Date: 6/1/05

XP Awarded: 2,300 (to 7th level characters), 1,800 (to 8th level characters)

Start: The Evermoors, late Eleasis

As Iax looks through the possessions of the giants and humans slain in the foggy battle, Theodar interrogates the captured priest of Shar. He reveals his name is Radigirst and claims that his companions were attacking the party because they thought they were allied with the giants. He says that they were in the Evermoors looking for treasure and trying to avoid any giants, especially the giant stronghold to the west. The party decides to bring him along as a guide, promising to release him once they reach the stronghold.

After traveling through a foggy landscape for the rest of the day, Iax finds a sheltered hollow in a low ridge where the party sets up camp. Just as Fei is getting ready to relieve Iax and Vladek from watch at midnight, he hears the captured priest of Shar praying or muttering to himself, and the guards hear someone approaching in the darkness outside the hollow. As the figures get closer, the adventurers can see that they are quick-moving dwarven corpses surrounded by wisps of a greenish fog. Iax charges to intercept the creatures from approaching the campsite, but a few slip past as the others surround him to attack. Vladek flies over to blast them with bolts of eldritch magic, and Celowin’s arrows bring one down as it approaches the mouth of the hollow. Iax’s mighty pick cuts through the undead, making quick work, but their bony claws inflict unhealthy wounds on him. Awoken by Fei, Theodar heads toward the zombie to cut it off from the others in the hollow, and Fei summons a lantern archon that fires beams of light into the zombie, burning its dry flesh. Eventually all the zombies are brought down, and Iax finds a magical golden ring on one. Theodar uses his holy powers of healing to cure Iax of the filth festering in his wounds. No more undead are in the area, so the group settles down into its usual watch again.

The next morning, Iax finds the zombies tracks easily enough, and the party decides to investigate where the undead came from. The tracks seem to wander the area, then cut in a straight line for the party’s location. The origin of their tracks proves to be a low tunnel entrance into a rocky spur that looks like a dwarven tomb. After another debate, the group leaves their horses and the prisoner outside under the care of Theodar’s magical mount, and cautiously enter the foreboding crypt.

The entrance hall is short, forcing Vladek to duck as he hovers down the passage. Inside, the group finds a disarmed trap, cautiously picking their way around a huge stone block poised to fall over a pressure plate that wouldn’t have been noticeable without the iron spike driven into it. Further in is an irregularly shaped room with a large stone statue of Moradin and two exits. Proceeding to the right, the group finds an old shrine to the dwarven pantheon that has a cloth draped over it with the unholy symbol of Myrkul. Sweeping the cloth away and taking the small silver sickle, the party cleans up the area. Nearby they find a room with a single bedroll, though they can’t tell how long it has been there.

Further down the other passage the party finds a deep pit trap, again disabled. Edging along a narrow ledge to pass it, the adventurers see the passage split. To the left is a long room with a taller ceiling, which has one long wall covered in a finely chiseled map of a range of mountains. To the right is a long hallway that opens into a large decorated hall. As Theodar advances into the room, he triggers a magical rune that sets off a fiery explosion.

As soon as the thunderous roar subsides, the adventurers hear spellcasting coming from another smaller room off the large hall. Iax runs forward and finds a priest of Myrkul with two spectral dwarves, which disappear into the walls before the other party members enter. Theodar rushes in to help Iax corner the cleric just as he launches a crackling bolt of black power into Iax’s chest, sapping him of his strength. Vladek flies into the room through the narrow entrance tunnel and hits the armored figure with a blast of energy just as Celowin stops to fire a silvery bolt of energy from his bow at the room’s entrance. The two hidden dwarven specters emerge from the solid stone and attack Celowin and Vladek, draining some of their life away with their supernaturally cold touch. Fei fires a burst of force bolts from his wand that hit one of the spectral dwarves attacking Celowin, and it spins to fly towards the mage. Vladek backpedals from the ghostly undead, firing a bolt of energy that passes through it without effect. Celowin drops his bow and draws Oromieva to attack, now glowing with a white light. Theodar pauses to enchant his longsword with the holy power of Tyr while Iax lands a solid blow on the priest. The priest fires a beam of hot, white light into Iax, wounding him just as the spectre that had attacked Vladek hits Celowin with another deadly draining attack before it disappears into the wall. Celowin gets in a solid blow with Oromieva as the other spectre rushes towards Fei, who dodges out of the way just in time. Iax slays the priest of Myrkul with his stone pick just before he is about to start another wicked incantation. The spectre in the wall emerges to attack Celowin again, but Theodar cuts it down with his holy longsword before it reaches him. Another burst of force bolts from Fei destroys the spectre threatening him, and the party turns its attention to the wounded. Vladek finds a couple scrolls on the priests body and gives them to Theodar who uses them to restore Celowin’s and Vladek’s drained energy, but he is not able to do anything for Iax.

The party returns to the surface to rest for the day, and Theodar spends several hours making careful notes from the large map on one of the walls in the crypt. By the evening, Iax is feeling well enough to explore further, and the party returns to the large hall with a set of stairs that lead down into darkness. Proceeding cautiously, the group finds a narrow hall lined with alcoves filled with the stone statues of dwarves. The first pair of alcoves is empty, and the shattered pieces of a stone statue litter the floor at the base of the stairs. Vladek detects a magical field covering the area and suspects a trap. Theodar gathers his courage and steps forward cautiously, but no trap is triggered, and he approaches the arched doorway at the end of the hall. Inside is a long, dark room that stretches beyond the limit of his torchlight, but Iax says he sees a large stone sarcophagus on a platform at the other end of the room. Edging forward, Iax calls out to the rest of the group that the lid of the sarcophagus is shaped in the form of a well-armored dwarf battle-maiden clasping a well-made warhammer etched with an eye and is labeled ‘Here lies Tolantra, bearer of Vitaligence’. A heated debate arises whether the burial chamber should be disturbed. In the end, Vladek and Iax use his pick to lift the lid to peek inside, where they see an old dwarven skeleton encased in a golden-hued suit of full plate armor, clasping a warhammer on its chest that matches the one engraved into the lid. Vladek snakes his hand inside and retrieves the warhammer, which is made of an unusual silvery-grey metal that is surprisingly warm to the touch. The adventurers then go back and carefully remove the plate armor from the skeletal figure, though it is damaged in the process. After sealing the sarcophagus back up, the group returns to the surface and travels a half-hour from the tomb before making camp again.

The next morning dawns foggy and cool, and Iax leads the party for several hours to the west before they crest a stony ridge and spot what appears to be a stone castle on another hilltop a few miles to the west. The prisoner says that it is the giant’s stronghold, and although the distance is great, the elves keen eyes detect moving shapes that must be very large to be seen at this distance.