Souls For Smuggler's Shiv

From Lexicanum

Shipwrecked

The last voyage of any ship has to start somewhere and that of the the ill-fated Jenivire started in Magnimar.Amongst the passengers who boarded the ship that fateful day was  Malwyn a druid leaving her home on the Lost Coast to seek adventure was first to board. Also among the passengers boarding that day was a young freed slave called Handra, heading  to seek her long lost family in  Eleder.

They were joined at the port of Corentyn by Drusi Lorrimar an elf cleric from Cheliax.

From the port of Ollo in The Shackles, Kylar Stern boarded, a roguish young man one step ahead of the thugs sent after him by the husband of one of the fair ladies of the town.

The final passanger to join was Enelia Galanodel, a young ranger  leaving  Bloodcove after a  misadventure in the wilds of the surrounding jungle.

There were only a couple of days short of their destination when disaster struck. Although none among them could quite recall exactly what happened , they found themselves waking  one by one, lying on a beach, with no clear recollection of how exactly they had got there. Once they had disposed of the sea scorpions trying to breakfast on them, they began to take stock. As well as the five of them, there were five other survivors gradually dragging themselves into consciousness along the beach, where they appeared to have been laid out with their gear piled close by. The first of the others to awake was a human male named Ishirou who seemed very laid back, taking things as they come. Next to wake was a male gnome named Gelik, who seemed flighty and a bit sarcastic but generally friendly. Next up was a human named Jask, who was shackled in Irons, a prisoner being transported aboard the Jenivire. He claimed to be a cleric of Nethys and said his crimes were non-violent in nature. Last to awake were two women, a half-elf named Aerys who seemed angry and bitter about the circumstances she found herself in, and Sasha, a  woman, who seemed very flighty, almost overly so. Although Kylar seemed quite taken with her!

As the sun rose they could see what looked like the wreck of a ship - about a mile along the beach at the base of come cliffs. Making their way along the beach they saw that it was in fact the Jenivire – or rather what was left of her.  Malwen suggested swimming out to see what they could salvage. The others were not keen on the idea of swimming given the sea scorpions, and Kylar suggested they climb down the cliffs instead!

While Drusi and Malwen maintained a watch on the ship from the beach, Kylar, Enelia and Handra made their way cautiously along the cliff-tops. When they reached the wreck, Kylar and Enelia cautiously lowered themselves down to the heaving deck. Much of the ship was completely wrecked but they managed to obtain some food and supplies and also some other useful items, including charts and a bunch of keys retrieved from the captains cabin, the Captain's  log, some gold, a bottle of fine brandy,  and a collection of potions. They also found the body of the first mate who appeared to have been in a fight - judging by the sword wounds.

Returning to the camp with their salvage, Enelia started organising the other survivors into some kind of order. Aerys and Sasha started putting together a some makeshift tents,  Ishirou and a somewhat reluctant Gelik went off to try and net some fish. Malwen and her mountain lion, headed off into the jungle to see what she could forage to add to their supplies. Kylar meanwhile found the key to Jask’s shackles in the bunch he’s retrieved in the captain’s desk. After being freed the cleric offered to identity the potions they had retrieved. Reading the Captain Kovack's log was a disturbing experience, chronicling as it did  the captain’s apparent obsession with Ieana -  one of the other female passengers. Then, as the voyage progressed entries became more deranged, chronicling a descent into paranoia and madness. Enelia, studying the charts, reckoned they were on the island of Smuggler's Shiv and filled everyone in on what little he knew about the island.

After lunch provided by Ishirou (with hindrance from Grelik), Enelia offered to lead an expedition into the interior in search of water, some of  the others Kylar, Malwen, Drusi and Handra decided to accompany him. Before they left Sasha asked Kylar to bring her back one of the birds she could see circling over the trees to the south. After two hours slogging through the jungle, they emerged on a cliff face. Before them a wide bay swept to the east and a couple of smaller islands lay offshore to the east. Nesting on the cliffs below them, Kylar spotted some of the “birds” Sasha had wanted as a pet - discovering they were actually dimorphodons - a type of pteradons.

Kylar bandied about a few number of  hair-brained schemes for capturing a pteradon, before Enelia and Malwen took pity on him and used their Wild Empathy ability to draw one of the pteradons toward them. Then, using a combination of soft-talking and beef jerky, they got the bird to follow them back to the camp – arriving just as night fell.

Exploring the Shiv

Early(ish) next morning they packed up base -camp and headed out into the Jungle, Enelia leading the way. The Ranger took them back to the cliff-top where they had seen the dimorpohdons yesterday. Kylar insisted on clambering down the cliff and retrieving a hatchling from one of the nests for Sasha - much to the young lady's delight! After a brief rest, they set out again heading this time for the headwaters of what looked like a river on the rough sketch map they had found in the Jenivire.

It was late afternoon when they arrived and they deided to camp here for the night, especially when a torrential downpour disuaded them from going any further! They set up camp near the rocky outcropping from which the stream emerged. While the rest of the party busied themselves seting up camp, Ennelia, Malwen and Sasha headed into the jungle to see what they could forage to augment their supplies. Kylar managed to find enough dry wood to a least get a fire going long enough to dry themselves out. The night passed relatively peacfully save near dawn when a large snake decided that Kylar would make a tasty breakfast! The snake disposed of (and butchered neatly  by Handra), they set off agin through the jungle, this time following the stream.

About mid-morning, through a break in the trees, Kylar spotted what looked like a camp on the beach about a quarter of a mile away. They decided to investigate and found evidence that Kovack and Ienea had landed here and then headed off into the jungle heading south. Before they left they bay they  spotted another shipwereck up the coast a little and they decided to check it out.

This ship, the Golden Bow, had obviously been here several years. In their explorations they disturbed the rest of several skeletons, but after an awkward battle on the rotting deck, they managed to prevail - aided by Drusi turning several of the undead and driving them back into the watery embrace of  the sea! After searching the wreck and recovering some coin and jewellry, the headed back to the others to find Gelik, complaining bitterly that somone had swiped the brandy!

Ignoring the gnome's complaints, Enelia led the way back to the stream and they headed southward one more, occasionally picking up some signs of the captain's passing. Later that afternoon, their way forward was barred by a thicket of thorny viper nettles. Malwen advised viper nettle berries  had several medicinal proterties - including treatment of addictions - and it might be an idea to retrieve some.  On hearing that, Aerys leaped to her feet, a half-empty brandy bottle falling from her coat (much to Gelik's disgust), begging them to retrieve some berries as she had come to the area in search of them!

Malwen, Kyalr and Enelia braved the thicket and were able to harvest several dozen handfulls of berries.

The Brine Demon

Early next morning there was some spirited debate in the party about whether to stay on the high ground of the escarpment or follow the river down to the coast. Initially it was decided to keep to the high ground, but shortly after they set off, Kylar spotted another shipwreck on a small rocky island just off the nearby  coast. They decided to investigate to see whether there was any useful salvage. After climbing down from the escarpment to the shoreline, Handra, Malwen and Kylar, the better swimmers in the party, swam out to the wreck, while Enelia and Drusi scanned the waves nervously, bows at the ready. On arrival, they found the island was living up to it’s unwholesome reputation as Handra was almost killed as she clambered into the wreck through a hole in the side, as she was attacked by zombies. An entangle spell from Malwen fortunately stopped the zombies from eating her immediately, giving her friends time to come to the rescue! After the zombies were despatched to their final death, they managed to recover a smattering of treasure from the wreck before moving on.

Further down the coast the found another wreck, this one called the Brine Demon, but as it was close to sunset they decided to wait and explore in the morning. That evening during Enelia’s watch he was sure he heard someone on the wreck calling for “Aeshamara” and lambasting "scurvy mutineers and traitors"! He warned Kylar who took over the watch, but the young rogue saw and heard nothing.

Next morning, they proceeded to search the wreck cautiously but only found the skeleton of the ship’s captain in his cabin - clutching at a still locked coffer.  Kylar used his thieves' tools to unlock the coffer and discovered a golden locket, a finely crafted dagger, and a sheaf of official papers and ledgers in a bound journal.  Inside the locket was a tiny portrait of a beautiful red haired half-elven woman, and script below which read "Aeshamara."  The papers appeared to be what Jask Derindi needed to prove his innocence, but would also probably fetch a fine price if returned to authorities in the Sargavan capital of Eleder.

After a brief luncheon, they decided to set off once more, this time heading inland along a valley. As the journey went on, Ishirou got more and more excited,  informing them he believed they were nearing the area on the island his treasure map referred to- a hill covered with grass rather than jungle.  They soon came to the hill to the south  covered with grass on top rather than jungle. They climbed the hill and, after a brief altercation with a venomous snake, camped for the night.

Their rest was disturbed however by the ghostly figure of a sea captain manifesting in the camp – calling out for “Aeshamara”. The ghostly figure suddenly spotted Sasha’s red hair and seemed to mistake her for the missing Aeshamara, and began moving towards her, hand outreached.  Sasha shrieked and recoiled and Drusi immediately launched into a turning attempt.

Unfortunately they turning had no effect and the ghostly figure attacked in rage describing Drusi as a “scurvy mutineer, he swiped his hand right through her. Drusi collapsed as if pole-axed, as the ghost’s corrupting touch ravaged her body. As the others reached for weapons, Kylar, suddenly remembered the name Aeshamara from the locket and tossed it towards   the ghost, the captain reached out a hand, but the locket passed right though it! Exasperatedly, Enelia rolled over and opened the locket, showing the ghost the picture within. The ghost looked at the picture within and then faded with a sigh!

Next morning they were up before dawn as Ishirou told them the first light on the hilltop would reveal where to begin digging. The shovels they had fortuitously salvaged from the Jenivire at the ready, they waited as a shaft of sunlight illuminated an area about 20 yards from where they had slept.

The Treasure Pit

After several hours digging in relays down to a depth of about 15 feet, Handra suddenly stopped as she came across what looked like human remains. After careful excavation it was revealed as the skeletal remains of a dwarf. Under the dwarf was some kind of wooden plug embedded into what was more like soft stone than earth.

They paused for lunch (more roast snake), then worked for a while making the deep exaction a bit safer to work in shoring up the walls with branches and sloping one of the sides, before they started to work on excavating the plug. Enelia dug down one side and confirmed there was a void beneath, and dropping a small stone down the hole confirmed that somewhere below was water! After this, they decided additional safety precautions needed to be taken with the person digging being secured by a rope held by two of the others. After a couple of hours, Drusi was digging when suddenly the plug fell down to reveal a shaft dropping about 40ft. They lowered a torch on the end of a rope to reveal the bottom of the shaft was filled with brackish water.

Kylar immediately volunteered to go down and investigate and a length of rope was swiftly knotted. The young rogue climbed down carefully, but as he reached the bottom, he suddenly slipped on the rope, and his foot went into the water. Immediately a ghoulish, emaciated figure - a lacedon - exploded out of the water and attacked him. Kylar began to try to climb up but as he did so the lacedon attacked again. Kylar suddenly stiffened and, paralysed by the ghoul’s bite, fell into the water - wounded near to death.

Malwen swiftly leaped into action dropping down the shaft, swiftly followed by Enelia, clambering down the rope. Jask cast light on a stone and dropped it down after her. Unfortunately Malwen too fell foul of the lacedon’s attacks and slumped into unconsciousness. Sasha seeing Kylar’s plight dropped down the shaft and administered a potion of cure light wounds. Enelia meanwhile dived straight into the murky water and engaged the lacedon, swiftly despatching it.

While the others rescued Kylar and Malwen, Enelia explored a side passage where he found both another lacedon and a treasure chest. The lacedon was swiftly dealt with and the treasure chest returned to the surface. After the chest was opened the treasure was split evenly amongst them,  a scroll of Raise Dead  was entrusted to Drusi.

After resting they headed back to the nearest river to replenish their water supplies, on the way Handra spotted what looked like a path and they decided to follow it. This was an unfortunate decision – at least for Enelia as he tripped a trap and found himself suspended ten feet up in the air and impaled on a wooden stake!  After some effort they managed to get Enelia out of the trap and Jask healed him. They continued on along the path for a little way – only for Enelia to be caught off-guard once again!

By the time they had retrieved the unfortunate ranger from this trap, the sun was setting and they decided to camp on the beach. As they settled down, for the night Handra noticed what looked like a collection of buildings about a quarter of a mile north of them.  Their rest that night was disturbed briefly when a shiv dragon wandered into the camp, but a calm animal spell from Malwen dealt with it before any serious damage could be done.

The Journal

Soon after sunrise, the party headed up the coast to investigate the structures Handra had spotted before they camped. It turned out to be a series of makeshift shelters occupied by some yellow musk zombies. After the zombies were dealt with, the party then headed up a path through the jungle which led them back to the main path they had been following the day before.

After a brief discussion they decided, given the traps they had already found, to hack through the jungle rather than walk down the path. After an arduous morning hacking through the jungle undergrowth alongside the path (Malwen excepted), they arrived an a point where the path diverged. One path led southward though narrow ravine between two escarpments while the other seemed to lead back to the coast. After a brief discussion they decided that the southward path was best as it was taking them towards where Enelia believed the lighthouse was. 

They walked along the base of the ravine for about a mile when the unfortunate Enelia, fell victim to another trap. This time, before he could attempt to cut himself free however, something began hauling the rope from which he hung up the cliff-face!

The others immediately rushed to aid their collages, the cliff walls were too steep for the humans to climb unaided, but Malwen sent her animal companion bounding upwards,. Kylar managed to get a rope out and somehow managed to lasso Enelia, however his and Drusi’s  combined strength  was not able to stop their friend being hauled over the top of the cliff and out of sight.

Enelia found himself confronted by a savage figure that began clubbing him with what looked like a broken cutlass. Enelia been fighting back, though somewhat hampered by the various ropes entangling him, when Malwen’s animal companion leaped into the fray. Against the combined assault the savage was soon defeated.   Down below, the rest of the party managed to climb the cliff using grappling hooks and ropes.

Nearby, they found an old abandoned hut, the exterior of which was festooned with human skulls and bones. Inside, Kylar discovered a decaying old journal from a shipwreck survivor and was able to glean some interesting snippets:


After resting for a while, and those with water-skins, refilling them from a nearby stream, they headed down a narrow pathway while led down the southern side of the escarpment and eventually rejoined the main path. At this point it was near dusk, and they began searching for a decent campsite. Enelia, found a likely spot and they settled for the night – once the giant centipedes were cleared out!

The Thrunefang Camp

As they rested that night their camp was hailed from the darkness and a damp looking gnome wandered in. Enthused by the though of another gnome bard sharing his talents around the campfire, the party welcomed the stranger in and Drusi offered him some choice cuts of their snake and centipede ragout. Ishirou even offered him some of the raw fish he was gnawing on, calming it was somthinng called "sushi"! The new arrival told them his name was Dingle Dongleson; that his ship had been attacked by pirates and he escaped by throwing himself overboard and somehow made it shore despite being rubbish at swimming!

Next morning they set out again, Enelia once more took the lead towards the southern coast of the island. Unfortunately the path they were following began heading eastward. Enelia immediately struck off once more into the jungle, only for the hapless ranger to stumble into a small pack of shiv dragons resting in the dense undergrowth!  After a brief battle the shiv dragons were defeated. A brief discussion followed about whether the dragon's remains should be added to the party’s food store, some in doubt as to whether the poisonous creatures were edible or not. Eventually a consensus was reached that the tails should be ok and they were duly added to the party’s meagre stores!

A couple of hours of strength-sapping undergrowth-hacking later, they emerged on the cliffs of the southern coast of the island.  To the west, on a promontory, they could see their destination – the lighthouse. They could also see smoke rising nearby -  presumably  the Thrunefang cannibals they had read about in the old journal.  The decided to move closer and then camp before doing a full reconnaissance in the morning.

Next morning the stealthier members of the party led the way, infiltrating the Thrunefang village through a large rubbish pit at the back. Enelia and Kylar sneaked through the pit into what looked like a prisoner compound and shinnied over the bamboo and driftwood fence around it with ease, finding themselves  in what looked like a butcher’s shop, with blood stained tables and hunks of meat they didn’t care to examine too closely.

 Malwen led the others round the edge of the jungle to the side of the compound and peered out into the centre of the village. It didn’t take very long however for the reconnaissance to turn into a full-fledged assault as Malwen spotted for cannibal’s sitting round a huge fire-pit in the village square. Dingle led the assault – firing a crossbow bolt and hitting one of the cannibals. The cannibals reacted in predicable form, grabbing weapons and charging mindlessly into combat – straight into a sleep spell from Handra that took two of them out.  Drusi and Malwen dealt swiftly with the others, while Handra cast her sleep spell again taking out two cannibals she spotted  in a watchtower across the square. 

Kylar and Enelia ambushed a couple of cannibals in the room adjacent to the butchery and made their way through to the base of the lighthouse. While Dingle and Handra dealt with the two unconscious cannibals at their feet, Malwen and Enelia found a nearby storeroom unlocked, but they found little of interest – finding themselves unwilling to investigate the cannibal’s food supplies too closely!

Malwen then headed round to another compound next door where a strange rattling sound could be heard.

Cannibals, Concubines and Captains

The rattling sound that Malwen had heard, turned out to be a bunch of skeletons penned in an enclosure – a couple of uses of  turn undead from Drusi swiftly dealt with them however and the party turned their attention to the clearance of  rest of the camp. The cannibals were no pushovers and in the skirmishes that ensued, Drusi, Handra, Dingle and Malwen were all wounded near to death. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for a timely intervention from Liwok, things might have turned out very different.
 
Meanwhile over in the lighthouse, Kylar and Enelia found themselves confronted by the cannibal chief, who nearly managed to kill the young thief with a single blow for his wicked looking sword before Enelia managed to finish him off. Upstairs in the lighthouse – Enelia found the cannibal chief’s room – including his harem who immediately attached themselves to the ranger. On the uppermost level of the lighthouse they found that work had not been completed on the lantern room before the building had been abandoned – unfortunately no one in the party had the requisite skills to finish the job!
They decided to rest that night in the relative safety of the stone-built lighthouse and called the other survivors of the Jenivire  in to join them. Jask had comprehend languages in mind and was able to talk to the cannibal women, discovering that there was some kind of underground cave complex beneath the camp though all of the women were afraid of whatever lived there. They also discovered there was a “wise woman” who lived in a hut on the other side of the camp.
 
Next morning Jask and Enelia , accompanied by his gaggle of cannibal concubines, made their way to visit the “wise woman”. Somehow Enelia managed to charm the old witch – especially when Enelia told them he’d killed the cannibal chief - and  rather than having to fight her they settled down for a nice cup of nettle tea. The witch told them that Mother Thrunefang lived in the caves below and that Ienea and Captain Kovack had gone down into the caves three days ago. Neither had returned. The old witch went on to tell them of some of the other current denizens of the island – of the Mad Birdman, the Tree Spirit, the Red Mountain Devil and The Fungus God, before agreeing to take charge of Enelia’s cannibal lovelies.
 
They decided that it was time to visit the mysterious Mother Thrunefang and while the other survivors agreed to start work on trying to repair the lighthouse, they descended one-by-one into the cave system below. It wasn’t long before they were ambushed by a couple of festrog, who were swiftly though somewhat disgustingly despatched, through the ever-unfortunate Enelia managed to contract filth fever from one of them. In one of the alcoves of a cave they found a note scratched in blood on a piece of leather that seemed to be from Captain Kovack. The note begged forgiveness for his actions, telling them that he had been controlled by Ienea a “serpentine devil in shape of a Varisian”, who had come to the island in search of some vile artefact. The note begged them to find and destroy her and also to destroy what was left of him so that he might find rest.

Mother Thrunefang

Descending deeper into the cave complex they discovered a huge ancient temple, dedicated to some ancient serpent-god, though Drusi was unable to identify him. The temple was guarded by two lacedons, one of them was the remains of the unfortunate Captain Kovack, and they were more than happy to fulfil his last wishes by sending him to his eternal rest. They discovered that someone, presumably Ienea, had been in the temple before them and had entered the sanctuary where ancient carving told of a fearsome weapon wielded by serpentfolk against human opponents. Dingle estimated that the carvings were ancient and  probably contemporaneous with the Azlanti. Although not able to understand much of what was in the carvings, they did identify adepiction of a red mountain, and Drusi took copious notes of the inscriptions.
 
The decided to rest-up in the Temple, however next morning Enelia woke shivering and shaking with an ague. Despite his fever the elf managed haul himself to his feet and join the party in exploring the rest of the complex. At first the caves were sparsely populated, the occasional ghoul or lacedon either fleeing or being cut down before them, but suddenly they emerged into a cave containing what looked like the whole pack –accompanied by their fearsome Mother.
 
A furious and brutal combat ensued as the ghouls, bolstered by the presence of Mother Thrunefang, swarmed over them. Kylar and Malwen were nearly killed in the battle, kept alive only by timely interventions from Drusi who herself fell before the onslaught and was saved  from death by Handra. Eventually, with everyone in the party bearing the scars of battle, the party triumphed.

Red Mountain

Having explored the cave system to its fullest and confirming there were no surviving ghouls (they could find), the party returned to join their fellow castaways back at the lighthouse.

Enelia, suffering from a combination of Filth fever and Ghoul fever was given over to the tender ministrations of his cannibal concubines, while Sasha and Kylar retired for a private reunion. Their fellow castaways had prepared a feast  – of fruit and vegetables, Jask having supervised the disposal of their meat supplies by the surviving Thrunefang over the cliff! After the meal, they retired to slumber, but their rest that night was disturbed by a strange distant rumbling sound and lightning arcing into the sky to the east – in the vicinity Red Mountain.

Next day while Enelia lay abed being ministered to, and having the Wise Woman feed him various foul-tasting concoctions, the others set off to explore the Red mountain area.

After crossing a rickety rope bridge over the gorge that separated Red Mountain from the rest of the island, the found a strange set of standing stones surrounding a pyramid-shaped stone. Feeling this was significant, they sat down puzzling over this for some time trying to work out what it was about. After puzzling for some time and discussing various stains on the stones , they eventually hit on the cunning plan of consulting the copious notes and rubbings of the carvings Drusi had taken the day before form the ancient serpent-god  temple. This went even better once Kylar and Handra realised that actually had some small ability in deciphering ancient scripts!

The eventually managed to decipher enough to work out the details of the ritual to activate the stones involving blood, snakes and a bowl of sea water! However rather than do anything about it they decided to take a stroll up Red Mountain instead! After admiring the view from the mountain top they came back just around sundown. Rather than head back to the comforts of the lighthouse, they decided to camp out here in the open for the night.

Next morning, Drusi headed back to the village and picked-up Enelia who was feeling a bit better. Once they were all assembled rather then attempting to activate blindly, they commenced the complicated ritual to activate the ancient artefact. As lighting arced up into the sky they heard the rumbling sound and watched as all the water began surging back from the bay next to them – like a great tide suddenly going out. The absence of the sea revealed two massive stone doors at the base of the cliff opposite, which as they watched began to open.

They made their way cautiously down on the seabed and began crossing the bay, avoiding the danger of a huge rock pool containing a stranded shark by dint of Malwen using entangle to wrap the shark up in seaweed. As they got nearer to the other side a winged beast swooped down from the vicinity of the doors and attacked Dingle, grabbing him. Fortunately they managed to drive it off before the gnome was snatched off into the air and a doubtless grisly fate.

Passing through the mighty stone doors they ascended a long stairway into a huge stone chamber, above them in the darkness a bridge crossed overhead. Kylar found a trapdoor in an alcove near the entrance and the rogue found the shaft descending downwards from it irresistible and began clambering down. Drusi meanwhile found a large lever in another alcove that appeared to operate the external doors.   As Enelia and Handra headed across the room two javelins slammed into them for the darkness above and they took cover beneath the bridge.

Immediately, two serpentfolk skeletons dropped down out of the darkness above and attacked. As Enelia and Handra defended themselves their colleagues quickly rushed to their aid. Although Handra was badly injured in the battle that followed, the skeletons were finally destroyed.

The Temple of Blood

Deciding to postpone the investigation of what Dingle contemptuously dismissed as “the privy” (much to Kylar’s disappointment), Enelia cautiously opened the blood-dripping bronze doors to reveal a corridor heading east-west. Deciding on the sinister path, Enelia led the way up a flight of stairs - only to discover a pit-trap by the simple expedient of falling a down it! Climbing back up, he rejoined the others and assisted in them in negotiating their way across. The corridor beyond led to another set of stairs and led to a T-junction. Kylar led the way, cautiously searching for traps and, following party tradition, went left, discovering another pit trap, this time before Enelia fell down it!

 The pit-trap successfully negotiated, they passed through a set of doors that led onto the stone bridge that spanned the huge room they had found as they entered the temple. Past another set of doors at the far and of the bridge was a complex of corridors and rooms where they were attacked by skeletons, this time of the human variety. Drusi managed to destroy most of them by Turning them, and the rest were swiftly dealt with. The rooms in this area were covered in carvings with a strange fanged skull motif being prevalent. Unfortunately neither Drusi nor Dingle could identify it.  

Heading back across the bridge to the T-junction and taking the northern path, Kylar narrowly managed to avoid falling into yet another pit trap. Immediately in front of him was another set of bronzed doors. Dingle came up to join him, but then deciding that was a bit adventurous, clambered back down into the pit to make way for someone else. At the bottom of the pit he spotted a small tunnel, and sent a dancing lights spell down to see where it went.   Unfortunately this attracted the attention of a gibbering mouther who was traversing the tunnel, which immediately leaped to attack, gibbering hideously and grabbing the unfortunate gnome.

 Enelia found the gibbering sound particularly affecting and retreated down the stairs while Handra, Kylar and Drusi leaped down into the pit to help Dingle – Handra taking a face-full of acidic spittle in the face that blinded her momentarily. Dingle managed to extricate himself from the grip of the gibbering mouther and clambered up the rope being held by Malwen. This allowed the others free reign against the aberration which was swiftly despatched. 

 After Drusi doled out some healing, Kylar opened the doors and immediately stopped anyone from entering; having spotted the whole room was in fact a trap. After carefully analysing the trap, he disabled both the bronze sheets that were designed to trap the unwary inside the room and the vicious blades designed to sweep down from the ceiling and slice-and-dice the occupants!

 Beyond this chamber a set of double-doors led into the nave of a huge cathedral where they were immediately confronted by three serpentfolk skeletons, and standing on the altar a living serpentfolk -  presumably the mysterious Ieana. Seeing them, the serpentfolk on the altar raised her hands, casting a spell. Drusi immediate turned two of the skeletons while Malwen and Kylar attacked the other one. The rest of the party surged forward -  firing arrows, throwing knives and spells towards the figure on the altar, hitting her several times. As they closed to melee range however, Malwen noticed something odd, although hit by several arrows, none of the wounds appeared to be bleeding –  the figure of  Ieana was an illusion!

Departing the Shiv

Hunting around for Ienea,  there was no sign of her on the altar ort hiding behind the demonic statue. Dingle and Enelia spotted a ghostly figure heading for the bronze bars at the far end of the temple through which the river of blood flowed. Dingle cast Dancing Lights so the others could see and they launched several ineffectual attacks and attempts to stop the ghostly figure which squeezed through the bars. Malwen cast Summon Nature's Ally, to bring an air elemental to attack, which seemed to slow their opponent briefly, but not enough to stop her getting thorough the bars. For a moment the party seemed stymied by what to do to stop her escaping. While Enelia hung back, her bow at the ready, Handra cast a couple of spells, but the gaseous cleric seemed unaffected by them. Kylar fruitlessly searched for some way to pass this seemingly impenetrable barrier, while their opponent serenely floated away ignoring the attacks from the air elemental. Various members of the party tried ranged attacks,  arrows seemed to simply bounce off or pass through  their target until Kylar passed Dingle his magical dagger, this seemed to strike true, but did little damage. Suddenly someone came up with the brilliant idea of trying to bend the bars!

The bars proved to be hollow bronze tubes and Kylar  bent them easily, and one by one the party squeezed through and surrounded their opponent as she attempted to float slowly towards the underground lake ahead. Not even bringing two illusory gibbering mouthers, spotted as such by Drusi,  could help the cleric survive – especially once Kylar and Enelia engaged with magic weapons. Soon Ienea lay dead before them. Their opponent vanquished, they explored the rest of the temple. Dingle spotted what appeared to be a passageway in the roof above them – but they had no apparent way to get up there, until Enelia mentioned the blood he had seen smeared on the snout of the demon statue. Dingle, operating on some obscure bardic hunch cut his palm and placed it on the statues moth – immediately being “blessed” with a Gaseous Form. As the gnome began floating upwards, Kylar followed suit and the two eventually found themselves in the temple’s Inner Sanctum.

This chamber held another of the demonic statues and from the gear scattered around was clearly being used by Ienea as her campsite. They recovered the gear including, food supplies and a sheaf of notes written in a cramped hand. Kylar spotted a hidden panel under this statue, but failed to spot it was protected by a glyph of warding, and found himself subject to a curse where his form was twisted into that of a man-bat consumed with a thirst fro blood. Somehow Dingle managed to maintain a straight face as Kylar went about his business as if nothing had happened, unable to see due to the curse that there was anything wrong with his form. Dingle even went ahead to prepare the  others for Kylar’s transformation and to their credit they managed to maintain an more-or- less even composure until the rogue began lapping at the river of blood!

They returned to the lighthouse and met up with the others, who had made little progress in the repairs. Over the next couple of weeks while they continued working on the lighthouse during the day while deciphering Ienea’s notes and the decals from the Aztlani temple below. They eventually worked out that the Aztlani who had settled here had been exiled from the fabled lost city of Saventh-Yhi, and their may well be enough information to lead them there. A couple of weeks later, they somehow managed to get the lighthouse repaired enough to get the light working, and a couple of days after that a whaling ship pulled up to investigate. The captain agreed to take them to the city of Eleder where he was bound, and several days later the party found themselves safely ashore.

They said their farewells to their fellow castaways and took rooms at an inn near the docks in Portside, . Eleder was very much a frontier city riven by factionalism and subject to frequent “terrorist” attacks by bands of ex-slaves. However there were some of the comforts of civilisation availabe, and a scroll of Remove Curse was purchased for the unfortunate Kylar (over Dingle's objections that he could make him as star on the stage with his new look)  and the services of a sage engaged to help them with the work on deciphering Ienea's notes.

Eventually they discovered that the route to Saventh-Yhi lay via the Seven Pillars in the heart of the Mwangi. As word of their discoveries inevitably got out, they were approached by several factions in the city: The Pathfinder Society; The Aspis Consortium; The Red Mantis; the Free Captains and even the Sargavan Government. Each was willing to fund an expedition to locate the fabled lost city and each faction had recruited one of their fellow castaways to help persuade them to  join up.

Eventually, after some debate,  they unanimously decided to sign-on with the Pathfinder Society.