• Jacob - FTR8
• Josalyn - CLR7
• Kheskhor - MAG3
• Maervahr - MAG9, Stoneskin, Phantom Armor
• Koriss of Neblin Hold - ILL1 / THF1 / FTR1, Stoneskin, Phantom Armor
• Titus - FTR1, Psionic Clairvoyance
• Walker - RGR3, Rod of Alertness
• Skalf - Dwarf THF1, Stoneskin, Phantom Armor, AC 1/3 (6) medium shield, MV 12“, Doors 1-3, Listen 1-2, 16,10,11,16,16,7, hp 8, AL CN, Gold
• Thorgard - Dwarf FTR8
• Tatrin - CLR6 (level drained)
• Lok-Vurn - FTR4

We are in Mombafra.

People started training on 9-01-498. Titus is on 10-2 in Mombafra.

Maervahr will cast Stoneskin on the party.

A Trainer in Mombafra is Pwahuri and he desires an Obsidian Ring in the possession of Zalmutrex the Inescapable and sold it to Ogianus. We are to recover the ring which may have been found. Zalmutrex was a devout Cinean and would travel on the Sea of Candles. What became of him is unknown. His ship was discovered in a swampland west of Gefris, which is just north of Mipin, on the edge of the borderlands. There is a swamp in the area. The boat was discovered because it has attracted a large number of Lizard Men. A large group of them have gathered around and dont want to leave.

We are to go find the boat and retrieve the Obsidian Ring. He was a Cleric / Magic-User Human. A known diviner of legendary portent in his time.

The weather is clear.

We will head 7 hexes south east. Travel is over rolling hills and into the plains.

Travel out of the patrolled region is safe but something is coming up on the second half of the journey.

We see over 100 humanoids marching in a group from the north, north east and headed south. This is 6 hexes away. 1/4th of them are mounted.

The Hippogriff riders can see High Elves carrying banners. On approach, the entire force of Elves raise their bows, though they will lower them when Maervahr flies down and greets them in Elvish.

The Elves say they are traveling south for business that is not their own they come from a trying battle. They do not take kindly to Maervahr and we say farewell and they return it. Maervahr takes a -35 with Elves!

We wake up in the morning, no incidents during our camp. There is medium forest to the south east and a valley.

The party continues their journey and arrive in plains. There are some more plains and marsh repectively.

We end the day in the plains.

The weather is clear at night.

The night passes without incident.

We can leave our horses and hippogriffs in the plains. Actually, no we will take our horses into the swamp hex.

The group begins the long trek through the cruel swamp. Due to Hippogriffs in the air, we will get d2+1 hours of daylight back from our movement points.

About 3/4 to our goal, the Hippogriff riders must…

Maervahr's weasel does not provide a bonus to surprise.

About 2:00 we see a single structure that has maybe 10 room, overgrown and broken down. Standing by itself. We will scope out the location. It is 8 miles from Gefris, we have gone 3/4 of the way so far. Actually we are less than half a mile from where we need to be.

We approach as a group to the building.

12” is the encounter distance. We are not surprised but…something is.

As we approach the building, we see a single small manse that is 2 stories and overgrown. We spot little creatures around the house. There are small animals that are 4 legged, furry and look like a cat around the house. We can see some animals on the roof that are curled up like cats. We can tell that the Cats are lounging in the sun.

We have 2 segments of surprise. We see around 10 of them from the ground.

• Maervahr flies up to hold his position.
• Thorgard makes his way down to the ground party.
• Jacob lands by Walker and tells him to use the Rod.
• Josalyn will be ready to dive.
• Tatrin has his staff-sling ready.
• Lok-Burn forms up with the other members.
• Koriss is invisible and stays with the group.
• Skalf tries to hide in shadows.
• Walker uses Detect Evil on the Rod of Alertness.
• Titus prepares to see.

The creatures do not notice on the 1st round of surprise. We have 12“ for Detect Evil but Walker does not detect evil. On the second segment of surprise, Titus can see into the building which is illuminated by webs of light from broken walls. He sees a dust covered manse with modest furniture and open area. Cobwebs hang from the ceilings. Laying on the dry kitchen table is a large cat, like a maine coon, that is yellow-orange color. We can see a set of stairs going up and some closed doors.

Maervahr joins the party on the ground.

Rolling Initiative, we lost with a 6.

The cats on the roof and in the house leap up and charge toward us.

• Tatrin holds…then shoots.

There are 10 cats coming toward us. They will get to us within the round. We can see yowling from the air and the cats are joining the other cats. They have all been alerted.

They are attacking our front line, Lok-Vurn and Jacob, along with Thorgard. There are 10 of them.

No sweep attacks are applicable. They have AC 6 when charging.

Jacob does 14 damage. Thorgard did 9 damage while Lok-Vurn did 7 damage. None of the cats are slain!

Lok-Vurn has an AC 2, he is missed. Thorgard is attacked by 3 and will be hit on a 16, he is hit once which effects Stoneskin. There are 6 attacks against Jacob. No hits by the first 3 and the last 3.

The Fighters attack. Jacob hits for 13 that kills one. Thorgard hits for another 8 damage.

There are 16 left.

• Thorgard attacks.
• Lock-Vurn keeps attacking.
• Tatrin casts Prayer.
• Jacob attacks.
• Josalyn lands 10' behind.
• Kheskhor casts Sleep.
• Maervahr lands in the back of our group.
• Koriss tries to hide.
• Skalf tries to flank.
• Walker tells Titus to keep an eye behind us and fires into the ones charging.
• Titus braces for a charge.

First, those firing can take a shot. They are only 2” from the party. Thorgard did 13 damage, which kills another one. Sleep goes off but he is out of range of the chargers. He knocks out one of them.

Jacob does 9 damage, which kills another one. The cats attack and will target Skalf also. Thorgard is attacked by 3, no hits. One on Lok-Vurn misses. Skalf has 1/3 and is missed! The remaining group charges in toward the back group. They attack the guys in the second row. Titus had braced for a charge so he gets an attack. Titus hits for 5 damage but they keep focused on the charge to Tatrin.

Tatrin has AC 1. 2 hits, 1 is absorbed by Stoneskin and he takes 5 damage and must save versus magic. He fails, as it strikes him in the chest and there is a whomp noise and they DISAPPEAR! Skalf attacks and does 2 damage. Maervahr landed 10' behind the party.

• Josalyn goes into the air.
• Jacob attacks.
• Koriss stays hidden and starts climbing a tree.
• Maervahr takes off and goes psionically invisible.
• Skalf hides in shadows.
• Walker charges.
• Titus attacks.
• Thorgard attacks.
• Lok-Vurn attacks.
• Tatrin must roll a Hear Noise. He attacks it with his flail.

Tatrin feels a warping pulling sensation. There is a second where reality twists but he is in the same landscape and not where he was before. The same swamplands are around. He cant see more than 3“.

The cats have a neon lime pupil and the surrounding area is blue and brown.

We won initiative on a 2.

Jacob and Thorgard attack. Maervahr can sense that these are 4 HD. He is invisible to 11 of them.

Jacob does 13 damage as does Thorgard, they kill one. Titus does 7 damage. Walker does 8 damage. Tatrin did 4 damage to one of them on him in the other place.

They must make a morale check. They pass and will keep fighting on.

Lok-Vurn is struck which hits Stoneskin. There are two on Jacob which miss and 3 on Thorgard, there is one hit for 5 damage, Stoneskin!

Walker, Skalf and Titus are being targeted next. 3 attacks on Walker who has AC 2/2, one hit Stoneskin. 2 attacks on Skalf who has AC 1/3, there is one kit…Stoneskin. There is one attack on Titus that misses.

Second attacks, Jacob does 15 damage killing one, Thorgard does 8 damage.

The cat on Tatrin misses and passes the Morale check. They do not need to morale check. There are 6 cats in the second rank.

• Maervahr will fly and land on the roof of the building. The building is very blocky, there are big windows on the far side. Maervahr will be 30' in the air when he lands on the roof.

We lost initiative this time on a 2.

Josalyn quickly sees Tatrin 5” to the north and is attacking something on the ground. Josalyn flies out to meet him.

Tatrin is missed by the cat. In the north fight, Lok-Vurn is hit for 2 damage and fails his save versus magic. He feels an incredible pulling feeling and a sudden thrusting, then he is dazed. There are two on Skalf who has AC 1. He is missed. 4 attacks on Titus who takes 2 hits, Stoneskin and he takes 1 damage. He fails his save also then warps 2“ to the north east. Due to the brambles he has 50% concealment. Walker takes 2 damage and must save versus magic, who also fails. Skalf takes 4 damage and must save versus magic. He saves!

Walker is warped into the air 2” and will fall! He takes 4 damage. The cat takes no damage. Walker must save versus plate vs crushing blow, he needs a 2 and passes.

Jacob hits for 16 damage, killing another one. Josalyn dives and Titus hits for 7 damage. Josalyn hits for 7 and 6 damage, killing it. That kills two more. Lok-Vurn hit for 4 on his horse, and Titus did 7 damage.

• Maervahr casts Magic Missile.

Maervahr did 13 to 1 and 6 to another with his spell. All of the cats in the north party are dead. The magic missile kills 2 more.

The remaining cats are retreating back to the house. We get hits, Titus hits for 7 damage. Walker hits for 12 and Skalf does 9 damage.

Two of the cats got away…we pursue. The group starts running after the cats. Maervahr does 10 and 4 to the other. He blasts the cats.

We regroup and discuss what to do. Walker checks around the outside for tracks. He can tell that there are tracks of these creatures. Maervahr collects samples from the dead cats.

Jacob and Thorgard will open doors with Lok-Vurn. They are not able to pick the door because it was locked. The door is in bad condition so Skalf tries to pick the lock. Kheskhor casts Knock and the door opens.

We go inside.

For the opponent only.

We step inside a ruined manse and the banisters inside are covered in cobwebs. Some steps are broken through. We see a couple of arrows down the hall, showing weapons on the ground. We hear scampering about 2 rooms away from a sitting area to the right.

• Lok-Vurn braces for a charge.
• As does Thorgard and Tatrin.
• Jacob takes his henchmen forward.
• Maervahr goes into the group center with Koriss.
• Skalf creeps in the shadows.
• Walker keeps an eye in all directions.
• Titus will brace for a charge.

The noise we heard was in the sitting area and in an unknown room.

The creature continues to make noise, theres some crashing and then everything goes quiet.

Jacob can see a study in disrepair, there is a broken shutter showing that it ran away.

We regroup. All of us with continual light use our light. The groups look around and only turn up a few copper and a few silver. Theres a couple of corners that seem to have been made into little nests. There are signs of cat creatures living here.

Walker goes up the stairs, avoiding the center of the steps which are broken. We all go upstairs and find signs of a Goblin camp. Three of the rooms have arrows in them with bright red feathers. Swamp Goblins die their tracer arrows red so they can find prey in the swamp. It looks like it was last occupied about a year ago.

They find inside of the bedroom, only a few feet from a smashed oil painting is a rectangular hole with a locked safe. It is covered in scratched weapon damage. It has been chewed upon. The safe is upstairs and facing an inner wall.

Some of us went outside to gather wood to blockade doors and windows. Skalf inspects the safe but finds not moving parts. There is some gas residue that was cleaned up poorly. Walker will not leave Skalf alone with the safe then calls for a Cleric. Tatrin goes up and casts Find Traps, detecting a mechanical trap in the safe.

Skalf tries to disarm the trap but fails, Koriss also fails in his attempt.

In the evening, the weather is clear. We boarded up all the windows and doors and bring in all the mounts.

We set up camp inside. The night passes without incident.

The weather is clear this morning. We all leave the building and Kheskhor will cast Knock again.

The spell of Knock is cast, nothing comes out of the safe at first but a huge billowing cloud of brown dust as though someone spilled a bag of chalk everywhere. It does not spread out more than 10' from the safe. When the dust settles, there are:

• 4300 ep
• Black velvet pouch with golden thread or Brown pouch with a lot of gems. (17 gems)
• 2 crystal vials with cork stoppers. They are Philters with weak magic.

The cloud particles are all on the floor now. Thorgard goes in to grab everything. Maervahr lends him the Necklace of Adaptation to Thorgard, we retrieve the objects. The Rod of Alertness is used to detect magic.

We will leave our horses at the house and head to the location. They are being watched by the Hippogriffs.

Maervahr casts Deeppockets on himself and puts all of his items into extradimensional pockets. Koriss and Maervahr both have Stoneskin and Phantom Armor.

We continue on foot when we get a quarter mile away and detect a sound on the air. There is a steady and continuous, soft howling noise, like a wind rushing through a canyon. Tearing through a house with a windstorm.

Jacob believes this is a Windwalker…

The sound seems steady. We go around it if we can. As we get toward the location, it sounds like its coming from the place we need to go.

We are not surprised but something is surprised.

This is a wilderness encounter and we approach the place from an advantageous position. We can see the enemies. We see the ship which is made of wood. It is sticking out of water at an angle, like it was beached and tilted up at a 20 degree angle. There are two big water wheels on the back, on its side. Its quite big and taller than the base hull of the boat, which looks to be two decks. Besides the body of the boat, it has a raised section that we can see there are stairs on the front of the boat that go to an elevated area. Higher than that are two other sections. The boat is wooden but we can see, reflections under the wood that there is metal plating. The wood has held on pretty good. The boat is sticking out of the water so that part of the wheel is submerged in the water. Its actually about 25 degrees at an angle.

There is a brass figurehead of a woman with her arms extended in supplication. Through the distance, we can see a bright 4 point radiant sparkle from her left eye. Something is reflecting brilliantly. Its almost like the back has a tower on it and the boat is surrounded by cattails. Around the boat is an encampment of Lizardmen, robust and muscular with teal and brown skin, all bearing weapons, swords and shields. They have made an encampment of animal furs. They are positioned around the statue and we can see that there is a lizardman structure on the walking area of the boat. Looks like maybe an altar or shrine that has been affixed to the boat's walking area. This whole time there is a steady howling noise coming from the boat.

These definitely look like Lizardmen, 7' tall. We see 36 of them and there is a witch doctor or shaman. As we gaze upon them, we see noone on the boat right now. They move around the camp.

They are 12“ away. Just far enough for a Confusion spell.

We go back to get the Hippogriffs during our surprise segment.

Maervahr casts Fly and Josalyn casts Protection from Evil 10' radius.

Maervahr will cast Confusion at the boat from 12” (120 yards). The Hippogriff riders will detach from us and divebomb the witch doctor.

They are surprised!

The Hippogriff Riders are 9“ away. The Lizardmen do not notice the Hippogriffs. The Shaman is between the altar and the supplication. He points at the skies.

On segment 2 it will resolve. Because of the incredible dive bomb speed, they will be able to target the shaman specifically, the Lizardmen are 20' below them. Jacob must hit AC 5. Jacob autohits the Shaman. He does 13 damage, Josalyn hits for 12 damage total. Thorgard did another 12 damage.

The Shaman is hit 3 times and is SLAIN!

The rest of us charge forward. The Hippogriff riders are in complete silence. Titus has his longbow out and fires triple rate of fire.

Everyone is charging so they say. Titus hits for two hits for 4 and 6 damage. We are 9” away and on horses. On the second round he does 2 and 3 damage total. 4 arrows hit. They need to hit AC 5. Walker hits for 9 damage, Skalf hits for 9 damage. Walker kills one.

They must do a Morale check on round 1. Jacob and Josalyn land and unstrap from their Hippogriffs.

Despite the absolute destruction they have faced, they are emboldened and fall back while trading blows. They are trying to fallback into the swampland.

The Lizardmen try to fall back. Walker killed his so only 2 are left fighting as the others start to flee. Lok-Vurn is hit for 2 damage but Skalf is missed. Lok-Vurn is missed.

Blows are dealt. Confusion goes off and 9 of them are confused.

• Jacob looks at the boat to climb up. There are two ropes on the side.
• Josalyn casts Find Traps.
• Khekhor is 2“ behind Jacob.
• Maervahr flies up and goes after the Lizardmen.
• Walker attacks.
• Titus moves to engage.
• Thorgard lets them disengage.

Find Traps is 6 segments. Walker attacks and hits for 11 damage. Walkers horse hits once for 3 damage, which kills the Lizardman.

The remaining Lizardmen are retreating into the swamp together. The 9 Lizardmen that are confused, 3 of them save. One stands confused, one attacks a lizardman, one wanders away. One charges Lok-Vurn who has not used his attack yet. He misses and Lok-Vurn misses.

We move to a narrative. Lok-Vurn misses and Titus misses, so do Skalf. Walker hits for 9. The Lizardman attacks Titus and misses. Thorgard cuts the last one down and the others have fled!

We are victorious!

The hull of the boat is two stories and gets thinner at the bottom deck. We see some windows or portholes that are 2' at the biggest. If they once had glass, they no longer do. Josalyn and Jacob find the Lizardman shrine to a dead god that was killed by the current gods.

Even though the wood panneling is robust, the structure is good. The wood is rotted. It would not befit a 9th level Magic-User…

Josalyn does not detect traps but see the Shaman has a decayed left side, that looks like a decayed pumpkin. It is entirely sunken into his skull. The figurehead is a woman and the brilliance is a large, beautiful yellow gem shining from the left eye. The right eye is missing a gem.

The boat is 120' long and 40' wide, a large galley. Titus is checking the dead Lizardmen for gold and treasure. Walker uses detect magic on the shaman while Koriss's looting the Shaman. Skalf will try to pry out the large gem.

Jacob looks for hatches going to the ship. There is a door built into the wall and there is a set of stairs going to the upper level. There is a sign that is extremely faded. It says “Staff Only” in Common.

The top level is 100' long. On the second level are some of those windows (portholes).

• 185 ep
• Key id 77 (from the Shaman, a sizable key)
• Enormous yellow twin gem that matches the one on the brass figure head (on the Shaman).

Walker uses the rod to detect magic. There is Strong magic on the brass figurehead. Nothing else is magic. Skalf was trying to pry the gem but he stops, we will come back to it.

We are standing in front of the door with the “Staff Only” sign and they are opening the door. It is locked.

• Bronze rod with wood tip and feathers.

In the north door, we see another door on the left after 15'. Walker tries to Detect Evil and there is no evil. Koriss picks the lock.

We find a 30' x 20' room that had entirely mirrored walls and ceilings. Now there is shattered metal that covers the floor. It looks very radiant with broken glass. There is an arm that looks like some white material, the hand on the end is disjointed.

There are two turns left on Protection from Evil. Tatrin casts Find Traps. We open the door to the west and find a room with a big heavy winch and chain that is attached to an outline on the ground. It looks like its supporting it like a lift or elevator. The stairs go upward, like a staff staircase. This room is very plain with two other full size wooden doors. The Thieves are unable to pick the locked door.

When we get close to the west door, Tatrin can detect a Trap just beyond the door. We cannot disable it easily but Skalf finds at the top of the door, he catches a tiny glimmer from a slight light. It looks like there is a couple of shiny metal things, like wire. The wire is knotted at the end, crudely, to just stick there.

Koriss realizes that the wires are attached to weights that would fall. He determines that they are supported in another place. It has a medium amount of weight, he secured it to the door frame…TRAP IS DISABLED!

We failed to open the door…but then get it and come into a small room.

We instantly realize what would happen here, there was a trap here with a wire attached to a ceiling net that is holding a bunch of rocks and glass. There are also old pieces of metal, arrows and traps. It would have all come down. The west door would also trigger the trap. The tops of the two trapped doors are severely cut and damaged from an axe or saw, pretty recent. There is a window outside.