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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nydia" data-source="post: 1490033" data-attributes="member: 18593">4th of Tarsakh, 1376 D.R.There was another robbery today. This time it was Jerome’s General Store that was hit. I heard all of their ale was taken. Strange...The others are over at the tenement building right now, staking out the slums, trying to catch the people responsible for these crimes. I’m in my room at the Paladin’s Mount, and I have to admit that it’s pretty damn boring here. Having a retired Paladin as the owner has its advantages, but it has its disadvantages too. For one, there’s never anything interesting going on here! They never have any shows, no fights ever break-out in the common room. The only things that do go on in the common room are quiet card games and private conversations! Even now, I can’t hear anything going on in the rooms next door and across the hall from mine. I can hear the street below my window just fine, and I can vaguely hear pots and pans clattering downstairs. It’s so unbelievably boring here. But it’s early yet, so it might pick up. Hahahaha! That was a joke. I think I’ll go join the others on their stake-out. Catching a criminal could be fun. Spying on people should prove interesting at any rate...more interesting than spending the night here.6th of Tarsakh, 1376 D.R.Well, I’m writing this early morning on the 6th. As it turns out, last night was more interesting than staying at the Paladin's Mount. I’m at the courthouse at the moment and the sun is just now beginning to rise. The stake-out wasn't much of a success, but we did discover, quite accidentally, that an undead Nat Wyler has been causing all of the break-ins. He managed to ransack the Gilded Lily, and broke into a woman's house before we found him. He was just sitting there in the woman's rocking chair, watching her sleep, clutching a small box of scented talcum powder in one hand, and a clump of dead flowers in the other. It was such a bizarre scene, but it was also a little sad. I wonder who he was trying to visit?Mithras is such an ASS! Sorry, I’m still a little upset over this. We had a confrontation earlier this morning. There was a large fight at Nat Wyler’s Bell, a local tavern. The tavern’s owner, an aggravating little Gnome named Gnahac Gnarlnose, owed the wrong people money apparently, and they sent some enforcers to collect. There were five thugs and our party took them all down. Katar killed three of them himself. I didn’t know that there was a thieve’s guild in Phlan, but it would appear that I was wrong. The two thugs who survived were taken into custody.As it turns out, Nat Wyler had been raised from the dead by a particularly vengeful priest of Waukeen. We managed to garner this information from Gnahac, who proved very willing to speak to us after we had rescued him. The priest's name is Vilek Tantamon, and he is disgusting in every way imaginable! One of my older sisters used to say that some people were born entirely without taste, and I used to think her petty for feeling that way, but after speaking to that obnoxious lout I believe her. I would try to describe the inside of his house, but some things just cannot be put into words. It was ghastly! I was so annoyed that I swiped a gold pen case off one of his shelves. That was wrong, I know, but I was angry and it felt good.What angers me the most, however, is Mithras. It very nearly came to blows between us! After the priests from The Waiting returned Nat Wyler to his slumber, Mithras unleashed his rage upon Tantamon. He had the cleric by the throat and I think he would have killed him if I hadn't stopped him. When I got him to release Tantamon, he started screaming at me. He called me a pest, a blight upon the world, a disease! He said that I had no right to question him! He dare he say those things to me! He doesn’t even know me! The ridiculous jerk! He wouldn't listen to a word I was trying to say! It was infuriating!  Mithras can choke on his precious Elven pride for all I care! I bet I don’t even get an apology from him either when this is all over!Pompous ASS!Pompous No-good Elven ASS!I haven’t seen him since the fight. I haven’t seen any of the others in fact. Nat Wyler walking around was sad, but it must have affected them far more than it affected me. I guess they’ve never had any experiences with undead before. I suppose it makes sense. I can still remember my first encounter with one of father’s zombies…Damn... I think I may be running out of ink again... I will have to pay a visit to Potent Potables today. I’d better go back to the Paladin’s Mount and get some sleep. Yes, definitely more ink.Damn Mithras!30th of Tarsakh, 1376 D.R.I cannot adequately describe the HELL that was today! It started off like any other day, but isn’t that how all horrid days begin? I had just risen from bed this morning, and was practicing my harp before my bath when the warning horn began to sound. I had never heard it before, and I didn't know what it meant, but I knew that something was wrong when the normally quiet people in the Paladin’s Mount began to scream and bolt from their rooms.I managed to stop a man fleeing down the hall with his belongings long enough to ask what was going on, and I was told that the horn that was sounding was the dragon alert. Well, quickly I threw my stuff in my bags and carried them downstairs. I must've taken longer than I had wanted, because by the time I had made it downstairs, only myself and Jaroff remained in the Mount. Jaroff had donned his armor, and had told me that I needed to leave quickly.I went to the stable and loaded up Cotton, the donkey that I had purchased this past week. He’s a stubborn animal, but thankfully he isn’t too mean. I found Jaroff readying his warhorse and wished him all the luck I could. I haven't seen him since. I hope nothing terrible happened to him...After Jaroff thundered out of the stable on his war charger, I led Cotton out of the stable. The street outside of the inn was packed with screaming terrified humanity. Already, I had lost sight of Jaroff, miraculously, but I could see the dragon coming… I had to fight my way through those people, clinging to Cotton's lead with a death-grip, but I didn’t follow the crowd. I fought my way through to the alleyway across the street.Cotton and I kept to that alley, and I’m very glad that we did! We hadn't run 30 feet down that alley before that massive red dragon swooped down in all of its terrifying glory and landed with a heart-wrenching crunch down upon the roof of the Paladin’s Mount. I could still see Half of the inn collapsed immediately, forcing the dragon to actually step down into the street. I know that it had to have crushed people, they were all packed so tightly together...I thought that the dragon was going to open with its fiery breath, but for a few moments it just sat there staring down at the streets so packed with flesh below it as if it wasn’t entirely impressed.  I’m certainly no expert on the motives of dragons, but I could swear that it was smiling as it did so! Finally, after those few fleeting moments were done, it lowered its massive head and began to gorge itself on the citizens of Phlan.The crunching sounds and the screams..they were all so horrible… I tried not to listen as I led Cotton further down that alleyway toward the Stojanow gate. I was halfway to Kuto’s Well Road when I saw Mithras just standing there in the middle of the street, staring at the dragon! Terrified citizens were screaming, and pouring down the road all around him, but Mithras just stood there, unmoving, staring at the dragon! I screamed as loudly as I could for him to come to the alleyway, but he couldn't hear me over everyone else. I tried waving at him, but that didn't work either. Mithras is just tall enough that I could make out his shoulders and head above the fleeing Phlanians, but I imagine that he wouldn't have seen me at all. Finally, I reached down and grabbed a brick from one of the newer buildings, and I threw it at him. Thankfully, it hit his shoulder, jarring him enough from the sight of the dragon that he looked around for who had thrown it. That's when he caught sight of me, frantically waving and shouting at him to come over to where I was. He just stood there for a moment or two, and I swear from the look I saw on his face that he didn't recognize me. When I finally did see the recognition dawn on his eyes, he made his way through the crowd over to my alleyway. He sounded like he was in a trance....he just kept asking me what he should do. I ordered him to find Mattathias, Nym, and Katar and then bring them to the Grove. I told them I would meet them all there. He nodded, like he really hadn't heard me at all, and then walked back out into the street. Please believe me when I say that I’m not a coward. True, I was fleeing for the gate, but I didn’t see how Phlan could possibly stand against a rampaging great red wyrm. Nobody in the entire city, that I knew of, could possibly have stood against that dragon. Mystra, thank all that's holy, didn't rob me completely of my gift, and it is coming back, little by little, but what good were my paltry magic missiles going to do against that dragon?! I can still only create one missile, and that's not even enough to kill an orc! I had decided that it was time to leave the city while we still had the chance. I sent Mithras to gather the others because I didn't want them to die either. Obviously, Mithras must not have heard me, because nobody else made it to the Grove! I sat there in that grove and waited for them and they never showed up! On the way there I had seen the armed and mounted city guard making their way toward the dragon, and I had learned that every battle ready priest and wizard in Phlan had gone to fight the wyrm. From what I could see, nothing was having much of an effect on the creature. As it continued to feed, and spells and arrows continued to fly, it was all that I could do to keep myself from just grabbing Cotton's lead and getting out of that city. Miraculously, or so I had thought at the time, the dragon just raised his head into the air, spread out his wings, and flew off back towards the mountains. I was stunned. I was fully expecting that dragon to level the entire city!While I sat and continued to wait for the others, I overheard a conversation between two guards that were standing a few feet away from me. From what they were saying, Aelthas Jelabras had escaped during the attack. Aelthas Jelabras, the man who had enslaved Katar and ordered the deaths of Nym's family, was free once more. When I heard that, I immediately sought out the others. I found them at the ruins of what was the Paladin’s Mount. It looked like the rest of the inn had collapsed at some point, and where the structure had been standing, a large hole had opened up in the ground. Mithras, Nym, Mattathias, and Katar, as well as several of The Waiting’s priests, and a large number of others, stood peering down into this hole. I ran up to the edge with them, and I could see and hear survivors down in the rubble. Ropes were being lowered down so that the wounded cold be brought up to safety. I went to help, accepting a rope from a generous elf that was standing near, and nearly broke my tailbone trying to descend.The rope was dustier than I thought it was, and my hands slipped. I landed right on my behind. It felt like agony..but what I found down there made me forget it all! In the hole stood a crumbling statue of a man with incredibly long arms. One of the arms was broken, but the other was intact, and at the base of the statue, in some form of code, were the words:Ride the waves ofThe Weave, and visitPlaces of the past,Present, and future.After being in this damn city for nearly three months, I had finally found something! I was so overwhelmed! For just those moments, those fleeting, fleeting moments before that cursed hole filled with sewage, I was overjoyed! For just those few moments I felt that I had finally accomplished something, that what I needed was within my grasp! Then, before I could search for anything else, it was all gone…The walls began to cave, and sewage poured into the hole. The others got all of the wounded out in time, but I didn't want to leave! But I had to.... Now my only lead is at the bottom of 30 feet of filth! Just my cursed luck… curse the fates!However, the murk-filled hole soon became the least of our worries. Once I told everyone of Jelabras’s disappearance, we all made our way to the courthouse. Well, all of us with the exception of Katar. The centaur claimed that he had to go to the Quivering Forest to gather some herbs. I can see that he was angry. Katar tends to get a little violent when he's angry, and I wonder if he didn't want to go because he knew that he'd just be upset. I considered asking him if that was the case, but I decided against it.In hindsight, I'm very glad that he wasn't with us when we went. We were all treated like dirt at the door of the courthouse by some racist dung-herding guard and his band of miscreants, but Nym learned a startling bit of news. A woman meeting the description of his lost friend, Breeze, had been spotted in the ruins! I only learned of this development later myself. In order to diffuse the racial situation at the courthouse door, I had taken Mithras to the Grove. When I had gotten there, I changed out of my muddy clothes. Mithras stalked off to go change somewhere deeper in the Grove than I was, but I know he was watching me while I was changing, looking at me naked. I don’t think he knew that I had seen him peaking, and I was tempted to sneak a peek at him for revenge, but that wouldn’t be lady-like now would it? Tee hee!When we had redressed, we returned to the courthouse to find Nym and Mattathias were already speaking to Councilman Geth inside. Mithras and I had to fight our way through the throng of angry, weeping people in the main room, where Mithras’s money purse was almost cut by what I could have sworn was a child.We reported the thief when we had gotten into Geth's office, and he had told us that the thief had actually been a halfling. Apparently, some halflings had established a thieve’s guild or sorts somewhere in the ruins, but he had know idea where. We also learned that Jelabras had escaped from his cell with the aid of a guard that had retained loyalty to him. Where Jelabras had gone to, Geth didn’t know either, but he had been sure the bastard was still in the city. As far as Nym’s friend Breeze went, yes Geth had heard of her. He had heard that she was a slave, and he was certain she was up for sale somewhere in the ruins. He promised that they would do everything that they could to find her before she was sold and smuggled out of the city, but he did warn us that at the moment, it couldn't be much. The dragon had done far too much damage. When Geth learned that I had been staying at the now-ruined Paladin's Mount, he offered to pay for my short stay in the Cracked Crown. I took my things there after our visit. Everyone else dined there for a bit, but then we were off to go rescue Nym’s friend. If she was really up for sale, then we knew that we didn't have much time. I really had no idea how we were going to save Breeze, but it didn't really matter right that instant. It only mattered that Nym was desparate to find her. We did know that there was no way we could afford to purchase her. I can imagine that a beautiful green-haired half-sea elven dancer wouldn't be sold for cheap. We went ready for a fight.It was a good thing we did, because we walked right into the middle of a riot. I’m not sure how to riot started, but it was clearly racially motivated. We were in the poorer area of New Phlan, making our way toward the old Cardona textile house, when we encountered the rioters. It was shocking to see them...destroying their own neighborhoods...We managed to rescue a woman from a band of males intent on foul things, but we all split up just after that. Mattathias ran back to The Waiting to see about getting some more help for the citizens, and Mithras darted down an alleyway in pursuit of two men wielding flame cocktails.The two men had set fire to an innocent bystander, and I tried to take the injured man to The Waiting for help. Nym just kept on going in the direction of the ruins, further into the insanity, to find his friend. I sent Isis to look after him.Halfway down the street toward The Waiting, I was met by a tall, gaunt man that I had never seen before. The man, who introduced himself as Razsamar, told me that my charge was dead, but then he proposed something quite interesting. I set the poor man down, and checked him to be certain that he was, indeed, dead, and Razsamar spoke. He explained that he desired to be reunited with Nym’s lost friend, Samar, whom Razsamar claimed was a portion of himself who was split from him when a longevity spell went haywire.For my aid in this endeavor, he offered me an item, a scroll that would lead me to some “unknown source.” This “unknown source,” he claimed, could be utilized only by a sorcerer or sorceress, like me. I have no inkling of how he knew that I was a sorceress. Still, the proposition interested me, and I agreed to the wizard’s terms.I ran to find Nym, but was met instead by Mattathias who was running back down the way I had just come. We went to find Nym together, but then we both were accosted by a mob of angry-looking villagers with weapons and menacing looks in their eyes. Nym, who had been watching us from a nearby rooftop, managed to warn us before the mob caught us. Then the three of us fled in the direction of The Waiting. None of us knew where Mithras had gone off to, but we didn't have any opportunity to look for him either. We made it to the temple just before a huge mob of over a thousand villagers converged on it and the courthouse. I joined the defense of The Waiting’s gate, trying to protect the many wounded humans and non-humans alike who had sought safety behind it.Among the wounded were several of Lando’s children and grandchildren, as well as dwarves, gnomes, halflings, elves, half-elves, it was appalling! I couldn't believe it... Phlan had seemed like such a tolerant city. I couldn't believe that other humans could be so hateful against other peoples for no reason.I didn't want to use my magic on the villagers, so I nocked my arrows and shot at them instead. No matter how many arrows I shot into that mob, however; four others would spring up to take the place of the people I had felled. They had cut a tree from the Grove, which they had also set ablaze, and they were using the tree to try and batter the gates down. As I was finally preparing to send my paltry missiles of magic into the mob, Razsamar next to me on the battlements and said that it was time to leave.I didn’t want to just leave like that, with all of those innocent people counting on me and the guards for protection, but I knew that Razsamar would not wait. I didn't know what this "Unknown Source" was that he had spoken about, but aside from the hole, I was getting nowhere in Phlan. I was willing to take the chance that it was something that would prove useful to me. Besides, I knew that Phlan would have to sort this all out. I was merely a visitor afterall. Razsamar cast a teleportation spell and we were both removed from the gate. We appeared in an alleyway next to Mithras, Nym, Mattathias, and a dwarf that I had never seen before. The Dwarf was about as stout as Dwarves come, and about as armed as Dwarves come, but he didn't look too happy. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with half of his beard being missing. It looked like it had been burned off. Recently. Like earlier today recently. Razsamar introduced him as Beirdan Hammerthrower.After the introductions were made, Razsamar expressed a desire to leave Phlan immediately, but I just couldn’t leave my things behind. It seems silly to be so preoccupied with material things while the world is burning around you, but I just couldn’t leave them. My parents gave me a lot of those things…and the mizmar…my grandmother told me to keep it…it's all that I have left of my family. I was determined not to leave Phlan without them.I made a big enough show about not wanting to leave without my belongings that finally Mattathias agreed to go with me to the Cracked Crown. We never made it that far. As we passed by Mielikki's grove, we saw the horrifying sight of Lando the Elven bowyer hanging upside-down unconscious from a tree. He was covered with blood from where he had been savagely beaten, but even then I could see that half of his left ear had been cut off. Mattathias and I removed him from the tree, and we carried him back to the alleyway with the others. I poured a few more of my potions down his throat, and Mattathias used his healing spells to revive him. The elf climbed to his feet, leaning against a wall for support, and asked for a weapon. I gave him the bow I had been using to defend the walls of The Waiting. It was the bow belonging to one of his sons. Its owner had been too wounded to use it. Lando clearly recognized it, and I quickly informed him that his family was at the temple. He nodded wearily and began to stumbled off in that direction. We could all hear the shouting and the sounds of the tree crashing into The Waiting's gate from where we were, but Lando didn't seem to care. Razsamar repeated, urgently, his desire to leave the city at that moment. A less than bright group of rioters made the mistake of rounding the corner at that moment. When they saw the Elves and Dwarf, they shouted and charged at them. Razsamar let loose a volley of magic missiles, killing three of them. We had been spotted. I knew there could no return trip to the Cracked Crown now. We had to leave. A second group of rioters, only slightly more intelligent than the first, rounded the corner behind us. There were five of them, and they came right at us. I was casting the spell before I could stop myself. It was only a single magic missile , but even as the bolt of magic left my fingers, I knew that the spell would most likely kill the man I was aiming for... the one that I had guessed was their leader. Sure enough, the missile caught him in the chest and threw him backwards against a wall. He didn't move. The other four came to their senses and ran off to get reinforcements. I couldn't believe what I had just done..casting the spell had been almost like a reflex action. I had deliberately killed someone with my magic...  Even though I had known that it would come to that someday, it was no less horrifying what I had done. I had killed that man....just like I had killed her...I felt so horrible... I hadn’t even attempted to find another way…I had just cast the spell, and I had killed him. I don't even know who he was..or what he did...who did he have waiting for him somewhere....? The sickness in my heart only increased when it became clear that we would have to leave Lando behind. He was still so weak, and wounded…alone in a city filled with those bastard rioters, determined to save his family. I didn’t want to leave him, part of me wanted to stay and help, somehow! But I knew that I couldn’t…. The other party of me didn't want to stay. The other part was so disgusted and heartsick that it wanted to leave all of this behind and never return. Lando hobbled off in the direction of The Waiting, and we left like cowards. I left Phlan and all of those innocent people just so I could get some damn scroll....some great adventurer I am.....I feel like such..such.....garbage!It was of no comfort at all when Razsamar promised me that he would have my things brought to me. By then we had all gone through his gate and ended up outside the city’s walls. Compared to Lando’s anguish, my belongings just didn’t matter anymore.We were forced to swim a little bit around one of the corners of the city wall, and after trudging around in our icy wet clothes, we finally found our way to the Stojanow main gate. When we got there we discovered the dead body of a small elven girl. She was laying there on the other side of the bridge, facedown in the mud with an arrow in her back. It made me so sick! I hated Phlan so damn much! I hated all of those stupid hateful people! She was just a toddler, trying to run away..and some bastard shot her down. It made me so sick that I actually wanted to go back into Phlan and just start killing all of them... Her small body...she reminded me so much of my little nephew Ryes. Mithras silently picked up her little body and carried her with us, not willing to leave it at the mercy of those who had murdered her.We stopped at the Valhingen Cemetery and the others attempted to gather wood for a funeral pyre, but I couldn’t. I was so numb and so tired. I just stood there, holding Isis tightly. I was in so much shock...  Even in Valhingen we could hear the sounds of the riot continuing, and we could see and smell the black smoke of burning homes... I don't understand why someone could do something so horrible to someone else..or why a whole city would willingly destroy itself... I know that father would claim that it was because the Phlanians are lesser people than we are...that most other people, in fact, are little more than panicky herd animals..no matter how much they try to delude themselves into thinking otherwise. I really hate father sometimes...damn him...damn Phlan!I didn't really know we were going to leave until Mattathias shook me...I was in so much shock...He explained that the wood from the cemetery was tainted with evil..so we moved on, still carrying that poor girl’s body with us. As we shuffled quietly past, Nym swore that he saw a dark figure among the graves watching us. I didn't look in the direction that he was pointing...I didn't want to see it.We walked in silence for hours, Mattathias helping Razsamar who was obviously extremely exhausted from his earlier spell-casting. Razsamar looked like the walking dead...When it began to get dark, we stopped in a small wooded clearing just a little ways from the road. The area was clearly used by rangers, as evidenced by a hidden cache of food Nym found in a tree stump. We built a small fire and ate what we could. Everything tasted so bland...it caught in my throat.Before Mithras had even allowed himself to eat, however, he had erected a funeral pyre for the slain elfling and had set it, and the girl’s body, ablaze. We all watched the flames roar to life, consuming everything that it touched. We lost sight of the child's body after a few minutes, and nobody said anything as they freed her soul to go wherever it is that Elves go when they die. Hopefully she found a far finer world than the one she left…Greengrass, 1376 D.R.I had volunteered for second watch last night. I knew that it was the worst shift, but I took it anyway. Anything else would have been selfish of me. While I was on watch, Razsamar’s dwarven companion found us, carrying all of my items with him. That's how out of touch I was yesterday...I hadn't even noticed that Beirdan wasn't with us when we left Phlan. He was carrying all of my belongings, save Cotton and the bottle of Berduskan Dark Ale that Mithras had insisted on charging to me at the Cracked Crown.He told me not to bother waking Mattathias for his watch, and about an hour before sunrise he set about frying up some eggs and bacon for everyone. It smelled wonderful, and it tasted a lot better than the ranger rations, but it still caught in my throat. My heart still hung like an anchor in my chest. The smell woke the others. After we had all eaten, we began our journey anew.Razsamar looked even worse when he woke than he had when he had gone to sleep. He could walk, but barely, and not for more than a few steps without support from someone else. Beirdan told us that he was dying, and that he would most definetely die if he wasn’t reunited with Samar soon. We didn’t wait around too long in any one place, but with Razsamar's condition, the going was slow. We knew that we were headed for an abandoned Shrine to the goddess Tymora about a half-day's walk from Phlan, and after another several hours of walking, we found it.At first we didn't believe that we were looking at the shrine..or at least the building that housed the shrine. It looked utterly decrepit. It was a rundown cottage more than anything, built into the side of a hill. The roof was straw thatch, reinforced with..something. It might have been wood, I couldn't tell. The door was practically rotting away as we stood there. After we had determined that th whole cottage wouldn't fall in on us, we went inside. The room that we found ourselves in looked only marginally better than the outside, and we were immediately presented with a quandary.The room was bare, save for a crumbling stone well in the center, a dust-covered lute long broken, and, of course, the shrine. The shrine looked more like a bizarre sculpture than a shrine. It was sculpted from stone into the shape of a woman's cupped hand, palm upward as if to receive something. Near to the hand stood a shelf holding a few jars. At the base of the hand was an inscription in old Netherese that read:    Look to the shrine forWhat you seek,Choose the well and takeA chance on what you keep.After much arguing over which avenue we should go with: explore the shrine or the go down the well, it was Mattathias that inadvertently showed us the way. After placing a few of the dust covered jars into the woman's hand, Mattathias placed a single copper coin in the palm. To our amazement, the hand moved. It lowered slowly, producing a gravelly stone-grinding sound from the wall behind it, and the coin vanished. To our further amazement, Mattathias discovered three new coins in his pocket.Actually, they would have been coins, were they stamped and of any discernible material. They were shiny and of a silver color, but they weren't any silver that I had ever seen. Unable to figure out what they were at that moment, he dropped them into his money pouch with the rest of his money. Apparently, we had learned how to activate the shrine.Having heard of these shrines before, I was hesitant. Mithras, having observed Mattathias's boon, was not. Not heeding my warnings, he went next, dropping a whole gold coin into the woman's palm. The hand dropped further, producing the same sound as before, but nothing happened to him. Nothing at all. He didn’t grow wings, change colors, nothing. Nym went after the disappointed Mithras, dropping a silver into Tymora’s palm. A pair of small impish horn sprouted from the boy's forehead. When Mithras saw the horns sprout out, he ran from the cottage screaming.Undaunted, the dwarf went next. He dropped a silver coin into that cold palm and instantly his head began to glow brighter than any light spell, lantern, or torch. Every inch of hair and skin above his shoulders, even his eyes and mouth, glowed like a beacon. He was painful to look at! I named him Beirdan Brighthead.That left myself and Razsamar. The wizard opted to go fifth. As soon as that coin hit the palm, Razsamar shrunk over a foot in height. He didn’t seem happy, but clearly Razsamar had bigger (pardon the pun) things to worry about.I went last, placing one of my silvers into Tymora’s grasping hand and immediately I could feel its effects! It felt like a burning almost, but a good burning. I felt….lucky….I knew that it had to be good! Whatever it was...When each of us had partaken of Tymora’s mighty joke, the hand lowered down all the way to touch the stone floor, and the wall behind it opened. Behind the cupped hand was revealed an extremely low-ceilinged passageway carved out of sheer stone. The ceiling was so low that the dwarf had to crawl like the rest of us. Nym had succeeded in coaxing Mithras back into the cottage, but the tall Elf refused to enter the crawlspace. He must have a fear of tight spaces. I’ve heard of that malady. Terrible thing for an adventurer.Eventually he did go in, after a couple of long draughts from Beirdan’s handkeg of Dwarven spirits. When we had all entered, the stone door shut fast behind us, sending him into a frenzy. Mithras crawled over everyone behind him trying to get out, even knocking Razsamar against a wall, but he still didn’t make it. I hear that he was screaming and clawing at the stone before he finally just collapsed. Mattathias had to carry him the rest of the way through the crawlspace. Luckily it wasn’t too long.We emerged from the passage into a huge room. The crawlspace had opened up at the top of a staircase that circled an enormous crevasse. The stairs were rather narrow, and I peered over the edge to see down, I saw only darkness. Nym I think dropped a stone off the steps. None of us heard it hit bottom. Having no other way to go, we trudged down that staircase, most of us hugging the wall as closely as we could. Mithras, who had recovered his wits somewhat from the crawlspace, actually walked as closely to the edge as he could! He was practically dancing along the edge of the steps! He did that for a while...I don't know for how long. I don’t know how long it took to get to the bottom of that staircase either, but it felt like we walked for hours. During the descent I tried not to think about the events yesterday, but it was hard. There had been some light conversation on the trek to the shrine, but we had mostly kept away from topics relating to Phlan. It's still too raw to really discuss it. Razsamar claims that there's an underground tunnel that leads from this shrine to Phlan. I wonder if we'll find that tunnel, or what we'll find on the other side if we do. A door had awaited us at the bottom of the staircase, a thick locked sturdy wooden door braced by iron. We had attempted to open it, only to find it locked against us. Nym, with a little help from one of my picks, managed to get the door open. None of us knew what to expect, but what greeted us beyond the door was a bare stone hallway that led off to our left and right. At the far left end of the hall, there was a wall. To our right was a set of double-doors. There were two doors along the wall, on just next to the door we had just entered, and one across. Nym, ever the inquisitive one, decided that we should try to double-doors first. Against our better judgement, he crept into that room, and alerted the golem that had been guarding it. Nym shot out of that room like he had been fired from a bow! He ran past us as fast as his skinny legs could carry him. When we heard that golem's footsteps, Mattathias went to investigate. The cleric simply poked his head into that room, closed the double-doors, locked the double-doors, and then told us to run! We all bolted down that hallway, following Nym, just as the golem impacted the doors. Even Razsamar started moving a little faster when we heard that sickening crunch behind us. The doors gave way a moment later, and the immense stone construct stepped out into the hallway.We were all at the far end of the hall by that time, and we had discovered that it wasn't a dead-end, but veered into a small square room with another door at the end. Resting near the opposite wall of the room were two rotting ettins and their gear. In the second I took to actually look at the ettins, it became clear that they didn't bear any bludgeoning wounds, but I just didn't have time to study them further. I tried to open the door in front of us, but was locked fast, so I set to picking that lock. I realized even as I was pulling out my picks that if the others saw them, their opinion of me might change, but this was a matter of life or death. I decided that if they asked me about them later, I could explain it away. Luckily, no one has asked yet. The instant I heard that lock click, I flung open that door...and found a carrion crawler waiting on the other side.Wonderful, we were stuck between a stone golem and a carrion crawler and this was only the first corridor of the bloody dungeon! I slammed the door in the carrion crawler’s face and looked for something to help fight the golem, which was marching steadily toward us. Having had golems in my house with my parents, I knew that they were immune to the Art. Having had a few stone golems in particular, I knew that they were nearly impervious to blades. I tried to find myself a bludgeon. I searched the ettins gear as quickly as I could, and found three large stones. I was never a very good rock-thrower, but they were better than nothing. To make a long story short, we all fought for our lives!, Mithras and Beirdan would have certainly lost theirs were it not for the clerical administrations of Mattathias. Mattathias nearly died himself when that golem socked him, knocking him off his feet! In my desparation, I hurled one of the three large stones from the ettin packs at it. I guess I'm a better stone-thrower than I thought, because I managed to hit just below its left eye...if it had had a left eye. To my utter amazement, a huge chunk of its stony face just fell apart the minute that rock impacted it. There was no way that should have happened to a golem. Razsamar, noting the surprising amount of damage done to the golem by my rock, sent three of his magic missiles its way. They affected it!! It wasn't an actual golem! That, or it was a very shoddily constructed one...  The thing didn't last long after we found that out, but it was still a hard won fight in the end. All of the warriors, Mattathias, Mithras, and Beirdan, had nearly been killed and Razsamar was even nearer to death than he was before.While Beirdan helped Razsamar settle down for a rest, Nym and I picked through the few bags we had found with the ettins. Aside from the stones, there was only a few moldy food items and some ratty leather gear and rusted weaponry. Disappointed, we joined the others to rest. During our respite, I had inspected the "golem". In its chest I found a polished black stone in the shape of an oval. I pocketed it.When we were ready to continue again, we killed the carrion crawler that was still waiting behind that door. I harvested some select portions of its anatomy for use as spell components, and then we moved on. Not that I liked harvesting carrion crawler pieces, but I could practically hear my parents harping on me to get the maximum use out of the creature. Do these things ever stink though... We went back through the double-doors that had contained the "golem." The square room possessed four doors on each of the opposite walls. We discovered, through entering it, that the door to the left led to a trapped corridor. We didn't trigger the trap, but the gore marks left below a conspicious set of scrape marks on the wall made it perfectly clear that that's what it was. We even found the trigger, we think. We didn't bother entering the room that was protected by the trap. We were here to find Samar, and according to Razsamar he wasn't in there. We all knew where the double-doors in the "golem" room led to, so that left the doors facing north and south.We chose the north door first, and were met by a group of armed and bloodthirsty hobgoblins. When the hobgoblins tried to rush into the room and attack us, they hit the bearded brick wall of Beirdan Hammerthrower. I've never seen a Dwarf so happy to kill things! He just went at, smashing their heads and arms and legs with his massive hammer! He didn't even care at first how badly they were wounding him in return. I'm pretty sure that Beirdan actually tried to stop everyone else from getting in any hob kills. After a while, though, he was finally forced to stop. He had killed many of them, but had sustained too much injury. Mattathias healed him with Ilmater's blessing, and Mithras stepped up to battle the remaining hobgoblins. When both Beirdan and Mithras were occupied with the hobgoblins, we were set upon from behind by a small contingent of kobolds. There were 5 or 6 of them, and they were standing in the south doorway. One was casting spells, though its charm spell had no affect on me. Nym, Mattathias, and myself did battle with this new threat while Mithras and Beirdan continued to fight the hobs. During the combat, it struck me that something wasn't quite right about that casting kobold. It didn't move like the others kobolds, and they all seemed more afraid of it than they were of us, though were we the ones killing them. When Mattathias kicked it, we learned why. The monk-cleric's foot slamming it in the face seemed to shatter whatever concentration it needed to sustain the kobold illusion it was wearing. The small lizard semblance that it had worn simply vanished, replaced by a very real larger lizard semblance. It was a Yuan-ti! The instant that its illusion dropped, the Yuan-ti ducked back into the corridor, slamming that door against us. By that time, all of the hobgoblins had been slain. We set an alarm on that southern door, in case the kobolds and their friend decided to come back through behind us, and then we followed the corridor the hobgoblins had come through and found their lair. This was a larger room, and the only occupants that we could see were a single hobgoblin mother and the whimpering hobgoblin child that she was protecting. She came at us with a large cleaver, the kind you'd see in any butcher's shop in Faerun. Well, actually, she came at me, but Mithras intercepted, meeting her head on. With just a few flicks of that glass rapier of his, he had the cleaver out of her hand. Unarmed, it wasn't too hard to wrestle her to the ground and tie her up. We spared both the mother and her child, much to Beirdan's chagrin, but did help ourselves to the room’s curious amount of treasure. it was obvious that none of it was of goblinoid origin. There were adventuring packs, leather sacks, and about three trunks. Inside one of the trunks was a bag of red coins...the coins... I wonder if I can still go back and get them...We were forced to leave the coins because they made the others crazy. When I had picked one up to look at it, Mattathias attacked me for no reason and Mithras cut me! He cut me right on the chin with that little glass toothpick he calls a sword! When I tried to fight back, Mattathias knocked me out cold. I woke up in the hallway that we had rested at before. Apparently, we were all resting again. That bastard Mithras! He even kicked Isis! If those lousy bastards want those coins so damned badly, they’ll have to fight me for them! They have some kind of hold over Mithras and Mattathias. I can’t let them get their hands on them, which means I may have to carry them myself. I played my harp to keep their minds off the coins. I can get them later, when no one is looking.We took that final door, the south door, next. We knew that somewhere beyond that door, maybe close, lurked at least one Yuan-ti and its kobold minions, but Razsamar insisted that that was the way Samar had gone, so that’s the way we went. The door opened into a long corridor that stretched to our left and right, just like the other corridor. The kobolds had obviously been waiting for us. They attacked immediately, pelting us with arrows from the shadows to our right. Beirdan, Mithras, and Mattathias answered back by charging down that way after the feisty little yapping bastards. This, of course, left Nym and myself to protect Razsamar.When the three of us heard more scurrying from the shadows nearest to us, we nocked our arrows and prepared to shoot anything that came into view. Razsamar cast another spell, something I didn't recognize, causing a large glowing hand to just appear in the air before us. This 10-foot hand floated there, hovering around Razsamar like a bizarre hand-shaped magic shield. I figured that it had to be one of that wizard Bigby's spells.... I never bothered to learn any of those hand spells myself. They always struck me as being really silly. Though the three of us waited, nocked and ready to shoot anything that ventured out of the darkness, nothing did. When Mithras emerged from the right, telling us to go join Beirdan and Mattathias, we finally just left. I took up the rear, still aiming into the same shadows as before. As I was walking past that door that we had come through earlier, it struck me that that would be a wonderful time to go and grab those red coins. It occurs to me now, it didn't then, that those coins had a rather unhealthy hold over me. It had nothing to do with Mithras and Mattathias at all, except that they were trying to protect me. At the time, though, the only thing I was thinking was that I had to get them. While the others went to gather in that room, I slipped off to go collect the red coins. Even though I could hear Razsamar casting an evocation spell, another spell that I didn't recognize, I couldn't stop myself from leaving. Even when Isis was struck in the flank by an arrow that had been shot from the shadows, I wouldn't stop. When I noticed that Mithras was following me, probably waiting to steal them from me, I pretended not to notice him. He looked particularly haggard and I told myself that I could defeat him when the time came. I’m not certain what finally did make me stop…but, somehow, I did. I had made it to the door leading to the hobgoblin lair, and had had my hand on the door-handle. Perhaps it was the realization that behind the door that I was about the open there was an angry hobgoblin woman waiting to butcher a hapless human sorceress, as she had tried to butcher me earlier. Perhaps it was the pained whining of Isis, who limped along behind me, the arrow still stuck in her body.I don’t really know what it was but I stopped and I turned to face Mithras. He truly did look terrible.. I fed him the last of my curing potions, and he healed a bit, but it made me wonder why Mattathias hadn't healed him. Why did Mithras have an arrow sticking out of his chest? Fearing the worst, I followed him back to the room where the others were gathered. On the floor of this chamber lay Mattathias, gravely injured, and horribly burned. Beirdan lay beside him, closer to death than he had ever been up to that point I’m sure. A wheezing Razsamar lay against a wall, struggling to catch his breath. Every breath that he did take was so raspy that I thought it would be his last. Nym was frantic, not knowing whether to help Mattathias, Beirdan, or Razsamar. A body was chained down on a sort of sacrificial altar that clearly dominated the chamber, and two dead yuan-ti corpses lay where they had fallen. A pile of dead kobolds lay scattered outside the room. There was blood everywhere....It hit me then how frightful that combat must have been…I was horrified! I could have killed the entire party just by not being there to help them...Razsamar did manage to catch his breath, thanks the Gods, but I knew there could be no moving him for another few hours. None of us could stabilize Mattathias. he had been badly wounded helping Beirdan stave off the pair of Yuan-ti, and had bore the brunt of most of the creatures' acidic blood and secretions. Mattathias was dying, and I was all out of healing potions. I had given Mithras the last one. It had been Razsamar who had saved his life. The wizard had used more of his precious strength to pull a potion of Greater Healing from his robes. He handed it to Nym, who promptly fed it to the monk-cleric. Beirdan we did stabilize, or maybe he stabilized himself. I'm not sure. Dwarves are tough though. Especially when they have a job to do... We used another of Razsamar's potions on him, and Mattathias used his last healing spell to bring him back to at least partial health. He didn't have enough spells left to finish. When we had the door barricaded against any other threat that may have wanted to make itself known, mostly it was more kobolds, and had removed the arrows from Isis and Mithras, Mattathias unchained the body on the altar. The sacrifice had been a young human woman. She didn't look like a native to the Moonsea region. Her skin was darker, and her clothes were lighter than what most people up here wear. He told us that she had been a monk, like him. Then he saw what she had held in her hand. It was a crystal of some sort, and it glowed with magic. I didn't get a good look at it. He placed it in his pocket just before he removed the woman from the surface that she had been murdered on and set her down gently on the floor. While her perform funereal rites for her, the rest of us took to searching the rest of the room, paying close attention to the rest of the altar in particular. Aside from bodies, there wasn't much else in here.The structure was obviously set up in worship of some horrible god I’ve never heard of. It consisted of an immense stone sculpture crafted in the likeness of a hideously bloated goblin-like entity which loomed over the crudely fashioned stone sacrificial slab. I took note of the fact that there was no blood on the altar, even as the dead monk’s body was still warm enough for it to flow. Every other surface in that room was splattered with blood, but the surface of that altar was spotless. I decided to test a theory. I pricked my finger with the tip of my dagger. Every drop of my blood that fell upon the altar were absorbed into the stone, almost like a sponge...but the surface was still hard. Yet I could plainly hear water flowing from somewhere within the structure. It was right after that that someone noticed the stream of water flowing from out of the Yuan-ti god’s bottom. By bottom I mean his posterior..his seat. How utterly disgusting that they would erect such a foul altar to begin with! Having water flowing from its bowels is even worse!I forget who it was that discovered that the water had curative abilities, but soon we were all partaking of it. Actually, I think it may have been Beirdan, now that I think about it. When the Dwarf saw the pool of water, he plunged his head down into it and began to drink. He wasn't bothered at all by the fact that it was streaming from the...hole....of a bloated goblin creature. When he had drunk his fill, he threw back his head, and all of his wounds were gone! The half of his beard that had been burned off didn't return, he checked that right away, but he was no longer injured! Everyone else drank from the pool after that, and their wounds vanished as well. Even Razsamar, who hadn't been wounded at all during the fight, seemed to get better. He hasn't coughed once since he drank that water, and he's walking a little better too. When they were all done, I even drank a little. I wasn't wounded either, but when I felt that cool water slide down my throat and into my chest I lost all desire to go back and retrieve those red coins! In fact, I couldn’t remember why I had been so captivated by them in the first place! The only explanation that I can offer is that they were enchanted with some sort of spell that compels anyone who touches them to take them. It's better that I leave them down here. It’s only a matter of time before someone else finds them and returns them to the surface, but it won’t be me that does.We took a rest in that foul chamber. Mithras and Beirdan guarded the door from stray kobolds while the rest of us did what we could to gain sleep. I played a bit more on a harp that I had found within a pack in the hobgoblin lair. It really is a very nice instrument, and though it surely looks as plain as my travelling harp, I’m certain that it must be enchanted. Unlike my travelling harp, the notes seem to have an affect on everyone. They seem to sleep better when I'm playing. It bears some looking into when we get out of here. Some hours later, when we were as rested as we could be in a dank dungeon, we  gathered up our gear and loot and began back down the corridor. Mindful of the tittering that Nym, Razsamar, and I had heard earlier, we proceeded cautiously, Nym and I leading the way.The corridor opened into a larger room, and we encountered two more hobgoblins harassing a group of about three kobolds. After a short and easy combat, we dispatched the hobs and found that the three kobolds were quite willing to do our bidding now that the hobgoblins and Yuan-ti were no longer a threat to them. We had them lead us to their home, which they claimed was down a passage to our left. Razsamar had said that Samar was somewhere in that direction. Along the way to the kobold lair, we passed through another stone hall, discovered something curious. In this hall stood 12 very animated statues. They weren't golems, just very well-preserved statues that moved. They moved and made gestures to eachother. They even opened up their mouths and spoke, though no words could be heard. Their oral motions were so precise and authentic, that if I had been able to read lips, I'm sure I would have known what they were saying. It was almost as if they were alive, but they were obviously not sentient or guardians of any sort. Interesting.One thing that worried me was that a number of them had very cruel names. Each pedestal had a plaque in which the name of each person depicted in these amazing statues could be read. I've never heard of any of those people before, and I only managed to write down 8 of the names before the others started giving me the evil-eye.These are the 8 names that I could write down:Grigor the MarvelousMiri the TerribleBlaera JelabrasBladebite the SharpUngred the TerribleTibidoch the HappyAmafrey Brightwoodand Werhtek the CruelI found the statue bearing the name Blaera Jelabras particularly interesting. It was a woman, and a wizardress by the looks of her. I wonder if there is any relation to Aelthas Jelabras? One might be tempted to think that it's just one amazing coincidence. I remember something father said, however: "The only people who believe in coincidence are the dead, and those soon to join them" Those people, whoever they were, must have built this dungeon, or at least controlled it at some point. I may have to do some researching somewhere when we get out of here. At any rate, after I was dragged away from the statues, the kobolds lead us to their portion of the dungeon, which you could only get to if you passed through a pair of tightly locked and closely guarded doors. Our kobold emissaries talked the guards into letting us through one of the doors, the one that faced in the direction that Razsamar said Samar had gone. The door opened up into a narrow corridor that took us to a foreboding hole in the wall. I could see nothing on the other side of the hole but darkness.Nym and I, of course, went first.  The air was incredibly humid and stuffy, and our torches were beginning to grow dim, but from what I could see, we had found ourselves in some sort of natural cavern. There was an odd smell to the place, old, musty, and bitter. It was hard to describe precisely what it smelled like, but it wasn't appealing. The others followed us in slowly. When we were all here, except for the kobolds who refused to even go near the hole, we started forward into the darkness. We walked for what felt like a mile before we discovered a small chamber that appeared to have been formed naturally in the rock. Though our torchlight couldn't illuminate the entire room, we could see, from the entrance, things that weren't natural. Skeletal remains of humanoids could be seen laying on the surface of the cavern, along with whatever they had been wearing. Mattathias and Nym went in to investigate while Mithras and Beirdan kept an eye on the surrounding walls. Razsamar and I stayed back at the entrance. The light was just enough that I could see Mattathias nudging one of the skeletons with his shoe while Nym dashed off into the darkness further off in the chamber, and out of my sight. Satisfied, I imagine, that the skeletons would stay dead, Mattathias went over to find Nym. The boy was standing at the far end of the cavern, staring at a battered stone throne. Upon the throne sat another skeleton. From what I could see of this other skeleton, it was even older than the two laying on the ground. The bones looked ready to crumble into dust. It looked like the cobwebs were the only thing still holding the skeleton together. Everything that had been..entombed...with it had long ago disintegrated. The chamber was obviously someone’s crypt, their final resting place. Even though the monk and elfling were doing it, it just felt, dirty... wrong. I couldn’t bring myself to search that room. I suppose I can blame father for that one. Well, despite the effort, Mattathias, Nym, and Mithras didn’t seem to find anything of any value. The displacer beast that was using the chamber as a lair, however, decided that he’d found a good meal. It leapt at Mattathias from a shadowy ledge on the wall, nearly taking the cleric down with a single mighty swipe of its ebony claws.Mattathias was hurt, and he stumbled back a little, taken by surprise by the sudden onslaught. The others rushed to his rescue, Mithras with that lovely glass sword of his, Nym with his throwing daggers, and Beirdan with his mighty hammer. Many of their attacks missed as the beast shifted repeatedly back and forth from its other plane to this one. Some attacks did manage to connect with the beast’s substantial body, and it howled in rage and pain. Still it pressed on, intent on its dinner.I assailed the displacer beast with my own magical volley, impacting it with magic missile after magic missile. Between my magical assault and the attacks from everyone else, we finally did chase it off. No one had died, and only Mattathias had been injured. Mattathias healed his wounds, and we continued, leaving the chamber and its occupant behind. We walked for hours in that stifling darkness. I couldn't tell half the time whether we were walking on flat ground, whether we were ascending, or whether we were descending. I only knew that we were getting nearer and nearer to Samar, and, mercifully, we didn't encounter anything else lurking in the dark after that displacer beast. Eventually, I did become aware of the fact that we were going down, deeper into the earth. I figured that we had to be entering the Underdark soon, if we hadn't already. The slope went down for what felt like another mile, then suddenly, to our right, another passageway opened up, leading back out of the bowels of the earth.  The slope that we had been descending continued to lead down. From where we stood, at the intersection of the those two passageways, we could hear sounds echoing up from down the slope. I, personally, was hoping that Razsamar would indicate the right passageway, and we could climb up and leave. Unfortunately, he motioned us to walk further down the trail that we had been following. I was disappointed, and I could tell that Mithras was getting more and more uncomfortable the further and further down we were getting, but we walked on anyway. Razsamar assured us that we were very close...that Samar was at the bottom of this hill, but he urged us to hurry....he could feel Samar's life slipping away, and his with it. We did hurry, and finally, the passage opened into an immense cavern. We could hear the sounds of gruff voices and the clink of metal against stone.We hid behind a large boulder that overlooked an expansive pit, and observed a group of Deep Dwarves and their slaves mining the stone. Razsamar stated that Samar was somewhere down there, among the Duergar and slaves, so that meant that someone had to go down there. I was certain that that wouldn't include the ailing Razsamar, and most certainly not Beirdan. I wouldn't trust Nym to go down either. In the event that a fight broke out, i knew that there was a very good chance that it could prove fatal for whoever of our group went. In the end, I volunteered, thinking that, of all of us, I had the best chance of negotiating with the Duergar. Mithras and Mattathias accompanied me, not willing to allow me to go myself.None of us spoke Duergar, or even Dwarven, but I knew that there was a chance that one or more of them knew Drow. I only hoped that mine was good enough that they wouldn't get suspicious. I know the language. Where I'm from they walk the streets just like Humans, Elves, Devils, Illithids, Githyanki...but the opportunities that I had had to use the language could be counted on one hand. The trick was to know the language better than they did. Thankfully, I did. Damn I'm good! I not only managed to negotiate the purchase of half-dead Samar. Hells, they threw him in for free! But, we left there with 2 Halflings and 3 more Humans as well! We bought every surface slave that they had. Mattathias carried Samar back up the slope, and the slaves didn’t exactly refuse to go with us as we led them back up the slope toward the others. Once everyone was together at the top of the slope, we doubled-back up to the intersection, and began to climb the slope that ascended to the right. We've been climbing for hours....My feet are so sore. I'm writing in this journal now because we're taking a break from walking. Razsamar gave me something earlier. It's a small glass sphere. He plans to reunite with Samar soon, within the next hour or so. He told me that when he grabs ahold of Samar, that I'm to shatter the orb against the ground. He said that there was someone trapped inside, and that he needed innocent blood to cast the spell. I asked if he expected me to kill this person, but he assured me that the spell required but a drop. I don't feel comfortable doing this, but it's only a drop of blood..and it's to save someone's life...so it's for a good cause. Besides, I already agreed to do this, and we've come all this way. There can't be any backing down now. It looks like we're ready to start moving again. I really hope we reach the surface soon.... I hate being underground. *Below is a low res map of Phlan, edited by Arravis*</blockquote>

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