After a harrowing encounter with the Vampire Servitor and knowing that there was yet another that was even stronger and needed to be defeated, we decided to seek and edge against the nightwalkers. The notes we found in the house detailed a cave where trapped sunlight can be brought to weaken the beasts.

We traveled east from the rotted farmhouse and noticed a likely candidate for our cave of interest.

This was no abandoned cave. We were met with carved stairs and pillars inset with jewels and a corpse adorned in a purple robe

Noticing that the jewels were annoyingly secured, and undoubtably trapped with magic somehow, we continued on.

Huzzah! we found a corpse wearing the robes of the order of the unforgetting! An order dedicated to exploration and the preservation of knowledge. I've been looking for signs of these people since the reckoning. now we just have to get in to see if their library is in tact, though this cave may have been used as a containment facility of some kind. Hopefully whatever is being contained met the same fate as the corpse at the door.

The pillars are a test of some sort. Several sets of magical pillars awaited us. crossing them triggered a magical response; Fire, salt water filling our lungs, poisonings and finally, blindness. I have disabled those traps.

We passed through with difficulty, but alive, into an alter of Narvok, one of the five. Shockingly, a great sword of Narvok was smashed into the alter, cleaving it in two. Clearly, some kind of rebellion/coup happened here. Suffice to say, this was some kind of temple to Narvok and not, as I had hoped, an outpost of the order of the unforgetting. It seems that the corpse was a hapless adventurer who succumbed to the tests while exploring.

After the pillars, a phantom warrior appeared and called us heretics. Without waiting for any elaboration, our champion rushed in and hit it in the face.

After the mele, which almost claimed Alphonse, we searched the rest of the cave and did not find any sunlight. our main mission has been unsuccessful.

It was not a total loss, the great sword stuck in the altar has a magical effect that seems to ground the wielder to the ground, making them sturdy against anything trying to move them, as well a a small sum of gold pieces.

Searching the body of the poor adventurer, I found notes about ruins to the north, that we may have already found, but noted for future, as well as a magical, glass eyeball with two crystal eyras' on either side that gives different effects depending where you carry it. It can cast light no mater where it is.

What's time gonna do? Catch me?
-Kieran Oifey, Running head first into a stun trap he mistook for a slow trap.

After a close encounter of the Vampire kind, we set out further east in search of a weapon that could abuse their weakness to sunlight. Seems like we didn't quite find our intended destination, as we instead came across a old ruin belonging to Narvok of the Five.

The structure, (Which we would later deduce was a trail chamber for Narvok's chosen to prove their willpower and resilience) was lined with black-stone pillars radiating magic, and running parallel to a set of stairs. leading deeper in.

Lacking in appropriate tools to circumvent the trap, I decided to trade my well-being for information my companions could use to circumvent the obstacle. Trusting in the integrity of my armour, I ran head first into the trapped chamber. The first pillars set our armour ablaze. The second pillars attempted to conjure saltwater directly into our lungs. The third pillars stunned and poisoned us, mostly likely trying to keep us stuck in place and withered to a slow death. The fourth and final pillar blinded any who crossed it's threshold.

Figuring that the less time spent between each threshold, the safer we'd be, I kept charging full tilt down the stairs, arriving mostly intact at the bottom.

The heart of the chamber was a site of desecration. An altar to Narvok was demolished, a greatsword bearing Narvok's own sigil embedded deep into the stonework, with the tapestry shredded and tattered. I have two theories as to what transpired here. Either an adversary of Narvok's sent an agent of theirs to demolish this shrine as a declaration of war. or an Oathbreaker of Narvok's was unhappy with their loyalty to their god, and they lashed out in recompense. In either case, the building was desolate.

I drew the sword from the altar hoping it might disable the traps, but with no such luck, my compatriots were forced to also brave the tests of resilience. But before we could all reach the bottom, we were attacked by a phantom claiming to guard the sanctity of the test.

Much to my frustration, the phantom was unphased by my attempts to heckle it. I barely registered as a threat to it!! It kept harping on about "heresy" this and, "You didn't pass the trial" that. Honestly, I was pretty insulted! For a guardian of adversity and willpower, it didn't seem too interested in going toe to toe with the only one who actually passed the test! Well the jokes on it. As it kept ignoring me to beat down on my allies, it found itself getting beaten to undeath with the very sword it was probably supposed to be guarding.

After licking our wounds and properly disabling the traps from the inside, so that no other explorers would find themselves dead at the hands of a deceased god's petty hazing ritual, we pilfered a magic sword that renders the user immovable, and a crystalline eye that thwarts attempts to hide from the wielder. We then set back out for camp to regroup and plan our next outing.