Rosia Lightfoot's Journal - Parts 27 to ??

I cannot blame Ratto for this lapse in journal writing, it's all my fault! However, we have been quite busy, as you will see...

We retreated to the sphinx's bedchamber to rest. I was awoken by the sound of a strange voice filling the room. It was coming from a magically moving mouth, carved into the wooden headboard of the sphinx's enormous bed. We answered the voice and discovered that it belonged to Mortgul, the leader of the Harpies. He seemed to have had some dealings with the late sphinx. We happily informed him that the sphinx was dead, slain by our good selves. This enraged him, and he shouted terrible threats at us. Oren soon cut him off by embedding the blade of his axe into the magic mouth, which seemed to destroy the echantment.

We went once more into the territory of the harpies, this time avoiding the nesting chamber. We encountered more harpies in a large, oddly-shaped room, which had some sort of altar in it:


There was a larger harpie accompanying a small band of normal-sized creatures. We thought him to be Mortgul, but we found later that this was Vertgul, his brother and lieutenant. We went prepared this time, Quercus casting a magic circle around himself that protected us all from the harpies' song. This meant that we had to stay close to Quercus, but unfortunately I fell behind as I stopped to load my crossbow. I came under the power of the enchanting melody, and stood helpless as a harpy descended towards me. Quercus soon realised what had happened, and moved back towards me, bringing me once more within the range of the circle's protection. We fought the harpies, and slew the smaller ones, but Vertgul escaped, no doubt fleeing to warn his brother.

We searched the room and found a secret compartment within the strange, black altar. This was filled with items necessary to perform some dark ritual: black candles, poisoned wine and such-like. We left these items alone (although I did take a silver wine-stopper as a memento) and explored some more of the dungeon, trying to avoid areas where we heard the flapping of harpy wings.

Oren noticed a secret door, leading to a large room with four square pillars in it, none of them quite reaching the high ceiling. We though there might be something on top of the pillars, so I climbed onto Curbag's shoulders, then lifted Rolaand up so that me might have a head start on his climb to the top of the pillar. However, as soon as Rolaand's claw touched the stone, the entire pillar collpased, seemingly directing itself towards us! I jumped off Curbag, clutching Rolaand to me, and tumbled safely out of the way. Poor Curbag was not so swift, and was buried under a pile of stone blocks...

We dug him out, and he was soon restored to his normal state, thanks to Quercus' healing prayer. We also found a small compartment at the base of the pillar, uncovered when the thing collapsed. In it was a scroll case was with a magical parchment therein. I thought that there must be a similar compartment under each pillar, so I devised the plan to touch each pillar in turn, causing it to collapse, and trusting to my swift reactions to keep me out of harm's way. The others waited in the doorway as I enacted my plan. I touched the first pillar, and ran out of it's way, towards the centre of the room. As I ran into the very middle of the room, I felt my foot touch some sort of hidden trigger mechanism, and before I knew it, all three pillars were collapsing towards me! I managed to throw myself out of the way of the first pillar, but jumped straight into the path of the other two. Stone blocks rained down around me, one struck my head, and I slipped into unconsciousness...

When I awoke, it was to see Quercus' face above me, finishing a chant to Pelor. I had been badly hurt, it seems, and my companions had only just reached me in time. However, thanks to Pelor, I was whole again, and undamaged! We explored the fallen pillars, and sure enough, there was a compartment under each one, with some fine items in them. I found a magical dagger, with an edge so sharp it could split a hair lenghtways. It was made for humans, and thus more like a short sword for me, and a little awkward to use. However, it is so finely wrought, that the small disadvantage in size difference is more than made up for by the perfect balance and the keeness of its edge.

We then retired to the painting room and made our camp in the large room, shown below:


However, as we rested, we were attacked by the harpies, this time led by Mortgul himself. We sought to regroup and left via the small room to the west, marked by a red cross. But the harpies had out-smarted us! They activated hidden levers, and thick stone blocks fell down, blocking the exits to the north and east. We were trapped, but no immediate danger was apparent. However, the harpies had more plans. We noticed that oil was seeping under the stone blocks, spreading into our small room. I tried to look through the gaps at the bottom of the blocks, but the harpies had stuffed rags under them. Suddenly we smelt smoke, and we realised what they meant to do: we were to be burnt alive! Oren began to hack at the stone block to the east, but it was thick and tough, and it was clear that we would suffocate on the smoke before he was through. I searched the walls frantically, hoping to find some way to open the doors. I found nothing as far as I could reach, so I got Curbag to lift me up and carried on my search at that level. At last! I found a cunningly concealed panel, and under it a lever. I pulled it, and the block to the east lifted, allowing us access to the main room. The oil was now burning well, and we had to jump through it to make our escape. Some of the others were burnt, but I easily somersaulted over the flames.

Out of the fire, and into the fray! Mortgul and his harpies attacked us as soon as we were free, but Quercus was ready with his magic circle, and Ran summoned a giant lizard, the like of which I have never seen. It was over twenty feet long, and could reach high enough to snap at the flying harpies with its mighty jaws. Ran told me later that it was called a Crocodile. I would hate to live in the land where they are found! We slew all the harpies, including Mortgul and Vertgul, and we were now able to explore their part of the dungeon in relative peace.

We found Mortgul's sleeping chamber, and in his nest a small collection of treasures. But more importantly than this, we found a secret room, and within we discovered a woman, apparently in the deepest of slumbers. She clutched to her chest a small black stone, the twin of which we had found in the black altar of the harpies. Quercus believes she was being prepared for sacrifice! He adminsistered healing to her, and brought her out of her drug-induced sleep.

She told us her name is Davina, and she is a ranger. Apparently she came here at the behest of Parademius, the very same wizard who sent us into this cursed dungeon. She was accompanied by her own party of adventurers, and they had all fallen into this place through a chasm opened up by the same earth movements that caused parts of the dungeon to collapse. There were two dwarfs, a human and a halfling unnacounted for.

On further questioning, she revealed that she worked originally for Baron Allanias. When I heard this name, my blood ran cold! It was he who had driven my father from his lands, and was even now charging the people of TallTallow (my home village) a tithe to use the roads to their own farms. She tells me she was merely in his employ as a soldier of fortune, but I am wary of her now, and will keep an eye on her actions.

We explored further, taking Davina with us. We found all her equipment in the chamber where she lay sleeping, and it seems she is skilled with the bow, which will be very useful to us, if she decides to stay. She also has an animal companion with her, a beautiful eagle who perches on her shoulder when not in flight.

We went back through the harpy nesting room, ignoring the cries of the young harpies on their high ledges, and went to the north. We found to our dismay that another huge section of the dungeon had collapsed. A wide chasm blocked our way north, and we could just discern, many feet below, the glow of molten lava. On the far side of the chasm we could see where the passage north continued. Ran transformed himself into an eagle, and flew across to investigate. We saw him return, some time later, accompanied by a small figure. I recognised him at once as a fellow halfling. We conversed by shouting over the chasm, and found that he one of the missing members of Davina's party. The eagle-Ran cast a spell on the halfling, and he was able to crawl, spider-like, along the wall of the chasm, until he was on our side. We soon discovered that the halfling's name was Bingly, and that he was a holy paladin in the service of Maroon. We gave him a gift of the banner and signet rings we had retrieved from the fallen paladins in the room of death, and he seemed most pleased with them.

Bingly carried with him a long lance, and we found out later that he had been tied to his own lance, and was waiting to be cooked over a fire. It seems he was to be the main course in a terrible harpy feast. These foul creatures move even further down in my esteem. After being freed by Ran, Bingly was able to discover...

Journal ends here... Hope to find more fragments soon.