At the start of this session, upkeep was paid and disease or parasite rolls were made. Tsanu has taken ill with an intestinal parasite and cure disease does not cure parasites. Fortunately, it is not possible to get a chronic parasite.

Maervahr was training to reach level 2 and would not be done until the 5th of Rose Moon. Lathar was also training until the 7th and Ithimyr would not be available until after the 20th.

This session began with the following characters:

• Maervahr - Magic-User 2, AC 10. Spells: 1st–charm person, burning hands.
• Halzgaz - Fighter, AC 4. Using a broadsword.
• Tsanu - Cleric / Magic-User, AC 4. Cleric Spells: 1st–cure light wounds x3; Magic-User Spells: 1st–magic missile.
• Iskandar - Magic-User, AC 10. Spells: 1st–magic missile.
• Lathar - Ranger. AC 3.

The party has heard some news regarding the keep that lies 9 miles to the south of Gren. The Marble Keep, as it is known, is being fought over by Orcs and Gnolls, or so we are told, however we know that the local Berserkers we met have departed south toward the keep.

Meanwhile, Lathar has acquired a quest to visit the Rangers that dwell near a “large stone chalice”. Halzgaz buys an Ox and a wagon while Maervahr goes to check on Buckford, the local captain of the guard in Gren, to see if they might be willing to join us on an expedition to the keep. Maervahr hires some mercenaries for 40 gp up front and 60 gp after we complete the journey. Dividing this up among the party, we each pay 10 gp.

We set out for the Marble Keep to the south on a warm sunny day. Our travels will lead us straight south, towards some hills. After traveling for about 3 or 4 hours, the hills come into view and we can see the keep up ahead, built of white stone and set just into the hills.

We pause momentarily and Maervahr uses clairaudience to listen for activity at the keep. He can hear human voices talking and discussing and laughing, these are gruff voices and they speak loudly. The party continues on and we make it to the keep shortly after.

On the approach, we can see several of the Berserkers that we met weeks ago and they are encamped within the walls. The walls of the Marble Keep surround a main “castle-like” structure and are almost as tall as the main building itself. There is a long, ruined courtyard covered in cobblestones and such. The Berserker tribe has set up all their tents here. Once they notice us, they take up their arms and send a contingent to meet with the party. Grel Stronghammer was their new leader.

During the parley, we find that they are all on edge. The contingent begins watching the band of mercenary horsemen that we have with us. We learn that they lost half of their men. One of the sub-chieftains also shows up as we are meeting and we realize there they number only half as many as our previous meeting. The sub-chieftain explains that they fought a great a battle versus the Boarmen, and the battle was met outside the keep where their forces clashed. Many men were lost in the battle versus the Boarmen who wielded halberds.

They were able to cut down the Boarmen and it proved a great challenge even after many were mortally wounded. The sub-chieftain says that after a minute or two of combat, a great storm had formed and a huge lightning bolt was cast down and struck their Clerics. They were led by a 7th level Cleric and 3 of them died from the strike. After this, the Boarmen retreated through the back of the keep.

The party asks, “Was Grel one of the casualties?” “Yes, he died in glorious combat along with three of their Cleric assistants.” He further explains that only their warchief and his subchief were more skilled Fighters and survived as they were more powerful.

“Are there more Boarmen and have they entered the keep?” He explains that the Boarmen were not fortified in the keep, they were spread out and then they fled. No one in the tribe has explored the dungeons within the keep.

“How long ago was the battle?” The battle took three weeks. The Berserker tribe plans on moving out in the next couple of days. They plan to return to their home in the southwest. Their home is about 4 or 5 miles north of Rosebluff.

Buckford is acting as a contingent of the law and sees no reason to set up camp far away. The Boarmen have strength comparable to Gnolls and are Neutral Evil. They are about 7 to 8 feet tall. The sub-commander does mention that they did find treasure and they found a number of gems and potions. They did not secure any coinage however.

Inside the walls, we find a huge courtyard with the main keep structure in the back. The Marble Keep looks to be mostly demolished and the inner parts are all ruined. Near to the keep we find a set of stairs that goes down to the dungeons below. However, we do not find any traces of the Boarmen. We can see that they lead to a wide hallway. The party begins going downward…in our marching order.

As we descend down a staircase that is about 10' wide, we find that there are precarious steps as it descends sharply down into the earth. We eventually see the bottom. The corridor turns right so we go around the corner where we find a 30' x 30' room.

Inside the room, we encounter 2 Fire Beetles!

Maervahr throws a dagger and misses. Magic Missile was cast by Iskandar and an arrow hits one for only 1 damage. The Fire Beetles charge us while Maervahr moves forward to cast burning hands. The spell is cast, doing 2 damage, but Maervahr is then attacked and gets put out of commission! He is dropped to -1 HP! This will drop to -2 on the next round as he bleeds out.

The party eventually fights off the Fire Beetles and Maervahr is stabilized. Maervahr is down for one week to recover.

Inside the room are a couple of stone chests lying in the south west corner of the room. The chests are opened and we find that that one is filled with gold and copper! The first has 2,000 coins and the other has 500 coins. The total coinage amount is 2,000 cp and 500 gp in 2 stone. Although the stone chest are not huge, they are quite heavy.

The party heads back to Gren with the treasure and the unconscious body of Maervahr. The treasure is divided, equaling to 100 gp and 400 cp each and a total of 102 xp from treasure.

Ithimyr Sarfanis replaces Maervahr and heads out with the group on our next expedition to the Marble Keep. The hired mercenaries will also accompany us.

Once we arrive back at the keep, we head back into the dungeon and to the room with the two Fire Beetles. We open the door to the south which is a carved door leading to an area with a high ceiling and beams going up to a center point at the top of the ceiling. Laying around are small fist sized metal iron balls. There are no exits that we can see.

Ithimyr uses his spear to check for traps along the ground of the eastern wall. There is a wooden door to the south east and a stone door to the south west. As we examine the iron balls scattered around, we do not see any markings or indications that they were thrown although many of the balls do not have quite as much dust accumulated on them indicating that they may have been rolled around recently. We can see upon close inspection, a sign of some movement in the dust going toward the stone door. It is noted that the iron balls are not perfectly spherical and are not reflective.

We go through the wooden door toward the south east. We give it a good shove and suddenly we hear a metallic slice as a swinging scythe comes out of the wall. Lathar is slashed for 9 damage! The blade is double sided and can slide out of the wall from both sides. The Scythe Trap is in the south east end of the room.

After this, Halzgaz keeps an eye out for traps, checking the walls and floors. We decide to check out the stone door to the south west which requires a 1 on the die roll to Open Doors. To spike open the stone door we need 2 spikes to keep it open for “rounds” or 4 to keep it open for “turns”.

Beyond the stone door we find another room with four wooden doors. The room looks empty but there appears to have been activity between the corner area and a door. We check the north door for traps but find none. We open it which leads to a hallway that goes to yet another door. Halzgaz checks the structure of the walls, ceiling, floor and finds no stone based issues. We open this door and continue…

As we enter through the door, we come across 3 Fire Beetles! Ithimyr casts bless on the entire party.

We have entered into a 30' x 30' room and quickly kill 2 of the Fire Beetles and the other is hit for 5 damage. Tsanu killed it.

Combat is Over.

Ithimyr collects a Fire Beetle gland and we end up taking all 9 glands. Inside, we take some time to look around the room. In the center is a wooden platform with stairs on the south side. It appears like a stage or a 7' “soap box” platform. We start searching the platform and find that the sides are all closed off however, inside through a crack we can see that there are many copper coins. Halzgaz shatters the dry wood of the platform and we find that underneath is a small indentation in the ground containing 2,000 copper coins, a sum that is much to heavy for us to gather.

We inspect the north door and Halzgaz notices in the stone, there are some barely noticeable hairline cracks, just wide enought for another scythe blade trap. We take some iron spike to the panels.

There are several alcoves in the wall on the left hand side but middle alcove is an archway. We toss some Fire Beetle glands into the room which fills the area with a low, reddish light. The light reveals that the left and right hand wall are filled with alcoves. After attempting to listen for a moment, we don't hear anything.

The room is 50' x 50' with alcoves on either side that appear to be filled with lots of dust. Inside, most of the shelves are empty except for one next to an archway, which curves to the left. Something used to sit there on the shelf in a space of 1' x 1' but it was dragged out recently. For the first time, we see boot prints in this area, remnants of others in the area, that lead down the hallway. It is impossible to tell how many individuals but they were not insectoid.

We search for the same traps we found before and find that the door to the east is trapped but Ithimyr only has one iron spike left.

We learn that this is one of the oldest keeps in the region and it has had many owners. The most famous was an insane warlord that put enemy heads on a helmet over 1,000 years ago. He built the Marble Keep for mysterious purposes and had many followers.

We spike the left hand panel to bypass the scythe trap and Halzgaz presses open the door. Thankfully, the scything blade trap is blocked by the spike!

Beyond the door is another hallway that is lit with blue flame torches but they appear to not have burnt down at all, eternally lit by a magic flame. There is another door 30' ahead and a corridor to the right. Halzgaz tries to pull out a blue flame torch and finds that there is no heat at all! In total there are 9 torches that are lit but they can be smothered which will cause the flame to go out. We leave all the torches behind but 2 which we take with us.

In the hallway, there are also boot prints going in both directions. Halzgaz tries to open the door and suddenly we hear the shouting of Hobgoblins, 9 Hobgoblins in total!

Ithimyr's bless is still active and the Hobgoblins begin shouting to kill us. “Kill the Elf! Kill the dwarf, KILL!!”

Battle is joined and we take down 4 of them. On the next round, the Hobgoblines fail their morale check and begin to flee in panic. However, our strikes manage to kill 8 of them!

Then, about 1 second later, a GIANT FUCKING TOAD appears…and it is ANGRY! It spittles at us.

Round 3 of combat and the bless spell is still up. We quickly dispatch the Giant Toad and thus…

Combat is Over.

We find pouches of gold and weapons on the bodies of the Hobgoblins. There are 3 morningstars and the coin pouches each contain 35 cp and 19 gp.

The southern hallway is lit by torches but nailed to all of the walls are human bodies, set upon massive metal spikes. There is also a black chest at the end of the hallway.

Following this, we decide to head back to town for 2 days…

Back in Gren, Ithimyr bought more iron spikes and we head back to the Marble Keep. We are back where we left off and Lathar opens the door to the south of the main entrance room. We drive spikes into the wall panels of the trapped door. The door of the northern wall is covered in blade marks with streaks in dark red. There are words, written in goblin. These are curse words and some random gibberish painted all over the wall. A beautiful pattern of a labyrinth is also carved into one of the walls. The labyrinth covers the entire wall and continues to the south wall.

Our blue flame torches are still lit, giving us a reliable light source. We can see that the labyrinthine panel design continues on the walls and that they are also covered in some more graffiti, including on the far wall.

There is a chest in the corner along with some small goblin bodies. As we further study the the designs, we find that hidden in the decorative carvings are some small holes. They are all dug out to be aimed toward the back corner of the room.

Halzgaz opens the lid of the chest and a goblin's arm falls. This causes a mechanical grinding noise from under the chest. It is a machinery sound followed by some horrible snapping sounds. We can see that the chest is filled with silver and electrum coins. In total, there is 2,000 sp and 1,500 ep.

Gathering up the treasure, we progress forward and push open the door. Suddenly we come face to face with a group of 9 Elves! We greet them and they greet us as well. These Elves are wearing armor and helms, swords, they have side arms and bows.

The leader of the Elves is friendly and greets as a compatriot. He is surprised to see us. They explain that they have known about the Marble Keep for a long time, for over 1000 years. As the conversation continues, they reveal that the person that built it was an evil human warlord that engaged in battle with the ancient Elves of the region. These Elves did not spend much time meddling in these affairs but they have traveled over a long distance.

Furthermore, they have come to slay a dragon. A dragon that it is held not far from where we are standing now. Though, it is indeed a dragon, an adult dragon, it is small. The Elves want to gain its treasure. They say that it is a green dragon, with acid for breath, and they are seasoned warriors. However, they do not want to lose any of their number. The way to the dragon's lair is filled with horrific traps and strange oddities, the inventions of the mad human warlord. They want to scout out the dungeon the best that they can and plan to take treasure.

The Elves reveal that there is a secret entrance in the hills. One that the dragon uses to enter. They believed that it would be a great adventure, the quest they are on now. In regard to the Marble Keep and the courtyard outside, they say that the Barbarians are all gone now, having left for their home. For now, the Elves are exploring and going to kill any Hobgoblins they find and take their treasure.

We return to the area of the dungeon we did not finish, where the black chest lies. Lathar is going to investigate this area and looks for dart holes in the wall. He finds none. The black chest is made of dark wood and has metal bindings but otherwise looks normal.

Due the weight and to prevent us from triggering any traps, the party starts pulling the chest out using 100' of rope. It is at this moment that the corpses hanging on the wall start moving!

The corpses begin pulling themselves off of their metal spikes, a total of 6 Skeletons, that have an inhuman strength. They all move to engage us and attack!

Tsanu attempts to turn them and is successful! 5 of the 6 Skeletons are turned while the rest of us freely attack the other remaining Skeleton. A magic missile is cast at the skeleton, which destroys it!

This ends the combat.

Inside the black chest is full of coins: silver and electrum. A total of 2,000 sp and 1,500 ep.

With the treasure gathered, the party heads back to Gren. As we are traveling north, Tsanu catches out of the corner of her eye, a creature flying from the southeast and headed northeast. She can see that it is high up and has huge wings. The creatures has the shape of a furred beast with a great mane. It flies past us, heading straight for the northwest. We can also tell that it has four legs.

Luckily, this creature is ignoring us even with our mercenary lancers…or perhaps because of them.

The rest of the journey is uneventful.

Back in Gren, we divide up treasure for this expedition into the dungeons of the Marble Keep.

The shares were 38 cp, 800 sp, 600 ep, 3 gold.

There was 569 xp for the coin treasure and we get 1 gp, 10 sp, and and additional 45 gp for the remaining Fire Beetle glands, The morning stars are worth 7.5 gp each and Skif Blackleaf(the moneylender) is willing to pay 100 gp for each everburning torch which equals to 900 gp.

We get 200 xp for combat which ends up as 778 xp in total.

Exar was the name of the Ranger that Lathar had trained with. He left a message with the owner of one of Gren's taverns to meet the Ranger and they met at a location outside of town. Ithimyr takes note since one day, he too may need to train with Exar.

This session ended on Rose Moon the 25th, 494.