Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Dead City

The Dead City

Being a continuation of the adventures of the redoubtable Green Knight Jack Summerisle, and companions various and sundry, beneath the surface of the world of Eberron.

After spending some time resting and recuperating among the friendly gnomes of Kyber, our allies assembled: the cookie-baking gnomes, the rock-men, mushroom men, a Hive of intelligent insects, the odd survivor gnomes of a lost colony, satyrs from the surface of the mountains...even the pixies which had tortured us with their magics while we sought the way to the ghoul kingdom. Assembled, they mustered their forces and set out to create a distraction to draw as many of the ghoul forces from their city as possible, so that our party of stout-hearted adventurers could enter and hopefully find and free the father of our ranger Jade, and also the Crown of Air and Darkness. Our party consisted of myself and my trusty giant cave weta Cassius, Rhea the Witch, Thea the Storm-Cleric, and two new companions who the gnomes had introduced, Jub the Dragonborn Cleric of Bahamut and Flagan the Halfling Monk.

We sailed down the subterranean river once again, and this time met little resistance. The clutching hands that sprang from the waters  hindered us only slightly as we passed this time, as my axe and the divine powers of the two clerics caused them some distress. We also spied some strange, lumpen-backed insect creatures, but they did nothing to threaten, and we let them pass. Thus, we reached the gates of the Ghoul Kingdom unmolested.

The gates posed a challenge, however. We became aware of their guardians -- animated jack-o-lanterns of fearsome aspect and all-seeing eyes. Luckily, our allies had provided a supply of biscuits that when eaten would shrink one down to a tiny size (Rhea and Jub took those) and three cloaks that allowed us to blend with our surroundings. As there was no hiding loyal Cassius, I hid myself upon his back using a cloak, and concealed Rhea in my pocket. Thea likewise concealed Jub. As Thea and Flagan used their cloaks to sneak through the open gates, Rhea's familiar, now in the form of a spider-bat, flew over the walls and Cassius "chased" the familiar as if hunting it for food.

Our plan nearly succeeded. We passed the first guardians without a problem, but a second pair at a stairway leading down to the city noticed something odd. We sprang into action to stop them announcing our presence. In a fearsome melee that followed, we managed to defeat two. One was a large beast of an undead pumpkin, another was some sort of mind-bending abomination that thought to steal my mind from me. Through persistence, we were able to defeat these foes, although poor Flagan was swallowed by the beastly pumpkin at one point. The third, a tricksy rock-throwing guardian, managed to escape. 

Now the way is clear. We begin our descent into the Kingdom of the Ghouls! 

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