Chapter 16: Beneath the Starless Sky

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorxen shakes his head as he rushes over to the nodding Tjoruy, shaking his Osoran brother awake again.

“We must not sleep sparrow, lest we reveal our new position to the one who shan’t be named.”

[SocraticLawyer]

Garrin likewise does his best to corral his drugged friends away from the native denizens, until the effects wear off. He keeps sword and shield ready in case of ambush.

[Scott308]

Loche

Cruloc, ah cannae see th' colors noo! We shuid gang th' ither wey- tis bonny! 'N' thay sound soooo guid! He puts up no fight when Cruloc carries him away.

[Inferno]

The Underground City, Beneath the Great Pyramid of Xuthalhotep
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Nine. Long after Midnight?, 22nd day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia






Loche sees the surface of reality ripple and undulate and fill with potent meaning.

As if disembodied, he watches serenely as Cruloc the reaver ensnares his kicking, shouting form and carries it back to the mushroom forest with raucous laughter.

There, gentle Kiri cries out to a long dead spirit revealed by his expanding consciousness, while Amethu is tempted to silence them all with sorcery.



Garrin and Zahra keep their mad dreaming friends from joining the mad dreaming denizens of the mad dreaming city, never to be seen again.

Xorzen jostles the dozing Tjoruy, “We must not sleep sparrow, lest we reveal our new position to the one who shan’t be named.”

Tjoruy awakens, "Sparrow? But whither yon other sparrow?"

With those words, Amethu, Cruloc, Garrin, Xorzen and Zahra suddenly realize their companion Mako, who conjured himself invisible and ate of the towering mushrooms, is nowhere to be found!



Actions?!



Underground City Map:







PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 6/14, Spells: 4/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl
  Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 39/45
  Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 26/26, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 19/19, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 25/25
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 12/12, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
  Tjoruy: Verulian Osoran Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 7/31, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 16/16
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/29

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Invisibility (Mako): Target: self
  Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 3 rounds.

Player Resources:

• The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)
  An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra snarls an oath that should shrivel the mushrooms for a dozen yards. We need a tracker. Can anyone find his bootprints?

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc's brief moment of levity is gone. A darkness rises within him like thunderheads gathering in the distant hills of Cimmeria.

"Pfah! I wished to see the land beyond the south wind. If I had known I'd be rounding up sheep, I'd have ..." The barbarian's words fade to an ominous rumble in his corded throat.

He scans the soft earth near the water's edge where the enigmatic Mako was last seen. If there be sand, he fills his belt pouch with a few handfuls.

[OGRE MAGE]

While the others search for the unseen easterner, Xorxen attempts to keep the mushroom eaters safely corralled and awake.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu will also help look for any tracks that Mako may have left.

[ChubbyPixie]

“Grandfather, Maako is lost. You must find him. But first... look at my hand. Hands are strange, right? I think mine are growing. Yes... I can see them growing,” says Kiri, uselessly.

[SocraticLawyer]

Garrin helps the others search for their missing companion.

[Scott308]

Loche

A tracker? A'm a tracker! Ah kin see Mako's tracks! 'n' Amethu's! 'n' Attila's! 'n' mah grandmother's! 'n' Cruloc- ah see th' paukit tracks o` yer bastards bairns! Sae mony tracks! Ah see th' tracks o' a' body wha ever leed, 'n' a' body wha ever wull bide!

[Inferno]

The Underground City, Beneath the Great Pyramid of Xuthalhotep
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Nine. Long after Midnight?, 22nd day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia






Kiri and Loche watch as their friends play a funny game.

Cursing and desperate, they frantically, urgently search for Mako. Hunting an invisible man; it's an impossible task, a fool's errand.

Unseen, lost and adrift, their mad dreaming friend has become yet another ghost that haunts the nightmarish Underground City, perhaps until the end of his days.



Then Kiri says, “Grandfather, Mako is lost. You must find him."

The ghost of his dead grandfather...



...nods once and then departs. "Remember, I am always watching over you."

Meanwhile, at a tributary of the black lake...



...Cruloc the barbarian finds a lone set of footprints aimlessly wandering away from the mushroom forest.


Actions?!



Underground City Map:







PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 6/14, Spells: 4/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl
  Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 39/45
  Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 26/26, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 19/19, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 25/25
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 12/12, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
  Tjoruy: Verulian Osoran Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 7/31, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 16/16
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/29

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Invisibility (Mako): Target: self

Player Resources:

• The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)
  An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Scott308]

Loche

The Pict continues seeing things that only exist for him.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

The eagle-sharp eyes of the barbarian spot footprints leading away from the shore of the subterranean lake. He kneels, touching the soil which carries the faint impressions. A cursory examination brings hope.

"Hmm... Possibly left by the lightweight Easterner."

Cruloc waves the others over. "Here," indicating the fresh trail in the earth heading upstream. "In this direction he wanders. We will catch him if we move with purpose, or I'm a Pictish whore!"

"Grab handfuls of soil. They will aid us in penetrating his deceit."

The Cimmerian reminds himself that he despises magic.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri goes suddenly quiet when he realizes sounds can feel things.

[SocraticLawyer]

Garrin grabs a handful of dirt and follows the barbarian.

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra stays put, still trying to keep the dreamers coralled and quiet.

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorxen stays with Zahra, trying to keep the affected party members corralled while the others search.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu also stays behind to assist.

[Inferno]

The Underground City, Beneath the Great Pyramid of Xuthalhotep
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Nine. Long after Midnight?, 22nd day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia






Kiri, Loche and Tjoruy watch existence pulsate and surge while their companions divide their number.

Amethu, Xorzen and Zahra stand guard over the waking dreamers as Cruloc and Garrin race off, tracking an invisible ghost of a man.

At the forest of towering fungi, pale wretched husks of men draw near the outlanders.



The forsaken denizens of Pandemonium stagger aimless like the walking dead, or ants after their queen has been slaughtered. But they do not harass the adventurers. They come only to eat of the mushrooms.

Five minutes pass.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty minutes pass and Cruloc and Garrin have yet to return.


Actions?!









Cruloc and Garrin hurtle alongside a river luminous with the reflection of phosphorescent lichen.

Following no more than a wet mark on a rock here, a footprint in soft earth there, the armored men run to the brink of exhaustion. The river on their right, the ageless decay of the Underground City on their left. Ahead, they begin to see the end of the labyrinthine ruins beyond which is a great yawning cavern above a vast black subterranean lake. Where the city meets the lake, they spy the sails of a ship.

Suddenly, Cruloc and Garrin remember Tjoruy's words of less than an hour ago.

"Come, let us sail to the Eye of darkness and horror and thus pass from all memory."

Sail. To the Island of Death. And Zargoth.


Actions?!



Underground City Map:

M marks the location of the mushroom forest. X marks Cruloc and Garrin. S marks the ship.





PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 6/14, Spells: 4/7 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl
  Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 39/45
  Garrin: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 26/26, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 19/19, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 25/25
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 12/12, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
  Tjoruy: Verulian Osoran Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 7/31, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 16/16
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/29

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (Garrin, Kiri, Loche, Mako and Xorzen have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Invisibility (Mako): Target: self

Player Resources:

• The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)
  An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)