Buried in Sand Pointe

Nuale's two henchmen, the humans that turned on her, escaped with us across the channel. I didn't pay much attention to the fighting man, but I talked to the wizardess, "Lyrie," a lot. She understood that I wanted to go back to Thistle Top, but she warned against it. I questioned her on all she knew about demons, and especially about Malfeshnekor. She said it was summoned and held there by magic, long ago. Nuale' was trying to control it, but just freed it in the end, out of spite.
The rest debated with her companion, Orik. I had thought maybe the pair would aid us, in the future, but they were too well known as criminals to be seen in public or in our company. Lyk wanted to take them to jail, but it seemed fair that since they kind of helped us in the end, they should at least go free, for now. Although we couldn't leave them defenseless, we needed some restitution or guarantee, from them.
Lyrie agreed to help us, in a way, letting me copy some rituals from her book into mine. She has really exquisite handwriting, and I have to say these four rituals I got from her stand out as the neatliest scribed in my book, despite that I probably wrote them the fastest of any; there on that beach with the demon on our heels.
She showed me the most minor demon ritual, the one that I never used at the Acadamie. I escaped before that class, and I never summoned any demons or devils. She also showed me, "Amaneunsis:" something to aid in copying scrolls, rituals and writing. Then she also had two more for me: one to detect secret doors, and the other creating eyes of alarm, to watch over me as I rest. All very useful and in a way, Lyrie would be watching over me in the times that I employ them, almost as if she was there with me.
So we parted not as friends, but not as enemies; and I wondered what adventures those two would have, what else Lyrie could instruct me about magic, and if I would ever see either of them again.


We went back to Sand Point, which seemed a much longer journey than any we had ever made between the two places. I kept thinking of some way to kill the demon - some ice spells might hurt it more? - or a way to make sure it couldn't get loose upon the world. It was a big demon, and maybe we were lucky just to escape. Still, I knew there must be more treasure there; Some valuables to help Amiko reopen her late father's glass factory and secure her future - and perhaps mine as well. I even considered just sneaking in and running out, to recapture a trinket or some wealth. I even know a spell that can make me move faster, for a short time. When I told the others, Brunt advised that his diety said it would be certain death and a fool's venture.


By the time we got in town, it all seemed too far away that it bothered me less, and I was too tired from it all to go back there too soon. I just wanted to see Amiko and let her know that I was okay. She was glad to see me, but she wasn't as happy as I thought she'd be. Amiko let us know that she called a town council for tomorrow. She wanted Lyk to be the sherriff, accusing his uncle Belor of incompetence, since the town had gone to hell, well almost, under his lack of protection.
But the council decided to keep Belor and to award us, The Saviors of Sand Pointe, Daviren's "Goblinsquash" Stables, since he was dead and had no heirs.

Belor was still away on his mission, even though we already took care of the whole problem he had went away to get help, by the time he returned to Sand Pointe. When he got back a day or two after we had saved the town yet again, he decided he would lead us into the caves under the glassworks. There was probably some unfinished business down there. We sure didn't need him, but I guess he wanted to show everyone how he could be useful. Belor even brought along a few of the town guards, just in case he needed someone to order around. Before we descended, I cast my ritual to create an invisible floating disk, to carry out any goodies I might find.

We delved beneath the glassworks once again, back the way that we had already explored when we were there before looking for Amiko, this time with Lyk and his uncle Belor in the lead, and the few town's guards at the rear. I wound up kind of just hanging in the middle as we walked, going unnoticed.

After returning to the torture room that we ended at, in our last trip down, there were three doors. Beyond one, we discovered a study, filled with books! Too bad that most of them disintegrated into dust when we touched them, they were so old. Some had runes on them, and I wanted to study them all, but there was no time there and then for that. We searched and were able to recover sixteen Thassalonian Rune tomes - the same runes that were on Nuale's amulet.

Instead of checking the other two doors, we went back up the stairs, passing back through that room where there was a strange undead ghoul in the pool. After that, we saw a checkered floored chamber. That floor was trapped, and the wood broke, causing some cave-ins.

So we went back to a locked door. Inside was the strangest sight: a dead raven was floating in the middle of that room, floating with it was a book, a wand, a scoll, and a bottle of wine. The walls arched up to the domed ceiling, all made of a red metal, and covered with strange but familiar runes. We were unsure of entering it, whether it would kill one of us, too, or what else could happen. This puzzle included a halo of maggots, suspended around the raven. Maybe the raven died two weeks ago? But then someone brought flies here to lay maggots in it? I cast a shock sphere into the room, one of the newer spells I had researched, and that killed the maggots, leaving the rest unaffected. There must have been some powerful levitation ritual to cause all these hovering objects. So I used my magical Mage Hand, to guide the objects, one at a time, from the room, into my hand. The bottle of wine had been opened, half drunk, and dated only eight years ago. The wand was a Master's Wand of Cloud of Daggers, a spell I had heard of, but never tried to cast myself. The book was maybe two or three hundred years old and about ancient Thassalonia, with a drawing of Lamaashtu. We closed and locked the door to maybe unpuzzle this mystery later.... Better not to risk anything, while more uncertin foes could be stalking us down there.

We returned to the double doors where all the demons; "spirits" went toward, in our first and only trip into this place before. Beyond those doors, we heard a deep goblin voice and also a higher pitched one. We passed the shrine of Lamaashtu, to an underground cathedral. There we found Korvis - the long missing goblin of legends, weilding his two-handed Human-sized axe. Next to him hovered a small, red, impish female with wings and a tail. She must have been Euryliam, Nuale's mentor that we had head about. I really wanted to challenge her to a spell duel, or at least take her out myself. Instead, Belor charged the imp just before she turned invisible. Then he somehow hit her again, turning her into mist, to drift toward the fountain. I was able to slow Korvis down from my spell, and then Lyk hit him twice. One more spell from me, and Korvis was down on the ground, so Lyk finished him off with one last axe swing.

Boiling water filled the large pool and a fountain spouted from the middle. The whole thing was ringed by human skulls, and I could sense a powerful magic from it. There was a triangular pool at the other end, up the pulpit, filled to almost overflowing with an orange boiling liquid. Steam and heat rising from that was actually a mist going into it, but it felt cold. Between us, we figured it must summon the demons. Like that other room no one wanted to enter, no one wanted to touch this. It needed to be stopped somehow, but we would have to figure it out later. We recoverd the items from these foes, including Euryliam's dagger, tiara, gown and unholy symbol of Lamaashtu.