Episode #9: The Bloody Stairs

The tiefling was dressed darkly, clad in leathers and bearing no apparent weapons. An arcanist, then. He introduced himself as Melech, and claimed to be an associate of the cultists, but was not one of them. Some sort of neutral party or contractor? He had apparent command over the bullette, which bristled nearby, eager to renew the fight, and made vague threats of relinquishing his control over it.

He asked who they were ("So...you're survivors of the wrecks?") was interested in trading information, offering only a little bit in term for some of their names. But the PCs were not willing to give up any items, and only Ecaris, Penitence, and Edrathior really spoke to him. He claimed to know the small gray creature they had captured—Ilnix, a familiar to Lucan. According to Melech, the cultists are led by two twins, Lucan and Phaedris. Edrathior had heard of them. He pointed out, for "free," that Ilnix, if he gets within 1 mile of his master, will be able to communicate with him telepathically. Likewise, if he is slain, his master will know and be slightly crippled by the experience.

He advised them to turn around and not try to tangle with the siblings. If they had survived, good for them, but they wouldn't survive long if they went further. And doing so would also bring Lucan's familiar closer to him. A risky thing to do. So Gregor made sure to pummel the little creature again and keep him unconscious. Of course, if Ilnix didn't return to his master, that, too, would invite suspicion.

Edrathior, meanwhile, trying to examine the reliefs carved in the underside of the arch. He saw depicted there, in pictograph fashion, a line of human warriors side by side with apes. At the center of them was a more regal figure. A leader? Beside him was a larger ape, this one four-armed. Alongside these carvings was written in antiquated Elven:

The Vigilant Road of Cuicatl, Guardian of the King

When Edrathior passed beneath the arch of stone, an overwhelming vertigo swept over the group and knocked some to the ground. The world seemed to spin and darken. Looking up, they saw a clear night sky with very differently looking stars. Melech referred to this as worldfall, which some of the PCs knew to mean  when a plane (or part of a plane) becomes coterminous with the mortal world (i.e. falling into the world). Although not as overwhelmed by the experience as the PCs, he seemed amused or mildly surprised that it had happened just then. It was now fully night.

In the blink of an eye, hours had passed and the PCs (and the whole Isle?) seemed to be no longer in the mortal world...or had another plane imposed itself in the mortal world?

Unwilling to part with any more information, or any of their few items of value, they left Melech behind. and continued down the trail, which now had become an ancient, cracked road of flagstones with weeds and other vegetation poking through. They soon heard the distant screams of primates in what sounded like a battle. A short while later, nearing their destination, a maddened ape rounded the corner and charged at them. It was slain quickly.

Soon they came upon the end of the road: a broad, if steep set of stairs leading up a set of ziggurat tiers up into a cave. Flanked by mighty trees, the entire entrance was  Presumably this was the temple of the "Truth Seeker" or oracle the Olman shaman spoke of. Overhead, a massive, organic-looking globe of light hung from the foliage above the stairs. Gruff pondered shooting it, but decided against it.

It was also the site of a slaughter. A battle between apes—"normal" ones and ones that had worn jewelry and other jungle adornments—and the invading human cultists. The apes had clearly lost, but several humans lay dead as well. At the top of the steps a single living cultist remained. Next to him, its back turned, was a skinny figure cloaked in black, facing the inside of the temple.

The battle that followed was ugly. In it, demonic, lightning-spewing beetles had been conjured, the cultist fought to the death, and the cloaked figure was revealed to be some sort of powerful undead. And a tiefling corpse at that, unleashing forceful blasts of energy. With great effort, the PCs defeated all of them.