The party has gathered together in Qarn.

During the downtime, Bron the First did some investigation around Elsewater to find out more information on the state of the Gloom that spreads slowly across the badlands to the south. He found several people in Elsewater that came from Seleb but learns that the majority of those people went to other hamlets and thorpes in the badlands. The people that did end up going to Elsewater were people with families. He has learned that Seleb was completely abandoned by now. The last to leave the place say that the Gloom spread all the way to the edge of the hamlet. There were rumors of a couple of people that stayed inside and they reported seeing monsters from other planes.

For this session, we have decided that dealing with the Gloom is much too dangerous for our group. Instead, we will return to exploring a place many in this party have never visited: the prison complex found beneath the Delbo Keep.

Our team for this foray into the dungeon will be:

• Sapphira, Human 4th level Paladin.
• Jedor, Human 1st level Paladin.
• Hendricks, Elf (not Dwarf) 3rd level Thief / 2nd level Fighter, and only 5 hitpoints.
• Hilly Springleaf, Halfling 1st level Thief, Neutral Good, rides a mule named Babs.
• Xrith'atiril Torinel-Sarfanis of the West Reach, Half-Elf 1st level Fighter (Bard), Neutral Good.
• Keisial, Human 2nd level Ranger, owed 1 set of parasite/disease rolls and 200 gp upkeep.

It is the beginning of the new year and the beginning of Spring. The weather is only a little cold and the frosts have begun to wane.

We briefly recall the events of several months to a year ago at Trawis and the Necropolis located close by. We returned to them a protective gem that now provides magical or divine protection across the region. The group also discusses the possibility of psionic parasites like a cerebral parasite that might some bestow psionics on a person. Would such a thing exist?

The Boring Beetle eggs from a previous session are sold to some miners for 12 gold each.

We are located on west shore of Qarn lake, in the city of Qarn which is along the road between Mombafra and Criss Antha. The party plans to go into Delbo to investigate the prison once again. With a movement rate of 6 movement points we can get to Delbo in 1/3 of a day but if we choose to stay there too long we may be forced to set up camp in the wilderness.

It is a clear day today.

Keisial buys some rope and we determine that it would cost 1,000 gp to get a new map from the lone figure that currently resides within the Delbo graveyard. He wishes for us to obtain a “dubloon” for him in exchange for some rewards.

We depart from Qarn and head north west toward the ruins of Delbo, once a walled city but now only a single tower, a keep and a shrine in the graveyard remain standing.

Hilly, our thief, decides that she will scout ahead. As we approach the keep through the opening in the west side of the wall, we notice a single wolf sleeping outside the double doors of the keep. It is about 300 yards or 900' away.

The thief falls back to the group to report what she has seen. Her next mission will be to climb the wall to look down into the keep for any potential guards. Hilly climbs up the wall with no issue. The walls are 25' high and 20' thick and she is able to find cover at the top. She ties off and lowers down a rope so that the rest of us can join her at the top.

Hendricks and Xrith'atiril climb up next followed by everyone else. Hendricks peeks over one of the battlements carefully and sees that inside the keep, there are 10 Orcs searching around for stuff. A scavenging party most likely. The wolf remains sleeping outside the keep and the Orcs look like they are investigating the walls of the interior building.

Hilly, Keisial and Hendricks all have bows and slings while the Orcs are armed with axes and longbows. Up here on the walls, there is 50% cover for us if we duck behind the battlements. We can see also that the Orcs are searching through some dead bodies which also appear to be Orcs.

The wind is blowing to the south so we are downwind from the wolf sleeping at the front gate. We see one of the Orcs pull out a large chest as they are talking. These Orcs are at a -1 to their attacks because of the daytime and clear weather.

Our group discusses the plan and decide that we are going to climb down the city wall and then climb back up the west keep wall, trying to stay undetected as we do so. Hilly climbs down first and goes to the keep wall. There, she can see a rope still hanging down from the last time a group of adventurers were in this place. She goes to climb up the existing rope which she can do with no check.

Hilly gets over the wall easily and lands on the upper part when suddenly, one of the Orcs notices her and shouts!

The orcs are all shouting and have been alerted to the presence of a halfling in the area. Hilly has moved up quickly to reveal herself then moves north before ducking back down and falling back in an attempt to misdirect and then go back to the south.

Sapphira goes toward the keep and waits for the rope. Xrith'atiril has a short bow now thanks to Keisial and joins up with Sapphira as do the others. At this point, the enemies move to get in bow range. They come up the stairs, 9 Orcs in total, before the end of the round.

Xrith, Keisial and Hendricks climb up the rope. We can see the Orcs at the other side of the keep wall. The two Paladins, Sapphira and Jedor, are waiting at the bottom.

Xrith'atiril takes a shot with a shortbow and Hilly has tied off another rope from the rear battlements and then tries to hide. Keisial draws out his blade and braces for a charge and Hendricks also fires his bow.

The Orcs shoot at us but we get a +1 to AC and they take a -1 for the daylight blindness, but in total they have a -4 to hit us.

There are 2 volleys fired at Hendricks who takes no hits, 4 volleys fired at Xrith'atiril and there are 2 arrows that hit, doing 1 damage and 5 damage respectively. Xrith still lives for now!

Another volley is fired at Hilly who takes one hit for 5 damage, this kills her outright! SHE IS DEAD!

Keisial takes 4 damage from an arrow while Hendricks fires his shot and hits AC 7 which kills one Orc for 3 damage. Sapphira and Jedor are now up at the top of the wall.

At this point, the double doors at the north end of the keep are opened which happens at the end of the round however we did not see who came inside the doors (likely, the wolf). In the meantime, Sapphira will use her Lay on Hands ability to heal Xrith. Xrith ducks down behind the battlement after missing his two arrow shots. He is not proficient with the shortbow yet.

Up on the wall comes another Orc with an accompanying wolf while the rest of the Orcs fire another volley, and the arrows comes at our group.

This time, Hendricks is targeted by 4 volleys but we now have the Paladin aura of Protection From Evil and he thus has an AC -5. One of the arrows still hit and he takes 1 damage (Hendricks).

Jedor is also targeted but he has a -2 AC. The arrow hits and he takes 5 damage. Keisial and Sapphira are targeted as well but both are missed entirely. Xrith and Hendricks drop down behind the battlements and wait for the Orcs to get within range before striking them in melee.

There is 8 points of healing given to Xrith from Sapphira's Lay on Hands, bringing him back up to full health meanwhile, Xrith moves next to Sapphira with his bastard sword at the ready.

The Orcs can just barely reach us with a charge..which they do! At this time, Hendricks can fire his bow at close range but he misses. There are 8 orcs that charge into our party.

The Protection from Evil grants us a +2 to AC. One of the Orcs is on Sapphira, but she has an AC -1. It will need to roll a 20. 5 of the Orcs are on Jedor but will also need 20s for the first 3 attacks and 19s for the next. Both of the Paladins fight off the rampaging Orcs! There is 1 attack on Hendricks but this Orc also misses. Keisial can only be hit on a 20 and he is also missed.

The Orc charge is done, and they have an AC 7 (6 normally).

Keisial and Xrith both miss with their melee strikes. Jedor cuts down one Orc for 4 damage while Sapphira hits one for 4, both Orcs are killed! There are 6 Orcs left in the melee.

Xrith is trying smashing orc skulls with his big sword while Sapphira and everyone else also attack. Keisial hits one for 6 damage but it is still alive, remarkably. Jedor hits another one for 8 damage, killing it. Their numbers are dwindling down each round.

Now there is a Morale check for the Orcs and they rolled over a 50% which results in morale failure. They have decided they made a bad decision coming after our party and are trying to flee. Sapphira meanwhile, makes her attack and kills one while her retainer, Jedor, hits one for 2 damage.

There are now only 5 Orcs and a wolf left and they try to make their escape, fleeing from combat. The Orcs have disengaged and are moving their full movement. They all flee.

Xrith gathers up a longbow and a quiver of arrows from one of the fallen Orcs. Meanwhile, Keisial charges ahead and makes an attack at their backs but misses! Hendricks hits another one for 2 damage, killing it, and now there are 4 that are trying to fight off Keisial. They counterattack the charge.

Xrith charges in to join Keisial in the melee and all the attacks are on Keisial, a roll of a 19 hits! The Orc's battle axe does 4 points of damage to Keisial. Xrith was able to strike a solid blow and does 7 damage this round which also kills it!

Hendricks continues to fire and hits for 3 damage. In the meantime, Jedor and Sapphira, our two Paladins, have avoided the fight and made their way to the south end of the building. They can see a couple of sacks and a chest against the east wall of the building.

Keisial hits another one for 5 damage, slaying it instantly, but Xrith and Hendricks both miss as the Orcs are determined to live! The wolf and the other Orc who had not quite been able to join in combat both fled and left the keep through the double doors on the north side.

Hendricks does 3 damage and Keisial does 8 to another one as it falls to the ground dead.

All the Orcs have been slain but only Hilly Springleaf tragically lies dead on our side.

The party recovers from the fight and we gather together with Sapphira and Jedor. Hendricks will take a look at the chest for any sign of a trap and Keisial attempts to find the tracks of the Orc and wolf that fled.

Inside the sacks we find:

• 400 sp
• 100 gp

We also find a total of 51 ep on the Orc bodies and the chest is locked.

Meanwhile, Keisial is joined by Xrith'atiril to track down this cowardly Orc and his wolf companion. We head north through the gates and out into the ruins of Delbo where we are able to find it without any issue.

Xrith will get to medium range and take a shot at the wolf while Keisial charges at the Orc. Xrith misses his first shot at the wolf but Keisial's swing connect and does 5 damage to the Orc. The wolf tries to attack the warhorse of Keisial and manages to bite the sturdy beast as it takes 5 damage.

Keisial continues the relentless attack on the Orc, a known enemy of Rangers and Xrith pulls out his bastard sword to charge the wolf. We lose the initiative this round so the Orc manages to strike and it hits Keisial, doing a hefty 5 damage. The wolf attacks the horse again and misses.

The wolf takes 6 damage from Xrith's blade and Keisial's warhorse does 8 damage to the Orc, it has been stomped to death.

However, the wolf is still engaged and continues attacking but it misses. Hendricks's medium warhorse that Xrith is riding does 4 damage to the wolf. It also is killed and the combat ends.

The Orcs each had 20 arrows, a longbow, a battle axe, ring mail, and a large shield. The fleeing Orc also carried 8 ep. Xrith grabs the items and places them on the mule and decides to take the large shield for himself.

Back at the Delbo keep, we are gathering up the treasure and Orc loot.

Hilly had 7 pp, 1 ep, 12 gp, 12 cp, 6 sp and a set of thieves' tools. Her mount was Babs the Mule which had a collection of 799 gp stashed on it. Xrith, not having a mount, happily adopts Babs and we will split up Hilly's coin later since she had no inheritance will.

The locked chest is opened and inside we find:

• 2900 cp
• 2900 sp

The party stores up the items we find and we head back to Qarn to recover and perhaps find a replacement for Hilly.

Back in Qarn we split up the treasure.

11 ep, 580 sp, 580 cp without henchmen half.

Each character gains the following treasure split:

• 13 ep
• 728 sp
• 729 cp

The henchman will get:

• 4 ep
• 243 sp
• 245 cp

Saireal Aldilo joins us, a Lawful Good Human Monk.

Xrith'atiril buys a suit of Banded Mail for 90 gp and sells his suit of chainmail.

The next morning we head back out to the Delbo keep to continue our foray into the prison level below. We arrive back at the keep without incident.

There are no more occupants (i.e. Orcs) hanging out on the upper levels so we head into the door found on the east section of the keep. We open the door and find a room with a huge trapdoor in the ground. We decide to check the east door.

Keisial, Xrith'atiril and Sapphira are opening doors. As we open the east door we see another room with stairs leading upward. There are a ton of boxes and crates that have been ransacked found stacked and scattered under the stairs. Xrith checks through the crates but they all look completely empty except for scraps of cloth and twine.

We open the door to the south and find a thick walled room a foul smell, like a lavatory. There are steel shelves along the walls to the west, south and east but they are all entirely empty.

The party heads back into the room with the stairs and head up. The stairs take us to an upper area where formerly a fight with bugbears took place long ago. We check the door on the right hand side and it opens. Inside is another room, like a bedroom, with a bunch of personal effects, cooking supplies, flint and steel, pots and pans.

There is a nice looking bed frame in here with a hay mattress as well as a door in the back which is made of iron. The door has a keyhole. Xrith'atiril examines the area around the hay mattress. The party also searches through the personal affects which includes clothes and cooking supplies. The clothes look masculine. Keisial takes a moment to listen at the iron door while Xrith tore apart the mattress and finds nothing inside.

Xrith uses a continual light coin and finds no trap or needles inside the lock of the iron door. Hendricks also finds no traps, nor anything odd about the seams around the door. Although the door is locked, it would take a Strength of 19 to open. Xrith explains that he has heard that another group long ago found this area and learned that the door was trapped. With that, we agree to leave it be for now and head back down to the room with the trap door, which leads to the prison level.

Xrith and everyone go to open the trap door leading down and we reveal some stairs leading down.

Sapphira has a magical sword and a luminous coin which grants 60' of light. As we descend down the stairs we find a passage with a door to the right and left and a portcullis to the south. A sign on the right hand west door reads “SIGN IN HERE BEFORE DUTY”.

We go through the portcullis to the south, ignoring the two closed door, and find a large room. On the right side of the room is an area filled with a bunch of cages and to the south is a drop off that is the way to a bridge mimic, one that was found some time ago by another group of adventurers. Along the east wall is a passage that continues through past a couple of cell doors.

We go the east and try the eastern door that is located past a bunch of cell doors. Inside, we find a small 10' x 10' room and on the far wall is a large steel door. Drawn across the door is some kind of seal that looks magical in nature. The seal spans across the entire door and has a white, sparkly color on the door. We ignore this door for now suspecting that it contains something dangerous within.

We recover three orc corpses that we can use as a bribe for the hungry mimic. When we return, we can see the big stone bridge that stretches across some water that is filled with bones of many different sizes. There are some coins sparkling among the bones.

Keisial tosses an iron ration at the bridge but nothing happens. Xrith'atiril drop an Orc corpses at the edge of the bridge. Immediately, a pseudopod type appendage appears from the side of the bridge, grabs the corpse and a large maw opens to consume it. Xrith asks the bridge if we may pass after bringing it an Orc and it asks for more food. We further inquire if the bridge has seen any other creatures pass through this way recently. For this, we must roll a Reaction check, Xrith rolls a 48%.

The intelligent Mimic says, “For as long as I can remember there have been undead roaming these halls, including skeletons. I saw a big armadillo recently but it does not remember when. It looked hard and not delicious and passes by every couple days.”

We ask, “Are these coins your coins and can we have them?” We know that this is a smaller variety of Mimic which are known to be intelligent, unlike the large ones. The Mimic does not claim any of the coins and says we can take them if we bring it more food.

We decide to depart and head across to the east passage and try to open the first door on the left. It is an empty cell which is followed by another empty cell beyond the next door. Each of these doors leads to an empty cell but there is also a stairway leading down at the end of the passage.

As we get close, we can see that the stairs go down to a lower area. There are several empty cages or cells made of iron bars and sealed by portcullises. In the center of the room is a pool of water that continues through an opening in the west wall and continues through a tunnel. We suspect that this leads back to the room with the Mimic. Before entering this chamber we head back.

In the other room, we ask the Mimic if there are more of them? It says, “That depends on if we have any more food”. With that, we bring down another Orc corpse for it to feast upon and it continues, “If we find any other bridges be sure to kill them, this was my idea.”

The party heads back down the passage and descends the stairs. The group examines the cages and find that all of them look empty except for one which had a skeletal corpse located on the other side of the room. Suddenly, coming from everywhere and nowhere is the sound of revelry, like a tavern or a party, people talking over each other and untelligble voice sounds. Slowly, the voices start laughing and it becomes a cacophony. One of the portcullises opens and then snaps close…then all of the portcullises open repeatedly until they all snap close at once.

Just as suddenly, the party noises manifest further to the south. Xrith asks Sapphira if she can sense any evil in the area so she attempts to Detect Evil. After concentrating for a moment, she does not detect anything. This room will have to be explored further at another time so we return back to the bridge with a mind to collect the coins.

There are a few hundred coins back by the Mimic bridge. Hendricks volunteers to go down as long as we can tie him to a rope and pull him back out. As he sifts through the piles of bone, he sees more coins than expected. Over several minutes, Hendricks manages to gather up all the coins while attached to the rope. As he does this, the bridge makes a couple of loud digestive noises but it remains very still.

In total, we collect:

• 200 cp
• 150 sp
• 210 gp
• 35 pp

After this we take 3 turns to collect ourselves and rest.

Xrith'atiril sees a movement beyond the corner in the chamber to the north. Emerging from the darkness is a dark, skeletal figure wielding a rusted sword. Its bones are heavily charred and it appears to be looking at us. There are 4 of them.

Xrith prepares to receive a charge and alerts the group while Saireal runs across the bridge to get out of danger. Sapphira call upon her deity to turn the undead and Hendricks fires his bow.

The Skeletons charge. Sapphira must turn them as she would Zombies but the turning attempt fails. Those of us in melee must hit AC 8.

Xrith does 7 damage with his bastard sword and destroys one and Jedor hits another for 5 damage which also falls to pieces! Only 2 skeletons remain.

Jedor and Saireal are attacked but only Saireal is hit and takes 3 damage. Xrith immediately makes an attack on the skeleton that struck Saireal, and destroys it! Hendricks fires his arrow shot but only does 1 damage. There is only one Skeleton that is left and it attacks Hendricks who takes 4 damage.

Xrith gets another attack on the final one and does 6 damage to the one remaining charred skeleton, which destroys it! There are now piles of black bones lying all around.

Combat ends and we take a moment to recover.

Jedor uses his Paladin Lay on Hands for Saireal who is now fully healed and Hendricks is also healed by Sapphira.

This time we head across the bridge and to the south where we find more cells. There are passages to the east that appear to be charred, something on the ground had been burned but this was not a recent event. The charring was traversed by all kinds of tracks. We decide to check the south door along the passage to the south. This was a place that others once part of this group explored long ago.

Inside of this room is a long table, set askew against the south east corner and we can see that, lying on the ground, are 2 lengths of chain. These are big heavy chains but they are not rusted even though they are iron chains. Both lengths are about 30'. This room also has an empty potion rack that once held up to 6 vials.

Hendricks tries to move one of the chains with his 10' pole, which he does without incident. He then he takes one of the lengths of chain which weighs 150 coins.

We inspect the table which has various residues left on it. There are a couple small remnants of a green dust, an emerald colored dust, and there are also traces of a black powder but these appear to be nothing major. It does not resemble the blasting powder some in this group found beneath the ruins of Mombafra.

Jedor notices that there is an unusual crack in the stone wall behind the door. The crack is unusual as it is a much wider gap than other cracks that run through the stone. Xrith'atiril depress the back right wall using his sword which reveals a dirt tunnel leading further beyond. It appears to be about 5' wide.

We continue down the tunnels for 10 minutes and see that all of the walls, ceiling and floor are entirely made of dirt. There is no stone or furniture in the passageway beyond and it continues for a good ways. We decide to follow it and traverse the narrow passage for about 10 minutes and then further for another 20 minutes.

The tunnel continues for about a half an hour until we come to an intersection. Hendricks takes some dirt and throws it at the intersection to see if the dust favors one passage or another. As the subtle air currents move we find that the dust favors the left passage so we continue going straight, away from the way that the air flows.

After another half an hour of travel through the tunnel we must…

Suddenly, the party hears a quick movement beyond the stretch of our Continual Light coins. There is movement on the dirt and a quick breathing sound starts, as if someone is hyper or excited about something. It hacks and coughs a bit.

Hendricks throws his Continual Light coin down the passage while Xrith stands with Sapphira to receive a charge. Likewise, Sapphira and Jedor prepare to receive a charge.

Hendricks's coin illuminates a humanoid figure that appears like an emaciated man wearing only a loincloth. It is hairless except for a black mane of hair that runs atop his head. Both of its arms end in stumps and there is a grotesque smile on its face. The humanoid creature screeches a bit from the light.

To attack it, we must hit AC 8. Suddenly the creature screeches out, “THEY STOLE MY CLAWS!”

Saireal and Kaiseal shoot their missile weapons at the thing. Saireal hits for for 1.5 damage (as a Monk) while Kaisiel hits for 9 damage, a remarkable pin cushion effect.

The emaciated creature attacks Xrith, who stands ready. It will hit him on a 13 and so it strikes with both of its stumps. However, this was not before Xrith and Sapphira can get their attacks off, and both hit, each doing 6 damage! The attack cuts off both of its arms and suddenly it poofs away.

The creature is gone and combat ends, for now.

This tunnel opens up to a larger area where we can see steps that go up. There is a regular looking door at the end of the steps. Xrith'atiril believes we are beneath the tower of Delbo, which he has heard about through rumor and story told amongst the patrons of “The Haunt Tavern” back in Gren.

After warning the group about what he has heard may exist within the tower, a demon that resembles a massive, disgusting vulture sometimes called a “Vrock”, we decide to head back the way we came…back to the prison complex.

We make it back to the room where we started down the tunnels, where the secret door lies. We exit that room and head east, further along the east passage. This way we come to find a regular door that once had a lock that is now completely missing, reduced to a gaping hole that goes about an inch inside. There is no lock lying on the ground so it appears to be missing.

Xrith has concern about this door but we should open it to find out what lies beyond. After all, this was where the sounds of the party seemed to lead..so we do, we push it open after some effort.

Inside of this we can see a door to the right (south west) in front of which is standing a quadrupedal creature with an orange color, feathery antennae and big bug eyes that resembles a huge armadillo. It has a big long tail that swings back and forth. There is also a peculiar glowing blue coming from either side of the hallway. It seems to emanate from a blue glowing crystal on the floor.

Saireal the Monk charges the creature, which appears to be a Rust Monster, Xrith tells everyone to get out and he runs back to the bridge with Sapphira. The Rust monster charges at us!

It initially tries to attack Xrith'atiril but he dodges both of the rust causing antennae. Meanwhile, Saireal attempts to grapple the creature but it evades her this round.

As Xrith flees he throws his shield into the area as a distraction to help out the Monk. This time, the Rust Monster attacks Hendricks and Kaiseal, who ran in to fight it but ended up missing this round.

The Rust Monster manages to hit both of them and Hendricks's shield is instantly destroyed along with Kaiseal's magical armor, the +2 Splint Mail is completely destroyed. The Rust Monster finds the shield that Xrith left and it rusts it down to consume it.

Saireal is try to pummel this round and she hits it with a pummeling blow! The first pummel is ineffective but the second pummel attack does 3 damage. Kaiseal manages to grapple the creature and he does 8 damage and also stuns it, doing 2 more damage. They both now get free attacks since it is currently stunned!

Seireal does 3 damage and 11 damage which also causes it to become stunned! Keisial simply snaps its neck, killing the creature. We may take its antenna to the door.

WE END THE SESSION FOR NOW!

We have been adventuring for 3 hours.