Phillipe Starstrike, a human Magus among Shalelu’s troops, came to where we were in Thistletop Keep to give Shalelu a status report. Shalelu left, and told Phillipe to stay with us for our remaining exploration of the keep.

Proceeding with our exploration, we found a large room flanked by pillars. At one end of the room was a raised area with an altar upon it, and behind this was a statue of Lamashtu, depicted as a pregnant woman holding two kukris in taloned hands. The edges of the room were filled with red glowing smoke. Two Yeth hounds emerged from the smoke and attacked us. They began their attack by howling at us, which caused us to panic and run, seeking shelter in the cells of the nearby torture chamber. As we became unpanicked, we fought and killed the hounds.

After the fight, we entered the altar room to investigate it properly. In the corners of the room opposite the altar were two basins of water. Phillipe’s sword pulled towards one of the basins, as though it wanted to be submerged. Phillipe dipped the sword into the water, which it absorbed, draining the basin. Meanwhile, Gulnyr smashed the statue of Lamashtu, and the altar.

We returned to Lyrie Akenja’s study, only to find that she was no longer there. In her study was a secret door, behind which were stairs leading down. We followed those stairs to a lower level.

This level of the keep had a slanted floor. The first room contained four statues of glaive-wielding men in separate alcoves. Due to the uneven floor, the statues were leaning against the walls of their alcoves. Beyond this was a hallway with three more statues, though one of them was missing its top half. Rune-covered doors were present on the sides of the hallway.

As Gulnyr walked forward, two portcullises dropped. They would have trapped him between the first two statues had he not leapt forwards in time to avoid them. As part of the mechanical workings that dropped the portcullises, the two statues rotated to face the space between them, and stabbed at the air. Then, the floor between them opened up into a pit. Finally, the mechanism reset everything to their original positions. Ash studied the trap, and disabled it by wedging pitons to block the statues from rotating. She then told Gulnyr to activate the trap again, which he did by striking the floor with his hammer. The mechanism broke when it tried to activate.

We opened one of the rune-covered doors. Beyond it was a round room, with red marble ledges adorned with books, and a fountain of blue water. Present in this room were Nualia, Lyrie, and another Yeth hound. They attacked us, and during the fight, Shalelu showed up and assisted us. Though Lyrie was fighting us, she didn’t seem to be doing all she could to harm us, and when we started to gain an advantage over Nualia, Lyrie turned against her. After we defeated Nualia, Shalelu took her into custody and headed with her back to Sandpoint.

We went back upstairs to rest for the night, and then returned to the lower level to continue exploring.

We came to an L-shaped hallway. At one end was a pair of double doors that had a carving of skeletal arms holding a skull. At the other end was a large carving of a pile of gold coins. The hallway continued beyond the carving, which was blocking the way at a narrow point.

We opened the double-doors to find a room containing a statue of a main holding a glaive and a book, and five standing sarcophagi. We started to open the sarcophagi, finding nothing within the first two, when we were attacked by three humanoid shadowy wisps. We managed to kill them.

We returned to the carving of the gold coin pile, where we noticed on closer inspection that there were six coin slots in the walls beside it. We placed six gold coins into the slots, which caused the carving to sink into the floor, and the walls beside it to part, widening the hallway. We proceeded forwards, coming to a corridor with three doors.

Behind one door was a room with some tables covered with various tools. There was also a skeleton of a two-headed man with a smaller man growing from his back. One of the tools was seven-pointed star with a handle. This star matched the symbol on an amulet that Nualia was wearing.

Behind another door in the hallway was a room with a throne on a dais. Nearby was a statue of a man holding a glaive and a book. A ghostly figure of that man was on the throne, and he appeared to be addressing an audience in Thassilonian.

We pried open the third door using the seven-pointed star weapon. This led to a room with burning candles, a carving of the same star symbol, and a fire pit. A smell like that of burning hair filled the room. Phillipe noted the presence of illusion and abjuration magic.

While we were still outside of the room, Malfeshnekor, a four-legged creature known as a Barghest, appeared in the room, and charmed Gulnyr into entering. We attacked him, and he knocked Phillipe unconscious. We decided that Malfeshnekor was too dangerous for us to fight, so we dragged Phillipe and Gulnyr away and retreated. Malfeshnekor seemed to be confined to his room, since he did not pursue us.

Shortly after this, some of Shalelu’s troops showed up. We returned with them to Sandpoint, where we planned to assist with the interrogation of Nualia.