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[Special thanks from the DM to Vanduin for writing such entertaining and thorough journals and saving him the time of having to write the session logs] On a rainy eve Garial, an elven merchant, arrived in the village of Scorthia. Among her possessions were several letters, one of which was addressed to the Lady Milandre. Upon delivering the letter Garial apologized to Milandre. “I’m sorry, but my wagon flooded when fording the Nairn last week. I’m afraid most of the correspondence I was carrying was ruined. But maybe some of the inner pages survived.” Alas the merchants word proved true… … the dragon was dead; of that there could be no doubt. Though in passing it had left behind several savaged members of the party. Somehow Archren and I made it through the combat unscathed. Kentir went back to get the trapper we had passed earlier in the day. We thought that with his help we could make some use of the carcass. Archren buried herself in her book again, researching what uses blue dragons remains could be put to. Magdor and Danielle sat down to see to their wounds. The rest of spread out to search the ruins of the moat house. Pallinea and I went to investigate the area the dragon had appeared from. In a back corner of the moat we found a couple corpses. One was of a priest of the unnamed god. The other was a human female dressed in black leather armor. It looked like the dragon had been playing with his food. house she found a concealed door which lead to stairs descending into the cellars beneath the moat house. We gathered the least wounded members of the Dragons of Light. Kaavren, Chachai, Pallinea and myself descended the stairs to investigate the cellars. I knew this was somewhat risky, but I figured the dragon would have chased off anything really threatening, and if we did run into something we couldn’t outfight, we could run back up the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs we ran into a priest of unnamed one. Apparently he had been trapped down here by the dragon we had just killed. That wouldn’t have been too bad, but the first thing he did was call down his divine power to hold me in my tracks. (This is the second time a priest I’ve wanted to kill has done this to me! I beginning to get really tired of it.) This still wouldn’t have been too bad, but he also had two gnoll bodyguards and a whole slew of zombies with him. This still wouldn’t have been too bad if Chachai hadn’t really been an assassin in the pay of the unnamed god. At this point it really started to suck! Quite frankly I should have died that day. However, the zombies, while pummeling me, were doing that much damage (I’ve developed quite a bit of muscle, and some magic protection in my travels, though I suspect I’ll be bruised for days). The gnoll (I had managed to kill one before being held) proved to be quite inept. In fact I’ve seen better fighting skills in farmers called up in the levees. Chachai, however, proved to be a bit more of a problem. Fortunately he was too busy killing Pallinea to deal with me right away. Luckily he failed to finish her off and she was able to crawl away in the confusion. But she had managed to hold him off long enough for Kaav to run and get help. Still Chachai had one shot to stick a knife in my back while I was held. You remember that rib that I broke climbing old farmer Macin’s apple tree (well falling out of really), the one that set a little crooked. It was just out of place enough to turn aside the killing stroke as Chachai’s dagger plunger into my back. Just after that Aust, Archren, Gohan, and Kaav arrived on the scene, and I was able to break free of the prayer of holding. With the reinforcements, and despite Aust's being struck by another prayer of holding, we overcame the priest and his minions. Unfortunately Chachai made good his escape. Someday I will find him, and I will kill him. After this encounter we regrouped and set Archren back up to guard Magdor and Danielle. The rest of us continued to search the cellars. We did run into some Ghouls outside the holding cells and torture chambers in the cellars, but the we were able to dispatch them without much trouble. In the last corner of the dungeon, barricaded in an armory, we finally found Spunior. It took a little doing to convince him that we had been sent here to rescue him by his daughter (I finally wound up shoving the body of the priest we had killed in through the doorway). It turns out that he two had been trapped down here by the dragon, and had managed to hide from the priest and the gnolls. He was very glad to be out of there. That night we camped in a ruined tower of the moat house, and enjoyed some very find dragon streaks and ribs. The next morning we returned to Homlett with out a problem. Word was soon spreading of our adventures, of course it is hard to hide half of a dragon carcass. Kaav, Kentir, Pallinea, Danielle, and Archren saw Spunior safely reunited with his daughter. Meanwhile, Magdor, Aust and myself went with the remains of the dragon to the local tanner/leatherworker. Magdor wanted a suit made out of the leather from the wings, and Aust commissioned a suit of armor to be made from the Hide. Armor! And a suit! (of blue dragon skin none the less) Typical of Dwarves, I guess they couldn’t think of anything better. From my share I had a fine sheath made for my rapier. And a finer looking sheath I have yet to see. Though Kentir has a nice one made out of black dragon skin. Apparently this wasn’t the first dragon the dragons have run into. ;) After finishing at the tanner’s I went down to the temple of St. Cuthbert, for I was still feeling the worse for my wounds and sought from them medical attention. It’s hard to remember all of these human gods (I do miss the temples of Corellon) but the priests of this temple do seem to agree with me. I met one fine upstanding priest by the name of Turjon. He and I talked long into the night about the travels and adventures I’ve had. He seemed particularly impressed with the latest troubles with Chaichai and our determination to avenge his treachery. At any rate he asked if he could accompany us when the dragons returned to the moat house. Of course I said that he could. One would think that gaining another stalwart companion, especially one who can heal members of the party, would gain one praise from his other companions. But, no, not from the dragons. They were down right unfriendly, rude, and suspicious of Turjon when he showed up at dawn the next day and that doesn’t even count the dwarves! Still, things smoothed over a bit when Spunior vouched for Turjon. With that I managed to prevail upon the party to allow him to accompany us. Already he has become an asset to the party. When we arrived back at the moat house that evening, Turjon healed some of the remaining wounds of the party members. We spent the night in the ruined tower again, and then the next day we ventured back down into the cellars to investigate the secret doors. We entered the cellars the next morning. The few rooms we had searched before were still empty. So we decided to start our investigation with the secret passage behind the iron maiden that Spunior had told us about. No one wanted to try gaining access first, as it involved being enclosed in the maiden. Even the dwarves were daunted at that prospect, I guess they did not trust Spunior as much as they claimed So I seized the moment, and went first. Kind of ironic that an elf should lead a dwarf into an underground passage. The door closed and the spikes dropped out of the way behind me. After me followed Turjon, the dwarves, and everyone else. The passage behind the maiden led to another hidden doorway. This one, from this side, was activated by pull ring set into the wall. It opened into a crypt filled with a rank and foul odor of decay. Given my previous experiences here I was not surprised when the ghasts attacked. For ghasts are what they are properly called as Turjon tells me. Though this time it was not my fault, the dwarfs had begun opening sarcophagi. With the full might of the party brought to bear, and with the aide of Turjon I might add. The ghasts were quickly routed. Alas their unbelievable stench got to my stomach and I threw up my breakfast. It landed all over Magdor. I swear you couldn't tell the difference. If anything maybe it will convince him to take a bath! Maybe. From the crypt a crudely dug, narrow tunnel led away into the darkness. Down this tunnel the remaining ghasts fled and, after sometime to recover, we pursued them. This time, to their credit, the dwarves did take the lead. The tunnel soon branched and twisted this way and that into a veritable web of a maze. We methodically searched out these passageways; marking each junction with chalk and trailing a rope behind us. By the following route we came to the evil altar. At the first junction turn right, left, right and right again. At the fifth junction go straight, then right, left and right again. At the ninth and tenth junctions go straight. After the tenth junction go right. The altar was in a hollowed out room in the middle of the tunnel. The sides of the room were covered with crystals with a purplish hue. In the center of the room a square pillar rose from floor to ceiling. On each face of the pillar was stone of a different color. Before each face was set a statue made of the same stone. Each statue was of a different figure. Insert descriptions here. Before the pillar was set a black stone altar. The whole place seemed permeated with evil. Kentir and I began to search the statues. Archren looked to see what she could find on this in her book. The rest of the party fanned out around the room. Kentir and I found hidden compartments in each of the statues. In these compartments we found several miscellaneous items: a black marble, a chime, a set of incense and a brazier, and a drum & drum stick. We figured that each of these items must have something to do with the altar & religious ceremonies. In the meantime the dwarves had managed to set off something with the altar as it had turned translucent and inside could be seen a dark writhing mass. The altar was now radiating intense cold. Any liquid touching it instantly froze. The room was becoming quite cold as well. As we waited for Archren to finish her research Kentir became bored. He was going to start playing marbles with the black marble he had found. I figured that this might not be such a good idea and decided to distract him by juggling. Unfortunately Kentir wanted to juggle to and when he tried he dropped the black marble. BOOM!!!. The marble exploded in a blast of magical force. Fortune was with us though and, while shaken up, everyone was OK. The blast had also left an invisible wall dividing the room in half. Kaavren was able to dispel this wall within a few minutes. For some reason this really pissed of Pallinea. I guess she was trying to do some magic at the same time too. Archren still wasn't finished reading her book. I swear that she will still be reading that thing when the world ends. There was nothing for it but to wait around some more. The dwarves had discovered earlier that the altar could paralyze those who touched it. Since then they had given up on their attempts to destroy it. I had a thought that maybe a good blow from a blunt object might damage it. I borrowed a hammer from Aust and took a whack at it. As the hammer came down it occurred to me that breaking the altar might be a very bad thing to do as it might let out whatever was inside it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the altar didn’t break, but I succumbed to the paralytic magic it contained. I had hoped that using a hammer would have protected me. Pallinea removed that curse, but for some reason she and Kaavren where about to go at it. I managed to get between them and cool things down for a little bit. Looking back on it I think the room itself was having a very negative influence on the entire party. Soon afterwards Archren gave up her research in disgust. The most she had discovered was that the room altar was evil (duh!) and that the statues where each a different guise used by the unnamed one in fooling followers into worshipping it. We backtracked our way out of the tunnels leaving the altar room for now. In continuing to explore the cellars we came across a dormitory of sorts. We found in a room six straw pallets, and iron chest, and several satchels. The satchels all contained ochre cloaks as the priests of that god favor. The chest was trapped, but Kentir managed to open it safely anyway. Inside we found another potion and a journal of one of the priests. The journal was mostly rubbish, filled with the rants of a vindictive little man, however it did speak of an artifact they had found. Concealed beneath a pool somewhere in these catacombs is obelisk of the unnamed god. They had recently uncovered it’s hiding place when the dragon showed up. We must find this obelisk and destroy it. Just when we had finished reading the journal. Our party was surprised by a group of gnolls and priests. The dwarves, Danielle, Pallinea, Kentir, and Gohan gave battle, while Archren, Turjon and I acted as a rear guard on the unexplored hallways coming into the dormitory. The gnolls were readily handled, but the priests fled back towards the entrance to these catacombs. Gohan started to pursue them, but ran afoul of the two ghasts that had fled from us before. Gohan was almost eaten alive by them, but for the rest of the party winning through the gnolls to come to his aid. The priests escaped, and one surviving ghast fled back into the tunnels. Aust vowed to remain in the crypt room until the ghast returned. I think he was a little upset at having a foe flee from him twice in one day. For good or ill we left him behind to await the ghast. The ghast returned a while later and Aust slew it in single combat. In the meanwhile we explored the rest of the catacombs. There was not much else to report. A couple more areas used as private chambers and a few more dead ends. We did find the pool alluded to in the journal. However, found no passage to the reputed obelisk chamber beneath it. In the same room was another statute to the foul one. A miniature replication to the one by the altar. Before we left Danielle through it down into the pool. Also in the room was a wooden platform attached to a series of block and tackle on the roof over the pool. That night passed with out much event. Aust and I during our watch heard someone withdrawing the planks over the moat. When we went to investigate found the planks missing, and saw a torch moving off into the marsh. With out much else to do we went back to the tower and finished our watch. In the morning we found the planks discarded on the far side of the moat. Danielle tracked out late night visitors downstream from the moat to the place where we think they boarded a raft and floated down the river. In the catacombs someone had removed the statute from the pool. The dwarves remembered at this point that tomorrow starts brewfest, and immediately started back to town, not waiting for the party. They are dwarves, what can you do?. We were soon going to follow them when Pallinea found that the floor of the pool had been magically sealed, and Turjon said that he could unseal it. We decided to explore a little further, and catch up with the dwarves later. Turjon unsealed the bottom of the pool and the water drained away into a vast chamber underneath it. Looking down into the chamber we could see a platform or sorts about 50 feet below us. While the platform would not fit down through the trapdoor Turjon created, we took the ropes from the platform and Danielle, Turjon, Gohan, and Myself were lowered down by Archren and Pallinea. Kentir used his slippers of spider climbing and climbed down onto the ceiling of the chamber. While being lowered down, I got the feeling that the platform we saw was just the tip of the obelisk, and that the obelisk itself was really huge. For the walls of the chamber disappeared into darkness all around the platform. As we descended something attacked Kentir. It was hard to say exactly what it was, but we heard Kentir scream and saw a big convoluted bag-thing with arms and nasty beak flailing at him. There was not much we could do to help him, suspended in the air as we were. Still we sent a barrage of magic and missiles at the creature to not much avail. In moments we had landed on the platform beneath us and continued our missile assault. Though as soon as we set foot on the platform beneath us I could my strength being drained away into the very rock at our feet. With our strength rapidly fading Archren and Pallinea hauled us back up off the platform. And with the last of my strength I sent my last arrow plunging into the creature’s flesh. I think that final arrow slew it, for the creature went limp and slowly fell away from Kentir. As we were hauled back up, so far depleted was my strength that it was all that I good do to hold onto the rope. Fortunately I was tied in, or I do not think I could have held on to the top. We could see Kentir hanging limp still attached to ceiling by his slippers. I think they were the only thing keeping the creature from flying away with his body. Gohan drank a potion of spiderclimb and went back to retrieve Kentir. The lucky lad was still alive and quickly recovered from his ordeal. Apparently something in the creatures claws had paralyzed him. With the party very much depleted Turjon resealed the chamber and we headed back to town where we met back up with the dwarves. I am convinced that the platform we were one is merely the top of the obelisk, and that we must return and destroy it. I also suspect that this obelisk is also somehow connected to the altar up above. We are going to stay in town for the week of Brewfest to rest and recover. I don’t think that we could get the dwarves out of here any sooner in any case. I have that to come up with a plan. Vanduin
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