Argosy of Blood, Chapter 8
an monsters!
Last week, the party found the deep gorge cleaving the jungle in twain, and the fallen tree that spans it. It was there that they were discovered by a giant two-legged reptillian horror searching for food.
Valerius ran out into the clearing around the fallen tree and got the beast's attention, drawing it away from the rest of the party hiding in the trees. The Shadow-Guard were shaken by the sight of the thunder lizard and were unable to react. Valerius was successful and the beast came towards him. As the beast passed, Athicus tied the end of his grappling line around his waist and ran behind the creature. Athicus threw his rope over the fallen tree so that it swung under it and around the other side, allowing Valerius to leap into the chasm and grab the rope just as the great beast lunged for his prey. The beast lost its balance, scrabbled at the edge of the ravine, and fell to the raging river 300 feet below!
Meanwhile, as Valerius dangled from the rope and Athicus and Hessan prepared to lift him back up, a giant winged reptile swooped down, almost plucking the tasty bait from the line. Still pulling, the monster looped around and made for Hessan, grabbing the pirate in his mouth and flying away, pulling the rope, Athicus, and Valerius with him. Valerius managed to attach the grappling hook to the tree trunk and the combined weight dragged the flying monster back down. The winged monstrosity let go of Hessan and flew away, only to be replaced by another winged reptile. This time, the reptile was peppered with arrows from Irem and the recovered Shadow-Guard. The monster was eventually brought down by Valerius hooking it with the grappling hook, which Athicus had re-tied to the roots of the up-turned tree.
The group crossed the tree and continued through the jungle towards the stairs in the hillside. Irem led the group astray in the jungle and missed the stairs. Athicus climbed the hillside to re-establish their location. They found the stairs and continued.
The stairs in the hillside were not for humans. Each stair was 4-foot tall by 1-foot deep and required much climbing. The other side of the ridge descended to a great lake fed by cascading waterfalls from the western mountain range on the island. The stairs descended to a small stone quay surrounded by shoreline bamboo. Hessan constructed a large raft out of bamboo and the the group set off across the lake.
A third of the way across the lake, a Shadow-Warrior was picked off the raft by a long-necked aquatic reptile. The group advanced quickly but on guard. Two-thirds of the way across, Hessan spotted the welling of water preceding the monster's attack. The great long neck darted forward but was thwarted by Hessan shoving a bamboo brace in its mouth, quickly followed up by two arrows from Irem's bow. The arrows pierced the monster's brain and it flailed backwards into thrashing death throes.
Reaching the other side of the lake, the group finds another small quay and more strange stairs ascending the 1000-foot cliffs to a ruined look-out tower on the ridge. It was within these ruins the group spent the night, S'Chiba and Irem exchanging mutual admiration while Xim and Prospero discussed matters of great astrological import.
The next morning revealed the wide grass-covered plateau on the other side of the ridge. Another ruined city, not Atlantean, lay on the plateau surrounding a great earthen mound in the shape of a coiled and undulating snake. The architecture matched the ruins of the look-out, featuring serpentine and ophidian symbolism of a distinctly disturbing aspect, and was covered in the grass and trees of aeons of neglect and disrepair. Several of the ruined structures could be identified as having once been a great stepped pyramid, a dome, and a palace. In the side of the mountain on the north-west of the plateau lay the great plaza and temple sought by Xim. The group descended the strange stairs to the plateau.
They crossed the grass-land with grass as high as their shoulders. Irem spotted movement in the grass ahead of them and loosed an arrow as a warning, sending whatever was lurking skittering. Suddenly, the grass all around the party was alive with movement, and the party was pounced upon by several man-sized bipedal lizards with large sickle-like claws on their feet. Two more of the shadow-guard were gutted by those horrible claws and dragged screaming into the tall grass. The rest of the party fought off the knife-clawed lizards and made their escape.
The group walked up the steps of the great plaza at noon. The plaza was a raised flag-stone-paved courtyard leading to the very face of the mountainside. Two rows of uncarved standing stones lined the long plaza. Grass grew between the flagstones and vines crept up the sides of the standing stones. A 60-foot tall burnished metal trapezoidal pylon stood in the front center of the plaza, untouched by age, rust, or wear. The mountain-face displayed an closed metal door, also seemingly untouched by decay, framed by a great carved snake-head, pocked and eroded by time, flanked by tall stone trapezoids engraved in strange serpentine characters. The entire entrance was, itself, framed by an even taller and larger engraved stone trapezoid.
To be continued.