The next room is cool and humid. The air carries the metallic smell of blood, and thin wisps of mist float through it. Ghostly light illuminates the room-white motes swirl around large pillars. Between these pillars is a hollowed·out stone claw holding a large pool of what seems to be blood. A soft gurgling sound issues from it, and runes are carved into the floor around it. Two upright sarcophagi, shaped like leering, stylized hobgoblin warriors, sit in wide eastern alcoves. Black bones are piled loosely around them. Two pairs of iron doors are on the southern wall, and another double door is set into the western wall.

When the party tries to open the doors, all the tomb doors open and blood mist pours from the blood pool.

Encounter: Honor Guard
Bloodblade Hobgoblin Skeletons
Hobgoblin Specter
Hobgoblin Wight
5 Bonepile Hobgoblin Skeletons

With the skeletons defeated and blood mist filling the room, they move to the western doors and proceed to a large chamber.

White light bathes this space, originating from the crystal eyes of an immense statue in its center. The figure has four identical sides, each depicting a richly dressed hobgoblin warrior making a heart-crossing gesture, apparently a salute. Bone-filled alcoves line the north and south walls, and the room has two pairs of iron double doors, one to the east (the one they’ve just entered through) and another to the north. Thick pillars support a ceiling that vaults from about 10 feet at the edges to 20 feet in the middle, high enough for the massive statue. In each eastern corner is a stylized statue of a hobgoblin warrior wielding a spiked chain, slightly larger than life. Two similar statues stand on a dais in the western reach of the chamber, but these show scimitar-wielding hobgoblin soldiers. The dais also has a lone sarcophagus set upon it. Ornate stone boxes sit to each side of the coffin. The smaller statues have yellow gems for eyes.

Despite the advisement of the party, Rick approaches the large statue in the center, presents his sword and kneels in reverence and honor. He repeats this action on all four sides of the statue. He stands up and the statue begins to rotate. Undead begin to emerge from the statues. Ashurta opens his sarcophagus and speaks. “The honorable among you should have guided the others, weak and ignorant as they are. Now you all must pay the blood price for your folly! Perhaps some will claim the blade of the Ashen Crown, a painful lesson learned.” He and his Wight followers continue to mock the disrespectful in the party.

Encounter: Ashurta’s Rest
Ashurta
2 Chainfighter Wights
2 Hobgoblin Soldier Zombies

Ashurta and his soldiers are defeated after much struggle. The party takes the amber eyes from the statues, then opens the small boxes near the coffin. They find some gold, a Skull Mask helm which is given to Gennal, and a Belt of the Brawler which goes to Rick. Sariel takes Ashurta’s Blade, their first recovered piece of the legendary Ashen Crown.

The next door is not magically sealed like the last. They open the door and proceed to the next room. It is a smaller cavern than the last, and most of it is taken up by a large grid of letters. There is a large statue with garnet eyes overlooking the room. Smaller statues with amethyst eyes surround the tile grid.

The party finds that if they step on the wrong tiles, the tile drops away into a pit or triggers spikes to descend from the ceiling. They reference the journal they found in the last room and find an image of what looks like a hand. One of the tiles says “hand”. They conclude that this image corresponds to the puzzle. Using this knowledge, they step on the tiles that say “open”, “right”, “hand”, and “down” to safely traverse the grid. Once on the other side, Kruthiks emerge from small tunnels along the walls.

Encounter:
6 Kruthik Hatchlings

With the hatchlings defeated, they retrieve the gems from the statues’ eyes. They enter the next chamber.

The smell of decay in this room hits them like a physical force. A massive pillar stands in the south part of the room, close to a pair of doors leading south. White motes hover near it, shedding eerie light throughout the chamber. In the chamber’s center, a blurry, dark humanoid figure stands under a shower of water falling from a hole in the ceiling. Smaller, bipedal reptilian forms rest nearby. Under their feet, a metal grate is set in the floor. Off each corner of the floor grate is a statue of a skeletally thin, stylized feline with six legs and two long tentacles-four statues in all. The northern, eastern, and western walls of the room are lined with alcoves. In each, a mummified but sodden corpse or a pile of bones festers. Some of the remains are neither goblin nor hobgoblin.

Encointer: Rotten Rain
Sodden Corruption Corpse
2 Grave Drakes
3 Ancient Tomb Motes
Sharn Kruthik

The party continues through the desert. They come upon a large coliseum. They approach and confront the guards about the coliseum’s purpose and are informed that there is currently an event being held here in the Bloodsand Arena. All are welcome to participate. The decision is made that the strongest of them will go inside and the rest will stay outside with the cart to guard the supplies and horses. The rest enter the arena.

Encounter:
4 Gith Piercers
2 Ambush Spiders
2 Gith Hobblers

After defeating the arena foes, they see a dark figure shrouded in a cloak run from the bleachers and up the stairs. They find this suspicious and decide to investigate. In order to catch up to the man, they have to ask about his whereabouts from several witnesses.

Skill Challenge

They finally catch up to the cloaked man in his chambers, and find that he is the Gladiator, another of Galbatorix’s Forsworn. He is accompanied by Birk Suntouched, a dwarf conscript.

Encounter:
Gladiator
Birk Suntouched

When the gladiator falls, Birk is making a run for it through a small passageway. Rick and Alain run him down and try to question him, but he bleeds out before he can say anything.

The victorious heroes exit the temple. They head for the nearby town of Silthrim to rest and stock up on supplies. Many of them also get better weapons or improve their armors. Swag hits up the alchemist for potions and phials of potent potables.

There is a Varden contact point here, which informs the heroes that they’ve heard tell of trouble in the desert. What exactly, they don’t know. They can only tell you that there have been complaints of odd critters attacking the desert peoples and that other odd and malicious things have been happening. They fear that Galbatorix is behind it somehow, and they want you to set off right away to check the situation and eliminate any threats.

Encounter:
2 Gith Savages
3 Gith Hobblers

They round the corner, finding the end of the hallways is a loop. At the rear of this loop is a stairwell, covered by a shimmering transparent wall. Swag touches the forcefield and disappears. He is replaced by Yens, who cannot speak and whose neck has a red ring indentation. The swap has disabled the forcefield and the party descends the stairs. In the next hallway, there are two small doors, one on each side, and one large ornate set of double doors at the end with red or green flames painted on either side. There are 2 round indentations in these doors, presumably a place to insert an orb of some sort. But the heroes have no such orbs. They decide they must investigate the rooms, to see if they can find the necessary orbs.

Encounter:
2 Guard Drakes

They retrieve the green orb from the pedestal that had been guarded by the drakes in the first room.

Encounter:
Rage Drake
Spiretop Drake

They retrieve the red orb from the pedestal in the next room.

Rick puts the orbs into the door with the flames painted on it. The red with the red flame side, the green with the green flame side. He then turns each and the doors open to reveal a large circular room. The ceiling can’t be seen, nor can the walls – there is only darkness toward every edge, giving a feeling of enormity to the room. The only things visible are large columns, a throne with a sitting man, and Swag, chained to a column next to the throne.

“Welcome, welcome. I was wondering how long it would take you to make it down here. You must be wondering who I am. My name is Alistair and I am one of Galbatorix’s Forsworn. I see that at least 2 of you fell prey to my traps. And how are we feeling after our little bit of freedom there, wizard? Still can’t talk can you? Good. But enough small talk.”

Encounter:
Alistair

Alistair swings a spiked chain, reaching to hit all of the party just by standing up from his throne. It is a rough battle, but the heroes emerge victorious.

Rick tosses a sunrod down into the darkness of the stairs. It bounces for awhile and hits the floor, rolling a bit before stopping. It only illuminates the base of the stairwell. The party heaves the lid to the top of the stairs, at Alain’s request. Alain gets onto the slab of rock, tilts it forward, and surfs the lid down the stairs. Rick goes in after him. Yens casts a fireball at a torch to light it, so they can have more light as they wander the depths. However, when he removes it from the wall, this triggers a slab of rock to descend and block the opening to the stairs, separating the party.

After much force and hammering, they finally break through the barrier and descend the stairs together. Yens steps on an odd stone and activates a slide trap. He disappears into the floor. The floor tile immediately slides shut behind him. Down one member, the party proceeds carefully, checking for trapped tiles and other dangers. In their exploration, they find there are 6 doors along the hallway, 3 on each side. They also find that 5 are locked. They enter the unlocked room.

Encounter:
2 Kobold Minions
Kobold Slinger
Kobold Skirmisher

The party fights and finds treasure. They cross the hallway and find the door to now be unlocked. They open the door and find the room mostly empty except for a treasure chest. They approach the chest with care, but sometimes a chest is just a chest. There are no traps and nothing triggers when they open it besides the third door unlocking across the hall. Inside they find some gold. They leave and go to the now unlocked third room.

Encounter:
2 Zombie Rotters
2 Zombies

The fourth room holds another treasure chest. The party approaches with care once more. The line of tiles in front of the chest are a different color than the rest. A few of them jump the tiles and approach the chest. The lock won’t budge to Alain’s lockpicking skills. Inscribed on the lid of the chest is a riddle:

In daytime, I lie pooled about
At night, I cloak like mist
I creep inside shut boxes
And inside your tightened fist
You see me best when you can’t see
For I do not exist

Sariel understands and solves the riddle and when Swag repeats her solution “Darkness” the chest unlocks and opens, bathing the room in pitch black darkness. There is a hissing sound as poison gas is pumped into the room. Those closest to the door turn and try for it, but it’s gone. They systematically traverse the walls of the room, searching for the way out. Swag looks to the chest and feels his way around the bottom. There is none. “The door’s over here! In the chest!” The party members are confused, but when Swag says he’s going through and they hear nothing else from him, they assume it worked. Sariel accidentally steps on the off-color tile line and the light returns to the room and the gas begins to dissipate. They each go through the chest in turn, falling down from the hallway’s ceiling and back into the hall. The original door to the third room is gone from the wall and is now on the ceiling.

Confused and still coughing a bit from the gas, the heroes rest a moment and then proceed to door number five. While the others clear out the final 2 rooms in the hallway, Swag tries to disarm the trap at the end of the hallway to be able to take the everlasting torch, or “flashlight”.

Encounter:
2 Dire Rats
2 Zombies
Skeleton

The room is dark. Alain sneaks into the room, killing most of the unaware and sleeping foes with a string of coup de grâce.

The final door unlocks and Rick looks inside to see a small box about 8 feet from the doorway. He steps inside, the door slams shut, and he is teleported back to the hallway. Then Sariel sees that on the door, there is an inscription. It says that it requires blood sacrifice to get what they desire. They try to wedge the door open with items and weapons, but to no avail. Eventually they decide that Sariel will stand in the doorway and take damage from the door, since she is the most virile of the all and has the strongest armor. After about 30 seconds of Sariel being smashed by the door, Rick gets in, opens the box and finds a silver necklace inside. He exits through the door and Sariel lets it slam shut with exasperation.

By now, Swag has successfully disarmed the wall spikes trap that would have indiscriminately speared the party members if they had just passed through the end of the hallway without Swag’s help. Rick grabs the everlasting torch (flashlight), they regroup, and head for the next part of the hallway, banking left at the fork.

Our story takes place in Alagaesia, in the era of the Dragon Riders. One rider, Galbatorix, has defected from the rest to gain power and dark magic. He has killed the king and proclaimed himself ruler of the whole of Alagaesia, his domain being referred to simply as the Empire. He is spreading his influence and killing all who oppose him, including other Dragon Riders. Others have joined him, calling themselves the Forsworn and totaling 13 in number. They are aiding the spread of evil across the land and amassing dark power.

Panic has swept the land, unrest has found residence in every town, all the way from Du Weldenvarden to Surda. The Varden and the Riders are in the process of mounting an attack on the Forsworn and the evil they’ve spread. But they are far from success. They need more power. More good for their cause. More fighters. And more information about their foes.

In the city of Ellesmera, deep in Du Weldenvarden, Gennal the elf cleric and Sariel the Eladrin paladin are worshipping in Pelor’s shrine when a messenger bursts into the temple, breathing heavy, doubled over as he struggles to speak.

“Master Gennal… Lady Sariel… we just received word… from Farthen Dur… Lord Ajihad is sending… warriors to aide… in the fight… against the Forsworn… They’re flying in with the Riders. The queen… requests you receive them… and accompany them on their journeys.”

Gennal and Sariel look at each other, apprehensive at first, then they share a smile.

“Finally, a quest worthy of my greatness!” exclaims Sariel with a wry smile.

“Always looking for a fight aren’t you? Well, I’m game, as always,” Gennal smirks at the paladin.

They follow the messenger to a clearing, where scores of elves and eladrin have gathered to see the Riders and the warriors arrive. After much milling about and muttering, someone in the crowd spots the riders in the sky and shouts. Everyone looks to the sky, where 3 dark shapes are rapidly growing as they descend to the clearing. The crowd parts to make room for their landing, surrounding the clearing. There are two people on each dragon, one Rider and one stranger.

Gennal eyes them suspiciously. “These are the mighty warriors from Farthen Dur?!” he hisses quietly.

“They look more like arrow fodder to me. And what’s with the short one? Look at his hair!” Sariel replies, just above a whisper.

The six dismount the dragons and are received by the elf queen, Islanzadi. She thanks the Riders and welcomes the others to Ellesmera. The messenger from the temple is standing off to her left, hands folded, head down. The queen motions to him, he snaps to her side. She bends and murmurs something to him. He nods quickly and looks around the crowd before approaching Gennal and Sariel and beckoning them forward. They follow the boy to the center of the clearing, stop before the queen, and bow to her and the Riders.

The queen introduces the three strangers as Yens Van der Handle, Alain Whaler, and Swag Cloakdust. Yens and Swag come from Du Vrangr Gata, the Varden’s group of magicians. Ajihad assigned Alain to accompany them and protect them with his dagger and crossbow.  Islanzadi instructs the 2 elves to show their visitors around Ellesmera and to become better acquainted. The 5 set off into the trees.

After almost an hour of wandering and talking, the tension eases and the group stops for a moment to rest. They talk, share stories, and even a few laughs until there is laughter from among the treetops. They look up as a man clothed in green leathers jumps out of the leafy canopy, landing deftly in the middle of them. He introduces himself as Rick Ronin, a lone adventuring ranger from the western forest. He has heard of the heroes’ charge and wishes to join in the fight. The group accepts his help and they all return to Islanzadi, in the heart of Ellesmera.

She informs the party of Varden contact points that are in many towns they will visit on their travels, requesting they send progress reports and receive news as often as possible as the scholars and researchers of Ellesmera will be working to find helpful information for the journey. The party collects supplies and sets off to eradicate evil from the land.

They go east through the forest, passing through a particularly thick area of foliage. There’s a light rustling and goblins burst out of the bushes with cries of “Kill the infidel!” and “Kill them all!”

Rick laughs uncomfortably. “So I kinda forgot to mention something… I may have pissed off a clan of goblins earlier… by desecrating one of their idols… by peeing on it.”

Encounter: 
2 Goblin Warriors
3 Goblin Blackblades
4 Goblin Cutters

At some point in the encounter, a psychic attack missed a target and hit a nearby tree, which started loudly screaming inside the minds of all around it. Yens conjured a barrier to change it to just white noise, but no one knows why the psychic tree was screaming. So much screaming…

Encounter:
Cave Bear

Rick is on high alert after the bear attack and is checking his surroundings incessantly. But he fails to notice the steep hill nearby and he slips, falling down the hill and sliding into a wererat.

Encounter:
Wererat

Swag throws a grappling hook at Rick, hooking his shoulder. The heroes work to pull him up the hill, then Sariel helps and critically succeeds. But it’s too much force. Rick is thrown through the air and slammed against a tree. Then he uses his bow for the first time since the characters have met, hitting his mark impressively.

They get to a town to rest. They go to the bar/inn and the bartender/innkeeper, Kelldan, tells Rick he needs to shower before sleeping in one of his beds. He says that he’s had some pretty stinky clientele, but Rick is just too potent. Kelldan hands him some soap. It’s lavender. Rick wanders off to the showers. Everyone else, except Swag, goes upstairs to sleep. But Swag wants hooch. He gets into an argument with the bartender and tries intimidation to get the stronger booze. He takes the wererat’s head out of his backpack and sticks it on the bar, slides it around, then puts it away. Kelldan is not amused. Swag gets muscled out of the bar and sleeps outside.