5 Brussendar 835

The island of Urukayxl is surrounded by the Inkclaw Reef forcing you to disembark and take a rowboat through the last 20ish miles.

The island itself is a continuation of this reef, with grasping claws of sunbleached coral punctuating the overgrown strange flora and fauna. As you make your way across the island, you encounter several pools of ocean water, strange lagoons in sinkholes with salt scoring along the sides and claw marks of large creatures that ascend or descend through these spots. Small encampments and villages dot the island, with notable signs of lizardfolk and yuan-ti inhabitants, but with Applethorn’s guidance, you appear to avoid their attention before coming upon the ruins of a great temple. Even with these signs of life, it’s earlier quiet on the island itself.

A massive structure lies in pieces within a long rusted iron fence. The only remaining structure are tentacle like pillars that once marked the temples grand estate line, where iron ruins are still connected to some. The temple itself is unrecognizable, with chunks or rotting wood and plaster scattered around the area, indicating that this didn’t just fall to ruin, but was actively destroyed. The cemetary is here, beyond the ruins and at the top of a mound of coral that serves as a strange hill, with tombstones and mausoleums dotting the skyline behind the temple ruins like fingers of the dead reaching up from this strange and unusual earth.

Ascending to the cemetery is a somewhat difficult climb up a steep incline of coral, bleached a strange orange-y pink. Della, you notice that the coral here is not dead, but still growing, connected with deep roots into the ocean below. Investigating this, with Scrum’s portal-sight and Applethorn’s primeval awareness, you discovered that a huge portal sits beneath the island, 200 feet below the ocean’s surface, which Applethorn realized is a huge elemental.

The cemetery itself has another ruined fence, but this one has been fortified with spiky wooden barricades between the larger holes, still passable, but more of a sign of life than you’ve seen before. The graveyard itself has dozens of aged and weathered tombstones, but various plots are covered with newer piles of earth, with words written in a spiky, unfamiliar language. Amira used Comprehend Languages to read: “Here we lay those slain in Uk’a’toa’s name”.

Applethorn’s Primeval Awareness showed several aberrations watching the area, prepared to strike once you entered the graveyard proper. A large mausoleum sits at the opposite side and Amira’s patron told her that these guards can not enter the mausoleum and you just need to get inside. Racing across the graveyard, you avoid combat with strange and magically transformed Yuan-Ti who attempt to stop you, their leder recognizing Amira as a follower of Zeneroth. However, the patron’s advice proved true, as you found safety inside the mausoleum.

The mausoleum is a large single room of white stone. Square paneling decorates the bottom half of the walls, while a single stone casket sits in the center of the room. Engraved on the lid, in common, elvish, and dwarvish (languages of the Empire) “Here lies the mortal remains of Viscount Alston Gerrent here they will remain for as long as he desired in life.” Unlike other ruins or tombs you’ve been in, there are no candles, no torch brackets, or vases for flowers. There is nothing here to honor this grave. 5 pillars line the walls and are used to cast perpetual Silence on the area, making communication difficult. Stone recognized this and how to break it, while Amira discovered a symbol of the Cerberus Assembly and marks of the schools of magic here: evocation, divination, and necromancy. With Stone breaking silence, spells of the magic types indicated were cast and revealed a staircase within the tomb, descending beneath the mausoleum.

Below, you found another room, this one illuminated with green torches that magically ignited as you entered. A less ornate coffin sits in the middle, bound with chains that rise up from the floor, similar to the last tomb you entered. Applethorn noticed living Shadows moving about the room, while others investigated the shelves and chests scattered around, and Scrum looked at the coffin itself, which has scratches and marks where the chains have dug into the stone.. as if something inside has attempted to move the lid.

The shelves have a variety of dark tomes and evil books, as well as several personal spellbooks of various age. It is obvious that things are continually deposited here, rather than just placed and forgotten once. The chests all have symbols of magic on them again, with 3 having signs of necormancy, implying they were enchanted with such magicks, though marks through them indicate that power has had some attempt to be nullified. The other 2 have evocation and transmutation symbols, but no necromancy. Attempting to open one goes awry, though, spilling black smoke into the room as the Shadows move and snuff out the torches at a silent command…