S04E05 – The Oasis of Amja

After Feral’s partying Zandor scoured the rooms of the citadel were most of the fun was taking place in search of someone interesting. Besides some rumours from an old too-knowledgeable-to-be-good human about the cults getting stronger and wanting to awaken horrors from ancient times Zandor spotted a revenant in search of some mercenaries to help him defend his prisoner for the night. Zandor politely declined and started playing some tricks and gathering a small crowd.

Meanwhile something happened outside. A small crippled and estrabic kid approached Khairon and Tales and offered them some money on behalf of a woman in exchange of saving someone who was kept captive because he was different. After evaluating the situation and contacting Zandor, Bruce and the drunken Feral they accepted the offer and went outside of the citadel into the dark with the crippled kid to follow further instructions. They found another kid who explained to them that they needed to go down the edge of the hill with some ropes, enter a cavern and find their way into the citadel prisons through the underwater stream that feeds the oasis. Once inside they would then be able to free that friend. Some alarm bells started ringing and they decided it was too risky so they went back to the citadel. Once inside everyone except Zandor started drinking and enjoying the night with no intentions of risking their lifes. The revenant had already disappeared but Zandor overheard some merchants having a laugh about him. Zandor approached them and they started talking about different topics until the merchants asked him if he wanted to go down to the prison to see what the weird undead guy was doing. Zandor, happily accepted making Khairon, Feral and the rest of the group follow them from a distance to make sure that he didn’t get into trouble. Comments about a sort of “rainman for problems” and Zandor could be heard while the group went into lower and lower levels of the citadel and while they saw too much perversion and depravation that was taking place in this citadel of forbidden pleasures.

Once they reached the catacombs repurposed to be a prison they found the revenant humming as usual in front of a cell. An aura of mental uneasiness surrounded the area. Everyone except Feral seemed to be affected by it. Zandor an Feral went to take a look at the prisoner who was being kept heavily chained with a helmet with no visage covering his whole head and his hands trapped in an iron ball. Bane, the revenant, explained to them that his expedition was initially composed of 20 revenants, all members of a group whose sole purpose is to clean the world of demonic creatures. He is to receive reinforcements the next morning but he fears that the cult of Niggurath, who has been attacking them and killing his companions since they captured the beast, would strike back again tonight in a final attempt to free their minion. He also warned that if the prisoner was to get free of his chains nobody in kilometers would be able to stop him.

As he was explaining the situation with his usual slow tempo some noise came from outside and a few seconds later after a group of goblins and a swarm of bats blasted through the door sending Feral into a coffing and starting a desperate fight to free their friend.