Aspirants of the Diamond Throne

After their fight with the staj, the Mokers went east through one of the four doors leading out of the pool chamber. This led to a narrow room which had been tunnelled into (or out of) at some point. Above the arch leading to the tunnel someone had carved “Continue and the loss of an eye will seem trivial”. The party took this as a rallying cry and moved out along the carved passage. They came across an opening to the south which led to a storeroom. Ke-tant led the way into the cramped space and a creature dropped from the roof, attempting to slam against his head and envelop him in its leathery wings. As this did not succeed Ke-tant got the chance to slash at it with his sword. His first attempts were clumsy in this confined area, so he suffered more damage from the creature before cleaving it in two with his greatsword. The room itself was lined with freestanding shelves which held jars containing water and dried meat. It was not very appetising, but functional.

Beyond this offshoot, the carved tunnel led east and then spiralled down into the darkness below. Before attempting this, the party decided to regroup and find a place to rest. They went up and out of the temple and wandered the streets of the ruins looking for a suitable house in which to hole up. They found one fairly quickly and set watches once they came upon a defensible location. Their rest was uneventful, so the Mokers returned to the lairs of the staj and decided to try the doors they had not looked behind. In one they found a mouldy bag with an amethyst and a dagger inside. Another contained a sibeccai skull stuck on a spear. A pearl sat in one eye socket and a phial of blue glass was perched on the crown of the skull. Mera revealed that the spear and the glass phial were magical, as was the dagger from the previous room. Once they had looked in these rooms, Mezezar became convinced that there may be another room lurking unseen behind the walls. He urged the others to search for an opening hidden in the stonework. The Mokers could not find anything. Now satisfied that they left nothing behind them, the party descended the spiralling tunnel.

The floor in the torchlight looked oddly like glass it was so smooth, and the wall to their right was carved from green jade. Covering most of this wall was a mural depicting two creatures in red robes, standing on the summit of a jade tower shaped in the form of a coiled dragon. Their hands were raised to the sky, and far below a throng of Kobold Kin look on. Between the two robed figures was an enormous, stone doorway; in the centre of which a bas-relief dragon was carved out of the green stone. The mouth of the dragon jutted out further than the rest of the relief, its teeth bared as if ready to bite or breathe. Beneath this head was writing in some strange script. Before they could have a chance to examine this more completely, they could hear a disquieting chorus of mumblings and babblings coming from further ahead which distracted them. Inching carefully forward, the Mokers found themselves confronted by a gibbering mouther. Mezezar ran forward to attack the beast, but he was stopped short by the acid spittle that the thing flung at him, momentarily blinding him. The mojh retreated. Ke-Tant was not to be cowed and he rushed forward and slashed at the creature with his sword. He connected but it was almost that the thing could flow around his blade, neutralising most of its effectiveness. Mera, Gath and Obur were about to confront the beast as well, when all went utterly black for them. Mera and Gath tried to retreat out of the darkness back they way they had come, but not before some spell effect exploded nearby damaging the whole group.

The Mokers were getting worried, and they left the giant to wade through the softening floor to attack the mouther while Obur pressed on through the darkness to try and find what they thought might be their other adversary. It was like a sick parlour game, with chaotic attempts at blind communication; shouting instructions; straining for the sounds of combat; feeling along stony walls in the hopes of finding light. Gath found his way south and realised that Obur had fallen to some foe and was bleeding beneath him on the floor. Mera found his way through to Ke-Tant just as the giant witnessed the mouther die, but strangely, not from a current strike against it. Mezezar sight returned to him while he was in the darkness so he too went groping for the greenbond.

The giant Ke-Tant, and Mera made it through the darkness while the other two tended to Obur in the lightless tunnel. On the other side stood a blind mojh, its eyes having been removed but it was not lacking in awareness. It moved as if it had the clearest of vision. As the two Mokers approached it made to cast another spell, but this was an error as it exposed itself to the attacks of the two before it. This opening was enough for the pair to finish it. Mera realised that the mojh had been about to cast another spell of darkness. Mera quickly searched their foe and found several items that she deemed magical. They waited for their comrades to come through into the torchlight and join them.

The Mokers called to each other and managed to gather in the area beyond the darkness where the blind mojh lay. Here they performed whatever other healing they deemed necessary. Mezzezar realised that the darkness that obscured their vision would disappear eventually, so they waited so that they could view the door with the bas relief. It took some time, but finally the darkness dispersed. The Mokers got another look at the door and the large dragon’s head that protruded from it. Underneath this head was writing in a strange script. Mezzezar was able to decipher it using his knowledge of draconic; it seemed to be written in some ancient form of that tongue:
“All those who would enter the temple must pass the test of the maw. Reach into the mouth of Yig, and your courage will be rewarded.”
Mezzezar did not hesitate; he plunged his arm into the mouth of the dragon and reached to find something that would release the door. As he did so it seemed to him that the jaws of the carved dragon were closing on his arm. It took all of his strength of will to keep his hand in the mouth and to find the latch to release the door.

The door ground open, sending dirt scattering across the floor. The chamber beyond was circular, about thirty feet in diameter. A ramp along the far right wall led down into murky water. In the centre of the chamber was an enormous, fifteen-foot-high, marble statue of a coiled dragon. In many different locations, someone has scribbled the same (ancient draconic) words across the walls in red ink. Mezezzar translated them as “Beware brethren, for Yig will abandon us.”

Ke-Tant led the way down the ramp and into the water as there seemed to be no other route to take. After going underneath the level of the water he returned and recommended that they rope themselves together to avoid getting lost. This they did and managed to descend the ramp safely into the water. Ahead of them, along the curving side of the wall, was another ramp leading down, so they pressed on down this ramp. When the Mokers came down this second ramp, the emerged into a dry chamber, looking up they saw a ceiling of water over the ramp that was not falling to the floor.

Mezezar was more taken with the room itself. Carvings of dragon’s heads were spaced evenly around the wall, each with a glowing globe of light in its open maw. A dragon-carved-altar stood against the opposite wall from the Mokers, and large circular cushions dotted the floor. There was another ramp leading down, but the Mokers made for the altar. On the way, Mezezar picked up one of the cushions. His examination revealed that it was mouldy and smelt of damp. When they got closer to the altar, they could make out a humanoid shape, barely distinct, in front of it. The shape seemed very like the kobold-kin that they had fought before in the temples below Khorl, but this creature was not solid. It repeated a few actions of benediction before the altar again and again. The Mokers came right up to it and suddenly it spoke. The shape turned out to be Alisst, a high priest of this temple of Yig and he was very grateful for the fact that living beings had come, for they could help him free his people from their curse.

In return for him revealing the whereabouts of the Jade Statuette; he needed them to find four artefacts of Yig for him: an amulet; the fangs; the venom and the scales. The Mokers agreed to this and immediately went down the next ramp to start their search. The first room they tried, the party encountered four more of the shadowy kobold-kin, but these were much more militant. Whenever one of their blows struck home some of the strength was leeched from their opponent. They also proved difficult to strike as the Mokers weapons often passed straight through them without effect. Ke-Tant stood in the doorway trying to block the creatures from reaching the rest of the party, while the others cast as many spells as they could. Eventually this worked although Ke-Tant felt half as strong and as healthy as before. The spell-casters were running low on options as well.