Journied east from town following the compass, to a mineshaft with warding runes around it. Fflam offered to stay behind and guard the horses while we blundered about inside.
The entrance had a magical trap on it, exactly the sort of thing that makes you calm and certain about entering a dark spooky cave; though, besides the odd ominous rune, the place was empty. After meandering around inside the mountain, it finally opened out into a large valley; lush with trees, a small gator-laden river, and (of course) a giant blocky temple of unfathomably ancient evil in the middle of it all. You see a thing like that temple, and you don't need a spell to pick up something wrong about it. Of course the compass points towards it.
There was a campsite near the river, a campsite with a gnome. She was playing a violin when we approached
We're setting up camp in sight of the temple, because hiding from it is not an option.
Day 72
Okay.
It started about two days ago, when somebody woke us up to see the temple glowing in the dark. Something is direly wrong with one's life when omnious portents of doom become commonplace.
The barbarian was sitting outside the temple when we got there in the morning. I have been told his people are not primitive, that they are well advanced in math and the sciences. I do not care, he wears a lionskin and carries a bone club, he is a godsdamn barbarian. He claimed some "Sama Lien" pirates captured him on his way back from bumfuck nowhere, that he had only recently fought them off and swam here, and that (surprise!) there was EVIL in the temple. Oh boy.
So, we get up and into the temple proper and find a gigantic red crystal hanging over a bloodsplattered stone slab. Just once I want to enter a place and find a basket of newborn kittens or something. Even if they proceeded to lunge for my throat, it'd be a nice change of pace. Hrefna found a passageway with a trick stair, leading down into a room with strange supplies and another staircase leading further downwards.
Below that was a chilly room with nine tables and nine wrapped bodies, three of which had a gem on their chests and were apparently evil. (The bodies, not the tables. At least I don't think so.) A ledger of some kind was there as well, written in an offbeat elven script. Writing next to the bodies matched up with the kind in the ledger. This situation is eerily similar to the one with the yew tree crypt, to the point where I could have sworn I heard Moana whispering to me while I was there.
Oh yes, and while all this was going on? Alcander barged through every unknown room, opened jars of mysterious goop and tasted them, smashed the skull of a helpless being for no other reason than it was 'evil', and made a racket to raise the dead twice over. There are five-year-olds with better senses of decorum. Confront him about it, and he calls you weak. The others may put up with him due to his 'noble' beliefs, but a noble savage is still a savage.
Despite this, we figured out that removal of the wrappings got the 'corpses' breathing again. Among them was our man, the High Cleric of Thor. We opted not to unwrap the two remaining evil bodies on the basis that such acts have been traditionally more trouble than they were worth.
Soon after that, a mechanical clicking noise started up from the room above. Alcander proved he had some rare bit of intelligence by not rushing off to bash its skull in until after I had come back from scouting it out (and subsequentially finding there was a skull to bash). Some lady-corpse in a robe was waiting for us, and prepared to boot: the barbarian crashed headfirst into a magical wall. She claimed she didn't want to kill us, but it's hard to take someone with a basement full of bodies earnestly on something like that. Everyone beat up on her, she made with a spectral getaway, and we made for the exit with haste and six survivors in tow.
And then we had a merry little picnic outside the temple, and Stūckah played a merry little tune, and everyone had cake. Ha ha ha hahahahaha.
The red crystal tried to fry me on the way out, and by the time we passed the temple gates, we could hear the sound of wardrums in the forest. Instead of setting up camp, we opted to run like hell to the mine. Spent most of the night lost from the main group along with Hrogar. We all managed to make to the mine entrance though, and thusly out the other end to where Fflam was. After the longest horseride in recorded history, we made it back to town where I promptly found a flat part of my room and passed out.
The next day, which would be today, we spent recovering in ways that sleep can't help with. Arcadius bought clothes for the survivors. I gave Hrogar some money for the rental fee on the magical compass (it did work, after all) and started writing a report for ol' Leafbridge. Maybe I'll even start on that letter to Milya after this.
But the most notable event of today was the tale the survivors told.
The high cleric started off with explaining how he used the mineshaft to travel to the valley in order to gather medicinal herbs. Then another survivor spoke up and said it wasn't a mine shaft, it was a hole in the side of a dead riverbed. Then another corrected that one, and another…
Six entrances, at least, scattered around the world, all of which lead to that valley. A marvel of modern arcanistry. All to dick about with peoples' souls.
So… we're going to have to do something about it.
The setup is this. The lich-thing from the temple uses the red crystal as a halfway home for its soul. Kill its current host, the soul hops over to it and then over to the next prepared body. Hrefna figured that there are too many detection spells about to make a stealth attack worthwhile. Her plan is to destroy the crystal and kill the lich (again). But we got lucky the first time, and it'll be on alert now. But we also have six thankful souls who happen to know how to prod buttock. As for Fflam, his condition can be cured, but only with special herbs found in the valley.
So, tomorrow, we're going to escort them all back to the valley and back through their respective caves while the high cleric gathers up the needed elements. One month later, we'll meet up with them and go on to assault the temple. In the meantime, Hrogar is planning to return to Point of Origin to complete his atonement. I gave him my report so he can pass it on to HQ while he's there.
Now I need to lay back down, as my hand is cramping.
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