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Adventure Log VIII
From the Journals of Lexington Cheshire:
The evil of this place is unmistakable. It has found us out and it is striking back at us. While our small shelter has proven safe against invaders, nightmares have haunted all of us, Grolsch worst of all. We all
decided an extra day of rest would be worth the time to try and shake off the chilling memory that lingers from those foul dreams. The time was put to good use, Maze approached me asking for tutoring in the skills
of a fighter and the day I spent teaching her inspired me to strengthen my own skills the next. The nightmares did not cease. If anything they grew stronger, draining my and Kessan’s strength and wholly
incapacitating the half-orc. By the end of the second day we decided there would be no further advantage to waiting here longer and that the next morning we would go to that section of the dungeon that was on
the map fragment, but that we had not yet entered. That morning however, Grolsch was no better and bid us to go without him. It would prove to be a short day of action.
The four of us made our way to the first chamber, with the plan to head east, to the chamber with the hidden door, go through the door and follow the most likely route to the Fire Opal chamber. Thing went immediately
awry. Maze heard a noise in the ruins above and was typically compelled to investigate. She snuck up the stairs to discover the displacer beast sniffing around the destroyed monastery. Her hasty retreat was
unfortunately clumsy, she tumbled poorly down the stairs, spilt her weapons and drew the attention of the bizarre cat-thing. Despite our hopes, the displacer beast followed Maze down the steps and right to us. We
had had only a heartbeat to prepare, but set into the beast with all we had, Kessan mind attacked it, Maze shot it, and I charged. Coacilia... well Coacilia screamed and ran. The elf had never acted a coward before,
and we all stole a glimpse his way just in time to see another of those damned imps vanishing away. Why those things seem to target him I will never know. Coacilia must have been violently confused from the
rush of activity, for he ran directly to the room to the south. The room where the map said there was a pool and Grolsch had said there was a very powerful undead creature. That’s where the elf ran and closed the
door behind him. We soon heard his screams but were in no position to do anything about it. I had never battled a displacer beast before, and that morning I discovered their name is no exaggeration. I would go to
strike the beast, sure of my swing, only to see my sword pass through nothing but an image. Though we lost track of the thing several times, we always found it again. It was soon trying to escape and though none of
us were hurt badly we chose to let it go. There was nothing to be gained by risking ourselves to kill it. However by then its mate had come looking for it. Maze went back up the stairs far enough to retrieve her
weapons and saw the mate. And it her. This time however, it was far enough away that we had time to prepare. As I went to try and rescue Coacilia, Maze lined the stairs with caltrops.
The second displacer beast landed perfectly on the scattered spikes. It howled as Maze and Kessan let into it. I managed to work the door open enough so Coacilia could run out, and barely managed to shut it
before whatever else was on the other side escaped too. Coacilia fled down the eastern hall nonetheless, ignoring the rest of us. The second displacer beast was still alive, but sorely wounded. Without the
panicked elf, we dispatched it with minimal harm to ourselves. We had just turned to follow Coacilia, who had, after all, fled in the direction we had planned to go anyway, when we saw the elf charging us, weapons
in hand. He attacked Kessan, who mercifully did not melt his brain. I attacked Coacilia with the flat of my scimitar’s blade and made a horrifying discovery. Skineater, the scimitar taken from Knife Ambrose,
will not attack an elf to subdue. The weapon twisted in my grip and came blade down on Coacilia. After whatever he had gone through in the pool room, that was all it took to kill him. I cannot
fully express how I regret learning this fact under circumstances.
There was no time for sorrows though. No sooner had the elf’s body quit its death throes then the door to the pool room opened. A foul smell emerged and out came a rotted corpse of a creature. It gestured at
Coacilia’s body and suddenly the corpse began to move. It rose and we were faced with an undead Coacilia. The creature retreated back behind its door as the once-Coacilia attacked the three of us. The undead version
of our companion did not last long. Maze discovered hat it, and hopefully the creature that had given it motion, were vulnerable to silver. We separated twice dead head from twice dead body and plotted action
against the corpse creature.
After the brief delay of dealing with another imp, which Maze dispatched with a single brilliant bow shot, we set our plan in motion. It failed. No sooner had we cracked the door than a wave of fear ran over all
three of us. Maze, Kessan, and I all ran from the room, up the stairs, out of the ruins, and into the forest. We had all probably traveled a half mile before regaining our senses. We gathered ourselves and walked
back to the ruined monastery; Grolsch was still there.
Something we all spied during our flight recaptured our attention on our return. We found the dead body of the first displacer beast, apparently the wounds we delivered had been too much for it. Around the body were
three kitten versions of the beasts. After a little debate we decided we would attempt to capture them, but after we got Grolsch out of the dungeon. The half-orc cleric could still barely more, but we got him
outside. We also managed to capture the three kittens, two in one bag, one in another. As the kittens were being secured, I noticed that Kessan was nowhere to be seen. I stayed by the entrance to the monastery
catacombs and watched for the dwarf from there, Maze slipped back below to see if he’d gone there for some reason. She was soon back reporting that he must have been there. Some of Coacilia’s things had been
disrupted, and the hidden door that we had planned to open already was. Setting up Grolsch to be as comfortable as possible, Maze and I entered the dungeon again, to hunt down our dwarven companion. All the
while we wondered what could have motivated him to go back into this place on his own. As we crossed the first room, we noticed the door to the pool room creak open. The undead monster that had made mockery of
Kessan’s death began to step out, only to retreat at the sight of our silver-tipped arrows. Suddenly Maze had an idea. Taking some of Grolsch’s Holy Liquid (A rather disgusting blood-like concoction) she open the
pool room door just slightly and maneuvered the container to dump upon anyone opening the door further. We hadn’t gone far when we heard the undead scream, a hollow dusty croak of pain. The trap had been sprung. We
dashed back and peppered the thing with silver-tipped arrows until it fell and ceased to move. Examination revealed that this undead monstrosity wore the tattered, aged robes of the Temple of the Celestial Sai.
There was also a corpse in the similar robes, but of a lower order. The undead thing also had prayer beads and an unholy symbol, which looked nothing like anything the Temple of Celestial Sai wore. I destroyed the
symbol, questions swirling in my mind about the history of this place. There was no time to consider them though. We had to find Kessan. The trail led through the hidden door and down the hall beyond. Ancient
enchanted devices provided light. For the first time I could see the horror as if in full, un-bordered daylight. There was evidence of recent fighting all over the place. Smashed bones and skulls that hadn’t even
received the first hint of dust. It was Kessan’s work, we were sure. At the first intersection, the trail of destruction turned south, the direction we had planned to explore. Was Kessan trying to get the jump on
us? Had we been betrayed by the dwarf?
Our attention quickly turned to more immediate problems. Maze checked the halls to the north, to insure nothing blocked our eventual exit, and found things that would have. A pair of six-armed skeletons were just
behind the bend. They were meager opponents, but it was good to know they wouldn’t impede our leaving this place.
We kept on Kessan’s trail, which took choice turns through the halls. The dwarf was going exactly where we had planned last night. Then we came upon a very frightful sight. A pale form glided out from the wall before
us. It sped directly to me and I could clearly tell it was once a Gnoll, for all the features were there, but it was long dead. This entity before me was a ghost! The gnoll ghost did not enter me, at the last moment
it ducked to one side and went into Maze’s body. Suddenly her voice was a guttural rumbling, the gnoll making the words, the elf making the sounds: "Must - Get - Fire - Opal," was all it said. Again and
again.
The ghost marched Maze’s body down deeper into the halls, but I was not about to let my last remaining companion be spirited away. I managed, after several attempts, to grapple the elf’s body and secured her slip of
a form under my right arm. The gnoll ghost tried to work the body free and the tried, unsuccessfully, to take possession of me. It then left, but I couldn’t tell where. Maze recovered from the ordeal, and we set
back to hunting Kessan.
We found him further down the twisting halls, paralyzed amid a trio of ghouls. This threat was made worse with the reappearance of the gnoll ghost. This is my last clear memory of the moments that follow. I recall
grappling Maze’s body, fighting the ghouls and feeling my body stiffen slightly as it fought off their paralyzing poisons, pulling out sunrods to frighten them away, and grabbing Kessan. However I got to the point,
I have clear memory of ending up with Maze under one arm, Kessan under the other, one sunrod burning in my ight hand, and another in my teeth, running as fast as possible out of that place.
Once outside the elf and dwarf rested and related their experiences. Kessan had gone to retrieve some master work equipment from Coacilia’s body. There he felt the ghost take possession of his body and march it
deeper into the catacombs, fighting all the way. Maze remembered a vision of where the Fire Opal was from her time hosting the ghost. We would have to go tomorrow. Hopefully Grolsch would be up to the task. We
covered and secured the entry to the dungeon and set up a camp just passed the tree line. There we would heal ourselves and make one more foray into the dungeon of the Fire Opal. Then we would decide what we would
truly do with it.
That evening we heard noises from the ruins. Maze took to the treetops to investigate and reported seeing a lone woman in armor by the monastery’s walls. We readied for the worst, and I stepped out into sight and
called out to her. She was, she said, a paladin following a vision and I invited her to share our fire and her tale.
The woman, one Lady Stalker by name, told us she had seen what we knew to be the Fire Opal in a vision and had been charged with getting it as part of a quest to fight some particular, but vague evil. Religious
visions are like that, she said, and must be taken on faith. Even though she was not a paladin of The Creator (Maze thought she recognized her Holy Symbol as that of Tarm), Lady Stalker was without doubt a good and
lawful woman with goals akin to our own. We shared information and agreed to join our might. After another full day of recuperation, we will return to the monastery dungeon and finish this twisted job.
{The above is the last formal entry in the Journal. What follows are scrawled notes, probably scribbled during Lexington’s time in the dungeon itself.}
Have made it as far as the hidden door. No resistance yet.
Gnoll ghost has Lady S. Have decided to follow. Ghost seems to know the way to F/O.
Hidden door. Success??
False F/O in cave below. Gnoll ghost marching with purpose elsewhere.
Into unchecked corridor, map says dead end.
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