Session 29: The Barak Tor Begins

General Summary

In the howling darkness of night on the 39th day after Midsommar, the Storm Eaters dug their companion Ottar out from the collapsing tunnel trap and took stock of their brutal victory over the Brood of beast men at the barrow hill of Sultfir Elf-lover. Maebha looted the magic skull-headed staff and Synsk looted a well-used chain shirt from the dead. Bloodroot took Mother's tongue and then planted an acorn in her chest in some strange, dark ritual of the Bloodleaves Druids. The Storm Eaters then moved away from the carnage and took shelter in a nearby ravine, close enough to keep an eye on the barrow yet far enough away to avoid any scavengers that may be drawn to split blood.
The companions rested until the sun crept into the dull eastern sky. Maebha used some of her necromantic magic to bolster her two remaining skeletons, adding fresh bones to their bodies, granting them greater strength and vitality. Einar used a bit of his healing magic to remove the poison that flowed in Bloodroot's veins, compliments of the two-headed beast dog that had bitten him the night before.
Moderately refreshed, the Storm Eaters once again searched for an opening into Sultfir's barrow. They discovered two points of interest around the man-made hill. The first was a strange and arcane patch of blood on the ground that could not be moved or altered, even when the ground beneath was dug away. The other was a secret door hidden under several inches of dirt along the north side of the hill. Perplexed by the strange patch of blood, they decided to investigate the door first. The stone door opened to release a burst of musty, trapped air. No doubt this door had not been opened in many years. Beyond was a thirty foot stone tunnel leading to another door at the far end. Einar led the way, searching for traps as he went in the walls and ceiling. Many of the Storm Eaters followed, scattered along the length of the tunnel. When Einar reached the door at the far end he discovered that it was another false entrance, essentially a stone wall carved to look like a door! As he discovered this one of his hefty boots scuffed a pressure plate in the floor he had missed by searching only the walls and ceilings. Suddenly a stone block trap was falling to block the door they had entered and poisonous gas was filling the tunnel they would soon be trapped in. With the reflexes of a cat, Synsk used his mental gifts to hold the falling stone block in place telekinetically. An equally quick thinking Ottar used some nearby stones to wedge the block in place so that the tunnel would not be lost to them and the poison gas could dissapate into the open air.
Having escaped another lethal false entrance trap, the Storm Eaters turned to the strange patch of immovable blood. They decided to dig, as perhaps the blood was a marker meant to show them along the Blood Path. After a few moments of digging they discovered a hatch hidden beneath the ground. They cleared it and opened it. No burst of stale air this time. The tunnel beneath the hatch door had not been sealed long ago. Several of the Storm Eaters dropped down into the tunnel to investigate. It ran about thirty feet to another hatch in the floor at the far end. A strange mosiac depicting numerous scenes covered all the walls and ceiling. A path of red stones was set into the otherwise gray floor. Einar decided this had to be another marker for the Blood Path and walked only on the red stones to traverse the tunnel. As he stepped on the last red stone a series of words in dwarvish appeared along the floor of the tunnel. Ottar read them, "Beyond lies a prison built by men to hold a man's soul. I have perfected it to test your souls. To be trusted, show trust. To find compassion, show compassion. So begins the Barak Tor."
The companions surmised this was the work of Wrothgar, the infamous dwarven master smith, laying clues for the six chosen to follow his Blood Path and show their worth to possess the mighty God Trap he has created.
Many of the Storm Eaters studied the mosiac that covered the walls and ceiling. The first part depicted six crying entities lost in a maze, which the companions assumed depicted the souls of Sultfir and his elven witches in their barrow maze. The next part of the mosiac depicted dwarves creating strange things that looked like bizarre and giant versions of men, beasts, and insects. These creation then seemed to turn upon their masters, and an endless cycle of violence and creation looped upon itself over and over. The final part of the mosiac depicted a single dwarf in agony, surrounded by a sea of eyeballs and men made of stone. Upon studying this imagery, Ottar believed it depicted the myth of B'Hul the Blind, a masterful dwarven craftsman from long ago that went blind and then mad in his obsession to discover a way to restore his sight.
Learning all they could from the passage and its cryptic messages, the companions went through the hatch door deeper into the earth. They found themselves in a massive barrow chamber filled with a maze of walls that nearly stretched to the ceiling, barely leaving a gap large enough to spy across the chamber. At the far side was a stone sarcophagus surrounded by six boxes bound in chains. From these containers emerged six ghostly spirits: Sultfir and his harem of elven witches!

The elven ghosts drifted into the maze, disappearing from sight but no doubt coming toward the companions. Sultfir stood passively before his coffin, surveying the entire barrow as if he were king of all he could see. Unsure of what to do, and not seeing a way out of the barrow besides the way they had entered, the Storm Eaters cautiously entered the maze one by one. Svagnir told his companions to show trust and compassion as the secret message in the tunnel above had instructed. As the last of the companions entered the maze the floor suddenly began to shift! The maze was somehow alive, constantly changing and moving, no doubt a modification Wrothgar had made to further test those daring to follow his Blood Path.
In the twisting and turning tunnels of the maze the Storm Eaters got separated and encountered the elven ghosts, who cut through the walls unhindered. The ghostly women did not attack the companions but instead tried to possess any they found. Some of the Storm Eaters succumbed to the will of the elven ghosts, while others steeled their will and resisted. The elven ghosts used the bodies they possessed to move back toward the boxes their remains were chained within. Confusion reigned amongst the separated companions. Some of them showed ultimate trust and compassion, fully allowing the elven ghosts to use their bodies. Others resisted or fled the ghosts if possible. In confusion and frustration Einar attacked one of the elven ghosts. This resulted in a reaction of equal violence. Sultfir moved from his passive position and drove straight for Einar to attack along with the ghost that had been struck. Only when Einar showed he meant no further harm did the ghosts halt their attacks upon him. Meanwhile the elven ghosts that had possessed bodies used them to retrieve the boxes their remains were held in, carried them back across the maze to the opening to the tunnel above, and then opened the containers to free their souls to Valdryssil. Seeing that the ghosts meant no harm (unless harmed) and only wished to escape the barrow maze they had been cursed to dwell in, the Storm Eaters fully cooperated. Soon the souls of Sultfir and his five elven witches had been freed.
As they last ghost vanished into the world above to find the great Tree, a secret door in the bottom of Sultfir's open sarcophogas opened, revealing a shaft descending straight into the bowels of Valkheim. This shaft was lined with stone hands in various poses, but all open as if to be grasped and used to climb down. A stone was dropped down the shaft, but no sound returned. It was deep. Real deep.
Before continuing upon their way, Maebha began preparing the now unhaunted remains of Sultfir and his elven witches to be raised as new skeletons. Several of the companions took issue with this, especially Svagnir. A brief but passionate argument ensued between the Lodge mage and her new companions. Eventually Maebha relented, but it was apparent more and more frustration was mounting between her and the others.
Knowing this shaft most likely continued upon the Barak Tor, the Storm Eaters began to descend the shaft. To their collective revulsion the stone hands moved almost imperceptively, grasping back every so subtly. The companions climbed down until their torches burned out, and then continued to climb down in pitch black for several hours more. After four hours of descending they finally found the bottome of the shaft of grasping hands. Several of them were futher exhausted by the lenghty climb down.
After lighting new torches the Storm Eaters found themselves on a small beach that gave way to a seemingly endless underground lake. The black water spread out as far as the eye could see and the air was heavy with the sheer mass of void that loomed beyond where the light died. A single trail of dull red water snaked across the surface of the lake, no doubt another marker of the Blood Path to be followed.
The Storm Eaters considered several methods they could use to ross the lake. A brief suggestion was made to use the magical boat they were bearing as a gift for Wrothgar, but it was quickly dismissed as they were told they were not to use it or the treasures within it as a condition of the Barak Tor. And so using a hodge-podge of methods the companions devised a plan to cross this watery obstacle. Svagnir rode upon Halstein's magical floating shield, pulling other companions along with a rope. These companions were enchanted with the ability to breath water, should they tire of swimming. Maebha summoned a magical floating disc for her and her two skeletons to ridge upon. Synsk was very reluctant to go into the lake due to his innate Raate distaste for being submerged in water. Meabha was unsympathic to his discomfort and chose to keep her skeletons upon her floating disc rather than her companion. And so summoning all the courage he could, Synsk took to the water, clinging to the rope Svagnir pulled from the floating shield. Several companions again grumbled their growing displeasure with the self-centered Lodge mage, choosing her tireless skeletons over her new companion.
For nearly an hour the Storm Eaters floated, paddled, and hovered across the underground lake until they finally came to a small stony beach on the far side. The exhausted and mostly soaked companions came ashore to discover the entire beach littered with bones picked clean not by time, but rather by being digested and either spit or shit out. Fragments of metal armor and weapons also littered the beach with the bones. Something bad had happened here. Several armed humanoids of some sort had most likely been eaten here, but there was no sign of what had done the horrible deed.
Maebha commanded her skeletons to gather the best of the bones in hopes of putting together enough bones to raise more skeletons. In a sign of truce (sort of), the mage offered to magically dry off the miserable and soaked Synsk, but only if he helped gather bones, rather than out of any gesture of kindness or companionship. With a groan, Synsk agreed to Maebha's terms and aided the skeletons in gathering bones to be dried off magically.
Meanwhile the other companions discovered a massive elevator crowned in a skull carving on the far side of the beach, leading down a natural shaft deeper into the earth. Perhaps dwarves had made it? Perhaps some other crafty denizen of the depths? Regardless, a single spot of blood marked the floor of the elevator near a crank that could be turned to manually lower or raise the contraption. No doubt going down was where the Blood Path led.
The Storm Eaters all mounted the elevator, Meabha's skeletons each carrying an armload of bones. Einar begain turning the crank with his strong arms. Slowly they descended down the natural shaft. Small cavernous pockets filled with stalagmites and stalactites lined the walls of the shaft as they went down. Wasting no time Maebha began casting the one minute spell needed to raise the bones her skeletons had gathered into new minions. But just mere moments after she had begun a massive stalagmite along the shaft suddenly came to life! A hungry red eye and a yawning maw full of fangs opened in its stone body as it crawled onto the elevator as it slowly descended. A half dozen tendrils emerged from its body, wrapping up several companions and pulling them towards its massive jaws! Svagnir, after suffering a terrible bite from the creature, summoned his twin giant octopi and used them to free himself from the tendrils of the stone creature. Other companions took steel and spell to the beast. Maebha ignored the combat, not willing to give up the spell she had started and lose the precious energy she had already invested in it. With no one at the crank the elevator ground to a halt, which allowed another of the living stalagmite creatures to lumber onto the elevator! Who knows how many of the beasts were making their way toward the elevator from the cavernous pockets that lined the shaft?
Svagnir commanded one of his octopi to man the crank, and after a tense pause to decide if they should go back up or proceed down, ordered it to crank downward. The elevator lurched back into a descent. The companions, wounded, exhausted, many of them grappled and restrained by tentacles, continued the battle with the two living stone beasts.
Was the decision to go down the right one? What waits below as the Storm Eaters fend off two of who-knows-how-many living stalagmite beasts? Were these the creatures responsible for the digested bones at the top of the elevator, or do even greater horrors haunt the darkness of the depths? And will Maebha finish her spell before a beast gets to her and breaks her concentration? Only time will tell as the Storm Eaters continue upon the Barak Tor, deeper and deeper into the treacherous bowels of Valkheim itself!

Report Date

12 Dec 2023