From the diary of Silvan the Dryad
Session date: 16.5.2004

28.3.

We discussed different courses of action for getting through the
 ambush ahead. After seeing how Hera'd charmed the guard, Longfoot
 asked what the Great Burning Hollow she could do. She explained her
 life-sucking powers to us.

We talked about slaughtering the people holding the ambush. I was
 hesitant about it at first, but Hera talked me into supporting the
 plan. Buran was against it, but Longfoot and Grūnk were in favor of
 it. After a long while arguing, Longfoot managed to convince me to
 his point of view, and finally we decided not to attack.

After traveling for a long while, we heard the sounds of approaching
 travelers. When we got closer, we recognized Angelo. He wondered
 what we were doing here, and we told him.

We continued on our journey. We reached another checkpoint, and were
 let through. This point didn't appear as permanent as the previous
 one. We reached a crossing with two paths. We decided to go right.

I was beginning to feel tired, and suggested we could rest. The
 others agreed, and we took a break. After sleeping, we continued on
 our journey.

After passing a sign saying Aleandor was in the direction we'd come
 from, we eventually came to a ford. Hera and Longfoot did some
 explosive-sound fishing, and we caught some fish, which we then
 (surprisingly) proceeded to eat.

Continuing on our brave journey, we eventually came to an unused
 path. We ignored it, and also ignored the next such one, and the
 third.

We saw a group of small creatures that looked like they might be imps
 or kobolds. I shouted them a salute, but they didn't reply. They
 glared at us when they passed us, but didn't do anything else. We
 decided to continue.

Eventually, we found a kobold village. There were lots of kobold
 merchants trying to sell us things. We got ourselves a guide and
 reached the goblin village. Longfoot tried to talk us out from
 paying so much, but I thought he was being mean and just paid the
 kobold. The goblins found it hilarious that we'd paid the kobolds so
 much for being guides.

We asked the goblin guards if they knew of the Master Goblin Tracker.
 Dangund was the name, apparently. Apparently, one of the MMM had
 been here and hired Dangund three days before us. It was suggested
 we go ask his wife, since Dangund had said he'd be back in a day or
 two.

Dangund's wife said that Dangund should have been back by now, and
 that she was worried about him. She offered us a place to stay for
 the night.

30.3.

Dangund's wife seemed down. I tried to cheer her up, with moderate
 success.

In the morning, we found out that Dangund had been hired to find some
 ancient temple or base Necreegh had operated from, within these
 caves. The man who'd hired Dangund had wanted to speak in private,
 but Dangund's daughter - Trallan - had been eavesdropping. They
 suggested we try to find Dangund, and take his daughter and some
 other goblins as our escorts.

We got three goblins as our escorts, in addition to Trallan. Trallan
 kept using Knowledge magic to track Dangund. Eventually she grew 
 tired, and we set up camp. After resting, we continued on our
 journey.

Our guides took us through a tunnel which looked unused, but wasn't.
 We reached a set of old tunnels that were once used by dwarves.
 There were rumors of an old dwarven cult once having inhabited these
 tunnels.

We found ancient dwarven text being written on a stone pillar. It
 warned any Tundans from continuing, saying a village founded by the
 followers of Necreegh was near.

Buran recited a story about a dwarven civil war to us, telling us
 that the dwarves in Tundan had once waged a war against another
 dwarven clan. The other clan had lost and had been exiled, though
 Buran couldn't tell us where.

The pillar also spoke of a guardian that would slay all those who
 were not worshippers of Necreegh. The goblins didn't want to take
 Trallan any further. Trallan told us that should the sentinel be a
 Necreegh-animated undead, it probably wouldn't be any threat as long
 as Necreegh was dead. If, on the other hand, some dwarven
 necromancer had animated the sentinel, it might still be there.

We decided to go further, with Grunk taking point. Grunk shouted
 Wealtheow's name. At first there was no reply, but then somebody
 cleared their throat and shouted "here". Grunk started running into
 that direction.

Following Grunk, I saw a goblin with torn clothes and dried blood on
 him. Some creature was holding the goblin partially suspended in the
 air, though the creature's grip didn't seem to be very firm.

The goblin asked Buran to tear him free. When asked to explain the
 situation, the goblin said he could explain once he was free, but he
 didn't want Grunk to help him. When pressed, he said it wasn't a
 good idea for an undead to try to help him. Hera came to help the
 goblin free. He warned us not to try our weapon against the undead.

Hera tried to push the goblin free. It seemed like Dangund was frozen
 in the posture he was in, and when Hera pushed him, the whole thing
 fell. Dangund thought he should've already been released by that.

Dangund suggested that maybe only a dwarf could help him. Buran went
 to help. Dangund got loose, but Buran was stuck. Dangund scrambled
 to get away from the mummy. Longfoot stopped him at fourty feet.
 Dangund shouted to the guards and his daughter, which started coming
 towards us.

Upon Buran's request, Hera took Sword of Necreegh and tried using it
 against the mummy, but it was ineffective.

Dangund said he was sorry about his deceit, but the mummy's curse was
 that if it'd grab someone, it wouldn't let go. It could only grab
 one person at a time, however. The only explanation why the mummy
 didn't touch Hera was that she was a demon. He insulted Hera, who
 attacked him, and Trallan talked sense into them.

Dangund explained that he'd only been hired to locate this place. He
 was only intending to scout this place out a bit when the guardian
 had woken to life and chased him. Longfoot almost hit Dangund and
 tossed him to the ground.

Dangund said that there had to be answers in the city. He'd been
 studying a stone pillar when the undead had attacked him, and he
 could go back to the city and find out how to free Buran.

After much unnecessary arguing, the two goblins went to study the
 stone pillar in the city. They commented that somebody bigger than a
 goblin had been there. The pillars contained the laws of the city.
 One of them said that this had been a city of Necreegh. The mummy
 had been gifted to the people of this city by Necreegh, and as long
 as Necreegh would be in a body, the mummy would protect the city. It
 had two properties - never letting go of a living enemy and the 
 fact that it would never miss. It also had a throwing knife that'd
 never miss. Dangund commented that he hadn't noticed the mummy
 having a knife, only an empty sheath.

Dangund walked back and forth. He commented that somebody had read
 all the pillars and then vanishing into thin air. Even we could see
 the footprints. Dangund said the footprints hadn't been here when he
 last visited. He said he'd seen another character when he was
 running away, but hadn't had the time to stop and take a closer
 look.

Dangund's employer had left to Myrnur and said that he'd come back in
 a few days to see if Dangund would've found any results.

Dangund was puzzled over the fact that the mummy had suddenly woken
 to life when Necreegh was supposed to be dead, and why it wasn't
 moving now. The pillars seemed to contain no particular secrets. He
 said he'd go find an archive in the hopes the archive'd contain 
 something interesting.

Dangund vanished to explore the city, and Tralla studied the
 footprints. She said it looked like somebody had teleported here and
 then teleported away. I told her that we'd been intending to hire
 her father to track somebody who could teleport. Tralla succeeded in
 her spell. The somebody had teleported from the top of the stairs.
 Tralla ran there, and found a few footprints. Apparently somebody'd
 teleported a lot of times. Either she'd been playing safe and 
teleported in short jumps or then she hadn't been very competent.

After a moment, we heard Dangund's shouts. Going to investigate, we
 saw a tablet that explained how a messenger of Necreegh was black
 steeled, wrapped into something and turned into the mummy. After
 that, the black steel was cursed so that it wouldn't let go. The
 mummy was animated by Necreegh thrusting both of his weapons into
 the mummy's back.

Dangund said that if we couldn't come up with a way to release Buran,
 he'd become the mummy's victim instead.

We went to the mummy and Hera stuck the sword of Necreegh into one of
 the holes in the mummy's back. The sword began to glow, and the
 dagger hole in the back began to glow, too. It looked just like
 there'd be a spirit inside the mummy. Buran's spirit began to depart
 and move towards the sword, and Hera quickly pulled out the sword.
 When she did so, the mummy's spirit flamed, and Buran's spirit
 looked like it went to the sword, with the mummy's spirit going into
 Buran. The mummy let go of Buran, who cried out in pain, and the
 mummy let out of him. Buran passed out.

Buran's sword now held ten spirits.

After a while, Buran recovered. He said he was tired and that he was
 still Buran. Dangund said that since we'd helped him, we could hire
 him for free.

We headed back to the goblin village. On the way, Dangund said he
 found more tracks leading both into and out of the lost city. It
 looked like the person who'd made the footprints had been wearing
 footwear of some quality. The person had come from the same
 direction as we had, and not from the goblin village.

Coming back to the goblin village, the people there celebrated our
 return of Dangund and we were treated very well. Trallan refused to
 teach us any Knowledge magic, saying we hadn't seemed like very good
 people. I couldn't fault her for this.

30.3.

We were invited to Dangund's workshop the next morning. Before he'd
 help us, he wanted to know who we were looking for, why, and where
 she might be found.

We left Buran to talk with Dangund in private.

Session close: 19:14 16.5.2004