Editing The Third Eye (section)

====Shrine of the Blind God====
After leaving Gorso, they walked to Aubelior Whitegate's workshop, which was nearby. After some discussion of how to approach him, Ilara knocked on the door. When he answered, she said hello and used her magic eyepatch to attempt to charm him. He resisted the magic, recognized it for what it was, retaliated with a magic missile, got angry that she attempted to charm him, and slammed the door. Sylas apologized through the door, explained the situation, and got Aubelior to finally open the door again, though he remained angry at Ilara. Sylas offered magical reagents in exchange for information about the Torcs of the Tower, but Aubelior instead proposed an exchange of information, and asked what they knew of the Ziggurat of the New Moon. They'd never heard of it, so he instead asked for any unusual information about Master Arlen the Constructor. When they mentioned they had been to his tomb, he insisted they take him there, which they were amenable to. Regarding the torcs, he told them that the stone torc, once given to the lord of Nangrath, was presumably still there, but only the dwarves of Nangrath would know for sure.
The adamantine torc was worn by Ha'aren Blackbone, one of the Red Cloak Lawgivers, when she visited him a year ago, though he said their conversation was entirely mundane and he didn't know where she'd gone afterwards.

The clay torc was originally presented to Lord Eard Wyatt Arden, known in his day as "Dragonfriend." Aubelior explained that though he died centuries ago, in life he was good friends with a bronze dragon named Thalarmas. Though Thalarmas himself had also perished some years past, he knew where his body lay, and suggested that was a good place to start their search. And, as luck would have it, it was only two days' journey from the tomb. So they agreed that they would escort him to the tomb, and in turn he would then escort them to Thalarmas's bones. Five days later they arrived at the tomb, to Aubelior's delight. The antechamber was still filled with scale models of Master Arlen's creations, and Aubelior was particularly interested in a large golem known as the Colossus. But then he looked up at the illusory map of the kingdom, and at the ziggurat north of Hargrave where there was no ziggurat in the world. Seeing it, he told them in awe that that is where the Ziggurat of the New Moon was located. When they reminded him there wasn't actually a ziggurat there, he told them that's where it would be, and that the key phrase Master Arlen wrote about it was, "The darkness shall feed their fears." Aubelior soon found Master Arlen's ghost, but after he realized it was ignoring him rather than talking back, he spent all night reading Arlen's inscribed tablets. In the morning, he led the party west to the foothills where Thelarmas's bones lay. The bones were surprisingly clean, and under an overhang of rock was a campsite with an armored figure. After greeting them, he asked them to come closer, and they immediately realized he was blind, his eyes completely white.

He told them his name was Selvaro, a knight who had taken it upon himself to tend to Thelarmas's bones and protect them against those with ill intentions towards such a noble former protector of the kingdom. When they mentioned the torc, he questioned them about why they wanted it; when they explained, he told them it was likely in Thelarmas's hoard. Centuries ago, Lord Arden befriended Thelarmas and was named "Dragonfriend" by the people of Hargram. Together they helped liberate the kingdom from the dragon tyrants, and helped defend the nascent kingdom in its early days. Arden died without heirs, and gifted all of his possessions to Thelarmas's hoard. Thelarmas, in turn, interred his body within his own lair. However, a few decades ago, a group of cultists of [[Juiblex]] drove him out of his lair, killing him with a corrosive ooze. Selvaro once attempted to reclaim Thelarmas's lair, but encountered an enormous ooze that permanently blinded him. He had tended Thelarmas's bones ever since, but recognized that perhaps the Third Eye might succeed where he once failed. He was willing to take them there, though only in the full knowledge of what they would face. When they agreed, he stepped out into the rain and transformed into a bronze dragon whose eyes had been burned from his head. He bid them to climb on his back, and after they did so - save for Aubelior, who intended to return to the tomb - Selvarao took flight. He told them they were free to take whatever they wished from Lord Arden's body, but requested whatever remained of his father's hoard for himself.

Upon arriving at a cave up in the mountains, he told them that the giant ooze that had blinded him could likely still be found within, beyond which was the passage into the main chamber of Thelarmas's lair. However, there was also a secret passage - too small for him in dragon form - that led around that to where Lord Arden had been interred. They chose to take the secret passage first. The secret passage let out in a large room with a pile of orange dust against one wall. In the center was a strange monolith, seemingly grown from the floor, covered in runes and with the symbol of a slashed-out eye on it. When they stepped in, a cloud of ghostly, shrieking faces emerged, a sickly green glow coming from their eyes and mouths. Shortly thereafter, a black pudding burbled up from the orange dust, and they discovered that the monolith was enchanted to render everything in the room vulnerable to the acidic oozes... Until Isabelle simply dispelled it. After a pitched battle in which Sylas countered the ghostly cloud's repeated attempts at magic, Ilara got polymorphed into a giant ape because her sword was ineffective, and Ililen was nearly killed by the cloud's blasts of acid, they destroyed both creatures and found first a room full of empty bookshelves with ash dusting the floor, and then a room with a few more smaller monoliths and the sarcophagus of Lord Arden. Inside the sarcophagus, around the neck of Master Arden's skeleton, was the Clay Torc of the Tower.

The Third Eye returned to the main cave of the dragon's lair, where they saw several more monoliths, seemingly grown out of the stone, with the same runes and slashed eye symbol. Sylas cast detect magic and the group slowly walked in. He did not detect any magic, but Ilara did detect when she got attacked by the biggest gelatinous cube ever. It didn't take them long to kill it, but in the process Ilara was badly burned and nearly blinded by its acid. Past that, a cavern plunged down into a swirling vortex of water, as multiple underground streams converged. They asked Selvaro if it was always like that, and he said yes. When they asked how to get past it, he told them to hold on tight to him and plunged into the water, through the vortex, and out of the underwater tunnel on the other side to where he and his father once slept. Inside, they found several puddles that turned out to be unholy gray oozes. Alas, after clearing the oozes, they were forced to conclude that whatever treasure Thelarmas once held had been complete destroyed by the oozes that had infested the lair. Selvaro was disappointed, but glad that the evil had been destroyed, and remarked that he had his entire life to build a new one. Sylas gave him a quartz crystal to start, and Ilara gave him the blue gem she once removed from Arlen the Constructor's skull. He thanked them, and called them friends, and Ilara got excited that now SHE can be called "Dragonfriend." They tried to convince him to join them on their quest to save the kingdom, but he demurred. Eventually, he said that should the day come when they had the power to restore his sight, he would join them.