The Template of Elemental Evil

Jeff Obarski is running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. At some point someone (probably me, Alan) referred to it as the Template of Elemental Evil and the name stuck. For any C++ geeks reading this, naturally it's correctly expressed evil<elemental>.

The Return to the Temple of Elemental is loooong. Too long. It starts out well enough, with varied environments and goals. However, on June 1, 2002, we entered the Stalagos caves. On June 5, 2003, we were in the same caves. With that Jeff announced that because of the unreasonably long length and general dissatisfaction that the game was cancelled. Over our truncated adventure we defeated over 600 monsters, gained about four levels, and covered about two dozen sheets of graph paper with maps. It's a big dungeon. Unfortuntaetly it's probably too big of a dungeon. There will be no more session updates, but if I ever get inspired I may scan in our maps (including about 90% of the Stalagos crater caverns by our estimates).

• Player Characters
• Game Dates Covered
• Real Dates Covered
• History
• Things Defeated
• Other RttToEE Sites

Player Characters

Joined	Character	Player	Race	Gender	Profession	Left
Planting 28th	Steiner Whiteforge	Alan	Dwarf	Male	Fighter
Planting 28th	"Zook" Aarkadimir Sparklestone	Chuck	Gnome	Male	Cleric of Fharlaughn
Planting 28th	Cecil Finlay	Erich	Human	Male	Archeologist (Fighter)	Left party Richfest 2nd.
Planting 28th	Gimir	Mark	Elf	Male	Wizard	Killed on Flocktime 8th in fight with spies in Homlet
Planting 28th	Nica Greenleaf	Vivian	Halfling	Female	Adventurer (Fighter/Rogue)
Flocktime 8th	Silla	Mark	Elf	Female	Paladin of Ehlonna	Left party Sunsebb 7th.
Richfest 2nd	Tenaris Glimmerdawn	Karyn	Elf	Female	Fighter
		Originally NPC, played as a visitor character by Joe B. for a while. Finally taken as a full PC by Karyn.
Backup Character Pool
	Bendik the Frost Barbarian	(Alan)	Human	Male	Sorcerer
	Vlix	(Chuck)	Human	Male	Paladin/Monk
		(Erich)	Halfling		Evoker
		(Mark)	Half-orc		Monk
		(Vivian)			Monk (Cleric?)

Game Dates Covered

Days of the week: Starday, Sunday, Moonday, Godsday, Watersday, Earthday, Freeday

Real Dates Covered

2002

February 23, March 9, 16, 23, 30, April 7, 13, 20, 27, May 18, June 1, 8, 16, 21, 22, 29, July 13, 21, August 3, 17, 23, 31, September 7, 21, 28, October 5, 11, 12, November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, December 7, 14, 21, 28

2003

January 4, 11, 18, 25, February 1, 15, March 1, 15, April 5, 19, May 3, June 5,

History

February 23, 2002

Planting 28th

We're on the road from Verbobonc to a town called Homlet. We've heard there might be ruins worth exploring in the area. As we're travelling, three orcs try to ambush us. During the fight, an ogre tries to flank us. The orcs are easily dispatched, but the ogre is a bit of a challenge. We eventually dispatch them, claiming a bunch of gold and a green jasper from their bodies.

An hour or so later, we arrive in the village fo Homlet. There are several large buildings including temples to Ehlona, Pelor, and St. Cuthbert. We get accomidations at the only inn, the Inn of the Welcome Wench. A battlehardened looking man by the name of Osler is the innkeep. During our conversation, we learn that he settled here after participating in a major battle where Fyrondy defeated a mighty evil force. His daughter Vesta helps run the place.

During dinner, a foofy elf with a terrible voice starts to play. I ask him how much for him to stop singing. For some reason he takes offense and leaves. Elves. As the evening wears on, it becomes clear that the Wench attracts townies as their primary customers. I head off looking for a bar with more atmosphere. I eventually settle in at Taragen's. The beer is piss, but it's cheap. From Taragen I learn that an elven bard by the name of Redinsar knows about the ruins of an old moathouse. He generously gives us directions to the moathouse. Drinks for the evening are free for me after I win a drinking bar bet with Taragen. I faintly remember stumbling back to my cot in the common room at the Wench early in the morning.

March 9, 2002

Flocktime 1st

I wake with a hangover. Hardly surprising. After staggering around town without pants looking for food, I rejoin the party. The party spends morning getting breakfast and considering our options. We learn that there is a ruined moathouse with a dungeon below about a day away. Further away is a haunted hamlet called Nulb. Near Nulb is an abandoned temple. Gimir visits Redinsar alone, apparently the rest of the party doesn't feel I'm up to dealing with the elven bard again. Gimir discovers that the old temple was known as the Temple of Elemental Evil, and the moathouse was as extension of the temple. Elemental evil, huh? Sounds cheery.

We refresh our supplies and head out to explore the old moathouse. As evening approaches we meet an old human man heading the other way. He's got long unkept hair and beard and is wearing furry hides. His name is Old Dell and he is a local fur trapper. He has seen weird priests, gnolls with unusually nice equipment, and a dragon at the moathouse. He recommends we avoid it.

Get travel a bit closer to the moathouse and camp for the night.

Flocktime 2nd

The next morning we head to the moathouse. Over the outer walls we can see that the wooden building inside is mostly collapsed. An old but recently patched drawbridge spans the moat.

We scout around the edge of the moathouse. To one side we encounter a giant frog. It mistakes us for food and we're forced to slay it.

We cautiously move into the moathouse. The tower's insides are completely gone, leaving an empty tube. The main building mostly burnt down some time ago. We enter the main building through a collapsed window. Most of the rooms are empty, save for occasional scraps hinting at prior occupants. One room has several rotten animal trophies.

In the main room we find two bodies, one a human man in ochre robes and the other a woman in black studded leather armor. Before we can investigate further, a blue dragon twice my size attacks us. It blasts us with it's lightening breath. As we assault the dragon, it swoops around the room, filling the air with dust, making it impossible to see. It's a tough fight, but we eventually slay it.

We're badly injured, so we quickly loot the room. Both of the human bodies have strange amulets, black iron triangles with upside down yellow "Y"s. I've tried to draw one. One of the bodies also has a lilac colored stone mask carved to look like it is screaming. We hack off dragon's head, claws, wings, and tail as trophies and retreat to camp. We spend the remainder of the day recovering from the fight.

That night, while the we try to rest, several dire badgers attack our camp. In our battered state it's a dangerous fight, but we prevail.

Flocktime 3rd

We're so drained from our fights with the dragon and the badgers, we rest at camp for the day.

Flocktime 4th

Recovered and feeling ready to face the moathouse again, we return. As we move into the courtyard, arrows fly out of the main entrance at us (the room where the dragon was). Gimir throws magical webbing into the room and the party runs for cover through the north-west window where we entered two days ago. We come into the main chamber from the side and take the four gnolls as they are breaking out of the webbing. We take them pretty easily.

As Old Dell had commented, the gnolls were unusually well equipped. They all wore well kept scale mail, black cloaks, and have well crafted battle axes. They also wore the strange triangular amulets.

In the southeast corner of the moathouse, part of the wall has collapsed allowing a small pool of moat water to seep in. As we investigate the water, a strange grey watery oozy thing that blends into the wall attacks us. It is acidic and damages our metal, but we dispatch it.

To the northeast we find a room with ebon tapestries in bad shape. One of the walls is partially collapsed. Gimir notices something unusual about one of the walls and finds a secret door leading to stairs down.

Heading down, we find two gnolls and a woman in ochre robes. They may have been examining some objects on white sheets on the floor, but we we arrive the gnolls attack while the woman flees. The human sends in some skeletons as support, but Zook easily destroys them with grace of Fharlaughn. Cecil quickly slays the gnolls and we chase the woman into the next room. The ochre robed woman charms Nica with a spell that causes Nica to flee. I slay the ochre robed woman. Unsurprisingly, she is also wearing a black triangle amulet.

Examining the white sheets, we find an iron torch, three black cones, a black sceptre with inlaid gems, a small black sphere, and a black metal scroll case. The scroll case has some rotted parchment infested with worms. No one in the party is able to read the writing on the parchment.

Further in we find a large L shaped room. Another gnoll is guarding the room. We dispatch it and move further in. Several undead, a ghast and ghoul attack as we explore the room further.

The the southeast support column, we find a secret door. It opens to reveal iron rungs leading down.

Hiding in a wrecked storeroom to the northwest a human man is hiding. He says his name is Spugnwar, he's a wizard who was exploring the ruins and fled inward when he ran into problems. He run the scroll shop in Homlet. We head back to camp with him.

Zook stays behind a bit and magically detects battle axes like te ones the gnolls have been equipped with. (We've taken all of the gnoll battle axes we've found so far). He senses one about 200 feet east of the keep's northeast corner and about 20 feet down.

We camp of the night.

March 16, 2002

Flocktime 5th

We return the moathouse and head down the the passage hidden in the column. At the bottom, a short cooridor ends in a secret door. Beyond is a crypt. There are sarcophogi in shallow alcoves. The secret door opens behind one of these sarcophogi. As we move in, four ghouls move to attack, but Zook quickly destroys them down with Fharlaugn's holy power.

Moving inward, we find a room with several beds, a few sacks, and an iron chest. While probing the chest, Nica triggers a spray of acid, but fortunately she is quick enough to dodge out of the way. Inside we find a journal. It discusses finding an obalisk and a secret cave. The obalisk is apparently for speaking with some imprisioned evil divine master. It involves some "Elder elemental eye."

Zook is pretty sure the eye symbols on the black robes and inverted Y amulets are symbols of the elder elemental eye. Those who follow may worship evil elementals. The last rise of the temple of elemental evil involved Zugtomoy and Iuz. Iuz's involvement somehow caused the fall.

Moving through several zig-zagging rooms, we come to a diamond shaped room. As we move in, seven gnolls jump us. We quickly dispatch them. One side passage ends in an unusally hard wall of stone that doesn't match the rest of the dungeon. We leave it be for now.

Natural passages heading south from the crypt leave to a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. After a great deal of exploring, we come to a natural chamber. A dark altar sits in front of a carved column of stone.

The alter appears to be a dark, porous rock. While searching, someone touches the altar. At the touch, it quickly becomes transparent, looking something like amethyst. Something dark writhes inside the altar. The altar is extremely cold, paralyzing Nica as she tried to search it.

The column has four sides in different colors. The black side shows a man in armor and robes. The green side shows a masked man in robes. The blood red side shows a man in a hood. The indigo side hows a man wearing a pleated robe. Searching the column, we find a secret compartment on each side. Behind the black face is a black, dull marble. Behind the red: silver wind chime. Indigo: a bronze bazier with three incense. Green: an ebon black, skin covered drum.

We retreat to the surface with the paralyzed Nica. She recovers after a bit. We camp for the night.

Flocktime 6th

We head back into the dungeon. On the stairs down on the second dungeon level, we're attacked by a foul undead whose smell turns the stomach. Zook quickly turns it, but it returns quickly supported by two spellcasters in cowled robes, one is black, one in purple. As the spellcasters approach, a new, more horrible smell fills the air. The second smell saps our strength, making defeating the threesome difficult, but we prevail.

Having slain them, we find that the cowled figure wearing black is a strange lizard being and is generating the foul smell, a troglodyte. it is wearing a pendant with an inverted ziggarat. The other is a human man. Their equipment is particularly high quality. We drag the horrible smelling undead ghast and the troglodyte to a side room we don't plan on returning to so we don't need to face the smell.

Down the stairs is a single room. A large pit dominates the room. We can practically feel ill forces below. Looking down, it's at least sixty feet deep. A stone plug that looks like it woudl fit the pit rests against the wall to the north. A platform hangs from a pulley system in the ceiling. The platform is clearly designed for lowing someone down. A smaller version of the four sided, four colored column is the in corner. We search it, but no secret compartments are found.

The platform looks stable, so we climb on and start lowering ourselves down. Some distance down we find the remains of the mortor holding the plug in place. Just above the mortor line water streams out of a small hole in the wall. Without the plug below, the water falls into the darkness.

Further down, the pit opens into a huge natural cavern on all sides. The air starts getting uncomfortably chill. About forty feet down we land on a pillar in the middle of the cavern. The pillar's top is slightly convex and is made of black, marble-like stone with jagged purple veins through it. The pillar is round and about thirty foot wide. At this point we can't see the far walls of the cavern, nor the real floor. Another pulley held platform hangs off the edge of the pillar, inviting us deeper.

A we look around, a large brain with tentacles floats over and attacks. It's tentacles paralyze me and tries to drag me away, fortunately I'm heavily equipped and not light myself. During the fight Cecil steps off of the platform. As he does, the purple veins animate into tentacles and approach. Cecil quickly hopped back onto the platform and the veins receeded back into the stone. Unable to drag me away, the brain monster paralyzed Gimir and started to drag him away, but not before the party slew it. Seriously injured from our fight, we retreat. As we do so, we toss a copper piece with light cast on it down the cavern. The cavern is so deep that it falls out of view.

March 23, 2002

We head back to town, arriving in the late afternoon. We sell much of the equipment we've claimed. I purchase a mighty bow. Now that we have a chance, we reread the journal more carefully.

The journal is by a "Geynor Ton." It refers to the Great Church and the Masters of All Consumption. Geynor apparently was working with scaly beastmen. Perhaps he was referring to the troglodyte. He looked forward to leaving the accursed town and it's flour mill. Is he talking about Homlet? A Chatrilon brought him venison and other food from a nearby inn. An "Elder Elemental Eye" is involved. Doomdreams prophecied a Dark Obelisk. Geynor had been working with a larger group including Gungash (who died), Master Thaque (killed by a dragon), and a Festrath. He also noted that he liked Tashi's spicebread.

At the Welcome Wench, we learn that Chatrilon was a guest and left three days ago. Around the same time, Maritoson, a barkeep left around the same time. Chatrilon had been at the inn for several months. Chatrilon is a tall, wiry human man with dark hair. We rest for the night.

Flocktime 7th

We spend the day resting while Gimir identifies the items we've found. That night, it's time for hard drinking.

Flocktime 8th

We sell magic items that we don't want and split our loot. I discover that I broke up a fight at Targen's last night when it interrupted my drinking.

We go see the captain of the guard, Elmo, about the journal mentioning the flour mill. Elmo is interested in consulting Jeru, the local druid. We head with Elmo and Jeru to the flour mill. The employees working there claim to not know anything. I head into the basement uninvited. Maritoson and others, including a half orc, are lurking in the basement. They attack. Jeru fights on the side of the spies, Elmo sides with us. It's a tough fight. Beads of force are thrown by both sides and our enemy raise the dead to fight. Gimir is killed during the fight. When Jeru is slain his body shifts to that of a grey, featureless form. He was a doppleganger.

One of the dead has an upside down ziggarat amulet. A female corpse has a triangle amulet.

Inside a trapped chest in the room we find a letter from Nanquit to a Master Dunrat. The letter instructs Dunray to set up a secret base in Homlet. He is to find an ancient shrine in the moathouse and retrieve the treasures of the dark god. The items are to be taken to the temple of all consumption. Dunrat can get a wagon from Tal Chammish in the village of Raster to haul to the items back to the crater.

We head to the druid's grove. We're suspicious of the druid's apprentice, Yundi. He is suspicious of us at the word of his master's death. We leave. Yundi runs to the temple of Saint Cuthbert.

March 30, 2002

Go to temple of St. Cuthbert, Zook warns them thatsome evil is active in town (shows them an evil holy symbol) and Jeru was a doppleganger. We're taken (with Elmo) to see the Canoness Y'dey. Yundi is there. She chastises us for harassing Yundi.

See says the Y is the symbol of the Elemental Eye, involved in construction of temple of elemental evil. The ziggarat is one of the symbols of the dark god. Various things we encountered are symbols of the dark god (Thorizden). We tell her of our experiences. Refers us to Priestess Jenethar at temple of Ehlonna to see to Gimir's last rites. She'll tell everyone else who needs to know. Offers aide of Terjon (one of the Cuthbert priests), we decline.

We go to the temple of Ehlonna. It's an open building. Zook suggests scattering ashes in forest, Jenethar agrees. Zook flies off and does so. Meet Silla, Paladin of Ehlonna. She suggests we destroy the evil holy symbols. Jenethar offers to do that for us. Silla offers to join us to help defeat the evil. We accept.

We go see Spoonwar, the potions (NOT SCROLLS) guy we rescued earlier. Ten year old girl there, Renee, his daughter. We pay him to identify some potions we've found.

Go see Zerosh Newbrick, scroll writer. he agrees to identify five of our items for 300 gold pieces. He'll be done at dinnertime.

We sell unneeded items and resupply. We have a loud, drunken wake for Gimir.

Flocktime 9th

We identify and sell remaining items and rest. Zook crafts boots of striding.

Flocktime 10th

We head back out to the moathouse. Nica notices four men hiding around path up some steep hills. As we approach, they pop up and fire with bows. Zook summons a magical mist to give us cover. We kill three, one escapes.

We arrive at the moathouse a bit after noon. We give the moathouse's ground floor and the first dungeon level a once over, nothing appears to have returned.

We camp a distance away. As we're preparing for dinner, we notice two somethings bounding in our direction. Their howls send chills down our spines. They're not touching the ground, almost flying over it. Like large, sleek, black dogs with glowing red eyes. When we kill them, they disappear like a puff of smoke. Cecil thinks they're yeth hounds, outworldly evil creatures.

During my watch, I hear something scrabble across some of the rocks. Three hobgoblins attack, I cut them down before the rest of the party gets up.

Flocktime 11th

We head into the moathouse and examine the odd wall. Zook uses Stoneshape to part the wall. Beyond the cooridor continues a short distance and ends in a door. Further on the passageway blends into a natural passage. The passage opens into a cave which opens by river some distance from the moarhouse. The entrance is concealed by large rocks.

Returning to the door, another door leads to a northern passageway. A sour smell fills the air. The room beyond full of river reeds, a broken rat statue in the corner, and two aggressive lizardy bird things in what looks like nesting. The sour smell is stronger. We defeat them. Cecil thinks they may have been cockatrices.

Further on, we encounter another cockatrice. We quickly slay it. The room has smashed beds and a decayed body. We find a bunch of gems in the room.

A further room was once well appointed, but everything is torn and decayed. There is a skeleton. The skeleton has a small spider medallion and a thin, dark, ebon rod. Silla thinks the amulet is evil. Zook thinks the amulet is a holy symbol of the spider queen Lolth.

We use the winch to lower ourselves down the hole. The air gets cold. Falling water fills the air with cool mist. The wide, tall platform we land on looks like dull marble with jaggy purple viens. The platform is slightly convex. Remembering our previous experience, Zook casts fly on Cecil so he can carry us over the stone one at a time. He releases us onto the second wood platform hooked up to pulleys. We lower ourselves about 200 feet, seeing nothing but the pillar.

At 200 feet we reach the real bottom. The black stone pillar narrows to a four sided inverted pyramid and appears to balance on a 30 foot tall, five foot wide mundane stone column. We're on the west side of the large platoform. There is are two large symbols on the floor to the west, a black ziggarat and a black flaming sun. On the west side the falling water collects into a pool. The floor itself is grey stone. The cavern appears to be about 100 foot. Outer walls appear to the roughly shaped.

As we begin to explore, we hear cackeling laughter. A flying human casts a spell at us. Cecil, still under the influence of Zook's fly spell, charges. Tough fight, he blinds Cecil. Silla crosses the sun symbol on the floor, messing with her mind an leaving her wisdom harmed. Silla barely shakes off an evil touch spell of some sort.

Guy was wearing ochre robes, full plate, and a Y amulet. Had a magic short sword and the robes (which are evil). He has a paper message:

The water temple will soon make its move against the forces of fire. Return quickly Festrath, for we need your aide. Together we shall win the favor of the doomdreamers and the Triad itself.

Nica and Cecil start feeling the cold bite into them, draining them of energy.

Silla, Zook, and myself make a quick circuit of the room. Nica and Cecil stay at the plotform. The stone piller supporting the obalisk has iron rungs leading up to the point. Obalisk appears to come to perfect point. The pool is shallow, maybe two inches, and seeps away into a crack in the wall.

To the east, an archway carved with writhing tentacles and serpants.. In the middle is a flat blackness. Zook tosses the Lolth holy symbol at it, the blackness seems to reach out and grab the symbol. A grell moves out of the darkness. It's a tough fight, but we kill it.

During the fight, Cecil and Nica are being further drained by the cold. We retreat to the platform and pull outselves up. Cold weather gear might help if we go back down. We head back to camp. Zook uses locate object to detect gold and detects some to the south and down of the journal room, perhaps in the deep hole of evil. We rest.

Flocktime 12th

Cecil is still blinded, Silla's wisdom is a bit better. Zook cures Silla's shaken mind. Zook cures Cecil's blindness. Cecil is still feeling weak.

That night, in preparation for the next day, Zook casts Endure Elements (cold) on all of us.

Flocktime 13th

We head back in and down into the hole. Cecil tries touching the floor of the obelisk with his foot, the purple worms again move toward him. We fly to the second platform (I'm carrying people) and descend to the bottom. We investigate the area.

Our light sources doesn't appear to generate as much light.

Cecil climbs the giant stone base supporting the obelisk. The obelisk appears to come to a pin point.

The archway doesn't seem to hide anything. We prepare for attack and Zook fires a bolt at the darkness, again the doorway seems to reach out and grab it and another Grell pops out. As we start to fight, most of the party realizes that the cold is really getting to them, sapping us of our strength and dexterity. We defeat it and retreat. Zook wants to take the corpse of the grell with us.

As we leave, Zook uses Stoneshape to try and seal the hole water is pouring out of in the shaft. After a moment, the water breaks through the stoneshaped patch. We retreat to camp.

We camp and recover.

April 7, 2002

Flocktime 14th

We head back to town. I check on my dragon head stuffing, it is not yet done. We talk to Joman, owner of the general store about rumors that his store used to be a hideout for the temple. It isn't any more. He comments that the local merchants are having problems selling the stuff we're selling them. He is interested when we suggest a caravan to Verbobonc.

We pay to get some stuff identified. The black torch is a torch of revealing, when specific incense is burned within it's cup, something happens. The black rod is a rod of doom with a single charge. The black cones are incense of dreaming, designed to be used in torches of revealing or black theribles. A +1 curved shortsword.

Stay at inn.

Flocktime 15th

We meet up with Joman. He sets up a caravan with Alphonse. Harris and Arthin will come with us. We head off to Verbobonc. We get there in two days.

Flocktime 16th

Arrive in Verbobonc in late afternoon. We stay at the Crow's Nest. We sell stuff. Nica buys a bag of holding.

Flocktime 17th

Cecil wakes up feeling weakened and vision fading. He sees the temple of Lendor, they say he has an illness, the blinding sickness. Silla heals him. It fixes his vision, but not his strength. We see the temple of Ehlonna to have his strength restored.

We see a local mage to read the scroll we can't read. It's about how to get to a pocket in time and space known as the "black cyst." Powerful ritual requiring multiple wish spells and sacrifices of many humans and necrophilia. It would take years to prepare and cast.

We trade my ring of mind shielding and brooch of shielding and some gold for two pairs of gloves of ogre power and a helm of comprehending. Myself and Silla get the gloves, Cecil takes the helm. We head back to Homlet.

Flocktime 19th

We arrive in Homlet late in the evening. We give the scroll describing the ritual to the temple of St. Cuthbert. I collect my stuffed dragon head.

We rest for a few days while Zook enchants the dragon wing cloak as a cloak of flying for Cecil.

Flocktime 25th

We decide to investigate Nulb. It looks like the Temple of Elemental Evil may be operating again and Nulb is the nearest town.

We head out.

Flocktime 26th

Near the end of the end, we come to the hamlet of Nulb on the other side of a worn bridge over the the Imeryds Run river. We're coming in from the northwest. The buildings are composed of sod, brick, and reused timber, many are decomposing or collapsing. It's abandoned and the forest is encroaching.

We cautiously move through the town. Just over the bridge, Zook detects undead and Silla detects evil in a fieldstone and timber building over the bridge. Further on one strong evil is detected on the ground floor in an weed invaded building with a faded sign, "Herbs".

We return to the first building. Silla detects one strong source of evil in the upper floor. Heading in, it looks like an old inn and tavern. Moving in, we start feeling cold. Something we can't see atacks Zook. Nica briefly sees something invisible flash into existance for the attack. We regroup. The thing reappears and attacks Silla, fortunately she is protected by armor.

We head upstairs to the guest rooms. The doors are all locked. In the last room, things are flying and spinning around, the bed is twitching. A female shreak fills the air. In the corner a young woman is huddled on the floor. The howling shakes Silla, Nica, and myself, briefly paralyzing us. It's touch spreads madness, draining Silla's, Cecil's, and my wisdom. It's mostly insubstantial, making it hard to hit. We eventually destroy it, returning the room to normal.

Under a loose floorboard where the ghost was, Nica finds a nice vial and a pair of jeweled earings. I notice some gold in the mattress. The coins are old Fyrundy and Veluna pressings.

Searching the ground floor, the area by the bar is still unusually cold. We all catch glimpses of motion out of the corner of our eyes. A ghostly male form appears behind Zook and backstabs him, almost killing him, then disappears. Silla thinks it's an evil creature that is bound to a place and hates all life, but they can't normally use weapons. It might be a ghost, but usually they use their fear attacks. We start to retreat, it appears with a horrible visage, but we stand firm. We get a few hits before it fades out again. We retreat out, Nica throwing alchemists fire against the bar. We move away as the tavern burns.

After it mostly burns down, we head toward the other evil. Two giant wolverines approach. Very tough fight in the street, but we prevail.

We retreat to camp for the day.

Flocktime 27th

When we wake, those of us whose minds were shaken by the screaming spirit still feel our wisdom shaken.

It's still overcast, it feels like it's going to rain. We head back into Nulb. We explore a bit more, we don't find anything of note. The boats around the docks are in bad state. We return to the second source of evil Silla detected, the Herbs building.

Moving in, Silla no longer detects any evil. A bed inside appears to have been recently used.

We head back to Homlet. On the way, an ankheg bursts out of the ground attacking my horse. It injures the horse, but we kill it.

April 13, 2002

Flocktime 28th

We arrive back in Homlet late in the evening.. Most of the party makes a donation to the temple of St. Cuthbert to get their minds healed by Canoness Y'dey.

Wealsun 1st

On our way back to Nulb we're attacked by two giant wolverines.

That night we're attacked by a pack of five wild dogs.

Wealsun 2nd

We arrive in Nulb. It starts to sleet. We search the remains of the bar we burned down. Under the rubble and the floor we find a ghostly decaying grey body in leather armor. A real looking long sword is at its side. The sword's crossguard says "Shadowblade" in ancient elven. The body is insubstantial, but the sword is able to cut it. Cecil decapitates the ghostly body with the sword.

The other building we previously detected evil in still has some evil in it. As we approach we hear a spell being cast, but we don't see anyone as we enter. Zook silences the room. We search without effect. Eventually the silence ends, the person inside casts a spell and touches Silla. The man's magic drains our will to attack him. He attacks us with touch spells and rays. It's a long fight, he is climbing on the walls making him hard to hit. One of his spells drains Silla of her vigor. We eventually drop him. He has magic bracers and cloak. He is wearing a ziggaraut amulet. Zook quickly identifies the cloak as allowing spider climbing. Silla takes the cloak.

We retreat to a nearby building and camp for the night. During the night various things pass by, dire wolverines, dark floating shapes, and large spiders. Fortunately, none bother us.

Wealsun 3rd

We explore the remainder of town near the docks. Silla detects evil in an old, rotten, forty foot long riverboat. The back half is mostly submerged. Silla says that the evil is in the back, probably underwater.

We board the boat and climb into the main area. The back half of the boat is submerged. Zook detects undead in the back. Silla crawls along the ceiling toward it. A yellowish form lashes out at Silla. I advance in, one lashes out and wraps around me. They're some sort of oozy things. They emit some sort of acidic goo that eats through my breastplate. Two ghostly pirates attack simultaneously. Silla slices one of the yellow things, it splits in two and both move independently. Zook turns the ghosts, they flee, we get a few hits against them as they flee.

The oozy things continue to split as we attack them. We retreat as it becomes clear we can't hurt them. I'm seriously injured in the fight. We flee the area. We head back to the house we camped in last night and rest. We see two shadowy forms drift by down the street. Zook thinks they may be wraiths.

April 20, 2002

Wealsun 4th

We wake. Yesterday Zook cast protective spells against acid on some of us. Outside it is still sleeting.

We head back to the boat. Cecil and I move in. I'm heavily protected from acid. We stay near the back, the two pirate ghosts attack through the walls. One his Cecil, draining his strength. Zook drives them away with Fharlongin's power, as they flee I kill one.

I move forward and the ochre jelly attacks. I hack it into bits. Zook summons two burning worms (thoqqua) which kills some of the bits of jelly. Zook uses a sound burst to kill the rest.

We wait a moment and the last ghostly pirate attacks again. Cecil and Silla destroy it.

We don't find anything in the cabinets besides rotten clothing and food. Zook finds a small, rusty, iron chest in the sunked part. I pull it out with a rope. It's rusted shut. I wedge it open. Inside are gold pieces and other coins.

We head back to town. As we head back, the weather improves.

Wealsun 6th

We get back into Homlet late in the evening. Almost everyone is drained from our encounters with the ochre jelly and various spirits.

Wealsun 7th

We see the Canoness Y'dey.

We pay the Canoness 800 gold, mostly from party funds, to help cure Silla's draining. She provides Zook with a scroll to handle it.

The Canonness is certain that Nulb cannot be cleansed, the town supported the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Zook explains what we encountered, including the man we believe to have been a priest of Thurizdon. Y'dey is fairly certain that it's Iuz based on Zook's report. Further details about the man who attacked us surprises Y'dey. The guy had a scar across one of his eyes. Y'dey says she took out his eye with her mace and killed him. She wants to see the body.

We head back to Nulb.

Wealsun 10th

It's still sleeting and hellishly cold. The body is gone from the shop where we left it.

We head on to the temple, an hour or so away. It sits in the middle of a plain, barren except for twisted scrub. The temple itself is fifty feet high of dark grey stone. The outside walls have been carved with vile and obscene imagery, devil and demons. The statues and reliefs seem malevolent. It appears to be about 500 feet long, 100 feet wide. Double doors are ahead of us, in the south wall of the temple. A ruined wall circles the temple. Dead trees dot the courtyard, vines with large thorns crawl all over. A burnt out building is northwest of the temple, a tower to the northeast.

Cecil uses his cloak of flying to scout around. He sees someone on the front steps run inside.

We set up a shelter under some trees with our tents to protect our horses. We head toward the ruined building. Inside the walls is a large group of dead trees. The building is burned out and empty. Two rotten celler doors reveal a two foot high celler under the entire building.

We head over to the tower. It's starting to fall apart. There is a single door and a number of tall, thin arrow slits. As we explore the outside, something green inside a arrow slit says something incomprehensible and fails to stab Silla with something. Silla crawls along the wall and peers in arrow slits. Things inside are talking excitedly and occasionally stab out an arrow slit at Silla unsuccessfully. After a bit, a thin, green, emaciated goblin like thing crawls out an arrow slit. Cecil can understand their shouting with his magic helmet, they appear to be shouting for us to go away, and occasionally say that we are ghosts..

We attempt to bash our way in without much luck. They stab at us through the windows and occasionally throw vials of alchemist's fire at us. Eventually Nica unlocks the door and Cecil opens it before someone inside can re-lock it. Inside are goblins and hobgoblins, sleeping space, some crates and barrels, and tables with food on them. I charge in and kill two instantly. The group easily kills them.

A back room has several ravenous rats and giant rats. I kill them.

April 27, 2002

Cecil flies around the main temple. It is roofed with slate tiles, many are broken. Barred, stained glass windows are on the sides. Light sources are moving around inside, there appear to be pillars.

We bring our horses into the tower. We head around toward the front of the building. Three hobgoblins attack around the corner.

The front has three sets of double doors, one on each face of a smaller jutting out part of the building. The west doors is wooden and has been sealed with lead. The southern doors are each twenty feet wide and high. The doors are bronze and covered with scratchings that look like writing. Cecil tries to read them with his magical helm, but they give him a headache. The doors look dwarven, but heavily modified. Wood doors on the east side have also been leaded shut.

Two chains are hooked to the building and dangle onto the ground. Two more hang from the southern doors, one per door.

I open one, inside are about two dozen hobgoblins and a few goblins. About half of the hobgoblins are mundanely equiped, half seem to be well equipped. One has what appears to be a dwarven urgosh and is intent on the battle, maybe bezerking. Zook sends in a summoned bison and we charge in after. It's a tough fight, the hobgoblin with the urgosh is able to tumble through the fight and dish out incredible amounts of damage. When Zook ties to drive him off with a Fear spell, an invisible hobgoblin cleric of Mogubleic (evil god of hobgoblins) appears and couters the spell. We'll battered and things are looking grim when Cecil finally takes the urgosh weilding hobgoblin with two mighty blows. The evil cleric heals the urgosh wielder. Meanwhile, Silla is surrounded by many well armed hobgoblins and retreats up a wall with her magic cloak. Several of the hobgoblins move to attack the rest of the group, Silla jumps onto one and slays the rest of that group. The cleric heals himself and the urgosh wielder with potions, spells, and a wand before the two are taken down for good.

Looking around, we're in the main chamber of the temple. The walls are painted with evil acts. The arches and pillars are carved with evil acts. Further in we hear dogs barking.

The cleric had magical chain, broach, amulet, wand, and two potions. The urgosh wielder has magical chain, urgosh, and two potions. The rest are equipped with generally mundane axes, though the well equipped ones had masterwork great axes.

We head back to Homlett and head on to Verbobonc.

Wealsun 14th

We arrive in Verbobonc late in the day. We have various magical items we've found identified. The human living in the herbalist shop had bracers of armor +1. The Shadow Blade is +1. The chain shirt is +1. The amulet is natural armor +1. The broach is of Shielding with 47 points left. The wand is of cure light with 21 charges. Chain mail +1. Urgosh +1.

We sell things we don't need and purchase equipment. I pick up some magical full plate. Zook makes a pair of gauntlets of ogre power for Cecil.

Wealsun 16th

We head back to the temple.

Wealsun 19th

We arrive back. It's still sleeting. We camp in the tower.

Wealsun 20th

Listening at the door, we hear dogs barking. I open the door and six dogs followed by a goblin attack.

The hobgoblin bodies are gone.

In the middle of the room is an oval alter of pinkish white alter. A darker stained humanoid shaped depression is in it. A deep pit is a bit beyond. A second broken alter is nearby. The paving blocks and pillars are different colors in each direction. We find a big pile of what looks like supplies, possibly stolen.

A door to the northwest looks like some sort of evil cleric lived in it. There are plants and dead animals hanging from wires. There is a bed. On a table is an odd book shaped rectangle of ash.

A door to the west reveals sleeping occompdations for seven things and a large rotten hunk of meat hanging from the ceiling. Stairs head down, but are full of rubble.

A door to the east opens to reveal an awful smelling room. Another set of stairs is collapsed. There is a badly mangled human body.

The back of the temple is a large bronze bazier, it looks like it's been converted to the hobgoblin god Mogubleic. The room beyond looks like an old vestry with worn couches, tables, and chairs. Two couches have been pushed together into a bed. While searching the bed, Zook finds an iron key and some other things. The key opens a large bound chest with some valuables inside. There is a life size elven bronze statue in the room, we leave it.

The dais in the back of the temple has a great throne of purplish basalt. Carved into the back wall, "The power of elemental death brings mortals low, but raises the nameless one high."

We head back to the tower to drop off our lewt.

May 18, 2002

We head down the central stairs. At the bottom are two bashed in, ten foot wide, bronze doors, broken iron chains scattered about. Something big and hairy charges us from beyond the door. It's a giant ape. Silla cuts it down with two blows.

Beyond the tunnel collapsed a long time ago. However, a shallow hole has been dug out a while ago, but it doesn't continue through. I'm pretty sure the collapsed section is quite long.

We examine the other stairwells, they also appear to be deeply collapsed. I poke around in the pit of offal, I don't find anything of note.

We decide to investigate Raster and "the crater." We head back to Homlet.

Wealsun 22nd

We talk to Elmo. The evil ones from the mill were burned, so Zook can't question them magically. We ask about any craters, Elmo remembers a round lake called Stalagos. It's near Raster, on the other side of the Kron hills, by the Lortmill mountains. I know that Stalagos is the name of a dwarven clan, a hold was built there. I don't know what happened to them since. Elmo suggests we see Rudolph, the dwarven owner of the stables if we want more information about dwarves in the area.

Silla spends the day meditating. The next morning her god grants her a unicorn mount.

Wealsun 23rd

We head out to Raster, heading around the Kron hills.

Wealsun 26th

Around mid-day, three dots in the sky approach. Zook casts fly on me. Cecil (using his wings) and I fly up to prepare. As they approach, they appear to be hippogriff's, winged horse-like things with claws and beaks. They dive toward us, Cecil, Silla, and myself kill them.

Wealsun 27th

Four ogres try to ambush us, but Nica notices them. We easily dispatch them. They have some money, mostly copper, and a partial suit of plate.

That evening we arrive in the small town of Raster. Raster is a muddy little mining hamlet. Buildings are squat and built of stone and sod.

June 1, 2002

There is no inn. We head into the local tavern. It's stone and mud with a sod roof. As we enter, everyone stops and stares. The patrons are a mix of humans, dwarves, and orcs. Lots of dwarves in the area have red hair. That's unusual in Ulek.

I talk with a local dwarf, Nulin. The tavern is known as "the grey place". The town's leader is a dwarven cleric of Moradin. The town is mostly miners, although more traders and craftmens have been showing up. Something is going on in the Stalagos crater. The Stalagos had "problems" and aren't around much.

A rough, almost human approaches me, accuses me of causing problems. Nulin introduces him as Jardeth. Jardeth doesn't speak clearly. He has extended lower canines. He warns me to not threaten anyone and storms off.

Nulin mentions that dark robed people are building something. He mentions that "some floofies" are around, woodworkers.

We drink and sleep on the floor.

Wealsun 28th

We head to the Stalagos crater. It's about a half a day away into the mountains to the south west. From our higher vantage point, we can see that two trails head from Raster. We're on the larger trail. A smaller trail leads to an encampment. While we discuss, some humans and dwarves equipped with mining equipment pass us.

After a bit, we come to a side trail into the mountains. It seems the miners who passed us went there.

Further on, the road ends at a cave in the mountains. The cave is forty foot wide and smooth floored. A huge wooden, iron-bound double door is in the back of the cave. There are barely visible arrow slits around the door. The left door have an iron ring, the right door has an orkan skull spiked to the door. Silla peers into an arrow slit and sees a gnoll with a short bow. The gnoll says in orc, "what are you doing?"

I knock on the door with the ring.

A gnoll sticks his head out. He tells us to go away, they close and bar the door.

We double back and check out the fork on the trail. The trail is narrow, we need to leave our horses behind. About twenty-five minutes in, we hear someone working with a pick-axe. We come to a clearing and a shallow cave. Two humans and a dwarf are mining the wall. The dwarf says that the crater is beyond the ridge (with the gnolls). He warns us to be careful of the gnolls and the purple robed people. The human is wary of speaking ill of the purple robes, "the rocks can have ears."

We head back to town.

Richfest 1st

We go to the gnoll door. I try to bluff our way in, impying we're working for Nanquit. The gnoll doesn't buy it since we don't have symbols. He calls for help and we attack. Nica dives behind him and quickly drops him.

We advance quickly. The area is finished, lit torches line the walls. The walls are plastered and painted with demons and scenes of disaster and carnage.

Down the southern side passage is a group of four gnolls. Three charge, one stays behind to pull a rope on the wall, sounding a bell as an alarm. Four more gnolls pour in from further to the south. Cecil and I face them. From a south passage four gnolls and four humans charge Silla and Nica. We kill the lot.

The humans were equipped with masterwork banded mail, small wooden shields, long bows, masterwork bastard swords, and a vial of some liquid each. The gnolls had ratty scale mail, battle axes, short bows, and large steel shields.

Looking around, it's clear that the hallways are of dwarven construction. The doors are equally high quality. The plastering and painting appears non-dwarven. In front of the doors to the west are four mosaic symbols in the floor. The first is a silvery-white circle, the second is a brown triangle, the third is an amber-red diamond, the forth is a blue green square.

I suggest we wedge the doors open, but the dwarven construction makes it hard. Nica wedges the crossbar so it can't hold the doors shut.

We explore. To the northwest is an arrow slit room for guarding the entrance. To the north is a roughly smoothed cavern that forks northwest and northeast. Both passages are very rough. The eastern passage has rough stairs going down. Two troglodytes charge from the northwest passage. They are surrounded with a vile smell. We slay them.

The northwest passage curves west and continues for some distance. We hear chanting in the distance and see light ahead. Nica scouts ahead. The passage opens to a cave that smells of loam and blood. The chanting would be hard for a human to pronounce.

A fifteen foot tall three tiered earth ziggarat has six men in black robes surrounding. The ground is soft earth. A watery mud colored triangle platform is on to. On top of the triangle is a being in black robes. This head priest has cut the heart out of a limp humaniod form on the top. Another being on top is beating on a drum. Dark brown tapestries depicting demons and evil acts cover the walls. There are a number of exits. As Nica watches, something rises out of the soil. The thing is round, has three hands, and a mouth on top. The head priest tosses the heart into the thing's mouth. The head priest and the thing appear to talk with the sounds of grating stone.

Nica returns and describes the scene. Cecil thinks the odd creature is a xorn, a type of earth elemental. We head in to stop this foul ritual.

As we enter the room we can feel a wave of dread covers us. Nica is unable to stand it and has to retreat to the entrance. As we fight the robed figures, the stench reveals them to be troglodytes, sapping the strength from us. The xorn dives into the earth.

We battle with the troglodytes. I hold off three while the rest of the party takes the rest. The head priest tries to enchant Silla, but she fights the spell off. The xorn bursts up from under Silla. The dread finally overcomes me, forcing me to retreat, getting battered by the xorn and the troglodytes. The head priests uses a spell to paralyze Silla. The troglodytes I was holding back charge the rest of the party. The additional stentch weakens Silla so much that she cannot stand in her armor. Nica tries to reenter the room, but the dread takes hold and she flees the area. Silla's unicorn finally loses spirit against the evil chamber and has to briefly retreat.

Cecil, Silla's unicorn, and myself very slowly pound on the xorn. It has an unnaturally hard, stonelike skin, making it hard to injure. As we scratch it, it seems to bleed pebbles. The head priest summons a thoqqua with a wand. The xorn drills into the earth and rises on top of the ziggarat, there the head priest heals it. I dispatch the thoqqua while Cecil uses his magical cloak to fly toward the head priest. The head priests dispells Cecil's cloak, supressing the magic, causing Cecil to fall to the ground. The xorn dives into the ground and tries to bite my feet, but I jump out of the way. The xorn retreats to the top of the ziggarat again and the head priest summons three melted, bloated sickly grey humanoids with pupiless yellow eyes. Cecil easily slays one. The dread catches up with me and I flee.

Cecil flies up and attacks the head priest. The xorn attacks Cecil from below but misses. The head priest leaps to the ground. Cecil is driven off by the dread in the air. Silla's unicorn attacks the head priest, the xorn attacks the unicorn. The unicorn retreats. I help Silla onto her unicorn and we retreat outside. Silla feels her strength come back. Silla's unicorn heals me, but insists I call it a unicorn, not a "horse." Silla heals herself and I.

We head back in, Nica scouts ahead. The head priest is atop of ziggaurat again. He is flanked by two small, shambling piles of rocks (mephits). As Nica approaches, he senses her presence. He gives the two things orders and they head toward the entrance. Nica retreats and we head in.

Nica sets some troglodyte bodies on fire with alchemist's fire. The two stone things breathe hails of stone and gravel. The xorn rises from the ground under Cecil. Silla's unicorn strikes a serious blow to the xorn. Cecil, Nica, and myself are driven off my the fear in the room. The xorn retreats. While we're gone, Silla and her unicorn press the fight, slaying the mephits. The xorn returns. The unicorn slays the xorn. The head priest summons three black and grey fiendish hyenas, a bluish slobbering thing (a dretch), three more fiendish hyenas, another dretch, and thre more fiendish hyenas. Silla and the unicorn work their way through the summoned creatures. After a long fight where the thrice cursed head priest uses up the wand summoning things, and everyone but Silla spent alot of time running away and back, the unicorn finally gets to the head priest and slays him. He is revealed to be another troglodyte.

Silla drags the bodies out of the blasted room room. We find some gold on the troglodytes. The head priest had full plate, large steel shield, a nice morning star, a gem, a brown triangle amulet, a large iron brown triangle, and a scroll (remove paralysis and protection from elements).

We head back to Raster. We see the priest of Moradin. The building is sunken into the ground, stone stairs lead down. The roof is close fit stone. Vririd Hammersong. Moradin heals us.

We sell some of the loot we've taken to the half-orc merchant.

We spend the night on the floor of the tavern.

June 8, 2002

Richfest 2nd

We head back to the evil temple complex and head in. The altar room still feels evil. I give Silla my mining pick to smite the altar with. Silla is unable to scratch it. Holy water doesn't sem to affect it. It's hard to to enter the room because of the magic in the room. I'm unable to smash the alter, it's too hard. I smash the drums on top. I pick some of the earth ziggarat ineffectively. I'm finally driven back by the fear in the room.

Silla scouts ahead. She runs into some troglodytes and flees back to us, troglodytes on her tail. We easily slay them.

We back up and chose another path. We come to a room with stones used as stools. Some meat and mugs sit on a large flat rot. There are three odd sigils on the wall. We can't identify their source, but Cecil's magic helm allows him to read them; hey say "Crush," "Destruction," and

"Devour."

Further down we hear metal on metal and smell urine and sweat. The room beyond is dark except for a brazier in the corner. Two human men and an elven woman are chained to the wall. We release them. The woman is Tenaris Glimmerdawn. She and her companions came to a strange lake and were grabbed by strange creatures from cracks in the ground, Maloris, the group's wizard, said something about a vile ritual. Other companions: Kelvin her brother warrior, Priest Borgrar of Pelor. They were taken off to be sacrificed for some dark ritual.

The men were miner's. They were branded with triangle symbols.

We take them to the entrance and send them toward town. Tenaris is interested in joining us to avenge her friends death. I test her a bit in combat, she has steel in her blood, I think her joining us in a great idea. Silla loans her sleeping breastplate to Tenaris. We equip her with a bastard sword from our loot.

We head back in and try another side passage. On a far wall of a medium sized room is an inverted black wooden ziggarat. There is a table on its side, chairs, a bed, a dresser, and a pair of manacles on the wall. As I advance in, a troglodyte in black robes bursts up from behind the table and shouts, "Advance my minions!" About a dozen zombies burst out of the wardrobe and the side passage. Instead of eyes, they have inverted black ziggarat stones. They're tough to slay with weapons, but we slowly cut them down. Silla destroys most of them with Ehlonna's word. The priest is heavily armored and hard to hit, but I finally slay him with a lucky blow to his head. During the fight Cecil was hit with a spell that blinded him.

I break the symbol on the wall. We search the room, we find a necklace, a scroll with unknown writing on it. The priest had platemail, a steel shield, a bone necklace, and some other loose items.

The side room where most of the zombies came from is empty and has bloodstains on the walls. We head back to town. Priest Hammersong heals Cecil's eyes.

We equip Tenaris with some basic equipment. We talk, she was heading to Verbobonc for the festival, Maloris has family there.

Cecil examines the scrolls. Some are divine spells. Cecil checks our loot for magic, the morning star is. Two of the iron holy symbols are unusually magical as well.

We sell some more armor to the local general store.

June 16, 2002

We rest for the night.

Richfest 3rd

We head back to the new temple. The front door has been unjammed and is barred again. Zook uses Stoneshape to widen an arrow slit. We climb in. We head to the front doors so we can open them so Silla's unicorn can get in.

As we approach, something flees down a far cooridor and rings an alarm bell. Ten humans and an ogre charge. The ogre is odd, he's completely shaved and is wearing goggles. The ogre is a mighty fighter, easily smashing through my armor.

From the double doors beyond the symbols on the floor burst eight gnolls. Zook knocks most of the gnolls briefly out with a magical blast of sound. Tenaris and I hold the cooridor against the humans and ogre while Silla takes the gnolls. Nica works to open the door to let the unicorn in.

A huge purple spiky thing ridden by a flowing haired elf charges in howling. The spiky thing bites Silla. The elf wields a bow but misses Nica. I hold the cooridor and Tenaris moves to help Silla against the gnolls and spiky thing. Nica opens the door and the unicorn moves in to battle the spiky thing. The spiky thing stabs the unicorn leaving two sharp quills stuck in. The unicorn attacks back savagely.

The rest of the party takes out the gnolls while I slowly thin out the coorridor. The unicorn and Silla finally kill the spiky thing. The rest of the party slay the elven rider.

The quills are barbed. They cause alot of pain to Tenaris and the unicorn, making it hard to fight. Pulling them out injures them more.

Looting the bodies, the ogre had a magical great club. The elf had magic studded leather, cloak, a potion, and two crystal disks.

The side room where the humans and ogre came from had another arrow slit into the cave. There is a barrel of bolts there. Deeper in another room has an arrow slit aiming down the pathway up to the cave.

A side room to the south holds a bunch of empty iron bins. They probably once held ore. The room looks disuse. Beyond a long room has rotten troughs along the walls. At the far end is bit. Into the pit is a leather tube hooked up to a huge bellows. The pit appears full of water. I'm guessing it's a sluse for filtering ore. Behind a through is a broken battle axe and a rotten book entitled, "History of the Clan Stalagos" We wrap it up in the cloak we found and Zook puts it into his magical backpack.

Further on a larger room is full of iron bins full of dust covered ore. There is a large processing machine with a giant sized crank.

Beyond that is a room with several ore carts on rails that lead out two rough hewn passages.. The carts have odd handles. A handle can be pumped to move the cart forward, a button on the top is a brake. It almost seems magical, very strange. The existance of rails suggests that the tunnels are deep.

We head back to the vile earth temple. The room looks the same as last time.

We head back to the entryway. The huge doors east open to another large chamber. It's clearly a dining room, long tables and benchs run most of the length of the room. Two dozen cold, partially eaten meals sit there. A huge chain that probably held the spiky thing is bolted to the south wall. Two ballista sit by the east wall. I destroy them.

A small northern room is clearly a large sized bedroom. We find some loose loot.

The southern door is locked, a key the elf had opens it. It's obviously his bed chamber. A folded note on the table says in elven, "Intruders left in Terrenygit's room." There is another candle with a purple flame. We saw another in the room with the zombies. The flame appears to be a continual flame.

The same key opens a chest in the room. There is finery, a capped quiver, and some coins. There is a letter in the chest. It mostly talks about recruiting local orcs as guards, interlopers have depleted their forces. As an aside it mentions that the clerics in the outer fain are busy searching for the champaign of elemental evil.

Zook is interested in the other candle we saw, we head to the room where we encountered the cleric. The room has been cleaned up, the candle is gone.

We head back to the dining hall. The northeast room is full of twenty bunkbeds, the place is a mess, rotten scraps of food litter the floor. It smells of dog. Clearly the gnolls lived here. The southeast room is similar, but doesn't smell as bad. There are chests with personal effects.

We bar the door and camp in the dining room.

During my watch I hear orc's talking outside. They're surprised by the bodies. I also hear a non-orcish voice speaking in orcish. The voices move away.

Richfest 4th

We head to the earth temple. The bodies of our last fight were removed. Nica scouts ahead. Nica sees a mephit prowling around the alter. It looks like it's watching the outer passage ways.

We move in. It starts howling, Tenaris and Silla shoot it down.

Zook tries to suppress the magic of the alter, but is unable to do so. He tries to reshape it, but there is a flash of purplish light his attempt fails. Zook summons a thoqua (fire worm) to dig through the alter, but as it touches it shrives into nothing. Stupid alter. Silla will memorize a spell to bless a weapon, tomorrow we'll use it to enchant my pick axe and we'll try again.

We go explore the mines. Down a side passage we encounter a gnoll standing guard. As we approach we discover it's a statue. Ahead we see another. It looks like it was running. The lower part of one of its legs is broken off and missing. We decide to retreat back and try the other passage.

Some distance down the passage it widens for a bit. As the group examines the rubble, two thoqua attack. We easily kill them. We head further in. There are various sie passages, at least one appears to connect with the parallel tunnel. Deep in we find a large chamber. A pit on the south end has a ladder leading to another tunnel with a track. The track has a bridge over the pit. A further room has a steeply banked track continuing on.

In another wider chamber there is a nestlike patch of straw and fungus in a south-western alcove.. There are bits of metal in there. The north wall has blue-green crystals embedded. As we move in, a green dragon rises from the nesting.

I charge. It mauls me with a flurry of claw, bite, and wing. It sprays us with acid, then takes to flight, kicking up a cloud of dust making it impossible to see. We hold back, it lands and blasts us with acid again. It flies to the other alcove and smacks a green floating triangle with its tail. The triandle falls to the ground and smashes. Black-green gas swirls and black green gorilla with fangs appears. (It's an ogrillon?) The gorilla pounds Tenaris badly, she barely stands. Finally some blows strike true and the dragon and the gorilla are killed.

We loot the lair. There is some loose copper in the next. In the alcove where the triangle was is the main stash. There is a large golden coiled serpant statue, a large steel shield with a rampant green dragon, a scroll, and an iron cauldron full of gold and a few gems. The statue is probably only has a surface layer of gold. We leave the statue behind.

We head back to town.

Richfest 5th

We rest and heal.

Richfest 6th

We head to Verbobonc.

Reaping 4th

We're travelling toward Verbobonc when the see a spec in the distance approach. It approaches, it looks like a wyvern. It flies toward us, we fill it with arrows, slaying it as it's about to strike. We scavange parts from it.

We head up the hill where Nica and I saw it take off from. There is a cave. Inside are some large hatched eggs and several dead horses. There is a bunch of gold in saddlebags on some of the dead horses. We head onward.

June 21, 2002

Reaping 10th

We arrive in Verbobonc.

I examine the book. It tells a brief history of the Stalagos keep until they left. It was rich in various ores and minerals. Evil priests called the Doomdreamers arrived and sent in Evil Ones of Darkness to kill the dwarves. The evil monsters have purple tentacles. The dwarves fought to defend their keep but were ultimately displaced. A surface map shows a round lake with a stone spike in the middle.

We identify some items. The crystal items we found are magical Eyes of the Eagle.

We sell accumulated loot, we each end up with several thousand gold. Nica hires a wizard to enchant her mithral chain shirt. She also pays to have two dragon claws made into shoulder pads on her armor. I pay Zook to give me a stronger cloak of resistance. Silla buys a ring of protection. Nica takes the shadow blade and sells her magical long sword to Tenaris. The party buys two scrolls of Break Enchantment. We buy some general supplies.

Reaping 12th

We head back to Raster.

Reaping 13th

As we're travelling, a huge lizardy thing leaps out of the ground. It's a bulette. Tenaris charges it for a vicious blow with her lance. Silla and Tenaris lay into it and slay it.

We try to track it back to its lair, but lose the trail.

June 22, 2002

Zook communes with Fharlanghn for advice on destroying the evil altar. Fharlanghn says that strength of flesh can do it.

Reaping 18th

Late in the day, we're ambushed by a gang of three giants with two heads, ettins. We're a bit battered, but we slay them. They have loose junk, some gold, and some large steel shields they were using as plates. One is magic. A magical wand has been used as a spit for meat. There are some magic crystalline dust in a pouch.

Reaping 20th

We arrive in Raster in the afternoon. The folks in the bar don't seem too keen to see us. We're encouraged to just quietly move on. Word around town is that we are the great evil in the Stalagos crater. I get a bit unhappy and cleave a table. A bar fight erupts. The half-orc law shows up and shouts, "Stop!" ending the fight. Jardeth takes me outside. He refuses to listen that we're not evil. Silla almost picks a fight when he implies that she is evil. We're told to leave town and not return.

Nica heads to the temple and sees Jardeth head in. She sneaks in after him. Jardeth is talking to Hammersong about our little incident. Apparently they were warned to look out for us and that we would deny our involvement. Thandain, a woman who has recently been through a lot will be told in the morning. Jardeth leaves.

Nica approaches the priest. She pleads our case. Hammersong explains that two trappers had seen a grisly sight. Two dwarves and a human miner had been slain at their claim. The trappers claimed they saw us do it. The elder had also heard strange reports of our doings. Turog, the general store owner was sold several hammers (from the trappers?).

We decide to rest until the wee hours of the morning and move quickly through town to the temple. As we head through several people follow us from side alleys. We camp a distance from the temple.

Reaping 21st

We approach the temple. The arrow slit Zook magically widened has been restored. Zook magically widens a different one. We head in. Three humans are waiting with crossbows behind an upturned table. I block the door and we slay them before they can sound the alarm. They have masterwork banded mail and bastard swords.

Nica scouts ahead. Three gnolls are waiting in the other arrow slit room. Nica kills all three before they realize what's happening.

We bring the horses in. Nica wedges the bar open. The back rooms are still empty. We pile what loot we've gathered into the elven room and lock the door.

We head to the evil altar room. Silla asks for her god's support and casts spells to increase her power. She borrows my pick axe and enchants it. Silla heads in to smite the alter. With several blows, she splits it in twain. The room immediately begins to shake. Dust is kicked up. Chunks of the ceiling fall, some hits Silla as she retreats. We head back as a plume of dust pours out of the room.

We head back to the horses to wait for anything that comes to investigate. Nothing shows up, so we go back to the alter room. The room is partially collapsed, we can make our way through. We head down the northwest passage. After a while it opens to a room with lots of iron ore in the walls. A mephit inside flees away from us.

Silla mounts her unicorn and chases after it. She runs it down and slays it. Two more mephits come from the sides and breathe a hail of stones, battering us. We easily drop them.

Down a side passage we find a cavern covered in bugs, creating a steady hum. There are hundreds of centipedes and millipedes. Some are very large. Rotting and an acrid smell mix. We're about to leave, but some party members here something beyond. From beyond, a robed figure tries to dispell magic on us.

Zook enchants me with magical flight. I fly across toward the spell caster, as I do the insects lash out at me. Some hit me, their bite burns in my veins, fortunately I'm of hearty constitution. I'm unable to hit it, he is either heavily armored or magically defended. A putrid stench drains the strength from my axe arm, identifying it as a troglodyte.

Zook dispels some of the magical defenses on it, making it easier to hit. Silla races through the room of bugs and attacks. The rest of the party moves across, some get bit. Zook is overcome by the stench and collapses. The troglodyte casts another spell that makes it extremely hard to hit. Nica resorts to throwing alchemist's fire at it. Tenaris throws latern oil to fuel the fire. Finally, the troglodyte is backed against a wall and attempts to break out. The unicorn and I land lucky blows and slay it.

The cavern has tapestries of rock creatures destroying buildings and killing. A skinned and blackened human corpse is hooked spread eagle to the ceiling. There are personal furnishings including a chest and an iron coffer. Magical items we find include the coffer, a pair of gloves, a potion, a brown inverted triangle pendant.

The troglodyte has a black metal triangle embedded in his forehead and is covered with brown triangle tattoos.

The chest has black robes, a masterwork mace, and loose non valuable items.

Nica inspects the coffer. It has a magical trap on it, small shimmering runes circle the edge. Silla and the unicorn heal Nica. Zook casts several protective spells on Nica. She tries to disarm the magical trap and does successfully. Inside are ten amythests and an amulet. The amulet is a loop around a crystal or glass piece. A metal bar sticks out the bottom. Looking through it, it makes things bigger. A piece of parchment under the coffer. It's covered with a language we can't read.

Zook summons a small humanoid made of lava, a magman. It's extremely hot. It heads into the room full of bugs and kills them with the heat.

We head back to the dining area. We bar the door and rest.

Reaping 22nd

Zook magically reads the note. It's written in draconic. The message begins with a greeting from Hedrack. It's addressed to the troglodytes. The troglodytes recently claimed the earth temple The earth temple fell to the fire temple about a year ago. Hedrack feels the troglodytes will serve the elder elemental eye and Ogremoch well.

June 29, 2002

We head back to the earth temple area. We find some stairs up. Nica scouts up the stairs. There is a four legged, rust red, leathery winged thing with spikes on its tail, a manitcore. It senses her presence and flings some spikes at her. There is a quick fight. It dies just at the top of the stairs, so we have to roll the body out of the way.

In the room beyond is shriveled hand with two rings on it. The hand has been cleanly cut off at the wrist.

To the left is a dead end room. There is a leather mat on the floor. A dwarven coming of age tattoo on the leather marks it's gruesome source. Gusts of warm air comes from a natural but refined vent in the floor. There is an odd smell coming from the vent, faintly sulfurus, faintly sharp. When we try to look down, it hurts our eyes. A net hammock hangs by a wall, humanoid bones and skulls have been nailed to the walls.

In the other direction is a room that looks like it was about to collapse. Supporting braces have been recently added. Inside a humanoid in black robes is speaking to a large humanoid of earth and stone. As Nica scouts them, they notice something amiss. The robed figure sends the earth elemental after us and begins casting with a female voice. The figure summons a smaller earth creature, then calls for help down a side passage.

We beat the two elementals into lose earthand move in. A jet black troglodyte with a great sword is talking with the robed figure. The robed figure magically supports it, but we quickly slay it. With a mightly blow I behead the cleric, another troglodyte.

The cleric had full plate armor, a ring, a cloak, a robe, a vial, a scroll, a quarter staff, and a curved knife. The armor was made of beatle hide and other insect bits. It's unusually light. The warrior had a great sword and half plate. The room beyond has two dart traps that Nica finds and disables.

Zook examines our loot for magic. One of the rings on the severed hand is magical, as is the cleric's ring, cloak, and the contents of the vial. A small piece of incense Nica found earlier is also magical.

Beyond the trapped room is another chamber. It smells of incense. There are black drapery. Black poles have skulls hanging from them. On the skulls are painted various runes. Zook magically translates them as Death, Destruction, and Decay.

In a chest hidden behind some drapes is a locked chest. Nica finds the key, inside is some clothing, a small statue, some vials of something magical, and coins.

Down another passage we find a storage room. There are some weapons and food, mostly fish.

In another room, two greatsword hang over the entrance. Stairs head down a passage to the right, we head left. Ahead we hear something, Nica scouts ahead and finds three troglodytes. After informing us, she heads forward, we follow. We easily kill them all. A large pit in the middle of the room is full of bones, wood shavings, and fungi. Niches in the wall hold humanoid skulls.

In a further room, a three inch tall, ten-foot square blue-green rock sits on the floor. The rock is painted. Two golden braziers in the far corners smoke, filling the air with a fishy, salty smell. Further ahead I faintly hear water. I take a few whacks at the stone with my pick, putting a gouge into it. We head on, later we're return to put a hole in the middle and see if it covers anything.

A further room has a wide pool to one side. It extends as far as we can see. There is a pillar faintly visible at the edge of our vision in the pool. A boat is moored to the near side. In the distance, down a side passage we hear metal against metal. I guard the side passage while the rest of the party uses the boat to examine the rest of the room and the pillar.

The pool is about 150 feet wide. There is a ledge on the far side. As they are moving out, something tall and lanky with sickly yellow skin, matted hair, and claws rises out of the water. The site drains strength from the party in the boat. Silla and Tenaris are too weakened to move. The group calls out. I'm unable to wade out, the water is too deep. I give Silla's unicorn a potion of levitation so he can float/swim out to help. Zook and Nica try to row back while being clawed by the thing. Silla's unicorn arrives and drives the thing back. The party makes it back to shore. We retreat to the room we've been camping in. We camp. We discuss possibilities for dealing with our dwindling food supply. Perhaps I could approach the cleric of Moradin to commune with Moradin about us. If that fails, perhaps Nica could find someone to trade with us undercover.

July 13, 2002

Reaping 23rd

We head deeper in. We sidestep the small lake. The next room is a mess. There are overturned tables and targets with arrows stuck in them. As we head in, twelve humans with bows pop up from behind the tables and open fire on us. We easily slay them, although I get cut up pretty badly. I knock one out so we can question him. They were armed with high quality bastard swords, long bows, and banded mail.

I question the captive. His name is Cedric. He used to be a brigand, but now works for a elf called Merclar, but never met him. He dealt with "smell guys" and gnolls. They were training. They were to guard against "coo-toes". He thinks they're water. "She shoots her bow underwater." The other exit leads to other smelly people. They were also supposed to recruit more people since they've been losing people to attackers (us, probably).

We strip Cedric of his equipment, and lead him to the entrance. I warn him that if we encounter him here again, we will kill him. If we discover he has returned to brigandry, we will kill him. We send him off.

We head back to the room with stairs we haven't explored. Silla suspects it connects back to the room we just cleared out. Downstairs in floor has a recently added triangle mosaic in brown stone. Crude black sigils are smeared on the walls. A far passage connects to the bowmen room.

The other exit goes through a winding passage that ands in a large room. There are stone chairs. A hot brazier has forks and meats in and near it. Skins of various creatures, including humans, adorn the walls. The room smells acrid.

As the rest of the party searches the room, I guard the far entrance. Someone in the darkness throws a tanglefoot bag at me, hitting me and slowing me down. Silla and I head down the passage after the assailant. As we do, two troglodytes appear behind us, attacking and filling the air with their vile, strength draining stench. Another appears in front of me in mid-strike with a long spear. We easily kill them. They're armed with javelins, long spears, a beetle breast plate. One has very out of place boots.

Further down the passageway is a large refined natural cavern. There is bedding for twenty. Bags and sacks hold clothing and some money. The is an iron inverted ziggarat in one bag. There is a book in another. The book is written in a language we don't understand. The passage continues onward to the earth ziggarat room.

We head back to the room with the small lake.

Zook enchants us to be able to breathe water. Zook enchants Silla's unicorn to be able to fly. Silla and her unicorn wait on shore with Nica's dog. The rest of us head toward the obalisk in the dingy. Something scrapes along the bottom. As I lean over to try and thrash at it with my glace, I see a hideous visage with matted hair in the water in front of me. Nica and I leap in after it, injuring it. It nicks me. It retreats and fires arrows at us. Nica climbs back into the boat, I sink to the bottom. Silla rides her unicorn out to the party, heads into the water and slays the thing.

We drag the body of the thing out. It's a shrivled yet bloated humanoid form with matteed greenish hair and claws. She has some metallic bracers. In a pouch are four exceptional quality pearls. They look to be ten times as valuable as a normal pearl. She has a quiver of arrows, but the bow is missing.

A quick search of the underwater area reveals no side passages.

Silla explores a side passage. It is another small flooded cavern. On a ledge ten or so feet up are two people chained up. One looks broken, only faintly acknowledging Silla's presence. The other is curled up and wimpering. The broke person is barely able to move, probably drained by the water fiend's evil gaze. Nica unlocks their shackles and we head back.

As we head back over the lake, we find the water creature's bow. Looking the obalisk closer, it's clear that it's just a huge, natural stalagmite.

Zook restores the strength of the more lucid man. They run into some gnolls. They followed the gnolls, but got captured. They were questioned by smelling lizards who asked about "people". Some fish people slew the troglodytes and grabbed them. The fish people were spooked by something, so the two of them tried to flee across the lake. There they ran into the water creature.

Quickly checking over our loot, Zook determines that the boots, the bracers, and the contents of twelve vials are magic.

At the entrance we see that it's midday. We head back to Raster.

On the way we notice motion on a cliff above us. Ahead six robed and hooded people approach, one is extremely large. They say that we're an obstacle that needs to be removed. Silla leads a charge against them, we slay them. Four gnolls, an ogre, and a human male with a triangle pendant.

We take the two men to the temple. Silla and myself help the men inside. Priest Hammersong says that the mentally stunned guy will likely recover in time. I ask Priest Hammersong to ask Moradin if we committed the crime we're charged with. Hammersong explains that he can only ask Moradin if our entering town is for good or ill. We agree, he casts a spell, then announces that Moradin smiles upon our actions. He will summonThandain Deepdark, a town leader.

Outside, Jardeth gives Nica and Zook a hard time. An angry crowd has gathered. Hearing the commotion, Priest Rerrid Hammersong heads out to see them. He warns the crowd to leave our thing alone or answer to the temple. He asks all of us to wait inside.

A female dwarf, Thandain, arrives. She is still suspicious and doubts the accuracy of the assessment. Rerrid points out that Silla is still faithful to Ehlonna, and the unicorn is in fact a unicorn. There is apparently no solid evidence of our guilt. Thandain agrees to let us into town, but if we break a single law, we'll the thrown out, and so will Rerrid.

We camp outside of town.

July 21, 2002

Reaping 24th

We sell some of our loot, then head back to the temple. The rest of the group is keen on clearing out the mines. Perhaps we'll find a better place to keep our horses.

Nica scouts ahead. In a large room she finds a large, eight legged lizard. As she watchs, the basilisk chews on some rocks. Zook summons two fire worms (thoqqua) and a glowing ball of light (lantern archon) which slay the basilisk.

While Nica scouts a side passage, some green slimy stuff falls from the ceiling. Nica jumps out of the way and quickly throws some alchemists fire on it, burning it away.

A bit further on, as the party searches a large chamber, we're attacked by a large bug and a two headed giant (an ettin). The ettin throws a thunderstone at us, but we resist. The bug is about the size of a dog and is light brown. It brushes my glaive and my magic armor with its antenna, turning both to rust instantly. Silla's unicorn and some bow file slay the blasted thing. I cut the ettin down Beyond we find the creatures' lair. There is some gold and a gem. We have some plate mail that we have looted from enemies, it fits me well enough to serve for now.

Further in the passageway splits. The left passage ends in an underground river. I stick the remains of my glaive in. The water is about four foot long. As I pull the glaive out, a yellowish tentacle lashed out at me. Two ochre jellies are in the water. Silla and I hack at them, cleaving them into smaller bits, but they continue to attack. Once we've cut them into small blobs, Zook blasts them with a magical sound burst, destroying them.

We're all battered, Zook is nearly out of spells. We retreat to the back room where we have been camping.

Reaping 25th

We head back to the river. Tenaris heads into look for loot, but there isn't any.

To the left the passageway narrows, leaving no air. To the right we can follow the edge of the water. Heading that way, we find another side passage with mine cart tracks. Further down the passage widens to a larger chamber. The river flows under a wall, there are three open exits.

The left passage ends a dead end. While we explore the chamber, it caves in. We all escape, but we get a few bruises.

The middle passage leads to a huge room. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with fungus. Mushrooms the size of trees stand around the room. Small animals are moving around in the odd underground forest.

A side passage has a four foot tall purple mushroom and odd puff ball things. As we explore, vines off the mushroom lash out at us. We easily cut it down. Amoungst the puff balls are two skeletons covered in purple fungus. They have a breast plate and some rings.

A different side passage leads to a chamber where a large gorilla like thing with a beetle head (an umber hulk). Its gaze confuses those it gazes upon, confusing Nica and myself during the battle. We defeat it. In the confusing haze, I attack Tenaris. As the party tries to deal with Nica and myself crazed, another umber hulk charges in from a side passage. I strike Silla. The rest of the party backs away. Nica and I, still slightly crazed, slay the second umber hulk. Eventually we recover from the effect.

Behind a rock is a stash of coins and a masterwork scimitar.

The passage ends in a small chamber. A blanket of fungus and bones covers a pit. in the room. Silla notices it before we stumble into it. In the back of the room is a large pile mostly covered with fungus. In the pile are a lot of coins, a few gems, a jeweled broach, a small copper statue of a dwarf warrior, a pair of gold candlesticks, and a hammered gold ring.

Zook checks our loot for magic. The hammered gold ring is the only magical item.

Down a set of stairs is a large room. Silla scouts it out. There is a large, headless, dessicated body. It looks like it was an umber hulk. Beyond is a chamber with a bone and refuse filled pit in the middle. Two large, humanoid, green skinned, pockmarked creatures stand by the pit, trolls. Moss and fungus has been piled into beds. Nica reports this to us and we head in. They call out, asking who we are. I ask who they are, they don't seem appeased and attack with their claws. When they hit with both hands, they rend their target. We take some nasty hits before dropping them. However, the damage we inflict quickly heals and the creatures rise to attack again. Silla recognizes the creatures as trolls and suggests fire or acid to kill them. Unfortunately we lack enough fire to burn them away. Silla and myself continuously hack at them to keep them unmoving.

As Zook prays for a spell to burn the bodies, something loud approaches from ahead. Nica and Tenaris take to troll hacking duty while Silla and myself face the approaching creatures. An armored troll with a two handed sword charges us. It strikes me several times, seriously injuring, but Silla and I drop it.

The armored troll has large masterwork half-plate, a large two-bladed sword, two vials, and two pearl earrings. Another troll has a carved coral pendant, and a jeweled ring on a skeletal finger.

We collect the regenerating bodies together. Zook summons a magman which burns the bodies with its magna touch.

August 3, 2002

In the next room is a large table with a wrought iron chandeler above. The dead umber hulk's head sits atop a spear.

Down a side passage is a small, closet like chamber. The back wall slides revealing another chanber. A green, stained curtain hangs against the wall. There are two large beds, a table, chairs, and a large trunk. A wooden shelf holds skulls.

The large trunk has a poisoned arrow trap, Nica narrowly avoids being hit. Inside is masterwork chainmail, a bunch of silver coins, a scroll case, and a small bag of bones. The bones are small finger and toe bones from humans, probably children. Every single bone is broken. The scroll case holds what we think is a map, or perhaps abstract art.

Further on, the area is clearly more refined. We double back to finish exploring the mines. A side passage from the river area leads to a large room with large droppings. As we leave, something from a ledge above sprays us with mild acid. The thing is two legged, brown, lizardlike, has tentacles and a short trunk (a digester). Silla climbs up with her spider cloak and faces it in melee while the rest of us open fire with bows. We slowly beat it down, then it blasts Silla with acidic phlem, almost knocking Silla out. We slay it before it can kill Silla.

We're pretty drained, we head back to our horses to rest.

Reaping 26th

We head back into the mines.

On the other fork that lead to the dragon the tracks end at a large wooden platform. The platform is about forty feet tall. A conveyer belt allows ore mined from the ceiling and wall to be moved down to the tracks. A side passage leads to the river.

Another side passage we skipped earlier has a pool splitting the room. It's pretty deep. On the far side the room rises fifteen feet to a ledge. Zook tosses a magically lot stone into the pool. In the murky water, two humanoid forms look like they were carved into the floor. Nica faintly makes out a third form near the bottom.

Silla climbs up to the ledge and explores. The ceiling is low, so she has to crawl. Up there she finds a vial, a rusty dagger, a rusty grappling hook, a masterwoork battle axe, and a rotten pouch full of coins, all sitting on a masterwork shield. The shield has the crest of a hammer in front of a sun. The metal vial has been stamped with the symbol of Moradin, common for holy water vials of more severe clerics of Moradin.

Zook magically imbues us with the ability to breathe water and we head into the pool to investigate. Silla detects some evil source near one of the forms. We dredge up the bodies with a grapple. They are two black robed humans. They had a thin coating of mineral deposits over them. Most of the coating was knocked off as we pull them up. One has the triangle amulet, the other has the ziggarat amulet. The ziggaret wearing one has a black iron censor.

The third form is a skeletal dwarf wearing a masterwork breastplate, a platinum ring, and a holy symbol of Moradin.

Zook examines our goods. The beastplate, the censor, the battleaxe, and the vial are magical.

We head down to the newly discovered area beyond the mines, Behind the first door we find an arcane room, alchemical equipment on a table, some sort of magical circle in red chalk on the floor, and magical symbols on the walls. A short, garishly dressed woman prepares to cast at us. I move in to stop her. A half-orc high on the wall casts a spell, causing us to notice him. Both retreat out the back of the room. The woman blasts us with a fireball. The half-orc tries to open a portcullis beyond which we previously heard growling. I cut down the half-orc before he can open the protcullis. Zook dispells the lightening bolt the woman tries to hit us with. Silla and Nica defeat the woman.

As we regroup, a huge orc like creature with wings and twisted horns comes flies around the corner. Its eye glow an unnatural yellow. It holds a huge sword. It mutters something and blasts us with a cone of freezing air and ice. We quickly encircle it. It grunts and vile wave of blackness emanates from it, injuring us and sickening us. We strike at it. Darkness suddenly falls over us and it teleports behind us. We encircle it again and slowly wear it down. Once we defeat it, we notice that it is slowly regenerating. Silla blesses her weapon and slays it for good.

The demon had big plate covered gauntlets, bronze plated belt, a chain shirt, and a huge great sword.

He is wearing an amulet on a leather strap, it is a red painted iron diamond with a four pointed star jutting out the sides. (kinda an 8 pointed star, flattened up down). The half-orc has a quarter staff, a bit of gold, and a crystalline wand. The woman has some silken slippers, a scroll, three potions, two daggers, and a bit of gold. Zook tries on the gauntlets, they magically size to fit him.

The lab has some alchemical equipment, clothing, some costume jewelry, and three books. Two of the books are silver bound, the third is an old, worn, leather book. The leather book looks like an accounting book, it references supplies for the Temple of Elemental Evil. It has a basic history of the place and mentions someone called "Lareth the Beautiful." He knows much of the cult of Thorizden and may be in the vicinity of Hommlet or Nulb. He was found in the moathouse and raised by the Doomdreamers. He is a loose end to be taken care of.

Zook examines one of the silver bound books and is blasted by a gout of fire. We guess they are spellbooks. Zook sets off the second book to disable it.

We head back to the portcullis. I peer around trying to see the thing beyond. A lizard like thing with short arms jumps in front of me and I'm only saved from being bitten by the portcullis. I smack it and it leaps away. At Zook's suggestion, I toss a forearm off the demon in to try and bait the lizard thing. It doesn't return. Nica disables the lever.

Down the hallway, Zook hea