 |
| Mochtau |
 |
| Daefu |
Returning by boat they encounter the Cave Giant Mochtau (who thinks she's Sorshen), Quillax summons earth elemental to rip the bloody doors off... Mochtau defeated, group fetch remaining 3 grey maidens from below and rest overnight in her lair.
PC Group (all level 5):
Quillax (Druid), Keelan-Sorshen (Bard) 5>6, Neril (Monk), Gedout (Barbarian), Sephiria Kaddren (Wizard). Anastasia in Psychic Commune with her sister.
NPC Gray Maidens Gert Ralin & Helanda.
Quillax's Account - By Keelia.
Part 1
---
We have decided to come clean with the Grey Maidens. I feel for them - their lives have not been easy and Anastasia's half-sister cannot be an easy mistress, but that doesn't make me or my party stupid. Should they feel so betrayed as to attack us, we stand a better chance taking two of them down now rather than if they turn on us later when more of their sisters are standing against us.
It seems that our desire to not kill them has helped sway the armoured Maidens to our side, despite Keelan not being Sorshen. I am not the only one that pities these poor women. Sephiria has kindly offered her family's employ to the Grey Maidens that take our side, provided she lives, of course. Though, I fear I may need to let Anastasia have a word with our Barbarian, as his ardour for the Grey Maidens is not best timed.
Speaking of our daemonic companion, Anastasia looks unwell to me and has been in a trance most of the day. She can be easily led and will sometimes speak, but she drifts primarily in her own mind, sometimes murmuring softly in a language I cannot understand. Most unsettling is her soft giggles, though from what I know of trances, I am glad her dream state makes her laugh and not cry. We can only hope she can rouse herself if we find ourselves in a dangerous situation.
The Grey Maidens have revealed more of the trauma they suffer here. Anyone that does not fanatically believe that Anastastia's half-sister is the Rune Lady is given to a Sea Hag to be tortured and killed. One of their number may yet still be alive. It is in our best interest to try to rescue her - another loyal Grey Maiden will help persuade their sisters not to fight us - and I find all this talk of torture to bring up things I prefer not to think about.
I put forth my plan and the party agrees, including the Grey Maidens. We clamber into the boats and row along. Lichen lights our path, a familiar thing to me that brings a touch of homesickness, but we have more important matters afoot. We have been warned that things lurk in the water and we must be vigilant.
Neril raises the warning from the rear boat, giving us time to draw our weapons against a large number of water ghouls. I hate the undead - their rotten stink cloys my senses, but we are well armed. I can hear fighting in the boats behind but my attention is on my own two enemies. The Grey Maidens are too heavily armored to swim and it shows in the tentative sweeps from the one in my boat. I can hear struggles from behind and a few victorious shouts, so they are holding their own. I leap into the water as a crocodile, taking heavy damage as I pick an enemy and close my jaws around it.
I can hear and see little until my enemy is dead and I clamber back into the boat. A quick head count reveals my friends are all standing, or in Sephiria's case, flying, and our two Maidens are accounted for. No one seems badly injured; Gedout and Neril had successfully defended their boat as well as the middle boat, and the Grey Maidens overcame their fear of tipping the boats to bisect at least one enemy so we proceed forward.
Sephiria's startled sound brings my attention upward and I can just make out the whisper of wings. Bats loom out of the darkness, guardian beasts belonging to Sorshen, or perhaps the false one, as once Sephiria displays the symbol on her cloak, the one most of us have repainted on our skin, the bats seem less bothered by us. They ignore us completely once Sephiria moves closer to the boat.
Some odd sounds tickle at my ear, reminding me of Spring in the forests but with less pheromones. It is annoying but not encompassing and quickly blocked by Sephiria passing around the wax that defends against mind magics. The Maidens seem uncomfortable, but not likely to strip off their armor, of which we can only be glad. We spot dark shadows deep under the water. Moray eels from the look of them; they can be dangerous but in the boats we look like a larger eel as long as we stick close together, so as hoped, they disappear into the depths.
We beach the boats on a small bit of land, and the Grey Maidens narrow our search for the Sea Hag down to two tunnels. I peer around and spot some tracks which strongly indicate the right-hand tunnel. We prepare ourselves with Neril casting a Pass Without A Trace spell, allowing us to creep up. We leave the Grey Maidens and their heavy armour behind to guard Anastasia. The tunnel does not go too deeply and we soon spot the Sea Hag and an unfortunate woman we can assume is our missing Maiden. There are other small beasts who tracks I spotted.
With soft whispers and hand motions, we make a plan. I provide the ability to walk on water, whilst Keelan aims to put our enemies to sleep. Gedout and Neril move swiftly to take on our enemies as the Sea Hag looks set to kill the poor woman. Some strange malady takes over Neril after he does some damage and he retreats past us, face pale. He recovers himself after some distance but I must keep focused to not hurt the unconscious woman with my fire.
We win the battle, beating down the little beasts, and rousing the woman. We clothe her and Gedout carries her across the water back to her sisters, whom Neril has fetched. We search the Sea Hag and find some things of interest. After ensuring the rescued woman is in safe hands, we explore the rest of the area, looking for a place to rest and ensuring there are no further enemies. Further hostages are unlikely to be found alive.
Part 2
-----
We find a net filled with interesting things under the water in one room, including two elemental gems, which Gedout and Neril swam down to fetch. The other direction, we encounter another pair of the little beasts, which we give chase to and kill. In total, we have found five dead women. Two were recently dead and easily returned to their sisters, who move to bury them on the beach. The other three have been there far longer and it takes us some careful work to bring them back to be buried. They all bear marks of torture.
I want away from this dreadful place and not just because there is no safe place to sleep. The Grey Maidens also wish to return to their sisters who will undoubtedly be worried. The women discuss the odd situation where patrols have been getting ever rarer and their lack of energy to protest against their sisters being thrown to the hags. Sephiria suggests it may be a lassitude-type spell, something actively making them uncaring.
We climb back into the boats and with another Pass without a Trace from Neril, we glide along silently. It is purely bad luck that the giantess the Maidens warned us about decides to step out of her cave as we are passing.
Perhaps ill advisedly, we taunt Mochtau's belief that she is Sorshen. I am getting heartily annoyed with the number of beings who believe they are the Rune Lady and I believe the rest of my companions feel the same.
We regret it swiftly as we find ourselves laid low quicker than expected. Keelan is struck by a boulder and Gedout fetches her and brings her to be healed while the giantess threatens to fetch more weapons. One Grey Maiden is struck down by the door she had been asked to guard upon Mochtau's return. Neril goes to rescue the Maiden with a potion but he gets struck whilst he defends her and is also knocked out.
We engage with magic or blade, Gedout charges forward. I choose a bear form, hoping the weight and size of this body will act as coverage for my allies, but I also grab an elemental gem from my bag. Sephiria spots me and recommends the earth gem. I head into the fray and the earth elemental is soon summoned and acts as coverage for those struggling to get up. Sephiria blasts Mochtau with her wand, overcharging it to do amazing damage, and the giantess retreats behind magic'd doors.
I am enraged now, and am not prepared to let this fight drop. I order my elemental to beat down the doors and cast Dispel Magic in the hopes to unlock the doors. It does end up making things worse as I inadvertently turned off the door-opening mechanism, which was not the plan. Still, the hunt is in my blood as it is in my companions'. We get our party to their feet and tend to our injuries while the elemental beats at the door. Eventually it crumples and we face the giantess again.
In the short time, she also tended her injuries and her rage at being mocked, no pun intended, gives her strength. We are forced to our limits to take her down, but we emerge victorious in the end. With the blood lust sated, we move around tending injuries and searching for treasure, of which we find some. Unfortunately, the treasure chests are outnumbered by the chest of rotten meat by a great number. Neril volunteers for the disgusting task of checking those chests for treasure, only to come up empty handed.
We limp back and collect our three other Grey Maidens and return to the Giantess' hold as it is easily defended, even with the broken doors.
We gather together for a rest, well deserved and desperately needed, and with Sephiria placing guard spells and our little troop of Grey Maidens taking turns guarding the door. After we rest, we will proceed with our plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment