The party wakes up and all meets in the inn’s main dining area. They are a little quiet while they eat breakfast. Ghort is counting the potions he has left on him, Jerrus is looking over the book and his map to make sure he has the best path setup for their trip. Leena is picking some sausage out of her teeth with one of her new lock picks. Bartimus is singing in one corner with a bunch of kids singing along and dancing to the music.
“Haiewe,” Ghort calls out to the kobold, “We need to be leaving soon.”
“But kobold wants to sing and dance more,” Bartimus complains.
“If you are going to be leaving now,” the innkeeper says quickly coming over with a new book, “this is the register that we would like you to sign.”
“Certainly,” Ghort says, “did you want us to sign as a group or as individuals?”
“Individuals, and put todays date and your race as well,” She says turning the pages to the last few pages. The book has a lot on names and it looks like there as a group of people that went into the temple about three weeks ago. Those names do not have a return date on the names, but as everyone signs it, they do notice that that party had a kobold in it as well. Once they are all signed they are lead out of the inn, and down a path to the same clearing and to the base of a large hill, but they realize that the hill is the temple.
“But wait,” Ghort starts, “the map says the temple goes down, but this looks like there floors that go up.”
One of the men looks at Ghort and nods.
“Yes, it does look odd, but all the stairs go down. We have never found any stairs that lead up, we think that giant mound above the temple is for something else.” The main explains.
“Thanks for telling us that,” Ghort says, “I think I would have spent a long time trying to get up there. Well, no time left to dilly dally.” Ghort looks back at this party and finds that Bartimus is entertaining more children.
“Time to go,” Leena says and grabs the kobold’s arm.
“Bye bye, kobold come back out, kobold promise,” Bartimas says cheerfully.
The children wave goodbye and Ghort can see that the children don’t believe what Bartimus said.
They four enter the temple and it gets dark very fast. Only a few steps into the temple and it seems like all the light is blocked out. Ghort takes out a few torches he brought along and cast light on each of them and hands them out. The bright light shines down the hallway. The first thing they see are a lot of bones, and what looks like silver sand. Leena heads over and starts looking at the traps that are so painfully obvious. Leena looks confused at the traps.
“these traps are backwards,” Leena says, “it looks like they are meant to keep things in not out. It’s a celling trap that drops this weird sand.”
“Sand?” Bartimus asks and walks forwards and picks up a handful of the sand. “Ghort, look at this.”
Ghort picks up a handful of the sand as well. The sand is a little courser than he expected and very bright silver in the light. He rubs a few grains of the sand in his fingers and casts detect magic. Immediately he can feel divine magic coming from the sand and he squints hard to looks closer. Bartimus has pulled out a jeweler’s glass and is looking at this sand.
“This isn’t silver sand,” Bartimus says, “they are tinny crosses.”
“And it looks like they are all imbued with divine magic, probably a dispel undead spell,” Ghort says.
“Everyone, I would suggest we fill up as many pouches as possible with this sand,” Bartimus says, “this sand is probably worth more than most treasures I have ever seen before in my life.”
“What?” Leena asks, “but if it’s worth so much how come the villagers don’t take it?”
“Probably worth more to them where it is,” Jerrus says, “if it keeps the undead from attacking in groves, they wouldn’t want to take it all.”
“The mound above us,” Bartimus says with a quick though in this mind. “it is probably filled with this sand.”
“What?” Jerrus says looking up, “But the hill was huge, if it’s filled with these silver crosses. . .”
“Best not to tell anyone though, if people stole all the silver it would let all the undead in this temple get out, but we can use it as a weapon.” Ghort finds a few empty pouches are fills them up with the silver sand.
As everyone fills up a few pouches with the silver crosses, they do find a few small coins and rings that have been buried in the silver. Then then right themselves and start waling farther into the temple.
“Okay, Jerrus,” Ghort starts, “Lead the way to the first sanctuary.”
“Right,” Jerrus nods and starts walking, they walk down the path for a ways, and then Jerrus stops. He looks to the right.
“Okay, we turn here,” he says and point to the wall.
“There’s nothing there but a wall,” Leena says.
“It’s an optical illusion,” Bartimus says, “I almost didn’t see it.”
Jerrus nods and walks through the opening. They are all able to get find the spot once they see it and then they are able to see a few more here and there if they look to the side quickly enough. The party does meet a skeleton or two, but for some reason the skeletons don’t attack and after looking at the party, the skeletons just seem to waive their hands in the air and walk away. A few even seem to try and talk or make strange gestures as though trying to talk, but that’s not normal behavior.
“Oh, we are getting close,” Ghort and Bartimus say almost in unison.
“I can feel something too,” Leena says, “I don’t normally feel divine magic, but this is strong.”
They round a corner and a light seems to break through the darkness and there is a single large statue that is glowing, but the light it produces is not bright, but it seems to fill a vast area. They are able to see heaps of bones and bodies all in a circle around the light.
“Well, it looks like we were able to get here rather quickly and it was uneventful enough,” Bartimus says.
Jerrus pulls out the map and looks over it. Ghort looks at the map for the first time and sees a few notes on the map in Orc.
“This is odd,” Ghort says pointing at the map.
“I saw that too,” Jerrus says.
“What does it say?” Bartimus asks as he inspects the statue.
“It says treasure, and no,” Ghort says.
“What?” Bartimus asks as he runs his finger along the statue.
“It says there is a place where you can find a lot of treasure, but we shouldn’t go there,” Ghort says.
“Well, I came here for treasure,” Leena says.
“How far is it from here?” Bartimus asks.
“It’s not too far, I think we could get there in a few minutes,” Jerrus says.
“Leena, have you seen any more traps?” Bartimus says.
“No, nothing since the entrance of the temple,” Leena says shaking her head.
“Let’s go then,” Bartimus says.
“I’m not sure it’s wise,” Ghort says.
“Jerrus, can you lead us back here in a hurry if we need to?” Bartimus asks.
“Yeah, no problem,” Jerrus nods.
“Okay,” Ghort says “lead the way Jerrus.”
Jerrus nods and they are soon leading the way to the chamber listed on the map. The way is very winding, and the path seems to direct them straight to the chamber. Almost as though the temple wants everyone to go there. Once they break the entrance of the room they find a massive collection of skeletons, and zombies. Before the party can act though they are attacked on both sides. Jerrus, is attacked and he is able to defend two of the swords that attack him but he is caught on the arm by a club that forces him to double the grip on his torch to keep it from falling to the ground. Three also attack Leena and she is deftly able to dodge out of the way and draws her short swords and drops the torch on the ground letting the light shine up casting shadows backwards and onto the celling. Ghort jumps back out of the way but an arrow if shot from the group in the middle and an arrow glances off his leg. Bartimus is rather unlucky for some reason despite his size and being in the back, he is hit with two arrows that whiz past the rest of the party. They do stick into him but the heads don’t go in all the way and they drop to the floor quickly. Ghort and Bartimus the arrows seem to be poisoned, but the poison seems to have weakened in the ages since the poison was applied to the arrows.
“Bartimus are you okay?” Jerrus asks.
“Just fight!” Bartimus says getting a spell ready.
Jerrus draws his long sword and swings. His first strike with the sword simply nocks the closest skeleton to pieces. He swings with the torch and the second skeleton shatters as well. Leena spins in the air landing strikes on three skeletons that all fall apart. Bartimus finishes casting a spell and the air in the middle of the room starts to swirl about. All the zombies and skeletons are thrown into each other and it only takes a few seconds before all of the skeletons and zombies in the room are smashed into pieces against each other. There are a few skeletons near the edges of the room that run away from the spell.
“Okay, then,” Bartimus says, “Leena, I’m sure you will find a lot of treasures on these remains.”
The wind dies down and the party heads into the room, Leena leaves her torch on the ground and starts sifting through the bones and bodies and finds a lot of items. Ghort and Bartimus also start sifting through the bodies and collects items too. After a few minutes of collecting a sound like a sudden puff of air, one puff after another and then a sudden clang of armor hitting the ground. Everyone looks up and along the wall, in little enclosures bodies pop into place.
“I think we should get out of here,” Jerrus says quietly.
“They’re just weak things,” Leena says and picks up a bow and a large quiver of arrows. She set the arrow in the bow and shoots one of the new zombies. The arrow hits the mark, but the zombie doesn’t drop. Leena shoots again, and then a third time, and fourth. The zombie looks down at the arrows and then, if it could laugh, open it maw and exhales. She then shoots a second zombie and it looks down and then draws a sword and walks towards the party.
“We should go,” Leena says nodding.
Jerrus looks around and see the torch Leena dropped and left.
“Follow me,” Jerrus says and runs towards the torch. With everyone in toe they run towards the sanctuary. As they run more puffs can be found, and the spot more skeletons and zombies starting to walk the halls. A few skeletons appear before them and as Jerrus starts to draw his sword, but Bartimus bounds forward and throws a hand full of silver sand into the skeletons faces. There is a sudden hiss and the heads of the skeletons dissolve and they run pass. They can see the light from the sanctuary and launch themselves into the light. Several zombies and skeletons run into the light after the party and the undead sizzle and drop to the ground as their bodies start to dissolve. The other zombies and skeletons see this and stop before they enter the light.
“What happened?” Leena asks to the party.
Jerrus shrugs.
“If I were to guess, those were new zombies and skeletons that were teleported into the temple,” Ghort says watching the zombies and skeletons circle the lighted area.
“I would have to agree with that theory,” Bartimus says nodding, “as I cannot find a better reason for that to have happened.”
“So, when we kill the undead here, stronger ones are teleported in?” Leena asks.
Ghort and Bartimus look at each other shrug.
“There is no guarantee that the undead brought in will be stronger or weaker than those we just destroyed,” Bartimus says.
“I don’t think they’re that strong,” Jerrus says swinging at a skeleton, “I’ve already taken down three more.”
Everyone else looks and sees that the skeleton that is fighting is the only one left near the sanctuary.
“I think we might have been able to take that room on,” Jerrus says.
“Well, I would rather be able to get down to where are trying to get to with as little damage as possible,” Ghort says, “Speaking of which.” Ghort pulls a bottle from this bag and uncorks it, “down the hatch Bartimus.”
“I don’t . . .” Bartimus starts.
“DOWN . . . the hatch,” Ghort says forcefully.
Bartimus grunts grumpily but the kobold drinks the potion and the puncture wounds shrink and disappear. Ghort then takes a damp rag and wipes away the blood.
“Are you should we have enough potions to just use them for no reason?” Leena asks.
Ghort looks at the halfling and raises an eyebrow before saying plainly, “Yes.”
Jerrus looks back at the group.
“I think I’ve gotten rid of all the things that were out there, we can head now to the second floor,” Jerrus says.
“Yes,” Bartimus says waving Ghort away, “we should go down to the next floor.”
Ghort straights up and motions for Leena to move forward next to Jerrus so she can continue to look for traps. Jerrus leads them down different hidden paths and they find a few more creatures on the way to the stairs but oddly enough, most of the skeletons or zombies just walk away. They start down the stairs and Leena stops everyone.
“The stairs are trapped,” She says and then slips a little on the tiny silver crosses that make us the sand. Jerrus catches the halfling in time to keep her from tumbling down the stairs.
“I think I can help with that dust and make the path ahead a little safer too,” Bartimus says smiling, “get behind me.”
Everyone works to get behind the kobold. Bartimus waves his hand and a gust of wind pushes down the stairs and carries nearly all of the sand off the stairs and down the hallway. Shortly afterwards they hear a loud clambering and a set of groans.
“With that sand now in the hallways, we should have a little bit or protection where ever the sand is,” Bartimus says.
“Good thinking,” Jerrus says holding his torch high again to lead the way. They walk down the path on the map and are able to find the sanctuary in no time with little trouble.
“Now, comes the hard part,” Ghort says, “we need to find the stairs.”
“I’ll need someone else to be point so I can map the area as we walk,” Jerrus a little hesitant.
“I can take point,” Ghort says quickly, Ghort hands his torch to Leena. He then takes out a double handed club from his bag of holding and cast a spell making it glow like he did with the torches. Ghort then starts singing some sort of mantra and everyone feels a little braver. They step forward from the sanctuary and start walking down the hallways.
Ghort listens to Jerrus to head different directions. After a few twists and turns they end up at the mouth of a room like they found on the first flood, the undead are packed in wandering around the room but just a Ghort is raising his club Bartimus throws a handful of the silver sand into the room and onto a dozen or so undead and they undead quickly retreat from the part. The party back tracks, several times and the map shows so many more rooms than the floor above.
“Is this floor larger than the one above us?” Ghort asks.
“It looks like it,” Jerrus says.
A sudden light and a soft voice comes from a path they have been down before.
“What was that?” Leena asks.
“I think it was a spell,” Bartimus says.
“let’s go back then,” Ghort presses back towards where the glow and sound came from. He also cast detect magic to try and help find the place. This is an immediate problem. The entire temple now seems to ooze divine and necromantic energy at the same time and Ghort has a hard time filtering those out to find the other spell.
“You look like you have a headache,” Jerrus says.
“Don’t detect magic down here,” Ghort warns.
The half-orc is still able to find the faint magic ahead of them. They meet a skeleton, the skeleton sees the party and then bows down, and points to Ghort’s club and then to its head.
“I think it wants us to kill it,” Ghort says uncertain.
The skeleton nods and keeps its head bowed.
Ghort takes a massive swing and shatters the skeleton into pieces.
“Why would a skeleton do that?” Leena asks.
“I think some of the skeletons and zombies might still have their mind,” Bartimus says slowly, “but that means they would still have a soul attached.”
“Skeletons don’t have souls,” Leena says plainly.
“Normally, I would agree,” Ghort says, “but they normally attack anything that is not undead. We have seen too many undead just walk away than we should. Have you ever seen undead act like the ones we’ve seen here?”
Leena opens her mouth to talk and then shakes her head.
A sudden light breaks the darkens and a strange figure appears from the stone and a very faint rune shines. The figure is a human wizard wearing very old-style clothes, and a jaunty hat and a staff.
“Hello, my name is not important but if you are seeing this I did not live long enough to dispel this recording. This temple if dangerous and it would be best if you turn back now, but if you seek more help, look for my runes, I will record these on each floor.” The ghostly figure speaks and then the image fades and disappears.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Ghort says shaking his head, “but that in not a simple spell and if that wizard felt it was important to leave it, they could prove to be useful later on.”
“I’m marking it on the map,” Jerrus says not needing a prompting.
“We should continue to look for the stairs,” Bartimus says.
“I think we found it,” Jerrus says.
“But we were here before and didn’t see it,” Leena says.
“I know, but there is another marking here,” Jerrus points to a marking next to the rune and some faint writing.
The stairs are hidden, just to the left.
The three look to the left of the writing and they walk forward, and what looked like solid way, does in fact, turn out to just be an optical illusion of a wall. They enter the room to the stairs.
“Stop,” Leena says quickly.
Everyone looks to try and see what is going on, and from the light being given off by the club, and the torches there is a black scorch on the ground, and down a few more stairs, gouges in the stone, and skeletons, and what looks like could be a few unlucky adventures.
Leena takes out a red pastel marker and puts some marks on several stairs. She pokes and prods around the stairs and tries to put a dagger between stone and then tries a thin tool.
“I can’t disarm these traps,” Leena says softly, “just step over the stairs I marked. Should we take their gear?” she asks.
“They’re not using it,” Jerrus says.
“Yes, take anything that might be useful,” Bartimus says softly, “and see if you can find out who they were too.”
They carefully take as many items as they can while avoiding the trapped stairs. The food is too old to be useful, but they gather up several more healing potions, and some more antidotes and cure disease. They also take a few weapons that look like they might be exceptional and a few more notes with their names.
When they enter the third floor, this floor looks completely different than the floor above them. The stone doesn’t have any optical illusions, this time, and the hallways are straight. The floor seems to be covered in a lot of dark rusty brown stains that look like it is blood that has long past dried out. Their glow spells die out.