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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kayne" data-source="post: 1123192" data-attributes="member: 13153">Miles' Journal - Part SixteenChes 4th - We set off early after collecting our purchases from the Temple of Lathander (good thing about temples devoted to the morning lord is that they open early), leaving Halbrinn behind to fetch our purchases from the Thayans (bad thing about Thayans is that they are lazy good for nothings who sleep in late). After a couple hours we reached a hamlet that I had passed through a few times as the road to Clearwater runs through it. The settlement has been utterly destroyed, with everyone slain, some in appalling fashion, we found a baby nailed to a wall! The drow will pay in blood for this atrocity.Following the raiders trail we traced them back to an ancient set of crypts set against a cliff face in the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains. There are two old crypts and a huge set of stone double doors leading into the cliff face. Seeing no reason to disturb the crypts as we could find no evidence that the drow had either, we left those well alone and investigated the doors finding them to be barred. Adamo, Yvgeny and Vorin took it upon themselves to open the door. I sat back and watched as they shoulder charged the door over and over, eventually getting it open (and no doubt bruising themselves nastily in the process).Beyond the doors a corridor led away into the darkness and we headed inside cautiously, and then VERY cautiously as the first thing we spotted were the bodies of five drow arranged around a doorway. On inspecting the corpses we noticed that some had been killed by bludgenoing weapons, the rest by quarrels. Investigating beyond the door that that had died at we discovered a completely empty five chambered crypt. Very bizarre.Continuing on our way down the corridor it turned to the right and we then had another door to deal with on the left wall. Adamo opened the door and stepped into the room, only for a brace of golden lions to appear from nowhere and tear into him! Yvgeny acted fast and dragged him out of there, with our conjurer throwing up a wall of stone to seal off the room and prevent the lions from continuing their assault. While Yvgeny tended to the wizards wounds I checked another door a little further down the corridor to the right and nearly died as a black cloaked figure with a hideous skeletal visage passed out of the door (or through it) and leapt into me. I could feel my blood running cold, but I summoned every ounce of strength I could to fight the effect and emerged thankfully unscathed. Having seen this, the group were unanimous in leaving that door well alone!We headed down a long set of steps and emerged into a roughly hewn cavern, the walls of which were lined with niches filled with bones. Intent on investigating these Adamo nearly got ifected with yellow mold for his troubles, and we hurried onward into another cavern. this one though was empty save for a large and very strangely insectile statue in the middle of it. Yvgeny recognised the figure as a depiction of Jergal, an ancient God of the Dead! Needless to say I don't think there was one of us who did not leave an offering at the statues base in appeasement as we passed... right into a Roper! The damn thing had sited itself squarely in the middle of the tunnel leading out of the statues cave, and it easily grabbed Yvgeny and Vorin as they marched right into its tentacled clutches. Thankfully I had gotten very close to one of these in our last encounter with one, and I had seen a few flaws in its impressive chitinous armour. I ran at the beast and somersaulted over it. landing behind it and with the benefit of the burst of speed given me by my boots tore it to bloody ribbons with a few well placed sword strikes in its back.Picking up our priest and paladin out of the mess that had been the Roper, we headed on through a large and surprisingly empty cavern and then we spotted a side cave littered with piles of equipment. Greed getting the better of our common sense, we headed in and got ambushed by a demon of some sort (Yvgeny knowing all about fiends and such later told me it was a Maurezhi, a vile form of Tanar'ri). It's ambush did not do it much good though as it didn't pick its target very well, its attacks having little effect on me, and my swords doing considerable damage to it. Before it got another chance to try and wound me, Pavel (shapechanged into Troll form) walked up behind it and tore it limb from limb as though it were a ragdoll.That done, we searched through the equipment piles, finding many magical items that we placed in the groups bag of holding to sort out later on, and continued down the corridor into a large room with a hole leading downwards. Here we fought two drow (finally some sight of them) and their pet, a giant spider. While the rest seemed to be intimidated by taking on the darkelves, Pavel and I were extremely efficient in exterminating them all. It was at this point that Halbrinn arrived having finally caught up to us, and he had the wands we had ordered with him. We headed back to the large empty cavern and decided to rest up, right up until Pavel noticed that one wall of this cavern was illusionary, at which point we decided to split up. Adamo would use his magic to identify the equipment we had taken thus far from the demon and the drow corpses, and Yvgeny would remain on guard with him, while the rest of us explored this new section of the crypts.Once the wall had been proved to be illusionary, it was easy to disbelieve in it and we headed down a short corridor into a cave with two massive demonic spiders (called Bebiliths apparently). Halbrinn immediately unleashed his scare spell, thankfully killing one of the beasts straight away as the other proved to be a tough opponent to put down as its claws tore armour apart, ripping asunder my elven chainmail and vorins mithril shield and breastplate! Pavel and Vorin eventually killed it, but my lovely new suit of armour is lost. I am forced to rely on the heavier chain shirt I had been using before getting it, a good thing I didn't sell it on.Pavel again spotted an illusionary wall and passing through that we did battle with a pair of strange creatures that shifted between drow and spider forms. Steeled for a tough battle after dealing with the bebiliths, these were no match and I finished off both of them.It was then, as we were looting the bodies that Pavel spotted yet another illusionary wall! We passed through it... right into an ice storm spell and a group of four very well armed and armoured drow including a wizard and cleric. It was a tough fight and Pavel and myself were nearly killed during it, but in the end we killed all of them bar the wizard who managed to fly away. I got taken down by a lightning botl just before that though, and was later woken by Yvgeny and a woman called Deirdre.It appears that whilst I was unconscious there was a collossal misunderstanding which led to the rest of the group fighting a pitched battle against Deirdre, her Dire Lion companion and a human sorceror she was travelling with called Geoff. It seems Lord Morn (or more likely Respen) had sent them here to aid us. In the ensuing fight her Lion was killed and Adamo very nearly was also, though he was thankfully saved by Yvgeny before he succumbed to his near fatal wounds. Once we had gotten acquainted with each other, we decided to press our attack down the hole to the next level of the crypts...</blockquote>

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