Campaign Log: Confessions of a Forked Tongue

[coronatiger]

Wolfram shapeshifted into a bear again, and let Grogg carry the lantern. When we entered the distortion, a shadow coalesced around the lantern, making it practically useless. Xipil pulled out a silver coin that shone with the light of the stars. That let everyone see, at least a couple of meters. Kraa suddenly came out of the dark, very noisy. When it vanished into Grogg, the cacophony cut off. I looked to see if anything was following the spirit raven, but all was quiet.

Xipil suggested using a rope to keep us all connected. He tied four small loops along it, so we’d have something to let us keep our distance easily. He said he wanted to try to empower the starlight coin. Wolfram looked skeptical, but the coin suddenly brightened. We extinguished the lantern.

I led the way, since I have the best night vision in the group, and since I had the spirit-seeing ring. Xipil came next, then Wolfram and finally Grogg. It didn’t take long before I spotted a tower directly ahead; we walked along the desert’s edge. The tower looked to be about fifty meters away, but with the distortion, it was hard to tell. I stopped and let the others catch up, and pointed out the tower for them. When I studied the tower, it seemed that it didn’t distort, it was only the shifting surroundings that had fooled me earlier.

I took one end of the rope and walked towards the tower. When I got closer, I spotted another tower, behind the first one and to the left. I returned, just as Grogg hurled a rock at the tower. As far as I could tell, it went in the right direction, but we didn’t hear it hit.

I tied the rope around my waist and walked forward again. The others followed ten meters behind me, in case I stumbled into the “even darker” region. About five or ten meters from the first tower, everything seemed to become clearer, and I could see a door opening at the bottom of the tower. I turned towards the others and bade them stop, asking if they could see me still. They confirmed that they could. I explained what I saw, and Grogg asked me to stand still. Xipil yelled that he was throwing another rock, so I dropped to the ground. The rock passed me and disappeared into the night. I picked up a rock myself, stood and threw it at the tower. Just before it struck the wall, it vanished. I tried a few more times, with the same result.

Xipil suggested setting up the totem pole, so I returned to the others. Wolfram transformed back to a human and began his ritual. Xipil started burning incense, which should allow us to see spirits. Wolfram’s ritual let us see each other’s auras, and I knew we could use that too to spot spirits. The incense made it more difficult to see, and Xipil agreed, so I put it out.

Wolfram performed another ritual, this one was supposed to summon nearby spirits, but it failed, and Wolfram acted as if he couldn’t see the moon anymore. The rest of us saw it just as faintly as before, behind the mystical cloud. I decreed that we rest for ten minutes. Wolfram still couldn’t see the moon.

Xipil and I prayed to You, while Wolfram prayed to Tiri, the moon. Grogg began walking towards the tower, but I shouted “Stop!” A voice, somewhere in the darkness, said “Come!” I looked around for the speaker but couldn’t see them. Wolfram returned to bear shape. It was quiet again, so I returned to my prayers. Grogg answered the voice and asked the speaker to come to us instead, but the voice just repeated “Come!” after a relatively long pause. Grogg asked if the speaker was the one to upset Kraa, but got no reply.

Wolfram turned back into his human form. He said he didn’t want to try the summoning ritual again, but instead, he wanted to try to track the spirits. He completed his ritual, but couldn’t see any traces of spirits having crossed within five or so meters from the totem pole. He could, though, see the moon again. This lifted his mood, and allowed Xipil to convince him to try the summoning ritual again. When the ritual was finished, he turned back into a bear, to better be able to fight the spirits as they appeared.

The voice asked us yet again to come, but we ignored it. After a couple of minutes, I noticed a spirit behind the tower, moving away from us. It seemed Wolfram’s ritual wasn’t working as well as it should, for the spirits should be forced to come all the way up to the totem pole before being allowed to go away. I didn’t want to risk anyone running off, so I didn’t mention seeing the spirit.

Impatient, Grogg sat down with his sewing kit. Wolfram turned human again and said he thought the spirits were somewhere beyond the tower. Grogg decided to tie a coin to the end of some string, and threw it at the tower. It vanished from sight, but when Grogg loosened his grip, the string slid through his hand. There was a hole in the ground hidden by the illusory tower!

We walked up to the tower, and Xipil poked a stick at the wall, confirming its non-existence. Grogg picked up Xipil and put his head through the wall, while he held up the star coin. Xipil reported seeing only a hole, seven or eight meters deep, almost an inversion of the tower. There was nothing useful down there, he informed us.

I proposed going around the tower and continuing. I led the way along the desert’s edge, even though there was another tower off to the left. I didn’t want to risk getting lost. The desert’s edge was like a safe path through the distorted area.

We didn’t go many steps beyond the tower before we came to a new place. It looked like an oasis in the middle of a sandy desert. A few palm trees stood around a pond. We took a few steps backwards, and reappeared near the tower. Actually, I thought I could see four towers in total, standing in a square around us. I pointed them out to the others, and they squinted into the darkness.

I walked carefully forward again. I experimented with Grogg’s coin and string, and it really seemed like I was at an oasis. The coin was even wet when I pulled it back from the pond. I noticed I wore different clothes, and the rope around my waist wasn’t there anymore. In my hand, the coin and string had vanished too!

I returned to the others and explained what I had seen. Grogg thought we should check if the voice was still around, so I called out. A voice, seemingly near the tower in the desert, called for help. I replied, “Come here, and we’ll help you!” The voice just repeated its distress call. Then the other voice spoke up again, from the center of the area between the towers. “Come!”

Grogg and I walked towards the oasis, and he kept his eyes shut. I asked what he could smell, but then I realized that I didn’t have my knives with me, and said we had to go. Grogg took my hand and held me back, walking towards the pond. I felt at my all-too-human teeth with my all-too-human tongue and began panicking. “Grogg! We have to leave!!”

Grogg picked me up and left, asking if I could still see the oasis, but I was relieved to be back. Xipil asked what the problem was, and I explained that inside that illusion, we weren’t ourselves anymore! Our things vanish and are replaced by worthless junk. Instead of my knives, I had had only a scimitar.

Xipil, the ever curious, wanted to go inside to see for himself, so I traded places with him on the rope. Grogg followed him inside. Xipil came running back out after a few seconds, and refused to say what he had experienced. Grogg returned and told us Xipil had become a cat person, like Nujan.