The Remaining Water Temple

The Water Temple is defeated. Kelashein is dead. Nilbool is dead. Only Urlurg the corrupted monitor and the huge water elemental trapped within the bead of force are still alive. Virith and the two salamanders are also dead, but the fire mephits fled around to the crater to the Fire Temple, hugging the outer wall.

Most importantly, Kale is dead. The sea hag’s evil eye ended his life early in the battle. Verilia sighs, “At least I get to reincarnate him this time.” She looks at the elemental beating futilely on the bead of force and says, “I think we should hurry this up.”

Aldoroc flies to the west cave entrance, carrying Shangor. Verilia and Aramil quickly search the bodies and the platform. Sylvan explores the room to the north, but not to the east where the kuo-toan monk fled. As Verilia and Aramil finish piling loot, two crumpled bodies hit the platform near the dragon disciple. Aramil looks up in surprise, readying a fireball.

At the edge of the cavern, swimming in the water and leaning on the underwater grate, Vranthis grins mischievously. That’s assuming that a dragon can grin, of course. It looks more like a sneer. The two bodies are the fire mephits that fled, though it’s difficult to tell for sure since they are mangled to a bloody pulp.

Before Aramil or Verilia can attack Vranthis, the green dragon says, “I thought you might want to have those back. I don’t think any of us really want them reporting back to Tessimon. Or, is it Skassik now?” He continues to grin.

Hearing the sounds of voices, but not combat, Sylvan returns to the main chamber slowly, carrying a well-oiled black cloak and an ornate sword.

Aramil, visibly agitated by the presence of the evil dragon, growls deeply in his throat. He responds in draconic, “What is it, you want, worm?” He purposefully mispronounces the last word to sound less like wyrm. Gesturing at the water elemental, he continues, “As you can see, we have limited time for small talk before the elemental is freed.”

Vranthis uncrosses his arms and rises further above the fence, his foreclaws not even holding himself up. It is obvious that the dragon is very much at home in the water. He responds in common, “Very well. I come from the Temple of Air. High Priest Fachish wishes to offer a treaty and, well, gratitude for destroying the Water Temple. Should you need an unhindered route back to the Fire Temple, you may freely traverse through the South Gate.”

Verilia sarcastically comments, “How magnanimous of him. I don’t suppose he offers a gift?”

Vranthis responds, “Actually, my little morsel of a halfling, he does. I am to help with the destruction of the platform. Perhaps I could do this while you depart?” The green dragon draws in a deep breath.

The adventurers get the hint and without a further word, gather their equipment and leave the temple area down the passage to the west. At the pool, they decide to explore the throne room and the other areas down the northern passageway. The main guardroom, as seen before, contains a couple of tables and some chairs, two combat training manuals, and a wooden practice dummy with considerable wear. The throne room holds the pink and white coral throne, resting on a slab of green marble. There are also goblets and plates made out of coral. Flanking the throne on either side are gray marble statues of fish-headed humanoids with spears, standing about four feet tall. The sharp coral items are left alone, not being particularly valuable and likely having a tendency to rip through the bag of holding.

Before the explorers can continue further, however, they hear the footsteps of approaching humanoids from the east and further down the passage. Preparing for battle, they see an elven wizard flanked by a handful of elven warriors. Wearing dark robes, a longbow, and a longsword, the wizard introduces himself as Kadiss. The warriors keep their hands on their longswords, but do not attack.

After a brief discussion about the state of the formerly powerful Water Temple, and accompanied by the sounds of the altar room collapsing, Kadiss, the elves, and the remaining humans decide to join the heroes as mercenaries. A reasonable price is agreed upon, and Kadiss orders most of his men to guard the pool area while he takes the conquerors on a tour of the Water Temple.

Sylvan stuffs all of Kelashein’s and Nilbool’s valuables in his bag of holding while Kadiss and his warriors take any other equipment and supplies to the Northern Bridge Complex. In particular, Sylvan acquires Nilbool’s spellbook, cleverly hidden under the chest, and the diary of the High Priestess. From the diary, Sylvan finds out that Kelashein knew about the heroes and that she had planned to use them in the attack on the Fire Temple all along, and even to betray them at the end, expecting them to die at the hands of Tessimon. Kadiss asks for Nilbool’s spellbook, but Sylvan keeps it, promising to give it to Kadiss when he is done.

The Return to the Big City

In the morning, Sylvan remarks to everyone that he has finished learning two new powerful spells, teleport and cone of cold. He prepares the former and teleports to Khorasan with Aldoroc, Shangor, and Lenny. He cannot take the whole party yet in one day, being able to only carry three others with him and only being able to prepare two teleport spells per day. Most of the loot is carried in Sylvan’s bag of holding and is sold once they arrive in the capital city of Karacul. Lenny gawks like a child, never having seen a city, much less the largest one in the eastern continent.

Sylvan sets up a common teleport area inside the city walls with the Silver Consortium, paying a nominal fee. Magical transportation to and from the city is tracked and frowned upon unless through official areas. The city leaders prefer to know who comes into Khorasan and who leaves. Many militocracies have similar laws and enforcement codes.

Meanwhile, Verilia, Summer, and Aramil head back to Rastor with the remaining treasure and find a welcome surprise there. Rerrid Hammersong, the dwarven priest of Moradin, has requested help from Khorasan and the Temple of Moradin has sent it. A force led by the renowned paladin Lord Jengol, who once trained under the former prince of Karacul, Prince Thrommel, arrived the previous night. More dwarves are arriving within the next week, including some more clerics and some artisans and warriors. For the moment, a fighter named Seamus leads a contingent of warriors in guarding the town itself. Evidence of their influence shows in the greatly reduced number of half-orcs in the town and the near zero number of orcs. Dwarves, maybe not drug-induced dwarves, have a very low tolerance for the orc and goblinoid races.

Rerrid informs the heroes that he has also been given even greater help, in the form of two scrolls of true resurrection and a wand of neutralize poison. The scrolls are to be given to the party for use against the Temple of All Consumption, obviously by reviving fallen comrades. One was donated by the Temple of Heironeous, and, not to be outdone, the other was donated by the Temple of Moradin. The wand, however, is to remain in Rerrid’s hands. Indeed, he has already been very busy cleaning up Rastor.

Verilia, standing up from the conversation with Rerrid and thinking about a flame strike, suggests hotly to Aramil “Now that Tal’s influence is gone, we can kill him. Let’s go.”

Rerrid, however, interrupts, “Nay, lass. Ye canna kill ‘im. We need ‘im to keep up pretenses that the operation ‘ere in Rastor still thrives. It wouldna do to let the Temple o’ all Consumption knows that its spy has been compromised.” If Verilia currently took the shape of a cat, she would twitch her tail and hiss in frustration. The elderly priest continues, “Aye, lass. I unnerstand yer anger. Rest assured that Tal has been sufficiently reprimanded for his actions.”

Verilia considers the pleasant idea that as a bear she get calmly squeeze the life out of the drug dealer. “He hasn’t been reprimanded enough. He deserves to die.”

“Perhaps, but his punishment is not fer you to decide. It falls under our laws and I expect ye to follow them while yer here. Please.”

The halfling is not pleased at having her revenge taken from her, but she nevertheless accedes to Rerrid’s wishes. She does this probably more out of respect for the absent Shangor than out of respect for Moradin or the town of Rastor, a lawless community for probably the last hundred years. “You just make sure that he and the rest of the townspeople follow those laws, or I’ll impose the justice of Obad-Hai. I assure you that Obad-Hai is not so merciful.” She sits down angrily. “What about the dwarves who followed Tal? And I thought I saw Wormspike still working at the Iron Spike?”

Rerrid says, “Thandain has been taken ta Khorasan fer atonement, or ta meet her fate at the Temple of Moradin if she is found unredeemable. The others ha’ been put ta work ‘ere and are under watch. Wormspike is an odd one, ta be sure, but he is quite a useful lad. We’re watching ‘im, ye can wager, and he seems ta follow the law.”

The druid grumbles some more, but doesn’t press the issue further. Verilia, Aramil, and Summer spend the night in Rastor. The next day they head back to the Northern Bridge Complex to meet up with Sylvan for the teleport trip to Khorasan. Kadiss informs them that only one group asked for passage across the bridge, late last night. A human warrior and two ogres carried an odd four-sided block statue to the door across the bridge. The statue was primarily black, or a really deep purple, with colored figures in bas relief on each of the four sides.

Verilia swears, recalling she had last seen that statue at the moathouse, many months ago. It was taken from under their noses and never seen again. Now, they will have to recover it from the Outer Fane, eventually. It must be that tiefling whore, may she rot in the unforgiving wastelands of the abyss.

Less than an hour later, Sylvan arrives and teleports back to the capital city with Verilia, Aramil, and a reduced Summer in tow. Kale’s body is brought to High Priest Granley of Heironeous, who uses one of the scrolls of true resurrection to bring back Kale. A flurry of selling and buying follows as the party unloads loot and buys other minor magical items. The elven wizard purchases a couple of months in the Astral Lab of the Silver Consortium. There he makes items for the other party members for a reasonable price of five hundred gold pieces per astral month. To Shangor and Aldoroc looking on, it seems as if Sylvan steps into the portal, turns around, and steps right back out again.

The heroes spend the night in the Bronze Unicorn Inn. Comfortable, the inn caters particularly well to adventurers. There is limited finery, but maximum comfort and amenities. Aldoroc, Sylvan, and Aramil share one room while Kale and Shangor share another. Verilia spends her night at the grove with her animal companion. Sylvan’s viper familiar, Ace, sleeps inside the warm pillow on Sylvan’s bed.

The comfort of the room is broken sometime past midnight as a thin rapier slips into Aldoroc’s side, barely brushing past his liver and kidney. The burly fighter chokes down the blood rising in his throat and opens his eyes to stare at his would be assassin.

The elf staring colding back at him mutters, “Stay away from the Temple of All Consumption.” He then pulls out a small black stick and breaks it. A puff of violet smoke rises from the stick and the assassin disappears, still with Aldoroc’s blood on his blade.

Aldoroc burbles loudly, reacting very slowly from the assassination. “Shangor! I need healing!”

The heroes are absolutely stunned. They knew that an assassination attempt was possible, but so accurately and so deep within such a well-protected city, it shocks them. Obviously, it is the work of the Doomdreamers, or one of their lackeys in the Outer Fane. No longer will watch not be kept and these assassins will not succeed again. Aramil even loans Aldoroc his amulet of proof against detection and location, acquired from the High Priest of the Earth Temple’s treasures.

The next night they maintain a careful watch, and sleep lightly. Even Verilia maintains a watch at the grove and has many of the druids’ animal companions keep a lookout. It is therefore even more shocking to the party when Aldoroc finds the head of one of the guards they left behind at the air bridge in his chamber pot the following morning.