Date: 04/17/11

XP Awarded: None

Start: An ancient tunnel under the mountains of the Isle of Dread, early Marpenoth 1369 DR.

While Laurrens heals Ulrimm's deep wounds inflicted by the giant centipede, Memnon tries to convince the others to climb the chasm's wall in order to enter the wide crevice at the top of the cavern - nobody else seems remotely interested. Ulrimm is distraught over the loss of his precious egg, though his attitude toward the party seems to have softened due to their heroics in saving his life. Meanwhile Azaad has crossed over the stone bridge to investigate one pair of the sets of double doors in the far wall. They are made of stone, decorated with bands of geometric designs, covered in mildew, and stuck very firmly closed. He crosses the other stone bridge to the second pair of doors and finds them to be similar in appearance, and likewise wedged very tightly closed.

Lirith and Avner come down the stairs to the stone bridge and the group cross to one of the pairs of doors. Memnon pulls out a crowbar he'd salvaged from the wreckage of the Sea Wyvern and gets to work prying on the door with Gaerxon's help. Once Taark, Tilan, and Laurrens pile on, the door shudders and grinds open. Inside is a winding corridor lined with deep niches obscured by thick cobwebs. Parting the sheets of webbing, Taark sees fragments of skeletons caked in mold and fungus, rusted metal collars, iron necklaces, and crumbling burial shrouds. The walls where no niches have been carved are decorated with intricate murals of skeletal humanoids or hounds, each wreathed in a long, coiling snake. As he reaches in to touch the skeleton, the adventurers are startled by a rattling sound as several mummified figures climb out of their resting places to surround the party, swathed in tattered burial shrouds and wearing necklaces formed of thick gold plates. The sheer horror of their appearance washes over the adventurers like a wave, and Ulrimm is rooted by fear to the floor in front of the party.

Gaerxon and Memnon quickly assume a defensive position to face the one directly in front of them. Azaad has just enough room to blast it with a gout of fire - the dry and dusty burial shroud quickly disintegrates. Seeing the effectiveness of fire, Taark prays for Moradin's holy flames to wreathe the party in a protective curtain, and a wall of fire springs up to separate Ulrimm from the attacking mummies. Undeterred, the undead guardians continue to assault the terrified gnome through the sheet of flame, though their arms quickly char and are destroyed. Their scorched bodies topple to the ground, but behind him Laurrens and Tilan are locked in a deadly combat with another. Lirith wheels Thunderstrike around and leads the terrified horse back over the stone bridge behind Avner and Tavey. Taark enters the battle with the mummy behind the party, and soon the combined blows from Tilan, Laurrens, and Taark have reduced it to shattered bones. With Azaad's help, Gaerxon and Memnon finish off the mummy pressing them, but the contents of the burial niches are now ablaze, and the burial chamber is quickly filling with heavy, oily smoke.

Grabbing the two golden necklaces on this side of the wall of fire, the group rush out from the crypt out onto the stone bridge. Walking around to the other bridge to the second pair of stone doors, Memnon and the others again use the crowbar to pry the heavy doors open. Inside is an open chamber with sparse decorative carvings on the wall. Light from Memnon's shield illuminate the far corner where the walls have crumbed and the floor subsided to create a stagnant pool of water, its surface calm, dark and mysterious. A few loose stones and shards of rotted wood litter the floor. Azaad moves to the edge of the pool and leans over to peer in, but the inky black water seems impenetrable to light. Memnon holds his shield in front, the magical flames dancing across the shining metal, and strides boldly into the surprisingly cold water, doru tapping the floor to feel for any sudden drop-offs. He turns around to grin at the others, showing them that there's nothing to be afraid of, but is mystified by their expressions of shock and horror, looking at something above and behind him. He spins around just in time to see the inky black water swelling into an amorphous shape, dripping pseudopods extending toward him hungrily.

Memnon dodges the ponderously moving ooze and retreats, leaving a surprised Azaad vulnerable at the water's edge. Taark recognizes the creature from his time with the cavern guard in the subterranean dwarven citadel of Iltkazar - he warns the others that it's a black pudding and is extremely corrosive to just about anything other than stone. Fearing for their valuable weapons and armor, the adventurers stumble back from the advancing ooze. Laurrens lets the others fall back behind him before he blasts a gout of flame from his mouth - the black ooze splatters and hisses as the flames wash over it, but it continues to advance. It lashes out with feeler to strike Azaad, and his robes disintegrate where the ooze touches him, leaving painful burns. The feeler wraps around the mage and jerks him off his feet, depositing him into the center of the blob where he is enveloped, feeling like every square inch of his flesh is on fire.

Body screaming out in agony, Azaad summons every last bit of willpower to concentrate on the magic spell that will whisk him to safety - he manages to complete the spell through teeth gritted against the pain, and almost collapses onto the stone floor when he reappears next to Memnon. Gaerxon and Memnon step forward to guard the weakened mage, spears held up in a defensive position to ward off the creature's lengthy pseudopods. Behind them, Tilan continues to fire arrows from his longbow, but the missiles seem to simply dissolve as they sink into the black goo. Taark grabs a flask of alchemist's fire from his belt and lobs it onto the floor directly in front of the creature - the vial shatters and the burning liquid splatters all over the creature. Oblivious to the fire, it continues to roll forward over the broken glass and flames. Stowing his valuable doru, Memnon draws a fine longsword salvaged from the wreckage of the Sea Wyvern and strikes with a powerful overhead swing - the blow momentarily sends the ooze backwards and a wide gash opens in its face.

To everyone's horror, the gash continues to widen as the creature splits into two smaller oozes, which both lurch forward to continue the attack. Azaad looses a blast of flame that singes them while Taark uses his magic to envelope a throwing hammer in flame, but the hammer also seems to be dissolved upon striking one of the smaller oozes. It retaliates by ramming its bulk straight into him, but Taark rolls at the last second and his ragged cape is dissolved instead of his meticulously maintained armor. Panicked, the dwarf immediately shifts into full defensive mode. Everyone draws the last vials of their alchemist's fire to toss onto the squirming blobs while Azaad and Laurrens continue to unleash more blasts of fire upon them. When the first is reduces to a smoking sludge a cheer goes up from the adventurers, and a few moments later the second is likewise incinerated. Everyone stops to catch breaths and take stock of their equipment, and Memnon again strides into the darkened pool to search. His probing reveals nothing, and the group turn their attention to another pair of solid but undecorated stone doors that leads from the room.

Azaad attempts to hear any noise beyond them, but the adventurers make too much noise to hear anything. The doors are pushed open with the sound of grinding stone to reveal a chamber with two gigantic iron doors standing closed to the right. Their surfaces are decorated with symbols of water and sealife in tarnished copper. On the opposite side of the chamber is a pair of pedestals, one carved from a dusky red granite and the other crafted of light blue marble, each with a peculiar notch cut into the side. Noticing that the colour of the stone looks familiar, Taark finds that the red stone rod recovered from the first pool fits into the notch snugly. He attempts to use the rod as a lever or handle to shift the pedestal, but it feels very firmly stuck in place. On the far side of the chamber from the entrance are another pair of double doors - these are decorated with skeletal humanoids and hounds entertwined with long snakes.

Once opened, a trickle of oily smoke seeps out along the ceiling. A twisting hallway lined with dusty and cobwebbed niches winds around to the right, though it doesn't seem to be damaged by fire. Cautiously proceeding, this time careful not to disturb any of the niches, the adventurers follow the winding and forking passage. It's found to connect up to the other entrance, where the walls and contents of the burial niches are all heavily charred and soot covered from the flames. Fortunately, the fire didn't spread too deeply into the burial complex, but the two golden necklaces worn by the incinerated mummies are partially melted. After completing almost a full circuit of the winding burial passages, Taark notices that the back wall of one of the numerous alcoves looks offset to the surrounding stone. Taking a closer look, his keen darkvision picks out the outline of a door. Azaad confirms that the niches are fake, and finds a catch that seems to be linked to the portal. Triggering the catch, there is a muffled thunk and the section of wall shudders slightly. Taark pushes forward, and it swings open ponderously to grant access to a small crypt dominated by a large stone sarcophagus. Both the walls and the sarcophagus itself are covered in intricate decorative patterns and carvings of animals. The top of the sarcophagus depicts a man dressed in robes, wearing a feathered headdress, clutching a stone rod in one hand and a jambiya-like dagger in the other. The stone rod looks similar to the red one carried by Taark, so the party gets ready to push open the sarcophagus before Azaad reminds them to let him search it for dangerous traps or wards first. Once he's looked it over and declared it safe, the warriors line up on one side of the heavy lid and push.

Immediately the small chamber is filled with the sound of wooshing air and sprays of dirt and dust as scores of iron spears lance out of hidden holes in the ground. Everyone is skewered by at least one of the spikes, but fortunately nobody is critically injured. Carefully moving around the iron spears, the party manage to get the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a skeletal corpse holding a blue stone rod and a still-shiny jambiya in crossed arms. A heavy gold medallion inset with a shining pink pearl that almost seems to give off flashes of internal light rests aroudn his neck - Taark isn't too gentle when he picks it up.

Returning to the chamber with the pedestals and iron doors, the adventurers slot the stone rods into the fitted grooves. Using the rods as handles to rotate the pedestals, the doors open with a screech of protest, flooding the chamber with fresh salt air from the world outside. Beyond the doors is a broad set of seaweed-choked stairs that leads down to a small beach that's illuminated by sunlight that feels amazingly bright. The bottom step is under a looming cliff high above, but affords a view over a long, narrow bay that stretches directly into the sun that's nearing the horizon. A shallow tide pool lies to the right of the steps, between two much deeper pools of water, and on the other side of the pool a weathered stone road emerges from the water to wind along the cliffs that line the bay's northern shore.

After bringing Thunderstrike, Avener, Lirith and Ulrimm through the complex to the room at the top of the steps, Memnon leads the adventurers into the tidal pool to scout a safe way across. His motion through the waters attracts unwanted attention, though - Azaad shouts a warning when he sees a large, dark shape moving through one of the deep pools toward his companion. The surface of the ocean explodes as the top of an enormous crab emerges, pincers snapping madly. Memnon's maneuverability is severely limited by the waist-deep water, but he does avoid the crab's pincer by a whisker. Two other giant crabs also move to attack the Ithakan, though they are merely wolf-sized instead of the moose-sized crab that first appeared. Tilan sees another huge crab approaching from the other deep tidal pool and wades into the water to prevent Memnon from being surrounded. Laurrens unsheathes Errant Fang and charges into the water, driving the greatsword into one of the smaller crabs and skewering it.

As the second enormous crab emerges from the water, it siezes Tilan in one of its huge pincers and tries to crush him. The paladin is able to wriggle free with the help of a timely hammer blow from Taark, though he is now madly trying to keep his head above water in his heavy suit of metal plate mail. With Gaerxon's help, Memnon slays the other of the smaller crabs, and again twists at the last moment to avoid being grabbed by the huge crab's pincer. Taark grabs Tilan's flailing hand and pulls him to the relative safety of the shallow tide pool, just as the second huge crab snags Laurren's armor and pulls him into its pincer. Just as Memnon is about to be drawn into the pincer of the other, he drives his doru into the base of one of the waving eyestalks and the creature shudders and then slips below the waves. Behind him, Taark and Tilan are inflicting heavy damage on the crab holding Laurrens underwater. They finally destroy it, and Laurrens sinks to the bottom of the deep tide pool. Taking his time, he plods his way up the steep slope to shallower water to rejoin the others.

With the path across the tide pool now safe, the band wade to the other side and head up the steep road carved into the side of the cliff. It's obviously very old, though it seems to have been crudely repaired in some places. Lirith's spirits are lifted by being outdoors under the sun, and even Thunderstrike seems less jumpy than earlier. Tavey Nesk is having a good time, running ahead of the party and showing Azaad how brave he is by performing acrobatics dangerously near to the sheer dropoff lining one of the road's edges. As the sun sinks into the calm bay, the party find a wide section of the road to set up a makeshift camp. On the left of the road is a 20 meter drop to the pounding surf, while to the right of the road is an almost vertical cliff at least 30 meters high. It seems a defensible location, and much more pleasant than the previous night due to a lack of insects. Setting a watch on either end of the encampment, the others bed down for the night.

It's a clear night, with only a few wispy clouds intermittently blocking view of a waxing Selūne trailed by the sparkling lights of the Tears of Selūne. By the time Tilan and Taark are on watch, it's been a quiet and peaceful night. All this changes when the campsite is suddenly plunged into a darkness that even Taark's darkvision can't pierce. The two guards yell out a warning in order to wake up the others, fearing an attack is imminent, and the night's silence is shattered by startled and confused shouts. Taark cautiously crawls to feel his way to the cliff face lining the road and stumbles along it, eventually emerging from a globe of darkness that cuts across the road like a wall. He shouts instructions to Tilan to do the same on the far side of the encampment and scans for threats, but sees nothing apart from some started seabirds. He can hear Tilan shout that it's clear on his side as well, and the two stand guard while the others grab their equipment and stumble out of the darkness, being careful to avoid the sheer drop along one side of the road. Once everyone has emerged from the darkness, the group discuss what's happened. Azaad believes it is a darkness spell, similar to magical light spells that he knows, and that it should wear off within a few hours or less.

Everyone decides that's far too long to listen to Avner complain, so they set about moving the encampment down the road a distance to a new site, and within an hour everyone has bedded down again. Tilan and Taark remain alert, and notice that the globe of darkness surrounding the first campsite disappears after an hour. Only a few minutes later the second campsite is also plunged into darkness, and this time Taark's alert ears hear a clatter that sounds almost like a kicked rock or pebble. This time the two guards don't immediately wake everyone, but move out of the darkness to keep watch. About twenty minutes later they hear Lirith's scream ring out from the darkness, but quickly learn that she's startled because she thinks the camp is under attack. After explaining that the darkness has reappeared but that there's no attack, Lirith calms down. Unfortunately, Avner is now excited about the possibility of another attack and refuses to bed down inside the darkened area. After a futile attempt at reasoning with the stubborn noble, he moves his bedroll down the path to another area and is soon followed by Ulrimm, Tavey, and Lirith.

The next morning dawns clear and bright without any further nighttime incidents, though everyone is a little crabby from the several interruptions to their rest. Breakfast is the last of the food salvaged from the ship's wreckage, though Taark says he can use Moradin's power to create nourishing meals for everyone. Travel along the road is swift, and gusty sea breezes help keep the travellers cool under the harsh sun. The seacliffs are much dryer and more sparsely vegetated than the jungles beyond the mountain range, though small waterfalls and rivulets are common. Below, dark series of rugged sea stacks march into the ocean and heavy swells crash violently against them. Throughout the day the road winds along the edge of the bay, sometimes descending to cross beaches covered in fine, light-coloured sand and at other times soaring more than 60 meters above the ocean's rough surface. Though it was once a magnificent route, in places it's now badly eroded to only 3 meters wide. In the early afternoon a group of heavy clouds appear over the top of the mountains, and within minutes the group is caught in a heavy downpour. Sheets of water cascade down the cliffs onto the road, and there's no cover to be sought. Just as suddenly as it started the rain thins out and stops, and half an hour later the sun is again shining down on the puddles covering the road.

As the sun sinks to the horizon the road again descends to meet the ocean, and the adventurers see a building standing on the beach ahead. Closer investigation reveals that it's been abandoned for some time and the roof has collapsed. On the far side is an outrigger canoe, but it is also very old and the bottom has rotted out. Still, it's the closest thing to shelter the party has seen all day, so they set up a campsite next to the hut and start the nightly watch schedule.

Fortunately this night passes much more quietly than the previous, and everyone wakes up well rested and refreshed the next morning. The group has been making such good time along the road that everyone's spirits are high, and Avner continues to talk about what great stories he'll have to impress everyone with his bravery and heroicism once he reaches Farshore. However as soon as the group breaks camp and starts up the road again, they run into a disturbing sight. A dozen bird carcasses are arranged across the road just out of view from the campsite. Each is tied, wings outstretched and head to the ground, onto an X-shaped frame made of sticks. Lirith and Avner are clearly horrified, and Tavey clings to Azaad's ragged robes in fear. Uncertain of what this symbol means, the party is careful to not disturb them while circumnavigating the site. Although travel up the road is quick and the weather fine, the group's high spirits are clearly dashed.

The road climbs higher up the cliffs, which become more sheer - sometimes it almost seems that the road juts out into open air overlooking the gulf. The adventurers become aware of flying shapes high overhead, but they never approach closely enough to make out their size or shape. The party is discussing when to stop for a lunch break when a gravelly shriek rings out from a small ledge high overhead and in front of the party's position. Two grotesque, winged humanoids with horned heads and stony hides covered in geometric sigils launch themselves from the ledge and swoop toward the road below. Two more of the creatures dive at the center of the column from an unnoticed ledge directly above. Azaad shouts out a warning that they are gargoyles - hateful creatures that can only be wounded by enchanted weapons. As the first two come with range of the warriors at the head of the column, they are quickly cut down by flashing blades. The sigils decorating their wings flash with an eerie green light as they plummet toward the sea far below. The other two make half-hearted attempts at raking the party as they wing past, but seeing the fate of their companions seems to have taken their bloodlust. They wheel around to head out over the bay, one of them carrying a deep wound from Errant Fang as a reminder. Taark isn't finished yet, and uses a spell to summon a magical warhammer that strikes down the wounded one - it plummets into the ocean like a stone. Before his hammer can refocus on the last target, the gargoyle is well beyond the range of the spell.

Heartened by the ease with which they were driven off, the group continue up the road before stopping for a break. Later in the afternoon, another powerful thunderstorm washes the cliffside road with driving sheets of rain. Afraid that the violent weather might cause some kind of rockfall or landslide, the party stops and attempt to press themselves against the cliffside to avoid being buffeted by the strong gusts of wind. The storm is as brief as it is powerful, and the clouds part before long allowing the sun through to dry everyone. Just two hours later, the expedition reaches a high, gently sloping clifftop ledge that would make a good area for resting. In the last rays of daylight, the adventurers set up a campsite and sit down for another dinner of Taark's nutritious but flavourless gruel. After dinner, Azaad uses his magic to create a portal to a pocket dimension - Lirith and the others climb a rope to enter the hidden resting place while the first two guards of the night take their watch.