Dungeon of the Fire Opal

The Shield Lands

Following what could loosely be described as "instructions" in the mad raving of the cultist, the Party made the long journey from Diamond Lake to Critwall, the capital of the Shield Lands. There they took rooms at an inn and began trying to gather enough information about a lost monastery in the fens to the north. They fairly quickly discovered that that Order of the Opal Fist had once maintained a monastery in the are but the monks had long ago fallen to madness and evil and the monastery had been destroyed. Buoyed by the fact they were not on a complete goose-chase the Party headed out into the fens. Darrow eventually located the ruins after a couple of days of searching and the Party quickly discovered they were infested by stirges and giant spiders. They managed to bludgeon their way through and discovered the entrance to he dungeon in one of the few mostly intact rooms in the ruins.

The stairs led down to a large chamber with an exit to the south and east a door to the west. Exploration of this room was uneventful save for an unfortunate crossbow incident nearly hitting Darrow and Rockford! The door to the west led to a room which an underground stream flowed through.However, further exploration of this room was cut short as they were attacked by an invisible assailant.

The Party decided to take the eastern passageway but as they headed that way, Jhilsara's elven senses spotted a secret door and they diverted that way. The secret passageway ended in tow doors, north and south. From behind the northern door they could hear a faint sound so headed that way. As Garrick entered the room, he was attacked by the ghostly figure of a monk, babbling incoherently about  "lawfully acting unlawfully"! Immediately identifying the creature as a allip, Garrick turned it. Once the allip fled, the room proved uninteresting save for a skeleton in monk's robes and a holy symbol of Hextor carved on the wall.

They left before the allip returned, finding a storeroom in which a giant centipede laired. The insect was quickly slain, but the room contained little other damaged a rusty tools. The Party continued on only to discover that they passageway had looped them round and they were back in the east passageway from the entrance chamber. There were tow doors here leading east and west, they decided on the west door, but opening led to a shrieker within emitting a piercing alarm. As they entered the room, they were attacked by ghouls. One was slain and Garrick turned the rest. 

Hall of Osyluth Skeletons

After a brief pause,  during which Darrow spotted a trapdoor near the shrieker, the Party quickly resolved to follow the fleeing ghouls. Moving down the corridor they found them in the next room. They had recovered from Garrick's turning and immediately attacked. It was to no avail and the undead were quickly slaughtered. This room too had a trapdoor in the corner of a room. Garrick volunteered to search it and lowered himself info a foul-smelling crawl-space littered with decaying rubbish and mould. It was extremely unpleasant, but they confirmed that the crawl-space led to the trapdoor in the other room, and Garrick managed to find several arcane scrolls embedded in the muck.

The Party waited while Garrick cleaned himself as best he could and Jhilsara worked out the spells on the scrolls. When ready they moved to the doorway across the corridor, but found it led only to a large narrow room filled with ruined shelving, shattered earthenware jugs and various colonies of moulds and fungi.

They continued their exploration discovering an area where a number of monk-cells lined a room. some of the cells were empty but others contained large skeletons formed form osyluth bones that proved briefly problematic, but were eventually destroyed. At the end of the corridor was another empty storeroom but they did manage to locate a hidden cache with a clerical scroll and a potion hidden in it.

They headed back in the general direction of the allip, but avoided it finding a room dominated by a large broken machine whose purpose was unclear. A secret door here led to the chambers of a tiefling sorceress who although irritated at their intrusion, did not seem inclined to fight, though she did warn them to beware the dragon! The Party retreated and, their explorations eventually let them to a wide corridor. They tried one of the doorways leading off, but found it locked. Garrick forced the door with his rusty crowbar and Rockford and Rurik moved. Cautious as they were they soon come under attack by invisible assailants, though Garrick caught occasion glimpses of tiny bat-winged creatures flying up to the ceiling after each attack. The two dwarfs retreated and the Party pondered for some time discussing tactics for fighting invisible foes, but eventually decided to move on.

A nearby room was home two two lizardfolk, who like the tiefling, were not eager for a fight. Sitting down with the lizardfolk and sharing a small meal, the Party discovered the lizardfolk had been hired by two imps to act as intermediaries with the dragon that laird nearby.   

Leaving the lizardfolk, they approached a nearby door that showed scorch-marks. Garrick opened the door cautiously and called out a greeting. A voice replied in a language he did not understand. When he attempted to reply, he was met by a blast of dragon-fire!