Players Present: Zyldi, Seraphina, Elgard, Nor, Kanye, Kulu,

Players Missing: Galliard, Rahn

The party begins their descent into the cave. The lizard man is scurrying ahead of them, and without much hesitation, Elgard releases a firebolt and fries the little Kobold to a crisp.

Once further in, the party encounters a shallow stream that crosses the entire path. Looking beyond the stream in the fire-lit cave, they see circular steps that go to a dias with a hallway that continues further on.

Zyldi and Kulu enter the shallow water and walk a few steps without issue. Nor follows as well, and as soon as he steps foot, his foot is caught in a bear trap. He lets out a manly yell. More kobolds come forward, three of them with shields, and then a few more scurry out from hidden passages in the walls.

ENCOUNTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Kanye throws a kobold into one of the bear traps
• Kulu quickly identifies all the bear traps and keeps the party from stepping in any more
• Zyldi sprints for the dias, skillfully dodges falling into the collapsing staircase, and artfully takes out 2 of the 3 kobolds operating levers
• Seraphina eventually joins Zyldi at the top and takes out the remaining kobold, securing the dias
• Nor misses everything
• Kanye wedges himself into one of the side passages and starts to crawl through the tiny tunnels, murdering kobolds as he goes
• Elgard is covered in sticky ichor that is slowly sapping his health. He throws a firebolt at himself to rid himself of the filth. It is successful.
• Kulu is also covered in the ichor and trusts Elgard enough to have him also firebolt her.

Having successfully taken out the little kobolds, [title redacted] peaks into the hallway that is at the top of the dias. Inside is a giant circular room. Most notably in the room is a giant horde of treasure, atop which stands a more formidable (comparatively) kobold sorcerer. He calls out the party and introduces himself as Kakerol, the Kobold Sorcerer.

He calls out: “Bow before the Wyrm!”

The party bluffs: “Oh, you mean George.”

The kobold is aghast, “His name is not George.”

They share some dialogue where Kakerol says he serves the Wyrm and also some skeletal type dude. He will one day turn Kakerol into (something cool? Was a dragon? Or a Wyrm?) as long as he serves his bidding. And his bidding is that he and his kobold fiends reset all the shrines as explorers come to try and find the 9 cubes.

Elgard casts Charm Person on Kakerol, and it is a success. Kakerol offers them advice on the various shrines and their traps. The party asks if they will be given a kobold guide, who will obviously be able to reset the traps right away after they are done, so it will save time for all involved. Kakerol agrees. But before they leave, they are given the honor of meeting the “death cat”. Or, as others would call it, a skunk.

A kobold accompanies them to the shrine of Papazotl. Orvex translates for them the writing above the shrine, “Papazotl bows before no one.” After gaining some more pointless history of the Ubtao shrines (Papazotl, the crane, sent the froghemonth to do his dirty work to talk to Ubtao, etc etc etc), the party ignores the 4 crocodiles in the water that surrounds the temple and walk right on in.

A team effort to push open the temple door reveals a room that has 6 bare chested dude statues on the wall. They each have heads of various animals. A pedastool in the central part of the room has a riddle upon it.

“Comes in the sunshine; leaves in the night; Hides in the darkness; does not bite; Always joined to its caster; never strays from its master.” They answered shadow pretty quickly.

The kobold points to the bat statue, and Elgard casts light on it. A secret passageway is revealed. In this passage is a etching on the walls of a lot of dashes and specific dashes are highlighted. The party determines that once they insert the riddle into this cypher, the following phrase is revealed. “Cover eyes”

After a few general attempts, the party covers the eyes of all the statues in the main room, and the cube reveals itself. Kanye grabs it, and the 5th cube is recovered.

The party rests in the shrine that night. In the morning a knock is heard, and a man saying he knows Galliard is hawking a bunch of his wares in a magnificent coat that stores many items. The party buys some useful, and some questionable useful things.