Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Against the Giants”

We found a quantity of gold pieces and some potions in the room where the hill giant stayed with his white apes. We also found an extra sword for Master Oaklock so he could help protect the rescued merchants until Lydia could prepare to take them to safety.

While searching for the rumored “treasure room,” we found a store room full of barrels – some with a seal of a death’s head stamped in black wax. They seemed to have some kind of liquid in them, but some of us were afraid to mess with them lest they explode or something. (It could be connected to the excavation work here; one of the dwarves pointed out the stonework beneath the rubble is nothing orcs or giants would do.) Another item to add to the notes.

We also found a cistern in the form of a circular chamber with steps leading down to the water. There’s an outlet at the bottom, so the water seems to stay pretty fresh (filtering in from small openings around the edge). Raven and Ezekiel examined the outlet with a light marble and that invisible stone they have that’s like a necklace of adaptation, but they couldn’t tell how far down it went. Might be just as well.

Thr final branch of that passage leads to a barracks for stone giants…and we found three at home. We started with a bit of a tense stand-off, but Ezekiel put his earnest sympathy to work, and convinced them that we had killed the hill giant chief and were enemies of Jarl Grugnir. The stone giant spokesman thought we were foolish, but he said they were here to help clear and rebuild the tunnels – but their contact was in the hall above (dead) so they were out of work now. They shouldered their baggage and we escorted them safely out. Glad their politics was neutral enough that they didn’t try to avenge anybody here.

When we returned from seeing them out, we decided to take the rescued prisoners upstairs so we all could spend the night more comfortably, and in the morning Lydia can get them to safety. On the way out, though, we investigated the room where the manticors came from more thoroughly…and besides finding levers to raise and lower all the portcullises, we found a room full of chests – seven to be exact.

Ezekiel and Raven got busy sniffing out traps on them. Raven removed the spring-loaded scythe blade from one, but he missed the poisoned needle in another – but Mikael was on the spot and neutralized the poison before it could leave lasting damage.

Most of what we found was copper – an entire chest of coins, plus a quantity of ingots – but there was also a sizable quantity of gems, and eleven ivory tusks. I don’t think they’re magical, but they are something different. So now we have another reason to portal back to Haven in the morning.

And after that, we get to look at this “darkness that eats your brains.” Huzzah.

****

5 Reaping

Keom and Ronhass were “eager” to help us tote the treasure back to Haven (that’s what Raven said), and while the portal was open, we got Master Gilderleaf some better gear, and I restocked on arrows.

Master Mongo, the dwarf who was willing to fight back, was at first disappointed that we had no dwarf-sized armor and weapons…but then Miss Dree said something about they were trying to set up a smithy for doing repairs, and he practically charged after her to help out. So that’s nice.

Sirion left a note to say the druids and centaurs are getting along, and they have nothing to report from their patrols. Feel bad I’ve left them on their own so much, but they don’t fit through the mirror…

**

Strong “Temple of Elemental Evil” vibes from this place. We headed down to the door all the orcs were afraid of, and while Raven and Agnar investigated an abandoned orc warren at the end of the passage, Ezekiel had the rest of us start shifting the stones blocking the door. I don’t think anyone was excited about, but as Ezekiel says – a man’s got a job to do.

The hallway beyond that door was cleared of rubble, and led straight into a nightmare room with luminescent walls of purple and green. Symbols and runes seemed to float on the walls, with that effect of seeming to move every time you turn your head away. I didn’t recognize any of the symbols, so it seems it’s yet another evil entity we haven’t encountered before. Heiron said he thought some of them were looking at us, and although none of them were what you could call “eyes,” I know what he means.

From the orc prints in the dust, it seems they had to clear this room of rubble, like in the hallways. It’s remarkably preserved, for all that trauma. Six pillars hold up the roof, and I couldn’t see a scratch on them. Of course, they’re carved as statues, so who knows what they looked like originally.

At the far end of the room sits an altar…I think it’s stone, but I’m not clear. It’s yellow and grey, but light gets through it…and there are strange shapes in it, too, like dirt particles floating at different depths in a pool. It’s mighty creepy, even without any blood or evil holy symbols or anything on it.

Tressarian examined the room, and Ezekiel used his “cleric senses,” and they both said something was off. Ezekiel said the whole room felt like a trap (so I tried to stay in the doorway even harder), and Tres said it kinda felt like evil, and kinda felt like magic, but he couldn’t pin down exactly where it was coming from. Aliana said it definitely felt like some great evil was in a level far, far below us…or perhaps, it had been here a long, long time ago. She said we wouldn’t understand her perception of time, which doesn’t seem fair.

Anyway, Ezekiel tried using the gem of seeing…and I guess it didn’t go too well, and he had to sit down for a while and rub his head (and have Aliana rub his head, but that might have just been her wanting to). But as soon as he called this place “consecrated to something evil,” Aliana was up and circling the room with Fetafencer and telling him to call forth the whatever-it-was so she could face it head-on (and he was rolling his eyes again because apparently this is what paladins do). So he had the rest of us wait in the hall, while he, Aliana, and Raven (the three oldest members of his church) went to Ceremonially attack the altar – with holy water.

Well, we’ll see what happens. The ground trembled a little earlier, but Agnar said these passages are well-built enough it was nothing to worry about. Ezekiel’s been at it nearly an hour, now – I had no idea he had this much theological creed ready to recite at a moment’s notice – but nothing more dramatic has happened from our perspective. Heiron is keeping Agnar occupied by asking technical questions about swords.

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