PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 17 - Echos of Mizar

Day 44 - Still Beneath Habreira

The party stands in a long hallway, stones glowing with a magical light, seemingly brighter to the west. The party is in good health, healed by Mizar, the benevolent unicorn spirit whom Atlas has pledged his service to. He will educate the chitine about, and find them a safe place to worship. The party continues west until the come to a door. They listen, hear nothing, and try it.

Inside, the room is more well lit, again from the glowing stones, their brightness perhaps hinting that the source of the magic, this Foundingstone, that Hamun Kost told them of, is nearby. There is little in the room, dust and debris of ages past, but there are fresh footprints in the dust, and they lead to a strange door.

The door has three skulls above it, each with the symbol of eternity in its mouth. The rightmost one has a stud of some sort beneath it, where the others have none. Orryn shares that the skulls match the one he saw in his dream, the key to horrifying power. Nowhere reaches up and presses the stud. It registers a click, and the eye sockets of the skull, carved from nothing but stone, begin to glow a pale blue light.

They attempt to push the door, but it does not give, a solid mass of iron, immovable. It becomes clear to all that there are likely two more buttons to press. Clinker offers "I had my pick, I could tunnel through, but I think it would take a week through this granite." Vald replies, deadpan "That would take too long." and the others sigh with annoyance.

Nowhere says "Let's make our way around and look for another entrance. Stay to the left on the way back and we should come across something."

The others nod in agreement and they set forth down the hallway, with one surprise. The second urn in the hallway, the one that likely contains another wight is gone. Nowhere points it out with concern, but the party moves on, ignoring the mystery. They return to the workroom, where they found the backside of several secret doors. They opened a new one, keeping to the left, to the west. Within is a large chamber, 30 feet across, mostly empty. The stone floors and wall pulse with the magical light they have seen throughout this area, illuminating a roughly stitched hide bag that sits unattended in the center of the room. There are open archways to the north and to the west. Dain pokes the bag with a javelin, it feels filled with sand, but when Nowhere examines, she finds salt. She sifts through it a bit and finds a large crystal, and checking it, finds it not to be salt, but a large raw diamond. She pours out the salt and finds two more.

While waiting for her, the others mill about the room, on the alert for intruders, staying huddled in the center. They decide to search the room for any secrets, but Nowhere activates a trap, and a block of stone falls from the ceiling, smashing into her shoulder and almost crushing her. She dusts herself off and the party moves to the next room, a narrow but long chamber with brighter light glowing from the stone than in the prior room. The room was a butchery, with long wooden tables now rotted, but some hooks and the like for hanging meat. Here, the fresh carcasses of several of the large birds lay strewn about - they have been cut apart for obvious reason... There is a fire pit at one end of the room, and hanging over it on a metal bar, is meat, likely from the birds that has been killed nearby. The fire is cold, but the meat is still fresh.

There is a single door in the room, and Nowhere ventures a pull. She yells out as a needle in the handle pricks her skin, but she was fast, and the poisonous jab fails injure her significantly, except for the prick mark and a burning sensation. She avoids the needle and pulls the door open. The glowing stones of the floor of the room are brighter here, but the filth on the floor casts shadows upwards, making it difficult to make out. It appears there is a creature, laying on a makeshift bed, debris of all sorts strewn around, including the waste from whatever the creature is. The creatures does not move so Dain takes a javelin and throws it at the bundle.

The party examines the foul nest of the creature and finds ???????? including a container of some liquid. Dain smashes the vial and a honeylike syrup flows onto the floor between the bits of glass. He runs a finger through, and tastes it, much to the surprise of his companions. "It could have been poison!" Nowhere says.

"I think it is poison!" Dain replies with a laugh, spitting the syrup out. He gathers what he can up in his hands and brings it over to the meat hanging on the rack, smearing it over the food. "Maybe he'll get hungry soon." The others shake their heads, but move on to another door on the other side of the Meazel's lair. They listen, it is quiet, and they open it.

The room beyond is similar to the previous room with the skulls above the door, but this time one of the three skulls above the door is already lit, and the stud is below a dark one. The course of action seems obvious, so the press the stud, and now two skulls glow from their eyes.

Suddenly from behind, Immeral yells, with a concerned pitch in his voice. "It's peaking its head in!" The team races back the few yards to Immeral, who was watching the rear, but the creature is already gone.

"Let's keep moving left." Nowhere states, "We need to find that third door".

The continue left, and enter a hallway where water is starting to pool along the western wall, and opens into an area with a pair of doors, east and west, the west one submerged knee-deep in water. First they open the eastern door, and within they find a small room, perhaps 15 by 20 feet, the stone of the walls glowing weakly. The illumination reveals rubble and a black marble statue situated in the center of the east wall. The statue might be humanoid, but it is so eroded that it is difficult to make out what it represents. The team examines the statue for a bit, it could be a centaur or it could be a pegasus, either way they move on.

Next they continue to the western door, and rather than wading into the water to open it, ??????? directs his magic rope to cross the water and grasp the handle to pull it open. A fifteen by fifteen foot stone chamber is knee-deep in thick, stagnant water. The damp and rot of the water has destroyed the tiles that covered the walls in this chamber, although a few pieces still adhere to the walls here and there. Strange runes are visible on the tiles that are still attached to the wall. On a shelf that still stands, at an odd angle, are a number of small wooden boxes with a unique symbol on each that stand covered in dust and mold. K'ronk wades into the water and retrieves the boxes, but is unsure of their use. He puts them in his backpack to examine later.

The group looks along the western passage, flooded with water, it heads north and turns. Suddenly, the Meazel pokes its head out of the eastern passage and flings a couple of the muttering mouther creatures at the heroes, then runs. Both of the mouthers are knocked away harmlessly, but the intrusion is a bother. They will have to guard their backs carefully. Vald volunteers. "I will stay at the rear and watch for that thing to return. I would like to kill it." The others nod at his obvious statements. Clinker adds "I'll hang back too, I'm not goin' in that water 'till you tell me it's clear."

The party marches forward into the water and turns the corner west. About forty feet ahead, the passage slopes down from the roof, directly into the water. The cautiously travel on, Nowhere and Orryn taking the lead, while the others hang back. They find the location where submerged steps would take the adventurers deeper, when the water churns suddenly, and the pair is attacked by a pair of frog-like humanoids. Unknown to the party, they are called drael, and are amphibious, with pointy sharp teeth and webbed hands and feet.

TOM TO ADD MORE NOTES

NEXT - The Battle of Cahervaniel