WORK IN PROGRESS…

Together, the party from Greyhawk stood at the base of the lichen and mud-encrusted cobblestone steps that descended further into the bowels of the lair of the Naga. The chill of subterranean air caused all whose skin it touched to crawl. Under their armor, warriors Moira and Vetnik’s breathing became more labored as the cool-yet-humid air made wearing such armor taxing to lug around in. Even the hot-blooded Lyssa shivered, both from the drop in temperature and a fear of what else lurked deeper underneath the Rushmoors. With their elder guide Rahme serving as torch bearer, the party could make out faint and crude details of the cavern they now occupied. A pair of large columns supported a hollowed out cave. Water trickled down onto the cavern floor with a muffled sound. Rahme lowered his torch to reveal a dense mire of mud where a floor ought to be.

”How do you imagine we’re supposed to get across this?” Moira pondered aloud. At her side stood Lyssa, who silently took in the fetid darkness.
”Hang on,” she replied. She closed her eyes, inhaled, and as she opened them, the scarlet energy poured out of her eyes and began to flicker around her body. The party watched as Lyssa gently strs Something was amiss though. Moira turned to her companion to see the chaos energy fizzling in her eyes. Like a dying campfire, the embers of magic flickered for a moment then ceased. Lyssa shut her eyes and bowed her head, and with heavy breathing, silently began to focus once more. The group stood curious and silent as Lyssa tried to regain her composure. ”Lyssa?” Moira gently asked.
”I… I can’t,” Lyssa began with frustration mounting in her voice. With a heavy exhale, she opened her eyes. Lyssa stared out into the murky darkness, visibly defeated. ”What is happening,” she whispered to herself.
Seeing genuine distress across the mage’s face, Thom held his usual jeers and instead stepped forward to take action. Knocking his arrow, he held it in his bow and focused — not the darkness, but on the head of the arrow itself. With a magic word, the arrowhead slowly began to glow.

Tom casts light on arrow, shoots down hallway. Head north, slogging thru mud. Grum scouts West and finds large mud filled room. The party decides to go east instead. They find the path splits north and south. Grum scouts the north and finds it ends in a door. Heading south, he finds a room filled with murky brown water. Grum approaches and wipes away the mud from the wall.

”You all don’t pay attention, do you?” Grum quipped, pushing in a secret door.

Inside, he finds a small room and a boat built for two. Thom and Grum decide to venture forth and investigate.

”If anything goes awry, I’ll fire an arrow back to shore!” Thom
”That’s if you’re even able to draw your bow.” Lyssa

The twins row to to the vantage point across the secret river and find a shelf with two medium-sized chests. Grum finds and removes a poison needle trap (joking to his brother that he’s been poisoned in the process.) Inside the chests, the brothers find large amounts of gold, silver, and platinum as well as jeweled bracelets and small gems. While the brothers pull together their bounty, the others wait cautiously for them. Lyssa thumbs through her spell book, regaining her magical knowledge, while Trisoll meditates.

The twins return telling of their bounty. Grum stays behind while Thom returns to fetch the treasure, explaining that the boat fits only so much. While they wait, they continue to recharge and rearm themselves. Thom returns with treasures in tow and together the party set of north to the door.

They find the wooden door swollen from age and moisture, but unlocked all the same. Vetnik and Moira take turns kicking at the door, but it is Vetnik who breaks through.

”Well done!” Moira remarked at Vetnik, with a possessive Lyssa looking on.

Inside, the room has a pillar. As the party pours in, a zombie shuffles out from behind a pillar and grabs at the old man Rahme. Shocked, the party take a stand together against the undead thing. Trisoll tries to turn the creature but fails to contact Trithereon. “What went wrong?” he pondered. Lyssa tossed a dagger but missed due to the dim lighting in the chamber. The zombie continued to shuffle forward and took Thom by the throat, digging his bony fingers hard and relentlessly into the bard’s throat. Thom reached beneath his cloak and drew the first blade available: the cryptic dagger known as Lyn. Thom drove the dagger into the zombie’s chest and, as the blade pierced through his ribs, a surge of electricity burst from the dagger blade and burned out the zombie’s chest. The electricity shot up through the rest of the zombie’s body, up through his spine and cooking the creature’s brains for a true death.

They continue north and find another door. Grum successfully picks and continues to find a door to the left. Thom listens and hears a pair of voices, a boy and girl. Grum does what he can to pick the lock, but the rusted lock proves to be too difficult. Vetnik and Moira take their places and begin to kick at the door. Moira successfully bashes the door in! Vetnik pops Moira on the shoulder playfully, which only seems to make Lyssa distance herself more. Inside, the party finds rows of cells. 3 empty, 2 occupied. A 16 y.o. boy and 18 y.o. girl recoil as the party enter. Grum rushes to unlock the cell doors while Vetnik assures them that they’re safe. The teenagers reveal that they are the carpenters children, imprisoned after their parents were enslaved by the Naga’s charm. They somehow resisted and were kept as prisoners. They escort the teens into the secret room with the boat and order them to hide and wait for them to return. Before leaving, Vetnik asks about the Naga’s servants, the Troglodytes. They are unsure of what they are, knowing only that they’re ruthless and loyal to the Naga. Vetnik asks them to point out the Naga’s lair on the map made by Rahme, and they abide.

The party heads back out and continues into a chamber, empty save for 5 wooden benches. 20 ft beyond lays another door, unlocked and noiseless. As Vetnik opens he sees a wretched sight: a Wight! The ghostly creature rushes through the party, targeting Rahme and grabs at him. The party watches as the Wight slowly begins to suck the life out of the old guide. His eyes roll back into his head, and as the party fears the loss of the old man, they see his eyes crackle with electric energy. His old, thin skin heats and glows and suddenly a bolt of lightning surges through Rahme and knocks the Wight off of him. The Wight staggers back while Rahme sinks to his knees, reeling from having just had his life force partially drained. Grum quickly draws his own cryptic blade, Slå, and flings it at the beast. It hits the Wight but provides no shocking effect. Moira draws her longsword and cuts the Wight down.

Suddenly, the mad cleric of the reptile god reveals himself. As he charges in, Tom draws Lyn and slashes at him. Vetnik follows up with a shield bash but misses. While the crazed cleric fends off the cavalier, Lyssa saunters up behind him and effortlessly jabs her dagger into the side of the cleric, felling him as she pulls out her blade. The cleric falls to the ground and Vetnik quickly returns his shield to his back and pulls the keys from the cleric’s belt. With the Wight and cleric death with, the party sees the room for what it is. Standing in it is another statue of the Naga. Thom inspects it and sees that the head is on a seam. He rotates it and reveals a wooden panel that drops on the north end of the floor. Trisoll finds another secret door 20 ft down.

Together, the party come upon the chamber of the Naga. Before entering, Naga intones a powerful spell that creates a crystalline globe of invulnerability around them. Rahme looks to the party and warns them that now is their chance to gain the upper hand, and to be tactical. Lyssa responds by attempting to pin the Naga down as she sleeps using an anti-Levitation spell. Suddenly, she feels a tickling in her throat, immense and bizarre. She recoils to the back of the sphere and vomits up a swarm of butterflies that flutter about the globe. Thom, realizing the butterflies will only serve to annoy and alert the Naga of their presence, forgoes a quip and conjures a fixed point of light across the eyes of the Naga. Moira jumps in as the Naga writhes in blindness, slashing with her longsword. Grum stays with the party and fires off a couple successful arrows. As the globe dissipates, Trisoll prays to Trithereon to protect the party from the evil of Explicitica Deflius while Thom whips out his drum to buff. Enraged by the latest flop of her magic, Lyssa cries out and releases a wave of powerful flames from her hands. As the Naga recoils from the fires, Vetnik leaps in and cuts the Naga down!

With the Reptile god dead, the Twins get to looting the Naga’s chamber. Vetnik cleans his blade of the filthy creature’s blood, while Lyssa rushes and begins to raid the corpse for spell ingredients. Rahme asks little of the party except for a ring and scroll. Once their collective bounty is all secured, they rush back through the same secret path and take the teenagers back through the tunnels up to the Rushmoors for safety. The Naga defeated, Orlane is presumably saved.