Savage Tide 8 - Here There Be Monsters

The PCs packed up camp and began the final part of their journey to the Wall and beyond to the colony of Farshore.

Leaving the high mountains, the road quickly faded away to nothing more than an animal trail as the adventurers continued on into the jungle. Soon the fog became all encompassing and the party was lost. Small snakes were plentiful but non-threatening. The vegetation seemed to be changing as well, slightly discolored and malformed.

Trevain tried to fly above the fog and to get his bearings but the fog continued well above the canopy of the jungle and strangely continuing to fly eventually caused him to fly downwards. There was something strange going on.

The party continued to march around the jungle trying to find a way out to no avail. Things became worse when three baboon demons attacked the party, grabbing Morton Longfellow and teleporting away with him while also nearly killing Isis. Spooked and at a loss about what to do next, the party found a small clearing and camped for the night. Everyone was haunted by terrible dreams. Each person was in a vast cavern surrounded by evil looking baboon statues and overlooking a huge sacrificial fire pit. Each person held a long dagger in their hands placed over their hearts. Ironically it was only the cleric Bytor that would not resist the urge to plunge the blade into his heart and throw himself into the fire. Everyone awoke with a sense of dread but Bytor felt a terrible compulsion to run off into the jungle and sacrifice himself. The rest of the group realized this may be a clue and encouraged Bytor to head towards the source of the compulsion. Unfortunately, the sensation passed and the PCs were left to wander randomly around the jungle again.

This time they stumbled across a strange encampment. A clearing in the jungle filled with ancient crumbling ruins not of Olman origin. Set up at the camp was a campfire pit filled with dry firewood and at the back was a wooden frame that had a human body attached to it. Kaeless went to investigate only to discover that the human was the sailor that went missing in the road under the mountains. He had a huge gash down his chest made by a blade and was quite dead but was still able to talk somehow. It went on creepily about the "Master" and how everyone would soon be joining him in the state of deadness. Kaeless had enough pretty quickly and shut it up by chopping off its head.

Again the Baboon demons attacked the camp, this time grabbing and teleporting away with the sailor, Mango. The PCs reacted better this time and the demons inflicted much less damage before retreating. To ensure that someone would feel the draw for self-sacrifice, Kaeless did not try and resist the effect and killed himself in the dream that afflicted the party again. This time the PCs rushed off and discovered a hidden temple in the jungle.

Built into a large rocky hill the side facing the PCs consisted of two large carved baboon heads. Trevain figured they might be associated with the Demon Lord Demogorgon.  The PCs ventured inside both the rescue their missing companions and to lift the foggy curse that has them trapped in this jungle.

Traps were disarmed and puzzles solved as the PCs made their way through the temple. The female baboon demons were dispatched, a mob of fiendish baboons defeated, but the PCs got suckered by a ghoulish Mesmerist that appeared to be a trapped island native. He would join in the battle with Olangru, the lead Bar-Lguras demon. The battle was complicated by Morton and Mango being trapped in cages and being slowly lowered into the sacrificial fire pit. The PCs managed to rescue their companions as well as finish off the demon.

Things were not quite over as one of the giant statues in the room, this one a depiction of Demogorgon rumbled to life to strike down the adventurers. It too was destroyed but as it crumbled to pieces it took a good long hard look at each of the PCs present. A new enemy was made this day.

The good news however was that the fog was lifted as the PCs left the temple. The remaining NPCs outside were thrilled and morale was good for the last days journey through the jungle. Mid day of the following day they reached the Great Wall of Thanaclan.

The Great Wall stretches across a narrow isthmus and separates the peninsula where most of the human villages exist with the far more dangerous greater island. It is guarded by the village of Tanaroa, the largest and the leader of the confederation of natives. The village was cautious with the outsiders but eventually welcoming after Kaeless was able to converse with them in their own language. The villagers agreed to allow them to rest in their village for the night before providing and escort to another village that would be able to canoe them the rest of the way. Farshore is on an island.

This part of the journey was relatively uneventful. However, as the expedition approached the colony, smoke could been seen  at a distance. Part of the colony were on fire!

The native guides do not want anything to do with the battle but agree to paddle up quietly and allow you to disembark at the edge of the colony along the shoreline. As you disembark....