Date: 05/29/11

XP Awarded: 9,008 (Azaad), 8,428 (Laurrens, Memnon, Taark, Tilan), 6,288 (Nather)

Start: The shrine of Demogorgon in the center of Fogmire on the Isle of Dread, Marpenoth 1369 DR.

Memnon is relieved to find that Azaad's wounds, while serious, are not fatal. Laurrens rushes up the stone stairway to apply his healing skills, while Tilan and Taark attend to the others downstairs. After several minutes of healing and cleaning, the adventurers reconvene to plot the next move. Three locked iron doors lead from the room, one on the lower level and two above. The group decide upon one of the doors on the upper level, and soon Nather has pried the lock open. The door swings open to reveal a chamber heavy with the odor of carrion and littered with piles of bones. Behind one of the piles of bones in the center of the room is curled a creature that looks like a giant undead snake, except for its rotting, human-like head and long, deadly fangs. Its eyes are strangely mesmerizing - though its form is blurred from some type of spell, the adventurers have to steel their wills to fight off the hypnotic effect. Azaad can feel a silent assault upon his mind, but his protective magicks prevent the attack from asserting control. The creature hisses "How dare you defile this most unholy sanctum! I will sacrifice your souls unto the Sibilant Beast!" and then mutters magical words of power. Electrical sparks flow over its body and coalesce into a brilliant bluish-white lightning bolt that shoots from its head into the gathered ranks of the party, scorching several members.

Memnon shouts a warning to Gaerxon to avert his eyes and follow him as they charge into the room to face the creature, striking forward blindly with spears. Tilan follows, rushing in to attack only to come up short when his eyes meet the creature's intense gaze. His sword arm falters, then drops to his side. Behind him, Nather leaps to the door and slams it shut before anyone else can enter - from the look on his face, it's apparent to the others that he's succumbed to some type of mental control. Laurrens wrestles with him for control of the door, wrenching it open once again. With a clear path to the target, Azaad launches a fiery burst at the creature that scorches its withered flesh. In retaliation the spellcaster casts another spell that summons a billowing cloud of glittering particles that engulfs Azaad and Taark, blinding the dwarf.

In the room, Tilan attempts to disarm Memnon but fails. Laurrens and Nather continue to tussle over the door while Azaad casts another spell upon a small stone chip he's picked up, creating a zone of silence that surrounds the enemy spellcaster when he throws through the open door. Memnon and Gaerxon continue their assault, doing their best to ignore Tilan's attempts at interference, but their averted eyes and the area of silence prevent them from coordinating and targeting their attacks effectively. The snake-like creature slithers to a narrow alcove on the side of the room flanked by two fountains mounted to the walls. From a vantage point outside of the silence, it casts a spell and fiery rays burst from its eyes into Memnon, scorching him. He and Gaerxon move in lockstep to box the creature into the corner, and Tilan strikes out as they move past him in an attempt to trip, but fails to catch their legs.

In the next room, Taark uses a prayer to dispel the blindness affecting him as Laurrens tears free of Nather to overrun him into the room. Taark follows, and Nather leaps from his place on the floor to try to tackle the hefty dwarf as he moves past, but fails to get a grip on the smooth plate mail armor. Realizing that the creature has escaped the area of the silence spell, Azaad uses a minor magical trick to remotely pick up the stone chip on which the spell is focused and move it closer to the target so that it's again silenced. Unable to cast additional spells within the silenced area, the snake-like opponent strikes out at Memnon, sinking long fangs deeply into his shoulder.

Taark raises his warhammer and prepares to charge into combat with the undead snake, but makes the mistake of locking eyes with it as he powers forward. A powerful wave of mental energy washes across his mind, but his church-trained inquisitorial mind shakes off the effect. Behind him Laurrens and Nather continue to wrestle, and in front of him, Gaerxon tackles Tilan in an attempt to neutralize his efforts at disrupting Memnon's offence. The two tumble silently into a pile of bones that crunch into powder and scatter across the floor. Azaad enters the room and targets the creature with a volley of force missiles, just as Memnon manages to deliver a pair of painful blows. Stung, the creature weaves its lengthy neck in an attempt to bring it's gaze attack into view of Memnon's averted eyes and succeeds - Memnon suddenly realizes with certainty that the party shouldn't be fighting this creature that could be a valuable ally, and he leaps into the tangle of arms and legs in an attempt to help Tilan get free of Gaerxon.

Taark rolls his eyes and silently mutters something about his crazy, foolish human companions. His warhammer strikes home again, powering through the shimmering displacement to land a heavy blow. Azaad launches another fiery burst against the creature, burning it and causing it to slither past Taark's hammer blows and across the room to corner him. With a gestured flick, he instantly disappears and then reappears on the other side of the room, out of its reach. Nearby, Gaerxon manages to fight off Memnon long enough to put Tilan into an immobilizing headlock. Tiring of Nather's constant but futile attempts to hinder him, Taark slams the butt of his warhammer into the human's head and he slides unconscious to the floor. Freed from wrestling with his companion, Laurrens leaps to his feet and charges across the room, swinging Errant Fang in a wide arc that severs the creature's head. As the long body collapses to the ground, the shimmering distortion falters and fails, and an illusion cloaking it's true shape vanishes. Instead of a bony, undead thing, the enemy is revealed to be a loathsome serpent with a black body banded in swaths of bright crimson.

After taking a moment to gather the last shreds of dignity from the floor, the party use healing magic to repair the worst of their wounds and begin to search the area. Another set of iron doors leads from the room, and at the bottom of the fountains is a pile of bones. One is made from copper and radiates strong magic, and at the bottom of the pile is what appears to be a heavy iron ape fist made of crude iron. The other fountain contains a pair of steel gauntlets with a crossed warhammer and longsword on the back of the right, and the scales of justice on the back of the left. Judging by the layer of muck under which they were found, the gauntlets have been stuck in the bottom of the fountain for quite a long time, though don't seem to be rusted or otherwise damaged in the slightest. Tilan recognizes the motif as symbols of Anachtyr, and wonders if these might be items holy to his faith. Slipping them on, he is delighted to find that they fit his hands perfectly.

Nather finds that the iron doors aren't locked, but are extremely heavy and difficult to move. The party work together pulling on one of the doors and it hesitantly grinds open far enough to squeeze through. Beyond is a chamber flanked by two large iron statues of hulking simian fiends, each holding out an arm missing a hand. The iron hand found at the bottom of the fountain fits perfectly onto the statue on the left. On the far side of the chamber is another set of towering iron doors, covered with images of ape demons and burning landscapes. Nather's investigation don't reveal any locks or other mechanisms for unlocking the doors, and after conferring with Azaad, they agree that the missing iron ape hand is part of a key to open the magically locked doors.

The party return to the locked door on the lower level of the room where they first appeared after travelling through the mirror. Nather pulls out his tools and gets to work, and within five minutes the door is unlocked. Inside is a short, narrow passage that culminates in a tiny chamber where the walls rise into a natural rock chimney. Five meters above there is a heavy iron grating blocking the chimney, and the chamber is a mess of bones, scraps of flesh, dried blood, tattered rags, and other things best left unmentioned. Nather pulls himself up the filthy walls to the grating, where the stench is chokingly foul-smelling and the sound of hooting baboons echoes around the evidently cavernous but pitch-black chamber above.

After reporting his findings to the rest of the group, the party return to the natural bridge arcing over the rest of the room below and investigate the last of the iron doors. This one proves to be unlocked and opens easily enough. The light from Memnon's shield reveals two lines of massive stone columns marching down the length of a tall, cathedral-like room into the darkness cloaking the far end. In the floor at the edge of the flickering light is a large rusted iron grating covering some type of pit, and a huge stone throne-like dais can dimly be made out beyond. A few wretched baboons can be seen hanging from the columns and peering angrily out from the deep shadows above, and the foul reek makes it difficult to breathe. The howling and shrieking of the baboons rapidly rises in volume as Tilan and Nather walk deeper into the room. The enraged baboons gather into a mob and drop from above to charge at the group - too many to count. As they swarm over the adventurers, it's clear that these are no normal animals - their horns, feral red eyes, and enlarged fangs mark them as fiendish creatures tinged with demonic influences. Surging past Tilan and engulfing the rest of the party, they rip and tear at every strap and pouch, bite and claw at every piece of exposed flesh, and overwhelm everyone's defenses. Even encased in a heavy suit of dwarven plate mail, Taark suffers many small wounds from their attacks that penetrate every chink in his armour. Nather, still weakened from his wounds suffered in the last battle, falls unconscious under a pile of the creatures. Tilan wades through the horde to stand over his prone form, driving the frenzied creatures back. Though the warriors swing their weapons wildly, for every baboon that is dropped or driven off, two more take its place. A fiery explosion from Azaad burns many of the baboons, and eventually their numbers are thinned enough that they are driven off, the survivors retreating into the darkness at the back of the room or scampering out the open door into the complex beyond.

With Laurrens and Taark tending to Nather's wounds, Azaad investigates the darkened rear portion of the room with Memnon and Tilan standing guard. A huge throne carved from simple stone and etched with the likeness of grinning monkey demons is pushed up against the rear wall, and Azaad's keen eyes detect faint scuff marks on the floor in front of it. Inspired by this finding, he asks Memnon and Tilan to push the heavy throne away from the wall and is rewarded with the discovery of a secret door set into the wall. Once Nather is back on his feet, Azaad opens the secret door to reveal a small room heavy with the odor of wet fur containing a pair of rusted iron chests against the far wall. Nather cautiously and methodically investigates the chests, which are decorated with depictions of horrid flames consuming the righteous. He finds a barely visible rune inscribed upon the left chest and carefully rubs out a key portion to disarm the magical trap. With the fiery threat dealt with, he opens the chest to find it empty. Having not found any such trap on the right, he's not certain whether he missed something during his investigation - he cringes the whole time he works on the lock, expecting a trap to go off any moment. With relief he hears the lock click open, and slowly opens the chest to reveal a quiver of fine arrows crafted from zalantar wood and fletched with beautiful silver feathers lying atop a deep layer of silver and gold coins. Under the quiver is a birchwood wand tipped with silver, and under the coins is a heavy iron ape paw similar to the other found at the bottom of the fountain.

The party return to the chamber containing the iron ape statues and fit the second paw onto the outstretched arm. With a deep grating sound, the pair of heavy iron doors swing open to reveal a long hall lit by flaming brands held aloft by iron ape statues placed at even intervals on either side. Each of the ape statues has its head thrown back, as if silently howling at the ceiling above. At the far end of the hall another pair of double doors, this time made from gleaming copper, stand closed. Every nerve in Nather's body screams out 'Trap!', but he steels himself and then bolts between the first pair of statues toward the copper doors. Immediately the iron statues emit a screaming howl that echoes down the hall as he runs. With any element of surprise eliminated, the rest of the party quickly follow.

The tall copper doors are decorated identically to the iron doors at the other end of the hall, but they are unlocked and easily open when Tilan pushes them. Inside is a huge chamber watched over by five hideous statues - two towering iron demonic ape statues stand on each side of the room, facing a roaring pit of fire in the room's center. On the opposite side of the firepit is an even larger stone statue possessing the stout, stylized body of an ape and two tentacles each of its arms should be. Sprouting from its shoulders are two fanged baboon heads, and the statue lords over the room atop a great dais, staring out in frozen rage. Hanging from the center of the domed ceiling some 10 meters above is a long iron chain - one end drapes to the wall on the right where it is connected to a loosened winch that is steadily playing out more chain. The other end of the chain is connected to a pair of manacles from which a naked Lirith dangles, screaming for the party's help. As the chain rolls off the winch, she plunges lower and lower toward the flaming pit below with each jerk.

Memnon leads the party's charge toward the winch to arrest Lirith's descent, but his charge is brought up short by the sudden appearance of a pouncing bar-lgura - the huge fiend that abducted Lirith from the party's camp the previous night. He slams a huge fist into Memnon's helmet, momentarily stunning the warrior and critically injuring him. The rest of the party charge toward the beast to aid their badly wounded companion, while Azaad hangs back and casts a spell to change form into a winged gargoyle. Flapping his powerful grey wings, he soars into the air and out of reach of any other demons that might appear. Nather executes a tumbling dive and roll past the demon to take up a flanking position, but the bar-lgura strikes out with a powerful fist to cuff him a glancing blow as he slides past.

Turning from Memnon and Nather, the simian fiend races through the leaping flames of the fire pit to charge Laurrens, flattening him with a overwhelming blow and carrying on to slam Taark. Memnon and Gaerxon bravely re-enter combat to inflict some deep wounds upon the bar-lgura, and Tilan charges forward to smite the demon. A brilliant white light flashes from his gauntlets as his longsword cleaves through the bar-lgura's defenses to open a long gash. Meanwhile, Nather jams the winch on the wall next to him, arresting Lirith's plunge into the licking fire below. Enraged by this, the demon charges across the room past the party's flashing blades to pounce upon Nather, critically striking him and throwing him to the floor. Tilan lunges past his companions and again there is a flash of brilliant white light as his longsword arcs down to cleave through the demon's head, slaying it. As its body collapses to the floor, it shrivels into a stinking black heap of tar-like substance that spatters and sizzles. Rushing to Nather's side, the adventurers are horrified to learn that it's too late to save him. He strives feebly to say last words to the party, but the spark of life leaves his eyes before he can speak.

Azaad flies up to rescue Lirith from the manacles from which she hangs - a spoken word is enough to shatter one of the thick iron rings that make up the chain. Gliding back to the floor, he loans his protective cloak to her to wear. The party pauses for a moment to take in Nather's death, but a sudden dimming of the room's illumination make everyone look up. Though the fire in the pit burns just as hot as before, the light it gives off seems to be steadily decreasing. Shadows lengthen across the walls, as if something large approached from a distance, blocking the light. Shadows writhe, taking on unnatural shapes as they dance across the ceiling, and the adventurers sense an awful presence - some baleful awareness - enter the room. Knowing that some great evil would soon be arriving, the adventurers bring out all the healing magic they have in an attempt to patch up the heavy wounds dealt by the bar-lgura.

A few moments later, the two-headed statue grinds into angry life. The stone tentacles shudder, then sway and writhe, and the two fanged maws snap and gnash before lifting toward the ceiling and unleashing a bone-shaking howl. A tsunami of fear washes over the party, and the adventurers are forces to summon every ounce of will to fight the overwhelming mental onslaught. A rising sense of panic shakes Azaad and Gaerxon, and they find it difficult to grasp their weapons with their trembling hands. As Memon steps forward to shield the others from its attack, Gaerxon dutifully follows and holds up his warspear in a defensive position. Swinging his warhammer, Taark also moves forward to take up a defensive position. The golem's heads turn down and focus on the warriors in front of him, and stone tentacles lash forward to strike. They wrap around Memnon and Taark, jerking them off their feet and pulling them into the creature's embrace. Laurrens and Tilan take advantage of the opening in the creature's defenses to move up and attack, but they find their weapons aren't able to effectively damage the unholy stone that forms the creature.

Taark manages to pry free from the tentacle wrapped around him and brings his hammer down upon it, but also finds himself unable to effectively damage it. Laurrens steps back to summon a ghostly greatsword to attack, hoping it may be able to pierce the creature's defenses. The tentacles that had grasped Taark now seek a new victim, and Gaerxon is snatched up into its grip. On the other side of its body, Memnon manages to get a firm grasp upon the creature's torso and leg, and applies leverage that sweeps its leg out from under its body. The whole group goes tumbling to the floor with a resounding crash, and Memnon barely avoids being crushed under the massive stone body. Frustrated and enraged, the creature again howls. This time, the fear effect is too much for Azaad to resist, and he flies out of the room and down the hall lined with iron ape statues.

Recognizing the party's dire situation, Taark brings out the large elemental gem found in Tashluta and dashes it upone the floor. The brittle gemstone shatters in an explosion of dust and shards, and as the cloud clears, a large stone humanoid shape is emerging from the floor. A towering stone figure stands before Taark, who commands it in the guttural Terran tongue, and it moves forward to strike tentacled beast. With the opponent's tentacles busy holding Memnon and Gaerxon, Laurrens steps up to stand over its body and slams his greatsword into it again and again. Chips of stone go flying, while the spiritual greatsword also seems to be affecting the writhing statue. Taark's stone elemental pounds its great fists into the statue again and again, and it's clear that it can't take much more of this punishment. Out in the hallway, Azaad's rational mind reasserts control, and he wheels around to fly back into the room to rejoin his companions - he passes the fleeing Lirith on the way.

Constricted by the encircling tentacles, Gaerxon loses his breath and passes out. Azaad returns to the room and fires a volley of magical missiles into the beast just in time to destroy it before it can finish crushing the life out of Gaerxon. As the statue crumbles into pieces, a shudder runs through the room and the oppressive aura fades. The leaping flames in the firepit lower, then die down. As Laurrens and Taark tend to everyone's wounds, Azaad searches through the room and finds a few rings, some boots, and a cloak. Bearing Nather's body, the party return to the room with the warped mirror set in an iron frame. The large pool of crimson liquid has disappeared, and the mirror's surface is a swirling vortex of darkness. One by one, the adventurers touch the mirror's surface and find themselves whisked back into the first shrine that contains two stone thrones and two iron-framed mirrors.

Curious about where the second mirror may lead, Azaad goes through the activation sequence to trigger the portal. Touching the swirling vortex, the party's wizard disappears. Concerned that he may be trapped in a dangerous situation by himself, Memnon reactivates the portal and follows. Gaerxon does the same despite Taark's warnings not to, then Laurrens follows, leaving Tilan and Taark the only two behind. The dwarf sighs exasperatedly, then proceeds to activate the portal and the last two go through.

As each of the party members travel through the gate, they find themselves back in the dual-level room lit by an indistinct red glow from above. The warped mirror in the iron frame won't activate no matter what the party does, so they split up to search the complex more thoroughly. A few hours later, they have found nothing new. Returning to the mirror, they find the surface has re-activated into a swirling vortex. One by one, the adventurers travel through the portal to the first shrine, and this time they leave the cavern complex. Exiting the dark mouth of the cave, everyone is surprised to see the tropical sun burning through the formerly impenetrable haze. Memnon leads the group back to the swampy ruins where the other shipwreck survivors had been left inside the extradimensional resting place. While they are overjoyed to see the party return with Lirith, everyone is saddened to hear about Nather's demise.

After resting overnight, the adventurers use more healing magic to restore everyone to travelling condition. Azaad also uses his magic to identify some of the magical items found in the demonic complex - the spells reveal that the gauntlets are the famous but long-lost Gauntlets of Just Sanction, a holy relic of the Anachtyrian faith. Meanwhile, Taark uses a prayer to Moradin to preserve Nather's body in case powerful magics that could restore him to life can be found in Farshore. The reunited group follow Memnon off into the bog, and soon he has picked up a soggy trail that leaves Fogmire behind.

The game trail widens into a dirt path, and after another day of travel Memnon can see that while it's poorly maintained, it's nonetheless recently used. Ulrimm expresses a cautious optimism that this is the trail leading to the friendly village of Tanaroa. Over the next few days, the temperature and humidity climb relentlessly upward. Ulrimm's spirits are high, and he resumes his incessant chattering and interest in all the flora and fauna passed along the way. Avner Merevanchi greets the prospect of returning to civilization with relish and frequently talks about the fine wines, food, and women he will soon be enjoying. The positive atmosphere is contagious, and young Tavey Nesk has become much more playful. Skipping around and picking up vines and sticks to play with, he follows Azaad around and pretends to fire off blasts of magic and fly through the air. Only Lirith is immune to the lifted spirits - she stumbles along in a half-daze, occasionally staring off into the distance and shuddering - it's clear that the trauma she suffered at the hands of the demons will stay with her for some time.

Around noon of the fifth day a towering stone wall comes into view. Enormous stone blocks are piled high upon one another without mortar, a monument to some ancient engineering genius that has long outlasted its creators. A pair of massive wooden gates seal a wide hole, and several humanoid figures are spotted moving about atop the wall. Azaad steps forward and shouts a greeting in common, displaying empty hands. The excited chatter from above filters down and it's clear that they don't understand the language. After a few minutes, another figure appears who does speak some basic common, and soon the gates open to admit the group.

Inside the gate are a group of ten spear- and machete-wielding Tabaxi who carefully inspect the party while the one who speaks common questions Azaad. He agrees to lead the group to the village of Tanaroa, and from there on toward the colony of Farshore. By late afternoon, a collection of grass huts surrounding a low stone ziggurat come into view, and the natives show the party to a large but poorly maintained hut to rest.

The next day the group is escorted along jungle paths to another village, this one on the seashore. The heat and humidity is oppressive here, and the adventurers are grateful for frequent stops for rest. The village (apparently named Mora) is laid out similarly to Tanaroa - four clusters of grass huts arranged around a central stone ziggurat - and though the natives don't speak much common, the group is made to feel welcome. The group spend the next three days resting, training, studying, praying, and giving some much-needed maintenance to equipment, armor, and weapons. Avner can't understand the delay in traveling on to Farshore, and his frequent and loud complaints disturb everyone to the point where he's eventually given his own private hut to stay in.