Our party of Fr. Cassian, Sanji of the Glowing Hand, June the archer, and myself were determined to exterminate all further evil that was infesting the ancient elven temple that we discovered recently. We departed the elven outpost of Bonevale for the dungeon, which was not too far distant from the port. We passed a patrol of elven scouts who had aided us in the capture of the bandit Little John and we shared some information with them about the strange glade and pedestal that we found during our last adventure.
They called it a "sylvan perpendicularity", whatever that means, and we nodded politely before continuing on our way. It may interest the Knight Captain to record that detail if it becomes a weapon that the fae can use against decent folk. They alleged that the occurrence was by the "will of the ancient gods" or some such heretical nonsense. We all know that Pelor guided us to that glade the first time. We will pray that he hides it from those with evil intent.
We arrived to the dungeon and entered, determined to clear the eastern wing of the complex. We discovered a magician's laboratory of sorts hidden behind secret doors along with the journal of something called Boblin. I was unreliably informed that that was the name of the last surviving goblin that I smote from this Oerth during our previous delve. I shrugged.
The journal claimed that Boblin was a human merchant who ran afoul of The Scarlet Brotherhood and was polymorphed into a goblin. No doubt that sorcery, if it even happened, had twisted his mind to such a state that he chose to raise arms against clearly Lawful adventurers along with his corrupted brethren. Baring steel against the Purifying Flame of Pelor is akin to suicide, a sin against the faith and doubly, nay, triply damning to the witch goblin merchant creature, and I rest easy in the outcome of our encounter despite foolish glances from the others as they attempted to place guilt on my conscience.
Apparently the creature had witchcraft to divine into the future, but was confused about being shown multiple results when only a single result was expected. The more studious of the party agreed that this was unusual and I left them to it. He was also confused about some town called Bastia, its crusader leader BalaSoto, and the minor deity Serlios. Fr. Cassian offered no insight to the unknown god, so I assumed it was a minor deity indeed and led the party deeper into the dungeon.
The doors of the dungeon regularly resisted our passage. Such is the way of the mythic underworld, where even the structure around you is permeated with evil and intent on your demise. Many traps and pitfalls were encountered and mostly avoided before arriving at a door that was surprisingly easy to open. I was blessed to ease it quietly just enough to notice two winged forms huddling in the center of the room beyond. They appeared to be sleeping and shone with a heinous, crimson glow of Chaos to my Pelor-gifted sight.
Certain that our window of opportunity was narrow I immediately crept forward to dispatch the creatures before they could react. Chivalry is owed only to the chivalrous. There are monsters in this world that if given a finger's width will take your soul. My companions readied themselves to support me from well in the rear, courageous of them I know, but it was a good thing as the creatures burst up in ambush!
They were hideous monsters of legend, statuesque female forms with golden wings and grotesque visages crowned by snakes. My training screamed "gorgons!" and I reached for my shield, polished and maintained to a blinding mirror sheen for just such an occasion. Pelor was with me and allowed me to raise my bulwark and avert my eyes as the first of the creatures weathered magic and shot from the party in order to target me with its Chaotic gaze attack. A flash of light and faint smell of powdered limestone left nothing but a statue in its place as it beheld its own horrible form and succumbed to the power turned against itself by the mirror.
The second creature attacked me with claws, fangs, and snakes but my armor withstood the mauling. Fr. Cassian Commanded the creature to "Freeze" and Pelor's miracle froze it held it still enough for Sanji to boldly rush forward and cleave its skull with his magical staff. The room beyond held quite a treasure trove which we counted and extracted back to the horses and pack animals.
We still had unexplored sections of dungeon but with no room to carry away any more treasure there was no point to explore it further. We departed for Bonevale. A flock of small Rocs observed our passing from a massive tree of obvious treehugger significance. I saluted the Lawful creatures and they cawed in what I chose to take as a respectful tone because they did not try to eat us.
We had an obstacle in that we had quite a bit of treasure but no where to keep it. We chose to split the cost of a fine villa in the town, perched in the trees like some heathen knife ears but it is what was available. Sanji hired some guardsmen and we will use the building as our base of operations going forward.
The dungeon must be cleared. We departed again for the elven temple complex, coming across a massive gray worm rotting in the sun. The Dreadwood is a dangerous place and we were anxious about what might have killed such a monster. The party guarded me as I stripped out of my armor and dug into the monster's belly for treasure, coming up with a flail bearing a spiked head with a motif of sunbursts reminiscent of Pelor. I washed it and myself and we carried on.
The remaining rooms of the dungeon were mostly uneventful, save for one ambush by giant spiders that nearly cost me my life. Sanji employed his new staff to blast the things with lightning while I stood paralyzed with poison and heavily wounded. The final spider was killed and Fr. Cassian was able to ease the poison's hold and triage some of the worst of the damage.
The final room was beneath the central chapel. It held nothing but a pedestal with a large, ominously red device shaped somewhat like a mushroom protruding from its flat top. We exhausted every possible argument for or against pressing this Big Red Button before Fr. Cassian chose to appeal to Pelor through magic for guidance. Would pressing the button be good for the party? "It *could* be good for the party."
Clearly this was a gamble and after such a successful session it seemed foolish to everyone but Sanji to leave this Reddit trap for someone else to trip over. Much arguing and griping and dragging of feet was suffered through before we eventually left, button remaining un-pressed. We arrived back in town to rest after such an eventful few days.
As always I will tithe to Fr. Richardson's mission from my monetary gains and continue to bring the Light of Pelor to this backward, fae-cursed frontier.
Yours in the Light of Pelor,
Knight Sentinel Percival, Bone Vale
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