With the newly recruited Hank, we followed his directions directly to the chambers of the priest Verrakahn. Hank had described him as the most merciful of the temple leaders, but his surroundings did not betray his gentler nature. He wore robes of a cleric of Bane, and sat at a long table clutching his holy symbol tightly in his hand. When he saw me kick in his door, he actually seemed to relax.
He bid us to enter, and explained his station. He had been the chief agent of Hedrac, ruler of the Temple of Elemental Evil. Seeing what the Lord of Chaos would unleash on the world had caused a crisis of faith, and Verrakahn had chosen to abandon the order. He gave us a rundown of the temple's leaders, most importantly Hedrac's newest Chosen One, who would try to loose Bane upon the world. With this, he dropped his holy symbol and tore the symbols of office from his robes. I demanded that he make up for his sins by giving more details about the temple's layout. He described Hedrac's private chambers in the rooms ahead, and that we must fear the temptations of a succubus in his employ. There were monstrous beasts held in closed pens, by a troglodyte beast trainer. Hedrac seemed to prefer employing Trolls, as he used them as jailors also. I was surprised the temple could be supplied well enough to support this much staff, being hidden so deeply within the mountain. Verrakahn answered that there was a portal Hedrac used to move supplies back and forth and to import new slaves. Neebo brightened at mention of this, knowing that we must seek out the portal if we sought to escape this mountain of madness. Verrakahn left us promptly, saying he felt his part was played and that he would escort the remaining slaves to safety as best he could. I believed he wanted to be sincere in his pledge to do no more harm to the world, but I warned him of the consequences should he fall in to his old lifestyle.
We moved stealthily into Hedrac's chambers, and Koda pilfered some scraps from the cult leader's private journal. The pages described his most recent activities, preparing a new Champion to unleash Bane and perform a specific ritual in the Purple Veil, vaguely alluding to a Black Cyst containing the Essence of Bane. The Champion would also have to carry a special rod and Armor of Force before the ritual could be complete.
This was in the most recent entry, and Neebo said we must be swift. The preparation of his new champion neared completion, and we had to beat them to the punch - my new favorite metaphor! Neebo begun to strum his lute and perform a rapid ditty describing Verrakahn, the Illithid Satow, and the Drow couple we met earlier. We saw ourselves take on the guises of our former enemies, although Rog and Koda simply became generic slaves, ones Hank had referred to as Dirt and Dirt. I found myself curiously sprouting illusory feminine wiles of the drow maiden. I disapprove of lying, but I believe there is an edict of Sensei Ping's back at the Order about the deceptive feint leaving an enemy open for a devastating strike. I think the principal applied here, although I believe I caught Rog's eyes drifting in a direction to which I object unless I've received a formal letter of romantic intent first.
We adjusted to our new disguises, and Neebo explained that we must stay in character at all costs. Koda was visibly uncomfortable, but he muttered that would do this if it meant killing Hedrac and his champion earlier. I found myself staying a few feet behind Gwen, now disguised as Satow.
We made quick time down the temple halls until we saw a large room with straw floors housing cages for all manner of animals, each several sizes beyond their breeds' average. We were hailed by a Trog, who wanted to know why we needed so many Dirts outside the living quarters. Neebo as Verrakahn bluffed that Hedrac had summoned us telepathically, to bring slaves for sacrifice as the next stage of an important arcane ritual. The savage laughed, joking that slaves were good for little else. The beast master muscled arms swung out and struck Koda, but he remained true to his vow. We soon came to a group of ogres, whom Neebo ordered to fall back to the Thane entrance and search the dragon's chambers for intruders.
The temple's structure became more maze-like, and we had many possible routes to move forward. Koda spied long swooping paths in the dust on the floor, a sign that someone had been dragged down a descending staircase. Hearing a light shuffling side down below, Gwen came to the conclusion that this could be where they were holding her former master. In search of a new ally we hurried down the staircase. What we found was not good for my mental state. The chamber was almost a hundred feet long, and every ten feet we saw a man fixed to the wall by an elaborate mechanical shackle. Only one of them in the far back stirred as we approached, and Koda fiddled with the apparatus to free the prisoner. The man lurched on all fours, and Gwen stooped to help him up. Nervously, I glanced around the chamber and realized every person in every trap on the walls was exactly identical. The man on the floor rose with sudden speed and embraced Gwen in liplock. Some readers would find this ribald, but I remind you that at this time Gwen's face was an ever wriggling mass of tendrils most closely associated with devouring the brain of it's enemies. The face of the mind flayer drew suddenly pale, and Gwen fell to her knees as soon as the kiss was over. The man we had freed suddenly shimmered in my vision, and revealed the demonic feminine form. Neebo's eyes drew wide, and after regainining his composure, yelled "Succubus! It's a demon!" I leapt through the others like lightening to lead the assault on the un-lady-like demoness. Unfortunately Gwen was now firmly in the thrall of the succubus, and rose to protect her new love. It took some subtle breaking of the fabric of space around me to get Gwen away from her, causing the effect to die down. Unfortunately, the effect was soon transferred to Rog, who tried to disembowel Hank! I dove between the two for Hank's safety, while Gwen avenged herself on the un-lady.
We were at a loss to explain the duplicates lining the walls, but left with haste before our disguises wore off - the spell would only last for one hour, and had wasted precious moments being romanced by evil.
We moved through the endless hallways of the temple until we found a chamber dedicated to the worship of elements. When I first entered I was struck by the elaborate tile work on the floor, vast geometric shapes representing earth, wind, water and fire. There were also four large elementals swirling about and releasing their energies. Rog was quick to charge into the fray, leveling his battleaxe at everything in the room. But immediately after his swing he found himself surrounded by beings intent on tearing him apart. I wrangled with the living forces of nature while I saw Gwen's familiar Didi hovering by the ceiling, unleashing a torrenta lightning over us. The result was fire, earth and water mixing in a pile on the floor, prompting Hank to try to clean up the resulting mud.
Unfortunately Koda had was ravaged badly by the elementals, and Neebo's healing prowess proved futile in invigorating the hairy rogue. Neebo himself was exhausted by the day's events, and we thought we might have rest before killing Hedrac. I was looking forward to killing him today, or at the very least having a lengthy exchange of banter before crossing weapons. I've always wanted to have a true Nemesis.
Pressing on, we found an alchemists' lab adjacent to the prison Verrakahn foreshadowed. He failed to inform us that there were fresh prisoners. One was a well dressed if slightly ragged halfling, a strange looking dwarf whose hair was a kind of shimmering fire, a wounded beast with a lion's body and a human face, which I recognized as a mythical lamasu, and a human paladin who bore the markings of Pelor. Sadly the troll jailors were also present, for the time being. Recalling the ruse that worked so well on the beast master, Neebo demanded that they free the Paladin, for yet more sacrifices. The human jailor Doggra released the Paladin to us, but said the others were still scheduled to be tortured for information. The party took our new 'prisoner' to the alchemist lab and explained. She demanded that we free the other prisoners, especially Athamel the halfling. She was very hesitant to believe our story, since we still bore our disguises, but allowing her to arm herself earned enough loyalty for the time being. Fortunately, the exit from the prison to the lab provided a natural choke point, and Neebo in Verrakahn's voice demanded the trolls "Help us defend against the intruders!" The hallway was barely big enough for one troll to traverse, so the first came out alone. Still disguised as the drowess, I stood directly in front of him and yelled, "Watch out! Jaxton Chase is here, and he brought both of his biceps!" and my hammer started swinging. The troll took only a moment to realize it was a trap, but by that time he was already being savagely pummeled by Rog and myself. I only stopped swinging after I saw a crossbow bolt fly past us at Neebo. I looked past the immediate troll threat and saw Doggra reloading his weapon. Fortunately I've got a real knack for teleportation, and put myself between the archer and the others. The next time he tried to fire down the hallway, I took full advantage of his distraction and pressed the attack. Meanwhile the troll fighting in the hall fell quickly to Rog's massive axe. Gwen had hurled an orb of acid on the others, whose wailing rang through the chamber. Doggra the remaining troll to free the lamasu, but the creature apparently remembered his abuse at their hands. The creature mauled the troll until Rog pushed him back into his cage as I pulled a lever to shut the cage door. One of the trolls began to regenerate until Gwen poured fire over his prone body.
Reader, rest assured we freed the other prisoners, and they had much to tell us of the temple, and recent events in the outside world. But after having slain so much evil, I am thoroughly exhausted. My writing hand grows tired, and I must rest. Tonight I sleep in the evacuated prison, and tomorrow I will write of new companions.
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