Situation Report Twenty-two

General Summary

Ugnan draws us together, rubbing his force-healed leg as he sits wincing on an upturned crate. Soon a plan forms for spying on the meeting tonight: A seer capable of scrying and listening in on the meeting without detection would be extremely helpful to gather more idea of our enemy's next steps. And, as fate would have it, we know that Patience Cloot, a very powerful seer and the missing member of the legendary band we somehow represent, may still be trapped in the very Cisterns we are sitting above.
After a refreshing bitter tea we head back into the cisterns and head into an unexplored Eastern section, led by Cherry. The very next cistern we enter is crisscrossed by fine string dripping with an unknown green, acrid-smelling viscous liquid. Numal gently lowers himself into the water with barely a ripple and swims silently to a small submerged jetty on the other side, where he pulls himself out of the water.
"It's not deep", he whispers across the room.
Cherry and Ugnan begin wading around the southern perimeter to avoid the strange string bedecked area but Cherry treads on a loose stone on the floor of the cistern, triggering a 'crack' as a blue electrical discharge flashes across the surface, injuring Cherry badly, but also hurting Numal and Ugnan. Cherry's scream is replaced by a quiet groan as she attempts to stifle the noise, and Ugnan manages to drag her back to the passage we're watching from, where he force-heals her leg wound. Poor lass has been through some shit over the last few days. Now we know that the area is trapped we make short work of negotiating the water.
We are soon in another tunnel where Cherry begins work on a tricky looking double-lock. It yields to her skill and the dim passage beyond smells of damp iron, with a distant bluish light pulsing faintly. The hairs rise on the back of my neck as Cherry casts an intuition spell and beckons me up. She looks sick and terrified as she reports a vision of, "A large blood-drenched demon in the room beyond".
"Shit", I think as I dry my sweating palms on my cloak, easing my axe from its shoulder harness and gripping the worn leather covering the haft. It feel reassuringly heavy. "My old dad used to say that it's better to do something than to live with the fear of it lass. Open the door and I'll be first in." After a few seconds where the crew prepare spells and I take a few calming breaths, we're ready.
"Morgu's tits", I mutter as I look upon a hellish room beyond the door. The pulses of light are irregular, and they illuminate the grotesque torso of a massive bloody demon rising from a dark pool in the middle of the room. His fanged maw grins as I hesitate just inside the doorway. And in between flashes he's on me, smashing a massive anvil-like fist into my chest and sending me sprawling into the wall. I bounce to the floor winded, in a sitting position, but unable to take a breath. The pain in my chest builds with the panic.
I don't know how long I struggle to draw a breath before a pouch marked in Ugnan's neat hand, 'For Stun Relief', lands in my lap. Ugnan's reassuring voice, "Eat the lot lad", manages to permeate my fuggy mind. I desperately fumble with the draw-string as my peripheral vision begins to narrow. I grab a handful of bitter berries, chewing them and forcing myself to swallow. Suddenly Ugnan is beside me forcing me to chew a gob-full of oily leaves, oblivious to the growls and weapon clashes going on right next to me. "Urgh, leaves are for cattle", I sputter as I force myself to swallow.
With vision rapidly clearing I suck down a small flask of another of Ugnan's brews and am finally able to drag myself to my feet, where I finally take in the sheer power of the demon. Large horns sit atop a misshapen head, and its malevolent face seems merely irritated by us. Its eyes blink slowly horizontally as it casually swings a clawed fist at Sylke. It seems to be gaining the upper hand.
"You're meat", I bellow as I leap at it, Tarnak's axe swinging in a huge scything arc, catching it a glancing blow that its hide, somewhat reminiscent of whale blubber, seems to shrug off. Sylke is beside me, with the rest of the crew surrounding it, and to my surprise the ever-optimistic Sylke attempts to perform a hip throw, which it brushes off with ease. I feel my heckles rise at the tell-tale sign that Ugnan has cast something on me. Sylke lashes it with a Shock Bolt but the thing retaliates with a brutal punch, although to my immense relief it seems to be mostly absorbed by a near-invisible shield. Numal darts in to stab at it and we begin raining down a barrage of blows as it bellows in pain and rage. Ugnan manages to stun it for a brief moment, which enables Cherry to grab it's fearsome looking double-ended axe from the floor and kick it out of reach.
I finally lose my rag and scream frothing incoherent obscenities at it as I swing the axe recklessly around my head in rapid powerful loops, heedless of the risks. He parry's the first arc, but the second lands with a satisfying crunch and the bastard finally drops to the tiles.
We survived. Just. We have an amazingly balanced enchanted weapon. And Cherry spots a glint of treasure in the pool it emerged from. But where is the seer?

Report Date

16 Feb 2019

Primary Location

Sel-kai