Into The Depths

This week on Dungeons and Dragons…..

Vandal stands in silence, he is concentrating his focus, and can detect that the two wererats that fled during the combat are still close by; but that was not startling him. He could sense something, something sinister, and something that stunk of pure evil. It was not a strong essence of it, but he could feel it rippling throughout the area. You could see not only concern in his eyes, but fear.

‘Be careful lads.’ Vandal said with a tremble. ‘There is a funk down here and it aint friendly!’

The last remaining wererat from the battle is sitting in the corner, clearly unhappy; not only has Vandal tried skinning him alive, but the wererat is now forced by Venomfang to help us. He sits in human form, playing with a gold coin in his hand. He tries to hide the pain on his face, but being skinned alive is not something so easily hid. Saphira used her Amulet of Truth on the wererat, the group needed information they could trust, and these wererats are not the type you want to rest your life on. The wererat tells us that he is from Barovia and was tasked with finding refugees in the city of Daggerdale and to bring them back. He says that Barovia is a place that a necromancer would feel right at home, this grabbed Ádus attention awfully quick. The wererat mentioned that he and his group were tasked by the Barovia leader, Strahd von Zarovich, to bring the refugees back. However, the wererat was not sure if he will ever return to Barovia so he and his party started to take on work from others. The way they seen it, they might as well gather some gold while here, as they might never make it back to Barovia, that is why they are helping Venomfang. Ádus pulled Saphira to the side and started speaking to her in celestial so the wererat could not understand the words he said, but there was deceit in the tone. After a while, Saphira turned to Lukas and spoke to him in Elvish, as if passing a message along.

Vandal was starting to get tired of all this talking. He walks up the wererat, grabs him by the scruff of his neck, and forces him in the direction of the door we need to travel through. Before the wererat could get his balance, Vandal tripped up him forcing him to the ground; Vandal gave off a dark chuckle. The wererat turned around and bared his teeth at Vandal.

‘Do not touch me Dwarf, if you want to make it out of here alive, you will need my help’ the wererat said with a growing smirk on his face.

‘Tha only thing I need is for ya to keep ye mouth shut or ya will see tha edge of me axe!’ Vandal replied with a very intimidating voice.

‘This is not the way, Venomfang knows a lot, but he does not know his way down here. You will need to pass into the old city.’ The wererat was starting to sound more confident, he knew the group needed him. ‘To get into the old city, you will need to open the gate. I can help with that, but I migh….’

‘How can we trust you creature?’ Saphira interrupted. ‘You mentioned Venomfang was paying you, how much?’

‘500 gold to my party, but there is only three us alive now.’ A very greedy grin creeped onto the wererats face. ‘My cut will be pretty big.’ ‘I will make a deal with you then creature.’ Saphira said with strong confidence. She could see the disgust on Vandals face, the idea of making a deal with this wererat must have made him sick. ‘What if we were to dispose of the other two and you kept the 500 gold pieces for yourself? I will even give you an extra 200 gold for good measure. What do you say?’

The wererat tried to fight a smile. ‘Yes….yes that will be an excellent offer. How about you give me 300 gold up front? Just to show you are sincere.’

‘No, I will give you 200 gold pieces, or we can force what we need from you.’

‘Fine she elf, I will take the gold.’ Saphira handed the wererat a coin bag, he accepted. The wererat turned around and shouted over his shoulder. ‘Follow me.’

Saphira turned around to Vandal and spoke to him in infernal. After a while, a sinister smile came over his face.

As the group followed the wererat, he was filling them in with the tales and information he knew of this place. He told them how the city is guarded by an undead captain that goes by the name of Captain Thrall, and how only he allows full dragons to pass by. The wererat also told them of Orcus, demon prince and lord of the undead, and how he made a deal with a wizard known as Kyuss. Kyuss wanted immortality, and he was given it. However, when he was meant to die, his body decayed and he was covered in green worms. If these worms attached to you, they would burrow into your skin and attack your very mind, turning you into a spawn of Kyuss. The party asked the wererat why he was telling us this, but he just smirked.

Continuing to follow the wererat, the group came across a naturally occurring spiral staircase. As the party, led by the wererat guide, made their way down the staircase, they noticed that the staircase started to show signs of an ancient civilisation. They saw how the walls had tiles, how the ground had paved slabs, and under the years of dirt and grime, you could still see the detail, and the artistic talent engraved into the tiles and slabs. When they reached the bottom, they saw a bridge; on the other side was a large gate and two wererats guarding it in their humanoid rat form. The two wererats saw the party being guided by their wererat companion. The party’s guide whistled, and the two wererats came over very cautiously.

‘These adventures will pay us an extra 200 gold if we help them’ the guide said to his two companions. ‘All we have to do is open the gate for them’

The other two were very anxious about this deal, but they trusted their companion.

‘You two stay here.’ The guide said. ‘I will open the gate’

‘I will come wid ya rat, ye aint gettin out of me sight.’ Vandal said while holding a firm grip of his great axe.

As the pair crossed the bridge, Vandal noticed the statues on both sides of the cavern. They were sculptured from the highest quality of stone, and with great skill. There were slots for jewels; this was an economic and socially rich society that existed here. When they reached the gates, Vandal was shocked by the sheer size of the gate. You could fit a fully grown dragon through it, but it also had a magical barrier. The guide morphed into a rat, and ran into a hole in the wall. A few minutes had passed until Vandal heard a click from the other side. The gate opened, dispelling the magical barrier too.

Saphira saw this and turned around to the other two wererats and let out jets of flames from her hands, burning the fur and the skin on them. They were shocked, that such a noble woman would be so distrustful. Ádus took a step back once he seen Saphira use her burning hands spell. The element of surprise caught him too. He did discuss this betrayal with Saphira earlier in celestial, but he did not expect it to happen so soon. He took out his arcane focus, and formed a giant spectral hand that he sent flying towards one of the wererats. The guide returns and morphs back into human form, seeing his companions getting roasted. He goes to move to them out of instinct but Vandal holds his great axe to his throat, preventing him from moving. The shock fades off the attacked wererats quickly and they both lunge at Saphira, using their teeth and claws to penetrate her armour but only one got through. He stuck his teeth in to Saphira’s shoulder, and made her scream in pain. She could feel something coming over her, but she was able to fight it off. With the wererats teeth still firmly embedded into Saphira’s shoulder, Lukas took out his great sword and with a single swipe, he cut the beast in two, however, Ádus’s spell was aimed at that wererat and it struck Saphira instead. She could feel the chill touch grasping around her. The second wererat takes another swing with its jaw at Saphira, this time making contact into her neck. She could feel the same sensation taking over, but was able to fight it off again. Lukas used this opportunity, and repeated the same attack. He cut the beast in two.

After the fight, Vandal and the wererat guide came back over. When the wererat’s was looking over the bodies of his fallen companions, Vandal stuck his great axe into the back of him. As he fell to the ground, still alive, Lukas lifted his great sword and with one swift move, he tore open the throat of their guide. Saphira was in a rough shape, so the party took a short rest to tend to her wounds. Vandal was searching the bodies and found the gold Saphira gave one of them plus more for a total of 500 gold pieces.

‘I think this is yours lass.’ Vandal said as he handed the gold bag to Saphira.

‘I don’t want it, its blood money now.’ She replied with the feeling of what she did weighing heavily on her.

‘I will take that off your hands then.’ Ádus said from the distance. ‘I really could do with it to help with some of my pet projects.’

Vandal handed Ádus the gold bag, Ádus gave him a nod. After the rest, the party moved to the now open gates. Saphira could sense a magic, a dark magic. She described to Ádus what she could sense, and between the two they concluded that it was necromancy magic.

‘No one go any further.’ Snapped Ádus. ‘I will scout ahead, and see if anything awaits us.’ Ádus muttered a few words to himself and with a hand gesture, his old raven friend, Xenos appeared. ‘Xenos, fly in there and tell me what you see.’

With a flap of his wings, Xenos made his way through the gates and into the ancient city. With Ádus watching through his eyes, he could see that the city was littered with ruined buildings. Houses, temples, large buildings but one building stood out to him in the distance. A guard house, it flown an old banner but it did not look familiar to him. The area was clear, no sign of life or recent activity.

‘The area is clear.’ Ádus said. ‘I will borrow the eyes of Xenos and see if there is any danger I may have missed but one of you will have to guide me. My eyes are not mine when I am like this.’

Saphira took Ádus hand and set it on her shoulder. Together, with Vandal taking lead, they made their way through the gate into the ancient city. Vandal scouted ahead to see if there was anything Xenos had missed. He made his way to the guardhouse, and searched around. It was just as Ádus had said, the area was clear. The rest of the party slowly followed, protecting the half blind Ádus as he watched from above through the eyes of Xenos. When they reached the guard house, Ádus stopped the spell and Xenos returned to Ádus and sat on his shoulder.

‘You are the only one I can trust, Xenos.’ Ádus whispered while feeding him part of a biscuit from his bag.

Vandal looked through the window of the guard house to see if there was anything of interest. The house was filled with furniture that would have been of fantastic quality, but now only serves as food for woodworms. Ádus and Lukas looked ahead, and seen that on the ground was some markings. Marking written in blood, and after inspecting it, it was written by more than just blood. It was made of magic, but it also had pure emotions embedded into it. The raw emotions, kept it fresh for all this time. However they could not read it, it was in a language they did not understand. They called Saphira over and she told them it was in Draconic. She said it reads “That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.” As she finished muttering those words, the party could hear hooves followed by a strange mist that flowed from behind them. The entire party except for Lukas sneaked away and hid behind something. Lukas then saw it, an undead dark horse with flesh hanging from it, bright red eyes with a rider that wore dark and rusted armour, but his eyes, they were lifeless eyes but he could feel them staring directly at him. Vandal tried to flank this creature, but his heavy breathing gave away his position, the creature did not seem to care, he was too fixated on Lukas.

‘First born….. You are not welcome here……. I can sense you brought a dragon with you.’ The undead knight said in a chilling voice that Lukas could feel in his spine. ‘What of the Dwarf?’

‘I don’t really know.’ Lukas said nervously. ‘You would need to ask him, I’m not sure what siblings he has.’

At that moment Saphira stepped out of her hiding spot and whispered to Lukas ‘He means you are the first born race, an Elf…’ She looked directly at the knight and shouted at him. ‘I am Saphira; I have the blood of dragons running through my veins, what is your name knight?’

‘I am….. Captain Thrall….you… have the burning passion of the dragons… that I cannot deny… but what aspect are you?’ with a slow wave of his hand, the scales under Saphira’s eyes lit up. ‘Ahhhhhh… you are of the blue aspect…. But only the true blood can pass…. Your journey was in vain….. Your life is forfeit….it has been too long….since my men had a fight’

With another slow wave of his hand, the ground started to rumble. Hands pushed and shoved dirt out of the way as the undead rose from the ground, surrounding Lukas and Saphira. Vandal made it to the flank of the undead knight, but he heard something behind him. It was another zombie, but it was bigger and covered in green worms. Vandal took out his war hammer and shield, and charged at Captain Thrall, but the Captain had the upper hand. He took a swing at Vandal and it was a true strike. The Captain knocked him back a bit, but it was followed by another, however this time his sword glowed purple. Thankfully it did miss. As Vandal was knocked back by the first blow, he tried to swing back but could not make contact. The advantage the knight had of being on horseback would make this difficult for him. As the zombies were starting to surround Saphira and Lukas, Ádus leaped from his cover and sprinted into the middle with them. He lifted his hands, and blasted jets of flames through them into the zombies that were going to flank Saphira and Lukas, turning them to ash. Lukas lifted his holy symbol, and with a single prayer, a concentrated beam of energy came from his symbol, and tore the flesh from the zombies that were close to him, turning them into nothing but a pile of bones. Saphira took out a dagger and stabbed one of the zombies directly in the eye, but her dagger got stuck. In that moment, the remaining zombies clawed and scratched at her trying to get through her thick armour, but it was their teeth that did the damage. Hearing his friend being hurt, Lukas turned around and finished the zombies attacking Saphira with his divine ability. With the zombies dispatched, Ádus took a few steps back, aimed down the ruined street and seen that Vandal was about get to flanked by this odd looking zombie that resembled what was described to them earlier by the wererat. He took aim at it, and let off three beams of intense burning energy. The first one thumped it right in the stomach, but it was the other two that did the real damage. The second one hit the worm covered zombie on the shoulder, leaving it hanging just by a thread. The third hit the same spot, ripping its arm completely off. It howled in pain. Captain Thrall approached Vandal and took another swing at him with his longsword. It made contact, but it did more than wound him. The necrotic energy from his blade was damaging Vandal’s very soul. In response, Vandal took a swing at the horses’ legs, forcing the rider off. Vandal made a sprint back to the party to reinforce their position. When he re-joined them, he turned around and see the Captain following him, alongside with the worm covered zombie. With a second wind, Vandal put his war hammer and shield away, and took out his great axe. He sprinted and met the Captain half way. He slid under his legs, dodging the sweeping strike of his longsword. He stood up and buried his great axe into his back. The Captain dropped to his knees and tried to turn around to swing at Vandal again but missed. With the Captain in a weak state now, Vandal knocked him to the ground again, and with one swipe, he cut off the head. However, in his blood thirsty frenzy, Vandal forgot about the worm covered zombie. It slammed into him, but it was the worms that would be doing the real damage. They stuck onto him like a leech. They got through his armour, and were trying to burrow under his skin. Vandal made a sprint back to the group, trying to pull these worms off him as he ran. Lukas and Saphira helped to pull them off him. Ádus took aim at the one armed zombie, and fired three magic missiles into it, each one hurting more than the last but it was still moving.

‘Half elf, take care of that thing!’ Ádus shouted at Saphira.

Saphira used the same spell that Ádus used previously, but it did not pack the same weight. It was still enough to finish it. A mixture of intense heat and power had killed it. The party helped Vandal to get the worms off him, stomping on them when they threw them to the ground. With some heavy breathing, they did not feel relief; they felt they were being watched from the ruins…

Until next week!