I'm back in the Stuck Pig at Hope as I write this, as time and fatigue didn't allow for much downtime back at the temple, but we did it. WE did it, all of us. Myself, Byron, Tordak, Arnulf, Reza, Sabrina, and Constance. Kronk and and Burglekutt had to depart before we moved further, and perhaps they were right to for how brazenly we stepped into the darkness, despite having faced some of its worst horrors at the doorstep. After a brief rest in the room where Tordak had done his part in reducing the local rat population, we proceeded onwards, travelling through dark hallways that wove through the temple into what appeared to be a chamber of commerce. We watched ghosts appear and speak, like seeing a distant memory come to life before our eyes. “Why is Moon Etiyane so long in her silence? Her guidance is needed!” “Patience. Our problems are pebbles amongst the stones she carries.” “Oh? What have thine ears heard?” “Do ye not know of Segava’s betrayal? The blood of war with the Segavites will soon flow…” The words they spoke were clear, and while I didn't know the meaning behind them fully, it sounded like nothing but further trouble was in store for us. We pressed on, where we stepped into a living space, supposedly of the one called Etiyane. We found a journal, some scrolls on a table, and... her bedding. As it turns out, her bedsheets had some kind of spell on them to turn them into snakes when disturbed, and despite little harm coming from them, it was tough putting the three down. Constance and Tordak saw to them with furious blows, while the rest dealt with them from range, and then it was time to move on. A trap had been laid for greedy looters attempting to rob the place, marked by the body of someone possessing some kind of note on them from an unseen partner. 'You’ll need to crawl through some kind of opening to reach the treasure. The barkscale should be there. Bring it back for appraisal.' Barkscale, as it happened, was some kind of wooden armour found in a treasure chamber further within, but we had to face other trials before arriving at such pretty things. Bootgrabbers, for one; a kind of slime that hid against the ground disguised as a puddle, ready to grip its victim by the ankle and digest them up to the knees, as we'd seen with other corpses. And only after reaching the doors to the inner chamber did we realise we'd taken the longest way back around to what was essentially the entry hallway! I'd have walked a hundred more than willingly face what awaited us, though. Two-thirds of the next chamber was occupied by ornately-carved stone tables. Atop each table lays a female body, composed of flesh… and mist! Etched black trails radiated from an ebon-dark hole in the ceiling. They crept across the ceiling then down the walls, finally running across the floor to climb the tables and reach the bodies. Bubbling black ooze encased each woman’s head, and brownish-yellow fog gushed endlessly from each eye-socket. The gouts of fog rose to escape through the maw in the ceiling. The huge face of a woman as carved on the wall opposite the door, her mouth opening from the floor in a silent scream. The carving’s eyes cried blackish tears which slowly oozed down her face, transforming into glowing blue water as they flowed before evaporating on the ground. Between the face and the tables, just underneath the ceiling’s hole, lay a dead woman in a bloody white robe. Her abdomen and wrists were cut open, apparently by the bloody crescent-shaped blade lying beside her. She rested on a platform that looked as if it was once capable of being raised through the ceiling, but the mechanism appeared broken beyond repair, with ropes and chains scattered around in all directions. Her body began convulsing as a ghostly form rose from the dead flesh, wailing and screaming, suddenly the spectral form turned and rushed headlong at Tordak! As she charged, a ghostly tendril shot sideways from her to latch onto one of the misty-fleshy bodies. With a sickening, gurgling rip, the body tore free from its head, rising headless to shamble towards us! Tordak charged ahead to face the challenge, only for her to vanish before our eyes, and then he turned to glare at us as if we were enemies! Before any of us could think, we not only had Tordak, but the zombies to contend with! That fight was likely the most frightening experience I'd suffered through, with Arnulf crossing the room while evading axe blows and zombie claws to bottle and disperse the water from the statue to the fallen, headless bodies. I confess, I didn't catch on at first, but then I was busy trying to damage the zombies and heal my fellows, so I wasn't really paying attention to a water feature. But we won, and after gathering some richly deserved treasure, we left the temple's halls and buried what remained of Etiyane. It was a quiet affair, and one of the scrolls we found within was used to sanctify her grave. I can't say any of us had much to say other than respectful words to help the dead pass on, and as we left, we encountered yet another person, though this one was much friendlier. A woman, though others rather rudely called her a hag, old and physically misshapen as she was, by the name of Nahweeha. She claimed to be Etiyane's lost daughter, and thanked us for our service in furthering the temple's cleansing and dispersing the mists. And she was right, the ochre fog was washing away even as we spoke, as if it were never there. She allowed us to keep what we'd found, and invited us to join her when we'd regained our strength, to put an end to his whole affair. I feel like Arnulf will want to come back to the temple to finish matters, and I'll be happy to join him, but we wanted to get back home to Hope after such an ordeal. "That evening, those who had sought to answer the call of the Fog Monster found their dreams haunted by bizarre visions: a great, feathered lizard whose talons dripped with venom, a rotting head whose eyes cried great clouds of ochre fog, a cackling old woman, and bubbling pools of black ooze from which desperate hands reached towards them." I wonder what awaits us next...
