Madness and Shadow in the Temple of Death

Summary

The party entered the hillside cavern, finding it leading to an obviously hand-worked tunnel which was lined with skulls. The tunnel led to a larger room with a polished floor and statues in the four corners. Inlaid designs on the floor indicated to Drakken that the place was dedicated to the death god Mordalis. Opposite the tunnel entrance was a set of double doors bearing a similar motif to the floor.

The PCs entered the room and began investigating it when two of the statues animated and attacked, along with a handful of stirges that had made a lair in the rough ceiling overhead. Despite being sucked by the stirges and knocked down and kicked by the statues, the heroes had little trouble dispatching their attackers.

After the battle, the PCs proceeded down a side corridor, hand-worked but not as polished or ornate as the previous room. They found small abandoned prison as well as a iron door decorated with skulls. Going through the door they entered a large room that appeared to be a crypt of some kind - the center of the room was dominated by a large statue of Mordalis while skeletons lay on slabs in a circle around the outside. Investigating further, the skeletons animated and attacked, while the statue swung its scythe at those who ventured too close.

After a battle that was mildly challenging to everyone except Shashank (who went down faster than a Sharajan harlot being paid in platinum), the PCs looted the dead and rested for the evening. The next morning they avoided the ornate double doors again and headed down a hall that branched off the last corridor they'd explored. Passing through a room that appeared to be a dining area, they came upon what appeared to be a number of clerical cells. Investigating the first door they came upon revealed a room with a mad wraith. The gibbering, shadowy creature attacked, along with two more wraiths from other cells, not to mention four shambling corpses that burst forth from the small rooms.

The heroes fought a hard battle against the undead horde. Eventually, they were victorious, but victory came with a high cost - Kalnac had been slain while Wylan and Drakken lay unconscious, saved from death by the desperate efforts of Shashank and Miandra (primarily the former).

As they surveyed the aftermath of the melee and started to catch their breaths, the Venora siblings heard a voice call out to them from the back of the mad wraith's room...

"Who's out there?"

Memorable Events

• Kalnac falls to shadowy Undead

Creatures Encountered

• Animated Statues
• Blazing Skeleton
• Corruption Corpse
• Decrepit Skeletons
• Mad Wraith
• Skeletons
• Stirges
• Wraiths
• Zombie Rotters

Treasures Discovered

• n/a

Locations Visited

• Abandoned shrine of Mordalis

NPCs Encountered

• n/a