• Rhinock
• Maervahr
• Iona

This session is a continuation of the exploration of the SHRINE OF HEVARGUN.

Inside of the throne room, we can see a large, granite Dwarf warrior statue here. The area has now been cleared of the previous residents. There is a large hearth that is still burning inside the chamber, upon which a deer placed on a spit is roasting. Iona pulls off the deer from the fire.

Throne is at the end of the room several old runes and some other decorative images. Rhinock reads them using his Helm of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic. The runes are largely decoration but they do indicate that this is a shrine to Hevargun. It seems like this place is at least 1,000 years old. There is the mention of something called “the challenge” and the runes give him the feeling that it is a shrine dedicated to battle as a testing ground for warriors.

The fire pit in the main room glows with purple, blue and green flames.

All is quiet.

Iona does not find any traps on the throne. She sits on the platform which is fashioned from carved stone. It looks very heavy but could be toppled off the platform.

We can see that there is a passage that branches off to the right and goes down about 20' before it turns. There are also a set of doors that mirror each other with a set of stairs that go up. The stairs open up to a larger area.

Rhinock detects a moisture in the air and we can hear a splash into water like something landing in a pond…then everything goes quiet again.

At the top of the stairs everything connects and we can see water trickling into a pool, Rhinock notices a stone goblet held by stone gauntleted hand that is carved to look like it is pouring into the pool. The pool has runes on it that say:

“If thee be stout of heart, drink and be healed in the name of the guardian.”

Rhinock takes a drink and finds that it tastes like urine. Iona also examines the water in the pool and finds that it does not smell great however it is still appears clear in appearance. The water heals Rhinock for 4 hp, despite it being fouled.

We look to the north and see an ornate door about 10' down. It has a large seal emblazoned upon it that looks like the face of the Dwarf of the statue in the Great Hall. The right arm protrudes from the door with a clenched fist and it is gauntleted. Iona checks for traps but does not find a trap however she does see a keyhole in the back of the fist.

Heading back to the scene of the fight, Rhinock, Maervahr and Iona loot all of the Orcs, Bandits, the Orc Leader, and the Butcher.

• 182 ep
• The Orcs' equipment.
• The Brigands' equipment.
• Gorthan was the leader and has equipment: a Chainmail, a Battle Axe, a Short Bow with Arrows, a Dagger, and he wore some Vambraces.
• The Butcher did not have anything that was magic
• The Chainmail and Battle Axe are both magic.

There are some light scratches on the keyhole found on the north door but there is no damage to the left door. The right door has definite signs of use with some dirt on the handle and dried dirt on the ground in front of it.

We had back to Qarn.

Back in Qarn, we regroup and bring in Sarkas and Vissalora. Iona leaves.

• SARKAS - Half-Elf Fighter / Cleric 3, AC 1/3
• MAERVAHR - Magic-User 5
• RHINOCK - Half-Orc Fighter 6
• VISSALORA - Elf Magic-User 1, AC 10/10, not keen eared.

We decide to check on who may be available in Qarn to hire:

• A Captain.
• 6 Heavy Footmen - 12 gp per day - HIRED.
• 2 Sergeants.

With our new group and the Men-at-arms, we will head back to the Shrine of Hevargun the next day.

We make it back to the shrine without issue.

Outside, we pass through the apple grove and orchard and the stream that goes up to a pool with a waterfall that trickles down the side of the hill. There are some stone structures out front that have caved in.

We find the remnants of the two campfires still outside from over a week ago. Our group had heard that there were Brigands here…and some treasure within that was guarded by Dwarven traps. There was a rumor of a ghost and one person told the party there was a Dragon involved. We killed the Brigands, Orcs, the Orc Leader and the Warg.

All the sheep that were outside are now gone. There was a charmed Brigand and about a dozen other Brigands that were still out hunting and had not returned. We discuss how the Dwarf maces have a cage, that the head is open and inside is a lump.

We have a Linkboy with a lantern.

Maervahr takes the mace out of the left side and finds that it is weirdly balanced but heavy. He lowers the mace cage and the coal lump is lit on fire. Maervahr feels as if the darkness is lifted from his soul. It is like he was burdened for days but now that feeling is gone.

Rhinock feels the same thing as he lights the other mace, both of them feel free. Both maces are now burning.

The statue is of a great Dwarven warrior facing toward the throne with a battle axe over his chest. It has the same visage of the Dwarf face that is found on the iron embossing on the back door.

The stairs on the left go to an open area where there is a carved pillar supporting a dripping ceiling. The large chamber opens to a natural cavern after 30' and the corner of the room is collapsed on the north side. There is an edge where the floor drops into a pool of water. The water in the pool is flowing steadily out into the darkness and the surrounding floor is wet. We find several old bones on the ground as well as some recently killed animals.

Sarkas tosses a rock into the water with a splash. We hear another splash in the direction the water is flowing as from something bipedal. It swims away into the darkness.

Rhinock goes closer and can see faint traces of bootprints crossing over themselves, not more than a month old. Parts of the dirt have bootprints and appear to be dragged across the dirt. The pond is very clear and there are some albino fish inside. We see a couple of crayfish poking out from the rocks. We can tell that there are no Hydra footprints.

We go to the left door which is bound with iron. Rhinock and Sarkas will open the door and Sarkas manages to get it open. The room beyond releases a musty scent. We can see on the floor that there are all sorts of unfinished furs piled up. Among the furs are some stone furnishings, some tables and chairs that have been fashioned into a sort of dingy lounge. There is also a cask and a flagon, a mug made of copper in the north west corner, a collection of weapons including a quiver with 20 arrows, some spears, a medium shield and 2 short swords, In the south east corner is a chest.

It was previously found by our party but CHIEF GORTHAN had a key.

Sarkas casts Find Traps but finds no traps. Maervahr uses Detection of Magic but does not find anything. Is the chest locked? It does seem to be locked. Maervahr opens the chest with the key and inside, finds a sack which sits amongst a pile of loose treasure

• 320 sp,
• 840 cp,
• A silver goblet.
• A silver bell.
• 10 chunks of raw amber, each of them are 2-20 gp in value. Total of 117 gp value.
• 40 gp.
• 190 sp.
• 140 cp.

Beneath the furs is another sack and we find a hollow place on the northern wall.

We start looking for secret doors but cannot find a way to open the northern wall. Instead, we just push open the door but the door is stuck. Eventually, it opens after a minute. The chamber beyond is similar to the one we were just in. There are some stone nooks and cubbies in the wall. There is one nook that is a yard off the ground.

We see no dust in the room as if it was used recently. Rhinock taps in the room looking for secret doors but after 10 minutes we all come up empty. Everything in the room is solid and there is nothing of value.

We go to the east stairs and climb up to an expansive chamber with 4 pillars. The room is filled with sacks, crates and barrels and in the center is a mountain of tree limbs and gnawed bones. They look to be spiked, covered by chains and spikes. We also find the corpses of 1 Gnome and 7 Humans. They do not have mortal wounds but all of them are dead.

Sarkas removes the bodies, the chests, barrels and the crates. He then opens a barrel and a chest and finds some sacks of grain and barrels of ale, ropes, tools, vegetables, spikes, hammers, weapons including 8 spears and 3 short swords.

We head to the northern door and find that the stone door is bound in iron. The Dwarf image is emblazoned on the door. The keyhole for this door is too big for the key we found. Rhinock tries to move the door with his fist and finds that it is made to be pulled down. It is well locked in place.

We search the statue and the throne in the throne room very carefully. The sourthern statue is solid and closed and we do not find any compartments. The throne is solid and made of stone. The shield is firmly attached. Sarkas sits on the throne but nothing happens.

We searched the room for a secret door for 1 turn and did not find anything. However, Maervahr locates a protrusion, a depressed protrusion. He presses the protrusion.

Suddenly, a 10 foot section of wall emits a grinding noise and disappears into the left wall revealing a tiny triangular chamber. It is dimly lit by a crystal jutting from the ceiling which is locatedin the far back corner. We also find a small chest and above that is a warhammer.

The warhammer is on the wall. There are no runes or writing upon it but it is of Dwarven craft. There is no ladder in the storage room and the chest has a lock on it. The chest is wooden with iron reinforcements. It is possible that we could break it open.

There is a crowbar in the other room so we take the chest back to the storage room. The chest jingles with coin and is heavy. Using a hand axe and a crowbar that we found in the room, Rhinock tries to open the chest. He snaps the chest open with a single mighty blow and wood splinters off.

Inside are several coins and a small box made of brass and iron. Rhinock continues peeling off the chest lid with the crowbar.

The box on top of the coins is a Dwarven puzzle box. It has no runes but it has many moving pieces. It has been known that Dwarven puzzle boxes usually contain treasures but can only opened by the clever.

We manage to open the puzzle box.

Inside, we find a silver holy symbol of Mote.

• 460 gp.
• 530 sp.
• 34 ep.

We got a small key, which fits, and his hand depresses when Maervahr pushes it down. This causes the door to opens slowly, revealing a dark hole beyond. A crystal glows at the far end, like the one in the secret chamber. A crystal juts from the ceiling above another stone door.

Sarkas casts Find Traps and we proceed cautiously. There is a large square about 10' long and 8' wide. It glows bright red as a trap. Sarkas sees dots of red light below the square that progress no further than a 1' along the edge of the walls. We make it to the other side without triggering the trap and there is a door before us upon which is another bearded Dwarf with a gaping maw and glaring eyes. The eyes are made of a fine metal with pupils of onyx.

The ornate key opens the door.

The onyx gems are set inside of some fine metal. It appears to be mithral!

We try to open the door for a few minutes and finally it opens into a large chamber. The chamber is dimly lit with 4 pillars holding up a domed ceiling aloft. Much higher are more crystals which emanate with light upon the pillars, about 8-10' up. It is an amber light which also illuminate some carved runes above and below the amber rings which lie in the center of a well.

The stone sides of the well are carved onto a platform / dais with just enough room to stand around the edge of the well. There are little obelisks carved with runes around the well.

Rhinock can read the Dwarven runes and they convey a message.

“HE who speaketh the secrets of the challenge shall be afflicted in all that they do.”

We identify some of the other runes as elemental binding runes, they are ones used for conjurations. Laying around the well are some corpses and several old bones. One of the bodies looks like a bandit, but is bloated and wet. One of the corpses seems crushed into a pulp. We see that the small fountain burbles from the left wall into a stone basin.

The triangular shelf holds a pile of coal along with a gnarled cudgel. Sarkas approaches the well. It is clear but it swirls and bubbles. There is no mundane cause for it and he does not see a bottom to it.

Sarkas goes to drink from the well while Maervahr starts spiking open the door. Sarkas finds that it tingles on his tongue and then he suddenly perceives some colored stones along the rim of the well. There are 4 stones: 1 yellow gold, 1 turquoise, 1 green jade, and 1 red garnet.

They look like gems. The runes that have a magic conjuration for summoning and are carved onto the pillars, by the well. There are no other objects or place to set an object. The elemental binding is set upon on the pillars.

Rhinock ignites the coal as Sarkas grabs the red gem. As he does so, the other ones fade away. Then, he looks upon the water in the well and sees that the water in the pool begins bubbling more, then starts steaming. There is a frothing, red color. The gem disappeared when he touched it and this replaced the well water with red colored water.

There is now a pile of burning coal and Rhinock smashes it with a cudgel. We find that there is no holder for the maces like in the front area. Sarkas goes to grab a piece of the coal with his sling and dumps in the water. The water continues bubbling and is now very lively and active.

Sarkas checks out the basin on the western side and still only sees the fountain, a very intentional fountain. He then goes back to the well which, thought steaming, is not giving off any heat. He says a prayer to Mote and drinks from the well…suddenly, a plume of fire erupts from a plane which sends heat down the hall too. Meanwhile, Maervahr was spiking open the door.

The column of flame begins rising until an Elemental form with arms and a head stands before us! The red water emits a huge cloud of steam.

Maervahr casts Lightning Bolt and it tears through the flames, causing little effect.

Sarkas casts Protection from Evil while Rhinock hits it with the torch. The great Elemental Flame looks at us and grows larger in size.

The form of fire unleashes a blast of flame that barely misses us! Sarkas takes 3 damage.

Again, Sarkas and Rhinock attack.

It has an AC 5 for the Elemental, which is a large one.

The column of flame does not react to Rhinock's attack and it hits Rhinock back for 5 damage.

The 3 other stones re-appear on the edge of the well. The blast would have hit anyone behind the columns but there was no one.

Sarkas grabs the green gem and there is a strong stink of sulphur.

Suddenly, oily green tentacles rise up from the well as a Chaos Spirit forms! Its tentacles flail around and snap. Sarkas presents the symbol of Mote as he recites a prayer. This has an effect and the creature is pacified, then returns to the well.

Next, Sarkas grabs the blue gem which causes the pool to churn into an icy whirlpool. Sarkas drinks from the pool, and a Water Spirit appears like a massive eel. The Spirit is pacified and returns to the pool. Now there is only one gold gem left.

He touches the final gold gem and Sarkas recovers 8 hp, He is fully healed. He then sips the clear water and it does not respond. Nothing else about the room has changed.

The runes in the room are faded now. The respective spirit was summoned and goes away.

We find a secret stone that depresses at the base. Rhinock finds it and pushes it in. This reveals short hallway that leads into a perpendicular chamber. A parallel passage has collapsed in both directions. We estimate it would take 8 hours to clear these out as it is a solid wall of rubble.

We decide to do it…

First, we will start work with the Mercenaries on removing the rubble, which will probably take 4 hours or 2 hours for 5' passageway.

After an hour we get through the collapse.

Vissalora hears a rock tumble and then after 20 minutes, a horrible crashing of rock and a snapping. The 3 Mercenaries come running out and go to stand by the door.

We decide to leave.

However, the was is blocked by 7 Wolves that are picking at the corpses near the entrance. The Wolves stop what they are doing and lunge forward to attack.

Sarkas gets attacked by 2 and takes 5 damage taken then another 8 damage. Neither of the other Wolves hit Rhinock.

Vissalora casts Sleep and 5 of them are put to sleep. The other two take 5 damage from Maervahr's Burning Hands spell.

Sarkas is attacking at -1 but Sarkas kills one. Rhinock slays the other.

We continue trying to leave the dungeon but…

Sarkas is repelled from leaving as he hits an invisible wall. Something has changed and he is trapped!

We go back and light up the torches in attempt to remove the invisible wall but still, Sarkas cannot leave. He is blocked even from the waterfall chamber that exits out through the south west. He goes to the river area and steps a foot in.

We decide to attempt the well to see if that works. Rhinock gives Sarkas the water breathing seaweed and we tie a rope around one of the pillars and to him. He puts on the leather armor from a Brigand and casts Continual Light off his scroll. The light glows forever until it is dispelled. The scroll was ID 19 and had Continual Light. He drops down and goes down into the well. It descends for 100' until he reaches a natural underwater cavern.

The place where Sarkas has arrived is entirely dark and there is no place to get air. He only sees sediment and rock with no way to get out, just like a normal cavern with no outlet. Sarkas searches around and he does not see anything…and yet, he still cannot leave.

After finding no alternative way to get him out, we decide to leave him in the dungeon alone until we can return with someone who may be able to dispel the curse or to otherwise help. Maervahr casts Invisibility on Sarkas and we head back to QARN to hire Masons.

We make it back to Qarn unhindered.

Our Mercenaries leave but we then hire a Mason who comes to supervise our dig. We've paid him 50 gp, a steep sum. We also buy a ladder and Maervahr at least replenishes his lost items. On the morning of the next day, we head out.

We arrive back at the Shrine of Hevargun and find that Sarkas was perfectly fine throughout the evening.

The group heads down to the secret room we found previously and we extract a blue glowing crystal off the ceiling from the secret room using a ladder. We ask our hireling, what does the Mason think of the work in this place? He finds it to be impressive Dwarven craftsmanship that is over 1000 years old. They paid the structure special attention and it must have taken ages to craft the runes. The place is incredibly crafted.

Upon seeing the collapse, the Mason instructs us as we work to make a 5' passage through the rubble. It takes us 8 hours until we finally clear through all of the rubble and we make it to the other side. By now it is getting dark outside so we are tired.

We have made an opening in a vestibule that leads to a door made of stone. The door is shaped like a shield on the handle and it is not rusted. The group decides that we should clear the other side as well but it will have to wait. We set up camp again.

The Mason helps us clear it out which takes approximately 3-4 hours, and discover that the area beyond is a similar situation.

Once we complete the work, we drop off the Mason with a couple sacks of silver.

Maervahr casts KNOCK on the huge stone door. There is a grinding noise as the door slowly opens revealing an octagonal chamber. Held aloft by four pillars are three intricately carved sarcophagi. Each one has a depiction of a bearded Dwarf wearing a helmet and bearing a shield with each one being slightly different from the other.

Sarkas casts Find Traps and sees a Glyph of Warding on each of the sarcophagi. One is for Blindness, another Deafness and the third is for Muteness. The pillars are smooth and not rune covered.

In order to bypass the Glyphs of Warding, Maervahr can use the Knock spell to force open the sarcophagi, preventing us from being subject to their effects. So, we head out and make camp.

After the night passes by uneventfully, we head back…

Maervahr memorizes two Knock spells and we spike open the door once we arrive. He casts the spell on a central spot in the room. The room EXPLODES with the lids flying off the sarcophagi! At the exact same time, the Glyphs of Warding have also gone off. A section of the floor in the center of the room has been blown up as well, revealing a cubby in the floor. There is a coffer inside the cubby.

Find Traps is cast but no traps are found. We inspect the sarcophagi, which are now entirely open, and all of them contain long decayed remains of Dwarves, each on has a holy symbol of Mote crafted of pure mithral. Inside of the coffer on the floor is:

• 850 ep.
• 120 pp.

Each Dwarf body still wears platemail but one bears a mace and a scroll. Another Dwarf still holds a battle axe and a heavy crossbow with 12 bolts, one of which is crafted from some type of black rock. The third sarcophagus contains a Dwarf body buried along with a shortsword and a necklace with a disk like pendant set with a blue green gem.

Maervahr uses Detection of Magic on everything. The scroll is magic, the black bolt is magic and the necklace is magic. Grabbing the necklace, nothing happens when Sarkas wears it. However, we did find that he still cannot leave the grounds of the shrine, even with the necklace on.

We re-light the coals near the Dwarf statues and once again, we all experience the feeling of a burden being removed.

Further back into the dungeon, Maervahr casts Knock on the door. It forces open revealing an unadorned octagonal chamber with 4 pillars. We can see the bones of long dead intruders scattered about the room and a single lamp hangs from one pillar.

After checking the room, we decide to head back to Qarn.

Back in Qarn…

It is at this point that we recall that we did not grab the other glowing crystals nor did we take the onyx gems. The glowing crystals are worth 25 gp each.

Sarkas takes a look at the magic scroll from the sarcophagus. It is a Scroll of Protection from Undead.

Maervahr takes the amber gems.

The holy symbols of Mote are worth 300 gp each. Sarkas keeps one.

The puzzle box is worth 500 gp.

The plate armor is all Dwarf sized and worth 200 gp each. The battle axe was not magical nor was the mace, which is a horseman's mace. The heavy crossbow was not magical.

We sell the magic bolt and get 2,500 gp for it.

Sarkas is keeping the warhammer and he can tell it has a +1 and can be thrown.

Vissalora takes the scroll.

We get 1,363 xp from coin.

Rhinock gets 1431 xp. Maervahr gets 1431 xp.

Vissalora gets 2931 xp.