After we got rid of the skeletons, a few priests came out to see what was going on; I Charmed them to forget that we were here and they got to work cleaning up the skeleton mess. Some of our group went to investigate the corridors and rooms around and discovered that there was a crawl space above, which was how the skeletons had gotten behind us. We continued on (stopping only long enough so I could put a warding glyph on the door behind which the Dark One kept a large part of his army) and eventually reached a room containing living guards. These we eliminated, then reached a large room with a deep chasm inside. In trying to kill the undead in this room, Ghost dropped her magic sword down into the pit; luckily she had the great idea to use my air elemental to retrieve it or else that could have been a disaster!
Following the directions of Tarus, we headed towards the sanctum proper. Here the decor had not been changed over completely for the Brotherhood of Dread and the original motifs of Hades remained on the columns, answering my question of which god this temple originally belonged to. We found the cells but the keys Ghost had picked up didn't work; Tarus told us that he had keys in his own chambers. We followed our guide, but ran into our old friend Rugur and a few of his colleages. These we incapacitated, largely with magic on the part of Vordb and Ayman, but Linora and Ghost became paralyzed by the evil priests' magic. Ghost was able to control the air elemental telepathically to help, and the two eventually broke free. Tarus retrieved his keys and we locked our new prisoners in the vault temporarily after first taking the treasure it contained. We finally located the real Duke Marcus, who looked quite unhealthy after being held captive for so long, but he still had the strength to attack Tarus upon sight (not that any of us could blame him for that!). The duke now with us, we headed to the actual temple area. Upon entering the room, the jaw of the giant skull on the wall opened, emitting red smoke, armored warriors, baneguard, and a tall figure in dark armor, who promptly issued the command “kill them”. As soon as I could, I cast Silence on this figure, clearly confusing him, and this combined with a well-placed Web spell from Ayman, gave the group time to attack his guard without his interference. Vordb's Grease spell (he must be learning from Ayman) then knocked many of them over and the group attacked, the duke staying safely behind us. Finally, with one last attack (by Ayman, I think?) sending him flying backwards, the Dark One gave a shout and black mist began issuing from his armor while the skeletons crumbled. Tarus gave a heavy sigh and said that he thought “it's over”, which was what we were hoping for. Ghost and Linora went into the chamber behind the large wall skull and found some treasure while Tarus gave us some more information: he was fairly certain that they've never seen the face of the Dark One and that he traded humanity for power- that mist was all that was left.
The Dark One apparently destroyed permanently, part of our group went to retrieve the priests we'd locked up while I prayed to Hermes, asking for guidance on what to do about Tarus and the remaining Brotherhood. The response wasn't clear at first (perhaps because I was in a desecrated temple?) but the answer I received was that Tarus was now someone else's problem (that was quite a load off my mind, having been his babysitter for far too long), and that for the others “to be sure of their fate, deliver them unto the hands of justice”, which meant taking them back to Rinos and the king's judgment.
While the rest of the group continued looting, SwampFox, Tarus and myself headed back outside in order to go find wagons to transport our prisoners back to Rinos. As we traveled up towards the surface, Tarus began to feel uneasy and strange, but I didn't notice anything until we reached the main door, where my fox and bird began freaking out and SwampFox became incredibly confused- here I realized there was a divine presence! As Tarus held his head like he had a massive headache, SwampFox and I pushed the main door open. A very bright light had been shining through the cracks in the door and when we got it opened, even though it was now daytime outside, everything was black and white. Two figures were standing fifty feet away; one was tall with a long black robe covering his face and bearing a scythe, the other was much taller even than that with dark skin, hair and beard, and very ornate armor and helmet. This was Hades and one of his assistant minor beings of Death! I bowed low, SwampFox mirroring my movements, and Tarus fell to his knees. Hades told me to rise and step forward, which I immediately did. He asked about “the usurper” and told me that he was destroyed- and that I do Hermes a great credit. At this point I felt as though I was going to faint (how often do you get to meet a deity!) but I think I stammered out a “thank you very much!” in there. Hades then turned back to face Tarus, telling him “you have business with me this day”. The evil priest rose almost involuntarily and told me that he had to go- but needed payment for where he was going. I handed him two silvers with a “good luck” (what else could I say?) and he walked over to the being with the scythe, turning pale, like he was fading into another world. Hades then looked at me and SwampFox and bowed, we echoed this movement and suddenly it felt like I was waking from a dream; everything looked normal again and my pets were now calm.
I located the stables and wagons and proceeded to complete the task I'd come out here to do with much shaking all the while. When the rest of the group finished looting the temple, collecting stray evil priests, and trying to heal Ayman of the poison he'd picked up from a trapped chest, we set off back towards Rinos. That night we came across the Master again; he told Vordb about Black Don (the Necromancer writer of some books Vordb had picked up) and he identified some of our treasure. A few of us traded for new magical items, as well; I believe Vordb got some sort of bug-summoning staff and I got winged boots that allow me to fly- perfect for a Messenger!
While testing these boots out the next day and flying ahead, I spotted a group of bears trying to eat something humanoid. I scared them away and discovered the body of a half-elf; what was strange was that he had an empty quiver but no bow in sight and it looked like the arrow that had killed him was one of his own. We buried the body and soon met with a group of adventurers the half-elf had belonged to: Wes, some sort of weaselly thief; Walt, a warrior with a trident; Kenna, a priestess; Radu, a half-ogre; and Garga, an elven magician.
We joined up with this group and continued to Hightower. That night while he was guarding the duke, Ayman saw a shadowy figure standing over Marcus' bed drop a dagger. This figure fled out the window and past where Ghost and I were guarding the wagons that contained the captured priests; we chased him, but even after being hit with my mace and Ghost's arrow, he got away from us, but I did find his dropped dagger which my fox used to follow the would-be assassins trail. Even with this help and Ghost's tracking ability, we were unable to locate him and had to start off the next day towards Rinos again.
On the road a group of very injured men were driving a wagon in the direction we'd come from; they were bitten and burned and told us that they had been attacked by a chimera. Ghost followed the monster's tracks and we located a cavern where a chimera was asleep on a pile of coins. With the help of our five new companions, we quickly vanquished the monster- only to have two more come after us. These we were also able to destroy with a lot more effort and we returned to the cavern. Here were found a pile of halfling bones and the owner's diary which stated that it belonged to “Ol' Red Slewfoot”; it is likely that this is a relative of our friend from Woodland, Homer Slewfoot, so we took the halfling's possessions so that we can return them to Homer.
That night we were attacked by large stag beetles, but we made short work of these, and continued traveling after a short stop in Bartertown. We traveled in very stormy weather and were nearing Cornwell when our horses became skittish; I calmed one down enough for it to tell me “Gotta run away, they'll eat us!”, which didn't bode well. Sure enough, a few moments later we were attacked by a group of gnolls. The leader said something about wanting something Vordb had (perhaps the undead turning amulet?), but we were able to take these monsters down, as well. Vordb found a magical skull in the leader's bag, but this didn't seem to do anything when placed near the amulet.
That night we reached Cornwell and, surprising no one, we learned that our friend Cornwallis the Conjurer is from this town, In a state of panic he informed us the next morning that he'd been robbed. Our group began an investigation and Ghost figured out what had happened with the use of her new x-ray ring: Wes had stolen them, although how he knew about them is still a mystery (Garga had been the only one Cornwallis had showed the items to, which isn't sitting well with me). Ghost knocked Wes out, got the items back and returned them to Cornwallis. The thief was taken by the constable after getting a good kicking and shouting at by Kenna (seems like I'm not the only one who doesn't like to put up with unsavory behavior from traveling companions...).
This problem sorted out, we left town and finally made it to Rinos. We met with the king and council and were thanked profusely for rescuing Marcus. We were given a very good feast and each offered a boon as a reward. I'm rather curious about what the others will ask for said reward, but as for myself, I'm thinking that I would like to ask for permission to build a Messenger's mosque in Logging Town.
~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
July 14th, 4th day of Bleakmoon
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