Darcsen’s Dream Journal Entry 5

A continuation or our descent into madness


4
4 points

Date unknown, Location: Mysterious Circle, Time since Awakening: 4.25 hrs

Barely able to hear each other over the screaming and chanting of the goblins surrounding us we headed down the amphitheater towards Magog and the bugbears around him. The idea was for everyone to distract Magog and the bully boys while Chicago and myself slunk around the sides to engage Malonie.

Magog had noticed us coming from a long distance away and set up his minions in preparation. As we stepped into the gladiatorial pit Malonie had just finished summoning something new before turning back to his ritual, the crystals growing out of his skin glowing eerily. Magog was set to our right, around an enormous circle with 14 smaller circles along the edge, the empty clothes of the witches in each of these. In front of the circle were his four bugbear bully boys, each wielding large and blunt instruments of death. Newly summoned on the left was a pile of mush. It was constantly writhing, had a strange buzzing noise coming from it from this distance, was exuding some form of poisonous looking slime, and looked to be covered in randomly opening and closing sores. Malonie himself was on the opposite side of the circle from us, working on the ritual and trying to draw the thing in the center into our plane of existence.

We tried to implement our plan, Chicago moving ahead and distracting a bully boy before moving away, but they were faster than we expected. The entrance to the coliseum was rushed by the three other bugbears while the one Chicago attacked moved to take care of him. They hit hard and left us little doubt as to their physical capabilities. Timmy, Sevarin and I were able to take down one of the bugbears and push a way through. Nanfoodle did what he could and started casting spells to help us.

Magog clearly didn't take us as much of a threat, slowly advancing along forward and staring with contempt. What surprised, shocked, and frankly frightened me was when Magog hocked something into his hand then threw a bolt of absolute darkness at us that exploded on impact! The thing along the left also advanced on us, leaving trails of green ooze and getting more distinct with every foot it advanced. Looking closer there appeared to be teeth in its sores, and the droning was starting to sound like words, though still indistinct.

Chicago continued to fight off the bugbear cornering him against a wall until Timmy could go and help him out. I engaged another bully boy in an attempt to thin the ranks set against us with Seravin coming to help. We dealt a fair amount of damage with our attacks from all angles, but the monster was too tough and survived the onslaught, allowing another to get on the other side of Seravin for his own punishment. Nanfoodle continued moving around and was targeted by a bully boy to "Get the small'un!" Seravin and I stopped the bugbear from moving, but that got Magog mad. Nanfoodle continued casting spells seemingly to spite the Ogre sized goblin.

Magog moved into combat with him and Timmy, swinging his meaty fists, bigger than the gnome himself, crushing the poor man to the ground. Timmy fared better, able to call up a shield from somewhere within himself, stopping Magog's attack cold. The mush with mouths continued advancing on us, getting close enough to soon begin chowing down.

This entire time Malonie was casting his ritual, making the thing in the circle more substantial with each passing second. With Magog no longer blocking access around the circle, none of us wanting to have stepped into it without knowing what it would do, Chicago saw his opportunity and started advancing toward Malonie. Seeing him do this I apologized to Seravin, then abandoned him to the bugbears, working my way through the combats that were happening all around, eyes only set on defense. Once I was out of the way of danger I put my swords away in favor of my bow. Nanfoodle tried to get away from Magog but was smacked into unconsciousness. Timmy did what he could, knocking out another Bugbear, but was not able to get to the gnome.

Seravin later told me that the words coming out of the mush mouth didn't make sense. He was close enough to hear them and start comprehending what it was 'saying.' It was like someone lit his mind aflame, and the only thing he wanted to do was get away from that nastiness. He barely escaped from the bugbears, getting up near Timmy, taking a breather from the fight. Magog continued attacking Timmy, fists pounding down on his nasty furry form, though Timmy's inner shield kept him safe.

Meanwhile Chicago and I started our assault on Malonie, he able to get in close with the Brightstone Goblin while I could only open fire from afar, sure to get close soon. We started beating on him, disrupting his ritual and causing him to flee, heading into the circle, right to the base of the thing that was slowly losing definition. Timmy recovered Nanfoodle with his inner energy, allowing the gnome to also slip out of Magog's grasp. The bully boys moved to attack Seravin and Timmy again, the two remaining boys swinging as hard as they could while the mush mouth continued moving closer.

I continued sniping at Malonie while Chicago moved into the circle attacking him directly. He also later told me that he started seeing things standing in that circle. Worlds that didn't exist, things out in space, monsters indescribable. Magog continued his attack on Timmy, and to a lesser extent Seravin. Luckily his fist only crushed some rocks on the ground, though Timmy started looking nervous (or as nervous as he could) as his shield finally shattered.

Malonie had had enough and cast a spell to start flying away. Chicago missed him as he ascended into the air, grabbing something from the top of the thing as it finally faded entirely from existence. It looked like an organ, pulsing with a strange heartbeat and slick with ichor. My shot missed him, but Nanfoodle stepped up, calling to some nature spirits. Black energy cracked and enveloped Malonie, suffusing the goblins body and turning all of his crystals into pitchy tar. He dropped to the ground, the mush mouth disappearing at the same time.

The bully boys, seeing the ritual undone started to flee. Something Timmy did to one of them set off as it took two steps, causing it to explode from the inside out. The other avoided Seravin and made it about 10 feet before Magog swung down and pasted it across the turf…

I rushed over to the organ bag, grabbing it and ripping it open, something telling me the witches were inside. Tumbling into my hand were small black balls, covered in thorns and pulsing with life. Despair filled my mind, as I wasn't able to conceive of any way to bring the witches back. My charges were gone and as I looked up Magog had turned to us, one statement boomed across the now silent coliseum: "You ought not have done that!"


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