5th day of Tarsakh

After a desultory overnight stay in Phandalin, we awake and get ready to leave.  I find the shrine of Tymora and meet Sister Garaele, who turns out to be a fellow elf.  She knows nothing of my quest, although she shares a desire to rid Cragmaw Castle of goblins.  However, she has a more pressing need to find out some information from a banshee, and wants my help with this.  Nervous of distraction while Sildar and Gundrun are still in goblin hands, I promise to return when we have freed Sildar.

Garrett has been buying pitons or iron spikes or something, but the transaction is soon finished and we set off back down the track.  We encounter no problems and camp for the night near the place where we were ambushed.  Next morning we find the ambush site, and see no disturbance.  We scout around, but find no other ambush.  We then proceed cautiously up the goblin track and our caution is rewarded when I spot a snare trap, and then a pit.  They are obviously expecting pursuit.

After a few hours, we reach a low bluff that matches the description that the goblin gave.  There is a cave mouth with a small stream issuing from it.  There are briar patches that approach the cave mouth, so Garrett and I cross the stream to sneak up through one set that go closest to the cave mouth, while the other two advance along the foot of the cliff in the bushes there.  Our fieldcraft is rewarded as we find a watchpost with two goblins who are completely unaware of our progress past them in the bushes.  We leap out and each dispatch a goblin with a single stroke, soundlessly disposing of the guards.  Emboldened, we enter the cave entrance.  Immediately on our right are steps up to a larger cave with two chained wolves that snarl and strain to reach up.  We rapidly dispatch them with arrows and examine the cave beyond.  At the far end is a narrow chimney which has been used as a midden, presumably from a cave above.  We consider climbing up, but decide we would be too vulnerable while making the ascent, and decide to continue up the main passage along the stream.

Turning the corner, we see a branching corridor on the far side of the stream, and a rickety bridge crossing the passageway about 20′ ahead, and 20′ above us.  There is movement on the bridge – a goblin sentry has spotted us.  I loose an arrow and hit him, but he scampers off.  Worried that he will raise the alarm, we jump across the stream to the branching corridor.  As we are half crossed though, a surge of water comes down the stream.  We are buffeted, but all just manage to hang on to the cave walls and prevent ourselves being swept away.  Cunningly, Garrett casts a minor magical illusion of the sound of us being swept down the stream to try and convince any goblins listening that we are gone.

We continue up the corridor, which slopes up in a series of rough ledges, before intersecting another corridor.  To the left, this opens out to a large cave, where we see five goblins preparing a meal.  So far we have not been spotted.  Garrett uses another spell to cause a magical slumber to fall on them, and I kill the last one with an arrow.  Aramil and Elaina rush into the cave – there is a high ledge on one side, and a larger than normal goblin has leaped up.  He holds a scimitar in one hand and the hair of a bedraggled human captive in the other, and threatens to kill him if we do not negotiate with him.  I, being the only one who understands goblin, shout at the others to stop and tell him that if he releases the captive, who I assume is Sildar, we will spare his life.  He says that he will give us the captive if we bring him the head of the bugbear Klarg.  The captive raises his bruised and bloody face and says in a weak voice ‘Don’t trust him!’.  I make an instant judgement and let fly with my nocked arrow, wounding him, but not preventing him from pushing the captive forward off the low cliff.  He falls ten feet to the cave floor and lies in a crumpled heap.  Aramil rushes forward and pronounces a benediction on him to try and stop him dying. Elaina leaps up the stone steps and strikes the great goblin, but misses. Garrett tries for another incantation but it has no effect.  I shoot another arrow but it misses wildly.  The great goblin swings at Elaina and catches her a heavy blow on her shoulder which renders her shield arm numb, but despite this she swings her sword round and under the blocking swing from his scimitar; it catches him across his stomach just below his leather jerkin and carves deep through his belly, almost reaching his spine.  He looks astonished as he sees his guts slide out in front of him before he topples forward, dead.

Elaina rests on her sword and massages feeling back into her shield arm.  Garrett quickly dispatches the sleeping goblins.  Aramil is now able to use one of his healing incantations to restore the captive to consciousness, and indeed heal many of the wounds he has suffered during his captivity.  It turns out that he is indeed Sildar, and is most grateful to be rescued.  We offer him the great goblin’s scimitar as a weapon, which he accepts, but are unable to find any armour for him to wear.  He is enthusiastic to accompany us to wreak his revenge on these goblins and clear out these caves from this scourge.  We clean our weapons, retrieve unbroken arrows and have a quick drink before turning to continue our quest.

This being the journal of the travels of Aeldrin Oakwood, once of Selenica, ranger of Dymrak, now chosen of Oghma.

It has been a halfmoon now since I acted upon the visions that I have been receiving for the last several moons. The visions were clear, if confusing – I have no idea why I should have been chosen by Oghma to receive these visions, for I have never worshipped or paid reverence to him. The message was clear however; I am chosen by him to travel to Cragmaw Castle and cleanse his shrine there. I assume that I have been chosen, unworthy as I am, for my many years hunting goblins in the Dymrak, for he has also revealed that it is they who desecrate his shrine.

The vision also told me to go to Phandalin, and meet a Sister Garaele there, at the shrine of Tymora. I found Phandalin on my map and so headed west out of the Dymrak. At the first homestead I reached, I inquired of the road to Phandalin, but the owner, Pyotr Sukiskyn, had not heard of the town at all. Looking at my map he remarked that it was missing a town called Threshold as well, which was on the road to where Phandalin apparently once was. These humans change things so fast.

Anyway, I took the road to Threshold without any major incident, and found a bustling human town. There are a new set of men here, from Thyatia, who seem to have taken over the rulership of Traladara recently; they call it Karameikos now. At Threshold, I enquired of Phandalin, and discovered that it does still exist, but is a mere village now, having been over-run and pillaged by orcs many years ago. As I was asking for information on it, I was approached by a dwarf named Gundrun Rockseeker. He recognized me as a ranger and offered me employ escorting a wagon-load of supplies from Threshold to Phandalin for him, as he was concerned about bandits and goblins on the road. I readily agreed to take his commission, as I was already intending to make that my destination, and being paid to travel my own road seemed a stoke of fortune. He introduced me then to three others that he had hired to protect his wagon; two half elves, one a priest of Helim, the other a sell-sword, and a halfling who seemed altogether too fond of his own voice and opinion on all matters.

3rd day of Tarsakh

The journey to Phandalin was initially uneventful, until the third day around noon. Rounding a corner as the track made its way through a cutting in dense forest, we saw two horses lying in the roadway ahead. I moved up and identified them as belonging to Gundrun and his bodyguard, a man named Sildar Hallwinter. There was no sign of either dwarf or man, but as I looked for more clues, two goblins leaped from the undergrowth and attacked me. As I turned and drew my swords, I felt an arrow hit me in the back – an ambush! One of the goblins then hewed my leg, and I collapsed to the ground. I came round as Aramil, the priest, cast a benediction to heal my wounds. The two goblins by me were dead, so I snatched my bow and killed one of the two ambushers on the hill above with a single shot. Elaina, the half-eleven warrior, felled the other with an arrow. We saw that actually one of the other goblins that had attacked in close combat was merely asleep; it turned out that Garret the halfling actually knew some magick as he had boasted the previous night in his cups.

Casting around, I found tracks belonging to many goblins leading to the north-west. It looked like they had dragged their captives or victims in this direction as well. Returning, I questioned our now-bound goblin captive. He revealed that he was part of a goblin tribe led by King Groll at Cragmaw Castle, although he was part of a warband led by a bugbear called Klarg in some nearby caves. According to the goblin, their king had been paid by a mysterious stranger called Black Spider to kidnap the dwarf, so they had ambushed the two of them. The dwarf would be sent to Cragmaw, but the bodyguard was destined for the goblin cookpot.

We rapidly evaluated our options. We could follow the goblin tracks to their cave now, and try and rescue Sildar, but that would mean abandoning the cart and its supplies, and we were also weary and wounded. Questioning of the goblin revealed that Sildar would probably be kept alive for a while, so we decided to continue to Phandalin first and see if we could recruit help.

4th  day of Tarsakh

We arrived at Phandalin after another uneventful day on the road. There we delivered the cart and supplies to Barthan’s Provisions as required. The halfling seemed very jumpy when we approached Phandalin, and admitted that he had once lived here, but had fallen in with a bad set known as the Red Blades. Talking to Elmar Barthan, he revealed that Gundrun had two brothers, but they were not in town at the moment. It seemed that the whole town lived in fear of these Redbrands, who were a bad lot entirely, running a whole protection racket. We were paid by Elmar and left Gundrun’s wagon with him, and took rooms at the decent inn in town, where we heard more tales of the bad deeds of the Redbrands. We tried to see if anyone would help up rescue Sildar or deal with the Red Blades, but the local population seemed completely cowed. Even a half-elf called Darren Endermarth who Elsa the barmaid claimed was a great warrior claimed that he was too old to help us out when we spoke to him.

Disillusioned, we retired to bed. In the morning, we decided to do some quick shopping and the go and see if we could rescue Sildar. I need to see if I can see Sister Garaele as well quickly, if only to find out why I am here. Especially if I am going near to Cragmaw.

We thought about the message for a while and then decided to open the far golden door.   Beyond was a long room with an altar on a dais at the far end.  The decoration left us in no doubt that this was a temple to the element Air.  Behind the altar was a print of a right hand on the wall.  Tanara went up and placed her hand on the print.  A voice asked what the temples were called, and she said ‘the temples of the elements’.  This was obviously the wrong answer for a strong wind blew up and started knocking us around.  We retreated from the temple, and both Tanara and Pavel were feeling very badly wounded and looking for a way out.  The niches at the far end refused to teleport us though, so we were stuck here.

We tried the door to the south, and found a similar room, but decorated as a temple of Fire.  We then tried the north door, and found a temple of Earth.  Obviously the wizard was a fan of disco.  However the north temple also contained a beautiful maiden and a panther, so we quickly shut the door and hoped she hadn’t seen us, for we assumed that she was one of the witches.  Tanara readied the Lightning Bolt spell in her ring, as we dashed for the Air temple again.  This time Oin took the lead, and when the question was asked, stated boldly ‘the temples of Earth, Wind and Fire’.  This was obviously the right answer, as there was a click, and a secret door opened in the wall behind.  We dashed through, and into a circular room.  In the centre was a statue of a dragon’s neck and head, forming a throne, and with a black gem in one eye of the dragon.  Around it were three other dragon neck and head statues, each with a single blue gem in the right eye.  One shone brightly, but the other two only glowed dimly.  Behind these were three alcoves.

We examined the statues, and then tried the alcoves.  Tanara stepped in an vanished, so the others followed.  We found ourselves on a dais at the end of the room with double doors at the far end.  Beyond the double doors, we found ourselves in an octagonal room with two pairs of doors, and a silver arch.  Hanging from the centre was a black gem on a long chain, but still too high for us to reach.  A motto above the arch warned us in an ancient tongue that if we passed, we would join the treasury, which we took to mean that the spell that had caught Bryan was still operational.

We cast around for a while to work out how on earth we could possibly reach the gem, 30 feet above us, until a suggestion from Oin reminded Tanara that she still had a Levitation spell that she had not used.  Once cast, retrieving the gem was easy.  We opened the far doors, and found another room with a dais.  Stepping on the dais returned us to the central niche in the circular dragon room.  The final niche sent us to a similar suite of rooms, but the central room was full of much treasure, which didn’t appear to be illusionary after all.

We returned again to the circular chamber, and realised that we needed to charge up the black opal on the pillar.  We snuck back to the temple of Air, but spotted that the panther was waiting for us there.  Fortunately, Tanara’s Sleep spell was sufficient to dispatch it.  The witch was nowhere to be seen, so we crept onwards into the obelisk room.    The black opal vibrated as we got it close to the obelisk, and we found shallow depression on the top where we placed it.  The glow of the obelisk peaked and then suddenly vanished, and the black opal now glowed.  We removed it and rushed back to the circular room before the witch could intercept us.  Rapidly we placed it in the dragon’s eye.  There was a great noise and flash, and the other three gems shone brightly and shattered, as did the black opal.  The three other dragons crumbled to dust.  Tanara, who had sat on the throne, disappeared.

The other two found the unconscious elven maiden in the temple, and when she was recovered, discovered that she was no longer possessed.  Bryan suddenly returned to flesh in the corridor.  Tanara found herself on the throne in the chamber above with the coffins.  Gradually we reassembled the much sundered party and retrieved all of the wizard’s treasure.  Then we returned to the surface with the grateful elven maidens, to a hero’s welcome in the elven village.

Refreshed after our drinking bout, and keen to not descend further into the depths, we returned to the room with the wall of red light, but were unable to throw any more light on the problem.  Since we had explored as much of this wing as we could (aside from the cell full of cobwebs), we returned to the central hall and tried the other wing.

The corridor there soon ended in a T junction with a door opposite.  We checked the door and found an imposing corridor beyond, lined with two alcoves on each side.  Each alcove contained a unique platinum statue of a running adventurer with an expression of delight on his or her face.  We found these rather unnerving and it took a while go past them.  At the far end was another door, beyond which a low moaning sound could be heard.

We opened the door and saw a circular room with a high ceiling.  In the centre was a large well, and at the other three cardinal points were stone statues with their mouths open.  Between one pair was written ‘PAH’ and between the other pair was written ‘NWAD’.  We debated these words, and as we repeatedly said ‘PAH’ a blue disc appeared rising up the well.  When we said ‘NWAD’ it disappeared again down the well.  It appeared to be some sort of magical elevator, but once again we had no wish to descend.  It also seemed to descend rather quickly – maybe it is designed for ascending rather than descending.  The moaning appeared to come from the air blowing across the open mouths of the statues.

The corridor on the right of the T-junction bent round to some blocked descending stairs.  Just before them was a door to a recently used kitchen, showing that this wing was actively occupied.

The other branch of the corridor turned, and then branched again.  The new branch had 4 doors on it.  The first led to a room lined with shelves and jars, and with a horrible smell that made us gag.  We could also see little red eyes looking at us from the corner, so we beat a hasty retreat.  The room next to it was also shelved, but empty and bare.  Both doors on the other side of the corridor opened into the same empty room.  The corner of the room had been blasted out though, and we could climb down through the rubble to a stairway.  We ascended the stairs, which ended in a door.  Listening we heard some gutteral arguments, so we burst in.  Five orcs were on the far side, having an argument and we quickly closed to battle.  The battle was short and one sided, although Pavel was seriously wounded and needed to be healed by Zoe’s staff.  We looted the bodies, finding some coins, and also an open stone chest in the corner of the room, which contained more coins, a magical bow (nabbed by Tanara) and three bottle of a different wine – Red Dragon Crush.  Bryan rapidly took a large swig and collapsed again, so we continued exploring.  The door from the room proved to open onto the end of the other branch of the corridor, so it seemed that we had completed this branch of the level as well.

Bryan finally awoke, and said he had had another dream.  This time he had been facing a stone obelisk, which had been asking him a question.  In the dream he knew the answer to the question, but now he was awake he couldn’t remember the question or the answer.

We returned to the central hall and with trepidation opened the doors on the far side.  The mage we had rescued had told us that he had been captured by the witches beyond this door.  Beyond was a huge corridor, lined with alcoves, but empty of statues in this case.  We sent Bryan forward to scout.  The far end of the corridor was blocked by a heavy velvet curtain, but he peeked behind it.  Beyond was a dias, surmounted by a brazier from which came a blue light.  Around it were 3 coffins.  On the far side was a throne.  We beat a hasty retreat, assuming that the coffins belonged to the witches.  We were loath to tamper with the blue lit brazier for fear that it might be part of a spell restraining the witches, but were confident that we had found the throne mentioned in the wizard’s scroll.

Returning to the right side of the level, we resolved to descend the stairs that we had found in the blasted chamber.  They ended in a 30 foot by 30 foot chamber with a 10 foot stone cube in the centre.  As we entered, we were surprised by a gelatinous cube, but were able to fight it off and kill it.  In a niche to the left, we found a ladder ascending.  Oin found a secret door in the central cube, and Bryan found one at the top of the ladder.  Opening Oin’s one, we saw a small room in the cube with a chest on the far side.  Pavel stepped forward to prod the chest with his sword and was almost decapitated by a blade swinging out of the roof.  He survived though and was able to lasso the chest and drag it out without being hit again.  We prised open the chest and found some coins and bottles of a third kind of wine – Champagne de le Stomp.

Bryan, of course, pops the cork and takes a swig. He falls asleep to the sound of Oin muttering ‘du Stomp’, shrugging his shoulders a lot and saying ‘Haw Hee Haw Hee Haw’. On awakening he reports that the champagne was delicious and he dreamt of a large black gem hanging on the end of a chain (not Rahasia’s pendant), a sense of dizziness and an empty room with a silver arch…

The buried tower seems to have only a single entrance and no windows, so we advance towards the door, hugging the side of the cavern in case someone is watching us through the solid metal door. The door is covered in incomprehensible runes. We try to read them, but they are incomprehensible. At a loss for anything else to do we turn the knob and open the door. Beyond is a majestic 30′ high vaulted corridor stretching into the blackness. We note, with interest, that the corridor appears blackened and sooty as if there has been a fire there at some point.

We advance cautiously down the corridor, but are still surprised when two men rush towards us out of the darkness. One wounds Bryan, but not badly, which turns out to be a mistake, as it just irritates him. It does spoil his aim for a round though, so it takes two rounds before we finish them off. They are equipped with leather armour, short swords and shields, and have some coins and two bottles of wine on them, which seems strange.

We continue and enter what would be a majestic octagonal hall, were it not that its roof has caved in, apparently in the same fire. The rubble has been cleared from the perimeter of the hall however, so we can get to the two passages on the side walls and the doors on the far side. We opt to try the passage on the left-hand side. Another vaulted corridor stretches away, again blackened by fire. It ends in a bronze door, with a pair of blackened wooden doors, one on each side, half-way down.

We open the left-hand door, and see a short corridor paralleling the one we are in, with a door at each end. We open the door to the left and see a huge red dragon, which turns, roars and belches flame at us. Half the party are fried and drop to the floor, but Titus, Tanara, Zoe and Hasan realise that there is no way that a dragon could live in such a small room (this isn’t some sort of fantasy zoo-dungeon after all), and the flames have no effect on them. The realise that the dragon is an illusionary trap, and that their companions have just fainted because they think they are dead. They rapidly start reviving them and persuading them that the dragon did not exist. There is a further door from the room, which we pass through, and into a room with a strange glowing wall on the left hand side. We ignore this for the moment, as it looks like another trap, and go through the door on the far side. We enter a long room with a great pile of treasure at the far end. The stupendous amount of moolah on display affects many members of the party who go rushing towards it, only to hit the real wall of the chamber halfway – the treasure is unfortunately just an illusion again.

Disheartened, we decide to rest for the night, as it has been a long time since we last slept. In truth we do not know whether it is day or night in the world above, or how many days might have passed since we entered this labyrinth. We spike the two doors shut and post a guard, but have hardly had any sleep when Zoe is roused by some creatures trying to batter down the door of the chamber. They sound like orcs, and we send Oin and Pavel around through the other chamber to confirm that this is the case. We retreat into the room with the red wall, and spike the door of that chamber as well, to buy time, while we investigate the red wall. Oin walks into the glow, but instantly returns to the chamber through the wall. Tanara tries as well, but at a run, with the same result. This seems not to be an entryway into another part of the tower, as we had assumed. We start to plan a two-front assault on the orcs who are now in the first chamber, and attacking the second door, but while we do, Bryan starts bashing at the spike door himself, as if wanting to attack the orcs. The orcs, frightened that there might be a monster in our room, flee, and we let them go, and continue our night’s rest.

On awakening we try the door on the other side of the main corridor. It leads into another corridor, with a series of doors down the sides, leading into cells. The first two are unoccupied, but recently used, and well maintained, with clean straw and unspoilt food. The third is obviously long abandoned. As we open the door to the fourth, we hear an invocation, and Zoe, Alki, Hasan, Pavel and Tanara fall to the floor, asleep. Bryan and Oin rush in and find a manacled prisoner starting on another invocation. They hit him, quite a lot, but only with the flats of their blades, and subdue the prisoner, who collapses and begs our pardon for his attack. Interrogation reveals that we wandered in here, as most of the population of Mystara seem to do, and got lost, before being captured by two powerful ladies. We show him the sketches of Silver and Melissa and he recognises them, so we assume that two of the witches have possessed these maidens. He also tells us of a powerful magically protected book that he found behind the northern door of the main chamber.

The fifth cell contains an elven maiden from the village who Hasan recognises. It seems that she is being prepared for possession by the third witch, as they are unable to get access to Rahasia.

The sixth cell is full of large cobwebs, so we decide not to investigate it.

Returning to the corridor, we open the bronze door at the far end. Beyond is a large library, heavily burned. The long table and chairs have been charred, and most of the books are cinders. We find one with some text legible though, which says:

“Once the three are snared in the trap I have prepared for them, I…after this, I will take it to the throne and.. .the destruction shall signal… banished for all eternity.”

We open the other door, and find a map room, lined with map racks and with a large map table in the centre. We examine the maps, and find many of the cubby-holes contain wine rather than maps. Bryan opens a bottle and takes a large swig, and collapses to the floor. We check him, but he just seems to be unconscious, so we continue to collect the bottles. They all have the same strange label, and are identical to the bottles we found on the two men who attacked us earlier.

Finally, Bryan rouses and tells us that he had a strange dream, where three dragons attacked another smaller, one-eyed dragon. He also tells us that the wine is not very good quality.

Tanara tries some wine as well, and it has the same effect. She even dreams the same dream. While she is asleep, the rest of the party check the room and find a door concealed behind a map rack. Beyond it are some stairs going down – obviously long unused.

The room beyond is a luxurious bedroom with coordinated accessories.  On the bed are two panthers that unfold themselves and charge towards us.  They take a liking to Bryan, since he looks (and smells) like a mouse, and start playing with him and Oin.  Oin swings and actually hits with his axe.  A second stroke almost decapitates the panther.  Bryan also hits the second panther, and kills it with two strokes.  Pavel and Titus join in but both miss. After some more vague fencing with the second panther we decide to stop playing with it and put it out of its misery, which Titus does by repeatedly bludgeoning it.

In the room we find two secret doors.  One leads into a study that also opens into the original corridor – on the table we find 3 sketches of elven maidens – one is Rahasia, and Hasan identifies the other two as Marissa and Silver, who were kidnapped by the Rahib from the elven village.  There is also a plan of the village, and a scroll with a word of opening for the secret door in the bedroom.

Armed with this new-found knowledge, we say the word to open the door. There is a click as the lock releases.  We push the door open.  Beyond, a narrow corridor slopes down into the darkness.  We proceed down the corridor, which finally opens out into a vast cavern.  At the far side of the cavern is the ruins of a tower, crushed by the collapse of part of the roof of the cavern. Only the lower storey appears intact.  Ruins of the tower are scattered across the cavern.  Oin mentions that this looks like the abode of a darker evil, and so we beat a hasty retreat, given Akbar’s warning about getting the story from the dragon guard.  The question is how we get through the steel door.  Or maybe we need to check out the kitchen?  We obviously need to clear each level before proceeding lower, and facing something we can’t handle.

We return to the octagonal room and take the last exit.  This opens into a corridor that ends in another octagonal room, with alcoves at the cardinal points (other than the one the corridor enters from).  The three alcoves are barred with gates of heavy iron bars.  The north one says Kesini and the other two say Kasana.  These names match the alcoves that we saw in the dining hall in the first basement (although that only had one Kesini and one Kasana) – maybe these are the other ends of those teleportation points.  Or maybe Kesini means In and Kesana means Out in Siswan.

We check the north door and hear nothing, so open it.  There is a bare 20′ square room beyond, with a rough cut tunnel entering on the far side.  In the centre is a large snake.  We close the door rapidly.  Then we stop and think, and realise that this must be the dragon guard.  Good thing we didn’t charge in and try and kill it.

Hasan talks to the dragon guard, as the sort of almost son-in-law of Akbar.  It answers Hasan, and tells us a story:

Elias was a nice wizard who helped the elves long ago, but was attacked by three evil witches, seeking the Black Opal Eye which would make them invincible, who dropped a mountain on his tower – Grey Mountain.  Elias perished, but trapped the three witches in the tower under the mountain.  The elves built a temple in his memory (which we are in – hence all the statues of an old bloke with a beard).  The dragon guards the route to the tower, but fears that the Rahib has found an alternate route (which we know he has, because we found it).

We ask the dragon about the ring and the medallion.  He tells us another tale:

I fought the Rahib and his panthers in this room and fought him back, although he was sorely wounded in the process.  Akbar found him and healed him, and entrusted him with his black jade ring, which is hidden under a paving slab.

Hasan recovers the ring.  We return to the upper level and find the medallion.  On the way, we are ambushed by the gelatinous cube, which attacks Baik, but fails to paralyse him.  We slice and dice it like jelly at a children’s party.  We continue, having grabbed Schrodinger’s Treasure from it.  We insert the ring into the medallion, and remove it – the writing on the back now just says ‘Rahasia’.  We return to the dragon guard.

The dragon guard tells us more:

The medallion is a pendant of protection, and ‘Rahasia’ is the trigger word, and it will protect us from evil magic in an area around the medallion, but it will only work three times.  Three is the number. Not four.  Five be right out.  Two means that it will work once more.

The dragon allows us to pass, and we proceed down the corridor towards Akbar’s treasure and the tower.  There is a rockslide at the end, which turns out to be a concealed door.  Beyond is the treasure vault, with a steel door in one corner.  There is much treasure in here, including a sword, a snake headed staff, a ring, a vial of potion.  The ring has little carvings of animals on it.  The vial appears to be a healing potion.

We find the other secret door of which the dragon spoke.  The door opens into another narrow tunnel descending into the darkness, although this one seems more travelled for the floor is smoothly worn.  We emerge into the cavern which we have already seen.

7Apr2014

After the aimlessness of the previous session, we started with a quick review of our possible options:

1. Attack the Rahib (who is not Hasan).
2. Investigate the room behind the curtain.
3. Descent into the Well of Lost Souls.
4. Leave and find a more interesting adventure.

The fourth option seemed unpopular with the DM, so we ran through the first three.

We decided first to try subterfuge and disguise, and get Alki and Tanara, who are elves, to check out the room behind the curtain relying on their disguise as Siswa and ability to speak Elvish (or Elven).  We went to that doorway, and they entered.  Beyond was a small, long chamber, with four Siswa sharpening large swords who glared at us but otherwise ignored us.  Apart from this, the room was bare, and uninteresting, so we left.

This left options 1 or 3.  We considered option three, but were concerned that someone would find our captives at some point and raise a hue and cry.  We might then be cut off in the lower level if they found our rope.  So we decided that we needed to bite the arrow and attack the Rahib in the temple.  We decided that we would enter en masse, disguised as Siswa, and get as close as possible before attacking to give him less time to use his spells.  The moment we were in range, or he appeared to be suspicious of him, Tanara would attempt to charm him and Titus would try and blind him with divine light.  If neither of these affected him then the rest would attack with cold steel.

We descended to the lower level using the teleport corridors and opened the door to the temple.  The Rahib was still there, so we advanced in.  As the door opened, it scraped the door and alerted him.  He turned, saw us, and raised his hands.  Before we could cast our spells, there was a flash and a cloud of smoke, and he disappeared.

We advanced into the room and had a look behind the altar.  We quickly discovered a trapdoor in the floor with a pull-ring.  Checking behind the statue, Oin’s stonecraft also found another, more cunningly concealed, trapdoor as well, and a pressure panel on the rear of the statue that opened it.  We descended this trapdoor, expecting that there was less chance the Rahib would be waiting for us in ambush, but after a half turn of a circular staircase it ended in a solid steel door that we were unable to open.

Returning to the temple, we opened the other trapdoor, which also descended via a staircase.  No ambush appeared forthcoming, so we descended into a smaller octagonal room, with doors on the south, east and west walls.  As we entered, a ghostly elven apparition appeared from the south door. Hasan recognised it as Rahasia’s father, Akbar. The ghost spoke to us, saying:

“By the Rahib’s hand was I here felled
And since, awaited you to come.
Rahasia’s pain I have dearly felt
But you have come to free her.
Hasan is in the dungeon south
My gold is toward the north.
An ally in the dragon guard
Waits before the gold.
The Rahib is just a pawn
A darker evil lies below.
The dragon guard knows the story
And guards the way below.”

We opened the south door, and were faced by four guards guarding a door in the other wall of the small room beyond.  We said that we had been sent by the Rahib to check on the prisoner, but one of the guards said that he was ordered to only allow people past if accompanied by the Rahib himself.  We argued briefly, but fruitlessly, so instead suddenly attacked, surprising them.  The fight was brief, as they didn’t take much punishment, even though we were holding our blows so as not to kill them.  Three were knocked unconscious, and the fourth surrendered, so we took their keys and opened the door beyond.  We found a room of cells, so bound the guards and locked them in a vacant cell.  In other cells we found Hasan, who was grateful to be rescued, and another human sellsword, called Baik Telor, who agreed to join us if we released him.  We questioned the conscious guard, and he told us that to the west was the kitchen and the portal to the dining hall under the courtyard, while to the east was the Rahib’s quarters.

We armed Hasan and Baik with the swords and chainmail of the guards and returned to the octagonal chamber.  We opened the east door and a corridor stretched out, ending in double doors flanked by single doors in each side wall at the far end.  We chose the northern door and opened it, expecting that the Rahib’s quarters would be behind the double doors.  Instead, the door opened into a library with a dark cloaked figure sitting at a table.  Both the Rahib and us were surprised, but we recovered first and charged in, a lucky blow from Hasan ruining the spell that the Rahib was in the process of casting.  Most of the rest of our blows were stopped by his armour though, and he dealt a savage blow to Alki in return with his mace.  We kept up a flurry of blows, and Hasan struck him repeatedly, but he was a tough customer.  Finally, as the Rahib began to back away from the fight, Tanara used the last magic missile in her ring of spells. The damage from those was enough to finally kill him.

We quickly grabbed his mace, and his armour, which was obviously enchanted given the amount of damage he had weathered, and also a large bunch of keys we found on him.  Then we searched the room in detail, but found the books to be of little interest.  In the niche in the north-east corner however, we found a secret door, which we opened…

We left the octagonal room down the corridor deeper into the mountain.  The corridor opened out with three small vaults on each side, and then continued, until we reached a cross-roads.  Far up ahead we though we could see some movement and lights, so we turned right down that featureless corridor.  After a while we glanced behind us and saw that the corridor behind us, up which we had just come, was now blocked by a stone wall.  We stopped and examined it, thinking that a panel might have slide soundlessly behind us, but it seemed to be a seamless part of the corridor.  Mere men might have panicked at this point, but as an elf Tanara was familiar with all forms of magic and glamour, and surmised that we had been teleported as we went down the corridor, and were now somewhere completely different in the mountain.  We drew out a new sheet of parchment and started mapping again.

This corridor led to another crossroads, and the corridor on the right ended in a dead end again.  We continued straight on, and there was a door in the left wall.  We peeked this open, and discovered a vast circular temple, with two other doors and a huge statue to the great old one.  In front of this was a altar with a black-robed figure attending to it.  Fortunately he didn’t observe us, and we shut the door and moved on.  The corridor continued and ended in another cross-roads, with two dead ends, and a corridor continuing to the left.  We proceeded up this corridor, but Bryan’s observant eyes discerned something strange up ahead – a sudden lack of clarity in the view.  We probed and realised that a gelatinous cube was advancing towards us.  We turned and ran back down the corridor, checking occasional to see that it was still following us.  We turned right, and then right again, putting a fair distance between the cube and ourselves.  At this point we came to a pair of doors, one on each side of the corridor.  The doors on the right were probably the ones we had seen in the circular temple, so we cracked open the ones on the left.  We realised that they were guarded on the far side by a warrior with a drawn sword, so we closed it rapidly before he saw us, and continued.  At the far end we found another cross roads, with two more dead ends ahead and to the left, so we turned right and proceeded.  Again, we found a door on the right hand side of the corridor, we appeared to line up with the one we had seen in the temple.  We passed on, and came to another crossroads.  The corridor to the left was a dead end, and the one to the right seemed to be the one we had encountered the gelatinous cube, so we continued straight on.  After a while, we glanced back and saw again that the corridor we had come down was a blank wall – we had been teleported again!

We continued and came to another crossroads – as we were examining the directions, a group of people came running out of the blank wall on the left hand side and cannoned into us.  We parried their feeble attacks and called on them to stop attacking us, which they did.  It turned out that they thought we were Siswa, and are adventurers who had got lost inside the temple and had been attacked repeatedly by Siswa, which is why they had attacked us, as we were in Siswa robes.  They asked us if we would help them escape from the temple with some loot that they had picked up from inside the temple.  We agreed to, in return for some of their loot.

Picking ourselves up, we tried the corridor to the right, starting a new piece of parchment once again, as we again had no idea where we were in the mountain.  After a while, the corridor opened out into a series of three niches on each side, holding a total of six statues.  One of them had a metal necklace and amulet.  We went past and Bryan then went back to remove the amulet, but failed. Tanara went to help him, hoping that an elf might be able to remove it, but was also unable to.  We did see that there was some writing on it and a ring-shaped depression in the amulet, but none of our rings would fit it or do anything.  The writing read:

Stone of Power, Stone of Bright
Giving men their rays of light.
Forces dark will thou make small
Weak’ning men of night’s dark call.
Putting ring into the back
Vengeance give to those in black.

This made us think that this might turn out to be quite important or useful later on.

We continued and entered an octagonal room, with a statue of the great old one in it, and a hole in the floor in front of it.  At this point, we guessed that we might be near the front door again, but didn’t want to lead the other adventurers out so quickly, so turned round and retraced our steps.  Turning right at the crossroads, we found a curtain across a doorway on the left hand side of the corridor, and heard the sounds of elven voices behind it, so passed on.  Coming to another crossroads, we turned right again, and confirmed that we were on the first level.  At this point we showed the other adventurers the front door, and took a sack of loot from us in payment.  They confirmed that they had entered the complex through the outer courtyard and the monastic cells below the courtyard, so we resolved to check them out next.

Inside the temple

We crossed the courtyard to the corner tower and descended into the depths.  We crept along the corridor, but found only one cell was occupied, and the occupant was too busy chanting and meditating to hear us.  Turning the corner, we saw that there were two pairs of double doors flanking the corridor.  The inner pair, on the right as we came, opened into a dining hall under the centre of the courtyard, with another pair of doors on the far side, and two niches on each of the side walls.  There seemed to be nothing of any interest in here, so we tried the doors on the far side.  These opened easily into a short corridor ending in another pair of double doors guarded by a pair of Siswa with drawn swords.  These were obviously the doors that we had opened from the other side earlier – the level we had been teleported to was only one level below the level we had been on!  The guards looked confused because we were wearing Siswa robes, but two of us were obviously far too short to be Siswa, and the one who spoke was obviously not a male elf.  They decided to attack us, but a word of power from Tanara caused them to both drop into a deep slumber.  We tied and gagged them, and dragged them into one of the unused side corridors on this level.  We questioned one of them, and discovered that the man in the temple was the Rahib, and that they all served him willingly as acolytes.  He also revealed that Rahasia’s father and her beloved Hasan had probably been thrown down the Well of Lost Souls – the hole we had found in the octagonal chamber.

Under the courtyard

At this point a combination of dysentery and exhaustion finished the session.

We finish donning our equipment, and find some extra useful kit in the cupboard as well, which we take.  We have a quick planning session, and decide to take some food upstairs with us, leave it outside each door and then knock on the door.  The idea is that they will come to the door, see the food and be momentarily disoriented, at which point we will attack with the advantage of surprise.

We execute the plan and it goes fairly well, although our devastating touch from the previous session deserts us and it takes a few hacks to bring the Reavers down.  We then search their rooms and find little of interest, and search the Head Reaver’s room again, and find some more cash.  We also take his map, so we know where we are going, which is obviously to help Rahasia, because we are heroes.

We carry the gnolls out and leave them in the forest, loosely tied, then take the horses from the stables and torch the manor house, to prevent the Iron Ring using it easily as a base.  Checking the map, we realise that we are actually in the Republic of Darokin, not far from the Selenica road, and that Rahasia’s village, Kora Hoton is a day or so’s march to the north east.

We proceed rapidly to Kora Hoton without incident, and find it relatively easily.  The village is isolated and appears undefended and we are welcomed with open arms.  They appear rather too trusting of heavily armed warriors.  Rahasia greets us, and is saddened when we tell her that her messenger died before we could save him, but is grateful that we have come.  She tells us little that her letter had not already shown us, but offers to guide us straight away to the temple, which is only a mile or so from the village.  We demur and ask for some lunch first.

After lunch we proceed through the forest towards the mountain.  At the edge of the forest is a road-side shrine to the Old One, where she stops, and tells us that we must proceed alone.  We agree, because we are heroes.  We also forget to ask about what our reward will be, because we are heroes.  Pretty stupid heroes it seems.

We start a debate about the bet way to approach the temple, which is easily visible on the bare mountain.  We consider the option of approaching by circling through the forest and then climbing the side of the mountain, out of direct sight of the temple, but find that while we have been discussing this, our heroic feet have taken us up the roadway that winds up the open slope of the mountain right in front of the temple, and we now stand before the great gates of the temple.  Obviously no-one was on watch, or fortune has favoured the bold.

Bryan scales the thick creepers that cover the outer walls and looks down into the deserted courtyard, thick with the detritus of many days abandonment.  We push open the valves and enter.  The courtyard is deserted.  In each corner is an octagonal tower.  We enter the right hand one, which is a shrine to the Old One.  As we start to investigate, we are attacked by a small stone-like winged creature which leaps out from behind the statue of the Old One and slashes and bites us.  Pavel and Oin strike at it without effect, until Oin remembers his magic sword and uses that instead of his axe.  As more and more of us attack it, it finally dies under our blows.  Behind the altar we find the some coins and the remnants of a leather sack with an embossed symbol of two panthers.

There are steps down on either side of the altar, and Tanara descends.  Underneath is a corridor that follows the lines of the walls above.  The outer side is lined by curtained cubicles – Tanara looks and the nearest contains a bed, a pile of rags and a pile of round stones.  She takes one of the stones, and returns upstairs – there is a very creepy feeling down there.

The tower in the other corner is also a shrine with stairs, but we are not attacked.  On either side of the courtyard are four hovels, which contain nothing of any interest.  In the centre is a large octagonal pool, filled with a murky liquid, and steps up to the doors of the main temple.  Bryan throws a coin into the pool, and the surface trembles and churns.  We decide not to disturb it any further, and climb the steps.  The doors at the top are closed but open easily.  Beyond there is a transverse corridor, with a hand drawn on the wall pointing to the right.  Near the entrance is a curtained doorway, beyond which is a small room with many pegs and some rags, which turn out to be clothes, similar to those worn by the elves in the village.  On the other side is a similar doorway, but the room beyond is thick with dust.  We enter and are suddenly attacked.  Our assailant seems to be an elf, so we strike to subdue him, for Rahasia had asked us not to kill any of the Siswa.  We strike him, and Oin knees him in the unmentionables, so he collapses, grunting as he does that we he had not realised that we were not Siswa.  We disarm him and wait for him to recover.  It turns out that he was a companion of Hasan, Rahasia’s lover, but became separated from him, somehow, on a 15 minute walk from the village, and arrived here after him.  He has been looking for him, but for some reason has not got further than this room.  It seems that in the stupid hero stakes we are facing some pretty stiff competition for the bottom place.

We continue along the main corridor in the direction the hand is pointing, with our new companion, who is called (rather amusingly) Alki.  We resolve to keep him away from our meagre stock of wine.  The corridor ends in a large octagonal chamber with another large statue of the Old One, and a pile of rags in front of it, which turn out to be robes. Alki recognises them as Siswa robes.  There are many footprints that cross the chamber from the doorway we entered by to the other doorway on the north wall.