Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; evening

Sedjewick, Kane and Avia all spent time talking with our captured mercenary, during which time Trask and Sabin guarded the secret entry down, and the rest of us continued to explore this level.

The man’s name is Oric, and he was hired in Magnimar by Nualia to be her personal bodyguard. Oric had traveled with her as she searched ancient sites around the region, including the ruins beneath Sandpoint. He understood that Nualia was hell bent on revenge for some great wrongs done in her past, but exactly what those wrongs were or how her revenge would result in the slaughter of the innocents in Sandpoint he seemed to be oblivious.

Oric recounted how as time went by Nualia became more fanatical and driven than when he had first been hired, and that recently she had remained sequestered in the lower levels of the complex, where he was forbidden to go. He had effectively ceased to be her body guard and became more a regular guard who, along with the bug-bear, patrolled the first floor of the ancient works; a position that until our arrival had been mundane and superfluous because of the goblin fortress above.

Oric was extremely concerned about the location of the sorceress, Akenja; and apparently he and she had developed a relationship over the months they were confined together at this outpost. He was grateful that she had been spared and set free, but greatly troubled about her chances for survival on her own without her spell-book or armor.

Meanwhile Rigel and Nolin had developed a method for handling unopened doors: first Rigel would check for traps and locks, and then Nolin would open the door and enter. Sedjewick and I provided backup should anything aggressive or nasty await within.

Our first door was in the cathedral, and opened onto a short flight of stairs down that ended in a locked door. That door opened into a prison ward, with six empty cells lining the south wall, and torture devices, some showing signs of recent use, hanging from the walls or set upon tables.

A north door from the prison revealed another short hall, and another door, beyond which was a gruesome room with a bench and more hideous devices for torture laying upon a work bench. Sedjewick found a key in here, but what it unlocks we have yet to discover.

[162] key (Rigel)

East of the cells was a hall leading to the south room that Nolin had seen earlier in the day, and from which the bug-bear had come. Three doors lined the southern wall, and through the first was a quartet of female goblins, who alas showed no more concern for personal hygiene than their male counter parts.

We were deciding what to do with them when they shrieked and grabbed bows and arrows, and prepared to shoot us. I launched a Flaming Hands spell that incinerated one and severely burned a second, and Nolin stepped up and swiftly put the others out of their misery.

The further southern door opened into what must pass for a nursery among goblins. Shelves lines the walls, and cages were stacked upon the shelves. Within two cages were two goblin-imps. What shall we do with them? We closed the door for now and left them to the darkness.

The center southern door led to a hallway that turned west that ended in a door and had doors opening on either side. These proved to be the bedrooms for the non-goblin work force. Oric’s (north side) and the bug-bear’s bedrooms were first, followed by Tsuto’s (north side) and Kanja’s bedrooms. There were papers in Tsuto’s room, prattling on about how he would take over his father’s estate, and another ever-burning torch glowing in Kanja’s.

[163] ever-burning torch (Kane)

At the end was Nualia’s room behind a locked door. While her room was larger and more ornately furnished than the other four, we found nothing of use within.

We returned to Oric and the rest of the party, and then agreed to let him go with a weapon (the horse slicer), so he could find his beloved Kanja and escort her back to Sandpoint. We told him that if in two weeks’ time she went to the Sandpoint cathedral and ask for Kane, he would return her spell-book to her (after our magic users have had a chance to copy them) along with her puch of components.

Nolin and Kane escorted him to the bridge, and watched as he vanished into the brush.

Sedjewick and Sabin spent this time reading Kanja’s spells:

Level 0:
All available spells.

Level 1:
Comprehend Languages
Detect Secret Doors
Floating Disc (with the name “Tensor” scratched out)
Identify
Obscuring Mist
Sleep

Level 2:
Locate Object
Minor Image
See Invisibility
Spider Climb

Trask and Sabin then examined our newly acquired magic items:

[134] steel wand of Magic Missiles [38] (Trask)
[135] potion of Cure Light Wounds (Olithar)
[142] cloak of +1 resistance (Rigel)
[145] ever-burning torch (Sedjewick)
[152] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Sabin)
[153] +1 banded mail (Nolin)
[155] ever-burning torch (Olithar)
[156] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Nolin)
[161] 4 elf-bane arrows

We have decided to rest for the evening before tackling the secret door and the ominous stairway down into the dark unknown.

Rigel has spiked the secret door to prevent it from opening, and we have taken the adjacent “board room” for our sleeping quarters. Rigel and I have the first watch.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; near midnight

Nolin and Kane had just started the second watch when a troop of goblins came down the “back stairs” from the fortress above. Another returning patrol of goblins had found the fortress deserted, and set themselves up as the occupants. An exploratory party was scouting out the rest of the complex when they stumbled upon us.

Kane and Nolin awoke the rest of us, and blocked the doorway, protecting the rest of us as we woke to the gibbering yelps of surprised (and outraged) goblins.

Kane warned them to be off or die, but goblins are not very good at logic, and the thought that whoever was down here must have already decimated an entire fortress full of their kind was lost on them.

While the fighters chopped down the invasion force, Trask and I slipped out the back door and quickly scanned the hallways and chamber for any incursion from above, but found it empty. Our search led us to the main stairs up, and from above I could hear the sound of combat. Trask swiftly ran back to notify the others that more goblins were in the fortress while I ran upstairs.

Nolin, Avia and the others had cut down all of their goblins, and after going up the back stairs to check on the war horse, they found more goblins above, shooting arrows at them from the two towers. They ran back into the fortress to find anf engage the enemy.

Fairly quickly the entire party was on hand — except for Trask, who remained on guard at the secret door much like a canary in a mine: if we came back to find him dead, we would know trouble was at hand — and the goblins from the towers and at the entrance were dead. From the throne room, however, we heard chanting and what sounded like a heated argument underway. Avia burst through a door with the rest of us following in her wake.

A goblin commando and chanter were at work readying a small squad of goblins for combat, but they had little time to respond to our entrance. Avia savagely slashed the chanter, while Nolin charged in and engaged a group of their fighters. From the south doors Sabin, Rigel, Kane and Trask attacked, while Sedjewick sang a tune that countered the goblin chanter’s harsh melody.

I stepped up to the commander to protect Avia’s and Nolin’s flanks, but felt ill equipped. I am not much of a fighter, and had not had a chance to put on my armor. Fortunately the commander was not as skilled as he appeared, and I gave better than I got in our exchange of blows before Avia stepped up and chopped him in two.

Soon the rest of our foes were dead, and we tossed all of their corpses off the cliff into the sea.

The enchanter had a potion which we confiscated before committing his mortal remains to the sea.

[164] potion of Cure Light Wounds (Kane)

We have returned to the board room and are preparing to resume our rest, with an additional watch (Rigel and I again) tacked on in the morning to ensure that everyone is fully rested and restored for the day ahead.

Starday, Lamashan 12, 4707; Thistlestop; mid morning

Though the morning light did not penetrate our underground lair, we could feel its blessing spread across the land above as we awoke, rested and ready for the challenges of the day ahead.

Sabin and Rigel were to chosen lead the party, because Sabin is fearless and can see in the dark, and Rigel has a very special way with doors and traps.

Down the stairs led, then around and back again to a stone door sitting slightly ajar. The door had been ornately carved with images of gem stones and crowns, but it had been defaced and marred by heavy hammer blows and chisel gouges.

Sabin peered into the darkness beyond to a large chamber with statues nestled in alcoves on either side and another door in the far wall. A closer look revealed that the entire room and floor was tilted back to the west: a tilt that extended through the door and into the hall from which we entered. This was not part of the chamber’s design, but rather the result of some great upheaval that had thrust up the east side of the room, causing the statues in their alcoves to fall over against their western walls.

The statues themselves were all the same, and of a robed man holding a book in one hand and a glave in another. But these statues, like the door, had been hacked and gouged such that few details remained.

Columns supported the ceiling, and the room glowed faintly with magic, like the residual magic of some spell long cast. The air in the room was unexpectedly fresh for such a confined space so far down, and we speculated that a spell had been used to make it so.

The east door was closed, but unlocked, and it too showed signs of a vicious attack. Sabin cracked the door open and light peeped out and around the door from the far side.

A hallway, with an alcove on either side in which were two statues, the same as those in the previous chamber, but these were not so damaged. The hall ended in a third alcove, where another statue perched, but this one had been hacked off above the mid section, although no sign remained of the top half. A lantern on the floor gave a soft and comforting light.

Opposing one another to the north and south were stone doors, each engraved in ancient Thassilonian with the words,

“The Great and Glorious Empire of Thassilonia, May We Always Defend Her”

Sabin had entered the hall, but noticed the floor just before him was a little more polished than the rest of the surrounding stone. Rigel stepped up and discovered that there was a pressure plate there, that if stepped upon would release a block of stone from above. She worked intently and disabled the trap, although it was more than a little disconcerting to watch her tumble past the pressure plate, as if she did not trust her own work.

After Rigel had declared the doors to the north and south un-trapped and unlocked, she returned to the entry room while Sabin, Nolin and I prepared to open the north door.

With the door opened, a vast circular room could be seen beyond, with a red marble ledge running around the circumference and a font of frothy water bubbling away in the back. The entire chamber was brightly lit by four brightly blazing skulls.

In the center of all stood a brooding figure figure of power and menace. Beautiful she was as a celestial maiden, and yet hideous too, like some perverted demonic spawn. Her hair was silver, and one hand clutched a large bastard sword, while the other was no hand at all, but a loathsome red claw that bespoke corruption.

And she turned, and she looked at us, and then she smiled an evil grin as if she had been aware of us all along and had in mind to play with us before putting us to some horrible end.

It was Nualia.

All of this passed before my mind in an instant, and then there was Nolin standing beside her and hacking at her with a mighty stroke of his two handed sword. She smiled no longer, and struck at Nolin fiercely, drawing blood.

I quickly launched a feeble cone of flame at her, which no doubt caused some minor damage, but this was a foe that I could not stand against exchanging blows.

Avia raced in from the hallway and was poised for a strike as Sabin launched his ax at her. And then, as Avia was about to smite Nualia, a hell hound appeared from the ledge and leaped down upon Avia, causing her grievous harm.

But Avia, Paladin of Sarenrae, was not to be distracted from her purpose, and she smote Nualia with a bitter righteous rage, and the evil she-hag momentarily staggered beneath the onslaught.

I became aware that Kane had entered battle, and in the distance I could hear the encouraging song of Sedjewick, and I then knew my part in this battle.

Often I have wondered just what my overall contribution to this party should be as we investigated the threat to Sandpoint, explored mysterious catacombs, and fought evil. And in those engagements I often joined with the fighters to more quickly overcome our enemies, or to heal those of us seriously injured so that they might continue the fight.

And certainly I shall continue to do these things as need arises, but now I could clearly see that my primary purpose was to bring the fierce holy light of Sarenrae to aid my fellows in just such a moment as this.

I stepped forward and with a touch to Nolin’s armor infused him with Protection from Evil.

As the battle continued, with the hound and Nualia wreaking terrible damage against Avia — I watched in horror as scars across Nualia’s mid section glowed when she struck Avia — and I enchanted Sabin’s ax, and then stepped over and healed Avia as she dealt a killing blow to Nualia.

The dog-beast was swiftly slain, and we were victorious!

Avia cut off Nualia’s head — you can never be too cautious when dealing with such beings — and we removed all of her possessions..

[165] breastplate (magic)
[166] bastard sword (magic)
[167] silver medallion of the sign of seven deadly sins (magic)
[168] masterwork composite long-bow
[169] 20 arrows
[170] gold holy symbol to Lamashtu (evil)

From the room we found a few other items of interest.

[171-1740] Four burning skulls (magic)
[175] holy texts to Lamashtu
[176] Nualia’s personal papers

The fountain was briefly examined and found to be instilled with a complex set of conjuration and divination magics.

Sedjewick perused Nualia’s personal notes and found they contained her history, as well as notes on the Rune Lord’s well of power beneath Sandpoint.

We already knew that Nualia had been born with Celestial blood, and as such she was constantly pestered and badgered by the townsfolk of Sandpoint.

She had made close friends with a stranger, “Deleck Visconta”, and the two of them explored the tunnel complex beneath Sandpoint to escape the notice of the people of the town. They became romantically involved, but when Nualia told Deleck that she was pregnant, he ridiculed her, and calling her a slut he stormed off, leaving her to face the shame alone.

Worse yet, Nualia’s unborn child had been conceived in the very chamber as the well of power — the only one known to be active — and her child was still-born as a monstrous deformed thing that the midwife took, burned and buried.

All of this twisted Nualia’s perception of her Celestial blessing and made her think it a curse. And so she ever sought a way to remove the taint from her blood and to seek vengeance on the town of Sandpoint and all of its people, whom she held responsible for her misfortunes.

Included in her notes were instructions for how to call sin spawn from the well of power. The well must be energized by a vengeful death within a mile of the it. A few drops of blood in the well will then summon the creature.

Nualia also recorded a warning to not summon too many sin spawns from the well without energizing it first, or the well would become inactive; and she knew not how to reactivate the wells.

It is likely that we have yet to find all of Nualia’s possessions: she must have had a store of gold or platinum pieces on hand she used to pay her staff.

And what of the “humans that dig for her” that Kanja had mentioned?

But for the present we had another unopened door to explore, and so Avia opened the door and we moved to the unusuall hall within. It was roughly “L” shaped, with the east half ending in an alcove with magic column of gold coins, and the south half ending in a pair of double stone doors.

The doors were carved with two skeletons holding a single skull between them.

I found a hollow behind the stack of coins, and two slots on either side of the stack, which appeared to be the perfect size for inserting real gold coins. The coins on the column appeared to be fused together (if they were indeed coins or even gold).

Kane and Rigel put a coin in each of the slots, and the column sunk into the floor, revealing a T shaped hall beyond.

Dust was thick and undisturbed on the floor of this hall, which had three sets of double doors.

Behind the northern doors was a throne room with a throne set upon a dais flanked by two statues, and a ghostly image of a robed man with a book in one hand and a glave in the other, and it repeated the same short speech over and over again to a long absent audience.

The speech appeared to be a command for his followers to remain through the dark times that had descended upon them, and that he, Karzoug, would ultimately triumph over the rival Rune Lord, Alaznut, who’s statue we had found in the catacombs beneath Sandpoint.

The east doors opened onto steps leading down to an oddly shaped oblong room with three work benches covered in bones (from more than one body), and various tools.

Upon the southern doors was carved the image of the seven pointed star, which was indented as if a matching key should be inserted here. An intricate collection of slots and indentations were within the star, indicating some complex key was required to open the doors.

We decided to leave the doors and more detailed explorations of the rooms off of this hall for a later time, and so we returned to the L shaped hall and the doors at the southern end. But first we put another gold coin in each of the slots, which caused the column of coins to rise, closing off the eastern hall.

The skeleton doors were opened and we looked through into a large room with a domed ceiling held aloft by four pillars. At the far end in the center of the room was a statue of a robed man with a book in one hand and a glave in the other. Alcoves were set about the room, and vertically positioned sarcophagi stood in each.

Avia quietly announced that evil emanated from the farthest three sarcophogi.

We decided to close all of the doors down here along with the secret entrance.

Above we will pull back the rope bridge and isolate the island fortress so we can return to Sandpoint for training and supplies before we brave the new evils that lurk beneath the surface at Thistlestop.

Back in the fortress I have released the bunnies, and paid one last visit to the goblin-grubs locked in the cages.

We have gathered together on the far side of the bridge with the spoils of war, and Nolin is about to pull back the bridge and use a rope and the hand holds to climb down to the base of the island, where we (along with the war horse) will meet with him and begin the trek back to Sandpoint.

And in looking forward to our return to Sandpoint I have made an inventory of all the interesting items we have found in this quest, so we can decide what to keep and what to sell. We will need gold in order to train and adequately equip ourselves for the trials that lay ahead.