Editing Journal - Kellerot's Twisted Realm (section)

==Twisted Isle==

We boarded the Saloroc warship at night, the oarsmen making good time in relatively calm water. They swung around to the southwest of the island in an attempt to mask our approach, and then made the run in to shore just before dawn. We could see shapes in the water skitting away from the oars; they were like fish but seemed wrong in some way, deformed or moving oddly, and we only saw them as we drew close to the beach. The ship powered onto the beach, finding the sand to be surprisingly shallow and soft... but as we crossed the beach line and the bow rose out of the water we passed through a curtain of illusion, similar to the one around Ulric's house, and instead of a barren island we found ourselves on the edge of a densely forested region. The forest felt very wrong, again in a similar way as before, and the trees looked dead or dying but nevertheless created a thick barrier, and the sky was dark as if dawn had never come... darker even than the night we had traveled through.

Arad and I both had newly crafted symbols around our necks, mine a form of the Elvrahum burrow I had seen at the temple with a small piece of soil contained within it and set with rubies. Arad's was in the form of a metal basket on a chain with a large glowing diamond within it, which he called the star of life. Arad touched his instinctively as we made the transition from the light sea air to the dark, dank hidden realm on the island. The hill didn't seem to change much, remaining devoid of life and greenery, it was just the surrounding area. The trees were a combination of rotting leaves and dead trees, but all were still standing. It was eerily quiet, with no sounds or animal calls, but there did seem to be a worryingly random rustling from within the dark forest that just didn't seem natural. No sign of dawn could be seen, and it just felt like the sun would never penetrate this place.

I tumbled neatly over the edge of the ship, landing lightly on the sandy beach, followed by Arad who was saying a prayer to the Creator. Falcor jumped down last, drawing his sword instinctively at an unseen but perceived threat. The Saloroc were clearly nervous at the stark transition, probably not having seen anything like it before. Despite this they swore that they would stay as agreed, saying that the Red Skull Clan would not run from the dead! We left at once, deciding that trying to finish what we had come here to do as quickly as possible was all that we could do to assist our allies. We followed the beach east until it met the ridge of the hill, and started up towards the peak. None of us wished to enter the forest if we could help it.

After about an hour of gentle climbing an evil looking gigantic bat thing, bigger and faster than the others we had encountered, glided over our heads utterly silently, perhaps twenty feet above us or lower. We readied bows, looking around but unable to see anything in the complete darkness. Then it passed overhead again, this time from behind and lower - about ten feet up. Falcor stood between us and prepared to swing with his sword should it get closer, while we loosed arrows... but there was no indication that we had hit it. The third time it approached it stopped in the air, hanging without ever beating its wings, then out of each wingtip, magic missiles flew and streaked into my chest, which caused great pain. Falcor muttered a quick spell behind me as I jogged forward to get a better shot, loosing an arrow straight at it... but the arrow veered off at the last moment as if were protected in some way.

Realising it was useless, I put my bow away as I continued to jog forward, whereas Falcor ran forward and jumped impressively into the air, getting just high enough to slash at it with his sword at the apex (almost fifteen feet up!) before coming down heavily and crying out slightly as he was winded. The cut was good, though, and blood splattered out. I pulled out some foxfire and called on Karmana's will to guide it onto the creature, outlining it with a soft green shining light, making it easier to see and hit in the pitch darkness. Arad called on the Creator and summoned spears that leapt from his hand towards it, but they didn't appear to affect it. Still, it seemed unwilling to stay and suffer more, for it flew off, still silently, and we saw its glowing outline receding into the night away to our left (roughly north). The whole thing had happened in strange silence, almost as if unreal, but Falcor broke this feeling with some quick commands to draw bows and keep moving.

We continued for another mile or so, until I noticed on the edge of my vision some kind of red dots, pairs of them... like glowing eyes! I whispered to Falcor so that he was aware, and although we continued I kept a careful watch. The things became bolder and it was clear that there was at least one heat source coming in and out of our vision range, and most likely more than one. They were predators of some kind and they were hunting us! The next time I saw it I loosed an arrow, and I got lucky as I could barely see the shape of it but I heard a thud and a muffled yelp that confirmed that I had struck true. They seemed to withdraw after that, but we were not so stupid as to relax. Sure enough, a little farther on we were charged by four big cats with glowing red eyes, and an unnatural glow from their jaws as well. They bounded out of the dark straight at us, about six feet long apiece.

They closed the distance in no time, and I just managed to drop my bow and draw a sword before they were on me. I dodged a rake from one's claws, feeling another pass behind me and its claws raked at my armour, but thankfully didn't penetrate. I could feel the weight of the powerful blow, though, and turned to keep the cats in front of me. Arad had a similar experience, just avoiding damage due to his armour. We both noticed that their breath stank of death and rotting corpses. My own swing was late and went wide... they were fast!

Arad loosed arrows, hitting with both, and Falcor cut into one of the cats attacking me, then stabbed one near Arad in the throat, ripping it out and dropping it. He swung back at the first one, cutting it open and halving their numbers. Arad smashed one with his hammer but then we heard a war cry from behind us as some pale looking orcs charged at us, wearing a panther symbol on their shields and wielding scimitars. Thankfully Falcor had removed enough of the cats from the fight that we were able to shift and not expose our backs, so their attack was either dodged or parried and it became a mess of a melee. I slashed one of the cats, opening a decent wound but unable to finish it as it danced away. The other cat raked Arad, keeping its claws in him and pulling him in closer, but he managed to block its attempt to bite him (the stench was terrible though). Arad swung at it, landing a good hit and followed up with a thrust of his sword to finish it off.

The orcs continued fighting, and a scimitar just slid off Arad's armour as he escaped from the cats claws, but one bit into Falcor's thigh. I finally connected with the last cat with a swing of my long sword, and it fell with a sudden howl that ended in silence. Falcor struck back at his attacker, landing good hits and following up with another stab to finish it off. He then slashed at another wounded orc, putting that one down too. Arad stabbed one, but was slashed badly by a scimitar in return. Falcor moved over to help Arad, one blow being blocked by its shield, but allowing Arad to swing past its defence and stagger it backwards. I was struggling to connect as well, not quite having the reach to get around its shield as easily.

Falcor was cut by another scimitar blow, although not badly, but I was not so lucky and was hit by two blows, with one getting past my armour. Arad crushed one of the wounded foes with his hammer, then stabbed another deeply. Falcor stabbed that one in the back, finishing it, which just the two left fighting me. My swings were still blocked by their shields. Falcor took a moment to cut the head off one of the bodies, so Arad did the same with one near him and then they moved to assist me (priorities?!). Falcor cut into one from its rear, and Arad finished it... but then he was attacked from behind by one of the slain foes that got back up from the floor!

Falcor stabbed my last attacker from behind with ease, but mainly because it was busy slashing me with a deep wound! I managed to stab it back, and Falcor finished it with a powerful swipe. Just when I thought I had some breathing space, though, the cats awoke and leapt to attack, clawing me from both sides! Falcor cut another head off and I slayed one of the cats AGAIN. Arad and Falcor cut more heads off, but Falcor pointed out that the heads were moving even when severed... we had to get away! More cats started moving, and I was able to kill the other reanimated one. Arad decapitated both an orc's and a cat's body, and Falcor removed the head of the one I had just felled. I ran up the slope, trying to put some distance between me and the bodies so that I could tend to my wounds. Arad was clawed and bitten by another reanimated cat, but Falcor stepped in and stabbed it with a killing (if that was really the right word here) blow to get it off Arad. Falcor decapitated it to slow down its recovery. Meanwhile I was trying to call on Karmana to heal my wounds, but there were only very faint signs of life in that place so it didn't do as much good as usual.

With the immediate threat gone, the others lobbed the heads they had severed away from the bodies as much as possible. Arad called on the Creator, using his new star to help with a strong connection; the diamond strobed with light as he treated my wounds, and they melted away until I was feeling hale again. He also treated his own wounds and Falcor's before we continued as quickly as we could. Thankfully we were able to reach the top of the hill without being molested again, finding that there was a depression where the peak should have been, about a hundred and fifty feet across and about fifty feet deep.

The ground inside the depression was rocky with dried mud and dead grass, and we could see a couple of dead trees below us. The darkness made it hard to see much else, but as we descended it became clear that there was something, although low to ground, in the centre at the low point. We decided to circle around the edges first to make sure we weren't missing anything, checking one particularly steep bit carefully but finding nothing notable. After that we reached the bottom, finding a circle of protruding stones almost like a stone circle, but low - at most two feet high. Were these the crenellations of the top of the tower, and if so had the whole thing sunk into the ground?

As we drew closer a ghostly apparition appeared about thirty feet in front of us, like an animalistic wild orc, stocky and advancing menacingly. Falcor screamed in fear, turned and started to flee in terror, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground. More of them seemed to phase into sight making four, they acted as if they were screaming with rage and ready to strike but there was no sound at all. Arad called on the Creator to drive the unnatural creatures away, and his symbol strobed with light once more... but it had no discernible effect on them. We knew that Kellerot was a lord of deceit now, so I didn't believe that these were real, just an illusion or trick to scare away anything that approached. I walked forward confidently, doing my best to ignore them, even brushing through one, which had no adverse effect, so my confidence was redoubled and I carried on calmly.

Falcor had sprinted off in fear, though, though there was nothing we could do about it at the time. One of the apparitions floated up to me and completely enveloped me as even more appeared, to the point where I was looking through it from the inside! Arad swung his hammer at one, but it passed straight through meeting no resistance. I continued walking straight through the "ghost" and up to the edge of circle. It was obvious that the stones had once been masonry and that they were deeply embedded in the ground, confirming that they had probably once been a part of the tower.

Falcor had left our sight, and was probably still fleeing into the darkness. I hoped that he was ok, but had no way of reaching him or communicating with him (we did not think that using our mental powers would be safe here). Arad jogged into the circle, where we noticed the apparitions would not follow us, and he tried to use the Creator's power to drive off the new arrivals; again came the pulsing flash of bright light, but again it had no obvious effect. I tried to reassure him that they did not exist, and we were safe as we met in the centre. The apparitions closed around the circle, but did not cross to the inside at any point.

Fortunately it was only a few moments later that Falcor came back within our sight, having got his fear under control. He was still nervous at approaching, but we shouted reassurance - Arad that they could not enter the circle, and I that they were not real and couldn't harm us. He sprinted across to join us in the centre, making it without incident, so we were back together at least. We couldn't see anything on the ground except the stones, and there were no obvious hidden entrances or changes in the ground that would suggest a specific place to look. Arad suggested digging, but we had no tools - just a few pots and pans!

I asked them to wait a moment and decided to use the ability Karmana had gifted me to swim through the soil. I dived into the ground, finding that I could "see" what was around me a short distance away. I located what had clearly once been the top of the tower about ten feet down, and started searching in a circle until I located a trapdoor. At that point I knew that I did not have the energy to stay underground for much longer, heading straight up and emerging back into my friends' view on the exact point at which we would have to excavate. I passed on what I had seen and the likely depth we needed to get to, which seemed like it might take a good while to reach.

Fortunately Falcor had a trick up his sleeve, and warned us to stand back, brandishing the wand he had recovered. He spoke a command word, at which point soil started to throw itself away from the spot I had indicated, eventually forming a perfectly shaped hole with earth all around it, revealing the trapdoor beneath.