Chapter 26: Dominion of Ruin

[Inferno]

Chapter 26: Dominion of Ruin

The Ruins of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Twenty-two. Dawn. 1st day of the month of Ublex, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia






Dahinna had lost her lover, Iago here.

And her sword-sister, Zahra.



And yet, with almost half their number dead, the adventurers return to tempt Fate.

At dawn they stand at the trailhead of the treacherous cliffside path that plunges into the canyon and into distant antiquity.

From that vertigo-inducing vantage, they behold anew that which the Picts call the Forbidden City of the Dead, and what they know to be the lost city of Thracia!



Before them lay the vast, silent ruin ravaged by desolate eternities.

Atlantean culture was the pinnacle of Man's achievement on Earth. It survived for forty centuries, writing its name across the stars. Then suddenly it was brought low by its own hubris and by the unrelenting crawl of the ages.

Here once thrived the greatest city of a continent...



...now reduced to a graveyard. What descendants of Thracia that survived have long ago descended into death-worship, necromancy and madness.

If mighty Atlantis could not survive, how could Aquilonia or any other culture?

It is as if the ruins themselves answer. No civilization can last. It is the natural order of things.


Actions?


Map:

X marks the adventurers' position.




PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 17/17, Spells: 8/8 1st lvl, 5/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 54/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 25/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 21/21, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 38/38

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

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

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

The rogue looks down on the fabled city of the dead and tries to slow the beating of her heart. For a fleeting moment she considers wheeling around and running back into the forest, but then she knows she wouldn't survive the wilderness on her own. She's a city girl, and before her lies a big fucking city. A dead city, to be sure, but a city nonetheless.
With a deep sigh she turns and looks again at the forest behind her, then checks her gear and looks for a path (the same path as before?) to descend into ancient Thracia.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc steadies Dahinna with a hand on her shoulder.

"We men are slaves to our passions, and unable to resist the harpies' melody. You will be our ears, for we will be as deaf to their song as Crom is to our pleas."

After stuffing his ears with a mixture of pitch and moss, he produces his 50' length of rope and motions for the others to tie themselves together as they did last time.

[jemmus]

Torix, unwashed and smelling of smoked salmon fish, wolf meat, and Pictish sweat pushed his way forward to the front of the file. Cimmerian... You still a crazy dog. Cimmerians always fight bad. Make the gods and animal, fish and birds nations angry. In Picts' land. I fight with you, Cimmerian. Against the this evil place. But after the you from Picts' place-- quick! But maybe you stay and marry Pict girl. I might be your friend, or gut you with this spear... Cimmerian.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc, ears clogged and oblivious to all sounds, sees the Pict move his mouth and brandish his spear.

"Yes. Sharp spear good," he nods in agreement.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu looks down upon the city quietly. Quiet beneath his mask. His thoughts, however, dart from the present to the past to the possibilities of what's to come. What secrets of his ancient forefathers yet remain in darkness - waiting to be found...

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri stuffs wax into his own ears and prepares himself by removing his footwear before they begin to descend, in order to cast his climbing spell more efficiently should the need arise.

[jemmus]

Torix blocks his eardrums with Cruloc's resin plugs. He's adept at climbing, but he suspects that some of the city people might not be. He takes out his long rope and ties it around his chest under his arms. Tie together? He leaves his torches in his shoulder bag and his hands free for the descent down the cliff.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu also prepares his ears and ties himself to the rope chain.

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna follows the lead of her companions and ties herself to the rope chain. She leaves her ears open for hearing the harpies' song and so she can warn her companions when things go sideways...like they are bound to do
Also, if it won't encumber her too much, she can carry two more torches.

[Inferno]

The Ruins of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Twenty-two. Morning. 1st day of the month of Ublex, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Against their every instinct of self preservation, the adventurers return to explore the mysterious site of ageless sorcery, horror and death that claimed the lives and souls of so many of their companions.

What drew them back? Did they truly belong to Thanatos now?

Tethered together and mostly deafened, they carefully descend the narrow, precarious path carved into the living rock of the sheer, towering cliff!




Eyes are wide for the two harpies that survived their first violent encounter.




Harpies are unknown in this time, thought to be mere myth from the distant past. Abhorrent, rapacious vulture-women, they had somehow survived since the ancient days of Atlantis, a lost epoch of gods, monsters and magic undreamt of in the Hyborian Age!

None are sighted. The explorers of antiquity reach the canyon floor alive and unassailed. All around them sprawl the aching desolation of the massive, terrible ruin of Thracia.



To Dahinna's open ears, all is silent as the grave.


Actions?!


Map:

X marks the adventurers' position.



PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 4", AC: 4, HP: 17/17, Spells: 8/8 1st lvl, 5/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 54/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 25/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 21/21, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 38/38

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

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

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

Her heart is still pounding and not from the narrow trail down the cliff face. She was certain the harpies would attack them again! She looks around at her companions, shrugs, and unties herself from the rope. With a dart in hand, she watches the ancient ruins closely, wondering if the harpies are watching...and waiting.

[jemmus]

Torix coils his rope and returns it to his slung shoulder bag. No bird women. Back underground, then?

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

The trail slithers down the jagged cliffside like the coiling of some primeval serpent, spitting the adventurers into a wasteland of ancient, crumbling monoliths. Deaf to all but his thundering heart, the Cimmerian's gaze prowls the desolate expanse, his hand lingering with restless instinct upon the gold leather pommel of the Sword of Xuthalhotep. A strange vitality surges through the iron cords of his forearm as the weapon's eldritch power entwines with his flesh. What once would have driven him to madness now fills him with an eerie comfort.

The Zamoran’s expression, though guarded, is absent of fear, so with a grunt, the barbarian grudgingly plucks the stuffing from his ears. The menace seeping from the shattered walls and broken cyclopean columns is brooding and subtle, and his senses tell him there is no immediate peril. Though his every sinew hums with caution, Cruloc does not find cause to draw his blade.

"Where do the harpies brood?" he mutters darkly. "If none know, then I care not where we search—above ground or in the bowels of this forsaken place."

[ravenn4544]

Amethu suggests, "If we are going to explore, let's be methodical about how we do this. Let's start in the northern quadrant and work our way around the city...and leave no stone unturned"

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

"Agreed."

[Inferno]

The Ruins of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Twenty-two. Morning. 1st day of the month of Ublex, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Resolute, the explorers of history beyond imagining untie themselves, open their ears, and enter the ghost of a city.

The only sound is their hushed whispers and their echoing footfalls as they venture north down avenues they had not yet traversed. On all sides loom crumbling walls and pillars as white as sun bleached skulls. It feels as if mortal feet had not tread these proud boulevards for millennia.

Suddenly, some fifty feet away, a towering figure looms up above a broken wall!



The adventurers cannot believe their eyes. It's a giant, at least twenty feet tall!

Slowly the colossus turns and reveals its hideous face!



Like the harpies, another impossible creature from a long bygone age thought only to be myth!

The monstrous cyclops beholds the adventurers with its single terrible eye and unleashes a roar as deafening as a thunderclap!


Actions?!


Map:

X marks the adventurers' position.

Behind the DM Screen:

Surprise? Party: [1d6]=3, Monsters: [1d6]=3 No one is surprised.

PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 17/17, Spells: 8/8 1st lvl, 5/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 54/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 25/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 21/21, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 38/38

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

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

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

Seeing the huge creature, the rogue freezes in place. "What in the name of all that's holy is that thing?"
She eases into the shadows of a ruin and draws her sword, knowing if the creature charges, she may be able to flank it and get it a strike from behind.

[jemmus]

Torix wonders what spawned the horrible giant. Did it have a father and mother like a normal beast? Or was it created by a devil god, just out of evil? He braces the butt of the ancient spear in a crack between paving stones and awaits the monster's charge.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri will glance at Cruloc and Torix, then fan out to the left towards the relative cover of the building there. He begins a low repetitive chant as he goes, one eye on the monstrous freak, preparing to use an incantation he has never tried before.

Kiri will cast Ray of Enfeeblement if the creature comes within range (17.5', I believe). Otherwise he will hold his spell and just move as far as he can towards cover.

Now that I think about it, 17.5' seems awfully close for a 20' tall monster...