-1 oil of slipperiness,

-1 potion of superior healing

DM: DGM
PCs: Zak, Eight, Eddings, Joule, Tuwidin, Chemist, Valorean (yours truly)

We gathered about 90% of the Katashakan governing body (just missing Dan) and in a
hurry went thru the portal for SQW, the ancestral home of the Khenra we helped
secure for about 20 thousand gold, or so I heard down the grapevine.

We were immediately detained for papers by the guard post set there, which demanded
our PINs, which 6 of us lacked, so we headed back to RO, requested our PINs which
were ivory necklaces enchanted with our personal information after a Zone of Truth
interview.

After a day of this bureaucracy, we went to the portal and presented our PIMs, then
were given leave to explore. With 9 hours of exploration, 6 of which were headed
South West, and 3 more due West, we sighted a manmade structure.

[Obelisk picture]
The inscription reads "The Desert road starts in the north east and ends in the
south west, round and round it goes.", the inscription faced West.

Surrounded by four walls, each facing each cardinal direction, after some studying
by Zak and Chemist it was determined that the thing radiated Conjuration magic, was
linked to other such structures and if you entered it thru the North East and
exited it thru the South West, you'd be teleported to the next point.

Tuwidin sent his steed to perform this, was teleported and then lost a connection.

After that, Eddings volunteered to follow Shame - Tuwidin's horse, and we soon
followed after his telepathic report, and the scenery went blurry, as if we were
moving at blinding speed, which somehow didn't ripped our skin or scales. But we
still could feel the heat of the sun. Walking back didn't seemed to do anything but
put the scenery in stasis, akin to just stopping.

As far as landmarks in this strange journey we came across a black stone jutting
out of the dunes about halfway in the process, then we entered another space, some
kind of monument surrounded by four eirie purple braziers, which were apparently
Continual Flames.

After some unfruitful study of the spot by Eight, we moved back the way we came,
without enjoying the benefits of the fast traveling speed as we set about trying to
go back to the black structures we were forced to bypass earlier. At the point
nightfall came upon us and Chemist made his Magnificent Mansion.

After we exited the Mansion we discovered massive tracks going West, we had a bit
of a discussion regarding if we should follow the tracks or head for the structure
we had witnessed before.

Making our way toward the black structure, we saw a female giant, dressed for the
weather which retreated upon noticing our presence, apparently headed toward the
black structure as well, and then camouflaged herself between the dunes. We ignored
her and continued forth until the structure.

When we finally entered the structure, Chemist's shard resonated audiably. Chemist
noted: "An altar for shards? Here?" in Deep Speech. Upon entering the structure we
found a massive green crystal chained by also massive golden chains on the central
position of the chamber, with a dark pit beneath, something imprisoned here, and to
my divine senses the whole place smelled of evil. Chemist quickly discovered a
secret door a few feet beyond the pit. Chemist kept talking with his shards,
mumbling about a possible entrance to the underdark where the actual altar would
be. The place seemed to be taken care of.

The party divided looking for clues while Chemist kept talking to himself
(literally) while I remained vigilant. Eventually, Zak surmised that this was akin
to a control structure from the Council, the shadowy organization that kidnaps you
if you cast the most powerful spells allowed to mortals, and Eddings managed to
notice some fake panels which open if pressed to display treasure inside. Gems,
artistic articles made of gold. This somehow seemed to be linked to the secret
entrances apparently.

The panels also bore writing which Zak began to translate at Chemist's behest.
Several complicated instructions mentioned how to activate the destruction mode,
how to shut and open the shutters, how to open the mainteinance hatch leading to
the "domain of the faceless god" which turned out to be the underdark when we spent
like 6 hours colming throught the depths.

We came across caverns of underground rivers and when Eddings, Azure and myself
were flying across a river and this massive thing of negative energy ambushed us.
Eddings quickly magicked it so it would begin dancing, I attacked it a few times
before Chemist took control of it's mind, ending the threat and gaining a massive
ally. It gives me the creeps though.

Following along, we found a Koa Toa community, a village with some kind of temple
and fisheries, and huts. They didn't noticed the monstrosity hovering some 40 feet
above us at first, upon noticing our presence they all gathered together by the
temple, about 80 creatures.

The elder of the village greeted us, called it Shooglopp, asking us if we were the
new challengers to test ourselves in the temple and "end the madness". They began
to cheer when we confirmed that we would indeed be taking the challenge.

Wooosh was our guide into the temple's first room, noting that we would have to
brave another 7 for a grand total of 8 rooms before we reached "the Nexus",
whatever this was. The first room was a massive chamber, with an roof about 500
yards up. It was a Reverse Gravity zone. Eddings Featherfalled most of the team
save myself and Tuwidin, because I had my griffon and Tuwidin spider-climbed easily
across the wall. His horse, nontheless, wasn't so fortunate. What a Shame...

Down below we found the corpses of several other challenger, nothing magical or of
value among them. Amateurs. Proceeding forward, the next room had a pool of water
on the cealing from our perspective, which we managed to jump or fly or walk into,
and that was rather freezing.

The pressure was unavoidable, so I got out of the water and began applying some Oil
of Slippery on myself while the others played with some sharks and a fucking
Kraken. After I was done slippering myself up, I concentrated on my Staff of the
Seasons focusing on the Fall, and used it to will the shadows around me and my
mount Azure, which ultimately didn't made it due to the pressure in the chamber as
I rushed past the primordial leviathan and into the following chamber.

We were met with another large submerged chamber with ancient Khenra architecture.
Then Zak moved past the row of pillars and he basically dispelled everything he was
enchanted with, then the arcane surge went into Joule and Eight with similar
effects, including the Water Breathing spell. It took us 30 minutes to get all the
spells back on them. After around an hour the pillars before us began to light up
red, so we decided to get out of dodge further up.

[Khafra Text 1]