Into Awsland

 

Hati felt indebted to the group that came by to rescue him from the Kobolds.  What they had said to him with that strange yipping and snarling that they called a language was lost on him, but by the cruel tightening of ropes and the pain that they sent him it was clear that the message would soon end in sport he did not see from his clan of wolves.  The clean air, crisper than the previous few green moons had been, but not beyond the home he had known in the mountains.  The tall elf, taller than the snowy grey skinned elves of the mountain passes, took the lead when scouting.  She nearly disappeared in the grass when she moved, her long recurve bow made from lowlander woods and the bones of strange beasts was taller than him by half, it and her gone when she wanted to go ahead.  The black cat that had attacked with the savageness he was used to from mountain cats was beside him at a weary distance, clearly she recognized him as superior, or she was just waiting for the right time to fight him for dominance.  The noisy moving metal clad dwarf was alike all his kind except that he carried a large weapon of odd shape called a Boom stick, with the love that he had seen in a mother’s eyes.  He was always chinking and clanking about.  He was also slow, but he carried a noticeably big axe, almost as big as his hammer.  The other one was very odd.  She was dressed in white and sashayed as if there was no worry in the world, but she stuck close to Monk and the Fighter and held her nose when the wind shifted and blew his scent towards her.  She was cleaner than a half-drowned wolf with its inner hairs soaked.  There was a building in the distance they headed towards; it had a roof made of reflected sunlight, that metal called gold. 

The wall posed no obstacle for the party.  It was low and eroded badly over the years, many places the wall was completely gone, but the was an aura that over hang they entire region that spoke of troubling danger:  the grounds had been abandoned for a thousand years, but the grounds were manicured, the trees shaped, the grass evenly short.  The grave markers were cleared of lichen and moss, they were even polished.  In the distant, beyond the building there were even signs of disturbed soil of new graves.  Troubling.

As they approached the building in the center of the grounds, the reason and cause of the maintained grounds became clear, work gangs of skeletons with lawns and garden tools.  The gangs were oblivious to the party except when they tried to engage them with their weapons.  When that happened, the skeletons then tried to manicure the party into the likeness of burial corpses.  Upon reaching the center they found the entrances well guarded with undead skeletons with polearms and ornate plate-mail.  The decision was made to look in the top by the Tabaxi slave, probably hoping that the gold top was solid as opposed to just leaf.  The top was indeed leaf, but the slope was gentle enough to climb and at the apex, there was a crystal dome, clear but beneath the darkness did not give up any secrets from within.  Keylesh had begun scratching at the top to see if she could get in faster, but to no avail, indeed she was wearing her claws down faster than anything.  The Barbarian climbed up beside her and she indicated that she wanted in.  The dwarf asked if he should use hi blasting powder, saying it would make a lot noise, but should break the glass.  The barbarian hefted his hammer and brought it down on the crystal top.  The hammer quivered and shook his arm, the glass held tight but gave a little “chink”, from the impact.  The barbarian lifted his hammer up and smashed it down a few times in quick succession and was rewarded a little with a spiderweb of cracks over the surface of the glass, but nothing else.  One last hit and the 10’ diameter lens of glass shattered and came down, and the people still standing on it leapt free before they tumbled down into the darkness. 

The fivesome stood at the edge and looked down.  The light from the suns played on the wall, a narrow oval of light, indented with the shadows of the party, but nothing else was revealed until the dwarf unburdened himself of a torch and lit it and dropped it down.  The flame as it fell illuminated a small radius of the room and hundreds of skeletons watched the torch fall and gutter on the ground.  The barbarian muttered, “I can take them,” and looked to the rest of the party.  Tiara and Olrick looked down into the mass of undead.  Keylesh was already sliding down the dome and leaping the last bit to land on all fours and beating a hasty retreat.  The rest looked around and as if understanding the danger all those undead might mean, slid after her to the ground.  Sure, he could take them, but if they were not in danger, then saving them was not an option this time.  He too made his own retreat. 

The windswept ruins were dangerous with their hidden dangers from the past, a temple filled to the brim with undead and at the core, from the interrogations of the Goblin, a forward base of the Kobolds.  Lots of activity and lots of silence too.  The major storm to the North and the South still brewed on the horizons and the grey skies overhead dropped an occasional flake of snow.  Tiara was often accused of not looking in the right direction, not paying the slightest attention of where they were headed, and by her parents of having her head in the clouds.  Today was no different.  She had stubbed her toe efficiently a few times this day already, not when they were on the road, but crossing the distance between the road and the set of structures that was still intact outside the city core.  The road had been not what she would have called a road.  There were no cobblestones and there was no track, it was dry and slightly higher than the ground around it and straight.  That was the main thing straight and wit few obstructions and no half-buried walls.  Like this wall.  It was mostly covered with grass and a deep cushion of moss and when she walked on it, she stumbled and nearly tripped, wind milling her arms to maintain her balance.  When she recovered, she stopped to regain her breath and wits.  The foul-smelling barbarian that they picked up this morning was watching her like he thought she was a new animal and was not sure she was food or not.  There was a glint over his shoulder and well beyond him and she studied it before casting her eyes around to see if anyone else had seen it.  They were watching their feet and where they were walking.  She announced her find to the Party.

Keylesh bounded from the perch she was standing on and landed on a nearby crop of broken ruin that made up this field.  She was preparing for the next pounce, the game that she played in this boring place when Tiara, gasped, “Look at that, it’s a flying yellow bird like an eagle.”  Keylesh, eagles were nothing to, get excited about and Tiara should have been paying attention to where she was walking and not to the sky, she was going to get herself more than a skinned knee if she were not more careful.  Keylesh stood and looked.  Olrick, stammered, “That does not have the look of any eagle I have seen, Lass.”  

Keylesh stooped and stared.  Nerwen muttered, “Dragon, Plains Dragon,” then with urgency, “Run Tiara, it is a dragon!”  Nerwen turned and started to run, she stopped and pointed, “Make for that wall and we can hide or make defense.”  Keylesh looked, it was not far, but the Dragon was moving fast, and Tiara was still looking at the dragon.  Tiara turned and started to run.  The bulky barbarian looked like he could run faster but was looking like he would sacrifice himself to repay his silly and useless honour for rescuing him this morning.  Let him.  She turned to sprint, using all fours to close the distance before the rest.  Nerwen arrived shortly after her and the dwarf, the slowest member of the group was next.  Tiara was moving slowly.  The Dragon was moving in a erratic weaving pattern as if hoping to scare prey into revealing themselves to it.  Bonus, that meant it had yet to see them.  Tiara tripped and fell flat on the ground, her white cloak fanning out around her, Keylesh closed her eyes and spared a prayer to Rassel, the Goddess of Slaves, there was more than one way to be delivered from chains in this world, but if you believed the stories, those that die in chains live out their afterlife in chains as well.  She steeled herself to fight.  Hati leapt over the wall and deposited the terrified Half-Elf at his feet.  The large shape of the Yellow dragon flew over the wall, motion slowed to give the impression that the dragon was much bigger than it appeared.  Keylesh held her breath waiting for it to return. 

Nerwen climbed to the top of the crumbling wall and looked.  “it did not see us,” and she hopped down, “it was a small dragon in any case.”  She motioned us to continue after we all took a breather.  The Suns were starting to set, and it would be night in a few hours. 

There was a low wall around the group of buildings, at least there was where they chose to break in.  the wall was only a few feet high and Keylesh was able to bound easily over it.  There were a series of sharp looking rusted points protruding from the top, rusted with age to the point that they had no point.  Tiara was not going to be able to climb or jump the wall and she looked a little left behind until she walked along the wall’s edge for a few dozen feet and found a break in it.  She made her way to where the man dressed like a wild animal was sliding over the wall and waited.  As if caught in some embarrassing position the animal tried to look like he only climbed the wall to retrieve one of the spikes.  Cautious of ruins, you decided to make a circuit of the buildings and wall to see if there was a sign of what lived here or even if anything lived here.  To yourself, you needed the time away from these people who seemed to want to get eaten by that dragon.  Sure, you and they might have been able to defeat it, but at what cost, better to be cautious.  The side that you approached the buildings seemed to be the correct side to approach from; there were some large stands of trees inside the walls, which told you many things that you doubt any of the rest had thought.  No grazer had come within here to eat the saplings down, which meant something would be here that would frighten them away.  After your circuit you were not able to find anything out of the ordinary, but you did have a mental map of everything within.  There were five buildings, one central building that rose seventy-five feet.  By the windows, each of the stories was fifteen feet tall and these buildings had been looted sometime in the past; the main doors for the building had been broken open.  The out buildings were identical in appearance, they all had a door facing away from the main building and each was forty-five feet tall and had a walkway/bridge from there second storey to the main building and that ended in a closed door.  Two if the walkways had collapsed.  Ivy had climbed each of the buildings past the third storey.  You returned to the group and relayed your findings. 

The forest is creepy.  The wood is young, no more than a century old and probably less.  But the feel of this space is that it is theirs and they own the space.  The wind is absent in their branches, but it feels that they wind is talking in their upper boughs.  A creak here and there and the sound of a branch falling, large branches falling just after they move through a glade.  The hackles are raised on the back of Keylesh’s neck before you and you can sense that she is more than a little put out.  If she feels put out, then you feel slightly terrified, slightly, only slightly and nothing you would give voice.  The hairs at the nape of you neck through your bushy beard are standing on end.  Tiara is the only one that is unphased and whether that is because she lacks the sense to be bothered or because she is so good at keeping it in.  You stumble and sprawl upon the ground, the root that snagged your foot was not there when you stepped.  At a gesture and a word your battle-axe is in your hand and you have brought it down upon the root in anger.  Snap.  It is the birds you realise, there are no birds.  There is a creak and you instinctually roll, a branch of dead wood falls where you lay on the ground.  Your axe is wet with tree root sap.

Most of your life you were a play thing of that bastard noble family in Trandle’s Stand, first a plaything for the children then a pet, but after that time you cut the master with your claws, you were longer his play thing and had to work in the quarry.  You missed the warm fire, but nothing else.  The quarry was more honest.  Not this though, nothing is right here.  There are no trees on the plain and none in the town.  Here it feels that you do not belong here, and the trees do not want you here.  Unwelcome.  You have never felt more unwelcome in this forest than anywhere else.  That is a lot from a slave to say that they feel unwelcome.  The edge is near.  The copse of trees ends and the openness where dragons can see you back.  You turn to encourage the rest forward.  You see them attacking one of the trees with hammers and axes, the dwarf pinned to the ground by a huge taproot and a branch sweeping low to knock the cleric sprawling.  You crouch and spring, race across the leaf litter to pounce upon the tree, slashing with your claws.  The Dwarf is freed, and he rises and hacks at the tree with two hurried swings.  The barbarian and axe in each hand swings down and wood chips fly, the Cleric raises her mace high as it fills with light and she smites the tree.  There is a crack and the tree falters, and falls crashing to the forest floor, then there is silence, a pregnant pause in the action daring the group to stay just a little while longer . . .. 

Panting the party arrives at the bottom of the closest outbuilding at the door.  Keylesh feeling that the obvious direction is the dangerous direction scales the wall of the building easily and holds out her hand to Nerwen, in hopes that two from the second level can attack what ever is in this tower from above when it attacks the three entering from the ground floor.  Nerwen however is not used to climbing and the ivy breaks and peels away from the side of the building in one large mat.  Keylesh motions to the rest to head in and she will take on the foe as sole ambusher. 

Hati, looks up and thinks, I do not see any evidence that there is a threat in this building.  He and the dwarf approach the door.  It is unlocked, but the wood has swollen up in the thousand years that is saw regular use and has welded itself to the frame.  Perhaps the cat had a useful idea, when they open this door it will make a lot of noise.  Keylesh was already waiting at the top of the ruined walkway door, looking across to the main building.  The door does not budge with a gentle push.  Hati backs up and rushes turning at the last second to take the door and door frame with his shoulder.  It shatters as if it were made of fine china that he had encountered once years ago.

The loud noise was the perfect time for Keylesh to push open her door.  The great creak she heard she felt was obscured by the exploding door.  Her door was stuck partially open and partial closed, but it would be enough for here to slip in if she heard combat.  From her spot she could see light streaming in from the ground floor.  She waited and listened.  There was talking from below and there was another sound from above.  Keylesh tensed and decided against warning her comrades.  There were four of them and one of her, she did not want to fight them by herself.  Then she thought, if they attack, her party would surely be able to defeat them, and she could see what sort of treasure they have and grab some of it for her private stash for her freedom.  Then she is free she will pay them back.  A large figure landed on the landing before the door, her door.  She was able to examine it from behind.  It looked like grey stone, but it had huge wings.  There was a patch of lichen growing on a section of the wings.  The landing creaked after it landed, and it looked like it was about to jump down amongst her companions.  They might be able to kill both.  A flash of light and a massive BOOM as Olrick blasts the beast with his Blunderbuss.  Hati smacks the side of the gargoyle and his great hammer dances off its side of its hide.

The second gargoyle looks down on the melee and glides to the next landing over and crouches over the others looking at Tiara, nearly defenseless, not seeing the danger above.  The landing creaks ominously under the weight.  Keylesh pauses, they will probably defeat the beasts, but Tiara might not survive if she does not act.  She slipped through the door and leaps up and over the space between the door and the next landing over, her tail swinging wildly to maintain her approach, just as the gargoyle pushes off the landing she lands on its shoulders forcing it down and adding her weight to its mass.  She stabs down with her sword and slashes twice on its undamaged shoulders, one misses but the other two scores a deep gouge in its side and head, and she pushed off to leap up to the next landing above the door to investigate where they laired, the gargoyle crashes uncontrolled through the landing and falls down to the first floor. 

Tiara looked down on the fight and cast her spell on the gargoyle as it lifted off the ground away from Hati, its wings snapped, and it fell back to the ground where Hati and Olrick waited.  A crash above her catches her eyes as she sees Keylesh engage a second Gargoyle and push it off the ledge and fall towards the others.  Seeing that the gargoyle is basically undamaged she rushes up the stairs hoping to catch up to the cat person.  She rounds the corner and stops unbalanced at the edge of the gaping hole in the landing teetering.  The edge of the landing made of wood a thousand years old begins to crumble and send her tumbling down.  But she does not fall but swings up as a claw snags her cloak and swings her up on to the cat’s back as she leaps to the top of the third storey landing.  The landing fills the whole top floor and is filled with refuse and the bones of a great many dead things.  The setting suns light the top of the floor lighting the room through a hole.  The light glinted off the bones and she saw something odd, a bone that was straight and tapered she grabbed at it and found it was wood and had a word inscribed on it.  Tiara dropped back down the stairs and rushed to the edge and pointed at the gargoyle fighting the three others.  “Zappo,” and four streaks of light pulsed out of the tip of the wand with a spurt.  The light lit the path through the tower missing the Gargoyle and turning strafing the beast and pounding the life from it.  Hati, lifting his hammer high and crushes the gargoyles head.

The dust from the smashed gargoyle sticks to Hati’s face where it was wet with sweat.  The party sits down, and they look around.  They could rest here, there was a defensible door and lots of dry wood.  The bits of gargoyle would reflect the heat of a fire and they could rest here and be in good shape to look in the next tower.  Olrick was cleaning his Blunderbuss and loading it, but he joined to conversation and agreed, this was a good place to rest.  Nerwen passed around little red berries, two each, one for food and one for healing.  Tiara revealed that also from the chamber above was a fascinating picture book make of wood covered with bright coloured enamel.  It showed the city the way it looked in its heigh-day.

The night was uneventful.

In the morning there was a heavy dusting of snow on the ground outside the tower and one presumed the rest of the ruined city.  Hati and Nerwen cautioned the party to hold tight as they went out to investigate the area to see if they could see evidence of movement in the area.  There was none, but the two agreed that the weather was about to change and head back to warmer weather.  The party had decided that it might be a cunning idea to enter through a second tower and climb the stairs to the second level and use the bridge on the other side to gain access to the second level of the main building.  If there was anything living on the main level, they would pass it by.  They crept forward, keeping to single file to disguise their numbers, if something saw their tracks.  Hati broke open the tower door as quietly as he could manage, which was a little bit quieter than the blunderbuss.  The stairs inside this tower were rickety to say the least; there were sections that were missing and the edge that was left in the tower wall looked rotted.  Keylesh said that she would go a head to check it out the landing and the stairs in between.  When Olrick stated that he did not think that this was a good idea, she reassured him that as a cat, she always landed on her feet.  Keylesh bounded up the stairs leaping over the gaps in the stairs and landing with enough force to dislodge accumulated dust from the boards, but the first landing did not break.  A minute later her head dropped over the edge and proclaimed the way as safe as safe can be in an old ruined tower.  Looking at the dwarf she stated, “That is safe even for you!”

The party took their time to climb the stairs and reach the second-floor landing with the door outside.  Keylesh had whiled away her time waiting for them by freeing the door from its hinges and surveying the way to the tower.  It was nearly fifty feet across and the entire way was covered with a thin layer of melting snow.  They all took a turn looking at the causeway before discussing the next step.  Olrick stated that if they were going to cross here, they should cross now and slowly the others agreed.  Olrick told them all that it was not right that Keylesh should be the one in peril all the time and that he was capable of crossing the chasm first, and besides, the door looked fairly secure and strength might be needed to open the door.  With that, he set off towards the main building.  He was warned that there was ice on the bridge, but he ignored caution and decided to run the distance from door to door.  He set out at that run and discovered that the road was paved with good intentions and ice and he slipped on the last section of his run, barreling into the door, which shattered when he hit it.  Impacting the bridge bruised his ego a little, but the sound alerted anything that was listening.  Hati rushed forward with Nerwen leaping the last icy patch and disappearing into the building.  Keylesh and Tiara were the last to make the run.  Keylesh cleared the distance, but Tiara slipped on the snow as two large gargoyles banked around the building.  She quickly tossed a rope across the distance and hoped that her allies would pull her to safety if she should fall again and ran out on to the walk.  A gargoyle was mid stoop and lashed at her as she ran, clipping her on the side and causing her to regret waking up that morning, falling prone and almost off the edge.  The rope grew tight as one of her companions pulled on it tightly.  She righted herself and swayed across the rest of the gangway and into the central tower.  The dwarf slammed the door shut and barred the door whereupon the gargoyles slammed into the frame.  Tiara looked around hoping for relief, but instead was greeted with signs of battle as her companions were engaging with three skeletons who had been cleaning and filing books at the time of the party’s entrance.  It was only when the last skeleton had impacted the first floor after the Barbarian had slammed it off the floor into the open central region. 

The tower was clearly a library.  There were books lining the walls of the floor they were on, all around the edge of the floor.  The first floor was built with the same plan with the central area being a large lobby.  On the floor was a dismembered person its topmost section laying five feet from his bottom.  Three other corpses could be seen and a few piles of bones to boot.  There were five skeletons working at cleaning books on the bottom floor and six more on this level.  The were on the other side of the room from the stairs leading up and although the barbarian wanted to smash them all, the others suggested more caution.  They tried to walk casually past the librarian skeletons and not disturb them, succeeding for the most part until the dwarf ran right into the last one that had turned suddenly.  A brief battle ensued until the last party member had climbed the stairs and the skeleton resumed cleaning. 

At the top of the stairs they were greeted with a not too unexpected sight, living members of the group of people who had left the dead on the main floor were standing at guard at the two doors that lead further into this floor.  They were dressed in the livery of a foreign army.  Upon seeing the characters, one of the three guards disappeared through one of the doors and the other two took up defensive positions challenging the heroes not to advance.  By their look, it would have been a quick fight, the soldiers were wounded and had many bandages, moreover they looked like they had not eaten anything in days. 

When the guard who left returned, he brought with him two other guards in equally poor condition.  Nerwen taking pity on the soldiers cast a spell and provided them each with a berry, a Goodberry, and explained the this magical food would sustain them for a day, then she took one an ate it before them, the captain took one and ate it too, then he took the four remaining berries and retreated to the next chamber.  Nerwen gave the four starving guards four more and bade them to eat.  They did without hesitation.  Their spirits brightened considerably.  The Captain returned and informed the characters that the Lady of Lami would see them and wished to thank them for the gift that they had given freely.

The room was had a feel of hurried searching in it.  There was a pile of bones piled off to one side and some old serviceable, at least in appearance, furniture.  There were bookshelves that had been ransacked and the ruined books lay in pieces.  The dwarf rested his axe against one of the tables and it promptly collapsed, he apologised, and the others eyed the rest of the furniture and gave them a wide berth.  The Lady entered the room preceded by her footman who announced her presence as her ladyship of Lami.  She thanked each of the characters one by one, grasping their hands and kissing them in gratitude, she explained that he expedition was on the brink of failure and therefore her people were destined to be slaughtered at the hands of the king of Gutral Mastekeena.  She explained that she and her sick husband had been charged with finding two artifacts in this cursed city and failing to acquire them would mean the death of their families and kin.  Her husband entered the room too then.  He was very unsteady on his feet and stated for all to see that he was not dead yet and was capable of carrying out this last part of the mission, he faltered and allowed Hati to help him to his feet.  The Lord and Lady then asked the party if the part could help them find the two things they needed and would happily pay for their assistance.  Nerwen and Hati agreed to this task and when the lady said that they needed a picture book that showed people the way the city looked when it was still a city, Nerwen produced the book for them to see.  They exclaimed with joy that the mission was half a success already, if only they would go and find the Tapestry of Relic in the Cathedral dedicated to Jard.

The party elated to finally to be doing something good and worthy left the tower to continue the mission and save the Lady’s people.  First, however they had to go and take care of their mounts and show Hati where their main camp was located.  They spent the night reflecting on the information that they had discovered from the Lord and Lady.  They had told them that there was a force of Kobolds in the center of town and there were several giant kin in the city, including ogres, and half ogres and an ettin, a two headed giant.  That night they made their plans, trying to decide when the city would be most active and when it would be least active.  They knew that the kobolds had taken command of the city and had captured the goblins, using them as slaves; how that had happened was a mystery as normally one goblin was worth more than a kobold in a open battle, and this group included bugbears and hobgoblins too and there were just as many kobolds as there were goblins.  Kobolds, Nerwen knew detested the sunlight and goblins could work in either.  Both had night vision, but vision during the day was superior to night, so they made the guess that if they moved about in the day they would be equally advantaged as the goblins but assumed that the kobolds would make them work at night to do what ever it was that they were doing here.  So, in the morning they headed out at dawn.  All went well until the characters encountered a pair of tracks in the mud.  The feet were bare, and they were twice as long as Hati’s feet.  A giant, clearly.  They decided that if they were going to be useful in a fight it might be good to get a little practise and maybe limber up for the kobolds.  So, they tracked the tracks down to a building in the ruin that was partially collapsed.  On the top of the flat roof appeared to be five skeletons on patrol and the party stopped.  Nerwen, who all agreed that despite her extreme height could sneak far better than any of them, stuck out on her own to look at the building from all angles and to see what she could see.  She saw that there was no set of stairs to the roof, but there was a collapsed wall in the building, and she could see, after she approached closer, a two headed giant.  It had looked like there was one head awake and the other was asleep, she told the party.  They decided that taking on a giant was potentially a once in a lifetime thing and moved to the vantage point that Nerwen had seen.  The approached with more stealth than the Barbarian thought the Dwarf could muster and were positioned just inside the short range for the ranger’s Plain Elf Longbow and Nerwen drew her bow to her ear and aimed and fired.  The arrow struck the Ettin hard and the sleeping head.  The ettin lurched to its feet as Nerwen drew again and fired, hitting again.  The giant rose quickly and ran hard to where the arrow had hit him.  Nerwen fired again and this time Olrick fired his crossbow and then dropped it and advanced 10 feet and squared his feet and drew his axe.  Hati, seeing the Dwarf advance, sighed and advanced to be alongside him and readied his javelin.  Nerwen fired again and the Ettin charged the line, Olrick attacking him twice with his axe and Hati throwing his javelin.  Keylesh not to be out done leapt into the fray and lashed out.  The Ettin attacked with two heavy weapons, one aimed at the dwarf and one at the Half-Orc.  The dwarf quivered for a second as he recovered from the blow, but Hati had stepped off to the side as the great axe fell toward him.  Nerwen cast Magic Missile, and Hati attacked the Ettin with his hammer, Olrick missed and Keylesh attacked and expended two of her blessings of Drogath striking the creature three times, once with her sword and twice with her claws, the ettin stared briefly at infinity before collapsing at the party’s feet dead.  The ettin had a little loot and the group collected it.  The barbarian carved up the ettin for animal scraps while the others rested. 

The party headed toward the inner city.  They stopped at the gentle rise that told learned folk that this was the inner wall, long past covered with grass, but to them it was a gentle rise that hid their prone forms and allowed them to survey the grounds without being seen themselves.  Hati summoned a hawk down to him and bribed it with some ettin meat then he asked to share its senses and to fly around the city allowing him to see the whole layout.  He told the hawk that he would leave it a pile of scraps to eat at its leisure.  The group spied a structure that looked interesting to them and decided that it would bare further investigation.  It was large and square and had water pooling on the outside of it.  They made their way along the inner wall until the approach to the building would obscure them from the eyes of the three patrols they found.  Keylesh the best climber, approached the outside that was hidden in a copse of trees.  The outside had badly faded artwork on it, the bas relief showed scenes of water, fountains and people bathing naked in mixed groups.  After she climbed to the top and look down, she confirmed that this was a public bathhouse.  The fountain still worked and was spouting hot water into the air creating a mist in the cool Spring air.  The grates for the excess water were covered up and the water had flooded the building.  The exits in the wall were covered deliberately with colonnades and part of the roof; the water was flowing through the cracks in the obstructions.  The beside the water grate there was a large hole and the ceramics and marble was cast aside within the bath house.  She returned to the group and told them what she had seen.  Her fellows wanted to see for themselves and to investigate the hole.  When they did, they found the hole had been enlarged from the original and there was a carved ladder in the side.  They descended.

The hole lead to the sewers of the city and the group decided that it would avoid the patrols if they could get to their destination in this underground maze of passages.  The Barbarian said that he could.  Hours later they emerged from the sewers outside the city, where the sewers dumped their water.  They were only a few hundred meters away from their destination.  They passed unnoticed through as region that had seen little traffic except by hunters looking for rabbits.  They approached the Cathedral of Jard, and they tried to look through the windows, mostly they could not see a thing but and an occasional twinkle of reflected light.  Reflected off gold.  They came to the front door and they found that the door and the wall was defaced with scrawling of kobolds in Draconic.  Nerwen translated: Danger.  Never Enter.  DANGER.  Above them also written in Draconic was more Danger signs threatening anyone that disobeyed death by being eaten if they do not die in here.  The door showed signs of being broken into and more signs of trying to unbreak in as well, but these would have been more successful from the inside and from the writing on the outside, no one was going to do that.

Hati pushed hard on the door and the boards and nails keeping the doors shut fell apart.  They were here to get Relic’s Tapestry and then to leave, they were not going to stay long enough to see why the Kobolds did not want anyone in here.  The entry way was clear of all furnishings.  The chamber was grand with vaulting ceilings and the sides of the stone were covered with oiled cedar wood that gave the room a pleasing aroma which almost covered up the stench from the three kobold corpse in the center of the room.  The group stood over each of them and looked at them to see if they could discover what killed them, so that they would know what the potentially faced.  The bodies were carefully examined and other than advanced decomposition there were no marks on the outside of their bodies.  The expressions plastered on their post rictus faces and the consultations of magic and religious knowledges concluded that the kobolds died of necrotic damage or other energy damage types.  The group knew there were undead present for sure.  They proceeded with some caution.

They stepped up the one stair that separated the foyer of the temple from the main area and entered the combined Sanctuary and the Chancel.  Almost all the furniture had been removed from the sanctuary of the temple, only the very odds and ends of the time before were still here and most of that broken remains.  More kobold bodies lay like cast aside puppets after their strings were cut.  The tall stained-glass windows illuminated the room with the fading light of the day and the gold in the chancel reflected the light in dazzling ways that ignited yearning in the hearts of poor adventurers.  The other main feature of the room was the tapestries that hung from every wall that was also not a window.  Each depicted a scene from the mythology of Jard or the many saints of the god.  They depicted acts of righteousness that Jard favours.  Each of these tapestries would be valuable to the correct buyer, the clergy of Jard.  You think that to that right buyer you could get 100 gold if they were removed with loving care and 50 gold to anyone interested in the antiquities of old.  On the other hand, if they were torn down with little care, the shredded cloth might be worth 10 gold to the right seamstress.  The altar contained the real treasure, for those that thought gold was treasure, the two candlesticks were ornate gold encrusted with minor flashy gems probably worth 1000 gold a piece and there are the two candles still in them too.  The chalice includes a large ruby in the stem and a few other notable gems and as such it is likely worth 2500 gold.  The sword that lies on the altar seems to be only ceremonial, gems are studding the blade from the hilt to the tip, the pommel is a pearl of surpassing beauty making the whole worth 1500 gold.  The altar itself is studded with 100 shiny but inexpensive 10 gold gems and 50 more valuable 50 gold gems; the arrangement is pleasing along the with the gold leaf on the stone and would be worth double the value of the stones, if it could only be moved more easily.  A brief search of the two rooms reveals a vestry behind the curtain wall in the chancel and the vestments of the high priest, worth 500 gold to the right person and two doors behind the tapestries on the walls of the sanctuary.  There are fifty tapestries in these two rooms (total value of the contents—to the right person, 18,500 gold).

But in the discovery process, Nerwen stumbled upon the reason why this cathedral had never been pillaged, and darkness shrouded the chancel of the temple, cloaking her and the area completely.  Tiara, uncertain where the trouble was going to come from was standing in a central position in the sanctuary, immediately acted upon hearing Nerwen’s gasp and seeing, not seeing, her enveloped in darkness, rushed to her aid.  “Great Candalmar, I call on you to banish this darkness,” she commanded and with that radiant light in the appearance of fire with the colour of candle flame washed the region between Tiara and Nerwen, washing the darkness from the air and burning the undead souls of six of the eight spectres that had appeared in the darkness.  Each of their little violet forms appeared to be a screaming kobold.  Everyone held their breath waiting to see what would happen next.

Keylesh seeing her chance to save the rest of the party, leapt up and grabbed the closest tapestry and tore it from its anchoring, in a terrible rip and then fled across the room to goad the spectres into chasing her out into the last vestiges of daylight, hoping it would dispel the undead horrors.  That is what she must have intended on doing, but instead she accidentally summoned the wraith that had created the kobold spectres and the smoky creature uttered a rasping rattle and pointed to Keylesh is the defiler of the temple and she should be killed.  Nerwen eying all the undead creatures everywhere around her pissed herself with fear but fought down every instinct to make a bolt for the door and faced off every spectre as she beat a retreat into the sanctuary.  Hati advanced and struck at the first spectre as he filled him self with rage certain that they were all going to die, his pact to save the party unfulfilled.  It discorporated.  Olrick charged into the melee with his blunderbuss leveled and fired into the crowd of exotic ghost material and then summoned his axe to his hand and smote the nearest spectre.  The spectres were given a target and they rushed head long at the defiler of the temple, Keylesh; her plan had worked better than she could ever had imagined!

Keylesh confident that they would chase her down until the end of time sprinted out of the cathedral on all fours and out into the setting suns.  Nerwen recovering from her initial fright cast a magic missile spell and sent four missiles into two of the most damaged spectres killing them.  Tiara cast a Flaming Sphere spell and a five-foot-tall sphere of candle flame erupted next to a spectre and the wraith and then she ran to back up the retreating Keylesh.  Hati ran to interpose himself between Tiara and a spectre but missing the horror with his attack.  Olrick hacked at the wraith and score a solid hit, but the wraith turned its fury upon the dwarf now that the monk had gone beyond its reach and smote the fighter in one hit to unconsciousness.  The spectres wheeled around and began attacking the remaining party.  Keylesh stopped and sank to her haunches and waited for the undead to chase her out, but nothing followed.  Nerwen launched her last 2^nd level magic missiles at the spectres, hoping to destroy two more, but only killed one.  Tiara cast a Spiritual Weapon and attempted to attack the same spectre with two attacks, one from her and one from the spell; both were misses.  Hati attacked and hit a spectre, and Olrick from his prone self gasped and recovered a little from his near death.  the wraith and the remaining spectres closed in to attack and it hit the half-orc and attempted to knock him too to the ground.

Keylesh began to return to the temple seeing her ruse had failed to bring results.  And she entered the temple proper.  Nerwen cast fire bolts at the spectres and wounded them fine and Tiara healed the barbarian and attacked with her spiritual weapon but missed.  Hati attacked recklessly and hit and killed a spectre.  Olrick gasped a second breath and raised himself from prone.  Keylesh finally re-entered the battle and attacked the wraith, the wraith appearing to waver in strength as Nerwen killed the last Spectre with a magic missile.  Tiara healed the barbarian again, the cold covered him from the last attack that nearly knocked him out, if but for Tiara’s healing and he hit with all the strength that was his do, but still it fought on.  Olrick launched himself at the apparition that nearly killed him and hit it.  The wraith noticed the cat person who had desecrated the temple was here and attacked her, only to have her doge to the left.  Keylesh attacked a final time mostly ineffectually and Nerwen expended her last spell slot on the wraith.  But it was Tiara who also lacking in spells reached out and attacked the wraith out of desperation, missing but putting it off for the spiritual weapon to successfully and permanently send the wraith to hell, where it belonged.

Everyone decided to rest.  Hati claimed he was good to go on but was secretly relieved to take a rest.