With Darnorth now fully recovered, the party began planning
for their next decent into Stonehell. But not before first asking some pointed
questions of Kern, who had mysterious disappeared for a day, only to come back
with an uncontrollable case of the giggles and exhaling smoke with every breath
(both of which thankfully cleared up in a few days). Accepting the merchants mumbled explanation
of wizards towers and quests, with a collective shrug their attention turned to
the task at hand. Having found little of interest in their last few forays on
the second level, the party was anxious to head deeper. However, the near
disastrous encounter with the gargoyles last time made them wary of using the
elevator. And they weren’t anxious to rely on the shaft discovered even earlier,
so the decision was made to search the unexplored areas of the second level for
additional routes deeper into the dungeon. Thus decided, Darnorth, Riley,
Erijay (with Foxy) and Kern (with Norm and Sweet Jenny) headed out into the
cold winter day to delve the depths of Stonehell.
After an uneventful passage to and through the first level,
the party began further exploration around the lair of the madmen with the
giant Jack-in-the-Box. Working their way around a giant toad who seemed
interested in them, but non-hostile, they first went to recover the
Jack-in-the-Box and the treasure they had left behind. To nobody’s surprise, it
was no longer in the room. In other rooms nearby, they first disturbed a group
of madmen with children (whom they left alone) as well as the tribes’ midden
(from which they recovered the body of a dwarf adventurer carrying a set of silver
dwarven gaming plaques). They also encounter a pair of bedraggled hobgoblins.
Darnorth attempted to intimidate them by pointing out their former commanders’
helmet, which now adorned the dwarfs head. This plan backfired and the enraged
hobgoblins attacked. They were swiftly dealt with, but not before one landed a
hard blow to the dwarf in revenge.
Figuring there was little of interest left in the area, the
party proceeded south into further unexplored sections. First stop was a room
with a recessed caisson ceiling, which was decorated with the globes and a
bas-relief of a shouting bearded face. Words were written in a speech balloon
next to the mouth, so Darnorth levitated up to read them. At which point the
script started to crystallize and crackle, and then exploded in a blast of
intense cold that chilled and tumbled the dwarf head over heels. Following the
reasoning that the trap must be protecting something, Darnorth tapped on the
ceiling (now script free) and discovered it was hollow. A harder blow with
Rileys’ war hammer broke open a small chamber, from which poured a shower of
gold and silver coin over the dwarf and then onto the floor. After exploring a map room, meeting room, and
fighting off a band of berzerkers, the party found themselves in a small room with
a low alter. On the dusty alter was a mass of candles and three brass scrolls,
while over it glared a great three-lobed eye. Riley reached out to take the
scrolls, but as he touched them, the eye shot a blue ray at the cleric. Shaking
off the faint incorporeal feeling the ray caused, Riley took a ten foot pole
and knocked the scrolls on the floor, then rolled them out the door and out of
sight of the eye. He picked them up (safely) and passed them to Darnorth, who
(thanks to his helm) was able to decipher the strange Braille-like writing. The
three proved to be clerical scrolls, and Riley pocked the scrolls of speak with
plants, quest, and locate object.
After checking out a room with a herringbone pattern
on the floor, they next encountered a most unusual dungeon sight; a 12’ tall wind
vane covered in strange glyphs. Darnorth read these and found they had
something to do with the Elemental Plane of Air. Playing with the vane, they
found it moved freely, and also found a hidden compartment below it containing another
set of dwarven gambling plaques along with jewelry and coins. Heading to the next room, they found a chamber
much like the last, except it contained a 12’ tall obelisk also covered in
runes. The party spent some time playing with the weather vane to see if they
could ‘activate’ the obelisk to see what it would do. But with no success.
Erijay copied down the glyphs for further study in the hopes of later deciphering
their meaning.
Next encountering (and slaying) another bedraggled band of
hobgoblins, the party also recovered a satchel containing bologna, cheese and
brandy. The bologna didn’t last long, being fed to yet another giant toad so it
would allow them to pass unmolested. With the toad behind them, the party
examined a fountain of silvery metal (a sample of which Erijay collected) and a
room containing a statue and a green slime on the ceiling (which fell on Kern
and had to be burned off). Next stop was a room with a font, where a voice said
“Discard your raiment and cleanse thy hands and feet”. In no time, Darnorth and
Riley had stripped naked (while Erijay looked away), and poured a flask of holy
water into the font to wash. Apart from feeling a little less ‘dungeon grungy',
nothing else happened. So after first reminding
Riley to get dressed, the party headed down a diagonal corridor. They soon
heard a voice ahead, preaching a sermon of fire and brimstone. Moving forward,
they entered a large room full of fire blackened pews, in the middle of which
stood a skeleton engulfed in a column of flame. Sensing they were in for a
fight, Riley blessed the party and then silenced the being. The skeleton, which
until now had more or less ignored them, turned on the party ferociously once
it realized it could no longer preach. It proved a short fight, however, as the
party surrounded the undead preacher and ended his proselytizing days.
Moving down another diagonal corridor, they soon heard a
very loud buzzing noise ahead. Kern moved ahead silently in the shadows and
checked out the next room. It containing a huge wasp nest, around which buzzed
a couple dozen giant wasps. He also noticed the floor was a mess of holes and
overturned flagstones. Going back to report to the rest of the party, the decision
was made to attack. Getting ready to burn the nest, numerous torches were lit, while
Erijay prepared a sleep spell. Unfortunately, the wasps must have heard the
preparations, as they were waiting for the party when they entered the room. In
the mess that followed, Erijay and Darnorth in the front rank were overwhelmed
by wasps, while several also flew over their heads to attack the rear ranks.
Darnorth, as is his apt, fell to the poison of the flying beasts. Erijay,
though stung multiple times and losing her first sleep spell in the process,
survived the poison and was able to get off her second sleep. That proved the
end of the wasps, as those not already slain by the party now fell into slumber.
Pushing Darnorth’s body out of the way for now, the party finished off the
comatose wasps, then turned their attention to the diggings. Figuring there
must be something here, they all set to work with crowbar and shovel, until
after awhile Riley shouted with glee when he uncovered a hoard of gems and jewelry.
Loading up Sweet Jenny with the treasure and the dwarf, the party prepared to
leave, but found their way blocked once more by a pack of the confounded giant
toads. Since these seemed a little more aggressive than the others encounter
thus far, the party choose to exit by another passage and work their way around
the toads and then out of the dungeon.
Back in town, a familiar routine was followed. First to Afflain
the Fence to cash in some treasure for coin, and then to the Temple to exchange
the coin for a raised dwarf. At the Temple, they were met with some bemusement
by some of the younger acolytes, who had apparently been taking bets on which party
member would be back to be raised next. The young Undervirtue who won the bet
then suggested they could save some coin if they tracked down the legendary Rod
of Narissa. After some prompting, he told them the story of the great
ArchVirtue Narissa and the powerful magical rod she carried, which could bring
the dead back to a full and vigorous life. She had been utterly destroyed some
300 years ago in battle with the elementalist lich Raxeses, but not before she
used the rod to destroy the foul undead creature. The rod itself has not been seen
since, apparently lost in the massive sandstorm that buried the mountain valley
where the battle took place.
Leaving the stories and snickers behind, the party brought Darnorth
home and deposited him in bed. Erijay went to visit Synthini for help
deciphering the glyphs on the obelisk and weather vane. When the alchemist could
not offer any help, the elf maid tracked down Bazzrel to question him. He wasn’t
able to help much either, but confirmed that they did indeed pertain to the
elemental plane of air and were some sort of summoning glyphs. More he could not
say, as the elemental planes were not his area of study. However, he did note
he had an acquaintance in the town of Serin some days travel to the east who
was more knowledgeable in such matters and might be able to help.
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