The session begins with a reminder that we are to receive XP for the Orc fight, after we defeated 196 orcs!

The party had just gotten past the first couple of doors at this hidden place after we add a seven glyphs into the door. We had pulled off some loose tiles in an empty corner of the room. Jacob identified these tiles as having a sigil depicting a level of the Seven Heavens from his time in the Rook temple. We are inside a chamber within a stone mountain in West Hollow. To enter the stone mountain, the party had made it past several defenses.

Our group discusses the Friends spell: “Note that the “awe” power (from a high Charisma score) applies only to divine beings (such as gods and demigods).”

Our party consists of the same lineup as last session.

- Iona, Human Monk.

- Delemir, Half-Elf Cleric / Fighter.

- Thorgard, Dwarf Fighter.

- Jacob, Human Fighter.

- Josalyn, Human Cleric.

- Briiz, Human Fighter / Thief.

- Fandillas, Elf Fighter / Magic-User.

- Tatrin, Human Cleric.

- Oriyan, Human Cleric.

- Toptesto, Human Magic-User.

A chamber lies beyond the door that was opened by the glyphs. Each of the walls have a mural depicting a tower, which is exactly the same on each one. The same scene is depicted on each wall but with a different season with a tall, imposing, squared off tower. The rectangular tower is made of polished white stone against the gray field of the main stone wall.

Beyond the pillars at the end of the hall is a sarcophagus. There is some script written on it that says something in elvish. The elves in our group can read it from here and it says the following:

“Ulis'wie'al, my friend”

There are a total of 6 columns inside of the chamber and they have white plating that is reflective and shines from the continual light coins. The light illuminated the white plating which also creates a sparkle in the air, but only in this hall. The air seems radiant somehow.

Tatrin casts Find Traps. With his spell, he can see several threads, very thin threads, like strands passing between the columns. Perhaps like a laser trap seen in some movies.

The threads extend back about 30' spell and beyond, filling the entire radius of the continual light. They go all the way up to the ceiling but the thread lines only go between the pillars and not along the north and south walls.

The murals on the north wall shows a scene of Spring and then Summer further to the back of the chamber. The south wall depicts a scene of Winter and Autumn on the far end.

Only the caster of the Find Traps can see the threads and the threads are connected to the columns and also terminate at the columns. The sarcophagus is set between two pillars at the far east end of the room. The pillars appear to be still to us, that is there is no movement.

Thorgard goes to look at the Winter panel more closely but Fandillas stops him. Instead, Tatrin and Thorgard go to inspect the Spring mural as this is the first season of the year. Thorgsrd inspects the Winter mural for 1 minute but sees no moving parts. He does notice several butterflies depicted on the mural, all the way from the west wall to a mid point in the center of the wall. He finds that one butterfly in particular is missing its wings.

Thorgard searches that butterfly more closely and notices a small trace of a circle on the thorax, or chest, of the wingless butterfly. He motions Tatrin over, who immediately finds that the button is not trapped. Thorgard continues his search and goes down to the Summer mural (also on the north wall).

Tatrin also looks at the statue and does not see anything unusual, nor are there any oddities on the north wall. He comes back to the south wall to inspect the Winter and Autumn murals.

Thorgard find some of the threads spread over the sarcophagus indicating that it is trapped as well but he does not find anything else after searching for 2 minutes.

The Fly spell has been activated on Fandillas for 1 hour approximately. This spell's full duration is left somewhat ambiguous to present yet another Gygaxian type of challenge for the players.

Delemir decides to press his finger into the button hole found on the thorax of the wingless butterfly. His finger goes in and hits the tip of a rod. There appears to be some kind of attached rod that is mounted inside the hidden opening, and this is not actually a button in the normal sense of the word. He tries to maneuver the rod inside with his fingertip but it seems solidly attached. A dagger wont fit but thieves tools will work. Iona heads over to try and manipulate the thing but she could not figure it out.

Briiz will make the attempt as well so he takes off his armor and uses some thieves tools to finagle the odd rod thing, He is successful! The wall detaches slightly with a groan and it looks like we have found a secret door!

Tatrin tries to peer in through the crack while Delemir looks at the Summer mural more closely. Fandillas checks the back of the door but finds nothing there. There are no traps on the secret door and nothing has changed with the Summer mural, nor does he find a similar type of hole.

Tatrin has less than a turn left on Find Traps now so we decide to proceed in. The secret door opens inward and Jacob, Josalyn and Thorgard are on doors. Thorgard has better strength due to a Strength spell and so does Fandillas so he decides that Fandillas will take over for door duty. Josalyn falls back.

We enter the chamber beyond and find that dust is flying around the room violently, we can see it all in the air. There is a door at the other end which is made of stone and looks robust to us. The wind inside the room is very strange as it seems to come from nowhere in torrents and twists. Tatrin does not see any traps when gazing inside.

He beckons us into the room with him.

Monks have a percentage based reduced chance to be surprised and currently, Iona has a 28% chance. But we rolled a 16 on a % die which means there is only 1 segment of Surprise against us.

As we move into the general area, the wind kicks up even more inside the room. Any torches or lanterns would go out but we are not using them currently so the continual light coins continue to illuminate. The whipping of the wind is very violent and it cuts our skin and the roar is so loud that we can't hear other noises. Air and dust is flying all around us and it catches our eye with a sparkle and a waver. There are things seen from the corners of our eyes…then the wind attacks!

The first attack comes against Josalyn. There is a flashing as emerging from invisibility comes a warrior wearing foreign armor, typical of the ancient people once found in the Southern Cradlelands. However, the figure of the warrior and his beard and helm are made of wind! It slashes at Josalyn with a scimitar of wind. She has an AC 0 and these are considered normal attacks. Since the creature is attacking out of invisibility, it gets a +4 to the attack.

The wind strikes with an exact hit and Josalyn is slashed for 8 damage.

Another wind figure appears on Tatrin who has an AC 4 and he is also slashed for 7 damage. Delemir has an AC 1 or 2 without his shield but the scimitar misses its mark and Delemir leaps out of the way. Meanwhile, there are 2 more that appear on Iona the Monk. She has an AC 6 and they both hit! Iona takes 11 damage and is quite wounded from the attacks.

Another one makes an attack on Jacob who is missed and he is hit! Jacob takes 9 damage (with 2 absorbed by his full plate armor).

This was only for the Surprise segment but now there are 6 wind warriors gathered around the party and they are all visible to us.

Fandillas thinks about parleying but instead he casts Mirror Image on himself. For Jacob and his entourage: Josalyn casts Cure Light Wounds, Jacob and Briiz attack. Thorgard attacks the creatures and Tatrin will heal Iona if he can.

Delemir thinks about casting Hold Person but realizes that it won't work against such creatures. Instead he casts Command. Iona will attempt to touch one of the wind entities and activates her Ring of Shocking Grasp. Toptesto tries to open the secret door so that we might make our escape and is able to open it this round.

The warriors of wind make their attacks against us…

We notice that they appear to be made completely of air as we begin casting our spells and our attacks. Fandillas casts Mirror Image which takes 2 segments to cast and he now has 4 images. There is a 1 segment casting time on the Command spell and will require a save if the target has a 13 or more Intelligence. The spell works on one of the wind creatures and it is commanded to flee. Tatrin casts Cure Light Wounds which has a 5 segment casting time.

Iona makes her touch strikes using her open hand and activating her Shocking Grasp. She must hit AC 8 for a touch and she connects! The shock runs through the warrior causing 7 damage as the creature moans like the wind. Iona realizes that the only reason she could make contact with the target was because of the magic, her normal attack would have caused no damage.

Oriyan and Toptesto roll to open the door while Jacob makes an attack with a +3 sword. Thorgard strikes with a +2 longsword. For this, the wind creatures have an AC 4 but Jacob hits one hard for 11 damage and Thorgard also hits one for 10.

None of the creatures are destroyed yet but one of them flees and we can all make attacks at +4, though Iona's fist attack does no damage as she had guessed. Jacob and Thorgard both strike it and destroy it.

For the next round, the wind is tearing through the air and we will each take 1d2 damage. Iona takes 1 damage.

Toptesto manages to open the door while the violent wind destroys all of Fandillas's Mirror Images. does not destroy his Mirror Images because they are only effected by weapon attacks, according to the spell description. When an image is struck by a weapon, magical or otherwise, it disappears but any other existing images remain intact until struck.

Josalyn is struck and takes 7 damage. The Cure Light Wounds goes off from Tatrin and he heals Iona for 2 hp. The rest of the wind warriors miss.

During this round, Jacob and Thorgard both get a second attack. Thorgard hits one for 12 damage and obliterates it! There are 4 of these things left and the door is opened.

Exiting the room somewhat reduces the noise of the wind so that any spell with a verbal component no longer has a 75% failure chance, it is now 50%.

For the next round, Delemir casts Command, Iona uses the Ring of Shocking Grasp again, Fandillas also uses his own Ring of Shocking Grasp. However, Josalyn and Briiz disengage from the melee and attempt to fall back outside the chamber. Tatrin tries to heal Iona once more and Thorgard continues his attacks.

We lose the initiative.

One of the wind warriors misses Jacob and Thorgard is also missed. Delemir gets 2 attacks on him and he has an AC 1. Delemir is struck causing him to lose his Command spell as he takes 7 damage.

Tatrin also fails his spell when taking wind damage.

These creatures only have an AC 8 versus a touch attack but Iona misses when using her Ring of Shocking Grasp, however the effect still persists and she can unleash the charge on a subsequent touch. Meanwhile, Fandillas strikes one of the wind entities for 9 damage and Jacob hits for 12. Thorgard hits for 7 damage, which kills it!

When our group's weapons slice through the wind, it leave scars in the wind and in the whirling dust. They attack us with falchions made of air and they have ghostly shields. Despite their loss, they are not relenting in their attack, the 4 wind creatures persist.

Iona makes another touch attack while using the Shocking Grasp effect while Josalyn and Briiz have disengaged. Oriyan casts Cure Light Wounds on Josalyn. Toptesto does nothing this round, Fandillas activates his own Ring of Shocking Grasp, Thorgard makes his attacks, and Tatrin tries to cast Cure Light Wounds on Iona.

There is a 50% spell failure chance in these detrimental winds. For the next round, we lost initiative again. There are 2 attacks on Jacob while Fandillas and Thorgard each get 1. However, Thorgard and Jacob get to attack first.

Thorgard hits for 9 damage and once again this kills the wind entity! All the attacks on Jacob have missed. Thorgard's magic ring does not pass the check this time (due to his Ring Failure Chance for being a Dwarf), that puts him at an AC 2. Thorgard is hit by the wind and takes 5 damage and there is 1 attack on Fandillas but it missed!

Josalyn's Cure Light Wounds spell goes off and Delemir attempts to cast Spiritual Hammer. Iona takes 2 damage from the torrential winds and Jacob's armor takes 2 more armor damage.

Iona manages to obliterate one of the Wind Warriors after her shocking grasp connects, causing 12 damage! Jacob destroys another one with a 17 damage strike. Our capable dwarf, Thorgard, destroys the last one after striking it for 13 damage.

Josalyn casts her Cure Light Wounds spell on herself and another healing spell cures 7 hp to Iona.

Combat has ended and the wind has died down. The chamber falls quiet once again…

There is an nnmarked stone door looming before us, towering in stature. Josalyn approaches it and casts Find Traps but there are no traps detected. The door is otherwise sturdy but unmarked.

We discuss the possibility of a rest to re-memorize some spells but it is made apparent that forest encounters have more of an encounter chance than ANYWHERE ELSE! We decide it is not worth the risk to camp outside in this environment if we wish to remain undisturbed.

Back to the stone door, we spend several minutes trying to open the door and finally it opens. A 20' hall is revealed that opens up into a room with a great central column.

Josalyn is the first inside and she does not see anything glowing as far as traps go. She walks further in and yet still does not see any traps. However, most of the view is blocked by the great stone pillar. It is completely plated in white stone like the towers in the previous room.

The pillar itself resembles an entire tower that is wrapped in white. Back in the other room on each of the murals, the tower looked about the same but the scene was different. This tower is no different from those. In the back of the room we can see another sarcophagus.

There are elven runes written on the sarcophagus that reads in a phrase that is not translatable into common directly but translates loosely as: “Belonging to Mercuria”. This appears to mean that it “belongs to a heaven realm” that is controlled by Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon.

Thorgard searches the pillar and Delemir searches the sarcophagus. Delemir touches the lid but it does not open. Fandillas searches the south wall while Oriyan and Toptesto hold the door. We end up searching the room thoroughly but we do not find anything of note, or any secrets that we are looking for.

At this point, the party must rest for 1 hour.

Iona searches the ceiling and the rest of the group continues searching the walls. There are no Lawful Good characters in the party and it is known that Bahamut is the Platinum Dragon, who is considered a Lawful Good power. Thorgard takes out the holy symbol of Rook and says Strength and Sacrifice, as we once did outside of this place. Nothing happens.

Oriyan is a Cleric of 5th level and decides to cast a spell of Augury. He asks for Weal or Woe about opening the sarcophagus. The Augury spell reveals to Oriyan that he who opens the coffin will gain great power and thus Weal (or well-being).

Delemir loses his rational mind and throws himself at the sarcophagus and attempts to open it. It opens…

Inside is a mummified form. It is small in stature but it is wearing a resplendent plate armor. Judging by the make it looks like an elf is buried inside. In one hand, the mummy holds a rolled up scroll. In the other is a radiant, glowing blade…a longsword. It hums gently.

Delemir is proficient with longsword so he immediately grabs it. He pulls the blade away from the mummy and a booming voice like a choir balcony in a temple speaks forth, “WHO LAYS THEIR HANDS UPON HEAVENBRINGER?” and the weapon clatters back into the sarcophagus. A bell rings throughout the chamber.

Ignoring the warning tone of the voice, Delemir decides to take the armor. He begins prying it off the remains and comparing it for size. The voice continues, “HANDS OFF THAT ARMOR, FOUL CREATURE!”

Delemir ignores the sword and starts putting on the armor while the sword starts cursing at him in other languages. Meanwhile, Thorgard tries to talk with the sword, “Why not have a life of purpose rather than sitting in this chamber for eternity?” The sword responds by questioning how it could be wielded by someone that does not serve Law.

Fandillas asks the sword, “Can you tell me of your history? Who are you? What history do you have?” The sword responds that it is the Ogre Blade, the Blade of Cine. Fandillas decides to tell the blade of his own past. He mostly highlights all the good things that he has done but leaves out the parts concerning the Forgotten Master.

The sword speaks forth in fluent and perfect Elvish and it has a knightly dialect. The sword listens to what Fandillas has to say and then it shares some of the things that it knows about its fallen master. The power of the sword has waned over the years

Switches to another language and begins cursing toward Delemir who has put on the armor by now. Delemir says that the sword sounds “quite pompous” but eventually it stops cursing him out.

The sword continues recounting its past and says that it was created by some celestial being rather than simply enchanted. It spent 10,000 years guarding the tomb of a naga. Delving into more detail detail on its previous owner, it says that its master was once called “Pha'mir'al” but this elf was only its most recent master and he lived much more recently in time. The stories of Heavenbringer, as the blade is called, are quite epic, but it tells only more recent and very ancient events.

The sword decides that it can trust Thorgard at least because of his symbol of Rook however can only be used by someone who can wield it. Fandillas asks if he were willing to change his ways could he take Heavenbringer under his wings.

The sword says it has seen people change before but there is no possible way for Fandillas to wield the sword. He is an elf of chaos.

Iona says we could get money for it and the sword scolds her, “INSOLENT PRACTITIONER OF THE MARTIAL ARTS!” It demands to not be jerked around. Unless we find someone willing to pay us for the power of the heavens.

Delemir tells the sword, “As a Cleric of Riswa, I will find you a worthy wielder, perhaps Sapphira, Alexios, or Aliisis (a Paladin of Anaeros) and retainer of Fandillas.”

The sword says it will acquiese to being brought all over the place to find a wielder and Delemir replies that he is confident to find that wielder. Sword agrees that it will go with Delemir to keep an eye on that armor at least but it will not reveal its powers to those unworthy of wielding it in battle.

It is apparent that the sword does not know where it is right now but we do and we decide its time to depart. Thorgard grabs the scroll and Fandillas reads it. It is a Scroll of Protection from Cold. The mummified body wears a silver holy symbol of Rook around its neck and Jacob picks up the holy symbol. At this point, the sword falls silent.

Delemir apologizes to Heavenbringer for desecrating his master's body and the swords glow increases and decreases as though it is sighing. Oriyan asks the sword not to yell out if it senses combat until we find a master for it.

We leave the room and investigate the other room further. It is noted that the glimmering we saw was the glimmering of extremely thin strands. No magic is detected in this room and someone could slide the sarcophagus back without triggering the strings.

Thorgard puts Heavenbringer in his backpack.

Iona rolls her Disarm Traps ability while looking for a way to disarm the threads but is unable to figure out the trap. Each of the columns have hidden panels on them. There are very long, very thin panels and are practically invisible, very flush against the columns.

Meanwhile, Delemir starts sparring with the armor which indicates that the plate armor is at least +4 plate mail, it is elf sized and made of Mithral!

Delemir is extremely happy and tells the sword that you are very wise to be wary of me wearing this. Iona points out the trap panels to Briiz and says he can give it a shot. However, Briiz cannot figure out how to disable the trap.

Delemir investigates the panels and finds that the strings are not attached to the panels. Most of the strings are wrapped around the column and go inside the column. Delemir pushes on the panel but nothing happens.

Iona reveals the strings using some of her Dust of Appearance in a cone shape to reveal them. Jacob manages to maneuver his way through the threads and uses some dust as well to reveal the threads atop the sarcophagus. Jacob can very delicately and carefully remove the lid without disturbing the strings.

Inside of the sarcophagus is another elven mummy with a silver holy symbol of Rook inlaid with an emerald. There is also a cylindrical rod with wings on each side lying next to the mummy.

Jacob removes the holy symbol from the sarcophagus as well as the 2“ rod with wings. Before departing he thoroughly searches the sarcophagus for anything hidden, panels, false bottoms, etc. but finds nothing. Having recovered the holy symbol, Jacob then makes his way out of the stringed areas.

We decide to make our exit from this place and head for the doors. With great difficulty we get past the stone door. Before we left, none of our characters found a place to use the winged rod. It would, however, fit into the hole we found earlier, clearly a key for the secret passage.

A Detect Magic spell is cast and nothing that we have found is magical, except for Delemir's new armor and Heavenbringer.

We depart the stone outcropping and find ourselves outside once again, our mounts where we had left them.

We travel for the last third of the day. Toptesto casts invisibility on Iona during this time.

The night arrives and the day is over, uneventful. We make camp and must determine the total of all spell levels to be memorized in order to see if we are losing movement points for the next day.

Delemir heals himself and Iona is fully healed.

The morning begins with cloudly skies and it begins to rain the next day. It has rained throughout the evening until the weather goes back to cloudy, There are no modifiers for the weather. We have one full day of travel ahead of us and we are going to Taughanock Falls to talk to Ras'akil, the Bronze Dragon.

We arrive at Taughanock Falls the next day and head inside. Ras'akil has established his throne room. We are guided in by the centurions that once guarded the Bronze Dragon in Mombafra. Ras'akil is already waiting for us in his human form and it looks like he is working on something.

As we approach him, he confesses that he did not think the place would be so large. He will bestow upon us some treasure as a reward!

He says I believe you have business with me. We discuss the recent acquisition we have discovered, the sword of Lawful Good called Heavenbringer. Ras'akil says that we should find a worthy bearer for the sword and we must do your utmost to find someone that can wield it.

He offers us 3 clerical scrolls containing 10 spells, of which he will give all of them to us, a suit of chainmail which can be worn by a human or a half-orc and it has a +2 protection to it and he also offers us, reluctantly, a couple of potions: a Potion of Treasure Finding and an Elixir of Life.

The spells contained on the Cleric scrolls are as follows:

• 1st scroll: 2 4th level spells, protection from evil 10' radius, abjure

• 2nd scroll: 1 5th level spell, quest

• 3rd scroll: 7 cleric spells of levels 4 through 7. (random rolls were 5, 4, 5, 7, 5, 4, 5). 4th level spells, exorcise, cloak of fear. 5th level spells, cure serious wounds, divination, speak with plants, sticks to snakes. 7th level spell, succor.

Ras'akil feels that we are owed a great debt due to us finding him an amazing lair. Jacob offers to trade his aquamarine locket and his Ring of Animal Friendship (id 72) to Ras'akil in exchange for the chainmail +2 (id 123). Ras'akil accepts.

After the exchanges, Ras'akil retreats back into his workshop.

We vote to keep the scrolls

The next morning we prepare spells and will head back to Mombafra.

We have 6 movement points to get to Sanctum of the Yew and then onward to Mombafra. Briiz puts on the chainmail +2.

Our first day out to the Sanctum is uneventful. Iona is still invisible so Oriyan casts it on himself.

The final day of travel leads us over the hills and these hills around Mombafra are like plains as far as movement goes. We make it back to the city.

We divide up some of the treasure and sell the holy symbols. One of the holy symbols is worth 900 gp and the other sells for 1,300 gp.

The green rod with wings is only worth a mere 3 gp.

The Scroll of Protection from Cold is worth 10,000 gp however this becomes claimed by Jacob. These scrolls can be made by Magic-Users and Clerics if they have the resources.

Scroll 3 goes to Oriyan.

Scroll 2 goes to Delemir.

Scroll 1 goes to Tatrin.

There is 10,465 ep in total.

The group decides that we are bestowing the Heavenbringer sword to Fandillas, so that he may give it to his henchman. Aliisis the Paladin henchman of Fandillas rolls 107 on his reaction for the sword! It goes to her.

The sword has the following stats:

Longsword +3, “Heavenbringer”, LG, INT 14, EGO 9, speech (LG, Common, Elf, Sylvan, Guardian Naga, Celestial), detect slopes 1”, detect magic 1“, detect large traps 1”.

Jacob gives Briiz the Scroll of Protection from Cold.

Each of the henchman gain a mere 409 xp and each player gets only 818 xp due to the large group number.

The henchman share of coins is 82 gp, 654 ep, double that for each of the players.

Aliisis will always be in control of the sword going forward as she has claimed it and the sword claims her.

• Jacob - 722 xp and gets an extra 2000 xp for the scroll.

• Josalyn - 362 xp.

• Toptesto - 362 xp.

• Baldingo - 71 xp.

• Iona - 1131 xp.

• Fandillas - 1131 xp.

• Briiz - 1566 xp but actually gets 0 xp.

• Tatrin - 762 xp.

• Delemir - 1631 xp + 3500 xp for the +4 elven plate armor.

• Oriyan - 4631 xp.

• Thorgard - 1131 xp.