[Classic Fantasy] Sathu's Journey

[kekoa_solo]

Realm Zone #33 — Sathu’s Journey #9

Published on May 26, 2025

This week on Sathu’s Journey... we return to Arkel.
After last episode’s descent into the mind of Nokrum, the would-be conqueror, we shift back to the quiet resistance of light. Sathu awakens to a whisper in the wind, a messenger limping through the temple gates, and a warning carried on muddy paws: the East Road bleeds.

Sathu’s Journey #9- The East Road Bleeds

I. Opening Scene: The Messenger Arrives

Location: Arkel Town Time: Pre-Dawn — 4:00 AM Date: Day 356, Year 99 B.C. (Before Concord)

The storm had passed, but the sky still wept. In the courtyard of the Temple of Illumination, rain-slicked cobblestones shimmered in the flickering lantern light. The air hung heavy with petrichor and tension. Wind tangled the temple chimes into dissonant knots.

Yorrek, a lean, ash-colored gnoll limped through the gate. His cloak sagged with rain; one ear torn, breath fogging in the chill. Mud clung to him like ghosts.
Reunion with Rekk

Rekk, the temple’s young gnoll assistant, stood frozen. Recognition flared in his wide eyes. No words — just a guttural murmur and a steadying hand on Yorrek’s shoulder. Shared history. Shared fear.

The Message
“The east road is bleeding. We need the old ones back.”
(A Long Silence.)

Zu stepped forward, eyes burning, gripping her maul.

Xanthir watched from the temple steps, gaze flickering between Sathu and Nelia.

“If the old road is bleeding,” he said, “then something ancient has awakened. Go. But tread softly;  omens grow like mold in this weather.”
He turned and vanished into the sanctum.

II. Departure from Arkel

Time: 5:30 AM Location: Arkel’s East Gate

Morning broke as the sun fought through clouds. A foggy mist lingered. Sathu said a silent grattitude prayer to Vumar’s Holy Spirit as he walked. Suddenly Nelia paused and the party stopped. A shadow passed overhead — Makemake, her crow, landed on her shoulder, cawing.

“Something’s stirring the fur and feathers eastward,” she whispered. “Something is not right; the Wild is uneasy.”

The Companions Assemble

Zu, a silent shadow, joined her.
Sabun arrived late, coat askew.
“Someone’s got to make sure you don’t fall into a well,” he said with a grin, glancing at Sathu.
Sathu smiled inwardly. And then they left — four shadows swallowed by the morning mist.

III. On the Road to Farmer’s Walk

The road glistened with runoff. A rabbit circled the same patch of grass, then vanished. Makemake repeated:

“Fall. Fall. Stone.”

Zu pointed toward a deer — walking in reverse. Nelia whispered to the crow, locked in conversation. Sabun was bored so he started speaking to Sathu but was interrupted by a loud rustling nearby. The party fell silent and tried to find the area where the sounds were coming from.

IV. Combat Encounter: Undead Bear

Emerging from the tall grass, a corrupted bear exploded into view — matted fur, exposed bone, milky eyes.

Undead Brown Bear AC:14 | HP:15 | 2 Claws/1 Bite (1d4/1d4/1d8) or Hug (2d8) | XP:360

Sathu (Cleric Lvl 3) AC:15 | HP:21 | Mace (1d8+4) | Orisons:5 | Spells:4 (Lvl 1)
Zu (Barbarian Lvl 3) AC:15 | HP:27 | Great Maul (1d10+4) | Rage: 3 / Day
Nelia (Druid Lvl 3) AC:14 | HP:14 | Orisons:5 | Spells:4 (Lvl 1) | Entangle, Faerie Fire
Sabun (Scout Lvl 3) AC:16 | HP:12 | Shortbow (1d6+5) | Sneak:75% | Listen:42%

Nelia reached out but could not sense any nearby beasts and Zu immediately recognized the smell of death, the rotting unnatural, the undead.

Nelia cast the entangle spell, “Roots of the first mother, grasp and guard.” Vines writhed from the earth, entangling the undead bear reducing its speed by 3/4 and rendering it unable to attack.

Zu clicked three times as she charged in and swung her maul with ill intent → Hit: 15 → Damage: 10 (Bear HP 5/10)

Sabun fires an arrow and misses, I rushed it again, he thought to himself.

Sathu stepped forward and raised the radiant symbol of Vumar hanging from his neck. 
“Return to dust; by light unbroken and flame unyielding.” Sathu’s words held authority.
Turn Undead → Success: 18 → With a radiant burst, the bear shrieked and collapsed — not into meat and blood, but bark and black ooze.

Nelia steadied her breath.  Zu cleaned her maul, and Sathu stared at the roots and quietly activated the Tree of Life breathing technique.

+ 360 XP: Slaying the Undead Brown Bear

V. Farmer’s Walk — The Haunted Path

Location Unlocked: Crossroads Shrine, Farmer’s Walk 
Minor Feat: +120 XP (Discovered New Location)

Flooded roads. Birds flew in loops. A dog paced a perfect rut around a tree.
Sathu knelt.

“They’re not just silent,” he said. “They’re afraid.”

The sound had torn through him like glass. Voices behind his eyes. A shadow at the edge of his thoughts.

“I’m not yours,” he murmured. “Not now. Not ever.”

VI. Spirit Disturbance & The Carved Stones

Time: 3:00 PM Location: Edge of Agar Grasslands

Tall grass choked the road. Insects refused to come near. Nelia stopped.

“This place feels wrong.”

Ahead, the party saw three good sized stones. They were weathered, and partially buried. One, half-uncovered, bore spiral glyphs and claw marks.

Zu led her to the exposed stone. Nelia touched it with both hands unlocking a vision:

A village burning. Screams. A woman kneeling before the stones, carving spirals with bloody fingers. Her eyes glowed green. The vision ended.

“These aren’t Ona’s,” Nelia said with a confused tone. “This stone remembers the silence before the first word."

Then pain — a black-fletched bolt struck her side. She gasped, surprised, breath hitching in her chest.

“Owe, Oh I— I think I’m okay,” she said, wincing in pain.

Zu didn’t believe her. The gnoll’s eyes locked on the dark elf who was busy loading another bolt into his crossbow.
She made three distinct clicks and charged forward, enraged in a blur of motion.

VII. Ambush and Awakening

From behind the first stepped another dark elf, cloaked in ceremonial garb, runes writhing like flame across her robes.

“The ritual accepts your blood. It is begun.” She said in a coldly. “It is begun.”

She smiled. “*Astra Vox.” 

“She vanished?” Sathu questioned looking around.

“Pretty sure she teleported man.” Sabun replied.

Combat Begins

Zu met the crossbowman first. Her maul crashed down.
Hit: → 14 dark elf crumpled, disintegrating into shadowy ooze. 

Sabun pulled Nelia to safety. Her blood soaked into the stone.

Suddenly, the air changed — a low hum began. The spiral glyphs pulsed, and nearby stones echoed in return.

The ritual had been prepared. The price had been paid.

+50 XP: Slaying the Dark Elf Scout

Awakening

Sabun scribbled a quick message:

“Stone awakened. Sathu touched. Danger imminent. Come quietly — we’ll hold the ground.”

He tied it to Makemake’s leg and sent the crow flying toward Xanthir.

The group held vigil.

“They’re waiting,” Sathu whispered. “But for what?”

Sabun scanned the grasslands.
They can see us... but we can see them too.

Sathu turned to Nelia, placed a hand gently over her wound.
“Sanaluxis.”
(Cure Light Wounds → Healed +4 HP)

VIII. Spiraling Chaos

Time: Dusk — 6:00 PM

The temperature dropped. Far off, someone burned fields. The scent of smoke drifted in. The mist thickened as day turned to night.

At the Campfire

Shadows danced wildly. The fire sputtered. Sathu stared into the flames.

They weren’t leaving tonight. Not with what stirred beneath the grass.

Zu stood suddenly, sniffing the wind, eyes locked north.

Sabun retrieved his bow. Sathu rose to shield Nelia, who remained silent.

From the fog, a figure emerged — a tall, blue-skinned lizardfolk wrapped in a blue-silver cloak, staff in hand.

“Forgive the intrusion,” he said. “Something trembled far from here. It echoed through my stones. I followed it… and found this.”
Behind him floated a hovering oval-shaped idol, carved with glowing sigils.

“You’re not from here,” Nelia said softly.

“No. But my people have an interest in what wakes beneath your soil. This place remembers old things.”

He knelt, touched the blooded stone. At first, nothing. Then — a pulse.

“They buried them when the stars turned red. Thought soil would silence memory. But memory isn’t what binds.”
He looked up.
“Blood is.”

“These stones were meant to bind something,” he murmured. “Someone is trying to unbind it.”
Sabun crossed his arms.

“What keeps it bound?”

Omkot raised a palm. Another idol appeared beside him, glowing brighter with each heartbeat.

“That’s why I’m here.”

Omkot (Runic Summoner Lvl 3) AC:12 | HP:9 | Dagger (1d4+2) | Idol of Stone Vigil

IX. The Watchers

Sathu felt it before he heard it — a subtle shift in the wind. A twig snapped.

In the darkness beyond the firelight, soft whispering began — like people speaking low, almost naturally.

Zu's posture never changed, weapon balanced on her thighs. Three clicks echoed from her throat; the gentle code for 'be ready,' not 'run.

End of Episode | Game Paused
 
Location: Agar Grasslands Time: Dusk – 6:00 PM

Session Codex

• *Teleport Spell = “Astra Vox” = "Voice of the Stars"
  
• Game Note: Monster XP will change to be normal (decided double XP was a bit too much).
  
• Sathu (Cleric Lvl 3) | XP: 4,703 / 6,000
  

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Sathu’s Journey #10 —The Tower Eats Light
Published on June 2, 2025

Scene I: The Archdruid Arrives

Location: Spirit-Carved Stone Circle
Time: Predawn, 5:45 AM
Date: Day 357, Year 99 B.C. (Before Concord)

Mist settles low across the ground. The cracked stone emits a faint, lingering glow. Sathu knelt at the broken glyphstone and brushed the fracture with his fingers. It pulsed— It felt like the stone remembered what had come before.

A sudden shift in the wind brought the scent of damp bark, moss, and wildflowers. An owl hooted in the distance. Zu looked up sharply. Sathu stood, already gripping his mace.

Three figures approached from beyond the ridge. Leading them was female frogfolk with a green staff wrapped in softly glowing vines. Two much taller Leafwalkers* followed. One moved with steady caution, the other with less energy.

Elara Marshscale stepped into the circle with quiet confidence, as if she belonged there.

Her voice was soft but clear. "This place aches. The glyphs haven’t sung like this since the thawing moon.” 

Omkot looked up from his idols. He looked tense. "They’re weakening. One cracked before dawn. I’ve stabilized the other two, but…”

Elara raised a hand to comfort him. "Let the stones settle, Omkot. You’ve carried their burden longer than most. The land needs breath, not fire."

Kora examined the glyph. She frowned. "These aren’t just broken. They’re tattered with age.”

Anura crouched near the idols, looking closely. "These are your summons? They look like they’ll stand up and walk away." She smiled. Omkot didn’t.

Nelia stepped forward. "We were about to gather components—bloodroot, bone ash. I thought”

Elara placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “The land hears you more than you know. Stay, and let it breathe through your hands.”

She turned to her apprentices. "Kora, Anura—you’ve trained long enough. This is your circle now."

Then she looked at Sathu. Her voice softened. "You see deeper. That place remembers sorrow. And every sorrow leaves a shadow somewhere else."

Sathu nodded. Zu stepped beside him.

As they left, Sathu looked back. Elara stood with her staff planted in the earth, her lips moving in silent prayer. The glyph pulsed again, stronger than before.

Scene II: The Broken Watchtower

The grass parted as Sathu and Zu moved eastward. Dawn crept across the sky. Behind them, the glyphstone faded from view, but Sathu still felt its pulse.

They climbed a ridge and descended into a basin shaped like an old wound. A broken tower leaned at its center; vines curled up the tower’s base, tight as fingers on a throat. A single blackbird called. No echo answered.

Zu stopped. The air smelled like rust and dried blood.

She raised a hand. the lizard priest responded with sharp stillness.

"Whatever this place once protected… it feels like it failed."

A soft ringing reached the edge of Sathu’s hearing. It was faint. Maybe imagined. Then it vanished.

Scene III: Into the Tower

The archway stood tall ahead of them, framed in cracked stone. Dust floated in spirals through the still air. Inside, scorch marks blackened the walls, and many of the old runes had been marred or broken.

They decided to split up. Zu moved to the left, guided by a scent only she could detect. Sathu followed a hallway that sloped gently downward, the sound of chimes growing clearer with each step.

At the end of the corridor, Sathu entered a round chamber. Rusted arches reached toward the ceiling, and delicate chimes swayed slightly even though the air was still. A glowing rune circle pulsed gently on the stone floor.

Above, the ruin remained quiet. But here, the air was charged with energy. Sathu stepped closer. The runes on the floor brightened blue in response.

Scene IV: Quiet Return

Location: Chime Room, Tower Ruins
Time: Morning, 10:45 PM

The chimes had gone silent. The last of the glowing light faded away as dust drifted through the beams of sunlight slanting in from above. The rune's color dimmed to a muted gray.

Zu knelt beside Sathu, watching him closely. She hadn’t panicked when he collapsed, nor had she moved hastily. Instead, she remained grounded, alert to the room.

A large, scaled creature emerged from the rubble and crept cautiously into the chamber. It flicked its tongue in the air, tasting the fading energy from the glyph, before turning its attention to Zu

She held her position, calm and still. She had known its kind before—distant cousins to the beasts from her homeland. The creature observed her briefly, then slithered back into the deeper shadows.

Moments later, Sathu stirred. A faint shimmer passed over his skin, and a glowing rune slowly took shape of a spiral sun on his open palm.

He inhaled, his breath returning steadily. His fingers curled slightly, and his eyes fluttered open. He glanced around the room, disoriented at first, then met Zu’s gaze.

She tilted her head in quiet acknowledgment.
Sathu gave a tired smile, more a sign of life than joy. Then, in a quiet, steady voice, he said, "Begin."

As he spoke, the last trace of light from the rune dimmed completely, like a breath drawn inward and held. The silence that followed didn’t feel empty—it felt like something new is ready.

Scene V: Beneath the Tower

Location: Subterranean Passage
Time: Late Morning, 11:15 AM

Sathu cast one last glance behind him toward the now-still Chime Room, the silence there somehow more palpable than before. Though he could no longer see the chamber, he still felt its presence—a lingering hum just beneath perception. The rune on his palm continued to pulse faintly, slow and steady like a second heartbeat.

They moved into a lower corridor, where the worked stone became smoother and the carved symbols on the walls appeared more intact. Time had spared this place more than the upper ruins. Broken tools littered the floor—chisels, fragments of tablets, and a collapsed ladder—abandoned in haste.

"Someone came here after the fall," Sathu murmured as he examined a rusted rod. "And left in a hurry."

At the far end of the hall stood a heavy stone door inlaid with layered glyphs. As they approached, the symbols shifted and flickered in patterns that responded to their presence. One glyph, centered on the door, glowed a deep amber when Sathu lifted his marked hand.

Zu reached out to touch the stone surface. It was unexpectedly warm.

Scene VI: The Vault

Time: Early Afternoon, 1:45 PM

The door parted with a soft hiss, releasing a slow exhale of cold, ancient air. The room beyond was small and circular, the walls etched in spiraling lines of luminous script that shimmered slightly when viewed from the corner of the eye. At the chamber’s center stood a low stone pedestal, its top fractured and incomplete—as though it had once cradled something long since removed.

Carved into the back wall were six figures, cloaked and solemn, their weapons lowered. The Vigilant Six. Beneath them, an inscription had been carved in a language neither Sathu nor Zu recognized.

Near the base of the wall, half-buried in a drift of dust, rested a flat stone tablet rimmed with tarnished metal. Its surface was smooth, its symbols unfamiliar. When Sathu stepped closer, a rune near the edge pulsed in unison with the mark on his palm.

Zu studied the stone carefully, then shrugged and handed it to the lizard priest.

They turned to leave. Then, faint and distant, the chimes began again—echoing down from the floors above like the memory of a song.

Sathu paused. His palm grew warm. Behind him, the fractured plinth shimmered faintly, as if remembering.

Something in the vault had seen them.
And waited.

As they began to ascend the winding stair from the Vault, a voice called out from the shadows below.

“Help... please... is someone there?”

It came only once—clear, distant, and perfectly timed. The air suddenly grew still.

Zu froze, eyes narrowing. 

Sathu frowned. The words were hauntingly familiar—phrases drawn straight from the vision he had experienced in the Chime Room, though none of them had been spoken aloud. 

They descended again, carefully tracing the source of the call. Near a narrow crevice in the wall, they found muddy footprints—too deliberate to be ancient—and a bloodstained scrap of cloth snagged on a jagged edge. Emblazoned on the cloth was a crest neither had expected to see: a flaming eye set against a black sun.

Zu stepped closer, nostrils flaring. But shook her head to indicate she found no scent. Without going further, they left the voice behind. But unease clung to them like dust. At the top of the stairwell, Sathu paused. A flicker of motion caught his eye.

In the archway below, partially hidden by deep shadow, stood a tall figure. It remained utterly still, its eyes reflecting the faintest glint of light—mirror-like and unblinking.

It didn’t speak.
It only watched.

Then, without haste, the figure turned and stepped backward into the dark, vanishing once more.

Scene VIII: The Stranger

Location: Spirit-Carved Circle
Time: Evening, 5:45 PM

Their walk back to the Spirit-Carved Circle was uneventful but heavy with silence. Mist drifted low across the ground, catching the glow of lanterns that had been set up around the camp like fallen stars. Crickets chirped intermittently, and the tall trees loomed, quiet and unmoving. The glyphstones still pulsed faintly.

Nelia stirred the fire with a stick while Omkot worked at the edge of the camp without a word. At the very edge of the mist, a figure emerged.

He stood barefoot, his clothes torn and blood crusted at the edge of his hairline. A small bag hung loosely at his side. He raised a hand in greeting.

“Peace,” he said. “I saw your lights. I’ve been walking all day.”

Zu froze instantly, eyes fixed on him. Nelia rose slowly, clearly wary.

Sathu stepped forward, uneasy. Something about the man felt wrong.

“I’m Erun,” the stranger continued. “Used to trade near Mulduan. Thought I’d find a safer path. Didn’t expect… you.”

His gaze lingered on Sathu for a moment too long.

Zu’s hand shifted toward her maul.

The wind stirred, and the man's tattered cloak shifted slightly. Around his neck, they saw a pendant. A flaming eye. He smiled. And waited. As he always had.

End of Episode #10 | Game Paused

Location: Spirit-Carved Circle
Time: Evening, 6:45 PM
Date: Day 357, Year 99 B.C. (Before Concord)

Glossary

*Leafwalkers are apprentice druids, always trained in pairs. Together they spar, reflect, and grow, learning to follow the rhythms of the wild and draw closer to the breath of Ona, the goddess of nature.