Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 19

Previously:   In our previous episode, Eilwen and Aron finally made their way through the large pile of rock and continue their journey through the subterranean depths. In one area, they find some strange blue-glowing water that would pass through living matter with little effect, but would affix itself to unliving matter such as stone or metal. Eilwen pulls out her sword and lets the dribbling glowing stream of magical water run over its iron blade, and the metal takes upon it a faint blue sheen, even when dried. The light is not as bright as a torch, but it is enough to see by. Aron, seeing it as unnatural, judges her foolish for dealing with things she does not understand and refuses to apply the same to his axe. They spend a night in a ruined home of an elven family and Eilwen finds two small figurines that of a man and a woman, both carved with delicate artistic skill. Putting them in her back, she notices bits of flaking shell and sees the dark sinuous head of the baby wyvern emerge from its egg. The little creature, soon free of its shell, takes to interacting with Eilwen.  As she plays with it, the small winged lizard, eats a share of their meat much to Aron's chagrin and Eilwen's delight. Resuming their journey, they find more elf skeletons, in the crumbling ruins and buildings on both sides of the street, wooden masks affixed to their faces, continuing onward at as the road narrows, they find another group of skeletons, these covering the road in front of them and they are contorted in horrific positions, and the horrid manner in which they perished can only be guessed at. Perhaps it was disease. This seems likely at what they encounter next as a smell of rot begins to permeate the road ahead of them. There, blocking the way they must go, they see strange fungal growths wheezing like diseased lungs clinging to walls. With timing and precision and with only some loss of supplies, they both make it through the narrow passage that stank of death and disease and they resume their journey. After long hours of travel, they see down one passageway a pinprick of light and smell a breath of fresh air. It is the exit! But before they can get to it, they see the creature that killed Kyffin blocking their way. It is not aware of them, being entirely focused on slaying and then slurping up the remains of a wolf or wild dog who had wandered into the tunnel. Eilwen using a wolf's howl manages to draw the creature into the wide  thoroughfare where Aron then uses a rock throw to send it skuttling away on its myriad legs in pursuit of the noise. Eiwen then calls the shadows down to mask their sight and sound and caressed in their writhing forms, the sibling finally, after days in the dark, emerge into the gray light of the Veiled Mountains. Websites: https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/ https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay Ways to Show Support: Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content Give the show a positive review Share the show with others Reach out to me and say hello Attributions: - 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0. - Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator. - Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).