Another Hard Rock Adventure

The adventurers were contacted by messenger that was posting a job onto the board seeking assistance in the next town over to help cleanse a reliquary. It was leaking evil and getting people sick. [The job posting was left on the board]

Once they took up the job and headed out. They met with the "Historian" in the mayor's office. She explained that the reliquary was in a temple of Ilmater. She showed them the way down to the temple, which was a couple of days travel west of the town. [one day to the cave and another through the cave to the temple] The doors to the temple were closed and the "historian" could not open them. The doors were unlocked and opened for any of the adventurers that tried. The doors had the symbol of two hands crossed; bound by a red cord. It also had an inscription on it in Celestial. The inscription reads "Guardians inside here rest. Hardened to the core in their resolve". [The players did not question why she could not open the doors]

Inside the hallway was lit by a gentle white light that was just coming from nowhere. The players saw that the walls are lined with alcoves and have statues in them. The alcoves are stacked two high on the 20ft walls. After they turned the corner they saw another door and more statues. The statues were quite lifelike. A DC 14 investigation would show that the statues are so detailed that they have facial hair. The same check shows that there are no tool marks to represent creation by hand. Once they started to approach the door, an iron golem jumps down in front of it. Many of the players passed it without it making a move. The small group of players that traveled in the back with the "historian" was attacked. The players fended off the golem and opened the door to find a large room that held more statues on every part of the walls here and 3 crates containing broken pieces of statues. They also found a large iron key. When they approached the next door, they found it locked by a large iron lock. 1 key + 1 lock = unlocked door. [The players did not question the reason the golem seemed to try to keep the historian out]

The next, longer hallway was also lit by the same light as the room and the previous hallway. However, once the party got 15ft within the hall the light started to get brighter. As the party continued down the hall the light kept getting brighter and hotter. Non-damaging the light and heat was, but was present. Once the party got within 15ft from the last door, the light faded to the gentle glow that it was previously.

The party opened the door to find a gorgon with a large mask attached to its horns through the eyeholes. It kept telling the party to leave and run away. The party pushed the historian forward to tell her to cleanse the mask. She told them that she is but a historian with a bow and did not want to get injured and kept making up excuses. Finally one of the players said that he was just going to grab the mask. The fight ensued and the gorgon seemed to want to attack the historian more than the rest of the party. [the party did not question this]

Once it was dead, she said that she would cleanse the mask. When asked, she said that she was a priestess of Ilmater. She cleared the area and put down all that she would need for the "cleansing ritual". She moved the party all in front of her as she started the ritual claiming that she "needed the space". Once the "ritual" began, she said a couple of words and put her hand on the mask. When the party did nothing about this, she put the mask on and started to transform into a Medusa. The party failed their con saves and all became statues.

Since the last party was lost, the Priestess has cleared out the rooms of the statues, finding new homes for them in the temple, and summoned/created the Iron golem and Gorgon to attempt the same con again. The new party is in a room behind the final room behind a secret door. They are all currently chained to the walls, while stone. She plans to turn them back to flesh and use their life essence to imbue her with extended life and the power to make permanent the change to a Medusa the mask provides while also making the petrification effect a permanent condition that not even magic can reverse. She has, however, use some of the mask's power when creating the iron golem and has not yet been able to allow it to regain it's full power back. DC to save the petrification is now 18 until she completes a ritual to empower it again.

While in Medusa form she has a heightened hit point count(150), she has resistance to magic, and cast up to 4th level cleric spells.