Demarasaday, Nevra 2, Year 1103
Ilcon and Fellwyr have the mid-watch. When it comes time for the third watch, no one wakes them up. They wake up after sunrise and discover that Ilcon and Fellwyr have disappeared, with all the personal belonging they carried on them. Paeder, the mule, is still present. The party searches the keep from top to bottoom. Jeroen Pratt spends about an hour down in the cellar library, looking for references to any similar problem. When he returns, he finds a mysterious note at the bottom of his pack:
Aelwyn doubts the validity of the note. After much discussion, the party heads back to Westlake to reequip themseleves
Haradsday, Nevra 4, Year 1103
The party arrives back at Westlake at around mid-morning, the return trip being uneventful. The analyze the two vials of liquid and determine they are potions of Cure Light Wounds, Level One. They sell the non-magical loot at Oddrick's leaving a share for Fellwyr and Ilcon on their accounts at Oddrick's (103 gp for Fellwyr and 102 gp for Ilcon. They find out from Oddrick that Fellwyr's cousin is in town.
The party goes to speak to Fellwyr's cousin. He is rather disturbed by Fellwyr's disappearance. He looks at the mysterious note and immediately says that it is not Fellwyr's writing, saying that Fellwyr had an incredibly graceful hand and that when he bothered to write anything down, it was very pleasing aesthetically. After questioning the party, Fellwyr's cousin leaves to inform his family of his disappearance.
Arratsday, Nevra 5, Year 1103
Aelwyn and Jeroen speak to the town magistrate regarding who legally owns Ardivan's Keep. The magistrate says that he does not know; technically it is outside of the boundary of the kingdom. The party spends a great deal of time equipping themselves and late in the day, they head out, back to the keep planning to establish themselves there on a more permanent basis.
Tamorsday, Nevra 6, Year 1103
The trip is uneventful during the day, but at night both Jeroen and Aelwyn dream of a great yellow eye in the heavens staring down to the west of the them. They believe it was looking at the keep.
Zamaksday, Nevra 8, Year 1103
The group arrives at the keep without incident. They spend the entire day fortifying the northern tower, adding a lock to the door, which Jeroen had brought with him, and building a crude (very crude) stable for Paeder. They spend the night in the north tower.
Demarasday, Nevra 9, Year 1103
The party heads down through the cellars and down the spiral stairs to the first level of the dungeon. Instead of the room they were expecting, they find themselves in a 30' x 30' room facing a couple of medium-sized rat-like humanoids.
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In attendance:
Demarasday, Nevra 9, Year 1103 Turns out that the party had been followed by three new adventurers. After rescuing/assisting in killing the ratlike humanoids, the Ownka "Jack" Rhunahein, Cirdan Felagun and Bran joined the party. The party explored several of the rooms in the dungeon, which is definitely notthe level that had been there before. Some key features:
The party ended up fighting and killing four groups of the ratlings, containing a total of twenty members. After the last battle, the party decided to retreat and regroup as they had ran out of curative spells. Demarasday, Nevra 9, Year 1103 The party headed back up to the northeast tower and barricaded themselves in to recuperate and recover their spells. Romsday, Nevra 10, Year 1103 The party had healed up by morning, but Elkin had come down with a severe fever and case of the shakes. Jeroen diagnosed the disease as Filth Fever. By the evening, several other party members were beginning to fell as well. While Jeroen cared for the sick cleric and the other engaged in various cleaning tasks around the keep, Aelwyn headed to the roof and began a ritual to summon a familiar. Haradsday, Nevra 11, Year 1103 About midnight, the party was awakened by a banging on the door leading into the main hall. After about a minute or so, the door was bashed in by a group of half-a-dozen ur-goblins, lead by a large hobgoblin. Jack and Bran decided to hold the ur-boblins at the door. After a brief combat, they managed to kill four of the Ur-Goblins and seriously wound two others. The two wounded ur-goblins and the hobgoblin decided to flee at that point. The party gave chase for several rounds, but the monsters made it out of the keep and the party lost them in the darkness. Arratsday, Nevra 12, Year 1103 Cirdan and Bran came down with Filth Fever, although with milder cases than Elkin. Jeroen tended to them as well as Elkin, and his care clearly made a difference. Aelwyn aquired a black cat when no one was looking. Tamorsday, Nevra 13, Year 1103 Elkin recovered from his illness by morning, and the other two by evening.The group decided to head back to town to sell their loot and re-equip themselves. Zamaksday, Nevra 15, Year 1103 After an uneventful trip, the party arrived back in town just before evening and took rooms at the Sunset Villa. Demarasday, Nevra 16, Year 1103 The party headed to Oddrick's to dispose of their loot in the morning. Jeroen ordered a set of masterwork studded leather barding for his dog, Kitty. The others make various purchases of weapons and equipment. Romsday, Nevra 17, Year 1103 Elkin and Aelwyn decided to spend some time scribing scrolls, while Bran led the rest of the group in looking for a stableboy/groom, a.k.a. someone to tend to the beasts while the party is down in the dungeon. Cirdan attempted to teach his pet eagle to dive-bomb people. Arratsday, Nevra 19, Year 1103 After several days of effort, the party realized that no local would be willing to venture to Ardivan's Keep, so they decided to look farther afield. Leaving the spellcasters to their scribing et. al., Bran and the rest boarded a ferry to Eastlake. Mednrinsday, Nevra 21, Year 1103 Bran et. al. arrived at Eastlake. They quickly located a young halfling lad named Nathaniel who was amenable to their requests. His father, it turns out, was a respected lawyer in town and the party has to sign a contract with hefty penalties (250 gp) if Nathaniel were to die or be permanently injured in the course of his duties. The group took ship back to Westlake in early evening. Demarasday, Nevra 23, Year 1103 The barge the party members are one arrived at Westlake around 4:00 PM. The group was reunited and introduced to their new lackey. Romsday, Nevra 24, Year 1103 The party sets out for Ardivan's Keep, which they are now calling Skyreach Keep. Despite the day being unseasonably warm and muggy, they make good time and the day's trip is uneventful. Haradsday, Nevra 25, Year 1103 About 2 hours after midnight, the party is awoken by what sounds like a woman's scream. While investigating, they see a large, black feline which runs off into the trees to the west of the camp. The party then decides to return to their rest. Shortly after midday, a large trout comes dropping out of the air and lands on Cirdan. The party looks up and sees Cirdan's eagle companion circling overhead. Noticing the talonmarks on the trout, the deduce that the eagle was the one who dropped the fish. Suffice it to say, they are all delighted to be able to eat fresh fish for supper. The rest of the day passes without incident and the party arrives at the keep towards dusk. Elkin casts Make Whole upon the door to the northeast tower and they fort up there during the night. Arratsday, Nevra 26, Year 1103 Aelwyn, Elkin and Bran spend a good part of the day repairing the drawbridge, using the chains Bran brought back from Westlake, while Elkin casts Make Whole upon the drawbridge proper. In the afternoon, Aelwyn and Jeroen fix up the alchemist's lab in the cellars. Tamorsday, Nevra 27, Year 1103 Cirdan Felagund has troubling coaxing his eagle underground, so he decides to stay upon the surface and plant seeds in the courtyard so that he might be able to use Entangle there in the future. Nathaniel, the party's halfling servant starts taking care of the Paeder as well as cleaning some of the areas of the keep. The rest of the party heads down into the underground areas. The party heads down to the area where they left off in the last expedition. They have no difficulty in the cellars, but when passing a door to an area they had cleared out, they are surprised by a group of five ratlings. They kill four and knock one unconscious.They leave the unconscious ratling tied up, with Aelwyn's familiar to watch over it. The group comes across another couple of ratlings and kills them. They come to a room with two doors, one marked with some writing in Ratling. They head off through the door with the writing on it and head down a long corridor going south. After 50' of progress, they set off a scythe trap which slices Elkin up somewhat. After patching the wounded cleric, the party proceeds onward. They come across a Dire Rat and an ordinary black rat. They kill the Dire Rat, but the ordinary rat escapes through a pet door in an an otherwise ordinary door. They follow it. In the room the small rat escaped into, they come across a white ratling which calls up an Obscuring Mist and begins another spell. Thanks to a well-placed and well-timed Silence spell by Elkin, the ratling's spell is disrupted. After a short combat, the party dispatches the ratling and they search its lair. The ratlings lair turns out to have a fully-equipped alchemists lab. They also discover a small horde of platinum, the ratling's spellbook, and several other items, possibly magical ones. Exiting the ratling's lair to the east, they discover a stairway going down. The party decides that it would be best to finish clearing out the level they are on before proceeding downwards. They backtrack a ways, killing a few more ratlings they encounter, and then come across a room with a large circular pool. Looking in to the pool, the party spots a large, silvery glint at the bottom. Bran strips off his armor, the party ties a rope around his waist, and he dives into the pool...when the water itself seems to attack him. Aelwyn hypothesizes that Bran is being attacked by a creature from the Elemental Plane of Water, while Bran attempts to pull himself out. Just as Bran gets out of the pool, he is slapped by a wave, which knocks him unconscious. The party pulls him out of the room, and they use some healing salve to restore him, as Elkin is out of spells. Figuring discretion is the better part of valor, the party decides to head to the surface to recuperate, stopping to pick up their ratling prisoner on the way. Tamorsday, Nevra 27, Year 1103 The group makes it back to the north tower by 11:30 AM. Bran immediately collapses, feeling his wounds. They tie up their ratling prisoner and set watches. During Aelwyn's watch, the prisoner gnaws through his bonds and attempts to escape. Aelwyn easily renders him unconscious with a dagger, but the prisoner dies while Aelwyn seeks medical attention for him. Medrinsday, Nevra 28, Year 1103 The party send Jeroen and Jack into town to sell the loot. Elkin and Cirdun heal the party members while Aelwyn begins working on alchemically identifying the reddish substance in the glass balls. Zamaksday, Nevra 29, Year 1103 Elkin scribes a scroll. Aelwyn identifies the reddish substance as a spores that bear the disease called the Red Ache. Demarasday, Nevra 30, Year 1103 Bran, Elkin, Aelwyn and Cirdun head down into the dungeon. Cirdun spots a secret door in an the party had passed through previously. The secret door leads to a small complex of four rooms that, due to the dust level, have been apparently undisturbed for a very long time time. In this complex of rooms, the party finds a small amount of gold and a small armory containing dwarven weapons - several of masterwork quality. Before heading back to the pool room where the party was attacked by the water, they examine a passage they had not taken previously. It leads to a couple of rooms with ratlings, which after a fierce combat, the party slays. Cirdun searches through their refuse heap for secret doors. While not finding any, he does acquire a unique aroma. The party heads back to the pool room, where they toss a ratling body in to the pool. When the body is attacked, Cirdun casts Faerie Fire to outline the creature attacking it. The outlined creature comes out of the pool, appearing to be little more than a pillar of water about 7' high. The party manages to kill the creature and searchs the pool. They find that glint from the bottom was from a Mithral Chain Shirt which Aelwyn immediately puts on. Continuing onwards, the party heads down a long passageway. At a turn in the corridor, Cirdun's keen Elvish senses detect a secret door. Upon opening the door, the party is overwhelmed by a noxious gas. They throw off its effects, and discover a 10' x 10' room that contains two heavy, iron-bound and locked chests made of oak. The party spends the rest of the day getting the chests and their other loot back to the surface, which they finish doing about 4 PM. Cirdun goes to bathe in the moat, while the party decides to wait for Jeroen to come back and pick the locks on the chests. Arrastday, Petrus 3, Year 1103 Jeroen and Jack finally return. Jeroen picks the exceedingly difficult locks (DC 30) and the party finds that they chests are filled with gold, platinum and copper, as well as a few magic items. Tamorsday, Petrus 4, Year 1103 Aelwyn identifies the magic items in the chests: a Gray Bag of Tricks, a Ring of Swimming, a Potion of Cat's Grace cast at third level and a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, also at third level. The stick found earlier turns out to be a Wand of True Strike cast at level one, with eight charges. The white feather was identified as a Feather Token - Swan Boat Bran, Cirdun and Jeroen decide to take the loot back to town this time, and head back. Medrinsday, Petrus 5, Year 1103 The group heading back to town makes slow progress, as they are heavily loaded down. Elkin and Aelwyn decide to spend their time scribing scrolls. Zamaksday, Petrus 6, Year 1103 Bran, Cirdun and Jeroen encounter an ogre named Grod. Grod orders the party to give them the mule, Paeder, as he is hungry. Bran replies back, in Ogrish-accented Common, that Grod cannot have the mule. A melee ensues in which Bran and Jeroen are badly hurt, but Grod is also badly injured. Grod flees by jumping into the river and swimming away. Cirdun patches up the two wounded party members as best he can and they resume their journey. Demarasday, Petrus 7, Year 1103 The trio arrive at Westlake. They purchase several weeks worth of food and supplies at Crazy Oddrick's. Jeroen is delighted to learn that the barding for his dog arrived, while Bran orders a Masterwork Alchemically Silvered Heavy Mace on behalf of Elkin. Romsday, Petrus 8, Year 1103 Bran, Cirdun and Jeroen head back to Ardivan's Keep. Arratsday, Petrus 10, Year 1103 After a journey without any notable happenings, the group arrives back at the keep late in the day. Tamorsday, Petrus 11, Year 1103 The party heads down into dungeons beneath the keep. They finish exploring the first level of the ratling's lair, encountering a room with green slime dripping from the ceiling, and a stone face embedded into the wall at the end of a corridor. 
The face appears identical to the one that they have seen before. Bran is bold enough to touch it, and when he does, he feels his senses sharpen - his eyesight becomes keen and his hearing extraordinarily acute. The party heads down the stairway they found several weeks previously and comes out into a 40' x 50' room. The room has had some fortifications set up - rubble strewn on the floor, a pit blocking passage across it, and a short wall. Half-a-dozen ratlings are in the room, and a fierce battle ensues. Bran ends up jumping into the pit, and one of the ratlings escapes, but the rest are slaughtered by the party. Tamorsday, Petrus 11, Year 1103 Bran leads the rest of the party in pursuit of the ratling that escaped. Coming to a door barred from the other side, they batter it down. They find the ratling that escaped along with four additional ones in the room behind the door. The party mercilessly slaughters the ratlings and begins looting the room, which looks something like a barracks. While the party is examining the room, Jeroen slips off to the north for some solo reconnaissance. Bran and Cirdun go after the wayward halfling, who they find scouring through an empty storage room. They check out an abandoned kitchen next to the storage room and are attacked by four 2-foot long centipedes inside some barrels of rotten grain. They slay the centipede and gather the rest of the group together. After some discussion on whether or not to search a latrine, the group decides not to, and proceeds onwards. They come across a group of six ratlings swimming in a pool in a large room. The party the unarmored ratlings and when they are just about to finish them off, a gelatinous cube squeezes through the entrance door to the room. It engulfs and paralyzes Elkin and paralyzes Aelwyn, but the party manages to slay it before Elkin or Aelwyn are killed. The party continues their exploration of the dungeon. They come to a barracks/bedchamber, which clearly has been used recently, but no ratlings are present. After a quick smash'n'loot job, they move on. The next room the party happens upon is a small armory. Unoccupied, the room is filled with a large number of weapons and armor, which the party makes plans to take with them. Cirdun's keen elven senses twice again prove their worth, as he ends up spotting two secret doors. The first leads to a small, very dusty room with a Heavy Warhammer and a Large Steel Shield on the wall. Written in Dwarven underneath the weapon and shield is the following inscription: "Wield Skullcrusher to smash in the race's foes and Heartwarder to defend you from their blows." Elkin immediately equips the warhammer and shield, while Cirdun casts Detect Magic on them. Both detect as magical. The next secret door leads to a long, dusty hallway, which ends in a door. The door opens into an even dustier small room. In the southeast section of this room is an altar made of black stone, with a grinning skull embossed in the middle its northwest face. 4 purplish stones are embedded in the skull, looking kind of like a double row of eyes. No one recognizes the symbol in the altar. Elkin enters the room, triggering a Glyph of Warding that summons a Fiendish Black Bear. The party vanquishes the bear and then spends 20 minutes arguing about whether or not the altar is trapped. Eventually Cirdun searches the altar and finds a hidden compartment - the apartment contains 2 pieces of incense, a vial of silvery liquid and an arcane Scroll of Haste, all of which detect as magical. The party overturns a couple of tables to use as a couple of travois to carry their loot. They head back to the entry chamber to the second dungeon level, where they are set upon by half-a-dozen ratlings that the group surmised had circled behind them. Elkin and Aelwyn charge into battle, much to the disgust of the party's heavy fighter (Bran). Despite their being surprised and the uncharacteristic tactics of the party, the ratlings are defeated and the group makes their way back to the surface. Medrinsday, Petrus 12, Year 1103 Bran and Jeroen return to town. Aelwyn and Elkin start scribing scrolls. Cirdun watches over the keep and his plantings in the courtyard. Bran and Jeroen make slow progress due to being heavily laden down. Zamaksday, Petrus 13, Year 1103 The day is very hot and humid, but nothing otherwise eventful happens. Demarasday, Petrus 14, Year 1103 Once again Bran is awoken by a fish dropping out of the sky onto him. There is much speculation about whether or not, Cirdun's former eagle companion will teach this skill to others, or if it will die with him. The two party members resume their trek, making fairly good time , arriving in Westlake a couple of hours after noon. After disposing of their loot at Oddrick's, Oddrick tells Bran and Jeroen that there is a human who had stopped by looking for them. The human said that he would be waiting for them at the inn. They head to the inn, where they meet a human fighter named Kit. Kit hands them a note from their former companion, Ownka "Jack" Rhunahein. In poorly written Ithyrian, Jack explains that he had to leave upon family business and that he suggests they take Kit as a replacement. The duo talk it over with Kit and they agree that he can join their adventuring party. Romsday, Petrus 15, Year 1103 Bran, Jeroen and Kit leave for Ardivan's Keep. Not burdened down by their treasure, they make excellent time heading back. Haradsday, Petrus 16, Year 1103 The trio arrives back at the keep shortly after sunset and make preparations to head into the dungeons on the following day. Arratsday, Petrus 17, Year 1103 The group heads down into the dungeons. They kill five ratlings in one of the rooms and then come upon a room barred from the outside, with a warning written in ratling to keep out. Bravely ignoring the warning message, they go through the barred door and end up facing a seven foot tall fire elemental. Retreating, they regroup. When the fire elemental follows them, they quickly dispatch it. After destroying the fire elemental, the group continues their exploration of the dungeon. In the very next room they explore, they encounter an even dozen ratlings. A ferocious battle is waged. Once again the ratlings impress the party with their organized battle tactics, but are still eventually slain to the last rat. The party, out of spells and wounded, decides to return to the surface to recuperate. Arratsday, Petrus 17, Year 1103 The party comes back up from the dungeons below. There is a great argument upon how to divide up loot. They decide that in the future, an extra share will be set aside for party supplies and the crafting of party magic items. The party sets up watches for the night. Jeroen and Cirdun take the first watch, Aelwyn and Bran take the second watch and Kitaluma and Elkin take the second watch. Aelwyn falls asleep during his watch and no one wakes up Kitaluma and Elkin. When everyone does wake up, several hours after dawn, Bran is gone. The party, with the exception of Elkin, spends the rest of the morning searching for Bran, but can find no evidence of him or what happened to him. Tamorsday, Petrus 18, Year 1103 Jeroen spends the day reading and practicing various skills. Kit works on creating various weird arrow types. Aelwyn spends the day brewing potions and Elkin scribes a scroll. Medrinsday, Petrus 19, Year 1103 Jeroen spends a short amount of time fishing, catching a very large fish, which he hands off to Nathaniel to clean. He and Kitaluma head into town to dispose of their loot, leaving Aelwyn and Elkin behind to watch the keep and engage in the production of lesser magic items. Zamaksday, Petrus 20, Year 1103 Jeroen spends some time on the trip to town looking for herbs to season fish, but other than that the day is uneventful, if rather hot. Romsday, Petrus 22, Year 1103 Kitaluma and Jeroen arrive in Westake a couple hours before noon. They head to Oddrick's and dispose of their loot. Oddrick has the masterwork silvered mace that Elkin ordered, which Kitaluma says he will take to Elkin. Oddrick also has a couple of books for Jeroen: Red's Anatomy, a basic book on chirurgery and a couple of travelogues set in some plague years about 150 years ago. Kitaluma asks Oddrick to make a heavy mace that can encapsulate a vial of holy water and have that spread onto a foe when the mace hits. Haradsday, Petrus 23, Year 1103 Jeroen and Kitaluma head back to Ardivan's Keep. Tamorsday, Petrus 25, Year 1103 The duo arrive back at the keep safely after a rather boring trip. Medrinsday, Petrus 26, Year 1103 The party heads back down into the dungeons. In the very next room, they run across three ratlings wielding greataxes who hide behind large 10' x 10' pits. One of the ratling sounds a gong, and the party engages them. Just as it looks as if the party has the upper-hand a large ratling enters the room through the southern door. It wears a breastplate, a heavy steel shield and swings a bastard sword one-handed. The party just manages to drop it, when even more reinforcements arrive, in the form of a gray-furred ratling wearing plate-mail and using clerical magic. The party manages to prevent the new ratling from healing any of the fallen ratlings and it retreats, covered by half-a-dozen ratlings that show up. They also retreat, shutting the south door behind them. The party decided to wait for the ratlings to re-enter the room and to ambush them as they do so. The party waits silenty for about fifteen minutes before losing patience. They send the cleric to open the southern door while the rest cover him from behind the pits. When the cleric opens the southern door, he finds himself facing thirteen ratlings and the ratling shaman. Thanks primarily to the archery of Kitaluma and the burning of most of the party's scrolls and potions. they kill seven of the ratlings and the rest retreat under the cover of an Obscuring Mist spell. Being out of spells and wounded, the party decides to retreat and heal up before proceeding further. Medrinsday, Petrus 26, Year 1103 The party returns to the north tower and rests. Zamaksday, Petrus 27, Year 1103 The party engages in various activities. Kitaluma makes 30 different bolts for Aelwyn and they spend a great deal of time haggling over the price. Elkin spends his time scribing a scroll. Jeroen studies his book on the Goblin language, while Aelwyn scribes a scroll. Demarasday, Petrus 28, Year 1103 Kitaluma attempts to make arrows that use thunderstones as arrowheads. Aelwyn writes another scroll. Elkin does nothing much for the day. Jeroen goes over the party's recent experiences in his head and towards the end of the day he has an epiphany. Romsday, Petrus 29, Year 1103 In a fluke, Kitaluma makes five special arrows that can carry thunderstones in the place of arrowheads. Realizing that he is unlikely to ever repeat the process, he decides to save them for a special occasion. Aelwyn scribes yet another scroll, while Elkin celebrates Romsday. Jeroen finally grasps the fundamentals of Goblin, as well as understanding various other skills to a degree he had not done before. Haradsday, Petrus 30, Year 1103 The party heads back down into the tunnels beneath Ardivan's Keep, Kitaluma taking point. The trip is uneventful until they go down the stairs to the second dungeon level. Kitaluma nearly trips on a stair step that had been carefully oiled. Jeroen disables it and they proceed. As Kitaluma steps off of the stair into the second level, a large reddish-brown canine with red eyes and flames coming out it its mouth appears in front of him. It breathes fire on him and he finds himself attacked by ten zombified ratlings. Kitaluma retreats back to the stairs and the party makes a stand there. Kitaluma attacks and then retreats up the stairs a little ways. Elkin decides to stand and fight, making several attempts to use the power of Romath to turn the zombies. Each time, the dwarf feels an unholy power bolstering them against his turning attempts. While he does this, Kitaluma slays the hellhound with his arrows. The other party members shoot at the zombies to little effect. Sometime during the earlier stages of the battle, a Silence spell is placed upon the area where the party is fighting. After being severely wounded and unable to heal himself due to the Silence, Elkin retreats up the stairs and out of the spell's effect. This has the unfortunate effect of leaving Jeroen in front, face-to-face with the ratling zombies. Jeroen retreats up the stairs, accidentally shooting a bolt in the general direction of Elkin. Kitaluma then takes point and after nearly three minutes of ferocious combat, the party manages to slay the ratling zombies. The party then proceeds into the room, whereupon they learn that the zombies were not alone. The barricade near the north wall has been moved next to the pit and eight ratling archers stand on the far side, backed up by the ratling shaman. Another ferocious battle ensues. With the expenditure of much magic and alchemical weapons (courtesy of Jeroen), the party defeats the ratlings. The shaman and one of his ratling archers escape again, covered by an Obscuring Mist spell. Haradsday, Petrus 30, Year 1103 After a quick consultation, the group decides to follow after the ratling shaman, rather than heading out and resting up. They head out the north door and onto his trail. The party is very careful to inspect every room as they pass, fearing an ambush from an already "cleared" room or chamber, so they make slow progress. So careful are they to make sure that every room is inspected, that they manage to retrigger the Glyph of Warding they found on Petrus 11. After defeating the Fiendish Black Bear the glyph summoned, the party searches several areas they had no explored before, finding no ratling. Kitaluma nearly steps into a pit trap in a corridor. After that, the party doubles back to the pit room where they fought the ratling bodyguards. Crossing the threshold to the room, they trigger yet another Glyph of Warding, this one summoning a hell-hound. They quickly dispatch the fiendish canine, taking several burns in the process, which the cleric heals up. Now in unknown territory, the party proceeds cautiously. They encounter a group of six ratlings,which they slay handily. Looking at the party map, they deduce that a passage to the north and west must connect to the area they are in. Hearing some noise to the west, they lay a trap to lure any ratlings hiding in the west out. The party heads to the north passage attempting to ambush said ratlings coming from the rear. Jeroen stays to the rear to head of any ratlings coming from the west. Unfortunately for the party, the passageway to the north doesn't connect. Instead it leads to a large room with concentric red circles painted in the center, an altar against the east wall and a throne-like chair against the west. Elkin runs back to the south, yelling. Jeroen, hearing him, slips through a southern door and waits in the darkness. After much confusion, the party regroups and heads to the west. They find four ratlings guarding a room with a southern door. Said door is barred from the ratling side and a 15' deep pit crosses the entire room from the west to the east, cutting off the passage to the door. The party kills the ratlings and then decides to head up to the surface, being wounded and out of spells. Haradsday, Petrus 30, Year 1103 The party returns to the north tower and rests for the night. Arratsday, Arvandus 1, Year 1103 Elkin spends the day scribing a scroll. Aelwyn, Jeroen and Kitaluma train. Tamorsday, Arvandus 2, Year 1103 Aekwyn spends the day scribing a scroll, while again the rest of the party trains. Medrinsday, Arvandus 3, Year 1103 More rest and reflection as most of the group level up. Zamaksday, Arvandus 4, Year 1103 The party decides to head to Westlake to purchase supplies and from there to go to Eastlake or farther to hire guards for the keep. Demarasday, Arvandus 5, Year 1103 An uneventful day, but Elkin is startled when he is on watch by an owl hooting. After a moment, he relaxes and the night passes without further incident. Romsday, Arvandus 6, Year 1103 Once again, Elkin hears an owl hoot during his watch. Ignoring it, the party is ambushed by eleven hobgoblins. A terrible fight ensues, with Aelwyn, Jeroen, their halfling servant Nathaniel and Jeroen's riding dog being knocked out before the hobgoblins are defeated. One hobgoblin escapes. After patching themselves up as best they can, the party resumes their trek in the morning and arrive at Westlake near dusk. Haradsay, Arvandus 7, Year 1103 The party spends the day purchasing supplies and planning on heading to Eastlake. Several of the members also make donations at the Church of the Threefold Way Arratsday, Arvandus 8, Year 1103 Aelwyn, Elkin and Jeroen take a barge to Eastlake. Kitaluma and Nathaniel take the supplies the party purchased back to Ardivan's Keep. Zamaksday, Arvandus 11, Year 1103 Aelwyn, Elkin and Jeroen arrive in Eastlake. A passerby directs them to the Rusty Dragon Inn, a semi-seedy hostel and tavern on the edge of town. They spend the next ten days looking for men-at-arms to hire, posting notices, etc. The party learns that there are several wars heating up in the bandit kingdoms to the east and realize that hiring mercenaries will be difficult. Despite that, over the course of their ten-day sojourn, they manage to hire five men-at-arms. Tomas, Rikard and Harold are brothers. Along with their friend, Guillam, they have no more than a little militia experience. (DM Note: They are first level warriors.) The fourth, Marcus of Yevik, spent about 2 years in the Army of Domas and is a veteran. (DM Note: In this case, he is a first level fighter.) After some negotiation, the party agrees to pay the four warriors 25 gp per month. They make Marcus the squad leader and agree upon a wage of 30 gp per month for him. All wages are due at the beginning of each month. Haradsday, Arvandus 21, Year 1103 The now enlarged party heads back to Westlake. Medrinsday, Arvandus 24, Year 1103 The party arrives at Westlake. They check in briefly with Oddrick but do not stay the night in the village. Instead, they head directly back to Ardivan's Keep. Demarasday, Arvandus 26, Year 1103 The first day of travel was uneventful but about noon on the second day the party hears a dog barking in the distance. The barks quickly turn to yelps, which are then cut off. Investigating, the party discovers what appears to be two-dozen black squirrels feasting on a freshly-killed mastiff. Several of the squirrels look up from their meal and eye Jeroen's dog, Kitty, hungrily. Before the squirrels can make a move, however, Aelwyn turns them into Squirrel Flambé with a well-timed and well-placed fireball. After investigating the remains, the party proceeds onwards. Late in the afternoon, the party is ambushed by a forest troll. The new men-at-arms prove their worth, dealing most of the damage to the troll. The party kills it and Jeroen burns the body. Romsday, Arvandus 27, Year 1103 The party arrives back at the keep. Kitaluma is nowhere to be found. Nathaniel says that the last he saw him was before bed the previous night. The new men-at-arms are a little alarmed to learn that several party members have mysteriously disappeared in the night, but Jeroen attempts to reassure them. The party spends the rest of the day getting the keep and their new guard force organized. Haradsay, Arvandus 28, Year 1103 Deciding not to wait for Kitaluma's return, Aelwyn, Elkin and Jeroen descend into the dungeon. They set off two Glyph's Of Warding, Jeroen runs into some razorwire, and Aelwyn falls into a 20' deep covered pit. They don't encounter any creatures. The session ends with Jeroen and Aelwyn on the western side of the pit and Kitty and Elkin on the northern side. Haradsay, Arvandus 28, Year 1103 After getting out of the pit, it turns out that Aelwyn sprained his ankle, in one of those rare, 1 in 10,000 injuries that are resistant to magic healing. They decide to return to the surface and wait for Aelwyn's ankle to heal naturally. When arriving back at the surface, the party finds that Kitaluma has returned. Apparently he had been out hunting for several days, as evidenced by the nice, white-tailed deer that he displays. After the brief reunion, Jeroen and Elkin take the injured wizard to his room and tend to his ankle. Kitaluma takes care of the necessary butchering of his deer carcass. During his bloody busines Tomas approaches Kitaluma and tells him that there is a stranger at the gate of the keep. Kitaluma greets the stranger, an Elven Bard by the name of Bazese Al'Goman. Bazese displays his Adventurer's Guild badge and speaks to Kitaluma. Bazese tells Kitaluma that he was planning on exploring a ruined wizard's keep out in the west and that when he arrived in Westlake he was directed to Ardivan's Keep by the smith, Oddrick Forkbeard. Kitaluma opens the gate and lets Bazese into the keep. They quickly determine that Ardivan's Keep is not the ruin that Bazese was looking for, which lies to the south and west. Bazese is introduced to the rest of the party and takes them up on the invitation to join their group for the exploration of this ruined wizard's keep. While Jeroen tends to Aelwyn, Elkin and Kitaluma decide to show Bazese around the keep, including the dungeons. They get down into the second ratling level and find the connecting passage to the pit Aelwyn fell into. They discover a latrine upon which Bazese casts Detect Magic. Bazese notes that there is indeed something magical at the bottom of the latrine but the group decides to leave the sewage-diving to the trip up. Upon entering the room with the three pits, Bazese triggers a Glyph of Warding which summons a Fiendish Black Bear. The party dispatches it although Bazese is wounded. Proceeding onward, the party encounters 10 ratling zombies. Elkin manages to destroy five of them with his Turn Undead but the rest engage the party in a ferocious combat. Bazese is knocked unconscious twice only to be restored by Elkin. Eventually, the party dispatches the zombies and the session ends. Haradsday, Arvandus 28, Year 1103 The party heads back up to the surface to rest up. Bazese says that he will look after the wizard while the rest of the party adventures. Arratsday, Arvandus 29, Year 1103 Kitaluma, Jeroen and Elkin head back underground. There first step is to head down to the latrine where Bazese detected something magical beneath the surface. After tying a rope to the Elkin, so he can use the stocky dwarf as an anchor, Kitaluma crawls through the trapdoor and dives beneath the surface liquid. Kitaluma resurfaces bearing a high-quality dagger in his hand, which Elkin verifies is magical. Kitaluma tosses the dagger up through the trapdoor and nimbly climbs up the slick, damp rope. The party then strongly encourages Kitaluma to take quick dip in the ratling pool. The party takes the dagger up to the surface to have Aelwyn analyze it. Aelwyn casts Identify on the dagger and he determines it is a Dagger +1. Jeroen carries the dagger for the moment and the party heads back down. The party decides to explore the southwestern area of the second dungeon level. After passing through a couple of empty rooms, Jeroen enters a 20' x30' room and is attacked by a five-foot long cockroach. The smell from the cockroach nauseates the weak-stomached dwarf, but otherwise doesn't affect the rest of the party. The roach takes several bites out of Jeroen but Elkin keeps healing him while Kitaluma places several arrows into it. On the 4th road of combat, Kitaluma discards the bow and wades into hand-to-hand combat, easily finishing it off. Kitaluma then takes some of the musk from the cockroach scent gland and places it in a vial. The party proceeds down a south hallway which turns east and then becomes a four way intersection. Just east of the intersection is a door, at which Jeroen spends several minutes investigating. Listening at the door, Jeroen hears a rumbling. Kitaluma and Jeroen have a quick rock/paper/scissors contest to see who has the honor of opening the door. After tying 3 times, they decide to have the dwarf open it. They enter a large room with a refuse heap in the eastern 10' section. Something golden glints off of the refuse. Despite that they proceed cautiously, with Jeroen approaching the heap, Kitaluma covering him with his bow and Elkin guarding the door. As Jeroen approaches the refuse pile, he is attacked by two long tentacles covered in rough, thorny protrusions that end in leaf-like appendages. The tentacles are attached to a bloated, rock-like ovoid about 8 feet in diameter. At the top of the ovoid creature they see it has a hideous gash for a mouth, with three rows of needle-sharp teeth. The golden glint appears to have been from gold pieces wedged into the creatures rocky hid. Jeroen and Kitaluma both attack the creature with alchemical fire, setting the refuse heap on fire. The next round Jeroen's aim is off as acid he throws on the monster ends up splashing Kitaluma. Jeroen squeaks out, "Sorry!", while Kitaluma heroically melees the creature, taking a vicious attack of opportunity for 6 points of damage. After several rounds of combat, dodging firebombs thrown by Jeroen of the Poor Aim, Kitaluma manages to get a in a killing strike. Jeroen manages to dig 500 gp out of the hide of the monster, and they search the room as the refuse heap fire slowly fills the area with smoke. Coughing and wheezing from the smoke, the party retreats from the room after about 30 seconds. While doing so, Kitaluma cuts off one of the tentacles and uses to block the smoke from coming under the door.
The party backtracks to an unexplored area. They come across door, barred from their side. Unbarring the door, it opens into a long hallway that leads into several rooms covered with webbing. The party is attacked by 3 large spiders but holds them off in the hallway. The spiders are quickly dispatched. Despite being bitten half-a-dozen times, Kitaluma's innate Fortitude enables him to resist the monstrous arachnid venom. After the combat, he extracts some venom from one of the fallen eight-legged monstrosities, placing it in a vial. Searching the spider's lair, the find the desiccated body of a ratling that they presume was a victim of the spiders. Looting the body, they proceed out a southern door from the spider's lair. The door opens into a hallway going west, which ends with a strange bifurcated metal door in the south wall. Jeroen presses a red triangular button next to the door, and the strange doors slide into walls. Beyond the door is a 10' x 10' room with wall made completely out of metal. On the south wall is a yellow right triangle apparently painted on the wall. To the west of the triangle is a red triangular button and to the right of the triangle is a blue triangular button. Jeroen ventures into the room. Pressing the red button, he quickly determines that it opens and closes the door. He then presses the blue button. The doors close and the room vibrates slightly. Jeroen feels slightly lighter for a moment. The yellow triangle shrinks from the large end. After about 30 seconds, the vibration stops and the yellow triangle appears to be almost gone. Jeroen presses the red button and the doors open. To the north is not the hallway he left behind, but what appears to be a natural cavern on three sides. The fourth (North) wall appears to be worked stone. In the middle of the north wall, is a set of wooden double-doors, with a huge bar across them, keeping them shut. Above the double doors, is some engraved writing in Common. The writing reads, "Disturb not the rest of Dalk'Nzar, lest you join him in eternal damnation." Thinking that he is all alone, Jeroen decides that not disturbing Dalk'Nzar, whoever he or she may be might be a good idea. He turns to leave and notices a small symbol etched into the stone just above the double doors. Jeroen enters the metal room and presses the blue button. Nothing happens. After repeating this several times, he notices that the yellow triangle appears to be growing. He sits down and waits. After several hours, Jeroen's sunrod expires, leaving him alone in the dark. He can still see the yellow triangle and buttons as they glow slightly. Meanwhile, back at the double doors south and west of the spiders' lair, Elkin and Kitaluma grow concerned. They attempt to force the doors, but are unable to. Pressing the button does nothing either. After about 30 minutes, they decide to confer with the party back on the surface. Elkin and Kitaluma head up but Kitty will not follow them. After what seems like forever, but is actually about 8 hours, Jeroen's pressing of the blue button results in the metal doors sliding shut and the room beginning to vibrate slightly. Jeroen feels heavy for a moment and the yellow triangle once again shrinks. After about 30 seconds, the metal doors slide open and Jeroen is reunited with his faithful dog, Kitty. Jeroen fumbles around for a spare sunrod on Kitty. Lighting it, he heads back to the surface, stopping the inspect the room where the party killed the ovoid monster. Finding nothing of interest (i.e. valuable), Jeroen makes haste to get out of the dungeon. Arratsday, Arvandus 29, Year 1103 Jeroen arrives back at the top of the keep top near dusk. About the same time, one of the guards (Tomas) informs Kitaluma that there is a stranger at the gate. Kitaluma heads to the gate, where he meets Kreiger Smith. After seeing that Kreiger has an Adventurer's Guild membership badge, Kitaluma and Kreiger exchange blows as a form of greeting. Hearing the noise, Jeroen charges out of the keep and points his crossbow at them, demanding to know what is going on. After a brief conversation and archery contest, Kitaluma takes Kreiger around the keep and introduces him to everyone. Tamorsday, Arvandus 30, 1103 After being trapped alone in the dark for most of the previous day, Jeroen decides spend the rest of the day frolicing in natural surroundings right outside the keep. Kreiger and Kitaluma spend the day pounding on each other and doing various other forms of combat practice. Elkin spends the day meditating under the sun. Medrinsday, Septimus 1, 1103 The party spends more time practicing their skills. Zamaksday, Septimus 2, 1103 Waking up refreshed and feeling more experienced (Kitaluma, Jeroen and Elkin leveled), the party heads back down in to the dungeon. Jeroen spends much of the time babbling about a "Gateway to Hell" while the rest of the party ignores him. The party searches the northwestern section of the second ratling dungeon level, which they had not yet explorered. Kitaluma and Elkin bash a defenseless wooden altar into splinters. Kitaluma then draws happy faces with peaceful slogans on the wall with a stick of chalk, in an attempt to deface an evil dedications in the area. Other than some furs, the lair seems abandoned. The party finds a note written in Ratling in a couple of otherwise empty chests. Elkin casts Comprehend Languages on the note. It reads: You win, humans. The lair we took is now yours. May you have it as long as we did and come to the same end. We seek our fortune elsewhere and will have revenge. Seeing the level appears to have been cleaned out, the party decides to investigate the small metal room they discovered in their last trip. Jeroen starts babbling some more about the "Gate To Hell" and refuses to enter the room. Right as Kreiger presses the blue button, Kitaluma grabs Jeroen and pulls him into the metal room. righteously pissing off the halfling. The Jeroen stabs Kitaluma several times with his dagger, before throwing it at Kreiger. All the while, the room rumbles and groans. After about 30 seconds, the metal doors reopen, revealing the same cavern Jeroen saw last time. |