17th Day of Planting, CY 579

The party finished up in the caves where they killed the evil priest and decided not to explore the place further. On their way out, they remembered that they never opened the other prison cell door. After much debate, they decided to go back and open it. Inside the other cell were some orcs, a goblin, a human merchant and a human cleric of Celestian named Luapan. Luapan explained that he was following a comet that appeared in the sky, a sign of importance from Celestian. It was taking him in the direction of Nulb, which is where the party was going anyway, so the party agreed to allow him to come along.

Waterside Hostel

They arrived at the Waterside Hostel for a late lunch/early dinner. Pontus ate two meals.The proprietor is a man named Dick Rentsch (Pontus chuckled at his name). They were served by a wench named Pearl, to whom Athan immediately began asking questions about Otis. After paying her plenty in coin, he learned that Otis may have been seen in Nulb, but disappeared, and that he should go see the proprietor of Boatmen's Tavern, where pirates and other nasty folk like to hang out. If anyone would know about his disappearance (or be responsible for it), it would be someone there. Pearl suggested openly that she does other things for money (wink, wink), so Pontus told the rest of the party to go on without him.

Pontus had the most amazing experience of his life. And it wasn't just physical. Pearl really seemed to understand him. She was everything Pontus has ever dreamed of in a woman. He wanted her to leave Nulb with him so they could run off and be together forever. He told her he would protect her and take care of her for the rest of his life. He had been waiting his entire life for Pearl. She was the ONE. No doubt about it.

And Pearl wanted to go with Pontus, too. But she needed money to take care of her affairs so she could be free to be with him. Pontus gave her everything he had.

In the meantime, the rest of the party went to explore the seedy town known as Nulb. A nasty place, it was. Built on the swampy shore of Imeryd's Run, it was little more than resting place for river pirates to drink and otherwise get up to no good in-between smuggling runs. It was a well-known haven for thieves, assassins and worse. Half of the ramshackle buildings made of rotting wood were uninhabitable, and those in use looked like they could fall over any minute.

In the middle of the town was a man dressed in a simple robe that looked like little more than rags. Branded on his forehead was the shining symbol of Pholtus. The man was preaching heavy doom and gloom prophecy and shouting at everyone to repent their sins or face judgement. He claimed the gods have turned their backs on men because men have turned their backs on the gods. Sarril pointed out that this man was dressed similarly to some men that he saw in an alley in Greyhawk beating someone with clubs while shouting similar epithets. Being from Rel Mord in Nyrond, Sarril is all too familiar with the overzealous righteousness of the followers of Pholtus in the Theocracy of the Pale, but this man was different. Those from the Theocracy, and in other major cities where Pholtus has temples, may be unwavering zealots, but they don't preach doom and gloom and they usually, hypocritically, dress lavishly in fine cloth and with silver and platinum jewelry. This man was dirty, and had nothing on him his robe - not even a club to be seen.

The party ignored the crazy man and began walking across the town when Kara, Athan's familiar, came rushing in to tell him that she was just attacked by giant crows. She only got away because two vicious owls flew in and chased off the crows. The party realized something was amiss, and likely spies of the temple already knew they were here. Then they realized that Athan spoke to wench about Otis, and Pontus was with her now - probably in danger. They ran back to Waterside Hostel right away.

The Town of Nulb

As he was leaving the room, the happiest man on Oerth, Pontus runs into Athan, who insists he needs to speak with Pearl alone. Pontus wasn't too excited about another man wanting to be alone with the woman he loves. Athan then started accusing Pearl of sorcery! Imagine that. Accusing the woman he loves of sorcery!? Well, Pontus would have none of that. He was going to defend his lady's honor. That's when one of the barkeeps, who happens to also be an assassin for some reason, came into the room and things took a dark turn. Some other commotion was going on in the hall and more people were coming up the stairs. This was turning into a serious fight. Weapons were drawn.

And then Pontus was kicked awake, trapped inside some sticky webbing that seemed to cover the entire room. Unsure exactly what just went down. He broke free of the webbing and saw that Dick, the proprietor, was also in the room with him. He was surrounded by the rest of the party, had just dropped a sword, and was attempting to negotiate. He warned the party that there were about two dozen pirates on their way here from the docks, heavily armed, and looking for the party.

The party made a quick plan to make a stand at the Inn, figuring Athan and Gareth could shoot through the windows, and the rest of the party could make a defense on the stairwell. When the pirates arrived, Sarril was about to talk to them when Athan started shooting. This forced the pirates to spread out and encircle the building from the back. Realizing they couldn't easily storm the place, they tried to smoke out the party by lighting torches and throwing them through the windows. Being a building made of very old, dry and rotting wood, the place went up fast. Pontus' only concern was for his dear love, Pearl, and he started asking what happened to her. Athan informed him that the pirate leader killed her (in truth, she had suffocated inside the web that Athan had cast to subdue her).

The pirate leader, Tolub, and his two lieutenants were at the front of the tavern waiting to kill anyone who runs out. He might have done so as well, if he and both of his men didn't utterly fail their saving throw against the Hold Person spell Sarril cast. An enraged Pontus rushed out of the burning building and slew all three, prompting the remaining pirates to run away. Unfortunately, Pontus remained really distraught over Pearl's death. Killing Tolub didn't bring her back.

As the party watched the tavern burn to the ground, other villagers began to gather, including the Blacksmith and an old lady. The Blacksmith approached the party and warned them that they have made a mess of this town, and it won't be safe for them. More will come, and in greater numbers.
Sarril asked what he knows of these pirates and he was told to come to his shop as he won't speak openly around the other townsfolk.

Mother Screng and Hudra

So the party headed over to the blacksmith shop, after relieving everyone of some magic items, some of which Pontus would be destroying (with the help of the Blacksmith forge and anvil). He greeted the party and told them to wait inside. Inside, the old lady was there, with another woman. She introduced herself as Mother Screng, and her daughter Hudra. Athan was able to tell that Hudra was actually an elf in disguise. The blacksmith came in and everyone had some uncomfortable conversations as no one quite trusted each other and no one was willing to say what needed to be said. Eventually, however, everyone was able to figure out that everyone in the room were good guys and some trust began to develop. Based on this trust, the party decided to share with the blacksmith the letter for Otis that Elmo had given, to prove they are telling the truth. The blacksmith then revealed that he is actually Otis in disguise, Mother Screng was actually Canoness Y'Dey and her "daughter" is really an elf named Murfles (Pontus chuckled at the name).

Y'Dey confirmed that the Temple of Elemental Evil was never destroyed, only sealed. Otis, Y'Dey and Murfles had been sent by their respective masters to check out the temple and ensure the seals were still intact, as there have been rumors of temple activity. The seals are still in place, but agents of the temple are appearing all over the area. The pirates were agents, as was the proprietor of the inn that was just burned down. And then there was Lareth the Beautiful, and the other cleric of his kind in  the nearby caves. Otis explained there are four factions within the Temple, each representing one of the four main elements. All of the agents within Nulb belong to one of these four factions, which represent water, earth, fire and air.

Otis and Y'Dey believe that agents are getting in and out of the temple somehow, and so were acting under cover to learn what they could. Thanks to the party's reckless actions, their cover is now blown, and temple agents are going to be swarming this place, possibly within hours. So they are both hitting the self-destruct button on their secret operations and getting out of dodge.

Y'Dey had a flock of carrier pidgeons she used for talking to the Archcleric of St Cuthbert in Veluna (whom she reports to) and she released all of the pigeons, packed up, and left. Otis said he had to heed the call of the Viscount to look into the emergency in Verbobonc (as referenced in the letter from the Viscount), so he is leaving immediately. Murfles is going with him. That leaves the party alone in Nulb, with big targets on their heads. Otis warned that there are at least 1 dozen, possibly more, giant ravens roosting in the tower on the temple grounds. The ravens have been spying and that's how everyone knew the party was coming. He said they would need to take the ravens out in order to approach the temple safely. Two were already dead. 

The group decided that with a barbarian, a druid and a ranger in the party, they should be able to easily camp in the woods and be hidden, and so they did. Despite their best efforts, 8 ravens found them and attacked. They managed to kill them all. One almost got away, but Delvin surprised himself when he cast an insect swarm and it worked better than expected. The insects took down the last fleeing raven. And so the party was able to camp in peace, discussing their next move. They eventually decided that they needed to investigate the temple in place of Otis and Y'Dey, even though they didn't feel they were capable of taking on such a challenge. But if they didn't do it, who would?

16th Day of Planting, CY 579

Athan, Sarril, Pontus and Delvin decided to go to Nulb to look for Otis. They decided that, instead of taking the high road (the main road), they would take a lesser known "unused road" marked on the map Elmo gave them. This unused road was active when the temple was in operation many years ago, but is now overgrown and little more than a path. And instead of sticking to this path, the party further decided to cut through an unknown forest (they have a Druid with them, after all) and then up over some hills, in the hopes of eventually reconnecting with the road.

During the trek, the magic user's aerial familiars were acting as scouts and found gnolls guarding some caves. They figured this may be where some of the humanoid attacks were coming from, and it would be to dispatch the gnolls and then explore the caves just to be sure. And thus a new side-adventure was started, and it went something like this. . .

The party dispatched 6 gnolls with ease and prevented them from sounding any alarms. They then went into the first of many caves and discovered a sleeping Owlbear, tried to kill it in its sleep, but woke it up instead. It nearly eviscerated Sarril, but Sarril seems tougher than he used to be and took it like a man (or half man, half elf). After dispatching the owlbear, they discovered at the other end of the cave what they figured out to be Gray Ooze. Gray Oozes look like wet stone, so they couldn't be sure, but Pontus wisely threw the dead gnoll bodies into the area and three oozes came up out of a pool of water and down from the ceiling to start eating the gnolls, at which point the party were able to easily kill them without risk to themselves (some bonus exp was distributed for that maneuver).

They then headed into the bugbear cave where they pretty easily dispatched several bugbears, before finding the chieftains room and killing him and his wife. They then moved on to find a common room with a couple of male bugbears and several females and children. After killing the males, they debated for a long time whether they should kill the females and children "for the greater good" or not. They finally decided to free them in exchange for information on their master (because there is a always a "master" required to keep chaotic creatures working together). The master was described as a typical evil cleric, and the bugbears pointed out which cave he was in and then ran off.

After much further debate, the party decided to open one of the two prison cells they previously came across. Inside were some humanoids, including a bugbear, and a wild man. The wild man turned out to be Gareth, the tortured prisoner mentioned in the lieutenant’s journal. After healing him and feeding him, he returned to his senses and explained how he was tortured by Lareth the Beautiful, without ever having been asked questions, before being sent here, where he was locked up, still without ever having been interrogated. Gareth joined the party and agreed to help fight against the master.

Skipping the remaining caves, the party headed straight for the master. Inside his cave it looked like an evil temple, with smooth black and red stone, etc. The party encountered zombies wearing necklaces of Protection from Good, which made them harder to turn, several 1st level clerics in red robes with black hoods, several 2nd level clerics in black robes with red hoods. None of them were carrying obvious holy symbols, but they were definitely clerics.

The party then found a secret door leading to the back entrance of the master's bedroom - allowing them to skip all of the stuff they may have had to encounter on the way. The Master and his zombie guards in plate mail were tough. The Master, a 7th level cleric, was a short bald man in black robes with red underneath. His mouth and chin and upper neck were horribly disfigured, as if burned in a similar way as Lareth. Sarril cast silence on him and Delvin cast heat metal on his plate armor
Pontus kept swinging at the cleric and missing. Gareth, who is a ranger specialized in a long sword, managed to get a long sword off the first zombie killed, which helped turn the tide of the battle for the party. Eventually Pontus even got a hit in. Sarril cast hold person on the master and he failed his save, making him an easy target to finish off.

Note: At this point in the game, we were treating Hold Person as a paralyzation affect, which we later realized was not an appropriate interpretation for such a low-level spell - we have since adjusted and now treat Hold Person as a "root in place" effect.

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Gareth, after fighting the cleric, relayed to the party that he has seen men with disfigured faces before. He was in the Gnarley Forest, near Oakvein, when he saw seven men whom he thought at first were Druids, but they wore black cloaks. They were all kneeling in a semi-circle and chanting in a language he did not understand. One man pulled out a box containing a small opaque black gem and placed the gem on the ground. As they chanted, the area around the gem started turning black. And the blackness began to grow and take over everything. One of the men turned and saw him, and that's when he saw the disfigured mouth and neck. He says he was overcome with fear and ran for his life, something he is ashamed of.
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