Session 8: Omu

We climb up the mountain outside of the Wyrmheart Mine to view the location of the Lost City. It takes a couple of days to make it to the top. We can see the Valley of Lost Honor below us, scorched earth from Tinder's fiery onslaught. To the east we spot the smoking Peaks of Flame. The volcanoes belching black smoke into the sky. Laying between the peaks and the lost valley we can just make out a few structures rising out of the jungle canopy. I take out the spy glass and focus on a tower. Something dark and wispy swirls about it.
 
"May I have a look, Sir Lucas?" Artus Cimber asks.
"Just Lucas." I reply handing him the looking device.
"My thanks." He says training the glass on the city. He stares at the hidden city for a long time as I update our map to show its location.
 
We head down the mountain and cross the valley back to Hrakhamar to trade our dragon horde coins for gems, and for new armor and weapons.
 
The next day we journey back through the valley until finally reaching the outskirts of Omu. The cleric and ranger sense undead within the city. The city itself is sunken into the floor of the valley. With my spy glass I see that there is a tower in the city with a swarm of bats circling it. This was what I saw from the mountain top outside of Wyrmheart Mine. We find a wide set of steps leading down to a bit of a camping area littered with old firepits and refuse. The cliffs surrounding the city are 100-150 feet high. There are messages written and painted on the walls next to the campground. They read:
 
ERIK, I'VE GONE TO SEARCH FOR THE NINE SHRINES. - VEE
 
THE PUZZLE CUBES ARE KEY
 
BEWARE THE FROG MONSTER
 
WHO IS UNKH?
 
THE SNAKES ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM
 
ALL HAIL THE KING OF FEATHERS
 
KUBAZAN IS BRAVERY
 
SHAGAMEI IS WISDOM
 
MOA?
 
BEWARE THE FANGS OF NSI
 
"That last one is who I am here for!" Cimber snarls reading the message. "His death we return Mezo."
 
To the east of the city we see a large basin of lava. It has clearly devoured part of OMU over the years. Only a tower of stone with a ruined building on top defies the surrounding molten liquid as it churns around its base.
 
We descend more steps into the city and are greeted with an ambush of scaly snake folk. "Yuan-ti!" Nihle declares. They hide behind rubble firing arrows at us. Cimber and Halveer return fire as the rest of us close ranks. They wield scimitars, but also have a venomous bite. They are sturdy and resilient but we manage to over come them.
 
"We need to capture one of these creatures!" Cimber says. "So we can interrogate it for the location of Raz Nsi."
"Look mate." I remind him. "We're happy to help you take him out should he get in our way, but make no mistake, we are here to find the SOULMONGER and toss it right in that lava lake we passed on the way in."
 
We slowly work our way down the wide main thoroughfare of the city proper. To the west we see a large walled compound with black tendrils of smoke rising up. Cooking fires perhaps? Inside we find something more gruesome. Piles of charred bodies litter the grounds and wild dogs are fighting over scraps of flesh.
"Kelemvor's darkness!" Kasimir whispers. "Did the Yuan-ti do this?"
 
We explore the compound. "Look!" Taban says and points to a pile of blackened bodies. A pole sticking up has a banner flapping lazily in the breeze. On a white field is emblazoned a curled serpent with a black ring in its mouth. I had seen similar designs before. "My training with the Order of the Ghostslayers, studied apocalyptical cults. Dendar the Night Serpent was one of these cults." I tell the others. "His followers hope to bring him into the realms so that he will devour the sun and plunge Toril into darkness."
 
"Nice followers." Halveer remarks.
 
I recall a poem of Dendar:
 
In Shar's domain of night I rest,
So dreams may show me how I'm bless'd.
If screams of terror break my sleep,
Then Dendar's sunk her fang's too deep.
 
"Help......me.....pplease..." We hear a voice nearby call out weakly.
We search the rubble and find a man buried there.
"Hullo there. What are ye about laying under all this debris?" I ask him.
"Many thanks!" He stammers. "My name is Orvex. I was hired as a scribe by the Red Wizards of Thay."
"A scribe of what exactly?" Nihle asks.
"Old Omuan script and language." He replies. "They needed me to translate. They along with the Zhentarim are searching for the Soulmonger. They seek to control it for their own means. But the two factions clashed here and a battle broke out. There were explosions and I was buried here in the collapse of a building. They left me for dead."
 
We took a rest to help revive the exhausted scribe and I asked him, "Say mate. We were interested in finding the nine shrines. You wouldn't happen to be privy to their location would you?"
"Ah the shrines of the nine gods." He nods. "Yes, well I do know the location of one of them. It is just across the road." He adds pointing East where we came from.
 
After our rest Orvex leads us to the Shrine of Shagambi (Wisdom). Shagambi's form is that of a Kamadan, a jaguar with six snakes at the neck. As we enter the walled shrine, we are in fact attacked by two Kamadan guardians. I am bitten and use Misty Step to escape, but it breathes a cone of poison and put Taban and myself to sleep. Kasimir shakes me awake and I shake Taban and we help the echo knight and Halveer finish them off.
 
Inside the shrine itself , we find a sunken gladiator pit. On our level are four soldiers each missing a spear, two on each side of the pit. On the other side of the pit is a stone pedestal. Nothing is on it.
There is an inscription which Orvex translates to read "FIGHT WITH HONOR" There is a mural of Shagambi behind the pedestal with stairs leading down. But we notice the bars covering the pit are wide enough for us to squeeze through.
 
"Well I reckon it is our good fortune to have brought an actual gladiator with us!" I say, clapping Taban on the back. "Why don't you hop down there and fight whatever is presented as an opponent?"
 
Taban smiles back at me. "Perhaps I will finally restore my honor!" It is a twenty foot drop to the floor of the pit. So we lower Taban on a rope in the center of the areana.
 
He hears a portcullis raise up and then spins around as another one is lowered. He readies his spear as a clay-like construct shaped like a human warrior comes out of a side tunnel.
The moving statue also wields a spear and they circle each other, jabbing the points at each other and blocking and ducking the hafts as they swing about. The spears clack together as Taban blocks an attack holding the spear across his chest with both hands. He shoves the gray warrior back into the tunnel and makes ready for the next attack. He is bleeding from a few cuts.
 
Suddenly from the edge of the pit we see another clay warrior appear behind the first one trying to get into the arena.
 
"Hey!" I shout angrily. "I thought this was a fight with honor! Taban can't take on more than one of those things. We best get down there and help him!"
I step across the bars and lower myself down next to Taban. "We're here with you mate!"
 
Kasimir follows next while Nhile calls his echo to help. Cimber and Halveer fire arrows down. When we finally destroy the first construct, it vanishes, but drops the spear it was using to the ground. "There's what we need!" I say. "Three more and this riddle is solved."
 
The next soldier strikes Taban several times and he is bleeding profusely. "I must fall back!" He gasps.
"Go on mate." I say. "We got this."
"I want to block this tunnel off." Kasimir says after Taban retreats to the other side.
"Yes," I say, "That is wise, however, if we kill it in that tunnel, it may not leave its spear behind. I think we have to let it into the pit!"
Kasimir nods and steps to the side letting the clay warrior step forward.
I turn to fight one of the others that is still in the pit with us, but out of the corner of my eye, I see the new one sprint away. I lash out with my magic axe, and score a hit, but it does not dissuade it from moving on into the chamber. It seemed to be focused on Taban alone.
Taban has no where to go and begins to fight the new threat as we are engaged with the other two.
 
I see the new one block a weak attack from Taban and spin around raising the spear into the air.
"NO!!!" I shout as I watch the spear head come down snapping Taban's haft in two as he tried to block the attack. The head of the spear thrusts forward critically striking the young Chultan gladiator in the chest. His eyes go wide as the blade sinks in and kills him.
He slumps to the ground and the construct mindlessly turns towards me.
 
With the help of the others we finally finish the last clay warrior and I rush over to Taban. I fumble with my belt pouch pulling out my healing potion. I feel Kasimir's hand on my shoulder and I look up to him. He shakes his head. "That will do no good."
"Is there nothing you can do for him?" I plead. "It's my fault he's dead. I goaded him down here. I talked you into letting the last one in."
"He's gone. Kelemvor has claimed him. It was his time. His honor is restored."
Kasamir carries him back upstairs and we take him outside to an overgrown garden next to the shrine. Kasamir says a blessing over him and sends his body into the soil.
 
"Let us finish this so he did not die in vain." Kasimir says.
We go back into the shrine and place the four spears into the statues hands. Suddenly the pedestal shifts and opens on top. Rising up from the center is a puzzle cube with the symbol of Shagambi.
 
"THE PUZZLE CUBES ARE KEY"
 
"Only eight more shrines to go."