4/20/02

Goodmonth 20, cont...

The group does an exhaustive search of the crypt, and discover a secret door leading north out of the room. It opens to a passage that turns a corner and ends in an iron ladder leading up into a cylindrical shaft. The shaft dead-ends, but pushing about the interior reveals a hidden door in the shape of the curved wall of the cylinder that swings open. The party emerges to find itself in the torture chamber: the cylindrical chamber was actually one of the stone pillars in the room. They slap their foreheads, realizing that they had spent a long time carefully searching the walls around this room for secret doors, only to miss the secret door the pillar! They also realize that this must be how Chatrilon managed to escape the dungeon without raising the portcullis. Noting the route for future reference, the party returns below to the crypt and continues exploring.

At this point, Richter hears a voice in his head: "Richter. It is I, Amgerit. Please advise us of your progress." It is the Divine Oracle of the Temple of Maeth, doing his weekly scrying on the party. Richter relates everything that has happened thus far: their arrival in Homlett, the recruitment of Chat and Xaod, the deadly encounter with the dragon and Chat's betrayal, the finding of the cultists' bodies, the raising of their companions by the Canoness, the party's return to the moathouse, and their subsequent battle with the cultists and discovery of the journal. He finishes by mentioning the finding of indications that the mad god Tharizdun is involved in what's going on, as the troglodyte cleric had his holy symbol. Amgerit, though disturbed at the mention of the ancient deity of destruction, does not seem overly concerned, as the party has only seen a single troglodyte worshipper. Of more concern to him is that according to Geynor Ton's journal, a wagon is due sometime very soon, which may indicate reinforcements. He suggests that the party find what the cultists were looking for, and get out if at all possible before any others may arrive. Just before the communication ends, he indicates that the College of Wizardry has a message: They have uncovered important information, and that Vangkor should leave to meet with a contact from his Order immediately. He is to travel one day north of Homlett on the road to Verbobonc, and meet the contact at a roadside inn in the village of Etterbrook. After the meeting, he should return immediately, rejoining the party within three days' time. The party grumbles about losing their wizard companion, even briefly, but don't have much say in the matter. Vangkor wishes the party luck, and departs, promising to return in three days. Little did the party suspect the grief this parting would bring...

Retracing their steps, the party reaches the intersection where they spotted the ghast earlier. Before descending the steps, they decide to try and fully explore the rest of this level of the moathouse dungeon. They move north, and explore the passage branching southeast. It goes on for a bit, then dead-ends in a stone wall that appears to be made of materials unlike the crumbling masonry of the moathouse itself: it is lighter in color, and smoother. Minaret attempts to detect a magical aura, but none can be found. Richter says that if they wish, he can later prepare and cast stone shape to try and get past the barrier. For now, they decide to leave it alone, as it doesn't look to have been disturbed in quite some time.

They then explore the area east of the intersection where the portcullis battle took place. The twisting passage opens into a room similar to the one where they found Geynor Ton's personal belongings: a large room with three alcoves, each alcove with a door. The door in the southern alcove is open. They cautiously explore, and find nothing in it but a layer of dust... but Fletcher determines that at least two sets of tracks lead to and from the room, and there are marks that something was laid here and then picked up again not too long ago. The middle door opens to a wall, similar to the other room to the south. However, when Minaret opens this door, the party hears a muffled "clank" come from some distance behind them in the dungeon. The group wildly scatters, expecting a trap. When nothing happens for a minute or two, they cautiously creep back, their curiosity getting the better of them. Minaret experiments with the door: each time it is opened, the muffled clank can be heard behind them. The others follow the source of the noise, and discover that the door is some sort of trigger for the portcullis. The portcullis is currently still down, but they can clearly hear some sort of mechanism whenever the door in the other room is opened (shutting the door does nothing). After being unable to find a way to lift the portcullis with the door, the party tires of this and moves on. The northern door in the room with the portcullis trigger leads only to another empty 10-foot-square room, and an odd octagonal room to the north appears to have served as an ad-hoc living quarters for the gnolls.

Satisfied that they have explored enough of the upper levels, the group then heads back south to the stairs going down. They descend, and the temperature begins to drop noticeably. The sound of falling water becomes audible, and grows louder as the stairs level out and the party continues down a passage. They round a corner, and enter a large square room.

The first thing to claim their attention is the pit. In the center of the room lies a twenty-foot-wide circular hole, descending into darkness. Hanging above it is a fifteen-foot-wide wooden platform, secured by four ropes which are in turn tied to and suspended by an elaborate pulley system above the platform. A sizeable length of rope lies coiled atop the platform. On the far side of the room, canted against the wall, is a large circle of rough-hewn stone, roughly the size of the hole in the floor. In the southeast corner is a rectangular statue, standing about three feet tall and two-feet on a side. A dead lantern stands in the opposite corner, and picks, shovels, and other excavating equipment lie about the edge of the pit.

The statue draws the party's initial investigation. Each of its four sides is slightly tinted in their torchlight, and each has an elaborate carving of a humanoid figure. The first is jet black, and depicts a mighty-looking man in full plate. The man's armor is exotic-looking, with strange and elaborate embellishments; he wears a cape and grips a wavy-bladed sword. The second side of the statue is dark green, and shows a man wearing a long-sleeved robe with a high collar. His face is covered by a mask eerily similar to the one the party found on the partially-eaten corpse in the dragon's lair above. The third side is the dark crimson of old blood, and bears the likeness of a man in boots, doublet, and twisted gauntlets; a tightly-drawn hood covers his face. The fourth side is the indigo of nightfall, and shows a figure in a many-pleated robe with a sash bearing alien sigils. This figure is cowled, and a scepter is cradled in his folded arms. The top of the statue is completely smooth. Unexpectedly, the group can detect no magical aura about the statue. Deciding to defer further investigation, they turn their attention to the platform and the pit.

The circular walls of the pit have several openings; out of one pours a steady stream of water, falling down into the darkness and splashing against some surface below. Another hole is on the opposite side, but no water flows from it. The torchlight shines down just far enough for the group to see irregular marks about the edge of the hole, and several feet above the second hole the stone changes color slightly. The group realizes that this must have been the pool mentioned in Geynor Ton's journal, and the massive stone circle against the wall was the pool's bottom, excavated to reveal the cave beneath. There is little question that the party must explore below.

The pulley mechanism looks simple enough to operate, and it is in good condition, having obviously been constructed quite recently. The platform is large enough to accommodate the whole party, and the pulleys are designed so that it only takes one person in the center to raise or lower the entire contraption. It swings a bit as the party clambers on board, but looks to be fairly stable, as long as none of them dance about too vigorously. Ian, being the strongest, volunteers to lower them, and the party begins their descent.

The temperature, already cold in the room above, drops below freezing as they descend, and soon the party is quite uncomfortable, wearing clothing suitable for high summer. Their breath plumes out as they slowly descend, about five feet every six seconds. Below the excavation mark, the walls of the chamber open outward, expanding out of the range of their torch. The only sound they hear is the splashing of the water below, steadily becoming louder. After a while, they spot the floor dimly below, about sixty feet from the room above. The surface is black, but dull, containing many veins of deep purple, like a diseased marble. The platform clunks to rest atop this surface, tilting slightly; the floor is slightly convex. More curiously, the floor seems to end about fifteen feet from the center of the platform; the water falling from above is striking this surface on one side, running off, and plunging down into further unknowable depths. On the side opposite this waterfall, the party can barely make out a second platform, suspended by a beam jutting out of the darkness. It appears that they have landed atop an immense stone object of some sort.

Minaret steps out to walk to the second platform, and is shocked by the immense cold emanating from the surface, even through her boots. More alarmingly, the purple veins in the stone surface immediately begin to twist and writhe towards her foot, like evil snakes. She hurriedly draws her foot back, and the veins stop. The platform stands mockingly close, and after calculating the distance, the party gambles that they can run from this platform to the other while avoiding the evil-looking veins of this alien stone surface. Moving quickly but carefully, they hurry across and manage to reach the second platform in safety. Beneath the platform, darkness descends further down, along the side of the massive stone. There is little doubt that the black stone must be the Obelisk mentioned in Geynor Ton's journal.

The cold is getting worse, and the entire group is shivering now. They decide they had best descend as quickly as possible. They begin lowering themselves along the side of the Obelisk. The sound of the water falling from the opposite side is more muffled, but the party is no less nervous. They hear nothing, but a deep foreboding of the soul seems to fill this place, a dread of which the utter cold is but one symptom. Minaret shivers and peers down; they have gone down thirty feet, and there is no floor in sight. She looks up, and nearly jumps out of her skin in fright.

Silently floating down towards them out of the darkness above is one of the most grotesque creatures she has ever seen: a grey, pulpy mass, like a wet quivering brain, with a sharp, toothed beak sprouting from its midsection. A multitude of tentacles flap and flutter as the thing descends towards her. She counts ten of these tentacles, and each has a series of barbs at the end. Although she can see no eyes on this abomination, it seems to sense her, and swoops down towards her, its tentacles reaching out for her and its discolored beak opening and closing greedily.

Minaret has time to voice a single shout of alarm before one tentacle slaps against her. She can feel the barbs pierce and then stick into her arm, but she cannot scream: her entire body has gone rigid, and she cannot move a muscle. Xaod is the first to react. He draws his sword and chops mightily at one of the thing's flailing tentacles, severing it neatly. However, the others are not as quick. Almost lazily, another of the foul tentacles wraps itself around Minaret's body, and before the others can do more than fumble their weapons out, the thing lifts her easily from the platform and bears her away into the darkness above!

In desperation, the party fires a few wild shots up into the darkness, but Minaret is quickly pulled out of the diameter of their torchlight. They wait indecisively, straining to hear a sound from above. Minaret, though paralyzed, can see the party standing upon the platform, as she is pulled further away by the creature towards the ceiling at the opposite end of the chamber. She overcomes the paralysis of the thing's venom for a single moment, enough to let out a muffled cry for help. Then the things digs its barbs into her once more, and she speaks no more.

Richter looks wildly up into the darkness, bemoaning the lack of their spell-slinging half-orc companion. What he wouldn't give for a nice destructive arcane fireball. Then an idea hits him, and he begins cursing and beating himself on the head... he just remembered that he has a potion of levitation. Quickly he pulls it out and quaffs it. He lights a second torch, and then lifts himself up to the ceiling far above. He begins feeling his way along the ceiling, in the direction he last heard Minaret cry.

A minute or two later, he reaches the opposite side of the chamber, and the flickering torch reveals his worst fear is true: he is too late. The thing has already started to eat Minaret. Half of her face has been torn off, and the thing's beak is bored into one of her eye sockets, making a grotesque sucking and scraping noise that makes Richter sick to listen to. Heedless of his own danger, he angrily approaches and lands a massive blow upon the creature with his morningstar.

The creature decides to leave its meal for later, and releases Minaret's body. Still under the effect of the feather fall spell, it drifts serenely down into the darkness below like a leaf from a tree, as the creature reaches its deadly tentacles out towards Richter. Richter, despite having nearly no maneuverability while levitating, manages to dodge all nine of the thing's tentacles. Deciding that he cannot stand against this alone, he hastily pulls back. The others on the platform, however, can now see the creature in Richter's torchlight, and they fire a massive volley at it now that Richter has moved out of the way. Several of the shots land true, and the party is surprised when the creature utters a flatulent hiss and becomes limp, its tentacles dangling. It's defense is obviously much weaker than its offense: the creature is dead. Similar to it's last victim, it too drifts serenely down into the darkness.

After some maneuvering, Richter makes his way back to the party. They decide they must continue their descent, at least to look for Minaret's body. Ian resumes lowering the platform. Richter estimates that he has a fair amount of time left on the levitation spell, so he drops down by himself, much more quickly than the others. He descends over a hundred feet when he sees that the side of the obelisk has begun to angle inwards. Each side of the massive object angles to a point, like an inverted pyramid, intersecting atop a cylindrical stone column that is about ten feet tall. Impossibly, the entire huge object appears balanced like a massive, purple-and-black pencil atop this column.

The stone floor of this chamber finally becomes visible, over a hundred and fifty feet from the top of the towering obelisk. If the column supporting the obelisk is in the center of the chamber, Richter guesses the floor's total diameter to be about sixty feet. On the floor near to where he lands is a large symbol of about five feet in diameter: an obex, the symbol of Tharizdun that the creature above was wearing. Richter shivers at the sight. In his dim torchlight, Richter can't determine if it has been painted, engraved, or affixed to the floor in some other manner, but he feels no compulsion to go near it. He can barely make out a second symbol on the floor a ways off, perpendicular to the column, but it is too far away to make out any details.

Abruptly a low voice begins chanting from out of the darkness. Richter is startled, but keeps his wits enough to recognize the cadence of a spell being cast. Before he can react, the chanting stops, and abruptly a demonic-looking creature materializes directly next to Richter. It is small in stature, but has fangs, claws, and a multitude of spines jutting out from every direction. It utters a nasal, buzzing chuckle, and a moment later Richter is surrounding with a cloud of billowing, yellowish gas. The stench nearly overwhelms him: it is as if he were below a freshly-used outhouse. He shoots upward, and is relieved when he emerges from the radius of the stinking cloud of gas unharmed. The creature does not immediately follow, and Richter does not wait for it: he flies upwards towards his companions.

Unfortunately, his spellcasting assailant will not be left behind so easily. From around the opposite side of the obelisk comes whizzing a madly cackling figure: a man with unkempt long hair and beard. His ochre robes flap wildly as he swoops up. Richter, unable to move horizontally while levitating, frantically tries to reach the platform. Just as he draws level with it, his flying opponent pauses and casts another spell. Richter goes rigid, unable to move: he finds that though he is only inches from the platform, he cannot move onto it! "Stay there awhile," the mad cleric giggles, "while Festrath sends your friends into the Dark One's cold embrace." He then moves to engage Ian, Fletcher, and Xaod on the platform.

It is a frustrating battle: the party must be careful not to move strenuously so as to overturn the wobbly platform. The cleric dances in and out of the party's reach, attempting to deliver dangerous touch attack spells. Luckily, the group manages to evade or shrug off the effects of most of these. However, the priest's ability to fly keeps his mostly out of their attack range. He flies about the edge of the platform, taunting the group on their inability to strike him: "Can't hit Festrath! Oh, no, much too slow, my doomed ones!"

Then Fletcher becomes angry and impatient, and makes a rash decision: he desperately leaps off the platform, flinging himself bodily at the cleric as he swoops by. Unfortunately, he mis-calculates the jump, and misses by a yard. The party watches, horrified, as he plunges screaming into the darkness below, accompanied by the peals of mad laughter from the cleric. His failing scream is cut off with a wet thud over a hundred feet below.

Furious at the loss of their ranger companion, Xaod and Ian redouble their attacks, and one of Ian's blows hits home, smashing the ribs of the cleric. His laughter stops, and he remarks, "Enough of this. You're going down." He swoops up into the darkness above. There is a moment of silence, then the aghast party hears the unmistakable sound of a blade cutting rope!

Xaod leaps for the rope and begin frantically hauling the party up. Muffled cursing comes from above, and the sawing of the rope stops and starts again as Festrath tries to keep cutting the same moving portion of the rope. The party almost makes it. However, the platform is still twenty feet from the top when there comes a ripping, unravelling noise from above. The platform lurches, and cants slightly. Ian frantically hauls out his own length of rope from his pack, with a grappling hook secured to the end. He casts up, while Xaod pulls up the platform for all he's worth. The grappling hook soars... and catches on the top of the obelisk! The platform wobblingly rises another five feet... then there is a hard SNAP! Xaod has time to lock eyes with Ian, and then the platform drops like a stone, taking the doomed paladin with it. Ian clings desperately to his own rope, and does not fall, swinging instead to land against the vertical side of the obelisk. Immediately his feet grow numb with a deadly chill... and the purple veins of the obelisk worm their way towards him. He desperately begins pulling himself up, but the veins reach him, and he feels his strength being drawn from him.

Richter, who is still levitating in mid-air, realizes that he and Ian are the only ones left alive, and that Ian is in a life-or-death struggle to reach the top of the obelisk. Things look grim indeed, when Boccob smiles, and Richter's paralysis is released. He attacks the madly-cackling Festrath, just as the cleric returns from above. This gives enough time for Ian, gasping, to clamber atop the obelisk and throw himself to the safety of the platform there. With Ian's ranged attacks and a few well-chosen spells from Richter, the mad cleric is dispatched, sent floating down into the darkness.

Richter and Ian find themselves in a very difficult situation. Three of their companions are dead, lying 150 feet below the top of the stone obelisk on which they stand. Contact with said obelisk drains the very strength from your body, and the other platform leading below has presumably been smashed to pieces. Meanwhile the freezing cold of the air is making them more and more weak. It is at this point that a lesser party would have given up. But Fletcher and Ian refuse to admit defeat, and together they form a desperate plan to rescue their fallen comrades.

Richter knows his levitation will not last much longer. Gambling that he has enough time left, he lowers himself back down to the floor far below. He then goes looking for Minaret's body. He skirts the second symbol on the ground (a black sun). On the wall he sees a carved archway, surrounded by tentacles and seeming to open into utter blackness. No time to investigate. He finally finds her body lying in a pool of water on the cavern floor on the opposite end of the chamber from the ruined platform. The pool has seemingly formed from the cascading fall of water from the top of the obelisk high above. Not far from Minaret's body is that of the defeated tentacled horror.

He begins to venture into the pool to pull Minaret's body out; however, at the first splash of contact with the water, a cold enervating force seizes him, and he quickly draws back: the water is deadly to the touch! Feeling the time ticking away on his levitation, he decides that Ian will need to somehow fetch Minaret's body, and he returns to the smashed platform. He unties the severed rope from the smashed remains of the platform, trying hard not to look too closely at the mangled bodies of Xaod and Fletcher. He then returns to the top with the two lengths of rope, one 30 feet and the other 120 feet. Ian then lassoes the beam and pulley system jutting from the wall, the one that had supported the second platform. Tying the remaining lengths of rope together and using his grappling hook, the fighter bravely descends below by hand. He nearly slips twice, but manages to reach the ground below.

Once below, he first retrieves Minaret's body. Heeding Richter's advice, he comes up with a clever way to avoid the deadly water: by taking several planks from the ruined platform, he creates a bridge from the pool's edge to the body of the tentacled monster, and from that to Minaret's body. Using this technique, he does not touch the water himself and manages to remove her from the shallow but deadly pool. Using the remaining boards from the platform, he then makes a crude travois. Using the pulley system of the beam on top, Ian and Richter begin to lift their companions. It is touch-and-go, but eventually all three are lifted above, and after some dangerous acrobatics and a close call Ian makes his way back himself.

Weakened as they are, and with three dead party members, they are in no condition to continue their explorations. Vowing to return when the party is restored to full health, the two brave adventurers bring their fallen companions to the surface. Soot, Minaret's familiar, is nowhere to be found. Luckily, they encounter no enemies either, and with heavy hearts they load the fallen on the remaining horses and begin their ride back to Homlett.

They are roughly halfway back to Homlett when they spot a figure rapidly approaching on horseback from the direction of the village. There is no thought of subterfuge, as there is really no place to hide the other horses, and it is probable that the horseman has seen them already in any case. The two adventurers wait to see whether the rider is friend or foe.

As the rider approaches, they are surprised to see that it is Redithidoor, the half-elf bard that they had been avoiding in Homlett. When the bard draws close enough to see the state of the party, he reins in his horse, staring in shock. Finally, he stammers out, "Oh dear... am I too late?"

Richter and Ian, assuming Redithidoor refers to assisting them in their explorations, nod grimly. "Aye, they fell, despite all our best efforts. We are returning to the village to have them raised."

Redithidoor looks troubled and confused. "But... how could this happen? How did they move so quickly?"

Now it is the two adventurers' turn to be confused. "How could who move so quickly?"

"The cultists. Did they not ambush you?"

"Yes-- but how did you know that?"

There is evidently some confusion here. To clear things up, Redithidoor relates what he has seen and why he is here.

"The morning after I ran into you, I arrived at the Inn of the Welcome Wench at dawn, just as you instructed. When I found out that you had gone, I was very disappointed... I felt sure that you had forgotten me. To compound the problems, my recorder had been stolen by someone, so I was unable to even play that night at Terrigan's. I moped around for a day, waiting for you to return. The next morning, when I returned to the Inn, I learned from Vesta that you had been there and gone again. I asked if you had left a message, and Vesta replied that you would see me "when you saw me." She was acting oddly, seeming to hint that you had said something but she couldn't say what it was. It was then that I figured it out, based on all your inquiries about the old Temple... you had discovered some new danger in the town linked back to that place, and Vesta was concerned about saying too much in public. I thanked her and went back home.

"I then proceeded to think about who could be affiliated with or working for with this Temple. I quickly ruled out all the folks I knew in town, most who have been here since the last uprising. That left only a few individuals recently-arrived in Homlett. Xaod-- your fallen companion-- was one. Since he'd been travelling with you, I figured he wasn't suspicious. The other major suspect was Chatrilon Unosh. Since he seemed the shadowy type, I decided to do a bit of shadowing of my own, and find out just what he was up to.

"So this morning I located him at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. When he left, I followed him closely, being careful to stay out of sight. Luckily he didn't spot me, although there were a few close calls. He went to the millhouse, but instead of going inside he went around back and stood next to the water for a while by himself. I was wondering what he was up to when a man came out of the mill who I hadn't seen before. He was a taller human, and had a black, pointed goatee. He walked right over to Chatrilon and they had a very disturbing conversation. I was hiding only yards away, so I heard everything they said.

"It seems Chatrilon is working for this fellow, who he called Master Dunrat. This Dunrat is the head of some sort of cult right here in town! Chatrilon told him that he had followed your party to the moathouse, and that you had killed a dragon who had trapped some other cultists there. He had then "taken out" one of you and escaped, but then you had then gone on to kill all the other cultists at the moathouse. Dunrat seemed very upset at this, until Chatrilon said that he had "escaped with the artifacts, and that they were safe". At this, Dunrat seemed to relax. He asked where you were, and Chatrilon said that you were still at the moathouse, but would probably be returning before long. Dunrat then told Chatrilon to wait for you to return to the Inn, and then kill you all in your sleep. Chatrilon agreed to this, and said he would join the others at the mill after you were taken care of. Chatrilon then left, and Dunrat went back into the millhouse.

"As soon as they both were gone, I ran back to my house, saddled up, and rode out here towards the moathouse as fast as I could. But it seems that Chat got here ahead of me...?"

The party now understands, and tells Redithidoor that the others did not die at Chatrilon's hands, but rather because of some other nasty inhabitants of the moathouse. However, they are very disturbed by Redithidoor's news. They cannot return to their room at the Inn, for it is obviously watched now. Redithidoor suggests that they hide at the Temple of Pelor: Yether the Keen has been known to take in those who cannot afford lodging, and has a guest bedroom or two in the chapel.

The others agree to this, and make haste to the Temple of Pelor. By the time they arrive, it is close to nightfall. Yether the Keen is alarmed when he learns that the Temple may be active again; although he arrived in town only two years ago, he has studied the history of the area. He had heard rumors of strangely-garbed people on the eastern road, and harbored his own suspicions. Now that these suspicions have been proven correct, he agrees to assist in any way he can. Though he lacks the power to raise any of the fallen adventurers, he allows the party to stay the night in secret... even Redithidoor. Ian and Richter are grateful; exhausted, they immediately retire to a fitful, thin sleep.

Goodmonth 21

The following morning the two adventurers begin their first order of business: the raising of their fallen companions. They know that they will need about 1000 gold pieces to raise each party member. Trying to avoid being spotted by any cultists that might be lurking about, they surreptitiously make several stops in the village to raise sufficient funds. After most of the items of the party have been converted to a sufficient "donation" to St. Cuthbert, they stop once again to request Canoness Y'dey's assistance. She does not seem very surprised to see them again, but agrees to raise the companions without comment. This takes several hours, but eventually Ian and Richter are reunited with their risen but weakened companions. They then try to decide what their next course of action should be...