The Lamia

It had been a long and hot couple of weeks, escorting the caravan to Kavir, but guard duty doesn't pay all that well. Between Cordithas' expensive tastes, and Toravir and Edwyn's capacity for drinking, money was starting to look a little tight after only a few days. So the sizeable reward offered for investigating some missing caravans looked very tempting, especially since it offered more excitement than riding beside a wagon for weeks at a time. The caravans had been disappearing on the way to and from Salin, a town about a weeks travel to the Northwest of Kavir. Bandits were suspected, but since barely a week goes by without reports of some new monstrosity it could easily have been something else. According to various maps there was a valley about 2 days from Kavir that offered a likely location for ambushes, so the party decided to make that their first stop. Experienced in desert travel, the elf and two dwarves had no difficulties in finding their way across the sands, and with no wagons to slow them they made good time.
As the party approached the valley, they noticed a line of smoke rising n the distance. Guessing it could be either a caravan under attack or cook fires from a bandit encampment, the group stealthily made their approach. The elf's oversensitive eyes had been dazzled by the sun so it was the dwarves who first caught site of the camp. A rather shabby affair, nestled n the entrance to some old ruins. Seven humans in various types of armour were milling around, some by the cook fire, a couple by the entrance to the ruins, and one collecting water from a small pool. The humans gave no indication they had seen the party, and the party took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Cord's arrows led the way, finding gaps in the ill fitting armour worn by the humans, but it was the sight of Tor charging and yelling his battlecry that really captured their attention. While one of the injured humans was helped inside the ruins by one of his fellows, the rest moved into a tight formation that briefly prevented Cord's arrows form finding their mark. But then a combination of Edwyn burning any who stood still too long, followed by Tor barrelling into them broke the formation. As Cord took advantage of the distraction to finish off a few more of the humans, the ones who had fled into the ruins closed a portcullis behind them. While they moved further into the ruins, Tor used his prodigious strength to lift the portcullis just enough to allow Cord to slip through.
As Edwyn tried to catch up to his faster companions, Cord descended into the ruins, searching for the mechanism that controlled the portcullis. Unfortunately he was driven back by a newly confident group of armed humans before he could open it. Falling back to portcullis, he was joined by Edwyn, who had managed to slip in while Tor once again used brute strength to lift the iron grate. Though their frontline fighter was unable to join them, Cord and Edwyn were able to quickly defeat their largely untrained opponents. Once the coast was clear, they opened the portcullis to allow Tor through. Beyond the entry way was a long corridor, dimly lit by too few torches. At the end of the corridor they found another group of humans, this time unarmed and desperate to escape. It seemed these were members of the caravans that had been attacked. With their pathetic gratitude getting in the way of further exploration the party sent the captives out towards the entrance. Continuing further in to the complex the party discover a throne room, and more prisoners. Just past the throne room they find an expansive bedchamber with shelves filled with jars containing what look like hearts. Some of the hearts appeared to be glowing. As Edwyn and Cord investigated the room further, Tor went back to the throne room entrance to keep watch.
Unfortunately for them, the threat didn't initially come from the way they had entered. A secret door opened leading back to the corridor and in poured a pack of jackal headed humanoids. Hearing the beginnings of battle Tor started back towards his friends but was suddenly accosted by the former prisoners. Just after, several more of the jackal men appeared. Tor tried to break free from the prisoners without hurting them, but was forced to tear himself free so that he could engage the jackal creatures. When he did so, he encountered a new problem. The Jackal things didn't seem affected by the blows from his axe. In the next room Cord and Edwyn were encountering similar issues, with their weapons totally ineffectual. While Cord tried to find a way to deal with the humans, Edwyn summoned an elk as an ally, before enchanting his weapon as a shillelagh. While engaging the Jackals and the former prisoners, Cord and Edwyn realised that one of the humans was not what she appeared to be. What they had thought was a middle aged woman, in fact had the lower body of a lion, and was issuing orders to the Jackals. She was a lamia. As the two adventurers focused on the newly revealed threat, Tor came charging round the corner. Not realising the true nature of their foe, Tor was quickly enspelled by the lamia, who had begun working her magics on him when he was 'rescuing' her. Seeking to protect the lamia, Tor fought with the elk, hampering his allies ability to deal with the ever increasing threats. In an effort to distract the lamia, Cord began knocking the glowing hearts off the shelves. As the jars smashed on the ground, the hearts stopped glowing, and some of the humans collapsed to the ground. While Edwyn dealt with the Jackals, Cord evened the odds by smashing the rest of the jar, both of them trying to snap Tor out of the Lamia's enchantment. Once Tor was freed, the tables turned on their attackers, as Tor unleashed his rage at being charmed in a wild frenzy of destruction, going so far as to tear the head off one of the jackals. With all of their enemies dead, the party explored the rest of the complex, finding an arena and a single terrified prisoner. He had seen his fellow prisoners taken by the Lamia and forced to fight in the arena or act as servants. After checking him over, the party released the prisoner and then set about securing the complex so that they had a safe place to rest. Unfortunately the lamia had one last trick to play. In a box was a deck of cards. The party had heard that these decks could grant great power so they resolved to try drawing from the deck. When Cord drew from the deck he disappeared in a flash of light. When Edwyn drew from the deck nothing happened with the first card so he drew again and gained a powerful spell. Tor also did well out of the deck, gaining a powerful warhammer.