The Cast:

• Maervahr - Magic-User 4, Doors 1-2, Hear Noise 1-2.
• Iskandar - Magic-User, AC 10/10, Doors 1-2, Hear Noise 1-4, Owes Upkeep.
• Davlan Greenspell- Halfling Fighter/Thief, AC 1/3, Shield, MV 9“, Doors 1-2, Hear Noise 1-3, Owes Upkeep.
• Vras Skag - Assassin, AC 5/8, Doors 1-3, Hear Noise 1-3.
• Morric - Fighter, AC 0/2, Large Shield, MV 9”, Doors 1-3, Hear Noise 1-3.
• Guard Dog
• Porter and Link Boy (employed by Davlan)

There have been some updates to the CAMPAIGN Doc regarding Engagement rules.

Davlan is now off of bed rest.

It is a cold day for the Winter months and it might snow. We are in the city of QARN.

Iskandar traveled to Qarn from Gren and we are looking for Mercenaries in Qarn. This city gets 3 rolls:

• 2 Light Footmen, 1 gp / day, Padded Armor, Shield, Spear and Club.
• 2 Artillerists.
• 4 Light Horsemen, 3 gp / day, Studeed Leather, Shield, Military Pick.

The rule is that we must wait 1 month per Mercenary that dies that is from a town and 1 week per Mercenary that dies from a city. We hire 6 Mercs (Light Footmen and Light Horsemen) for 14 gp per day.

Iskandar rolls to learn Ray of Enfeeblement and gets it!

We head out from Qarn to the ruined city of Delbo, which is 12 miles to the north west and a couple of miles from the other Ruined Keep outside Qarn.

The RUINED KEEP, we should check this out.

We keep a keen eye on the Ruined Keep as we go past and can see the totally collapsed walls. It is only 6 miles from Qarn and it rarely gets occupied.

We make it to Delbo and see nothing on top of the walls and there is no movement inside of the towers. Maervahr uses Clairaudience on all the places where we were before. He can pick up some noises inside of the keep. He hears the occasional gruff word spoken by an Orc or other Goblinkind. There is the occasional knock of something as though they are rifling through objects. The creatures sound like they are speaking the Hobgoblin language and it is coming from some of the side levels, even though they are spread out.

The city walls are 20' to 25' tall. The Delbo Keep walls are also the same height. We are coming in through the west wall. We have a 1-in-4 chance without being noticed as we enter through the west side. There is a collapsed portion of the wall that we can pass through and we are hiding in the lower elevation areas. If we can get up to 25', grab some of the windows, we can reach the 2nd level platform.

Davlan leaps up 10' in the air and then comes back to the ground. His lateral leaps take 30'. Maervahr hands Vras his rope and he climbs up into the window and lowers the rope down. He sees that the bodies of the dead Goblins have been rifled through. We send the 2 Footmen up first and then the rest of us follow.

There is a sound in the central building and in the north east tower. We cross over and Maervahr casts Shield before we open the door.

We are not surprised.

There are 2 Hobgoblins in there and combat begins. The Hobgoblins have polearms, Glaives specifically, and one has rolled a 20 against Morric, who takes 5 damage. Davlan kills one but Morric misses.

Coming out of the room that leads to the black door room, the door opens and 5 Hobgoblins come in.

Maervahr goes invisible (pre-initiative due to Psionic Invisibility) and then casts Web on the entire chamber. 5 of the Hobgoblins and their leader get stuck in the Webs. There is a huge white cloud as the Web spell fills the room.

Davlan runs the Hobgoblin through for 4 damage and we start assassinating the rest. We kill 3 of the Webbed Hobgoblins while the other one and the leader are still stuck kind of far in the back. Davlan manages to assassinate the leader.

Meanwhile, 3 more Hobgoblins come in from the north door but they are rolling Morale checks. After seeing what has unfolded before them, they shit their pants and drop their weapons and book it back out. We can hear them running completely free through the upper towers and screaming loudly. Vras and Iskandar can hear them through the stone walls.

2 of the Hobgoblins start screaming in the Web. The other Hobgoblins that ran away suddenly burst through an upper level door and throw themselves down off the platform, 20' down, into the courtyard of the keep, where they died from falling.

There are a total of 2 turns per level for the Web. Someone fires an arrow at the rune on the door, beyond the Web. An arrow sings through the Web and we see a massive blue glowing rune on the door beyond. It charges up with an awful whirring sound as a 3' wide blast of electricity goes off and burns the Web! We hear confused noises and then the Hobgoblins start screaming as they burn alive. All thats left are the charred bodies and smoldering remains of a bed and some furs. The area where the blast occurred is still smoking.

Vras can still see the hints of the runes on the door.

Variations of the Knock spell will blast open the door with a bang.

Gathered from the Hobgoblins, we find the following:

• 144 cp.
• 57 gp.

Maervahr is casting Knock through the open door to hit the black door at an angle. After his hand movements from casting the spell, the door blasts open, revealing an inner chamber. Another bolt of lightning hits an unseen wall.

We can see the edge of a chest inside. Davlan and Vras are both checking the chest for traps. Davlan does not see any traps on the floor and Vras finds that there are 3 chests inside. The room is about 10' wide and 20' deep. It is completely sealed off except for the 3 chests. Vras carefully searches all 3 but finds no obvious traps. All 3 have locks and the first 2 chests do not have any signs of traps, The 3rd chest, however, he sees that there is a metal framing that is slightly different. The bottom is made entirely of metal as if a device is hidden in the base of the chest.

The 3 chests are ALSO blasted open with Maervahr's Knock spell. We find 2 wooden chests and an iron chest that are now opened and they are smoking slightly. Davlan commands the Porters to pick up the chests and they get to work. When one of the Porters touches the metal chest he is violently electrocuted. The Porter takes 12 damage and dies, unfortunately.

Vras grabs the wooden chest and we look inside:

• 5,200 sp.
• 3000 sp.
• 950 ep.
• 1,100 gp.

Morric throws a rope lasso around the metal chest and it does not have any reaction to the rope as he starts to drag it out of the room. Some platinum coins spill out:

• 800 pp.

A rectangular device is found on the bottom of the metal chest that is the cause of the electricity. Davlan tries to remove the trap. He has a 45% chance and succeeds as it is safely removed. It is some kind of charged up electricity box. There is a velvet false bottom in the chest. As he examines the false bottom, a puff of gas comes out and hits Davlan in the face. Davlan feels drained but he gives a hardy Halfling cough and blows away the gas. He hacks and coughs for about 2 minutes and finds a cloak in the bottom of the chest.

The false bottom needed to be pressed down first but the trap was unexpected. The cloak found inside fits Vras perfectly and Maervahr takes a stick to try and hit Vras to test it. He finds that he is more nimble. It is a rare and powerful cloak that gives a +4 to armor class.

• Cloak of Protection +4.

There is a prison beneath the keep that we know of and the nearby graveyard is cursed but has two buildings: a shed and a shrine (or mausoleum). We also know of the cave with the howling noise. We will return later…

We head back to Qarn and encouter no trouble along the way.

After recovering in Qarn, we head back to Delbo.

We head through the southern entrance into the ruined city, moving across the crumbled buildings. The party moves toward the base of the dark wizard tower. We can see no windows and no doors but the roof overhangs tower by a whole story. It has an arrow like mushroom shape and has suffered no weathering or damage since Delbo was populated long ago.

The tower has a rectangular base while the circular, cylindrical part of the tower is two stories high. It is about 80' in diameter with a 100' wide base. It has not taken any damage over the years and there are no scratches at all on the outside of the tower. Something arcane must be cast on the tower.

Morric spends some time examining the base of the stone tower, looking for shifting walls or some type of entrance. Meanwhile, Maervahr uses Clairaudience on the tower. He hears dead silence inside as though listening to a rock. No matter what depth he goes to with his ability, there is no sound inside. Morric finds that the tower seems totally solid, even at the top of the tower.

Suddenly, we hear the howling of a great animal from the direction of the cave entrance.

We head back to the keep and to the room with the trapped black door. We make our way across the city and make it back to the keep and inside without any encounters.

The howling sound we heard was ominous. Some say it is a beast, such as a Werewolf, a Warg or some form of flying creature from another dimension. Some others say it is a great Bear or a kind of great Wolf. The howling noise has been coming from the ruined city of Delbo for over a generation.

When we arrived back in the keep we see that the black door is sealed again somehow. Maervahr searches the room thoroughly and everything is quiet except for us, the adventurers. The room does appear to be largely scarred from ages past.

After 10 minutes, Iskandar finds a loose flagstone beneath the bed. He places his fingers underneath the stone, removes it, and finds inside a great tome squeezed into a secret compartment. The tome is trimmed with gold and platinum. There is also a wrought gold amulet set with two large diamonds. It is the spellbook of a relatively low level wizard and there are 6 spells inside. One of them HAS to be Sleep, so Iskander hopes. We also find some coins:

• 200 gp.
• 100 pp.

Written into the opening cover of the Spellbook is the word: ROTLEAF.

Maervahr uses the wand they found previously by uttering the phrase “Rotleaf”. It flashes with black energy and every single piece of chlorophyl in the area withers away as though leaves in autumn. It is discharging more energy because it is optionally condensed into some sort of ray. There are 3 levels of activation and only 1 CHARGE HAS BEEN USED so far. Every wand has between 81 and 99 charges, or 101 - 1d20 charges.

Maervahr guesses that it is a Wand of Defoliation.

Wand of Defoliation. This wand is never constructed of any sort of wood; instead, ivory or bone is typically the major component. It has the following functions:

• When 1 charge is expended, all chlorophyll in a 3“ radius from the wand is destroyed. Thus, leaves turn to autumnal colors and drop off, grass becomes brown and dry, and so forth.
• When 2 charges are expended, all normal plant life within the 3” radius area of effect withers and dies. Sentient plant creatures and other non-normal sorts of plants will not necessarily be killed, but they will each suffer 1-6 (ld6) points of damage. If so desired, the possessor of the wand can direct the force of this power into a cone-shaped area of 3“ length, widening to 1” diameter at the farthest point from the wand. The effects are the same as for the spherical area of effect, except that sentient and non-normal plant life within the cone will suffer 6-36 points of damage (6d6) instead of only 1-6. Any plant-creature or other non-normal plant that lies partially within the conical area of effect is entitled to a saving throw (versus rods, staves, and wands), and if successful takes only one-half damage (3d6).

We find a big trapdoor. The trapdoor reveals a wide staircase that descends into a black dungeon. Our Linkboy lights a torch and Maervahr lights his lantern. There is the scent of rust or a coppery scent by our Dwarf. Morric leads the way down.

We descend down the stairs and can tell that the flagstone floor has been long worn down. There is a red color in the rock on the ceiling and it has a red tinge, but is mostly black. There are sharp edges on the flagstones and the ceiling is lower (about 12' tall in the entrance chamber). There are two doors to either side and an archway that opens to another room. At the top of the ceiling is a sharp portcullis. It is presently open and there is a lever to the right.

There is an old wooden sign on the door to the right as well. Maervahr triggers his Clairaudience ability yet hears nothing beyond either the door or the archway. The sign is written in the common tongue but is painted in old paint. It says:

“Sign in here before duty.”

We open the left hand door. As we burst through the door, we find a room that is 30' deep and 20' wide. There are 12 Skeletons standing on their own in here, holding old swords. They turn to look at us slowly…

Maervahr tries to go Invisible to the Skeletons, BUT IT DOES NOT WORK as they are mindless undead! Iskandar casts a Sleep spell on the Skeletons, and as expected it also has no effect. Davlan charges them and hits 3 times doing 5, 3, and 3 damage. Vras attacks and deals 6, 6, and 1 damage. Our fired arrows only deal 1 point dmg each.

Magic Missile is cast by Iskandar and destroys 1 Skeleton. Davlan did 4, 2, and 3 damage this time and he destroys 2 Skeletons. Vras's arrow deals 2 damage but this does not destroy one. Maervahr misses with a dagger attack.

The 9 remaining Skeletons swarm us, most going after Morric. 6 of them are able to do so and 1 hits for 8 damage, another hits for another 8 damage and finally another doing 11 damage, for a total of 27 damage. Maervahr throws a silver dagger and hits for 1 damage. Davlan hits one for 6 damage, destroying it. There 6 Skeletons on Morric and 2 other Skeletons left. Iskandar hits one for 7 damage with his second Magic Missile. Morric shatters one.

There are 4 Skeletons left around Morric and 2 outside of his range. Vras hits with a dagger for 1 damage. Davlan hits one for 5 damage. (4 damage reduced).

The Mercenaries will come in next round. Morric punches a Skeleton's head off. 1 Mercenary max of 4 damage (1) and another with 7 damage (0).

Davlan hits for 4 damage. The Skeletons hit the surviving Mercs for 1 damage each.

RETCON

The Mercs are now fully healed due to DM error.

1/2 the damage is reduced against the Skeletons with sharp and edged weapons. Besides their old helmets and longswords, one Skeleton has a KEY tied by an old piece of leather.

Thee is a door in the back with a keyhole and we open the door with the key. Inside, we find a bright glow of fire wreathed around an infernal hound. It is obviously not from this plane…

It catches us by surprise…Actually we are NOT surprised because of ATENA, Maervahr's Weasel Familiar.

The Fighters all charge in while Maervahr goes Invisible and holds the door open.

It has AC 4. Davlan hits for 5 damage. Morric hits for 7 damage. The Hell Hound takes a total of 13 damage so far. As they collide with the creature, it pushes forward and releases a stream of fire! It deals 4 damage to Davlan and does 6 damage to Davlan with a bite. Vras hits it with a poisoned arrow dealing 4 damage. The Hell Hound rolls to save versus poison and fails…and then it dies INSTANTLY!

Maervahr claims the Hell Hound eyes for his spell components.

We start heading out and climb down the hills toward Qarn.

We come across a horde of Large Spiders about 170 yards away. There are 12 Large Spiders joined together in a hairy cloud, at least that is how they appear in the distance. They immediately start to head toward us…

They get within 80 yards of us when we take off again and the cart rattles off down the hill. We manage to evade the Large Spiders and leave the cart behind.

We make it back to QARN.

The current date is OLD MOON (11) the 3rd, 494. The time is approximately midnight.

The SPELLBOOK that was recovered has the following spells: Sleep, Dancing Lights, Identify, Protection From Evil/Good, Know Alignment ®, Levitate.

The XP for the spellbook is worth similar to that of a scroll.

Maervahr gets full xp for Wand of Defoliation.

The necklace that was hidden beneath the floor is worth 10,000 gp and we sold it for 8000.

XP from coin: 2948.

Treasure Split: 180 platinum, 190 electrum, 1871 gold, 1648 silver, 28 copper.

• 3244 xp for Davlan and Morric.
• 4044 xp for Iskandar.
• 4244 xp for Maervahr.
• 7244 xp for Vras.

TRAINING COST IS 6000 gp for Maervahr.