• 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 set out exactly where we left off, looking into a door into a closet. It was a locked door.

There are some stairs sharply going up. Koriss fails to pick the lock. Jacob tries Key ID 77.

Koriss tries to listen but hears nothing then Jacob and Thorgard attempt to open the door with force. SLAM! SLAM! Two failed attempts so far.

We decide to head up the sharp stairs to an open space / hall.

It is 10' x 10' area with a door. There are no traps and then Find Traps expires (Tatrin). Josalyn will cast Find Traps.

A brief recap, all of our animals are outside including the Hippogriffs, which are on the deck.

We open the door. Lok-Vurn has a 1-3 on doors, Jacob and Thorgard are also on doors.

We are standing in a hall that goes south 20' then to another door that turns to the east. The door we just came through has a sign that says “Staff Only”. The area we were coming out of was a Staff Only area. At the end of the hall we see another door and a curved wall.

The door is unadorned and wooden, as is the door to the south.

We go through the south door and come outside and get our bearrings because of a window. We see a hall with a wooden door and a sunlit room that opens up. Under some of the windows is a bookshelf with 15 books on it.

Detect Magic is cast from the Rod on the Books. No magic is detected.

Maervahr checks out some of the book titles. Maervahr drops a foot to the ground and lands on his boots. There are bookshelves and a spiral staircase going up. Some books are water damaged, but most books are in good shape, some on plant cultivation.

“Chaos Beasts of Quoouq”

There is no magic or alignment detected on the books. Koriss speaks to Cataclyzer but there is no response. We do not turn up much but Koriss detects a guidance from the sword and pulls him toward the North West. There is a feeling of relief as the sword spent an abnormal amount of energy and pulls no more.

Thorgard finds a section of baseboard that pulls out. The wooden baseboard goes in slightly, about 1/2 inch and the wall splits open, revealing a dark room beyond. The light spills in and we see a statue glimmering in the south west corner. We cannot make out who the statue is. There is a bed, a stool and a lot of dust. There is a door to the north west.

Walker detects magic into the room. The statue is magic. We can only see radiation. No evil detect in the room and no illusion. But, Walker can detect a powerful Chaotic Good alignment from the statue. We can only see slightly into the room. Walker steps in and looks at the statue.

It is a statue of Cine wearing a wreathe and several good creatures surround her. It is a natural, earthly shrine. There are two gems laid next to two round coins of a strange alloy. There is some kind of other metal in the coins, they seem to be embedded with Mithril. Walker goes to take the gems but Jacob stops him.

Thorgard puts on the holy symbol of Cine. Maervahr and Walker can see a panel on the back door, Maervahr looks beyond the panel and sees an empty quiet hallway that has some light from a window. We begin searching the room.

Thorgard says we are friends of Fandilas, the blade of Cine. Thorgard feels an internal well being and he feels as though he has been blessed by Cine. Nothing answers when Thorgard asked if we can take anything.

Maervahr was the only one able to see out the panel. Koriss tries to use Cataclyzer again but he does not feel anything. There was a table and a bed, a stool and a chair, a nightstand, we searched everything and did not find anything. The bed was tucked in nicely, as though by a butler.

Thorgard reaches down to grab the gems and the coins and he tells Cine that we cleared Taughanock falls in your honor. He takes them and nothing happens.

We open the door with the peephole.

We find an illuminated hallway that ends in a wooden door.

Thorgard knows that the coins are a dupond from Idyllshire, from the northwest, along the west coast. They have a few higher denominations of coins.

The wall sounds solid through the hall and Cataclyzer does not detect anything.

We go back the way we came, through the secret door and head outside, onto the deck into the sunlight. There is an elevated area back here. The upper level has a wheel, a captatin's wheel. The wheel is connected to a backboard that goes down into the ship.

Thorgard looks over the deck to check on the horses. Nothing is there, the Horses seem fine.

We head back inside to check the middle door, behind the elevated wheel area. We open the door…

We are not surprised. When Thorgard, Jacob and Josalyn slam the door directly onto the other side. There is a waving buzzing sound like a sheet of metal, we looks beyond the door and see a 6 legged Creature. They are spider like legs made of metal and are bent to keep it low to the ground. They are not fully extended. The torso is 4' above the ground, like the Seattle Space Needle. There is a metal bar coming from a circular chest that has a spyglass for the creatures head.

It staggers back on its legs into a Captain's Den. The creature has a captain's hat with an anchor on it.

• Jacob puts his sword on defense and says hello
• Thorgard is on parry.
• Lok-Vurn parries.

In the back we can see this.

• Maervahr goes invisible.
• Koriss does nothing.
• Walker has his bow out.
• Titus will parry.
• Kheskhor stays back
• Tatrin stays back.

We lost initiative (6).

The creature is recovering and dazed, does not do anything on the first segment. Jacob gets a -15 to his Reaction. It scuttles backward to a long table, with a coffer and maps on the corner, the construct buzzes in apprehension and straightens up 3' higher.

“I am the captain of this vessel, who are you?”

We are adventurers sent to retrieve an obsidian ring. The creature stays firm and tense. It is his duty to guard the ship, he must go down with the ship.

You seek the ring of Zalmutrex? Do not seek to harm it?

We talk about repairing it. The captain of this vessel proposes an arrangement. He knows where the ring is but the vessel has been boarded by pirates! He will bestow the ring upon us if we rid the ship of the pirates. The Lizard are no concern to the danger of the ship. There are hook pirates in the basement, fire pirates in the brig. Other pirates and the captain has not embarked in 498 years and 6 days. The captain adjusts its hat.

“Throw em in the brig!” he says involuntarily. Take the south door, he will provide us with a key. He must get collateral because the bearer has been dead for 498 years.

We get the Anchor Key.

The captain scuttles over to the north and picks up a golden eyepatch, covering the opening of his telescope. The captain informs us we can take a life and it has not received maintenance in…

We head down to the room with the elevator and try to unlock the door, it opens with the key. Jacob and Thorgard open a long cramped closet. The first shelves are 10' up. There are other shelves too. It is 25' long, there is stuff on all the shelves and floor. Chains, Ropes, Hooks, large piles of canvass, sacks, tools, etc.

Detect Magic is used, nothing glows.

9 Humans can fit on the lift, which only goes down. It is paneled in wood and there is some steel that has not rusted through. Walker wants to go down but Josalyn, Jacob and Thorgard will go down the lift. We tie off ropes and hold them. Josalyn will cast Find Traps before they go down.

They activate the pulley system and it begins to lower steadily, maybe a bit too fast and hits the bottom of the ground. They find themselves inside of a cramped hallway space. They went down 15'. The elevator can be just stepped off from and there are a couple doors, two wooden doors, and a hallway. We tie off 50' of rope for each character.

The rest of the party climbs down the ropes.

There is another door at the end of the hall. Walker does Detect Magic through the door.

There is some magic detected and some evil through the doors. The evil is through the north door. Koriss and Walker listen at the door.

We go through the north door, and are immediately hit by a horrid smell. It is covered by 84 Giant Rats!

• Thorgard attacks
• Josalyn will turn undead
• Maervahr casts Magic Missile.
• Walker engages
• Titus parries
• Koriss hides
• Skalf pulls out an oil flask

We lose initiative (6).

Thorgard has AC -3, Not hits on Thorgard. Jacob has an AC -5, all misses. Lok-Vurn is being attacked, AC 2, No hits! They hold off all of the Giant Rats.

Fighters get their sweep attacks, they have AC 7. Jacob kills 8 Giant Rats. Thorgard kills 8. Lok-Vurn kills 1 Giant Rat.

Maervahr kills 3 Giant Rats with Magic Missile.

Walker has moved into the room. Koriss is hiding in shadows. Turn Undead goes off, effecting Mummies.

• Tatrin moves to engage with the torch.
• Josalyn casts Prayer.
• Kheskhor casts sleep.
• Maervahr hangs back
• Koriss hides.
• Skalf throws darts.
• Walker attacks.

We got a 2 this time, Walker kills 3 Giant Rats. Jacob autokills 8, Thorgard kills 8, Lok-Vurn kills 3.

Tatrin moves into the room with the fire, Rats flee, and Sleep goes off. 7 Giant Rats fall asleep. 49 dead Giant Rats now (or sleeping).

We see the door open in the back of the hallway. There is a glow behind it.

The Rats fail their morale and tries to funnel out an exit. Eveyrone kills one except Maervahr and Koriss.

They funnel out the room and try crawling up the ropes to get to the room above. The door is fully opened. There are three silhouettes of flame. We can feel the heat off them. They start swinging at us.

They do not charge. The Prayer Spell completes.

+1 to Hit and Saves. The enemies take a -1 for 7 rounds.

At the end of the round they have left through the room.

• Thorgard charges.
• Lok-Vurn engages.
• Jacob moves to engage.
• Josalyn attacks.
• Kheskhor goes invisible.
• Maervahr goes invisible.
• Koriss hides.
• Skalf goes back to shoot darts.
• Walker moves to engage.
• Titus tries to disengage backwards into the room.

We win initiative. Kheskhor is invisible, Thorgard charges, Maervahr is psionically invisible.

Must hit AC 3 and they are large.

Josalyn hits for 10 damage. Thorgard hits for 14 damage.

They attack Thorgard, Josalyn and Thorgard again. He has AC -3, he is hit for 1 damage. Two more attacks on Thorgard for 2 damage. Josalyn is missed!

We can see into the room that they came through. We can see a big pile of rotted wood on the ground. The other characters have moved back into the room. The rats have not come back.

• Titus spikes the door.
• Thorgard attacks, as do his people.
• Jacob and Josalyn attack.
• Kheskhor stays back.
• Maervahr and Koriss move to the back of the hallway.
• Skalf holds.
• Walker attacks with a +2 longsword.

We win intiative (1).

Walker hits for 9 damage. Thorgard hits for 8 damage. Lok-Vurn hits and Josalyn hits for 14 damage. Lok-Vurn did 9 damage.

One of the creatures are dead. They are heroic Humanoids, 8' tall like an olympic athlete, human-like but its head is like a flattened gray alien. They fight in silence. Two of them are quite wounded.

The creatures attack Thorgard and Koriss is hit, and STONESKIN! Thorgard is missed.

Thorgard hits for 9 damage, killing one! The final remaining humanoid erupts in a FIREBALL.

Maervahr and Koriss both saved.

Skalf is dead, Lok-Vurn is at -2 and Koriss is at -2. Lok-Vurn has a +1 broadsword. The item saves.

The creature is totally gone and the two bodies lay in the hallway. The kitchen has a bunch of fires and the door is swinging shut. Kheskhor takes 19 damage. Kheskhor is dead but he had a ring of invisibility, it is DESTROYED! It was id 254.

Tatrin heals Titus for 8 hp.

The ceiling in here is 15'. Kheskhor fails to save versus death as does Skalf, they cannot ask for divine intervention.

Maervahr extinguishes the little fires throughout the kitchen. The cabinets are mostly destroyed but there is a lot of silver and copper.

We put our fallen into the kitchen, Maervahr grabs Cataclyzer. We hear the cry of a Hippogriff and start heading outside.

We are running out! We see the Hippogriffs raising an alarm of a group of 40 on the horizon, all on mounts.

• Maervahr mounts up.
• Jacob draws his sword.
• Josalyn readies for a fight.
• The party is at 8” and moving toward the boat.
• Walker jumps off the deck and says turn away from here.
• Titus parries.
• Thorgard will hail them.
• Tatrin holds.

We spot the party on the Horizon. They are lead by a quarter of their number, heavily armored. Some have flowing robes and looks militaristic and about 30 men. Some are Hobillars and some are medium Horsemen. The color is cobalt blue, which is the symbol of Law. This is signals with law.

They send out a group of characters in front to the group, 5 of them to meet us. Maervahr, Jacob and Josalyn will go out to meet them. We do see holy symbols, the forward most bearer has symbols of Aneara and a Cleric of Venha.

As we come into hollering distance, we exchange greetings. We can tell that the demeanor is not positive and do not seem in good manner.

The Cleric in the front, of Anaera, after Maervahr speaks, they calm somewhat and say, “Very Well Maervahr, we have been sent to recover an item. A particular piece of jewelry has been recovered.”

We seek the same item, what can we do to part with the ring.

We saw a Cleric of Anaera with a Robed man, another Fighter and a Cleric of Venha, a Cleric of Scaepa, a Druid and a Fighter. They had nice equipment and rings.

Titus and Walker will stay on the deck, collect the other gem and watch the other party.

We enter the hall of shattered glass and enter the lift. Climb down the ropes, we get down and open the west door.

To the left is a huge forge made of steel and brass interspersed around it. To the right is a pile of dry rot wood covered in bugs. The room is pretty big, but there is not a lot of walking area due to the wood pile. The biggest gear thing is over a ton.

We head to the other door now.

Back in the hallway, we step into another room with a bunch of objects. There is a hallway that continues beyond it. The room we are in looks like a workshop though the counters and tables are empty except dust. The floor has scrap metal and old tools. There are two pieces of interest:

• A telescope head.
• Brass disk like the captain.

There is a book open on the table that is U shaped. The book is a technical subject, like the maintenance of some object.

Tatrin casts Find Traps and can detect a magic circle on the ceiling that takes up the entire ceiling. Tatrin detects the school, 10% per Cleric level and succeeds! The school is Alteration. Tatrin will cast Dispel Magic on the circle.

It is a 9th level spell. Tatrin succeeds and dispels the circle!

We find an angled hallway terminates in a door. We open the door…

The door opens into a hexagonal room. Inside of the chamber, the walls ceilings and floor are all painted in black. In the center of the room, in the middle 5' is a hexagonal well structure of red brick. It bears a great dusky marble that is 3' across. It is actually an Octagon. The dusky marble has a lavendar mist swirling like an 8 ball. Crystal candles are all burnt down to tiny stubs around the well.

There is a scrying table, metal braziers that have been pushed behind the shelves.

We take Koriss and Lok-Vurn.

We exit into the hallway into the workshop, surrounding the U shaped table are 10 x 9' tall vulture humanoids

• Titus is on the deck.
• Thorgard is 1“ away from melee.
• Tatrin casts prayer.
• Jacob moves to engage.
• Josalyn moves to engage.
• Maervahr goes psionically invisible to 45 HD

We win initiative on a 2.

The Hook Horrors charge. Thorgard moves .9” into melee, they cannot actually charge. Prayer spell goes off, +1 attacks and saves.

The book is knocked over.

• Maervahr stays psionically invisible.

Everyone is in melee. Jacob hit for 16, Thorgard hit for 14 damage. None are killed.

Maervahr is not invisible to one but Josalyn hits for 7, killing one! Thorgard has -4 AC, all miss him except he takes one hit for 4 damage. Jacob has 4 on him, AC -6, all misses! Josalyn has a -2 AC with a prayer and takes 2 hits, STONESKIN and then 1 hit for 2 damage.

Jacob hits one for 16 damage, kills one outright. Thorgard does an 11 damage hit. We have killed 2 of them and there are 8 left. Maervahr is invisible to all of the Hook Horrors. Tatrin is in melee. Three sets of attacks on Tatrin, he is hit twice and he takes 8 damage.

Two attacks on Jacob all miss but Josalyn is hit twice for 14 damage. Jacob hits for 12 damage and Thorgard hits for 14. Josalyn does 8 damage. All 8 are still alive.

Thorgard hit one for 10 and Jacob hit one for 18 damage. None are killed. 3 attacks on Thorgard, all miss. Tatrin has AC -1, all attacks miss! Jacob is also missed. Josalyn is also missed.

Josalyn hits for 7 damage, Jacob hits for 12 killing one, Thorgard hits for 15 also killing another one.

The Hook Horrors must morale check. 11 damage from Jacob kills one and 8 damage from Josalyn kills another. Tatrin hits for 7 damage.

Morale check, the Hook Horrors flee. Tatrin hit one for 5, killing one. Maervahr does 7 damage. The Hook Horror flees and the party charges.

Maervahr and Jacob kill the last Hook Horror!

Josalyn casts two Cure Light Wounds on herself for 6. Tatrin uses a Cure Light Wounds scroll and heals for 7 hp.

We start going up the ropes to speak to the Captain.

We go through two doors and return to the chamber with the Captain.

He jumps up. We can claim the ring from the giant marble, beneath the ship. The reason the ship crashed, Zalmutrex disappeared into the marble. The marble is a divining tool that he built himself. Usually the servants were not inside that chamber but he could with his hat. He started talking to a book and a mirror, then he went into the marble.

We rejoin with Titus and Walker and see that the forces are gathered and talking while smoking tobacco.

Maervahr and much of the party will go down to the room with the marble well.

Maervahr looks in the marble and sees a lifeless form of a humanoid with long whispy humanoid as though a drowned man. His demeanor is that of a deep sleep. It looks solid. He uses Detection of Magic and detects magic on the marble, there is divination magic.

Maervahr uses Clairaudience to listen inside the marble. Immediately, dark whispers in his mind. Maervahr resists the whispers with a successful saving throw. In this connectivity, his presence brought a shock of anger and confusion in a split second. His mind absorbed the whispers. He heard a force or being whispered ideas and concepts, filling him with ideas and bending him in this way.

We hear a whisper come from the marble. Trapped. Maervahr responds Zalmutrex trapped, long ago ritual, trapped. Its forcing its words out as though struggling to speak. There is an octogram on the floor connecting the candles. Now that the surface ripples as though a stone was dropped within. The candles have half a thumb left on each. There are shelves holding knick knacks holding containers and such.

Maervahr investigates the book, entitled “Prayer and the Art of Construct Maintenance by Qalshet of Nessrti” He studies the book for 10 minutes and it contains sufficient information of maintenance on a construct, including a drawing of the Captain, whatever he is.

We head out and go back to talk with the party. The Cleric of Anaera stays back and instead the Druid comes with a Fighter. The Druid says through his teeth, so you have failed. Maervahr tells them about what we discovered and the malevolent force holding the ring and the owner of the boat. Their party has agreed to the terms to provide assistance with the marble, after they make camp. In the evening both forces will assign two men. We can see what can be done about the Marble.

He elects himself, the Druid, he is equally confident to the Cleric of Anaera but he is more reserved. Jacob will stay as one of our group, along with Walker will be up on the boat.

Camp is made and night comes. The opposing force made their camp and the Druid has transformed into an eagle as the Fighter sits at the base of the ship. Walker strikes up a great conversation with the Fighter, they have a few topics of interest. He has been in the employ of the Druid for 1.5 years.

Josalyn tries to get the Cleric of Venha to agree to meditations. She agrees and they have come from the north in the Thunderlands and have traveled south to the Veldt.

Maervahr, Thorgard and Walker will go in. Tatrin will go in. Jacob too, but Walker will stay back.

The Fighter friend of Walker is Vas'mar, a Human.

They send their cleric of Anaera, a Magic-User and their Druid and Fighter.

Maervahr finds that the book covers the 7 beasts of chaos, it is pre-severing, 7 beasts in general. Ululith, the Maws That Seek, Zyroth, the Flickering Unbeing, Vexithar, the Spiral Harbinger, Ornath-9, the Dreaming Engine, Chyssok, the Veiled Star, O'het Shathath, the Unspooled Thought, - Nyxog, the Womb of Unreality –

The book explains how to summon each one in general terms, but not with the precise “ingredients”. some of the beasts' descriptions stick out: Uluith is made of mouths and tongues, though nothing is mentioned of whispers. Zyroth leaves “echoes”. Vexithar causes madness through glyphs. Ornath-9 sings “in entropy”. Chyssok distorts reflections. O'het gathers minds together into a mass of concept. Nyxog seems totally un-related.