Session 40: Back in Action

March 27, 118

This evening, in order to celebrate their newly-forged alliance, Chief Aurimach orders a huge party throughout the entire village. All of the characters participate, except for Ellyanna, who instead observes the proceedings from the edges of the party, taking notes. Also, Calannon fails miserably to fit in with the White Elves.

March 28, 118

The next morning, Aurimach summons the party to the great hall and presents his gifts to the party. He gives them a map of the area to the north and assigns one of their best trackers, a man named Belech, to help them in their journey. He resupplies them with food and gives back their dogs and sleds, all pre-prepared for the journey. Finally, he tells the party that they have retrieved the possessions of one of their ancient heroes in order to give them to the party. He presents them with several potions, a spell scroll, and the following magical items: the Cloak of the Manta Ray (allows the wearer to move and breathe underwater), a Periapt of Health, a Cloak of Protection, and a Stone of Good Luck.

As they are preparing to leave, Ash-Daughter tells the party that she has decided to stay behind with the White Elves, in order to help with their struggle and act as the party's representative. They bid her farewell as they head out to meet Belech.

Outside of the great hall, they discover that Belech is a short and eccentric White Elf. He tells them that the lands to the north are generally considered to be cursed. No one has returned from them for generations, and the stories of those who have are quite ominous. They are said to have returned strangely changed - either mentally, with unexplainable personality changes and mental issues, or physically, with strange marks or growths on their bodies. In order to combat the curse, he gives them quite a few strange rules to follow, like always wearing something red, only eating meat at most every second day, and a variety of others.

Belech also explains that he is not a fighter, so he will not help them in combat and will only defend himself if he cannot get away, and that he will only take them as far as the Cursed Mountains, a mountain range beyond which no White Elf has ever been known to return from.

After Belech is finished with his introduction and explanations, the party head out on the next leg of their journey. They soon discover two more things about Belech. First, he really does know what he is doing, and with his advice, they are making excellent progress and avoiding hazards and difficult terrain. Second, he has a never-ending stream of strange advice and superstitions that he demands they follow as they go. Since he seems to know what he's doing, the party go along with his demands. Although he seems somewhat gruff and paranoid, the party make the effort to get along with him as best they can.

That night, Belech finds a defensible spot for the party to set up camp and rest. Since they are basically traveling through a flat plain, he can only do so much, but he does find them a somewhat sheltered area to sleep in. As usual, they tie up Dark Star and keep watch over him during the night. His nightmares still seem to be steadily worsening, but apart from that, nothing unusual happens overnight.

March 29, 118

The party head out after striking camp, and initially, the travel continues exactly the same way that it did the day before. It's not until afternoon that anything unusual occurs.

In the afternoon, a flying shape appears in the distant sky, and the party assumes it's just a bird of some kind, which are rare but not completely unheard of in their current location. The party pay it no particular attention as it gets closer and closer, larger and larger. It is practically on top of the before they realize that it is no bird, but a large beast carrying several riders!

The beast lands nearby as the party scramble to prepare their weapons and spells, and they see that it appears to be some sort of zombified white dragon. Its riders include six skeletons, armed and armored in matching ancient equipment, and a single black-robed wight, all of whom begin to disembark.

The party attack, and before the riders have a chance to get far from the dragon, Elvish hits them with a Faerie Fire spell, illuminating them and making them easier targets, and Calannon blasts them with the Necklace of Fireballs before advancing. The fireball instantly incinerates the skeletons and seriously damages the wights, but the dragon does not seem to be particularly hurt. Dark Star attacks with beams of dark energy but misses, and Ellyanna casts Haste on Kaplan, allowing him to approach the wight with superhuman speed and finish it off with the Hammer of Saint Alessia.

With all of its riders having been killing nearly instantly, the dragon, rather than attacking, disengages from Calannon and Kaplan, turns around, and simply starts flying away. The party give chase, pelting it with spells and missile weapons, but it is much faster than them. The only party member who can keep pace is the Hasted Kaplan, but the dragon is flying higher and higher, and soon reaches a height such that Kaplan can no longer reach it with his javelins. The dragon escapes.

Regrouping after the fight, Belech is outraged by what he just saw - the zombified dragon clearly must have been one of Ferelon's children, corrupted by the undead. Since the dragon got away, the party assume that it is going to retrieve reinforcements or notify their enemies of their location. Belech suggests that they could try moving more stealthily for the rest of the journey, but that will be much slower, and since they don't know how far they need to go, he can't guarantee that their supplies will hold out. The party eventually decide that sneaking in the open plains against aerial enemies is a lost cause; their best course of action is simply to continue on as before, but keeping a closer look on the skies.

The rest of the day's travel is uneventful. Once again, Belech finds them a defensible resting spot for the night, and during the night, Dark Star is still getting progressively worse.

March 30, 118

Another day of travel, the day begins like the previous day. However, at around noon, the party, who are being much more watchful of the sky, do indeed spot something out of the ordinary. Off in the distance, they spot not one dragon, but six! They immediately pause to consider their options. They could hide, but the size of their party, the presence of the dogs and the sleds, and the fact that they're hiding on an open plain against aeriel enemies make this unlikely to work. They could use Ellyanna's Rope Trick spell to hide in the small dimensional pocket that it creates, but they have no way to get the dogs and sleds inside quickly. They could fight, though six dragons and their riders will likely be a very difficult challenge. Or, since they know that (as of a few days ago) the undead are trying to capture them, not kill them, they could simply surrender and hope for the best.

After a short discussion, they decide to fight it out, but first, they send Belech, along with one of the dog sleds, to safety. That way, even in the worst-case scenario, at least half of their supplies should survive. Belech tells them that they passed a decent hiding spot about five minutes back, so he heads in that direction. Meanwhile, the rest of the party prepare for battle as the dragons approach...

Session 39: Four Guys and a Cleric

(Apparently I had this written out and sitting on my computer for this whole time, so here it is, finally posted to the blog)

March 27, 118

The four White Elf commoners, along with Feyrith, head out from the party's camp towards the White Elf village. They are Nuptup, a career criminal, Greg Mendel, an acolyte of Soloneth, Snowflower Sunshine, a hunter and outlander, and Sue Persmelly, an ex-hermit.

After an hour of walking, they arrive at the outskirts of the village. Their initial impressions are that everything is normal and the villagers are going about their business as usual. The village isn't all that large, with a population of around one thousand, so they decide to start by walking through it, getting a sense of how everything is going, and possibly hearing the party's dogs somewhere.

Their investigation confirms their initial impressions - everything appears to be fine in the village. Near the center they hear the sounds of dogs, and when they approach, they find that the source is indeed the party's dogs. The sixteen dogs are being held in a wooden pen, watched over by three White Elf guards. They catch a glimpse of one of the sleds in a nearby tent as well.

Walking up and talking to one of the guards, they learn that, as far as the guards know, the adventuring party are "honoured guests". Their orders are to watch over the animals until the party return for them. They convince the guards to let them look at the animals, which all seem to be in good health and have not been mistreated.

Soon, though, the guards tire of the party's questions, telling them to go talk to the Chief, since the guards are only doing their jobs and don't really know that much. The group agree with this suggestion, and head towards the great hall.

There, they meet another guard who bars their entrance and demands that they state their business. They tell him that they represent the adventurers and have come to retrieve their dogs for them. Since they don't have any hard proof of this, the guard is hesitant to believe them, but eventually they convince him to at least inform the Chief of their presence. He does so, and returns a few minutes later, telling them that the Chief will see them in an hour.

While waiting for the Chief, the party split up and pursue different ends. Nuptup produces a gambling set and heads out to try to make some money off the villagers. Sue heads back to the dog pen to keep an eye on it and see if anyone goes in or out of the tent where they saw the sled. Feyrith and Greg, with Snowflower accompanying them, head to the Temple of Ashes, the main temple of Soloneth, to talk to the High Priest Delenoth.

The Temple of Ashes is the largest building in the village, a roughly circular, wooden building consisting of a central, private Inner Sanctum, and the Outer Sanctum, where the general public can come to worship. Greg and Feyrith explain to Sunflower that the temple is named after a legendary miracle. In ancient times, the humans from the south were attempting the conquer the White Elves' lands, and their armies were too large and too strong for the elves to fight. But, in the climactic battle, where all of the elves' forces were arrayed against the humans in a hopeless battle, Soloneth himself took to the field, destroying the entire human army by reducing them to ash with a flurry of lightning bolts. The temple is built on this location, and the Inner Sanctum contains the ashes of the destroyed army, which the elves view as a holy relic.

Greg worked at the temple before he was taken to the king, so when he arrives, he's immediately recognized by one of the other acolytes, who is shocked to see him and asks where he's been for the last few weeks. Greg brushes off the question, and asks to speak with Delenoth. The acolyte tells him that, shortly after Greg disappeared, the High Priest declared that he needed to commune with Soloneth and locked himself in the Inner Sanctum. He has not come out since, and the acolytes were ordered to not disturb him for any reason.

Greg asks if the acolyte knows exactly why Delenoth is performing this vigil. The acolyte responds that Delenoth gave them only a vague explanation that he sensed some great threat to the White Elf people, and that he needed to commune with Soloneth to discover what it might be.

Declaring that he knows what the threat is, and that Soloneth must have arranged for his arrival here through divine providence, Greg steps towards the Inner Sanctum, with Feyrith and Snowflower following. The acolyte isn't totally convinced, but decides not to interfere. Greg opens the door, and he and Feyrith step in, with Snowflower remaining behind.

The Inner Sanctum is a circular room, containing the urn of sacred ashes in the center, with walls covered in paintings depicting Soloneth striking down the human armies. Delenoth is sitting at the far end of the room, wearing hooded robes and facing away from the door. He asks them to close the door, so Snowflower does so as Greg and Feyrith approach.

Greg steps close enough to Delenoth in order to catch a glimpse of his face under his hood. His fears are confirmed - the High Priest is undead, either having been killed and reanimated, or replaced entirely. Shocked, he calls out a warning to Feyrith.

As Feyrith prepares her holy symbol to Turn Undead, Delenoth rises with unnatural speed and lashes out at Greg with clawed hands. Greg is hit, and immediately the life is drained out of him. His lifeless husk of a corpse falls to the ground. Feyrith presents her holy symbol and attempts to drive Delenoth back, but he resists her divine power. To make matters worse, moments after falling to the ground, Greg's reanimated corpse rises up and moves to attack Feyrith as well.

In the Outer Sanctum, Snowflower hers the commotion and alerts the priests of what's happening. Deciding that he stands no chance in a fight against the undead, he flees the temple and heads for the Chief's hall.

Back in the Inner Sanctum, Feyrith falls back on her other magic, Turn Undead having failed. She summons Soloneth's aid in the form of ghostly, spiritual dragons that flit around her, attacking any enemy that gets close, as well as a ghostly spear that attacks Zombie Greg. Delenoth is able to get close and attack Feyrith with the same life-draining claws that killed Greg, but she does not go down as easily.

Feyrith realizes that she is faster than Delenoth and she can simply retreat, allowing the Spirit Guardians to protect her. Delenoth attempts to chase her down but is stopped by the spirits as she hits him with various spells, and the spear finishes off Greg. Finally, Delenoth gives and and flees the temple.

Feyrith emerges after the undead priest and chases him. But when she approaches too close, Delenoth reverses his direction and charges her. His attacks break her concentration and the Spirit Guardians vanish. Feyrith backs off, but Delenoth chooses not to pursue and instead continues fleeing.

With a final prayer to Soloneth, Feyrith summons a stormcloud in the sky above and directs a lightning bolt down at the escaping creature. Delenoth is struck directly, and instantly transformed to ash.

The temple acolytes and other bystanders are awed by this demonstration, which so clearly mirrors the miracle around which the Temple of Ashes was founded. Feyrith rallies the priests and they head out to the Chief's hall. By the time Feyrith and the priests arrive, Snowflower has just finished convincing the Chief's guards to see him. Sue and Nuptup have also arrived, having heard of the commotion sweeping through the village. They head in together to see the Chief.

Chief Aurimach is an ancient elf, sitting on a throne flanked by his two advisors. Feyrith takes the lead in explaining what has happened, with the acolytes and the other elves corroborating her story as necessary. She tells the Chief that he must take action against the undead that have been infiltrating White Elf society and controlling their king.

Aurimach is initially unconvinced, until Feyrith reminds him that the situation is so dire that even the High Priest of Soloneth has been directly turned or replaced. Finally convinced by her arguments, Aurimach agrees to call a council of Chiefs in order to discuss the situation.

Having secured the Chief's aid, the three remaining elves return to the party's encampment and retrieve the group. They make their way to the village and meet with the Chief. Aurimach asks that Feyrith stay behind to aid him, as he no longer has Delenoth to advise him, and she agrees. The party decide to continue their journey to the north, to try to destroy the undead at the source.

Session 38: File Not Found

It looks like I never wrote up any kind of report for this session, and at this point I've forgotten most of the details. The vague gist of what happened is that the party successfully stole the boats and made it across the lake to the White Elf village. They land some distance away from the village itself, since they assumed that they won't exactly be warmly welcomed by the Elves. They decide to send only Feyrith and the White Elf commoners into the village, who will attempt to convince the Elves to join forces with the party against the undead.

Session 37: The Rematch

March 25, 118

The party feel that they are too weakened to face the mysterious figures in the city above, so they decide to rest for the night. They return to the aboveground shrine and barricade the doors so the figures can't get in.

Before resting for the night, Ellyanna returns to the pool for one last experiment. She throws a flask of oil into the pool and ignites it. The oil seems to float above the other black liquid and it burns away cleanly, leaving only the same black film behind. Reusing the oil flask, Ellyanna fills it with the black liquid so she can experiment with it later.

March 26, 118

After an uneventful night, Ellyanna tells the rest of the party that she received a message from her professor back in Ember during the night, having updated him before going to sleep. In it, he commented on what they'd found in this area, telling Ellyanna that the presence of Zargon might be the disturbance that he had felt which caused him to send her to investigate in the first place. He has commanded her to continue investigating and, if necessary, stop whatever Zargon is doing.

Well-rested and refreshed, the party return aboveground and prepare to face the hiding figures. Once again, they send Ellyanna out first, hoping to be able to communicate with them. This time, the plan works, and one figure steps out to speak with her.

As soon as the figure begins talking, they recognize the voice - it is the undead woman who they fought in the dragon's lair. She tells Ellyanna that normally she would simply kill them, but she has received orders to the contrary. Her master ("General Cyrus, commander of the Imperial Legions") has instructed her to take them to him. They can either come with her willingly, or be taken forcibly.

Ellyanna tries to get more information out of the woman. She tells them that Cyrus is about a week away to the north (or two weeks for the living, who need to rest at night), but otherwise, she is tight-lipped. Ellyanna decides that she doesn't trust the offer and instead attacks, firing a trio of Scorching Rays at the woman.

As the rest of the party rush forward to help Ellyanna, the black-cloaked woman's allies also show themselves. A second black-cloaked figure steps out from a nearby building, a half-dozen skeletons rise from the ground and begin advancing, and two hulking undead ogres burst out from underneath nearby piles of rubble.

Ellyanna is dropped by a barrage of arrows from the skeletons, but Calanon hurls one of the beads from the Necklace of Fireballs, incinerating half of them and hitting the black-cloaked woman as well. Kaplan moves forward to hold off the two black-robed figures while the rest of the party heal Ellyanna and take on the skeletons and zombie ogres.

The party continue fighting until all of the undead have moved close enough to Feyrith, who invokes her god Soloneth and unleashes a wave of holy energy, driving the creatures away as she did when they first met her. Only the few remaining skeletons manage to resist; the rest of the undead begin to flee from the holy power.

The party make short work of the skeletons, and as the woman flees, Calanon throws a second bead from the necklace at her while Ash-Daughter attacks with her bow. However, the woman escapes their range before they are able to drop her, and she is faster than anyone in the party, so they have no hope of catching her.

The party know that the undead will only flee for about a minute before the effects of Feyrith's invocation wear off. Since they all ran in different directions, they decide to chase the second black-cloaked figure. They are able to keep pace with it, but it has a head start, since they finished off the skeletons and attacked the woman before giving chase.

They pursue the creature until it regains its senses, but once it realizes that it's all alone and sees the party charging towards it, it decides to keep running anyway. Realizing that they can't outrun a tireless undead creature, the party give up the chase.

However, by chance, they spot one of the ogre zombies nearby. It has also regained its senses, but appears to be just standing in place now. They charge the creature and attack it. Although it hits hard and takes a lot of punishment, it's no match for the seven of them on its own, and they destroy the creature without too much trouble.

Rushing back to the shrine, the party find that none of the undead creatures have returned and they are alone. However, they're worried that either of the black-robed creatures might return with reinforcements at any time. So, they decide to collect the White Elf commoners from below and make a run for it.

Since they need their supplies in order to keep following the bone compass, they need to return to the White Elf village to retrieve them. They ask Feyrith how they could get back there, and she suggests two options. The safer but slower option is to walk around the lake, which should take about two days. The faster but riskier option is to return to the eastern slopes of the mountain and steal the boats they arrived in. That would allow them to get to the village in only one day.

The party decide to attempt to steal the boats and, along with the four commoners, head out for the east side of the mountain.

Session 36: The Scrying Pool

March 25, 118

Passing through the secret entrance, the party move through a hallway before arriving at a door. Inside is a room decorated in bones, feathers, totems, and other shamanistic trappings. Evidently, this is the home of the bugbear spellcaster that they previously fought. They take some time to search the room, but they find nothing of interest. If the various shamanistic items inside have any use, none of the party are able discern what it might be.

Moving past this room, they arrive at (as far as they know) the last unexplored room in the complex. Inside, it is a large crypt, in which all of the coffins have been stacked to the side. The rest of the room contains a large, confortable-looking bed and a large wooden chest. Searching the room, they find nothing else of interest, except that the chest appears to be locked.

Ash-Daughter is able to pick the lock, and inside the chest is filled with coins, mostly of the copper and silver variety. Digging through the chest, they find that it also contains some black gems, several golden bracelets, two potions, and a silver necklace. Ellyanna determines that the potions and the necklace are magical.

While Ellyanna tries to identify the items, the rest of the party check out the bed, wondering if it's the same as the one they found beneath Frosthaven. Although it looks similar, it doesn't seem to be magical and they don't feel any different while lying on it. They leave it alone after Ellyanna finishes studying the items, which she determines are a Potion of Fire Giant Strength, a Potion of Clairvoyance, and a Necklace of Fireballs. They distribute the items among themselves.

Putting off further investigation of the pool room for now, the party head up the stairs and find themselves at ground level, inside a temple of some sort. The far end of the room contains a double door and two narrow, slit-like windows that offer a view of the outside. The temple looks to be similar to the shrine they found below, but unused. Where the shrine below contained a bloodstained altar and human bones hanging from the ceiling, the shrine above contains a clean, unmarked altar and empty hooks hanging from the ceiling.

Moving forward through the building, the party open the doors and look through. They find that they are in an ancient, ruined city. Only the building that they're in is still intact; the rest consist of little more than foundation stones and the occasional intact wall. However, they also see that there are several figures hiding in the ruins, watching them. They immediately back into the building and close the doors behind them.

While Ash-Daughter keeps an eye out through the windows, the rest of the party ask Feyrith if she knows where they are. She tells them that there is supposedly an ancient city on the northern slopes of the dragon's mountain, so that's probably where they are.

Several minutes pass while Ash-Daughter stays on watch, but the figures outside do not move. Suspecting that they are waiting to ambush the party, the group discuss their options. They decide to send Ellyanna out, dressed in the black robes, posing as an ally of the undead. When she steps out, they do not attack, but neither do they respond to her at all.

Eventually, the party decide that they should finish investigating the pool down below before they deal with the figures outside, so they head back down into the complex. Leaving Feyrith on watch in case the mysterious figures follow them in, the rest of the party return to the pool.

Knowing that the pool reacted when blood was dripped into it, they decide to retrieve one of the bugbear corpses and use its blood. They drag the corpse in and slit its throat, draining as much blood as they can into the pool. However, it seems to have no effect.

The party stop to discuss why the blood isn't doing anything. Eventually, they decide that it might be because it isn't fresh enough, of possibly because they blood must be drawn using the black dagger. Ellyanna volunteers to test their theory by cutting herself with the dagger and bleeding into the pool, but the hardier Kaplan insists that he take her place instead.

Kaplan steps in front of the pool and Ellyanna cuts his wrist with the dagger. As his blood spreads throughough the pool, they begin to see an image appear. The image is of a series of quivering, rubbery, mustard-yellow overlapping scales, with metal wires running across them, periodically anchored into the scales with nails and metal braces.

Kaplan keeps bleeding until he nearly faints from blood loss; at the last moment, Calanon heals him and closes the wound. At this point, the blood covers about three-quarters of the pool's surface. Wanting to see the full image, they heal up Kaplan and repeat the process until the whole surface is covered.

Once the full image is visible, they see one more detail: near the edge of the pool, they can see what appears to be the start of a colossal eye. Acting on a hunch based on the incription before the room ("Speak the Name of the Master") Dark Star speaks aloud the name "Zargon".

The image shifts as the eye moves toward the center of the pool, but the adventurers each see only a split second of movement before their minds are enveloped with searing pain. Most of the party are immediately incapacitated; only Dark Star and Calanon retain their senses. Immediately, they avert their gazes from the pool and begin healing their companions and dragged them out of the room. Dark Star risks a quick glance back at the pool, but again his mind is filled with searing pain.

Feyrith rejoins the group outside of the room and helps to heal them. They return to the secret area where the White Elf commoners are hiding and rest for an hour to recover.

Once they're recovered, the party return to the room where they fought the black ooze and double-check the statues. Comparing the four statues to the image they saw in the pools, they realize that it seems to match the depiction of Zargon. Given that it also seemed to react when Dark Star said the name "Zargon", it seems quite possible that they were seeing Zargon itself.

They return to the pool room, but this time, Dark Star goes in alone with his eyes closed. They tie a rope around him and the rest of the party holds it, ready to pull him out if anything goes wrong. Dark Star attempts to communicate with Zargon while inside, but his efforts produce no reaction whatsoever.

Eventually, Dark Star decides to risk taking another look at the pool. He discovers that the image is gone, and only the oily black substance remains.

Session 35: Statues, Statues Everywhere!

March 25, 118

Having defeated the ooze creature, the party pause and catch their breath. Ellyanna's clothes have been ruined, but luckily they are still carrying a set of robes from the Guild of the Twinborn and the robes that the necromancer below Frosthaven was wearing. Worn together they provide her with enough warmth to handle the temperature in the dungeon.

Moving past the remains of the ooze and into the room, they take a closer look at the statues. The first is of a slimy, ooze-like creature that has taken humanoid form. Its features are indistinct and hard to identify. The second, uniquely among the four statues, is made of a jet-black stone with thin veins of purple running through it. The figure it depicts is humanoid, and on its forehead is a stylized purple eye that appears to have been painted on. The third statue is of a humanoid figure wrapped around by a huge snake, which starts at its feet and wraps around its entire body, such that the snake's head is next to the humanoid head.

The fourth statue is the strangest, being a six-legged creature that is somewhat similar in build and proportion to an elephant. It is depicted in a rearing pose, and each of its legs ends in vicious claws. Its skin is covered in scales and two rows of sharp spines run down its back. Finally, its head is disturbingly human-like on the top half, but the bottom half houses two long trunks which each end in fanged mouths.

Kaplan is trained as a stonemason, so he studies the statues and tries to learn anything he can from that perspective. Based on the style and technique of the carving, he is able to say that the statues are quite old; probably around 1000 years. This seems consistent with the rest of the complex. Most are made of normal stone, but he does not recognize the black and purple stone that the second statue is made of.

The rest of the party also inspect the statues, trying to see if they can recognize the depictions or if they know anything about them. Dark Star finds the fourth statue to be vaguely familiar, but cannot put his finger on why. Calanon also recognizes the fourth statue. He recalls reading a book during his education that referred to the "Great Old Ones", a group of legendary god-like beings who are theorized by some to have long preceded the current gods of the world. This particular statue depicts a Great Old One known as Zargon.

The statues don't seem to have any magical or otherwise special properties, so the party decide to rest before continuing on. During this time, Kaplan chisels off a small piece of the black and purple statue, hoping he can get help identifying the stone later. Several others search the rest of the room. Hidden underneath a bit of smashed wood, Feyrith unearths a pair of books - one large and bound in black, and one medium-sized and bound in brown. Neither has a title or any identifying marks, and both are written in High Imperial.

Dark Star is the only person who can read the language, and he identifies the black book as a spellbook and the brown book as a ritual book. He isn't a wizard, so although he understands the language, he cannot really understand the contents of the spellbook. The ritual book he can basically understand, but it hasn't weathered the years particularly well; it is missing many pages and in many spots the ink is faded. He can tell that it pertains to a single, extremely complicated ritual, but would need more time to study it to learn more.

Leaving the room, they head down a nearby passage and eventually find themselves in front of another door. After listening and hearing nothing, they open the door and find another statue-filled room beyond. This room is slightly smaller and contains six humanoid statues, a ritual circle drawn in blood, and the dessicated corpse of a goblin.

The six statues are near identical, with each depicting a robed figure holding out a scroll. Each scroll has a single word written in High Imperial on it; the six words are "POWER", "KNOWLEDGE", "OBEDIENCE", "SECRECY", "FEAR", and "PERSEVERANCE". The third statue ("OBEDIENCE") has been smashed and is lying on the ground, although the word is still legible. Ellyanna compares the black robes that she is wearing to the robes depicted in the statues, and finds that they do seem to be similar in cut and style.

The ritual circle is fairly recent, given the state of the blood using to scribe it, and seems to be a demonic summoning circle. This most likely means that either there is a demonic creature on the loose somewhere nearby, or that this circle was the source of the monstrous ape-creature that they fought previously.

Finally, searching the goblin corpse reveals that it clearly died from a slit throat, and based on the state of the body, it has been dead for only a few days. However, something seems to have sucked the blood out from it, resulting in its dessicated appearance.

The party decide that these statues may be significant and start investigating them. They place one party member in front of each statue, trying to match each person to the word that best suits them. Counting Feyrith, there are seven people and only six statues, but Elvish wants nothing to do with the statues and waits outside. They match Calanon with "POWER", Ellyanna with "KNOWLEDGE", Feyrith with "OBEDIENCE", Ash-Daughter with "SECRECY", Dark Star with "FEAR", and Kaplan with "PERSEVERANCE".

At first nothing happens, but when they each reach out to touch their respective statue, they each feel an effect related to the word on the statue. Calanon feels stronger, Ellyanna feels more knowledgeable, and so on. The only person who feels nothing (apart from Elvish, who isn't in the room) is Feyrith, who is standing in front of the broken statue. It seems to have no effect on her.

Having learned everything they can in this room, the party continue searching the complex. A nearby branch leads them back to the central hallway, where they find several additional crypt rooms. Like the ones they've already found, these rooms are full of alcoves and disturbed coffins, with the coffins' occupants nowhere to be found. They search each room, but find nothing of interest.

In the north-western corner of the complex, the party find themselves in front of a wooden door; above it, they see an inscription written in High Imperial that reads "Speak the Name of the Master". Dark Star says the name "Zargon", while Ellyanna, remembering her studies from back in Vornheim, speaks the name "Duvan". Nothing seems to happen, so they open the door and step in.

The room beyond is dominated by a large pool of water, twenty feet across and two feet deep. At the back of the room, two stone fonts contain a mysterious black liquid, and a black-bladed ritual dagger sits between them. Dark Star picks up the dagger, and immediately starts to feel somewhat uneasy as he holds it.

Checking out the black liquid, they learn that it absorbs both fire and ice when Ellyanna throws magic at it. It also instantly snuffs out a light spell that she casts. Dark Star tries hitting it with an Eldritch Blast, which causes it to splash all over, hitting himself and Ellyanna and knocking some of it into the pool of water.

Apart from smelling terrible, it doesn't seem to have any negative effect on Dark Star and Ellyanna, but when it hits the pool water, it sticks to the surface and forms an oily sheet above the water. Deciding that this must be what it's for, Ellyanna conjures a small bowl and starts scooping the black liquid into the pool.

After a few minutes, the surface of the water is completely covered in black, but this doesn't seem to have accomplished anything useful. The party try various things that seem to have no effect, until Dark Star tries pricking his finger with the ceremonial dagger and dripping some blood into the pool. When the drops of blood hit the water, they seem to react and form a yellow-greenish color, but with only a few drops, they can't tell for certain what it is.

They briefly contemplate dragging over one of the dead bugbears and using its blood to fill the pool, but the eventually decide to finish exploring the rest of the complex before continuing to investigate the pool.

Returning to the main hallway, they bypass a few more pit traps and pass by several rooms that seem to be goblin and bugbear living quarters - now unoccupied. They scavenge through the creatures' belongings until they have enough warm clothing to provide an outfit for Ellyanna, who will need something warmer than the robes that she's wearing once they make it outside.

After passing by the living quarters, they arrive at a stairway leading up, and they can see faint light in the distance. Right before the stairs, they also discover a secret door leading to the northeastern corner of the complex, apparently the last bit that they have left to explore.

Session 34: Beating a Dead Ooze

March 25, 118

The party commence their attack on the ghouls, who are trapped behind the portcullis. The ghouls charge forward as they party pelt them with ranged weapons and spells, but they are unable to get past the iron bars and simply reach out fruitlessly with their claws. As one of the ghouls is killed, the rest retreat into the room out of the party's line of sight.

Ellyanna summons a Flaming Sphere behind the portcullis and begins rolling it around the room. Controlling it blindly, she rolls it along the walls and across the room, trying to strike the ghouls. Although she makes contact a few times, hearing a pained yelp each time, at least some of the ghouls are still alive by the time the spell's duration expires.

Since the ghouls aren't coming out, the party decide they need to head in to fight them, as they don't want to leave them behind. Kaplan and Calanon lift the portcullis and step through, at which point they are charged by the undead creatures. Kaplan is temporarily paralyzed by the ghast's poisonous claws, but overall, the party are able to dispatch the weakened creatures fairly easily.

Searching the room, they find that it is very similar to the first portcullis room that they encountered. It is the same size and shape, and contains similar alcoves and disturbed coffins. Unlike that room, which was otherwise empty, this room is filled with bones and scraps of cloth. The bones seem to have been gnawed on, presumably by the ghouls. However, they do not find anything of value.

The party continue exploring the complex, heading to a door just down the hallway from the ghoul room. Opening it up, they find a large room with no other exits. The floor is littered with smashed wooden furniture, and each corner of the room contains a statue. They can't see many details from the doorway, but they can tell that the statues are of a blobby, bloated humanoid, a jet black humanoid with purplish veins running through the stone, a humanoid with a large shape coiled around it, and a rearing, elephant-like creature with six legs and two trunks. Finally, the far-left corner of the room seems to be slightly sunken, as if the ground has shifted underneath it, and a pool of opaque, black liquid seems to have collected there.

Not trusting the room, Ellyanna decides to start shooting firebolts in order to see if anything inside is actually dangerous. A firebolt directed at one of the statues has no effect, but a second firebolt directed at the black pool causes it to rear up into a gelatinous mass and lunge towards the party!

The party attack the ooze creature as it moves towards them, but it is surprisingly fast and reaches Ellyanna before she has a chance to retreat. Reaching towards her, it tries to engulf her, and only Calanon's intervention saves Ellyanna. As it is, the touch of the creature's acidic substance badly injures her and completely ruins her clothing.

The party begin fighting a retreating battle, realizing how dangerous the slime is. Kaplan and Calanon both avoid striking it with their good weapons, worried that its touch might damage or destroy them. Kaplan grabs the unconscious Ellyanna and drags her away. Once everyone is back through the door, they close it.

Unfortunately, the ooze is easily able to seep through the cracks around the door and continue attacking them. The party try to keep away from creature and attack with spells and ranged weapons as they back away. Dark Star tries to blast it away from them with an Eldritch Blast, but it seems to have anchored itself on the doorway.

Suddenly, the creature stops moving, but not trusting this turn of events, the party keep attacking. They blast away for a over a minute, gradually splattering the ooze over the walls, before considering that perhaps the creature is dead. They're still cautious, though, because half of the creature is still on the other side of the door, where they can't see it.

The bottom half of the door has already been eaten away by the ooze's acidic body, so Ellyanna and Dark Star attack the top half with Firebolts and Eldritch Blasts, until they manage to completely blast it away. Beyond, the other half of the creature seems to be unmoving as well.

Finally convinced that the slime is dead, Dark Star repeatedly hits the body with Eldritch Blasts, blowing away chunks of it until a safe path through the doorway is formed.