…using the name Farty McBarky
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Sister Bomia’s Adventure Diary
Exploring The Shunned City
Ottersday 4, White Moon Month, Year 25 of the Golden Emperor
Dear Diary,
We are out of the Flower Hills and nearly to the Wall Mountains. The past few days have been exciting, Diary, to say the least.
We had heard of a ruined city high in the hills known as the Shunned City. Exactly why it is shunned tends to vary depending upon who you ask, but both demons and curses came up more than once. Whatever the cause of it was, the city has been shunned for about 450 years or so.
Since we have plenty of experience exploring ruined cities, and because we are still unsure how the former Great Road crossed the Wall Mountains, we decided that a side trip into the ruins was in order.
It took us most of a day to locate the city, which turned out to be located in a round valley among the highest hills. Grettin said the valley was probably an old volcanic crater, which makes sense, especially if you have ever been to Caprinto, which is similarly situated.
The city itself was about medium sized as cities go, and surrounded by a high and thick stone wall that was still in good shape. We rode along the remains of a wide road that took us through the southern gate. The gate was open and we saw that it was rusted that way.
Once inside the city proper, we could see that nature was reclaiming things. There were grasses and shrubs and trees growing up through the pavement and even inside buildings. Birds, small reptiles and small to medium sized mammals were in abundance. As for larger creatures, we did see signs of mountain tigers and at least one bear. The tower of some large building in the distance had a parrogriffon nest, and we saw the male pringing food to the female and chicks.
Inspection of most of the buildings indicated that people must have left in a relatively calm and orderly fashion, since, as Amella noted, “they took all of their stuff with them.” Of the little left behind in what we figured was a merchant/commoner district, we found only large furniture items and such equipment as would be too heavy to move easily.
Passing through a second wall into what must have been an administrative/university district, we decided to find a small and easily defensible building to spend the night in. This turned out to be the former tax collector’s office. Such buildings are always very sturdy and built of stone to resist attempts by angry taxpayers to burn them down. This one was two stories tall and after checking it out, which included closing the door to a room inhabited by raccoons, we started setting up camp.
While Olivia and I cast wards of protection and blessings of safety around the building, Halana went hunting for dinner and Grettin & Amella went out to see if they could find any information about the Shunned City. Once we had set up our protections, we fed the horses and brewed up some tea.
About an hour later, Grettin, Amella and Halana came back, yelling “Dragonsnakes!” as the ran in. Grettin quickly barred the door while Olivia went to a window and began casting a spell. Amella and I went to another window, she with her short bow and me with a Divine Rain of Fire prayer ready. Halana and Grettin stood ready in case a dragonsnake made it through the door.
Diary, dragonsnakes are not standard dragons, nor are they actually snakes. They are more like very long fire breathing lizards with multiple small legs that can let them move with great speed. They are mean tempered, territorial, carnivorous and always hungry. They are also quite hard to kill, given their tough hides and great agility. Smart adventurers avoid them if they can. Sadly, Halana turned a corner and was spotted by a pair out hunting.
The dragonsnakes started their attack by rushing the door. This set off spells and blessings that got them blasted with lightning and a cloud of thorns. This hurt them, but not enough to turn them away, so we attacked.
Olivia cast Freezing Mist, Amella fired her bow and I said my prayer. The cold hit the larger of the two dragonsnakes hard. An arrow to a leg and fire from the sky hit the other. I hoped that they would depart after that, but instead, they angrily breathed fire that soon has the front wall of the building very warm to the touch.
At that point, Olivia said “Enough of this!” and cast Olfigar’s Improved Reduction. In seconds, the dragonsnakes were reduced to about two feet long and, suddenly realizing that they were very vulnerable to predators, ran off. Olivia, having cast a very high level spell, sat down and then fell asleep for a couple of hours.
While Halana cooked the two small bush pigs she had killed on her hunt, Amella and I started looking through the few books and papers she had found. The writing was very similar to Ancient Surdish, so I was able to read it relatively well.
It seems, Diary, that the Shunned City, which was actually called Kukali, was abandoned for that oldest of reasons: everyone decided to move to more prosperous areas. The local mines had played out, a long drought had ruined farms, and things just got too bad to bear, so the citizens left..
Our night went by fairly uneventfully, although we did hear something very large fighting with something else around midnight. Our second day was spent in the castle district, where we again found little of value or interest. By midday we decided to leave the Shunned City to the animals and head back along the ruined Great Road in search of the way over the Wall Mountains.
We are now camped about two miles from the almost sheer cliffs of the mountains. I really hope we don’t have to climb them.
I’ll write more very soon, Diary.
Sister Bomia Evarain
The Dociverse Blog 