Chapter Four:

Day 24, Hour 13 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : What an odd sight the Black Raven
Monastery must have been to those adventurers.  While Uncle Oswald
and Nathaniel evacuated Kuldahar to the north and east, the
sell-swords from Targos happened across that strange place.  To this
day, I can't claim to understand the monks or their philosophy. 
Iselore himself spoke of their order in confused tones, as if his
druidic order and the monastic order were so close - and yet so
different - that they became totally foreign to his understanding.

The Black Raven monks still live in the mountain range today, their
ranks rising and falling with the passing of the years.  I've watched
their plateaus from a distance, seen them practice in quiet accord,
moving between the snowflakes as they fell.  The monks seem content
now, even if they did not then, to let the world of politics and wars
pass by their silent, secret world.

Day 24, Hour 15 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : A monk named Salisam told us to
ask Aruma Blane, who controls the monastery, about accessing the
Underdark passage.  He warned us that she would probably say no, but
asked that we come and talk to him after speaking to Aruma,
regardless of her reply.

Day 24, Hour 15 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : We encountered a "monk" named Ven
who was actually a thief in disguise.  He's trying to loot the Black
Raven's tomb, but needed someone's help to open the gate.

Day 24, Hour 15 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : We agreed to help Ven loot the
Black Raven's tomb.  He's supposed to meet us on the third level of
the monastery when we finally get the gate open.

Day 24, Hour 15 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : Bered, the librarian of the Black
Raven Monastery, mentioned Eight Chambers on the second level of the
place that were used to test the worthiness of potential monks or
associates to the order.  A monk named Morohem - "Master of the
Chambers" - oversees them.

Day 24, Hour 16 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : Sersa, the monastery's
quartermaster, claims to have stumbled upon a mental wall with her
training.  She can't increase her martial skills, but Svaltid - the
monastery's trainer - won't spend any more time with her.

Day 24, Hour 17 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : We managed to convince Svaltid,
master trainer of the Black Raven Monastery, to give Sersa the
additional training that she needs to advance.

Day 24, Hour 17 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : We told Sersa that we 'd managed
to convince Svaltid to spend more training time with her.  In return,
she'll allow us to rest at the monastery at no cost.

Day 24, Hour 17 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : Aruma Blane, leader of the Black
Raven Monastery, refused to let us use the Underdark passage.

Day 24, Hour 17 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : After showing Dolon's letters to
Aruma, she has decided to leave the monastery in the charge of
Salisam.  Oddly enough, it seems that she and Dolon Daemba - Isair
and Madae's envoy to the archimandrite - have fallen in love and are
running off together.

Day 24, Hour 18 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : Salisam told us that, with Aruma
removed from power, we were allowed to face the Eight Chambers -
mastering them will give us access to the Underdark passage.  We're
to speak with Morohem on the second level of the Monastery.

Day 24, Hour 18 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : Morohem has allowed us to face
the Eight Chambers.  We must choose one of our number to enter alone
and without equipment; he mentioned that Nonin, upstairs, can help us
store any items that the others can't carry.  However, each chamber
has a hidden compartment filled with weapons; they're opened by large
golden buttons.  Morohem will let the challenger into each chamber in
turn and seal the door behind him or her, at which point the test
will begin - the challenger can't leave a chamber until he or she
masters it or dies trying.  He also says we can rest here so long as
we're facing the chambers.

Day 24, Hour 18 (25 Mirtul, 1312) : We met Morohem, the Black Raven
Monastery's Master of Chambers.  His duties are to guide challengers
through the testing chambers, offering instructions and advice.

Day 25, Hour 1 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : Salisam congratulated us as
associates of the Black Raven Monastery, saying that the gate on the
third level of the monastery - and thus the Underdark passage - was
now open to us.

Day 25, Hour 18 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : We informed the leader of Black
Raven Monastery of Ven the thief's plans to loot the Black Raven's
tomb.

Day 25, Hour 18 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : We encountered a large force of
duergar waiting outside the Underdark gate in the Black Raven
Monastery.  Apparently they'd simply been camped there, waiting for
the opportunity to storm in and attack the place.

Day 25, Hour 19 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : In the Underdark below Black
Raven Monastery, we met a dark elf who introduced himself as Malavon
Despana.  He told us that he is the Archmage of Sorcere, an academy
of magic, and the patron of a dark elven house in the city of
Rilauven.

Day 25, Hour 19 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : Malavon Despana told us a bizarre
story about his involvement in a civil war in the dark elven city of
Rilauven.  Thirty years ago, dark elven rebels from the church of
Vhaeraun enlisted Malavon's assistance in their overthrow of the
ruling Lolth matriarchal theocracy.  Malavon's divination powers
revealed that moving against the church of Lolth in their current
state would result in his death.  Around the same time, a demon named
Belhifet appeared above Rilauven in Lower Dorn's Deep, an abandoned
dwarven city.  The demon, in the form of a priest named Poquelin,
attempted to sway the drow of Rilauven into allying themselves with
his army.  Malavon performed more divination and determined that
allying himself with their cause would also result in his death.

Instead of facing death, Malavon chose to create a magical clone to
serve as his proxy.  He explained his plan to his allies in the
church of Vhaeraun and they helped him execute the procedure.  Using
powerful magic, the church erased Malavon's memory of his divination
about Poquelin and his subsequent decisions.  They replaced his
memory with alternate images of success in Poquelin's army.  They
then cloned Malavon and had his apprentice use a scroll to place
Malavon's true form in a state of temporal stasis.  The clone awoke
several months later, was falsely informed by the church of Vhaeraun,
and sent on its way into Poquelin's army.

Only after a single week, the clone sensed what it was.  Unable to
discern where its parent was located, the clone started losing its
mind.  All attempts at finding the parent resulted in finding the
clone.  In its pattern of investigation, it drew the attention of the
drow of Rilauven.  Malavon's sister, Ginafae, was dispatched to
"handle" her brother.  Unfortunately for Ginafae, even the simulacrum
of Malavon's clone was too powerful for her to defeat.  Malavon's
clone, in his demented state, handed Ginafae over to one of
Belhifet's lieutenants, Marketh.  He also turned violently against
his ally in Lower Dorn's Deep, the Red Wizard Saablic Tan.  He
transformed Tan into an umber hulk and chased him out of the wizard's
domed compound.  Malavon's clone's insanity increased over time,
until he was reduced to babbling and lashing out gleefully at
anything that came near him.  It was only after a group of
adventurers destroyed Malavon's clone and the clone's simulacrum that
Malavon himself was allowed to leave stasis.  The wizard remained in
hiding for several months until he and the church of Vhaeraun
overthrew the priestesses of Lolth and their supporters in Sorcere. 
After the revolt, Malavon was appointed the new Archmage of Sorcere. 
He attempted to find Ginafae, but was unable to locate her.  He
assumed that she had been killed when Lower Dorn's Deep was overrun. 
It was not until several years later that he discovered she had been
transformed into a drider by malicious priestesses of Lolth.

Day 25, Hour 19 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : Malavon has asked that we venture
into the driders' caves to find and destroy whatever is allowing them
to transform captured drow into even more driders.  He also requested
that, should we see his sister Ginafae, we try to convince her to
return to the drow encampment.  Seeing as she's currently the leader
of the driders, it's more than likely we'll run across her.

Day 25, Hour 19 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : Viizra Arabani, a drow priestess
of Vhaeraun, told us that if we encounter any driders that all of the
females are priestesses.  She also informed us that the males are
evenly divided between warriors and wizards.

Day 25, Hour 19 (26 Mirtul, 1312) : Viizra Arabani told us she'd
heard word of a band of Lolthian assassins somewhere in the great
cavern.  They've apparently come to kill Malavon.

Day 26, Hour 0 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We met a strange mind flayer by
the steam pools in the Underdark.  Though it did not tell us its
name, we somehow knew that it calls itself Oinchack'olp.  It seemed
uninterested in what we were doing in the area.  It asked us to
recover a stone for it, telling us that the stone was located in
drider caves to the east.

Day 26, Hour 2 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We met a woman named Imphraili
Asserbai in a laboratory near the center of the drider caves.  She
told us that she is a researcher for the school of transmutation.

Day 26, Hour 3 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We found an inanimate flesh golem.
 It seems to have been somehow modified.

Day 26, Hour 6 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We met Ginafae Despana, a drider,
in the northern section of the drider caves.  She seemed resigned to
the destruction of the Viciscamera and the drider uprising.

Day 26, Hour 6 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We convinced Ginafae to leave the
caves and return to her brother, Malavon.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We used Imphraili's notes to
concoct a conversion poison for the Viciscamera.  The poison should
turn the living machine's formidable defenses against itself, causing
it to rot and die within seconds.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We used the white wyrm's egg to
create two potions of strength.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We used Imphraili's notes to
concoct the Sanguis Anima.  Once the life-giving solution is injected
into the inanimate flesh golem, jolting the monster with electricity
should awaken it to serve us.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We were able to use some of the
reagents in the alchemical laboratory in the drider caves to increase
the potency of a healing potion.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : Imphraili's inanimate enhanced
flesh golem is now ready to be awakened via an electrical blast.

Day 26, Hour 7 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We found and destroyed some sort
of drider-spawning monstrosity.  We should return to the drow
encampment and inform Malavon.

Day 26, Hour 8 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : Oinchack'olp became angry when we
refused to return its stone to it.  It told us that we would suffer
greatly for refusing, then phased away.

Day 26, Hour 9 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : We returned to the drow encampment
and spoke to both Malavon and Ginafae.  Both were grateful - Ginaefae
in particular - and she rewarded us with valuable artifacts of the
House Despana.

Day 26, Hour 9 (27 Mirtul, 1312) : After reporting the destruction of
the Viciscamera to Malavon, he and his followers teleported out of
the area.  Before he left, he told us that he believed a mind flayer
could be found outside of the Z'hinda Citadel.  He stated quite
confidently that harassing the mind flayer would cause the thralls
inside to open the portals and surge out to defend the creature.

Day 27, Hour 6 (28 Mirtul, 1312) : We tried to communicate with one
of the mind flayers' thralls - slaves whose minds have been broken by
the sinister psychic powers of the illithid - but to no avail.

Day 27, Hour 15 (28 Mirtul, 1312) : We met a strange brain creature
in a vat at the center of the Z'hinda Citadel.  Though its telepathic
speech was calm, it had no qualms about attacking us with powerful
psionic abilities.