You returned to the Old Temple after Haloric led most of the guard on a wild goose chase. You went into the Mad Head Ghosts' room and kicked their butts with the Lhankor Mhy head-smashing ritual. Nothing seemed to have changed in or outside the temple. You started working on the library, but were unnerved by creepy sounds (as before). You caught a few glimpses of a trollkin lurking around, but it was too quick to catch. Then it appeared behind a darkwall and cast Fear at "Habib." Poor sap, it specialed it's Fear attack and he failed his CONx5 roll; died a terrifying death. Arcus wounded it with an arrow (odd bubbling black blood) before it vanished. It pestered you for a while longer before telling you (in Darktongue, which Tison translated), "Ahh, there was a fine battle at the tower." Referring to the watch tower outside. You checked... the three guards were all dead; one tossed off the tower, one wrapped pretzel-like around a wooden beam, and another sucked dry of blood on top.
Dawn came soon after and you broke through to the library. Wow. Intact! Lots of books/scrolls, including tomes that list retirement towers in Sun County and might give clues for your search. The body of the librarian turned out to be haunted by his angry spirit, which Tison spoke to. It told a long story of it's life 700+ years ago, in much detail (it had this yelmalion geas: speak only truth!). The temple was not cursed by Yelmalio but was blown up by Yamsur's dragon-fried corpse teleporting back into the temple vault! You left the spirit alone after that; it seemed dangerous.
You started work on the Upper Temple entrance; Arcus shooed off a messenger who came to check if everything was OK there. By afternoon you broke into the temple; not much inside but an iron greatsword (vampire cultist's) and a tiny crack leading down into the vault, where you knew the vampire must "live." You waited for him, and sure enough he came out at night to get you. It was not a vampire trollkin as you suspected, but a rune-decorated Yelmalion-looking ancient vampire. A fierce battle ensued; it cast magics that shattered Arcus's shield and spear, made Pachala sweat acid, etc. Pachala dealt a crippling blow to one arm, Dorgon's ostrich hurt the other, then Pachala dealt the killing blow to its leg before it cast another nasty spell. Caernak poured holy water down its throat and you burned it; job well done.
Before you left, Arcus caught a nice Vrok hawk to train; he felt Yelmalio's favor with him. Oh yeah, Tison swears he heard a squeaky voice from the ruins say "Good riddance" as you left. Must have been the wind.
Back to Pavis; you sold the iron sword and the remnants of "Habib's" iron armor and horse. Now rolling in riches, you visited Windwhistler the golden wyrm, who had recently given his items to Yelmalion templars. He told you that he had seen Black Fangs around your fort, too. On your way to the fort, you were attacked by a magical Rockbeast (giant hairless rodent made of stone) that you easily dispatched.
In the tunnels: you searched the Flintnail door carefully; Tison found the serial code that enables the Flintnail cult to find the combination for the door. 1 season delay. The Black Fang tunnel, as suspected, was laden with very nasty traps. Tison and Dorgon made it through them OK, up to a trapdoor that opened up into the Rubble, northeast of the fort. Unfortunately, Tison missed the last trap and the ruins above collapsed on him. He survived and you figured out where the secret entrance is (not far from the fort). Later, Elohwyn set up little alarms and such, and you did your best to bury the entrance. Disorder kegs are 500L apiece; you'd need 3 of them to close that tunnel for good.
The narrow crawlspace headed down turned out to be a nightmare. Dorgon slipped in, had some problems getting stuck, and gave up after going 15m down and seeing a 15m climb up, through thick spiderwebs. You don't know what's beyond, but this looks really rough even for a smaller person like Elohwyn.
That's where we'll start this week. I think the plan is to go south to Dyskund Caverns (Puzzle Canal is not ready yet; we'll wait for Caernak, too), following your "treasure map." You should easily be able to do that just before the Zola Fel High Holy Day, then make it back home in time to prepare for Puzzle Canal. Busy season!
There will be time for a little training, shopping, and hobnobbing on Thursday, but let's try to get as much of that done beforehand as possible. I'd like to start with finishing the Wyrmsjaw tunnels, then leaving directly for Dyskund.