A key has been acquired from Starling Village.

There is an active volcano in the Valley of the Red Sun which causes the Moon to appear redder (like an Orange Dwarf Moon). It is always red in the valley due to the smog of the volcano smothering the sunlight. The Key supposedly opens the tower.

• Davlan - FTR 4 / THF 4
• Randimir - CLR 3 / MAG 2
• Adaeril - FTR 2 / MAG 2
• Galerius
• Iskandar - MAG 5
• Oliver - Human FTR 1, 16, 10, 12, 12, 15, 10, hp 4, NG, 6th Dead Moon 479 AC 4/4.

We are in Mombafra and we are going to to the Crimson Galleon to relieve Davlan's curse.

The journey to the site is uneventful.

We get to final door which is located at the top. When we arrive the mist leaves. Beyond the door is a strange octagonal room in the center of which is a column with 4 scything blades. The floor is tilted. There are 10 rotting Kobold corpses. We move across the pile of Kobold corpses. Our Linkboy is carrying a light.

We find the 11 pyramids displayed upon a table in the next room. It is an artificial depiction of the pyramids of RATU-KHEMI. It is an artistic fabrication, said to exist nowhere and everywhere at once, will appear randomly in the desert. People escape from these sites with untold fortunes. At the top of one of the pyramids is a gold tip with a large inscription written in common that states:

“May cutthroats and liars find no fabled land…”

Davlan climbs over the bodies and up to the pyramid display. He tries to secure the pyramid cap in the same position as before and it fits in perfectly. At this moment, Davlan's curse is lifted!

We find a wood-bound iron door that is currently locked but Davlan's key fits right in. The door opens into a 10' x 10' closet with two warped chests. The chests and floor do not look like they are trapped.

Davlan opens the chest and gets the chest open on the 2nd try. Inside he finds:

• 1200 sp
• 500 ep
• 3000 cp

There is another door on the left as well as the leftovers of a rapidly abandoned Kobold campsite. Along the right wall, a corridor opens to a staircase that goes up and to the right. We decide to rummage through the Kobold stuff.

• 15 cp
• 1 sp

The staircase curves around and then opens into a larger room with a black rug. Randimir casts Find Traps and he detects an invisible trip wire that is concealed by a rug. There are a few balls of trap energy sitting atop the floor in the next room. The wire is attached to 5 copper cowbells that appear to be part of an alarm snare. Randimir cuts the wire and disables it.

The torchlight illuminates the ceiling which is covered in about 25 Bats.

2 people cast Sleep and they have slept 9 Bats and then 14 of them are awake. The remaining Bats detach from the wall and start flying off into the blackness. A bunch of them drop to the ground but most are not moving. We can see that some of the Bats have weird purple worms. None of the Bats nor do any of the worms move as they burn.

We follow the staircase which goes up. We find some saddlebags in the next area. The saddlebags are in good condition, but they are empty.

• Saddlebags.
• Rug?

The group heads up the stairs which are covered in Bat droppings. There is a door to the left and we can see that there are two bolts that are closed on the door. They are locking the door from this side. The stairs to the right are cut into the stone and the stones of different kinds are laid into each set for decorative purposes.

Randimir sees a trap on the door to the left, around the bolts. There is a loud noise just inside the door. We take a look at the bolts and they look safe. He can tell that the bolts would intentionally turn off the trap. As we turn them, there is an unlocking noise from both bolts. Something inside of the door is not connected to opening this side of the door.

The door opens into the sunlight and we find ourselves on the back of the original tower outside. There are two keyholes one above the other. Randimir sees no traps on the stairs going up but these lead to an opening in the rock from the outside where we find the corpse of a Kobold punctured by a javelin with a red feather. The bottom of the opening is a half decayed goat. The dead Kobold appears to have been here less than a month. The dead Goat looks older.

The Cleric sees that this wall has a long tube with a danger inside. He can see a hidden panel on that height. Randimir sees that the rock, about 3' up, goes to the outside. That section on the outside is a trap and looks like a weight / pressure trap. He takes the javelin out of the trap and another one automatically loads in. Then a 3rd one until finally he grabs the last one.

• 4 Javelins with red feathers.

We make it back inside and run into no trouble. Set on top of the floor are 100 black candles that are unburnt. They look like small regular candles. A couple of the candles are laying on their side. One of the candles lays flat. We see some steam that rises through the floor and then stops. Davlan stabs it with his magic sword and finds that it is solid where he stabs it!

We toss in some copper. 3 stay outside but 12 fall through the floor then water gets thrown in. Some water stays pooled on the floor while Galerius and Davlan cross to the first of the pools of water. They note that the floor feels solid and has only stepped where the water has pooled.

Galerius opens the door into another room and finds that along a northern wall are two wooden chests. There is also a rough tapestry depicting a Lord seated on the throne with an Assassin on his back. All of the water stays on the floor in this other room. We all cross over into the other room and see the tapestry on the left and the chests on the right. The chests are wooden and Davlan does not find any traps. He tries to open one and inside are some coins:

• 2000 cp
• 200 sp
• 400 ep
• 520 gp
• 3200 cp

Galerius and Davlan find a door behind the tapestry. They check for traps and find there are no traps on the door. It appears to immediately go over to a stair case which ascends 30'-40'. This is a dimly illuminted chamber with 6 chests piled high with gold, platinum, and a scepter on the wall. We also find some gems.

We use Galerius's rope to tie off between the doors. The stairs fall away and they fall onto some spikes down below. Do they survive the traps?

They take 6 damage to each of them. Galerius is protected from spears but neither hit Davlan.

Down here they find another body that is decomposing. Davlan and Galerius are each healed for 8 and 2 hp, respectively. We step into the room full of chests and gold and are suddenly beset by a huge cloud of yellow dust.

It has a 10' burst and we all begin hacking. Davlan drops to the ground, he has some of it in his beard. It looks like a fine yellow powder which is indicative of Yellow Mold. Oliver is also poisoned.

The poison is slowed so we immediately head back to Mombafra.

We make it back to Mombafra without any trouble and seek out the Cleric to Neutralize Poison. We meet with a Cleric of Luz. In exchange for the spell, we contribute a donation and Davlan has had the poison neutralized. Unfortunately, Oliver Dies after failing his save! Davlan saves and is cured.

We decide to head out for our next outing: Expedition 2 to the Crimson Galleon!

Dalakai, the Paladin, joins us.

We head back to the stairs and we return to the Crimson Galleon.

We open the final door and Randimir casts Find Traps. There is nothing. Someone throws a snake into the room and there is a cloud of Yellow Mold gas, which appears again just as before. We see the 6 chests inside the room. Adaeril throws some oil at the top of the stairs and the entire room becomes a column of terrible smelling flame. It flickers and flashes through with gems and coins. It has an awful smell like burnt rubber.

Iskandar casts Dispel Magic and the empty room is filled with burnt charred remnants of yellow mold.

We start checking the walls and floors for traps and secret doors. There are no traps seen with Find Traps. Davlan does not find any traps either while searching. Iskandar taps on a portion of the right wall that sounds hollow. He finds a section of wall that depresses slightly, like a switch. There is a clicking noise that is heard and a section of the wall slides away. We find a room that is piled high with coins, a glowing dagger, a glowing sword, multiple potions and a light illuminates the high ceiling. Floating at the top is an eyeball with 4 stalks.

Davlan save versus spells and it has an AC 4. Davlan hit for 4 damage and Magic Missile is being cast.

They hit for 5 damage from Dalakai, 8 damage from Iskander's Magic Missile.

Next, a Command spell goes off. There is some black energy fired toward Randimir and as the beam strikes Randimir, he takes 12 damage. The Eye moves closer to the wall and is still 20' up. Galarius hears a telepathic voice telling him to leave peacefully. Dalakai hits it in the eye causing it to roll backward and the eyestalks dangle. The creature begins floating gently down to the ground. It is dead.

• 2800 cp
• 6400 sp
• 3600 gp
• Glowing Dagger with an oval shaped gem on the pommel. It is built into the hilt.
• Glowing Longsword - has a different gem
• 3 potions
• Cylindrical leather case, inside of which is some Vellum with magic runes on it. It has the shape of a map that points to our current place on the map. We find the following inscription as well: 0-000-0-0-0

We load up everything in the cart and meanwhile Iskandar casts Identify on the wword. There is a 40% chance to learn 1 property (0-5 properties). We know that it is a +1 sword at least. There is an enchantment that when the stone on the pommel is rubbed, all flames are snuffed out.

We hired a Porter that lights our torches. Randimir rubs the dagger gem but a flame does not go out. Instead, emerging from the daggers blade as though the blade was made of mercury, a small Scorpion pops out and heads in the direction of the blade and looks for something then pops back into the dagger.

We are now back in Mombafra. Galerius puts on the ring mail and finds that it is light, as though from a class above it. The ring mail is a +2 suit of armor.

We sell it and get 6,750 gp for the ring mail.

The potion is in a metallic container and Galerius tastes it. His skin changes color to an orange then blue then pale white briefly. We decide to sell it for 800 gp. We also find a potion of green yellow sparkles, The taster finds that they are agile and springy and can climb any buildings. As for the viscous potion, it appears to be an oil that is unimaginably slippery, no friction whatsoever. It can sell for 450 gp.

We head back and tap out the sequence on the wall based on the map. There is a door is on the upper level near a Kobold trap. It appears to descend past the opening darkness. Several ladder rungs made of metal on the east wall. After every 2' it goes down 50' to a stone floor. Inside we find ladder rungs only.

Dalakai descends with the rope while Randimir casts Detect Traps. 30' down the ladder rung, it glows brightly. At the bottom of the shaft, we can see that the center glows. It is now 50' deep. Randimir searches for 10 minutes but detects not a single concealed door.

We chuck a body of a Kobold down the shaft and we hear it as it crunches at the bottom. Randimir goes down and ties up the rope on the ladder rung. The rope does not pull up! Dalakai, meanwhile, ties a Kobold to the end and throws it down. There is a click and a thunk that is heard. The top of shaft seals off as gas fills the shaft. The door gets stuck on the rope. Gas is slowly rising but we run toward the front door.

We exit out the front door and go to the basement with the spiral stairs. It descends into the earth where we may find Erinyes devils. Galerius just descends down, going past the devils of the second layer of Hell. The air becomes warmer and warmer as he find himself in an oddly shaped chamber. There is a huge amount of heat coming from the floor, like it is on fire. Galerius looks around and finds that his boots stick to the floor, they are melting!

Rubber is a rare commodity in the Hinterlands, so we discuss.

Someone tosses a spike on the floor and it just lays there. We can see that the bottom is glowing red hot. Davlan touches the wall and drinks the Potion of Climbing. He can now climb with a 9% chance to fall only. Around the corner, he sees a 10' alcove with a door. Above it is a drum with the leather that looks like it was ruptured. He tests the door and finds that the door is not hot.

Davlan lands on the hot floor and takes 6 damage from the burns. He goes back up and gets some heals for 6 hp from Randimir.

We are now heading back to Mombafra. We get back safely.

The situation in Mombafra was solved a couple of weeks ago. The hometown adventurers returned and took care of the Cat problem. It turns out that the Cat was a LUCK BEAST. These are animals that look harmless but enchants people to take it along with it. Then, the Cat eats their luck which causes the victim to perform worse at it. The Pelsner Fallen Group found it in a shop.

The rug is worth 3 gold and the tapestry is worth 50 gp.

We play a game of Zowie Slot Variant!

• 1st half (no Dalakai).

XP from coin is 218.

There are 5 shares of 42 platinum, 1 gold, 1 electrum, 3 silver, 2 copper

XP from coin is 2045.

6 shares of 396 platinum, 3 gold, 1 electrum, 3 silver

2316 xp for ADAERIL.

He gets a total of 438 pp, 4 gp, 2 ep, 6 sp, 2 cp.