• DL 1 Class Quest for Josh's Cleric of Venha (LG) (Level 1). The temple of Venha says in the sea of Grass was a network of towers that were spread throughout the Sea of Grass. They were meant to ward away attackers. They functions similar to light houses, a lantern at the top most level. It is a few feet in size. They were maintained by a sect from the Temple of Venha. They were empowered by the unseacing meditations by a Cleric of the tower who was supported by the other Clerics. They would dedicate their life to this. It was a time when there was more fearsome control of these things. Similar to the Statue of Trawis. They have been mostly looted but a new one has been discovered by the Temple that is 7 miles south of a Hamlet known as Maelc. It is 30 miles west of Ornholm. It is away from the 6 cities region. They need Josh;s Cleric to go to this place and control it for the Temple. It is aways away. Due to Overland Travel, we can already be in Maelc with our new characters. We will have to go to the 6 cities ourselves if we go that way. His Class Quest would be paid for. We need to either get the Lantern or just explore it.

BRAND NEW LEVEL 1 CHARACTERS

• ANDY - Dexter - Gnome Illusionist 1, AC 8/10, Mv 12“, Doors 1-3, Noise 1-4, 16,16,12,16,16,15, hp 6, AL LG, Aneara
• MIKE - William Silverhide - Fighter 1, AC 2/3, med shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-2, Noise 1-2, 12,10,12,15,13,11, hp 3, AL NG, Riswa
• JIM - Desmond - Paladin 1, AC 3/3, MV 6“, Doors 1-2, Noise 1-2, 13,12,16,14,14,17, hp 3, Rook
• ERIK - EOMIAJE BEMYR'IOMYR - Ranger 1 / Thief 1
• HARLAN - KLORT REDBEARD THE MAGE - Magic-User
• JOSH - Mirella - Cleric 1, AC 3/3, large shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-3, Noise 1-2, 17,10,16,10,14,13, hp 5, Venha, AL LG

We will be starting somewhere between the two other parties.

A new map will be used today.

We find ourselves in the Hamlet of Maelc. 30 Miles west of Ornholm. 30% of the population is Mountain Dwarf. A hamlet of 150, 30 miles west of Ornholm. 35% of the population is Mountain Dwarven, hailing from the hold of Yaga-kel 20 miles north. The hamlet has a palisade, a House of Shrines with a 3rd level Cleric of Xo. There is a tavern. The temple of Venha has given Mirella a map to the location of the tower. The Tower is 7 miles away.

We are heading out on foot.

After a couple hours of travel we can see the top of the tower in the distance. It is 60' tall it rises 2 stories above the base level. It is above the tower base and the remains of a small keep, a 4 sided keep and one corner was the tower. There was a courtyard.

We are approaching from the south.

It is currently winter time so much of the trees are leafless and the tall grasses are absent. We are closer to the mountains on the north side.

From here, we can only see the flat terrain of the Sea of Grass.

As we approach, we can see the tower and there are arrow slits. There are also arrow slits on the second level. Instead of arrow slits are windows that have thick metal bars on them. The bars are separated, but a gnome of halfling could fit through. The eastern side of the third level is totally crumbled.

Eomiaje searches for tracks. He finds some! There were horses that passed through here, lighter horses. There were 13 of them. They were traveling from the north to the south, and they look a few days old.

We see a wooden door. The walls are thick. The Temple of Venha has not ever gone here.

Eomiaje nocks an arrow. We will go through the gap in the wall.

We can see a ruined chamber through the gap in the wall. It is exposed to the elements. There is another slight opening on the east side. There are a set of double doors inside We step over the ruins of the northern wall. The chamber is empty, there are plants and rubble, along with winter weeds poking through the flagstone. There is a door and a break in the wall. We can tell that this was built before the Severing, in the later years of that age. It is at least 500 years old.

We are surprised…as is the other side.

As we step through the room, everything is quiet initially, but then we pick up the sound of a voice nearby, it sounds like someone is in the vicinity of the structure. It is through the southern wall. It does sound like common.

On the floor there were recent boot prints in here after nothing had been in here for a season. Eomiaje can tell with his thieves tools, that its open and there is no lock.

William, Eomiaje and Desmond on Doors.

Due to the wear on the door, we will get a +1 to open. We bust open the door and reveal the courtyard to the south.

We see a sizable double door on the face of the tower. It wraps around the south. We see another door on a structure in the courtyard. We see another structure with a ruined wall, there is a bit of outer wall of the keep. There is a bit of ruined edge and a 20' area of no wall.

We see a very low/poor wall in the south. We are in the courtyard.

We see a little encampment with 7 horses and 7 humans, wearing ring mail and have arms. There is no fire but there was one recently. There are the bodies of 2 giant toads, one is butchered. The men are holding mugs and look to be somewhat intoxicated. They go for their weapons immediately. Their horses have saddle bags on them. They are well equipped for out of doors expedition.

This is all

• Eomiaje has 2 segments before hand. Triple rate of fire.
• Desmond stays where he is.
• Mirella moves to engage.
• William moves to engage.
• Klort stays out of melee.
• Dexter runs to a corner and hides.

One of them is in chainmail, Eomiaje wounds 2 and kills one guy in ring mail.

These guys are going for their weapons and are intoxicated. They fight at -1.

• Eomiaje attacks the chain mail guy.
• Desmond moves
• Mirella rallies.
• William takes out his spear.
• Klort stands next to the Gnome.

Eomiaje missed his first shot. The guys pull out their blades and charge toward our party. Eomiaje misses his 2nd shot.

They now have AC 5/6. The spear pierces one of the chargers and kills him. Chain guy gets to us in melee, He is AC 5/4. Desmond misses him.

Desmond has AC 3/3, chainmail wearer attacks him. He misses.

Mirella misses.

5 guys are attacking. 2 short swords against Mirella. They had +2 for their charge. Desmond is missed as is Mirella. One attack on William, he takes 5 damage. WILLIAM DROPS! he is at -2.

• Eomiaje tries a Move Silently to flank around Mirella.
• Desmond attacks.
• Mirella yells and attacks.
• William is down.
• Klort throws a dagger.
• Dexter moves into melee.

We lose initiative.

They need to make a Morale check. They fail! The men attempt to retreat to their horses. Desmond and Mirella get an attack at +4. AC 6/6 for ringmail wearers, chainmail is 4/4.

Mirella hits for 3 damage but the chainmail wearer does not die.

Klort misses with a dagger. They have leapt upon their horses as if to take off.

• Klort throws a dagger. NVM he does not.
• William loses 1 hp.
• Dexter stabilizes
• Eomiaje shoots the chainmail wearer.
• Desmond does nothing.
• Mirella charges.

Eomiaje hits for 1 damage.

The fleeing 6 men lead their horses through the wall and they will gallop away.

There are 2 Riding Horses. Eomiaje checks the bodies of the 2 men. The bodies have

• 29 gp
• 24 gp
• 2 short swords 8 gp
• 2 ring mail 30 gp
• 2 shields 15 gp

Two horses also have saddlebags, inside are some supplies for camping,

• 87 cp
• 90 sp
• 3 ep

Eomiaje listens at the double door. He hears nothing.

Desmond is down. We can leave him with the horses for now.

Eomiaje has a bow ready and we open the door.

Eomiaje, Desmond and Mirella are on doors. The door appears to be stuck. This double door has a worn seal on it that is recognizable to Mirella as a seal of Venha. It is severed when we open the door.

There are spiral stairs going up the center. This room looks somewhat empty. There are some cruedly fashioned arrows, typical of Goblins and some bone fragments. On the north wall is a metal box that is totally bashed in. It looks like a metal rectangular tube that is fashioned to the wall. There is a streak of blood that wraps up the stairs.

William departs.

Eomiaje checks the trail of blood, whatever was dragged away was wearing boots. They were pulled around the corner. We see another door on that side.

Only on the enemy. We are not surprised.

We find ourselves face to face with a Giant Toad. There is a corpse of a man only the bottom half and a bloody mess. The Toad is in the back of the room, huddled in the corner.

• Eomiaje shoots.
• Desmond stays on the front line.
• Mirella charges.
• Klort throws a dagger. After people engage. Holds the door.
• Dexter runs into the room.

Eomiaje hits for 5 damage.

Mirella misses her attack. The Giant Toad hits with its deadly bite. It hits on a 12. Mirella is hit for 5 damage, she DROPS! She has 0 hp.

Dexter moved into the room. The Toad unleashes a mighty croak!

• Klort stays by the door and says Retreat!
• Dexter moves up to grab Mirella.
• Eomiaje charges the Toad.
• Desmond charges.

The Toad is enraged and leaps forward toward Desmond. He has his sword out so he can retaliate. It will land and bite at the same time. Must hit AC 7. It is a medium creature.

Desmond misses and the Toad also misses as he fends it off.

Eomiaje misses.

Dexter had retrieved Mirella.

• Desmond keeps attacking.
• Mirella loses 1 hp.
• Klort holds the door.
• Dexter drags Mirella.
• Eomiaje attacks.

Desmond is attacked again, he fights it off!

Eomiaje hits it for 8 damage and it kills the Toad!

We see a trap door on the ground with a heavy iron ring. Eomiaje checks the body of the Toad victim.

It has ring mail and…

• 17 gp.

We try to open the south door and find ourselves in the courtyard. We can see the open area and some bedrolls. We will check the bedrolls using a thorough search after putting Mirella on a horse.

We find some bedrolls and camp gear. They were left by the Bandits. Dexter finds something small and hard that was sewn into one of the bedrolls. He cuts it out and finds a single gem!

• gem

Eomiaje puts up the heads on some spikes and Klort puts some blood X's on the door with the Toad blood. We put up the heads.

We head back to Maelc.

We stay for a week for people to recover after arriving.

Some spell changes are made.

On the 4th we arrive back at the tower. Eomiaje checks for tracks.

The weather has been clear and there is no snow. There are no new tracks coming or going.

Eomiaje scouts the perimeter trying to do it stealthily. There is a single arrow slit facing out as he goes around. The wall is weak on the south side. No new tracks.

It looks like there was once a big gate at the east wall but it is gone.

The outside door to the building is locked.

Eomiaje and Klort both listen, there is silence.

Eomiaje fails to pick the lock.

Eomiaje, Desmond and Mirella on doors, we get it after some struggle. No new signs of anything apparent. The stairs are made of stone.

Dexter can check unsafe ceilings, floors and walls. The stairs look solid. Eomiaje fails to find any traps. No traps so we start heading up.

There are some stairs going up. This room is wide open with some arrow slits in the wall. We can see the Sea of Grass with the first grasses and spring flowers are budding. Contrasting with that view, this room has several skeletons that are old. 3 Human, a Dwarf and 2 Elf Skeletons. The armor is old but the armor worn by the elves is a weird make that we have not seen before. There are weapons from a past age in here.

The spiral staircase continues up and a door on the south end of the stair. There are hooks on the walls next to the arrow slits that once held quivers.

Eomiaje takes a closer look at the weapons and armor on the skeletons.

As he studies them more closely, they must have been made hundreds of years ago. He recognizes the weapons by the Elves as swords that belonged to the Drow. None of the weapons and armor are in good shape. They have a lot of wear.

The humans, elves and dwarves may or may not have been working with each other.

We open the south door.

Inside the room are footlockers made of metal. They look like they are all intact. They all had at one point, arrow slits. They are mostly collapsed. One arrow slit is still intact. The wall is ruined to the point that it rises before 8' up, the whole floor on the level above is missing so we can see the sky above. The wall is coming up from the next level.

A skeletal arm is dangling off the next level. There are some scraps of plate armor on it. Its about 20' up. There are 9 footlockers, 5 are open.

Eomiaje searches for traps on the closed foot lockers. Klort wants to help. Dexter checks out the stonework. Mirella watches the door.

Dexter can tell that the floor above is not stable entirely but it is stable enough.

Eomiaje does not find any traps. He takes his longsword to try and open it.

He finds:

• 80 cp
• 200 sp

Third one does not open and neither does the 4th one.

Eomiaje is able to pick the second lock.

• 120 ep
• 40 gp
• 1 gem

There is also some clothes that are riddled with age.

We leave the other footlocker for now and will come back.

One turn of rest passes.

Klort lifts up the footlocker to check its weight. Its 500 coins of weight.

The empty foot locker weighs 100 coins.

We thoroughly search the room.

We are surprised.

Klort is being targeted. As we are searching, suddenly there is a shout and a single Fire Beetle comes into the room! It gets a free attack and will hit on a 6.

He is hit for 7 damage, dropping him to -3 hp! He is DROPPED!

• Dexter runs.
• Eomiaje charges.
• Mirella charges.
• Desmond charges.

The Beetle claws on top of Klort and snaps its mandibles.

Eomiaje is attacked, he is hit for 5 damage.

Dexter cannot open the door.

• Dexter tries to open the door
• The rest of us attack.

The Beetle continues its attack, this time on Desmond but it misses.

Mirella does 6 damage and Desmond does 5 damage. We Kill it!

The Fire Beetle came in from a corner.

Eomiaje collects 3 Fire Beetle glands.

• 3 Glands.

We drag the footlocker into the chamber and leave it there with Klort.

We go up the stairs.

No surprise.

The ceiling was exposed below so they heard everything. We see some more arrow slits on this third floor. Much of the floor is broken away.

On the roof is a huge ornate hook. The floor drops off to the level below, some of it is over the wall. We get to the final steps and see that the ceiling is covered in white webbing, but not from spiders but from caterpillars and centipedes.

There are 9 Giant Centipedes. The webbing stretches to the floor.

The skeleton arm is on the right side and part of him is dangling on the floor.

Only a few of us are exposed to the ceiling. Everyone except for Dexter can see the ceiling.

• Mirella retreats.
• Dexter says he will look after our fallen.
• Eomiaje retreats with Mirella.
• Desmond retreats.

The Centipedes seem agitated and start crawling around their webbing. The whole nest vibrates but not none come down from the webbing.

We are going to burn the webbing with a flaming arrow from outside. He hits and it instantly ignites the web. A growing column of black smoke rises from the tower into the sky.

After a minute the smoke disippates to a trail. Each of the 9 Centipedes will get a Death Save. We see a single Giant Centipede emerge out of the tower.

We are at the wall.

It is 20' from the ground.

• Eomiaje will attempt to shoot it.

We lose initiative. Eomiaje has a +2 to initiative.

The Centipede moves 2.25“ in 1 segment. It does not get to our party but it is enraged.

Eomiaje misses.

Desmond will get a swing before it gets to us. It has AC 10. He hits and kills it!

No more Centipedes come out of the tower.

We go back to the tower.

The skeleton has a scabbard and he was wearing rusted plate armor. It has a silver symbol of Venha on it but it is a sect Marella does not recognize.

We thoroughly search and find:

• Key 99

Desmond looks down for a broadsword from the body, but he sees a different key on the top of the 8' wall on the lower level.

Eomiaje is lowered to the wall.

• Key 31

—–

We head back down to try the key on the footlocker. Key 99 opens it. Inside the footlocker, opened by Desmond, is some old clothes.

• 333 ep
• 60 gp

Nothing else is found in the footlocker.

We head to the trap door and try to open it.

We are going into the room with the trap door. We push open the door and find a new occupant, there is a charnel smell from a figure wearing acolyte clothes.

• Mirella turns undead.
• Dexter draws his dagger.
• Eomiaje shoots.
• Desmond moves to engage.

Eomiaje misses with his arrow shots.

Mirella turns, and none are effected. Desmond is now engaged in 1 vs 1 combat.

The door is closed.

• Eomiaje tries to move silently behind it.
• Desmond attacks.
• Mirella charges shouting for Venha.
• Dexter casts light!

Light goes off! The entire room is illuminated.

Eomiaje is moving silently.

Desmond and Mirella can attack. THEY MISS TERRIBLY!

Mirella has AC 4, it misses!

• Eomiaje tries to backstab.
• Desmond attacks.
• Mirella attacks.
• Dexter tries to open the door.

Mirella hits for 8 damage.

Desmond is missed.

• We keep attacking it.

Eomiaje did 7 damage which kills it!

Klort is hanging out outside the door.

Eomiaje checks for traps.

Dexter lights up a torch. There is no big lock or bar on it and Eomiaje finds no traps. We lift up the door and see a staircase going down.

Klort is on a horse outside.

We descend down some stairs and see a door to the right, a wooden door. To the left is an alcove with another door and we see a third door 10' beyond. The stairs are littered with the bones of rodents. There is a big jackal bone, cleaned of meat. There is a bad smell of waste from a pile of solid waste, like cow dung. Slightly smeared across the floor. The whole area smells bad. The bottom of the right door is a small hole for a rat.

The dung is amphibian waste.

We climb back up the stairs. The trap door doesnt close automatically but we close it.

Mirella casts Detect Magic and we will race up and down the stairs. Our quick scan of the tower reveals nothing magical.

Cure Light Wounds is cast on Eomiaje for 5 hp.

We head back to the hamlet.

We will be joined by Grittr the Fighter, he has AC 1/4. large shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-3, listen 1-2, hp 7

We drop off Klort and head back.

The weather is clear today.

Grittr, Desmond and Eomiaje are on doors.

Dexter lights up a torch. 40' of light.

We descend back into the dungeon and find it as we left it. The party heads through the right door. RETCON! We used a key to open this door.

We push open the door to the room. The first thing we notice on the far side of the chamber is a big stone plinth, on top of which is a 3' tall ornate lantern. Intricately designed, it has a flared design. It has incredible care to be robust. Right at the feet of our group are 3 Giant Centipedes. There are some closed cabinets.

• Eomiaje takes a swing.
• Desmond attacks.
• Mirella attacks.
• Grittr attacks.
• Dexter holds open the door.

Eomiaje destroys one of the Centipedes with 11 damage. Klort does 3 damage, kills one!

Eomiaje is attacked. He fights it off!

Lost initiative this time, there is one left.

This one is attacking Grittr, he has AC 1, he is missed.

We kill it thoroughly!

Detect Magic is cast and there is a faint magic in each cabinet and a powerful magic on the lantern.

Eomiaje searches for traps on both cabinets and on the plinth. He finds two things of note, through auditory queues from tapping, the cabinet to the south it sounds like there is a hollow portion behind it in the wall. He could try to disable it but he judges that there is no trigger on the door itself. He would need to open the cabinet to access it.

On the plinth he finds on the back of it, facing the wall is an indentation of a shape which he does not know the meaning of, it is set in the stone about 1/2 inch like an abstract blob, but he notes that the indentation in the walls has stone balls set in it. One on every edge of the shape that could be pushed in that hold something. It would depress the balls and come back out.

Eomiaje tells Mirella. She thinks it could be a Venhian symbol but not in the shape of a sect she is aware of. It could be in the shape of a cult.

It has the same shape as the breast plate from upstairs.

We head out to go retrieve the silver plate from the body of the dead acolyte. We close the trap door behind us and push open the door to the staircase room.

We are surprised.

As we come through the door, there are two Giant Toads, related to the first in. They are 2“ away and have a surprise segment. They leap straight toward us.

One on Grittr and one on Eomiaje.

Grittr is hit and Eomiaje is hit. Grittr takes 3 damage, Eomiaje takes 4 damage.

• Eomiaje attacks.
• Mirella attacks.
• Grittr attacks.
• Desmond attacks.
• Dexter casts light.

We lose initiative.

Grittr and Desmond are attack. Grittr is missed and Desmond too.

Eomiaje and Grittr each do 5 damage.

Light spell goes off on one, it SAVES! The orb of light illuminates the chamber.

• Dexter holds open the door.
• All of us attack.

We lose initiative again. Morale check for one Toad. One of them disengages. The other attacks Grittr, AC 1. He is HIT for 7 damage, Grittr is KILLED!!

Desmond does 7 and Eomiaje does 4. It is heavily wounded. The other Toad is out of melee.

The disengaged Toad blasts out the front door, the other attacks Mirella. AC 3, she is hit! She takes 6 damage and is at -1.

We killed the TOAD LAST ROUND!

Mirella is down now.

Desmond lays on hands on Eomiaje and he will head up the stairs as we go.

He gets to the tower and recovers the plate. Desmond puts on the banded mail.

Eomiaje takes a torch and goes ahead by himself. He pushes open the door.

The plate fits perfectly to the depression of the lantern with a click. The insertion of the symbol might have affected the top of the plinth, like a pressure plate.

Eomiaje checks out the north cupboard and pulls open the door. Inside are 8 sets of old prayers beads

• 8 sets of prayer beads 10 gp each.
• 3 clay flasks
• 2 glass vials
• wooden holy symbol

Eomiaje opens the south cabinet.

• 4 glass vials on a stand
• 13 candles
• pile of clothing made of crude hemp.

Eomiaje checks the back wall and does not see anything connected to the stand.

Eomiaje does not see a way to get behind the cabinet. I tap on the back wall of the cabinet, the back is very thin and it wobbles. He uses a dagger to pull out something behind it. The whole wall is removed behind it.

There is a dugout hole with a metal mechanism with 3 tubes coming out of a perfume sprayer, but there are 3 metal tubes sticking out at me. Connected to some kind of solid glass container, built into the stone. There is a flint mechanism on the front.

The tubes smells like oil.

Eomiaje collects the stuff and grabs the lantern. He uses 50' of rope to get back to the Hamlet of

• 300 gp Gem
• 10 gp Gem
• 13 gp

The clay flasks have a thin liquid with a sharp smell to it.

Eomiaje takes 2 vials of “holy water”

We hang onto the 3 clay flasks

6th of October

29 gp 24 gp 2 short swords 2 ring mail 2 shields 87 cp 90 sp 3 ep

17 gp 1 gem

200 sp 80 cp 120 ep 40 gp 1 gem Footlocker (locked) 500 coins 3 Fire Beetle glands (13 gp)

Key 99 Key 31 333 ep 60 gp

8 sets of prayer beads (80 gp) 3 clay flasks (keeping) 2 glass vials (keeping) wooden holy symbol

4 glass vials on a stand (keeping) 13 candles pile of clothing made of crude hemp.