Event:4713/04/30 Exploring Olah-Kakanket

Overnight, Tamerak Elenark, a male centaur, introduces himself to Onica. He's from Iobaria and researches history of Iobarian centaurs among this group. If we can bring him clues about ancient centaurs or other ancient civilizations, he will give her a magic headband. In the morning, we set out for Olah-Kakanket. We travel from F27 to G27 to H27 to I27. We arrive in the evening.

On 5/1, we set out looking for Olah-Kakanket. We find a wall of warnings bordering the valley. The valley is about 6 miles across, and Every 50/60 feet, a post with a bone/skull on it marks the warning wall. A strange feeling of oppression grows as we ride through the valley. We start to see gravestones about a mile past the wall. There are 6-10' tall steles marking graves baring Cyclops writing, which seems to be names. Cyclopse empire predated Azlant - Age of Legend. History says they were brutish, tribal creatures that were happy to eat whatever they encountered. Moto notices a stone staircase carved into the mountains, but can't see where it goes or how to get to it. We eventually see a crack in the Tors of Levenies containing the start of a 15' wide stone staircase. Onica spots tracks of a large lumbering humanoid and unshod hoofprints. Heading up the staircase, we encounter an undead cyclops and a Soul Eater. We dispatch them and head up the trail. At the top, we find a huge waterfall with a pond and an island in the middle, which all matches the Vordakai's Island story. Grikk notices a protected beach access to the island. We make our way to the water and use our folding boat to cross. Onica turns into an air elemental and flies over, scouting. Landing, we see centaur prints, humanoid boot prints, and presumably more cyclops prints. The island is basically a 100' pillar. There's a cleft allowing entrance across from our beach landing. Onica flies up and sees an overlook 60' up, and the smoke at the top isn't typical fire smoke. She returns and we go in. Pictograph artwork in bas-relief decorate the hall. Past an arch, we find a broken amphora with the bracelet we're looking for. We take it. Then we we loot the remainder of the amphora in niches. There's a broken wall in the hallway from something breaking out... Going through the broken wall, we enter a diamond-shaped chamber with 3 passages leading off of it. We find a secret door behind a bier and proceed into a natural chamber with a 60' pond. Sunken stairs are in the pond, and a passage on the other side. Onica becomes a water elemental and checks out the stairs, leading to an encounter with an Elasmosaurus and then another undead cyclops. Across the pond, we find a passage that ends flooded and leads out into the outside lake. We sleep in the tunnel.

The next day, 5/2, we return to the room with the flooded stairs. Onica casts water breathing, and we make our way through the flooded passage. On the other side, we find a small room with art of cyclopes fighting centaurs. We proceed through a set of brass doors into a room with 12 cyclops statues wearing helmets and 4 wearing full armor. We take some things. Searching, we find a secret passage on one wall. Opening it, portcullises close on both doors and the room begins to flood! Grikk lifts the portcullis and we make our way to stairs leading up beyond the room. They take us to a room with pillars carved into fiends and friezes on oppose walls depicting a shadowy man on a boat on a long river with a procession of animal-headed figures along the banks. The shadowy figure is clearly meant to be Charon, one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, a daemon (knowledge: planes). Onica drinks a Potion of Detect Evil, and sees a minor evil aura on the door to the north. There are 3 shrines in the room, 2 in the north and 1 in the south. The southern one is simple, carved from stone, and holds an oil lamp. The northern ones also hold lamps in addition to cups with dark residue. Opening the northern door soaks the room in a cold wave that does massive damage. We heal up and head to the next room. The corridor continues north, with a door to the west. We head north. Mist in next room coalesces into a Piscodaemon. It asks, "In whose name do you dare to intrude on the sanctum of Charon?" Roland intimates "Vordakai". Daemon asks, "What is the will of the mistress?" Roland says, "To assess the security of the sanctum." Daemon says, "By the will of Charon," and settles into a crouch, letting us pass. Next room looks like a prison. Xamanthe is shackled in a corner. Onica gets her moving with a Freedom of Movement spell. She relates her tale of getting captured by undead cyclopes. She has only vague memories since then. A skeleton with a glowing gem eye visited her and said it would return when all will was driven out of her. Attempting to sneak her out, the Piscodaemon notices us, and we have a painful fight. The group decides (against Roland's wishes) to head back to the cave. In the drowning room, we encounter a pair of zombie cyclopes trying to remove the water. We slay them and make our way back to our safe cave. There, Kessler summons a knowledgeable Azata that helps us identify that Xamanthe's paralysis is caused by a Lich! We rest for the night...

On 5/3, we take Xamanthe outside to be guarded by the horses and wolves, then head back in. The first water trap room is turned off by a switch in the zombie cleanup squad closet. In the Charon room, Kessler summons a Vulpinal to assess the religious context. We try lighting the lanterns to go through the door again, but the trap goes off. Moto dies to the cold fire, the rest of us take damage. We continue. We explore the door off the other room, but it's just a set of unfinished stairs. We go back to the Charon room and go through the *other* doors. There's a hallway to stairs down to a 50x50 room with 2 pillars carved with daemonic faces and burial alcoves lining the sides and a door directly opposite the entrance. The burial alcoves are sized for large creatures hold assorted bits of pottery. We fight two Soul Eaters upon entering. Looks like anything that was here is long gone. We find a door among the alcoves and head through it, going down a hallway. It brings us to a wide chamber about 90' across - the chamber stinks of tar and sulfur with a bubbling lake of tar in the middle. Grikk can make out a skeletal figure in a robe on the other side of the tar lake. We retreat back to the burial room and go through the other door. A hallway leads to a small 15x15 room with frescoes depicting a necromancer taking out a peacock, then an elephant, then a horse. Then it shows the necromancer in a crown being worshiped by Cyclopes. The necromancer is wearing rings that look like the jade bracelets (bracelets are rings for large creatures). Then it's sitting on a throne with a comet over its head, followed by Cyclopes fleeing and images of death. Finally, there's an image of a Cyclops picking up the crown and donning it and then Cyclopes carrying the crowned Cyclops, and the last image of it being carried into a cliff with water rushing over the cliff. We leave through the other door. There's a 25x15 room on the other side. There is a Cyclops statue on the other side of this room. The room also contains a stone workbench at shoulder height with stone vessels and bronze tools that we identify as funerary tools. Onica finds a door behind the statue. It's magically locked. Kessler dispels it and then Grikk cuts through the lock. The next chamber has eyes painted all over the room looking at one spot with the carving of a giant stylized eye with a pupil the size of an average human hand. The eye has strong conjuration and divination magic, and Grikk determines that teleportation magic has been cast here. We go back to the tar pit room. We buff up (fly, enlarge, reduce, haste, inspire, etc.) and head into the room. A fireball hits us as we prepare to enter, and Grikk notices a figure among the stalactites of the ceiling. Grikk flies in to hit him, and realizes that the figure he saw earlier is Cephal Lorentus (Varn's magister. We cut him down quickly and grab the body. Going through the swollen black door, we head down the hallway, going up a couple sets of stairs, and then we find two doors, one on the right and left. We go through the door on the left. There's a 20x30 antechamber with a hallway headed off the right on the other end. There's a table in the room that has the body of an Ulfen in Varnhold livery. Onica determines that his head was removed, cracked open, and his brain eaten. The body is 2-3 months old. We explore down the hallway, noting that it's a very long crypt. Just as the end (with a turn) comes into Grikk's sight, an arm reaches through the wall to strike us. Two Spectres assault us, causing negative levels every time they touch us. Grikk breaks out the big spells to bring them down once we realize we aren't doing much damage. We recognize the first as the Ulfan man and the second as Sybil, the Grand Diplomat of Varnhold. We evacuate afterward without further incident. Back at camp, we give Xamanthe the Ring of Freedom of Movement and rest for the night. Xamanthe is willing to return to her people or fight by our side. Kessler reads the Ulfen book overnight, and we learn: It's the journal of Willis Gunderson and starts prior to founding of Varnhold. There's an entry on Neth 11, 4712, where he found a jade bracelet by the river. The journal continues through Abadus 14, 4713, which is a mundane scouting report of Varnhold Pass.

The following day, 5/4, we hang out until the pall of our negative levels pass, and then we head back in, going to the horrible cold fire trap room and going through the door that doesn't set it off. We make our way back to the Specter room and continue to the end of the hall and head right. The passageway looks unfinished after the turn. We go back to the door on the right. It's a large room with a dinner party where attendees were feeding on 12 humans' brains. Cyclopes are cleaning up the leftovers, watched over by a Piscodaemon. Among the bodies, we recognize Maegar Varn and Daymia Merril, the Warden. We slay the Cyclopes and daemon. Going through the room, we count no less than 40 bodies, no children (57 total bodies including the 12 at the table). They are all from Varnhold. One of them is wearing the trappings of a priest of Erastil. The bodies range in time of death from a week to two months ago. We head up the stairs and enter a room with a well of Styx water. A Water Elemental rises out of it, and we beat it down. There are doors east and south. Heading through the south door, we find an octagon-shaped room with a crystal dome with an inverted eye that is staring down into a 20' diameter circle inscribed into the floor. We enter the other room and find Vordakai's throne room. A brutal combat ensues, in which Grikk is horribly cursed (lowering his strength) and rendered blind. Grikk still manages to land a killing blow on Vordakai though. We recover Soul Jars with the remaining populace of Varnhold. Warin Colson, Varnhold's Councilor is among them. We loot what we can, place the Soul Jars gently into a convenient portable hole that we found, and head back to the Centaur Camp.