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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manzanita" data-source="post: 2178109" data-attributes="member: 10109">Background part IIA few days out of Sevastopol to the North, the group made camp and tethered their horses.  A strange man dressed in roman gear stumbled out of the night requesting aid, telling how his archeological dig had been set upon by orcs and he had narrowly escaped with his life.As the group talked, orcs snuck up and attacked.  The party was able to drive them off, but not before Sergius, the treacherous archeologist, had killed Nathaniel.  In the battle, his strangely glowing spear was severed, and its red-hot tip taken by the party.  At times it has stopped glowing and cooled to the appearance of normal metal.  The party has not investigated this phenomenon much, and are unaware of what causes it to sometimes stop glowing.  Octar currently carries it in a jury-rigged pot of Mendicus’.The group then found the site of the buried city indicated on Brioc’s map.  Just before then, they rescued another Roman from two gnolls.  He stated his name was Tullius and was the security chief for the archeological expedition headed by Sergius.  Sergius evidently discovered the spear in the caverns, then had his orc allies slaughter the rest of the group.  Sergius himself seems to of orcish heritage.Tullius retained hope that the other expedition leader was alive, as he claims to have seen him dragged underground by the gnolls who subsequently showed up and slaughtered the orcs.  Taking weapons found on slain orc and gnolls, Tullius accompanied the party underground.The party discovered a mazelike series of caverns inhabited by gnolls and lizardmen and undead.  One lizardman, G’ruk, formed an uneasy alliance with the party after having been defeated handily in combat.  G’ruk indicated he was willing to betray his King, a minotaur residing deeper in the complex, if the party would aid him in discovering artifacts left by the Saurons, an ancient race of intelligent lizardmen who were defeated thousands of years earlier by the Melnibolean Elves.G’ruk led the party deep into the caverns, revealing that he had met Sergius there and showing them approximately where Sergius had found the spear.  At that point a water elemental erupted from the river and apparently killed the lizardman leader, although his body was not found.The party also encountered humans, belonging to the cult of Coeus, a Titan long though dead by the world.  The seem to have largely destroyed this cult, and discovered the human village of Thracia nearby.  This village is a delapadated homlet, on the edge of destruction.  It could benefit from the safety of an empire such as Rome.  Returning the caverns, the party struck a second deal with a Gynosphinx.  She claimed to know the location of the tomb of Menaleus, a Greek general, and asked the party to retrieve a magic book from this tomb, in exchange for knowledge of its location.  She allowed them to descend further into the complex, but took the rope after lowering them, leaving them apparently at her mercy as to their escape.  In this new area, Ehlannis located a powerful magic source, but has been unable to find a door leading there.  The party is currently hunting for a route to this location.</blockquote>

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