Session 17 – The Sons of Alurax

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

The party awakens on an unseasonably warm spring day, prepared to make another foray into the tunnels to learn more about their inhabitants, and to attempt a rescue of Dirk and the horse-pelican. The group tackles the cliffside (Enkidu with Goltur on his shoulders), Balint creates a dweomer to allow the group to pass undetected, Theobald turns Glitterstem invisible, and the gnome changes into a giant spider. Together with Miletus, he leads the party into the cave. Theobald and Balint, being the two characters unable to see, carry the torch 30 feet behind the rest of the group.
The guardian of the waterfall appears to be gone for good, and the group head toward the intersection where the tunnel splits to the right and left. At the juncture, Miletus espies two skulking shapes – apparently small humanoids with long muzzles and tails. The elf hails them, and they scamper away, to the left – toward the large cave where the party encountered the dragon. An attempt to track the creatures reveals reptilian-shaped footprints. Theobald attempts to contact the horse-pelican telepathically, but initially comes up with nothing. The party once again trigger a magical messenger, which says in draconic (according to Theobald) that it has already spared them once, and that there won’t be a third time. Shortly after, telepathic contact with the horse-pelican is established. It informs the party that it is still being held and drained of blood, that yesterday a human was brought in by the creatures that are holding it, that the creatures seem to be setting a trap for them, and that there is a dragon, or perhaps two, but that one of them seems to be immobile. The creatures seem to be led by a spellcaster of some sort. A bright fog forms at the entrance to the cavern, suggesting some sort of presence.
Agreeing to use the horse-pelican as a telepathic system of communication to the rest of the party, Glitterstem enters the cave along the ceiling. Two of the small humanoids are hiding near the cave entrance, two are aloft in the air, and others peak in and out at junctures where smaller side-passages lead upward from the cave in every direction. The horse-pelican is still in his old place, apparently held fast between four rectangularly-positioned stalagmites. He has small, dry wounds on his body. Toward the back of the cave is what appears to be a crude but life-sized stone carving of a dragon, and, as the horse-pelican informs Glitterstem, the leader of the band of humanoids is currently hiding underneath it. In the far end of the cave, boulders appear to block a larger exit. On the ceiling above the dragon, strange writing, which Glitterstem cannot read, is laid out in spiraform patterns.
Informing the party of his intentions, Glitterstem drops down from the ceiling, and positions himself beside the hiding leader. As the party prepares to rush into the cavern, Glitterstem stings him. The leader survives the assault, but, seeing his precautions of no use, and Enkidu leading the rest of the group in its charge, he calls for a parlay, and the party accepts. Through the mediation of Theobald, who understands the draconic tongue, the creature says that his group will release the human taken prisoner as a goodwill measure, and Dirk, is in fact released (he appears to be largely unharmed, though he does whisper to Miletus that his sword was taken from him). When questioned about the sword, the creature says it is valuable to him, and he would like to keep it as a token sealing an alliance between the party and the humans it represents, and these creatures, which he reveals to be kobolds. An alliance captures Theobald’s interest, as it is proposed against the Brotherhood of Baghtru. The kobolds will not release the horse-pelican, however: its was brought to them by the orcs (who wanted its blood to raise the fallen in the upcoming war with the humans), but the kobolds took it away, as they need its blood to help them prepare a shroud, or cloth of some kind that will raise the Earth (as they say) to be the bride of their forefather, Alurax. The kobolds see no cause to release the horse-pelican, as he does not belong to the party, and the leader sees it as being a fair exchange for the water guardian, which the party killed earlier.
Alurax, as Theobald is aware, is a brass dragon of yore, famous for assuming a variety of different shapes, and for trying to populate the world with his progeny. He is also reputed to be his family’s distant ancestor, but the kobolds trace their descent to him as well. The leader of the kobolds relates that their progenitor led his people to Gethen – the New World, before the Great Awakening. His people bore Alurax’s eggs – originally dormant and inert. Around the time of the Awakening, they hatched spiders – called the Daughters of Alurax, apparently with the aid of subterranean creatures the kobolds call the Ingoeth. When asked what these creatures are, the kobold leader responds that they are similar in appearance to Miletus. Miletus suspects that these creatures are the Drow of legend, and that they somehow tricked the kobolds, but the leader does not appear perplexed about the fact that dragon eggs hatched spiders – Alurax is a protean being, after all. More recently, a human visitor named Theodoric taught the kobolds that the blood of a horse-pelican could restore the Earth, whose custodians are the Ingoeth, to life, if her shroud is bathed in its blood. The kobold says that Theodoric was similar in appearance to Theobald, that he predicted the coming of the horse-pelican, and taught the kobolds how to use his blood. The Ingoeth apparently reside somewhere below, where they shepherd spiders, and weave their silk into various sorts of vestments (the kobold leader seems to be dressed in one). He also predicted the coming of his descendant. In response to queries about where Theodoric has gone, the kobold replies that he went further inland, in search of the Fountain of Youth.
The horse-pelican confirms that he is a recent arrival in Gethen from the idyllic Summer Isles, but he contradicts the kobold’s version of the story about his blood. Although the blood has curative and resurrective powers (and the water of Arame pond has beneficial powers as well), he says it cannot function if taken by force – only if it is freely given. He avers that the kobolds do not know this.
Theobald inspects the writing on the ceiling, which is draconic, and relates the narrative of the kobolds coming from overseas bearing eggs, settling in Gethen, and living alongside the Ingoeth, which more or less matches the kobold’s tale. One of the other spirals contains the much more recent tale of Theodoric, but one detail that was not related by the kobold is that his grandfather seems to have come in search of a Ring of Earth. Discussing this with the rest of the party, Theobald and Miletus come to the conclusion that this is likely the mythical fourth elven ring that Lianel told them about.
As information continues to be exchanged, and negotiations about a possible alliance proceed, Glitterstem telepathically asks the horse-pelican whether it would like to be released from captivity, and it emphatically answers yes. Glitterstem moves toward the creature, and breaks one of the nearly invisible threads that bind it to a stalagmite. The horse-pelican whistles and rears up with its front leg, and the kobold leader screams out to his followers to kill the party, which is trying to steal their quarry!

Report Date

10 Oct 2015