The
Adventures of The Unknown
Episode 7
“The Temple of Kara Sharyss - Part II”
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Seth DeCalea: Half-Elven Ranger
Issic: Half Dragon from Sigil
Ghallan Hired man-at-arms for a now
dead wizard.
Manderkarr: Dwarven master of Axe
and asskicking.
Piper Troublefinder A halfling with
a taste for vengeance
Shanagra Darmal: Nyandarian Druid
late of Drychtnoth.
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The Place: The Unknown Lands, Lake Eonnoth
The Time: Spring, 6 Eul, Sixth Year, Eighth Age.
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Manderkarr came out of the woods just in time to see Flower and
Shanagra taken into the black temple the next morning. There was a fishing
village around. The black temple was definitely not human built. The fishers
were busy doing fishing stuff. The winged folk lady carrying Flower and Shanagra
turned and disappeared into the black Temple.
The dwarf ran up to the doors and began to bash on the doors. The
doors held, ringing out like iron bells, bells, bells, bells. Manderkarr continued
to smash his hammer into the doors, hearing the tolling of the bells, compelling
the dwarf to think solemn thoughts. The doors continued to ring out as he bashed
them. The townsfolk gathered, picking up hooks and pitchforks and torches,
almost as though they were in a trance. In the silence of the night, they shivered
with affright at the melancholy menace of the tones. They stepped in time with
the sounds of the resonations, keeping time, time, time, in a sort of runic
rhyme to the throbbing of the bells.
Inside of the temple of darkness, Sharyss approached Seth and said,
"I hear you did very well...”
“Only the best,” boasted Seth. Sharyss stopped caressing him when
she heard the bell sounds. “Excuse me, darling. We seem to be disturbed.”
She stood and slipped on her skimpy dress and left the room.
“I will wait even an eternity,” he said.
Manderkarr continued to crash against the doors and their hinges.
He was now using both his warhammer and a maul. Three winged girls appeared
flying in the air above the dwarf. The advancing people stopped approaching
at a signal from Luhalla, one of the three. One of the members of the crowd,
not in a trance like the others, was a halfling. He continued to advance toward
the Dwarf.
Manderkarr said, “Bring me my friends now or pay!”
One of the winged girls said, “I am Sharyss. Your friends, if they
are here, are here of their own choice.”
“I don't care who you are! I saw my friends enter and I must have
them now, demonspawn! Hundreds more like me will raze this place if my friends
aren't with me and on our way by sunset!”
Sharyss uncoiled a long rope and tossed an end of it down to the
dwarf. “Take it and enter, dwarf.”
Piper, the halfling, stepped up the stairs. Sharyss looked at the
halfling with a bit of consternation. Manderkarr grasped the end of the rope.
Sharyss dropped her end and the rope, as if alive, coiled around the dwarf quickly,
drawing tight and holding him hostage. Luhalla threw and end of her rope down
and it grabbed onto the previous rope already entwined around the dwarf. She
started to haul the dwarf up. Manderkarr tried to bite through the rope and
shred it against his armor to no avail.
Piper spoke up, “What did you want, Winged Plague Spreader?”
Sharyss said to Piper, “We want to be left alone, little man. Didn't
your people have enough the last time they visited? You guys weren't very good...”
“What do you know of my people?” demanded the halfling. Manderkarr
continued to struggle as he was pulled higher into the air.
Manderkarr shouted towards the woods “If I'm not back in 10 minutes
begin the assault, Clangefford!”
“Assault?” said Piper, looking around.
Sharyss, alarmed, vanished with an audible pop. The other two did
also. The dwarf crashed to the ground. The people shook their heads and went
on about their business, wondering why they were all gathered around the temple.
“Run away demonspawn!” the dwarf shouted, “You’ll never defeat all
of us! Damn, I hates mages.” He noticed Piper the halfling. “I'm hating magic,
would you cut the damn thing before it chokes mes thru my armor!”
“I am Piper Troublefinder; my friends call me Piper, My enemies
call me Trouble.” Piper tried to cut the rope tangled around Manderkarr, but
it would not cut. “Dammit, magic. Those winged wenches of disease... I am
sorry, but I cannot help you. Like you, I am useless against such things.”
Manderkarr thrashed around trying to get free of the bindings. The more he
thrashed the tighter the ropes became. He rolled over to the door and continued
to bang against it. “Demonspawn! Can’t you fight me toe to toe!”
“No, but I’m going to find out. The harlots know something about
my people!” said Piper.
Back inside the temple, Sharyss went to Seth. “Do you know a Dwarf?”
“Yes. He is a brave fighter and has saved my life,” said Seth.
“Does he lead an army or legion or anything?” She started kissing
Seth. “Please tell me,” she said softly into his ear.
“Manderkarr? Bah, no. But he shall one day.”
Sharyss smiled. “Good. I will be right back.”
When Manderkarr grabbed the end of the rope it obeyed his commands.
The rope untangled and coiled up for him. He walked around for another entrance.
Piper tried pushing on the door, but it tolled like an iron bell when he did
so. The winged girls appeared above again. They had daggers out, dripping
with venom. They were dressed in black leather teddies. Piper ran toward the
nearest dwarf with a hammer. Manderkarr eased his rope out, but made his hammer
obvious.
Luhalla dove toward Manderkarr. The dwarf lashed out one end of
the rope and yelled, “Grab ‘em!” The rope tangled the girl and she crashed
to the ground right next to Piper, dropping the venomous dagger. Manderkarr
began to pound Luhalla with his warhammer, ignoring her cries as the hammer
smacked into her. Piper spit on her, “Demon,” he cussed.
“Enjoy that Demonspawn? Here's some more!” exclaimed the dwarf
as he continued to slam the heavy weapon into her.
The other two dove down to protect her. Manderkarr whirled around
to dodge the attackers. Piper tried to drive his dagger into Luhalla, but it
was to no real effect as she was immune to non-magical weapons.
Well, at least I got her attention, thought Piper. “You,
Yeah I hit you..whatcha gonna do?” he taunted Luhalla as she struggled to escape.
The other two erinyes, Sharylla and Reshni swooped down, catching her up in
rescue. Manderkarr lunged at them.
Piper quickly retrieved his one and only dagger, named Shiny Trouble.
“My weapon did nothing!” Piper shouted to Manderkarr as the erinyes
lifted away.
“Maybe you need training and a better weapon!” said Manderkarr,
swinging his hammer at their wings, but missing. One of the fishermen dipped
a javalin he used to hunt fish into the lake. He then threw it to Manderkarr.
Reshni veered off to kill the fisherman, who ducked back into the lake. Reshni
turned back, seemingly angry. She did not go over the lake. Manderkarr picked
up the javalin and launched it at Reshni.
The javalin pierced into the flying erinyes. She screamed and crumpled,
falling to the ground. Sharyss cried out and teleported back into the temple.
Reshni pulled out the javalin. The one in the rope, back on the ground again,
cried out in anguish as she was unable to teleport out.
“The water,” said Piper. He ran to the water, dumping out his wine
skin and filling it with lake water. He then dipped his dagger into the water.
“Tastes bad, eh demon!” shouted the battlecrazed dwarf.
Ghallan chose this time to arrive on the scene. Piper ran to the
erinyes trapped on the ground by the ropes and stabbed his dagger into her pretty
backside. She cried out in pain as he plunged the dagger into her soft body.
Piper then rolled her over and sat on her chest, holding the dagger to her throat.
“What is going on here, demon?”
She spat at Piper, “Let me go, and I will tell you!”
“Pour on the water, Piper, theys don't like it,” said Manderkarr.
Reshni lashed out with her dagger, cutting the dwarf with her poisoned weapon.
Ghallan ran up behind Reshni, trying to take her head off.
“Beat the hell out of her!” exclaimed Manderkarr, but he knew
Ghallan’s
blade would not hurt the evil creature. His blade passed right through Reshni.
“Why can I not damage these she-demons?”
“You need a magic weapon, Ghallan, or you need to dip your sword
in the nearby lake!” said Manderkarr. Ghallan ran over to where Piper and Luhalla
was.
Piper, still sitting on Luhalla’s chest, dripped a bit of water
on her face. “You won’t be so purdy when I get done wit ye.” She screamed
as the water dripped on her face, burning it.
Ghallan tackled Luhalla into the wall and told Piper to pour the
rest of the water on her.
Reshni managed to pull the javalin out and flung it aside. She
lashed out with her dagger, but missed the dwarf.
Piper got off her and began to roll her into the lake, yelling,
“Demon, demon, demon!”
“Now yous thinking!” shouted Manderkarr as he continued to dodge
the dagger of Reshni.
Sharyss appeared on the top of the building and cried out “STOP!
and I will release your friends!” Piper stopped, but Manderkarr merely glared
in hatred. “Now, or die like the rest! All of them! Druid, elf, and all!”
“I have one of yer demon friends, lady. I can kill her at my own
whim. Better listen to the guy,” said Piper.
Issic and Seth appeared outside the door, which opened and closed
quickly.
“Okay, I have freed two. Release one of mine, and I will release
the next two,” said Sharyss. Manderkarr left off his fight with Reshni. She
teleported back into the Temple.
The door opened again and Flower and Shanagra were carried out by
Reshni. She untied flower and disappeared back into the door.
“Hey Manderkarr!” exclaimed Issic. “You got a party going on out
here?”
“I leaves for one tennsy moment and eveyone goes to hell!” complained
Manderkarr to Issic. “You all been thinking with your one-legged brains again!
Makes for a piss poor warrior if yous let that think too much!”
Ghallan chuckled. “I think they have to, Manderkarr.”
“Even with demonspawn? At least I gots good enough tastes to stay
within my own kind,” said the dwarf. “Or at least something from the same plane.”
“What happened?” said Seth. Piper walked up to the freed group.
“All this for two Plague spreaders, a elf, a pretty one at that, and a who knows
what.”
“I am not a plague spreader!” said Seth.
“You’re a human arent ya?”
“Yes, but I love all life. Well, maybe not all life.” He
looked back at the black temple.
“Demons..always look like humans..cuz humans are impure,” laughed
Piper.
Shanagra still had not moved. Manderkarr went over to him and shouted,
“Wake up!”
Shanagra woke up with a groan.
“Shanagra,” asked Seth, “How are you?” He gave the fiery eyed druid
some water. The water purified the poison still in Shanagra’s veins.
“Feign death, more like, good men. After a slow poison,
I faked it so I could get on the inside.
“Why fakes it?” asked the Dwarf. “It’ll catch up soon enough.
In the meantime, take all the names you can.”
Piper looked around at the newcomers. “Well, I’m Piper. Pleased
to meet you people. You seem nice. Mind if I accompany you on your journeys?”
Everyone introduced themselves to the halfling. Piper did look a bit uncertain
at Shanagra’s red eyes and Issic’s gargoylish appearance. He tried to avoid
Issic out of fear, but he asked about Shanagra’s eyes. He nodded and took off
his magic ring and his eyes became human. He slipped the ring on and the eyes
began to glow red.
“A bit of a curse tacked onto a ring of feather falling.”
“I coulda used that, but I's got a really neat rope! It cuddles!”
said Manderkarr.
“Ok, you just keep that rope to yerself and we'll be ok,” said
Ghallan.
“A rope of cuddling eh?” said Piper, thinking that is a strange
name for a Rope of Entanglement.
“It'll knot up on ya!” said Manderkarr, “Just like some snakes
I useda know.”
“Can we leave?” asked Seth. “I don't have any love for this place.”
Shanagra said, “We need to rid this place of those fiends.”
“Well, the javelin and water worked wonders. Maybe we can flood
em with the lake?” suggested Manderkarr.
“But how?” asked Seth. “We have no means to move the lake.”
“Perhaps we bring the tower to the Lake then?” suggested
Ghallan.
“Well,” said Shanagra. “We have two ropes of entanglement. We
can capture them and dump them into the water.”
“Yea, what’s this with the water?” asked Seth.
“We have to get in,” said Seth, not sounding too happy to return
to the place where he lost his virginity.
“I say we also fill whatever available flasks we have with this
water,” said Ghallan.
“Sounds good, but how do we gets them out?” asked Manderkarr.
“If only we had a wheelbarrow,” said Shanagra thoughtfully.
“We could claim we miss the pleasures,” said Seth. “Then if they
let us in...”
“It’s easy to get in, there is a door,” said Ghallan.
“I dislike heavy doors,” commented Seth dryly.
“I am getting thirsty,” commented Issic. “Someone give me a drink.
We have two of Manderkarr’s ropes of cuddling?”
"Yes, I was trapped by one, then a second was used to drag
me up, and both were released when I fell,” said the dwarf.
“We do have door knockers,” Ghallan said to Seth, pointing to Issic
and Manderkarr.
“And if only we had a holocaust cloak,” mused Shanagra.
“I trieds a knocking and rocking and ringing, but I'm not musically
inclined with these doors!” said Manderkarr. He then went and asked the fishermen
for a wheelbarrow.
“What will a wheelbarrow do?” asked Seth, not knowing that wheelbarrows
are a key strategy for breaking into any castle.
The fishermen gave the dwarf one and Shanagra took it to the lake
and filled it with lakewater. Issic went down to the lake and took a drink.
He also immersed his weapon into the lake.
Ghallan walked over with one of his flasks and splashed water on
the door to see if it will open. The door crackled and hissed.
Shanagra rolled the waterfilled wheelbarrow to the doors and spilled
it at the base. The doors cracked with a loud KABOOM!
“Yes, the doors do work right after all,” said Manderkarr. “I was
beginning to wonder if these were broke.”
“Aye...shall we vanquish these winged demons?” asked
Ghallan.
“Vanquish away!” shouted Manderkarr.
“Avoid their eyes!” warned Seth. Shanagra whipped out his scimitar.
Ghallan poured water from the lake onto his blade from a flask. Seth brandished
his longsword.
“I think we should find out what they know about my people first!”
said Piper.
Manderkarr dipped his hammer and maul in the mud by the doors.
Maybe Piper's on to something, he thought.
“Kill first, interrogate later,” said Ghallan.
“Kill them first and let the gods sort them out,” echoed Manderkarr.
Shanagra nodded to Piper. “Ok, we will try to find that out.”
“Too bad we can’t interogate the dead,” said Piper.
“We just find someone that can speak with them then,” said
Ghallan.
“Charge?” asked Manderkarr after everyone assembled.
“Charge!” said Shanagra, running in.
“CHARGE!” yelled Manderkarr.
“CHARGE!” cried Seth.
“Charge!” echoed Ghallan.
Piper soaks himself in holy water and poured it over his dagger.
“Wait,” he said. “You know we could be stealthy ‘bout this!”
“They know we are here. I am sure they were watching us,” said
Issic.
They ran into the entry hall. It was a long winding hall filled
with curtains and tapestries. The floor was plush. Shanagra and Manderkarr
took the lead, running side by side, and was followed by Ghallan and Seth.
“DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT!” warned Seth again.
“I'll make contact with what ever gets in the way, Seth,” said Manderkarr.
Issic refilled the wheelbarrow and wheeled it along with him.
A nasty pit that just yawned open at Shanagra and Manderkarr’s feet.
They tumbled into the pit. Ghallan tried to grab Manderkarr, but fell in also.
Seth tried to grab Shanagra, but failed.
Manderkarr crashed to the bottom, knocking himself unconscious.
Shanagra landed next to him and Ghallan dropped onto them both. They fell a
total of 12 feet. Ghallan got up and quickly tried to help Manderkarr, pouring
his last flask of lake water on him. Shanagra stood and healed the dwarf a
bit.
“That ring’s no good Druid,” muttered the dwarf when consciousness
returned.
Shanagra said, “I have to fall for more than 15 feet before it kicks
in.”
“Talk about cursed,” said Manderkarr.
Seth threw down a rope and started to pull everyone up. Piper called
down and pointed out that if they had done things his way they wouldn’t be in
this mess.
As Seth pulled, they saw Luhalla, one of the erinyes, at the end
of the hallway. .
“I'll kill you and your whole temple for what you did to me!” threatened
Seth.
“Tell me what you know of my people, Wench!” commanded little Piper.
Luhalla extended her hand and Seth’s hair caught on fire. “I took
them to HELL, little man!” she cried to Piper. Seth dropped and rolled away
from the pit, trying to extinguish the flames. He stuck his head into his cloak
to extinguish it.
Issic dipped one of his rocks in the wheelbarrow of water and threw
it at her. Piper threw his water dripping dagger at her. She screamed as the
dagger hit home. She pulled it out and dropped it to the floor. Her black
blood hissed to the floor from the wound.
Ghallan tried to help Shanagra get out of the pit.
“Let's Dance!” said Manderkarr. “Demon bitch!”
Shanagra clambered out of the pit and extended his own hand toward
the devil, preparing to cast a spell at her.
Ghallan followed Shanagra out and charged the demon. She vanished.
Shanagra leapt over the pit. "Let's keep on!"
“SHARYSS IS MINE!” said Seth.
Piper retrieved his favorite dagger from the floor and wiped the
black ichor off.
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Finished Campaigns in Inzeladun
| The Adventures of The Unknown 6.5 | The Adventures of The Unknown 8