The Vexing Venhatis

We traveled deeper into the Dwarven ruins. Wary of what awaited further into the depths. It was as silent as a tomb down there. Morbid thoughts, but what else is that quiet. Heading in each direction were many doors leading to the Cultists' living quarters. Each one contained little more than a bed and a dresser. Not much in the way of coinage either. Where was everybody? Had we killed them all? Where was their leader?

In addition to the basic living quarters we found the High Priest's rooms. In the one was a diary of Freya. A bigwig of some renown in the cult. From what I gathered the Blight Cult came to the Vale after curse. So, they are not the cause of it. They are just capitalizing on the misfortune. There was also some details about the Cult leader Venhatis. He is described as a mad man and Freya and her brother Drognir are planning on betraying them. I kept that information in my head thinking it might come in handy.

 In the other high priest's quarters we found a treasure chest with a secret switch in the bottom. I flipped the switch in the hopes that it would reveal more treasures. Instead it opened up a secret door behind a painting. Within this area were terrible looking creatures that were nothing more than grotesque heads with wings. One emitted a harsh shriek that pierced my very soul with fear. I slumped to the ground too frightened to move, even when the creature came close to me. It inserted it's horrendous tongue into my mouth. I don't know what it was planning to do. I couldn't stop it whatever it was. Luckily my companions made quick work of the beasts and saved me before I was done in. Needless to say this encounter left a bad taste in my mouth. The sooner we got out of here the better. There was just one more door to go...

And this was the one. The black heart of the blight cult beat within this Dwarven Hall. It must have once been a temple with the balconies and the pews. At the end of the hall was a Dais where stood Venhatis and the Blight Siblings. Venhatis was a madman who's cackling laugh and jittery speech echoed off the walls. What gave him that spastic tic? As we entered the room he gave his speech and pulled a switch dropping two cages from the ceiling. Inside was one was Phineas and Deborah,the kindly farmers that sheltered us. Kevin, their son, said they were kidnapped. Inside the other was the Mayor's children. Attached to each cage was some devious trap. We were obliged to rescue them, but first we had to get through Venhatis' minions.

They appeared to be mindless goblins. They were sitting in the pews and turned on us at their master's bidding. I quickly stabbed the first one I saw with nothing to show for it but a small piercing that oozed acid. My swords would be of no use on them. It fell to the light of Heironius to deal with them. And deal it did. Trevor's god basically obliterated these "blight zombies" Good for us, bad for Venhatis. Unfortunately there was more than just zombies serving Venhatis. The balcony contained more mages, and blight priests. These suckers continued to the vex us with magic grease and acid blasts. Then to top it off, we discovered a giant Gelatinous Cube guarding the dais. On top of that, Venhatis decided taking flight was a good way to engage us. The coward hid behind Stalactites only appearing to spit acid and taunt us.

Wolfwood took care of the balcony cultists with the help of Veekay. That left the gelatinous cube for me, Trevor and Soranna. Of course Soranna found herself floating in the ooze, again. She nearly succumbed to the Cube before we finished it. Then the Siblings attacked . We fought back valiantly Wolfwood with his arrows, Trevor and I with our Swords while Soranna lay recovering on the ground. The coward siblings turned to gas and fled before we could offer the finishing blows. Meanwhile Veekay was doing his best to get Venhatis. Lightning Bolts, Magic-Missiles and every other spell he could cast. In the end it was a well-placed crossbow bolt that finally took the Mad Priest out.

We were left bloody and broken. Somehow Wolfwood's Wolf companion Toafy was killed. I quickly ran to the dais and rescued the mayor's children. Sadly there was nothing I could do for Phineas and Deborah. When Drognir escaped he dropped the key to their cage and it broke on the ground. There was nothing we could do except watch them get consumed by acid.

There is no time to mourn and no time to heal our wounds. We have to get back to the surface and the relative safety of a town.

The blight might have started to take it's toll on me. My hair has fallen out. Will I succumb...

The Curse of the Vale

I had grown weary of living off the ill-gotten gains of the local populace and was looking for a more legitimate means of employment. No, that's not right, I had procured a lovely necklace with an emerald scarab that was going to keep me fed for a few weeks. Unfortunately my fence was under surveillance from the constabulary. Turns out they were looking for this particular necklace as it had some sentimental value to the magistrate's wife. I knew nothing of the magistrate as I had pocketed it off of a very drunk Halfling at The Owlbear's Nest. Regardless, I was left holding the bag.

I wouldn't be left holding anything after it was ruled that my hand should be cut off for the crime of burglary. That didn't seem like a decent prospect for my line of work so I "volunteered" my expertise for hard labor for the benefit of the Empire. It just so happened that nearby Skylark Vale was in need of some hard labor, or at the very least some inexperienced and disposable fools to investigate. While I didn't want to be traipsing around in some diseased backwoods, I did want to keep all of my extremities so I agreed to go. The judge just laughed and even offered up a reward if the "Vale Curse" was lifted. I wonder if others have been sent to this Skylark Vale. I wonder if they ever returned...

So here I am in the bottom of an ancient underground dwarven stronghold following another in a long line of clues as to what is cursing the Vale.

We are following up on the Blight Cult, which makes sense. This cursed Vale is under some kind of blight, "blight" is right there in their name. It has to be these fools right?

If not them, then we are off to Blenlough where we were told the Dwarves have awoken an undead ancient evil. Trevor being Trevor wants to head up there anyways as "The Light of Heironius needs to exterminate this darkness." Whatever. We will go there if that's where our investigation leads. But, if it is this "Blight Cult" (Which it has to be) then that's it for me. The Empire didn't send me here to kill something that is already dead. I try to deal with the living.

Or we could see if the Goblins are behind it all. Why not? The Goblins might be trying to push the Empire out of the Vale so they can have it all to themselves. I don't think Goblins have it in them to organize an effort of this scale, but for all I know this could just be caused by them shitting in the river. Wolfwood wants to take care of them next. You can tell he's got a grudge against the Goblins for some reason, but I don't think it has anything to do with the Vale's curse.

Our only option is but a fragment of an idea from the lips of a madwoman. Hilda, the crazy lady in Morralis mentioned ruins in the North that might have something to do with it. I wonder what they are and I wonder how she knows about them. Of course, in my line of experience ancient ruins only contain monsters and treasures. I wouldn't mind the latter, but the former can be tricky at times. Maybe with this group we can make a side trip to these ruins. This investigation has already proven to be a lucrative affair, why not get as much out of it as I can. With the help of my new companions a nice monster clearing treasure hunt would be easy. And who knows, maybe the answer to our curse is there. (But really, it's got to be the Blight Cult. Just look at that name!)