(Copied from previous site)
That night the party split up in Diamond Lake. Romanova soaked her bruises (wait, she hasn't fought anything yet), soaked her cares away in a perfumed bath at the Emporium and stayed ina room there for the night. Mercurio prepared dinner and stayed with his mentor Allustan. Jerad returned to the temple of Pelor and spent the night in contemplation.
Our three barbarians (one now a Cleric of Kord) strolled into the Feral Dog for some grog and some fun. Greeted in a surly manner by the albino half-orc bartender Kullen, the three took their drinks and headed downstairs for the dogfight. It was a rip roaring good time, with the bull mastiff finally overcoming the wild wolf mutt that was caught outside town earlier that day. Fighting over for the night (at least by the dogs) the boys and Phil headed back upstairs where a large blonde man had drawn a crowd around his table and was regaling them with stories of his bravery and daring while exploring the Stirgenest Cairn. This could only be Auric, adventurer of the Free City and current holder of the Champion's Games Belt. Sitting next to him and whispering in his ear every so often was his wild haired, red robed mage friend Khellek. The three joined the throng and listened in on Auric's outrageous stories. Sensing that most of the talk was empty boasting, Stonan and Nader chided Auric about the red welts on his arms and legs, tell-tale signs of a bad encounter with the stirges of the eastern shore. Khellek whispered something to Auric, and the blond giant quickly changed topics to the pair's exploits in past two years' Champions Games, soon to be held again in Greyhawk.
Along one of the walls was the third member of Auric's band, the elf maid Tirra, competing with all comers in a dagger throwing contest. On the wall were two concentric circles (remarkably well drawn for the Feral Dog) and throwing from a line 10 paces back the competitors tried to hit the bull's eye. Tirra was raking in the gold from bets placed on the game. Phil, quite penniless, stepped up and nailed a practice throw dead center. Tirra asked if she wanted to put some gold where her arm was. Phil borrowed a few coins from Stonan, but didn't throw near as well the second time and Tirra took her winnings with a wink and a shrug. Dejected, Phil stalked off. In the corner of the room she spotted two strange looking men in dark cloaks, she was sure she saw a tail flick under one of the cloaks! Going over to the table, it was obvious that the men didn't want to be bothered. "If you're not the serving girl, go away and leave us alone!" growled the one with the tail. Phil took offence and got into the face of the man. When she did, she noticed that the cowl the man wasn't shaped quite right, and Kullen's crew was starting to stand up from their table. A beating tonight wasn't worth the trouble, and Phil backed down. The three left together, but Nader went and got a room at the Emporium while Stonan and Phil walked the hour back to the mine office. In the morning, Mercurio, Romanova, and Nader met up and got the mule, Johnny, from the stables. They bought a few extra supplies before heading back to the mine office. Jerad, quite impatient to continue the exploration of the cairn, went straight there. The rest of the group caught up with him in the lantern chamber. After much discussion about where to go next, the group decided on the elevator and small chamber below the yellow lantern. After the whole group had descended into the small antechamber, Romanova tried one last time to make sure she had disarmed the trap under the stone slab. This time she was sure she got it. Working together, the three barbarians and Jerad pushed the slab into the hallway beyond. Romanova went into the hallway first. A few yards in she felt as if something was trying to affect her mentally. The group looked around, but could not find anything. Suddenly, Phil fell over, asleep! Stonan shook her awake while Romanova scanned the passage for the culprit. This time she saw it, hovering near the 20 foot cieling was a tiny gruesome creature that was nothing more than two eyes connected by a three foot strand of muscle.
Romanova quickly drew her bow and grazed one of the creatures eyes. She was rewarded with a sudden nap herself! Nader cast an enchantment on Phil to make her even bigger than normal, now that she was awake. Mercurio drew his crossbow and fired at the thing, but missed. Phil, now tall enough to strike with her axe, stormed up the hallway, but missed with her mighty blow. Stonan drew back his bow from directly underneath the monstrosity and let fly, missing as well. Faced with a larger threat, the creature turned it's eye to the half-orc, and put her to sleep! Stonan had the wind nocked out of him by Phil's massive body crumpling down on top of him. The aberration then struck fear in the heart of Jerad, and he cowered the rest of the fight. Stonan got to his feet and woke Phil, who stood and split the two eyes apart with her axe. The threat was over, for now.
Phil shrunk to her normal sive and the party took a more detailed look around the hall. There were six statues lining the hallway in pairs with outstretched hands, as if they were holding something. Near the third set of statues the hallway became unnaturally cold, and the group proceeded with caution. Rounding the corner into a small room with a large central pillar, they discovered a brown, mold like substance spead upon the floor, and it was colder the closer one got to it. Nader told everyone to get back, and he threw a bottle of alchemist's fire at the brown patch. The group was surprised when it immediately doubled in size!
Mercurio, using his knowledge of things dungeon dwelling, deduced that perhaps if fire made it grow ice might destroy it. Calling on the most minor of arcane energies he formed a ray of frost. The light blue ray shot from his fingertip barely grazing the brown mold. It had a dramatic effect, the mold blackened and died from the point of contact out! The chamber immediately began to feel warmer.
In one of the chambers off to the side the group found what appeared to be a workshop. Along one wall was a large statue in progress, holding a wooden staff with lines along the length of it dividing it into seven parts. In a corner of the room was a pedestal made of a strange red metal unknown to any of the party. Upon the pedestal was a large stone egg marked with an elemental rune. Mercurio cast a spell to see magical auras, but detected nothing in the room. Romanova was unable to detect any traps protecting the stone egg, so she went to lift it. The egg immediately rumbled to life, unfurling into an earth elemental! Luckily for the party, Mercurio understood the creatures challenge in terran and treated with the creature for information in return for efforts to break the enchantment that bound the spirit to the room. The elemental revealed that a Wind Duke of Aaqua named Nadroc used him as a servant to build the tomb for Zosiel, a minor duke who fought alongside Icosiol at the fields of Pesh.
Having all the information the elemental could provide, the group left the room making promises to help Artophanx (the elemental) that they could not hope to keep. On the other side of the column were the remains of an unfortunate soul who must have tried to loot this part of the tomb centuries ago. His chainmail was all that remained intact of him, along with a pouch containing three small statues of buildings and what appeared to be the crushed bits of three more. When Romanova released the crushing column trap she could tell that it would not function again, and she freely searched the alcove behind. In it she found two long slender wands and a pair of lenses to be worn on the eyes which improve her skill at close work. Upon examination from Jerad, both wands and the armor apeared to have enchantmens placed upon them. The other room in the area appeared to be the bedroom of the architect, and everything had been looted long ago.
Back in the lantern chamber and having explored everywhere else they could find the group made preparations to climb to the niche above the blue lantern. The group had lit torches and placed them in all the lanterns before descending into the elevator in the yellow alcove, and now the torches were sputtering. All but Nader climbed up the chain into the passage at the top of the blue alcove. Romanova moved along the passage towards what apeared to be a stone face at the end, carved in the likeness of one of the wind dukes. As she neared the face, she heard a soft click as the pressure plate beneath her foot triggered. Bright lights, blue, green, and orange started to emminate in a whirling pattern from the eyes. Phil was transfixed by the eyes and unable to move. At the same time, a stiff wind began to howl out of the mouth of the face. The wind got stronger and stronger until they were in danger of being blown out of the passage! Romanova and Stonan pressed themselves close to either side of the face and grabbed holds where they could, staying out of the worst of the wind. Mercurio was wearing the ring found on the hand in the beetles' nest and used it to float safely to the ground below. Jerad tried to brace Phil against the wind, she was still transfixed by the whirling lights. Jerad could hold on no longer and Phil blew out of the tunnel, barely missing Mercurio below. Jerad himself narrowly grabbed the chain and caught himself.
Below, Nader and Mercurio noticed that the blue torch had gone out, and replaced it with a sunrod. Immediately the lights coming from the passage above changed to only green and orange. Running out into the center of the room, they saw that the torches in those lanterns had gutered and snuffed as well. Splitting up they quickly replaced the lights in those lanterns and the wind stopped.
Up in the passage, the mouth of the face opened and beckoned the party inside.