Summary
Although the party had not seen the sky for many hours, they knew it must be getting deep into the night. Weary from the long journey to the keep and the hours of fighting once they had arrived, they barricaded the entrance to the cavern of the blue slime. Daelius took the first watch, leaning exhausted against the cavern wall as his companions slept, deep in thought. The caverns remained quiet through all of the watches, and a refreshed party began moving in what they could best judge as late morning.

Vaunea quietly padded down the south passage she had briefly explored the previous night to see what had been down the pit. Drawing closer she saw a kuthrik's body on top of goblin, both deceased. She warned the rest of her companions to proceed with caution since the pit appeared to be a goblin-made trap and others were likely around. Soft clicking noises came from ahead and through small holes in the walls, but the party moved resolutely onward.

A total of three pit traps were tripped, first by Fizzwig and then two more by Daelius. The noise and light caused by the party eventually drew the attention of the kuthriks lairing at the end of passage, and a swarm of adolescent kuthriks rushed the party as two adults scurried into the small side tunnels in order to flank them. Daelius and Baelfius took the initial rush while Pale Noon fell back to deal with the flank, and Fizzwig had managed to squeeze through one of the kuthrik tunnels and end up behind the entire lot of them. Galstaff had been watching over Fizzwig as he entered the tunnel well back from the rest of the party, but found himself in the dark and two young kuthriks found his unattended ankles.

Spells and arrows flew from the back as sword and hammer dueled with claws, and the kuthriks began to fall one by one. Rolen, still petrified of the fearsome form of the kuthriks managed to put another arrow in the back of a companion, this time Pale Noon instead of Daelius. That was not the only friendly fire as Daelius lashed out at something that stepped on his tail, only to realize too late that it was Baelfius moving forward to support him. Soon the party was covered in ichor and the kuthriks were still. A small cache of hoarded items were found in the back of the cavern, but nothing of great note.

Realizing the caverns were a dead end, the party turned back toward the main part of the keep and the place Splug had title "Bad Place." Under the veil of the shadow amulet the party crept forward into the crypt, skirting around a room of zombies in order to get a better idea of what this area held. They soon came across a rune inscribed on the floor, and those knowledgeable in the arcanes confirmed it was some sort of magical trap or alarm, but knew nothing else. Ruhsbaar confidently stepped forward onto the rune and a loud bell chime echoed through the tunnels, reverberating deep into the minds of the party.

Ruhsbaar shook his head to clear it before turning with a smile to the rest of the party, but the smile was short-lived as he saw the blank expressions on his companions' faces. All but Daelius turned to the south and began shambling off, directly towards the room of zombies they had snuck past earlier. Alarmed, Daelius and Ruhsbaar ran in front of them and began fighting the zombies as their companions moved past them, oblivious.

One by one the companions were struck by the zombies, breaking the arcane compulsion that the rune had placed on them. The zombies were easily dealt with once everyone recovered. The party believed that the "something" that Murthog had mentioned in his notes lay to the south, and was probably the destination of the compulsion. They moved quietly forward, entering a long corridor with large stone standing sarcophagi standing against the walls. A robed figure could be seen at the end of the hallway, their back to the party and facing what looked like an altar.

Fizzwig crept forward and leapt onto the figure's back, holding a dagger to the hobgoblin's throat. It was Grak, the hobgoblin warcaster that Murthog had send to investigate, and he was taken completely by surprise. The party had failed to notice the accompanying hobgoblin escort resting in the southern alcove, and with his shout at the sight of Fizzwig the sarcophagi opened and armed skeletal warriors stepped forward into the midst of the party. Baelfius ran forward to engage the escort while the others found themselves surrounded by the undead.

Fizzwig found himself on the wrong end of first a blast of pure force and then a bolt of lightning, although he did manage to grievously wound Grak. The skeletons were easily dealt with, but their surprise let them get close to Rolen and Galstaff who were accustomed to fighting from the back ranks. Daelius charged forward to heal his tiefling ally who had been trading blows with the hobgoblin escort, and after healing him charging to deal the fatal bow to Grak as he towered over a wounded Fizzwig. The hobgobin escort was the last to fall, but the entire attention of the party proved too much for him.

The party was finally able to take in the surroundings, and noticed a matching altar in the southern alcove to the one Grak had stood in front of in the northern alcove. The southern altar appeared to be devoted to Selune, and the northern one to Bahamut. Fizzwig was poking around the altar to Bahamut when he discovered a secret compartment holding a small silver figurine in the shape of a dragon. He slipped it into his pocket as the rest of the party had turned its attention to the eastern wall, in the middle of which sat a large door. Above the door was a carved inscription, written in an old dialect of Chondathan (the native language of the region around Cormyr):

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OOC
Late summary this week. Feel free to RP and ask questions about the room, but the door should remain closed until next session. For reasons. I vaguely remember someone mentioning level three last week, are people getting close to that milestone? Cheers!

Experience

• 150xp (1200/8) for the innocent kuthrik slaughter

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 60xp (480/8) for the zombies

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 100xp (800/8) for the skeletons and hobgoblins

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

Loot

• 60gp

• Small chest

• Five red gems

• Potion of healing

• Silver dragon figurine