- Al-Hafiz, Level 4 Fedayeen
- Jack Fatherd, Level 5 Survivor
- Porkesilaus Poliorcetes, Level 4 Hoglord
Al-Hafiz began the day by executing the three surviving Rose Hips. He had spent the last few days curing their addiction to Smoke and various other super-science drugs, but the damage was done. They gazed out of the cage at him with reptilian eyes, cold-blooded draconic beings who would do anything to escape and go back to their slave-trading ways. They didn't go quietly, but their Sleep and Charm spells were no match to the squad of adventurers and hirelings who joined in hacking them to pieces.
When their grim work was done, the adventurers decided what to do. They weren't interested in the agreement Wakefield and Laguna made with the Scalphunters the day before, and instead took Eric the Barbarian off the bench for a dive into the dungeon. They picked up their daily dose of smoke from the re-activated lab, went to the sinkhole and used the pulley system installed by the Dwarven Surveyor to descend the pit.
Thelema the Gravewarden reminded the adventurers that her sister Endura was still seriously injured. Nobody was allowed inside the mausoleum because Thelema was worried Endura's burns would get infected, or her mostly-destroyed lungs would get some form of pneumonia. The adventurers realized that they had enough God power between the three of them to cast a combined restoration spell... but decided to wait until after they were finished plundering the dungeon for the day.
The gang used the ladder in the newly opened mausoleum to descend fifty feet down, just like Laguna and Wakefield did the previous day. They caught up to the point where the duo had turned back, across the big bridge over the chasm. The room on the other side had a big staircase with a river of water cascading down it. The adventurers searched downstream but were interrupted by a the same giant fossil Eurypterid that attacked their friends the day before. Jack Fatherd struck it from stealth and broke off most of the tail, and the Hoglord finished it off with a sword-headbutt combo.
There wasn't any treasure in the dusty remains of the living fossil. Al-Hafiz led Eric downstream to scout, to a room where enormous statues of strong men held the ceiling up above the swift flowing water. The Hogmaster investigated a mysterious smell from a crevasse in the wall in the staircase room, which stank of dead beetles and spider middens. He pushed one of the enormous stones inward, revealing a chamber on the other side.
He smelled the Bugbear behind him in time to duck the arrow.
Porkesilaus couldn't see the shooter in the dark chamber, but he could hear and smell him. He leaped across the swift-flowing water on the staircase and struck at his assailant, but the Bugbear Ranger had a short sword of quickness ready, slashing the Hogman before he could get a blade in edgewise. Porkesilaus responded with a one-two punch from his sword and tusks that sent the hairy man fleeing upstream. The Hogmaster would have caught up with him, but the crafty Ranger hid a bear trap under the surface of the water, and Porkesilaus stepped in it on his way to the next room. By the time he'd levered it off his sabaton-clad ankle, the Bugbear was running across the stone benches that poked out above the water of the flooded chamber.
The Hogmaster tossed a jar of yellow mold Irene the Vivisectionist cultivated for him, hoping to block the Ranger's escape. The hairy man ran through the cloud, coughing in pain but not expiring from suffocation, and climbed up the chimney where a waterfall cascaded into the room. Porkesilaus elected not to pursue him across the dark, flooded chamber. The other adventurers caught up with him, and they explored the room the Hogman uncovered.
The hidden chamber was a small cave, filled with Dwarf skeletons. Jack Fatherd searched the mass grave and found a small carving, of a skull with an arrow pointing to a pit. The group decided to ask Thelema what it meant, since it seemed similar to Holy Mountain iconography.
The next tunnel they explored led to an ancient courtyard whose roof had once been open to the sky. The cave had reclaimed it, but several passages led onward into the ruined villa. One of the doors was still standing, banded with bronze and scribed with runes of power. It smelled like static electricity to the Hogmaster and the group left it alone until they could find a key or a scroll of Dispel Magic. They discovered a bedchamber where a corpse lay skewered by a stalagmite growing through the bed. The dead body animated as a revenant and beat the hell out of Jack before the team could hack it to pieces, but they recovered plenty of treasure from its corpse.
The narrow chamber beyond smelled like guano and slimes. There were Dwarf-size bunks carved into the walls of the chamber, going up a couple stories. The group followed the smell of batshit to the end of the chamber, where it opened up into a larger space. A Slithering Tracker dropped from the ceiling and landed atop the Hogmaster. He shrugged off its paralytic venom with the aid of Al-Hafiz' divine magic and the group hacked away at it, until a swarm of giant bats flew into the room from a neighboring passage and interrupted the battle. Jack Fatherd used his animal handling knowledge to shoo the beasts out of the room. Porkesilaus caught a glimpse of the naked bat-woman covered in jewelry from the day before, then she was gone with the swarm. Without the bats interfering, the Tracker was easy prey. The dungeon crawlers advanced into the next room.
The slave quarters opened up into a big cave, with a stone platform jutting out over the edge of a pit. There were lots and lots of bats roosting on the ceiling, and the old bloodstains and drag marks on the floor of the platform were mostly covered with guano. The group didn't want to antagonize the flying creatures, and went back to explore the other tunnels of the old villa. Jack Fatherd climbed up to the top of the slave quarters and found two shriveled corpses with a handful of magic items in the bunk where the Tracker was lurking. The other adventurers checked out an old workroom, but found nothing but pottery tiles and stone blocks.
The Hogmaster smelled a human and bat combined. The bat-woman was back, peering down the passage at them with milk white eyes that saw nothing. The team debated alpha-striking her with their most powerful weapons and consumable items, but decided not to start a fight with a vampire. Her face was covered with the same white fuzz as the bats, and they realized she was sick. And she told them as much, and that her colony was having trouble sleeping due to the infection. She tried to take her bats upstairs to the water, and was chased away by the lizardmen. If the explorers killed the lizards, she would reward them. That sounded like a good deal, especially since the vampiress (whose name they learned was Alaksandu) was absolutely dripping with jewelry.
The blind vampire told them she saw an egg that glowed like the sun. She saw a droplet falling off the bottom of the egg. Then she flew away into the cave.
The party was pretty sure all the lizardmen were dead, but decided to check upstairs before reporting the quest completed. Their journey back to the second floor was interrupted by a trio of giant tarantulas, who raised their legs in a threat display and looked scary until the Hoglord blocked their path with a flask of flaming oil.
Porkesilaus' snout was filled with fuzzy white spores from the bat colony, and he barely smelled the human cleric on the second level of the dungeon before the group ran into him. He wore a suit of beautiful blue chainmail, and he asked if they had seen his friend. He had come to the dungeon looking for the bandit Gorrister the Great, but become separated from his adventuring partner. The Hogmaster smelled a halfling hiding somewhere in the room, but didn't reveal that he was onto the deception. The cleric, Bensalem the Blue, was interested to know if the adventurers had any idea why Gorrister the Great was in the dungeon, or what he was looking for. Al-Hafiz confirmed that they had no idea, and Bensalem left to "search for his friend" on the floor above. It was an extremely suspicious encounter, but the gang had a job to do.
The adventurers decided to check on the "egg" in the cult stronghold before investigating the former lizard zone, in case Alaksandu's description was some kind of portent. They peeked into the sacrifice chamber and found a group of dracolizards feeding on a pile of headless lizardmen corpses.
The top of the stone orb holding the dragon Hasdrubal the Red didn't look like it had moved since they last visited, so the team continued on to the hot springs they detected on their last visit to the cult zone. The rubble blocking the corridor had been cleared and there was no more music. The hot springs were lizard free, the only sign of habitation was a dead bard missing his legs, dangling in a wicker cage above one of the pools. Hogman dipped his head in the spring to cure his white nose infection. Jack climbed up and removed the body for proper disposal. The adventurers confirmed there were no lizardmen or treasure left, then went to explore the area the Scalphunters had cleared the day before.
The only unlooted chamber was behind a door, which was sealed with an iron spike pounded into the frame. The spike had the Sign of the Starhelm on the head, and Jack knew that was bad news. It meant there was a powerful undead sealed behind it, the kind that once killed all his friends in the Dwarf fortress ANGUISHEDWIRES. Al-Hafiz reassured him that the team was well equipped to defeat whatever was behind it. Eric the Barbarian pried the door open, and the gang hacked the Wight behind it to pieces before it could drain anyone of energy. They found treasure and a magic ax on the corpse.
With the death of the lizards confirmed, it was time to go down to the ancient city on level three and deliver the good news to the vampire bat woman. A pair of ghouls interrupted the journey, rushing past the adventurers at breakneck speed. They were headed for the garden in the sinkhole, and that indicated Thelema was in trouble. The adventurers ran after them, ready to assist. Another group of undead pushed past them, running the other way in terror as if a cleric had turned them.
In the big graveyard, Bensalem the Blue hacked away at the door of the mausoleum with a two-handed maul, intent on killing whoever was inside. The adventurers and the pair of ghouls rushed in to help. The Halfling Rigoberta Moonshades stepped out from behind a tombstone and stabbed Eric the Barbarian in the back, and only Al-Hafiz' divine intervention stopped her from instantly killing him. Bensalem turned the ghouls with a burst of clerical power, and Al-Hafiz purged the fear effect on one of them. The ghoul and Hoglord took on the cleric, while Al-Hafiz, Jack and Eric faced off against Rigoberta. Jack snatched her necklace of fireballs before she could blow the whole group up. Bensalem cast Hold Person on Al-Hafiz, paralyzing him. The ghoul and Pigman hacked Bensalem apart. Eric fled the fight with Rigoberta and Jack threw a fireball from the necklace at her, catching the paralyzed Al-Hafiz in the blast.
Outnumbered and scorched by the explosion, Rigoberta fled the scene. Jack Fatherd chased after her. He threw the Javelin of Lightning he found on a previous delve and got a direct hit, killing her instantly (and exploding all her potions in the process). Thelema emerged from the mausoleum while the victorious adventurers looted Bensalem and Rigoberta. She was embarrassed that they had to rescue her again, but they weren't bothered. The dead explorers were loaded with magic items, which they could loot guilt-free. Thelema didn't know why they attacked her. They showed up asking questions about Gorrister the Great, and when she mentioned he was looking for something related to the Red Dragon on the bottom floor of the dungeon they tried to kill her. Al-Hafiz realized that the mysterious pair were trying to cover something up. It fit the Cult of Enlightenment's modus operandi, killing witnesses to protect magical secrets. The cult's doctrine wasn't exactly secret ever since Rope Trick killed the Hanged King, but they still had agents hunting for arcane wisdom in hidden places.
From the 5e DMG, which doesn't credit artists on a piece by piece basis
The adventurers rested to restore their divine magic, then gathered in the mausoleum to heal Endura's burns. Jack invoked the Grain Goddess and the Liberator, Al-Hafiz called on the God of Mercy, and the Hoglord gave a tentative prayer to Fat Sun. With their powers combined, they unburned Endura and healed her mangled lungs. She used her new respiratory system to scream in panic, because there were three armed men standing over her. She continued freaking out when she saw Thelema, thinking she was dead and about to be punished for sins committed in life. The adventurers made themselves scarce before they made things worse.
The journey back through the ancient city was uneventful. Alaksandu the vampire was roosting on the underside of the platform over the pit, and the adventurers noticed that there was a path down into the pit, fifty feet to the next dungeon level. The vampire lady sniffed Jack Fatherd to verify his claim that the lizardmen were dead. She dropped a stone rod, broken off the tip of a stalactite, and told him it was a Rod of Bat Friendship. Then she flew away, taking the entire giant bat colony with her to cleanse the infection raging among them.
With a big pile of magic items, the ability to summon giant bats and fly around, and a route to the next floor identified, the adventurers ended the day much stronger than they began.
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