Pondering a bit more, the group can’t decide whether to investigate the portal to wherever, to investigate the strange machines in the xorn-filled tunnels beneath or to try and crash the flying fortress to remove it as a danger. They start by crashing as many of the smaller islands as possible – excavating or destroying any green gems they find. This leaves a small handful aloft, as well as the castle complex. The debris plummet into the forest blow. Fore!
It is decided that investigating the strange machines may give further clues, so that path is taken. The first machine is guarded by a xorn, but it is swiftly slain. The machine appears to be used to create and send messages in different languages. It is powered by a small gem that looks similar to the purple crystal clusters that grow in the tunnels.
Another machine is investigated and this one teleports Malchor into a different place – replete with purple crystals, angry xorn and a hole in the floor that shows the land a great distance below. Malchor teleports back to the party – suffering some small damage along the way.
Right. The gloves are off and the trio of party mages unleash multiple spells that transform huge sections of the aerial rocks into mud that rains down upon the forest below. It is looking like it is a bad day to be a squirrel. As further slabs are peeled off, xorn and crystalline growths begin raining down upon the forest as well. Eventually a tipping point is reached and the remaining slab and the castle upon it crash into the ground. There is a halfhearted effort to scout the ruins to see if anything survived the half-mile fall, but the destruction is widespread and there is little appetite for scrounging.
The group returns to Kormier with an enhanced Gal. Perhaps it is time to undertake the mace adventure! Torm is contacted and slowly the truth begins to dawn – the prisoner that was willing to be a sacrifice to the mace is no longer living. Another willing sacrifice must be found. Further communing reveals that the Gal and her trusted captain of the guard are ready and willing to give their lives for the greater good.
It is a somber and yet celebratory occasion that culminates with the Gal and her paramour grasping the mace and declaring their willingness to die so that the world might be saved from the depredations of Akruel, the death-priest. With that, their lifeless bodies crumple to the floor as the mace glows brightly, then slowly fades. An angelic voice rings forth from the item, instructing them on where they must go and what they must do.
A journey to the city of the dead awaits them. The city sits at the edge of a jungle, near a vast mountain range.They will know the place, for it is capped by a thick black cloud of boiling hatred that strikes down upon all within the city with bolts of dark power. Scores of undead roam the streets and climb the sides of the great step pyramid that looms over the rubble-strewn, skull-walled city. The heroes must journey to Al-Sifon, the Sepulcher of Death to find and destroy Akruel, Death priest of Orcus.
Leave a reply