Pachala and Chingua headed southwest away from the party for
their Storm Bull holy day. You
negotiated with Duke Raus, getting a little more money and coherent information
from him and then from Daine, who seemed very eager to go slay the tusk riders
himself. Then you went south with
two barges of guards and newtlings.
Along the way, first two 5eyes traskars grabbed newtlings from the boat
and hopped away, then 8 5eyes warriors ambushed the barges (doing little damage
except demoralizing the newtlings).
One was downed by arrows and Blu went to talk to him while other 5eyes
healed him; Blu got a chilly reception, being accused of betraying 5eyes to
Raus etc. Downriver at 5 eyes
proper, you were met with an angry crowd of warriors who prohibited access to
their dock and warned you to move on or be killed. Tison was nowhere to be seen.
Ssrussut scouted ahead to the Stone Tower while you rode on fresh
horses toward it. On the way, Ji's
horse was lamed by tripping on a sharp rock but was healed. Then Ssrussut came with news of a 2-tusk
rider mounted patrol following him from the area of the tower. You planned a trap (not an ambush; a
tactical exercise) and Srussut tried to lead them to you, but they seemed
uneasy and backtracked. You got
tired of this and Caernak and Officer Trodus of Raus's men charged them. Both of your horses were downed, but you
subdued the tusk riders and captured them alive after severing one tusker
beast's leg. They acted tough and
tried to get you to let them go with the money (hah right) but you took them up
to the Stone Tower and shouted to negotiate. Srussut was largely ignored but Ji and
Caernak got their attention and the leader Fanltiog eventually (after much
blustering and sleazing) agreed to let Jezra go in return for his warriors and
beasts returned, 4500L, and promise of safe passage from the tower to flee
Raus's and Daine's inevitable vengeance.
You got Jezra back and she was a shrill handful (although strangely
likeable) but glad to be freed even if it was by a different group of smelly,
ugly warriors. Officer Trodus and
his men took her safely back to Raus and you were hurried downriver by
newtlings to Lokazzi, then went down to the newtling
village near Festering Isle.
Caernak tried to sanctify a site at the village and create a
worshipping ceremony for Zola Fel on the holy day, but seemed tired and
distracted by your journeys and did not manage to connect with the myths of
Zola Fel for the ceremony.
Unhappy, you went south to the Isle to see if you could still complete
the quest. You piloted the boat
close to the Isle without much problem, and went ashore while Ssrussut scouted. When Srussut hovered over the cave on
the isle, you first thought that he might be indicating something, but then you
noticed that he wasn't moving or talking at all. You began throwing magics and moving
ahead to the isle. As you crossed
the bridge, the gorp geysers erupted in fountains of putrid acid and ooze, and
Ji warned you of an enemy in the water and five more in the cave. You all jumped in the water (most fully
armored but with Mobility, Float, Breathe Water, etc. on) and confronted two
dragonsnails and an ooze man who was casting wicked rune spells. Caernak's arm was withered away and his
right leg and left arm were switched places; Arcus had his leg eaten away by
ooze. And it got worse. Rup, then Arcus also froze in
place. When killed by Dorgon, one
dragonsnail became a ghost and attacked him (but wasn't too hard to beat with
Blu's help). Wound spirits appeared
and attacked wounded people; they were weak but distracting. The lagoon waters turned out to be
magically corrosive and poisonous to ingest, which made attacking the ooze-man
very hard for Ji, Caernak, and Kennakuna.
Caernak called on Zola Fel (using some odd heroquest power) to
purify the waters around him, buying enough time for Ji to escape to shore and
Kennakuna to flee back to cleaner waters.
On shore, Ji drew the attention of the freezing mind-force and four
scorpion men warriors who grabbed him.
Caernak noticed some odd magical link between the ooze-man and a black
void in the center of the lagoon, and exited to Kinope's Pool via River Horse,
later joined by Dorgon when he realized how nasty the lagoon waters were. Kennakuna bravely swam toward the void
with holy waters and was not seen again in this world. Caernak healed himself with Brighteye
and with Dorgon told Brighteye of the horrible events at the Isle. Brighteye called on the rivers to carry
the River Voices to his pool, which worked but left Ji stranded on shore and
Ssrussut frozen above the cave.
Ji valiantly fought off the scorpion men (enduring a barrage of
clubs and stings... ooh I forgot about the one sting that injured you, but it
wouldn't have killed you anyway; weak poison) who came very close to throwing
him into evil "quicksand", and scared them away after Arcus killed
one with an arrow and Ji maimed another, then Ji used the screams of the
drowned from Magasta's Wrath to convince them that they were way
outmatched. He also fled, because a
countermagic that Blu had protected him from the mind-freeze with was just
dispelled. Ji sorrowfully took the
lone boat upriver back to the village safely. Somehow, later Srussut got free too (the
chaos things were quite dumb and he is a fast flier).
Ouch. Back at the
Pool of Kinope, Brighteye heard more of the River Voices' tale of woe, and
showed you scars and told tales of similar misadventures he'd had when he was
just a minnow like you. The usual tough love from him. As you recovered there, Sa'ar sent a
message that Ji had survived (!) and was coming upriver to meet the party, and
Sa'ar expressed his sadness for the terrible turn of events. You waited a while for Ji, and Blu
mysteriously had to depart, nervously claiming that he should be
elsewhere. Ji (and Srussut!)
finally rendezvoused with you, bringing word that Ji had met with Raus and was
told that "Raus would love to speak with the River Voices in depth, but
now is not an opportune time, and Raus would bide his time with the 5 eyes
retribution [incidentally, they did not yet catch those tusk
riders]." "Indeed,"
Raus said, "the best action you could take now would be to hurry back to
the area of Pavis, but stay outside the walls. Good people don't want to be there right
now, but your presence would make a good difference. Big changes are coming."