• Galador
• Sapphira
• Hendricks
• Fothas
• Oswald
• Keisial

The party had set out to do some wilderness exploration and lair hunting, up in the hills to the west of Mombafra.

During the initial foray into the wilds, a Hireling was killed by a pack of Wargs. The party now has the following Mercenaries:

• 7 Light Horsemen
• 5 Heavy Hobillars

These were also the bodies of some lightly armed and armored men. A total of eight corpses that were slain by the Wargs before the party arrived. They carried the following items:

• 8 short swords
• 8 suits of leather armor, unmarked
• 8 medium shields
• 8 days of standard rations

They also carried the following coins:

• 40 gp
• 51 sp

These Men appear to have come from the north east.

Maervahr joins the expedition as they are on the same date now. He arrives but not with his new Henchman, a Fighter named Qipsil. He arrives on the 25th.

We come across some tracks and begin to follow the tracks to the north east, following the guidance of Keisial, the Ranger.

We come across an Encampment that supports about 100 Men.

Maervahr is currently Invisible on his Hippogriff, that flies 12 miles per hour. He scouts out the camp and sees 100 Men in an occupied camp. They have no visible siege weaponry but all the Men appear armed. They have several Horses, about 40 of them. This looks to be a permanent camp with all of them wearing light armor. The tents are made of thick canvas stretched across poles but there are no proper, permanent building materials. They also have no banner and there are no sigils associated with the gods.

The encampment is located near a stream that runs through a canyon. We follow the waterway out of the canyon, heading upstream.

We are moving at 15“ due to some characters using Heavy Warhorses. So far, we have used 3 movement points today and there are 3 left.

The hex to the south of the canyon is hills. We decide to go lair hunting in the canyon, however we find nothing.

We are camping on day 4 and the night goes by without incident.

The next day, we search the canyon for 2 hours again but nothing is found. We then head south into the hills.

We follow the stream which breaks off into the various waterways so we do not follow the stream after that point.

To the south west, Maervahr on his Hippogriff can see some marshlands and some other harsh terrain. There is scrubland to the south so we begin heading south west the next day.

This uses all of our movement points for the day and it is once again time to set up camp. There are no encounters over night.

There is lots of scrubland in this region and to the south is a pond or a large body of water that is surrounded by scrubland.

We spot a small keep in the area. Maervahr goes to scout it out and it looks like a dilapidated moathouse in heavy disrepair. There are vines that are growing through it and most of it is collapsed walls. Overall, it looks like the ruins of a small moathouse.

We decide to explore it.

The doors look heavily damaged and it looks like it took siege damage at some point in the distant past. Keisial looks for tracks leading in or out but there are no sign of tracks and nothing seems to be living inside. Hendricks locates a small piece of jewelry with some semi precious gems attached and there are numerous tracks of Kobolds inside. They appear to have come and left from the north direction.

There is nothing currently living inside the keep.

We search the hex with the moathouse and opt to camp out in the ruin. We find no lairs and then camp out inside the moathouse ruin.

Maervahr is positioned on top of one of the walls during his watch when, against the light of the two moons, he sees a great winged form flying in the air. It is 14” away and it looks big like a Dragon. Maervahr could not see the color of the creature.

He immediately drops down into the camp to alert the others. There is a loud noise as the flying creature lands on the ground outside the ruined moathouse…and it is calling out to us!

The party emerges out to see that, silhouetted in the moonlight, is a Bronze Dragon that is positioned 60' away from the moathouse. Is this Ras'sakeel? The Bronze Dragon snorts and says nothing and then flaps away. It appears to be scouting us but it then flies away.

We return to camp when…

Sapphira notices movement in the scrub at about 60' away, right where the Dragon had landed before. She sees something weaving back and forth toward the moathouse and it looks like a Giant Snake.

Sapphira wakes up everyone and we move into position. It appears to be flicking its tongue out, looking for something, then it begins to crawl away. Eventually it disappears into the scrubland. The Giant Snake leaves but we could tell that it was poisonous.

We are on Day 6 of our expedition.

There are plains surrounding us as we move to the south west. We the head south and can see a wasteland further to the south.

Avoiding the wasteland, we go to the north west and are still in a big plain. To the west are rolling hills.

We camp for the night here and there are no encounters or incidents.

We head to the north where there is another pond in a plains hex. Beyond the pond are several ruined buildings.

It turns out that we have heard about this place. It was a noted location that once had a lot of monsters but it has been cleared out by the patrol forces of Mombafra. We currently see no sign of life or anything else of note.

Keisial can see that people are coming through here pretty regularly but the ruin was here before Mombafra was repopulated. It is likely that nobody has lived here during anyone's memory. We know that this place was once home to 1,000 people but nobody uses it anymore. We discuss this, maybe it could be an outpost for Mombafra?

We go south west and then north west. The whole way is dominated by rolling hills.

We camp outside on Day 7.

Make it back to MOMBAFRA. Our total bill for the Mercenaries and expenses is 272 gp. We plan to head back out the next day after resting and resupplies.

We will head out and this time, Qipsil, Maervahr's Henchman, joins us.

We are going to the ruins in the north west of Mombafra. We travel straight in that direction for most of the day, passing over hills and plains.

We surprise a single Stag that is grazing in the grasses. This is the same area where we previously fought the Ghast.

We leave it be.

We check out what lies to the north. We know that there is a crypt with Ghasts and another building that was seemingly once a colliseum. There was previously a small pack of Blink Dogs inside.

As we continue on, we find broken ground to the north, a badlands, and there is a wastelands to the north east. We decide to lair hunt in the hex with the Blink Dogs.

We find an area with tall grass that dips into a meadowland. The air is cool but humid and moist and we hear a distinctive rumbling. Keisial identifies the source as a massive insectoid mound, a lair of Giant Wasps!

We can see the movements of the creatures up ahead.

• Maervahr casts Mirror Image.
• Qipsil falls in and prepares to receive a charge.

Maervahr creates 4 Mirror Images as a stream of 19 Giant Wasps hurdle toward us at fast speed. They have AC 5.

Hendricks attacks and does 6 and 4 damage to a Giant Wasp while Keisial does 5 damage.

Maervahr goes Psionically Invisible as the Wasps attack.

Oswald is being attacked by 4 Giant Wasps but does 3 damage to one in retaliation. One of them hits and does 5 damage with its jaws, 2 of the stingers hit for 1 and 3 damage. Oswald is PARALYZED!

There are 2 bites that hit Sapphira but she can retaliate. She misses and the Wasps do 7 damage to Sapphira although the stingers miss.

Galador is attacked by 6 Giant Wasps and he retaliates with a strike for 4 damage. 2 of the Wasps' jaws hit for 8 damage and the stingers hit twice for 4 damage. Galador must save versus poison twice. GALADOR IS ALSO PARALYZED! Oswald is still paralyzed as well.

There are 2 Wasps on Qipsil and 1 on Hendricks, who has an AC 0. The bite misses Hendricks but he is hit for 2 damage from a stinger. He saved against the paralysis!

Qipsil misses her attack and the jaws missed her but 2 stingers hit for 3 damage. QIPSIL IS PARALYZED!

There are 8 Wasps attacking Fothas and the jaws both miss. Luckily also the stingers both miss. There are 2 more on Sapphira and another one attacks Fothas. Fothas hits one for 14 damage which kills it!

A Wasp hits Sapphira for 7 damage and the stinger hits for 2 damage. The jaws hit for 6 damage and another stinger for 4 but despite the stings, Sapphira saves and remains in the fight!

Hendricks is now being attacked and a stinger hits him for 4 damage, which DROPS HENDRICKS! He is at -2 hitpoints. There are 2 Wasps attacking Keisial and 1 hits for 7 damage but the 2 stingers miss.

Maervahr casts Lightning Bolt, as a forking bolt into the mass of Wasps. He does 25 damage in total but this only kills 3 Wasps. Maervahr immediately goes back to Psionic Invisibilty.

He can only be Invisible to 9 of the Wasps, based on their total HD. Meanwhile, Sapphira does a Lay on Hands.

Fothas attacks and does 9 damage as 4 Wasps are attacking Keisial at +4 to hit. 3 sets of jaws hit for 7 damage and she takes 7 damage again from the stingers. Keisial is DEAD, OUTRIGHT!

There are now only 2 targets for 9 of the Wasps. Fothas' Warhorse hits 3 times and does 7 damage then there are 9 of them attacking 2 targets.

There are now 4 attacks on Sapphira dealing 7 damage and 4 damage, which drops Sapphira. Sapphira is bleeding out!

There are 6 Wasps left to attack and they all attack Maervahr. Two Wasps destroy a Mirror Image leaving Maervahr with 4 images left. Then, another mirror image is destroyed followed by 2 more mirror images destroyed. Maervahr now has no more mirror images. The next ones attack and the jaws hit, which negates his Stoneskin. Maervahr then takes 6 damage.

4 of the Wasps are dead but 15 of them are still alive.

Maervahr casts Lightning Bolt once again, unleashing 27 damage though half damage is 14. His Bolt only kills 2 that are around Maervahr and merely damages 2 others. These are powerful creatures…

Fothas misses his attack and his Horse does 3 damage. Fothas is hit next and takes 7 damage. Maervahr is then attacked again by 4 of them. 2 of the jaw attacks hit for 4 damage and 4 damage. One of the stingers hits for 1 damage. MAERVAHR SAVED!

Next up, Burning Hands is cast by Maervahr as there are 2 jaw attacks that hit Fothas, dealing 7 and 6 damage. One stinger hits for 3 damage and now Fothas is paralyzed.

Maervahr unleashes his spell and Burning Hands is able to effect 4 of them for 8 damage. This burns their wings off and the Wasps begin crawling awkwardly though it does not kill them.

Maervahr can now be completely invisible but there are still 13 of the Giant Wasps, more than half have been killed at this point. Maervahr decides to cast Invisibility in an attempt to escape.

At this point, 4 Wingless Wasps attack as normal. They must hit Maervahr's AC 4. Two of the jaws hit for 6 and 6 damage. HIS SPELL IS LOST! Then, 3 stingers hit for 6 damage in total.

Maervahr is Paralyzed.

However, we do get a saving throw to have some last words. Qipsil makes the save and QIPSIL IS PRAYING FOR DIVINE INTERVENTION!

The Intervention Works!

There is a blinding flash of light and a screeching insectoid noise in the air. We hear the creatures running away, loose from us, they buzz away loudly. Next, the very SKY appears to be burning and our skin begins to feel hot and uncomfortable. The burning lasts forever…

and then it is finally over. We can see again.

Once it is all over, we wake up and do not see any of the Giant Wasps in our sight though there is a low humming noise from the hive undergound. Sapphira and Hendricks each have 3 hp.

We are completely conscious…except KEISIAL IS STILL DEAD.

Sapphira is healed with a Lay on Hands and is conscious. All the Horses are still left here and we are some distance from Mombafra.

Hendricks has regained consciousness but we are all still paralyzed. Sapphira, being the sole able body, makes it back to Mombafra with all of our bodies. It will cost us 1,000 gp for a Neutralize Poison to be cast. Sapphira has a favor of the temple which allows us to receive this. The Paralyzing Poison is released!

Keisial is brought back to life with a Raise Dead.

Sapphira gets 35 gp.

Maervahr got 446 xp and Qipsil got 223 xp.