== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Fort Rennick; Mid day ==

With the ogre butcher from the fort’s chapel slain, we quickly made our way to the southern room of the keep’s main tower. It was from here, beyond the sturdy wood door, where Avia had detected another strong source of evil.

In a well orchestrated move Kane rushed towards the door, opening it and stepping aside just as Avia rushed in, closely followed by Sabin, Derrel and the rest of the party. The room had obviously been the bedroom of the fort’s commander, Captain Bedan, but now it was occupied by a female ogre (or so we assumed from her dress) and her two minions, who were large and menacing even for ogres.

We were expected, and the two guards were standing alert facing the door with weapons ready, while the female ogre stood near the back of the room, her shape shimmering and shifting in an unnatural way that tricked the eye, making it difficult to focus on her.

An ogre mage! While the fighters took on the guards, I quickly cast Dispel Magic on the ogress, and she snapped into focus. She lifted her meaty hand and a bolt of electricity arced from her finger to Sabin, who crackled and smoked from the attack.

From the grunts and pig like squeals of our opponents Sabin learned that the ogress’ name was Dorella, and obviously in charge here, but in order to get to her we needed to first hack through her guards.

Avia, Sabin and Derrel were arranged about the first guard, while Nolin held the second at bay on his own. Trask and Rigel provided ranges attacks, and Kane hung out in the hallway by the door, on the lookout for unwelcome arrivals. I was positioned between Nolin and Avia, ready to offer whatever support I could where it was needed.

And support from we healers was definitely needed. The first guard sliced into Avia with a brutal slash from its ogre hook, and she staggered with the impact. Kane and I immediately assisted with healing as Trask, Sabin and Rigel counter attacked. Nolin was hacking away at his ogre and being repaid in kind.

These ogres were proving far more difficult than the louts we had encountered below. When Sabin replied, “I don’t know,” to Rigel’s question about the guards’ names, Avia shouted out in exasperation, “It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t have a name, it still hurts!”

Slowly we were wearing the guards down, but Trask hastened the process with a carefully placed fireball. Soon the first ogre dropped, which allowed us to focus on the second, which Trask finished off with a Burning Hands spell.

That left Dorella, against whom Nolin was already pressing a powerful attack, while Sabin tried the more subtle approach of casting Touch of Idiocy. Dorella appeared to have the same thought and cast the same spell upon Sabin. But Dorella was hopelessly out classed and Nolin swiftly hacked her to bits.

We then searched this room and the chapel and gathered together the items we had found.

From the ogre in the chapel:

[279] +1 ogre hook of Human Bane [+1D6]
[280] 2 potions of Cure Serious Wounds (Avia and Sabin)
[281] +2 bracers (Derrel)
[282] +4 belt of giant strength (Derrel)

From the ogre guards:

[283] masterwork long-bow [STR +7]
[284] +1 ogre hook
[285] +1 ogre hook
[286] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Darrel)
[287] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Trask)
[288] +1 hide shirt (large)
[289] +1 hide shirt (large)

From Dorella:

[290] wand of acid arrow [43 charges] (Trask)
[291] +2 amulet of natural armor (Kane)
[292] +2 cloak of charisma (Trask)

While the rest of us were checking the bodies of our fallen foes, Avia scanned the walls to the north and announced that there were two additional evil beings beyond.

I cast prayer as we did the obvious and opened the double doors to what once were the the fort’s tribunal chamber. From the rafters above hung two humans, who had been carefully cut open with a knife so that their blood drained into a pair of buckets on the floor. A pair of burly ogres stood beneath the humans, admiring their handiwork.

Avia charged in and attacked the nearest ogre, who skillfully counter attacked, grievous injuring her. Nolin, Derrel and Sabin rushed in and engaged the two ogres, who seemed quite adapt at martial arts and inflicted a great deal of damage to our front line fighters.

Avia, who had not been fully healed after her encounter with Dorella’s entourage, was the focus for both ogres aggression, and she fell to the floor, her sword clattering loudly beside her. Kane and I quickly rushed to her aid, healing her wounds and helping pull her back from the main action.

Trask sent a flaming sphere in to distract one ogre while Nolin and Sabin hacked frantically at it. Derrel used his fists to deadly affect, slaying the oaf, as Avia stood and finished off the other.

We spent a moment or two catching our breaths and healing everybody fully, and Avia scanned the area and pronounced there were no more evil presences on the keep.

Rigel searched the room and found a secret door to the south, beyond which was a map room. Many of the maps had been taken out and ripped to shreds, but many more remained in the shelves.

Sabin and I were quite interested in what we found here, and when the others lost interest and returned to Dorella’s room to search for hidden loot, we continued to scan through the maps.

Two in particular grabbed our attention, and we decided to keep them for later study.

[293] Map of Viperwall — lower tunnels charted with notes (Takkad) Viperwall is a famous ruin of a fortress where poisonous gases seep from the mouths of its many fanged statues. The map was beautifully drawn and skillfully embossed.
[294] Map Lurkwood, including paths (Takkad)

Our companions found several additional items hidden away in Dorella’s room — items that probably belonged to the now deceased Captain Bedan.

[295] Flat wooden coffer with dozens of sheets of parchment, and poetry written on each to “Miriana”. (Returned to rangers)
[296] A tiny jewelry box (Returned to rangers)
[297] A locket on a silver chain with a lock of hair — golden andiridescent and definitely not human — “For my Lamatar” engraved on the back (Returned to rangers)
[298] Pair of soft green leather swamp boots (Rigel)

The wearer of the boots has the ability to walk on water in
a swamp (no more than 5′ deep). The wearer will leave no tacks,
and is protected against rain and fog, plus they receive a +2
on fortitude saves against poison and disease.

We called our ranger friends down from their watch on the towers and let them know we had cleared the keep itself, and also shared with them what was found in Dorella’s room.

Jakardros was amazed by the poetry and locket, and said the captain must have had a relationship with a water nymph. He thought it fitting that we keep the boots because we were driving out the intruders from Bedan’s last post.

We pressed on, completing our exploration of the keep by climbing up the highest tower. At the top was a massive wooden frame supported a cracked bell, where the clapper had been replaced with a dead ranger wearing a metal helm.

From the top we could see that thus far the remaining ogres in the fort were unaware of our activities in the keep, and so we improvised a very loose plan.

The rangers and those of us who worked best with ranged attacks (Rigel and Trask) would man the lower towers of the keep and support our attacks as they could. Trask, who has proven himself both handy and skilled with the Fireball spell, was told to use his own judgement and take advantage of ogres massing together to inflict as much damage as possible on as many foes as he could at one time.

Meanwhile the rest of us hid ourselves about the broken keep gates while Sabin, using the hat of disguise, posed as Lucretia and commanded three ogres to accompany him… ah, her back into the keep. There we all jumped out and killed the lot of them.

As luck would have it, the day had waxed to the lunch hour, and ogres began to gather outside by an open air kitchen. Perhaps seventeen ogres in all were milling about in one small area.

Trask set off a fireball in the middle of them.

The result was wonderful chaos: ogres attacked one another or stood still in shock, while a few (very few) jumped into the nearby pool of water or ran towards the nearby barracks. Another fireball and all of the ogres remaining by the kitchen were dead, while those that had ran off howled in rage and confusion, or just in general (it seems to be something ogres do a lot).

Then Trask did something brilliant: he created the image of a red dragon landing in the fort’s courtyard.

This was too much for the half a dozen surviving, but seriously burned, ogres who rushed to the gate, threw it open and raced off into the woods.

We quickly ran out and closed the gate behind them, while our new pet dragon glared menacingly out from the the walls of Fort Rennick.

We searched the remaining out-buildings for other ogres or surviving rangers, but found nothing. There was a tunnel that led up to the top of the cliff overlooking the fort and there, according to Jakardros, lived a family of great eagles who helped guard the fort. But they eagles were gone, having been killed or driven off in the initial ogre attack.

So victory was ours, and we had but to wait for the reinforcements from Magnimar and collect our reward, or so it seemed.

But I was uneasy. The rain, which was heavy when we first arrived at Rennick, had intensified since then, and seemed almost unnatural. And where were the giants that Kaven the traitor had mentioned as being part of the attack?

And what about the dam? My original concern over the fall of Fort Rennick had been that it protected the dam that held back the waters of the Storval Deep. Surely with all of the recent rains the Deep must be practically overflowing.

I wanted the rangers to guard the fort while the rest of us checked on the state of the dam, but the rangers seemed unsure that they could hold out against an attack. And so we sent the rangers off to scout out the dam while the rest of us remained behind.

I have a bad feeling about this.

== Toilday, Pharast 4, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

The rangers left early this morning for their trek to the dam. They estimated the trip will take them two to three days, slogging through the thick mud.

Meanwhile we have begun to clean up the aftermath of the ogre invasion. The slain rangers have been interred in their crypt, which occupied much of my time. The others cleaned up the debris and repaired what they could to make the fort as defensible and livable as possible.

== Wealday, Pharast 5, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

We spent most of the day making repairs via Make Whole spells or the old fashioned way with muscle and grit. While some of the damage is beyond our ability to mend, we have at least removed the grisly remains and blood from all areas of the fort, and made a great pile of what furniture we could not fix (it shall make excellent kindling).

We removed the markings of Lamashtu in the chapel and rededicated it to Desna (or Kane did, to be precise).

I spent much of my time placing glyphs of warding about the gates and the secret passageways into the fort. Nothing evil shall pass this way without feeling displeasure from Pharasma.

It still rains as if all the worlds waters were being funneled from the sky down upon us.

== Oathday, Pharast 6, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

And still the rains continue.

We worked more on the fort’s defenses today, and I set down more glyphs of warding.

Although we keep a constant watch on the walls, we have restored the interior of the keep to much of its previous level of comfort, and rest while we can in the library before a brightly blazing fire.

We are on the look out for the rangers and anxious for their return. If they are not back by mid day tomorrow I will insist that we set out for the dam ourselves, the fort be damned.

== Fireday, Pharast 7, 4708; Fort Rennick; Early morning ==

The rangers have returned, and it is worse than I feared. The dam is under the assault of both giants and ogres. On their way back the rangers heard a terrible noise and the sound of rushing water.

My first inclination was to return to the damn in force, drive off the opposing force and repair the dam as best we can.

But then came the messenger from Turtleback Ferry on horseback. The waters began rising in the pre-dawn hours and the town is flooding. Some have fled, but many can not, or know not where to go.

And so our decision has been made for us: we must return and lend our aid at once. The towns folk can come here, to Fort Rennick, which by our efforts is now a place where ordinary people can safely live for a time.

Kane and I are to take the man’s horse back to town now, while the others follow as swiftly as they may on foot.

The rangers must now remain at the fort and keep it safe for the town’s people we will send this way.

And even now, as we prepare to depart, my mind turns to the mundane: how shall we feed an entire town, when the area around the fort has been plundered by the ogres?

== Fireday, Pharast 7, 4708; Turtleback Ferry; Morning ==

We splashed into Turtleback Ferry scarcely and hour ago, and the scene was as desperate as described to us.

A mother and her children were in a small boat, which had drifted against the walls of the merchant, when a huge python swam over to attack. Kane and I drew the creature towards us and battled it the best we could. Neither of us are fighters, but we managed to drive it away.

We then pushed the boat to the town cathedral, which is where many of the refugees had gathered. And yet this stone building would only offer temporary sanctuary. Already the surging waters were scouring away the earth beneath the massive stone walls.

We are calling out to everyone we can see, telling them to gather here at the cathedral. From here we will set out towards Fort Rennick, although many of those here are too small or weak to struggle against the flood’s current. We must gather more boats or build rafts — already I find myself gazing up at the mighty timbers of the cathedral’s roof.

We pause now only for a moment as the survivors gather about us, and now we must organize those who are able to help the others.

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; An hour after midnight ==

After healing and restoring those injured in the fight with Lucretia we searched her and her room. She carried several items that were useful, but the room itself only held the tantalizing ashen remains of some papers.

[270] wand of scorching ray {22 charges} (Trask)
[271] +1 keen edge rapier (Rigel)
[272] sihedron medallion: like the one from Thistlestop (Darrel)
[273] masterwork dagger (Takkad)

Having removed Lucretia of her belongings we then removed her of her head, and stashed her corpse in the secret tunnel. We kept her head, just in case.

We knew the door to the north led up to somewhere into the fort, and so we tried the door to the west and found a cell block with the gruesome remains of the handful of rangers that had survived the initial ogre invasion.

Even though it was late, we needed to know more about our position and that of the ogres before we could plan our next actions. Jakardros and Vale set out to scout our immediate vicinity. Perhaps half an hour later they returned with their report.

The stairway led up into the northeast corner of the fort’s inner keep. Thick walls set with three guard towers protected this inner structure from the rest of the fortress, and served as a defensible place in case the outer walls were breached.

From the top of the nearest tower they saw perhaps half a dozen ogres on patrol in a careless fashion atop the walls. They had heard sounds of ogres from within the keep, and assumed the bulk of the force was housed in the keep itself and in the courtyard’s out buildings.

We decided to explore the first level of the keep, hoping to catch as many ogres sleeping as possible, and to quickly kill them off one at a time.

With Jakardros’ help I sketched a map of the keep, and using this as a guide we crept out into the main hallway. Shalelu, Vale and Jakardros we sent up into each of the towers — the doors and narrow ladders were too small for ogres, and so these were safe places for the rangers to keep watch. I used a Status spell to monitor Vale and Jakardros, who manned the further towers.

L. A library, from which the first tower was accessed.

1. The infirmary held a few beds, a desk and a table, and sitting at the table was a fat human with a spoon in one hand. He had been slit open and posed to look like he was eating his own entrails. Gore was carefully placed for maximum effect, and the hideous tableau looked as if it had been meticulously arranged by some artist with blasphemous taste.

Snoring came a bed in the far corner.

Nolin, Derrel and Sabin entered the room closed the door. A few moments later and we were down one ogre.

1. The mess hall had been torn apart, with tables and chairs smashed into kindling.

2. The kitchen was adjacent to the mess hall, and had likewise been plundered. A large cooking spit was in the center, and an alcove carved into the rock served as pantry.

3. 1. 1. Empty bedrooms with furniture broken and linen shredded.

4. The barracks. We did not open the doors yet because Avia detected six evil beings, and we could hear the snores, burps and farting of sleeping ogres within.

5. A large bedroom, in which Avia detected a single strong presence of evil.

6. A large bedroom from which we heard the sound of gruff laughter and something big moving about. Sabin, who can speak ogre, listened at the door and said it sounded like there were two ogres inside engaged in personal and intimate activities. Eeww.

7. An empty storage closet.

8. 1. Empty bedrooms with furniture broken and linen shredded.

Between rooms 8 and 9 were the keep’s gates, but they had been ripped from their hinges and lay in fragments on either side of the hall. Thus ended our hope of cutting off any ogres coming in from the rest of the fort.

We returned to room 8 where Sabin peeped in and saw an ogre sleeping in a bed against the far wall. But as he slipped in to cut its throat he bumped against a chair and woke the beast within. Nolin charged in and we closed the doors after. The muffled sounds of combat echoed out and down the halls, and worried that it would raise an alarm, and so some of us crept over to room 9, where the two ogres were stirring. Had we realized how formidable the ogre-captain within this first room really was we would have sent in extra support.

Just as Derrel and Avia positioned themselves on either side of the door it burst open and an ogre stood gaping out from the room. He… she… it was dressed in nothing but a suite human armor, which was way too small and was tied on with leather thongs. It was an inadequate garment, failing to cover much of its bulging, stinking hairy body, and we were treated to views of far more ogre anatomy than is good for one’s sanity.

I used a Hold Person spell on it while Derrel snapped its neck.

Its, ah, mate (?!) barged into the hall shouting, “Little people! Food! Intruders!” (Sabin told us this later, but at the time we just heard the guttural grunts and cries of what sounded like a wounded bull lusting after a sow in heat.)

So much for the element of surprise.

I quickly ran to the east side of the barracks and using Stone Shape pulled up a sheet of stone from the floor, effectively barricading the double doors as we heard the sounds of ogres stirring within.

Avia, Derrel and Rigel were slashing away at the ogre who had sounded the alarm, and it quickly succumbed to their onslaught.

Meanwhile Trask had used the hat of disguise to appear as Lucretia, and stood before the doors at the west side of the barracks. As the first ogre burst through he found Lucretia there commanding him to “STOP!”

This attempt at subterfuge may have worked had Darrel not run over and started beating on the slightly confused ogre. With a gruff “get out of my way, Lady” Trask found himself shoved into the corner, protected from his friends by an ogre. Another Hold Person spell later and the Derrel had broken the neck of yet another ogre.

At about this time Nolin and Sabin had finished with the uber-ogre and were rushing over to join our battle with Kane providing support, when the four ogres still in the barracks broke through the south wall. But before they could attack they were engulfed in an exploding conflagration of burning love, hand delivered by Trask, who was still dressed as Lucretia.

Our warriors held the angry ogres at bay while Trask launched another fireball at them, charring them into grotesque morsels of crispy fried ogre.

And that was how we killed 10 ogres in under 10 minutes.

After a bout of healing we searched the bedroom of the elite ogre Nolin and Sabin had battled, finding quite a few useful items.

[274] potion of cure moderate wounds
[275] +1 hide shirt {huge}
[276] +1 ogre hook
[277] masterwork composite long-bow {huge}
[278] a quiver of 20 arrows {huge}

We gathered the rangers who identified the ogres as of the Kreeg clan. Thinking of a way to stir dissension among the ranks of the remaining ogre force I asked if there was another ogre family particularly hostile to the Kreegs. They said there was an opposing tribe that cut off the hands of their fallen foes. And so we cut off the ogre hands and pinned them to the walls.

Avia had been busy all this time gazing up intently at the ceiling. “There are two very strong sources of evil above,” she said, pointing to various points at the ceiling as she walked about, “and three others at about the same level as those we fought here.”

But it was already well past midnight, and those of us not physically tired were mentally fatigued and low on spells. We decided to retreat to the secret tunnel for the remainder of the night and resume our attack in the morning.

We made our way back down through Lucretia’s abode and into the tunnel, making sure we left no tracks, and that the door was still hidden. Fortunately with the rangers on hand we can post a double watch through the night and still be well rested at day break.

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; Late Morning ==

The night passed uneventfully for us, but when we returned to the main level of the keep we heard the sound of ogres investigating the carnage of the night before.

“I smell man stink!”

Ogres must have a much better sense of smell than I reckoned, and my plan to throw them off by displaying the hands of their fallen comrades was for naught.

We thought there might be two ogres out there, and decided to lure them down the hall where we could swiftly take them out one by one, using Hold Person on the rear ogre to prevent escape and the warning of others.

As it turned out there were three ogres, but events still went according to plan, and we hid their corpses as Avia confirmed the same presence of evil above as before.

The upper part of the keep was a broad round tower cut into the rock wall, with a narrower, taller tower embedded in its northeast quadrant. The stairs took us up into a wide hallway with several sets of doors.

Quietly Avia pointed out the doors behind which she felt the most powerful of the evil presences. One was to the west of the hall, and the other south of where the hall turned to the west.

Our plan is to quickly confront the strong source of evil to the west, which is by itself, and then quickly move to encounter the second malignant source to the south.

We hope that a Silence spell will extend our element of surprise past the first fight, and we can focus our fury on one opponent at a time.

All is ready and we are about to launch our westward attack!

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; Late Morning ==

Success! Now on through the southern door while Silence still prevails.

== Fireday, Calistril 28, 4708; Turtleback Ferry; Evening ==

While the rest of the party prepared to burn the farm-stead to the ground, I assisted Jakardros and the other rangers create a pyre for their fallen comrades. As the flames consumed their mortal remains I performed the Rights of Passage and asked Pharasma to receive their souls.

Afterward, as the fires eagerly fed upon the house and barn, ridding the world of the taint contained therein, we prepared for our return to town. While we we made ready to depart we questioned Jakardros closely on the ogre attack, and how it was possible that the fort could have been captured while so stoutly manned by the renown Black Arrows.

He informed us that the Kreeg valley had been home to a large family of ogres for many years, and by using Fort Rannick as their base the Black Arrows had kept them in check. Some forty years ago ogres from across the area banded together and assaulted the fort, but were foiled by the fort’s defenses and utterly defeated.

Recently there had been an increase in ogre activity, and a week before the attack a thick plume of black smoke was spotted off in the distance, and a scouting party sent to investigate. The scouting party never returned and the Black Arrows increased their patrols.

A day before the attack Jakardros and his patrol had set out, but were delayed in Turtleback Ferry. Here Jakardros looked sharply at Kaven, who walked off in a huff saying, “Not this again.”

It appears that Kaven had kept the patrol in town a day longer because he had forgotten to pick up an order of weapons for Captain Bedan, the fort commander, from the blacksmith.

As it turned out, Kaven had volunteered for that particular patrol, and was the most recent “recruit,” although “draftee” may have been a more accurate description of his enlistment into the Black Arrows. He had been a troubled youth and had committed a series of misdeeds, escalating in severity, in town, after which he was forced to chose between five years of service with the rangers or prison.

We immediately became suspicious of Kaven, and after a brief interview we learned that he had been a regular customer of the Paradise, and that he thought highly of the boat’s owner, Lucrecia.

On the ride back to town we continued to question Jakardros about the fort, and because we suspected it had fallen by treachery on the inside, we asked about any secret entrances. And of course they existed: ancient tunnels delved beneath the fortress itself, which in the past had been used for burial of the fallen Black Arrows and as storage. Jakardros had never been in these tunnels himself, but knew at least one entrance was hidden behind a waterfall near the fort.

This brought the conversation around to the layout of Fort Rannick itself. It was nestled near the head of a valley, with a wide and fast creek flowing at the fort’s feet. The fort settled back into the cliff wall of the surrounding mountains, and a massive two story wall with watch towers ran from cliff wall to cliff wall. A smaller wall within separated an inner keep from a yard. Well fortified gates led out to bridges that crossed the stream and plunged into the woods on the opposite side of the water.

Further up the valley was a large reservoir, held back by a large stone damn.

We asked the ranger what purpose would capturing the fort serve, but his only thought was that it would allow the ogres free range over the entire area.

I had a much darker thought, and asked him what would be the consequences if the reservoir damn were destroyed. Jakardros blanched at that question, and my worst suspicions confirmed: it would wipe out all settlements and towns in the area, including Turtleback Ferry.

I then rode over next to Kaven and asked him about his life with the Black Arrows. Overall he seemed content, but he found the daily drudgery of life in the fort a bit dull, and longed to lead a more adventurous life. I told him about our suspicion that the enemy had found a way into the fort, and asked for his help in solving this riddle. At first he was a bit suspicious, but I told him he was only one of three survivors of the massacre (true enough), and that we needed his assistance if we were to understand what had happened and retake the fort.

He too mentioned the tunnels, but was less aware of their particulars than Jakardros, but then he gave a queer look and suggested someone could gain entrance via the kitchen’s trash chute.

We arrived back in town without incident, and paid extra to send a fast and secure high priority message to Magnimar about the fall of Fort Rannick at the hands of an organized force of ogres.

Trask, who was perhaps closest in age and temperament to Kaven, took him to the bar at the inn for a night of drinking and conversation. Sabin and I were seated at a nearby table, quietly watching and waiting. Rigel was on hand as barmaid and served up extra potent drinks for Kaven while keeping Task sober with a watered brew.

Trask, who has a gift for the gab, was able to turn the conversation this way and that, and quickly learned that Kaven was self centered and longed for the care free life of adventure, or at least his idealized version of it: pillaging the countryside in a life of drunken debauchery. He was trying to cozy Trask to the idea of his joining our group.

As Trask turned the talk to recent events, he discretely signaled Sabin, who began to listen in on Kaven’s thought’s via a Detect Thoughts spell.

Kaven was more than just taken with Lucrecia: he doted on her and would do much to please her. His primary thought was what would happen since he was not able to meet with her after the attack on the fort. He had apparently disobeyed her when he kept the patrol in Turtleback Ferry an extra night to avoid the attack: Lucrecia had wanted him present for that little affair.

I fueled the conversation by dropping by and whispering to Trask in a not too quiet tone that Avia and Nolin had discovered someone involved in the attack and that he had agreed to give the names of the other conspirators.

Kaven seemed quite upset by this and begged to attend the questioning of this informant. We agreed and set our trap on the edge of the forest just outside of town.

Derrel, the monk who had been captured by the ogrekin, agreed to play the part of the informant, masked with the hat of disguises and a scarf around his face. Avia served as his captor and guard.

Nolin told Jakardros of our suspicions, and he and Vale hid behind the trees as we brought Kaven over to witness the questioning of our fictitious witness.

The entire affair went as predicted. Kaven admitted to providing Lucrecia with information on how to get into the fort unseen, and justified his actions by pointing out he had saved the life of those on patrol. Both ogres and giants were involved in the attack, but the success was only assured with secret access to the inside. His primary desire now was to join us on the road and get as far away from Turtleback Ferry and Fort Rannick as possible.

At no point in time had Lucrecia threatened him or his loved ones, and so he did not betray the Black Arrows out of fear to protect himself or others. He had completely and willingly betrayed everyone he knew to impress Lucrecia.

There was no guilt or remorse over his actions that led to the death of virtually every ranger in Fort Rannick. No shame that he directly led to the death of three additional rangers of his own patrol, and put the entire population of the Kreeg valley at risk. Nothing but an eagerness to join in with what he saw as a life of privilege and partying.

Jakardros had heard enough and had Vale shackle Kaven in irons and place him in the local jail. He wanted Kaven to be completely sober in the morning to face his charges.

We feared Lucrecia or her minions might be lurking about and free him, but he was beneath her care or concern and we spent an event less night on watch.

== Starday, Pharast 1, 4708; Off the Road to Hook Mountain; Evening ==

In the morning we decided to travel up to Fort Rannick and see what could be done in retaking it, especially with the knowledge of the secret tunnels beneath, of which we hoped Lucrecia was still ignorant.

Jakardros and Vale would accompany us and serve as guides up to and around the fort. Derrel and Shelalu would also come along and provide much needed tactical support.

We decided to travel on foot and packed accordingly.

As we were readying to leave Jakardros and Vale joined us with Kaven still chained in irons. Jakardros answered our questioning looks with “We’re going on patrol,” and left it at that.

We would have an easy journey of two days to reach the fort on foot, and so we set out into the damp and gloomy morning. We covered much the same ground as the day before, but this time after crossing the river we remained on the main road.

The day remained thickly overcast and wet, and we made our camp off the road just before sunset. And it was a cheerless and fire-less evening, with an ever present fear of discovery haunting us.

Perhaps an hour later we heard a whistle from the direction of the road, and Vale stood and returned the call. A few tense moments later a runner from Turtleback Ferry came into camp with a reply to our message from Magnimar, “Proceed to scout the Fort. Retake it if the opportunity arises, and you will find Magnimar most grateful.”

It was most convenient that the reply matched exactly our intended actions, and that our efforts would be appreciated.

The messenger was invited to spend the evening in the relatively safety of our camp and return to town on the morrow.

We have set the watch as the dank and dark closes in around us, but sleep does not come easily. It is the first day of Pharast, and I wonder at how fast the year is flying past.

== Sunday, Pharast 2, 4708; Off the Road to Hook Mountain; Morning ==

The day has begun with an unexpected debate about what to do with Kaven.

Jakardros and Vale had planned to take him out on an early last patrol this morning, but in the night several of my companions had pleaded for his life, and so we have wasted precious hours debating Kaven’s future.

The man is a psychopath. The plight of others, or how they are affected by his actions do not even enter into his thoughts. I have seen this before and seen the fruits of any mercy shown to the likes of him. He will not change, and if allowed to live he will continue to heap misery and woe (or worse) onto others.

In the end it was decided to tie him securely to the base of a tree with provisions near at hand for several days. The bear is to guard him to ensure he does not escape and betray us all.

Pity. We could have used the bear.

== Sunday, Pharast 2, 4708; Outside Fort Rannick; Afternoon ==

The weather worsened as we approached Fort Rannick. Thunderstorms dogged us for the past few hours, drenching us with sheets of torrential rain and pelting us with unrelenting hail. Blast after blast of cold air buffeted us as the wind screamed among the tree tops. Lightening struck all around us as thunder boomed and echoed about the surrounding hills.

And once we have arrived we find that all of the storms had gathered here: bunched up before the bulk of Hook Mountain and unable to pass further west. And here they vented their frustration at wood, stone, river and us.

But the racket of the storm is good, because it covers any stray noise we may make as we look out from the forest onto Fort Rannick.

The fortress huddled against the foot of Hook Mountain as if it too were trying to shelter against the storm. Despite the gloom from the storm we saw that the layout is exactly as Jakardros described.

We saw many ogres patrolling along the top of the outer wall, and a few on the inner wall as well.

Jakardros pointed west, from which the river rounds the mountain spur, and said beyond was a pool, into which the river fell many feet in a fall. And behind the fall was the entrance to the secret caves.

The forest in which we are hid peters out in that direction, and the land becomes rocky and barren. We feared that we would be easily spotted from the ogres on the wall with the constant flashes of lightening, and so we decided to wait until dusk to set out.

As we waited we watched foraging parties of ogres head out and down river, and then return hours later.

== Sunday, Pharast 2, 4708; Inside Fort Rannick; Night ==

It was dark when we set out to the waterfall, and we moved slowly among the rocks before we found a narrow path that lead around to the pool and waterfall. We then carefully picked our way around the fall’s basin and slipped behind the cascading sheet of water.

We found ourselves in a large natural cavern with rotting wooden planks leading further in. It was near pitch black, but we dared not show any light, and so with Sabin in front we crept single file down a long straight tunnel deeper into the mountain.

In the next chamber we risked some light and brought out ever burning torches. We were gathered in the middle of large chamber, part natural and part chiseled out of the surrounding rock. The rangers obviously used this as an emergency armory, and we quickly surveyed the contents, finding mostly average weapons.

There were half a dozen magic arrows, which we gave to Rigel, and Sabin took a bow and quiver of arrows, which freed up his crossbow and bolts for me to use.

[267] 6 arrows of +2 shocking burst (all used in the ensuing battle)

As we searched about the crates a pair of large lizards scurried into the room. Jakardros made some disparaging noise about them, and Sabin attacked one. The result surprised us as an electrical arc jumped from the struck lizard to the other followed by a blast of lightening the seriously singed our party.

Heading Jakardros’ advice we left the lizards alone as they fled down an eastern passageway. This left us with an exit to the north, which we followed to a long cavern split by a vast fissure in the ground. A wood plank bridge crossed this deep dark gap and another tunnel awaited us on the far side.

After some distance this tunnel forked, and finding the right fork dead ended in what looked like a large secret door, we followed the left to a large room carved with many niches. In each niche was a fully armored body. One body lay crumpled in the center of the room. Jakardros said that the Black Arrows used to bury their dead here until the crypt was full.

As he said this a specter faded into view, and Jakardros approached it, naively greeting it as a fallen cousin. It quickly abused him of this notion as the rest of us counter attacked and killed the thing.

We returned to the large secret door and I cast a silence spell on the area as Nolin pulled the lever and a large rock door swung out and up. The fort’s inner yard lay before us, with the inner wall just to our right. But this was not where we needed to be, and so we closed the door and returned to the armory to try the other tunnel.

This quickly dropped down into a twisty maze of passages, all different. There were a number of lizards here, but moving slowly we safely explored the area and found a passage to another secret door to the north.

We used a flask of oil to lubricate the hinges and rock on which the door would swing, and after dowsing our torches, Nolin gently pulled the door inward.

A warm light spilled into our passageway accompanied by the smell of burning incense. A silk hanging was before the opening. Rigel lifted the bottom of the silk up a few inches and peeped into the room.

This had been the fort’s jail keeper’s chambers, but it had been redecorated with red silk hangings on the the walls (fortunately for us) and soft cushions lined the floor. An elegant well dressed lady stood in the center of the room with her back towards us (again, fortunately for us).

Avia was gesticulating wildly, leaving no doubt that the lady had a very strong aura of evil.

We were already prepared for combat, and so Trask peeked beneath the silk and launched a fireball into the room. As soon as it detonated we charged into the room and launched our attack.

Oddly enough the lady appeared to have been unscathed by the fireball, and called out to us to join her. We did, but not in the way she intended.

This was indeed Lucrecia, and we were determined that she should meet her end there and then. And yet the battle did not go entirely our way. Like Xunesia before her, Lucrecia was a Lamia Matriarch, and her touch drained will power from her foes, and she attacked viciously with a deadly skill to devastating effect.

And yet we were getting the best of her when she launched a lightening bolt at Avia and fled out the door and up a corridor. Unfortunately for her all of our fighters had been Hasted by Sabin, and Nolin chased after her (having been given Desna’s Blessing from Kane just a moment before), striking her dead at the foot of the stairway at the end of the hallway.

We have hauled her corpse back into her chamber and are searching about for clues or items that might aid us in taking the fort. The seriously injured are being healed, and we are doing what we can to restore the lost willpower for those afflicted by Lucrecia’s touch.

I must say that I am rather disappointed in how little our two rangers aided us in battle. Both Jakardros and Vale hung back safely in the corridor until the battle was practically won before springing forth to help. I certainly hope they fare better with the ogres.

== Fireday, Calistril 28, 4708; Ogrekin Farm Stead; Afternoon ==

Mammy’s demise did nothing to curb the stench wafting off her bloated sack of a body, and so we hastily searched her boudoir for any hidden treasures. We found two desiccated bodies in a pair of coffins, but little more.

To the east a door opened to Mammy’s personal latrine. We gagged at the offensive odors assaulting us from within, but Mammy herself was hardly less foul, and so we were well conditioned to endure the toxic vapors within.

I declined to look for myself, but Rigel reported that there were three pits: two used as expected, and one filled with the corpses and bones of tiny little ogrekin.

Avia detected an evil presence directly beneath the floor, but search as we may, we found no secret access below.

Back into the hall we found a plundered storage room behind west door. The door across the hallway was trapped, and in attempting to disable it a large metal spike crashed through the door, pinning it shut. We decided to save this room for later.

To the north was a bedroom with more humanoid fetishes hanging from the ceiling. A pile of sewage glistened in one corner, and a lumpy mattress filled with twigs and other vegetative matter lay in the center of the floor.

Avia detected an evil presence to the east, and so we returned to the hallway where she used her mighty strength to shove open the door.

It was a dining room fit for the ogrekin. Rotting flesh was draped over the serving platters along with gelatinous lumps of quivering, rancid fat. I believe at this point my brain began to refuse all stimuli coming from my nose, which would come in handy a little later on.

The chairs were adorned with bleached human skulls, and upon the table was laid a cloth of human leather.

Two doors lined the eastern wall, with the one to the south trapped in the same fashion as the one through which we entered.

The northern door opened onto an ogrekin nursery, complete with two young ogrekin children. Toys carved of wood (or bone) were strewn about the place along with the bodies of hapless woodland animals. The walls were smeared with finger paintings done in blood and other disgusting bodily fluids. Low bookshelves were lined with skulls.

We killed the ogrekin larvae and searched the room, finding a jade ring still on the finger of a severed hand.

[258] jade ring

Rigel disabled the trap on the other eastern door of the dining room and we entered the kitchen.

Sabin and Trask immediately ran to the windows and puked.

Gore, blood and body parts (mostly human) were piled in baskets, draped across counter tops, and piled in corners. This grisly fare had been left out for quite some time and the smell was truly horrific.

It was not my first encounter with those who feast on necrotic human flesh, but I wondered at Rigel’s apparent indifference to the carnage. Perhaps she too has some dark story from her past that has hardened her heart to such atrocities. Or maybe she just doesn’t care.

Rigel found a stairway leading down, and we called over to the rest of our team and continued our exploration in the cellar.

A dark, dank and moldy stairway took us down west to a short hall with doors to the north, west and south. The terrible stench from the kitchen was replaced with the smell of damp rotting wood and something else… something vile.

To the north was a large room with a couple of large tables. It was used for skinning the ogrekin captives, and I need not provide details of what lie within.

To the west was a large room filled with household clutter: most of it broken and discarded.

To the south was another ogrekin: this one limping about and chatting to its enormous pet rat — I’m not certain, but I may have heard it softly utter “Mr. Whiskers” in a disturbingly affectionate tone. Needless to say the same fate befell the ogrekin and Mr. Whiskers as befell Mammy.

While large, this room was mostly empty and unexceptional, which made us all wonder why it warranted a guard. Of course that’s when we noticed the large set of double doors in the southwest corner. And these doors opened into a wide hallway that ended in another set of double doors.

And through these double doors was… a swamp, of sorts. Thick masses of slimy vegetation and sickly green mosses covered the walls and grew in thickets upon the floor. A nasty smell, like a compost heap gone bad, wafted in on the steamy air.

We all had bad feelings about this room, and with discretion being the better part of valor, we had Trask launch a fireball into the center of the room.

Something huge, unpleasant, and angry rose up from the heaps of plant matter in the room and shambled over toward the doorway. Another fireball later and a lot of hacking on the thing, and it slumped to the floor and stopped moving.

We heard shouts from the far side of the room, and shoving the dead muck monster out of the way we found four people, three of whom had been slashing at the thing from its back side.

Three of our allies were rangers from Fort Rannick! Jakardros, who was the leader of the Black Arrows, Vale and Kaven were out on patrol when a well organized band of ogres attacked the fort and killed all within. The patrol had been captured and brought here for Mammy and her kin to hold captive (and apparently eat).

The forth was a monk named Derrel. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was he who broke down the door from their cell, which had been weakened by the fireballs, and led the flanking attack on the swamp creature.

After some much needed healing we led the rescued up and out front, where Shalelu and our bear friend were standing guard. There, much to out surprise, Jakardros broke down in tears. It seems he and she are related, and there was a great deal of emotion at their meeting.

The rest of us returned to the house to explore the second floor, and Derrel accompanied us to search for his stoeln gear. There was a hallway at the top of the stairs with a door on either side.

The east door opened onto an attic storage space with tables, flasks, beakers and bric-a-brac. Derrel found his gear stashed on a shelf, and we found a few items worth keeping.

[259] 5 flasks of acid (one used later)
[260] 3 sets of masterwork thieves tools

Behind the west door was a large bedroom with seven, filthy beds lining the walls. Based on the lack of sanitation and the abundance of smells we assumed more ogrekin slept here.

A cedar chest in one corner held a sack of coins, which when Rigel lifted it out she was hit by a nasty razor that had been dipped in spider venom.

23 gp
110 sp
121 cp

Back outside we caught the end of a heated discussion between Jakardros and Shalelu, with him huffing, “You can be just like your mother.”

Leaving them to work out their family issues we approached the barn, with Derrel once again joining us. The doors were unlocked and within we found… well the inside of a barn suffering from neglect.

Catwalks ran along the upper half of the north and south walls, beneath which were dog kennels (no doubt for the ill fated Rukus and his equally ill fated hounds), while piles of hay rotted in the corners. A wall ran across the width of the barn about two thirds the way in, with a large set of double doors barred by large timbers.

Three ogrekin were lounging within, and Trask managed to confuse them momentarily by asking why they didn’t come in when they heard Mammy calling. Dumb-struck they replied, “When we hears Mammy callin’ like that we knows to stay away.”

I discovered that a hold person spell was wonderfully effective on ogrekin, and shared this information with the rest of the team. Soon there were three fewer of Mammy’s brood left to bother the world.

We unbarred the double doors, but they were blocked shut from the other side. Taking to the catwalks we quickly made our way to the smaller doors above, and entered the back section of the barn.

There, in the dim dusty light from the gaps between the boards that clad the barn walls, we beheld a giant spider web. Its sickly opalescent threads as thick as twine were woven into a great twisting funnel that led down into the shadows below.

We could make out the forms of men hanging by manacles in a large rusted cage in the southwest corner, and a similar cage, empty, on the opposite side.

I actually like spiders, and find their industry and skill at weaving the most amazing patterns out of delicate strands of self spun silk a marvel. But this was something else; this was an unnatural corruption of nature and altogether repulsive.

Our first concern was rescuing the men in the cage, and as we made our way along the catwalks, the guardian of this silken fortress sprang forth and attacked.

It was a great wicked thing, with wicked malice peering out from its multiple sets of eyes clustered upon its grotesque head. Great fangs hung down from beneath a set of pincher like mandibles, and its jointed legs hideously clicked and popped as it clambered about the web, dragging its oversize filthy grey bag of an abdomen behind.

The battle was sharp and intense, and Derrel was poisoned with a jab from the spider’s fangs, but in the end we triumphed and then thing dropped to the ground with its legs curled up beneath it.

We rushed over to aid the men in the cage only to find that they were long dead.

Rigel and I climbed down the spider’s funnel and verified that the beast was truly dead. While down there we found a chest that contained a number of useful and valuable items.

[261] An agate studded gold ring
[262] Silver necklace of emeralds
[263] +2 DEX leather gloves
[264] Sack of coins: 210 gp, 452 sp, 108 cp
[265] Ruby inlaid red dragon scale cloak clasp
[266] +1 Shocking Elvish long-bow (this was returned to Jakardros)

We are preparing to return to Turtleback Ferry, where we need to obtain an anti-venom for the spider’s poison coursing through Rigel and Derrel’s veins.

We must also think of what to do about the ogre invasion of Fort Rannick. While were hired by the Mayor of Magnimar to find out what happened to the Black Arrows, which we certainly have done, should we do something about the ogres?

Jakardros said these ogres appear to have been well organized, which is unusual for ogres. I dislike how soon the ogre invasion took place after the disappearance of Lucretia, proprietress of the now burned and sunk Paradise, and her association with the sihedron.

I can think of one beautiful and powerful woman also associated with the sihedron symbol from our very recent past. This woman turned out to be no woman at all, but a lamia matriarch. And as a follower of Pharasma I know well their origin, shape, and penchant for chaotic schemes of ruination and destruction.

I think this is no coincidence.

But we have one more task before we return to town: we are to set flame to this blasphemous farm stead.

== Moonday, Abadius 6, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

This group appears to be a little disorganized, or perhaps it is their grief over their fallen comrade that makes them so unobservant of those around them.

I have watched them come and go from the common room of The Copper Griffin for much of the afternoon and learned a bit about each of them.

There are two fighters, muscular and well equipped, who seem all business with dour expressions and few words — all of them direct and to the point. They seem like lawful types, and the woman is probably a paladin. I take it from what little conversation of theirs I’ve overheard that the man was once a member of the Magnimar guard, but the background of the other is uncertain.

A very young man is a ranger or a spell caster, and this one is very talkative. Too talkative. Every thought that passes through his head seems to leap from his tongue as if escaping the cluttered and claustrophobic place of its birth. Or maybe this is but an act to put others off their guard.

And then there is the odd couple: a halfling and a small human woman. The two are inseparable and seem to have the same grace and furtive movements as Cyrith of the light fingers and dubious morals. The halfling seems very concerned about the safety of the woman, and hovers about her like a fruit fly about an over ripe peach. Maybe she is pregnant with his child?

I have met few half orcs in my travels, and none so friendly and talkative as Sabin. Or it might have been the large amount of drink he had consumed before staggering over to my table. Heavy with drink or not, he was still guarded in his conversation, and while he was willing to discuss adventuring in general, he shared nothing specific about the rest of his party or what they have been doing. He appears to be a rare blend of warrior and magic user.

I will continue my visits to the inn until either Sabin introduces me to his companions, or there is a good opportunity to introduce myself.

Watch and wait.
== Fireday, Abadius 17, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

I have finally been introduced to the entire party, although it came about in a rather haphazard way.

Sabin and I were quietly talking at our usual table when several of his friends came over and sat down. The young man, Trask (definitely a spell caster) has started training and had a lot to share about it. Quite a lot. And before I knew it the entire group was gathered around listening to Trask while eyeing me with curiosity and suspicion.

As Trask showed no sign of slowing down, Sabin, Nolin (the warrior) and I went over to another, quieter table to talk business. We exchanged stories about our respective encounters with Xaneesha and her cult, and I learned that they had lost their primary healer in their assault on the Shadow Clock.

Their loss was certainly to my benefit as I specialized in healing and other clerical matters.

It turns out that the party had formed in an impromptu manner only six months before to deal with some unpleasantness in the coastal town of Sandpoint. They share their profits evenly among themselves, which is a pleasant change from the usual arrangement.

The paladin is Avia; the halfling is Kane, who is actually a healer; and Rigel serves as the party’s expert treasure hunter.

They were interested in my story of the cultists and my group’s failed trip to the saw mill, and said they would contact me later if they were interested in my services.

No doubt they would check out as much of my story as possible, although little enough of it is public knowledge.

No matter, I will continue my evening meetings with Sabin for friendship sake alone.

Watch and wait.

== Sunday, Abadius 19, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

The group has decided to use my services, but for the time being there is little for us to do.

Neither they, nor I, nor my Irregulars have heard anything unusual that could be attributed to Xaneesha or her cultists.

Could it be that my new found friends had actually destroyed Xaneesha without realizing it, or is she is biding her time before acting again?

Nothing split seven ways is nothing, and while my daily expenses are small, they do exist, and my gold reserves are slowly dwindling.

Watch and wait.

== Toilday, Calistril 11, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

We gathered again this evening because the Lord Mayor has hired us (300 gold pieces each in advance!) for a special job.

A town to the north, Turtleback Ferry, had been having trouble with a number of ogres and their ilk and had requested aid from the nearby cities. Magnimar had been the only one to respond and sent a troupe of rangers, the Order of the Black Arrows, to set up an outpost there and deal with the problem.

Things had gone well for some time, with regular reports arriving weekly from their headquarters at Fort Rannick. But the reports stopped coming and were now long overdue, and the Mayor was concerned over the safety of his rangers.

We were to travel up to Turtleback Ferry and investigate.

Trask still has a week’s worth of training, but the rest of us will prepare for the trip and we will leave on the 18th.

== Wealday, Calistril 12, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

We had a small surprise this afternoon. We were gathered together in the The Copper Griffin’s common room when an elf clad as a ranger came over and asked to come along on our trip to Turtleback Ferry.

Her name is Shalelu, and my companions all knew her, but it became much colder at Rigel’s end of the table, and I noticed her glaring at the elf. At first I thought this must be some former lover of Kane’s, but Trask rather gleefully asked about someone named Sedgewick, whom apparently rather abruptly left the party (in general) and Rigel (in particular) to run off with Shalelu months before.

Shalelu is familiar with the way to Turtleback Ferry, which will prove useful, and so quite naturally we all voted for her to come along (with Rigel abstaining).

== Moonday, Calistril 17, 4708; Magnimar, The Feisty Fox; Evening ==

We leave on the morrow and I spent part of the week rounding up each of the Irregulars. I gave each a gold piece with the caution that it might be the last payment they receive from me for quite some time.

Most of them are street savvy and wise for their ages, but for some of the youngest ones I made sure they had an older companion to look out for their interests while I was away.

The most talented of my band of spies, an eleven year old girl who answers to Atuni, I have left with an organization with whom she can build a future. I have paid for her tuition and boarding for a full year, and have little doubt she will be more than able to earn her own way beyond that should I not return.

== Toilday, Calistril 18, 4708; The Lost Coast Road; Evening ==

Finally, we are on the coast road not far from Sandpoint. We have been riding steadily all day long and hope to complete our journey in 10 days or less.

The conversation around the small camp fire turned to encounters on previous trips along this same road. On one such trek they saw a huge black winged horse, known locally as the Sandpoint Devil, leap into the sky. On another a group of gigantic lizards attacked them.

They also discussed some haunted mansion to the west of here called “The Misgivings”, where apparently they still had unfinished business of which they spoke with dread.

We’ve set the schedule for the watch that we will follow for the remainder of the trip. I share the third watch with Nolin.

It will be a cold night.

== Oathday, Calistril 20, 4708; Nybor; Evening ==

We arrived in Nybor after dark. The trip has thus far been uneventful, which is hardly to be surprised with such a large group of well arrayed travellers, each mounted on his or her own war horse.

The town is small and it is hard to tell much about it in the dark, but they have an inn with four rooms for us to share, and a hot meal is waiting.

== Fireday, Calistril 21, 4708; The Sanos Forest; Evening ==

Nybor must be a picturesque town, perched on the southern most shores of the Ember Lake, and the western end of the Sanos Forest, but we left before dawn and so its charms remained masked by the darkness.

We crossed the river on town ferry, which is guided by one set of ropes and is pulled across by another. It took two crossings to get all of us and our horses over, and from there the trail immediately plunged into the dim forest.

Shalelu said the trail was safe enough, as long as you harbored no ill will towards gnomes. We saw a few gnomes at the inn, but we will be passing to the east of a large gnome settlement on our way through the Sanos. I have met many gnomes and get along with them as well as any other race, although I admit to chuckling out loud when I remember poor Og’s comment, “They taste like chicken!” I’m fairly sure he was joking.

It made for a nice change to move through the forest, and the soft earth trail covered by a cushion of leaves and needles has met with the approval of our steeds.

It is oddly quiet, but more in a muffled sort of way than disturbing.

Thick clouds rolled in after lunch, but it does not feel like rain. Darkness came early beneath the canopy, and we were forced to make camp before our usual time. We are mindful of the forest, and our camp fire is quite small compared with the blazes from our previous evenings on the road.

== Starday, Calistril 22, 4708; The Sanos Forest; Evening ==

A giant snake attacked our camp last night during Nolin’s and my watch, but we quickly dispatched it; and I spent the rest of our watch butchering the animal and smoking its flesh over the fire. Snake is tasty, and there is enough here to last us for a long while.

The day itself passed without event, or a glimpse of the sun for that matter, but other than a few hesitant drops, it has remained dry.

== Oathday, Calistril 27, 4708; Turtleback Ferry; Evening ==

The cold rain began overnight, and we quickly broke camp and continued along the path. The forest soon gave way to an open but boggy woodlands, and not long after that we came to the end of the trees altogether. A long sliver of marshy ground, the Shimmerglens, stretches from Coal Lake to the north down nearly all of the way to Lake Syrantula. The Skull River flows through the middle of this land of fens, connecting the two lakes.

The rain renewed its assault with vigor, and travel by horseback would have proven all but impossible but for the most remarkable of structures: a boardwalk, aptly named “The Wicker Way”, which connected the Old Sanos Way to the small hamlet of Bitter Hollow on the river.

There is little to commend about Bitter Hollow, other than the strong will of its people, who built and maintained the passage over the marsh. But the town is filthy, as if all of the industry of its citizens was expended upon the Wicker Way, leaving none for cleaning.

We paused briefly to barter our smoke snake meat for some supplies at The Gator’s Nest, and pushed on through the wet and gathering gloom.

We were thoroughly soaked by the time we rode into Turtleback Ferry and sought refuge at the town’s only inn, The Turtle’s Parlor.

We queried the inn keeper about the rangers at For Rannick. He said the fort was thirty miles up the river, and the that rangers mostly kept to themselves, but came into town on a regular basis. It had been at least two weeks since their last visit, which he admitted was unusual.

== Fireday, Calistril 28, 4708; Turtleback Ferry; Morning ==

After a comfortable night spent in the common room next to the large hearth we purchased more provisions for the trek north. As the inn keeper bustled about, Trask noticed a small tattoo on the innkeeper that looked like a sihedron.

We carefully looked at the other people milling about, and noticed another man with the same tattoo.

I mentioned the tattoo to the innkeeper, and he was reluctant to talk about it, but with a little encouragement he told us a disturbing story.

A while back a large boat showed up on the lake, run by an elegant lady who offered various forms of entertainment like gambling, drinking and whoring. The quality of services offered by Lucretia on the Paradise were well above average, and each evening the boat would dock at Turtleback Ferry, take on its load of eager customers, and then sail out into the lake until the wee hours of the morning.

Regular customers were offered the seven rayed star tattoo, which would give them discounts on board the Paradise.

A few weeks ago the entire boat with a full load of customers caught fire and sank into the murky waters of the lake — a lake filled with ferocious predators that prevented escape or any sort of investigation of the sunken wreck.

We none of us liked this news. There is too much coincidence here: the sihedron symbol associated with a beautiful and powerful woman — just as in Magnimar.

== Fireday, Calistril 28, 4708; Ogrekin Farm Stead; Noon ==

The rain resumed its steady assault as we followed the road north and back over the river. We caught glimpses of the very southern tip of The Storval Deep, on the far northern shores of which my clan has made many a camp.

The rain slowed and then stopped as ragged clouds parted to reveal a few patches of blue. The tips of mountain peaks peeped over the tops of the trees, but as we moved north the forest closed in, limiting our view to a hundred yards in any direction.

Shalelu lead the way, but it was Kane and Rigel who heard the muffled cries of an animal in pain. Rigel crept through the undergrowth and came upon a bear with its leg caught in a steel trap. It saw Rigel and let out a whimper, like a dog. The rest of us gathered around, and when Rigel released the trap the bear lavished her face with wet sloppy kisses.

Obviously this was a companion to someone… probably a ranger. I healed the bear’s wound as we heard the approaching sound of dogs baying. We moved forward into a small clearing when the pack of dogs burst through the shrubs and attacked.

The dogs were quickly killed, but a loud humanoid came crashing into the clearing where it stopped and stared at us. It wiped the drool from its chin before shouting out, “I is hunting that bear, so unless you wants to be hunted too you better stay clear.”

It looked like a small, deformed ogre — an ogrekin: the misbegotten offspring of an ogre and some poor captive. It then noticed the slain dogs laying about and burst into tears sobbing, “My dogs! My dogs!”

Trask was able to talk it into surrendering its spear (a very nice weapon), and then got it to tell us about where it came from. It, or he, said his name was Rukus, and he lived with his “mammy” and siblings a ways further on. He got his spear from the humans that his family had caught “and killed and et.”

He then showed us a blanket he carried that his mammy made, and Shalelu gasped: it was made from a collection of Black Arrows emblems!

We sent Rigel and Avia ahead to explore, and another ogrekin attacked them, but they made short work of it. They continued on until they caught sight of a farm-stead — a house and a barn — a mile or so from our clearing.

[244] +1 ogre hook
[245] iron ring of +1 protection (Avia)
[246] amulet of +1 natural armor (Nolin)
[247] +1 spear
[248] belt of +2 strength (Nolin)

Rukus was sent along to meet his brother in ogrekin heaven, and quietly we made our way to the small settlement. It was all in a ruinous state of disrepair and unpleasant smells wafted out from both buildings. Sad patches of crops could still be seen amidst the riot of weeds, but they were all wilted and dying.

Small human fetishes, made from sticks and bits of fabric and stuffed with mud and human hair, were set out about the path that led up to the house.

We opted to check out the house first, reasoning the ogrekin would be more comfortable in the barn and might use the house to keep prisoners. The windows on the first floor were boarded up, and there was a wide porch up front and a rickety set of stairs leading up.

The porch roof was held aloft by thick pine pillars crudely carved to depict gruesome things: manticores impaling children, wolves devouring women, and other obscenities. A large rocking chair made from various body parts sat off to one side while a wind chime of human bones clattered in the breeze.

Kane, Avia and Sabin climbed onto the porch and listened for a while, but all was quiet within. Sabin then opened the door, and as he did spikes shot out from the wind chimes as blades cut up through the floor boards, slashing the trio. I was surprised that Rigel had not gone up to check for traps, but apparently Kane has some skill in this area, but had simply forgot.

After a small amount of healing Rigel and I went into the house and the others followed, although Shalelu and the bear remained outside. It stank within. Really badly. The interior decor matched the exterior: a dire beg pelt lay on the floor before a large couch made from all sorts of disgusting things.

Avia detected an evil presence to the left, and so we checked the only other door for traps. The door opened to a large hallway that continued north, and branched to the left, with various closed doors on either side. Rigel did the usual for the door to the left, and Avia burst into the room.

A giant bed took up much of the space, and laying upon it was a gross, bloated ogrekin, with layers of fat rolling down from its head in waves, and pustules that wept greasy yellow excretions. Atop its head were thin lank locks of oily hair, and it opened its jowly mouth and shrieked for its offspring to come to its aid.

There was little doubt we had found mammy.

Keeping her company was a triplet of ogrekin, each boasting some horrific deformity, but all undead. They pressed the physical attack while surprisingly mammy launched devastating magical attacks that sapped abilities. Rigel moved in with her bow and began to shoot things at point blank range with good results.

Avia took the brunt of the spell effects, but still managed to cut through one of the undead ogrekin. Sabin also joined in the action, and I wiggled into the room to channel energy against the surviving two undead, which were quickly destroyed.

Mammy was of sterner stuff, and things may have gone worse had Sabin not touched her with an Enfeeblement spell, rendering her mostly impotent, and eventually dead.

This place makes me want to vomit: there are coffins in the north side of this room containing the remains of who knows what, and the stench is truly awful.

But we must find out what happened to the rangers, and so we press on.

[249] masterwork quarter staff
[250] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
[251] scroll of Animate Dead
[252] wand of level 3 magic missile [43 charges]
[253] wand of Enfeeblement [27 charges]
[254] wand of vampiric touch [33 charges]
[255] belt of +2 constitution
[256-257] Varisian dolls [used when summoning creatures for extra HD]

== Wealday, Kuthona 18, 4707; Magnimar, Kyver’s Islet; Afternoon ==

Having followed up on the contact information for payments to “B7” from Aldrin Foxglove we have found ourselves in a lumber mill called “The Seven” on Kyver’s Islet in the south of Magnimar. We’ve overcome attacks from the evil masked workmen there only to find ourselves in custody of one of the chief justices for the city itself, Ironbriar.

Avia had detected an evil presence in the room where Ironbriar was found alone and cloaked with invisibility. He was no longer radiating an evil aura by then, but we did detect two spells had been cast upon him — an enchantment and an abjuration. The latter could have been the result of his hiding his alignment.

And while Ironbriar did attack us at first, when the enchantment spell was removed he calmed down a great deal and became informative and almost helpful.

He claimed he had been enchanted by an evil enchantress named Xanesha, and that it was she who was responsible for the series of ritual murders that had plagued Magnimar for these past months. He admitted that he had played some part in the grizzly killings, but only while under Xanesha’s control. He was angry with Xanesha and wished her killed, but knew his influence and power in Magnimar was compromised, and he wished to leave the city as quickly as could be arranged.

Avia was dubious of his most of his claims, and thought the two best courses of action were to either hand him over to the city officials, or execute him ourselves.

The problem with the first proposal was that Ironbriar was the head of the city’s judicial system, and it was unlikely that our word would be taken over his. And the second proposal assumed his guilt with only the circumstantial evidence we possessed.

And yet to me he seemed to be telling the truth, or as much of the truth as concerned us. I spoke long with him about his faith, and found that he was a follower of Norgorber, which would indicate he probably did have an evil aura when not masked by magic. Followers of Norgorber are split among various factions, each following some specific aspect of their evil god and mostly ignoring one another. It made little sense for a career politician, of which Ironbriar was certainly one, to work toward destroying the very fabric of society from which he derived his power.

Ironbriar promised that if we let him go he would take care of the cultists (both dead and alive) that remained in the mill, and leave the city within twelve hours — just long enough to take care of some personal matters and provide an official reason for his extended absence from Magnimar.

He said if we allowed him this, he would provide us with information about Xanesha that we could use to find and eliminate her. Furthermore once he was safe and established in a new location he would send a reward back to us, as well as check up on our progress with Xanesha.

We debated his offer long among ourselves, and finally agreed providing that Ironbriar allowed Sabin and Trask to accompany him until we received the promised information. To this he acquiesced, using the cover of hiring the two as body guards to explain their sudden and constant presence in his company.

Unknown to Ironbriar, Kane and Rigel provided support for Sabin and Trask by using their stealthy skills to follow Ironbriar, and to make sure there was no obvious attempts at treachery.

They left for Ironbriar’s house a short while ago, and we are about to leave the mill ourselves. We gave Ironbriar the name of the inn at which we had been staying, but we plan to move to different part of town today. We will keep one room at the old inn for future correspondences with Ironbriar.

== Oathday, Kuthona 19, 4707; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Midnight ==

Kane arrived at our new inn just after midnight with news that Ironbriar was leaving the city via one of the southern gates. Task and Sabin were still with him and Rigel was tailing them.

As we quickly walked to catch up (at a discrete distance) can told us that Ironbriar had immediately gone from the mill to his grand house in the swanky Alabaster District, where he proceeded to send letters to various associates about town. He had been cordial to his two guests, even inviting them to share in his dinner, and hid nothing obvious from them. In fact at one point he apparently offered both long term employment, which they both declined.

Rigel caused a bit of commotion by sneaking into the house and setting off an alarm of some kind, but if he was suspicious of our party, he did not show it.

Shortly after midnight he changed into traveling clothes and left for the south of the city.

We ran into Sabin and Trask on their way back from seeing Ironbriar leave the city on foot. At the gate he had told them what he knew of Xanesha.

She had set up her headquarters in the ruinous structure known as the Shadow Clock. This tower was built in the Shadow district of Magnimar, an unsavory part of the city that resided completely beneath the ancient ruins of the Irespan.

The Irespan is nothing short of a massive bridge, perhaps built by or for a race of giants, that stretched westward over the bay from Magnimar. Everything about it is massive, although now all that remains of it is its eastern terminus. And yet even this tiny fragment is so large that it dwarfs all other structures on this side of the continent, and it covers an entire district of what is by no means a small city.

The name of the Shadow District itself may have its origins by being in the shadow of the Irespan, but it now reflects the nature of its businesses and inhabitants.

The Shadow Clock is a tall tower that was built many years ago to house a clock, but it was never completed and it has fallen into neglected decay. It is considered structurally unsafe, and the city has closed it off from the public.

Ironbriar said that Xanesha lived there with five “misshapen” men to do her bidding, and that it was she that taught him the vile sihedron ritual used in the murders.

She had also sent Aldrin to Foxglove Manor to collect the evil fungus that grew there, knowing full well what it would do to him.

Ironbriar also told us that Aldrin’s payments to the sawmill were for hush money to keep hidden the fact that he had murdered his fiance, Iesha.

We returned to the inn and briefly discussed our plan of action. Although Ironbriar saw to it that his departure from the city would not draw any undue attention, at least for a while, it would be obvious to Xanesha that he was no longer under her thumb. We decided to wait a couple of weeks before making our move against her in the hopes that she will have once again relaxed her guard.

This would also give time for Avia, Sabin, Kane and Rigel to train.

Trask, Nolin and I plan to make a short trip out from the city after sunrise to see if we can find a trace of where Ironbriar has gone.

== Oathday, Kuthona 19, 4707; Yondabakari River Valley; Evening ==

We set out on horse back as soon as it was light, leaving Magnimar by the southern gate and following the likely route used by Ironbriar. Despite the overcast sky and chill air our trip was at first pleasant as we traveled next to the Yondabakari flowing within the banks of its wide valley.

Small farms and hamlets lay on either side of the river with their fallow fields and prickly orchards of bare trees. Inns also lined the road, and after a pleasant break for lunch in one such pub we continued on.

The sun slowly wheeled around behind us and cast long shadows on the road ahead. Inns ceased, farms came further and further apart, and the number of people we passed on the road dwindled to a few hearty souls before petering out altogether.

The next village was an hour or more ahead and grey sky darkening with the fading light as we debated whether to push on to the comforts of a night indoors or find a suitable camp site near the road.

The road had dipped into a boggy stretch of land and was just beginning to rise back up again when we came upon three large mounds of mud and clay.

A grotesque toad-like head rose up from behind one mound and stared at us with protruding eyes. As we approached to investigate three slimey green creatures lept up onto the mounds and waved spiked clubs threateningly at us.

Boggards!

As a child my guardians had told us stories of the evil frog-like men who haunted the swamp lands, capturing and eating unwary travelers. I had thought these tales told to keep restless youth from straying far from the farm, but here they were in the flesh (warts and all) menacing my friends and I.

No doubt they thought we were farmers on the road at dusk hurrying to our home and fields and ill prepared to meet any attack. They thought wrong and were quickly slain.

Alas, but we found the remains of several hapless travelers on whom the boggards had feasted earlier. Little remained but 20 pieces of gold and a few basic weapons.

We wound up pushing on to the village and reserved a nice set of rooms for the evening. We had missed the usual evening sitting in the dinning room, but after hearing about our victorious encounter with the boggards the inn keeper was happy to stoke the kitchen fire and prepare a delightful late supper for us.

== Fireday, Kuthona 20, 4707; Yondabakari River Valley; Evening ==

An altogether uneventful day. We continued along the undulating road as it passed through a land of low hills which fell away to the south into a wide expanse of marsh.

By chance this evening we encountered a small caravan from Wartle heading towards Magnimar and we all agreed to share camp. They had seen nobody on the road matching Ironbriar’s description, which confirmed our suspicion that while he may have set out as a lowly traveler on foot, Ironbriar was a man of too many resources to remain so for long.

Our companions are a lively group, and we are all gathered about a small but bright peat fire which is keeping the fog from the swamplands at bay. While in stark contrast to the night before, our evening has proven to be no less accommodating.

== Starday, Kuthona 21, 4707; Yondabakari River Valley; Evening ==

A soft but prolonged drizzle started late in the night and we broke our sodden camp just before dawn. Being lightly burdened we left caravan behind as kept a brisk pace, and rode long until after dusk. We are but a few hours from Magnimar, but there is no urgent need for our return and the horses have earned a rest in a dry tall with hay and fresh water.

To be honest I too am glad to have a place to sleep indoors out of the persistent cold mist that followed us all day.

== Sunday, Kuthona 22, 4707; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Evening ==

We returned to Magnimar by mid day and Nolin has has decided that he too should hone his skills and sharpen his abilities before our encounter with Xanesha, leaving Trask and I to fend for ourselves.

We decided to reconnoiter the area about the Shadow Clock tomorrow.

== Moonday, Kuthona 23, 4707; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Evening ==

Like virtually all residents of Magnimar, I have seen the Irespan, and have even approached the top as close as city officials allow the public. But I have never before been at the feet of this cyclopean structure, and I must admit that it takes some getting used to. I walked about looking up and gaping like a yocal from the sticks who has wandered into a city for the first time.

The locals who we passed were completely oblivious to the thing under which they spent their lives. We followed their example and plunged deeper in the the Shadow District with eyes level. We kept a short distance apart, with me in the lead, but still close enough to rush to one another’s aid if needed.

The day was already dim with cloud cover, and it was like walking into twilight as we passed under the shadow of the bridge and made our way to the massive support near which the Shadow Clock had been built.

Had it been completed the Clock could have been a local wonder to lift the district up and above the unsavory reputation it now held. Now, however, it simply served to reinforce the feeling of sinister doings, secrets, and decay and ruin that permeated the area.

With a square base about sixty feet on a side the tower lumbers up on itself some one hundred and eighty feet, gently narrowing with its rise until it is capped by an ornate belfry. A large clock face frozen at three o’clock glares down upon passerby and the figure of an angel perches atop it all.

But it is all a ruin. The mortar between the stone and brick crumbles, the wood is gray and warped with age, and the windows gape out with no glazing. In some places metal framework pokes out from the ruptured skin of the building, and near the top on one side a teetering mass of scaffolding, itself now derelict, fights a losing battle to keep the structure from toppling down upon the business and residences that surround it.

We spent some time walking about the Clock, taking side streets and alleys so as not to be obvious in our intent, but saw nobody approach the tower, nor indeed pay any more attention to it than they did the bridge above.

Trask and I returned to the inn where we compared notes and drew a few diagrams and maps. We had seen no other entrance at ground level than the heavy doors which had been chained and locked by city officials, but it seemed like that was as good an approach as any.

The rest of the day began to weigh heavily on me and so I found father Tyrion at the Temple of Sarenrae and volunteered to help out with the local outreach programs that aided the less fortunate citizens of the city.

== Fireday, Kuthona 27, 4707; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Evening ==

Sabin and Kane have completed their training.

== Wealday, Abadius 1, 4708; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Morning ==

It is New Year’s Day! There was a midnight ceremony at the Temple of Sarenrae in which I participated, just as last year. I cannot help but to reflect back upon the old year and all the changes it brought.

== Fireday, Abadius 3, 4708; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Evening ==

Avia returned to the inn looking confident and ready to resume the hunt for Xanesha. Rigel also returned from training, but is often the case with her we did not notice her arrival so much as we simply became aware that she was once again with us.

When we returned to our old inn for our daily check of message from Ironbriar we found a cloaked man waiting for us in the common room. Without exchanging any names or details we informed him that we were following the advice of our common friend and being cautious about tying up a certain “loose end.” We told him we ought to have more to report in two weeks time.

He stated that the parcel beneath the table was for us, and got up and walked out.

After the usual checking for traps and magical devices we took the box up to our room and opened it. Within were seven small bars of gold — each worth five hundred gold pieces.

This was more awkward for some of us than others, but I know that what is not immediately spent defeating Xanesha from my share — for I view the gold as payment in advance for services to be rendered — will go toward the local charities the Temple of Sarenrae supports.

== Sunday, Abadius 5, 4708; Magnimar, The Copper Griffin; Evening ==

There was another ritualized murder last night. While rumor of the killing swept through the city in the usual way, we sought out our contacts in the town guars to glean additional information.

The more than two weeks since the previous killing was the longest interval between any two killings since they began — typically there was a murder every few days. We could not help but connect this to our activities at Aldrin’s townhouse some two weeks earlier and Ironbriar’s departure from the city.

We found Nolin, and although he had a week of training left he agreed that we could not delay our investigations while the murder spree continued.

== Moonday, Abadius 6, 4708; Magnimar, Shadow District; Dawn ==

Well before dawn we made our way to the Shadow District and approached the doors enmasse. Our plan was to simply walk up to the doors, disarm any traps, unlock any locks, and then move inside as if we were authorized to do so. It seemed likely that any attempt at a covert operation in this shady district would generate more notice (and possible interference) than a direct approach.

Our plan worked and soon we were inside. But the interior of the clock, while perhaps fascinating to an architect or builder, sadly dissapointed us.

From within the Shadow Clock looked more decrepit and tumble down than even its ruinous appearance from the outside indicated. It was a single, massive chamber towering up into the darkness above with no floors or partitions beyond the handful of ramshackle walls leaning against one another along the eastern wall.

Windows were cut into the tower higher up, but the pre-dawn sky still looked inky black from within. We brought out our magical torches and looked about the place in dismay.

The floor was made from stone, and showed no signs of any secret trap doors leading down. A rickety stair led up and up, connecting with the outer walls some fifteen feet up and following them around and around as it spiraled up to the top, which skulked in darkness.

A few piles of rubbish littered the floor here and there, and through the gaping doorways in the eastern interior walls we could see that the ceiling for the rooms had collapsed and they were now open above the the main chamber.

We noticed a large number of foot prints in the dust on the floor leading up the stairs, and checked the stairway very carefully only to find that it was as unstable and unsafe as appearance made it appear.

One door to an interior chamber in the northeast corner was intact and closed, and as I made my way towards it to see what lay within, a huge creature stood up from what I had thought was a pile of refuse and attacked. It looked like someone had stitched together various parts from animals, humans and other creatures into a single nightmarish form. It wielded a scythe with unexpected skill and from a belt around its middle hung an assortment of shrunken heads.

It proved resistant to fire and damage our normal weapons, but Avia switched to using the adamantine sword and was dealing the thing deathly damage. After a fierce battle Sabin finished it off by planting his axe in its face.

[241] +1 scythe (Nolin)
[242] cloak of Elvenkind (Avia)

Beyond the door was yet another room with a collapsed ceiling and nothing more.

Trask and Sabin volunteered to clamber up the rickety stairs to see what was at the top of the tower, and as they began their ascent the rest of us continued to search the base of the tower, uncovering a sack with coins and a few other valuable looking oddments.

125 gold pieces
309 silver pieces
a tarnished silver ring with “To AV, with love” inscribed on it (not magical)
an ornate silver mirror

We heard a loud creaking sound as the stairs complained of their load and threatened to come down. Trask and Sabin came down, and Sabin, who could cast Feather Fall and save himself in the event of an emergency, climbed up alone.

Three times around Sabin ascended the stairs and came to the level where a window was set into each of the four walls. By now the sky was pale, and we could watch his progress in the wan light.

Sabin then paused, as if listening to something above, and all of a sudden there was an incredible cacophony of clanging and clanking as one of the massive tower bells came crashing down. It smashed through the stairs where Sabin was standing and tumbled to the ground, crashing into Trask before coming to rest on its side.

Sabin drifted slowly to the ground and said he had heard someone sawing through the ropes that held the bell just before it came down. We healed him and Trask and were debating our next course of action (a Fireball shot up to the top was momentarily a popular idea) when there came a great banging at the doors.

The entire west end of Magnimar had no doubt heard the frightful noise of the bell, and the City Guard had showed up to investigate.

The chief constable was highly suspicious of our presence at the tower, but we managed to deflect his concerns toward the corpse of the scarecrow monster we had slain. He asked the crowd that had now gathered around the doors if they had seen anything like this in the area before, and one man said he had seen it coming in and out from the tower, and another reported that things could be seen flying in and out from the top of the Clock.

The constable inspected the bell and commented on how it looked like the ropes had been partially cut through some time ago, and then the rest of the way quite recently.

We told him that we wanted to climb the tower to catch whoever it was that dropped the bell on us (and who was no doubt responsible for the strange monster), to which he acquiesced. He set up a watch about the tower to keep and eye on our progress and to see if anything flew in or out while we were scaling the Clock.

We are currently discussing how best to climb up now that the stairs are impassable, and have decided upon some combination of Spider Climb and ropes.

The sun is just now peeping over the horizon although it is still dark beneath the Irespan, and it is time for me to pray. We shall have full need of the spells Sarenrae can grant me this day.

== Starday, Neth 16, 4707; Sandpoint, Mid Morning ==

Our first morning back in Sandpoint went well; and we were quite productive going through the items we had accumulated, and determining what to keep and what to sell. In the end we all have more than enough gold to train, even after tithing and other expenses.

I never thought before that I should be in possession of such sums of gold, but equipment and training for our line of work is expensive, and I am not in jeopardy of becoming wealthy.

Speaking of expenses, I have purchase Nolin’s horse and tack, which he no longer needed now that the splendid war horse he rescued on Thistestop has recovered. I was surprised that Nolin had not named his old horse, and so I gave him one: Leopold Butters Stotch. Butters has proven to be a feisty but reliable mount.

Most of us begin training today, which will keep us busy for some time now.

== Sunday, Neth 24, 4707; Sandpoint, Morning ==

Kane has completed his training and began to investigate the loose threads we unraveled at the Misgivings. I have free time today as well as most evenings, which I will use to help as I am able.

I used a Make Whole spell to repair Vorel’s broken seven sided box — we might have use for it later.

== Sunday, Kuthona 1, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening ==

Kane, Rigel and Avia have left for Magnimar. The rest of us will join them once we have completed training.

We deem the trip necessary for several reasons.

First, the worthies of Sandpoint are either unable or unwilling to provide any information about the Brothers of the Seven — that accursed organization we believe is responsible for the tragic events at the Misgivings, and the grizzly murders around Sandpoint.

Second, we have heard stories from Magnimar that tell of the same sort of killings in Magnimar, complete with the sihedron rune carved on the victims’ chests.

Third, Aldrin returned to Sandpoint from Magnimar, and perhaps he left behind some sort of clue as to the nature of the Brothers, for whom he was working. Also we believe his sisters may still be living there — perhaps they can recall something useful about their family history.

Nolin’s family lives in Magnimar, and he has written a letter of introduction to his parents for Kane and company; thus providing them with a place safe to stay while they familiarize themselves with the great city.

Likewise I have provided a letter of introduction for Avia to take with her to the Temple of Sarenrae, where I was trained.

With luck they will have done much of the initial legwork for this investigation by the time the rest of us arrive.

== Toilday, Kuthona 10, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening ==

We have received a letter from our compatriots in Magnimar, providing us with news of their journey and what they have found thus far in that fair city of ancient ruins. Kane, Rigel and Avia have been gone more than a week, and it was reassuring to hear that they were well and safe as may be.

Their trip was not uneventful, and serves as a reminder for us to be on our guard when we follow their route four days from hence.

Late on their first day they beheld an amazing and horrible sight: they heard and ungodly scream in the distance, and watched as a huge winged horse reared up and flew away. Kane recalled a local legend that circulates up and down the Lost Coast Road about a nightmarish horse that stole cattle and unattended children. We’ve heard the locals refer to it as the Sandpoint Devil, but up until now I had assumed it was a story used to subdue misbehaving children.

The next night they found their camp invaded by hideous goblin snakes, which they managed to kill or drive away with little hurt to themselves.

They arrived in Magnimar on the third of Kuthona, where Nolin’s parents gave them a hearty welcome, and a brief introduction to the layout of the city.

Wasting no time they set out at once to the Marble District, where they thought the likes of a family as old and wealthy as the Foxgloves would live.

After spending a little time (and some gold) with a city bureaucrat they found that Aldrin Foxgloves’ two sisters had moved away some time ago. Far, far away — perhaps they possessed more wisdom than their fool hardy brother.

At an inn in the district they found an old acquaintance of Aldrin’s, who said that Aldrin was up in Sandpoint, but he still kept a a townhouse in the Great Arch District. A few gold coins later and they found themselves before Aldrin’s home away from home.

The ground floor windows were boarded over, and the windows of the other two floors above that showed no signs of life within. A large and unkempt fountain was choked with fallen leaves, which had stained the stagnant water a sickly yellow.

Out back an eight foot wall hid a garden rife with weeds and trees strangled by grasping vines. The gate was barred with boards hastily nailed across the entryway.

They decided to save the closer investigating of the dwelling until the rest of us could join them.

In the meantime they found a place to stay (not wishing to wear out their welcome at Nolin’s parents place), and settled into life in a big city.

One thing they noticed right away was a great civil unrest. The murders, of which we had heard rumor in Sandpoint, were an almost nightly event, with the victims representing a complete cross section of the Magnimar social strata.

The public felt threatened, and felt the city officials were doing little to protect them.

The same said city officials were tight lipped about the entire affair, and our friends could find little information about the murder spree, other than the each victim had had a sihedron carved in their chest, the same as the victims in Sandpoint.

== Starday, Kuthona 14, 4707; The Lost Coast Road, Evening ==

Ah, to be back on the road again! It is a marvelous thing, despite the toil or dread ahead: for the road represents a fresh start, a new place, and more than just a hint of adventure.

True, we are but heading back to the place from where I set out on this grand adventure some five months before, but still I find my spirits lifted all the same.

Whereas on my earlier journey the days were warm, the trees wore jackets of deep green, and the air was redolent with the fresh smell of all living things; now the days are chill, the trees naked, and the crisp air smells of flint.

We have made comfortable camp with a blazing fire, enjoyed a dinner of fine rabbit stew, and have set the watch as the stars have come out and peep down at us.

== Sunday, Kuthona 15, 4707; The Lost Coast Road, Evening ==

Earlier this day as we trotted down the road with the sun blazing overhead we came across a scene of much carnage. The bodies of three horses, still tacked, and the people who had been riding them were arrayed across the road. Feasting on this gruesome supply of flesh were some half a dozen giant geckos.

Nolin charged his war horse directly at one of the beasts as the rest of us dismounted and took to the attack on foot. After fierce but brief battle all of the lizards were dead, but alas there were no survivors from the waylaid party.

We pulled the corpses from the road and arrayed the saddles and other equipment neatly nearby as a windfall to the next travelers who came this way. We found 20 gold coins, which we kept for ourselves, along with a wand that Task took.

[230] wand of knock [18 charges]

== Toilday, Kuthona 17, 4707; Magnimar, Noon ==

We arrived in the city early this morning, and immediately met with the others before heading out to search the city for what clues we could find about the recent series of murders and the Brothers of the Seven.

Nolin was once a member of the local constabulary, and he was able to confirm with his friends of the guard the details of the killings. He also found that the officials were intentionally keeping as much secret as they could, to avoid panicking the public.

It seemed very much like the intent of the slayings was in fact to cause as much public unrest and terror as possible. The common threads between this butchery and what we had uncovered in Sandpoint were the sihedron carved into the corpses’ chests and the Foxglove family, who had secret dealings with the Brothers.

We found obtaining any information about the Brothers of the Seven in Magnimar was just as difficult as it had been in Sandpoint. People either claimed to have never heard of them, or had only heard the name as some mythical organization from long ago.

I spent much of the morning over at the Temple where I had spent the past eight years of my life. Father Tyrion was pleased to see me again, and quite taken aback at all that had happened in Sandpoint since he had sent me there earlier this year.

Tyrion had heard of stories of a very evil, brutal and blood thirsty organization called the Brothers of the Seven, but had thought them merely legendary tales of horror from another time. Oddly enough he did seem uncomfortable talking about them, almost as if he had just realized that those stories of vile and despicable deeds and the group behind them might be for real, and possibly responsible for the recent killings in Magnimar.

Avia, who had accompanied me to the temple, and I joined our companions at an inn near Aldrin’s town-home. We plan to pay it a special visit after lunch.

== Toilday, Kuthona 17, 4707; Magnimar, Late Afternoon ==

We left the inn and made the short walk to Aldrin’s place. We gathered around the back gate — except for Nolin, who remained out front — and removed the boards barring our way. We discovered that the old iron key we found at Foxglove Manor unlocked the latch, and after fetching Nolin we entered the yard.

A sort of solarium was attached to the house in back, and its door was unlocked so we filed in. Beyond that was a formal dining room, with doors to the north and south.

Avia was detecting evil from in two locations within the house, and the room to the south was a study. The desk had been rifled through, with all of the papers thrown about the room and the drawers smashed against the wall.

The door to the east led to a pleasant living room, and there, sitting on a sofa, hand in hand, pleasantly smiling at us were Aldrin and Iesha Foxglove!

“Oh, welcome,” said Aldrin, “we thought we heard someone come in. Are you hungry? We can prepare something for you.”

Knowing the fate of the real Aldrin and Iesha we were quite puzzled and taken aback, and talked with these doppelgangers for a while to try and discern who they really were and why they were here, posing as the dead couple. That they were evil Avia had assured us.

Dispel Magic did nothing to change their countenance, and they continued to merrily chat about the weather and their life in town as if they weren’t dead as dust back up at the Misgivings where we had last found and left them.

Aldrin seemed really insistent about preparing dinner, and stood up to make his way into another room.

Meanwhile Nolin had opened the north door of the dining room and came face to face with some hideous creature with slavering fangs and a nasty set of claws. He quickly closed the door, but the beast burst through.

Having heard the commotion from up north, I confronted the Aldrin-thing about its evil persona, at which point he ceased to be the charming host as he and Iesha lashed out at those of us in the room. They too now looked like the monsters they were.

They proved incredibly tough adversaries, and with a great deal of skill and effort (and not just a little healing) we managed to kill them.

Sabin or Trask thought they were same ancient monster — the very first of such things to curse the world with their presence. Although why they were here posing as the lovely couple was still a mystery.

The Aldrin look alike had been carrying a fine sword, which we confiscated.

[231] masterwork long-sword

We then set about exploring and searching the house. We found the signs of a thorough search in every room, with furniture ransacked and items slashed and tossed about the place.

Someone was looking desperately for something, and it became apparent that they had not found it, and resorted to more destructive means of searching as their frustration grew.

The top floor boasted a grand master bedroom with an attached study to the south. The study had a zebra skin pelt on the floor, and a fireplace with an interesting mantle, sporting two lion heads. I began to search the lion heads for some sort of hidden mechanism to a secret compartment, but it took Kane’s clever eyes to spot the tiny, deep hole in one lion’s mouth.

The odd lion head key we had found earlier activated the mechanism, which dropped a panel to a hidden space in the mantel.

Within was 200 platinum coins, a case with legal paperwork, and documents for the townhouse itself, including a ledger of expenses.

In the paperwork we finally found written evidence for the existence of the Brotherhood! They had financed a large part of the Misgivings, as we had learned from the family journals found at the manor house.

The ledger held unusual entries for expenses (200 gp a week) paid to “B7” for “Iesha’s trip to Ashalon.” The entries appeared to be in Aldrin’s hand writing and dated as recently as a month before. Iesha in Ashalon? But wasn’t Iesha already dead a month ago? And why keep paying B7 for her expenses in that far away city if she were not actually there?

It looks like we have another mystery on our hands.

== Oathday, Neth 14, 4707; The Misgivings, Evening ==

While I was updating my journal, Sabin and the others spent the past half hour investigating the odd basement room in which we found ourselves.

Sabin was convinced this was an arcane workshop at one time, with work tables and rusty tools and paraphernalia scattered across their surfaces.

The northern stained glass window depicted a gaunt man drinking from a vial filled with a shocking green fluid. The southern showed the same man, but with the familiar signs of rot and corruption associated with undead. His arms were uplifted in triumph as his form turned to smoke which was consumed by a seven sided box.

A set of moldy books on necromancy occupied Sabin, but when Rigel touched one she paused and stared out with vacant eyes. It lasted but for a moment, and afterward she described a vision where she was Vorel at his moment of triumph just as he was to consume the potion that would transform him into a lich. But as he drank the potion he doubled over in pain. This vision was quickly replaced with a powerful sense of anger — anger that a loved one could do such a thing to themselves — followed immediately by fear and a sense that she must save their children.

We took the books, which Nolin stored in his pack.

[214] 10 Necromancy books (Nolin)

A second door in the southern wall led to a short hall and another door, which opened onto a flight of stairs leading down and around to the north.

At the base of these stairs was a square room with walls carved from the surrounding rock. The floor was littered with blocks of stone and in the center of the room was a staircase, spiraling far down into the darkness.

Picks and chisels were laying about the rubble; and it looked as if the stairway had been bricked over with stone and mortar in the past, but this had been recently torn apart.

Wafting up from the pit was a terrible stench of death and decay.

We prepared to descend with Sabin, who can see in the dark, leading the way; but as soon as Avia stepped onto the stairs she gasped and began to flail about with her sword and buckler as if she were fighting some unseen foe.

Gashes and bite marks appeared on her skin as we raced to her aid, but we could neither see nor feel anyone (or thing) other than ourselves in the room. Detect Undead revealed nothing.

After a few moments she stopped struggling, and said she saw Aldrin frantically chipping away at the stone on the floor with a pickaxe, all the while repeating, “For you, for you!” He finally broke through the barrier sealing off the stairs when a stream of ghouls filed out from beneath and attacked her.

After a bit of healing we began the descent anew, carefully picking our way down the ancient cracked stone steps as they plunged downward into the darkness and ever growing fetid reek.

At last we reached the bottom, which ended in a large limestone cavern. Sabin estimated that we had come down 80 feet.

The air was damp and water dripped from the ceiling and oozed from the walls, which were covered in blue and black mold that spiraled about in crazy patterns. Bones from various animals and humanoids cluttered the floor, and a sound like a great beast breathing echoed out from the three tunnels that led from the cavern.

The tunnel to the north was narrow, while the one to the northwest was wide and looked well traveled. There were rocks and dirt around the entrance to the southwestern tunnel, which indicated that it was recently opened.

We moved out through the northwest passage into a large natural chamber when a gang of ghouls sprang out from the shadows and attacked. After a short and bitter fight we killed them all, and decided to make sure nothing unpleasant would sneak up from behind.

To this end Nolin volunteered to guard the entrance to the southwest tunnel, and Kane crept into the north tunnel. Unfortunately the northern tunnel was choked with thick matts of mold, which Kane breathed in and was incapacitated for a short time.

We then continued on to the west, winding our way around as the chamber narrowed and bent to the north where it opened into a vast circular grotto.

A side tunnel led due west, but the main chamber was nearly fifty feet across and towered up into the darkness. A wide pathway, or ramp, spiraled down past several cracks and openings before ending in a dark pool of water some fifty feet below.

Large cracks gaped in the wall to the northeast, while a doorway and a dark opening were to the northwest and west.

More bones (fresh and not so) and body parts were strewn about, all of which showed signs of having been gnawed upon, and the stench was horrific.

We took the west tunnel, which led to an oddly shaped chamber with a sloping floor that dropped down to the opening we had seen in the west wall of the circular chamber.

Sabin led us over to the nearby door, which he opened and passed through. I was right behind him, and Avia and the others behind me.

By the seemingly feeble light of our torches we saw a rickety table with a damp surface and all sorts of detritus scattered about it. Fine china and plates and bowls were filled with rotting flesh. A painting sat upright facing away from us.

Behind the table was a high backed leather chair facing the wall.

And behind the chair protruding out from the wall was a thick mass of mold which formed a humanoid shape. From the moldy figure came the most offensive and foul of the odors that had yet assaulted us, and it was all we could do to keep from gagging — indeed some of our team found themselves gagging and choking and could come no further in to the room.

We then saw a broken seven sided box at the foot of the mold man thing.

The chair then slowly turned towards us, with Aldrin calmly sitting there staring at us. He was no longer human, but he also did not look quite like the regular ghouls we had seen thus far.

He caught sight of Avia and became quite excited. “You’ve come to me! I knew my letters would convince you. Now let us consummate our love.” He gestured to the piles of rotting flesh on the table.

Trask made some sort of pert comment and Aldrin’s good humor vanished as he sprang up and attacked.

Avia struck him hard and he collapsed to his knees and began to cry. He sobbed, “The hurter is gone.” He looked back up at us and seemed about as pathetic a figure as a ghoul could.

We asked him what had happened to him, and he said he had to run errands for the Brothers: they wanted him to collect rats and the fungus to find out about the disease down here in the caverns.

Avia quietly confirmed that poor Aldrin was evil, but that the mold man creature behind him was an evil of a far greater power.

Aldrin sobbed on for a few minutes more, crying piteously for us to “Be kind to poor little Aldrin” when all of a sudden his face went blank and he looked up with a huge grin on his face.

“I am the Skinsaw man!” he proclaimed as he jumped up and put on a mask he had been holding. His face changed and morphed into that of Avia as he laughed and charged at us.

A few moments later and he was the dead Skinsaw man.

We then cautiously searched about the room while staying away from the mold man against the wall. On the table we found quite a few items of a personal nature that Aldrin had collected from Avia, like strands of hair and paper on which she had written. More disturbing were a series of drawings Aldrin had made of Avia, many of which had her posed without clothes.

I could not tell if the sudden flush of red on Avia’s cheeks were from anger or embarrassment, but the worse discovery was yet to come. The painting was a portrait of Iesha, but Aldrin had replaced her face with Avia’s by applying gore, blood and other bodily fluids.

We quickly grabbed the seven sided box from the floor.

[203] Seven sided box [broken]

We searched Aldrin’s body and found a handful of interesting items.

[204] +1 War Razor
[205] Ring of Jumping
[206] +1 Ring of Protection
[207] Stalker’s Mask: Crafted from leathery sections of cured human skin, stitched together in overlapping pieces like scales. This item can make the wearer translucent [+5 to hide]. Once per day it also allows the wearer to assume the shape of anyone within 60 feet. This latter ability improves as the mask feeds off of the wearer’s rage and jealousy.
[208] Cameo broach [painting of Avia on inside]
[209] Small iron key

We then torched the mold man with a flask of oil and a little flame, but even though the was mold burned into a cloud of greasy black smoke, the evil remained.

A handful of us then carefully made our way down the ramp to the pool of water. It was frothy sea water, and very deep. A rocky shelf formed a small island to the northwest, but there was little else to see.

I was quite puzzled about the water. How did the sea water get here? The top of the bluff on which the Misgivings was built was at least 300 feet above the sea below, and we had only come down some 140 to 150 feet (at most) from when we climbed down the stairs to the basement.

We returned to the main cavern, where I carefully retrieved a fine pick that Kane had spotted earlier when he had been engulfed in mold spores.

[210] +1 Heavy pick

Joining up with Nolin we passed through the opening to the southwest and into a long and large chamber that stretched to the west.

All manner of remains lay about, including the bodies of two Varisian nomads and another human. Searching them provided no clues to their identity, but we did find several useful objects.

56 gold pieces
[211] Pearl ring
[212] Adamantine long-sword
[213] Hat of disguise

As we were looking over these bodies we heard a loud thump from the west, and a gigantic bat flew in and attacked.

It took some effort, but we killed it and traced its arrival to a small round cavern to the northwest. A small circular opening in the ceiling led up to the surface, and to where I estimated the well was for the servants’ quarters.

We then returned back to the manor’s main hall to see if the odd mold stairway was anything special. Kane pulled the rope hanging from the mouth of the mounted monkey head, and the head shrieked, but nothing else occurred.

[215] Magical monkey head

Just then Trask and Nolin smelled something burning as the old stuffed manticore burst into flames and it whipped its tail about to hit Trask, singing him somewhat. And then it was just a stuffed (and now singed) manticore again.

I decided to experiment and carefully swept away the circular stairway pattern the mold had formed in the center of the hall.

We then decided to investigate the water level of the subterranean pool and using ropes verified that the top of the bluff was indeed 300 feet above sea level.

We then found some additional rope from the attic and returned to the pool where we found that the water level had changed with the tide, indicating a direct linkage of some kind with the sea beyond. How could this be?

Tying a rock to the end of our ropes we dropped it down to 140 feet before it touched bottom. That would put the base of the pool at or just above the level of the sea outside.

On the way back up we checked out the mold man room and found more mold was dripping down from the ceiling, replacing the mold we had burned away and forming another mold man shape.

Back up at the house some of my companions read the books on the Foxglove family while others studied the books on necromancy.

The Foxglove journals revealed a few interesting bits of information:

• Rogers Crazby was the caretaker of the manor while it was deserted
• The Foxgloves have long been associated with a shady organization called “Brothers of the Seven” and the their meetings had been hosted at the manor from time to time
• Vorel original built the house, but his family died and it remained empty for 20 years
• Aldrin’s family moved in until his parents went crazy and killed one another
• Another 40 years and Aldrin returned to a tragic end
• Construction of the manor was funded by the Brothers of the Seven After 100 years ownership of the house and lands would revert to them

Insightful as this information was, we had reached a dead end. Obviously some powerful evil force was still at work in the house, and our work was not yet done here. We needed to return to Sandpoint for extra training and more research before we could finish what we started.

We then experimented with the flocks of undead crows outside and verified that while they were indeed undead, they were not summoned creatures, and that there were more than enough of them to keep us trapped here at the house.

I devised a simple plan for escape that we can try in the morning light.

== Fireday, Neth 15, 4707; Sandpoint, Afternoon ==

Simple plans oft work the best. And so it was with our escape from the Misgivings this morning.

I cast Hide from Undead on all of us, including Nolin’s horse.

Nolin and Rigel then mounted the horse and galloped away, drawing off the undead crows that were unaffected by the Hide from Undead spells.

The rest of us then quickly ran to the northwest, away from the manor and avoiding the birds, until we returned to the road, rejoined with Nolin and Rigel and returned to Sandpoint.

We need to go over our list of recent finds to see what we can sell and how much income this will generate. I think all of us are ready to train, and that will require a large amount of gold.

And while we train we will continue our research on the Foxgloves and the Misgivings.

== Wealday, Neth 13, 4707; The Misgivings, Evening ==

After our break for lunch we continued to explore the house, and exploring the main hall in more detail revealed that the grotesque monkey head with the rope dangling from its mouth was magical. We also found that the bookcase beneath the circular stairs held tomes of the Foxglove family history as well as a few religious texts.

The last entry was made by Aldrin himself, sometime within the past year. He describes arriving at the house in order to prepare it for his fiance’, Iesha, who would be arriving soon.

The very first entry in the oldest book was dated 4620 and discusses the family’s search for a new home; and mentions that perhaps the “Brothers” would help.

To the south of the dining area was a large library with an extensive collection of books. Unfortunately most were suffering from damp, and had mildew growing on their spines and covers. Of more interest to us were the two chairs in the center of the room. One of the chairs lay on its side with a bright red silk scarf draped across it. The other faced the toppled chair, and between the two was a book on Varisian history. In the fireplace a stone bookend had been smashed.

As Kane entered the room he paused for a moment and turned very pale. He then described the vision, or memory that had enveloped him. He heard a woman’s scream and the scarf leaped through the air and around his throat. Suddenly Aldrin was before him, his face contorted in rage and his hands twisting the scarf tightly around Kane’s neck. And then the vision passed.

At the same time Avia had detected a cold, evil presence around Kane, but it too passed with the vision.

Kane left the room, clutching the scarf in his trembling hands.

[200] silk scarf (~100gp)

Rigel had discovered that the bookend in the fireplace, which was of the shape of a praying angel (sans one wing, which had broken off), had bits of bone, hair and blood smeared on one end.

Other than the impressive accumulation of books (albeit moldy), we found nothing more of interest.

A sitting room lay to the north of the dining area. A large sofa facing a stone fireplace with capering imps and birds carved into the mantel. The sofa was coated with a thick layer of white fungus, which we carefully avoided.

We pulled back the drapes, as we had done in the other rooms, to let in some light, and there before the fireplace, Rigel saw that the dust was churning about, as if invisible person were walking back and forth.

Avia said an evil presence was in the room as Trask bent down and set out caltrops in the path of our invisible host. The dust stopped moving, and at just that moment I heard a voice whisper, “Laurie.”

We decided to check out the door in the west wall when Trask became quite agitated and insisted that Rigel not open the door. He then demanded that she leave the house because it was not safe for her. “It is dangerous, and no daughter of mine…!” I cast Remove Fear upon Trask and he fell silent. After a moment he said he was concerned because he didn’t want “her” to go into the basement.

Another vision, or perhaps possession? Or maybe a warning.

The west door opened onto a hallway, and the first door on the right was a washroom, with a rusting metal tub set against the far wall. Something was scrabbling about in the tub: it was a hideous rat, half eaten away by some wasting disease, and its empty eye sockets rimmed with white fungus. Nolin put it out of its misery.

The next door off the hall was a conservatory, and a grand piano sat off to the side while a giant glass chandelier sat in ruins in the middle of the floor. The walls were paneled with rich dark wood, and frescoes of dancing figures decorated the lintels, but everything was coated with mold, and the floor boards of the dance floor were twisted and warped.

I pulled back the curtains and opened the double doors, which led back out to the drive along which we arrived. I then walked over to the piano and played a simple tune I was taught as a child back in Magnimar. While I am no musician, and my training on the piano was limited to one or two hours at the keyboard of the temple’s old upright, it was obvious that this ancient thing was in perfect tune!

We all then noticed that Kane was standing in the center of the room; his eyes vacant as he swayed from side to side. Suddenly he started and looked around at us as if trying to remember where he was.

As soon as I had begun to play on the piano he was swept into a dance with a beautiful woman. As they danced she changed as bruises formed on her pale neck, her eyes bulged and her lips turned blue. She then dropped to dust, leaving Kane back with the rest of us.

We made our way back through the small corridor and into the main hall and then across to the circular staircase, which we ascended.

The first room was obviously a child’s room, with a child sized bed, a toy box and a fireplace in the corner. The sound of a child crying wafted through the room, although I could not hear it.

The crying affected Avia, who hid in the fireplace as best she could and refused to speak to any of us. After a few moments she came out of the fireplace looking confused. She said thought she was Aldrin, frightened and running into the room to get away from his father, who had bulging eyes and a knife in one hand while chasing Aldrin’s mother about the house. His mother was also running around with a burning torch, trying to kill his father.

The room to the north had been a music room, with a few music stands scattered about and old harps, violins and flutes against the wall. The east wall was bowed, like the eastern end of the great hall below, and its windows were also of stained glass, depicting five scenes — one in each window.

• A pale ghostly scorpion
• A gaunt man holding our his arms while a dozen bats hung from them
• A moth with strange skull like patterns on its wings
• A tangle of dull green plants with bell shaped flowers
• A young maiden sitting astride a well while a spider the size of a
  dog descended from a large web

Kane noticed right away that they represented the following:

• scorpion venom
• bats wings
• death wing moth
• belladonna
• the heart of a maiden killed

Sabin commented that a lich based apthiousis was based on these ingredients.

Across the hall from the music room was a gallery of sorts. A stone fireplace crouched in the northwest corner, while cobweb covered portraits lined the north and south walls.

The north wall appeared to boast paintings from an older generation than those on the south, and on the frame beneath each painting was the name of the subject. The paintings on the north wall all appeared to have been painted at the same time in the same style (and no doubt by the same artists), just as those on the south, while different in age and style from those on the north, were done by one artist.

North wall portraits, from east to west:

1. Vorel Foxglove: a tall middle aged man, clean shaven with dark hair and blue noble clothes.

2. Kasanda Foxglove: a stern faced brunette with slightly graying hair, cut short, and wearing a blue dress.

3. Laurie Foxglove: a doe eyed little girl, much the same in the face as her mother, although less severe and stern.

South wall portraits, from east to west:

1. Trevor Foxglove: a tall and thin man with a narrow face and a long thin mustache.

2, Cyrlie Foxglove: a young woman with long red hair.

3. Aldrin Foxglove: a boy with the same foppish weak chin he sported as an adult.

4. Sendel Foxglove: a girl — obviously Aldrin’s sister.

5. Zeeva Foxglove: another sister.

Zeeva’s portrait was especially obscured with cobwebs, and when I brushed them aside the temperature in the room suddenly dropped, and our breaths came out as steamy puffs.

And with that all but two of the paintings underwent a change.

Vorel’s portrait turned to fungus, which spread about the room at a frightening rate, and, as we would soon learn, infested Nolin and Rigel with some sort of disease.

Kasanda and Laurie slumped into misshapen, tumor ridden forms.

A long cut opened in Trevor’s throat and blood washed down his chest.

Cyrlie blackened and charred and suddenly her arms, legs and back fractured in a dozen places.

Aldrin’s hair fell out as his face rotted and he transformed into a ghoul like creature.

Sendel and Zeeva remained unchanged, and we speculated that we had witnessed the end of each of the Foxglove family members as it had actually occurred. We assumed that Aldrin’s two sisters remained alive and well in Magnimar.

Moments later the room returned to as it was before, but the air was still heavy with the powdery mold that sprang from Vorel’s painting, which left us with little doubt that what we had experienced was real and not an illusion.

Nolin and Rigel both claimed that they had red spots on their arms, but the rest of us could not see them, nor could they see one another’s. We had them draw with ink where the spots were, and saw that both formed similar patterns.

Curing of diseases is currently beyond my skill, and we resolved to quickly explore the rest of the house and perhaps return to Sandpoint on the next day to seek a cure.

West of the gallery was a large bedroom, dusty and unkempt. A desk was set under the north window with a dark stain on its surface. Oddly enough there was no mold in this room.

I looked through the desk, hoping to find some document or clue about what happened here. Suddenly I became aware of a dagger and I picked it up and held it to my throat. I had just killed her! The woman I loved most in the world, and without her, what point was there in living? No. Wait. That wasn’t me, but I found that I had picked up a large sharp splinter of wood.

The papers in the desk indicate that it was Trevor’s room, and from the mental image I had just had and his painting’s transformation we deduced that Trevor burned his wife and threw her out a window onto the rocks below, and then returned to his bedroom where he slit his own throat.

Next we went to the far northeast bedroom — perhaps a guest room — caked with a thick layer of spongy dark green and blue mold. In here we heard a ghostly child’s voice ask, “What’s on your face mommy?”

Sabin started to claw at his face, and we had to restrain him until the fit left him. Poor Kasanda and Laurie ended this way. We carefully backed out from the room.

The washroom was off the north wall, with an iron tub perched upon a floor, sagging beneath its weight.

In the northwest corner was a large bedroom. The bed had been smashed and the mattress slashed, along with the walls and paintings. One painting was still intact, but turned around such that it faced the wall.

A voice shrieked high and piercing, “What do you do down in the damp below?!”

Rigel staggered about and then charged at Avia, screaming! Avia simply held her away with one arm until the evil mood passed.

I turned the painting around to reveal a portrait of Iesha Foxglove, wife of Aldrin, whom he murdered in a fit of rage.

We estimated that the damage done to the room was recent — within the past few months. And so it seems that each generation that lived in this house was destined for some great tragedy… or evil.

A door next to the bedroom led up a flight of stairs to the attic.

The first room was a work-room, with large holes in the roof and pots and urns strategically placed to catch the rain. Woodworking and carpentry tools line the shelves and rest on the work table.

The next four rooms were simple storage rooms holding furniture, bedding and all manner of household goods and supplies.

The southeast corner held a small bedroom and had a low ceiling slanting down to the east. From this room we heard a shriek from the north, and we ran out and over to a door at the end of the hall.

Rigel and Kane fumbled with the lock and Avia burst inside. It was a cold and damp bedroom, with a mold encrusted chimney in one corner and a mirror leaning up against the slimed bricks. There, huddled on the floor and wrapped in a sheet was a woman rocking back and forth and staring at the mirror.

It was Iesha. That is, it was at one time Iesha, although what it was now we were not sure. Avia said she was evil. No real surprise there.

Avia broke the mirror, and then the Iesha thing screamed out, “Aldrin, I can smell your fear! You’ll be in my arms soon.”

Someone suggested letting her go and then following her to find Aldrin (and perhaps provide an unlikely ally in the ensuing, but inevitable conflict), but we had stood in her/its way for too long and it was grasping at us. It had got a hold of Nolin and squeezed him with almost bone crushing strength.

We killed it, and if there was any part of Iesha still present, we ended her misery. The body rapidly decomposed as it lay there, and we covered the remains of the remains with a sheet.

Across the narrow hall from Iesha’s place was a locked door, and beyond the door was an interesting room filled with books, skulls with candles, scroll cases, statues, an empty birdcage, tribal fetishes and other odd but interesting paraphernalia.

A small desk stood squat before a fine leather chair, and as I sat I was overwhelmed with the sound of book pages rapidly turning, and my thoughts turned with excitement over planned expeditions and sea voyages to far away and exotic lands. But these were just pipe dreams now: all forsaken and lost because I had to settle down and marry that harpie!

Hmm, yes, well now I do hate it when that happens.

Two of the scroll cases held magical scrolls:

[201] scroll of lightening bolt
[202] scroll of keen edge

The books were all of tribal cultures, and the Ashanti tribes. A painting of a bull fight hung on the wall caught our eyes as being of high quality.

The final room was over the music room, which itself was over the dining area of the main hall, and this room shared the same bowed alcove and stain glass windows of its fellows. A desk and chair sat in the middle of the room.

• Northern window: a dark haired woman with pale skin and large green eyes, wearing red and black clothing and wielding a jagged iron staff.

• Southern window: the bottom has been broken and the hole covered by canvas, but in the top half we saw a handsome man wearing an ivory and jade crown.

The frame around the broken part of the window was burned, as if something (or someone) was set alight and pushed through.

On the desk was a battered telescope, and in the ceiling above was a trap door, secured by a series of ropes and pulleys. Nolin managed to get the contraption working and we climbed up and out onto the roof. It was late in the day and the sun was close to setting.

We climbed back down from the roof, and then down to the main hall on the ground floor. There we decided it would be prudent to walk the three miles back to the Lost Coast Road to make camp.

Once outside we noticed that in the clearing that had once housed the out buildings for the manor a vast flock of black birds or ravens had roosted. Only these birds had glowing red eyes, and they followed our every move.

Anytime we tried to walk away from the house they would drive us back.

We debated trying various tactics and spells to escape, but decided instead to conserve our magics in case we could not get away and had to camp here anyway.

We set camp between the main hall entry and the ballroom entry, beneath the bare limbs of a twisted tree. We expect trouble overnight, and despite the watch, sleep does not come easy.

== Oathday, Neth 14, 4707; The Misgivings, Morning ==

The night passed quietly and uneventful, if you can call having thousands of beady red glowing eyes staring at you uneventful.

Nolin and Rigel do not look good, and now everyone can see the angry red sores that have erupted from their skin. Kane and I used our healing skills to help as much as possible, but I fear we must escape this place and return to Sandpoint for any hope of a cure.

And apparently the only way to escape is to confront what awaits us in the basement. We’re fairly certain we will find Aldrin, or more precisely what Aldrin has become. No doubt this trap was of his creation, but he may have underestimated our abilities, or so we hope.

We scrambled down the regular stairs, leaving the mold stairway and the magical mystery monkey head as a last resort.

A kitchen. We were not expecting a kitchen, complete with table and fireplace.

The table top was covered with mold (imagine) and rat droppings (disgusting).

Disturbingly large and wide cracks, a foot wide each gape from the southwest wall. Kane has volunteered to go in if we run out of options.

As we explored the area the sound of chattering rats came from the cracks, but with some oil and a little fire we kept the diseased rodents at bay.

A door in the north end of the east wall opened onto a large room with bunks and a chair, but very little dust.

To the west a door opened onto a pantry and the rats. We quickly slammed the door shut before any could squeak through.

Next to the pantry was a door to wine cellar, filled with racks and broken bottles.

A door in the south end of the east wall opened onto a hallway, which turned north and ended in a locked iron door. Rigel and Kane worked hard to pick the lock, and when it opened we found ourselves in a chamber beneath the dining area above.

Of course the east end was bowed, and held two stained glass windows.

Sabin thought this was an arcane workshop at one time, and there is a work bench in the center of the room with three iron bird cages set upon it. In each cage is a diseased rat corpse.

It is too dark to see the images in the stained glass, and I will need to hold a brighter light source near them to see what they portray.

There are no other exists from this room than the way we came in, and now we are deciding what to do next.

Searching for secret doors is high on the list of priorities, but I fear we will need to tread the fiendish ways of a more ethereal stairway to find where Aldrin awaits us.

Postscript:

I have just completed a sketch of the basement floorplan, and noticed that we have not found a way into the area beneath the mold stairway.

== Toilday, Neth 12, 4707; Hambly Farm, Night ==

The night passed with nothing untoward occurring at Ibor Thorn’s place, which was almost disappointing in that it resulted in no new information about the recent murders.

The sheriff had mentioned a scholar camped out at the Old Light who might be able to provide insight in the sihedron rune carved into the victims’ chests. There was also the mad man found wondering near the first murder site, and he was at the Saintly Haven of Respite, an asylum south of town.

We took leave from Prickleback Lane as Ibor left for the lumber mill and made our way to the ancient ruins which the locals called the “Old Light.” There in the midst of the rubble was a small camp, composed of a single tent, a fire ring, various crates containing tools and quite a few provisions. It looked quite comfortable, although I fear our arrival startled the scholar, who was softly snoring within his tent — no doubt recovering from the previous days’ toil… or the bottle of rum that lay empty just outside.

Our mysterious scholar proved to be Quink, the head of the Sages’ Guild, with whom we had an established business relationship. Quink was delighted at having visitors, and assumed we had come to talk about the ancient Thassilonian ruins. He quickly launched into his pet theory about them: conventional wisdom suggested that the Old Light was a beacon that warned away ships from the rocky shore, but Quink was sure it had been a massive flame thrower used to repel invading forces from the sea.

We mentioned the carving of the sihedron rune on the victims’ bodies, but he was unaware of any significance such a desecration would hold. He explained that originally the symbol represented the Seven Virtues, and only during the declining years of the Empire was it subverted to the Seven Sins.

When we mentioned that Aldern Foxglove was missing, Quink said that misfortune appeared to follow that family. Foxglove Manor, on the Lost Coast Road to the south of Sandpoint, was built before the city was founded, and the Foxglove family was wealthy and prominent, and remained so until the “Late Unpleasantness.”

Aldern’s mother was found dead on the rocks beneath the cliff upon which the manor perched, and his father apparently took his own life in an outbuilding nearby. The children, Aldern and his sisters, were found hiding within the house and were taken to Magnimar to be raised. The Manor has been called “The Misgivings” ever since.

Noting that Foxglove Manor and the asylum were in the same general area we left Quink to his research and began our journey south along the Lost Coast Road.

The grey funk that had enveloped Sandpoint over the past few days lifted and our journey south became a pleasant walk through wood, rolling hills and quaint farm-steads. before long a small sign directed us onto a narrow lane that wandered about the foot of a green mound and ended in a meadow beneath the eves of a forest.

Sitting in the meadow was the Saintly Haven of Respite, a large three story building of stone. At first glance the building could have been mistaken for a large manor house for the nearby farm lands, but closer inspection gave lie to the illusion. A few grimy windows peered out from the main floor, but the upper levels were blank walls; and the single heavy, iron bound wooden door made the place feel more like a prison than a hospital.

We knocked and waited. And waited until we knocked again. Presently the door creaked open a few inches and a dirty, pinched face man peered out and demanded to know what we wanted. We explained that we were here to see Graist, the lunatic from the first murder site. The man’s face twisted into a scowl and he replied that the doctor did not wish to be disturbed, and we would do well to be off.

Immediately we became suspicious and my friends fanned out around the building as I informed the unhelpful servant that we were here on official business of Sheriff Hemlock, and they would do well not to obstruct our investigation. He burped and wiped his face with a filthy calloused hand before opening the door and telling us to wait in the office while he fetched the doctor.

Naturally we did not sit passively but explored the first floor, but saw nothing untoward. The doctor appeared and while cleaner than his henchman, was no more polite nor any more helpful. He introduced himself as Erin Habe and said his patient was far too ill for visitors. We persisted and he granted a few of us a brief visit with the invalid.

Sabin, Avia and I followed the doctor up a flight of stairs to a large dim hallway with many narrow doors lining either side, and then across and up another flight to the top level.

There, huddled in the corner of a small room was a pale, gangrenous looking fellow bound in a straight jacket. He was sobbing and his greasy hair stuck out wildly like the straw in a scarecrow.

We could make out snatches of what he was muttering, over and over, “Razors! Teeth! Too many teeth?”

Sabin used a mind reading spell and picked up thoughts of being bound and forced to watch the carving of the bodies. He also picked out a name, the “Skinsaw Man”, as the identity of who or what had done this.

Graist suddenly realized he had visitors, and he quickly gazed first at Sabin and then I with a puzzled expression, but when his glance fell to Avia his eyes practically bulged from their sockets.

“You would come,” he raved, “He saved a space for you! You come to the misgivings and he will end the killings.”

The madman was filled with rage from what look to be unbridled jealousy over the thought of Avia and… the Skinsaw Man. He suddenly dropped to the floor writhing in agony as he screamed, “Me! Me! It should have been me!”

He then burst out of his straight jacket and lunged at Avia, but he was subdued before he could do any harm to us or himself. Doctor Habe confirmed what I had suspected: the man was in the final stages of “Ghoul Fever”. But his condition was curable, and I was puzzled at why Habe would allow anyone to suffer for so long when relief was half a day away in Sandpoint.

Meanwhile the rest of our group had taken up defensive positions outside the asylum (old habits die hard) when an old man came running up the lane, crying out something about scarecrows.

Rigel was able to calm him down and found that his name was Crump, and that he had just been by the Hambly farm where dire things were afoot. “People was dead, but they was still movin’, and eatin’ animals alive like what is unnatural. And some was hung up like scarecrows, and with the full moon tonight they’ll turn and he’ll be back!”

We had heard the commotion from inside, and came running out along with Habe, who knew Crump and said he wasn’t known for his flights of fancy. We could only assume the worse.

We first sent Trask to Sandpoint on horseback with the securely bound Graist in the hopes that Father Zantus would be able to cure him. Then Crump led us south, towards the Hambly farm where unnatural things awaited us.

Crump provided an informative narration about the lands through which we walked. For instance the nearby wood was “Whisper Wood, where gnomes and pixies play and lay traps for mortals foolish enough to go in. But the best land is right up agin them woods, and so that’s where the farms are.”

Fields of corn stretched away to the south, interlaced with paths and roads. According to Crump, scarecrows were set out about the fields, and some had come to life.

We made straight for the farm house and barn, where a scarecrow was perched outside on a post. The thing began to struggle wildly on its perch and sprang down, lurching towards us. Avia confirmed that it was evil, and we quickly dispatched it. It looked vaguely human, but with strongly ghoulish features.

Avia then detected half a dozen evil entities in the barn, and a single strong source of evil from the house. We silently barred the barn doors from the outside, and then rushed into the house from the front and side doors. A very large ghoul awaited within, and cried “Ghouls to me!” as we charged it.

We quickly killed the ghoul and found that it had a leather cord about its neck from which hung an iron key with an engraved symbol upon it: a flower surrounded by thorns. Avia recognized it as the Foxglove family herald.

[198] iron key on a cord with Foxglove family herald

On the floor, beside the ghoul, were the remains of a man with a seven sided star carved into his chest. A note next to the body read, “Take the fever into you, my love. It will be my first gift to you.”

Crump identified the body as having been farmer Hambly.

So was the ghoul with the key hung from its neck Foxglove, or was it his emissary and the key intended to go along with the message? At the time it seemed unclear, but now, as I pen this entry the latter seems far more likely.

Over at the barn there was a great deal of commotion as the ghouls we had trapped within banged against the doors to get out. We opened one of the doors and killed them one by one as they tumbled out.

Oddly enough the barn was built on top of old stone work that looked like the top of a giant helmed head.

We then set about the gruesome task of walking the roads through the fields and checking on each scarecrow. When we encountered ghouls we killed them.

On the way back to the house we found a small boy hiding in the fields, whom we put in the care of Crump, who was ready to head back to his farm now that the ghoul infestation was under control.

We returned to Hambly’s house where a search uncovered a small cash of gold coins in a strong box beneath the floor boards, and a key to the box on Hambly’s body. We kept them to return to his next of kin.

With dusk drawing nigh we set up camp in the farm yard.

I am spending the hours of my watch making this entry, as wolves howl from the nearby wood. It would be a tranquil scene, but for the mayhem and carnage of the past few days.

== Wealday, Neth 13, 4707; The Misgivings, Noon ==

In the morning we returned to the Lost Coast Road, where we met up with Trask who was returning from Sandpoint. We continued south and crossed the Foxglove River through covered bridge, where we turned west.

The way had once been a grand and stately avenue lined with trees on either side, but had been neglected an disused for decades. Weeds grew thick beneath the tangled half dead limbs of the trees, cutting off the view and making it feel stuffy, despite the cool weather.

Following the twisty road some three miles further we came upon the glowering hulk that was Foxglove Manor — it gave off both a sad and sinister air, and we realized why the locals all called it “The Misgivings.”

An irregular low tumble of stone was all that remained of the out-buildings that crouched in a clearing before the house. The drive led past this and up to the house itself: a tall and ungainly thing perched right at the edge of the cliff — as if it too meant to cast itself upon the rocky shore far below.

The grounds were on a narrow, high headland that jutted east into a crescent shaped bay that had cut back into the mainland. Thorny brambles choked the hanful of trees barely clinging to life, and the wind came in from the sea in a raging shriek, cold and bitter.

We searched the site of the service buildings first, but found nothing but scorched stone and bits of charred wood. A well sat at one end, and sickly looking ravens hopped about the place, staring at us with their beady black eyes, and occasionally objecting to our presence with croaking caws of reproach.

The house. That forlorn structure, crooked, sagging and neglected waited for us. And I mean just that: it felt as if the thing were alive and waiting for us, but whether with malice, benign intent, or total indifference I could not say.

We walked about it, peering into windows and trying to get a feel for the layout within. But the windows were clouded with grime and most were blocked by heavy curtains. On the east side the house crept to within inches of a precipitous drop of some 300 feet.

Looking at one another we realized we had nothing left to do but enter the house. Rigel did her usual checks for traps at the front doors and used the key to unlock them. The wooden floor stretched away from us into the gloom.

As we walked into the grand hallway Nolin said the place reeked strongly of burning wood, but nobody else noticed it, and a few moments later Nolin reported that the smell had gone. We all heard the creaking as the wind hammered on the house. And we all could smell the dank smell of mouldering wood and plaster.

The wide hallway ran the entire length of the house and a massive, rotting stuffed manticore faced the entrance. Large stone fireplaces lined this part of the hall, and heavy blue curtains covered the windows and gave the place a dusky feel. The lintels over the doors boasted freezes of gargoyles and angels, and a circular staircase wound tightly up and out of sight in the southern wall.

Avia said the place was evil. Not any particular part of the house, but the house itself, as if evil had soaked into the walls, floors and ceiling.

I wandered further in and past the stairway I found a door which opened into a drawing room. I pulled aside the curtain to let in some light when just for a moment I saw the likeness of a beautiful woman, face forlorn, reflected in the glass.

Back out in the middle section of the hall an antique monkey head was mounted on the wall, and a bell pull ran out from its gaping mouth. The floor was covered with a tattered rug, which barely concealed a large patch of mold. I pulled away the rug and revealed a large swirling pattern of blue, green and black mold growing in the floor boards.

Concentrating on the swirling pattern I realized that it depicted a spiral stair case leading down, with skulls and bones littering the steps. I quickly stepped back from the moldy image and warned my companions of what I saw.

I then opened the door in the southern wall to what looked like a closet and found regular stairs leading up. To the north a similar door opened to stairs leading down.

The eastern end of the hall bowed out like the prow of a ship. A large mahogany table with high back chairs filled this end, and another pair of fireplaces to the north and south lined the room. A great chandelier covered in dust and draped with cobwebs hung over the table.

The real interest of the hall, however, was the bank of stained glass windows in the eastern wall. Each depicted a stylized monster pouring out like smoke from a seven sided box with spiky runes. Looking closer we realized that the runes were necromantic and that the monsters were being pulled into the box, with snarling faces.

One window depicted a gnarled and tangled tree with a face.

The next an immense hooked beak bird with blue and gold plumage.

The next a winged centaur like creature with a lion’s body and a woman’s torso.

The last window showed a blue squid like creature with evil red eyes.

As we gazed at the windows my companions all heard the sound of sobbing coming from upstairs, but I heard nothing.

I found it odd that these intricate stained glass windows had been placed in the eastern wall: the wall that overlooked the bay and must provide an amazing view. And yet the Foxgloves chose to block out the view in favor of… well, some rather tacky glassware.

There are stairs to explore, both up and down, and more doors on this level to open; but we’ve taken a moment to think about what it is we came here for, and I have taken this opportunity to enter the morning’s events and review my entries from the past few days.

Postscript, or things we know and things we suspect:

• We suspect Aldrin Foxglove of being behind the murders in Sandpoint and the ghoul fever outbreak in the farmlands to the west of here. The key to the manor taken from the ghoul along with the accompanying note makes it seem obvious that either Foxglove is responsible, or someone wants us to think he is.
• Our presence is expected here at Foxglove Manor, and we should expect a trap.
• Recall the words of the lunatic Graist spoken to Avia: “You come to the MISGIVINGS and he will end the killings.”
• Also recall the name Sabin pulled from Graist’s mind: Skinsaw Man.
• If this is how Foxglove Manor was built, then they were odd people when they arrived here some 80 years ago.

Toilday, Neth 5, 4707; Thistlestop, Evening

And so our adventures at Thistlestop have come to an end at last, or will by morning when we take leave of this place.

Shortly after our noon break we conducted a final thorough search of the lower levels and found no more than what our previous efforts revealed.

This left only the natural cavern to explore with its cephalopodic resident.

The first thing we discovered was that the squid-man beast’s chambers stank. After overcoming a wave of nausea from the noisome air we next noticed that the floor of the cavern, although uneven and natural, were worn smooth, as if this creature or members of its brood had shuffled about down here for countless years, polishing the rock with their flappy feet.

To the south was a room used by the goblins and Nualia’s ilk for disposing of refuse.

To the west a large cave that opened onto the bay below through a screen of brush and thistle (what else?).

To the north was another chamber, and the source of the horrific smell that filled these caverns. It was within; passively waiting.

We made a little noise in the cave and withdrew as the squid thing shambled down to investigate. As it hovered near the cave opening above the bay — though whether it paused trying to discern the source of the noise, was lost in thought over its lot in life, or because it simply forgot why it had moved in the first place I cannot say — Avia and I crept into the north chamber, gagging as the fetid odor enveloped us.

There, lying in a large heap on the floor were many dozens of bodies in various states of decomposition. Birds, small woodland animals, goblins and various other unidentifiable bits and bobs of flesh.

Some of the bodies were quite recent additions, and I managed to rescue a few items of potential use (or value) from their former owners.

[198] masterwork dog skin armor (small)
[199] masterwork short bow

After a quick search for secret doors we retreated back to the entry and closed the door behind us.

The squid-man creature was not evil, and it or its kind had been living there for generations. Furthermore it served as an effective guard against unwanted entry via the cave opening to the west. We left it there, and I gave a silent prayer that it would remain there unmolested, living as it had for so long.

On the way back up to the goblin fortress we stopped and looked once more at the goblin drawing depicting a goblin-giant beneath Thistlestop. What it actually meant or represented we will probably never know.

We have set up camp in the fortress after gathering the items to take back to Sandpoint tomorrow. Sabin will use a spell to create magically floating disks to carry the heavier items, which will save us the time, trouble and expense of going back to town to hire a horse and cart.

Wealday, Neth 6, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

We are back in Sandpoint. I must admit a certain fondness for this village, huddled quaintly on the promontory above the mouth of the Turandarok River.

The sun was shining brightly when we arrived, slanting down at its morning angle, glancing off the shingled roofs and casting beams of bright and dark in the dusty air between the buildings.

The salt smell from the Varisian Gulf mixes with the vegetative smell of river bottom and is spiced with the tang of fish from the docks along the harbor; thus giving the city an interesting, but not at all unpleasant aroma that is uniquely Sandpoint.

The townsfolk were already out and making headway against the day’s toil. But even then most had a friendly word or polite nod for us as we came in through the north gate and entered the city.

I had lived near or in Magnimar for all of my life, and while I was comfortably familiar with life in the big city, I never felt I was at home anywhere until I came here.

While the rest of our team proceeded to the Rusty Dragon with our loot, Sabin, Kane and I took the gold plated giant helmet up Tower Street to the Sage’s Guild.

Master Quink was fascinated with the helmet and the tale of our explorations at Thistlestop, but he remained skeptical about there being actual Runelord ruins beneath. “After all,” he reasoned, “these ancient Runelord dwellings have been lost for centuries, and now you claim to have found two within as many months?”

We have arranged to take them on a trip to Thistlestop tomorrow so they can see for themselves what lies beneath.

We also broached the topic of the well of power in the ruins beneath Sandpoint. According to Nualia’s notes these can be used for great evil as long as they are active, and so we expressed our concern about this to Quink, offering our services for removing the threat. He was receptive, and we will work out the details when we return tomorrow.

Trask spent much of his day making the rounds to his usual social haunts. For some unfathomable reason he was looking for Lord Foxglove, the dandified local whom we rescued during the first goblin invasion. He had seemed infatuated with our group, badgering us attend one of his hunting trips, and when that failed to pique our interest begging us to let him come on one of our exploratory trips.

Most of us tried to avoid him when in town, and so it came as a surprise when Trask returned to the Rusty Dragon this evening with news that Foxglove had been missing for the better part of a week.

Apparently he had left quite a few debts about town, but the only surprising thing about this piece of news was that anyone was foolish enough to extend him credit in the first place.

On an unrelated note, I have been wondering and worrying about the reason for Sedjewick leaving with Shalelu for Magnimar. An undead uprising sounded ominous, and so I posted a letter to father Tyrion asking if he has heard any news of such goings on.

Perhaps I will be able to sleep well tonight.

Oathday, Neth 7, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

The morning dawned chill, overcast and misty, and I dreaded the damp dreary trudge with the Quink and his colleagues to Thistlestop that awaited me. But my misfortune turned to fortune as we approached Thistlestop from the beach just as the mist cleared to reveal the island as if it were floating upon a cloud.

I heard the gasps of surprise and delight from the sages and knew they were sold.

During the tour of the Runelord complex they ran giddily about, talking in loud excited voices like school boys.

I took great care to explain the squid creature’s presence and how it was an asset to be appreciated and treasured rather than a liability to be remedied.

By the time we returned to Sandpoint we had agreed upon a fee of 1,000 gp for Thistlestop plus another 150 gp for the giant helmet. We included the Thassilonian scrolls and books from Nualia’s lair with the understanding that we could access them when needed.

The Sandpoint Sage’s Guild is well on the way to being an important and central resource and authority on Runelords, and I am delighted to have had a hand in that.

Those of our party who had not made the return trek to Thistlestop had not been idle in Sandpoint, and the excess items we had collected were sold for a tidy profit, which netted each of us 375 gp. We have maintained our tradition of giving an equal share to a “group fund”, which now has a balance of 389 gp. I find myself with a staggering balance of around 400 gp, even after tithing a share at the cathedral.

My friends had also updated Mayor Deverin and Father Zantus on our finds at Thistlestop. Father Zantus asked to be present when we deactivate the well beneath Sandpoint, and the mayor invited us to attend the upcoming Moonday Festival as guests of honor.

Fireday, Neth 8, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

A tiring but productive day.

We returned to the temple beneath Sandpoint and, using a few drops of blood from my hand, summoned sins-pawn from the well until its evil red glow faded and then winked out altogether.

Three times we summoned and destroyed one of those hateful creatures as Father Zantus and Master Quink looked on from the far end of the room.

We left the well dark, grey and inactive.

Starday, Neth 9, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

Spent most of the day resting and puttering about Sandpoint.

I stopped by the old Glass-works, but the doors were locked, and there was no obvious sign of recent activity.

I walked through Wet Dog Alley on the way down to the harbor. There was a funny smell here I could not quite place, and while it was not particularly offensive, it was also not particularly pleasant.

Foxglove is still missing. Some of us are concerned, while others merely curious.

Sunday, Neth 10, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

I spent most of the day working at the cathedral, while outside the sun failed to make her presence known on the day named in her honor.

The noon service was disrupted by one of the local down and outs who had changed the copper pieces he had begged earlier to wine, or something stronger, before staggering in to get out of the cold and damp. Usually these sorts of visits are both tolerated and even encouraged, but this worthy decided to relieve himself in the hall.

I feel restless. Obviously the sedentary life is not for me.

The Moonday Festival is tomorrow at noon.

Moonday, Neth 11, 4707; Sandpoint, Night

The day began well with the arrival of a letter from Father Tyrion saying that there was no need to worry about any undead problems in Magnimar. He was glad to read that I was making myself of use around Sandpoint and sent his warmest regards to Father Zantus, which I passed on.

The Moonday Festival was a pleasant diversion, with the mayor and other local dignitaries speaking about the bright future waiting for Sandpoint. The food was tasty and plentiful and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves.

Everyone except for Sheriff Hemlock, who glared at us through the entire proceedings with a perpetual from upon his face.

Intrigued I asked him what was afoot, but he quickly whispered, “Not here and not now. Later — in my office.”

Later, in his office, Hemlock revealed grim news. There was a pair of grizzly murders at the lumber mill the previous night. One of the victims had been mutilated in a particular way; and two nights earlier three other victims had been discovered at a nearby farm, each mutilated in the same way.

He thought the murderer was known to us, and was hoping we could help with the investigation. Hemlock then handed over a note, splattered with blood, with Avia’s name written upon it (in blood). The note read thus:

You will learn to love me, desire me as SHE did.
Give yourself to the Pack and it shall all end.

Your Lordship

That we were surprised is an understatement, and oddly enough my first thought was, “So that’s what Foxglove has been up to.”

We first followed Hemlock to where the corpses from the first murder were kept.

These bodies had been found by the town patrol when a crazed man, screaming and laughing, ran by them and into a barn where the corpses lay.

The crazed man was a local thug, but his days of being a ruffian for hire are over, and he has been sent away to an asylum.

The three victims were all local con men, and had all been slashed with what must have been a five fingered claw. On each of their chests was carved the shape of a seven pointed star.

At the lumber mill the two victims were Harker, who was comanager of the mill, and a local young woman, named Katrine. of the two, Harker’s body was mutilated in the same way as the other victims, while Katrine had been thrown into the giant circular blade of the log splitter while it was still running.

Harker’s partner, Ibor Thorn, who had discovered the two bodies, was in custody on suspicion of murder. Katrine’s father was also in custody, but mostly for protective reasons as he was insane with anger and grief.

Some of us had actually met Katrine and her father just after the first goblin raid. She had shown herself to be more than a little over sexed and uninhibited; a trait ignored by her father, who assumed anyone who came near Katrine was after her virtue, which even then seemed likely to be a commodity already well consumed.

From the evidence at murder scene we deduced that someone (or thing) had crawled up out from the river and left muddy prints (they appeared to be bare human feet) and broken into the offices on the second floor of the lumber mill, and from there tracked down and attacked Harker.

Katrine and Harker had been seeing one another at the mill in the evenings to hide their affair from her father. She came upon Harker and his assailant and had taken an axe to who or whatever it was. The price for her bravery was her death.

The attacker finished his job with Harker and then hung him from a hook on the wall.

The scene of the murders reeked of rotting flesh (the barn where the first murders occurred was said to have held the same stench), which made us suspect something unnatural was at work. Most of the yard had been splattered with sticky, red blood — fortunately it was cold and the flies had not yet descended in droves to feast upon the gore.

Trask went to the garrison to question Thorn while I searched Harker’s place for evidence. Thorn was angry and unwilling to speak, and at Harker’s I found only love letters from Katrine.

I also checked out Thorn’s residence, and as I was leaving I came upon Thorn himself who had just been released. I commiserated with him about the injustice of the legal system and offered him a drink and dinner, over which we talked about the mill in general and Harker in particular.

Thorn confirmed what we already knew about the couple being an item, and that they would regularly meet at night at the mill. The mill was owned by the Scarnetti family, an infamous name with which we were already familiar, but for the time being he was unwilling to say more.

I then took Thorn to the Rusty Dragon, where we were seated in a private dining room. After consuming much brandy Thorn confessed that Harker had been cooking the books at the mill, and that he, Thorn, knew trouble would come of it. The Scarnetti family would never allow such a thing to go unnoticed or unpunished.

Thorn thought the Scarnetti’s knew that Harker was acting upon his own and wouldn’t take action against him, but he was obviously nervous and seemed to be trying to convince himself that this was the case rather than stating it as fact.

As Thorn progressed through the brandy my fellow team mates showed up, and we discussed what we had each found, and tried to make sense of it all.

That something unnatural and possibly undead was haunting Sandpoint seemed obvious.

That this thing was operating under the orders of the Scarnetti family seemed plausible. Those con men could have tried to take in the Scarnetti’s in some sort of scam, and of course Harker was cheating them. But then how does the seven pointed star carved into the murder victim’s chest fit in? That image is an obvious Runelord symbol, but were they put there as a distraction?

The connection to Avia was more disturbing, and I fear my original impulse to blame Foxglove may prove to be correct. But the Foxglove we knew was not capable of such acts, and so we suspect something has happened to him or done to him to change him into some sort of monster.

Tonight we are keeping watch at Thorn’s place while he sleeps. I almost hope that the creature comes for him in the night so that we may have some answers.

The clouds are out, but thining, and the moon brightly illuminates them from behind, and casts the entire town in a feeble diffuse yellow light.

This is a most disturbing ending to a Moonday.

Sunday, Lamashan 27, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

It has been more than a fortnight since our return to Sandpoint. We were fortunate in that the proceeds from selling the loot we recovered thus far at Thistlestop were more than enough for all of us to train and purchase equipment and supplies.

We’re all quite busy with training and preparations for a return to Thistlestop. All of us that is except for Sedjewick.

Earlier tonight Sedjewick met with us at The Rusty Dragon and announced he was leaving south for Magnimar. In fact he would be accompanying the ranger Shalelu, who was heading down to investigate rumors of some sort of undead uprising within that ancient city. Sedjewick seemed quite enthusiastic about the journey, and exceptionally excited to be traveling with Shalelu. Rigel seemed oddly put off by this entire chain of events.

We felt compelled to join them on this trek to ensure that any infestation of undead was exterminated, but our first priority was to complete the exploration of Thistlestop. And so it was with a heavy heart we bid farewell to Sedjewick, our trusty bard.

Master Foxglove, the stylish young man we rescued from the initial goblin invasion weeks ago, has begun to hang around our group and asking to be taken along on one of our quests. I am afraid he little realizes the perils of our activities, and his death would seem the most likely outcome if his wish were granted.

Yesterday I purchased a scimitar from the local smithy. It is a fine weapon, and of much better quality than the old second hand model I have been using. Tomorrow I resume my training and hope to improve my fighting techniques with my new and improved blade.

Saturday, Neth 2, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening

We’ve purchased additional healing potions and are set to return to Thistlestop in the morning.

Sunday, Neth 3, 4707; Thistlestop, Evening

The trip back to Thistlestop was uneventful.

We carefully scouted the mainland encampment and found signs that goblins had indeed been there while we were away. There were goblin corpses from a tribe we could not identify, but they were already rotting and there was no sign of recent activity.

I do wonder about those goblin bodies, and if we have created some sort of goblin power vacuum that will increase the conflicts among the local tribes. One can hope.

Nolin and Kane climbed up to the top of Thistlestop and cast over a rope to the rest of us waiting at the cliff’s edge. We then pulled the rope bridge over and made it secure.

Once back on Thistlestop we searched for signs that anyone had been on the island, but found nothing. Kane climbed over the fortress wall and opened the gate for the rest of us to enter.

We decided to leave the rope bridge intact even though we knew it would no doubt encourage visitors of the goblin kind while we were within, but we did bar the fortress gates closed behind us.

Our first order of business was to explore the chamber we had missed last time. I had discovered this omission after we had returned to Sandpoint where I updated my journal and looked over the maps and sketches I had made of where we’d been.

Sabin and I spent a little time magically washing out the goblin latrine, which was next to the chamber, and indeed behind the privy itself Rigel found a secret door that opened into a small dusty room. A very large sea chest with a heavy lock invitingly lay on the floor.

Rigel picked the lock and managed to avoid a poison blade trap and we moved the chest into the nearby conference room.

The chest was heavy, and contained a fair amount of coins and a number of valuable items.

7432 copper pieces
2490 silver pieces
89 gold pieces
3 platinum pieces

While it might take some effort to get the coinage back to Sandpoint, the total value of the coinage was still a respectable 442gp, 3sp and 2cp.

[183] leather pouch with 34 flawed malachites [~1gp each] (Rigel)
[184] medium chain-mail shirt (Nolin)
[185] medium masterwork scimitar (Olithar)
[186] masterwork manacles (Rigel)
[187] gold holy symbol of Sarenrae (Avia)
[188] jade necklace (Rigel)
[189] fine blue silk gown with silver trim (Avia)

The scimitar was as good as the one I had just recently purchased, and it is indeed a pity we did not find this treasure earlier.

It took most of the afternoon to sort through the items in the chest, after which we stored it back in the secret chamber.

We’ve set up camp in Ripnugget’s old throne room.

Moonday, Neth 4, 4707; Thistlestop, Morning

The night passed without event… sort of. I had a very disturbing dream from which I awakened suddenly and found that I was breathing hard and my heart was racing. I remember hearing a voice from way down deep below saying, “The Whisperer shall have vengeance!”

Most peculiar. Typically dreams don’t bother me, but this one gave me the creeps. And who or what might a “whisperer” be?

Moonday, Neth 4, 4707; Thistlestop, Afternoon

We spent the early morning hours in the level below the fort, making sure nothing had crept in (or out) in our absence. We then descended to the lower level and proceeded to the chamber where Avia had detected evil.

I used a Detect Undead spell to find three entities of moderate power hiding in or behind the sarcophagi at the far end of the room.

We marched in and opened each sarcophagus as we slowly moved toward back of the room. There was naught but old bones and dust in these, but before we were half way across the room three humanoid shadows floated up and hovered above their sarcophagi.

We attacked, but with disastrous results. The lightest touch from these ghostly fiends weakened those of mortal flesh. Avia, Kane and Sabin all felt their strength ebb before we managed to destroy the shadows.

I had some restorative magic memorized, and I was able to restore Sabin’s strength with two Lesser Restoration spells. The others will have to wait for tomorrow, or even the day after for full restoration.

While exploring the remaining sarcophagi Rigel noted their asymmetrical placement, and discovered a secret door on the west wall. Beyond it was a narrow corridor that branched to the north before turning north itself.

Rigel, Trask, Nolin and I crept in and found that beyond both the branch and the turn were steps leading down. Each of the stairs ended in a door, and from behind each door we could here the soft sound of moving water.

The door at the far end of the corridor opened west into a flooded hallway that ran north, disappearing in a large dark pool of water.

The door at the end of the branch opened north into an empty room, the north- west corner of which had caved in, revealing a dark space beyond, and through which water had poured, flooding that part of the room.

The walls of this room had been carved to depict a treasury filled with coins and gems, while the right wall had a carving of a mountain. Upon the mountain’s peak was a stern face, and at the mountain’s foot was a city of many spires.

Rigel moved to the corner of the room and peered in through the wide crack and saw shiny objects glittering in her torch light, and a giant gold helmet that pivoted to face her. She quickly backed away.

I then crept down the flooded hallway and saw the submerged chamber where the huge helmet sat, partly below and partly above the water’s surface. It rotated around to face me.

I then plunged an ever-burning torch into the water, which lit up enough of the underwater scene that we could see that a large portion of this lower level had collapsed and tilted towards the west (the same as the statue lined hallway above). Part of the floor had given way and slid down into a natural cavern farther below.

There was no magic that we could detect within, and how the helmet moved to apparently track our presence puzzled us mightily.

Sabin can see in the dark, and so we covered our ever burning torches while he peered into the flooded chamber from the empty room. The helmet pivoted around to face him.

I moved a little closer to the helmet from the hall as Nolin did the same from the room. All of a sudden a pair of large crab-like claws snapped out from beneath the helmet and hit Nolin.

A massive crab must have taken up residence in the helmet like a hermit crab, but on a much grander scale. We struck back and between the physical blows and magical attacks (I used Heat Metal on the helmet to some useful affect) we managed to kill the giant crab and cook our dinner all in one fell swoop.

Using ropes and a lot of elbow grease we pulled the giant helmet out from the pool, and then extracted the crab meat. The helmet was an actual plated gold helmet, but made for a giant.

I remembered some bit I read before about how the Rune Lords had equipped giants in their wars, and realized this helmet must be a relic from that period.

We scoured the underwater room for valuables, and Sabin even swam down into the lower cavern to fetch a few gem stones we saw glistening below.

3537 silver pieces
645 gold pieces

This added another 995gp and 37sp worth of coins to our haul, but we also found some interesting objects as well.

[190] 40 precious stones [~10 gp each] (Olithar)
[191] jade amulet : +1 natural armor (???)
[192] helmet [giant] [~300 pounds]

We were quite disappointed that we did not find a seven rayed star to use as a key for the double doors in the hidden area of the complex. We decided to rest for the evening, restore what strength we could in the morning, and then search the two rooms we had only briefly looked at last time.

We’ve made an early camp down here and set up the watch. I hope I don’t have any more peculiar dreams tonight.

Toilday, Neth 5, 4707; Thistlestop, Noon

We returned to the area hidden behind the column of gold coins.

Our first stop was the “king room”, where we had seen the ghostly image of an ancient Rune Lord giving a fragment of a speech over and over again. We found nothing new here.

The laboratory was a different story. Looking more closely at the tables and their contents we found a gruesome collection of bones that gave the appearance that someone was trying to graft parts of one creature (or person) onto another. It brought back memories of the disfigured skeletons we found in the cells beneath Sandpoint.

On one of the tables was a collection of surgical tools, and beneath these was a silver and gold seven rayed star. We had found the key to the mysterious double doors!

[193] surgical tools (Sabin)
[194] silver and gold seven rayed star with knobs and blades (Kane)

Out at the doors Kane used the key and the doors opened into the room as a blast of hot, humid air enveloped us.

In the middle of the room was a fire pit ten foot long and five wide, and on either side was a wooden bench upon which candles brightly glowed. On the far wall was engraved a huge seven rayed star. The entire room radiated magic.

Avia detected a strong presence of evil in the southeast corner as we filed into the room and arrayed ourselves for battle.

Avia charged in and slashed at some invisible foe just as it became visible.

It was a large wolfish looking creature with primate like arms and hands. It growled something evil sounding — Sabin later said it spoke in Abyssal, and said “I will devour you!”

It was a strong creature, and incredibly difficult to hit, or even when hit it appeared somehow resistant to injury. None the less we were many, strong, and undaunted and pressed our attack. Soon the creature blinked over to the other side of the room, and from then on winked in and out from sight as we hewed and hacked at it.

Eventually it simply vanished in a cloud of greasy black smoke.

Other than the candles and fire pit, there was not much of interest in this room until we found two secret alcoves. While one simply contained empty shelves, in the other we found a silver box filled with sand.

Carefully sifting through the sand we found a magic ring with a seven pointed star inscribed upon it. This ring proved to be able to generate a wall of +2 force shield that can be quickly and easily activated or deactivated.

[195] 30 ever burning candles (Olithar)
[196] silver box (Rigel)
[197] ring of +2 force shield [free action to activate/deactivate] (Trask?)

We must now decide what is left to do here.

And what of this room itself? What was its purpose? Is it now a simple benign location, or is there something more sinister to find here?

The part of the complex that houses the squid beast remains unexplored, and we would be remiss if we were to leave it so. Still, I’d rather not kill some harmless beast that happens to live there if that can be avoided.

And what about the bizarre drawing of a huge goblin beneath the island of Thistlestop? We appear to have explored all of the way down to the sea level without finding any such chamber or creature — I wonder if a goblin had wandered down in years past and saw the giant helmet, and then embellished his report of the helmet with the tale of a suitably sized goblin to go with it.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; evening

Sedjewick, Kane and Avia all spent time talking with our captured mercenary, during which time Trask and Sabin guarded the secret entry down, and the rest of us continued to explore this level.

The man’s name is Oric, and he was hired in Magnimar by Nualia to be her personal bodyguard. Oric had traveled with her as she searched ancient sites around the region, including the ruins beneath Sandpoint. He understood that Nualia was hell bent on revenge for some great wrongs done in her past, but exactly what those wrongs were or how her revenge would result in the slaughter of the innocents in Sandpoint he seemed to be oblivious.

Oric recounted how as time went by Nualia became more fanatical and driven than when he had first been hired, and that recently she had remained sequestered in the lower levels of the complex, where he was forbidden to go. He had effectively ceased to be her body guard and became more a regular guard who, along with the bug-bear, patrolled the first floor of the ancient works; a position that until our arrival had been mundane and superfluous because of the goblin fortress above.

Oric was extremely concerned about the location of the sorceress, Akenja; and apparently he and she had developed a relationship over the months they were confined together at this outpost. He was grateful that she had been spared and set free, but greatly troubled about her chances for survival on her own without her spell-book or armor.

Meanwhile Rigel and Nolin had developed a method for handling unopened doors: first Rigel would check for traps and locks, and then Nolin would open the door and enter. Sedjewick and I provided backup should anything aggressive or nasty await within.

Our first door was in the cathedral, and opened onto a short flight of stairs down that ended in a locked door. That door opened into a prison ward, with six empty cells lining the south wall, and torture devices, some showing signs of recent use, hanging from the walls or set upon tables.

A north door from the prison revealed another short hall, and another door, beyond which was a gruesome room with a bench and more hideous devices for torture laying upon a work bench. Sedjewick found a key in here, but what it unlocks we have yet to discover.

[162] key (Rigel)

East of the cells was a hall leading to the south room that Nolin had seen earlier in the day, and from which the bug-bear had come. Three doors lined the southern wall, and through the first was a quartet of female goblins, who alas showed no more concern for personal hygiene than their male counter parts.

We were deciding what to do with them when they shrieked and grabbed bows and arrows, and prepared to shoot us. I launched a Flaming Hands spell that incinerated one and severely burned a second, and Nolin stepped up and swiftly put the others out of their misery.

The further southern door opened into what must pass for a nursery among goblins. Shelves lines the walls, and cages were stacked upon the shelves. Within two cages were two goblin-imps. What shall we do with them? We closed the door for now and left them to the darkness.

The center southern door led to a hallway that turned west that ended in a door and had doors opening on either side. These proved to be the bedrooms for the non-goblin work force. Oric’s (north side) and the bug-bear’s bedrooms were first, followed by Tsuto’s (north side) and Kanja’s bedrooms. There were papers in Tsuto’s room, prattling on about how he would take over his father’s estate, and another ever-burning torch glowing in Kanja’s.

[163] ever-burning torch (Kane)

At the end was Nualia’s room behind a locked door. While her room was larger and more ornately furnished than the other four, we found nothing of use within.

We returned to Oric and the rest of the party, and then agreed to let him go with a weapon (the horse slicer), so he could find his beloved Kanja and escort her back to Sandpoint. We told him that if in two weeks’ time she went to the Sandpoint cathedral and ask for Kane, he would return her spell-book to her (after our magic users have had a chance to copy them) along with her puch of components.

Nolin and Kane escorted him to the bridge, and watched as he vanished into the brush.

Sedjewick and Sabin spent this time reading Kanja’s spells:

Level 0:
All available spells.

Level 1:
Comprehend Languages
Detect Secret Doors
Floating Disc (with the name “Tensor” scratched out)
Identify
Obscuring Mist
Sleep

Level 2:
Locate Object
Minor Image
See Invisibility
Spider Climb

Trask and Sabin then examined our newly acquired magic items:

[134] steel wand of Magic Missiles [38] (Trask)
[135] potion of Cure Light Wounds (Olithar)
[142] cloak of +1 resistance (Rigel)
[145] ever-burning torch (Sedjewick)
[152] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Sabin)
[153] +1 banded mail (Nolin)
[155] ever-burning torch (Olithar)
[156] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Nolin)
[161] 4 elf-bane arrows

We have decided to rest for the evening before tackling the secret door and the ominous stairway down into the dark unknown.

Rigel has spiked the secret door to prevent it from opening, and we have taken the adjacent “board room” for our sleeping quarters. Rigel and I have the first watch.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; near midnight

Nolin and Kane had just started the second watch when a troop of goblins came down the “back stairs” from the fortress above. Another returning patrol of goblins had found the fortress deserted, and set themselves up as the occupants. An exploratory party was scouting out the rest of the complex when they stumbled upon us.

Kane and Nolin awoke the rest of us, and blocked the doorway, protecting the rest of us as we woke to the gibbering yelps of surprised (and outraged) goblins.

Kane warned them to be off or die, but goblins are not very good at logic, and the thought that whoever was down here must have already decimated an entire fortress full of their kind was lost on them.

While the fighters chopped down the invasion force, Trask and I slipped out the back door and quickly scanned the hallways and chamber for any incursion from above, but found it empty. Our search led us to the main stairs up, and from above I could hear the sound of combat. Trask swiftly ran back to notify the others that more goblins were in the fortress while I ran upstairs.

Nolin, Avia and the others had cut down all of their goblins, and after going up the back stairs to check on the war horse, they found more goblins above, shooting arrows at them from the two towers. They ran back into the fortress to find anf engage the enemy.

Fairly quickly the entire party was on hand — except for Trask, who remained on guard at the secret door much like a canary in a mine: if we came back to find him dead, we would know trouble was at hand — and the goblins from the towers and at the entrance were dead. From the throne room, however, we heard chanting and what sounded like a heated argument underway. Avia burst through a door with the rest of us following in her wake.

A goblin commando and chanter were at work readying a small squad of goblins for combat, but they had little time to respond to our entrance. Avia savagely slashed the chanter, while Nolin charged in and engaged a group of their fighters. From the south doors Sabin, Rigel, Kane and Trask attacked, while Sedjewick sang a tune that countered the goblin chanter’s harsh melody.

I stepped up to the commander to protect Avia’s and Nolin’s flanks, but felt ill equipped. I am not much of a fighter, and had not had a chance to put on my armor. Fortunately the commander was not as skilled as he appeared, and I gave better than I got in our exchange of blows before Avia stepped up and chopped him in two.

Soon the rest of our foes were dead, and we tossed all of their corpses off the cliff into the sea.

The enchanter had a potion which we confiscated before committing his mortal remains to the sea.

[164] potion of Cure Light Wounds (Kane)

We have returned to the board room and are preparing to resume our rest, with an additional watch (Rigel and I again) tacked on in the morning to ensure that everyone is fully rested and restored for the day ahead.

Starday, Lamashan 12, 4707; Thistlestop; mid morning

Though the morning light did not penetrate our underground lair, we could feel its blessing spread across the land above as we awoke, rested and ready for the challenges of the day ahead.

Sabin and Rigel were to chosen lead the party, because Sabin is fearless and can see in the dark, and Rigel has a very special way with doors and traps.

Down the stairs led, then around and back again to a stone door sitting slightly ajar. The door had been ornately carved with images of gem stones and crowns, but it had been defaced and marred by heavy hammer blows and chisel gouges.

Sabin peered into the darkness beyond to a large chamber with statues nestled in alcoves on either side and another door in the far wall. A closer look revealed that the entire room and floor was tilted back to the west: a tilt that extended through the door and into the hall from which we entered. This was not part of the chamber’s design, but rather the result of some great upheaval that had thrust up the east side of the room, causing the statues in their alcoves to fall over against their western walls.

The statues themselves were all the same, and of a robed man holding a book in one hand and a glave in another. But these statues, like the door, had been hacked and gouged such that few details remained.

Columns supported the ceiling, and the room glowed faintly with magic, like the residual magic of some spell long cast. The air in the room was unexpectedly fresh for such a confined space so far down, and we speculated that a spell had been used to make it so.

The east door was closed, but unlocked, and it too showed signs of a vicious attack. Sabin cracked the door open and light peeped out and around the door from the far side.

A hallway, with an alcove on either side in which were two statues, the same as those in the previous chamber, but these were not so damaged. The hall ended in a third alcove, where another statue perched, but this one had been hacked off above the mid section, although no sign remained of the top half. A lantern on the floor gave a soft and comforting light.

Opposing one another to the north and south were stone doors, each engraved in ancient Thassilonian with the words,

“The Great and Glorious Empire of Thassilonia, May We Always Defend Her”

Sabin had entered the hall, but noticed the floor just before him was a little more polished than the rest of the surrounding stone. Rigel stepped up and discovered that there was a pressure plate there, that if stepped upon would release a block of stone from above. She worked intently and disabled the trap, although it was more than a little disconcerting to watch her tumble past the pressure plate, as if she did not trust her own work.

After Rigel had declared the doors to the north and south un-trapped and unlocked, she returned to the entry room while Sabin, Nolin and I prepared to open the north door.

With the door opened, a vast circular room could be seen beyond, with a red marble ledge running around the circumference and a font of frothy water bubbling away in the back. The entire chamber was brightly lit by four brightly blazing skulls.

In the center of all stood a brooding figure figure of power and menace. Beautiful she was as a celestial maiden, and yet hideous too, like some perverted demonic spawn. Her hair was silver, and one hand clutched a large bastard sword, while the other was no hand at all, but a loathsome red claw that bespoke corruption.

And she turned, and she looked at us, and then she smiled an evil grin as if she had been aware of us all along and had in mind to play with us before putting us to some horrible end.

It was Nualia.

All of this passed before my mind in an instant, and then there was Nolin standing beside her and hacking at her with a mighty stroke of his two handed sword. She smiled no longer, and struck at Nolin fiercely, drawing blood.

I quickly launched a feeble cone of flame at her, which no doubt caused some minor damage, but this was a foe that I could not stand against exchanging blows.

Avia raced in from the hallway and was poised for a strike as Sabin launched his ax at her. And then, as Avia was about to smite Nualia, a hell hound appeared from the ledge and leaped down upon Avia, causing her grievous harm.

But Avia, Paladin of Sarenrae, was not to be distracted from her purpose, and she smote Nualia with a bitter righteous rage, and the evil she-hag momentarily staggered beneath the onslaught.

I became aware that Kane had entered battle, and in the distance I could hear the encouraging song of Sedjewick, and I then knew my part in this battle.

Often I have wondered just what my overall contribution to this party should be as we investigated the threat to Sandpoint, explored mysterious catacombs, and fought evil. And in those engagements I often joined with the fighters to more quickly overcome our enemies, or to heal those of us seriously injured so that they might continue the fight.

And certainly I shall continue to do these things as need arises, but now I could clearly see that my primary purpose was to bring the fierce holy light of Sarenrae to aid my fellows in just such a moment as this.

I stepped forward and with a touch to Nolin’s armor infused him with Protection from Evil.

As the battle continued, with the hound and Nualia wreaking terrible damage against Avia — I watched in horror as scars across Nualia’s mid section glowed when she struck Avia — and I enchanted Sabin’s ax, and then stepped over and healed Avia as she dealt a killing blow to Nualia.

The dog-beast was swiftly slain, and we were victorious!

Avia cut off Nualia’s head — you can never be too cautious when dealing with such beings — and we removed all of her possessions..

[165] breastplate (magic)
[166] bastard sword (magic)
[167] silver medallion of the sign of seven deadly sins (magic)
[168] masterwork composite long-bow
[169] 20 arrows
[170] gold holy symbol to Lamashtu (evil)

From the room we found a few other items of interest.

[171-1740] Four burning skulls (magic)
[175] holy texts to Lamashtu
[176] Nualia’s personal papers

The fountain was briefly examined and found to be instilled with a complex set of conjuration and divination magics.

Sedjewick perused Nualia’s personal notes and found they contained her history, as well as notes on the Rune Lord’s well of power beneath Sandpoint.

We already knew that Nualia had been born with Celestial blood, and as such she was constantly pestered and badgered by the townsfolk of Sandpoint.

She had made close friends with a stranger, “Deleck Visconta”, and the two of them explored the tunnel complex beneath Sandpoint to escape the notice of the people of the town. They became romantically involved, but when Nualia told Deleck that she was pregnant, he ridiculed her, and calling her a slut he stormed off, leaving her to face the shame alone.

Worse yet, Nualia’s unborn child had been conceived in the very chamber as the well of power — the only one known to be active — and her child was still-born as a monstrous deformed thing that the midwife took, burned and buried.

All of this twisted Nualia’s perception of her Celestial blessing and made her think it a curse. And so she ever sought a way to remove the taint from her blood and to seek vengeance on the town of Sandpoint and all of its people, whom she held responsible for her misfortunes.

Included in her notes were instructions for how to call sin spawn from the well of power. The well must be energized by a vengeful death within a mile of the it. A few drops of blood in the well will then summon the creature.

Nualia also recorded a warning to not summon too many sin spawns from the well without energizing it first, or the well would become inactive; and she knew not how to reactivate the wells.

It is likely that we have yet to find all of Nualia’s possessions: she must have had a store of gold or platinum pieces on hand she used to pay her staff.

And what of the “humans that dig for her” that Kanja had mentioned?

But for the present we had another unopened door to explore, and so Avia opened the door and we moved to the unusuall hall within. It was roughly “L” shaped, with the east half ending in an alcove with magic column of gold coins, and the south half ending in a pair of double stone doors.

The doors were carved with two skeletons holding a single skull between them.

I found a hollow behind the stack of coins, and two slots on either side of the stack, which appeared to be the perfect size for inserting real gold coins. The coins on the column appeared to be fused together (if they were indeed coins or even gold).

Kane and Rigel put a coin in each of the slots, and the column sunk into the floor, revealing a T shaped hall beyond.

Dust was thick and undisturbed on the floor of this hall, which had three sets of double doors.

Behind the northern doors was a throne room with a throne set upon a dais flanked by two statues, and a ghostly image of a robed man with a book in one hand and a glave in the other, and it repeated the same short speech over and over again to a long absent audience.

The speech appeared to be a command for his followers to remain through the dark times that had descended upon them, and that he, Karzoug, would ultimately triumph over the rival Rune Lord, Alaznut, who’s statue we had found in the catacombs beneath Sandpoint.

The east doors opened onto steps leading down to an oddly shaped oblong room with three work benches covered in bones (from more than one body), and various tools.

Upon the southern doors was carved the image of the seven pointed star, which was indented as if a matching key should be inserted here. An intricate collection of slots and indentations were within the star, indicating some complex key was required to open the doors.

We decided to leave the doors and more detailed explorations of the rooms off of this hall for a later time, and so we returned to the L shaped hall and the doors at the southern end. But first we put another gold coin in each of the slots, which caused the column of coins to rise, closing off the eastern hall.

The skeleton doors were opened and we looked through into a large room with a domed ceiling held aloft by four pillars. At the far end in the center of the room was a statue of a robed man with a book in one hand and a glave in the other. Alcoves were set about the room, and vertically positioned sarcophagi stood in each.

Avia quietly announced that evil emanated from the farthest three sarcophogi.

We decided to close all of the doors down here along with the secret entrance.

Above we will pull back the rope bridge and isolate the island fortress so we can return to Sandpoint for training and supplies before we brave the new evils that lurk beneath the surface at Thistlestop.

Back in the fortress I have released the bunnies, and paid one last visit to the goblin-grubs locked in the cages.

We have gathered together on the far side of the bridge with the spoils of war, and Nolin is about to pull back the bridge and use a rope and the hand holds to climb down to the base of the island, where we (along with the war horse) will meet with him and begin the trek back to Sandpoint.

And in looking forward to our return to Sandpoint I have made an inventory of all the interesting items we have found in this quest, so we can decide what to keep and what to sell. We will need gold in order to train and adequately equip ourselves for the trials that lay ahead.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; after noon

As I completed my previous journal entry the bodies of the fallen goblins were searched and anything useful was taken:

[123] potion Cure of Moderate Wounds (Avia)
[124] potion Cure of Moderate Wounds (Nolin)
[125] breastplate (small)
[126] +1 dog slicer
[127] dented crown (small)
[128] key ring
[129] wand of silent image (5 charges)
[130] potion of Cure Light Wounds (Sabin)
[131] horse slicer
[132] masterwork studded leather armor (small) (Kane)

While scanning through my earlier journal entries I realized that this goblin king must be Ripnugget, whom (according to Tsutso) helped plan the attack on Sandpoint. The little oaf was still out cold, and nobody wanted to waste healing energy on him so we tied him up and Rigel and Sedjewick dragged him along.

To the north of this throne room we found Ripnugget’s bed chamber, and upon seeing the squalid room reserved for goblin royalty, my opinion of goblin kind plunged to a new low.

From within a desk we found an ugly silver holy symbol of Lamashtu, with her lovely three jackal heads staring back at us with garnets for eyes. At least the gem stones and silver will be worth something.

[133] silver holy symbol of Lamashtu (ugly)

Next was the elimination of the threat from the goblin dogs in the yard, which Avia, Nolin and Sabin dispatched quickly.

In the yard, before the door of an out building were two dead goblins with crushed heads. The door of the out building had been nailed shut, and within was a war horse in a piteous state. We left the horse until we had explored the area.

To the north of the yard was a door leading to a series of small hallways and yet more doors, which in turn led to the goblin privy (words cannot describe the stench), an office with a round table and five chairs, and stairs leading down.

To the south of the yard was a door leading to a storage room (tools, tack and harness), and within was a cage with two rabbits. I brought the cage out and we provided fresh food and water, plus food for the horse scavenged from outside the fortress and clean water.

Nolin and Avia then brought the horse out from its prison and after calming it, Nolin led it outside where he decided to remain for the time being, tending to its needs. We pulled a few boards off the wall of the stockade near the stairs leading down so Nolin would have easy access if we called. We left Ripnugget with him.

The rest of us crept down the back stairs, which were stone and of a quality exceeding the skill of the goblins to delve. The steps ended in a rickety wood door of goblin make.

Beyond the door was a large room that had been used for the planning of the Sandpoint attack. A large table was in the center of the room surrounded by chairs, and on a wall was a large slate board with many chalk markings. A map of Sandpoint had been drawn amid various other scrawling comments, including the following:

Once the Whispering Beast has been tamed.

Sin-spawn will invade Sandpoint from beneath.

The room boasted another door to the east and one to the west. We opted for the east door, which led down a hall to a small room. The lower four feet of the walls in this room were covered with crudely drawn goblins — goblins attacking humans and doing all sorts of nasty and disgusting things to them. The drawings appeared o be made with mud, dirt, and if my nose was not deceived, goblin dung.

On the north wall of the room was something more interesting: a drawing of a sideways view Thistlestop island complex. The goblin fort squat atop the top, with the rooms and halls in which we now stood drawn below. An beneath all, in a large cavern in the center of the island a huge chained goblin was depicted with a dog slicer in each hand. If the scale of the drawing was consistent (and believed), then this was truly a goblin giant, towering some thirty feet high.

Sabin decided that it was bad policy to leave an unchecked door behind us, and so he opened the west door of the large planning room.

Within was a smaller room with a table covered by scrolls, stone tablets, and bits and pieces of ancient relics. Excavation tools lay against one wall, and a lantern on the table lit the room. On the near side of the table was a hooded figure.

The figure looked up just as Sabin struck her with his mighty ax. She fell to the floor, mortally wounded. I stepped in and stabilized her so she would not die, and then searched her to see if she carried anything that would explain her presence and function here.

[134] steel wand (magic)
[135] potion (magic)
[136] scroll of Sleep
[137] scroll of Comprehend Languages
[138] scroll of Minor Image
[139] scroll of See Invisible
[140] scroll of Whispering Wind
[141] dagger (returned to Akenja)
[142] cloak (magic)
[143] silver comb
[144] silk gown (returned to Akenja)
[145] finely crafted torch (magic)
[146] pouch of spell components (probably)

Most of the books and scrolls on the table were written in Thassilonian, and described the ancient empire. There was also a spell book.

[147] Books and scrolls from this room
[148] Akenja’s spell book

The woman was obviously a spell caster, and according to Avia, evil. She was young (in her 20s perhaps) and had dark skin. Sedjewick had seen her around Sandpoint, although he did not know her name.

We gagged and bound her and decided it was time to get some answers. We hauled her up to where Nolin was waiting and I channelled enough energy to revive the goblin king.

Ripnugget was a boastful and vain little cuss, and gave us little more than threats and braggadocio at first — even after we pointed out that his great empire of goblins had just been decimated by a handful of strangers. But then Kane said something to him in that yapping sound I’ve come to recognize as goblin language, and Ripnugget began to provide slightly more useful answers.

His excuse for attacking Sandpoint was that the goblins were destined to rule the world. I imagine this would be similar to the way cock-roaches have managed to infest much of the world.

Old king Ripnugget hated Tsutso and had nothing but scorn for him, but he was either in such fear or awe of Nualia that he would say little about her.

He did think that the large goblin in the drawing on the wall below was real, and that all of us “long shanks” would get our comeuppance when it was released upon an unsuspecting world. Of course the fact that he told us meant that this event would hardly be a surprise, but there’s no talking logic with a goblin.

With his reticence for answering questions about Nualia, Ripnugget had out lived his usefulness, and he fell in combat, as promised, with Kane.

With a little more channelled energy our other guest awoke. Having just spent the better part of half an hour questioning Ripnugget with little to show for the effort, I decided to try the direct approach with our spell caster.

“You have two choices,” I told her, “Refuse to answer, lie or distort the truth and die slowly, or answer honestly and live.”

She opted to live, and proved quite cooperative.

Her name is Akenja, and her primary job on site was to research ruins and relics for Nualia. She specialized in Thassilonian society and had been in Nualia’s employment for several months. Side note: it seems to me that Nualia pays rather well — indeed far more than anything we could hope to match had we thought to buy off those working for her with coin.

Akenja spent most of her time working here, although she had been to various other ruins. Mostly Nualia brought her items to identify here, and she felt certain that Nualia was looking for something specific, although she had no idea what that might be.

She said that there were others working below, mostly human, who did the bulk of the dirty work.

Tsutso and Nualia were close, but Akenja could not hide her contempt of the vain little man.

Nualia had been present at the fort just the previous evening, and was probably somewhere down below even now.

The sin-spawn were nasty, and could be summoned from the wells of power that the ancient Rune Lords had created. The only functioning well of which she was aware was the one beneath Sandpoint.

She already knew that the under caverns of Sandpoint had been opened up and were actively being researched by the Sages’ Guild. Most likely this meant that Nualia was also aware of this, and we should warn the sages that there was a greater risk of invasion than we had already thought.

Akenja promised to leave the area and not return — in fact after telling us so much she thought her only option for personal safety was to flee as far from Nualia as she could. We led her to the bridge and allowed her and her familiar (a cat) to leave.

We regrouped and returned to the complex below.

South of the “island diagram” room was a large hall with double doors off to the west, a short corridor ending in a door east, and a door south.

A waft of air with a salt tang came in through the cracks of the east door, which made us suspect that the tentacled creature Nolin had seen the day before lurked within. Cracking the door open Avia saw rough hewn (or natural) tunnels leading off in various direction, and an opening directly ahead partially blocked by hanging nettles but looking out over the bay.

Avia stealthily stepped in a few paces before she saw a giant squid creature hiding in a small chamber to the southwest. She quickly returned and shut the door.

Meanwhile Nolin had opened the southern door, beyond which was a large room with several ramshackle doors to the south, doors east and west, and another exit to the north. A lantern hung from a hook in the north wall and dog pelts were piled in a corner. Nolin backed out from the room and closed the door.

The double doors were stone and carved with figures of pregnant women of different races with demonic creatures crawling out from their wombs.

These doors opened onto a large cathedral chamber with columns lining either side. The west end of the room was raised above the floor and accessed by stone steps, which lead up to an altar of black marble and a statue of Lamashtu the Hideous beyond. Braziers smoked on either side of the altar, and on either side of the door were fonts containing dark frothy water.

Sedjewick rushed into the room, and in his eagerness did not wait for the rest of us. Two pair of dark red glowing eyes peered out from the smoke rising up from the braziers, following him has he confidently strode up to the steps.

Kane called out just two large hairless hounds stepped out from behind the braziers. Sedjewick pulled up short, but before he could make it back to the doors two more hounds flew down from the ceiling blocking off his escape.

The hounds ripped into Sedjewick, who dropped unconscious as the rest of us flung ourselves into battle.

The hounds were the most difficult things we had yet encountered, and it took the combined efforts of our entire party to slay them. Our front line fighters were doing their best holding off the damnable things, but they proved difficult to hit and difficult to harm. Avia grabbed Sedjewick as Nolin and Kane provided a rear-guard, and we fell back to the hallway.

Avia and Nolin stood their ground in the doorway while Kane and I provided healing and magic support. Sedjewick was back in action and singing encouragement as Sabin entered the fray with his ax and offensive spells.

Alas, but Rigel and Trask fled the battle early on, for the hounds occasionally let loose with a horrific baying that filled the listener with dread. Eventually they mastered their fears and returned to the battle to aid in the final defeat of these dastardly demonic dogs.

With the hound menace removed we cautiously explored the cathedral. The left and right hands of Lamashtu held glowing kukri, but these were part of the statue and glowing orange and blue by means of continual flame spells.

Ashes upon the altar appeared to have been the cremated remains of some poor soul — possibly Father Tobyn. We removed the ashes and used picks from the other room to hack at the altar and roll it off the dais, and then proceeded to hack off the arms and heads from the statue.

While we were engaged in these activities Nolin was standing guard at the entrance and heard the southern door open and close. He peered around the corner to see a bugbear loosen an arrow at him, which missed and clattered to the floor. Nolin anxiously signalled for the rest of us to keep quiet and of the presence of enemies in the corridor.

Trask scampered out the doors and across the hall before he could be shot, and Avia charged in to engage the bugbear in combat. Avia took an arrow for her efforts, but she carved into her opponent as Sabin stepped up from behind to offer support.

A short while later a well armed man appeared at the north end of the hallway and shot an arrow at Avia. Nolin raced over and disabled the man, who tossed aside his weapons and cried for mercy.

Meanwhile the bugbear ran off back through the room to the south, up the main stairs into the fortress, then around to the back stairs and down into the room where we had found Akenja. It was frantically searching the west wall for something when Avia kicked in the door and finished it off.

Searching the west wall revealed a secret passage and a stair leading down.

Meanwhile Nolin had disarmed the man and searched him for possessions while I questioned him.

[149] masterwork bastard sword
[150] composite long bow
[151] 20 arrows
[152] potion (healing, according to the man)
[153] banded mail (magic)
[154] masterwork heavy shield
[155] magic torch

2 platinum pieces

The man is a mercenary and knew very little of use. He and the bugbear were the guards on this level, but he was not allowed to go to the restricted lower levels. He had come up the stairs when they first heard us arrive and then down the back stairs to launch a sneak attack.

Avia assured us he was not evil, and so we gagged and bound him in the slate board room and promised he would live provided he remained still and silent.

The bugbear was carrying the following:

[156] potion
[157] studded leather armor
[158] heavy flail
[159] master work composite bow (+4 STR)
[160] 16 arrows
[161] 4 arrows (magic)

4 platinum pieces

We have gathered together in the board room and are deciding on our next course of action. According to the man the rest of this level should be foe-free, and and so we ought to finish exploring and mapping it before we tackle the stairs down.

It may be that Nualia lurks below along with other allies, and we are currently tired and low on spells and energy.

But can we wait?