As we entered the city, we were attacked by six frost giants, led by an eight-legged centaur-like creature, whose hooves hovered slightly above the ground. As we fought them, an even larger rune giant joined the fight. Its skin was like blackened iron, and glowing red runes covered its body.

During the fight, Roy was decapitated, and we managed to kill all of the enemies except for the rune giant and a single frost giant spellcaster. At this point, Zacartas put up a Prismatic Wall to hinder the rune giant’s advance, and it responded by smacking a nearby wall, which opened up a hole in the ground nearby. An obese humanoid creature beckoned to us from within the tunnel, and Thord, Ash, Devin, and Zacartas retreated into it. Unfortunately, the rest of the party was left behind.

The creature, whose skin changed color like a chameleon, spoke to us in Thassilonian, introducing himself as Morgive of the “spared“. He told us that we would save him, along with the rest of the spared. He further informed us that long ago, a volcano erupted, destroying one quarter of the city. Mesmina was their leader, who brought them underground to flee the destruction. The spared now venerate her as a goddess. However, they are now enslaved by a creature that they call the “hidden beast“. The beast emerged 30 years ago, when they expanded into the hypogium, and it can turn the spared into vampires. Meanwhile, Karzoug rules the city from the Eye of Avarice, which lies beyond the citadel of Crack-Nuratha. To get there, we must get past the occluding field, and Morgive will tell us how to do so once we defeat the hidden beast.

He led us to a basement gallery, which contained several pillars, a balcony, and a stone dais in the center. On the dais was a throne, in which sat a robed skeleton. As we drew near, the skeleton turned to us, and asked which of us would offer a sacrifice of blood.

Thord moved in to attack, but was ambushed from above by the hidden beast, which was a large creature with ten tentacles. As the rest of us joined the fight, we discovered that there were four vampiric skulks present as well, though Devin was able to harm them by channeling energy, which also hurt the hidden beast. We vanquished all of the enemies, and discovered that the skeleton on the throne was merely an illusion. We recovered from the beast a ring of invisibility, and a second ring decorated with the sihedron symbol.

Morgive told us that the sihedron ring would allow us to pass through the occluding field, but would also grant Karzoug a telepathic link to the wearer. He also said that the spared would be watching us, and would alert us whenever skulks were nearby by making a particular warning sound, to prevent us from being ambushed. Finally, he gave us a bag of holding, a staff of healing, a scroll of Greater Restoration, a scroll of True Resurrection, two scrolls of Heal, and eight vials of an elixir that would acclimate us to the current altitude.

We rested for the night in the ruins of an ancient gambling house, which was populated by a large number of the spared. The next morning, Morgive offered us two paths we could take to get to the occluding field. We could take a two-day journey to pass through Vomark’s Circus, or we could travel through the Tangle, east of Jogenburg, which would only take half a day, but is much more perilous. The Tangle contains dangerous plant life, which we he warned us to avoid speaking with.

We opted to take the longer, safer route. Morgive told us to head north, through the spolarium, which is a place where deceased combatants are stripped of their equipment, and also has a crematorium and morgue. From there, we will find a hidden path that will allow us to bypass the House of Divine Consumption. Also, we should avoid the Heptaric Locus, which lies to the west.

We went to the spolarium, and entered the morgue. There were four doors leading from the first room. Ash opened one of them, and behind it was a corridor that led to a T-shaped intersection. There were four doors in that corridor before the intersection, and we noticed gash marks on the wall, which looked like they were made by scythes.

We opened one of the other doors within the first room, and behind it was a small square room, containing a gallowdead, a skeletal creature impaled on a hook and chain. It staggered towards us, and suddenly two more such creatures emerged from the two remaining doors in this room. The creatures spoke blasphemous secrets, which caused Ash to become shaken. Zacartas trapped one of the creatures in a force cage, while Thord killed the other two. Suddenly, five more gallowdead emerged from the doors within the corridor. We destroyed them all using Devin’s channeled energy, a fireball from Zacartas, and Thord’s muscle.

We emerged from the morgue, only to find a huge blue dragon waiting for us.