| The World of Teréth End - Chronicles - Othic |
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"Too often days swiftly pass / Weeping in the evening grass / There just is not enough time / Forthings you dreamt you'd do / The hours still drift by. "Too many years, too high a cost / Too many lessons earned but lost / And still you complain all the time / Cursing the days before you / Lamentng the days gone by. "And finally laying in your bed / Staring skyward, nearly dead / It all floods back one last time, / The chances that you left behind / But alas there's little left to do / ... but cry." Dirimoran song  |
Terrors of Cenotaph, Part II Tharad'Zor's house barely provides shelter for the party within as Gru and ghuls attack mercilessly. Recruits begin to fail and die under the onslaught. After the assault suspicions of Aren arise. A much need rest. Dammon leads the company to the Great Cemetery of Cenotaph and readied for the final ghul battle, they enter. Outside the rain continued to fall, the wind pushing a night mist in through shattered windows and splintered shutters. Jak and Mishara opened the kitchen hatch and descended into the basement with a wood axe. In the old wine cellar, standing in a carpet of broken glass, Jak began chopping upward at the heavy timber floor joists. Not long after he'd begun they heard a scratching sound coming from the wall behind them, followed by a long mournful "Ooooooo..." Soon the sound of stones dislodging behind the wall sent the two retreating back up into the kitchen. The kitchen table was overturned and Mishara readied his bow near the open hatch. The eerie hooting filled the basement below, and stones could be hearing crashing to the cellar's glass strewn floor. Alcerra arrived with her trident lowered and positioned herself near the opening as well. Suddenly a large blackish green creature erupted from the hole. Mishara loosed an arrow into the monster's chest which turned and bit at the Elve with savage black teeth. Jak and Alcerra stabbed at the monster, which turned and struck at Jak, clawing and biting. Jak planted his spear into the creature again and it slumped back against the wall. Examining the Gru, they noticed its wounds beginning to knit back together as they had seen on the road to Avarlin. Jak pulled the rubbery loose-skinned monster into the dining room, and rolled its heavy twitching carcass into the fireplace. A noxious blue-black cloud issued from the fireplace, but the body was slow to catch fire. Returning to the basement, Jak and Mishara examining the hole the Gru had burrowed into the cellar. Using Jak's lantern, they looked into another chamber of the basement, strewn with coffins. Climbing through the hole, Jak noticed a hatch leading away from the house and a pit filled with ragged metal spikes. Mishara examined the floor and found tracks throughout the room. One by one the two explorers opened the coffins. With each opened Jak planted his spear through the death-gowned bodies within. The last coffin however, was empty and did not move. Mishara examined the interior and found that the coffin's bottom swung downward revealing a dirt passage leading away from the house's rear. Jak climbed in and slid into the tunnel. Vindin and Aren rose the alarm that the ghuls were returning. Alcerra shouted through the basement hatch that they were returning. The priestess began a ritual of blessing but the spell failed. Both Aren and Vindin fired at the oncoming masses of ghuls charging toward the house. Soon the windows were filled with the gruesome visages of rotted ghuls. Aren drew his sword. Bear's crossbow bolt sent one of the monsters tumbling back into the street. The ghuls rushed inward. Bear closed but the claws on one creature dropped the large man to the floor in a paralyzed heap. As two of monsters tried to pull Bear out through the window, Alcerra rushed forward and pulled him back into the room. As she dragged Bear's body away from the fight, Jak and Mishara charged into the room, Jak with his spear punching through the fearless horrors, and Mishara grabbing Bear's crossbow which had fallen to the ground near the window. The house shuddered with a great blast of thunder as lightning struck very near. In an upstairs room, Tressta and Vindin fought vainly to hold the shutters closed, stabbing outward through the slats with a short sword. The shutters finally shattered inward sending the two staggering back. Mindlessly chattering ghuls scrambled deftly into the room and Vindin collapsed to the floor with a scratch from their claws. Tressta screamed and ran. At the bottom of the stairs, Tressta found Alcerra propping Bear's unmoving form in the stairwell. Dammon was soon nearby, pouring a potion into the crossbowman's slack mouth. Next, Alcerra moved to the room's center and prayed for a Circle of Protection. Jak and Aren fought heroically in the front room, cutting down ghuls as the streamed through the windows. From the hallway, Mishara took what shots he could, dropping the undead monsters with his lethal points. Outside a figure fell from the second story. Dammon, leaving Bear to Alcerra's care, slipped into the kitchen, sending barbs of lightning at the incoming ghuls. One screamed and dropped, but another, its spell-burnt face smoking, turned and charged the mage, teeth and claws bared. It bit Dammon once, but he was able to step back and unleash more of the lightning barbs, stopping the ghul's advance. At the staircase, Alcerra, Bear, and Tressta watched with amazement as upstairs ghuls tried to enter the Circle of Protection but were repelled in a shower of silver motes. Soon, the smoky front room was filled with the stinking bodies of more than a dozen ghuls. Scooping up the foul bodies, Jak began the unpleasant task of depositing the creatures out the windows. With this done, he crossed the ichor-stained floor and crawled out a window, dropping to the ghul-strewn street. In the distance he could see a helmet, the helmet of Vindin who'd been thrown to the street and hauled away. Jak gathered the helmet and returned to the house. Watches were established and the night passed without further event. The next day the group rested, watching from the windows of the stone house. Nothing moved in walled Cenotaph. During a change of the guards, Bear spoke with Mishara, voicing speculation about Aren Zarad. Bear explained that he'd volunteered Aren for this mission to get him away from Kry Shurulm where Bear suspected the young archer might be up to treasonous activities. Bear explained that he suspected the young archer was much more than he seemed, and that his non-issue sword was of surpassing quality. Mishara agreed to look into it, and went to speak with the young man. He found Aren suspicious of his questions and quite reluctant to receive the death priestess's ministrations despite his obvious wounds. The day of 20th passed without event. The storm had passed, and more pleasant autumn weather returned to Oth. The night's watch reported a distant howling sometime near nightsdeep, but that sorrowful sound never grew closer, and soon was replaced with the lonely sound of clapping shutters throughout the town. Come early morning, the group organized themselves and left the house of Tharad'Zor in search of a cemetery Dammon claimed he'd seen in months passed. Leaving walled Cenotaph the group walked old overgrown dirt roads through weedy fields, and passed abandoned farmsteads. Finally they came to where the ridge slopes down to the shores of Seereth's Swell, and there among countless dark holes, small weedy hills, and overturned stones was the Cenotaph Cemetery. To the east, the first sunrays of dawn splayed from the horizon offering an hour and some of daylight before the pall would mask the sun. Alcerra looked across the ruined landscape and knew that this was where she needed to be. Played: 24 April 1999
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Navigation People Irgul (...*) Introducing Gru Myth: Across
Terèthor, the bogeymen are known
as the Gru. Old wives tales tell how
children who are bad will be taken away in the night by the terrible Gru.
While the tale may be unsubstantiated, there may be some truth here. Sages
believe that Gru are feed on fear and desperation, for reasons unknown.
Furthermore, it is believed (and has been observed by untrustworthy types,
i.e. adventurers) that they can move through darkness in their hunt for
emotion. Needless to say, Gru do not appear every time a child cries
or a desperate man is imprisoned. If that were true, there would be a
lot fewer of each. People do however disappear mysteriously, never
to be found again. When this happens, and when there is emotional
trauma involved, the Gru often gain the blame, rightfully or not.
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| Ref. PHB (Player's Handbook), © Wizards of the Coast  |
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