Session 12 Report

General Summary

The party continues through the cave, down a slope and into a dark chamber, lit only by lichen and glowing mushrooms. In the distance, something moves in the dark. Settling in for a nights rest, the party experience unique dreams.   As the party continues through the open cavern. Contrary to what the party was told by Lord Henri Rael, the cavern looks like it has seen recent activity. As the party turns a corner, they find a steep embankment leading to the north. The party ties themselves together to try and safely make their way down the slope. As Yemtoc leads the way, he suddenly feels the rope go slack behind him, as Huugar and Ava begin to lose their footing. Yemtoc, realizing he cannot catch them pulls the rope from his waist and jumps onto his longsword which he deftly rides down the base of the incline. As they are falling Huugar slams his ax into the ground catching the group. They all slowly make their way down the slope. At the base of the slope there is a roughly 30 foot drop, acting as an anchor Huugar helps the rest of the group climb down the rope. While attempting to climb down, Huugar begins to slip, he is able to catch himself where he notices several intentional handholds carved into the rock which he is able to use to climb down.   Reaching the base of the cavern wall Huugar begins to inspect the well constructed ruins. The room is a large open cavern, with bioluminescent lichens and mushrooms surounding the group. Ava, grabs some of the growing mushrooms, and starts putting them in her bag. Huugar hears a strange scraping noise. Yemtoc is able to quietly explore the sound, he see small foot and a half tall figures pruning mushrooms. Huugar has heard of spore creatures before, and advises the group to leave them in peace. Examining the material, Huugar recognizes that the buildings are hundreds of years old, and built by human hands. Ava locates dome dessicated mushrooms and lights a brazier they found in the middle of the room. Yemtoc hears things moving away from the group. He decides to explore one of the broken rooms, but just finds broken stone.   The party starts to feel the wear of the day. Underground without sunlight the party is a bit disoriented. Huugar, experienced in the caves, realized it is getting to be late in the evening he suggest resting for the evening. Ava keeps looking through mushrooms for a bit while they settle in. Yemtoc starts going through the mushrooms she has collected, hoping to develop something useful such as a poison or poultice. While the mushrooms don't seem to have an effect, there are small flowers which appear to have a weak medicinal effect. Yemtoc and Ava take the first watch, during their watch they experiment with the plants around. Their watch concludes uneventfully.   Huugar takes a watch, and spends it in prayer. Exploring the area farther he find an altar to an unknown god. His watch concludes uneventfully. After rousing the remaining members of the party he settles in for a long rest...   Huugar finds himself in a stone room, the walls begin to shake - rubble begins to fill the room. He flies into a rage, looking into his hand he sees a pick-axe. Each strike of the rock causes the stone to double. The room begins to fill. Huugar turns to flee, he scrambles up the rubble that was starting to pin him down. Shouting into the void, he finds a small alcove, appraching the alcove, filled with rubble, hands stretch out through the rubble. Pulling back, he backs into a wall that wasn't there before. Striking the wall more rocks begin to tumble down. Behind him, the sound of movement - the rocks begin to part and amongst the rubble - faces Huugar recognizes, remembers. Their eyes are hollow, lost with no sense of recognition. They stand motionless, and through the darkness Huugar hears a deep bellowing laughter he has never heard before. He races towards one of the figures, begins to shake it, screams at it to know what is happening, no response, he tosses it to the side and goes to the next, no response.... then his world goes black.   Ava is standing in a glade, surrounded by nature. It is a peaceful place, she can hear runnign water, birds chirping in the sky. COming up over the hill she sees her aunt. She is running from something, dashing towards Ava - shouting silently. Ava runs towards her, climbing the hill. Behind her aunt, the land quickly rolls from summer to fall to winter. The trees' leaves turn and then fall barren. The grass withers and dissapears. Just a breath behind that, a wave of darkness. Her aunt trips, engulfed in the darkness she dissapears. Ava jumps towards where her aunt dissapeared. She passes the plane from grass to winter to darkness. Crossing the barrier, looking around everything is as she expects, but shaded. Like wearing glasses that strip the color from the world. She sees her aunt as a young child, who then disapears. Looking at her own body, she sees herself. Then shadows appear, groups of people flee the shadows. Figures adorned in light rush towards the shadows to try and push them back, but the darkness engulfs them. Both the light and shadow are bipedal, emenating their respective nature. Ava joins those running from the shadows. The people don't recognize Ava's presence. She sees a family, parent - child, child in tears... then everything goes dark.   Yemtoc is wandering through a small village, lots of happy families walk around. Everything looks a bit taller than he expects. Rounding a corner he sees someone he recognizes, someone he hasn't seen in a long time. They smile, cross to Yemtoc, take his hand and lead them to the dock where they head out on a boat together for a bit. Setting on the water, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and Yemtoc nodds off. Waking up they are still on the water, but the air is cold and sky cloudy and they are alone. Land is nowhere to be seen, on the horizion, storm clouds gather forming a dark wall rising up from the horizion, and slowly begin to encircle the boat. Their entire world is encapculated in the darkness, the ship starts to waver and tips. Thrown into the water, waves crash over Yemtoc's head. Driven down they cannot reach the surface, struggle as they might. The can't breathe. Then everything goes still. Yemtoc is alone, in the depths, cold, not breathing but alive. They slowly settle to the bottom, surrounded by the bones of sea cretaures. In the distance there is a faint glowing light, swiming towards it a structure starts to take shape. A small temple, an altar, a knife, and the darkness takes them.