Temple of Black Earth

B1. Gargoyle Chasm

The passage lead to a subterranean chasm spanned by a zigzagging, ten-foot-wide stone bridge without railings. The bridge linked tunnels leading north and south. the chasm floor was fifty feel below the bridge and consisted of a jumbled mass of boulders. To the west, the chasm narrows and continued for some distance.

Leopold tied one end of his rope to his sword belt and the other end of the rope to his immovable rod;
the party was taken by surprise and ambushed by three gargoyles that were lurking in the shadows above;
they destroyed the gargoyles and continued to creep forward

B3. Ruined Gates

Massive pair of stone doors lay broken just south of this small plaza, flanked by iron torches that brightly illuminate the area. One door listed unevenly on its bottom hinge, and the other lay shattered on the ground. The standing door was carved with a pastoral scene of grain fields and rolling hills, worn and pitted by the centuries. A large, dimly lit hall waited beyond the broken gates. Arrow slits are carved into the west and east walls.

Alexander correctly guessed that this was formerly the front gate of the stronghold of Tyar-Besil

B4. Ruined Gates

This was once a magnificent hall with a soaring ceiling, marble floors, and intricate carvings of prosperous farmlands decorating the walls. It has since fallen to ruin. Deep cracks mar the walls, sections of the masonry have collapsed, and the huge stone doors at the north end of the hall are broken. Passages lead west and south, and there is a stone door to the east. A small cooking fire and several bedrolls are in the southeast corner of the room.

The party encountered a burrowshark named Nartham, his bulette mount, and four hobgoblins;
Words were exchanged, then weapons unsheathed;
LiKi separated the hobgoblins from the fight with a wall of fire; the retired into an adjacent room to the east;
the party slayed the burrowshark and his fearsome land sharky friend;
they then entered the room to the east in pursuit of the hobgoblins; where they walked into an ambush which included attacks from the four hobgoblins as well as five duergar, two of whom were quite large; after a challenging fight, they had doled justice out to this party of earth cultists.

The ferocious Bulette!

The Burowshark in stony armor

B7. and B18: Guardroom and a Barracks

They crept further along, keeping westward, along the northern edge of the dungeon;
They barged into a room, tossed in some heads, and defeated their foes: a burrowshark named Dynath, a black earth guard, and four cultists in one, and four black earth guards, and a black earth priest in the other;
they picked these corpses clean of their valuables which amounted to some gold and silver pieces and some precious stones.
interestingly, while travelling between these rooms, they encountered a sculpture of some sort of animate mountain top (B19); they assumed that it was trapped or would come to life, so they shot arrows at it, but nothing happened;
after they deemed it safe, they took a closer look; Kahntun wasn't sure, but he thought perhaps it was a depiction of Ogremoch, the mountain that walks, the lord of the plane of earth, a prince of elemental evil and deity of the Black Earth cult.

Fire and ice; LiKi softened these enemies up with cold cutting ice knives, then finished them up with a massive fire ball which ended the lives of four duergar in one beautiful explosion.

B23. Shrine of Bleeding Stone

In this large hall with an irregular pit at its center, the party interrupted some weird stony ritual that a Black Earth priest and four other cultists were conducting. A deep gnome had been manacled at the foot of a an obelisk, and the cultists were chanting to the stone. Combat began, but as it did, a thick black liquid started to seep out of the large rock above the gnome. It turned out to be a black pudding!

The pudding split into two puddings after being slashed by Kahntun's long sword. The gnome was burned severely, but managed to survive. After a short fight, the room was quiet once again.

Black Pudding

The deep gnome Rukhelmoth Glitterstone (or "Rukh" for short [no pun intended LiKi!])

After administering his healing hands, Kahntun questioned to prisoner. This is what they learned:

The leader of the earth cult is a medusa named Marlos Urnrayle. He lairs in a cavern to the northeast;
a staircase to the south leads down to an ancient drow temple that has been overrun by elemental cultists;
the cultists have created elemental nodes in the dungeons below;
Rukh speculates that these nodes are the source of the cultists' weird elemental powers.

They asked Rukh if he needed further assistance, but he assured them that he could take care of himself (despite his recent perdicament) and confidentially walked off into the darkness of the underground temple alone.

This priestess, Erione seemed to specialize in creepy creeping sticky and acidic shit. Fun!

B15. Stone Forge and B16. Armory

Not eager to confront Marlos at that moment, the adventurers agreed to explore the southern sections of the dungeon further. They first peaked into a room with a forge standing in the middle, surrounded by piles of firewood. Two big anvils stood close by, and hammers, tongs, and other smithing tools were scattered around several workbenches along the chamber's walls. Inside they saw what looked like a dao (an earth genie) assisted by two duergar as they forged interesting claw-like weapons. Weary of engaging these hard workers in either conversation or combat, Leopold smiled and nodded as he made the symbol of Black Earth with his hands.

Further south along this corridor, he tried to very sneakily peak into yet another door. Inside he was able to make out what looked like five large ogres laying on filthy furs. The deep, slow snoring he heard confirmed their identities. As the one closest to him opened one eye and stared in Leopold's direction, he once again smiled, nodded, and made the Black Earth symbol as he quickly and quietly backed out of the room and shut the door.

The "just passing through" dungeoneering strategy.

B14. Torture Chamber

The curious adventurers next entered a room they were unwilling to ignore. A torture rack seemed to be the center piece of this chamber. Manacles hung from the walls and fiendish hooks, blades and clamps hung on the back of the wall. Four cramped iron cages stood in the room's western alcove, occupied by gaunt, dirty humans with black gazes. In the room's eastern alcove stood two double bunks and an iron stove.

Heldorm, "the tickler"

Upon entering the room, they encountered a creepy as fuck looking dude who appeared to be arguing with himself and tittering at a series of black jests he only partially shared aloud. Leopold quickly flashed the symbol and a grin and tried to banter with the demented man, saying something along the lines of "heads are gonna roll tonight, huh?!"

This seemed to deeply (and inexplicably) offend Heldorm who grimaced and barked out "Who is to be questioned today? Which of these strange creatures be needing a tickling? Is it you little one?" he asked as he creepily leered at LiKi. This was more than our sorceress could tolerate, so she sent a fire bolt flying at the monstrous man, singing his bald head. Battle ensued.

This was a tough fight; fire and fury was exchanged; the adventurers killed the three cultists assisting Heldorm, but out of nowhere, he seemed to seep into the western wall and disappear.

As LiKi went to the western wall, scanning it for some clue as to the stonemelder's disappearance, Kahntun freed the prisoners. Alexander and Leopold questioned them, this is what they discovered.

Gervor

This half-elf noble was all that was left of an adventuring company out of Waterdeep that he commanded. They were ambushed by the Black Earth cult about a month ago in the Sumber Hills. He was badly injured. Kahntun healed this fellow nobleman and firmly suggested that he return to Waterdeep. Gervor agreed, adding that he will return to sharpen his diplomatic abilities rather than focus on his combat and exploration skills.

Droth

The party learned from Gervor that this mercenary was in the service of the Howling Hatred cult. They could get nothing from him, as he was catatonic and shuffled from here to there. Gervor agreed to escort the shell-shocked cultist back to Waterdeep to face justice.

Wulgreda

This hapless dwarf was captured while prospecting in the hills near the Sacred Stone Monastery. She wanted nothing more than to return to her home near Beliard. She also warned that Orna is a Black Earth guard.

This former Black Earth guard dared to strike a priest of Ogremoch, which is what landed her within the reach of "the tickler." She was bitter and hated the cult that she once served.

Orna

They agreed to let her go if she gave up some information, pinpointing the location of Miraj Vizann's (the "Mud Sorcerer") lab.

In the end, the party escorted the four back to the exit leading to Sacred Stone Monastery, then the secret path leading into the hidden entrance in the Sumber Hills. After a long rest, they decided they would return to the Dungeon to finish their quest: deliver vengeance to Marlos Urnrayle, leader of the Black Earth cult which has tormented Red Larch in recent months.

LiKi wasn't done with "the tickler"

While the freed captives were being interrogated, LiKi sat quietly on the ground, staring at the wall within which Heldorm had vanished. Her mind was at work as her eyes scanned the solid granite. Just as they were about to leave, something came to her mind. She dug through her pack, eventually pulling out a dusty old scroll which she carefully read. After a whispered word, the room suddenly pulsated with invisible energy, which coalesced on LiKi's hands, then slammed into the wall. Those gathered in the room looked on in astonishment as the wall melted into mud and came flooding into the room. Suddenly, Heldorm was revealed as the sanctuary of solid stone slipped away. He spilled out onto the floor, writing in pain, dying on the spot. Without a word, the little gnome sorceress turned on her heals and mad her way to the exit as everybody looked on stunned with mouths agape.

Heldorm cast Meld into Stone as a way to retreat. Little did he know the depth of LiKi's lore and skill as she cast Transmute Rock to turn him into soup.

The mysterious power at LiKi's fingertips continues to stun those who witness it.

The Temple of Black Earth, round 2!

The party was eager to remove the threat of the famous mud sorcerer before devising their assault on the medusa Marlos. They headed directly to his chamber.

This was an interesting exchange. The party entered and flashed the earth cult sign. The earth genasi, Miraj was a jovial enough seeming character. He admitted that he was second in command to the cult and that he had the utmost loyalty to Marlos, but he also discussed his affiliation with the cult of the Crushing Wave. It was becoming clear that these two cults, at the very least, had allied themselves in this war.

LiKi and Miraj discussed a few arcane things, and she determined that he was currently working on restoring the magical giant stone dwarves the lined the interior of this room.

But, in the end, the conversation unraveled. The party was unwilling to divert the fight to carry out Miraj's request to go kill Bastian Thermander of the fire cult (however, Kahntun was tempted).

Here's how the fight went:

Miraj cast wall of stone, dividing himself from the party;
One of the stone dwarves came to life and attacked; Leopold cast dispel magic, but this only weakened the stony monster;
Miraj turned Alexander into a crab! Leopold cast invisibility on him self and picked his crabby friend up and put him in his pocket, seeking refuge from the assualt from the sorcerer and the stone golem;
LiKi and Kahntun destroyed these enemies.

B9. Broken Hall and B12. Broog-Norb's Lair

Next the party encountered a giant hall with a chasm dividing it. The cult seemed to use this as a kennel for their land sharks; three were chained to gigantic pillars. Enraged by the intrusion of our adventurers, they soon broke free and engaged them in combat. It was a challenging fight, but, in the end, the bulette's were slain.

In a nearby chamber--which appeared to be a giant kitchen or bakery for the old stronghold of Tyar-Besil--they encountered a grumpy old etin, Broog-Norb. They killed it too, then took a rest before sneaking their way up to Marlos Urnrayle's chambers.

The famous Mud Sorcerer

Broog-Norb, the ettin

Wrapping It Up

Anti-climactically, when they arrived at the earth cult leader's great temple and chambers, they found them newly abandoned. There was evidence of a speedy departure. Kahntun began to curse himself for not more vigorously pursuing the decimator of Red Larch. He vowed then and there that the medusa would suffer for his crimes, but he assented to LiKi's intention to infiltrate the fire cult and rescue the missing Azer, Fuegron. He had business of of his own with the Eternal Flame Cult.

In fact, he suggested that, from what he could tell, each of the four elemental temples seemed to be connected by tunnels and causeways as they were once part of the great city of Tyar-Besil. He argued that there was a high probability that there would be an access point to the fire cult's domain directly to the west of where they were; which turned out to be true!

Before they headed in that direction, they searched Urnrayle's lair and found adamantine chainmail which Kahntun eagerly donned. He tucked his trusty chainmail neatly away inside the bag of holding. As they were leaving, a beautiful tapestry depicting a red dragon caught Leo's eye. He snagged it off the wall and the company of adventurers made a hasty camp, hoping to take advantage of Urnrayle's chambers and restore their vigor before they proceeded into new, unknown dangers.

TL;DR

The party infiltrated the Temple of Black Earth;
they rescued a deep gnome and some other prisoners, learning more about the cult and their territory;
they killed the cult's second-in-command, Miraj Vizann;
they killed other stuff;
they found the cult leader's chambers, but Marlos Urnrayle was nowhere to be found; there were no clues as to where he might be;
Kahntun vowed to track him down;
they camped before heading on their way to an entrance to the Temple of Eternal Flame where LiKi hoped to find and rescue the missing Azer and Kahntun hoped to find and slay the fire genasi Bastian Thermander who murdered his cousin so many months back.

Click here to advance to the concluding part of Chapter 2!

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