Coia: 02 - Peeking In Portals
General Summary
It is a crisp early morning after we rested in a few of the empty houses. Last night, dark thoughts of the poor villagers entered some of our dreams while we slept in their vacant beds. And again, this morning as we feasted on the rations left in haste just the other evening. Slowly the party gathers outside one of the houses. We see Udamis & Unefi, the master carpenter & his apprentice son, walking towards the group. Despite their best efforts to appear calm and patient, it’s fairly obvious that Udamis is anxious to start the trek towards the mountain portal.
“I trust everyone has had a sufficient breakfast? I can’t thank you all enough for offering to help us find my wife & daughter. And here is the 10GP I promised to you all once they are found.” Udamis reaches into his belt, unties a small leather pouch and shakes it briefly. “And I’ll add another 20GP if you can help me bring back my love Innith.” Madashlak chimes in. You didn’t notice him approach the group from the other direction.
Traveling north out of the village, you are able to fairly easily follow the path back into the mountains. As we travel, we notice a faint pulsing blue light and sound, alternating about every 30 seconds. And like the Hobgoblin Captain said, after a day of trekking you turn a corner in a narrow hill passage and come upon a familiar scene in the distance, 7 makeshift wooden jails. This time they’re filled with the missing women and children of Altherstab.
Just beyond the cages is the source of the blue light and heavy bass sound. Standing about 18-20ft tall is this crude stone construction. Forming almost a perfect circle with a chunk missing from top, the center of the structure is empty and big enough for a large beast to easily step through. Looking closer though, we see that the center is not actually empty; the air in the center of the structure looks more like a liquid. With each heavy bass sound, ripples move across the viscous oily sheen. The color shifts from blue sky to silvery gray to black. This must be the portal that the Hobgoblin captain mentioned.
“Boom”, another pulse of the portal. With your eyes adjusting to the strange setting, you can now make out other things moving around, both inside and outside of the cages. Three of the cages still have prisoners sardined into them. There is one goblin closing the door on a now empty cage and three other goblins lurking around, between the fire pit and the portal. And this time from the far side of one of the cages closest to the portal, a goblin emerges and walks towards the opening. A few seconds more and it steps into the void, and disappears. Four goblins remain guarding the cages on this side of the portal. We attack and kill them before freeing the prisoners from the cages.
Madashlak sees his wife, Innith, rushes to her and swallows her in his outstretched arms. After a few moments of embrace she tells the group, “Hurry, we have to save the others. They’re just on the other side. These goblin assholes were able to shove 5 or 6 of us through before you finally showed up” Udamis comes rushing over after having unlocked the other cages and freed everyone. “Where’s Thariz & Umarra? Where’s are they?” Innith points over to the portal.
Mountain Portal to Shadowfell
Cautiously dipping his head into the portal void, Emis discovers a desolate, demonic landscape. As your party musters the courage, everyone ultimately steps through. As we cautiously step into the center of the stone structure, a chilling sensation starts up our leading legs, like dipping a toe into a cold spring stream…. Stepping fully through that chilling subsides, but the air is still noticeably cooler. The expanse before us is dimly lit, as if after sunset on a foggy day. The grassy hills and mossy rocks have been replaced by jagged stone walls and narrow paths. To our left, the edge of the pathway drops 30-40ft. straight down before another narrow ledge appears. To our right, the rockface extends upwards and away from you so you can’t really make out how far up it goes. We can see on the path in front of you the footsteps of someone or something that recently passed this way. And far in the distance, as our eyes follow the path along the mountains edge, we see something poking above the fog. It’s too far to tell if it’s something natural, or something that has been constructed. Walking forward just a short distance as we’re turning a corner to our left you hear faint crying up ahead. About 50ft away the pathway widens and a few more cages are now visible, flanking the path. But these cages are older and more worn from repeated use. It’s still too far and dim from where we’re standing to make out details, but it looks like a little girls’ foot can be seen in the corner of one of the cages. We also see something approaching the cages that resembles an enormous toothy mouth surrounded by a small plethora of stubby appendages. Its squat, bulbous body is practically split in half to accommodate its giant gullet and arms. Its hide is a shade of dull brown. As the creature gets closer to the cages the low crying is joined now by screaming from the other cages. We are able to kill the death maw, but as it dies it releases a loud screech that echoes off the mountainside and awakens something darker. We rescue the villagers in the cages, Thariz and Umarra among them. Thariz describes the horror she was forced into, the midnight raid in Altherstab, being taken prisoner and getting marched to the portal, watching her friends and neighbors being dragged into this unknown. Some of the other less fortunate villagers were taken by the goblin horde and headed towards the structure about an hour ago. Just then a low thunderclap can be heard in the distance. Looking in the direction where the noise originated we see that structure about 1000ft. ahead in the distance that before we couldn’t quite tell its’ nature, is looking more like a ruined small castle, or keep. And from within that space a faint glow and movement can be seen. A very large shape steps through the portcullis and stands up. Even though it’s very far away, this thing is large enough to make out a humanoid shape. It raises one arm towards your group and a voice stabs your minds, “I seeeee youuuuu…”. Thariz suddenly bends down and picks up a rock and attacks Nym. We quickly are able to subdue her as break the spell on her. She seems confused, “Hmmph? What happened? Why did you hit me, why did I try and kill you, what’s going on? I could see a large dark… demon I guess, on the horizon. Hundreds maybe thousands of people, all different races, were chained together and moving towards that creature.” Just beyond the rusty metal cages there is a split in the paths. To the left it descends, to the right it’s mostly flat, with the occasional small hill climb. Decomposing castle keep in the distance looks to be reachable on the right path. But parts of the path along the way disappear around a corner or beyond a hill rise. To the left, a familiar smell of maw demons can be picked up and we see a switchback trail that after a couple of acute turns in the path, it disappears beneath a dense fog. To the right there are no new smells so the party decides to head this way. After coming to a roundabout, we are set up by a Bodak leading 2 hell hounds on leashes. The Bodak is a formidable foe and as the party realizes they are no match, they quickly beat a path back to the portal and stepped back into the familiar continent of Coia.
Sszardan T'Sarran
Nicodemus
Emis Faralei
Nym Lenore
Moose Knuckle
Report Date
21 Jun 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location