Nomen Infernale V: Into the Holes of the Rocks

Abet had a hunch about the treasures found in the Bearmen's lair and he asked the Oameni rogue to confirm: he believed that though the Bearmen were engaged in banditry around the mines, most, if not all, of the coins would be more than a century old. Alex recruited Riven to assist him with her nearly preternatural pattern-finding abilities, and they began sorting the coins by provenance and age. Meanwhile, Abet began dismembering the bodies of the slain Bearmen. While Theo was lightly scandalized by the treatment of the dead, Abet reminded him that the dead often did not stay dead in Khemian lands. Asbjørn gleefully joined in the desecration and the task was finished relatively quickly.

The Medjay then asked Asbjørn to gather La Compagnia around the Bearmen's large firepit. After they had assembled around the fire, Riven and Alex confirmed that there were no freshly minted coins in the store. They helpfully began explaining their methodology and how thoroughly the coins were now organized; there were 3000 silver coins and 5000 gold coins. Abet only let them ramble briefly before explaining that he believed the coins and jewelry were originally part of a secret hoard belonging to a cell of the Cult of Nexra. He told them of how the Rexan Empire had once ruled over the Senu Desert and despite the protests of the Khemian Medjay, they had descrated many crypts and tombs in their search for the arcane secrets of the lost civilizations of the Third Age. Abet spoke of how the last Rexan Emperor, Nefastius, brought Khemian necromancers to Rexa so that he could learn the ways of corrupting bodies and souls into twisted Ghul warriors. The Emperor also sent his Timendi to Khemia to rediscover the lost Khemian technique of creating a sakh, also known as a taricus in the common tongue. Abet believed that the mining operations at Lakham Tabab had been a front for retrieving some of these secrets and hoped that by exploring deeper he might find evidence of which Rexan family had been instrumental in this affair. He explained to the party that he feared that the rements of this cult would not stop until it had given not just Nexra but also Reshpu dominion over Tel. After listening to Abet's tale, Brother Theo reminded Abet of the urgency of securing the drystone needed to stop the rot from consuming Kegho. While nowhere as skilled in earth-lore as a Keb, Abet assured the party that it was highly likely that they would come across a vein of drystone deeper in the mine.

Once again united in purpose, they packed the spoils of the Bearman cavern in an alcove near the entryway of the lair to retrieve it when, no - if they returned from the depths of the mine. At Abet's suggestion, they formed up behind Asbjørn to head down a spiral path deeper into the tunnels. Following the trail of blood they noticed upon reentering the mines after their fierce battle with the Bearman clan, they were soon set upon by a familiar foe - Striges! Alex was stabbed almost immediately between his shoulder blades as a strix swooped down on him and thrust its razor-sharp proboscis into his flesh.

He cried out in disbelief, "I'm so short, it is really improbable that a flying enemy would attack me first!" However, his protestations to whichever of the gods that were listening at that moment did not change the fact that the strix had attached itself to him and began its exsanguination of the incredulous Oameni.

In rapid succession, six other striges flew down from the stalactites: four going after Asbjørn and three after Abet, with all of the bloodthirsty abominations missing their mark. Riven and Asbjørn attempted to counter-attack admist the wild fluttering, but with so much chaos in the narrow and dark mine shaft, they failed to drive the striges away.

A strix flew past Asbjørn as Abet split another one in twain with a swipe of his large khopesh. Two more striges dive-bombed Asbjorn but were deflected by the flat of his blade. Fatigued from the effort of fighting off the swarm of these strange creatures, Asbjorn finally succumbed to injury when a third strix stabbed him through a gap in his enchanted bronze curiass, thrusting its sharp proboscis just below his left armpit and beginning to feed.

Teleptyon Marathonos drew upon his study of the Philosophia Arcana to attack one of the many striges descending onto Asbjorn; manipulating the strands of Ar that are omnipresent, he summoned a bolt of energy to blast one of the vile creatures out of the air. Despite this show of arcane power, another strix swooped down from the ceiling at Asbjørn, but was unable to penerate his armor with its proboscis. With a swing of his mace, Brother Theo bludgeoned the strix consuming Asbjørn's blood, yet the foul beast survived the blow and continued to bleed the Rhenish barbarian dry. Meanwhile, Alex, still in a huff about having his life-blood drained, slammed a dagger into the space just above the strix-on-his-back's proboscis, and then detached it with a quick flick of his wrist. At the same time, Kegho shouldered his heavy Ashkuz crossbow and fired at a strix, but the bolt missed its target, lodging into the soft sandstone wall instead.

The striges continued to swarm Abet and Asbjorn. As Asbjorn slashed one in half with his Kebite scimitar, Kegho hastily began cocking his crossbow for another shot. Riven and a strix attacked each other simultaneously; as her arrow passed through the strix's thorax, it thrust its knife-like beak into her shoulder. The strix then eagerly began to feed despite being wounded. Teleptyon raise his staff, and with a stentorian invocation, he launched another bolt of arcane energy towards their foe, exploding a strix mid-flight. Abet attacked the one latched on Asbjorn and cut him free from the parasite. With a deft upward stroke, Alex skewered one through what he assumed was its perineum, and let it slide lifeless off the end of his short sword and onto the mine floor.

Observing Asbjorn's strength falter as his life slowly ebbed away from the multitude of wounds inflicted upon him by the striges, Brother Theo ran towards him and places his hands over the bloody wound on Asbjorn's torso. He closed his eyes and chanted a invocation to request the divine intervention of Lamos to heal his battle companion. Despite Asbjorn's hostility to the Ouranic Church, its gods saw it fit to grant the cleric's request.

Alex swung his Oameni sling and, with a loud crack, shot a bullet into the air at a strix about to attack Asbjørn. At the same time, seeing that Riven was having difficulties removing the strix attached to her shoulder, Abet attempted to rescue his 'Green Falcon'. However, as the bloated strix squirmed widly as it feed, he inflicted a surface wound on Riven with the edge of his khopesh instead. Teleptyon saw that the battle was going poorly for Riven and decided to launch another bolt of anima at the strix attached to Riven's shoulder. As the arcane energies overwhelmed it, the strix exploded and drenched Riven's face and upper torso in a rain of viscera and the mingled bodily fluids of both the strix and its victim. With only one strix left alive, Asbjorn struck it down and Riven finished it with a killing shot.

The danger passed, Theo took advantage of the respite to heal those who had been injured in the battle, preparing them for their next trial. After a brief breather, the adventurers formed back up behind Asbjørn and headed deeper into the mines. The narrow mine shaft opened into a larger cavern that had experienced a partial cave in. The trail of blood continued west, towards the area of the cave in. The air was heavy with what appeared to be the scent of rotting vegetation and carrion overlain with a sickly sweet gangrenous smell. Abet suggested that Alex and Riven sneak forward to scout ahead. Riven moved along the tracked blood toward the cave-in as Alex moved the opposite way, towards a passage lined with the primitive petroglyph art they had seen earlier of self-mutilation and human sacrifice.

Alex motioned for Riven to join him as the party slunk closer to the middle of the cavern. The Oameni rogue and the Scout of Palesia slowly slid into the passageway. As they moved deeper, they noticed the depictions carved into the walls becoming more and more visually disturbing. They reached the end of the tunnel and they were faced with images simply drawn humanoids engaging in worship flanking a scarlet-eyed, cyclopic bat demon in some sort of profane triptych. Alex, already entangled with the black essence of Nekhtebu experienced a brief delight as his eyes ran over the images, a serpentine grin briefly passing over his visage. On the other hand, Riven experienced intrusive and disturbing thoughts of darkness and violent death from the image, but was able to shake them off through sheer will.

They retreated back down the tunnel to tell the rest what they had seen. Alex asked if in any of the books Brother Theo had studied had there been reference to a cyclopic bat-demon, but the cleric could not recall anything specific. Indeed, filled with the zeal of Ator the Lawgiver, he urged the party to purge the vile depictions with steel and flame. Alex mischievously asked if Teleptyon had any useful knowledge or wished to study it, but Kegho held the young mage back and declared that it would be best not to meddle with such things.

With a sigh, the motley collection of sellswords, scoundrels, and wandering scholars that made up La Compagnia girded themselves to delve deeper into the mine, inevitably coming to face with whatever was at the end of the blood trail.