• Hillie Springleaf - THF1, AC 6/8, MV 12“, Doors 1-2, Listen 1-3, Riswa
• Maervahr - MAG7, Stoneskin
• Sarkas
• Kek - Stoneskin, Doors 1-2
• Jacob - Stoneskin
• Erasma
• Heinrich - CLR1, LG, Mote, hp 8, AC 4/4, Doors 1-3, Listen 1-2
• Elias
• Belguil - Dwarf FTR1 / THF1, AC 2/3
• Oswald - CLR4, Riswa

We are in the Valley of the Red Sun and are heading out for the Necropoli of Sazumori.

Maervahr casts Stoneskin on Jacob yesterday and on Kek today.

We hire 8 Pikemen and head for Trawis. They make way for our large contingent as we arrive but then we head to the Temple entrance and head inside.

We head down the stairs. Sarkas has a Continual Light which illuminates the columns: an Ogre, a 4-Armed Ghoul and a Snake. The 4th column is a pile of rubble. Through the north, we can hear a cacophony of metal on stone. It is exactly as loud as before. The floor has numerous scraps of flesh and bone that is scattered around.

Oswald, Kek and Belguil are on doors

They try to open the door but it does not move. However, after another big push we open it. Doing this caused our group to make a loud noise and we see movement coming from behind us.

Four Ghouls emerge from the darkness!

Maervahr goes Invisible and moves behind a pillar. The Ghouls have an AC 6. They attack us and one Ghoul takes a bite into the neck of Morfina. MORFINA drops to the ground! Morfina is Down!

Sarkas and Maervahr cast Protection From Evil as Kek charges into the Ghouls. Kek does 10 damage and 6 damage. He manages to kill both Ghouls that are on the bodies of Ondur and Kuno!

For Turning the Undead, they cannot move and turn at the same time, they can only turn undead. The target must be able to see the Cleric's holy symbol. Sarkas is turning undead this round. Jacob attacks and Maervahr throws a dagger at the Ghoul in front of Kek. He has a 50% chance to hit Kek instead!

Kek kills the last Ghoul in front of him while the 3 Pikemen attack. One of the Ghouls is killed and the 4-Armed Ghoul takes 6 damage! They are all also turned. The 3 Pikemen hit the Ghouls and another one drops but the 4-Armed Ghoul is still alive, just damaged by being struck.

In the next round, the 4-Armed Ghoul is completely skewered and they are all destroyed.

The Protection from Evil spells expire following the combat. Unfortunately, when we locate our companions, we discover that they have been eaten. What remains are left don't have enough meat on their bodies for a Raise Dead spell. Rest In Peace, Ondur and Kuno.

We manage to get to the rotating stone turret.

Hillie puts her weight on one of the turret holes and it grinds slowly. It seems that it is not supposed to be turned this way. Sarkas decides to put in some spikes. While Maervahr listens at the western door. Hearing nothing, we open it.

The corridor turns before ending in a room that is full of discarded human body parts and bones. There is a large stone slab on the ground that is about 3.5' tall and appears like an altar or a table. The surface is very reflective on the top. In fact, the surface light seems to swirl with a dark purple color.

Inside of the chamber, against the entire far wall of the room is the slab, 3.5' tall. After some examination, we confirm that the entire top surface is a dark reflective mirror. Looking inside, Kek can see his own reflection as though he was standing in a pool but looking up, his reflected image is distorted. At this point, Kek hears whispers and promises of power in his mind. The voices encourage him to embrace it…

Meanwhile, Maervahr detects extraordinarily powerful magic coming from the slab. When Hillie goes to look and sees the reflected surface, the voice offers the same power to her but she does not take the offer, knowing that IT IS EVIL!

Hillie drops a stone sling bullet into the table and it “tinks” on the surface of the slab momentarily, then it sinks within. The bullet descends downward, toward the bottom. Once it gets to the bottom, it disappears.

Hillie says “Are you ok?” to the whispered voice and it only calls her to come as a response. The light of the bullseye lantern does not go into the table when Maervahr shines it downward into the top of the slab.

We drop a torch into it this time and it falls in. It does afford some illumination inside the strange reflected realm of the stone slab, the landscape is illuminated. We can see the silhouettes of “demonic geography”, features reminiscent of the lower planes as we understand it.

This time, an arrow that is tied to a rope is set into the slab and the arrow descends in the same way. Pulling it back out is difficult, like pulling an object through molasses.

We head back to the main room and go through the east wall. This is a long hallway where the corridor continues into the blackness. Oswald is casting Find Traps after the current one has expired.

The hallway ends in a door made of wood that has incredible bulk and thickness and is made of a strong hardwood.

We listen at the door but do not hear anything. Then, we open the door. Despite its size, we find a big empty room that is 15' high. Maervahr holds the door open.

This room does not have the same quality as the other areas. There is an alcove on the back left, two doors leading north and east, and a corridor. The south side has irregular walls, showing many imperfections on all the walls.

Jacob finds a vase laid horizontally on the wall of the alcove, on a shelf built into the wall. The other two doors are just made of a thick hardwood. The southern room is entered and we search for secret doors. Surprisingly, Belguil feels an open space beyond one of the walls!

In the meantime, Oswald senses something is off about the nozzle that is attached to part of the wall, like it is some sort of trap related to the nozzle. This trap appears to him to be linked to all three doors in the room.

Maervahr's bullseye lantern illuminates down the corridor where we can see a statue of a humanoid (maybe a human or an elf) wearing a robe and a headdress. The statue's arm is raised to the ceiling with their palm open upward.

Kek notices that the rim of the stone is discolored, but only on the rim. The bulk of the discoloration is on the bottom lip rather than top and the container smells sharp and acidic. He can feel it in his throat, as if it once contained a caustic chemical.

After careful searching, the party did not find traps on the north door even with the spell. Then, we examine the statue room and find four other statues, each of them human. These other statues are not holding up their palms but we do find an engraving on the back wall. The engraving states:

In stones embrace,
a tale untold,
5 devotees,
In korakai

We note that the sacred statue in the square of Trawis is different from these.

Maervahr spikes open the door with two spikes.

To the north east statue is a chain concealed beneath the robe of the statue. On the end of the chain is a box with a panel. Hillie opens the box and a stone panel falls out. Inside is a metal key that is unrusted. It looks pristine and it is leaning against the side of the box.

Hillie searches for a trap inside and finds a very fine needle inside the box. The pin snaps when she touches it with her dagger. The trap is disarmed!

Maervahr hears a thud, a squeak and a slam in the darkness and then heads into the center of the room while invisible. He sees one set of footsteps and the face of a an Undead Ogre, dragging its huge arms across the ground. It has loose skin and eyes of solid white.

Sarkas charges and they meet in melee. The Ogre Zombie misses. Meanwhile, Jacob hits for 9 damage but the Ogre is not destroyed…Actually it IS destroyed by the Pikemen. Yay Pikemen!

The Ogre had a disgusting sack:

• 130 gp.

The door to the north opens and branches out. Hillie goes down the west corridor to explore and sees a door. We open the east door and can see that the corridor goes to the right about 30' down. That is as far as we can see.

Most of us go down the hallway while some of us stay behind to hold the door. The hallway continues on past a dark coloration on the ground. The stone is discolored where it rises up the wall, is it an ooze? Flakes come off, maybe it is dried blood.

Kek jumps over the discoloration as Sarkas casts Find Traps and finds extreme danger on both of the walls. Unfortunately, Hillie fails to disable the trap.

Kek does not hear anything while Belguil disables the trap and the Find Traps expires. We open the west door in the corridor.

In the next area is a huge slab that is longer that the previous slab and this one has an amethyst shaded top. It is attached to some chains and some worn leather straps. The slab is also caked in blood and there is a closed portcullis and another room. It goes 30' before they reach an alcove and another corridor.

The room beyond is empty except for some rat turds.

Belguil is able to bend the bars of the portcullis! After searching the area, we only find bloody discolorations throughout the table slab.

Beyond the portcullis, Belguil finds another hallway that goes into the black so we continue west.

There is a collapsed hallway to the south which connects to a doorway toward the central chamber. The west passage continues to a room with a lot of moisture. It is filled with humanoid femurs and bones. At the base of an elevated platform is a font and the top of the font is rimmed with a silver disk. On the ground next to the loose bones is a single hair covered hand that is attached to an arm.

The arm resembles a Yennog's arm. Just beyond it, we see the rest of the Yennog corpse that appears to have been feasted upon heavily. Sarkas decapitates the Yennog corpse.

The disk is laid in a carved out portion of the font and is full of clear liquid. It is 5' deep and the silver disk is not actually attached to the font.

Maervahr uses Detection of Magic on the font. The font radiates extremely powerful magic. It is easily more radiant than a flask of holy water or a magic potion. The silver disk does not radiate magic just the font. We find some coins inside:

• 16 sp
• 9 gp
• 1 azurite (10 gp)

Maervahr places a dagger tip into the water. As he dips it into the font, after a second, the blade glows and sears his hand with burning pain! The dagger sinks to the bottom of the font. Maervahr's hand is seared.

After this, a white blue glow radiates from the font. Erasma dips his morning star which also drops into the font. Erasmo takes 3 damage.

Kek touches the silver plate around the font and tries to pry it out. The silver plate comes out easy

• Silver Platter (250 gp)

Belguil tried dipping his crowbar into the water but nothing happens. Nothing happens when he dips in Jacob's short sword. Kek grabs some of the water in his palm and realizes it feels like normal water. He drinks it and nothing happens to him. Finally, he grabs the mace and is burned by it for 3 damage.

As we try to pull out the mace, the water begins to churn violently, Maervahr casts Shield on himself.

The Churning Water forms into a shape as 20 Pseudopod forms into a shape and then forms a snake head.

Shield, Bless, and Prayer are all cast. Kek does 6 damage to the Water Creature with his hand axe.

Mirror Image is cast by Maervahr and goes off. He has 4 images.

The Water Weird wraps around Oswald as Bless is cast but it has no effect on the creature. Belguil's mace has full effect on the Water Weird as he does 7 damage. It loses its form as the water of the font continues to churn.

Kek tries to drink the water but it goes into his lungs. He recovers and we decide to retreat back to Starling without any trouble.

We make it back.

• 20 xp 28 ways.
• 10x 7 platinum, 2 gold, 1 electrum, 6 silver, 2 copper
• 1x azurite (10gp)

The XP from coin is 39 per share.