Intense game last night!
You followed Punt through the night across the Rubble to the Central Bridge, where Ji sensed danger awaiting you so you rushed in with spells a-blazin. The foes ended up to be ghosts of a Lunar patrol that were trapped here by nomads and slaughtered during the fall of Pavis. They wanted to take you with them to the underworld, but you were uninterested and banished the lot.
Across the Rubble you continued, to the edge of the prairies of the Big Grazing, where Punt seemed to wonder where to go next. You thought over Sunbeam Seeker's last words and looked for hours amid the stones and brush of the grasslands for some willow trees or ruined towers. A traskar (frog spirit) named Crubnupp appeared and offered help to the River Voices, and said he might be able to help you find the willow trees which were near a pool. Eventually you did find the spot, after Elohwyn had a run-in with two gorp that were destroyed by her fireblade and some disrupts.
At the spot, however, was a lurking giant, the wild-eyed one from the giantlands who screamed "Pain! Bash brain!" and attacked Punt furiously. Punt was injured and Elohwyn nearly severed Pain's leg, then Punt smashed in the crazed giant's head and you did some healing. Then Dorgon found a rock with some odd runes (Disorder and 2 others), and realized the rock was part of a larger, very old ruin barely still poking above the ground. Two willow trees were entangled nearby, and the ruins formed the base of two towers with what might have been a wall attached to them. You searched for a while longer and didn't find much, then dawn finally came and Dark Season began.
Elohwyn tossed the golden wheel in the middle of the willow trees and it caught the first light of dawn, which sent it spinning and emitting slotted light about the ruins, which converged as a beam focused on a barren patch of ground across from the trees. You dug there and Punt uncovered a giant's thighbone marked with odd gouges and scratches, which sent him into a murderous fury with blood streaming from his eyes. Punt calmed down, sat over the spot and spoke in his giant-tongue for a few minutes in a trance, building from whispers to a roar of singsong rhyming syllables. The ground underneath him rumbled and opened up, revealing a tunnel that Punt straddled. Foul air blasted forth with an inhuman scream; something that had been bottled up for centuries was unleashed. And Dorgon was afraid of what it might be. But you followed Punt into the tunnel, which was cramped for him (about 4m diameter) and seemed fresh cut from the earth, severing roots and worms and other things in its path. The tunnel was lit by a sinister red glow that hung almost like a gas in the air, and tasted stale and rotten. Just inside, a hideous contraption that was part caterpillar, part armor plating, and part magical tentacles and huge cleavers assailed you. It began by paralyzing Elohwyn with magic, then badly injuring Punt, then covering the passage in webs which only Elohwyn's plea to Vinga for strength would remove, just in time for Ji and Punt to smash the crap out of the worm-thing once its head had been burned open by the blasting rod. Crubnupp did his last bits of healing and departed, wishing you luck inside this evil place.
Further down the odd tunnel you heard dripping water and whistling or giggling, and were ambushed by 14 bloated corpse-man-things that were spit out of the soil of the tunnel on top of you. They seemed to be huge corrupted bodies of former Pavisites, or Godlearners? It was a furious battle as you were outnumbered badly. Dorgon was killed after some brave attempts to heal him, and Groloday somehow, some way, managed to cut his left arm off with his poleaxe! But with the might of Punt, Ji, Elohwyn, Idylla and others, you smote the ghastly things down and healed as much as you could, then went down the tunnel more.
The tunnel ended at a weird cavern that seemed to be formed of melted waxy earth. The cave was large, with a rippling immaterial stream of reddish hazy fluid coming from the right wall (where a narrow tunnel led further around a corner) and crossing the cavern to the left wall, where it entered a strange crystalline wheel and caused it to turn. At the far end of the cave was a pile of huge bones in front of a shadowy crimson alcove, and beside the bones was a huge pile of timbers, sparkling metals, and a 2m diameter globe of quivering jelly-like translucent material, with a vague shadow of a humanoid inside. Punt rushed for the pile of bones, and you followed him but dark black bat-winged things with gripping tendril-like fingers descended on you from above silently and tried to fly off with you, but they were flimsy rubbery things easily struck down or wounded enough to drive them off, so you were only slightly delayed. In the meantime Punt had begun to grab bones and shove them in his big sack.
Then a piping sound came clearly from the dark alcove near Punt, and three spectral, skeletal jaws came at you, dripping ichor from their bodiless slavering jaws. They were vicious things that ate you from the insides, and could only be harmed by magical weapons. Elohwyn was almost killed, brought to 1 GHP (unconscious) without the ability to heal the internal damage, so Kytilla invoked Vinga's guided teleport to bring her mistress home to the fort (with the golden wheel, etc. -- note that Elohwyn dropped the blasting rod, and her sword with Kytilla in it, when she went unconscious! They are still there, then; I assume Idylla grabbed the sword). You destroyed the spiritual mouths, then Ji spotted a tentacled thing (much like things you've fought at Feroda and the Black) in the alcove, and you charged that. Weapons seemed to do little good, just sticking in its gooey hide, but then Punt smashed it to pulp. [Ji resisted a "Shapechange Human to Eel" spell!]
You searched the pile of junk, staying clear of the globe, until Punt recovered all the bones (now burdened with a huge skeleton), and you found amazing treasures with promise of many more inside. Punt said he would smash the crystal wheel if you would go find the Lost Child, maybe down the narrow passage where the "river of spirit blood" came out. He couldn't fit down that narrow tunnel (2m wide) so he asked the truthbonders to go. And that's where we'll pick up next time!
Oh, and here's what you've found from the "junk pile" (remains of a Cradle?):
An odd twisted pole of bronze with strange knobs and flanges, maybe a polearm or spear? 4 ENC
A mechanical clawed arm with a sucker at the base (shoulder). 5 ENC
An iron broadsword of dark metal with darkness, death, and fire runes on it. 1.5 ENC
A golden broadsword fashioned with a dragon's hilt, with fire/sky, truth, and fire/sky runes on it. 1.5ENC
A heavy belt of some kind of reptilian plated hide, 0.5 ENC
A smooth flat stone (like a skipping stone) about 15cm diameter, made of turquoise; Ji realized on holding it that it is a Truestone holding the full complement of a Zola Fel priest's magics: Divination, Summon Cult Spirit, Command Cult Spirit, Spellteaching, Worship Zola Fel, Sanctify, Breathe Air/Water 2, Float 2, Fireshield, Soul Sight, Purify Water 3, Command Undine 2. 2 ENC and must be held in both hands to use the magic inside.
A large marble bowl, 1 ENC, with water and harmony runes around the rim.