllllllle. I had thought you heeeeeeeded my suggestion to leeeeeeave the ruins. I am greatly dissssssappointed. The power this fooooooolish man releassssssed was far beyonnnnnnd his abilities, and certainly beyoooond your own."
He looks down at the remains of a corpse. "His name was Pyorrrrrrrhoea, and he was a powwwwwerful wizard. Do you knowwwwwww how he died? From the grave he just tollllllld me his sad tale. He overrrrrrrreached. He believed his knowledge and powwwwwwer were enough to control ffffffforces beyond his reckoning. He coooooould not see his own limitssssss, and paid in bloooooood.” Harmon holds back a snicker.
“There was a special stonnnnnnne here, they found it deep in the earrrrrrth, rich with power. He fashioned that gemmmmmmm into an artifact - The Foundingstonnnnnnne. It is that which he used to draaaaaaaw out the dark power. It caused his dooooooom. His colleagues burrrrrried the thing back in the earth, but nowwwwwww it has been unnnnnburied, and draws power once again."
"I wish to take it away from herrrrrre, so no other wizard can try the saaaaaaame. This is not a bad thing is iiiiiiit? It is poisonous to goooooood, it corrupted Mizaaaaaaar the unicorn - guardian of this citadel, and turned it black from withinnnnnnnnnn. I will remove it from the creatures living nearrrrrrrrrrby and no living being will see it againnnnnnnnnnn. The diseeeeeeeeewase in this place will have been excised."
"Please leave nowwwwwww, so I may continue my quest, or you may find yourrrrrrrrrrselves also paying in bloooooood.”
K'ronk asks "What will you do with the Foundingstone?"
Kost responds "Whatever I please." bothered by the insolent questions and perturbed that he has to deal with these ratcatchers at all.
Knowing this "bargain" is of no benefit to mankind, and without consulting his comrades, K'ronk lets loose an electrical breath weapon, his heritage as a dragonborn, and it blasts some of the zombies and Hamun Kost himself, but the damage is not enough to fell either, and the enemy attacks. Kost lets loose a spell, a devastating fireball that he casts up on the landing where the others are, only their feet showing from below, and the explosion hits most of the party hard, knocking two of the party out.
The remaining party dives into the undead minions of Kost battling with the zombies, flails and knives and spells and staves flying as the monsters try to strike and bite the members of the owlbear league.
Immeral casts a Dissonant Whispers spell and blasts the evil mage with psychic damage and sends him running screaming in fear out of the room. Unfortunately, the zombies still have to be contended with, and the vile undead are extremely tough. Battling it out with the entire party, but with Kost temporarily gone, they gain the upper hand and vanquish the creatures.
For some inexplicable reason, Atlas decides to search the landing, finding a secret passage. It opens to a small, cold room, and there, he finds another unicorn statue, this time covered in black mold, but the mold is actively flaking off from the statue, revealing a white marble surface underneath. Atlas carries the statue, the size of a baby, from the room in his arms.
Hamun returns to the passage entrance, the fear effects fading, rage in his eyes, and he casts a blindness spell at K'ronk who manages to shake off the effects after seeing the world around him dim. The failure of the spell gives him the opportunity he needs. K'ronk points the Staff of Power, given to him by Darran Edermath for just this moment - a weapon strong enough to defeat a powerful wizard.
He casts ice storm with the staff, and instantaneously a magical dark cloud forms above the red wizard and fist size hail starts pummeling him from above. The wizard goes down, battered in the icy assault, bleeding and bruised from the onslaught, then just as it ends, the cold slams him. He screams in torment, raising his head, fury in his eye, his hand reaching out, and with his last breath, he casts chill touch with all the energy of his fading life, then the cold freezes him to the very ground and Hamon Kost dies.
Immeral shutters at the vile magic from the Red Wizard of Thay, then drops dead to the floor, but the zombies do not stop. The other members of the league including Vald and Clinker, battle the zombies, felling them one by one. Before the battle is over, Vald goes down, a zombie biting into him and devouring some of his flesh. Vald expires on the ground as the party kills the last zombie.
The group stands in shock - their colleague Immeral - dead, their charge Vald expired as well - the one thing Ulweyn did not want to see happen. They have one hope, and they start searching Hamun Kost and the packs his zombie retinue carried. Within, among several other treasures, K'ronk finds a scroll. He is able to decipher the magical text, and understands it to be a scroll to raise dead. K'ronk knows the scroll has incredible value to any mage like himself, being able to study and someday cast such a spell himself. He states "I am not sure what this spell does exactly, but if I recite it, it may bring Immeral back, but will be destroyed in the process." The others look to him and nod, understanding that there is now hope, but before K'ronk begins to speak, a light appears from above. The form of Mizar returns. "Dear friends, although my power is a faint memory of what it was, no one of you should die in the course of my rescue. Let your friends return to the living and fulfill their destiny."
With a glow, the bodies of Vald and Immeral rise from the floor, and are lifted to stand. They gasp, and their eyes open, looking at the powerful unicorn. She nods her equine head and once again, ascends to another plane. The party smiles, and gathers themselves. "Time for a drink Clinker?" Orryn asks?
"I don't think I could handle it right now." he states, still in shock over the events.
NEXT - Campaign Diary 18 - Catching Meazels