When we left off the heroes discovered that within the old ruins of the temple under Sandpoint a previously inaccessible area has been cleared out. They gather up their courage and descend the steps into darkness. Here is the short short version of that account.
The Players
Jess - Wren (Human Female Rogue 14)
Bruce - Marcellus (Human Male Fighter 14)
Mike - Seoni (Human Female Cleric of Calistria 13/Wizard 1)
Brian - Zatara (Half-Elf Barbarian 14)
Jim - Talbot (Halfling Cavalier 14)
So they slowly begin to traverse the area and quickly realize the fog also muddles with their direction sense and sometimes forces them to turn in the opposite direction of the one they intended to go. This revelation came a little too late as something came upon them in the fog and combat began. The demon made itself visible during the battle and sadly at times the party moved away from the target to fight it back (thanks fog!). Eventually they prevailed and continued exploring the ruins.
After a few hours down there the party finds strange cryptic messages on the walls interspersed with blasphemous writings to an evil god, bizarre hounds from beyond (that they dispatched), the remains of the men the sheriff sent down to investigate, and the source of the earlier questioning a malevolent being known as The Scribbler. Mucho combat ensues, butts were kicked, healings were doled out liberally and new revelations were discovered....as well as an artifact of power that can help divine future events for them.
The biggest thing was revelations as to where the location of a place of power (the Runeforge) for the rulers of old Thassilon still might exist. One that could produce a weapon to fight Karzoug, The Runelord of Greed.
The party then embarks on two more side missions: first to Jorgenfist to use the Thassilonian library there to try to pinpoint the location of this 'Runeforge' that was mentioned. After figuring out the approximate area it was located in they journeyed south to the city of Magnimar to sell old gear, purchase new and enchant others.
Using Seoni's access to higher level spells granted to her the party quickly traveled north of Riddleport to a lake with seven distinct geysers at it. Investigation of the area had the group come across seven stone heads that radiated magic. After figuring out how to activate one of the stone sculptures the local resident of this area perched high up in the mountains nearby made his presence known: an ancient white dragon. Massive combat ensued and honestly if it wasn't for Talbot's challenge ability (which made the dragon stay on the ground to engage in melee) the party would have been f'ed by my estimation. Hit and run tactics by such an old dragon will seriously ruin an evening...but they survived. They also activated the remaining heads (each produced a key), winded their way into the mountain via an ancient stairway into a cave and not only found the white dragons hoard (an impressive amount of treasure to be sure) but also found the entrance to the Runeforge.
They all did well over these two sessions. I condensed this into one post because some of the time in game was spent shopping and preparing and that is boring to write about. Next time we play the party begins the biggest and deadliest dungeon crawl to date. We'll see who survives this one.
