The group decides what we will be doing this session and plan on going back to the massive Stone Chalice located in the woods north of Gren.

• Gil has some connections in town who have told him about a conversation that they overheard. A group of 8 people that passed through Gren were discussing an expedition. There were 7 people that were heavily armed, including a Magic-User, in this group. There is a small, unassuming tower located in the northern hills. Their conversation said that there is treasure to be found but it is protected by a Fire Drake. The tower was constructed by a follower of Bel who were know to have many burial sites with treasure.

The trio of characters were:

• Ithimyr Sarfanis - Cleric 3 / Ranger 4, AC 1/3. 400 gp upkeep (paid). Wields a +2 longsword.
• Zenobia - Magic-User AC 6/8.
• Rhinock - Fighter AC -1/3.

The weather is clear and dry with no clouds.

We leave Gren for the northern woods and travel for a couple hours toward the direction of the Stone Chalice. While we are just outside of Gren, Ithimyr does not find any tracks and there are no tracks leading into the forest. We head deeper into the woods while going along the river. We can see about 50' ahead that there is a corpse is a dead Koalinth. There are 4 corpses and they each have deep claw wounds that were made by something that is bigger than a dog. We can also tell that they were burned by a large jet of flame when something seared them from behind. The grass near the bodies was burned as well and it appears to be a few weeks old with small rat or animal bites on it. However, it also appears that no larger creatures have disturbed them.

We notice that it is quiet here and for some reason there are no animals around.

Besides their armor and weapons the Koalinth had coin pouches. We find 60 cp and 11 gp.

• 60 cp.
• 11 gp.
• 4 halberds.

Snowy, the familiar of Zenobia, flies around above us and we head closer to the Stone Chalice. The Chalice top has a bunch of branches and leaves and it resembles a large nest. There is no movement around by the river.

We are looking for a place close to the river where we can hide our mounts. As we look around, Ithimyr notes that he has not seen any deer in the forest. After some investigation, it appears that a great beast with three heads arrived in the area and slaughtered all the Koalinths in the area. It was here as recently as 4 hours ago, near sunrise. It was close to when the sun came up when the creature left. The creature seems to go hunting at dawn and at dusk and likely kills anything larger than a bird. It returns to the Chalice a bit before it gets high in the sky.

We can hide the mounts in a mouth of the earth that we found. It is located about a quarter of a mile to the south west. We know that sometimes Boar or Wolves will set their lair in these type of holes. As a result, Ithimyr uses his Speak With Animals spell to speak with a nearby bird. The bird tells us take a short walk about 10 minutes to the south west where we can find a collection of trees of the maple types. We can find a boulder covered in moss.

The group decides to follow the birds advice. It takes a half hour to get there but the cave looks empty and it is not flooded. We do see some old bones inside but nothing has lived in here for a while. Otherwise, it is totally empty. We drop off the mounts and it takes us 10 minutes to get back to where we were. The area around the Chalice where the Koalinths had an encampment is now a graveyard. There was nothing left that was big enough to drag away. We look up at the large branches and grasses hanging off the top of the chalice, We can see that this nest takes up the entire top of chalice.

We loot what is left of the Koalinth encampment in 10 minutes and we gather up a bunch of coin pouches.

• 404 cp.
• 132 gp.

There is an open archway leading down into the Chalice base and as we head down, we are moving at 5x our normal speed. We estimate that we have about 1 hour of safety before the Chimera would be coming back. We quickly descend into the Chalice and find that the entry is as we left it during our previous explorations. There is a door to the west and the altar to an ancient eldritch god. We can see the circle and a statue over there along with a stone door leading to the east. The stone door is locked and has a keyhole…but who has a key?

To the north east was a small temple or church with an altar to the stars that depicted a long worm, like a Star Worm. Inside this room is a slate covered floor with 7 pointed stars depicted on the floor. Previously, they found a box with bone dust. Inside the altar room, we looks at the Star Worm and see that it is colored purple, a very deep color. The group previously stole a platter off of the altar and a book that they read.

We know that casting a spell into the snake (worm?) will open a door. There was a hint to cast a spell into the snake. When Ithimyr casts Protection from Evil into the statue, we hear a grinding noise to the north. We push open the door and the door rises. This room matches the other room dimensionally but has no stairs. Inside are 12 sarcophagi all of which are closed. There is also a large metal trunk which is currently closed.

Ithimyr uses 4 iron spikes to hold open the door.

It looks like this room has been sealed off for a long time. Rhinock looks for any writing and finds some small engravings with ancient common names of people, of both men and women. Nobody has these names anymore. The writing contains only their names which are flanked by two 7 pointed stars. The two stars are colored in on one of the sarcophagi.

Zenobia inspects the sarcophagi and she has a 35% chance to find traps. She can tell that the etching was dyed but there is no hole or button. The sarcophagi is built into the floor and there are fine bits of stone gathered on the floor. This one is part of the floor and looks very old and dry. We investigate for any traps on the box, which is 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. There is a big steel latch on either side but on the right side only is a near invisible needle sticking out from under the latch. Zenobia snaps away the needle and opens the box. Inside is a brown colored object that looks like a thick roll of vellum.

Ithimyr wears the helmet and looks at the scroll. He can see arcane runes that forms into a map leading from the Chalice and goes two miles to the south east. It leads into a cave.

There is a thin sheet of metal that is flush with the sides of chest. We dumped the chest over to lift it up and we bang it out as if we held the chest upside down. We sacked the coins and Zenobia knocks the sheet loose and pulls it out easily. There is a small indentation inside that contains a key. Key is black and made of metal.

• 120 pp.
• 400 gp.
• TREASURE MAP leading to a cave in the south east.
• 12 burial shrouds worth 50 gp each.

We start lifting the tops off the sarcophagi and find burial shrouds that are a beautiful quality. They lie flat against the bottom but some are scrunched up a bit as if they were dropped gently. There is also a little slot, about a daggers width. We tap on the walls but all of them seem solid. We might have a half an hour before dusk and then the Chimera presumably returns.

We return to the ritual room and tap along southern door. There is a stone door leading to the east and we use the key on the door. The tumbler falls into place and we push open the door…and it opens… Our magic swords both glow. Their light is spread over the entire room. We can see about 50' inside and notice a door on the right wall. There is also a statue of a caped human holding an astrolabe or an orb as though it was an orb of great power. There is a very old brass plate on the base of the statue and there are no pressure plates that Ithimyr can see. Rhinock shines his light on it and the plaque reads “THE ARDENT SEEKER”.

Standing next to the statue is an astrolabe is made of brass. Rhinock grabs the astrolabe and see that there is some kind of connection between the statue and the hand. He gives it a slight jostle and parts of the device move slightly. It is composed of 7 rings and a bunch of the rings are connected. Each one can be spun and each one has a star on it.

Ithimyr investigates the statue while Rhinock investigates the astrolabe. He finds no markings on it except for the stars with each one having an equal amount of space. As for the statue, it is built into the ground and on the area behind the statue, on the floor, is a panel. It looks like there is a crease that has been sanded down and filled in to provide no tolerance.

After studying the panel, Ithimyr listens at the door to the south to see if anything approaches or makes a sound.

The rings of the astrolabe spin in the same plane as they rotate but they do not shift.

After hearing no noise, Ithimyr goes back to the panel and believes he could dig through the mortar around it. Using his dagger, he shatters away some of the mortar. Suddenly, we hear a shambling sound and we get into our battle positions.

The door to the south creaks open and with it comes the smell of death. 12 Zombies shamble in, each wearing multiple layers of cloth at one time as if sheets hanging off their decayed fleshy naked forms.

Ithimyr immediately uses turn undead and he manages to turn 1 Zombie.

They have AC 8. We kill one in the first round and Zenobia hits one for 2 damage. Ithimyr is truck by one of the Zombies and takes 6 damage. Having a previous success, Ithimyr turns undead once again and manages to turn all of the rest of them. Zenobia and Rhinock hit one as they attempt to leave. Turned monsters can still be attacked without breaking the turning attempt.

We continue to attack them as they flee. Ithimyr hits one for 6 damage and Rhinock for 8. We can see clearly into the room from whence they came. There is rubble and threads of a tapestry hanging from a wall. The Zombies flee in either direction and we charge them from behind. The room looks like a winged area and contains pieces of wood that looks like the parts of a broken chair. There is also rubble on other side of the rough hewn walls, which are very rough and have multiple irregularities.

These Zombies do not have any sarcophagii indicating that they did not emerge from a burial. There is thick dust on the ground that has been standing in one place for centuries.

We hit two more of the Zombies for 6 damage each which destroys 2 more…then again and 2 more are destroyed. In the next round, Ithimyr destroys 1 and then they turn to face us. There are 2 on Ithimyr and 3 Zombies on Rhinock. The Zombies have overcome the turning! One Zombie hits Rhinock for 1 damage.

The fight continues until we kill all of the Zombies.

We investigate the rooms.

There is the broken chair and the hanging strands of a tapestry on the southern wall.

Zenobia loots whatever might be found from the Zombies.

The chair does not have anything peculiar about it but it is made of ash wood. Zenobia finds some stuff in the remnants of the Zombie's robes but no coinage. She find something sewn into the pocket that was attached sometime after the robe was made a piece of shitty twine. It is formed into the shape of something and it jangles a bit.

Inside the pocket was a thick impressive necklace made of platinum and a chain that connects part of of it. The rest of the necklace is fashioned into big platinum rectangles and on each one are inset little blue gems on either side. The necklace is in very good shape despite its age. The platinum rectangles alone are very heavy and the gems appear to be sapphires on the necklace.

There is nothing else of value found in this room but Ithimyr goes to investigate the threads of the tapestry. He finds that there is not enough of them left to make out any symbols that may have once adorned it. However, he DOES find that right in front of him, at about knee height, is a crease in the stone wall. Ithimyr pulls a rock out from that wall and it crumbles and he is now holding a chunk of boulder. Inside of this part of the wall is a hidden compartment containing some copper coins.

• 1,200 cp (we left it behind).

We check for more secret doors and find that the wall to the north is hollow. Zenobia moves the Astrolabe and finds that it has a tactile resistance at some positions. She aligns each one of the star shapes along a notch in the design and sees that it can be made to face the statues head. When all the stars are facing the statue, the wall to the north rumbles and kicks open a cloud of dust and lowers into the ground.

We have found a secret room!

Inside the secret room is a chest, bound in steel and made of heavy wood. It is located in the center of the secret room. We noticed that the chest is strangely tall, or weirdly tall but otherwise looks normal. There is a keyhole in the center where it latches. Overall, the chest is 3 feet tall. We find that the same stone door key will fit the lock. Zenobia pushes it in and looks for any needle holes.

She finds that the tall chest opens from the side. The chest opens and Zenobia finds that the lid is quite heavy but still manages to open it. Inside are some coins.

• 1,500 ep.

When she opens it all the way she also finds that it houses a pair of bracers held between two metal forks. These bracers come of their hooks easily and the forks vibrate. The bracers are unmarked but are made from interconnected leather. Zenobia puts on the bracers to see if they do anything and she is now wearing leather. Zenobia feels more defensive with the new bracers.

We return to the center room as the door begins to shut. This happened after Rhinock messed with the Astrolabe.

Zenobia sends Snowy out to investigate outside for the Chimera that nests here. Snowy flutters up the stairs and goes to the landing when she loses sight of her. Zenobia feels emotional fear from her companion. It imparts that the Great Chimera's paw is dangling off the top of the chalice. It is currently around noon.

Chalice is so high up that it rises above the forest tree line. About 100 yards away, or 14“, from the Chalice is where we found the underwater exit.

Ithimyr casts Sanctuary before going to open the door leading to the underwater exit. We get into the magic bubble found under the river and take 5 doses of the water breathing moss, or 1 for each of us and our animals as we walk along the bottom of the river while magically breathing. We walk south along the river bottom for nearly an hour. Eventually, we head up the side of the riverbank to climb up and out of the river. We judge our bearings and can find our cart and mounts in the next hour.

When we got to surface, we did not see anything dangerous and have successfully evaded the sleeping Chimera. We start heading back to Gren when suddenly a loud mosquito droning is heard from the horizon. It is a cloud of Stirges that are heading straight toward us! They are 7” away.

Ithimyr misses the Stirges with his bow and they engage us in melee. He then grab his shield and sword and starts swinging. Zenobia casts a spell and Sleep goes off!. The Stirges are 1+1 HD so 8 HD are effected. 7 of them are put to Sleep and they fall out of the sky. We kill all 7 of them!

There are obvious signs of a Stirge nest in the area and there can be as many as 30 Stirges in a nest. We also know where their nest is, but we leave it alone.

We make it back to Gren just after dark.

After Detect Magic is cast, we see that the bracers are magic.

We rest for 2 days before setting out again, to follow up on the Treasure Map!

We look at the Treasure Map that leads into the forest, about 2 miles southeast of the Chalice. We bring Snowy and Chomper, the guard dog with us. We also believe that the Druids may be interested in knowing about the Chimera, so we head out.

We go up the east side of the river until we break off and follow the map to some solitary cliffs. We navigate up this way through the forest, where the trees are more bare. We find a couple of hill cliff type things, like a few plateaus that rise above the trees. We also see a cave entrance in the side of a plateau that is surrounded by a collection of hills in the area. It looks like the cave is on the highest point of the peaks. Littered around the opening of the cave are many bones of Humans, Elves and a Dwarf.

There are also random mountains in the distance that rise high above the tree tops. The entrance lies on the side of a big plateau where it looks like 2 hills crushed into each other. The other connected hill is extremely steep and that one has no cave to be seen. When we get to the top of the plateau, we can see over all of the forest. We can see the top of the Chalice in the distance but there are no birds in the area. It looks like this spot is free of everything that is alive.

The cave entrance has a 10' wide opening. Inside, we can see that the ground descends a bit in a kind of negative incline.

Ithimyr looks around and finds some definitive tracks. These are tracks of big talons, 3 fingered talons in the front and a back talon. Whatever it was could be HUGE, like a bird the size of a deer and they seem to come in pairs.

Ithimyr casts Speak With Animals on Chompers. He says that he knows his name is Chompers and that he can smell deer or elk and those of a great bird inside. He can hear a click sound like something walking on stone. It is echoing from under where we are standing now. He can hear two forms that are walking around.

Before heading inside, Ithimyr casts Protection from Evil on himself and we descend into the cave on the cliff. This is part of a natural stone spiral ramp which spirals down 3 times before it opens into a chamber.

Once we get to the bottom, we are now within a contained room where light passes over the face of two creatures. Their heads and chests resemble those of Elks with wings.

They charge us and go directly into a spell cast by Zenobia: SLEEP. They can only move 12' in a segment so the Sleep spell goes off first. They have 4 HD and this manages to effect 2 of them. As they descend upon us with terrifying speed, Zenobia casts her spell and Sleeps both of them! The two creatures fall to the ground and skid for about 20'.

These are PERYTONS. They are fearsome to people across all lands and thought to be created through some form of wizard experimentation. They can only reproduce by eating a human heart. After they eat the heart they can recreate one. We dispatch both of them using magic swords.

In the area, we can see many many corpses. These individuals look to be the guard of a passing caravan and many were Humans. There is a bedding type of material located nearby.

We go through all the bodies, looking for any loose items and Ithimyr searches the nest.

There are 3 bodies which are wearing chainmail and still carrying longswords but they had no backpacks and carry no other supplies. Though, some did have coin pouches. We also find a short sword and a suit of studded leather on another corpse. One also wore a satchel, inside of it is a wand. There, we also found a scroll case.

It is noted that none of the bodies had hearts. Ithimyr puts on the Helm of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic that belongs to Rhinock and sees that the scroll is a Clerical scroll.

Zenobia finds a hastily written note on a scrap of parchment with some kind of nonsense word written on it. Zenobia memorizes the word. There is no sign of any additional Perytons nesting here but Ithimyr does notice that the chamber has a kind of a hollowed out dome at the top, in the shape of a uniform circle. It does not seem natural but there are no signs of mining in this cave. It is as if the walls formed naturally into an impossible shape. Could it have been magically formed?

Ithimyr removes the Peryton heads to give to the Taverns back in Gren.

We return to Gren and divide up our treasures:

• 20 gp.
• 3 suits of chainmail 37.5 gp each.
• 3 long swords.
• A short sword.
• A suit of studded leather - It has MAGIC (a strong aura, it can be worn by thieves.) It is worth 2,500 gp.
• A set of thieves tools.
• A fancy platinum necklace - 11,000 gp.
• A Clerical Scroll - Worth 2,700 xp to the person who takes it.
  • remove fear
  • augury
  • continual light
  • neutralize poison
  • quest
  • word of recall
  • blade barrier

The two Taverns in Gren are called The Other Side and The Haunt. A river that flows through town bisects the two taverns.

Ithimyr keeps the Clerical Scroll.

Ithimyr gets 8,571 gp in total!

Cleric xp is 9894+4715 = 14,609 Ranger xp is 8656+4286 = 12,942