Chapter 52 - The White Kingdom (Kingdom of the Ghouls - Part 3)

THROUGH THE WHITE KINGDOM

Our heroes pass through the portal in a sulfurous flash and feel a sickening tug deep inside of them. They're now standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a barren, blasted landscape covered in swirling white dust. A full moon overhead makes everything glow blue-white. Below, a 50 foot-deep chasm tears through the land as far as they can see in both directions. A mass of ravenous ghouls fills the floor of the chasm. Screams rip out of the sky. In the air above the chasm, flailing humanoids burst through the fabric of the night and plummet down toward the waiting ghouls, shrieking in terror as they fall. The undead creatures pounce upon and tear apart each as it falls into the chasm.

Facing endless hordes of cannibal undead, and travelling many hours throught he balsted landscape, our heroes finally reach the City of Hungry Dead.

A city of white bone snakes its way up the side of a wind-blasted mountain. The moonlight gives the city an almost ethereal glow against the gray hue of the barren slope. White dust swirls in the air and chokes the rough streets. Hunched ghouls wander everywhere, dressed in rags. A large round structure, also made of bone, abuts the mountain near its crest. The building is more impressive than the rest of the city and seems part of a small complex of multiple structures hanging on the side of the mountain.

GREAT HALL ENTRANCE

After navigating the streets of the City of the Hungry Dead, our heroes make their way to the building near the top of the mountain—the Great Hall. The double doors open into an arched room with walls and floor made of clean, white bone. Moonlight streams in from outside. A massive pile of thousands of bones in a horseshoe shape fills the center of the room. Rib bones, femurs, and other jagged bits stick out of the mound, but they don't notice any skulls. However, much smaller bone piles that contain only skulls are stacked neatly around the room. A carved bone arch depicting a reaper stands at the far north end of the chamber. Several ghouls turn to face them. One giant undead creature in the west alcove has long bone protrusions on which writhing spirits wail. They all prepare to attack! but our heroes are ready for the challenge, and proceed deeper into the Great Hall.

ASSEMBLY OF TEETH

Round bone columns line the hall of this long chamber, leading to a platform at one end. A pair of staircases rise 5 feet before reaching inclined ramps that lead up to the platform. The platform is 20 feet off the main floor. A large circle ringed with purple runes is scribed on the platform, and chained in the circle is a human male wearing afinely tailored robe that now appears to be ripped and stained. All about the room, abyssal ghouls bow their heads in supplication to the platform. A slavering, dreadful mass of countless eyes and teeth, barely kept in a stable form by slimy red flesh, floats over the rune circle. Thousands of sounds, an incoherent cacophony of mind-bending dissonance, rise forth from the thing as the ahouis turn toward or heroes. All the ghouls have bone spikes driven into their ears. The aberration is a terrible gibbering mouther, a creature whose voice can provoke madness. Recognizing the danger, Deadrie uses her power to knock the creature out, while Waylander stabs her to death!

Our hero have thus rescued Maleem, a famous scholar fom Sigil. His specialized knowledge of the Abyss is a boon to the adventurers. He tells them about he general layout of the Kingdom of Ghouls. He also remarks that the skies of the White Kingdom are incredibly dangerous, filled with ghouls and demons. He suggests that to remain hidden from Doresain's flying eyes, the adventurers should conceal themselves as much as possible while traveling. In fact, to reach Doresain's palace, he recommends traveling through the tunnels of the Hunger in the Mountain. He believes that one such tunnel can be accessed deeper in this complex.
Furthermore, Maleem has discovered an important secret. He noticed that Kor-Karnaar, the death knight lieutenant, carries a magic item known as a White Kingdom boneclaw. Maleem, well versed in Abyssal lore, has heard that the item is one of only a very few created, and though it can be used as a magic dagger, it is better known for granting passage to the Ghoul King's inner fane. Apparently, somewhere in Doresain's palace, a bone bridge reaches out over the Abyss and leads into the void. When crossing the bridge, Doresain can open a portal to his inner fane—and so can anyone holding a White Kingdom boneclaw. With the item from Kor-Karnaar, the adventurers could open the portal and enter the Ghoul King's lair.
Our heroes open a portal to sigil for Maleem, and complete the ritual for the Circle on which Maleem was trapped, in order to proceed to the Devouring Pit.

DEVOURING PIT

The chamber, open to the sky, glows with the pale light of the full moon hanging above. A bone bridge spans the middle of the room. The floor far below is littered with bones. Four obelisks rise up from die floor. In the center of the bridge, three bone cisterns bubble with black liquid. At the end of the bridge, bone stairs rise out of the chamber. A skeletal dragonborn warrior stands at the eastern end of the bridge, blocking the stairs. He wears plate armor that is charred and blackened, and wields a shield emblazoned with the visage of Orcus. On his belt hangs a white boneclaw inscribed with runes. The death knight speaks, his voice a crackling flame. "I have been waiting for you, interlopers. You have entered my master's domain without his sanction, and you despoil the very air with your living breath. Face your end!"
Kor-Karnaar is not alone, but helped by several Ghoulish Fiends who, blessed by Orcus himself, blind and daze our heroes, making their victory a hard-earned one.

THE HUNGER IN THE MOUNTAIN

A staircase ascends into this chamber, just past two bronze braziers that bathe the room in fiery light. Most of the room is made of bone, as are other structures in the City of the Hungry Dead, but the east wall consists of sheer rock. In the center of the wall, carved bone columns frame a massive, slavering, toothfilled maw that opens wide enough for an ogre to walk through. A long, dark red tongue split into three tendrils quivers within the mouth. Black ichor dripsfrom the tongue and spills onto the floor of the chamber.
Bones are scattered around the room, including several large piles near the wall with the mouth. Two brass gongs face each other across the room. Something is inscribed on the surface of each gong. A wet tearing sound emanates from inside the mouth.
"The hunger abates when darkness comes to fiery vision and thrice rings out the brassy call."
As they enter the room, the huge mouth spits out several worm-like creature, who attack our heroes, while the pount itself tries to grab them with its many toingues and chew them to death. Once our heroes have smotheres the fires and ringed the gongs, the mouth relaxes, and allow them to enter in its jaws without chewing them. They're now inside the living mountain.

INSIDE THE MOUNTAIN

Entering the foul tunnel, they notice the choking odor of putrescence all around them. The red-gray walls and ground, tough and firm in some spots, soft and spongy in others, look like rotten meat. Here and there, bilious tumors have erupted, spewing out sticky black blood. Thick black veins run along the walls, carrying viscous liquid deeper into the mountain. Bits of bones lie scattered on the fleshy floor. The decaying tunnel twists and turns and intersects with other paths. After many hourse traveling throught the living tunnels, and avoiding as much dangers as they can, they reach what seems to be the final exit.

FINAL EXIT

They've traveled for hours, and the ground finally starts to level off. Most likely, they've traveled far enough through this undead entity that they've reached the foothill elevation of the mountain.
Up ahead, they hear a wet rushing sound, much like water flowing. They turn a corner and find the path ahead awash in toxic black blood. A stream pours from a gaping, rotted hole in the wall on one side of the tunnel and breaches the opposite wall.
Past the rushing black blood, the tunnel opens up into a cavernous area. A tough ridge covered in hard black nodules runs across the center of the cavern; the area on the ridge is 20 feet higher than the lower floor.
Standing inside the cavern are two massive black blobs, one at their level, the other atop the ridge. Tendrils form and collapse within their masses. A now-familiar tearing sound draws their attention as two lumps of undead flesh drop from the ceiling and begin to form into sluglifee creatures. The walls in the northeast part of the cavern, on top of the ridge, appear dead gray and look brittle and dry.
Only after defeating the horrid creature can they break down the brittle part of the walls, and exit to the outer side of the mountain.

THE BONE SEER

Black blood from the foothills feeds into a great lake. The moon illuminates the rocky, white-dusted shore, but the lake seems to absorb the light, creating a dark void. On the horizon, the roiling nothingness of the Abyss spreads across the vista. The lake streams over the side of this ultimate chasm, cascading down into oblivion. A great rocky outcropping hangs over the falls, and at its apex stands a structure that looks like a grand mausoleum. This building, perched precariously over the Abyss, must be Doresain's palace.
Just beyond thejbothills, perhaps only a mile or so away, a bone pile sits near the Lake of Black Blood. The pile resembles a crude hut.
From this distance, they can barely see a switchback staircase on the eastern side of the palace, very close to the falls. It rises from the lake and heads up the outcropping a fair way before disappearing.
The heroes approach the hut, but are ambushed by several powerfu wights. After defeating them, they reach the hut.
This modest shack of rib bones and sinew faces the Lake of Black Blood. Charms, amulets, and holy symbols of all shapes, sizes, and materials drape the entrance, concealing the interior. Gnawed bones clutter the ground outside.
A leathery clawed hand parts the screen of charms, and a ragged, hunched ghoul, once probably a human female, emerges from the hut. Remnants of gray hair fall over her face. Behind those thinning strands, our heroes see dark holes where her eyes should be. She sniffs the air and says, "I have been waiting for you, little morsels. Don't worry-I desire not to eat you this day. My hunger is not as ravenous as my desire for vengeance. Come inside my hut, and we will talk of things past and things to come."
Waylaner and Deadrie enter the hut. The crude living space inside the hut is strewn with gnawed yellow bones. The hut has no furnishings other than a dirty sack in one corner. The ghoul opens the burlap sack and pours out all manner of trinkets made from small human bones. She says, "I am the Bone Seer. I see that Fate has noticed you, as have I."
She reveals to once have been the necromancer consort of Doresain, but that she was betrayed and scorned, and now looking for vengeance. After relating her story, she throws a set of finger bones to the ground and eyes them intently. She proclaims, "The heart it is, then. Fortune smiles upon you, little morsels. I offer you passage to the palace unseen by the Ghoul King's servants, and one of you offers me your beating heart. A fair exchange."
Daedrie and Waylander convice her to grant them passage for the promise of bringing her Doresain hearth, and a huge quantity of Residuum for her Arcane researches.