While Kern recovered from his ordeal in the Breeding
Pits of Yg, Riley rallied Eirjay (with Foxy the Wardog) and Darnorth to delve
again into Stonehell in search of the Cobra
Codex. Reasoning the best place to start would be in the temple of Yg on
the second level, the party entered through Slate’s secret entrance and worked
their way through the old hobgoblin lair. Along the way, they encountered a
band of gnolls hunting giant toads, whom Erijay convinced to let the party pass
without incident. Heading into one unexplored section, they discovered an old
food storage room and a second dank and wet room containing a gut churning
stench. Darnorth decided to hold his breath and enter, taking a quick look
around before having to take in a gulp of the foul air. He immediately felt
extremely nauseous and collapsed to the floor. Erijay and Darnoth pulled him
out and the dwarf soon recovered, but they began to plot a better way to see
what was in the room. Taking Darnorth’s ball of string, they soaked it in oil
and used it to run a fuse into the gassy room. Lighting one end, the party
sheltered in the storage room, and moments later the burning fuse ignited the
gas with a massive explosion. Waiting a
few minutes, the party entered the room, noting a lingering odor mixed with the
burning smell. Searching for a short time (and finding nothing of note), they
noticed the stench building up again. Surmising that it must be entering
through some unseen cracks, they wisely choose to turn elsewhere to explore.
Encountering the gnolls again (now settled down to a
meal of giant toad and in no mood to talk), the party moved into the old
lizardfolk lair. Of note here was the discovery of a new cave off the mound chamber;
a cave which everyone swore had not been there before. Exploration of it didn’t reveal much, except
a curious giant frog who Erijay distracted by tossing it food. They also noted that
the mud on the floor appeared ‘new’ and undisturbed, unlike that in the rest of
the cave system where it had been well trampled by countless feet. The party checked one last unexplored chamber
in the temple area, a chamber with walls covered in frescos of giant serpents
devouring human sacrifices, the roof supported by two pillars carved as giant
snakes and ending in a collapsed tunnel. Here, Riley called on the mighty Habuu to help
him locate the Cobra Codex. The cleric did not, however, sense the presence of the
tome in this area. Stymied in the search here, the trio decided to head west
into some additional unexplored spaces.
On the way, they felt the characteristic rumble that
indicated the nearby elevator room was in motion. Heading there at top speed,
they arrived at what was once a dead end hallway, but which now contained a new
room. On the north wall was a massive brass lever in the ‘up’ position. Cautiously, Darnorth pulled it down slightly
and the room sank a few feet. Slowly pulling the lever, the room sank further
and the door they entered disappeared, only to be replaced in a few minutes by
another entrance on a (presumably) lower level. Stepping out into the short
hallway, Erijay started examining the walls, looking for some way to summon the
elevator from the outside. At the same time Riley spiked to lever to hold it in
position, to make sure the elevator didn’t ‘wander’ off. Darnorth stood watch,
a good thing as four flying shapes now descended on the party from the room
into which the hallway opened. The stone skinned beasts, with bat wings and
fearsome claws and horns, tore into the party with their attacks. While the
party was able to hold them off for awhile, the gargoyles soon started
inflicting significant hurt. Deciding to make a run for it, Riley ran back into
the elevator to wrench out the spikes and get back to the second level.
Darnorth and Erijay tried to fend off the fiends, but one slipped by and took out
the cleric with a fearsome claw. Luckily, Riley was able to get the spikes out
and the elevator in motion, and Erijay and Darnorth were able to keep the
remaining gargoyles at bay. As the elevator room rose and blocked off the door,
the elf and dwarf turned their weapons on the gargoyle left in the room with
them, and successfully destroyed it before the room stopped on the second
level. Having time now to tend to their
comrade, they noted Riley still lived, so they bound his wounds and headed back
to Westmist. But only after Darnorth snapped
off the gargoyles’ horn for a souvenir.
After a few weeks rest, Riley was eager to again look
for the Codex. Taking a different
route this time, the party headed through the first level and down the stairs
to the section where the strange people and evil fairies had been encountered previously.
They were immediately stopped in their tracks by a new wall that had not been
there on their last visit. So they did the next best thing, which was smash
open a nearby door. Inside were four of the odd men, who were apparently
unimpressed with the party’s manners and made moves to attack. Trying to avoid
a fight, Riley pulled the door shut, but the men continued to try opening it while
at the same time howling and screaming at the top of their lungs. Accepting they had to fight, Riley released
the door and the men poured into the corridor, only to fall quickly to the
party’s blades. A search of the room
found nothing of interest, so next stop was the baboon room again. This time,
the baboons were calmer, grooming and resting rather than fighting and eating.
Riley dragged a couple of corpses along with him and tossed them in the rooms
with the baboons. The primates fell on the bodies with glee, allowing the party
to pass through the room and though the door on the other side. Alas, this room
appeared to be a baboon midden, with an awful stench of baboon feces and urine.
Deciding to leave well enough alone, they left the baboons to their gruesome
feat and moved on.
In their attempt to get around the new wall, the party
decided to try going through the room with the ragtag band encountered some
weeks before. Darnorth, hoping to again distract them with shinny stuff, tossed
a handful of coppers in the far corner of the room. Nonplussed, the ragged
warriors fell on the party, likely aroused by the howling of their fallen
comrades. A fierce fight was joined, with blows falling on both sides, and Foxy
in particular eviscerating more than a few of their attackers. Darnorth was getting
badly pummeled, a situation that only got worse when the door on the opposite
wall opened and there emerged a massive warrior clad in chainmail and shield.
He also fell upon the dwarf, and the unfortunate Darnorth fell to the blows of
the crazed men just before Erijay, Riley and Foxy finished off the last of
them.
Checking first to see that there was nothing immediate
that could be done for Darnorth, Riley and Eirjay searched the room from which
the armored warrior had emerged. In there, they found a pile of rags and furs
(apparently serving as a bed) and a huge multicolored box. Cautiously, Erijay
opened the lid and out popped a puppet head on a spring! Puzzled, she looked
inside to find a treasure of silver and copper coin, plus a single potion vial.
The elf loaded up on coins, and then closed the lid and covered the box with
the furs and rags. Riley picked up the fallen dwarf, and so the party returned
again to Westmist.
Back in town, a trip to Synthtini identified the
potion as another potion of giant
strength. Then there was the familiar trip to the Temple, for an audience
with the Highest Virtue to have their fallen comrade raised. Despite Riley’s frantic signaling to keep quiet, Erijay
took the opportunity to ask the senior cleric about Malfreces. Liphanes took the question with better grace
than his Under Virtue had, but still refused to give details, stating only that
the matter was closed. And the Highest Virtue made it clear than Riley was
still welcome at the Temple, regardless of the treatment he had received from
some of the lower ranks.
Leaving the many chinned churchman, and depositing the
weakened Darnorth back at the house for Riker to look after, Riley and Erijay
starting asking around town about other parties exploring Stonehell. They
tracked down one party at the Stone Maiden tavern, a pair of lady adventurers
and their women-at-arms. The scantily clad leader Orwyne, and Trinsa the moody
fighter, were reluctant to offer much information. Riley questioned them about
the Cobra Codex, and the evasive
answers he received made his suspicious. So he excused himself to the outhouse
out back, and cast locate again,
thinking the pair had the book. But alas, they did not. The pair warmed up a
bit after Erijay offered copies of some of their Stonehell maps, and agreed to
consider a joint expedition to the dungeon in the future.
Meanwhile, the March Baron dismissed his peasant levies
to their homes and farms for the winter, and similarly paid off many of the
mercenaries gathered in Westmist. Whether he was broke, confident there would
be no action from the hobgoblins in the winter, or if there was some other
explanation, none in the town knew. Lord Merdwyn was still in no mood to talk.
