Aspirants of the Diamond Throne

Voern Grey Shadow had travelled from the Harrowdeep on the understanding that the Bounty Day festival in Gahanis would feature an interesting ceremony for the faen. A female quickling was planning on ascension to the spryte form. He felt he would learn something from the experience at least, hopefully finding some other interesting individuals with which to continue his travels.

Ke-Herram had wandered for some time, somewhat aimlessly adding his sword arm to the defence of caravans, towns, local lords and whoever would take him on. At the Bounty Day festival he hoped to take part in the first Shu-Rin ceremony for a young giant. He did not really have a plan in mind, but he hoped to hear word of his elder brother, Ke-Werrik, who had left his family home years before in search of magic.

Salesat also searched for magic. His burnt fur and scarred visage was testament to some torture or other hard travail in his past. But he was silent on the matter, saying only that it had happened on his naming day. His search was for his hope, a way of restoring his vitality and the strength of his feline limbs. Although the tribes had gathered for their own portion of the festival, Salesat was keeping well away from the Litorian tents.

Migar was quiet about his past or his reason for being in Gahanis, other than the obvious pleasures of a festival. He tried to cut his own particular dash through the crowds as he also searched for a way of earning some coin to keep him in the style to which he had become accustomed.

Voern Grey Shadow met with Ke-Herram and Salesat while searching for a place to stay for the night, once they had booked themselves in to an inn owned by a giant named Ae-Radona. Ke-Harram had been drawn to the place by its size and the giantish inscription over the doorway. They went to the barracks after reading a notice about some bandits who were wanted for spying on the caravans in the area and who had holed up in the Battlehome, an ancient fortress in the battles with the dramojh. Migar had already reached the barracks for similar purposes. There they all met with Mynorath the Peacekeeper, a sibeccai who was captain of the guard. He informed them that there was a bounty on the head of these bandits. One was known as being a scribe, Den Rudiger, the other was a snake totem warrior called Merril Yannis. Due to the Bounty Day festival, Mynorath felt that he could not spare the men to search for these two. The bounty would be two hundred gold pieces for each bandit if brought in alive, half that if they were dead. After obtaining quick directions from the captain the group repaired to the hostelry for the evening to be ready for an early departure. Voern generously paid for the lodgings as the others had spent their last coin on equipment.

Descending the gully, the party arrived at a flat stony area at the foot of Veil Mountain. Before them was a massive cave sealed by a long wall of stone across the lower half of the opening and covered by a latticework of stone spans across the upper half. Massive gates stood precisely in the centre of the stone wall. Two towers flanked this gate rising to the height of the latticework above. On closer inspection, the tower on the left had a smaller door at its base. Heading straight for this, the group saw that this entrance had once been chained and padlocked, but now lay open, with the chain on the ground. A notice mounted on the wall, warned trespassers that a permit was required for entry. The doorway opened into the bottom of the tower, which had a wide stair spirally upwards around the wall; there was no other exit. The party started their ascent, when they got up to the next level they could see a walkway extending along over the gate towards the next tower. This had murder holes set into it. This walkway reached beyond both towers to the ends of the wall where it met the wall of the cavern. They could see spiral staircases of iron leading up and down. They started by sweeping the various levels of the gate wall to see if any creatures were present. They found nothing alive, only a dead body in the well of the westerly gate tower. From the levels high over the gate, the party could make out a large central tower in the cavern, as well as a small building against the eastern wall. On the western side, some buildings were hidden beneath a shelf of stone that covered that area of the cavern from the tower to the wall.

They headed for the small building on the eastern wall. It was once padlocked, but now the lock dangled in the latch of the door, which was shut. Salesat opened the door and peered inside. They noticed a rune on the floor, which they could not identify. Salesat threw a piece of rubbish into the room, which disappeared. Ke-Harram thought that this might be a way of gaining entry into the innards of the complex, but was dissuaded from stepping in by the others. Across the cavern under the stone shelf, the group found some stables that were sized for the radont mounts of the giants who used to dwell here. Further south, they came upon what seemed to have been a forge (from the large hearth and the quenching trough that they found). There was also a well, which had a grappling hook attached to its stone lip. A long knotted rope fell down into the darkness below. Salesat came over to look down the well in the hope of seeing the bottom, but he couldn’t, so they pulled up the rope and attached a lantern to the end of it, lowering it slowly. The well seemed to be about eighty feet deep ending in a natural looking cavern, that although damp, was not filled with water. They could not make out the dimensions of the chamber. They pulled the rope back up and detached the lantern, before dropping the end back down the well.

The group turned their attention to the tower, entering it by the large double doors that faced the main gates of the Battlehome. A fifteen-foot long iron slat leaned against the inner wall of the tower to the right of the open doors. Moving through the double doors opposite the entrance they entered the other half of the tower base. Here another set of doors led out of the back of the tower and a spiral stone staircase led up one floor. They followed this path, climbing forty feet to a room with a thirty-five foot ceiling. Only Ke-Herram felt completely comfortable in this environment. The room was huge, but also had many openings and exits. Four large doorways into open air were set into the circular wall of the chamber diagonally. At a separation of six feet, arrow slits circled the remaining wall. On the northern wall, in the centre, ten feet up, a six-foot square window looked out on the main gates. Immediately to the east of this window, a stone pedestal stood five feet high, with a lever mounted into the top. A stone spiral staircase led upwards through the centre of the tower. Ke-Herram took an immediate interest in the lever and persuaded the others to allow him to pull it from its vertical position. When he did so, they were all deafened and somewhat shaken by the awful screeching sound of the main gates slowly edging open. The whole tower shuddered as the portals swung back to stand wide open, perpendicular to their previous position. The group looked at each other, ashen-faced, then quickly took up positions at the various openings and windows in the hope of spotting anyone approaching the tower. Indeed, it was not long until Salesat saw a large black shape emerge into the courtyard south of the tower. He loosed a volley from his crossbow, but failed to strike home. Ke-Herram and Salesat then moved to the top of the stairs, ready to engage the creature. It came on quickly, swarming up the stairs as if its legs were not its only means of propulsion. Ke-Harram and Salesat waited at the top of the stairs, swinging at it when it came within range. The burning heat of the creature’s body meant that for every blow that it struck, there was an additional searing pain suffered by the victim. Unfortunately, the creature’s blows were strong and Ke-Harram could not stand before it. He fell, bleeding, to the ground. Migar stepped in, lightly stepping over the giant’s form as Voern tried to attack the creature with an animated weapon. Salesat was the next to fall, then Migar, but Voern did manage to slay the beast and then had enough healing magic to restore Salesat.

Over the next hours those who remained active tried to plan their best strategy, but they realised that they would have to wait until the next dawn for Voern痴 full healing to be available. In the meantime they had one other, wounds-transfer spell, that brought Migar to consciousness, but incapacitated Salesat for some time. They watched out from the tower, hoping that no creatures would come looking for them after the awful noise that they had caused.

Salesat, when it came time for his watch, and while Migar was meditating to change his prepared spells, spotted a goblin approaching the tower from the direction of the smithy. He fired down, missing it by a large margin. So he moved to the stairs getting another shot in at the creature before it managed to reach him. He missed this time too, so had to engage the creature in close combat. Luckily, the goblin was not very adept at fighting, as he failed to land a blow on the litorian, while Salesat eventually managed to slash it once with his scimitar, which was enough. The creature had nothing of value on its person, apart from its morning star and ragged leather armour.

Salesat was curious as to where this creature had come from; so he went down to investigate. By the well that they had seen earlier Salesat could just make out the form of another goblin. So he quickly retreated back to the tower. Shortly thereafter two goblins appeared, creeping along the base of the tower towards the door. Salesat shot down at them, managing to strike one with his crossbow bolt. The creature was sorely injured and fell. The other ran back to the shelter of the overhanging rock that covered the smithy and stables. After a while, a rope lasso began to be thrown from under the overhang, landing near the fallen goblin. Salesat attempted to split the rope with a finely aimed bolt, but he failed. As the success of the goblin痴 tactics became clearer, Salesat decided to be more pro-active. He shot the fallen goblin with his crossbow to ensure that it did not survive and then went down after the other creature under the overhang. But the goblin had given up hope for its companion and had disappeared back down the well. Salesat decided to drop the rope and grappling hook down after it. He then returned to watching the others.

When Migar had changed his spells, he cast a Transfer wounds on Ke-Herram to raise him to consciousness and shortly thereafter the whole group left the Battlehome through the main doors and returned to Gahanis. There, they rested and recuperated, preparing for another trip to find the bandits. Two days later they returned and headed straight for the base of the tower. Passing straight through they entered the double doors beyond which lead into the stony core of the mountain. They followed a westerly path, which led to a series of interconnected chambers. They found little here until they came to a room with a staircase leading downwards, that also had a well. The group believed that this well reached down to about the same level as the one they had previously encountered. It also had a rope attached to a grappling hook on the outer lip. Not wanting to risk a hazardous descent, the party headed, for the stairs.

In the stone clad room below, they encountered two dire rats with iron collars, which scuttled to attack them immediately. Now back at full strength, the party had little difficulty finishing the creatures off. While searching the room, Voern came across the tell-tale signs of a secret door which opened to the south. The room beyond was carved roughly out of the rock and a natural tunnel led off from here towards the southwest. After following this passage for a short time, Migar noticed a carved warning in the wall, which they chose to ignore. Rouhgly one hundred feet later, a side passage to the northwest was visible ahead. Following this route they came to a rough cave with three other exits. Three goblins had been preparing food here and they quickly raised their weapons to attack. Ke-Herram strode forward to attack and swept one goblin aside immediately. Migar and Salesat also wounded their opponents quickly and soon all had fallen. Moving quickly northwards, past the goblins� cooking fire they entered a fan of caves with more goblin sleeping caves. Only one contained goblins, and these seemed to be suffering from a strange disease, which had fungal growths sprouting from their bodies. They were also slow to react and easy prey for the now-confident party. In the last cave of the sequence, two more dire rats were chained up using their iron collars. The fearless group finished these creatures off by using the limitations of the rats� reach to their advantage.

To the west the passage met another long corridor running from northeast to southwest. A quick inspection to the southwest revealed an overabundance of fungal growth that blocked further passage. To the northwest they found the base of a well and the body of a dead goblin covered in the loops of a long rope. Returning to the cave with the firepit, the party went southwest through some narrow corridors of stone, which led to a chamber, that contained two saw horses, upon which rested two bird coups. Several pigeons pecked about inside. Along the next narrow passageway they encountered a snake, which bit Salesat on the ankle. He began to feel unwell. The others didn稚 particularly appreciate the appearance of a human in snake-skin armour to back up the small reptile. Ke-Harram was up to this challenge and he stepped forward to meet the new threat. Meanwhile Migar and Salesat dealt with the snake. Once the small reptile had been skewered, these three managed to bring down the snake warrior. They the bound his wounds and tied him up. Migar watched him closely as they moved on to the next opening, which led to a cave that was occupied by a human, passed out on the floor. A table was strewn with papers in the corner of the cavern. A bed stood unused on the opposite wall. Salesat subdued the human with a few blows of his club.

Searching the captured humans, they found four potions on the snake warrior as well as his finely made snakeskin armour, which Ke-Herram liberated. The darts and the gold coins that they found were distributed. The human that they had found on the floor, also seemed to be infected with the fungal growths that had affected the goblins nearby. The papers on the desk proved to be maps and shipping schedules of local trading groups. One map, however, stood out. It contained no details of any shipping routes as all of the others had done, and its only reference was to a “Lake of Lost Voices”. The only other marking was a symbol of a white circle in a black square, which stood at the western edge of this lake. Voern cured the wounds of the snake warrior sufficiently for interrogation. Migar led this effort and determined that the two were indeed the bandits that they had come looking for. Merril the snake warrior also revealed the powers of the potions that he had carried. Voern searched the chamber and found a chest under Den Rudiger’s bed. After the dart which trapped the chest had buried itself in Ke-Herram’s arm, they could examine its contents, the most revealing of which was some correspondence that showed a tally chart, which seemed to show the disposition of the spoils. The three columns were labelled “N”; “Rudiger & Yannis” and “Back to Lair”. This last had an entry mentioning an old tome from Xavel. Salesat was not responding well to the poison that the snake had injected into him. Voern had to treat him with a tourniquet, as he made the litorian lie on the ground with his leg propped up against the wall. Examining the birds that they had found further, they saw that they each had rings around their legs with the same symbol – that of the circle in the square. Voern left water and grain out for them before they headed off with their prizes to Gahanis.

Once they reached the town they handed over the two to Mynorath and obtained their reward. He offered them free accommodation for the rest of the festival as a further token of appreciation. Voern determined that Salesat required four more days of treatment to be rid of the venom, so Ke-Herram took the opportunity to order some climbing materials from a local merchant. When they were all prepared, Ke-Herram, Voern and Salesat performed rituals of thanksgiving for trials endured. Ke-Herram and Voern opted to improve their understanding of their own racial nature, while Voern continued in his devotion to the Green. That night while they rested from their endeavours, they were each visited in a dream by a Guildmaster of the Jaren who had spoken to them while wearing some elaborate costume, including a mask, asking them to come to the guild hall the following night, one hour after dusk to assist them in tracking down some property of theirs which had been taken in the caravan raids. Passing the day quietly, the group visited the Jaren and accepted their commission. They said that they would return to the Battlehome and look for clues as to where the item, which the Jaren said was a book, might have gone.

Three days later, after Ke-Herram had collected his kit, they all returned to the fortress. Here they methodically went through the areas that they had not reached, but only after determining that the pigeons had been taken, released or worse. Several natural twisting passages interconnected and seemed to run off into the bowels of the earth without limit. Of the more orderly passages, they eventually came upon a wide processional way, which was illuminated when they had reached the end and touched the huge giant mask, which hung at its end. Just off this lay a chamber with a fountain behind two doors that had faces, mirroring the huge one, carved in them. Here they found some rest and relaxation, for the waters of the fountain seemed to have some beneficial effect on them that they could not exactly determine.

After searching the fountain chamber for secret openings with no success, Salesat had a strong urge to return to Gahanis to rid himself of his long shield and studded leather jack. With the indifference of the others to this suggestion, he managed to contain himself and remain. They left the healthy air for the fetid corridors of the rest of the Battlehome, passing through a once locked door, north of where they were which led to the east. At the first crossroads they went south, opening a door with a large rune embossed on the surface, even though they could not decipher its meaning. The room beyond was plain, large and rectangular. On the eastern wall a set of double doors sat closed. A smaller door rested in the southern wall to the western edge. A large stone slab, that was perhaps used as a table, dominated the chamber, though nothing rested on it now. The wall opposite the double doors, was covered in a carving that represented battling giants overcoming dramojh opponents. It had been defaced by some scarring, but was otherwise clear.

Moving on, the group opened the southerly door, finding a smaller room, which also had an exit to the east, this one a single door. Of more interest was the large mask attached high up on the westerly wall and the large stone pedestal in the centre of the room. Below the mask was a stone bench sized for seated giants. The party tried several things when examining these items but came to no firm conclusion as to their purpose. Migar cast a spell and saw that both the pedestal and the mask radiated a magical aura of divination. Salesat meanwhile had tried to move the pedestal and failed. He then turned to look at the mask, but once he saw it, stood transfixed. Ke-Herram tried poking the litorian in an effort to gain his attention, but to no avail. Eventually, the other three had to physically turn him away for him to regain his senses. He could not remember his time spent gazing at the mask. This prompted further investigation, which also revealed nothing until Salesat found himself standing atop the pedestal, again transfixed by his view of the mask. Unable to discover the purpose of this effect the others again, moved Salesat and they all decided to tackle the eastern door.

Ke-Herram pulled it open and a cloud of greenish smoke billowed out to cover each of the four adventurers. Voern coughed and gagged while the others stepped forward to battle a goblin so deformed it looked like a moving fungus. Ke-Herram struck first and sorely injured the creature; Salesat finished it with a blow from his war hammer. Pressing their advantage they moved into the room beyond to engage another of these transformed goblins. This one they also finished off quickly. In the room, they found nothing but a bucket full of pieces of the fungal growth that they had seen before, being eaten by the bandits and the other goblins in the caverns below. There were no other exits from this chamber.

Once they had returned to the large chamber with the central stone block, Salesat opened the double doors to the east. These led to a corridor running to the north and south, which turned back to the west at both ends that they could see. On the opposite wall stood a single door, which had had its latches removed at some point. They opened this door and proceeded down the easterly passage beyond. Not far along on the northern wall, the entrance to a rough tunnel leading northwards, was blocked by an invisible barrier that they could not damage, even with Salesat’s war hammer. Moving along the original passage they continued into darkness, the only light being shed by Migar’s lantern. After some time they made out some writing clearly carved into the northern wall. This warned travellers not to pass any further in this direction lest they fall between “midnight and death”. Salesat was not happy to leave their exploration simply due to the words on a wall, so he determined to go on, the others agreed to this, but tied three lengths of rope to him, so that they could haul him back if required. At the very end of the ropes’ span the passage had not deviated in its course, nor shown the litorian anything else of interest, so he returned to the others and they all went back through to stand before the double doors again. The southerly passageway proved uninteresting, though it turned to the west, as there were no side doors or openings. It ended in a blank wall. The group sought and found a concealed portal here, which led back to the main area. Then they circled back around to the door with the embossed rune. They tried the door to the north. Beyond lay a short corridor running east to west. Three doors led off from this corridor, but of more immediate interest were the four bodies lying dead in the western portion before the largest door. Two verrik, a human and a quickling faen sprawled, decaying on the stone. Each had suffered burns and showed the signs of having been gnawed at. Their equipment seemed to have been removed.

Turning to the doors, the group examined the westerly one first, determining that the runes engraved on it were ancient ones of containment. Leaving this for the moment the group searched behind the other two, more non-descript doors while Ke-Herram held them open. One was completely empty, while the other contained a skeleton, still propped in a sitting position at the end of the cell, wearing rusted armour. Ke-Herram decided to try the other door. As soon as he opened it, the party beheld two of the most loathsome creatures that they had yet seen, lurking at the back of the cell over what seemed to be backpacks and other equipment. Humanoid shaped, the creatures stood about five feet tall with their flesh hanging in folds off their bodies. Piercing black eyes stared balefully out from beneath their deformed brows. Steam or gas swirled about their gangling limbs and drops of some liquid fell intermittently from their elbows and chins. They were not slow to react. One raced up past Ke-Herram to attack Salesat. The giant managed to connect with the creature as it went by. Salesat discovered that the liquid dripping from the creatures was acidic when he was slammed by a fist and then felt the agonising bite of the fluid as it ate into his flesh, though he felt better when his war hammer connected squarely with the body of the creature. Meanwhile, Ke-Herram was also attacked in the doorway, but he was missed in the creature’s first rush. Voern cast a spell to animate his weapon so that he would not have to stand in range of the creatures while Migar contemplated immolating the creatures and possibly himself and his companions before settling on successfully slashing the same creature that had engaged Salesat with his athame. Ke-Herram turned and landed another blow on this creature as well but it still stood. It concentrated its efforts on Salesat, but missed this time, allowing the litorian, the giant and the human all to land blows on the creature. While distracted with this effort, Ke-Herram was hit by both of the other humanoid’s fists. Voern’s flying weapon also seemly managed to damage the chlorthek in the passage as it fell under this flurry of attacks. Ke-Herram stepped back into the space where the creature had fallen, forcing the other one to follow him into the passage to continue its attack. Here they managed to batter the remaining chlorthek until it too fell.

Ke-Herram then held the door open for Salesat as he went into the room to retrieve the items within. The giant noticed that the fallen forms were beginning to rise again from the floor – they had not been killed! Salesat was recalled from the cell, and he set about lighting some oil on the creatures to see if it would damage them. It seemed that it did, so a full-scale conflagration was called for, with each member contributing oil flasks and Salesat carefully feeding the blaze as the oil was used up. Migar and Ke-Herram kept beating down the slowly rising forms if they showed signs of movement. When we was ready, Migar called for everyone to step back and then summon a create burst of flame over the bodies, but even this was not enough to finish them. Despairing of ever killing these abominations, Salesat set off to retrieve the long iron strut that had been used to bar the lower doors of the cavern tower. Meanwhile, Voern was ferrying all of the items from the cell back out into the main corridor as the human and the giant kept beating the un-dying forms. When he returned Salesat handed the strut over to Ke-Herram, who pushed the writhing bodies into the cell and shut the door on them. Moving out into the main corridor the party breathed a sigh of relief as the giant wedged the prison door shut with the iron bar.

Voern started going through all of the equipment that had been in the cell. He cast a detect magic on all of it, revealing the magical aura from a scimitar which Salesat offered around to the others before availing of it himself. He also took a chain shirt and abandoned his armour and shield. Some other sundry items of equipment were replaced or replenished and a small amount of gold was distributed among the adventurers. Voern kept a tally of all of the items.

The corridor that was blocked to them still troubled the group, so they went back into the front cavern of the Battlehome hoping that the room they had discovered there would teleport them to this interesting location. When they stepped in, though, they were transported to a spot about six hundred feet to the north of the Battlehome’s front gate. They took this as a sign and headed back to Gahanis, satisfied that their next goal should be the Lake of Lost Voices.

The next day they headed off, new mules in tow, rested and healed after their endeavours in the Battlehome. When it was nearly dusk, on the first day out, they heard what could only be a bear further up the trail from their position. When they got close enough for a better view after tethering their mules, they could see a black bear leaning over a humanoid creature on the ground. Voern immediately responded by firing a bolt from his crossbow at the animal, which managed to hit. The bear turned to attack and Ke-Herram rushed up to engage it, scoring a hit with his first attack. Migar and Salesat also landed blows on the beast felling it. Salesat’s face paled when he saw that the creature on the ground was a rhodin, the racial enemies of the litorians, whose savage attacks on his people, had continued for generations. The rhodin was dying, though it coughed and beckoned its saviours closer. Voern was able to make out its last whispered words, which concerned an orb and not allowing a woman to have it. The loresong could not make much sense of this. Salesat searched the rhodin and found a bejewelled dagger buried in its back. It was then that Voern realised that the bear had not killed the creature, rather that a barbed weapon had done all the damage that they could see. Perhaps the bear had just wandered by. Wanting to leave this place behind them the group camped a couple of hours later along the trail. Their watches through the night were uneventful.

About midday on their second day out from Gahanis, Migar spotted a mound rising above the small streambed that they were following. Before he could mention this to any of the others a human female appeared from behind the construction and launched a bolt of green force at him. This stunned Migar, but Ke-Herram acted quickly and charged the woman. When he reached her, his first blow went wide. The others closed in; firing missile weapons and wounding her, but the woman stepped back and loosed another bolt of her strange energy at the giant in front of her. Ke-Herram was injured by this energy but managed to connect with his next blow, killing the woman. A quick search revealed that the woman was probably a witch, due to the pouch of strange items at her waist. Her padded armour and club did not seem to be of interest. Searching the general area of the mound they came upon a clay tablet that was carved with some text that none of the travellers could decipher. Voern put some parchment over it and took a rubbing of it so that he could find someone who might be able to read it for them. Salesat found a suitable campsite that evening and they settled in for their routine watches.

Their third day started much like the others, trudging along the rough winding defile that contained the low stream, pushing and heaving the mules at regular intervals. After only a couple of hours on the trail, Migar spotted a figure approaching from the south along the stream bank. He was a verrik and he was dressed for travel, with his pack sitting comfortably on his shoulders. He greeted the party when he came close enough and explained that he was an artist from the nearby town of Gahanis who had come into the hills to capture the true nature of the hills and rocky bluffs for a piece of work that he was planning. He said that he had not been as far south as the lake, saying that he had avoided it due to local rumours of its fell nature. Migar seemed to have heard of a verrik artist in Gahanis and asked the verrik if he was famous. A smile passed his lips momentarily as he replied that he hoped that some people had come to know of his work. Voern sensed that this verrik might be able to help decipher the writing from the mound, but after looking at it briefly he said that he could not understand it at all, nor could he find any stored experiences in the akashic gem that the group had discovered, though he charged them for the attempt anyway.

A few hours later the group came to the shores of the lake. They looked around to see if they could identify any building on the far shore to the west, but it was too difficult to make out from this distance, so they started west along the shoreline over the rough rocky terrain. When Migar came close to the water, he began hearing voices in his head urging him to dive under the lake to join with these poor lost souls in death. He managed to resist their persuasive inducements, but the voices did not stop trying.

Feeling that the rough terrain was too much for them, the group turned back to the road to see if the other way around the lake might be easier. As they approached the shore, Ke-Herram also began to be troubled by the voices, although he resisted them as Migar had. Voern meanwhile had caught sight of something on the surface of the lake that was just visible under some unhealthy looking brush. Further investigation revealed a raft tied to the shore by a short leather cord, which had two paddles and looked as if it could accommodate about six people. With some trepidation, and visions of tentacled monsters, the party embarked on the journey across the lake. Migar took the precaution to remove his chain shirt before sitting down.

Though they had expected some trouble, the slow trip across the lake was uneventful. After about a mile, they could make out an old building carved into the wall of rock that plunged into the lake on the western shore. As they approached, they could see that there was a fissure in the rock, which, at the level of the lake痴 surface, was wide enough to allow their raft to pass through. Edging their way through the crumbling stone at the entrance to the breach, the group looked around at the cave like interior. The walls had been crudely braced with wooden supports at all angles, but what drew their eyes was the staircase that rose out of the water before them, leading up to an arched opening in the stone some thirty feet above.

They reached the staircase and tried to keep the raft steady as they disembarked. Voern could not keep his footing on the algae covered stone and slipped, landing awkwardly on the sharp stone and slipping beneath the surface. Ke-Herram reached down to try and pull the loresong to safety, but only succeeded in overbalancing and plunging beneath the water himself. Both slipped and scrambled on the steps, looking for purchase while they held their breath, eventually staggering out and sitting, soaked, on a higher perch, to try and regain their wind.

When they had regained their composure, the group set off up the steps, with Ke-Herram and Migar in the lead. The archway led into a tall dark chamber, which was too high for the light of Migar痴 lantern to fully expose. Some damage had been done to the stonework, with a column in the south east corner, south of the doorway, having collapsed into rubble. The matching column remained in the north east extended upwards into the dark. Moving forward, their lamp light revealed a double curve of columns, the closest convex and the other concave relative to the group. Between these curves a path ran to open passages north and south. The western portion of the room contained a huge statue of a humanoid. Its outstretched arms held two globes of different sizes. Salesat opined that this might be a representation of the sun and the moon. Raising the lamp higher, they noticed that the statue did not have a head. They didn稚 see any evidence of damage to the figure, so they thought that perhaps it was designed that way.

Raising the lantern also revealed the sudden decent of a monstrous spider on a thick strand of webbing. It landed in front of the group, leaping to attack immediately. Ke-Herram was startled by its appearance and so was unable to react immediately, but Salesat stepped forward and swung at the creature with his scimitar, wounding it slightly. The spider then tried to bite the litorian, but its mandibles failed to penetrate his chain shirt. Migar痴 athame was next to be employed, but to no immediately useful effect. Voern stepped back and prepared to cast a spell, but Ke-Herram stepped in and crushed the beast痴 head with a heavy blow.

The others quickly cast around looking for other attackers, but none seemed evident. They also could not find any missing head for the statue. To the south of this room, the passage led to a rockfall that completely blocked further progress. The one to the north led to a junction at which they went right. A few yards further along, a room to the southeast seemed to have no inhabitants, but the walls were dotted with holes at floor level that the group thought looked ominous. Passing swiftly along, the party entered a rectangular corridor. In the northwest corner, they could see a passage off to the west. But they continued east, turning north along the eastern side and then back west. Here they saw another opening into the southern wall, leading to a central chamber. From the doorway they could see another statue, this one with a head. But this particular statue was hovering some two feet above its plinth. They entered the chamber to see what might be supporting the figure, but as soon as they crossed the threshold a powerful magnetic effect came in to force, accompanied by a loud humming noise. Salesat and Migar managed to maintain their footing as their chain shirts pulled them into the room. But neither those two, nor Voern, managed to hold on to their weapon, all three flying across the chamber to slam against the sides of the statue. Ke-Herram held on to his greatsword with difficulty and stepped back out into the passageway, where it seemed that the force of the pull was much lessened. Salesat, Voern and Migar followed suit, but Migar immediately divested himself of his chain shirt and headed straight back into the room to see if he could recover his athame.

Just as he ducked past the others into the room, they heard the sound of scampering coming from both east and west. Three dire rats assailed them from either side. Salesat only had his dagger to hand and so proved rather ineffectual against the rodents. Ke-Herram痴 sword eventually stuck effectively after a slow start. Voern tried mudballs and missile fire, opting for a minor summoning in the end. Migar meanwhile was fruitlessly pulling at his trapped weapon, which was stuck fast to the statue. Eventually the rodents were dispatched and Ke-Herram took some considerable time pulling blades off the statue and man-handling them out of the range of the magnetic effect. More than once a blade that he had freed flew back against the statue when he could not control it in his hands. But eventually they had all returned to the corridor with all of their equipment.

Next they investigated the passage off to the west, here they found themselves staring across a chamber at another statue, this one not hovering. Ke-Herram felt confident after the last foray and stepped into the chamber to no noticeable effect. When he reached the figure he touched one of the two arms, causing lightning to spark between them and arc to himself and Salesat. With this, they were healed of all their wounds, but they felt as if they had taken a pummelling. They could find nothing else of interest in this chamber, so they returned to the junction at which they had headed east and turned the opposite way. After some distance it turned to the south opening out into an east-west corridor that seemed to be the continuation of their initial path of entry. Going east to confirm this, they did indeed see the back of the headless statue in the chamber ahead of them, but before they reached it there was another path to the north that they had not taken. Ke-Herram led the way as this corridor went north and then turned to the east ending in a chamber. The giant strode in to examine it more closely and the floor collapsed around him, burying him in four feet of rubble in a pit that was ten feet below the floor level. The others hauled Ke-Herram out and they continued back to the main passage.

It looked as though a parallel passage ran west south of the one that they were navigating, as they caught glimpses of it through open archways. Both contained pedestals with nothing on them, with the ones in the southerly passage being taller than those in the northerly. They kept their attention to the north for the moment, mapping out three further northerly passages that each ended in a rockfall. The last of these permitted passage off to the west, which led to a junction marked by an alcove ahead of them with another statue. This one they ignored as it had fallen and shattered at some point in the past, and went north and west into a series of interconnected rooms where they were again assaulted by a spider, which they dispatched. Migar was keen to destroy the webbing that clung to the upper reaches of these chambers, but his efforts at making a fire arrow only caused him a minor mishap and did not have the desired effect. The last room on the western edge of this area also contained a statue against its southern wall. This one was made of iron and was more stylised than the previous ones, hinting at a humanoid form rather than being explicit. This statue Ke-Herram also touched, rousing the air in the chamber which began to roil around them disturbing the dust and cobwebs that lay about. Rather than see what might arrive due to this disturbance the party left and went south to the corridor. They found that they had reached its western edge and that they must either go south or back east to explore other areas.

The group decided to head south, crossing the two east west corridors and entering a room that was covered in rotting food and other detritus. A stairway, which had been covered in this gunge, rose into the darkness above them from the southeastern corner of the room. Ke-Herram attempted to see what was within by dragging his grappling hook along the floor of the chamber. He had hoped to snag something more interesting than the bones and furs that caught on its hooks. Migar threw a rock into the darkness beyond the range of their lamplight but failed to rouse any creature within. It was not until they entered the chamber and moved towards the stairs that their illumination revealed the presence of a fungal creature about twenty feet up the stairs themselves. It moved quickly to attack them with its six tentacles that sprayed out from beneath its purple cap. Voern managed to fire at it with his bow before the creature reached Ke-Herram wounding it slightly. Only one of the creatures tentacles struck the giant, but its rasping touch tore at his skin badly and he felt an awful burning sensation. The rest of the group then all laid blows or missiles on the creature and in fell dead before them.

Gingerly approaching the top of the stairs, the group saw that there was some illumination spilling down from above. Someone had attached a lamp to the wall of the corridor ahead. When Ke-Herram reached this light, a bolt sped out of the blackness beyond and struck him squarely in the shoulder. Salesat realised that they were exposed by the lamplight and, ignoring the opening to his left and the rubble to the right, he ran straight ahead towards the origin of the bolt. Voern, meanwhile, seeing the injury to his giant companion, channelled some of the power of the Green, knitting his wounds together somewhat. Salesat had reached a corridor, but opposite him was a five foot high wall that had been built from rubble. He could see the crossbow resting atop this wall and he knew that he had no time to waste. He scrambled over the wall and attacked the human he found there with his dagger. Perhaps it was his anger or the surprise of the human, but he fell dead with one blow.

The others approached this rough barricade and joined Salesat behind it. As they started searching the fallen human痴 body, Voern heard the approach of other people. Migar and Ke-herram just had the time to position themselves in front of the opening behind the barricade as five more humans arrived to see what had become of their comrade. The first two stayed within the corridor to ensure that they could not be outnumbered, both landing blows on Ke-Herram and Migar respectively. Realising that he was not effective from where he was, Salesat, again vaulted the barricade and circled around trying to come at the back of the attackers. Those in the second rank of the attackers were equipped with shortbows and they fired on the giant and the human, missing initially. Both of these failed in their next attacks and Migar then fell to the floor, bleeding, from a slash of the shortsword of one of his attackers. Two others then pressed this advantage, dropping their bows and pressing into the room beyond. Voern was injured in this rush. Luckily the enemy attacking Ke-Herram missed and the giant was able to land a heavy blow. Salesat had managed to get around behind their attackers and the last one dropped his bow to face the litorian. Voern also managed to slash his opponent and Salesat and Ke-Herram did the same, to no great effect. First Voern, then Ke-Herram fell to blows from the guards, just as Ke-Herram managed to kill the first of his opponents. Salesat also received his first injury, but he was now grossly out-numbered and had to change his tactics.

He ran. His attacker was somewhat surprised and failed to benefit from the opening that the litorian had left, seeing him disappear around the corner without further injury. Salesat was making for the narrow passage that they had been ambushed in earlier. There he used the cover from the rubble to ensure that only one of the guards could attack him at once. It was a slow process, all of the combatants� limbs were heavy from wielding their blades, but Salesat had the upper hand. He slew the first to come at him quickly, his blade neatly cutting in below the ribs of his assailant. By then the next two had arrived and jockeyed for position. Salesat didn稚 care which he faced, but was more concerned by the sight of the third, arming himself with a short bow again. He finished the next one with two cuts, but not before an arrow had shot through his left shoulder, spinning him off balance. But the human before him could not take advantage, and Salesat smell the fear rising off him and this gave him hope. The guard痴 desperation must have lent him an edge, for his short sword cut across the litorian痴 thigh as another arrow missed his head by inches. Salesat finished him off with a savage slash to his neck.

The litorian looked up, but the bowman was nowhere to be seen. He ran across the corridor and leapt the barrier for a third time, seeing no one, apart from those who were bleeding and helpless on the ground. Then he saw the blood of his last assailant down through the corridor and heading west. Salesat followed, knowing that if this guard raised the alarm, he could not stand against another foe. He ran around the corner that he had used to circle the other and followed a passage that he had not used, finding the human slumped against the wall fifty feet further down. The guard had enough strength to raise his sword to protect himself, but he could not block Salesat痴 final strike.

Dragging this guard痴 body Salesat padded back to his comrades, finding that Migar had perished from blood loss, but that the other two had stabilised. He dragged these two, down the slag heap stairs and across the lower level of the complex to the top of the stairs from the lake. He left them there for a moment to see if the statue that had previously healed them would manage to repeat its performance. Unfortunately it did nothing when Salesat touched it. After much further heaving and dragging, the litorian had manoeuvred the giant and the faen onto the raft and slowly paddled away from the complex. He made for land at the place where the path from Gahanis reached the shore, tying up the raft where they had found it and hauling the unconscious pair over into a ravine out of sight of the path and the lake. There he tended to their wounds until they were conscious again, but unable to walk. Then he left them to watch and slept.

The next morning, Voern had recovered sufficiently to heal the others somewhat. Then they rested there in the rocky defile, slowly recovering and gathering their strength. After midday, they heard the slow splashing of oars or paddles and a low murmur of conversation from the edge of the lake. Salesat risked a view of the shore and saw that a raft bearing four humans was approaching. They beached their craft and tied it up, before moving to the path and examining it. Salesat and the others kept very still, hoping that they would not be discovered. The four interlopers finished their scan of the local area and returned to their raft, but then Salesat noticed that they were taking the other one as well.

Ke-Herram and Salesat loosed a volley at the rearward of the two rafts once they were about twenty feet off the shore. One of the paddlers was injured by both Salesat痴 arrow and Ke-Herram痴. He folded over, dropping his paddle. Voern took this as a good sign and joined his comrades in missile fire, but they were largely unsuccessful this time, only scoring a minor hit on the remaining human on the rearward raft. Rather than remaining as sitting ducks, those on the rafts realised that they could not paddle out of range before they were all picked off, so they responded in kind. They picked up their own bows and fired back at the party, wounding Ke-Herram with one arrow while the rest flew wide. The bandits and the party exchanged volleys repeatedly, with those on the rafts having more success than those on the shore. Voern was the first to fall, an arrow taking him just as he was about to loose one of his own. At this Ke-Herram and Salesat hid completely behind the rocks, but this only allowed the bandits to beach their rafts and come at them from other angles. One other bandit fell before Ke-Herram and Salesat were subdued.

Salesat awoke first. He was trussed up, his wrists and ankles tightly tied together behind him, these knots being tied to each other and secured to a metal ring on the wall. Voern and Ke-Herram were similarly bound, too far from him to reach. When he realised that he could neither slip out of his bonds, nor break them, he tried to gnaw at the rope securing him to the wall. He was making some progress on this when he heard someone approaching. The human entered the room and started questioning the litorian. Salesat did not answer. His gaoler eventually resorted to a mace, bloodying Salesat痴 temple, but gaining nothing from it except his unconsciousness. When Salesat awoke his ropes had been replaced and he found that he could not twist enough to bring his teeth to bear. He started raving, calling out the name 溺eegtaraat� again and again. No appreciable response could be determined. After some time he dosed off muttering. Voern was the next to awake. He found that he could extricate himself from the clumsy human knots and soon he had freed the others. He then channelled the power of the green into his companions, awakening Ke-Herram and making Salesat lucid again.

They ventured out of the chamber and found a dead human in the passageway outside. They took what weaponry and armour that they could use and moved on. They slowly traced their way through a number of passages and chambers, discovering that they were on the same level of the complex by the lake where they had been ambushed by the archer. They picked up a hodgepodge of weaponry on their way through, finding a number of dead bandits, who looked as if they had been killed by some hideously barbed weapons. They found their first live opponent in the northwest, a twisted small human who lived near the bandits� horses. He leapt out to attack them and Ke-Herram killed him with a stroke. After this, they found large doors to the west which seemed to lead outside, an armoury, and a kitchen where they fed, quickly and without ceremony (even for Ke-Herram). They felt rather nervous about whoever had slaughtered the bandits, but determined to finish their task.