With a deal agreed upon, the Bone Seer leads them to the edge of the Lake of Black Blood. She bends down and dips a clawed hand into the dark fluid. Slowly, she raises her handfrom the lake, black blood streaming down her arm and dripping in viscous puddles on the shore. Within moments, a mass of bones and skin emerges from the lake, forming into a boat big enough to hold your entire group. The boat is composed of the bones of massive creatures, and the hull is held together with a skin-like membrane.
A rotted sail that looks like a dragons wing unfurls from the mast and flaps in the night air. The Bone Seer speaks. "The boat will take you to the palace. Now go! Your victory is my revenge!"
As they sail closer to the outcropping, the roaring sound of the Black Blood Falls intensifies, as does the current pulling you toward the endless void of the Abyss. Just ahead, a bone dock juts out, a last lifeline before the falls.
As the boat moves into position beside the dock, an immense creature bursts from the surface of the lake, spraying globs of black blood all over the dock and your boat. A five-headed hydra, as black as the lake, roars in fury!
Wherever the black blood landed within the boat, the membrane frame crackles and sizzles from the caustic liquid. In short order, the black blood splashes will burn through the membrane and the boat will begin to sink.
But not even the mighty hydra can stop our heroes, and they reach the docks after defeating the beast. then they inflitrate Doresain's palace.
CHAMBER OF SUBMISSION
Our heroes enter a vast chamber constructed of bone, similar to the buildings in the City of the Hungry Dead, though the bone here appears much older. A massive pillar fills the center of the room ahead of them. On each side, a corridor continues into the darkness beyond the pillar. Closer to them, smaller pillars carved from bone line the north and south ends of the room. Bones are scattered on the floor here and there.
The carved pillars depict images of creatures bowing down before Doresain. Just ahead, a skull symbol is inscribed into the floor, and two more can be seenfarther in the chamber.
Our heroes easily identify the symbols as lethal traps, and avoid. But they can't avoid the Siegewyrm waiting for them in the corridors! One more guardian defeated, they delve deeper into the palace.
CRYPT OF THE CONQUERED
This chamber is particularly musty and dingy. Four bone pillars stand in the near side of the room. A mass of cobwebs drapes down from one of the pillars, with bodies encased in the webs. Several finely carved stone coffins line the east and west walls of the room, and between them, a strange, shadowy mist hangs in the air. At the far end of the room, two neglected bone thrones sit on a dais. Behind them, two bone braziers burning with dark purple flame flank a set of stairs that lead outside. Several birdlike forms move in the shadowy mist.
The birds are Shadowraven swarm, at the service of a Sorrowswron Dread Wraith hunting these chambers, once burial chambers for more of his kind. After a sohrt fight with the shadowy creatures, our heroes step on the stairs to the open.
BRIDGE OF BONESA ledge hangs over the void. Beyond is the roiling hlack vortex of the Abyss. To the west, a massive bridge constructed of humanoid bones lashed together with sinew crosses the span. The bridge is bowed outward and slightly twisted. Two giant femur bones anchor the bridge to the ledge, but the other end of the bridge is not visible-it disappears into the vortex. Near the start of the bridge, two bone-white obelisks reach 30 feet into the swirling void, each bearing glowing red runes.
A large, dark form looms near the obelisks. It is humanoid from the waist up but has the lower body of a feline. The creature crouches, like a cat ready to pounce, and the air ripples around it. In a ringing voice, the creature says, "I am the seneschal of this place and the master of the bridge. You have not been granted audience with the Ghoul King, and so you must die."
The creature seems to be able to manipulate time, and summons to his help demons that grab our heroes and throw them into the void. Luckily, their many power of flying and teleportation save their lives, and they defeat their enemies.
They now stand in front of the Bridgr of Bones, and they try to manipulate the obelisks to grant them passage through the bridge. Their task is made easier by the Boneclaw they took from Kor-karnaar.
Harnessed Abyssal energy twists the bridge this way and that. It writhes and struggles as if it were being crushed in a giant fist. Suddenly, the bridge becomes supple and gently flattens out into a welcoming path. At the far end of the bridge, the void parts, revealing a distorted image of another place-the inner fane of the Ghoul King.
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