Leo shrugs and carefully finds his way forward to see what there is to see (and hear).

Leo begins stealthily scouting ahead to the west to investigate...

A minute later he returns. Behind him, you see Geebo and Fingas in tow.

Fingas says, "While you were all off galavanting in the secret tunnels to find treasure, we were attacked by these giant rats. I killed them." He sounds very proud.

Geebo says, "Mr. Hatt was very brave in slaying these giant rats. You should have seen him. He told me about his exploits and killing the dragon in the cave. He is very brave." (You remember that the 'dragon' was the baby dragon not much larger than these 'giant' (not so giant) rats.)

Fingas says, noticing the goblet, "While we were fighting off these beasts, I'm sure you were enjoying finding the goblet. That must have been a cakewalk next to fighting these monstrous, blood-sucking rats."

Geebo says, nodding, "Yes, they were quite formidable."

Based on what Fingas said, you realize they came up from the south passage and turned west. So they have seen what is south but have not explored west yet.

Shae says, a little sarcastically for a druid, "Yes, I'm sure your travails killing some little mice far exceeded our travails in fighting the undead, traps, and even a god. Now, why don't we continue heading west and see if we can't find this Earthgold liquid."

Tahldar is still battered and beat after the fight for the goblet.  He is no mood for Fingas's braggery.  "Enjoy?" he asks in regards to the goblet.  "If you enjoy trying to fight a literal god, then yes we had a blast."

Pointing from whence they came he says "Lets head back via the western passage."

"Yes, we forgot to thank you for killing that baby dragon, the one that made it's father, the real dragon, Ozymandias, go insane and try to kill us. How could I forget to thank you for such bravery..." Kahan sarcastically remarks as he follows Tahldar's suggestion.

Oblivious to the sarcasm, Fingas says, "Yes, you're very welcome. They will sing songs about our exploits and how we overcame the dragon. This is what every adventurer dreams of. If only we had a bard..." Then he sees Shapfren. "We do have a bard! You should start writing your lyric epic poem or song about this."

With a roll of your eyes, you head west. The tunnel then curves to the northwest.  After traveling about 50 yards in the tunnel, you come across a strange sight.

You see two corpses.

The first is the skeletal remains of some sort of human warrior or adventurer. His tattered leather armor is mostly scraps, and his valuables have been taken so that all you see is an empty scabbard attached to a rotting belt.

The second corpse has not yet rotted to a skeleton. It has been dead maybe a month or two at most but definitely long enough for the later stages of decomposition. It appears to be a balding elderly gnome who has been stripped down to now rotting undergarments.  He holds nothing except the rotting corpse of a white rabbit clutched in one arm.

Geebo jumps forward, looking with disbelief at the gnome corpse. Geebo squints and stairs.  "No," he says in disbelief, shaking his head. "This can't be so. We just saw Tenvillah alive and well yesterday."


From where you stand in the cavern, a slightly more narrow tunnel leads sharply to the southwest. The tunnel also continues to the northwest.

Tahldar ignores Fingas, but he's glad they found him and Geebo again.  He wasn't sure they would.

He frowns at the sight of the corpses.  "Can you raise him?" Tahldar asks Kahan.  Though he is dubious if the priest has the power left after the fight for the goblet.  Thinking about the situation he says "If this is indeed Tenvillah, who was it that we spoke to earlier?"

Not waiting for a response he begins to search.

OOC: Tahldar will search the corpses.

Seeing the rabbit, Shae will check to make sure their own rabbit is alive and well. She agrees with Tahldar's concern and says, "This is necessary, I think," before she begins going over the corpses closely to search for any clues, items, or an idea about how and when they died.

Kahan checks over the corpse to see if he can tell how long it has been dead. "I cannot raise someone who has been dead more than ten days. Unless this place has a rapid degeneration effect on corpses, I will not be able to raise... whoever this is. I should be able to communicate with them, however, but Tenvillah was not very good at speaking Common," he commented as he got ready to cast Speak with Dead.

Your own white rabbit is healthy, although the hare may be a bit hungry. You feed it a carrot as you assess the situation.

Upon inspection, the bald Tenvillah look-alike died between one to two months' ago. The other one is skeletal and has been down here for a long time. By the looks of him, he may have been part of the group who died in the mushroom chamber and/or those who fell to their impaled deaths in the room with the illusion bridge.

They do not have any weapons or anything of value on the bodies. They appear to have been plundered.

However, upon inspection, Shae finds that a vellum drawing and scroll were rolled up and tucked in the old scabbard.

The drawing is a charcoal sketch like this:



At the bottom of the drawing is the word ZUGGTMOY.

On the vellum scroll, the man had been writing down his thoughts:

"My companions think Zuggtmoy, the Goddess of fungus, is the key to obtaining the goblet. But my research of the Xren Codex revealed that this goblet was placed by a trickster godling or demigod who simply went by the name Shadowlock who was known to bind the other gods to appear against their will. I believe the key will be something much simpler--a word or phrase of something in the room itself.

"If we find it in time. The Black Curse is upon me and without the healing essence, my time is nearly done. Also, my companion Rickrack is not himself. I thought he may suffer from the Black Curse, but he appears almost as if another has taken him over. I fear dark spirits are at work here."


Kahan begins casting Speak with Dead...

Only the bald Tenvillah look-alike corpse will respond due to the long death of the other individual. You have four questions...

As Kahan casts the spell, a sound like a low groaning, deep breathing sound comes from the unmoving lips of the bald dead corpse, and it says in a thick accent, "Ask."

"What is your name?"

"How did you die?"

Kahan looks to the others to see if they had any other questions to ask.

The hoarse, scratchy voice of the dead man says, "My name be Tenvillah. My death come from behind. Before I die, I see only myself staring back."

Geebo is very nervous at this. He says, "If Tenvillah truly dead, then who prepare cure? Can he tell cure even though dead?"

Kahan grimaces and looks at Geebo. "He should be... Tenvillah, what is the recipe to make the cure for the Black Curse, exactly?" he asks.

Shae says, "If you only have one question left, maybe we should ask if anyone else knows the recipe around here? I mean, if Tenvillah himself cannot make the cure, who can?" Shae seems troubled by this, as all of their quest results actually require this dead person's help in the end.

In answer to Kahan's question, the dead Tenvillah says in a groaning, slow voice, "Ishkah ven villa inne des platte mon. Vash'ke innun."

Geebo hears that and translates, "He says formula...process...in his notes at his desk on vellum parchment marked 'vash'ke.'" Geebo seems to panic. "But I know not process. Who else can do cure?"

The voice responds to Geebo, despite the spell being Kahan's, "Effre ando feit kun Xren Codex non parpitur fren. Saiso Ashe saiso Tarimar saiso Fleivornor saiso con pariture feirde. Gaspar Tarimar renvalte sosho, mon sosho. Magica verdun."

Geebo translates, "He say those who master Xren Codex know its secrets. These are Ashe, Tarimar, Fleivornor and some others, not many. He say Tarimar prophecied return here soon, very soon. By magic...how you say?...container? Vial?"

As soon as Geebo finishes this, you hear a sound behind you. It is a movement in the darkness, and then it is gone and you hear what sounds like footsteps running down the dark tunnel to the southeast (where you just came from).
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:09, Thu 11 June 2020.

OOC: Can we get an updated map of all the caves we know so far? I have an idea but I'm not sure if it will work.

I actually don't have a master map, just sections due to the disparity in lengths of the tunnels. But you can easily find your way back by following the line of skulls that marked the eastern side of the wall in the area you just came from.

OOC: I was more wondering about line of sight than anything. How easy would it be to try to, say, shoot an arrow down the cave tunnels in the hopes of hitting whoever is down there, assuming light wasn't an issue?

"Sounds like a doppleganger got him.  Nasty buggers and very difficult to detect." Tahldar says as he muses out loud.

"There's one question left." he says, noting that Kahan has asked three of Tenvillah.

"It would seem we have a lurker watching us.  From now on someone needs to keep a sharp on our backs, lest he sneak up on us."

OOC:  I don't know what else to ask of Tenvillah.  In any event Tahldar speaks Gnome, fyi...

OOC: An arrow would be very difficult, as the caverns twist and wind, are narrow and have low ceilings. Line of sight is an issue. The question posed to you here is whether to pursue or take other actions.

The corpse of Tenvillah drops silent. It appears his responses to Geebo, even though Geebo didn't cast the spell, finished him off or made him decide to stop communicating.

Shae says, "I think we go back to get the instructions before we get lost. We can grab them and just come straight back here. We'll watch for our little peeping tom in the meantime. IN any case, we are running out of time really quick. Just keep watching that rabbit to make sure it's okay."

She will lead whoever will follow down the tunnels and back to Tenvillah's place.

"The source of magic?" Kahan asks Geebo as he fumbles his translation a little. "And according to these notes we found, Tarimar isn't Tarimar anymore, he has become Zahariah," he explains, looking down the tunnel towards whoever was following them.

"I just hope we weren't being eavesdropped upon, and that they don't beat us to the recipe," he responds to Shae as he moves to follow after her. As much as he would rather just find the Earthgold and try to locate someone else who can do the cure, it would probably be easier to do it this way.

Shae says, "Eavesdropping? I think that's exactly what happened. We need to get to the recipe before this doppleganger or whatever gets it ahead of us."

You begin to give chase before the figure can get away. You are afraid he may get lost in the labyrinth, but to your great surprise, a sudden glow far ahead rises up. He has lit a torch somewhere beyond your vision. He also seems to be following the path back to Tenvillah's living quarters.

But then, before you get too much further, a fireball explosion rocks the cave. Skulls and bones go flying everywhere as the ceiling 50 feet in front of you collapses. There is a cave to your right if you want to try an alternate path back.

Tahldar follows along but he thinks trying to follow the intruder is not such a good idea.  Better to keep going forward to finish this thing, one way or the other.

With the collapse and the only way available is the cave to the right he says "Well, I guess we go this way."

OOC: I propose we take the cave to the right.