Blogging Challenge: Best Parts of Each Season

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)

The prompt for today is "the best parts of each season," which is interesting because I don't generally think about seasons that way. For one thing, I work in a server room, so to some extent it's always cold regardless of what's going on outside. Mainly, though, I just don't tend to stop and reflect on things as an aspect of their seasons. 

So, for example, I don't generally think, "Ah, summer is here! We can go to the beach!" It's more like, "Dear ye gods it's hot outside! Why? WHYYYYY!?!?!" ...along with a bit of, "And now the boys are out of school and it will require extra effort to keep them on schedule." 

I'm in Texas, by the way, and it turns out our super-special not-federally-regulated power grid is not only incapable of handling extreme cold, it's also not real good with extreme heat. Given what the temperatures are doing right now, this is probably going to be every bit as much of a disaster as the loss of power was during the Icepocalypse. 

But the prompt was for the best parts of each season, so let's look on the positive side. 

Spring: Spring is usually (hopefully) a time when the temperatures are pleasant and it rains a lot (which I also enjoy). The plants are green and blooming, and despite what that does to my allergies it's always refreshing to see that. 

Summer: In summer the boys are out of school, so we can take family trips. Travel is absolutely the best part of summer, to my mind. 

Autumn: Fall is when the heat finally breaks and my allergies settle down; we usually get some rain again, too, which I love. There are also holidays (Halloween is, perhaps unsurprisingly, my favorite) and the boys are back in school so our household gets back into more of a rhythm. 

Winter: Texas winters tend not to be all that cold -- though climate change is making that less reliable than it was in my youth -- and I find the chill very pleasant. Also, it lets me break out some items of clothing -- coats and suchlike -- that I don't ordinarily get to wear. Plus, again, we get a stretch where the boys are in school and everybody's on a fairly regular schedule; that's more of a relief than I care to admit.

So... off the top of my head, those are my favorite parts of each season.

Sol Povos: The Sword of Kaz

We're down in the base of the dungeon with Old Man Kaz and the Death Door that guards the Sword of Kaz. Apparently the globes used to tingle and be warm to the touch. Neither of them are uncomfortable now. Old Man Kaz -- whatever he is -- considers this a very good sign.

We consider other ways of testing the door, and... well, some time back Leira turned a couple of young dragons into lizards. Marshall extracts one of them and tosses it through the door. It seems uninjured, but slips around the corner and there's a horrible whirring sound followed by a crunching.

Giant saw blades. It's giant saw blades cutting into the corridor from various angles. The former dragon is now a very deceased lizard.

Leira thinks it might be a variant of Wall of Blades, and tries to dispel it. She fails, but she doesn't think it's impossible; it's just harder than she first thought. She tries again, and manages it.

We advance, and find that the blades are all through this passage as we wind back and forth. Leira moves us along by alternating between teleport and Dispel Magic. We go forward until we find a key on the ground; then we try the other passage and find more blades. This method is working, but we're burning through Leira's spell slots at a ferocious rate, which might be a problem since we intend to teleport all the way out once we get the sword.

Then we hit a point where the blades prove highly resistant. Tavros: "Don't worry, when we get there you just turn invisible; we'll handle the smashing."

We blow all but the last of Leira's spell slots, and get to a door. It's locked, but we have a key. We open the door to an ancient crypt, with green marble floor titles and vines growing all through this.

There's a mummy standing behind the altar at the far end. "You have come at last! You are the servants of the dark one!"

Tavros: "Indeed we are, good sir!"

Mummy: "Wait a minute... you befoul this place with your presence, paladin!"

...We've found Destrian. Who was the personal priest of Kaz, who has clearly turned himself into a mummy.

Old man Kaz apparently didn't know.

Marshall: "Never fear. Mummies are my specialty."

Tavros charges, and in the process steps onto a magical symbol and triggers it. He is wracked with pain, and as a consequence misses his attack on the mummy.

Destrian casts Shield of Faith, making himself even harder to hit. Also, he animates the vines that have grown throughout the room. Tavros manages not to be trapped, but the only way out of here is going to be to kill this guy.

Marshall moves into the room and is entangled by the vines. Alexej makes his way along the edges of the room, positioning himself close enough to attack. Leira drops a ball of cold on Destrian and Tavros (who is immune) and does the mummy some damage.

The mummy casts Silence over by the door, to block off Leira and Marshall's spellcasting, but fails against Marshall. Then he reanimates the vines, entangling Tavros.

Marshall hits him with Searing Light; Alexej trips Destrian but fails to damage him. Leira sends her familiar, a talking seagull, into the room in her place. The seagull moves out of the range of the Silence and speaks her magic words for her.

Destrian dies.

Alexej and Tavros search the body:
Cloak of Resistance +2
Ring of energy resistance (fire)(minor) (+2)
Magical half-plate armor that we'll sell for gold.

Tavros casts Detect Evil on the sword on the altar, and immediately passes out. The sword is very, VERY evil.

Marshall makes his way over the sarcophagi and around the pentacle; then Marshall put his hand on the hilt. There's a whispering just outside his hearing, as the overwhelming evil of the sword tries to take him over.

He drops it, but there's still a voice in his head. He wraps his hand in cloth, and tries to pick it up without touching it. The sword is clearly still talking to him, because he's shouting answers back into the pommel (which he's holding like it's a microphone).

Tavros stirs, sits up, and says: "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HOLDING THAT THING? ARE YOU TALKING TO IT?"

There's a switch by the door; Alexej throws it at Marshal's instruction. The sword wants us to kill Old Man Kaz, who is actually the demon Marduk.

We're... basically okay with this, but Tavros really wants Marshall to put the sword in the bag of holding first. Marshall wraps the sword up in a blanket and ties it across his back.

We take a quick show of hands, and decide that yes: we're going to kill Marduk. Apparently the servants of Asmodeus are working against the Dark Lord.

The sword continues talking to Marshall as we make ready, warning him that Marduk can teleport at will and that we probably don't have time to rest before we fight him. The sword is also trying to convince Marshall that he should wield the sword against Marduk.

Marshall cast Align Weapon (Good) on our weapons, and we teleport back to Old Man Kaz. He's been pacing the room, and we teleport in basically on top of him.

Marshall uses a Quickened Divine Favor, and slashes at the "old man" with his twin-bladed scythe ("the fangs of Artem-hiss"). Alexej and Tavros move to flank; Leira sensibly turns invisible.

Old Man Kaz reverts to his demon form, swelling into a large monster; we're all knocked away. It follows up with Power Word Stun at Alexej, and stuns him. Leira casts Greater Heroism on Tavros, which mostly counters the pain he's in from stepping on that glyph.

Marshall slashes Marduk, and nearly takes his head off. The demon staggers back, and it is pissed. Tavros attacks, but misses; then Marduk attacks Leira, clawing her twice and biting her; he picks her up and says, "You stop now or she dies."

Leira promptly teleports to the far side of the room. The demon looks frustrated.

Marshall attacks again, missing; Tavros bounces his falchion off Marduk's knee, adding a bit more injury. Marduk reaches across the room and attacks Leira again, injuring her badly and grabbing her again; she's unconscious at this point.

Alexej comes out of his stun, rages, and attacks.

"Fool! Do you want your little girl to die?" He tries to intimidate Alexej.

Alexej hesitates, then attacks anyway but misses. Marshall attacks again and finishes Marduk.

While the sword is busy telling Marshall how useless the rest of us are, Tavros uses a wand of Cure Light Wounds on Leira, and we stagger back up to the surface. 

According to the servants, here's another party scheduled for tonight.

At the manor, the sword keeps whispering in Marshall's ear while we gather the servants. We explain the situation, tell them to split up the remaining gold, and then attend the party before crashing out and getting a full night's rest.

...And now the sword wants us to go to one of the northern cities, Styre, before we find the tower and depart. The sword wants us to teleport there.

After some discussion, we teleport to Styre -- Leira casts the spell. Sture is split by a river called the Grand Gulch. There's a bridge across it called the Skybridge, but with half the city on each side it's almost two different cities.

We take advantage of the opportunity to shop for supplies, because holy hell we need some. Alexej needs +3 Mithril Full Plate... or maybe +5 Mithril full plate. Marshall also needs better armor, and Tavros needs some additional options with different compositions and damage types. Considerable discussion of strategic options ensues.

The sword guides us across the skybridge, which is a market square of its own. The sword is trying to lead us to someone who has something that we need in order to get out of this place.

At this point, we will leave these characters and return to the elves. The elves will be level 14 at this point.

This is yet another Vecna manipulation, where we're almost certainly bringing back something that the god's followers will use to try to resurrect him -- and even if we get it back to the palace, it will never be well-protected enough to avoid being taken. But at this point, we're back to the Duendewood elves and their arrival at Renfall, which is going to be... interesting, given what we know they'll find there. 

Pro-tip: if you want to negotiate with elves, don't execute elves by hanging them off the ramparts so everyone can see them if they approach.

Duendewood vs. Solari: Memento Vitae

(FS557-06-24, so about two months after the Duendewood elves departed the Temple of Amun...)

Aesa set her plate on the table and lifted her fork, then set it back down. Across from her, Tarric frowned. "Are you ill?" 

She shrugged. "Upset stomach," she said. She reached for the pitcher of water, poured herself a cup, and sipped it. "I'll be fine as long as I eat slowly."

She'd managed three bites of the scrambled goose eggs and Tarric had nearly finished his entire plate when Anica sat down beside her. Anica took the pitcher and poured herself a cup of water, sipped at it, and then looked down at her plate with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. 

Tarric looked from one to the other and said, "Okay, I can see where Aesa might have a bit of an upset stomach from something she ate--" He looked at Aesa. "--though I'd assume you would cure yourself if you were really sick. But--" He looked back to Anica. "--you're a paladin. You shouldn't be able to get sick." 

Anica sat back and sighed. "I'm not sick. I just have an upset stomach."

Aesa said, "What?" She sounded puzzled. 

Before Anica could draw breath to respond, Tarric said, "Wait... Did you...?"

Anica nodded, and ran a hand through her hair. She needed to tie it back, but that could wait. 

Aesa was still frowning, puzzled. When Tarric turned to her and asked, "Both of you?" her expression changed to one of alarm:

"Both of us what?"

Anica looked at Tarric, who drew his head back and made a helpless gesture with his hands. "I should have kept my mouth shut," he said. "It's none of my business."

Aesa flushed, and then went pale. She turned to look at Anica. "So... wait. No. Wait. You and Ruin--" 

"After I tried to kill him, yes." 

"And you think we're both--"

"Showing the first symptoms, yes."

"That can't be right," said Aesa. "It can't be. It was an offering to Amun. Well, the first time was, anyway. Amun wouldn't do that to me." Then she frowned. "Corellon might, though." 

Tarric said, "Look, I'm in no position to criticize. It's not like I was sleeping alone either." 

Aesa said, "You weren't?" but Anica, quicker to make the connection, asked: "Martini?" 

Tarric nodded. "And before that, Geddy." He looked at their expressions. "What? He was charming, and handsome, and it wasn't like I was going to see him again." 

Aesa said, "Wait, so you slept with the bard and then you slept with the assassin?" 

Tarric shrugged. "Mother Mia introduced us, and I was showing her around, and one thing led to another..." He looked around, to make sure nobody was listening in. The Temple wouldn't censure any of them for any of this, but he didn't particularly want them to be part of the gossip, either. "So maybe she's staring at her breakfast with the same expression that you two had earlier," he continued. "Probably not. I don't know. I meant to see them off, but wound up sleeping away half the morning instead."

Anica nodded slowly, then turned to look at Aesa. "I really had no idea you two were..." 

"I didn't either," Aesa replied, thinking back. "And it was all very sudden and intense, and I really didn't give him a chance to object, or explain anything like that, and anyway..." She swallowed. "...we're probably never going to see him again." 

Anica nodded again at that. "Still friends?" 

Aesa smiled, then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Still friends. Besides, if you're right, we're going to have siblings. Half-siblings, anyway. So we're going to have to raise them together, when we're not busy helping people or defeating the forces of evil."

Anica laughed, then turned to look at Tarric. "You realize you're going to have to help with this, right?" 

Tarric's eyes widened. "Me? With kids? Teaching them to... do whatever it is you teach kids to do?" He grinned. "Yes, I suppose I could do that... Uncle Tarric. I like the sound of that. 'Teach us how to hit each other with sticks, Uncle Tarric.' 'Tell us about how you defeated all those kobolds, Uncle Tarric.' 'Did you really rescue all those villagers, Uncle Tarric?' Why yes, little whatever-your-names-are, I'd be happy to tell you all about it."

"Oh, no," said Anica, "You just wait until Martini shows back up to hand off your kid. You won't even know what hit you." 

Tarric made a warding gesture, but he didn't stop smiling. "Amun forbid." 

Martini isn't my character, so it'll be totally up to her player to decide whether she might be pregnant or whether she would have taken steps to prevent it. I'm pretty sure she drugged Tarric so he couldn't see her off, and she probably only failed to rob him because he doesn't really own anything that would interest her.

Character Sketch: Julian Arden

Julian Arden was heir to the chivalrous House Brightblade until he and his brothers unlocked a forbidden door in the cellars beneath his family's house. Unexpectedly bound to a bloodthirsty magic dagger, he was suspected of fratricide and refused entry to Skywall Academy. He wound up at Sunhaven by process of elimination, and is now in his third year there. The dagger serves as his focus, and gives him access to some of its own unique abilities. He has recovered somewhat from the grief-stricken mess that was he was when he first arrived, but has stayed mostly apart from the social life of the school in favor of making his own quiet way. He was disinherited but not disowned, and remains estranged from his family. Instead, he remains on campus or visits with friends on holidays.

Writing Progress: Getting There, I think

So, I haven't made any visible progress on Shadow Academy. Last week was supposed to be the week when I'd regroup, re-evaluate my projects, assign some priorities, and generally just get my feet under me. Instead, well, work just fell on my head like an avalanche of snot. (It's a rare natural phenomenon, found only in the Eastern European nation of Mucosia.) I've spent most of the last couple of days trying to export data files on stored documents -- time-consuming, since some of these document types contain upwards of 65,000 documents -- and work on other projects in between, and listen in on training for a new set of applications that we're in the process of switching over to. 

Work, basically, has eaten my life. 

But I've been thinking about the story, and how it shapes itself from my opening scene, and what the vampire prince Dominic might say upon first meeting Darian, and how Darian might respond. It'll work, I think, and it'll carry the story forward, and as I bring in more characters we'll get some interesting groupings even before we get to the final arrival at the Sunhaven Academy of the Midnight Accord.

I've also had a few oblique thoughts about Remant and a book-length project set in the milieu that I've tentatively been calling A Remnant Of Heroes. But I'm not working on that one now; it was originally intended to be a series of shorts, somewhat like the Conan stories, to occupy me when I needed a break from other projects. Just take the character, throw him into something interesting, and see what he does. 

Only... he needs a longer story arc, and I'm not ready to focus on that right now. Not yet. Someday, time and attention permitting, but first I have to survive June.

Here's hoping your projects are going well, dear readers, and if you want to talk about them in the comments I'd be excited to hear from you.

Challenge: The Best Gift I Ever Received

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in! 

The prompt for today is "the best gift I ever received," which is going to take some thinking even if I limit myself to physical gifts like birthday/Christmas presents and not metaphorical gifts like Becoming A Father.

...But after thinking about it a bit, I think I do have an answer. 

Back when my mother was still alive, she made sure that my brother and I always got at least one big present at Christmas. This continued well into our adulthood, though later on she would frequently just give us some extra cash to help take the strain off the end of the holiday season. And she was very good about checking with us to see what we actually wanted and/or needed. 

So, one year -- back during my sword-collecting days -- I asked for a kindjal. And she bought one for me. 

Now, I realize that this was probably not the most practical gift ever to grace my life; in fact, the impracticality of it was sort of the point. This was a gift requested -- and given -- for the sheer fun of owning such a thing. And it was a very elegant little blade, well-balanced and every bit as pretty as it looks. 

Unfortunately, when the boys came along I decided to pack the sword collection away, so I haven't gotten this one out in years; but someday -- someday, he repeats wistfully -- I'll be able to hang blades on the walls again, and this one can return to its place of pride.

Sol Povos: The Gate, The Blade, and Old Man Kaz

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, Marshall had destroyed the giant undead and we'd beaten down the three nasty things that kept stunning Tavros. We expend cure light wounds from some wands to get everybody back up to speed, then proceed to check out the area to the south.

Tavros uses his detect evil ability. There are three sarcophagi in the area to the south, but they do not radiate evil. To the north, the way we didn't go yet, there's something evil just at the edge of his senses.

Each sarcophagus has a statue in front of it, a person holding a brazier; Marshall checks for magic -- there is definitely something there. We get Leira to start lighting braziers for us, but separately or together they don't stay lit. The sarcophagi have Roman numerals on them, but going in numerical order doesn't help.

Based on their placement, the numbers, and like that, we assume that we need to get a fourth sarcophagus to appear. We try opening sarcophagus #1, but it's empty.

We continue to the south, finding a gate blocking a small, closet-sized area. Leira uses the wand of Knock, and Marshall pulls the gates open.

Some sort of darts come flying out to hit Tavros, Alexej, and Marshall. Leira cries out in sympathetic pain: "Whyyyyy?" It probably bears mentioning that she and Alexej are still very, very drunk.

Even knowing that there had to be something here, it takes a minor miracle to find the secret door. But, there's a passage on the far side of the door that leads to a pair of ladders. We decide to leave those for later, and re-close (but don't re-lock) the gates. We head north instead.

We open the gate on the far side, and see another of the giant undead beyond. Tavros moves first, charging in and cutting it badly, and it reaches out to grab Tavros by the throat and try to rend him. "Guys!" he chokes, "Might need some help here." 

Alexej moves up and attacks past him, injuring the giant thing with his guisarme; Marshall moves up and uses a Heal spell to all-but-kill the thing; Leira finishes it.

Tavros staggers back to his feet, gasping. "Of all... the gifts... the gods... give us... air is... second only... to sleep..." He staggers a couple of steps and stabs the thing again, just for good measure.

Marshall moves north, and Tavros follows him, moving to cover a side-passage. Four undead-demon-things immediately charge out of the corridor and try to death gaze us to death. Alexej moves up, putting himself in the death gaze as well. Fortunately, we all Death Warded ourselves before we came down here.

Marshall looks at these things and speaks a Holy Word. They are blinded and deafened. Leira drops a fireball in behind them, but these things are fire resistant.

Tavros takes a swing at the closest one, and hits it once; then they all move forward, groping blindly for meat. They try to grab Tavros and Alexej, but fail. Alexej steps back to reestablish his range, and then attacks and kills the one that was approaching him.

Marshall casts Undeath To Death. It costs us 500 GP in components, but it wipes out the remaining three.

We check the side-corridor, and find a corpse. Alexej grabs gems off the corpse -- just about enough to cover Marshall's last two spells. There's another statue with a brazier to the north; this one stays lit!

We light a second brazier on a second statue, then head down the last side-passage. There's a figure guarding the statue there: Tavros charges and hits it, though again it's resistant to damage. Tavros recognizes it from the old books: it's an entropic reaper. (The Elvish party fought one of these before, but these characters have not.)

It attacks Tavros, but misses; then Alexej moves up behind him and attacks it as well. Marshall, recognizing it as something extraplanar, tries for Dismissal. The monster has spell resistance, and manages to shake off the spell.

Leira attempts to cast a Frost Sphere on it, but doesn't get through its spell resistance. Tavros carves it up a bit more, though it's both resistant to damage and regenerating. Marshall drops a Mass Cure Light Wounds, to heal us and damage the Entropic Reaper.

The monster continues regenerating, and attacks Tavros again but can't touch him.

Tavros and Alexej lay into the thing, carving chunks off it, and it goes down. Leira lights the third brazier.

We head back down to the set of three in the southern area. There's now a fourth statue and sarcophagus, but it won't stay lit for us. We head down the passage to the west, but find only a staircase leading up.

This leaves us with two choices: up the stairs, or down the ladders.

The new coffin has a roman numeral IV inscribed on it.

We stop to check the new statue, and Leira casts Greater Heroism on Alexej. So... we try the stairs up.

Tavros and Alexej come up in the middle of the hedge maze -- and find Katarina and Beatrix sitting there waiting for them. Beatrix moves over to Alexej and asks for another kiss.

So, Katarina is beautiful and Tavros is powerfully tempted, but he resists and then he hears slupring sounds and find that Alexej and Beatrix are embraced in a life-draining smooch.

This is exactly the point where Leira emerges from the stairwell; she takes in this scene and immediately recasts Greater Invisibility. Marshall followers her out; he's been saving something special for both of them: Banishment.

He doesn't get through Beatrix's spell resistance, but Katarina is not so strong; she is banished. (Tavros is relieved.)

Alexej, meanwhile, is still busily kissing the horrible life-draining monster that is Beatrix. Tavros reaches out and (using Grapple) rips Beatrix off of Alexej, who is grossly disappointed and still wants to be kissing her in spite of the fact that it's killing him.

He strikes out and trips Tavros with his guisarme, but utterly fails to hit him with the follow-up; Beatrix rolls off into the corner.

Leira drops a Freezing Sphere on Beatrix, and takes her out. There's now the corpse of a dead succubus in the corner, and Alexej's head is clear.

Alexej: "You need hand up, friend!"

Tavros: "Are you okay, my friend?"

We light the last brazier (in the garden, here) and head back down. There's a fourth coffin now, with accompanying sarcophagus; the sarcophagus has stairs down.

We decide to go back to the house and rest. We startle Tug on the way, but head back into the guest room. Alexej -- still under the influence of greater Heroism -- wanders over the table and pulls out the journal of Guslan the Uncatchable.

"Light reveals that which is hidden."

They came to see what was in the crypt; the rogue was deeply entranced by Katarina. He had trouble finding the Brazier. Also, he alerted his friends that the east wing was dangerous. Also also, he had tea with Katarina. And Guslan finally goes off to join Katarina in the hedge maze, and probably at this point his friends tried to intervene and everybody died.

Tavros takes first watch. Alexej takes second, and Marshall takes third; Leira just sleeps. Or at least that's the plan; at the end of the second watch there's a commotion outside and somebody knocks on the door.

Marshall opens the door: "May I help you?"

It's Ayleth: "Ah, good morning, sleepy heads! We do have breakfast with the master this morning."

Leira and Marshall head to the dining room; Alexej and Tavros go back to sleep.

Old man Kaz: "Have you seen my wife?"

Marshall: "Which one?"

Kaz: "Never mind. Have you seen Katarina!? I dearly hope she hasn't forsaken me."

Marshall: "Yeaaaahhhh about that. I just want to point out that we just did you a massive favor here. MASSIVE."

Leira: "Did you know your wife was a succubus? And Katarina was a succubus?" 

Marshall: "Both soul-devouring demons, my friend. You're better off without them."

Ayleth and Alice slip out of the room. Marshall considers, and decides that this is servants being discreet rather than some sort of deliberate complicity.

Kaz: "Never mind that, where's my daughter? Gail? GAIL???"

Marshall throws Restoration on him.

He's suddenly a lot less confused. Marshall starts filling him in again, with the succubi and everything else, and...

Leira: "Oooh, Katarina's dead! I could go back to her room and steal her smut!"

Alice returns with a very fancy breakfast. Kaz continues rambling, and Marshall just says reassuring things to him; it's not worth arguing.

The very fancy, very good breakfast takes about an hour.

While they're waiting for the others to wake up, Leira and Marshall decide to go toss Katarina's room. Lug is in the foyer polishing the columns; Leira asks him where Katarina's room is. He looks disturbed. "Not my business, ma'am."

She tries to convince him, but he doesn't want any part of this. Knowing where Alice, and Ayleth, and Beatrix's room are, Leira concludes that probably Katarina was just... sharing Kaz's room. She grabs a candle, turns invisible, and sets off for Beatrix's room.

Beatrix's room is weirdly separate. There are bones under the altar/table and not much else in there. She passes through the office, ignoring Ayleth, who in turn decides to ignore the randomly opening doors, and passes into the bedroom. There's an unused pallet, a much-used bed, and a tapestry depicting a great warrior holding a mighty sword as his troops pour over the hill behind him; the sword is very detailed, and there's a tower in the background. Someone with a knowledge of Fanaxian geography might be able to locate the area where this was set.

At the man's feet is a single dead body with an insignia: the symbol of the magiknights.

There's also a backpack, which clearly belonged to a rogue; it has a lot of basic equipment, and some bloodstains on the outside: "A backpack contains Gussalen’s possessions: Lockpicks, a hand crossbow, a sap, some caltrops, ingredients for making smoke powder, 6 torches, several tinderboxes, multiple candles, and some oil."

She finds and open a large chest, containing three thousand gold; there's also a tapestry, depicting a figure in the center with his hands on the chopping block. In the background is a sobbing young boy, a stoic evil-faced man, and the warrior from the tapestries -- Kaz, who is struggling to get to the sword. Next to the warrior, resting a hand on the warrior's shoulder and evidently praying, is a priestly figure in back robes; he is holding up a holy symbol that she recognizes as the Eye of Vecna. A prominent figure is preparing to cut off a hand from the obscured figure of the dark one.

Tavros and Alexej wake up to a platter of very fancy food, and immediately stuff themselves. Once they've had a chance to make their ablutions, we head to the cemetery.

Lug is following us; he warns us to be careful and then walks away. Tavros resolves to hand him some gold if we survive this.

We return to the crypt, then head down the newly-revealed staircase: Tavros first, then Alexj, Leira, and Marshall.

The stones here are very old. We follow the passage down, and find Old Man Kaz standing with the remains of the last group of dead adventurers behind him. "Ah, good. So few adventurers even make it down here, and I could use the help."

Tavros: "So what do you need help with?"

Kaz: "You could help me turn my fortunes, and I would gladly split the spoils with you."

Tavros: "What do you have in mind?"

Kaz: "My grandfather's sword was brought back with Destrian's help, and taken through this door behind me. It is a very valuable sword, but everyone who tries to retrieve it dies in trying to pass through. The only clue is the glimpses of another world we have seen in these two globes beside the door."

We enter the room. There are two statues here: one to indicate Kaz: a powerful warrior holding a mighty sword. The second statue is pointing with its right hand to the statue of Kaz, but this one is worn down and almost featureless.

Tavros Detects Evil, on both the statues and Old Man Kaz. (Marshall, as usual, steps out of the way.) Tavros tries to keep a neutral face, and apparently Kaz doesn't notice when Tavros detects overwhelming evil from him. The northern orb shows the top edge of Mar Dentro, where the eye of Vecna was; the other one shows the area of Titan's Reach, where the Hand of Vecna is supposedly resting. 

Old Man Kaz: "I fear the priest sealed the door against anyone of this world, or perhaps until the time was right."

Tavros, half reluctant and half fascinated: "It is true that if you have sought for adventurers from outside this world, you have found some."

The treasures upstairs, which we grabbed before heading down here:
Divine Scroll (Animal Growth (1125 gp), Summon Nature's Ally V (1125 gp), True Seeing (1375 gp), Mass Cat's Grace (1650 gp), Move Earth (1650 gp)) (total 6925 gp)
Lots of money.
Manual of Bodily Health (+3) (82500 gp) (design provides clue to function)
Staff of Life (14 of 50 charges) (43610 gp)

Tavros feels he is strong enough and has no need of the Manual; Alexej could certainly use it, but Marshall has also recently lost some of his constitution and the improvement would restore what he lost. We table that conversation for later.