Road to Kiev, Chapter Seven

Staring
Sunday, October 2, 987 AD

We all attempt to figure out the code on the wall for four hours, but cannot decode it. We then make camp outside of the town.

Items, Ghouls, and Tailed People
Monday, October 3, 987 AD

We explore the rest of the Elven ruins going through every building systematically except for the large building in the east and the amphitheater in the south. We find a Roman silver coin, six ceramic arrowheads, and necklace with a bone pendant shaped like a wishbone. While searching through the buildings, a pack of ghouls attack us. Edward makes many of them run away and the rest are killed, but not before showing us that they can paralyze after almost every hit. A curious thing occurs before the fight had ended however. Catarina had managed to web a group of them that had attempted to flank us from behind, but a flaming arrow had been shot at the web, letting them free prematurely. After all the ghouls were heroically defeated, we make an educated guess as to were the arrow may have come from. Thalia then tracks footprints from the area to the large archway in the middle of the ruins where we encounter two tailed folk shooting us with arrows. Nicolae sleeps them and we attempt to question them. They speak a language that no one understands, so they are fed to pig monsters that Reynaldo had summoned when he had anticipated a large battle, but not before a necklace containing a pendant in the shape of an eight-sided star is removed from one of their necks.
We then go back to the large piece of code and attempt to decode it again. We fail again and then go rest. Irethazan visits us at camp during the night to talk to us. She is very curious about our origins. Reynaldo divulges very little and then she leaves after offering us some raspberries, which we politely decline.

Reveal, part I and the Amphitheater
Tuesday, October 4, 987 AD

When we awoke in the morning, Thalia was able to track a set of paw prints that went in the same exact direction that Irethazan had taken the previous night. The party goes to talk to her and Reynaldo confronts her with this information. She reveals her true form as that of a cat centaur, i.e. with the body of a large cat instead of a horse. We have another pleasant conversation and leave her to explore the amphitheater south of the ruins.
There are three doors in the pit of the amphitheater and decide to take the middle one. More ghouls appear inside and are quickly dispatched. We notice they are very Elvish in appearance and seem to attack Gunther more often than not, most likely because he wears Roman accoutrements. We find a tailed person dead in the middle of the room. We find a necklace with a bone pendant similar to the one we found before around his neck. We take and notice a throne-like structure on the far wall. We place the dead tailed man on the throne, but nothing occurs. We continue to explore the area, finding a room with a large pit in the middle of it. A tentacle shoots out of the pit and grabs Thorvald, dragging him towards a large octopus monster with one eye. Panic grips the rest of the party as they are unsure of what to do, as Thorvald gets chewed upon by the creature and another tentacle shoots out and grabs Edward. Finally, Gunther jumps into the pit, spear first, and mightily attacks the creature, spurring the others into action. They manage to kill the octopus monster, even saving Thorvald from being consumed totally. In the pit, Thorvald finds a chainmail bag containing another Roman coin and a necklace with a star pendant like the one around the tailed person's neck. We leave the dungeon and the city to make camp and rest.

End Chapter Seven