06. December 5, 2009

The Party travels south out of the bones cavern under the volcano, saving the northern tunnel for later. Kayla and Glowen take point as the party moves into the tunnel. The tunnel progresses until it reaches a 3-way fork, where Kayla finds some evidence of gelatenous cube tracks on the right two tines. The Party follows the right-most tine until it ends at an opening to the surface. Kayla lifts Glowen to the exit to determine where they are, and finds that they are on the back slope of the volcano under a bush. This appears to be a viable escape route should the party need one. Darwynn is able to broaden the exit enough to ensure that she could fit through the hole easily, if needed. The middle tine eventually opens out into a massive lava flow, as is the third.

In the third passage, Kayla begins digging through the rubble with Shelby covering her in case something comes out at her. Marzolo begins a ritual to summon a Tensor's Floating Disc to ferry the party members across the lava flow here, which is narrower (by 15 feet) than the flow in the second passage. In the middle of this, the earth ripples beneath the Party, causing damage and meyhem. Shelby is the only one left standing after this attack. Directly after this, two Earth Elementals appear and shortly thereafter 4 Gravel Shards also join in the fight. Kayla kills two of the Gravel Shards and an Earth Elemental, while Marzolo killed another Gravel Shard. The other Earth Elemental dissapears into the earth after being nearly defeted by the party. Shelby manages to kill off the last Gravel Shard. Kayla and Glowen try to determine where the remaining Earth Elemental went, but they are unsuccessful.

Marzolo goes back to summoning the Tensor's Floating Disc and is successful this time. He ferries the party across in the following order: Shelby, Glowen, Kayla, Darwynn, and finally Marzolo. The Party discovers 7 Stone Giants and a Titan. Marzolo and Shelby approach the giants, one of whom responds in Giant. Shelby spells out in Dwarven that they would like to cast a spell that will allow them to communicate. The first giant calls over a smaller, more slender giant to look at what Shelby wrote. Then the smaller one attempts to decipher the script, but is unsuccessful and attempts to communicate in Primordial. Shelby tries Dwarven speech, but that is also not understood. Shelby successfully mimes that Marzolo will cast a ritual that will allow him to understand Giant. The Giants eventually catch on that Marzolo can now understand their language. Shelby is able to use interpretive dance, aided by Marzolo's prestidigitation, to mime out what happened to them up to and including the attack by the gelatenous cube. The Giants know nothing about any connections among the various parties, but are excited by the presence of the halflings. One of the Giants creates a runed stone for them that designates them as pets, and Shelby reciprocates by giving him a Thunderstone and explaining what it does. As Shelby and Marzolo retreat, the Giants fight over who gets the Thunderstone, and they end up tossing stones at the Tital to see who gets to keep it. One of them hits the Titan in the back of the head, and he is given the Thunderstone, which he promptly eats and it explodes in his mouth.

The Party crosses back over the lava flow, injuring Darwynn in the process as she slips on her way down the rope to the Tenser's Floating Disc. Marzolo realizes that these giants are Rune Carvers, mages of the Stone Giants. They then move to the passage north of the bones cavern where Kayla discovers tracks that show that a minotaur (probably feral) has been in this area as recently as the past month. Kayla recalls that minotaurs tend to create complex mazes in an attempt to bring the favor of their god, Baphomet, a demon lord also known as the Horned King. The Party decides to leave the minotaur alone and leave the volcano complex, deciding that they can find no connection between the fire creatures, the Nezahualpili, and the gelatenous cube. They return to the surface via the emergency exit to conclude the investigation and find a supernatural stain on the earth above the mass grave. Shelby and Darwynn confirm that there is a necrotic taint in this area. Kayla believes that the flat stones in the area were used for live human sacrifice. Shelby and Darwynn know of no way to remove the taint and return the area to its natural state.

Kayla notices a movement on the ridge above the Party about 150 feet away, and Glowen is able to determine that it is a Yaunti Malison. The Party acts as though they are making camp, while Glowen sneaks off to intercept it. The Yaunti Malison approaches the party and signals his presence. Shelby responds and the Yaunti Malison says that the presence of the Nemians has broken a treaty between the Nezahualpili and the Children of Zahir. The treaty states that the Nezahualpili guaruntee that the Nemians will not return. When the Tieflings came to Mortoros, the peace treaty was broken so now the Children of Zahir are summoning the Avatar of Zehir and the Nezahualpili are trying to drive off the Tieflings. This

Yaunti Malison asks the Party not to tell the Tieflings about this so that the Nezahualpili can kill them off, and avoid war between the Nezahualpili and the Children of Zahir. If the Tieflings are driven off, the Avatar of Zehir will not be required, and the summoning ritual will not be completed. It turns out that Jelenneth is being held to become the vessel for the Avatar of Zehir. This avatar is capable of destroying Mortoros. To counter this, the Nezahualpili are in the process of animating the island's dead.

The Nemians sacrificed the Nezahualpili as a show of force, which is when they reached out to the Children of Zahir for help. In payment, the Nezahualpili paid tribute and converted to worship of Zehir. The Nezahualpili turned away from Zehir and upset the Children of Zahir, but when the Nezahualpili promised that the Nemians would not return, the treaty was struck. The Children of Zahir must be convinced that the Nemians will not return in order to agree to stop the summoning.

Items Acquired:

• • Rune Stone designating the Party as Giant pets