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Sister Bomia’s Adventure Diary
Passing Through The Wall Mountains
Catsday 2, Comet Month, Year 25 of the Golden Emperor
Dear Diary,
Well, these last few days have been a mix of extremely boring and extremely frightening. I speak for all five of us when I say that we are glad to have the Great Road Tunnel through the Wall Mountains behind us.
Once we passed through the air vent system, which was easy except for a few large spiders, we were in the main tunnel. It is quite large, around 80 feet across with a 40 foot ceiling. Upon inspecting it, Grettin proclaimed it some of the most skilled Dwarven tunneling she has ever seen. Thanks to some sort of enchantment, it was also pretty well lit up, if not as bright as daylight.
The tunnel floor was flat and mostly free of debris. It slopes downward to the easy very slightly. It is only when you look back that you realize that you are going downhill. Small grooves in the floor allow any water to drain away and also provide some traction.
The big problem we found was boredom. The tunnel looks the same mile after mile. Now, every 5 miles or so you came to a much wider section that was carved out for, we presume, rest areas, but they were all empty of anything interesting. So we just walked on until we got hungry or needed to pee or just got too tired to go on walking. We figured we made about 20 miles the first day.
By the morning of the third day, we decided to increase our pace in hopes of, as Olivia put it, “Get our asses out of this damned tunnel”. We made good time, at least until we came to the hole.
It was a hole easily 10 feet across and perfectly round, located in the south wall of the tunnel. It looked to have been melted through the rock and went back a long way, farther than our lamps could penetrate. It also smelled strange, like a mix of hot air blown over a wet dog and some fish. We quickly decided that exploring it more was not what we get paid to do.
We were about 30 feet down from the hole when a large creature came roaring out of it. I immediately recognized it as a Quarskademon, a foul dweller in the Demon Realm. It began to glow red hot as it ran toward us.
Olivia hit it with an Ice Blast while I recited the Prayer of Quenching Fire. Hit with both a blast of freezing cold and a drenching in water, it was momentarily covered in ice. By the time it broke free, Grettin, Halana and I were smiting it with everything we could muster. Amella shot it twice with arrows.
Diary, it was a very tough foe and it was getting the better of us when Olivia hit it with a Force Beam and knocked it back and on it’s butt. Then, yelling for us to clear out, she used her Amulet of Summoning Fire Elementals to summon a big one. It immediately started beating on the Quarskademon. It was a titanic battle, Diary. One we did not stay to see the end of because we were running off down the tunnel.
Controlling elementals is hard and Olivia was about to faint by the time we were a mile away from the fight. Halana and I held her up and helped her to walk as she broke the link and, hopefully, banished the elemental. We are pretty sure she did, because it didn’t come after us.
We walked another mile, then decided to rest until Olivia felt better. After that, it was back to the mostly boring walk, but we did keep our eyes open for any more trouble.
And trouble we found! This morning, at the start of our fifth day, we saw the tunnel ahead was partially blocked. Not knowing what the blockage might be, we sent out Amella to quietly get closer and have a look. Within 5 minutes she was back.
“It’s a Towrus. A big gray one. Sound asleep.”
At that point, Diary, we had to explain to Olivia and Grettin that a Towrus was a wingless form of dragon with many characteristics of a wolf. They are very rare, very deadly and very hard to kill. We had no idea how long this one had been asleep, but it would wake right up if it heard us or smelled us.
Given that the beast could sleep for weeks, we decided to try and sneak past it. I prayed to the Mother Goddess to cleanse us of all smells, then Olivia cast Aura of Silence on all of us. I informed everyone that our current odors were gone, but any new ones would not be blocked.
In other words, nobody should pass gas.
We had about 20 feet between us and the Towrus as we started past it’s head. It did not stir, so we kept moving as quickly as we could. By the time we reached it’s tail, we were able to resume breathing in a normal manner. Once past it’s tail, we paused for a moment to take a couple of deep breaths, then resumed our silent passage.
About 10 minutes later, the silence spell wore off and we broke into a dead run. Then the blessing was gone and it occurred to us that while we were very near the exit to the tunnel, a light breeze was blowing our scent back up toward the Towrus. We increased our speed.
Luck was with us and the creature did not awaken. We found a game path that might once have been part of the Great Road and followed it down the mountain, passing through a pine forest. By late afternoon, we were on flat land, a prairie that we knew would give way to desert before too long.
So now we are camped near a small stream. Dinner has been eaten and I am ready for bed. Halana has the first watch. In the morning, we will find the ruins of the Great Road and continue east.
I will write more soon, Diary.
Sister Bomia Evarain
The Dociverse Blog 