Our adventure this time began with a truly amazing breakfast! Agnes made Tropical fruit chutney and T-rex barbeque with a variety of eggs of… unknown origin. It was Devine! For desert Agnes made several of Bertie’s blessed Brownies which she carefully distributed between her front line warriors, which they appreciated, but Kerzha appreciated hers FIRST.
The group advanced through the jungle to the Myrapid where they expected to meet Doomokos. At first all they saw was utter destruction of the local trees, several were split in half, there were claw marks in the earth that were several inches deep as if a dragon has torn up the very earth in anger. There was at least one twisted, crushed corpse of a Yuan-Ti warrior embedded in earth or wrapped around a tree. Just then the group began to hear a small reedy voice in the distance hurling insults at the snake-people. A VERY well dressed halfling man greets you as “Doomokos” and asks if you’re the group that came to clear the pyramid and reclaim his crystal from within. As you began to respond Doomokos’ size doubled, and then doubled again, his muscles bulged and massive leathery wings emerged from his back and a HOT greenish glow is emerging from both his mouth and his eyes. The others were slightly shaken but Kerzha pretended to be scared briefly to make them feel better.
Doomokos said something in “Infernal” which nobody understood so Prescott offered to go with them and translate but instead Doomokos kind-of altered the deal to include teaching the group infernal. The information was roughly inserted into each of our heroes heads so they didn’t learn much Infernal, but Fern seemed to master the language pretty well, Agnes however mastered the language AND gained a devilish insight into the nature of legal contracts. As Agnes reviewed the contract Doomokos turned to Keljor and offered his access to “A great power” that was locked inside of him. Doomokos claimed that this power had nothing to do with himself he just wanted to help the elf claim untapped power inside of himself that he had yet to use. As soon as Keljor agreed, Doomokos flicked some of his own blood into the air and muttered some arcane words and…. Keljor felt… the same as he always had…
Doomokos then turned to Kerzha nd Agnes and claimed that the Gods were powerful, but useless because they refused to act. Agnes responded “You must not know my God…” Kerzha was thinking the very same thing.
Just then the group realized that Keljor was turning kind of whitish… he was beginning to sweat and feel a bit nauseas. Something in him was VERY wrong! He was “poisoned” until as his own blood and body underwent a strange transformation. Keljor refused treatment and just let the fever run it’s course.
With their contract signed and nothing else to discuss with the hulking devil the group approached the “Myrapid”. As they looked inside Agnes saw a shadow moving as if a creature was moving into cover to prepare and ambush. Agnes called down holy fire to illuminate the area, and instantly killed the offending Yuan-Ti. Loris launched a similar attack on another of the Snake people and saw it drop dead to the ground. These snakes were very weak and skinny… The caster of the group quickly ate the heart of one of her comrades and… suddenly Fern was gone and COW was there. This cow was an “Mad cow” (Kerzha had heard of this) and quickly waddled forward and ATE THE HEART of the dead snake person. Kerzha boldly drew her weapon and made the creatures retreat to a corner. The leader who now had wings and four arms remained defiant while the other two dropped their weapons and gave up in the face of the mighty Kerzha. With the snakes sub..dood… um… beaten. The heroes searched the room and found many little red marbles and made a “Prime payment”, which Kerzha helped with. The pillar moved away allowing them to go deeper into the “Myrapid”.
In the next area was a small fountain… which the cow made all bloody. The area ahead was VERY Very very hot. The hall ways beyond the orange glowing chain curtain looked like a furnace. Kerzha and Keljor splashed in the water and then ran through the next area of winding pathways in the Blazing heat. Both were a bit confused by the strange burning pathways and ended up back where they started. As soon as Agnes wasn’t looking Kerzha rushed again through the easy, puny maze and ended up on the far side. She was FIRST. The others ran into the fiery halls and the sweltering heat took it’s toll but with Agnes leading the way they all caught up and crossed the second curtain of burning hot chains and collapsed into a dark room.
The room was oddly dark, Loris inspected the room and finally pushed her hand against a dark imprint of a hand on the far side of the room while holding a “Soul-coin” a 4 inch diameter coin the seemed to emit a sorrowful moaning wail that could be heard inside the mind of the holder. The coin did not react but the touch of Loris’ finger-tips caused the doorway to disappear. Beyond it in the inky darkness spread on all sides displaying a single narrow walkway to a single figure holding a weak flickering blue lantern. As the group approached Loris began a simple spell to reach into the creature’s mind and she found… almost nothing… a reedy sound like a willow tree in the wind a quiet lost moaning. Upon digging a bit deeper she could hear a single soul crying out in the darkness. Screams and cries unending but three single words pierced the dirge “Guard, Sentry, Guide”…
Meanwhile the rest of the party tried to take it’s lantern, or lift it up on their shoulders but the skeletal creature struggled weakly to be put back down. The very darkness around began to claw the heroes and even at the lights that they carried. The evil darkness began to attack at the slightest opportunity as the party lit torches and began to make a defensive ring around this skeleton. Loris and Keljor began to ask the creature how to proceed realizing that even the exit was swallowed in pure seething evil darkness. By guessing the right direction the skeleton “guide” began to slowly walk through the darkness. At last the group saw a dark frightening face of a devil press through the darkness. A massive wall with a single door revealed by pulling a lever. The mouth of the devilish beast opened revealing a passage beyond as the sad lonely skeleton receded into the darkness again.
A dark staircase lead upwards and finally opened into a room full of rocks and rubble. The room looked like the ruins of a summoning platform and some sort of infernal machine, beside the machine was a dark golden crystal, the one that they had been looking for! As the group picked up the crystal and began searching the room suddenly Loris was simply GONE! She wasn’t anywhere nearby. Kerzha wondered if maybe she had been attacked by a cow or suffered some similar fate.
Loris was falling through darkness.
Confusion, fright and a weightless sensation ended very suddenly as she found herself in a heap on the floor of a cabin…. A shadowy cabin. In a place where the was no color or smell or wind and almost no sound. Loris looked about and saw her “Fairy Godmother” a being who had appeared a few times before. This ghost greeted Loris and empowered her “Mote of Pure Shadow” and then drifted outside of the cabin. The landscape beyond was barren except for a horrible version of the Disney castle wedged in the hills a few miles beyond the simple cabin. The castle seemed twisted and horrible but the ghost vaguely stretched out a hand and pointed to it. “Within that tower is the same being that holds Kingsport in its grasp. Putting both of our worlds into imbalance. Your birth mother is held within. You may not have the power to bring this creature down today but you now have the power to return here as you see fit.” Loris did indeed sense a greater power within the mote of shadow that she had carried for months! the ghost floated slowly away… “I’m tired. Goodbye.” it whispered. Loris was suddenly falling upwards through blackness and dumped back where she was a few minutes before. In the Myrapid in front of her friends. As her friends gasped Loris quickly said “Come with me, no time to explain!” and used her newest power to drag them all into a swirling darkness! Falling through dark space for several seconds, shouting in pure surprise! Loris and the others found themselves in a heap in the monochromatic cabin. The others confused, but Loris with a goal in mind! She would find her mother after all of this time!