The Temple of Twilight

The company proceeds onward towards Roanor without Bam-Bam.  Several in the group discussed whether or not it was right to leave him there like that, but arguments in favor of keeping the rest of everyone alive/safe consoled all to leave the discussion behind.  Upon reaching the town in the mid-morning, a rag-tag group of every type of person from guards, soldiers, farmers, and merchants come marching from the North entrance of town, with any wounded being brought on carts at the rear.  Each one of them are very tired, they are wearied from an all-night battle.  Upon asking, they have been fighting against several groups of Drow who have begun to grow seemingly erratic in their actions of late.  The Drow push towards the town, razing farms, and homes in the surrounding valley.  Though they have lived in dark caves further up the mountain valley and tend to only surface at night, they usually keep to themselves.

A Black Dragonborn Rune Knight named Brock offers some details about their evening, and upon hearing that the group is headed up to the Tomb of the Twilight Mistress, offers to show them the way.  On the way up to the Tomb, the group comes to a building built into the side of one of the mountainside cliffs.  It is a waypoint maintained by the Talon faction for those who come to make pilgrimage to the Tomb.  Frank goes to check on his faction members inside.  After speaking with the chief-priest who oversees the location, he welcomes everyone in to wait until closer to twilight when the doors of the Tomb would open.  Binx stocks up on knives and a magical flask of water, while Raiden inquiries about powerful items that he can’t particularly afford.  Frank shows the rest of the group the hospitality of the place until an hour or two before twilight.

Upon leaving the Tomb, Raiden notices several movements along the cliffsides and following the dark shadow line of the mountain as the sun sets.  The party races towards the tomb and find several Drow waiting for the doors to open and as they do, they begin to move inside.  Several help to close the doors behind them and guard the way inside.  The group of champions moves to enter but are meant by the Drow who waited, drawing their weapons to block us.  The fight begins!  Raiden shocks several from the air, while Binx and I.G. fire at them from afar.  Calvin, Frank, and Brock fight in close quarters and just as the last remaining Drow are left standing, one turns to the door and begins to chant a spell.  A mutilated man with a missing arm, slides down the cliff side yelling to not let them shut the doors, it’s too late though.  As the chanting Drow finally drops, his blood gets absorbed up the glowing doors and when Calvin tries to open them, he gets a mild shock.  Binx washes the blood away while Raiden’s prestidigitation completes the cleanup of the blood on the door which stops it’s glowing.  While they are no longer in battle, the doors are closed for the evening since they only open at dawn/dusk.

The evening goes by uneventful, but there are several eyes watching them from the darkness.  Likely more Drow, also waiting to get inside.  At first light, the doors open, and the Drow make their advance towards the Tomb entrance.  The group moves inside and quickly closes the doors.  Inside there is a statue of Ombra with arms outstretched.  At her feet are several coins worth of tribute and behind the statue is a spiral staircase leading downwards into the darkness.  The team proceeds down the spiral staircase where words written on the wall repeat the phrase “Open your eyes to the darkness”.  Raiden, closes his eyes and steps forwards, seemingly disappearing into the darkness.  He explains to the rest how to proceed and the group finds their next steps are onto flat ground.  Ahead, there is a small chest of purpleheart wood in the middle of a hallway before the path diverges into two.  Raiden suspiciously holds back while others approach with Frank who opens the chest.  As he does, a barrier rises around the whole party except Raiden who stayed back.  Inside the chest are the words, “Give of yourselves to proceed”.  Raiden thinks he knows what to do, and as he describes it, Frank seems to already know and is making a cut for blood to run into the chest.  The rest follow and do the same, Calvin somewhat reluctantly.  As they do the barrier drops and one of the paths appears now to be solid stone, at least to everyone but Raiden.  After some convincing, Raiden agrees to move down the second path.

Eventually, they find the second group of Drow that previously entered the temple.  They are praying to a second statue of Ombra, identical to the one above, but in a somewhat more ornate room with carvings all along the walls.  Attempting to approach quietly does not go well, and the Drow Priests turn to attack the disturbance.  The group easily takes down the remaining four Drow finding lots of coin intended for tribute on the bodies.