Rise of the Runelords

After spending the last few hours of the day and a few moments of the next on some last minute details, you headed back to Thisltetop. The trip there was uneventful. You attribute that to having decimated the goblin tribe. Exploring the rest of the lower level, you came across a man, passed out on the floor of his quarters surrounded by wine bottles. You roughly woke him after removing his weapons from reach. His name is Orik and he has apparently been sleeping off several bottles of wine from the time of your fight only a hallway and room away. Turns out he was hired by Nuallia for security but hasn't been paid recently. Tsuto came in yesterday and told him to prepare for a fight. He refused without being paid first. He also told you where to find the secret door to the next level. You stripped him of his possessions, locked him in one of the torture room cells and finished searching the area.

In one room you encountered a large, round, floating, fleshy orb with several tentacles, two of which were much longer that the others. One was covered with suckers and that grappled Wolfgar. The other had a stinger and connected with Wolfgar, Henrik and Bach. Only Henrik was unable to completely fight off the poison. A quick spell from Edwin solved that problem.

Descending to the next level, you found many more depictions and statues of a man with book and glaive. Pressing one, Bach triggered a trap that had scything glaive blades swinging at him while he was trapped between two portculli. He doged the blades as best he could while all worked to lift one portcullus. You were able to prop open both with loose statuary which disabled the scything blades for the time being.

The next room had the woman/beast you have been looking for. She was flanked by two yeth hounds who immediately bayed. All resisted the otherworldly noise. Bach charged only to discover two zombies on either side of the doorway that had not been seen before. She had apparently had time to prepare for the fight and due to the size and shape of the room and the number of occupants it was difficult to get more than two of you in the room at a time. Bach fell first. Wolfgar and Henrik were next in and Malloric fired arrows. Others positioned themsleves in the hallway for periodic spell casting and missle fire. The zombies appeared bolstered after an attempt to turn them from both Wolfgar and Edwin failed. You eventually beat the zombies, then Nuallia, then finally the hounds.

Healing up you decided to move on. The next room had several standing sarcophagi and another now familiar statue. Before Henrik could communicate the presence of evil, four shadows attacked. They were turned, but not after inflicing some strength damage top the party. A minute of hacking with magic weapons and missles from the wand and they were destroyed.

Further on, you found a throne room with an illusion of a man addressing a crowd. The image appeared to be stuck in a repeating loop. Ishan cast comprehend languages from a scroll an wrote down what the image was saying. The next room was a tourture chamber. In here, amongst the macabre implements was an odd disk with a seven pointed star. The star itself had bits of metal that protruded from the surface - like a key of some sort. It didn't take long to find where that key fit. The next and last room had a huge set of smooth, stone double doors. There was no handle. In its place was an indentation of a seven pointed star with even deeper cavities that clearly matched the object you had just located.

Henrik concentrated as the key was fitted. He said prepare for a tough fight. The doors were swung open and the smell of burnt hair was carried on the warm air that poured from the room beyond. On the far side of the room, on the other side of a roaring fire stood an eight foot tall, bipedal wolf-like creature. It asked,"Can you release me?" Ishan wanted to discuss this as the others grabbed him and slammed the door shut.

Figuring that might have been way out of your league, you gathered Nuallia's body (and head that Wolfgar had been so keen to remove) you headed back to town, collecting Orik on the way.

Back in town you again debriefed the Sheriff and Mayor and discussed Orik's disposition. AS well as started to think what your next steps will be.