Bandaluthia Session 29

Bandaluthia: Session 29.

Ratsel and Elodee scratched their heads. They had spent about an hour trying to open the portal. The guess the Animals had made that the portal, once open, would lead them through to the Crypts where D’Jarra-Leon had sent them. Above ground, the barbarians were leaving, and Roth had told Coolio and Jacob that if they go into this underground passage, then he would meet them by the lake in a few days time. Coolio suggested this was ok, and told Roth if they did not come out of the tunnel within the next hour, he should go to the lake alone. The rest of the Animals went underground. Jacob heard Ratsel and Elodee discussing the best forms of magic to open the portal, so Jacob just cast his only spell, ‘comprehend language’ he read the inscriptions, and portal shifted and disappeared. A blast of putrid air blew past the Animals. The monkey, Affe, went ballistic within the pouches of his master, Helmutt the hound too backed away, hackles up, but not growling, it was a whimper that escaped from the dog. A wraith came out of the portal. With no time for an Animal to act, it gripped Jacob who let out a fierce war cry. His two blades came to his hands, and started to attack the wraith. Ratsel let loose his kaleidoscope; Shaniqua tumbled in and stuck her mystical blade in to the undead creature. Elodee tried to deliver a spell through her silver raven, but the raven missed. Up stepped Coolio and forced the creature back with the divine light of Yondalla. The wraith did retreat, but then as Coolio demanded it, the wraith was destroyed. The halfling shield glowed with the wholesome of his Deity.

Jacob complained that he felt terrible, but Coolio informed the hapless urban ranger, that it was above his skill as a healer. Jacobs’s constitution had taken a pounding. The passage way past the now open portal was cleared by Coolio’s magnificent light. And several hundred yards down, the Animals found a strange looking platform. Three monoliths rose up from around the circular platform. There were two levels to the platform, and more of the portals strange glyphs were written around the edges. The monoliths all had flat surfaces which faced inward; these too, had the glyph symbols. Shaniqua jumped up onto the platform. Three colours of light emanated from the monoliths, one blue, one red and the other of green. Shaniqua got a view of a lake from within her head. Shaniqua jumped off quickly to the remonstrations of the others. Shaniqua told Elodee what she had seen, and soon all the Animals stepped on to the pad. All got the vision of the lake, and then they were there.

In the middle of the Vorpell Mountain range, a lake lay. The lake was surrounded by three of the highest peaks, and at the very centre of the lake, the water started to bubble. An exact replica of the platform started to emerge from the surface. Three monoliths came out first, then the actual platform itself. As all the water spilled off the centre, five figures and a hound appeared upon it. A minute later and the platform began to sink back into the depths of the lake. After some comical efforts to try to teleport back once more, Jacob spotted a boat. Ratsel used his skills in draconic to summon the boat to them. Not before to long, the wet and bedraggled Animals (Coolio and Helmutt were wetter than the others) were aboard the skiff and being whisked to the shore.

The Animals had been told that the Aprille moon would show them the path to the Crypts, so as it was only just midday, they waited. Jacob went hunting and came back with three rabbits. Elodee used her magic to ‘daze’ five rainbow trout. So Coolio set his attention to cooking. A fire was lit, and the mood high. There was some crashing through the undergrowth, and Ratsel saw a troll. He alerted the rest and fireballed the beast. The rest shot to the task at hand. The troll was very quickly out gunned, as Jacob’s flaming sword and his sword of wounding cut deeply, and the troll could not regenerate from wounds such as these. Shaniqua got to close and the troll managed to catch hold of her. He raked her body and then he let the elf go as Jacob pressed his advantage home. The troll fell, and Jacob removed its head. Coolio cured Shaniqua back onto her feet. The battle was not over however, as another troll came to find its mate dead. With a vicious roar, she came for the party. Shaniqua screamed her own cry of anger and rushed at this new threat. Coolio shouted got Shaniqua to stop, saying that she was still most grievously injured. Before anyone else could act the Shaniqua had indeed slashed the creature, but the troll got hold of her too. Two slashing claws gripped the shoulders of the elf girl, and the monstrous strength of the infuriated troll pulled. Shaniqua was torn in half.

Seemingly in slow motion, the troll dropped her two handfuls of elf and stared at the party. The look in her eye seemed to show that this was in fact ‘eye for an eye’ but the Animals were not sympathetic to the troll’s feelings. They took no time in dispatching it and removed her head too.

The shocking death of the girl elf Shaniqua was a sharp pain through the heart to all.
It was here the session ended. There was much talk of resurrection, but civilisation is a month away. Coolio knows that it is not a time sensitive matter, but the Animals are a person light. The roguish qualities that Shaniqua bought to the group will have more affect on moral than her the loss of her abilities to open doors and such.

For now Shaniqua, you will be missed.