Chronicle - The Quest for the Scabbard

Journey to Locklastar

Lanzi had taught Milai how to make use of the travelling cloud, so between them they would be able to provide trasportation, and with Odin's blessing I was able to sustain us with food and water. Lanzi was also able to shelter and hide us whilst we rested, with his hut of great dweomer. It was three days of travel, with the temperature rising as we covered the miles, we reached an expanse of boggy plains... and the end of any reliable maps we knew of.

I turned once more to Odin for guidance, and we followed the direction I was granted, travelling for another three days before strange vegetation was visible and the temperature and humidity became uncomfortable. I called on Odin once more to protect us within this strange environment as we continued our journey. After another two days the ground started to rise, and we could see a mountain range in the distance ahead. The following day we reached some foothills and the vegetation was not so smothering below us. Having travelled about WSW from the start of the boggy ground, we were far from any features known to us, but incredibly Milai spotted a humanoid ahead, dressed in natural clothing that made them very hard to pick out against the environment they were in, and if they had not been lighting a fire we might have flown right over them.

We, of course, were seen easily and the figure dropped what seemed to be a lyre, drawing a bow and standing ready whilst watching our approach. We continued to close, although not directly, and tried to signal peaceful intent. Lanzi tried blaring out some music with dweomer, but Milai strummed a more gentle tune on her own lyre. Closer now, it seemed that the figure might be a half elf, somewhat handsome with blond hair and hardy travelling leathers. He stood in a small camp, carefully prepared, and was armed with a Dai-Ku and rapier. The slope he was camped on was grassy, with some flat areas that would afford an easy landing, and the mountain scenes around and behind were quite beautiful. As we came closer still we noted the amount of jewellery he was wearing, with a headpiece speckled with precious stones, golden necklaces and bracelets, as well as rings on his hands. His belt was decorated with a symbol suggesting air or wind, and his eyes were blue to match. I sensed that he was checking our alignment with dweomer or divine insight, but we had nothing to hide.

He greeted us and introduced himself as "Rathon", and knew of Milai and Lanzi, inviting us to share his camp. We accepted gratefully after a week of travelling in haste, and shared a meal. We spoke of our destination, and he seemed to know it well. He referred to it as the "Lock of Lastar", a lock that required a key, although we did not know of such a key. Lanzi, in discussion, started to connect the gate with the poem we had heard of Persephone, which might give us a clue to find our way. This talk of Lastar and a poem related to Hades started to give us an insight into the journey we were about to undertake. As we ate, Rathon spent time with Milai, and seemed to improve her ability with the lyre surprisingly quickly.

Eventually Rathon offered to take us to our destination, but warned us to prepare before we left so Lanzi cast stoneskin on himself and Hintzu. We then held hands and suddenly found ourselves transported through time and space!

The 'Lock of Lastar'

I saw the battle scene from my vision, with Guerin there, but the image was gone in an instance. We witnessed the death of Valorin and of Yorlikson, and the disappearance of all of Guerin's people. For a moment we saw the scabbard on Yorlikson's belt, but then landed on solid ground in a dark room. Light slowly filled the room after our arrival, and Rathon said "here is Locklastar." We appeared to be in a Grecian temple adorned with statues of the Gods (we recognised Athena at once), in a circular space about forty foot across and domed about twenty feet above us. Aerial creatures were depicted in flight on the ceiling, and no doors were visible. We stood on a marble floor. Turning to take this in, it was clear that we had arrived in front of the statue of Zeus. Lanzi speculated that this might be a part of Limbo, which would fit with Lastar's previous secret places.

Rathon bid us be careful and departed in whatever way he had brought us here by. Mindful of the planar nature of the 'lock' we were about to attempt to pass through, we turned to our lore for guidance. Milai sang the "winged shadow", accompanied by strumming her lyre, and we burned leaves in the centre of the room to make ash. The smoke whirled around the room, fogging our vision with abnormal amounts of billowing smoke, but it slowly cleared and we saw that the statues had changed.

Now there was just the male 'sun' god and female 'moon' goddess, so we shone sunlight with dweomer on the male statue and starshine on the female. They disappeared, leaving the room empty, but a siren song could be heard, with a strange glow lighting the air around us. Out of the ceiling half female, half eagle creatures emerged and dived at us. Lanzi was raked by talons, but his stoneskin saved him from harm. Milai lashed out with Agan, downing one, and Hintzu loosed arrows to bring down two more. Lanzi conjured a stinking cloud, and fortunately I was able to duck aside and hold my breath before it affected me. Milai and Hintzu killed two more apiece, striking any that came close. Lanzi hit one with magic missiles, and I finished it with a blow from my hammer. Although they were many they were not strong, and Hintzu killed two more as Milai killed three. Lanzi struck one down with more magic missiles before Hintzu killed the last one flying. There were a few remaining in the room alive, but they were incapaciated by the stinking cloud.

Milai started singing again, and the room span and shifted, with the bodies vanishing as it did so. We were plunged into pitch darkness, so I took out my gem of brightness. As I did so, the three heads of Cerberus seemed to loom out at us, but Milai shouted a warning that it was an illusion and should be ignored. We collected ourselves and saw stairs leading downwards from behind the image of Cerberus. The stairs were long and straight, although direction had no meaning to us here. Hintzu advanced, but the floor started to fall away. We all hurredly used dweomer to ensure we could fly!

Milai created a pocket of Prime Material plane so that she could take a sapling to burn, leaving a trail of ash behind us as we travelled. I ended up carrying a faggot of wood for Lanzi to do the same. Milai and Hintzu took the lead and we flew down into the darkness; it was black all around us. Eventually we could make out a grey dome below us and as we drew closer we could see an opening in the top that we headed for. Looking around we could make out a dark horizon with broken, black shapes in the distance but everything was dark and indistinct. We entered the dome and ended up stood in a round room at the base, which seemed unremarkable and without exits.

Lanzi used his gem of seeing, which revealed dead things in the walls, clinging around archways that he could now make out. We used the sheet of smallness to reduce the size of the saplings, so that I could move freely and defend myself, and I then volunteered to be the first to step through the archway (which I could not see). Lanzi kindly helped by shoving me through the right spot in the wall and I emerged from the other side stood on a basalt black 'road' about four feet wide surrounded by twisted grey rock and tress either side. There was an acrid smell in the air and it was cold (although not freezing), with no wind I could feel. The most noticeable thing, though, was the cacophony of wailing and screaming filling my ears, with no discernable source - talking would be difficult here. There was a creature approaching, about twice my height and revolting looking, although all grey, crawling across the rocks fairly slowly but definitely heading my way.

Milai was next to step through, but when she emerged there was no sign of me, and she stood alone amongst the grey rocks. There was also a creature visible, although it was different to the one I saw. Lanzi and Hintzu tried to step through together, and Hintzu's badge might have been heard saying "I've been a very brave boy" if it were not for the noise all around. They still emerged in different places, though, so we were now completely separated. The mages' familiars had not made the transition, or were lost somewhere else, so we would not benefit from their support here. We were now in the plains of the Hells, and must find our way to Hades' realm.