Posts
In between sessions, clues from the temple of Oghma led the party to a mad carpenter, whose ravings suggested that there are places in between the levels of the orulin, on the vertical face of the tree, where secret things are hidden. The library, he suggested, would be found between level 2 and level 3.
The party investigated and found a place where the bark of the orulin was cracked. With a hundred feet of rope and a great deal of effort, the party managed to climb up to the opening and inside to a 60' diameter hole in the tree. Some elves of Olemcorro observed them climbing up, but did nothing.
In the rapidly narrowing crevice, they delved upward and toward the corewood of the tree. Soon they found themselves fighting strange, shrill dark shapes: shadows, whose very touch drained Ellira the elven cleric of all but her last vestiges of strength. With that very strength, she struck out with the power of her god, raising her holy symbol and driving the undead monstrosities away. As the shadows fled, an unexpected surprise made an appearance: Crom the barbarian was in the crevice! The shadows fled from the enraged barbarians ineffective blows.
Crom told this story:
The dragon dragged him through the air, as his mighty blows with Ungarik persuaded it to finally take the better part of valor and fly underground. The blue dragon found a hidden crevice, descended it, and then rammed Crom's body against a wall.
When he came to, he found himself deep in a dark place, separated from Halbren and the rest of the party, and lacking Ungarik, still (he presumes) stuck between the scales of the foul dragon Egar.
With no bearing, no map, no light, and no memory of how he had arrived there, he simply started to climb. This took many tenebrous days, during which he had to eat whatever crawling things he encountered in that place, drink whatever sour runoff his groping hands squelched into, his thoughts on reunion with his friends and survival.
Still bleeding, and never far from death, the intense pain of his wounds a constant ghoul feeding on his entrails, he found himself in a place of roots and knew he was near the surface. The floor sloped to the near-vertical, and he found himself climbing a passage of wood. Still, no light penetrated, but he was wise enough to continue to climb upward.
He continued his blind, vertical crawl, at times squeezing himself through jagged cracks, at other times having nothing whatsoever to eat, and with no idea whether his supposed escape route even led to freedom. He finally rested one (evening? morning?), and when he awoke, he felt the presence of evil around him.
He waited, and soon, with great effort he was able to find in the intense darkness several sets of gray blobs of lesser darkness: eyes, he quickly realized, the eyes of evil creatures in the dark. But as he considered his next move, the evil ones moved away rapidly, in a direction he was not able to follow in the dark; perhaps through the very orulin itself. When the screams and shouts of battle followed, he found his way around, and there met the party.
The party investigated and found a place where the bark of the orulin was cracked. With a hundred feet of rope and a great deal of effort, the party managed to climb up to the opening and inside to a 60' diameter hole in the tree. Some elves of Olemcorro observed them climbing up, but did nothing.
In the rapidly narrowing crevice, they delved upward and toward the corewood of the tree. Soon they found themselves fighting strange, shrill dark shapes: shadows, whose very touch drained Ellira the elven cleric of all but her last vestiges of strength. With that very strength, she struck out with the power of her god, raising her holy symbol and driving the undead monstrosities away. As the shadows fled, an unexpected surprise made an appearance: Crom the barbarian was in the crevice! The shadows fled from the enraged barbarians ineffective blows.
Crom told this story:
The dragon dragged him through the air, as his mighty blows with Ungarik persuaded it to finally take the better part of valor and fly underground. The blue dragon found a hidden crevice, descended it, and then rammed Crom's body against a wall.
When he came to, he found himself deep in a dark place, separated from Halbren and the rest of the party, and lacking Ungarik, still (he presumes) stuck between the scales of the foul dragon Egar.
With no bearing, no map, no light, and no memory of how he had arrived there, he simply started to climb. This took many tenebrous days, during which he had to eat whatever crawling things he encountered in that place, drink whatever sour runoff his groping hands squelched into, his thoughts on reunion with his friends and survival.
Still bleeding, and never far from death, the intense pain of his wounds a constant ghoul feeding on his entrails, he found himself in a place of roots and knew he was near the surface. The floor sloped to the near-vertical, and he found himself climbing a passage of wood. Still, no light penetrated, but he was wise enough to continue to climb upward.
He continued his blind, vertical crawl, at times squeezing himself through jagged cracks, at other times having nothing whatsoever to eat, and with no idea whether his supposed escape route even led to freedom. He finally rested one (evening? morning?), and when he awoke, he felt the presence of evil around him.
He waited, and soon, with great effort he was able to find in the intense darkness several sets of gray blobs of lesser darkness: eyes, he quickly realized, the eyes of evil creatures in the dark. But as he considered his next move, the evil ones moved away rapidly, in a direction he was not able to follow in the dark; perhaps through the very orulin itself. When the screams and shouts of battle followed, he found his way around, and there met the party.