Crom and Edward carry Mornington into the cavern, as the last of the sunlight sets behind the Dust Spine Ridge and darkness creeps in.
They rest for a short time while speaking with the Ward of the Inner Sanctum. He shares a swathe of knowledge with them...
- Karna-Kar is a terribly powerful creature that was banished to the Shadowfell by his people. Each day he may grow stronger in this world.
- Someone has been hard at work to release Void Wing into this world, dark, organised forces are at work here.
- The Inner Sanctum door requires knowledge of the runic text hidden within five types of element stone located all across usta. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Death.
- The inner Sanctum contains secrets of the outer planes that are being guarded by the remaining life force hosted within his people, the Dargean.
- A subsect of the Dargean Empire broke away from the common beliefs of the empire. They wanted to return a flow of magic to the world and with it, their immortality. They destroyed one of the element stones in the empire, but with this they became corrupted, evil spirits corroded their bodies and their minds. The Tarnished, as they were called, were Dargean, but mad, and hell bent on destroying the Dargean.
As the word 'mad' is uttered Mornington snaps out of his unconcious stupor. He acts delusional, speaking loudly, irrationally, and has little to no memory of events that led to where he is now. Crom and Edward become immediately concerned and find it hard to have constructive conversation with Mornington.
With Mornington in a state the Ward of the Inner Sanctum explains that there is not much time left. Most of his body has been corrupted by the necromancer that struck him down before Crom's arrival, all that time ago. The shield he bears once more now that Crom returned it is quickly rusting and the corruption is spreading across its surface. The Ward is about to lose his mind, and he cannot guarantee the safety of the party. They quickly move outside of the marbled area beyond the final pair of columns. As the Dargean turns the blue energy emitting between the cracks in his armoured body turn a dark red, and his head snaps back as he changes. As his head lowers back into position their is a fiery glow behind his eyes and he stomps toward the party. As he gets to the final columns, to the party's relief, he is trapped and cannot move any further. He stands there, very still and silent, watching the party.
Crom and Edward start to set up their bedrolls, getting ever more agitated with Mornington's sudden onset insanity. Edward resorts to casting command on him, telling him simply "sleep". To their relief, it works and Crom and Edward have very patchy sleep as they wait for first light.
Next Session 49
Previous Session 47