The Lineup:

• Vras Skag - Half-Orc Assassin
• Dan - Magic-User, AC 9
• Morric - Dwarf Fighter
• Maervahr - Magic-User (Psionicist)

We begin the session by looking for Mercenaries. The Mercenary Company has 15 Light Footman with a Lieutenant (Fighter 3).

It is currently Autumn and we decide we will go to the Haunted Ruins across the lake!

Maervahr hired 5 Light Footmen (4-7 hp). These Light Infantry have padded armor, a shield, a spear and a club. AC 7.

The party heads out for the northern tip of the west lake, headed to the HAUNTED RUINS.

All of the buildings in the abandoned hamlet were built around a series of standing stones. In the center of the stones is the location where an entity once appeared before RUDOLPH RINN. It had a humanoid shape and he made a deal with the entity in exchange for his soul. He did not age when he saw it. It was concluded that it was not a ghost, but a ghostly entity.

The old stone buildings have been abandoned for a century. All of the roofs are completely absent. The buildings look to be older than the Chapterhouse and the Chapel. Nobody knows anything about the history of this hamlet. The rumor going around is that it is haunted.

Rinn said that it was in the center of the standing stones where his encounter was had.

Maervahr prepares his oil flask in anticipation of an encounter. We are walking through the loose collection of old stone ruins and notice that the weeds and grasses are stepped down, as if they were traveled over frequently. There are random pools of muck and mud all around. They do not appear to be made by a massive beast or anything but there are footprints of humanoid feet with long claws in the dirt. There are many many pairs of footprints, going in many directions. After studying the print, it looks like they milled about for a couple days. We can tell that there was maybe one very anxious creature.

We come upon a series of standing stones with columns 8 to 9 feet tall. In the center is a cracked and broken circle of stones, like a paved disk in the center. They look like they were once obelisks but the tops are all broken. Some of the standing stones are cracked in half as if struck by lightning.

Next to the stones is a mausoleum that has an overhang and two columns that still support the stone ceiling. There are a pair of heavy looking wooden doors that seal the front entrance. There is also some crumpled buildings and a house built close to stones, on the outskirts.

We can see that there is a lake to the south as we move forward to get a better view. Suddenly, we notice some movement on the roof. A lanky form that appeared to be made of bones and had a huge maw. It looked like their head was split by their mouth which had huge teeth and it stood hunched over. They look like they were waiting to ambush us.

We determine that even if the party is surprised, VRAS might not be. Vras can also roll his full rate of fire on creatures.

The creatures charge at us! Maervahr casts Shield. Vras fires and does 5 points of damage. The shoulder of the creature blasts back from the hit but keeps coming. The other creatures begin to leap off the building and run into the party.

Spears can do double damage on charging creatures. Dan throws all of his daggers at the onrushing creatures. These are Ghouls have AC 7 (5 without charge). Dan hits for 2 damage. One of the Mercenaries is hit two for 3 damage, The Ghouls also hit Dan and some of the other Mercenaries. Vras shoots one on the building and it jumps down with the rest that are still alive. The other Ghouls charge and one dies a horrific death while they continue their charge.

One of them engages with Vras and now 2 Mercenaries are dead, Two are going for Morric. Morric has AC 1 but none of the claws land a hit but 1 bite hits. Morric takes 5 damage and must save versus paralysis, He makes his save! We have 3 Spearmen left and 1 hits doing 6 points of damage! Morric also takes some hits, for 7 damage total, Morric then manages to cut one in half while a Spearman runs one through. There are 3 total spearmen left alive.

We return to Gren to recover. Ithimyr heals up the party.

There are no more Mercs in the hiring hall. Maervahr uses his psionic ability to listen at the location of the Haunted Ruins and hears muddy footsteps with Clairaudience. He hears multiple footsteps walking through the mud.

There are now only 3 Mercenaries under Maervahr's command and only 1 under Dan.

We head back to the Haunted Ruins. Maervahr can hear slight shifts and Ghoulish grumbling from the circle of stones. While he is pinning down the location, Dan is peeking in buildings around the outskirts. Maervahr pinpoints his Clairaudience to the rooftop of the Mausoleum and can hear a couple Ghoulish creatures. From our vantage point, it looks like they are under a crumbled all that is only wide enough for one person at a time.

Dan pokes around the buildings and finds many boot footprints going in and out. It looks like there was a lot of activity in the last couple of days. There are also grubby hand prints on the wall next to a staircase.

The Ghouls charge us. The Magic-Users cast both WEB and STINKING CLOUD. Vras assassinates 2 of the Ghouls. Another assassination attempt succeeds by Vras and he kills all 4!

Maervahr can hear a couple of creatures talking in Orcish or Hobgoblin, discusses in hushed tones.

The party rushes at 6 Hobgoblins. They have AC 5. Dan FRIED one with his Shocking Grasp spell. Maervahr misses with 2 thrown daggers but then goes psionically invisible and moves close to begin casting Burning Hands. Dan loses 7 hp from a Hobgoblin's morningstar attack. Morric kills 1. Burning Hands is cast and Maervahr kills 2.

After we take down all the Hobgoblins except one, Morric can question him. He says that they were just using this place to hide out in the area. The Hobgoblins were just waiting here and he says that they were going to come out and help us against the Ghouls. (lies)

The Ghouls have no loot but the Hobgoblins have 24 gp, 76 cp, 6 shields, 6 morningstars and 6 scale mails.

Maervahr uses Clairaudience and he hears more panicked voices of Hobgoblins. It sounds like there are 2-8 more Hobgoblins inside. We throw a burning Hobgoblin and the Ghoul bodies down the stairs and spread oil around the outside. We light it up and the other Hobgoblins come out and burn.

Maervahr goes invisible and we go in. Morric kills one. Dan's Cat familiar kills one. They have longswords and the Cat ripped its eyeballs out. Morric cuts down one more and Maervahr stabs one in the spinal cord.

There is a big open area down the stairs…

The session continues without Maervahr.

412 gp, 144 cp is what we were given after the party split.

Total XP for entire session: 508

“Dan, ever the muscle mage, tore a locked wooden door off its hinges, revealing a portal, where he, Morric, and Vras defeated a massive spirit. Seems to have been the spirit that Rudolph made a pact with.”

“Its name was Lorelai Zarathos. I believe Dan is doing some investigation on what the spirit was. It was hit with magic weapons only, Dan cast 2 spells and both spells did not effect the creature. Vras withdrew from the fight to the spirit's treasure chest where he found a magic longsword. After charging into combat, he slew the spirit.”

“He's (Rudolph) not confident that he's safe as of yet. We had a cleric cast Remove Curse on him to be safe, but there's no guarantee that would help, as curses are difficult to detect, as it happens.”

ITHIMYR gains enough XP to level up in both Cleric (4th) and Ranger (3rd) but he requires a loan.

“That's a pretty big loan, and with Ithimyr being a daring adventurer and all, who's to say he'll make it back to pay it off? Plus, Skiff heard through… channels that a portly thief went off and got himself killed with a couple thousand gold debt to the thieves guild! Skiff will give you the loan, but he wants that shiny sword that Ithimyr has willed to Skiff. Ithimyr can un-will it after he's paid off the loan. What say Ithimyr? Regular 10% interest, of course.”

Ithimyr Accepts the loan for 6000 gp on 7-27-494.

“Today in-game is 494-07-27 for Ithimyr, which would be the loan start date. Training can start the day after, so for the requisite two weeks, Ithimyr would be ready to take action again on 8-14”

ITHIMYR buys 10 more iron spikes and a vial of Holy Water.