gorge of fire, day 3

[cellio]

May 1 (Sunday)

Much to my surprise, I am writing from the comfort of a well-appointed suite without danger of paper igniting.

We had a visitor last night during Liandra's watch. She heard the flappign of wings and then something roared out, loud enough for all of us to hear, "Heavens! More meat than anyone could ask for!"

The carcass we were hiding under is large, so we hoped we could just wait it out. Whatever it was, it was unlikely to be able to carry it away. Alas, it was not to be; as it landed and started ripping chunks out of the tail, it noticed us.

It seemed to be a half-dragon half-troll, sort of like the results of combining Turok with my polymorph spell, except bigger and stronger.

Turok emerged from under the carcass and asked "how's hunting?" The creature responded that it was excellent with all the tasty meat things, and it wasn't referring to the carcass. Turok was unable to lure it away, and before long we were all in a fight.

My coldballs and Liandra's languar were ineffective. It tore at me with its claws a couple times, but I was able to give Turok flight and fly up myself. It breathed fire on us all; Turok taunted it, but the rest of us were hurt badly. It then flew into a rage and attacked Turok, and Turok and Kyle attacked it back. I hit it with my circlet (the first real damage I did to it), and Turok and Kyle took it down.

This left the problem of how to really kill it; it was regenerating, as trolls do. It was obviously immune to fire, which I understand to be the usual remedy. Liandra summoned an earth elemental to keep beating on it while we thought about the problem, and ultimately Kyle poured a lot of acid on it and that seemed to do the trick.

After Liandra healed us we went back to sleep. Fortunately, we were not bothered again overnight.

Today was a hot and sooty day, with the first storm rolling down on us before mid-morning. We were attacked by another bowing wyvern, this one glowing red. It managed to grab Turok and Kyle at one point, but we all did enough damage that it bowed, looked back over its shoulder toward our destination, and melted into the lava.

Today's lava plants had a shorter lifetime than the previous ones but spurted more lava farther, by the way. These are interesting; if I ever settle down somewhere I may try to cultivate some to see if fireballs without the gorge's storms can produce this effect. It could be a good defensive measure for a keep, or a lab.

As the red sun rose directly overhead another storm came down on us. Ahead of the storm, we saw -- behind an outcropping of rock -- what appeared to be a ruby-colored, shining dragon crawling out of the ground. It resisted most of our spells, and eventually Turok saw through the illusion. Once he did I did also; it was really a column of gelatinous goo. I'm really surprised that Turok spotted it; I didn't realize he was that magically attuned. I guess he's played more cards with Prolix than I have.

The creature then shot out strands of goo that it tried to wrap around people's heads. It grabbed Turok and he screamed; he later told me that he felt a sensory overload as it drew him closer.

We tried many spells to stop it but without success, and eventually we charged into melee. It had Turok and Kyle snared, Turok had managed to hack away one strand earlier but it just replaced it with another. Kyle, too, had hacked away a strand but still ended up snared. I turned into a troll and Liandra turned into a bear; I was able to free Turok but not Kyle. It then threw three strands at me but all of them missed, and I then attacked and killed it. Whew! I don't know what would have happened if it had entranced all of us.

Turok and Kyle, while free, were not right in the head; the creature had affected their minds somehow. Turok was gibbering nonsensically; Kyle was better off but still unwell. Liandra ended up using two scrolls of restoration to cure them. We now only have the scroll I am carrying, which is specifically for curing Liandra if need be so that she can then cure others. We will have to get more of these scrolls even though they are expensive -- especially before taking on Garrett again. Not that I'm eager to do that, but our hosts have implied that we might not have much choice. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When another storm came a few hours later, I suggested that we conserve fire-resistance spells and fly above it instead. Liandra turned into a hawk, and I cast fly spells on Turok (who carried me) and Kyle. We met no creatures this time.

It was definitely getting hotter all day. The sweat rolling off all parts of my body combined with the soot in the air to make an awful mess. I didn't even try to improve things with magic; it was just hopeless. We all looked like we'd been living in a furnace -- which, I guess, we have been.

Toward the end of the day we were within sight of our goal: we saw a lava "waterfall" pouring down a cliff to form the river we've been following, and we saw higher cliffs above and beyond it. There were, however, elementals -- two each of fire, smoke, and lava, dancing an intricate dance in the lavafall. It was beautiful in some ways, but also potentially deadly.

They had made no hostile move toward us, so we thought we'd try to get past without violence. I turned into a gargoyle and flew up; as we suspected, the lavafall was fed by a spring in a large lava pool at the top of the cliff. They saw me and fanned out in the lavafall.

Turok tried diplomacy; he stepped forward, held Kotara-nar high, and introduced himself as the bearer of Agondre's Tooth. We are here to free Agondre, he said, and ask permission to pass. They seemed to recognize the name Agondre but did not otherwise react to his words.

They formed up for battle, so we gathered together and I willed us to the far side of the lake. It worked! I can finally teleport! I'll have to work on the nuances; it was a bumpy ride. But that can come later. I'm already at least as good as Prolix.

Now this is where our failure to understand the legend really hurt us. We thought that Turok just had to dip Kotara-nar into the pool and something would happen. In fact, dipping the sword had no effect other than that the sword became rather insistent that Turok swim down to the bottom with it. This might not have been so bad if the elementals hadn't been very fast. So while Turok swam to the bottom of the lake, several elementals attacked the rest of us.

Liandra's quenching spell was very effective against them and I did some cold damage, but we were still having problems. Liandra was critically injured by one, and I hurled an empowered coldball that killed one of them. That left three others attacking us; the lava elementals had gone into the lake to fight Turok. We didn't know what was going on down there.

One of the smoke elementals knocked Liandra unconcsious, leaving just Kyle and me. At that point Turok burst out of the pool and charged one. While Kyle healed Liandra I fired magic missiles at the three that appeared badly hurt and killed all of them. Wow, who knew that such a simple spell could be so deadly? I don't think I've ever killed three in one blow before.

Turok, however, was in a bind with the lava elementals, and one of them critically injured him and hurled him toward us. As he lay dying Liandra pulled the pearl from her neck and forced it down his throat; we could see its glow all the way down. The pearl had powerful magic, as the recipe told us; Turok sprung back up from death with much of his damage healed and, unlike his last death, without loss of his essence. Quite remarkable! We must thank that unicorn if we can when we return to Oakhame.

We are, alas, down to one pearl now, the one I wear. Prolix lost his to Garrett.

With Turok's return to the group (and to life) I was able to teleport us all a hundred feet in the air, and from that vantage point we were able to kill the remaining elementals. Turok said that Kotara-nar still wanted to go back into the pool, so after some healing he disappared into the pool once more.

Time passed, and then Turok emerged from the waterfall and told us to come in. After some discussion -- this did sound pretty weird, after all -- we agreed.

We entered a chamber with a column of lava in the middle. It was occupied by four half-man half-snake creatures (Turok called them salamanders), who welcomed us as honored guests for tonight. Tomorrow, they said, we fight. In fact, they said, they had been looking forward to our arrival; in response to my quizzical look they said that the oracle told them we were coming. The oracle can tell us how to bring Kotara-nar to its full potential, but first we must defeat the guardians of the flame in a fight.

I'm glad this fight is not until tomorrow. I am exhausted, and I don't think I'm the only one. The gorge of fire has taken its toll on all of us; I'm physically tired, magically tired, and mentally tired. I am so glad that it looks like we'll get a good night's sleep tonight! For that alone I'm grateful to our hosts.

This was all quite overwhelming, and they suggested that we refresh ourselves before speaking at length. They led us to a palatial suite of rooms with sumptuous tapestries, cushions, and -- most importantly to me -- baths. They brought us food (but not bread or salt) and suggested that we gather again in a couple hours.

So now I sit here, clean for the first time, lounging on a pile of pillows while trying to digest all that has happened. This is not at all what I expected to find at the gorge of fire. At least I think I know now who sent all those creatures who bowed to us in defeat. Was it all an elaborate test? With one test yet to go? Will the oracle answer other questions too, beyond speaking to us of Kotara-nar? Can she, perhaps, give us some hints about restoring the land? I am eager to find out.

One of the small salamander-servants has just invited us to the main room. I will add more here later.

Comments

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Wow. I felt really excited as I read this. I guess this is working out to be a better story than I'd realized. :-)

I recognize three incidents of "after all the work I did of statting out this encounter, I'm not going to let you get by peacefully." :-/

I point out that Turok was not quite gibbering nonsensically; I remember him saying, "Beer? Beer? Beer!"

[cellio]

I guess this is working out to be a better story than I'd realized. :-)

While, not being inside your head, I can't evaluate the "I'd realized" part of that statement, I suspect I agree. :-) I'm enjoying it, anyway!

I point out that Turok was not quite gibbering nonsensically; I remember him saying, "Beer? Beer? Beer!"

Oh yes, you're right. I failed to write that down. I'm still not very good about jotting down the relevant "quotable quotes" to use in Larissa's diary; for example, one that I did write down but failed to use was "hey, I'm a troll! I can hit things!".

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Monster list:

- half-red dragon troll with one level of barbarian (pretty darn effective)
- magma drake
- "brainburner", a homebrew based on the roper, but with Int and Wis damage instead of Str damage, illusion instead of camouflage, and a slower ability damage progression. I was pretty pleased with the results, actually.
- a group of elementals of a greater elemental and a huge elemental each of fire, smoke, and magma elementals. (I used large figures for the huge elementals and gave them only 10' reach, to visually distinguish them from the huge figures of the greater elementals.)