| Session Date | April 5, 2022 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party passed through the room of the vulture-headed guardian statues without further incident and passed through a door to the south once Burt had opened it. Atticus led the way…to the bottom of a pit trap! Helped out by his comrades, they took to prodding the floor before them (they were already being rather quiet and cautious, as if they’d not been exploring for weeks instead of minutes). They soon cam into a great hall opening far to the east. Inside they found (eventually) four identical statues of humanoid shape, some 9 and a half feet high, rather stylized and not lifelike. The walls were carved with many old crests (which some might have recognized as sigils of the old Lormyrrian Empire). There were old signs of battle in the room, as well, chipped walls and scorch marks, but quite old. On the south wall was graffiti reading “Here fell Juhat Haqar, my friend. 17 Brightleaf 1190 YM” (over 80 years past).
The party eventually took the eastern of two doors on the south wall, down a short passage. At the end was a door, beyond which they could hear deep, booming voices. They opened the door and, despite the noise (and darkness beyond) they could hear the voices clearly now, close at hand. They were engaged in some sort of debate, speaking in Common but with voices deeper than normal for humans. The voices were locked in some sort of debate which proved to be endless and repetitive. They were apparently debating declaring war on the “free moving” on behalf of the “fixed” There was much talk about trampled rights and endless shuffling of the free movers. Atticus took the opportunity to become a giant skunk. Unable to see the source of the voices, and there were numerous, the party decided to backtrack.
They now took the northern of two passages heading east from the large hall. This led them into a shrine, clearly to Herekai, god of death, a great scythe in his hand (side note: Herekai is clearly evil, but less overt about it than some; he is the son of Magnus, God of the Underworld and -reputedly- Greina the hag, goddess of witches; his brother is Mezekai the Murderer, a not nice person). They first explored two side rooms off the shrine. The western was full of debris, within which Hans found a stone hand, broken from some statue. The other was empty. Hans now approached the statue of Herekai. Suddenly it spoke, saying “do you embrace your death?” Hans said no, and then it said “choose another.” This he refused, and a wave of -something- swept over the party. Fortunately, for once, no one succumbed to it. A search soon revealed the statue pivoted easily to reveal a secret room. Inside everything was painted dead black, including a small table atop which sat a small box made of bone. Hans eventually picked it up, suddenly becoming enamored of it such that he would not give it to nay other, only suffer them to touch when supervised. The elaborate box was carved of bone and inside on black velvet were six bone dice. They would later learn that this was the Bone Box of Herekai; the dice could be used to cast oracles and periodically to dice against Death to restore a lost companion.
Moving on to the other eastern corridor, the party came to a room with a great dining table down the center and long benches. Sitting within were 13 Wights. However, they were all pinned to the table and benches with great silver spikes (marked an open palm, symbol of the goddess Larana of the Healing Hand…and Saruman). The party bravely volunteered Bel to enter and try to sense secret doors, but she found nothing.
Nearby the party found a small room that they determined was once the quarters of a wizard or some such person. The room appeared to have been emptied or plundered. All that remained was a stuffed wolf head on one wall (the eyes of which seemed to follow the party), and an almost lifelike tapestry depicting a wizard studying a book in another office, scrolls scattered around him. The party took the wolf head from the wall and put it in a corner to stop watching them, then decided to pluck out the eyes (but leave them behind).
Finding nothing of note, the party continued on and came to a short staircase running down into a large, domed room, the floor a checkerboard of 1’ square black and white tiles. In the center of it was a crevasse where the floor had split or collapsed; from the crevasse wafted a thin smoke, likely the source of a heady incense smell here. Faint hints of chanting could be heard, as well. Still a bit shy, the party left and turned east, coming to a room with multiple doors, the east with a blue slash painted on it, the southern with a note in the same paint that read “not the way.” They went east and soon came to a huge river cavern with a wide, strongly flowing river bisecting it northwest to southeast. They discussed how to cross, but ended up having Mordecai fly them across one by one.
They headed north, single file into a narrow cave heading northwest then turning west. The floor was worn smooth by the passage of something. Finally they came to a wider cave, bisected by the same river. Across from them was a strange sight, a huge snail of immense size that watched them with a cold intelligence. Behind it stood numerous bookcases holding books and scrolls in all stages of decomposition from the damp air. Someone said something and, to the party’s surprise, the thing answered them. They found that its name was Ninigaub. It was a scholar and wizard of some power (it claimed). It had no enemies it feared, eating any that threatened it. . It seemed to be friendly enough and answered a number of questions for them. Indeed, after learning of its desire for knowledge and written materials, ZZ passed it The True and Natural History of Tanit (taken from the Hadashim dungeon during the aborted pursuit of Lord Solen and his concubine). It was immensely pleased with this gift and told the party that it would happily take a wizard as an apprentice to teach them “many great and deep secrets” (such apprenticeship would take many weeks but would be of the greatest value to a wizard). It further told them that Gold was not a lich nor yet dead. His enemies had wounded him deeply but his arts had restored him, more or less. Bu he was unstable and Ninigaub preferred to avoid him now. He further told them that the waters of the stream were enchanted; drinking or even touching them could bring on a deep sleep for many days. That power waned with time if taken from the river. It warned them to beware of the incense from below in the great checkerboard floor chamber. Finally, it told them it would exchange knowledge for written materials of interest; it was a great scholar, after all, a true sage. The party left peacefully, if not in friendship.
The party returned to the large river cavern and explored a small side cave which they found full of humanoid bones. They speculated it was the remnants of Ninigaub’s meals. Flown back over the river by Mordecai, they now took a narrow side cave to the southwest. Here they wandered for some time, finding three seeming dead ends. One ended in a very tight crevasse from which the smell of flower and herbs wafted on warm air, along with a hint of pleasant music. Another dead seemed to be just that. A third ended in a descending cave with some space and even room to camp (the party considered that here a moment before moving on) flooded by what they took to be water from the river.
They now returned to the regular dungeon and took the door saying “not the way.” In one room nearby they found a Styx Devil in a birdcage like thing, held shut only by a tiny gold chain draped over the latch. The Devil begged, pleased, cajoled and threatened to get the party to remove the chain and free it, but they refused. It was clearly not happy with them. A little further on they came into a chamber where they seemed to have surprised a rust monster. Atticus-skunk blasted it and the entire space, driving the rest of the party out. The rust monster did not retreat out, nor did the party hear anything. When the musk cleared, they entered and found that the rust monster stuffed and rather dusty.
They no came to a rather large, oddly shaped room with four carvings on the stepped southern wall, reading in order TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE. On the east wall was another carving that read IN WHICH DOES THE WIZARD’S INDIVISIBLE POWER LIE? Next to a pyramid of 1’ diameter and 1’ deep holes in the wall. The party puzzled this for a bit before finally putting a coin in a hole, resulting in a blast of energy to everyone in the room. This caused them to depart back to the 30’ square room to the north where they decided to camp once Mordecai had cast a glyph of warding on the east door.