• Iona - Ring of Shocking Grasp, Cloak of Protection
• Jacob
• Josalyn
• Fandilas
• Oriyan
• Thorgard
• Tatrin

We have returned to Mombafra with some of the items we have found in the Tower of the Forgotten Master.

Fandillas turns the hourglass and sand just starts falling. Everything feels normal. When the last piece of sand falls, there is a continuous chiming or ringing sound.

We sell the magical hourglass for 150 gp.

• 14 gp each

3,780 xp is awarded to Iona, the Monk. She pays 1,280 gp, her upkeep for 3 months, and pays it on the 10th.

All PCs other than Oriyan: 5,560 gp Oriyan (due to taking a half share from the 7,000 gp tower value): 5158 gp The Henchmen get 2780 gp.

Guards from Lord Thompson are now stationed at the Tower.

There are three sets payments of 1,280 gp, Upkeep for Iona is paid.

Maervahr owes 2,300 gp and he pays this.

Jacob sells a magic arrow he acquired for 300 gp.

In Mombafra, we are looking for Mercenaries.

• 13 Light Footmen with a Lieutenant. Alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
• 6 Crossbowmen. Alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
• 2 Heavy Horsemen. Alignment is Lawful Evil and they will cost 6 gp/day.

There are 300 Men now stationed at the tower, a force that is camped outside and they have several onagers. They are led by Illio of Lord Thompson, who is a higher level Fighter.

None of the items interacted with Lord Thompson's Men as they were going to extract more information from the Tower. They informed us that they did not find the body of the Forgotten Master where he fell. In the previous fight, he died to Fandillas' Shocking Grasp and to a sword.

They saw a few smaller Pteranodons in the air but the Dinosaurs did not approach the Tower. Their Scouts have found and captured some Brigands and Bandits in the area. As we approach, the plate mail wearing Guards allow us inside and they salute us.

We enter the Grand Entrance Chamber with the ruby eyed mounted head of a Tyranosaurus Rex.

The T-Rex head is about 12' up so Iona climbs the side walls and starts investigating the head. She searches it and finds that there is some sort of mounted metal behind the head, like a thick metal device in the back. It has some kind of mechanism for an extension, to push it out of the wall.

Jacob pulls the entire T-Rex head out from the wall with a lasso rope. As the head pulls off, remaining in the wall is the metal bar which looks like a thick rectangular prism in the wall. The head was snapped off. There is also a rod that would have extended the head out from the wall.

Josalyn casts Find Traps and she sees a trap related to the rubies in the eyes. The head is just the “taxidermic” head of a T-Rex, which was real. Oriyan does not see anything weird about the wall but Josalyn does see that there is a trap on the bottom floor that may move from the bottom.

The T-Rex head is 6,000 coins in weight, at least. Meanwhile, Iona does not find a mechanical trap here and nothing that it is connected to.

We begin tapping along the walls and searching for secret doors but walls on the right sounded solid and not hollow. Jacob tries to break through the floor where Josalyn saw the trap. It sounds hollow but does not break. Iona also does not find anything unusual about the wall.

Jacob drags the head to the trapdoor but nothing happens.

We go all the way up the stairs, to the top. Here there is a noticeable chlorine smell and the area is covered with soft carpets. There are 17 smaller circles around the crystal and the dome of the ceiling contains part of the crystal. The huge crystal goes straight through the floor and ceiling.

The party finds a difference in the room that had the unusual painting. THE ROOM IS NOW EMPTY AND EVERYTHING IS GONE! Someone was here and removed these things.

The north chamber was a nice bedchamber that had some old rugs and some writing materials. However, nothing is different in here and the Dinosaur body of the one we killed previously is still lying there.

We re-enter the chamber with the small circles at the top with the domed ceiling. Tatrin casts Detect Magic in the room. Besides the crystal, he can see a glow in the center and a sigil that is represented for each of the 17 gods. The ceiling looks like a geometric depiction of a constellation. Based on the positioning, we know the constellation is associated with each of the gods. One is always visible in the sky throughout the year and there are major and minor constellations. These are the MAJOR constellation symbols.

On examination from our point of view, the dome looks stationary but we could somehow see through it as though it was not actually there, almost translucent. It is disorienting.

Referring to the current date and time, Long Moon the 15th is the day associated with Nefer. Since the Holiday of Nefer is TODAY, we will go back to the top of the dome later tonight to check for any changes.

When we get to the north bedroom and check the walls, we find that it is all solid.

We descend down a trapdoor into the old Dinosaur room with a bookshelf along the north wall.

Moving into the 3 crystals antechamber, we see that each crystal has a window curtain rolled up at the top.

In the Forgotten Master's chamber, several things were opened that we did not take but now they are gone / ransacked. The body of the Forgotten Master that we left is now gone. There is no clue left behind as to where they went or what they took. There is a door to the south and to the north where the Wanderer was chained up. It still is opened but empty. There are “chalkboards” along all of the walls. We search the walls by tapping and we find that there are no secret doors anywhere.

We descend back down.

In this area a srystal sticks out of a wall and we can see into the lower aviary from a loft. This was where we found some Dinosaur bone made stuff, such as a spear along with a bow. There are still 9 spears made with Dinosaur teeth.

Iona grabs a spear and believes it feels normal. There are also some riding saddles that look normal and are in good shape.

There is no magic detected in the room nor was there any magic detected in the room with the plate mail.

We spend about 5 turns searching all 5 rooms including each of the walls. In the end, we find nothing else.

This big room is connected to the upper room and the large crystal is sticking out of the wall here too. It gives off a blue glow. In one of the rooms, it is filled with knee high piles of straw and there was another room here that had a spellbook. The big room was a tannery filled with leather, bones, and barrels of fat. We also found a barrel filled with some type of viscous liquid.

Searching through the room thoroughly, we find 4 eggs inside the straw. Iona carefully wraps them in straw and puts them in a sack, perhaps to be sold later.

In the tannery room, there appears to be some sort of large leather garment suspended in liquid. It actually looks like a jacket. We take a dinosaur tooth spear and fish it out. We pull out a fringed jacket of reptile leather but the spear is DESTROYED by the liquid!

We thoroughly search the room and then Tatrin arrives. Using Detect Magic, the jacket glows with a powerful magic aura!

The party heads down the trapdoor and arrive on a level below.

The room in the south is at the top hall and there is a room that was full of ferns. There are some stuffed Dinosaurs in this room that were posed over a nest of stone eggs.

Room by room we search. Then, we open another room with a stain on the floor, where the wine was shattered and Galerion thrashed through it. There are some shelves on the south wall that have not entirely fallen off, a total of four shelves hanging on the wall.

Find Traps is cast but there is nothing. We do find that the shelves appear to be on a set of hidden sliders. They can be slid to the right. After doing so, a Secret Door opens revealing an oddly shaped chamber that is bathed in the glow of a red light. Much like the valley outside. There is a crystal in here but it is RED, unlike the large Blue Crystal that is found throughout all the other levels. It is a weathered marble room but there is no single implement or scrap in here.

We decide to roll a fern into the crystal and it slows down dramatically, moving very slowly toward the ground as it falls at a very slow rate. The fern does not appear to be aging. We leave the room and conceal it.

We go further down a hallway with several doors. Starting with the north door, we have one more turn for Find Traps. This room is a bit larger than the map. Inside is a neglected shrine to GEOS, appearing as an aspect of an Elder. There is also a brass icon in the shape of the elder. We find that one of the knees has some shiny wear on it.

Tatrin is a Cleric of Geos and he tries to manipulate the statue. He presses the knee and it depresses, part of the shrine slides open revealing a hidden compartment. The compartment contains some scrolls but Tatrin cannot read them. There is also a small tray inside with several human hairs. We know that the Forgotten Master had salt and pepper hair but these hairs are blond and brown. The others had dark hair. We find no iconography present but there are some very abstract sigils, if anything. They are nothing notable.

All of the walls sound solid and searching each room takes two turns. There is a trim bed chamber past the northwest door.

It appears this room belonged to a steward or butler as there is still some Common Man's garb here. The room has a smell of an animal, maybe a dog or cat. Tatrin finds a hidden latch behind the painting.

Tatrin casts FIND TRAPS but there is nothing detected. He then pulls the latch and finds another hidden hallway. Through here, we can smell death and there is a door on the west.

The smell gets stronger as we go down the hallway until we open the door. Inside, we find the corpse of an Old Man that was shackled to the wall in chains. He had a long white beard. We can tell that there was barely any tissue left on his bones but there is still an overwhelming stench of death.

Based on his decomposition, he looks to have been dead for at least a couple weeks. The body is still wearing a robe but it looks like he had been wearing it for longer than we had been alive.

We search the chamber but everything is solid. It is just the decayed body of the Old Man and his robes. There is also nothing of note on his body that we can find. Jacob finds a secret latch on the south corridor wall and he opens the latch. Beyond that, we find a short hall with stairs leading downward.

We open the other chamber revealing several bookshelves containing books. These are some tomes on magical theory and philosophy but some of them are missing. To the south is a heavy chest containing the corpse of a Deinonychus that has been dead about a week maybe. There are no wounds on it.

Josalyn casts Find Traps as Jacob pokes the chest. Thorgard opens it and finds two scrolls inside and one is readable by a Cleric!

• Cleric Scroll of SNAKE CHARM, RESIST COLD, HOLD PORTAL, RESIST CHARM
• The other scroll is Magic-User scroll.

There are several books in the library and about 140 pounds of books. We search the room thoroughly but find nothing else.

Next up is a BIG, long hallway with a door at the end. Beyond the door are some stairs that go up. These stairs go up to the Aviary and to the Crystal room.

At the south door, at end of hall, there is a big chamber with wood panelling on the walls. It is very dusty and large with 8 stuffed Dinosaurs with glass eyeballs. There are also some windows in the corner that let in the light.

The next area is a big ballroom with 8 pedestals containing stone, doric-style columns that are at an observing height. We search thoroughly but do not find anything and the walls sound solid.

We then enter a room with two beds and there is also a liquor cabinet that is well stocked. Liquor could be worth some gold but it is at least 80 coins worth of weight.

Following that is another room that resembles the previous one. The 3rd room has 2 more beds and another liquor cabinet with a back cabinet that is on rollers. Behind the cabinet is another latch so Jacob pops it open.

Beyond this door, we find ourselves in a long hallway. It is very dusty but there are no signs of anything occupied. We find a latch at the end of the hallway.

We go down three flights of stairs that end at end of the wall then we locate a latch again. It is opened and beyond, we find a closet. The closet is empty so we continue on.

We are now on the 1st level but go up to the 2nd level.

This area has a throne made of bone and previously there were several silver platters that were once in the south west room. This was a looted room with damaged and stained furniture.

We never opened the two doors on the right leading east. When we check those out, the north room has a fine cushioned chair set inside of a circle. There is a curtain hanging from a wall that is about 1' x 2'. The curtain is completely nailed to the wall. Beneath the curtain is a glowing blue surface, like a flat pane of glowing blue, that has a translucent vibe though one cannot see through it. Our Continual Light does penetrate through a bit.

Iona searches the furniture but we do not find anything. The south chamber also has the chairs with cushions inside. We are all standing there but do not see anything noteworthy so we turn around and leave!

We find the room with the dead Mimic and then we head back up to the TOP.

This room offers a ceiling view of the constellations, with a telescopic view of space that will cause vertigo. It looks as though we are gazing up at the night. This evening, Nefer's constellation is visible.

Of the gods, Iona considers Nefer to be one she respects, so she stands in the center of the circle of Nefer.

Suddenly, there is a WARPING effect that she sees. A vision of space is brought before her, and she is brought into space amidst the stars. She has a panoramic view of outer space from this position. Glowing radiantly in her vision is the constellation of Nefer. Amidst the stars, she can see dark silhouettes of shapes flying through space, like jellyfish strings and balls flying through space. The figures are moving up and down like a sine wave but this is only the silhouettes of these things.

Sudeenly, Iona's view warps back to normal and she fades back into reality. Her mind PERSISTS despite the visions and she has gained great Intelligence from this!

• +1 to INTELLIGENCE for IONA.

She says a silent prayer to NEFER after receiving this gift and becomes a full worshipper of Nefer at this point.

Seeing her go through this, Oriyan steps into the circle of Nefer but nothing happens this time. The cloak was allowed to be borrowed by Oriyan to check the circle of magic in the observatory. Jacob offered his wakizashi as collateral.

Nothing more is found so we decide to head back.

We make it back to Starling without any trouble along the way.

The Leather Jacket is usable by characters that can wear leather armor. Detect Evil is cast but this does not detect curses.

The session ends on

Oriyan casts Augury on the Leather Jacket and will find out if anything bad will happen if he put this on. The Augury completes and reveals that it should be safe to wear.

Detect Traps also finds no traps on the jacket though it is made of reptile skin and looks badass. The leather fringes took no damage in the acid and the jacket looks pristine. Jacob puts on the jacket and he looks really cool. After sparring, it appears to be +1 Leather Armor at least.

There is no magic aura on the dish from the Shrine of Geos.

Jacob wants to keep the jacket and it counts as no armor for Thief Skills, such as Move Silently, Hide In Shadows and it grants a +5 for Climb Walls.

Dan the Muscle Mage examines the Magic-User Scrolls and casts Read Magic. He determines these spells:

• 1st Scroll–sleep, haste, growth of plants.
• 2nd Scroll–clairvoyance, clairaudience.
• 3rd Scroll–magic mirror. This goes to Iona who sells it.

Thorgard takes 1 egg, the biggest one, and then we sell 3 eggs for 600 gp.

We get 1,344 gp for each character.

672 xp for all characters.

Oriyan gets 1022 xp.

There is an additional 156 xp for all characters as well.