Our first hurdle came in the form of large bats with a shriek that froze us in our steps most of the time. Alexi and Vladimir sent arrow after arrow up into the mass of winged beasts until none would come forth anymore. Ilyana and Mikhail, with the aid of some magic from Alexander and Aria soon had these remaining foes defeated. The room that these bats inhabited was adjoined by an angled shaft which dove downwards to the river below in this underground complex. It was rescindable with rope and Alexi tested himself to see if he could swim upstream to where the next landing was. This is the path we would need to follow. He found himself unable to reach it to the next platform and admitted defeat, so we needed to rest up while I prayed to God for aid. It was during this time that Brother Alexander voiced his doubt in His abilities. I’m unsure if I’ll ever recover from such lack of faith from my comrade, but hopefully God will show him the error of his ways.

  Once God had enlightened me, I was able to safely traverse the river with a companion at a time and safely get everyone to the platform up the river. Here we traveled down another straight corridor but were blocked by boulders. We failed to clear a path through the boulders and almost caused a cave in, so we decided to head back and find another way. After praying to God for guidance again, I walked down river and found a boat that could aid us. It could easily carry us all. Long and sleek. Leaving Ilyana with the boat I brought Alexi down river to navigate it upstream for us. He was soon able to find that the boat was a magical construct that could move at amazing speeds. The boat and sail were engraved with magical runes, which the mages soon told us where indeed enchantments and revealed a mystic word: Shrimpkin. This would allow the boat to shrink to a one-foot long toy boat size.

  Now that we had no direct route to our goal, we needed to explore and find a way to the northern tunnel. Sailing about we encountered a glittering little island in one of the chambers, a group of nasty trolls that we had to slay, some empty tunnels and finally a bridge, that we felt was the one that linked up with the caved in chamber.

  After resting up we ventured forth, our boat shrunk and safely stowed. We found within the nearest chamber a horrid beast. The mages informed us it was a Gorgimerae. It had some intelligence and we tried to reason with it, but soon it was apparent that the creature would only see us dead and so we set upon it with devastating force. It died quite quickly thanks to Aria’s lightening bolt. Searching about we found some treasure, which we stowed away and a path blocked by boulders. Resting for a bit we then started to clear the boulders away. Beyond the boulders was a steep stairwell leading up. The stairs seemed to lead up forever but finally we entered into a room where we were standing on the unhidden side of a secret door.

  Alexi moved the door open and we entered into a room where a single Priest seemed to be turning in for the night. He was uncooperative, as would be expected, demanding that we leave and that he was the Guardian of this room. Vladimir set upon him quickly as he sensed the man was about to yell for help and I used a prayer to bring him to his senses and befriend our cause. He soon was telling us all about where the Hope stones were. He was very insistent that it was too dangerous to attempt and that we were not allowed here. Leaving the Priest tied up we set off to retrieve the stones. The Priest had supplied us with robes to avoid troubles but it mattered little, with Alexi’s scouting abilities we ran into no opponents. Soon we were staring down the stairs that led to the Hope stones below. A small stair trap hindered us only slightly and Mikhail stayed at the top to hold things in place for us. The stair was like a giant teeter-totter. Below were the Hope stones and we packed them away in our bags. We were soon far out of the false church and on our way back to Ierendi City by the path we had entered through.