Field Notes of V - The Urns

I will start with the old woman, because she is where this started. She hired our motley crew to enter an underground reliquary and remove the dangerous vermin therein. She claimed that she required this service so that her team of experts could then remove several fragile urns from the premises.

She described some strange things, including a crystal on an altar deep in the dungeon. She also alleged that contact with the gemstone would result in the summoning of an angry archangel. I am uncertain as to the veracity of this claim, but am interested to see this crystal for myself. Perhaps I can convince Hobb to touch it. While I am at a safe distance, of course.

The dank excavation into which she directed us has so far been singularly unpleasant. It is infested with oversized arthropods and other distasteful vermin. Few of them are fit even for grinding into reagents or other experimentation. My sole encouraging find was two glowing glands from a fire breathing beetle, which I crafted into torches.

We have also encountered some members of one of the baser humanoid races here, which leads me to suspect the possibility of affairs more sinister than the old woman's simple vermin infestation. One of them shattered one of the old woman's urns, and we found another urn already shattered. Apparently the lowly creatures have no regard for the antiquities they are dwelling among. So why are they here? Could it have something to do with the crystal?