Journal - Yarlug (the suicide mission)

Surprise Attack

We prepared ourselves for the attack and opened the portal. At once we rushed the two gith in the room, making sure we had stepped through the portal before attacking. I launched magic missiles, Rhion slashed with his swords, Takeda loosed arrows, and Baldir attempted to hit one. The closest gith fell quickly, but the second shouted an alarm, fending off Baldir's blow. Little, pale, dwarf-like people burst into the room from the doors to each side of us. Their skin was so pale it was almost icy, and they were certainly evil-looking. Their armour was leather with a copper-like metal studding it, and they were weilding a mix of polearms, swords, and crossbows.

I used dweomer to seal one of the doors, unfortunately just a little too late to stop a few of the creatures from getting through. They rushed me, landing several blows and forcing me back. Takeda killed the last gith, and then one of the new creatures (which we assumed were the Derro) with one arrow in the neck. The creatures kept coming from the door on the left, but the one I sealed was holding for now. I used my new ring of the ram, conjuring a phantasmal ram's head that butted an opponent clean off his feet and into the wall. I sent another to sleep, but there was still one on my side of the room and he slashed my side nastily. Rhion and Takeda were also hit. Takeda retaliated, killing one of the foe, then turned and dispatched the last foe facing me with a single arrow in his back. Baldir landed a hit, although the foe remained standing. Takeda killed another (they fell like chaff before his arrow fire), and I finished the winded one on the floor before he could attack again.

Takeda killed yet another, advancing towards the door, and managed to kill one before they even set foot in the room. Now that some of the Derro further back could see a target they began firing bolts into the room, but only succeeded in skewering one of their own people. Rhion cut down another, but they just kept coming! Takeda shot one down, Rhion opened the guts of another, but the gap was filled again. Rhion cut the next down too, but was hit in the process. I conjured a stinking cloud in the room beyond the open door, at least temporarily cutting off reinforcements. Takeda killed two more, and I moved in behind the others, getting away from the door I had held - the constant battering from the other side was threatening to burst it open at any moment.

Rhion slashed another Derro across the hamstrings, dropping him instantly, just before I hasted his movements to twice the normal speed. Takeda took another one down, but suffered a nasty gash to his shoulder. Baldir finished off the one he had been battling for some time, leaving just three in the room with us (well, four if you count the one asleep). Takeda ended another two with arrows, and Rhion cut the last one down. We were alone for a moment, although there was still battering on the weakening door I had held with dweomer.

I noticed some runes on the wall opposite where we had entered, although I did not recognise them, and Baldir began to inspect a mural behind where we had entered. We wanted to find a hidden way out before the foe were on us again. Takeda shut the door with the gas beyond, standing ready to fight, as Rhion tied the sleeping Derro up with strips of clothes from the dead. I started to shout a warning about the door, which I was sure would give way any moment, but then noticed that the mural Baldir was studying showed us at the glade pool! My words died as I stepped up to touch myself on the nose, but sadly I didn't feel anything.

Takeda jammed an arrow into the keyhole of the door he just closed, then turned his attention to the other door. It was just in time, as it crashed inwards with wood around the lock splintering. There seemed to be a narrow bridge beyond over a chasm of some kind. Two Derro and two Gith rushed in to attack, and I was only just able to dodge the blows aimed at me. Baldir and Rhion were moving towards the door, but too late to stop the charge, and only landed glancing blows on the foe. Takeda fared better, killing a Derro and putting an arrow into one of the Gith. I panicked, using a scroll to petrify one of the Gith as a desparate defence, but Takeda kept his fire up, downing the other two before they could do any serious damage.

Takeda held on to the other door, keeping it closed, although it was being tested from the other side. Rhion ran to the other door, also holding it closed. Baldir, at his shoulder, asked him to open it quickly and brought light to the other side; thankfully there were none of the enemy there for now. Takeda, though, definitely had the enemy on the other side of the door. He shifted it open slightly, then used his great strength to slam it open suddenly, at which there were a couple of screams as some Derro (possibly) fell to their deaths, and a similar narrow bridge could be seen as that before Baldir. There were two Gith on the bridge that had not been close enough to suffer from Takeda'a shove.

Baldir ran out onto the bridge, but in doing so activated a trap that caused it to start folding into the centre, with Baldir trapped inside. Thankfully it wasn't an instant movement, giving him a moment to consider a way out. I was focused on the Gith, summoning a web along the length of the bridge, but it did not affect them. Takeda was attacked, but dodged the blow. Meanwhile Baldir somehow manipulated the stone bridge so that it jammed the mechanism and stopped it from closing, causing a horrible grinding sound as it shuddered to a halt. Rhion threw Baldir a rope, which he caught, as Takeda weaved around putting arrows into the Gith, slaying one. Baldir climbed up to the top of the half-folded bridge and jumped down to join Rhion safely. Takeda took a nasty blow to his side, opening a bleeding gash, but managed to finish the last Gith off before I could assist. Rhion shut what was left of the door again, although I felt that it was a bit unnecessary given the mess that Baldir had made!

Baldir called on Odin's power and fully restored Takeda's health, quite the miracle considering the wounds he was suffering from. I quaffed a potion to restore my own health. Takeda read the poem I had spotted (but was unable to read) earlier opposite where we had entered from. There were, we deduced, four rooms like this one, arranged around what we believed to be the original gate room in some kind of sequence linked to the natural Astral gates. We also discovered some sigils on the floor by the doors; the one where Baldir had left said "darkness is life" which would explain why the trap activated after Baldir created light, and the one near Takeda said "light is death." We would not be able to summon light to aid Takeda's movements.

We roped up in case one of us should fall, and Rhion stepped out onto the bridge first. We waited to see what would happen before following. Rhion could just about make out some movement below, but it was too far to see any detail. There was a metal cage of some kind above us, which was ominous. On the bridge were repeated symbols: squares, triangles, circles, and pentagrams. Rhion followed the sequence we expected would reflect the order of rooms - triangle, pentagram, square, circle, and repeat. Rhion reached the other side safely, at which point the door there opened. There was a mirror on the far side of the room, and more poetry on the wall adjacent. There were Derro here, though, who attacked and did some damage to Rhion. I shouted for Baldir to go ahead, as I turned my attention to aiding Takeda.

I placed Takeda directly in front of me, with his feet on mine, and then started to slowly take the paces necessary to walk through the sequence, moving his legs with my own. Rhion killed one, was hit again, but killed the attacker in retaliation, leaving three more. He managed to kill another, but was hit several times and weakening. Worried for him, I used my boots to leap over his head and into the room to aid him, leaving Takeda blind on the bridge. Essere, a little surprised by the sudden movement, flew behind the door and peeked out at me. Rhion, a little confused, was cut again, but swiftly riposted and killed another Derro. I had landed awkwardly but intact, so I stood and dusted myself down before landing a solid blow on one of the Derro from behind. Rhion quickly finished him off.

Rhion was badly in need of healing, so I offered him some keotomes. He declined as he had some of his own, and I thought "well fuck you then"... or did I say it out loud? I can't remember! Takeda was stuck on the bridge, effectively blind, but Baldir could not carry him so decided it would be a good idea to strip him of his armour and weapons, throwing them to Rhion in the entrance to the room. Now Takeda was blind and weaponless, which didn't feel like much of an improvement! It was at this point that we were attacked from the other end of the room by more Gith and Derro.

Baldir called on Odin to allow him to deflect arrows and bolts, worried that he would be an easy target stuck on the bridge. Takeda then announced that he could be as light as a feather if that helped. Suddenly Baldir was able to lift him up with one hand and walk across the bridge! I used a scroll to send a spray of colour into the room, causing the Gith to collapse and the Derro to become confused. Rhion gave Takeda's weapons back to him, before applying keotomes liberally on himself. Baldir also stepped into the room, summoning light to aid Takeda. The act of creating light, though, triggered the trap behind us and the cage above the bridge slammed down, destroying the way back.

It seemed we had all had the same idea, as I conjured four lanterns in being, and they bobbed gently near the corners of the room, ensuring we were able to clearly see the walls. Baldir took the extra precaution of conjuring light onto Takeda's sword, making it glow brightly when unsheathed. Baldir approached the wall to our left, which had appeared to be a mirror from afar, seeing an empty room (not the one we stood in), that shortly later was entered by the White Council. The remaining Derro backed out of the room, shutting the door behind them, either setting a trap, going for reinforcements, or both I suspected.

Takeda started to collect weapons from the remaining enemy in case they came to and attacked. I approached the vision of the White Council and attempted to stick my hand through the wall to wave at them. It had some effect, as they recoiled and readied their weapons. Baldir tried putting his head through to talk to them, seeing spinning grey swirls around him but unable to overcome a pressure from within to reach the other side. I noticed that the roof of our room had a crescent moon, with the points directed at this mirror wall and a text on the opposite wall. We took a moment to agree on what we thought the shapes represented, the circle was the Efferendil, the square Maedus, the pentagon the Vikrain, and the triangle LockLastar.

We were able to establish communications with the White Council, as we had done before, so we explained where we were and how we could see them. We were able to pass items through the portal here, but not pass through ourselves. After sharing information and receiving a few items to aid our quest, we bid them farewell and turned our attention to the text on the far side. We believed we were looking for a hidden way to enter the central room, which we had starting to circle around. The text warned us of various traps, although cryptically, and the first action was to get down on all fours with our heads bowed down whilst pressing a button hidden within the text. There was a horrible whirring sound above our heads (it felt as though the crescent moon itself had lowered and was scything through the air, then a flash of light, and then the wall in front of us lowered.

Ahead was a sheer drop, with a little less than 30 feet away a sort of tray of flowing water, which flowed towards us before dropping down into the depths below. The void all around was a deep indigo blue. Again, with clues taken from the verse, Takeda scattered dirt forwards, revealing an invisible bridge that reached out towards the waterfall. We crawled forward, and spiked balls swung above our head, intended to knock the unwary into the abyss below. A bright green gas started to billow around us, but forewarned we held our breath. Takeda reached the water, catching it in his helmet, causing the flow to stop. It was about another 25 feet along the tray where the water had been, and then statues lined the sides looking inwards towards each other.