An Offer They Can't Refuse...
The adventurers returned to Diamond Lake that night with Lindingar’s corpse. The next day, Ehrune and Etherik went to see a cleric about a body. First, they visited the Church of Hieroneous and spoke with high cleric Valkus Dunn. Dunn explained that he did not personally have the power to raise Lindingar, but that he possessed a scroll that may work, if they could cough up the 5,000 gold to purchase it. After doing a quick inventory, the party realized that they did not possess that kind of money, even if they sold everything they had. Despondent, the adventurers resolved to try one last option: the Bronzewood Lodge. Knowing almost nothing about druids, they were under the impression that druids could not raise the dead.
At the Lodge, they were greeted by the local druid of Obad Hai. The druid admitted that raising the dead was not in his power; however, he agreed to reincarnate the halfling in return for a suitable donation. The adventurers offered the halfling’s boots of the winterlands in exchange. Ehrune and Etherik waited outside the Lodge as the druid began casting the spell that would recall the halfling’s spirit from the otherworld and create a new body to house it. An hour later the great doors of the Lodge opened; within the doorway stood…
…a halfling. A bit shorter perhaps, and with darker hair and eyes, but the same spirit. The newly reincarnated halfling was ready to take on the Whispering Cairn!
The adventurers returned to the Whispering Cairn the next day. Slowly, the trio crossed the walkway that had meant death the day before. This time they crossed without incident and Etherik stepped into the corridor of raging air in the center of the room. The air propelled him upward through the circular hole in the domed ceiling and into a small chamber above.
The room contained a large stone sarcophagus, nearly identical to the one they had found in the room of colored lanterns. Using a crowbar, Etherik and Ehrune pried off the lid of the sarcophagus. Inside, they found a metal box covered in twisting runes, the lid sealed in silver, along with a silver circlet and a pair of bestial horns, black as ebony and blood red at the tips.
They brought the relics to Allustan, who was able to share a little more information about them. After much research, Allustan revealed that the horns were from a demonic servant of the Queen of Chaos. The rune covered box was also associated with the Queen of Chaos, but of more importance was the relic contained within: an adamantine loop and handle (much like an ankh). The sage identified the item as a talisman of the sphere, although he added that the item was nonfunctional.
With the Whispering Cairn fully explored, the trio turned their attention to that most notorious of mine managers, Balabar Smenk. Back in the Old Observatory, they had found a note to Filge from Smenk, along with a jar containing a segmented green worm. They decided to investigate the matter and pay Smenk a visit.
At the Smenk manor, Smenk made them an offer they couldn’t refuse: sneak into the Dourstone mines, kill the cultists, and do it quietly. In return, Smenk agreed to pay them 500 gp, yet it was the subtle connotations of what could happen if they refused that convinced them to take him up on his offer.
While restocking on potions at the Temple of Hieroneous, the party was approached by an hulking, brutish figure—an immense half-orc armored in full plate and wielding a very heavy-looking shield and a longsword! The half-orc introduced himself as Hiro, and asked to join them in their righteous crusade against evil. Fully realizing the utility that 300 lbs of divine spell-casting muscle could provide, the group readily accepted Hiro’s offer.
The Dourstone Mine was well guarded; twelve guards operating in two shifts walked the edge of the wooden palisade that surrounded the mine entrance. Sneaking in wouldn’t be easy and fighting the guards was out of the question. The PCs decided to retreat and reassess the situation. That night, at the Feral Dog, the adventurers made a deal with a couple of disgruntled miners, demonstrating that a well-placed bribe can be more effective than swords or spells.
Once inside the Dourstone Mine, the adventurers followed instructions given to them by Smenk and discovered an elevator shaft behind a sealed mining tunnel. A wooden elevator platform took them 200 feet down to the
Dark Cathedral below, where two tiefling guards stood sentinel. From their elevated position, defeating the tieflings was easy, but one of the guards managed to knock loudly on one of three large stone doors in the chamber. The door opened, and from beyond they heard the ringing of small bells. Out poured a horde of skeletons armored in rusted and pitted full plate. Hiro made short work of them by brandishing his sword and calling upon the holy might of Hieroneous. Looking around, they noticed that at one end of the Dark Cathedral was a large, dark pool of liquid. The bloodstains around the lip of the pool indicated that it was used for sacrificial purposes. Three of the walls held large stone doors; a black gauntleted fist holding six arrows marked one door, a hand holding an eye marked another, and the third was unmarked.
Entering the next chamber (
Citadel of Hextor), the PCs were greeted by a group of cultists willing to lay down their lives for their Lord Tyrant, Hextor. And lay down their lives they did, despite some clever use of longspears and much calling to a creature they called “Beast”. Just as the adventurers were about finished quelling the rabble, a piercing squeal and the sound of screams brought their attention to the passage ahead, where a cultist was suddenly flung like a rag doll from a room beyond, only to slam into the passage wall and crumple to the ground.
“So, how about them long spears?” Etherik mused.
A massive boar emerged from the room beyond, caught sight of the group, and released a deafening squeal of rage. Once again, Lindingar attempted to empathize with the beast. And once again, the beast charged.
Most of the adventurers were off to one side of the room, but Etherik stood right at the opposite end of the room from the corridor. The dire boar’s tusk pierced Etherik’s side and it lifted him bodily into the air. In return, he gave it an eldritch blast. Despite its size and ferocity, “Beast” was defeated.
The main corridor led to a set of double doors, but the group decided to explore the auxillary passages first. After several frantic battles with more tiefling guards, they fought their way into a large chamber with a dirt floor and ringed by a 5’ wide stone catwalk (which the PCs were on). It was a good thing they hadn’t gone through the double doors, as the doors led to the dirt floor and there were a group of tiefling archers perched on the catwalks. At the far end of the room, also on the catwalk-level, they saw several humanoid figures. Three of the figures began casting spells and drinking potions, and the fight was on.
The tieflings sniped at the PCs from the catwalk on the other side of the room, while three humanoid zombies shuffled towards them. Glowing flails appeared in the air, battering their armor and making life miserable in general. However, the adventurers fought back bravely, turning the zombies and sending them fleeing at zombie-pace back towards their masters, who commanded the zombies to attack, and were then turned, and so on. Etherik’s eldritch blast proved useful once again, taking out the tiefling archers, although he suffered a few arrow wounds for his efforts. While fortunate not to be on the ground level, the narrow catwalk made it near impossible for them to advance and bring the fight with the clerics into melee range. In fact, the dangers of close-combat among allies was driven home via sharp blade when Hiro made an egregious fumble, dramatically missing his target and driving his longsword into the softer parts of Etherik’s body. Not a good thing to do when you’re the new guy. The fight wore on, with the adventurers slowly gaining ground, and eventually dropping the zombies, the tieflings, and two of the three clerics. The last, and obviously the leader, fled through a backdoor, summoning a hell hound to aid his escape. With the battle one, the group spent the next few hours looting bodies, pillaging their little black hearts out, and preparing for a night of well-deserved rest.