"Vel, I know you want to get this over with quickly, but I feel that we should not be wandering into a well defended edifice to face an unknown, but no doubt, powerful queen is not something we should be doing without all of our faculties. I beg you to consider that prudence is the better part of winning the battle. After all, rushing in willy-nilly like Arianwyn is hardly the wise thing to do don;'t you think?"
"And when have you seen me act like Arianwyn? Give me some credit for half a brain, Kia. I simply disagree that it's prudent to camp with the very active skull of a demon with us. I don't believe it's prudent to willingly give said demon another chance at dominating one of us. It's not about my having prior engagements. It's about getting that (and I use the term advisedly) damned thing destroyed."
Whiteclaw doesn't take a stand in the rest or go on debate, the gnoll is content to let the others decide, though if the group does rest, her own camping spot is a good distance away from the others, and when she sleeps, her pack - with it's dangerous content - is held tightly against her body.
Arianwyn sits up throughout the camping period, in the trance-like state that passes for sleep amongst the eladrin.
What is your name, brother hound? I call by ancient bonds, that this Arianwyn, with whose family many pacts were made. I hear you now... Urho... Of course, the brave one.
Arianwyn smiles in his reverie.
Arianwyn only
As you allow yourself to fall into a restorative trance, images rise before your eyes – a form of waking dream. You watch your younger, innocent self walk the Feywild and see again your lost beloved. She smiles, and pulls you into her arms as leaves fall around you, hiding you both from sight. Placing her fingers on your lips, she looks deep into your eyes as her own change and become those of the snake totem. Her warmth anchors you as the snake invades your mind, searching for weakness and finally, wordlessly sharing an image with you.
You see a tall half-elf, beautiful beyond any imagining standing on a small platform. Her will is focussed on but one thing. The aching Maw beneath her. Swift fingers draw blood from the victim she holds aloft, and with each drop of blood, the Maw writhes. The very earth protests the violation she inflicts upon it.
A single word whispers in your ear, ”Kyleth”. Whether the snake or your beloved spoke to you, you have no way of knowing, their voices intermingled in one secure, loved place. The leaves start to brush away from your entwined bodies and you see no more.
Kia Rubarka only
Your meditational trance is interrupted by a most curious vision. In the glades of your childhood, you sit on the ground opposite old Fersten. The eladrin ranger taught you to play chess and now, as you watch, he picks up one of the pieces. ”Rooks are wise birds, young Kia. Wise birds and wise pieces. See how simple they make things. Go straight to the heart of the problem.”
The voice echoes in your head and you realise that you are hearing a merging of Fersten and the raven spirit’s voices. In silence, you watch as he moves the pieces around the board, deploying each to its best advantage. ”Let each piece play the right part. Don’t force a rook to go sideways and don’t make a knight go straight. A king can always defend himself if he has to, but the Queen is the thing. Take down the Queen and the board will be yours. All Hail Kyleth! Queen of the Forge.”
The scene changes as you see yourself as you were when you returned to the Feywild after your first foray into the human lands. Innocent as you were, you had expected a world like your own. Fersten approaches and gently pulls you into an embrace. ”No more tears little Kia. Make your own island of the good and the right and you’ll be surprised how many will want to join you on it.”. His arms become the raven’s wings, offering you a moment of warmth and security before the coming battle and you lean into them gratefully.
When you wake, you are holding the raven figurine from among the grave goods and you realise that it will bestow its blessing on you all one last time in the world beyond the tomb.
Reason only
Your dreams are strange tonight. You see yourself as a young tiefling, sitting in the darkened library of your home. Open in front of you is the book you found there, one winter afternoon. Here, for the first time you read the tale of your race and here, for the first time, you dedicated yourself to reason.
In silent joy, you watch your own moment of rebirth and the shaping of your future. Looking over your own shoulder, you see an image you do not recall being in the book before and curiously you lean closer. You hear your own voice urging you on, ”Look Reason, tell me what you see” and you find yourself gazing into the eyes of the owl spirit. The great bird head spins around and you follow it through the pages of the book, back to the very end of Bael Turath.
Together you watch the final destruction of the great empire as unholy flames envelop the great shrines and generations of knowledge are destroyed in an instant. The owl turns to you. ”Such an ending may have its start in a small thing. One missed chance may bring ruin. Hunt wisely.”. You sense, rather than see, a page turning and you are back in the library. Your younger self turns to you, with a smile of extraordinary sweetness and trust as you fall back into untroubled slumber.
When you wake, you have the owl totem figurine from the grave goods in your hand. You realise that it will give you and your companions one last blessing in the world beyond the tomb.
The Rogue Knight only
As you sleep, you dream. You are back among your companions of old, the younger, joyful man you once were and now hardly recognise. Tears start in your eyes as you realise fully and for the first time the changes wrought in you by the demon you fought.
You hunt frantically for a way to rejoin the circle of friends and speak with your old self, but are stopped by the sense of a huge presence behind you. Looking around, you see the dragon spirit. ”The way is forward, not back, nameless one. Turn to me.”
As you do so, you see tears flow from the totem’s eyes as in silence it opens its mind to you. ”All that has been taken from you may be taken from the land itself, if you do not prevent it. Go forward with courage and end the menace. Peace may yet come to you. Take of your past with joy, but give us our future.”
The great voice leaves your head and to your inexpressible joy, your companions of old turn to you with welcoming cries, pulling you into their circle as if the demon had never been. For this night at least, you are the man you once knew.
When you awaken, you can remember your name.
Vel only
Tonight, your dream is unusually vivid. You are at school again, daydreaming through a lesson you already know, doodling idly on the paper in front of you. The splintery desk catches of the paper and you move it to a smoother section, still keeping half an ear on your teacher and wishing the bell would ring. The familiar sense of boredom is beginning to overwhelm you, when you realise that your teacher’s voice has changed.
Looking up, you see the spirit raven leaning over your desk. ”Too clever to learn young Vel? Your mind knows more than you do.” With a brisk nod, the raven jabs its beak in the direction of the paper and you look down. Without knowing quite how you’ve done it, you have drawn yourself a map. It shows a roughly fortified building set over some kind of dark horror. Smiling to yourself in quiet triumph, you realise that you have been gifted with the knowledge of the entrances to the forge. The raven nods once, in approval of your realisation, and you slip back into peaceful slumber.
When you wake, you find a small scrap of crushed parchment in your hand. Vel's dream map
Whiteclaw only
In the depths of the night, you are visited by a strange dream. You are a cub again, wandering the forests where you were found, side by side with Hroaldr. He kneels to look you in the eyes and as he does so, all the sense of justice, balance and right that he imbued in you flood back.
As you gaze at him, his eyes change, becoming those of the totem spirit of the dragon. A voice whispers in your head, whether Hroaldr’s of the dragon’s you cannot tell. ”Cherished daughter, ride with me.” The druid’s familiar form effortless shifts into the shape of the totem dragon and you silently obey.
High above the land you see the full extent of the blight and then, as you swoop lower, the source and centre of it all. Beneath the Forge, a crude blight itself in this unsullied land, lies the heart and centre of the rot. For a hideous second you become the earth, invaded by the horror of Obitu-Que, and you realise the agony the land is suffering.
The forest and Hroaldr return and he embraces you with dragon’s eyes before leaving you to sleep. When you awaken, you have the dragon totem figurine found in the grave goods in your claws. You realise that taking this talisman will offer you protection one last time in the world beyond the tomb.
After communing with the dog spirit and then the distrubing intrusion into his normal pattern of trance, Arianwyn slips back into the waking world.
"So... Kyleth, I see your face now." he mutters.
Vel awakes and looks at something in her hand. "The raven . . . A map . . . part of the Forge . . . But I failed the test."
The Rogue Knight abruptly wakens from his sleep screaming the name, "Hrothgar!" He wipes the sweat from his brow and apologizes to those he has disturbed. "I need some air." The Rogue Knight then stands up and takes a short walk.
Whiteclaw wakes more calmly than the others seem to. She looks at something in her hand, then rises to a crouch. After checking on the skull to make sure it's alright, she improvises a little thong and hangs the item - a dragon figurine - around her neck. If we made a fire, she uses charcoal from it to redo the markings she made the day before.
"The blight is spreading." she says softly a little while later. "It does more than taint the land, it's causing it pain. We have to end this quickly."
"Yes. We must move quickly."
"But we must first deal with the skull's attack. And we must be sure that we do not miss anything important by being too hasty.", Reason advocates.
"If we take down the queen, all will crumble. I will remember that, friend."
...
"Reason, you are right. We should see to disarming this skull before we go. I would not like it to activate and try to capture us in an awkward moment. How long, do you think before it's power returns? Make sure that everyone is at a respectable distance until then. Then, if you are willing, I will go and test its mettle."
"We should each touch the carvings once more to give maximum protection when the time comes."
Arianwyn is abnormally solemn when the group awakens.
"It is much as when we first met, Kia, Vel, Whiteclaw. The land has been defiled and cries out for vengeance by whatever means possible. Again we must face those who would rape it for their own gain."
He looks around the group, "I will tell you a thing, which will not be strange to you, I am sure. I can tell by your faces and your muttered words that we have all had a visitation this night. The snake spirit showed me Kyleth, in the heart of her sanctum. I have seen the maw, I have seen the long nails of its mistress, and the dripping blood that feeds it."
He turns, and considers his next words, "Our enemy is alfkindr, half-elven, as you say. She is powerful indeed, with one foot in this world and one in another. It is well that we have rested and can face her with our wounds bound and our blades unburnished. It will not be easy, this thing we do. Some of us may find our end as we fight through the furnaces of the Forge Queen, but we will triumph. In our difference, we are stronger than the blind obedience of her followers."
All
"I think that the time of the skull's reawakening cannot be far off now. I favour challenging it here, were we know our ground and will not be surprised, rather than leave and run the risk of being distracted at the wrong moment. What is your opinion?"
She pauses... and then add a propos of nothing...
"I, too, had a strange vision. It seemed to imply that each of us had a role to play in the upcoming battle and we should not seek to perform some deed if it is destined for another. Perhaps it means we should be wary of too much bravura. But that might be an over simple interpretation of it."
"I disagree. We can deal with it on the way to the Forge. Waiting here for it's attack costs us time we don't have. The enemy may well be aware of us - let's not give them a moment more than we have to."
"Yes, let's be on the move. We've lost too much time already."
"I'll take point."
"Before we depart, I wish to return to the testing chamber. The Owl told me to overlook nothing, and I am capable of taking at least two of the other tests. I believe that the additional aspects would only aid our attempt, and it should only take me a few moments."
"Lady Kia, it seems that we are destined to continually be the voices of caution. I feel that in this case we should accede to the wishes of those desiring departure, as they allowed us our resting period."
"Should I summon the disc to carry the skull?"
Arianwyn looks at the Rogue Knight, "Sir, who is Hrothgar? I could not help but... overhear... you mention the name. Does it bear some relevance to our mission?"
"Our mission... no... no relevance at all. I'd rather not talk about it."
"Very well." Arianwyn says with a side-long glance at the knight.
"Thank you for the offer of the disc, but the skull isn't heavy. My pack will hold it nicely until we get to the forge."
As the party passes through the Testing Chamber, Reason makes his way to the pool, and steps on the depiction of the Raven.
Reason
As soon as your feet touch the golden disk, you are dragged from your body. Buffeted by screaming winds and thrown from side to side you are lifted high in the air ending in the branches of an ancient nest built over generations into the side of a cliff.
You are confronted by an enormous raven, seemingly composed of many ravens. This is the totem spirit of the intellect and it speaks to you in a harsh language you have never heard but can, if only in this place, fully understand.
"Courageous, to risk a second testing. Very well. You are worthy."
The Raven fixes you with its gaze and you understand perfectly what you have to do to complete the trial. Out of the corner of your eye you see how very far up you are and realise all too well that the consequences of failure may be bad indeed.
Everyone else
You watch and wait, knowing well the risks Reason is taking on your behalf.
Rev
"Let me tell you of my knowledge, great one."
Religion, Arcana, Religion (1d20+10=15, 1d20+10=19, 1d20+10=11)
"We will do the best we can with for them then, if they insist on going on without taking all possible precautions. I thank you for your support though Reason."
Trying not to look sullen, Kia accompanies the party back to the testing chamber, remembering to touch the raven carving on the way, and watches while Reason subjects himself to more trials.
Reason
Regretfully the raven bows its head.
"I may not aid you further. I must also mark you, that you may remember our power. We are bound in this."
The great beak stabs at Reason, but the eyes and voice are not unkind. You return to the pool.
Others
Reason's eyes open and he nurses a stab wound on his arm.
Reaon grimaces. "It appears I may press my luck no further. Let us return to the totems for their blessing, then head out."
He touches the nearest owl carving before the party exits.
Reason
Reaon stops suddenly, as if struck by a sudden thought.
"Oh, why not?", he murmurs, right before taking the Trial of the Snake.
DM
Reason lies up a storm to the Serpent: Bluff (1d20+7=14, 1d20+7=13, 1d20+7=26)
Reason
...and emerges dripping wet with two sets of puncture marks to add to his raven stab.
After taking a moment to allow Reason to recover from his self-imposed ordeal, the group prepares to leave the tomb complex in sombre mood.
DM
Reason
It does indeed apply. Just a couple of scars then. It was worth trying - you need all the buffs you can get. Clearly the totem beasts have more sense of decorum than either of us :D
As you emerge from the tomb complex, the smell of blight strikes you again, bringing with it a vivid reminder of your task.
The horses are where you tethered them, but they become uneasy as Whiteclaw approaches. Their ears flick uneasily and even placid Pumpkin manages an anxious nicker as the gnoll mounts up. They sense the burden you are carrying and you may have cause to wonder just how far that call may reach.
Whiteclaw takes a few moments to soothe Pumpkin, and then, once we are moving, she drops back to play rear guard - and, also, to keep the skull out of the range of the others as best she can.
EDIT:
Arianwyn is unusually sombre.
Reaon rides near the front, where he can quickly go to the aid of whoever is leading, as well as to best use his finely honed senses.
You ride uneventfully for half an hour, retracing your steps towards the Forge. As the time approaches when the skull may activate, the tension among the group mounts.