The day actually started out more than normal. It was quiet. Some characters might have thought it an uninteresting morning.
Theodora had learned the ventriloquism spell from Xylarthan; Ember and Ves chose not to learn an additional spell when there was some disagreements regarding cost of knowledge.
Leaving the orphans behind at their stronghold, Nese Gard; Theodora, Sven, Ves, Ember, and Lorna Doone, along with the (possible) treasure map they had discovered on the desiccated corpse they found in the dungeon, travelled to the only place of religious knowledge they could think of. The House of Nodens. There they met up with a priest (or high monk) who they had once upon a time discovered in the dungeons, Ludul. He was more than happy to help and answer any questions. Religion was his calling after all. He was a student of it.
Theodora, herself interested in local religions as they were so different from those of her homeland, had many questions.
The party came to find out that local months shared names with many of the local deities.
**Gods**
(First Month) Chronoplus/Chronos - Time (Male)
(Second Month) Boccob - Magic
(Third Month) Heget - Fertility (Female, has the head of a Frog, worshiped by Dagonites - a fish and frog humanoid)
(Fourth Month) Yahondeh - ?
(Fifth Month) Nefertem - Beauty (Male, represented by the Lily, Good/Lawful)
(Sixth Month) Inanna - ?
(Seventh Month) Shezmu - ?
(Eight Month) Donblas - Justice (Male, Golden, appears as a beautiful man or a cherubic baby) - **Idol Recovered, known as The Butt Plug, stuck permanently in the dungeon
(Ninth Month) Nang Kwak - ?
(Tenth Month) Istus - Fate (Female, Neutral)
(Eleventh Month) Nodens - Sleep (Male, worshipped by a sect of ancient Elves who lived in the dungeons and survived on mushrooms) - **Idol Recovered
(Twelfth Month) Arawn - Otherworld/Underworld - Death (Male, Lawful)
Nergul - Entropy (Male, Chaotic, appears as a many headed dragon, a man, a demon, or a snake)
Ereshkigal - possible Goddess
Dagon - possible God (possible God of the Dagonites?)
Arawn’s Spine - Mountain range named for Arwan
Theodora had many more questions. While Ludul new of three gods that represented Death there were none that represented Birth, which she found strange. It was equally strange that the man seemed to have holes in his memory or knowledge. Almost as if Ludul had forgotten the information. He asked if the party wished to speak with some of the Elves living in the temple who had long worshipped Nodens and perhaps knew more.
They agreed. Theodora made an offering of coin and a flask of wine and the group joined the worshippers for a simple lunch. At that time they were able to speak with many of the Elves there who were ancient and had long lived in the dungeons. They told the part a few more interesting pieces of history/religion.
**Further Information**
Nergul had fought Donblas. Like two sides of the same coin; one beautiful, golden, and lawful, the other demonic, dark, and chaotic (though Nergul had fallen to Chaos and had not always been Chaotic).
The Elves knew of the Goddess Heget, a fertility goddess who had been worshipped by dungeon humanoids known as the Dagonites (a fish and frog people). The Elves did not know their exact home or if they even still existed but thought they might offer more insight. The Elves also referenced a Serpent people who had been their enemies. Both groups likely lived on at least the third floor of the dungeon or possibly lower.
They also spoke of an Ancient Library that they had seen in their dreams of the dungeon. It was a massive room filled with many many books. It was a carved out proper room, not a natural cavern. The library was staffed by ancient humans, those who had lived long ago, and were beautiful young maidens. They could not help the party place where the library may be in the dungeon but it was suggested that a member of the party could hope to find it by taken Noden’s sleep potion and entering the dreams of the Elves in the future.
The party ventured to Nupos’ to make some purchases and then to the tavern to see if any townsfolk had more religious information for them. That was a resounding no. However, their hired men were there and had recovered from their dark and scary time being abandoned in the dungeon with no light for two weeks and were willing to join the party once again. So they journeyed down into the basement and beyond into the dungeon.
They quickly found their way to the Goblin Battle room and went down the spiral staircase. From there the party travelled to the Trog Battle room but upon opening the door found a party of eight Goblins. Sigh.
The party can no skirt by the Goblins but don’t wish to provoke a fight, instead they open by asking what religion the Goblins are and if they have heard of the Dagonites or Donblas. They whips them into a frenzy, focused on Sven, who had mentioned the names. And thus a battle ensued.
Theodora could not use magic as the Goblins surrounded Sven and she would have injured her friend as well as their attackers so the group entered into melee. Fairly quickly one Goblin had was nearly decapitated by a viscous attack and another had its chest caved in by Sven’s hooves.
Sven sustained some damage as the Goblins seemed heavily focused on attacking him, but with the help of their hired men, the adventurers eventually prevailed, killing all eight attackers. Theodora and Lorna Doone went through their belongings. Their swords and weapons were shoddy and deemed worthless. They had on them 43 copper pieces and nothing else of value so their bodies were left.
Wanting to map some sections of the dungeon that the party was unsure of they made their easy south toward the slug room but turned off to the west following a corridor, which lead them back to the room with the desiccated corpse where they had liberated the floating red and green gems. They continued west and rediscovered the hall where they had met the Mushroom people, which housed the fountain with an Owl Bear turned to stone at it’s center. At the end of the corridor was a bas relief of a snake.
They came across a group of insect-like humanoids who Ember was able to converse with in Elvish. They had possibly seen the Dagonite people before and suggested the party head to the third level of the dungeon and then travel north, where they had previously headed south.
Continuing through the south door proved not possible at the time so the group went back to the Slug Room , continued south, and made it to the long corridor beyond the stone bridge. The party made their way back to the pool room to explore the far western wall, which they found held no significance.
With only a little time remaining before they planned to return to the surface the group opted to check down the eastern most corridor on the south wall, just to peek and see if there was anything worth taking, examining, etc.
They found a long corridor over 100 feet long that ended in an rounded section of wall with a statue. The statue was large, life sized, and on a plinth of stone. It could not be easily moved. It was an Elven warrior fighting a snake with the word “Forget” carved into it.
Ember wondered if the statue could be an idol. There was no exact definitions on the size of the idols. It was also significant as the Elves had mentioned their dungeon enemies, the serpent people, and the party had learned about Nergul the Chaotic god who could appear as a snake/serpent. There had also been the relief of the serpent on the wall.
It was suggested that the other corridor could hold a similar statue and that maybe with a second statue we would know more as there have been many dualistic qualities to the dungeon as of late. Ves offered to quickly check the other corridor, taking the lantern with them.
Theodora, Sven, Ember and Lorna Doone began to walk down the corridor as well to go back to the pool room. The hired men with them.
As they walked down the parallel corridor Ves saw the space open into a large room and then heard something coming toward them. They turned to hightail it out of there. As they made it back to the pool room the rest of the party was just exiting the previous corridor. And the creatures attacked.
Theodora stepped forward and cast sleep on the creatures, which did nothing. Sven and Ember attacked. The hired men, afraid, turned and ran for the exist, heading north. Theodora told them to open and hold the door to the Slug Room and the adventurers would follow. Ves cast Protection from Evil on themselves.
The beasts looked like humanoid sharks. They had the front arms of humans with talons and powerful hind legs resembling a dog.
Ember used the Valkyrie spear and cause damage to one of them. The others appeared to heal almost immediately when attacked making them appear indestructible when faced with non-magical weapons. However, Ember was the only member of the party with magical weapons.
Theodora chose not to waste another spell on the creatures and turned for the door, running. Ember went to retrieve her spear, which was lodged in one of the creatures but as she did it chomped into her midsection, tearing her apart. She was very near death and unconscious.
Another creature set on Ves and Lorna Doone also turned to run and escape down the corridor. Sven was able to grab Ember with his teeth and drag her away from the wounded creature, and run. Ves fought the beast off her themselves and also made to run.
Heading down the corridor the shark humanoids gave chase. The hired men had in fact held the door. Theodora entered the Slug Room with Sven and Ves coming from behind but Lorna, wearing heavy plate armor had fallen somewhat further back from the group. One of the creatures snapped at her back and was able to grab ahold of her, biting into her body and killing her almost instantly.
No one was capable or able to return for Lorna as they were already carrying Ember but without Lorna to heals her wounds Ember succumbed to her injuries before the party could even make it back to the first floor of the dungeon.
They thankfully did not run into any more monsters on their way out of the dungeon and travelled immediately to Xylarthan’s tower to see what could be done for Ember and to ask what those creatures could have possibly been.
Xylarthan confirmed Theodora’s nervous suspicion. They were Were-Sharks. And once bitten by a Were-Shark, the bitten party, would also become a Were-Shark.
Lorna’s body had been abandoned to the dungeon and it was likely she would become one of their race and the same was possibly true for Ember. The wizard was not entirely sure. The adventurers offered to pay for her to be reincarnated, which Xylarthan agreed to but first he would need to do some research. Theodora offered more of her time than usual as his apprentice in order to help Ember and a rather untoward suggestion of what exactly she planned to do with that additional time was made.
In the mean time Ember was chained up in the tower and the preparations for her reincarnation began with Xylarthan and Theodora busy at work.
And with heavy hearts the remaining members of the team returned to their stronghold to check on their orphans and wait for more news.
- Theodora
