Deeper Into the Abyss

Following the Goblinoid tracks out of the room, Riven Telstandis ventured to the north, while the rest of the party inspected the ritual implements located in a room appearing to be dedicated to ritual abluation before entering the sacred baths of Naeia. At the same time, Oameni rogue, Alexandru Croitoru and the Ashkuz barbarian, Kegho, returned to the baths to strip the corpse of Brother Tarn Zarotis of the betrayer's arms and mail. The chainmail was given to Amma bas Sisa as payment for her services as retainer, while Kegho claimed the mace as his spoils.

Upon returning to the ritual basin, the party noticed that Riven had not yet returned from scouting ahead. They decided to pass through the door on the northern wall of the ritual washbasin room and proceeded into an L-shaped hallway junction. Faced with the choice of either going straight towards a highly ornate door or to the right, the adventurers chose to turn right to follow a corridor of roughly-hewn stone that eventually led to a dead end. In hopes of locating the errant Scout of Palesia, the party's Xianese magic-user, Zhuge Liang, searched for any secret doors or hidden passageways. However, despite his keen Alvi senses, he was unable to detect any mechanism.

Our heroes then circled back to examine the intricately decorated doorway. The party's cleric, Theophilus Chandler, recognized the carvings around the doorway's arch as Ancient Rexan, but he was unable to translate the text. Alex cautiously opened the door and tested the floor for traps by skipping a stone into the room. He was surprised to discover that the sound of the pebble echoing as it hit the stone floor had a strange muffled quality, but he didn't have much time to dwell on the cause before the young novice of the The Order of the Great Mother of Mercy, stormed into the room.

Theophilus' torch cast shadows upon the wall, which then shifted and merged in the center of the room to form a spectral vision of the goddess Naeia herself! She looked into the hearts of each member of the party and deemed them worthy to enter her shrine's sanctum sanctorum. Speaking into their minds, she bid the party to enter a passage to the east of the room before disappearing in a wave of pelagic essence. Energized with zealous fervor, Novice Theo barged forward, descending passage's the through a hatch in the floor that led into a humble but timelessly furnished cell. On an altar on the western wall, a third, larger disc key stood. Facing a large portcullis to the southeast, a lever was on the southwestern wall. Alex inspected the lever, but he could find no evidence of it having been trapped.

Confident the lever presented no danger, Alex pulled the lever as Kegho moved to stand between his friend and whatever may come through the portcullis. The portcullis opened, but a spear flew through a hidden slot on the southeastern wall and lodged itself into Kegho’s shoulder! Kegho was mildly miffed by this turn of events and traded barbs with the hapless Oameni. Zhuge used his understandingof Philosophia Arcana to transfigure the physical form of the spear into a delicious style of bread that would only be invented 1000 years in the future in our reality. The spear now having been removed from Kegho's shoulder, allowed Theo to tend to his wound. Theo closed his eyes and chanted the holy mantra that allows him to be a conduit of Maya’s mercy. Though a miracle of Theurgia, Kegho’s shoulder was re-knit, even healing an old injury from a game of Ashkuz Kokpar. Elissa bas Sisa expressed some concern over Kegho's well-being, for despite him being a terrible lay, she had grown fond of the hulking barbarian.

The adventurers now having overcome their lastest in a series of challenges, made their way still deeper into the belly of the Rexan temple built over the original Nar temple, finding older cyclopean sandstone architecture from the old Vargus temple. Descending down to the third and final level of the complex, they pushed forward until they came before another closed door. Alex crouched low and pressed his ear to the wooden door. He detected that something was on the other side but he could not discern exactly what. Zhuge used an incantation to push open the door, startling the Magnogoblin and his trio of Goblin underlings on the other side.

Alex took advantage of their surprise and penetrated the Megalogoblin from behind with his shortsword. Theo finished off the Magnogoblin with a swift strike to his skull as it shattered with the satisfying thump of a ripe summer melon splitting open. Elsewhere during the melee, Amma grievously wounded a Goblin with her spear as Zhuge torched another with a blast of electrical energy. The final Goblin was split in twain with one swing of Kegho's battle axe. Alex attempted to strike down Amma’s Goblin but missed his mark. This caused Kegho to wryly observe that “Apparently the only thing [Alex] can hit is me!” before Theo cleaned up the last of the mess.

Rexan Centurion Skeleton by Hero Forge

After overcoming the Goblin threat, the adventurers passed into another junction, with hallways to the west, southwest and the north. The path north was marked with a trail of blood that they eventually decide to follow. Two paths diverged to the north, and sorry they could not travel both, Alex picked the path in which a door was slightly ajar due to being obstructed by a goblin foot...which Alex attempted to set aflame. When he entered the room, he saw a skeleton animated by necromancy to the southwest, but he decided to push further north into the room so as not to attract its attention. However, he instead ran into a second skeleton in the northeast. Fierce close-quarters combate ensued, with Zhuge making an electrifying showing to the skeleton in the northeast while Kegho wielded Tarn's mace to batter the other skeleton about the head. Theo joined the fray until Kegho struck a very final blow, putting the skeleton to rest forever outside the mercy that being clubbed to pieces by an agent of Maya could have brought.