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Chasing Ghosts

by Brom Van Brunt

Brom spied Cofsa inside the hidden cave, and found the hidden entrance to her. It was hard to explain to the group that it was her, but after persuading the party everyone headed inside. Fathom, Brom, Cass, Eragon, and Rohrouk all squeezed into the crevice with no problems.

Elvish ruin

Inside the cave was full of ankle-deep water, dripping into the cave from the outside. But more interestingly, the sides of the cave were carved -- now covered with ivy -- with pillars on the sides every so often. The walls and columns detail legends and stories from the old elven people; one told about the nature spirits cooperating with the gods. Rohrouk lit his arcane lantern as Brom and Fathom led on.

We debated short resting, as Eragon was pretty banged up from the Karakedai earlier. But the ruins were unknown and possibly dangerous, so he swigged two healing potions instead and suffered on. To keep us safe (or at least try to) Cassandra had Margarine scout ahead. The owl spotted a stone door and an overgrown staircase. Confident, the rest of us carried on; Cassandra spotted no arcane traps and Rohrouk no mundane ones.

But we all saw the large yellow eyes appear in the darkness.

It was Cofsa, her spirit taking an ethereal form to taunt us. We could all see the large red gash on the back of her neck (from when Fathom slew her). "Being dead means that I don't get impatient anymore. I like this change."
Brom retorted with haste: "Don't lie, being dead sucks!"

Cassandra felt that Cofsa was a necromantic construct and bound to him. And more powerful than the ones we had felt before, even ghost-Luce.
"I sank down in dying, but rose back up by sheer will. To avenge those who killed me."~~Brom: #same~~

She confirmed he has grown in power, and now has a female caster to aid him. Thankfully, Cassandra is stronger that she ever will be. Or so Cofsa worries.

She also confirmed that she was stalling: disappearing into darkness, we hear nothing. Then the rumbling of the elvish stone guardians filled the room, followed by the large yellow eyes. Two vaguely humanoid creatures, part frog, part person, and part fog that looked at us with great hunger.

Stunted guardians

Inside the elvish ruins, Eragon called simply for the magics his people instilled into the stone around us. The creatures were slowed as if by the rock itself. Brom followed up, allowing the Hollow Spirit to impede the creature's movement even further. Angry, one slowly jabbed with its humongeous tongue; the second tried (and failed) as well. Fathom and Rohrouk took advantage, their speed comically fast as the creatures tried to defend themselves in slow motion. One collapsed with no trouble... and another burst through a wall in the ruins to body slam Cassandra.

Eragon peeked out from around the bend to take in the development in the fight. "By the gods!" He forwent slow for polymorph, but in confusion failed both. Then Rohrouk and Cassandra were bitten by the two remaining behemoths, each trying to take the smaller creatures into its maws... to be eaten.

Rohrouk heroically jumped to his offence, maiming one of the behemoths. He couldn't make it to Cassandra but her attacker was already too close; an arcane blight stemmed from the creature's eye to spread across the behemoth's body and slay the creature. It fell, and she stood up ready for more danger. Brom ran to see if there was more danger, and the Hollow Spirit took care of the last creature.

Better left alone

Safe from danger, we all gathered around the great stone door to see what was next. There were words carved into it, old elvish that Cassandra could read. "Some things are better left to rot" read the inscription. "Exactly what the captain of The Aidelaide said," Cassandra exclaimed. She could also sense more necromantic magic, a powerful mass of energy, behind the door. Whatever was rotting within, we supposed.

Cassandra mused that the door is not meant to be opened. Ever.

Brom placed a hand on the door. Calling the Hollow Spirit, he sacrificed his mana to "give" it a foothold in this location. "Show me those who should be dead. And the living." The creak of branches and whoosh of wind filled the room, and the Hollow Spirit gave Brom what it wanted to share. "There are two (2) powerful undead... aside from you and me. None living should concern you, though there is a hole between planes. A waterfall to the dark sea" (a hole to the plane of the dead). It paused. "We could swim it."

We took a longer (short) rest to think it all over and tend to our wounds.

As his strength returned, Brom decided to relinquish some power and resume his ghostly gaze. Unfortunately there was nothing to see save for a lone coffin.

Again, Cassandra wondered if we shouldn't go through the door. "Deltavros had been here, after all. Then again, Cofsa could be baiting us." We had seen her going through the door (as a spirit would).

In a side room Rohrouk looked at the coffins -- the nameplates were still legible but had no names that stuck out. The only thing of not were the honorifics of "Brother" and "Sister". Cassandra magically cleared rubble into another side chamber, a mirror of the one Rohrouk investigated. More coffins, with a coffin labelled "Mother". This, along with the coffins in the first room, signaled to Eragon that this was an ancient tomb. Here the death were interred to be viewed again by the living (the tradition seen on Crete).

Doubt filled the group. If we potentially unleashed a force of evil, we would be responsible. Are we playing into his hands? Could we stop such a force? Our group stayed longer by the mother's coffin, talking.

Cassandra dug deeper, this time in the western rooms. A small corner turned into more rubble, that (when removed) showed a giant room. The space behind the door Brom feared, with "things better left to rot".

After casting detect magic Cassandra better understood the necromantic magic Brom had seen earlier: it pooled and coalesced at various places in the coffin chamber, forming spirits and the like. Ironically, the coffin seemed to be the only space not magical.

Rohrouk was the first to enter the room, slowly. After failing to find any (malicious) traps, he spotted writing on the far wall. Primordial, written with the elvish alphabet. He moved closer to investigate, and though the spirits in the room seemed interested in the lizardfolk, all seemed well.

Our lord read the text, a poem in Primordial, making out the first line -- Seek ye not the ink-black waters -- as the foggy shapes of humanoids swirled around him. Materializing, necromancy became figures: tall and lithe with curved shortswords and skeletal faces. Two were recognizable: Cofsa in the back smirking, and Luce cowled in the center.

His dead ones

Spirit-Luce moved for Rohrouk, holding him in an unmoving ghostly grasp.

Quick to wit, Cassandra snapped the weave about her -- but the latent magics were too strong to banish Cofsa or Luce. Fathom ran into the fray but couldn't save Rohrouk.

Cofsa turned to the casters, summoning a black sigil beneath them: circle of death. Brom willed the Hollow Spirit to overturn and overgrow her spell, but failed. Eragon panicked, doubling-down on the counterspelling to save the group of three.

In response Brom summed more spirits, creating a veritable wall of ghost-light burning through the room. A spirit ran past, stabbing Eragon as Brom swung for a miss. Things looked dire.

But the weave gives as much as it takes! The illusionist called forth his greatest yet, a gigantic arcane hand to throw the attacker like a ragdoll across the room. "Thank the gods!" we all shouted. Cassandra pointed angrily at Cofsa: "Go!" And she did, banished into the ether. Luce followed as well, his arcane grapple on Rohrouk dissipating as well. In the light of Brom's spell the fighter sent two of the spirits back to the shadow realm, ducking out of the ghost-light before it burned the whites of his eyes.

Rohrouk held his own while surrounded, fending off half a dozen attacks behind Brom's light wall. Eragon's hand shielded the two wizards huddled in the back, Cassandra popping out only to throw a few scorching rays. Luce and Cofsa began to alternate, Luce reappearing to force Cassandra's banishment to fail. Then he faded out of existence, Cofsa in to absorb Cassandra's blight to no effect. Necrotic damage does little to the dead, it seems.

Rohrouk and Fathom (albeit with some friendly fire) were able to take care of Cofsa, the dark mage spirit grinning as her form became nothingness.

Fathom fell as Cassandra destroyed Luce's form. Engulfed in white ghost-light, Luce seemed to recognize her a split second before he too became nothing.

And Cassandra: "I swear by the gods, when we find him..."

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Chasing Ghosts

Elvish ruin

Stunted guardians

Better left alone

His dead ones

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