World of the Lost, Session Four: Derelicts of the Master

Baldwin & Dietrich were joined by Gerald, but unfortunately Everett as well as (the former player of) Heinrich were unavailable.

The Regal Elephant, that tavern where the four Germans had become entangled with diamond smugglers after a night of serious drinking, had become the adventurers home in Khirima. Baldwin and Dietrich had returned there after their introduction to the Edo faith, and were now meeting with Gerald in the courtyard to discuss what would be done next; now that they had the assistance of Odafin entrance to the temple was an imminent possibility. Alas, Everett could not join them as he was still recuperating from the pox given to him by the demon of filth, but Qian tended to him as he convalesced. There was yet another problem beyond this one, though: Gerald could not speak a word of German.

Dietrich had managed to learn a bit of Edo, and so asked the bartender if he knew anyone who could speak a bit of English. He suggested that Dietrich simply ask one of the merchants who frequented this place, but Dietrich (fully aware of the fact that they would be discussing illegal and forbidden acts in short order) balked at this suggestion. He asked if the bartender might instead know of a more “discreet” person, as it were. The bartender seemed to understand what he meant quite well, and after being given a most generous tip by Dietrich he sent a worker away to a much seedier establishment, the Scowling Jackal, to retrieve someone.

The man who came to them was called Adzua, and Gerald was overjoyed to meet him, quite thankful to meet a second English speaker in this foreign land. Adzua was quite friendly and very polite as well, but in that way that only people of dubious moral character always are. He seemed loyal enough after being presented with a significant amount of silver by Dietrich, in any case. He was also a member of the Edo faith, as evidenced by his facial scars. He had far less than Dietrich did, but this also provided a bond between the two. The adventurers were cautious when they discussed the temple, and spoke only in generalities to keep him unaware of the true meaning of their conversations, and their ultimate goals.

They were more straightforward when they began to examine the item retrieved by Dietrich from the Fountain of Ants; it radiated that subtle, silent, invisible strangeness that both Gerald and Dietrich recognized as a sign of magic. It was a wide, round band too was too large to be a bracelet, so perhaps it was an arm-band. It was made of smooth brown stone, it looked something like compressed and glassy mud. It was flawlessly smooth too, excluding several deep gouges along the outside of it that were of an unknown origin. The inside of it was a bit worn too, which indicated it was a piece of jewelry and not simply a decorative object.

After some hesitation Gerald was the first to try wearing it. He held the band, and lowered it cautiously onto his left arm, the whole of his hand fitting through the opening with ease. As soon as it had past the bottom of his hand it stopped, fitting perfectly snug around his wrist. All seemed well, despite the unexpected fit, and he after moved each of fingers he tried to remove the band. It it slipped off without issue, fitting around his opened hand without difficulty.

Dietrich then tried it on, and it fit well after also changing in size for him. He wanted to discern if it had powers beyond impossibly resizing itself, so he gazed around the courtyard while he wore it. His eyes began resting upon pebbles, blocks, and paving stones. The stones seemed strange to him after some time, appearing the way they would if he had not blinked for too long. In his mind the conceptual idea of “stone” had become something different now, when he looked at these things he saw something not hard and unchanging but something pliable, and responsive to a firm touch. He reached out and touched a small rock, and it felt like it was putty.

Adzua was quite astonished by all this, and asked where they had found such a wondrous bracelet. Dietrich explained that it had been retrieved from that floating fountain, the one that had been filled with ants. Adzua could hardly believe this; he was quite familiar with that place, and several others like it. The relics left by the Sodality of Conjurers were used as landmarks throughout Khirima by some, and Adzua had visited many of them. He began to tell Dietrich of the most notable of them.

There was the “ulo-elu mwute ifo” also called the Obelisk of Sorrows, a tower of bones that told only sad stories in which there was rumored to be a portal to a strange and happy land; one often visited by the Conjurers. There was a place called the Living Library (izubandu n'ọbá akwụkwọ), a round structure which contained a monstrous guardian beast that was bound by an unbreakable chain. This beast guarded a mystical key that was surrounded by a collection of living and breathing scrolls of knowledge. There was also too the Tomb of an Unknown Wizard (ili nke na-amaghị ama ọkachamara), a place which was contained within a sphere of water, and everything within that sphere was weightless. Dietrich bluntly asked Adzua which of these was closest, and so they went forth to the Obelisk of Sorrows that afternoon.

To reach the Obelisk of Sorrows they walked through the pleasant hum of commerce that defined the central area of the Trade Square to a much further edge of it, nearer to the inside of the city walls. It was more shabby and ill-maintained, it was an area behind several buildings and down an alley. A wide open area, very similar to the plaza where the Fountain of Ants was discovered. This was more of an empty lot with debris scattered about, and in the middle of it stood the structure called the Obelisk of Sorrows.

It stood about 30 feet tall, give or take, in the center of that lot. It was a four sided column which terminated in a point at the top. Two opposite sides of it had an archway leading through the interior, which was tall and wide enough for a several people to pass through quite easily. One could see to the other side with difficulty, because of thick puffs of smoke boiling throughout the interior of the structure.

It was made of small interlocking bones, almost weaved together like a basket. These could have been human or animal in origin, it was very hard to tell. In between the weaved bones there was an occasional lick of flame that threaded itself up along the the tower through the gaps, hard to avoid as they emerged seemingly from nowhere. It was unclear what this flame burned to produce the smoke inside, if this was indeed the source of smoke, and the bones seemed unharmed by it as well. There was faint whispering noise around the structure, constant but very quiet.

Having already interacted with a relic of the conjurers Dietrich encouraged the others to investigate the tower first. Adzua had no interest at all, and the others were less than enthusiastic, but ultimately  Gerald was bold enough to approach it. As he drew closer the whispering became clearer to him. It was in perfectly accented English. It was a true chorus of voices, but one of them was clear to his ears.

“A German man came to Khirima with his friends, they were seeking a fortune in  stolen silver. But, his friend summoned up a demon and it took him from this world. He is now lost forever.”

Gerald entered the confines of the obelisk, and saw that the smoke seemed to pour out from nowhere. The licking flames had not touched him, but the fumes stung his nose and eyes. He looked up, and he could not see the top of the obelisk through the haze. The walls were the same as the outside, just weaved bone, but looking down he saw a shimmering and indistinct point on the floor, and he walked towards it.

Baldwin and Dietrich, after quickly losing sight of Gerald in the smoke decided to approach the obelisk themselves. Baldwin went first, and after being nearly scorched by a passing flame overheard a perfectly accented german whisper relate a story to him. It was something about a man who had not been able to pay a proper amount of silver for the tribute, and so had taken on some kind of debt, and had now lost everything. A most unfortunate tale. As Baldwin stepped further into the smoke he saw a shimmering and indistinct point on the floor, and he walked towards it.

Dietrich came next. He instructed Adzua to watch for their return should they be gone for a long time, stopping by each day if he had to leave. Believing the sad stories to be a silly distraction, Dietrich simply walked straight into the fuming central chamber and towards the shimmering point in the floor shortly after Baldwin.

Each of them in turn fell through that point without warning into the void, reaching immense velocity as they plummeted through nothingness, losing all sensation of time and orientation in space.

Gerald was the first to land. Suddenly his fall had ceased, and he found himself standing upright on solid ground with a thin haze of acrid smoke dissipating into the air around him. That air around him seemed perfumed in a strange way; it was heady and sweet.

His eyes were facing towards the ground, and he saw the earth was pinkish, a dusty rose color, the thin blades of grass a silvery gray. The sky above was a very faint pea green, perhaps with wisps of electric blue, and there might have been either one or two suns hanging in the sky as well. Behind and beyond him was a vast landscape of vegetation as large as trees; but strange things that branched like coral, mossy-textured formations in a variety of light to dark purplish colors. The sounds all around him were strange trills and whistles, these were analogous to other sounds of other forests he had known, but none were the same as any he had heard before.

As his eyes leveled they faced towards a more distant point, and what seemed to be another Obelisk of Sorrows. This point was near the bottom of this place, which was revealed to be a large, bowl shaped sort of valley that he was along the side of. Near the obelisk was a squat and square tower of pale blue stone atop a smallish hill. Around this blue tower and hill was a landscape bereft of these purple trees but instead crowded with large growths. These resembled mushrooms, but were as large as the tree-like purple corals. They were speckled, streaked, and multicolored, and they surrounded the area of the tower and obelisk. There was also a series of what looked like very large pools or ponds, but each of them was riotous and bizarre color unlike any sort of water.

Gerald began to walk towards the obelisk, but then felt a strong blast of wind at his back after a few hundred paces, and when he turned saw that Baldwin had come along as well. The two were soon joined by Dietrich in a similar manner, and so they continued on together.

They began to see the occasional tiny mushroom poking out from the pink earth as marched onward, and Gerald gathered a few of the smaller fungi for later examination. These increased in size and frequency, while the purple corals became smaller and less frequent, until all around them was mushrooms. At this point they had also reached the area of the colorful ponds.

There were several distinct pools, but they were nearest one that was a whitish color, and Dietrich approached it with his waterflask drawn, then reconsidered taking a sample upon examining it.  It was fuzzy, like a molded piece of bread. They avoided this one, and instead approached a violet colored pool, with a smaller fuschia colored one beyond it. As they approached the violet pool they felt the tickling of a curious urge to go and see that white pool, the fuzzy mold one, once again.

Baldwin and Dietrich both realized this was folly; clearly some sort of unnatural persuasion. Gerald was clearly being influenced by it, and was stumbling back towards it. All that stopped him was a solid slap from Baldwin across the face, which brought him to his senses. Suddenly their minds began to be filled with a horrendous squealing emanating from the purple pool, like panes of glass being rubbed along gravel and stone, or an enraged kettle, and they fled to the next pool nearby to avoid it.

This banks of this pool of deep- verdant green sludge were covered in a thick layer of frost and ice. A thick chilly mist filled the air, and three posts stood nearby, with chains leading from them into the strange liquid. These lead into the slime. Two of these chains were attached to small casks, like one would use for beer or ale. Baldwin pulled out one of these casks, and found a small spigot on the front of it. He opened it, and a pinkish liquid fizzed out into the dirt. A floral, fruity, beer-like aroma filled his nostrils. While it was clear that this strange land had no laws like the Reinheitsgebot of Germany, Baldwin still decided to keep the barrel for a later tasting.

Dietrich, meanwhile, approached the bright orange pool beyond the green one. It lapped gently along the shores, as if there were a gentle breeze stroking its surface. He grabbed a small stone, and in a boyish fashion tried to skip it across the pools surface. It smacked the surface once, and is it coasted through the air afterward fizzled into nothing. Dietrich then grabbed a small, stick-like piece of brush and hurled it in, and this dissolved into its own reflection. Dietrich then walked to the green pool, and pulled out the second cask of fermented drink. He lugged this to the side of the orange pool and hurled it in, and as it hit the center of the mass its bottom did disintegrate and cause the liquids within to froth and vanish as the orange consumed it all effortlessly.

While all this transpired Gerald had approached the vibrant crimson pool, a shiny puddle of semi-liquid muck. He saw several orbs sitting along the edge of this pool, and gathered them up to examine them. One of these orbs contained what looked like only water, but had an odor coming off it just like the ripest sourdough bread. The next resembled water as well, but very dirty water with small flecks of corruption drifting about inside. It smelled like mold, or decay. The last one looked like fine black sand or gravel, and reeked of halitosis. After showing these to Dietrich, Gerald hurled the black-gravel orb into the orange pool, where it exploded into nothingness as it touched the surface and splattered.

He then tasted the sourdough-smelling water, by sucking a bit out of the transparent bubble, and found that the liquid inside it somehow transported itself out of his mouth and somehow back into the sphere. During this commotion Baldwin gazed up towards the tower and saw the outline of a figure against the green-colored sky, one who had clearly been observing them this whole time.

After becoming aware of this they thought they should now approach the tower, and perhaps speak to this figure. They ascended the hill, and saw before only a smooth and pale wall of blue stone with a ladder leaning against it. Dietrich began to imbue himself with the mystical powers of the bracelet, and started pulling out great handfuls of the stone wall next to the ladder like clumps of muddy oatmeal.

Baldwin instead climbed the ladder to the small balcony above, and saw that there was another ladder, leading downwards into the building. He lowered his head down into it, and as his eyes adjusted to the ambient light he heard several guttural, grunting vocalizations. His eyes fell onto 3 massive man-like forms, pale and malformed, completely covered in fungal-looking lumps and swellings. They rose up to their full height and grunted, pointing at him angrily while they lumbered forward.

Dietrich finally ripped a hole into the wall, and as he shook the stone from his hand saw a group of three enormous and malformed men, approaching Baldwin while pointing at him.

Gerald, who was watching the landscape beyond the pits, became quite alarmed when he saw figures the size of very small men, or large children, come into view. Their skin was a sickly orange, and their hair an ugly yellow-green. Behind them was a small contingent of tremendous men, or things like men. They were pale and malformed, and also completely covered in fungal-looking lumps and swellings.

The two orange things ran up to Gerald then, the lumpy men lumbering behind them. They began gibbering at him in shrill and obnoxious voices, in English thankfully, with each speaker alternating to finish the others sentences at various intervals. They were both remarkably ugly too, but not as malformed as the other creatures. Their faces seemed smeared, in a way.

“Interlopers! What brings you here? And why?” they sneered.

Gerald spoke quickly, explaining that they were only investigating the place, and meant no harm. He offered his hand to the small men.

“I am Gerard, and I am Torious” said each of them. Gerald was quite astonished at this, and introduced himself with enthusiasm. “Why, my name is Gerald!” he said.

“Yes, that is...a name.” Said one of them in response. Gerald questioned who they were, and they responded vehemently.

“We are the guardians of the great wonders of Vilnad the Master, gaze upon them in their glory!” One of them gestured towards the slime in a grandious fashion, but then they then noticed the damage done to the architecture by Dietrich. “WHY DO YOU DESTROY THE WONDERS OF GREAT VILNAD!?”

Gerald spoke again, trying to convey that this was all clearly a misunderstanding. They were only investigating, and had discovered many fascinating things. He then showed the the orb of dirty water, as an example.

“THEIF! You STEAL from VILNAD!” they cried out, enraged, but Gerald quickly apologized to them, and handed back the orb. This seemed to calm them only somewhat, but when he showed them the small mushrooms he had gathered earlier they took on a different demeanor entirely after a short pause.

“Oh, oh. You have touched the mushrooms? Then surely you are infected yes? You have been infected! And we must cure you! We will help you with your infection!” Each of them took him by the hand, and began walking him towards the slime pits. “We must anoint you with the healing slime to cure you of this infection, it is what we must do for you or else you will be consumed!”

Unable to precisely understand what the tiny and hideous orange men were saying, but fully aware that no good could come of them both walking his companion Gerald towards the slime, the acidic muck of the orange pit in particular, Dietrich ran towards them as they reached the banks. He grabbed one, Gerard to be precise, by the seat of his pants and the collar of his shirt. He transferred the momentum of his brief sprint into a forward heave-ho toss, which sent Gerard sailing through the air, wailing and flailing his limbs. He collided with the orange slime and began to deform and melt instantaneously, his entire body dissolving into nothing but the vague memory of former presence in only seconds.

Torious screamed out in rage and sadness as he ran to the edge of the pool, wailing at his loss and falling to his knees. “You have killed Gerard!” He moaned. He then reached from something attached to his belt, which he then threw towards Gerald and Dietrich. This projectile exploded at Gerald's feet, and although it flung out a great cloud of debris and noxious vapor he was able to shield his eyes from harm, allowing him to react to this assault, and follow up more properly to Dietrich's’ tossing of the dwarf by unleashing some hostile magic.

With a spirit of bile and invective Gerald spat out the forbidden words needed to Summon a creature from beyond reality and bend it to his will, so that he might enact vengeance on the grieving Torious. At his feet a deep marble pool of thick and unctuous blood bubbled out from a central point and formed into a wide diameter. Rising from this pool there emerged a tremendous dripping column of crystalline branches and fluorescent pseudopods; these countless appendages functioned as wriggling probosces, squirming legs, and also as the bearers of sticky, barbed claws that endlessly chattered in the air.

It rose up and out, gently arched across the greenish sky as it extended itself into this world and prepared to express its own will, not Geralds. For alas, Gerald had called forth a being more vast and terrible than he could possibly have any influence over, and this unknowable and nameless thing demanded from him an immediate sacrifice. He chose one.

Suddenly the curvature of the emerging column brought it down towards the balcony, and directly onto Baldwin's’ head. He was gouged by its crystalline thorns and sliced by its relentlessly gnashing pincers as it wrapped itself around him. He was pulled up into the air screaming and then down back into the blood-pool to the Hell-Dimensions. After the hateful column of flesh and light submerged into the pool it then drained away at Gerald's feet, leaving not a trace of it nor Baldwin in this or any other universe.

Torious fell to the ground terrified but unharmed. Unshaken by the appearance of a mere uncontrolled demonic entity Dietrich strode up to the squealing, apoplectic halfling and raised his boot to push him into the awaiting solvent. He kicked too high leaving his leg extended over Torious’ head. Torious then grasped for the hovering leg, but reached with such excess and ineptness that he flung himself instead towards the slime, rotating to land face first thereby dissolving his entire cranium into vapor before he was able to even begin to scream.

---

Edoni knew he would be executed on the spot if he were discovered to be a Necromancer in Khirima, but nonetheless he was still drawn there. Not only was he tempted by the rumors of the silver tribute, and notions of stealing it for himself, but also by tales of the Sodality of Conjurers and their mysterious treasures. He now found himself before one of those strange monoliths: The Obelisk of Sorrows.

As Edoni analyzed the skeletal structure he saw there was another man nearby, waiting in this otherwise empty plaza. Edoni spoke to him. He was called Adzua, and he told Edoni of these other men inside the obelisk now. They were outsiders who had hired him as a translator, and they were a group of Europeans. Edoni thought these men might be worthy allies, for who else would meddle with a relic of the lost Sodality but the bravest of souls? He stepped into the smoke surrounded by mournful whispers seeking them out, and soon found himself falling, but once in the strange valley he approached the blue tower in search of them still.

---

The malformed men stood by motionless as the watcher on the roof finally spoke. He shouted out. “You killed my brothers!”. After a pause he added, at a lower volume “I hated my brothers. Kill the rest, if you want to.” His words were listless, bitter-pitiful.

Gerald had a realization, and he drank down the sour-bread-water. The pungent taste of it filled his mouth completely, and just as his gaze focused on the roofs edge he realized that he was in fact there already on that roof and not on the ground below. He could now see exactly who this observer was.

The hundreds of eyes of the watcher all set their gaze upon him, dozens of narrowing pupils focused their gaze. It was a small creature like Gerard and Torious were, but its whole body was an agglomeration of countless functioning eyeballs, all of various sizes and colors. It spoke. Gerald asked what it was called, and why it was here.

“I am called Six-Eyes. I have many more eyes now, and I live here with my awful siblings. My sister is Hakana, and there is Mamsel, and Toxis, and Melinda too! We are the guardians of the wonders of Vilnid, but I have been abandoned by them, cast off because of my ruined body. Vilnad changed us all, and I once lived in pleasure and bliss with them, but not now, so I hate them now!” Six-Eyes shook with disdain.

Gerald questioned him further about Vilnid, and the tower, the spheres, and the obelisk.

“Those are the great works of Vilnid! Great Vilnid who left us, many years ago he left us. Beautiful in his pale blue armor, we think he left through the tower, but we do not know. We only know that we must protect his great works, but I can do this without my wretched siblings, so I am happy to see them die. The balls? Those are the fruit of the pits, the wondrous magics of the pits!”

After some time in conversation the taste of bread ceased to linger in Geralds’ mouth, and he found himself again on the ground below the tower. Six-Eyes, able to visually track his movements in all directions, continued the conversation by shouting.

“My hated siblings are in this tower, and you may do what you wish to them. I will not stop you!” He motioned to the still observing pale men, who lumbered away from the tower with some unknown purpose, as if he had commanded them silently with some detail. He returned to the middle of his balcony then, leaving the adventurers to their devices.

Dietrich saw the necromancer Edoni approach the tower then, and in a moment of wordless understanding brought about by their shared circumstances they realized likely had mutual interests. They attempted to communicate verbally, but he unfortunately spoke no German. They all decided to rest themselves a bit before entering the tower, and proceeding to rid it of any siblings.

Edoni was disturbed from this rest, and peered around the corner of the tower to find the source of the noise that awoke him. There stood along the other side of the tower three  multicolored  shimmering frogs the size of ponies, with an orange skinned creature seated upon the back of one. She waved about a strangely curved bone or stick, which was covered in odd runes and markings. She giggled madly, and as she babbled the three frogs all leapt into the distance, and after several great jumps were gone. One of Six-Eyes siblings, it seemed.

Dietrich, upon waking and consulting his spellbook, instructed his companions, as well as Six-Eyes, to move some distance away from the tower. He was restricted to only simple words and gestures due to the barriers of language, but was eventually successful.

Dietrich then used the spell Rockspeech to make a small request of the nearby hill which the tower sat upon. He asked it to toss off those things that lived upon it, or to be more precise, the thing which was built on its’ back. The hill did not understand the meaning of this at first, but found the task quite simple once it was comprehended. Unfortunately, as it began to do as Dietrich wished the ground itself began to tremble and convulse, the great mushrooms shaking as the earth shuddered.

The tower began to tilt as the hill rose ever so slightly, then it trembled as the hill sloped, and then it began to collapse as the hill rose more acutely. A great cloud of rolling pink dust kicked up as it slid and tumbled off towards the pits. There was the sound of collapsing stone, and hard things hitting liquids, and a strange chorus of screams within the disaster, and then silence. The ensuing dust cloud obscured their vision for some time, but once it had settled it could be seen that the formerly great tower had been shrugged off into the icy green pit of slime. Whatever had once been living inside it was now smashed, and frozen, and dead.

Six-Eyes emerged from the nearby forest both uneasy about the violation of the tower of Vilnad and overcome with morbid satisfaction at the elimination of his siblings that had dwelled within.

Dietrich still maintained some influence over the hill, and so instructed it to hollow itself as best it could, so that Six-Eyes might have a new dwelling. He directed this with detail once an entrance was formed, and he walked into the new interior.

While this transpired Gerald and Edoni examined the pits once again, to see if anything else might be found in them. The red pit offered them a bounty of orbs (five, to be exact) which they would examine later, though they noticed right away that one of them smelled of peaches, and was a bright orange color. They then carefully approached the white mold pit which had two at arm's length, Gerald tried to pluck one from the muck. A greyish cloud burped out after he pulled it though, and only at the last moment did Edoni manage to pull Gerald back while he stilled his breath and avoided inhaling it. They grabbed the second one that was there as well, Gerald with his breath held safely.

They then carelessly walked past the purple pit once again. Edoni was able to ignore its magical suggestion to return to that white pit, but Gerald was overcome once again. He began to march towards it, but Edoni grabbed him by the shoulders and held him back. The pit, supremely frustrated, unleashed the hideous squeal once again. Edoni was mostly unharmed, but Gerald was thoroughly ravaged by it and fell unconscious at once. Helpless and bleeding from the ears, nose, teeth, and eyes,  he was dragged by Edoni to the safety of the newly formed cave to recuperate, only a hair's breadth from the afterlife. They all rested once again, unsure of how much time could be passing due to the strange patterns of light in the sky.

Edoni stepped outside to see what other wonders might be found, but he found himself suddenly confronted by three familiar shimmering frogs the size of ponies, one of which had a wild-eyed orange skinned woman on the back of it. Her pupils were like enormous black soins, and she swung the curved bone-stick at his face while shouting incoherently about his being a Wicked-Demon-Monster-Brain, or something like that.

Edoni promptly drew his flintlock and shot at them, but the shot went astray. The frogs all nipped at him, but only one made contact. It also slathered him with a deliriant of some kind, but he resisted being deranged by its effects. Edoni then unleashed his dreaded Maleficence: an urchin-like array of white shafts of piercing magical force that emerged from places unknown and cut through the bodies of those three frogs and the inebriated orange woman atop the center pone. In a chorus of wailing and ribbiting they bound away, half-killed.

Gerald had been drawn out by the sound of gunfire, and just before the central frog had receded from view was able to provide a follow-up: through the magic of Bloodlust the central frog was transformed into a ravenous fanged beast. It bucked off its rider, and then ripped her to shreds with its freshly grown teeth. After half of her had been devoured or shredded it then leapt away in search of its former kin, or other prey, before returning to its former form in due time. Edoni approached the remainders of her body, and was quite pleased to finally take the strange bone-wand for himself.

Six-Eyes had seen it all occur. “That was Hakana you have killed. Now they are all dead. I am alone...I almost miss them.” Edoni spoke with Six-Eyes after they had gathered their wits once again: What was this strange wand? Six-Eyes was not sure, as Hakana was made quite insane from riding the hallucinogenic frog for so long.

All he knew was that it was called the Wand of Atrocity, and had a terrible power of some kind or another. After this conversation both Edoni and Dietrich had decided they had had enough of this strange land, and would now head to the Obelisk to at last depart from it. They came upon it and saw it was indeed the same as the one in Khirima; all weaved bone and winding fire. As Edoni entered the Obelisk, carefully avoiding the flames, he listened to the sad tale the whispers told him. The Igbo language is filled with proverbs and idioms, and this tower of bones spoke perfect Igbo.

“It is said that sometimes the wind itself is the hammer which strikes you down: A very cautious man once came to Khirima in search of silver, but a new friend he made was an impulsive one. His friend summoned up a dreadful demon; and it dragged the man into hell for all eternity.”

Gerald, meanwhile, was quite livid about the purple pit which had shredded his brain with psychic screaming. He asked the somber Six-Eyes how it might be destroyed, but Six-Eyes was appalled by this question. None could destroy the pits! He would destroy the destroyer first, surely, for he was the protector of the wonders of Vilnad! With his siblings dead it seemed that he had become newly focused on this old task.

Gerald then decided to leave as well, but at the smoky gates of the obelisk he performed a spiteful act before he bid the place farewell: he uttered the incantations for a Summoning. As the final syllables did leave his lips he saw a shape like a tremendous antler appear in the corner of his eyesight. It was an impossibly beautiful thing: it was made of the stuff of dreams, a sparkling prism of infinite complexity. Through it one saw only derangement and irrationality, impossible situations and scenery more unreal than even this place offered. It radiated malignant aggression and delirium, and Gerald had only managed to bring it forth like a rabid dog without any leash or harness. A moment before it would have skewered him he flung himself into the smoke, leaving it behind for Six-Eyes.

The three emerged from the smoke filled tower after being flung instead upwards at a great velocity, appearing somewhat disheveled and delirious and stinking of mysterious herbs and with their boots and coats covered in a fine pinkish dust. Adzua approached them, quite thoroughly confused, and asked “How were the two of you inside of that smoke for so long? Did you find anything? It was almost a half hour you were in there! And you, Edoni, are already finished? You have just arrived! And where is Baldwin?”

They gave only vague answers, and proposed a visit to the Library. Most of this session came from "The Molds & Slimes of Vilnid" by Dyson Logos, published in Narcosa. Goblin Punch provided this perfect and wonderful list of liquids.

World of the Lost, Session Three: A Camp-Fire Story

With the players for neither Everett, Gerald nor (formerly) Heinrich able to make the 3rd session the exploits of Dietrich & Baldwin were our focus.

That morning it was decided the Adventurers would head towards Akabo with the men working for Odafin, rather than try and brave the ants in the jungle they had come from before.

Dietrich felt as if the inexplicable idea that was squirming in his mind had somehow grown over the prior days, and displaced yet more of his consciousness. His body had become somewhat less graceful than it was before, but he also felt somehow more capable of moving with stealth and subtlety, though he had never had much knowledge of such a thing before. Curious.

In any event, Baldwin & Dietrich proposed a quick detour before they departed for Akabo: since the Sorcerers were thought to be nearby they thought they might try and find them.

The men at camp agreed to this, as they thought Baldwin & Dietrich would be quite capable of defeating the Sorcerers if they discovered them. Dietrich in particular had much impressed them with his arrival in the camp on a moving hillside, as they had never encountered a Magic-User before. They spoke with him of how such things were quite rare in Khirima, Magic was not often seen besides the strange remains of the long lost Sodality of Conjurers that were scattered throughout the city. Dietrich took note of this with great interest.

Everett, Qian, and Gerald had no objections to this plan, but could not come with them. The soothing spell Dietrich had performed on Everett, the one he learned back at the temple with the putrid demon, had waned: Everett was now once again being ravaged by a fever, and so had to remain at rest in camp. Qian had seemingly recovered from all illness, but he too remained at the tent with Everett as no one else could speak Chinese. Gerald was also feeling a bit drained, and so would remain there as well.

So only the two of them headed towards the jungle in pursuit of sorcerers, with Dietrich pausing a half-mile or so from the treeline while Baldwin continued on.

Baldwin, being well versed in woodland navigation, soon discovered a campsite. 3 tents with a good sized fire, placed near a rocky outcropping surrounded by trees. No one occupied them now, but it easily could be as many as a half-dozen men.

He climbed a tree beyond the outcropping, and situated himself among the lower canopy branches, keeping him well-concealed from view while allowing him to observe the camp. He waited to see who would return, and what their purpose was.

Meanwhile, outside the jungle, Dietrich was attempting to capture some of the local fauna so that he might Summon a great demon with a blood sacrifice. He prepared a ritual circle and then placed a bit of food inside it to act as bait. He then waited nearby, and in due time a large rat-looking creature emerged from the vegetation, and made its’ way towards the towards the trap. Upon reaching it the rat sniffed at it, and began to nibble.

At that moment Dietrich leaped upon it and tried to wrestle the creature into submission. The rat-ting bit at him to no avail, but then wriggled from his grasp. Dietrich gave chase, grasping at it while the rat snapped at him in terror. He took hold for only a brief moment before it once again slipped loose, and finally bit him too, before scrambling into the undergrowth. Bleeding but undeterred, Dietrich walked back to place a few fresh scraps in the circle and try again.

Baldwin, hidden within the tree, indeed saw six men return to the camp. One of them wore a traveling cloak and large, rather fancy sort of hat. The next was clearly a woodsman like himself, and the remaining four the standard sort of mercenary-looking types with swords and leathers.

They gathered about the fire, boiled some meat into a simple stew, played some games of chance, and discussed what must have been their intentions. All of this was in French though, a language Baldwin could not speak a single word of. Despite this setback, Baldwin continued to observe them. After a time the woodsman and the hat-wearer went into one tent together, and when the two of them emerged again the woodsman had been adorned with a strange symbol of some kind on his face.

The woodsman then walked in a circle, but for every step he took he seemed to cover two strides of distance. He circled around the campsite like a skittering insect and then dashed away from the camp into the jungle, in the direction of the hill and campsite the Adventurers were staying at. This very much impressed the mercenaries, and the man with the hat, now revealed to be a Sorcerer, returned to his tent while the armed men remained outside.

After a second Cane Rat approached the freshly baited circle Dietrich lunged at it as he did with the first one, this time choosing to instead swing at it with the butt of his dagger so that he might batter it unconcious. A brief fracas ensued, but it also fled from him. Dietrich followed, his leathers repelling many defensive bites as he tried to clobber the squealing rodent into submission. He nearly lost this rat as well, but after one solid blow was able to drag the thing back, and bind it to a tree near the circle while it was stunned and unresistant.

He baited the trap once again, as this one rat was not enough. He did not have to wait long: attracted by the scent of prey a long serpent, light green and lined with black scales, glided towards the helpless rodent. As sacrifices worked only when living, and desiring to neither lose his hard earned rat or his own life to unknown poisons, Dietrich drew his flintlock and blasted the serpent as drew closer, the bullet tearing the thing in half. He gathered the two portions of snake once they stopped writhing and placed them within his circle, improving the bait significantly. He reloaded his flintlock, and waited once again.

Baldwin could see that he was outnumbered, and facing a practitioner of the dark arts who wielded quite startling powers. In addition, the woodsman had returned after having clearly done some sort of reconnaissance in his ensorceled state. Baldwin descended the tree, and then circled around the camp, and then crept up behind another large tree between two of the tents; it was only a few yards from the roaring campfire.

The sorcerer was in the tent to his right, and the remaining men were all standing about the fire, quite near it, unaware of any danger. Baldwin pulled a bottle of lantern oil from his pouch. In one motion he stepped out from behind the tree and hurled it towards the open flames, then sprinted back into the jungle before it had hit the ground. The bottle shattered as it hit a large log in the center of the blaze and the oil ignited, setting the sorcerer's tent ablaze and scorching all the gathered men nearby. They scattered in confusion and panic, never laying an eye on Baldwin as he vanished into the trees.

The fresh, bloody meat Dietrich had acquired attracted a prize catch to: a dog-like hyena. It was ware of Dietrich and a cautious beast; it kept a good distance while eyeing the dead flesh hungrily. Dietrich hurled a chunk of the meat towards it, to tempt it closer. It approached, nervously, and gobbled it up. Dietrich then hurled another length of snake, and after a tense moment it approached this too, and ate it. It was much closer now.

Dietrich then charged it and swung, attempting to subdue it. The hyena snarled and snapped at him, narrowly missing his arm with its snake-bloodied jaws and filthy teeth. Reconsidering his approach, Dietrich drew both of his two pistols then fired them both. One bullet struck, and greatly wounded the hyena, but instead of demoralizing the creature it was sent into a rage. It lunged at him; Dietrich dropped his pistols, drew his dagger, and began stabbing.

After narrowly avoiding a series of bites he stuck the dagger deep into it, and after it yelped in agony and scampered away Dietrich followed it in merciless pursuit. The two went at each other, both missing as they stumbled closer to the jungle. The Hyena began to outpace Dietrich despite its injuries; he tried to throw his dagger in one last attempt to end the wretched thing, but his blade landed in the dirt and he abandoned the cause.

Emerging from the deep jungle, invigorated by arson, Baldwin saw an easy kill limping just a couple hundred some-odd feet away from him: a wounded hyena. Drawing back an arrow he lobbed off a shot, and narrowly missed. He sent another. This one went high and wide, off into the trees. He ran after it, and again had an infuriatingly narrow miss. As it began to enter the thicker jungle Baldwin ran, stopped, and drew one final arrow.. It sailed forth and struck true: the hyena fell dead at last. Baldwin gathered up what arrows he could find, slung the carcass over his shoulders, and marched back now doubly victorious to where he had left Dietrich.

Back at the ritual circle, with live rat and dead hyena nearby, the two discussed what had been seen in the jungle. A plan was formulated. Dietrich would make use of his sacrifice, and bring forth demonic assistance. Baldwin, a bit skittish around these dark arts placed a wide distance between the circle and himself and watched.

Upon completion of the incantations and presentation of the sacrificial cane rat there emerged from the bloody circle a most malevolent force embodied by a cone shaped cephalopod-like head. It almost glowed with a radiant, eerie blue color. There were 4 sphincter-like mouths in a diamond shape, out of which emerged a chorus of horrid scream-roars. It excreted a miasma of spores, and these seemed to wither and poison the things it fell upon; leaves crumbled around it. Below the head were a plethora of immaterial yet fully comprehensible and utterly obscene appendages, which it rested upon and used as a means of movement.

Dietrich realized he lacked any sort of magical influence upon the creature despite all his preparations, and that it was uncomfortable in this world and hatefully furious about being brought into it. Dietrich then sprinted for his very life and soul in the general direction of the sorcerers camp, while the demon rushed after him intending to punish him lethally for what he had done. Baldwin trailed from a distance.

At the campsite the badly singed and dispirited mercenaries quietly gathered around a newly built campfire, and the sorcerer fumed over the damage done to his possessions. He had escaped his tent alive, but much had been lost, and the burns were painful for all.

Perhaps while wondering aloud what could possibly be more unbearable than this, he was interrupted by a sprinting German who blurted out a short greeting as he flung himself over the campfire, stumbling a bit when he landed beyond it.

Before any could react to this a neon-blue cone shaped squid of sorts carried aloft by an aural embodiment of obscenity ripped through the melting foliage and screamed at them in four distinctly inhuman voices and prepared to annihilate them. His wits still about him, the sorcerer acted quickly, and unleashed a magical assault. A jagged iridescent cobweb spit out from the center of his forehead to enmesh the roaring fiend, crackling all over it's visible body and causing it great distress. It reared back screaming and startled by the pain.

Baldwin had ascended the rocky outcropping just behind the demon moments before, and just as the glowing energies dissipated he unleashed an arrow that pierced the throat of the sorcerer who fell dead before the now twice-enraged monstrosity from beyond.

The four mercenaries drew their blades and ran towards it, screaming half to embolden themselves and half out of fear. At this moment Dietrich pulled each of his two flintlocks, and fired upon the two nearest ones. One of them fell dead from the wound, while the other but was surely quite hurt by it but did not fall.

The two remaining mercenaries swung fruitlessly at the horrid thing, their pitiful swords unable to pierce its partially unreal, semi-magnetic body-form. Baldwin quickly circled around the burnt wreckage of the camp, and facing the back of their woodsman sent an arrow towards him as he readied his own bow. Weakened by his burns, he was killed with a single shot.

The mercenaries screamed again, but only in terror, as the cerulean nightmare rained down a cloud of malignant dust on them: microscopic particles that would soon ravage and destroy their earthly bodies like salt does slugs. Not wanting to deprive the demon of all things besides themselves to kill, Baldwin and Deitrich both ran into the jungle at top speed, to wait until the creature was expelled from our reality.

When they returned it was a grisly scene searching around those uniquely mangled and destroyed bodies impaled by unknown appendages and partially dissolved by unearthly dust. They gathered a half-burnt spell-book, several swords, and a set of cooking pots from the dead, as well as the woodsman's longbow. In addition, they plucked a skull-topped signet ring from the sorcerer as proof of his death, as well as his pipe to keep as a souvenir. In his pocket was a map too, with Akabo smeared with a black spot, and a faraway side of the plateau marked with a simple X. They returned to camp victorious, and prepared for Akabo.

The next morning Dietrich persuaded them all that travel by hill was both safe and reliable, and that there was no need for them to arduously hack through the trees or even trudge through the jungle. They all ascended it, and with Dietrich's’ persuasion it carried them about a dozen miles. After they descended the hill to prepare for nightfall they saw a human figure shuffling through the vegetation towards them. It was a man, a priest, from Akabo.

His name was Esige, and he was bleeding, wounded terribly, sweating and near-hysterics. Akabo, he said, was burning. It was destroyed, they had destroyed it, and he had only escaped them because of the soldiers, who certainly died defending him, and even then he nearly died anyway. The dead walked in Akabo, he said. Necromancers had come, and cursed the place. It burned. They bound his wounds, and gave him water and food, but even then he still raved: they were following him here, they must run. Night was falling fast, and they would not be able to go far.

They moved away from their loyal hillside to set up camp near the base of the plateau, so as to limit the direction from where trouble might emerge if it did. They strung their various lengths of rope between the trees some distance from them, and along those they hung their scavenged blades and cookware to create a set of crude chimes, to act as alarms. They then rested as best they could, while all took turns patrolling in pairs, and listening.

A pair of soldiers, breathless, woke them an hour or so before sunrise. Something was coming, through the jungle. They acted fast, grabbed all they could, and with two of them carrying the wounded Esige they all ran through the brush, back towards their hill so Dietrich might provoke it to carry them once more. Looking over their shoulders as they fled they saw the shuffling, gruesome figures pour into where they had set camp, dimly lit by their abandoned fire. They ran until exhaustion, stopping only when they had reached the top of the hill and Dietrich let loose the spell. The hill gladly obliged, slowly groaning about the foul corruption around it as it glided away, swarms of birds rising from the trees in the morning light.

Unfortunately the spell did not last very long;the hill came to rest just a few miles away. This was at least somewhat near their previous path gouged by it, and though it was now filled with rainwater they were able to walk along its edge and use it to guide them back to Khirima.


When they arrived Esige was most thankful for being saved by them, and he repaid this kindness by telling them where he had seen the very Necromancer who had cursed Akabo go to, and how she carried a strange dagger, and great sums of money as well. He left them then to go back to his family, but they encouraged him to speak with the head of the guards as well.

After this they went to Odafin. They entered his chambers at the Guild of Merchants with their unexpected companions, who still carried the snake they had delivered to them. Odafin was confused by all this, but quite pleased to see them all nonetheless.

When they told him of Akabo though, and how it had fallen to the dead, his mood clearly changed. He sent out all his men, so that he could be alone in his chambers with the Adventurers. He then cursed the name of Ishola, the King, and he spat out that he had failed the kingdom, and was an incompetent fool unfit to be a ruler. He said Ishola cared not for the people, only his foolish superstitions like the damn Temple, and its’ wasteful tribute.

Odafin told them that Ishola had refused to send aid to Akabo despite the rumors of sorcery, so preoccupied was he with his silver. Now the dead walked the earth, and there were rumors of even the hills walking the earth, and hordes of baboon torn to shreds in the night, with perhaps even more horrors to come! He told the adventurers that they may speak freely: of why they came, and what they thought of Ishola, and why they had come to Khirima at all. Was it for the Temple?

Indeed it was, they said. For various reasons, they came for the Temple. They asked if any others had gone before them. Odafin said yes, some had, certainly. He said that many had surely tried, but none had returned, at least that he knew of. He had not seen the Temple himself either, but he knew the entrance. He would now take them there though, when they were ready, and that they could do what they wished to that foolish temple once they arrived.

They wished to make preparations first, and Dietrich also mentioned his interest in the relics of the sorcery throughout Khiria. Odafin said there was such a thing nearby; The Fountain, it was called. He gave simple directions to it, and said it would be obvious to them once they had found it.

Wandering through noble square they came to a wide open plaza, clear except for a few shade trees. In the middle of this plaza was indeed a fountain. It floated high in the air, with a ring at each compass-point around the circumference. Each of these ropes trailed down to the earth, stopping just before touching the dirt. Baldwin stood off to the side, and observed, while Dietrich approached it.

Dietrich ascended the rope with little trouble, reaching the rim of the fountain after climbing about 100 feet into the sky. He stood carefully on the edge, as it was only a foot or so wide. The fountain was made of a smooth white stone, and was about 20 feet across. In the center of it a tapered column topped with a single stylized depiction of a hand. The five fingers of this hand were pointing upward, with the palm facing forward. Each finger was almost the full length, except for the final inch, which was a large ant that spat out of each and fell into the pool of them below, creating a churning, writhing mass of gnashing pincers and crawlings legs at least a half-yard deep. Further down the base of this ant-spewing column rested a thick rounded band, a sort of armlet or some other accessory made out of polished brown stone.

Dietrich contemplated the situation before him, and then proceeded to cast the Ravening spell. The magic he brought forth seized control of 8 of the already sizeable ants, and sent them into a cannibalistic frenzy. After devouring many of their fellows 5 of these ants were miraculously doubled in size, to two horrid inches with proportional pincers. 3 of them continued to enlarge, and the unnatural growth left them larger than a guard dog. Made utterly insane by this transformation as well, they proceeded to attack the sea of ants still around them.

Baldwin, standing below, was pelted with these ants, along with several onlookers. They all took to stamping the ants and placing some distance, but none fled too far as this was quite the sight to be seen.

One of the dog-sized ants, whilst tearing its smaller brothers into pieces, flung itself off the edge of the fountain and fell to the earth below; its’ carapace shattering and innard splattering into the dust, with noxious chunks and gibbets flying through the air. Dietrich at this time shimmied down the rope, and stepped back, lest the ants notice him too. Shortly thereafter the two final beast-ants, locked in mortal combat, also plummeted into terra firma and were reduced to a dirty paste. Satisfied with this result, Dietrich then ascended the rope back up to the fountain's edge.

There were many fewer ants now, but still some. There was only a sparse layer along the base of the fountain now, but still some emerging from the fingers of the hand. To cope with this he flung out a bit of lamp oil and lit it, the flame driving them away from where it burnt and creating a small pathway. He dashed over to the armlet, and raised it up quickly as the emerging ants began to cover him. He pocketed it and descended the rope as they began biting into him in earnest. As he dismounted the rope covered in his own blood he began pulling ants from his flesh, and a long time resident of the Noble Square approached him with a smile. He told him he was quite brave and clever to retrieve a relic of the Conjurers in such a way.

Baldwin and Dietrich then went to the Holy Square, a place packed with shrines and temples, to seek out a reward for slaying a foul necromancer. They knocked at the door of one, a deep earthy red colored building, squat and sturdy looking. They were welcomed in by a robed man whose face was entirely covered in a fine crosshatch of evenly spaced scars. This man was a Dibia, he said, a priest of the Edo faith. The temple was dimly lit inside, and warm.

They presented him with the ring, and he was quite gracious and thankful for what they had done. He gave them a great heap of cowry shells, and manila for performing this good deed. Upon seeing the many wounds on Dietrich the priest asked if he might wish to receive a blessing of restoration and healing through joining the Edo faith. Dietrich seemed interested, but wished to know more of this faith before he join it.

As the Dibia told it, all of creation was a combination of the Agbon (or visible) world that we humans inhabit and the Erinmwin (or spirit) world created by the great god Osanobua, or Osa. Osa created the other deities: Olokun the goddess of oceans, and of wealth. Ogiuwu, the blood drinking death god. Obiemwen, the Mother of All. Iso, holder of water and of light. And Esu, the patron of coup d’etats, power and cunning. As he explained these gods he made many gestures, and it could be seen that he held what appeared to a sort of small tool in his hand, a small blade that seemed quite sharp.

Dietrich questioned the standing of demons in this faith, and who they were the purview of. The Dibia laughed, and said the Plateau was the place for demons. Dietrich laughed as well, a bit less, and clarified that he meant to ask which god governed them. The Dibia nodded gravely then, and said there was also Bashonie The Father of Fiends who made the Sins of Men into Form. He spit when he said his name, and stamped on it. None worshipped him, except the most wicked. This was of great interest to Dietrich.

The Dibia then asked again if Dietrich wished to join the faith, and he now said yes. He beckoned Dietrich to lie flat upon a nearby slab, and to brush his hair back and away from his face. As he closed his eyes the Dibia began chanting to the gods, and began his work.
Beginning at the temples the Dibia used that small blade to cover the entirety of Dietrichs face from hairline to jawline in a crosshatch-like pattern made of hundreds of thin cuts, drenching he, Dietrich, and the slab in blood as he worked over the next hour.

Once this agonizing process had at long last finished Dietrich was overwhelmed with a spectacular vision: a spectral column of ants ascending to the heavens, spiraling away into the infinity of space. When he arose his wounds were healed, although this left him with extensive and permanent facial scarring indicating he was a member of the Edo faith. The Dibia asked Baldwin if he would also like to receive a boon by joining the faith, but he declined. The two then left to rejoin their companions, and determine how they would best prepare for their arrival at the Temple of Ages That Are Not.

World of the Lost, Session Two: A Serpent on a Hillside

(Heinrich & Baldwin couldn't make it due to Mothers Day, and Dietrich had to come a bit late as well, but we were also joined by a fifth player)

Against all odds a group of Englishman had recently arrived in Khirima only to witness the very thing that had drawn them there the moment they entered the city: that incredible tribute of Silver annually delivered to the Temple of Ages That Are Not. Sadly, however, all but one of them almost immediately violated a most grave taboo whilst overcome with awe at this sight: their eyes met the gaze of those who deliver the silver and they were immediately seized and dragged away to an unknown fate, most likely a terrible one.

The one who had luckily not violated any taboos was unable to communicate in any of the native languages surrounding him, and saw no friendly faces besides the ones who had just been dragged away, and also heard no English being spoken nearby. He was the Magic-User Geralde Edwin VII, he had journeyed to Khirima with those other men out of a desire to learn about the fabled temple, but now found himself suddenly very isolated.

He wandered out of the city alone to the shores of the lake to the east, to better avoid more trouble in the city. Dragging a large tent along with him, and heavily burdened by his overloaded pack, he stopped to observe the grunting crocodiles and crowd of warriors gathered nearby with a bit of concern then loaded his pipe with tobacco. He then realized that he had forgotten to bring along a flint, and wondered how he might communicate with the locals to acquire a light.

He did not have to wonder for long. Three Germans Dietrich arrived at that moment by boat, accompanied by their pack-mule, pack-goat, and three prisoners. As they unloaded on the shore Gerald approached them eagerly, they being the only other Europeans he had seen since his arrival. He happily discovered that one of them, Everett, spoke somewhat fluent English, and even had a tinderbox as well. He was introduced to Baldwin and Dietrich and then followed them as they headed back towards the city, trying to learn all he could from them about its customs.

(An important aside: during the trip back from the smugglers camp Dietrich studied the strange book they had discovered on the bloody beach. It had a sort of language in it that seemed to contain something, though he couldn’t tell what. He struggled to decipher it. After an hour or so of study, much to his confusion, it appeared to actually be filled with nonsensical markings. After this realization he felt as if a sort of notion had embedded itself in his head, something he could not describe that buzzed around in his consciousness like a fly, an idea on the tip of his tongue. The other Adventurers, after a cursory examination of the book, found the whole book to be full of nothing but scribbles and meaningless markings from the start, and were quite unimpressed by it.)

As the four of them marched back into Khirima with their prisoners in tow they drew a great deal of attention to themselves, as they were quite an unusual sight. Before very long they had drawn the attention of the city guards, and were surrounded by them with their spears drawn and pointed. They were asked quite forcefully why they were marching three bound men who were fearfully babbling about demons through the market at mid-day.

Everett, who was quite forthcoming, explained that their friend had in fact summoned something that had frightened the prisoners (who were smugglers, also) but that it was nothing they needed to be too worried about. In addition, they were working for none other than the Minister of Finance, and were going to visit him now at the Guild of Merchants. The guards, both confused and disbelieving, stated they would be escorting the adventurers to this alleged meeting with the Minister of Finance instead. They surrounded them all, including Gerald who was wholly unable to explain that he was not precisely involved with these people, and they ushered along to the Guild of Merchants in the Noble Square.

They were briskly marched into the premises and up the stairs, with Gerald barely managing to extinguish his pipe before entering. Odafin was a bit startled, but dismissed the guards once he saw who they were accompanying, much to those guards surprise. Odafin was very pleased to see the Adventurers back so soon with the smugglers in the flesh. He asked Everett why they kept babbling about demons, and why Heinrich was missing, but after being told that Dietrich had made a slight error in his summoning he laughed a bit, and seemed to dismiss it as a joke. He had the smugglers taken away by his personal guards then, to be delivered to the Justice Square for execution.

He examined the small box of rough diamonds they had brought from the smugglers, and thanked them for their service. He paused for a moment, and then asked them what they were more interested in: simply receiving a bit of money and going on their way, or some assistance regarding the Temple they might be interested in.

As he put it they would only end up beheaded, like the group of outsiders who gazed upon the procession earlier that day, if they tried to enter the temple themselves (or even approached it). With his help though, they could be brought to the entrance unharmed and then left to do what they pleased. They would only need to perform one final task for him, to prove their trustworthiness, before he would do this for them. If all they wanted was money, however, he could pay them a small sum as a sign of thanks and they could be on their way instead. After briefly conferring and realizing their shared interests they agreed to the first option. Odafin seemed most pleased by this, and explained what they must do for him. In his words, it was a simple task. They would travel through the jungles to the West, and go about 80 miles to the North. There would an encampment there, where men loyal to Odafin would be waiting for them. They were to deliver something to these men: a live venomous snake. Complicating this matter was the fact that there was wordof foul sorcerers lurking in the jungle, in addition to any other dangers along the way. After delivering this snake they could return to Khirima, and then be delivered to the Temple as they wished. He offered no discussion of what might happen if they did not succeed, as he said they simply would not fail him. They were to return when they were ready. After being given a bit of silver to finance the expedition they proceeded to the Trade Square to provision themselves.

After heavily loading two mules with rations and supplies, and staying one final night in the tavern where this all began, they returned to Odafin and acquired their precious cargo. A large round vessel, a sort of urn, that the snake was kept inside. They were also given a chest filled with live rats, and told to feed it only one every five days, without fail. They were also told to be very careful when opening the vessel to feed it.

And with that, they departed. A very light rain was falling on the savanna outside the city walls to the West. They marched toward the jungle with haste, and paid little mind to the contingent of armed men accompanying a striking merchant woman all headed in a similar direction. As they reached the edge of the jungle they spoke briefly with the leader of a small caravan that was waiting outside it and learned that it was also heading North, to the city of Akabo.

Further in from that they came upon two scouts who were at rest after clearing a pathway through the vegetation. They were quite friendly, and told them about the rumors of foul sorcery near Akabo, evidenced by strange lights in the night skies. They made camp a bit further down the trail as evening fell, and slept without disturbance. In the morning they heard sounds of trouble and conflict up the road, back where they had come from, but they ignored this diversion and continued into the wilderness. They discovered and followed a freshly cleared path, which seemed like a stroke of good fortune. After following this for some time they came upon a grisly sight, the dead bodies of several travelers. They could see they had been ambushed, cut down by arrow-fire before they even had a chance to draw their weapons.

Dietrich searched the bodies quite thoroughly, and in the boot of one found a crude map. This map indicated a location in the jungle just a bit south from where they were already headed. Further careful searching revealed a valuable gem hidden within a cloak, which Dietrich happily pocketed. Gerald scavenged a different cloak, still rather decent looking, from another body, and wore it. They marched onward, the weather maintaining a steady gloom, and set up camp as far from the bodies as they could manage.

They kept a night watch, being miles and miles from the civilized world and were unsure what strange things they might encounter. Dietrich was on second watch, his flintlock at the ready. Deep in the night he was certain he heard movement in the trees, the rustling and disturbance of branches. He lit a torch, and waved it about. He saw eyes reflected back at him, and the vague form of man-like figures with strange, bestial faces. A chorus of gibbering sounds and strange yelping began, followed by a hideous sort of screaming from the darkness. Dietrich awoke Gerald just in time to witness the horde of creatures begin pouring into the camp. They were barreling towards the Mules and grasping at them, pulling at their supplies, then running back into the shadows. Dietrich shot at them with his flintlock, and Gerald too. The hail of pistol-fire killed one of them, wounded another, and drove the rest off. After examining the mules they realized that fully half of their rations had been taken by the beasts. They had brought just enough for this journey, so this was quite a devastating setback.

Gerald, in a fit of frustration and rage, then cast a spell to Summon forth a hellish creature of the pit to serve them some kind of vengeance. Out from the smoldering embers of the campfire clambered an enormous soot-black hound, taller at the shoulder than a Wolfhound, with acrid smoke gushing from its’ six swollen teats. It stood before them for a moment, and then after inhaling the scent of baboon blood and discharged sulfur it was sent into a predatory frenzy and bolted into the abyssal jungle in search of prey. The wailing of mangled baboons echoing through the trees once it found them. When they awoke it was decided that they should attempt hunting for game, to try and recoup their loss. Dietrich came upon a warthog after very little effort, and Everett felled a civet with a hurled stone. Gerald was unable to catch anything, but it was decided that the carcass of the baboon he felled last night could provide some sustenance if things became dire. They camped once again.

The next morning, irritated by the inconveniences of mundane travel, Dietrich directed them towards a small foothill near the base of the plateau. He directed them to gather atop it, with their pack animals. He then cast the spell called Rockspeech upon the hill, and communed with the spirit dwelling within it. He requested that it transport them through the wretched jungle, and it obliged them. The whole hill shuddered forth, carving a rough channel through the trees as it went. After several miles it passed through a terrific mudslide without disturbance, a thing that would have otherwise proved impassable for them.

They passed a gruesome tableau after that: three mangled bodies littered the ground, and another figure near them. It had been impaled by a great sword through it’s mouth and head, and it was stuck to the trunk of a great tree like a butterfly with a pin. It was not dead. Despite the horrific injury it had sustained it somehow still moved, and it made a moaning guttural sound at the Adventurers while it grasped at them with its gore-soaked arms. The hill carried them several more miles before coming to a rest, and it settled near a large clearing. There was a great circle of stone idols, phallic-shaped and adorned with stylized faces. In the center of this circle there was an unusual axe of some kind, and a suit of crocodile-skin armor like some they had seen in the markets. Dietrich took the armor, and Everett the axe.

They could see that this place was deliberately formed, and Gerald spent some time clearing out brush and overgrowth from the edges of it. It seemed to him to be a place of benevolent worship, so he thought to kneel in the center of the circle, and empty his mind so as to be more receptive to any energies to be found within it. After kneeling there for a moment he felt a tingling sensation along the outside of upper left arm, and examined it to discover it was now adorned with a scar-like tattoo of one of the stylized faces seen the idols. He felt a beneficent energy saturating him, and he now thought it a proper time to Summon a being from beyond, perhaps as a way to commune with the gods represented these strange idols.

There then suddenly appeared from nowhere a great eyeball as large as a human skull, levitating in the air encircled by four exact duplicates which orbited it lazily in delicate arcs. It had an unnaturally dark and sparkling blue iris, and its pupil emitted a withering and malign energy. As it was a devoted servant to Gerald for as long as it occupied this dimension, however, it held back this force and did not harm him. As this was not the gods represented y the idols he commanded it to fly into the jungle, to gather as much information as it could about what lie ahead and report it to him. In due time it returned, and described a stone structure a few miles ahead of them. It was occupied by a lone human. After this the eyes winked out of existence. They spent the night near the circle, but not within it.

The next morning Dietrich awakened the loyal hill once again, and guided it carefully around the circle and towards the strange structure described to them by the floating eye. They arrived before a rather pitiful looking stone structure, smaller than a house and entangled with vines and undergrowth. Inside of it a man cowered in fear, brought about by the appearance of the moving hill. He spoke to them in Chinese, thankfully another language Everett was fluent in.

This man, a warrior called Qian, had a tattoo on his arm that resembled Gerald's, and had also been acquired at the circle of idols. He spoke of how he had found himself there after his three companions were slaughtered by an undying monster in the shape of a man, and how he fled into the jungle alone and lost, expecting only death after he saw them torn apart. After falling on his knees before the idols, exhausted and hopeless, he received the tattoo and felt he had been blessed, and believed he had surely been given a sacred duty by this. He left the tools of war behind, and wandered off to see what the idols would ask of him, and reveal.

He came upon this old structure, which he believed to be a holy place. He had been attempting to restore it to its proper state, and was sure this is what the idols were asking of him. It had been incredibly grueling work for only one man. He insisted that Geralde had clearly been called as well though, and he asked the Adventurers for help with their sacred task. They all agreed, and so spent most of the day hacking at old vines, clearing away old inscriptions, and shifting old stones back into position. When they were at last finished they examined the insides of the temple by torchlight while Qian chose to rest outside, as he was quite weary and undernourished from this work, and having subsisted only on jungle tubers for many days.

After examining the markings within the temple both Gerald and Dietrich gained knowledge of a particular spell, one that would allow them to suppress disease but not cure it. This was somewhat interesting, but more interesting than that was when they realized that this temple was devoted not to the praise of anything, but rather was a structure created to call forth, appease, and subdue a God Of Sickness & Disease, A Lord of Bilious Plagues and Vile Pox, and so on. As they pondered the significance of this a screaming was heard from outside, and they all rushed out with weapons drawn.

Before them was Qian, bleeding heavily from numerous punctures and other wounds, barely standing with his arms raised above him. He was grasping desperately at the limbs of a fleshy tube-like thing covered in sickly and irritated skin, a form resembling something like a kind of stick insect and filth-covered sausage. It’s numerous spidery limbs were in sets of differing lengths, and each was tipped with malformed and dirty pincers which it was attempting to rend and tear Qian to pieces with. It had no discernible front or back side, and filled the air with a very foul and nauseating stench. Qian was struggling, and failing, to keep it off of him.

Everett acted decisively. He raised his sword and charged the thing, and cleaved it in half with one fell blow. Each half bubbled and spit out phlegm, pus, and mucus onto both Qian and Everett as it all crumbled and dissolved into dust and nothingness. Qian fell to the ground convulsing and frothing at the mouth, while Everett was overcome with a blistering fever. Dietrich and Everett rushed to their sides, with Dietrich provided Everett with a restorative schnapps. Despite a lack of safe preparation both Dietrich and Gerald then were able to cast the newly discovered spell without causing a magical disaster. Qian and Everett were relieved of their symptoms, at least for now. They gathered their wits, and headed towards their encampment. Qian was distraught, and overcome with regret and confusion regarding everything about the temple, the idols, and his purpose in this world. Having nothing else to turn to, he asked if he might journey with the Adventurers. They agreed to this, and Everett presented him with his old axe. They dined on boiled tubers that night, and although there was an eerie silence around them in the jungle they experienced no disturbances. They departed that morning once again on the now familiar hill, at long last closing in on their destination. As they left, Dietrich realized that this temple was the very place the crude map he had found in a dead mans boot would have led them, had they followed it.

Arriving with the kind of fanfare that only a mobile and sentient foothill can provide, the Adventurers were greeted at the edge of the camp and the base of their foothill by several armed and armored men when they arrived that evening. These men were very thoroughly relieved to find that the Adventurers were the couriers they had been waiting for, and not the evil sorcerers they had been warned about. After presenting these men with the snake, which indeed still lived inside the urn, the Adventurers were given a simple amulet with a snake-like image on it to present to Odafin as proof of delivery.

They joined the men in their camp that evening. These men were quite vague about the ultimate purpose of the delivered snake, but they spoke very highly of Odafin, and of their loyalty to him. There were also very impressed that Odafin had recruited even sorcerers to work with him, as they were a rare thing in Khirima. They discussed what would be coming next, and told the Adventurers that they were certain they would be attacked by sorcerers should they return to Khirima through the jungle to the South. Instead, they would head East across the savanna to Akabo, and from there go further East and then South along the plateau, and then finally West back to Khirima. This would be a very lengthy detour, but the men felt this would make for safer traveling as it would be open land, which would prevent an ambush. Akabo would also provide a place for them to rest and recover from these days spent in the sweltering jungle.

There was an additional danger should the Adventurers return the way they came as well: the jungle around them had become overrun with tremendous ants, and while they suspected these ants were a product of the sorcerers they would be a great hazard still if they had appeared on their own. These ants could now be infesting the areas they had traveled through, likely forcing them to go through unknown jungle once again. They could join them on their journey to Akabo then, if they wanted. There was much to consider. For now though they would sleep, and would decide when the morning came.