Cave Camping Cultists

Taking the only way out they could find out of the elven statue protected rooms, our heroes (and I use the term 'heroes' loosely), went further in, rather than out.

They found themselves in a semi man-made corridor which shortly became a natural cave. They came upon a heavy, locked door, and being the heroic beings they are, they sent Larry to listen at the door while they kept back and out of potential harm's way.

Larry put his ear to door, listening quietly. The conversation inside the room seemed to be mostly one sided angry shouting, and a little bit of koboldish groveling. It went something like this:

Angry man: "You failed me, vermin. Not to mention, failing my master!"
Kobold: "We searched everywhere! We couldn't find him! The town was destroyed, but no one fitting your description was there! I swear we di-"
Angry man: "You swear? Swear what? We gave you nothing but the dust to search through! Your own scouts said he was there the night before. The magical trai-"
Kobold: "But Sir! He was no-"

Angry man: "You dare interrupt me? You insolent lizard! I can not tolerate your incompetence, and even less your disrespect. Worthless leader of a pack of scum! You fail to find the one we want; instead, you saddle me with an annoying elf woman and get your fool men all killed by a four weaklings and a bunch of elven statues down in that mine! You are less than useless to me no-"

Kobold: "No! Mercy! Merc-"
*BOOM*
Angry man: "Clean that mess up and throw the vermin 'chief' in the pit. We're leaving in 3 hours."

Assuming the conversation was over after the stench of burning flesh reached his nostrils, Larry decided to report back to his friends. They then tried to decide what the hell they should do, and where to go.

The decision was mostly made for them as four black robed and cowled men stepped out of the door without noticing the intruders. Two of them were carrying a blackened body between them. the group decided to follow the four, but only after placing some oil and caltrops in front of the locked again door.

They followed the four men into a right turn which took them into a large, damp cave hall. Deciding how to proceed into the room since they lost sight of the ones they followed took a long while, mostly because of the high stalagmite walls, sectioning the room into three areas. Finally, they decided to let the hiders hide and the fighters flank as they heard the sound of footfalls coming back towards them.

In a rather longer and tougher battle than expected, the group managed to overpower and kill 3 of the four men while one managed to escape, mostly facilitated by the sudden (magical) urge to flee. Once again, Pot O'Gold's create water did nothing but....create water.

Our heroes searched the room and the bodies of their victims, finding the pit at the end of the room, full of bones and a recently fried kobold body, from which the Kobolds leader token was quickly stolen. On the bodies of their black robed victims they found only swords and the black robes themselves, emblazoned with the sign of the Black Sun. The Black Sun cult, as Pot O'Gold knew, were an apocalypse pursuing bunch, trying to reform Loafyn under a sky with no sun at all. The bodies and robes quickly rotted into nothing.

Having been hurt rather badly by the combat, the group went back into the rooms they had come in from in order to lick and heal their many wounds. A day later, they went back in, this time entering the same door Larry had eavesdropped at the day before.

They found only the dead bodies of a goblin cleaning crew, a natural color-changing water fountain and a simple wooden throne with a secret stash under it and a door to low prison cell where Mirage had apparently been held. They surveyed the room thoroughly and came upon the idea to test the water and it's many colors, finding it full of surprises. Of course, they had to take some with them, so they did.

Much later, our heroes took the only path they didn't follow the day before and found five corridors. The right most led them outside, but rather than leave, they went back in to try the other corridors. While three others were mostly dead ends, the middle one took them into something resembling an alter room. On the alter, to their surprise, they found the still dying body of a half-dragon, half-human female. The mix of human and monster seemed magical and torturous rather than natural.

After attempting to revive the woman, and communicating with her without success, she died in the arms of Kolban, who took it upon himself to bury her as they left back through the right-most corridor.

Following the tracks of the cultists, the heroes went east, catching glimpses of a destroyed village and town. They finally arrived at a seemingly intact town, where they decided to sell their hard earned treasure, resupply, and ask a few questions. Apprently, they were not the only ones following the cultists east.

After a restful night at the Dancing Dwarf Inn, they kept going east, passing a border into a small country, where according to the border guards, was having some problems with brigands in the woodland areas.

Our heroes just kept on walking down the road, following it southeast and even noticed the slight warped appearance of the woods slightly off the road.

Still, they eventaully came upon a walled monastery and that's where our story stops, until next time...