The Story So Far, continued:
Here we shall continue the account of the finals days of our doomed heroes:
Chapter 23: Genesis of Evil
Day 18:
Ten days later, the heroes
have survived the pass through the dark mountains. On the other side, they reach a humble settlement at dusk. With foreboding, the heroes
enter the frozen hamlet's public house. They receive a
a cold welcome. A mixture lies, truth and half-truths
thaws the frosty reception as Long Bo converses with an owl. The heroes
glean what information they can, learning
dread lore of their destination, and
settle in for the night.
Day 19:
After suffering their reoccurring nightmares, the heroes
give donations to Banemourne. Tulach the barkeep
accepts them gratefully. Telkis makes the acquaintance of a mouse as the heroes
make ready to depart.
Long Bo's owl
leads them to ancient steps carved into the living rock of the dark mountain. They climb all day and night until
they reach a moonlit
field of burial mounds without number.
As midnight approaches, Urdur
brews a wolfsbane potion to break the Curse of the Beast. Bo, Brevos and Telkis drink it and
horrifically, begin to transform as they scream in agony! The other heroes
bare steel, ready to kill the unspeakable horrors! Suddenly, the three changelings cease their ghastly becoming! They slowly return to their normal forms; the dread Curse of The Beast lifted!
Day 20:
After midnight, within sight of their dread goal,
the heroes falter. Then [url=httrp://
www.unseenservant.us/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 71#p450171]they accept their fate. Suddenly, Jerome is struck down[/url] by overpowering emanations of unspeakable evil! The paladin recovers and
the heroes press on, treading a road of bones through a strange gate to a dark maw into the mountain.
They pass through a glacial cave and descend a steep stairwell cut into the living rock. It leads to a vast water-filled cavern on whose subterranean shore looms an immense brooding citadel limned in eerie green light. The heroes
approach the partially opened stonegate of the lost shrine of ancient evil. Telkis, Mouser and Urdur
roll under the monolithic portal! Suddenly, daemonic voices from beyond the stonegate shriek, "Thou art a gift to The Nothing! The Nothing!" The scouts
return. The heroes
steel their resolve.
Mouser casts a spell that
deciphers the eldritch carvings on the stonegate. He reads them aloud in a voice not his own! Suddenly,
Jerome lies down and opens his breastplate so that Rudolf can sacrifice him to The Nothing! Rudolf nearly kills the paladin before
Urdur's mesmerism compels them to stop! The heroes
take a moment to recover and then press on.
Chapter 24: Human Sacrifices
Day 20, continued:
Against their every instinct for self preservation, the heroes
cross the threshold of the stonegate.
They willingly enter the subterranean temple of abominations into a hall whose every surface is carved with twisted, tormented faces that shriek in daemonic voices, "You are a gift to The Nothing! The Nothing!" The heroes cautiously advance, discovering twin doors shaped like ghastly heads.
Beyond the northern devil door,
the heroes discover a richly appointed room covered in dust. Without caution or hesitation,
they enter and
examine its eerie contents. Then they
discover an immense painting of themselves genuflecting in worship before a black altar! In the shadows behind the heroes
lurk the wretched ghosts of their dead friends, haunting them! Then Brevos slams the black door shut!
Ingrid
resists the temptation to reopen it and the heroes
retreat through the hall of ghastly tormented faces and into
a literal gallery of horrors. Surrounded by heinous masterpieces of atrocities and evil,
they find a powder rendered of the crushed petals of the fabled Black Lotus flower. Seemingly unable to resist its deadly allure,
half of them draw nearer. Urdur touches his torch to it and smoke billows forth! All the heroes get clear
except Jerome who breathes of the smoke of the death blossom! He sits in the spiral pew and
his mind journeys beyond this world to the sanity-shredding horrors of the Outer Planes where he gains
understanding. Wracked and harrowed, Jerome returns to Oerth and is saved by Telkis. The paladin
recovers as Mouser is tempted by the beguiling Black Lotus and
resists it.
The heroes
approach the final frightful door with apprehension and dread. Beyond the demon portal is a
towering chapel to an unspeakable god. The doomed heroes
enter of their own volition. They find a grand high hallway extending from a bloodstained altar into pitch darkness from which emanates the eerie unrelenting sound.
It is a lichway, the path by which the dead are carried to the grave. Its looming walls are lined end to end with stone slabs, each bearing inscriptions in the same blasphemous language as the stonegate.
The heroes enter the towering corridor of heinous magnificence. Ominously, there is still no sign of defenders.
They come to a great hall where looms an immense monolithic stone that is disconcerting to look upon. Disturbing angles and surfaces subsume a blasphemous geometry not of this Oerth. More corridors are discovered, also lined with stone slabs etched in sorcerous heresy. The heroes continue deeper,
following the strange haunting tone until it grows strong enough to drown out their whispers and make the hair on the back of their necks stand up.
They advance and find
a great mass of strange, vine-like fibers choking the lichway. Beyond it is a chamber of skulls holding withered corpses, an unholy altar, and the lifeless form of Amity Mantle. The heroes ready to carve a path through the towering alien skein and instantly,
it comes to life! Urdur is almost strangled into unconsciousness by living, spiked tendrils! Engulfed, he realizes the mysterious tone is emanating from the otherworldly web of stalk and stem! Urdur breaks free of the grasping tendrils as the heroes attack! Suddenly, an immense horror crawls out from the black shadows behind them! Ingrid's divine power silences the writhing vine web creature! And the shrouded corpses on the floor of the skull chamber sit bolt upright! The situation
grows more dire and then
the tables turn. The gigantic tarantula is blinded and hacked asunder as the vine web is set aflame!
But suddenly comes a peal of thunder all around them! DOOOOOM! The roaring sound does not relent. Nor do the heinous undead horrors as they descend upon the heroes, draining away their life force! DOOOOOOM! Then
Mouser makes a terrible discovery. The ominous thundering is emanating from behind the stone slabs that line the vast towering walls of the lichway. DOOOOOOM! Jerome falls and then every stone slab ruptures and bursts! DOOOOOOM!
Chapter 25: Hell Vomits Forth The Damned
Day 20, continued:
DOOOOOOM! Countless crypts open in the lichway. The living dead are without number. The heroes start to flee for their lives, and the life of young Amity Mantle! The undead legion descend upon them! Surrounded,
Brevos and Telkis make a desperate charge through the endless legions of living dead and break out of the teeming horde alive! Ingrid and Jerome drive back the filth of Hell with the fiery righteousness of the heavens! Urdur flees with young Amity Mantle, trying to save her life at least. Mouser produces the heinous tome of forbidden secrets, taken from the Hell Mouth of the Dark Mother! The heroes struggle to hold back the endless tide of living death.
With time is running out,
Brevos touches the pipe organ keys and it blasts a sound identical to the eerie unrelenting tone that had haunted the heroes ever since entering this nightmarish place! Suddenly, the ghastly legion of horrors that throngs the lichway falls silent and still! And then they all lie down where they stand, returning once more to the cold embrace of Death! The heroes
flee for their lives! As the organ pipes exhaust themselves of air and sound,
the heroes lock the demon doors behind them and plunge through the two foot gap beneath the stonegate!
With the child they came to rescue,
the heroes fly. They burst from the dark forbidding mountain at the top of the world and bear witness to a horrific sight! The vast snow-shrouded burial fields vomit forth their countless dead! The
raging, shrieking nightmare of Perdition descends upon them. Death at their heels, the heroes reach their vast sled alive and frantically plunge down the steps in the mountain! They narrowly escape and plow the sledge into a deep snowdrift to stop before they kill themselves! The heroes
recover a moment and then
press on! Mouser rids himself at last of the blasphemous tome taken from the Hell Mouth of the Dark Mother! At dawn, the heroes discover more wolfsbane in the wild. The grey druid blocks the path of the dead that hunt them. The unimaginable apocalyptic plague they had unleashed is averted. The heroes descend the stone stair. Long after nightfall, they finally reach the village of Banemourne and enter its ramshackle public house. Ingrid reveals the sleeping child to the townfolk. Bo claims the cult has infiltrated Banemourne but no sign of treachery is found.
The weary heroes return to their humble lodging for the night. For the first time since they entered the mountains, unspeakable horrors from beyond the fragile veil of this world do not haunt their dreams. But deep in the night, while on watch, Jerome and Rudolf suddenly realize Amity Mantle is awake and staring at them from the edge of the darkness.
Chapter 26: The Possession of Amity Mantle
Day 21:
Eyes on the child, Rudolf readies a rope that suddenly flies around his neck, pulls tight as a noose and lifts him up off the ground! Amity coos sweetly to Jerome, "You are a gift to The Nothing." Rudolf cuts his noose and crashes to the floor, awakening everyone in the cabin. Rudolf lunges at the little girl with a dagger, forcing Jerome to mercifully subdue him. Urdur gets a lantern alight, revealing little Amity hiding in the corner, her big pale eyes filled with absolute terror. Ingrid carries the child back to bed as suspicion blossoms among the heroes. In the middle of the night, the door flies open and a pack of great wolves stride in! They have come for the girl, and to once more invite the heroes to join them. Pyotr and Mondegreen are among them! A murderous battle erupts when suddenly the wood-burning stove explodes! The fight rages on as outside, the wolves ensnared by Bo's magic howl a bloodcurdling chorus, terrifying the villagers of Banemourne who tremble in their beds. Bo and Ingrid crash through windows to escape being burned alive! The cabin is engulfed in flames as Brevos and Telkis make a desperate last stand! But not for long. Telkis
falls beneath the ravenous jaws of the merciless pack!
The heroes lunge from the burning cabin. Amity slits Rudolf's throat. Jerome is engulfed in flames. Half the heroes
flee for their lives. The wolves surround Amity in
unholy veneration, barking and howling in murderous joy. Then they
disappear into the cold, black night,
heading in the direction of the mountain pass that winds south. The surviving heroes
regroup and flee the village of Banemourne,
following the tracks of the depraved werewolf pack that bore away Amity Mantle. Bo
sends an owl to track the pack. Ingrid Esthof offers the heroes a glimmer of hope when she reveals she may be able to cure Amity of her possession by the demon of the Lost Shrine of Ancient Evil!
The heroes live to see another dawn. Urdur the conjurer
brews eight doses of the precious wolfsbane elixir.
Chapter 27: Mark of the Beast:
Day 33:
The doomed heroes
survive the winter journey through the mountain pass. On the night of the full moon, they
discover the wolfpack's lair. Some of the heroes drink of the
wolfsbane elixir!
The grey druid's owl leads them to
another cave mouth into the same jagged hill, and
scouts it at Bo's behest. The heroes enter the cave and eventually discover a vast cavern writhing with
bats. The grey druid calmly traces
mystic symbols in the air before they are engulfed by the swarm! In the eye of the maelstrom, Long Bo speaks in the ancient language of bats! But the
bloodthirsty predators will not comply with his request!
The doomed heroes escape the cavern of the swarming bats, delving deeper into the strange subterranean realm. After much tense exploration, they behold a
sight that will haunt them for the rest of their days. Brevos searches the
smiling faces of the happy children, eager for delicious treats. Amity Mantle is not among them. The heroes retreat to
confer upon the unholy acts they will soon commit in the name of all that is holy. They lay an
ambush. In an instant, the
slaughter of the cannibal men is complete! The women and children
flee screaming. The heroes give chase as Jerome wretches from the atrocities within the
ghastly kitchen of horrors. More blasphemies are discovered. A demon circle is
defiled. The heroes follow the sound of shrieking into a bloodcurdling
torture chamber. Forbidden tomes and a
cave tunnel are found, leading back to the first cave mouth! There, a
terrible light flickers in the heavens and a faint baying pierces the night. Ingrid and Telkis take
The Cure of the wolfsbane elixir. Bo sends out his owl to scout. Brevos
tracks the pack and the thing that Amity Mantle has become.
The doomed heroes enter a wood older than time imaginable. Overgrown and forbidding, thick and dark, unknowable and primeval, untouched by Men or their quaint notions. They find a circle of towering megaliths. Within roars an immense bonfire, surrounded by countless
shadows. They leap and dance and howl in dark ecstasy. Wolves frolic among them. Mouser and Urdur scout ahead. Harrowing screams, soul-chilling chants, murderous barks, and spine-tingling laughter emanate from the writhing black joy around that dancing devil flame. Urdur is struck by horrific
remembrance. Mouser spies Amity but she is no longer human. The two scouts flee back to the party and report all that they have seen! Grimly resolved, the heroes prepare their ambush. A sickly blight of cold moonlight begins to infect the horizon! The climactic end of the unspeakable rite looms near! Suddenly, the alarm is sounded as Mouser's sorcery creates a diversion and Bo sends a crawling plague of insects upon
the thing that was once Amity Mantle!
Within the great fire at the center of the writhing, chanting maelstrom of worshippers, a terrible shape slowly grows; inconceivable in form and meaning! The stars are right! The
Dark Mother is come! Suddenly, the great blazing pyre explodes in a shower of white, burning light! The unspeakable rite is broken!
The moon begins to rise! And all the children of the Dark Mother start to scream. As the blasphemous servants of the Dark Mother undergo their frightful becoming, the heroes bear Amity away,
fleeing back the way they came! They reach the
cave mouth and plunge back through the eerie nightmare underworld beneath the Dark Mountains, reaching the ghastly torture chamber
alive. But not for long.
Bloodcurdling howls fill the caves. With ten minutes left to live, the heroes urgently build a barricade to make their last stand. Gravely, Ingrid decides to embrace unspeakable evil to fight unspeakable evil. She would condemn her immortal soul to Hell to save Amity and her friends. She causes the dead to
rise! Ingrid the damned transgresses against her god, wielding heinous powers of necromantic
evil! And little Amity begins to laugh with malevolent joy.
Chapter 28: The Exorcism:
Day 34:
Past midnight on the first night of the full moon, deep in the wolfpack's lair, Ingrid begins the
Holy Ritual of Exorcism. It could take hours, should they live that long. Amity barks with laughter as suddenly, Brevos' torch flares, setting the ranger and the bed beside him ablaze! Mouser, Jerome and Telkis knock Brevos to the floor and smother his flames! The bed still burns! Amity shrieks nigh to deafening and the floor itself trembles with her rage! The silencing spell on the coin dies and from beyond the shut door, distant sounds of rupturing wood and the howlings of Hell assault their wakening senses! "They're here!" screams the thing that was Amity. "IN HERE!!!" Shivering with cold, Ingrid holds aloft her holy symbol and
beseeches her god to cast out the demon that possesses the child they are sworn to save! Brevos, Jerome and Telkis beat the fires out! Bo and Mouser uncover Amity and gag her, but not before she vomits on them both! Ingrid commands the demon to begone and the walls begin to bleed!
Suddenly the door to the bunkroom ruptures and gives way! The
wolfpack of the Dark Mother has found them
but cannot see them, thanks to Urdur's illusion! Brevos, Jerome and Telkis attack a feral monstrosity, drawing blood with unseen enchanted weapons! Ingrid raises her holy symbol and her quavering voice and
drives out at last the heinous demon that possesses Amity Mantle!
The summoning ritual of the Dark Mother has been sundered! The demon freed from the lost shrine has been driven out of the human child! And now the pack is beset by disembodied voices that draw their blood and threaten worse! With only revenge to gain, and much yet to lose, the primal monstrosities fall back, snarling, barking, tails between their legs! The wolfpack of the Dark Mother
withdraws from the heroes' sight, and its bitter, mournful howls slowly die off. Cautiously, the heroes
venture forward into chambers and corridors eerily
devoid of life until no door is left unopened, save one: Long Bo asks Ingrid to search for any evil lurking hidden among their number.
She finds it. Suddenly, Brevos the ranger is
rent asunder from within! The ghastly, bloodsoaked ruin of Brevos is thrown down like sheep's clothing from a wolf, and a frightful form emerges from that terrible becoming, one that the doomed heroes recognize.
A duke of Hell has come to Oerth through a doorway of
flesh and blood. It summons forth the wolfpack of the Dark Mother before Urdur can mesmerize it! A maelstrom of teeth and claws howls as Jerome drives his sword into the heinous embodiment of blasphemy! The beguiled demon returns to
Hell! And the summoned pack is powerless to harm the doomed heroes who retaliate with righteous fury! Two inhuman abominations and one wolf that had once been their companion, Pyotr Whitetip
fall beneath their virtuous wrath! The pack falls apart; feral beasts lurch and lunge away from the fierce onslaught of the heroes' attack,
fleeing into the black caverns for the second time this night!
At last the heroes rest and
recover. The wolves do not come for them in the night. Nor do the nightmares that have haunted their dreams for weeks now. In the morning they bury Brevos and set out. The next day, they find the evil of Vicar's Head has also been exorcised. Two days later they reach the hardscrabble Ashblood Colony of Pelor Dissenters. There is a joyful
reunion of child and parents and a humble feast honoring the heroes with heartfelt gratitude.
Chapter 29: Sacrament of Blasphemy:
Day 37:
And then everything went
wrong. The doomed heroes are gripped by paralysis and carried out in a procession to a church hidden in the woods. Within, they are stripped of their possessions and lowered into a stone pit. The dissenters of Pelor withdraw and sing ancient hymns from above. The paralysis leaves the heroes and suddenly they hear the distant echo of a
dreadful slithering! They frantically survey their immediate
surroundings as the ghastly sound grows louder with every second!
The doomed heroes flee for their lives deeper into the dank subterranean labyrinth! They reach a stone stairway descending into a hole in the floor. The ceiling is infested with
crystals that twinkle mesmerizingly! Three of the heroes stand momentarily
entranced! The others guide them down the steps and then they
plunge headlong through twisting lightless corridors deep beneath the earth!
Hunted, breathless, they find three
locked doors, like those of dungeon prison cells! Beyond lies a partial tunnel collapse and a stairway up! The heroes investigate and then the
horror is upon them! A great amorphic, slug-like mass that gibbers and screams in the loathsome voices of men, women, children, goats, pigs and horses! The heroes
flee up the stone steps! Behind them comes the bloodcurdling sounds of the tentacled horror! The heroes reach the bottom of the pit! As they debate their next move, the abhorrent shrieking grows
louder!
The heroes flee, following Bo's desperate stratagem and their previous path! They descend to lower levels, twist and turn through winding corridors and reach the trio of locked, barred
doors again! They hear nothing behind them! Silenced by Ingrid's prayers, Jerome
smashes down one of the doors. Imprisoned in the cell beyond lies only a wooden chest bearing the symbol of the
Order of the Knights of the March. While hammering the bolts on the next door, a thunderous crash escapes! Mouser opens the chest, revealing a primed deathtrap. All of a sudden, Ingrid and Telkis hear an abhorrent peal of screaming!
The unspeakable abomination has
doubled back upon them! As the loathsome horror crawls near, Telkis triggers a
cave-in, completing the partial tunnel collapse!
When the dust settles, the trapped heroes see the cave-in has
consumed most of the corridor. Mouser springs the clockwork
deathtrap of the chest as Bo breaks down the northernmost door to discover a second chest. Mouser works loose a blade from the diabolical mechanism as suddenly, Telkis
plunges into a deep, dark pit filled with cruel iron spikes! Then Bo hears the horrific sounds of the hair-raising
abomination shrieking out of the darkness to the west and
flees to the lower levels! Mouser and Urdur no longer hear the detestable cries of the heinous monstrosity! And then they realize they are
deaf. In the dead end, the heroes examine the strange and powerful
artifacts of the reign of Vecna, secreted away for safe keeping long ago by the Order of the Knights of the March. And Long Bo discovers the unspeakable horror now
stalks him! He flees deeper into the labyrinth! Meanwhile, Mouser and Urdur help themselves to the evil treasures. The shroud of silence passes and a dreadful pounding comes from
inside the shut chest! Long Bo runs headlong into a dead end! The lid of the ancient chest begins to
rise! A deathless
horror crawls out of it and lunges at Mouser and Urdur! It
drains away their life essence! Ingrid smites it with but a single word, if only for a moment! Meanwhile, Bo conceals himself through means mysterious and arcane. He peers out from the mist as the shambling,
horrific mass of eyes, mouths and tentacles writhes into view! Bo's sanity slips away and he flees into the impenetrable darkness of the labyrinth! Meanwhile, Ingrid lures the baleful revenant with the accursed treasure and it
plunges into the spike-filled shaft! Long Bo regains his senses and discovers a
hidden message in the darkness. The rest of the captives flee north and are reunited with Bo. Suddenly, a distant, sickening sound
emanates from the nearby ladder pit! The doomed heroes run,
slowed by having to bear Mouser and Urdur! Earlier, they could outrun the unspeakable, tentacled thing. Now, it might be able to catch them! They fly up the stone steps back into the mesmeric chamber! It is Mouser's turn to lead them. The next segment of the labyrinth key was his to memorize. But the stricken, trembling figure lacks the strength to
speak! Ingrid
heals him and the nightmare procession resumes! The doomed heroes follow the verbal map through twisting tunnels, countless stairwells and ladders; the obscene terror ever trailing, echoing in the endless catacomb of eternal night.
The trapped captives complete the labyrinth key and come to a great stout
door! Behind them emanates the bloodcurdling sounds of the unspeakable horror! The terrifying bulk of the quivering amorphous mass lurches
into sight! Mouser speaks a
magic word that opens the iron door! The captives rush through to
freedom! The malformed slithering atrocity does not follow!
Outside, the church of Saint Pentival looms over them. They
peer inside the door and
creep into the
church! Entombed Knights of the March
rise from their eternal graves! Jerome pleads to what honor may remain within these desiccated husks of men, and they
stay their fleshless hands! The heroes discover an
office and
unspeakable secrets hidden within. The curtain on the altar is
parted, revealing two doors.
Suddenly, from behind them comes a familiar, horrific
sound! One door flies open! From its threshold bursts the gigantic, writhing tentacles of the
shrieking, slithering chaos! The beleaguered minds of the doomed heroes are overthrown by madness! The loathsome thing's writhing tentacles embrace the stricken Telkis, and begin to
absorb him into its horrific body! The deathless knights hear Ingrid's desperate plea and
attack, rending the abomination asunder with a grim mercy. The thing dies before its heinous process of absorption is complete and Telkis parts from it and is himself once more. The Reverend Gideon Ashblood enters and mourns the monster's death. Then the church of secrets comes down around them!
The heroes escape with their lives, return to the Ashblood Colony and learn the
unspeakable truth behind it all.