Smenk agrees to help, saying that he is terrified of the cultists. He has offered to raise the tombstones for the farm and to give the deed to the observatory if the party defeats the cultists that have infiltrated his mine. The bartender at the Feral Dog is told by Smenk to be decent to the party and Smenk has paid full price for the owlbear that the party has captured. Kullen, the town thug, and Rancik have developed an ‘understanding’ because of the defeat of Filge, who they both hated.
Six miners have agreed to help smuggle the party to the new elevator in the mine, with the promise of some gold in exchange. The party enters the mine with death and destruction in their wake. They killed eight human guards for being Hextor Cultists (evidenced by their undershirts) on the way in. Once down the elevator that the miners helped them in, they quickly dispatch two tiefling guards, though not quickly enough to prevent warning to be sounded. There is a large pool of dark liquid near the elevator, which Vasco and Ubu throw the bodies of the deceased tieflings into, the splash super-naturally chilling them to the point of taking damage to dexterity.
The party makes its way through the citadel of Hextor, overcoming its skeleton and tiefling guards, cult fanatics and mascot dire boar. They look into the Battle Temple of Hextor to see clerics, zombies and tieflings readied for battle. Vasco uses his unseen servant to close the brass doors, giving the party a moment to summon its resources to do battle.
The doors swing open and the party does a drag out battle willing all but the cleric Theldrick, who is unconscious but stable, and bound and gagged with no holy symbol. Theldrick made a speech about the Invincible One and Hextor and is grilled by the party. He reveals little other than the identity of the Ebon Triad’s three churches: Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul, and that Grallak Kur of Erythnul is cowardly and sneaky. Arthur, in frustration, slits Theldrick’s throat. The party gets a copy of Theldrick’s record of the Ebon Triad’s progress in the mines, a significant excerpt of which is pictured here. The party reaches level 4.The party enters into the Erythnul caves looking for Grallak Kur, and first encounters two rooms of grey monsters of the underdark (grimlocks) and two frightful cat-monsters (krenshars). Though all but Vasco were ‘frightened’ all the creatures were vanquished. Rancik and Arthur dive down into the cavern to the tunnels clogged with stealthy chokers. After Arthur takes repeated choking damage, the two manage to kill them off. Ubu and Vasco enter into a tunnel and are clobbered by a raging grey underdark barbarian. They lure her into the choker tunnels where she is defeated, though not before putting Ubu into unconsciousness. The party makes it across a rope bridge after battling three more grimlocks to the death. A great battle in a cliff chamber ensues, with Vasco, the weakest looking in the party, being knocked unconscious by another barbarian grimlock. Those standing prevail over the party, helped by a skeleton commanded by Rancik. Rancik now commanding zombies as a kind of ‘meat shield’, push further into the grimlock’s hold, finding the wild looking Grallak Kur (whose has grotesquely sewen preserved eyes of a beholder into his empty eyesockets, and branded the holy symbol of Erythnul onto his chest). Ubu forces Grallak off a cliff where he is subdued but kept alive. The party reaches level 5, resting in a Grallak’s chamber which Rancik sets his commanded skeleton and zombies to guard. The next day Grallak is questioned, but refuses to talk. He falls completely silent once Arthur mentions Theldrick’s death. Grallak carries scrolls that summarize his latest visions. The party reads through them with one passage standing out: “At last the will of the Ebon Triad be done. With the return of greaty Kyuss, the Age of Worms is finally upon us!”.
Moving on to the temple of Vecna, the party weaves its way through a labrynth of secret doors, guarded by birdmen (Kenku) and dire weasels. The party is at first drawn away from their final destination, the temple of Vecna, by fear of Theldrick’s voice. They follow the last Kenku into the outer chamber of the temple. This place was created thousands of years ago when Vecna was still a living mortal being. Green energy of arcane and divine power pulsate within pillars of the outer temple, and strange bulges in the walls reveal themselves to be human eyes when spells are cast by Vasco.
Two wizard guards and an Allip are successfully overcome before the party quickly approaches the inner temple. The Faceless One, a wizard, is well prepared with lightning bolts, flaming spheres and a summoned huge monstrous centipede. The allip attacks Rancik several times before he is dispatched by Arthur’s magic sword. The party prevails. They find a codebook in the temple which helps them read another document seized from Theldrick. Its contents is revealed in the scroll pictured here.They try to sleep off their battle with the Faceless One only to find three hours later the soul of the Faceless One floating away. The party rushes out of the temple into the elevator room (which is where the soul of the Faceless One was headed) to see a massive hellish entity slowly rising up, with three souls (Grallak, Theldrick, and the Faceless One, swirling above the pool prior it its emerging. It is 10 feet tall with six arms and grey skin, bulging with arcane power. Ubu and Arthur, enlarged, flank the Ebon Aspect, while Vasco fires successive magic missiles at it. Arthur nets him and Rancik’s commanded zombies finally dispatch the evil creature.
Everyone needs to rest before they emerge from the mine. They cast silence on a sling stone and invisibility on each of the members, and pass out of the mine into a heavily guarded and closed compound with 12 dwarven guards and 20 Garrison Soldiers. Smenk has set a trap. On the way out, one of the Dwarfs discovers the silence field and sounds the alarm on the basis of magic in the compound. Rancik and Arthur escape over the wall, but a garrison guard trips over Vasco on the wall and a pursuit of Vasco and Ubu ensues. Finally dropping a bag of loot, Ubu makes it over the fence, just before being apprehended. The rest rush to Allustan’s house to find him away. His servant keeps them comfortably hidden in the garden for two days, and the criminality of Smenk and Dourstone is revealed to Sheriff Neff. Rancik leads a discussion of ‘justice’ with Neff, who keeps their 5,000gp bail money in exchange for no murder charges from when they broke into the mine (Neff is not convinced that everyone killed were cultists).
Dourstone and Smenk are arrested and jailed, with their properties seized by the town. The townsfolk are uncomfortable with the party because no one really knows who Smenk and Dourstone may still have in their pockets. Allustan seems pre-occupied with matters afar, and says that he wants to spend some time soon talking wit the group
