After their rest, the party ventured forth again. It seemed to them that their quarry was not to be found in the temple. But Saruki had provided them with some valuable intelligence. They left the priests' quarters travelling west. They came to a closed door and pushed it open. The walls of this chamber were carved with stone friezes. They depicted dwarven merchants leading trains of mules or giant lizards burdened with heavy packs through immense caverns. In the center of the chamber, a wide stairway lead down into darkness. At the top of the stairs stood a hunched, insectoid creature with a pitchfork. When the group came into the room, Kahntun flashed the symbol of the water cult.
Suddenly, a buzzing voice entered each of their heads. "What do you serve?" it asked.
Drawing on the knowledge she had collected from Saruki, LiKi responded "we serve Olhydra."
"What lies below?" the buzzing voice demanded.
"The Fane of the Eye!" Leopold exuberantly returned.
"What are you?" the mezzoloth guardian prodded.
"Bearers of the surge!" Alexander smugly replied, confident in the reliability of the intel they had extracted from the water priestess.
Apparently that confidence was misplaced as the buggy barricade rejoined, "Incorrect. Impostors must be destroyed." Although they won the fight, this little fiend posed a more complicated challenge than our group had anticipated. Here are some highlights:
Leopold's quick thinking dispelling these spells saved the group a lot of grief . . . but unfortunately, not all the grief as Kahntun ended up on the receiving end of Alexander's flailing sword strikes in the magical darkness.
After the fight, the Temple above and below grumbled with a low, menacing rumble. They assumed that their presence was now very well-known. But nevertheless, Leopold was eager to delve deeper! "Well, it's down we go!" he cheerily ventured.
"Are you crazy?" Kahntun acerbically replied. "We don't know what's down there!" Alexander and Kahntun exchanged a look.
"Yeah, we should get back to civilization and see what has happened since we've been down here. We should find out more about what awaits us in this Fane of the Eye. Red Larch seems as good a place as any."
Leopold continued to assert his arguments, but in the end, the paladin and the fighter convinced him to leave off. LiKi wondered at his sudden desire and insistence to travel deeper into this creepy place.
They traveled quickly back through the dungeon, retracing their steps. When they arrived at Starry Lake, their boats were gone! However, several rotted wooden skiffs were drawn up on the rocky shore. Not willing to risk the three mile swim through the dark, creepy stream up to Rivergard Keep, Alexander assessed what he had to work with. He came to the conclusion that given an hour, maybe two, he could render two of the skiffs usable. It was at this point that an idea struck Kahntun. "Remember that tunnel we encountered in the other temple? What if this passage to the west leads us there?"
LiKi agreed. "It makes sense. Tyer-Besil was a city. It seems like these temples are just repurposed districts."
"And that would lead us back to the Sighing Valley, putting us close to the road to Red Larch" Alexander added. As they were discussing their next course of action, Leopold looked longingly across the lake toward where they had come from a short while ago. Suddenly he saw the water coming to life. "Look out!" he shouted to Alexander, but it was too late! Alex was now firmly in the clutches of a giant octopus that had stealthily crept up to the water's edge. In the clutches of this monster, our folk hero gasped for air even as he was being dragged under water and pulled away from the shore by this slithering monster.
This grasping creature seemed more of a nuisance than serious threat. Had LiKi been in reach, however, things might have gone disastrously. They may have had to scour the depths of the lake for a drowned gnome.
Here's what happened:
As they suspected, the mile-long tunnel to the west did in fact lead to the Temple of Howling Wind. An ominous windy wailing haunted the giant shelf of this section of the ancient underground city.
In no time at all they were in the Sighing Valley. Leopold glanced up at Feathergale Spire, hoping to catch a glimpse of his aarakocran allies. He saw two wheeling through the sky far above.
The group then skirted the wilds between the Cairn Road and Larch Path. They kept to forests and lowlands, hoping to pass through the area uninterrupted. A day or so into their travels, they noticed an eerie silence permeated the wilds. They couldn't think of the last time they heard, much less saw another living creature. Odd orange clouds hung overhead in the overcast sky. There was a heavy sense of anticipation lingering in the air. But, nevertheless, they arrived in Red Larch about a day and a half later without anything of note taking place.
The land around the Sumber Hills was curiously desolate.