This is what went down:
As the PCs are digging in the barrow mound, something the goblins say about deeper caves triggers a past-life memory in Apothis:
"He recalls entering a series of caves nearby the falls back when the Nentir Vale was still wild, unclaimed territory. Winding his way down a long dark stair as far as it would go, he discovered ruins that were ancient even then. Within these ruins there was a portal to the elemental chaos.
Based on your previous knowledge - chaos teeth are connected to the elemental chaos, and that chaos teeth are found in the mouths of oddly-warped monsters - it's a good bet that something down there probably has a raw chaos tooth in its mouth. It's just a matter of cutting it out."
That was done via email. The check was a History check, DC 21 for a 4th level item. The item is in a 4th-level area. The players know all of this.
The PCs in the barrow mound decide to head back into town and rest up before exploring deeper. Hrogar is getting used to navigating through the evil Tombwood and they make it out without issue.
They decide to spend the night at the Nentir Inn, since they were kicked out of the Silver Unicorn. It's a nice place and the half-elf innkeeper treats them well.
At one point during the night they get a message from Lady Allende Markelhay, asking if they can meet with her. They accept the meeting for tomorrow.
The innkeeper (I forget his name) spots the Markelhay's messenger and asks Hekubus about it. Hekubus tells him to mind his own business, and the half-elf graciously backs off, but gives a warning: "The Markelhays are not to be trusted."
The innkeeper has some plans of his own.
The next day the PCs do some shopping. They go to see Orest Naerumar and buy some goods from him. He asks questions about where they are going and the PCs tell him. Apothis notices something's up; he's a little too curious.
The PCs try to figure out what his game is, but he's tight-lipped, even when Lendil 1/2 man-handles him. Orest pulls a dagger on them and tells them to get out of the store.
Orest is working with Kelson. The PCs rolled a 31 on an Intimidate check; I figured Orest would not talk, so I set the DC at 32 (Will + 10). Almost made it.
The leave and head into Moonstone Keep. They see the Lord and Lady and an emissary from the Knights of Nerath.
Allende takes them into a private chamber so they can talk. She just wonders if they've had any contact with Malchior - he sent her a message regarding an old family tomb being broken into and she wanted to know if Malchior had discovered anything more. The PCs hadn't heard from Malchior or the rest of the old PCs either, but they all assume they are doing fine.
The PCs ask some questions about the "gang problem" that Fallcrest is having and Allende starts lying. Apothis picks up on this and she finally says, "It's a family issue; please just leave it alone." Which they do.
When the PCs are leaving they spot a guy trying to look
too inconspicuous. They head in his direction and he starts walking away; he doesn't get far when Apothis launches some
grasping shards in his direction.
This intimidate check goes off with no problem and he says that he's been watching the PCs for Kelson. Kelson has holed up in his tavern while Grug and Vilebrew heal up. The PCs also learn that Kelson has something on Markelhay (that's the rumour); whatever it is, it's locked up in his safe.
The PCs feed him some misinformation - telling him they are going to leave town soon - before they head into the catacombs beneath Fallcrest.
The caverns are pretty big and full of junk from the villagers who sneak in here when they don't want to be seen. After some time they come to a large, windy room; the wind is strong, but Hekubus is carrying an everburning torch and it doesn't go out. Which is what the 3 chokers in the room were waiting for.
Hrogar spots the chokers and some loot all jammed into crevices in the walls. The chokers slip out to attack at this point. A quick fight, the chokers are killed.
The PCs gather the loot; Apothis looks for more loot and finds a set of tracks that he has trouble identifying. Hrogar recognizes some as gnome and elf, and Lendil realizes the other ones are dark creeper tracks.
They follow the tracks to a small room where a pair of elves and gnomes are telling each other stories; behind a curtain, in the dark, the dark creepers are praying to the Raven Queen.
Hekubus joins in the prayers and steps into the room. They parley. The PCs learn that the dark creepers are here to root out any death cult (ie: Orcus) activity. They also have been stealing from merchants (ie: they are bandits) in order to fund their activities.
These are bandits from Raven Roost.
The PCs aks them about the level; they don't know too much, just that there are some goblins to the north guarding stairs going down, and a long, long stair that leads to a creepy portal. "Nothing ever comes up that way, so we haven't checked it out."
The PCs thank them and head down the stair in search of the chaos tooth.
At the bottom of the stair they come to a small chamber. There is one exit: an archway carved into the likeness of a demon's mouth. In his mouth is a magical curtain of absolute darkness, and runes are carved all around it.
A magic mouth booms out: "Welcome to the Doom of Sarnath!"
History checks are made; Sarnath is the name of an ancient city that was old when the teiflings were still human. The runes around the archway are identified as a magic circle, keeping everything
out; going through here is a one-way trip.
The PCs step through.
They enter a dark hallway. Across from the stair room is a door; heading north a bit, they see a 4-way intersection, marked with the gore of a recent battle (fur, limbs, webs). To the north, nothing interesting; to the east, a door and webs blocking the hall; to the west, a door with an ettercap head on a pike.
The PCs head to the first door they spotted, across from the stair room.
It's a cross-shaped room covered with about 5 feet of water. A strange, ancient stone carving - a face with one large eye - stares out at them from the other end of the room. There's a skylight in the ceiling letting in some light, and two rows of pillars, very close together, that run down the length of the room.
Apothis spots two small somethings swimming in the water and a gelatinous cube. Hekubus steps into the water; the ripples he causes wake the cube, and we roll initiative.
The cube swallows Hekubus and Hrogar, the swimmers reveal themselves to be strange tadpoles that shimmer in and out of reality, and the eye in the strange stone face magically compels creatures to move forward. In the end the PCs win, hacking, slashing, and chaos bolting their way to victory.
I didn't run the cube very well, and I forgot to have the eye exert its pull. Oh well. Still a fun fight. The PCs had no idea what the tadpoles were. I also should have given Lendil some kind of "chaos" effect, though I don't know the Sorcerer well enough to know what that is.
After the battle Hekubus and Hrogar both feel something swimming around inside them. Little tadpoles. It doesn't seem to be a big issue right now, so they ignore it and move on.
[ident]Chaos Phage; from fighting in the water, not the tadpoles. Level 4.[/indent]
The PCs check out the skylights and find that the light just comes from nowhere, very strange. They also discover a corridor up there, so they follow it around.
It leads south, then west, then bends north again. They see a set of stairs going down. Dim light is coming up from those stairs and they can hear noises - screams of agony, wild barking laughter, shouts of ecstacy, etc.
Lendil pokes his head around the corner to see what's up:
The stairs descend to a balcony overlooking a torture room; tied to a rack is a young gnoll being tortured by a larger gnoll and a pair of orcs. Up on the balcony level a gnoll huntmaster is laughing crazily, and a human mage is foaming at the mouth.
The gnoll spots Lendil and we roll init.
The gnoll huntmaster hits Lendil with an arrow and they know it's going to be a hard fight.
The PCs focus on the mage; he gets one attack off (a nice area burst) before he is (mercifully) killed.
The gnoll claw fighter below tries to climb up but doesn't have much luck; the orcs try throwing their axes but can't hit anything. One of them moves towards a door.
The gnoll huntmaster, no allies on the balcony level, tries to retreat but he's held back by some
grasping shards; Apothis then summons his angel of fire to block his exit.
The orc opens up another door and yells out: "Fresh meat!" (Uh oh...)
The other orc throws his axe and kneels down; the orc who opened the door runs across the room, leaps onto the back of his friend, and jumps onto the balcony level.
The claw fighter below is finally able to make it up to the balcony level.
Hekubus (just finished killing the huntmaster) charges at the orc with a flying tackle, knocking them both down onto the ground.
Basic attack vs Fort, dealing 1d6+modifier damage and falling damage; Hekubus takes 1/2 the falling damage.
The orcs get up and hack at Hekubus; one of them nails him with a crit, dropping the Paladin right there.
Ranged fire from Apothis and Lendil takes out one of the orcs and damages the claw fighter on the balcony.
About that time another gnoll huntmaster and claw fighter enter the lower room, and the PCs can hear some hyenas in the other room. They'll be there soon!
Ignoring Hekubus, the claw fighter joins his buddy on the balcony level. The huntmaster keeps sending arrows into Hrogar.
Hrogar is able to get Hekubus back on his feet again and use his spirit companion to block the hyenas from attacking Hekubus before falling to the claw fighters. The hyenas tear into the spirit companion and send it back to wherever it came from.
Apothis feeds Hrogar a potion, Lendil takes out a claw fighter, but Hekubus (trying to extract himself) is taken down by the remaining orc.
And we called the game in the middle of the battle. Things look grim, especially for Hekubus. We'll see who survives!
