Dragon's Breakfast

Next morning, the Jarl's housecarls roused the party to prepare them for their foray into the old troll mines. When the Jarl and pair of Virlya joined them, Kern posed a few questions to the troll leader. Specifically looking for more information on the layout of the mines (was there a map?) and where the mysterious stele was located. Unfortunately Jarl Sveg could tell them little, as the discovery of the stele and summoning of the malign spirit occurred many years ago, and he could not recall details of the mine. Besides, undoubted many areas had become unstable and collapsed over the years so any map would likely be useless. He could tell them at least that the stele was discovered at the far western end of the mine. Kern also talked the Jarl out of a pair of the troll's sheep, to use as food on the hoof and/or bait when battling in the mines.

That done, the Jarl and his housecarls lead the party to the only mine entrance still unblocked (stopping at the infravision statue to get all the humans some night sight on the way). The entrance was right next to the elevator the party had been using, so they has to pass through the minotaur lair to get there. Which they were able to do without incident thanks to the two Vrilya who accompanied the Jarl. Once in the mine tunnels, the Jarl took his leave of the party and returned to his halls. The party, forming a marching order and hefting weapons, headed out. After just a few steps, the walls around them started to fade away. The next thing everyone knew, they were waking up in a large mined out chamber. Most notably, all their equipment and supplies were gone, and they were dressed just in old rags and equip with mining tools and lanterns. They were also not alone. A half dozen skeletons, equip much like themselves, approached. The party prepared to do battle, and Riley began to call on the power of Habuu to drive away the undead fiends. Only to realize he had no holy symbol with which to channel the wrath of his god. And was unable to see in the dark anyway, as his infravision lens were likewise gone. So all raised shovels and picks and dealt with them the old fashioned way; smashing them. But these skeletons were tougher than normal, with bones encrusted in mineral deposits. One of the skeletons killed a sheep, and Darnorth vaulted over the other wooly creature to aid his embattled comrades. Lacking their usual armor and weapons, the skeletons hurt the party badly before the last one fell.

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After first aid and healing, the party looked around the room. A well stood in one corner, and everyone went to look, hoping their equipment might be in there. Alas it contained only scummy water. Erijay examined the skeletons, and noticed one was encrusted in minerals shot through with flecks of gold. She took one of the broken femurs to use as a backup weapon. But nothing else of use or interest was found, so the party prepared to head west, still hoping to find the stele and deal with it. Having first dealt with a band of (thankfully) regular skeletons that wandered into the room, they passed out into the mine tunnels. These were all roughly dug and propped up with timbers. As the Jarl warned, they were also quite unstable, and the sounds of creaking wood and small rockfalls echoed around them. Following the winding tunnels, they entered another mine chamber. Darnorth saw immediately that the load here was not mined out, and veins of gold still snaked through the walls. For once though, the dwarf was uninterested in the shiny metal. He instead led the party out of the room down a slating corridor. And next thing everyone knew, they were back in the well room, with no idea of how they got there or how much time had passed.

So back down the tunnels they marched, heading west out of the gold-chamber this time. They immediately entered another open area, this one occupied by another group of skeletons. These undead were picking up rocks and placing them in a trio of mining carts, a task they stopped at once when the party appeared. Several picked up tools and prepared to attack, while the rest of the skeletons grabbed a mine cart and rolled it down the slope towards the intruders. The cart slammed into Darnorth, throwing him to the ground. Rather than risk a knock down fight in their under-equip state, Bjorn cast a web spell to trap the ore carts and as many of the undead as possible. The rest were taken down by mining tools and thrown rocks.

Burning away the web that now blocked their progress west, they headed out again and once more broke into a mined out chamber. This one contained a small alter carved out of stone. Riley, wracking his brain to remember his clerical training, identified it as a shrine to Lughrin, the old god of miners. And behind it hung a silver warhammer, which the cleric recalled was the holy symbol of the mining god. Darnorth snatched the weapon from it's hook, while Kern examined the altar for traps. He found no traps, but did notice what appeared to be a hollow or hole under the stone. Gurruk bent down and started digging it out, and uncovered a trove containing flasks of holy water, 3 potions of extra healing, and a clerical scroll (bless, resist cold x3, continual light, striking x2). This fortunate find was shared among the group, and then Darnorth and hammer led them once more to the west.

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And right into trouble. Breaking into the chamber, the party encounter a large space occupied by dozens of the undead. Knowing better than to provoke a fight, they tried to retreat. But the evil creatures had seen them, and a group of the mineral encrusted skeletons turned to pursue. Kern and Darnorth bravely blocked to passage to allow the rest of the party to escape and look for a way to get around the undead filled room. On the way, Gurruk staked their last sheep at the far of the tunnel where the dwarf and merchant were fighting, then whistled to the pair to retreat. Which they did, passing the sheep and following the rest of the p[arty down a northward running tunnel. Thankfully, their pursuers were distracted by the easily reached living flesh, and the party escaped to the sounds of a bleating sheep being rendered to bits by the skeletons.

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Fleeing, they ran into a trio of zombie like undead. Like the mineral skeletons, these proved tougher to deal with than originally thought. One hit Darnorth with a swing of it's shovel, and a cold chill crept through the dwarf, who was slowed for the next while. But they were able to defeat the three, and head further to the northeast. They entered another chamber, this one showing signs of an old battle. To the west a strange purple glow was seen, so Kern crept down that way to have a look. There, a huge chamber was lit by a massive blast furnace that glowed with an odd purple flame. Outlined by the flame was a reptilian creature, 15 feet tall and with four arms and a horn on it's nose. And out of the room came a voice with a sound beyond space and time: "I hear you, but do not see you. Who are you?" That raised the hair on the back of Kern's neck, so he scuttled back to the party, who were getting ready to leave by the northern exit.

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Before they could move though, a strange knocking was heard in the walls. Listening carefully, Darnorth suddenly recognized it as a form of miner's code, used to communicate underground. The knocking told them "danger north, go south and follow instructions". Not sure if they should trust the message, but equally unsure if they could afford not to trust it at this point, they obeyed. They were led south and then back north, past the room in which they first awoke. Passing through another couple of chambers without incident, they now found themselves in one with signs of an old cave-in. And waiting for them there was a ghostly spirit. The figure was dressed in miners gear and introduced himself as Mass Rapert. He had been one of the trolls human slaves, captured when the occupants of the Stonehell prison broke into the troll mines those many years before. He was in the mine when the stele was discovered, and saw the destruction caused by the evil spirit. He died in the chaotic infighting caused by the twisted malevolent presence of the beast, but neither became undead nor was able to move on to the afterlife until the spirit is destroyed. He offered to help the party however he could. Asked first about all their stuff, Maas told them they were no longer in the same time and place as their gear. The presence of the spirit had ripped the mines free of Stonehell into a temporal distortion. All their worldly goods were back in their own reality, back in the dungeon. He told them to escape back to their own place and time, they had to use the blessed hammer of Lughrin to smash the stele that houses the evil spirits essence, and then slay the thing. Otherwise, it would be invulnerable to physical destruction. The hammer however, would only work in the hands of a righteous soul. Peering into each set of eyes, Maas finally settled on Erijay, saying "here is the righteous soul who may wield the hammer". So Darnorth dutifully listened to the ghost, and handed his treasure to the elf. Asking now about other weapons, Maas told them the old mine guardroom was located just to the north, and they could find some weapons and armor there. But they would have to fight more undead to get there ...

... There was some discussion around whether it would be best to go straight after the big reptilian demon (which was Rylee's preference) or try to recover weapons and armour from the old guardroom first. Even with the risk of having to fight more strange undead to get there, most of the others felt it would be better to 'load up' before fighting an extraterrestrial demon with a tendency to cause insanity in those around it. First off, Kern slipped forward to scout silently. He peered in the next room, and saw a dozen mineral encrusted skeletal figures working away at the mine, blocking the route to the guardroom. Backing up to confer with his colleagues, everyone decided it would be best to have Bjorn cast his invisibility spell on Kern, so he could slip past the ore bones and get to the guardroom. As Kern moved forward however, he stepped on a dried bone, makes a loud 'snap' sound as he entered the chamber with the undead. This roused the evil creatures, but although they could sense the presence of the living, they couldn't see the invisible merchant, and wandered off in the wrong direction. Kern took advantage of this, and slipped forward into the next chamber, the guardroom. Here, a half dozen sets of skeletal remains lay on the floor, with armor and weapons scattered around. In one corner tied to a chair was another skeleton, dressed in leather armor and with weapons lying next to it on a table. Kern gladly slipped into a set of leather armor, and gathered as much weapons as he could carry back to his companions. The ore bones still had not returned, so the whole this time slipped into the guardroom to get what armor and extra weapons they could (they found latter that some of the crossbow bolts were bolts +1, and there was also a hand axe +1 amongst the dross).

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Now ready to take on the world (or at least a reptilian demon), they prepared to head west to search for the black stele. Before they left, however, Gurruk peaked around the other exit of the room to see what was there. In the next chamber he saw a ghostly procession of miners working the ore veins, overseen by a pair of desiccated taskmasters. He pulled back quickly, and was luckily not seen. The still invisible Kern slipped ahead to scout, and finding the ore bones chamber still thankfully empty, the rest followed. Tracking back toward the west, they pointedly avoided the large chamber full of undead and headed to the area just north of it. Kern was able to guide the party around another group of ore bones before leading them into large chamber. And here was the object of their quest. In the middle of the room was a pit, 15' deep. Sticking out of it at a 45 degree angle was a black stone, covered in strange alien carvings. Though tempted to just go smash the thing and be done, everyone calmed down enough to plan how best to deal with the stele, and whatever consequences hammering away at it would bring. Darnorth examined some of the nearby tunnels, and was able to figure out how to collapse one with a few solid blows with a pick. That would close off one route of attack if they attracted any unwelcome attention. Then spells were cast: Riley cast a series of striking on various weapons, ans called down the blessings of Habuu. Erijay hasted everyone, then cast her mirror image for added protection. Bjorn had similar plans, casting shield to protect himself. Erijay then approached the stele with the blessed hammer of Lughrin, Darnorth approached the weak tunnel with his pickaxe, and the rest took positions to cover the only remaining entrance and protect the elf so she could work on shattering the stone.

Swinging the hammer, Erijay struck the strange rock a telling blow. Her arms shook as the power of the alien thing pulsed through the hammer, and a small crack appeared in it. At the same time, Darnorth started hammering away at the weak tunnel to collapse it, while the rest stood in wait at the other entrance. Suddenly, a screaming roar was heard, and the reptilian beast partly materialized next to the stele. Darnorth's tunnel now collapsed in a rumble of rock and dust, and he and Kern rushed over to cover Erijay. The beast waved it's four arms in the air and breathed a blast of purple fire on the three, but Erijay kept hammering at the stone. Meanwhile, the rest could see a legion of undead marching towards them, skeletons, ore bones, zombies and others all lead by a grey, dessicated thing. It now looked grim, but with a final swing Erijay split the black stone asunder. Quickly, she tossed the hammer the Rylee so he could use it to call on Habuu to turn the undead. She joined Kern and Darnorth to battle the now fully materialized beast. Swords bit deep, and it roared again, this time instilling deep fear in all. As it roared however, Kern and Erijay struck once more and with a final agonizing trash it dissipated into a cloud of pruple smoke and was gone. Suddenly the room around them began to pulse with a strange vibrating energy.

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While Kern and Erijay battled the beast, Riley raised the holy axe at called down the power of Habuu on the approaching doom. In the enter of the column, a mass of skeletons and zombies exploded into a cloud of undead dust and gore. Raising it again and again, he drove off more of their attackers, while Darnorth and Erijay held the front line and Kern covered them with missile fire. Just as the strange vibration ended, they last of the undead were destroyed. At that moment, they noticed all the undead became 'normal' corpses. And of more immediate interest, all of their equipment returned! Well, almost all. Each noted some item missing, including Kern`s folding boat and ring of invisibility, Rylee`s eyes of the serpent , Bjorn`s magical dagger, and Erijay`s spellbook. While much cursing ensued, they were at least happen to have most of things back.

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Assuming the curse was lifted and they could now leave the mine and go collect Duncal from the trolls, they headed off. But first stopped by the huge forge room Kern had scouted earlier, just to see if the beast he`d seen there was the same one they`d just destroyed. It was, but it was not a wasted trip as they discovered a stack of gold ingots which slipped into his secret chest. Now though, it was time to get their reward, so without further exploration they backtracked to the troll halls. One more, the passed through the minotaurs room, again oddly unmolested by the creatures Reaching the troll halls, they confronted the two troll housecarls who stood guard outside the huge doors. The two seemed confused by their presence. Darnorth, listening in with his helm, overhead them trying to figure out who the party were as they seemed to remember something about a bunch of surface peoples visiting a long time ago. Kern managed to make himself understood by asking for Grammlemor, so the guards disappeared through the doors and soon came back with the old troll hag, her head under her arm. With her smattering of Common, she spoke to the party, and expressed surprise that they returned after being gone so long. Asked how long they had been gone, Grammlemor put down her head and started counting fingers, stopping at about 60. It would appear that time passed much more slowly inside the temporal distortion than they thought!

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Jarl Sveg and his bodyguards now arrived with Duncal in tow. He sent off some of his trolls to dig out one of the blocked mine tunnels, and they soon returned to tell the Jarl that the mine was now free again. True to his word, the Jarl turned over the scrawny heir, noting there`s enough meat on Duncal to make him fit for the stew pot anyway. The Jarl talked a little about where they might find some more slaves to work the mines, either gnomes or men. Rylee tried to recruit the trolls to help overthrow the March Baron, but that didn`t go over well. The Jarl wasn`t interested in getting tangled up in surface wars; he would get the slaves his own way! He imperiously ordered the party to take Duncal and leave before he changed his mind, and seeing no reason to provoke a fight (or become slaves themselves the party complied. They headed back out through Stonehell, speaking amongst themselves about what might have happened in the two months they`d been gone. They decided that rather than go straight to town, they would hold up in Gurruk and Boohs (who miraculously was still there)`wooded hovel to question Duncal and to plan.

With Duncal out of the dungeon and back in Gurruk's hovel, Kern sat the pasty lad down to gently break him the news: that his father was dead and his inheritance was gone. The merchant expected the boy to break down and cry, but his response was not quite what was expected:

“You mean I’m free? Truly free? The old goat is dead and I’ll never have to listen to him again? Oh joy, oh happiness, oh wonderful release. I could just sing ...”

It seems that Duncal didn't think much of his Dad, or the idea that some day his would become March Baron of Westmist. He`d been a prisoner of the trolls for about 8 years, captured in Stonehell becasue he`d run away from home so he wouldn`t have to listen to his parents and become March Baron someday.

Kern, his aplomb slightly ruffled, recovered quickly and laid out the reason why the party had rescued him. He told Duncal about Sir Janus and the plan to overthrow Lord Merdwyn. The lad wasn't really interested in becoming Baron, but he did have a shrewd core beneath the whiny exterior. After a little thought, he agreed to go along with their scam, at least for the time being (the hill giant lumbering over him probably helped with that decision.) His price was to be looked after in some style in the interim, at when all the dust was settled from the coup d'etat, he expected a nice payout and would then disappear to a playboys life somewhere far away from the mud and boredom of the border town.

While not exactly the outcome they had hoped after investing so much time, blood and treasure into Duncal's rescue, it was a win of sorts for the party (although a few considered the best option at this point was to decorate the end of a pike with Duncal's head). Now the trouble was what to do next. There was some thought of taking the lad and heading straight into the mountains to find Sir Janus right away. But everyone soon realized they needed horses and supplies before doing so. And also needed to know what had happened in the two months they'd been gone. After discussing a variety of hair-brained schemes to get into town unnoticed (with Kern muttering something about "losing that damn ring" under his breath the whole time), they figured it best to just march up to the gate and go in the usual way. They left Duncal in Gurruk and Booh's care for now, and headed for town. Challenged at the gate by the guard, they noticed the guard now consisted of a mix of town guardsmen and men in the royal livery on white, not blue. The town guards recognized them though, and for a slightly usurious fee of 50gp, they were allowed in. Concerned about their house, they headed there first. It was still there, but a sheet of parchment was nailed to the door. Reading it, they found that due to two months of unpaid taxes, the house was about to be expropriated by the Crown. Tearing the paper off the door, they headed inside. To a quiet, dusty home, with no sign of Riker. Concerned, they combed the structure from roof to cellar, but there were no signs of foul play or intruders.


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Wondering what had happened to their manservant, the party scattered to scour the town and hunt for news. The eventually figured out that he had been arrested by Jax's men and was currently in debtor's prison in Westmist Keep. Looks like if the party paid their back taxes, he would be free. Except then Kern reminded them that the last thing they wanted to do is go near Jax now, since he would read their minds and the cat (i.e. Duncal) would truly be out of the bag then. Thinking of who could help them, they tried Synthini first. Handing over their last healing potion, the reclusive alchemist refused outright to get involved in any dastardly business. Rylee then decided to take advantage of his status as the "Mighty Arm of the Faith" to ask the Temple of the Three Virtues for help. The Sub-Virtue on duty heard Rylee's request, and was somewhat puzzled by the clerics reluctance to just go handle the matter himself. Rylee tried to dance around the issue, but the Sub-Virtue was puzzled why Rylee just didn't put his trust in the hands of Velas, lord of justice? With a sigh, Rylee took the young Sub-Virtue aside and explained the ways of the world, that sometimes mortals must take matters into their own hands. And that Jax wasn't exactly trustworthy. Awed by the senior cleric's eloquence, the Sub-Virtue agreed to take the gold, pay off the tax bill, and recover Riker.

The party hustled home to meet Riker, who arrived no worst for wear after weeks in a cell. He had a roof over his head, and three meals a day. What hardship is that? Worried that Jax might have planted a spy in their midst (especially when they found out the shadowy seneschal had spoke to their manservant several times while he was imprisoned), Rylee discreetly cast dispel magic on Riker, while Erijay cast ESP to read his mind. Which was thankfully blank as always. Apologizing for leaving him high and dry, they left a small trust fund of gold in Rikar's care to cover expenses should they ever again be absent for an extended time.

That taken care of, everyone headed out to beat about town and get more news. They learned that the king had withdrawn his company of troops to deal with some sort of issues on the kingdom's eastern borders. They were replaced by a half company of the King's White Company from the citadel of Amrath on the Great River. They also learned that a steady stream of new settlers had been passing through town, headed for Lord Merdwyn's new County of Overmarch, lured by the promise of free land and a new beginning. Wandering through the town square, they noticed a merchant set up, shilling wares from the far western lands. Intrigued, Darnorth went to talk to him. The merchant, Hallix by name, had taken advantage of Lord Merdyn's partial pacification of the Untamed Lands to push a heavily armed caravan in the strange land to the west known as the Land of 1000 Wizards. He brought back many odd items, but what caught Darnorth's eye's was a strange pair of weapons. Small metal tubes with a wooden handle. Asking for a demonstration, Hallix picked up the thing, pointed at a nearby wagon, and with a gout of flame some sort of missile shot out, struck and splintered the wooden vehicle. Impressed by the shiny metal and loud noise, Darnorth decided he had to have them, and managed to get the pair plus 35 missiles from Hallix for 1500gp. He also picked up as part of the deal, hidden among a pile of metal junk and widgets, a round power source similar to the one that ran Kern's armor. Darnorth then took one of the weapons and a few missiles to Slate, to see if the dwarven inventor could figure out how to make more of each (for a fee of course). The other he kept for himself.

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They also made a stop to see Afflain, to see if there was any word from Zoloren on their offer to sell the youthful statue. The Pashnadi merchant was furious when he saw them. Not just for missing their rendezvous and revenge with Gilmeshi, but apparently a ring the party had fenced to him had been poison. He had sold it to a merchants wife and it killed her! Afflain had to cough up a huge sum to have her raised and pay the fine! He was livid with rage, and threw Zoloren's written reply at them and kicked them out. At least Zoloren's reply was promising. The archmage wrote: “I have not become the sorcerer I am by giving away precious magic’s to anyone who asks. I will offer 3000gp in whatever form you wish. And if you desire a particular magical item, I can instead offer my centuries of knowledge and research to tell you where you may find that for which you search." They filed that information away for now.

Headed back to home to prepare for their journey to find Sir Janus, they noted someone was following them. Wondering who it was, Darnorth used his ring to cast invisibility, then slipped into a side alley while everyone else continued on their way. As the shadowy figured passed, Darnorth reached out to grab him. Unfortunately, the dwarf stumbled and missed, and the figure turned and fled.

With town business done, they gathered supplies and horses and headed north into the mountain. Taking Duncal but leaving Booh (figuring Sir Janus wouldn't want to see the hill giant every again), they started at Janus' old camp and headed into the mountains. They followed a small stream that flowed in a pass between two massifs. Coming to a junction, they followed one stream into a hanging valley on the flank of one mountain. There they saw a small log cabin, in good shape but with no sign of inhabitants. Gurruk approached the door, and as he knocked, he caught in the corner of his eye something moving in the woods above the cabin. Which he quickly found was an arrow, which nearly took out his eye! Maniacal laughter followed, as did another missile. Kern had Bjorn cast invisibility on him and slipped up the slope to find their assailant. Darnorth meanwhile took out his newfangled weapon, aimed up slope and fired. When the smoke and noise cleared, they could hear cursing and swearing,and a squeaky voice saying "stop, stop!!". Kern watched invisibly as a halfling, followed by a huge cave bea,r walked past him and down towards the rest of the party. The little guy, obviously shocked by Darnorth's weapon, surrendered. He was also obviously not all there, twitching and groaning and very paranoid and crazy. But they did learn that Janus had passed by here several months ago, but the halfling had driven him and his men deeper into the mountains.

So further into the Western War Peaks they went, encountering old and odd things along the way; an old stretch of dwarven highway, a giant skull with an axe stuck in it, a freshly fallen meteor (from which Darnorth removed some strange silver-black metal). Exploring an old dwarf ruin, they encountered a group of dwarves from the Stonehead clan.They were searching this old dwarven delve, once the home of their clan. They were a bit evasive when asked what they were looking for, but when asked about Sir Janus, they noted they too had encountered the knight and his party. Sir Janus had tried to move into the old dwarf hold, but the Stoneheads had driven them off and further into the mountains.

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So further up the pass they went, passing a strange head carved high on the mountain side before coming to a second dwarf ruin. Here, Rylee decided to cast locate object, looking for Sir Janus' awesome warhammer. And lo, it seemed they had found him and the weapon, for the power of Habuu directed the cleric straight towards the dwarf ruins. When the party approached, a handful of guards appeared over the ruined wall and challenged them. The party was recognized though, and the guards fetched Sir Janus to come meet the party. After exchanging pleasantries and talking about what had happened over the past few months, the party suddenly surprised the loyal knight by presenting Duncal. Much kowotwing and 'my-lording' ensued, and when Sir Janus recovered his wits, he was prepared to mount up and ride to take Westmist with Ducal by his side right now. It took some time to convince him they could not count on a popular uprising to support Duncal's claim, and the best idea was to lay low here in the mountains until the party could further scope out the situation and come up with a plan. Besides, they would need gold to support Duncal. Which gave Darnorth an idea. Thinking about the Stonehead clan, he suggested Sir Janus have his men starting digging out the old dwarf hold they were hiding in, to look for treasures that might have been left behind. That would provide some ready funds (and keep the knight out of trouble for now). While at first reluctant, Sir Janus agreed. One of his men was sent back to Westmist with the party to buy mining equipment (and luxuries for Duncal), and was then escorted back with the supplies. And now it was time to figure out what to do next ...

I've updated the house rules/rulings document. Additions are listed below, some of which have come out of play and a few that I've added because I like them and they may be needed at some time.

Casting from Spell Book: Unmemorized spells may be cast directly from a characters spell book. However, casting time increases from 1 round to 1 turn, and there is a 5% change per level that the spell will misfire and have no effect or a detrimental effect. This process also erases the spell from the book.

Thief’s Backstab: Can only be performed once per combat encounter, unless unusual circumstances permit the thief to “hide in shadows/move silently” again without being noticed by opponents.

Holy Symbols: A cleric requires a holy symbol to cast spells or turn undead.

Grenade Like Missiles: On a failed attack roll, the missile lands 5' in a random direction and affects anyone in that location, friend or foe. Roll 1d8 to determine direction.

Grappling: Attack as normal, without weapons. The successful attackers and defender both roll a combined number of d6's equal to their Hit Dice. On a tie, both parties struggle, neither able to take action. If the defender wins, he throws off all the successful attackers. They are stunned for a round. He may take his action as normal. If the attackers win, the defender is pinned and helpless.

Just a bullet list of highlight this time to keep track of what happened. I don't really have the time to write out a full report at the moment.

Leaving Duncal with Sir Janus and his new mining/excavation operation, the party heads back to Westmist. While making tea at the end of his watch, Kern is surprised one morning by a band of albino apes that erupt out of a pile of old rock rubble 60' from the party's campsite. Half the apes get killed, one is charmed by Bjorn, and a decent into their lair uncovers an ape latrine and not much more. Kern also discovers the battery in his alien armor is dead.
Charmed ape follows Bjorn home. There party sets up a put fight between the ape and Booh. The hill giant wins. Erijay is not impressed.
Back in Westmist, Kern asks around town about the King's recently departed troops. Finds out they were recalled for some kind of punishment/grudge invasion of the Earldom of Neeth. Also rumors of other armies gathering in distant lands.
Stop in the see The Tongue, looking for guidance on their plans for the March Baron. "Find out whom you count as friends before you make too many enemies."
Look for more info on the poisoned ring they supposedly sold to Aflain. Confirmed the Pashnadi merchants story about killing Petra, the merchants wif,e and having to pay to have her raised. Aflain is under a bit of a suspicious cloud as a result, not helped by the fact that he is a 'foreigner'.
See Synthini about some potions; pass on the potion of gold dragon control, but snap up the potion of healing.
Decide to take the youthful statue to Zoloren. Buy a pair of draft horse and cart, load up the statue, and head out of town. Reach the Great River and the fortress of Amrath and realize they no longer own a boat with which to cross the river. Bribe troops from Amrath to bring them across, promising a barrel of brandy when the party returns.
Stop at the ruins of Bracksis' Hold to recover barrels of brandy from celler.
Get in to see Zoloren, with his golems and slave girls. Trade the gold he offers for two questions about magic items.
Find out that if they want something to guard everyone in the party from mental control, they should seek the Cerebral Shield of the Gann. The Gann was a secretive wizard from another world with a stronghold to the north along the Black Spine Mountains. Go north until they reach the camps of the Horn Barbarians.
Kern asks about a battery for his armor. Zoloren tells him to seek out the Land of 1000 Wizards.
Party tries to milk the archmage for more information. He takes offenses and makes moves to threaten the party. Party wisely leaves after refusing his offer of information in exchange for Eirjay.
Encounter a band of 10 ogres shortly after leaving Zoloren. Carrying four humanoids to Zoloren. Figures are tied up and difficult to see if they are human, or what. Party experiences great anguish trying to decide if they should attack the ogres to rescue whoever or whatever they carry. Decide in the end the brutes were too tough to handle.
Head for the new County Palatine of Overmarch to find out what's going on in Lord Merdwyn's new lands. Find the ruins of Nasper have been transformed into the town of New Breven. Head for a tavern, the Rusty Sword, which is on the island with the lords castle. Find it to be a popular spot with the off duty soldiers, who tell of the hard work underway to clear the land of monsters and make it safe for the new settlers.

Another quick list this time:

Kern hatches a plan to sneak into the Count Palatine's stonghold to make contact with the spy he has in Lord Merdwyn's household. Erijay and Bjorn go along for magical firepower, while Rylee, Darnorth and Gurruk go on a bender. But not before Rylee casts silence 15' radius on a pair of coins for the trio of burglars.
Scouting the keep in daylight, Kern sees no way in other than the main gate. He figures out the guard schedule, and decides the best time to sneak in is just before the gates are closed at sunset.
Erijay goes shopping for a bag full of mice and oats.
Carrying the silenced coins and covered by invisibility spells cast by Bjorn an Erijay, the trio make their way up to the hilltop fortress. They breeze through the outer and inner gates as quickly as possible, just as the guards are preparing to bar them for the night. Several guards noticed the sudden silence , but shrug it off in the end. There is no pursuit.
At the main doors to the keep, and the trio sees light coming though covered windows. To enter without being seen, Bjorn casts a phantasmal force to make it appear as if the door remains closed when they pass through it. Which is good, because in the great hall beyond the doors is Lord Merdwyn talking to several servants, who are setting up for a feast and celebration on the morrow.
The group waits until Lord Merdwyn leaves through a door leading deeper into the keep. After waiting a short time, they follow. No sign of Lord Merdwyn, but there are tables covered in maps, patrol reports, etc. All the daily business of quelling a new land.
Go up a set of spiral stairs to the next level. Corridor rings a series of small rooms. The sound of a woman giggling and hanky panky comes from behind one door.
Choose to ignore for now, and head for the next level. As Kern opens door from stairway, he's surprised to find a man, dressed in armor, on the other side. He too looks surprised by the door opening on it's own. Erijay flicks a mouse through the door to distract the man. Kern, Erijay, and Bjorn then quickly slip back down the stairs and hide in a linen closet.
No sign of the armored man, so they head back upstairs. They find a central hallway with multiple doors leading off. Light can be seen coming from below one door. Kern listens at door, and hears a woman taking to herself on the other side. A mix of administrative details regarding running the Count Palatine's household and keep, and the odd magical incantation.
Checking the other rooms, they find a chapel, a martially appointed sitting room, and a pair of messy bedrooms. In one of the bedrooms they see a set of doors leading outside, probably onto the balcony/platform they'd seen from the courtyard.
Up to the fourth and apparently final floor. Similar layout as floor three with a central hallway and multiple doors. In the hallway stand seven of the Count Palatines guard.
Regroup and plan. Bjorn goes down several flights to stand guard. Erijay casts ESP, then quaffs her invisibility potion (having broken her invisibility spell by casting an offensive spell). She goes back up the stairs and attempts to pick out Lord Merdwyn's or Rathgold's (Kern's spy) thoughts while hiding in the stairwell.
Meanwhile, Kern slips through the door (tossing the rest of Erijay's mice ahead of him to distract the guards from the fact the door is opening on it's own) and dives into an opening to the left. Which is a privy.
Erijay probes the minds of both Lord Merdwyn and Rathgold:

Rathgold's mind doesn't reveal much of interest, except for the fact he is planning on hightailing it with Kern's gold as soon as the opportunity presents. He fears Jax, knowing that he can read minds. And Rathgold knows his guilty mind will cost him his head.
Lord Merdwyn of course reveals much more of interest. To Erijays surprise, there no hint of devious and diabolic plan. Upward mobility plans, ruthlessness and more than willing to take whatever chances and underhanded schemes he needs to get what he wants, yes. Evil, no. Lord Merdywn is really just trying to regain his place in the world, the respect and power and good name he lost to gambling.
She also learns that Jax is not fully human. No hint of exactly what he is, but that in Lord Merdwyn's mind his friend and confident has a terrible 'affliction'. Erijay also learns that Lord Merdwyn is wary of Jax, suspects he may double cross him at some point, even though he's done nothing like that so far and has always been loyal to his Lordship.
Sir Wyder is dead. That was not Sir Wyder who returned from the wars. He fell in battle, but Jax covered that up and somehow sent a substitute back home. The plan was to keep the King from learning the truth about the much reduced hobgolbin armies and Lord Merwyn's plan for the extra forces His Highness had supplied. No details; it would seem it was a matter of "don't ask, don't tell' between him and Jax. He just let Jax take care of it and didn't ask too many questions.
Lord Merdwyn also knows the party is in town, and is about to invite them to come see him. He has a task for them, to followup on rumors of a great manor house in the depths of the Blighted Woods. Erijay also learns that Lord Merdwyn does not quite trust them, suspects they are up to no good.

Having lingered too long already (thankfully the guards seem to be just waiting around for something or someone), the trio prepares to leave. Kern briefly contemplates going down the privy, but instead takes a chance and slips back to join Erijay in the stairwell. They collect Bjorn and head for the room with the balcony to slip out that way.
They find the door locked, so Erijay knocks it open. Unfortunately, the outer door is also locked, so Kern goes to work with the lock picks. As he is working, a knock comes at the door through which they entered: "Ikar, Silco, are you there?". Erijay and Bjorn try to hold the door, but whomever is on the other side is too strong. They let go and the doors fly open. Standing there is a lad of 16 or 17, pockmarked face, built like an ox, half undressed. Looking around, the boy mutters something about 'how will I get her out now?". Then, with a sly grin, he opens a footlocker in the room and pulls out fistfulls of gold before leaving again.
Breathing a sign of relief, Kern finishes with the lock. And fights the temptation of the foot locker full of gold. Bjorn casts levitate and ferries the others over the keep wall and onto the road below. Escapade over.
Next day, Kern goes looking for a place to buy potions. He finds nothing, hears an interesting tale from one of the wenches at the Rusty Sword (Varla, a nice buxum lass). She'd was told a story by one of the Wolf Tribe barbarians who dwell along the eaves of the Blighted Wood. While getting sloshed on mead, he told her of a 'goblin market' that sometimes appears in the depths of the wood. The goblins sell many strange any magical items to anyone with enough coin. He later learns from a another tribesman by the name of 'Runs on Night Wind', that the gnomes of the wood serve the Fairy Queen and know the secrets of immortality. Getting them to tell you the secret is another thing ...

Dinner at NEW BREVEN KEEP:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/medieval-castle-3d-model/606535

Kern, Rylee and Darnorth get invited to Lord Merdwyn's thanksgiving celebration at New Breven Keep. Henchmen not invited, but neither was Erijay. Humm ... wonder why?
Hob-nob with a 'who's who' of the County Palatine of New Breven. Kern puts faces to some of the voices from the previous nights break & enter:

Gwendel the Upper Baliff [women talking to herself about keep maintenance and magic].
Lord Marshal Lucerne of Woodsedge [startled man on stairs].
Fineous, the Count Palatine's Squire [half dressed boy who pilfered gold from chest].

Darnorth challenges Quid (of the Company of Good Cheer, Lord Merdwyn's tame adventurers) to a drinking contest and wins. Rylee hits on Gwendel, and she rejects him.
Lord Marshal Lucerne tries to get Rylee to join him on an expedition to deal with some necromancers digging up bodies from the recent battles. Rylee is at first interested, but Lord Merwyn's offer (see below) takes precedence.
Kern waits for his contact, Rathgold the Scribe, to go for a bathroom break. Follows him and tells him to meet the merchant tomorrow at the Wasp Inn, andto be discreet.
Kern also pumps the two Wolf Tribe Barbarians present (Kicking Weasel [the Shaman], and Wrestles Bear on Full Moon [the Chief]) for information on the Blighted Woods and Goblin Market. Learns that the Goblin Market appears at random intervals in different locations, each of which is a crossroads with an iron post at the centre.
Kern, Rylee and Darnorth meet with Lord Merdwyn after feast, along with the Company of Good Cheer (Zana, Ikar, and Silco; Quid was still passed out from drinking). Lord Merdwyn asks them to investigate the grand chateau in the Blighted Woods on his behalf. They agree, but only after Lord Merdwyn puts up a 5000gp 'bounty' in case the trip is a bust for the party.As party leaves, Zana sidles up to Kern and whispers something about "there are no secrets in small towns".
Kern, disguised as the merchant Nero, meets with Rathgold. Kern tells him that he will help the scribe get away with his wife when the time is right; Rathgold fears going back to Westmist as he knows Jax will read his mind and the scribe will then most likely be a dead man.
Kern asks Rathgold to provide a letter or other document that lays out Jax's "affliction". Rathgold says he will try, but Lord Merdwyn never directly refers to it's nature. But he does tell Kern for certain that Jax is not human.

http://kathika.com/wp-content/uploads/ch%C3%A2teau-de-chambord---16-05-2008---12h25-panoramas886-ll.jpg

Party gathers Gurruk and Bjorn, and following Lord Merwyn's directions head for the chateau. It's a huge manor house, a shinning mass of glass and ornate stonework, set on a low rise. A central octagonal building topped with a glass dome, two wings to either side, and a cross shaped wing on the back. No signs of life, but the grass is neatly trimmed.
Windows and doors are obscured, so nothing can be seen on the inside. Kern breaks a window; a grey mist drifts out, but view inside is still blocked.
Open front door, party marches in, leaving horses outside. Bjorn summons air elemental to fly overhead cover. Find themselves on a wide path leading through an indoor forest. The glass dome can be seen soaring overhead, and the sound of tinkling water comes from deeper in the forest.
Following the path to a T-intersection, the party encounters a beautiful amber skinned women lying asleep on the ground. One of her arms lies over a unicorn sleeping with her, the other is thrown over a small chest.
Darnorth wakes her, and questions her about the forest. Learns that she has lived here as long as she remembers, and has no desire to leave. And tells party they will never be able to leave. This is confirmed by Kern, who goes back to the door and finds out that the grey mist now encircles the mansion. And is poisonous.
Kern tried to bargain with her to get the chest, offers piles of gold bars. She's not interested.
Party moves on, heading west along a winding path. Encounter 4 grizzly bears. Rylee casts speak with animals to talk to bears. The ursine group confirms much of the lady's story (and lets slip that she is actually a gold dragon!). When asked about who owns the chateau, the bears refer to the 'human meat' that calls themselves the "d'Ambervilles".
Leaving their beary friends, the party continues west until they reach an ornate door. Decide not to go through, but backtrack through the intersection again to explore to the east. Girl/dragon and unicorn are gone.
Come to a long bridge over a meandering stream. A goat-headed humanoid stands at the near end, facing away from the party. It speaks saying "Please don't eat me Mr Troll. My brothers, who are right behind me, are much bigger and fatter than I am". A gruff voice from below the bridge says "All right, you may pass. I'll wait for your brothers". The goat-man skips across the bridge, but when the party tries the follow, a huge troll crawls up from below and blocks the way.
Party tries to bluff their way past, but troll attacks. It's claws and bite tear into Kern, leaving him bleeding heavily. In the meantime, "Mr. Windy" the air elemental, knocks a lot of the stuffing out of the troll, helped along by missile fire from Gurruk and Kern (once he gets out of the front line) plus sword blows from Darnorth. Troll goes down, and parry kindles a bonfire to burn the parts before they regenerate.
Party crosses bridge and continues on path, coming to a clearing with a pool/fountain in the centre. The fountain is shaped like three interlinked gargoyles with water spraying from their mouths. At the base of the fountain, across the pool, is a chest.
Rather than risk wading the pool, Bjorn has Mr Windy fetch the chest. Kern tried to pick the lock. No luck. Rylee tries to smash it; no luck. Kern tries to smash it; no luck. Bjorn tries to smash it; no luck. Gurruk tries to smash it; no luck. Darnorth tries to smash it; no luck. Mr Windy tries to smash it; obliterates chest. This attracts another grizzly bear (which is calmed by Gurruk). Chest filled with gold and a large ornate silver key. Gurruk tosses one coin into the fountain to wish for luck.

Once more in bullets:

Erijay joined the party after missing the original departure from New Breven.
Heading north from the fountain, the path curved around again, going from northwest to north, then to northeast. The party hears the chattering of squirrels, and spots a half dozen large amber squirrls dashing about the oak trees that tower above.
Gurruk noted they are not normal squirrels, a fact confirmed when Rylee sees one pluck an acorn, which promptly turns to gold!

http://shard4.1stdibs.us.com/archivesE/jewelry/1stdibs/101813/GloriousCC_MDR//13/IMG_4969.jpg

Gurruk speaks to the squirrels. Finds that they do not leave this indoor forest, and the only thing they can turn to gold are the acorns. Squirrel agrees to come along with the party for a bit and act as a guide.

Meanwhile, Kern has visions of golden acorns stuck in his head. Borrows Darnorth's boots of levitation and sneaks back to the squirrels. Observed they are carrying the golden acorns to a hollow in one particular oak tree.
Kern levitates up to the hollow oak, and when the squirrels are off collecting, reaches his arm in and starts pulling out handfuls of acorns. Squirrels suddenly return; two start chattering at high volume and run off to the west, while three leap at the merchant and start biting and tearing at his nose and ears. Kern flails about, unable to knock them loose, while blood streams down his face.
Rest of party hears much cursing, screaming and chattering. Their squirrel guide gets upset and takes off, saying to Gurruk that the "Wild Hunt" will be awakened. At this point, a hill off to the west splits apart, and out pours five riders; one a goat headed man on a giant elk, two cat-like humanoids on sabre tooth tigers, and two fox-headed humanoids on dire wolves. These charge down onto the party, with lances leveled.

While the rest of the party takes defensive positions, Darnorth stands out front to try reasoning with the Hunt. Says it's all a missunderstanding, Kern will put the acorns back. etc.
The Wild Hunt continues to charge, but stops with the points of their lances inches from the dwarf. The leader, Andre-David d'Amberville demands that they leave the forest. They learn he made the forest and protects it, and the party is no longer welcome. The Hunt escorts the party to the western door leading into the rest of the chateau.
Open door, enter a massive hallway with a red carpet over fine white marble floors. The walls and ceiling are covered in mirrors. The candelabras and chandeliers that line the passage suddenly light, sending out blinding flashes of light (and blinding Rylee and Gurruk).
Party investigates first door which leads into a huge kitchen filled with ghostly hobgoblin servants preparing food. The servants ignore the party, and nothing else of interest is found.
Leave kitchen via a catwalk across the mirrored hallway, and enter a decayed banquet room. A few moments after they enter, 2 dozen ghostly dinner guest enter through the south wall and seat themselves at a now visible ghostly table. There are place settings and name cards for each member of the party. Kern, Darnorth, Gurruk and Rylee and takes their places. Erijay and Bjorn decide to pass on supper.

http://www.annesharpillustration.com/People/Feasting.jpg

The ghostly hobgoblins begin to carry in the courses:

Onion Soup and Amber Wine: Gurruk, Rylee and Darnorth all gain permanent new HPs. Kern does not partake.The wine cures Rylee and Gurruk's blindness.
Tossed Salad: All four try the salad, and gain and loose 1-2points from various ability scores.
Roast Beef, Rolls, Green Beans, Mushrooms in Wine Sauce, and Red Wine: Darnorth and Rylee try the bread: the dwarf no needs only half the usual nourishment, while the cleric now needs double. Several try the wine and Darnorth gets stinking drunk. All try the mushrooms, but Rylee fails a Save and rolls off his chair dead of toadstool poisoning.
Apple Strudel & Brandy: Kern, Darnorth and Gurruk try both. When they try the brandy, the Kern and Darnorth find themselves now incorporeal, and are compelled to follow the rest of the guests when they leave the table and pass through the solid south wall. Kern and Darnorth have disappeared.

Shocked by the loss of half the party, Erijay, Bjorn and Gurruk stumble out of the room. After a second look in the kitchen, they head down to hall, hoping to find something to help recover their fallen and phantasmal friends. Gurruk drags Rylees body with him.
Erijay listens at the first door, and hears deep purring. They move on to the next door.
There are no sounds behind the next door, so the party enters. The find a bedroom, and sitting on the bed are the ghostly figures of a man and a woman. These turn on the party and attack. Luckily the wraiths' energy drain has no impact thanks to Darnorths long ago wish, and they are quickly dispatched.
A search of the room find a safe hidden behind one of the mirrors. Erijay checks it out, and notices it's trapped. Gurruk in a rage tries to break it open, hoping it contains something to help Rylee. Instead he releases a cloud of spores, which kill him. Once the spores settle, Bjorn and Erijay check out the safe and find it stuffed with 5000gp. They take what they can, then drag Gurruks body over with Rylees.
It getting late, the two remaining adventurers decide to settle down to rest for the night. When they do, a globe of amber light surrounds them. Deciding the day couldn't get much worst, the two largely ignore it and settle back to rest.

· Waking after night’s sleep, Bjorn and Erijay see amber writing appear on the wall. It tells them that if they wish to escape from the chateau, they need to release Stephan d’Amberville from his tomb beyond space and time. The writing directs them to find the Gate of the Silver Keys.

· Leaving the corpses of Riley and Guruuk behind, they break camp and head out to explore more of the mansion and seek the Gate. They meet a trio of adventurers (Sir Thomas Chap [cleric], Jason [magic user] and his dog, and Gort [dwarf]) who are likewise trapped within the mansion. They decide to join forces to force their way out.

http://roncarney.com/mystara/rakastas.php

· Party goes to the room where purring was heard last time. Enter room, and find a dozen cat headed humanoids. The cat-things do not speak common, but one has a smattering of orc which allows Bjorn to communicate. The mage makes a great impression, and weird cat licking greetings are shared. Creatures agree to take the party to meet their leader, Richard Coeur de Lion.

· Half of the cat-things lead party across hall, through a bedroom and then through a secret door into another bedroom. There they see an 8’ tall man with the head of a lion, dressed in golden armor and wearing golden crown. The cat-things speak to him in their language, and he seems upset they have brought strangers to his secret room. He roars at the party, and all flee in abject fear. Except Jason, who beats a hasty retreat and arcane locks the secret door as he leaves. This traps the creatures inside.

http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art73561

· A ruckus of hissing and yowling rises from behind the trapped door, which attracts the rest of the cat creatures. They rush over to help their trapped comrades. When the fear wears off the rest of the party, they sneak back into the cat-thing lair and pilfer a chest of gold. They transfer the contents to the secret safe in the room with Riley and Gurruk’s bodies, and then put the chest back in place so the cat-things don’t know they've been robbed.

· Figuring it best to get away before the fur hits the fan, the party head west. They enter a room with the furniture all pushed aside and a boxing ring in the centre. Standing in the ring is a vaguely unnatural-looking man in boxing trunks. Sitting in a chair next to the ring is a man dressed in rich lace, silk and velvets, and wearing a hat flaunting a giant peacock feather. He is flanked by two armored guards, and hovering over a couple of chairs is a pair of unblinking red eyeballs.

· The man, Jean Louis d’Amberville, challenges the party to select a champion to fight his boxer. And offers to match whatever wager they choose. After some discussion, Erijay takes the challenge and the party puts up a 1000gp bet. And hedge their bets by having Sir Thomas cast bless and Erijay, haste. They also try to bargain their way out of the chateau, something Jean-Louis cannot do. But he does promise to answer 2 questions about the chateau if they win.

http://mens-fashion.lovetoknow.com/Men's_Fashion_During_the_Renaissance

· The elf easily knocks down her opponent after only two rounds. The strange man falls to the floor of the ring, and then dissolves in a burst of flame and smoke.

· Jean-Louis honors the bet, and answers their questions: Can Kern/Darnorth be brought back? (Yes, but it would require a power well beyond their own). Where is the Gate of the Silver Keys? (In the dungeon below).

· They leave through a different door, and find themselves in a richly appointed entry hall. Outside, they can see the grey mist still encircles the mansion. As they prepare to leave, they are confronted by a man dressed in amber livery. A butler or footman of some sort. He challenges them, demanding to know who they are. He doesn’t seem to like their answers, as he raises his hands and fires a lightning bolt at the party. Melee and magic follow, and in the ensuring fight, Bjorn falls to another lightning bolt. Finally, their opponent is slain, and he too disappears in a burst of flame and smoke.

· Bjorn is not quite dead yet, just lying mortally injured on deaths door (saved by Erijay jamming a potion of healing down the magic user’s throat). They carry him back to the room with Rylee and Gurruk’s mortal remains, carefully avoiding cat-things and boxing matches along the way.

· They discover that, when they lay the magic user out to recover, the protective amber dome appears and covers Bjorn. And heated discussion ensures. Do they stay with Bjorn for a few weeks until he recovers, trusting that their rations will last? Or do they leave him with food and water and hope he can recover unmolested, while the rest seek the Gate of the Silver Keys? Tune in next time …

Erijay, Gort, Sir Thomas Chap and Jason decide to leave Bjorn under the protective amber force field to recover. They load him up with food and water, leave Jason's dog to guard him, and then head off to search for the Gate of the Silver Keys. Jason takes the brazier from Bjorn; just in case they need a 20' air elemental.
Having searched the west wing of the chateau, they decide to head through the indoor forest to the east wing. Thankfully(?) no one is left alive from the previous encounter with the Wild Hunt, who had warned them against ever returning.
Passing into the garden, they party is attacked by a group of killer trees. Tentacle/vines lash out and entangle them, drawing the helpless adventurers to great toothed maws to be chomped.

http://home.comcast.net/~slstuff/ComcastRenders/640x480/KillerTreesText640x480.jpg

There is much (attempted) hacking and slashing of vines, but Sir Thomas and Jason are both slain.
At about this time, another trio of adventurers (Meat the Fighter, Sloth the illiterate cleric and Dai-sen the Lawful warrior) appeared, and charge into the fray to help Erijay and Gort. Their combined effort destroys the woody menace. The two groups decide to join forces and search for a way out together.
The party treks across the forest, then realizes they forgot to search around the trees for loot. They backtract, find nothing (but recover the brazier from Jason's half eaten body) , and retrace their steps. As they reach the bridge over the stream, they find their way barred by a woman in green and amber robes. They try to talk their way past the woman (obviously another looney d'Amberville) and it works! She steps to one side and allows the party to pass unmolested.

Shortly after a quartet of badgers amble out of the woods and starts nipping at their heels. Meat punts his into the trees, a move copied by Sloth. Erijay and Gort get bitten and irritated, and choose to pummel theirs to death. Jason, wearing his elven cloak, it not bothered by the badgers.
Come to the door to the east wing. A trio of massive stones forms an archway around the door, and a continuous line of blood drips from the lintel. Gort, Jason and Sloth get through with no problem. Meat and Erijay get dripped on by blood, causing an odd magical tingling to them both.
They open the door into a massive room with white marble floors. A throne sits back-on before them. Tapestries line the walls, and a skeletal honor guard stands along the north and south walls. Carefully walking to the front of the thrones, they see two regal skeletal figures sitting there. A line of skeletal coutiers line a red carpet, all frozen in various poses.
Meat approaches the throne, and is suddenly overtaken by some sort of mental possession. He twitches for a few minutes, then to his companions surprise ans horror, starts chanting words of magic. Sloth is turned into a pig, and before anyone else can react, Erijay is enchanted to attack her fellow adventurers.
Not sure what is going on, the rest of the party does the only thing they can; pummel Meat into unconsciousness and tie him up. Erijay regains control of herself; Sloth is still a pig. Dai-sen rips a jeweled mace from one of the skeletons on the thrones.
They drag Meat into a side room, furnished and decorated in blue. When he regains consciousness they try to reason with him. Meat begins to again cast a spell, so they knock him out again and gag him this time.
Erijay casts ESP when Meat wakes up. Finds out he has been possessed by the spirit of Princess Catherine (one of the skeletons on the throne). She was wife of Prince Stephen d'Amberville, but betrayed and murdered him, then married his brother Henri and claimed the throne. In his dying breath however, Prince Stephan cast a curse on his family. Catherine and Henri were utterly destroyed, but she was able to magic jar herself into the throne. When the party entered the room, she took possession of Meat so she could be free.
Erijay also learns the Gate of the Silver Keys is in the dungeon below, and the two entrances to the dungeon are in the east wing and the chapel to the north of the indoor forest.
They try to convince Meat/Catherine to break the spell on Sloth and bring him back to human form. She/he resists, so they cut off a finger. She/he then complies; Sloth returns as a cleric dumber than the pig he was.
Not sure what to do with Meat/Catherine, the party tries the next door. Beyond it is a white room, very cold, and with a giant 6-legged lizard thing staring at them. Door is slammed shut, and discussion ensues about what to do next. Suggestion made that Meat/Catherine be pushed into the room, then bar the door shut. Hopefully that will take care of at least one of their problems ...

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/img/frossala.gif

To be continued ...

Dai-sen opens the door to the cold room with the ice lizard thing, while the rest of the party lingers behind holding Meat/Princess Catherine. The ice lizard thing starts to snort and paw at the ground, obviously aggressive. It charges Dai-sen, who grabs Meat/Princess Catherine, hamstrings him/her, and pushed him/her into the room.
The ice lizard is distracted by Meat/Princess Catherine, so the party rushes past it and out the door on the other side of the room. Close door behind them to the sound of rending flesh.
Find themselves in a green room, with a green man holding a two handed sword standing in the center. He challenges the party and tells them they may not pass until a champion chops off the green mans head using the two handed sword. Dia-sen accepts, and takes the sword. The green man draws a longsword and stands ready for the duel. Dai-sen raises the two handed sword, and with a single swipe chops off his challengers head.

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Party loots body as it hits the floor. Find a green leather bag around his neck, containing another silver key.
Party continues to next room, which has a black motif. Searching around , Gort pulls back the carpet and finds a trap door in the floor. Opening it reveals a shaft that drops at least 30' down. A torch is dropped, which reveals the shaft turns to a 45degree slope after about 40'. 100' of rope is lowered, and Dai-sen and Gort shimmy down. Once they reach the end of their rope, they find themselves in a 30' dungeon corridor. Call up to Erijay and Sloth, who follow them down.
Enter a room with a pattern of letters on the floor. Much discussion over how best to thwart this obvious trap. In the end Dai-sen walks boldly straight across one line of letters (NEHOG). Sloth follows by another straight route (GOHEN). Both feel measurably more competent when they reach the other side. Gort and Erijay try to be smart and cross diagonally; both begin to grow hair on cheeks and feel the urge to howl at the moon.
Next room contain a number of prison cells. In one is a minotaur, which Gort tries to engage in conversation. The man-beast throws itself at the bars, trying to reach the dwarf and tear him limb from limb. Gort then explores an empty cell, only to be attacked from behind by an invisible form. Two blows later and the dwarf is dead before anyone can help. Help now comes in the form of the remaining three party members locking to dwarfs corpse in the cell with the unseen assailant, so they can avoid a similar fate.
In a third cell is a man with a bucket of paint and a brush, staring at a realistic painting of the moon on the wall. He barely responds to the party's presence, just muttering "the moon, the moon, beautiful moon" over and over.

http://www.palms4u2.com/i/Tiles/Painting_-_Midnight_Moon.jpg

Leaving the lunatic behind, they party enters a huge room, with four 10' high vats, engraved with magical writing and filled with frothing liquid. Sloth wanders around, and suddenly sights 4 naked men at the end of the room.
Sloth runs back to the Erijay and Dai-sen, who have been joined by a newcomer, a short round halfling named Sheriff Ironbritches. The strange men follow, and a fight ensues.
The men have the same weird skin tone as the boxer and valet encountered in the chateau. One throws a lighting bolt at Erijay and Sloth, another tries to charm Dai-sen. Another stretches his arms to 20' long and tries to wrap Sloth in them. All four fall relatively quickly to the swords and arrows of the party, and their bodies disappears in a puff of oily smoke.
Erijay is boosted up to one of the vats for a look, and finds a pinkish frothy goo. Takes samples for later analysis.
Heading out, the next room is a huge alchemical lab full of tables, benches, and alchemical glassware. When everyone is in, the door lock clicks shut, and a fine black powder begins to enter the room from hidden overhead vents.
All four fall into a deep sleep and dream strange dreams:

Sloth dreams of falling for infinity.
Erijay dreams she is captured by strange lizard creatures who cage her and put her on display. She is saved by a passing wise man with one and a half heads and three eyes, who teleports her back to the dungeon.
Sheriff dreams of saving an important courtier of the king, and of being make a Lord of the realm in reward.
Dai-sen dreams of performing a heroic quest, something about saving a dragon from a fair maid or something.

All four awake with no ill effects, although Dai-sen feels much mightier than before.
The room doors are now unlocked, so the party leaves by a new door and finds themselves in a series of corridors leading to various rooms.
First room contains a pit filled with some sort of liquid, in the snetre of which bobs a glass sphere containing another silver key. Sloth dreams up a Rube Golbergish plan using ropes to lift out the sphere. Unfortunately the liquid turns out to be acid and the ropes dissolve. Dai-sen flicks a pebble at the sphere, which immediately shatters and drops the key into the pool. Where it dissolves.
With a few grumbles, the party moves onto the the next room. It is an old storage room full of shelves thickly coated in cobwebs. Sloth pokes around and finds a box containing a scroll of magic user spells. Erijay claims the scroll.
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Next room containing a pile of coins, 10' high and 40' long. Once shock wears off, Dai-sen suspiciously pokes the treasure pile with his sword. At which point the pile rears up, exposing itself as a huge slime worm which then tries to swallow the noble fighter. Who dodges, and then joins with his companions to slay the the slimy slither-er.
They find the worm is covered in uncountable thousands of coins, mostly copper and silver, and some gold. They do scrap off as much gold as can be carried, and have to leave the rest.
In the next room they find three dog houses and a smell of brimstone. Figuring there must be hellhounds, the party flees the room and bars the door.
Opening the next door, the party sees the object of their quest! A 10' silver gate! Unfortunately, their way is barred by a large amber coloured lion ...

Dai-sen stood still for a moment, unsure whether he should advance into the room or retreat. Behind him came a muttered "we've got to deal with it sometime to get to the gate; might as well be now". So the warrior stepped forward, Sheriff Ironbritches joined him in the front rank, and battle was joined. Sheriff Ironbritches quaffed a potion of growth to make him human sized, and Erijay cast haste. The lion leap from it's crouching potions, striking Dai-sen with one paw, but missing with it's massive jaws. The hasted party now rained blows on the thing, and chunks of amber flew left and right. The beast made one one leap, this time at Sheriff Ironbritches, before the combined blows of the party shattered it into a thousand pieces. Erijay and Ironbritches each scooped up a few bits of the gemstone, while Dai-sen scooped up the silver key which lay amidst the rubble. Looking now at the gate, the party could see it had three locks, so they had just enough of the keys to get it open!

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Ironbritches, Erijay and Dai-sen inserted their keys into the locks simultaneously, and the silver gate swung open into the room. Where once there was just a blank stone wall, there was now the view of a weird, infinite, flat plain. A greenish grass like substance covered the ground and the sky was an odd blue-purple colour. Nothing else could be seen. Sheriff Ironbritches shoved the other three aside and boldly stepped through the gate. Turning around, he could now see a square, featureless, amber coloured stone building some distance away. The rest of the party joined him, and they began to move towards the stone edifice, a journey that took much longer than it seemed it should have. But they were soon standing in front of a set of double doors, on which was painted a black shield with a gold phoenix. Over the door was carved "Stephan d'Amberville. It would appear they had reached their goal.

Although the plucky, still growth-ed, Sherriff wanted to barge in boldly, the others persuaded him to hold back while Erijay began the ritual to summon Mr Windy with the censor, just in case a nasty surprise waited for them on the other side. That done, the elf donned the elven cloak she carried and then the party cautiously entered the tomb. They found themselves in a large room containing signs of past battle. The west wall was scorched with fire, and two human skeletons lay there. To the east was the massive skeleton of a dragon, in front of which lay a third human skeleton. Once they were sure the dragon skeleton was not about to move, and the party spread out to search. Dai-sen found that the skeleton in front of the dragon held an obsidian sword in its outstretched hand, a sword he carefully picked up. The mighty warrior felt a strange feeling in his sword arm as if the blade was drawing on his life force. Finding no other ill effects, Dai-sen slipped the blade into his scabbard. Erijay meanwhile had found that one of the other skeletons held a white wand (with the word 'boreas' carved on the end) , while Sherrif recovered a burned leather bag of gems from the other.

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Looting complete, thoughts now turned to which door to try; east or west. Deciding the dragon must have been guarding something, Sheriff Ironbritches headed for the east door. On the other side, the surprised halfling found open sky. Although there were walls, where the ceiling should be was open blue sky, while thousands of feet below could be seen earth. Stretching out in front was a 10' wide conveyer belt of cloud, which turned a corner some 50' ahead and disappeared out of sight. Ironbritches was about to step on the cloud when Erijay grabbed his shoulder and held him back. She dropped a coin onto the cloud, and it sank a few inches, but otherwise did not fall through. Dai-sen then pulled a massive leg-bone off the dragon skeleton, and dropped it on the next cloud to appear. Again, the cloud held it's weight, and the bone was carried off around the corner. Satisfied that it would hold his weight, Erijay let Ironbritches go, and the halfling stepped on a cloud and let it carry him along. The other three followed some distance behind.

When Sheriff Ironbritches turned the corner, he saw a wall of black fog blocking his viewed about 50' away. Just before that, the cloud path split into four, two above and two below. Ironbritches chose the upper left path, and after passing through the fog bank, ran right into a swirling elemental whirlwind that rose above him, then dropped to attack. The halfling screamed the danger back to the rest of the party, and Erijay quickly completed the ritual to summon Mr Windy. Dai-sen and Sloth rushed forward to help the halfling, who was now being buffeted by the elemental, but at the same time rained mighty blows on the summoned thing. Just as Dai-sen and Sloth arrive the join the fight, the halfling was hit hard and lost his footing, dropping off the cloud conveyer and plummeted towards the distant earth below. Erijay quickly sent Mr Windy in pursuit, and by shear luck the elemental caught up with the halfling and buffeted him back up to the cloud path. By this time, Dai-sen had finished off the other elemental, and the party stopped to take stock around them. Of the other three paths, they could see one continued on, a second ended right past the fog bank they'd passed through, and the third was lashed by a massive lighting storm. Ahead lay another fog bank, so the party let the clouds carry them that way. Breaking through it, they found that the paths all rejoined into one, then turned back to the west and ended in a door. Since they had him there, the party decided to send Mr Windy to bust open the door, which he did with ease. While Erijay held back with the elemental, the other three moved thorugh the door to see what lay beyond.

Essentially nothing. Another 50' cubed room, but this one featureless, and with doors to the east, west and south. Dismissing Mr Windy, Erijay joined her companions, and they decided to check out the southern door. Sheriff Ironbritches opened the door, and beyond was another 50' cubed room, this one with a slightly slopped floor and a 10' diameter pit in the center. Suspicious, Sheriff gently lay a coin on the floor, and it slipped off towards the pit at high speed. He then touched it with his finger tips, and the halfling's hand slipped away just as quickly. The floor was completely frictionless. Dai-sen tried to scrap it with his dagger, thinking it might be some sort of coating, but he nearly lost his dagger as it slipped away as well. Obviously unable to touch the floor, the party used rope and grappling hook to grab onto the pull-ring on the east door, and Sheriff Ironbritches was sent across. A serious of complicated moves later, the halfling had the door open. On the other side was a room filled to the level of the open door with water. Deep by the look of it, and stretching off into the distance some ways. Since that didn't look promising, Sheriff detached the grappling hook while Dai-sen and Sloth pulled him quickly back through their door before the halfling could slide into the pit. Which, sliding close to the edge, he could see was filled with upright spikes.

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Back on safe ground, the decision was made to set camp for the night and tackle the other door on the morrow. Erijay took advantage of the rest to relearn spells, including read magic so she could read the spell scroll she'd recovered earlier. The rope/hook/halfling maneuver was then repeated with the west door. Beyond this door was a room full of bubbling mud, scattered throughout which were a number of 10' square stone platforms. While this way didn't seem much more inviting than the water room, they had to move forward somehow, so a plan was hatched. Erijay and Dai-sen shimmied over the rope. Erijay cast levitate on herself , and then helped Dai-sen hop over to the first platform. Which began to sink into the boiling mud. The elf quickly helped the warrior bounce from platform to platform to a door at the far end of the room.This Dai-sen opened, and on the other side saw another dragon skeleton. This one, however, sat on a huge pile of treasure, and it rose on it's haunches to face the warrior. The undead thing opened it's jaws, and a blast of small bone shards hit the warrior, who nearly tumbled back into the mud. Erijay, still levitating above, helped Dai-sen bounce back to the other door. And the party started to discuss what to do next.

They first checked the west door in the previous room, in case it led to an easier path. It opened into a room full of fire, so it looked like the mud room was the best way to go. Erijay then revealed that the scroll she'd found included (among others) a dimension door spell. So the following plan was hatched: the elf would once more levitate to the skeletal dragon's room, and try to dimension door the creature into the fire room. Taking advantage of her elven cloaked invisibility, Erijay got close to the dragon-thing and cast her spell. Which worked! The dragon disappeared, and the rest of the party could hear something thrashing about and cackling in the fire room. The trio then quickly but carefully shimmied over the rope and hopped to the now empty dragon's room with the help of the levitating elf.

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Well, empty except for the pile of treasure, which with great force of will they ignored for now, and instead headed through the door beyond it so they could find their final escape. Through the last door they found another 50' cube room. This one, however, had a dais in the center, on which sat a mahogany casket. A silver candelabra and iron brazier, both burning, stood at the the head and foot of the casket. The walls were covered with a tapestry, which based on what the party now knew, depicted the assassination of Stephan d'Amberville.

'Right, to the casket' said Ironbritches. Lifting the lid, inside they found a skeleton wearing a golden crown and dressed in the remains of rich, amber colored velvet robes. Carved into the lid were the words "Burn the tapestry to break my curse". That seemed easy, so up in flames they went (but not until after Erijay had checked out behind them, to make sure there were no surprises).

The surprise came after the tapestry had finished burning. Once the smoke cleared, they found themselves standing back in front of the chateau. Lying the the grass was Bjorn, and standing around him were Kern, Darnorth, Gurruk and Rylee. All of whom looked a little dumfounded. There also stood a tall distinguished man, dressed in fine amber velvet and wearing a crown. He bowed low to Erijay, Sloth, Dai-sen and Ironbritches, and said graciously "I am Stephan d'Amberville. My most sincere thanks for freeing me from my curse. In than ks, allow me to present your lost companions. And please accept these further gifts as a token of my gratitude". Seemingly from thin air, Prince Stephan presented 4 identical, heavily jeweled crowns, one each to Erijay, Sloth, Dai-sen and Ironbritches. He then proceeded present a magical item to each: a wand of detect metals for Erijay, potion of climbing for Sloth, Plate Mail +2 for Sheriff Ironbritches, and Plate Mail +2 and Shield +1 for Dai-sen. He then bowed once more, and with a wave of his hand was gone.

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Meanwhile, the chateau behind them had, now released from it's own curse, crumbled into ruin. Kern muttered something about "all that treasure!!" There was nothing to do but to head back to New Breven (on foot as their horses had disappeared), filling in Darnorth, Kern, Rylee and Gurruk on all that had happened since their unfortunate demises.

Back in New Breven, the party split to deal with individual business. Sloth, Dai-sen, and Sheriff Ironbritches took their leave of the party to make their way in this new (to them) world. Rylee, Gurruk and Darnorth likewise disappeared on private matters, leaving Erijay, Kern and the still recovering Bjorn. First order of business was to move from the common room of the Rusted Sword to better private lodgings at The Wasp, so Bjorn could fully recover his health without drunken troopers stumbling over him. With the magic user settled in bed, Kern and Erijay sent word to Lord Breven that they had returned from exploring the mysterious manor. It was not long after that one of the Count Palatines knights, Sir Kelso, arrived to escort and present them to His Lordship to give their report. They found him once again in the map/war room, along with the Lord Marshal, several other knights, and the Company of Good Cheer (less Zana). Kern laid out the story of their trials and tribulations in Chateau d'Amberville, ending the the final collapse and complete destruction of the place. Lord Merdwyn seemed indifferent to their near final death experience, and while somewhat disappointed in the loss of the chateau, did thank the party for their efforts. He then asked their plans, and Kern indicated that once the party had recovered from their wounds, they would head back to Westmist to prepare for further adventure. At this, Lord Merdwyn requested that they report back to him before departing, in case he had dispatches to send back to his seneschal, Jax.

That business done, the two headed back to the Wasp. Where to their surprise, found Zana waiting for them, sitting on the edge of Bjorn's bed. She was there with a proposal, or more correctly, a threat. Telling Kern that she knew what he'd been up to, spying on Lord Merdwyn, the leering lady handed him a wooden box. Inside which was a finger, recently removed from Rathgold's left hand. It would seem that Zana had tailed Kern and Rathgold when they met after Lord Merdwyn's feast, and then tortured the details of Kern's spying out of the frightened scribe. In return for silence, she demanded payment. Otherwise, she threatened to go the Lord Merdwyn with the story and then no doubt there would be hell to pay.

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Zana gave Kern 48 hours to consider her 'offer', and then left. And then the planning began. Various options, including a knife in the back for Zana and/or smuggling Rathgold out of New Breven keep were weighed. In the end, Kern and Erijay decided to play along with Zana's game for now, and Erijay would make use of her ESP to dig into their blackmailers brain. When the appointed day arrived, Erijay made a show of storming out of The Wasp after arguing with Kern, then slipped on the elven cloak and circled back to hide invisibly in her room. Some time later Zana arrived to get Kern's answer. The merchant stalled her some more, questioning whether they could trust a blackmailer to keep her work. Who knows who else she had betrayed, and who else was in on the gig that could likewise betray any or all of them? While Zana was elusive in her answer to Kern., Erijay read flashes of thoughts. Zana was working alone on this side business; the rest of the Company of Good Cheer was not involved or informed. She was also shaking down a couple of members of Lord Merdwyn's household. Fineous the Squire apparently had a weakness for women, and was paying Zana to keep quiet about all the jilted lovers, pregnant maids, and late night sneaking of the ladies in and out of the keep. On the other hand, she was also blackmailing Thorious the Lower Bailiff, who was a secret member of the Cult of Yg, information he probably didn't want to get back to the Count Palatine. In the end, Kern offered Zana 100pp to keep quiet, which she accepted as a 'down-payment", with the understanding that more would be forthcoming.

Fuming over this latest roadblock, Kern and Erijay waited out the week while Bjorn recovered, and then prepared to return to Westmist. As promised, they reported to Lord Merdwyn before leaving. He had no messages to go back per se. But he did brandish a recent dispatch from his man in Westmist, reporting recent issues with marauding giants north of town, attacking farms and leaving them devoid of families and livestock. Jax requested that some seasoned troops be sent to help with the issue, so Lord Merdwyn was dispatching a half company of his mercenaries ,The Company of the Four Brothers, back to Westmist. He asked that the party travel back with them, just to be on the safe side. Kern protested that the party may have other business on the way, and Lord Merdwyn was understanding yet insistent that they travel together as far as possible. To which, in the end, Kern and Erijay agreed.

Before leaving New Breven, Erijay and Kern decided they needed to take care of Zana and Rathgold. A sentiment with which Rylee and Gurruk, now back from their own business, agreed. Waiting for dusk, Bjorn and Erijay each cast invisibility and fly, then proceeded to scout out the keep and locate Rathgold and Zana. They found Rathgold in his rooms, toiling away at his desk. They did not see Zana, there being no windows on the third floor of the keep where they suspected her room was located. Erijay decided to cast locate object to look for the bag of platinum Kern had given their blackmailer. She did locate platinum coins in the NE corner of the third floor, confirming their suspicions.

Although they weren't able to figure exactly where Zana was, the party decided to take they chance they could find her when needed and put their plan to deal with her and kidnap Rathgold into action. First, they took their leave of Lord Merdwyn and left town with the Company of the Four Brothers. They parted way with the mercenaries near the end of the day, when the road turned east towards Westmist. The party instead headed west, ostentatiously to go see Zoleran, but actually to loop back around back to New Breven. They set up camp for a few days to allow enough time to cast invisibility on everyone, a task interrupted just once by a giant bee attack (quickly dispatched by Bjorn's sleep spell). Once everyone was invisible, the party headed back overland to New Breven arriving at the edge of the river opposite town late in the afternoon. And then realized they'd forgotten there was a river to be crossed. Flummoxed, they decided that in the morning Erijay would fly over to the castle and hopefully pin down Zana's location and maybe capture her. With that in mind, Kern gave her the magic chest to stuff Zana in, having already confirmed it could hold a living person for at least a few hours.

Next morning , the still invisible Erijay flew across the river and made for the keep. First stop was the balcony and doors on the third floor, and to her surprise the door was open! Inside the room she could see Silco and Ikar (of the Company of Good Cheer) just rising from bed. They spend a few minutes getting dressed, and then headed out of the room. At this point, Erijay noted an opening in the north wall, covered with a sheet. The opening looked newly made. Knowing this is where Zana was likely to be, Erijay floated over to the sheet and flicked it aside as if it were blown by the wind. Inside she found Zana and Quid together in bed. After some time, they both got up, made some small talk, and dressed. Quid then left the room, followed shortly by Zana. Erijay now flew out the balcony door and climbed above the keep to watch for Zana. She spied the spy leaving the front door of the keep alone, but rather than head out the front gates, Zana turned to the west and headed for the rear wall of the castle. There she disappeared into the wall, only to emerge outside an the edge of the road leading down to the town. Obviously a hidden postern gate.

At this moment, Erijay saw her chance. The road was deserted at this early hour. She cast hold person on Zana, who was suddenly paralyzed and froze in mid step. Erijay then landed, summoned the chest, and stuffed Zana inside. She sent the chest away, and finding her fly spell had ended, walked down to ferry crossing hoping to sneak on board invisibly. The ferry was just arriving when she got there, and with just a few passengers to cross, she was able to get on board without anyone knowing, and crossed to the north side of the river unharmed and unmolested. Making rendezvous with the rest of the party, they opened the chest to find Zana still paralyzed. There was some discussion of keeping her alive for questioning for now. Rylee, however, ended the debate with a mace to the back of her head. Now all they had to do was get rid of the body ...

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... but only after getting Rathgold out. Waiting for nightfall, the still invisible Bjorn flew over and broke into Rathgolds room. He carried the chest (sans Zana) and a note from Kern, telling the scribe to get in the chest to escape. Rathgold, awoken by a shake from the invisible Bjorn, instead cowered in fear when the chest appeared. With a sigh, Bjorn cast sleep on him, stuffed him in the chest, and flew back to the party. Which now headed out in the darkness, to put as much distance between them and the scene of the crime(s) before daybreak. No pursuit appeared though, and after a simple matter of bribing the guards at the Citadel of Amrath to take them across the river, they were back in Westmist after a few days travel (having dumped Zana in the Great River along the way).

Once in Westmist, they quickly rounded up Rathgold wife, disguised the two and sent them east by riverboat to Kingsford, carrying enough gold to start new, comfortable life there. They also found Booh, still waiting for them around Gurrukès hovel north of town. Questioning the giant, they learned that he wasn't responsible for the raids on the farms, which made them wonder who or what was. They also questioned Riker about what had happened around town in the month they were gone. Apart from a noticeable crackdown on petty crime by Jax and his men, there was little to report. There was also no work from Sir Janus and Duncal, apart from a cryptic note saying they were working to make His Lordship (i.e. Duncal ) comfortable in his new surroundings.Things were quiet ... too quiet ...

Kern, Bjorn, Erijay and Darnorth prepared to leave town. Loading up on luxuries for Duncal, their plan was to first check in on he and Janus, before then proceeding north along the Black Spine Mountains in search of the Cerebral Shield of the Gann. Before leaving, Erijay sold Synthini some of the alchemical goo she recovered from Chateau d'Amberville. Darnorth paid a visit to Slate to see how the reverse engineering of his 'fire sticks' was going. Not well, as the prototype the dwarven inventor offered exploded in Darnorth's face.

An uneventful two day ride found the party descending the pass towards the abandoned dwarf-hold where Janus and his men were holed up with Duncal. In the valley below they could see a great deal of commotion just outside crumbling ruin walls, as well as a large tented pavilion that wasn't there last time they visited. A band of Janus' men milled about, as as the party approached, Hafus emerged from the press. He had been just about to ride out in search of the party, for Duncal and Janus had gone missing. After the party had left Duncal in the care of the loyal Janus, Duncal had first insisted that they prepare a pavilion to suit his baronial stature (which would be the flag bedecked and palatial tent complex they could see) As a result, they were not able to start excavating the ruins, as the party suggested, until a few days ago. They quickly broke through the rubble and forced open a pair of rusted iron doors that lead into the depths of the mountain. Janus gathered a handful of men, and dragging the reluctant Duncal along, headed into the gloom to search for treasure with which to finance the coup d'etat against Lord Merdwyn. Before the day was out, one of the men stumbled out of the darkness to say Janus and Duncal were trapped in the dungeon by some sort of hideous and monstrous slime things.

With much eye rolling and cursing, Kern, Bjorn, Erijay and Darnorth left their horses with Janus' men and prepared once more to recover Duncal from a dungeon. They managed to convince a pair of Janus' men to join them (Bill and Ted), and into the hole they marched. Passing through a narrow dug tunnel, they came to the massive rusted iron doors, each with a black war hammer inscribed upon it.. These had obvious been chiseled and chipped open by Janus, and lead into a wide and high hall. In the centre rose a 15' tall step pyramid, and along the sides of the hall itself were 6 alcoves. In each alcove stood the statue of a dwarf, and the alcoves themselves were painted with battle scenes. Darnorth studied these closely, and proclaimed this to be the abandoned home of the Blackhammer clan. Unfortunately, the dwarf could recall little more except the Blackhammer's were renowned for their ironwork. Meanwhile, Eirjay climbed to the top of the step pyramid, but found nothing of note. After closely examining each statue and battle scene, the party moved on.

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The north end of the chamber intersected with a 20' wide corridor with a most unusual feature. Down the centre ran a trench filled with a thick viscous oil. On top of this oil floated a series of stone blocks, about 8' wide and 10' long. Gingerly, Darnorth tested one and found that it wobbled but held his weight. The dwarf crossed to the other side of the corridor, followed by the rest of the party. They first investigated a connecting 20' wide corridor, which soon ended in a pile of rubble. Darnorth sized it up but could not determine if the collapse had been deliberate or accidental. Backtracking, they came to a locked iron door. Kern tried picking the lock, but the rusty old mechanism defeated his lock picks. Darnorth then applied the time honored dwarven locked door technique, kicking it open with a resounding boom that echoed throughout the silent corridors.

Inside was a trapezoidal room, the floors of which were covered in dwarven skeletons. At the far end a raised platform held a large iron bowl. Close examination of the skeletons showed no signs of violent death. Investigation of the bowl was interrupted when a dark dusty cloud drifted through the open door of the room. It coalesced into a 10' tall cloud of ash with two faintly glowing eyes, which proceeded to pummel, suffocate and blind Darnorth and Erijay. A flurry of magic missiles from Erijay and Bjorn, plus missile fire from Kern and hammer blows from Darnorth soon dissipated the cloud, sending the remaining ash to drift over the skeletons on the floor. Battle done, Darnorth walked over to the iron bowl. Inside he found a pile of fine ash, which he stirred around uncovering a fist-sized opal.

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Done exploring this room, the party proceed to a second door in the room, heading north. This also proved locked and resistant to Kern's skills. This time Erijay tried the dwarf opening technique, but it apparently didn't work for elves. So Darnorth once more busted open the door in a spray of rust and noise. On the other side was a small room. A corridor lead directly north opposite the door. To the right a line of 4 dwarven statues stood with backs a against an angled wall. Darnroth approved to examine them from the front, while Erijay tired to poke around behind. With a stomp of stone boots, the statues came to life and turned to attack the intruders. The part formed ranks to fight them, and Bjorn cast web to lock them in place. The statues were resilient though, taking little damage from the swords and spears of the party. Only Darnorth with his hammer seemed to be doing much damage, so Kern pulled back to summon the chest of holding, in which he was keeping a magical mace and war hammer. These he and Erijay used to help chip away at the statues, while Bill and ted did what they could from the back rank with their spears. The statues meanwhile had almost broken out of the web, so Erijay cast another so they could be battered into dust safely. Which soon they had been. Sweeping rubble aside, the elf starting looking for a secret door behind the statues, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Darnorth was examining the weird angular cuneiform like carvings on the wall. He found one area where the carvings could be rearranged to form dwarven runes. They eventually formed the word "Drazak", dwarven for "honor". At this point , the wall Erijay had checked for secret doors swung open, revealing a small room. Inside was a stone bench, on which lay a silver and mithril chain surrounding mithril hand axe. Darnporth scooped up both, and the party then proceeded north.

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After just 20', a room joined the corridor from the east. Triangular, the interior walls were surrounded by a series of 1' round iron bars. After the party first searched for secret doors (and found none), Darnorth started picking at one of the poles. With a loud rumble, the ceiling started to collapse. Kern and Danrorth dove out the door, but Erijay and Bjorn were pummeled by the falling rock At this moment, Bill and Ted (left to guard the aprty's rear) shouted a warning. A large gelatinous slime thing approached from the north! Pulling the elf and mage from the rubble, the party formed ranks. The corridor was blocked by a gelatinous goo thing, from which two pseudopods shot out. These morphed into the shape of a man and a dwarf and proceeded to pound Erijay and Darnorth in the front ranks. The party landed blow after blow, included Bill and Ted with spears form the back back rank, and Kern with crossbow bolts. But the thing still fought on. Erijay tried her wand of cold, but to no effect. She then cast haste to increased the flurry of attacks, and the thing was eventually beaten down. But not before it landed a killing blow on Ted, which led Bill to grab his friends body and flee.

Examining the 'body', the party found it had mostly collapsed into a couple of inches of slime on the floor. There was also the squished corpses of a dwarf and a man, more or less intact except that the bones had somehow been pulled from their bodies ...

A little perturbed by the boneless corpses (and considering it was nightfall), the party retreated from the dwarf hold to rest and regroup with Janus' men. Who were anxiously awaiting word of their leader Janus, and their (new) liege, Duncal. There was some grumbling and grousing when the party emerged empty handed, and only Darnorth's rousing speech, and promise of a share of found treasure, kept the band together. Thankfully, reinforcements had arrived in the from of Riley and Gurrak, so the much strengthened band hefted weapons at first light to make another delve for Duncal. As they were preparing to enter, there stumbled from the ruins a bedraggled man, armed and armored much like themselves, but with one arm hanging limp. Challenged, the man replied he was Lomar, an adventuring cleric of Salue. Lomar could offer little more immediate details, as he was much traumatized from encountering the slime-monsters, showing off his be-jelloed arm as proof of his previous encounters. After some discussion, the cleric agreed to join the party in their search.

Heading into the dungeon, the party cut left at the end of the entry hall, and explored a narrow corridor that ended in another pile of rubble. Along the way were a series of stone pillars in 10'x10' alcoves, on one of which was a rusty iron dinner plate. With whispers of 'mind the tetanus' from the nervous Lomar, Darnorth and Kern investigated. Scattered on top of each was some bits of old organic matter of uncertain, but probably food related, origin. While curious, it didn't help in their search for Duncal, so the party headed back to the hallway where they'd fought the gelatinous slime-thing. Turning the corner and advancing slowly, they soon observed another 20' corridor in a T-intersection with the narrow one they were in. A floating stone/oil trench could be seen here as well. Before advancing further, Kern crept forward under the protection of his elven cloak, and listened at the intersection. To his horror, he heard loud squishing sounds to both left and right. Peering around the corner, he saw two of the slime-things, one to each side of him and about 30' feet away. Backing away, he conferred with the party. Erijay decided a well placed fireball should take care of things. A burst of flame filled the corridor ahead of them, and the sound of something wet being burned and broiled could be heard. Once the crackle of flames died out, Kern once more listened. And noe heard the slime things approaching! He gave Bjorn a poke, and the magic user flicked his own fireball down the corridor. Again the flames subsided, and again the sounds of squishing could be heard. But this time moving away. Well, that couldn't be, so the party rushed forward to finish their gelatinous foes. While Kern fired his crossbow, Erijay and Bjorn flicked magic missiles, and Darnorth and Riley rushed up to lay axe and hammer on the closest one. (Lomar and Gurruk held the rear) The slime thing lashed out at the dwarf and cleric via two dwarf shaped pseudopods, striking both and paralyzing them. It began to slowly engulf the two, but Gurrurk rushed up to pull his master free, while a final magic missile from Bjorn slew the creature and freed Darnorth. The two, however, remained paralyzed, until Lomar used a pair of cure light wounds to bring them back to full fighting form. There was no fighting to be done however, as the second creature had retreated out of sight and reach, despite Erijay and Gurruk's best efforts.

http://www.msha.gov/KIDS/ABANDON/SURF4.GIF

After a short discussion, the party decided to head to the right, to see if the corridor they were now in connected with the other 20' corridor. It did, and they also discovered the long deceased skeleton of a dwarf lying on the floor. On the wall above was a red sandstone block, which Kern investigated and deemed trap free, but obviously some sort of mechanical device. Darnorth, assuming that as the dwarf hew knew what he was doing, pushed on the block. There was a a few second pause, then a awful rumble of falling rock was heard coming from the end of the corridor they'd just vacated. When the last sounds of falling ruble and wisp of dust settled, new sounds could be heard coming from behind. obviously something attracted by the ruckus. Taking up a defensive position at the 'T-intersection' of the two 20' corridors, the party confronted a pack of 3' long centipedes, heavily armored with stone like plates growing along their backs. They scrambled across the oil/stones (and one fell in and disappeared from sight in the viscous liquid), and were met by a sleep spell from Erijay and a web from Bjorn. This took out most of the beasts, and only one was left for Darnorth to to clobber and the others to pelt with bolts and sling stones. It stony carapace make this harder than it looked though, and Darnorth received a nasty bite on the ankle (as well as a bone chilling stone cold feeling) before it was destroyed. The others were dispatched likewise, and to everyone's surprise Gurruk started piling the bodies in a neet stack to one side of the corridor. "Gurruk make good strong armor from insect things" grunted the wild man.

Collection done, the party headed east down the new corridor, finding more intersections as well as a pair of rusty iron doors. Once certified 'safe' by Kern, Darnorth opened the first. On the other side was a room with several odd 45 degree angle walls. All the walls, plus one down the middle, were covered in stone tablets engraved with dwarven runes. After a little study, Darnorth declared it to be the history and lore of the Blackhammer clan. He was able to discover one passage that explained one of the battle scenes in the entrance, a battle between dwarven clans (one of which on the side opposite the Blackhammer were Darnorth's own Longbeards. Who lost the battle apparently). Kern meanwhile, using Darnorth's helm read the last few tablets, which descibed in part the opening on new deeper mines that intruded on some sort of alien structures. Humm, guess that tunnel collapse took care of that. While all this study was going on, Erijay was checking the angled walls for secret doors, but to no avail. .

Exiting through another door, they part found themselves in an elongated hexagonal chamber. On one wall was a series of angled shelves, each with what appeared to be a 1" cube of metal on it. On the opposite wall were three words in 1' tall bas relief letters: Errukiz, Ezdrubal, Elomcwe. Treachery, Sloth and Foolishness according to Darnorth's translation. Curiously, the letters of the bottom word (Elomcewe) could be pressed into the wall. After some thought, the letters were pressed to spell the word "Welcome", at which point the wall pivoted open revealing another small alcove like the one in which they'd found the axe. Here, piled in the corner, was a stash of jewelry and gems. "I'll handle this" said Kern, and the thief reached towards the treasure. At this point, the ghostly figure of a dwarf appeared, and demanded to know by what right they claimed the treasure. The figure deemed it foolish that any would take the treasure were they not deserving of it. At which point Darnorth started the mock the long dead Blackhammer, enraging the spirit thing. It surged forward, but Lomar and Riley raised their holy symbols and the thing was kept at bay. Kern took this opportunity to reach for the treasure, but that was enough to interrupt the power of Salue and Habuu. The dwarf spirit reached out and touched the thief, who screamed as the cold chill of lost vitality seeped into his body.

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With treasure in hand, they all retreated and slammed the secret door shut. The spirit passed through the stone however, so Riley held it off with the power of Habuu as everyone fled and retreated out of the dungeon. Back in daylight, Janus' men again grumbled that the party hadn't brought back their leaders, although little of this could be heard over the sound of Kern weeping ...

The party awoke the next morning to a blanket of snow covering the ground, and to find Riley, Gurruk and Darnorth had departed during the night on some urgent business. None the less, Kern, Bjorn, Lomar and Erijay decided to brave the abandoned halls of the Blackhammer clan once more before, Duncal and Janus were lost forever and beyond saving. Passing once more through the entry chamber, and following the oil/stone trench to the right, the party paused briefly for some spell casting. Erijay caste locate object to hone in on Janus' mighty warhammer, while the ever cautious Lomar cast find traps to ensure the path to that hammer was clear. Erijay was able to get a fix on the direction of the hammer, so the party turned right again to investigate a new corridor. Here, the found that the oil/stone system ended here in front of a pair of iron double doors. On the opposite corridor wall, two additional iron doors could be seen. Erijay's spell seemed to point towards the two smaller doors, so Kern stopped to listen. Behind the second he could here the faint sound of whimpering. "Must be Duncal" said Erijay, so Kern knocked on the door and called out.

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There were a few tense moments as Janus tried to confirm that it was the party and not some foul fiend intent on tricking the watchful knight. Inside stood Janus, four of his men (and a crestfallen Duncal), in what proved to be a storage or supply room for the dwarven blast furnaces, At the back lay a body, wrapped in a cloak. Questioned by Kern Janus revealed he had dragged Duncal along into the dungeon so the young man could learn to 'face dangers and fight like a man and leader'. That didn't work out too well, and they'd ended up trapped in here, forbidden to leave by Duncal for fear of encountering more slime beasts. Once Duncal recovered his composure now that salvation was in sight, he raged at Kern and the party for not honoring the intent of their bargain (he lives in luxury, plays along with the coup attempt, but then gets to go his way). Much foot stomping and hissy-fits followed before the erstwhile 'March Baron in waiting' was placated. Ready to leave the awful darkness, Duncal was once more crestfallen when Sir Janus agreed to accompany the party on further exploration of the dungeon.

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With Janus, Duncal and entourage in tow, the party choose next to investigate the double set of double doors. Lomar carefully tied a rope around his waist, gave one end to Erijay, and poled himself across the oil pool on one of the stones. Opening one set of double doors revealed a large room with three blast furnaces on the opposite wall. Scattered around were barrels, heaps of slag, piles of ore and charcoal, and various implements and bellows. Erijay crossed over the join Lomar, and stuck her head in one of the blast furnaces. Disturbing some ash and soot, the elf also disturbed another of the ash creatures encountered previously, which billowed down from the flue to pummel and blind and suffocate her. As Erijay stumbled away, Sir Janus lead his men in a charge across the oil/stones (in which one slipped into the viscous stuff and began to drown), dragging a terrified Duncal after them. Lomar turned to try assisting Erijay and/or the drowning man-at-arms, while Kern and Bjorn provided missile and magic missile fire support from behind. While battle raged, Erijay dunked her head in the oil to try washing the ash off her eyes and throat, but instead just made things worst as the molasses thick liquid coated her head. Lomar tossed her a wine skin, which the elf pored partly over her head and partly down her throat. Then Lomar pulled out the drowning man-at-arms. Sir Janus, Kern and Bjorn continued to fight the ash thing. The knight's men however, unable to hit their foe and with one eye on the simpering Duncal, thought discretion the better part of valour, and turned and ran. In the process of which another slipped in the oil and began to thrash around and sink. All was not lost though, as the ash thing was finally dissipated, the drowning man rescued, and Duncal's tears dried.

After some discussion, the party decided it best to escort Duncal and Janus out of the dungeon before exploring any further. With some coaxing and slapping by the elf, Duncal was made to look leaderly for his emergence from the dungeon, with great (well, some) cheers from the assembled men. Duncal disappeared into his pavilion, and the party disappeared back into the dungeon (but only after Erijay rounded up a suitably ornery porcupine to slip into Duncal's tent). Heading back to finish exploring the corridor they;'d just left, the party was surprised by the sudden appearance of another slime beast at the first intersection. Erijay, then Kern, were pummeled by the dwarven pseudo-pod which appeared, and both ended up paralyzed and being slowly engulfed by the thing. They were luckily rescued by Lomar and Bjorn, respectively, and a series of potions of healing rammed down throats revived them from paralysis. They then rejoined the fight, assisted by a haste spell from Erijay, fireball from both Erijay and Bjorn, and lots of flaming oil from Lomar. It was not long before the great monster was an ankle deep layer of crispy goo on the floor.

http://www.santharia.com/magic/fire_spells/fire_spells_pics/fireball.jpg

Rather than continue to their original goal, the party decided to explore the hallway off this intersection. Like the others it was a 20' wide corridor, but unlike the others it contained no oil/stone trench. A set of double doors lay at the far end, while a pair of regular doors lay to the west, and a small hatch or door lay to the east. This small door intrigued Kern, so he hustled over to listen and search for traps. Hearing/finding nothing, he opened it up to reveal a narrow, low tunnel. This extended about 20' before opening up into what appeared to be the massive flue and chimney for the blast furnaces. Poking around uncovered nothing but ash and soot, so the party moved on to the other doors. At one Kern heard sounds of movement, so they bypassed that one and entered the next room. This looked to be a dwarven domicile, complete with stone furniture and a stone chest. The chest received immediate attention, and Kern disabled a scything blade trap before opening it to reveal the shine of gold coin. Which were quickly swept into Kern's chest of holding. The second room was quickly checked later, but left unexplored when the sounds proved to be 5 more of the stone centipedes.

Moving on now to the double doors at the end of the corridor, Kern opened these up (after the usual noise and trap checks) to find a vast hall on the other side. In the center stood a stone lectern, formed of three large black hammers, on a circular base. Scattered around were stone benches, all at weird angles. Something shimmered on the wall to the east, but of immediate concern was another large slime beast at the south west end of the room. It lunged forward as the party opened up with flasks of oil , crossbow bolts and a scroll cast fireball. This all made relatively short work of the thing, but alas Kern did not live to see it's defeat, and he fell dead to it's terrible blows.

Temporarily leaving Kern's corpse in the safe dwarven domicile, the party continued to explore. Erijay poked about the lectern and discovered that the whole thing (including the round base) could be turned with some difficulty and a god-awful grinding sound. Eager to find what lay below, she and Lomar rigged up a block and tackle to lift the whole thing out of the floor. Inside the shaft and on the base itself, they found a series of now somewhat stripped gears. Putting it back in place, they discovered the thing moved easier when pushed opposite the way they'd turned it before, but still saw no sign of how the mechanism was activated normally.

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Bored with the mechanical stuff, they now moved on to check out the shimmering wall. There they found and arched opening filled with what looked with a film of quicksilver, A little experimentation proved that there was some 'give' in the film, but nothing (10' pole, hand, face) could penetrate it. A little flummoxed at this point, the party decided to move off and check out a few other doors they'd missed. Behind one was a dwarven workshop where fine iron work was done. The other was empty, except for a stone font filled with a silvery liquid. Again much poking and prodding ensued, until Lomar exclaimed "hey, maybe this has something to do with the silver door", and everyone started filling vials and empty wine skins with the liquid. Marching back to the lecture hall, Lomar tossed a vial of the liquid at the wall, and it miraculously passed through! Bjorn then stood in front of the shimmering arch, quaffed a flask of silver liquid, and tried to walk though. To no avail. Next he spread some on his arm, and was able to stick it through the wall. At which point, Lomar dumped a flask over his head and walked right through. On the other side was a small room with an interesting feature. Three black metal pillars stood in the center, each forming the point of a triangle. In the center was a rapidly spinning matching pillar of what appeared to be liquid gold. Passing the news on to his compatriots (who now followed him through the gate), Lomar moved towards the gold. And was immediately drawn into one of the pillars, where he remained stuck until Erijay the brawny elf-maid pulled him free. She then proceeded to pick up a small stone, and toss it at the golden pillar. It immediately started to wobble and oscillate until it was obvious it was about to collapse or something equally unpleasant. Lomar and Bjorn quickly dashed out the gate, but Erijay was too slow and was caught in a spray of hot liquid gold as the pillar burst out of it's containment and scattered all over the room. Once she stopped cursing the pain, the elf beckoned Lomar and Bjorn back into the room to help her scrape the massive pile of now cooling gold off the floor and walls. Which was stuffed into the magic chest to be smuggled out of the dungeon. And with that the trio headed out, after picking up the cooling Kern along the way.

With Kern's body slung over his horse, Erijay, Bjorn and Lomar headed for Westmist. There was some debate about sneaking into town to avoid notice, but in the end the party passed through Marsh Gate as usual, after an uneventful two day ride through the snow covered hills. Collecting Darnorth and Rylee (who had proceeded them to town), the first stop was the Church of the Three Virtues to see the Highest Virtue and have Kern's little death problem looked into. This Liphanes was able to help with, but when Lomar asked about his gelatinous arm, the obese clergyman had to regretfully inform the newcomer that such assistance was beyond his power. Leaving the church, Darnorth suggested Lomar check in with Slate, to see if the dwarven engineer could rig up some sort of mechanical or bionic arm (hopefully non-explosive). After some painful prodding of the arm, Slate took on the challenge, and Lomar left 700gp lighter and with instructions to return in a month for a prosthetic fitting.

Dropping Kern back at the house, Bjorn and Erijay headed to see Synthini the alchemist. After determining she had no potions available, nor salves to heal Kern's burn scars, Bjorn placed an ordered for potions of extra healing (paying 1500gp down on behalf of Kern). Erijay, meanwhile, inquired about learning some of the alchemists craft from Synthini. The tall lady was willing, but informed the elf that it would take 4 months of instruction and 4000gp. Erijay for now deferred her lessons, until things were safer in the town i.e. hopefully certified Jax-free. Gurruk, meanwhile, took some of his cash and went to visit Thuridici the Sage, looking for information on magical trees and groves, something from which he could craft a magical weapon. He too left 1000gp lighter with instructions to return in 2 weeks.

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Speaking of which, Darnorth, Rylee, and Lomar (with Riker in tow), went out on a bender to gather rumors. They found that things were not quite right in the town of Westmist, and an undercurrent of unnamed fears abounded. Also learned was the fact that Jax was rarely seem about these days, usually only in the evenings or on dreary days. People feared to go out late at night as those who did tended to disappear, just like the petty criminals and beggers the party had learned of earlier. The trio decided to test the danger of the night, and choose to wander home in the wee hours, acting loudly drunk. They did not get far before being confronted by a patrol consisting of two of Jax's men in yellow and black, and a half dozen of the March Baron's men-at-arms. While matters were tense, things didn't go completely downhill until Rylee announced, in response to demands to identify themselves, that he was the "Mighty Arm of the Faith". Meaningful glaces were exchanged between the men, and the leader announced that the quartet MUST come with them to see Jax.

After a little more fooling around, Darnorth, Rylee, and Lomar (with Riker still in tow) decided it was time to run; they didn't want to end up having their minds probed by Jax. Splitting up, the four fled in a hail of crossbow bolts, one of which dropped Riker like a sack of dead cats. Darnorth and Lomar scooped him up and carried him back to the secret tunnel into the house, while Rylee led the guard off on a wild chase through back alleys and then back to the house. He got inside and barred the door just as Lomar and Darnorth emerged from the cellar, and Erijay, Bjorn and Kern appeared from upstairs to see what all the fuss was about. As the guards pounded at the door and demanded entrance, others could be heard raising the town. Knowing they would soon have no choice but to fight and kill, or surrender and likely be killed, the party gathered what they could and fled through the tunnel. On the way, Erijay deep froze Riker's body with the Wand of Cold and hid it inside the secret tunnel. Once outside in the night air, they party rushed across town under one of Erijay's haste spells, headed for the wall. Almost there, they were seen by the guard, but apart from a few crossbow bolts in Rylee's behind, they made it over and into the night. Stopping to get Gurruk and Booh at the hovel, they then headed back to the familiar halls of Stonehell, thinking that hiding in that hole full of monsters was the best place to avoid detection for now.

Entering through their still secret entrance, the party decided to hole up with their old henchmen/dungeon toll collectors. It took a few minutes to get them to open the door when they saw Booh, but eventually relented and let them all in. The party was careful not to let on that they were on the lam from the law. Darnorth went on a sweet talking mission to get them all on side first, while Lomar used his culinary talents to make the various beasts Booh and Gurruk brought back from the hunt into enticing meals for all. Kern recovered, and Erijay rewrote spells. However, the elf also cast a few well timed ESP to probe the minds of their hosts. Essentially, there was some suspicion on the part of the ex-henchman. They suspected something wasn't right for their former employers to be hiding out with them, and most harbored some level of resentment for having previously died in the party's service. So when time came a few days later for a couple of the men to go to town for supplies and news, Erijay's mind probe discovered the two planned to find out what news they could of the party and use it to advantage i.e. probably turn them in when they discovered what had happened. This info was relayed to Booh and Gurruk, who ambushed the two and ended that threat, returning with a tale of ambush by wolves for the rest of the henchmen/bandits. Meanwhile, Bjorn had cast invisibility and slipped back into town. Everything seemed back to normal, except for the wanted posters offering a 500gp reward for information leading to the party. He also discovered their house burned and the ruins tumbled into the cellars. A quick check of the secret tunnel showed that it was still intact and undiscovered, with Riker's icy body still there. He also discovered the Company of Good Cheer had arrived in Westmist, looking for the party. It seems someone had put together the coincidence of party's departure from New Breven with the disappearance of the Rathgold and Zana, and Quid and company were looking for some answers.

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Back to Stonehell went Bjorn carrying the news. A council of war was held, and the party decided on two courses of action. First, recruit the henchmen/bandits to their cause and have them start fomenting insurrection in Westmist. Second, to carry through to recover the Cerebral Shield of the Gann. While it was less critical now that they were on the run, blocking their minds from Jax still seemed a good idea. Darnorth was once more elected to bring the henchman/bandits into the fold. A another rousing speech about freedom for ~~Scotland~~ Westmist, a sack of gold, and promises of further reward when they'd met their goal of putting Duncal in the March Baron's brought the henchmen/bandits to their side.

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The other Skaarling ship-jarls had long thought Othgar the Mad to be ... well, mad. Constant raving about voices in his head, a tendency to slip into a berserk rage, and conversing with old gods long dead; Woten, Thor, Loki. But they were convinced of his madness when, at the beginning of the last raiding season, he announced Wotan had told him to sail west and north rather than the customary (and rewarding) raiding and trading trips to the south and east. Nothing lay to the east but the Spine of the World Serpent, a mountainous peninsula that stretched from the mainland to the utmost north and the Sea of Ice. A trip there was madness at best, and death for all concerned was the most likely reward.

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They were proved right that the trip could be fatal when Othgar's longship limped into port just ahead of the winter storms, with the jarl raving into the north wind and just a handful of men at the oars. But while a lack of strong arms to to sail her certainly slowed the vessel, it was the treasures piled to the gunnels that was mostly to blame. Once ashore, Thorgild's men told of a mountain higher than any seen before, the summit lost in constant cloud. Dubbed the Fist of Wotan by Othgar, the slopes were littered with ancient ruins and cave entrances. Guided by the voice of Woten, Lothgar lead them into the depths. Tales are told of mist filled halls that drove men mad, tunnels through ice that held cruel & cold abominations, vast cavernous worlds ruled by giants, strange metal chambers guarded by statues come to life. And gold ... enough gold to sink a ship.

Lothgar could have stayed in the Skaarl Islands and lived a life of luxury with the treasures he had won. But instead, he set sail at the start of this season to place his standard on the shore below the Fist of Wotan, and bade all men and women of courage and honor to join him there under the eyes of the All-Father, Many heeded the call, you among them, to wrest a fortune from the mountain at the call of the All-Father.

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The Skaarl Islands and the Skaarlings are the Scandanaia/Vikings of the campaign world in which Westmist is set (Bjorn's homeland BTW). So if you haven't guessed already, this is going with a Viking theme. Fur clad warrior (with or without horns on their helmets), skalds chanting paeans as they charge into battle, clerics of the Norse gods, etc. I'd like most PC's to have a Viking flavor, but I'm open to scimater wielding Zevestian warriors al la "The Thirteenth Warrior" and other exceptions to that rule. It will be a low civilization campaign. The only "town" is Lothgar's Trade Town, a seasonal and temporary base at the foot of the mountain. But this is D&D, so there will be somewhere to sell your treasure, heal your wounds, quaff your ale.

Gameplay will be dungeon oriented, but I'm going to try to make it more 'alive' than Stonehell. More rival adventures (the other crews) in the dungeon, more chance for events in the dungeon to affect relations outside (and vice versa). This won't be a megadungeon like Stonehell so much as a collection of smaller, sometimes interrelated, dungeons. Go further up the mountain and the greater the dangers. There will be the chance to explore the area immediately around the Fist of Wotan, and actual figuring out the best/safest way to get higher up the mountain will be important too. Think of climbing Everest in armor and you get the idea.

Oh, and did I mention the thing about the old gods? Where do you suppose they came from all of a sudden? And why have they drawn you to this god-forsaken land? Could this be the chance to discover the true meaning of the gods?

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When the Third Imperium tumbled into ruin, the chivalric orders who supported the Imperitor were blamed for the fall, and many were forced to flee the lands of the old Imperium and into exile. Some boarded ship and, trusting in the grace of Velas, sailed for the legendary south, to seek atonement and new lands to conquer and rule. And so they did, their fleets landing on the northern shores of the fabled southern continent, Azaria. The cities of the Pearl Coast fell quickly to the crusaders, and the northerners pushed inland over the mountains and across the plateau of Styria. There they stopped, their advance halted at the city of Kel Hazza by a vast sea of sand, the Great Thooz Desert.

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The crusaders settled down to rule their conquered lands and peoples, and more refugees and fortune seekers from the north joined them as rumors spread of their success. Many ended up in the melting pot of Kel Hazaa, and listened to the wild tales of the desert related by turbaned men in the shadows of bustleing souks. Tales of savage cults who sacrifice humans to their foul beast gods, of ancient civilizations buried in the sands, of mysterious realms across the vast expanse of desert, of dark sorcery and cruel kings, and the siren call of legendary riches beyond the dreams of men.

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This campaign is set in the same world as Westmist, but some 250 years earlier than that campaign. It's part sword and sorcery, and part chivalry and crusade. Think Conan with the Knights Templer bolted on. Outremer meets Hyborian Koth and Zamora [go ahead, Google them. I'll wait]. All players characters start as new arrivals from the north. In keeping with the sword and sorcery feel, the campaign will be demihuman and humanoid light. No orcs, goblins, kobolds, or other 1HD humanoid cannon fodder. Players may take elves, dwarves, and halflings from the north as characters, but there are no 'indiginous' groups of these demihumans in the southern lands. At least not that you know of ...

The campaign starts out in the city of Kel Hazza. This is going to be a “sandbox” type campaign. unlike Westmist/Stonehell there isn't going to be one obvious place to start. You'll have lots of options to go do what you want. I expect it will be typically dungeon or city centered for the first bit, but ultimately I see it becoming more about heading out across the desert and exploring whatever can be found. Want to explore old tombs? Sure. Hire out as caravan guards and see where you end up? You bet. Follow-up on rumors of lost cities in the desert? Lead the way. Take on the local bandit king? More power to you. Become the local bandit king? Fill your boots. Play the lawful good paladin and right the wrongs of the world under the banner of your god in heathen lands? Do it. Wander where you will, and find adventure where you will.

Inspiration? Read a couple of Conan stories (No, don't watch the movies. read Tower of the Elephant or The Slithering Shadow or Red Nails). Anything about the Crusades. The movie Kingdom of Heaven is decent background; it gives a feel for the the uneasy mix of cultures, and for the visuals.

Westmist Session #64 - To the Mines!

Westmist Session #65 - Been Gone Long

Westmist Session #66 - What to do With Duncal?

Updated House Rules

Westmist Session #67 - On the Move

Westmist Session #68 - Secret Agent Man (and Elf)

Westmist Session #69 - Dinner and a Dungeon

Westmist Session #70 - The Last Supper (For at Least a Few)

Westmist Session #71 - More d'Amberville's

Westmist Session #72 - Meat the Archmage, Sloth the Pig

Westmist Session #73 - To the Gate!

Westmist Session #74 - Free at Last

Westmist Session #75 - Spy vs Spy

Westmist Session # 76 - The Heist

Westmist Session #77 - Destined to Delve Depths for Duncal 'til Doomsday

Westmist Session #78 - The Cold! It Burns!

Westmist Session #79 - Duncal Rescued (Again); Kern Dead (Again)

Westmist Session # 80 - The Best Laid Plans of Kern and Friends ...

Campaign Pitch #1 - Fist of Wotan

Campaign Pitch #3 - Crusaders and Sorcery