Chapter 12: Shadows in the Dark

[Darren]

Kal watches the situation on the battlefield deteriorate. Like many battles, the tide seems to keep turning from one direction to another. He consider the options, but getting himself closer to the melee, while heroic, does not seem like the best course of action. "Shorak," he calls. "If you have any of Histra's vials left, get them to Condign. I have one here," he says, reaching into a pocket to keep the vial close at hand, should Shorak be able to venture near enough to him.

________________________
Kal will use a free action to remove the healing potion from his pack. He'll cast Fire Bolt at Sarquaa again.

Attack rolls are 9 and 8. At least they both sucked.

[Jeff]

Belarin loses sight of the cloud of mist that Histra became as it drifts beyond the crowd of spirits. It's clear the yugoloth is being watchful for it, as well.

14 = Belarin
13 = Shorak
7 = Adamant (death saving throw will be needed)
7 = Sarquaa
6 = sahuagin
5 = yugoloth

[Ken]

Belarin staggers behind Condign, his arms wrapped around his body. “So… so cold…,” he mutters again. The shivering warlock seems oblivious to everything around him -- until he hears his friend Adamant’s head being nearly torn off by Sarquaa’s teeth. His stomach churns.

“No… no more death,” he says. Holding his pact dagger in his bloody hand, he points it at Sarquaa and says, “Share my cold, return to mold.” Red-and-silver energy erupts from his weapon and strikes the monster.

_________________________

No movement this round from Belarin. He’s attacking with eldritch blast.

Attack: 1d20 (10) + 7 = 17
Damage: 1d10 (4) + 3 = 7 points of damage

[Dave B.]

"Sorry, Kal. I've used the vials I had. I have no more." He throws his tri-bladed boomerang towards Sarquaa, adding just a little more english to the attack. "I'll do my best to finish this creature off. See if you can get to Adamant with that vial you have. If we can't get him back on his feet, we're going to have a hard time leaving here with him. Assuming we live through this."

Attack roll on Sarquaa: 1d20+8=27 Slashing damage: 1d6+5=7 Sneak Attack damage: 4d6=18

[Joe]

Streko sits on a cushion just outside the House Jorasco Healing Center. He holds a Jade Figurine in one hand and a domino in the other. People of various types, elves, humans, tieflings and even a Warforged from Cyre pass by, ignoring him as if he were a beggar pleading for handouts. He hears a dog's bark in the distance, but doesn't feel compelled to search it out, although he thinks it sounds familiar.

Varna appears amdist the crowd, smiles and waves at him, then races over to where he is comfortably sitting.

"I thought I'd find you here, little brother. Where are your friends?"

"I'm not sure," he responds. "They're fine though. They can defeat any creature they may come across."

"Some haven't," she replies.

"I remember," he says. A dwarf tosses a single silver onto the ground before him. Streko reaches for it and, before he can see the face of the friend who helped him, he is gone, like vapor on a windy day.

"Why are you here?" she asks.

"Aren't you glad to see me? I've been trying to find you for years!"

"Of course, I'm glad, you little bug. But I've always been with you." She points to her heart. "Just like Olladra is with you wherever you go, so am I. And you're with me, wherever I go."

"So, if anything happens to either of us..." Streko begins.

"...the other will know." Varna completes.

She looks at him and frowns slightly. "Something's happened to you, hasn't it?"

Streko isn't sure how to reply. He doesn't feel any pain. In fact, he feels nothing but a sense of calm. He senses Olladra's presence still with him, his faith a warming balm against...what?

"I'm not sure, Varna. But, if something has, isn't it wonderful that my thoughts are of you right now?"

"What of your friends?"

Streko glances around at the crowd. He notices a Warforged standing in front of a bar. He is not guarding or fighting. A solid aura of gold surrounds him and he is singing in an oddly deep-pitched and lovely voice. Streko doesn't recognize the words, but he seems to recall the melody. Had he sung this exact song with a Warforged once? A human is playing catch with his dog, who seems to know where the stick his human is throwing is going even before the human throws it. He hears the human call out to the dog in the Halfling tongue and thinks he should know this person, why doesn't he know this person? He feels tears slip from his eyes. They are fine, he thinks. That is all that matters. Another human appears suddenly from a dank and musty green cloud. He stands amidst a crowd of young people, worshippers? He doesn't think so, yet they sit before him, enraptured, while he speaks in rhymes that make little sense, but make all the sense in the world. Streko thinks we are all a balance between darkness and light, no more so than this man, who straddles it closely, but seems determined to remain in the middle. A Tiefling and a Dark Elf stand in the shadows, watching them all. The Tiefling carries a shield that practically swallows the other in size. The elf juggles a boomerang and a heart, back and forth. The heart does not bleed, but pulses with life. Perhaps they are Guardians, of a sort. He cannot say. Why can't he recall things he feels he should know. He feels frustration melting into infuriation, but then Olladra's voice whispers that all is well and the anger is gone.

"My friends are fine," he whispers. "They will be fine."

"Even if you die?" she asks, stepping backwards, away from him. A billowing cloud of shadows and lights whirl around each other and approach Varna from behind. Streko doesn't fear for her safety. He seems to know it is merely a portal back to where she really is. He smiles, knowing she is safe.

"Even if I die, dear sister. You will all be fine. Olladra shall see to it. I know this, as I know my fate is not in my hands, but in hers. I love you, Varna. Be well," he says. He isn't sure if it is the last time he will see her. If it is, though, he feels content. He has stayed true to himself, most of the time. He only wishes he could help his friends. Where are they? Is this truly his time? Streko takes in a deep, relaxing breath as the crowd once again pulses with life around him. He sits quietly in front of the Healer's Haven, awaiting his turn.

[Dave W.]

Adamant's form lies inert like an empty suit of armor. Adamant's awareness is nowhere...

---

No modifiers to the death save; Adamant's not concious so he doesn't have that class ability up.
dlw32:1D20 → 4(4) Fail

[Jeff]

The tri-bladed boomerang whirls through the air at lightning speed. Condign has a glimpse of it slashing through the sahuagin's face, cutting through one eye and down toward the mouth, before it flies on and whirls back to its master. The tall sahuagin makes no sound but falls back, then disappears amidst the crowd of spirits around him. You lose sight of him altogether, but you think he might be down for good.

Histra remains out of sight, but you can spy the yugoloth distancing himself further southward. Too far to read his face, but even from the ground you can see he is still badly wounded; even the beating of his wings looks erratic.

As Sarquaa's body disappears under the crowd of spirits, you see that the one last sahuagin, unharmed and unmolested by the spirits, is now moving swiftly toward the water. Though undead and fearless, it is leaderless and seems to have lost all interest in this fight.

The skeletal sahuagin remains on the ground, seemingly partially smashed.

---

● Shorak deals 25 damage to Sarquaa.
● Sarquaa goes down.
● Adamant fails death saving throw #1.
● Sahuagin #7 begins to retreat.

We can break out of turn-based combat now. If anyone else wishes to do anything for Adamant, do so now, since we'll still need another death saving throw from him soon.

[Brian]

Seeing Sarquaa fall and the other sahuagin flee, Condign drops to his knees next to Adamant. The tiefling knows basic battlefield healing, but he has never applied them to a war forged. He searches for something to bind his friends wounds. Not trusting anything worn by the sahuagin, he removes his cloak, tears it into strips, and uses them to staunch the "bleeding."

"Dammit, Adamant. You had better not die."

________________________________________________

Condign attempts to stabilize Adamant.

Condign:1D20+1 → 13(12 + 1)

I think it worked.

[Dave B.]

Seeing that Condign is tending to Adamant, Shorak walks over to the body of Saquaa and wipes his blades off as best as he can. He also quickly checks the body for anything of interest. When he finishes searching Saquaa, Shorak trots over to the fallen skeletal Sahuagin spellcaster and searches it's body for treasure as well. "Might as well try to get something good out of this." Shorak smiles at his own optimism. In this bleak and depressing realm, he can still hold on to hope. Being just a little greedy doesn't hurt. "I think we should make for the lighthouse."

[Jeff]

Condign isn't confident about his work, but he stops up wherever Adamant appeared to be leaking his strange and odorless alchemical fluids. The warfoged's head is still situated at an unpleasant angle. The tiefling thinks only magical healing or an artificer would be able to fix that.

As Shorak moves to search the body of Sarquaa, he finds the spirits of the recently dead are still gathered all around him, blocking him from sight. Unless Shorak intends to push through them....

Faces appear and fade out again amidst the vaporous forms. Anng is there, staring grimly and without comment back at Shorak.

Garrel, the former cook on the Merrow Down, also appears, his form barely shorter than the rest despite having once been a dwarf. The are no smiles of recognition, no sorrow, just...curiosity among them.

Shorak finds that no one has gathered by the skeletal sahuagin. Standing closer to her now, he is forced to cover his nose; she smells, and looks, of putrid seaweed. It's wrapped tightly and loosely around her bony frame like funereal wrappings. One eyesocket is actually wedged with a chunk of stone like onyx or perhaps simply coal. It's too slimy to tell. He does see a single tarnished gold bracelet around one wrist that's decidedly feminine, a cruel-looking knife on a strap around her waist, and sewn tightly against her fishy sternum is a bone-fashioned holy symbol of the Devourer. It looks like it's been dyed in blood, and is still rather pink.

Adamant is stabilized and no longer dying.

[Ken]

Belarin squints at the retreating forms of Histra and the nycaloth. Then he staggers over to where Condign is crouched over Adamant. “Hisssst-t-tra t-t-told me to f-f-find a place to… to hide, rest,” he says. “Sh-sh-she’ll find us. N-n-no choice now. T-t-tell Kal.”

Hands shaking uncontrollably, he attempts to slide the seemingly inert bracers of the Lich’s Aspect off his ravaged arms. But whether due to the pain or his shaking, he soon gives up. He stares down at the warforged. “Ad-ad-adamant, w-w-wake up. Please.”

[Brian]

Nov 23, 2015 10:46:36 GMT -4 Ken said:

Belarin squints at the retreating forms of Histra and the nycaloth. Then he staggers over to where Condign is crouched over Adamant. “Hisssst-t-tra t-t-told me to f-f-find a place to… to hide, rest,” he says. “Sh-sh-she’ll find us. N-n-no choice now. T-t-tell Kal.”

Hands shaking uncontrollably, he attempts to slide the seemingly inert bracers of the Lich’s Aspect off his ravaged arms. But whether due to the pain or his shaking, he soon gives up. He stares down at the warforged. “Ad-ad-adamant, w-w-wake up. Please.”

Condign looks at Belarin and nods. They have little choice now. They need rest.

"Kal!" he shouts. "Bring the healing potion! Adamant has the greatest need for it! We cannot drag him!"

As he waits for Kal, Condign stands. "Hold out your hands," he tells Belarin. "It is time you were rid of these." Gently, he grasps the bracers and tries to remove them.

[Dave B.]

Shorak frowns at the apparitions surrounding Saquaa and just shrugs and heads over to the skeletal Sahuagin. Breathing only through his mouth so as not to have to deal with the smell, he crouches down to remove the bracelet from the creatures wrist. As long as it remains inert and unresponsive, he will will cut the strap with the knife and stow it away, being careful to not touch the knife directly. Looking at the stone/gem in the eye socket, the rogue decides to try to pry it out and with a piece of cloth torn from his shirt, wipe the slime off to get a better read on what it really is. Again, Shorak is careful not to touch the stone with his bare hands.

[Jeff]

Condign has no trouble removing the bracers from Belarin. He is left holding them.

Shorak is able to slip the bracelet free of its skeletal, fishy arm, doing his best to hold his breath over the putrid remains. But he also finds the body extremely cold—dangerously so. The stone in her eye socket will be difficult to remove without breaking the entire skull; if he had to guess, the stone was somehow placed there before death; given its misshapen appearance, it almost looks like it was grown there, too. There's no way it would have fit into the socket after the fact.

---

Handling the skeleton further may result in some necrotic damage. There is latent energy there.

[Ken]

"Th-thank you," says Belarin softly to Condign. He retrieves the bracers from Condign's hands and begins to place them back into a pocket of his bloodstained cloak. To Condign, it seems as though Belarin is trying to treat them gingerly, but the shaking of his hands won't allow such gentle treatment.

_________

Unless Condign objects, Belarin will place the bracers in one of his pouches.

[Brian]

Condign watches Belarin with increasing dismay. "Do not wear them again," he says to the warlock. "I fear the price is too steep."

[Ken]

Belarin looks directly at Condign. His dark green eyes are bloodshot and sunken, and his skin is waxen. "No p-p-promises... until ... we get home," he says after a long moment. "Must sssstay alive... all of you..."

[Darren]

Unheard, Kal has moved up behind Belarin and now places a hand on the warlock's shoulder. "You sacrifice was appreciated, my friend. We may owe our survival to what you have given." He kneels down beside Adamant and removes the stopper from the vial Histra had given him. Unsure how to administer the medicine to a machine, Kal prices open Adamant's metal jaws and proceeds to pour the liquid inside of the construct, hoping that its magic will work as well on gears as it does on flesh. Lowering his head, Kal looks slightly over his shoulder at the form of his fallen canine friend. "Condign, can you carry him? Please?" He sighs as he looks at Streko's fallen form. "If Adamant can stand, he can carry Streko."

"Shorak, are you certain the way between here and the lighthouse is clear? Were you able to see inside? We cannot face another fight." Even as he speaks, he looks at the misty form of Histra and the nycaloth, floating high above them, and the Whelmed lingering nearby. "And we are not out of danger yet." With a sad smile at Streko, he adds, "I'm sure Streko would say that Olladra smiled on us today. Let's not waste the gift we've been given."

____________________
Kal will use his healing potion on Adamant.

Waiting on the report from Shorak before deciding which way to go.

[Dave B.]

Shorak settles for just the bracelet. He rises and leaves the skeleton figure and the horrid smell behind as he heads back to his friends.

Looking at Streko with sympathy, Shorak sighs and turns his attention to Kal. "The way was clear. I don't know if there is anything in the lighthouse, but my survivor's instinct tells me it is our best chance to catch our breath at the very least. At best, there is a portal back to Stormreach. Either way we are in no shape to go in search of a place to rest. Not without Histra's guidance." He looks toward Tangat with concern. "He lives?"

[Dave W.]

​
​A dim light flickers in the inert warforged's eye-gems. It flickers a few times and then catches... returning to the warm blue his friends are accustomed to seeing.

Adamant body has taken a great deal of damage. Sarquaa’s attacks have left Adamant’s head cocked try to right at an unnatural angle. And his body is nearly covered in a variety of bloods: red, black, and alchemical. His heavy jaw moves as though he’s trying to speak but only the sound of scraping metal emits.

Adamant reaches up, arms creaking at his wooden joints, to place hands on either side of his damaged head. He pushes and shoves to right his head until it sits only slightly off plumb. Finally, a low, bass moan escapes.

"Dolurrah. Have I died again? Apologies...", he whispers from his still rent throat.

"Is this how you sleep? To leave the river of time and exist nowhere at all? I don’t like it. It leaves me with deep thoughts and I’m not constructed for that at the best of times."

Adamant leans into a sitting position… more creaks and scratching..."Oh… I’m afraid I’m not in a good way. Serviceable but not much more."

Sitting, the warforged looks over his friends. "By the Light, you all look...", Adamant slowly rises to his feet; the action creating a disturbing grinding noise followed by a loud GERRRRKK, "...terrible..."

---

And I'm back. Thanks guys…..
dlw32:2D4+2 → 8(2 +4 + 2) but half is 4. Much better than 0!

[Brian]

Condign removes his cloak as he approaches Tangat. The wolfhound's body is a horrible mass of blood and shorn tissue. Kneeling, he places a hand on the canine's broad chest and feels a heartbeat, weak but steady. "Fear not, brave one," he whispers. "KaL will not let you die. None of us will."

He gently wraps the cloak around the canine, lifts him in his arms., and returns to the group.

[Darren]

Kal feels the small bundle of emotions at the back of his mind that his Tangat. So faint, but it is still there, and he knows that Tangat yet lives. He nods thankfully at Condign and Shorak.

"Adamant, I'm glad to see you...functional. I know you are hurt, my friend, but I have one more labor for you before you can rest. You must bear the weight of Streko once again, I fear, until we reach safety." He grimaces as he looks around. "Or whatever passes for safety in this place."

Rising slowly to his feet, Kal acknowledges the spirits around them with a solemn bow. "In life and in death, your service to us is great, and we will honor it always. May you find whatever rest you can in this place, and may peace be your eternal gift."

Turning back to the group, Kal gestures towards the distant lighthouse. "Lead us there, Shorak. Stay just ahead of us, but not far and always within sight, understand? Condign is burdened with Tangat and Adamant with Streko, so there can be no fighting. Belarin, my brother," Kal says, drawing close to the other man and helping him rise to his feet, "we will support each other." Kal puts Belarin's arm over his own shoulder, plants his sharrash on the ground for support, and nods at Shorak to lead the way.

[Jeff]

The crowd of spirits looks back impassively. Anng's face reappears upon one of them when Kal finishes speaking. "We were...attacked. Not the...Patriot, but...Krez led them. Some escaped, commanded to by...Captain...she..." The face fades away.

Meanwhile, Belarin thinks he sees a last glimpse of the misty form of Histra further to the south, along the shipwrecks, then it vanishes altogether. The winged shape of the yugoloth seems to follow the cloud from high above, marking the passage, but he only gets more distant from your group.

"The storm..." Anng's face reemerges, closer to Shorak now and looking pointedly at him. "Morsha...lives...I think." The spirit of Anng turns to look amidst the rest of the crowd, then back toward the waterline and a few lingering Whelmed standing there. "Yes."

[Dave B.]

Hope fills Shorak when he hears that Morsha lives. A new smile forms on his face, one that has two meanings and is not hard to discern. The smile says the half-drow is happy that Morsha lives and he intends kill Krez. His words confirm this. "It's time for Krez to be destroyed!" He says simply, but quite terrifyingly. "We must restore our strength and be free of this realm as quickly as we can."

Shorak begins walking determinedly towards the lighthouse, but not so fast that he can't be kept up with. He gives the Whelmed as wide a birth as possible. "Stay close together and let me know if I go too fast." He says to everyone over his shoulder. Turning his focus back to the lighthouse, Shorak continues moving, taking in his surroundings and keeping alert for any new threat.

[Brian]

Condign falls in line behind Shorak, Tangat's wheezing body held tight against his chest.

[Dave W.]

Nov 25, 2015 8:46:57 GMT -4 Darren said:

"Adamant, I'm glad to see you...functional. I know you are hurt, my friend, but I have one more labor for you before you can rest. You must bear the weight of Streko once again, I fear, until we reach safety." He grimaces as he looks around. "Or whatever passes for safety in this place."

"I'm sorry Kal, I should not complain, my condition is better than others...", Adamant says as he sheathes his sword. He kneels down next to Streko. He takes a moment to make sure Streko's wounds are properly dressed and then gently lifts the halfling.

He whispers to the form he cradles, "Oh, my friend, you were an easier burden for my heart when you rode my shoulders."

Nov 25, 2015 11:16:06 GMT -4 Dave B. said:

[Shorak says:] "It's time for Krez to be destroyed!" He says simply, but quite terrifyingly. "We must restore our strength and be free of this realm as quickly as we can."

Shorak begins walking determinedly towards the lighthouse, but not so fast that he can't be kept up with. He gives the Whelmed as wide a birth as possible. "Stay close together and let me know if I go too fast." He says to everyone over his shoulder. Turning his focus back to the lighthouse, Shorak continues moving, taking in his surroundings and keeping alert for any new threat.

"Very well, Shorak, show us the way." It isn't clear which comment Adamant is replying to but Adamant follows the dark elf.

[Ken]

Belarin looks again at the nearly invisible forms of Histra and the nycaloth, and then he tries to help Kal as much as Kal is helping him.

As they follow Shorak, Kal feels the other man continuing to shiver, and it seems that Belarin is relying more on Kal's warmth than on his physical strength to keep going.

He says nothing in reaction to Shorak's comments.

[Jeff]

Moving slowly, carrying the fallen but alive, you follow Shorak as he works his way southward along the docks. As you near the final quay, you see a small pebbly beach, which Shorak knows is where the yugoloth had somehow summoned the sahuagin using Histra's staff. A few moments later, the Lighthouse Shorak mentioned comes into view.

Perched on a rocky island of its own, the Lighthouse was something most of you had noticed only briefly upon first entering the Stormreach bay aboard the Merrow Down. It appears like another remnant of the giants’ architecture of old and, at the time, was almost lost among the many. The tower of stone was an island in the waters by Stormreach, but here there is a narrow land bridge of tightly-clustered boulders connecting it to the rocky shoreline like a jetty. Some sort of light was present in the lighthouse on Eberron, but here you can see the bright white light shining up into the sky. The bridge lies just beyond the final quay, which is just ahead now.

No sign of the yugoloth anymore. He is lost in the darkness above.

---

As a point of reference, here is where the Lighthouse was located in Eberron's Stormreach. Now picture a line of boulders forming a bridge to it:

[Dave B.]

As Shorak passes the final quay, he turns his head to call over his shoulder. "I'll scout ahead to make sure it is safe. Well, as safe as anything in this realm." Picking up his pace to a fast walk, Shorak focuses his attention toward the bridge. As he nears the bridge to the lighthouse, he brings all his senses to bear, looking for any traps, ambushes, etc. There is no way Shorak will allow anyone to pass without being sure it is safe to do so.

[Darren]

"Stay where we can see you," Kal calls out to Shorak, aghast to suddenly hear his mother's voice coming out of his mouth.