So Much for Surprise

Bella crept down the stairs and listened at the closed door. The others waited at the top of the stairs, stepping over the body of the guard they’d quickly dispatched after teleporting onto the hidden lookout post. They’d found a back way into the fortress of Seinaru Heikiko, and they were pleased that they’d been able to breach the fortress without raising an alarm. So far, so good. Bella could hear muffled voices from behind the door, but either her Tian wasn’t as good as she’d thought, or they were speaking a dialect she didn’t know. She remounted the stairs and told the others.

Minkai at Last!

Sawyer staggered back against the wall, clutching his stomach. Marie’s healing had stopped the worst of the bleeding and closed his wound, but his insides still didn’t feel … right. Munasukaru’s wicked blade had all but eviscerated him, and it still felt like some of his parts weren’t where they were supposed to be. When it was obvious that no one else was going to come screaming out to attack them, Sandoval began to sing quietly. His Soothing Performance bathed the group in waves of healing sound, and Sawyer felt his organs shift back into place.

Munasukaru's Sanctum

Bella crept down the hallway. She’d already checked it for traps, but her eyes kept scanning nervously anyway. Every instinct was screaming ambush, even though she saw nothing but empty hallway with closed doors at either end. Behind her, the recently freed prisoners were making a ruckus – some talking excitedly, others weeping with relief. She just wished they’d shut up – their noise was going to get everyone killed. A muffled rattle sounded closer by, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Sawyer following close behind, and she breathed a little easier. Behind Sawyer, Marie had taken up position watching the door at the far end of the room. Maybe they had this under control after all.

The Celebration of Chains

Sawyer was fighting back the urge to vomit. The sheet of ice formed by Nicki’s spell was quickly melting, and the chunks of rotting corpses that hung suspended in the stinking, slimy waters of Munasukaru’s daughters’ lair were re-emerging. Sawyer had always thought he had a strong stomach. Certainly growing up in the slums of Riddleport he’d seen, smelled, and eaten plenty that would have brought a weaker man low. But the cumulative effects of the homage to gluttony, vice, cruelty, and death that was the onis’ stronghold was wearing him down. The nagas’ lair, with their “garden” of death and disfigurement had been the final straw. The ice below him cracked, and a cluster of milky eyeballs floated up, and he gagged again.

The Garden of Earthly Suffering

Still choking from the thick cloud of dust, the party climbed over the pile of collapsed ceiling stones that now formed the Destachans’ burial mound. After a few dozen more yards, the long corridor they’d been traversing at last came to an end. It opened out into a broad stone platform overlooking a series of rough stone ledges leading down. The open area was littered with the rotting corpses of dozens of hobgoblins: the Destrachans’ prey and playthings. Water cascaded from cracks in the walls, and spilled down the rough steps leading steeply down. Far below, at the bottom, the party could just make out a black hole into which the water drained. As far as they could see, it was the only exit.