Shadow War campaign In-Game: Chapter 67- Return to Union Point

[Navarre]

As the last of the teams depart, with the appropriate farewells, your party returns to the Well of Souls. Now outfitted with cold weather gear borrowed from the Kaazradi, you come to the edge of the mystic pool.

Aphra stares at the waters, new to her. She clearly needs assistance from someone more versed in the use of the well.

Anbar and Liv, either of you are readily able to use the Well's power. As the water coalesces into a discernible image you see Faerun.

When last you saw him, your friend was lying face up on the stony surface of Laukordia while a Hare watched nearby. But Faerun is there no longer.

You see the gnome being carried. He is slung carelessly over the back of some creature.

From the vast difference between Faerun's size and the thing that carries him, you guess the creature to be at least twelve feet tall. It looks like some sort of alien insect no natural world would allow.

It has a chitinous body, covered in heavy scales. Silvery-white and a sickly blue, it has strong mandibles and even stronger looking claws. A long tail curves over its head, both topped with razor-sharp spikes.

The creature skitters quickly over the hard red-orange rocks. The scope of the Well's vision allows you to see little more.

"Shit, we waited too long. " curses Aphra.

"A gelugon's got him."

[chrysalis]

"Why? What is a Gelugon? What will they do to him?"

[Navarre]

Aphra stares into the Well as she speaks.

"Gelugons are devils. Natives of Laukordia."

"They often work as spies for more powerful beings, though how a twelve foot tall insect makes a good spy is beyond me. But, where Maldomkin has the Hare, greater devils have the gelugons."

"Most likely they are taking their new find to whatever boss they serve. All that magic the gnome is packing probably drew them like Vinnrog to a turkey leg."

"There's no door out there, obviously. I can't tell which way they are headed either. There's neither sun nor stars in Laukordia."

"But I can track them. I'm sure of that. Done it before."

"Best I could suggest is that we go to the Burrows, where the Hare live. You say you saw one in the vision before so they would know the most."

[Gaumer]

"Well, damn, what in the name of Kallum's shaggy pithairs are we doin' starin' like some slack-jawed do-nothin's!?

Let's be gettin' to savin' that gnome an' kickin' some devil arse!"

[Navarre]

Aphra nods.

"Damn right."

"Alright, there's a door to an old cottage of some sort that's been near the Burrows for a long time. We can use its door to enter Laukordia."

"We can use that free-standing door of that Rakshasa Arcane, Halnaerm, for our jump point. I suggest getting those fur cloaks on."

"C'mon."

Without another word, Aphra hurries up the ramp and back to ground level before entering the mystically hidden Alabaster Tower. Master Halnaerm's door is where you last saw it, appearing completely inconspicuous save for the fact that it stands in a frame by itself in the middle of the room.

Aphra looks to Liv.

"Alright, I don't know how that Totem thing works but give it a try on this door."

[chrysalis]

"Umm, okay." Still a bit taken back by Aphra, I do as she asks and I try to use the totem on the door.

[Navarre]

The door currently stands open in the frame. You hold the Totem of Damali toward the door and nothing happens.

Closing the door, you once again present the amulet of a god. Once again, nothing changes.

On the third attempt you leave the door closed and use the Totem to cover the lock of the door. You hear a slight clicking sound of the tumblers, as if you had inserted a key, even though nothing penetrated the lock.

Thinking of the Totem as a key, and your mind fixed on this door in Laukordia you have never seen, you turn the amulet a quarter-turn clockwise. As you step away from the door, Aphra draws her night cleaver and carefully opens the door again.

You feel nothing emanating through the opening but the sight is something much different than you saw when the door was open. Beyond the threshold an alien environment meets your eyes.

You see a sky of yellow and red vapor that burns brightly, even though none of the light passes through the doorway. The molten atmosphere lingers over hard rocky crevices, buttes, and canyons formed of orange-red stone.

Vinnrog, his great axe now drawn, walks cautiously around to the other side of the door frame. You lose sight of him as he passes behind the landscape before you but he states that he can see straight through the aperture as if nothing had changed.

Still, you know your attempts have borne fruit. Through that doorway, awaits Laukordia...the Hell of Ashearea.

With one last breath of the cool air in the Alabaster Tower, you each step one-by-one across that impossible mystic threshold; leaving your home, planet, and dimension behind. The intrepid Defenders walk willingly into Hell itself. Laukordia has taken you.

{End of Chapter 67}