Now that the evil Telekis was defeated, we desired nothing
more then to escape these wretched tunnels. We quickly exited his chamber, only
to realize that we didn’t thoroughly explore the many books that were in the
adjacent library. Most items there were quite mundane and non-descript; however
there was one large tome resting on a pedestal that caught our attention. The
writing was of some strange script that was more pictorial then words. We took
the book with us for future examination. We also discovered an old, barnacle-laden
treasure chest in the room. It looked as though it’s seen a fair amount of time
at sea, so how it got in these caverns was a mystery. Part of a name was written
on the chest and could barely be made out. It read “Arborous”? Not sure who or
what that is, but nonetheless, we opened it and discovered a bunch of scrolls
inside. One in particular was a map of the islands just south of The Lost
Continent. This may come in useful if we ever decide to explore that area. The
other papers in the trunk seemed to be journal entries and smaller scrolls
referencing some areas on the bigger map.
 |
| Map of islands south of The Lost Continent |
Once we were done scouring the library, we continued on our
way towards the exit but found it to be blocked by three giant black widow
spiders. Having already had our fill of spiders, poison, and webs, we decided
to make haste for an alternate exit. Once there we made our way out of the
subterranean caverns for the final time, leaving Ralph behind. Believe it or
not, I was growing fond of Ralph and I shed a tear when we parted. He was a
good, good friend, albeit unaware that he was charmed to act so, but
nonetheless I’m going to miss that ol’ half goat bastard!
Back at the encampment, Claus was there packing up the last
of his gear. Elvis, Christopher, Hanselhopf, and I were discussing what we
should do with the Death’s Head gem. Elvis and I wanted to take it to the
purple monks for safekeeping. Realizing it was a very powerful and evil
artifact, we didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands and have it be used by
anyone for nefarious deeds. However, Chris and Hans were of the mindset that it
could send many gold pieces our way, if we sold it. Unable to come to an
agreement, we resolved the stalemate with a hearty round of
stone-parchment-blade. We paired up into two groups with Elvis taking on Hans
and Chris challenging me. Both contests resulted favourably for Chris and Hans,
so therefore we must sell it. We decided to take the gem to Alexey Romanov to
see if he’d be interested in buying it.
Approaching Alexey’s manor, the place is once again a
raucous scene. This guy will use any excuse to party – and I say that with
admiration towards him. Entering the place, his assistants directed us to a sitting
room while they notified him of our arrival. Some sitting room it was! Drinks,
opiates, and ladies were plentiful. It was more like his personal den of
debauchery. Time was lost as the smoke from the hookahs filled our heads and
the vices we enjoyed took effect. Eventually, Alexey joined the festivities and
in typical fashion, he greeted us with a huge smile and an up-beat demeanor. After
the salutations and small talk, the conversation turned to business as we
produced the Death’s Head gem. As expected, he was very happy for our success
and was eager to strike a deal to obtain the powerful artifact. Some numbers
were bandied about and when an agreement was reached, Alexey offered us a toast
to seal the transaction. The merriment quickly took a wrong turn once we realized
that Alexey had secretly slipped a drug into our drinks. We were helpless.
While drifting in a half catatonic state, we noticed that his countenance
drastically changed from the cheery personality to that of a scowling fiend. We
were all so easily taken in by him. How foolish of us to make such a rookie
mistake. Rule number one in adventuring: don’t trust anybody!
Regardless, this was the situation we found ourselves to be in
and instantly everything in which we were partaking vanished. The women, the
drinks, and the party itself all disappeared. Even the room changed from a
luxurious lounge into a cold and unkempt room of some decrepit, old manor. It
was all just an illusion! In our groggy condition, his words became jumbled to
our ears. As he took the Death’s Head from us, his eyes were transfixed on his
new possession and through his twisted, maniacal smile he said “Excellent!” and
let out a sinister laugh. He then turned to one of his assistants and barked out
a command for him to do something, but the details after that became hazy and
all went dark. We awoke some time later without the Death’s Head gem in our
custody. The tome we procured from the library of Telekis was also missing.
Oddly enough, in their place was a “payment” of 500gp. We can only assume that Alexey
left us the money, but we may never know for certain. As a side note, when
Claus regained consciousness, he told us how terrible he felt for what
happened. He said that it’s not typically his nature to trust people so quickly
and regrets ever meeting Alexey. My suspicion is that he fell victim to a magical
charm spell cast by Alexey; similar to the spells I cast on Ralph and Willis.
After coming to terms with the recent events, we gathered
ourselves and headed into town for a good nights rest at an inn. The following
day, my comrades and I went to visit the purple monks at the monastery to let
them know what transpired with our adventure. Needless to say they were
disappointed to find out Alexey was not who he seemed to be and that he now has
the Death’s Head gem and the strange tome. But ultimately, all they really
wanted was for all the strange occurrences in Ilyria to stop and for the evil
artifact to “go away”. So from that stance, they were pleased. I showed the
strange rune inscribed ring that we found in Telekis’s treasure hoard to one of
the monks named Brother Gerald. We were told that he knows many arcane languages,
but the runes on the ring were unclear to him. He did indicate however that it
might be a powerful artifact. I’m curious to find out more about it.
Back in Ilyria, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that
the townsfolk planned to gather that evening to honour us for ridding the area
of the great evil. When nightfall arrived, we headed towards the town centre to
find the entire area filled with people partying and celebrating Ilyria’s “new
dawn”. Many of the people we rescued from the caves were there along with the
leaders of the town. To show us their appreciation, the townsfolk presented us
with a sailing ship that they rebuilt. It was fantastic! We were hoping to do
some high seas adventuring. We were exhilarated with the gift, but there was a
small problem. None of us knew how to sail it. Fortunately, one of the
townsfolk volunteered to come along with us to help with that task. It was none
other than Agnesia! We were very thrilled to have him join us and to have him
help navigate the seas. The celebration continued into the early morning and
the next thing I remembered was waking up – very hung over – in a room
below deck of our new ship. We were just off the coast of Ilyria sailing
eastward. It seems as though our seagoing adventures have begun!
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