DIT 8: "Glyph Key Hunting"
Discovery, Exploration
The sea-hag called Tanjus has given you information you didn't have before. To get to the Phylactery Vault you need to find a way into the Temples of Extraction. The problem is, though you can see it on your rudimentary map of the Doomvault, you don't see any connecting white gates into it from other sectors. Clearly you need a key that will get you into a black gate; but where to find such a key.
After leaving the Sea Hag, you head south, deciding to try to finish exploring the Predator Pools sector before heading back toward the northern sectors that may have a way into the Temples of Extraction.
Along the way, you encounter a Dread Warrior and Skeletons that are guarding a large group of catatonic commoners standing around a black stone shrine. The warrior and skeletons are easily defeated but Pubert becomes at least mildly effected by the shrine’s magic aura as he gets a little too close to it during the fight.
As you move away from the shrine to attempt to think through how to proceed, the effects on Pubert subside after a couple of minutes. Brehana is able to deduce that the black stone shrine is emulating some type of mind control magic and so she and Malice in unison blast the shrine from a distance with their magic, splitting the shrine in half. Unfortunately, the commoners are so far gone from prolonged exposure that there is nothing that can be done for them as they remain in their catatonic state.
Ten feet below the cavern, you find another chamber with a large pool. The destruction of of the black stone shrine has alerted the sahaugin inhabiting the pool of your presence and they are moving to attack whilst their priestess continues to chant in preparation of sacrificing the commoner in her grasp.
Before they have a chance to do anything, Malice kills the priestess with series of Eldritch Blasts and notices as he corpse falls into the water that there are also sharks present. The battle here, much like the one before, is fairly quick with the only mishap being Pubert somehow getting pulled down into the pull by one of the sahaugin when Pubert attempts to hook him with his harpoon. But little does that poor soul know that melee is what Pubert prefers and so whilst having won the tug-of-war, he quickly looses his life.
A bit of loot is found among the defeated foes, including a couple of extra glyph keys. Using the Black Gate located in the prisoner cave, you make your way back to the Gatehouse to rest and re-examine your strategy for how to proceed now that you know more information about how to find a way into the Phylactery Vault.