Melora, Defiled and Desecrated

After traveling East for a long while, I saw something in the distance: a rod to the left of us (like the one we saw before) and a white platform to the right. As we grew closer, I saw debris between them -- perhaps the ruins of a destroyed camp.

When we reached the rod, we realized that it was not quite the same as the rod we had encountered earlier. This rod had a burning, red, magical glow. And throughout the destroyed camp, we found bodies that had been dead for months.

The white platform looked like it was alabaster. There was a post about 30 feet above the ground and a stairway winding up. At the base of the platform was a shaft, where the mine started.

Tiny (our Dwarven Cleric) and Bran (our Halfing Rogue) climbed up the stairs and found themselves in an observation tower with filigreed benches. Tiny tried hitting things with Loom, which just ricocheted off.

Kale (our Human Mage) and the rest of the party followed. Standing on the platform, we felt a warm wind blowing. In the distance, we could see a thin post that marked part of the town.

We returned down to the base of the platform and examined the shaft. There were handholds along the shaft, going down into the mine. We dropped a torch and watched it fall some 70 feet before reaching the mine floor. We decided to make our way down there.

At the bottom, we found a narrow passageway that we followed. The passageway skirted around a petrified tree. Past the tree, we continued onward and found ourselves walking around a buried house that was filled with stone. In this world, there seems to be a whole history and civilization buried beneath the ground, and only a few traces of their existence "poke out" into the surface.

We followed the passageway as it worked itself around more trees and structures. We finally ended up before a set of double doors. Around the doors were the remains of some diggings. It was almost as though the miners never finished their work here. Perhaps something had interrupted them.

Carlagnios, our Dragonborn Fighter, had no patience for these theories. He kicked the doors down. Inside, we found a large room with an altar along the opposite wall. As we approached, we realized to our horror that this was an altar to Melora -- an altar that had been defiled and desecrated.

(Our party did not find consensus on whether the altar was defiled, desecreated, or both. We spent quite some time debating this point until Carlagnios threatened to come down on us with a rain of steel.)

The decorative floor, which once portrayed an idyllic forest scene, was now badly chipped. Firinne, our Half-Elven Paladin, was greatly angered by the state of the altar, and we started to fix the damage.

But we were interrupted by an attack by a group of monstrous creatures that looked like demonic gorillas, crabs, and insects.

Firinne managed to strike down the first demon with her blade. Kale put another to sleep, and Bran finished him off quickly. Kale killed another, and Carl and Tiny struck down yet one more. The demons began to despair -- one of the gorilla demons even began to sing in Abyssal.

Although we had taken much damage, Firinne called upon the power of Melora and strengthed our bodies. Tiny protected us with a powerful shield. Through the strategies of Garg, our Half-Elven Warlord, and the nightmares and blows of our Eladrin Warlock Ryn, we were able to destroy these demons.

We finished cleaning up the altar and noticed a small wite disk built into the wall. It was a small symbol, which looked like a pictogram of something.

  ^
 / \    |----
/ | \   |
/  |  \  |----
|  |  |     |
|     |___  |

It was similar to things we saw in the book we found on one of the elves that ambushed us earlier.

Kale attached the scarab to the disk as a test. The scarab stuck to the disk, but nothing else happened. Kale took a rubbing of the symbol for future reference.

Garg found a nearby treasure cache in a small room. The bodies of Dwarven miners were scattered about the room. Perhaps this was where they made their last stand.

In the room, we found a great axe and a hand axe. Kale discovered that both of them were magical, so we gave them to Carlagnios and Firinne. Kale surmised that these might have been Suri's weapons. We also found some gold and a large gem.

There was nothing else to be found in the mines, so we made our way back to the surface and continued our trek to the East. As the afternoon wore on, the clouds began to clear, and we saw a bright patch of light in the sky. Perhaps there was some hope for the desolate world after all.

That night, we made camp, and slept well to regain our energy. The next morning, we continued on and finally reached the town of Sour Well.