Dead by Dawn Intro

[FrekldThunder]

The party arrived safely back to town, returning Scoot the Ill-Gotten Dwarf back to his grateful comrades.

While enjoying a hearty celebratory ale, your group is approached by a mercenary and scoundrel by the name of Farian Blackhand.

"I here wot the lot o' you have gone into th' Chaos Scar and made it out safe, yah?"

After assurances from the party of the truth of the tale, Farian gets straight to the point, in as windingly and ramblingly straight as he can manage:

"I ran with a group o' mercenaries named Doran's Daggers. Lent my sword n' shield well to 'em, I did, a service 'twhich they have yet to pay me m' due. 'One more run, ol' Farian' they said, into the Chaos Scar, and you'll get yer coin. Well, the night afore settin' out, me ol' lady saw fit to rap me atwixt the eye sockets when she found me, all innocent-like, tryin' to help a fair maid in distress. Poor lass found 'erself caught in her bodice and unable to squeeze out, AND WHAT'S AN UPSTANDIN' CITIZEN TA DO, I ASK but give 'er a hand....."

Farian seems to drift away for a moment, seeing something the party cannot.

"ANYWAY, I was out cold for the better part o' a day, and the scoundrels lef' without me. Which woulda bin okay wit me if I'd hand ma coin afore-which! It's bin a week since they got gone, and I'm afeared they aint' comin' back. Er better yet, me GOLD ain't comin' back!"

"If you can find Doran Underhelm, dead 'r alive, and get me my hunnert gold, yeh can keep whatever else e's got on 'im. An' he tends ta keep a right lot o' jewels an' coin on 'im at all times. Mind yeh, he's prob'ly bought the borough now, if yeh take my meanin'. Elsewise, if 'e's still suckin' air, if yeh get me coin I'll split it wit yeh even-like."

"Dead 'r alive, you'll know yeh've found 'im by a tattoo o' crossed axes on 'is left forearm. I do believe they went intah th' Scar to check out an old, empty temple we saw on th' way back from deliverin' some young dwarf soccer-playin' scalawag ta some mean-eyed halfling priestess. I kin tell ya just whereabouts ta find it....."

[FrekldThunder]

The party sets out. You unfortunately spend most of day trying to unravel the "just whereabouts" directions that Farian gave you. And then....

The trees of the forest suddenly give way to a large, bare clearing dominated by a weed-choked temple. Its peaked
roof, festooned with demonic gargoyles, is largely intact, although its windowless walls are cracked and crumbling.
The main entrance to the temple, two mammoth, ironbound doors, yawn open, exposing nothing but
darkness beyond. Although obviously abandoned and in disrepair, the structure exudes a quiet malevolence made
all the more haunting by the waning light of the setting sun.

You step from the fading sunshine into the surprisingly cold darkness of the temple interior, gloomy and shrouded
in shadow. The temple’s floor is smooth, polished stone. The ceiling has collapsed in some areas and littered the
ground with fallen debris, and in one section, the floor has collapsed, leaving an open pit. The interior walls feature
fading murals depicting scenes of butchery, cannibalism, and other profane acts. The temple is divided into two
sections by a row of tall, ornate bookshelves filled with crumbling scrolls and tomes. In addition, you notice a
number of egresses beyond the main door, and two sets of smaller doors along the eastern and western walls.

[FrekldThunder]

As Busty approaches the northern end of the temple...

This end of the temple is similar to the other, save it is dominated by a massive statue of a
horrid demon. The floor around the statue is stained with the rust-colored patina of old blood.
The statue is flanked by a pair of huge braziers, each standing five feet high.

There is a trapdoor in the northeast corner of the room.