Old Journal

The following is scribed by the hand of Jorelu of Mitrik on the 24th day of Planting in the common year five hundred and ninety-one.

My travels took me to the town of Hommlet, where I met an interesting group of adventurers.  There are two elven brothers, Eladarion the fighter and Elennias the scout.  There is a wizard, Vannay, in the group, who postures himself a noble of sorts.  His clothing is from the House of Vannay, but I do wonder about his claims of nobility.  The leader of the group is a priest of Kord named Victor.  He is a good man and capable leader.

We met on the road into Hommlet, and they were returning from moathouse.  They were quite injured after suffering several attacks.  Apparently they had gone out to investigate the moathouse and found a young blue dragon a few days previous.  They did find the remains of a priest (slain by the dragon), who had a holy symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye.  

After dispatching the dragon, they came back the next day to the moathouse.  This time a well equipped group of gnolls assaulted them.  After that they had a battle with a cleric of the Elder Elemental Eye and a group of skeletons.  Victor was terribly wounded, so they began the journey back to town.  They had kept the priestess, Gren, alive for later questioning.  They were ambushed by an assassin named Chatrilon, and he critically wounded Eladarion before they killed him.  This was their first indication that the priests at the moathouse had friends in Hommlet.

It was shortly after this that they met me, and they related the preceding events to me over the course of the next few days.  I witnessed the remaining events first hand.

That same night Eladarion was attacked by a large viper in his room at the Inn of the Welcome Wench.  The subsequent investigation turned up no information regarding who was behind the attacks.  Elmo, the militia captain, began helping by looking around town for any suspicious people.  

Gren was not forthcoming at all with information, and the party turned her over to Canoness Y’dey of the Church of St. Cuthbert.  That evening we met with Master Dunrat and his group.  Dunrat demanded the return of some items the party recovered at the moathouse, and the return of Gren.  Obviously we refused to comply, so Dunrat suggested that we all meet in a clearing west of town to “sort things out”.  The next morning we found evidence leading us to the local mill, where we found evidence that Dunrat and his minions had been in town for several weeks.  We then travelled out to the clearing where we fought and defeated Dunrat.

The remaining forces at the temple were waiting on us.  We had a tough battle with a troglodyte cleric named Ysslansh, who had animated several gnolls as zombies.  We suspect that he killed the gnolls for the purpose of animating them.

In some old catacombs we found an altar, large statue and some implements that were apparently part of some dark ritual.  We decided to leave that area after the altar became a translucent purple and black color.

The next area nearly stumped us.  We knew from a journal we found that an obelisk was underneath the well.  The problem was the well was filled with water and the bottom was solid stone.  We looked through the items we found earlier and discovered a spell to reshape the stone bottom allowing access to the large cavern beneath.  Eladarion lowered the rest of us down on a wooden platform.  We were ambushed by an abhorrent tentacled creature, who gave us quite a scare.

The cavern was enormous.  It turned out that the place where the wooden platform came to rest was actually the top of the purple and black obelisk.  We found another platform, and I proceeded to lower the party down to the bottom of the cavern.  Again we were ambushed by an insane priest, who forced me to drop the rope holding the party on the platform.  Luckily they survived the long fall to the bottom.  The priest then began assaulting them as I made my way to the bottom.  Easily the toughest battle so far, but we were able to overcome him.  We found two symbols carved into the floor of the cavern.  This priest, Festerath, had a strange note on him saying that “the forces of the Water Temple will soon make their move against the Fire Temple”.  What does this mean?

One of the symbols was a flaming black sun, which Victor identified as one of the symbols of the Elder Elemental Eye.  The other was a black obex, which we were not able to identify.  There was also some sort of summoning portal, which brought through another one of the tentacled beasts, but it was much easier this time around.

The most interesting portion of this enounter with the obelisk was when Elennias used the strange torch and incense to reveal a purple gem at the tip of the pillar which held the obelisk.  Elennias was transported into a dark room, where a strange hollow voice spoke to him.  It said, “Seek the heart of the four moons.  Together, they can sunder the walls of my prison.  For now, eat of my fruit and be blessed.”  Who was this speaking?  What was he talking about?

This marked the end of our adventures in the moathouse.  What were these cultists doing here so long after the original temple fell?  We never encountered Geynor Ton, so I presume that he left with the wagon that arrived from Rastor.  Did they take something with them when they left?  The wagon was sent by a man named Tal Chammish.  

I feel we only found more questions at the moathouse.  Master Dunrat spoke of business in Nulb, a small town near the old temple site.  Rumor has it that the town is haunted and should be avoided.  Who are the Masters of All Consumption mentioned in Dunrat’s letter?

We met a paladin named Xaod while visiting the battlefield of Emridy Meadows.  He is interested in finding out what happened to Prince Thrommel, who lead the forces to victory on that field twenty-five years ago.  I believe that I will travel with him and see what we can discover.  The party spoke of visiting the old temple site, which hopefully can provide some more clues about the rising of the cult after so long a span of time.  Hopefully, we will get a chance to sit around the campfire some time down the road, smoke our pipes and tell tall tales of our glorious deeds.