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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7402062" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 14: RAIDERS OF THE LOST TOMBPC Roster:  Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 3             Galen Thorne, human paladin 5             Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 5             Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 5             Syngaard, human fighter 5Game Session Date: 18 April 2018 - - - "Thank you all for coming so promptly," Skevros said to the team as they entered the Enchanted Flagon and sat around their traditional round table.  "A pint of mead!" called out Syngaard, and the "seen" unseen servant spell effect - which Galen had decided they should all start calling Karen - delivered the scarred fighter his drink."How 'bout you?" asked Syngaard with an uncharacteristic friendliness to Orion, who was still crawling up onto her chair.  "You want a pint?  I'm buying."Orion looked distrustfully at Syngaard, well aware that the group was allowed food and drink from the otherwise closed tavern free of charge, and that Syngaard wasn't actually "buying" anything.  Still, suspecting a trick of some sort, she declined.  "No, thank you," she said, her eyes narrowed."Probably for the best," Syngaard agreed, ready to drop the joke he'd been setting up.  "You're more of a half-pint type, anyway."  The halfling just glared at him as he enjoyed his drink, inordinately pleased with himself.  (Not that he would have had any idea what the word "inordinately" meant.)"I have summoned you here to discuss the Black Journal," Skevros continued, ignoring the antics of his less mature employees.  "I have read through it several times and this is what I have learned: while evil, under the effects of the magical helm, I joined the ranks of the Seekers of Eternity - those who wear the symbol of the overturned hourglass."  Skevros had only recently learned that he bore a tattoo of such a symbol on the back of his neck.  "It was while with that group that I accidentally destroyed one of only three remaining copies of a tome called 'The Curse of the Mithral Mage,' a book of great importance to the Seekers, during an osteovox ritual while trying to find that which the Seekers sought.  As you might guess, that did not endear me to the leaders of that organization.""I believe I have seen a copy of that book!" exclaimed Daleth.  "Is that our next mission?  To fetch the book from one of the libraries of the Azure Glade?""That will be a future mission, no doubt about it," agreed Skevros.  "But something has come up of higher importance.  However, before we get to that, I wish to let you know the rest of what I've learned about The Curse of the Mithral Mage.  The question I asked of the osteovox was, 'Where is that which the Seekers seek?'""And the answer?" prompted Galen."'Amongst the dwarves who drown upon their burning greed'," answered Skevros.  "Through other divinations, I have deduced this is a reference to the Dwarven Hell, which is guarded against teleportation magic, such that not even a normal gate spell could breach it intentionally.  The best way to get there would be via the Baator's Breath Mountains, through one of the natural gates that open and close sporadically on their own.""Why would anyone want to go to Dwarven Hell?" demanded Syngaard.  "We're not going to Dwarven Hell, are we?  I don't wanna go to no Dwarven Hell!""It would seem the wizard Dave's accusations that 'the Lich of Durnhill' created the ritual to open a permanent gate to the lower planes was correct after all," mused Skevros, ignoring Syngaard completely as he was caught up in his own thoughts, "although naturally, I was not a lich at that time, nor was I yet sentenced to Durnhill.  However, before I provided the ritual to the Seekers of Eternity, I sabotaged it such that the user would be killed if he tried using it for vengeance against me for destroying the copy of the book.  I gather that a relative of one of the Azure Glade's Council of Guilds performed the flawed ritual in an attempt to punish me for my carelessness and was slain as a result.  My exile to Durnhill was a result of the Council trying to hide the scandal of one of their rulers - or a close relative, in any case - being involved in such an evil ritual.""That's all well and good," replied Syngaard, who in truth hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to anything Skevros had said after mentioning Dwarven Hell.  "But we ain't going to Dwarven Hell, are we?"  His voice was filled with trepidation - not that he could have identified what the word "trepidation" meant had his life depended upon it."Hmmm?" replied Skevros, being brought out of his own musings.  "No, no, of course not - you won't be going to any of the various Hells.  Not for this mission, in any case."  Syngaard immediately relaxed, but then worried that Skevros's wording didn't negate the possibility of such a journey in later missions, only that this one wouldn't involve such a trip."So what exactly is this current mission?" asked Kaspar, eager to hear of their next assignment."King Renaldos of Ashfall has made a specific request for the 'Heroes of Ashfall' - it would seem that your secret status in our own kingdom has not prevented you from being elevated in the public eye in our neighbors to the north.""This a paying job?" demanded Syngaard."Indeed it is," replied Skevros, having already anticipated the fighter's first question.  "You will be paid 2,000 pieces of gold.  Each," he added, anticipating the fighter's second question."And what task will we be performing for this reward?" pressed Kaspar."It seems some ancient ruins have suddenly appeared along the border between Ashfall and the Azure Glade, and each kingdom considers them to be on their own land.  Ashfall has determined the ruins predate the breaches in the Baator's Breath Mountains and wants to see if there is any information regarding how they were formed, or better yet how to close them permanently.  The Azure Glade, on the other hand, wishes to plunder any magical knowledge within and keep it for themselves.""That don't make no sense," complained Syngaard.  "How do ancient ruins just show up outta nowhere?""I'd think the two kingdoms would know where their border ends and their neighbor's begins," added Orion."As for your question," Skevros replied, facing Syngaard, "I have no idea, although several possibilities suggest themselves."  Turning to Orion, he said, "As for yours, though, the reason is because while Ashfall has a discrete boundary, the Azure Glade claims as its border the edge of the mutated blue flora.  Over the years, the 'blue border' has slowly expanded, encroaching into what Ashfall claims as their own lands."Skevros accepted a glass of red wine from "Karen," although none of the heroes had heard him ask the "seen" unseen servant spell effect for a drink.  Taking a sip, he added, "So far, King Renaldos has been able to keep either side from entering the ruins through political pull, although he realizes it's only a matter of time before the Azure Glade wizards just use magic to take everything within.  Therefore, he's decided he needs a third party, specifically one of adventurers unaffiliated - at least officially - with either country in the dispute, to loot the ruins first and then discretely pass everything on to Ashfall at a later, less politically active time.  And that is where you come in.""So 'The Heroes of Ashfall' are unaffiliated with either country?" asked Galen, skeptically.Skevros smirked into his wineglass.  "Technically, the term is used only among the citizens of Ashfall - the Azure Glade has no idea of your...nomenclature among the people to the north of us.  Syngaard frowned at that as he tried to figure out what "nomenclature" might mean."So your mission is basically this: go to the ruins, check them out, and plunder them of all they're worth.  Leave nothing of any potential value behind, and do this without getting caught by the forces of the Azure Glade, who may be sending a team of their own to do something quite similar, for all we know.""That's my kinda plan!" Syngaard enthused."There's a good possibility that there might be carvings or paintings or runes on the walls of the ruins that cannot easily be transported," Skevros continued.  "We will want those copied.  Therefore, I will send this along with you on your mission."  From beneath the table he produced a small wooden crate.  It was filled with a series of small canvases, 10 inches to a side, and a foldable easel, along with basic painting supplies."You want us to sneak in - and then do paintings of the place?" asked Orion incredulously."By no means," replied Skevros.  "Your talents lie in other directions.  I will provide an artist to deal with the replication of any important runes or glyphs."  With that, he steered the doll-sized homonculus he had made decades ago as a playmate for his now-deceased daughter over to join the heroes.  "Keep Dow safe," he said, pushing the crate across the table to the group.  Syngaard groaned at the thought of the damn animated doll-thing joining them on their missions."I assume you will teleport us to the location of the tomb?" asked Kaspar."Very close by," corrected Skevros.  "The wizards of the Council will know immediately if you teleport inside the borders of their kingdom, and the ruins are within the expanded territory of their country.""We shall need a means of rapid departure," suggested Galen.  "If we will be exploring ruins, I shall not be taking my warhorse along.""I'm bringing Carl," piped up Orion."Already thought of," replied Skevros, handing a scroll to Daleth.  "Here is a scroll containing four mount spells.  Cast them once you're ready to return - they should last for the duration of the ride back to Durnhill."Galen looked to the others among the group.  "I believe we're ready," he explained, while Orion scampered out of the tavern to fetch her riding dog.  Once mounted on Carl and back among the others, Skevros cast his spell and the group was transported across the miles to an open field.  Looking around, Syngaard pointed out "Blue trees are this way" and headed towards them.  Sure enough, there was a small clump of ancient-looking ruins just over a short rise, where the green grass beneath their feet slowly changed to a more bluish hue.Upon reaching the ruins, the group saw it was little more than the remains of a single building, a platform some 5 feet high accessible by a set of stairs.  Most of the two side walls were still more or less intact, but the front and back walls were missing altogether and if there had ever been a roof it was no longer in place.  What was in place, though, were dozens of faded runes along the entire outside of the structure.  Dow dutifully opened the chest of art supplies and began documenting their design on the canvases, while Daleth identified them as belonging to the schools of abjuration and illusion.  "The runes likely kept these ruins shielded from detection via a hallucinatory terrain spell or the like," he mused aloud.  "I would imagine over time the runes began to fail, leaving the ruins no longer disguised, until eventually they just seemed to pop into view."Daleth gave some further thought on the situation.  "I have a see invisibility spell prepared," he offered.  "Shall I cast it?""How long will it last?" asked Galen."Perhaps half an hour or so," replied the elven wizard."Not just yet, then," recommended Galen.  "Best to save it for when we'd expect to run into something invisible, like down in whatever ruins are below this structure."  The paladin found it hard to believe the "ruins" they'd been sent to plunder was one decrepit-looking old building."Let's go see what's up top," declared Syngaard, not wanting to wait around while that creepy-ass homonculus painted her stupid little runes.  Bounding up the stairs, he saw the floor opened into a 10-foot-wide pit smack-dab in the middle of the structure.  "Now that's more like it!" he started to say.  However, all he got out was "That's mo--" before a set of invisible claws went raking across his chest and a set of invisible fangs clamped down on his shoulder.Syngaard staggered back, but fortunately his mithral breastplate took the brunt of the damage.  Regaining his footing, he brought his morningstar up as a shimmering form coalesced directly in front of him.  It gave an ursine growl as it came into focus, and the bald fighter got his very first up-close look at an owlbear.This was no ordinary owlbear, however - at least, Syngaard had never heard of one that could become invisible.  But that was likely explained by the bluish runes covering its feathers and fur, which no doubt had kept the guard-beast invisible until it attacked.  Syngaard retaliated against the beast with a slam of his morningstar that sent shards of its skull piercing its left eye.  The owlbear howled in pain as the fighter made a tactical retreat back down the stairs.  "I found a lair guardian!" he announced to his compatriots.The owlbear followed the bald fighter down the stairs and regained his two-footed stance at the bottom, striking out at Syngaard with the claws of a massive paw.  Orion threw a dagger into the beast's flank, drawing its attention away from Galen as he charged the beast with his longsword drawn.  His blade stabbed deep into the beast's hide, just as a pair of scorching rays went sizzling through the air to burn a patch of fur from the owlbear.  It turned to face Daleth, only to have Kaspar run up from the other side and send a hardened fist crashing down into the back of its feathered neck, electricity coursing through his tenryutsume and into the crazed watch-beast.  Attacked from all sides, the creature couldn't avoid Syngaard's follow-on strike with his morningstar, bringing it crashing down on the hapless beast's skull.  It fell to the ground with a whoomph of expelled air from its lungs and died there at the foot of the stairs.Over on the side of the building, Dow continued on with her rune-painting, ignoring the frantic fight that had been going on just around the corner from her."So, what about now?" asked Daleth dryly.  "Do you think a see invisibility spell might come in handy?""Do as you think best," replied Galen, no longer wanting to give specific advice if Fate was just going to immediately prove him wrong again.  The elf cast the spell and looked all about him.  "It looks like there was just the one," he said to the others.  Then, looking closer at the runes painted upon the slain beast's fur and feathers, he said, "It looks as if these not only kept the owlbear invisible until it was ready to attack, but also limited its actions - keeping it in place as a guard-beast instead of wandering off in search of food, for instance.""The Azure Glade wizards?" asked Orion."That would be my best guess, yes."Syngaard in the meantime had gone back topside and was peering down the pit.  It was 10 feet to a side and looked to be about 20 feet deep.  "We got more runes down there," he announced.  "Looks like a tunnel, too, down at the bottom.""Then I was wise not to have brought Seneca," replied Galen.  He looked over at Orion.  "What about Carl?  Do you want to leave him here while we go down and explore?""That wouldn't be my first choice, no.  Couldn't we harness a rope or something around him?  He's not any heavier than any of you armor-clad humans.  I'll bet we could lift him down."  Galen unpacked a length of rope and Orion helped him tie it around Carl.  Daleth, in the meantime, was looking down at the runes carved on the floor of the shaft.  "I would hazard a guess that they have a levitation effect," he reasoned.  "Probably activated by command word, though.  And if they're as old as the runes shielding this whole place, they could fail at any minute.""Unless they activate automatically," reasoned Syngaard.  "Hey, Orion, do us a favor and jump into the pit - see if you float down."  The halfling just gave him her best glare; she wasn't going to even dignify his ridiculousness with an answer."Gimme a hand with this, then," Syngaard said to Kaspar and Galen, walking over to the dead owlbear.  Its dead weight was far too much for them to lift, but they managed to roll it up the steps and over to the edge of the pit.  "In you go!" cried Syngaard, kicking it over the edge of the pit with his foot.  It fell straight to the bottom, landing with a wet thud.Galen tied an end of another rope to one of the stone columns on a side wall of the ruins and threw the loose end into the pit, then climbed down.  At the bottom he saw a dim, purplish-blue light from some sort of magical effect at the far end of a long passageway.  Silhouetted by the light was a skeletal figure, with two more of them nearby, one on each side of the central figure.  None of them seemed to move.  "It looks safe!" the paladin called to the others.Syngaard and the elves lowered Carl down next, and then Orion scooted down the rope as easy as you please.  The others followed, one at a time, as the halfling untied Carl so he could move freely in these catacombs.  Galen made to explore the hallway when Daleth grabbed him by the arm.  "Hold up," warned the elf, squinting down the corridor."Something invisible?" Syngaard asked, dismounting from the rope and standing on the dead owlbear's corpse.  "I don't see nothing," he added, oblivious to the stupidity of his observation that he didn't see anything that might be invisible."There's a sort of...shimmering," Daleth replied.  "Like a heat wave.  About twenty feet down."  Forewarned, everyone cast their attention down the corridor, looking for something they couldn't see."I see it!" replied Galen.  "Kind of a wobbling in the air.""It could very well be a gelatinous cube," suggested Kaspar, reaching into his robes for a pair of throwing stars.  Flinging them as hard as he could down the hallway, he heard a splortch as they struck and seemed to float in the air, bobbing slightly as they slowly approached.  "Gelatinous cube," the elf monk asserted."Well, that ain't good!" Syngaard reasoned.  "We ain't got no way outta here but up this rope!"  Sure enough, the corridor was 10 feet wide with an equal height, the same size as the nearly-invisible creature crawling their way."Then let's kill it, quick!" reasoned Orion, flinging a dagger into the transparent ooze.  It too splortched its way into the creature's gelatinous body and seemed to float closer to the group.  Syngaard did likewise with his magical javelin; the ranged weapon went sinking deep into the creature, got itself covered in acidic ooze and paralyzing slime - and then went teleporting right back into the fighter's hand.  Acid burned the fighter's palm and he cried out in pain, but fortunately he was able to fight off the paralytic effects.Realizing the need for speed, Daleth brought up his metamagic rod of lesser empowerment and channeled a magic missile spell through it, increasing its effectiveness as the missiles crashed into the cube's quivering body.  Galen, unwilling to subject his sword of Zehkar to the creature's acid, instead drew his bow and shot an arrow into the gelatinous cube.  The beast's acid started dissolving the wooden arrow at once."It's getting closer!" called Orion from atop Carl as the dog tried backing up but ran into a dead owlbear instead.  With further splurtching sounds, the halfling and the riding dog were both engulfed by the advancing ooze.  Kaspar would have shared their fate had he not hopped up onto the dead owlbear alongside Syngaard.  But Orion at least had the presence of mind to unsheath her flaming short sword and stab deep into the beast's interior before the paralytic fluids prevented her from moving; she might not be able to wave her sword around after that but at least the flames would continue to burn the beast from the inside!"Well, we gave it our best shot," observed Syngaard as Kaspar threw another pair of electrified shuriken into the cube - far enough away from Orion that he had no danger of accidentally hitting the engulfed halfling.  The elf then glared at the scarred fighter, already holding the rope in his left hand as if ready to scurry up the shaft to freedom and leave their halfling companion to her fate.  "Or I guess we could save the stupid little runt," he said, kicking off the wall and swinging the rope over to the gelatinous cube, where he could reach it with his morningstar.  Unfortunately, he kicked a little too hard and his momentum not only brought him close enough to bring his weapon to bear but actually plunge into the cube himself.  That certainly hadn't been the plan!  As it turned out, though, the gelatinous cube had been almost slain by the various attacks by that time, and the blow of the magical morningstar was all it took to overcome the ooze's remaining cohesiveness.  Its body discorporated into a fluid mess as it died, leaking along the floor and releasing its engulfed meals.  Carl and Orion collapsed unmoving to the floor, but it was only their continued paralysis, not death, that kept them from moving.  At Galen's insistence, they waited until Orion and Carl had regained movement before exploring further down the corridor, since the skeletal figures didn't seem to be paying them any attention.Galen also shot down Syngaard's suggestion that Dow send down one of her paintbrushes so he could paint Orion's face up like a clown while she was paralyzed and helpless.  "Killjoy," muttered Syngaard.Once Orion regained mobility, her first action was to punch Syngaard in the side.  "Idiot!" she hissed.  "I may have been paralyzed, but I wasn't deaf!""That's a strange way of thanking me for saving your life!" Syngaard responded.  Orion only scowled harder at him, angrier than ever that she did in fact owe her life to this oaf.Galen strolled down the corridor, attuning his senses to pick up auras of evil as he had been taught in his temple.  "The three skeletons are evil," he announced to the others, who hadn't been trained in such methods themselves.  As they got closer, they could see the skeletons weren't made of bone, but rather a bright metal.  "Mithral," identified Kaspar as they got closer.  At that range, they could also see the two skeletons on the side were each standing before a closed set of doors.  Each door was also flanked by a pair of mithral statues - not of skeletons, but of human figures screaming as if in pain."That's disturbing," Syngaard observed.  "You don't think there's some sort of medusa or something down here that turns people into mithral instead of stone, do you?""That seems unlikely," sniffed Daleth.  "Preposterous, even.""As preposterous as turning flesh into stone?" argued Syngaard.  "'Cause the two don't seem that far apart to me."  He grabbed up his javelin of returning - cleaned with a rag of all gelatinous cube slime during the wait for Orion to regain mobility - and flung it at the mithral skeleton directly in front of the bluish-purple glow that lit the whole area.  "Let's see if this wakes these buggers up."It did.  The javelin struck the skeleton's breastbone with a metallic clang, fell to the floor, and then teleported back to the fighter's hand.  The skeleton, and both of its companions, all swung their heads to stare at the bald fighter with sightless eye-holes, and then as one scrambled to the attack, raking with their claws.  Daleth blasted the middle one with another magic missile spell amplified through his metamagic rod.Syngaard managed to deflect most of the incoming claws with his morningstar, but one lucky blow ripped through a place where two plates of armor met.  He grunted in pain but fought on.  Galen charged the one Syngaard had hit with his javelin, collapsing it into a pile of hollow bones by the sound of it as the undead creature fell apart from the touch of the sword of Zehkar.  Galen sensed both the holy and undead bane properties of his longsword had just been put to good use.Kaspar now had a way past the line of skeletons with one of their number down, so he dodged past the one who had been in the middle to flank it with Syngaard.  Alas, his successful dodge prevented him from connecting with his own attack, but it didn't end up mattering much - Syngaard's blow with his magical morningstar brought the creature down, and then he spun and cleaved the last remaining one, smacking it in the ribs just as Orion flung another of her throwing daggers at it, only to have it bounce off without much effect.  Daleth, out of combat spells for the day, decided to fall back and let Galen handle the sole remaining undead.  This he did with his usual aplomb, bringing it handily down with the sword of Zehkar.With combat done, Daleth stepped up to the bluish-purple glow and gave it an intense look; Syngaard stepped up beside the elf and glared at it as well.  The wizard put out his hand and touched it; Syngaard opted not to mirror the elf's actions to quite that extent - there was obviously magic at play here, and you never knew what magic was going to do.  "I believe this is a wall of force," Daleth decided.  "Two, in fact - a blue one, and a purple one behind it."Orion, in the meantime, was examining one of the sets of double doors for traps and found none.  Syngaard walked up to one of the petrified statues, checking them over for armor and weapons - if they came to life like the skeletons did, he wanted to know what they'd be up against.  But these didn't look like any kind of warrior at all; they wore the clothes of a commoner and none seemed to be wielding any weapons.  But each seemed to be carved from a solid block of mithral, although to an intricate level of detail.  "Betcha anything it's a mithral medusa," he repeated, if only to himself.  He gave one an experimental tap; it sounded hollow, like the bones of the mithral skeletons had been.Orion had moved across the hall to the other set of double doors and announced them free of traps as well.  She then opened the doors, revealing a small room inside with a desk and a chair made of bones.  A ring of glowing runes ran along the perimeter of the room.  "Hey," declared Galen upon spotting the room's content.  "This looks familiar!"  It was, too - it was almost an identical replica of one of the rooms they had found in the Tomb of Zehkar, where Galen had found his longsword."Betcha that chair turns into a skeleton and attacks," said Syngaard, boldly stepping into the room with his morningstar raised for action.  Sure enough, the human bones making up the chair reconfigured into a skeletal form - but were shattered to fragments by Syngaard's weapon.  "Toldja," he said smugly.There were notes written upon sheets of crumbling parchment upon the desk in a language Daleth recognized as Draconic.  They detailed the failed attempts to infuse living creatures with the immortal properties of mithral.  Instead it turned the outer layer of flesh to mithral in a process that, if it didn't kill them outright, left them to suffocate painfully while trapped within their new mithral shell.  That use of the ritual was deemed a failure, although it could be used successfully upon skeletal undead to increase their defensive capabilities.Stowing the notes carefully into his pack, Daleth noted a few letters scratched into the top of the wooden desk: S, A, G, A, and S.  "Sagas," he said aloud."What's that?" demanded Syngaard.  "A command word?  To what?  Wait!  The shaft!"  Excited, the bald fighter raced back down the corridor to the shaft to the surface.  Standing beside the dead owlbear, he called out "Sagas!" and fully expected to see the owlbear's corpse start to rise up the shaft.  Nothing happened.  Syngaard stepped into the shaft himself and repeated it, thinking maybe you had to be into position on the runes for them to work.  Still nothing happened.  Dejected, he walked back to the others.  "Nothin'," he reported."Perhaps it animates these statues," surmised Galen.  He walked up to one and called out, "Sagas!" - to no result.  "Maybe you have to say the word backwards," Syngaard suggested, and smirked as Galen visualized the word, spelled it backwards - and ended right back with "Sagas."  But he decided to try it on each of the statues, and when he said it while close to the blue wall of force it snapped out of existence.  Unfortunately, the purple wall of force was still in place, and another room could be dimly seen behind it."Let's check out the other set of double doors," suggested Kaspar.  The room beyond was a library of sorts, with large rows of books entirely encompassing the side walls.  Daleth raced into the room after seeing the rows filled with books, tomes, and scrolls.  He saw Draconic titles along some of the spines, whereas Orion recognized many of the books were written using Dwarven script.  The rest were deemed to be in some archaic form of the Common tongue.  Most of the Draconic books were likely spellbooks or treatises on magical properties, whereas the Dwarven writings seemed to be focused on the various properties of mithral.  "Somebody had a mithral obsession." commented Galen.  But Daleth had opened his bag of holding and was grabbing books and scrolls off the shelves and tossing them inside.  "Help me clear this place out," he asked the others.Once the last bit of written material had been safely ensconced within Daleth's bag of holding, the elf noted a few more letters carved into the wall between the shelves - they'd been hidden when the books were still in place.  "A, H, E, N," the elf recited.Galen didn't need to be told twice.  He walked over to the purple wall of force and recited "Ahen."  The wall blinked out of existence, just as the first one had done - only this time, it blanketed the entire area in complete darkness, save for the slight trickle of sunlight emanating from the entry shaft at the far end of the underground corridor.  There was a quick scramble to activate sunrods and torches, so they could see what they were doing.The room beyond the deactivated walls of force had a permanent magic circle of some sort carved into the floor.  "Don't break the circle," advised Daleth, but the others didn't need any prompting on that front.  But behind the circle was a square, raised platform, and upon that platform stood the lower half of a statue.Daleth bent to examine the runes around the magic circle.  "It has a transmutation effect," he announced.  "I believe this is where the people, and the skeletons, were infused with their outer shell of mithral!"But Galen wasn't paying any attention to the elf wizard.  Instead, he was transfixed upon the lower half of the statue in the back of the room.  With his longsword in hand, he walked closer to the lump of metal, his senses nearly overwhelmed by an overpowering sense of sadness."What is it?" Kaspar asked the paladin, noticing Galen's slumped posture."It's my sword," Galen whispered.  "It's telling me...that's what's left of its original body."The elf looked at the statue, a mithral carving of a man in armor from the waist down.  "You mean," he asked, "...that's Zehkar?""It was, yes," said Galen.  The two approached the lump of metal with reverence.  Unlike the hollow statues beside the doors, this was a solid chunk of the bright metal, although it did look partially melted along the top."What do you think happened?" asked Kaspar."I'm not sure," admitted Galen."Hey, you elves!" called Syngaard, breaking the mood of reverence.  "We're all out of rooms to loot!  Whynchoo give the whole place a quick look-see, see if there aren't any secret doors in the place we might have missed."  Kaspar and Daleth complied with the request, finding nothing.  "That appears to be it," they reported back."One last thing," said Galen, pulling out his own bag of holding and opening it.  He then flipped the open end over the top of the melted statue of what was once Zehkar's body."Are you sure that's appropriate?" asked Kaspar."The spirit of Zehkar rests in my sword," replied Galen.  "This is nothing more than mithral - and a valuable chunk of it at that.  It will serve the kingdom well."  The paladin's certainty was unquestionable - for he had the sword of Zehkar at hand to let him know otherwise, and it stood silent in his mind.  Seeing the logic, the others each gathered up the mithral-coated bones of the skeletons and the four mithral-covered "statues" of experimental test subjects who had met their end in the magic circle.  All went into the group's various extradimensional bags, along with the contents of the library and the notes from atop the desk."You about done here?" Galen asked Dow after they one by one climbed back up the rope to the surface of the ruins.  Orion was the last to climb up, as she stayed behind to help refasten the rope around Carl so the men could lug him up the shaft."This is our perfect opportunity," pointed out Syngaard as Daleth untied the rope from Carl.  "She won't get back up on her own without the rope."  Daleth just glared at Syngaard, unsure of whether or not he was kidding.  "Just sayin'," Syngaard said.  Daleth's only response was to toss the rope down to Orion after Carl had been untied from the impromptu harness.  The halfling skittered up the rope like she was born to it.  Galen oversaw the packing up of the painted canvases back into the small crate as Daleth used the scroll with the mount spells Skevros had given him to summon a quartet of magical horses.  And then the heroes were off, turning their riding mounts south back to the kingdom of Durnhill. - - - Logan used a couple of map tiles from the "Ruins" GameMastery Map Pack for the ruins, and several Dungeon Tiles for the underground section of the dungeon.  He purposely reused several of the same tiles as the ones he had used in our second adventure, to thematically tie the two dungeons together.And, or course, Joey got a valuable lesson in trusting his own instincts instead of listening to the other players; he was all set to have Daleth cast the see invisibility spell that would have let him know beforehand there was an invisible owlbear guarding the ruins, but we all talked him out of it.  (Shows you what we know!)  But Daleth leveled up as a result of this adventure, so now he'll be just one level behind the rest of us (although that won't last for more than one adventure, as Galen, Kaspar, and Syngaard are all pretty close to 6th level by now).</blockquote>

Verification