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The River of Death

Page history last edited by Kirk 12 years, 6 months ago

back to Flame and Flume , or to the Index

13 Ardan

 

The staff of the mill agreed to have Our Heroes, Kabar, Boker and the dancing girls (Sariella, Hasama, Thelda, Threna, and Xan-Mei) take a pole-barge across the lake and down the Axis River to Shattra. The journey along Lake Venda and down the river is expected to take several days. On the first night, the barge is moored to the stump of the mast of an old wreck, a hundred yards away from the shore.

 

14 Ardan

 

Before dawn, spectral green forms are seen rising from the waters of Lake Venda ... the spirits of dead boatmen. Specifically, the spirits of boatmen too cheap or unlucky to have the coins to pay for passage to the Underworld. Some of these ghosts come aboard, and wish passage; "well, it's just three days or so"; Kabar, Boker and the dancing girls (except Hasama) are left behind in the land of the living. As the barge slowly crosses the River of Death, Our Heroes see smaller craft steered by robed figures, heading the same way. 

 

Suddenly, the barge comes under attack by a Rajan assassin -- sent to the River of Death to kill Our Heroes! There's a very confusing and difficult battle; Vidan ends up weakened by a Rajan poison.

 

Our Heroes spot a tattooed man swimming in the River of Death; upon pulling him out, yet another fight ensues! Finally Our Heroes reach the shores of Death's Realm, where they are met by a very bureaucratic necromane, prepared to assess any number of penalties for the group's unorthodox activities. Unable to return across the River of Death, Our Heroes march across Death's Realm, seeking a tomb or other exit to Talislanta.

 

After a long, difficult time (of hard-to-determine duration -- on the River and in Death's Realm seem like four days or so) Our Heroes find a tomb; Keja is able to activate the portal, and the group passes through into brilliant sunlight -- hooray! The group is on a rugged mountainside, looking down at a pine forest and a distant village; nearby is a cave, containing a marble monument. The sky is blue, with just one sun! Contact with the villages goes poorly! Our heroes retreat to the cave; just as the howling mob prepares to storm the cave, we are able to activate the portal and return to Death's Realm.

 

Lord Cabbadon appears, with his usual witty comments on Our Heroes' lack of alacrity, etc.; he teleports the group to the village of Millhaven, in Silvanus.

 

~18 Ardan

 

Millhaven is gripped by fear -- terrible deaths have occured in the night for a couple of weeks now, probably the work of the renegade ghast we've been sent to destroy. Our Heroes meet a couple of the remaining inhabitants:  Kel "the voice of Millhaven"; and Lotte, a very strange little girl, whose family has disappeared -- more victims of the ghast, apparently.

 

on to Millhaven:  A Ghastly Introduction 

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