Editing Journal - Kellerot's Twisted Realm (section)

==Kellerot's Cavern==

Falcor walked up to Arad and asked why he had stopped, then was surprised as Arad raised his hammer and a crackling bolt of lightning shot out into the forest, although we couldn't see where it went. What Arad was seeing was quite different, the lightning arced between a dozen creatures that were relatively close to the exit we stood in. Over half a dozen dropped to the floor smoking from the burns, and several others were badly injured.

As Arad advanced he disappeared completely from our sight! I ran up to the edge of the forest and cautiously put my hand forward... there was clearly an illusory barrier of some kind as I couldn't see the end of my hand but could still feel it. I stuck my head forward and with a jolt the reality of the cavern and Arad's fight came into sharp focus. At the same time Arad and I heard a voice in our head urging us to come and join "him" and fight by his side, which thankfully we were both able to resist. Apart from the foes in front of us, much farther to our left and pulsing with light in the darkness was an obelisk; next to it was the body of a black dragon and a pile of Elvrahum remains! A wraith was stood by a crude stone altar chanting with an undead human in robes next to him. Legionnaires advanced slowly in a line from their direction, backlit by the obelisk's light, and I could see the strange skeletal goblin things around Arad.

As I was taking this in, Falcor walked past serenely and completely oblivious to the threat. He was strolling into the pleasant forest and stopped to sit and start eating a picnic! I rushed forward, hitting one of the goblin things to try and keep it away from Falcor, but the others were closing in on him. Arad dropped a goblin with a hammer blow, but he was still fighting two of them. We both made other blows count, but it wasn't enough to keep them all back and inevitably Falcor was struck - clubbed and stabbed. As he looked down at the blood the reality of his situation forced itself on his senses and he quickly realised the danger. In a flash his sword was out, slashing at the nearest foe, but he was still a little disorientated and the swing was turned by its armour.

I finished off the goblin I was fighting... then had to strike it down AGAIN as it started to rise after a moment. I smashed its skull with the flat of my blade to make sure. Falcor was in the fight now, and felled a goblin before striking the legionnaire that had attacked him. Painfully aware that these things would start getting up again I shouted that we "...needed to get to the source"! Arad knocked another one down but then noticed a snake-like thing, about twice as long as Falcor stood high, dipping in and out of the ground away to our right and headed for us.

I ignored the foe around us and charged at the line of legionnaires standing between us and the obelisk, engaging one in melee. The others backed off, clearly intending to protect the obelisk area from attack. I managed to turn aside just in time to avoid its sword thrust at me, which scraped across my armour. Falcor deflected an attack aimed at him, then charged forward at the defensive line to my right, knocking one of the foe to its knees with the sheer power of his charge. Arad called on the Creator's power to turn aside the undead in our way, and was thankfully answered with the usual strobing flashes of light shooting out in multiple directions, which included all but one of the legionnaires.

Arad and Falcor both advanced towards the obelisk, and both started chanting. Sticky web appeared all around the wraith and its robed companion; the robed thing jumped clear just in time, but the wraith just ignored it. Arad's chant had no obvious effect, but he had made himself invisible to the undead; this allowed him to get into a place to attack the wraith unseen... but also meant that the undead were no longer trying to get away from him because they couldn't see him anymore!

The robed figure stepped forward and sent a wave of terror washing over Falcor, which thankfully he was able to shrug off. I was quickly getting surrounded by foes, unable to keep up with the others' rapid advance. I tumbled forward in an attempt to avoid three enemy blows, and felt weapons striking my armour, managing to get away with it and landing the other side.

As we drew closer we could see that a circular channel had been carved in the ground around the obelisk and was filled with blood. Falcor reached the robed creature and stabbed it with his dagger, although it barely reacted. Then Falcor found that he was mesmerized by the, increasingly rapid, pulsing of light from the obelisk and he didn't follow up with another attack. When he did finally wrest his eyes away he was shivering and felt icy cold. There was a faint memory of a malevolent presence that was almost overwhelmingly evil.

I sprinted forward again, but I was caught by the legionnaires behind me and stabbed in the back. I knew I was badly wounded, but had to try to get to the wraith. I slapped some ointment on, forgoing any attacks just to try to keep myself alive. Falcor was struck too, but threw his dagger at the wraith anyway. It passed through, and we could hear it landing on the floor beyond, but it did seem to disrupt it slightly and it turned bright orange eyes to look at Falcor before turning back to the altar and continuing its chant.

Now I was surrounded by legionnaires, a goblin and the snake thing that Arad had seen earlier! I was bitten and stabbed, thankful for the ointment that Arad had given us, but now I had no other means of healing my own wounds. Arad was with Falcor, so he was able to help him; he raised his holy symbol and with a flash Falcor was fully hale and all his wounds had disappeared. His soul was warmed and the cold, dark feelings from the obelisk pushed out of mind. Falcor shouted at Arad to set the web alight, and as he moved the robed figure morphed into a sucking maw reaching out for him. He realised that it was another illusions, though, and ignored it.

I tumbled forward again, trying to escape the scrum of enemies surrounding me. I dodged most of them, but the snake thing was fast and managed to bite into my arm. Thankfully I was able to rip away from it, even though it left me bleeding, and escape the circle around me... for the moment. Arad sprinkled oil over a patch of the web and set light to it, it was initially quite slow but then with a flash spread quickly to burn fiercely across the whole area. The wraith's eyes turned to stare at Arad this time, but still it turned back and kept chanting.

I was still tumbling around dodging blows, moving slowly forward. Although my attackers were able to keep pace they failed to land a blow this time. Falcor stabbed a legionnaire that had closed with him, then swung his sword at the centre of the maw that had been the robed figure, shouting "for Maladan"! He connected, but not as he expected; it turns out that the source of that illusion was a metal rod the thing had been holding and his blow knocked it to the floor. Arad swung his hammer at the wraith, now that he could get closer, and as his swing passed through it there was a flash of almost blinding light from the obelisk and an in-rush of air. The temperature dropped noticeably and waves of energy that felt like a touch of death itself surged outwards.

Now there was a response from the wraith as it raked Arad with its ghostly hand and drained his life energy slightly. I tumbled forward one last time, judging that I would finally land close enough to engage the wraith, but as I crossed the blood circle the cavern disappeared and I found myself in a nothingness, losing my sense of self and awareness of anything around me.

--

Back in the cavern, Falcor conjured a spray of coloured light that covered the gaggle of foes I had left behind, transfixing them. He was raked by the robed creature just afterwards, but it was a light blow and he responded with a mighty swing of his sword, smashing the thing to the floor almost in pieces. He was clubbed from behind by a goblin, though, so he wasn't safe just yet.

Arad just managed to dodge another draining swipe of the wraith's hand. His return blow was decisive... as his hammer connected his holy symbol glowed with light and the wraith exploded with a blinding flash from within, leaving nothing behind once Arad's sight returned. There was the strange sound of a crying baby from the obelisk and all of the other creatures dropped to the floor lifeless - and this time they wouldn't be getting up again. A tremor shook the cavern, suggesting that the place might collapse as the house had done the last time we slayed a Sarn.

--

I regained consciousness to see that I was in a rocky tunnel surrounded by elvradhil, which was the last thing I was expecting. I asked if I was dead, but they just laughed and replied: "no, you're alive laddie"! One of them was knelt close to me and laid his hands on my side, and I could feel some of my wounds knitting. I started to feel a little more myself, but was still confused about how I had ended up there. I had thought I was dead for sure, and explained that we were fighting Kellerot and I was trying to help my friends to stop them summoning Kraldar. Could we rejoin them, I asked?

They asked if I wanted to return to the surface. Was I beneath them then? I said I would rejoin them if I could, and they laughed again saying: "no problem, laddie"! I thanked them and said that if there was ever anything I could do for the Elvradhil then I would gladly pledge to help them.

They started to take me up through the rock above us, and we emerged just after Arad had poured some holy water on the blood circle. The blood was consumed and burned away as it spread, and as the circle was cleansed so was the obelisk. It changed from the dark colour it had seemed before to something resembling jade. My friends were glad to see us (suspiciously more so the Elvradhil than me it seemed), but were also hurrying to take anything of value from the area before the place collapsed completely. As well as the remains around us there was now a fallen tower beside the barracks we had entered through, hidden to us before but now clearly visible.

I won't bother describing all of the searching here, although I will note what we found. After we were done the Elvradhil were kind enough to take us through their tunnels back to the village with the Creator's temple (they wanted to avoid Custor for some reason).  We found it more fortified and with more Saloroc in the area, although thankfully they seemed to get on well enough with the Elvradhil.

We found the following:

Mahogany box 1' sq inlaid but defaced - contained the Crown of Truth!
Staff (Arad)
Rod (Falcor)
Dagger that Arad recognised with a black diamond soulstone, which he took.
As many gems and coins as we could carry (the rest left for the Elvradhil)
Morning star of exceptional quality (I replaced mine with this)
4 scrolls each for Falcor and Arad
Silk 7' x 6' pale blue and midnight blue on each side
An orange garnet soulstone for Arad's hammer
Periapt
Quiver with gold filigree (bigger on inside than outside)
A velvet pouch with 5 black spheres the size of a child's marbles
Smaller mahogany box with a dragon motif in gold tracing.