Completion of Temple of Black Earth and resumption of campaign

We returned to the PotA campaign and it took some effort to work out where we are…
In summary:

  • The lair of Marlos Urnrayle was looted. He is rumoured to have descended to the lower levels (Fane of the Eye?)
  • A deep gnome was rescued from imminent sacrifice to a black pudding and has joined the party, at least on a temporary basis. His name… Rukh Glitterstone.
  • A Dao and some worker Duergar were defeated in a forge and some treasure gathered
  • A prison and torture chamber were tidied up and four prisoners rescued. Two seem like innocents and are taken by the party to safety. The other two are left to fend for themselves
  • An ettin was killed in chillingly efficient manner
  • The party left via the main stairway that took them back up into Sacred Stone Monastery and then they went back to Rivergard Keep
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A little bit of urban justice

We get into town fairly easily, despite standing out like sore thumbs – it’s market day so merchants are expected, and there isn’t even a toll at the gatehouse!

Sir Stickuptheass chooses an inn near the gate, and it looks like quite a fancy establishment, so I don’t dissent from the choice. The food is OK as well, but the clientele is a bit rowdy – a bunch of funny dressed guys having a bit too much fun. The serving boy says they are Yazzaks from the south. Turns out Yazzaks is an ethnic demonym, rather than the long slang. Anyway Sir Killjoy keeps us all on a short leash – something about being undercover – which suits me, and we head to bed fairly early (although not before the Yazzaks I notice – lightweights).

We are all bunking up together because it’s market day and I am woken suddenly by Psychofiregirl shouting out. Assuming that the stunty can’t keep his hands to himself I leap up to watch the fun, and duck out of the way of the fireball, and discover that I can’t. Someone is grappling me as well. This isn’t going to end well for somebody – that’s for sure. I hear Muscles give a roar and suddenly the guy groping me lets go and scarpers. I switch, quick as you like, from incanting Dimension Door, to giving him a full Blight right between the shoulders, and he goes down like a sack of bones. Which he is now. I taste his life-force as I suck his soul into my body.

Muscles seems to have restrained one now, who is a giant rat, and then changes back into a man again. Ah-ha – a were-rat. I have just the thing for that, and get my silver dagger out of my boot as I get dressed. Psychofiregirl and Muscles tie up the were-rat.

Muscles and I go downstairs to see where the rest of them might have got to. The tap-room is empty, but we discover that the back door is still slightly ajar, so they have obviously scarpered like, well, rats. My original thought had been that the inn-keeper might have shopped us to the authorities, and the stories of the antics at that stupid village might have already reached her, but I reckon the authorities aren’t likely to use were-rats. So it seems like we should ask the inn-keeper what the f**k is going on here. We find his room behind the bar, but the door is locked. That stops Muscles for about 5 seconds. The inn-keeper wakes up to find a six and a half-foot barbarian wearing nothing but the remains of a door and wielding a battle-axe in his room. I’m pretty surprised that he doesn’t shit himself.

He turns out to be pretty talkative for some reason. Claims that the were-rats are a syndicate giving him a shake-down, and we were the saps because we were new in town. We escort him upstairs, where Sir Smartypants has cast some sort of scary Zone of Truth spell and is questioning the were-rat, who is keeping schtum. Even spits in his face at some point, which takes some guts, given what I have seen him do to much larger things with that sword of his. But he’s a wuss, so doesn’t respond. I reckon that we’ve caught him burglarizing red-handed, and back where I come from the penalty for that is losing a hand. Enough of us to be the jury as well, so time for the punishment. I get the silver dagger out, and carve off one finger – ain’t nothing that says you can’t have a bit of fun administering justice or that the hand has to come off in one go. You can hear the flesh sizzle as the silver contacts it, and that gets him talking nice and fast.

Still don’t get much out of him though, and the inn-keeper genuinely doesn’t seem to have a clue, but we do get directions to their lair. We set out, with the bound and gagged were-rate guiding us, but Fingers and I out front. My Devil’s Sight means I spot a couple of likely candidates keeping an eye on the road from the inn though long before they can see me, and Fingers and I circle round and take them from the rear. Roughly. My blast ain’t the best, but Fingers kills his and finishes off mine as well. Kill-stealing, but I’m already pumped, and its for the team – better than them making a noise. We get closer to the house where the entrance to their tunnels is, and spot another one – this time I cast Invisibility on the two of us to make sure we ain’t spotted. We think for a second that one of them has smelt us though, but it doesn’t save them. A small tunnel entrance awaits Team Silent-Death (plus the other losers who I guess we will need to bring along as well).

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The Perils of Being ‘New in Town’

We stayed in the inn recommended by the outlaw geezers. One of their junior members came with us. He chatted with Stephan through the night and sketched out the local area. Magic is frowned upon and roving bands of ‘Diviners’ move around checking for supposedly ‘unholy’ behaviour.. He also gave us a sketch map of the area and indicated that the Master’s Temple is off to the west.
The cheeky little bastard then nicked some of our money in the night and buggered off!!
We journeyed on to the closest decent sized town and entered with no challenge from the guards. It’s the day before market day, so they’re dealing with lots of visitors. We establish ourselves at the ‘Newgate Inn’, which seems like a nice enough joint. Another merchant train arrived just before us, but we managed to secure a single loft room.
We eat a tasty dinner and supp some ale, but there doesn’t seem to be much action. I consider chatting to locals about any rumours, but Stephan is keen that we remain undercover. So we go to bed. And then the fun starts…
Alya and Magni have taken the first watch but both are unusually sleepy. Alya wakes to find that she’s been grabbed by an intruder!! Surely the door was locked, and we’d checked for secret passages and ceiling hatches!
She escapes the grapple and cries out. Vivec and Mordana are first to wake. They too find that they are being grappled by some sort of humanoid. Vivec is not happy about being grabbed uninvited and shakes off his assailant with some ease, he then leaps out of bed and roars in rage.
The seven (7!) intruders start to realise that things aren’t going their way and run for the door. Vivec grabs one and Mordana drops one with a Blight spell. Vivec punches the guy in the head a couple of times and in response he wriggles and transforms into a giant rat! The rat leaps out of Vivec’s arms and races for the chimney – Alya is now blocking the door. Vivec dives for the rat and manages to grab it again. After some more struggle, it gives up and morphs back into what is likely it’s normal form – a ratty faced, scrawny man. A wererat!
Alya and Mordana tie him up as the rest arise from their poisoned/drugged state. We’re all pretty miffed, to say the least. Vivec and Mordana head downstairs to find the innkeeper while Alya leads the interrogation/intimidation of our prisoner.
The innkeeper tells us a sorry tale of intimidation and extortion. He drugs new visitors and puts them in a attic room and the wererat gang robs them and leaves the inn intact. The prisoner doesn’t give too much away, and goes even quieter when Stephan casts Zone of Truth… The innkeeper is pushed into the zone and his story remains the same – he doesn’t know who leads the gang or where their hideout is. The ruffian is only persuaded to speak after Mordana cuts off his little finger with her silver dagger. He then agrees to lead us to their hideout.

We gag him and head out – I take the lead with Mordana, checking for watch patrols or wererat lookouts. Down the main street we spot two figures, and my innate urban knowledge guides me around behind them. I sidle up and drive my rapier through his chest. He drops in silence, his friend barely has a chance to react before Mordana fires an Eldritch blast in his face. He doesn’t drop immediately, but my superior reflexes allow me to skewer him in the blink of an eye.
Mordana and I drag the bodies down a sidestreet and dump them over a wall.

A few minutes later we’ve arrived at the hideout. Mordana casts Invisibility over the two of us and we check for more lookouts. There are two hapless saps waiting to be dropped.
Repeating our moves from earlier, I sidle up and execute my best assassinate move. My sudden appearance is the cue for Mordana to release another Eldritch blast. Again, it’s not quite powerful enough to drop the lookout, but he soon gets acquainted with the pointy end of my rapier.
There’s a hatch at the base of the wall of the hideout – this must be the entrance to the wererat hideout. Rat Catching Time….!!

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Local hero

Continuing to lead my carefully disguised team down the main road towards the nearest town and then the capital of Hool, we encountered two young children by the wayside looking distressed. Hailing them in my friendliest terms, for children are especially protected by Helim, wherever they maybe, I discovered that they were looking for someone to help their village, where almost everyone was struck down by a terrible illness. Obviously this was a task set before me by Helim himself, to prove his light in this land of darkness, but means of signs and miracles.

We followed the children and soon reached their village – a cluster of dilapidated huts around a small well. They led us to their home, where both their parents were bed-bound and severely ill. The druidess confirmed with her leeching skill that they were suffering from some kind of enteric illness, possibly caused by fouled water. I laid hands upon the two of them and invoked the glory of Helim, and his radiant light purged them of their impurity. Soon they were both able to walk and I urged them to visit the rest of the village and determine how many were ill and find me the most severely affected or closest to death so that I could treat them first.

Meanwhile, I sent the scout, or rather the miscreant who was posing as our scout, down the well, as that seemed to be the obvious source of the illness. A call, followed by some retching, indicated that a partially decomposed goat was fouling the water. We threw down some burlap, which he wrapped the corpse in and I then had it winched out of the well, followed by a similarly befouled scout. I then descended myself and purified the water in the well, removing the contamination from both the goat and the scout’s stomach.

Returning to the surface, I was guided to those most desperately ill, and was able to return three more of them to health with Helim’s divine light. At this point a youth from the village appeared with an aged and obviously insane hermit. He was obviously known to those here and inspected them before brewing some tincture from herbs, which he fed those still ill. I explained that we had identified and removed the source of the contagion.

The hermit gave us a shrewd look and engaged me with questions. I demurred initially, but he obviously knew the truth and I am not one to hide the light of Helim behind the clouds of untruth, so revealed the in Helim’s name I had indeed performed healing miracles here in the village. He cautioned me that we should not reveal our affiliations so readily here in the land of Hool; but I said that my vows did not permit me to ride past when the poor and innocent were suffering. He thanked me for what I had done here, and we talked further of the nature of the land we were now in.

He joined us for an evening repast and we lay down to sleep by our fire, but in the morning he had disappeared without trace. Possibly he was a servant of the Master in disguise, but the infusion he had given the villagers seemed to have worked, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

We bade farewell to the grateful villagers, and paid them for some fresh food for our rations, before returning to the main road. After many hours, as the afternoon was drawing towards evening, we reached a wood that the road ran through. Entering the wood, we saw that there was a large group within it. Assuming the worst, our scout slipped from his camel and attempted to hide in the undergrowth, but was easily spotted, and returned, shamed, to his mount. I engaged them in conversation, for they did not seem threatening. They claimed to be a band of outlaws who had been trailing us since we crossed the great pass and entered the land. Now that we were safe from prying eyes in this wood, they wanted to talk to me, for otherwise the eyes of the Master were everywhere. They told me that there was an inn further down the road where we could rest in safety, and they could tell me more of their stand against the Master.

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Spider sense

My keen senses told me that these stone statues were far too realistic to have been carved by the sort of craftsman that would frequent these forsaken lands, and so the obvious solution was that we were dealing with the lair of some terrible aberration; maybe even the fearsome basilisk itself.

A detailed search of the area revealed no tracks though, or any indications of which if the two cave mouths might be the lair of this beast. It seemed that I would have to use my intuition and divine sense of guidance in order to guide the rest of the company on the right part, but the druidess Elune spoke to me. Apparently amongst the curses bestowed on her by her deviant and degenerate worship of the old gods was that of changing shape into the form of a beast. She therefore offered to turn into the shape of a giant spider and investigate the caves in that form. I assented, with misgivings, to using such foul magics, but reasoned that we were following a holy misson, and I could purge her of her heresy at some later stage.

She disappeared into the right hand cave, and was never seen again.

Well, actually she did reappear, but only after many hours had passed. I feared that the last vestiges of her rational mind had succumbed to the bestial urges and passions of her debased form, but eventually she returned. The cave led to a tunnel apparently, at the end of which was a barred door, and a speaking tube of some kind. She had seen no other creature on that path.

We followed her route and found the barred door. Elune changed once again, into a miniature spider, and started climbing up the speaking tube. The plan was that on the far side, she would return to her natural form, and open the gate for us.

While she was gone however, we were addressed through this tube, and questioned as to our purpose. I stated boldly that our purpose was to reach the lands beyond, but they asked me why and on whose authority I proceeded. I glossed the true purpose of our visit and averred that we were here by invitation of the Master, which was true enough, for we had a scrap of parchment that he had given us through the magic mirror in the tomb of the Scorpion King. Indeed when a hobgoblin appeared to check our tale, I was able to show him this invitation directly.

This obviously satisfied the guard for the gate was raised and we passed through, and out of another cave into the valley below. Looking back, we saw that as well as some hobgoblins, a storm giant guarded the gate. Elune rejoined us in spider form and we followed the road down the valley.

After a day on the road, we fell in with some merchants, and ourselves posed as a merchant (Mordana) and her guards, looking for wares to purchase and trade back across the mountains. They were friendly and told us of a nearby town, but also warned us that our elven and dwarven friends would cause attention and possibly even aggression from some of the humanoid inhabitants of this realm.

We resolved that the elves should be able to hide their appearance with cloaks or hats, and maybe even a false beard, but the dwarf would be a different problem. Mordana offered the suggestion though that we could make it appear as if he was our slave, and therefore it might not cause such attention.

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Accusation of spying

Stephan’s inner drive persuades the rest of us that we should try these tunnels again, but this time, we’ll turn left at the first junction.
Amazingly it works, and after a few hours we emerge into a different valley. Several of us notice that the grass is very neatly cropped. I estimate it to be 2 inches, Elune reckons 1 and 7/8ths.
There’s really only one way to go as the tunnel emerges near the head of a valley. As we descend, and note the lack of cover, and ponder on the neatly cropped grass, Vivec spots riders approaching. As they near we realise they are centaurs. They stop about a mile away, and then trot off. A short while later they reappear carrying lances. The approach to hailing distance and ask what we are doing in their lands.
Stephan leads the negotiation and manages not to go on about bloody Hellim for once. They agree to escort us through their lands and we start to trot down the hill.
The valley widens as the stream we follow meets another. It suddenly dawns on us that the centaurs have us surrounded and are pointing their lances in a threatening way. No one is seriously worried as their leader accuses us of being spies for some odd creatures that they claim live in the tunnels.
Stephen’s charismatic approach to negotiation, tied with some cold hard logic actually wins the day and they let us continue un-molested. As a parting shot they advise us to avoid the valley to the left.
This is like a red rag to a bull – Vivec and I fancy a little sneak up there. We dismount and leave the rest in the main valley.
This side valley is hard going – no neatly cropped grass here. It takes us an hour to get a mile through the rocks and suddenly we are halted as a boulder thumps into the ground just in front of us.
I scan the horizon and spot two giant figures above, picking up another boulder. A third figure starts to chant and the air around Vivec’s head goes a bit wavy, but he seems unaffected.
Three cyclops seems like bad odds, so we turn and rush back at TOP SPEED. Several boulders crash behind us, but having terrible depth perception makes their aim awful.
On reaching the others we all decide just to continue down the main valley.
A few hours later we come to an area with many yellow flowers, and a lot of stone statues….
Two caves entrances suggest the lair of some horrible beast.

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Windy!

We hike down to the gnome encampment, attempting to project a friendly, non-threatening demeanour.
They walk out to meet us, with little bows drawn and their apparent leader approaches with what looks like a letter opener casually held in one small hand.
I attempt to make light conversation but they don’t seem to be in a chatty mood, and claim that they don’t have any food to trade. All in all they are quite stand-offish, and they don’t seem to realise quite who they are dealing with.
The shadows are lengthening, so we retreat from their miniature village and, as we are seeking a suitable camping spot, hear a faint cry on the wind. It seems to be calling ‘Mooordaaaanaaaaa’. It’s hard to tell where the call is coming from, but we veer towards the valley that it seems to come from. The cry is heard several more times and the search for a camping spot eventually finds somewhere. But not before we find the remains of  a mammoth that looks as if it was dropped from a great height. These are strange lands indeed….
We all quietly thank Leomund for his tiny hut and rest for the night. A mighty wind gets up and we consider the fate of the camels. Mordana muses on the fact that Leomund needs to work on a stable extension to his tiny hut.

The morning we must spent time gathering the camels. They have survived the night but look somewhat windswept!

We explore the various side valleys, and eventually find our way to a cave entrance which looks like it may lead us further through the mountains.

The tunnels wind through the mountain and eventually, after many turns, we find ourselves in a large cavern. To Vivec and Elune it seems to be beautiful, lit by glowing moss on the walls, there are pretty toadstools and frolicking woodland creatures. Several pale humanoids seems to be approaching in a friendly manner….

ZONK! Mordana removes the curse and barbarian and druid see the cavern the same way as the rest – a foul, ominous place. And the ‘friendly humanoids’ are zombies looking for a meal! They don’t find much to eat, and won’t be looking again.

We exit the cavern and continue. After many hours we camp out and wonder how bloody long these passages are.

The next morning, more trudging. Eventually we see light and emerge….
Into the SAME BLOODY VALLEY we left two days ago.!!!

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A tale of two dragons

Having cleared the monastery of its evil inhabitants, and rededicated it to holy purity, I looked to lead my team onwards, through the pass and into the lands of the master. As we were leaving the monastery though we got a surprise in the shape of Bishop Guillam. He was on a similarly secret mission to mine though, so we merely exchanged blessings, updated each other on our progress and then parted.

The first part of the pass proved to be deceptively easy as we advanced up the valley and into a narrow canyon beyond. Eventually this opened out into a broad amphitheatre, with an ominous cave mouth beyond. We strode across boldly but as we approached the cave, not one, but two green dragons emerged from the cave mouth.

The cowardly thief and the ignorant barbarian both turned on their tails and fled at the first sight of the dragons, but the rest of my team held their ground, bolstered by my imposing presence. At my command, Alya stepped forwards are tried to converse with the dragons in draconic, as she spoke the language fluently, for reasons that I am presently not dwelling upon. I deemed that although two dragons would be a noble challenge indeed, our mission was of a higher priority than my personal renown and glory, and the path of true righteousness lies in persuing the greater good, and thus had instructed her to parlay with the dragons, for I know that dragons lust for gold and precious things, which the truly holy such as myself hold in scant regard, and if I could purchase our passage rapidly with the exchange of such baubles of no value, it would be a good exchange for the present and I could return at a later date to eliminate the scourge of these vile beasts from the earth.

The dragons, showed no sign of responding to Alya’s words though, and after a brief pause, I directed Mordana to use her second sign to divine if they were magical illusions or such-like. It seemed that the smaller dragon was, while the larger dragon contained a source of magic within it. The response of the larger dragon to our investigation was to unleash a gout of flame in my direction, hitting Magni and Elune as well. Magni indeed lost much of his fine beard to the flames.

Motioning to Alya, I bade her unleash her flaming doom in response. The casting was fine, as the larger dragon burst into flames, while the smaller one disappeared completely. The flames rapidly revealed that the larger dragon was a construct of some sort, containing men, some of whom fled back into the cave. Magni, enraged, persued them, followed by Mordana and then myself. Despite my pleas to keep one alive to show us the path through the caves, Magni slaughtered them remorselessly. Mordana was more biddable, and intimidated her opponent into surrendering, terrified of her glowing eyes. Having dropped his sword though, he drew a dagger and killed himself in fright, or in obedience to his dark master.

I now realised that the larger dragon was a complex construct of pulleys and struts, manned by a dozen men, most of whom were now roasting in its remains. The smell was troubling, so we started into the cave.

The path beyond wound down a narrow tunnel into the earth. After many miles, we came to a side turning, but I chose the path that continued on. The tunnel then broadened, and eventually bifurcated. I led us down the right branch which led us into a large cavern. Here I decided that we should stop and rest for the night, conserving our few remaining torches. I chose well, for we were undisturbed.

In the morning (or as near as we could judge in this lightless gloom) I led us on straight through the chamber. After an hour or so though, our torch started to burn fitfully, indicating that the air was becoming bad, so I turned us back and led us down the leftmost passage. After but a short distances, this opened up in the flank of a snow-covered valley high up in the mountains.

The bleak floor of the valley was bare earth, covered with many strange markings – 2 to 6 parallel groves raked in the soil, 50 to 100 feet long, end ending in a series of 1′ diameter and 3 foot deep pits. I surmised that these might be the marks of some great beast of the mountains, and order the others to keep a keen eye out.

In the centre of the valley we saw a wisp of smoke. I bade the witch send her familiar down there, and it reported back that there was a cluster of turf huts inhabited by some gnomes.

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What’s around this corner…?

There was a miniature spear at the bottom of the illusion chest. Mordana proposes to perform an identifying ritual to discern it’s magical properties.
Knowing that this will take some time, Tel Vos decides to sneak up the corridor exiting the room. He’s heard the faint sound of tinkling bells coming from somewhere.

Just around the corner, he spies 2 Bhutts with their backs to him, standing by a cauldron. 4 other Bhutts seem to have also heard the tinkling of bells as they are animatedly exiting the room to the north.

He returns to report his findings and Alya reaches out with her mind to warn Stephan and Vivex that they may soon have company.

Stephan and Vivec shortly hear the sound of someone or something trying to open one of the doors they spiked shut…
‘Oh!’, they slowly think, ‘That means they might go back to fight the others……’
‘Maybe…. we should….errrr….unspike the doors so we can help.’
Despite being tired out by this formidable exercise in critical thinking, they still manage to make a start on un-spiking the doors.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party are making a valiant effort against the Bhutts. When the four extra Bhutts return, Alya drops a Fireball in their midst, and Elune summons 8 wolves to add to the mayhem. With two wolves per Bhutt, we take little damage and the battle is soon wrapped up.

However, when Stephan and Vivec return, they seem to look blank and gormless. More so than usual.
It’s as if some sort of curse or spell effect has hit them.

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Monastery of Evil

(A hollow voice says “Bwah Ha Haaaaa!!”)

After dispatching the frost salamander, we did some more exploration of the monastery under cover of darkness. ‘We’ being Tel Vos, Mordana and Alya. (Was Elune there as well?)
In the courtyard we noticed one building seemed magical. Upon entering we found an armoury and a couple of cells, one of which looked occupied. We figured it would be better to explore further before releasing any prisoners. A guardroom contained three wights. Some stealthy sneaking (possibly aided by Pass Without Trace) got us past and up some stairs. Some further sneaking got us to another room with a big fighter guy. Tel Vos sidled up to him and stabbed him big style!
The big fighter guy then fiddled with a ring on his finger and a genie appeared!! Lucklily, we managed to kill the fighter before he could command the genie to do anything. This guy proved to be fairly influential in The Master’s hierarchy, as evidenced by his magic ring, magic armour, magic shield and magic sword. Plus the notes on the desk.

Happening to glance out of the window, one of us noticed that we weren’t in Kansas any more!! The whole building must be some kind of portal! Kerrazeeeee!
We spent rather too long pondering on this, and the next thing we knew, the wights were upon us – yikes Level Drain!!!
Our obvious combat superiority meant that we weren’t really in danger.

Downstairs we rescued the prisoner – she was a thief who was the sole survivor of an adventuring group who had attempted to raid the Master’s Temple. She could prove to be a useful NPC if we remember that she is with us and tell her to do something!

While the monastery courtyard is quiet, we decide to explore further – the library is next on the list.
Unfortunately, no one notices the two figures hiding in the shadows and we are attacked! They look like monks, but with hideous faces. And they’re quite tough!! Mordana manages to send a message to the rest of the party that we need help, and they dash over. At top speed.
Meanwhile, we defend ourselves gamely. Vivec arrives in time to save us from death and we re-group.

Further exploration of the library reveals various scrolls which tell us some of the background to the monastery. The ugly monk dudes are called Bhuts. They killed off the original monks and this place is now an outpost of the Master, guarding the Great Pass. Erm, there might have been other info too…

Back out in the courtyard, Mordana sent Faustus out to explore the outer portions of the temple area. Key fact – there were two figures hiding in the shadows on guard.
We elect to check out the monks dormitory instead.

Tel Vos attempts to sneak into the dormitory, but the clanking behind him alerts two monks who leg it! A quick search of their room reveals a trapdoor down into some tunnels.
We explore the tunnels and find a pool. The pool is now the former home of a dead Water Weird. We then find a passage that takes us up into our own quarters! Mordana is keen to take a rest as casting spells somewhat takes it out of her.

Rest complete, we descend into the tunnels and try to make our way toward the temple. Through the gloom emerge some stairs and flickery candle light. Tel Vos creeps up the stairs and hears growling and a muffled voice. He peeps around the end of the stairs to find a bear scampering towards him, not looking very friendly!! “Retreat to fight another day,” he thinks, and runs behind Vivec.
The bear doesn’t last long, but it provides enough of a diversion to allow the priest to escape. Vivec, Mordana and Stephen charge after him, and a couple of powerful incantations from Mordana bring him down.

The party is now split. Vivec and Stephen continue to explore and find they are in the courtyard as described by Mordana, via Faustus. The guardians in the shadows fall quite quickly to Stephen’s holy attacks and Vivec’s mighty chopper. There is a prayer wheel with bells on. Annoyingly, some stupid monkey jumps on it, making it turn and the bells tinkle…
Meanwhile, Magni, Elune et al have found a room with some chests. Most have clothes in them, but Magni finds one that seems to be a portal to hell, with fiery demons flying around in the bottom. He is sure something isn’t right as he felt no heat. Some further investigation leads him to think it is an illusion. Is there something in the bottom? I can’t remember…

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