An excerpt from Lucan's journal

So we were in this underground ... graveyard. The zombies, after falling to our blows, twitched and wiggled, and then rose to their feet. There was something foul afoot preventing them from leaving this world. We noticed that in each corner of the room there was a skull with a glowing gem within it. Valraen tried to control the zombies with the gem he had picked up. A sensible idea I suppose, but it didn't work. So he broke the gem instead. It had no obvious effect, but still seemed like the best course of action.

Elidor attempted to behead a stationary zombie lying on the ground. And missed. I'm continually unimpressed with this paladin. While his sword rattled on the stone, I ran over to another gem and smashed it with my sword. Valraen threw a third against the wall and Elidor stomped on the last one - busting it into pieces. A zombie dropped to the floor each time a gem was broken. It was then I understood that the first gem was linked to the zombie already on the floor. Finally, the zombies posed no further threat to the party.

Valraen's zombie began to feast on the fallen corpses. Absolutely disgusting! Abomination on abomination action is such a stain upon our world.

With no clear exit from the room I deduced that there must be a hidden doorway of some kind and began to search while the others watched on. I found a lever that, when pulled, opened a hidden door.

It was dark in the next room so we wisely sent the slave zombie, Jacqueline, in with a touch to get a look. As "she" opened the door wider a foul smell rolled out from the room, but otherwise appeared to be clear except for some murky water running through the back half of the room. We all filled inside.

It became quite clear that the strong odor was coming from the dirty water. The water was flowing slowly through the room with no obvious entry or exit point.

In one corner of the room was a skeleton with armor and boots. I had no interest in either piece of equipment and I believe Aria and Valraen split them up. I remember Valraen saying the solar armor (Solar +1) was "powered by the moon." Silly mage.

Our attention turned to the murky water. Pazus walked out over the water- he never misses an opportunity to show off his water walking skills. But despite his magical tricks he was not able to add anything that we did not already know.

The party was becoming frustrated. There was no clear direction to go. This murky water posed our best option for moving forward, but no one wanted to wade in to explore it further. Without warning, or good reason for that measure, I spontaneously picked up the now barren skeleton and lunged it into the soiled river. Do not ask why. I cannot explain it. I felt better for a moment, but understood that my rash action ultimately yielded nothing.

In a bit more metered response, Valraen sent his minion into the water to search its depths. Of course, once Jacqueline was below the water's surface he was not able to communicate with it. Not all ideas are good ones.

To that point the next idea would not be classified as a good one. The group was at a loss and stalled. Grasping at straws, I searched my rucksack for ideas. I pulled the wand out which I had found earlier in this ... prison. The simple wand shimmered in the dim blue light as I held it in the air. I didn't know what power was stored in this wand or if it was capable of doing anything at all! As I raised it up, my allies slinked back toward the door and then bolted from the room when I warned them I would try to use it. Cowards!

I swung the wand around wildly aiming at one wall doing my best imitation of incantations and spells I have heard spell casters perform before. The wand erupted with a stream of light which struck the wall! The stone crumbled and blew back from its might! What an awesome sight. ... and just at once the odor became even worse. I was pretty confident I had discovered the source of the horrid water. I turned to another wall and performed another display of amateur wizardry. The wand erupted again. The wall crumbled, but nothing was exposed behind the wall other than solid earth. At the same moment, the wand simply fell into ashes as a small piece of pine would in intense heat. Sadness! My wizarding hobby day was over.

The party filed back into the room slowly. I believe it was Pazus who first peeked around the door to make sure it was safe to re-enter. The blast from my first stroke exposed a hole in the wall large enough to pass through. I believe Pazus and Jacqueline searched the room - my memory escapes me on such trivial details. However I do distinctly remember Pazus coming back exclaiming that it was "the pit" from which we lowered him into upstairs. Dread came over me which was confirmed when a large slimy monster with tentacles stood up from the murky depths. This must be the monster which Pazus encountered earlier. 

We attacked the monster unmercifully. At one point Aria charged the pit monster, sending herself into the stench. In a rare gaff, she tripped and fell into the bog - knocking herself unconscious. Pazus lunged into the water to save her. Once Aria came back around, she gave Pazus a big hug; which did send a pang of jealousy down my spine, but she did smell of last month's rations and entrails so I was not completely upset.

With the monster dead upon the ground I left the room. This was a dead end. There must be something I overlooked earlier. I resumed my search along the walls in the main room. From the side room, I heard one of my allies yell "GROSS!" and the sound of vile retching. I could only imagine what they had done to that corpse. It was around that moment I came across a second lever which opened a second secret door.

Beyond the doorway, the blue tinted light returned. It seemed like this was a more habitable area. I lead the way, as usual, into a room which must have been used for range practice. Nothing notable was within except the numbers "7942" which had been carved into one of the benches. Pazus, who had been exploring further down the hallway - wondering around I suppose - rushed into the room and slammed the door behind him. Gasping for breath, all he was able to get out was "BUUUGS!" We mowed them down with ease and moved back into the hallway.

The next door we encountered was locked and had a keyhole. On a whim, I tried the silver key I picked up earlier and the door opened. I crept into the room alone. Perhaps I could get the drop on any foes unaware to my presence, but that would not be the case. There was no one in the room, which appeared to be a simple prison consisting of 6 cells. Levers on the opposite wall allowed the irons to be lifted and lowered individually.

I managed the levers, opening one cell at a time so that others could investigate. In a moment of levity, I closed one cell behind Elidor. What a prank! However the moment passed quickly. Elidor threw himself toward the entrance hoping to escape before the bars drew closed. Instead of finding himself on the outside of the bars, Elidor did not move quickly enough and was pinned UNDER the lowering irons. Quickly I opened the gate. I certainly had no intention of causing anyone harm. And it appears that Elidor will likely be bruised for at least a little while due to my joking. But candidly, why would someone attempt such a feat?!

In one cell, Valraen discovered a small box which contained a tiny glaive. No one dared touch the glaive. He stuck the glaive into his bag and we decided to move on...

Valraen: In the mind of darkness - Entry 1

I once again have awoken in an unknown world with old and new faces. This will be the 5th teleportation since I was taken from my world and forced to live out this dark and twisted game. To think that this is the path Ioun chose for me makes me disbelieve that he has any intention of aiding me in my quest to assist Adinal to the afterlife as I promised. The elven druid Aria  from my last journey is with me again. She still keeps her distance. She still doesn’t grasp that shadow and death is just another part of life that one must take part in.

The gods graced us with another abhorrent dwarf. This one is a priest. I think the teleportations have played with his sanity as each hour passes his demeanor changes and I have visions of excelling him quickly to the afterlife. Aria has led me to believe that she has journeyed with this dwarf before, and that he has changed for the worse. This party is a little discontent by the darkness of my magic. They, like Aria, correlate the arts of undead to evil. Maybe I can change their position on that as they continue to witness the life I’m able to bring to what was once lifeless.

 It has not been revealed to us yet why we have been brought here. It seems that there is a variety of uses for these tunnels, but we have yet to learn why they are here, and who or what constructed them. I just raised one of the local gnolls whom we advanced to it’s last stage of it’s life here. She and another were guarding a group of children whom didn’t last long in front of the druid area attacks. Aria did seem to be bothered by her actions, but I welcomed her bravery, as she helped these locals advanced to the next stage of their journey. I felt that one of the female gnolls would be a perfect specimen for my next undead servant. I’ve named her Jacqueline after my dearest. I miss you my love. I will see you again soon. Now that the gnoll has finished being reborn, I will take some time to rest while I have some peace and quiet.

Pazus's Log, Date Unknown(1)

Upon successfully sealing the North Tunnel, we re-entered Dashar to a hero's welcome. Despite our best efforts, many guards were lost in the struggle and the route is now closed to us. Barnaby Jones, a large lizard creature who accompanied us for a time, seems to have disappeared immediately afterward.. I will not miss him. As I struggled with those brave men trying to close the gate, I believe I saw him laughing as if watching some grand comedy unfurl.

As we navigated the town, a halfling appeared to have found his hand inside Graal's coin pouch, then got lost in the crowd, to Graal's great fury.

The guard captain(whose name I did not note) rewarded us each 400 gold pieces, and offered us information on an alternate route through the mountains. For the moment, we must contemplate the rigors of our upcoming journey, and Bahamut willing, prepare and supply ourselves adequately.

The market provided me with fresh rations, ingredients necessary to brew healing potions, and I was fortunate to find climbing gear suitable for a dwarf. The others went their own way, with Pip trailing after Graal despite Graal's murderous glances. One hopes reason will prevail and he'll not lay a hand on the child in town.

The captain provided us with a young guardsman by the name of... Lennie? Lionel? Linden?  who knows the route's location,  and we set out from the city before mid-day.

As the sun shone directly overhead, Lucan suddenly dashed off into the rocks to our left, and as we stood puzzled, two rather seedy looking dwarves from that drinking competition came wandering along from behind, claiming to seek adventure. Rather suspicious of them.. we were then accosted by that strange robed human from our earlier encounter(whom we had thought dead) who demanded we hand over our map.

Given that we have no choice but to complete these accursed trials we naturally could not provide them the map. I ducked behind my shield as it became apparent that we were to be attacked, and no sooner had I done so than the seedy dwarves both took to me with their weapons.

Linden(?) fell with an arrow in him somewhere(I could not clearly see) and Pip dove squeamishly into the brush. A ring of fire burst up around us, and Graal, charging, lept over it and tried to hurl a lasso up the cliffside to where our enemy stood above us.

Bringing my attention to my own situation, I found myself facing the hateful eyes of what must have been low-blooded dwarves. Taking a step back, I summoned a holy Shield Bearer, that I might buy a moment. The brutal efficiency of murder on both sides was stunning, and soon both of my assailants lay on the ground, giving me a moment to tend to young Lionel(?)'s wounds.

Cries from Graal behind me made it clear that the halfling from earlier had surfaced, and worse still, stolen the map from Lucan. I pray forgiveness for this, but despite my oath of pacifism I brought a divine fist down on the already-injured fellow, as he could not be allowed to escape. When my head cleared, the combat would seem to have been over, but for the cries of an injured woman on the hill above.

Everyone gathered the bodies, and apparently the archer woman had surrendered. By the time she was brought to us by Thar, she had knife wounds through both hands, and was missing a few fingers from each. It would seem this new addition to our group is as monstrous a creature as Graal has proven to be.

Together they pondered the means by which they would torture her to death as I bandaged her hands and apologized for their cruelty. During this time the others had gathered the bodies, and Graal had decided a stump would be a grand headsman's block so he set about hewing down a tree. As one of these folk had returned from the dead once already, the fallen were set alight where they lay on the ground, with whatever nearby wood could be gathered.

After a moment of prayer I decided that I would not let the half-orcs have their way, and promised no further healing should they proceed with any torture or execution of someone who surrendered fairly. After reluctant agreement, healing prayers were dispensed, mending our group's wounds and getting Lennie(?) back on his feet.

Jasmine, as this archer was called, was taken with us a bit further, but not far enough that she might know our destination. As planned, she was set on her way back to town, maimed as she was.

Soon after, we arrived at a tunnel into the mountainside blocked with stones. For some reason I thought it was a mountain pass, but now that I think of it I know he said tunnel. These things tend to slip my mind at times.. perhaps climbing gear will still be useful in a tunnel. After removing some stones we were able to climb inside, strike some torches, and set forth into the darkness.

After an hour or so, our calming walk into the cold stone of the mountain was disrupted by two flame-spewing bat creatures. Although everyone was burned in the ensuing battle, for the most part we made it out ok. I thought for a moment their flaming ichor might be used in some potion, before realizing I had nothing appropriate to carry it in, their bodies were mashed into the dust by Graal's shovel.

If my stone-sense is correct, it should be about 5pm now, date unknown.

Notes: I didn't know what kind of writing style to go with for someone who's already known to the party, has high Wisdom, and below average Intelligence. I decided on well spoken with factual errors - deliberately forgetting it was a tunnel and buying climbing gear, not being able to place Linden's name(at least I think that's what it really is, I've forgotten myself now), the clueless in-the-moment handling of the potential bat-ingredients. I would have liked to have done better, but I missed some opportunities during the actual play session. Ideally Phil won't be too mad I absconded with his character and will be able to enjoy the recap from Pazus' perspective.