Sapphire:Sessions:20180505

Back in Ridell on Dark Days 3 around 9pm, Shawna stresses that "Emmy" must maintain a humanoid form if she is to learn and grow as a person. Emmy claims she can't do that in the real world. Chalker muses that perhaps she could animate some form of golem.

Shawna says she'll be leaving Ridell; "I've got a war to run." Chalker says "I want to see a gate" and persuades Shawna to go with him. We go to the known gate; Shawna plugs in the crystals and the gate activates. She draws her sword and steps through into a small museum, windowless but well-lit with lanterns. On display are various artifacts such as vases and jewelry. The gate they came through is the centerpiece of a recreation of a shrine to a Third Chosen of Santash who was active 1500 years ago.

Chalker steps through and shivers involuntarily. Shawna lays her finger on her lips in a 'shh' gesture. People can be heard speaking conversationally a few rooms away.

Shawna feels Damarot questing for her and allows herself to be contacted. "There are those in need, and your seal is present... A village is in danger from a cavern complex that my priests have been clearing, and we would ask you to check your seal, as it is slipping... This is in the northern mountains beyond the Calventine Empire, in the frontier beyond the country of Groket... Are you able to assist?" Shawna, though puzzled, consents to go.

Damarot links the gate to the death realms, and Shawna and Chalker step through into the Deadlands. Before them is ana rolling plain scattered with boulders. Leading the way is a floating lantern with a ghostly bluish glow. Chalker sees eerie shapes all around. Shawna murmurs, "This place can cause death visions." She touches his arm reassuringly and the ghostly shapes flee.

They approach a looming mass that resolves into an altar to Damarot, and the floating lantern reveals its bearer, a translucent image of Dar. Shawna and Chalker step through the altar into a makeshift shrine, housed in a circus-style tent; there is an elaborate altar and two incense burners. Two female priests of Dar lean against the tent poles. In separate areas are two shrines to Charesoon, the Mother of Night.

A tall man steps in front of them. His hair is black and his eyes are gray; his skin is the color of cinnamon. He is clad in leathers, wears a coiled whip at his belt, and strapped to his back is a hand-and-a-half sword. He introduces himself as Kimley and calls himself a necro-hunter. He explains that we are in a "cavern complex" near the city of Tinsom Hot Springs in the Solon Valley in the Kingdom of Groket. The priests of Damarot have established a small military base here. Kimley and his men have "cleared out" at least six powerful necromancers.

Originally some locals stumbled upon this place; many parties of adventurers have since come here, and many of those people have been killed by a variety of creatures, traps, and "Mother's Children." (It seems the city has opportunistically widened and improved the road and made quite a good income selling supplies and mounts to these wannabe explorers. Shawna makes a note to visit ill-fortune upon the greedy, pitiless bastards.)

Two dwarves armed with battleaxes (Rorf Greatedge and Tortoc Fiendeater) flank us as Kimley leads us a steel-banded door set in a stone wall. Shawna's seal is set upon its lock. Shawna knows it is hers, set by her hand, but she has no memory of having done so. Chalker can't quite see through the door itself; it has a 'spiritual block' that counters spells such as Glass Wall as well as Chalker's Penetrating Vision. There is an obvious crack like a keyhole in the seal, and when Shawna and Chalker peer through they see a dimly-lit room containing a naked, wrinkled humanoid only three feet tall. They get a horrendous, creepy feeling, and they both seem to see small squiggly things moving from left to right inside the door. Kimley calls them "portal worms" or "portal threads".

Shawna removes the seal. Two large worms (18" diameter) with sharp teeth leap out at them. Shawna dodges W1 and heads for the humanoid. Chalker chops W1 half through; it's like cutting into a thick rope.

Chalker chops at W1 again, but it phases. From the humanoid Shawna gets a sense of Chaos and a hint of the Mother of Night. "For Damarot!" she cries and slices deep into its neck. W2 has been engaged by Greatedge and Fiendeater. Kimley chops into W1. W1 tries to bite Chalker and misses; at the same time, it wraps its lower body around Kimley.

Shawna jabs her sword into the humanoid's body and rips upward. W1's cuts start healing; it constricts around Kimley and strikes at Chalker. Kimley begins praying aloud. Chalker jabs his sword into W1's mouth; the worm collapses into what looks like a large tangle of black yarn. W2 collapses similarly.

Chalker sees, 12" behind one wall, another wall painted with a mural of a large city. He points it out to Kimley. Shawna says it reminds her of a human city extant near Helm's Deep at the start of the current age. Another wall conceals racks of weapons. Shawna directs Kimley to perform an autopsy on the humanoid.