The Diary of Skullweed Moonflower

Purple Elf and Selene Moonlord: part 4

Demons and eggs…

Moonday, Disorderweek, Seaseason, 613 TA – late afternoon

There’s still a couple of hours to Ithilrûn (Moonrise) as we cross the road to a building simply called ‘Revellers’, according to the near illegible sign outside. We find a group of youths sprawled across the steps. They’re all fairly lackadaisical until they spot me – suddenly I’m ‘your majesty’! No, they’re not making fun of the Elf, they are genuinely overwhelmed to speak to an Ithilhîr (Moonlord) of the Maolrim. After asking to kiss my hand (no really – it is all I can do not to tell him to kiss my adel) a lad calling himself Jake runs off to fetch Rosa Moonlight, the Chief Reveller.

We look around while we’re waiting. The door stays open, revealing the lower story to be mostly a single large room with perhaps a couple of dozen slumbering revellers. Carrie ventures inside – yes, they are breathing, most are asleep but some are just resting, evidently gathering their energies for tonight’s climax.

After five minutes Jake returns with an Adaneth (human woman) of about thirty years, wearing purple and grey – very fitting. She seems a little nonplussed that we should be concerned about the undead attack of Claynight but after a little prompting she engages with our enquiries. I ask if anything else happened and she seems to think I’m trying to belittle the incident. I have to explain that I was merely wondering if anything similar had happened since. She compliments Tommy on his horns, as well she might; they are handsome.

Somehow, by a roundabout route that all my Psychology finds utterly incomprehensible, she admits that she’s heard rumours that some bodies were dragged off and partially eaten! I exchange glances with my mellyn (friends) – we saw no signs of predation on any of the bodies in the Selenite shrine or the Matari temple.

We had thought we were short of fifty to seventy bodies. We’ve found two dozen here, still living (Rosa says some have preferred to sleep here for security – I don’t blame them) and now we have rumours that ‘some’ may have been ‘dragged off’ and eaten. I ask where these bodies might be but Rosa doesn’t really know, one of the cold-cellars, maybe? (Hohoho is very well equipped in this regard.) Frankly she doesn’t seem that interested. “We didn’t count anything – it’s a party!”

Despite all this she seems to warm to us, perhaps it just took her a while to wake up. She invites us in for refreshments – cheese and wine, in fact – with bread, which Roxie insists must be toasted. The cheese turns out to be a very pungent hard cheese with purple veins and berries that defy categorisation but Rosa claims are ‘popberries’ (I make a mental note to look them up when I get back home). The wine is quite like Ernest’s Revelation but thankfully not quite as… revelatory. But Rosa claims to have ‘double Revelation’ for later tonight!

Carries asks after the multi-tiered cake brought by Ernest – I confess I don’t recall this but then I was under the influence for a lot of his impromptu picnic – but Rosa knows nothing about it. She thinks it sounds like something for the nobles and she’s seen very little of them, since they keep themselves to themselves.

In reference to our expressed ‘cover’ as a band of itinerant entertainers, she advises that if we want to perform tonight, heavy armour is not allowed on stage, but she also suggests the nobles may want to hire us for a private performance.

Carrie asks why the Revellers came here, specifically, but Rosa claims no particular agenda, the Revellers wanted their own village but the site was actually chosen by Mataris as the best for mixed agriculture.

I must admit that Rosa isn’t proving quite the font of information we were hoping for but with hindsight that’s only fitting – she is the antithesis of a loremaster, unsullied by anything that might have a nodding acquaintance with the Truth rune. So when Harlequin announces he wishes to visit the nobles we all pay our respects and leave with him – but I assure Rosa that I shall see her again after Moonrise, after conducting the burial services.

So we stroll leisurely up the street, past the edifice of the Moon & Pig to the smaller, but better appointed, annex. As we approach we note the curtains are all drawn so it seems the nobles are also preparing themselves for the climax of the revels, later tonight. I also notice the windows are all barred, so the building is secure as well as comfortable. Harlequin doesn’t feel it’s appropriate for him to tout for patronage at the front door so we follow him round the back, seeking the tradesman’s entrance.

We find an open door round the back but something feels… off! I’m looking up at the roof and at the windows and so everyone shows me up by spotting the trail of blood before me. It leads out of the door off towards the Rave field. Of course, a trail goes both ways but rather strange tracks with the blood could be going in either direction. Worryingly, I cannot identify the creature that made them – and I thought I knew every beast of wood, field and hedgerow!

I follow Harlequin through the door and immediately recognise the stench of death – I’ve smelt it a lot these last few days, but it’s especially pungent here. Something has been dead for several days, if I’m any judge. Harlequin starts cranking his arbalest but we all ready our weapons – discus and longsword in my case.

We’re in a kitchen. There’s an arch to the left through to the pantry (and no, I do not smell hanging game – I know the difference). There’s a door on the far side, diagonally left. As my eyes adjust I see it leads to a corridor but just to one side of it lies a joint of meat that closer examination reveals to be a human leg, partially clothed. Judging from the ripped hose it belonged to a serving girl. Harlequin and I agree it’s been bitten off and chewed by something unfamiliar.

Judging from the tracks the predator was about the size of a large dog, but definitely not a dog or any animal with paws and considerably bigger than me! Tommy checks the pantry but reports nothing of interest.

The corridor goes the full width of the annex, left to right. There’s an ornate double door in the far wall off to the right, and less impressive doors diagonally to the left. There’s two more doors on our side to the left, the nearer must be the pantry door, and then two arches beyond them. The only light comes from small windows at either end so it’s darker here than in the kitchen.

Harlequin ducks back into the kitchen for his arbalest (whatever possessed him to put it down?) so for a second I’m alone in the corridor. I put my discus away so I can hold the Moon Jewel to provide some light. The blood trail splits, going right to the ornate doors and also left to the far end of the corridor.

As I’m crouching there in the semi-dark, my ears catch something most unsettling – a beast gorging itself on prey, mingled with a faint clicking that I can’t place. It’s from the far end of the corridor to the left – I step silently down towards it, tucking the Moon Jewel away and reaching for my discus again. I silently mime to the others and to Tommy, who emerges from the pantry, that I can hear something. Without a word Tommy, Roxie and Harlequin fall in behind me. Corbie checks the remaining closed door and I pass the first arch – nothing of interest in either.

With hindsight, trying to sneak up on something with Harlequin is a mistake because Harlequin makes enough noise to put a Dwarf-forge to shame. The sounds of gluttony have stopped – whatever it is knows we’re coming…

Expecting a fight, I cast Shimmer and step smartly into the last arch but there’s just a stair leading down into darkness. If I ever get another Chaos Feature I hope it’s an extra pair of hands. (Selene is usually depicted with four hands so I’d be closer to my goddess.) I’d like the option of hurling my discus (with the added option of Moondisc) but it’s dark down there so the discus goes back in its pouch and it’s out with the Moon Jewel again.

There’s a brief discussion but we’ve all got time ticking on our spells so we form up in double ranks – Harlequin (minus arbalest) to my right, Tommy and Roxie behind us and Corbie and Carrie at the back (Carrie with a lantern). Mr Ube stays up top to guard the corridor and our rear.

We descend into a surprisingly large cellar – big enough to need more than a dozen pillars to hold up the ceiling. I squeeze the Moon Jewel and Carrie plays her lantern around. There’s gore on the floor and we can see two dead bodies, one off to the left, another in the middle of the cellar, half hidden by a pillar.

At this point Harlequin suddenly feels a need to fetch his arbalest but there’s no room on the stairs. More than a little exasperated but feeling now is not the time for an argument, I move off the stair and the others form a staggered line off to my left. I cast Bladesharp because I can hear faint clicking noises as something moves in the dark.

Tommy is to my left with Roxie and Corbie beyond him. Harlequin now vacillates, hovering on the stair next to Carrie as she tries to illuminate the room for us. We all move forward smartly – stealth is pointless since our quarry can see our lights. Dan Ube calls down that he can detect three living things, two of which are in this cellar. The half-hidden body turns out to be just half a body.

I can dimly make out a far wall off to the left so I decide enough is enough and cast a Moonwall against that wall – immediately the cellar is drenched in silvery light and I’m put in mind of the Ravings yet again – the Book of The Wall, Accusations, verse 12, “There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me”. Actually there’s two caught in the light, but they definitely don’t look right to me – demonic, sort of insect-like, I think, torogroeg (Troll-demons)!!! Urgh!

Now we can see the enemy, we can deal with it. I advance quickly on the nearest raug, keeping clear of Tommy’s line of sight, but it dodges his bolt with deft grace. The others are dealing with the other – I hear a hissing noise and a low scream from Harlequin.

Mine comes at me. As Tommy joins me with his sword, I deflect a thrust from the raug’s sharply spiked tail but I can’t stop its vicious fangs from biting through my surcoat in my side. It’s not much larger than me but hideously strong. Then Tommy strikes a leg and I run it through with my longsword, but its ichor is acid enough to etch my blade and splash my leg, burning the armour. At least it’s down, if not actually dead.

Tommy and I turn from ours to find the other is also down – killed by Corbie, but his poleaxe is in a sorry state. Apparently it also spat acid at Harlequin and his leg is badly burned. We finish off the other with a salvo of arbalest bolts, standing well outside splash range.

We find another dead servant but nothing else of interest so we rejoin Ube in the corridor. He detected another life form up here so we go looking for it with loaded arbalests. My damaged longsword is still serviceable but it won’t take many more of those – I hope I can loot another longsword or three.

So we try the ornate double doors at the other end of the corridor. Carrie and I open the doors with the arbalesters ready to give grief to whatever’s in there. But what we find is a well-appointed hall with a long table in the middle, very comfortable chairs and tables covered in very fine food – unfortunately some of that food is on the turn. There’s two sets of double doors in the left wall, the far ones being open, the near closed.

Oh, and there’s dead firiath (mortals) – two men and a woman at the table, two more women and a man (a Selenite minister, by the looks of him) in the armchairs. All the men have had something burst out from their chests, like the bodies in the Matari temple; the women look like they’ve been poisoned. There’s also an arm and a few toes scattered around an upturned dining chair. All the bodies are very well dressed – it looks like Harlequin won’t find his patronage here.

The food includes an enormous tiered cake off to the right, which must be the one Carrie spoke of earlier. I also spot several of Ernest’s candied eggs on the table – I recall the one we had at the picnic was delicious but right now I’ve no appetite.

But then we realise that not all of the eggs are Ernest’s – in front of each of the men is the remains of a different sort of egg, an uivraugen (demonic egg). Then we find these strange creatures on the floor next to them, already decaying. They look as much Newt rune as Insect, to my eye, but I know Insect rune creatures frequently go through multiple life stages and we realise that something came out of the eggs to attack the men, from which later the roeg burst from their chests, such as we found in the cellar.

We form a line; I’m on the left and watching that closed door closely. I detect no Illusions, then Dan Ube casts his Detect Life and points at a still wrapped egg at the far end of the table – someone has deliberately wrapped the uivraugen to look like candy eggs and this one is still living. But the arbalesters launch a devastating volley and it flies apart, the thing inside screaming as its ichor burns through the table.

So these noble firiath gathered to enjoy what they thought were candied delights only to find themselves unwrapping foul uivraugen – and then later they must have felt the things inside just before they burst out of their chests! Urgh! Ûglân! (Unclean!)

By the fireplace we find two dead hunting dogs, each with an exploded chest – added to these three men and the two bodies in the Matari temple, that’s at least seven raughoth, of which we’ve killed two, and there’s no guarantee there aren’t more eggs! Thinking about it, the two we killed were about dog-sized, so maybe the remaining roeg hatched from the edain? So they’ll be bigger? The ones from the cellar weren’t much bigger than me but they still hit hard, so any man-sized ones will be even stronger…

Dan Ube detected nothing else alive in the annex so we’d better follow that blood trail out the back door once we’ve rooted out the available weaponry. I definitely need several more longswords, and discii – and we all need a lot of luck! I’ve healed my side but I’ve nearly exhausted my stored power.

And something is laying these eggs…