Roster
Rainmoot 20, 381
The party retrieves the body of Untan and returns to the hunters’ camp. While the other hunters are disappointed, they are pleased for the party’s help and off them a discount on ration bought through them.
Returning to New Thereyn, the company has little time to relax, as Senael returns from the temple with news that a holy text of Mityara had been stolen the previous night and pleads for assistance from her new associates to retrieve the stolen book. Agreeing, the company decides to rest for the night and begin the next morning. Max remains in town to speak to the governor about granting a building for the adventurers guild to work out of, as well as finding others to join them.
The next day, the trackers in the group pick up the trail of the thief, finding that it leads out of the town, past the the new farmsteads and into the grasslands between the northern forest and southern hills. Eventually they come a split in the ground that had forced the western half of it upwards, creating a bluff. Circling around to a path down the bluffside, the trail leads to a plain square building that was built into the bluff. The building is old and weathered, obviously built by an ancient civilization that inhabited the land in days past.
The door to the building, however, looks newly installed, and it’s locked. Unable to pick the lock, and not having the tools to bash it down, they decide to use torches, kindling and a tinderbox to burn the door down. When the door is burning enough to be able to kick it down, they begin to hear a barking on the other side. Quickly knocking the burning door down, they move into a hallway that stretches into the building, lined with doors and containing a noisy guard dog.
Quickly dispatching the dog, they wait to see if someone comes to investigate the barking. Surprisingly, no one comes. Investigating the doors along the hall, they find furnished and stocked rooms: kitchen, dining room, library and bedrooms, all with material that were obviously made in the Auran empire, indicating that the inhabitants were definitely human settlers. But no occupants are found.
Searching the rooms, they find little. The book is not found in the library, but they do find a prayer book to Nasga, the Cthonic goddess of seduction, adultery and decadence, sitting on a table. In a bedroom, they find a locked chest. The Blue Rose smashes the lock open, and a magical trap strikes him blind! In the chest, they find some gems and dark hooded robes.
They also discover a secret passage in the bedroom, revealing a set of stairs leading down into the ground. They also notice light coming from the depths, and send Zarreth ahead to scout. The antechamber opening at the base of the stairs is dimly lit from an adjacent chamber, but elaborate tapestries depicting scenes of perverse debauchery line the walls. Sounds of a sleeping person emanate from the other room. Looking in, Zarreth finds an armed guard asleep in a chair. Sneaking in, he cuts the man’s throat in his sleep and calls for the rest of the party to join him. A passage leads from the room and it is lit with torches, as well. It branches and they take the left hallway.
The passage leads to a door, and they note that the door is cool to touch. Unsure what they’ll find, they carefully open the door and find a frost-coated room with a small white dragon crouched on the floor across the room. Zev charges at the dragon, but the others carefully enter the room. The dragon responds by breathing a huge cloud of stinging frost that envelops everyone but the wolf. When the breathe subsides, only a frost-rimmed and blind Blue Rose is standing. He and Zev do they’re best to slay the dragon, but Zev is eviscerated and Blue Rose feels his the dragon’s jaw clamp down on his left arm and tear before losing consciousness….
