Shadow War campaign In-Game: Chapter 68- Laukordia

[Navarre]

The Shadow War

Chapter 68
Laukordia

A bone-numbing chill grabs at your skin. You feel ice flecks begin to form around you almost immediately as your warm bodies suddenly materialize in Laukordia.

The heat steams from your bodies, causing the particles of ice to semi-melt and drift toward a sky that is liquid fire. As you hurriedly gather our cloaks about you, you watch as it snows upward from your bodies.

The landscape is dark orange rock, cracked like dead skin. In the distance are tall peaks jutting toward the lava-like sky over you.

Small black bugs scurry in and along the crack, skittering over your feet. Anbar, the bugs bite at your bare feet, though your mystic protection wards off the dozens of tiny jaws. Moira however yelps and hops around, frantically shaking the hem of her white robe, as the bugs crawl into her silk-lined slippers.

As Inoke helps shoo the insects away, you look for any sign of movement or life. The only thing before you is your warm breath rising visibly into the sky.

Liv, you turn to close the door through which the Totem of Damali transported you. As you do, you see it is attached to a cottage, as Aphra said.

A thatch-roofed cottage it sitting on the barren landscape, looking entirely conspicuous and out of place in this wasteland. Large enough for a small family to live comfortably, the cottage has narrow vertical frosted glass windows, criss-crossed with iron-working, dark from within.

One corner of the cottage has a shaped tower that juts higher than the roof, coming to a sloped peak. The corners of the roof itself slope upward as well, almost as if the cottage were made of paper that had begun to burn.

You look into a comfortable living room, complete with a small fireplace and six chairs arranged in a circle facing into each other. The chairs are made of twisted heavy vines and iron reinforcements, covered in upholstery of reds, purples, and blacks.

The area within the circle of furniture is six feet across; a bare circular stone set flush into the wooden floor. There is a closed wooden door, bound in iron, on the back right-hand wall.

From the front room, a short hall leads toward the back of the house. The far end of the hall opens into a small kitchen, painted a cheery yellow.

The door in your hand is of an attractive and expensive mahogany. The exterior of the cottage is covered in a thin layer of ice while the door, which seems more resilient to the cold, is covered in a light frost.

Liv and Bedlor, as well as Donovan, Erika, Moira, and Vinnrog, have seen this cottage before. It is the cottage you encountered on the Eastern Road into Forest Falls - - The cottage occupied by Serena Kane and the planewalkers.

[Gaumer]

"Let's be movin' out.

Aphra be takin' point; Tren be keepin' up the rear. They be 'avin' more know-'ow on this forsaken place. E'eryone else be keepin' one eye on this land an' the other on yer mates. We not be wantin' anyone to be lost."

[Navarre]

Aphra replies, "The Burrows are this way. It's impossible to figure distance in some places. The landscape changes."

"The Hellpacks track by scent. I can find the Hare from here."

"Let's get away from this cottage though. It's creepy," she says, staring more comfortably over the remainder of Hell.

[Navarre]

Erika looks at the cottage.

"How can this cottage be here? We saw it in the Grey Realm."

Aphra looks over the abode. "You've seen this place before?"

Vinnrog nods.

"Uh-huh. Witch woman, Kane, was hiding in cottage with planewalkers."

Aphra shakes her head.

"No. This cottage has been here for a lot longer than I've been alive. You must have it wrong."

"On to find the Hare then."

She sniffs the cold air for a few minutes and then looks in a direction that looks much like all the others.

"This way."

[Gaumer]

"There be no way o' knowin' fer sure'n if'n it be the same one.

We be 'ere fer reasons an' this ain't bein' one o' 'em. If'n it be suitin' us to gettin' more knowin', so be it. Right now it be suitin' us to be keepin' up wit' Faerun.

Lead on, mate."

[chrysalis]

"I'm sure it's more than a coincidence that this cottage looks like Serena's. "

[Gaumer]

"An' I not be doubtin' it.

If'n the one who be sendin' the one be after 'ere, sure'n other things be sent 'ere as well. Sure'n it be important an' us puttin' speakin' to Kane 'gain be a wise plan.

But we ba 'avin' other things to be takin' care o'. It not be just us our missions be dependin' on now. Others be needin' us to keep our eyes on what we seek same as we 'ope they be doin' the same.

If'n what Aphra be sayin' be true this place be goin' nowhere fast an' we be 'avin' a quick way to it at any sake."

[chrysalis]

"Let us come back to the Serena saga then, Aphra, take us to where you think they have Faerun."

[Navarre]

Aphra moves quickly and certainly over the rocky expanse of frost-covered stone. You find yourselves moving more slowly and with less certainty as the ground beneath you cracks and shifts with every step.

Bedlor, you fare the best. Warsong's magic helps some but, even with the aid of your magical weapon, you find it difficult to stay balanced on a terrain that teeters beneath your firmly attached feet.

Still, you and the Baron and Mogul , take quick advantage of your Pass Warder training and time navigating the Devil's Maw to make your way forward. The rest of you manage as best you can but Aphra's pace leaves Moira slipping and even Donovan fighting to maintain balance.

"Slow down, Aphra," calls Erika.

The Hound doesn't glance back, her eyes constantly surveying the land around her and especially the skies above.

"I'm not leaving you, stop bitching. You'll be a lot unhappier if one of Halberadrax's red dragons comes looking for an early lunch. Just keep moving."

You have little choice but to follow Aphra, yet you cannot tell that you are heading toward anything in particular. What seems to be a discernible landmark of rising stone on your left will soon be on your right though you cannot account for any alteration of your course.

More than once the Hound stops, sniffing the air or coming to all fours to shove her nose onto the hard ground. The small black bugs jump into her nostrils and crawl into her open mouth. She expels the former with a hardy blow of her nose while swallowing the latter as if she had intended to dine on the insects all along.

You cannot tell how long you have been running. Sweat beads on your brow, crystallizing into hard droplets of ice on your forehead as your breathing becomes ragged. It seems harder to breathe here than on Ashearea once you begin to need the precious air.

The flat cracked dessert soon gives rise to numerous small grey rocks about a foot tall that litter the landscape. Aphra dodges and darts around them or vaults over them.

You notice she takes care never to touch one. You follow suit, wise enough to mimic her actions but too harried for breath to inquire to your guide.

The Hound stops so suddenly Vinnrog almost barrels her over. Of all of you, only he and Inoke have been easily keeping pace; their barbarian upbringing giving them an advantage over the rest of you.

Bedlor, your willful endurance has availed you well even though your short legs have not. You find yourself coming up behind your three friends as the others make their way behind more slowly.

"What's...," Vinnrog begins, before being hushed by a raised hand from Aphra.

You hold in still silence as Aphra stands as still as the many small rocks around you. Her bronze eyes shift over the surroundings but only her nostrils move, slowly flaring in and out as she takes long slow breaths.

Without warning, the Hound leaps at an angle to her left. She covers some nine feet as she grabs for one of the free-standing grey rocks...a rock that suddenly moves!

"Catch her!" yells Aphra as a granite grey rabbit bolts away from you, barely avoiding the Hound's grasp.

{Single unarmed attack roll. Highest attack roll succeeds if sufficient.}

[Gaumer]

{It would be just the first BaB?

I think this is right

1d20+11=27}

[Gaumer]

{It would be just the first BaB?

I think this is right

1d20+11+3=27 30}

[chrysalis]

(1d20+13=22)

[sab39]

{oh, duh}

What is my Sacred Attendant perception telling me about it? I can communicate with it as a free action, right?

[Navarre]

Your position as Summer's Sacred Attendant allows you to communicate with all normal animals at will. One would not think any denizen of Laukordia could possibly be classified as "normal".

However, your studies have schooled you on the basic connection of the Hare to Maldomkin. Despite their sentience and mystical properties, there is little doubt looking at the fleeing creature that it is a rabbit in all ways that matter.

[sab39]

Shouldn't I be able to perceive its thoughts or something?