Aspirants of the Diamond Throne

The group left the throne room and looked around the corners of the nearest corridors. They mapped out the doors and passageways that they could see before turning back to enter the first door on the western corridor. As they turned they heard a low moaning noise, which caught their attention. It was coming from the corridor to the south. They followed the noise until they came upon another door in the western wall and they listened to see if the moaning was coming from inside. It wasn稚. They continued south and listened at a door further down on the opposite side of the corridor. Here they heard a different noise, a growling bestial sound that could not have been the moan. Just after this they found the body of a woman eviscerated on the floor. Qzyid was curious about the woman and searched her, finding a leather pouch at her side, which contained letters. He headed back north with the rest as the moaning had ceased. A cursory examination of the letters revealed that they were love letters written by a resident of Mi-Theron to a woman whom he both pined after and admired. He was especially proud of her courage in deciding to join him and leave Mi-Theron.

Turning back to the door, Kiar examined it closely, noting that both padlocks had been removed from the latches. He could not discern any potential trap so they opened the door and stepped through. Two goblins were immediately visible in the room beyond. One ran west towards a corridor leading off into darkness. The other raised his javelin hesitantly. The group sprang to attack killing the goblin before them quickly. Arric moved towards where he thought the other goblin had gone, but stopped when his light did not reveal any sign of the creature down the corridor that he now saw leading to the west. Once they had discovered the roughly padlocked double doors opposite the door by which they entered, the others joined Arric, Zadadir moving forward to the edge of Arric痴 lantern glow. There he was skewered with a goblin javelin which flew out of the darkness. The others quickly came up in support. Arric and Qzyid running on beyond Zadadir to discover two goblins further to the west. Arric was injured as he engaged these goblins and he had to drop his lantern. But he and Qzyid managed to finish them off. It seemed that the goblin threat was not over, as more javelins continued to be flung. So the group moved north discovering two more goblins. Once the group knew where they were, they managed to finish off the goblins fairly quickly. Taking the meagre coins from the bodies of the slain, the party mapped out the extent of these large rooms. They discovered that a third chamber was connected to the first to the west, through an archway. This room had stairs leading down to the south and a well shaft similar to the one they had encountered before, except that this time the grappling hook and the knotted rope were in place on the well痴 lip.

Not wanting to contemplate a descent into the darkness below the group retraced their path, going back into the complex series of passageways where they had discovered the body. They entered the room where they had heard the growling and encountered a rabid goblin who attacked them with some ferocity. It seemed to have made itself a home in one of the seven stalls which divided up this long room. There was no other creature here so the group returned to the corridor and realised that there was a faint trail of blood leading off to a door to the southwest, inside they found another mutilated body, this time a male. Searching his pack, the group discovered torches, ropes, oil and other adventuring gear. The group divided this equipment amongst them. The most interesting item was a permit to explore the fortress made out to a Master Jedrith Heros of Mi-Theron. Going back into the corridors the party discovered a number of doors and Zadadir suggested choosing the most southerly. So they passed a number of corridors and openings and tried a door on the south wall of the furthest corridor that they had yet seen. This door was also padlocked, but Kiar made quick work of removing it. The room beyond was carved from the rock of the mountain and a straight corridor led south from it. Thirty feet further on the corridor opened into the corner of a larger chamber which had a covering of bones, broken weapons and other detritus over the floor. The chamber was also regular in the northern and eastern walls, but to the southwest two gagged gaps led off to irregular passages, another regular corridor led off to the east and when they shone their light down this corridor they thought they could see a hunched figure disappearing off a side passage leading back north from a crossroads. The group quickly followed this movement, giving the other passages off to the east and south a cursory glance before looking north. They saw a door blocking the passageway twenty feet away and no creature. Approaching the barrier, they could see that it was black and scorched and the whole group suddenly felt very uneasy. Nevertheless, they saw no other option and opened the door after Kiar had pronounced it safe. As soon as they did so, a nauseating stench billowed out from the corridor beyond, and just ahead of them the shadowy figure disappeared around the corner as the corridor turned sharply to the east.

They did not hesitate, but once around the corner they could not see any creature. The corridor led to a room which had a scimitar, a pendant, a necklace and a small bone statue scattered over the floor. The group were sure that there must be a secret door leading off somewhere, so they started searching each area of the walls meticulously. As this search progressed a creature crept into the room along the corridor. It痴 claws dug into the walls of the corridor as it climbed along, using its barbed tail for balance. It leapt from the wall to attack those searching at the entrance to the room, using its claws and toothed maw to strike at them. The barbed hide and curved horns of the aberration intimidated Qzyid and Arric, but they kept their ground. After a few blows landed on each side, the scimitar that they had left on the floor of the chamber animated and began attacking the other two. Arric was the first to fall to the blows of the creature though he did manage to injure it. Kiar tried to handle the scimitar while Zadadir stepped up to support Qzyid. Kiar was injured by the weapon just before it fell back to the floor, but Qzyid did not last and fell bleeding to the floor. Kiar managed to land a killing blow against the creature and the two breathed a quick sigh of relief before a familiar shape appeared around the corner. The skin of this creature was stretched tightly over its avian frame. Leathery wings stuck out jaggedly from its frame behind a long sinuous neck which ended in a beaked head, much like a vulture. It痴 feet were more humanoid and its arms ended in sharp claws. Zadadir fell to this creature quickly, leaving Kiar to protect the bleeding forms of his three companions. The beak and claws of this creature were sharp and soon caught Kiar, but he did not fall, but he found it hard to land a blow. Eventually he wore the creature down and he sent it to the floor with a slash from his short sword which landed at the creature痴 neck, almost severing it. Kiar looked around and went to care for his companions. He staunched the flow of blood from Zadadir and realised that Qzyid was stable. Then he managed to help Arric痴 bleeding just before he would have died. The quickling looked at the devastation around him and wondered how he would get out of this place alive, let alone with his companions in a similar state.

Deciding that discretion would be in order, Kair used Qzyid’s greatclub to wedge the door to the chamber shut, then he tended the wounds of his comrades in the hope that they would recover more quickly. Luckily, over the next few hours, no other creature disturbed the group as, one by one, they came to their senses. Soon, Qzyid was channelling the power of the green and restoring the whole group to full health. They spent a full day in the chamber, ensuring that they were ready to face any enemy beyond.

When Qzyid recovered his club, the group decided that they would go back to a safer area. They returned to the crossroads and went back west, from where they had come. When they reached the room beyond they turned right and continued through the door. They went straight on to the double doors opposite and Kair opened them. Beyond they could see double doors down a long corridor as well as a door on the right and a passage off to the left. Arric suggested going left and off that corridor to the north and south, they found similar rooms, which must have served as barracks at some distant time in the past. Finding nothing else of interest, they returned through the double doors and tried the western entry, however this L-shaped room contained little but dust.

Frustrated at their lack of progress, the four went back to the entrance into this area, next to the throne room where they fought the rats. A door that they had previously examined still had a padlock marked with the symbol of Gahanis closing one of the two clasps. Kair made short work of this and the group passed through. A corridor led off to the east into darkness. Carefully, the party followed the passage until two doorways appeared, opposite each other across the corridor which extended beyond them. Listening at the northern door, Kair could hear nothing, so he went in. Three doors stood before them in a short corridor. Each was stout and well built, with heavy bolt locks. The two to the east had observation hatches that were shut. The one to the west was the largest of the three, with runes inscribed within the wood. Its bolts were rust free. Arric thought that the runes were those of containment. Looking through the hatch of the easterly door, Zadadir saw a skeleton in armour propped against the back wall of what appeared to be a cell. The group decided to go in and search the skeleton for clues. When they had passed through the heavy door, it clanged shut behind them with a heavy metallic clank. Kair took the opportunity to search the skeleton, finding some gold, a ring with a gemstone and a wedge of amber. They had some difficulty opening the door again until Kair pulled it open with an unusual burst of heroic strength while the others weren’t looking.

Zadadir was intrigued by the rune covered door, so they went up to examine it again. They cast around for something to help keep the door wedged open when they had passed it, settling on a rusted sword that the skeleton had. Zadadir was opening the door with a view to wedging this underneath it when he was attacked by the claws of the large creature that had been imprisoned within. Zadadir fell bleeding immediately, not only damaged by the claws but also by the intense heat that the creature exuded. Kair stepped forward to engage the creature as Arric used the power of his tattoo in the hope of distracting the enemy. Qzyid animated his club and sent it in to the attack. Kair managed to land a blow on the creature without it responding. Arric’s rune appeared not to be effective. Next Arric placed a small rune of affliction on the ground, calling for Kair to withdraw. He did so, and this rune did damage the on-rushing creature. However, the blows that it then laid on Kair left him bleeding on the ground, with the creature turning around and searching for his next victim. Arric engaged it, while Qzyid went in to heal the fallen quickling. Arric fell next to the creature’s claws while the re-invigorated Kair held the beast at bay for a moment. Qzyid went to retrieve his club and Kair followed to protect him, but got within the reach of those claws in the process and so fell for the last time. Qzyid did not last long alone….