• Iona
• Maervahr
• Rhinock
• Kek

Last time, Iskandar died from something completely unrelated but had received a Raise Dead spell from Syrah, the head priestess of the Temple of Riswa.

It is determined that Iona is not keen eared.

We are in Gren and are looking for some Men-at-arms:

• 3 Light Footmen.
• 5 Shortbow Archers.

Farius is a village with less than 1000 people, probably closer to 700 or 800. It is a traveling town with people passing through. The locals get their money from fishing. It is a sister village to Qarn.

We are on our way to the Dwarven Ruins and are heading through Qarn.

Our cart is being driven by an invisible Monk called Iona.

We get to Criss Antha.

Here, the buildings are built into the trees and the local Militia ride on Dinosaurs.

Do they sell dinosaur mounts? Perhaps…He will get back to us on it.

Continuing on to Qarn.

We have arrived in Qarn and then head out for the Dwarven Ruins.

The group must rest but we arrive close to the hills, just past the castle. The foliage is sparce and the trees are but scattered here and there, no less than 50' from each other. There is a stream that flows up ahead, going back up toward the hills, running along the base of the hills and then it rolls further along toward side of the hills. The stream is 10 to 15' wide, with colorful rocks collected upon its banks.

Iona gets close and can see ruined shrines up ahead. They are built into side of the hills, carved directly out of the rock. Half of the roof is missing from the structures but outside she sees 6 Men…Brigands. They are camped around a small fire.

The trees in the area appear to be apple trees. The Brigand's have gathered some apples and are roasting a rabbit over the fire. The stream goes up to the hillside where it ends up in a small pond. A small waterfall crashes into the pond near the shrine.

Iona sneaks up on the 6 Brigands. She sees that the sides of the hills are worked with tools. The inlet is also carved by hands.

She listens to the Brigands, completely invisible, as they talk about how they were here for some weeks and how they are curious about what the Boss's plans are, They talk about when they will move their captives, their prisoners or slaves. In truth, we don't know what kind of captives they are.

It is noon.

The right side of the structure is caved in and half the roof is missing. There is an opening in the front with crumbling pillars on the ground. They appear to be carved sharply and the place is ruined inside.

The Brigands have axes, bows, daggers and are wearing leather armor.

We approach the Brigands with 2 Archers and a 2 Footmen, hired back in Gren. Kek and Iona are invisible in the cart. Rhinock and Maervahr ride up slowly in the cart but Maervahr goes psionically invisible. So, they only see Rhinock.

The Brigands tap and instruct one to go inside the shrine. The other 5 backpedal to the side of shrine. Iona follows in through the side collapse, there are 2 damaged obelisks at the mouth of a 10' wide entrance. Some stairs climb up with some dwarven runes above the entryway.

Iona has a +4 to hit coming out of invisibility.

An arrow is fired by Kek, which hits a Brignad. He is killed!

Iona stuns one using her fist as she punches one in the throat, Iona then comes running out.

Maervahr unleashes a bolt of lightning on 4 of them.

A footfall is heard down the passageway as a Half-Orc comes down the stairs wielding a battle axe and a butcher's cleaver. There are 8 Brigands behind him.

Kek hits the Half-Orc for 8 damage but it does not fall.

The Half-Orc and a Brigand avoid a Web spell slung out with an arcane fling by Maervahr. However, the Half-Orc is slain by Rhinock's sword. Kek slays the other Brigand. There are now 7 Brigands caught up in the webbing. One of them immediately chokes to death.

Eventually, the rest all succumb…Except one, to answer some questions.

Among this contingent of men is a chief called GORTHAN BAR. They are an offshoot of men from the Sea of Grass but dispersed because of an alliance that was formed with Werewolves. The group was shattered by forces from Mombafra and by some adventurers. There were hundreds of men alongside decades of Werewolves before the Brigands split off into their own groups. Chief Gorthan Bar lead them out here and laid claim to the shrine. The Butcher is among them and now lies dead.

Gorthan has a great Wolf larger than any Wolf. He is known to have a keen eye for strategy and observation and wants to make the shrine their new home. Gorthan plans to stay here for some time, to extract what wealth they may get from inside. The captive says that they have tried to go deeper, to explore further within, but none have returned.

He says they arrived 3 weeks ago and are encamped around the open areas nearby, They spend their time throwing bones and cooking rabbits.

“Where is the boss?” He has not attempted to go farther into the shrine as he wants to fortify the shrine first. This is the only entrance that they are aware of and it has 4 or 5 rooms. None of them have gone deeper into the hillside.

“Are these the only men in the shrine?” There are more among them including an Ogre and many Orcs. There are probably about 10 more Brigands and 10 to 15 Orcs. He says there wiil be a group of 10 to 15 more Brigands by nightfall.

His name is Ian, our captive Brigand.

There is no noise beyond the corridor. They have picked up captives and still have 7 Men and a Gnome. The dead Butcher was the right hand man of Gorthan.

Iona steps into the pond and explores the waterfall. She finds a 6 to 7 foot opening. We see Maervahr's Web moving.

The Invisibility spell goes off and Kek burns all the bodies that were inside.

Suddenly, there is a loud roaring from inside. A Wolf bigger than any wolf we have ever seen appears in the passage with something huge standing beside it. The Warg looks ready to attack.

Kek does 5 damage and our Archers start shooting at the charging Warg. There are 4 hits on the Warg for 19 damage.

The Warg crashes into Kek who has AC 4, It needs a 9 to hit him. it hits for 5 damage.

3 Orcs rush into the room, One hits, causing 5 damage to Kek.

Next, a huge Ogre comes down the stairs. We do 9 damage to the Ogre and then 6 more Orcs start coming.

Kek slays one Orc.

Rhinock runs the Ogre through and now the bodies are piled high. All movement up the stairs has dispersed.

The Ogre has 70 gp and 19 ep.

Amongst the bodies we find 52 gp.

The weapons include a large Butcher's cleavers and some normal weapons.

Iona finds a 10' area behind the hillside that leads to a 5' passageway and comes to a dead end. Meanwhile, we have our Mercenaries setup a defensive fortification around a camp.

After about 10 minutes, Maervahr finds a secret button near another passage and a room. All of us are inside as he presses it. There is an awful smell of shit that comes through. This room was obviously used as a latrine and for food waste.

We take the passage to the right and find a hallway. There are iron spikes driven into the wall that are laying on the ground now. Torchlight shines into an antechamber.

We advance down the hallway and find 4 pillars in an octagonal room. All of the imagery has been worn away and is now lost to the ages. To the left there are stairs going north. Maervahr can only hear dead silence.

We open the door to a chamber that stinks of blood, dead squirrels and foxes. There is a dark slab of stone in the center, covered in blood and a butcher's cleaver.

• Butcher's Cleaver.

The table is a big slab of stone and is shorter than a normal altar but was turned into a butcher's block.

We have been here for 2 hours now and it is the afternoon. We climb up the stairs and come to a triangular fire pit. Something is in the alcoves which come out from either side of the passage. We encounter 12 Brigands.

They fire their bows, 12 of them.

12 arrows deflect off from Rhinock as he defends himself. Kek is hit 4 times and takes 12 damage.

Kek hits one for 2 damage.

Iona and Maervahr fall back and Maervahr casts Shield on himself.

Kek falls back.

Rhinock becomes a whirlwind of destruction and kills 4 Brigands. Then he kills 5. There are 3 living Brigands and Rhinock has killed all 12 Brigands.

The triangular fire pit gives off warm heat but the flames have unusual colors. There are Dwarven Runes above the fire pit. With Rhinock's magic helmet, he cannot read these runes. We can see that inside the alcoves, the shadows cast by the flames cause dark shadows to move about.

We can see some Dwarven warrior statues. One is holding a mace with an open hand and inside the mace head is a large lump of coal.

The Brigands had 66 gp.

Maervahr uses detection of magic on the runes and statues and sees a faint trace of magic in the general area. There is also a faint magic in the room and further down the corridors as well as a faint magic on the maces.

The potion is a Potion of Clairaudience that Kek has found. He learns what it is after drinking it and then he sees if he hears anything up ahead. Thee is just silence both ways.

The statues with maces with coal can be lit.

The corridor turns, Kek hears the sound of something roasting over a fire. He can also hear low whispers in a crude language.

Rhinock goes around the corner and finds a big granite statue of a Dwarf. The Dwarf is wielding a battle axe and shield that is decorated with Dwarven runes. He can smell a greasy cooking smell and hears the sound of a fire. As he peeks around the corner he sees a Great Hall with 20 Orcs lined up in a fan, waiting for his approach. A large, fierce-looking Orc sitting on a throne like a king.

The Orcs immediately start attacking Rhinock but all of the charging Orcs miss him.

Rhinock is still not hit but Kek is also being attacked. Kek takes 1 damage and Rhinock kills one Orc. Our Footmen charge into battle to meet the Orcs. The Archers can move and shoot but they hold off. The Spearmen attack first. They meet with 7 Orcs in melee but none of the Footmen hit.

Kek and Rhinock attack with 2 hits for 2 damage, 5 and 7. Kek kills one and Rhinock kills another one.

In the next round, Rhinock kills another Orc and Kek kills 2 more Orcs.

The Orcs swing at the Footmen. There are 4 hits and all 3 of our Footmen are cut down.

Kek kills one and Rhinock does 5 damage.

Kek kills the wounded one and does 3 damage to another. Rhinock kills another one.

In the next round, Rhinock hits one for 5 damage,

Maervahr sees the orcs and the Warg which emerges from the shrine. The Orc leader screams in anger!

Rhinock and Kek loot the dead Orcs quickly.

WE WILL PLAN TO GET THE BANDIT AND ORC LOOT.

Back in the throne room, the Warg rejoins the Orc leader. Rhinock comes face to face with both of them.

Gorthan swings at Rhinock but Rhinock dodges. He has AC type 3/4 wearing chain and shield.

The Warg deals 3 damage to Rhinock.

The Orc leader attacks him with a battle axe and Rhinock takes 5 damage.

The fearsome look leaves the leaders face as Maervahr casts Burning hands and does 5 damage to the Warg and to Gorthan.

Gorthan deals 11 damage to Rhinock and then Rhinock takes another 9 damage.

But with a final retaliatory strike, Rhinock fells the CHIEF as he does max damage!

At the same time, Kek fells the Warg!

RHINOCK PAYS HIS UPKEEP.