• Galerius - FTR 2
• Iona - MNK 1, AC 10/10 - Invisible
• Vissalora - MAG 2, sleep / magic missile, AC 10/10, 9“ MV, 1-2 Doors
• Davlan - FTR 4 / THF 4
• Oswald - CLR 1, AC 3/3, Medium Shield, 9” MV, 1-3 Doors
• Khalophis Iskiades - CLR 1
• Brindle Bronzehand - Dwarf FTR 1

Today, the weather is mild and clear.

We hire 3 Porters and a Link Boy but there are no Mercenaries available in Gren.

We must travel over the Sea of Grass for 20 miles to reach the Tower and will be camping outside unless we make a forced march but this can cause our horses to die.

The party leaves Gren in the morning and heads to the north west. About an hour after travel, we pass by a friendly patrol bearing the banner of Gren. The patrol continues in the opposite direction and we continue along the edge of the mountains to the north and make camp in the tall grasses.

Luckily, the night passes without incident and we proceed for a final few miles.

The tower lies before us with dead trees all around and we can also see the great tree standing amidst the tower ruins. There is no movement outside of the tower. All is quiet in the foothills of the mountains. There is no sign of foot traffic near the front door.

To get our bearings, we look at the map and see that north east of Mombafra is where the Crimson Galleon is located.

We open the front door revealing an empty tower, dark and silent, ahead. The trap door is still open so we descend back down into the area of the altar. The scattered bones of undead lie scattered about with their rusted blades tossed everywhere. The room looks the same way that we have left it.

We head to the wooden door, the one that is locked. Brindle bashes open the door in a couple of minutes. The door lies in ruins now but we can see that it would have opened up to a small room inside. There are 4 iron trunks lined up against the stone wall. We find no traps here and the chests are latched shut. Inside we find:

• 2,300 cp
• 1,000 sp
• 1,000 sp
• 1,000 sp

We go into the room displaying the lidless eye of Bel. To the left is the mound of dirt that was pillaged and there are 2 wooden doors bound in iron. The door is stuck fast.

On the left is an alcove with two metal hooks. On one of the hooks is an aspergillum (or holy water sprinkler) made of silvery gold alloy. There are piles of loose rubble on either side. Iona goes to grab the aspergillium and the hooks click and rotate up just as 4 spears shoot upward from the floor. They shoot out at Iona, but they all miss as she nimbly dodges!

• Aspergillum made of rare metals.

We come to a wood and iron bound door and no traps are found. Khalophis hears nothing but we find a little hallway just beyond the door that opens into a larger room. Inside are two mounds of earth and the head of another one that is smaller than the large mound we found in the secret chamber. There are small silver objects on top of the mounds, each of them have little symbols.

We see something arise that looks like Shadows…

Davlan enters the room and sees that the walls have Skeletons nailed to them by crude steel, There are 7 Skeletons and they are 12' away. They each have glowing sigils on their foreheads. Davlan immediately ducks back into the hallway.

These Skeletons have bows so we go back in to fight them even though they hang from the ceiling. There are 7 mounds and 7 Skeletons and the mounds are 2' tall.

The Skeletons are turned as if GHOULS. 2 Skeletons are shot and we turned 5 of them.

They are firing and will be attacking Brindle. Khalophis is also attacked and takes 2 damage.

2 more attacks are upon Brindle, but he successfully blocked.

Iona puts her cloak onto the end of her spear and waves it around as a decoy / distraction. 4 arrows come shooting out with 2 on Khalophis but Davlan is not hit.

Davlan leaps up and tries to do a charge attack, he hits for 1 damage and Davlan is hit for 5 damage. Neither of the Skeletons are destroyed but they are turned.

Khalophis is level 3. The Skeletons are considered helpless on the wall since they are turned and they cease shooting. We bash up all the remaining Skeletons.

We see that there are some silver medallions with a lidless eye that look like the coins with the eyes of the dead. The quality of the longbows is average.

• Longbows
• Quivers
• 136 arrows

Iona takes a bow and 20 arrows…WAIT SHE CANNOT USE IT! She does not take one.

We find a disk with something bisecting it. We find trunk and check for traps. We find no traps but it is padlocked.

The disk is inserted into the floor which is bisected by a handle. Davlan grabs it and turns it to the right. nothing happens. It does not pull or push. He pulls it back and there is a grinding noise. He turns it in the direction with a lidless eye. There is another grinding noise.

• 7 medallions with evil eyes.

The monk takes them.

Khalophis opens the door and Brindle turns the disk, There is a grinding noise then the door closes. Iona looks for secret doors but nobody finds anything after 5 minutes. Iona also does not find anything on the lidless eye which is a relief design.

The Halfling cannot detect any grade or slope in here however Brindle can. He concentrates for a while and judges that this area is slightly deeper than the place with the shrine.

We carry the last chest out. Brindle pours a bottle of holy water on the lidless eye relief and completely douses it in holy water. We have only been underground for 2 hours so far.

We head back to Gren.

Traveling through the Sea of Grass, about 2 hours from Gren, It is currently dusk and we are surrounded by tall grass. We are closing to the patrol distance of Gren when we see rustling up ahead.

We spot multiple figures moving up ahead about 50' away. Brindle jumps off Marvin the donkey.

Davlan makes a reaction roll.

Emerging through the grasses are 7 Human men who bear the visages of Boars, but they are not the height of Boarmen, who are typically bulkier. These men are wielding axes.

They seem displeased with the call out from the Halfling so they demand a toll is paid for us to pass through these grasses. These Boarhead Humans wear nothing else.

Brindle tosses a copper coin at them…and they heft their axes in the air and move to attack.

Iona moves and tries to flank them. The Boarhead men charge. Khalophis, Davlan and Brindle are in melee vs 7 of them.

Brindle gets hit for 4 and 10 damage. Brindle takes another 12 damage and is eviscerated! Brindle is KILLED!

These look like strong Boar axes.

Davlan takes 9 damage but Khalophis is missed!

There are still 7 of these Boarhead creatures. These are Wereboars!

None of them hit Davlan but there are 3 hits on Khalophis this time for 17 damage.

Davlan is Hasted from a potion and gets 2 attack routines. He will always attack first and last. Davlan hits for 7 damage but does not kill one. Davlan is not struck at all. Another one hits Khalophis for 7 damage and he is dropped to -5. Khalophis is SLAIN!

They hit again for 8 damage.

The Wereboars say “Pay the tax or die”. Davlan says he cannott touch gold and they DO NOT believe him.

They begin frothing at the mouth and then all 6 of them attack the lone, enchanted Halfling. There are 2 hits doing a total of 15 damage. Davlan is at -3 hp and is DROPPED! Luckily, he is not instantly dead. The Wereboar creatures give Davlan a pat on the cheek and proclaim that they will be taking this cart.

Meanwhile, Iona tries to run back to stop the bleeding on our fallen. Davlan comes out of his coma as the bleeding is staunched by Iona. Davlan gets a scar.

We lost everything except the Aspergillum and the Medallions.

Back in Gren.

We get 400 gp for aspergillum and 45 gp x7 for the medallions.

• Gromble Godhater - Gnome Thief, AC 8/8.
• Fenric - Half Orc Cleric / Assassin, AC 4/5 No Shield 9“ Move 1-3 Doors.
• Davlan
• Iona - Invisible
• Oswald
• Vissalora

We are headed 10 miles to the south, southwest of Gren. There is a path that leads off the road. We get to the Marble Keep in one day.

We head south until we reach the keep. Due to the relatively short journey, there is no outside camping needed today.

The last we heard, the Circle of Annihilation did not fight the rumored Dragon yet.

We arrive at the keep and enter through the front door. Davlan, Oswald and Fenric are on door duty. We head to the room with the Dog Statue.

Entranceway still has looted stone chests. There is a large, domed ceiling in this room where there were once metal balls on the ground, originally, but they are now gone. There are a bunch of statues missing their heads and an open, empty chest.

We continue forward until we find a large chamber filled with crumpled up, dried, flaking snake shedding and a ferocious stone dog statue.

We head north along a many turning hallway from here and find another hallway, Davlan's lantern boy illuminates a great hall. There are suits of splint mail on a pedestal. All of them face each other. They look like they are not attached to the pedestals, just standing on them. The armor is all connected, the suits with a helmet.

Davlan tries to hit one with a sling. He hits it for 4 damage. His blow blasts one of the formless splints mails back as it steps off the pedestal.

The suits of armor charge at our party and 6 out of 10 can hit us.

Gromble deals 5 damage to a suit of armor as it collapses on the ground.

Davlan is hit for 4 damage. Fenric takes 5 damage, Oswald takes 3 damage. They have AC 5 type 4.

Davlan hits another one for 4 damage and they focus entirely on Davlan and Oswald. One misses Oswald. There are 5 attacks against Davlan who has AC 0. One hits for 2 damage.

Fenric moves back and Iona moves back.

Davlan destroys another one and there is 3 damage from a Magic Missile. Oswald misses.

Gromble uses a sling and hits Davlan as he fires into the melee. He takes 4 damage from GROMBLE GODHATER.

Davlan misses. The suits of armor move into a broken rank. 5 of them are now attacking Oswald, Oswald takes 5 damage and falls UNCONSCIOUS.

With an effective AC 0, none of them hit Davlan. Then, 1 hits for 1 damage.

Davlan hits another one for 5 which destroys another suit of armor. There are 6 left. 3 damage then destroys yet another one. 2 damage destroys a third. Davlan takes 1 damage.

They continue attacking Davlan. Vissalora and Gromble both attack. One takes 6 damage from the Magic-User, which destroys one. Davlan hits one for 7 damage which destroys another one. Neither of the remaining suits hit Davlan. Davlan hits for 4 damage against AC 4 type 4 and Gromble missed.

The unconscious body of Oswald begins dragging backward by Iona.

Vissalora takes 5 damage and another misses Davlan.

Fenric casts Cure Light Wounds on Oswald while Davlan and Gromble both miss. Vissalora takes 5 damage and DIES!

Davlan hits for 4 damage and destroys the one that killed Vissalora. He hits for 7 damage and Davlan destroys ther other one.

Oswald comes out of a coma.

Fenric gathers up the blood of Oswald and gets about one coin worth of blood. Iona thoroughly search the hall which takes 20 minutes. In one of the middle pedestals, Gromble finds a rectangular panel in the rear. He is able to find a little tolerance in order to grab on with his Gnome fingernails and he pulls it open. There is a huge cloud of dust but it is not poisoned…

Inside is revealed an open box piled high with electrum and laying on top of it is a golden chain and a golden bracelet. Gromble tries on the chain and the bracelet and finds that they are a little big.

• 1,100 ep.
• Golden Chain worth 1,300 gp.
• Golden Bracelet worth 600 gp.
• 10 suits of Splint Mail, 10 Glaives.

We make it to the surface and make it back to Gren. Fenric does not detect any magic on any objects.

We determine that there is no combat XP for not engaging in combat, unless you are a Magic-User. All other classes must fight to get combat experience.

• Iona 679 XP
• Gomble 529 XP
• Oswald 734 XP
• Davlan 734 XP
• Fenric 529 XP