Ghislain Lorah - When I accepted employment with Richter Holdings it was with mixed emotions that I joined the expedition. The boy in me was eager for adventure. My mature self understood that this was not some field trip managed by the school master. Real peril lives beyond the granite walls of Dowry. I had experienced that first hand in the previous few days. It is not in my nature to leave things unfinished.
We returned to the mouth of the Hlofolk Tunnel on the Northern side. Once again it took on the aspect of a beast quietly swallowing us. Once inside the belly, darkness was only held at bay by the light we carried with us.
The Dwarf-like creatures we were referring to as Derro, had thought better than to engage us once more. Signs of their habitation were common throughout the tunnels. I suspect that they will continue to inhabit these halls for some time to come.
We had encountered another flooded section on the Southern wing of the tunnels. Exploration would reveal that part of the blame for the flooding was by design. The other portion could be attributed to neglect. We had encountered a great hall that we suspected was either a cistern or a bath house. Some exploration revealed that the bathhouse had become a watery grave for several maidens who had met an untimely death at the hand of a killer. Slashed throats being their conveyance to the next world. Danan found a maintenance room with controls to drain the water. Hakaar and his enchanted blade Silah were poking around the chamber while the others played cards waiting for the chamber to drain when he cried out that he was under attack. I maintained a safe distance from the fray while the others investigated. The encounter proved to be a bit of a conundrum. The maids would animate and attack only to fall inanimate once more for no apparent reason. A swarm of bloodsucking leaches was enough to convince the group to wait for the chamber to finish draining before ferreting out the mystery.
Once the chamber was drained the members of the company beheaded the maids and burned their remains. No sign of the puppet master was seen after that.
We managed to complete the map to where we had been stopped by the water the first time. In the process we found the lair of a Rust Monster. Its bloated corpse had been decaying for some time.
With this wing of the tunnels fully mapped I began to pick up on a general sense of dread building in the company. After much debate it was decided that we would return to the lair of the vampires to look for anything we may have missed the first time. In the office tucked in the bookshelves were journals discussing colleagues and rivals from a wizard school in Hannover. Master Richer uncovered a tome outlining the process for creating the ghoulish automatons we had encountered here on our last visit. As he tucked the volume into his pack I prayed that book might never see the light of day again.
Other notes and scrawling by the vampire couple revealed that they worshiped a creature they referred to as Asumentium. This creature or being was attended to by a stuard or herald called Konusmaci. The pair of them were to be found beyond an area the vampires referred to as the skeleton reef.
Our search complete, we continued to reveal halls and chambers in our quest to map this place. We eventually came upon an inverse pyramid chamber that had once been a planning and coordination room for the Dwarf miners. It had been repurposed in its final days as a campaign staging ground, complete with forges, hospital wards, sleeping areas and the like. Ghosts of activity flooded my mind attempting to visualize this place in its heyday.
Anxiety grew as our options for exploration narrowed. The tunnels that delved further north were reducing quickly and the eventuality of entering the chamber of the Chaos God seemed more likely. Debate erupted as to the prudent course of action.
We had seen signs of chaos beasts having recently traversed the very halls we were inhabiting. My senses were sharpened to a point that I felt dizzy from the effort. Every scuffed surface or kicked pebble seemed to put the group more on edge. The damp cool halls that had pervaded the tunnels were left behind us as the ambient temperature climbed to a balmy, even pleasant temperature. If not for the smell of sulfur it would have been a pleasant change from the leeching cold this place embodied.
What started as a distant low rumble amplified to the point of irritation as we neared a large chamber. Flakes of ash drifted down the hall litting on the pages of this journal; coloring this text with some authenticity.
In raised voices the dialogue continued as to the next phase of our exploration. The company was divided on returning to town to share our findings or pressing on. In the end it was Master Sigismond that proved the decider. He had detected something that caught his attention. They slowly fanned out into the room to investigate. Within a few dozen paces they were nearly obscured by the ash cloud that veiled the room. Floki and his wolf companion were my only company while the others probed the cavern beyond. Then without ceremony he too disappeared into the haze.
I steeled myself against the nerves that threatened to ruin my penmanship. Occasional barked commands and shouts were all I could make out over the geysers and other natural cacophony issuing from the slate wall of gas before me.
Floki and his wolf returned taking a position at the edge of my vision, Lady Silah near by. Just seeing the others went a long way toward calming my growing fear.
A low rumbling sound rose to join the other maddening sounds in the room. Then Floki appeared, running past me.
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