Home Savage Tide    The Savage Tide Adventure Path is from Paizo Publishing

The Savage Tide Journal    Updated 05/09/2012

                                        Written by David Henderson

Chapter One: There is No Honor

          Feb 4 2007; this story begins in the city of Sasserine lying along the coast of the Amedio Jungle. To the west are the Hellfurnace Mountains, to the east the vast expanse of the Azure Sea. To the north is the vast Sheldamar valley.  The city is hidden from the rest of the world by the vast outcroppings of rock that hides the entrance to the harbour. Through the years the city has been governed by different masters. The last ones were the Sea Princes who were overthrown a decade ago with the city now governing itself. Our adventure begins with the introduction of an intrepid group of adventurers. It is a little different as the spell casters are gnomes, a cleric of Pelor named Cris’toff, a druid of Obad-Hai named Sable, and an illusionist which is a specialist wizard named Pwt. The others are a woodland scout named Lucky, a rogue named Wik, and a warrior female named Adla. All these people have lived most of their lives here in Sasserine and they are now at the age where they are getting restless.

Fireseek 18, 594CY The gnomes have known each other for over a decade and Sable managed to get them hired by Master Blenak in the noble district to go out into the marshes and harvest some rare plants for potion and spell ingredients. As they decided they needed some muscle they managed to talk Adla, Lucky, and Wik to accompany them. Master Blenak agreed to pay them 10 gold each and a bonus if they brought back enough plants. The six of them walked for two hours to find the spot where the hard to find plants were said to grow. They were checking a small mound surrounded by water when they were jumped by some bullywugs or frog men as they are commonly known. The gnomes retreated behind the warriors as they started fighting the frog men.

As the fight was on, a large humanoid came around the side of the hillock and spotted the fight. He was about 8’ tall and was carrying a large club over his shoulder. His eyes opened and he shouted with glee as he grabbed his club and stepped up and whacked one of the frog men about twenty feet and it landed with a splash. The others noticed him and the frog men disappeared into the water as he walked over to the floating body and picked it up with one hand. He turned to the wide eyed group and held the body towards them and said, “Lunch.” The group looked at him and realized that he was human with some other bloodline in him for when he smiled at the group they could see tusks. He walked over to the group with the body and asked them if they wanted any.

The group said no and asked him what his name was, he said his name was Humphrey and he was headed to the big city to see what everyone was talking about. The group then introduced themselves and said they were from the city and they were headed back there after they were done. They said he could come along so he slung the body over his shoulder and accompanied them for the rest of the afternoon. It was just before dinnertime when the group headed back to Sasserine. They arrived and headed towards Blenak’s to deliver the reeds and grasses they had collected. They attracted attention as they walked through the city as Humphrey towered over everyone else, that and the body he was carrying. Humphrey found a spot to sit in an alley and quickly found enough wood to start a fire and proceeded to roast some frog’s legs for dinner. Just as he was done he was approached by a guy who offered him some coin for the body. As he was done with the body he said ok. The guy dropped the coins and grabbed the body and hustled quickly away.

Feb 11 2007; Humphrey spent a quiet night curled up in the corner of the alley and the group found him the next day. Fireseek 19 They wandered around the city showing Humphrey the sights and then headed for a tavern for their midday meal. They gave Humphrey some gold for his share of collection from yesterday and had a large meal with Humphrey eating more than the rest of them combined. Just as they were finished a wizened Halfling woman entered the tavern and headed towards their table. She gave an exaggerated sniff as she presented a scroll to the group. Wik grabbed it and opened it and then handed it to Adla.

It said, “Greetings and I trust this missive finds you in good health. My name is Lavinia Vanderboren and I humbly request your attendance at dinner at my estate on Festival Street and Blue Skink Lane tomorrow evening. I think that I can present you with an opportunity uniquely suited to your skills. Please inform the carrier of this letter of your response to this invitation, and I hope to be speaking to you soon.”

The group looked at each other and shrugged and said that they would be there tomorrow. The Halfling woman took back the scroll and left the tavern. The group then spent the day relaxing.

Fireseek 20 The next evening the group headed over to the eastern section of Merchant district and found the Vanderboren manor. The 7’ stone walls that surround the estate were impossible to miss even alongside the towering gothic style house inside. Gargoyles and nymphs festoon the eaves of the manor house and several mature trees grow here. The front gates have been left open so the group walked through and up to the door to the house. Adla knocked on the door and a few moments later it was opened by the wizened Halfling woman they had spoke to yesterday. She introduced herself as Kora Whistlegap.  She invited them in and asked them to wait in the parlour for a moment while she informed her mistress that they were here. As they waited a group of four people came out of a room and walked past them with Kora running up behind them. They were a jaunty male half-elf dressed in leather armor with daggers all over the place, a dark-skinned dwarf with a sour expression dressed in green and brown robes and clutching a large curved spear, an attractive but haughty looking woman dressed in dark purple robes and with a tattoo of a crescent moon on one cheek and lastly a tall handsome man dressed in polished breastplate and carrying a bastard sword.

The tall man stopped and sized them up as the other three walked past him before announcing, “Hmmm, you must be the help Lavinia’s bringing in to do the chores. Best of luck to ya!” the group looked at each other as Kora now invited them into the dining room. They walked into a formal dining room with a slender young woman dressed in a blue gown stood waiting for them. She was standing before a portrait depicting a handsome young man with a beard. She turned and introduced herself as Livonia Vanderboren. She asked them to all sit down and get comfortable before she told them why they were here. She wanted to hire the group to investigate her father’s ship the Blue Nixie. It had been seized for non-payment of mooring fees and she had just paid one of the harbormasters underlings for the return of the ship but he now denied ever getting a payment from her and was not allowing her to get on the ship. She needed to find her father’s signet ring in order to gain access to the family vault under Castle Teraknian. The group agreed to investigate her ship and she told them that it was docked off pier five just up the street from here. The group then found out that the picture was of her younger brother Vanthus. When Cris’toff asked her about the fire she was distressed for a moment but told them that her parents were getting ready to leave on a cruise when the ship somehow caught fire and burned down to the waterline.

After dinner was done they took their leave of her and wandered over to dock five and then received a bit of a shock when they saw the Nixie moored about 100-feet off the dock. They were going to have to use some rowboats to get out there. They also decided to drop off most of their gear as no one wanted to go for a swim. Adla mentioned that her place was just across the water and that they could leave their gear there at her grandfathers. They told Humphrey to wait for them and the rest of them got the attention of a rowboat that paddled over and then took them across the water. Humphrey soon grew bored and was looking around. He caught the attention of another rowboat paddling by and held out his hand and told him to stop. The guy did and Humphrey pointed out to the boat and said, “Want to go there.” The guy looked at him and said toss me a silver and I will take you there. Humphrey pulled out his coins and tossed one down and then carefully got into the boat. He waited as the ship got closer and when he came up to the anchor rope he reached up and started climbing the rope. The rowboat kept going as he climbed up onto the deck. The sailor that was working up on the bow turned around in amazement as Humphrey climbed on board.

The guy opened his mouth to yell as Humphrey slapped his hand down onto his head. The guy fell to the deck with a thud. Humphrey then crouched down a bit behind the mast as he looked around. No one had seen him so he then reached down and grabbed the body and tossed it overboard and it hit the water with a loud splash. The rest of the group had spotted Humphrey climbing on board so they headed to the stern of the ship. They got there and Wik scrambled up the stern rope with Lucky and Adla right behind him. The gnomes decided to wait until the coast was clear before they started climbing.

Feb 18 2007; Wik managed to climb on board just as a sailor poked his head up and spotted him. One of the gnomes cast a spell to daze him for a second as he got thwacked by Wik and now Adla as Lucky pulled out his bow to look for other targets. They managed to start picking off the sailors as they tried to respond against them. Someone started shouting to burn the ship once they realized that the group had boarded. Thumps, bangs and squeals started sounding down in the hold and the noise intensified when smoke started coming up from the hold. Humphrey headed down the stairs and came into the galley. The smell of food was too much for him and he had to stop and find something to eat as his stomach rumbled. After spending a few moments stuffing his mouth, Humphrey smelled smoke and remembered what he had been thinking as he came down the stairs. He turned and saw the door and opened it and poked his head in to look. He spotted smoke and some small flames along with lots of dead birds and animals. He was then rudely grabbed by the long arms of something and then bitten on his leg by an eight legged creature that vaguely looked like a spider. For the first time in his life his barbarian rage came upon him and he started furiously started pounding away at the creature. His club was forgotten in the confines of the hold. They both attacked away at each other until Humphrey finally thumped it the last time to kill it.

Adla and the others were dealing with the sailors at the stern of the ship and watched in amusement as Sable almost went for a swim when he attacked the sailor while standing on the railing of the ship. He took a wild swing with his quarterstaff and missed and slipped off the railing. He landed back in the rowboat as Cris’toff and Pwt started rolling around the boat in laughter until Cris’toff cast a healing spell on him. Adla got down onto the main deck and came face to face with the bald headed man that Lavinia had been dealing with. She attacked and with the help of the others managed to kill him and the female sailor with him. Lucky and Wik then started searching the wardroom and captain’s cabin in behind it. Adla then went looking for Humphrey and finally found him just after he had killed the beast. She then started putting out the fires as Humphrey came out of his rage and slumped down to rest.

Mar 4 2007; Sable checked out the hold and helped and healed some of the animals that were still alive. Most of the others were dead and had been torn apart by the beast. Sable had one heal spell left and used it on Humphrey to wake him up as they headed up the stairs back to the main deck. Wik and Lucky had finally found a hidden spot on the headboard of the captain’s bunk and found the signet ring with a piece of paper curled up inside it. He opened it and it read, “Chimera looks to sunrise, Cyclops looks to sunset, Medusa looks to sunrise, Umber hulk looks to sunset, Basilisk looks to sunrise.”

He put the paper in his pocket and was looking at the ring when Lucky finally noticed he had it. They then heard the group telling them that they were leaving so they quickly looked through the room and found a bag of coin. He looked at it and saw that it was platinum. He also remembered that Lady Lavinia had paid the man with platinum. He put the bag in his shirt as the rest of the group started climbing back into the boat. Humphrey came up on deck chewing on a handful of food that he had scooped up as he headed back up on deck. He watched as the rest got into the rowboat and pulled of his gear and tossed it into the boat and proceeded to grab his club in one hand as he dove into the water and followed the group. They headed over to Adla’s in order to recover their gear and they then walked back over to the Vanderboren Manor to speak with Miss Lavinia again.

They knocked on the door and it was soon opened by Kora. They told her that they had recovered the property and needed to speak with Lavinia again. She ushered them in and asked them to wait a moment. She soon returned to the group and escorted them into the dining room again where Lavinia Vanderboren waited patiently. She said that things must have gone well if they had returned already. Wik stepped forward and pulled the ring out of his pocket and handed it to her. She was ecstatic to have the ring back and then asked them if they had found her coin that she had paid. Wik then pulled the bag out of his jerkin and dropped it on the table. He didn’t tell anyone that he had grabbed a handful of coins when no one was looking. Lavinia was so happy to get it back that she asked the group if they were interested in working for her. She would be willing to pay them 100 gold each per month if they were willing to join her employ. Humphrey asked how much coin that was and she dumped the bag of platinum into his hands and said that much gold per month. Humphrey looked at her and said OK. The rest of the group rapidly agreed to the same and she then asked them to be here early the next morning to accompany her to Castle Teraknian where the family vault was located. The group agreed.

Fireseek 21, the group was there at 8am when the coach arrived to take them to the Castle. Minutes later they were at the Castle and walking with her inside to speak with the clerk. Lady Lavinia produced the signet ring and the clerk then asked her and her group to accompany him. They followed him down a circular staircase and finally came to the access to the vaults. The clerk stopped and pointed her in the direction of the vault and bid her good day and turned and headed back up the stairs. It took a few moments to find the Vanderboren Vault as the name was on the door. Above the door was an eight pointed star that looked vaguely familiar to the group. They looked at the door and could see a depression just above the handle. She stepped up and inserted the ring into the door. They all saw the blue flash as the door clicked open. The group slowly looked in and saw that the floor was polished green marble. There were multiple pillars in the room and they were all carved to resemble snakes. The group looked around and finally attracted the attention of the guardian. It was an iron cobra and when Lady Lavinia stepped up to see what was going on, the group asked her to show the ring, when she did the construct stopped and then retreated back to its hiding place again. They then took a few minutes to find a door but couldn’t. Finally the group noticed that the pillar opposite the entrance was a little bit different.

It took Adla to find the switch that moved. When she moved it, the snakes seemed to animate and moved until they had formed an archway into the next room. The group looked in and saw an octagonal room supported by a large pillar with dozens of deep grooves down the sides. The seven walls of this room each bear fantastically detailed bas-relief carvings of exotic monsters in threatening poses. Starting at the wall to the left of the door and moving clockwise, the carvings depict a tentacled monster with a glaring red eye and a mouthful of teeth, a looming dragon, a fish-like creature with three eyes and four tentacles, a two-headed giant wielding a pair of immense clubs, a spherical creature with four eye stalks and a drooling maw, a gorilla like beast with a fanged maw and six eyes, and finally a towering black spider with seven eyes. Each monster’s eyes consist of a glittering red stone. The ceiling is only ten feet high with the now familiar eight pointed star pattern radiating out from the grooved pillar. The arms of the star are black save for the point facing the door which is red. The group looked around and was at a loss to find any doors to the vault. Lady Lavinia finally said something about a combination to open the doors. They approached the pillar and found that it rotated in around and when it moved the red point of the star moved at the same time. It rotated eight times before it was back at the star. Now the fun started for the group as they tried to figure out how to open it.

Wik pulled out his scrap piece of paper and said that he had found it with the ring and they then tried to figure out the code. After an hour of trying various combinations, it was finally Lucky who came up with the answer. He asked it the paper was meant to mean the number of heads and the eyes they each had. The group then tried that and rotated the pillar around left and right and the right numbers and when they did the last number they heard a click and a rumble and suddenly the doors to the alcoves dropped into the floor. Lady Lavinia gave a shout of glee as she walked into the first alcove.

When she opened the chest she gave a gasp of dismay. There was only three silver pieces in the bottom of the chest. She then went to each other alcove and was further dismayed to find the chests also empty. It was the last alcove that finally bore fruit as she found the chest full of coin and also found a coffer full of papers and a large ledger. She started leafing through the ledger and then proceeded to bundle up all the paperwork and put it aside. She then counted out enough coin to pay the group their two hundred gold each to pay them for their services. She then took some extra coin leaving most of the chest intact. The group then left the room but not before resetting all of the locks and doors before they headed back upstairs. She stopped and spoke with the clerk and asked him if anyone had been down to the vault the last little while. The clerk said that yes indeed her brother Vanthus had just been here a few days ago. She then told the clerk that Vanthus had been reported missing almost a month ago and she had been looking for him. She informed the clerk that as of right now Vanthus did not have any authority to enter the vault and she wanted to be informed if he returned. The clerk agreed to do so and they headed back to the Manor.

Mar 11 2007; Lady Lavinia informed the group that she would be occupied for the rest of the day perusing the paperwork and told them all that she would speak to them tomorrow morning about another job. The group then wandered off and decided to spend some of their money. Sable headed out of town into the swamp and didn’t notice when Pwt tried to tail him and failed miserably and soon headed back to town. Sable returned just before dinner time and the group of them met at a tavern to have a meal and here they started talking about themselves. They found out that Adla had been orphaned during the uprising against the Sea Princes and she had been raised by her grandfather since then. Pwt then spoke up and said he wanted to be known as Sandal for now and that he has lived here for decades. His family had come here when he was a youngster and he had stayed when the family returned to their original home in the Hell Furnace Mountains. Sable had lived here all his life and his parents ran a small herb shop in Sunrise district. Lucky didn’t say much other than he was no longer welcome in the neighbouring city of Cauldron.

Humphrey told everyone that he had been raised by a tribe of wandering barbarians and he didn’t know who his parents were. He had heard rumours of an ogre warrior who had raped a woman and he may have resulted. He had heard that his mother had died at birth and he had been abandoned outside the settlement and found by his foster parents. He had learned about his heritage from an old stone giant blacksmith that his family had dealt with in the mountains. The group spent the night swapping stories and drinking and finally headed home to bunk for the night.

Fireseek 22, the group was at the manor bright and early and found Lady Lavinia going over all the documents and papers from the family vault. She then asked them to find her brother Vanthus and bring him to her. She didn’t know where he was and told the group to look for him. The group then put their heads together and decided to spread out and start looking for him. After the day had wound down, Sandal told the others that he had found out that Vanthus had been keeping company with a woman named Brissa Santos, a notorious pick pocket. They had not been seen for a few weeks or more. With that information, Wik and Sable decided to cover the Shadowshore district tomorrow.

Fireseek 23, after spending the morning looking for clues, their investigations finally bore fruit. They found that Vanthus had been keeping company with a smuggler named Penkus, a semi-notorious figure known for his drunken binges and violent temper. They found out that the two of them had been seen at It Still Floats boat shop arguing with the proprietor, a dwarf named Panchi. The two of them found the shop and managed to speak with Panchi, they managed to get some information out of him after giving him some gold. Panchi then said that he had sold a boat to the two of them and that they had been rather excited about the purchase. They had loaded the boat with lots of lamp oil, lanterns, and rope before heading off west of the city. This had been over a month ago and he hadn’t seen them since. The two of them were still wandering around the district when they were approached by a nervous looking half-elf in ragged armor who said he might know where Vanthus was. For a fee he would be willing to take them to where he was hiding. He said his name was Shefton Rosk and he had seen Vanthus two days ago. Wik gave him some gold and he said that Vanthus was hiding under Parrot Island in the old smugglers caverns. He agreed to show them where he was tomorrow and the two of them told him to meet them in the morning at the docks. They headed back to the rest of the group and they agreed to check out Parrot Island.

Fireseek 24, the group met Shefton where he had some rowboats waiting for them. Humphrey needed one just for himself as the rest crowded into the other one. It took them a few minutes to row over to Parrot Island as it was just off the shore from the Champions district. They found the one small beach visible from the water and climbed ashore. Hundreds of brightly colored parrots were in the trees and their noise level increased as the group got closer to them. They passed through the trees and came into a small clearing. Shefton led them to a spot at the south end of the clearing and he grabbed a ring set into a rock and slowly pulled it up revealing a 5foot wide hole that led down into the darkness. Humphrey looked at the rest of the group and then looked down the hole. Just below the lip was set a hook and a rope dangled from it down into the darkness. Humphrey managed to grab the rope and managed to squeeze himself into the hole and started climbing down. The rest of the group started climbing down, the only one who suffered a problem was Cris’toff who slipped off the rope and almost tumbled to his doom. Humphrey looked up just in time to see him falling and caught him just in time. Finally all of them were down and looking around. The walls were slimy and slippery from water seeping out of the walls and the floor was damp. They were just looking around when they heard Shefton gasp in surprise above them and then they heard a groan. They looked up just in time to see his body fall through the hole and hit the ground with a meaty thunk. They were still looking when the shadow of a man appeared and looked down the hole. Moments later the rope fell at their feet as the man started laughing at them. He then said, “Say hello to Penkus’ ghost for me while you are down there!” The man kept laughing and taunting them as they looked up. Finally he said, “Serves you right for messing around with my sister you thugs!”

He finally got tired of taunting them and closed the trap door with a slam. Next the group listened horrified as the sounds of boulders being rolled onto the door could be heard from above. Seeing as the door was thirty feet above them they decided to explore the caverns they were in. they started exploring after they lit a lantern in order for the humans to see. They walked slowly on the slippery floors until they came to a door. They checked the door and then slowly opened it. It was still and hard to open but finally they were looking into a hallway with double doors at either end. Looking at the floor, Sable and Lucky could see some tracks heading to the left hand doors, so they checked them out. The doors were damp and stiff and they had to use some strength to get them open. Looking in they could see four great wooden pillars rising up to support the ceiling, which sags dangerously in places and is thick with hanging strands of fungus. Several doors line the walls-one to the west (from which comes a muffled sloshing sound), two to the north (the western one which is badly damaged and hangs askew), and a small door to the east, north of the double doors. To the south, the ceiling has collapsed leaving the southern part of the room choked in debris. A rippling pool of water reaches halfway into the room from this wall of stone and rubble. It seems that a wooden pier once extended into the pool, but all that remains now are several rotten wooden pilings protruding from the water. A man’s body floats face down in the water.

The group started moving slowly into the room as loud moans started and the group looked up to see some undead starting to move forwards. They could see the teeth lengthening as their jaws opened wide. Cris’toff realized what they were and yelled out, “Zombies.” as the group spread out to attack them. Cris’toff used his divine power to try and turn them and succeeded. The grouped moved up to attack them and when they responded to attack again, Cris’toff managed to turn them again. Adla moved up through the water in order to engage the zombies when he felt something pinch her foot. She looked down to see a very large brown crab attacking her. She looked into the water and could see about a half dozen crabs moving through the water towards the floor. When the three zombies finally fell, they turned their attention to the crabs just as Cris’toff and Sandal shouted that there were more zombies behind them. The group turned and could see the two of them looking through the open doors behind them. Wik managed to drop his sword into the water and was forced to use his dagger in fighting the crabs.

Mar 18 2007; Cris’toff and Sandal managed to close the door and secured it from this side so the undead couldn’t get at them from the door. The others were still busy fighting the crabs in the water. Humphrey went to stab one of them and slipped into the water and tossed his spear across the room. He then got mad and pulled out his club and whacked the crabs until they were all dead. Wik then went for a swim to recover his sword and Humphreys spear. He also checked out the dead body that was floating and found a silver dagger in the belt. They finally got out of the water and decided to check the other doors. The single door to the east opened up into a hallway, coming up the hallway were some more zombies. Humphrey charged at them and managed to take them out with two massive blows from his club. At the same time they opened another door and behind it were two more zombies. They seemed to be popping up everywhere down here. These two were quickly killed and they checked the other doors. The only one of interest was the door to the west where the tunnel sloped down from the door and was covered with sea water that was flowing through the tunnel. It was high tide and the water was deeper than the gnomes wanted to deal with.

They decided to turn back and check out the passages to the east and soon found the remaining zombies and their undead master. The group wasn’t too sure what it was but it was commanding the zombies to attack at it was very hard to damage as it seemed to shrug off the groups blows. They found a gold holy symbol of Olidamarra but anything else was beyond repair or use. The group headed back into the large room and Humphrey decided it was time for a meal and he proceeded to roast up the crabs legs and the group had a hearty meal while waiting for the tide to go out. They decided to leave most of their gear in this room as the gnomes climbed up onto Humphrey while the others trailed behind him. They slowly moved through the water until they came around the corner and saw the large water filled cavern again. The water was moving rather quickly through here so the group thought they may be able to find a way out by swimming. As they moved through the cavern, Humphrey stepped on something and slipped under the water. The gnomes were able to dive off him into the water and waited for him to get up. He climbed back to his feet as the gnomes started climbing up him again. The others were laughing at the antics as Humphrey started wading through the water. Wik also stepped on something and lost his balance and fell into the water. He went for a swim and noticed a large hole under the water where water was flowing through. He took a quick look and then surfaced and followed the others.

On the other side of the cavern was a landing and a tunnel. They headed there and climbed up onto dry land. Looking down the tunnel, they could see a door about 15 feet away. Humphrey used his club to bash the door down and the stench almost drove him back to the others. Cris’toff slowly moved up and looked into the room and could see the body of a man on the floor. His flesh was black and swollen, on his shoulder an intricate dragon tattoo and in his hands was clutched a piece of paper. He moved up and carefully pulled the paper out of his hands and brought it back to the group. Adla took it and proceeded to read it out loud to the group.

These bones once be Penkus, so if you read this, I be dead, laid low by the sick put on me by that foul dead thing! Yet even as me flesh wracks know t’was not the dead what brought me doom, but one I til recently called friend.

Vanthus Vanderboren! Your name fills me with bile! Spineless treacherous cur! You left ME here to die, after all what I had done t’get ye into the Lotus! Yer designs on the Lady of the Lotus be clear now, and with meself out th’way… ye doubtless move even now into power, slithering amid my vacancy like a hermit crab in a shell, or a cadaver worm to still-warm flesh. CURSE UPON YE!

To th’one what reads this. If ye have any honour or vengeance in your soul, know that Vanthus must die. He dwells in the lap o’th’ Lotus below th’ Taxidermist’s Hall. Seek him there, but’ fore he dies he must ken it were Penkus what undid him and guides yer killing blow.

And if, by some cruel spite of fate, it be ye what read this, Vanthus know with certainty I wait for ye in Hell, where I intend t’ rival the pit itself in yer torment.

  The others took a quick look around the small room and luckily Wik managed to spot the tiny secret door in the wall. It took him some time to open it and they found a small room covered in cobwebs and dust. Three large sea chests were up against the wall and they were all locked with large padlocks. Wik managed to open the locks and found all three chests full of stuff. The first contained copper and silver coins, the second contained gold and two small bags full of small gems and the third chest held over a half-dozen potions along with a wand and a small jade coffer. Inside the coffer was a light brown gemstone. The group packed everything up and dragged the chests back out to the water’s edge. Wik told the group about the tunnel and agreed to attempt to swim it to see where it went. So he stripped off his clothing and the group pulled out some rope and he tied it around his waist as he dove into the water. He disappeared and the group slowly let out the rope, about two minutes later the rope went limp and they pulled it back to see that it had been untied. With that they packed up everything and slowly waded through the water back into the large cavern and picked up the rest of their gear and headed back to the trap door and waited for Wik to open the door. About an hour later they heard the noises of the rocks being moved and moments later the door opened and Wik was looking down at them. Humphrey tossed up a rope and they proceeded to climb up and out.

Mar 25 2007; the group now packed the loot down to the beach and soon attracted the attention of some water taxis and were rowed over to the closest pier and proceeded to climb out. Sable went looking for his wolf while the others started walking to the Vanderboren Manor. A stranger walked by the group and looked at them and then broke into a run. Wik spotted him and tried to follow him but soon lost him on Festival Street. They were just outside the market and stopped a peddler with his wares. He had some dried fruits and concentrates for water that Humphrey tasted and liked. They purchased some of his wares as he told them of the news flying around the city today. Old Keltar Islaran the harbourmaster of Sassarine had been found murdered this morning. The old man didn’t know how he had been killed but the watch had been running around the harbour district all day. The group then continued walking as they met and passed people that were talking about the murder. The only thing everyone was saying was that he had been found dead in his bed. The group continued walking and stopped when a raggedy cat came out from under a building and walked into the street and proceeded to start rubbing himself against Lucky. Humphrey spotted the cat and carefully picked it up to pet it and he continued walking. The cat then jumped down at his feet and Humphrey then stumbled and stepped on the cat, killing it.

He dropped the chests with a thud and carefully picked up the cat to check it as the rest of the group looked on. It was dead and he carefully put it on the chest and picked it up again and continued walking. They were soon stopped again by a funeral procession for someone and Humphrey got the bright idea to ask the priests to give the cat a funeral. As he was holding a couple of gold coins in his hand the priests agreed to do so. They continued again and they were at the last bridge before the manor when they came across a minstrel strumming his lute as they walked by. They got to the manor and walked up to the door and knocked. Kora soon answered the door and let them in. They were quickly escorted to Lady Lavinia who was still perusing the documents she had. The group asked her to store the chests for her and she directed Humphrey as to where to put them. The group then informed her about Vanthus and his treachery. She was shocked by his actions and asked the group to please find him so she could speak with him. She also said that if he did not wish to return and the group was forced to attack him, she asked that his death be merciful. The group was only happy enough to do so. Humphrey then asked for something to eat and had a very large snack while the rest of them had a bite.

After he was done, Humphrey went outside to do his constitutional and Sable decided to have some fun with him. He made a rat run up the wall where Humphrey was perched and nipped Humphrey in a very sensitive spot. Humphrey then dropped off the wall and landed flat on his back. The rat then ran up to his head and stopped there for a moment. Humphrey went to smack the rat as it dove off his head and knocked himself out from the blow. Sable was rolling around on grass screaming in laughter. The rest of the group looked outside just in time to see his wolf walk up and stick his nose where it didn’t belong. Humphrey woke up with a shriek as the rest of the group started howling in laughter.

April 1 2007; Fireseek 25, the group now rested for the night and in the morning decided to split up the loot and some of them went and spent their money. Humphrey wanted a new club and started looking around for one. Adla went with him and she purchased a fine masterwork longsword while Humphrey had no success finding a large club but was told to check the East Market for a half-orc merchant who dealt in the large weapons. Whisky headed over to his aunts tavern and hung out there for a while. Cris’toff went to the temple while Sable wandered around. Checking the East Market, the merchant they were looking for was not there. They were told that he was out of town getting more weapons. Whisky found out that the Lotus Dragon guild was rumoured to be involved with animal sales and the people were talking about the loss of a shipment of animals and all the crew being killed by one of the beasts they were trying to sell. The group finally met up after lunch and decided to investigate the Taxidermist’s Guild in Sunrise District. The building was small with only a front door and a side door off the alley.

Adla and Cris’toff went into the building and found the entrance absolutely filled with stuffed birds and animals, there was even a black dragon wyrmling in one corner. It was the largest of the stuffed animals. There was a bell and a sign saying ring for service. Whisky and Sable came in behind them and looked around wide eyed. They quickly decided to have Sable hide behind the door and look around the rest of the building while they kept the owner occupied. Adla rang the bell and a few moments later the inside door opened and a tall dark haired man with a full beard walked into the room. Sable managed to sneak past him into the hallway while he started talking to Adla. She told the owner that they were looking at getting some birds for a gift. He showed her some of the parrots and said they were worth 10 gold each. She asked the price of the wyrmling and he said 500 gold. She then asked if he purchased animals and he said that indeed he did and he was always looking for something new to stuff and mount. The body must be complete with no damage to the carcass or skin in order for him to use it and he paid reasonable rates for them.

Sable looked around the corridor and spotted some closed doors and looked around the corner to see another door. He found the room with the back door and managed to unlock it and let in Wik. Sable started checking the other rooms and found a bedroom and waiting room with a large table and chairs. Wik was looking elsewhere and found a secret door and opened it to find a small passageway that led to a trap door in the floor. He was coming back to the secret door when he heard some noise and managed to close the secret door just in time. Sable heard the guy coming and tried to hide under the table when the man found him and angrily asked what he was doing back here. Sable tried to say something about looking for a card game but the man didn’t believe him and escorted him back through the store and out the door. When he spotted the other gnomes he assumed that they were with Sable and asked them to leave also. He then finished dealing with Adla who bought a small owl for 10 gold. The man then escorted her out the door and turned and went into the back. He quickly found the unlocked door and locked it again and then checked the other rooms. He even opened the secret door and looked inside. Wik was hiding around the corner so he wasn’t seen.

The group was now wondering where Wik was and Sable told them that he was inside the building. They went to check the back door just as it was locked from the inside. They looked at each other trying to decide what to do next.

Sept 23 2007; the group decided to watch the shop for a few minutes and waited for Wik to appear. Wik found the trapdoor in the floor and opened it and looked down into a cavern and a ladder going down. He slowly climbed down and noticed the water that was steadily dripping down onto the floor. There was a door to his left and a tunnel heading right. He walked down the tunnel and came to a large cavern that contained water. It looked like a tidal pool and was full of sea urchins. He was about to move up to the water when he spotted a splash in the water and it appeared to him as a ray. He waited until the creature disappeared and walked down to the water. He grabbed an urchin and headed back to the ladder. He then checked out the door and finally got it open and looked inside. The passageway was drier here and he spotted a door to the right and the tunnel continued left and went around the corner to the right. He heard something coming and managed to hide when they went by. He then headed back up the ladder to the trapdoor and waited inside the passage.

The group waited until Humphrey finally said he had an idea and grabbed Whisky by the scruff of the neck and carried him around the corner to the front door of the shop, opened it and walked in and lifted up his arm and shook Whisky at him and asked the startled shopkeeper if he had seen one of these. He had lost one. The man gave him a stunned look and then told Humphrey that he had just removed one of those foul little beings a few minutes before. He then became worried about another one of them still hiding in the store and he quickly started looking in all of the rooms but didn’t find a gnome. Wik heard the group on the other side of the secret door and managed to get out through the door and blended with the others while they looked for an errant gnome. The shopkeeper then escorted the group out of his shop and closed the door behind them. They heard the sound of a latch being closed and the curtain was drawn.

They then decided to grab something to eat while they discussed what to do further. After spending a few hours eating and drinking the group decided to scope out the shop again to see what was happening. They left the pub with Sable and Whisky riding on Humphrey’s shoulders. As they walked out of the pub, a young male bumped into Humphrey and then staggered off. Sable then noticed a piece of paper tucked in Humphrey’s belt. He slid down and grabbed the note and read, “You are being watched by the Lotus Dragon. Your questions will bring you misery—its best to sit back and let things happen as they will. Further interference will only bring you tears.”

Sable turned around and headed back into the pub and told the rest to come back. He then handed the note around to the others as they decided what to do next. They finally walked out and headed back towards the shop. They looked around and noticed that a few people appeared to be watching them. They walked around a corner and noticed someone up on the roof watching them along with another one looking around the corner. Humphrey reacted by grabbing Whisky and tossed him into the man killing him and almost killing Whisky in the process. Cris’toff came up and cast a spell on Whisky to cure him a little. Another man that had been watching them headed towards a well in the center of the courtyard and dove into it and disappeared. By the time the group managed to look down the well the man had vanished. Wik climbed in and started down. Sable grabbed the bucked and dropped it down into the water and cranked it back up to check the water. It was foul and brackish so he let go and it dropped down. Wik then grabbed the rope before Sable realized it and the crank nailed him hard twice in the head before he ducked out of the way as Wik hit the water with a splash. The group then heard a roar from something large and reptilian.

Sept 30 2007; Sable rolled out of the way, holding his aching head as Humphrey looked down the well to see Wik floundering in the water. Next a large crocodile closed in and latched onto Wik knocking him down into the water. Adla then tried to jump into the well to climb down but lost her balance and fell onto Humphrey just as he leaned over to get a better look. He then lost his balance and fell into the well with Adla right behind him. Humphrey then tried to stop himself and almost succeeded until Adla landed on his back and they both finally fell into the water with a massive splash, since he had also grabbed the rope on the way down the rope and support quickly followed when everything was torn off from the weight. They then managed to help Wik in his desperate struggles with the croc. They finally managed to kill it as Sable got out some rope to tie off and toss down the well. The croc was finally killed and then Adla and Wik started climbing up the rope while Humphrey held on. He managed to tie off the rope and it was a good thing as something attacked him from behind as he was looking up the shaft knocking him out. The group then managed to pull his limp body up to the surface and stopped the bleeding. The group then staggered back to the mansion.

Oct 14 2007; Fireseek 27 the group spent the next two days resting and were bright and eager in the morning. Whisky decided that his new name for the day was Yo-Yo. They then went to the taxidermist’s hall and found that the shop was closed. Wik tried picking the front door and succeeded but couldn’t open the door. They then spotted the note in the window that said the store was closed due to a family illness. They then told Humphrey to open the back door but he bounced off the door the first time and then pulled out his club and used it as a battering ram and nailed it so hard that the door burst apart. Wik took the lead and walked into the room. They soon found that the building was empty and headed to the passage that led below. Wik checked the trap door and then opened in to look down. He couldn’t see anything so he climbed down and waved for the others to follow. Humphrey tried to squeeze past the secret door and barely managed and then Lucky cast a reduce spell on him to shrink him enough to get to the trap door and through it.

The floor was damp from the water coming through the walls. Next Wik checked and opened the door and then stepped through the door and proceeded to get hit from the guards standing, waiting in the guard room. He reeled back and the others moved up to support him. The four rogues fired their hand crossbows again before they were forced to draw their swords. The group took them out as Adla moved up to the corner and she spotted the large dark wolf that moved up to attack her. She hit it once and it quickly retreated. The group then moved that way and investigated further. They soon found a training room and went on through. Next they encountered one of the strange beasts that they had slain on the ship. This was attacked and killed along with a couple of rogues that were supporting the thing. Then Yo-Yo was attacked from behind by more of the defenders as he didn’t keep an eye out for enemies.

Oct 21 2007; the group then attacked the rogues while Wik and Cris’toff kept checking the other doors that turned out to be the jakes. Humphrey was standing there as the door behind him opened and a rogue looked out at him. He beckoned Humphrey and said his mistress wanted to talk with him. Cris’toff came up from behind and nailed him with his crossbow. He slammed the door before Humphrey could do anything as Wik noticed the map of Sasserine on the wall and a slate board on the other wall with interesting things written on it. Wik and Cris’toff then started studying the walls as Humphrey opened the door and walked through. Wik noticed a message on the one corner of the slate mentioning the group by name and ordering Vanthus to deal with it. Cris’toff looked at the map and realized that various sites had small flags attached to them. The colors were gold, blue or red. There were more blue flags than anything else.

 Humphrey went through and followed the cavern around the bend. He looked around the corner and saw an open doorway and heard Sable calling him just as he heard a beautiful female voice calling him from the door. He looked in and almost drooled from seeing the red haired female talking to him. Beside her was a green scaled creature with a yellow crest on his head and back. The woman said hello Humphrey and he just looked at her and then looked down at the green creature and said nice doggy. It looked at him and hissed. The rest of the group then started looking around for Humphrey and soon followed him through the door and started searching for him. Moments later they realized that he was in a room talking with someone and finally got his attention and he opened the door to talk to him.  The opulence of this chamber’s décor is a bit jarring. The smooth plaster walls are painted violet. Delicately crafted silver lanterns flicker softly on the walls, lighting the room. A shelf to the north holds several books, statuettes, stuffed animals, and a crystal ball with a smoky red light at its core, and two coffers; one of darkwood and one of iron decorated with tiny jade bats. A five-foot wide landscape of the city of Sasserine hangs on the eastern wall, yet all of the ships in the harbour fly flags depicting a serpentine dragon coiled around a lotus. A pair of overstuffed chairs sits beside a low table heaped with fruit and bottles of wine. To the south stands a lone wooden cupboard. The floor itself is adorned with a thick deep purple carpet. A door is on the south wall. They asked him what he was doing and he said he was talking to the nice lady and her doggy. The group managed to come in and talk to her. She introduced herself as Rowyn and she boldly told the group that she wanted to hire them. The group was taken aback by the offer and asked how much she was willing to pay.

She said that she would double the fee that the snivelling Vanderboren wench was paying them. The group then tried to bluff her by the amount they wanted and they were rather surprised when she knew how much they were being paid. Humphrey was all in favour for working for her and the rest of the group started discussing it. They agreed to leave and give her an answer within two days. With that she asked them to leave and offered an escort back to the trapdoor. The group turned and left with a man accompanying them back to the exit. They had got back to the door when Adla finally convinced the group that they had to do the right thing and eliminate the guild. Wik then punched their escort when he wasn’t looking and hit him much harder than he thought, killing him when he hit the wall. Then they had to convince Humphrey to wait here at the exit while they returned to continue talking with the pretty lady.

Oct 28 2007; they decided that Humphrey could follow them and they turned and headed back the other way. They got to the corner of the training room when a pair of zombies shuffled around the corner and started to attack. The group recognized the zombies as a couple of the rogues that they had killed minutes before. Wik and Adla jammed the door and started attacking while Lucky moved up and peered around the corner and spotted the pair of rogues looking at him. They were holding hand crossbows and quickly fired at him. He was hit by one of the bolts and winced when he felt the poison from the head coursing through his veins. He started feeling nauseous and stepped back from the corner.

Humphrey was just getting ready to follow the others when he heard the door open behind him and two rogues shot at him with their bows. One of them hit and Humphrey used his club as a ram and nailed one of the men into the wall and then elbowed the other one at the same time. He moved after the man, forgetting about the rest of the group for a moment as he attacked the man. He missed horribly and managed to stick the club into the floor when the spike on it ended up embedded in the floor. He then got stuck by the man and reacted by slamming him into the wall. He then heard a noise and turned just in time to be attacked by a crocodile with a length of chain hanging off its neck. Humphrey got so made that he raged and stood up and whacked his head off the roof and was seeing stars for a few moments. The croc took advantage of the situation and chomped down on his leg. He then got it in a bear hug and started squeezing. He was unlucky as the croc managed to squirm out of his grasp and attacked him again. He jumped back but then got nailed by the tail and fell down with a thud.

Meanwhile the group was busy attacking the undead but solved the problem by calling up Cris’toff forward so he could turn the undead. He had to do it a few times before they drove the zombies back. Lucky managed to conquer his nausea enough to cast hold portal on the door that the zombies had ran into and the group then started wondering where Humphrey had disappeared to, Whisky and Sable then went to look for him and saw him just as he was falling down from the attack of the croc. The group then moved up to support him before he died.

Nov 4 2007; Adla and Wik engaged the rogues that were attacking them from the mess hall and managed to kill them fairly easily. They turned and checked on the others. The gnome trio managed to get back to help Humphrey and Lucky followed them. They made enough noise that the croc turned and attacked Sable. Then Lucky finally stepped up and gave it a good whack. It responded by savagely biting Lucky knocking him unconscious. Yo-Yo managed to cast a few spells and finally killed it with a magic missile. He then ran up and jumped up onto the prone Humphrey just as Cris’toff cast a cure spell. Humphrey woke up to see one of those gnomes sitting on his chest shaking his head and earnestly telling him that he had just killed the croc and how come he had so much trouble fighting it. Humphrey sat up so fast that Yo-Yo flew off his chest and landed on the other side of the dead croc with a thud. He stood up and still grinned madly at Humphrey and then pointed at the croc and started doing a little dance while yelling that he had killed it.

Adla got back to the door just as the spell wore off and the zombies starting coming through. She yelled at Wik to help her as he was busy looting the bodies. The two of them held off the small zombies and then spotted a bugbear zombie that wielded a Morningstar and it stepped up to attack. It proceeded to pound away on Adla and she was hard pressed to attack it. Finally Wik helped her finish it off and then headed into the room. This is when Gut Tugger attacked from hiding. He nailed Wik hard in the leg and then raced back through the room and out of sight. The gnome trio was looking down the hallways and spotted two more rogues around the corner and they quickly turned and ran. Adla and Wik then watched as Rowyn appeared in the doorway and proceeded to drink a potion and turned gaseous along with her pet. She glared at Adla and told her that she would remember this and to watch her back. With that the two of them faded away into the walls.

Nov 11 2007; the group then started investigating the rest of the lair and after a quick look around found that the rogues had disappeared and finally they wandered back to Rowyn’s quarters and started looking around there. They soon found that her boudoir contained a few nice items including some statues along with two jewellery boxes containing jewellery. After going through her bedroom they found a stack of papers hidden under the bed and they started reading them. They appeared to be letters from Vanthus to Rowyn and the ones that were important said the following.

Suns Ebb 20 “…My parents have grown soft. I’m not worried in the slightest that they suspect anything, my delicious flower. The funds you’ve trusted me with have been more than enough to pay off the local guards, the harbour watch, and the ship’s crew to say nothing of the new cargo. Hell…they even offered to help load the barrels! Of course, I didn’t tell them what was inside—I’m sure they’d sing a different song if they knew just how much alchemist’s fire we loaded into the hold of my father’s new plaything. I’ll be following the ships progress for a few days to make sure the fire does the trick, so you’ll not be seeing me for at least half a week. Keep your bed warm for me.”

Suns Ebb 25 “…It’s unbelievable! Sure, she’s the eldest sibling, but she knows nothing of life! She spent the last half of her childhood in Thenalar learning how to fold napkins and play the violin for Hell’s sake. It just goes to show you how insane my parents really were…leaving everything in her care like that! Whatever? She’ll need the house to live off of, I suppose. Lavinia’s not a bad lass, really… I kind of miss our time together, to tell the truth. Think she’d be interested in joining the Lotus? I doubt it. And anyway, a second Vanderboren tragedy might get too many people curious. No, for now, whatever’s in the vault will have to do...”

Fireseek 25 “…I really wish you could have been there, my little dragon, to see their faces before I closed the door! Lavinia’s never going to get anywhere hiring fools like them. I wonder if they’ve found Penkus yet. I hope they didn’t die too quickly.”

“In any case, on to the purpose of this letter. Brissa’s in the other room, getting ready for a night out on the town, so I’ll have to be quick. Remember that thing she hinted about to me. About the pirates who were supposedly using Kraken’s Cove as a base for their smuggling operations? Turns out she wasn’t spinning tales—I’ve heard that they’ll be arriving within the week with a particularly rich cargo. I’ll bring her with me on the pretext on joining up with them, get their guard down, and when they’re not expecting it my men’ll light the ships on fire! It’ll be a simple task to pluck the treasure from the water once all the fools are dead. Should be more than enough to make up for what we lost when Lavinia inherited rather than me.”

“I tell you… burning people to death on their own boats? It’s the best way to make money yet. Wish I had thought of it years ago.”

They then found the secret door adjacent to her quarters and found the only door that was locked. Wik came up checked it out and thought it wasn’t trapped so he proceeded to open the lock and was nailed in the back by a dart coming out of the wall and he suddenly felt weaker. He then opened the door to find three large chests sitting up against the back wall of the room. Wik stepped in and looked around as Sable cautiously followed him. Moments later they got a rude surprise when spikes came up from the floor and nailed Wik hard as Sable jumped out of the room. He leapt up onto the middle chest and slumped over it as he moaned in pain. They found some cushions to put down over the spikes and Wik then proceeded to open the chests. The chest on the right contained lots of coins and items all contained in silk bags bearing the Vanderboren family crest. Looks like they had found the loot Vanthus had taken. The middle chest contained a whole lot of loose items filling half the chest. The left hand chest contained the mechanism for the spike trap as Wik reset it and the spikes went back into the floor. They started packing up all of the loot and decided that Adla and Sable go and hire a boat and return later and remove everything that they wanted to take.

Humphrey was getting bored and started wandering around and thought he heard something from around the corner. He looked around and realized that all his companions were busy and he wandered around the corner to see what had caused the noise. He looked into the mess hall and spotted a door slightly ajar and interesting smells coming from the room. He looked behind him and sort of yelled out to see if anyone else was following him and then shrugged his shoulders and went over and opened the door. He looked up and saw a large pot full of something flying towards him. He managed to move enough that the point missed him and he looked in and spotted a small rope going underneath another door and some sort of a lever where the pot had been. He looked over and saw a woodstove with a pot of something good bubbling away.

He growled and called out that he was hungry and wanted something to eat. He then heard a high pitched voice quietly asking him if he wanted dinner. He growled a yes and moments later the door opened and a reptilian face was looking out at him from the bottom of the door. The little face looked up at him wide eyed and slowly came out of the room. Humphrey realized that it was a kobold and a female one at that. She scurried over to the stove and deftly poured Humphrey a large bowl of soup and pulled a loaf of bread out of the oven and brought it over to the table. He sniffed and his stomach growled as she put the meal on the table. He dug into the meal as the kobold watched wide eyed as he ate. She started cautiously talking to him and he told her that the men living down here had run away. When she asked about the Lady Lotus, all Humphrey could say was that she had left.

He then found out that her name was Churtle and she was the cook for the lotus. She then asked Humphrey if she could cook for him. He readily agreed and was happily eating a second helping when the others finally started looking for him. They came into the mess hall and found him eating away with a kobold. Humphrey looked up as the others walked in and told them that he had just hired a cook for the group. Churtle bobbed her head up and down and said, “I cook for big one now.” She also told the group that she cooked other things and walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a box and brought it over to the table and showed the group. Wik looked at the box and found it contained ten vials and she told them that it was sea urchin poison and she made it. Sable was quite impressed that this little kobold could make poison. They told her to get ready to leave is she was coming with them and she went back into her little room and came out a few moments later with a small sack full of stuff and then grabbed her pot and a few utensils and said she was ready to go. She was constantly craning her neck to look up at Humphrey as she constantly bobbed up and down. Adla and Sable headed out back up through the taxidermists and came back a few hours later with a boat into the caverns.

They returned to the Vanderboren mansion and returned all the stuff that was in the one chest and started divvying up the rest. Sable then mentioned something about some jewellery that was missing and it soon appeared on the table. They gave Lavinia the letters they had found from Vanthus and she started reading and shaking her head in denial. She couldn’t believe that he could have done this to her. She was ecstatic to see that the group had found her missing assets. She immediately gave each member of the group 500 gold and told them they could keep the other stuff they had found. They gave her a silk nightgown they had found and her eyes widened in delight as she realized how expensive it was. The group then spent a few days unloading the loot and they all got 1000 gold for their share.

Readying 1, Lavinia has important news for the group. The Dawn Council wanted to congratulate the group for their attack and elimination of the Lotus Dragon Guild. They were going to hold a banquet and dance for the group in three days time on Readying 4. The group then spent the next few days looking for new gear and some new clothing for the banquet. Churtle soon fit right in at the mansion as she happily started preparing the groups meals. They soon found that she was a very good cook and spent all her time in the kitchen. The group found it easiest to go to the market for her as she was getting too many strange looks when she went out. The banquet was held in their honour and the group had a good night. They were all award the Spire of Sasserine, a medal that the council did not give out too often.

Chapter Two: the Bullywug Gambit

Nov 25 2007; a few days later, Lavinia requested that the group travel to Kraken’s Cove to investigate whether Vanthus was there. If he was, she wanted him returned to face charges over the murder of her parents. She told the group it was up to them to find a way there. It was quickly decided that it would be much easier to sail by boat as the cove was 50 miles away. It would take forever to walk there, even though that was the way that Sable wanted to travel. Wik said he would look around and see what he could find out and soon realized that the boats for hire would not take him to Blood Bay because of the smuggling activities. It took him awhile to find a boat for hire. It was a small single masted pinnace called the Loose Lady, captained by a man named Jocko. He agreed to take the group there the next day after the fee of 50 gold was paid. Wik didn’t mention anything about Humphrey or Churtle.  

Readying 10 the group arrived at the dawn with Churtle in tow. Once she realized that the group was heading out she said that she would accompany them. When they arrived at the dock, Jocko almost didn’t let them board when he saw Humphrey, it was only some fast talking and some more gold before he agreed to let him board. Then he was even more shocked to see Churtle behind him. He just started shaking his head when he was informed that she was the cook. He had one of the crewmen lead her to the galley and she happily started looking around. They then left on the ship heading south. Make landfall after dark and camped just off the beach. There was a trail that led inland so Sable and Jake his wolf companion scouted ahead and went up to the crest of the hill and looked down. He could see some small fires off in the distance and Jake whined when he smelled what was below. They turned and returned to the group. The night was spent quietly with everyone taking a turn at guard even Churtle. She had brought her spear along and looked like she knew how to use it.

Readying 11 the group awoke early in the morning and made a quick meal and headed inland. Just before they crested the hill, they were suddenly attacked by a group of deformed monkeys that rapidly closed ground and attacked the group. These were dealt with quickly but the group didn’t know what to think when the bodies dissolved into goo as soon as they died. Wik was bitten in the thigh by one of them and immediately felt the effects from the bite. Sable was very concerned about the monkeys as he had never seen this before. They warily continued on up to the crest of the hill to look down onto the bay.

Dec 09 2007; the group looked down into an inferno. Several ships, including a two-masted caravel, a sizeable frigate, a long barge and what had once been a fine schooner are all ablaze. Further out, a three-masted caravel seems to have escaped the fire – for now. A shiny slick on the surface of the water itself burns as well, creating a wall of wood and fire. The heat rises in searing sheets, and the roar of the flaming maelstrom mixed with the crashing surf masks any other sounds that might be issuing up from below. Through periodic gaps in the smoke, however, movement on the beach is visible – something still lives in the inferno below.

The group slowly walked down to the edge of the beach and stopped at a rickety boardwalk that led down to the beach. Humphrey was in the lead and stopped and looked down. He went to step onto the wood but Yo-Yo managed to stop him just in time as he didn’t like the look of the wood. As they stood there, they heard the sound of a crack and turned and looked out into the water. The bow rope had just snapped on a burning vessel and it careened towards the group and moments later it crashed into the boardwalk, setting it on fire. It quickly collapsed as the group watched and they were forced to walk along the cliff and then climbed down forty feet to the beach. The group managed to get down without mishap and then looked around.

The swaths of blood and ragged body parts strewn across the beach testify to a terrible and recent battle upon the sands here. The beach was littered with wreckage and bits and pieces of cargo. A number of mangled corpses each stripped nearly clean of flesh and bones cracked open, lie strewn about the beach, the casualties are staggering, with a quick count putting the dead at twenty. A ten foot high wide cave opens at the base of the cliff to the northwest. Humphrey stepped forwards toward the cave and two men jumped out of the rubble and attacked him, howling madly as they did so.

Humphrey went to take a massive swing and missed horribly, losing his balance in the process. He did a slow pirouette and just before he fell, he let go of his massive club. The rest of the group watched in amazement as the club flew out over the water and fell with a splash into the burning water. Cris’toff started laughing so hard that he had to cast a spell and moments later Humphrey was wearing a pink tutu. The rest of the group could barely attack the men as they were started to laugh. Then Yo-Yo cast a spell and Humphrey was now holding a sparkling wand. He looked in bewilderment as the wand started shooting stars out the tip. Adla and Wik managed to kill the men and turned to see the gnomes on the ground laughing uproariously.

Humphrey slowly walked over to the water’s edge and started looking for his club. With all the debris and flames around he couldn’t see it. He then spotted a small log floating about twenty feet away that was the same size of his lost club. He then stripped off his equipment and jumped into the water looking for his beloved club. As he swam around, he bumped into the branch and grabbed it. He finally came back to shore and climbed out. He slowly got dressed and looked down to see the pink tutu still around his waist and dry. He shook his head in amazement and then looked down at the gnomes who were still laughing and rolling around on the ground. He grabbed the branch he had pulled out of the water and looked at it. It appeared to be off a large tree and the tip was blackened and shattered. It looked like it had been hit by lightning or fire.

He grabbed it with both hands and realized that there was hand holds at the bottom of it. He swung it around and the group looked on in amazement as faint sparks trailed off the end of it. Cris’toff stopped laughing long enough to cast detect magic and looked at Humphrey, saying that yes the club he was holding radiated a dim enchantment. Humphrey was amazed to find this out and he put his new great club over his shoulder and looked up to see the others walking into the caverns. Adla and Wik took the lead and turned right and looked into a cavern slung with ropes with silk sheets hanging off the ropes. They all looked in bad condition and they conveniently hid anything that was in the cavern. Adla went to the left as Wik went right.

Moments later the group heard Wik scream in agony. The rest rushed up to find him fighting for his life against some sort of reptile. It proceeded to shred him apart and almost killed him before the others came up and killed it. It seemed to be suffering the same affliction as the others as it burst apart in a spray of goo as the skeleton fell to the ground. They healed Wik and started exploring the cavern. It contained sheets of silk and a table in one corner holding some sodden books that were drying on the table. They looked like normal books so the group left them and continued exploring and soon encountered some sort of small arboreal creature that attacked Wik. It was hiding high up on the wall as they looked into the tunnel and Wik spotted it and shot it with his hand crossbow. The creature launched itself off the wall and landed on Wik and proceeded to attack him. The rest of the group came up to support but only Adla could really hit it. Humphrey came up from behind and seeing he couldn’t swing his club tried to use it as a battering ram. Cris’toff noticed this and cast ghost sound and had the club scream out as he thrust. Humphrey was so startled that he almost dropped his club in amazement. He stepped back and looked at it as the group finally killed the little creature after Wik had grappled with it. The body then burst apart spraying him with acid as the bones fell to the ground.

Dec 30 2007; the group slowly moved forwards and looked into the next cavern and spotted a man with a large cleaver hacking away at a torso as two others waited impatiently for him to hack it apart. Wik started sneaking up behind them as Adla looked around the corner and spotted them. She immediately growled at them and charged. They turned to engage her as Wik managed to back stab one of them. The others moved up to support her as she hacked away. Finally Humphrey moved up and helped kill them. Next they searched the cavern and the only thing they found was a note on a piece of water stained and burnt paper talking about something that was being transported to Sasserine. It appeared to have come from the south and talked about the Red Sails, part of the Crimson Fleet. It was funny to watch as the gnomes spotted Wik reading and were jumping up and down around him trying to see what he was reading. Yo-Yo even climbed up his back to see what it was. By now he had handed off the note to Adla and she read it. The gnomes finally got a chance to read it. There was no name as that part of the page was burnt. While they were fighting over the paper, two dog-like creatures appeared and attacked the group. They were quickly killed. The group then went back into the large cavern with all the silks and explored further. Wik went into the next tunnel and came across a cavern that was blocked with furniture. He could hear the sounds of screaming from the cavern ahead and slowly looked in. the large cavern was full of cells and each one of them now contained slaves that had turned savage and were trying to escape. The rest of the group looked into the cavern and they agreed that they should be put out of their misery.

As they weren’t going anywhere the group turned around and checked out the blocked cavern. Humphrey and Adla put their shoulders into the wood and slowly pushed the blockage back. Inside they found what remained of a laboratory. A fairly even layer of sand covers the floor of this musty-smelling cavern. Large pottery urns line the walls of the cave, and within each grows a riot of strange mushrooms, fluted toadstools, phosphorescent moulds, greasy-looking fronds of pale lichen and all manner of strange fungi. Several large glass terrariums, their sides beaded with condensation, stand along the west wall. One of these is shattered, the loamy soil within spilling out onto the sandy floor near a long but low table heaped with flasks, jars, bottles, and tools. Protruding out from under the table is a pair of small boots, perhaps those of a gnome.

Adla stepped into the room to check out the body and something snapped out from under the table and attacked her. It was some kind of a frond and she whacked at it with her sword. Humphrey moved up and thrust his club under the table. It hit something with a satisfying thwack and whatever it was, it oozed out everywhere. Humphrey then grabbed the boots and pulled them out from under the table and they were attached to the body of a gnome. He turned around, looked at the gnomes behind them and tossed the body towards them. When it hit, the group heard the tinkle of breaking glass and when Sable turned the body over and checked the pouch, he found the remains of two potions now ruined.

The group looked over the room and found some sort of large tadpole like creature stretched out on the table. It was nearly two feet long and had tentacles and a lamprey like mouth. None of the group knew what it was and when Churtle walked over and took a look at it, she sneezed hard and backed off saying it was nasty. She started looking around and found a few things that she put in her pouch. Sable was right there as she did so and asked her what she was taking. She didn’t know the names of the things; she just knew that she could use them to make poisons. The items included two jars of maylss root paste, a dose of id moss, and a striped toadstool. She carefully plucked this, showed Sable and then grinned evilly at him as she put it away. The group found nothing further so they continued on. Next they found a cavern where the dog-like creatures had laired and the remains of three more.

The group continued on and looked around to find caves in all directions. They were just about to move to the left when Wik thought he heard something ahead of them. It was faint and sounded like fighting. The group moved forwards into an area of broken rock formations. They were moving through it when Wik was attacked again by a savage pirate. The group moved up to support him, but not before he was bitten again. He wasn’t looking good as this bite seemed to affect him just like the last one. They continued on past another cave and could clearly hear the sounds of combat, the unmistakable slobbering cries of rage and hunger and a woman’s voice shouting profane threats and curses. They rounded the corner to see a woman in combat with six savage pirates. The group stopped for a moment but Adla didn’t wait and charged into the room to help the woman.

Jan 06 2008; Adla charged up and slashed at one of the pirates, the rest of them turned to face her as the group moved up to support her. Humphrey could barely take his eyes off the woman as she was dark haired and darkly tanned wearing tight leather armor studded with fire opals and pearls and wielding a rapier in dazzling style. The woman seemed to recognize one of the pirates as she called him by name as she attacked and killed him. The rest of the group was slow to move up behind the fighters as the pirates attacked. Humphrey started whacking away with his club and was hitting so hard that he was knocking down two at a time. He was so entranced by the woman that he wasn’t even looking at the pirates as he hit them.

She smiled up at him and stepped back so that Humphrey could engage the ones in front of her. The others had finally moved up to attack with Yo-Yo casting a few spells. Finally all of the pirates were dead with the usual gory results. The group then turned to look at the woman. She spoke up, “What manner of driftwood do we have here? Speak up! Your names, lubbers! If only so’s I can cut ‘em inta’ yer chests and save the undertaker some asking ‘round. The group looked around and Yo-Yo piped up, “We’re Humphrey’s Hero’s, an adventuring group. Then the group took turns speaking up. All Humphrey could say was, “pretty lady.”

The woman introduced herself as Harliss Javell and wanted to know their business in this little piece o’ hell. The group said that they were in the area and had been attacked by some deformed monkeys and had seen the smoke and decided to investigate. Things were going well until they mentioned that they were looking for Vanthus. She flew into a poetic litany of profanity that lasted a while and was as magnificent as it was scandalous to hear. The eyebrows were raised on everyone by the time she was done and the group realized that she was extremely pissed off at Vanthus. Once she recovered herself. She turned and righted the upturn table. Found a chair and slumped into it while asking for a drink. Yo-Yo was quick to step up and offer her one. She downed it in a gulp and then looked at the group. She started talking and the group listened.

The short version is that Vanthus had appeared with Brissa and appeared to be a smuggler. He attempted to rob Harliss of an item she was transporting, a large black pearl when he was stopped on the deck of her ship. When some of his blood was spilled on it, it boiled and flashed with light. This foul, choking green gas started spewing from it, burning through the wood like it was acid. She grabbed it and attempted to throw it overboard but it exploded when it hit the water. After that… things got a bit weird. A greenish mist filled her vision and she felt strange. Like someone else were in my head. Someone… someone hungry! And the rage! Rage like I never felt ‘afore. By then she was alone on deck with Vanthus. Whatever it was had turned everyone savage even his girlfriend. She went to attack him when he dove into the water and swam to shore. She followed him and came ashore and met up with her first mate Drevoraz. He had also resisted whatever it was. But the rest, over three score of men had changed forever. She had then met up with Captain Kigante, the man what had kept the caves. We managed to hole up here but had finally been attacked by a swarm of whatever these men had changed to and she had been fighting them ever since. And one more thing, she figured they had the sick in their maw as the spots where she had been bitten were now burning with fever. The last thing she mentioned was that she had sent Drevoraz to Sasserine to deal with the Vanderborens. He was going to take care of Vanthus and the Vanderborens once and for all.

The group gulped and then hurriedly spoke up that they were working for Lady Vanderboren and that they were looking for Vanthus to return him home to face charges of murder. They told her that Vanthus was doing this all by himself and the rest of the family was not involved. Harliss grimaced and shook her head. I sorry about this but he is already gone and there is nothing I can do about it. Besides no one crosses the Crimson Fleet and gets away with it. She agreed to write a note for her first mate asking him to abort his attack but she wasn’t too hopeful that it would work. The group decided to head back to the entrance and head back to the beach. They thanked Harliss for her information and turned and walked out of the cavern. They stopped and looked into the next area and saw a cavern outfitted with the finest in stolen furniture. Thick rugs cover the floor, and fine silk tapestries and masterful seascape paintings hang from the walls, giving the place an almost regal feel. A four poster bed and large armoire take up most of the room but everything is splattered with gore and deeply scarred by sword play. The skeletal body dressed in the ruins of a once-fine suit of studded leather lies in a red heap at the foot of the bed with the remains of five bodies scattered about the room.

They cautiously looked around and soon found a bronze griffon hilted rapier under the bed. It was very nice and Wik’s eyes lit up when he saw it. No one else wanted it so he gladly took it. Searching the body, they found a nice gold ring set with aquamarine gemstones, a darkwood buckler. A search of the desk produced three silver bars and a vial of vermillion ink. Nothing else was of value. Yo-Yo looked at the paintings and realized that they were all done by Brissa, his old friend. He decided to grab six of the ones he had liked. Next they checked the tunnel to the left and came into a cavern with the ocean at the edge. Digging through the seaweed was a humanoid shape that was muttering to itself about being hungry. Adla let out a grunt and the thing shrieked and looked over. It moved with blinding speed at it seemed it was there instantly. It looked at Yo-Yo and recognized him. “Sandal” she cried. “I am so hungry, feed me…. He was shocked to see it was his old friend Brissa, now some foul creature. The group attacked and managed to quickly put her out of her misery, but not before she nailed Wik with her foul bite.

Wik was not having any luck with these creatures, as each bite had affected him. He was now looking flushed and areas of his body had turned black. They searched her remains and found studded leather, rapier, cloak and a locket. They took it and soon found that the last thing to do was to put the now savage slaves out of their misery. This was soon accomplished and the group turned and headed out onto the beach. They stopped and looked into the water and spotted the area where the pearl had erupted as a circle about twenty feet across showed barren sand. The group looked into the water and appeared to spot something shiny. They then had to decide who to send down and Sable asked Humphrey to look down and go for a swim. He came over to the water’s edge and leaned over to look. Sable them turned and motioned to Jake to come up behind and jump onto his back. He did so and Humphrey lost his balance and went for a swim. He came up for air and the group told him to go down and take a look now that he was wet. He thought about it and decided that now that he was there, he may as well. He turned and dove down and soon found some shards of something shiny. He carefully picked them up and swam back to the surface and climbed out of the water. He showed the others what he had found and it was the remains of a very large black pearl.

Jan 13 2008; Humphrey got dressed and the group headed for their rendezvous with Jocko. Sable and Jake were out front of the group when they heard him yell out for help. As he was walking through the jungle at the time, the others didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. Adla charged up the path and watched as Sable abruptly appeared on the path running towards them. Adla went past Sandal and stopped and waited. Just as Humphrey came up behind her, four savage primates burst from the jungle and attacked. Humphrey took a massive swing and managed to hit two of them at once as Adla fought the others. He then turned his attention to the last two as Sable breathlessly called out that Jake had been bitten twice by the beasts. The last two beasts were killed as the group started looking for Jake. Soon they heard his howl for the last time as it was cut off and the pitch then horribly changed. Next they heard a savage growl and noise through the jungle as he came out of the bush and landed on top of Humphrey. They could see that the wolf had changed forever as Sable sat down, stunned at how his companion had changed. Humphrey was soon in for the fight of his life as Jake came at him relentlessly. The others moved up to help but the fight was soon over. Humphrey took the full effects of its death as it bit him and exploded in his arms.

Sable was still sitting on the ground stunned at the turn of events. The group slowly picked itself up and they headed to the beach. Humphrey did not look very well as he was now flushed from the bite. They made it to the beach and Churtle demanded that a fire be started so she could make dinner. Lucky made a small fire and she got a pot on the boil. She then grabbed her dagger and turned to head into the swamp. When Humphrey asked her where she was going, she looked at him as if he was stupid and said she was going to look for things to add to dinner. Sable asked what she needed and she said, “Anything edible.”

The two of them disappeared as the group set up camp. Wik was keeping a look out. It was just before dinner when he finally spotted the Loose Lady off in the distance but before she could get close enough, he spotted another set of sails off near the horizon. From what he could see, the sails were red and the Lady had to turn back and duck behind a reef in order to hide. The other ship stayed on the horizon until dark and the group made camp for the night. Sable got bored and pulled out the gold ring with the gemstones and started experimenting with it. It took him almost an hour to figure out that it was a ring on swimming. As no one else seemed to want it, he put it on.

The Saga of Sandilldorf Dolphrinmadoormzappl

His Early Years

Sandilldorf was born to Stonehammer and Gallintice Dolphrinmadoormzappl in the Hell Furnace Mountains some 72 years ago. Life in the Hell Furnace Mountains was hard and desolate, even for a gnome. One day Stonehammer decided that the whole family, Gallintice, Rollundars {a younger brother by 9 years}, Sandilldorf and himself, should move to Sassarine where he had a sister, Talantreaus.

Talantreaus owned a tavern in the Azure District on the edge of the open market. The Longlegs Inn and Tavern was a going concern. Here the whole family became employed in various capacities. Stonehammer was in charge of the stables where he used his talents of iron working and tending the animals. Gallintice was an excellent cook and so took over in the kitchen as head cook. Rollundars became an errand boy and learned how to procure many a hard to find item. And Sandilldorf learned the bar and a few other talents from a befriended Brissa Santos, a master pickpocket and resident of Shadow Shore.

Brissa introduced Snif, as he became known as, to a secret hobby of petty crimes. He learned to gather information quite well along with finding traps and moving around silently. Sleight of hand was another skill he picked up in his off hours in Shadow Shore.

While on a robbery one night with Brissa they picked the wrong person to rob. It turned out to be the home of Parkus Kanfurdam an illusionist of quite some skill. While they were filling their bags with loot a tiger leapt out of a painting and charged at them. Well, this scared the you know what out of them sending Brissa out the window faster than a lightning bolt from a necromancers wand. Poor Snif was left there frozen to the floor with a tiger the size of a horse straight in front of him snarling and dripping saliva not 6 inches from his quivering nose. In walked a tall man of 60 or so years with a long gray beard. He stared at poor little Snif, snapped his fingers and the tiger was gone. The snap startled Snif as he wets his pants. Parkus eyed the small gnome in his pathetic state.

“So, my little gnome, what have you in the bag?” asks Parkus.

“Uh nothing.” Replies Snif.

“Really” says Parkus. “Why don’t you just empty it on the rug and we’ll see.”

Not knowing what else to do Snif did just that and out poured not only the few baubles he bagged but a cascade of other riches that seemed to pile high as he kept pouring. What came out was ten times the amount that could fit in the bag. Snif went to pick up a goblet of incredible gold and rubies and as he did it disappeared. He went for another piece and it disappeared then another and another but they all disappeared. By now Parkus had started to laugh and little Snif was now very scared and confused.

“Are you sure you’re a gnome?” asks Parkus. “These are just illusions.”

This sparked a glint in Snif’s eye, “How did you do that?” Up until that time illusions were just a late night tale to Sandilldorf. But now they were something he could almost smell and taste and he wanted to know more. He wanted to do these illusions and more, much more.

“What is your name?” asked Parkus

“Sni… uh Sandilldorf Dolphrinmadoormzappl……, sir.”” Answered Sandilldorf.

“Well, so you want to know how to do illusions, then you must dedicate yourself to the mystical arts. Be back here at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning and we’ll see just what we can do. I make no promises” says Parkus.

“But I can’t I have to work in my aunts Tavern in the morning” replies Sandilldorf.

“Suit yourself, now be gone.”” says Parkus.

Sandilldorf scurried out the same window as Brissa and disappeared into the night. All the way home his mind was swimming with a million thoughts and how could he get out of work the next morning?

When he got back to the inn Talantreaus was still up. She was counting the day’s receipts when Sandilldorf softly knocked on the door of her office.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“It’s only me, Sandilldorf.” he replied.

“Come in my boy. What is it you want?” Talantreaus said.

“I was wondering if I could uh, uh have tomorrow morning off.” Sandilldorf asked.

“What in the world for?” Talantreaus asked.

“I uh uh uh have something I need to do.” he said

“What is it that is so important that you have to come to me at 2 in the morning to ask me about?” Talantreaus asked.

“Well, I uh met someone I need to see tomorrow morning.” he replied

“Oh, a young lady I suppose. Well Ok, you have been working quite hard lately and you haven’t much time off. But don’t make a habit of this!” she replied.

The next morning promptly at 9 o’clock Sandilldorf was at Parkus’ front door knocking lightly. His nervous knock was met by the door swinging open and a voice telling him to come in. In he stepped.

Readying 12 the group was awake before Wik was and they gathered around him while he slept. His face was flushed and he was muttering away in a language that the others could not understand. He woke up with a start to see the others standing around him with Adla holding his rapier. They gave his weapon back to him and waited for the ship to arrive. It was just after noon when the sail appeared around the point and it got close enough to drop the rowboat. The group was glad to be picked up and they were soon on board heading north towards Sasserine. Jocko figured they could be there in a day as the tides were favouring them today, Thank Procan.

The group traveled until dark when Jocko reefed the sails and the ship slowed down. The seas were favourable today and Jocko said that Procan must be favouring them today.

                Readying 13 It was just after noon when they rounded the point and could see the rocks of the walls ahead. They slowed in order to get through the cut and turned into the harbour. They were amazed to see people all over the place and realized that today was the Festival of the Worm celebrating the one year anniversary of the defeat of a massive party of undead by an adventuring group out of Cauldron. It looks like they are going to have a tough time getting to the Vanderboren Manor quickly.

Jan 21 2008; Jocko turned the ship before they actually entered as the gnomes told him to anchor outside and they would use the row-boat to row into the city. Cris’toff and Yo-Yo told them to row to the right and come into the gate at Main Street as they figured it would be the quickest way. So they hauled out the boat and with a crewman to bring it back they were on their way. It took a few minutes to land and even at the gate it was crowded but not as bad as the harbour. They stopped and waited a moment for the crowd to thin and when it appeared it wasn’t, Adla stepped up and politely asked to enter, saying they were on urgent business for Lady Vanderboren, she showed her Spire of Sasserine and the guards quickly granted them access. Once inside, Humphrey took the lead with the gnomes climbing up on him with the others following behind. Churtle was right behind him as she craned her neck around watching the crowd with wide eyes. The crush of humanity was amazing with people everywhere and other things trying to make it through the crowd.

They managed to walk a block or two when the gnome trio spotted another gnome staggering out of the crowd and ran into Humphrey’s knee. They started to shout out but watched as the little guy fell back, shook his head and then stepped up and kicked Humphrey hard in the shin. Humphrey realized that something had hit him when he felt the pain. He was looking around when a large burly half-orc stepped out of the crowd and asked him what he was doing. The other gnome looked up at his buddy and told him that this big ugly ox had just hit him. The half-orc then stepped up and punched Humphrey hard in the jaw. His head rocked back and he shook his head and then asked “what he had done that for”?

“You hit my buddy”, the half-orc said and then stepped up and kicked him right where it hurts the most. Humphrey was not expecting this as everyone was starting to turn and watch what was going on. Humphrey grabbed his privates as he bent over and he forgot about the gnomes on his shoulders and overbalanced and fell to the ground with a thud. The trio managed to tumble off of him before he hit the ground and they fell into the crowd as the crowd started laughing. The strange gnome was getting to his feet as Humphrey fell and he looked on in amazement as the collapse started. He started laughing as he witnessed the tumble and then staggered over to Sable as he was getting to his feet and grabbed him in a hug and roared out, “Lets go get a drink.”

Adla and the others had been watching all of this and started laughing along with everyone else. Cris’toff got up and pulled out a hat and started asking for alms for the poor in the name of Pelor, he was showered with a flood of copper and silver and even spotted a gold piece. By now Humphrey was getting to his feet and the half-orc stepped up and clapped him on the back and said, “Sorry for that but you hit my buddy.” Humphrey was still holding on to his privates and wincing as he looked around. The group managed to give him some coins to get his gnome friend a drink as they skilfully managed to continue towards the manor. The gnome and half-orc started singing a drinking song as they staggered into the nearest tavern and waved as the group moved on. It was very slow going as the group walked on. The trio decided it was safer to walk behind Humphrey with Churtle as the others followed. They had been moving down the hill and were almost at the bridge beside a large open air tavern when they heard a shout from behind. The group heard this and turned to see a large paper-mache float of a humanoid figure covered in writhing worms with lit lanterns for eyes rolling down the hill. It had broken loose from its tether and was heading right for the tavern.

The group had only moments to act as the people around then realized what was happening and tried to get out of the way. Humphrey let out a bellow as he stepped up to the cart and tried to grab onto it and stop it. He managed to grab it and started slowing it down. Adla chopped at the front wheel and managed to hit it very hard and almost broke it but not quite. Wik jumped up onto the seat and tried to find the brake with no success. Humphrey was dragging his feet as the cart headed towards the tavern. Adla chopped at the wheel again and managed to break it. The cart was top heavy and when the front corner hit the ground the float slowly tipped over just in front of the tavern. Humphrey and Wik were catapulted over the cart as the lanterns tipped over and the oil burst into flame. Unfortunately the oil nailed a few of the partiers and they burst into flames and fell to the ground dead. Cris’toff came up and helped anyone he could but he could do nothing for the four dead people burned to a crisp. A bucket brigade was quickly formed and the fires were put out in a few minutes with no other serious damage.

After a few minutes the group managed to continue on with Humphrey still rubbing his shoulder where he had hit the ground hard. The group soon noticed a troop of stilt-walkers wandering through the crowd juggling daggers and flasks stuffed with burning rags. As the group got close to them, two of them abruptly turned and threw daggers at Humphrey nailing them. As the group tried to figure out what was going on, Lucky was nailed with a lit flask and it burst apart coating him in alchemist’s fire. Before the group knew what was going on they were under attack. Humphrey didn’t even think and raged as he grabbed his club and stepped up and swung. He hit the guy so hard that he broke the stilts and his limp body flew into his partner knocking him down. As the fight started, Yo-Yo ducked into the crowd and tried to pick a pocket.

He picked the wrong person as he noticed Yo-Yo and turned and cuffed him across the head. The group didn’t know where he had got too as the fight was now if full swing. Unfortunately the stilt-walkers didn’t stand a chance as the group killed four of them, knocked one of them down and forced him to flee and had one guy knocked out. Yo-Yo was heading back to the group when he was attacked by a woman wearing a black form fitting body suit with a white skeleton painted on it. She nailed Yo-Yo twice before he even knew what was going on. She grinned at him and told him that this was for the problems they had caused Rowyn. She nailed him again and looked up to see her flunkies either dead or gone so she turned and winked at Yo-Yo and faded off into the crowd. Humphrey turned to see that the bad guys were dead so he came out of his rage and then sat down to rest. The group told him to get up as they had to get out of here before the watch arrived. After a few moments Humphrey got to his feet and they continued on. They grabbed the unconscious rogue and threw him over Humphrey’s shoulder.

Finally they came around the corner to see the wall of the Vanderboren manor. They walked around the corner to the main gates and went it. They walked up to the front doors and Adla opened them with a bang. Inside they spotted three frog-like creatures that they recognized as bullywugs. Adla charged in with a roar and Humphrey realized that a fight was about to start. He then tossed the body off his shoulder as he prepared to attack and forgot that the guy was still alive. The rogue landed awkwardly breaking his neck. The group moved in and as they attacked noticed that the bullywugs all had fresh wounds. The three in the entrance didn’t last long. 

Jan 27 2008; Adla charged up the stairs to the first floor and didn’t see anything except a pair of doors to the north that were ajar. Sable yelled out for Lady Lavinia and Adla heard a noise from the second floor. The rest of the group started charging up the stairs when Adla said she heard something. She then headed up the stairs at a run as the others followed. The gnome trio brought up the rear with Churtle following them. They came up to the first floor as the others disappeared up the stairs. Sable started looking around and spotted the open doors and thought he heard something behind them. He stopped the other two and pointed at the doors. They argued for a moment before they heard something beyond them. They quietly walked over to the doors and looked into a large training room with double doors to the east that were slightly ajar and noises coming from the other side. The three of them started arguing about who would go first and they failed to notice that the noises had stopped from beyond the door. They looked up to see a Bullywug looking through the doors and when he saw that they had spotted him he ducked back into hiding.

Yo-Yo walked up and opened the doors but didn’t see the bullywugs until the two of them tossed hand axes at Yo-Yo nailing him. The others then rushed up to attack and the three of them managed to kill the two bullywugs as Churtle watched with wide eyed amazement to hear them arguing even as they killed them. She just shook her head after the fight was done and watched as Cris’toff had to cure Yo-Yo.

Adla and the others charged up the stairs onto the second floor and found all the doors closed. Adla turned around the corner and continued on as Wik stopped at the first door to take a look while Lucky stopped at the next door. They opened the doors to find empty bedrooms and continued on to the last door and Adla opened them to see a large half-orc that they recognized as Harliss Javell’s first mate and a large Bullywug wielding a spear. Behind them they could see Lavinia and three other people tied up back to back on chairs. Beside her were the remains of her servant Cora. They could see that her throat had been cut and it was still slowly bleeding. As the two of them readied themselves to attack, Adla put up her hand and told them to stop. She had a message for him from Harliss. She then looked behind her for the gnomes as Sable was the one that had taken the message and she could not see any of them. The large half-orc just laughed and swung his scimitar at her. She returned the favour and nailed him hard as Humphrey came up behind her and thrust his great club into his stomach. I guess he didn’t know his own strength as the club went into his belly and folded him over. The Bullywug then thrust his spear at Humphrey as the others rushed in and feverishly attacked. The Bullywug went down hard as the group checked on the others. Adla turned around and told Lucky to go look for the gnomes. Lavinia suddenly got up from the chairs with the ropes hanging loosely around her. The other two were still unconscious and the group pulled out some healing potions in order to bring them around. There was a pile of stuff on the bed and Lavinia started grabbing some of it and passing the others to the two that were now awake.

Seeing as they were in no condition to help, Lavinia agreed to stay and guard her companions as the group continued to clear out the manor. She told them that she thought that there were more bullywugs down in the basement and the group headed there. Lucky and the gnomes then appeared and Adla asked where the note was that they were supposed to use. Sable reached into his pouch and pulled it out and looked over at the dead body and reached over and dropped it on him.

The group then headed downstairs and cleared out the first floor. No other bullywugs were found hear as they headed down to the ground floor. They started clearing the ground floor and soon found three more bullywugs in the trophy hall hiding behind a very large stuffed toad. The group killed them and heard some noise behind the double doors leading into the dining room. They opened the doors to see a large fat female Bullywug sitting in the large over-chair smoking a cigar. She looked up to see the group and waved at her guards to attack. The group took them out before she could finish her smoke. As she stood up, she gave a roar of rage and jumped at Humphrey who had just killed two of her guards. She pulled out two hand axes and nailed him hard. The group attacked and managed to knock her down but not before she managed to bury both axes in Humphrey’s chest. He fell back near death and Sable managed to pour a potion of healing down his throat just before he died. Cris’toff just shrugged and said he was out of healing spells so they had to use a couple more potions of healing to make sure he didn’t die.  

Feb 03 2008; they got Humphrey back on his feet as they continued checking the Manor. No other live bullywugs were found on the ground floor. They found the remains of three of them by the pond in the courtyard and lying beside them was a dead badger. They headed towards the stairs going to the basement and stopped to check the privies. They were turning away when both Adla and Wik spotted a secret door in the wall. Wik managed to open the door and they looked into a small armoury filled with weapons including a glowing dagger. The other thing they saw was a dwarf lying on the floor. At first glance they thought he was dead. Adla stepped up and checked him and found he was just unconscious from his wounds. Sable and Cris’toff looked around the corner and came in to see if they could help. They poured a potion down his throat and woke him up. They recognized him as a member of the Jade Raven’s and he was distraught about the loss of his animal companion, the badger they had found in the courtyard.

He thanked them for saving him as they realized that the light in the room had gone dim. They turned and spotted Wik stepping away from the racks and the glowing dagger was now missing. They all looked at Wik as he left the room. They got the dwarf on his feet and he introduced himself as Kaskus Kiel. Sable realized that he was a fellow follower of nature. When he was informed that his other companion’s were upstairs, he headed up there as he told them to check the basement.

The group rounded the corner and found the door closed to the stairs. The quietly opened the door and could hear the sound of slobbery laughter along with a woman’s shrieks and cries. They could also hear a strange trilling chitter from some strange creature. Humphrey charged down the stairs and rounded the corner to find a large Bullywug sitting in a chair with a pair of them behind him watching a woman dressed in a sheet with silverware threaded throughout it. She was trying to stay away from a strange orange creature with feathery antennae. Humphrey stepped up and nailed the creature hard. The others came down behind him and waited while he dealt with the creature. Adla used the ranseur that she had picked up to stab at it and she was shocked to see the blade rust away right before her eyes. She then recognized the description of a rust monster. She managed to alert the others and they decided to see if Humphrey could take care of it.

He was doing fine until the large Bullywug stepped up and attacked with his club as his followers came up to help. The woman had backed off when the monster turned to attack Humphrey. He got nailed by the Bullywug and attacked by the monster. When it attacked it rusted away one of his daggers and managed to bite him hard. As Humphrey started to go down, he managed to nail the rust monster and kill it as he lost consciousness again. The others now stepped up and quickly finished off the bullywugs. The large one took more hits than the party thought possible before it finally went down. The gnomes were quick to go over and check on the woman and found that she was OK. She was quickly grabbing her gear that had been piled up behind the bullywugs and she thanked the group profusely for finally saving her from the horrors of the monster and the bullywugs. They then took her upstairs to join her companions.

Lavinia was very happy to find that the group had eliminated all of the frog men and she was saddened by the death of her servant Cora. She gave each of the group a reward for saving her and they were amazed to get a handful of platinum each. She also told them that she was raising their monthly stipend to 100 gold each a month for their services.

Adla decided to go through the manor and remove all the dead bodies. Churtle accompanied her and started harvesting body parts for dinner. She also helped Adla when asked. Finally they got down to the basement and removed the bodies. Adla then noticed that Churtle seemed to be looking at something she had found. When she went over to see what it was, Churtle looked up and handed it to her.

Adla did not recognize what was on the wooden disk so she put it in her pouch. They also took the time to strip the bodies of anything of value. By the time they were done they had quite the pile of loot on the floor including lots of weapons and potions. Churtle pulled out a bunch of copper and silver that she had found on the bodies and the group told her to keep it. She then went happily to the kitchen and started making frog legs for dinner. The group then had dinner and spent the night resting and recovering from their ordeal.

Readying 14 the group then spent the day getting their items identified but not before Sable and Cris’toff took the time to remove disease from Wik and Humphrey. Humphrey was acting a little strange when he woke up as he had had a vivid dream that he was lost in the jungle and had been swinging his great club around in circles with it giving off more sparks than he had ever seen. He mentioned his dream to the group before he was cured of his sickness. After their morning meal the group then wandered around town. It was fairly empty as everyone was at home recovering from the festival. They were also curious about the piece of wood that Adla had pulled out as no one recognized the name. They ended up at Venton’s in the Merchant district as everyone told them that he was the prominent sage in Sasserine. So Adla headed over there and inquired about his services. He informed Adla that it would cost her 100 gold for him to investigate further and she handed over the coin and the wooden disk and he told her to come back tomorrow.

By now Humphrey was getting curious about his club and when Adla informed him that she had gone to this person he decided to go see him to find out more about the club. The sage told him the same thing he had told Adla. It would take a day or two and 100 gold for him to investigate it further. He then headed home but got thirsty before he got there and decided to go into the nearest pub and thought he recognized some voices as he entered. He then heard his name being called and he looked over to a table to see a whole bunch of gnomes sitting at a table drinking. Alongside them was the large guy that he had fought with yesterday in the street. He almost turned and walked out but they were all holding up mugs and he was thirsty. So he went over and sat down and the gnomes started buying him drinks. He did remember that he was about to leave when one of the gnomes did something to make him drink and that the rest of the night was a bit of a blur.

Feb 10 2008; Readying 15 Humphrey woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and the vague memory of having a dream of being lost. He managed to find the sage and found out about his club. It had been created by the Ogre Magi sorcerer Chang-Po over millennia ago. It had been named after him and had also been called Storm Chaser’s Cudgel. He had to find a way to unlock its powers before he could properly use it. Adla found out that the piece of wood was a small map of sorts to a chamber in the Ashen Tower found south of Cauldron. Nepenchil was the name of the noble that had dwelled there almost a century ago. The foot may be some sort of relic. He didn’t know if the item was still there but he told Adla to speak with the sage Julius in Cauldron.   

Readying 16, Lavinia told them that she did not need them for two weeks so they were free to head off south. The group decided to travel to Cauldron to find out more about the piece of wood and Humphrey’s club. They met with the sage Julius and found out that the name mentioned belonged to a noble that had died a century ago and his remains of his tower were 18 miles south west of Cauldron and that a tribe of hobgoblins was operating in the area. He also confirmed what Humphrey had found out about his club. The group was rather impressed about it. As the group was leaving, they noticed that some people were looking and pointing at them, particularly Lucky. Sable heard one of them asking if that man was Athalas. The group left and Sable turned around and headed back into the city and asked around about Athalas. He found that he was a wanted fugitive accused of stealing some jewels from a visiting noble and that there was a reward of 25 gold for his arrest.

Sable asked Lucky if he was the man they were looking for here and he finally spoke up that it was all a misunderstanding, that’s all. They walked until camping for the night. Things went quietly as Churtle made dinner and they settled down for the night.

Readying 17, the group continued walking until just before nightfall. The group passed some large trees and noticed a troop of baboons sitting in trees looking at them. Sable thought it was strange as the animals were totally quiet. Humphrey didn’t like them looking at him and as he walked past the tree he swung his club and nailed the trunk. The baboons all jumped and started shrieking at the group. The next thing they knew, the monkeys were throwing something stinky at Humphrey as the rest of the group started to move away. Wik and Adla walked around the corner and could see a large building up ahead. It appeared to be a road-house named the Lucky Monkey as there were monkey statues and art everywhere around the building. Things didn’t look right as they noticed fresh blood out in front of the entrance and the doors and windows were all closed.

Feb 17 2008; the group slowly approached the building and they could hear a faint sound inside the doors. Wik looked around the side of the building and couldn’t see another entrance so they decided to go through the front door. They checked the doors and found them locked. Wik managed to pick the lock and then Humphrey came up and pushed the doors open. They spotted some people inside the doors that turned when they entered and attacked. The group took them out immediately and started looking around. The common room was a mess with things overturned everywhere and signs of a fight. They found a couple more of the thieves in a side room and had to kill them, but not before getting some information about their boss, a creature called Tongue Eater as he ate the tongues of his enemies. He had been coerced into attacking the Inn. He was some sort of twisted person as he was able to change shape into a large baboon-like creature. They decided to find him and started exploring the ground floor. Wik opened a door into the central courtyard and had to close it in a hurry when he spotted a group a large baboons sitting in the trees. When they spotted him they charged down from the trees and he was forced to close the door before they got there. They then headed around the corner and opened the door into the kitchen and spotted a large man like shape with the head of a baboon surrounded by baboons. The group also spotted a human head hanging from the rafters in the corner of the kitchen. He turned and spotted them and ordered his pets to attack. The group returned the favour and started whacking him.

He managed to bite Wik twice before they killed him and they were shocked to see his form shift to that of a hybrid beast when he died. Four men then charged down the stairs and attacked the group. These were quickly killed. The gnomes spotted a pile of loot on the table and started investigating it. Yo-Yo managed to pocket some platinum before the group could see him. They found a pile of coin along with a couple sacks full of statues, paintings and various works of art.

Adla and Wik headed up the stairs to check out the upper floor. They encountered more of the men and killed them. They came back down to the kitchen and they checked the ground floor and found nothing. Finally they decided to check the basement.

It was empty except for some bodies. One of them was headless and dressed with banded armor and still had a mace in its hands. Down at the end of the passageway they found three bodies laying in front of a door that was twisted and warped and very cold to the touch. The rest of the group came down to see what was going on and Sable cast warp wood to bring the door back to normal. Once they opened the door, Sable realized that some brown mould had been dumped on the floor causing the cold temperature. He told Lucky and Yo-Yo to cast some cold spells on it to kill it. Once they did they checked the rest of the room and found a woman lying on the floor against the back wall. She had pale white hair and very dark skin.

The group slowly approached and realized that she was still alive but barely. Cris’toff cast a healing spell on her and she woke up with a start. She looked around at the group and asked what they were doing here. They said that they had been walking past the inn and decided to check it out and had attacked and killed the marauders that had been busy looting the inn. She said her name was Shensen and she looked after the chapel of Fharlanghn that was here. They helped her up and started moving towards the stairs. She stopped at the headless body and slowly knelt down to pray. When the group asked who he had been, she said that this was the body of her master. She carefully started removing his items as she told the group that she had to return to Cauldron immediately to alert her superiors.

Readying 19, the group arrived at Cauldron in the late afternoon and met with her master Meerthan while Lucky stayed outside waiting for them. He was saddened to hear of his follower being slain but happy that the building had not been torched. He gave the group a pair of boots of springing and striding for his gratitude. Cris’toff bought some armor and Humphrey even found a set of leather that fit Churtle and bought it. The group then left the city and headed west again. This time they did not stop at the Inn but continued on until they spotted the landmarks to look for and turned off into the woods.

Mar 02 2008; Readying 22, after camping out in the woods, the group headed out looking for the ruins. Lucky was in the lead when he spotted a large column of smoke up ahead in a large clearing and the group moved up to investigate. They were suddenly stopped by a melodious voice saying something they couldn’t understand. The group stopped as slender humanoids appeared right in front of them and the group recognized them as elves. They were all armed with bows at were carefully watching the group. They gestured for the group to come forwards and led them into the clearing and the group spotted a large fire burning away, it appeared they were putting some bodies to the torch. One of the elves then asked them to stay there until they were done with honouring their fallen.

The group recognized the bodies burning away as hobgoblins and on the other side of the clearing they could see the bodies of some elven warriors laid to rest on a funeral pyre. The group could see an elf wearing a winged helmet carrying a censor that was smoking. The group waited quietly until the pyre was put to the torch and the bodies were soon incinerated.

Finally an elf came over and asked them who they were and what they were doing in this area. The group explained that they were looking for the ruins of a tower that was in this area. He then led over to his leader and introduced the group to Litiraan the noble warrior in command and Telkya his priestess of Corellon Larethian. They were then led to the central pavilion that had been set up surrounded by over a dozen smaller tents. The group was invited to have dinner with them and the group was happy to do so. The group told them that they were looking for a ruin that was supposed to be in the area. They asked the elves about the battle here and they were informed that the elves had been following a small tribe of hobgoblin and that they had cornered them here and attacked. They had slain over three dozen of the beasts with their losses being a dozen elven warriors. Unfortunately the leader and 8 of his loyal followers had managed to flee deeper into the woods. When the group asked why the elves hadn’t followed them, they were told that the area that they had fled into was anathema to the elves as some time ago an orc druid had cast a curse over the area preventing the elves from entering.

Litiraan then spoke up and said if the group could find Khurbok and his followers and kill them that his mistress would reward the group with 5000 gold. All he wanted was Khurbok’s head. The group instantly agreed to search for them and if they were successful they would return. Litiraan said that they would wait here for three days and if the group returned by then he would be happy to help them. With that he called for wine to be brought forth and toasted, “Death to Khurbok” to the group. They then had a meal with the elves and bedded down for the night.

Readying 23, the group was shown where the hobgoblins had fled and Lucky soon found their trail. They started tracking into the woods and soon were miles away from the camp. Something was definitely living in the woods and the trees started looking more menacing and sinister the further north they traveled. Soon they encountered some sort of tree creatures that attacked with tiny needles. Humphrey was attacked by a few of them and then it appeared that he was attacked by the large tree he was standing beside. What he didn’t know was that Sable had cast entangle on the area and the tree then animated and tried to grab him. He got very angry with the tree and finally raged and attacked it. He was so mad that he actually broke the tree in half before Sable could stop him. Sable looked up and could see thick clouds so he then cast call lightning and tried to nail Humphrey. The group looked on and watched in awe as the bolt came down out of the clouds and nailed his club as he raised it overhead. The bolt struck the club and it glowed for a moment before he swung it again and the sparks trailing off it were much stronger. The group sort of looked at each other as they decided to wait until Humphrey had vented his frustration. The group killed a few and chased the others off. They continued tracking with Lucky and Sable having to take some time to continue tracking. They were attacked again by the tree creatures and again killed a few and drove the others off again. Yo-Yo decided that he needed a new name and decided to call himself Waso.

Finally they came to a small clearing with the remains of stone blocks scattered around the area. A quick check showed a trap door in the ground that appeared to have been used recently.

Mar 09 2008; the group looked around and didn’t see anything so they decided to open the door. Wik started down the steep stairs and was nailed by a javelin tossed by something from the darkness. The rest of the group heard Wik grunt in pain and the rest closed up on the doorway. Cris’toff went to back him up and when he hit the stairs he lost his footing and started tumbling down the stairs as Yo-Yo tried to follow him. He was stopped by the javelins stuck in the wall by Wik as they realized that the hobgoblins were here and waiting for them. The rest of the group waited for the opportunity to attack as Humphrey even stuck his head in to see what was going on and took a javelin in his arm for his troubles. Next three more of them attacked the group that was still waiting to get down the stairs and they turned and attacked them. Two of them were killed when Sable cast entangle again and trapped them while the third managed to free himself and fled before he could be attacked.

The group managed to get down the stairs into the small room and easily killed the three hobgoblins there. There was only one way to go from the room and they looked into a much large room with a well in the centre. The gnomes took the time to strip the bodies of their gear and they realized that all of it was masterwork and worth the effort to scoop.

Wik and Adla looked around the well and it appeared to be disused and the water down 50 feet looked rather murky. Adla tossed down a rock with a light spell on it and it hit the water and slowly dropped down as the light went dim. They looked around and checked over the two passageways that led from the cavern. Wik checked the one to the south and he heard the sound of growling coming from the darkness. The intensity of it sent a shiver up his spine. Whatever it was, it was large. Adla turned to alert the others and they slowly came up to see what was happening. Wik had disappeared when they returned and Adla took the lead and crept up to the opening. She almost stepped on Wik when she realized that he was crouched up against the wall.

Adla didn’t hesitate as she stepped up into the room and spotted four hobgoblins and a large worg. The worg growled and charged the group as the hobgoblins came up to support. They recognized the large hobgoblin standing behind the others as the one that the elves wanted. The group took only moments to take them out and checked over the cavern.      

Mar 16 2008; Adla and Wik checked out the passageway to the west as the others came forward. Lucky was watching the rear and thought he spotted something looking at him from the well in the large room and he got Humphrey’s attention and he turned and went to help Lucky with Churtle following behind. The others had wandered into a small room with no exits. The group realized that the far wall was smoother and nicer than the other walls and they were curious about it. Sable cast a spell to soften the rock and they found a tunnel directly behind it. Just as they went to go through the hole, they faintly heard the sound of splashing from around the corner. Then they heard Churtle laughing her head off and then they heard her say, “That was funny.” The gnomes looked at each other and decided they needed to see what had caused her outburst. They were still talking about who would lead when the others finally came around the corner and Lucky was absolutely soaked. Churtle was laughing away and said that Lucky had slipped when he looked down the well and fell in. Lucky just gave her a dirty look as she laughed some more. Humphrey then spoke up and said that she could cast spells now and the gnomes looked on in disbelief. They shook their heads and turned to follow the others when abruptly Cris’toff and Waso slipped on the floor and went down in a heap. Churtle started laughing again and said, “Grease” as the gnomes tried to get back to their feet. Adla and Wik were up front and turned and looked at the commotion and Wik finally walked back to the group and told them to smarten up. He turned around and didn’t notice Churtle making a gesture again and suddenly he was wearing a pair of pink bunny ears. The gnomes looked up and roared in laughter as they realized that Churtle was casting the same spells they were. She had a grin on her face as the others knew that she was now a sorceress.

Finally everyone was back on their feet and following Adla and Wik. The next room was round with three exits and contained the remains of two sarcophagi amid heaps of broken pottery. Faded frescoes on the wall depict a group of ancient nomadic nobles. A half-dozen couples lies on beds of fur and use hide saddles as pillows while they eat grapes to the accompaniment of a satyr’s double flute. Wik went to step into the room when a shape rose up from the rubble and attacked. The skin was pale white and it had long fangs for teeth. It went to attack and Cris’toff managed to step up in time and attempted to turn it. He managed to channel the power of Pelor and managed to destroy it with his power. They looked over the room and found nothing of value.

Next they looked to the south and spotted a small room with nothing in it but a chest. Adla stepped in to investigate and the floor went out from under her and she hit the bottom of the pit with a thud. Wik looked down to see her twenty feet below the ground and she had landed on a few spikes and was now bleeding. They managed to pull her up and cured her and then looked to the west and spotted another cavern. This was another circular room and the frescos on the walls depict a group of ancient nobles on horseback, hunting game with bows, lances, and domesticated panthers. Several half-naked nymphs can be seen running away in the forest as well.

The group carefully moved into the room and was immediately attacked by a couple more of the creatures and when one of them finally hit Wik, he felt the shock of energy drain and was suddenly weaker for it. The group then moved up to support and Humphrey went the other way and started into another room that was bare and the floor dropped away from him as he made it across the gap. The others were fighting away at the undead beasts and Cris’toff finally got a good look at them and realized that they were vampire spawn, nasty but not as bad as a true vampire. Unfortunately Wik was struck again and drained of more energy. He attempted to turn them again as Adla managed to finally kill one. The other one was forced to flee as the divine power flowed from Cris’toff. Humphrey got a whack at it as it sped away and turned to look at the others.

They followed the beast and came into another chamber containing a shattered and burned wooden coffin. A large swath of dried blood stains the floor near the south wall, and a broken-open chest lies heaped to the north. They found nothing of value here and continued north into another room. The ceiling of this room vaults to fifteen feet overhead. A massive stone chair sits in the northeast corner of this square room, and seated in this chair is a ten-foot-tall suit of banded mail armor. The armor has a great helmet with just two narrow slits for eyes, and grips a large scimitar and a round shield in its gauntlets.

The group convinced Humphrey to walk into the room and the helmet looked up and they could see red eyes glowing inside it. It stood up as Humphrey went to hit it and returned the favour. He was hit hard and the rest of the group then came in to help him. They finally managed to kill whatever it was but not before he was badly hurt. They took a look at the scimitar and found that it was silvered. Cris’toff cast detect magic and it radiated. Lucky ended up taking it as he wanted a decent weapon.

Mar 23 2008; the group turned back the other way to check out the last room. Wik and Adla took the lead and they slowly approached the corner. Waso abruptly brushed past them and stepped up to the room. He then gave a squeak and turned and ran past the others. Wik looked into the room and was suddenly attacked by a white faced human with fangs. The group stepped up and attacked it; it was unable to hurt the group as they easily killed it. The group then checked the body and found some bracers and a ring. Wik also found a cloven hoof tied to a string that he grabbed and tucked away in his pouch. Waso took the bracers while Sable grabbed the ring. They tried to figure out what the items did with humorous results. Checking the room they found nothing and started backtracking to find his loot. It took a few hours before they finally found the hidden compartment on the wall to the first trap. Wik found the hole and pulled out two sacks and a small coffer.

Inside the sacks were two dozen small ceramic urns that appeared valuable. The coffer contained a dagger, four potions and a small box that contained a lot of small plaques. Once the group looked at the plaques they realized that it was a deck of many things. An artifact that had a habit of popping up every so often and then once it was used it disappeared. The group had a discussion and decided to use it. They then had to decide who would go first and Wik said he would.

He stated he would draw two cards and did so; his first card was Moon. A small ring then dropped into his hand. It contained four moonstones and appeared to be wishes. He immediately wished for his body to be free of disease and the lycanthropy that was incubating in him disappeared. He next wished for his levels that had been drained earlier to return and his last wish was to gain a level, which he did. His second card was Fates, avoid any situation once.

Sable was next and he also drew two cards. The first was Gem and his next thought was gems or jewellery. He thought of gems and a velvet bag landed on his hand. He looked inside and spotted lots of very large gems. Waso’s eyes bugged out when he saw them as Sable tucked the bag away. His next draw was Rogue and he became aware that someone in the group or someone he trusted would turn on him.

Next was Cris’toff and he decided to draw only one card and when he looked at it, it suddenly burst into Flames. The center of the flames then showed a chamber with a large plush chair in one corner. A female demon with gorgeous features and large horns growing out of her head looked up and suddenly smiled at Cris’toff. She then said something in a foul language “We know you now. Be very afraid.” As the vision faded, Cris’toff could see that she was laughing at his sudden popularity.

Waso went next and he also drew two cards, Moon was the first card and a ring with one moonstone dropped into his hand and he immediately wished for a bag of gems just like Sable and it dropped into his hands. Then he drew Knight and he gained the services of a warrior.

Next was Lucky and he drew two cards. The first was Knight and he became aware that he too had gained the services of a warrior. Then he drew Euryale and all his saving throws were reduced by one permanently.

Humphrey was hesitant at first but when he saw all the things the others were gaining he decided to try his luck. He drew two cards and the first was Throne, gain a small keep or property. He had no idea where it would be and his next card was Rogue, someone was going to turn on him sometime.

Adla went next and she drew two cards. The first was Comet, defeat the next monster she meets single handed to gain a level and her last card was Rogue again. I think the deck was trying to tell the group something.

Even Churtle decided to draw a card and she was very unlucky when the card burst into flames. She gave a bit of a shriek as she saw the vision of the Outsider in her mind and she dove underneath Humphrey’s legs in order to hide. The deck then faded out of sight as its magic was drawn away for another use elsewhere.

Mar 30 2008; the group headed out of the ruins and realized that it was going to get dark soon. They camped out for the night and rested.

Readying 24, the group headed back to the elven camp and arrived before dinner. The elves greeted them enthusiastically when they produced the head of the hobgoblin and the elves rejoiced. They then asked the group to stay for dinner and they started the celebration. The group was then asked where they wanted the gold delivered. They requested it to come to the Vanderboren Manor in Sasserine. They were enjoying the dinner when they were interrupted by a couple of the elven scouts that were escorted two people. One was clearly a gnome with a nasty hooked hammer in his belt and the other at first looked like an elf but his ears were longer and more pointed and his eyes were yellowish in color, slung over his shoulder was a large bastard sword. As they walked in they came up to the group and introduced themselves.

The gnome looked at Waso and quietly shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. He stepped up to Waso and introduced himself as Buckminster, but his friends called him Bucky. He then started talking to Waso and Waso realized that this was the warrior that the card had produced. Bucky then called him governor as his sign of respect. The other man introduced himself as Lamar von Toven and he was not from this earth and he had also been called by the card. He informed Lucky that he was now his follower.

The group spent the rest of the night partying and eating. Cris’toff was approached by a pair of elves that were twin brothers named Ilar and Micor. They were intrigued by the group and were very interested in joining the group and following Cris’toff. He ended up speaking with the elven leaders and gained permission to accept them as followers in his journey to come.

Readying 25, the group headed out in the morning with a lot more people in the group with the addition of loyal followers and cohorts. The group walked steadily back towards Cauldron and decided not to stop but just passed through on their way home.

Coldeven 3, the group finally arrived back in Sasserine and headed to the Vanderboren manor and found it to be a hive of activity as Lady Lavinia had hired a crew to rebuild the manor. They walked into the dining room to find their patron pouring over some maps and letters that looked familiar. They recognized the pile of stuff as the paperwork that Lavinia had recovered from the family vault.

She asked them to all sit down and then drew their attention to the paperwork spread all over the table. “Do you recall this journal that we recovered from my family’s vault? It turns out that it was my mother’s. My parents, may the gods rest their souls, were brave—foolish and rash some would say, but I have never been one to criticize an adventurous spirit. On the contrary—“she casts a wry smile at you all. “I admire it. In any event, it would seem about four years ago, my mother and father undertook a risky endeavour. They sailed the Blue Nixie, along with a ship full of colonists, down south and across the Vohoun Ocean to a place they refer to as the Isle of Dread. You may have heard of this place—if you haven’t, it seems apparent from reading my mother’s journals that the place is aptly named. A jungle-covered hell infested with immense reptilian monsters, feral savages, and peril at every turn. Yet the southern peninsula remains relatively sheltered from the menaces on the Isle mainland, and it was here, among the villages of several friendly locals, that my parents founded the colony of Farshore.”

“The Isle of Dread represents an untapped trove of resources—exotic lumber, spices, animals, foods, and even minerals like silver and gold. Once Farshore was up and running, the influx of trade would have guaranteed my family a relatively uncontested flow of wealth. Yet before mother and father were able to return to Farshore with supplies and more colonists… my brother made his move and left me in the state you found me in a few short weeks ago.”

Lavinia indicates her mother’s journal. “Since we recovered this journal, I have not been idle. If Farshore fails, then my parent’s last legacy fails. I intend to carry on their work, and have planned for a journey south to the Isle of Dread to re-supply and join the colonists at Farshore for the rest of the year. I have the Blue Nixie readying in the harbour to take on fresh supplies to the colony, but I find myself a vessel short.” Lavinia’s face breaks into a glowing grin as she continues. “You wouldn’t know of anyone with stout hearts who might be interested in helping me mount this expedition, do you? I fear the journey itself might grow dangerous at times, and there’s no way of knowing what state or condition Farshore is currently in, but I suspect that danger is a vice you have.”

The group looked at one another and decided that a long sea cruise might be a good idea. Then the thought of acquiring a ship took their attention and they remembered that Kraken’s Cove had contained a ship at anchor in the middle of the bay. The group decided to travel south and see if the ship was still there. They told Lady Lavinia that they might be able to find a ship and they would let her know. They then headed out looking for Jocko and soon found him in one of the dockyard inns. He agreed to be hired for a few days to recover the ship and decided to bring along a few extra men just in case they were needed. The group agreed to head out on the morning tide.

Chapter Three; the Sea Wyvern’s Wake

Coldeven 4, the group arrived at the cove aboard the Loose Lady in the late afternoon and Jocko launched the longboat and the group piled in and the slowly rowed into the cove to see the ship still at anchor in the middle of the bay. Most of the other hulks had disappeared and little remained for evidence showing the chaos from a few weeks ago. They slowly approached the ship, that Jocko now identified as a caravel and the name on the transom was Sea Wyvern. They slowly climbed on board to find it empty, though they found the scattered remains of a couple of people on board but nothing else. They tied off the long boat and Jocko used the group as crew to bring in the anchor and set the main sail. They slowly moved out of the bay and joined up with the Loose Lady and headed back to Sasserine.

April 6 2008; Coldeven5 the ships arrived back at Sasserine and they brought the Sea Wyvern in to dock beside the Blue Nixie. They paid over the 5 gp fee for docking and proceeded to head back to the Manor. Lucky and Waso agreed to stay on board along with their followers while the others prepared to buy supplies.

Lady Lavinia was ecstatic to find they now had a ship and said that she was going to ship over some supplies for the colony and food for the ship. She also told the group that they might want to buy some extra stock for themselves and they agreed. They would sail on the morning tide in two days. Sable started shopping around to spend his gems and located a pair of very nice daggers that cost him more than he wanted to spend. He also acquired a new pet when he got his hands on a baby deinonychus. He was warned to stock up on fresh meat for the little fellow as they were quite aggressive. He decided to name it Dagger.  

Late that afternoon a small group of elves arrived at the manor with a chest. It was the payment for the group killing the hobgoblins. They gave it to the group and then took their leave returning for home. Waso managed to spend all of his gems and the others also bought some stuff including a few wands and some scrolls. They also spent 500 gp on extra food. They were wondering about crew when Lavinia told them that she had already hired a captain and crew for them. Of course they were free to hire their own but they decided not to argue with their patron. They also managed to get the ship registered in their name after paying a 100 gp fee to the harbour master. It would have been more but they used their Spire’s of Sasserine to drop the price. So now Humphrey’s Hero’s owns a boat.

Coldeven 7, the group had spent the last few hours helping load supplies and deciding where they were going to sleep. Churtle immediately commandeered the galley and said she would cook for everyone. They were introduced to their ships captain, her name was Amella Venkalie and she had been sailing the seas for years. Things got off to a frosty start when they found out that she hated gnomes as one of them had killed her husband a few years ago. The gnome was Shortstone Badgewell and he had betrayed her husband with his clan of gnomes. They spent a few minutes telling her of their story and she seemed satisfied that they were not in league with the dastardly gnome.

 They were also introduced to Urol Forol, a gnome who would act as the ship’s navigator. He was excited to be returning to the Isle of Dread again as the last time he had been there; he was forced to leave long before he wanted too. He also had a collection of spiders and snakes, most of them extremely poisonous that he wanted to show the others. The ship had a crew of five to run it, the most flamboyant one was Lirith Veldirose, a tomboyish young woman who wore brilliant scarves and silks. The others were young men and women who seemed to know their jobs. They were a little worried when they found out that a kobold would be doing the cooking but that lasted until the first meal when they sampled her cooking.

They were also introduced to the few passengers that would be sailing with them. As they had so many followers now, Lavinia decided not to load them down with too many. The first was Father Feres, a balding man with a fringe of white hair around his ears. He worshipped Hieroneous. Another was Skald, a shifty-looking, hunch-shouldered character with pale skin, a nasal voice, and unsettling eyes. A longbow was slung over one shoulder.

They were getting ready to cast off but were informed that they still had to wait for the last passenger. Lady Lavinia told them that she had managed to find a noble family to help underwrite the expenses of the journey and she was waiting for the representative to arrive. When the group asked who it was, she informed them that Avner Meravanchi would be accompanying them. The gnomes just winced when they heard that as they had all heard rumours about the young gentleman, none of it good.

Finally they spotted a carriage coming down to the docks and it was loaded with steamer trunks and bags. Two men in servant’s livery hopped out and started pulling all the bags and trunk off the carriage. Behind the carriage was a spirited horse and the group suddenly realized that the young noble was planning to bring his horse along. Some of the group walked off the ship to talk to the young man and that is when the argument started. Avner was determined to bring his horse Thunderstrike along and wouldn’t be deterred. Urol went over to the horse and started asking about its pedigree. This distracted Avner enough for Waso to lose his patience and he then cast charm person on Avner. It appeared to work as they convinced him that it would be a good idea to leave the horse here and not confine it to the ship for the next four months.

They finally got all of his gear onto the ship and were able to give him one of the small cabins for his use and his servants, named Banaby Chisk and Quenge Asper who found a place to bunk with the crew.

Finally they were able to cast off and they slowly headed out of the harbour and once they were clear turned south and set sail. They group watched as Sasserine faded in the distance. The rest of the day was spent organizing the ship and making sure that they kept the Blue Nixie in sight.

Coldeven 10, in the afternoon the ships had closed up and Lavinia sent over a rowboat informing the group that she was hosting a dinner party in a few hours for everyone and asked the group to attend. Later on the ships hove to and slowed right down as the rope was sent across and a pulley was attached along with a net seat as the group was slowly hoisted over to the Blue Nixie. Waiting there for them was Lady Lavinia dressed up in a silk shirt, jewellery and a dress. The group was plainly dressed in comparison. The dinner table was set up on the main deck and was bulging from the food that was on it. The group was happy to get onto a larger vessel with more room to stretch their legs. Everyone sat down at the table and they had a great feast. 

Finally the dinner was done as the sun went down and the group prepared to be hoisted back to the Wyvern. Cris’toff went first and he was halfway across when the rope snapped, dropping him towards the water. Luckily he had his wits about him and managed to cast water walk before he hit and landed on top of the water. He then walked over to their ship and climbed back on board. He checked the rope and noticed that it appeared to have been sliced and not frayed. Someone appeared to be mad at the party. Next he heard a noise behind him and then was zapped by something hiding behind the ropes. It moved out to attack him and he recognized it as a mephit, an elemental creature. It attacked him until he whacked it back and finally it dove over the railing into the sea with barely a splash. The group thought it was a water mephit. Cris’toff walked over to where the thing had been hiding and found an empty jar with a small amount of brine in the bottom of it. Beside it was the lid. The rest of the group had to use the rowboat to return and they decided to search the ship but didn’t find anything unusual. They settled down for the night.

Over the next week or so they sailed past vast areas of jungle and swamp and at one point watched as the jungle was overcome with vast spider webs. They even spotted a few very large spiders moving throughout the webs. This soon passed and the next thing of interest was a flock of wyverns that appeared from the east and approached and swooped down among the vessels and seemed to be intrigued with the ships. They soon moved off into the distance and disappeared. Humphrey even tried his hand at fishing but was warned by the captain that he would be tempting fate if he continued.    

April 13 2008; Coldeven 20, arrive at Fort Blackwell, located at the tip of the hook. They were stopping for the night to replenish food and water. Wik had been starting to get cravings for blood while he was sleeping and his skin had gone paler and he was sun-burning very easily if he went out in the sun for a short time. Most of the group left the ship to stretch their legs and buy a decent meal for a change. They were warned about the local beverage called the green man. It was fairly potent as the group found out. Wik spend the time trying to find a sage to find out more about the item he had picked up in the ruins. He finally managed to find someone that looked at the item in question and quickly told him to get rid of it. He was warned that it was a cursed item made by Orcus, the Prince of Undead. He was also informed that the item had attuned to him now and he could not get rid of it even if he wanted to.

Coldeven 21, Father Feres returned to the ship after spending the night at the shrine to Hieroneous and looked happier than he had been in awhile. They quickly set sail and headed around the hook and turned due south following the coast line. The next place they were to stop was eight to ten days away at the mouth of the Havekihu River. This was the first major river that emptied into the Azure Sea.

April 20 2008; the days passed quietly with nothing unusual happening for a few days.

Coldeven 25, it was dinner time when something out of the ordinary happened. The group sat down for dinner and Cris’toff started eating but stopped because it tasted funny. He quickly determined that someone or thing had dumped some poison into his meal. They checked around but couldn’t find anything out of place and snidely thought it might be Avner trying to get back at them. Cris’toff tossed the meal overboard and went back to grab a fresh bowl.

Coldeven 27, the group was up on deck watching Sable feed and train Dagger when one of the crew members came up on deck and said that Father Feres appeared ill. Cris’toff and Adla went down and looked in on him fearing he may have been poisoned. Cris’toff checked but determined that he had not been poisoned. He then thought he might be seasick as the swells had been a little larger the last day or two and Father Feres was looking very pale and sweating. He kept moaning about the light being too bright when they tried to get him up on deck for some fresh air. They led him back to his quarters and left him to rest. Later that day, Cris’toff looked in on him again and he was no better and even looked a little worse. The sounds and smells coming from him were disturbing his bunk mates and he decided to move him to smaller quarters. He was leading him towards Avner’s quarters when he abruptly groaned and doubled over. Cris’toff then was shocked to see something moving underneath his tunic. He quickly checked and realized that there was something inside his abdomen. Cris’toff took a step back and was proceeding to cast a spell when Father Feres screamed and then his body burst apart spraying blood and body parts everywhere.

The thing that burst out rapidly grew to fill in the doorway and was looking into the terrified eyes of Avner as he watched helplessly as this thing appeared in his quarters. Adla stepped up and stabbed it. It then looked at Avner and growled something in a language no one understood except for Wik and he went white when he recognized the language as been Slaad. He then realized that this was a blue slaad and it was hungry. It turned and slashed at Adla forcing her to step back from the force of the attack. She stood in the hallway and attacked it again. The rest of the group came up and was going to attack when they spotted a translucent image floating over Adla. It was a comet and the others remembered that she had drawn the card earlier and they realized that she would have to kill it herself or else another slaad would show up. So Cris’toff cast a few cure spells to help her as she attacked again. The creature seemed to pause and concentrate for a moment. It looked like it was trying to open a portal to bring in another one but failed so Adla whacked it again. Finally it looked at her and made a gesture with its fist and the side of the ship behind it abruptly opened to the sea and the creature turned and dove through the hole hitting the water with a splash and disappeared.

The rest of the group finally arrived and Dagger immediately started eating away at the remains of poor Father Feres. There wasn’t much left of him and the beast made quick work. Wik suddenly got a craving for blood and managed to scoop some up and was eating it when the rest of the group noticed. He looked at the group and said that he didn’t know what the critter found so good about it as it tasted awful and he then went up on deck to get out of the area and smell which was starting to overpower him. By the time Dagger was done, there wasn’t much remaining and Cris’toff cleaned up what was left.

Coldeven 28, the next day at the daily meal, Sable found that his meal had been tampered with and he called Churtle in and had her check over his plate. She sniffed it and carefully tasted a little bit and sneezed. She then looked at him and said poison. When they asked her what it was, she thought it might be arsenic. They asked her if she had any with her and she shook her head and said that she wasn’t making poison right now, she was the cook. Sable thanked her and decided he was going to try and find out who was doing this to them. Wik even kept an eye out in the galley whenever a meal was served.

Growfest, the ships arrived at the mouth of the Havekihu River in late afternoon and they started taking on fresh water. They were done a few hours’ later and set sail south. Sable was up on deck when he noticed a large bank of cloud coming in from the sea. Urol also spotted it and sniffed and said, “Sea Fog.” Sure enough about an hour later the fog had closed in and slowly rolled past the ship. At first it wasn’t bad but little by little got thicker and thicker, the Blue Nixie slowly faded from sight. As the visibility got worse, the people on deck headed below leaving only the crew and the group. Humphrey was up front as he wanted to be a lookout but was looking into white stuff with swirls of blue water. Soon a muffled voice from ahead shouted that they were anchoring for the night. Moments later the Captain answered and shouted out to drop anchor. Humphrey looked around and spotted the capstan and reached over and let loose the anchor and waited for it to settle. He was very good at the heavy work as he could set the anchor by himself.

He soon grew bored and decided to try and fish off the bow. He had been warned to stop fishing when they were out to sea but now that they were anchored it was just like fishing off a dock so he stealthily grabbed his fishing gear and soon tossed a baited hook off into the water. His efforts were soon rewarded when he felt a tug on his line. He set the hook and started hauling away. Whatever it was it? It was heavy. He tugged and tugged and grunted and growled as he reeled in his line. He was noisy enough to attract the attention of some of the group and they had quietly come up to the bow and were watching him reel in something.

Finally he set his feet and gave a mighty heave. A large flatfish shot out of the water and flew over his head and down onto the deck. No one else noticed that Sable had just walked up onto the deck and the fish had just squashed him onto the deck. It was massive enough to hold him in place and he couldn’t even kick his feet. He tried shouting but barely let out a squeak. The fish started flapping on the deck, doing more damage to Sable as Humphrey had turned around and grabbed a club to whack the fish. He nailed it hard in the head, stunning it at least and then grabbed the head and pulled it up enough for Sable to finally croak out, “get me out of here.” Humphrey grabbed the mouth in amazement and pulled it open and looked inside. He was still looking when Sable punched him hard in the shin, forcing him to pull up the fish. Sable finally stood up. Looked up and kicked Humphrey hard in the shin and then angrily stalked away. Everyone else started howling with laughter as Sable shot Humphrey a dirty look and muttered something in gnomish as he disappeared.

They then made sure the fish was dead before Humphrey took it down to the galley and Churtle started filleting it for steaks. She saved the guts for Sable's pet Dagger and laughed when she heard what had happened to him. They had a fantastic dinner with fresh fish and rice. Churtle had been surprising everyone with her culinary skills and seemed to be getting better at providing some variety. They then bedded down for the night.

Planting 1, Adla, Humphrey and Waso were awakened by the ship moving underneath them. Something had struck the ship?

Sept 21 2008; Humphrey was curious and got up from his hammock and went to look over the side. He looked over and at first didn’t see anything until he noticed the water looked funny. As he was leaning over something smacked him hard in the face forcing him to take a step back. He shook his head and grabbed his club and looked over the side again. This time he noticed something in the water that looked like water. As he prepared to whack something he got hit again in the face from something that looked like water but much heavier. He finally decided to jump over the side and let out a growl as he did so. Adla heard him hit the water with a ferocious splash and she headed up on deck. Waso tried waking up Bucky but he was deeply asleep. Finally he got him awake and Waso then started waking up some of the others as Adla arrived up on deck and looked over the side. She could she Humphrey struggling with some sort of ooze or water creature. She had her sword in hand so she dove over the deck and hit the thing with a splash and thud. Whatever it was, it was heavier than water.

The two of them soon became stuck to the thing and started whacking away at it as Lucky and Wik came up on deck and they also jumped over the side and the four of them finally broke whatever it was apart. Wik spotted some bodies about twenty feet below him and he got Adla’s attention after she had cast a cure on Humphrey as he had taken the brunt of the damage from the thing. The two of them swam down to investigate and found the remains of six bodies. They quickly looked around and Adla spotted a nice pair of gauntlets that she removed and Wik spotted the glint of gold on a finger and pulled off a nice gold ring. They returned to the surface and climbed back on board the ship.

Wik immediately headed back down to his cabin as he was having some cravings for blood and he was starting to look at the other people on board as food. Adla looked at the gloves and they were heavy leather with iron rivets and banding. She didn’t want to try them on even though the condition suggested that they were magical. Humphrey then picked them up and thought that they wouldn’t fit as they looked too small. He tried on the one glove and it stretched to fit his hand. He took it off and tried on the other glove and it stretched also. He then put them on and started experimenting. He soon discovered that they were gloves of strength. Adla then asked for them and he looked at her and then handed them over. She put them on and agreed that they helped her strength. Now that all the excitement was done they all went back to bed.

Planting 2 the fog had lifted by morning and they set sail again. The weather was much better and things were quiet for a few days.

Planting 5 it was just after midnight and Wik had just spent a few hours down in the bilges looking for rats. His craving for blood was intensifying and that’s all he had been thinking about for the last two days. He finally gave up and headed back towards his quarters when he heard a scream and then a cry for help. He rushed around the corner to see one of Avner’s servants standing in the doorway to his room with a shocked look on his face. Wik came up and looked in and saw Avner lying on his bunk. He appeared to have a pair of puncture wounds on his neck and the scent of fresh blood was overpowering. He told the servants to get help as he shoved them out the door and moved toward the still body. He could not help himself as he bent down and bit Avner and started drinking blood. He managed to stop before he managed to drain him dry and stepped back just as the others suddenly started banging on the door.

Wik opened the door just as Adla was about to put her shoulder into it. The group was shaken to see the change that had come over Wik. He no longer looked pale and color was returning to his skin as the group watched in horror. They finally looked into the room and Cris’toff had to go in and cast a cure spell to help Avner. He looked better after the spell but was still asleep so Cris’toff left him there. By now the others were questioning Wik about what had happened and he finally admitted that he had taken some blood from Avner but that something else had attacked him first. The servants admitted that they had awakened to find Avner in the state he was in and weren’t sure what had happened. The discussion continued on and the cabin boy spoke and said that he thought he had seen Wik coming out of the cabin about an hour before but couldn’t be sure.

Sept 28 2008; Wik finally said that he was going back to his cabin to go to sleep and Adla said that she was going to be his guard for now, so the two of them went back to his cabin while the others finally went back to their bunks.

Humphrey had fallen asleep in his hammock and started having a dream that felt so real that he thought he was actually in the dream. He dreamt that he had taken off all of his clothes and slipped over the side of the ship and started swimming for shore dragging his club behind him. Things went dark for a few moments and then he saw that he was standing in the jungle among a mangrove swamp. He suddenly felt really tired and decided to curl up underneath the tree and he was soon fast asleep. A few hours later Sable woke up from where he had curled up with dagger and wondered what had awakened him. He looked over to Humphrey’s hammock and was rather shocked to see that the hammock was empty. All of his gear was piled up underneath the hammock except for his great club. Sable thought maybe he was fishing so he wandered around the ship and there was no sign of him. Finally he went down below and alerted Adla about his disappearance and they decided to check the ship from stem to stern but couldn’t find him.

Wik had been happy to get up and wander around the ship as when he had fallen asleep his dreams had been very troubled, Adla had noticed him tossing and turning in his bunk while she watched. It was an hour before dawn when Adla ordered the captain to drop anchor as they thought Humphrey may have fallen overboard but they would now have to wait until daylight before they could look for him. She then headed back to Wik’s cabin to await the dawn. Once there was enough daylight, Sable transformed into an eagle and set off looking for Humphrey.

Wik then fell asleep again and this time his dreams were even more troubled. Adla heard him mumbling to himself in a language that she thought she would never hear on this world. Finally he said a phrase, “Orcus is Great.” Then Adla watched as he seemed to change in front of her eyes. She drew her sword as she watched him shiver. She then said, “Stand up now.” At first she thought he would remain in his bunk but finally he turned and stood up and looked at her with his sword in hand. She waited for him to attack as she sensed that he was now evil and looked it. The fight was short and sweet and she finished him off by disembowelling him with her sword. He gasped out a thank you as he died.

She checked him over and soon found the leather thong around his neck that held the reddish black cloven hoof. She removed it with her sword and laid it on the deck as the door behind her opened and Lucky looked in. She turned and told him that she had to kill him as he had turned evil. She also told him to guard the hoof and to not touch it for anything.

Humphrey woke up from his sleep and at first he couldn’t understand how he was sleeping underneath a large tree. He looked up into the tree and he realized that his spear was now growing out of a limb of the tree. He carefully stood up and looked around and all he saw was jungle in every direction. He had a vague memory of the dream he had the night before and he realized that the only thing he had was his club. He grabbed it and felt a tingle in his hands and then he yelped as a splinter stuck into his hand and blood gushed out onto the club. He watched the blood as it was absorbed into the club and it seemed to hum for a moment. He picked it up and sensed that it had changed. He didn’t know what or how it had happened but it seemed to be awake now. He stepped out into a bit of a clearing and got the sense to toss the club up into the air. He did so and watched it twirl as it came down. When it landed he realized that the blunt end was pointing north. He remembered where the ship had been and where it was sailing to so he then started walking east to get back to the water. It took him about an hour to finally hear the surf and smell the tang of salt in the air and he finally came out on the beach. He started walking south looking for ships and the horizon was empty. He was looking the wrong way when Sable finally spotted him and he decided to have some fun with him and he dove down and struck Humphrey in the head and continued flying down the beach. He stopped a few hundred yards away and started screeching at Humphrey. Humphrey was mad enough to try and do something about the blood streaming down his face so he started stalking the eagle. When he got close enough to throw a rock at it, it then flew off further down the beach. Humphrey soon realized that this was no ordinary bird and he tried to get close enough to stalk it by heading into the jungle and tried to sneak up on it. Sable took off and headed further down the beach and Humphrey slowly started following it.

He stopped after a while and watched as the bird morphed into Sable who started laughing at him. He then changed back into an eagle and flew off down the beach and finally faded into the distance. Humphrey continued walking until he spotted a ship off in the distance. Soon it turned into the Sea Wyvern and Humphrey headed into the water and started swimming back to the ship. They waited for him to get to the ship and dropped the rope ladder down so he could climb up onto the deck. As soon as he was on board the ship turned back south and put on all sail in order to catch up to the Blue Nixie.        

Oct 5 2008; it took them almost until dark before they finally spotted the Blue Nixie in the distance and they closed up before dark. Urol commented on the clouds off in the distance and he figured a storm was going to hit before morning.

Planting 6 it was just before dawn when the crack of thunder awakened everyone on board the ship. Humphrey sat up in his hammock and he looked around as the rumble of thunder passed overhead. He looked to the east and the clouds had a strange look about it as people started coming up on deck. The clouds looked purple in the dim light as they watched the clouds slowly started to swirl and a vortex was created in the middle. Then there was a flash of light and suddenly something opened up in the middle of the vortex and the group could see something beyond the gap in the clouds. It looked like two ships locked in combat. One was clearly a merchant vessel while the other looked like a warship. The group watched in horror as the smaller ship was bombarded by something from the other one and it started falling apart. The main mast blew apart and parts of it came through the opening and splashed into the water just a few hundred yards away. Then they watched the ship blow apart and then the portal closed with a flash as the clouds suddenly boiled away. By now everyone was on deck watching as Urol said that whatever that was, it wasn’t natural.

They decided to drop the long boat and go see what was in the water. After a few minutes of rowing they came across the remains of the top mast and the crow’s nest and something appeared to be in it. Whatever it was, it was covered in tan fur. They carefully pulled out the body and realized that it was still alive and it looked vaguely like some sort of monkey except this one was wearing a harness that contained some items including a very large flail. There were also flaps of skin hanging down from his arms and when they stretched out the arm they assumed that the creature could glide through the air like a flying squirrel. It was unconscious so they pulled it onto the longboat and headed back to the ship.

By now the sun was coming up and there was no sign of the clouds. They came back to the ship and got the beast back on board. Whatever it was, it was fairly large and heavy standing at least six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds. Cris’toff took a look at him once they had him onboard and cast a cure spell on him. He looked better afterwards but was still out. He cast another spell and waited a few minutes before checking on him again. The gnomes had surrounded him and were talking to each other and that is what finally awakened him, hearing strange voices in a language he didn’t understand. Cris’toff finally peeled back an eyelid to see if there was a reaction and the thing grabbed his arm and looked up at him. It then jumped to its feet and looked around and immediately climbed up the mast and sat on the spar of the main sail looking around. Humphrey approached it with some fruit and offered it something to eat by tossing it up to him. It looked around and Adla caught his attention as she stood there watching him. He was so amazed by her that he climbed down and slowly approached her to see her head bobbing above her shoulders. He even passed his hand between them and giggled when he did so. He then looked at the elven brothers and approached them and offered the fruit to them.

Adla started talking to him and he approached her again and spoke to her in rough common. The group started asking him where he came from and all he could say was that he had been on the ship Seeker of Light and they had been attacked by corsairs. He said he had sailed the Sea of Fallen Stars. The group just looked at each other as the name was foreign to them. They also saw that he wore a featureless wooden disk around his neck along with some sort of amulet. Cris’toff was intrigued as his symbol was also circular but had the image of Pelor on it. They found out that his name was Grat Sunseeker and that he worshipped the Goddess of Luck, Tymora. This was a name that no one recognized and they came to the realization that he was from another world and the portal they had seen must have crossed over a distance they couldn’t fathom. Then Humphrey asked if he fished and pulled out his large fishing pole and jiggled it in his direction. The others gradually came up and introduced themselves and even Dagger came over to have a sniff before heading back to his corner and curling up to rest. They spent the day talking with Grat and his grasp of the language improved the more they spoke to him.

Adla finally asked him if he was a hadozee, a race she had heard of but never seen. He said yes and asked if his kind was on this world but they said no. they had never seen one here. He then said that he had to rest as it was much hotter than he was used to. He then headed up to the crow’s nest and curled up to rest. He came down about dinner time to take part in the meal and it was at dusk when he watched the stars come out when he came to the realization that he wasn’t on his native planet anymore. Nothing looked the same and he didn’t recognize any of the constellations in the sky. Humphrey then convinced him to try fishing and they managed to catch some sort of a shark that was over six feet long.

Adla finally found a deep spot in the water to drop the cloven hoof into and made sure that the box it was in was heavy enough to sink rapidly and managed to drop it over the side and watched it sink out of sight. She had disposed of Wik’s body days before when they had spotted some sharks feeding and managed to attract them with some blood in the water, and then she dropped the body over and watched as the sharks tore it apart.

Planting 14 Urol had been watching the coastline intently and finally started jumping up and down in excitement as he pointed to a ruin off in the distance. He told the group that they were approaching the ruins of Tamoachan and he pulled out a scrap of a map to show the others a spot that he wanted to investigate. He told them that Lavinia had given him permission to stop here for a day to investigate further. In fact the group looked over and saw that the Nixie had taken in her sails and was dropping anchor offshore. The group quickly agreed to accompany him as the ship was starting to get small and crowded. Dagger was hopping up and down with excitement as they rowed ashore and the group watched with a smile as he dove into the water and galloped onto shore and tore around the beach for a few minutes until he settled down and came back to Sable.

Urol found a trail leading into the jungle and they started walking inland. The longboat had rowed back to the ship and they would wait for the group to make an appearance before returning. Grat took to the trees and followed the others as they realized they were approaching a ziggurat in the distance.

Oct 12 2008; they slowly approached from the south heading towards the collapsed section and didn’t notice anything as they slowly came closer. As they passed through an overgrown area they heard a loud buzzing overhead. They managed to get a glimpse of a very large red and black wasp. Even Humphrey had second thoughts about attacking it so they waited until it faded away.  Finally they came to the edge of the ziggurat and looking they could see that the back corner facing the river has collapsed dramatically into a sink hole that has developed under the foundation. The huge blocks of masonry that once made up the façade of the shrine now form an uneven floor that looks like perilous footing. Banyan trees and creeping vines grow all over the collapse, exploiting cracks in the exposed flank of the once proud structure. The innermost area of the collapse is evidently an exposed inner chamber of the shrine. The colors of the once brilliant walls are now sadly bleached, but it is evident that the room was decorated in the motif of a jungle cat. There are several scenes depicting figures half man and half tiger or leopard. Three rubble-choked passages loom in the shadow of the shrine, while passages to the north and the north-west seem to have been cleared of rubble. High up the shrine wall another exposed passage leads into the temple mount as well. It looks like these walls could be easily scaled.

The group slowly moved into the opening and was immediately attacked by some lizard men, these were quickly killed and before they could move any further more of them appeared and behind them was something big. It appeared larger than Humphrey and the group recognized it as an Ogre Magi and they knew that these were deadly. It zapped the group with a lightning bolt and the gnomes in the rear took the brunt of the damage and Urol was almost killed when he stepped into the bolt. He was cured while the warriors moved up to engage the ogre. It faded from view and appeared moments later right behind Humphrey and nailed him hard. The others were close enough to attack it before it could flee and they killed it. They looked over the body and found the only thing of value was the chain shirt that it was wearing. Humphrey took it off and tried it on. It was a little baggy but he was the only one who could wear it.

They checked out the tunnels and found one of them contained a large chamber where the ogre had lived. They looked the room over and the only thing they found was Adla picking up the head of a very nice mace. The handle was missing but she figured that she could put another handle on it when she had some time to do it. Next they looked down the other tunnel and saw that it opened up into a large room. They moved down to investigate and stepped onto a ten-foot wide, fifty-foot long landing overlooking a large chamber to the north accessible by a short flight of downward sloping stairs. The entrance to the larger room is framed by dozens of skeletons carved into the fifty-foot-wide arch, their bones intertwined with hundreds of carved snakes. Unnerving ripples of black smoke slither and dance among the carvings.

As the group stepped through the arch they all shivered momentarily but were unaffected by whatever the arch contained. The floor of this large chamber once contained a breathtaking carving of an ancient city, yet time has taken its toll on the map-like carving, reducing it to a tangled mess that, ironically, almost seems to reflect ruined Tamoachan above. The walls are decorated with brightly colored frescoes depicting a royal court in ceremonial garb and a king arrayed with his magnificent armies. Pathways wind through the ruins, affording a twisting route through the rubble. In the centre of the room is a wide plaza, in the middle of which rests a low stone table.

They noticed that a section of the east wall had fallen and a tunnel led into the darkness. They were looking around the chamber for a few moments when suddenly they heard a whoosh behind them and they turned to see a wall of flame appear at the arch and it slowly started moving towards them. The only way to escape the flames was to head east into the ruins. The group scrambled to do so and realized that the crack was a fissure going through the structure. The near vertical fissure came to an end as a crack high up the wall of a dark chamber. The drop from the lip of the crevasse to the floor is 60’. This room is utterly dark. Adla produced a light and the group could see the walls covered in rich murals.

The murals depict in terrible color detail bat-like demons ripping apart the souls of the weak in Olman hell. The demons hold them spitted upon the razor talons of their feet and appear to circle around the walls of the chamber in a descent to the floor. At the bottom the chamber widens to a large flat wall in the north that is covered with a huge mural of the artist’s rendition of hell. The death aspect of the Olman god Camazotz sits upon a pyramid throne and overlooks the demons at play. An idol-alter in the shape of a bat head with two large metallic wings is carved into this mural at the ground level, its mouth agape in an eternal-silent scream. A vague and ancient darkening of the stone shows where blood once ran from the idol’s mouth, pooled, and was caught in a reservoir.

The group thought they saw a small orb of light when Adla cast her light but it faded away so they weren’t sure. They looked around the room but couldn’t see any way to go further. Grat looked into the mouth and said that he could see a handle. He reached in and grabbed it and that’s when the mouth closed around his arm and he let out a scream as he started to bleed. He was held in the mouth and watched as his blood started to pool in the bowl. The rest watched as one of the metal wings slowly pivoted to reveal the secret door behind it. The group looked through into another large chamber.

Oct 19 2008; the group slowly stepped through once Grat’s arm was released. He had been drained of strength from the bite and Cris’toff cast lesser restoration to restore it. The group looked into the chamber that bears a strange resemblance to the previous one, in that the floor consists of a stone scale model of an ancient city. Yet whereas the previous model was terribly damaged, this chamber seems relatively well preserved. The layout and style of the city is quite different, with four wide canals converging upon a large lake in the centre, from which rises a great stone pyramid. Mighty temples rise from the low angular buildings, while the stone walls depict lifelike depictions of leering bats, lizards, and snakes.

The gnomes started walking around looking at the buildings and were fascinated. In fact Urol pulled out some parchment and started madly sketching away. Lucky was bringing up the rear and he let out a screech when something zapped his sword and he almost dropped it. He turned to look and didn’t see anything. He followed the others into the chamber as the others were wandering around looking at the structures. Humphrey walked over to the centre structure and looked around at the structure. He didn’t see anything that caught his eye and he turned around to look at the others. He was then zapped by something he couldn’t see. The others started watching the chamber and said they had seen a small orb for a moment; Grat went around the east wall and found another chamber. He looked in and didn’t see anything but some sort of large stone circular disk dominates the floor of this chamber. Its face carved with dozens of concentric rings of hieroglyphs and shapes. A filthy nest of bones and rubble sits atop it. He looked around and couldn’t see anything moving and finally turned to go back to the group when he heard them shout out. Something was attacking them. He turned around and looked back into the chamber and spotted a small orb attacking Humphrey.

Adla cast glitter-dust on it and was shocked to see the spell fade away in front of her eyes. It seemed to hit the orb but was stopped from working. She figured it must be extremely magic resistant and was deciding what to do next when a shape flew out from behind Grat and started flying towards the exit. Whatever it was, it stopped and landed on Urol in front of the door and nailed him hard and started moving through the doorway. The group managed to converge on this thing and nailed it back. Moments later it exploded in a blast of fire and almost killed Urol. He was barely alive when Sable got to him and cast a cure spell just in time. They looked around for the orb but it seemed to have faded away.

They headed over to the other chamber and investigated the nest but didn’t find anything of value there. They looked to the east and saw twin statues of men dressed in strange ancient armor and wearing towering headdresses made of coiled snakes and bat wings stand at either side of an arched doorway here. Beyond the archway beckons a circular room, its walls adorned with dozens of niches in which rest the desiccated bodies of long-dead men and women. Looking further they could see a yawning shaft descending into the darkness. They moved up and looked down the shaft.

The walls are fitted with hundreds of niches, upon which lie the dusty bones of heroes, priests, kings, queens, and warriors of a bygone age. Resting upon the topmost niche, cradled in the arms of a skeleton, is a glittering golden statuette of a bat. Everyone was drawn to the statue as they moved to the edge of the shaft and looked down into darkness. They then tossed a coin with a light spell on it down the shaft and it hit with a splash. The drop was eighty-feet before it hit water and then the light dimmed as it continued sinking in the water. Even from here the water did not look healthy.

Grat then asked for help to get over the shaft and Humphrey picked him up and went to toss him over the hole when one of the gnomes goosed Humphrey causing him to toss Grat harder than he had intended and he hit the wall with a solid thud. He turned around to glare at Humphrey as he watched Humphrey turn on the gnomes as they started laughing at him. Grat carefully picked up the statuette and hopped back over to the others as he watched Humphrey arguing with the gnomes. When Grat held up the statue it distracted the gnomes and soon they were crawling all over him to see what it was. Sable and Waso climbed up his back to his shoulders and were grabbing at the statue when he put it down and held it with his foot and then grabbed the two gnomes on his back and tried to toss them off. Waso slipped and dropped down the shaft with a startled cry and hit the water with a loud splash. The rest of the group looked down to see Waso franticly dog paddling to the edge of the shaft. They heard him coughing and gasping away as he finally dragged himself out of the water as the others started laughing away at him.

Oct 26 2006; Grat handed over the statuette to Adla and proceeded to climb down to help Waso. He was about fifteen feet above him when the wall collapsed down onto Waso and Grat had to grab onto the lip of the fresh tunnel to hold on. He then looked into the opening and realized that it led into a large cavern. He took a breath and it didn’t smell right. He told the group that he had found a tunnel and the rest of the group then pulled out some rope and proceeded to climb down to help Waso and to investigate the tunnel further.

At first they believed that the stink of the water in the well had infested the tunnel. As they stood looking around, however, they realized that this place contains a stench of its own. Along the walls, standing rigid on a long lintel is skeleton after mouldy skeleton. Cobwebs lie as a blanket over the leaning remains, and occasionally fist sized spiders skitter among the ruin, causing bones and occasionally baubles to fall into the pathway. Many of the odd bones are piled together in niches in the walls or stacked neatly in piles. The remaining are scattered liberally across the passage’s bare dirt floor. The low ceiling is earth, with occasional roots from some growing thing far above hanging down into the way.

After making sure that Waso was alright the group moved forwards carefully in a group with Humphrey bringing up the rear. They moved around the corner and soon came to a large cavern full or rock and earth with tunnels leading off in different directions. They were going to split up to search the tunnels when Humphrey heard a sound behind him and turned to see a mass of bones walking towards the group. As he watched more skeletons started animating off the walls and massing behind the others.

There were far too many of them to attack so they started running down the tunnel with the skeletons trailing behind. They came to a break in the wall to the right and risked taking a quick look and that’s when they heard the low moan coming from the side. They stopped to look and Waso froze in fear when he saw the mummy for the first time. The rest of the group was then forced to engage the mummy while Cris’toff and Adla held off the skeletons. Humphrey went to help the others and he also froze in fear for seeing a mummy for the first time. Grat and Lucky were forced to move up and engage it while the others waited. Grat was nailed with a heavy blow from the mummy and felt his arm go numb. Lucky moved up to attack and missed so badly that he hit himself. Then the mummy slammed its fist down on Grat’s foot breaking some bones in the foot causing Grat to slow down and limp. They finally managed to kill it thanks to Sable casting a flaming sphere at the mummy.

The fire did more damage to it compared to the blows from the others. It finally burst apart from the flames and the group turned and ran away from the skeletons and went around the corner. Lucky was in the lead and followed the tunnel to the left and finally came to a set of worked stone stairs going up and the group charged up them.

Adla was in the rear and watched as the skeletons stopped as soon as the group went up the stairs and they mulled around for a few moments and soon disappeared around the corner as the group panted for breath. The air smelled funny now and the group was all coughing slightly from the pollutants in the air. After a few moments they walked up the stairs and could see that the hallway above the stairs was covered with a mural depicting robed figures and labourers accompanying a mummified corpse on a litter in the direction of the catacombs you’ve just climbed out of. The north wall of the far tunnel bears a badly damaged fresco that seems to depict a wide plaza with a large building facing it. The area of the mural around the building has sustained a particularly heavy amount of water damage and many of the tile bits have fallen out and lie on the floor. Behind one area of collapse a seam in the stone backing is revealed.

The group walked up and checked the seam. They ended up scraping off the wet lime which took a few minutes to reveal a block of limestone set in the wall. After pushing at it for a few moments they decided to get Humphrey to come forwards and put his shoulder into it. The block was hard to push but he managed to slide the block back about ten feet to finally reveal the chamber behind it. He was huffing and puffing by the time he shifted the stone far enough for the group to pass through.

Nov 2 2008; beyond the block is a small foyer holding three sealed urns on both the left and right sides. Here, there are double doors of beaten bronze with glyphs worked into their faces. The portal is locked and prevents easy entrance. The group squeezed into the foyer and looked at the doors. Grat stepped up and checked the doors. He didn’t think that it was trapped and then tried to pick the locks and couldn’t. Finally they got Humphrey to force the doors and this set off the trap. A glass sphere dropped onto the floor when they finally shifted the doors open and a greenish vapour spewed out around the group. They fled from the gas and waited for it to dissipate before returning and looking into the room.

Behind the doors is a chamber cut out of the rock with a veil of calcite and stalactites covering the walls. Buttresses rise from the corners, brown shot through with black, and great stone transoms support the high vaulting. Around the room stands a procession of warriors and priests, modeled in stucco. The visages of these figures have the pallor of death. Occupying most of the chamber is a colossal monument, resembling a giant’s table covered on all sides with intricate carvings and glyphs. Engraved on the floor directly in front of the entrance is a seal bearing more glyphs. Opposite the entrance, a battle axe is embedded in the wall, 6’ above the floor. The battle axe has a blade of bronze and the haft is wound with snake skin wrappings. The axe casts an ominous shadow of what appears to be a withered arm.

The monument, perhaps a ceremonial alter at one time, is constructed from several parts. A great stone slab, over 20’ long by 10’ wide, rests upon a 4’ thick monolith of rock of similar dimensions. This, in turn, is supported by 6 huge blocks of dolomite. Every component has been covered with intricate carvings and glyphs.

The group slowly moved into the room and Waso looked at the glyphs on the floor and told the group to be careful as the glyphs were written in Olman and said “Defilers! Know that if the chosen of Camazotz is freed, the world will know despair.”

They stepped up and looked at the slab and the top of it depicts a struggle between a dark skinned man and a mighty knotted serpent. Engraved about this illustration are the same glyphs as those found on the door. Both he and Urol cautioned everyone about not touching anything foolishly. They looked around and the only thing that intrigued everyone was the axe stuck in the wall. Grat finally stepped up and grabbed the axe when he thought no one was looking and tried to pull it off the wall. It was stuck however and as hard as he tried to pull it, it wouldn’t come loose.

Humphrey noticed Grat and came over to look over the axe and even he tried to remove it from the wall and it was firmly stuck in the wall. The group finally gave up and they headed back out into the corridor. Lucky had stayed out there while the rest were exploring the room and he said that there was a small room with exits in every wall and that was the only way they could go.

They headed that way and looked into a room that was constructed of large stone blocks, buttressed in the corners. The walls are wet and slimy and mud covers most of the floor in a thin coating. In the center of the room there sits a large polished boulder amid a pile of smaller rounded rocks. The boulder is five feet tall and colored brown with dark streaks and spots. Leaning against it is what appears to be a bamboo staff. To the left and right may be seen stone doors recessed in the wall. As the group eased into the room and looked around, another stonework door may be discerned in the shadow of the boulder across the room. In the mud around the base of the boulder may be seen a small moving shape, a crayfish.

As the group slowly moved into the room, they were amazed to see the crayfish come out from around the boulder waving its claws aggressively. Then they were further amazed to hear it start talking to them in a high pitched voice. Waso and Urol were fascinated to hear it as it was speaking in Olman. They came forward and listened for a moment and it said, “Who is this? Who dares to enter the chamber of the guardian? You had better go or I will have to discharge my sacred duty! Be off with you before I lose my temper.”

The two of them started talking to the thing and found out that had lived in this chamber all of its life and it didn’t know how long it had been here. When they asked him who he talked to, he informed them that he was friends with his companion. They looked around and couldn’t see anyone when the crayfish walked over to the boulder and tapped it a few times. The group could hear a ringing sound and the boulder then moved and slowly stood up and they could see the claws of a crab inside the boulder.

This is Kalka-Kylla, his friend the hermit crab. The bamboo staff then shifted and became one of the crab’s legs. It turned itself up and the head slowly appeared to look at the group and it slowly spoke to the group.

It took some fast talking but they were able to convince the pair that they were just looking around and they were not going to touch anything and the pair of crustaceans soon settled down as the group prepared to open the door to the south. The doorway is reached from the room by a short flight of steps down. The bottom of the stairwell is filled with silt which blocks the door. It appears that the door is meant to open into the room, for there are hinges on this side and a large grip to pull on, but this door will not budge. Apparently, something is preventing the door from opening.

The group took a look and finally Sable stepped up and stone-shaped an opening to step through. There was almost two feet of silt jammed up against the door and a faint melodious voice could be heard singing. The voice seemed female and sweet, but it is difficult to tell whether it is someone singing or the echoing of dripping water in a great cavern.

The room was lit by a strange soft light which illumines a section of sandy beach. Beyond the beach is a pool of water framed by a crystal cavern. The light seems to flow from everywhere, the pool and walls glisten with a soft moonlight. But the most arresting thing in the room is the singer. Sitting on the beach if front of the crystalline pool is a beautiful nude woman. She is singing a strange melody in an unrecognizable language. On the shore by her side is a shawl, white as the froth of waves, apparently cast aside in languor. After finishing her song, she slips into the water in a long arcing dive. The group cautiously moved into the cavern and looked around for a few moments.

The woman abruptly surfaced about twenty feet away from the group and smiled at them. As they watched a long sinuous shape swam below her and the group knew that it was a massive eel. As the group looked on, she beckoned them closer. The group slowly moved up to the edge of the water and she began to speak. Unfortunately she started speaking in the same language she had been singing and only Grat could understand her as she spoke in the language of the water.

“Children! Stay yourselves for a moment and hear my message. The will of evil is arrayed against you, and as they act, so may the elder gods intervene. The lord of the rains sends his own daughter to warn you that something about your destiny has upset dark forces in the world. Your dooms touch upon the destiny of a great and terrible being. Beware the motives of those around you, for the influence of the hells is to be smelt here. Children! You will tread close to the line on this quest. If you are not to fail utterly, you must take up the arms of your fathers, for your enemy was theirs as well.”

With that she sank down below the water and disappeared.   The group looked around and went around the corner and spotted a passage leading to the west they took a quick look around, didn’t see anything and then headed west. The tunnel stopped with a door to the south and a secret door that was forced open to the north. They opened the door to the south and looked into water. At the bottom of the space was an open chest. In the wall opposite appeared to be a door under the water.

Nov 16 2008; Humphrey pulled out his fishing rod to try and hook the lid and close it and he was startled to find his hook being seized and driven into the wall. They soon realized that something was in the water and grabbing the hook. They finally gave up and closed the door and turned and checked out the narrow passage. The gnomes had no problems while Humphrey had to squeeze his way through. Grat took the lead and came to the back of a door that opened into a tunnel that had some milky looking water trickling down the hallway. Looking to the left was another set of double doors with water trickling out from underneath. Grat checked the doors and finally forced them open and looked inside. Just inside the doorway to the left and right are two small alcoves. These small anterooms contain old fountains, cracked and crusted with a white chalky substance. The fountain on the east is drained and empty. There appears to be an amount of rubbish littering the floor. The fountain in the western alcove still holds some green scummy water. Grat slowly checked out the alcoves and found nothing of value. He them checked the doors into the room and they were made of bronze and are tinted blue with oxidation. A short hall ending in steps down, leads to a central chamber. This chamber is flooded with brackish water. The pool seems to be about 2’ deep and covers the entire floor. A central hall, flanked by narrow aisles, is formed by two rows of massive square columns. Water runs into the room from the south passage. Grat took a look at the water and it was rather milky in color. He tested the floor and found that it dropped off down into the center of the room. He didn’t want to get wet and Humphrey stepped up and prodded with his spear and they found that the center of the room contained over ten feet of water.

Sable finally changed shape into an owl and flew across and checked out the passage. It led up and around the corner to a door that was bulging out towards him that had water trickling out from underneath it. He turned back and got the party’s attention and told them that he needed help. Waso was at the rear of the group and heard him cry out for help so he charged up to help and fell off the edge of the floor into the murky water. He surfaced by walking across the floor and coming up right in front of Sable who fell over laughing when the white shape of Waso came out of the water. He had to take a few minutes to wash off the milky water as the rest of the group fell over themselves laughing about his predicament. The two of them walked around the corner and soon came back to the edge and asked Humphrey to open the door.

It took a few moments but they finally convinced Humphrey that only he could open the door and not get hurt. So he swam to the other side and walked around the corner and forced the door open with his club and rode the wave when it burst on him. He managed to come to his feet in the water as the others scrambled out of the way of the wave. Then the water elemental that had been in the room attacked Humphrey when it arrived and the rest of the group stepped up and killed it before it had a chance to do any serious damage. They then walked around the corner to the room and found it empty except for a chest in the middle of the room. It was very nice and they proceeded to check it out. Nothing happened until they flipped the lid open and they saw that it was full of water. As they watched the water slowly overflowed the lid and started to trickle onto the floor. At least the group had now figured out why there was so much water around here. They closed the lid and then picked up the chest.

They found that the lid remained closed until they placed it on the floor and then they could open the lid, so they closed the lid and had Humphrey put it in a sack and then in his pack. They then turned around and headed back the way they came coming back to the other side of the room where the chest had been. They walked past back into the room with the large pool and looked around and realized that they could see a door on the other side of the room in among the crystal. They had not noticed this when they had spoken with the neried and were curious to where it went. They would have to go for a swim as the water was quite deep and the door was twenty-five feet away from the beach. They went for a swim and Grat dove down to look through the kelp that was growing and found a small grotto. He brought it to Adla’s attention and the two of them investigated further and found some items of interest which they grabbed. These were some golden statuettes along with a golden mask and two crystal scroll cases and a silver idol. They also found a set of bracers. These were all put in a sack and they continued on. The others had opened the door and they climbed through and soon stepped out of the water onto dry land again. The passageway turned and became a great hall 20’ wide with piles of rubble and debris scattered along its length. The walls are covered in frescoes. The north wall depicts a nation questing for a new land; their trials of the journey include crossing treacherous mountains, sailing over storm tossed seas, and the guidance of the gods in their battles to keep their homeland free from invasions. In the center of this wall is painted a pyramid with a temple atop it and the sun shining over the land. The southern wall has scenes of a battle between red skinned natives and black skinned invaders. Halfway down the hall is an archway carved with twining serpents. Beyond it the corridor continues on into shadow. Checking the corridor was a dead end. Waso and Urol found the secret door in the sun as they were looking over the murals.

Nov 23 2008; the door was up in the wall and Sable solved the problem of getting through by stone-shaping the wall open beside the door and walking through it. The corridor is decorated with sculptures mounted on the walls. There are two corridors branching off from this main hall; a narrow one to the east that ends abruptly in rubble and another to the west that extends into the gloom. The statuary that adorns the walls consists of four sculpted heads of animals. Opposite the eastern passage is the stylized head of a coyote, while opposing the western hallway is the head of a grinning bear, also stylized.  Near the north edge of this hall is a head of a bison mounted on the east wall. The last sculpture is at the south end of this corridor, on the west wall. Here is what appears to be the head of an eagle, with its beak open. Something shines in the eagle’s beak. The statuary is 6’ above the floor and around 2 ½ - 3’ in size.

Grat was quick to move forwards to look at the glint in the beak. It appeared it was a large gold ring. Grat managed to snatch the ring out of the beak before it snapped closed. It was large enough for Sable to slip it over his wrist as a bracelet. They ignored the dead end and headed down the west and at the end of the corridor is a small alcove holding a 3’ tall stone pedestal on which rests a small silver coffer. This nook is reached by a step up and then 15’ walk to the hollow, the floor of which is raised 2’.

They decided to launch Grat over the floor using Humphrey. So he was tossed over to the pedestal but slipped off and hit the floor behind it and the group heard a click as the floor shifted and spikes shot out of the walls while darts fired out of all the surfaces and hit Grat with some. He lay there groaning for a while until he got up and carefully checked the coffer. It was not trapped or locked so he grabbed it and jumped back over to the group and was healed of the damage from the trap. Then they opened the coffer to find it was worth some coin and it contained some rare stones and semi-precious gems. Cris’toff checked them and three were enchanted so they looked at them closer. One turned out to be a gem of brilliance and Lucky picked up one and when he held it up it started circling around his head and the group figured out that it was an Ioun stone and the third was a pearl that they couldn’t figure out for now. The stone increased Lucky’s strength so he kept it and the group continued looking around.

They soon came to a massive bronze door forming the entrance to this grand chamber. This apartment is filled with rubble and broken, life-size statuary. In ranks, half fallen, is an army of clay statues in what must have once been an impressive array. First there are spearmen, perhaps twenty of them, outfitted only in scraps of leather now. At their feet lay obsidian spearheads and bits of rotted wood shafts. Behind these are archers, in scattered formation. Few remain standing. Their arrows are long gone but they hold laminated bows, dried and worm-eaten. Further into the room are figures of men with war-clubs and hand axes, wearing scraps of ochre-lacquered leather, sandals and caps. Beyond all of this, at the back of the chamber are a group of statues that must have been an honour guard. They are standing about a domed structure. These warriors wear feathered robes and headdresses and are armed with pitted bronze spears.

The group wandered around the room but didn’t touch anything and soon found a doorway that they headed through. The passageway led around the corner to another bronze door. The door opened into a lozenge shaped room with two stone divans, each with a naked human figure stretched out upon it. Between the divans is a low stone table holding a flask and two goblets made of crystal. There are two sideboards against the walls. The figures on the couches are a male and female, each about middle-aged and perfectly preserved. They are very still, dust covered, and apparently dead. Their bodies are covered with black tattoos of bat-winged creatures in flight. The female wears a silvery bracelet and holds what appears to be an ivory wand. The male has an amulet of bronze resting on his chest, inset with a red stone of considerable size. Colourful glyphs are scribed along the western wall of this chamber.

Grat was the first in the room and they were amazed when the two people abruptly stood up and stepped onto the floor to face the group. The man spoke up in Olman, “You have disturbed the long sleep of Camazotz, for this you must pay”. They moved to attack and the group stepped up and quickly killed them. They searched the bodies and the only thing of value was the wand that turned out to be an ivory fan and a platinum bracelet. The red stone was a garnet and the other things were bracers and a set of earrings.

Nov 30 2008; they continued exploring and found another room that reeked before they even opened the door. Sable recognized the smell of beetles and said it appeared that a colony lived beyond the door. Grat opened the door and the group could see piles of refuse everywhere and beetles wandering about. Grat wandered into the room and looked around and luckily found the hilt of a dagger sticking out of a pile, he grabbed it and headed back to the others when some of the beetles started heading towards him. The others tossed down some food and this distracted the beetles long enough for Grat to back out and close the door. They then headed back and soon came to the room with the water and swam back to the beach. Waso decided that his name for the day was Matt Finish. The other gnomes started giggling when he said this and the jokes started flying about his cousin Gloss.

They soon came back to the hermit crab and crayfish and convinced them that they were still looking around and headed north to check out this side. They stepped into a long narrow chamber, running east-west. In the center of the apartment is a domed shaped on the floor! In the east wall is a blank-faced stone door and the west end of the room is blocked by fallen stone and rubble, apparently the result of a collapse. The side walls appear to have several niches cut into them. The shape in the center of the chamber appears to be a small alcove, protected by a half-dome with the open end facing towards the door in the east wall. This alcove is set in the recessed, shallow, tiled well, 1’ deep and 10’wide. The alcove itself id 4’ high, the hollow seems to hold some sort of display.

Grat casually looked at the display and wandered around the corner while the others stopped to look around. The display appears to be a diorama depicting mountain scenes with a hunting party of Olman warriors in feathers and deer hide garments. Some have successfully pulled down a stag with the aid of a dog, another group is cleaning a small mule deer and the last party has cornered a puma with their spears. A scout watches the puma hunt from an outcropping above. He holds a metal staff with a loop in the end. It looks like a shepherd’s crook. Matt was the one to grab the little staff just as Grat came around the corner to say that the door was locked and needed a key. Matt turned and held up the key and Grat took it and went back to the door and inserted the key and unlocked the door. They looked in and saw three 5’ wide niches on the northern and southern walls, about 3’ above the floor. Each niche contains a diorama depicting some aspect of tribal life. The 6” high figures in all of the displays appear to be made of stucco, realistically and brightly painted. The scenes portrayed represent fishing, farming, religion, warfare, crafting, and a creation myth.

The group slowly wandered around looking at the dioramas with amazement. First was a river scene. Olman men, women, and children are busy gathering rushes, fishing with nets and carving a dugout. The next portrayed farming. They are planting maize and harvesting wheat. There are several warriors standing guard and a priest in a bird costume is blessing the fields. The third portrays a temple upon a tiered pyramid. Natives are bringing small offerings of gold and jade. Before the temple stands a priest handling a constrictor snake. Around him stand three costumed warriors – one dressed as a winged serpent holds a spear; another is dressed as a bear with razor claws; the third represents a coyote holding a torch.

The fourth shows a scene of tribal warfare. All of the figures depict warriors carrying spears, clubs, hand-axes, and daggers. The warriors of one side are painted black while the others are painted red. The fifth display is that of the creation of the world. All of the statues are obviously stylized and are not human. One figure adorned in green quetzal feathers is mixing ashes with blood to form sculptures of a man and woman. Four towering figures painted in red, black, blue, and white are standing around a fire committing suicide with their daggers. Two smaller figures are ringed by the four. The smaller ‘spotted one’ is being consumed by the fire while the braggart ‘Lord of Snails’ cowers in fear. The last one shows native men and women engaged in different crafts – weaving rugs and baskets, carving totems, making pots, grinding stones for weapons and making clothes.

The group was amazed and spent some time wandering around looking. They didn’t notice when Grat helped himself to some of the offerings of gold and jade. Matt and Urol were having a spirited discussion in Olman and were ignoring the rest of the group. Finally they decided to leave and Matt even locked the door and put the key back in place. They then headed out of the caverns and made it back up to the surface to find that the sun had set on them and they decided to camp here for the night.    

Planting 15, they awoke to Humphrey on guard and he told them to be quiet as it appeared that the giant wasps were hunting. They waited for the wasp to fly away and they headed down to the beach. Dagger had returned and was happy to see Sable again. They alerted the ship and were soon back on board headed along the coast.

Dec 7 2008; Planting 19, just before the ships came to the point, the Blue Nixie hove to and the Sea Wyvern slowly came along side. Lavinia shouted across that just up around the corner, the Scarlet Brotherhood maintained a blockade. She felt it would be easier if the ships split up and went around the point by themselves. The group agreed and waited for the Blue Nixie to sail around the corner out of side. Then the Sea Wyvern started and soon the lookout shouted that he could see a sail off in the distance. It rapidly closed up on the ship and the group could see the red flag flying from the mast. They decided that surrender was out of the question and agreed to fight.

The corsair had the wind so they waited for it to close. What they didn’t figure on was the pair of ballista that the pirates had that launched at the Sea Wyvern. They had to absorb some shots before Sable could cast a spell and he used call lighting and then a flame strike to do some serious damage. When the corsair was close enough, Adla and Humphrey launched themselves across and started attacking. It didn’t last long as the pirates were quickly killed, but not before they managed to ram the Sea Wyvern while destroying the corsair in the process. The group managed to capture one of the ballista and over a dozen spears while Grat managed to find what little loot the ship had been carrying. They managed to get off the vessel just as it capsized and sank under the water. Once they rounded the point, they were forced to heave to and look at the damage. It was serious so they had to take a few hours to repair it before continuing on.

Planting 20, it took until later that afternoon before they caught up with the Blue Nixie, the scars of the fight still evident on the Sea Wyvern. They then found out that the next stop would be Fort Greenrock about 9 days sail from here. They continued on until Flocktime 1, when they rounded the point and it soon became evident that something had destroyed the outpost of monks and druids. The wooden palisade that surrounded the fort has been torn apart and the fort itself looked burned to the ground. The group decided to go ashore to investigate as even from a distance the damage was months old. They headed ashore and scouted around and found evidence of a great battle. Dried blood stains the wood and broken weapons lay among hundreds of black fletched arrows. Sable and Urol both said “lizard-men” as the culprits. They found nothing of value and quickly departed.

Flocktime 5, the ships next stop was at the mouth of the Atikula River to refresh the supplies of fresh water. Unlike most other rivers, the point where the Atikula River meets the sea is marked by a magnificent 900-foot wide waterfall that cascades two-hundred feet over a cliff into the ocean below. They decided that the Sea Wyvern could go first as they were lower in fresh water. So the ship slowly headed in towards the waterfall and the sound was soon overwhelming in its thunder. Then the decks started to get wet from the mist as they started watering.

Humphrey glanced around and seeing everyone was busy, snuck over to his gear and furtively pulled out his fishing pole and set it up and finding a chunk of salt pork for bait tossed it overboard and started happily fishing away. Soon he felt a tug and heaved to set the hook. It felt like he had hooked something big as it was heavier than anything he had felt before. He slid over to the rail and set his feet and heaved again and leaned over the rail with emphasis as something huge broke the surface and all he could see was snarling teeth and snapping heads as a hydra erupted from the water and proceeded to try and make Humphrey the catch of the day. He screamed in pain as the multiple heads snapped at him and took out chunks. He had the favour of someone today as several of the group spotted him struggling against the rail and moved to assist. It’s a good thing that the group was on the ball and rapidly moved up to help him. But not before the hydra caused him to stagger back in pain.

Finally he was able to back off and grab his club and leaned over the ship to give it a good whack. This managed to hurt it enough for the others to finally gang up and send its carcass to the bottom of the bay. The Captain finally noticed what had happened and went after Humphrey. She was soon screaming at him at the top of her lungs about angering the gods and finally got a promise from him as he was being healed that he wouldn’t fish off the boat anymore in deep water. It was after the fight that they thought about looking for loot and Adla said she would swim down and take a look. She took off most of her gear and dove in and started swimming around. She immediately noticed that the bottom was littered with wrecks. It looks like the hydra had lived here for awhile. As she swam around she came across some cloth tangled up on a yardarm. It was still in very good condition and a bright green. She started to untangle it and found that it was enveloping her and slowly started to change and her along with it. She was pleasantly surprised to soon find herself in the shape of a manta ray.

This was cool as she thought to herself as she started swimming around. She now had gills and didn’t have to worry about the water. She swam around for awhile and the only thing she found was a suit of Chainmail on a long dead elf in one of the staterooms in a sunken ship. It was still shiny after all this time so she thought it was magical. She then returned to the Sea Wyvern which had by now finished watering and the Blue Nixie was now busy watering. She returned to the ship and wasn’t surprised to see everyone watching as she got close. She came up to the ship and grabbed the ropes to haul herself up and as she broke the surface the cloak began shifting her back to normal and by the time she reached the railing it was just a cloak hanging around her neck. In fact it hid her neck quite nicely. She then held out the suit of Chainmail and Cris’toff cast a spell and said it was enchanted. No one seemed to want it so he took it for one of his cohorts. Adla said nothing about the cloak she now had on.

Dec 14 2008; once the ships were watered, Lavinia informed the group that the next stop would be Renkrue on the Isle of Axuxal. After that it would be due south and Open Ocean until they arrived at the Isle of Dread.

Flocktime 11, they had sailed for four days before the command was given to change course to due south and head out over the vast Vohoun Ocean. In this part of the world it was known as the Pearl Sea. Two more days took them to the Isle and then the small village on the south coast. Lavinia decreed that they would stop here for a day to let everyone stretch their legs on dry land one last time before headed off. The villagers were overjoyed to see strangers and put on a feast for the group. They managed to spend some money here at the local temple of St Cuthbert buying scrolls and potions. Humphrey went looking for a fishing pole to replace the one he lost when he hooked the hydra and managed to find one and purchased it along with the reel and line. He went down onto the beach to fish because the Captain hadn’t said anything about him fishing off land. He had learned his lesson with the hydra at least for now about fishing in deep water. You really could hook something really big. He spent a few minutes casting and soon hooked something. He started to reel it in and it sure acted funny. It took him quite awhile to figure out that it was Adla messing with him out in the water. He soon reeled in his line and stalked off in a huff. Urol spent the day happily in the tide pools squealing with delight whenever he found something new.  

The group had a great meal and rested up while they took on supplies. The village had a good stockpile of foodstuffs so the group purchased some to supplement their own supplies.

Flocktime 12, the ships departed with the dawn and soon the Isle was out of sight and all they could see was Open Ocean. Lavinia’s last message was that if they became separated to meet up again at Farshore. She offered them good luck and a safe journey as they headed south. Now the navigating skills of the Captain and Urol were paramount as they were about to hit the Pearl Current. A vast section of ocean that contained a massive current that swept up from the south and could send ships hundreds of miles off course with ease. They sailed for the day and when the sun came up the Blue Nixie was nowhere to be found; it looks like the Sea Wyvern was on its own. It took more days than the Captain was happy with but they finally spotted the unmistakable sight of the Isle of Ruja off to the south on Flocktime 22, they had been lost in the current for an extra week but now they could continue the journey. They came closer to the Isle and could see that it was certainly imposing with over 1000’ high jagged cliffs and impenetrable jungle once you got to the top.

In the spur of the moment Grat decided to climb it and jump off the top. He got Humphrey to row over with the jolly boat to the edge of the isle and he proceeded to start climbing, his close encounter with some sort of velociraptors when he was near the top was the only excitement. He managed to get to the top and then jumped off and glided all the way back to the ship. It took only moments compared to the climb but he said it was worth it.

Flocktime 26, late that afternoon the group finally had the weather turn against them, they noticed a system off to the east that rapidly approached and forced them to batten down the hatches and reef in most of the sail as the storm hit with a vengeance during the night. It was all they could do to stay on course. The dawn produced cloudy skies but the wind died down as they slowly continued south.

Wealsun 2, as the gray dawn breaks, burning fitfully through the morning fog to light the sea, something seems strange about the waters below. They seem almost solid, as if the sea had formed some strange sort of skin. The air seems dead as well, and the sails hang limp, heavy with moisture from the receding fog. Finally, the mist begins to clear, and what is revealed is not the gently rolling vista of the sea but a wet green field of weed. The swath of dirty green stretches flatly in all directions. To the stern, it extends for perhaps a half mile, beyond which lie the open waters of the mocking sea. In all other directions, the weed extends to the horizon. Trapped within its vice are dozens of other long-dead ships, their hulls protruding from the Sargasso from odd angles, masts askew, sails hanging in tatters. One such ship lies mired only six hundred feet away to port, and it seems to be in better shape than the others. Perhaps most unnerving, however, is neither the sight nor smell of so much sun-baked seaweed. It is the unnatural silence, for the thick choking green has robbed the Sea Wyvern even the strangely comforting sound of water lapping against her hull. It is not a healthy silence. It is the silence of a graveyard.

Jan 4 2009; the ship spent a few hours discussing what to do and it was decided that the group would head over to the nearest wreck and investigate. So the group hopped off the Sea Wyvern and slowly walked over to the wreck. It felt really weird walking on a moving carpet of green. It is strangled with weeds and vines, almost as if immense green claws hold the ship in their grasp. In many places the caravel, a ship hauntingly similar to the Sea Wyvern, has been torn apart by the vegetation’s rampant growth. A plate near the stern gives the vessel’s name – Rage. The group carefully walked around the ship and then finally climbed up on deck. The wood was soft and squelched whenever they trod too heavily. The upper deck was wreathed in slippery seaweed and swaths of what appears to be thick green mucus. Although almost everything has been smashed, the remains of three dozen burnt torches and an upturned cauldron that seems to have been recently filled with oil are still visible. The gnome trio took the lead and soon headed below decks to explore further. The lower decks were all filled with weed as the trio headed towards the captain’s cabin. They looked into the room to find a large hole in the floor, through which the green of the Sargasso can be seen. They spotted what appeared to be some pages from a journal lying on the canted surface of the desk and as they tried to get closer they were suddenly attacked by some sort of mobile plant.

It attacked so quickly that they didn’t have a chance to cry out and Sable was forced to change shape while Matt and Cris’toff attacked. They finally attracted the attention of the others and they charged in to help. They killed the vine creatures and managed to grab the journal entry just as it fell off the desk into the water. They grabbed it and retreated back to the Sea Wyvern.

Once back on board they dried the pages off and proceeded to start reading. This foul green land is stained with blight. We tried to cut away the weed, but to no avail, and soon had to abandon the tools we had used, their edges dulled to misery. At noon I ordered Carus and Twaid out onto the weed to explore. How large can such a place be? The crew grow restless. It is dusk. Efforts to destroy the weed have failed. I have explored what I could, but this is all mists and weed. When will Carus and Twaid return? Despite the calm, the night is not still, and I feel eyes watching me.

The night brought noises but no attack, but I fear for my brothers. I heard cries in the night—was it them? I feel something is alive here, but what can it be? Captain Grough claimed the land had a black heart—maybe Carus and Twaid will have some useful information when they return. Afternoon. I have decided to find my brothers, and have taken Ranis and Pale with me. They are good brothers, and will aid me as best they can. We shall find the land’s black heart. We headed east, making good headway as only brothers can. By night we had covered many miles but saw nothing but more of the green.

It is night, and I can hear life. Something moves at the edge of sight. Why do they not show themselves? I can hear them whisper one word over and over, “Outsiders…”

It is afternoon. We have come to a terrible place, a forest of weed grown in mockery of real life, a mire of skeletal ships. How many souls have been lost here? Our supplies grown wan, we must return by morn to the Rage. It is dawn and we have returned to the Rage too late. The crew is gone and the green holds her ever fast. Where have they gone? I can hear them in the day now. They are outside. They are watching. They want me to join them, but I shall not.

Ranis and Pale are dead. They came through the mist, yet they were not the same. I knew them by the tatters of clothes draped over the green that took their flesh. What wore their bodies has been vanquished, but I know now that these were but the children of what dwells at this land’s heart. I must seek the mother at this heart, for to destroy the mother is to destroy the brood. If only I had…

 The group then discussed what to do for some time before it was decided that the group would have to try and seek out the mother at the heart of the weed. So just after lunch the group set out walking towards the east. They walked until the sun started to set and stopped to rest for the night. They got little rest however as the plants attacked them twice during the night and all the group could hear was the faint whispering of the plants saying “Outsiders” over and over again.

Jan 11 2009; Wealsun 3, it was just before dawn when the group was attacked again so they were not rested by the time the sun came up and burned the fog away. Everyone was a bit grumpy as they started walking. Looking to the east they could soon see the mockery of forest to the east and as they approached they could see the masts of the long dead ships. They headed into the obscene forest and slowly approached a ship long mired in the weed. The name plate read Thunderer and it looked like it had been here for awhile. They slowly moved up onto the deck and looked around. Most of the ship was green and rotting so Humphrey had to be very careful walking around. They spotted the hatch going down and headed below decks. They were not surprised that the plants attacked as they headed below. It took a few moments for them to be slain before they continued on. They had to be cautious because they didn’t know when or if the vines would suddenly attack. Adla and Grat were in the lead when they were attacked again by more of the vines. They were separated so the gnomes took the brunt of the attack above while the others were going below. In fact the group almost killed themselves when Humphrey tried to attack a vine and swung badly and when he lost his balance he twisted and broke his right leg and went down screaming in pain. Cris’toff was busy fighting a vine and couldn’t help him. Sable was forced to step up and heal the wound. Grat came out of the hatch and swung at one of the vines with his flail and managed to hit something, too bad it was his big toe and he broke it from the force of his weapon. He started hopping around the deck holding on to his foot. The gnomes looked on in amazement as they watched him cursing away. They finally managed to kill the vines and helped the others to recover before they turned and headed back down below again.

Jan 18 2009; they looked below and found where the floor of the main hold had opened up from the collapse above. The group looked around and could see some chests that were covered over in green and they carefully hopped down and started exploring. They soon found gold, platinum and items of value. They carefully searched through everything and they didn’t noticed when Matt Finish pocketed a few extra platinum coins. There were four scrimshaw carvings showing the seasons, some nice golden goblets and silver candelabra. The prize find was a massive barnacle encrusted tower shield showing sharks devouring men. The last thing was a sealed bone tube that contained a scroll with three arcane spells. Matt took a quick look but couldn’t decipher them right now. They piled all the loot on board and got Humphrey to haul it back up on deck before they continued exploring. In the rear of the vessel they looked and found a huge section of the hull has rotted away here, leaving a stinking pit with walls of writhing green and brown vegetation. These walls writhe and horrible half-formed life, semi-human shapes twisting and spasming from thick tumescent stalks like anthropomorphic fruits ready for harvest. The pit drops away into a noisome, unseen depth, certainly far deeper than sea level, into an unknown hell below. They looked down and Adla dropped a lit coin. It hit the bottom and the group could see that it was about 100 feet below.

The light faded almost instantly as the plants moved. The group decided to throw down some rope and climb down. Adla started headed down as they used Humphrey as the anchor. Lucky also started climbing down. Grat just launched himself down as Sable decided to follow him. As they touched the walls the plants reacted and attacked. Soon the others decided just to jump down. Cris’toff just stepped off the edge and managed to land on Sable who was just getting up from hitting the floor. They then turned their attention to the creature that came out of the walls and attacked. The rest jumped down leaving Humphrey and Matt Finish still above. The plant attacked and after the group had whacked it a few times it abruptly shifted and appeared behind Humphrey up above and He was forced to drop the rope and attack it. Matt cast a few spells and they were lucky to finally slay it and they had to rapidly climb out of the pit as the plants started collapsing with the death of the Mother. The Thunderer soon broke apart as the group started lashing together a quick raft as Sable shifted shape and flew to get help. He soon spotted the Sea Wyvern sailing towards him and he soon landed on the deck and informed the crew that they had survived and were waiting for pickup. It took a few hours for the ship to arrive and they spotted the group sitting on a raft with all of their loot waiting for the ship. They hove too and climbed on board. By now there was no sign of the Sargasso and all the wrecks had dropped into the sea. They continued on south. It took Matt a few days to understand the scroll he had found; it contained the spells hold monster, waves of fatigue, and permanency. These were all high levels spells, that it why he had difficulty deciphering them.

Wealsun 8, the group awakened at dawn to see darkening skies. Grat was the first to report land to the southeast. The ragged, jungle-choked peaks of the Isle of Dread loom on the horizon. The sight of land brings a cheer from the crew and passengers, and consultation with the sea charts confirms it—the Sea Wyvern has nearly reached her goal. All that remains is to sail down the eastern coast to Farshore. Alas, by the time morning becomes noon, it is obvious that fate has something else in store for the ship. The rain begins shortly thereafter, and by mid-afternoon a second storm is in full force.  This one is much more powerful than the last storm—not quite a hurricane but close. It became a challenge to stay on course as the ship rolled and wallowed through the massive waves. They managed to keep the ship stable through the crash of waves. After a challenging few hours, the sun had finally set and they were settling down for an unsettling night, when the ship suddenly lurched and the sound of splintering wood filled the air.

The Sea Wyvern had struck Masher Reef, and the waves started relentlessly pounding the ship as it lurched to port. Everyone picked themselves up off the deck and shook themselves off. Everyone seemed to be alright except for some of the crew. The Captain had fallen over and she was unconscious and the others had to check over her as Grat was forced to take over the wheel as he ordered the others to help get the ship off the reef. Humphrey managed to get up to the railing and looked over to see the water foaming and crashing around him. Then a massive eel-like creature erupted from the water and attacked. He finally managed to drive it off when he whacked it a few times and it disappeared back into the water. They finally managed to get the ship off the reef and headed towards land. The damage was extensive and everyone was forced to help bail while the others sailed. As the night grows darker, the Sea Wyvern is in poor shape indeed. Caught by the storm and the tide, the badly listing Sea Wyvern is driven towards the northern shore of the Isle of Dread. The primeval vista looms larger before the group through the driving rain, periodically lit by flashes of lightning. Suddenly, the ship lurches again, throwing everyone to the deck. The ship tilts crazily to the side, lurches one more last time and rolls. The cold dark sea rushes up to meet the group, and in a cacophonous roar of wave and ruin, all goes dark…

Chapter Four: Here There Be Monsters

Jan 25 2009; Wealsun 9, it is early morning and the storm has subsided. The air is cloying hot and humid, and damp sand clings to everything. The group regains their senses on a lonely beach, desolate save for a smattering of wreckage and a few other survivors. As people started checking themselves and their gear, they turned and looked to see the Sea Wyvern caught on the rocks over 200 feet away. They could see that it was not repairable by them. Taking stock, they could see only four other survivors other than the group, the ship’s captain had survived along with the gnome navigator and Tavey the cabin boy. Also surviving was the noble Avner. As they awakened the others they decided to see what could be easily salvaged from the wreck.  Just then there was a roar from the jungle and the group turned to look on in horror as a massive thunder lizard stepped out of the jungle and proceeded to attack the group. It managed to strike at the first person it saw, and it was the nobleman Avner who was unlucky to attract its attention and it savagely attacked and managed to eat Avner before the others could react and finally killed the creature. Urol then identified it as a tyrannosaurus rex. The body was far too massive to move and he was worried about it attracting scavengers. The group managed to cut out the nobleman and proceeded to bury him while a few of the group headed out to the ship and salvaged most of their belongings and quite a bit of food for the group.

          By now it was afternoon and the group decided to move off about a half-mile to camp and rest for the night. Churtle had spent some time crawling through the body and had pulled out some nice cuts of meat that she said was going to be dinner. The group soon found a place to camp. Urol pulled out the maps and plotted a course for the group to get to Farshore. He estimated that it was 150 miles away and he thought it would take about ten days to walk there. He really didn’t want to travel at night, here in the land of the thunder lizards and the others agreed. They waited for dinner and set out a guard. Grat and Adla had the first watches and both of them heard the sounds of creatures back on the beach. It sounded like the fight for the carcass was on. Humphrey had last watch and as he took a final pass around the camp just before dawn, he was attacked by three large flightless birds with massive beaks. They attacked Humphrey with a vengeance and he was forced to shout out for help. The others awakened and stepped up to help him. They killed them but not before Humphrey had been attacked more than once. Churtle took charge of the bodies to make breakfast as they decided not to go back to bed. Urol checked over the bodies and said they were terror birds and were the predominant species around here.

Wealsun 10, the group headed towards the mountains that were a dozen miles away through a jungle consisting of tall trees, flush with brightly colored birds and thick hanging vines. Urol wanted to stop constantly to draw and sketch what he saw and the group was forced to bull him along after he started grumbling about losing opportunities to view brand new species. Sable and Grat took the lead and managed to follow various game trails through the jungle. The trails were fairly wide so they knew the creatures that made them were large. They had to stop and wait a few times when they spotted more terror birds off in the distance. They managed to avoid them as they headed south. After a couple of hours they came to a vast depression in the jungle that was six miles across and a mile wide. Something had struck here decades ago and the jungle had never reclaimed the broken ground. The clearing was made up of rough ground, splattered with clumps of tall grasses and the occasional furrow. Off in the distance they could see a small group of creatures. Even from here they could tell they were massive in size. Sable and Grat slowly moved forwards with Adla behind them. After they had spread out, the others followed with Humphrey bringing up the rear. They had walked for about ten minutes when Sable and Grat heard some crashing noises in front of them. Seconds later a large dinosaur came crashing through the grass being pursued by six terror birds. Sable then cast entangle and managed to slow down the five bringing up the rear as the young dinosaur continued running past them. Sable then cast flame strike and nailed three of them just as they pulled free of the entanglement. This killed them as the other two managed to break free but Grat was there to take care of them. The others started moving forward and Humphrey came up and ranged left to keep guard so he spotted the other bird coming back towards them and he charged up and attacked. The others started shooting their bows but managed to hit Humphrey instead. The birds were soon dead as the group recovered. It was now mid-afternoon and they stopped to take some more fresh meat as Churtle went to work again. She took the choicest cuts and wanted to know when they were stopping for dinner.

          Feb 1 2009; there was still plenty of daylight so after a few minutes to take a break they continued on. They headed into the jungle again and walked for a bit until the jungle started to thin and then they came out into a stone ruins. Matt and Urol said that the ruins were Olman and started exploring. Urol grabbed his parchment and quill and started making notes of what he saw. Grat started looking around and headed deeper into the ruins. He looked around the corner and spotted what looked like a throne made of bones sitting in a small clearing with a little old lady sitting in it. He eased back before she appeared to spot him and came back to the group to say that he had spotted something. The others followed him and the two gnomes brought up the rear, still discussing the ruins. They came around the corner to see Adla, Grat and Humphrey up near the little old lady and they could hear her speaking in a foreign tongue. Matt and Urol recognized the language as Olman and hurried up to the group and started speaking to the woman. She said her name was Lithira and she was the queen of the ruins. Looking around the group could now see spiders of all sizes crawling over everything. They ranged from coin size up to a couple that the group figured was the size of small ponies. Up close they could see that she appeared to be wearing a worn gown of black silk with cobwebs hanging everywhere.

          She seemed very intrigued to see them as they were clearly strangers in this area. Matt did some fast talking and told her all about their adventures and that they were headed to Farshore. She was most fascinated with Grat and he ended up telling her his story with Matt translating as she listened it rapt attention. Finally their tale came to an end and she seemed pleased. Then she said, “I thank you for your tale. The world beyond sounds truly wondrous and I would very much like to visit it one day. As for your journey, there is little I can do to aid you. You should know that the way south is dangerous. There are unnatural things that lurk in the dark places, now more so than in the past. I know that four eyes have gazed upon you and their servant seeks you out. You would do well to avoid him. If you plan to head south, take the dark mountain pass that travels under the peaks. It was made by the ancient ones, but beware—hungry birds nest near its opening not far from here, and they are fierce near their young. May you wander the web to find your way home?”

          With that being said she then turned into a large black spider and crawled away into the ruins as the group continued south. They traveled a short distance as the mountains got closer until they were in the foothills. They finally came across the nesting terror birds and spotted the sentry on guard in front of them. The others were sitting on nests and the group saw that one of the birds was double the size of the others. They attracted the attention of the scout and killed it as the other three birds moved in to attack. The large one was very tough to kill but the group managed. Matt cast a fireball and miscalculated and nailed Humphrey along with the bird. They moved up to the nest to find three foot long eggs in each nest. They found the remains of something humanoid in the large nest and saw that it had been wearing a cloak. Once they removed it and took a look they were amazed to see that it was still intact, very filthy but intact. They checked it out and soon realized that it was enchanted. It took a bit to figure out that the cloak improved charisma so Lucky took it and put it on. The group then checked out the tunnel entrance and could see that the shaft headed south under the mountains. As it was about to get dark the group decided to camp here for the night once they removed the bird bodies down below for the scavengers and settled down for the night. During Adla’s watch she had the feeling that she was being watched but as she checked the site she couldn’t see anything. The night passed uneventfully but not quietly as something squabbled over the remains of the birds.  

Wealsun 11, after a quick morning meal the group headed down the tunnel with Grat and Sable in the lead and Micor and Ilar bringing up the rear. It took about three hours of slow walking before the tunnel opened up into a chamber shrouded in darkness. A small stagnant fountain lies directly opposite the entrance, while a stone throne sits on a dais at the far end of the room. A humanoid ribcage is pinned to the throne, held there by an ancient spear, while all around it lay the remainder of the poor soul’s bones. Grat started checking the fountain as Humphrey walked over to the throne and pulled out the spear. It was still good after all the time stuck here so he tucked it in his belt and looked around some more. He found a gold necklace lying on the throne and picked it up to show the others. Grat searched around the pool and spotted something in the bottom of it. He reached into the foul water and pulled out a red stone rod that weighed about eight pounds. He showed it to the others as they came into the chamber and they couldn’t figure out what it was for. He put it away and started looking around some more and found the stairs heading up into another chamber. The stairs end at a broad platform overlooking a wide chasm. Two primitive stone statues flank the balcony, their impassive countenances caked with mildew. The chasm itself drops away into a black gulf of swirling water. Two bridges span the chasm, exiting the room through separated double doors. Grat started to slowly cross the left hand bridge and he was lucky enough to spot the massive centipede that crawled out from a ledge and proceeded to attack him. The others rushed up to support him and didn’t notice the second one appear on the other side. It managed to crawl down the wall and attacked Matt before anyone else could do anything. The bug started climbing back up the wall with its meal when the others finally killed the first one and watched it drop into the river before they turned their attention to helping Matt. It was a good thing that some of the party is fairly strong because when they killed this one, it still had Matt in its jaws and the others could see that he was suffering from the poison. It was dropping towards the water and Matt was nearly finished for good. Adla was forced to chop off one of the fangs to free him just before the body dropped into the water with a loud splash. Matt looked rather green as they helped him to his feet. Cris’toff then cast restoration to help him recover from the poison. The group then looked around.

         Feb 8 2009; the group decided to check out the left-hand door and found it seized. It took the combined efforts of Humphrey, Adla and Grat to finally force open the door to reveal a dark passageway. Deep niches are set into the walls of this ten-foot-wide corridor, each holding fragments of human skeletons caked in mould and fungus. Rusted metal collars and iron necklaces rest in each niche as well and a few still retain fragments of crumbling burial shrouds. On spaces where no niches have been carved, intricate murals of skeletal humanoid or hound, each wreathed in a long, coiling snake, decorate the walls. As they moved into the corridor, Adla warned everyone not to touch anything as they moved through. The rest of the group slowly moved in and the two elves guarded the back. Grat quickly found an area of wall that was different than the rest and called up Adla to look at it. Grat couldn’t see the secret door until Adla pointed it out to him. Then he looked for the release and found it as part of the decoration.

          He was going to touch it but Adla warned him about it so he asked her if she wanted to do it. She pushed at the spot and to door opened with an audible click. Instantly there was a low moan that echoed about the corridors and the group was shocked when two undead stepped out of niches to attack the main group. Another one appeared almost right in front of Humphrey who had moved up to support Adla and Grat. He attacked as he realized that the creature was a mummy. The rest of the group started attacking it as Churtle froze in horror right in front of one of them. Amella Venkalie was unlucky as one of them stepped out right in front of her and smashed her with a fist. The damage was so severe that she was thrown into the wall and fell to the ground in a limp heap. They could already see her skin turning grey from the mummy rot as the others started attacking them.

          Cris’toff came around the corner and attempted to turn them but was unsuccessful the first attempt. All he did was caused his cohorts to look at them and freeze in fear. The fight was brutal as the mummy’s attacked with a vengeance. Cris’toff finally managed to turn them but forced them right into his cohorts as the others moved up to attack. Both Lucky and his cohort Lamar were struck and became victim to the mummy rot before they finally managed to slay them. They checked the body of their ships captain but alas she had died of her wounds from the mummy. They checked out the rest of the area but found nothing other than the secret door.

          They checked and found the chamber is a small crypt dominated by a large stone sarcophagus. Both the walls of the room and the sarcophagus itself are covered in decorative patterns and carvings of animals. The top of the sarcophagus depicts a man dress in robes, wearing a feathered headdress, and clutching a blue rod in one hand and a ceremonial dagger in the other. Grat took a quick look around and figured it was safe to open the lid as Humphrey and Adla moved in to help him along with Urol and Matt along with Bucky. They started to shift the lid and heard a click as something shifted and spears shot out of the floor. Of the group only Bucky was hit for any damage and he was struck by four of them. Once they finished patching him up they looked inside and found the skeletal remains of someone. He held a blue stone rod in one hand and a ceremonial silver dagger in the other. Around his neck is a gold medallion inset with a shining pink pearl. They carefully removed the items and closed the lid and continued exploring. They quickly found the door that exited this area and opened it.

          Two gigantic iron doors stand closed to the south in this small chamber, decorated with symbols of water and sea-life in tarnished copper. Opposite them is a pair of pedestals each with a peculiar notch cut into the side. One of the pedestals is made from dusky red granite, while the other is crafted of light blue marble. Adla and Grat pulled out the two rods and looking at the colors inserted the correct one for each color. They slid into position with a click and they slowly rotated the pedestals as the large iron doors opened with a loud screech of protest, flooding the chamber with fresh salt air from the world outside. Beyond the doors is a broad set of seaweed-choked stairs that lead down onto a small beach. Humphrey stepped down onto the sand and looked around. Off to his right about one-hundred feet away he could see a ramp leading away from the area. They would have to walk through the water to get there. As he looked around he spotted a pair of large crabs that appeared to be drifting closer in the water. They must have been hungry as they quickly moved up to attack the group as they spotted a third one hanging back. The group attacked and easily killed them as Churtle started yelling at them to save the bodies. She planned on making crab legs for lunch. Adla was forced to dive into the water and changed into a ray in order to kill the last one and then the group moved over to the ramp and climbed up it far enough to get away from the water and stopped for lunch as it was now midday. They managed to recover almost 100 pounds of crab meat from the bodies and then they tossed the remains back into the water. They wrapped a shroud around the body of the captain and Adla buried her at sea before they continued on.

          They made pretty good time as the ramp quickly turned into a roadway heading south that was fairly easy to traverse. The winding path at times took the group nearly 100 feet above the waters below and then descended back down to the sea. The group walked until almost dark before they found a spot to camp for the night. Every so often they came across remains of buildings and rotten canoes. When the group investigated the canoes they found that they fell apart when touched. They had to constantly prod Urol as he was always stopping to draw and take cuttings. Matt figured most of the ruins were Olman and were centuries old if not millennia old. They camped for the night and Grat took first watch. He felt uneasy and had the feeling that he was being watched. He took a tour around the camp and could see or hear nothing and slowly returned within sight and was looking around when suddenly everything went dark. He gave a shout and Adla woke up and looked around and she manifested her ability to generate light and used it. Her spell nullified the darkness and the light from the campfire returned. Grat looked around but still couldn’t see anything; soon he woke Humphrey to take his turn and warned him about the blackness. Humphrey spent his time carefully watching and didn’t see anything until just before he was ready to wake Adla when everything went black around the camp again.

          Adla awakened to Humphrey’s grunt and nullified the blackness again and she prepared to guard for her shift. She decided to speak up and said something in a language Humphrey didn’t understand. She said “we know you’re watching.” Humphrey then watched as she smiled and nodded in satisfaction. She looked at Humphrey and said that something was watching the group and it had just told her that if it killed the group, that master would be pleased. She then told Humphrey to rest as the she patrolled the camp. Nothing happened and she awakened Lucky and Lamar to take their shift as she went to rest. She told them about the voice and that something was out there. The two off them carefully watched but nothing happened until just before dawn. Lucky took a last patrol around the camp and was suddenly shocked to see something ringing the camp. Equidistant around the camp were the bodies of small birds stretched out on X frames with head and wings outstretched. The bodies were long dead but had not been there moments before. There were a dozen of them. The group was a little uneasy when they awakened.

          Feb 15 2009; Wealsun 12, after a quick meal they headed south again. Cris’toff managed to break the curse on Lamar and removed the disease from Lucky. He had to wait until tomorrow to finish helping Lamar. Sable soon changed himself into an eagle and looked to see what was ahead. They were walking along a mountain ridge that skirted the water. He flew up the ridge until he could look into the interior of the island and all he could see was lush green foliage. Far off to the west he could see the glint of water from a large lake. He drifted up into the breeze until he attracted the attention of a pair of wyverns that decided he might make a good snack. He soon decided to rejoin the group in walking. It was around midday when the group rounded a corner and the three in front, Grat, Sable, and Humphrey saw what they thought was a native male standing on the road about 200 feet away. As they watched, he spread his arms toward the sky and proceeded to draw a dagger and thrust it into his chest and then fell forwards off the edge. Grat ran up and looked down but saw nothing, even looking around the ground showed nothing. After a discussion the group thought that it had been an illusion and continued on.

          It was about dinner time when they rounded a corner that narrowed when they were attacked by some gargoyles. They surprised the group and managed to knock Churtle and Bucky down onto a ledge just above the water. The group made short work of the four gargoyles as Grat and Adla jumped down and attacked the two below. As the fight ended, some rocks tumbled down from above and mixed in among the rocks were human skulls. One of the elves was engulfed and had to be healed. Sable was flying above the group and spotted something in the rocks above where the rock slide had started. He managed to glimpse what appeared to be a massive orang-utan but it had six inch fangs and blazing red eyes. It looked up at him and told him in his mind “to be very careful out by himself or he might regret it”. Sable decided to rejoin the rest of the group as they started looking for somewhere to camp for the night. He also discovered he had gained in power and could shape-change into a large creature now and cast a few more of his higher level spells. They found an outcropping that they could camp under and they set up camp. It was quiet until just before dawn when another rockslide happened directly above them making enough noise to wake up the entire group. In among the rocks were more skulls.

Wealsun 13, after having breakfast while Cris’toff removed the disease from Lamar. They continued on until well into the afternoon when they came around a bend to see up ahead, the path comes to an abrupt end, looking out over the bay. Nearly sixty feet above, it continues along its southern route. A bamboo platform hangs near the upper path’s edge, suspended by several vines draped over a log driven into the cliff’s face above. The other ends of the vines hang down the cliff face and are attached to a second log at waist height on the lower ledge. Down below, a dozen or so abandoned huts line a wide but rocky beach. Grat and Humphrey decided to climb the cliff while Sable transformed into a large eagle and started flying all the small people in the group up. Grat got almost to the top when he slipped and was forced to glide back down to the ground. What was really funny was when Humphrey climbed around the loose spot and went up a few more feet and was almost at the top when he slipped and started falling. He managed to manoeuvre himself so he hit the water and not the beach but it still hurt when he hit and when he finally surfaced he couldn’t see his club. It took a few frantic moments of searching before he saw it bob to the surface some distance away. He swam over and recovered it and turned and swam over to the beach.

          The others were busting a gut from laughing and Cris’toff said, “No style points from the gnome judge.” They then dropped some rope and the others used the ropes to climb up and they were finally up top and decided they would rest for the night. Humphrey swam out of the sea and walked over to the cliff and slowly climbed up the wall and soon he was with the others. But not before Matt pantomimed cutting the rope and forcing him to climb faster. Cris’toff took pity on him and cast a few healing spells as he didn’t look very good. Then they camped for the night. Humphrey took first watch and a couple of hours into his watch he heard the sounds of rocks falling down onto the trail about 100 feet away. He slowly moved over to investigate and found where a small pile of rocks had fallen. He picked up a rock and tossed it up into the hillside. Moments later a larger pile fell down and woke up some of the group. They looked out to see where Humphrey was and they couldn’t see him. They called out to him and he returned to the camp. That’s when they noticed that one of the packs of food was gone. They took a quick look around but saw nothing.

          Feb 22 2009; Wealsun 14, the group had breakfast and continued walking. It was about dinner time when the group looked out over the water and spotted the shapes of gargoyles heading in at the group. They managed to get most of the small people up against the rocks before the creatures attacked. One of them was much bigger than the others and it headed right towards Humphrey. As it reached him, it gave a scream of rage and grew more powerful. Humphrey also decided to rage and attacked it head on. The fight was short but fierce as the combined efforts of the group killed off most of the gargoyles as two of them turned and fled. One of them grabbed Sable and started flying away with him but it was short lived as he turned into a small bird and flew away from it. He looked down into the water and could see some debris where the leader had hit with a splash and could see a pair of bracers about to sink into the water. He flew down and turned into an eagle and grabbed them and flew back up to the group.

          Checking out the bracers they figured out they were bracers of armor so they kept them and continued on until camping again for the night. This night passed quietly.

Wealsun 15, the group continued walking and it was mid-afternoon when the trail turned away from the water and headed inland. Urol suggested that they try to continue south to come across one of the Olman villages but the group decided to stick with the easy road. The trail continued for some miles until it abruptly turned into hot steamy jungle. Just before they headed in though, they were attacked by four spiders that were hunting for food. Humphrey made short work of a pair of them that he turned into mush. They continued on through the jungle and just as it started getting dark they started to worry about camping for the night. Luckily they soon came to a break in the jungle and found an old campsite that was in among a bunch of worked stone blocks. It appeared that this was another area of abandoned ruins.

            Looking around they soon spotted something in the northwest corner. Approaching they could see a crude wooden frame in the shape of an “X”. Bound upside down to the frame appeared to be a corpse of an Olman man, his legs high in the air. It was easy to spot the gaping wound in the center of his chest that had killed him. The group slowly approached and was shocked when it started speaking to them once they came within ten feet of it. It spoke in a low monotone voice. “Welcome to my home, travelers. You come a long way only to stay here forever. At least you live. This is good for now. My home is your home now and forever”. The group could see that something appeared to be written on its skin and the group decided to take a closer look. Only Adla could read the language as she determined that it was Abyssal in nature. She then translated for the group.  “Through dreaded maws and sacrificial opening to flame and reflection; By burning cardinal point and bloody respite and touching bestial malediction; With opposing flame and faux relief and taping living contradiction;
Will lastly, in falling darkness, find the means to death and disintegration.” The group looked around and decided to set up camp for the night, getting away from the corpse. They lit a fire in the fire pit and settled down for the night. Humphrey took first watch as the others settled down to sleep in this unsettling jungle. He was too nervous just to sit and watch so he made some rounds about the camp and didn’t see anything until he felt something tap him in the shoulder.

          Turning around he saw that the demonic ape was now standing right behind him and it slapped him twice hard. He was rocked by the blows and returned the attack but failed to hit it. Then it just disappeared. He turned and looked just in time to see two others appear right inside the camp and watched in horror as they grabbed Urol and Churtle and then disappeared. His scream of rage awakened the entire camp just as a demonic laugh echoed in everyone’s head.

          March 8 2009; the group was worried to find that two of the group were now gone. Seeing as it was dark out the group decided to stay there but increased the watch to two members for the rest of the night.

Wealsun 16, the group awakened after a fretful night of sleep. Humphrey, Grat, Lamar and Bucky were haunted by dreams of an alien landscape. Grat gave the most vivid descriptions and Adla recognized the features to be one of the planes of the Abyss, The Gaping Maw to be exact, home to Demogorgon the Prince of Demons. Cris’toff took the time to pray for some divination spells and started the proceeding by casting a locate object spell. He set the spell by trying to locate Churtle’s leather armor. She had been wearing it long enough for him to get a sense of it. After scanning around the area he did not sense anything so they decided to head north out of the clearing and Cris’toff even climbed up onto Humphrey’s shoulders in order to concentrate better on the spell. Within moments he started sensing something ahead and about two minutes later the oppressive, fog-thick jungle thinned before a low hill. Above, a large spire of black rock looms, while at the hills base, the image of two gigantic fanged baboon heads carved into the rock leers out at the jungle. Their gaping maws reveal two caves that lead into darkness. Cris’toff got down from Humphrey and pointed to the left. He then said that her armor was about sixty feet inside the cave. Humphrey started walking into the cave and something made him stop and jump back as the ceiling collapsed, nearly burying him in the rubble. They waited for the dust to settle and then checked out the other tunnel.

          Grat took the lead and checked out the tunnel to the right and found a long dead human shackled to the wall. The body had been there for quite a while as it was mostly bone. They continued to the left and Grat spotted a small bloody hand print down by the floor on the wall. Alongside it was another smear of blood. Checking around the corner the group spotted a pile of stuff in the corner. Looking it over they found Churtle’s armor and dented cooking pot along with Urol’s torn clothing. They picked up the gear and looked around the corner to see the natural caverns giving way to worked stone and a short hallway ending in a pair of tarnished bronze doors. The doors are engraved with scenes of all manner of demonic reptiles and simians tormenting human slaves, and the handles are made from the barbed tongues of fiends. A pair of stone statues flank the door in niches carved into the walls. These statues each depicting leering monkey demons, their tongues dripping an oily red liquid that evaporates before it hits the floor below. Grat looked at the statues and found writing on the bottom of the right one but couldn’t figure out the language. Adla looked at it and recognized it as Abyssal and it said “give of your right.” They looked at the left one and it also had Abyssal that said “give of your left.”

          Grat moved up and looked the doors over and he didn’t think there was a trap so Adla looked over at Humphrey and gestured towards the door. Humphrey looked at her for a few moments before slowly reaching out for the right hand handle as Adla grabbed the left. They both felt the tongues bite into their hands as the blood starting to flow. After a few moments the doors opened and revealed a chamber that was stained in blood. Two stone thrones sit on either side, set into alcoves. On the far side of the chamber is a blood-caked altar of greasy green stone, topped by a pair of black tallow candles. Iron-framed mirrors stand on either side of the altar, their reflections warped and indistinct. The group slowly moved in and looked around. They decided to try lighting the candle to the north and they looked to see blood starting to pool in the southern throne. Next they tried lighting the other candle and both candles exploded into fiery flames as the group jumped back. Adla and Humphrey barely avoided being hit. After waiting a few moments Cris’toff sat down and started casting Divination. This took ten minutes as the group watched the candles slowly reform. What he got was the following. “Light the candle, sit on the throne, look at your primal past. Light the candle, sit on the throne, see yourself aghast. Touch the darkness, standing tall, movement very fast. An exit remains forevermore, but an entrance will not last.” With this Adla lit the north candle as they watched the blood pool in the south throne. Adla went over and sat down. She noticed something flash in the mirror opposite her and went over and looked and could see something in the mirror. She touched it and watched the mirror and saw a feral reflection of herself trying to get out. She then lit the other candle and watched the blood start pooling on the seat of the other throne. She went and sat down and then looked to see something in the opposite mirror. She went over and touched it and this time to her horror the trap of the mirror became clear when she suddenly swapped places with her savage image.

          She watched in horror from inside the mirror as her savage twin attacked the group with a vengeance. Humphrey got lucky when he struck her the first time as her now long un-kept hair tangled up in her eyes for a few moments blinding her. The rest of the group managed to knock her out and when they did they watched the feral image sweep into the mirror and Adla was standing in the room looking at them. As they watched the two mirrors swirled and changed color becoming black. She looked at Humphrey and gestured at the one mirror as she stepped up to the other one. They disappeared and the group watched the mirrors change color and slowly start swirling to inky blackness again.

          March 15, 2009; Adla and Humphrey stepped through the mirror into a large chamber that is bathed in a strange red light that comes from above. Thorny vines grow across the walls and toward the ceiling some forty feet up. A natural stone bridge crosses through the upper reaches of this room, directly above a large pool of crimson liquid. To the north stands a large mirror, its warped surface framed in iron. The warm scent of wet fur is overpowering here, and furtive shuffling echoes down from above. The two of them moved slowly away from the mirror but couldn’t hide the fact that they were here as they heard a noise up about. A few moments later they were joined by Grat and Cris’toff and that is when one of the apes appeared and tried to grab Cris’toff and take off with him. While the others were engaged with that one, another appeared behind Humphrey and attacked him. When they were unable to grab him they disappeared. The four started exploring the cavern and found a door around the corner that opened up to a ramp going to the upper level. They moved up to check this out when an ape appeared behind Humphrey again and attacked him and disappeared again. They were checking the upper door when Sable and Dagger came through the mirror and were attacked as soon as they did. Sable managed to resist the grab but Dagger was not and disappeared with a yelp in the paws of the ape. The others decided to send Humphrey and Cris’toff back down to the mirror to help wait for the others to come through the mirror. Adla and Grat checked out the door and it was unlocked so they opened it. The chamber was piled high with bones in the corners and the centre of the room, a gristly testament to past atrocities. The sound of bubbling water comes from the dark western end of the room. They looked and saw a set of iron double doors to the east and started moving towards the door. As they stepped in front of it, Grat looked behind him just in time to see something rise out of the darkness and cast a spell towards them. He managed to jump out of the way but Adla was still hit by it.

          They turned around and charged towards the darkness and spotted a snake-like being hiding in the fountain. They both attacked as it cast another spell at them and hit them with a scorching ray. With a mighty slash of her sword, Adla cut it in half. They looked over the fountains and they were the fanged maws of baboons with the water pouring out of their mouths. On top of each they could see an iron valve. Looking in the water they couldn’t see anything as the water was murky. They looked at each other and then reached up to turn off the valves. Unfortunately Grat didn’t bother looking them over and he set off the trap. They were lucky as it appeared the trap had been set for so long that the ice storm it created fizzled as it went off and barely did anything too them. The water slowly drained out of the fountains as they waited for the others to come through the mirror. When they did the group came up and met up with the others. Just as they got there, Adla and Grat managed to open the extremely heavy iron double doors to find a pair of iron doors, carefully carved with the images of ape demons and burning landscapes, loom in the wall opposite the entrance to this chamber. The walls and floor of this chamber are polished smooth, and two large statues stand in the chamber. Also made of iron, these statues depict hulking simian fiends, each one holding out an arm missing a hand. The statue on the right is missing its left; the statue on the left is missing its right.                  

              They turned around and went to look into the fountains and still had to wait a few more minutes until the water had drained down enough until Grat could climb down with a rope. The north pool did contain an iron monkey paw that looked like it matched the statue. Looking into the other pool, he didn’t see anything at first until he spotted something metallic in amongst the bones. He pulled it out and it appeared to be a copper rod. He climbed back up and showed off the rod and Matt grabbed it and started checking it out. The others were idly poking around when Adla uncovered a war hammer in amongst the bones and Cris’toff sat down and spotted a small vial underneath his feet. He uncovered it and it was a potion vial. Matt found some engravings on the rod to tell him that it contained the power to make some of his spells silent so he told the group and they told him to keep it. The hammer appeared to be one of spell storing so Lucky said he would take it. Cris’toff kept the potion until they could figure it out. The group then went back to the main chamber and headed to the door on the other side that they had not checked yet. Even before they got to the door, they could hear the noise of a lot of baboons. Grat checked out the door and it was unlocked and he carefully opened it and looked in. it was a large throne room and it contained a mob of massive baboons. Sable snuck up to the front with Matt Finish and they cast off their offensive spells before the mob realized they were there. The mob moved en-mass towards the doorway and overran Matt to get at Humphrey who was guarding the door. The others came up behind them to support and that is when the Bar-Igura appeared again right behind them. They attacked Cris’toff and Bucky before the others could react.

            March 22 2009; then they watched in horror as Bucky was snatched away by one of the demons and then they watched a flash of light appear behind one of the demons and another one came out of the doorway. This did not look good. Humphrey was forced to grab Matt out of the melee at the door as he was being overwhelmed by the mob of baboons. Sable had to cure him in order for him to do anything and he started the process by jumping off of Humphrey’s head and forced him into the room with the baboons and closed the door. Humphrey’s scream of “Gnome” could be heard by everyone as they turned their attentions to the Bar-Igura Demons. The fight was nasty as the demons kept jumping in and out using their innate teleport powers to appear right in front or behind the group. The fight progressed and Cris’toff watched in horror as two of them appeared right in front of his elf cohorts and proceeded to slaughter them as Cris’toff watched helplessly. Micor was the first to be torn apart and seconds later Ilar suffered the same fate. Adla was able to use one of her martial powers to burn through the demons innate resistance to weapons and she managed to slay two of them one after the other. Humphrey finally managed to kill the baboon mob but not before he was forced to rage and Sable had to cast a few cure spells on him to keep him alive. He finally killed the last one and abruptly sat done from exhaustion after he looked around and didn’t see anything else to attack. Grat had come into the throne room to support him but ended up checking the throne and found the secret door behind it. He was just turning around to say something to the others when the last demon appeared in the throne room and tried to snatch Sable as he was attacking it. It latched on to him and disappeared with him as the others watched in horror. Now four of the group had been snatched and two others were dead. This did not look good. Grat managed to open the secret door just as Humphrey recovered from the fight and stood up and walked over to Matt and grabbed him by the collar and picked him up and tossed him across the room with a growl of rage. Matt hit the wall beside Grat and fell down in a heap beside him.

          The chests were rusted iron and covered with engravings that depicted horrid flames consuming the just and the righteous. In addition both chests were locked. Grat looked them both over and decided that they were clean of traps and proceeded to pick the lock on the right chest and uncovered some gold and silver along with a nice buckler and a wand. Beside the wand was a left handed monkey paw. Now they had found the two paws they could continue exploring. Grat then looked at the left hand chest and opened the lock, setting off the fireball spell set as a trap. They were lucky as they avoided most of the damage and decided to head back the other way to look for their missing companions.

          March 29 2009; they came to the room with the statues missing their hands and attached the two paws they had just found. When Grat placed the second one on the statue they heard something clunk in the locked door. Grat then opened it and looked into a long hall lit by flaming brands held aloft by iron ape statues placed at even intervals on either side. Each of the ape statues has its head thrown back, as if silently howling at the ceiling above. At the far end of the hall, another pair of double doors, this time made from gleaming copper, stands closed. Grat started walking down the hall and as he passed the first pair of statues, he almost jumped out of his skin when the statues started howling. As he went past the next two pairs, the howling got even louder until the group couldn’t hear themselves think. He got to the double doors and threw them open.

          The huge chamber is watched over by five hideous statues. To the east and west stand four towering demonic ape statues in alcoves, facing a roaring fire pit in the room’s center. On the opposite side of the room is an even larger stone statue. Possessing the stout, stylized body of an ape, this statue has two stone tentacles where each of its arms should be. Sprouting from its shoulders are two fanged baboon heads. The statue lords over the room atop a great dais, staring out in frozen rage. As Grat waited for the others to come up and support him, he slowly moved up the stairs into the room. He still couldn’t hear anything due to the howling but he quickly spotted a small cage dangling above the fire pit. He realized too his horror that the cage contained their companions and it was starting to drop down into the flames. The others moved up into the room and spotted the cage. Lamar was in the hallway and got frustrated about the howling and attacked the statue with his sword. It didn’t do anything except attract one of the demons to attack him as the others moved out of sight. He was lucky in that Cris’toff glanced around the corner just in time to see him attacked as the others were trying to rescue the captives. This is when the boss demon attacked the group and they were forced to engage him as the cage dropped lower and lower. Adla did the most damage to the demon as it teleported around the room to gain an advantage. Sable was also in the cage but he regained consciousness as the cage was dropping and managed to change himself into a sparrow and flew out of the cage and over to the wall and settled down along the edge of the ceiling to watch.

          The others attacked the demon and finally managed to corner it as Lucky headed back down the stairs to check on his cohort to find him battling the demon. He helped defend until they overcame it and knocked it down. Adla managed to attract the other demons attention and it appeared right behind her and attacked again. This time Adla and Humphrey managed to finish it off and kill it before turning their attention to rescuing the others. Sable flew down from the ceiling and alit right beside the stone statue and changed shape back to himself. He then took a moment to cast a cure spell and was wondering what to do next when the stone statue abruptly animated and its tentacles lashed out and turned Sable into pulp as it pounded him into the floor. The others looked on in horror as the construct relentlessly pounded away at him. Adla, Humphrey and Grat charged up to attack the thing as it turned to attack them. Adla managed to do some massive damage to it as Cris’toff had enchanted his weapon earlier and it seemed to hurt the thing more than the others.  Matt Finish and the others started helping the captives out of the cage as the fight raged on. Churtle was quite upset with Humphrey and the others for being captured and tortured because of them. They finally managed to kill the stone construct and when they did the fires in the fire pit went out as if they had been doused with water even though no one had touched it.

          They proceeded to pick up what was left of Sable and prepared to leave. The big demon had a few items on him so the group grabbed them and headed to the exit. They stopped to pick up the remains of the elven brothers as they got out of this temple as fast as they could. Soon they came out of the tunnels to see sunshine. Tavey and Miss Crazzle, Urol’s crow companion was overjoyed to see them come out of the cave. The group was surprised to see the fog was now gone and they could see the sun shining down. Tavey said that the fog had just faded away a few minutes ago and the group figured out that it had happened when they killed the construct. Once Urol and the others had recovered from the ordeal, he told the group to head south towards the Olman village of Tanaroa. This was the largest of the Olman villages and they could help the group get to Farshore. It was late afternoon when the trail suddenly widened into a rough road and Urol gave a sigh of relief. He told the group that this part of the route must be maintained by the natives. They decided to find a place to camp and make dinner and rest. Churtle was muttering to herself as she started preparing the evening meal and started going through all the packs to find what she needed. Later on Humphrey and a few of the others started complaining about upset stomachs. Churtle then started apologizing about putting the wrong thing in the meal.

          The group just glared at her but didn’t do anything more. The night passed quietly and Cris’toff spent the night in prayer to Pelor.   

          Wealsun 17, when the group awakened, Cris’toff knew what to do. He took off his amulet of wisdom and placed it on top of the body of Sable. He then prayed to Pelor and was blessed with the power of raise dead as the amulet turned to dust. He was drained in power after he had cast it as they watched Sable return to life. He was weak and had no spells to cast and was going to have to wait until tomorrow before he could cast spells again.

April 5 2009; after having a good meal the group started walking south. After a few hours Humphrey was attacked while he was bringing up the rear by a trio of terror birds. They proceeded to chomp on him pretty good before they were killed off and they took a few minutes to let Churtle to butcher them for the meat before they continued on. After a few hours they crossed through a deeper patch of jungle and came into a clearing at the same time a hunting thunder lizard appeared and attacked. Again Humphrey took the brunt of the attack and was forced to rage in order to attack it. The others came up and helped him as the small people hung back. They didn’t want to be swallowed up by the beast. Humphrey was forced to take a nap after the fight and the group waited again as Churtle went to work cutting up the beast. They were soon on their way for a few more hours until they stopped to camp for the night. Sable was going to pray for the power to reincarnate the fallen elven brothers in the morning as the group bedded down for the night. Humphrey took last watch and he was the unlucky one as he was attacked by some sort of fiendish vulture. He was attacked in the dark and attacked it before calling out for help. As the others started to awaken they were shocked to see Humphrey fighting away with what Adla identified as a Vrock, a denizen of the Abyss. They were lucky to kill it but not before it picked on Humphrey again and almost killed him before the others could come up and support him from their nights rest. They found that it carried a pouch and looking inside they found a scroll, wand and large book which they identified as a tome to increase leadership and understanding. The wand was of fireballs but didn’t contain too many charges. The scroll contained three arcane spells that Matt took as no one else could cast them. He also appropriated the wand to use. They bedded down again just before dawn and Cris’toff took some extra time to rest because he was awakened during the fight.

Wealsun 18, the group finally awakened to the smell of meat cooking and Churtle busily working away. Sable then took the time to cast reincarnate on the bodies of the elves and the spells seemed to work. The others were shocked and amazed to see the bodies shrink as they came back to life as gnomes. Humphrey just shook his head when he realized that there was now over half a dozen gnomes in the group. The others couldn’t believe that this was happening and decided that Obad-Hai must have an extreme sense of humour to allow the elves to return as gnomes. At first Sable had difficulty getting them to return as they seemed reluctant to come back but they finally did. This made things difficult as all their old gear would no longer work for them. The others had to scramble to find enough clothing for them to wear. The group continued walking and it was close to dinner time when the group spotted the massive wall guarding the isthmus to the south end of the island. As the group approached the wall they were spotted by human guards and challenged when they got close enough. Matt and Urol recognized the language as Olman and approached close enough to talk to the men. Once the guards learned that they were headed to Farshore they opened the massive gates and invited the group into the village of Tanaroa. The group met up with the head-woman and the rest of the village and ended up spending the night resting in the village. The natives agreed to escort the group tomorrow to the village of Mora to the south where the group could be canoed the rest of the journey to Farshore.

Wealsun 19, the group walked with their escort for the day and camped along the trail with the Olman warriors standing guard for the night. They weren’t too concerned about large beasts as the wall kept them out.

Chapter Five: the Tides of Dread

Wealsun 20, the group arrived at Mora in the afternoon and waited for them to take them across the water to the island where Farshore was located. Soon they were headed across the water in war canoes. As they went to round the point to head into the harbour, the group could see plumes of smoke and sounds of fighting and screams. This did not look good. The good thing was that in the corner of the harbour they spotted the Blue Nixie, at least it arrived in one piece. Screams fill the smoke-filled air as cackling, howling men dressed in filthy armor and waving rusty, ragged weapons press the attack against Farshore’s unorganized defence. Up the hill, several buildings have been lit on fire, and issuing from one nearby are frantic screams. Lying in the sand in front of another building is the body of a well-dressed man with a bloody to his chest and a savage gash across his face. His body is surrounded by fragile glassware spilled from a case he was carrying. His chest rises and falls feebly, though for how much longer is uncertain. Further south, a large band of filthy men is happily smashing in the windows of what appears to be a chapel. More pirates are busy trying to bash in the chapel’s front doors with a heavy wooden beam. Terrified screams coming from within punctuate each of the ram’s blows. Nearby, a hulking half-orc with blotchy yellow skin and a leering, toothy smile chases a red haired young woman around a neighbouring building, shouting lurid propositions. Deeper in the village, a group of young men armed with swords make a stand against what appears to be the pirate leader, a tall and dangerous-looking human who laughs as he deflects their attacks with obvious ease. Finally a group of colonists desperately try to extinguish a fire consuming a large building to the southeast, while others brave the flames to rescue its contents. More commotion can be heard from deeper in the village, but the thick billowing smoke effectively masks what is transpiring there.

The warriors carefully paddled the canoes up to the northern dock and quickly unloaded the group onto the wharf and then they turned around and paddled back towards home leaving the group standing on the dock. No had appeared to notice them as they decided on a plan of action.

April 12 2009; they quickly decided to split up to be more effective, Humphrey was challenged to go after the tough looking pirate leader as the others spread out and started helping the colonists. Grat jumped through a window into a burning building. He smartly jumped into the water first so he was soaking wet when he encountered the flames. He managed to find a woman huddled in the corner and pulled her to safety just as the roof collapsed. He was hanging out the window when a burning chunk of wood landed on him and he was forced to drop to the ground while he protected the woman. The fall knocked the breath out of him and he lay there dazed for a moment before he came to his senses and dragged the two of them away from the fire. Cris’toff stopped and checked the merchant, he was still breathing so he slapped a quick healing spell on him to save him and started heading towards the chapel. He told his cohorts to stay there and guard the merchant. As they had daggers and short swords he figured they would be safe. Lucky and Lamar headed towards the chapel and managed to surprise the raiders just before they busted the front doors. It took a few moments but they managed to distract them into attacking them as the gnomes came up to support them. Adla managed to jump the ugly half-orc just as he went to grab the young woman and she stopped him by cutting him in half with her sword. She then looked around and spotted the twins guarding the merchant, told the young woman to go over there for protection while she continued looking for something to fight.

Humphrey charged into the middle of the village as he screamed at the pirate as he cut down the last of the colonists fighting him. Humphrey was mad enough to rage just as he approached and screamed “Storm Chaser” just as he attacked. Even though the pirate appeared tough, Humphrey managed to knock him down with three blows as his minions tried to ineffectively attack Humphrey. Adla came up from behind to support him and they quickly dispatched the half dozen pirates. They looked inwards and saw Sable step up to the large building that was on fire and cast a spell. Whatever it was, it instantly put out the flames as the people rushing to get out contents stopped and looked in amazement. Meanwhile the fight at the chapel continued with Lucky and Lamar slowly whittling them down. Cris’toff came up from behind and went to attack one of them and stumbled just as swung his mace and ended up tossing it into some rubble. By the time he got up and found his mace the fight was over and he approached the doors and yelled out that they had just killed off the raiders.  

After a few moments the group looked around and realized that all the pirates appeared to be dead. Humphrey was still very angry and was looking around for something to hit and he started heading towards the main gate as it opened and someone looked in and carefully walked into the village. He hefted his club and growled, “Want to fight?” The two people looking at him stepped back due in part to his aggression. The others finally noticed that he was about to attack when his rage finally caught up to him and he slowly toppled over with exhaustion. They saw that the two people looking at him were a dwarven warrior in full plate and a little girl wearing a robe. They were also surprised to see that the dwarf was a woman with black hair and piercing brown eyes. Her skin seemed tanner than most dwarves and she had the obligatory beard but it was short and well trimmed. They looked over to the group as they slowly approached the now sleeping Humphrey as the others noticed them and shouted out to let Humphrey sleep, he had just finished dispatching most of the pirates. The girl sat down right beside his head as the dwarf cautiously approached the group. She introduced herself as Dagnea Balderk and her companion as Alarice Belonna. As they were talking they heard a shout and turned to see Lavinia and the Jade Ravens approaching from the other side of the village. They were all dirty and soot covered but she was overjoyed to see them and quickly introduced Dagnea to them and said that they had helped her get here. Also with them was a towering and handsome man with a well-groomed beard, clad in a shining suit of mithral Chainmail. Lavinia introduced him as Lord Manthalay Meravanchi.

He immediately asked where his nephew was and the group was silent for a moment until they informed him that he had been slain by a thunder lizard when they arrived on the Isle of Dread. He seemed shocked about the news and wondered aloud why they couldn’t have saved him. Lavinia then asked that everyone meet at the chapel so they could discuss what had happened. Humphrey finally woke up from his nap and the first thing he saw was the little girl sitting beside him with a faint smile on her lips. She looked like she was only 8 or 9 years old with white hair and pale blue eyes. She was wearing a white robe with purple embroidery all over it. She then stood up and headed towards the others as Humphrey shook his head in amazement. He stood up and saw that the others were walking into the chapel so he walked over there and went in. The group was there along with Lavinia, the Jade Ravens and the Meravanchi and they were joined by the rest of the village council. This included Professor Hevrik Aldwattle, the gentleman they found unconscious on the beach. A tired and worried looking man named Vesserin Catherly, keeper of the chapel. A bruised and angry woman named Telda Syren; she was an herbalist, naturalist, and expert on the flora of the Isle of Dread. Last was a gruff and short-tempered man named Ulvar Kabbanja, he was the leader of Farshore’s militia.

Lavinia’s first order of business was to ask the other council members for a report on damage to the colony. After everyone had spoken, they found that a few of the buildings had been damaged by fire but all were repairable. Unfortunately there were ten colonists that had died during the fighting. It seemed that the pirates had not been organized and had more interested in spreading fear and robbing people than actually doing a lot of damage. Everyone agreed that the group’s fortuitous arrival helped in overcoming the raiders. After this was done, Lavinia formally introduced the group to the others and told the council that she would not be here now if not for the help of the group; she called them her personal heroes. She then asked what had happened to the group after they were separated. The group then told the council of their exploits starting with the destruction of the Sargasso Sea and finally crash landing on the north shore of the Isle of Dread. They said that their ship, the Sea Wyvern was hung up on the rocks just off the coast and it still held most of the supplies they had carried. They then spoke of their travels across the isle finally arriving at the village of Tanaroa.

Once they were done recalling their exploits, Lavinia promised to help save the Sea Wyvern. At this point some colonists burst into the chapel waving a sheaf of papers in the air. They were all shouting to be heard and it took a few moments for them to settle down to finally tell the group what they knew. A few of them had gone out to the ship that the pirates had used and found a lone pirate on board along with some dire news. This attack on Farshore was only a prelude to what was to come. Information told them that the Crimson Fleet planned on attacking Farshore in two months time. As Lavinia looked through the papers, the captive named Lefty was dragged into the chapel. Lefty was a pitiful scoundrel of a man with bruised and sunken features, his skin was hot to the touch and one of his eyes is blackened and he was missing his left hand. This appeared to be an old wound. They started questioning him and found out that he had accompanied the others from their settlement called Rats End, located on one of the islands to the west and that their leader had been called Slipknot Pete and that everyone that had lived at Rats End had accompanied their leader here so there was no one remaining behind. This was supposed to be just a scouting mission but Pete decided to attack when he saw the opportunity.

Slipknot Pete had been in contact with someone from the Crimson Fleet, he didn’t know how but he assumed it had been by magic. They had been ordered to scout out the colony and report back to inform the Crimson Fleet of the vulnerabilities of the colony. They had been promised a place in the fleet when the fleet arrived so he was surprised that Slipknot decided to attack. Apparently, a large force of Crimson Fleet ships was scheduled to arrive in the area on other business and at that time they would like to ransack Farshore using the intelligence gathered by the pirates to ensure victory. Slipknot didn’t reveal to anyone how many Crimson Fleet ships were on the way, but when he decided to attack Farshore on his own, he did mention that they had two months to loot the place and escape to other waters with their booty before the Fleet arrived. After his confession was done, Lefty begged for mercy and they couldn’t kill him in cold blood so they decided to put him to work helping the colony rebuild. Cris’toff was forced to cast a few minor spells on him to help him recover from his wounds and they then put him to work. Dagnea finally took the time to introduce herself and she told the group that Lavinia and the Blue Nixie had rescued her from the Isle a few weeks before when the ship she had been on had been attacked and wrecked by the largest dragon turtle she had ever seen. It had rumbled at them about tribute? But she hadn’t figured it out until after it holed the ship and it started sinking. She had been the only one to survive and had managed to make it to the shore and had been waiting there until she spotted the Blue Nixie sailing past a few weeks ago and managed to attract their attention and was taken on board. She had been hanging around the colony helping out where she could. In fact she had been out in the jungle with Alarice on a scouting mission to investigate a tribe of bullywugs that lived further inland from the village. They had just returned when they saw the smoke billowing from the colony. They had arrived just in time to see Humphrey walking towards them waving his club around. Alarice didn’t say much but Adla realized that she was an elf.

The group and council then started talking about what they could do in the next two months to prepare the defences of the colony before the Fleet attacked. After some discussion it was decided that the group should travel to the village of Tanaroa to elicit the help of the villagers. They would need the manpower to help improve the defences of the colony while Lavinia and the others started working on upgrades. They also managed to collect the spoils from the body of Slipknot Pete. He had been wearing some nice studded leather and wielded a nice rapier. Lucky took the rapier while Grat took the armor when no one else wanted it. He also had carried some loot in a belt pouch and the group took it too. Lavinia agreed to let the group use the Blue Nixie to sail north to the mainland while everyone else got busy cleaning up and repairing the damage. Grat went to find the local Armourer and he was far too busy repairing the weapons and stuff damaged in the battle. He told Grat that he could probably alter the armor so he could wear it but it would take him some time to get around to it. Grat left the armor there and decided to go investigate the Hellfish, the ship the pirates had used. Grat rowed out to the ship and was disgusted by what he found. The Hellfish was already listing from water in the bilges and the conditions on the decks weren’t any better. He found nothing on board that was of value. He then got a few more people to help him beach the ship before it sank. They could fix it but it would take some time.

Wealsun 21, the group boarded the Blue Nixie and headed north towards the Isle of Dread. It took well over a day for them to sail to Tanaroa and they landed a few miles away and started walking towards the village.

Wealsun22, it was after dinner before they finally made it to the village to see some sort of religious ceremony going on with everyone of the Olman villagers gathered around.

April 19 2009; a pulsing rhythm pounded out of hollowed logs accompanies a frenzied dance by dozens of warriors wearing large masks depicting a monstrous bat. All the while, the villagers chant to a charred bat totem at the centre of a huge flaming pyre erected at the foot of the central pyramid. The word they chant is the same one, over and over, “Zotzilaha.” It appeared that the entire village was at the ritual, and as the group approached, the villagers paid no attention to them.

They were at the edge of the ceremony when the effigy flashed with a sudden blast of brilliance. A cascade of sparks and flame from the burning pyre elicits startled screams from the villagers. A shape became momentarily visible in the fire as the effigy itself came to life. A lean humanoid figure covered in short black fur rose from the flames, its head that of a snarling bat with glowing red eyes. Large membranous wings from its back beat against the flames like a bellows, sending hot cinders swirling. The creature shrieked out a short phrase in Olman. Matt Finish understood him to say, “Zotzilaha hears your snivelling prayers! You would appease the Great Bat? Then return what has been stolen or burn!”

Adla was also surprised to understand it and in a flash of realization remembered the bat idol they had recovered from the Shrine of Tamoachan. She felt the weight of it in her pack and sensed that she understood the message in her mind. The bat-like creature then burst into flame, sending a flight of bats with wings of fire spiralling into the air above the effigy. At the same moment, a tremor rumbled through the ground and in the distance to the northwest, the two great volcanoes known as the Fangs of Zotzilaha flashed with fresh plumes of fire and smoke. This sent the villagers into a blind panic. The flame bats then started spreading the word of his displeasure by attacking the villagers and their huts. The group sprang into action and started fighting back as the villagers started screaming and running away. It took the group a few moments to pick their targets and they attacked the bats. Once the flame creatures realized that the group was attacking them, they turned their attention to the group and attacked with a vengeance. They realized that Alarice was a spell-caster when she helped the group during the fight. It took only a few moments for the group to kill the bats and then they proceeded to put out the flames. By now the villagers had fled to their huts and wouldn’t come out. Finally the chieftain of the villagers, a wizened old woman named J’Kal came out to speak with the group.

She thanked them for their help and was very worried about the visitation. Recently the Fangs of Zotzilaha have been shaking the island with tremors and sending thick clouds of ash into the air. Divinations had revealed that Zotzilaha had grown angry over an idol of the bat god stolen from his shrine in the northern volcano Nextepeua (“He Who Rains Ashes”). The villagers had tried to appease Zotzilaha with offerings but Zotzilaha’s wrath grows. If the idol is not found and returned to the shrine, she believed that Nextepeua would erupt and destroy them all. Adla then quietly told Matt that they had the idol, and she thought it might be a good idea to return it. Matt cautiously told her that they thought they had the idol and wanted to return it. She then asked to see it and Adla carefully took it out of her pack and uncovered it. J’Kal gasped and said it was the idol of Zotzilaha and thanked the party for returning it. She then told them that they could follow the main trail to the shrine as it was the only trail that headed west. The group agreed to return it and she then said that they would honour the group with a feast before they returned the idol. She told them that it would be better to leave in the morning as there were too many fierce beasts that lived outside the wall.

During the evening the group was told of the various rumours and happenings around the island. When they asked about the tar pits, they were informed that the trail would branch off to the north and that was the track to the tar pits. They also found out that a tribe of small monkey-like creatures lived somewhere north of the pits and that at one time there was a race of cat-like creatures that had reigned for millennia until they abruptly disappeared during the height of the Olman Empire. Adla felt a stab of fear when she realized that the cat creatures were Rakasta and they had been renowned for their masterwork weapons. She knew her master she had fled from was one of these creatures and she hoped that they didn’t find any of them here on the island.

Wealsun 23, the group headed west just after dawn and walked through the jungle. Occasionally they spotted some very large thunder lizards off in the distance but they stopped and waited for them to move off the trail. It was late in the afternoon when the trail branched off with a smaller trail heading north towards the tar pits but they continued towards the active volcanoes. Every so often they felt the ground rumble as plumes shot up into the air. It seemed the Bat God was indeed angry. They found a quiet spot to camp and the night passed uneventfully.

Wealsun 24, the group continued walking until the afternoon and finally reached the slopes of the volcano. They could clearly see the cavern that marked the entrance to the shrine; its rim was marked with bat carvings and numerous niches for offerings. They could feel the heat coming from the mouth of the cave and Cris’toff and Sable took the time to cast endure elements on the group before they proceeded inside. The tunnel was narrow and winding and quickly headed into the core of the volcano. The heat rose steadily as they walked further and further. About two hours later they finally reached the cavern that contained the shrine. The sloping lava tunnel widens into a large round chamber filled with smoke and ash from fissures riddling the rock walls and floor. A fiery glow and thunderous rumble comes from the west, where rents in the cave wall open directly into the active volcano’s throat. The walls of the cave are riddled with niches, some of which contain offerings of food, trinkets, and animals, while others are empty or contain only ash. Through the haze, an eight-foot-tall bat leers from where it has been carved in relief out of the far wall. The bat’s wings rise over its head, with its claws meeting at a curious shaped niche that appears to be empty.

The heat coming from the lava was intense and the only reason they were still standing there was from the endurance spells cast earlier. As they decided what to do next, a swirl of flame came from the lava and erupted into more of the flame bats. They came into the cavern and flew above the group in circles. Behind the bats appeared a human sized creature with the monstrous head of a bat, razor sharp fangs, and glowing orange eyes. Its wings were large and membranous. It landed inside the cavern and folded its wings behind it as it watched the group. Adla was quick to pull out the idol and the creature looked on with interest as she slowly held it out and walked over to the carving and carefully put it back where it belonged. The guardian gave a sigh of relief and seemed to relax. The flame bats flew back into the volcano as the group watched the wings of the carving shift and reveal the opening behind it. Inside Adla could see items piled up in the room. What caught her eye was a longsword and scabbard that was sitting on a ledge. The blade was fluted and the pummel was orange and red. As they looked the guardian spoke in Common with a deep baritone voice. “Zotzilaha thanks you for returning his treasure. Know, mortals, that Zotzilaha rewards those who serve him. You may each chose something of value from his vault. If you have questions about a prize, you need but ask me. Choose quickly, for you must leave this place before I grow hungry.”

The group looked at it in amazement as Adla stepped in and grabbed the longsword. She stepped back into the main cavern and drew the sword from the scabbard. As she did, flames licked up and down the blade. She looked at the guardian and all it said was, “Flametongue.” She nodded in satisfaction as she attached it to her belt. The rest of the group looked in and they all spotted something they all wanted. For Alarice it was an amulet of health to increase her constitution. Cris’toff spotted a suit of gnome sized mithral breastplate with the symbol of Pelor on the chest. He took it and immediately started to pull off his masterwork armor in order to put on the new suit of mail. Dagnea’s eyes widened in disbelieve when she spotted the dwarven war-axe that was leaning against the wall. It was almost black and engraved on the body was the Hammer of Moradin. She picked it up with a reverence as she realized that it was a relic of Moradin. She looked at the guardian and all it would say was, “Do you truly believe my stout little friend. If so you will awaken the power that sleeps.” She just nodded and sat down to look it over further. She was shocked to recognize the metal as adamantine. Grat found a heavy flail that was Holy so he could hurt evil creatures more. Lucky found a staff of fire and took it.

Matt Finish picked up a ring and when he asked, he was told he would become unseen. He tried the ring on and thought about becoming invisible and faded from sight. The group saw a flash of blue just as he did so and when he reappeared; his hair had turned bright blue. So it looked like the ring might be tainted. He turned invisible again and when he reappeared his hair was still bright blue. Even when he tried to change the color back using an illusion spell it would not change. The rest of the group started snickering at him over it. Sable found a pearl and when he asked, was informed that he could use it to cast a spell he had already cast so they surmised that it was a pearl of power. Now he would have to figure out what level of spell would work. Humphrey looked around and didn’t see anything he liked until he spotted a pair of green leafed sandals sitting in the corner. He picked them up and saw that there was a ring tied to one of the laces and when he showed them and asked, he was told that the sandals would allow him to pass without trace over any terrain. The ring was two colored bands of metal and when he put it on and swung his club the others could see faint bands of dark metal wrapping around his club. They looked around some more and Grat opened up a chest to find it full of platinum coins from a bygone era. No one recognized the symbols on them. Matt found a scrap of leather that appeared to be wrapped around something and he carefully unrolled the leather to find a long tooth inside. When he asked the guardian about it, it looked at it and said it did not know what it was and it wasn’t a pick as far as he was concerned.

The group looked around to see that everyone had picked an item including Churtle and the other cohorts. She had picked up a wicked looking spear and she was wearing some goggles with dark lenses. The rest of them noticed she was no longer flinching from the brightness of the light. Cris’toff was still adjusting his armor when he touched the emblem on the chest and it started to glow. Within moments the symbol was producing light. He nodded in satisfaction as he realized that the armor was enchanted with a daylight spell. The group turned and profusely thanked the bat guardian as they watched the door close after they were done. They turned and started walking back down the slope to the exit. Cris’toff was curious to see how long the light would last as they walked and he kept in on. It lasted over a half-hour before it finally went out and when the tunnel went dark they heard him stumble and cry out. They turned to look and watched as Cris’toff shivered and shimmered for a moment. When they looked again, they were shocked to see that Cris’toff had changed to a female gnome right before their eyes. The armor had also changed to reflect her new sex, another magic item that appeared to be tainted. Cris’toff looked around in amazement to see that she was now a female and said that her new name would be Sparklegem. The group didn’t know what to think but in the end all they could do was shrug and carry on. Finally they came to the exit and all of them were happy to get back into the cooler temperatures again as they headed east back towards Tanaroa. It was going to get dark soon so they decided to find a place to camp for the night. Matt Finish tried some experiments to change his hair color back but he was not successful. After a while he decided there was nothing he could do about the change and being a gnome thought that Garl Glittergold must be having a good chuckle over it.

Wealsun 25, the group woke up and had breakfast before continuing their journey. About midday they came to the branch on the trail and decided to check out the tar pits before they returned to the village, just to see what the pools were all about. They walked for a few hours and they realized they were getting close when the stink of tar started to get stronger and stronger. They came around a small hillock to see a black putrid mass before them. As they watched they could see the occasional bubble come up from below and burst as it hit the surface. The pits looked rather large so the group decided to explore for a time before returning east. About two hours later they started hearing noises in front of them. Then they heard the bellow of something large along with high pitched shrieks of terror and they ran around the mound in front of them to see a massive thunder lizard attacking a bunch of small monkey-like humanoids that the group recognized as phanatons.

As they watched, the massive lizard managed to grab one of the creatures and gulped it down as it roared. The group could see that the T-Rex was missing one of its arms and its right eye was missing. From its description they knew that this was one of the great beasts of the Isle that the Olman's named Temauhti-tecuani. The group charged it without a thought and engaged it. When the massive lizard spotted Humphrey it bellowed in anger and attacked with a vengeance. The rest of the group quickly surrounded it as Grat managed to sneak underneath it to whack it hard with his heavy flail. Adla stepped in and with a mighty slash from her flaming sword managed to hamstring it and knock it prone. Grat however was not as lucky as the massive beast fell down on top of him. The rest of the group ganged up on it as the phanatons started shrieking in excitement and started helping the group by throwing their spears and daggers at the beast. The others watched as the little creatures ran around the perimeter retrieving the weapons that had missed. Finally the group struck the last blow and started to drag the massive body off the now motionless Grat. Sparklegem came up and checked him and they were glad to see that he was still breathing. It looked like luck was with him today as the ground was fairly soft here near the tar pits and he made a very nice depression in the ground. The others started pulling him free as Churtle pulled out her knives and started sharpening them before she went to work removing some of the choice cuts from the beast.

The phanatons let out a massive cheer when the beast dropped and ran up and started stabbing the beast to make sure it was dead. The group managed to get them to back off once Churtle went to work and the little creatures started talking with them in their high pitched voices. Matt Finish was the only one who could talk to them as they only spoke Olman and he managed to get them settled down as they commented on his bright blue hair. They collected the rest of their weapons and then went back to what they had been here for, collecting tar for their village. They were quite animated in their conversations and they were taken aback when they realized that Grat was a much larger version of them. As he was recovering they surrounded him and started touching him and looking at his skin folds in amazement. The rest of the group saw that he must be similar in race to them except for size and coloration. That and the phanatons had tails where Grat did not. At first he didn’t know how to react but they were very inquisitive and started chattering away in a language they couldn’t understand. The creatures then asked the group to accompany them back to their home deep in the jungle.

Sept 20 2009; once Churtle was finished with butchering the beast for some meat, the others helped the critters collect tar from the pits and then Humphrey volunteered to carry it for them. After a quick meal while they were waiting they headed north around the pits and soon headed into the jungle. Once the sun started to set the critters started looking for a place to rest for the night. They headed up into a large tree while the group set up camp. They were occasionally awakened during the night by roars in the distance and it sounded like something was fighting over the large carcass they had left behind.

Wealsun 26, once the group had awakened and had a meal the phanatons led them deeper into the jungle. It was mid-afternoon when the group walked past a damp spot in the jungle and one of the plants suddenly moved and attacked. It looked like a very large Venus flytrap and it managed to wait until the larger humans had walked past and when the gaggle of gnomes came abreast of it, it attacked and swallowed Sable before he could even react. The others screamed out as Sable vanished. The group managed to get up to it and attack it as it managed to grab Sparklegem as swallow her too. Finally the group managed to kill it but not before it sprayed some sort of acid into the air forcing the group to retreat for a few moments when the acid hit their skin. Sparklegem managed to find the unconscious Sable and grabbed him and succeeded in casting a couple of cure spells before he died. Finally Adla managed to cut them out as they checked over the dead plant. The phanatons came down from the trees and looked and all they would say was it was a nasty plant. The group then had to pull out some water skins in order to rinse off Sable. He didn’t look good from the effect of the strong stomach juices that the plant contained.

They then continued north with the group now walking a little slower and watching what they were walking around and over. Finally they noticed the sun starting to set and they stopped to camp again. The phanatons said they would be home by sunset tomorrow. Then they made a meal and settled down for the night. Adla took first watch as the others settled down. The phanatons again headed up into the trees to roost. It was just after dark when Adla noticed one of the trees beside her rustle from wind movement. The strange thing was that there was no wind right now. She was going to rouse Humphrey when she heard a strange voice whisper in her ear. “Master is angry with you. He has sent something to retrieve you. Beware”

Adla then grew worried as she knew how powerful her former master was. He was in the habit of using creatures that couldn’t be seen like air elementals and aerial servants. Then she sensed the thing leaving and settled back down to continue guarding. As she sat there thinking, she remembered a conversation she had heard quite awhile ago about a doorway from her old home of Sigil to somewhere here on the Isle of Dread. She was rather worried about this because she knew her master would be quick to make use of it if he could.

She decided to make sure the camp was secure and spent the remaining hour or so slowly moving around the camp. It was close to midnight when she sensed something approaching and when she finally spotted it. It looked like some sort of a spider with the body of an ox. The thing was very quiet for its size and she realized that it was a retriever, one of the servants from the Lower Planes. She gave a shout as she charged and something flashed on the top of the demons head and she dodged just in time to get a glancing blow from some sort of frost ray. It still chilled her as the demon attacked. The others started waking up and were shocked to see what she was fighting. Humphrey grabbed his great club and charged, foregoing his armor in order to attack. The group managed to kill the demon but not before it hurt a few of the others. As it collapsed the demon told Adla that it was only the first of many. The group checked over the body but it just fell apart into pieces, and the pieces were metallic. This was a construct. The group then went back to sleep and waited for the morning.

Wealsun 27, once the group awakened and had their morning meal they continued walking through the jungle. It was late afternoon when the phanatons informed the group that they were just around the corner from home. They started chattering away in their language as the group watched more of them appear out of the jungle to surround them as they came into a large clearing surrounded by large trees. Looking up the group could see that the village was up high in the trees. The group that had accompanied them headed up into the trees and soon a rope ladder was let down so the humans could climb up to the first platform.

The group climbed up and looked around the settlement. It looked like everything was up at this level. Near one edge of the platform was a metal brazier on which some wood was burning. On the fire were some interesting things cooking away. The group just looked around until the phanatons started getting excited and the group could see another smaller cluster of them coming from one of the other platforms. Soon the platform was covered in the little creatures as they waited for their leader to appear.

Once again Matt Finish was pressed into translating duty as the creatures only spoke Olman. The leader finally appeared and was introduced as Teketek. The scouts that had brought back the group started talking a mile a minute and the group then heard a great shout from the tribe when they found out that the group had slain the dreaded thunder beast that had inhabited the tar pits. Then Humphrey set down the tar that they had collected for the creatures. Teketek was highly pleased with the help and told the tribe to go gather dinner. He then told the group that they were now honoured guests for the night and they would hold a great feast in their honour. The group then settled down on the platform and waited for the gatherers to return. Churtle then nudged Humphrey and asked him for some of the meat she had harvested days before. He was quick to bring out some of the T-Rex and Churtle started preparing it for dinner. The phanatons were extremely curious about some of the gear that the group had and they quickly realized this when Humphrey spotted a few of them looking over a dagger. He looked down to see that his sheath was empty and realized that the dagger was his. In fact all of the others had to start watching what the little creatures were looking at. They gave back all the stuff they were looking over and the group had to be careful about the stuff that was visible to them. They didn't seem to go through the packs but were extremely curious about the stuff hanging on their belts and packs. 

The group was then given some of the things that had been cooking away. Some they recognized as insects but the others they had no idea what they were. The group was polite and did try the various samples that were offered. Sparklegem ate something that didn’t agree with her and she was violently ill from it. The others had a great laugh over her bending over the rail losing her dinner. Churtle had been fascinated by some of the foodstuffs and almost forced Matt to translate what the hunters were telling her about edible foods in the jungle. After the dinner was done the group was then informed that they were tribe friends of the phanatons and all were given handmade bracelets to wear. They were covered in little trinkets that the phanatons said that other tribes would recognize.

Adla then carefully broached the subject of the forthcoming raid to Farshore and Teketek agreed to send a group of his best hunters south to help the humans. They knew that the village was there by talking to the Olman tribesmen that they occasionally encountered. When Adla asked about the cat-men that had lived on the island, Teketek told them that the cat people hadn’t been seen for years and he thought they were gone. He told them that one of the cat people’s temples was located about three days travel to the north-west. When Adla asked about help finding it, Teketek told her that if they could slay the thunder lizard so easily, they didn’t need the phanatons help.

            The one thing he could warn them about was that the cat-men were known to use colourful feathered serpents as guardians. The group thought they knew what the serpents were and were worried about having to fight one. Humphrey spotted Churtle showing the phanatons some sort of knife. When he asked her where it had come from, all Churtle would say was that she had found it in the thunder beast. Looking at the dagger, they recognized it as a kukri, a foreign dagger. The blade was much darker than normal and they weren’t too sure what the material was. Humphrey gave the blade back to her as she tucked it back in her belt. The rest of the night passed by as the group settled down to sleep.

Sept 27 2009; Wealsun 28, the group awakened and were fed breakfast and after confirming which direction to travel by using Humphrey’s club they headed deeper into the jungle. They carefully walked through the jungle, stopping every so often to check out some new plants or foodstuffs that the phanatons had identified the night before. Sable was unsure about some of the plants as everything was unfamiliar to him. They stopped for lunch and then continued on. Then they stopped for dinner and decided to keep going and it was just before sunset when the group walked past a large plant that was covered in sticky tendrils. When Grat went to walk past it, a sticky tendril snapped out and grabbed him and wrapped him up. Adla was the only one to see this as the others were behind her and the foliage was too thick to see through. She moved forward to support Grat as the others were alerted to something wrong up ahead. Adla then attacked the plant and she was grabbed and sucked into it. Even when Humphrey came up and attacked it, he was also grabbed and pulled into the plant. Even with his size and strength he was no match for the plant. Sable cast a flame spell on the plant and it didn’t even singe it. Finally the rest of the group managed to support the others and finally the plant shuddered and flopped over on the trio that were entangled in it. The other thing that hurt was the sticky substance on the plant was acidic and it hurt the group from it.

They finally pulled out the three and they were forced to drag Humphrey out from underneath the pile of plant matter. Once everyone was recovered, Sable took a look at the plant and figured out that it was some sort of a sundew plant, except that it was huge in comparison to what he had seen before. This jungle was nasty. Sparklegem created a few gallons of water so they could clean off the acid and they continued for another hour before stopping to camp.

Richfest 1, the group awakened and continued on through the jungle, stopping every couple of hours or so to rest for a time before continuing. It was hot and humid inside the jungle and the moisture was everywhere. They managed to make it to nightfall with no encounters and rested for the night.

Richfest 2, the group continued on and it was just before sunset when they stumbled across the remains of a settlement. After looking around they figured that they had found the abandoned village of the cat-men and they started exploring the area. Soon they found the long abandoned ziggurat and curtain wall around it. It was massively overgrown with vines and trees and the ziggurat inside was hard to discern from all the growth on it. It was going to get dark soon so the group decided to back off and camp for the night. At least here they could find a flat and relatively dry spot to rest for the night. All around them was the foundations of building so they found places to rest. Churtle started a fire and made dinner for the group and then they settled down for the night. Most of the night passed quietly until just before dawn. Bucky and Matt Finish took last watch and since the clouds started rolling in, they couldn’t see much in the jungle. The fire was banked and didn’t give off much light. Bucky had to answer a call of nature and went around an outcropping to relieve himself when Matt heard him give a gurgle. He went running over to check it out and managed to kick Sable to wake him up as he rounded the corner and saw Bucky trapped in the fangs of a massive tarantula spider. He gave a yell as he went to attack it. As Sable woke up and realized that something was up, he cast a call lightning spell and dropped it right into the camp to wake everyone up. Everyone except Humphrey who was snoring so loudly that he didn’t hear the lightning bolt hit.

Richfest 3, The group started waking up to hear Matt screaming for help. As the others went to assist him, they were shocked to see the size of the spider. As they watched, Matt was bitten and immediately started turning an interesting shade of green from the vile poison being pumped into his veins. The others finally managed to get up to the spider and started attacking it. Soon it collapsed from the blows and dropped dead. Sable then walked over to Matt and cast a neutralize poison before Matt dropped over from the effects. Then they looked over the spider and they couldn’t believe how big the spider was. After dragging the body off some distance they decided to make breakfast and waited for daybreak before exploring the temple. Grat got bored while waiting and looked over the walls. Tall niches along its walls hold moss-covered statues of men with jaguar heads. A natural curtain of thick vines and creepers hang over the wide opening at the base of the southern wall. Grat searched around some more and found signs of battle; statues with deep gouges, strange bones of catlike humanoids, and other telltale remnants of the assault. He brought Adla over to take a look at the bones and she had no idea what they were from.

Once breakfast was done and everyone had regained their spells they headed towards the entrance in the walls. Grat was in the lead and he walked up to the vine curtain and stopped to look inside. He didn’t know what made him pause but after a few moments he was very glad he did. Looking around he suddenly realized that what he was seeing was part of a massive snake that was coiled up around the top of the entrance. He could only see a small part of the body but it looked to be at least six to eight feet around and he couldn’t guess how long it was. He carefully backed off and alerted the others that a huge snake was just inside. The others slowly moved up and they identified it as an anaconda, and it was the largest snake any of them had ever seen. They debated what to do next and even asked Sable if he could try to talk to it seeing he was a druid. He thought about it and even went over to see how big it was and he returned to the group with his eyes wide in shock. If that thing grabbed him he would be a goner.

Oct 4 2009; the group discussed what to do and finally decided to see if Sable could talk to it. So taking a deep breath, Sable carefully walked through the arch and stopped and then turned to the right. Grat was curious and snuck up to the corner of the archway and waited for Sable. A few seconds later they could hear the sounds of scales whispering as a massive head appeared in front of Sable. He spoke up and said that the snake was hungry and was looking at him as a meal. They quickly got Humphrey to take out a chunk of T-Rex meat and he tossed it down in front of the snake. It looked from Sable to the meat as it looked around. Grat was shocked when the snake moved and stopped right in front of him and he watched as the tongue flicked out and slid across his face before it slid back into its mouth. The snake then eased back towards Sable and its mouth opened and it swallowed the chunk of meat and then eased back up onto the wall to digest its meal.

The group then slowly moved inside the walls. Shafts of light from broken portions of the wall and ceiling thirty feet above illuminate this large open chamber within the crumbling pyramid. The walls are covered with faded murals and bas-relief carvings, while the centre of the room is filled with a variety of antique totemic statues facing a central platform supporting a large jade figurine of a jaguar—these statues seem curiously untouched by the passage of time and retain the finest lines of detail, as if the unknown sculpture had finished the job only yesterday. Grat took the lead and slowly approached the statue. Just as he got to the edge of the building, his foot went right through the ground and he almost fell forwards. He stopped and crouched down and was amazed as his hand went right through the ground. He slowly put his head through and was shocked to find a massive pit below him filled with stagnant water. Adla soon joined him and they could then see the other side of the pit where a platform stood about thirty feet below them. Carved into the side of the pit were notches that led down to the platform. They also spotted some snakes swimming in the water and lying on the platform.

Sable took a look and he told them that the snakes were vipers and highly poisonous. They decided to cast a fireball down to the platform to remove the snakes and then moved around to the other side of the pit and started climbing down. They all managed to get down to the platform and looked at the gently sloping tunnel winding downward into darkness. The walls of the tunnel are riddled with niches filled with ancient statues of jaguars, looking down from their perches. Their eyes glitter with red, blue, and green gemstones. They could also see snakes curled up in various spots of the tunnel. Grat slowly started walking into the tunnel and carefully avoided the snakes. The tunnel curled around until it opened into a large chamber.

Flickering torches in bamboo sconces light this tall chamber. The walls are adorned with murals of armoured men and women with the heads of cats, fighting against troglodytes, dinosaurs, and other less-identifiable demonic monsters. In some scenes, the cat-folk ride large sabre-toothed tigers, while in others they worship at large pyramids. Ancient pillars carved in leafy patterns support the twenty-foot high ceiling and surround a bamboo platform covered in reed mats. Grat and Adla looked around and didn’t see anything moving. As they stood there, the group heard a voice inside their heads. “Who daress dissturb my sslumber,” the sibilant voice asked. Adla stepped up and respectfully asked who was there. Moments later a large feathered snake draped in rainbow colors and wings came into view on the platform. The group recognized the snake as a Couatl, or feathered snake. They were acknowledged as loyal servants of the Olman deities and were not to be trifled with foolishly.

Adla took the lead and spoke to the snake. She asked the snake what it was doing there and it said that it was the guardian of the Temple of the Jaguar and the contents it contained. The others slowly moved into the room and Matt Finish couldn’t believe that he was actually looking at a symbol of the Olman gods. Adla then asked if it could help them and it viewed the group with disdain and informed Adla that it did not consort with Evil. It was looking directly at Churtle when it said this and Adla told Humphrey to remove Churtle from the area. Humphrey grumbled a bit but he didn’t like the looks of the snake and he took Churtle and went back to the surface. Once she was gone, the snake seemed mollified and started talking to the group. Adla took some time to explain their situation and it didn’t help matters when Sable spoke up and asked if he could have a ride on the snake. It was not impressed by him and Sable decided that discretion was the better part of valour today as he shut up.

Adla was quite polite in telling the snake that they were looking for weapons to help their village defend itself against the pirate raiders that were going to attack in a few weeks. She seemed to impress the snake as it sat there listening to her story. After she was done, it gave a sigh and settled down onto the platform. It then said that it had grown tired of guarding the temple these many decades since the cat-men had been wiped out by what it called skinwalkers. Adla realized that these skinwalkers had to be pretty tough in order to wipe out a settlement of cat-men. She finally convinced the snake to allow them to take the armoury of weapons it was guarding. It slithered over to the wall and pressed its nose onto a section of wall and the group watched the platform rise to the ceiling. It then told the group that it was ready to return home to seek atonement for its failure.

As it faded away, three of its tail feathers detached and fell to the ground. It told the group that if they cast planer ally and used its feather as a component that it would appear to try and help them. As it faded away, it said its name was Tonatiuh. The group then looked over the stockpile. They could see racks of war claws, spiked gauntlets fashioned to look like tiger claws, longbows, arrows, shortspears, longspears, and javelins. Sitting in front of the racks on a low plinth were three weapons that were much nicer than the others. They were a war claw, longbow and greatsword. The group quickly realized that all the weapons were masterwork. Matt and Sparklegem came up and started using their enchanted haversacks in order to store them. They also looked over the three special weapons and Adla took the greatsword as no one else seemed to want it. Lucky picked up the longbow and Sparklegem took the war claw. They managed to store all of the weapons and then found the button to lower the platform back in place. Then they headed back to the surface. They quickly noticed that all of the snakes that had been in the passageway were now gone.

They found Churtle and Humphrey tucked in the corner as far away from the anaconda as they could get. Churtle had a small fire going and was making lunch. They decided to stop and eat before they headed back towards the phanaton village.

Richfest 5, it was just before dark when the group made it back to the phanatons. They were ecstatic to see the group so soon and the group informed them that they had found the abandoned temple and spoken with the guardian. They told them that the guardian was now gone as it had returned to its own plane of existence and they were now heading back to Farshore. Teketek told the group that his group of noble warriors was preparing to head south and they would meet up with the group at Farshore.

Richfest 6, the group headed south soon after dawn and made good time for a few hours until they encountered another ambulatory plant that attacked the group as they walked by. Grat was the guinea pig as the plant attacked him when he walked past it. The rest of the group came up to support him and Sable cast call lightning but the group was rather shocked to see nothing happen to the plant when the bolt hit home. Once he got a good look at it, he recognized it as a shambling mound. A plant based creature immune to lightning. They finally managed to kill it but not before it severely wounded Grat. Sparklegem cast a couple cure spells on him as the others looked over the now rotting mass of plants.

Oct 11 2009; the group took a moment to regroup and Adla and Grat started looking over the carcass. They were on either side of the mound and Adla was poking her sword around when she found something that was harder than the rest of the mound. She slowly uncovered something cloth covered and realized that her sword had cut through what appeared to be a bag of holding. The fabric started peeling away and smoking and see spotted something metallic in the bag. She reached down and grabbed whatever it was and gave a heave. It was a suit of plate armor and she pulled it free just as the bag collapsed with a loud pop. She fell over with a clatter as the armor fell on her. Everyone else came running over to see what the noise was and were amazed to see her with the armor. Once she got to her feet and started checking the armor, she was happy to see that only a small part of the heel had been damaged by the implosion. She then took the time to put the armor on and with the help of the others was soon dressed in full plate. She put her chain shirt into her pack and the group continued walking.

Reaping 2, after walking past the tar pits, the group had no encounters and finally could see the great wall and the lookouts on top of it. They were quickly let in through the gate and into the village of Tanaroa. The elders were very happy that the rumblings of the Fire God had stopped soon after the group had encountered the Aspect of Zotzilaha. The group was just happy to be able to rest for the night without something trying to eat them.

Reaping 5, the group finally made it back to Farshore. The village was busy repairing and building upgrades to some of the buildings. The group was happy to get back to their temporary home. After a day of rest, the group split up to help with some of the projects that the villagers were working on. Grat helped out with the armourer for a week while he got his enchanted leather armor altered so he could wear it. Adla spent the week trying to find recruits for the militia which currently stood at 18 members. She also spent some time around the village promoting Lady Lavinia for the upcoming election for Lord Mayor of Farshore. The villagers had all been commenting about how big the village was getting and wanting to elect a Mayor for the first time. The only candidates for the position were Lord Manthalay and Lady Lavinia. The decided voters for the two were almost equal with quite a few undecided voters.

Lucky and Lamar were put in charge of building another watch tower and figured it would take about three weeks to build. Sparklegem spent her time around the chapel and was able to cast a hallow spell on the graveyard and the chapel. She was extremely exhausted after casting the two spells and needs lots of rest after each spell as the spells took a day to cast each time. When she woke up from casting her second hallow spell, there was a weather beaten Halfling sitting in the chair keeping an eye on her. She didn’t know who he was but asked for his help in getting a drink of water and then using the facilities to freshen up. After she was finally awake, he introduced himself as Hap Shaunessy and it appeared that he worshipped Pelor. He told her that he had been sent to serve her after the twins left her service. He was wearing leather and had a rapier slung over his back. He was wearing the disk of Pelor but it was made of a strange wood that Sparklegem didn’t recognize. Alarice spent her time in the Last Coconut, the only building in the village that served as a bar.

Humphrey got bored and managed to convince Matt Finish and Sable to accompany him along with Churtle south into the interior of the island of Temute to investigate the tribe of bullywugs that had been harassing the foresters that had been trying to harvest some wood for the village. It took them a day to walk to the edge of the swamp and just before dusk they encountered the creatures. They turned out to be a tribe of troglodytes and they attacked Humphrey as soon as he came within range of them. They had some pretty large lizards that they had tamed and they also attacked the group. Thankfully they had Sable and Matt along and they made short work of the trogs and the lizards. They then rested for the night and were attacked by a group of bullywugs that attacked during the night. These were killed off and in the morning the four of them walked back to Farshore happy that they had solved one problem.

Oct 18 2009; Reaping 12, the second week passed by with the group continuing what they had been doing. Late in the week the group that had left to collect tar from the tar pits returned with a nice load of tar in barrels. Lavinia then asked the group when they were planning on getting the Sea Wyvern back and they agreed to leave once most of their work was done at the end of the week. Lavinia wanted to use the Blue Nixie to return a load of trade goods to Sassarine before the weather worsened too much, so the group finished off what they were doing which was not much this week. Lucky and Lamar had some problems with the watch tower and decided to let someone else take over the construction. Adla, Humphrey and Matt Finish spent the week promoting Lavinia for Mayor and seemed to sway quite a few undecided votes. Sparklegem spent some time in the infirmary helping to stock up on supplies. Grat and Sable spent the week down at the docks looking to see what they could do to slow down the pirates when they attacked. They even took some time to plant some foliage along the water so that Sable could influence them when the time was right. They also managed to get Dranys Sellis the local dwarven carpenter to accompany them so he could repair the Sea Wyvern as none of the group knew how to work with wood. Sable had a few spells that he thought would help once they got there and started the repairs.

There were some problems with Alarice in the Last Coconut when she was accused of cheating at cards and finally she was told to never come back into the bar ever again. By now everyone was familiar with her and was not fooled by her childlike appearance.   

Reaping 19, the group departed in the Blue Nixie for their trip around the island. It was smooth sailing for the three and a half days it took to sail where the Sea Wyvern was beached. It was almost dusk when they came to the edge of the cape around where the ship was beached. They decided to anchor the Blue Nixie for the night and wait until morning to investigate.

Reaping 23, it was still dark when the wind started to freshen off the water and by the time dawn broke there were gale force winds blowing in from the south east. The anchor held on the Nixie, though the rope creaked a little bit from the strain of the wind. The group was awake soon after dawn with a couple of the party members feeling a little queasy from the up and down motion of the ship. Alarice woke up from her trance and wondered what all the fuss was about with the rocking boat. The crew wouldn’t even launch the longboat as they said the water was too rough. Sable then cast control winds and soon there was a circle of calm water around the boat. The crew then launched the longboat and the group then hopped in. Humphrey grabbed the oars as it was much easier to row without hindrance from the others.

They decided to leave all the cohorts on the ship just in case something attacked it while they were gone and took only Dranys with them to look over the ship. Adla slipped into the water and using her cloak turned into a manta-ray and led the longboat around the corner. Their first look at the Sea Wyvern was not a good one. The time they had been gone had not been kind to the ship and the group could see even more damage to the ship. Dranys started muttering to himself and pulled out a small notepad to start scribbling notes. Most of the rigging and some of the support stays were gone. The masts were still in one piece but that was it. The hull was missing large pieces and it’s a good thing the group had brought quite a bit of wood for the repairs.

Adla was carefully looking around and she spotted something at the edge of her vision. All she could see was a large body with very big fins. It swam away from her as they slowly got closer to the Wyvern. Then she spotted the creature again and as it approached she could see it was some sort of aquatic dinosaur and it was massive. Its fins were over ten feet long and the neck was over half the body in length. It spotted Adla in ray form and it started swimming towards her and as it got close enough, she could see the dagger length teeth in its maw. Adla pulled out her sword and shield and prepared to defend herself as the creature suddenly lunged at her and struck her once savagely as it swam by. She returned the favour and smacked it a few times before it suddenly dove down and away from Adla leaking blood as it did. She could also see a pair of arrows sticking out of a fin and surmised that one of the others must have seen it breach the surface and nailed it.

Sparklegem took the time to cast water walk on the group but didn’t tell Humphrey. The others were busy looking around for something to attack but after the first flash they didn’t see anything else. Adla continued swimming closer to the Wyvern and she spotted something that she didn’t like as the shape of a massive shark appeared in the distance. It rapidly closed in on Adla and attacked. The mouth was larger than Adla in ray form and she didn’t want to be eaten alive by the thing.

Oct 25 2009; Adla smacked the shark and it didn’t like the blow and rapidly disappeared into the water. Adla kept swimming towards the Sea Wyvern and spotted something underneath the hold. It was humanoid in shape but green and with aquatic limbs. As Adla approached she watched it gesture towards her and she felt something happening to her. She managed to throw off the effect and attacked the thing. She hit it a few times and forced it to back off and it changed shape into a giant squid and retreated into the deep water after ejecting black ink into the water to hide its retreat. She looked around but couldn’t see anything else in the water except for some sharks that were circling off in the distance. The rest of the group brought the longboat up to the stern of the Wyvern and found some rope to tie off and proceeded to check out the Wyvern. Grat spotted the conflict under the ship but the creature had had enough and retreated from Adla as he watched. The wind started to die down and by noon had settled to a stiff breeze. The group started checking over the ship and Dranys figured it would take a week to ten days to repair the ship. Later that afternoon the Blue Nixie came around the point and was soon alongside the Wyvern. They spent the rest of the day unloading the materials to repair the ship and then they told the Blue Nixie to return to Farshore as they would bring the Wyvern back when they were done. As they looked over the ship, they could see that the creature had been using the flooded lower hold as a residence. There was evidence that it was making some sort of amulet but Matt Finish had no idea what it would be. They spent the night on the ship.

Reaping 27, Adla was patrolling in the water when she spotted the large aquatic dinosaur approaching with the smaller creature behind it. Adla headed towards them and the large dinosaur surged in to attack her as the other one headed towards the surface to do something. The group was unaware that anything was happening until a bolt of lightning hit the deck of the ship as the others started looking around for the cause. Grat and Humphrey finally spotted the head of the creature about one hundred yards away and as they watched another bolt of lightning hit the deck. Grat manned the forward ballista and took a shot at the thing. He missed horribly as the others came on deck to see what was going on. By now Adla had attacked the dinosaur and forced it to retreat as she turned her attention towards the other one. She watched as the creature changed into a giant squid again and faded off into the deep water. She then managed to spot the large shark that came at her from behind. It attacked her once and then faded off into the water following the other ones. Matt finish had become bored with the ship and spent his time wandering around the beach as the others repaired the ship. Sable and Sparklegem aided the carpenter with a couple of spells that helped rebuilt.

Goodmonth 2, now they had to wait for high tide in order to float the Sea Wyvern. Once they had patched the hull it didn’t take long to pump out the water and as the tide came in they finally managed to float it free of the reefs. They managed to anchor it just off the beach and spent a day fitting the rigging and sails back up. Grat took a couple others onto the beach and dug up their loot that they had stashed when they had wrecked. While they were digging, Matt Finish thought he saw someone watching them from the jungle but when they investigated they couldn’t see anyone. They got all the stuff back to the ship and loaded it and prepared to wait until morning before sailing south.

Goodmonth 7, they spent the time sailing repairing all the small stuff that needed to be done like rigging the other masts as they were only using the main mast for now. They arrived at Farshore at noon and slowly eased into the harbour. They noticed the new guard tower was finished and some of the other things had been done. They quickly noticed that the Blue Nixie was not there and wondered if it had headed back to Sassarine. Looked towards the warehouses, it appeared that the one warehouse was now empty and there was space on the docks. They wondered who Lavinia had got to captain the ship. They eased into the dock and tied up and disembarked the Wyvern to greet the townsfolk and friends as they stepped onto dry land. The big excitement was that the council had decreed the vote for mayor was to be held the next day. When they inquired about the Blue Nixie, they found out that the ship had left a few days ago headed for Sassarine. Lavinia had managed to find a navigator for the ship and Dagnea had agreed to Captain the ship as no one else was available, now to wait for six months for the ship to return.

Goodmonth 8, the vote for Mayor of Farshore was held at noon and it looked like everyone that was eligible to vote was going to. The polling place was the Hall of Records and the vote was quite simple. Everyone was given two pebbles, one black and one white. The black one was for Lord Manthalay and the white one was for Lady Lavinia. People were told to put the corresponding color pebble for their vote in the canister that was provided in the Hall. It took a few hours for everyone to vote. Humphrey’s Hero’s had to petition the council before they were considered eligible for voting but their followers were not. So in the end the group voted and they all voted for Lavinia. Then the vote was counted and Lady Lavinia won by less than 18 votes. The group was glad that they had campaigned for her before they had left as this seemed to swing the election. Soon Jerim Emrikad, the keeper of records came out of the hall and announced that Lady Lavinia had won the election for Lord Mayor and she then gave a victory speech seeing as most of the village was standing around waiting for the results. She publicly thanked the group for their help and said that she looked forward to leading Farshore into the future.

Lord Manthalay was not very happy and he positively glared at the group when he left the gathering and was seen to be muttering to himself as he left. The party was soon in full swing as the villagers celebrated the election of Lavinia. Matt Finish cast a spell on Alarice to change her appearance as she was not allowed in the Coconut.

            Goodmonth 9, the group spent the morning looking at beefing up the defences as they waited for word of the pirate attack. Sparklegem cast glyph’s of warding down at the docks after discussing it with Grat and Sable. It was about noon when one of the scout ships raced into the harbour and started shouting out that a fleet of five ships could be seen approaching from the south-east. It appeared that the pirates were showing up a few days earlier than planned. Now to figure out where everyone would set up to help defend Farshore.

Nov 1 2009; Humphrey, Lucky, Lamar, and Sable set up on the Sea Wyvern that was tied up and the end of the dock. They decided to use the ballistae that were at the front and rear of the ship. Humphrey manned the front and the others manned the rear. Matt Finish along with Bucky and Alarice stood down near the docks watching for opportunities. Grat hopped up on one of the buildings and watched from the roof. Sparklegem ended up at the Last Coconut and waited for the injured to come to her. Adla swam into the water with some surprises in store for the pirates. Sparklegem had managed to cast her glyphs onto some large spikes and Adla was going to try and spike the boats to blow some holes into the ships. She figured they would work better than putting them on some of the piers.

The five ships stopped about one thousand feet away and long-boats filled with pirates started hitting the water and they started paddling towards shore. Adla managed to swim under the nearest boat and using the spikes succeeded in blowing two large holes into the ship and it started sinking fast. The men onboard started abandoning ship as Adla continued on to the next one. She succeeded in using the last two to hole two other ships as she spotted that druid they had driven off days ago at the wreck. The druid attacked with its dinosaur pet and she was forced to attack them instead of the boats. She killed the dinosaur and then had to defend herself from the shark that attacked from behind. She killed it and turned to engage the druid just as it gestured at her and she abruptly stopped as a strange thought pattern invaded her mind and stunned her. Somehow this creature had managed to get through her defences and all she could do was look at the beast in stunned horror.

Humphrey launched some shots with the ballista and managed to hit a few of the long-boats as they approached and Lucky launched off a fireball and was very shocked to see a fireball come shooting in from one of the pirate ships off in the distance. The range was way too far for a fireball to hit so he wasn’t too sure what was going on. When he cast another fireball, a second one came in and struck the rear of the ship again. They got worried about the Sea Wyvern and decided to debark the vessel before it burned up. The crew set about trying to put the flames out as they headed towards the pier. Matt Finish and Alarice were also casting fireballs and they had the misfortune to have a fireball come rocketing in on them and exploded right in their faces. Alarice was forced to retreat as Matt had to help Bucky back from the shore. They didn’t know who was launching the spells at them but they were very effective in damaging the group. By now they could see the ships approaching. In fact as they watched they could see the water rise up in a wave and it started pushing two of the pirate ships closer but by the time they got close enough, one of them was damaged from the two fireballs and a flame strike that had struck it. The two rearmost ships were also moving forward but one of them had been breached from Adla so had slowed down quite a bit.

Adla got close enough to the flagship to see some sort of demonic creature standing on the quarterdeck and she also spotted three creatures that she recognized as Vrocks. They disappeared from the ship as she watched but she couldn’t do anything about it. In fact she couldn’t even tell anyone as she was dealing with the druid. She finally managed to break its mental hold on her when it tried to get her to attack her friends. Then she attacked the creature as it started to fight back.

Nov 8 2009; Adla finally managed to kill the druid but not before it managed to get some sharks to attack her. The rest of the group retreated from the shore as the wall of water raced in. Sparklegem and Hap ran into the Coconut and prepared for the wave. Alarice decided to head to high ground and raced around the Coconut and stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted three vulture headed demons holding hands and doing some sort of dance. She didn’t spot the other one and it attacked her and had her in a merciless grip before she could react. Matt Finish had raced out to the end of the dock to cast some spells and when he spotted the wave he turned and raced back to shore as fast as he could. Bucky had been standing in front of the Coconut and prepared to retreat as the wall of water approached. Grat was watching from the roof of a warehouse and watched as everyone started retreating from shore. Humphrey took a quick look and decided to brace himself as the water approached. Lucky and Lamar ran as fast as they could as Sable waited and changed shape into an otter as the water hit and rode the wave.

Grat had been watching the water approaching and had been alerted about the demons and jumped off the roof and glided down to the Coconut and then charged between the buildings to see the demons and charged right up to attack them. The three were still doing their dance as he approached and attacked. Then they all stamped their right foot into the ground with a loud shriek and Grat felt the power of their dance and was forced to dive in between them in order to avoid the damage.           

As the wave crashed ashore, Alarice’s now lifeless body was tossed aside by a rag doll as Bucky came around the corner of the building and spotted the trio of demon’s dancing and turned to alert the others. He managed to spot Humphrey preparing to meet the water and started running towards him screaming at the top of his lungs about demons. Humphrey was watching the water approach and only turned to look at Bucky as he braced himself. Lucky and Lamar kept running as fast as they could.

The wave hit with a crash and came ashore like a herd of stampeding thunder beasts. It picked up everyone and flung them inland from the harbour. Humphrey started swimming with the water and spotted a gap between buildings and headed towards it. As he was swimming, he felt a tug on his ankle and managed to see Bucky clinging to him like a leach. It seemed like forever but was only a few seconds before the wave lost impedance and started to die down. He felts something hit him in the water but managed to shrug off whatever it was. Sparklegem was in the Coconut when something seemed to slam into the building and knocked over everyone that was in the room except for her and Hap. The force threw them into the front wall as the effect had come from behind them. Then the door of the Coconut burst open as water started rushing in.

Adla continued fighting the druid and the sharks but managed to see the demon flying towards shore from the flagship and decided to head back and help out. She finally killed the druid and then was forced to kill one of the sharks and then hit the others until they withdrew and started swimming back to shore as fast as she could. Humphrey managed to come to his feet and spotted the demons and roared out in anger as he started to charge towards them. With the water still swirling around his ankles he got close enough to whack one of them. Bucky had gotten to his feet and was wading through the water to support Humphrey. Lucky and Lamar finally came out of the water near the back of the village and spotting the demons started running that way to attack them. Matt Finish was finally standing up and checking to see that everything was still intact. The group was now attacking the demons when they all just disappeared. Humphrey had gone into rage and started looking around for them. He headed towards the docks growling to himself in his anger. Sparklegem was busy casting cure spells on herself and Hap as they started trying to recover from whatever had hit them. She looked out the window just in time to see another demon approaching from the water as Adla came into the harbour and waited for the Vrocks to reappear.

Nov 15 2009; the Vrocks reappeared and started attacking by singling out the lone party members. Two of them attacked Humphrey and Grat as Adla finally swam out of the water at the docks and helped the other two attack the demons. Meanwhile the other two appeared right behind Lucky and Lamar and attacked the two of them. Bucky came up to support them as Matt headed towards the fight. He watched in horror as one of the demons turned and picked up Bucky and started hacking him to pieces. It then disappeared with Bucky in its grasp as the other one faded away. Lucky and Lamar then started running towards the docks to help as they watched the two demons burst apart from the attacks of the others. Matt then heard the noise of something dropping behind him and turned just in time to be attacked by the demon after it dropped the lifeless body of Bucky on the ground. He was fortunate that he had a stone skin spell on him as it protected him from the worst of the damage. Lucky and Lamar turned to help Matt as the demon disappeared again.

The group watched the large demon flying over head towards Lavinia’s manor house as they decided what to do next. As Grat and Adla started running inland, they spotted four humanoid type creatures battering at the warehouse by the docks. The militia rushed up to engage and soon retreated in disarray as their blows appeared not to hurt them. Humphrey spotted half-dozen pirates that had staggered out of their longboat and moved forwards to attack him. He took out his frustrations on them and they were soon dead. He then got nailed by a fireball from the ship and moved around to the side of the warehouse to get out of sight of the spell caster. He then dropped out of rage and sat down, suddenly exhausted. Adla move to attack the other things and recognized them as flesh golems. Two of them turned their attentions toward her as the other two attacked the militia on the other side. Adla finally killed the two that had attacked her but not before being nailed a couple of times from their fists and taking another fireball from the ship and she scurried around the warehouse to get out of the way.

All the others spotted the big flying demon and had started running towards Lavinia as fast as they could. Humphrey took a few moments to slam back a couple potions of curing before he spotted some more pirates that were headed towards him. Adla also took a moment to change weapons before she attacked the remaining golems. Humphrey then dealt with the pirates attacking him and then looked around to see where the others were. He heard Adla fighting the golems and headed over to help her and got nailed by a fireball as he passed between the warehouses. He kept running until he was hidden by the building and stopped to suck back another potion of curing before helping Adla.

The rest of the group ran towards Lavinia’s manor house and arrived in time to see the demon coming to rest in front of Lavinia and the four members of the Jade Ravens. They were Tolin the warrior, Zan the rogue, Kaskus the druid, and Liamae the sorceress. Grat was the first to arrive and heard Lavinia cry out in horror as she recognized the demon as her brother Vanthus. Somehow he had been changed into something demonic and he snarled and cursed at her and the others as Grat came up from behind to attack. Tolin realized who he was and charged forward to attack and Vanthus took out his frustrations on him and quickly cut him in half as the remaining Vrock suddenly appeared beside Zan and quickly knocked him unconscious. Liamae then tried to help Zan and she was knocked down. Kaskus stood there indecisive and finally stepped up and cast a cure on Zan when the Vrock turned its attentions to Grat as Vanthus waited for someone else to attack him.

The remaining party members finally got to the compound and Lucky and Lamar charged up and started attacking Vanthus. He then flew straight up into the air about 30 feet and sat there hovering while he gave a demonic grin and reached into his pouch and pulled out a sphere about four inches big and very black and shiny. He then held his arm that was still dripping blood from one of the slashes he had taken and the group heard the blood hit the sphere and started giving off a foul green smoke. He then laughed at the group as they watched in horror and finally recognized it as a shadow pearl, the same thing that had destroyed everything at Kraken’s cove. Then as they watched a fireball came in from the water and exploded below Vanthus but Grat managed to evade it without damage as the others looked around. That mage out in the water was starting to get annoying.

Nov 22 2009; the group moved up to support Lavinia and the others as Vanthus started taunting his sister. He then dropped the pearl and it headed towards the ground. Lucky cast mage hand and prevented it from hitting the ground as he started yelling for someone to get out a bag of holding or some other type of extra-dimensional space. Matt then reached over his shoulder to open a pouch in his enchanted haversack and pulled out his pearl of power as he yelled to Lucky to get it over to him.

Unfortunately this attracted the attention of the Vrock and it moved to attack him. It nailed him once hard enough to knock him out as Grat tried to prevent it. Sparklegem cast magic weapon and started using it on the demons but was not very successful. Sable cast a flame spell but it failed to do any damage as demons are mostly immune to fire. Vanthus then flew down to the ground and started attacking the group. Then he paused and his eyes blinked for a moment and some of the group fell under his evil power as he suggested that they “Go away.” Lucky and Sable were effected along with Liamae and Zan. The Vrock finished off Matt as Lamar grabbed his body and the tug of war started over it. Lamar managed to pull the body away as the Vrock disappeared with bits and pieces of Matt still in its talons. Lamar managed to grab the haversack and threw it over the smoking pearl and then looked around to see what was going on. Kaskus had managed to step up and cured Lamar enough that Vanthus didn’t kill him when he attacked. The Vrock then appeared behind Sparklegem and tried to attack her but she had cast a protection from evil earlier and it just scrabbled away at her. The others turned their attention to it as Lavinia finally overcame her fear and revulsion of her brother and stepped up and stabbed him with her rapier. This finally knocked him down as he screamed out a curse at the group and said he would return from the grave to kill his sister. He then fell with a thud. The others then turned their attention to the Vrock and finally managed to kill it before it could teleport again. Looking around they could see the carnage that was wrought from the battle but the demons were now dead.

Adla and Humphrey finally finished off the golems and took stock of the situation. Looking around they could see some longboats heading back out to sea and as they watched, the ship containing the mage turned around and started to flee. It waited for the remaining pirates to arrive and picked them up and then it set full sail and rapidly disappeared around the point. Looking out they could still see the remaining ships abandoned outside the harbour. All of them were damaged and once Adla realized that the pirates had fled organized some groups to go out and bring the ships into the harbour. They were The Sea Witch which was missing all of its rigging from fire, The Hag which had some damage to the hull and the flagship, The Brine Harlot which also had some hull damage.  

So with the fighting done, the group looked around and realized that Matt Finish and his cohort were dead along with Alarice and Tolin of the Jade Ravens. Lavinia then ordered some people to check out the village to see what damage had happened to Farshore. Looking for loot, the only thing they found of value was all the gear that Vanthus had been using, including a mithral chain shirt, longsword, sickle, amulet, boots and a ring. They recovered most of the weapons and armor used by the pirates and all of it was masterwork so they were worth something. All told about two to three dozen townsfolk ended up dead including eight members of the militia. Compared to what had attacked them, they had gotten off very lucky. Had Humphrey’s Hero’s not been there, the outcome would have been totally different. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up and recovering the bodies of the pirates for a mass burial. Sparklegem was now contemplating how many raise dead spells she would have to pray for the next day.

Nov 29 2009; Goodmonth 10, after waking up, Sparklegem went about praying for her spells for the day and spent the day reviving people. Fortunately there were only three that she had to raise, Matt Finish, his cohort Bucky and Tolin. When they went looking for the remains of Alarice, they couldn’t find her. No one had seen anything but they also couldn’t find Sable. He had just left after the fight. Later that day Sable returned by flying into the village but he wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened to him. Vanthus’ body was buried in Farshore cemetery in a lonely plot to the south marked only with a simple wooden stake carved with the Vanderboren crest—Lavinia’s sole concession to any remaining shred of humanity that might have lingered in her brother’s corrupted soul. The group then spent the next few weeks helping with the repairs of the village and ships. Grat and Adla spent a few nights casing the warehouses when a couple of the merchants started complaining of theft and losses during the night. It took a few nights and Grat was surprised when something appeared beside him and managed to steal the gold earring that was in his left ear. He didn’t recognize the creature but did see that it had four arms and it just faded away in front of him. After talking with Adla she agreed to help him as she recognized the creature as an ethereal filcher. They managed to attract it the next night and before it could do anything they attacked it and managed to slay it.

Humphrey started to feel restless and was having recurring visions of a lightning struck tree that he decided he had to find. So he spent the next week wandering around the jungles of the island but didn’t find it. Sparklegem was also informed of a Pelorian missionary named Noltus Innersol. He was a cleric of Pelor and had headed to the interior of the Isle of Dread last year to spread the word of Pelor and hadn’t been seen since. She agreed to look for him if she got the chance to explore the island.

Goodmonth 20, during the day a small coastal trader docked at Farshore and disembarking was an elven male who started exploring the village. He soon came across Adla training the militia and stopped and seemed to be captivated by her. After she was done he introduced himself as Rey Roscoe and he told her that he was currently looking for his father. He ended up staying after the ship left and the group was introduced to him over the next few days. He was warned to watch out for the gnomes.

Chapter Six: the Lightless Depths 

Harvester 4, the group had finally run out of things to fix or repair and was noticing that the populace was starting to grumble about the pirate attack. So people were actually questioning if the same thing that had happened to Vanthus would happen to Lavinia. It was that evening when Lavinia sent a message to the group asking them to attend her manor house the next morning for a breakfast meeting.

Harvester 5, arriving in the early morning, they could see the whitewashed mansion’s two-story height is crowned by a small dome set with stained glass windows that depict sailing ships and fair seas. Within, much of the house remains unused, dusty gray sheets covering fine furniture and artwork in all of the rooms except the kitchen, dining hall and Lavinia’s quarters. They sat down for a meal of toast, coffee and boiled turtle eggs. Finally the group was finished the meal although Humphrey was still hungry and had to make do with munching down some more bread. After putting down her napkin, Lavinia then spoke up. “In the past few hours I’ve discovered that Farshore wasn’t the only victim of the pirates’ attack—it seems that my personal reputation also took a bit of fire. The people of Farshore have seen too much panic and death under my leadership, and the appearance of the pirates and Van—,” Lavinia chokes on the name and takes a deep breath to steady herself before continuing, “—the pirates and my brother startled them. Now some of the colonists claim that my family is cursed, while others whisper that I somehow orchestrated the attack.”

          Lavinia takes a sip of her tea, and then continues. “Although it aggravates me after all we’ve been through, I won’t allow a few rumours to discourage me from my work here. Part of me even understands the people’s concerns, and I’d like to do what I can to dissuade their fears. This would be where you come in.”

“Along the north coast of the isle, a dragon turtle of gigantic proportions makes his home. The beast calls himself Emraag, but the locals know him as ‘The Glutton.’ If we’re to believe the rumours, it’s a miracle that any of us are sitting here now, as the Glutton’s supposedly has a taste for ships and sailors. Yet apparently the things vices aren’t limited to swallowing down whole crews. The Crimson Fleet made a deal with the creature, bribing it to leave their ships intact on their visits to Gallivant Cove. Lord Meravanchi however has refused to ‘negotiate with monsters’—apparently preferring that our supply ships be eaten and people go hungry.”

“Therefore, my thought to ease the concerns of the colonists is to appease the beast that’s already caused them so much hardship. I’d like you to sail to the isle’s northern shore and seek out Emraag the Glutton. I’ll provide you with a cache of treasures to bribe the brute—a down payment on Farshore’s “tribute” to him, offered for the assurance that he leaves vessels flying my family’s colors be. If an agreement can be met, excellent, if not… well, I trust in your ability to conquer that arena as well.”

“More to the point, there’s the matter of the Crimson Fleet’s interest in Gallivant Cove. According to the logs and papers we’ve recovered from my brother’s ship, the Brine Harlot, they’ve made several visits to a beach on the southern shore of the cove to meet with a group they call the ‘Lords of Dread.’ According to these notes, they’ve been purchasing large quantities of what they’re calling ‘shadow pearls.’ I believe you’ve had some experience with these things before, as one of them was apparently the cause of the troubles at Kraken’s Cove some months ago, just before your visit there. The thought of dozens of shadow pearls in the possession of the Crimson Fleet is chilling.”

          Putting her cup down, Lavinia looks to you each in turn. “I know it’s dangerous dealing with such a beast, but if you can convince Emraag to accept our offer, you might even be able to learn a couple of things from him. In any event, securing the dragon turtle’s goodwill should allow free access to the Lords of Dread. And it’d be a huge step in turning this colony from an isolated backwater to a destination for merchants from the world over. Therefore, I ask you this not just for me but for the people of Farshore. Will you help?”

          The group looked at each other and decided that they would sail and meet with the Glutton and hopefully go from there. They asked about the tribute and Lavinia said that she had four chests and a statue of one of her forbearers to give to him. She also said that she had found a sea skirl and it was also being put onboard. The group then asked if anyone could play it and no one at the table could. So Adla spent a few hours asking around to the various Olman natives and found one that said his grandfather knew how to use one. So the group prepared the Sea Wyvern to set sail in the morning.

Adla also spoke to Rey and he was getting bored and decided to accompany the group.

Harvester 6, the ship set sail towards the mainland as they stopped to hire the services of the older Olman warrior to play the weird pipes that were the sea skirl. Then they sailed around the isle until they reached the Gallivant Cove.

Harvester 12, they arrived in the cove and once they were roughly in the middle they prepared the sea skirl and the old man started to play it. It sounded rather strange and produced quite a few bubbles as it went along. About ten minutes later, everyone spotted the shadow coming out of the deep water and the size of it was massive. It dwarfed the ship and the top of its shell was scarred from numerous battles. The group was amazed when it opened its mouth and started speaking to the group.

          Its voice was deep and rough and the group realized that it could swallow Humphrey whole and still have room for the rest. “Who would dare beckon me with this strange music?” Adla was quick to speak up as Humphrey opened his mouth and started to say something foolish. Grat quickly smacked him in the mouth before he could get the beast mad.

“We are a group representing Lady Lavinia and the colony of Farshore. The colony has heard of your greatness and wishes to offer you tribute in honour of your importance. We offer the following tribute in order that we may be able to sail around the area unhindered from your attacks.” She continued on this vein for a few moments and it seemed that Emraag was intrigued by the group and while she was talking, Humphrey spoke up quietly about making turtle soup. Adla didn’t think that Emraag had heard that but moments later the massive beast bumped into the boat and everyone felt the deck shake from the contact. Then he lifted up his head and squirted a stream of water onto the deck soaking Humphrey from head to toe. The rest of the group started laughing at Humphrey as he stood there dripping wet. Emraag turned and looked at Adla and said, “If the large one is not careful, I will eat him for a snack.”

          Adla turned and told the others to “Shut up Humphrey.” She turned back to the beast and managed to placate him before he got angry. Emraag was curious to know where she was from as he had never seen a pale white human before with no neck. Adla then took the time to explain what she was and what the group was. After the tribute was slung over the side of the ship and dropped into the water, Emraag submerged to check it over and the group watched the chests and statue slowly sink out of sight. Then Emraag emerged from the water and said that the tribute was satisfactory for now and he agreed that the ships flying the flag of Farshore would be unmolested by him for the next year and he would meet with them again in one year’s time to further negotiations.

          He then asked if the group wanted to know anything else and they asked about the Crimson Fleet. All Emraag would say to that was that the Fleet had given him an obscene amount of loot in order to pass by unmolested to meet with some puny creatures that had a lair in the southern end of the cove. He said it would be easy to find and then decided he had spoken to these people enough and submerged and slowly sank out of sight. The group gave a great sigh when the beast left and proceeded to set sail and headed south towards land.

Dec 06 2009; the ship slowly sailed south as the group started watching for anything unusual. About 30 minutes later they could see some sort of foul greenish smoke lingering at an old decrepit pier. Sable changed into a seagull and flew over to the pier as the Wyvern dropped anchor about 500 to 600 yards away and dropped the longboat into the water. Everyone hopped on board with the two crewmen and they proceeded to row towards the pier. They gave orders for the first mate to sail out of the cove and find a spot to drop anchor and wait for them to return. Sable would be able to find them if they didn’t go too far. Sable flew over to the pier and landed on the edge to look around. Seeming held together by brine and urchins, this rickety pier of rotted wood and gigantic bones looks as much a scavenger-picked corpse as a derelict berth. Twin rows of skulls impaled upon spears line the pier, their eye sockets flickering with otherworldly green flames and venting sickly vapours. This unnatural light illuminates an eerie path into the darkness of a yawning cave entrance fifteen feet above the surf below. Sable slowly made his way off the pier and closer to the entrance as he turned to check on the group. He could see the longboat about 100 yards offshore as he looked into the cavern. Soggy planks ascend the sloped floor of this salt-encrusted grotto. Refuse and broken crustacean shells litter several shallow pools near the walls, making easy meals for a small flock of sickly seagulls roosting in the cracked walls. A ten-foot-wide opening in the southern wall has been closed off by a rusty iron gate. As Sable looked around he heard something large moving on the other side of the gate and the sound of something grunting as it moved. He figured out that it was some sort of reptile and pretty big by the sounds of it.

          He hopped close enough to peer through the bars and spotted a thunder lizard about fifteen feet long with a large sail like fin on its back and even from a distance he could see that the beast was covered with black tar-like skin that layered like armor. It gave a grunt and shifted its feet and turned to look towards the gate. Sable decided to back off and wait for the others so he turned and flew back to the pier and waited for the longboat to come in and soon it was at the end of the pier and the others started climbing the rickety ladder up to the top. Soon everyone was standing on the pier and they were all trying to cover their mouths from the horrid green smoke coming from the skulls. The two sailors then shoved off and started rowing back to the ship. The rest of the group walked carefully to the end of the pier and onto solid ground. Sable turned back to himself and told the others that a large lizard was just inside the gate. The group made enough noise that the beast inside the gate started growling and barking soon a trog was watching them approach from the interior of the cave. It looked at the group with a blank expression on its face as it waited for them to approach. As they got to the gate he said, “May Laogzed gnaw you slowly.”  The group looked at each other and then Grat spoke up and said to open the gate, they wanted to go see the Lords of Dread. The trog looked a bit confused for a moment but stepped over to the side and started opening the gate. He then came back and looked at the group and asked, where are the slaves?” Grat said they were still on the ship and open the gate now. They noticed that the trog was covered in the same growths as the lizard. When Grat asked what was wrong with him, the trog looked at him strangely and said, “It’s the blessing of Laogzed.” Sable had been thinking of casting a remove disease on the lizard but Adla told him not too. As the trog dithered about opening the gate, Humphrey stepped up and with a heave opened it.

          The stench of waste and decay lingers in the briny air. Two alcoves form this claustrophobic grotto. To the north, three piles of matted and mouldering palm fronds cluster around a mound of ash and dying embers. Curled up on each pile was a sleeping trog. Opposite them rest several misshapen clay jars, a rack on which hang dead octopi and cave lizards, and a rickety cart filled with large black rocks that glisten wetly. A low passage in the western wall descends steeply into the darkness. When Humphrey stepped into the cavern, the lizard lunged at him and managed to chomp down on his leg before he could move and the trog stepped up and grabbed it and managed to get it to let go of Humphrey as the group started walking through the cavern into the tunnel. The trog watched the group walk by as it held onto the lizard and soon the group was in the tunnel. Foul-smelling dyes and flaking pigments cover the cracked stone walls of this sloping passage. Decaying organs—perhaps the morbid palettes of the walls brutish artists—lie in reeking heaps on the ground. Between the primitive markings and bloody claw-prints, a lengthy series of crude pictographs extends down the hall. While many are faded and obscured, three stand out clearly. In the first, spear bearing reptiles wander a maze of ever-descending tunnels. In the next, a large lizard like creature exalts amid columned ruins, holding a black circle above its head as smaller creatures bow and are stricken dead. In the final section, a reptilian skull surrounded by a smoky mass of spiralling tentacles rains black spheres upon a cracking, smoking island.

Adla touched the wall every ten yards or so and the wall glowed from a light spell so they could see in the darkness. They walked for three or four miles before the tunnel ended in an iron door. The group stopped while Grat checked over the door and he found that it was not trapped and it was unlocked. It proved difficult to open however and Adla was forced to put her shoulder into it. She forced the door open and the overwhelming smell of Trog was very prevalent here. The group took a moment to look around and they could see cobbled domes of rock and mud cover shallow pits in this large cavern. Entered through holes in the stone roofs, each damp dwelling reeks of rotting meat, reptiles and pungent herbs. Crude paintings on the wall depict all manner of reptilian creatures feasting on humanoid shapes. Many of these reptiles have two heads. Looking around the rangers could see where most of the tracks went right instead of towards the other door so they started looking around and spotted a pair of large cages with wooden bars sits precariously at the edge of a thirty-foot wide charnel pit in the centre of the chamber. Each cage contains two dead reptilian humanoids, their bodies twisted masses of tumours and shingles of unnecessary skin. The group looked into the pit and the ten-foot-deep, thirty-foot wide sinkhole is rimmed with wooden stakes. Disturbing fetishes and bits of bone hang from rotting lengths of wood. Within the pit, dozens of reptilian bodies lie heaped in various stages of decay. The bodies are strangely dry, their skin flaking off the bone in brittle sheets and cancerous hunks. Looking at the back wall, they could see an immense statue of a rearing lizard like beast crouching against the wall here. A second visage, those of a crudely carved fanged toad, juts from its exposed stomach, its maw partially open before a bloodstained alter stone. As the group started to walk past the cages and the pit, Grat realized that one of the apparently dead bodies opened its eye and looked right at him and let out a noise. He quickly alerted the others that something was still alive in the cage and they proceeded to open it. Inside was a trog heavily wrapped up in rags to cover him up. The group could see that this one was not covered in the lesions that all the others had and it stood up when the group let him out and seemed very happy to be released from its cage.

He started speaking in Draconic and then switched to a form of Common that the group could understand. He said his name was Irgzid and he was a prisoner of the trogs because he was diseased like the rest of them. Though he called it a blessing from Laogzed and when the group asked about the Lords of Dread and the shadow pearls, he told the group that he could lead them to where they were. When Grat asked him what he could do, they were rather surprised to see that he was a healer as he asked if anyone was wounded and said he could help them it that way. The group decided they could use him as a guide as they looked around. They then checked the other cage and realized that something was still alive in that one so they opened it and pulled out an Olman warrior that was covered in the skin lesions like the others. Sparklegem then cast remove disease and the group watched the lesions shrink and then dry up and fall off the man. He appeared hurt so Sparklegem then cast a cure spell on him. When he didn’t respond to the cure and just stared blankly at the party, the gnomes got together and tried to figure out what was wrong. Matt Finish figured that somehow the man had been feebleminded from something and that was why he was unable to respond to the group. So they looked around and spotted the way down when Irgzid pointed out the lift that was overtop a crevice. A deep crevice yawns in the stone here in the back corner of the cavern, dropping away into the inky dark below. A rickety wooden lift descends into the darkness, raised and lowered by a primitive pulley system of frayed ropes. When Humphrey tested out the rope he realized that it wouldn’t hold him so he got out a grappling hook and some hemp rope and proceeded to set the hook and dropped the rope as the gnomes used the lift to go down. They looked over the side and Adla tossed a lit coin down and it hit the ground about sixty feet below them and bounced around for a few seconds. The group then headed down with Grat climbing over the edge and dropping down to the floor while the others climbed down. Humphrey climbed down and dropped the last ten feet down to the floor as the others managed to get down. The tunnel only went one way as the group started walking down the tunnel. Adla touched the side of the tunnel every ten to fifteen yards in order to produce light as they headed down the sloping tunnel.

The group walked for about two miles when Irgzid told the group to stop just as they could see a cavern ahead. He told them that it was full of hazardous fumes from the bad water here and that they had to be quick moving through or it would make their lungs burn. So the group looked into the cavern and they could see trickles of water emerging from a crack in the ceiling, splitting into numerous rivulets that roll slowly down stalactites and drip off into the deep milky pools that dot the floor of this chamber. The group could smell the strong fumes of acid coming from the chamber and they prepared to run to the other side. Grat took the lead as he jumped as fast as he could towards the exit. He had just gotten to the other side with the group following him when part of the cavern wall shifted and some sort of black pseudo-pod jumped out from the wall and hit him with a sizzle. In fact the whole group heard him cry out in pain as some sort of acid started eating away at his side. Then group then recognized the black pudding that appeared to be part of the wall until they walked by it.

Dec 20 2009; the group was stunned for a moment as the black goo attached itself to Grat as he started to struggle to break free. Humphrey stepped up and whacked at it with his wooden club and as it vibrated off the walls, it started to sizzle from the acid trying to stick to it from the pudding. Then part of it shifted and attached itself to Humphrey as Grat could be heard screaming in pain as it ate away at his flesh. Adla used her Flametongue to flame it and then pulled an enchanted flail and started whacking away. The acid quickly melted the flail but not before she had damaged it. Sparklegem cast spiritual weapon and it seemed to damage it until the pudding seemed to shrink and it let go of Grat and then Humphrey as he finally raged in order to try and break free. Once the pudding had faded back into the walls the rest of the group ran out of the chamber. By now half the group was coughing and feeling the effects of the acid fumes. It took a few minutes for them to recover and finally they continued walking after Humphrey was fed a snack to keep him quiet. Rey’s animal companion, an ocelot named Abby was complaining loudly about being down in this dark damp hole and the acid hadn’t helped matters any. Even Sable’s new dinosaur didn’t like it too much. Irgzid waited a few moments and then told them to hurry up. They ended up walking for a short while until Grat spotted a small cavern that was hidden up near the ceiling in a small chamber. They managed to get everyone up there and then only had to deal with the stench of the trog all night while they slept.

Harvester 13, they spent the morning walking until they were attacked by a massive centipede that tried to make Grat its snack for the day. It dropped off the ceiling and bit Grat and the party came up to try and help him. They knew he was bitten and affected by the poison when he turned an interesting shade of yellow and green. Adla and Humphrey managed to kill it and it dropped down and almost killed Grat by smothering him. They pulled the body off of him and the group managed to climb over the body and continued on. Irgzid then mentioned that they were about to get to a cavern that was home to a roper. He told the group that most of the time the party he had been with would offer a slave to the roper to pass by unmolested. Adla was forced to take the lead as Grat was really feeling the effects of the poison. Neither Sable nor Sparklegem had a spell they could use to help him. This seventy-foot-wide cavern drops away into a black gulf below. A forest of stalactites hangs from the ceiling, some dropping away out of sight into the darkness. A ledge, its surface glistening with moisture and mould, winds down the inner wall of the cavern, a descending path of dubious safety. The group slowly started down the ledge until they were at the bottom. Adla looked around and could see hundreds of bones scattered around the cavern, this roper appears to have lived here for quite a while. Adla started calling out until she spotted part of the cavern shift and move closer to the light. Then she heard an alien voice said, “Food, slaves.” Adla said, “No slaves.” Then the voice said, “Gems.” All Adla would say was no, she watched as a couple of ropes appeared around the creature and writhed into the darkness. Humphrey came up and threatened with his club, then growled at it where it sat and watched them. As the group presented a bold front it decided to retreat into the darkness. Adla grabbed a few of the bones and caused them to glow before tossing them around the cavern. The roper retreated into the darkness as Irgzid headed across the cavern with Adla leading the others.

Grat was distracted by something shiny and stepped off the past to see what it was. Sable followed him just in case as he looked at some coins on the ground. As he got closer, a rope flashed out of the darkness and just grazed his shoulder as he ducked out of the way. Adla came over to see what he was doing as Grat looked around and realized that what he had seen was the remains of a coin purse with a half dozen gold and silver coins lying in the refuse. Adla told him to get going and she bullied him back in line. The group exited the low side and continued walking south and down. It was a couple of hours later when Adla heard the whisper of something ahead of them and then watched when a massive spider-like creature with foul poison dripping off of its fangs just appeared and attacked Adla. She recognized it as a bebelith, a denizen of the Lower Planes and very nasty. It appeared and attacked her and then faded away before they could really do more than hit it a couple of times. She knew that this thing could shift back and forth through the planes and could appear anywhere. She also spotted something that gave her a chill. It was wearing a medallion with the symbol of her master, the dreaded Zanin’Thoss, and it called her by name as it faded away. They waited for a few minutes but it did not return. They continued walking as sensed they were heading down at a constant angle. By the time they stopped and camped for the night, the rangers had figured that they were more than a quarter mile below the surface and more than two dozen miles in distance. During the night while Adla was on watch, she heard the sound of something moving out in the darkness but nothing came within the camp.

Harvester 14, the group continued walking after Sparklegem had prayed for a restoration spell to help Grat recover from his poisoning. It was a few hour later when they came to a widening of the tunnel into a large cavern nearly two hundred feet in diameter. A shimmering curtain of rippling blue light bisects this cavern from left to right and floor to ceiling. This light resembles a translucent membrane that swirls and sparkles like the surface of a pond. The cavern on the other side is visible through this sheen, and the tunnel proceeds around a corner at the far end. Shapes and figures seem to ripple and writhe along the curtain of cerulean light, and now and then these shapes pass by slowly enough to be identified as Olman warriors in full battlefield regalia, their mouths open in silent screams. A low whispering fills the room, but the cavern is otherwise silent. The group stood there until Matt Finish walked up to the curtain and cautiously put his hand out and watched it pass through the curtain.

Finally he stepped through and turned around to look at the others as he stepped backwards. The rest of the group slowly stepped through the curtain. Lamar was leading the Olman male when they stepped through. The group watched as the man stepped through and shivered while his eyes closed. He then opened his eyes and looked around and stepped back into a defensive posture as he called out in Olman. The group turned in shock as Matt Finish and Rey heard him exclaiming, “Who are you, where am I.”

Jan 03 2010; he then spotted the holy symbol of Pelor on both Adla and Sparklegem and exclaimed, “You worship the Shining One.” Rey started translating as fast as he could as the warrior kept talking. Rey starting speaking with him as Matt came up and assisted. The warrior slowly relaxed when he determined that they meant him no harm. He was astounded to find out he was deep underground. The last thing he remembered was being up above on the Isle of Dread. In fact he had been on the central plateau and he had been fleeing a group of skinwalkers. He introduced himself as Jakara of the Tiger Clan. He was rather shocked to find that he had been captured by the trogs and the group had rescued him. When the group said that he had come to his senses when he had passed through the curtain he then looked at the curtain and started when he recognized some of the battle regalia that the warriors were wearing as they passed by their sight. He turned back and proudly told the group that he was a demon slayer and he had to return to the surface. He had hidden some vital information just before the skinwalkers had affected him by causing him to lose his mind. He then asked for some weapons as he wanted to immediately return to the surface.

He also told Sparklegem that he had spoken with the Missionary man that wore the same symbol as her while he was exploring the plateau above. Sparklegem realized that he was speaking about Noltus, the priest who had gone to the Isle last year to spread the word of Pelor. The group wanted him to stay with them for protection but he was bound and determined to return to the surface. They found a longbow and arrows along with an enchanted battle axe that they gave him. Humphrey, Rey and Sparklegem also gave him some cure potions and a Barkskin along with some food and water. They decided this would be a good place to stop and have a meal before he left and Jakara agreed. Churtle then pulled out a pot and asked for heat to make some soup. Adla ended up drawing her Flametongue and when the flames burst out she stuck the sword into the pot as Churtle started filling it with ingredients. They watched as Jakara sat down and meditated while he waited for lunch. The group then spotted some of his tribal tattoos flash and change color for a moment. Somehow they helped him in one manner or another. Once Churtle was done they all had a good meal and when they were done Jakara said he would take his leave of them and he hoped to see them in Farshore as that it where he was headed once he had recovered the scrolls he had hidden. They told him about the hazards to come and hoped that he would be successful. With a wave he turned and crossed through the curtain and faded out of sight.

The group packed up and headed deeper into the darkness. Soon they came to a branch in the tunnel and Irgzid stopped until the rest caught up to him and he told them that the passage to the west was the home of Barbas. It was a village of humanoids that had survived for quite awhile. He hadn’t visited it since he was a child and all he knew was that they didn’t like trogs and he wasn’t too sure how he would be welcomed. The group decided to check it out and started walking west. The passage soon opened into a cavern that was full of rocks and rubble with the density of rocks so severe that they could only see clearly about twenty to thirty feet. Rey, Lucky and Sable came to the fore when they spotted the growths of fungi and mould that was everywhere. As they stood there looking, they realized that it was much colder here than in the surrounding tunnels. Both Rey and Lucky warned everyone about brown mould. It would suck the heat right out of someone if they managed to get trapped in it and when shocked by fire would grow very rapidly. They started moving slowly through the maze with Humphrey leading the way after Adla placed her hand over the top of his club and lit it so he could see. They moved through and only had one mishap when Humphrey took a wrong step and placed his foot in the middle of a patch of brown mould. When his foot started getting numb, he managed to step back fast enough so he didn’t lose his leg. He had to stand there for a few moments while his foot thawed. They were amazed at how quickly it had grown around his foot. They continued moving and finally came around a large rock as saw that the tunnel opened up into a cavern. Here the ceiling rises to twenty feet and vast plain of mouldy gravel parts giving way to a large hemisphere of bare stone dotted with short pillars. Ahead, makeshift walls of wood and stone surround a sprawling shantytown. In front of the walls squat six large humanoids with vulture like heads and pincers for hands, hook horrors. The group watched for a few moments as the hook horrors spotted the group and the lights they were using. As they started hooting and grunting, some heads popped up over the walls and looked out at the group. Finally they heard a voice shouting out in Olman telling them to go away.

Rey finally stepped up and shouted back that they were strangers and wished to talk about the area. He managed to convince them that they wouldn’t hurt them and finally the person told them to come forwards. He then managed to control the hook horrors and they slowly settled down and watched as the group came forward toward the walls. The town of Barbas squats in a dead-end cavern, the ceiling of which rarely rises above thirty feet and in many places dips down as low as ten feet, creating a claustrophobic shantytown. The town’s structures appear makeshift at best and nearing collapse at worst, their walls built from rubble, mouldy wood, caked mud, and bone. A tepid pond shimmers in the center of town, fed by a trickle of water from the western cave wall. A haze hangs in the air, a mixture of smoke, spores, and stink lit by dozens of feebly burning torches mounted on stalactites or facades. The only areas not claimed by the crumbling buildings are the crooked streets and several farms of faintly glowing fungi and pallid mushrooms the size of men. With Humphrey in the lead the group walked through the gates and could see countless pairs of eyes peeking around corners and out of door and windows as a white skinned elven looking man stood waiting for them. As they got closer they could see he was an albino with his white hair and red eyes. The side of his faced was scored with a puckered scar that gave him a permanent grin. “Greetings, travelers, my name is Vertram, and I am the headman here. I apologize for the… inconveniences… you have faced with our guardians, but the tunnels in this region become more dangerous with each year. Regardless, our city is open to you. Please put away your weapons and be welcome in Barbas.”

With that the people that had been hiding from the group came out and virtually swarmed them. The group could see that none of the people was human and seemed to be a bizarre mixture of races. That and all of them were malformed in some way. They were very curious about the group and soon Adla, Grat and Humphrey were the center of attention as the villagers soon clustered around them. In fact some of the children climbed up on Humphrey and sat on his head. When the group started talking to the children, they were amazed when they started mimicking the group and started sounding so realistic that Humphrey was looking around in amazement. Finally Vertram spoke up again and asked the group to accompany him to the town hall and so they could clean up before wandering around. He also asked them for dinner later. The swarm of misshapen children followed them to the largest building here and sat down at the front door as the group went in and were shown were they could rest. After deciding to drop all of their gear here seeing as the children had been poking into everything they were carrying, they came out and started looking around.  Other than the hall, the other buildings were much smaller and they could see where a smithy was set up along with some sort of store and in the center of the village was a shrine depicting a skeletal figure wrapped in a large python. When the group asked, they were told it was in honour of the “Snake Father” and the group had no idea who that was. Rey and Matt figured that it was some sort of God of Death of the Olman’s but other than that they had no idea otherwise. Humphrey ended up going over to the smithy where he managed to get the spear head he had been carrying around since the encounter with the mummy’s weeks ago attached to a shaft. The smith there agreed to mount the head on a stout wooden shaft for a couple of flasks of oil from Humphrey.

Then Humphrey wandered over to the store with Rey and walked into a tiny shop full of all sorts of knick knacks, jewellery and gear. The one armed man in the shop came forward and introduced himself as Shifred and he quickly determined that they were there to buy something. He started showing them around and Humphrey had to be very careful looking around. Rey found a strange dagger made out of a dark metal. He decided to get Sparklegem to come over and look over the store to see if anything was enchanted. Humphrey finally found a pair of large brass rings with a serpentine motif. He traded a potion of curing to Shifred for the rings while Rey traded a pair of potions for the strange dagger. Sparklegem finally came in and cast a detect magic but nothing radiated in the shop. She started looking around and found a very nice copper necklace. She purchased it for another potion and some scented candles. Even Matt came into the store and found a spider broach to buy. Once they returned to their room to look over the items, they determined that Rey had purchased a cold iron dagger, useful against creatures susceptible to such metal. Adla and Grat spent most of the time entertaining the children as they were fascinated with her ability to turn her head in a circle. Finally it was time for dinner and they sat down in the hall with Vertram to a meal of heavily salted meat and mushrooms. When Rey delicately asked if the meat came from a sentient being, Vertram just smiled and said no. Sparklegem had cast create food and water before the meal so they were prepared just in case. Since they also had a cat and fairly large dinosaur with the group, meat was at a premium. Once the meal was done, Vertram then started speaking to the group. He confessed that he was concerned about his people. For generations that had lived relatively at peace with the troglodytes of the upper caverns. Yet recently one tribe in particular had become more aggressive and warlike. The maze and the hook horrors have done well enough to keep the trogs away, but for the past few years it’s been much more dangerous than anyone can remember to travel the outer caverns.

He believed that change was coming to Barbas. He had heard whispers in the air warning of dire events, of something stirring deep below. The citizens of Barbas know of the Kopru in the city below only as vague stories of monsters that dwell in the forbidden caverns and while he knows little more than that, he believes that these creatures known as the Lords of Dread have become more active. In these whispers and in his dreams, he’s seen images of “men and women from the land of light” that come to Barbas to deliver them from these dark times. He took the time to look at each of the group as he mentioned this and his gaze stopped at Adla. He does not go as far as to say the group were the ones he had dreamed of, but his expression said enough. The only thing he could tell the group was that a species called demon-fish had inhabited the city below and had warred with the humans on the surface centuries ago and how the humans had brought the war to an end by casting down the tear of the god of rain and storms into the depths. This tear burst and drove the waters of the flooded caverns away and the spirits of the fallen ancients now guard this region. Their presence holds the waters at bay, and as long as they persist, the demon-fish cannot return. Yet Vertram believes that something else has filled the void left by the expulsion of the fish. He fears that whatever has moved into the ruins of Golismorga may be seeking the vile secrets of the demon-fish, and if they discover these secrets they may become an even greater threat to the world. When the group started asking about the demon-fish, Vertram smiled at them and asked them if they would like to see one of them. When the group said yes, he told them that after they had rested for the night he would show them one of them. With that the group bedded down in the town hall for the night to get a good night’s rest.

Harvester 15, the group awakened and had a quick meal and then told Vertram that they were ready. They were surprised to see the villagers packing up their belongings and when they asked Vertram, he told them that their time here in Barbas was done. He told them that he didn’t know where they would travel to but he told them that more than likely they would head back up to the surface as he figured that soon they wouldn’t be safe here anymore. With that he lead them out through the maze and headed further deeper until they came to another passageway. They headed into the tunnel and a few miles later they came to a cavern. On the far side of the large cavern, a shimmering blue wall extends all the way to the sixty-foot high ceiling. Across its surface, ghostly Olman warriors shimmer and flicker. Just beyond it, the occasional bubble or flash of scales reveals the presence of thousands of gallons of water, their awesome weight held at bay by the shell of energy. On the floor in the center of the cave is a strange looking mound of stone shaped like an enormous, petrified fish.

Jan 10 2010; once the group looked around, Vertram told them to put their ear up to the stone and the group did so. They were shocked to hear something moving inside the stone. In fact Matt stepped back and even cast a lightning bolt at the thing and he nailed Humphrey and Sparklegem as they were still listening to it. Vertram then told them that he was leaving and told them that the main tunnel continued further deeper. He then turned and left as the group started yelling at Matt. The group then took the time to really take a look at the thing and Adla figured out that it was an Aboleth, a species so alien that nothing in the universe compared to them. In fact Adla remembered something that her master has said long ago that this species was immortal and that they would take centuries or even millennia to set their own agenda or plans in motion. The group finally decided to put the thing out of its misery and spent a few minutes hacking it apart. They could see that it had been alive as its innards oozed out all over the floor of the cavern. Then the group left and soon was heading further deeper into the depths. They spent most of the day walking until the group literally walked into a massive spider that was lurking in the tunnel and it attacked Humphrey and managed to hurt him before the group could dispatch it. Churtle then mused about gathering the poison from the thing but the rest of the group said no and made sure that she couldn’t recover the poison sacs. Then as they were dealing with the aftermath, something sinister appeared out of the dark to attack the group from behind.

They recognized it as a retriever and the group moved up to attack it. Humphrey was nailed by one of the eye rays but managed to shrug off the effects. Sparklegem then got close enough to cast a dismissal on it and the spell appeared to work as the thing snapped out of the tunnel in an instant. As the group watched something fell off of it and landed on the floor with a tinkle. They looked down on the floor and could see a silver medallion lying on the floor. Adla recognized the symbol on it as her masters and as they watched the medallion started to melt and soon the symbol was etched on the floor of the tunnel. Then they watched the symbol glow for a moment and then it faded away. After giving Humphrey some healing the group continued walking. Humphrey was now in a bit of a foul mood and was able to take out his frustrations when a very big scorpion loomed out of the darkness and attacked him. In fact he killed it before the rest of the group could even come up and support him. They stopped for a few moments when Churtle pulled out her knives and started butchering the carcass for meat. When the group wanted to move on, she just said that scorpion was good meat and she had never seen one this large. She also pointed at the tail and the foot long stinger and mentioned that the poison in this thing would probably be pretty nasty but the group said no to that too. By now the group had been walking for most of the day and they were thinking about stopping when they noticed that Irgzid seemed to be getting excited about something. Before they could ask him why, they could see the tunnel opened up into a cavern and Irgzid went running down to it when he spotted it. The rest of the group followed him and didn’t get too close when they got a whiff of his stench. Something was up as he hadn’t been this energetic for awhile. When the group asked him, he said that this was where his tribe members made the exchange with the Lords of Dread.

The tunnel walls here changed suddenly from rough natural stone to an intricately carved corridor bearing glyphs and mosaics of Olman design, just before they open into an immense flooded chamber. The walls of the square chamber rise up in steps, forming an inverted ziggurat with an apex forty feet above the dark waters that flood the room to just below the edge of the entrance. The floor is a ruin of smashed pillars and small islands constructed in the same roughly pyramidal fashion. In the center, a line of destroyed columns and alters protrudes a few feet above the surface, creating a makeshift bridge that dips briefly into the water before reaching the continuing passage on the far side. As the group looked around, Irgzid suddenly spoke up and said, “I have brought you the heroes you asked for, Father! What do you wish of them?” As the group watched something started to appear off to the side of the chamber where a platform was. Soon the ghostly shape of a trog appeared wearing robes. It started speaking in Draconic but soon switched to Common as the group listened in amazement. It said its name was N’glothnoru and he was the spirit of a trog cleric that had died here some time ago and had become trapped. The group started asking it questions about the Lords of Dread and where they were located and the spirit informed them that they had moved into the vacant city of the demon-fish and were now conducting vile experiments and somehow manufacturing the shadow pearls. He told them that he had watched numerous transactions concerning the trogs and the species that he called Kopru. The group didn’t know what they were until the description given matched the creature they had encountered when they recovered the Sea Wyvern weeks before.

When they asked how to get rid of them, the spirit informed them that they would have to find some way to destroy the relic that was holding the waters at bay so the flooding of the cavern would cause the demon-fish to return and drive the Kopru out once and for all. When the group asked about the war that had caused the relic to be deployed in the first place, the spirit said that if the demon-fish did return, they would be more concerned about rebuilding their city first of all and that it would take some time before they would even think about attacking the surface again. It also told them that they really didn’t want the Kopru to uncover and start using the alien magic that the demon-fish were known for. The group thought that might be a good idea and thanked the spirit for its information. Then they looked over the cavern and realized that they might have to go for a swim to get across to the other side. When they asked how the Kopru had dealt with the cavern, the spirit informed them that one of them would swim from one side to the other and then would bring out some sort of cloth and lay it down on the stone and a hole would open up. Then it would bring out the pearls and trade them to the trogs for the slaves they had brought and then would put them in the hole and then picked it up and folded it away. The group figured out that it must be a portable hole which was a fairly potent magic item. The spirit then faded away as the group crossed over to the other side. Irgzid and Churtle just dove into the water and swam to the other side and Adla used her cloak and changed into a manta ray and she also swam over. She noticed that the water was stale and stagnant and seemed to contain some sort of slimy mucus that she avoided. They came up on the other side and waited for the others to cross. There was only one spot where they would have trouble as it was too far for the gnomes to jump so Grat jumped over and waited for the others. They decided to try a gnome toss and Humphrey grabbed Sparklegem and heaved her over to Grat and he had the misfortune to slip as he grabbed her and the two of them ended up falling into the water. They managed to climb back up onto the rocks and they then decided to use some ropes and the others managed to climb over while Humphrey and Grat held up the rope high enough for them to crawl over. Soon they had all managed to climb over and waited a few minutes for Sparklegem to dry herself off as they headed into the tunnel again. Humphrey was the last to leave and just as he did, he heard a splash in the water. When he turned around, all he could see was the ripples from something. He couldn’t see anything so he hurried after the group. They walked for a few more hours and then had to camp for the night.

Jan 17 2010; Harvester 16, they continued walking and it was late in the afternoon when the passageway opened into a roughly circular cavern. A ten-foot-wide ledge runs across the northern and southern faces of the room, with a passage leading away from each. Graceful arcs of natural stone bridge the two ledges in three places, although the easternmost bridge has collapsed in the center, leaving a five-foot-wide gap. Above the ceiling rises up to a height of forty feet, while below the ground drops away an equal distance into a rubble-strewn gulf. What appear to be six immense petrified fish lie on the floor of the crevice. The sound of whispering wells up from below and the ground looks almost like its moving. As the group moved forwards to look further, something loomed out of the shadows. Suddenly three spider-like shapes crawled out from the shadows and attacked. It took a few moments for the group to recognize them and they realized that they were a species of spider that they had last seen in the hold of the Blue Nixie in Sasserine. But that creature had only been the size of a large dog. The three that suddenly appeared were the size of large horses. The group charged up to attack as Humphrey took the brunt of the attacks. Soon the three bodies were dead, but not before Humphrey and a few of the others had been bitten by the scimitar sized fangs the creatures had. The bodies of the creatures fell down into the crevices and the group looked down and realized that the floor was covered in a multitude of vermin. After looking for a few moments they decided to continue on walking. They soon stopped again to rest and recover. Sable, Lucky and Rey determined that they were now about 7 000 feet below sea level and had traveled at least 60 miles since leaving the surface behind.

Harvester 17, once they had awakened and had a quick meal they continued walking. A couple hours later the group could suddenly see where the tunnel opened up into a cavern and they slowly walked up to the edge and looked out into a massive cavern. Within this immense cavern broods a realm of gigantic polyps and intricate fungi so large and elaborate that they seem almost to compliment the twisted towers, temples, the myriad constructions of an insane city. Ruined citadels of cyclopean grandeur tangle amid spires that look to have been grown rather than built—homes for beings with unspeakable forms. Senseless bridges reach to suicide heights, dropping away into squamous slums and melted ghettos. Seemingly accidental avenues and inaccessible alleys form an unfathomable maze, a labyrinth that stretches to the subterranean horizon. Across it all bulge images of gnarled, tentacled things and red domes that glisten like unblinking demoniac eyes. The already stale air has grown foul and close in this place, as if the smell of rot was somehow trying to crowd out the final gasp of freshness reaching these forsaken depths.

Bursting from the demented cityscape, three titanic columns of unearthly violet flame churn silently like the pillars of some gigantic temple, bathing the entire cavern in a nauseating violet light—a light that seems somehow more horrible that the darkness that lurks at the edges of this nightmare grotto. Humphrey came to the edge and looked down and realized that it was a long way to fall as they group slowly came up behind him. Looking down they figured the floor of the cavern was 200 feet below them. The group took turns looking out over the view and they could see off in the distance a crater on the other side of the cavern and to the left they could see some sort of pyramid or ziggurat. Sparklegem then had to sit down and pray for her spells for the day and she decided to pray for a stone shape and also a divination to see what to do next.

After she had gained her spells for the day she cast stone shape to make a support for the rope they needed to rappel down to the floor. Sable changed into a falcon and decided to do a circuit of the cavern while Grat just launched himself off of the wall and proceeded to glide down to the floor. The rest of the group started to use the ropes to climb down. The warriors took off their armor to make it easier and they decided to go down single file and Humphrey agreed to go last just in case. Irgzid didn’t want to go down so he agreed to stay in the tunnel and wait along with Rey’s cat and Sable’s dinosaur. Once they had climbed down, Irgzid would pull the ropes back up and wait for them to return. Sable flew up to the edge of the cavern and he looked around. He could see the crater so he headed that way to take a look. As he looked around he could see Grat gliding down to the floor. He flew over the crater and looked down to see the crater in the shattered floor that has become an abscess for all the pungent fluids that seep and bleed from the alien city. Rent as if by some great impact, the cracked depression blossoms with sickly moulds and tumid blue and white mushrooms several heads taller than a full grown man. Languid veins of mucus trickle down the sides of the crater to pool at the basin’s floor, leaving only a small patch of fractured earth undespoiled. At the crater’s bottom sits the ten-foot-wide stone head of a reptilian creature with bulging eyes, a forked tongue, and a headdress of feathers and spikes. The stone head is cracked and damaged, and as the black sludge pools around the stump of its neck it sizzles and evaporates into swirling blue-green wisps of vapour.

He turned and headed back towards the group and that’s when he spotted something following Grat in the air. It looked like some sort of large aquatic type creature and there were two of them and they were flying through the air following Grat. It looked like Grat had spotted them as he was diving to the ground and landed some hundred feet from the party that was still climbing down the wall. The two creatures then landed around the corner from the group and appeared to be watching the group. Grat yelled out as he got close enough and the others grabbed their weapons and waited. Lucky spotted one of them and took a shot at it with his bow and managed to hit it and it ducked out of sight. Sable looked around as he returned to the group but didn’t see anything else moving. He checked to see if the other things were still keeping an eye on the group but they had disappeared somewhere.

Jan 24 2010; once everyone was on the ground they were trying to decide what to do first between exploring the crater and investigating the ziggurat when Humphrey told them that his club was twitching and trying to point towards the crater. Sparklegem then cast her divination and the only thing she got for a vision was Humphrey’s club swinging right at her head. Once she told the group this she suddenly got tired and told them that she was going to rest for a few moments to recover from the spell. She lay down on the blanket and closed her eyes while the others were figuring out what to do. Adla decided to break the tension and convinced Humphrey that the gnomes needed some excitement and the next thing Sparklegem knew, she was being tossed up in the air and she opened her eyes with a cry and looked around as she headed back to the ground. She was caught in her blanket and the two of them proceeded to toss her back up into the air a few more times until the blanket ripped and she fell to the ground with a thump. She got to her feet and glared at the rest of the group as they all laughed at her. Finally they got their armor back on and collected their packs and proceeded to walk into the city. Everyone was looking around in amazement and sometimes horror as they tried to stay as far away from the buildings. They watched as one of them suddenly cracked open and a flesh like appendage that looked like a forked tongue licked up and seemed to clean the red dome on the top of itself and retreated back into the wall. Then one of the buildings actually rose up a few feet and moved about six feet before it settled down again. This was giving the group some serious problems as they all started watching the buildings around them as they meandered their way through the twisted streets and collapsed structures. Sable said the crater was only two hundred yards away but it took them longer than they thought to move towards it. They had just rounded a corner when the side of the building sloughed off and collapsed around them, trapping Lucky, Sparklegem, Bucky, and Churtle underneath the dried skin and gooey resin that came along with it. It took a few moments for them to get out of the mess and Sparklegem immediately cast create water so they could clean themselves off. The smell was incredible as they looked around and they looked at the wall that had come loose and the color was now totally different and clean. They figured that must have shed its skin just as they walked by. They continued walking and came around another corner and off in the distance they could see a massive purple worm thrashing around the street. Looking on in horror, they realized that the building was trying to eat it.

They took a moment to look around and continued walking. Grat went to round the next corner when he stopped as he looked around. About 100 yards away he could see some sort of palanquin being carried by some trogs. Sitting in the seat was what he now recognized as a Kopru. As he watched he could see another one following the first as they waited for them to round the corner out of sight. After a few more minutes they finally came to the clearing that contained the crater and even from a distance they could see the damage it had rent when it had landed so long ago. The group slowly moved up as they heard Humphrey give a grunt as his club twitched in his hands. He looked around and took a few steps towards it as the others looked around. Adla thought she spotted something at the edge of the crater but when she took a closer look it had disappeared.

Suddenly Humphrey gave out a roar and charged towards the crater and took a giant leap and landed at the bottom of the crater and started bashing away at the stone relic. The rest of the group was still standing as they all heard a voice in their heads telling them to stop what they were doing. They turned and looked and to their horror they could see something that looked like a polyp with twelve insectoid legs. Larger than a horse, the things tumid mass writhes with stunted whipping tentacles. A lipless mouth heavy with protruding rows of dagger-length teeth and a ridge of four bulging eyes glares from above this nightmare gash. A cluster of twelve knots crown the abomination’s misshapen form, the gray wrinkles of brain trapped within pressed against the semi-transparent membranes. The thing must have been some sort of arcane caster as it was surrounded by multiple images of itself. The group immediately attacked it as Adla thought she recognized what it was and hoped like Hell that it didn’t get close enough to one of the party to attack. She shouted out that it was a brain collector and it was very dangerous. It proved how dangerous it was when it suddenly cast a spell and caused massive confusion within the group as only Grat, Adla, Rey and Hap avoided falling under its spell. The gnomes started attacking each other and it started to get ugly. The others couldn’t do much against the creature and it continued to cast spells at the group. Grat jumped down into the crater to back up Humphrey as he watched a nimbus of sparks starting to surround Humphrey. Whatever he was doing he had to do it alone so he looked back and realized that the others were now fighting each other. Every so often some of the gnomes managed to cast a spell at the thing but then went back to fighting each other again. Even Lucky and Lamar were not immune from the effects. Adla could do nothing to it as she didn’t have a decent ranged weapon to hit it. Finally she got its attention and pointed towards Humphrey and the thing gave a scream of rage and headed towards him. Just as it got to the edge of the crater, Adla heard Humphrey give a roar of triumph as the relic turned to dust. Sable then cast a spell and the others watched as a lightning bolt came out of the sky and struck Humphrey as he held his club up in triumph. The faint whispering Adla had heard in the background suddenly rose to a deafening crescendo and abruptly stopped. She watched as some sort of a bubble burst when it collapsed just as the brain collector got there. As the bubble passed over the thing it shimmered and seemed to be drawn into the bubble and disappeared with a pop. They could all hear it screaming in rage as it faded away.

By now most of the confused party members had run away in terror and Grat had to go chasing after them to round them up. Adla and Rey could now feel the ground vibrating under their feet as they realized the curtain that held the millions of gallons of water at bay was now gone and soon the cavern would be inundated with water. Rey shouted that they only had hours before the waters started pouring in. It took a few minutes for the confusion to wear off and soon the others had headed back to rejoin the group. Humphrey had sat done with a thud when his rage wore off and he was just sitting at the edge of the crater surrounded by the remains of the relic. They could see that his sandals appeared to be gone but when he came back up to join the others they could see that somehow his sandals had melded into his feet, most likely from the lightning bolt that had struck him. Finally he got to his feet and walked back up to the group. He looked tired but strengthened at the same time. His club looked different too as he looked at it and he realized that his ring was now missing off his finger and somehow it was now part of his club around the handle. The head looked more worn as there was now scorch marks on parts of it.

Jan 31 2010; as they looked around, they could see Grat coming around the corner with most of the others that had run away. Looking around they could see that Sable appeared to be missing but when they looked around they could see a falcon flying around above them so they figured he had changed shape. The group took a few moments to check each other over and they cast a few cure spells and then started looking around. They could all feel the vibrations under their feet as the air slowly moved around them. They knew that the water was now heading their way and they decided to head over to the ziggurat to see what they could find. Looking around they could see some of the buildings swaying and moving with the vibrations and as they started walking the ground suddenly shifted a bit and Rey and Bucky even fell down from the movement. They got back to their feet and the group started walking towards the ziggurat. They rounded the corner and were forced to stop when they saw that one of the buildings had collapsed in front of them blocking off the road. They turned around just as the falcon came down and buzzed them. Once they were looking at it, it turned around and started flying back the way they came and then it turned to the left. The group started following it and they could see that the falcon was leading them in a circuitous route around the various buildings. Humphrey was in the lead and he was forced to suddenly stop when a weird purplish flame just appeared right in front of them, blocking off the road. They waited a few moments until Grat came up and tossed a coin towards the light. As the coin hit it, they could hear it sizzle as it disappeared. They were just turning around to go the other way when the flame vanished as fast as it had appeared. They continued with their walking and finally came around the corner to see the ziggurat in front of them.

Amid the ruined towers of melted stone and malls of quivering ooze, a wide area lies clear of the rubble and less wholesome debris. From these cleared acres rises a stone pyramid that looks out of place from the surrounding madness, its dimensions having the look of lucid design and bearing comforting right angles of masonry. The sides of the ziggurat are festooned with detailed carvings of reptilian and simian monsters wrapped and cradled in endless coils of tentacles. Steep steps rise into the darkened, noxious cavern air to a simple platform at the ziggurat’s summit. Not all seems right, though, as several cracks mar the pyramid’s masonry, revealing sections of diseased purple flesh within. In addition, two sides of the pyramid look partially overgrown, covered in putrid swaths of pale green mould. In places, great slicks of tacky, dried blood stain the ziggurats sides. The group looked around and they spotted something sitting on the top platform. The group decided to head straight towards it with Grat in the lead. He stepped forwards about thirty feet and stopped for a moment. Suddenly he got a compulsion in his head to walk towards the pyramid and he started walking forwards. Humphrey came up and grabbed him as the others looked around and they could see whatever it was on top of the platform looking at them. Then two of them left the platform and started flying towards the group before they could even cast some spells at them. Sable landed on the edge of the clearing and took the time to shift back into his normal form and waited for the others to charge forward. Adla told Humphrey to let Grat go and he did so. The two creatures had flown down to the ground and landed about twenty feet away from the group and proceeded to attack. Humphrey took on one of them and was almost overwhelmed when the creature they now identified as a Kopru but it was much bigger than the other one they had seen.

Humphrey was attacked by the one and it wrapped itself around him with its three pronged tail and started squeezing the life out of him like a snake. The others managed to kill the other one with spells of flame and their weapons and when it died, Grat’s compulsion went away. Adla drew her greatsword and charged the one that was engaged with Humphrey and hit it so hard that the blow ended up hurting Humphrey just as badly as he was wrapped up in the coils of the tail. As the group looked around, they could see two more of them flying from the pyramid towards them. They engaged the group and were quickly dispatched but not before one of them managed to dominate Lamar and forced him to attack Grat. The gnomes took the time to cast spells and even Churtle got into the act to protect her master. Finally the four Kopru were dead and looking around they couldn’t see any other movement so they headed toward the steep steps of the pyramid.

Feb 7 2010; the group slowly walked or jumped up the stairs towards the apex. As the group looked around and through the masonry blocks, they could see plum colored flesh underneath the rocks. At times they could even see what appeared to be gills. Slits like wide toothless mouths and black animalistic eyes. The building seemed to shake as the group walked up and finally they got to the top and a domelike bulge of constricted, bruise colored muscle with a slit in the middle of it that reminded the group of a large pair of lips. Looking around the group could see no way in so Humphrey and Adla grabbed a lip and proceeded to finally pull them apart with a combined heave. Looking down, Adla could see the floor 15 feet below and she jumped down to look around. This room is alive. The bruised purple walls pulse and quiver, heaving irregularly like the breath of a dying thing. Growths jut from the walls—exposed fleshy things like black lungs, giant many—chambered and inside-out hearts, rolling milky white eyes, and other organs with no human analog. Unfinished stonework covers patches of the floor, as if some optimistic architect hoped to merely brick over the room’s obscene nature. An open chute with a strange ladder, its rungs curved and awkwardly placed, opens through part of the masonry floor, descending deeper into the structure’s depths. Grat and Humphrey jumped down next and as Grat landed and looked around one of the eyes in the wall suddenly turned and looked directly at him. Humphrey then helped the gnomes down as Lucky and Lamar came last. Soon the group was inside the body and everyone was looking a little queasy. Churtle asked Humphrey to leave and he just ignored her and they continued looking around.

They walked over to the chute and they climbed down to the next level. The ziggurat’s organs continue to twitch, roil, and watch. The half-laid stonework glistens amid pools of water. To the east looms a huge bust of a demonic countenance with twin baboon-like heads set in a fearsome double roar sprouting from its over-muscled chest. Across the ground like hunks of shattered black resin and, near the statue, a black tumour grows from the fleshy floor, its size and shape reminiscent of some grotesque divan. Standing on the floor to the left of the statue was an aquatic creature that was much smaller than the ones they had killed outside and when it spotted them in dropped through a hole in the floor. Adla walked over and looked down and could see another floor about 15 feet below her. The smell coming up from below almost made her sick as she could smell a foul mixture of bile and tar. She started climbing down as the others waited their turn. The sickly heat and pulsing walls of this cloying room augment perfectly the revolting stink of bile mixed with crude oil. Four pools of putrid black muck bubble and spurt in the floor, their edges determined by either rigid stone blocks or dimples in the fleshy ground. Four pillars separate the pools and hold the sagging flesh of the ceiling aloft. Within the basins of roiling foulness float pristine black orbs, each the size of a man’s head and shimmering with an unsettling inner light.

As Adla looked around she could see the Kopru standing on the other side of the room right beside two of the foul black pools. She charged across the room to attack the Kopru and managed to hit it hard with her great-sword. As the others followed they could see her attacking. Then something with many-jointed legs and squirming tentacles cloak this horror in a haze of repulsive motion rose from the pool to her right. A thing half-centipede and half-squid, a single alien, black eye stares fathomlessly from an octopoid head. Curled upon itself like a titanic shrimp, the thing glistens like a scarab’s shell even as it bathes itself in an endless flow of oily black drool. The beast suddenly spat a light of black foulness at Adla and Grat as they fought the Kopru. The foulness struck the two of them and started sizzling away like acid and then erupted into flames as it interacted with the air in the room. Grat screamed in pain as he was forced to retreat. Adla went to attack the Kopru again and it just smiled at her as it fell backwards into the pool. The massive creature then dove back into the foul pool as the others came into the room. Sparklegem hit the floor and was immediately nauseated from the foul smell and proceeded to lose her lunch. The others looked around and stationed themselves around the room as the gnomes stayed in a cluster by the ladder. Then the Kopru suddenly rose from another pool right in front of Humphrey and as he turned to strike at it, he suddenly stopped and turned towards the ladder. Grat and Adla spotted the head and ran towards it as it cast a spell at Adla. She managed to shrug off the spell as they attacked it. Then the other creature rose from another pool and spat at the gnomes and Lamar. Everyone was hit from the bile and started screaming in pain as it erupted into flames. The others watched in horror as the acid seemed to react even more strongly against Lamar as he turned into a fireball and fell to the ground dead. The acid still bubbling away as his body proceeded to melt away to nothing. The creature then ducked back down into the pool as the others looked wildly around for it.

Soon it appeared in another of the pools and spat its bile again. This time it hit Lucky and he screamed in agony as the acid did its work against him. He was forced to flee back up the ladder and fell unconscious half-way up as Sable was forced to help him. Humphrey had climbed up the ladder and was leaving without saying a word to the others so they thought that he had been dominated by the Kopru. Churtle just followed him as he left. Sparklegem had climbed back up to the throne room as she tried to recover. The fight down below continued as the creature then tried to attack Adla but was unable to hit her. As they were fighting it, something shimmered behind Rey and suddenly a demon appeared right behind him and attacked. As the others turned around they recognized the bebelith that had attacked them a few days before. It nailed Rey by biting him and he felt the poison from its fangs entering his body as he felt himself weaken from the drain. Finally Adla and Grat succeeded in killing the aberration in the pool and turned their attention to the demon. They attacked it and forced it to phase away before they could kill it as they turned and looked around. They didn’t spot the Kopru in the far pool as it appeared and looked around.

Feb 14 2010; the group continued looking and finally spotted the Kopru as he rose up slightly to cast a spell at the group and when he did the others noticed him and Adla charged forwards as Arte-choke, Bucky and Hap were affected by his spell of command and they turned to flee. Rey and Lucky used their bows as the other two moved up and attacked. It cast another spell at Adla but it didn’t work as they finally whacked the thing a couple of times and killed it. The body immediately sank into the black liquid and everyone felt the building quiver as if in rage. Humphrey had managed to climb up to the top of the ziggurat leaving his club behind when he jumped and finally came to his senses as he was halfway down the steps. He could hear Churtle screaming at him and he turned and walked back up to look down the hole to see Churtle bouncing up and down trying to catch the lip. As Humphrey looked down the other gnomes arrived from the command. The others down below decided to get out as the building started shaking and the masonry started to break. Adla grabbed Lamar’s body and tossed it over her shoulder and they started climbing out of the building. On the next floor where the statue to Demogorgon was, Grat took a few moments to search around and found a very nice gold and ivory tiara and he also spotted the black pearls that were being used for eyes. He jumped up onto the statue and tried to pry them out when the statue wobbled and fell over onto him. It fell apart enough so he managed to crawl out and he then managed to grab the pearls and stuffed them in his pouch as the others kept walking upwards. They got up to the exit to see Humphrey dangling a rope down so the others could climb up. Just as Adla got there, Sparklegem slipped and she was forced to drop Lamar’s body in order to catch her. The others climbed up and they were standing on top of the ziggurat.

The group looked around and could now see some water pouring out of one of the other passages so they decided to head back to the exit as fast as they could. Arte-choke told the group that he now had the ability to teleport himself and a few of the others back to the surface as soon as he could rest and memorize his spells tomorrow. It took about an hour for them to get to the walls and they shouted up to Irgzid to toss down the ropes and they prepared to climb up to the tunnel. Most of them got up safe while Humphrey waited to go last. Sparklegem was nearly up to the top when she slipped and fell and when the rope tightened to hold her it snapped and broke and she screamed as she started falling. Humphrey looked up and had only moments to decide what to do and he tried to catch her as she fell faster and faster. He managed to grab her but she was falling awkwardly and she landed on his head and the two of them fell to the ground. It was a good thing that the ground here was spongy as that is what saved Sparklegem’s life. After the two of them got back up and she cast a couple cure spells, she hitched a ride with Adla after they took off all of their armor and tied it in a bundle. Once they got up, Humphrey followed and then they hauled up all of the gear. They decided to leave the armor off as speed was now at a premium as they looked out over the cavern and could see water coming in from all of the tunnels. They didn’t want to know how long it would take for the water but they didn’t want to wait around to find out. They started walking as fast as they could up the passage until they became too exhausted to walk any further. They stopped to rest for the night and even a few miles from the cavern they could feel the air moving past them from all the turbulence behind them.

Harvester 18, when the group awakened, Arte-choke took the time to memorize his spells for the day and they included his new spell teleport, he then used it to take himself and Bucky along with Lucky and Rey’s cat back to their ship that was anchored to the north of the Isle. The others then started force marching back to the surface. A couple of hours later they pasted the cavern where the vermin had been and they could see some water dripping from the ceiling into the caverns below. They continued past and a short time later as Humphrey was in the rear, he heard something behind him and before he could react a massive purple worm appeared out of the tunnel and attacked him. It bit him and tried to swallow him as the others came up to attack it and they managed to kill it before it could make a meal out of him. They continued walking until Sparklegem had to stop and pray for her spells for the day and she also had some new higher level spells she could cast so she made the slow members of the group gaseous in order to speed up their travels. They then started trotting up the tunnels and managed to go until dinner time when Rey suddenly collapsed and said he had to rest for the night. By their calculations they were only a mile or two from the caverns where the trog ghost had been and they decided to rest here.

Feb 21 2010; Harvester 19, the night passed quietly and the group was soon on the move again. They got to the watery cavern and could hear the sounds of water running before they could see it and as they looked in, they could see the water had risen about six inches in the cavern and the stepping stones were now about an inch under water. They looked around but the ghost did not appear and Irgzid became depressed when he realized that he would not appear. The group started across the water with Humphrey in the lead and when he took his first step onto the water the others were amazed to see him step onto the water as he started walking across. He stood there on top of the water as he walked across. He came to the deep spot and started walking across the water as the others looked on in amazement. They then decided to use him to carry everyone else across without getting their feet wet. It looked like when he had destroyed to relic to Tlaloc that his sandals had changed because of it. Soon they were on the other side and they continued walking up the tunnels. Once the group stopped for the night to rest, Sparklegem used her spell to speed up the tunnels to the surface and flew to the ship and arrived just before her spell expired. She decided to rest there for the night and convinced Arte-choke to accompany her back to the group the next day.

Harvester 20, the rest of the group rested for the night and continued on. They decided to have Sable cast reincarnate on the remains of Lamar and the spell was successful and returned him as a human. At least he could still use all of his equipment. Once they were ready they started marching again and it was in the afternoon when Sparklegem and Arte-choke arrived back at the group. Arte said that his new name was now Toma-haque, Toma for short. They kept walking until they got to the cavern that contained the roper and they decided to attack it this time and they slowly moved into the cavern and quickly encountered it. Humphrey took the brunt of the damage and was weakened from its tentacles but they managed to kill it and then looked around the cavern. They managed to dig some platinum coins and a few gems out of the body as the others looked around. Irgzid managed to pull a few items out of the bones and rubble including a very nice ivory and crystal stall and a small ivory sceptre. They also found a cloak and flail. Sparklegem cast detect magic and found that the staff, cloak and flail were enchanted. They decided to give Irgzid the ivory sceptre for his services and he was ecstatic to receive such a nice item from them. Once they cleared the cavern they soon stopped to rest again.

Harvester 21, they continued walking until Sparklegem could pray for her spells and she then cast the air walk spell again on most of the group in order to speed up their travels leaving just Humphrey and Irgzid to walk. They had marched for a few hours when suddenly there was a shimmering in front of Humphrey and the bebelith demon that had plagued them for the last few weeks suddenly appeared and moved to attack Humphrey as the rest of them looked on in horror.

March 7 2010; Humphrey grunted and muttered storm chaser to charge up his club as he charged the demon as Irgzid stood frozen in shock. The next few moments went by in a blur as his club nailed the demon multiple times. Unfortunately he took the return attacks from the thing as it managed to grab him in his claws and it proceeded to shred his armor apart as the hooks in its claws grabbed on and chain links started flying everywhere. He gave a scream of rage and everything went red as he proceeded to pound away at the thing. He was unlucky as the poison from its fangs managed to sink into his body and he rapidly became weakened from its effects. He must of hurt it enough that it retreated instead of attacking him again for a last time as the others watched in horror as he started swaying on his feet. Irgzid crept up behind him and cast a cure spell on him before he collapsed and he was still enraged as he turned around and spotted the trog behind him. He lasted out in anger as the others finally became solid again and Adla cast another cure on him before he died. Then Sparklegem cast a restoration on him to restore his vitality before the poison caused him to die. Humphrey opened his eyes for a moment to see the others around him and then passed out from exhaustion from the fight. The others then waited for him to wake up before they continued on in their journey. About an hour later the group was back on the go with Sparklegem and Lamar back in gaseous form and Adla and Grat walking along with Humphrey and Irgzid.

Meanwhile back on the ship, the others were sitting around bored waiting for word from the others. Rey had taken Abby to shore in order for her to hunt some fresh meat for dinner when he was forced out of the tree he was in when he spotted a wing of wyverns flying just over the trees towards him. He dropped down and managed to hide before they spotted him and Abby and they soon headed back to the ship before something else appeared. Then the ship had the misfortune of having an encounter with a massive bird that approached the ship just at dusk. Sable and Rey were the only ones to spot it before it approached the ship and Rey got very worried when he realized that Abby was up in the crow’s nest of the ship with one of the sailors that was supposed to be on watch. They alerted the others that were on deck and as they turned to look at the bird, they realized that it was bigger than the ship and it let out a shriek as it approached the ship. The sailor up on watch stood up to see what was going on and looked the wrong way as the roc flew over the ship and reached down and snatched the hapless sailor into its claws and continued flying away. The body of the massive bird clipped the tip of the mast and snapped it clean off as it flew past.

The group on deck heard the dying scream of the sailor as the roc flew past and Rey climbed up the mast so fast it appeared that he was flying. He found Abby curled up in the body of the crow’s nest shivering away in fear from the encounter and he was forced to carry her back down to the deck. He also found an empty bottle and it looked like the sailor had been drinking and had fallen asleep. Once the captain came on deck after being alerted about the bird he made preparations to get a replacement spar to be brought up on board so they could hoist it up in the morning to repair the mast.

A couple hours later Sparklegem and Lamar arrived on board and told the captain that the others were waiting to be picked up at the pier. The others had continued walking out of the tunnels and had encountered a flock of wraiths that had tried to attack the remaining group but only one of them managed to flee before it was killed. They finally got to the sinkhole below the trog village and they managed to get a rope down to Humphrey and he climbed up into the trog village. The smell was horrible here as it appeared that all of the trogs that had lived here were now dead and rotting. The group didn’t take any time to investigate as they knew that they were only hours away from seeing the ocean again. They got to the cavern where the dinosaur had been on guard and when they checked the chamber they found the body of the beast in the corner covered with massive amounts of the black growths and at first it appeared dead. Irgzid approached it and when he checked it, Sparklegem heard him saying something about it still being alive but near death. He then turned to Sparklegem and asked her to fix it. She looked the beast over and then cast remove disease and the watched as all of the black growths sloughed off the beast and fell to the ground. It woke up and shook itself and started to stand up as Irgzid stood in front of it talking to it and stroking its muzzle.

Irgzid then turned to the group and thanked them for helping him and he said he was going to take the lizard and make his way into the jungle for awhile until he could find some of his tribe members if any of them were still alive. Before he left, Adla pulled out a handful of coins and handed them to Irgzid as the group finally walked out into the fresh air for the first time in weeks. Irgzid headed along the beach until he faded from sight as Sparklegem and Lamar headed towards the ship. Humphrey and the other two found a spot to camp for the night and made sure they had a good beach fire to prevent anything nasty from appearing during the night.

Harvester 22, the three of them were awakened at dawn to hear some squabbling coming from down the beach and when they got up to investigate, they soon found parts of a large body lying on the beach at the waterline and a small pack of dinosaurs fighting over the remains. They watched for awhile until the dinos were done with their meal and had wandered back into the jungle and Grat moved down to check over the body and he thought it might be the remains of a demon fish but only the rear half of it was there. They headed back towards the pier and waited until noon when they finally spotted the ship rounding the corner of the bay. Humphrey then told the other two to climb onto him and he then started walking out onto the water and walked to the ship as it hove to and waited for them. Once they were on board the ship proceeded to head around the island heading back to Farshore. As they left they saw something in the water, when they got close enough they could see a feather about twenty feet long floating in the water. They hooked onto it and pulled it aboard.

Harvester 23, as the group rounded the west side of the island and ran into a southeaster storm that slowed them up for more than a day.

           Brewfest 1, they finally made it back around the island and could see the harbour of Farshore in front of them.

March 14 2010; they slowly moved into the harbour and could see that the harbour was crowded with ships including the ones that had been under repair when they left. It looked like one of them was still being worked on as the spars and sails were not attached yet. They could see flags and bunting flying everywhere as they realized that it was festival time. The common in front of the Last Coconut was packed full of revellers as the group disembarked from the Sea Wyvern and headed towards the party. The villagers were so happy to see them that they didn’t have to pay for any drinks and people kept offering them. They managed to speak with Lavinia for a few moments and she said she would talk with them after the festival was done. The group spent the next six days partying with the villagers and during that time they managed to speak with a couple of merchants that had some items for sale. They managed to unload most of the loot they had acquired for a decent price and even managed to buy a couple of items. Sable bought a silver ring that felt warm when he put it on and Adla purchased a Cat’s Eye broach to put on her cloak of the manta ray. They tried to find anything else to buy but didn’t find anything else they wanted. It took Sable a full day to figure out what his ring did and he determined that it somehow boosted the strength of fire spells that he could cast and that it even contained three charges that would boost the strength even more. Sparklegem took a few days to scribe some scrolls and she managed to create a couple of heal scrolls.

Chapter Seven: City of Broken Idols

Patchwall 1, in the morning they spoke with Lavinia and she then told them to speak with Vesserin at the chapel as someone had arrived the night before that they needed to speak to. When they entered the chapel they found Vesserin speaking with a man they recognized as the Olman warrior they had rescued in the trog hovel underground weeks before. He looked pale and thin but when he spotted them he smiled and motioned them forwards as Vesserin turned and saw them and motioned them forwards as they came up and sat down.

“Ah, my saviours! Thank you again for delivering me from that cursed cavern. As I promised you then, I have a tale to tell you. I have spoken with your resident priest here, and with your lovely patron as well, and they have highly recommended you for the task my master has set me upon. My name is Jakara, I am of the Tiger Clan, yet my people are not those of the Seven Villages. My tribe dwelt in a narrow valley in the mountains west of the central plateau—at least, until recently. We have long known that there was a darkness atop that taboo place, that our ancestors once dwelt there, and that they angered the gods and made this place what it is today. We do not go. It is not safe. And for some time, what dwelt there remained there as well.

Yet of late, things have changed. The demons that dwell in the City of Broken Idols have turned their attentions outward, and earlier this year; my tribe was slaughtered by men wearing the skins of demon tigers. I alone survived, and long were the nights I contemplated a suicide trek to the taboo heights to avenge my kin. Yet before I fell to such a lure, I met a man from your world. This was Noltus Innersol. He had already gathered a flock from the island’s other tribes. Lizardfolk and phanaton and Olman alike followed him and his words were captivating. I found much wisdom in his words, for he too had long fought against the demon host. He seemed particularly taken with my totems, and my focus in opposing the demons. For a time, I traveled with him, and helped him to gather more followers. Noltus had learned of the lost village of Mantru, and his goal was to travel there, atop the central plateau, and rescue the villagers from whatever peril kept them isolated from their kin.

Yet he was also taken with my skills. He decided he would lead his followers to bring the word of his god to the heights, yet he asked me to carry a message to your tribe in Farshore. He also asked me to spread the lore of totems to the people of the Seven Villages—it has been the wisdom of my tribe to keep such knowledge to ourselves, but I see now that it can serve no purpose if I am the last. Before I made it to Farshore, alas, my trail was discovered by the skin-wearing fiends. I hid Noltus’s message in the stump of a tree and turned to face my tormentors, but they proved too much even for me. I defeated them, but not before they stole my mind. It was not long until the trogs captured me, and thus my state when you discovered me wretched in their cage. After you freed me, I returned to the site of my failure to find Noltus’s message safe. I have brought it here, and your priest and patron have read its contents. They wish you to read it as well.”

He then handed over an ivory scroll tube inlaid with gold symbols of Pelor. Sparklegem took it and opened it to find a letter inside; she proceeded to read it to the group.

To Vesserin Catherly—

My friend, I write you this letter to inform you of a most terrible discovery. Know first that the man who carries this letter is also a friend and that his skills and techniques for standing against the demonic host may well serve you and the people of the Seven Villages well in the months to come. Learn from him, for what he has to teach is of great value. But to the news at hand. I have decided to follow up on the Olman tales of the village of Mantru that isolated tribe dwelling in Thanaclan’s shadow atop the plateau. I had hoped to contact this village to bring the Sun Father’s hope to them, for as you will recall, I believe I can use their worship of violent Tonatiuh to my favour. Pelor and this savage deity have more in common than my brethren might admit. The Stone of the Sun and the Moon all but proves it. By showing the villagers of Mantru Pelor’s wisdom, I had hoped to civilize them.

Yet from all appearances, Mantru may be lost. You are well aware of the rumours that something dire has taken up residence in the City of Broken Idols. The Seven Villages call the central plateau taboo for strong and true reasons. Yet what dwells on high is no longer content with the ruins of Thanaclan. The man who brings you this letter is proof of this fear, for his tribe was slaughtered by savage heathens from this central plateau. Men who wear the skins of demons, and who kept those they capture alive for unknowable reasons before they return to their lair in the City of Broken Idols. I have seen evidence of these heathens at work elsewhere, and have even encountered some of their dead. Yet I do not fear them for no demon can withstand the purity of my convictions. I shall lead my new followers atop the central plateau. We shall deliver the children of Mantru from their oppressors and defeat the fiends. Yet should clouds or the fall of night keep Pelor from my side, and should I fall, know that the evil that broods in the City of Broken Idols does not rest. If you should seek to follow in my footsteps, bring with you the Stone of the Sun and Moon. I have come to believe that it may hold the key to what destroyed Thanaclan low so long ago.

I do not fear for my own life. Pelor has set me upon this course for a reason. With Bulgan’s constant companionship, I am never alone on my quest. But I do fear what these fiends might try if none beyond me take up arms against them. If I do not return, I ask only that you fight as you can, and that this missive be sent on to Lady Gosalar of the Sasserine Dawnhouse as my final testament.

Your Friend, Noltus Innersol    

When the group asked about the stone, Vesserin went to the back of the church and returned with a stone disk which he gave the group. He said that Noltus had given it to him a few years ago after he had explored the Isle of Dread for the first time and he had held it ever since. It showed representations of three Olman Gods, Tezcatlipoca, God of the Moon, Tonatiuh, God of the Sun, and Quetzalcoatl. Both Rey and Toma were very surprised to see the three gods depicted working together as highly unusual seeing as two of them were mortal enemies. They seemed to be working to craft some sort of bow. The group then headed off to prepare to head towards the area and were discussing how to get there. They asked Jakara if he would accompany them but he said he planned to travel back to the Seven Villages to spread the word of Pelor and to possibly teach them about totemic demon slayers. Rey was very intrigued about this and he stayed behind to continue talking to Jakara.

March 22, 2010; Patchwall 2,  the group decided to sail the Sea Wyvern around the west coast of the Isle of Dread and land at the base of the river delta closest to the phanaton village. Rey finally appeared and said that he was going to become a demon slayer like Jakara but that he needed to find one of the Olman’s holy women in order to have a ceremony performed on him along with Jakara and Vesserin. The group decided to have Sparklegem use air walk to get the three of them over to the mainland to find her. So the four of them shifted to gaseous form and flew out over the water as the others boarded the ship and they set sail towards the Isle of Dread. Humphrey decided to see if he could still swim in water even though his feet wouldn’t touch. So he dove off the deck of the ship and landed on his feet but lost his balance and fell forwards and hit the water with a loud splash. He had remembered to take off most of his gear before he did this and he started swimming after the boat but the others had to toss a rope down to him as he couldn’t keep up. He got back on deck and dried himself off as the others wandered around the ship. Once they were clear of the harbour they turned west and headed for the south-western point of the Isle being careful to skirt the reef that was directly in front of them. They stayed to the north of the reef and it took most of the day to get past it and soon they were turning north to head up the western coast of the Isle. Once the sun set they started looking for a spot to stop and anchor for the night as there was too many hazards to deal with at night. The next day was spent sailing.

Patchwall 4, once the sun came up they continued sailing north until they came to the Black Fen swamp where the mighty Thanegioth River emptied out into the sea. They had been warned that the swamp was home to tribes of warring frogmen and the group didn’t want to have to deal with them so they decided to disembark out in the bay and hit land just south of the swamp and start walking through the swamp. It was close to dusk when they finally got about a mile offshore and they decided to stop and anchor for the night. Humphrey had got bored and got out his fishing pole and was trying his luck in the waters when he got a bite and when he got a chance to look out over the water he could see he had hooked what looked like a dolphin but the nose was wrong. The others heard him grunting as he tried to reel in the fish and they took a look over the side and Sable realized that it wasn’t a dolphin at all but some sort of aquatic dinosaur and it wasn’t alone. Humphrey tried reeling it in and it proved too strong as it finally snapped off the line as more of them came to the surface and appeared to be trying to help it. Once it was free they dove down and soon disappeared into the deeper water. They spent the night on the ship and prepared their gear for the morning.

Meanwhile Sparklegem and the others flew over the water to find the nearest Olman village to start inquiring about where the Mother was. It was a good thing that they had Jakara with them as they finally found out that she had just traveled to one of the southern isles to visit the village there so they had to turn around and fly back the way they came and soon flew over Farshore until they found the nearest island and then turned left and flew out over the water again to come across the next island and a few minutes later they spotted the village and came down just outside the village and turned back to solid again in order to make inquiries about the Mother. They soon found that she was out somewhere on the island communing with nature. So they turned gaseous again and started flying over the island but didn’t spot her until they were headed back to the village and just as they turned back solid they found her sitting alongside a small fire about a mile outside the village at the base of a massive cypress tree. As they approached they could see that she was expecting them. She told them to rest and help to partake in her meal she had prepared and that tomorrow would be a long day for Rey. At first she wasn’t sure that she would help Rey but he started talking with her and convinced her that he wanted to become better at fighting demons and that Jakara had swayed him to his ways of combat.

She decided that he would have to undergo the ritual in the morning and told the others to get a good night’s rest. When the group awakened in the morning they could see that she was already awake and that she had something brewing on the fire. She looked around and told Sparklegem that she was not required her and that she was to come back about dinner time. So she wandered over to the village and spent the day looking around. She had some difficulties as she didn’t speak the language but she managed to make her intentions known and even managed to cast a few cure spells on a couple of the injured villagers. They recognized the symbol of Pelor that she wore so they treated her as an honoured guest. Rey was told to prepare himself and to strip down to his small clothes in order to go through the ceremony. She gave him the cup of something strange to drink and whatever it was, it knocked him out for a time and when he awakened he started to hallucinate from the herbs that were in it. The ceremony took most of the day and he only remembered flashes of it. He did remember Vesserin performing some sort of dance with a pair of swords while the Mother chanted away. When he finally came back to his senses, he found that his face, arms, legs, and torso were covered with Olman tribal tattoos. His body felt itchy all over from whatever she had used but the Mother gave a grin of satisfaction to say that the ceremony had worked and now when he gained more experience he would unlock the secrets of being a Totemic Demon Slayer. They spent the night resting and Rey was mostly recovered the next day as Sparklegem cast air walk again to prepare to meet up with the others.

Soon they were flying over the water and they stopped just outside of Farshore so Vesserin could return to his church and they continued on north. Once they got to the mainland, they stopped again so Jakara could visit with his brethren again. Sparklegem and Rey then headed towards the phanaton village and finally Sparklegem recognized some landmarks south of the phanaton village and they turned back to solid again and started walking up the trail. Soon they were stopped by a pair of phanaton scouts that came down out of the trees to start chattering away to them. Rey spoke with them as they clearly recognized Sparklegem and when he said that they wanted to go to the village they were happy to escort them there. They were very curious to see that Rey had Olman tattoo’s all over his body and he told them that he was training to become a demon slayer. They were very impressed and soon they came to the village and were escorted up into the trees and the village.

Patchwall 5, the group waited for the crew to unload a longboat and they managed to crowd everyone onto the boat and Humphrey was the last to hop down onto the water as he was going to push the longboat to shore to get there quicker. Two sailors were on board to return the boat to the ship and their orders were to return to Farshore and wait for a message from the group if they had to come and retrieve them. So the group soon landed on the edge of the swamp just as the wind started to die down and the bugs seemed to materialize out of thin air to start harassing the group. They headed out through the swampy jungle with Grat in the lead as they carefully made their way north-east. A couple of hours later he was forced to stop when he heard some noise in front of them and he carefully moved around a large tree to see a tribe of massive apes feeding on some sort of vegetation in a quiet pond. He spotted the silverback male sitting on a hump looking around and his eyes widened when he realized the ape was much bigger than Humphrey and the others were his mates and offspring. He backed up to the group and told them that the apes were ahead and the group retreated for a few minutes and then carefully skirted around them in order to not disturb them. The next thing they encountered was some sort of predator that was lying in wait in a small pond of water. Grat spotted a disturbance in the water and was able to move up close enough to see some sort of dark furred creature sitting in the water with just its nose above water. He borrowed Humphrey’s spear and came up to prod it. Just as it was going to touch it, its tail snapped out of the water to knock the spear aside. The group was shocked to see that the tail ended with a clawed hand and Sable realized that it was a nasty predator but the creature must have been fairly intelligent as it turned in the water and quickly swam off into deeper water before they could get closer.

So they continued walking and finally they got out of the swamp and started walking in the jungle again. It was close to sunset when they finally spotted the trail that headed to the phanaton village and they started walking a little quicker. Then Lucky spoke up when he spotted some footprints in the trail. There were two sets, one very small and metal shod and another set that was a little bigger and clad in leather. They figured that it must be Sparklegem and Rey and the tracks were less than a day old. Soon they were stopped when the phanaton scouts came out of the trees to confront them. The scouts recognized the group and started chattering excitedly as they swarmed down around the group and soon they were escorting the group into the village as the sun set. They climbed up into the village and spotted Sparklegem and Rey sitting in one of the houses waiting for them. The phanatons were most happy to see them and they were feasted by the charming little creatures again. During the night, Grat started talking to them with Rey’s help about poisons and found that their favourite was the secretions from a little bright frog that lived in the jungle and he was given enough fresh poison to coat four quarrels. He thanked them and was also informed that they had shown Churtle how to prepare the poison properly and that it only worked well when it was fresh.

            Patchwall 6, the group headed out early in the morning and managed to walk the day until they came to the abandoned temple of the cat-men. Here they decided to stop for the night to rest.

March 28 2010; Patchwall 7, the group awakened and started walking north. The day was overcast and a light rain started as they set out. The day was spent walking and getting wet. The group could see the ground rising above them as they got closer to the plateau. Finally they could faintly hear water rushing until they abruptly came out of the jungle onto an escarpment. They could see an ancient roadway that ran along the edge of the canyon. The group slowly came up to the edge and they were looking down a long way to the rushing water of the river far below. They easily figured that the canyon was over a thousand feet deep and they were looking that far across the canyon to the plateau shrouded in clouds. They decided to stop for a meal while Sable changed shape into a falcon and said he would fly around and take a look. The others said they would find a place to have dinner while he looked around. They soon found a sheltered spot and started a fire for dinner. Sable flew down the river first and soon came to the remains of a causeway that had crossed the river. The gap was about 150 feet across that the group would have to somehow traverse. He turned around and headed up river and soon came to where the river came from the mountains and the terrain turned very rocky as he continued to circle the plateau. The landmarks told him that it was an ancient volcano that had now turned into a caldera with a fairly large lake in the middle of it. The circle was over twenty miles wide and the lake was easily three miles across in spots. Most of the ground was savannah with scattered areas of jungle. Sable finally found a way down into the plateau on the north side when he found a hidden trail along the edge. But they would have to walk around to the other side of the bowl to get down.

He headed back towards the group and flew over the lake and looked down. In the middle of the lake was an island smaller than a mile and it contained some structures. As he looked into the lake he spotted a crocodile swimming that was easily more than twenty feet long. Soon he came to the spot where he had left the group and was forced to scout around for them. He soon found them and landed and turned back to himself and told the group what he had found. They decided to look at the causeway tomorrow as it seemed to be the quickest. The gnomes put their heads together and decided on the spells they needed to accomplish their task of getting everyone across the gap.

Patchwall 8, the group awakened and soon walked south to the causeway and looked further. They had to wait until noon before Sparklegem could pray for the spells she needed. Once she was done they managed to use a teleport and dimension through plants and wind walk to get everyone across. That left Bucky and Hap and Sable solved that by becoming a large eagle and flew the two of them across and turned back to gnome. The group stood on a wide road that headed inland and the group started walking with Grat in the lead. They had been walking for a couple of hours when they came to a side road to the right. Grat stepped up and went to walk to the right when something standing in the road attacked him and the fight was on. They had just come across a glabrezu demon standing guard. The others came up to support him as it grabbed Grab and started to slice him apart with its claws and pincers. The others managed to come up and attack and it soon tossed Grab aside and looked at the group with glee. It tried some of its innate abilities but the group shrugged them off as they finally hacked it apart. After taking a moment to take stock of themselves they managed to look over the huge corpse and found a leather belt with a platinum belt buckle wrapped in its pouch. They grabbed it just before the body started to dissipate and looked around to make sure there was nothing else to attack them. Adla took the belt and put it on and when she did her eyes glazed for a moment as something coursed through her body. When she could see again, her outlook on life had shifted from neutral to lawful. She was thankful it hadn’t shifted her to evil instead.

April 4 2010; looking around the group could see that the road that the demon was guarding was well traveled compared with the trail to the north. They headed that way and as dusk was falling they could hear water running and they soon saw a fairly wide river in front of them. The road went right into the river and they could see it exiting out the other side. The riverbed was sand and gravel here and the water flowed fairly slowly and were only three feet deep in the center and the group figured they could navigate it in the morning so they moved back from the river to camp for the night. Humphrey pulled out his fishing rod and tried to see if anything was biting. Everyone else was setting up camp and they decided not to build a fire but managed to generate some heat for Churtle as she quickly made some dinner for the group. Humphrey spent some time fishing before he finally got a bite and was busily reeling it in when Rey and Abby came back to the river after dinner. The fish was fighting fiercely and was only a few yards from shore when something grabbed it and bit it in half as Humphrey reeled it in. There was only the head remaining when he spotted the large crocodile in the water feasting on the fish. He started cursing as Rey came up and looked around but he didn’t see the croc as he came up to the water’s edge. Humphrey was forced to grab him and pull him back from the water as another croc, attracted by the dead fish tried to snatch him from the bank of the river. His cat jumped back with a yowl as the croc came out of the water after Rey. They had to step back from the river until the croc backed off and dropped back into the water with only its eyes and snout exposed. Humphrey figured that he had enough of fishing for the night and came back to camp as the others were wondering about all the noise that they had been making along the river. Humphrey talked about the fish that was this big as he spread his arms wide and mumbled about the croc that had grabbed it just as he was bringing it in. The night passed uneventfully as the group rested.

Patchwall 9, the group got ready to ford the river after breakfast and Lucky and Lamar said they would stay on guard on this side of the river while the others went across. Sable let Dagger swim across while he was on his back. The rest of the gnomes and Churtle climbed up on Humphrey as he just walked across while the others got wet wading across the river. Rey cast detect animals and he detected something coming down the river when they were halfway across. Moments later a school of piranha had swarmed the group. Luckily the fish weren’t ravenous as only a few of them nipped at the group as they continued down the river. Dagger was bitten a few times but the fish kept swimming downstream as the group hurried across the river. Finally the other two came across as the group kept watch for anything else. As they were drying themselves off they could see something moving in the river and watched as a croc that was close to fifteen feet long slowly swam past eating on the piranha that the group had killed as the group watched. They kept walking along the trail and spent the day walking. At least the trail was dry as the west side of the terrain slowly turned to swamp. It was late afternoon as the trail meandered through the swamp when the group spotted something in the water ahead. They carefully moved up and saw a lizardman in the water watching them. The group slowly approached the edge of the water as the creature continued watching them. Finally it spotted the circular emblems of Pelor that some of them were wearing and it slowly rose out of the water as it pointed at the symbols and hissed something at the group. A couple of the members could understand it and they started talking with it and said they were explorers looking for Noltus. Once they mentioned that, the lizardman got excited and said it would take them to its leader immediately as it gave a strange cry and soon another lizardman approached from out of the water to join them. Then they headed further along the trail and about 30 minutes later they gave the same cry again as the group rounded the corner of the trail and they could see some mounds spread out around the trail and near the water as other lizardmen suddenly appeared to see what was going on.

They were soon surrounded by a dozen lizardmen all wearing a white wooden disk around their necks and they were very impressed with Adla and Sparklegem and the leader, named Rissashtak greeted them in Pelor’s name and then invited them to dinner and the group gladly agreed. While they were waiting for dinner the group spoke with the lizards and found that they were followers of Noltus and they were waiting for word from him and his half dozen lizardman followers and his loyal dog Bulgan. They had headed for the ruins on the island five days ago and hadn’t been heard from since and he was becoming very worried. He also inquired about intrusions of skinwalkers into the inhabited areas of the Isle and the group could only tell him that they had not heard of anything like that. The meal was quite tasty as they were served baked fish and fresh fruits and vegetables and even Humphrey had enough. After the dinner, Humphrey was lying on his side in the mound as he was too tall even to kneel so he was sprawled out on his side when he felt something slithering over his back and he turned to see a viper staring right at him from a few feet away. As he watched the forked tongue snaked out and it almost seemed to touch him. He forced himself to not flinch as Rissashtak called out something and the snake slid down off of Humphrey as it crawled over to the lizardman and coiled up around his legs.

April 11 2010; the dinner was soon over and Humphrey was soon the center of attention as the dinner worked its way through his system. He then began to get rather flatulent and let one loose that silenced the crowd inside the mound. Moments later the lizardman said something and Churtle came over and kicked him in the shins and told him he should go outside if he was going to persist and leave his smell here. Humphrey decided to crawl outside and let another ripper loose just as he left and went to find himself somewhere to go get rid of some of his dinner already. Sable was already outside with Dagger and they had found somewhere to curl up and sleep and Humphrey decided to do likewise.

Patchwall 10, the group awakened and were treated a meal consisting of the remains of the fish from last night and more fresh fruit. The group was deciding where to go and had agreed to head west to explore the remains of Mantru, the Olman village that was wiped out awhile ago by the skinwalkers. Rissashtak told them that there were still some useable outrigger canoes around Mantru that they could use to paddle out to the island. Just then a shout went out from one of the scouts. “Noltus, its Noltus and he has returned with the brethren.”   The group waited in amazement as moments later a group appeared and it was Noltus and his faithful dog and followers approaching. They looked a little worn and tired and some had some wounds but they were alert as they approached as Noltus called to Rissashtak as to who these strangers were. Bulgan came into the group wagging his tail and he started to check out the group as he wandered around. The rest of the lizardmen seemed to come together and spread out as Adla and Sparklegem approached Noltus and started asking him what had happened to him over the last few days and he said that they had encountered some skinwalkers and had managed to drive them off but not before taking some wounds.

The group was still trying to question him and for some nagging reason weren’t satisfied with the answers they were given when suddenly he said, “Now.” And the lizardmen that had appeared with him suddenly shimmered and became skinwalkers and attacked the lizardmen that were there. The most disturbing thing was when the dog Bulgan suddenly shifted into a massive red faced baboon. When he shifted, most of the group standing next to him became terrified and started running away as fast as they could. The only one not affected by this was Humphrey as he turned and looked at the thing in shock as it pounced on him and savagely attacked. Most of the lizardmen went down under the onslaught from the skinwalkers before the group could even move and then the fight was on. The skinwalkers immediately attacked the lizard folk as the group tried to figure out what was going on. Humphrey turned and attacked the baboon with his club as he brought on his barbarian rage. The ones that were left started attacking the skinwalkers and before Sparklegem could do anything, she was affected by a spell thrown by one of the skinwalkers and she became feebleminded and couldn’t do anything during the fight.

Lucky and Lamar fled for a few moments before they could shake off the fear and they turned to attack the demons. The others were gone into the swamp before anyone else could prevent them. The fight was only moments but seemed to last longer as the group finally killed off the skinwalkers that were fighting them. One of them had flown up into the clouds and had been casting spells at the group until Sable cast a flame strike at him as he faded into the overcast cloud. The leader had turned into a demon with ghoulish characteristics and Adla had watched him finish off one of the lizardmen with a spell and then he immediately reanimated the corpse as a zombie. Humphrey was having serious problems attacking the massive baboon as it pounded away on him. The others had to turn their attention to him to help him before he collapsed and finally it fell when Lucky pumped two arrows from his enchanted bow into its back. Then he was nailed from a fireball from the clouds as the spell caster cast a final spell before it faded away. The leader looked around to see his followers all dead and just grinned at Adla as he disappeared from sight. The group looked around to see all of the lizardmen dead they thought until they started checking bodies and found the leader unconscious and near death. Sable cast a cure on him to keep him alive as they checked over the others.

April 18 2010; the group waited for the others to overcome their fear and return as Sable looked through Sparklegem’s gear to find a heal scroll to return her sanity. He cast the scroll safely and Sparklegem blinked at looked at him and asked what happened. She was told that she had been affected by a spell and she looked around to see dead bodies everywhere. Grat spend some moments going over the bodies of the demons and found a ring on the large baboon demon and combat gear on the skinwalkers. Each skinwalker had a club like weapon and he found traces of purple stains on them and as he looked over the gear he found that each also had a vial in their pouch. He opened one and could see some sort of purplish goo in each that smelled funny. He assumed it was some sort of poison and pulled out some of his bolts for his crossbow and started smearing it on them. Adla quickly put a stop to it when she told him that she would not allow him to use poison of any kind in her presence. So he quickly wiped it off as she told him to hand over what he had. He gave her two unopened vials of the stuff as he managed to hide three of them in his pouch before she saw him.

Sparklegem then cast detect magic and told the others that only the ring was enchanted, the other stuff was not. Then they managed to get Rissashtak back on his feet and he was very saddened to see all the followers of Pelor dead. He now assumed that Noltus must have been killed and somehow taken over by the demon and told the group that he was abandoning the outpost here and returning to his tribe. They spent an hour burying the followers of Pelor and tossing the remains of the skinwalkers into the water. Then they started walking west towards the southern tip of the lake. Just as they were going to stop so Sparklegem could pray for her spells for the day, Sable finally stepped out onto the banks of a slow moving river. It was deep and about 100 feet across. He could see things swimming in the river here and he waited for the others to finally come up to him before they decided what to do next. Sparklegem found a comfortable spot to pray for her spells as Adla slipped into the water to explore in ray form. She quickly spotted lots of fish and even a croc resting among the roots of a mangrove tree. The water was at least eight feet deep here and she didn’t want the group swimming through the water as there were too many hazards for the group to overcome so they decided to have Humphrey take the group over in stages. So while Sparklegem was praying, Humphrey walked over the water to the other side and found a place to dump his gear and during the hour he took over everyone except for Sparklegem, Hap, Lucky and Lamar. Once she was done with praying, he then loaded the four of them onto his back and he walked over the river to the other side. Once they were all over the other side they continued walking west. While Grat and Churtle were together, he pulled out one of the vials and asked her to check it out. He told her that he had recovered it from the skinwalkers and she quickly determined that it was some sort of poison made from a fungus and she couldn’t really tell him any re until they used it on someone. He told her to keep it as he still had some so she tucked it away in her pack for further study. A couple of hours later Sable finally broke through the brush and swamp to see the water of the lake in front of him. Looking around he could see some structures off to the west about a mile away and he figured that it was the remains of the village of Mantru. Once the rest of the group came up to him, he pointed out the buildings and the group started walking along the shoreline until they reached the remains of the village.

It consisted of eight buildings with two of them up on stilts over the water. Looking around the group couldn’t see any signs of the destruction that was supposed to have happened here when the villagers were wiped out. As the group stood in the centre of the village, they suddenly heard a voice in their heads and two feathered serpents phased into sight in front of the group. They recognized them as couatls.

“Have you come to pay homage?” was the message that all of them heard. Then Rey heard, “have you come to pay your respects to Umlat little brother?” He asked who Umlat was and the voice told him he was the spiritual leader of Mantru and had been killed by the skinwalkers in the last raid of the village. He also asked why they called him little brother and the voice then said, “You wear the tattoos of the Olman, are you not a brother?”  He then said he was training to become a demon slayer. When the others spoke up and asked about him, the voice answered that he was the last priest of Mantru and child of Quetzalcoatl. He had been killed but his body had been untouched and the couatls had been waiting until worthy heroes come to bid Umlat the farewell he deserves. When the group asked to see the body, the voice answered that it was taboo unless they could demonstrate that they were worthy enough to see it. When they asked, the voice said they had to answer one of the Law Giver’s favourite riddles in order to prove their worthiness. They asked what the riddle was and the voice spoke up again. “I came back from the land of lodestone’s scorn. I came back with the sun when the sky was new born, I came back in the shadow as the day met its end, What one place in four have I never been?”

The group pondered for a moment and Rey answered, “Water.” The voice was silent until Adla spoke up and said, “North.” The two couatls then bowed to her and nodded yes as they told the group to follow them. They walked for a few moments into the savannah until they came to a small clearing that contained the body of an Olman male surrounded by fresh cut flowers. The body showed deep claw marks around the neck. As the group stood there, two more of the snakes faded into sight as a ghostly form rose up from the body to look at them. When it spoke, it was in Olman and it said, “I am the spirit of Umlat.” Rey and Toma were forced to translate as the group asked some questions of him. They found out that the village had been under the influence of the Kopru from Taboo Island as every so often they would appear in the village and dominate the village’s best warriors and take them across the lake. The village had been attacked by a band of fiendish savages who wore demonic lion skins. He had recognized several of them as former young warriors who had rebelled against the elders and had become influenced by the Kopru of Taboo Island. The leader of the demons had been a horrible watery demon with bulbous yellow-orange eyes. It had observed the attack from the lake and had killed Fano with a lethal rune. He had been killed by a powerful demon-ghoul, which paralyzed him and broke his neck. After they were done speaking with him, his spirit settled down into his body and the four couatls came forward and bore his body up and as the group watched plane shifted out of existence here.

By now it was late afternoon and the group decided to spend the night here resting before they headed over the lake to the island. They decided to use one of the huts to sleep in as Humphrey grabbed his fishing gear and settled down on the one hut that was out over the water to happily fish for dinner. The others settled into one of the other dry huts and made a small fire so Churtle could make dinner. Sable and Dagger headed off into the grasslands to look for dinner. Grat was looking at the ring he had removed from the demon and they were trying to figure out what it did with no success so far. The sun had set when Humphrey finally got a bite and spent a few minutes reeling in a nice sized catfish that he was going to give to Churtle for dinner when he heard something off in the distance. Grat and Adla had spent some time trying to figure out the ring when they finally grappled and Grat broke free of a hold when Adla had it securely hitched. She had told him to go outside and to try his weapon in the lake to see if it was a ring of freedom of movement when he went outside at the same time that Humphrey heard something. Humphrey was bringing his catch back to the hut when he spotted a herd of elk. At first he thought it was a normal herd until he spotted the rack on the bull and realized that the creatures were easily over ten feet tall at the shoulder and the bull was accompanied by his cows. Grat had stepped out of the hut when he heard the elk moving and went around the corner of the hut to see them standing about seventy-five feet away at the edge of the lake. He pulled his hand crossbow with the frog poison on it and moved close enough to get a shot at the bull. By now the elk had realized that someone was in the buildings as the bull suddenly bugled towards the group and they heard the sound with most of the small folk diving to the floor.

Grat then shot the bull with his crossbow and all he did was piss it off and it lowered its head and charged towards him. He tried to get out of the way by hiding behind the hut but the 3 ton elk just charged through the hut and nailed him with its twelve foot rack and tossed him about thirty feet into the air as the others charged out of the hut before it collapsed on them. The bull stopped dead in its tracks and looked around as the others came out and then turned and charged back towards his harem as he snorted again and the cows suddenly turned and charged off into the darkness. The group looked around as the bodies headed off into the night. Sable came back a few moments later and he could see the tracks of the elk along the edge of the water and he realized just how big they had been. The group settled down for dinner after Churtle filleted the catfish to make dinner after they had moved into another hut before the first one collapsed. The rest of the night passed by quietly as they rested after dinner.

            Patchwall 11, the group had a meal while they discussed how to get to the island and finally they decided to have Sparklegem pray for water walking so they could just walk across the lake instead of using the outrigger canoes that were still tied up to the one hut. Once they were ready, Sable transformed into a falcon and scouted ahead. He was on the other side of the island when he noticed something flying above him and realized that it was a roc. He flew down to the water’s edge to hide the massive bird as he headed back towards the group. They were three quarters of the way across the lake at its deepest part as they walked on top of the water when Grat looked down and suddenly shouted out that something was below them just as the massive jaws of a gargantuan crocodile erupted from the surface of the water.

Sept 19 2010; Grat managed to spring out of the way as the massive beast broke the surface and the jaws slammed shut with a crunch that echoed across the water. Some of the people were grouped together and that is what the crocodile targeted. Luckily no one was swallowed but Hap was knocked unconscious from the blow. The others landed on the water and franticly looked around as the beast slid back down into the water. The group tried to attack it but it dropped down out of sight before they could seriously hurt it. Toma grabbed Bucky and Rey and looked around and teleported to the island. He spotted a pier sticking out from the shore and managed to get a clear enough picture to safely get there. The others started running for the shore as fast as they could as Humphrey got frustrated about not seeing the crocodile and he raged and started smashing away at the water.

The beast came back out of the darkness and attacked Humphrey and Adla who was standing guard beside him and the two of them smacked it hard enough that it retreated down to the inky depths of the lake out of sight. They started heading towards the shore as fast as they could after Humphrey managed to come out of his rage and rest for a few moments before he started running after the others. Sparklegem had cast a cure spell on Hap to get him conscious again and they were headed towards the shore. As Humphrey caught up to the two of them, he scooped them up in his arms as he kept running towards the shore. By now the group was spread out with Dagger, Sable’s pet out in front charging towards the island and Adla and Lamar bringing up the rear because they couldn’t run very fast in full plate armor. Sable had flow towards the island as he spotted Toma and the others standing on the pier. He flew overhead and landed above them on the rocky top of the island.

Toma was looking around a great entrance opening on the west side of the cliff, ninety feet wide and just as tall. The red marble walls within are lined with carvings depicting strange gods and ferocious animals. A pair of crude wooden piers extends out over the waters of the lake and Toma could see three outrigger canoes tied up on the one end. A net is stretched over a half dozen thick pilings protecting the approach, forming a semicircle around the stone landing. He looked inward and a monumental stairway climbs to a wide landing with an archway set in the east wall. Pillars decorated with an abstract and intricate carvings support the ceiling of the chamber. In the middle of the cave, two square pedestals to either side of the centre steps of the stairway support the feet and ankles of a collapsed statue that once straddled the stairs. Some of the statue’s features are still recognizable in the heaps of rubble scattered on the stairway, most noticeably the feathered texture of a huge pair of wings. To either side of the passageway to the east leer two bas-reliefs of men with feathered headdresses. The one to the north shows a man with a brilliant sun over his head, while to the south is a man beneath a smoking moon.

The three of them decided to stay where they were on the pier as they could see the cavern had an open entrance so anyone just inside the entrance could see them if they were watching. They turned and waited for the others to catch up with them and they could see Dagger out from with Churtle right behind him and at the back the two warriors in plate. Dagger hit the nets at a run and he charged over them heading towards Toma and the others. As soon as he hit the nets, Toma heard an unreal howling start up from inside the entrance and he quickly figured out that an alarm spell had been set on the nets and Dagger had just set it off. As the others got closer, he watched in horror as a massive eel like creature with a vaguely human torso rose out of the water just outside the netting and looked around. The others noticed it as they were running for the shore and Adla recognized it as a nasty denizen of the Abyss called a Wastrilith and it was a very tough thing to fight. Thankfully Adla also knew that it was vulnerable to fire and she managed to shout it out to the others before they engaged. Churtle kept running towards the shore and stopped once she was on dry land and turned to see Humphrey jumping onto the pier and dropping Sparklegem and Hap before he turned and prepared to engage the demon. Lucky and Lamar looked on as the demon turned to look at Grat and it seemed to concentrate for a moment and Grat suddenly fell into the water as the spell of water walking was dispelled. Lucky pulled out his staff of fire and used a charge to fireball the demon as Toma also pulled out a wand and cast a fireball at the thing.

Sable changed back into gnome form and used a flame strike on the demon as the others kept running towards the shore. Then the demon just seemed to shift and it was behind Grat and attacking him as the others tried to assist. During the struggle, some sort of black cloud seemed to flow from the demon to surround Grat for a moment and he managed to shake off the spell as it hit him. Then it did it again and this time Grat was suddenly weakened and found himself dropping deeper into the water as he couldn’t swim from the pain. Adla finally got up to the fight and managed to slash her sword into the water and was sure that she had struck it and her sword just went right through it. She took a moment and realized that it was an illusion and the image disappeared before her eyes. Humphrey was still whacking away at it with his club and Adla managed to get his attention and told him that it was an illusion and he turned his attention to rescuing Grat. He shoved his club down into the water and Grat managed to grab the club and hold on as Humphrey pulled him to the surface. Sable changed shape again and flew down to the others and changed back to gnome and hopped onto Dagger and waited to see what would happen next. Lucky and Lamar started running for the pier and didn’t stop until they were up on the wood and turned around. The others had pulled Grat up from the water and were moving towards the others.

Sept 26 2010; the fight continued with the group pressing their attack on the aquatic demon with only Adla realizing that it was an illusion. Sable headed up the stairs to look around the entrance way and stopped when he got to the shadows of the interior. The others were still trying to help Grat and Humphrey as he pulled Grat out of the water and tried to use his club to swing Grat towards the pier. His club slipped out of his hands and Grat went flying off with the club gripped in his hands and he landed onto the netting that was strung up around the pilings. Adla then headed towards the shore and met up with the rest of the group as she tried to tell everyone that the demon was an illusion. Rey took a couple of shots with his bow and the first arrow narrowly missed Humphrey and the second arrow slipped as he fired and scraped across his hand hurting him instead. Then the demon seemed to disappear and as the group headed towards shore the demon reappeared right in front of them between the piers. Adla noticed that this one was wreathed in some sort of black shadowy flames that flickered along the length of the body. Then it appeared to gesture and whatever it cast nailed some of the group and froze them in fear or dazed them for a round as the group tried to attack it. Sable cast a flame strike and the spell worked as the water around its head vaporized from the heat but the demon was untouched. Adla attacked it and when she struck it she was severely weakened from the spell that it was wreathed in and then it brought its head out of the water and squirted some super heated steam towards the group that was clustered in front of it on the shore as the group turned and headed up the stairs towards shelter.

Adla managed to hit it severely once and suddenly the demon was gone from in front of the group and they took the respite to grab all the people still frozen in fear and headed up the stairs and they were forced to stop when they spotted something on the floor in front of the corridor. The group managed to stop in time as the shout went out to beware. Sparklegem and Toma came to the fore and looked down at the floor and they recognized it as a glyph of power. Toma was the one who figured that it was a glyph of death and it would slay anyone who tried to walk over it into the corridor. The group was trying to figure out what to do next when suddenly a fireball went off right in their midst and the group franticly tried to figure out where it had come from. They looked around and spotted Churtle hunkered down by the wall and she was pointing up the wall at the fresco that was there and as the group looked around they suddenly spotted two holes in the wall where the eyes of the figure were and they prepared to engage whatever was there. Sable cast a spell and the wall turned to soft clay and started oozing towards the floor. Then Toma cast a fireball and the wall shattered apart and behind it about 12 feet off the floor was standing one of the skinwalker demons with a rod in his hand. When he saw the wall collapsing he turned and ran off into the darkness, yelling as he did. Adla came up to the wall and braced herself and told the others to use her as a ladder to get up onto the ledge. Humphrey tried to vault himself upwards and slipped and ended up on his back on the floor waving his arms and legs in the air. Sable couldn’t help himself and cast a spell to make Humphrey appear to have a turtle shell on his back and the rest of the group started laughing away as Grat and Dagger used Adla to get up onto the ledge where the demon had been hiding as the group organized behind them. Sparklegem had to cure Toma as the fireball almost killed him where he was sitting and they waited as the warriors tried to engage the demon.

October 4, 2010; Humphrey finally got to his feet and used Adla to vault himself up onto the ledge as Grat waited for the others to get up and support him. He spotted the demon about sixty feet away and pulled out his hand crossbow and fired away. Adla waited a moment and when no one else tried to climb up she managed to get up behind Humphrey and she prepared to charge into the fight. The demon then cast another fireball that went off just as the Adla got to her feet from climbing up. She pulled her greatsword as she ran up and suddenly was in a very large cavern with a blazing fire burning under a rectangular hole in the sixty-foot-tall ceiling in the middle of this large chamber. She was standing on a wooden walkway that ran along the edges of the chamber and she was fifteen feet off the floor. Beside her to the right was a stairway going down to the floor. Wooden doors are set into the far walls of both balconies. A man sized stone visage, its mouth agape, serves as the entrance to a passage beyond. The face has been badly cut and defaced. Adla took a swing at the spell caster as it stood there in front of her as Grat and Humphrey came up beside her in support. Then the bowmen let fire at the three of them and hit Humphrey and Grat and both of them were weakened from the poison they were using. The rest of the group started climbing up the wall back behind the others as Lucky and Lamar got up and then Lamar held onto the rope as the gnomes started climbing up. Dagger had jumped back down when the fireball had gone off and Sable had climbed up on him and made him jump back up to join the others. Abby even used Dagger to land on as she jumped up to join them as Rey climbed up the rope. Sable urged Dagger up to the corner of the large chamber to come up behind Lucky who was now peering around the corner to see what was going on. The demon wizard had now flown across the chamber and landed on the other side of the room to join four of the bowmen and Sable cast a wall of fire that nailed the five of them as they were standing there while Lucky cast a fireball from his staff.

The bowmen then dropped their useless bows and just stepped through the flames and jumped down onto the floor as the wizard moved through the flames as spotted the group peering around the wall and launched another fireball right into the group that had moved up to join Lucky and Sable as the gnomes immediately turned around and retreated from the fireball. Churtle had been happily bringing up the rear as she didn’t want anything to do with that nasty wizard that was doing some serious damage to her fellow party members. The other three warriors had charged down to the end of the balcony to engage the four demons waiting for them and they were taken down quite quickly as Adla was forced to jump down to the floor in order to get at the other demons now on the floor as the wooden balcony on the right burst into flames. The walkway started falling apart and burning wood was hitting the floor. Sparklegem had been busy curing the damage caused from the flames and dodging Dagger as he had turned and ran back towards the exit when the fireball went off in his face. Sable had fallen off of him when he shifted suddenly and he was lying on the ground when the fireball went off and he was looking around and noticed that Toma was unconscious on the floor and Bucky didn’t look much better. They were going to have to do something about that demon wizard or flee.

Oct 10 2010; the groups fighters charged up to engage the demons down on the floor of the large chamber as the groups smaller members decided to wisely retreat back down the corridor to get out of the way of the fireballs. Adla managed to charge across the room and engaged the group of demons who had been shooting arrows at the others. Just as Adla hit them with a crash, they heard a door open and standing up on the balcony was two more demons, one was clearly another spell caster while the other one was wearing armor and wielding the edged club that the others had. This one had a massive ape as a pet and they charged down the stairs as the adept just stepped off the edge and flew into the centre of the room.

Humphrey and Grat had finally killed the four demons they had been fighting and Grat turned and jumped off the edge of the balcony and glided down to support Adla in her fight as Humphrey just jumped over the edge and did a tumble to come back to his feet and charged towards the fight. He decided to try and bowl them over and grabbed his club and turned it sideways and charged towards the demons. They saw him coming and were able to skip out of the way as they attacked the others and Humphrey ended up running into the corridor before he could stop and turn around. He managed to get back to the fight just as the new adept cast a spell on him and his thought process disappeared and he stood there confused for a moment until he realized that his friends were in trouble and he attacked the nearest demon and pounded it into paste. As the fight continued, they spotted the first adept flying down the corridor towards the other group as the fighters kept up the attack. Lamar headed down the stairs after the four demons were killed in front of him and he was forced to engage the leader and his pet ape. The chieftain demon turned his attention to Lamar and attacked him so severely that his weapon hand was chopped off at the wrist and his sword went flying with the hand attached. Grat, Adla and Lucky then tried to help him as they heard screams behind them as they heard another fireball go off down the corridor as the second adept cast off another empowered fireball at the warriors that were still engaged with them.

Oct 17 2010; the battle continued with the groups fighters attacking the chieftain on masse in order to knock him down. Grat was then forced to climb the wall and jumped off the wall to grab the adept that was still flying around and he managed to take him down to the ground even though he took the worst of the landing. But not before the adept dropped another fireball down into the group severely wounding Lucky and frying Lamar where he stood. They were also helped when the adept tried to feeblemind Adla but she managed to overcome the spells effects as she tried to help the others. Adla then stepped up and hacked the adept’s head off as they looked around. Meanwhile the first adept cast off another fireball at the group and tried to feeblemind Sparklegem but she shrugged off the affects of the spell. Finally Adla and Grat charged up the stairs and ran around the corner into the corridor to help the smaller people in the group. Finally they forced the lone demon to retreat back outside and Grat was going to try to run after it but he spotted the aquatic demon in the water in the harbour and he retreated back into the safety of the ruins. Finally the group stopped and looked around to realize that all the demons were now dead and they quickly checked the bodies and looted what they could as they kept an eye out.

Oct 24 2010; Grat checked out the doors on the balconies and decided to check out the three doors on the north wall and he checked the first door on the left and he found a room that clearly was some sort of barracks for the demons as it was lined with mats and furnished with fur beds and crocodile skin rugs. Ornaments of bones, feathers, and fish scales hang on the walls. Unfinished bows, arrows and spears rest on the floor. A clay brazier in the middle sheds a soft light. The air reeks of grease, smoke, brimstone and sweat. Grat looked through the room and finally found a pouch that was tucked into some of the bedding and when he looked inside he saw obsidian and some amethysts. The next room was the same except that there was a trunk up against the wall and when he opened it to see what was inside all he could see was feathers. He started pulling out the feathers and they turned into cloaks that looked very frail. He found five of them and he carefully put them aside to look further. He spotted gold lying in the bottom of the trunk and carefully pulled out six golden bowls and four golden chalices just as Sparklegem wandered up to see what he was doing. She looked at them with her detect magic still radiating but nothing here was enchanted. Then they checked the end door and found  the walls of this grim room decorated with stretched skins, most of which seem to have been harvested from men and women. The gruesome trophies are painted with twisting, coiling runes. A bloodstained stone block sits in the centre of the room, a half dozen obsidian knives glittering atop it. Mounds of furs line the west section of the room, and sitting amid them is a battered stone coffer.

Looking around Grat didn’t see anything of value and the coffer was empty so he left the room alone and the two of them headed across the room and checked out the door where the chieftain had come from and opened the door. A single luxurious bedding of tiger furs sits against the middle of the west wall. A wooden trunk rests at the foot of the bed while a dozen colourful wooden shields decorated with large and brilliant feathers hang from or lean against the west wall. A large clay jug emanating a spicy alcoholic smell sits in the northeast corner. Grat checked out the jug and took a sip and carefully put the booze back down as he realized that it had quite a kick. He opened up the wooden trunk and found nine 1 foot tall ivory statuettes along with an ancient Olman priest’s bronze mask encrusted with lapis lazuli and malachite. Underneath the mask was a golden sceptre with a moon shaped sapphire in the head that was very nice. Tucked in among the items were two vials and a set of pipes carved into the shape of a snake. They carefully pulled out the items and Sparklegem started putting them into her enchanted haversack as they headed back down to join the others. They had been busy checking out the items they had got from the demons and they were busy divvying them up. Everyone in the group managed to make use of something from the loot other than Humphrey as Adla and Rey make use of the bows and then everything else was put away for later.

Grat got bored while they were inventorying the items and wandered around the chamber and managed to find a secret door up in the south-east corner of the chamber where the balcony ended. He checked it over and finally managed to get the door open and looked into a long unused chamber that was covered in dust with a few benches along the wall and a narrow flight of stairs in the north-west corner that led up to a narrow door. He quickly checked over the room and found nothing of value and went back to the group. They had a discussion about what to do next as Sparklegem had no high level spells left and she was going to have to wait until tomorrow in order to heal Lucky and Humphrey. They also decided to have Sable try and reincarnate Lamar instead of raising him as he was missing his right hand. So the group agreed to continue into the ruins to try and find a spot to rest for the night. The only way to go was further in and so they headed down the passageway with Grat in the lead and the rest following with Adla out front for support. So Grat slowly lead the group forward and around the corner to find a set of stairs going down into the darkness. Adla touched the wall to create light as the group moved forwards. Grat could see where the wall had partially collapsed and had been bricked up in a hasty repair. He was going to ask Lucky to take a look but with him addle-brained right now he was no help. Grat peered around the corner when he got to the bottom of the stairs and he could see the tunnel turned to the right and continued on.

Grat went past the breach and looked around the corner to see the tunnel turned to the left and continued. As he looked around, Adla came up to join him as they checked out the tunnel. Finding nothing wrong, Grat started down the tunnel and just barely managed to jump back and grabbed hold of Adla as a large section of the floor collapsed and dropped out of sight. Moments later they heard the rock hitting water and they waited a few moments for the dust to settle as Grat and Adla looked down the hole to see brackish looking water about twenty feet below them and as they watched they could see ripples of something in the water. There was about twenty feet of floor now missing and in order to continue on they were going to have to use some rope to help the others. Grat managed to get a running start and leaped over the pit and landed on the other side and took a moment to look around the corner and the tunnel continued on around another corner. It took a couple of minutes for the group to get over the hole and they continued on around the corner. The tunnel went another thirty feet and turned to the left again. Grat carefully peered around the corner to see the passageway end in a door. He motioned for the rest of the group to come up behind him as he moved up and gave the door a check. He didn’t think it was trapped and it didn’t have a lock so he carefully opened the door to see a dusty room that only contained a three foot tall ornate pedestal set against the north wall. Several objects are neatly arranged on the flat, marble surface of the pedestal, around a stone statuette of a hideous, two-headed monster. The group looked around and they decided not to touch anything and they headed through the next doorway and followed it to the left to see another chamber in front of them.

As Grat looked in, he spotted a dozen man-sized niches shrouded with thick cobwebs occupy the north wall of this chamber. Ten of the twelve contain mummified corpses propped up in the sitting position. The shrivelled bodies wear the rotting garb of ancient Olman warriors, their feathered, painted shields blasted by decay and obscured by century’s old dust. Most of them are also draped with golden masks, earrings, bracelets, pectorals, and other gem encrusted pieces of glittering treasure. The west and east wall are dominated by ten-foot tall bas-relief carvings of Olman imperial warriors with ritual masks and feathered cloaks. The others came up from behind Grat and looked in and Sparklegem firmly spoke up and told the others to not touch anything and move through the chamber to continue on. Grat was twitching to grab something but the others took him firmly in hand to pull him through the room. The tunnel went straight off into the darkness and soon Grat came to a T intersection that was much wider than the passageway he was in. He went up to the edge and looked both ways. To the left he could see a chamber that had something glinting on the floor. He moved up a bit to look and he could see a large amount of copper rings spread out on the floor. He turned and looked the other way

The domed seventy foot high ceiling of this chamber is supported by a ring of pillars carved in the likeness of tree trunks embraced by coiling feathered serpents. A cycle of bas-reliefs on the wall represent battles between Olman warriors and flightless dragons. The Olman warriors are led by a heroic archer who wields a bow that appears to be made of lightning. He is crowned emperor after his victory in a carving on the southern wall. A design of three rings of circles is engraved in the floor. Three seven foot tall stone statues on circular bases have been placed around the circle, one to the west, one to the east, and one to the south. All three statues represent similar-looking men dressed in imperious robes and wielding sceptre. The western statue’s sceptre ends in a sun, the east a moon, and the southern a star. Engraved on the floor between the three figures are three rings of circular depressions. A sphere bearing a carving of a moon sits in the inner ring at the westernmost depression, while a sphere bearing a star sits at the southernmost depression of the outer ring. The third ball bears a carving of the sun and sits in the easternmost depression of the middle ring.

The group slowly moved into the chamber and looked around further. They figured out that the three figures represented three of the more powerful Olman gods of Quetzalcoatl the star, Tezcatlipoca the moon, and Tonatiuh the sun. They found that the balls could be moved and started playing around with them. They had spent at least an hour playing around when Hap remembered that they had been given something by the Olman warrior back at Farshore and Sparklegem pulled out the piece of carving with the symbols on it. Once they took the time to look it over they realized that it contained a valuable clue about the rocks and once they figured out the pattern they moved the three rocks clockwise in their respective rings to correspond with the carving and when they did blasts of wind blew through the chamber as the presence of the three ancient gods manifested as a spray of star, a ray of sunlight, and a ray of moonlight around the appropriate statue. Everyone in the room suddenly heard voices in their heads as they delivered a message to the group.

Quetzalcoatl: “Our worshippers are few, and soon we will move on from this world. None of the children survive to free our ancestral home from evil and rebuild our glorious civilization. Still, we can help you, strangers, in a fight that is both revenge for the past and hope for the future. Heed our words.”

Tonatiuh: “In time of need, call the hawk to hunt your enemies.”

Tezcatlipoca: “In time of need, call the wood to bend hostile weapons”

Quetzalcoatl: “In time of need, call the wind to down the wings of evil.”

Then all the voices said, “Take the bow of Macutotnal, hero of the Olman people and first ruler of Thanaclan, and use it well in your battle against evil.”

The lights streamed into the centre of the room and condensed into the shape of a bow. Rey was the one who stepped up and firmly grasped the bow as it dropped into his hand as the lights suddenly faded away. He stood in awe as he realized he had been given a priceless boon by the gods. The rest of the group was impressed by the weapon and at this time they decided it was a good place to stop and rest for the night. Sable quickly got bored and started teaching Dagger some tricks and he was even able to attract Humphrey’s attention and started teaching him how to fetch. Rey saw how easy it was and he managed to occupy Lucky in the same task while they rested for the night and waited until morning. Once the meal was done, Churtle climbed up onto one of the pillars and settled in for the night while Grat took watch for most of the night and they only thing he had to report was that something disturbed some rings in the ring down the hall but nothing attacked them during the night.

Nov 7 2010; Patchwall 12, the group decided to have Sable cast another reincarnate spell on Lamar seeing as he had lost his sword hand before being killed and raising him would just compound the problem. With a quick prayer to the gods, he cast the spell and the essence of Lamar changed again as his body changed before the group’s eyes and he returned to the living as a half-elf. At least he could still use most of his gear as he awakened to get used to his new body. The group waited until noon and Sparklegem prayed for her spells for the day and then she healed Lucky and Humphrey and returned their sanity to then. Once the group was ready to go the group set out to continue exploring the ruins and they checked out the first room to the north and Grat looked down the stairs and sniffed the air and he could smell brackish water down out of sight in the darkness and the group told him to keep going so he headed further into the ruins. The next room had passageways in each wall and Grat looked around. The stone walls of this chamber are barren of carvings or decorations. A horrible stench of decay hangs heavy in the air. He could feel a slight draft of fresh air coming from his right. To the left the passageway continued off into the darkness.

Grat moved forwards and looked into the large cavern and could see that it contained a large pit and he could see something moving at the bottom and the smell of old blood and rotting flesh was overpowering. In the pit he could see something massive moving around and he quickly backed off before he attracted its attention. He told the others that he thought it was a refuse pit containing something that ate the remains of whatever the demons were doing and the group decided to leave it alone. Looking to the right he could see the northern and southern walls of the corridor are decorated with abstract designs made with brown, red and deep green ceramic tiles. Grat moved forward into the corridor and set off the trap set in the floor and it shot off some spears into the corridor nailing him hard. He backed off and tried to find the trap but he couldn’t find the trigger point so he called up Toma and even he couldn’t find the trap. In fact Toma stepped too far into the corridor and set off the trap again and the two of them got nailed by spears so they backed off and told the others that the corridor was trapped and they would check it later if they needed to and they turned around and headed west. A small room was on the left and they looked in to see a series of stone benches lining the walls of this chamber, which is otherwise bare of furniture. The remains of rotten and broken cabinets lie underneath the benches. Grat took a quick look and nothing of value was in the room.

The passageway continued for another thirty feet and ended in another chamber while the passageway turned to the right and headed off into the darkness. The chamber contains a single hunk of raw wood placed as a crude alter near the north wall. The alter and the floor near it are sticky with swaths of mostly dried blood. A trail of blood leads from the alter to the southwest corner of the room. Grat was suspicious about the blood and checked out the corner wall and found a secret door set in the corner. It took him a moment or two to figure out how to open it and he did and looked down some narrow stairs into the darkness. The rest of the group said they wanted to explore further so he closed the door and turned to look up the long passageway. They were very curious to see the opposite wall was cracked and there were some stone chips on the floor. So Grat headed up the passageway and he noted that it had an incline and he couldn’t see the end of it until he moved over 100 feet into the tunnel before he heard something moving ahead of him in the darkness. Suddenly a massive boulder appeared in front of him and started rolling towards him. He turned and ran back to the rest of the group as the boulder gathered speed and almost ran him over until it hit the wall with a large bang and sat there on the floor for a moment before it faded away to nothing. They wanted to see where the boulder had come from so Grat said he would run up the tunnel and try to stay in front of the rock and he ran up the tunnel until he came to an opening and stepped into a room just as the far wall slid down to the floor and the large boulder started moving past him down the tunnel again to hit the wall with a bang a few moments later. He looked around the room and watched as the wall slowly slid back into place.

A four-foot-tall clay pedestal fashioned in the shape of a miniature ziggurat stands in the middle of this otherwise bare room. A shallow indentation at the ziggurat’s peak connects to narrow gutters that run down its four sides to a trough around the base. An inscription in ancient Olman ciphers runs around the uppermost tier of the ziggurat. He checked over the room and realized that the east wall contained a secret door. He called down to the others and Rey and Sable came up to join him, setting off the trap again and watched the boulder roll down the tunnel again to hit with a bang. Sable waited for the rock to reappear and then cast stone shape to prevent the wall from opening again while Rey deciphered the writing on the ziggurat. It read, “May the blood keep safe the flesh.” Next they checked out the secret door and finally got it open to see a passageway running off into the darkness. Once they got to the end of the tunnel they found another secret door and managed to get it open and they were looking out over the jungle and in the distance they could see a ziggurat that was overgrown with foliage. They turned around and closed the door and headed back to the others and told them that they had found a way into the interior of the island but they wanted to explore the ruins further so they headed back to the stairs that headed down and prepared to head down further.

Nov 14 2010; looking into the darkness, Grat moved down the stairs and came to a landing with life sized clay statues of ancient Olman warriors armed with spears stand at the four corners of this landing. The warriors wear high helmets and feathered shields. The tips of the spears, the feathers and other details of the statues have crumbled to dust and fallen off. He could see the stairs continuing down the other side of the landing and a passageway runs off to the left. They decided to head left and walked down the tunnel until they came to another room, sitting near the walls of this square room are eighteen three-foot tall urns. Leaning on the south wall are two long-handled fishing nets, harpoons, and pry bars. Grat grabbed one of the harpoons as he looked down the stairs leading out of the room to see water at the bottom of the stairs. He headed down the stairs and looked out over a large cave with the floor hidden by shallow water. Hundreds of oysters of various sizes cling to the rock formations near the cave walls. Six of these oysters have grown enormous, nearly five feet across with black and red striped shells covered with curved hooks and twisting horns. Churtle was attracted to the oysters and hopped into the water to start gathering some of the smaller oysters near the shore and she got Humphrey to hold out a sack so she could start filling it. Grat hopped into the water and started wading across the cave to check out the other side. He could see where the water flowed out of the cavern and the water got deeper the further it went. He shone the light around and managed to get it pointed into the tunnel and he realized that the tunnel opened up into a cavern and then he saw a splash from something that had just noticed the light. He gave a shout just in time as a creature swam up the tunnel right in front of him and rose out of the water. When he looked into the eyes of the Kopru, he was entranced by the eyes and stopped what he was doing and just stood there as the creature came up to him.

Adla started running across the water to help him and was forced to fight the Kopru and it took a few moments as the rest of the party just watched from dry land. Churtle was still gathering oysters and the rest of the gnomes looked up to see the fight across the cave but they couldn’t do much to get into combat other than Sable cajoling Dagger into the water and he managed to get across to the others and helped in the combat. Adla started pounding away on the Kopru and killed the one that had dominated Grat and he came back to his senses and attacked the other one just as it wrapped it tail around him and started squeezing. The fight only took a few moments and soon the three Kopru were dead and Grat was asking for healing as he had been hurt during the fight. Adla decided to explore the tunnel and used her cloak to change shape and swam into the room. The limestone formations in this flooded cave have been shaped into bizarre furniture, including a semi-submerged table. On the table are dozens of elongated flasks and vials filled with transparent colored liquids. She could see another tunnel that headed west but it was completely underwater and she wasn’t going any further. Grat swam into the cavern and grabbed everything on the table and took it back to the others and they headed back the way they had come to the landing and turned to look down the stairs into the deep murky water.

The bas-relief figure of a feathered serpent is carved as a single frieze that runs on the walls of this chamber near the ceiling. The chamber is flooded with murky, rancid smelling water. Grat couldn’t tell how deep it was and used the harpoon as a gauge and quickly realized that the water was deeper than he was tall. Adla hopped down into the water and used the cloak again to test the water and figured out that it was about eight feet deep and she climbed back out to join the others so they could decide what to do next.

Nov 21 2010; as Grat looked around, suddenly he spotted something in the water near the exit on the other side of the room. Whatever it was it was rather large as he could only see the top of the head and a pair of wide spaced eyes. The thing slowly moved through the water until it stopped about fifteen feet away from Grat and Adla and it abruptly rose up from the water and opened its mouth and said something and Adla recognized the language as Demonic as it cast a spell. The group shivered from the effect of the spell and most of them were dazed and a few of them were weakened and almost fell down. The demon then dropped back down into the water and seemed to disappear as the group looked around franticly for the thing. Humphrey walked down to the edge and jumped onto the water and headed over to where the ripples were still moving from the demon and looked around.

Then the demon suddenly appeared at the back of the group and attacked the nearest person. The group was overcome by the foul stench coming off the demon and Adla now recognized it as a Hezrou. The group started fighting it but some of them got so sick from the stench they had to retreat before they were eaten as the warriors started attacking. Humphrey was just turning around to head back to the group to help them when another demon appeared right behind him and attacked. Then a third demon appeared in the water and the fight was on. They quickly realized that only a few of them had weapons that would hurt them as Rey used his new bow and was forced to switch to his sword when the arrows struck them but didn’t do any damage. The fight only lasted a few moments as the group managed to gang up on each one of the demons and killed them. Humphrey was forced to fight the one in the water by himself but he managed to hit it enough times to finally kill it as the other two tried to do as much damage as they could. Finally the fight was over with the group standing around panting and trying to get their stomachs back in order from the smell. Adla then dragged over the bodies and dumped them into the water. Just as she was dropping the last one, Grat spotted what appeared to be a pouch and opened it to find three gem stones. He tried to palm one as Adla watched on but she spotted his attempt and he produced the third one after she had admonished him. The gems were alexandrite and worth about 700 gp each and they gave them to Sparklegem to put into her pouch as the group discussed how to get across the water into the tunnels beyond. The water of the room was now looking particularly foul from the excretions of the Hezrou and no one wanted to get into the water now.

Nov 28 2010; after a discussion with the group they decided to have Humphrey and Adla explore the other side of the room. Sable also said he wanted to go so he hopped up onto Humphrey and Adla slid into the water using her cloak as the other two walked across the water and looked down the corridor to the left. They could see an opening on the left and the passageway went slightly further and turned to the right. Looking into the opening they could see some cells with the doors closed and at the end of the room there was a pile of rubble and rock and an opening in the ceiling. This was the spot where the tunnel had collapsed on them on the first level and after a quick look around they headed around the corner. The passageway went about fifty feet and a small set of steps rose out of the water to a ten foot platform and the stairs went back down into water. They couldn’t see anything further so Adla used her innate ability to put light on a coin and she tossed it past the stairs and into the water on the other side.

They could see a door at the end of the corridor and looking at the platform they could see that it was covered with a fine dusting of fungus and mould. Sable looked at the mould and figured it was safe but the group agreed to go check out the other exit. So Humphrey walked back around the corner and looked into the other passageway. It turned to the right and they looked around the corner and could see that it opened up into a room with a door at the end. They headed down to look into the room and the walls of this chamber were decorated with mosaics representing various fantastic and horrid creatures from the ocean depths. After looking around the three of them returned to the group and they decided to try the door. All the little ones jumped onto Humphrey as Rey, Lucky and Lamar jumped in with Grat and swam to the exit and managed to stand up as the water was only four feet deep. Abby jumped onto Dagger as Sable climbed back on and convinced him to jump in and swim across to the tunnel. They moved around the corner into the room and they decided to force the door after giving it a good look. The door opened towards them and Adla along with Humphrey took some swings at the door while the rest of the group stepped back to give them some room. Humphrey used his club as a ram as there was nowhere to swing with the gnomes hanging off of him.

It took a few tries but the two of them hit the door hard enough that it cracked open and blew apart as the force of the water now flowing into the empty corridor was quite strong. Humphrey tried to keep his footing but when the water suddenly dropped out from under his feet and he lost his balance and fell backwards with a splash. The rest of the group tried desperately to swim as the water started to flow down the corridor. Bucky was the first to succumb to the water flow as he disappeared down the tunnel. Humphrey grabbed onto the edge of the doorway as the water flowed around him. He held on until Lucky grabbed him as he was been dragged down the tunnel and the jerk of his weight made Humphrey let go as Sparklegem and Toma hung on for dear life.

The flow was quite strong as they hit some stairs and tumbled down them in the water. Finally the flow seemed to abate as it hit the ground. Bucky and Toma were small enough that they stayed with the water until they hit the heated lava pool with a splash. They two of them screamed from the heat and scrambled to get out before they were parboiled. Humphrey had tumbled to the side with Lucky and Sparklegem as they got to their feet and looked around the air in this enormous volcanic grotto is steamy and foul with noxious vapour. The floor is a field of bubbling mud pots, geysers, hot springs and mineral crusts. Rich reds, browns, and yellows, combined with blacks and grays, vie for dominance in the churning, bubbling morass. Terraces crusted with deposits from mineral springs extend from the sides of the cavern at several points, and here and there form stable-looking walkways and bridges over the sputtering mud. Stalactites hang from the ceiling, merging with stalagmites in two places near the center of the grotto to form pillars.

Steam started erupting from the pool as the cold water struck it and vaporized. Humphrey had gone over to the edge of the pool and had helped Bucky out as Toma had used him as a stepping stone in his haste to exit the boiling water and mud. Humphrey looked out and spotted something rising out of the liquid but before he could say anything his mind became befuddled and he thought this was his new friend and he stepped out onto the magma as it beckoned him. By the time the others realized that something was wrong he had moved about twenty feet away.

Sparklegem had shouted back to the rest and Sable cast stone shape to block off the room so the water would stop flowing and they had waited for the room to empty and that only took about thirty seconds before they could move down and join the others. They could see the steam wafting up the tunnel from below them and they carefully moved down in time to see Humphrey moving further into the cavern. Grat was frantic to think of something and yelled fetch. Humphrey stopped for a moment and shifted his head to look around but as he didn’t see anything because Grat hadn’t taken the time to toss something he continued walking further into the cavern. Sable and Dagger took the lead when they spotted the ledge and they started carefully walking around the first lava pool as Sable kept and eye out on Humphrey.

Jan 2 2011; Sable soon lost track of Humphrey as steam and mud kept erupting from the pools and he waited for the others to come up as he looked around. They came up behind him and looked around as a Kopru popped up in the pool beside them and managed to dominate Lucky as he turned to look at it. The rest of the group didn’t realize that he had been affected. Then the group noticed a demon coming into the area from a tunnel to their left and that recognized it as one of the spell casting demons and it launched a fireball into the group. Grat and Adla started moving towards it to engage it as the others started attacking the Kopru. Next the spell caster went invisible as the others finally managed kill the Kopru while another one popped up in another pool and it also attacked. Adla turned around to support the others as Grat franticly searched around for the demon. It suddenly appeared in front of him and cast a spell and Grat forgot what he was doing as he became feebleminded.

Jan 9 2011; Humphrey had wandered up into an alcove and was resting when he was forced awake by a command from his new friend and it ordered him to come help him. He got up from resting and headed down to see a fight in progress. It was getting nasty as the group attacked the Kopru and then the third one popped up and attacked. Then the demon turned its attention back to the group and launched another fireball at the group and Toma-haque took the brunt of the fire and dropped dead on the spot while the others reeled away from him in pain. The group was trying to coordinate themselves as they managed to kill the second Kopru while the third one attacked Lamar and wrapped him up and tried to pull him into the lava pool. Humphrey had joined the group but they failed to realize that he was still dominated and he attacked Sable with his club when his new friend ordered him to attack. Just as he attacked the group managed to kill the Kopru that had dominated him and he came back to his senses after he had smacked Sable. He then turned to help his friends as they quickly figured out that the spell caster was the one they had to worry about as it kept casting spells and tried to feeblemind Adla but wasn’t successful. Rey started using his new bow as Adla grabbed Lucky’s bow and started firing away at the demon. Then the demon managed to feeblemind Humphrey and turned its attention to the others. The group was spread out enough that it crept in closer to try and single out the right opponent.

Jan 16 2011; As Humphrey was franticly trying to spot the enemy, another Kopru came out of the boiling pool and grabbed at him and he lost his balance and fell into the pool with a gooey splash. The others were still attacking the spell caster as it kept launching spells at the group. Sable then cast off his greater dispel magic spell but it couldn’t overcome the demons strength and he was forced to cast his other dispel magic off and it finally got through the demons defences and it dropped into the lava pool with a splash. Grat had been franticly throwing anything he could at the demon but in his feebleminded state he didn’t realize that he was doing any damage to it as Adla had finally grabbed Lucky’s bow and was firing away at the demon. Rey had also turned his attention to the demon as he fired away with his enchanted bow. They were doing it some damage as it struggled in the lava and then it cast another spell and started flying away from the group. Sable then cast lightning at it while Sparklegem cast flame strike.

As the group fought away at the demon, Humphrey managed to crawl out of the mire and stood up beside the group just as the demon cast another fireball at Adla and the others, Humphrey was more concerned with the remaining Kopru and he had turned around and proceeded to pound it into paste. While this was happening, a bubble of lava erupted from the pool closest to the body of Toma-haque and completely covered him. Rey and Sparklegem were the only ones to notice that the bubble had taken the shape of a feathered snake as it enveloped the gnome’s body and seemed to harden before their eyes. As they watched the cocoon seemed to stretch and doubled in length before it stopped and Sparklegem put her hand on the mud and found it to be rock hard. She knocked on the rock and it started cracking as she watched. She could then hear something inside and suddenly the rock powdered and a man sat up in front of her. He was dark haired and dark skinned and had tipped ears and arched eyebrows like an elf. She could see that he was covered in Olman tattoos and they were the same bright blue color that the gnome’s hair had been. He looked around and realized that he had been changed by the power of the Olman gods. Sparklegem couldn’t help herself as she caressed his chest as she looked at his tattoos. She could see that the large one on his chest looked like a feathered snake that was the symbol of Quetzalcoatl.

The rest of the group was still firing at the demon as it tried to flee and finally they saw it nose dive into the lava pool and it hit with a splash. Looking around they finally realized that the enemy was dead and it was time to leave. Rey and Sparklegem were still beside Toma as they heard a faint chuckle that faded away as Toma looked around in amazement. He opened his mouth to speak and the first words he spoke were Olman and Rey realized that he had been changed by the gods. Sparklegem then got the others to gather around her as she started casting cure spells and had to heal both Grat and Humphrey of their afflictions and they started to leave when Humphrey spoke up about seeing a throne and a dead guy sitting on it and they decided to take a moment to see what he was talking about and they walked over to the cavern where he had been napping and walked up and spotted the ancient throne and the skeletal figure holding the bastard sword in its lap. The figure and throne were covered in mineral crystals from the cavern as the group slowly looked it over and decided to try and remove the sword. Toma then told the group that his new name was Teotihacano as they carefully removed the sword and scabbard. They also found a ring on the right hand of the skeleton and carefully removed it as Sparklegem intently watched so they didn’t desecrate the body. Finally they had the sword and ring free of the body and checked it out. The scabbard was covered in Olman runes and Rey was the one to pull the sword out and hold it in his hands. As he swung it around he was surprised that the sword was much lighter than it should be and it glowed as he swung it. He then thought of Quetzalcoatl and when he said the name the sword started to glow even brighter until the cavern was lit up like daylight. Adla told him that it was a sun sword and they decided it was finally time to leave as the group headed across the cavern and headed back up the tunnel until they came to the blocked off exit.

Jan 23 2011; the group stopped once they got up to the blockage and they told Humphrey to sit down and have a snack while the rest of the group headed back up to the holy chamber to rest for the night. They told Humphrey to break the wall and join them after his snack. The group headed through the water after Churtle had pulled out some jerky and handed it over. The group climbed over the wall and waded off into the distance as Humphrey chewed away. The group then managed to make it to the landing and climbed up and walked back up the stairs. Humphrey finally finished and stood up and grasped his club firmly and then hit the wall as hard as he could. Some chips flew off and a crack appeared so he stepped back and hit it again, he somehow slipped as he swung and barely made a dent. He frowned at the club and then spat into his hands to get a better grip and the swung with all his might and the wall broke apart with a crack as the water started flowing past him. He waited for a short time as he watched gouts of steam came up from the tunnel below. Then the water changed color as the remains of the demonic bodies was carried down into the magma below. Once the color changed again Humphrey started walking back to the group and he soon joined them. The group had made camp and Churtle was busy with the meal as the others tried to figure out what the ring off the skeletons finger did. They tried everything during the night but couldn’t figure it out. The group also quickly figured out that Churtle had got mad at Humphrey during the day and had put something in his food so the group ordered him to head back outdoors before he stunk out the place. So he went off by himself around the corner and didn’t come back till later. They posted a watch but nothing disturbed them during the night.

Patchwall 13, the group awakened and waited for Sparklegem to regain her spells at noon. Teotihacano finally unlocked the secret of the ring and discovered that it contained a telekinesis spell. Finally Sparklegem had regained her spells and they headed back down into the depths. The chamber containing the water was now down to the floor level so Humphrey hopped down and walked everyone across the pool and then they headed down into the tunnel to the lower level. They headed down the tunnel that now only contained a trickle of water. They were carefully walking down when Churtle happened to slip and started sliding down the tunnel. Adla slammed her shield down in front of Churtle to stop her as Humphrey turned around and laughed at her. She got to her feet and muttered to herself and then made a gesture towards Humphrey as he turned and continued down the tunnel. Suddenly his feet went out from under him and he hit the ground as started sliding a little bit from the slick ground. Adla spotted a quicker way down and jumped on Humphrey and they started sliding down the tunnel. Grat stepped out of the way as the bodies slid past him. The rest of the group started laughing as the two of them disappeared out of sight. They followed them and soon came down to the flats to see Humphrey sitting by the edge of the pool franticly fanning his feet as Adla laughed beside him. They looked around and could see where the exits were so Grat borrowed Teotahacano’s ring of invisibility and said he would scout out the right hand exit as the rest of the group slowly walked over to the left hand exit. Humphrey was in the lead and walked into small cavern and spotted the Kopru in the water in front of him and he charged across the room and smacked the thing with his club before it could try to do something to him. Adla had followed him and was right beside him moments later and finished it off.

They didn’t see the second one behind them on the other side as Humphrey turned around as was dominated by it. Adla had turned around and spotted the second one and went to attack it. Humphrey was ordered to attack his friend and managed to overcome the urge to hit Adla and he then he just stood there in shock as the group attacked the second Kopru. It was soon slain as Humphrey came back to his senses just as the third one came out of the water behind him and wrapped him up in the coils of its tail as the group came up to help him and finally finished off the beast. Meanwhile Grat had found around cavern and the rough walls of the circular chamber are covered in rough cracks and covered by patches of fluorescent fungus, whose greenish light dimly illuminates the carpet of human skulls on the floor. He carefully crept across the floor and looked into the next room. This square room has been furnished with two large wooden tables and a smaller, lower stone table. Alchemical alembics and tools clutter the tops of the two larger tables, while an ancient Olman urn has been lifted on the smaller one in the southwest corner. Another urn sits beside one of the larger tables near the north wall. Three rows of stone shelves have been carved in the middle of the south wall. On the shelves are dozens of clay vases and glass vials of various sizes and shapes. He looked into the one vial and the smell stopped him before he could look into it.

Feb 27 2011; Grat carefully moved to the other side of the room and looked out into the large cavern and spotted a two headed beast in front of a large black pearl. He also spotted some sort of lizards beside it and a few more slowly wandering throughout the large cavern. He turned around and quietly headed back to the rest of the group moments after they had finished their fight. He told them what he had seen and they continued slowly moving around the corner until they peeked into the massive cavern. They couldn’t see anything as a large statue was in their way as they slowly started to look around.

The forty-foot high ceiling arches of this enormous shrine are supported by eight massive square pillars, which also separate the central part of the hall from two balconies. Four passages open on each of the balconies, which run fifteen feet above floor level on the long sides of the hall, and can be accessed by flights of stairs at the north and south ends. The main entrance to the hall, a monumental arch at the base of a great stairway up on the north wall is completely obstructed by rubble. The patron deity of the shrine is represented by a twenty-foot-tall statue which stands in front of the group near the south entrance. The statue has been damaged by age and moisture, and a large crack has split its face. The statue stands before a platform that extends over a pool full of foul water and floating algae. On the platform is a four foot-tall dais of black stone, with a melon sized black pearl on top. As the pearl appears to throb with eldritch power, waves of magical power, waves of magical ectoplasm seems to reach from the pool to envelop the dais. As the group looked around they spotted a large two headed beast that looked ape like. Between its two heads was a mouth with a long forked tongue. On the platform beside him were two lizard-like creatures with whirling eyes. Looking around the group could see another four more of them that were spread out around the massive chamber. The group started to move into the chamber to attack the leader and Humphrey stepped up to attack one of the lizards when he suddenly froze for a moment and then continued towards the first lizard but he had slowed down as he got close and try as he might he couldn’t make himself go any faster. Somehow these lizards were able to slow things down around them. Grat ran around the corner to charge him with Adla right behind him. The rest of the group spread out around the statue as they took aim at the enemy. The demon then gestured towards Grat and he became feebleminded and stopped running for a moment and looked around in bewilderment.

Sparklegem started jogging around the corner with Hap following her. The demon continued looking around and laughing as he continued to gesture and some sort of unholy cloud started sweeping over some of the group. Grat then followed Adla as she continued running down the walkway to the other end of the cavern. Lucky, Lamar, and Rey pulled out their bows and started firing away at the demon but most of their shots failed to hit and the ones that did seemed to stop just short and fell to the ground. Sable cast one of his most potent spells and it didn’t even phase the demon as he appeared to be immune to his spells. Even Teotihacano cast a spell and again the demon just shrugged it off as he continued laughing at the group and gesturing so the dark unholy cloud kept appearing around some of the group.

March 6 2011; the group then turned their attention to the lizards and started to attack them. They were forced to deal with the slow effect as they stepped within range of the beasts. Sparklegem had cast freedom of movement on Adla so she ignored the damping effect as Humphrey took out his frustrations on the lizards. The fight continued with weapons as the spell casters gave up trying to hit the demon with spells as he continued to resist them all with just the occasional spell getting through. Sparklegem cast dimensional anchor but it didn’t work as the group was now spread out all over the cavern. Adla and Grat finally got to the other side to attack the demon when he teleported to the other side and appeared by the remaining spell casters that were standing by the statue. Teotihacano instantly grabbed Bucky and used his teleport to flee to where the others now were on the other side of the cavern. Lamar went to charge forward to support the others and he had to look up to see the demon and suddenly screamed in fear and turned to run away. The rest of the group wisely killed off the lizards while the demon jumped from one side of the cavern to the other.

Mar 13 2011; Rey had joined the others in running to the other side when he came to the corner and was suddenly caught from behind and dragged into the small chamber behind him. The rest of the group was still caught up in fighting the lizards and the demon and the only one close enough to help Rey was Humphrey and he was still slowed as he stepped back onto the corridor and walked over to help him. Sable and Dagger had run around the corner towards the others when the demon appeared and it attacked Lamar who was cowering at the edge of the water with a gob of sizzling spittle. Finally they killed off the lizards and now turned their attention to helping Rey who had been dragged into the end room by something that had attacked him. By the time Humphrey got to him he was frozen by paralysis as they recognized the demon that had attacked them days before at the lizard man encampment. The two headed demon had been busy using his innate abilities to attack the group until they physically attacked him and then he just teleported away. The group then managed to kill off the demonic ghoul who had done in Rey and moments after this the big guy teleported back looking fresh. He then started attacking the group again until they whacked him a few more times and he teleported away again. The group decided to wait for it to come back again as leaving wasn’t an option. Soon he returned and attacked the group again as Adla, Grat and Humphrey finally managed to gang up on him as he pounded away on the three of them and the trio finally managed to get in some serious blows and the aspect of Demogorgon fell to the ground with a thud. With his defeat, a pair of bone shaking roars echoes through the Great Temple. The aspect of Demogorgon thrashes and writhes as, bit by bit; its unholy body peels apart into writhing blots of corruption that dissolves into noxious smoke before vanishing. In only a few moments the body bursts apart in an immense wash of black smoke, and the horrific twin roars shake through the room again. The group have finally attracted Demogorgon’s attention and for a brief moment the Prince of Demons appears in the boiling smoke of his aspects failing body. His twin glares fall upon the group just before the smoke faded away.

March 20 2011; they looked around and took a big sigh of relief as they realized that some of the group had gained in power. A few members of the group were still suffering from the debilitating effects of the demon so they decided to return to the upper chamber where they had rested before. They had to wait for a few minutes while Rey was still paralyzed and while they waited they found some gear tossed into the corner. They found a very nice suit of golden chainmail along with a necklace of prayer beads and a periapt along with a rod and a bloodstained holy symbol of Pelor. They realized that these had belonged to Noltus and Sparklegem took the necklace and periapt. The armor was given to Rey as he was the only one that was able to wear it so he put it on. They headed back up the stairs and got to the room and settled in for the night. Sparklegem cast a few spells on the group to help them and unfortunately didn’t have a spell for Humphrey and was going to have to wait until she prayed for spells the next day.

Patchwall 14, the group woke up in the morning and decided to give the rest of the island a quick look before they left so they walked down the corridor and turned to the right and waited for Grat to disable the spear trap. It took him a few moments for him to figure out the trap and they moved past it to find the large stone doors locked in place. It took Grat and Adla a moment or two to figure out how to open them and finally they pushed on them and they slowly slid open to see greenery everywhere. They were at the edge of the jungle and even though it was morning everything was dark as the sun was blocked by the mesa they were at the bottom of. Dagger and Abby started through the gap into the jungle before anyone could stop them as the group cautiously looked around. Sable stepped out into the jungle and looked around. He soon spotted a faint trail heading off to the left. It was very hard to pick it out and he looked around and realized that the upper exit was off to the left about sixty feet away and he looked that way and saw that the trail ended at the base underneath the other exit. The foliage was so thick that Sable changed shape into a hawk and flew up above the trees and started circling around. He spotted a clearing about 150 feet away that contained three small huts that were partially overgrown with plants. He circled higher and headed further into the island as he continued looking around. In the centre of the island he spotted what he thought was some sort of shelters built into the jungle. They were carefully hidden and he couldn’t see any inhabitants. Looking around he headed to the other side of the island and other than a few statues dedicated to Demogorgon and a couple of pyramids carved out of the jungle he didn’t see anything else. He also realized that he didn’t see any animals or birds of any kind and that worried him. He then headed back to the group and circled around the small huts again and this time he spotted something moving underneath the trees beside them and spotted another one of the skin walker demons.

He headed back to the group and landed down beside them and changed back to himself and motioned the group back into the building and told them that a demon was hiding just out of sight in the jungle. They decided to see if they could sneak up and surprise it and they set off into the darkness. Sable motioned the group to slow down when he thought they were close and just as he was going to look around a tree he stepped on a branch and it snapped. He froze as Grat put on his ring of invisibility and faded away and moved. Soon he spotted three demons carefully moving towards the group and he waited for them to pass and then struck out at the last one and hitting him with a meaty snack. The three demons instantly turned and attacked him as he started returning their blows. Adla and Humphrey rushed through the undergrowth as soon as they heard the sounds of combat and the three of them quickly finished off the demons as they looked around for the last one. It had snuck up and was trying to attack when Adla engaged it and it quickly went down. The rest of the group slowly moved up and looked into the clearing just as a small humanoid with horns on its forehead stepped out of the doorway and looked around. Grat didn’t hesitate and charged up and hit it. It gave out a shriek and pulled a potion and drank it then it headed straight up into the air. The group took what bow shots they could at the thing that Adla recognized as a Tiefling, a denizen of the outer planes. It was evil because Grat’s holy flail had flared as it hit. Rey then used his new armor to fly after it but it spotted him and after a few moments it dove down into the jungle heading deeper inland. Rey remembered that Sable had mentioned something about a village deeper in the jungle so he turned and flew back to the group. When he arrived back he could see the group standing around the buildings and Adla had some sort of book or ledger in her hands flipping the pages. They had found it in the hut where the little guy had come from.

Adla said the book was written in Demonic and it was difficult to understand the context but she deciphered that over 150 sentient beings had been sacrificed to make the savage pearls and 4 dozen of them had been manufactured and sent off to the Crimson Fleet somewhere near Scuttlecove. The group then decided to investigate the nearest village and traveled into the jungle and soon found the collection of huts attached to some trees with no one around. It looked like whatever had been here had left in a hurry. So they turned and headed back to the temple and soon came out at the docks where they had landed the days before and decided what to do next. Their ship was moored off the western coast and they were debating whether to head straight back to Farshore or head to the ship.

Chapter Eight: Serpents of Scuttlecove

March 27 2011; Teotihacano used his teleport spell to take Grat, Dagger, and Bucky back to the ship while Sable changed back into a hawk to scout around for a bit before he headed west. Sparklegem then cast his wind walk spell on the rest of the group and they turned into vapour and headed west. Sable climbed a thermal as he watched the cloud race across the lake and he had to smile to himself when he looked down into the lake and spotted the massive shape of a crocodile waiting just off the harbour. The big guy had come back and Sable could also see some other big ones behind him so they would have been in for a nasty fight if they had walked across the water. Looking around he couldn’t see much around the lake so he soon turned west. He flew due west for about an hour and then climbed up into the air until he spotted the Sea Wyvern under full sail heading south. He dove down to gain some speed and flew back to the ship to find the rest of the group relaxing on deck.

Patchwall 18, it was just before noon when the Sea Wyvern rounded the southern tip of the island to see the harbour of Farshore. The people on deck instantly noticed that the Vanderboren Manor was damaged with a burnt hole in the roof directly above Lavinia’s bedchamber. Looking around the harbour the group didn’t see the Blue Nixie or any of the other ships that had been there before. The Sea Wyvern slowly sailed to the dock and berthed. By the time the ropes had been tied off the wharf was full of people watching them. Once the group came off the ship the frightened colonists surrounded them and started telling the group what had happened. It seemed that four nights ago Vanthus had returned riding a demonic hellsteed and he had looked very dead but somehow very much alive. He had been accompanied by some demonic apes with the Crimson Fleet mark branded on their foreheads. He had suddenly appeared riding the flaming steed and had blasted a hole in the Mansion and had captured Lavinia and then had flown off with her, but not before he told the colony “It is time for you to love me again sister, the Lord of the Crimson Fleet can awaken it in you when I bring you before him. Your time here is over.”

The group realized that Vanthus had shown up hours after they had slain the Aspect in the temple and by the colonist’s descriptions of Vanthus, Adla and Sparklegem thought he might now be a death knight. They headed over to check the graveyard and found where Vanthus’ grave had been disturbed. Sparklegem cast detect evil and the hole in the ground did radiate residual evil but it wasn’t very strong. Adla found that she had to use her diplomatic skills when Lord Manthalay tried to talk people into abandoning Farshore as they worried that the Crimson Fleet would be returning again. Adla managed to calm the people down when she told the crowd that they would sail to Scuttlecove in the Sea Wyvern and try to recover Lavinia. She also said that they would bring the fight to the Crimson Fleet and they would be more worried about them than sailing all the way back here to attack a small colony, besides Vanthus had grabbed the thing he wanted in Lavinia so he probably wouldn’t come back.

The Jade Ravens had commandeered the Blue Nixie and had sailed off to Scuttlecove in hopes of rescuing Lavinia and they had left within hours of her kidnapping. The group decided to resupply first before they sailed to Scuttlecove and Adla took the time to look over the logs captured from the pirate ships and found maps to show them where Scuttlecove was located in the Pirate Isles. She even spoke to the captured pirates and was informed that gaining entry to Scuttlecove harbour would be a challenge with the sunken ships and hidden reefs that guarded the entrance. Only one ship at a time could go in.

During the afternoon Humphrey headed out to the breakwater with his fishing rod over a shoulder as he was bored and wanted to catch dinner. He found a good spot and sat down and set up his pole and then sat back and soon he nodded off to sleep. Almost immediately he found himself in the middle of a dream. He was reliving the battle at Kraken’s Cove but when they got to the fight with the female pirate captain the dream changed and the woman actually spoke to him while he was dreaming. She identified herself as Harliss and called him by name. She told him that a mutual acquaintance had suddenly appeared in Scuttlecove with Lavinia and had gone to ground. She confirmed that Vanthus was now undead and had met up with the leader of the Crimson Fleet. She told Humphrey that they needed to get to Scuttlecove and to find her at Red Foam Whaling on the docks and to be very careful as all sorts of nasty things called Scuttlecove home, including the ape-like demons called Bar Igura.

She recommended that they find a seclude harbour outside Scuttlecove or if they were feeling particularly bold they could try and dock at Scuttlecove and pretend to be pirates. Either way she awaited their arrival.

Humphrey abruptly woke up from his nap when the rod almost jerked out of his hands as he sat up and grabbed it and set the hook. He then started reeling away and after a short struggle he managed to land a decent sized tuna. He took the time to gut it and then headed back to the ship and went to see Churtle. She was more than pleased to see the fish and started to filet it right on the table. The whole ship was treated to tuna filet for dinner that night with her packing away the rest of the fish for later. While at dinner Humphrey recounted his dream to the group and the group remembered Harliss and the fight at Kraken’s Cove months before.

Patchwall 19, the awakened to see Sable in the lengthy process of casting a spell on the ship as the rest of them prepared to set sail tomorrow. Looking at the charts the ship would have to sail about 1200 miles northeast towards the Pirate Isles. They were looking for the island of Sekorvia.

Patchwall 20, Sable finished casting Hallow and with it he attached a dimensional anchor. So now something could teleport onto the ship but could not leave via spell. They decided to set sail with the tide and soon the Sea Wyvern was sailing due east and late that afternoon the ship broke free of the islands shadow and they headed northeast towards Scuttlecove. They figured it would take over two weeks of sailing before they would arrive. That night as the sun set Humphrey got the itch to try fishing so he waited until everyone had gone to sleep before pulling out his rod and fishing. He fished for about an hour and he kept glancing around to see if anyone was watching but didn’t see anyone so he finally gave up and pulled out his hammock and went to sleep.

Grat had been watching him fish and was annoyed as he had told Humphrey not to fish while they were at sea so he waited until he was asleep and tried to remove the rod from his hands. Humphrey had it wound around one hand so it couldn’t be removed. So he pulled out half of the line and cut it and rolled it back up so Humphrey wouldn’t be the wiser. The next night when Humphrey went fishing he tossed out his gear and watched as the line and lure went off the reel and disappeared into the night. He looked at the line and realized that it had been cut and not frayed. He was puzzled but pulled out another lure and fished for awhile before he gave up and went to sleep. Over the next few nights Grat cut the line until there was only about six feet left and Humphrey couldn’t figure out why.

Patchwall 27, the last few days the prevailing wind had been quite strong and Humphrey had been bored so he had fashioned some rope into a handle and had taken to surfing behind the boat on his feet. He had learned to surf with just some trunks on as it occasionally hurt when he wiped out. He was about 100 yards behind the ship surfing away when a massive shape appeared beside him as he was about to make a sharp cut and attacked him. He tried to fend it off but the jaws opened up and engulfed him with an audible snap. The rest of the group was shocked to suddenly see a massive reptile erupt from the water with Humphrey in his jaws. Then the rope snapped as the weight of the beast stretched it beyond the breaking point. Adla asked Grat to borrow his ring of free action and then she dove into the water as Grat turned and started shouting commands to slow the ship down and make a hard turn to the left, the others grabbed at their bows or starting casting a spell at the sea monster.

Humphrey started punching away at the thing as he had no weapons on him. He was still struggling away when Adla reached him and started attacking it with her sword. Thankfully the damage the rest of the group had done finally managed to kill it but not before Humphrey was forced to rage in order to survive the monster. Adla managed to pull his body out from the jaws as the body slowly started to sink to the depths as Humphrey finally broke the surface of the water with a gasp as he managed to jump clear of the water and stood there gasping for breath. The ship got turned around as Humphrey jogged over to the ship and climbed up after catching his breath. Sable then said he could now cast more spells as he gained in power. Adla decided to cut open the belly to see if anything was there and she spotted the glint of armor so she reached in and pulled away at the item and it turned out to be a set of large breast plate that was intact. After getting healed Humphrey got up and went to look at the armor. Grat then stopped him and said that if he wanted the armor he would have to trade his fishing rod for it. Humphrey looked at the armor and then handed over the rod.

Grat then tossed the rod overboard as Humphrey started putting on the armor. Sparklegem helped him adjust the armor and finally they got it snug and Humphrey started moving around to get it settled right. The others looked at him and they all noticed that his demeanour had changed. He now had a more dignified and commanding aura. Adla thought it might be breastplate of command and the rest of the group sort of chuckled over it as Humphrey was not the most charismatic person in the group.

April 3 2011; Ready’reat 7 the sunrise came with the announcement of “Land Ho.” As the group looked out over the water they could see some land masses to the north. The Pirate Isles were finally in sight and they set their course towards the largest one to the northeast. It would still take most of the day for them to sail close enough to find a place to stop. Sable decided to do some scouting so he changed shape into a seagull and flew off to do a circuit around the ship. The group could see four other ships off in the distance with two of them sailing towards the islands and two of them sailing away. He started to the left and the first ship he sailed over was not flying any flag and the ship itself wasn’t in the best of shape. He then flew past the ship heading west and he could see the red flag flying before he got close. He flew over the three-master and the flag was indeed the mark of the Crimson Fleet. He noticed that the flag had changed slightly as the skull now had a pair of horns added to it.

He then turned to the right and headed over to check out the other two ships and the ship heading towards the isles was flying a blue flag that he didn’t recognize and he continued flying towards the other ship heading southwards and he again saw the red Crimson Fleet flag and it also now had a pair of horns added to the skull. The other thing he noticed was that all of the ships were not the most shipshape compared to theirs. He then turned back towards the Sea Wyvern and decided to climb into the air to get his bearing and he circled up and around as he flew back. He then landed on the deck and changed back while Grat got out the charts they had and they discussed where they were. They quickly figured out that the island they were looking for was about forty miles north of them behind the island they could see ahead. Somehow they had bypassed most of the southern islands and Sekorvia was just off the horizon. Grat ordered a course change and they headed up the eastern edge of the island and they could see the larger one directly north of it and that is what they sailed towards. Once they were halfway between the islands, Sable changed back into a seagull and headed north. He flew until he was a few hundred yards off shore and could see the entrance to Scuttlecove and he then headed left and circled the island.

Sable then looked for a place to hide the Sea Wyvern and finally found a nicely hidden cove where the entrance was only visible when the ship was right beside the break in the jungle. So he landed and waited for the ship to arrive and it took a couple of hours for the Sea Wyvern to come around the headland and he took off and circled around the ship and led them to the narrow entrance to the cove and Grat was careful to slowly steer the ship through the gap into a tiny cove. The gap was about wide enough to get the ship through. Sounding the bottom, Grat realized that they had about 3 feet of water under the keel as they entered so it might be a tight squeeze to leave at very low tide. Once they were in the cove they dropped anchor and Sable let Dagger go overboard and swim to land to go hunting. Abby also jumped into the water and swam into the jungle and disappeared while the group waited for Sable to reconnoitre around the island to see which way to get to Scuttlecove. He took off and headed around the island and realized that the jungle was quite thick inland and it would be quicker to use the ships longboat. Sable returned just before dark to tell them what he had seen. He told the group that all sorts of nasty things seemed to live there but he said the majority of people were humanoids. He had flown around the city and said most of the buildings were single story homes with twenty or so other unusual buildings including a palace in the back section of the city. The strange thing was that he had flown over the palace and it appeared vacant. He had also seen a large arena and some sort of a plaza with posts and beams with dead bodies attached by hooks on the outside of them.

He informed the group that he had spotted the dead body of one of the Jade Ravens hanging on the wall. He said it was the dwarf Kaskus and he had looked around but had not seen any of the other members. He also said he had seen four of the ape-like demons walking openly down the street by the harbour. He said that most of the buildings had no signage so he had no idea where they needed to go. The docks were numerous with long and short ones, the long ones all had a ship or two berthed to them and most of the short ones were empty. He also said that the harbour would be a challenge to navigate in a large ship so they decided to use the longboat instead. They would head towards Scuttlecove in the morning.

Ready’reat 8, the group set sail on the longboat leaving the cohorts and the two animals behind so that if somehow the ship was attacked they had some guards other than the sailors. They headed south-west until they came around the corner and headed south and soon turned east and stayed close to shore until they could see the city in sight. They headed into the channel and rowed into the harbour so they had more control and they finally came into the harbour and looked around for a landing site.

April 17 2011; the group spotted an open pier near the river so they paddled over to the pier and got out and then figured out what to do with the boat. They decided to sink it off the pier as they figured out that most people wouldn’t bother with dragging it out so they headed towards land. Humphrey took the lead with the rest of the group following behind. They noticed that Humphrey was starting to swagger as he walked along and the general populace seemed to notice and melted out of the way in front of him. Adla didn’t cover up and showed that she was a Lumi as she walked along. The others were unsure but Grat was hard to disguise and the others were also distinctive. Soon they came to a greenish stone building with the hum of conversation coming from it and Adla poked her head in and figured that it was a market. She looked at the nearest person and flashed a gold piece and then asked where Red Foam Whaling was and the guy looked out the door and pointed further down the docks and said it was the last building on the water. She thanked him and rejoined the others.

A few moments later they could see the building in question and at first glance appeared deserted. It was some sort of warehouse that jutted out over the water with a pier surrounding it. Massive iron hooks attached to ropes as thick as arms hang from beams above, which in turn are attached to huge rust covered pulleys that once enabled workers to manoeuvre whales into one of the narrow bays between the rickety-looking walkways. Rotting tools—rusting iron-spiked boots, wicked curved knives on long poles, and heavy saws lean against walls to the north and east, while to the west and south there are no walls at all blocking the depressing view of the city’s harbour. The front doors were closed and they could see a rickety set of stairs going up to a narrow door to the left and looking at them Humphrey figured that they weren’t safe for him so he went over to the front doors and looking at the others, with their nod towards the door he knocked on it. By the sound of the thud he figured that the doors were jammed or stuck and then he put his shoulder into it and forced the doors open. They could see another set of double doors in front of them and some rubble piled in the corner. Two small doors were set in the right and left sides of the room as Humphrey looked around and stepped up to the next set of doors and checked them. No one noticed that Grat had disappeared as he had put on the ring of invisibility and was checking out the door to the left.

Humphrey again forced the doors open and looked out into the harbour and the pier and docks in front of him. Lying in front of him was the woman from his dreams. She was unconscious and appeared injured as Humphrey stepped up and then knelt beside her as he checked her over. As he carefully touched her she moaned and moved her head. Humphrey turned and asked for a healer as he then went to pick her up. As he took her in his arms she opened her eyes and said, “My Hero.” She then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Humphrey then felt weak in the knees and for good reason. The life draining kiss of a succubus was something Humphrey did not expect as she kissed him thoroughly. Suddenly a pair of snake-like men popped up from hidden spots on the pier and fired away with their bows. Grat had managed to open the door upstairs and looked at a small room with a very unstable floor. He managed to cross over and opened up the other door and looked out over the pier from the rear. He snuck over to the stairway and looked over to see the one snake-man below him firing at the group.

Humphrey managed to turn around and thrust the woman away from him as he was yelling to the group, Bad witch. Adla stepped up and hit the demon hard and managed to kill it before she could do anything else. The snake-men were nailing the group with their arrows and thankfully the spell that Sparklegem had cast earlier made them immune to poison. Grat decided to join the action by diving off the stairs down onto the snake-man but he missed and landed beside it. Adla was coming up to join him as Humphrey had finally figured out that someone was shooting arrows at him while the rest of the group was inside the main doors still keeping an eye out to the street. Sparklegem had moved up to see about helping the woman so she cast spiritual weapon and started attacking. Lucky moved out onto the pier so he could look around.

Then another much larger snake-man came out of the darkness and attacked Grat from behind, this one was a funny green color and his face was pulled back into a nasty grin as he attacked Grat with a scimitar. Humphrey had engaged the other snake-man and managed to pound it into paste then turned around to see what else was going on. Adla had stepped up to help Grat and they were finding it extremely hard to hit this one as it laughed away as it slashed at Grat. Then a third smaller snake-man pulled out from under another stairwell and fired an arrow at Lucky. He managed to flinch just enough that the arrow didn’t kill him but he still went down from the damage. Humphrey spotted this third one and ran across the water so he could hit it.

September 25 2011; Humphrey soon turned his opponent into paste as the others attacked the larger one and they finally managed to gang up on it. Grat stumbled badly as he swung at it and lost his grip on his holy flail and it went right through the side wall and into the street. He then had to chase his weapon and went right through the wall after it, good thing that it was just cheap wood and not a beam as he blew the wall apart when he lowered his head and charged through. He then looked around and spotted his flail about ten feet away and quickly grabbed it before the crowd could steal it on him. By the time he turned around and got back to the group the large snake-man was dead and the group was busy looking over the bodies. Lucky came back to the group to say that a couple more of the snake-men had tried to attack them from out in the street but had disappeared into the crowds when the group attacked back. After Sparklegem cast a detect magic spell to see what was enchanted and then cast a restoration on Adla and Humphrey as the snake-man had managed to hit them with some sort of rot and they lost some strength from it.

The large body literally glowed from the light of all the enchanted items it had while the smaller ones had enchanted armor, weapons and cloaks along with items in a belt pouch. The group split up the enchanted longbows and the daggers along with the cloaks and the other items. Lucky looked through one of the pouches and pulled out a small bead. Wondering what it did, he tossed it up into the air and it dropped down in front of him and blew up. He was the only one injured from the blast as the others were still looking over the other bodies. They started pulling off the items from the large one and started handing the items over to Humphrey as he was the only one big enough to use the enchanted armor, longbow and belt. Lucky tried on the bracers and they shrank a little bit to fit him as the group put the rest of the gear they didn’t need into one of the bags of holding. Then they turned their attention to the building and soon found where the large one had kept his lair as they found a room that contained a large nest and some scrimshaw art including a very large one that showed krakens. It was foul enough that Adla destroyed it once she saw it. They also found a bloodstained burlap sack in the corner that contained some combat gear and other personal items that the group realized had belonged to Harliss, the woman they were looking for. Inside a small pouch they found a folded piece of paper that when opened contained a message. “Esteemed Tyralandi, the bearer of this note is a friend and associate of mine. If you could aid her, I would be once again in your debt. Please extend to her every courtesy.” Zimon Alenveer.

The group decided to find this Tyralandi to see if they knew where Harliss was and Adla started asking the locals if they knew who this Tyralandi was and they soon found out that Tyralandi was a woman and she controlled the only bordello in Scuttlecove and she was not to be trifled with. They were told to find Porphyry House a couple of blocks away to the north to speak with her. They would know the building when they saw it as it was made of darkish purple volcanic rock and was decorated with bas-relief sculptures. The group walked north for a few minutes and soon spotted the building they were looking for and slowly approached. They could see a couple of large men standing just outside of the doors and when they approached they were told that the House would open at sunset and they would have to wait until then. It was only an hour or so before sunset so Adla produced the note and asked if they could see Tyralandi as it was fairly important. One of the men took the note and turned and knocked on the door. A moment later the door opened and he went in as the group waited.

They were all impressed with the building as it was spotless and was very detailed in sculptures and carvings. A few moments later the man returned with the note and told the group to follow him as he opened the door into the foyer of the building. The group was impressed with the luxuriousness of the interior and Humphrey’s eyes nearly bugged out when they saw two gorgeous women that were wearing very revealing robes that were almost see through. They were led into a room filled with comfortable chairs along with a desk in the corner. They were asked what sort of refreshment they would like and after everyone had said what they would like to drink they were asked to sit and make themselves comfortable while they waited. A few minutes later a woman came in with their drinks and after serving them she left. After everyone had tried their drinks and commented on the quality that the door opposite them opened and a woman walked through the door. Some of the group almost dropped their drinks when they realized that she was some sort of a fiend as she had wings and small horns on her head. Her very presence was enough to awe some of the group as she turned her attention to Humphrey and his jaw slowly dropped and almost hit the floor when she smiled at him. Adla realized that she was going to be very hard to combat if they had to get into melee and thankfully she just asked the group what she could do to help them once she turned away from Humphrey. Adla was the only one to speak up as the rest of the group seemed to be tongue-tied. She asked Tyralandi if she knew of the whereabouts of a friend of theirs named Harliss.

Tyralandi smiled and said yes that she was acquainted with the feisty woman. She said that Harliss had purchased something from her. Adla said that they were looking for her and the spot where they were supposed to meet up with her had turned into an ambush involving some snake-men. Adla described what they looked like and that they had killed them and Tyralandi said that the large one had been a midlevel enforcer named the Leech and she said that someone would step up to replace him very quickly. She then said that she would tell them the current location of Harliss for a price. When she was asked what that was she turned and walked over to Lucky and she caressed his face and lifted up a lock of his hair and said this would do. Lucky agreed and with a small silver knife she sliced off a lock of his hair. She then told the group that Harliss was currently located in the Birdcage. When the group asked where it was she just smiled and said it would be easy enough to find.

Just as the group turned to leave she opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a small pouch and handed it to Adla saying that it might come in handy. The group then left and they were amazed by how busy the place had become in only the minutes they had been waiting. The group walked out the door and they looked in the pouch and could see three small vials that looked like potions. There were some symbols on each and they were all the same and they figured out that they were all oil of silence. Adla, Lucky, and Rey each took one as Adla looked around and then flashed a gold piece and asked where the Birdcage was.

October 2 2011; the people around them all pointed to the east and said it was just past the plaza of hanging ruins where all the dead bodies were hung. They were also warned that harpies lived at the Birdcage and to have fun. The group walked east and soon came to the plaza. They were walking through it when Grat and Sable spotted a body lying in the rubble of the plaza that they recognized. They slowly approached and recognized one of the members of the Jade Ravens named Zan Oldavin; he was the rogue of the group. Once the rest of the group realized who it was they stopped and Sparklegem checked him over. They found he was suffering from a severe illness and was near death. She cast remove disease and then a cure spell and it brought him around and they asked him what had happened.

He said that he and Kaskus had been jumped by some snake-men and that’s all he remembered and he didn’t know what had happened to Tolin or Liamae. He also said that the snake-men were using a building called the minting house but he didn’t know where it was. Sable then told him that Kaskus was dead and had been hanging on one of the hooks in the plaza. He then asked for some gear and the group told him to accompany them as he wouldn’t be safe by himself. They pulled out some weapons and armor and gave him an enchanted dagger and short sword as they continued walking to the east. They rounded the corner and spotted the building they were looking for. It was a small stone building with some sort of wooden addition put on top of it that leaned over slightly. The group walked up to the doors and seeing that they were not locked she opened the door and looked into a small room that contained a desk and chair in the south corner and a few chairs on the north side and a pair of sturdy locked doors to the east.

A man sat behind the desk and when Adla stepped up to talk with him she could tell by his vacant expression that he was under some sort of compulsion and all he said was, “do you have an appointment?” as he slowly opened a book and waited expectantly. Adla looked at the doors and tried them and they were locked. She then pulled out the oil of silence and opened it and applied it as all sound died, she then gestured to Humphrey to help her open the doors as Sable and Rey came in and started talking to the man. All he would say was, “do you have an appointment?” Finally Adla and Humphrey managed to force the door open and as soon as they did the sounds of song were heard by everyone. Rey and Lucky pulled out their vials and opened and used them as the others were transfixed by the sound coming from inside the building. Grat had stepped away from the group and had used the ring of invisibility to fade out as he stopped before the group went into the building.

Humphrey stepped into the room and looked around and realized why it was called the birdcage. It appeared to be one very large room that was over 40 feet in height and all around the top part of the room were posts and beams that looked like roosts. At the top of the roof hanging from the rafters was a large birdcage with a narrow catwalk going to it from the one edge of the wall. Adla started running across the room to the narrow stairs leading up to the balcony as Humphrey pulled out his new bow and fired at the three harpies that were looking down at him. Two of the opened their mouths and started to sing and Humphrey was overcome by the song and soon became confused. The rest of the group managed to throw off the effects from the songs and surged into the room to attack. Rey used his armor to fly up and engage one of them as the others came in to attack. Suddenly Humphrey turned and ran out of the room with a wild look to his face and he turned and took off into the city as soon as he cleared the building. Grat continued keeping an eye out as he tried to keep track of Humphrey but he was out of sight in moments. The group took the fight to the harpies with Rey taking the brunt of the attacks as he was the only one in range.

October 9 2011; Adla finally made it up to the top of the catwalk and she was standing in front of the large cage that contained a small door in front of her that was securely locked. Seeing as she was deafened from the oil she took out her sword and started hacking away at the door. Moments later, Rey joined her after finishing off the remaining harpy. The two of them got the door bashed open and Rey went in as the hole was not large enough to fit Adla with her full plate armor. Rey spotted a woman lying covered up in the corner of the cage and he walked over there and knelt down to check over the woman when something landed on his back and started attacking. Adla peppered it full of arrows as Rey reached back and grabbed the thing and heaved it against the wall as Adla kept firing arrows. Finally the thing twitched and went limp. Once they looked it over they couldn’t determine what it was, only that it looked like a small child but with pale white skin and little beady black eyes along with a mouthful of needle sharp teeth.

Humphrey had went running into the night and when he stopped he took a swing at the nearest thing in his path and nailed the man just walking past him and crushed him into the wall. Then he freaked out from the song in his head and turned and charged off into the darkness again until he stopped again and this time a trio of snake-men surrounded him and attacked. He was so frustrated about what had just happened that he went into a rage and proceeded to pound two of them into paste before they could react. He didn’t notice all the stab wounds he had just taken as he was much too angry to care. The third snake did something and suddenly vanished as he turned around in circles looking for someone to fight. He then looked around and spotted the bird cage off in the distance and started walking that way.

By now the group had regrouped down on the ground floor with the unconscious body of Harliss. Sparklegem cast a few spells on her to get her to regain consciousness and at first she was freaked out and wanted to leave the premises until the group assured her that all of the harpies were dead. They also found someone they recognized in the group of slaves as Liamae, a member of the Jade Ravens. Sable attempted to dispel the charm that affected her but was unable to dispel. He then used a greater dispel and that worked to bring her back to her senses. She was glad to see Zan but she couldn’t tell the group where the other member of their group was. She could only tell the group that the snake-men were using a building called the Minting House as a safe house and they would have some sort of idea where the Crimson Fleet had their headquarters. The group decided to rest here for the night as no one had a better idea of where to rest.

Adla found something to use as a sign and put closed on it and stuck it on the front doors and then she closed them and put the desks and chairs in front of the doors as a barrier. The rest of the group started exploring the rooms just as Humphrey returned and the only thing of value they found was a small locked chest that when opened contained ten bottles of Tipsy Nymph wine. They also found a receipt in a pile of papers pertaining to Harliss and they found that a group called the Seventh Coil had hired the harpies to capture and interrogate her. Harliss also told the group that she was aware that the Seventh Coil used the Minting House so the group figured that was their next plan of action.

Ready’reat 9, They were lucky in that the night passed quietly with no one trying to get in on them during the night. Once they had prepared themselves for the day. Sparklegem cast hero’s feast for the group and once they were done they headed out into the streets of Scuttlecove. They decided to leave all of the people enslaved by the harpies inside at least until the spells wore off. Once they were all outside, Adla replaced the closed sign and then Rey cast warp wood so whoever tried to get in would have some difficulty. They looked around and Sable spotted someone tucked against the corner of a building with a cloak wrapped around stay warm. He walked over and nudged the body with his foot and the person looked up at him and smiled. The only thing that Sable saw was the small horns on the guy’s head and he jumped back in alarm. Adla spotted Sable and walked over in time for her to here Sable asking the small creature if he knew where the Minting House was. The Tiefling looked up at him and said that he would take them there, for a price. Adla flipped him a platinum piece and the little guy grinned as he checked the coin and then bit it to assure himself that it was real. He then stood up and stretched and told them to follow him as he headed west. It took about five minutes for him to walk them across town and he finally turned around a corner and pointed across the street at a row of dilapidated building as he said that the largest one was the building they were after.

October 16 2011; they were looking at a two story narrow building with a steep gabled roof and a chimney. The building was all brick and the upper floors seemed to contain a window each with a couple of windows on the ground floor on either side of the front door. Grat went invisible and climbed up the wall to look into the first window and he managed to spot what looked like some men curled up in bunks sound asleep. It looked like six or eight people slept here and he climbed further up and looked through the closed shutter and he could see two snakelike things curled up and he carefully climbed back down and told the group what he had seen. Rey then detected evil and he sensed something that was underneath the building so they figured it must have a basement. Adla then went up to the door and gave it a shove. It didn’t move so she told Humphrey to open it and he leaned into it and the door slowly opened.

The room was empty with three closed doors. The first door to the left was checked and it was the stairs going up. The next doors that were beside each other were a door to the pantry and the rear door that was barred going to the alley and another door that held stairs going down. Adla then pushed the door closed and turned and asked the others what they wanted to do. They were still trying to decide what to do when Adla heard someone coming up the stairs. She managed to warn the others and then the door opened and a startled man was standing there. Adla bashed him with her shield and the body went backwards down the stairs. She followed it with Grat and Rey following as Sable was still outside looking around when he saw a parrot land on a roof about 75 feet away and it was avidly watching the group. He tried to talk to it and it just ignored him so he got very worried and looked around again and he spotted a small snake just across the street and it also was looking at him.

He then told Humphrey to keep watch outside as he headed inside just in time to see Adla charge down the stairs. He then cast wall of stone on the stairway going up to prevent the sleepers to get down and helping their friends. Adla had made it down the stairs and was attacking some men that had been working away pouring something into moulds on a table. To the left was a doorway that contained a forge that was burning away, thus the smoke emanating from the chimney. Two of the snake-men were behind the men and they hissed something and the thugs all drew weapons and moved up to support their friend who was just climbing back up to his feet from the tumble down the stairs. Adla, Grat and Rey made short work of the thugs as the two snake-men pulled out scrolls and said the command words and they disappeared. Adla then told the last remaining thug to surrender and he dropped his sword and put his hands up.

Humphrey was still outside looking around when he got hit by something in the back of his head. He turned around to see a man standing in the window holding a crossbow and he just reached out and grabbed the guy and pulled him out and dropped him on the street. He then turned his attention to the two remained men inside and he whacked one of the unconscious and told the other one to surrender. After questioning the two and finding out that the snake-men were the ones that knew where the Crimson Fleet might be located, they ended up locking the two men up downstairs in the cells that were there. They also found a secret door that opened into a small room containing a stone statue depicting the Prince of Demons. They also found another secret door that opened into a very narrow tunnel that led off into the darkness. Looking at it, the tunnel looked unused so they figured it was a bolt hole for the snake-men. They headed back out onto the street and were debating what to do next. Grat managed to pocket most of the coin that was lying around on the tables. Looking at it, he realized that most of the coin was counterfeit and only a smattering was real coin. It looked like they were recasting them smaller in size.

October 23 2011; the group looked around after they had checked out the building and spotted a parrot sitting on the top of a building to the east watching them. As the group looked around some more they realized that more than the one bird appeared to be watching them. Adla and Grat decided to see if the bird would react when they approached it and walked towards it. It was watching as Lucky and Rey pulled their bows and started to draw them. The parrot dropped off the far side of the roof and the group tried to keep an eye on it. Sable changed into another parrot and started to fly after it. They lost sight of it as he flew east. He spotted the closest tall building and landed on the roof. He was distracted by the noise coming out of the building even at the early hour. By the time he remembered to look around for the parrot he had lost sight of it.

It took a few moments to spot it and he saw it again sitting on one of the pillars on the plaza or ruin where they had found Zan. As he watched the rest of the group came up along the building just as the front doors opened and someone was tossed out the front doors to land at Grat and Adla’s feet. Grat had spotted some sort of box hanging from a hook with something rattling in it as the wind shook it. They recognized the Tiefling as he tried to get to his feet. They asked him where they could find the snakes, and the guy shook his head to get some sense back as he looked at the group. He told them that he only knew of the one place that they were supposed to hang out. Grat was dissatisfied with the answer and tossed the guy back through the doors. The problem was that the doors only opened one way and he hit the ground with a thud. Then they opened the doors and tossed him back in. then Grat grabbed a handful of fake coins and tossed them in to hit the floor as they turned and looked around for the parrot. They spotted it in the distance sitting on a pillar on top of the plaza and the group headed that way. Sable just sat on the roof of the pub.

The group headed to the plaza and watched as the bird just sat there above them. They had asked around about the use of slaves and they had been told that the arena was the only place that slaves were used they decided to head that way. They walked past the plaza heading towards the arena when the snake-men attacked. Sable was watching when two of them slithered out of the plaza from behind to attack the group as they went past. He flew towards the plaza to help his group and when he looked around the parrot he had been watching had taken off and was now circling in a flock of parrots as he flew towards them. Just as he got to the plaza, the flock of parrots dove towards him and he changed direction and now headed towards Humphrey who had turned and was trying to attack something. The group was focused on two separate targets as they had split up.

Nov 2 2011; as Sable got to Humphrey a fireball went off as he flew past him towards the corner of a house. He spotted the flash of green off in the distance about 200 yards away. It looked like another of the snake-men up on the wall of the arena. Then another pair of the snake-men appeared in front of them and as the group looked around, Rey charged up to the corner to engage the one that had attacked him. Adla and Grat had to turn towards the harbour as three more snake-men were suddenly attacking them; they had some backup of a half dozen thugs who came up to support them. By now the group was being attacked from four different directions and the group was franticly trying to support each other. Rey had come up to the corner of a house and he stopped and looked around the corner to see two snake-men waiting for him and as he watched, two ape like beings suddenly appeared and he recognized them as Bar Igura demons and he then turned and ran back towards the group. Humphrey moved up past Rey to attack the snake-men coming around the corner and he also spotted the demons.

Two more snake-men then appeared across the street from around the corner. Teotihacano was looking around trying to figure out what to attack when another fireball went off right in his face. He fell back but forgot about the enemy on the plaza and he was then attacked by one of them with its bow. Lucky used his staff of fire and managed to put a ring of fire around the thugs and they turned and ran. Sable had landed on the roof of the nearest house and decided to drop down to the ground to change back into gnome form. Adla and Grat had managed to kill the three snakes in front of them and they had turned to see what else they could attack. Rey had run back past Humphrey as he had stepped up and smacked one of the snakes hard. The two demons moved up and one of them grabbed Humphrey and suddenly they were gone. Sparklegem was forced to cast sure spells as he managed to save Teotihacano from dying.

Nov 6 2011; the fighting continued as the group finally got a handle on the snakes and managed to start ganging up on them. More of the thugs came around the corner and attacked Teotihacano so he was forced to retreat into an alley and pulled out his wand of lightning. It took about a minute before the fight was over and there were dead bodies lying everywhere. They were still worried about the spell-caster over by the arena so the whole group headed over that way to see if the snake was still there. Grat was still recovering from the spell one of the other ones had nailed him with to dominate him. The snake was long gone from the arena and the group decided to see if they could use a body or two to get some answers out of the snakes as they had forgotten to leave one or two alive for questioning.

By the time they had gotten back to the bodies they had all been looted and nothing of value was left. They grabbed a body and headed back to the Minting House to rest. Humphrey finally appeared and looked a little tired. He told them that the demon had teleported him about a mile out over the water and had dropped him. He had been forced to walk and then run back to the harbour as he arrived in time to help a little with the fire fighting as a couple of the houses had burnt down from the fireballs and lightning bolts cast back and forth.

Ready’reat 10, Sparklegem waited until noon and prayed for her spells for the day. She asked for a couple of speak with dead spells in order to talk to the snakes and she cast the first one on the body but it was able to resist. So they headed back to find another body and returned to try another one and this one managed to resist also so now they were stuck about finding the hideout of the Crimson Fleet.

Nov 16 2011; the group then decided to let Sable cast a scry spell and try to find Lavinia as the rest of the group spread out between the floors. Humphrey stayed outside watching the street as Sable, Grat and Teotihacano ended up going through the secret door and into the tunnel to find a standing pool of water otherwise they would have to head outside the city. They managed to find a small pool about 18 inches across and he then spent an hour casting the spell. Meanwhile Humphrey was surprised when someone spoke up in front of him and when he looked around he saw some type of humanoid standing in front of him. He was very dirty and soiled and Humphrey wasn’t too sure what he was.

He asked the big guy what he was doing standing around and Humphrey didn’t bother to reply. Then the question was asked, what are you looking for? Humphrey had to think for a moment and said the Red Fleet. He looked around the street as he said it and then turned to look at the guy and he was gone. Humphrey turned and looked into the building and he saw the guy talking to Lucky and then he just seemed to fade away. Sable finished casting his spell and the water rippled and they could see Lavinia tied to a mast of a ship. As he tried to focus the spell better, he spotted a flash of light and managed to see that the prow of the ship had something attached that had flashed and a portal appeared in front of the ship and they watched the ship pass through and to their horror they realized that the ship had just traveled to one of the layers of the Abyss as the portal winked out of existence as the spell suddenly failed.

They also got a fleeting glance of something standing on the quarterdeck that vaguely looked like Vanthus but changed. The flag flown off the ship was the coat of arms of the Vanderborens. This did not look good. They returned to the rest of the group to tell them of the news as they decided it was getting time to leave. Just as they were getting ready to go, thee little dirt thing reappeared and asked them if they had something to trade. When they asked what he had, they watched as he pulled out a map and flashed it at them. The group then pulled out one of the enchanted keen daggers and three gems and showed them to him. They disappeared from Lucky’s hand as the map appeared and the little thing was gone. Looking at the map, they could see it was a map of the island with Scuttlecove marked at the bottom and a spot on the island about a dozen miles to the west side of the island. They headed back to the harbour and the only thing unusual was a disfigured man in robes who was standing in a side street openly watching them walk to the harbour.

They came to the harbour and pulled up the longboat and then Humphrey grabbed the rope and started walking out of the harbour towing them behind him. It was late afternoon before they got back to the ship and got back onboard. They told the others that the Crimson Fleet was located a few more miles west of them as they looked over the map when Teotihacano used decipher script to finally read some of the language. He ended up holding the map up to the sun to see the faint writing that said to look for what is hidden. As the sun was setting they decided to wait until morning before sailing so they could investigate during the day.

Nov 20 2011; Ready’reat 11, at the dawn the group had a meal while Sparklegem cast Hero’s Feast to feed everyone that she could and then they set sail and headed west towards the area. It was about 8 to 10 miles away. Once they got to the area Sparklegem cast find the path and the spell pointed towards shore and as she watched the line for the path she was shocked to see it dissipate when it hit something on the shore. Looking at the shore, it appeared to be a desolate salt marsh with nothing to be seen anywhere. The group offloaded the punt they had been using and the group hopped in and with Humphrey towing the rope they headed towards shore. Once they were about 100 feet from the shore, Sparklegem cast her second find the path and she wasn’t too surprised to see the spell pointing directly inland. Looking around the group still couldn’t see anything so she told Humphrey to keep walking. Adla slipped into the water using her cloak to swim alongside the boat.

They were slowly moving towards land and when they got about 50 feet away from shore the light suddenly shimmered and the group was looking inwards towards a small harbour. The stronghold of the Crimson Fleet matches perfectly the pirates’ vile nature, a sodden mass of boats and piers squatting over a filthy, reeking saltmarsh. What at first looks like a layer of mist over the water is in fact a layer of seething insects, gnats, and mosquitoes and flies that choke the air. The wooden piers dip perilously in places, and the boats moored to them are often lashed together. Totems and effigies hang everywhere—carved whalebones depicting evil, twisting things that surely the gods would not let draw breath, mouldy corn dolls representing deformed men, and bundles of feathers and poorly preserved animal carcasses and bones. Gibbets hang from masts by thick hairy ropes, and these hold emaciated figures that move fitfully now and then. Several wooden shacks perch on thick stilts around the maze of piers and ships, and a two-story stone tower rises at the centre on a rocky islet, but the most impressive sight stands at the eastern end of the complex.

Here, a towering mass rises from the swamp, dragging itself from the choked waters in dizzy mockery of healthy architecture, based around a pair of gigantic trees. A schizophrenic ships’ graveyard, the melded corpses of a half dozen boats and caravels have been lashed and bolted together at differing heights among the trees, balanced precariously above the waters below. Ropes, ladders, and narrow walkways tangle through the structure, which towers to a height of a hundred feet. It looks almost as if some immense spider that spins ropes and rusted chain as webs has claimed these trees as its lair, and the six ships are its desiccated and partially eaten victims. The entire structure creaks and moans, as if it was ready to collapse yet somehow it cannot.

The channel leading into the harbour was choked with a mass of thorny vines, rusting iron bars, and a wooden framework that has been erected across the thirty-foot-wide passage leading from the open sea into the boggy estuary beyond. The barricade rises to a height of ten feet and extends into the water below, to either side; soggy wooden walkways overlook the plants. As the group realized that they had passed through a strong illusion, they stopped until everyone realized it. It took a few moments for Humphrey and Lucky to see the area for what it was and they looked on in horror as the mass of insects started to rise up and fly towards the group. Rey used his enchanted bow to control the winds and he made the wind swirl around the group strong enough to keep the bugs at bay.

There was a small shack just to the right of the entrance with the door open so the group quietly moved up and beached the punt and they all got out and started investigating. Grat slipped on the ring of invisibility and looked over the shack. Peeking in the door he could see some sort of frog-like creature with greyish rubbery skin. He then hopped up onto the roof to see if anything else was around as Adla pulled her sword and stepped into the open doorway and attacked the slaad. The fight was quick and vicious as they managed to kill off the creature. Looking around they could see the shack had piles of bones surrounding it.

Nov 27 2011; they looked through the room but didn’t find anything valuable so they started looking around and decided to head towards the tower in the middle of the harbour. They could see where the boardwalk led to the tower and it passed by a couple of buildings and they headed that way. The nearest one was only 80 feet away and it was a two story building. They stopped and Grat checked out the front door and it was unlocked and he opened it and looked in. the building seems to be in relatively good repair compared to the sodden state of the others that squat upon the estuary shores. A strange and unpleasant scent like mud dredged from the bed of a polluted lake mixed with the tang of wet fur, fills the air here. The walls are decorated with mauve tapestries depicting a horrific two-headed, tentacled monster standing atop a rock protruding from a surging ocean. There was another door opposite Grat so he walked over and carefully opened the door. The ceiling of this square room rises to a height of twenty feet, yet the top half of this room is a network of crossbeams and joists. The smell of rancid mud and wet fur is nearly overwhelming here. The entire south-western wall is decorated with a single thirty-foot-wide and ten-foot-tall tapestry that depicts an ocean’s storm-tossed surface alive with hundreds of drowning human bodies. Tentacles and shark-like predators rise from the waters to feast on these souls in some locations, while in others reptilian monsters perched on wave tossed rocks fish victims from the sea with long arms. At the centre stands a roaring two-headed and tentacled monster, poised in a position of lordship over a court of demons. A wooden alter, it’s top and sides stained dark with crusted blood, squats before the blood splattered tapestry.

Grat carefully looked up and his first impulse was to jump back as he realized that five Bar Igura demons were sitting there watching him. He managed to alert the others and then the demons suddenly moved and the fight was on. Two of the demons stayed in the room while the other three teleported and appeared outside among the group. The fight was short as the group managed to gang up on the demons but not before one of them managed to grab Humphrey and teleported away with him. The group continued attacking the others and finally managed to kill three of them as the remaining one disappeared rather than engage the group. The group had no idea where Humphrey was but they had to continue on. They checked over the remaining room and figured out that it was quarters for the cleric that maintained the alter. They destroyed the alter and tapestry before they continued on.

Grat was out front and as he walked towards the next building he managed to set off a spear trap that launched out of the boardwalk and stuck him a good one. Thankfully Sparklegem had cast her hero’s feast earlier and he was immune to the poison on the spear tip. Moments later the door to the building in front of them opened and a man was looking out at them. Lucky launched an arrow as the man shouted and then slammed the door but not before the arrow had nailed him.

Adla charged the door and put her shoulder into it and was through into a crowded storeroom. She was forced to stop before she ran into a shelf full of gear. She could see the door at the other end so she moved towards the door and opened in and looked into a small room with a circular table and four chairs. Behind the table were three more men holding crossbows. Grat and Rey had moved up to help Adla and Sable and Sparklegem moved into the building to support them. Lucky and Teotihacano stayed outside keeping an eye out and Teotihacano spotted someone in the tower and launched a fireball at it. Then the remaining demon appeared right behind Teotihacano and attacked. Lucky and Teotihacano managed to attack it and Teotihacano managed to resist when the demon grabbed him and tried to snatch him away. It disappeared and then reappeared and tried to do the same thing to Lucky as they kept attacking it.

Adla and the others took out the three guards but the guy with the arrow still in him was nowhere to be found so they figured he had gone to alert someone that the group was there. Meanwhile Humphrey had reappeared in the grasp of the demon somewhere in a jungle and before the demon could step back and disappear he managed to pound it into paste. He then took a few moments to look around and he realized that he had been brought to the island where the Taboo Temple was on the central plateau of the Isle of Dread. Checking with his club he determined that he had to head south to try and get back to Farshore.

Dec 4 2011; Lucky and Teotihacano were still busy fighting the demon and the rest of the group realized that combat was still going on and they rushed back through the building to help them. Sable and Sparklegem took a moment to check the bodies but they didn’t have any magic so they ignored them as Sable then heard a faint ringing and he looked out the door and around to the right where he heard the noise and he was looking at the bizarre sight of multiple ships stacked on each other and set in the immense tree. He could see people running around on the decks as he realized that they were now alerted. Lucky and Teotihacano were still fighting the demon as Grat went invisible and managed to get right beside the demon and attacked. The demon them turned around and grabbed him and it then disappeared. Teotihacano was still flailing around with his mace and when he smelled fur right beside him he attacked what he thought was the demon but t was actually Grat.

Grat then took away his mace and started teasing him. He stopped when a crossbow bolt suddenly appeared in Teotihacano’s chest from behind him and he turned and looked at the tower to see some men shooting crossbows. Rey then concentrated for a moment and strengthened the power of the winds that he had summoned so that bolts and arrows would be useless. The group then decided to charge the tower to eliminate the guards there so they couldn’t attack them from the rear. So with Adla in the lead, the rest of the group followed her along the boardwalk towards the tower. Grat stayed invisible and when they got to the tower Adla just charged through the door. The men on the tower started shooting their crossbows as soon as the wind died down and targeted Teotihacano as they recognized him as a wizard. He got peppered before he managed to get to the base of the tower as Adla and Rey charged inside to see a circular staircase going up so with Rey in the lead the two of them headed up the stairs. Grat just started climbing up the outside of the tower and he managed to get up to the top to see four men and some sort of a demonic man all wielding crossbows. Just then Sable cast an ice storm on top of the tower and it affected everyone including Grat. He then stepped up and grabbed one of the men and heaved him over the edge. He couldn’t see the ground so he wasn’t aware that Sparklegem was directly below them and the pirate landed heavily on her. Sable and Lucky then attacked the guy as he lay stunned on top of Sparklegem as Adla and Rey managed to get to the top and attacked the pirates. The three men went down easily as they then turned their attention to the demon and they ganged up on the demon and managed to kill him. Once everyone was dead they took a moment to check over the bodies and they found that the men had some vials in their pouches and the demon had some magic gear. They quickly figured out that the men all had some sort of poison and Adla destroyed all of the vials before anyone else could object. Then they grabbed the enchanted gear and headed back down the stairs to the ground and prepared to head over to the wreck of ships where all the bad guys were.

Dec 14 2011; the group headed back towards land as they watched for any attempts to attack them. Rey took a moment to boost up the speed of the winds and narrowed down the radius and warned everyone to stay close. Grat had turned invisible and stayed with the group. They got back to the storeroom and used the building to keep under cover until they came around the corner and took a moment to look over the stack of ships. They could see a large ballista set up and facing them from a deck about forty feet above them. Adla then headed towards the rope ladder that was about thirty feet away from her that led onto the deck of the lowest ship. The ladder was securely anchored on the trunk of the tree so she figured it was safe. She also spotted the huge shape of a retriever sitting on the deck waiting for them so she told the rest of the group to follow her as she jogged over to the ladder and started climbing up onto the first ship. Adla made it onto the deck and turned to face the retriever sitting there waiting for them. She was impressed with the immense size of the thing as it was much bigger than a normal one. Grat also moved up to help her as Lucky and Rey took a shot at the thing before they realized that the winds that Rey had called up forced the arrows to badly miss. The rest of the group kept an eye up above to make sure nothing was going to attack them. The retriever then started using its eye rays to attack the group. It managed to use the rays while it attacked Grat before the group overcame it and killed it. Then the group gathered to investigate above as they were attacked by some men that popped out from a hatch and started firing away with crossbows. The group then turned their attention to the pirates as they split up with a few of them going behind the tree to attack Grat and Adla. Sable cast heat metal on them and the ones that failed soon had their armor and weapons heat up. One of them jumped off the boat into the water in an attempt to cool down.

Dec 18 2011; the six pirates were killed and Grat jumped up and grabbed onto some dangling rope and climbed up to take a look at the higher deck and spotted four of the humanoid demons manning a pair of ballista. He waited for Rey to join him and they pushed through the hanging curtain of netting and rope and managed to get onto the overcrowded deck of the ship. Adla headed towards the pier where to ladder led above and started climbing the ladder. Grat managed to attract the attention of the demons and they engaged him and Rey. One of them went down rather quickly as Grat managed to hit it a couple of times and got in two good licks and it stepped back. He finally knocked it down as Rey stepped up beside him and engaged the other pair. As the others started to head up, they were forced to deal with another retriever that suddenly appeared and started to attack. Lucky cast a magic circle against evil and forced the retriever to stop before it could attack him. Then it started attacking with its eye rays and did some serious damage. Then two more of the demons appeared from above and started attacking. One of them engaged Rey and started pounding away on him and he was shocked when the human suddenly shifted and turned into a two headed snake like demon, the problem Rey had was that each side of the creature had six arms and all twelve arms were wielding a scimitar and it started to slash away at Rey. The wounds really hurt and Rey realized that something else was happening as his wounds were turning to black along the edges and hurt worse than normal. After two rounds of combat, Rey was forced to defend himself as the blades kept slashing away at him as Adla finally managed to climb up onto the deck to join them. Then the demon stepped back and looked at Adla with a leer on its face.

Jan 11 2012; Rey used his fly ability from his armor to draw away from the demon as it turned and attacked Adla. She turned out to be difficult to hit and it attacked away as Grat came up from behind to support her. The demon turned one of its head’s to look directly at Grat and the eyes twirled and suddenly Grat felt something drain from him as his fur started to fall out and weird growths appeared on his face. The rest of the group was now fighting down below as the retriever was held at bay by Lucky’s circle against evil; it then started using its eye rays to attack the group and was hitting whoever was out front of it. The group finally managed to kill it but not before Sparklegem was nailed a couple of times as Sable hid around the corner while peeking out and casting spells. They then started climbing up to support Adla and Rey when the demon disappeared after Adla had pounded on it for a few rounds. The group managed to regroup on the second ship and could hear voices and shouting above then and decided to climb up to the next level to continue the fight.

Jan 15 2012; the group then managed to get up to the next ship by Sparklegem casting wind walk and the others either climbed or flew up to the third ship. This deck was fairly clear of clutter and gear and just as they looked around they could see a massive snake-like creature slithering down the tree with a half-dozen smaller snake-men accompanying it. Three of the snake-men then stepped onto the deck and faded away as the group watched. Sparklegem then cast invisibility purge and two of the snakes reappeared in front of the group and attacked. The massive snake came down and the group could see that in one hand it held a massive sword and the head contained six separate mouths with razor sharp teeth. The beast came down and attacked the group as the main warriors stepped up to attack it. Then as the fight was brewing, the two headed demon appeared again and they could see that it had been healed of most of the damage dealt by Adla and it started attacking the group again. The snake-men were effective in attacking as their bows were quite deadly. They also spotted a few of the snake-men that were spell-casters and the first two of them cast a spell each at Adla and Lucky, Adla shrugged off the spell but Lucky was not so lucky and he was then dominated by one of the snake-men, thankfully his circle of protection worked and the spell didn’t. Meanwhile Adla and Rey were forced to turn their attention to the demon again and they proceeded to pound away on it and finally Rey managed to finish it off for good as it died and fell to the deck with a thud and the rattle of multiple swords hitting the deck.

Jan 29 2012; the group was still fighting away when one of the harpies managed to land on the mast above them and it started singing. Sable cast a spell and summoned a greater air elemental and he ordered it to attack the harpies and snake-men that were above them. Sparklegem was busy casting healing spells to keep the group alive as they were being pounded on. The massive snake was forced to retreat as the group managed to do it some serious damage. Then the two headed demon animated from the singing of the harpy and attacked the group again. This time it wasn’t as good as before but it still did some serious damage again to the group as they were again forced to turn their focus to another combatant. The air elemental forced grabbed one of the harpies and killed it while the other one retreated into the hull of the ship above. The two spell-casting snake-men then started casting lightning bolts at the group as Sable then had the elemental turn its attention to the snakes. Then the huge snake reappeared again and they could see that it had been healed and it climbed up from below and attacked Rey. They were still attacking the two-headed demon and finally finished cutting it to ribbons and turned their attention back to the huge snake and her guardians.

Feb 1 2012; the group was trying to regroup as the snake pounded away on Adla and then Lucky and finally Rey as it was doing massive damage and the weapon it wielded was causing massive wounds that would not stop bleeding until healed. Sable then summoned another air elemental but this one was smaller than the first. He had it attack the huge snake and didn’t notice when the other elemental was attacked by something on the deck above. The elemental had grabbed one of the snakes and grappled with it and then tossed it into the windstorm. The snake then cast a spell and flew away while the other one kept casting lighting at the group. Then something attacked the air elemental and Sable didn’t know it until the elemental suddenly shuddered and turned a foul color and abruptly fell apart. Then as the group finally turned their attention back to the huge snake and attacked it and finally killed it. Just as Sparklegem was casting another cure spell, the sky lit up in a brilliant flash of light and something fell out of the sky. The group recognized Humphrey flying through the air and he managed to hit feet first and then tumbled to the ground. He lay there for a moment before standing up and shaking his head before he looked around and spotted his friends sixty feet up in front of him and the limp body of the huge snake falling to the ground. He started running towards the first deck as Sable figured that it would be quicker to have the elemental turn into a whirlwind and suck him up to the higher deck. Then the group watched as a large demon carrying a nasty bastard sword jumped down from above with two flunkies and attacked the group. This guy was brutal in his attacks and he forced the group to surround him to attack. The whirlwind finally brought Humphrey up and spat him out. The force it took the elemental to carry and launch the 500 pounds of Humphrey forced it back to its own plane as it faded away. Humphrey managed to land on his feet and turned around just as Adla gave the killing blow to the demon as Grat finished off the remaining flunky.

Feb 8 2012; the group looked around in amazement as they realized that the enemy was either dead or fled. Grat headed up to look at the ship above him and he figured out that this hull had been the lair of the massive snake as snake-skins were hanging everywhere and the smell of reptile was strong here. Most of the hull had been hollowed out to make room for the snake so he looked up to the next hull to realize that it was only the deck of the ship, the bottom of it had rotted away and the ribs of the hull were visible. He headed up to take a look around and spotted a small cabin perched on the top of the dead tree and he climbed up to look around and realized the small building seemed to have once served as a combination study, kitchen, and bedroom, although most of the personal touches are missing, as if taken away. All that remains are a bed, table, some chairs, a stove, and a bookshelf. Grat searched the place and found a loose floorboard and lifted it up to find a scrap of paper. Written on it was, Vanthus lives! Back from death! He’s taken control of the fleet and says he wants to make me into one of them, to take me to Demogorgon’s realm wher…

He headed back down to the group and looking around the crowded deck of the third ship they soon found a hatch leading into the lower deck. It was not locked and Lucky lifted the hatch to look down to see a small room with a circular table and some chairs and two doors. Grat climbed down to take a look and the one door was solid and securely locked, the other one was closed and didn’t appear to have a lock. So Grat checked over the locked door and searched it but couldn’t see any traps so he pulled out his lock picks and inserted one into the lock. Lucky was watching from above and saw a black beam strike Grat from the door and he slumped to the deck severely weakened. Lucky climbed down to pull him back up to the deck and they realized that he had been drained of energy. Grat looked around and then went over to the dead body of the leader and looking in his belt pouch pulled out a set of keys. Showing them to the group, Sable grabbed them and climbed down the ladder to the door along with Lucky and he tried the keys until he found the right one and inserted it into the lock and turned the key. Opening the door they saw that the walls of this area are plated in what appears to be lead that shimmers with sparkling energy. A single long table sits against the wall immediately to the doors left. A few chairs sit nearby, and a spherical object the size of a human head sits atop the table, covered by a deep purple cloth. The contents of the rest of this room leave little doubt as to its purpose. Sacks of coins, sea chests too full to be properly closed, heaps of silks, suits of partially assembled armor, tapestries, mounds of fine furs and clothing, jewellery boxes, metal coffers, and racks of weapons line the port and starboard walls of the chamber, leaving an open area in the center where one might stand and admire the collection. This is, without a doubt, the treasury of the Crimson Fleet.

As Sable and Lucky stood there with their jaws hitting the floor, something came around the corner of the room and attacked Lucky, it was a massive red skinned and bat wing eared demon with one arm massively enlarged. It attacked Lucky and nailed him twice with a longsword and then punched him hard enough to knock him back into the wall behind him and he fell to the floor with a limp thud. Sable managed to slam the door closed before the demon could move forward and he locked the door and pulled out the key as he started shouting about a demon. Humphrey jumped down and waited for the others to help him. Sparklegem cast a heal spell to cure Lucky as the others headed down to wait to open the door. They decided to check the other door and found a room with a huge canopied bed, complete with diaphanous silk curtains hanging from its sides, dominates this sumptuous chamber. To the stern, a locked cupboard sits in a nook near the door. Grat looked around and pulled out the keys and used one of them to open the cupboard. Inside was a closet full of fine clothing and the shelf above the clothing held a collection of rare wines, ales, mead and grog. Once he came out of the room they prepared to open the door again with Humphrey and Adla in the front with Rey and Lucky behind them near the bedroom.

Feb 12 2012; Adla unlocked the door and threw it open as Humphrey prepared to step over the threshold. The demon was waiting and opened its mouth and blew something greenish into the air as Humphrey stepped over the threshold and the rest of the group watched as a shimmer flared in the doorway as Humphrey was affected by a spell. He stopped after taking a step and froze as the demon stepped up and nailed him hard and he flew back into the wall and toppled over still frozen from the effects. Adla hesitated to step over the threshold as Lucky and Rey fired their bows at it as it stepped to the right out of sight of the doorway. The group waited for Sable to come down and he cast dispel magic and managed to take down the spell that was in the room that damaged the group. Once the spell was gone Adla, Rey and Lucky waited their turns to get into the treasure room and attacked the demon. The fight was nasty as the demons massive arm was stunning the fighters as they were forced to attack it. It took almost a minute before the group finally prevailed but not before Adla and Rey were knocked out as Lucky and then Humphrey managed to attack it. Everyone had managed to get down into the hold leaving Teotihacano alone on the deck and he was then attacked by a snake-man who popped over the deck above him and started firing arrows at him. Sable was forced to climb back up the ladder to help Teotihacano as he was knocked down by the arrows. He had used his wand of lightning to attack the snake but it seemed to shrug off the spells and finally disappeared when Sable changed into a large ape and prepared to attack it. He then dragged Teotihacano down to join the others as they started going through the treasure room and realized just how much loot there was. The group started looking around and Teotihacano looked under the purple cloth to find a crystal ball sitting on a stand. Grat soon found a strange iron chest sitting in the bow section of the room and he realized that it was different from all the other chests as it was solid iron.

Looking further he realized that it was covered in gargoyles and angels and there was no lock but the lid was closed. He mentioned this to the others and Teotihacano came over and looked over the chest. He soon realized that this was the legendary chest of Hathruman, a notorious trickster held as a legend in trapmaking circles. He had created dozens of boxes, coffers, cases and other small vessels but only one chest. By looking at the chest closely, Teotihacano said that the gargoyle faces could be manipulated to change facial expressions and this was how the chest was opened. At this point the group decided to check out the rest of the ships and once they were outside the room they locked the door again and moved down to check the ship below them. Once they got on the deck they found the hatch that headed down below decks and they opened it to look down into a room with a round table and six chairs. They could see a passageway leading off to the right and a door almost directly below them. So the group climbed down to look around and opened the door to see another door about 15 feet away. Grat moved up to the next door and opened it. Looking in he could see a grotesque scrimshaw statue of a towering two-headed monster dominating the chamber. The statue is composed of numerous huge whalebones that have been filed and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle—the entire thing has an unsettling quality about it, almost as if the two skull-like faces could see. An iron brazier filled with ashes sits between the statues feet, and clutched in its tentacles is a single curious metal orb.

Grat stepped into the room to see if anything else was hidden there but he came up empty. He then stepped up and looked closer at the metal orb and he realized that the orb was made of multiple pieces of slats and panels and they could be manipulated to open up like some sort of metal rose. He was itching to play around with it and most of the group quickly left the room leaving Adla, Rey and Teotihacano standing around watching him. The orb was hard to manipulate and it had some sort of defence mechanism built into it as slashing blades came out of the thing targeting his wrists. He managed to get his hands out of the way three times before he finally figured out the sequence to unfold the orb and as he finished a mauve haze started to seep from the brazier and quickly filled the room. The sickening stench of rotting fish and seaweed filled the hold and thankfully the group was still immune to poison otherwise they would have become nauseous. As the foul mist filled the room, the statue of Demogorgon slithered to life. Its surface filled with rancid greens and blues and sickly yellows as it took on the countenance of the Prince of Demons. The two simian heads scowled, writhing above the serpentine body on long snaky heads that made obscene sucking noises. The heads suddenly stopped their disjointed movements and looked at Grat expectantly. He suddenly realized that he could commune with it and looking at the others with him he whispered that he could ask it questions and it would answer either yes or no. the others gestured at him to start asking questions so he first asked if Lavinia was still alive and the right hand head nodded yes. His second question was if Lavinia was still on this plane and the left head shook no. His next question was if Lavinia was somewhere on his plane of existence and both heads nodded yes and suddenly the statue gave a loud roar and its tentacles smashed against the walls of the ship hard enough to make the ship shudder.

Then the two heads turned and looked at Grat and it started speaking in a horrifically sibilant voice, one head speaking one sentence while the other spoke the next. “I know you. You seek to oppose me. But you are mortal. I shall be with you soon. You shall know my wrath.” With that the statue howled again and exploded in a shower of fire and acid. The four people in the room managed to duck out of the way of the blast and then were forced to hang on as most of the floor just blew apart and fell down to the deck of the ship below. The rest of the group charged back to see what was going on and managed to pull everyone to safety. Teotihacano didn’t look too good as he had been barely healed from the earlier fight.

Feb 22 2012; they managed to get back over to the others and checked out the other two rooms and found a private chamber with a large bookcase and Teotihacano looked them over and managed to pull out the seven that were valuable. The center room contained a large map of the known realms and locations and piles of scrolls everywhere. They also spotted seven very nice solid gold paperweights in the shape of ships at sea. Looking over the scrolls they realized they were notes on deliveries of three dozen savage pearls and the group ended up stuffing the map and everything else into Sparklegem’s haversack. Now they headed down to check the bottom ship with the group investigating the bow first. It contained a galley and a cramped room with multiple bunk beds for the human thugs.

They then headed to the stern to check out a nook that contained a door to the hold. Grat peaked around the corner to see what was there and he set of the symbol that was scribed on the door. It was a spell and it flashed into sight and most of the group managed to avert their eyes but Lucky and Teotihacano were not as fortunate as their brains were suddenly twisted and they became permanently confused. Teotihacano turned and ran for the gangway as fast as he could and Lucky then pulled out his sword and stabbed Humphrey. The rest of the group was still trying to figure out what had happened and turned around to see Lucky slashing away at Humphrey with a wild look to his eyes and Teotihacano suddenly gestured and launched a fireball at Lucky and nailed Humphrey and Rey who had realized what had happened and was trying to help Humphrey subdue Lucky.

Humphrey managed to grab Lucky and was holding him while Rey had pulled out a rope and was trying to tie up Lucky. Then Teotihacano cast confusion at the three of them and managed to hit Humphrey and he was suddenly confused and he just turned and ran off the edge of the boat and headed into the jungle. Teotihacano then became frightened and turned and ran around the building out of sight. Sparklegem then told the others to find Humphrey while she would follow Teotihacano. Rey and Adla then used Sparklegem’s wind walk spell and followed after Humphrey and Lucky and found them fighting with each other and they were forced to wait until Humphrey came back to his senses and then they tied up Lucky. Sparklegem managed to catch up to Teotihacano and got close enough to cast a heal spell to bring him back to his senses. He didn’t realize what had happened and followed Sparklegem back to the group.

Grat looked around and realized that everyone else was busy chasing after the confused ones so he proceeded to open the door and looked sown into a darkened hold with a steep ladder heading down. Sable was tucked away on the massive tree and was watching as Grat headed down. He jumped down and ran across the deck and looked down into the blackness as he called out to Grat.

Grat was looking at a narrow passage with four locked iron barred doors. As he looked around he could smell fresh blood and he spotted a body in the first cell to the left. He walked over and looked in and saw one of the changed men lying on the floor and he was badly injured. He looked up at Grat and Grat could see that his jaw was broken in two places and his legs had multiple fractures. He heard Sable calling to him and he turned and called back for him to come down here. Sable then hopped down and looked in and whistled when he saw how badly the guy had been beaten up. Grat used the keys from Captain Wyther and opened the lock to get closer. They could see that he had been human but was now fiendish in nature as he had horns and a tail. He was also near death and Sable checked him over and then pulled out a strong curing potion and poured it down his throat.

This healed him enough for him to talk and they started asking him questions. He said his name was Ratline Sid and he had been one of the fleet’s captains waiting for a ship when Vanthus had appeared riding a hell steed and carrying a woman. He then got into a fight with Cold Captain Wyther and he had sided with Vanthus when it happened and Vanthus had commandeered Wyther’s flagship The Crimson Scar and had sailed to the Gaping Maw using the ships wakeportal. When they asked about following Vanthus he then said that there was another wakeportal hidden in the treasure above but he didn’t know where. They decided to bring him above to show him to the rest of the group as they had healed him enough to survive. By now the others had returned with only Lucky having to be restrained until tomorrow.

Now the group had the time to start checking over all of the bodies that remained on the ships. They found lots of combat gear from the thugs, demon captains, and various snake-men. The big stash was from Cold Captain Wyther who just dripped magic items. Humphrey had to be convinced to take his bastard sword and dagger as they were cold iron and he also tried on the cape and found that it improved his armor. Adla tried the gauntlets and they improved her strength. Rey tried the boots and they improved her speed. Teotihacano tried the amulet and it too improved his armor. Sable tried on his ring and it also improved armor. Grat tried the bracers and they improved his health.

Once everyone had grabbed what they wanted to put on they started organizing themselves as Sable changed into a bird and flew back to the Wyvern and changed shape again and ordered the ship to sail into the harbor and they slowly sailed into the shore until they pierced the illusion and saw Adla and Humphrey pulling back the barrier as they slowly moved into position as they used Adla and Humphrey to haul them into place. Then they headed back to the treasure room and started hauling everything back to the ship. Sable stayed on board to organize the stowing of the loot as the others started moving everything down to the dock. As they emptied the room, Adla took a moment to look around the bedroom of the Captain and she managed to find a hidden compartment in the headboard that contained two nice daggers that were coated with something and a fold piece of paper. She cleaned the daggers off on the bed linen.

She brought them back to the group and Sparklegem cast detect magic and the daggers and paper glowed. Sparklegem then looked at the paper but the writing swam in front of her eyes so she passed it over to Teotihacano and he realized that the paper contained multiple spells and looking it over there was seven spells on the paper and some of them repeated. He tucked the paper away in his belt pouch and they continued emptying the room. Grat had become very curious about the iron chest and when there was a space for him to sit down and really look at it; he realized that the seven gargoyle faces could be manipulated to show four different facial expressions so he started experimenting with the faces.

Rey decided to keep an eye on him and watched with interest and he played around with them and then tried to open the lid. Things happened rather quickly as spell effects shot out of five of the heads. Rey spotted the two that didn’t and made note of them. Grat got zapped by some magic missiles but managed to shrug off the other spells. So he tried again by changing the five heads that had attacked him and this time only three of them went off and zapped him again. Then Teotihacano had a thought and pulled out the paper they had found and read off the spells again and Grat then changed the expressions over to the list on the spells and the lid opened with a click.

Inside the chest was six large black pearls, a gold crown with some loose gemstones, multiple bags of gold coins and a scarlet ruby that was the size of a small head. Also there was a teardrop shaped stone with jagged edges on one size that had to be the item that Sid had mentioned, the wakeportal. They knew that it was attached to the prow or the figurehead of a ship. Now that they had it open, they put more stuff into it and then closed the lid and carried it over to the Sea Wyvern. It was well after dark when they finally got everything they wanted onto the ship and they carefully moved back out into open water and anchored just offshore to wait until morning to figure out what to do next.

Feb 26 2012; Ready’reat 12, the group awoke in the morning and waited for Sparklegem to pray for her spells at noon before they decided what to do next. During the night the group had gone through everything brought on board. They had let Ratline Sid go as he couldn’t get close to the ship from the spell that Sable had cast weeks ago. So they told him to leave and he was quit to take off and disappear into the jungle. Once dawn had broken they set sail north-west to get closer to Sassarine and they had to wait until the next morning as Teotihacano tried to teleport and was unable to do so. They also took the time to open Hathruman’s chest again to look through it and they ended up pulling everything out of the chest and along with everything they had seen they found on the bottom of the chest two bags of holding and three small weapons including a gnome hooked hammer. The bags were different in weight and Lucky took the heavier one of the two and they started filling them up with all the bulky treasure they had just acquired and they agreed that Lucky, Rey and Sparklegem would accompany him.

Ready’reat 13, they waited until morning and then Teotihacano cast his teleport and this time it worked as the ship was under full sail heading west. Grat took the wakeportal and climbed up onto the figurehead and placed it on the forehead of the wooden wyvern and walked as the gem activated and sank into the wood until most of it had disappeared into the wood leaving only a small piece of crystal showing and they waited for the others to return. It was close to sunset when the four other members suddenly appeared above the deck and Sparklegem took a tumble when they hit the deck with a thump. They then started pulling out the various items they had managed to pick up in Sassarine and Sparklegem was happy as they had sold off all of the bulky items they had taken and brought back lots of scrolls and a few wands and a couple of items that the other members had asked to find for them. It took an hour or so for them to sort out the items as Sparklegem related the adventure of their day traveling around to visit all of the churches to find the scrolls and some potions and other items. Rey had even managed to find some enchanted arrows for Humphrey’s large bow while picking up a full bundle of 50 enchanted arrows.

Chapter Nine: Into the Maw

Ready’reat 14, the group waited until Sparklegem prayed for her spells again at noon before they decided to activate the portal. Adla and Sparklegem went below decks as they didn’t want to see what would happen. Lucky and Humphrey went up to the bow to watch while the others stood around the edges of the deck to look around as Grat ordered full sail and Rey summoned the winds to blow them across the water. Soon the Sea Wyvern was flying across the water under full sail and group was delighted to see how fast the ship was sailing. Then Grat concentrated and he felt something change as he held the wheel. Looking at the wake of the ship they could see something mauve sparkling in the water and suddenly the smell of salt and blood was strong in the air. As they watched clouds started to build and swirl above the ship. Things started to bubble up from below the ship, bits of flesh and oily streaks oozing across the surface. The water started to turn foul as if some great beast had disgorged its contents and the sky rapidly turned a ghastly hue of red and the clouds above them started to spin and swirl with dreadful violence as mauve lightning lanced across the heavens. The ship continued on as the group had to shout at each other to be heard. After a turn, bolts of lightning arced up from the wake of the ship to strike the sails, masts and rigging. An instant later the wakeportal activated by tearing a hole in the sky in front of them with a blinding flash and the ship and everything within 60 feet of them was shifted through the gap and into the Abyssal Ocean. Humphrey managed to unlock another of his clubs secrets when just as the ship was about to shift he felt his club twitch and he pulled it from his shoulder and grasped it and called lightning that hit just in front of the ship. He was looking right at the portal when it opened and the flash of light blinded him as they gated through.

The group looked around as they were no longer on the world that they knew. The sky was reddish and overcast with no hint of a sun and it didn’t look like there was one. The water was a purplish brown and appeared solid when looking down into the water. Adla and Sparklegem both shivered when they sensed that they were now in the Abyss. The group tried to pick out a landmark but the horizon was featureless. They had no idea which way to sail as they looked around a barren sea. Off in the distance they could see some waterspouts dancing across the water.

March 7 2012; they continued sailing in the direction they appeared as they tried to figure out which way to go. Grat had to keep an eye out as some waterspouts suddenly appeared right in front of the ship and he had to make a course change to the right to go around them. The spouts seemed to rise out of sight into the overcast clouds and then dropped back down to the water. He also spotted something massive break the surface of the water off to his left and whatever it was it was huge as only part of it was seen. Rey’s control winds spell had faded and they were now sailing with the winds that travelled over the Abyssal Sea. They were fitful and not consistent so the ship was slowed down from its previous speed. Hours later he looked around and realized that a ship was rapidly overtaking them from the rear. He shouted out a warning as the group looked behind them to see a sleek ship sitting low in the water with transparent sails. Grat was also surprised to see that it left no wake and appeared to glide over the water. The ship started to overtake them on the left and the group was closely watching it and Adla could see some people standing on the deck, they were very tall and blue skinned and he recognized them as Mercanes. They were inter-planer merchants that traveled all through the cosmos. She told the group that it appeared they were merchants and in fact when the ship got close enough to the Sea Wyvern one of the people shouted over to them to see if they wished to purchase some wares. The group was intrigued and decided to heave to and prepared to drop the longboat as the Sapphire Griffon also brought in their sails and hove to. It took the group a few minutes to get over to the other ship and they climbed onboard.

The main deck was full of tables and racks holding all sorts of equipment including some clearly masterwork items. Looking around the group inquired about magic items and the Mercane just smiled at them and asked if they had payment. The group then took quite a bit of time to go over to the ship and started loading up the loot they had taken from the Crimson Fleet and tallying up how much each member would get. It took them hours to figure out what they had and it worked out to over 40 000 gold each as they managed to unload everything they had including all the extra weapons and minor magic items they had. They even sold them the Iron chest and the massive ruby. Then the group spent almost all of their coin buying items. Most of the group purchased amulets of natural armor and some of the group upgraded their weapons. By the time they were done over half a day had passed and they had spent or traded everything they had. As they were leaving, Sparklegem asked them where the Gaping Maw was located and they spent the last few platinum coins they had and the Mercane just told them to turn around. With that they thanked the Mercanes and headed back to the Sea Wyvern as the Sapphire Griffon dropped its sails and rapidly started sailing away as they turned the ship around and headed back the way they had come. By the ships hourglass it was clearly well after dark if they had been back on the Azure Sea but the light had not changed any so they headed back along the course they had travelled.

March 11 2012; it seemed that they had only been sailing for a few moments when the water started to change, the color started to fade and soon the water was clear and they were looking a long way down into the water. The group quickly realized that there were lots of things swimming below them and some of them were very large.

Ready’reat 15, they continued sailing through the night with no change of the visible light but with the water clear they were watching below carefully. During the early morning, the watch spotted a ship sailing towards them against the wind. As Grat was alerted, he woke up Adla and headed up onto the forward deck and looked out to see a ship eerily sailing towards them. Looking carefully he couldn’t see anyone on the decks and neither could the sailor up in the crow’s nest. Adla came up on board as the ship slipped silently past them to the right. They could read the name, Rusty Anchor on the bow as he slowly sailed off into the light. The spell casters had stayed sleeping as they needed their rest. It was just after the group had awakened for a meal when the lookout shouted about a whale. The group headed over to the sides of the ship and Rey spotted the whale coming up from below and it hit the hull with a solid thud. Thankfully the boat handled the bump as they continued on. Sable then cast control weather and produced a strong tail wind as the winds were too fitful to depend on. Then Sparklegem managed to pray for her spells and she found that she had to concentrate a little more in order to gain them here. The group was also watching the waters below as they saw things that literally scared them. Then they were forced to detour when a massive growth of kelp appeared in front of them and they steered around it. They also watched as the water seemed to change color every so often but it remained clear and that is what worried them as the things underneath them could also see them. It was late evening when Sable’s spell was dying off when the sky started to darken and soon turned black and a sheet of rain pounded down in front of them. Sparklegem then cast find the path and it led right through the storm. They battened down the hatches and everyone either tied themselves to the ship with a rope or securely tied themselves to a location as Grat took the wheel and headed into the storm.

He didn’t have much luck and even with Rey casting his control winds the ship was forced to turn around and retreat back to the Abyssal Sea when a couple of massive waves managed to swamp the ship causing them to lose most of the sails and the second wave snapped the forward mast in half. Grat managed to turn the ship around and they were soon out in the calmer water of the Sea. They then spend about forty minutes bringing up some new sails and Sable managed to mend the mast using a repair spell. They headed back into the storm with Grat still at the helm and he almost sank the ship as soon as they entered. Harliss was forced to take the wheel and she managed to steer correctly and soon they broke free of the storm and were back on calm waters again. The waters were a murky color and well off in the distance they thought they could see land as some sort of a smear was just at the horizon. The smell of brine was much stronger here and the swells were fairly strong once they got sailing again. Rey still had some time left on his spell so they followed the directions that Sparklegem gave them to bear to the right as they sailed into the Gaping Maw. Soon they could see twin spires off in the distance and the group all went pale when they realized they were looking at the home of the Prince of Demons. Sable and Teotihacano headed up to the crow’s nest to look around and they were the ones to spot something heading towards them that rode very low in the water. They alerted the others that something was out in front of the ship and Rey went up to the bow and stood beside Lucky and Humphrey and looked out over the water. Something was out there and they could see flashes of light coming from the thing and as it got closer Rey got curious and activated his fly spell from his armor and trailing a rope he flew out over the water to get a closer look at the thing. He finally flew over a swell to see what appeared to be a massive blood clot floating on the water and in the middle of the clot was a metal cage that contained some sort of humanoid with white vestigial wings and flames appearing all over its body. It spotted Rey and screamed out for him to help. Just as Rey was about to try something, two demons materialized on the deck of the thing and went to attack him.

March 21 2012; one of them was suddenly in front of Rey and slashed at him with one of its four arms and the other one blinked and was suddenly standing on the deck of the Sea Wyvern. Rey was struck with the claws and felt the blow try to drain some of his energy and he retreated back to the ship as fast as he could. The rest of the group started attacking the one on the ship. They managed to gang up on it as Lucky and Humphrey aimed the ballistae at the demon in front of them and shot them off. Both of them hit but the bolts just bounced off and fell into the water. Then the demon on the deck cast blasphemy and everyone on the ship was suddenly stunned but it paid the price as the group got a few more licks in and killed it. Unfortunately the damage was done from the spell and all of the sailors flopped over death except for the lone man up in the crow’s nest. Then the other demon blinked and reappeared right beside Rey. It attacked Rey and hit him three times and he managed to shrug off the drain each time but the claws still hurt. The demon was quickly slain when the group managed to gang up on it again. They had a bit more trouble with this one as they were all weakened from the spell so it took a few more blows. Now they turned their attention to the craft and the creature that was inside the cage. They attached a rope to a bolt and told Humphrey to hit the craft. He sank a bolt into it and they pulled it closer to the ship by using a yardarm. Adla then told Grat to climb out onto the yardarm and drop down and attach the rope to pull it off the craft. Once he tied the rope off they tried to pull it free but it wouldn’t come free from the craft.

Finally Rey went down and used his sword to cut the cage free and they pulled it up and when they got close to the ship the creature started screaming so they realized that it was evil. It started yelling at the ship and it used two languages that Adla spoke, the language of demons and the language of angels. She started getting information out of him. He said his name was Azael and that he was an agent of Orcus tasked to spy on Demogorgon to uncover what was going on with his current plot. The blood fiends had captured him and were returning him to Thanatos, home of Orcus for punishment. He wasn’t able to find out much other than he planned on using the pearls to set off some sort of energy to spread madness and savagery throughout the Material Plane. He also mentioned that the fiends had some loot stashed somewhere on the craft. Grat then got curious and jumped down onto the craft and once he started looking it over he realized that it was made of multiple flayed skins placed inside out and it was very mushy and wet in spots and hard and crusty in others. He couldn’t find anything and finally Teotihacano cast detect magic and he spotted something in the rear of the craft and pointed it out to Grat. Adla then asked Azael if he knew where enemies of Demogorgon ended up once they got here and he was quick to say Divided’s Ire, the island prison of the Prince of Demons. He then pointed off in the direction that Sparklegem’s find the path spell indicated.

He walked over to the spot and carefully started peeling back layers and finally he found a small pocket that was loaded with coins. He started pulling them out and they were all platinum. He also found a large emerald, three small black pearls and four pieces of amber. He then found a ring and gold chain with a bright red gem. He managed to palm some of the coin as he pulled it out and the group tossed down a sack and he loaded everything in and they pulled it back to the ship and proceeded to check it over. There was 690 platinum pieces along with the other stuff. They recognized the ring as a ring of improved swimming as they already had two of them and Sparklegem took it and gave her lesser ring to Hap. Then they debated what to do with Azael and finally they decided to release him back onto the craft and Adla warned him that if they saw him again with a weapon in his hand they would kill him. They lowered the cage back down to the craft and Grat used the key he had found for the lock, it had been tucked away with the loot. Once the door was opened he jumped up onto the rope and climbed back onto the Sea Wyvern as they brought the cage back on board. They had discovered that it was pure adamantine and they decided to keep it. Then they set sail going towards the island. Then they went around the ship to collect the bodies of the dead sailors and once they were prepared, Sparklegem said a few words and then they slid the bodies overboard into the water. As they watched, a massive creature came up from the depths and once it got close enough started swallowing the bodies and soon they were all gone. They were worried that the beast would come closer but it seemed to be satisfied with the meal and drifted back down to the depths.

Ready’reat 16, the ship had sailed through the night with no discernible difference in the light with Harliss making a few course corrections after seeing some nasty weather in front of them and soon they spotted an angry red smear on the horizon. As they got closer they could see that the island was actually two of them. The one on the west side was rocky and lava was pouring out from cracks and dropped down until it hit the water with a massive burst of steam. The island to the east was very green and from a distance looked totally covered by jungle. As they approached the islands they could see things flying around the top and soon they realized that they were demons so they headed towards the island as soon as they lost sight of the demons. As they approached they soon spotted a lone mast sticking out among the jungle and they came around a point and spotted a ship at anchor. They carefully approached and they noticed the name, Crimson Scar and that no one was on board. In fact they even rowed over to check out the ship but it had been picked clean with even the wakeportal missing. There was a strong haze hanging off the islands from the volcano and the group could taste the brimstone in the air. It was hard to take a deep breath so they knew that they would have to take it slow once they were on land. They found numerous bloodstains on the deck but no bodies. Now they decided to move off a bit to the east and found a nice secluded cove to anchor in and Teotihacano cast Mirage Arcana in order to hide the ship from casual view. Harliss and the two remaining Jade Ravens would stay on board with the cohorts and the three remaining sailors to protect the ship if they were attacked.

March 25 2012; the group hopped into the longboat and Humphrey grabbed the rope and towed them to shore. They stashed the boat and with Sable in the lead they headed up the hill. The going was steep with the jungle very overgrown. After studying the plants for a bit Sable suggested that they avoid touching the plants as they were sharp and possibly toxic. They also had to go slow as the air was getting fouler as they climbed. About an hour later Sable thought he saw something ahead and stopped and warned the rest of the group. Sparklegem wasn’t paying attention and ran into the back of Rey causing him to stumble and fall with a clatter of armor. Sable then climbed up onto Humphrey to look ahead but whatever he had spotted seemed to be gone. He jumped down to the right and started to move forwards when something came out of the jungle and attacked. They recognized it as a retriever and it tried to nail Humphrey with a freezing ray and he managed to evade it at the last second. Then the group ganged up on it and it was slain in moments but not before it got a few good licks on Humphrey. Once they made sure it was dead and nothing else was around they continued climbing up the hill.

Sparklegem then realized that it was noon and she thought about stopping to pray for spells but she had only used one low level spell so they agreed to continue on. A couple of hours later they finally came to a break in the jungle and ahead of them they could see the building. As they stood there they felt the ground move beneath their feet and watched as the volcano erupted again. They were now having trouble breathing from all the ash in the air and they spotted a large crack in the wall to the east and moved around the jungle to get close to it. Once they got as close as they could they decided to run over to the edge of the building and hoped they didn’t get spotted by any demons. The gaping hole in the wall opened onto a massive chamber strewn with debris. The floor is riddled with cracks connecting to a great rent in the floor. On the far side of the chasm stands a hastily constructed wall of stone blocks and jagged boulders. Grat looked around and off to the right he could see a metal wall with doors spaced evenly along the wall. He then stepped through the crack and felt something tingle on his skin as he looked around. Suddenly he heard the sound of wings flapping ahead of him and he thought the sound went over the wall. He moved up to the rent and looked down and he could see the crack went a long way down to the water. He then moved over towards the wall and looked over the doors and he could see they were green stained metal. The rest of the group slowly moved into the room and all of them felt the tingle of something as they stepped through. They were all careful to jump over the cracks as they moved towards the other end of the room where a large doorway led out of the room. The rent went right down the middle of the room. After looking around Grat headed to the end of the room and looked around the corner of the wall and spotted some buildings. He hopped the rent and carefully moved up to the corner as the others came up behind him.

April 4 2012; Rey and Humphrey moved up behind Grat as he looked around and then heard something around the corner and he looked around the corner to see the large doorway that led into the building. He could see two more buildings behind the first one and he noticed that the front building was taller than the other two. As he looked around, Humphrey moved up to the doorway and looking in he couldn’t see anything until he looked up and spotted some vulture like demons sitting on perches and he realized that they were Vrocks. The Vrocks noticed him and started squawking to each other and the noise quickly got louder and then one of them launched itself off its perch and dive bombed Grat as it flew through the doorway out into the room. It headed towards the opening in the wall and let out a loud shriek when it was close and the group heard an answering shriek from outside. Adla and Rey came up to help Humphrey as the rest of the group moved up to the rent in the floor and prepared to jump over when Sable spotted something coming up from behind. Coming out from between the walls were a pair of massive toad-like creatures that were bigger than Humphrey. He shouted out to alert the others and they realized that they were Hezrou demons. As they turned to prepare for combat, a pair of spells went off in the middle of the group and they figured that the Hezrou must have cast them. Grat was still standing at the corner watching Humphrey and Rey when he noticed the other demons and couldn’t make up his mind as to who he had to help until the spells went off so he turned to help the others while Adla moved up to support Humphrey. He was trying to avoid the Vrocks as they launched down off their perches and attacked him as they flew by. One of them let out a loud scream and it stunned Humphrey for a moment and another one almost landed on him and attacked him. Adla moved up to support him as Rey stood at the corner keeping an eye out. Then a strange creature turned the corner in front of him and moved up to attack him. It was made of stone with two heads and four tentacles for arms. Looking at it, Rey figured it was some sort of construct.

It moved up as Adla managed to kill the Vrock that was attacking Humphrey as the other Vrocks were now flying around the room as one of them landed about 60 feet away from the doorway. The construct moved up and hit Rey once and then pummeled him into unconsciousness when all four of its tentacles struck him as Adla managed to hit it from behind. She noticed that some of the wounds had rotted Rey’s flesh as soon as they struck and Rey had lost all color and was lying like he was dead. Adla then managed to break the construct apart but not before it had let out some sort of unearthly howl that rattled the group. Humphrey was now enraged and he charged across to attack the Vrock that was mocking him and the other Vrocks then started to land beside him and attack. Adla looked around and couldn’t see anything close so he charged across to help Humphrey. Then the Vrocks took off and headed towards the exit so they turned to look around.

April 8 2012; Adla managed to pick up Rey and headed back towards the rest of the group who were faring poorly against the Hezrou. The pair of them had been using their spell-like abilities to pound on the group. Sable moved up to attack one of them as Grat spotted another pair of Hezrou that appeared from another corridor nearer the way they had come in and they were also casting spells at the group so Grat charged that way to attack them. Unfortunately he didn’t factor in the stench of the demons as he instantly lost his lunch and turned an interesting shade of green and was forced to retreat. Sable managed to hold his breath enough as he attacked one of them but he retreated when he realized that his weapons couldn’t do enough damage to hurt it. Humphrey was still enraged so he spotted the Hezrou and charged across the room, jumped across the rift and just managed to avoid the others in the group who were still trying to deal with the toad demons. The group found that the foul stench was just too strong to easily overcome and once they got sick it was impossible to attack. Lucky cast off feeblemind and he thought he managed to affect it while they were still trying to attack the first pair that had appeared and when he took the time to look for that pair they were no longer visible. Adla dropped Rey at Sparklegem’s feet as she charged across the room to attack the toad demon. She managed to fend off the stench so she could still attack but Humphrey was forced to retreat as he found it just too much to handle. Lucky had cast circle of protection from evil and it was preventing the demons from getting close enough to attack so they started turning their attentions to the party members that were outside the circle and forced Sable and Grat to retreat back to the group as the others came up in support.

They didn’t notice when the Vrocks returned and landed just outside the wall and three of them joined hands and started dancing wildly. The group finally noticed the Vrocks and tried to do something about it as one of the Vrocks came forward and bumped up against the circle and let out a loud screech that stunned Sparklegem just as she was going to cast a spell. Teotihacano was casting magic missiles as they seemed to be the only thing that managed to hurt the demons.

April 18 2012; the fight continued as the Hezrou moved closer and the trio of Vrocks managed to dance long enough to set off their chain reaction as the group tried frantically to get out of the way. Most of the group was out of the area when the charge went off and the wall of the building also helped with only Sparklegem taking the brunt of the damage. The Vrocks then took off and circled around before landing again and starting another dance but this time inside the building. The Hezrou were causing havoc with their stench and it was causing the group to back off when they became nauseous. They finally managed to kill the two Hezrou remaining when two more came from down the corridor towards Adla as she yelled to the others. She managed to stop one of the Hezrou and quickly killed it as the other one moved past her and turned the corner and attacked Sparklegem so severely that it almost swallowed her whole. Adla was then forced to help Sparklegem before she was eaten. As the Vrocks continued their dance, Adla was the one that had to charge across the room and attacked one of them and he managed to kill it and stopped the dance.

April 22 2012; the fighting continued with the group as the Vrocks took off and circled around the space as something attacked Adla and the lithe red-skinned demoness appeared behind her and attacked with his scimitar. She then faded away and Adla cast glitter dust and the demon was lined with glitter so she could still be seen. The demon then took off and the glitter faded away. Once they were dead, Humphrey spotted a much larger demon looking down the corridor. This one was so big that it couldn’t fit down the corridor and Sable once he spotted it dropped a wall of stone done in front of them to prevent anything else appearing. They then heard a roar of rage and moments later they heard the clang of a cell door opening. The group was still looking around as Grat and Sparklegem moved over towards Adla and the three of them heard the sounds of flapping wings going overhead and flying over the cells. Then another Hezrou appeared at the end of the corridor and headed towards the group. This one looked a little bit battered and it seemed angry. Adla charged over with Grat and Sparklegem following and for the first time in this fight she was overcome with the stench from this one and she became nauseous and was forced to back off to recover. Lucky had been attacked by a Vrock and Humphrey had been forced to help fight it as they finally killed it. Teotihacano used invisibility sphere to hide himself and Sable as Humphrey grabbed Lucky and started moving back to the others and he failed to see that the others were invisible. He ran into Teotihacano and knocked him down and he dropped Lucky and he started to slide towards one of the rifts and he managed to stop himself before he fell. Humphrey managed to get back to his feet as he tried to avoid Teotihacano when he stood up. Teotihacano managed to get to the wall beside him as he tried to recover and Sable made sure that he was right beside him.

May 2 2012; Lucky then stepped up to attack the Hezrou and managed to stomach the stench enough to attack it as Adla was forced to back up in order to recover from the stench. Sable and Teotihacano just stayed where they were for a few moments and then they realized that something was trying to smash its way through Sables wall of stone. Three of the Vrocks came in and landed on the floor on the other side of the chasm and started to link arms to start dancing. Rey then charged across the room and when he got to the edge he then used his armor to fly across as Grat had also moved across the chasm and used his bow to attack one of the Vrocks. Then he was attacked from behind by another one as Humphrey moved up to help Lucky with the Hezrou. Finally they killed it and they started looking around as Sparklegem cast shield of law to help the ones around her. Adla turned and started charging across the room and managed to jump across the chasm to help Grat as Sable and Teotihacano cast spells at the trio of Vrocks. They managed to kill two of them as Sparklegem then cast invisibility purge in order to prevent the demoness from sneaking up on them as she suddenly appeared behind Grat and slashed him once and knocked him down from the damage. Rey then attacked the demoness and his first attack was so horrible that he managed to hack himself in the leg before he recovered and tried to attack the demoness and she proved difficult to hit as the Vrock the grappled Grat and picked him up and started to fly away with him. He managed to squirm free just as they got to the opening of the room and he fell down against the wall as the Vrock was smacked by Humphrey and he finally managed to kill it as the remaining Vrock flew over them and out of sight. The demoness attacked Rey and hit him twice and then flew up and over the nearest building as they looked around. Then the group heard the sound of stone collapsing and rattling down as Sable and Teotihacano started running over to join up with the others. Teotihacano had cast a spell of invisibility but he didn’t realize that Sparklegem had cast a purge so he was surprised when it didn’t appear to work.

Then something bigger than Humphrey moved up past the remains of the wall and looked around at the group, Adla recognized it as a Glabrezu. It looked around as Rey spotted it and flew right towards it. Adla was close to the opening in the wall and looked out and over the gap to see a demon sitting on a ledge looking at her. It looked like a gargoyle with glowing eyes. She then backed up to get a running start over the chasm and headed towards the Glabrezu. Rey was shocked when the demon looked at him and gestured and he suddenly was smacking into the floor as his fly spell was dispelled. He slid into the wall of the cells and took a moment to recover. Sable then cast sunbeam and started flinging them at the demon and it was managing to shrug them off as it slowly stepped forwards until it barked a word and Sable froze, stunned in place from the word of power. Two Vrocks then flew into the cavern and past the group and circled around the closest building.

May 6 2012; Humphrey became enraged and stepped up and pounded away at the demon as it shifted its focus and then did something and part of the group suddenly flew towards the roof as the gravity was reversed. Humphrey managed to kill the demon and he heard something down the end of the corridor and headed that way. The demoness then appeared near the roof and she cast a spell as Sable, Teotihacano, Lucky and Sparklegem were recovering from the change in gravity. She then gestured and the spell was dispelled and they fell back down to the floor. She then cast another spell and disappeared from view as Teotihacano also faded away from his invisibility spell. Adla had started moving up to support Humphrey as Rey decided that it would make sense to follow her. Grat slipped on the ring of invisibility and followed them. Once Sable could move again he looked around and could see the warriors heading around the corridor and started to catch up. Humphrey got down to the corridor and looked around and he spotted the creature heading towards him and he waited for it to close and attacked it. It looked different than the others and he thumped away on it. It held a heavy ball and chain and used it most effectively on him. Adla and Rey finally caught up with him but Rey was unable to do anything as the aura of fear that emanated from the Horned Devil caused him to scream in fear, drop his sun blade and run away in terror. Humphrey and Adla managed to attack it and finally kill it but it managed to hurt Humphrey before it died. Sparklegem and Lucky had looked around when they got to their feet and started heading the way the group had gone. The pair of Vrocks had circled the building and appeared around the corner and headed towards Lucky and Sparklegem just as Rey came screaming out of the corridor behind them and spotted the Vrocks. He put the brakes on and reversed direction and headed towards his friends when the demoness appeared right behind Lucky and attacked him. Sparklegem had been forced to stop in order to cast a spell on Lucky’s bastard sword just as the demoness attacked. When Rey spotted her he headed back towards the corridor he had headed out of moments before, still screaming his head off.

Home Savage Tide