D&D: Adventures in Eberron - Stone Giant City
Edgariel summons forth his familiar, a hawk of some sort, and sends it soaring out over the ruins, surveying the city below and acting as our reconnaissance. Through the eyes of that spirit he discovers a courtyard of burned bodies which are certainly far more recent than the millennia old ruins we stand above. An investigation is in order.
We descend into the ravine in fits and starts, the jungle encroaches everywhere and my companions have difficulty with the terrain. I am favored by the Sovereign Host, and an enchanted ring, to pass through the overgrowth free of the constraints they must deal with in this overgrowth of vines and brambles. But at last we reach the courtyard, and indeed, these bodies are only recently burned, such that the wild dogs still search for scraps amongst them. Signs of a battle are everywhere and the possibility that we may not be alone in the ruins occurs, not for the first time, but far more definitively.
We continue or exploration deeper into the city, following the once majestic central thoroughfare as our guide. We have encountered graffiti in several places, including at the site of the burned corpses. The words hold little sense, but their meaning seems clear enough.
Fear the fangs of Rasneci
All hail the king of feathers
The snakes are not what they seem
Our druid, Caverick, attempts to commune with the wildlife of the area, but the dogs scramble away without response and the birds have little of value to say. We learn that the King of Feathers is large and fearsome, but of Rasneci or the snakes, nothing. It seems there are snake-people in the area, but of what kind or temperament, little can be said. Ophidian? Yuan-ti? Naga? Or perhaps even Marilith? I wish we had answers, but we do not.
As we explore we find another campsite strew with burnt bodies, 30 by my count, and signs of yet more combat. Probably, based on the evidence, this was an ambush, pitched battle, and a slaughter. We have discovered no other bodies among the burnt corpses, who or whatever is doing this does not leave behind their dead. A third campsite, abandoned and without corpses, but a scattering of rotted packs and camp paraphernalia was present. I pulled a scrap of writing from one of the packs, but little else was salvageable. Perhaps they met their fate while exploring away from their basecamp. It all shows that something draws explorers to these ruins. Could it be the Stone of Fate or is it simply the lost treasures of the giants?
We have seen several symbols that look to be a spiral snake, but still no snake people. Prudence and I have discussed the Crystal of Ebony Flame and if it is drawn to the Stone, but if it is, there is no obvious pull that we can use as our guide. Instead we wander about, collecting shards of painted pottery, jade jewelry, and bits of crystal. All of it interesting and possibly valuable, but none of it getting us any closer to our goal. Rather, we expose ourself to threat and random encounter with the wildlife.
Earlier we stumbled upon a hungry pack of giant wolf spiders. Dinosaur tracks, some quite large, are present all over. Wild dogs, colorful birds, and other things we don't glimpse disturb the overgrowth near constantly, leaving our nerves alight. Edgariel found a strange fae creature beneath an overturned wagon that he could not leave alone, now he has a flower growing out of his ear and claims to have been blessed by the thing. Yet, no one could be bothered to ask why there was an overturned wagon on a broadway that has not seen traffic in 10,000 years. This place is as maddening as it is mysterious.
At the far end of the wide avenue we have followed into the heart of the city, on the western side before the ravine ends with the rising wall of stone, we have found what looks to be an amphitheater and resting within that enormous 'nest', the King of Feathers.
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