The sliths have thrown their trash (and the bodies of several miners who weren't lucky enough to escape) back here.
To the north is some recent construction. The walls are massive, crude, and very sturdy. They were clearly built for one purpose ... they help the sinister invaders of the mine defend themselves against attackers. For example, you.
These long, low halls are all human made. They were dug out by shovels and picks, in order to work the rich veins of silver and gold ore.
One of the sliths ahead has a wand of fireballs, and isn't being shy about using it.
You find the Slithzerikai chief's journal. You puzzle your way through it, trying to find out what these creatures, so far unknown on the surface, are doing here. These sliths were members of a band in Exile led by the evil and mighty chief Sss-Thsss.
After Sss-Thsss was killed by adventurers, they went off into tunnels unreached by humans. After years of nomadic wandering, they found a way to the surface. After a year more, they decided to take up banditry. They came here, and the journal ends.
You finally find a way out of this cavern. It's the bears' secret back way out, concealed by thickets and shrubs.
You move into the lair of the ursagi, the massive, sinister, intelligent bears that infest these hills. As you enter, you think you hear some of the creatures talking and moving outside. Hope you're prepared ...
As you move farther into the cave, you hear the deafening rumble of stone behind you. It's an avalanche! You dive for cover. When the rockfall ends, you look back, and see someone has rolled massive amounts of stone into the cave entrance. You're trapped!
The farther west you go, the chillier this cavern gets. You have to be careful to keep from slipping on the icy floor.
The ursagi have the odd tendency to use goblins as slaves, servants, and grooms. (And possibly sometimes food, but you prefer not to think about that.) This is where their goblins are stored when not being used.
Several ursagi were concealed on ledges above and behind you. They leap out to ambush you. You're extremely alarmed by how fast and limber the massive beasts are. Huge teeth and claws bared, they go after you.
You built up a massive charge of holy energy, and hurl it at the strange stone structure. The structure absorbs the energy and remains completely undamaged. Whatever this thing is, it's a type of magic you're completely unfamiliar with.
Crossing your fingers and hoping you're doing the right thing, you shatter the crystal with one sure swing of your weapon. As the pieces of quartz fly across the glade, the spirit inside rises up and howls. You recognize the voice - it's Vahkohs!
"Curse you!" it screams as it begins to fade. "Curse you! Curse you for all eterniteeeeeeee ..." and it's gone. At last, this dark creature has been eliminated for good.
You emerge from the tomb on the other side, and find a small glade. The trees are twisted and warped, and block out most of the sunlight. In the middle of the glade is a pedestal.
You pull the lever, and hear the clattering of distant chains you have come to associate with pulling levers in Valorim.
Interesting! The smell as the barrier chars your flesh is not unlike that of frying bacon! You back away, while you still have noses to smell with.
The vampire's writing is cramped, and his magical formulae are confusing in the extreme. Try as you might, you just can't figure his spellbook out.
The vampire's writing is cramped, and his magical formulae are confusing to the extreme. Nonetheless, you manage to eke some learning from the ancient pages. You now know the spell Antimagic Cloud.
The vampire's writing is cramped, and his magical formulae are confusing in the extreme. Fortunately, you manage to puzzle it out and figure out one of the spells. You can now cast Force Barrier.
You stare into the gloomy halls of this huge, dark stone building. Right inside is a large entry hall, with a massive, ornate, empty throne.
The halls are not empty, however. They're full of undead, wandering aimlessly about. Interestingly, they seem uninterested in attacking you. They don't even notice you.
You suddenly hear the voice of the vampire Vahkohs in your head. He says "Oh, so you thought you killed me? I'm much more cunning than that. I live still, and will torment you 'til the end of your days." You feel very ill and confused.
You strike the final blow, and the vampire Vahkohs falls. As expected, his body begins to moulder immediately. However, something very unexpected happens. His spirit rises from his decaying form and hovers in front of you.
It doesn't make any sound, however. It just floats away through a nearby wall. It seemed too insubstantial to affect you. Very odd. Oh well. Now that the tomb's owner has been defeated, the undead hordes in this area should fade away. Victory is yours!
You are at the west end of a massive hall. Lining its sides are statues of troglodytes, but not regular stunted troglos. They're tall, and distinguished, and each has the name of a great troglo hero at the base.
You notice that there are paths sloping upward at the far east end of the cave. You also notice that there aren't any troglodytes in sight. It's quiet. Too quiet.
You find a small, hidden temple storeroom. On the counter is a full, beautiful suit of troglodyte ceremonial armor. If you got it modified and scraped off the troglo symbols, it might make a very good suit of armor for you.
There are many troglodyte bones and skulls in this cavern. It looks like many troglos have come here to repeatedly expectorate and throw garbage on them. It's pretty gross.
There is a crater to the southeast, from which bubbles the fresh magma that flows through these caverns. Going any further southeast, even with magical protection, will result in your becoming small, blackened piles of carbon.
The giants have erected a stone platform in the middle of this cavern. It has an alabaster pedestal in the center. This must be where they place the stuff they really want well protected.
You have discovered a very old altar of unknown origin. It's very run down. The many volcanic quakes that have buffeted it over the years have cracked the floor, pillars, and altar. Basalt dust covers everything.
The volcanic crater to the southeast constantly spits out fireballs. Unfortunately, one of them lands near you.
The altar is cracked and decayed, but the magical traps placed on it remain. Ball lightning flies forth and makes your day a lot worse.
Insubstantial shapes rise through the floor. You look around you, and see a lot of them. They're spirits and spectres, who float through the moving walls to attack you.
The portal teleports you to another cavern. The teleportation makes you feel very ill, as if you've just been flung quite some distance.
The portcullis to your east opens.
You pull the lever. It makes a nice, satisfying clicking sound.
You try to walk down the passage to the west, but an invisible force stops you. Looks like yet another tedious magical barrier trap thingy.
The moving wall smashes you into a wall. You now have a more than passing resemblance to raspberry jam.
You slay the last of the nagas. With their leaders gone, you have little doubt the other evil creatures of these caverns will wander off. No longer will this den of evil terrorize the area.
You reach a large cavern, with an arching ceiling and many scales and huge, shedded snakeskins on the ground. This is the lair of the evil masters of these caves - the nagas.
The air of this cave is icy, but the cold isn't enough to mask the smell of death from the south. There are spots of blood and scraps of clothing on the ground.
Suddenly, two milky white drakes drop onto the ledge to the west!
You catch a motion out of the corner of your eye to the west. You turn quickly, and see a large ledge, with several insubstantial humanoids hovering on it. They seem to be preparing spells.
You reach a massive chasm, with an icy draft rushing out of it. These caverns are bitter cold. A ledge leads along the edge of the chasm to the south. You can't tell how deep the chasm is.
From deep within the caves, you hear the howls of damned, tortured souls. The keens of the undead, combined with the icy temperature, make this a very unpleasant place to be.
Sulfras looks very upset that you learned her secret! She casts a spell, and alien beasts appear all around you. The Beastslayer Blade disintegrates!
When you enter this tunnel, you feel a palpable sense of uneasiness. There's something dark in this place. You look around, and quickly realize that, oddly, no animals or monsters have settled in here.
You reach a series of Vahnatai crypts, amazingly close to the surface, oppressively old, and radiating some sort of dark energy. You hear hissing and moaning in the darkness.
The door has a small platinum keyhole, amazingly uncorroded considering its age. You don't have the key to it.
The door has a small platinum keyhole, amazingly uncorroded considering its age. You put the platinum key you found in the keyhole. It fits. You turn it, and you hear the door become unlocked.
You reach a honeycomb of narrow twisting passages, all alike. You think you hear, just at the threshold of perception, soft whispering.
You recognize these ruins as Vahnatai architecture. However, it's of an archaic, peculiar design. It was also amazing well constructed, and probably mildly enchanted. It is still in reasonably good shape, and isn't too overgrown with moss.
The ceiling of this passage cracked and sank a bit, sticking this door firmly in place. You doubt you'll be able to get it open.
You are at the entrance to a storeroom. There are two rows of crystal Vahnatai floor boxes, centuries old and covered with a thick layer of dust and lichen.
Suddenly, with flashes of light and puffs of smoke, evil creatures appear all around you!
You step on the ancient rune, and feel a soft tingling.
You open the cabinet, and find that whatever was originally stored in here, it mouldered into to dust long ago.
You find several crystals on pedestals. The crystals are large, blue, and beautiful, but look largely inert. You look them over, wondering if there is any Vahnatai magic residing within them, and realize there is a tiny light flickering inside each one.
As you get close, you would swear you hear whispering inside your minds. You can't make out what the voices say, but they're definitely there. These crystals must contain ancient Vahnatai spirits! The Vahnatai will be pleased to hear of this.
You enter this tower, which has been built way, way out in the wilderness. Looking closely, you realize something is odd about this place. The stone glows slightly and feel waxy, and the tower has a distinct air of unreality or unstableness about it.
Suddenly, a section of wall behind you swings out, blocking your retreat. The moving wall exposed a small alcove, which is filled with quickfire. The deadly flames immediately start to roar out after you.
The fountain refreshes and reenergizes you. You feel some of your health being restored by every sip!
You drink the water. It tastes cool and refreshing at first. Then your skin develops massive boils, and your whole body starts to ache.
You drink the cool, refreshing water. However, as far as you can tell, that's all it is. Cool, refreshing water.
You drink the water, and feel it bubble and slosh warmly around in your stomach. Then it starts to grow warmer and suck energy out of you. Just when you start to get really worried, it cools down and the effect fades. However, you feel drained.
You drink the water. It's flat and tasteless, and you start to feel it didn't have an effect. Then you start to feel smarter! You now know the spell Revive All.
You drink the warm, soothing water. It has a strange citric taste, and rapidly reenergizes you. Magical energy flows into you.
You finally reach the exit of this deathtrap. The portcullis ahead of you open. The stone of the tower begins to grow strangely insubstantial. The structure still exists, but it may not for much longer.
You enter the strange tower from the south. The entrance is blocked by several closed portcullises. You won't be able to get in.
You try to move through the throne room, but an invisible barrier stops you.
You open the dragon's box. Several massive creatures appear to try to kill you. You're relieved. It could have been much worse.
This small door is solid steel, with tiny gold runes set into it. There's a small keyhole. However, you don't have any keys that fit. This is going to be a very difficult door to crack, it it's possible at all.
You suddenly hear a deep, powerful voice: "You are intruding in the domain of Sulfras the Dragon. I have no reason to see you. You have no right to see me. Depart now, before you are slain."
You suddenly hear a deep, powerful voice: "You are intruding in the domain of Sulfras the Dragon. I grant you an audience to see me. You may enter." The portcullises to the south open silently.
You see an enormous cavern to the south, which conforms very closely to what people say Hell is like. It's a massive, swirling cauldron of sulphur, magma, and flames. In the center, you think you can make out a huge, basalt island.
The hot, steaming rock in front of you suddenly cracks, and hot magma bubbles up. You back away quickly to keep from being slain. The crack seals itself. Sulfras must have placed a magical trap here to protect his domain.
You see a golem, an enchanted humanoid-shaped creature of stone and metal. However, this golem is smaller, faster, and more lethal looking than any golem you've seen. Its face is completely featureless. It makes a troglo look friendly by comparison.
You see one of the fiercest monsters you've ever seen. It's like a six-legged pit bull, five feet high, and pure muscle and teeth. Worst, its head is able to swivel 360 degrees. It could bite you, and shred you to pieces just by spinning its head.
