Session 173 - "Passenger"

General Summary

The Fellowship begins to paint a clearer picture of the lone Dark Rider, only to find they are missing pieces to an even greater puzzle.

Sunday, Desnus 1, 4711 AR

The Tunnels - Under Undiomede Manor

12.54p

With a sharp inhale, X blankets the area before him in a breath of dragon's fire, catching one of the skums in its blast, instantly ashing it. Kelath begins to evangelize and cow one of the remaining skum before moving closer to Neferu and raising his shield. The stupefied skum runs off to the south.

The sound of battle to the west goes eerily silent. Nyrrk suddenly teleports to the west and sees the kneeling form of Yib, her back to the group. In front of her is a large sickly white light that pulses slightly. The sight of it hurts the party's heads and causes an unconscious eye twitch. Gazing at it awes and fills Nyrrk with dread. The large cavernous area appears to have been some sort of makeshift barracks. A large splash of blood is seen off to one side. A large hole is near Yib from which barely protrudes the head of a woman. With growing dread, Kyrrn suggests leaving as quickly as possible. Kyrrn explains that the mass of light is a Colour Out of Space, an alien being that typically falls to Golarian on skymetal from the Dark Tapestry. They are a kind of energy vampire that absorbs all life, energy, and even color around it. Eventually enter a cocoon-like state before exploding back into the void. Yib convulses slightly as if racked with pain before it. Kyrrn calculates the the color will erupt sometime in the next 24 hours. Spying a body in off to the side in the cave, Kyrrn levitates it to the group and X pins it to the ground with a pair of extra swords. The body's head suddenly erupts in a mass of flailing tentacles. Kelath gives a great battle cry, but it does not appear to affect the creature. He falls back into an inspiring stance and slashes at the prone form. The tentacles whip around X and ensnare him as the creature rips its body free from his swords. Without a moment's hesitation, X draws his twin swords and hacks viciously into the monstrosity. Neferu quickly patches Kelath wounds. The Unworthy Soul strides forward begins clawing at it as well. An enormous boulder drops on the creature, nearly exploding its body. Nyrrk strides forward and begins to telekinetically assault Yib. X checks on Kyrrn and notices that there is a passageway further in the cave. With ever increasing disgust, he sees the woman crawl out of the hole and lean on Yib. X fireballs the area, vaporizing the woman. On the verge of hysterics, Kyrrn finishes off Yib by flinging a stone at her and caving in her head. On the body the party finds unusual chainmail as well as an unusual trident. Preceding forward, X finds a cavernous passage just big enough to stand in that leads off until it begins to run underwater. It is quite obviously salty and he surmises that they have finally found the long rumored smuggler's tunnels of Cassius Undiomede.

1.24p

The Soul goes to investigate the southern passage and sees two dead skum that have been nearly ripped apart by a massive blade. A wall of terraced shelving is off to one side. Primitive totems and brick-a-brack litter the room. Kelath deduces that the two holes in the floor are part of some sort of tunnel system. Examining the body of the barbarian reveals an unusual greataxe and two unusual javelins. Kyrrn reads the tank that Undiomede's body floats in and gets a vision of Father Voltario looking at it relevantly and bowing before it.

Undiomede Manor

1.34p

After slotting the unholy symbol, a gateway appears and the Fellowship reappears in the manor. However there were seven pops, not five, and two Hounds of Tindalos appear. The hound to the north disappears from sight. The second hound attacks the Soul, clawing into him, before stepping back. Kelath strikes an inspiring stance and readies an attack. X begins to seek out the first hound. Pinpointing its location, he lashes out and connects with something with his sword. Kelath attempts to hit the hidden creature as well, but misses and feels slashes open up on his body. Neferu manifests an arc of electricity that misses the first one by connects with the second. Kyrrn moves forward and flings open all doors in her path, one of the hounds' gazes ripping into her. The first hound reappears and attempts to strike X but misses and then steps away from him cautiously. The second hound blinks out of the doorway in front of Neferu but is unable to capitalize on its sudden appearance. Kelath raises his shield and shoves the hound aside. X unfurls his wings and flies through the manor into the open outside. Neferu follows his lead. Kyrrn moves to the outside as well. The creatures descend on Kelath, but miss widely with most of their attacks. He wastes little time by exiting the manor as well. X suddenly grows large and then flies even higher. Seeing their prey in open land, the hounds wink away. X spies the widow's walk on the second floor and retrieves the corpse he finds there. He also notices arcane symbols in charcoal around it. He finds that they deal with a rite of summoning and open onto the Dark Tapestry itself. Kyrrn recognizes the man from her vision with Father Voltario. Neferu looks over the body's wounds, finding them horribly ruptured as if it was dropped from a great height. It appears that this person was one of the shantak's first victims. X flies Kyrrn up to the widow's walk who begins to look over the runes there. They appear to have been made with little skill and did not bring something from the void as intended. Instead, it looks to have opened up in the Dreamlands. Her and X both transcribe the runes before Kyrrn rubs the them out.

1.55p

The party begins to theorize that the Whispering Way has been misdirecting and using the cult to help free the Whispering Tyrant. They then begin to make their way through the unexplored areas of the manor. One room appears to show signs of a struggle and reeks of the skum. An old stable area houses a starving horse. They begin to tending to the horse. Kyrrn attempts to read a saddle, but is unable to get any impressions off it.

2.15p

A single set of footprints is found to lead the small room where the struggle took place. Further investigation shows even more signs of skum in the dust. The Soul searches the room more thoroughly and finds a saddlebag amongst the rubbish. He hefts it and finds that it is full with something. After giving it to Neferu, he finds a small wooden crate inside it. Kyrrn, Kelath, and Neferu recognize it, either from a vision they saw at Feldgrau or a vision that Drago Beumhal had of Auren Vrood. Kyrrn moves over excitedly and opens the box to find a pile of thick straw with two depressions. One looks to be the same size as the Sea-Sage Effigy and the other the Star Moit. Kyrrn says she believes that the star moit must have been the origin of the colour before it was set free. Within the bag itself is a small scrap of parchment, "Ask Lucas about Raven's Head".