Brother Cyrus hands gp to the merchant. This nets him 2 bottles of good red wine and enough fine silk to pass for a fancy scarf.
After this brief shopping you leave the fort and keep following the road you were on. Once again, your trip is uneventful, but all the way you can see a trail of smoke coming from somewhere ahead.
Hours later, by sundown, you reach the remains of what used to be a village, even smaller than the one you passed through in the morning... The land and every building and tree nearby have been scorched to the ground. Ashes fill the air, while charred bodies of humanoids and animals litter the ground.
The high concentration of smoke makes it difficult to breathe and see, and you cough almost as often as you inhale air. You even see a few tiny embers still burning near large cracks on the ground.
Tai looks around in disgust and sadness.
"Who would do this to such a village? And why?"
As he asks these for now rhetorical questions, he begins to work on a more concrete problem: the how. He closely inspects the cracks.
There's indeed a very, very faint magical aura lingering in the area, specially at the very center of the village.
The cracks on the ground are small, but numerous. Similar to those seen in very arid regions. Whatever burned this place also generated enough heat to almost completely dehydrate the ground (at least close to the surface).
There're multiple spots on the ground that are particularly scorched and show evidence of molten rocks, as if they had maintained continuous contact with something incredibly hot, rather than just being target by a quick, but powerful blast of fire and/or heat.
"Magic girl. What do you make of this? My education is unfortunately lacking in arcane theory." Tai asks, poking Shea in the ribs.
"By the gods, what kind of horror befell these people? Perhaps...perhaps there are survivors..." Cyrus dismounts and pulls his inner shirt up and over his mouth and nose.
He calls out as he searches the remains of buildings, trees or other places people might not have taken the full brunt of the flames by sheltering behind or inside.
Shea has been deeply pondering the events taking place before her, after a long time considering the events that have passed. She speaks.
"Uhhhh..."
It's certainly a magical aura...
Shea can't quite tell what kind of magic this is, but it's clear that it rapidly dissipating, despiting enveloping a pretty large area.
Meanwhile, there are no answers to Brother Cyrus' calls, but the Paladin does find something unusual within one of less damaged building:
Within a half-melted stoned-walled house there's a hole on the floor, leading to a tunnel wide enough that two carriages could enter it side-by-side. The tunnel walls are cracked like the village's ground and thins wisps of steam and smoke come all the way from the distant darkness.
Brother Cyrus whistles loudly.
"I think I found something over here!"
"Perhaps some kind of escape tunnel?"
Looking down the passage, Brother Cyrus can feel currents of hot air blowing on his skin.
Additionally, the way the steam and smoke suddenly disappear after a certain distance indicates that rather than being immensurably deep, the tunnel curves away at some point, blocking line-of-sight from its entrance.
Shea touches her hand to her head.
"Uhhh, How about Mole!"
Followed by a puff of multi-colored smoke surrounding her head, when it disperses a second later her nose has changed shape, to the elongated many nubbed nose of a mole, and her pupils had gone pale and expanded to cover most of her eye.
Shea can tell there's indeed a curve in the tunnel about 60 ft from the surface. Along the walls, a number of extra-scorched spots similar to those you found in the center of the village form a vague track down the tunnel.
"More scorches down here, careful!"
Tai takes the lead.
"I wish to take a look at this cave...or tunnel, whatever you would call it. Unless sit gets unbearably hot, of course."
Tai enters the tunnel.
Cyrus ties down the horses somewhere safe with some feed before hopping into the tunnel to follow Tai Leng.
"It's the only lead we have."
A closer look at the tunnel walls indicate that it was created not so much by moving ground around, but primarily by burning and melting most of the matter in the way.
Going down the tunnel, you can feel the temperature rising with each step. Steam, smoke and ashes fill the air, making it somewhat difficult to read.
About 60 ft from the entrance, the tunnel takes a sharp turn to the left. It seems to have another such turn (this time to the right) a few yards after that.
A few barely lit embers lay on the ground and walls...
Tai proceeds until/unless it gets hot enough to actually do damage.
"I think we should turn back Tai. Whatever made this tunnel probably covers more ground than we can match by walking."
Tai proceeds until/unless it gets hot enough to actually do damage.
The the rise in temperature is steep, getting higher with every few steps you take , but the air isn't hot enough to harm you, at least not on short stay. That said, it's probably not a good idea to stay around in this temperature for hours.
"So hot, Where does this go?"
Shea takes a moment to cast a fire protection spell on herself. And then examines the walls, Curious to see how this tunnel was carved.
A closer look at the tunnel walls indicate that it was created not so much by moving ground around, but primarily by burning and melting most of the matter in the way. (...)
- - -
Dying of smoke inhalation would be embarassing/painful so Cyrus turns back.
Tai Leng retreats with his coward friends.
We leave I guess?
The party falls back to the safety of the surface. Night falls as Shea leaves to do f+%&-knows-what and is never seen again.
In the darkness of the night, it's possible to see flickering lights coming from the tunnel, like those produced by large flames. Some rumbling can be heard and sometimes the ground itself seems to shake slightly.
"Well, I am not fireproof and magic girl has disappeared, so I suppose we should move on from here before we catch fire."
"I agree. I hope she returns her horse or that will be awkward for the 'Definitely Not The Goldensmiths' when we return." Cyrus pulls out his Ioun Torch and we continue by it's convenient light.
You ride as long as you can in the night... According to your map, there should be a village a few miles ahead, but distance and darkness conceal it too well.
After a few hours, even the prodigious horses need rest, forcing your party to camp for the night. The road, which grew visibly more primitive and unkept beyond Flatrock Fort, is now little more than a strip of dirt flanked by untamed forest.
Looking forward, everything seems calm, although something about the night sky seems odd, even if you can't exactly pinpoint what.
Back in the direction of the scorched village, you see large flickering orange lights coloring the horizon.
Cyrus dismounts for a moment and waves Tai Leng to draw his horse over. He spends a quiet moment in prayer and as he speaks, fatigue washes away within the mounts and himself.
"Under the light of thine stars above, permit us to tarry not oh luminescent Starsong."
Refreshed by Cyrus' spells, the horses continue to march, although at considerably slower pace and not very pleased.
After a couple more hours, the animals suddenly stop, completely refusing to move forward. In the veil of darkness it takes a moment for you to notice what's bothering them... But once that moment is past, you realize the limit of your line of sight is much closer than expected.
You and your mounts are only a few yards away from what seems to be a miles-long dome of darkness. It's wide enough that you can't tell where it ends, and high enough that light from the stars closer to the horizon are blocked by it.
Cyrus dismounts and approaches the dome of darkness. He looks in all the directions it stretches before trying to poke it with his finger.
The dome offers no solid barrier. Your finger simply disappears in the "blob" of darkness. It's noticeably colder on the other side, but otherwise harmless to Cyrus' touch.
Tai steps straight into it to see if it's just as dark inside.
Tai Leng enters the dome and dies instantly, and is immediately unsure whether or not he's in the same place he was before. The general environment didn't change. It's the same battered old road surrounded by the same trees, under the same stars... And yet, they are completely different in a myriad of ways...
The air is much colder, although not beyond what can be expected from the current season . Color is gone. Everything, including himself, is black, white or some shade of grey. Even the stars. Shadows constantly float, flicker and wave over every surface like sand being blown by the wind. Perhaps most disturbing, is the way how every object seems... wrong. Just twisted enough to feel slightly wrong or out of place.
Far, far in the distance, barely above the black horizon, Tai Leng sees grey structures that look vaguely like a small village. Behind him, only an immeasurable wall of black. Brother Cyrus nowhere to be seen.
"Hold on Tai be care-..." Cyrus cuts himself off as Tai Leng enters the dome. He then sighs, waits a few seconds and enters after him.
Brother Cyrus sees the same bizarre scenery as Tai Leng.
Tai shrugs and keeps walking toward the village.
"What the Hells kind of sorcery is this?" Cyrus glances over his arm, turning it to and fro as he quickens his pace to catch up with Tai Leng. He looks about as he walks, taking in the distorted scenery.
"I hope the village is okay." Cyrus says worriedly.
As you walk towards the village, something feels odd. For some reason you get the distinct impression that your stride is inconsistent... As if each of your steps could move you anything from a few inches to 10 ft forward.
Occasionally, from the corner of your eyes, you see shades in the shape of small sylvan creatures, such as rabbits, squirrels and birds. However, whenever you try to look straight at one them, the critter seems to vanish is a wisp of grey smoke.
Sometimes, you see human-shaped shadows on the road, far away from you, but as you approach them, they invariably dissolve like a mirage that is too close.
To make things stranger, despite you clearly moving relatively to the road and trees, as well as the dome itself, the distance between you and the village has changes very little.
Still, you march on.
Eventually you find yourself a few yards away from a 90 ft-wide river whose stream appears to be half water and half black smoke. The road ends at a broken stone bridge. Whatever remains of the stone work glitters with greyish light.
Nearby, three tall stakes hold the impales bodies of three headless humanoids whose flesh blurs together with the surrounding darkness.
"Well, this gets more and more ominous. I will scout ahead, and see if maybe there is a way to ford the river for you."
Tai takes a running leap, and then in midair teleports the remaining distance to the other side of the river.
"Uh...huh." Cyrus replies to Tai Leng before he jumps, his eyes widening with surprise as Tai Leng manages to travel the entire distance of the river in an instant...afterwards he examines the stakes for a moment before crouching near the water and dips a finger to see if it really is like water or smoke.
The stakes seem to be made of normal wood. The only thing unusual about them are humanoid shadow-like creatures impaled on them.
The stream is extremely cold, looks like smoke, behaves more or less like an extremely-dense-not-quite-liquid-but-getting-there. You feel the sharp bite of intense frostbite as soon as you touch it.
You hear a rumbling sound getting louder and louder. A quick look ahead shows you exactly what's causing it...
You feel the ground shaking lightly below your feet, and the temperature around you quickly dropping to the point where tiny snow flakes begin to form and float in the air while the land around you gets covered in a thin layer of ice.
- - -
You both see large icicles burst from the ground around Tai Leng! The ground d around his feet flash-freezes and wisps of blue and black smoke start pouring out of every crack in the ground.
A moment later you hear a booming guttural voice roaring in anger! And a monstrous creature made of flesh and darkness rises from the gelid depths of the shadowy river.
"NO CROSSIN'!!!" - it shouts while staring angrily at Tai Leng. Large amounts of black saliva drip from its tusk and freeze halfway to the ground. "MY CROSSIN'!!!"
- - -
- - -
Cyrus draws his finger back.
I don't know what kind of magic has been cast over this river, but it would probably kill me if I tried to wade through it.
"Excuse me! Can I cross?" Cyrus yells out to the other side while stepping over to the bridge.
Tai is unperturbed. A strong footing is integral for martial arts, after all.
"Why do you feel you must do this? Isn't it terribly stereotypical of you?"
"YOU STEAL-TREE-PICKLE!" the creature growls.
The troll's eyes flash with a ghostly white light, and its right arm vanishes in a puff of smoke, as if cut a few inches under the shoulder. Tai Leng feels the ground shake one more time. A moment later, cracks begin to appear in the ground around him... And the land within a 10 ft-radius of him is suddenly lifted by two giant ghostly hands.
It's clear that the creature is no mere troll. Its body looks more like pitch than flesh, its claws and fangs are deep black and blur together with the ambient darkness, a pale smoke now constantly pours out from its eyes and mouth, bulging veins snake through its neck, torso and limbs... And you can see snow and hail swirling violently around him.
Tai Leng and the block of frozen dirt under his feet rise about 10 ft in the air before the monster turns sideways, as if about to throw something, and locks his eyes on Brother Cyrus...
"NO CROSSIN'! BOSS PAID ALL TOLL! ONLY BOSS COME THIS SIDE NOW!!!" it roars as it takes aim...
The "waters" of the river churn and shake.