The Tragedy of Rimakak

The trek across the frozen north was proving to be every bit as dangerous as advertised – and they’d barely started. But the group was determined not to let anything stop them from escorting Ameiko to her destiny in distant Minkai, so they healed up after the battle with the bulettes, and continued on into the Gaarjuk Hills.

If they needed any more proof that the Path of Aganhei was perilous, they found it the next day. Scattered on either side of the road was the wreckage of some unfortunate caravan. The wagons were broken and already starting to drift over with snow. Rising up out of the ground nearby was a black basalt monolith, casting its long shadow over the scene. Sawyer hopped down from his wagon as it rolled past the first wreck, and dug down through the snow. The wagon’s sides were crushed, its wheels and axles shattered. He wondered what could have caused such damage.

That question was answered a moment later. What had appeared to be a large mound of snow to the north suddenly began to shake and move, and the ice-encrusted skeleton of a mammoth rose up out of the snow, letting forth a spectral bellow. As if summoned by its call, a group of Hoarfrost Spirits materialized along the north side of the road, and began to close on the party. As they drew near, they each unleashed a bone-chilling Cone of Cold; each cone caught several party members, and many were hit by more than one. Nicki dropped a Fireball that caught the mammoth and two of the spirits; both spirits sank back into the snow. Zhustin followed suit, and his Fireball took out another spirit, and burned another. Koya cast a Bless and Marie moved into position to Channel Positive Energy against these undead. It did some damage, but something seemed to be inhibiting its effects. Other members of the party launched various ranged attacks, but another trio of Hoarfrost Spirits appeared from the south, and everyone once again found themselves blasted by deadly ice.

The spirits’ area attacks were bad enough, but then the Frostfallen Mammoth lumbered forward and slammed Sawyer with one of its enormous tusks, then gored him with the other. The fancy new armor he’d purchased in Kalsgard might as well have been made of tin as the huge beast batted him around like a toy. Blood ran from his armor’s seams; one more attack like this, and the big fighter would be a goner. Marie rushed forward to cast a Cure Critical Wounds on him, and Koya gave him a Bit of Luck to use in his next attack. Zhustin and Nicki saw the damage that the mammoth inflicted, but decided to keep whittling down the spirits who were surrounding the party; Zhustin’s Fireball and Nicki’s Scorching Ray took out three more of them.

Bella and Ameiko leaped down from their wagons and engaged the spirits closest to them with swords, risking the grasp of their freezing claws. The one on Ameiko pressed its attack, clutching for her throat, but at the last minute Ulf’s longsword slashed in from behind, and the spirit returned to ectoplasm. Shinjiro also rushed to attack the one fighting Bella. He delivered a flurry of blows, but the spirit’s body generated intense cold and each time his bare hands or feet hit, he took cold damage himself.

Planting his feet, Sawyer unleashed his own volley of strikes from Suishen, as the sword shouted a battle cry in some ancient dialect of Tien. The blade cut deep, but the mammoth retaliated with another goring attack from its tusks; only the healing Marie had delivered kept Sawyer in this world. Deciding that maybe the mammoth was a worthy target after all, Nicki cast an Empowered Fireball behind the giant undead beast. With one last otherworldly trumpet, the creature toppled over into an unmoving pile of bones and ivory. Bella’s rapier finished off the last of the spirits, and the battle was over.

Everyone gathered around Marie for some desperately-needed healing, and then began to examine the site more carefully. The wagons and their cargo were crushed beyond repair, although the crews were able to salvage a few extra supplies. Ominously, there was no sign of any bodies other than a few bloodstains smeared on the crushed wood of the wagons.

Mark of Sithhud

The strange monolith matched the description of the standing stones that they’d been told of in the Erutaki village they’d visited. It was unmarked, save for a symbol carved near its top. It showed a three-fingered hand, and Koya thought it was some sort of demonic sigil. Helgarval had more knowledge. “It’s the mark of Sithhud,” she told Marie, who relayed her words to the party. “He used to be a demon lord who ruled the frozen Abyssal realm of Jhuvumirak, but he was defeated by some other demon eons ago and stripped of most of his power. I don’t know what something tied to his worship would be doing here, now.” Marie cast a Detect Magic, expecting that the monolith would have some necromantic powers. It did have a faint dwemor of magic, but to her surprise it was tied to some form of transmutation magic.

With the monolith and its purpose still a mystery, the caravan moved on. Fortunately, the next several days passed without further incident, and they settled back into the routine of daily travel, although each morning seemed colder than the one before. The sun barely rose above the horizon now, and most of the “day” was an extended twilight. As they made camp one evening, Ulf spoke of the next day’s travel. “We should reach Lake Nallishoot tomorrow. There’s an Erutaki village called Rimakak on the shore; they know me there, and we’ll stop, trade for a few more supplies, and see what else we can learn of the road ahead.”

Sure enough, the next afternoon they came to the shores of a large, frozen lake, and ahead they could see a cluster of lodges. But no smoke rose from the village, and as they drew near they could see that the village appeared deserted. Several small hummocks of snow dotted the village and frozen arms or legs could be seen sticking out of the snow.

The group cautiously fanned out through the village to investigate. Sawyer dug through the snow to examine the first body; it was a middle-aged Erutaki woman. She’d been savagely slashed with claws of some sort. Ulf and Sandoval examined another body; it was a young man who Ulf recognized as one of the villagers. Ameiko and Shinjiro went to some of the nearby huts and peeked cautiously inside. They were empty and their interiors had been thoroughly trashed; anything of value had been smashed, and filth had been smeared over everything.

Bella crossed the village common and approached one of the huts on the far side; as she did, she saw that the snow around the hut had been disturbed, and growing closer, she could hear sounds of movement from inside. She drew her warhammer, and waved it over her head to quietly alert the others, then quietly approached the skins hanging across the doorway.  Before she could reach out to push them aside, they were suddenly pulled open from the other side. Bella found herself face to face with a large aquatic creature. It seemed just as surprised to see her as she was by it, and after an instant’s hesitation, it let the skins fall back over the door, and dashed away, tearing a hole in the back of the hide-walled hut in its desperation to escape. It ran for the frozen lake, emitting a series of high-pitched squeaks and clicks as it ran. Apparently alerted by its cries, another of the creatures emerged from a lodge at the north end of the village and also began running for the lake.

For a moment, the party considered letting them just run away. But then Ulf shouted, “Those must be the things that killed the villagers!” and charged the one to the north, hacking at it with his longsword. That spurred the party to action, and they leapt to the fight. Bella dashed through the hole that the one she’d surprised had made in the back of the hut and hit it with her hammer as it ran; it stopped at the edge of the lake and turned to face her. Marie ran to her side, but missed with her attack. Zhustin fired an Acid Arrow at the one Ulf was chasing and Sandru hit it with an arrow. With a high-pitched squeal, it fell face-first into the snow.

And transformed. It shrank in size. Its scaled skin turned smooth and brown, and its green hair turned black. Where once there had been an oversized aquatic monster, there now lay the body of an Erutaki boy of about eight. Shinjiro stared in horror at the dead child, while Zhustin racked his brain for what these might be. They looked like freshwater merrows, creatures not uncommon in the cold waters of these parts, but he’d never heard of merrows being shapeshifters.

“They’re children!” Shinjiro tried to warn the rest of the party, but his cries went unheeded. Ulf, caught up in the bloodlust of battle, charged the other merrow, but missed. However, it sank its claws into him, and began trying to drag him towards the frozen lake. At that moment, two more merrows burst up through the ice at the lake’s shore, and attacked Marie. Sawyer charged the one grappling with Ulf, and a slice of Suishen sent it sprawling back into the snow. It too transformed, leaving behind a dead 10-year old girl. Ulf, freed from the creature’s grab, turned to attack one of the new merrows threatening Marie, as did Bella. Nicki exploded a Fireball over the ice behind the creatures and another one fell, changing into yet another dead Erutaki child.

Arnaalak

Three more of the merrows burst up out of the ice of the lake; one managed to grab Sandoval with its terrible claws. They were accompanied by a smaller creature, with a fish-like face but clad in dripping furs. It exuded a vaguely sweet and unexpectedly pleasant brine scent; Bella, standing nearby, found its presence oddly comforting. It turned to her with a friendly gesture, and for a moment she found herself feeling that they should be the best of friends. But then she shook off the feeling. Wanting to distance herself from its confusing presence, she went into a rolling tumble that took her between the legs of one of the merrows and back to her feet on its other side.

Shinjiro kept trying to persuade his friends not to attack the merrows, but to no avail. Nicki unleashed another Fireball that covered two of the merrows and the new creature; one of the merrows died, leaving yet another dead child in its place. Sandoval managed to escape the grasp of his attacker, but it hit and grabbed him again, pulling him towards the icy waters of the lake. Koya had conjured a Spritual Weapon which she now directed against Sandoval’s merrow. Ulf also slashed with his longsword, and another Erutaki child lay dead in the snow.

The new creature strode along the lakeshore and approached Bella, arms outstretched. Try as she might, Bella could not avoid her, and the thing enveloped her in what looked like a loving hug. As its arms enveloped her, Bella began to change. Scales began to grow on her skin, and gill slits opened in her neck. Sawyer rushed to her aid, attacking with Suishen. A part of Bella felt as if she were back in her mother’s loving arms, but then she remembered that her mother had abandoned her as an infant. She thrust her dagger forward into the heart of the thing embracing her. It looked at her with sad eyes for a moment, then slid slowly to the ground.

As the creature died, the last surviving merrow threw its arms over its head. It was incapable of human speech, but the sounds it was making could only be sobs. At last listening to Shinjiro’s entreaties, the party backed slowly away from the thing that sat huddled in the snow, weeping. It took about an hour, but at last the curse was lifted, and the merrow transformed back into its original form, an Erutaki girl of about twelve. Ulf began speaking gently to her in her own tongue, and gradually pieced together the story of the tragic fate of the village of Rimakak. Earlier in the autumn, the village had been visited by a “water spirit” from the lake. It was a qallupilluk, who called herself Arnaalak. To try to appease the creature, the village invited her to a feast in her honor, but during the feast one of the young women serving her stumbled and spilled food all over the qallupilluk. Enraged at the insult, Arnaalak pronounced her curse upon the village and fled back to the lake. She took her vengeance by emerging from the lake night after night to steal the children of the village one by one, using her Curse of Scales to transform them into merrows, slavishly devoted to her. The villagers searched in vain for their missing children. When she had transformed most of the children, Arnaalak led them in an attack on Rimakak. At first the villagers fought back, but when they realized they were killing their own children, they lost hope; a few fled into the wilderness, but most allowed themselves to be slaughtered.

Sobered by the realization that they had helped to kill the last remaining children of Rimakak, the party lapsed into a heavy silence. Ameiko wept quietly beside her wagon, while Koya tried to console her, frequently wiping her own eyes. Ulf assured them that there was another Erutaki village a few days on where they could leave the girl to be cared for, but it was small consolation. What other hard choices would they be forced to make before this journey was over?

The PCs gained 3,543 XP, putting them at 42,348 XP, with 51,000 required for level 8. We’ll be at Rich & Joette’s next week.