Cullen and Daryl rejoined Dufin and Atticus as they prepared to enter the ruins surrounding Zeleska’s Hypogeum. Ozric, stayed with the diggers, Atticus’ valet and the wagon as the party explored.

Empress Zelaska was the last ruler of the last empire. When her rule ended, civilization collapsed and an age of savagery began. One of the greatest achievements of the people who came before her empire was a temple. Though little is known about the temple, there are stories collected by the cult of Hazud. They tell of musical dramas with hundreds of performers singing and playing instruments to weave potent magic. The legends say some humans were altered with magic so that their bodies were musical instruments.

Zaleska’s conquests gave her control over the ancient temple. She built a great wall around the structure and and her government center beneath it.The knowledge of magic in her day easily bypassed the defenses of castles and above ground fortresses. The hypogeum was a great achievement but something happened that caused the temple to explode and the administration of her empire to go with it. Know one knows what happened or why. There are no chronicles that tell the tale.

Farhat the dogman wizard had made a rough sketch of the area. In the center of the ruins was the destroyed temple where the ancients wove magic with song. Around that is a jumble of ruined buildings and rubble. The temple was probably a hundred feet tall or more. When it was destroyed, stone from its structure was flung in all directions and crashed down on the buildings around it.

Zeleska’s engineers built outbuildings and a great wall around the temple. The outer wall was a square with towers in the corners and gates in the center of each span. The gates themselves had been gone for centuries. The outbuildings were mostly rubble but some of the more robust defensive structures remained.

• The party heads toward the south gate of the upper works.
• Outside of the gate they find an abandoned camp. Closer inspection reveals it to be a small trade caravan from the east.
• Cullen used his ranger skills to piece together what happened. The caravan had camped outside the walls. Something monstrous came out of the ruins and massacred the traders. Someone else had ransacked the goods and carried them into the ruins. A cage made of bamboo had held a person and they had escaped.
• Cullen followed the trail into the ruins.
• A giant flaming red toad was sunning itself on a rock. The party debated for a bit before deciding to shoot it with arrows. They killed it and being careful not to touch it, rolled it onto the remains of a tent from the abandoned trader camp and bundled it up.
• Moving on, the party followed the trail to one of the towers in the southwest corner of the wall. Someone had taken up residence in the tower. The door was covered with some cloth salvaged from the caravan.
• The party called to the tower. A humanoid with a birdlike head peered out from the tower. It was unlike the local birdmen. This one had a hooked beak and more colorful plumage. It only had very rudimentary ability to speak their language. The party sent one of the draug warriors back to the wagons to fetch Clancy, Atticus’ body slave.
• The draug had not gone far before calling out for help. The party rushed out to help and found he had been set upon by a number of giant rats. They quickly killed the rats and went back to the wagon as a group. They fetched Clancy back who acted as interpreter with the birdman.
• The birdman told the story of the caravan. A large dog like creature with a huge mouth had come out of the ruins and killed his captors. Another wiry looking steppe man had come out of the ruins accompanied by a dozen giant rats. He took what he could carry from the caravan and left. The birdman, named Sam by the party, escaped, salvaged what he could and had been living in the ruins for a few weeks.
• The party offer to let Sam join the party if they let them live in the tower with him. This was agreed and it was also revealed that Sam knew the healing arts and had some ability to detect and dispel magic.
• The party decided to track down the steppe man who was herding rats.
• Cullen is leading them through the ruins when he detects the intense smell of excrement. He stops in his tracks and looks around. He realizes the party in a spot to be ambushed but too late. An arrow comes from behind to stick in Atticus’ cloak. A dozen giant rats run from gaps in the rubble surrounding them.
• The party fights the rats and Atticus uses his charm person ability on the steppe warrior who stepped from his hide to fire the arrow. The charm takes hold and Atticus calls the warrior down and asks him to call off the rats.
• The warrior comes down to talk and calls off his rats. They learn his name is Erka and he was a warrior in Aglent’s clan who contracted lycanthropy about six months ago. He was driven out and had been living in the ruins ever since.
• Erka had collected some treasures from the ruins and had a good knowledge of the south west corner of the structures. He avoided the northern end because that was where the monsters came from. The party offered to trade with him and act as a middleman. When they returned to Oktar’s town or Dragon’s Bend, they would buy any goods he needed in exchange for guiding them and a fee for doing the exchange. Being charmed, he readily agreed to this.

The dogman’s diagram of the ruins suggested a good place to enter the Hypogeum was in the north west corner of the ruins. The party made their way to that corner. There as a large shaft that had once held a service elevator of sorts. The mechanisms serving it were long ago destroyed. A stair adjoining the shaft let them into a large chamber littered with filth, bones, signs of fights and exploration from others of varying age.

• The dogman’s notes suggested a shrine off to the east. The party traveled that direction.
• After exploring a few rooms that were more or less empty, the party came across tracks and sign that looked like they came from a massive bear.
• Opening the stone double doors to the shrine, the party saw a large back black bag sitting in the chamber beyond. Sam their new birdman friend said there was magic in the bag.
• Atticus called out, “Show yourself,” and tossed a rock into the room.
• There was a growling and exhalation of breath that sounded like a laugh.
• Resigned, the party charged into the room and discharged their missile weapons as bear walking on its hind legs charged them. It was around 8 feet tall, black as night, and had glowing red eyes.
• Strangely, Cullens magic sword did no damage to the beast. He had to switch out to a non-magical weapon as they battled the creature.
• The monster killed one of the draug warriors and caused some concern in the party when it attacked with its terrible bite.
• The party killed the creature and decided that it’s carcass might be of some value. They decide to drag it out of the dungeon and take it back to the camp. They collect up the bag with the magic and begin the trip back to their camp.