DAY 324 (28th Hammer)(January) continued ...
Fenrir and Veddic were in the tower of a necromancer called Owerode in the city of Bonespur in the Planeof Shadow.
The rooms they moved through here were full of broken furniture and bones. Many of the doors wer e trappedan d Veddic, himself a sort of amateur necromancer pulled his two ettercap skeletons from his bag of holdingand used them to search the doors for hidden triggers after they got caught in the first couple.
The ettercaps had been nicknamed Bill and Bob.
They encountered several undead wyverns as well, as they moved through the room s of the tower, but made s hortwork of them. In the last, largest room, they were attacked by a spectre, but again, it was swiftly dealtwith. The combined power of Fenrir and Veddic was mighty indeed against undead.
By the time they found their way up to the next level though, both Bill and Bob had been destroyed in traps .Bill fell down a pit that was full of poisonous spikes and Bob was riddled with arrows fired from the wall.
The stairs they found led up two or three floors to a door. Since it was locked and they had run out of
ettercap skeletons Veddic started whacking it with his chain.
After a few strikes a voice from within said, 'All right, all right, hold your horses!'
The door then opened and an elderly man that looked like a servant peered up at them.
'You're sure to be here to see the master, step this way gentlemen.'
They were led to a large dusty study full of books and scrolls. A man dressed in rich looking black robesstool in the room waiting for them. He was early middle aged with a widow's peak and a goatee beard.
His two visitors told him they were their to find the location of a portal called the Black Gate.
He seemed happy enough to tell them.
'Now then, the Black Gate. Let's see...' he said as he read through some of his books.
'Oh yes, I recall its location now. There are mountains south of here, head towar ds them. Hmm, I've no ideaif th e road is still there, but you want to be going into a place called "Bonebreaker Pass". It's kind of gloomydown there and hard to navigate. You might be best served hiring a guide in town.
Go through the pass until you reach an unnamed flat valley that is full of frozen swamp. You'll know you're int he right place when you see a tower called the "Dark Spire of Ghastly Evil". Don't go near it, but, hmm lets see, headtowards it maybe a mile, then turn... south... you'll find yourself at the top of a cliff. The portal is hiddenin a gully somewhere around there. It's hard to spot, due to being in a gully you understand, but if you arecapable of defeating my minions, then I'm sure you'll manage. All told its only about ten miles from here.'
They looked at him rather blankly.
'Well, not that you asked, but I suspect your next question might be, "And what lies beyond the Black Gate oh Great and Powerful Wizard?" Well, I'll tell you. A failed alternative material plane. I don't know the specifics of that particular FAMP, but it will have been destroyed in some horrific and horrible way I should imagine. There may not even be any land, or air, or anything, so take care. It could have completely evaporated, but from my experience they are usually nothing more (or less) than barren wastelands.These sorts of places are not so uncommon in the Plane of Shadow. This plane acts as a conduit bet ween the material plane and all sorts of other interesting places. It's one of the reasons I'm based here.'
With that, he cast a spell and opened up a hole in the side of the room out t o the open air.When Fenr ir asked if there was an easier way of getting in than through all the undead below hegot the terse reply, 'No. I find that it keeps away the riff raff and people have to seriously want to talk to me if they are prepared to deal with everything down there. Cheerio!'
Fenrir and Veddic flew down and rejoined Barrington and his fellows. They all then returned to theFriendly Unicorn Inn.
Veddic went to his room, but Fenrir, as ever, was on the prowl for a lady friend. There were three main common rooms in the sprawling Unicorn Inn. The first was populated mainly by humans, the second by derro,kao-toa, half-orcs and the like. The third by the weird and dreadful creatures of the Plane of Shadows.
Opening the door, he saw the floor was covered in blood and a woman dressed all in leather was hammering a spike into a man's head as he cried in joy. This was not the only ghastly thing going on in this room so he skulked back to the first common room.
After he had got rid of a rough man in black plate armour by using his considerable powers of intimidationFenrir did the rounds, looking for his new friend.
At the bar he met a female half-elf cleric of Helm, but she was only interested in searching for the meaning of a prophecy regarding "the seven legged cat".
Veddic had reappeared and talked to her for a while, so Fenrir felt rather frozen out and moved on.
He spotted a woman dressed in studded leather, lurking at a corner table under the stairs. She had pointy ears and a pinched face, with piercing's in her lips and eyebrows. Fenrir didn't know but she was a shadar-kai, one of those poor doomed race that I myself met when I had dealings in the Plane of Shadow. Her name was Elvaney.
It took him a while, and it briefly turned violent, but in the end he both bedded her and hired her as a
guide for the next day. The act of bedding her would have been a rather painful experience too, if it hadn't been for his Warlock's damage reduction!
DAY 325 (29th Hammer)(January)
Elvaney worked as a guide for anyone that was new to the area and needed to get around. She expertly led them to the location Owerode had told them of.
At the bottom of the gully, before the Black Gate, was a collection of ramshackle buildings. As they approached an old man came out and cried, 'Be gone! We have nothing of value here and we are diseased! Stay away!'
They ignored him and walked up to the gate. They had only been told to find it, not enter it, and none of them had any desire to see what dangers lay inside. They returned to talk to the old man.
His name was Avadeti and when they introduced themselves he asked, 'Are you intending to travel
through the black gate?'
'Perhaps,' answered Fenrir.
'Towards what purpose?'
Fenrir looked at Barrington, but the paladin shrugged.
'We were only told to find it,' he said. 'Then report back.'
'Well, if you do,' said Avadeti. 'Don't spend too much time in the Voidlands. Undead lurk in the mists and even just breathing the fetid air will kill you after a while. No one can survive long there, but sometimes, rarely, people come through the gate. Little flecks of habitable land still remain of our world. How to find them I have no idea. Also, it is a world of what the scholars call Wild Magic. Spells will have strange effect unless you are a real master.'
The old man then went on to explain what had happened to his world.
'It is an infinite sorrow that I carry with me, the destruction of my world. We were a world of great power and magic. My people walked the planes, they crafted many wondrous items, they researched a thousand spells. But the arch mages grew too powerful, too bold and too proud. They attempted to build a device that woudl turn anything into a spell. Put a rabbit in and you got a shard (we used shards to store our spells, they functioned in the same way as scrolls) and you got a spell that summoned a rabbit. Point the device at an ocean and you get a spell that created water. You understand? Well, the first time the device was used, it didn't turn something into a spell, it turned EVERYTHING into a spell. It stripped the entire top layer of our world off and converted it into shards. Only a few of us survived, I've no idea how. I can never return, I would be turned into a shard,
so here I wait.'
After they had talk to him, he also told them that there was no disease (it was just a ruse to keep people away) they thanked him and left.
They made it all the way back to Spectre Island by midnight.
DAY 326 (30th Hammer)(January)
They were tired, but before going to bed they told Random what had happened in their adventure beyond the portal.
'I don't know what any of it means,' admitted the tiefling, 'But Ill report it back and see what they say.'
In the morning, Fenrir and Veddic met Dressdelle in Westgate for another day in the Watch.
It was a clear day and the only trouble they had was from a cheeky flying gnome called Billingyam.
She was rather insulted by being told to go in via the gate, but in the end she did so.
Fenrir spent the rest of the shift buttering up Dressdelle. After work Fenrir and Veddic returned to Spectre Island.
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