== Oathday, Erastus 3, 4708; Mokmurian’s Underground Lair; noon ==

The past day and a half passed in a blur of stealthily crawling about the tunnels and chambers of Mokmurian’s underground lair. Using a map provided by the old giantess and sworn enemy of MM, we were able to make good progress. We have battled trolls, a formidable hill giant, and a smaller and yet more challenging magic wielding stone giant. We were victorious in all of these encounters, and yet Rigel and I find ourselves seeing the world through Kane’s eyes: we have been reduced in size. Sabin too suffered this fate, but being a front line fighter he has been restored to his usual stature by Trask.

Thus far neither Rigel and I have found any significant disadvantages to our current diminutive state, although I find it a little more wearisome to haul around my pack than before.

After killing the spell caster we continued on down a wide corridor and out from the area covered by Cona’s map.

We had followed a large spiral passage down hundreds of feet to get the the spell casting giant, and the stone work down here was quite different from that above. For one thing it is of a much higher quality, without a mark or flake of chisel or hammer in the smooth grey and black marble. And the shape of the corners is uniformly round: there is not a sharp or abrupt edge anywhere.

This southeast corridor split into east and southern branches. The east ended in a cave in, with a small room off the north, while the south led to a large room with wide archway to the east (also choked by rubble) and a wide pair of wooden double doors to the south.

And some sort of magic was working here: you could look directly at a section of wall, or rounded corner, or ceiling, and see what you were looking directly at as expected, but spreading out from your direct line of sight was an area of increasing blurriness — peripheral vision simply did not exist in this place.

Rigel found that the double doors were neither trapped nor locked, and so we opened them and followed a hallway that opened onto a large, high chamber leading off to the east. It was hot and hazy here, with a dull orange-red glow flickering over the walls, which were lined with bands of carved Thassilonian runes. The runes conveyed no specific meaning to those of us who understood that ancient tongue, but the general theme was clear: enslavement, obedience and servitude all for the glory of the Rune Lords.

Near the center of this chamber was an enormous cauldron, some dozen feet tall and nearly twenty feet in diameter, sitting squat on three thick and stubby legs. A pit of fire burned hot beneath it, and tendrils of smoke and vapor rose from its top.

Rarallo cast a Detect Magic spell and was temporarily blinded by the blazing aura of the cauldron. And beyond this massive pot stood the tall and imposing figure of a giant statue, which turned its head towards us as we entered.

Avia and Nolin charged it as I stepped in and cast Prayer, and Sabin threw a club he had take from one of the giants we had felled earlier.

The golem looked at the fighters as a syrupy brown ray oozed from it and touched Nolin, who was slowed, but at that moment Trask cast Haste on the party, offsetting the effect on Nolin.

Rarallo zapped a Ray of Lightening at the golem, which simply bounced off its rocky hide; however Nolin and Avia were using adamantine weapons and quickly reduced the construct to rubble.

And then an odd… thing stepped out from the well where Rarallo was standing. It was ten feet tall and bulbous shaped, like a furnace, and in its bulging belly was a large gaping mouth with yellow flames inside. Rarallo shocked it with Lightening, but it spewed forth a spray of molten hot metal, badly scorching the sorcerer. And before we could react it then stepped back into the wall, leaving behind a cooling pile of slag.

Rarallo thought recalled legends from the dwarves that told of such creatures, but there was nothing we could do to give chase, or stop it from returning, and so we moved on.

The temperature dropped radically in the room to the east, lining the walls of which were two dozen armor clad, weapon wielding stone giant corpses, each posed in a combat stance. In the center of room was headless ogre corpse wearing a highly magical set of plate mail and wielding a pair of magical axes engraved with Thassilonian runes.

We were suspicious (to say the least) and so I shot the central ogre figure with a crossbow bolt, which simply bounced off the armor. Trask stepped over and upped the ante with a fireball.

That got the headless ogres attention, and with a grunt — for being headless it was unexpectedly vocal — it raised an axe, which was now glowing blue, and pointed it at Trask. About half of the giant corpses lurched into action and moved towards him.

Naturally we were expecting this sort of response, and Nolin and Avia positioned themselves to block the encroaching undead horde, creating the perfect choke point and frustrating the giant zombies in the process.

I began to channel positive energy towards the advancing foes as Rarallo zapped a number of them with a lightening bolt. This had the unexpected, but welcome outcome of vaporizing any corpses that had not yet been animated by the headless head of the army of undead.

The fighters began to slug it out with the front line undead giants while Trask attacked them with fire and Rarallo with electricity. At one point Rarallo charged into the cold room, only to be pummelled and chased back, which created the perfect opportunity for me to step in and channel waves of energy over all the occupants in the room a couple of times.

In the mean while Kane was providing healing support for the fighters (and sundry), while Rigel and Sabin watched our back sides in case the “forge monster” made a reappearance.

Headless seemed to be getting angry by now and raised another axe and pointed it at Nolin, draining energy from him, but before the ogre could deal any other attacks Trask finished it off with a volley of magic missiles.

Oddly enough the ogre corpse remained evil even after it had dropped. It wasn’t its possessions, which we had promptly removed, and so Avia hacked the body into many (many) little pieces, and dispersed them throughout the room.

[760][761] +1 rune encrusted battle axes — once a day the wielder can call upon the runes to inflict 1D6 negative energy for 5 rounds A DC12 Fortitude save must be made or the target will suffer -1 Strength. There was also some effect for undead, but I was unclear on this.

[761] +1 full plate (large)

There were also seven sets of master work heavy steel shields, plate, and half plate, which we left for later retrieval.

Meanwhile I used a Create Water spell to try and put out the fire under the cauldron, reasoning anything boiling within was brewing for some nefarious acts of evil.

At this point in time our “forge fiend” (as Rarallo called it) returned next to Sabin and Kane, and it bit Sabin, chewing on his mithral shirt.

“Why are you giving me so much trouble? You don’t even taste good.”

It then glanced at Kane, who turned to stone(!), and a wall of flame appeared around it before it passed back through the wall.

We quickly discussed our options, and because Trask knew Teleportation he could take the stoned Kane with him to a large city and have him restored via Flesh to Stone. He could also in theory return with additional magic items that could help us battle this creature.

But before we could take action it was back again. It had been listening to us from the rock and cast a Dimensional Anchor spell on Trask.

“You are actually kind of fun.”

Rarallo created a mound of black tentacles at its feet, but it strode through them unencumbered and belched forth another font of liquid hot metal at Rarallo and Sabin.

I was summoning an earth elemental to block its escape back into the wall when Avia stepped forward and beat the living coals out of it — literally. It fell into a cooling pile of ash and metal fragments.

When the elemental appeared I sent it further down the passageway to explore, and it reported back that there was a large hall with many doors, all closed.

I then used multiple Create Water spells to extinguish the fire beneath the cauldron, and cooled the cauldron down. With Sabin’s assistance I was able to look over the lip of the enormous pot to find some disgusting thick and lumpy fluid within. I used additional Create Water spells to fill the cauldron and dilute its contents to what we hoped was a less potent stew.

But we needed to restore Kane as quickly as possible, and so Trask took him and Rigel (naturally) back home with him to Korvosa, where he hoped his father (a more advanced magic user by Trask’s account) could assist in returning Kane to life.

The rest of us explored the room next to us, which was twenty feet square, and had a ceiling that rose up, like an silo, some hundred feet above. We could fathom no purpose for the room. Beyond this room was a hallway leading to the northeast, and we were about to head down it when a soft pop sounded back in the cold room.

Trask had returned, and with him was a very much alive and well Kane, and of course a very relieved looking Rigel. I suspect she had held onto his cold stony hand all the way to Korvosa. Trask’s father wasn’t at home, or wasn’t too helpful, and so Trask had to enter the city itself to find the appropriate scroll while Rigel stood vigil over Kane. But all worked out and in the end they all returned with an extra scroll of Stone to Flesh, just in case.

Reunited we followed the passageway to a large hall with many doors, just as the elemental had described. The far eastern side of the hall was choked with debris from a cave in, although someone had been digging through the rubble and a large crack was open to the north.

The walls of the hall were engraved with Thassilonian writings, and reading them I felt a wonderful sense of calmness and serenity. The runes possessed an enchantment, and seemed dedicated to something known as the peacock spirit. But other than a joyous sense of peace, I gained nothing from reading them.

We snooped around the crack when we heard the sound of several things growling, like very large and angry dogs. I sealed the crack with a wall of stone, but one moment later a vicious looking dog-like thing had passed through my wall and stood snarling before us.

Avia and Sabin hacked at it as I hit it with an icicle and Trask singed it with fire. It passed back through the door.

Kane had been standing next to a door near the crack, and from beyond he heard more growling, as if he were overhearing a doggy debate. Using Comprehend Languages Kane learned that these dog things were being held against their will, and that somehow the stone wall I had created provided a way for them to escape… but they noted that we “brought fire” with some concern.

Only then did I realize that unlike the rounded corners in the hall, my wall simply abutted the floor and ceiling, and so using Stone Shape I remedied that.

At the far western end of the hall was a large set of bronze double doors. There were no hinges or locks, but its surface was silvered, and there was a sihedron shaped depression, just large enough to accept one of the sihedron medallions we carried. It was magical and gave off the aura of conjuration.

We strongly suspected that beyond this was Mokmurian’s library, and no doubt the evil giant himself.

We decided to first explore the other doors first.

The southern double doors on opened onto another cave-in.

The northern double doors door held an arcane lock, which Rigel disabled, and led to another set of double doors, which were also locked. Once that was taken care of we opened the inner doors only to find a wall of stone. And moments later another canine creature was snarling before us. Some of us held it at bay with various magic attacks while others slammed the doors closed upon it. Apparently the oddly curved doors and walls prevented them from escaping.

We are now looking over to the large bronze double doors at the western end of the hall and discussing strategy for how to face what we suspect lies beyond.