Coronado Sleeps (Date 1/9/19)

While Euwyn, Lex and Giada explored the areas around Coronado’s Ferry – at one point fighting off a family of hibernating bears when they disturbed their cave – Marty led his team in a stealthy approach on the city itself. Stealth was essential as giant insects swarmed everywhere, no longer confined to the city limits. Once the team got close, Ilyana called for a groundhog. It took several hours for one to appear, but once it did, the druid was able to question it. The animal confirmed that the city was unsafe, and that no animals went there. While interesting, this information wasn’t very helpful, so they decided to sneak closer. They found a giant tree growing near the town cemetery. Again, Ilyana called upon her powers to interrogate the massive oak. It was able to relate far more information. The town had been dead for a long time, since the people had left and the bugs had come. Also, there was a dead space, a large, stone cavity sitting under the town hall – the center of the bug infestation! How to safely approach…

Hiding in the shadows of the graveyard, Ilyana prepared a new spell and began to burrow through the earth. Marty and Hedge were able to follow close behind her, crawling through the cramped, temporary tunnel. They hit a wall! A wall of stone stretched underneath the town, one end reaching toward the hall, the other down toward the docks. Unable to stop for fear the tunnel would collapse on them, Ilyana made a quick choice and headed away from the hall. The tunnel connected to a chimney which broke the surface at a giant metal door. Runes around the edge told the story: “Here lies Coronado may his slumber be our salvation.” The ancient lock was rusted through and yielded to Marty’s mace. Iron rungs set in the stone wall descended into darkness. Marty warned that they might not be safe, and indeed the fifth rung down gave way to the slightest touch. At the base of the chimney, thirty feet down, a tunnel extended toward the hall, but horrors waited in the darkness. Not the undead! These were far darker creatures, flying snakes with row upon row of spiky teeth and a spooky child-like entity who warned of the coming of, “The Master”. As soon as these were dispatched a horrid, three-legged, multi-eyed beast sprouting a vicious array of insectile claws scrambled out of the darkness. As it came, the senses of the party went. Their minds slipped away and left them drooling in horror unable to even raise a hand to protect themselves. Death seemed certain, until the thing lifted Marty as easily as if he were a child and his armor slipped – or did the beast move it aside to see what lay beneath… Marty’s birthmark, his holy symbol of Strom – and upon seeing it, the creature recoiled! It broke and fled to the surface. As it left, the party’s senses returned, though the fear lingered.

At the hallway’s end, they found a broken sealing symbol and a shattered sepulcher, its contents ripped free and dismembered. Tatters of the cloth which had wrapped the body lay all around and on one of its hands was a powerful magic ring. It seemed on cursory examination to be able to restore its wearer from even the most grievous wounds.