8 Flamerule, 1371

Dear Master Zorthaster,

This place is horrifying and deadly. We lost Shane today, the third to die in as many days. It was only by Corellen's grace and the power of a yuanti scroll that Primula was able to bring him back to life.

After dispatching the drow as I described in my last letter, our group explored past the door out of the small room, finding a passage blocked by another door. As they approached the door, Shan and Oskar were injured by a huge stone which fell from the ceiling. It was another trap. This one alerted the residents in the room beyond as well as injuring my companions. Xan leapt to the door and threw it open, allowing Primula to cast a divine spell which exploded with holy power. The group of drow ready to attack us was severely thinned by the assault. I followed up with a fireball, trying to catch the horrible wall of writhing skeletons at the far end of the chamber. The fire killed one drow warrior who had just pushed through the wall, but was blocked by the skeleton wall. There were several drow and a horrifying half-fiend behind the wall.

The wall appeared to be an unholy gift to the temple, an artifact of the desecration and unholiness that infused this dark temple to Velsharoon. No spell I cast was able to penetrate the wall, even though there were small gaps and holes that sometimes appeared. A whirlwind of bone, protected by the wall, continued to spawn skeletons to emerge and attack us. Fragments of bone whirled round in the air beyond the wall, likely making concentration in that small space very difficult.

Shane was the first to breach the wall. He did this by charging it and hitting it both with his body and the force of a ring of the ram at the same instant. Oskar followed shortly thereafter. Xan also got thought the wall, but each time someone went through, the animated skeletal figures that comprised the writhing wall of bones sought to push them back and rend their flesh with cruel talons.

I got a shield up and crashed into the wall but the strength of the skeletons was too great. It did put me in close to the wall so that I could see Shane's small body fall under the onslaught of the half-fiend and be torn apart by the skeletons of the wall. As he died, the flesh shriveled from his body and a small, gray skeleton was drawn up into the wall to join the others writhing in pain and fury. We heard a faint hoarse whisper as the halfling skeleton merged with the wall, "Avenge my death!"

Oskar and the cat were in the fray by this time and the powerful attacks of the paladin and hunting cat, coupled with the punishing arrow of the ranger soon proved too much for the drow and fiend to withstand. As the draegoloth fell, so too did the wall and the whirlwind of bone. Sadly, all that remained of the halfling were parts of a gray, tortured skeleton.

Primula still had one scroll of resurrection from the yuanti lair that has gone un-used. We moved our party out of the unholy temple and Kerith began a low, powerful song of inspiration as Primula cast the spell from her scroll. It opened a way for Shane's spirit to return and he arose, filled with vigor and ready to call down retribution on the remaining denizens of this cursed warren.

It took us a while to re-group and examine some interesting things found in the temple. One item was a letter to Derahtu, the draegloth from Vinnamar. It appeared to be an invitation for Derahtu to join forces with the Cult of the Dragon against the forces of Shar. The letter gave a frightening suggestion that the dragon ---- was nearly ready to become a dracolich. It appears that we must hurry if we are to have any hope of preventing this from happening.

Following a brief discussion about the letter, we forged on to the unexplored area of this dungeon. We discovered another pit with mummies, the kitchen which contained four more drow and a drider-cook. The commotion attracted the attention of four other drow from a pair of nearby barracks rooms. We hit them with a combination of holy smite, fireball, sound burst, and arrows. They had bunched up in the kitchen and connecting passages and fell swiftly to our attack.

These were the last of the evil inhabitants of this vile hole. We explored it thoroughly after killing the last of the drow and discovered an interesting story as we collected magical items and a few scattered valuables. It appears that this was the remnants of a failing drow house, last survivors of a dwindling drow city. The city had been trapped behind the Sharn Wall and had been declining since the creation of the wall. When this house had a priestess grow to power and spawn a draegoloth, the half-fiend led the house on an assault of the other houses. They rose to power and finally attacked the phaerim with a mass of slaves. The slaves fell under the mind control of the phaerim and were turned against the drow. Fleeing the underdark, the drow arrived on the surface and settled here, adapting to the light over the years. Only 20 years ago the area came under its current dark shadow. This coincides with the arrival of the vargouile. In the journal where we discovered this story we also discovered a map to what we presume is the stronghold of the Cult of the Dragon.

We are resting a recovering for a bit, but as crazy as it may seem, soon we will leave on an assault of the fortress of the Cult of the Dragon. We hope to be in time to prevent the creation of a dracolich. I pray to Tymora to watch over us and other fools.

Cedar