Chapter 16: Across the Plains
After giving Gaerald a tour of the facility, the group gathered the cannon (placing it in their bag of holding) before leaving Tsovayin to return to the elk clan village. Gaerald had spent the time with Sivald trying to learn their language, and had made some progress in that endeavor. They made their way back to the village, finding their way back within a day's travel from the military facility.
Back at the village, they were greeted by the Tuhka there and met with the Elk Chief to return the spear of Brynnolf. He proved immensely grateful and not only granted them the elk mounts they had been promised but organized a feast in their name. While Rasper studied the strange device ("radio"), Sugoi and Thrain joined the Tuhka who were gathering together various alcoholic beverages for the feast, including a drink of fermented turnip. Dox questioned them on their ritual practices and ceremonies, including one involving drinking potent fermented beverages, donning bear skins and running about the wilderness as if they were real bears. Gaerald studied the documents found at Tsovayin while the rest of the group enjoyed the festivities and took a much-deserved rest. During the feast, a bear was ceremoniously sacrificed to the bear god Karhu. Dox learned that this was the greatest honor to the gods, and involved a shaman convincing the bear it would not be murdered but pass peacefully to the afterlife. This involved the shaman taming the bear and convincing it to give itself willingly to the sacrifice.
After much drinking and merriment, Gaerald gathered the group to speak to them about the documents and his translation. He became highly agitated the more he spoke about it, revealing his theory that the "one-eyed creature with the ravens" was none other than Woden who came here long ago and taught some of the Tuhka slaves the secret of sailing. He believed these escapees had left the mistlands and traveled north, eventually settling in Dragon's end as the ancient Sydonians. This would prove Edwin Stearns' theories on the matter. Gaerald then declared they must find this "Great Library" or "Mets Gradaran" where the ascension project continued and was documented.
In the morning, they awoke to the bustling sounds of the village at work. The chief brought them the elk they were promised (and suggested they could live off much less food than regular elk), and Thrain bartered for a cart to mount the arcane cannon upon. After a few hours, he had managed to assemble a swivel mount for the cannon pulled by one of the elk. None of the Tuhka could provide answers as to where the library could be found, so they set out in a south-western direction into the wilds of the mistlands. Now traveling at a faster pace thanks to the elk, they traveled across the plains and eventually reached a mountain range. Rather than circumvent it, they decided to climb the first peak to get a better view of the region. After some trial and error, they eventually found a way up to the top (after strapping the cart to one of the elk and replacing the cannon in the bag of holding). Their trek up the mountain took them the entire day, and they retired for the night in an abandoned bear den. From this higher vantage point, they were able to see some ruins in the distance near the coast. The next morning, they set out back down the other side of the mountain and managed to make it down safely despite a deluge of rain creating rivers of thick ash sludge.
As they explored the ruins, Gaerald discovered a small black leather-bound book that was mysteriously well-preserved. He pocketed the item and they left, but not before finding a large metal placard showing a map of the region. They decided to follow one of the roads out of the ruins that led them south-west, and before long they discovered a large stone structure resembling a library. They entered the structure and found a lobby filled with giant bookshelves, but before they could explore further the radio began droning loudly and the interior transformed as it was revealed to be an illusion. They found themselves in a dark cave, and a monstrous tentacled creature with a massive maw loomed above them on the ceiling. They battled the creature, who proved capable of not only turning invisible but teleporting. As it attacked the group, it bound Rasper and Sugoi in its tentacles. Dox accidentally struck Rasper with a psychic blade, and was largely unsuccessful at damaging the monster. With Rasper dying in its tentacles arms, Sugoi teleported them to safety and blasted the demon with blasts of eldritch energy. Combined with Thrain's relentless attacks and spells, they eventually slew the beast and it turned into a puddle of black ooze--like every demon they had encountered. They left the cave and returned to the road.
That night, Gaerald studied the book he had found intently. As the group rested, he continued his studies well into the morning. When they awoke, he could still be found studying the tome. Dox revealed that he had been under the spell of the mistlands' "dark whispers" during the fight with the cave creature, and had attempted to side with the demon and kill them. They resolved to attempt to better control the dark influence of the mistlands. As they were leaving, Gaerald became angry when Dox interrupted his studies to tell him they were ready to go. His behavior was erratic and unlike him. As they traveled down the road, they heard a sudden clap of thunder as a beam of radiant light crashed down before them, blinding them for a moment. As their vision returned, they found a group of armor-clad knights and priests before him. Their helmets bore a gleaming sun crest also present on their breastplates. They announced themselves as servants of the radiant sun and knights of the holy order of Dahzbog; on an eternal crusade for the black texts of Czernobog. They demanded the text be handed over, but the group refused to acknowledge they held this text (and Gaerald grew visibly nervous). The knights grew frustrated, and revealed they had traveled here from another world in search of this evil text that had been penned in the darkest depths of the elemental chaos. Their crusade had taken them here, where they believed one of the scripts to be. Rasper proved strangely ready for bloodshed, and after taking the book from Gaerald Thrain also became obsessed with it and refused to give it up. Rasper cast a spell to force Thrain to laugh uncontrollably as Dox tried to wrestle the book away from him. In response to this, the knights accused Rasper of witchcraft and claimed an evil lay within her (at which point their weapons were drawn, ready for battle). When Dox asked them to prove their good intentions, one of the knights approached Rasper and used his magic to drive the evil from her (ridding her of the mistlands influence that was driving her bloodlust). Convinced of their intentions, Dox handed over the book, and the knight destroyed it with his holy blade. As soon as he did, its hold over Thrain and Gaerald faded and they returned to normal. They thanked the group on behalf of the sacred order of Dahzbog and the "grand admiralty of Kiev" before leaving in another flash of light.
After a few days of travel down the road, the group encountered a large group of Tuhka arguing loudly. They were the wolf and owl clans, arguing over which of them would have the right to camp there. The wolf clan had camped there the last 3 springs, but the owl clan had been driven from their camp further south by demons. They said there was a structure there built into a mountain that drove the wild beasts mad. The group mediated the argument, and asked them to camp together for a time while they cleared out the demons to the south so the owl clan could resettle there. They agreed, and allowed them to camp with them that night. The party left early in the morning, traveling south west along the coast. They came across two rivers they had to ford using their folding boat, and as they neared the south-western mountains the radio began to drone loudly again. The mist thickened and blotted out the sun, leaving them in complete darkness. They could hear the sounds of monsters all around them, and the ground was suddenly covered in thick black sludge. They could hear large, heavy footsteps as a monster suddenly came from behind and tore Sivald and his mount to pieces. Sugoi lit a torch and Gaerald fled after casting a spell of light on himself. The group battled the demon in the darkness, but its relentless claws and bite slowly chipped away at them before they finally slew the spined toad-like creature. Before they could take breath of respite, another demon came at them out of the darkness. This one was massive and attacked with a set of pincered arms and two additional muscular arms with fists like a hammer. It grappled Rasper and Sugoi with its claws as thrain and dox fought it head-on (with an unusual bloodlust). As they assaulted it with spell, mind and weapon, Rasper and Sugoi escaped via a thunderous spell of teleportation--leaving Dox to fend for himself as Thrain stood stunned by the demon's magic. Dox was grappled in its pincers and slowly crushed to unconsciousness as Sugoi blasted the demon and Thrain pounded away with his thunder gauntlets. Rasper finally unleashed a shattering spell and cracked the thing's shell, spewing forth black ooze before collapsing into the ground. In a tense moment, Thrain's bloodlust nearly led to him killing one of the elk before Rasper stopped him with another incapacitating spell of laughter. Sugoi used the dragon horn to pour a potion of healing into Dox's mouth, reviving him as the darkness faded and they returned to the mistlands.
Rasper rushed to Sivald's side and attempted to revive him, but his soul proved distant. It was in a dark place of utter hopelessness, where Rasper's magic could not reach it...
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