The Hutaakan Temple =================== ** 1029/12/21 ** Tess heads to the Hutaakan temple to try to lay the dead to rest. There are caves along the wall of the cliff that the temple abuts onto. The caves may lead to tunnels possibly behind the temple. The Hutaakans have sent 6 priests along to perform the ritual to rest the undead if putting the water in the altar bowl does not work. The temple goes into the cliff. There is a hole on the roof of the temple. The double doors at the front are 10 feet across, and about 20 foot high. Tess hasn't seen any undead outside. He decides to try climbing up and heading in through the hole in the roof. Tess casts Heroism and Mage Armor before heading in. He climbs up and peers in through the hole. Large chamber, on the south side is a balcony. There is a pit in the floor, coming up from the pit is flame. The pit is surrounded by a wall of fire. Tess climbs down to the balcony. It is a rectangular room. The balcony covers the south, east and west sides of the room, which are angled. Beneath the balcony are life-sized statues of jackal-headed humanoids (Hutaakans). There are double doors going possibly to the outside. To the north, there is a separate chamber with a big Hutaakan statue, and exits to the west and east. There is a big black stone in front of the statue, probably the altar, and there is no altar bowl. The carvings on the wall have been defaced by the Humans. Over the pit is an empty man-sized metal cage on a chain. At the northern ends of the east and west side of the balcony is a spiral staircase, and the winch chain control for the cage is on the balcony. The altar appears to be made out of black marble. There is a shallow recess in the top of the altar, but the altar bowl is missing. Passages to the east and west have doors. In the main temple room, there were also doors to the east and west. Tess checks out the east door in the altar room. There are hoods, robes, capes, cowls, etc. and it has been searched. Tess then checks the room to the west, and is surprised. There are 3 ghouls that leap towards Tessarael. These ghouls stink and seem nastier than usual. Tess is not overcome by the smell. One manages to bite Tess, he then chops one down. He gets bitten twice. He cuts another one down. They appear to be former Hutaakans, and do not carry anything of value. Tess finds a secret door in the back of the room. Tess finds a magic trap on the secret door. Tess disables the trap. Tess straps on his shield, then opens the door carefully. There is a short corridor, it bends up ahead. There is a dead Hutaakan in the corridor. The corpse is wearing fine plate armor and has valuable jewelery on it. The corpse moves. It scribes a symbol on the ground. Tess is hit by wracking pain. Tess moves up and wounds it. He then is almost paralyzed by fear (spending a CP to not be paralyzed). The corpse reaches out to touch Tess and he almost dies (spending another CP), and takes a fair bit of damage from Slay Living. Tess misses 3 times and hits it once. Its hand crackles with negative energy and it hits, trying to suck the life energy from Tess, but he survives. Tess hits it twice more. It casts Harm on Tessarael, who saves, and takes 60 points of damage. Tess then cuts it down. The corpse has magic items on it: - strong dweomer magic full plate (of strange design) - moderate dweomer magic ring - belt pouch: potion (transmutation) + scroll (3 divine spells) - faint dweomer magic ring - abjuration dweomer broach Non-magical: platinum gem-studded device Tess asks Thora over the communicator what type of undead it might have been. She does not know. Tess hides the ghouls bodies in this corridor. Tess heads out to meet the Hutaakans. Tess asks about the missing altar bowl. They say that maybe it was stored in the catacombs underneath the temple. They also need the altar bowl for their ceremony. Tess goes back to the secret door at the other end of the secret tunnel. There are someone's quarters here, but they have been smashed. There is a collapsed corridor, which is a crawl space now. Doesn't look very stable. Tess drinks a Potion of Reduce Person, and heads down the crawl space, and he gets to another room at the end. It has one exit to the south. There are scrolls on wooden shelves, and a set of doors to the east. The scrolls appear to be written in Hutaakan, and mostly appear to be historical and some have information on the religion. It is a room full of scrolls and 40 by 40 feet. There does not appear to be any catalogue or index of the scrolls therein. None of the scrolls were magical. Tess searches the door to the east. There is a magic trap. Tess disarms the trap. It is the same type as the one before. Tess enters a triangular room. There is another exit to the east. There is a ceremonial silver wash stand (where one would wash one's hands) in the center. The walls and ceiling are covered with stylized frescoes depicting historical events. The doors open up to the main chamber. Tess goes into the other side, where there is a matching room with silver wash stand and frescoes. The frescoes indicate the creation of the race by a godly figure, and it appears to have been in the valley, in a structure perhaps where this temple is. Later frescoes show the Hutaakans developing advanced crafts like the spinning wheel. They then spread through the low lands, where they encountered Humans, who they generously shared the crafts with (Humans amazed by the Hutaakan technology). There is a scene of what appears to be the closing of the valley. Then there is a scene of Gnolls attacking, burning a temple, and in the background they're burning a farm that has Humans on it. The last fresco shows the Humans rebelling against the Hutaakans - beating a Hutaakan over the head with a spinning wheel. There are stairs down to the east. Tess goes down the stairs and then sees a door to the left, and stairs further down to the right. Tess heads through the door to the left, and finds quarters after a brief corridor. Tess heads further down the stairs. It stops at some doors. Tess encounters a crypt. There are bodies laying around. There are no exits. The crypt room itself is 30 feet by 60 feet. Tess casts Detect Undead and finds some. The strongest aura is overwhelming. There are 17 total. 8 faint, 6 moderate, 2 strong, 1 overwhelming. All but one are the dead bodies in front of Tess. The overwhelming one is in a sarcophagus. Tess casts Shield, Blur, See Invisibility, and Blink. Tess kills two skeletons on the ground, and then the undead start to stir. Tess takes out the skeletons and zombies easily. The stronger ones are Wights. Tess kills the wights. Tess attempts to open the sarcophagus. Inside is a mummified Hutaakan which lurches out to attack. Tess kills it after saving versus being paralyzed from fear. Tess finds a silver needle with gold thread, a jewelled orb, and a pearl-encrusted scepter. Tess cleans up the crypt a bit and searches. Behind the sarcophagus with the mummy is a tunnel, which the sarcophagus was covering. Tess heads down the tunnel. It appears to be hand-carved and meanders. It slopes downhill. The passage wanders quite a way. Tess comes out to an area with a larger cavern, with a double thickness of iron bars, blocking whatever is on the other side from coming in, or blocking Tess from going further. Tess sees an area of magical darkness in the room that he overlooks, beyond the bars. The tunnels Tess came through are rank and drink with stagnant, oily water. Tess hears the noise of something slithering. The other exits are to the north and the south. The room itself is 80 foot across, and the magical darkness is 50 foot from Tess. Tess uses Sonnescheint to penetrate the darkness. There is a hole in the ceiling at that point. About the same size as the pit. There is nothing there that Tess can see. The slithering sound fades. The darkness comes back after Tess stops using Sonnescheint. Tess returns and talks to the Hutaakan priests. They used to feed meat to the creature to sate it. Hence the cage to lower it. There are tales that the mountains are riddled with tunnels that lead to there. They decide to go into the temple. Tess and the priests enter the antechamber and destroy the weaker undead there. The elaborate frescoes in the antechamber were defaced. The antechamber had a space for a silver washstand, but it is gone. We return to spend the night at the Hutaakan village. Tess memorizes a teleport location at the Hutaakan village. ** 1029/12/22 ** The next day, Tess follows the slithering tracks. Tess eventually gets back to the region of the catacombs behind the iron bars. Tess takes several lefts, following the left hand wall. Tess gets covered by spores from Yellow Mold, and back pedals away. Tess backs away, and takes the first right. Tess encounters the magical darkness. He uses Sonnescheint to light it up. It is not the same magical darkness he had seen before. Tess hears slithering up ahead. Tess moves up to find how far the magical darkness. Tess sees a pit, and some tentacles appear to attack Tess - dripping tentacles. They attempt to grapple Tess four times, but he escapes. The tentacles are coming horizontally at Tess. Tess runs ahead of it, slow enough that it can follow - it's speed is 15' per round. It is a large green mound of ooze, with four 40' long tentacles, and a big gaping maw. It is leaving a slime trail. It eventually stops and turns around. Near the creature's maw is a small silver bar. Tess casts Arcane Sight - it doesn't have any magical powers; but the silver bar is magical - faint Transmutation. ** 1029/12/23 ** Tess returns to spend the night at the Hutaakan village. Tess describes the creature to the Hutaakans. The silver bar may be a key for a magical lock. After further investigation of the catacombs the next day, Tess finds that there is no path (except dead ends) that does not eventually lead to that corridor with that patch of magical darkness. ** 1029/12/24 ** Tess returns to the catacombs after spending overnight at the Human village and failing to convince them to make peace with the Hutaakans. Tess goes back to looking for the altar bowl in the catacombs the next day. Tess memorizes a teleport location on the other side of the bars. He Blinks through the iron bars. The tunnel to the south leads to magical darkness. The other tunnel takes Tess about an hour to explore. Tess avoids two lots of Yellow Mold at corridors that appear to dead end fairly quickly. No sounds of the slithering creature. Tess encounters a room with a ladder up to a trapdoor. It opens to a worked stone octagonal room with thick dust. There are piles of treasure here, including a golden bowl. On the south wall is a door. The items here: - the golden altar bowl - 3 large chests - large ebony throne - coronet (crown) * a sack - moderately magical * a rod - strongly magical * something in a pouch - inside is a fox's head broach, strong magic - a big tapestry on the table - old and faded - there is probably something underneath it The door has no lock or handle - a magic door of some description (moderate magic). According to Tess' Dwarven belt he is now at ground level. Tess casts Detect Magic to determine what is magical. Tess uses Gaseous Form to get beyond the magical door. Tess is behind the big statue in the altar room. Tess goes back and picks up the altar bowl and magical items. Tess goes back to the Hutaakan village with the altar bowl to organize them to do the ritual. ** 1029/12/25 ** We put water from the Singing Pool in the altar bowl, and the Hutaakans perform the ritual, which takes an hour. At the end of it, they say the ritual has been done, and the undead shall be at peace. We can go back and celebrate. Outside Tess spots lurking nearby a large number of the Traldar Humans. They are getting ready to ambush Tess and the Hutaakans. Tess fails to convince the Humans that they are being stupid. There are 50 to 80 Humans out there. The are 6 Hutaakan priests and the high priestess makes 7. The Hutaakans block the doors with furniture, take out slings, and put aside their robes, they are wearing leather armor underneath. The Humans stay outside, as they don't want to charge in through a narrow doorway. Tess wants to get the Hutaakans to help the Humans survive an attack by the creature, in order to get peace and trade going between them. The Hutaakans would be happy with peace, assuming the Humans don't attack. For trade the Humans can provide crops and raw materials, in exchange for craft goods from the Hutaakans. The Hutaakan priests would be happy to agree to this - Tess just needs to convince the Humans ... Tess reveals the magic items he found in the temple to the priests. He asks them if they can identify what they are. The rod is some kind of antimagic rod, a Rod of Cancellation. The fox's head will protect you from energy drains. They don't know what the sack is. Tess gives the high priestess the regalia from the former High Priestess. The magical fullplate of the skeleton that threw spells is of particularly fine work. They don't know what the potion is. The scroll has Divine spells: Cure Serious Wounds, Raise Dead, and Remove Curse. Tess gives the high priestess the scroll, as it may come in useful.