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!

Dragon Assault

ty. By the time they eventually fled, several of the Rockford and Rurik were near death and all of the others bore serious wounds, both from dragonfire and various bites, claw-marks and bruises form slam-attacks. The Party took refuge in the abandoned storeroom they had rested in the night before, bu this time took care to jam the door in case the dragon followed them!

Fortunately the night passed uneventfully, as did the next couple of days while the Party licked their wounds and Garrick healed everyone. Eventually they felt ready to set out again, heading for a part of the dungeon they hadn't visited before. The area was completely devoid of either life or unlife, but they did find more evidence that the monks who had resided here had been very far from "Good" on the alignment axis. The corridors they were following eventually led them back to the area the dragon laired, and there was some discussion about whether they should take it on again. Eventually the Part decided to give it a go, but this time prepare appropriately. Various buffing spells were cast and enchantment cast on Rurik and Rockford's weapons. Ensure that everything was ready, they charged the dragon's lair.

Only to discover the dragon was not there!

While they pondered their next move the dragon charged them from behind, and began a series of hit and run attacks on them. The Party followed, retaliating where they could - to much better effect this time. The dragon retreated back under pressure heading for the room the imps had been in. Rockford followed only to come under attack by the imps. The rest of the Party charged in finally slaynig the dragon, at which point the imps seemed to lose interest and turning invisible, did not attack again.

The dragons nest  glittered with gold and gems, mixed with charred remains of previous victims and a few melted or blackened objects. A substantial but disorganized layer of coins, many of them slightly warm to the touch from the wyrmling's proximity.Interspersed among the coins and art objects are clusters of gems that catch even the dimmest light with inner fire. A delicate gold bracelet, finely wrought with tiny interlocking flame motifs, now slightly dented where the dragon tested its strength with its teeth. A once-elegant silver chalice inlaid with lapis lazuli, its rim blackened on one side from a past encounter with the wyrmling's flame . A heavy brass mug studded with jade, miraculously intact despite clear scorch marks; the wyrmling uses it occasionally as a makeshift toy, batting it around the cavern. The standout piece: a small, solid-gold idol of Hextor, about the size of a human fist but weighing nearly ten pounds. The wyrmling has gnawed heavily on one corner.A steel longsword with a scorched wooden hilt wrapped in blackened leather, a chain shirt, sized for a medium humanoid, its links slightly fused together in places from intense heat.The charred frame of a fine wooden harp with ivory inlays. Finally the hoard contained a sturdy metal vial containing a potion,  a sleek dagger whose blade faintly glows red, and finally a single scroll sealed in a scorched bone tube.

After resting briefly, and discussing their next move, the Party  escorted the lizard folk out of the dungeon, who were leaving as their job was now defunct. After this they  carried on heading towards a large room that had no apparent exits. A couple of giant spiders proved briefly troublesome, Rurik getting trapped in the webs. While Darrow provided over watch against any more spiders, Garrick discovered some mysterious holes in the wall and was busy was busy studying when Jhilsara sauntered up and suggested he might be better occupied exploring the secret door in-between them!

Dead Monks and Gnolls

On the other side of the secret door the Party discovered a series of wide corridors. They quicky discovered, that as they had been told, this area of the dungeon was infested with undead. They first ran into some ghouls, still clad in  tattered monk robes, Darrow was paralysed by a ghoul bite, but the rest of the Party manged to destroy the ghouls before Darrow lost more than a chunk of arm-meat! Nearby, was a corridor at then endo of which could be seen something glowing. Darrow went to investigate, and barely escaped with his life a huge stone slab dropped from the ceiling and nearly crushed him.

Their way forward blocked, they went through a secret door spotted by Jhilsara which led to a store-room that held old tools, rotted monk outfits and two desiccated and partially eaten corpses. Darrow also spotted strange footprints, some of which looked decidedly large! Moving forward, they began to emerge into a wide corridor when they found their way blocked by a group of zombies, some obviously once monks, the others gnolls. The gnoll zombies were tough, but eventually the Party fought their way through aided immeasurably by support from Halfdan's bardic abilities.

Moving back round, they fought their way through a group of gnoll and human monk skeletons, to find themselves back near where they had started. After Garrick healed Rurik who had been badly wounded by one of the gnoll skeletons, they headed south looking for somewhere to rest up. They eventually settled on what looked like it had been a prison of some kind - judging by the stout door and the shackles fixed to the wall,