The heroes descend into the darkness. Light from a pair of sunrods shows the way. The stairs lead downward some 20 feet or so and about 80 feet into the hillside where they terminate in a monstrous temple room. The room is sixty feet wide, over 100 feet long and lined with massive dwarf statues that act as pillars holding the ceiling some twenty feet overhead. A great dwarf statue approximately 14feet tall stands at the end of the room on a pedestal. A stone door stands on either wall about three forths of the way down.
The heroes make their way cautiously down the right hand side of the room. As Mizuni gets within about twenty feet of the statue its head turns to stare at him with a baleful look. The party halts and discusses the situation.
Dorin tries to sneak forward. He seems to be doing well, but when he reaches the door on the righthand wall the statue moves toward him menacingly. Battle is joined! At first the dwarves hope they can hold off the statue by calling on the name of Moradin. This seems unlikely to work as the statue lands massive blows with its axe on Dorrin and nearly kills him. Things turn desperate as the statue rampages into a group of the heroes knocking them about and both of the fighter and the paladin end up unconscious in the onslaught. Some well-timed healing and a bit of teamwork turn the tide. Eventually they bring the statue down.
Shaken a bit from the fight the heroes discuss their next moves. They consider resting for the day in this room, but decide to press onward. The doors to the left and right lead into passages that join again on the backside of the room and continue on a passage deeper into the mountain. The hallway ends at a stone door engraved with a dwarf's head. Two massive iron rings allow entry into the place.
Pulling on the rings they open the doors and find a smaller room beyond:
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This room appears to be an inner temple of some sort. While smaller than the outer temple room before, the furnishings bear signs of great import. Similar statues act as great pillars holding up the ceiling about 15 feet above. The walls have frescoes carved on them; following the length of the walls you see the story of the dwarf people. One carving depicts a dwarf rising from a mountain and taking his place on a stone throne. Another fresco shows many dwarfs in chains as giants stand over them with whips. The next image is of a great battle: the dwarfs fight the giants and a single massive dwarf leads them against their foes. An image portrays a handful of dwarfs at work in a smithy and a faint image of the great dwarf from the battle looks over with a grim smile. In the final image, at the far end of the room, the dwarf god Moradin looks down on a group of dwarfs gathered in worship.
A small altar of stone stands in front of each image on the left and right walls. A larger altar fronts the back wall under the image of Moradin.
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As the heroes make their way across the room a gruff and ghostly voice calls out, "Who disturbs this holy temple?" A transluscent figure of a dwarf rises from the greater altar on the far side of the room. "Speak quickly or you will suffer the righteous fury of Moradin!"
The heroes negotiate with the ghostly spirit, but to no avail. They cannot find the words or the means to convince it to help them on their quests. They decide to retire for the time being and make their way back to the entry chamber of the temple. There they close the outer doors to the temple and trust the magical doors to keep them safe from outsiders. They hope that they have the strength to handle any danger that the dwarf ghost sends their way.
Algea takes the watch as he meditates. The temperature grows noticeably colder, and fearful, he wakens Dorin to watch with him. They hear sounds of someone or something trying to break through the outer door into the temple, but they fear no attack from that way. The balance of the rest period passes uneventfully.
They head back to where they met the dwarf ghost the day before and check things out. The ghost makes an appearance, but does no attack or otherwise interfere with them. They find two secret doors in the far wall in the corners. They are only five feet wide and about seven feet tall.
They choose the door on the left. A narrow, cramped passage descends at an easy grade and passes some 100 feet deeper into the darkness. It opens onto a massive tomb some 200 feet long and 60 feet wide. Scores of coffins and sarcophagi cover much of the floor spaced evenly about every five feet.
The heroes spend a couple of hours searching the place. They do not disturb the tombs, but look only. Eventually they find one that is unusual. The runes on the coffin do not speak of the one iterred here, but instead speak of an unholy relic:
Here rests the unholy Black Tablet; may it lie here under guard for all eternity. May the many lives lost in its capture not be in vain. A curse upon any who would disturb this tomb or trouble with this most evil of relics. |
Taken aback by this inscription, the party decides to leave it be for the time and search for the statuettes sought by Kharas Fireaxe. They return to the inner temple and take the righthand door. This door leads down into another tomb where they again find many coffins. Among the items and treasures here they find the two statuettes which they take with them.
Returning to the other tomb they further investigate. They discover magical runes on the coffin guarding the Black Tablet. Mizuni manages to disable them and then pries open the coffin. A blast of cold, dusty air sprays on his hands as he moves aside the coffin lid. Inside they see a swirling cold mist and a block of utter blackness, like the void of space, floating in the center of the coffin.
A great debate ensues, but no final decision is made. Should they take the tablet? Should they leave it? Should they collapse the temple to prevent others from getting to it? Should they try to disguise or hide where it is?
The debates rage on for quite some time. There is concern that taking the tablet away will bring some evil into the World. There is also concern that having penetrated to this point the heroes have stripped the tablet of its guardians.
No decision has yet been made. What should the heroes do?
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