Part I. The Whispering Cairn

Our original group of four heroes was found in the mining town of Diamond Lake. A run-down mining settlement, Diamond Lake survives on the backs of miners who toil away in mines owned by greedy managers. Religion holds little sway in the town, yet our heroes are drawn together under the eaves of the Church of Lathander, the Morninglord. Canoness Ilyana gathers the four youths to look into a disturbing situation. The four gathered are:

Jonas, the young priest-in-training. Handed to the church at an early age, he has grown up as part of the clergy.
Cergus, a paladin who has been sent to Diamond Lake to train with the faithful of Tempus. He serves Lathander, but there is little military arm here.
Clem, a ward of the church. Orphaned at an early age, he is given a place to shelter in the church in exchange for chores. Clem is fairly knowledgeable of the trails and routes around the edges of town.
Zeb, a gnome bard who performs at the local taverns. Zeb has fallen hard on his luck and begun to find his way under the light of Lathander.

The problem at hand is that another youth, Timmon, had gone missing over a year beforehand. He was believed to have run away to the nearby city of Waterdeep, but recently discovered notes point to him exploring a cairn nestled in the hills by the town. Other youths had gone missing before, and if this place was that much of a hazard, our group is charged with stopping it. They plan to meet on the morrow and explore the Whispering Cairn.

Into the Cairn, our group finds a mystery of colored lanterns and a rotating sarcophagus. When the multicolored lanterns are lit and pointed at an alcove, doors open or occasionally traps are sprung. They avoid death by a crushing trap and from a swarm of acid beetles. All the while, Clem's head is pounding mercilessly. They open a portal atop of a great chain, which Clem goes to climb. He finds a hallway beyond with an immense face, but falls prey to its trap as it paralyzes him and blows him backwards. Only Jonas' timely intervention stops the pair from plummeting to the stone floor. Other areas act as elevators and descend into workman areas. They face mechanical traps, deadly fungus, and a waiting ghoul hiding in a submerged area of water.

Eventually the group retrieves the missing lanterns that in concert open the way past the stone face trap. Continuing beyond, the group finds themselves stuck at a door that seemingly cannot be opened. A ghost of a young boy, Alastor Land, speaks with them, telling of how he died here years before. He holds the door ransom, and offers to open it in exchange for a service by the group - they must carry his bones to the house of his family and bury them properly. The party, well disposed to laying spirits to rest, agrees.

They return to the town and inform the Canoness of the situation. They found remains of Timmon and verify his fate, along with other items of interest. One such item is a signet ring of some unknown organization. The party goes to the Land farmstead, which is not too far north of town. The Lands died out not long after Alastor's disappearance, and the house is overgrown. It is not abandoned, however, and the party kills an enraged owl bear mother. They acquire an owlbear cub, which is friendly enough, and learn that the bodies of the Land family have recently been exhumed. An arm remains from a recent battle with the owlbear mother, and on it they note a tattoo mark belonging to Balabar Smenk's crew, one of the more corrupt mine managers.

Back in Diamond Lake, the group goes to the Feral Dog tavern in hopes of finding Smenk's crew. While there, Clem talks up Tirra, a half-elven archer recently come in town to investigate the local Cairns. They haven't been to the Whispering Cairn, but through conversation she learns some info about it. Smenk's crew, led by the albino half-orc Kullen, comes into the bar. There's heated conversation, but no fight within the premises. Our party goes outside and awaits the crew to leave; one does and in his drunken state he's no match for them. He admits that the crew did a bit of work for a man named Filge. He had them acquire some dead bodies for research. They did so, although they lost one of their own in the offering, and took the bodies up to the Observatory on the outskirts of town. Believing him to be a necromancer, our group makes plans to investigate and deal with him.

At the observatory, their fears are realized, as skeletons and zombie are set as guardians. They destroy a grisly dinner scene where the 'guests' speak in gushing tones about their patron, Filge. The party ascends to the top of the observatory, where Filge has set up a gruesome operating theatre. A fight ensues, but the light of Lathander easily dispatches the minions. Filge is captured and interrogated. He points the heroes to the bodies in question and is taken back to the keep where the leader of the militia plans to have him hobbled for his crimes. The bodies are buried properly and the remains are dealt with. With that done, the group heads back to the Whispering Cairn.

Inside the Cairn, the group encounters Tirra and her friends. Zeb realizes he has met the wizard Khellek inside one of the shops where Zeb was pawning the signet ring they found. The wizard had been quite interested then, and still seems to distrust the bard and his friends. They also meet Auric, a boisterous fighter (with a mighty codpiece), who has a knack for belittling the adventures of our party. They are preparing to descend into the workman's area where our group has already explored. Without pause, our group returns to the area where the ghost of Alastor had rested. They see no sign of the ghost, but the door opens to them. Beyond they find frescoes confirming Zeb's thought that the cairn is a tomb to an ancient race of air elementals. They see images of great battles against demonic spiders. This leads them to a perilous walkway where they must fight sword-wielding guardians who float up to fight them. That surpassed, they find the final resting place of the being this tomb was created for and a few items of treasure. Satisfied, the group leaves the cairn, taking a few of the lanterns so that Auric's Warband cannot explore the final rooms.