W<\/span><\/p>\n e\u2019ve rescued two people who were being held prisoner here. The aranea placed them in iron cages and left them hanging inside a maze of lacquered screens, guarded\u2014or perhaps tormented\u2014by pairs of mohrgs.<\/span><\/p>\n Mohrgs. What kind of arrangement Akinosa had with these creatures is anyone\u2019s guess. They are foul things: intelligent, malevolent undead that exist only to kill the living, much as they did in life. Maybe asking what kind of bargain was struck is the wrong question. A better one would be, what kind of person would agree to one?<\/span><\/p>\n This, I believe, says all there is to be said about the aranea, or at least this little clutter of them. I think back to earlier, how we tried to parley with them, to avoid killing them just because they were here and an inconvenience, and it makes me sick. What if we had come to some agreement? What if we had allied with them against the oni down below? Would we have learned what was happening here? What would that say about <\/span>us<\/span><\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n It reminds me of Zaiobe. I mean, the parallels are pretty obvious, right? Only we <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> strike a bargain with <\/span>her<\/span><\/i>, and look how <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> turned out.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting to compromise on principles out of necessity\u2014or worse, desperation\u2014but the enemy of my enemy may just be my enemy. Zaiobe should have taught us that already.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the freed captives, Junzo, says they were ambushed on the main road several weeks ago. The two of them escaped into the forest and quickly became lost, and it was the aranea that found them. They were captured and have been held here ever since. To what aim? We\u2019ll never know. Probably for food, though I suppose another explanation would be for entertainment. Assuming that human suffering is what passed for entertainment among the aranea. I am sure that is a safe bet.<\/span><\/p>\n They were able to confirm that Akinosa really was fighting the hobgoblins for control of the House. The war has raged for years, apparently, and has recently been stuck in a kind of stalemate. Given their elaborate setup and meager numbers, I imagine the aranea were relying on deterrence more than anything else. I\u2019d be shocked if they were doing much more than picking off the occasional hobgoblin that came and went.<\/span><\/p>\n Given what we\u2019ve learned, though, I am kind of surprised this has gone on so long. Maybe the hobgoblins lack the numbers to cross the threshold (and more importantly, to hold it afterwards). Maybe the status quo has been the status quo for so long that no one thinks it can change. Or, maybe they just don\u2019t know the sad state to which Akinosa\u2019s opium-addicted army had fallen.<\/span><\/p>\n T<\/span><\/p>\n here were so many traps on the lower floors that it was faster and easier to just set them off as we went. It\u2019s a little more clear how the hobgoblins were being kept at bay: the aranea turned the ascent into a withering gauntlet of poison, murder holes, and flying blades. The hobgoblins apparently lacked either the means or the imagination for something other than a frontal assault, and a frontal assault would have been deadly.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, <\/span>our<\/span><\/i> talent and imagination are only going to get us so far with the complex down below. There\u2019s only one way in and that\u2019s through the front doors. Which is, I suppose, the big advantage of subterranean living: if guests come calling, you pretty much know where they are going to be.<\/span><\/p>\n I hate going in through the front door. We\u2019ve done it a couple of times and it\u2019s always kicking a hornet\u2019s nest. These things go much better when we can be discreet.<\/span><\/p>\n Worse, these are hobgoblins which means this is going to be a grind. Assuming we don\u2019t end up facing the entire army all at once\u2014that is <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> a given\u2014they\u2019ll contest every inch of ground. And we can\u2019t just burn the place out like we did here: we\u2019re supposed to be rescuing a bonsai tree\u2014I am not making that up\u2014and learning what we can about the Five Storms. And, I guess it would be nice to be able to breathe, too.<\/span><\/p>\n I got a good look at where we are headed and it\u2019s a gods-be-damned fortress. They built an actual stone wall complete with battlements in that cavern, from floor to ceiling (I guess they took this war with the aranea pretty seriously). I was staring up at Brinewall all over again, only, you know, there was no sky. So, we just have to get through <\/span>that. <\/span><\/i>Without raising an alarm. Of course, we\u2019re a lot more capable than we were back then, too, so we have some ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n Normally we\u2019d take the time to plan this out more carefully, but there is some urgency. It looked like they had two human or humanoid people stuck to the front gate. I don\u2019t know if they were impaled or tied or hung or what, but at least one of them may be alive. We\u2019re taking just a few minutes to get organized and then we go. Yes, perhaps it\u2019s a bit reckless, but we\u2019re motivated by the novelty of saving lives instead of just taking them.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re going.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e were right about the people I saw. Two Tian men had been impaled on spikes set into the gate and they were barely clinging to life. Every time I think I have seen the worst thing there is to see, something even more horrible comes along. Like there\u2019s some sort of award for it. This wasn\u2019t a unique event, either. It\u2019s something the hobgoblins do regularly here, having mastered the grotesque art of spiking people without killing them outright.<\/span><\/p>\n Once Qatana had healed them up it was time for the interrogation, being the kind and compassionate people that we are. This started out okay\u2014it\u2019s how we learned that there are (or, perhaps, were) others here who were captured in the forest and forced to work before being turned into door hangings\u2014but it fell apart shortly after. They said one of the doors leads to \u201cher domain\u201d, so naturally we asked who \u201cher\u201d was. That\u2019s when the panic swelled in both of them to the point where I thought they might die of fright, right in front of us. They were terrified\u2014<\/span>petrified<\/span><\/i>\u2014and refused to speak her name, or of anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n We let Dasi talk to them, alone, and he was able to calm them down. I don\u2019t know how. But whatever he said, it obviously worked. They said she\u2019s a demon called Munasukaru, and the hobgoblins both fear and worship her. She lives somewhere below, at the bottom of a bottomless pit or something. Obviously the details there are a bit sketchy, and, um, probably of questionable accuracy.<\/span><\/p>\n This level is ruled by one called Buto, who\u2014and I swear I am also not making <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> up\u2014calls himself \u201cThe Swine Shogun\u201d. He also\u2014and I swear I am not making this up, either\u2014rides around on a <\/span>giant pig<\/span><\/i>. I <\/span>have got<\/span><\/i> to see that for myself. How can you pass up a sight like that?<\/span><\/p>\n We shouldn\u2019t have any trouble finding him as we were given clear directions: first, we go through the Torture Chamber to the Hall of Pillars, which will take us to The Agonies that is just above The Great Ledge. Seriously. I swear I am not making any of <\/span>those<\/span><\/i> up, either.<\/span><\/p>\n Good gods. <\/span>Who comes up with these names<\/span><\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pharast 27 (House of Withered Blossoms, Mid-Morning) W e\u2019ve rescued two people who were being held prisoner here. The aranea placed them in iron cages and left them hanging inside a maze of lacquered screens, guarded\u2014or perhaps tormented\u2014by pairs of mohrgs. Mohrgs. What kind of arrangement Akinosa had with these creatures is anyone\u2019s guess. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-3523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-kali"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3523"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5707,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions\/5707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pharast 27 (House of Withered Blossoms, Late Morning)<\/h3>\n
Pharast 27 (House of Withered Blossoms, Afternoon)<\/h3>\n