Thistletop, part 12 (Monday-Monday, Lamashan (X) 22-29, 4707 AR)

The greater barghest did not physically leave this room. He used crushing despair against foes who attacked him with ranged attacks beyond the limits of this room, and he charmed Corvus. The greater barghest fought to the death.

Each of the racks in the northern corners contained 30 eternal candles (60 candles in all), minor magic candles that burned eternally without heat, similar to a continual flame spell but shedding only shadowy light in a 5-foot radius. Each eternal candle was worth 5 gp.

Two alcoves to the south were hidden by secret doors. Shalelu revealed the doors. Each alcove contained little more than dusty shelves today, although a bit of treasure still remained in the western one.

A single silver coffer sat on its side on one of the shelves in the western alcove. The coffer itself was worth 100 gp, but the real treasure sat inside, buried in a bed of fine white sand - a ring of force shield. When activated, the shieldlike pane of force generated manifested as a seven-pointed star - the Sihedron rune. The heroes then decided to eliminate any monsters left in Thistletop.

Tentamort Hunting Grounds. The floor of this cavern seemed strangely polished and smooth. To the east, a thick curtain of vines and nettles hung down over a wide opening overlooking the Varisian Gulf.

This cavern had been the hunting grounds of a tentamort. The monster looked something like a leathery, eyeless squid with a squat body the size of a rain barrel. Its lower body split into a tangle of tentacles the creature used to slowly move, while two longer tentacles, one thick and muscular and the other lithe with a bone stinger, emerged form either side. The heroes killed it.

The Howling Hole. The hole dropped down into a lair below, a sea cave inhabited by a dangerous tidal predator known as a bunyip. Fen navigated the 70-foot shaft, which opened into the sea cave 10 feet above sea level.

Bunyip Lair. A glittering grotto sparkled here, its walls dripping with moisture and alive with sea urchins, anemones, and other tidal life. The cave's roof rose to a natural dome ten feet above the water where a wide five-foot-wide chimney rose through the roof in a shaft. The waters here were less choppy, but they were far from still. A five-foot-wide, fifteen-foot-long ledge sat just above the water level to the south. The water in the cave itself was 20 feet deep at its deepest point directly under the shaft, but never got shallower than 10 feet.

This cave was the lair of a dangerous coastal predator called a bunyip. A sleek aquatic hunter that looked something like a seal with fins and a mouth full of several rows of sharklike teeth sat on the southern ledge.

The bunyip roared as soon as it saw Fen, then dove into the water to circle under him. Fen returned to the rest of the heroes on the surface, and they all returned to Sandpoint to equip themselves with spells appropriate for aquatic battles.

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