Lord Thompson's court has contacted our court through the guild hall. A sulphur colored smoke came out of a basin near the Forgotten Master's Tower. There is a small lake in the elevated part of the valley, like a raised basin. One stream leads to the north from the lake. The basin is where the smog has risen, in the Temple of Mote checked the geological records and found that the basin is off limits due to religious exemption from the Temple of Sleal. They had believe it could be a dangerous situation and knows that there could be weird activity due to the return of the Forgotten Master. The Temple of Mote will pay for Phineas's training or we can split the reward. We can figure out whats going on and elimanate the threat.

• Morganna
• Fulmok
• Anthrys
• Yohan
• Eomiaje
• Ragnar

We are heading north to Starling from Mombafra.

Morganna casts Invisibility on herself. The weather is clear when we head out. Travel is uneventful. In the evening the weather is clear and in the morning, it is still clear.

We have arrived in Starling and met with Fulmok here. We are headed due north up toward the Forgotten Master's Tower and we bypass the tower, where 150 troops and officers are still stationed. As we travel past that part we come to the place where the streams runs into the basin.

This is the place where we were seeking. We have the stream running off the lake, which is about a mile south of the lake. It comes down into a basin that run off into small pools and ponds. It is a thin stream. The elevation lowers about 100' into the basin. The stream heads to one of 3 caves in the south of the basin. There is a stream running in and we see a large cave to the south east and a small one in the middle.

The streams all collect into small independent pools. One stream is 5' wide and goes into the smaller central cavern. There is an almost imperceptible smog of yellow lazily rising into the air in a waving smoky stream. We can see some things in the basin. We are looking down into the basin from the south.

We see 5 Humanoid Shapes that are standing near the central cave, but look like pinkish shadows and have a slight aura. We can see them standing there, freestanding and meandering around. We are about 100' up from the figures.

Besides the stream of yellow smog is some dust that is continuously kicked up and swirling around by the cave mouth. The figures look like they are made of pinkish energy. They look corporeal and like pinkish shadows, walking around like humans. It is not currently noon.

We do see that they were moving around and they do seem to stop and look up at us. Whirlrender says if we believe they are enemies, we should fight them right away.

They return to meandering around the stream and fall back closer to the cave mouth.

Eomiaje says “Lo there, we come in peace.” The creatures look up at us and raises its hand in respond and lowers it. Eomiaje asks if they speak common and they do not respond. They do not make any noise at all.

The Rangers notice some creatures in the basin that are moving stealthily. We sense that there are a large group of Humanoids. At a distance of 20“ and are trying to move amongst the terrain, attempting to get behind us. They look like tall men with armor and weaponry. There are 26 of them.

• Morganna casts Fly and goes 6” up.
• Fulmok stays hidden.
• Yohan moves to the front of the party.
• Klort watches.
• Ragnar watches.
• Eomiaje watches and looks to see if they are brigands.

The force of 26 strange their strategy and advance toward us at a rapid march.

Fly is 3 segments. She has moved 1.2“ above our party. The 26 humanoids are Hobgoblins wielding spears and shields and they march straight toward us.

They are at 11” now. Actually at 9“ NVM 11.

• Fulmok tries to flank them and use Move Silently.
• Anthrys slings a bullet.
• Yohan braces for a charge.
• Klort stays alert.
• Ragnar nocks an arrow.
• Eomiaje fires his bow.
• Morganna moves above them.

They charge us from 11” They are 5“ away now. Morganna is now 6” up (7.2“)

Eomiaje hit for 1 damage. Ragnar hit for 3 damage. The Hobgoblins continue their charge. Everyone is on their mounts except Morganna.

Klort's horse panics as he rolls a 2 on a d10. The Riding Horse bolts away.

26 Hobgoblins attacked 6 characters.

Eomiaje is hit twice on a charge and takes 2 and 3 damage (armor absorbs 2).

5 attacks on Anthrys who has AC 10/10. Anthrys is hit for 4 damage, she is at -1 hitpoints. Anthrys DROPS!

Yohan has AC 1, with one hit dealing 1 damage. One attack without his shield is a miss.

Klort has 3 attacks on him, AC 9/10, 3 of them hit. He takes 13 damage and is at -3 hitpoints. KLORT IS DROPPED!

6 attacks on Ragnar AC 7/7 he has no shield, AC 9, He takes 5 damage.

There are 4 attacks on Eomiaje that all missed.

4 rear attacks on Yohan. All missed.

Fulmok is trying to sneak around the side.

Yohan attacks and does 16 damage! Whirlrender kills one!

• Yohan attacks.
• Ragnar dismounts and attacks.
• Eomiaje attacks.
• Morganna casts Sleep.
• Fulmok moves to engage Move Silently.
• Anthrys and Klort still bleeds out.

Tied initiative.

Eomiaje misses but Yohan does 15 damage, killing another Hobgoblin!

Eomiaje has AC -6 against spears. No hits on him!

Yohan has AC 1, he is hit on a 17, No hits. One hit from the rear for 1 damage.

Ragnar is missed but then one hit on the side and the rear for 9 total damage. He has 3 hp.

Morganna manages to cause 4 of them to Sleep.

Anthrys and Klort lose 1 hitpoint. Eomiaje's warhorse does 4 damage.

The fight continues into the 3rd round but they are not speaking Hobgoblin language. We do not know the language nor have we heard it before.

• Morganna casts Magic Missile.
• Fulmok attacks.
• Anthrys is down.
• Yohan attacks.
• Ragnar attacks.
• Eomiaje attacks.

Fulmok is hidden by move silently so gets a surprise attack. No surprise but Fulmok does get a backstab. Fulmok attacks with a Shortsword.

6 attacks on Eomiaje, no hits. 6 attacks on Yohan, 3 hits for 11 total damage. 6 attacks on Ragnar, 2 hits, he takes 4 damage and is now at -1 hp.

10 damage from Fulmok, kills one, Eomiaje kills one too. 15 damage from Yohan killing one. Our horses kill 2 more.

There are 15 Hobgoblins left, 4 are sleeping.

Magic Missile does 3, 2 and 2 damage. Klort and Anthrys lose a hitpoint.

• Yohan attacks.
• Eomiaje attacks.
• Fulmok Moves Silently.

Morale check on the Hobgoblins. They continue fighting.

Fulmok is moving silently. He gets another backstab.

Eomiaje has 6 attacks. No hits. Yohan takes 2 hits for 5 damage.

Eomiaje does 5 damage and his horse does 5 damage.

We kill 4 more Hobgoblins!

• Morganna throws a dart
• Yohan attacks
• Eomiaje attacks.

Yohan did 14 damage, Fulmok kills one too. 3 more dead.

Morganna throws a dart and misses.

All the remaining Hobgoblins throw down their weapons and surrender.

We tie them up.

We bind the wounds of our companions.

Fulmok speaks to one in Lawful Evil. The Hobgoblin responds to Fulmok in Lawful Evil.

“Where are you coming from and who sent you here?”

“Nobody sent them and they came from across the Vale. We have no tribe we bear the bodies of those who did. Appearances are deceiving.” He smirks and Fulmok slits his throat.

Fulmok goes to grab another one and asks “Where is your camp, women and children?”

The pinkish shadow creatures are gone now. Morganna saw that they moved away off in the direction the Hobgoblins came from.

Fulmok makes no progress with the Hobgoblin who says they have no tribe and they came through from a weak point in the vale. Hobgoblins are good miners and may be drawn here for that.

We can take the Hobgoblins back to Starling to sell. They have spears, shields and scale mail.

• 132 gp
• 347 cp
• 11 Hobgoblin captives
• 26 Scale Mail
• 26 Medium Shields

When we get into Starling. One of the prisoners calls Fulmok over and tries to speak with him. He says if we set them free and make a vow to travel south, they will provide us with intelligence we will find valuable. They will tell us by what means we were brought to this place.

Yohan believes they look real. Fulmok punches the Hobgoblin and it seems to enjoy the pain.

He tells Fulmok that they are not Hobgoblins but beings from another plane. If you betray our arrangement we will feel the wrath of the outer planes. Their arrival was permitted by a deity through a powerful ritual in the area of the Basin. This caused a weakening of the link from the Astral plane. They slaughtered some Hobgoblins and took over their bodies. Seeking to break the entrance to the facility, they had to fight some Ice Trolls under the control of someone unseen. There was a barrier / ward that they tried to break but they could not. They are merely travelers.

The Hobgoblin scoffs and says that they were killed by psionic damage. Once inside a body they are bound to its capabilities. They say that their dead companions are probably around us now.

We decide to comply with the deal and they give us the information and take off toward the south. They are going to the hills around Starling.

Morganna tells them about the Tribe of the Shattered Fang.

We arrive back in Starling.

Thorgard and Tatrin are on Rose Moon the 28th, 498.

Maervahr drinks potion id 199 which is presumbably a Potion of Clairvoyance. He will drink the potion and can only hear in the area. Its a potion of Clairaudience. It is populated with a lot of people and he can hear the clip clop of horses. Someone does mention the prisoners.

Timbraun gets XP for the potion of Clairaudience. 250 xp.

Xrith will lend the Rod of Rulership to Lygan to use while Maervahr will join the expedition to the Bandit Camp.

Maervahr casts Stoneskin on people in the group. Koriss of Neblin Hold casts Phantom Armor is Timbraun. Phantom Armor.

• Maervahr
• Omaz, Dwarf Fighter 1, AC 1/2, Large Shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-2, Hear Noise 1-2, 14,10,12,13,16,10, hp 9, AL LG, Rook
• Koriss of Neblin Hold, AC 2/8, MV 12“
• Pithor of the Sand
• Jacob
• Thorgard
• Timbraun
• Litlee
• Josalyn
• Briiz
• Keskhor
• Utto

Jacob flies to Qarn to look for Men at Arms, Timbraun goes to Mombafra, Thorgard goes to Starling.

In Starling,

• Heavy Footmen 3x not hired.

In Mombafra,

• Captain, level 6.
• 14 Crossbowmen, 2 Sergeants and a Lieutenant (level 2).

• 82 gp per character, 41 per henchman

henchmen get 104 xp players get 209 xp

• Eomiaje
• Yohan
• Morganna
• Omaz
• Kutz - Human Fighter 1, AC 3/3 large shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-2, Hear Noise 1-2, 14,14,11,11,18,14, hp 9, AL LG, Tralf

Kutz and Omaz activate on 4/28/498.

We head out from Starling backed to the southern end of the Basin. This time the basin is empty.

We enter the large cave mouth. Morganna has Continual Light. It is a large 40' diameter room but it appears to be empty. The place is totally empty but we check for tracks. We find the tracks of a bear and 2 cubs a couple days ago and moved around then left.

We leave and head to the middle cave. It is a 20' wide opening, a stream comes in from the eastern side. It takes up 5' of the opening before going inside further. The whole cave mouth is perfectly covered in this swirling minor dust storm.

The whole cave mouth is blocked by this. There is yellow gas or smog that enters the storm through the cave mouth and then gets ejected out. We can see through the dust storm after throwing a large rock which goes through and lands on a wall. There are some stairs going downward.

We will check out the south west cave which is the same size opening.

We enter the cave and our light illuminates a wide thin overhang with grass and moss grown into the wall of the cave. After looking around for a moment we catch movement at the edge of our light as something furry scampers off.

• Yohan sets a front line.
• Kutz forms up
• Omaz forms up.
• Eomiaje forms up.
• Morganna stays back.

Nothing comes out of the darkness.

• Omaz waits.
• Eomiaje waits
• Everyone does the same.

There is a roaring sound in the darkness in the direction that it ran off to. Just outside of our visibility.

We all slowly back away and discuss leaving it alone. Morganna casts Fly as we head back to the central cave.

We approach the dust storm and begin pushing through. The wind snaps into violence and we take 3 damage (or 1 damage for Eomiaje).

We toss the Hobgoblins body through the dust cloud and its rendered into a pile of bones as the dust removes all the flesh.

We return to the other cave with the bear and head inside.

• Omaz tries to scare the bear.
• Eomiaje braces for a charge.
• Morganna waits.
• Yohan braces for a charge.
• Kutz bangs his sword on his shield.

Tied initiative. The bear cub runs off into the darkness then a 12' long CAVE BEAR charges into us.

Yohan did 7 damage, Eomiaje did 14 damage. It attempts to maul one of us.

Eomiaje is attacked. All attacks misses and lands on the ground behind Eomiaje. Omaz misses.

Morganna is illuminating the chamber with her continual light.

• Morganna casts Magic Missile
• The rest of us attack.

Eomiaje does 14 damage, 11 damage from Magic Missile, 10 damage from Yohan and 2 damage from Omaz.

The Cave Bear dies!

The baby cub runs off somewhere and we explore the cave with the pool of stagnant water. In front of the pool we see the skeleton of a humanoid with a deep green cloak with a staff and a backpack. There are the remnants of leather armor. There is a scimitar at its size.

The cave terminates at the end and there are two cave bear cubs staring at us curiously.

Morganna detects strong magic on the staff and weak magic on the backpack.

Eomiaje talks to the bear cubs and they are scared of him and ask where its mother is. I tell them that your mother is gone and they will need to survive on their own.

We head out with some loot.

• Staff strong magic
• Potion
• 26 PP

Back at the Forgotten Masters Tower. Morganna casts Identify.

Staff is a +1, Special Powers when grasped by a Druid to project objects as missiles.

We make it back to Starling and sell it for 2000 gp. Omaz takes a sip of the potion and grows to 5' tall. Potion of Growth (id 214)

We will sell the staff for 10000 gp.

5 pp each and 2000 gp each.

2025 xp for gp.

XP total is 2171 xp each. 2176 xp for Kutz.

Eomiaje is at level 2 Ranger! He pays 1500 gp for training.

Yohan is level 4 Ranger.

We will be ready to adventure on the 9th. We will pick up on 5/9/498.