RECORD OF EKSTASIA ADVENTURES
CHAPTER 3: JOURNEY INTO HELL
Part 1: APPROACHING MOUNT WILLOWBEA
The party camps out on their journey to the Willowbea region. Exhausted from their journey, they take another full rest to get through the night.
Prior to going to sleep, they witness the flagless black airship appear to crash slightly west of the mountain.
Fortunately, no encounters or disruptions disturb them as they sleep the night through as if blessed by an ethereal spirit.
The next morning, they find that it is a day's hike to the base of Mount Willowbea. it is also about a day's hike to Lake Willowbea.
Randir reflects on his journey thus far, curious if he's while Dyana meditates and remembers her dream about the raven. Daeryn asks Randir if he's in- he confirms he's ready to fuck Chalkanian shit up.
They decide to make their way to Lake Willowbea perhaps to find some kind of way into the mountain.
They take the road through the foothills toward the lake.
Aelun asks Daeryn about her seeing red while fighting the Chalkies; she has a bad history with them, keeps cards close to her chest.
As they travel further toward the lake, they encounter a group of Morgan fighters headed south back to Wilmington after helping the Morgans defend against the Chalkanians. They mention that they saw a steam-ship sailing the river toward the town and how they saw the un-marked black airship destroy a Chalkie airship mid-air. The Morgan bandit captain tells the party about how they aspire to become sky-pirates if they can steal a Chalkie airship. After giving Randir some Shae Island rum, they also tell the party about the bounty on Chalkanians- king Tostig in Castle Wilmington is offering 100 gold per breastplate, helmet, swords and pikes belonging to Chalkanian soldiers.
The Morgans then ride off east, presumably to go around the lake in order to continue south.
The party continues south straight toward the lake. They have about six hours before the sun sets and exhaustion begins to set in. Strangely the climate is a little warmer the closer they get to the lake. They arrive at the lake five hours later and settle down to rest on the banks of the smaller Willowbea lake. They decide to look for a way up or into the mountain in the morning.
The spires surrounding Mount Willowbea tower behind them, Mount Willowbea itself rising into vicious storm clouds swirling around it overhead. Daeryn and Aelun look out across the lake and can see about 12 - 15 house boats dotting the lake, the night sky painting the realm around them purple and grey, as the orange glow of the house boats' hearths glittering like stars on a cloudy night. All seems peaceful for the lake-dwelling folk, seemingly un-bothered by all of the chaos in the world at the moment.
Before setting up camp, Aelun asks if Randir detects any undead nearby. he picks up on the presence of a dozen or so undead creatures within a mile radius of them. Aelun transforms into a squirrel to climb up a pine tree to get a better view of the party's surroundings. They climb a fifteen foot tall tree and can see a group of undead animals and humanoids approaching from the north chasing a Chalkanian soldier. they scurry back down to the group and turns back into their Tiefling form. As Chalkie approaches the group, they all try to hide themselves. Everyone is able to hide extremely well as Aelun casts pass without a trace on the group, basically invisible to the Chalkie and pursuant undead. The Chalkie is ripped to shreds and devoured by the zombies. The sight makes Dyana and Daeryn smile at each other but remain quiet.
The undead horde then begins to run westward toward the base of mount Willowbea. Two ghouls get stuck behind, feeding on the Dhalkanian corpse. Randir looks out over the lake as the horde swarms a docked house boat 80 yards away. The hearth-light aboard the boat snuffs out as the horde overcomes the boat. The sounds of shouting and fighting echoes down the shore toward the hiding party. The ghouls nearby finish feeding and wander around, able to smell the group but failing to find them.
The party then begins a sneak attack on them. Crouching in the shadows, Daeryn casts her hunter's mark on the closest ghoul. As she does, she's filled with rage as she thinks about the genocide her elven ancestors underwent. Daeryn calls upon the dreadful gloom of her ancestor's connection to the feywild as she draws she draws her bow and looses an arrow, striking the ghoul right in its head with an arrow. The arrow is entangled with shadowy tendrils; the shadows then absorb into it and bursts, ripping its flesh from within. her hunter's mark decimates the ghoul as it falls into a pile.
Still hidden, Aelun casts moonbeam on the other ghoul. Its constitution fails to protect it from the radiant light cast over it in a forty-foot high cylinder. Randir sneaks a little closer to the ghoul and launches an arrow from his longbow at it. the arrow just barely misses its chin. confused and shrieking from the moonbeam, the ghoul doesn't notice the arrow. Dyana discreetly casts toll the dead on the ghoul, injuring it a little bit as it fails to protect itself against the cleric's spell. the ghoul then notices Randir and moves to attack him, but Randir evades the attack.
Daeryn takes aim on the ghoul, having moved her hunter's mark on to it. With a dreadful strike, the arrow pierces its chest, the psychic damage of the hunter's mark knocking it back as chunks of its body are blown off. Aelun moves their cylindrical moonbeam to follow the ghoul, melting down what's left of it into a pile of ash.
Aelun then runs out from hiding to check on Randir, but he says he's okay. They all head out over to the moored house boat where a battle between the boat's inhabitants and the undead is currently happening.
Among the living aboard the house boat are two orcs and a human battling two ghouls and a zombie. a pile of limbs and flesh hangs off the side of the boat, the rest of the carrion floating in the water. Randir attacks with his short swords, decimating one of the zombies. Daeryn shoots an arrow with a magic hail of thorns. One of the ghouls evades the cloud of thorns flying at the ghoul, but Randir standing near Daeryn's target takes some of the thorns in his upper arm as he moves to block. Dyana says the incantation which tolls the dead again, taking magic damage. The ghoul moves to strike at Randir who dodges the attack. Aelun leaps over with their arm extended and casts a fire bolt at it, singeing some of its undead flesh. The other ghoul goes to attack Aelun with its necrotic claw but misses. Randir strikes with his shortshort, the velocity of his swiftness causing additional damage to the undead.
Suddenly a huge bird flies from the distance. It’s Guy the Aarakocra! On his back he is carrying a youthful elf with silver hair decked in yellow and green Niminyan armor. On the elf’s back is a tiny and very old looking gnome wearing glasses. Guy stumbles a little as he lands, the elf tumbling into battle stance as the gnome lands gracefully on the ground next to them. The silver haired elf draws her rapier and rushes in to fight with Guy and the gnome. They finish off the undead, and the inhabitants of the house boat get right to fixing up the damage.
Having not seen Guy since the shipwreck, Aelun, Daeryn and Dyana all ask him what he’s been up to. He responds that he’s been all over, discovering amazing ingredients and recipes. He met the elf, Keyran, while just south of the Northeast Kingdom’s border, in Zither. The elder gnome lady introduces herself as Ridi. They explain that they are part of the resistance group known as the Shrympinatum, whose sworn enemy is the Chalkanium. When the Chalkies attacked Morgan, they were dispatched from a safehouse in Zither. They found out about the necromancer from an elder’s visions, but cannot reveal more information than that. Guy tells them that the black airship they saw was in fact Ridi and the Shrympinatum striking back at the invaders. Meanwhile, Keyran plays a sad melody on her lute. Randir approaches her and offers compliments on her playing and fighting. Keyran doesn’t respond but puts away her lute as she tells the party to stand away from the shoreline. She pulls out a tiny flute that flashes pink as she blows into it, a short melody playing from it as a pink light flashes from under the water in the lake.
The lake ripples in massive waves as the black airship rises from the center of the lake, water dripping from as it floats higher and higher. The rebels then ask the party if they want a ride to the top of Mount Willowbea.
They agree.
***
Part 2: INTO THE MOUNTAIN
The party, Keyran, Cidwell and Ridi hang on for dear life as the airship ascends and swiftly traverses the Willowbea mountains, eventually reaching the base of Mt Willowbea itself. As the ship ascends, Cidwell, who is piloting the ship, mentions that the Chalkanians have “awakened something”. The airship climbs and enters the swirling storm clouds that enshrouds most of the top half of the mountain, presumably all the way to the peak. Cidwell fights to keep the airship from crashing into the mountain, dodging cliffs and spires.
Eventually they clip a rocky outcropping and crash land on a narrow cliff, the airship teetering on falling off the mountain. Cidwell and Ridi work to try and get the airship to restart but beckon the party and Keyran to abandon ship since Ridi has only enough featherfalls for herself and Cidwell. The party jumps ship and shimmy the cliffs, trying not to get blown off the mountain by the intense windstorms.
They make it to a cave. Careful of what’s inside the cave, they slowly move in and encounter two metal constructs with molten lava cores. They battle the cores, landing blows where and when they can, eventually defeating them. An orc mage appears, at first enraged at the party; but then Guy, Trolley and Third Planet appear from around the cave’s corners and a happy reunion takes place. The party follows them deeper into the cave, the magic of the orc tribe making a comfortable environment for them to rest. Along the walls are ancient cave paintings that depict a gold dragon battling a white dragon. The orcs don’t know much about what they mean, but something about the white dragon reminds Daeryn of the Chalkanium.
Guy cooks up some delicious food that fully restores the party’s health and Trolley and Third Planet play relaxing and inspiring music. They feast with the orc tribe of Ogvak, which is composed of mostly sorcerers and fighters. The elder orc wizard matriarch Baurazz asks to speak with the party. She speaks about the dead not staying dead and that an ancient evil has returned, but how or why she does not know. She asks the party to step through a portal to the para-elemental plane of ice to meet with someone who knows how to reach the source of this evil.
Baurazz also then asks to see the turquoise longsword that Aelun took from the mimic chest in the woods days ago. She then activates the latent magic within the sword which harmonizes with Aelun’s druidic essence. As a result, Aelun now has proficiency with longswords and can use this specific turquoise longsword. Baurazz tells Aelun that the blade will be most useful in the coming battle against evil.
***
Part 3: INTO THE REALM OF THE NECROMANCER
Baurazz, after bestowing the blessing of attunement to Aelun, passes away. Her body is taken to a fire where it is cremated by the orc mages, it animating into a zombie whilst burning away. The orc Dhethral opens up a scroll and gathers ritual implements and guides the party down to another part of the caves. Here on the wall are runes and the infernal word for ice. Dhethral casts a plane shift ritual with the help of some of the sorcerer elders and opens up a portal to the para-elemental plane of ice.
The party teleports to the ice realm where they wander the frozen world, almost freezing to death. They discover a small hut. Inside the hut is a yeti who is friendly toward them. The yeti’s name is Brelceth, and he was tasked by an ancient god to watch over a portal to the nine hells. He mentions that he was tricked by a group of soldiers in white and red armor who then went on to the city of Dis. He allows the group passage through the portal, and they are whisked away into the second level of hell.
When they arrive, they are in the outskirts of Dis. Rusted iron castle ruins and corpses litter the landscape; they battle hellhounds and make way for the closest castle. When they arrive a massive door opens up and they enter a courtyard in the rusted castle. They battle ghouls, zombies and skeletons in the courtyard. They investigate to find a hidden door which leads them inside the castle. Anubis reaches out to Dyana and tells her that they’ve found the necromancer’s hidden castle.
***
TO BE CONTINUED...