Vanrakdoom I-II
…the party emerged in a stone chamber (1) with 30-foot-high ceilings. Behind them, a wide stone arch set into the south wall was decorated with gold-inlaid images of a dragon in flight. Pix read the following words, carved into the wall above the arch in Draconic: “Only a dragon can unlock this gate.” The walls sloped northeast and northwest towards alcoves containing stone fountains, each carved to look like a perched bronze dragon spouting water into an ornate stone basin.
Outside the arrival chamber, the hallway ceilings were 10 feet high. Shady led the way: scouting ahead, checking branching hallways and inspecting all doors for traps. The next chamber (2) held six web-draped pillars, buttressing the 20-foot-high ceiling of an otherwise empty hall. The floor of the next room (3) was littered with scores of wooden coffins. Some of the coffins were intact, while others had fallen apart with age. Most were empty, but three of the coffins contained resting vampire spawn that awoke and attacked! To the north (4), a vampire spawn crouched on the ceiling of an otherwise empty room… but not for long.
Outside the western door, the hall’s sconces held torches coated in a black wax and burned with a purple flame. After peeking around the corners, the party decided to check the halls back to the southwest before venturing further north. The first door they entered led to a chandlery (5), containing all the supplies and tools needed to create the black wax candles and torches, including flasks of oil, ceramic crucibles, and wooden candle molds. The supplies and tools rested on wooden tables spaced haphazardly about the room.
Inside the chamber (6) to the south, the vaulted ceiling soared to a height of 30 feet and was braced by ornate, crumbling stone arches. The room was lightly obscured by a fog. As Shady crossed the chamber’s midpoint, he experienced what he could only describe as a vision:
When he blinked, the chamber was pristine, glorious. Slumped within a grand stone throne was a skeletal lord, with crimson pinpricks burning in otherwise empty eye sockets.
“Is this it?” the skeletal lord pondered. “Is this to be my legacy? The legacy of the ‘great’ Vanrak Moonstar? A shadow king damned to rule these moonless halls, fending off assassins, mad wizards, and ghosts of the ancient dead? Is this all that Lady Shar has to offer?”
“Shady’s” voice called out, “Do not lose yourself, Vanrak—”
The skeletal lord batted at the air, casting away the entire world. “No… I have drunk my fill of darkness and loss, old friend.”
As the vision faded, Shady noticed the fog swirling around a pile of rubble at the south end of the hall: the shattered remains of the stone throne. When he approached, a smoky projection of a dragon rose from the shattered throne and lunged at him, fading away when its maw “closed.” Half buried in the rubble was an ancient mithral chain shirt, which he retrieved and stowed in Pix‘s bag of holding while he relayed his tale.
Heading back to the purple-lit halls (7) they left in the northwest, the party found a couple pits shrouded in darkness, but otherwise empty halls. Interestingly, though, they had passed and decided to go back and explore some rough-hewn tunnels (8) that appeared centuries old, but otherwise offered no clues as to their origin. A tunnel to the north sloped downward, but the party ventured northeast into the stone halls once more.
Mounted on the back walls of four wide alcoves in the hall (9) to the north were rusty iron sconces, each holding a torch coated in black wax that burned with a purple flame. The walls of the alcoves were cracked and pitted. Carved into the double door at the north end of the hall were two figures: a skeletal warrior clutching the bladeless hilt of a sword on the left door, and a handsome young man with dragon wings on the right door. Above the double door was a 3-foot-diameter disk painted black with a purple metal rim. Four swarms of rats were crawling around the feet of twelve human cultists in black robes that were chanting outside the doors. Hardly heard above the legion squeal of the rats were cultish chants sung in a low intonation and judicious pronunciation, as if their tongues dared not leave any stone unturned:
“Darkness quench the sun.
Darkness swallow the moon.
Darkness claim this dungeon and all that dwell within.”
…at least until Pix’s fireball exploded. The way north clear, the party slowly opened the doors…
Unity is a powerful force indeed—for gathered there were both cultist brothers and sisters, all petitioning the cosmos in a single, solid voice the same chant as outside. Their ritual seemed about to bear foul fruit: an 8-foot wide cloud of fog roiled at the chamber’s heart, 10 feet from the floor. Black lines arced from pillars next to each cultist and through the ivory cloud like lightning—and in it danced images of a dragon, bronze and glorious, writhing in pain as cloaked figures wearing the holy symbol of Shar and reading from scrolls darkened its scales with foul magic. Its anguished cries echoed out from the fog, out across the chamber, all while the cultists prayed to the darkness they so desperately craved.
When attacked, the fanatics continued to chant while also defending themselves. Killing a cult fanatic deactivated the pillar they stood by, destroying the line of energy emanating from it and weakening the ritual. Each time a cult fanatic dies, a shadowy figure rose from the fanatic’s corpse and joined the battle! When all six lines of energy were destroyed, the fog cloud vanished. On one of the bodies, the party found a silver rod with one end formed in the shape of a key.
In the middle of the room (11) to the east stood a wooden trestle table bearing a small pile of treasure, along with bottles of oil and flickering candles. Two human cultists were anointing the precious baubles with oil when the party opened the door… they never did finish. The items on the table included three silver bowls, two ceremonial daggers with wavy obsidian blades, a coral figurine of a mermaid clutching a pink pearl, a carved harp of exotic wood with ivory inlay and zircon gemstones, and a crystal dragon mask.
In the corner, a Tel’Quessir lay, stripped and bound. Upon releasing him, he introduced himself as Nym, an archer from the High Forest. He claimed to be sent here by his grandfather, Aelar Oakenshield. However, Thaminor was not convinced…
