Standing in a dome shaped room covered in murals of battles long past, the party notices some strange runes on the wall.  With his patron’s gift to read all writing, Quintos notes that the runes mark the entrance to king Melinaus’ tomb. But there is no door to be found.  As they seek a way to find the door, Quintos remembers a word which was described to him as a key; Dagardanganda.  Once spoken, the door opens and the party proceeds into the tomb.

Inside, they are forced to fight a vampire, Corruptus(the ancient wizard that built the tomb), 2 gynophinxes, 2 genies, and some other creature.  Challenging as it was, the party proved to be the better team leaving only the vampire alive, who escaped because there was no sunlight or running water.  What came of him is still unknown.

And, finally, in the next room they find Melinaus’ body.  In his hands is the Tree Sword.  Upon his brow, a diadem holding another Earhjarl Stone.  As they respectfully collect them, Melinaus speaks, “Now, it is over and I can finally rest”.  Immediately, his body turns to ash. The moment is short lived because the earth begins to shake. The magic that once held this place together was gone and the entire mountain began to collapse.

The crypt fight!

Having finally escaped that “crazy clown wizard hell dungeon”, they make their way back to Mystkar to reunite with friends, loved ones, and just any form of civilization they can get their hands on.  Also, to complete a quest forced upon them by three crazy sentient weapons from the first age. Specifically, Whelm, Wave, and Blackrazor. Interestingly, Ivamel noticed that Marcus(who wields Wave), Lundie(who wields Whelm), and Quintos(who wields Blackrazor) have two shadows now.  Uncomfortable with the weapons desires, Quintos attempts to unattune to Blackrazor. But it won’t let him. Not for 11 more days. Consulting his many gods, Marcus learns that the sword’s and Quintos’ destiny are linked. It would seem that even after all that work in the dungeon that shall not be named, he still can’t use the Tree Sword.  Oh, the life of an adventurer.

Oh, there were also some jungle knolls…for a few seconds.

Gnoll attack!

Redmark Date: Third Age—April 21, 1331

The annoying halfling

The group enters a room and finds a halfling huffing a hookah. He’s chained up in a room with silky, sultan-like pillows. As the party speaks with him, he alternates between his own annoying, high-pitched voice and a crazier voice from a chromatic wizard that’s using the halfling as a medium to channel his voice and mind.

One of the party casts Zone of Truth and forces the halfling to answer questions, which reveal that he’s a lying little halfling who has set a trap for the group.

He reveals, however, that the Tree Sword, Spathixifos, is to the East and nadir.

A battle breaks out. Ghost Dancer polymorphs the halfling into a tiny snail. Stan the GM’s eyes get wide and he grins a terrible grin. He disappears to the bookshelves and returns with—a mini of a giant snail.

Before the party can finish off the snail-halfling, he turns into mist and disappears.

In the room, Quintos finds Black Razor, a sentient, soul-eating sword, under a pillow.

Into the nadir

The party goes back to the water-filled chamber they came across when they first entered this endless cavern-dungeon. They pass the gynosphinx, who is annoyed that the party isn’t dead yet.

Ghost Dancer turns into an octopus—and Marcus gets octo-curious.

They open the drain, and whoosh down stairs and into a hallway. After the water finishes draining, the rest of the party comes down, and they discover a large, oval room of murals. Murals that show an Urthjarl Stone.

Another mural shows the Tree Sword.

And then Black Razor tells Quintos that it has a quest: to go to Dassaria to the King’s throne room in Mystkar. It is there Quintos will see Black Razor’s full power.

Loot Report

• Black Razor

Nobody expects a giant snail!

Third Age—April 21, 1331

Like you’ve never seen a floating stream before…

After making it to the other end of the slippery hallway of traps, the group enters a room with a fast-moving floating stream running through it and kayaks on the floor nearby.  Taking the obvious clue, one by one we climb into stream with our flesh golem servant holding a kayak in place for us.

It’s a trap!

Enjoying the wind in our face and the spray of water, the group enjoys a short ride through a dark tunnel.  Quintos spends a short period upside down as his kayak gets flipped over but manages to right himself.

As we see light at the other end of the tunnel, we are caught in nets and pulled out of the stream by a group of human fighters waiting for us to arrive.  A battle ensues, Ghost Dancer & Quintos in the group fire off spell after spell, Lundie slams Whelm into the ground to send out a shockwave, Ivamel takes advantage of the stun from the shockwave to dispatch the leader of this group.  Lundie gets surrounded, Quintos stays inside his net, and Ghost Dancer gets surrounded as well. The battle has the group separated and this end having a devastating effect. Ghost Dancer makes a break for it past three of the fighters and each is successful in get a hit on him as he runs past.  This drops Ghost Dancer, he is down, and they are looking for blood. Lundie runs over and tries to intercept with his shield, but there are too many strikes for him to deflect. Three of the fighters kill Ghost Dancer. This rallies the group and they dispatch remaining fighters. Ivamel taking down three in one round.

Floating River Trap!

After the battle, Lundie is able to use one of Marcus’ diamonds he has, pray to Moradin for his grace on the life of Ghost Dancer, and Lundie uses Revivify on Ghost Dancer comes back to life and the group is relieved that their friend did not suffer the ultimate fate.

After the battle, Ivamel notices that the leader of the group is Sir Bluto from Stonehelm who had a price placed on his head by King Corwyn of Stonehelm.  Ivamel cuts off his head and places it in a sack to receive the reward for his capture/demise.

Quintos casts Speak with the Dead on the head of Sir Bluto and asks five questions:

1. How did he get here?
   1. Was teleported here by a wizard
2. Where does the key go?
   1. To the secret door at the south of the room
3. What is at the end of the hallway to the south?
   1. A terraced aquarium
4. What was the wizards name that teleported you here?
   1. He did not know
5. Where is the urthjarl stone that is supposed to be in this dungeon?
   1. It is in the tomb of King Melsnase
      1. Group recalls that King Melanase is from the 2nd Age and fought alongside the gnolls

Is it an aquarium?  Is it a zoo? I think it’s both.

After a short rest…

Continuing down the hallway, we enter a room that is a terraced aquarium/zoo.  One level aquarium the next level a zoo. With the bottom floor holding two Manticores.   Ivamel & Quintos shoot at these two from the top which after a few rounds cause all the glass to break which was holding in the water.  This causes a giant pool and the monsters in each level to fight each other. After the water drains, the group find a secret door with the help of Whelm, behind this door is a “safe” we think from Earth.  Ghost Dancer uses the shatter spell on it to bust the lock on the “safe”. There is loot inside!

Loot Report

• Boots of Striding & Springing from Sir Bluto – Lunde now wears these
• Key – from Sir Bluto – opens secret door out of the room he was in
• 6,000 SP from “safe”
• One diamond worth 3,000 GP from “safe”

Date: Third Age – April 20, 1331 & April 21, 1331

After dispatching (temporarily) the vampire, the party head back the way that they came. With no further places to go, they have rested and feel restored, Lundie feeling more powerful, albeit with a sentient weapon speaking to him. They pass the room with swinging platforms with ease, now knowing how to do so. Upon arriving at the one-way gate (turnstile), the party find Ghost Dancer’s axe beak missing. Realizing the dangers that could still be lurking in the water, Marcus speaks a few magical words and the party is able to then walk upon the surface of the water. They use this strategy and meander all the way to the opposite side of the mountain’s interior. They pause upon arriving in a certain hallway. As they make their way down the hallway, they note large copper-like pieces covering the walls on both sides (and the ceiling too). Moving along the hallway all of their metal items begin to heat up rapidly to the point of causing severe damage. After experimenting for a while, Marcus places all of his metal items into his tent and drags it behind him until he exits the area with the metal plates. Following suit, soon the other members of the party were through the hallway.

In this new area, as they are waiting for their items to cool down, the party are attacked by several monsters. Thinking quickly and ignoring the damage he would take, Marcus picks up his red-hot weapon and presses a button, causing a force shield to surround the group. Quintos casts a spell, summoning darkness and otherworldly tentacles to attack some automata from a side room before they could attack. Before long, the same is done on the opposite side of the room. The vampire appears again but quicky leaves before being attacked, biding his time for revenge.

Heated Hallway!

The enemies now dispatched, the group takes a few moments to finish cooling off their items and re-equip themselves. There is a hallway with a small room beyond. Inside this room there are three pieces of floor, with empty spaces sandwiched between. Sending in the golem, he quickly slips on the ground and careens into one of the pits, his skin pierced and shredded in the process. After further experimentation, a rope connected to an arrow is anchored in a door across the two pits and the party slowly work their way across.