Post
by Anoush » Wed Mar 17, 2021 9:04 am
Bloodbeat’s Journal:
Azurea was looking for people to accompany her to Death’s Sea. She was vague about the reason, but finally let on that her armor, Named Death’s Warm Embrace, needed a deed to be done and that it had to be done in Death’s Sea. More specifically, Azurea had to sacrifice something of value to her at the Widow Forge. That piqued my curiosity.
The Widow Forge was a mythical place in Death’s Sea where Death’s wives lived. The wives revered Death. They were significant figures in some of the cults that believed that Death was the thirteenth Passion, the Passion of Mercy. Death’s third wife, Ehlona, had crafted Azurea’s armor.
In spite of the apocryphal nature of all this, Azurea had done a lot of research and found the location of the Widow Forge [hex 26,33]. Death’s Sea was a sea of molten lava, constantly boiling. But there were cool patches in it, which formed ephemeral islands that lasted an hour, a day, a week, and then disappeared into the lava.
So off we went: Azurea (troll shadow and purifier), Lazulin (troll raider and sun herald), Thorkell (weaponmaster, warrior and questor of Upandal), Zivilyn (windling multi-disciplined magus), and me.
We booked passage on an airship to Travar. Once there, we began looking for transport into Death’s Sea. We had two general choices. First, fire miners based in Travar, or second, Scavian river sailors who used stone barges.
Zivilyn had contacts with the former, so we took that option, and began asking around the markets. We found a group of fire miners quickly enough, with the company Name: Some Like It Hot. They mined True Fire aboard airships, outfitted to survive the intense heat. At first they were reluctant to take some tourists into Death’s Sea. But once we mentioned that we had the location of the Widow Forge they were ready to go. They even gave us a break on the price since actually going to the Widow Forge would give them bragging rights.
We collected fire-resistant gear, but declined the popular blood ink tattoos. Then we boarded the airship, Named The Power Station. Watching the molten lava beneath it was mesmerizing. At night, it didn’t look like lava, but rather more as a sea of light, slowly surging back and forth. We saw fire eagles soaring through the sky, and ember scaled fish leaping up out of the lava, then back down.
After two days of searching, spiraling and circling, we found the Widow Forge. It was a small island, an actual island made of burned, craggy rock. Most of the group climbed down carefully. I begged Zivilyn for Metal Wings, and he obliged. The thought of falling into molten lava was a fate too terrible to contemplate.
The island was split roughly in two, the two halves separated by a canyon of magma. We saw immense fish leaping through the magma, 2 yards long at least. And amazingly, we saw a sword floating in the magma, dipping in and out of the flow. At one point, the canyon narrowed enough that we could leap over it. On the other side of the canyon, we saw a few espagra sunning on the rocks, but they left us alone. An ancient stone bridge connected the island to another, much smaller islet nearby. The air was acrid and sulfurous; breathing hurt. Ziv had put Air Armor and Resist Fire on everyone. Without those spells, we would’ve really been hurting.
As we looking around us, we noticed eyes in the magma, watching us! Then suddenly, the eyes, and a large body of magma, leaped out of the canyon and attacked! And the beast had the floating sword sticking out of its back the whole time. All the espagra fluttered away in terror. It was a tough and hot battle. The beast’s touch even destroyed Thorkell’s armor. Later, we identified the creature as a Magma Beast.
We decided to spend a few hours resting and repairing Thorkell’s armor. He set up a temporary forge — it was certainly hot enough — and between the two of us we fixed it in about four hours. That gave us all time to recovery somewhat from the battle, too.
The sword was pre-Scourge in style and material. A truly ancient sword of the style favored in old Ustrect, a troll sword made from an ancient steel alloy, not the alloy in modern use. The leather grip had indentations in it, as if it had been wielded recently, very recently.
As we forged Thorkell’s armor, Azurea scouted the island and found three dead, smoldering bodies: a dwarf, a troll and an elf. They had all been killed by fire. There was also a dead espagra, killed with bladed weapons and partially eaten by the local wildlife. Each of the Name-giver bodies bore identifying tokens and Thread Items, so she gathered these as well.
Once our rest was done, we began crossing the bridge, which spanned the gap, but only about 2 yards above the lava. Below we saw swimming salamanders having a great day. Then we saw more dead Name-giver bodies on the bridge: a windling, an obsidiman and a dwarf, plus three more that we thought were female, but couldn’t make out the details at a distance.
As we approached, the three indistinct bodies stood up and began talking to Azurea, addressing her directly. These were Death’s Wives, the Fire Widows. I could tell that they were powerful ally spirits. One of the wives inspected Azurea’s armor closely, running her fingers along the edges and patterns, circling around Azurea as she did so. She finally said, “I haven’t seen this armor for a very long time.” Ah ha! We surmised that this must have been Ehlona, Death’s third wife.
Azurea asked for passage across the bridge and Ehlona demanded that Azurea swear that she would sacrifice something of value. Since that’s what Azurea came there to do, she agreed readily. Then one of the wives said something surprising, “You are not the first to come here today.” Apparently, another group — the dead Name-givers — had come there that same day as well, but were unwilling to make the promise. So the wives killed them.
Finally, one of the wives gave us a warning, “There is a fourth, like us, but not like us. The Widow Scorned. She broke trust, reneged on her arrangement with Death, and now invades this place to do what should not be done.” We then knew that we’d face a Fire Widow at the Forge itself. Azurea asked for advice on how to defeat her. In response, the wives offered us a blessing, because we had not asked for one, just for advice. Magic fire was added to my comrades’ weapons and Ziv and my spells were boosted.
We continued across the bridge and quickly found the actual forge. In it was a Widow, appearing much like the other three, along with three consorts, two male and one female. Ziv and one of the consorts paired off, exchanging attacks. Thorkell and Lazulin faced off with the other two consorts, while Azurea went after the Widow. I helped Thorkell by giving that consort a lot of Pain and wounds. Then a strange thing happened: Azurea and the Widow just switched places, instantly. They kept attacking each other, but in the reverse positions. Then we all saw the Widow kill Azurea with a couple of well-placed blows. I couldn’t believe my eyes! So, I studied both of them with Astral Sight and realized with great relief that the Widow was dead, not Azurea. Somehow, the Widow must’ve used illusionist magic to change appearances with Azurea. About that time, Thorkell and Lazulin finished off their consorts, while the one fighting Zivilyn exclaimed, “There’s no reason to live,” and leaped off the edge into the molten lava of Death’s Sea. Quickly, the bodies of the Widow and Azurea returned to their normal appearances, and the bodies of the other two consorts dissolved.
Now Azurea studied the forge itself, noticing the black iron anvil and the forge itself, fired with heat from Death’s Sea. As we watched, we saw eyes appear in the anvil and then the imprints of hands. I could tell that there were many spirits bound inside the anvil. What a remarkable creation!
Azurea removed an axe from her pack, offered a prayer of gratitude to it, and reverently put it in the forge. The wooden handle was destroyed in an instant, while the metal head took longer. But it was gone in moments all told. Afterward, I asked Azurea why the axe meant so much to her, but all she did was look at me blankly, “What axe?” Asking Thorkell the question later on, he told me that the axe had belonged a now-dead long-time companion and trusted friend of Azurea’s, Named Ursal.
I tried to study the anvil in the short time that we had left in the Widow Forge, but all I could tell was that it was made of no known metal and that some sort of spiritual geometry and nethermantic magic had joined to form the forge in some vastly incomprehensible fashion, and suddenly I had a splitting headache. For a long time afterwards, even the thought of trying to unravel the anvil’s mysteries made me cringe.
We returned across the bridge and Thorkell asked the Wives if he could return to the Forge. They agreed, but only if he sacrificed something important to him as payment. He had to think about that offer long and hard.
Ehlona was very pleased with Azurea, and then claimed her as a Sister, implying that when Azurea died she would come to the Widow Forge to be one of Death’s wives. Azurea shivered at the thought, but it seemed appealing and appropriate to me. All three Wives kissed Azurea on the cheek, and then disappeared. The forge and the bridge were littered with seemingly powerful Thread Items, but I’m not sure that any of us even picked one up.
We returned to the larger island, and shortly the airship, The Power Station, returned to retrieve us. The crew was eager to hear our stories, and no doubt retell them in the taverns of Travar.
