Session 5: Trek to Ten-Towns

"No, you can see out of them!" one of the creatures mocks Agna. "Can yous?" the other follows by imitating the orc’s question

"Eek! Bad visitor! Bad like big man with staff" the two creatures panic and float around looking for a place to hide. "No dark magics. No old magics"

As they disappear into the shadowy corners of the cave, Agna and Adair notice the two missing stones on the ground.

"You stalkless-head. You drop the eyes. They take the eyes!" you hear whispers mixed with scuffling sounds as if the two creatures got into some sort of childish fight.

Adaia carefully drops the stones in the central chute, trying to match them to the ancient riddle, under the excited supervision of Ezahne. Once she places the last stone, there's a loud noise of old machinery moving and the stones rolling on hard surfaces and then, little gaps open under the stone symbols, and they are returned. Nothing else was happening."Strange, I was sure we got it." Ezahne says confused, checking her notes. "Ah! Wait. Let's try switching these two here."

Clearly nervous with all the noises behind the door, Godric interrupts Ezahne. "Wait. Did you hear those sounds? You can't just put those things in there! Who knows what sort of traps and other nasties these people left here!" he soves everyone aside and starts checking the door, listening closely to every sound as he himself drops the stones.

One he is done, the door slides open with the grinding of stone. The grad entry of the room is covered with faded frescoes of life and magic matching those of the Netheril Empire. You all look into the dark space in silence and, a heartbeat later, you sense a pulse of arcane energy and notice, in the far wall, something written in sticky blood: Godric Orchard.

The man shrieks in terror and runs out of the ruins towards the cave entrance in desperate panic.

Agna tries to trip the man as soon as she notices what he is about to do, but it's too slow to stop the man. After awhile, you can hear the shouting echoing from the dark tunnel as the guards try to stop Godric still confused about what is going on.

Ezahne runs after Godric trying to get to the man, but Nass stays with Adaia, both curious about what lies within the ancient ruins. "Interesting, do you think the door might have been trapped with some sort of compulsion spell? Though I wonder how such spell would figure out his name..."As Adaia enters the chamber, she noticed a weak, sickly light from an undetectable source seems to illuminate it from. At the center, The elf notices a stone bridge, each stone carefully worked to resemble a bone, giving the structure a eerie feeling as it crosses over a dark pit covered by a thin fog. Like outside, Adaia notices the remains of detailed frescoes depicting what look like powerful mages surrounded by scores of seated students taking notes. Spread across the walls skeletal attendants are shown cleaning, making deliveries, and bringing food to these mages. There are a number of scenes that attract the elf's attention. Someone coaxing a spirit from the body of a recently deceased human, under the watchful supervision of a mage; a group of people conducting a ritual in a graveyard, as the dead raise from their graves and the townsfolk run away in panic; a mage appears to be vivisecting a screaming gnome as other stand by taking notes. The last one depicts two elder mages standing over a kneeling apprentice as she cuts off her own right hand.

It is after seeing this last on that Adaia notices all the powerful looking mages in the frescoes are missing this right hands. She can't tell for sure, but all these dark arts seem to suggest this was a necromancy academy. As she reaches the conclusion she trips on broken piece of the wall. Everything goes deadly silent for a moment and then suddenly an absolutely horrifying scratching skittering noise starts, echoing throughout the entire room. Adaia assumes the noise is related to whatever magic was activated by the door trap, and its source must be hidden under the thin fog...

Agna can grab Adaia as the elf’s curiosity keeps her fixated on the weak energies hidden under the mist.

However, the orc does notice there’s another room on the other side of the bridge

Agna can grab Adaia as the elf’s curiosity keeps her fixated on the weak energies hidden under the mist.

However, the orc does notice there’s another room on the other side of the bridge

As Adaia magically creates a spot of cold air with her magic, the small breeze generated by the temperature differences is enough to clear some of the mist at the bottom of the 30-foot-deep pit. At first, she notices the movement of something which was disturbed the sudden change in lighting... then she realizes what it is... the pit is filled with moving, severed right-hands hands scrabbling at the walls, the source of the absolutely horrifying scratching, skittering noise filling the chamber.

Ezahne rushes into the room,the noise making the hands hands even more agitated. She looks disturbed as she stops and looks at everyone in the room. "It got him. The thing. It got him. It's going to get us all. There's no way out. This place is cursed" she says with trembling breath.