The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

Bone. This was as far as his expedition got before they
succumbed to the blue devils. They had already lost
two members on the mountain ridge and were down to
three.
Gustave himself was the blue devils’ key victim. He
became obsessed with the idea of killing and eating
the other expedition members, believing that by doing
this he could carry their souls safely into the citadel.
They would get new bodies later on, though he was
not sure how. As leader, it was his job to make sure
that everyone reached the final destination. Believing
that he was fulfilling his responsibility, he killed and
partially devoured the other two men.
He came to his senses suddenly, with blood on his
hands and a dreadful taste in his mouth. In a moment of
lucidity, he saw and killed the blue devil who had driven
him mad. Then, surrounded by carnage and alone in the
wilderness, he promptly went mad again. The rescue
party found him wandering the ice sheets singing to
himself; in his madness he had somehow climbed back
across the mountains, following a memory of home.
Characters investigating the ruined camp can find the
following items, each one requiring a separate Search
check (DC 20) to find:
• The frozen, partly eaten remains of two explorers.
• A compass that points towards the citadel instead
of pointing north. On examination, all compasses
are found to be pointing this way. This is because
of the lodestone golem.
• A dead blue devil with a +2 axiomatic dagger
driven through it.
• One or more living blue devils, disguised as useful
pieces of camping equipment such as a mallet, a
water bottle and a piton (climbing spike).
• A cast-aside jerkin. In the pocket is a page torn from a
diary, partly spoiled by the damp. The following can
be made out with a Decipher Script check (DC 20):
‘The jungle witch-men of Kandang are right. The
body is inconsequential. The soul is all. As leader,
I must carry the souls to our final destination.
(Here a passage is obliterated by water damage.)
The men are beginning to fear me; were I to explain
what I must do, they would fear me even more. It
must be done quickly. They shall thank me when
we have the Circlet and they are in new bodies.
Their souls can stand to dwell in my body for a
little while. I shall eat Cerdin first, I think, for he is
the more eager to reach the Citadel. Jerg I shall eat
as I walk, a little at a time.’
The Blue Devils: There are still blue devils (see page
162) lurking near the ruin of the camp. They attempt to
weasel their way into the Player Characters’ equipment,
either by disguising themselves as objects that are then
picked up and stowed, or by jumping on board any
vehicles or mounts that the Player Characters have. If
there seems to be no other way to do it, then they use
suggestion to make a Player Character pick them up.
Once they are hiding in the equipment, the blue devils
try to give the Player Characters the same delusions that
Gustave Colombe suffered from, picking on the target
who seems most susceptible (usually a fighter type).
They avoid wizards, clerics and sorcerers.
The Citadel on the Cusp
Bastirak’s stronghold is built on a point of planar
weakness where the fabric of the universe folds worlds
closer together. He chose the site for this reason, finding
it easier to bridge the planes from here.
Using powerful magic, he was able to force open a
planar rift, making access to other planes easy. He no
longer needs to cast spells to open up the gateways. The
citadel’s doors and passageways open onto different
planes. The problem is not how to open them but how
to keep them closed.
The citadel is now a more hazardous place than ever.
Along with the monsters that Bastirak commands,
uninvited visitors from other planes roam the corridors
and lurk in the shadows. Too busy to ward the
problematic planes off, Bastirak instead isolates himself
in his sanctum sanctorum and has his overworked
minions deal with any incursion.
First View of the Citadel
From here, you can see that the mountainous barrier
you have now crossed was part of a great circle of
peaks, mile upon mile of mountains screening the inner
region from view. This cannot have arisen naturally
and you wonder what event raised these mountains – or
flattened the region in the centre.
In the middle of the plain of ice stands a structure that
looks like the bald head of a buried colossus, wearing
a crown of tall thin spikes. This must be the citadel of
Bastirak. You have reached your destination at last!
As you watch, it fades from view like a ghost vanishing
into the ether; then, in an eyeblink, it is back. It stands
so solid and firm that you wonder if what just happened
was an illusion of the snow and ice. Then it flickers
out of existence again and snowflakes wheel through
the space where it stood. Once more, it returns after
half a second.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
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