The Character Roster:

• GIL - Fighter/Cleric, AC 1/3, large shield, banded mail.
• MAERVAHR - Magic-User 3, AC 10/10.
• RHINOCK - Fighter 4, AC -1/3, +1 sword / +4 shield.

Gil's Class Quest is to track down and capture an Ethereal Serpent Spirit.

Maervahr offers to bring along the spirit dog we call SOUL DEVOURER.

The quest comes from the Church of Nefer and we are to locate a cavern on the edge of the hills, somewhere northeast of Gren and northwest of Qarn. This cavern is said to be flooded and to havemMonsters inside. The goal is to obtain the Ethereal Aspect that is in there as it needs to be captured. They have given Gil a special net to capture it.

Maervahr is looking for Mercenaries in Gren and he finds:

• 4 Light Horseman who seek the standard pay. We offer them 20 gp up front and 1 sp per day after that. They accept the offer.

We bring the mule called Moscow and a cart. Despite this, we can make good time on our journey. On the map, each hex is about 6 miles.

It is currently late Autumn and the sun is shining with a warm breeze in the air. The southern tip of the northeast hills, the onces that faces Qarn from the lake, is our destination.

We head out.

We do not encounter any beasts or men along the way as we come to the edge of the hills. Gil quickly spots the place which leads to an indent in the hills where the flooded cavern lies.

Rhinock brings out a magic longsword which glows out to 20' radius.

We can see that one of the hills has a few openings on the side but there is only one that has cool air coming out of it. Even from the outside we can hear the dripping of water and can see the moisture from in the cavern.

The Aspect is said to be a fickle and non-combative spirit, about the size of a cat yet swimming through the air. We must capture it quickly but it will be disturbed by activity and try to escape through the walls.

Maervahr, using Clairaudience, listens in about 30' into the cave. There are pools of water and a dripping. Maervahr hears a huge splash…something big jumped into a pool of water. We go inside to try and get surprise. Maervahr casts Shield on himself.

We go into the cavern. After about 40' we come across a flooded chamber which is about a few feet deep with some rocks that are scattered about. On top of three big rocks are two large Giant Frogs and two smaller Frogs. A 3rd Frog is in the water and it hops to charge at us!

The Giant Frogs have AC 7 and they are medium sized creatures.

Maervahr hits the other Giant Frog with a flask of burning oil. This toasts the one on the rock.

The Small Frogs can leap over the entire flooded cavern to engage in melee. Maervahr goes Psionically Invisible. We killed the two Smaller Frogs immediately.

The other Large Frog comes at us but does not engage in melee. The Frog shoots out a tongue at Rhinock and he gets an attack roll. Rhinock slices the tongue and Maervahr throws a dagger. It sinks in. Gil and Rhinock both charge, Maervahr goes back to Psionic Invisible. The other tongue is headed straight for Gil but he dodges it!

We defeated all the Frogs!

We shine the lantern toward the pool and can tell that it is 4.5 feet deep and it is clear water. There is a big cloud of dirt from one of the Frogs. We head to the right side of the cave and can see dirt on the bottom of the cave. It looks solid.

We find a larger area with no Frogs. It is wider with a 20' hallway that continues up. There is nothing in the water in this chamber but suddenly we hear two big splashes in the previous chamber. We continue north with Soul Devourer following along with us.

The way behind us remains in the darkness and we hear a big flopping noise and then another…are we being followed?

Our light opens into a large chamber with two thin passageways. There are also two big rocks and a smaller one. We see a flittering by the two openings of a ghostly snake. It's tongue is sticking out periodically as it moves and twists around itself. On each of the two smaller rocks is a Frog, the smaller variety.

We turn around and advance south. We get about 30' back and encounter, within the reach of our light about 30' away, are two large and two small Frogs.

They attack Rhinock with their long tongues and do 7 points of damage. The other tongue is attacking Gil but it misses. Gil and Rhinock both charge. Gil misses but Rhinock hits and kills the larger Frog.

The Frogs attack again but Rhinock gets an attack on the tongue first but misses. The tongue does 10 damage to him. Maervahr misses with a burning oil flask but it does splash damage for 2 and burns the Frog for 2 rounds.

On the next round Maervahr creeps up behind the Frogs. Gil and Rhinock attack and both hit. Gil crushes the large Frog and the 2 smaller Frogs leap to engage us in melee. Their attacks are coming in on Rhinock. They both would hit but he cuts down one of the tongues. Maervahr takes 3 damage from one of the Small Frogs but he stabs it. The fight continues but quickly, we kill all the Frogs.

The glowing snake is now gone but Maervahr went to check on it while Psionically Invisible.

We head west to try and cut it off through another passageway and find another flooded chamber on the north side. Here, we can see the Aspect of the Serpent again. Gil tries to advance very slowly through the water and starts wading through the water. He has a 4 in 6 chance to surprise because the Aspect does not care for physical things if they get within a close range.

Once again, it gets away and goes to the north through a smaller passageway. We head up the small passage in pursuit and find a staircase that opens up into a chamber. In this area, we can see that there is an obelisk at the far end. It is illuminated by the glow of the Aspect as it twists and turns around the dark stone obelisk as if it was at its nest. There are Runes and Sigils of Gil's god on the obelisk. This monument is like an altar to his god. It is a place of power built by someone of his religion long ago.

Gil goes around the edge of the room and approaches the Aspect indirectly. When he gets close to it he misses with the net. He can make a second throw at -2 but misses again.

The Aspect takes off at high speed since it was startled.

Afterwards, Rhinock reads the runes on the obelisk using his magic helmet. They talk about general scripture of the religion and he notices that a couple of letters straighten themselves out into understandable symbols that these symbols seem to be of a slightly different color and not completely connected to the obelisk. The symbols look like normal common words but the raised runes do not spell anything intelligible. Rhinock can tell that the obelisk seems to have something to do with summoning the Aspect initially. It does not talk about how to call it back to the obelisk.

As far as the runes that are raised, when Rhinock tells Gil what they are, he knows that the 4 letters spell a word. The word is the name of a famous poem in the Neferian religion. It is part of an epic odyssey about a hero of Nefer who was unmatched in faith and dauntless in spirt. The hero collected many treasures. This is the part of the tale where he builds a great structure to hide away all his treasure as an homage to his god. This word is just one of 12 different parts of the poem. We believe that there could be treasure here…

Gil touches the runes and they depress. He presses them down one by one and when he presses the 4th one, there is a loud stone grinding noise that starts up. We watch as the OBELISK RETRACTS into the floor and reveals a hidden area beneath the cavern. It is a small, 10' x 10' room in the center, beneath the obelisk. There are coins and a potion within. Electrum…

Gil knows that this is not considered holy treasure.

There is a total of 450 pp, 1,150 ep and a potion that, when tasted, makes Gil feel lighter.

Maervahr searches around and does not find anything out of place in the cavern. We take bags of treasure to the cart.

Our Horsemen Mercs look extremely curious about the coin filled bags but they take the Giant Frog legs to eat. We hear the whispered words “psion” among them in apparent suspicion. Gil asks Maervahr to throw the net from Psionic Invisibility.

We return to the cavern and head to the west passage this time. There is a light that passes over more Frogs. There are 4 of them. This room is rimmed by dry land. As we enter, all the Frogs leap in one huge bound.

Everyone is now in melee. Gil and Rhinock both hit while Rhinock kills one immediately. There are now 3 left and Rhinock hits again dealing 9 damage. Gil misses this time and there are now 2 shooting tongues at Gil. Gil retaliates and hits, which kills one!

We kill all the Frogs and continue up the passage.

It is a 30' wide passageway that ends in an area that looks thin and long. The center of long chamber is somewhat flooded and the end is completely flooded. We find the Aspect is floating in the dead center of the water. Gil wants to get within medium range.

The Aspect escapes and we go through the small passageway to the north. It is another very thin passage that goes north. Maervahr uses Psionic Clairaudience to listen ahead and he can hear a croak. Gil switches to his bow and we proceed forward. We find another flooded area and there are two additional Large Frogs along with two Smaller Frogs. We also see 3 Medium Frogs and 2 more small ones. There are now all in melee with our group…

Maervahr kills 2 with a Burning Hands spell and there are still 2 medium and a small Frog here. Rhinock and Gil kill 2 each and then Gil crushes the remaining small one with his mace in a heavy crushing blow. There is now only 1 medium Frog left.

We kill all the Frogs and proceed forward.

This room is all flooded and was otherwise empty except for all the Frogs that were in here. There is a corridor going northwest but that way gets too small. We see a column of blue white light coming up from the square where the obelisk had sunk down.

Gil creeps up and can see the Aspect. He finally gets it with the net and the Aspect is caught! The magic net wraps around the thing. The edges are weighted as the net drops to the ground with the Aspect inside. It is unmoving inside the net which now looks like a glowing ball. It feels strange to Gil due to its ethereal nature.

We exit the flooded caverns and find that our treasure is all there. The Mercs are waiting on us patiently. They want to get closer but are all scared of Maervahr now.

We head back to Qarn.

There are multiple temples in Qarn and there is a temple to Riswa, though not big, here but the Nefer temple is the big one. Ten, Sleal, and Nefer are the biggest temples in Qarn but temples to all gods exist here, despite that. Qarn is on the edge of a big lake which is about 20 miles long. There are big plains in the center between the forest and the hills. The village of Farius lies to the north with a small Thorpe across the lake.

The main road goes through Qarn all the way to Mombafra. It is said that the hills are populated with people and flying monsters but they fall under the protection of Mombafra, at least some of them. There are also some Hermits known to live in this area.

30 miles south of Mombafra is a monastery of Monks. Qarn is known for its famous cheese and good fishing. Lots of trade happens here as the passing Merchant companies come here. Overall, there is tons of activity in this city.

Northwest of Qarn is an old abandoned castle that has completely fallen into ruin. There are also old ruined structures dotting the hills. Word currently is that the ruined castle has been abandoned for some time and may have been taken by Bandit groups and monsters. There might be Wolves and Boar in the area for hunting but the ruins look completely inactive. The buildings on the hills are the ruins of an OLD city built long long ago.

Some people believe that the old city was abandoned and had weird religious rituals within its walls. One day everyone just decided to leave on their own. Eventually the people became Nomadic tribes. Others think the city was destroyed by Dragons and some think the city fell to ruin due to the mundane passage of time. There are rumors that there are dungeons underneath and that they are dangerous to explore but not unheard of for some adventurers to return.

Gil knows the head priest of the Nefer temple. It is a woman named YISIL.

Gil presents the captured Aspect to the the priestess and Yisil accepts the Aspect. It may be difficult to find ones that will serve one of the noble deities of these realms and she says she would be happy to provide training for Gil.

On the other hand, Gren is loaded with people that worship Riswa, and they are not very friendly to the Nefer worshippers. However, most people of Qarn are obsessed with money.

Gils debts have now been paid.

The party plans to depart and we find an inn in Gren.

Qarn is lorded over by Lady Qarn, who is level 11. It has beautiful vistas with many public executions. Maervahr picks up some Qarn cheese which he is quite fond of. Gil goes to watch some of the executions. The execution is of alleged spy frim Criss Antha. It is not the first time someone has been killed for being a spy here…

At the base of platform there are 3 kegs of beer located near the platform. Everyone is carrying cups and tankards, drinking and enjoying themselves. It is part of the Harvest Moon festival.

Maervahr finds a Magic-User in town. They dwell in a couple story high building on the lake side of the city and is of the 13th level of experience, higher than Lady Qarn. This Magic-User does have apprentices but does not often talk to visitors but rather to delegates of his servants. He has a tower away from town and of course has this tower in city as well.

We head back to Gren across the plains and have no trouble on the plains.

After reaching Gren, we rest for a day before heading back to AKEMELEDAIN to the south with a plan to confront the Hydra. The party eventually reaches the forest with the entrance to the caverns. These woods look so much more mundane than the fairy woods to the north. This area of the woods are related more to the region of the Hollow which is one of the greatest forests in these lands. It it is really quite huge.

We arrive to the cave safely and we inspect the entrance way. There are no signs of creatures having been here recently. After our lanterns are lit, we go into the cave indicated by the scrawlings of a map. It was passed to us from other adventurers from some months ago.

The caves are now completely cleared of bodies but we do find a few bones. As we continue inside, we discover the entrance to the place known as AKEMELEDAIN…and we open it. With a low grinding noise, the doors open. There are a set of stairs the go down to a landing.

Just inside is a wall that has a mutilated mural. Maervahr uses Clairaudience to listen but he hears nothing further within. We head toward the archway to see what lies ahead. The whole area is flooded and depressed in the north of this area. The water is not deep, only about a half of a foot. Maervahr uses Clairaudience again and hears nothing more to the north.

We step carefully through the water and head further north. We find another room that is entirely flooded.

We are not surprised. A light shines through archway which opens up into another room. The floor seems to slope up to the west, through that archway.

Suddenly, a 5 headed hydra steps through. It has AC 5.

Maervahr goes psionically invisible and falls back. Gil shoots the left most head and we retreat to the first room. The Hydra crashes through the water and comes into the archway. The 4 remaining heads attack Gil with 1 of them on Rhinock. It misses Rhinock but there are 2 hits on Gil which does a total of 9 damage.

Rhinock hits the Hydra and slices off one of the heads while Gil crushes in the head, destroying another. There are 3 heads that remain. Maervahr fills entire archway with a WEB spell. The Hydra is completely strung up by the spell. It begins to thrash and twist and it is still completely stuck at the end of the round. Maervahr believes that it may not hold for more than a couple of rounds. As it tries to pull itself out, it appears that it cannot move away.

As it remains helpless, Gil kills one of the heads and one remaining head roars with a fury. Two of Maervahr's daggers strike it in the mouth and neck and the Hydra is done.

Haans Blackrock has been avenged!

6 turns pass without any further events and the Web spell dissipates. The body of the Hydra slumps back and crashes in the water. There is lots of water and blood. We cut up the Hydra to look for anything inside of value.

Maervahr collects Hydra Blood and Hydra Scales.

We head to the Hydra's original room to search around. We walk through the blood and water and up the ramp and into an elevated room, This appears to be the lair of the Hydra. It is a grissly scene of terribly rended and partially consumed creatures. There are goblin skulls, a broken bow and it laired upon a huge pile of coins. There are 1,000s of copper and electrum, a pearl and some jewelry. We also find an ivory stud in a shark tooth form but more beautiful than any of the other treasure is a pair of earrings set with alexandrite.

We look for signs of Haans Blackrock's body and find the skeleton of a sturdy dwarf. It is unfortunately, totally stripped of everything except it still grips an axe. We will bury Haans Blackrock with his axe.

Maervahr uses Clairaudience to listen beyond the doors and passageways. Through middle passage he can hear a slight shift of something, like a palm sized rock that shifts on the floor.

Gil takes back some of the severed heads of the Hydra along with the body of Haans Blackrock.

Back to Gren.

We have:

• 1 potion.
• 1150 ep.
• 450 pp.

From the Hydra:

• 6000 cp,
• 3000 ep,
• A yellow pearl with a 200 gp value.
• An ivory studded shark tooth worth 100 gp.
• Some silver earrings of 3000 gp value.

We can get 2400 gp for the earrings after the sale at 80%.

Divided up, we get 2000 cp each, 150 pp each, 1383 ep each, 900 gp each, 600 gp for Maervahr. The magic potion goes to Gil.

• 150 pp
• 900 gp (or 600 + pearl & shark tooth)
• 1383 ep (+1 for Rhinok)
• 2000 cp

XP:

• 2682 xp for Maervahr.
• 3082 for Gil.

Maervahr needs 4500 gp for Level 4 training.

FOLLOW UP NOTES:

Maervahr is now fluent in Elvish and is learning Orcish from Ithimyr and others.