Ithimyr and Maervahr are both ready on the 14th (8-14-494).

The Character Roster:

• VRAS SKAG- HALF-ORC ASN 2, AC 5/8.
• ITHIMYR SARFANIS - HALF-ELF CLR 4 / RGR 3.
• GIL BUISARME - HALF-ORC CLR 2 / FTR 3.
• GHRUL OAKBARREL - HALF-ORC FTR 3, AC 1/3.
• MORRIC GRIMSSON - DWARF FTR 4, AC 1/3.
• BROTHER NORRIS - HUMAN CLR 1 AC 3.

Ithimyr owes 300 gp in upkeep (paid). He Contracted no diseases or parasites.

We are returning to the HAUNTED RUINS.

Last time, we found a curtain / tapestry, a hole like a hobbit hovel that was locked with two key holes. Dan pulled off the hinges and then became trapped in a magic room with a spirit thing. It was called Lorelei and it tried to kill them. Morric and Vras managed to destroy it.

Dan has been acting strangely lately. Seemingly devoid of emotion. His speech is changed and he is obsessively looking for books in Gren until he disappeared.

We were heading west to Gren to find out if Rinn's pact been severed. In 14 days he will owe his soul to fulfill the pact. Rudolph says he does not feel any different. They did have remove curse cast on him but it also had no effect. He did not sign any pact just a verbal pact made with the spirit called Lorelai. This happened 10 years ago when Rinn saw the spirit appear in the center of the ruins. He made deal with it who said after the time is up, his soul would need to return to the well.

Today it is RAINING very heavily. We are bringing the Ox and Cart as well as our mounts with us as we ride out. During the rainstorm we pass by the western lake and give it a wide berth. The lake appears to be flooded and muddy on the western end. Our Ox performs adequately in the mud as lightning flashes over the sky above the ruins. Despite this, we encounter no trouble on the way.

We observe and estimate that not more than 100 people were living in this place, judging by the number of ruins. There are no roofs on the buildings as they have all since collapsed. The center of the ruins contains the ring of stones. They once had runes on them but are now missing the tops as if they were partially shattered off.

There are no signs of any Ghouls this time but when we get close to the center, Ithimyr notices clear large footprints around the mausoleum structure. One set of prints goes inside as if made by a large creature with 4 legs.

Ithimyr crosses into the center of the circle to inspect the tracks and he can identify them as a Hydra. They go into the mausoleum and do not come out. There is no telling if this creature left during the day or if it is a new arrival. Standing around by the mausoleum are a collection of footprints that head off to the north. It looks like a large group of Orcs, around 15 to 25 that passed this way in the last 2 days. They seem to go in and out.

The doors to the mausoleum look heavy but are not dungeon doors. Each door has a heavy vertical stone handle. Upon closer inspection, there are streaks of mud that were left recently within the last day. Only the overhanging roof has allowed them to be preserved despite the heavy rains. There appears to be signs of the Hydra entering this place.

Inspecting the door we see no signs of stone panels. Ghrul leans on the door with a crack of lightning seen overhead. He opens it and the door opens up to a 20' room. The floor is cracked along the edges of the walls and there is a musty smell to the room. A corridor goes left and right with signs of mud being dragged down the left corridor.

The corridor opens into a different very big room. We find there is furniture in that room. On the western wall is a stone throne that is featureless, rectangular and blocky. It is built directly into the side of the wall. On the north wall is a shrine with signs of Foresi which includes a stone bowl. The bowl is 2 inches thick and can be held easily. The corridor south has an eerie blue glow that pulses and there is also a corridor going north.

Ghrul picks up the bowl on the shrine to Foresi and finds that it is surprisingly light. It feels comfortable in his hands as if it might hold a gallon of liquid. It is not necessarily a tool for holy water but for any or other kinds of liquids.

The trail of mud ends in this corridor but there is dripping water in the south half of the room. We find no further or definitive trail here.

Ghrul intends to take the bowl which does not have any added weight.

After some inspection, Ithimyr finds no markings or switches on the throne. The construction is so angular that it looks painful to sit in. Gil taps the wall behind the throne and on the seat. It does actually seem hollow.

We can see a stand or a statue to the south that is emanating with a blue glow. It is a large stone cylinder that the light pulses and radiates from. It is filling the entire room with light and it looks like a well.

This Well is full of spirits and we can see a spirit that looks like Rudolph Rinn and one that looks like Dan. It looks to be made from cairn stones that are arranged in a perfect circle. A Bless spell or an Exorcism might have an effect on this. The Bless may have a chance of failing and causing anger to the powers that created this Well of Souls. Ithimyr does not know the power level that effects this well but if it is a higher level chance to succeed, multiple Clerics casting Bless will be additive, to increase the success chance. If we fail, the spirits could also become angered.

We find that the throne was actually rock solid. In the flashing glow of the well of souls, we can see another door to the west. The other side goes down a hallway. After about 60' inside, the light passes over another archway where we can see several pig faced Orcs! They were waiting for us to come down the hallway!

These Orcs are equipped with battle axes and shields so they have AC 6 type 6.

Hold Person was cast by Ithimyr and 3 Orcs are now held with the Hold Person spell. Vras kills one instantly and 2 are now wounded. 3 of the Orcs charge into battle. Morric deflects an attack while Ghrul dodges another attack. The 3 other Orcs cant get an attack because of the hallway width. 4 more of the Orcs head just outside of our vision at running speed. There are only 6 that are now in melee.

Ithimyr switches to his spear to attack from a second rank. The Orcs in the back jeer and shout at us while they all miss their attacks. Vras Skag disappears. Ithimyr pierces through one bringing it down and so does Morric. Another is sliced open in a brutal blow. There are now only 3 in the line to take the places of the ones we just cut down.

Ithimyr does a fighting withdrawal to meet with Vras who just kills one of the Orcs as I join him in the back. There are now only 4 left in the back well room,

Suddenly, the door slams open and the walls shake as a 5 headed Hydra barges in!

Morric attempts to drink a Potion of Giant Strength to charge the back of the line with Ithimyr. Gil calls out for help while Vras is not in melee any longer. The Hydra enters the room and puts its feet up on the well to get a strike on someone inside.

• Ithimyr engages the Hydra in melee.
• Morric drinks the mysterious potion and he is filled with the strength of a Stone Giant. He now has a +8 damage bonus and can hurl rocks at a rate of 16“ for 1-12 damage, has a 60% bend bars chance and the potion effect lasts for 70 minutes.

There are now 4 attacks against Morric but Morric dodges all of the attacks! Morric charges in with his two-handed sword and has a total +5 to hit.

Morric slices off one Hydra head which now has only 4 heads left.

Vras killed one Orc and now there are 3 left. They are attacking Vras now with 1 against Brother Norris. 2 of the Orcs hit Vras along with 2 heads that bite him for a total of 7 damage.

Ithimyr removes one of the Hydra heads with his blade. Morric also decapitates a head along with Gil. Now there is only one Hydra head remaining. Gil charges the orcs and cuts one down. The Orcs must make a morale roll, which fails, and they throw down their axes and collapse to the ground in surrender. The Orcs begin shouting and backing up with their knees.

The Hydra has lost 4 heads and makes a morale check. It fails and tries to run but we slaughter it utterly. The Hydra's foot kicks up against the well and dislodges a cairn stone. We see a perfectly smooth stone descend into the abyss which never reaches the bottom. Inside the Well of Souls is an endless abyss.

Brother Norris and Gil had killed the remaining Orcs.

Vras is in a coma for a week after he fell to the Hydra. Ithimyr was able to cast Cure Light Wounds which restored him but he still must remain on bedrest.

The Hydra is bleeding into a pool. The party loots the bodies of the Orcs, of which a total of 14 Orcs were slain in this battle. We collect 13 suits of ring mail, 13 battle axes, 13 shields and 88 electrum coins.

The room beyond opens up to the encampment of this group of Orcs. Inside, we can see a door on the eastern wall and a bunch of sacks.

There is 1200 sp inside. We also find a wooden chest that looks like it was dragged in here as it left scratches on the stone floor from some brass fasteners. The chest was set behind one of the bed rolls. Morric opens the wooden chest meanwhile Vras comes back to consciousness during this time. His wounds were already healed.

The chest was previously broken open but contains 3750 cp. On top of the coins is a wooden scroll case with a scroll that has arcane runes. We ignore the copper coins.

Morric opens up the door to the Hydra den which is a thin and long chamber. There are old reeds, organic refuse and dirt spread all around along with a moist smell to the place. We cannot see the back of the room.

We proceed down into the chamber. This room has the sign of a long term nest for the beast but we find what we are looking for and there is much electrum and gold.

1650 ep. 550 gp.

We do not find anything else in the room besides these coins. Gil looks for secret doors but finds none. Morric goes to open the south door but it is locked. We can break down the door with an axe, so we do so.

The door splinters everywhere. On the far wall is a portal with about a half-a-halfling sized door that is torn off. The portal is magic and is a swirling portal full of blue and white light. The tapestry that was here before was taken and sold already.

Morric opens the east door that lies past Orc lair. It opens into a corridor that bends like a pipe that leads to another door. We discover another large chamber where the place smells of death. There are numerous animal, Human, Elf and Dwarf bones scattered around. They all have horrible teeth marks on them. Through the north door is a fungal stench and we can hear crying through the east wall.

We open the last door and we find a 30' x 30' room filled with a bunch of Shrieker mushrooms that scream!

Morric charges in and deals a strong blow to one with Gil who cuts one down. Ithimyr casts Silence and when the spell goes off, they all hear absolutely nothing.

Nothing has come so far from the shrieking and by the time we destroy them we find that the Shriekers did not attract anything.

We can still hear some faint sobbing but we do not find anything else in the room. Ithimyr finds a crack indicative of a secret door. Morric can see that the wall pushes inward.

We load up the cart and there are Hydra heads that we bring back to sell. Vras gets soaked with Hydra blood.

We reach the tip of the lake and then head north but then we realize that the noise we heard is not thunder. Rather, it is the approach of some individuals. They let out a battlecry. It is a Horde of Hobgoblins! We can see them through the reeds. There are about 50 to 100 Hobgoblins.

The party manages to evade the horde and we continue riding up to Gren. We make it back without any further issue.

We must cast a Bless spells on the Well of Souls to restore Rudolph Rinn and Dan their souls. There are two options: either we can try to convince Sira to perform an Exorcism, which is not safe and she will not be happy about that, or the other option is to do a Bless, combined amongst several of us as Clerics. If we fail the Bless, something bad might happen.

The rain storm has not abated in the past few days.

The next day, with our Cleric characters, we set back out for the Haunted Ruins.

We get back there without any incident along the road. The breeze brings on the scent of a fire but with the heavy wind and rain, this could be anything. It is only a whiff of smoke so there is no information on how to avoid it, in case we need to.

We descend out of the rain into the mausoleum. The hired Porters come down and we proceed toward the Well of Souls that still glows with all the souls captured within.

We gather around the well and begin with the casting of the Bless spells. There is a +80% chance to use a Bless to restore the souls. We begin praying using 4 different traditions, from at total of 4 Clerics. The room pulses with the holy light of our deities.

The invisible barrier on the surface of the well suddenly SHATTERS! Light shoots out of the well and shards fly around throughout the room and straight toward us. Then they dissolve into dust…with a great woosh, all of the souls in the Well begin pouring out! There are countless souls that stream out in a thin pillar and rise through the roof.

Then, with a snap, it all disappears. The air settles and the only light left in here is from the lantern and the magic sword.

Ghrul drops a rock down into the Well of Souls which plunks down into the darkness. Vras Skag descends down into the well and finds a very small room. It is no cavern or anything and this well was not intended to hold water. However, at the bottom of the well, Vras finds something stretched across the side of the well. It looks like a shining net made of thin strands of rope. It is pulled taught across the well. In the lantern light it glimmers with an unnatural beauty. The net is firmly secured to the walls of the well but the loops are not closed or anything.

In the mud are all sorts of glimmering silver coins. We find a total of:

2600 sp. Vras removes the net and finds that it feels stronger than any rope than he has ever felt. As if made by the gods.

All of the coins are in a loose pile.

The net is now in Kara's possession. We grab the silver coins and the net.

We can still hear the muffled crying of a little girl in the other room. Brother Norris can hear the child crying through the walls. We can see that somehow, the secret door will open. We decide to force it and we open it with a mighty heft. Our light pours in over many countless contents of a hidden storeroom. There are all sorts of tools, like a storehouse of a small town. It will take a while to search the entire thing.

In the center of the room, through the shelf, we notice that there is a metal spike hovering at about a 6' height. That also the direction from where the crying comes. It forms into a quiet voice that says, “Please, Please, Kill…me”.

Brother Norris becomes grim and Gil steps out from around the shelf. He sees tables and chairs and an over-cluttered library. Everything is stored on these high shelves. In the center of the room, directly under the spike and laying on the ground in the dust is a finely made stuffed bear, the kind a little girl would have. The voice continues to speak and it begs over and over to “kill it”.

Brother Norris picks up the doll and examines it. The doll looks like it was dyed with berries but it is mostly a dark brown color. As he lifts it up off the ground. The voice begs further to Brother Norris to kill it, over and over again. “Please kill me”. The voice is cracking with frustration and fear. We detect no heat signatures other than from us.

Ithimyr goes up to the floating spike and grab it by covering it with a sack. We will then search the whole room for 3 turns. Gil finds an upholstered chair that is quite valuable. The porters take the chair out. Ithimyr finds among the cloths that there is a large oriental rug that was concealed under everything, even though the back is covered in dirt. We are sure that by its design that it is of ancient Cradlelands make. The Cradlelands is where most humans and adventurers came from originally. This is an incredibly valuable rug. Among the flagons and baubles we find that one of the old clay flagons is actually a strangely shaped flask that is corked and apparently made of ash wood.

Morric is going to sip the flask. He does so and concludes that this is most likely a POTION OF INVISIBILITY (most likely).

The floor of the room to the north is decorated with an engraving that is divided into sections. There is a door on the left wall. Ithimyr casts Find Traps and sees that his spell indicates clearly through this door that there is a trap. specifically, a trap in the floor.

We check through the door and see that the trap spreads across the entire area. In his trap vision, there is a connecting part of the trap that goes to a square section of one wall.

Gil pops open the panel and looks inside to find in the section, there is a lever. It is sticking vertically up and can be pulled back. Gil pulls the lever.

We hear heavy mechanisms of stone adjust. Ithimyr can tell that the pulling of the lever disabled the traps in the room. No more traps in the room beyond, all have been disabled.

Inside this area we find:

* A suit of Halfling or Gnome sized plate mail. * 2500 cp, * A metal key in the pile.

Gil searches for loose flagstones in the center of the room and finds that they were set firmly in place long ago.

After gathering up the treasure, we head out and make for Gren.

We make it back unhindered!

The treasure:

• 2500 cp = 12.5 gp
• 13 battle axes = 32.5 gp
• 13 shields, wooden = 6.5 gp
• 13 suits of ring mail = 195 gp
• 88 ep = 44 gp
• 1200 sp = 60 gp
• A valuable chair is worth 80 gp
• A valuable rug is worth 790 gp
• An ash flask (given to Vras Skag)
• The hydra heads worth 1000 gp
• 1650 ep (825 gp)
• 550 gp
• An arcane scroll worth 2100 gp with the following spells: fly, minor globe of invulnerability.
• A magic net 7500 gp, actually it sells for 5625 gp
• A tigers eye gem 1400 gp

Rudolph has been restored to wholeness once we check on him in town. It is as if something he has lost a long time ago has been returned to him. He says that Maervahr and everyone else deserve thanks. He gives us the promised reward: a Tigers Eye gem worth 1400 gp and the Stone Cottage in Gren. It has 2 floors, an attic and a basement with a lock.

Rudolph needs the two Hydra heads and he will pay us 1000 gp for the pair.

To refit the halfling sized armor is 40 gp so Gil gets the armor.

2120 xp

For Ithimyr: 2272 xp divided up is 1136 RGR and 1250 CLR.

Our shares: 1963 gp, 289 ep, 633 sp, 416 cp. (Ithimyr pays 2000 gp toward his loan, takes out -37 gp from his bank)

One person takes the tiger eye + 563 gp.

The magic net has a powerful magic aura as does the plate mail, quite powerful. The ash flask has a minor aura and there is also a strong aura on the stone bowl. We can also see a strong aura on some small object inside the doll.

Ithimyr takes the seemingly haunted doll.