That night, as we stay at Dimitru’s house, I have a strange dream.  I am in a burrow, warmly attired, the couch and chairs are all upholstered with red velvet.  It reminds me of home, but my parents never had this much money.  The smell of mulled wine and roast beef with chestnuts permeates the air.  From behind me, I hear a voice, deep and rich.  “It’s so lovely to see you, Niece.  Would you like some wine?”  He pauses for an answer.  I realize that I cannot turn around.  I nod my head—I am not sure why—and a gloved hand gives me a cup of mulled wine.  A few minutes pass, and then a robed figure walks by me.  As he passes, I realize he is a gnome.  He turns and sits down, only then pulling back his cowl.

He is indeed a gnome, but his skin is red.  Large black horns sprout from his head, and his face looks just a bit dog-like.  His eyes glow a deep blood red.  He smiles.  His teeth are normal except for his canines which extend 4 or 5 times the length they should.  “So Niece, I must say it is unexpected to see you here on the other side.  Does not the blood within you burn with rage, covetous lust and mischief?  Why do you deny yourself the pleasures of your blood?”  He waits for an answer.  I stammer, but find no words.  He smiles again.  “Well you my niece, have found a map—a very special map—one which will lead you to a temple, a temple only certain people can find.  Give it to me.  Give it to me and join our family.  “Together we will find the Sun’s Tear, and together we will take the Eye of Winter from that course bastard Sindri.  With them we will conquer this island.”  His voice gets loud as he continues, “Our family will rule the island!  You can share the court with me, or, if you prefer, you can be Duchess of Grozney.” 

He places his face very close to mine, “Join with me.”  He sits back.  “I will meet you on the road.  Slit your friend’s throats and bring the map to me, or, if you cannot bring yourself to do that, steal the map and leave them.  Together we can rule, and you can embrace your heritage.”  Before I can answer, I wake up.
I share the details of the dream with Ulric and Briggette, and together we decide to continue on our appointed path and take care of this mysterious uncle when and if we cross his path.

As we set out about our way a few days later, Korvinean and Ravassaadi distribute snow shoes they have made for everyone.  Because of the weather, we are forced to continue on foot.

After a day and a half, we crest a ridge to find three figures standing a few feet away.  On second glance, we see that they are bugbears.  We easily rid the Isle of Delrith of this tiny scourge, and search their bodies to find multiple potions and some good quality armor.  We continue along our way.

A while later, Briggette gets an odd feeling that something’s not right, but it passes.  Korvinean continues to range ahead for us as we travel.  At one point, he comes running back toward us with a giant white spider on his tail.  On the spider’s back, there is another, smaller spider.  Again, we have no trouble dispatching the vermin, and we move along on our way. 

That evening, we make camp and take our normal watches.  On my watch, I hear a voice at my ear, “Cousin.”  I look around, but see nothing.  “Bring the map and join us.”

“You may as well leave me alone; I’ll never join with you,” I reply into the darkness.  Finn seems quite confused, but readies his weapon, as do I.

“Are you sure, Cousin?  We could make your life very comfortable.”

“I would be much more comfortable if you would just leave me alone,” I reply.

“Oh, that can be arranged,” he answers.  “Just bring me the map, and I can be certain you will be left alone.”

“No.”

“You are such a stick in the mud.  You must be from the boring side of the family, and you know what happens to the boring ones, right?  They get all the tricks played on them.”  With that, he is gone, and we are not bothered again that night.

As we get underway the next morning, I share the experience with Ulric and Briggette first, then fill in the rest of our group with the details of both my dream and this last night’s activity.

After about three hours ride, Korvinean comes back and tells us he’s seen two sets of tracks ahead, neither of which he can identify.  This really disturbs him.  He says one looks kind of like a human track, but the big toe is in the wrong place and they are unshod.  The other track is very large, and he takes it for some sort of bird, but doesn’t know much more.  He says they passed through around three hours ago.  We remain vigilant as we move along our way.

As we continue forward, we come across a small robed figure accompanied by a large creature that looks somewhat similar to the indigenous monitors from our area, but has red glowing eyes.  The robed figure does not appear to be armed.  He lifts his hand as if to tell us to halt.  “You are?” It is the voice that spoke to me the night before.

“I am Ulric von Zurwald,” Ulric replies.  The creature says that we have something that is rightfully his, and demands that we give it back.  Ulric denies him, saying he doesn’t recognize his claim.

“That is an unfortunate decision,” he says.

“Yes,” Ulric replies, “One of many that you’re sure to make today.  However, this can be rectified if you will simply stand aside and let me pass.  Otherwise, I may have to run you through.”

“Well, as your group clearly outnumbers me, and you don’t recognize my legal claim, I’ll have to go along my way.”  He turns and walks off in a different direction.  I inform my party that his voice is the same that spoke to me in the night.  Of course, we don’t believe that this is the last we will hear of him, but we continue along our way.

Shortly, we come across a very large lizard-like beast.  As we fight him, my cousin’s flame-colored companion comes back, as well as a large hairy white ape-like creature.  This battle takes longer than the previous two, and we do suffer a loss this time; however, overall, we prevail.  Korvinean’s horse is a casualty of the fight.  Luckily, my hideous cousin was one of the casualties on the other side of the fray.

On his body, we find a letter written in abyssal.  It directs him to find me, get the map and get me to come with him if possible.  If not, he is directed to kill us all.  Oh, well.  Too bad he failed in his mission.  We continue to follow the path as laid out on the map.

As we get into a more mountainous region, we note that the map is much more detailed, and the scale has changed.  At about six o’clock, the path we’re following ends in a sheer cliff face.  The map indicates that the temple is somewhere in this vicinity, so we all look for some sort of mechanism which might hide a door.  Korvinean finds that the cliff face is illusory, and we all pass through and continue on.

About a hundred feet in, we come to a grotto that is partially covered by a cliff with a shaft of light coming in.  The walls are polished like glass and reflect the light over and over again such that the area is lit as well as if it’s out in broad daylight, even though the light outside is overcast at best.  Across the way stands a large polished steel door engraved with an image of a sun.

Briggette rides around the room to check it out, and she finds nothing but a few arrow slits in the walls.  There are no other doors.  I find and disable a trap on the large steel door, and when I open it, I see a large room with a raised platform on the far end and several benches lined up in two rows between the door and raised area.

As I step in, blades emerge from both walls and while I manage to avoid some of the blows, some hit me.  I feel weaker after the blow.  I turn back as the trap resets and disable it.  The room is brightly lit, though I see no sources of light.  There are no shadows anywhere.  On each side of the room, there are four alcoves, and the far end of the room is still hidden from view.  On the raised area, we see a large copper gilded ¾ horizontal sun.  The missing quarter appears to be where a celebrant might stand.

We begin to check out the alcoves.  As we move toward the first one, we notice that the floors in the room are not uniform.  Some areas are completely spotless, as if cleaned and mopped with great care, while others are dusty and covered in small debris.  There is no pattern, rhyme or reason to it.  Inside the first alcove, there is a lot of wood debris, just broken bits.  We cannot even tell what this might have been.  There are also two arrow slits in the far wall.  We move on to the next alcove and find it completely empty. 

As I approach the next alcove, a small drop of fire falls from the ceiling, and Ulric pushes me out of the way.  A fireball explodes in the room.  I manage to disable the runes that set it off, but shortly thereafter, I collapse from the effects of the poison from the blades earlier.  Ravassaadi manages to heal me a little, but I still feel incredibly weak.  We continue to find the next alcove empty also.  As we are now behind the altar area, we see more benches and one more alcove.  This alcove is filled with smashed and broken furniture.  It appears to have been broken on purpose and with a vengeance.  As we enter, we feel a slight breeze on our necks and the debris in the room begins to move around, as if being picked up in a bad windstorm.  I immediately tumble back out of the room past Ulric, knowing that I am in no condition to fight in my weakened state.  When I rise, I see that there is a humanoid shape there made of wind.

It is a tough fight, but we manage to kill the elemental, after which, we find a large amount of money in the room.  I continue to the first alcove on the other side of the room.  This one is neat and tidy with an armoire and a bed.  As I enter, I notice a line of silver dust on the floor.  I break the line with an expandable pole, and Ulric steps into the room with me.  I go in to check out the armoire, and as I begin to pull on the doors, they jerk open and slam shut on my head.  The bed runs over and attacks Ulric.  We manage to stave off our confusion and attack the animated furniture.  We manage to defeat the odd foes, and we move on to the next alcove.  This one is empty, so I continue to the next.

When I get there, the room is pitch black—magically so.  Ravassaadi casts light into the room, which does serve to illuminate it for a split second.  In that time, I am able to see that there is an armoire and bed in this room, also; however, these appear to be old and worn.  I also see a shadowy figure in the corner of the room just before the light fades.  I fire in that direction, and I hear my bolt hit the wall.  I begin to hear something moving in the room, and I warn my friends, “Something’s coming!”  I step back and ready myself for a fight.  A black wispy hand reaches for me, and I manage to hit it.  A second figure emerges completely from the darkness and travels through me!  I feel cold and strange at the intrusion. 

Briggette pulls off her holy symbol, raises it, and yells, “In the name of St. Cuthbert, go back to whatever hell you came from!”  They turn and run off, and Ravassaadi steps up to check on me, healing me from some of my damage.  Finn throws some Alchemist’s Fire into the room and the darkness eventually burns away.  The two wraiths are still in the room trying to run away through the walls.  We kill them and move on to the next room.

As I approach and begin to search, I realize I am standing on the trigger to the trap.  “Nobody move!” I yell to my mates, and tumble away just in time to see the floor fall away to a massive pit trap with spikes below.  We avoid the area and make our way to the altar.

I find no traps on the way there, but the top stair has an inscription written in common, “What is the glory of the East?” 

“The sun,” Ulric says, then steps onto the stair.  He is shocked and hurled to the ground.  He gets up and steps up to the stair again, this time saying, “The dawn” before stepping up.  This time, nothing happens.  I follow and begin to search the area.  I find a very beautiful copper censor on a chain.  I search around the rest of the altar and find a secret door.

I manage to unlock the door, and as soon as I do, it begins to slide open.  It reveals a staircase going down very steeply.  It has a full handrail alongside it.  Before going down, we check the first alcove more thoroughly, and as I’m searching, a giant blob of goo falls down on me from the ceiling.  I am fully engulfed, but my friends try to cut me free.  When Ulric hits with Law’s Claw, the thing merely splits into more rather than appearing to be hurt.  Briggette attacks with her cudgel, but this time it doesn’t split into more.  They keep hitting it with blunt instruments until it dissolves away.  I tumble free and they throw in another vial of Alchemists fire to burn it off.

We make our way back over to the secret door, and we head down the stairs.  Once again, the room we enter is once again lit with no visible light source.  We can see a copper font with brass and copper sun above it on one wall.  On the opposite wall, there are several hooks.  The final wall seems to be rippling.  As we take all this in, we hear a voice say, “I am larger than a dragon but lighter than a feather, my power is staggering, my fury great.  My caress forms the sailor’s wake.”  There is a 20 second pause, then “Who am I?”

“The ocean?” Briggette questions.