Clearing a cultist crypt entrance

Our party gathers in Ruined Oak during a cold winter morning to investigate into a recently found group of cultists that might have a base of operations near the Tempest Plains. A note was found as well detailing a rough description of where to look for it.

The first day of travel was uneventful and we reached the newly constructed outpost on the road east of Ruined Oak.

After half a day worth of travel (4 hexes after the outpost) we meet a man on a wagon. He appears to be a merchant that transports spices betweeen White Moon Cove and Ruined Oak.

Towards the late afternoon (6 hexes after the outpost) we see see a faint white smoke cloud rising 200 ft off the road. It appears to be coming from a fire that was recently put out. We come across the smoldering remains of a large pile of wood. On top of the wood lies a body that is burnt to a crisp. Looks like a sacrifice or funeral to us. Tracks lead to the northwest which would be the direction of the Briarwall Forest.

In the evening (8 hexes of the outpost) we see a watchtower and see a woman and a child running away from wolves. The wolves are scared off by the guards. The guards appear to be bringing the woman and the child east on the road. They are planning to reach White Moon Cove.

During the nightwatch some moonlight hits a rock 150 ft away from our camp. Looking closely, Nunde finds an opening to a cave or hole in the ground. The light of the moon only reaches 10 ft inside the hole. As we take another look during better lighting conditions in the morning we notice that it goes a long way and splits of into a cave system with three separate sections. It was 150 ft. northweast of the road. (Still 8 hexes of the outpost)

Towards the afternoon of the second traveling day (4-5 hexes of the last camping spot), we see black smoke and 2 miles of bushfire that is close by the camp of the blood eye. It appears to be creeping closer to the eastern woods. The blood eye camp appears to be not at danger. There are some hobgoblins that appear to be digging a trench in the area to stop the fire. Kirnis makes great use of some magic to move earth. Combined with 6 hobgoblins the attempt to create a 1 foot trench between the fire and the woods is successful.

We learn from the hobgoblin Lisanna that the cultists are avoiding the roads and stay far away from the hobgoblin. The cultist appear to have up to large creatures traveling with them. They are traveling in the rough direction north but also south every so many days. They might therefore travel between two locations. The one towards the south is more like south-west actually according to the blood eye tribe. At least one or two cultists wore robes like those that we have with us, as the last group took some robes with them to maybe make some use of those. The robes differ in the number of skulls on the symbols. We don’t know if it is good to have more or less skulls though. The cultists travel mostly in groups of 5-6 people though in the beginning groups up to a dozen people were possible.

She also talks about the gnolls that she has seen last time several months ago. The gnolls don’t appear to be bothering the blood eye anymore.

When talking about the general area of the map that we have on us we learn the following.
Some centuries ago there were different kingdoms in small regions that perished over time. White Moon Cove was build on one of the old ruins of those kingdoms. Within the ruins of those kingdoms many treasures can still be found. Maybe the cultists are interested in that area because of that.

The blood eye are interested in a weapon delivery to them. They are also interested in lumber and resources to rebuild their infrastructure. The blood eye don’t want to tell exactly how much gold they have, but they don’t appear to be poor.

Towards the evening of the third traveling day (8 hexes of the watchtower), we find some spot to rest. There is a old wall of a once decent sized structure (20 feet wide by 60 feet deep), that even has some stairs that lead to a basement. The exact function of the ruins is hard to tell. It connects to a cavern system deep below as far as we can tell.

Aodh assumes that this might be a possible entrance to the cultists hideout as we are in the rough area of the cultist circled map.

Nunde attempts to scout out parts of the cave system but finds no cultits, bridges or any signs that it might be connected or found by cultists.

After continuing in the direction that we wanted to investigate on this mission, we find a small clearing and come across an opening up ahead that appears to be very strange. It looks like an archway that connects to several bridges that connect to a center point.

There are some banners clearly visible in the open near the entrance of the cave.

According to Aodh this entrance is part of a plan of the cultist to lure us in as there is supposed to be a very dangerous spider near this particular entrance that has killed a few cultists already.

Entering this area we see a small cave system in the beginning. We come across a set of double doors as cobwebs begin to form more in the area. We see a shut door ahead of us. So far no magic was to be found in this cave system.

Looking ahead we see a strange symbol on the door up ahead. We will find the same symbol on every door we are going to find in this cave system.
Behind the door we find a small room with 4 pillars that have some hints of evocation magic of them. Mostly probably because the pillars have some sort of light source on them. There is also a small campsite with a few bedrolls. We find a small map that has the same encircled area on it.

Behind the door we see a small hallway that leads to another door up ahead. On the next door behind the small hallway is the same symbol.

We see a weird looking spider. It becomes translucent and is hardly visible like we are able to look through.
Nunde is immediately wrapped in some ghostly looking web. Nunde turns invisible. Sapphire lights a torch and throws it forward on the web. We are able to slay the spider however and burn the webs, which causes fire to spread through the entire room.

Sapphire opens the next door a bit and throws in a torch. The spiders on the other side immediately shoot webs at her, but she manages to catch one of the webs that is thrown at her.
Not sure why these spiders live in these rooms that have locked doors inbetween. I didn’t see any connections aside from the doors between. After clearing this room, we find scorched bodies that were wrapped in linens. The bodies are very old, dry and decomposed.

There is a dusty hallway up ahead. Towards the northern part is a double door that is locked. There is writing in old blood that says “Death’s Arena”. Peaking through the key hole, there are 4 pillars that are somewhat lighted in there. In the middle is a large skeleton that seems to be motionless. The skeleton has four arms. There are also 2 large piles of stacked skulls.

There is also a door on the southern end. Behind the door is a small room about the size of the previous ones. There is a small stone pillar or podium. Then there are stairs that are going up in the western and eastern side of the room. There are also 2 chests. One chest on each side.

On the podium we see written “Life is about choices, you can only have one, so which one are you gonna take?” The chests look identical. When attempting to open one of the chests we find a mimic, but an actual chest on the other side.

Maybe of interest is, that all the doors openened inward so far. Nunde places a small pile of rocks in front of the door to see if something is opening the doors when we are gone.

We then head out of the cave and are back on the bridge outside.

We reach back the blood eye clan and decide to rest there.

On the day after we decide to head back, but this time to White Moon Cove.

Roughly halfway between the blood eye and White Moon Cove we sense a disturbance of magic in the area.

Right before going to White Moon Cove we find a large pool of blood. This must have been just a one or two miles outside the town.

We then safely reach White Moon Cove.