The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw, Excerpt 7
"...dizziness made the ritual far more complex than it ought to have been. After two false starts early this morning, pulling another pint of blood from my system was taxing even my boundless energy. I pressed the open wound in my palm onto the head of the clay and stone figure laid out before me, uttering my enchantments. I repeated this over the simulacrum's chest and hands, then moved on to the legs. Before I was done, I heard it's tiny voice suggest a more efficient manner of dispensing my life's fluid into the ritual. My homunculus was alive! I am sure that it was the loss of blood -- and not the surprise at hearing my own voice come this tiny creature -- that caused me to pass out at that moment."
. -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4
"... adding a pleasant blue glow to each bracer. Stark always does the most clever things!
...
What a deplorable state my journals have become. Here I am, fourteen pages into my fourth historic journal, and I still have yet to recount the events surrounding our second trip down into the guildhall of the Order of the Closed Circle. A recounting that should have been included in my third journal!
It seems so long ago, now.... Let's see.
It had been a few days since the DC had gotten together: our last outing had left many of us hurt and in need of recuperation. We had agreed to escort a paladin of the Silver Flame down into the vaults of the Order, though [ref: PJ-V3-112], so we gathered once more to see it done. The night before we were going to get together we got word from professor Boromar at MU that he wanted to see us. About the Cannith map, undoubtedly [ref: PJ-V2-67]. A few messages were sent about, and we agreed to all meet on the MU's campus.
I wasn't the first to arrive. When I got there I saw quite a few more people than I expected. Our paladin was there, but so were half a dozen rough-looking elves. They were all part of Caerlyn's Blades, evidently. A mean looking bunch! They had come along with CA, though I never really figured out why. Maybe he's a captain, now, and just hasn't told us?
Anyway, we left the soldier-types waiting for us outside, and went up-tower to professor BO's office. It wasn't a class day, so the halls were pretty empty. My keen senses told me something was wrong, and my usually jovial nature turned suspicious.
Those suspicions were quickly confirmed, too, when we went into BO's office. The place was completely torn up! Bookshelves twice my height had been ransacked, their contents scattered across the floor. There were signs of blood, too, and a struggle. I knew our professor friend was a canny old halfling, so I started searching for his inevitable ecape tunnel. It would have to be low to the ground.
I rarely miss important clues, and never when it matters. Behind the professor's desk was a secret panel that opened up into a tight passageway. I nodded knowingly at my companions and went in. They must have been afraid of such strict confines, though, because they failed to follow me. The height-challenged passage lead me to a larger hall, and this into a hallway even larger still.
Now I'm not claiming to be an expert tracker, but I have a keen eye and more than enough intelligence to connect the miniscule signs and marks left by another creature's passage. So I followed the trail. Alone, for none of the DC had followed. I wasn't really sure where I was, until I came like a hound to his quarry to my destination. Strangely, the path lead back to the front door of the professor's office. The DC were still in there, and GR was just climbing down a rope suspended from mid-air, carrying the bloodied and battered form of the professor.
I came in, asking how they had anchored the rope on blank space, but GR told me it was there from the moment we walked in. GR and his silly jokes. If it had been there when we came in, I would have seen it.
BO was still alive, clutching a blank roll of scroll-quality vellum. IR administerd healing and we asked what had happened. It seems BO had been attacked in his office by thugs looking for the Cannith map. They had gotten it, too, curse our luck. Fortunately, though, BO had made a copy. He gave us the map, and told us that it showed the Mournlands. The marks scattered about the map were Cannith marks. I looked at them again, and sure enough they were! I didn't like stoooping to guile, but I needed to know how much the professor knew about Cannith dealings. I casually mentioned that I didn't know what the symbols meant, hoping to trick him into revealing what he knew. He admitted (and from his look, I believed him) that he didn't know what the signs meant. I was quietly pleased.
Later [ref: PJ-V4-7], I was able to decipher most of the symbols. They are the locations of House Cannith holdings. Some are familiar to me. Some are not. I cross-referenced the map with Bonal Geldem's journal, and he mentions something called Whitehearth and another schema. BG associated Whitehearth (whoever or whatever that might be) with a symbol of a red dragon. Whether the schema he mentions is related to the schema piece we recovered for Lady d'Vown, however, [ref: PJ-V1-67] is another matter.
One of the symbols on our map looks like a dragon, so I naturally deduced that that must be where the schema is. A Cannith holding in the midst of the Field of Ruins.
After the incident with the professor, we talked to campus security and looked for BO's ogre-professor friend. Neither event lead to anything interesting. Back down in the courtyard, we met up with CA's friends and the paladin, and headed down to the empty halls of Order of the Closed Circle. Daihmin had shown up at some point, and he decided to go with us. I guess one of the DC had invited him, though I don't know why. Ah, well. the more the merrier.
Getting down into the depths of Sharn was an easy journey -- if not uncomplicated. There were an even thirteen of us, now. We were quite the mob as we swept along bridges and down the lifts. It took three sky cabs to carry all of us. What a mess.
On the way down, I tried to convince the DC that we really didn't need all these people: the place would be empty. I explained to them that cults -- like the one we'd seen last time we were in the Order's halls -- were like cockroaches. They fled as soon as they were exposed to the light. Nobody believed me though. Sometimes I think these people just don't understand how the real world works.
I knew there wouldn't be anyone around, but I also knew that safe entry would not be easily guaranteed. The cultists had trapped a good part of thier lair while still working there [ref: PJ-V3-27] -- I was sure they would have booby-trapped the place when they left.
The tunnel that lead in to the Halls was blocked by a stack of crates. Stored there by some of the locals, undoubtedly. Just to be sure, I checked the pile for traps. Nothing. On the other hand, the highest box looked a bit unstable, so I stepped back and warned GR to be careful when he moved it. Good thing I did, too, because as soon as he started moving boxes, the top one toppled over and nearly crushed him. I mean, really; who fills a crate with heavy rocks, then puts it on top of a rickety stack of boxes? Whoever it was had no common sense.
We continued on into the abandoned hall, and before long found some of the traps I had warned everyone about. Their concealment and device was no match for my expert training, though, and we easily bypassed them.
At an intersection of halls we ran into a couple of those four-armed mutant goblins that we had seen the last time we were down here. I'm not sure what they were doing there -- they must have snuck back in to loot the place after everyone left. We immediately set about dispatching them. Before we finished, a couple more wandered in from a side hall carrying a heavy crate full of rocks. Yep: looters. And stupid ones at that.
It was IR, the paladin, and I that went up against the first pair of creatures. GR and CA went after the ones carrying the crate while the elves waved swords around or shot arrows into the ceiling or did whatever else they were doing in an attempt to look useful without actually doing anything. XL and DA "stood watch". What heroes.
I have mentioned before that IR is a fierce combatant, and she showed it again when going up against the two goblinoids. One look at me, though, with my completely useless cane, and the little blighters tried to flee. IR and our Silver Flame friend killed one, then IR and I set off in pursuit of the other. The paladin doubled back to help the rest of the group go on watch, or whatever it was they were doing.
We ran around the corner and into a large, long chamber. The goblin was running as fast as he could for a signal horn hung on the far side of the room. IR almost caught him, but the tricky goblin scrambled away. I was too far behind to catch up, so I did the only thing I could: I threw my cane. (It was even enchanted at that point to deal with creatures like him [ref: CJ-V1-19].) Once again, though, that accursed cane betrayed me, and it missed. I hated that cane. My new one is much nicer!
The goblin made it over to the horn and took an impossibly deep breat, ready to blow, when an arrow struck him square in the chest. CA and a couple of his elven friends had followed us into the chamber and were making their presence known. The goblin was stunned momentarily, which gave IR time to race up and deliver the killing blow. Victory!
I went immediately to see if the horn was magical in some way. I'm not sure why a looter would blow a horn like that unless it was a weapon of some sort, but, no. It was just a mundane horn. Strange.
We gathered our forces again and decided to split up. DA and half the elves would stay behind at the central junction of tunnels, to make sure more looters didn't sneak up on us. The rest of us, meanwhile, would escort our Silver Flame representative down into the library below us so he could check on the seals guarding his precious Orb of Xoriat. [ref: PJ-V3-76]
The halls were empty, and we had no problems finding our way back to the central chamber. There was a ritual sacrifice happening here last time we were about [ref: PJ-V3-41]. Strange sounds echoed up from the hole in the center of the chamber that lead down to the lower vaults. Multi-colored flickering lights could be seen reflecing off of the stony surfaces below us. We immediately headed for the staircase to go down, half of us taking the right hand staircase and half the left.
When we got down to the barracks and living chamber level, the sounds became much more pronounced. The four large braziers that circled the central shaft -- cold and unlit the last time we were here -- were still cold but now lit. Each was filled with a heatless flame of odd, shifting color, and was quite fascinating. I stopped to study them.
The rest of the DC, meanwhile, moved on and had uncovered a secret door. When they opened it, the sounds -- chanting perhaps -- grew even louder. The braziers I studied explained the flickering light we had seen above, but a strange new light was visible through the now open doorway. We moved in to investigate.
We stood at one end of a succession of three chambers, a broad opening leading from one to the next. In the farthest chamber we saw a ritual of some sort in progress. A stone dias in front of a glowing portal held a couple of man-shaped figures and a hulking brute of a monster. Between us and the dias in that last room was a mob of four-armed goblins, all chanting their weird little double-mouth chant. We crept forward.
The ritual was coming to a crescendo. A large tentacle came out from the portal and took something handed to it from one of the robed people on the platform. A male voice, distorted oddly, came from the lead ritualist. He spoke some wierd, twisted language that I didn't understand at all.
I was gesturing to the rest of the group, trying to gather them together. I had surveyed our surroundings and had come up with a fool-proof strategem in dealing with the cultists. We would have to be subtle, though. Just at that moment, unfortunately, our Silver Flame friend reminded us of his presence. Screaming out something about the purifying flame, he charged.
Sigh. I guess for some people, "Charge" is a valid plan.
With nothing left to it, IR and CA charged forward as well.
In the far room, one of the ritual participants turned and removed her hood. It was the head priestess from the last time we were here! [ref: PJ-V3-65] She signalled to one of her tall, gaunt, tentacled friends standing next to her, and they ran off to the right, out of our field of vision. There was a passage on the right hand side of the chamber we were in, and I knew we were going to see her again soon.
I was in the midst of rallying our group together, pulling them forward to defend the side passage and getting reinforcements for our front line, when the lumbering hulk up on the dias turned in our direction. It was a broad, insectile humanoid, with large, multi-faceted eyes, massive forelimbs, and wicked looking claws. It was his yellow eyes that grabbed my attention, though. They... flashed... or somethng, and suddenly everything got very, very confusing.
I'm not really sure what happened after that. I remember chasing someone -- or something -- once or twice. I was involved in a tremendous battle against a monstrously formed elven warrior. More than once I tried to call to my friends, but they did not understand my words. Everything was chaos and confusion.
I learned after the fact that the priestess had, indeed, shown up on our flank. GR, XL, CA and one of the elven warriors killed the tentacled abomination that accompanied her, then drove her off. She summoned a cloud of smoke to conceal her retreatGR and XL gave chase. They lost sight of the priestess -- or heard IR's call for help -- and returned to the fight
CA, meanwhile, moved up to fight the goblinoids and the large creature beyond.
In the main ritual chamber, the same confusion that overcame me sent the goblinoids into full riot. They were bickering and fighting amongst themselves, screaming out incoherent babble or just wandering in circles. IR made quick work of many of them, as did the paladin. He was working his way towards the hulking creature, though -- not as concerned with the goblins surrounding him. In the chaotic swirl of combat, he managed to charge the hulk and delivered an incredibly powerful blow to the creature. CA was there, too, his flashing blades slicing through many a goblin.
At about that time, the lead ritualist turned, and revealed himself. A mindflayer! (Later, I would tell the DC that this explained the cult's continued presence in these halls: mind control. They continued to obsess over some theory that the cult never left, though. That they were there of their own free will.)
The mind flayer gathered up the last of the ritual components -- some of which looked very valuable. He took interest in IR then, for some reason, and ordered the hulk and his remaining followers to "bring her to me, kill the rest". With that, he walked through the still-active portal. With his passage, the portal closed and became bare rock once again.
The hulk had it's orders, but first it wanted to deal with the paladin. Grabbing him, it casually ripped the armored follower of the Silver Flame to pieces. Ick. I'm glad I didn't see that. He turned his attention on IR, who called out for assistance.
CA was still there, though, and moved in to attack the creature. About that time, GR and XL showed up to help. IR stood against the hulk, smashing it mightily with her mace. Though the creature was badly wounded, it continued on. Grabbing her, it turned to move away.
CA charged in while XL moved to clean up the last of the goblinoids. GR put his healing wand to good use, then took up his mace. The creature had IR firmly in control until GR jumped up and planted his mace right between it's large, faceted eyes. It staggered, and the DC converged on the kill.
They weren't done, though. The last of the goblinoids, perhaps unaware of it's condition of being the only opponent left in the room, screamed two things at once and tackled IR, bringing her to the ground. He fought valiantly -- fanatically! -- and even managed to drag IR eight or nine feet towards the exit. While IR struggled to escape, GR and CA struggled to free her, but to no avail. Eventually, they simply struck down into the squabble, killing the creature.
The last of our enemies were defeated and those of us who were under the guile of the hulk came back to our senses. I found myself far-flung from my companions -- almost all the way to the staircase -- and rejoined the DC.
Now at leisure to explore the halls of the Order of the Closed Circle (it really was empty this time), we uncovered quite a few secrets. And more than a little treasure. The mind flayer had a room on this level, as did the head priestess. We found some odd things in both rooms.
The mind flayer must have gained access to the lower vaults, for almost all of them stood open. The order still had a rich library, and an orrerry, now seemingly non-functional. Many other treasures were found, but the church of the Silver Flame claimed them as their own.
The Orb of Xoriat was no longer there. With this great and dangerous artifact missing, the church saw no reason to keep the chambers sealed. They scoured the library, removing books they though offensive, then left the place to us."
. -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4
"Hair, black, 7.5 inches long -- green potato soup"
"Tooth, bicuspid, humanoid -- ale, mug"
"Dried herb bread, cubed -- green salad"
"Zilargo brandy -- Brelandish brandy, glass"
"One half cockroach, living -- ham sandwich"
"Garbled message for help -- fortune cookie"
. -- An excerpt from the Catalogue of Foreign Substances Found in Food Served At the Broken Anvil, by Artemis Heuw
"...dizziness made the ritual far more complex than it ought to have been. After two false starts early this morning, pulling another pint of blood from my system was taxing even my boundless energy. I pressed the open wound in my palm onto the head of the clay and stone figure laid out before me, uttering my enchantments. I repeated this over the simulacrum's chest and hands, then moved on to the legs. Before I was done, I heard it's tiny voice suggest a more efficient manner of dispensing my life's fluid into the ritual. My homunculus was alive! I am sure that it was the loss of blood -- and not the surprise at hearing my own voice come this tiny creature -- that caused me to pass out at that moment."
. -- An excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4
"... adding a pleasant blue glow to each bracer. Stark always does the most clever things!
...
What a deplorable state my journals have become. Here I am, fourteen pages into my fourth historic journal, and I still have yet to recount the events surrounding our second trip down into the guildhall of the Order of the Closed Circle. A recounting that should have been included in my third journal!
It seems so long ago, now.... Let's see.
It had been a few days since the DC had gotten together: our last outing had left many of us hurt and in need of recuperation. We had agreed to escort a paladin of the Silver Flame down into the vaults of the Order, though [ref: PJ-V3-112], so we gathered once more to see it done. The night before we were going to get together we got word from professor Boromar at MU that he wanted to see us. About the Cannith map, undoubtedly [ref: PJ-V2-67]. A few messages were sent about, and we agreed to all meet on the MU's campus.
I wasn't the first to arrive. When I got there I saw quite a few more people than I expected. Our paladin was there, but so were half a dozen rough-looking elves. They were all part of Caerlyn's Blades, evidently. A mean looking bunch! They had come along with CA, though I never really figured out why. Maybe he's a captain, now, and just hasn't told us?
Anyway, we left the soldier-types waiting for us outside, and went up-tower to professor BO's office. It wasn't a class day, so the halls were pretty empty. My keen senses told me something was wrong, and my usually jovial nature turned suspicious.
Those suspicions were quickly confirmed, too, when we went into BO's office. The place was completely torn up! Bookshelves twice my height had been ransacked, their contents scattered across the floor. There were signs of blood, too, and a struggle. I knew our professor friend was a canny old halfling, so I started searching for his inevitable ecape tunnel. It would have to be low to the ground.
I rarely miss important clues, and never when it matters. Behind the professor's desk was a secret panel that opened up into a tight passageway. I nodded knowingly at my companions and went in. They must have been afraid of such strict confines, though, because they failed to follow me. The height-challenged passage lead me to a larger hall, and this into a hallway even larger still.
Now I'm not claiming to be an expert tracker, but I have a keen eye and more than enough intelligence to connect the miniscule signs and marks left by another creature's passage. So I followed the trail. Alone, for none of the DC had followed. I wasn't really sure where I was, until I came like a hound to his quarry to my destination. Strangely, the path lead back to the front door of the professor's office. The DC were still in there, and GR was just climbing down a rope suspended from mid-air, carrying the bloodied and battered form of the professor.
I came in, asking how they had anchored the rope on blank space, but GR told me it was there from the moment we walked in. GR and his silly jokes. If it had been there when we came in, I would have seen it.
BO was still alive, clutching a blank roll of scroll-quality vellum. IR administerd healing and we asked what had happened. It seems BO had been attacked in his office by thugs looking for the Cannith map. They had gotten it, too, curse our luck. Fortunately, though, BO had made a copy. He gave us the map, and told us that it showed the Mournlands. The marks scattered about the map were Cannith marks. I looked at them again, and sure enough they were! I didn't like stoooping to guile, but I needed to know how much the professor knew about Cannith dealings. I casually mentioned that I didn't know what the symbols meant, hoping to trick him into revealing what he knew. He admitted (and from his look, I believed him) that he didn't know what the signs meant. I was quietly pleased.
Later [ref: PJ-V4-7], I was able to decipher most of the symbols. They are the locations of House Cannith holdings. Some are familiar to me. Some are not. I cross-referenced the map with Bonal Geldem's journal, and he mentions something called Whitehearth and another schema. BG associated Whitehearth (whoever or whatever that might be) with a symbol of a red dragon. Whether the schema he mentions is related to the schema piece we recovered for Lady d'Vown, however, [ref: PJ-V1-67] is another matter.
One of the symbols on our map looks like a dragon, so I naturally deduced that that must be where the schema is. A Cannith holding in the midst of the Field of Ruins.
After the incident with the professor, we talked to campus security and looked for BO's ogre-professor friend. Neither event lead to anything interesting. Back down in the courtyard, we met up with CA's friends and the paladin, and headed down to the empty halls of Order of the Closed Circle. Daihmin had shown up at some point, and he decided to go with us. I guess one of the DC had invited him, though I don't know why. Ah, well. the more the merrier.
Getting down into the depths of Sharn was an easy journey -- if not uncomplicated. There were an even thirteen of us, now. We were quite the mob as we swept along bridges and down the lifts. It took three sky cabs to carry all of us. What a mess.
On the way down, I tried to convince the DC that we really didn't need all these people: the place would be empty. I explained to them that cults -- like the one we'd seen last time we were in the Order's halls -- were like cockroaches. They fled as soon as they were exposed to the light. Nobody believed me though. Sometimes I think these people just don't understand how the real world works.
I knew there wouldn't be anyone around, but I also knew that safe entry would not be easily guaranteed. The cultists had trapped a good part of thier lair while still working there [ref: PJ-V3-27] -- I was sure they would have booby-trapped the place when they left.
The tunnel that lead in to the Halls was blocked by a stack of crates. Stored there by some of the locals, undoubtedly. Just to be sure, I checked the pile for traps. Nothing. On the other hand, the highest box looked a bit unstable, so I stepped back and warned GR to be careful when he moved it. Good thing I did, too, because as soon as he started moving boxes, the top one toppled over and nearly crushed him. I mean, really; who fills a crate with heavy rocks, then puts it on top of a rickety stack of boxes? Whoever it was had no common sense.
We continued on into the abandoned hall, and before long found some of the traps I had warned everyone about. Their concealment and device was no match for my expert training, though, and we easily bypassed them.
At an intersection of halls we ran into a couple of those four-armed mutant goblins that we had seen the last time we were down here. I'm not sure what they were doing there -- they must have snuck back in to loot the place after everyone left. We immediately set about dispatching them. Before we finished, a couple more wandered in from a side hall carrying a heavy crate full of rocks. Yep: looters. And stupid ones at that.
It was IR, the paladin, and I that went up against the first pair of creatures. GR and CA went after the ones carrying the crate while the elves waved swords around or shot arrows into the ceiling or did whatever else they were doing in an attempt to look useful without actually doing anything. XL and DA "stood watch". What heroes.
I have mentioned before that IR is a fierce combatant, and she showed it again when going up against the two goblinoids. One look at me, though, with my completely useless cane, and the little blighters tried to flee. IR and our Silver Flame friend killed one, then IR and I set off in pursuit of the other. The paladin doubled back to help the rest of the group go on watch, or whatever it was they were doing.
We ran around the corner and into a large, long chamber. The goblin was running as fast as he could for a signal horn hung on the far side of the room. IR almost caught him, but the tricky goblin scrambled away. I was too far behind to catch up, so I did the only thing I could: I threw my cane. (It was even enchanted at that point to deal with creatures like him [ref: CJ-V1-19].) Once again, though, that accursed cane betrayed me, and it missed. I hated that cane. My new one is much nicer!
The goblin made it over to the horn and took an impossibly deep breat, ready to blow, when an arrow struck him square in the chest. CA and a couple of his elven friends had followed us into the chamber and were making their presence known. The goblin was stunned momentarily, which gave IR time to race up and deliver the killing blow. Victory!
I went immediately to see if the horn was magical in some way. I'm not sure why a looter would blow a horn like that unless it was a weapon of some sort, but, no. It was just a mundane horn. Strange.
We gathered our forces again and decided to split up. DA and half the elves would stay behind at the central junction of tunnels, to make sure more looters didn't sneak up on us. The rest of us, meanwhile, would escort our Silver Flame representative down into the library below us so he could check on the seals guarding his precious Orb of Xoriat. [ref: PJ-V3-76]
The halls were empty, and we had no problems finding our way back to the central chamber. There was a ritual sacrifice happening here last time we were about [ref: PJ-V3-41]. Strange sounds echoed up from the hole in the center of the chamber that lead down to the lower vaults. Multi-colored flickering lights could be seen reflecing off of the stony surfaces below us. We immediately headed for the staircase to go down, half of us taking the right hand staircase and half the left.
When we got down to the barracks and living chamber level, the sounds became much more pronounced. The four large braziers that circled the central shaft -- cold and unlit the last time we were here -- were still cold but now lit. Each was filled with a heatless flame of odd, shifting color, and was quite fascinating. I stopped to study them.
The rest of the DC, meanwhile, moved on and had uncovered a secret door. When they opened it, the sounds -- chanting perhaps -- grew even louder. The braziers I studied explained the flickering light we had seen above, but a strange new light was visible through the now open doorway. We moved in to investigate.
We stood at one end of a succession of three chambers, a broad opening leading from one to the next. In the farthest chamber we saw a ritual of some sort in progress. A stone dias in front of a glowing portal held a couple of man-shaped figures and a hulking brute of a monster. Between us and the dias in that last room was a mob of four-armed goblins, all chanting their weird little double-mouth chant. We crept forward.
The ritual was coming to a crescendo. A large tentacle came out from the portal and took something handed to it from one of the robed people on the platform. A male voice, distorted oddly, came from the lead ritualist. He spoke some wierd, twisted language that I didn't understand at all.
I was gesturing to the rest of the group, trying to gather them together. I had surveyed our surroundings and had come up with a fool-proof strategem in dealing with the cultists. We would have to be subtle, though. Just at that moment, unfortunately, our Silver Flame friend reminded us of his presence. Screaming out something about the purifying flame, he charged.
Sigh. I guess for some people, "Charge" is a valid plan.
With nothing left to it, IR and CA charged forward as well.
In the far room, one of the ritual participants turned and removed her hood. It was the head priestess from the last time we were here! [ref: PJ-V3-65] She signalled to one of her tall, gaunt, tentacled friends standing next to her, and they ran off to the right, out of our field of vision. There was a passage on the right hand side of the chamber we were in, and I knew we were going to see her again soon.
I was in the midst of rallying our group together, pulling them forward to defend the side passage and getting reinforcements for our front line, when the lumbering hulk up on the dias turned in our direction. It was a broad, insectile humanoid, with large, multi-faceted eyes, massive forelimbs, and wicked looking claws. It was his yellow eyes that grabbed my attention, though. They... flashed... or somethng, and suddenly everything got very, very confusing.
I'm not really sure what happened after that. I remember chasing someone -- or something -- once or twice. I was involved in a tremendous battle against a monstrously formed elven warrior. More than once I tried to call to my friends, but they did not understand my words. Everything was chaos and confusion.
I learned after the fact that the priestess had, indeed, shown up on our flank. GR, XL, CA and one of the elven warriors killed the tentacled abomination that accompanied her, then drove her off. She summoned a cloud of smoke to conceal her retreatGR and XL gave chase. They lost sight of the priestess -- or heard IR's call for help -- and returned to the fight
CA, meanwhile, moved up to fight the goblinoids and the large creature beyond.
In the main ritual chamber, the same confusion that overcame me sent the goblinoids into full riot. They were bickering and fighting amongst themselves, screaming out incoherent babble or just wandering in circles. IR made quick work of many of them, as did the paladin. He was working his way towards the hulking creature, though -- not as concerned with the goblins surrounding him. In the chaotic swirl of combat, he managed to charge the hulk and delivered an incredibly powerful blow to the creature. CA was there, too, his flashing blades slicing through many a goblin.
At about that time, the lead ritualist turned, and revealed himself. A mindflayer! (Later, I would tell the DC that this explained the cult's continued presence in these halls: mind control. They continued to obsess over some theory that the cult never left, though. That they were there of their own free will.)
The mind flayer gathered up the last of the ritual components -- some of which looked very valuable. He took interest in IR then, for some reason, and ordered the hulk and his remaining followers to "bring her to me, kill the rest". With that, he walked through the still-active portal. With his passage, the portal closed and became bare rock once again.
The hulk had it's orders, but first it wanted to deal with the paladin. Grabbing him, it casually ripped the armored follower of the Silver Flame to pieces. Ick. I'm glad I didn't see that. He turned his attention on IR, who called out for assistance.
CA was still there, though, and moved in to attack the creature. About that time, GR and XL showed up to help. IR stood against the hulk, smashing it mightily with her mace. Though the creature was badly wounded, it continued on. Grabbing her, it turned to move away.
CA charged in while XL moved to clean up the last of the goblinoids. GR put his healing wand to good use, then took up his mace. The creature had IR firmly in control until GR jumped up and planted his mace right between it's large, faceted eyes. It staggered, and the DC converged on the kill.
They weren't done, though. The last of the goblinoids, perhaps unaware of it's condition of being the only opponent left in the room, screamed two things at once and tackled IR, bringing her to the ground. He fought valiantly -- fanatically! -- and even managed to drag IR eight or nine feet towards the exit. While IR struggled to escape, GR and CA struggled to free her, but to no avail. Eventually, they simply struck down into the squabble, killing the creature.
The last of our enemies were defeated and those of us who were under the guile of the hulk came back to our senses. I found myself far-flung from my companions -- almost all the way to the staircase -- and rejoined the DC.
Now at leisure to explore the halls of the Order of the Closed Circle (it really was empty this time), we uncovered quite a few secrets. And more than a little treasure. The mind flayer had a room on this level, as did the head priestess. We found some odd things in both rooms.
The mind flayer must have gained access to the lower vaults, for almost all of them stood open. The order still had a rich library, and an orrerry, now seemingly non-functional. Many other treasures were found, but the church of the Silver Flame claimed them as their own.
The Orb of Xoriat was no longer there. With this great and dangerous artifact missing, the church saw no reason to keep the chambers sealed. They scoured the library, removing books they though offensive, then left the place to us."
. -- An excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw, Volume 4
"Hair, black, 7.5 inches long -- green potato soup"
"Tooth, bicuspid, humanoid -- ale, mug"
"Dried herb bread, cubed -- green salad"
"Zilargo brandy -- Brelandish brandy, glass"
"One half cockroach, living -- ham sandwich"
"Garbled message for help -- fortune cookie"
. -- An excerpt from the Catalogue of Foreign Substances Found in Food Served At the Broken Anvil, by Artemis Heuw
