• Eomiaje the Bear - Doors 7/8 (3) - Phantom Armor, Invisible
• Walker T - AC 5/7 on odd days
• Lucien - Phantom Armor, Invisible
• Thalen - Phantom Armor
• Thorgard
• Tatrin
• Lok-Vurn
• Jacob
• Josalyn
• Kheskhor
• Risten - Invisible
• Lyo

• Titus is currently in Al'yashil in the Chamber of Pots.

• Thalen's trainer tells him of the Institution of Education and Understanding. It had two wings: The judgement wing was settled 1200 years befure the severing. It was a legendary court where people would gain insights. People would obtain knowledge at this place. The item was held by Atef of Thazil the Red. The name is the same as the hat. He was a political prisoner at this place. The Trainer wants the hat. The Judgement Wing was the court of Limelon the Keen, chief magistrate to Sultan Jel'gribar. The place is said to go past Mount Cruelty. The trainer says not to camp there.There is a rumor that this site has been discovered.

• Lucien has also heard of this place and heard of a Neferian Sage once gained control of this hat in the Gap of Knowledge. From what he heard, he might be able to gain the power for himself especially if it has been latent for a long time. It is a Lawful stronghold but its occupants were Neutral and Evil. 1200 years ago, the Sultan had control of the region. Lawful N/E stronghold known for two of its wings: The Judgement Wing, and the Gap of Knowledge. Neferian Sage collective called the Prospect of Clarity (L N/E). Lucien has prior knowledge about this place. He knows of a ruin of a strange city of a non-human race that lived on a mountainous island, in a lake somewhere.

• Thalen was provided a map that was filled in by Lucien's notes. They have an accurate map to the place. It is 125 miles away, 25 hexes, near Trawis.

In Mombafra, we start looking for Mercenaries.

• Crossbowmen x26
• Light Footmen x10
• Medium Horsemen x12 includes 1 Lieutenant and 2 Sergeants

In Starling:

• Mounted Archers x10
• Mounted Crossbowmen x10
• Heavy Horsemen x11
• Light Horsemen x 14
• Medium Horsement x12

We head north east from Starling, toward Trawis. We will spend our first night in Hardin, which is under the control of Dead Man's Stone. Actually we do not, it is off the route. This area is in the eastern part of the Red Sun Valley. We will spend the

The first day is uneventful. The weather is clear.

Phantom Armor is cast on Lok-Vurn and another.

In Trawis, their population has tripled and there are new buildings. It is a hamlet.

We head 6 hexes to the north east. We are in the region of the forested hills at the end of the day.

It is cloudy on the 15th. We see a lake ahead of us.

There are some steppes ahead of us and a scrubland up ahead. There is a regular encounter here…

The air party is Surprised.

The ground party sees a group of figures, Bugbears, on the horizon coming over the hill. There are 21 of them.

• Jacob lands at the front and says “come here if you want to die”
• Josalyn lands
• Kheskhor stays in the back
• Walker has his bow ready.
• Eomiaje is protecting the group
• Lucien casts Invisibility
• Thalen braces
• Thorgard lands
• Tatrin casts prayer
• Lok-Vurn moves up
• Risten casts invisibility
• Lyo readies a sling

The Bugbear leader charges forward. Prayer takes 6 segments. Invisibility is 2. They all are carrying glaives and are a good distance away. They cover 1.2“ away. They will be at 7.4” away as they charge. The Bugbears have AC 6/5.

Walker hits for 6 damage and Lyo hits for 2 damage. In 2 segments they will cover another 2.4“ and are 5” away when invisibility resolves. Walker hits for 4 damage.

They get into melee before Prayer resolves, or actually at the same time. We are entirely affected by Prayer as are the enemies.

The front ranks are being attacked from 1 Leader and 20 Bugbears. The Leader targets Josalyn and she is hit but STONESKIN!

• 2 against Lok-Vurn,
• 6 attacks against Eomiaje. He is hit 3 times, 3 damage, 1 damage and 9 damage.
• Thorgard is attacked twice and hit once, Stoneskin. Rear attack misses.
• 4 attacks on Jacob, no hits.
• 3 attacks Josalyn, she is hit for 2 damage.

Eomiaje kills one for 6 and 8 damage. Jacob kills one also.

• 2 attacks on Tatrin, two hits one gets Stoneskin and he takes 4 damage.
• 2 attacks on Walker, both miss

Several Bugbears (3) were killed in the first round.

Jacob and Thorgard get their second attacks. Jacob hits for 18 damage and Thorgard did 12 damage, both survive.

• Thorgard and Lok-Vurn attack.
• Tatrin casts Light.
• Lyo joins the front line
• Risten stays invis.
• Kheskhor casts something.
• Walker attacks from horse.
• Eomiaje attacks
• Lucien is invisible but moves close.
• Thalen moves to engage the second line.

The duel between Josalyn goes: The Leader misses her.

• 2 on Tatrin, both miss.
• 1 on Walker, misses.
• 2 attacks on Lok-Vurn, both miss
• Eomiaje is hit once, for 1 damage.
• Thorgard is missed
• Thalen is not attacked.
• 4 attacks on Jacob, all miss
• Eomiaje does 13 damage with 2 claws and does a bear hug for 7, killing it
• Walker hits for 14 damage, killing one.
• Lok-Vurn hits the leader for 6
• Jacob hits the leader for 18 damage.
• Thorgard destroys the leader!
• Josalyn hits for 10 and 7, killing another one.
• Jacob's Hippogriff hit for 4 damage.
• Josalyn's also hit for 4 damage.
• Thorgard's does 6 damage.

There are now 12 Bugbear's left, Walker killed his Bugbear. Two Bugbears drop from a Sleep spell! Light spell goes off, blinding one of the Bugbears in the front line.

Their numbers have been drastically reduced.

• Lucien holds off.
• Thalen charges the front line
• Thorgard attack, Lok-Vurn attacks
• Tatrin moves to engage
• Lyo attacks
• Risten stays invisible.
• Eomiaje attacks
• Jacob attacks with Josalyn
• Kheskhor casts sleep
• Walker engages.

Jacob and Thorgard attack first. Jacob hits for 17 and Thorgard hits for 11 damage. Jacob kills another one.

Morale Check on the Bugbears. They immediately break in total panic, dropping their weapons. The blind one meanders around.

Jacob kills one, Eomiaje bites for 7 damage, Thorgard hits for 7, Lok-Vurn hits for 9. Lok-Vurns horse does 5. Jacob's Hippogriff does 2 and 6. Josalyn's Hippo hits for 13. Lyo hit for 4 damage, killing one. Thorgard's Hippogriff did 17 damage. Lok-Vurns horse did another 6 damage.

WE CLEAN THEM OUT AS THEY TRY TO ESCAPE. 3 of them try to escape.

The Sleeping and Blind Bugbear's are slain. Eomiaje and Tatrin are fully healed.

• 155 cp
• 222 sp
• 91 gp
• 145 ep
• 21 glaives

We continue on and are in hills, near some mountains. The weather clears up.

Night passes without any issue.

Thalen re-memorizes his spells.

We continue on our way, descending into a light forest. It rises up into hills up ahead. To the north is a huge jagged peak called “Mount Cruelty”.

We were told not to camp near Mount Cruelty. The weather is clear as we camp away from Mount Cruelty.

The weather is clear and we continue past Mount Cruelty. Heading into a light forest and then into a scrubland. We are short points in the hills.

We see activity at Mount Cruelty, there are tiny black dots from large vultures forming a ring around the peak, forming a halo. This happens two more times, for a total of 3 times making a spiral. They do this 6 or 7 times before disappearing behind the mountain. There must have been at least 100 of these.

Walker has some telescoping item, he sees that these are Gargoyles. Hundreds of Gargoyles.

Tatrin uses Create Food and Water for Walker's Horse.

It is heavy rain on the morning of the 18th. We push up the hill in the rain and see before us more hills. Forested hills to the east but we go north. On Thalen's map there is a lake beyond the hills, the site of a large lake. Lucien's map shows a river coming up.

No encounters during the day.

The Hippogriff riders check the hexes south and south east. We have a mountain range and some hills in these directions. They can see the edge of the lake. To the northwest is some more scrub, no buildings in sight.

The weather is still raining at night.

Light rain this morning, full movement. We will go into the hills and then into the Badlands. We will have to go through the mountains. The map is pushing us to go around the lake. It is only 2 movement points through the mountains with a pass.

We camp in the badlands. There is a possible encounter at night.

During watch one…

The party is surprised. Jacob is awake.

We can see in the moonlight that there are a group of 12 small animals, like dogs or wolves. We notice them 11“ away. They have stopped moving.

• Jacob pulls out his sword and waits.
• Thalen is invisible.
• Thorgard wakes up the party.
• Lyo removes his ring of mammal control from Risten's hand.

The banging noise is made and they decide to leave.

The evening goes by without incident. Risten noticed that his ring was taken by Lyo.

Light rain in the morning. It takes us 3 movement points into the pass and we come out onto the lake. There is a structure across the lake and some scrubland up ahead. The Hippogriff Riders can see some terrain to the south that looks unfriendly. The north east side of the mountains look severe, like Mount Cruelty.

The structure is on the edge of the lake, about 5 miles away. It is a small fortress looking building.

It looks like a guard house or way point and does not have a wall. The towers only rise a short distance. The riders can see some docks on the front of the structure but they look like they are in bad repair.

We move into the scrublands. We come to the edge of the lake. The map takes us beyond the forest. As we approach the structure, we see that it is in ruin. The ground around the structure has been stamped down by the presence of horses but there are many weeds so it is irregular. The courtyard is empty and overgrown.

We proceed toward the fortress. We conclude that it is empty. There is no dungeon entrance but there are Goblin arrows, Halberds used by Hobgoblins and there are two large polearms. This looks like it has been here in the past season.

We see another structure just like it in the direction we must go, which is built on a river. It comes down the mountain past the structure and into a light forest.

The entire fortress is dark as the sun sets, no campfires. We make camp in the fortress. It provides safety and the rain stops.

It is only cloudy in the morning. We have to move through the other structure.

We must head across the river at the other gatehouse. The river is at its thinnest point here, 150' across. The current is weaker here and we do not see anything outside the gatehouse. It looks abandoned. There are docks in better repair but no boats. Someone staked 3 stretches of rope across the river. 350' stretches of rope.

The hex to the north is a medium forest.

Thorgard has a ring of waterwalking. The river is low enough we can ford across. Thorgard goes out in the river and finds the current is pretty steady but does not reach the bottom near the center. This is at about 1/3 of the way in.

Jacob and Josalyn tie off some rope to get Kheskhor's horse across.

We cross without issue. The Hippogriff riders can see to the right, there is a huge lake. There is a mountainous island with ruins built all around. It is 2/3rds the distance from the edge. The map indicates 20 or 30 more miles past the island.

The buildings have odd structures, particularly the roofs. The structures are made of medium gray rock. The roofs are rounded flat slabs. They are totally flat gray stone and they appear to be adorned in some cases. Some of them catch light in ways, as from painted colors. They do not see any movement.

We are out of movement points so we camp in the forest. There is a potential encounter during the second watch. No encounter.

We continue on our regular path and the weather is cloudy in the morning.

The Hippogriff riders can see the bounds of the lake, which is surrounded by hills. There is a river of comparable size that cuts into the hills. This area is heavily covered in hills.

We make camp in the hills. It starts raining at night, heavily.

It is Thorgard's Name Day!

During the second watch…

We are not surprised.

The encountered party is not surprised either. Eomiaje's eyes light up, there is a great reflection of light. A large fire has broken out on the adjacent hill. It is brightly illuminating the side of the hill. Great sparks are coming off of it. It appears to be rapidly.

• Eomiaje roars loudly and starts shaking a tree.
• Risten wakes up the rest of the people.
• Jacob tells everyone to get up.

Everyone is woken up as Eomiaje shakes the nearest tree. The fire spreads steadily down the hillside. It stops growing about halfway through. It is illuminated brightly as squirrels flee. It is a fire 330' away.

• Jacob guards.
• Josalyn puts on armor
• Kheskhor comes out.
• Lyo puts on armor.
• Walker uses his scope (binoculars)
• Eomiaje starts helping to break down camp.
• Thalen puts on his armor.
• Tatrin helps Thorgard put on his armor.
• Lok-Vurn gets the horses mounted.

Through the binoculars, Walker sees that the fire is quite strong and roaring with colors like blue and white, very hot. It has ceased advancing down the hill possibly due to wet ground. There is nothing other than the fire.

Josalyn must roll a personal surprise, 1-4, as she puts on her armor. She is surprised. Josalyn does not hear any footsteps. As she puts on her armor, her Rod of Flailing is gone. She hears a sudden rapid very fast running away into the darkness. She yells something is running away with her stuff.

• Jacob tries to follow.
• Kheskhor casts Sleep.
• Walker tries to track.
• Eomiaje tracks the creature.
• Lucien tries to see what that was.
• Thalen is putting on his armor.
• Thorgard hops on his Hippogriff.
• Tatrin casts Light in the direction where it is moving.
• Lok-Vurn doesnt do anything.
• Lyo is getting armored.
• Risten looks around.

Tied initiative. Those of us that are close can hear something running away across the hill but we can't see anything. There is light rain right now. There is a rain bouncing off something small sized, but it is dark. Due to the light on the hillside, there is something small fleeing away from the camp. Walker and Eomiaje jump to action but the Sleep spell is now resolved.

It does not effect the creature.

Walker pursues on foot. Thorgard and Jacob take off on the hippogriffs, after they ascend the fire suddenly goes out and it is sheathed in darkness. Tatrin's light spell goes off which has a range of 12”. He targets the invisible figure. The ball of light appears next to the creature as though it was unaffected, then it blinks out.

They have lost clear sight on the creature but we have a little bit of moonlight. We pick up signs of where it is going. Eomiaje easily picks up the trail and we can see tiny bootprints. We give pursuit to the creature.

• Jacob is diving on it.
• Walker is going to get on his horse
• Eomiaje is pursuing.
• Thorgard divebombs
• Tatrin and Lok-Vurn follow Eomiaje.

The pursuit continues and our Hippogriffs have great speed. Jacob and Josalyn continue their dive bomb against the creature. They see the Rod of Flailing in the mud. They see some of the grass breaks and there is a deep pit in the earth. We do not see any sign of it running off, its laughter has silenced.

• Eomiaje gets to the hole.

It smells as though it has moved onward. He yells, “Its an illusion”. There is a small flap in Josalyn's tent.

Eomiaje returns to the camp. Walker realizes that the fire is gone and it was as if there was not illusion at all.

During the third watch…

We are not.

Walker can see about 19 Humanoids, about 9' tall moving without any illumination. They are 16“ away. Walker doesnt see any weapons, they do not seem to notice our party.

The creatures pass by without attacking.

There are no more encounters.

Light morning rain as we break camp. We continue to follow the map.

The Hippogriff Riders spot something in the one hex to the south. Moored off the coast of the hill line, just beyond the delta, is a medium War Ship, that bears sails that are black tattooed with red. They do not have signs of Orcs but of Beastmen. They are anchored but there are dark shapes moving about on the shape. On the shore are some row-boats that have gone to the hills, 12 in number. None of them are occupied.

The Hippogriff Riders will go scout out the boat.

The ship is heavily crewed by Boarmen who have multiple weapons and armor. The ship is professionaly outfitted. Further inland past the hills is an encampment with tents that looks semi permanent as there is a palisade with towers. They are dressed in the garb of Pirates and they are not Buccaneers. Based on the tents, the encampment is sparsely populated, maybe 50 Boarmen. The ship is heavily covered, there could be 200 Boarmen on the ship.

We avoid the Boarmen and continue on our way to the north. There is a blasted landscape, where the ground is dark and the trees are dead. It looks very sad.

We head across the river and believe we are close to our destination, maybe 20 miles away. At night it rains hard.

In the morning it is light rain, actually snowing! We must descend into a swampland to continue or we could try to go around but it is more of a lake there. As we move through, there is a possible encounter.

For the Riders, they are not surprised.

At 2.5 miles on the north edge of the swamp, they see a crude village. It is somewhat small, but it is more like a Thorpe. The construction is “monstrous” or Orc, Ogres, etc. 2.5 miles away.

We head toward the north and find that as we approach, it is Orcish or Hobgoblin.

We decide to deal with them. We march on through the swamp, toward the village. We get a quarter mile away and see siege weaponry, two heavy catapults, two light catapults and a balistae.

We decide to avoid the Village of Orcs and we skirt around. No force is emitted toward us and we head to the north.

We are just 1 hex away from our location. There is heavy rain in the night.

In the morning it is lightly snowing, which does not help as much for seeing invisible creatures but will help with tracking.

We make a short travel to arrive at our destination. The map takes us to a hillface, out of which is a plateau. There is an outcropping on the hill face. On the outcropping is a tower, 40' per side and square. It is 3 stories tall. It is a grassy hillside where we could hide from an encounter in the wild grains. The tower is in poor repair, we are seeing this from a good distance, 1.5 miles. We know this is our location.

The hill should be climbable and we can reach it from the top.

The Hippogriff Riders can see one wagon and a cart outside the tower, with a couple dots. They pull out the spyglass to check it out. The creatures are Bugbears and the wagons are piled high with something, covered in canvas. They are standing langoriously, lounging. There are some moving in the broken stone windows in the tower. There are two heavy warhorses near the entrance.

Eomiaje is now invisible thanks to Risten or Thalen.

Jacob will get ready to dismount for the fight. As we continue our approach they call inside for more forces. We stop seeing movements of Bugbears in the second and third window and we get in encounter range of the tower.

The tower is made of stone.

We still do not see anyone inside the tower.

• Josalyn casts
• Eomiaje is protecting Risten
• Lucien asks Eomiaje to help pull that wagon away.
• Thorgard is taunting in Goblin language.
• Tatrin holds back.
• Risten has the amber rod out. He readies himself to cast.
• Lyo has a sling ready.

Josalyn begins casting a spell. Nothing comes out but a reply from Goblin, “you know not the forces you tamper with Dwarf.” Everyone within 10' of Josalyn is protected from evil.

• Josalyn casts Find Traps.
• Eomiaje and Lucien go toward the wagon while invisible.
• Thorgard and his henchmen advance.
• Risten can tell that the roof is opened. There is a trap door up top, seen by the riders.
• Lyo still has a sling ready.
• Kheskhor stays back.

There are rocky outcroppings about 8' in height scattered around. The north side has the opening. We are on dungeon scale.

The Bugbears appear in the windows with longbows. Those that did not move and had ranged weapons out, they can take a shot. It will be 16” up to fire on the second story. A sling bullet cannot hit the tower from Lyo. Those in the tower shoot down into the field. They will take -2 to hit. There is a 4 in 6 chance to hit a horse. Only 10 Bugbears with bows can fire.

• Josalyn is targeted by 8 arrows. She has -5 AC so none of them hit.
• Jacob is missed.
• Lyo is being targeted and is hit and takes 4 damage.

We can see the 10 Bugbears.

Eomiaje goes to the cart and sniffs metal, rust, blood and animal hides. There are poorly tied down rations and supplies. There is the corner of a large chest that we can see.

• Kheskhor keeps moving around, out of longbow range. Walker shoots from his location.
• Eomiaje starts climbing up to the top of the tower.
• Sanctuary is being cast by Thalen.

Sanctuary is 4 segments to cast. Missiles are being fired. They are firing at Lyo.