Scrolls of Nedev - November 16th, 2022
General Summary
The Journal Of William Sweet
Adventurers: William Sweet, Stor24th day of Palitide, 12th Year of the Reign of Empress Sorsasta, 5728
I start training today under the hard gaze and harder hand of my mentor Sergeant Payne. This training will last one tenday and my friends Stor, Tellem, Rea and Sazerac will also spend time with their mentors learning new skills and preparing for the adventures ahead.
3rd day of Rababtide, 12th Year of the Reign of Empress Sorsasta, 5728
After a tenday of hard training at the barracks, Stor and I now sit at the Alehouse and I wonder how I will put my skills to use. As if answered by the gods, a woman approached me and my companion Stor and pleads with him to return an urn that was recovered from catacombs below her farm. She claims her man, Jorge Juniperberry talks in his sleep about it and is angry it was taken. We go to the Monastery of the Light to speak with Tellum. After explaining the situation, Tellum agrees to give us the urn. We accompany the farm wife, Jarkla Juniperberry, to her home and bring the urn. As the sun sets we reach the Juniperberry farm. Tea and cookies are served as Jorge the Farmer returns from his day of labor. We try to convince him to let us investigate the tunnels below his home. To be sure it is safe and to retrieve any other riches that may lie below. The thought of monsters living under their home startles the farmer and his wife and so they agree to allow us to investigate. We discuss life as we eat dinner served on trenchers. Stories of our time in the Watch take our attention and then from the corner of my eye I see the farmer's wife opening the urn. I try to tell her not to but I am too late. From the urn, a green smoke erupts forth and solidified into a huge snake monster. I try to make it run away but I am unsuccessful. I tell the farmer and his wife to run away and the snake lashes out at my friend, Stor, biting him on his arm. I attack again and the smoke swirls around us all and in the confusion I can feel as we are moving. Stor goes down as we are caught in the smoky world wind. When the smoke clears and we come back to, we are no longer in the farmhouse but in a ruin. The farmer's wife stands in the center of the ruin below us. She looks different. Her hair is green and a sinister grin is painted on her face. She reaches out her hand reaching for the pile of rocks before her. She throws them aside without a thought revealing a stairwell. She starts down the stairs. Next to me, the farmer moans like a baby in the crib. Stor lays prone below. I take rope from my pack and tie it off. I make the climb down and assist Stor to shake off the poison of the snake bite. We are set upon by skeletons. Jorge runs away as the monsters come up from where Jarkla went down. They are fierce but we prevail and I take one of their shields with a strange marking on it: a melting skull that matches markings on the walls. The skeletons have nothing else so we descend the stairs. It is dark so I light a torch. At the bottom of the stairs there are more skeletons. I dispatch them and we move on. Statues in the halls lash out at us in the dark and then stand still as the stone they are carved from and we move on. A large room adorned with once lavish furniture that is now decayed and broken. Further on the path leads to a dead end but another path leads to another stairwell leading down. One hundred feet more of empty halls and then an upwards stairwell. At the top a room with a pool of water in its center. The water lay still but not for long. From the pool, a column of water lashes out at us as we move past it making for the only exit. It narrowly misses as I pass and move into the hall and on to another stairwell leading downwards. Still no sign of the farmer's wife, or anything else for that matter, and so we move onward deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of corridors. I start to worry that I will never find my way back to the light of the sun or moon. At the end of a hall it seems to be a dead-end but further investigation reveals a secret door hidden by clever masonry and engineers. We puzzle on the door's mechanism for some time but luckily a misplaced stone is clumsily pushed and the door opens. More empty hallways on the other side. We move in, my sword at the ready. Stor leads the way peeking around the corners. We come to a set of double doors and halls that lead to further unknown and from that unknown a shuffling sound and a move reveals an unwanted guest, with pale, ashen skin and grotesk features. The creature lunges around the corner, kicking Stor in the face. A cloud of dust plumes from it as we slay the beast. We can see a trail of dust leading to another room. More dust on the floor tells us the creature has paced in a circle here for millennia.
Back to the double doors we cautiously peek inside and what we see is beyond our imagination. There in the center of a large cavern with pools of water lining the walls stands the farmer's wife, or the creature that used to be the farmer's wife. In her hand she holds a silver bowl shaped like a coiled snake. She is in the middle of some evil ritual. I kick the door in and scream to stop this madness but she does not listen. Stor flies in an arrow hoping to subdue the witch but to our dismay it stops in mid air and is thrown to the ground before it can reach its mark. I rush in and try to attack but my sword is pulled from my hand and thrown to the floor as well. Some magic barrier protects the witch. "I am the Witch Queen of Situ Va and I have risen" she screams in a chilling voice. From the silver bowl she holds, a glowing gem shoots green light into the sky. "All that was once mine will be mine again", she shouts. The green light fills the room and with a flash she is gone. To where or by what means are unknown to me. It is clear that Stor and myself must escape this labyrinth. I take the snake bowl and we rush to doors that lay to our right inside we find a library and some potions of unknown abilities. Also, within the books I found one that bears the mark of the melting skull and also we find 3 scrolls sealed with wax bearing a mark of the snake. Another passage leads to a large columned chamber where we encounter a ghoulish creature. Parlay with the creature is useless, it thirsts for our flesh and blood. First it lunges at me, but then it attacks Stor, who is paralysed and drops to the floor. With a savage howl, the monster bends over Stor and with its slobbering maw rips a chunk of flesh out of Stor's arm. My blade finds its back before the beast has a chance to swallow, but Stor is near death.
We continue to find our way out of these catacombs. Eventually, we come into a natural cavern where we can see moonlight shining from one end and we make for its light and the sky. When we exit the cave mouth we can see the great ruined tower on a hill behind us. I have no idea where we are and neither does Store so we attempt to climb to the top of the tower to get a vantage point. What I learn is astonishing, we are at the foothills of the eastern mountain range, meaning Nedev is to the west, five day's journey from where we are. We were tired, injured and hungry so we decided to set camp. Thinking the top of the tower would be the safest, Stor attempts to climb but is unsuccessful and falls. In desperation to save his life I pour the unknown potions down his throat, the first one making gills appear behind his ears. Luckily, the second potion revives him. How ironic it would have been to survive the catacombs and die from climbing a rope. Unwilling to attempt the climb again we set camp at the bottom of the tower and take a watch and the night passes without incident.
4th day of Rababtide, 12th Year of the Reign of Empress Sorsasta, 5728
Morning comes and we begin our journey back to Nedev. We decide that rather than rush we be cautious and try to avoid any monsters that the forest holds. We have enough food, but we have no healing salves between us, and only our feet to get us home.
9th day of Rababtide, 12th Year of the Reign of Empress Sorsasta, 5728
Fortunately, we make it to the Kleab River and soon spot a passing river barge, and for a few silvers book passage back to Nedev, arriving just past sunset.
Report Date
17 Nov 2022
Comments