When we last left Sarkas was still trapped in the shrine. We could not find a way to free him so he ended up camping out inside while under the effects of an Invisibility spell.

This time we are bringing a Paladin. Paladins can only adventure with a neutral character one time.

• Sarkas
• Rhinock - FTR 6, +2 longsword
• Maervahr - MAG 5
• Thorgard Grudgebearer - Dwarven FTR 1, STR 15 CON 16, AL CG, Geos. AC 3/3, Med Shield, Move 9“ Doors 1-2
• Dalakai Deathbane - Paladin 1 AC 4/4 Med Shield. Mov 9” Doors 1-3 Longsword, +2 Spear

It is the start of a new year and is now 495.

The New Year's Celebration is also the Festival of Geos.

The party is in Gren but one of our number, Sarkas, has been invisible within a room located within the Shrine of Hevargun for one week, which he has not been able to leave due to an invisible force. If Sarkas is to live permanently within the shrine, it would lower his upkeep by 5 gp a month! Act now!

The first few nights were uneventful for Sarkas. He would occasionally hear the voices of Orcs or Hobgoblins milling about the Shrine passages, in the distance and from an area close to the entrance. After 15 minutes, however, there would be no more shouts. The voices only happened on the 4th day.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group sets out for the Shrine of Hevargun. Maervahr was also back in Gren and is joining.

When we arrive at the entrance, there are no more signs of a Bandit encampment. We enter the shrine…and must immediately…

Past the entranceway, there are the signs of a battle. We can see flashes of movement coming from up the stairs, it is a small groups of very large Rats. There are a total of 8 Giant Rats.

Maervahr goes psionically invisible. Some in our group move to attack the Giant Rats and they charge into us.

There are melee attacks against the Rats and in this case, the Giant Rats are Evil and have AC 7. This will allow us to be protected by the Paladin's aura of Protection.

Rhinock gets a sweep across multiple rats and hits 6 of them. Rhinock wipes them out almost completely! The other Rats charge the party. Thorgard kills one.

Soon, we have destroyed them all and there are no more Giant Rats in this area of the shrine.

We took the bodies outside even though the Rats were inside.

We pass through the halls and find nobody else has been here. However, Sarkas is here, invisible in his corner of the room. Dalakai Deathbane greets him and he hands Dalakai a spear. It is a 6' spear (id 10).

We go into the room with the river. There are small rivulets of water dripping down and the water reflects colorfully. With a continual light cast upon a holy symbol, we find that the pool is 15' deep at the deepest. Maervahr can see that the water is running and can see crayfish and tiny regular fish moving about.

Maervahr uses his Necklace of Adaptation to go under water and explore. Beneath the water, he finds plenty of fishbones, a lot of them, along the floor of the pond. The stream branches and a wider part opens to the east. The passage continues and opens into another pond and the Cleric's continual light enchantment illuminates the area just as Maervahr comes face to face under the water with 5 creatures that look like bipedal fish!

Maervahr instantly goes invisible psionically. The creatures are thin and lanky. He can also see that there is an elevated part at the end.

Maervahr attempts to parley and they speak with him.

These creatures are Fishmen and they are not nearly as powerful as Kuo-Toa. They prefer to avoid trouble with Lizardmen. They consider themselves to be skilled hunters. One of the Fishmen juts up to the surface and points at the surface. They speak some sort of crude language that Maervahr cannot understand.

Maervahr goes to the surface and makes himself visible. There is a Fishman standing boldly on the edge of the land here. He has a spear and is wearing a stone necklace. The spear's tip is made of black stone (obsidian).

The Fishman opens his big mouth. “What you want?”

Maervahr begins to politely ask them about the situation here. He says, “Orc was magically bound. Orc was magically bound. Some time ago, a couple of weeks ago. Loud occupants in adjoining shrine, none ever came down in the direction of their lair.”

The Fishman continues, “He heard that there were many arguments, back into the shrine, hunting duty, risk getting killed by Giants. Leader was unable to leave the shrine. Shrine is cursed, Fishmen is safe. Fishmen have spear tips waiting out. They could swim to the western channel, end up out.”

“Fishman asks for good rocks. Fishman takes the agate in his hands, tries to absorb it. His name is DUB'OOL we are welcome in their land for dinner.”

Maervahr asks about what lies beyond, further down the river. Dub'ool says, “Though there are kind clean waters outside the hills that contain many good fish, there is also a Giant in these hills that they have seen more than once.”

Maervahr returns to the group with the story from the Fishmen. This may be a way for Sarkas to leave, so Maervahr loans him the Necklace of Adaptation. Sarkas sinks to the bottom and tries to go further beyond but finds, once again, that he cannot leave. He comes back to the surface. The necklace worked for him but only for going underwater. We head back to the shrine proper.

Dalakai prays to Mote. This Shrine of Havergun was named after a Champion of Mote. It was named after the defender of the hills from long ago, back when there were more Dwarven settlements in this land.

We have the key and make our back to the room with the halls and pillars. There, we find the remnants of the burned cudgel. Back at the stone door, and into the spiral staircase that descends into the earth. It disappears down and we do not reach a second level. The stairs go straight down, for 20 minutes we go downward, steeply. Eventually the stone becomes black as if it has taken wear but has sturdy Dwarven craftsmanship.

After a half hour, the tunnel opens up into a cavern. On the black stone walls is a bioluminescent fungus and there is a small building ruin that appears to have been built by Dwarves long ago. It is about 50' x 50' in size. Maervahr suspects that this is an entrance to Vernum, the Underdark. We are in great danger.

Vernum is known to be honeycombed with veins of ore and has large, underground lakes along with enchanted pools and fearsome monsters. There are areas that are controlled by Drow, Duergar and Deep Gnomes, Liches, Beholders and Mindflayers are thought to dwell here. These monsters are often friendly with one another and they have an untold numbers of Drow that they work with.

Maervahr looks for any sign of life and sees some larger than normal insect parts and a couple of remnants of corpses. There are no tracks in the dirt but beyond the building, there is a drop off into a larger cavern. The ruined building is built upon the precipice of the cave.

Dwarves would often construct guard stations to defend their shrines, to defend them against the denizens of Vernum. It is easier to defend against Vernum when it is higher in the earth. Dwarven guard posts are usually located on the edge of Vernun because the Dwarves have an interest in the depths. It is not unheard of to exist in places like this but it is very uncommon to be built in this land except in the far mountains to the east, in Jardun.

We search the building. Sarkas pulls out his magic scroll and casts Augury. The spell is cast at level 4, it is 74% accurate. The Augury tells us that further exploration may lead to the death of us all, but not today. It may also lead to the lifting of the curse, but not today.

Sarkas will relay that to everyone else. We feel that it would be a bad idea to keep going. Though, we are probably not going to die today. Sarkas asks, “what was the phase of the moon when we first visited?” It was a Waning crescent.

We search the ruined guard posts and find nothing of monetary value. We do find two stone slab broken into halves. It is evident that they were once a whole. There are Dwarven runes but Thorgard finds a stone tube with a cap. Inside is a scroll of parchment or vellum. The dwarf tries to read it.

The runes on the stone slab, which currently lies on the ground, read as GUUN-WOL. It is a pronoun or the name of a place.

Inside the tube, upon a scroll made of vellum, are old Dwarven runes that read:

“The Drow are expected to complete their edifice by the close of Ra's spring. The curse-webs spread and push the Kuo-Toa ever nearer. Forgeking Durirgin commands Guun-Wol be abandoned and the way sealed. Overwatch of these tunnels is to cease immediately.”

Forgeking commanded a great swath of land. Throgard has heard of him he recalls. His descendants might still be alive in the mountains of Jardun.

We head back out of this area of Vernum and return to the surface levels.

Rhinock could not read the runes above the triangular firepit but Thorgard CAN read them : “Be thee not of the folk, suffer in all that they do.”

Sarkas has not defaced any of Mote's stuff in here. He is a Half-Elf, Sarkas. Someone with Dwarven characteristics could be welcome into the Grudgebringer clan. We need 4 hours of meditation and then somewhere to restore spells.

There are Skeletons and an un-illuminated lantern in the area. We further discuss how Kuo-Toa are EVIL DEEP ONES. Sarkas meditates in the room with the well.

Meanwhile, we meet with the Fishmen who do not react to the mention of Drow but Kuo-Toa causes Dub'ool to shudder. He knows nothing about these things and says that none of his tribe has ever left this waterway. They traveled from another place through the hills long ago to arrive some time ago, they came from the outdoor pond found on the other side of the hill. Their original tribe was torn apart by Lizardmen but they are safe here because big things cant fit through from outside.

Thorgard can see that both of these hallways were collapsed intentionally and there is only a small chance of a cave in. There is other rubble elsewhere that is also somewhat precarious.

After discussing some possibilities, Thorgard can make a plea to the ancestors of the shrine…Maybe the spirits will let Sarkas leave. The area of the flames was not a forge, it is a fire pit and was probably a centerpiece. We believe it would be a more important piece to the shrine, perhaps the source of the curse. If a curse was laid upon Sarkas, it is possible that asking for forgiveness would remove it, if the source of the curse can be determined. At least it might give him another chance to shrug off the curse.

There was also the Warhammer, of Dwarven make, it has been given to Thorgard. He wants to lay the hammer on the well in a bold attempt at a Dwarven trial while in possession of a Dwarven weapon. After blesses the warhammer and the well ahead of him and beseeching the forces that have bestowed the curse from beyond the plane. However, it is apparent that the things that he mentioned were not the source of the curse.

Sarkas now has a mithral Dwarven holy symbol of Mote and we sold the others. Vissalora told Maervahr about this idea when we attacked the shrine guardians, but Sarkas was not the only ones to do so.

Sarkas also sat on the throne which may have been the reason he was cursed. If his apology is true, perhaps the curse shall be lifted. Sarkas listens to Thorgard's instructions…and the curse is lifted.

We return to Gren.

• While staying at the Haunt in Gren, a young thief named ROMO is drinking his sorrows away. He has found that he was now an amnesiac and cannot recall anything over the last year. He provides Maervahr with a key. The only thing that he can remember is this key goes to a tower in the Valley of the red sun. He says, “It's yours Maervahr. I will not go back for any gold imaginable.” The Valley of the Red Sun is 30 miles north of Mombafra, which is the biggest city on the edge of the wilderness. It is known as the Last City. It is the place where there are no more cities just towns and inns beyond. There is also an active volcano that produces a black smog within the valley and causes the valley to appear red from the obscured sun. ROMO just has a feeling that he won't ever go back.

• The Tower of the Forgotten Master is controlled by a Wizard with an indifferent domain over some hamlets in the Red Sun Valley. He involves himself not at all with the settlements and does not care for them, nor do the hamlets interact with the Forgotten Master. The Forgotten Master maintains control over the domain with a group of flying Dinosaurs. It is not just the ones in the far west, he has secret ability to summon a great Dinosaur from time immemorial and it keeps watch over the valley. Folk in his employ that fly over the valley will deal with any great threats. The Forgotten Master is just one man that keeps to his studies and does not keep a standing army.

• 30 miles north of Mombafra is Starling which is the only village in the Valley of the Red Sun. The Valley would be open to our group, including to the Tower of the Forgotten Master.

• The Crimson Galleon is an abandoned hideout. When it was last found, they found a sarcophagus of the fallen leader, including a magic cloak, Iskandar was killed within this place but was brought back by the cloak. The magic cloak was destroyed by this power. It was initially from a rumor that we heard about the place and it was thought that the magic cloak could provide information of the future.

We are back in Qarn and headed to the village of Riknettle, Riknettle is 30 miles from Mombafra. We will travel to Riknettle, then depart again the next day. Maervahr casts Invisibility on himself. We arrive late in the day but the roads are safe.

Rhinock pays his upkeep and Maervahr pays his upkeep.

We discuss the spell Word of Recall and the rules for a sanctuary.

After a few hours, we veer off to the east of the road and head back to the Crimson Galleon.

We are on the same hill where we killed the Giant Scorpion. Camped outside are 14 rough looking men, Brigands. They are posted around a small fire and appear to be cooking a goat. We are at a distance of 80 yards and it is known that Brigands are evil Men of Chaos and they care not for their fellow man.

Due to surprise, we will get triple rate of fire, They are 8“ away and we must hit AC 8/8. Sarkas kills one. Rhinock charges up to 2”, We are now at 6“ away. We kill three more!

The Brigands are shot to pieces. Of the group, 4 have fallen, 1 is wounded, they are below 20% of their number. When they see their allies drop, they turn to see the Paladin and a Half-Orc, they decide to fucking book it!

The remaining 10 Brigands flee in total panic, going in different directions. They are gone by the time we get to their camp.

There are 4 bodies lying here with a bunch of scattered short swords. They have some horses and they have a cart with two draft horses. All the Brigands dropped their short blades.

We take their Draft Horses and cart along with 14 short swords and 4 suits of leather armor.

• 21 gp.

We reach the tower and go to the base of the hill. Here, we find the door that was built into the side of the hill with a small opening above it.

This was the hideout of a number of Assassins.

As we go down the stairs, Sarkas casts Find Traps.

It feels like the upper room is hot enough to melt our shoes. Sarkas has the Continual Light spell already cast and we use that to light our way.

There are 6 Huge Centipedes in various states of crawling on the walls. Despite their 2' long size, we can attack first. They have AC 9 and there are a total of 6 of them.

Thorgard slays one and then two more go down. Dalakai Deathbane kills another one. Rhinock does 4 damage to one, which kills it. We kill all 6 of the centipedes quickly and easily.

We come into a room with four columns and a stone guardian. Then we proceed further and come to the door at the bottom of the stairs. We continue down to a spiral staircase.

In another chamber we find a long table with chairs along the edge. The head chair was previously taken and sold. We also see a section of a tree trunk that is bigger than anything we have seen and sailing ship painting. There are Fishmen in the painting and the table is about 20' long. They previously found a key inside of it along with 8 bunks and some hammocks that were hanging. We can see that the stairs descend down into the earth.

Sarkas once again casts Find Traps…

There is the faint glimmer of a trap just through the door, located in the general area to the right side.

Rhinock, Dalakai and Sarkas are on door duty.

The Find Traps highlights 3 floor panels.

Inside is a statue of a creature with wings that stretch around a dome. Its left has big spikes and it is about 3' tall and bolted into stone ground. There is an impaled corpse that dangles with an empty backpack. We can see down the stairs from here and can hear the soft voice of singing coming from the left, which is to the west.

The song is known. It is the tale of of 8 killers laying their leader to rest and the song does not cease. Down from the darkness is where Randimir and Iskandar told Maervahr was where they found the crypt. Just beyond the light, we can see the head of a huge serpent with eyes that have been replaced with red disks that shine in the light. There is a gigantic snake guarding the well and they were able to slay it.

We go down the shallow steps and find a pool of clear water that is the source of the singing. We get the feeling that it was the 8 that killed the master. The song begins again as we start opening the door. We push it open and find inside, there is a sarcophagus. It is not human sized but it is a huge square thing, There are multiple corpses inside and the fuzzy hint of radiation from a trap within the sarcophagus. The lid is massive and has an inscription on it. Something inside will trigger the trap from about 1-2' inside. Something is trapped inside that is not linked to the sarcophagus.

There is an inscription written in common:

“Mckavity mckavity, nothing like a cat like of this depravity.”

We lift with great difficulty the slab revealing a resplendent red velvet burial sheet. Wrapped tightly in burial bandages is a small cat shape. It is mummified along with some ropes, strings, little balls and some cat toys. Beside the mummy, in the center of all the toys, is a cat licking itself with two diamond eyes. It is positioned in the center of the burial velvet. The statue is bright red in Sarkas's vision from his Find Traps spell, he can see that the real source of the trap is coming from below the statue. There is a trap connected to something below it and the statue is also glowing from within, something inside is extremely dangerous.

The Dwarf can take a minute to see if he sees the trap but does not get a free roll. He sees that the sarcophagus base is covered in velvet and can tell something from the stone below. The statue is entirely solid with some tiny etchings for whiskers and no open mouth. It is a very abstract statue.

Maervahr uses Detection of Magic and sees that nothing is magic. There is a light amount of force and it seems completely solid. Sarkas just depresses around plate where there the red radiation is coming from. There is a stone platform that is just big enough for the statue to rest on and it is entirely solid. The statue is very heavy and has a decent heft to it. It weighs 300 coin basically.

Sarkas can see energy inside the statue and then below the platform but Maervahr does not find a panel. Someone spikes open the door while Thorgard holds the door open and then ties rope around the statue.

We pull the rope…and there is a HUGE EXPLOSION that ruptures our eardrums. The room is filled with smoke…

The battle axe of Thorgard is safe but the door is blown apart. Sarkas finds the rope and a frayed end. There are now shards of gold scattered about that is now useless. The entire statue is toast but we wonder, what was below?

The velvet formed a bed and we could clearly see the stone platform. Now there are just pieces of it and it is obvious that it had a hole in the center. We collect the gold shards which are mostly worthless. It is worth maybe a handful of coins. We do recover both diamonds from the statue's eyes.

• 2 Diamonds worth 750 gp each.

We find a regular wooden and iron bound door. We open the door revealing the ground inside which has 100 candles positioned on the floor standing up. They are spread all across the room and they look unburnt as if never lit. The candles start right at the door.

Sarkas casts Find Traps again. Below the floor in this room is a large amount of red light from multiple locations under the floor. Large clouds of clapped energy behind the points. It is odd that he sees it so clearly through floor. Meanwhile, we can see that the candles are all black.

Thorgard throws a snake into the room and it is swallowed up by the floor, steam rises from the floor and there is the smell of burnt flesh. Eventually the steam stops.

Sarkas indicates where to step in this main room and lays down a path of copper coins to indicate safe passage. We push open the door and the staircase ascends before us. There is thick fog that prevents us from seeing, it is just a weird mist. They go for 10-20' until they have a strange feeling. The stairs behind us do not have any adverse affect.

Soon, we find another door and we open it. Beyond, are more stairs so we climb up and make it to the top of the stairs. There is an angular area that opens up and in the center is a column, about 5' tall. Around the north corner…KOBOLDS! They charge into our party.

5 kobolds run into us with spears but none have succeeded to hit. The Kobolds shout loudly. Rhinock's Helm of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic can understand Kobold so both Rhinock and Thorgard can understand what they are saying.

“They somehow got up these fucking stairs!”

Sarkas is being ganged up against but none of them hit him. The Kobolds have AC 7/7. We hit almost all of the 5 Kobolds and now all of the Kobolds are dead.

We can hear many movements coming from the northern corridor. The floor slams down and then scything blades. However, this does NOT happen.

We throw Kobold corpses into the area and the other Kobolds come rushing in which triggers the trap with enough weight. The scythe blades attack the Kobolds! 10 more Kobolds come down to be killed! One Kobold is dead, another is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. Only 2 are lucky enough to survive and they leap to the other side.

The floor is at angle and it is spinning around indefinitely. The two surviving Kobolds are quickly dispatched. All are dead now, 16 total Kobolds are killed.

There is a mechanism attached to the bottom.

Thorgard drops into the depressed floor and begins bashing away with a morningstar. He gets 10 to 12 well placed smashes until the scything blades wind down.

Maervahr goes toward the central column and sees a large shape up ahead, like a big statue. Sarkas looks up ahead too, checking for any traps. There are no more traps.

We go to the north and find the encampment of the Kobolds along with a 20' by 20' statue. There are 11 great pyramids in a great stone array that take up the entire section. These are the 11 pyramids of RATU-KHEMI. They are spoken of in the Cradlelands and are considered legends. No one has ever found one.

It is thought that the pyramids fade and disappear in the lands of the Cradlelands. This mapped display is depicting all 11 in a group. The tops of all of the pyramids are tipped with gold but the smallest one has been removed. At the base of largest pyramid is an inscription:

“May cutthroats and liars find fabled land. but turn on a brother let down no brother, then all that you touched drains to sand.”

One pyramid top is missing which may haved caused Davlan's curse. Perhaps restoring it will allow the curse to be removed.

We go through the left door…and find two racks: 3 longbows, quivers 118 arrows and 21 javelins. There are also the remnants of an encampment which smells of Kobolds.

Dalakai grabs a longbow and quiver of arrows.

Meanwhile, we loot what we can see. We gather 11 cp and Maervahr uses Detection of Magic and then gazes at everything in the rooms. There is no magic.

The altar does not have any sliding panels.

We decide to leave and are now back on the surface. There is a a group of 12 Kobolds running at high speed away from us, fleeing.

We arrive back in Mombafra without issue.

People have gotten used to the situation in Mombafra, which is located in one city area. People are avoiding the trouble places. Someone plans to hunt down whatever is causing the trouble and they have rescinded the call for 3rd party enchanters.

We get:

• 360 xp

XP from coin: 260 xp which is included above.

• 5x 50 platinum, 2 gold, 4 silver, 2 copper

Maervahr buys some gems: 10 pieces of amber are purchased, 50 gp value each.