The group moved beyond the ruins at the riverbank toward the large ornate archway in the cavern wall. Out of this archway poured multicolored light and the sound of chanting. As the PCS crested the stairs leading up to the threshold they found an elaborate and opulent temple. At the altar, mounted on a rage drake, was Amros Kamroth. Assembled, chanting before the corrupt noble were half a dozen robed figures and a pair of unkempt men with greataxes. The large detailed and ominous statue looming over the altar was unmistakably a representation of Tiamat. Olan and Cassius sensed a powerful aura within the temple and determined it to be a sort of divine boon.
Amros noticed their arrival then. Raising his mace to the air he intoned words of power, causing it to flare with unholy fire. A wave of flame spread out from him, touching the robed figures and axe-toting humans, as he issued the order to destroy the interlopers. The PCs lost line of sight on Amros as the corrupt noble rode his drake into one of the antechambers. Olan and Benjaar blasted the robed figures with lighting breath (which had little effect) and Grasping Shadows (which killed about half of them). The berserker whom wasn't stymied by Olan's spell rushed the eladrin wizard to deliver a nasty slice.
Cassius managed to stem any serious injury to the wizard and they eventually defeated the robed figures and berserkers. But, Amros emerged from the antechambers to assault Benjaar. With a word to his goddess he blasted the dragonborn with Break the Spirit, dealing maximum damage (the DM's dice were not kind to the PCs this evening @_@) and putting Benjaar below bloodied status. Cassius Voodoo and Benjaar faced the unholy priest up-close, while Akriel Hadarai and Olan blasted him from afar. The eladrin ranger managed to knock Amros from his mount at some point, but the priest retaliated with blasts of fear and fire breath. Cassius healed Benjaar of his massive damage, only to have Amros belt the dragonborn again with the same spell.
Dismounted and taking hits, Amros could not stand long. Akriel blasted him with Life Bind, preventing him from casting any healing spells (of which he was quite capable, and sorely in-need-of). Then Hadarai followed-up with a devastating double-shot, dropping the priest. As he bled-out, Amros let out an oath and smashed an item on the temple floor. The earth rumbled and dust and dirt gently fell from the ceiling. The group suspected the worst and immediately looked to the river to see if it was flooding the cavern. It was not, and the pillars, both in the temple and the cavern, remained intact.
After looting and destroying the many statues of chromatic dragons in the temple, the group made their way back into the cavern (with Amros and the rage drake's heads). In their search for a means back across the river they spotted a small rowboat downstream. They also noticed that the river ran out to a not-to-distant cave opening, over which flowed a waterfall. Hadarai determined that they must have been below the eastern river, yet still a good distance above the lower district. After much speculation on how they would navigate the dinky little rowboat out to the waterfall and use the recently acquired Water Walk ritual to safely lower themselves to the small pond below, Voodoo suggested that they might be able to raise the crushing ceiling trap back in the dungeon, allowing them to leave the same way they entered.
After trekking back into the dungeon, Hadarai was able to raise the ceiling trap and they proceeded to the entrance. They found the room with the spiral stairs leading up, but the stair and the floor around were covered in rubble. Benjaar ascended the stairs to inspect, and found that Amros' "Carriage House" had collapsed along with his manse. The group made their way through the throng of oglers, with the rage drake's head perched on Benjaar's shoulders, and made their way to Moonstone Keep.
Lord Markelhay welcomed them and thanked them for their efforts. He informed them of several issues of concern in which they might also be interested, including; strange sounds and sights in the Tombwood, the retrieval of the Markelhay family sword from Gardmore Abbey, Serim Selduzar fleeing south to Knoll Keep, strange deaths in Harkenwold, an unearthly mist rising from the small island in the Nentir River, and the investigation into the disappearance of the infamous adventuring group - Stormcrow Company. With their plates veritably overflowing, the group decided on investigating the island, in the hopes that they may convert the abandoned Tower of Waiting thereon into their personal base of operations.
After some preparation and pestering of the local merchants, the group gathered outside the House of the Sun before heading to the docks.
