The Black Sun

19th Day of Fireseek, CY 592

The Library
After leaving the illithid’s chamber, we found a library. It had nearly 700 books on various dark topics related to summoning, magic and an assortment of religious topics. Safadin found one book in particular detailing the creation of a new form of undead called elhoriads. They are skeletons who have entropic power fused into them.

We then followed a staircase leading down to a study. It appeared that someone had left the room recently, because we found an open book and a recently snuffed pipe. The book was a study of stone giants. It had a section on how to approach them, and various theories on diplomacy with giantfolk. The pipe had a mixture of tobacco and tanbrosh.

The Shrine
The next room appeared to be a shrine, because it had simple pews facing a small enclosed room. The room had a transparent glass wall with a purple stone in the center of the door. Beyond the wall was a black ball with a purple and red corona hovering in the center of the room. Its form was slightly different, but Vannay recognized it as a sphere of annihilation. Vannay knew that these balls of entropy can be controlled, so he attempted to move it mentally. He was sure that he gave it the proper command, but it completely ignored him. It began slowly moving towards us. We fled the room with all due haste. Victor waited until he was sure everyone was safely away, before he left. We waited in the study to see if it was still following us. After a short time, we could see that it was. Safadin and Vannay teleported us to the dwarven temple in the ridge mines.

We returned to the room, and we found that the flaming black sun had returned to its original position. Victor remembered seeing an engraving of this flaming sun on the floor of the obelisk chamber in the moathouse. After some pondering on the matter, we thought that maybe the purple veins running through the walls of the fane were a ward against the destructive power of the ball.

The Vestry
A small room off to the side of the shrine had an assortment of ceremonial items. There were six ochre colored robes and four purple robes hanging on hooks in the vestry. The purple robes matched the attire worn by the Third. Vannay identified these robes and determined that they are meant to protect against unnatural cold. These robes were seen on Varachan, Hedrack and Tessimon when Vannay scried on them. They were in some sort of temple, and it was obviously cold because he could see their breath. We took the robes.

A locked iron box was on a table in the center of the room. Vannay opened it with his wand. It contained an iron torch and a black censer. There was also incense that was meant to be used in the torch and censer. We used a torch like this in the moathouse, and it revealed some hidden features of the obelisk.

Naquent
We left the vestry and continued east, where we encountered a woman in full plate. Just before the encounter, someone attempted a greater scrying on Vannay, but it was not successful. The woman had four bugbears and two dark nagas with her. She identified herself as Naquent, and she told us that her master, Hedrack, was aware of our presence in the fane.

Safadin started things off by exploding a ball of lightning in their midst. One of the bugbears evaded the damage, but everyone else was hurt by it. One of the nagas charmed Creden, but Victor called upon Kord to give Creden another chance to resist the enchantment. The other naga attempted to counter Victor’s spell, but it failed. Creden was freed from the enchantment, and we all breathed a bit easier. It would have created many problems if we had to deal with him as well. Vannay suspected that Naquent had some buffing spells in place, so he targeted a dispel magic against her. It was also successful. Delvanos began telling a story to inspire our courage, and Creden called upon divine power to boost his attacks. The bugbear scouts used a spring attack against us dealing some damage. Naquent cast corrupt weapon on her flail and moved in.

Another group of bow wielding bugbears came into view just before Safadin cast arc of lightning. They tried to disrupt his spell, but were not successful. Vannay decided to take the nagas out of the battle by placing a wall of force between us and them. The nagas discovered that they were cut off, and they cast some buffing spells. Uthgar went into his defender’s stance and killed one of the scouts. Naquent filled the gap in the scout line by charging Uthgar. She made a vicious strike against his neck dealing a sizeable amount of damage. Creden saw the bleeding wound on Uthgar, so he stepped back five feet and cast heal. One of the scouts stepped into the position vacated by Creden and attacked Vannay. Victor activated his flaming fists, and Delvanos took down one archer and severely damaged another.

The battle came to a swift conclusion. Naquent attempted a full assault on Creden, but only connected once. Creden’s aim was true. His maul made short work of Naquent. Uthgar and Delvanos combined their efforts to take down all but two of the bugbears. The nagas fled through a set of double doors at the end of the room. The last two bugbears surrendered.

We questioned them quickly to find out if the nagas were going to try and circle around. They said no. They said the nagas were going to the room with the turtles. We spared their lives, and said they could leave the fane through the fire door. They seemed surprised that the dragon was no longer guarding it. We searched the fallen foes, and then began discussing our next move.