Rivers are red, Alustan is blue.

The right hand door lead to a dead end with the dread wraith. So we turned and tried the right hand door. It revealed a cavern with a channel of red water flowing thorugh it. A stone bridge spanned the chasm. The bridge did not look very safe so Nallec bestowed flight upon my skeletal dragon and we rode it across the chasm.

On the other side was a large metal gate with strange symbols inscribed on it. The corrosion was bad and we were unable to determine what the symbols meant.
Solara went to work and trying to get us past this door. The gateway would present her with a series of dials, switches, levers, and buttons. She meticulously poured over the gate looking for any signs of danger and then set to work manipulating the door to grant us access.
The gateway seemed impassable.

As we waited the guardians of the gate grouped up and attacked.
They rose up from the solid rock and set upon us. I rode upon my still flying dragon steed near the back of the party and was immediately set upon by no less than four of the creatures.
They had three arms spread around its cylindrical body with an enormous gaping tooth filled mouth set right at the top. They put their maws to good use as they crunched down on the dragons limbs. Bones were splintering all around me as the dragon began rending and biting at one of them. It did not take too long until all that was left of the dragon was splinters of bone littering the ground. The xorns were not sated. They turned their gaping mouths to feed on us next. The dragon had bought us valuable time though. We were able to drop about half of the xorns by the time they turned to the more fleshy ones in our group. The remaining three xorns fell to our blades.
Frustrated by the gate thwarting our every attempt at passage Nallec began beating the door with his massive warhammer. The resounding tolls echoed through the cavern, but the gateway was giving way. Shortly we were able to peer past the wreckage to see an identical door just five feet beyond. Something did not seem right here. Slivik inspected the aura of the surrounding area and noticed the aura of an illusion spell. We decided that this passage might be tricky to pass and we still had another route to explore.

We crossed back over the stone bridge on foot with several of us slipping off the slick surface to land in the water below. We had anticipated that and had tied ropes to ourselves.
After ringing out the water from our clothes we opened the remaining door. It lead into a room that appeared to be well decorated, at least at one time. The carpet had long since decayed away, but a statue still held up fairly well. A single door in the right wall leads to a strange conical chamber. The floor slopes down to the center of the room and a large iron spike come down from the ceiling and stops just above a large sphere of crackling electricity. Alustan hangs suspended inside the sphere badly injured. Beyond him is a door set into the wall.

Snorri steps inside the chamber and is immediately struck by a bolt of lightning leapiong off of the central spike. I quickly ward us against such further attacks. The sphere of lightning in the center of the room stops any attempt to pass through it. I summon up the energies to disable the magic of this room for a short time. The hum in the air immediately abates as Alustan drops to the floor. Slivik scoops him up and we retreat into the previous room. We proceed to tend to Alustan's wounds. Once he awakes we relay him to happenings of Raknian at the arena and the passing of his friend. We also impart that we need to seek out his former master. Alustan tells us what he has been up to that there is a power item buried in this tomb. He advises that it is best if we locate it to use against this worm incursion. We agree as we still have unfinished business in here anyway.

After resting up Alustan decides to head back to Diamond Lake to lend as much help as he can, while we continue exploring. We head across the electrical room to pass through the door on the other side. However Slivik is struck by one of the bolts and is teleported into the electrical sphere. The rest of us make it to the other side and head down the ladder that is past the door. As I am preparing to negate the magics in the room once more the group below me set off a trap sealing the hallway they are in and begins to flood it. They quickly locate a secret door at the far end of the corridor and Nallec flies the out of the hall before the wall of water reaches them. Meanwhile my attempt at freeing Slivik has failed. Nallec drops Solara and Snorri of at a doorway across the river and heads back to get me and Slivik. We figure the quickest way of freeing him would be to destroy the metal spike. Nallec flies up and begins mangling the spike beyond recognition. Soon Slivik is freed and we rejoin the rest of the group across the river.

The small room ahead of us has 6 statues along the side walls. As we advance into the room one of the statues moves and attacks us. At the same time two sets of iron bars drop from the ceiling sealing off the exits of the room. Solara and I are stuck outside of the room while Snorri, Nallec, and Slivik battle the statue.

During the battle they discover that the statue is just an illusion covering a mechanical warrior. The wound on the being are repairing themselves and the thing drains the life energy from just a mere touch. The construct seems very resistant to spell so I am left with little to do but enlarge myself so that I can reach at least some of the people in the room to lend them healing. The constuct seems to heal itself nearly as fast as we can damage it. Its metalic covering deflects much of Solara's arrows. It is up to the axes and blade s in the room to put the mechanical being down. After a protracted battle and learning to anticipate the being moves in combat they are able to avoid several of the draining touches. Crippled by not receiving the repairs those touches brought the construct falls to the massive damage it has received. We raise the porticullis and wait to see what we will find next.

Tournament wraps up and we go home.

Searching around this shrine proves to provide little of any information. There was a heavily warded door that defeated out attempts to gain passage. Wounded and weary we retreated back to the barraks to prepare for out fight the next day. We overheard some guards talking about the ice salamander that was giving them trouble. I suspected that Raknian would pit us against this ice salamander in the monster battle in hopes of killing us off. I was right and wrong at the same time.

Raknian did indeed have us fight in the monster round. However what we faced was not an ice salamander at all. It was this hideously huge, bloated froglike creature with tentacles. In the ensueing battle it proved resistant to fire spells. Raknian had pulled a fast one on us. But Ash's versatility in the elemental magics made the ploy of little use.
The behemoth was crushing everything it could reach and swallowed Solara. By the time we subdued the beast Solara had passed to the other side. I spent the evening calling her back. We needed her help to stop what ever Raknian was planning.

The next morning we prepared for the battle with Orreck the golems. What we got caught us by complete surprise. As the opening move the opposing mage cast a terrible spell on Ash rendering him as weak minded as a dog. That was just the start of our troubles. In the middle of the fight the center of the arena erupted in a shower on debris. Out of the chasm climbed an enormous green worms with numerous tendrils waving through the air around it. The tendrils caused severe pain at the slightest touch. We offered a truce to Orreck and we turned to face the thing together. The golems smashed away at the worms fibrous, slimy hide. We could have really used Ash's magic in this fight. The giant worm turned towards Orreck and slammed its head down to the ground around him. When it lifted its head Orreck was nowhere to be seen. A short while later the beast let out a terrible pulse of negetive energy that radiated all through the arena. Most of the people in the stands collapsed to the ground as thier life force was consumed. The worm spat our Orreck, but he had been transformed into one of the worm zombies. It then inhaled the life force of all the people in the arena. Its wounds healed instantly. However we heard a cry come from down below in the chasm. While we were busy taking care of the worm I sent the diabolical minion that I summoned down into the hole to take out whoever was responsible for this.

Just as we brought the lumbering slug down out of the chasm rides Raknian atop of some infernal mount. However Raknian had been changed into an undead being, a death knight. As he rode out of the arena we realized that we had failed. Raknian had used the Apostolic Scolls. We looked around at the devestation in the arena and realized we had little time to properly tend to the dead. Powerful magics that consume your life often cause you to come back as an undead being. We burned many that evening.

Later we stopped by Eligos' house. It had been ransacked and Eligos was dead. We found a letter that he had written to Alustan. Apparently they had both trained together under the same master and that this teacher of theirs would be able to get us more information on what is really going on. We do a sending to Alustan, but there is no reply. Worried, we fire off another sending to Alustan's brother. The reply we receive is troubling. A large black dragon has attacked the town and is demanding to see Alustan. We head towards Diamond Lake as fast as we can. Last seen Alustan was investingating the Whispering Cairns. We head there stopping at the old shack for the night.

The next morning we find the dragon. It was waiting at the mouth of the cairn. The power of a dragon is a terrible sight to behold. It is a mass of slashing claws, nashing teeth, and beating wings. Its fury was dropping people left and right. Somehow most of us made it out alive, but Ash has been taken from us again. His spirit needs rest and we lay him to rest at the shack.

Slivak had been tracking the dragon all the way from the marsh and joins us to find what caused the dragon to head all this way to find Alustan. The dragon will pay for destroying part of the town and killing innocent villagers. Wee Jas has allowed me to command the very bones of the massive creature. Tomorrow we will attempt to find Alustan in the cairn.

The collapsed section of the barrow has been cleared away and it leads to a strange black portal.
Some sort of spider-like ghoulish creature lurked behind it. We defeated it and proceeded to pass through the portal. We had to proceed one by one as we pushed through the gelatin like door. The room beyond is a corridor with howling wind sweeping through it. Six cloudy, winged elementals waiting in ambush for us. The wind swept corridor continues in darkness ahead. Hopefully Alustan is still alive.