Racing to Ruin

From Lexicanum

Freemen Rising

The party were heading towards the warehouse in Eleder where the Pathfinder expedition was being assembled for their daily planning meeting when a mob of people rushed by them screaming. The party dived into side alleys to let the people past only to fid that they were fleeing a pack or wild dogs. The dogs attacked but proved little challenge to our hardened adventures – though Dingle did get a nasty-looking bite.

Enelia called out as he noticed smoke coming from the direction of their warehouse down the street where a group of Freemen insurrectionists were lobbing flasks of alchemist’s fire at the warehouse. Dingle and Kylar leaped into action -  firing at the arsonists, Drusi cast spiritual weapon, and the others charged into combat. The arsonists retaliated by throwing flasks of alchemists fire at Handra and Malwen, before three of them lined up shielding a fourth one who wasstill obbing flasks of the stuff into the warehouse.

After a short brutal fight, three of the Freemen were lying dead while the fourth was fleeing dodging flurry of crossbow bolts from Dingle. While Drusi dealt with her wounded colleagues, Handra and Enelia started organising the locals in a bucket-chain to start putting out the fire. Kylar threw open the doors of the warehouse and dashed in dragging the unconscious form of the warehouse keeper out into the street. As the man regained consciousness he gave Kylar the awful news that Sasha, who had been waiting for him at the warehouse, had been taken by the Freemen!

As they got the fire under control, word came that the Freeman had occupied a whaling factory across town and Kylar took off like a man possessed, the others following. Arriving at the factory they could see a crowd, gathered and standing on the roof of the office, a hulking figure holding Sasha before him with a large knife to her throat. He appeared to be holding the unfortunate ranger up as a symbol of the foreign oppressors and urging the crowd to rise up, working the crowd up into a revolutionary frenzy.

Enelia and Handra immediately began tossing out counter-revolutionary arguments from their place in the crowd, which only seemed to enrage the   Freeman on the roof further. Seeing this Dingle leaped into action doing a quick-fire comedy routine to defuse the situation and using Fascinate to calm things down. Kylar meanwhile had made a bee-line round the side of the building and was clambering over the perimeter fence, coming under fire from a sniper somewhere in the complex.

Out front, Dingle continued weaving his comedy magic, the crowd and his colleagues lapping it up and applauding wildly with belly-laughs! Kylar meanwhile had dropped down into the courtyard which was dominated by the huge carcass of a sperm whale which had been abandoned while heading for processing when the Freemen took over the site. He quickly clambered up the side wall of the office building only to find the Freeman and Sasha gone.

Dingle meanwhile managed to work into his routine a slap on Enelia dropping the ranger out of his fascination. Enelia immediately made his way to the door of the building and crashed through – to be confronted by two Freeman insurrectionists.  Enelia engaged them in combat, while Dingle continued to break the rest of the party out of their fascination – taking the opportunity to get a good slap in against those who had failed to appreciate his comedy genius up to that point!

On the roof above Kylar spotted his target dragging Sasha across the courtyard below towards the flensing shed. The rogue ran to the edge of the roof and dropped down cat-like to the ground. He dashed across the courtyard, only to be attacked by two of the Freeman insurrectionists lurking near the whale carcass.

The others, having quickly disposed of the Freemen in the office dashed out through the back door into the courtyard, just as the hulking Freeman who had been on the roof emerged from the flensing shed – without Sasha! While Kylar dealt with two Freeman attacking him, Enelia, Malwen  and Handra engaged their leader. Drusi meanwhile focussed on keeping her colleagues alive. The Freeman leader proved a challenging foe, with both Enelia and Malwen wounded close to death before he was eventually slain by a crossbow bolt from Dingle! Searching his body they recoverd a couple of very nice Kukris  as wellas a pouch containg 50gp marked with the sigil of the Aspis Consortium.

Kylar meanwhile having disposed of his opponents, dashed into the flensing shed where Sasha’s body lay bleeding on the floor. Fortunately he arrived just in time to administer a potion of Cure Light Wounds before she bled to death.

Wind and Wave

Once things had settled down in the town the party set out to try and engage a guide for their trip. According to the expedition leader their best bet was a cleric of Gozreh called Nchecki, who he warned them was a bit of a hermit and a tad eccentric.

They headed out along the coast to the cliffs where the hermit lived in a cave. After some cunning diplomacy from Dingle and some pee-dodging from Kylar they eventually persuaded the reluctant cleric to hear them out. He didn’t seem particularly impressed with their proposal, but reluctantly agreed to help them if it was Gozreh’s will. In order to ascertain whether it was Gozreh’s will the party were required to undertake the Trial of the Wind and the Waves, to which they somewhat reluctantly agreed.

The first part of the Trial was to retrieve a back pearl from the oyster beds to the north, so the party set out along the coast; Handra remaing behind to keep an eye on the annoying cleric. Opposite the oyster beds was a small village of pearl fishermen who welcomed the party in and offered them lunch.  Over lunch the fishermen were happy to discuss the tides and currents in the beds and the potential hazards of free-diving – fortunately minimised as they had two potions of Water Breathing. Kylar and Enelia found themselves designated divers and after securing some diving gear (weighted sandbags and floating barrels) from the villagers they set out in a borrowed boat. Their first dive was uneventful until Kylar managed to scrape his arm badly on the coral reef. The blood in the water attracted the attention of a nearby kelpie who decided Kylar would make a tasty snack. Fortunately, though Kylar was badly injured, and with the help of a passing squid, courtesy of Summon Nature’s Ally from Malwen, they were able to drive the kelpie off. Once Drusi had healed the injured, their remaining dives were uneventful and eventually they managed to find the required black pearl.

The Trail of Wind required them to retrieve a father from the elusive stormbird. Who’s nest they were told lay a day to the east. Unfortunately as they set out, stormy weather set in and they were lashed by wind and rain which seemed to follow them as they made the uncomfortable trip along the coast. Kylar and Enelia were again nominated to make the treacherous climb in the appalling weather up the rocky headland to the nest.  Using the card they had found to summon an illusory peryton to act as a distraction, they began the ascent and were able to retrieve a feather from the nest before the stormbird returned. By a fortunate coincidence the storm abated almost as soon as they returned to the ground, and their journey back to the Nchecki’s cave was considerably more pleasant.

On arrival at the cave with their evidence of having completed the quest, Nchecki agreed to help them and invited them to accompany him on a vision quest to see how the journey might go unfortunately the vision quest came to an abrupt end as they neared their destination, when a giant cobra reared up in front of them blocking their path.

Somewhat thoughtfully after this, the cleric agreed to meet them the next day at the warehouse.

They set out early the next day, the rest of the expedition still being assembled behind them. After five days uneventful  travel skirting the jungle to the south they found themselves in the foothills. Nchecki suggested they could shave a few days off the trip by going though the abandoned salt mine, to which the others agreed. As they neared the site of the old mine they met a female ranger, who told them that the mines had been abandoned some years ago due to an infestation of undead. She explained that she was the daughter of the mine supervisor who had been killed in the outbreak and warned them of the potential dangers. Assuaged by Dingle’s assertion that the undead must all be gone by now, they decided to press on however and the ranger asked them to look out for her father’s body in the mine and if possible, to retrieve the locket he wore around his neck.

Salt of the Earth

Arriving at the mine-site, Kylar immediately began exploring the abandoned building, but all he found of interest  was an old journal. Unfortunately the old journal was coverd in spores and both he and Doingle contacted Green Haze from them. The journal belonged to the mine owner, which recorded the finding of a mysterious blue orb in the diggings and the last entry of which recorded the attack by undead.  Eventually everyone was ready, once Dingle had consumed aa potion of cure disease and somewhat exasperated by the delay Enelia led the way into the darkness. He rapidly discovered that the mine was partially flooded – the pumps presumably having ceased working long ago and he led the way forward cautiously through varying depths of water. At a point where the excavations widened  Enelia and Malwen were attacked by a crystal ooze. In the combat that followed, Enelia was not helped by a glitterdust spell from Handra that blinded him. Hampered somewhat by this the unfortunate elf found himself paralysed and on the point of being dragged under before this colleagues finally destroyed the ooze.

Moving deeper into the mine, they found a still-dry area had been a staging-area or campsite for the miners. Kylar’s attention was immediately draw to the strongbox he found, however Handra and Dingle were more concerned with the salt wights that ambushed them from the water. The wights had a dangerous attack that seemed to draw the moisture from their opponents bodies, leaving them weakened and their flesh desiccated. After the battle, made somewhat easier by Drusi managing to turn the undead, many of the party bore the scars of the attacks. Drusi began healing the wounded, Kylar however, ever drawn by the lure of treasure, soon turned his attention back to the strongbox and eventually  managed to open it and retrieve it’s contents – 500gp and the deed to the mine. The deed left the mine to the mine-owner’s daughter , they young ranger they had met outside!

As they moved ever deeper into the mine, this next group of wights they met decided to drop part of the ceiling on them to make things more interesting, however these wight’s too were dealt with, though Handra was badly wounded in the fight. Mover ever deeper into the mine they found the mysterious blue orb and also the undead remnants of the mine-owner and his wife. The two wights were swiftly disposed of, the locket requested by the ranger retrieved and the blue orb destroyed.

The rest of the journey through the mine was uneventful. Emerging blinking into the light, they were met by the young ranger. They handed the young woman the locket, though they forbore from telling her that her parents had been  turned into undead monstrosities. Kylar then handed her the deed he had found and she looked at him confusedly as he attempted to explain to her the concepts of property ownership and mineral extraction rights!

Village Under Siege

A couple of days later they rested overnight in a small the small village on the edge of the jungle. As they settled into the guest hut, they were visited by the village wise woman who told them that a fearsome predator, a chemosit, was stalking the village and begged the party’s help to destroy it. The party readily agreed and set about preparing a nasty surprise for the beast if it attacked. While the others took up positions inside the guest hut,  Kylar took up position in a tree nearby and Enelia outside a hut across the camouflaged with branches. Unfortunately the chemosit was the one who sprang the nasty surprise. Being better at sneaking than expected, Kylar was mightily surprised when it reared up in front of him on his perch, claws lashing out.

Across the way, Enelia spotted Kylar’s body fall from the branch where he had been station and crash into the ground with a sickening thud and rushed to his feet. Malwen spotting this as well, tumbled through the hut’s windows and dashed to Kylar’s side to cast cure minor wounds to stabilise him – just as the chemosit dropped to the ground beside them and attacked her!

Drusi dashed out of the hut entrance casting spiritual weapon only for another chemosit to leap of the roof at her - there were two of them!. Liwok immedately pounced to help Drusi and Enelia whiule Dingle and Handra joined the fray casting whelm  and sound burst  at the beasts as the combat raged. It was a fearsome battle, with Enelia coming close to dying as well, but eventually the party prevailed.Next day they were feted as heroes by the villagers and the shaman gavve them two gifts - a spirit fetish and an old treasure map.

Next day they set out once more on their trek, a couple of days later arriving at an area of savannah. The ground was criss-crossed with unusual makings and furrows which Dingle and Drusi swiftly identified as the tell-tale sign of ankhegs. Enelia, leading the way, almost fell into a sinkhole and ceded the lead to Kylar with his superior rogue-honed perception.

Kylar immediately fell into a sinkhole!

To add insult to injury he was then  attacked by an ankheg, grabbed and stuck until his friends arrived to rescue him. The ankheg was joined by two of it’s compatriots, but the party swiftly dealt with the oversized insects and began making a clear path through the danger for the caravan following along behind.

Kalabuto

They marched onwards across the savannah for several days, the journey relatively uneventful save for one twilight encounter with some large birds. On the third day, Enelia leading the way spotted the gleam of a great river in the distance. Nchecki informed them that it was the River of Lost Tears and that their destination was the city of Kalabuto on it's shore. 

An hour or so later, Enelia stumbled into a grisly sight, a twisted burned tree festooned with corpses, others lying scattered around it’s base! As they approached closer the stench of decay nauseated him. Suddenly the corpses scattered about beneath the tree, hauled themselves to their feet and attacked, they were zombies. Enelia was badly injured and ducked back behind Malwen and Kylar who held the zombies off before Drusi destroyed most of the zombies with a Greater Turn Undead. The remaining zombies were quickly mopped up by the rest of the party.

A couple of hours later they entered the city, moving though the throng to find the Shrunken Head Inn, where they were to meet the local representative of the Pathfinders for resupply. As they took in the sights, and smells, of the crumbing city, both Enelia and Handra felt uneasy as if unseen eyes regarded them with malicious intent, but no specific dangers were spotted and they arrived at the Inn safely. While they waited for their contact to arrive they had a meal of fish stew and millet washed down with a rough local brew, or in Enelia’s case some rotgut whisky! Their contact  a gruff dwarf, invited them to stay at his house while he went and got the items on their re-supply list.

They settled down for the night. Handra sharing a room with Malwen. Enelia and Kylar bunking together and Drusi sharing with Dingle, when suddenly in the small hours their sleep was rudely interrupted by an attack. Enelia somewhat the worse for wear ,staggered about and threw up through most of the combat, but fortunately they others were able to deal with the attackers. One was killed, one captured and the rest fled. Interrogation of their captive revealed he was a local thug who had been hired with some of his mates, by someone claiming to be from the Red Mantis.

Treasure Hunt

Next morning, after dissuading Kylar from going hunting for their surviving attackers, they set off early from Kalabuto, and out of the last vestiges of civilisation before the depths of the Mwangi. . After several hours travel that arrived on the shore of the Lake of Vanished Armies. Though no one else seemed particularly keen, Enelia in particular less than pleased with the delay, Kylar pulled out the treasure map they had and they began searching, eventually determining the location was about sixty feet offshore.  Using their last potion of water breathing Kylar lashed a rope around himself and set off into the watery depths. Malwen held on to the rope and Dingle lashed it round one of the mules.

Swimming out, he could see what looked like a sunken ship about forty feet  below on the lake bed. Diving down and peering through the murky water he could see the  wreck was in pretty poor condition, half-buried in silt and the entire side had been torn out in a huge gash. Stopping suddenly, he though he could see something move in the darkness of the hold, but the lure of treasure proved too strong and he swam towards the beckoning void.
 
As he did, an elasmosaurus  darted out, it’s impossibly long neck sweeping towards him in a savage bite. Blood seeping from an horrific wound, Kylar frantically began retreating, desperately pulling on the rope. On the shore Malwen began frantically hauling on the rope, Handra leaping to help and Dingle encouraged  the mule with a stiff kick up the rear-end. Unfortunately in the elasmosaurus’ natural habitat Kylar simply couldn’t move fast enough, and  by the time they hauled his bloody carcass onshore it was too late for even Drusi to help and they had to resort to one of their scrolls of Raise Dead.
 
On recovering, Kylar’s impetuosity came to the fore again and he leaped into the shallows challenging the elasmosaurus – which was only to happy to oblige!

His friends rallied round him, but the battle was not going well, Kylar collapsing in a bloody heap again and Drusi being badly injured before Dingle came to rescue with a Fascinate spell. While Dingle occupied the huge beast with his trademark comedy gold, Kylar slipped into the water and retrieved a chest from the wreck.
 
Having retrieved the treasure they set off again, Enelia leading the way along the jungle trails. The few days passed uneventfully, save for a minor altercation with some Mzali hunters, and they made good progress along the river.

Demons & Witch-Doctors

The next couple of days travel northward along the river were uneventful until ahead of them they could see the edge of what Nchecki informed them was the unpleasantly sounding Screaming Jungle. The streaming heat of the rainforest was unwelcome after the relatively pleasant conditions of the savannah, but Enelia plunged in regardless clearing a path through the undergrowth and staying as close to the riverbank as was practicable. Suddenly Malwen was startled aa large beast charged out of the undergrowth, driven by a hunting party of lizardfolk! They avoided engaging the hippo, wisely allowing it unfettered access to the river, though it snapped at Malwen as it charged past, and concentrated their attention on the lizardfolk who were swiftly killed or subdued.

They made slow progress over the next few days as they cleared undergrowth , their going hampered by the humidity, daily downpours followed by thick mists. Enelia stopped suddenly as they came upon a scene of carnage a small group of bodies, clad in the uniforms of Aspis Consortium guards, they bodies rent asunder. As they took stock of this sight, a dire-ape crashed out of the jungle confronting them. As Enelia drew his weapons and defended himself against the enraged beast, Malwen cast Entangle. Dingle fired off a crossbow  bolt and Handra cast whelm. They thought they  had the better of the beast when suddenly it teleported out of the entangling vegetation and attacked Handra. They party redoubled their efforts and eventually the beast was slain only for   a shadowy bat-winged demon to manifest above it’s corpse and continue the attack. Things were not going well for the party, their weapons and spells proving ineffective against the shadowy form while it’s claws and cold-damage wreaked a terrible toll. As things were at their darkest, someone finally remembered the Spirit Fetish the village wise-woman had given them, and Malwen snatched it from Kylar. She quickly activated the fetish and, shrouded in holy light, was able to send the demon screaming back to the Abyss .

After resting up, they searched the bodies of the slain Aspis guards– Enelia speculating that they must have overtaken them while they stopped in Kalabuto and then diverted on the treasure hunt. Aside from some masterwork spears they found a ring of sustenance, which Dingle claimed.

The next few days were uneventful until Enelia spotted signs of someone else using the track. In case it was another of their rivals, Enelia decided to investigate. The followed the trail to a small clearing dominated by a burial mound. A hole had been excavated in the side, and standing guard over it was a troll zombie. As they entered the clearing the masked figure of a witch doctor  emerged from the mound and pointing, ordered the troll to attack.   The troll charged Enelia and Malwen and they drew weapons to defend themselves. When Dingle fired a crossbow bolt at him, the witch doctor cast Enervation at Handra. Dingle retaliated with a Sound Burst that stunned the witch-doctor, giving Handra the opportunity to dash forward and cast Touch of Idiocy.  As the battle with the undead troll concluded across the clearing, the masked figure cast Blindness at Handra and began to flee, only to halt suddenly as Dingle hit him with a Hypnotise spell. Incapacitated by Dingle’s spell he quickly fell before a combined assault from Malwen and Enelia.

Head-hunters and Dancers

A few days later the party were nearing the end of the Screaming Jungle, when Kylar a headless corpse in the undergrowth. Judging by the tattoo on his shoulder he had been a member of the Red Mantis. Scouting around the are Malwen identified signs of an ambush a couple of days ago and there had been three survivors fleeing northwards. Somewhat cautiously, they proceeded on along the riverbank.
 
That evening as they were setting up camp, they heard the sound of a bell tolling in the jungle. Kylar felt a strange compulsion  to discover the source of the sound and wandered off – only to by ambushed by three ugly gnomes with an alien, feral appearance . The shock of the ambush snapped him out of the compulsion and he shouted to his colleagues for aid. As they arrived on the scene they were somewhat astonished as the diminutive figures attacking Kylar suddenly grew to three times their size, revealing themselves to be formidable opponents. Battle was swiftly joined and the party were ultimately victorious though Kylar was nearly killed (again) in the process.
 
Next morning they left the jungle and  had a much easier time the next few days traversing the savannah the river meandered through. Ncheki warned them that the next day they would be leaving the river and heading across rougher country. As evening fell they came upon four maidens bathing in the river, who invited them to join them for a meal and rest overnight in their hut. Kylar, uncharacteristically, wasn’t keen to accept despite their feminine charms, but he others seemed tempted by sleeping under a roof for the night, though Dingle was a bit nonplussed when he detected one o the maidens radiated a magic aura. As they walked to the women’s hut they told them they were Zenji Spirit Dancers,  Alala, Masozi, Osumare and Zakiyya they were native priestesses known as Spirit Dancers. As they arrived at their large hut, Handra and Drusi noted that three of the girls deferred to the fourth and at times seemed preoccupied and distant when not directly engaged in conversation.
 
As they sat to dinner, Handra use covert casting and cast Detect Thoughts, discerning the the thoughts of three of the girls were befuddled and the fourth was sharp, direct and not human. Handra’s action, had somehow been detected and Zakiyya ordered the dancers to attack and cast Dominate on Kylar! As the dancers attacked, somewhat ineffectually, Kylar wander across to Zakiyya and she kissed him – revealing her true form, a succubus.
 
As battle was joined , the party were hampered by trying not to harm the dancers under the succubus’s power too much, and even more so when Zakiyya summoned a babau to aid her. Eventually they managed to hurt Zakiyya badly enough to cause her to flee and dispatched the babau. Freed from the succubus’ power, the dancers were remorseful and in payment for their freedom offered to do a Spirit Dance for the party to awake their animal totems.
 

Tazion

Next morning, they left the river that had been their constant companion for the last month or so and headed across the savannah led by Enelia. The lush grasslands quickly gave way to a semi-arid scrubland and the temperature began to rise uncomfortably. They rested that night and set out again  early next morning, Dingle commenting that they might have been better off travelling at night. After a second uncomfortable day’s travel – made bearable by Drusi and Malwen creating fresh water in the morning, Dingle again raised the suggestion about traveling at night and resting through the day.  This time his friends seemed more amenable to the idea and they rested through the next day seeking what shelter they could from the merciless sun. On Enelia’s watch that day, they were attacked by monitor lizards, but the reptiles were swiftly dealt with.

The next couple of days were fairly uneventful, though at one point while resting,  Handra spotted what looked like another group several miles away to the north. When darkness fell, Malwen wildshaped into an owl and went scouting, but couldn’t find any trace of them. A couple of days later the land they were crossing began to improve and they finally arrived at another jungle area where Ncheki told them the ruins they were heading for were to be found.

An hour or so later they could see the crumbling walls of Tazion ahead of them. Kylar charged forward swirling his grappling hook – only to stumble into a tar-pit! Fortunately he managed to make his way through the quicksand-like goo and managed to haul himself up on the vegetation that covered the walls. From his vantage point he could see a break in the walls several hundred yards to the north and directed the others towards it, while he clambered along the top of the wall. 

Enelia, accompanied by Drusi, led the way striding confidently through the gap in the wall – only to once more earn his nickname “Trapfinder”, as he sprung a net-trap and the two were hung up suspended about five feet above the ground. Whoever had crafted the trap had wound sharpened bits of wood and bone into the fabric of the net of woven vines  which found their way through their armour as they struggled to escape. Handra climbed up the tree and used her additional weight to bend the tree and lower them to the ground where Malwen cut them free with her star-knife.

From his positon on the walls Kylar could see a ruined tower through the thick vegetation that carpeted everything and they decided to head towards that. On arrival, they discovered that the floor of the tower was a seething mass of snakes, though Malwen helpfully pointed out that “most of them” were harmless. Enelia decided to brave the tower and gingerly made his way through the seething mass – only getting bit once for his troubles. Kylar took an alternate route tossing a grappling hook up and clambering onto the roof – or rather the floor of the missing level above. The “roof” was not in a good condition and was clearly unstable and riddled with holes, though which he could see a stairway leading down at the other end of the tower. He pointed this out to the elf below and as Enelia made his way through, Kylar clambered back down and making his way round the tower, clambered up again on the other side. A few swift kicks of his boot made an enlarged hole that allowed him to help the others up and into the tower avoiding most of the snakes.   

Descending the stairway, they found a large constrictor snake nesting there that was swiftly dealt with.  Malwen advised them that room was actually a well and indeed, leading off of it, though a rusted iron grill, was an underground aqueduct.

The Well of Unending Screams

They decided to explore the abandoned aqueduct, and after Kylar and Enelia managed to remove the rusted grating, Dingle, somewhat surprisingly offered to lead the way!

They followed the passage for some time  till eventually they reached a T-junction and decided to take the southern fork. After a while they could see light ahead – the passageway appeared to end in a  garbage-strewn pit. Stopping at the entrance to the pit, Dingle cast Detect Magic spotting the auras of a couple of magic items in the garbage. Handra cast Detect Secret Doors but there appeared to be no other exit other than that the pit itself, so Kylar shifted into the lead. As he entered the pit he was attacked by a decapus, however once his colleagues came to his aid the cephalopod was swiftly dealt with – especially once a sound blast  from Dingle rendered it stunned. Searching the garbage they found a magic scythe (which Kylar claimed) and a couple of potions of Cure Serious Wounds one of which was handed to Enelia. They also found a masterwork breastplate , some thieves tools and a few coins.

Decrying the need to rest Kylar decided to scale the walls of the pit, only to find himself ambushed as he reached the top by two ape-men! Hauling himself up, he tried to grapple one of the charau-ka but, emitting ear-piercing yelps the others charged him.

Dingle recognising the cries from an ancient tale, warned the others and Enelia and Malwen began climbing the walls. Handra cast Spider Climb and scuttled upwards, arriving just in time to see Kylar going down before a series of blows as he attempted to flee. Seeing her friend was in trouble, she cast Deeper Slumber, causing three of the charau-ka to fall asleep, the fourth, confronted by such powerful magics fled. Malwen and Enelia soon arrived and the druid was able to offer healing to the wounded rogue.

After helping Dingle up from the pit, they paused a while to examine their surroundings. Concentric rings of crude stone columns surrounded the yawning pit in the earth. Heavily overgrown with jungle plants, weathered writing and stylized pictographs covered the columns. Handra and Dingle spent some time examine the pictograms and determined the stones were some kind of ancient astrological device predicated on star-signs long vanished from the heavens.

Eventually, they moved on, following what Enelia assured them was a trail. They were ambushed by another group of charau-ka in some ruins, but they were swiftly dealt with. As they settled to rest in the ruins, Enelia spotted a ziggurat covered in undergrowth, to the north through the jungle and they decided to head that way in the morning.

Temple of the Snake

Their rest that night was disturbed by a charau-ka raiding party sneaking into the camp - Enelia having failed to spot their stealthy approach.

Fortunately, in a frantic battle round the campfire, the party ultimately prevailed.- once those asleep had been rudely awoken by being clubbed by a homicidal monkey-man. Afterwards, while Handra disposed of the bodies, Enelia didn’t take well to his comrades comments on his lacklustre watchfulness and took to his blankets in high dudgeon. Fortunately the rest of the night passed peacefully.

Next morning they set off, heading through the overgrown ruins towards the ziggurat, Enelia leading the way. To add security, Malwen decided to parallel their course through the jungle but stopped when she realised the vegetation was growing on a thin crust of soil over more of the sticky tar. The trail led them first to what looked like a ruined temple, heavily overgrown, with several large trees growing through the ruins. Rather than leave whatever threats might lay within behind them, they decided to investigate.

Enelia, to no-one’s surprise at all - including his own - immediately tripped a trap! A large stone block fell from above, hitting him, Handra and Dingle.

While the others healed, prepared spells, or in Malwen’s case wildshaped into a snake,  Enelia marched forward, discovering that the centre of the temple was flooded by a large pool of sulphurous smelling water. Several crude wooden walkways linked ruined walls that rose above the surface of the water, heading to  the far side of the building which was relatively intact. As he approached the walkway, a hail of stones came at him from the far side. Undaunted he marched forward, and the others moved to support. Dingle cast Enthral, managing to catch two of their charau-ka attackers in his spell. The other two attackers were swiftly dealt with.  While they pondered their next move they heard a scream come from across one of the walkways.

Enelia immediately charged across, to be confronted by four Charau-ka surrounding a coal-pit above which three men were suspended in tarred-cocoons. Three of the charau-ka dipped their clubs in tar and set them alight. The third held aloft a jar of oil and called-out for Enelia to surrender or he would “torch the pink-skins!”  Enelia stepped back carefully, but sensing this as weakness the other three Charau-ka charged. The fourth cast his jar of oil down onto the burning coals and the flames leaped high! To the accompaniment of screams and burning flesh, battle was joined, with the party ultimately triumphing!

Fang of Ydersius

The party barely had time to catch their breath when they came under attack by Charau-ka in the treetops. Kylar and Drusi immediately drew their bows, while Handra sought what cover their was in the lee of the tower wall. Dingle managed to fascinate one of their opponents while Malwen, still in snake-form cast an Entangle into the branches of one of the trees.  Enelia meanwhile strode out onto the bridge to find himself confronting a Charau-ka cleric across the water.

The cleric cast a couple of Sound Burst spells and used his Venomous Gaze to momentarily fascinate him. Handra meanwhile cast a Fog Cloud into one of the other trees. As the battle raged things took a turn for the worse for the party as four more Charau-ka dropped down from the walls and attacked Handra, not to mention when a large constrictor emerged out of the water and attacked an already badly wounded Enelia. Eventually however, the tide of battle turned in the party’s favour. Enelia managed to avoid getting eaten, Handra just survived attempting to tumble past multiple opponents, before Dingle managed to finally despatch the  enemy cleric with his “crossbow bolt of doom”! 

Their leader killed, the few surviving Charau-ka fled.

While Drusi sorted out the worst of the wounded, Kylar and Enelia explored the rest of the complex, finding some treasure and a magical moonstone in a room dominated by a bone statue of a beheaded huge serpent. They rested that night in a nearby clearing, but there were no further attacks by Charau-ka.

Next morning suitably refreshed they made their way to the vegetation-covered ziggurat. Malwen cleared the way with a Jungle Razor spell, but the steps with cracked broken and difficult to negotiate. Enelia was first to enter the ziggurat and was immediately attacked by three giant wasps, which were swiftly despatched when his friends finally arrived to help.

The Nest

Moving deeper into the complex Enelia once again found himself attacked by giant wasps, however they were swiftly despatched once more once the others rallied to his aid. After the combat both he and Handra however were suffering badly from the after-effects of the wasp’s venom. In the room beyond they saw what appeared to be, and indeed was, a massive nest. Enelia and Kylar snuck by, heading for a doorway in the far war and attempting not to disturb the remaining wasps. The wasps had other ideas and their fiendish queen and two attendants attacked.

It was a fearsome battle and the party struggled for a while despite the support of Dingle’s comedic interventions, and Drusi’s timely healing. At one point in the battle, Malwen was near-paralysed and dragged into the nest’s labyrinthine interior. Rather than fight her way out, she cast Protection from Energy (Fire) on herself and burned the nest to the ground!

Once the wasps were dealt with they were free to explore the lower  level of the ziggurat finding two further exist both  of which with stairways leading down. Rather than explore these, they headed back to the doors they had found near the entranceway. Kylar and Enelia tried to force the doors open but failed dismally until Malwen pointed out the fact that the lower six inches of the doorway was buried in mud! Once the mud was cleared the doors led to an interior courtyard over which a stone stairway spanned heading to the level above.

Malwen went first   only to be attacked by a basidrond lurking under the stairway. Fortunately, save briefly for Handra, the party managed to shrug off the effects of the hallucinogenic spores the strange plant emitted and they emerged victorious.

The Azlanti Idols

 Barely pausing for breath the part moved on exploring the complex to the east of the ziggurat. They found little of interest except a patch of yellow mould  and some mithril cobras.

Enelia was sorely wounded after the battle with the cobras not to mention he and Handra were severely weakened by multiple doses of various poisons, so they decided to rest. The night passed uneventfully, and next morning Drusi cast Lesser Restoration on Enelia a couple of times to alleviate some of the ravages of the poison. After a brief discussion, they decided to forgo the stairs leading upwards and explore the rest of the lowest tier of the ziggurat.
 
At the far end they found a room with for small idols hovered emitting a strange pulsing purple light. Both Enelia and Handra fell victim to the Hypnotic Pattern emitted by the idols, however a Sound Burst, from Dingle soon snapped them out of their stupor and battle was joined. Malwen and Drusi took the lead in battle with the idols, Handra had a strange compulsion not to look at them, while Enelia seemed more interested in examine them than fighting them. Dingle, wisely got as far away from them as possible and used his crossbow. Once an idol was destroyed, it released stored memories, which circulated around the room like spirits, giving everyone in the room an accurate mental picture of the operation of a strange device consisting of four pillars powered by crystals, one of which Enelia recognised as being similar to the one they had retrieved from the Charau-ka.
 
Moving on, they searched the remainder of the lowest level, finding little of interest save for an unpleasant-looking pool of stagnant water.

The Moonstone Pillars

As the party, led by Kylar, headed up the crumbling stone staircase to the upper level, Enelia suddenly spotted something move in the shadows at the top of the stairs. He shouted a warning, but before anyone could do anything a lightning bolt swept through them! As the party drew weapons and began to move forward a girallon dropped down from above and attacked Kylar. Enelia moved to help his friend who was bloodied and battered from the girallon’s initial assault, but the shadowy figure above cast  Hold Person on him rendering him immobile. As Dingle moved forward to help Enelia with a Cure Serious Wounds spell, Handra cast a Fireball behind the girallon, also managing to catch the shadowy figure above in the blast.  Malwen cast Splinterbolt, badly injuring the Girallon, but not before another furious assault from it killed Kylar. Seeing her comrade fall, Malwen dashed forward and cast Last Breath, creating a new body for Kylar’s spirt to inhabit.

Enelia, shaking off the effects of the Hold Person moved forward cautiously, but stopped when he saw the damage that the Fireball had done to the already crumbling stonework of the stairway, Dingle with his knowledge of Architecture and Engineering also didn’t like that look of it.. Handra called out that she was happy to cast Spider Climb on him and also offered to cast Invisibility. Malwen used her wand to heal the injured, while a slightly wary Kylar retrieved his cloths and equipment from his corpse. As an invisible Enelia scampered up the wall an equally invisible Kylar used a grappling hook to bypass the damaged area and then hauled Handra and Dingle up. Malwen wildshaped into a bird and flew up!

They explored the upper are carefully, finding a room with a barred door, a staircase to another level which was open to the elements, and another room that contained the pillars they had seen in the visons revealed by the Azlanti idols below.  Eventually they were ready to try the barred door, but unfortunately Kylar, obviously getting used to his new body, was unable to budge it. Handra then cast Knock and just had time to see a robed serpentfolk standing at the back of the room before another girallon stepped forward and rent her asunder!

Battle was joined as Malwen stepped forward to heal the stabilise the fallen Handra, the part saved from a difficult doorway fight as the enraged girallon leaped forward to attack them. Enelia, still invisible edged past the girallon, to see a charau-ka heading up a staircase at the  far end of the room, and chased after. The girallon was swiftly despatched and they all headed towards the upper level where the charau-ka, in an attempt to escape, threw himself over the edge off the wall. To no avail -  as a barrage of spells and  arrows hit him. As the charau-ka fell to the ground it’s shape shifter into the form of the robed serpentman Handra had seen earlier. Amongst the serpentman’s possessions they found the remaining three moonstones they needed to activate the pillars.

By an astonishing coincidence the main Pathfinder expedition arrived on site at just that moment, and the party spent some time catching up, getting healed and conferring with the expert Pathfinders in the expedition. They spent the next several days exploring the ruins, examining the sculptures and artworks  in the ziggurat – and securing the site as the survivors of the other expeditions began arriving in Tazion. Eventually with the aid of the sages they were ready to try activating the pillars in the ziggurat, to reveal a top-down view of the lost city of Saventh-Yhi from which with the aid of the experts in the expedition, Enelia’s knowledge of the Mwangi and Dingle’s Bardic Knowledge, they were able to work out it’s approximate location.