Journal Day 6

When we stopped at the end of day 5, we had 2 paths left to us: a
hallway off the chamber where we confronted the blue slime and the
stair, which Splug told us led down to Kalarel. We decided to follow
the hallway before going further down, on the rationale that we didn’t
want to leave anything behind us once we headed down.

We found a chamber full of kruthiks, which are a species of chitinous
reptilian hunters that form hives undergound. They are methodical
hunters, destroying all the prey in an area before moving on to the
next. They butcher their kills and carry treasure back toehir nests.
Strange tracks that look as if they were made by spikes are sure signs
of a kruthik horde. They communicate with one another through a
complex series of insectlike chitters and hisses. They hatch from
eggs, grow into young, then enter into a hard cocoon to change into
the next larger stage. They take the scent of their own dead as a
warning, so slaying enough kruthiks in an area might drive the
remaining hive elsewhere. The kruthik arise from the Tiefling empire,
where mages infused worldly reptiles with fiendish blood. They
probably had a way to control the kruthiks then, but if so that
technique was lost with the fall of the Tiefling empire.

We killed off the hive and searched the lair, finding a big pile of
useless gear, some gold & silver, a small chest holding 5 amethysts,
magic boots of climbing, and a magic bow and arrows.

The experience from that battle with the kruthiks was enough for me to level up

There were no other exits from the hive, so we circled back to the
stairs down to Kalarel.

At the bottom of the stairs, everything was pitch black. Hallways
stretched in 2 directions: down one there was faint light and Splug
saw some zombies standing about in the room. Krusk wanted to go
exploring down the pitch dark passageway, in the hopes that whatever
was that direction would be surprised by our presence & we wouldn’t
squander surprise on the zombies. I wanted to go ahead and attack the
zombies with the element of surprise and then move on to the next
threat, rather than risking wandering blindly into a trap and losing
surprise anyway. But Krusk wouldn’t listen to me and just started
down the dark hallway, so I followed. After a few steps, Krusk
stepped on a terror rune inscribed on the floor, which he couldn’t see
because of the dark, and the rune both set off an alarm screech and
set off a reaction of fear in each of us that forced us to run at full
speed away from the rune, right into the room full of zombies.

We killed the zombies, and then another group of zombies that had been
down the dark passageway, who came after us when the alarm sounded.
Then we found a secret door the led into an armory and I think we
killed a few more zombies [I paused to read stories to the kids, so am
not 100% clear on what happened.] There was a suit of worthless,
tattered armor along the wall and a plaque, which spoke the words to a
riddle. We answered the riddle and the worthless armor transformed
into some cool magical hide armor covered in vines.

We rested in that armory, since it was a readily defensible room, and
then set out again. We found a long hallway, shaped like the nave of a
cathedral, with a row of sarcophagi spaced along the walls, each
adorned with some indecipherable draconic script. The other end of
From some of the sarcophagi, we could hear faint clicks and noises,
which I thought probably indicated that there were skeletons inside.
Kelissa and I decided to pause and carefully inspect these sarcophagi
before moving any further into the room. Krusk decided instead, to
just grab one of them and open it up. A bunch of skeletons came
pouring out and attacked. We killed the first wave, but more kept
coming at us.

At the apse of the hallway, there was a huge dome with the image of
Bahamut carved into it. Bahamut is the God of Justice & Honor, the
first of the metallic dragons. He is Lawful Good. Though there are
rumors that it is disrespectful to call him by name, which is why many
refer to him only as The Platinum Dragon, these rumors are false. His
followers resist evil, protect the weak, and offer aid to those most
in need; they also revere Tiamat, even though he is the opposite of
Bahamut, because of his draconic qualities. His paladins are
quintessential paladins. His followers were the first to recommend
the creation of the Council of Divinity. There were 2 big tables in
the transepts, inscribed with words celebrating Bahamut, ending in the
phrase “I need only kneel and offer Bahamut my praise,” so Yonah knelt
and praised Bahamut and the skeleton assault ended.

In one of the tables, we found a secret compartment with 8 small
silver and platinum dragon sculptures.

We found a doorway at the end of the hall that led to steps up to
another large stone sarcophagus, this one carved with the image of a
warrior in plate armor with a sword laid across his chest with the
point at his feet. This seemed to clearly be the burial place for Sir
Keegan. Draped over the sarcophagus was a cape, which turned out to
be magical.

We opened the sarcophagus and Sir Keegan’s skeleton burst out, saying
“The Rift must never be reopened! State your business or prepare to
die…” He prepared himself to attack, but before he did I said, “We
are here to ensure that the Rift is never reopened” and he stopped to
listen.

And that’s where we stopped for the night.

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The loot:
59 gp
216 sp
5 amethysts w 50 gp/ea
8 small silver & platinum dragon statues w 60 gp/ea

2 healing potions
Boots of spider-climbing [Krusk]
Lightning longbow +1 [Gareth]
Firestorm arrows +1 [Gareth]
Life vine hide armor +1 [Krusk]
Cape of the Mountebank [Kelissa]

XP:
644 for Gareth, Kellissa, and Krusk.
322 for everyone Yonah, Liam, Dillius, & Jalfred.

_________________________________________________

GM Update:

David,Gareth - Host, MVP (for suggestion of Bahamut's solution) - 500xp
Tiffany, Kellisa - Conditions and Beads, There before me - 400xp
James, Krusk - Initiative Tracking - 200xp

Totals:

David, 1144xp
Tiffany, 1044xp
James, 844xp
Liam, 322xp
Michael, 322xp
Stephanie, 322xp
Thomas, 322xp