• Jek Brinlock
• Sapphira
• Hendrix
• Alexios
• Fothas
• Oswald
• Galador
• Keisial

The items we have gathered so far:

• A small bronze tube with a twist.
• A small tube with blue liquids.
• 4 vials of oil.

We are heading out and start making our way back to the surface. There are no encounters on the way out of the dungeons of Mon-Karag.

Back in Mombafra, our fallen companions gain consciousness eventually. Sapphira and Hendrix are going to recover in bedrest. There is healing done in Mombafra after we pull out companions out but the others are heading back into Old Mombafra and the Mon-Karag Bastion the next morning.

It is proposed that if we destroy the Icon of Sleal, it would be worth a Scroll of Protection from Demons and the neophyte Paladins in the area could become henchmen, if we so choose.

The Luminous Coin is offering us a gold reward for the Icon and the Skyway also wants the icon in exchange for a gold reward. Doing this will give us an “in” with the Skyway, allowing us to eventually incorporate Thief-Acrobats into the party.

The Temple of the Flame (Sleal) is offering us a gold reward and a Regeneration spell, a Ressurection spell or a Restoration spell.

Jek knows that the Luminous Coin is offering 20,000 gp for it.

We arrive back into the dungeon without any encounters along the way.

As we are re-entering the Throne Room…

We can hear skittering insectoid sounds echoing in the darkness.

Jek goes to Hide in Shadows when 4 Scorpion Creatures come into view and our party is engaged.

Jek attempts to make a backstab and hits! He does 2 damage to one but the creature is not killed.

• Alexios is missed.
• Oswald is also missed.
• Fothas is hit for 7 damage!

Jek attacks again and hits, doing 1 damage with a short sword. This actually kills one! Alexios also kills one and Keisial does 2 damage to another.

Alexios is struck and takes 5 damage and then Jek retaliates again and does 2 more damage. One more is killed as Galador does another 6 damage.

We have dispatched all four Scorpion Insects.

A turn passes after combat.

We make it back into the falling chandelier room and take the stairs that go beyond the door. They descend downward about 15 feet.

There are also some stairs going up from this room that lead to the east and a door is found on the south wall. This area appears to be a modest bedroom or quarters but is now the former den of Goblins. There are a bunch of rags and filth in the room, a large collection of rags. In the north west corner is a brass bell.

Jek begins searching for traps at a 50% success chance. He does not find any traps but Oswald finds a crate that is filled with about 20 pounds of metallic powder. We can see that the stairs lead up to a door.

As we investigate, we see that the bell is hanging about 5' from ceiling and is about 10' up. It looks almost like a servant's bell.

We decide it is time to head back. We are heading back to the surface with the treasure we have collected so far.

We return to the central chamber and start raising the items up the rope when we hear a noise up the eastern corridor and the sound of a heavy door closing softly.

Jek tries to Hide in the Shadows again. Coming into the light are 5 Giant Ants and immediately, Keisial shoots at them. They have AC 3.

We are now entirely in melee with the Ants. Jek attempts to backstab one from the shadows. There are 2 attack on Alexios. He is hit by one and he takes 1 damage. Galador takes 5 damage and Keisial takes 4 damage. Oswald is missed, luckily and there is another missed attack on Fothas. Jek does actually manage a backstab and kills one!

In the next round, the party kills 3 more!

Keisial hit the biggest one for 8 damage and Galador hits for 9. Next up, Keisial hits for 1 damage, which killed one and now there is only one left.

Jek does 2 damage to it and we kill the last one easily!

The rest of the way back to the surface above is uneventful.

• Chandelier bits are worth 565 gp.
• A snakeskin lockbox.

Jek successfully rolls to unlock the snakeskin lockbox…Though, it is actually magically locked. JEK CAN'T OPEN IT.

Fothas opens the locked box after he rolled a bend bars to get into it. There is some folded vellum inside and Jek cannot decipher it. It appears that there is some kind of magic inscribed upon it. It is a small piece of vellum that is written in Dwarvish and upon which is scrawled:

“three drums at dawn, two at noon, five at sunset”

There are also two Magic-User spells: darkness 15' radius and fly.

We are selling the scroll for 1,500 gp.

We get 400 gp for each of the tobacco types for a total of 800 gp.

The vial of light blue liquid is worth 400 gp and the 4 vials of oil are worth 10 gp each for a total of 40 gp.

Everyone is getting 539 xp worth of gp.

• 524 gp, 30 ep each.
• 739 xp for Jek.

Jek is currently at 28,528 xp.

• Kradosk Gort - ASN2, Ring of Invisibility (id 103). The ring normally take one round to recover, but this one behaves differently. It recovers whenever he lands a backstab or it takes a turn to recover.
• Kalag - Half Orc ASN1 - AC 6/7, med shield, MV 12“, Doors 1-3, Listen 1-3, 17,13,10,15,12,6, hp 6, AL NE.
• Jek - THF6
• Irayas - THF
• Oswald - CLR
• Arig - FTR1 (1 hp)
• Reichgard - MAG. Bringing a Ring of Invisibility (id 101).

• Oswald caught a parasite and must add his upkeep to his loan. He has contracted a TERMINAL INTESTINAL PARASITE! He loses 1 STR and 1 CON and must pay 400 gp for a Restoration spell to recover these.
• Sapphira is now XP capped.
• Jek pays 600 gp upkeep and passes the infection rolls. Jek is going to look for a contact at the Skyway but he does not have much success. Kleshy and Nepso, the two Gnomes we rescued in Mon-Karag, tell Jek to shut up about the Skyway. They can get him in but it would require hundreds of gold. He pays 20 gp…and they still instruct him about how to contact the Skyway. He must show up beneath a particular Streetlight. Then, in the dead of night below the streetlights, a dark maroon caped contact will appear. Jek goes to meet with them and indeed, he does encounter this individual. He does not introduce himself but says that the Skyway is rewarding 15,000 gp for the Icon. He tells Jek that he would do well to make friends. The Skyway is spread across the continent but the Luminous Coin is only found in Mombafra.
• Oswald casts Continual Light on 5 copper coins.

The party hires four Porters and Oswald gives two Continual Light coins to Jek.

We then head back, down the well and once again, into the ancient halls of Mon-Karag Bastion.

We arrive back where we were amidst the Dwarven ruins when we hear a skittering and chattering sound down the west hallway.

Jek launches a continual light coin down the hall and then we hear that the scampering is fading off into the distance. Whatever it was, ran off.

We are going toward the west where we find that there is a burnt door as the end. Jek retrieves the “luminous coin”.

As we open the door to an empty room, we see a circular stone table that is all covered in a thin layer of mate gray soot. We take in a subtle metallic scent in the air…

The metallic powder is in the other chamber…

We come across more Dwarvish writing which states:

THE GODSHIELD SHIELD GREAT GEB

There is a another door to the west. The soot scattered all around resembles the powder we found in the other room. Jek gathers up some of the soot and then we test it out with a torch. It burns like magnesium.

There are several tripwires in here and we trigger the trap! The entire room illuminated in bright light!

THIS CAUSES BLINDNESS!

Suddenly, at the same time, the door swings open and incoming are more of these Deep Goblins.

• Jek charges into them.
• Irayas is blind and cannot act.
• Oswald casts Hold Person.
• Kalag charges into the noise.
• Reichgard is invisible and begins backing away.
• Kradosk backs away. He is also invisible.
• Arig is unconscious.

7 Goblin Archers shoot at the party.

• Irayas takes 5 damage.
• 12 arrows fly at Kalag and HE IS DOWN!
• 2 arrows barely miss Jek!
• Irayas is hit twice for 7 damage and he is now at -3 hp. DOWN!!
• 2 more arrows shoot at Jek, but they MISSED AGAIN!

In the back of the group of Goblins, one big Goblin with an eyepatch approaches with a nasty looking black arrow nocked. The arrow goes after Jek, the Halfling Thief! Luckily, the black arrow MISSES JEK! However, before it hits the wall, the arrow flips back and goes back to the big Goblin.

Oswald targets the big Goblin with the arrow as two other Goblins fail their saving throw against Hold Person. The big Goblin also FAILS! Jek charges into the Goblins with his twin daggers and kills one! Four of them are not dead or held. Arig, our fallen companion, loses 1 hp as he continues to bleed out.

• Kradosk is no longer blind and fires 2 arrows into the Goblins.
• Jek attacks a Goblin.

There is now only a single Goblin that is still moving! Two of the held Goblins take max damage as blood begins to pour out of them. Jek misses and the Goblin misses Jek. Reichgard can still see.

Jek continues to fight the Goblin and the Goblin tries to attack Jek with the black arrow. Jek dodges the blow and then the Goblin is murdered.

We bind the wounds of the fallen.

Kradosk has taken this arrow and sees that it has poison on it. The arrow is incredibly crafted but is a strangely shaped arrow.

Jek searches the bodies and finds:

• On the big guy with the black arrow: 8 gp.
• 9 vials of poison, taken by Kradosk.
• 71 sp.

Reichgard inspects the map on the wall and finds that it looks solid. It is somewhat abstract and smooth but looks more like a decoration. It is centered on Ikuzingu, which is across the eastern ocean. It also shows Die-Tor and Wyrin'wa.

Kalig and Arig are now conscious as Jek and Oswald open the door.

We enter what appears to be an Officer's bed chamber only now it has been repurposed into a Goblin den and is in a very bad state. The objects in here have been sitting in here for a long time. Searching through, we find nothing of value.

Jek and Kradosk search for secret doors. At one point, Kradosk's fingers go through the wall!

Oswald casts Find Traps but finds no traps in the chamber. Reichgard takes his 10' pole and pushes through the wall. He finds that it goes about 2' in. Oswald pokes his head in and it looks like he finds an alcove.

Reichgard looks down the hallway and Oswalds leg bumps into the stone wall near the ground. He sees no indication of traps but there is some slag, or melted stone on an undamaged portion of the wall.

The party decides to leave and head up to Mombafra.

We make it back to the surface without issue. Twenty minutes after leaving the dungeons we are back, walking through the city. We pass by a Man in full-plate armor leaning against a building. The Man calls over to us.

In a low voice he begins talking to us and we can tell that he has seen a lot of battles.

“What can you tell me about that well?”

We ask him his name and he tells us his name is Varen. In response, we introduce ourselves and give our names. Oswald has been exploring the dungeon for the Temple of Riswa. He knows that lots of people have been exploring that place down the well.

He gives us 100 gp for any useful information and then he watches us as we leave.

• Jek
• Fothas
• Reichgard
• Kradosk
• Oswald
• Galador
• Rhinock

• Rhinock caught an acute disease but it is mild and has no long term effect on him.
• Kradosk is unable to identify the poison he found.

Rhinock, Galador, and Fothas are on doors now.

With our updated party, we head back to the ruins down the well.

Jek moves silently as we go.

When we arrive back at the illusionary wall, Fothas feels a smooth, well-like wall. He is hoisted across to the other side. Jek follows through with his luminous coin.

On the other side, we see a dead Deep Goblin at the bottom of some stairs. It is apparent that the body has been torn up by Rats and there are two wall sconces. One of them is bent downward and each one is flanking the dead Goblin.

Jek starts looking for traps. He notes that the corpse is covered in a yellow powder and some of it is now gone. There are several regular sized rats lying dead around the body as well.

Jek inspects the walls and determines that there was a trap triggered by the left side sconce. The area smells like chili-powder.

Seeing that this is a trap, we go back to the fountain room with the Tiger. As we go, there is suddenly a bang and a flash. Jek ducks down and covers himself with his cloak.

We dont hear anything after the bang and Jek is un-blinded. He quickly goes to hide in the shadows. The other characters can see after 3 minutes.

The fountain is not filled with anything but there is a depiction of a miniature tiger and a bull. There is no water but we find a 1/2 inch wide opening. Jek does not see any powder lying around as we previously had in the other room.

We are back in the chamber with the bell. Jek looks for traps on the south door and finds that there is no dust or traps.

Down the next corridor and carved into waist high alcoves are some intricate carvings of Dwarves. They have the appearance of a 5' tall statue and they look un-ravaged. They are all completely untouched.

As we go, we identify one. This statue is of Golhun the Hurricane, a famous hero. He was a Dwarven hero of Good and was considered an incredible warrior. He was killed Demons and Eldritch Beasts.

In here, there is is also no powder.

We go to open the door to the north east, past the chamber of the fountains.

The door opens and we go down a hallway.

The group is stopping halfway down to check the slope of the passage but we do not detect anything. Jek checks the north door for traps and we do not find anything.

The hallway turns south where we find another door on the west side of the corridor.

The door opens into the Latrine of Royalty. We can see the actual latrine is in the back of the room along with a shelf made of stone. We find three stone tablets with Dwarvish writing. They say:

The Fifteen Memories of Chin-wol - brief versus on peace and reflection. 

The latrine drops off straight down to the bottom but it does not smell like a latrine. We drop a rock and the rock lands on the bottom of the latrine hole. Searching further, we find nothing in the bathroom.

As we head south down the corridor, we hear light footsteps that quickly go away.

Jek fires his luminous coin down the hall as far as he can with his sling.

When we get to the corridor, there is an unusual metal looking wall about 2.5' high. It is above the ground level.

SUDDENLY EVERYTHING GOES BLACK.

None of our magical lights, luminous coins, magic swords, etc. break the darkness…except, Rhinock's sword saves against the magical darkness.

The holy symbol of Oswald failed to save, however, nothing actually goes out. The light persists and we can see a shadow around the corner…however, we don't know what it is.

Jek pulls out his sling as something starts running fast. We can see it directly down the hallway but still, do not know what it is.

Jek goes up ahead as the form runs around the corner. He pursues quickly, moving fast down the halls. He passes by a statue of a snake to his left as he runs past then it goes to the right. Jek keeps chasing it.

A door is open and the form moves into another room. The rest of the group catches up as Jek holds the door.

The door opens into a chamber with an enormous tapestry dedicated to MOTE on the west wall. It appears like Mote as the aspect of the “Man in the Sea”. He stands on the shore of some body of water with his robes billowing out behind him. His other hand is shielding his face from the sun. The tapestry is majestic, despite its age. Mote is the god of wonder and libraries.

We also see a curved bench but otherwise the room appears empty.

We head through the southern door and find some stairs in a wide hallway. Now, we realize where we are.

As a rule, Rangers can track indoors as long as they have seen their target.

We see that the room to the south has been blackened and is covered in a thick carbonation. There are no obvious signs of footprints in the carbonation.

Oswald casts Find Traps and the entire floor lights up for him. There are some pressure panels along the carbon path, which is heavily trapped.

Jek launches a luminous coin down the hall with his sling and it flies past the trapped carbon edge of the room. There are some stairs going down to a stone structure of some kind. It appears to be similar to Ain the Traveler and the area looks like a bunker with an opening slot for shooting on the south side.

Jek knows the he can disable traps without triggering them.

We link up our maps over the past 1/2 hour.

We return to the passage and the statue. It is a twisted Serpent depicted as an aspect of Nefer. The statue is depicted as crushing the subterranean enemies of the Dwarves. The bottom of the shrine is made of obsidian.

We know that Avernum is deep beneath the planet's crust. The statue looks golden, traced with silver. It is also approximately the same age as the rest of the place and despite the god, it is not an evil shrine.

Jek searches around the statue for anything potentially trapped. He finds no moving pieces or anything, it is stable and just the statue.

We inspect the metal door. It has an intricate lock that would accept a “rod” type key.

To the west of the door is a great cooking chamber where chains hang over an enormous burner. There are numerous implements lying around but nothing valuable. The implements look rusted and unusable.

• 4 Dwarven mugs made of stone that weigh 30 coins each.

There is a door to the south, at a “T” intersection and a hall to the north with another door to the north.

Jek tries to pick the lock and HE ROLLED A 3! The door unlocks!

We enter a circular chamber, a room that is dominated by an enormous machine. It has been identified quickly as an obscenely large telescope and it is pointed at the ceiling.

The telescope is constructed of fine and intricate parts and there has been no recent maintenance done on it. There are shelves along the edges of the room to the north and south.

The shelves are all empty but there are cupboards below. We search this room thoroughly.

The cabinets are all mostly empty except for some dried ink, some quills, some odd pieces of brass, silver and other metal, some rusty tools, and some stacks of worn vellum that has mostly been worn away.

We also find something rounded and rectangular wrapped in a brown cloth. Inside is a leather container with straps that is holding two vials. There are four other loops inside the leather container that are currently empty. On the left side is a tube that rolls out with a twist top on.

Fothas opens the tube and finds a rolled up parchment. It is thick and delicate and appears to be a scroll with arcane runes on it. Fothas pulls out the rest as it is all on one big scroll.

• 2 vials.
• Scroll with arcane runes.

We have been underground for 5 hours so far. Jek takes a look through the telescope and sees great bright light. There is great light coming through the telescope but we do not see anything else.

We decide that we must leave and will come back later.

JEK RE-LOCKS THE DOOR TO THE TELESCOPE.

The north door has a carved symbol of a hearth fire and two moons. Everyone knows that this symbol represents Venha.

We open it the second time revealing a stone table and a chair facing us. There is a four level chest of drawers and a steel ring on the back chamber where nothing hangs. We also see a four-post bedframe.

Kradosk finds satin finery in the drawers though they are no longer fine. He also locates a steel box with a clasp on it.

Fothas finds that the desk is empty except for one drawer that is locked. Jek searches it but does not find any traps. He picks the lock successfully and opens the lock. The drawer is opened and a Glyph of Fire manifests!

Jek succeeded on his save.

Some of us duck behind the stone table and chair facing the door or the bed frame in the corner or behind the chest of drawers at the foot of the bed.

Kradosk is out of range but we will all take 22 damage from fire if we failed the save, half damage for others that did save.

DM checks for some things…the first thing inside the drawer is destroyed and a second thing saves. The drawer explodes, dealing damage to those in range. Reichgard is knocked unconscious!

A silver amulet is now blasted to pieces but laying beside it is a metal tube, like a bronze tube.

Cure Light Wounds is cast and Reichgard is healed for 2 hp. Jek is healed for 6 hp.

Fothas opens the tube and inside is a rolled up tiny parchment containing two columns of Dwarvish numbers. We wonder if they are related to the telescope?

3 7 
1 8 
9 4 
6 10 
12 2 
11 5

The party departs once again and we make it back to the surface without issue.

We have checked the lockbox:

• 12 vials of clear liquid

We decide to sell the scroll and the 2 vials along with all these holy waters

It is sold for 10,379 gp.

• 1,478 gp each.
• Jek gets 1501 xp

• Kradosk gets the magic black arrow and gains 1826 xp.

JEK PAYS 1,500 GP TOWARD LOAN and now has 13,038 gp in debt.