Our story begins on Ramatos, an island surrounded by endless water. To the inhabitants of this island nothing else exists. They have all they need, life is peaceful, life is happy. A group of people received a request from a man named Mirari to investigate the fishery in Iitore. He said some sort of new creature was believed to be there, stealing the food.
Upon arrival each person met Tamaly, the owner of the fishery. First to arrive were Dave and Johnny. Dave was an elven ranger from Nixis. He arrived with his animal companion, a polar bear. Johnny was a human cleric, with a shield and warhammer ready to go. A small gnome arrived as well, forgetful, and claiming to have frequently bashed his head against objects, he couldn’t remember his name. Still it did not take him long to remember his name was Shadow. He also had an owl companion with him. Corvix approached the group next. A half-elf approached next. Dressed in dark gear this fighter was ready to go. Finally, the fifth member, another human, snuck up on the group while they were talking. This man was the rogue Eddy Christmas, and happy that no one recognized the name.
Tamaly explained that Mirari had left her 10 gold per person, but thought Mirari might be wrong to hire a group of weirdos like this and had her doubts. Still, she escorted this random bunch of characters to the stairs to her basement in order to solve her problem. They slowly started going down. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs they noticed some barrels were broken open and there was salted fish on the floor. While investigating, Johnny noticed a hole in the wall, upon closer approach a group of giant rats started pouring out of the hole.
Johnny smashed the first one with his warhammer, quickly killing it, as Christmas snuck on by and hid. More rats came and our heroes fought with weapons and magic. The rats took a bite out of Johnny and liked the taste of cleric flesh, they wanted more. It wasn’t long before Johnny was knocked out, on the ground dying. Alas his new companions managed to kill the remaining rats, with the polar bear finishing off the last rat. They then tried to heal him up. While he was hurting, he was at least conscious now.
Our heroes proceeded through the hole, squeezing through it. Christmas went first, and saw a ledge down, about 15 feet. He started to take a leak over the edge while calling to the others. Upon arrival they used a grappling hook and rope to ease their way down. This didn’t help Shadow however, as he fell flat on his head, proving true to his word that he often hit his head.
They continued down a tunnel, coming to a room lightly lit by blue fungus. It was covered in spider webs. Corvix asked for fire, and when provided with a lit torch by Christmas through it in the room, lighting the webs on fire. A giant spider quickly came out, trying to get away from the smoke and flames. Our newfound heroes killed the creature and then tended their wounds while waiting for the fires to stop.
Corvix and Christmas went up ahead. They now had a choice. To their left was an open tunnel, but to their right was a barricaded tunnel. The barricade did not seem very solid, made up of pieces of wood and shaudy barrels. Corvix heard some sounds coming from the other side and could see a rectangular object in the middle of the room. He and Christmas decided to tell the rest of the group to wait while they snuck up ahead.
While Corvix went back to the party, Christmas lit up another torch and advanced down the open tunnel. He didn’t go far before noticing a ledge 10 feet up. He decided to wait for Corvix. Corvix told the party to wait, and was upset to see Christmas had left when he returned. He then snuck off, finding Christmas shortly after. The two went up to the ledge and found an old wooden door with rusted hinges. Corvix took the lit torch and burned the door. The room inside was dirty, with a statue of an octopus with its tentacles pointing towards the bowl in the middle of the room, the only clean item, full of crystal clear water. Looking at the water they thew a rock in to see if anything would happen, but nothing.
Shadow got tired of waiting and headed down the path as well. He saw the smoke and rope and climbed up. Seeing the bowl was being investigated with stuff being thrown in, he tried to electrocute the bowl, but to no avail. Johnny and Dave wandered over as well, but had no interest in climbing the rope. Someone suggested that they give the bear some water to drink, but Dave wouldn’t let that happen. Finally, Christmas splashed some water all over his face and left, with again nothing happening.
Up along the path was a room with a cell in it and 5 small reptilian creatures (kobolds) trying to open the door. Our heroes snuck up on them and started killing the creatures, who showed some intelligence and tactics in how they fought. They surrounded Christmas who had gone in and were all picking on him. Luckily everyone survived. Christmas then picked the lock and went into the cell, locking the door behind him and finding some money, a ring, and a magical short sword. Corvix tried to break the lock, keeping Christmas in, but Christmas gave him the sword and then opened his way out again.
Next to their entrance was a hallway that seemed carved by hands rather than naturally made. The walls were smooth and the floors were made of stone tile. Dave and Johnny went in, but upon reaching the door on the other side rocks came falling on them. They quickly got out of the hallway and wouldn’t go in until someone else had.
The party went through the door and saw a room with 3 statues, 2 priests looking towards a larger statue with its hands out in front of a table. According to Johnny, this was Abadar, god of cities, law, merchants, and wealth. 9 coins were on the table. A loud voice came from the statue as they approached, saying that one of this coin’s value wasn’t the same. Place the coins in his hands and he would lift the one of greater value. If they identified the coin of a different value within 2 judgements they would receive his blessing.
Christmas wanted to give this a try, but Dave and Johnny headed to the other side of the room where there were 2 doors, afraid of what might happen. Christmas put one coin in each hand. One hand moved higher than the other. He then replaced one of the coins. One hand again moved higher than the other. He then guessed a completely different coin was of a different value. He guessed wrong as all the coins vanished and reappeared on the table. Shadow then tried twice, before guessing the correct coin. The fake coin turned out to be lead, but the other gold fell and Shadow gathered them. A door by Dave and Johnny then flung open.
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