Under the Under Tyr...

The old ashik finished serving their small breakfast while the two herders made sure that the kank were ready to travel. When they sat down he handed each brother a small bowl of food and then sat cross legged with his own meal. In between mouthfuls he continued his tale.

Arthur and Balboa scramble away from the lip of the sinkhole and pick themselves up. Arthur lights a torch and holds it high, before him he can see a fifteen foot wide hole in the floor of the riverbed disappearing down into the dark. Balboa lights a second torch and lowers it into the hole on the end of a rope that Arthur gives him, it reveals several narrow ledges that curl out of sight. There is no sign of Miloch or Scar. Balboa looks up towards the bridge and shouts for Ferulah and Kank.

Ferulah takes one look at the rope and then ignores it and climbs down the wall itself. Kank grabs hold of the rope and slides over the edge of the bridge and down to the riverbed just in time to see Ferulah jump the last ten feet and land with feline grace. They run to join the others and in a few heartbeats Kank is tied to the rope and is being lowered into the hole by Arthur and Ferulah. Kank rappels the twenty foot down to the first ledge and then drops a further fifteen foot to the next. By this time he has lost sight of the hole at the top of the shaft and only knows that it is there by the shadow of the torch being held by Balboa.

Another forty five foot and four ledges and Kank can see what appears to be a hole in the ceiling of a tunnel, beneath the hole there is a pile of rubble and Kank spots underneath the debris the motionless forms of Miloch and Scar. Kank lowers himself into the tunnel and can see that it is ancient and stone dressed, much like the Great Dwarven Trade Route, he moves across to Scar and checks to see if she is dead. Finding that she is still breathing but unconscious he shouts back up the hole;

HEALER!

Kank moves to Miloch’s unconscious form and checks him, but he cannot tell if he is alive or dead, but he can tell that his leg is twisted at a very unnatural angle. Leaving Miloch and Scar, the big Mul moves away from the collapsed passage and finds himself at a crossroads, the passage to his left also appears to have collapsed, to his right it opens up into a small room and in front of him, the Mul can see a set of steps rise ten feet and a corridor run off into the darkness. Kank drops into a defensive stance at the crossroads and waits.

After a short while he hears the sound of Balboa scramble down through the hole in the tunnel ceiling, Kank looks back over his shoulder and nods towards the two unconscious forms before turning his attention back to keeping watch. Balboa quickly moves to Scar’s side and calls upon the gnomes of the earth to heal her wounds, within moments the warrior woman is on her feet and moving to Miloch’s side. She resets his leg and splints it before Balboa once again summons the power of the gnomes to heal the rest of Miloch’s wounds, but he can do nothing for Miloch’s leg which is broken.

Balboa and Scar move to join Kank at the crossroads and, touching the passage wall, Scar comments;

It’s damp down here. Good conditions for Gloomvine!

Balboa nods and starts to climb back up the hole to tell the others. While he is gone they move Miloch into the small room and make sure that he is comfortable. Several minutes later, Ferulah and Kank are keeping an eye on Miloch while Scar is leading the others up the short flight of steps and along the corridor. To the right there is a large opening and Scar moves to the edge of what she can now see is something that resembles a temple. Carved into the stones of the floor in the centre of the room appears to be writing in a circle. Balboa steps up beside Scar and she points out the marks on the floor, Balboa calls upon the gnomes of the earth once more and summons the power to detect magic.

Balboa whispers to Scar that he can see residual magic emanating from the writing on the floor and magic showing up on the bowl, up a short flight of steps, at the back of the temple. There are four alcoves, two either side of the room, each holds a crumbling statue of a Dwarf, and Scar slowly walks around the edge of the room inspecting each one in turn. She is surprised to note that each of the Dwarves is heavily bearded. The tall warrior woman treads lightly up the steps and looks into the semi-circular bowl, it is covered in moss and, knowing that Balboa has said that it is magic, Scar pours in some water from her gourd.

The water washes away some of the moss and she can see some kind of depression at the bottom of the basin. Scar draws her obsidian dagger and cleans away the moss until she can see that the depression is actually a large handprint, probably large enough to be a Half-giants. Being a creature of impulse, Scar places her hand in the imprint and is disappointed when nothing happens. She quickly descends the steps and takes a closer look at the writing on the floor of the temple, she realises that the runic writing on the floor bears a remarkable resemblance to the writing along the blade of the Sword of Kemalok. She steps into the circle and is again disappointed to discover that nothing happens.

Balboa and Arthur enter the room to join Scar in her search, as Balboa crosses the circle on the floor he feels a warmth of affinity passing from his feet up to his head. As he is contemplating this, he spots more writing on the wall above the semi-circular bowl at the top of the steps. He moves up the steps and starts to clear the moss away from the carved words. Scar joins him and attempts to read what it says, but it is written in a language that she is not familiar with and she can only make out a couple of words. The second which reads ‘bigger’, and the second last which says ‘see’. Balboa places his hand in the imprint in the bottom of the bowl but again nothing happens.

Arthur asks Ferulah to transform into a Half-giant and place her hand in the imprint, she does so but nothing happens. Ferulah points at the writing above the bowl and asks;

What is that?

Scar responds;

It is writing!

Seeing Ferulah’s confused look, Scar continues;

It is like spoken words, but it is forever.

Farulah seems to grasp the concept and asks what it says, Balboa explains that they can only read two of the words and Ferulah asks if Miloch could read it. Remembering the injured Human, Arthur heads back down the corridor and gets him. Once Miloch is able to see the words he reads them out aloud;

The bigger I am, the less you see me!

The group muse over the answer for a while and try several, saying them out loud while placing their hands in the imprint. But nothing works. Kank finally steps forwards and says;

Darkness!

Again, nothing happens but Kank feels a ripple of power at the edge of his consciousness. Balboa tries, as does Arthur and Miloch but again nothing happens. Finally Scar steps forwards and utters the word ‘darkness’ while her hand is in the imprint and the bowl and wall that it is set in slides quietly into the floor revealing an opening. There is a heavy curtain covering the opening and Scar moves it to one side and looks in, she sees a large room with three other openings, one in each of the walls. In one corner of the room is a pedestal and perched atop it is the skull of a dog-like creature. As Scar puts her head into the room the skull starts to shout loudly.

The group of former slaves quickly back away from the opening and form a defensive line at the bottom of the steps, they can hear the sound of many, heavy footfalls coming nearer and then all goes quiet. After a moment Arthur and Scar approach the opening and Arthur lifts the bottom of the heavy curtain. Beneath it Scar can see several pairs of heavily muscled legs. It is then that all of the torches are extinguished and a low rumbling voice says;

COME IN!

Arthur and Scar step into the room and again hear the voice;

NO FEAR!

A faint blue glow issues from the opposite doorway and by its meagre light they can see ten very large creatures with dark grey skin, carrying large shields and dressed in armour stood in ranks in front of them. Stood to one side are three larger females, one of which says;

MY NAME IS HAELIA!

Arthur introduces himself, but Haelia ignores him, then Scar says;

I am Scar White of the Wastes!

The female nods in greeting to Scar and says;

WELL COME SKAAAR!

They wave for them to invite in the others and once everyone is within the room the door closes. Haelia beckons for them to follow her and she leads them through one of the openings and through another temple, it is then that she notices that Kank is carrying Miloch and she stops to look at him. She sees Miloch’s leg and leads them to an older male creature who is not in armour, the male looks at Miloch’s leg and then says something in a guttural language that they do not understand to Haelia. She turns to them;

BROKEN. HEAL?

Scar explains that the group are unable to heal Miloch’s injury and Haelia shakes her head and points at the old male;

HE HEAL?

Scar nods her head and Haelia says something to the male who steps forwards and places his hands on Miloch’s leg and utters something in their guttural tongue. Miloch sighs as the pain leaves his leg and Kank puts him down. Arthur reaches into one of his pouches and pulls out a gemstone, he places it in front of the old male, who picks it up and eats it. Arthur almost cries. Haelia looks at Scar and says;

YOU WERE EXPECTED! YOU MUST SPEAK TO GRANDMOTHER!

She gestures for Scar and Ferulah to follow her, and for the others to stay where they are. Balboa points out that it must be a matriarchal society and so they should do as they are requested. Ferulah and Scar follow Haelia through a massive cave lit by the same low blue glow as before, the cave is full of giant mushrooms, and moving in and out of the mushrooms are kank. As they reach the opposite side of the cave they realise that the low blue light is coming from a luminescent algae growing on the cave walls. She leads them into another passage and then into a second large cavern and then out into what appears to Scar to be a Dwarven city. They end up in a large chamber, at one end of which are two thrones on a raised dais, the chamber is column lined and full of benches. The benches are filled with creatures, as is the viewing gallery that rings the chamber’s upper level.

A large female creature sits upon one of the thrones and stood at her side are two more females who resemble Haelia. Behind the throne stand four massive male creatures. Haelia bows to the female on the throne and turns to Ferulah and Scar and says;

THIS IS HIGH PRIESTESS CHALAZAK! YOU WILL ACCEPT MINDSPEECH?

Scar and Ferulah both nod and all of the females are joined in a mindspeech spell by the High Priestess. Ferulah and Scar hear within their minds a more gentle voice;

I have been expecting you, but I know not your name. You must be of noble birth to have passed through the portal?

Scar responds;

I am! But I was robbed of that life by slavers. I am now Scar White of the Wastes. We seek Gloomvine to cure disease that has appeared within our village and the city.

The female creatures cast a knowing glance at each other and the High Priestess answers;

We have what you seek, but I must know what has happened on the surface. Something has changed recently?

Scar nods and says;

Kalak the Defiler ruler of Tyr has been destroyed. Or at least we think that he has. There was no evidence of a body.

The High Priestess asks;

How did he die?

Scar relays the tale of the day in the arena, and the spear cast by Rikus that mysteriously swerved and struck the orb shattering it. As soon as Scar mentions the orb it is as if a piece of puzzle has been slotted into place and the High Priestess nods. She says;

We are the Uz. And once our race could be found all across Athas. We worship Uzgurth the lord of shadow, he was once part of a pantheon that included Gnoriath the earth mother, Wissarian lord of air, Volcard lord of flame, Aquarine mistress of the deep, Guyah the all mother, Mellarith the hunter, Tempest master of the winds, Brazzendin the smith, Fortuarna the lucky, Shysh of the underworld, Lunareth the illuminator, Entroveng the destroyer, Nurkel-Malia mistress of Disease, and Mittrah-Zoran the bloody avenger.

Scar’s ears prick up at the name Nurkel-Malia, it rang bells with what the Templar in the Under Tyr had said. But she did not have time to think on it as the High Priestess continued;

We Uz believed that only our god survived but it appears that the others were captured within the orbs. The orbs were given to fifteen champions by Rajaat, Rajaat wished to return Athas to it’s Blue age and believed that to do such he needed to destroy the races that infested the world. So he empowered fifteen champions and gave them each an obsidian orb, each champion was to scourge the world of one race each.

The champions were Sacha of Arala, the Curse of the Kobolds who was successful in his mission; Kalak, Ogre Doom who also achieved his goal and as you know became the despot of Tyr; Dregoth, Ravager of Giants who was unsuccessful; Myron of Yorum the Troll Scorcher, he was destroyed by his son, Manu, and while father and son fought our god hid us in the shadows and foiled Manu from completing his father’s task; Uyness of Waverly, Orc Plague achieved their goal; Gallard the Bane of Gnomes, succeeded; Sielba, Destroyer of Pterrans prevailed; Albeorn of Brunswich, Slayer of Elves did not win out; Tectuktitlay Wemic Annihilator, there are no Wemics left; Keltis Lizard Man Executioner achieved their task; Inenek Aarakocra Scourge, failed in their task; Wyan of Bodach, Pixie Blight, extinguished the life of the Pixies; Borys of Ebe, the Butcher of Dwarves, failed; Daskinor the Goblin Death, slew all the Goblins; Kalid-Ma, Tari Killer, succeeded.

But what I did not know was that the orbs imprisoned the gods and did not destroy them. When Kalak’s orb was shattered it released the chaos god Nurkel-Malia mistress of disease, pestilence and plague. She will ravage the world if she is unopposed. And this is why I knew that you would come. Can you vouch for the others?

Scar nods and so the High Priestess ends the mindspeach and sends Haelia to lead them back to the others. While Ferulah and Scar have been absent the others have been treated very well, they have been fed and provided with drink. An odd purple nectar that they find highly invigorating. When the pair arrive back they tell the others of everything that has transpired and tell them that the High Priestess wishes to talk to all of them. Once again Halier leads them back through the large caverns, and Balboa spots that the walls are covered in Gloomvine. They are shown into the audience chamber and once again Ferulah and Scar are joined by mindspeech to the High Priestess and her daughters. The High Priestess looks at Scar;

I dreamed that you were coming. I dreamed of this moment. Chaos has been released once more into the world, for three thousand years the Uz have been untouched by the surface dwellers but this has changed with the freeing of chaos. The High Priest of Nurkel-Malia must be destroyed.

There is a weapon, a mighty hammer named Earth Shaker, an elemental weapon that can be used to fight the power of chaos. There are other elemental weapons, but the hammer once wielded by the Dwarven hero Hrothgar, is the one that you seek.

As Scar relays this to the group Kank’s eyes widen, he tells Scar of the dreams that he has been having, the dream of him fighting someone in metal armour covered in spikes. As he tells Scar this, Balboa’s eyes widen, he tells Scar that he has also had exactly the same dream. Scar relays this to the High Priestess and she responds;

You have a shared dream, one of you may be destined to wield Earth Shaker. Are you prepared to accept this quest?

Scar looks around at her friends and they all nod. She turns back to the High Priestess;

Yes!