We debated spending the night in Eibelstat, but the cost of living was too much for these misers. We didn't want to stay with Katja, either, because it might not have been polite and we didn't have anything of value to mollify the dragon if she took exception. Of course, I'm pretty sure the dark elf could stay over any time and Katja wouldn't mind at all. Anyway, we roughed it outside of the petrified forest.
Day 10:
It was still 3 days until the book would be ready so we decided to do something other than sit around and fret about how Helmut was going to kill us in nasty ways. We met with Vel, Albrecht's second in command about possible employment. She seemed as happy to see us as a cold, steely woman can be. Conveniently, she had a job for us. We were to go to a town, Guyer, south of Albrecht's domain and help them with a Shadowfell-related problem. Vel gave us a small load of gold for up front expenses and gave us Eibelstat badges so the folks in Guyer would have no question who was ultimately responsible for helping them.
Our hike to Guyer took about six hours. On the way, we crossed a continental divide and entered a different land. A river fell from the sky and chiseled its way through green, jagged mini-mountains. We followed the river to a small settlement on the side of a large mountain overlooking a waterfall down onto a whole other continent with a lake that seemed to go on forever. The people in Guyer were quiet and suspicious of us--except for one of them--Feng Li, a boisterous, noisy person who accused us of trying to annex the town for Albrecht. We tried to explain that we just wanted to help them, but he was just plain irascible. A little later, the mayor invited us for tea in a beautiful, serene tea house and apologized for her son's behavior. She outlined the problem to us.
Children had recently been running away in the night. There had been no finding them, either, so the villagers had taken to locking their kids up at night with varying degrees of success. The mayor also asked us to make sure her son took part in solving the problem so that he would no longer be an embarrassment to her family. We only half-heartedly agreed to the second point, but zealously set of in search of the main problem.
The Monkey Temple:
We investigated their temple at the top of the mountain. It turned out they worshiped some sort of executive monkey god statue. It sat at a desk with a gold placard in the sanctum of the temple. Our priest burned some of the incense we stole from Helmut as an offering. It smelled disastrously bad. The monks made every effort not to turn away in disgust, but some of them just couldn't take it. I had to try so hard to keep from laughing at them as they strained not to offend us. The incense, however, seemed to have a profound effect on one of the younger monks.
The fellow candidly related his story of madness and suffering. He reported visions of candy and childhood games and a beautiful, motherly woman calling to him. He took us to the top of the temple and pointed off into the wilderness---revealing the direction the visions were urging him to travel. We immediately collected the cantankerous, and utterly incompetent Feng Li and set off down the old, little used mountain path. We forced Feng Li to cut the brush for us, partly because we didn't want to do it, but mostly to make it abundantly clear who was in charge. Along the way, we found evidence that children had passed that we recently.
The Hanging Graves:
After crossing some rather rickety robe bridges (particularly frightening for the knight!), we noticed some large baskets hanging on the cliffs around the path. The dark elf, either out of curiosity or greed, commenced fearlessly scaling the cliff. I swear, that guy could climb a sheet of glass without a problem. We sat uncomfortable with Feng Li while the sniper rummaged around high up in the cliffs. We suddenly became agitated and started yelling for us. With some ingenious rope work, we all managed to get up into the cliffs. The baskets contained mummies, old ones. The smaller baskets contained bells, metal rods, keys, and a strange paper lantern. We were disappointed the grave offerings weren't more valuable. They looked like some kind of tools for the dead. More excitingly, the dark elf showed us a shadowy instability in an alcove. It resembled the one back in the mountains by Berlitz. We summoned a could of darkness and passed through the shadow vortex into another world.
The Land of The Dead:
The place vaguely reminded us of Erebus---nothing but blowing grayish sand under our feet and an atmosphere of darkness that swallowed all of our lights. That made me very afraid. It made all of us afraid. The priest was especially worried that his undead dragon god was going to home in on him and eat us. Since the world did not kill us outright, I guess we figured it'd be okay to explore a while. We came upon a lonely grave. Less out of respect and more "just for the Hell of it" we burnt some incense at the grave. A rather friendly ghost emerged.
The ghost seemed happy to have company. We related a frightening, and relevant, story. In life, his first wife had been unable to produce children. Apparently, she was batty, too, and went off the deep end. He insinuated he had killed or banished her somehow and was very happy that she was not allowed in the land of the dead. I had a feeling we had just identified the root of Guyer's problem. Anyway, on his way back to sleep, the ghost hinted that we should light the paper lantern with the special candles we found in the baskets outside.
We lit the lamp and it miraculously lit up the land of the dead, revealing a multitude of graves and an eerie cavern. Naturally, we approached the cavern with all the reckless haste of adventurers. A stuffy old doorman-ghost appeared and told us to scram. We had a brawl with him and he attached us by shooting furious ghosts out of his sword. It was a tough battle, but we earned the right to enter the cave of the ancient ghosts. The spirits therein were a bit senile, but had some good stories for us. They were younger than Katja, and apparently some of them witnessed the rebellion against El. They identified our magic lamp. I'm really, really glad we didn't mess with it because it is supposed to contain a dark angel as a punishment for deicide! I am terrified of the magic lamp now. I think we should put it in Katja's vault if we get a chance.
The ghosts were amused with our visit and gave us an old rusty sword and a soulstone to help us on our journey before sending us on our way. I bet someone in Eibelstat will give us something super nice for that soulstone. We excited the land of the dead and arrived back in the mortal world. Suddenly, the mummies in the baskets turned their heads to look at the paper lantern. The mystic put the lamp out as quickly as possible and I evacuated my bladder all over the priest's shoulder. I guess the lamp acts oppositely in opposite worlds.
The Spirits of the Dead:
I'm not convinced the ghosts in the land of the dead are really the souls of these people's ancestors, but I suppose it's not impossible. The Shadowfell has a way of responding to emotionally powerful events in the material world and it is entirely possible the energy there imprinted off of the nearby burials. I suspect this is the case because I'm pretty certain the Gods or Aons are the ones that end up people's souls. Of course, there might have been a glitch in soul collecting around the time most of these people bit the dust.
Grandma's House:
We climbed back down the cliffs and met up with Feng Li, who was just screwing around like an idiot. We decided just to leave the jerk to his stupidity and pressed on down the path. As the sun sank, the trees starting changing shape and shadows seemed to be following us. The road split into a slightly more normal path and a scary path. On a hunch, we marched right down the scary path where we were soon greeted by a will-o-the-wisp. It offered us candy and promised there was a party at grandma's house with toys and games. Yep, definitely on the right track. We followed the spirit through the underbrush and to another cliff. We were greeted by happy looking people. With a brief flash of our paper lantern, the illusion melted away and they became skeletal---held together and animated by aethereal strings extending up into the sky. They were like macabre puppets, dancing, enticing us . . . That's when we knew there was no time to lose.
We passed through a shadowgate and into the dark mountains. In a clearing we found the proverbial gingerbread house. There were kids everywhere---real, live kids. They seemed happy enough. Then, a middle-aged woman appeared from the house and introduced herself as our grandma. She offered, no, demanded we come inside for milk, cookies, and games. We requested a minute to look around and she allowed us. Then, the mystic gave the place a flash from our lantern. Everything (except most of the children) was dead and the house was rotting and grandma was a gaunt monster with a multitude of arms holding and pulling a multitude of strings. She smiled at us and nonchalantly returned to the house.
We had a short tour of the house and, after discovering a reserve of purple and orange essentia in the basement (the servants called it "Grandma's medicine") we decided to join the master of the house for cookies. She flashed a few knives and made it clear that the children were her hostages and we were going to have to play her games or they wouldn't make it out alive. Deciding not to negotiate with terrorists, we immediately attacked her with everything we had, but it wasn't enough. The old hag slaughtered a few of the hostages and retreated, oozing through the floor.
After a long battle with an evil, animated piano, we broke through and cornered the dark mistress. She called a swarm of her puppets to defend herself, but my team was just too skilled for them and punched through and just about took her out. Just when she started retreating again, the knight produced the old, rusty sword from the land of the dead, spoke in tongues, and spit booze all over the blade. The sword projected a field that prevented Grandma from falling through the floor again. She didn't even have a chance to beg.
We lifted a pristine shadowstone and a bunch of gold off of the old witch and lead the kids back home. They were awfully traumatized, but otherwise most of them were just fine (some of them took it much better than I did). On our way back, we took a short detour down the other path and found a small orchard with, you guess it, a portal to Katja's place. That's going to save us a lot of travel time. There sure are a lot of those portals. They must have really wanted that dragon dead! Anyway, we met up with Feng Li and returned to Guyer.
Feng Li pompously claimed all responsibility for the rescue and indirectly blamed us for the the losses. The mystic flipped his wig and beat Feng Li to a pulp in front of everyone. I laughed my tail off, but the mayor's face turned cherry red. I was indifferent to that hag, too. If she really cared about her family's reputation, she'd have sent her son somewhere far, far away. Besides, the townsfolk were grateful and gave us lodging for the night. We told the temple priest that it might be a good idea to build shrines at the cliff sites and keep bright lights burning there at all times.
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