H:RotG Chapter 7: Donjon

The sun sinks into the great volcano Cataclysm, shining upon the rugged valley dappled with diamond shards, sending scintillating reflections onto the earth our weary adventurers tread. The fields coil into hills, lava pooling in their shadows and generating a smothering heat. A plantfolk, an apple with the face of a cat-eating television mascot, gives the travelers directions.

Though the Breach is within their sights, they concede to their tired bodies and take a rest at a lonely inn, the Kepler Bed and Breakfast. The tongueless bartender was almost as inhospitable as the small-time gang that harassed the place in the dead of night, led by an adolescent orange dragon named Lowdik. Thankfully the young punk had terrible aim, and destroyed part of the inn rather than our heroes. An immensely dexterous cow leaps over the flaming rubble and runs into the wilderness.

Shaking off the ashes of the tavern, the group continued into the blazing heart of the Mantle. They venture past the burning pools without much incident, only to discover a vast field filled with tents and stalls leading up to the entrance of the city’s gates. Turns out this gathering of visitors was a massive queue, participating in the great “game” of waiting the city called Kaiji. Each leader of a crop, caravan, or party of people wishing to enter would be given a gauntlet with one flat, enchanted surface, upon which would be a number that ticks down ever-so-often. Eventually, it will reach zero, and when that happens it’s that group’s turn to finally be screened and enter the city. However, it wouldn’t be fun to just wait for weeks on end, so the city’s representatives decided to spice it up with some friendly competition.

The rules of Kaiji were as follows:

1. Only someone who is higher on the list can challenge someone lower.
2. The participants of a challenge must be at least 100 levels apart.
3. The competition is decided by the person being challenged.
4. An incoming challenge may be denied up to three (3) times, but after those are used up you must accept the challenge or pay the price from the difference of your ticket to the front desk.
5. A challenge mustn’t blatantly favor one patron’s abilities over another’s- for example, a legged humanoid cannot challenge a merfolk to a land race.
6. If the higher-numbered competitor wins, they trade numbers with the one they challenged.
7. If the lower-numbered competitor wins, the challenger must pay them a fine equal tothe difference in their numbers. If they cannot, the challenger must return their gauntlet and start back at the top of the queue.
8. Cheaters must pay a 300 gold fine to the front desk, and automatically lose the current challenge they are participating at the time of discovery. Upon being caught cheating twice, the cheater and any of their associates signed up on the same gauntlet are taken to prison.
9. If you cannot pay fines associated with losing a challenge or cheating, you and your party are immediately jailed.

They learn this as the gauntlet is given to them, instructed by a peculiar tiefling simply named Judge. The party also, for a short moment, meets a dragon named P’targ. Allegedly, he was a war hero from 100 years ago who, alongside a few other allies, plowed their way through an enemy camp and assassinated their religious leader. They dangled her head above the battlefield, only for the Dragon-God Ester Pyx herself to blast them with her icy cold breath. He had only just dethawed, and had been the only survivor. He also seemed to recognize the good Professor Hydran, having been present at several of the merfolk’s lectures. He watched in on their first challenge, an arm wrestling match against one of the guards the group had met in Groasblouk a few days prior who also ended up here. The party won, but as the orange dragon was preparing to return to the city the guard attempted to assault the party, only to be sliced into oblivion as P’targ summons floating swords to defend them before continuing his departure.

As if that wasn’t disruptive enough, they return to the general waiting area only to find Kris being dragged away by guards, charged with assault with intent to kill. The “victim”? Solaris Nifeton, Kris’ half-sand elf half-sister, a sibling with which the enemy-turned-ally seemed to have some serious, personal beef with. The party chooses to challenge her, but as Rabi faced off against her her magical prowess was just too much, nearly killing him. As she takes her reward, she makes an offer they physically can’t refuse, using her sand witch magic to lay a curse upon them that will slowly kill them until they bring Kris to her within the city limits.

They don’t have much time to feel dread, however, as they’re soon approached by a far less menacing individual- a young porc, an Ohwald-native race of orcs with more pronounced pig-like features and a penchant for the mercantile over the brawn of their Halintar cousins. He introduces himself as Market, and with his samurai gnome guardian he offers to temporarily loan his magical wares to the party in exchange for joining their group for a quicker entry.

Not ones to dawdle, the party soon begins to issue challenges. They have a drinking contest with a Ramrok (a centaur-like dwarf with the lower half of a goat), race through a pool of lava against a warforged, played card games with a blabber-mouthed politically-invested wood elf, and even play a chaotic card game known as Goblin the Gathering with a strange, squat green man who claims he’s a “goblin”, whatever that is. As they defeat the small man T take his prized poncho and hat as payment, as he has none otherwise. Their final challenge had them face off against a sleazy merfolk named Kaiser. The party reveals his cheating schemes in a game of group chess, claiming his number and getting him sent to prison just in time to be called into the city.

Finally allowed passage beyond the front desk, the party is soon confronted with the sheer immensity of everything about the Ashen Breach. The volcano looms above them, dripping with pools of lava that color the clouds above a vibrant amber. Massive shadows float by, cast by the crocodilian orange dragons even larger than the village the party had been in a few days further. Even as the group approached the front gates they marvel at the incomprehensible amount of black iron composing them, even taller than some of the surrounding mountains. The metal is bent and twisted to curl around the massive city that lay within, carved with faded and scratched-up illustrations of thousands of years of glorious battles. Even the orcs that guard the front entrance lean towards being on the larger end of their kind, glaring silent judgement upon the adventurers that pass them by.

The party passes through these gates and through a corridor bordered by even more of the towering black iron. It’s learned that this grand iron wall protects the primary ground level entrance of the city from lava floods. The iron walls eventually end, opening up to the aptly named Gate District. Karet Square is it’s gnarled face, where a humble farmer’s market has been trampled to make way for an intense diamond-fueled casino scene. Large buildings that sparkle with enchanting lights illuminate the countless faces of the crowded streets below. In the center of the square, rather than a fountain or statue, is a block of moist ice with three corpses posing heroically within them, the center one holding up the head of a greying woman with a gruesome expression on her face. They were known as the Destroyers of the Frost, or alternatively the Pope Slayers, heroes from the past who won a fierce battle in Tephra’s name. P’targ was amongst them in the ice block at one point, but the warmth of the casino lights expedited the melting process and freed him.

Parting ways with Market and making sleeping arrangements at one of the local inns, the group finally begins to feel the wear and tear of Solaris’ curse, plaguing them with dry mouths and the start of some serious dehydration. The volcanic heat didn’t help their discomfort either. Unsure of how to lift the curse, they went to the prison to claim their jailed warlock and get some answers. Kris told them more about the Nifeton family, elaborating on her father’s inhumane hunt for an heir after a series of murders involving his wife, his mistress, and their children. Solaris is one of his favorite children, the most bloodthirsty of them all and the killer of Kris’ two triplet brothers when they had barely hit ten- she only survived because she was the youngest of the three, and was blessed with power by Karomatzu that she used to shatter Solaris’ horn before escaping. She surprised by the fact that her elven sister was able to curse them, and advises that the group find a cleric to remove the curse as soon as possible.

They sign the Nifeton’s release form from the prison and scurry on through town looking for a cleric. In the midst of their search Gant is contacted by Ester Pyx herself, who inquires on his progress on learning about the Shining. Feeling jaded towards his deity, he speaks with her briefly only to dismiss her call and ghost her following one, his loyalty wavering with the sweltering heat. Thankfully the group soon finds a casino named Drukat that had once been a church, its long and winding corridors repurposed as a series of escape room challenges the patrons can play in for rewards. Among those rewards, a blessing from one of the old nuns, including ones that can remove curses!

It’s a difficult and short-timed challenge, the escape room they have to complete. It tells the tale of pirates, a mermaid, and the oracle that connected them on their quest to plunder the treasures of the lost dwarven city of Drukat. Hydran played the roll of the mermaid, swimming through an underground tunnel to clear the pirates’ path, while the rest of the party ventured through a series of traps, puzzles, and monster fights. Early on, Rok scored a massive critical hit, slamming an enemy with so much force that it rocketed Hydran through the bulk of the undersea tunnel. The challenge ended with a battle against a ferocious (illusionary) yellow dragon, that the party brawled with while their merfolk friend played a vicious game of minesweeper. They barely grasped victory, but they still grasped it, and just barely within the bounds of the time limit!

Glowing with pride at their victory, but also withering away from their curse, the troupe of adventurers redeemed their blessing from the “genie” (a rather unhappy old nun) and rid themselves of the sand-based illness that threatened their lives. But wait, among the winners of this challenge was Zor, who was not with the group at the time that they were cursed! T uses his charm and the power of “friendship” with his klutzy friend to claim the tief-orc’s reward for himself. He chooses but a simple reward- a single card from a Deck of Many Things. What could possibly go wrong?

T's wooden hand hovers over the tattered deck, his pointer and middle fingers pressed on the card he’s about to flip. As his thumb reaches underneath it passes the card to them, holding it to his face with only his fingertips. He’s greeted by the ace of spades, the Donjon, a simple figure stamped in black ink. And just as quickly as he draws, he’s gone, swallowed up by a sphere of dark magic that leaves only his possessions  and his shocked friends behind.

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 TBD