Grieving the loss
of his stalwart companion Milo, Fray stood vigil through the night in
prayer and meditation, supplicating the Archangel Raphael for
intercession. As morning dawned, the angel saw fit to restore Milo's
life to him. This being the second time he had died and been raised
from the dead, Milo was now known as Milo Thriceborn. Furthermore,
he had returned from death bearing the Divine Gift of
miracle-working, and moved up from his status as a mere strongarm to
being a cherished retainer.
After bidding
Jacques Le Vert farewell, Fray, Baraldur, Cruum and Milo set off for
the Loremaster's tower with the scrolls they had received from the
Oracle. Médard graciously received the scrolls and agreed to
answer any questions the adventurers had about the island. Cruum
inquired about the nature of the Great Sea Worms, and was told that
the horrid beasts were infernal in nature, but had not troubled the
island until about 400 years ago. The onset of the beast's depredations had coincided with the disappearance of a great wizard
known to have fiendish heritage. Baraldur asked about Ix, and
Médard related that he had read of one so named who had walked the
island just over a century past. This man Ix had visited many
villages and lonely places of the island with a cloaked companion in
tow, and each place he visited had experienced an upsurge in awful
violent crimes. Rumors surviving from the period held that Ix had
sought knowledge of his father, but had departed in disappointment.
Fray asked the
Loremaster if he knew of any enchanted items of holy aspect which
might be found upon the island. Médard told him of a wondrous
shield said to grant boons to one who held it aloft beneath the night
sky in full view of the stars. The last reported resting place of
this shield was a village long ago destroyed, which lay at the
eastern foot of the mountains. Before departing, the rogues asked
Médard if there might be another who would know more about the great
archmage whose disappearance had incited the worms' coming. The
Loremaster related that if one traveled to the foot of the mountains
and beyond two rivers, there was a still tarn high in an isolated
valley. There dwelt a scion of one of the thirteen fallen kingdoms
of lost Atlantis, who might know more. Thanking the old man, the
adventurers departed in haste to seek their fortune.
They encountered
and slew a strange legless lizard with batwings which they
encountered in the high crags, and made their way down to the foot of
the mountains. There they found the cinder-strewn ruins of a village
long dead, burned down over a hundred years past. As they approached
one of the more complete buildings, a six legged salamander of
crimson hue came forth to devour them. The beast was of twisted
shape, and its upper body was erect like a man, making its semblance
somewhat like that of a centaur. The beast was not too physically
strong, but was able to emit a cloud of poisonous gas which nearly
killed Fray and slew Cruum's last shieldman, Leon. Once the beast
was slain, Fray recovered a silver shield emblazoned with a white
antler with seven tines from the ruins of a church. That night, Fray
knelt beneath the stars and held the shield aloft in prayerful
attitude, and was blessed with a measure of divine protection in
battle for the next day.
The party
continued their journey, crossing two rivers and spending a brief
time in a small town called Alando. Heading into the mountains, they
eventually came to the tarn, a verdant place of still waters where
many crocodiles, armadillos, and crabs flourished. As they surveyed
this hidden paradise, a woman of striking beauty garbed in a
shimmering argent dress, her neck adorned with pearls. Cruum knelt
in obeisance before the lady of the tarn, and begged her name and her
counsel. She identified herself as Sophonisba, last scion of the
Kingdom of Cancer. It was fortunate for Cruum that the lady was well
disposed toward him, for his next question caused her no small
consternation; when the dwarf inquired about the vanished wizard, the
skies about the tarn grew dark, and the lady's sad eyes took on an
edge of malice. She related that the wizard had not died, but was
imprisoned still on the island, and that his crime had been the foul
betrayal of his lady love. Pressed with further questions,
Sophonisba divulged that the wizard had been a lover of the
enchantress Rionach Dihada, and had been unfaithful to her, sporting
with a nereid who lived in the waters about the island. After the
Dihada imprisoned him within a place called the Cave of Mists, she
sealed the cave with a Word of Power, which she then shattered into
four pieces which scattered upon the five winds. The great
Enchantress, bereft and betrayed, then cast a spell which enraged the
great sea worms and caused them to destroy any vessel which came near
the island. When asked the name of the imprisoned wizard, the lady
answered: Merlin.
The adventurers
left the tarn and its hallowed guardian, humbled and perplexed.
Sophonisba had not known the location of the Cave of Mists, but owed
that one of the other scions of the Zodiac might. Her sister
Gepaepyris of Pisces lived on the northwestern coast, near the
fishing town of Corte. Baraldur noted that the sign of this mage
aligned with his own, and under this auspice declared that he would
speak to her and learn what he could. The party set off through the
wilderness, skirting the northern edge of the mountains. Deep in the
forest, they encountered a werewolf-like beast with a pink crabshell
upon its back. It was easily slain.
Upon reaching
Corte, the adventurers set about restocking provisions and basic
equipment. Cruum spent a month and much silver trying to find a
retainer, but was unsuccessful. Being unable to find a skilled
companion, he instead hired five new strongarms, Turburt, Gamel,
Warin, Guy, and Silvester. The party then made for Gepaeprys'
demesne. It lay on a small island in a bay, and Cruum and his men
built a coracle so that the party might pay a visit. The scion had
the form of a white haired crone, stooped and worn by uncounted
centuries. She received Baraldur well, and agreed to answer his
questions. She was able to tell him the name of Merlin's illicit
paramour, the nereid Orestia, and that she still dwelt upon the
island, in a bay on the southeastern coast near a statue fashioned by
the wizard in her likeness. The hag new nothing of the Cave of
Mist's location, however.
Before traveling
to meet this doxy of the deep, Fray desired to seek out another
ancient pagan altar to convert. In a secluded cove north of
Gepaepyris' demesne, he found a small shrine to Poseidon. In the
waters nearby swam a bizarre creature, a skyblue two-headed pidgeon
the size of a pony. Cruum roared with laughter at the sight of the
creature, and set about devising a means to capture it. Fashioning a
man-catcher from a ten-foot pole and a length of rope, he lured the
beast to the shore and managed to restrain it, though he took a few
wounds from its piercing beaks. The creature was then hog-tyed and
trussed up to be carried hanging from a ten-foot pole carried between
two men. Fray entered the nearby shrine, warded himself with magical
protection, sprinkled the altar with holy water, blessed it, and
converted it to his own god's influence.