• It has been a full in game month since we spoke with Shin to gain passage Wun'ra.

• In a previous session, the party had begun a grand quest for Dalakai Deathbane's special Paladin Mount. They slew many Men, Gnomes and Dwarves and recovered many large treasures. To further go into detail, the party had gone into the Hollow, the vast forest which extends from the Easterlands and into the Westerlands. There they were to find the Den of Evil but before that, they first encountered a Wood Elf village which took kindly on their arrival. They even convinced a Wood Elf to join them on the expedition to the location of the Den of Evil. The Wood Elves offered another quest to the party which is recover control of a Shrine located at the site of a waterfall from a group of Xvarts. The site is considered holy to the Wood Elves.

• Kek
• Randimir - AC 3/3
• Dalakai
• Sarkas
• Fandillas
• Shelmir - Wood Elf Fighter 4 - Ring of Shooting Stars.

We plan to finish up the Dalakai quest.

In the location of the Hollow, near the Wistari Village of Wood Elves, is the Den of Evil.

Inside one of the chambers is a spiked chain attached to the wall. There are five Horses attached ready to panic. There are some Skeletons that were turned and sent down the Gorge. Now, we can hear the movement of bones upon stone to the north west. We are falling back to the entrance.

Randimir has healed Dalakai for 8 hitpoints as the Skeletons come into the sword light. There is 6 damage done to Randimir and the other 12 Skeletons flee from the turning. They are then turned once again, as Dalakai hits for 1 damage. Now all of the Skeletons are turned. Randimir hit for 3 damage which destroys one and then Shelmir hits for 1 damage. Dalakai also destroys one as the Skeletons flee down the dark gorge.

Dalakai senses that his steed is to the east. We continue forward and in the back of the chamber is a set of crude cots covered with hay, enough for 3 people.

As they are searching through the mundane belongings, their senses become muffled by a low light. They find that the horde of Skeletons has returned and have charged into party. There are now 13 Skeletons with 2 charging at Dalakai. 6 charging at Randimir. All of their attacks miss.

The party is now surrounded by the 13 Skeletons and there are 2 more attacks on Dalakai which miss but there is 1 that hits Randimir for 5 damage. Shelmir takes 2 damage. Once again, they have turned 11 of the Skeletons while Shelmir hits for 7 damage, Fandillas does another 6 damage but one of the Skeletons is not turned. Dalakai destroys one and Randimir destroys another.

Dalakai's movement is 6“ due to wearing plate mail.

This time the Skeletons become dispersed into the woods. Randimir heals for 4 damage but this time, after 10 minutes the Skeletons do not show up again. Fandillas finds nothing of value in the area and they head further to the east, passing across another bridge.

They find a 20' wide passageway that leads to an area with a partition made from a worn red curtain. There is a gap of a half a foot at the bottom of the curtain and the passage continues beyond it. To the left of the curtain and spiked by a chain to the cave wall is a Night Black Steed with a mane that is stark white.

This is Dalakai's steed. It is enormous in size, even for a Heavy Warhorse.

A glowing red energy of small size is spotted beyond the curtain. After searching the area, they determine that the curtain is not trapped so they continue.

The passage leads to a more finely kept chamber with a wooden bed inside the chamber. They find an altar to the God of Pain that displays the head of a Demon with four horns. It has a growling visage and they notice that the neck of the Demon has a trap. It looks like a small something. Anyone that mishandles the Demon head would trigger it. Sarkas points out the trap.

Some of the party decide to deface the altar. A morningstar smash obliterates the surface of the altar and below the surface of the altar, gold glimmers beneath. Holy water is then poured around the altar by Dalakai and he can feel a sense of hatred in the place.

The Demon's head is split at the base and they find that the trap is actually inside the head. The altar has now been desecrated and the group takes the coins. As they push aside the stone, they find hundreds of coins along with something that is folded up. It is a collection of maroon leather, a suit of Leather Armor that is sized for a man.

• 900 gold
• Maroon Leather Armor

They discuss finding a Mage without spellbook and are searching in the north west looking for the lost spellbook. The next area is a little smaller with 2 hay beds inside. Fandillas finds a thick tome buried beneath the hay on one of the beds.

• Spellbook

After finding what they needed, they are returning to the Wood Elf Village of Wistari. Someone has the clever idea of using the other 6 Horses to bring the stuff back on. There are now 7 more Horses that the party is leading.

A Paladin's Warhorse is extremely smart with between 2-4 INT. Over the course of an hour the party straps items to all the Horses. They have a plethora of items and the village is 1.5 days away. They are somewhat concerned that the Skeletons could return.

After resting in the cave, the group manages to find a side chamber which has some flooding in it. There is a shallow pool of gray water and a bit of dry land. A large chest rests on top of the land.

Someone casts Find Traps but detects none anywhere. With that, they open the chest on the patch of dry land. The chest is filled with 1000s of cp, sp and ep. In total, there are 9000 coins.

Our Horses are all loaded up with the treasure after dumping out the chest. All the coins come tumbling out onto the dry land where they can be sorted:

• 2000 sp
• 2000 ep
• 4000 cp.

Travel back through the forests of the Hollow and make it back to the village without any incidents along the way.

The Wood Elves desire to hear our tales of the adventure but then the party returns to Criss Antha with a promise to return soon.

We are joined by two more companions:

• ADAERIL CHAENT
• GALERIUS

Adaeril arrived here after receiving a vision of the location of the Wistari Village. Thus, he gathered up Galerius to travel to the location.

Currently, we are in Criss Antha.

The party is fully rested up and ready to take action. Shelmir bows low to Randimir and wishes us well in the adventure to the Taughanock Falls.

We have traveled 50 miles into the wilderness of The Hollow and to the Village of Wistari. In Criss Antha, the guards ride upon Norlips, which are green colored Dinosaurs and we also see the Giant Owls that keep watch. How do they train the Dinosaurs and Owls? Norlips are trained by Men in Criss Antha but they carefully guard their practices and their secrets. The Giant Owls are only trained by Elves of which, the intricacies are many and the trainer must be good of heart. Giant Owls are incredibly intelligent and the training process is not the same as training a Wolf or a Dog.

We head out and traverse back through the forests of The Hollow.

The party finds the Wistari village on the way to the Den of Evil and wear of the location, TAUGHANNOCK FALLS. The Falls are dominated by an enormous, 500' foot high waterfall. This used to be an ancient holy site that held significance to the followers of Cine. Elves have not been back since the Xvarts took over the falls.

We had received a vision from Cine to come to the Wistari. Taughannock Falls flows down and then into a river which forms a gorge. The river lets the Xvarts raid from crude boats all along the banks downstream. The Xvarts would not assault the Wood Elves directly but they have some more powerful leaders, like Magic-Users and Shamans. This was confirmed when they were seen in some raiding parties where they also had a spellcaster in their numbers.

This Waterfall, we vow…we shall turn it into the BLOOD FALLS!

Our group can travel up to 15 miles per day. We discuss trying to attack them at range and based on the distance, we do not need to campout. The Wistari village is only a couple miles away from Taughannock Falls.

Dalakai's Paladin Warhorse has 33 hp and it moves as a Medium Warhorse despite having the traits of a Heavy Warhorse.

We come to the south end of the gorge and on other end is the falls. This area is heavily forested but the ridge above the gorge appears to be quite hilly. The lower levels are flatter at the base but are equally as forested. From about 4 miles away, we hear the sound of the falls. As we get closer, the sound becomes a roar but we still have not laid sight on the falls through the dense forest.

We all dismount except for Dalakai. We note that we have not come across anything other than regular animals in the forest so far. Eventually, the place comes into view through the trees, it is a massive towering waterfall and falls down hundreds of feet to a pool below. About 200 feet beside this, the entire base is shrouded in a thick mist and we cannot see into it.

There are on the falls along the side, we see some platforms and other types of construction but it is too far away to make out anything. The construction goes all the way up the side of the falls and there is one path that winds upwards to a cave opening.

We are now about a mile away and there are a total of 3 cave mouths that are visible. There is a cave opening about halfway up from the lower falls and there is another opening on the west falls. A second opening is on the east side, about 1/3rd of the way up. Is it possible to climb up? We see no pathway going down but we could attempt to climb the sheer cliffside.

On the platform at the base is a pulley system set up on the platforms with many small, or even tiny sized creatures moving about.

There are a total of 3 jetties at the lower falls and 4 boats docked at the jetties. There is a group of small creatures hanging around the docks and a few creatures on the lift platforms as well. The path goes up to these jetties and is coming out of the bottom cave. The west side of the falls is not the side we are on right now. The upper cave is reached by a winding footpath from the east side of the falls which has more trees along it. The area is exposed enough that we could see it from a mile away.

Dalakai ferries us across with his strong steed and quickly we are moved to the west side of the river. We can see clearly how the path is winding toward the cave and the area is heavily forested. We believe that we are generally going in the direction we need to even though there is a sheer cliff face on the gorge to the left and a 150' drop on the right side. The path terminates at a cave entrance and then continues on toward the falls.

We can see a pulley system and several little blue creatures milling about with crates and barrels. Using a cart, a group of Xvarts are standing around by the boats. The trees thin out up ahead and if we continue, we will be exposed, out in the open.

The group decides to break out of the trees as we suddenly hear calls from the waterfall. The blue creatures (Xvarts) have noticed us and one is quickly going toward the pulley system. There are now 6 Xvarts up on the platform.

We lost initiative.

Two of them rush to a rope and begin shaking it while calling down to the Xvarts near the jetties.

Adaeril strikes for 1 damage with a bow and a Sleep spell goes off. He then kills one. We can see outside that some 16 or 20 Xvarts are at the base of the river and they are on alarm, just milling about now. We run into the cave.

We find ourselves in a large chamber and the light fills up the first part. Inside, we can see Giant Crickets with black glistening eyes. They do not move when we come inside.

Adaeril casts STRENGTH.

At this moment, four terrible forms approach into the light. They are bipedal and about 9' tall and they have beaks. Each of their Hands end in huge hooks. Hook Horrors! They are now 6” away. Randimir begins casting Sleep and the others begin preparing for a charge.

Fandilas attacks and does 6 damage to one. The Hook Horrors are all charging at Randimir. They are large sized creatures. Randimir is struck and takes 3 damage, then 9, 8, 5 which is enough to drop him and he is now at -1 hitpoints. In the melee, Randimir did 2 damage to them

They all have AC 4 after a charge. Randimir loses 1 hp as he lies unconscious and bleeding out. Fandilas casts Mirror Image and gets 4 additional images and Adaeril also casts Mirror Image and gets 3 images

Dalakai hits one solidly for 14 damage.

There are multiple targets now so one of Adaeril's images is destroyed. He has lost 1 image. Both of the other attacks miss Adaeril.

Randimir loses another hp and Adaeril has more images that are destroyed. All of his mirror images are now destroyed. Adaeril retaliates for 12 damage and now there are 3 on Dalakai and 1 on Adaeril. Both attacks miss Adaeril but Dalakai has AC 2 and is missed. He takes no damage.

There is another solid hit of 13 damage from Adaeril. This kills one! One Hook Horror is now slain.

Dalakai remains unhit but Fandillas takes 8 damage. Galerius manages to kill one!

Dalakai does 12 damage to the last one and Fandilas takes 5 damage and then 2 damage from a Hook Horror. Randimir is still bleeding out and loses another hp again. Adaeril did 14 damage which destroys the final one!

We stablize Randimir.

The party finds an annex in the corner of the cave that is filled with trash. Digging through the trash, Galerius finds a half buried urn with electrum coins inside. The urn weighs 1,500 coins.

Gazing down into the gorge, the xvarts have all disappeared, seemingly. Fandilas's Hawk can report on things and the top of the falls is about 500' up. He sends out the Hawk who can see two pulley systems. Here we are, it looks like there are Xvarts lying in wait on a trail.

The Hawk can see a total of 20 Xvarts and does not see any bows. We determine that they cannot attack us easily if we make a run for it so we head out and decide to retreat back to the Wistari village.

We arrive safely and take a week of bedrest for Randimir.

• 1,500 ep.

Randimir recovers from his wounds and we head back up the west side of the river and make our way.

We do not attract the attention of the Xvarts but we did notice that one boat is missing. There seems to be lots of activity at the falls now and we notice that there are 16 Xvarts just milling about. They seem to be guarding the docks. Under the roar of the falls, we proceed past several Giant Crickets that pay us no mind. There are a total of 16 Giant Crickets.

We head to a thin passageway that is kind of sloping downward. The walls look loose and filled with moisture and overall, the general structure looks weak. We go left as always.

We then find a collection of tunnels that seem to go nowhere but we do find something on this next passage. The passage breaks off into another cavern that is filled with mushrooms of many kinds. There are different colors and shapes on each of the mushroom heads. These appear to be much bigger than regular mushrooms and there is a small waterfall that empties into a pool. Standing by the waterfall is an 8' tall Mushroom with eyes. A Myconid!

Adaeril delivers a very gracious greeting but the Myconid looks very confused. The creature cowers in the corner by the pool. It seems to only have a vague understanding of what we are telling it and thought it sees the party, it does not attack.

It points at the Myconid's cap and then shudders a bit, then a huge cloud of spores falls away and covers Adaeril. He suddenly feels as though his mind is fuzzy and then words form in his mind. These appear to be some kind of communicative spores and the Myconid delivers a message of greeting. He tells him that he is a gardener and protector of this grove but does not remember his name. This comes back as fuzzy splotches.

The Myconid is terrified of the Hook Horror creatures and did not know that they lived in his cave. He does tell us that we are welcome here for our company but the best he can offer us is mushrooms.

The Myconid walks over to one of the mushrooms, of which there are 4-12 mushrooms of each type. He leads Adaeril through the grove happily and shows him the different types:

• White Conical - They taste good but kill you instantly.
• Red Conical - They will not kill you but do not mix well with Human physiology.
• Grey Flat - He is not sure of a use to Men but when Rats and Crickets are fed this type, their skin turns blue.
• Orange Flat - Give you wisdom and gain visions. Can become clear minded.
• Light Brown Conical - This mushroom is for eating and they live in symbiosis.
• Purple Conical - Grants Infravision for hours.
• White Flat - Safe to eat and increases strength!
• Yellow Flat - Increase wisdom and become attuned to ways of the world.
• Gray Conical - This mushroom grants True Seeing to the consumer. It reveals things that are concealed.

After Adaeril eats an Orange Flat mushroom, he begins to see things and hallucinate. He seem to become mentally unstable but the Mycond still says we are welcome to use the area as a place of refuge. Some of the mushrooms form a comfortable bed of colors upon which Adaeril must lay after becoming incapable of proceeding though he be carried around by our companions.

We explore the rest of the tunnels and find that they are all empty. Eventually, Adaeril is recovered somewhat.

The party leaves for Wistari.

We arrive back at the Wistari Village without issue.

We each get 36 pp and 180 xp.

Randimir and Fandilas each get 431 xp.

Adaeril gets 346 xp.