S6E10 EIR- Winds of Dhar

I Saw Water Flowing…UP!

PCs: Agnes (Duane), Mor (Bill), Gary (Matt), Venegral (Tony), Katja (Geoff), Ymath (Brian)

Hidden Valley: Human faced fish swim in the gorge river. So much for filling canteens with water suspect of warpstone corruption. They soon come upon a camp. Winds-of-Dhar linger around the 2 tents. The collapsed tent has a backpack with ancient coins minted in 2234; a book of Sigmar dated 2184 (Today is 2512). Moaning from the other tent draws them forward to find a human form completely covered in yellow fungus. Agnes puts him out of his misery and torches the body. They find human bones in the ancient campfire.

Pressing on, they come to a field of purple cap mushrooms where a snotling is busy collecting them. Agnes warns all the mushrooms hallucinogenic, which prompts Venegral and Gary to harvest some. Eyes blink at them from the mushrooms! Katja's dog catches the snotling who claims he is lost from his party. Bored, Math finally smashes the snotling. 

Pressing on, they descend toward a large pool at the base of a 1000ft cliff where a waterfall flows upwards. Katja throws a pebble into waterfall watching it tumble before falling to the ground, meaning; only the water flow is unnatural. Venegral confirms strong Winds-of-Dhar at work. He flies up to see more mountains beyond. They enter the cave behind the falls using magical light to see further. 

Beyond the entrance, a large, conjoined stalactite/stalemate column hides 3 passages: Amber-Winds (beast) to the left, Grey-Winds (shadows) straight ahead, Gold-Winds (metal) flows from the right. They turn right and soon enter a large cavern filled with a pool of molten gold. Step-stones spaced 8ft apart lead to an island where there is a hut. While Gary tries desperately to collect some molten gold (only to melt his pot then ladle), Mor calls out to the hut. The response, "I'm blind but I can see you. I'm a prisoner. My master fought Sigmar some 10-15 years ago."[Obviously lost in time as Sigmar was ages ago.] 

A bird-headed creature (Kanku) emerges from the hut. Seen as a demonic creature, Gary attacks. So much for conversation as they had with the goblins. Venegral attempts to cast but the creature counters his spell. Then it casts blue fire that arches amongst the gathered heroes catching most on fire. Thankfully, Venegral cast water to douse the fire to allow the others to vanquish the beast. Inside the hut they find a chalice filled with crystals and gold. 

Flying above them, Venegral assists the others across the gold pond to the eastern tunnel. Blue-Winds led east to a kidney-shaped cavern filled with torrential winds that buffet them with such ferocity that Mor has to crawl. Suddenly the floor gives way and swarms of venomous snakes emerge, eye to eye with the prone elf!  The snakes are soon vanquished but not before Ymath and Katja are poisoned. Delays as the wizard and priestess remove the poison.

They enter the nearest skull opening into another cavern bisected by a 100-yard-wide river with a fast current. The red viscous color of water is foreboding. 

The giant skeleton of a Jabberslythe offers bones to craft a barge (its skull their hull). Ymath and Gary are out-of-sync in their rowing (sometimes spinning them in circles) which makes slow crossing as they fight the current. Made slower as they have to fight packs of zombies that rise from the water to attack, trying to claw the craft into pieces to sink the party. The allies fight off the threats to allow the rowers to continue. Finally, they climb onto the far bank just as the skull hull falls to pieces under their footing.

Jade-Winds lead to a cavern filled with moss and vine-tendrils and blinding White-Winds. Cupped hands or shields to shield their eyes hinders their full vision as they navigate a labyrinth of passages.

Only Agnes/Mor at the rear hear scuffling to alert them to the presence of “Minotaurs!” The large beasts attack with 2-handed large axes. Agnes matches the attack with her war-hammer as Mor ‘fast’ swings his Wildwood blade (but loses a piece of armor in the exchange). Venegral casts metered blast spells that avoid his allies. Ymath confronts the equally large creature and absorbs a nasty hit to the head (if he had any brains, they’d be rattled). Another minotaur batters the smaller elf who is knocked prone but JUST rolls out of the way of the powerful ‘Stomp’. Later, Katja will withstand an equally vicious assault and stomp. In time, Agnes’ Orphans survive the attack but have absorbed many wounds and use up precious ammo.

Gary takes the lead, and they soon enter another cavern filled with sulfurous fires and bubbling bursts of lava. Their sprint to the other end but is interrupted by 3 Pink-Horrors! [Remember? Kill one only to see it replaced by 2 Blue-Horrors!] While the fight ensues, the allies must decide between fighting or extinguishing oneself from the demonic fire that blisters their skin. Agnes fails to extinguish herself, nor does Mor succeed in dousing her flames. Katja and Ymath swat at their flames as Venegral flies above dealing blasts against the horrors. Thankfully they win the day.

Another cavern is a mixture of Dhar winds. Icky slim drips from the ceiling. The tar-like droplets seem to move along their skin towards any orifice. They work as a team to clean themselves of the threatening droplets as they move further into the cave. Before them is a bald man encased in crystal… his left hand holding a broken sword. “I am Adelfried Jurmong, priest of Varina in service to emperor Sigismund IV (during the 1700s siege of Altdorf). A horde of demons encased me and kept me alive. Free me so I might rejoin my family. Tell me, over these months I’ve been held in captivity, does emperor Sigismund IV still rule?” Gary avoids telling him centuries have passed. Instead, he cracks open the crystal to release the man into Agnes’ care. Adelfried thanks them, “I was sworn to secrecy in my quest that lies beyond that tunnel. Follow the light.”

As foretold or expected, they enter a cavern and find Ghal Maraz imbedded in a pedestal. “Who amongst us is worthy to hold it, wield it?” Agnes steps forward and extracts the hammer from its prison while Gary stands speechless with his jaw dropped open. The hammer glistens as pink and moody blue energy is released and flows out of the cavern as all study the hammer with dwarven inscriptions. “If only Rega was here to translate.” They rely upon Gary’s knowledge and Venegral’s vision: three of the runes emit energy to imply their magical properties are still alive. Three other runes are dull and lifeless. Gary repeats himself, “Dip the hammer in the fire of the Temple of Ulric in Middenheim to restore all of Ghal Maraz’s powers!”

Only now do they see Adelfried decay into a cloud of centuries’ old dust. Sigmar’s hammer has been awakened!!

NEXT SESSION: https://rigglewwh.blogspot.com/2023/05/s6e11-eir-exit-stage-left-i-said-left.html