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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1245669" data-attributes="member: 3649">Episode 3: I Bring Fire To Our Enemies –or—Two There Are… The party consists of…Vorz, male Litorian Totem Warrior (Wolf)Sellik, male Verrik Mage BladeKyran, female Verrik Iron WitchMont Nuyen, male Human Unbound UnfetteredAlayah, female Loresong Faen GreenbondAnd joining our intrepid band… Na-Vilarus, male Giant Giant Thirdmonth 5 Talking to Iaske, the party relates their latest exploit as the Greenbond Alayah helps her sister with the various infusions the party needs. Eager to aid against any incursion of the Dark, Iaske gifts the young heroes with potions of healing. Ia-Ka returns with Na-Vilarus, a young giant who has joined the Guard; she binds Na-Vilarus to aid the group with a series of oaths and sworn vows.  The next morning, the party checks on their armor and finds that the last bit of ordered armor, for Vorz, is ready. They talk with the armorer, and find out that the best swordsmith in the city is Tel-Morn, the Queen’s Own Bladesmith; other than he, the human Garas is the best. He also mentions the merchant Lorin, since they will hear of him from others, but he does not speak well of the man calling him a possible grave-robber and battlefield scavenger.  Next, they go to buy supplies from the chandler Telmos Copperwright, Eana’s master. They find him to be an affable man who is curious as the Mont’s intentions towards his apprentice; the man is quite protective of her now that she is close to being a Journeyman.   Armed with torches, more rope, and various other delving supplies the group once more descends into the ruins past Crowsgate, and go back to the ruined temple. It’s raining terribly hard and they are glad of the shelter the leaky temple provides before they open the hidden door and descend into the depths. They move to a collapsed section and can see light over the rubble; boosting Alayah up so she can see, they expose her to kobold crossbow fire! Coming away with a minor wound, Alayah stays back while burning oil and tossed darts take care of the small creatures. Scrambling over the collapsed section, the group finds a steep ramp; descending it, they find themselves in a terrible room full of bones and old blood, with two savage serpent/insect things that are pulling a kobold to bits. Seeing the party, the things mindlessly attack. The fight is a terrific one, the hideous things taking tremendous damage against their hides. One repeatedly attacks Mont, it’s entire head gaping open to reveal fanged jaws and a terrible bony extension of hooked mouthparts that works greedily. It apparently tries to fasten to his throat and drain blood, but to no avail. After a long fight, the hideous things lie dead; Mont takes particular care to kill them, and takes the head from one. Ascending out of the abattoir, they happen upon the main mining shaft. The kobolds here are a particularly wretched lot; most flee from the sight of the insect/snake head, the others fall to the swords of the party. One kobold, in fact the same one that survived the courtyard fight days before, jumps down the shaft and scuttles into a lower tunnel. They also see that kobolds that fall down the shaft are snatched up by a muscular tentacle about fifty feet down and crushed into pudding before being dragged into the darkness.  An alarm has been sounded, so the group decides to return to the surface. They scramble back over the collapsed section only to find a group of kobolds waiting for them. They kill most of them, but keep two alive to take away for questioning. Removing to the run-down boarding house/inn they went to days before (they find the name of the place is The Hanged Dog, complete with cleaned dog skeleton). They encounter the young man with the seashell necklace once more and find his name is Conn. Using Conn’s room as an interrogation room, they browbeat the kobolds to find out what they know, which is precious little. A smaller kobold by name of Rizz survives the questioning and they take him along. Na-Vilarus even gets him clothes and shoes.  They take the bug/snake head to the scholar Mellen, who is greatly disturbed by the unnatural thing. He promises to relay the request to his superiors. The group goes back to the inn, bathes and eats.  Thirdmonth 5, Later that night…. The group rests for the remainder of the day and decides to make a night assault on the underground lair, seeking to kill what Rizz refers to as ‘The Master’. Now that the rain has stopped, they decide to find the well/shaft entrance to the west of the ruined temple. Coming upon the entrance, they find kobolds carrying away dirt and rubble sent up from below; watching over them are two lizardman guards and some hooded figure. The group decides to attack, and the hooded figure moves to divest itself of the concealing disguise in order to climb down the well. Revealed, the figure looks like a starved woman that’s been set on fire, with blackened flaking skin. Hissing at the approaching swordsmen, she drives her iron-like claws into the stone of the well and begins to climb down the shaft.  Vorz decides he cannot let this happen and leaps in after her! Grabbing her as he descends, he tries to simply grapple her until he can grab the rope. She doesn’t manage to hold onto the wall with the Litorian’s weight, and both go tumbling down the shaft. Seeing his friend do this, Mont also dives in after them, kicking himself off from the rim of the well to give himself added momentum as he follows his friend into the darkness.  Meanwhile the remainder of the group finds themselves in a tough fight against the lizardmen. Sellik rushes to the well to try and animate Votz’ greatsword so it can wedge them into the shaft, but fails. He turns back to the fight after seeing Mont use their momentum to swing the entire group into one of the corridors. The burned woman continues to struggle against Vorz, but to no avail as he tries to crush her in his powerful arms. The sudden change in direction pitches all onto the corridor floor and the woman rolls up free from Vorz’ grasp.  The undead woman attacks with her claws, and a great battle is joined; she can’t seem to lay a claw on Vorz, but neither can either of them seem to damage her much. After the lizardmen up top are killed, the group slides down Alayah’s rope and joins the fight one by one. The undead thing simply refuses to die, but the combined might of the entire party beating on her finally manage to drive her back down to dust. They recover a jeweled amulet that seemed to have been burned into her body, and leave to explore this new shaft. After a pitched battle with dire rats and their wererat-goblin leading them, the group once more finds their way back to the corridor they entered. Now taking the other passageway, they quickly come upon what Rizz refers to as the food storage area. It’s a prison.  There they find four humans, a man, a woman, a boy and a girl; all are in various states of privation. The woman detects as having some kind of disease but Alayah can’t determine what it is. They free the prisoners and tell them that if they’re not back in 30 minutes, that the escape route is up the way they came.  They find the serpent temple area, and with it the yuan-ti half-breed guardian/priest who is watching over this entire operation. Mont wants to flee, but after seeing the rest of the group wants to stay and fight, he dives back into the fray with the cultists. Ignoring the cultists, Mont makes for ‘The Master’, who reveals his serpent-bodied appearance and attacks. Battle is joined as they rest of the party dispatches the cultists and swarm ‘The Master’ in a devastating attack that puts the snake-man dead on the ground before he can even attack.  Clearing the area, the party takes the former prisoners and makes their way back to Iaske’s place of business; they rouse the healer from her bed and she is horrified to see the woman prisoners condition. Finally after knocking the woman out with drugs, she tells the rest of the party that she bears the teeming litter of the yaun-ti. Iaska informs them she’ll do her best to save the woman, but that if the infestation cannot be aborted.. the woman simply won’t wake up after the treatment.  Ia-Ka is summoned, and takes a report from Na-Vilarus as well as the rest of the party. Divying up the spoils from the temple, plus the reward from the Steward for ridding the city of these cultists, they discover that ‘The Master’s’ short sword is magical. A short conference is held, and the party begins to make it’s way back to the inn. Iaska does stop them with disturbing news. She tells them that ‘The Master’ must have a mate somewhere, and that the female is always deadlier than the male. Initial plans are made to use the map Arad gave them to investigate the ruined watchtower high in the mountains, but sleep seems like the best course of action now… --Everyone save Na-Vilarus is now second level. </blockquote>

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