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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SolidSnake" data-source="post: 86125" data-attributes="member: 102">Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Session 8, Part 2- “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.” –Confucius (or “The emphasis is on bitter…”)Aramek stood over the body of Dr. Noh for quite sometime, not saying a word to anyone.  After a while, the somber dwarf took a long hard look at the rest of the party and asked for their permission to leave with the fallen priest’s corpse.  With a bit of discussion, the party eventually decided that Aramek could return Dr. Noh’s body to Hommlet.  Strider, Lathander, and Sentian all composed letters for Aramek to deliver.  With the party’s loot and the frail gnome’s body in tow, Aramek began his descend down the mountainside.  Before he crossed the threshold of the huge double doors barring the Main Gate entrance; however, Bandar stopped him.Bandar: “We will need your strength soon…return quickly.”With a nod, the dwarf set out once again, only to stopped by his long-standing companion: Strider.Strider: “I will miss you old friend.  Please hurry back whenever you are done…”Aramek: “I don’t know how far my journey shall take me…how will I know of your exploits?”Strider: “Names are never easy to remember when they are tied to many others.  Remember this: we are the Band of the Rising Sun and there shall always be a place for you here.”A gruff handshake later, the ‘Band of the Rising Sun’ was already short two members.  Its remaining strength was forced to rest for a whole day in order to recover from the brutal combat that had cleared the Main Gate of enemies.  Sleep was not completely restful…all through the night, a low drumming sound reverberated off the cavern walls making rest extremely difficult.The next morning, the Band sought retribution for all the pain they had suffered at the hands of the troglodytes.  Following a round of healing spells from Lathander, everyone felt ready to bring down some cultists.  As the Band had been led through the Earth Temple area before invisibly, it was a fairly easy task to coordinate their strike on the unholy altar that Dr. Noh described…in theory anyway.  The Band knew that the Earth altar was located in a huge chamber at the end of two merging tunnels, as they had used them both before.  The mystery lay in an adjacent tunnel that seemed to lead into a smaller chamber…at least this enigma puzzled Sentian; no one else really cared.  This tunnel was covered in insects of every sort imaginable, a warning that most men would have heeded…but then again, most men weren’t like Sentian.  All through the night, the paladin could only think of the body of his fallen comrade and what foul acts the troglodyte priests had committed upon it.  Without so much as a word to anyone Sentian marched right into the midst of the swarm, intent on exhausting all possibilities.Had Sentian shared his plan with Strider, the ranger might have cautioned him to be wary of one of the more colorful bugs crawling through the hive of insects.  Unfortunately, Strider and the rest of the party had little time to prepare as Sentian marched into the tunnel and was quickly overrun by insects.  Initially it seemed almost humorous as the smaller bugs crawled up the suit of armor he wore, but that thought was quickly dispelled as extremely large centipedes began to detach themselves from the mass and wrap themselves about Sentian’s limbs.  Strider knew that if one of these creatures was able to bore through Sentian’s defenses that he might be paralyzed for quite sometime.  Luckily, the rest of the Band moved rather quickly and was able to quell the danger without little effort.  The most disturbing part of the battle came with the sound of drums beating coming from the area of the altar.  The beat increased in tempo, until it reached a feverish pitch.  By the end of the incident it had stopped completely.Bandar (extremely irate): “We should always tell one another what we plan to do before we just go off and do it!”Strider: “We might as well see what lies at the end of the tunnel now.”With a grumble, Bandar followed the rest of the Band into small cave.  The most obvious decoration was the skinned and burnt corpse suspended from the ceiling by chains.  On a cluttered desk lay a coffer and at the foot of the bed lay a trunk.  Strider immediately went for the coffer, using Shatterspike to pry it open.  Sentian lent his strength to the ranger’s efforts and was rewarded by blast of magical cold, which enveloped both adventurers.  With a groan Sentian began to wipe the frost off his armor, while Strider furtively checked the contents of the coffer.  It held ten amethyst gems and amulet that proved to be magical once Elias had a look at it.  The gems were given to Strider to hold and the amulet to Bandar.  Elias also noticed a strange letter written in Draconic wedged underneath the coffer.  It was a note to a person called Hedrack explaining the recent takeover of the Earth Temple by the troglodytes.  After fouling up the room, the Band headed towards the altar.With Strider scouting ahead, the party was able to discover that a troglodyte sacrifice had been offered to the Xorn in the absence of any prisoners.  From what Strider described, the ceremony was rather grotesque: the heart was torn from the chest, limbs were hacked off a bit at a time, and all while the victim was still alive.  The priest leading the ceremony was a troglodyte with tattoos of upside-down brown triangles all over the visible portions of his body.  An obex was embedded into his forehead and he wore the carapace armor the Band had seen before.Elias was sent up one of the tunnels leading to the altar chamber, while the rest of the Band waited for a distraction at the intersection.  Strider readied a spell of faerie fire to use as soon as the priest began to cast any spells.  It wasn’t long before the ranger spotted an arrow flying out of the darkness followed by screams from the other hallway.  Strider watched as the arrow struck the priest the evil holy symbol upon the priest’s forehead, ripping it away from his flesh and nearly killing him in the process.  The Xorn immediately began to sink into the earth, while the priest produced an elixer which he drank greedily.  Strider cast the spell, bathing the evil cultist in a soft blue glow.  The rest of the Band ran down the tunnel that Elias took where they found him locked in battle with two troglodytes wielding longspears.  The elf flowed from stance to stance as if in a dance, but his enemies followed him deftly.  The danger quickly passed; however, the rest of the Band unleashed a storm of arrows upon the unprepared troglodyte guards.Strider: “Elias, pull back now!”As the Band withdrew from the area they could hear the laughter emanating from the cavern that housed the unholy altar.  The momentary distraction was interrupted by Lathander’s screams…no one had expected the Xorn to move that fast through the ground.  Ripping his leg out of the mouth of the half-submerged creature, Lathander began to backpedal into the protection of the group.  This solved little, if anything, as the Xorn merely glided underneath the earth into the midst of the party and began to attack ferociously.  Razor sharp talons attached to small arms tore through armor and sinew, while the crushing power of its mouth nearly decimated the weakened Sentian.  Swords seemed to have little effect on the creature’s tough hide, but Bandar’s continual mental assault did do noticeable damage.  Unfortunately, the dwarf had to redirect his efforts at the priest who strode towards the party with his entourage of guards.  The evil priest was well equipped for battle and even had the telltale signs of unholy power by the red glow in his eyes.  Lathander worked furiously to dispel his enchantments, while Elias engaged the troglodyte guards by himself.  Strider and Sentian swung their weapons with all their might, but the blows that should have destroyed a large ogre seemed to have little effect on the Xorn.  Finally, in desperation, Sentian reversed the grip on his blade and plunged the greatsword he had retrieved from the dark swordsman into the creature’s hide.  Things seemed to happen all at once: the blade met the rock hide of the Xorn and then there was a small explosion directly underneath the point of impact…Sentian felt the blade shear through flesh and watched as the sword went all the way up to the hilt.  Strider looked on with shock as the Xorn slid lifeless to the floor.Meanwhile, It seemed as though there was a battle of magic happening between the evil priest and Lathander as mysterious energies whipped back and forth through the air between the two.  Bandar did not notice the intricate interplay as he simply sent wave after wave of visible psychic power to crush the priest’s head.  Elias had nearly destroyed the entourage that the evil priest had surrounded himself with by the time Strider and Sentian waded into the battle.  Both magical and physical barriers impeded both men’s attempts at cutting the priest in half.  Sensing the futility of physically trying to harm him, Strider summoned a swarm of bats to obstruct the priest’s actions.  This was all the distraction Sentian need to land an explosive blow into the priest’s midsection.  The paladin heard the crush of bone and felt the jarring impact that his greatsword made…he knew that the troglodyte was dead even before it hit the ground.  With no support from their high priest, it wasn’t long before the remaining guards were dispatched with extreme prejudice.The Band immediately went to work searching the bodies for anything interesting and were rewarded with a set of magical gloves (given to Strider) and another strange key.  With little danger on the horizon, the Band went back to their cave to rest for another day.  The next morning Lathander healed the injured and made sure that he had an arsenal of spells at his disposal in case the group was attacked again.With the Earth Temple forces destroyed, the Band felt bold enough to further venture in that direction.  Passing familiar territory, the group finally entered the chamber housing the unholy altar.  Everyone felt their skin crawl simply by being near it…but most of all the power scared them.  Fear turned to anger when Sentian ran up to the altar and slammed his greatsword into it.  Emboldened the other party members followed suit, swing until they couldn’t even lift their arms.  Eventually the stone altar cracked in half with a resounding blow from Sentian’s greatsword.  As the blade was drawn away from the remains of the altar, the paladin watched as the sword crumbled to dust…it was at this point that Sentian’s world went completely black.------------------------------------------Sentian knew that he was in a world of darkness and completely alone.  From the darkness he could see a white horse riding towards him.  Astride the magnificent stead was a knight in brilliant armor.  The knight reigned the stallion right in front of Sentian and extended a sword to the paladin.  I know this sword…it was the one that was given to me after I left the Citadel…I don’t understand…When the knight spoke, his voice commanded obedience."Do not stray from the path Sentian. The Blade of Valor may only be wielded by the righteous. The forces of evil may tempt you with power, but you need only my standard to prevail! Protect the faith, your honor, and the helpless. Now ride forth and smite our enemies!"------------------------------------------Sentian felt hands shaking him.Bandar: “Wake up Sentian!  The whole place is coming down!”The dwarf was correct.  Sentian could see sections of the ceiling beginning to collapse to the sounds of low rumbling.  Sentian followed the running dwarf into the closest tunnel with the rest of the party.  They followed it for quite sometime, until it opened up into a rather large cavernous chamber.  The good news was that the rumbling had stopped by this point…the bad news was that the corpse of a half-eaten dire ape lay in the center of the room.</blockquote>

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