In which we accomplish nothing but bear murder

I don't know whether to write sweet, sweet bear murder or cold, cold bear murder.....just ponder on that.

A cleric, a rogue and a bard walk into a bar.....and that's where the joke ends. The three most mismatched people....A made another cleric/fighter (SURPRISE!) and he made him a dwarf...(SURPRISE)...with no tact (EXTRA SURPRISE)....N made a fighter/rogue and I made a Bard----the supposedly most useless class in the game...except not because....I did more damage as a Bard than a Ranger.....

Anyway, N's character's name is Ander, A's character name is Boulden and my character's name is Emilia. Ander and Emilia run in the same circles, the whole crime syndicate....Ander is a contract killer while Emilia is good at blackmail and not so petty theft and the occasional murder. She dabbles in it all. One day Ander and Emilia saved Boulden and his whole clan and suddenly Boulden started randomly appearing at events, so they accepted him as part of their group. 

They were all gathered at the tavern when Ander received a letter thingie. Boulden didn't notice, and Emilia didn't at first, but Ander later shared the contents of the note with her.

They checked out the bulletin, where there were several quests. One of them was that the priests of---and this is what Emilia heard--Phlegmworm in LePool were missing a shipment of ore. Ander mentioned he had business in the north. Boulden said no, not north.

After telling Boulden 10 times (yes, seriously 10) that the land sharks weren't north, they were east, we finally set off north. During our travels we came upon an overturned caravan and many men fighting one poor unarmed dude. So of course Ander shot the armed dude, and Boulden rushed in (glorious combat???) while Emilia shook her head in the background. Her idea was to go to the other men and see what was going on, but nope. Combat is always better!

Anyway, after Emilia took out two dude via insults (your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!!!)--they cried and died---the elf dude was so grateful. We accompanied him to LePool. The temple gave us sanctuary for the night. That's when Ander and Emilia discussed the note---it said kill the cockknight. No f$%king joke. 

Pretty much the rest of the trip looking for the cock knight was uneventful. Boulden tried to open a gate and we kept rolling 1's and 2's---making the DM die of laughter and A getting more and more pissed off! I ended up crying because I was laughing so hard.

Anyway, we meet an old man, yell at him, the cock knight comes out, we fight him, kill him. Of course Boulden takes his plate armor and makes the little den his own haven away from hell. While he's doing that Ander and Emilia leave his ass behind.

They get back to very scary, we stay there for 40 days makin raipers, splint mailish, and makin money.....Ander goes to jail for conning people, Emilia plays at the tavern aaand Boulden plays salesman for his god.

I forgot if we went south or west or east this time, but....we failed a lot. Oh! We went east....And Boulden got us lost. Then ander got us loster. And Emilia got us lostest. There were many, many, many, many 1's rolled. N wanted new dice....

We decided to explore a cave...Boulden say f$%k you guys I'm going home, while Ander and Emilia were like okay whaeves (can you see how the balance is in this game???). Inside the cave they found a bear family....and they all murdered the bears. Poor f$%king bastards....

Until next time....

In which we all f$%king die!

Note: This is written by the player instead of the character, because if you couldn't guess from the title....we all f$%king died.

Last session we fought the "princess" in the tower. I left off the part where we met one of the horsemen from hell (he had a scythe and everything). Basically, we leave the tower and come upon some CREEPY ass children. We follow the children across a clearing and lo and behold, Scytheman. So we had glorious battle, we fought, we killed children and a horse. Te'los took the scythe. We went back to town....

Anyway, our characters spent the week in town, finally being rejoined by Krusk (because the Rogue N was playing, it just died.....we may or may not have unfairly thrown him into skeletal combat). My character lived in the forest and collected pelts for money. Yay for being a Ranger (only not f$%king really). Brand worked training recruits in the militia in town. Can't really remember what Krusk was doing because I was paying attention to the baby....RPG with a baby is difficult!

Mundane trivial details of the session included Brand borrowing gold from Nayna to buy split armor and Krusk commissioning a greatsword, which the DM wouldn't let them have till next session. Well, oops.

Scytheman left us a note saying "Go to the east." Te'los still had his scythe and was slowly going mad (at one point I'm pretty sure A and I were mimicking him licking the scythe), so we sat him out (J couldn't be there for the session. God I wish he had). After checking the bulletin and picking up several side quests such as: hunting owlbears (f$%king owlbears), going South to discover what happened to the game in the area, a few quests in the east and west (none of which are very important).

We headed south, and started to track the owlbears. Nothing too much happened, we camped overnight. In the morning we came across a weirdly made structure with elven protection ruins all around. I tripped the alarm and we ended up fighting a direwolf/warg and two smaller wolves. Brand wanted to take a long rest, but we didn't because we hadn't been awake long enough. So we took a short (mistake) rest.

Inside the structure there was a steaming dragonhead in front of us and two doors, one left and one right. We went into the one on the left to find 5 statutes: 4 knights and 1 elven lady. There were three dead bodies and a diary, basically saying they were starving to death. Wonderful.

The other door said "Caution, don't wake the princess." After the last session I REALLY didn't want to open the door but Krusk and Brand barged in. Down the hall we went, fighting 3 shadows on our way. We did not stop to rest. Stupid mistake.

We came to the end of the corridor and found the wraith. Yep ANOTHER WRAITH DISGUISED AS A PRINCESS. We never learn, do we?

So it was time for glorious battle. Each hit she did an asston of damage. It was ridic. Krusk was knocked unconscious and Brand went to heal him and.....then Brand died. Krusk was left with 1HP and then Brand was brought back as a spectral. I looked at Krusk and said sorry and turned and hauled ass back down the hall. I DID NOT HAUL ENOUGH ASS. That's right I forgot to use my action to move AGAIN. Oh and did I mention the health potion that I didn't use?

So spectral Brand killed us both.....

So much for the legends of Duvan'Ku!

Until next time (and next character!)

The Tower and the Princess

After we were released from our bonds by the most evil, we wearily headed back to the tavern, where of course Brand had to once again argue with the tavernkeeper over price. Krusk set back out to find his ship, so we were down a party member. Te'los and I sat drinking together. He looked different, I think releasing Cyris Maximus had quite a bad (or maybe good) effect on him. He confessed he didn't feel as evil as he once did.

While Te'los and I sat drinking in the tavern, Brand was actually speaking with the tavernkeeper about an ad he saw on the bulletin. It was supposedly a tower, once occupied by the Duvan'Ku. Brand was trying to get some information, anything about the tower.

He willingly parted with two gold....he wouldn't do it to stay in the tavern but to keep the man talking, sure....Anyway, what he didn't notice was a thief cutting his purse and stealing the rest of his gold. We don't know who did it....(it was the Rogue).

Brand got no useful information from the tavern keeper, and he finally came back. It was then he noticed his purse missing. I admit, Te'los and I snickered. Anyway, we decided to leave in the morning. I think Brand went to sleep in the temple, having no gold, while Te'los and I enjoyed our respective beds.

We left at the dawning, just as the city began to wake up. There was traffic going in and out of the city. Moon Moon was just where I left him, at the gate. Consulting our map, we saw it would be about a days walk, give or take a few hours.

We weren't too far past the city when Brand noticed someone was following us. He pointed and we saw a man not too far behind. He continued to follow us for quite sometime, making Brand more and more agitated--Te'los and I collectively rolled our eyes when Brand shot back to yell at the man. We were following the damn road.

After a few testy words, I saw the man reach for something, so I sent Moon Moon back with Brand. He circled behind the man, preventing his escape.

Finally Brand stomped back to us and yelled "If you follow us, I will kill you!" ( he's the Lawful Good one)

Another shared eye roll. I called Moon Moon back and we carried on until dusk. Of course we did not make it to the tower, because of the delay. We were about to set up camp when I saw the man again. This time we weren't on the path. I pointed him out to Brand who went after him with Moon Moon. Te'los and I followed, this time readying spells and an arrow in my bow.

We tracked them through the woods, only to see a rather large brown bear looming behind the unknown man...Did I mention we didn't get his name? Yeah we're bad at that apparently....

Brand leaped over the man, straight into glorious combat with the bear. The man joined in with us, fighting the bear off. Te'los charred the poor bear into just a hunk of carcass.

"Think we can pass it off as a black bear?"Brand asked jokingly, referring to another sign (black bear pelts wanted) from the bulletin.

"Doubtful,"Te'los said, nudging the charred fur with his foot. It disintegrated.

Brand eyed the man suspiciously. "You want to join us? You're coming with us."

We spent the night in the woods, taking turns watching Mr. Cool Dude. In the morning we headed back out to the tower, Mr. Cool Dude in the lead, with Brand pushing him forward. Our lovely meat shield...

We arrived at the tower. At its base were thorny, thorny bushes with red roses growing from them. The tower was about 5 levels tall, one window per level and one door. Guarding the door was a stone golem. Greeeat...

Te'los and Brand determined there was a magical barrier beginning at the end of the thorns. We pushed Mr. Cool Dude first. The only thing that happened was the stone golem standing up, so the four (five if you count Moon Moon) of us approached him.

"Answer me this,"he said in a gravelly voice. "Twelve is to six as six is to three, but ten is not to five."

Te'los grabbed a stick and we sat trying to figure it out. Brand thought it was doubles, so he shouted "twenty" at the golem, who shook his head. "You have two tries left,"it said.

Something in my head kept screaming three. I don't know why, but it did. My logical side went straight to math too.

"See, it's three because you can divide those by three, but not ten, see what I mean?"

Te'los and Mr. Cool Dude nodded in agreement, but Brand didn't think that was right. Brand shrugged though, so I said. "Three."

"Correct,"said the stone golem.

(At this point we argued how I got the answer was completely wrong, but I was still right. The correct way to solve the puzzle was not math, but to spell the problem out completely, which I did above. Ten and six have three letters, while three, twelve and five did not. So ten did not go to five letters, or five, as six went to five letters.)

We entered the tower, only to find it in ruins. Straight ahead were four stone statutes facing inwards, towards the center of the room. Once again Mr. Cool Dude was voluntold to go first.

The statutes began to speak:
"The princess awaits the pure of heart and peace."
"Throw away your weapons! Don the garments of Love!"
"Only the pure may awaken the princess!"
"Untold glory and wealth to those who free the princess."

Each of us removed our weapons and stood in the middle of the room, to no avail. We donned our armor and weapons again and ascended the ladder ahead. Brand shoved the stuck trap door open and we were on to the second level.

Was the Princess captured by Duvan'Ku? We decided then and there to rescue her....

There wasn't much here but a bunch of tattered robes and deprecated swords. They crumbled to the touch. We assumed these were the garments of love, and the swords were left behind. There was a mural showing knights donning said robes, throwing aside their swords and meeting the princess. An instruction manual.

We shrugged and climbed the ladder to the next floor. Once again the trap door was slightly stuck and Brand had to shove with all his might.

On the third level, there were two skeleton guardians at the ladder. We approached and they attacked. It was just another battle, and we quickly took them both out.

We ascended to the next level, and that's when things got hairy. When we climbed through the trap door to the 4th level, we saw another sarcophagus in front of us. Te'los and I unfortunately crept closer to look at the carvings. Elven mages were placing the princess in the sarcophagus, and on the carved sarcophagus, the same etchings were infinitely repeating. I didn't know it, but merely looking at the carving was a nearly fatal mistake.

Speaking of stupid things, Te'los and I pushed the lid off the sarcophagus, the better to release the "princess." Or in our case, the wraith. That's right, our princess was no princess, but a blood curdling wraith.

I could not get my shit together. I came extremely close to dying, and so did Moon Moon. We just barely defeated the wraith. Inside the tomb, there was a box, which Brand removed. I cannot remember if he blessed it or not.

After the battle, I rubbed my head. "Is this how you felt when you were retarded?"

"I don't know,"Te'los said in a french accent. "I don't remember."

Te'los and I stopped for a breather whilst Brand decided to search the 5th level. After a while he came back down, shaking his head. "Totally dark, we should search it."

We decided to spend the night before going back up to the 5th level. We took the box down to the first level where we heard rats, rats and more rats in the walls. Brand replaced the box and then the rats were no more. At last we learned from our stupidity (sort of), and camped outside.

In the morning, it was lather, rinse, repeat. Only this time, we screwed ourselves sideways. Well, we screwed Mr. Cool Dude sideways....Once again we had to fight the two skeletal guardians. Only this time. Mr. Cool Dude didn't make it out alive. Afterwards, the three of us just stood around his body staring in shock.

Then Te'los decided to be...well, Te'los. He searched the body since "he's dead and doesn't need this shit anyway."

And yet again we fought the wraith, and yet again Moon Moon and I nearly died. Brand and I looked at each other and we basically said "Nope, screw this."

Te'los of course went up to the fifth level. And Brand and I left him to it. We left the tower completely and waited for him outside.

He finally came out shaking his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"So much for the secrets of Duvan'Ku,"I muttered.

In search of the crown of Duvan'Ku continued....

Picking up from where I left last. We had just awoken thousands upon thousands of the sleeping dead. Te'los became severely retarded after attempting to read a Duvan'Ku book upon the altar where we found the crown.

As I previously stated, we sent Te'los to hold the undead off, well.....because he couldn't do anything else. It sounds cruel, but the three of us needed our brains to find a way out. He did a great job holding the door closed, though. Pretty sure he smiled through the whole thing.

Anyway, at this point, we were desperately searching the greater tombs for an escape route. This is where we stumbled upon....him.

We were all prepped to fight when he called a truce. His name is (was?) Cyris Maximus and he had been trapped in the crypt for sometime now. He could only escape if we accompanied him out. When we told him we had arisen the undead, he smiled and told us he could control them and he would call them off if we helped him and if not....well we'd be screwed seven ways to Vyriscally.

After much argument, Krusk said he'd help if the gentleman (and I call him that quite loosely) uncursed him. As a goodwill gesture he did so and Krusk was finally able to let go of both the necklace and the dagger.

It almost goes without saying, but I didn't trust him. Neither did Brand, however, Brand and Krusk decided to swear to help him (and I am quite surprised to this day that Mr. Super Good did as well). As another goodwill gesture he had the undead halt, so we could call Te'los back.

Looking back, he did do a lot to help us, to prove his intents towards us, should we help him were good. He reverted Te'los back to his original state of intelligence, to which Te'los also promised to help him. Everyone then turned to me.

I took Brand aside and asked him if he was sure he wanted to let the most evil out into the world. Brand shrugged and asked what choice do we have. I told him there was always a choice, but he just shook his head. I didn't like it, but I'd take the deal.

He made us swear that we would fight for him. I believe he asked us to repeat the following "I swear to help Maximus escape the tomb, and I will help transport him to the nearest town and will fight to protect his safety."

Krusk and Te'los swore right away. I sighed and added an addendum---that I would not kill any innocent, only incapacitate them. Cyris merely smirked at me and accepted my deal. I told him we would be going to find Moon Moon before we got him to the town. Brand rolled his eyes but I was firm on this point.

Brand on the other hand swore, but did not repeat what Cyris had said. As we leaving the tomb, two....minions I guess, appeared and held Brand back. We had to go back for him, and make him repeat exactly what Cyris said.

Finally we were able to leave. When we stepped outside, the sky was quite overcast and gloomy. Behind us the army of the dead assembled, following us down the mountain. I must note that he required us to carry out a wooden box. Te'los kept asking "What's in da boxxxxx?" It's worth noting that Brand originally had the box, but Cyris magically transported it into Te'los' hands and Cyris kept quite close to Te'los for hte rest of the journey.

Moon Moon was exactly where I had left him, but as we approached he backed away. He finally came with us, giving Cyris a wide berth, and the side eye. Cyris simply smirked.

Nothing else of interest happened until we reached the town, where the seven horsemen of hell came and took the box. Cyris thanked us and bid us a faretheewell. Brand yelled out to him "I will find you for glorious battle!"

Cyris laughed and promised him his glorious battle and disappeared.

From there we attempted to alert the people of hte city about the army of dead heading their way. They merely called us crazy and that was that to them.

We returned the crown to the noble, who didn't seem to care about the walking dead. He was pleased to have his treasure and he paid us the rest of the 80gold. I'm pretty sure Te'los pocketed Lillian's share. We should have asked for so much more.....

In search of the crown of Duvan'Ku

Our adventure began in a tavern in the town of Vyriscally. A noble man approached us offering gold in exchange for an ancient artifact---a crown belonging to Duvan'Ku. None of us had any knowledge of who or what Duvan'Ku is or was. The noble wasn't very knowledgable either. He knew they were an evil cult waaaay back. But that's about it. He did not know if the crown had any magical properties. We readily accepted for a payment of 20gold upfront, and all travel expenses paid and 80gold when we returned the crown. That should read, 100gold each. The crown was last known to be in a castle atop the Misty Mountain. It seemed easy enough....

Our days of travel to the mountain were many, but easy. Finally we reached the foot of the mountain and left our provisionals with the local townspeople....for a fee of course. The six of us (myself, Moon Moon, Te'los, Lillian, Krusk and Brand) started our long journey up the cold mountain. I'm afraid we were not as prepared as we should have been, given the state of cold we constantly were in.

About 5 hours in we came across a strange looking tent, and a crazed old man. I'm afraid we never even asked the old man his name. Or if one of my companions had, I may have missed it. For now I will refer to him as Crazy Eyes or CE. He had several hides hanging up that we were coveting pretty badly. He was friendly enough, inviting us into his tent home. When we asked him about Duvan'ku and the castle on the mountain, well that's when the crazy came out. He was adament that we should not go up the mountain. It was then that we noticed several wooden crosses with names carved on them. We inquired about them and he told us he was making grave markers for people killed in the name of Duvan'Ku. Oddly surprising....

He said that over the years many many lives had been lost to Duvan'Ku. He had been making markers for 50 years or more. We all exchanged knowing glances. Te'los asked about the hides--if we could have some, or buy them for our journey. He less than politely declined. He promised to give us the hides if we went back down the mountain. We tried to tell him we would leave and not come back but he asked us if we thought he was stupid. He said something to the effect of "I wasn't born yesterday."

I had a bad feeling about Crazy Eyes. It made me ponder whether he was truly Crazy or part of the whole Duvan'Ku scheme. I quietly suggested to Te'los that we should just kill him. Te'los being the asshole he is agreed with me, but only because he wanted the hides. Brand of course was firmly and rather stubbornly against it. Lillian was neither for or against and Krusk thought we were nuts. We did not kill Crazy Eyes.

We decided to stay for the night, where Crazy Eyes showed us his best hospitality. He left sometime in the night without sleeping. We awoke and thankfully, he had not returned. We decided to each leave a gold piece in exchange for the hides (Te'los was rather reluctant, but Brand insisted. Brand is the man who will argue over two gold to stay in a damn tavern, but he'll gladly give up one entire gold for a shitty hide that we hardly even used....I confess, I do not understand him). After taking a hide we departed the tent and made our way up the Misty Mountain once more.

After sometime Moon Moon stopped and refused to walk any further. Any time I would approach him to pull him across, he would back away from me. Brand and Te'los checked, and it seemed like there was a dome, a line right where Moon Moon originially stopped. We had to press on, it seemed prudent to finish this quickly. We left Moon Moon there, putting a bad taste in my mouth....

We pressed on until we came across the graveyard Crazy Eyes spoke of. It stopped us in our tracks. The sheer amount of markers was beyond our comprehension. Beyond counting. There was a low moaning sound coming from under our feet, from the snow, from the ground, making the hairs on my arm stand at attention. Across the field (and I use that term rather loosely) there was an old, decaying tree. Krusk and Brand approached to investigate. They circled the tree, but found nothing except a long broken rope.

The next thing that happened...well...let's just chalk that up to Krusk being half-orc...The sheer stupidity of what he did....I still cannot comprehend it(though to be fair, I have made my own share of stupid choices, especially on this adventure). He pulled on the rope, snapping the branch. That's when the tree came to life.

After a long and weary combat, we defeated the blood tree. I call it the blood tree because it literally bled red red red humanesque blood. The screams were deafening....

We gave the dying tree a wide berth as we continued along the graveyard. Ahead of us, we saw a cabin, standing randomly in the middle of the snowstorm....this is where my memory gets fuzzy.

Te'los and Brand looked into the windows, but it was pitch black inside. Lillian and I went around back to check it out....We found a dead body 3 or 4 feet from the door with fresh snow covering him. It was clear he had died pretty recently. A shiver ran up my spine.

The back door was easily acessible, I wasn't too keen on trying either the front or back though. If I remember correctly it was Te'los who entered first. When the door opened, all we saw was darkness. Even after he entered, still darkness. His head would occasionally pop out, but still, only darkness.

Finally, Lillian and I stepped inside with Te'los, leaving Brand and Krusk outside. Once inside, the cabin was lit just fine. We could hear harpsichord music that wasn't audible outside. The cabin was quite roomy, having several doors leading off into various rooms.

"Come check this out!"Te'los yelled from inside one of them.

We walked into the room on our right (I believe, this is all from memory which by now may have faded with the passing of time). Inside was the harpsichord and a rather large painting....a painting of Te'los drinking from a human skull whilst Lillian, Krusk and myself lay dead around the altar upon which he stood. Brand was reaching out for him....Lillian and I looked at Te'los with frowns on our faces.

"What type of sorcery is this?"I asked.

Te'los shrugged. Ït was like that when I got here. Pretty awesome though, isn't it?"

I exchanged looks with Lillian, but we said nothing.

We turned our attention to the harpsichord, which was no longer playing.

"Te'los," I said. "Tell me if that's magical."

He shrugged and began to investigate the insturment. After a while he stepped back and shrugged. "Yep, it's magical."

We stared at him for a few beats.

"Care to share?" I asked sarcastically. "You are a wizard." (and thus began the joking--ÿer a lizard Harry....)

Te'los shrugged again. Ït's magical."

I rolled my eyes and stomped back into the hall and stuck my head out the door. Krusk and Brand were standing outside looking alarmed as hell.

"It's safe, come on in."

We showed them the painting making Brand turn to Te'los. "I've got my eye on you."

Te'los shrugged. "I've got nothing to do with that painting."

After the argument between Brand and Te'los ended, we methodically searched the other rooms. One was barren with nothing but a strange purple powder in it. Brand pocketed the powder. One had what I assumed to be the dead man's belongings inside. When we got to the main room, I noticed a rather large Elk's head above the door. It's eyes were....well they moved. I stupidly shot an arrow at it.

A horrible scream filled the room and my head. The pain was indescribable. The others recovered almost instantly, but I felt the effects of the scream for a little bit. When I finally came to, Brand and Krusk were touching a clock in the corner.

I have to pause and say, we spent HOURS in that room while Brand messed with the clock. It was some sort of time travel device. Eventually, he stopped being a shit (he wanted to go around and poke everyone while time stood still) and went back in time to before the dead man...died.

Let me say, for the record, Brand is horrible with people. I cannot imagine why he became a Priest. Though I understand the War Priest's allure. He has a certain....ardor for....glorious battle (a phrase I have thus come to hate and when he says it I just feel like punching him....). I digress.....according to Brand the man was violent and very very nervous. Brand says the man was ready to fight him, but eventually he packed up and left. Luckily, Brand saved his life by doing that. We have no known cause of death from before, per Brand the man was healthy as a stout and fled fairly easily. I'm pretty sure Brand went in there brandishing his weapon and yelling at the poor man. But we may have left him a fate worse than death. More on that later.....

Backing up a little, before Brand went back in time we discovered a mirror where the only reflection that did not show was Te'los. Of course then Brand had to go and say something like “I've got both eyes on you now.” Te'los merely rolled his eyes at Brand.

Going forward there was a book bound in human leather.....absolutely disgusting and awful....it was very old and fairly worn. We flipped through, only to find thousands upon thousands of names. One of the pages fell out, proving it's frailness. None could pick it up. So I did what I do best....I stabbed the book....and it broke my sword. My stupidity knows no bounds, and apparently my lesson was not learned the first time. Per Te'los, the book was magical (definitely not something we could've figured out for ourselves....).

At one end of the room there was a trap door. Once again it was darkness...Brand grabbed a goblet and threw it in, hoping to hear a clatter. But that wasn't the case. It fell into the hole and then fell from the ceiling back into the hole....an infinite loop (at which point Brand stopped time with the clock and tried to move the goblet. It wouldn't budge). We poked around the room some more, looking for clues, for anything. At some point Te'los even stabbed the painting, but nothing happened. It was then that I knew we would have to jump....

….It was Brand, of course, who made the first leap. He jumped in and then nothing. We waited, but still nothing. Finally Krusk, Te'los and myself followed. There was no word from Lillian....

I have never seen anything like it....The walls were covered, floor to ceiling, in faces. Krusk slammed his axe into the nearest face and they all screamed. The sound was like a thousand deaths, over and over. I cannot even begin to elaborate on the awfulness of that place.

Anyway, there was a key inside the door at the end of the corridor. We were sure it was a trap, but we were in luck. No trap.

We advanced down the corridor, and let me tell you, this place was winding and so full of rooms, I barely even remember all of it. But I will record it to the best of my ability....Anyway, we ended up in a chapel with these horrific murals of death and I guess Duvan'Ku committing whatever awfulness....At the end of the chapel we came upon an altar with a dagger and a necklace. Behind the altar was a set of bronzed doors and a basin with black sludgey water. After close inspection, Brand declared the dagger and necklace cursed, so no one should touch them. Which meant someone had to touch them. This time it was Krusk. And guess what? They were in fact cursed. No matter what he tried, Krusk could not remove the necklace or drop the dagger.

Brand turned back to the bronzed door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. It wouldn't even budge when Krusk used the dagger on it. We circled the room, looking for a key, for anything. Finally Brand came back to the basin on the wall and tipped it over. What seemed like thousands and thousands of teeth (but probably less than a hundred) spilled from the murky depths of the basin.

Brand nodding knowingly. “Teeth. It needs an offering.”

An idea occurred to me at the time, that I am now nearly ashamed to admit. “Why not use the teeth from the dead guy?”

“Because he's not dead anymore,” Te'los pointed out.

I remember thinking, well fuck, I'm not giving my teeth up. Brand looks around at all of us and we shrug. He rolls his eyes and pops out a tooth. Even now the thought of....well, anyway, the bronze door opened into another corridor with many rooms. We methodically searched several of the rooms, but they contained little. Mostly rotting books/scrolls and worn/run down beds. We finally came to a locked door, which Krusk and Brand broke down with little effort. We all armed ourselves in prep for whatever lay in waiting behind the door...

But there was nothing to fear in that room, only old and tarnished furniture. Once very ornate and rich, the room was now in ruins. We searched and searched, but found nothing. The battle with the blood tree earlier was wearing on us, though. We barred ourselves in to take a short rest. Not our best idea, but we had no choice.

Just to be on the safe side, we searched the room again after our rest was finished. Te'los found a ring. Of course he had to put it on, and when he did, he vanished. Quite a useful ring, he mused and pocketed it. Brand scowled at him and reminded Te'los he was being carefully watched. The tensions between the two were on high, when I stepped in and suggested we continue on.

At some point Te'los (why is it always Te'los?) found a spiky eyed monocle. I can't remember where, but Brand or Te'los decided it could read the old Duvan'ku language. I forgot to mention, littered around the halls were sayings written in an ancient and strange language that not even I could understand.

At this point in time the four of us were snappy, jumpy and more than a little on edge. We expected a trap at every turn, and so far nothing. It constantly increased the low grade anxiety between us. Onward we pressed, determined to find that crown and get the hell out of there....

Guilty and worry wracked my body whenever I thought of Moon Moon, alone in the cold. Maybe Crazy Eyes took him in...

Anyway, we went through several more rooms, one containing four marble (tables?), a room stained with blood (though what wasn't stained with blood in that place?), numerous crypts with bodies upon bodies of the Duvan'ku and another room with a basin full of mucky black water. Brand stuck his hand inside and pulled out a copper coins. He flipped one in and walked through the doors. The three of us immediately followed him, believing only one sacrifice would be needed, same as before. Boy, we were wrong wrong wrong. All three of us fell ill and began to vomit; the room began to spin and whirl. Brand dragged us back where we each dropped a copper into the basin. The effects of the copper were immediate, instantly we felt better and were able to walk through the doors.

We came upon a thorny mass of vines, blocking our way. I should also note, throughout the entire crypt areas, there had been an eerie haunting noise, like a low grade buzz in our ears. When we reached the vines however, the music (the only other word I can use to describe it) was loud and clearly emanating from the plant. None of us could speak to plants, so we decided to hack it apart. Why not? It's not like anything bad ever came from hacking a plant...And combat....(sorry, glorious combat according to Brand) is always preferable to talking things out right?

Anyway, after our glorious battle, the sounds stopped, the silence was deafening. None of us gave it the mind we should have....

Beyond the vines, we found a temple. This is where we found the crown of Duvan'ku. It lay upon an altar with a cup and a rather large book. We left the goblet alone, Krusk was still encumbered with the necklace and the dagger and we didn't want a repeat. Brand picked up the crown and put it in his bag. Te'los opened the book and well, to put it lightly he became severely retarded. 

We left the temple area and that's when things started getting seedy. We heard a great noise and turned....All the dead had arisen....

Now I don't like to think we are bad people, but...we did send Te'los to hold them off. Well, to hold the door closed. Afterall, it was his fault, right? Okay not really, but the three of us needed to find an exit and fast. Of course we went back for Te'los. Anyway, in all our frantic searching we came across the most evil....