It’s been a long time since I have dared to write anything. Secrets, once consigned to paper, have a way of no longer remaining secret. However I have discovered that what I scribe on the bronze tablet can be read by no-one else so, after everything that has happened, I have a chance to put my thoughts in order.
Since leaving thrice-cursed Marg I travelled alone and by night. It’s strange but I find it difficult now to tell the difference between darkness and daylight. Even with all my caution after only a few short weeks I found myself captured by a band of Beastmen.
Whether through serendipity or something else I was rescued by a band of adventurers who slew the Beastmen and captured the witch who was their leader. They are an unusual group: two Ice Elves, pale and slender, yet utterly different from the pallid dilettantes of Imystrahl. Peren is a hunter, favouring a magical blade called Shatterspike while carrying a hammer in his other hand. Snout – as he apparently likes to be called – utilises equally staff, fists and kicks, and all to great effect. The other two are a savage Halfling Shaman who in times of peril is able to assume the form of a great Bear, and an Atlantean Necromancer, eccentric even by the standards of Atlanteans.
In the fight against the Beastmen I was apparently able to pull my weight sufficiently to be able to join up with them, at least for awhile. Even though I’m not sure how much I can trust them, it is good to have potential allies. And it gives me the chance to learn how best to use the strange powers which since I awoke in the cave in Marg I now seem to be able to call upon…
I accompanied them to the Dhari settlement of Pyriador where the witch who led the Beastmen was handed over to a woman named Belanthe who was in charge in the absence of her father, Argul. With great delight she ordered the witch to be burned within a wooden effigy – a traditional method of sacrifice for these people, so I was told. As the witch screamed her last, a great party ensued during which time we heard about a place called the Blighted Swamp near Three Towers where a fisherman had found a golden goblet.
Belanthe asked the group to travel to Three Towers to collect a shipment of arms for the Dhari, and we agreed. On the way to Three Towers, while resting in a copse, we were attacked by a group of the undead which we managed to destroy before they could drag away any of the living.
A day later we arrived at Three Towers, a dingy garrison port. We had been told to contact Hard Tom who lived in a rookery called The Shades. It transpired that we had over a week to wait before we could collect Belanthe’s arms shipment, so several of the others took the opportunity to catch up with friends they had made on previous visits to Three Towers. Alibongus showed me the way to a very expensive magic item shop called Haughty Powers, while Peren sought information about a dwarven weaponsmith called Hiro with a view to having some mithral ingots forged into something useful.
After a day of (relative) inactivity we had grown bored and decided to hire a boat from Crabber Dreen (at an exorbitant fee) to go to the Blighted Swamp to see if the discovery of the golden goblet was a fluke or merely the harbinger of greater treasure.
We soon found an abandoned village built on stilts in the swamp, an unnatural vortex of slow swirling water at its centre gradually tearing it apart. On further investigation several serpentine heads emerged from the water and attacked, followed by the rest of the creature: a hydra! Working together and using much fire magic we managed to defeat it and it sank back into the swamp, its corpse pulled down by the vortex.
On the far side of the village where it abutted the base of a cliff Peren found a concealed cave entrance that led down into a magical darkness that was relieved only by flickers of green flames. A room below was lit by a brazier of green flame, and three doors led from it. The west door read “Hassan watches the Hall of Secrets”; the north door read “Krythias watches the Funeral Pyre”: and the east door read “Tymande watches the Pit of Undying Fire”.
We returned to the village and scavenged what dry timber was available to make torches as it appeared that only the green flames from the brazier could penetrate the magical darkness.
Our initial foray was to the so-called Hall of Secrets, a dark maze haunted by ghosts, one of which seemed to have been Hassan. They were dispersed and Hassan’s magical candle taken by Alibongus. Peren found a secret door leading to a stairway down that was blocked at the bottom by a solid stone barrier.
Two other doors proved to be warded by magical traps that brought down a column of fire on anyone standing before them, but we get past them having managed to set off both traps… One room is a treasury, filled with so many Nesskian gold coins we would struggle to carry them all, but also we found a Flying Carpet and a magical Brooch. Hassan’s spellbook was protected by a barrier against living things, but was easily removed by my Mage Hand. Alibongus was very happy to look after it!
The other door led to Hassan’s tomb where his animated tomb guardians had recently fought giant worms. It seemed that something else had found the crypt. A secret door led to another large chamber at the centre of which was a bier with space on it for three corpses. Coiled around it was the freshly killed corpse of a gigantic worm.
We left by the southern door into a hallway lined with stone sarcophagi built into the walls. There was a notable lack of surprise when they cracked open and twelve unusually well preserved zombies emerged to attack us. However they proved no match for our magic, or for Snout and Peren. One of the sarcophagi concealed a secret door that led into another room where we surprised a scantily dressed woman who looked like she had been in the middle of getting changed, shrieking for us not to kill her.
We spoke with her awhile and determined that she was called Boa, a priestess of Set who had been part of another group exploring the tomb – clearly we had not been the only ones to have heard the fisherman’s story of finding a golden goblet. She begged us to take her to safety, offering a magical dagger and mithral shirt she had found as payment.
More interested in a flickering light from another entrance to her room, we instead suggested she stay with us as we continued to explore the tomb. Somewhat unwillingly she agreed. The flickering light proved to be from a fiery pit that could be crossed only by a narrow causeway. A sinister hooded figure stood on the far side and tried to use his magic to compel Peren to approach him. Peren was able to resist so instead he summoned burning skeletons from the pit and ordered them to attack.
Banner’s magic created a cylinder of moonlight at the entrance to the room while those of us with distance weapons or magic sniped at the skeletons and the hooded figure from behind the cover of the corner of the tunnel. I called on the power of the depths to summon a tentacle to attack him while I blasted him with magic. At the same time a pair of giant worms entered Boa’s room from another tunnel and attacked.
Despite fighting on two fronts we were able to defeat the worms and the skeletons. The hooded figure, although badly injured, was able to retreat from the fire pit room through a door at the back. Rather than rest and enjoy our success we hurried after him into another dark room, hoping to finish him off.
Like many plans, this one quickly developed flaws. We entered the room to find a berserk wraith fighting the hooded figure, but decided to attack the hooded figure first as his magical abilities were likely to be a greater threat than even the necromantic attacks of the undead. Unfortunately we soon discovered that this was a second hooded figure as the one we had wounded attacked from the darkness, seeking to infest first Peren, then Snout with worm-like tendrils that squirmed out from beneath its hood.
Luckily both elves were able to fend off the attacks, but then more giant worms moved to attack. It proved to be a long, tough fight with many of being seriously wounded. In the end the maddened wraith saw the candle that Alibongus was carrying and for a few seconds was returned to sanity as the spirit of Tymande rather than the wraith she had become. Urging us to seek out Krythias as she would be able to tell us how to cleanse their tomb of the corruption wrought by the worms, she allowed us to destroy her.
In the corner of the room we found her crypt with her intact body within it. We carefully removed a robe and dagger, and, exhausted by the fight, return to Boa’s room to rest. Alibongus takes the opportunity to identify the items we found: a Brooch of Shielding, taken by Banner; a Dagger of Venom, taken by Alibongus; and the robe was a suit of glamoured Studded leather which I took.
Then we returned to the room where the funeral pyre had been prepared and went through the north door to seek out Krythias. Alibongus called upon the power of the candle to fill the room with light, but the wight that Krythias had become was stealthy enough to hide behind a pillar and attack me.
By sheer luck I was able to avoid the wight’s attacks while Peren and Snout moved forwards to engage her in battle. I poured magic into my staff and did what little I could to help out as there was no good option to get away from the wight, so intent was she on the fight. In the end she too was able to briefly overcome the effects of the corruption and revealed how we could defeat the curse by burning the bodies of Hassan, Tymnade and Krythias on the pyre using the green flame.
We duly obliged and as the bodies burned to ash, the spirits of the three heroes appeared before us and offered us a boon: either power or knowledge. After a brief debate we decided on knowledge and received a promise that we could call on them to answer a question.
Then we left the tomb and I used magic to cause a landslide to cover the entrance to the tomb in an attempt to stop others defiling it. After resting overnight in the abandoned village we make our rendezvous with Crabber Dreen for the trip back to Three Towers.
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