• Iona
• Smedley “Jek” Brinlock
• Iskandar
• Rhinock

We are in Mombafra, checking for Mercenaries to hire:

• 3 Heavy Horsemen
• 5 Heavy Footmen, they cost 2 gp per day (for 10 gp total). They wear ring mail, have a heavy crossbow and a shortsword.
• 50 Heavy Footmen with a Lieutenant and multiple Sergeants.

The party has hired 5 of the Heavy Footmen from the hiring hall.

We will head north west from Mombafra, toward the hills and are taking 2 carts. We are going to collect the rest of the treasure found in the Tombsafe of the Crimson Galleon. Previously, all of the weapons and armor were stripped from the Bandits so we can ignore returning to that site.

We reach the Tombsafe of the Crimson Galleon and find the cave of the Giant Lizards that have all been slain. We check that our treasure is still here and all the coins that we left behind.

• 3700 gp
• 8300 sp

Still left behind:

• 23000 cp
• 19400 sp

After loading up the carts, we head back to Mombafra. The trip back is uneventful but it takes up the whole day of the 20th.

We take a second trip back to the Crimson Galleon site and the journey is uneventful.

• 12,000 sp is recovered.

We get back to Mombafra.

We take care of some upkeep before continuing. Iskandar is on the 23rd for his upkeep date and Rhinock owes upkeep as well. Since we have been in the city this time, it is considered FILTHY so there is a higher percentage chance of catching diseases.

• Iona owes upkeep of 400 gp.
• Jek owes upkeep of 300 gp

Iona has requested a Level Quest.

• We have found a Treasure Map from the Lions Paw Hideout.

• Finish exploring the Auxiliary Test Facility #3. 150 miles to the north east of Gren, this place is concealed in the back of the Twin Ettin's Lair, a now deceased Ettin that had 4 legs and 4 arms. There is a strange facility in the back that we explored but did not finish exploring. Morlan of Lebon, who is the Magic-User that is hosting this quest, would like us to recover a rod from this location and for Dan's Quest. The rod is magic and constructed of a mineral of some kind, a deep purple mineral that will be in a tightly sealed container. The container is in the shape of a rod or an orb. Morlan of Lebon did not mention the Test Facility location but only that the magic rod would be inside the Twin Ettin's lair.

The party will need to travel through deep wilderness until we reach the tribal village called GREAT HILL that is several days away. The place is dangerous but well protected by the people of the community. Apefang Maw is a dangerous place near to Great Hill but the tribesmen are powerful and their village remains undisturbed by outside forces.

The location of the Test Facility is approximately 125 miles north east from QARN, quite some distance, and Qarn is about 100 miles from Great Hill. A Light Warhorse, or Riding Horse, would be the fastest way to get there as we can travel about 60 miles per day. The journey will take us over many hills but they are not so rugged that it would slow us down.

We can get there in two days of travel, at least to get to Great Hill, and then we can avoid Ape Fang Maw to get to the Test Facility.

During the journey, Iona will speak with animals in an attempt to get them to act as guards for our camp.

We move quickly to head out on the 12th toward Great Hill. We travel through the day and eventually begin to make camp as evening approaches. The only animals seen are typically normal varieties such as Lions, Wolves and some Giant Goats. Nothing else that is unusual is seen along the way.

At camp, Iona heads out to make friends with some of the animals dwelling in the surrounding hills.

We continue on our journey the next morning and just as the sun sets over the hills, Great Hill comes into view. We approach the tribal village which is made of mud huts surrounding a great hill that is surrounded by a tall wooden palisade.

We hail the villagers and Chief Balgigo comes out. He remembers us right away and offers us a place to sleep. The other tribespeople say they have not seen any new dangers since we have been here, They are occasionally attacked by the progeny of an Ancient Red Dragon that dwells up in the mountains but their powerful Warriors have fended off the beasts. This displays just how formidable they are to be able to fend off Dragons. They say that the Dragons have there fair share of Giant Goats to feed upon but these Dragons are evil and they will attack just for sport and entertainment, or simply for cruelty.

They rarely see the Dragons flying in the area except for maybe once or twice a year, if they happen to see it. However, the Dragons do not leave their lair much.

The party stays in Great Hill for the night.

It is a cool day for the Summertime in this part of the hills. We pick up the scent of wildflowers in the air.

Apefang Maw is about an hour or more away and we are approximately 25 miles to the Twin Ettin's lair. We are well equipped on our Light Steeds.

The travel is uneventful and we make it to the OUTSIDE of the cave where we found the Twin Ettin. The grass is filled in by the entrance and was concealed but is heavily covered by wildflowers. There is no activity in the cave that we can see.

The party has a hooded lantern and Rhinock's magic sword glows with enough light to see inside. Rhinock goes into the cave first and sniffs around. He finds the remnants of a fire near the entrance and the traces of a fire behind that from another campfire. The activity came from humanoids and is evident by their sharpened stones and bone scraps indicating that a group of people were here at one point.

Inside is also a pool of water where we had already looted some containers from the Twin Ettin. There is also a stone coffer near the entrance.

Iskander uses the wand of light and an orb of Continual Light from, lighting up a 60' radius for the entire cave. Everything is brightly illuminated.

In the back of the hallway, a seemingly metal hallway, is a plaque that says, “Visiting Magic-Users must allow hands to be bound.”

The surrounding natural stone is carved out and smooth. We head toward the north stairway but the Continual Light is stationary in the main cave room since it was cast on the area and not on an object that can be moved.

We find another plaque which states “Identification required past this point, enter slowly.”

Rhinock and Iona push open the door.

Inside, we find a gallery that contains a pillar and an alcove with another door. Along the other wall are more alcoves and a table in the alcoves. Outside of the range of our lantern and sword-light we hear something skittering at the end of the gallery.

Rhinock goes to hide behind a pillar as we can see things in the blackness approaching. The party looks out from behind their hiding places with only their heads exposed and do not see anything. But suddenly, two Huge Beetles come into view. They are about 10' long and have huge pincers. They appear to be looking for intruders.

At this point, the door closes. The Beetles are not robotic like we initially thought they might be.

There is a central pillar that has some kind of small flask on its side. The bottom part is made of solid stone.

Jek can see 60' with infravision but has failed to hide in shadows. The two Giant Beetles skitter around but do not pay the Halfling any mind. They seem to be trying to detect things and are going straight for the pillar.

Iskandar completes a Monster Summoning I spell which will bring on 2d4 random monsters. 2d4 Giant Rats are summoned and there are 7 of them.

Jek hits for 3 damage and one of the Giant Rats hits for 1 damage. Magic Missile goes off and does 11 damage. The Giant Beetle does not fall despite all the attacks.

There is one on Rhinock and one attacking a Giant Rat. Rhinock is hit for 9 damage by a mandible and the Rat is hit and obliterated. There are now 6 Rats left.

Jek did 6 damage this time while Iskander did 4 damage. Jek KILLS one of the Giant Beetles! Iona and Jek both attack. There is going to be a Morale check on the remaining Beetle but it fights on. There are still 5 Giant Rats left after the Beetle kills another Rat.

Iona did 2 and Jek did 7 damage. Iona pulls out her spear to charge the creature.

Both beetles are now dead and Rhinock is down to 53 hp.

We head toward the south and…

We are surprised!

The encounter is 1“ away. We notice that the back wall of the south west alcove is missing as if it was burrowed out. To the left is a large shield, a metallic shield, in the shape of a crest, sitting in an alcove table. In another alcove is a vial of some liquid, laying on its side with a metal cap.

Something unseen attacks us. Rhinock is struck and takes 3 damage and loses 1 STR and is disoriented. Rhinock takes another 4 damage and now 2 STR is drained.

All we see are some Shadows on the wall that are enveloping Rhinock. He is struck once again and takes 5 damage, and is down 5 STR in total now. Another attack, and he takes another 5 damage and loses more STR, down a total of 7. Giving off shape of undead shadows.

Iskandar casts the Burse spell effect with his wand. Iona throws a silver spear and Jek attacks with a sling. There is no effect on the Shadows with our weapons but the sunburst erupts and only Rhinock is effected. The Shadows make NO saving throw but all take 6d6 damage, 27 damage. Every trace of the shadows is gone…

Unblinded a minute later, Jek grabs the flask which contains a heavy liquid. Jek also checks out the shield which has a silver and bluish tint. The shield is crafted fairly well and is not rusted at all. Iona offers to carry this shield.

The handles on the door can be moved downward. We pull one down which opens the door, it turns on a red light. There are no other markings on these doors and they are equivalent to a stone door. Rhinock notices a bunch of pock marks on the door, like arrows or something heavy struck them, perhaps a magic force. It almost looks like a fire bead struck the wall from all angles.

We search for traps and see that some of the floor is at 45 degree angles, mostly from the center of the room, which came from the general location in the middle. There are no traps on the doors. The Chill Touch spell wears off and we spar for a bit using the shield. It is a large shield and is as light as a Mithral shield, but not quite as powerful. We find that it is at least a +1 shield.

Currently, Rhinock has a +4 shield (id 11), a Helmet of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic (id 53), a potion that makes him “quick of tongue” (id 54).

We push open the southeast door but find that it does not open.

We are not surprised.

The encounter distance is 6”. We hear something close, on the wall, something that is close to the ceiling. A rectangular panel opens and 2 strange cylindrical things emerge. They are 2' in diameter and have a bunch of little legs, like mechanical spider legs. The Automaton Creatures begin skittering down the wall and we can see a glowing bar of yellow on the top of their forms.

• Jek attacks with a sling.
• Iona shoots her crossbow.
• Iskandar casts Magic Missile.

The Automaton has an AC 2. Jek's sling bullet does 5 damage, a solid hit. One of the Automatons is shot off the wall and bursts into flame but the sling only does 2 damage. A panel on the top of the other Automaton opens up and extending out, is a teliscopic rod that ends in a sharp point. The creature tries to jab with a spike while the light on the Automaton turns to red, Jek tries to hit it with daggers while Iona uses her spear.

Rhinock dodges the spike and then destroys the last Automaton!

Iona notices that there is a hole in the tip of the spike and a tube that goes down to the base of the spike. The base of has broken glass and some liquid. Iona sees several panels on the form.

We try to open the door and on the 4th attempt, we succeed and finally grind open the door. 20' inside a corridor is another door with some stone steps going upward to a dead end. On the wall of the dead end is a light that is glowing soft blue but looks exactly the same as the other door. It is a sapphire blue color. The other door has a yellow light emanating from it but is otherwise the same sigil, a topaz yellow.

Iona spikes open the door. The glowing light is about the size of a human head and is at chest height. The design is slightly inset as it is engraved into the wall. The edges of the design has perfect angles.

Iskandar puts his hand in the panel but it does not react in any way. The door has a normal handle but there is no latch. The door does not budge at all but it is a wooden door reinforced with metal. After trying the southern door it opens.

To the right is a fireplace crackling in the walls but there is no smoke coming from it. To the left, the wall is lined with two long tables that are covered with tools like knives and other supplies. The area appears to be a kitchen. We notice some small glowing lights that are no bigger than a gold piece that bathe in a low red glow. The light mixes with fire light of fireplace. The place seems like an amateur chef's suite and the tables are made of old boards of fine quality wood along with the cabinets and parts of the walls.

The wide steps descend to a room where we have been already. We have thoroughly searched the doors and found no traps but there are some dry goods and some metal containers filled with liquids, nothing out of the ordinary.

We open the door revealing a 10' diameter passage. It is earthy inside the burrowed out area and there is the faint sweet smell here along with roots and such sticking out of the deeper parts of the passage. As we disappear into the tunnel, it goes about 40-50' until we find a small dug out cavern. It was not made for people to walk around in but we start checking the perimeter of the room, which is surrounded by big eggs.

We light the whole place on fire and the eggs spew out hot liquid. All of the eggs are destroyed.

We open the northern door revealing an area filled with steel cabinets and a steel wall with shelves. All of the cabinets are hanging open but there is nothing inside. There are some objects around the floor and into the main part of the room that are scattered in disarray. There is broken glass everywhere with bits of metal around along with a thin metal wire. The wire criss-crosses the floor in a pattern. It is almost like a steel tornado went through here spilling metal objects everywhere. There is a big spool of shining silver wire as well.

Suddenly, the wall begins to change and phasing through is a strange humanoid stone creature. It is 8' tall and the entire body is made of stone but the head is inset into its chest. The eye and mouth are shapes indented into the chest where there is also a large blue gem shining.

Iona is trying to hit the gem with her crossbow and Jek tries to hit it with his sling. Jek hits and the glowing blue gem shatters due to Jek's attack! The Stone Creature comes to an immediate stop at Rhinocks feet.

We crunch through the glass and debris and some more cabinets come into view. One of them is partially ajar as if the door was not pushed shut all the way. There is something in here on a long steel table. The spool silver wire is in good shape so we grab it.

• Spool of silver wire.

We check for traps and other hidden panels. After a half hour of thorough searching and inspecting, we find some more rectangular panels but nothing else emerges through the wall. On this long steel table is a long horizontal glass tube that is held up on stands. It is almost the entire length of the table. We notice a fine gray powder inside the tube, but it is almost entirely empty at the bottom of the tube. Among the wreckage, we did not find any traps, but we did find a few other objects.

We did manage to find a burnt piece of a parchment that looks like a label of some sort along with 4 vials, one is empty with a gray residue, another has red powder, the third has a green liquid and the fourth has some white powder.

The parchment has the following text:

en mi??d with wa

Which looks like:

“Green mixed with water?”

We locate a hidden switch but leave it alone for now. The tube does not have any caps but there is some metal that touches the holder and it looks like they have two contact points. The holder is a part of the table.

Jek and Iona see that around the base of the holders are a couple of small bits where a wire was attached to the holders, no markings to receive them. No built in markings.

Iskandar flicks the hidden switch and the wall opens slowly, revealing an annex to the room. There are 2 cabinets inside and the north cabinet is closed. The south cabinet looks melted from the top as if by some liquid or heated rock. It shows signs of damage by something acidic or hot. The cabinet is empty. Went out the bottom, latch melted away.

Iskandar tries to open the first cabinet. Jek and Iona check the lock for traps and find none after which, Jek opens the lock after picking it for 10 minutes. Inside the cabinet we find a playing card type object made of silver and metal which also has a reddish luster, just a faint hint of color. There is also a pitch black box that could hold a ring or a necklace and is well built. The box appears to be flush around the sides. We find 3 vials inside the cabinet as well. They appear to be potion or oil vials and all are closed.

Iskandar grabs the silver card which has a high level of craftsmanship and opens the black box. Inside the box is black and velvety and the base has an indentation as if something was once held there, The object outline appears to be bulbous on one end and then on the other.

We open the north door and it opens up to a cavernous hallway. There are some carved out steps that go upward into a tunnel type hallway. The back area is illuminated by a dim blue glow and we can see another glowing square bar symbol. It glows with a faint sapphire light and we approach the symbol. We place the silver card up against the symbol and within a few millimeters, the blue sigil dims slightly and then illuminates fully.

We head through the doorway and are now in the chamber where we fought the Beetles and the Shadows. We are headed toward a yellow door. It takes three turns to open the southernmost door.

Iskandar holds up the silver card to the yellow bar and the door reacts in the same way. Suddenly, something moves along the walls behind us.

We see two gem illuminated Stone Creatures phase through the walls and their bodies block off the way southward.

Jek and Iona attempt to hit the gem on the Stone Creature with a crossbow and a sling. The Creatures charge up the stairs and they get to us in one segment. Both of the ranged attacks miss.

Iona is struck by the statue while Jek dodges the arm. Iskandar's Magic Missile goes off and hits one for 6 and 5 damage. Rhinock tries to break the oil vial and it breaks. After that he tries to overbear one of the creatures and Rhinock sends it flying down the stairs, it takes 5 damage.

Iskandar casts Dispel Magic. The caster level loses 2% for each level above the caster's level. The Caster Level is 16 so he loses -20%. However, the spell is successful! The Glowing Gem suddenly goes dark and “turns off” while the Stone Creature crashes down the staircase, rolling down the stairs in a heap.

Iskandar casts Levitate on the other one that stands up from a prone position and it fails its save! The other Stone Creature starts to Levitate while Iona manages to hit the gem for 3 damage. Rhinock hits it for 10 damage. The Gem is shattered.

We try to pry out the gems and Jek manages to pull out one.

• Gem (500 gp)

After the battle, we decide to head back and travel to Great Hill.

We make it back to Great Hill without incident and will then head out for Qarn the next day. It is a two day journey,

The trip back is uneventful and we are no in Qarn.

We are ending the session on the 17th back in Qarn.

• 3,700 gp
• 20,300 sp

• 925 gp each
• 5,075 sp each (253.75)

• Magic Shield, selling for 750 gp.
• 2 potions for Iskandar.
• 1 potion for Jek.
• 1 potion for Rhinock.
• 4 vials of powder go to Iskandar.

• 1487 gp each
• 1491 XP value each

Jek tastes a potion and momentarily feels great power but feels as if it arrives and wanes. He gives the potion to Rhinock (id 55).

Iskandar tries a second potion and he feels amorphous as if he can become anything, feels like a Polymorph (id 56).

Jek tries the last one but its an oil and it does not give additional power to his dagger. The oil stays on the blade perfectly and there is a fine luster on the blade continuously (id 57).

One potion is sold for 1,000 gp.

• 2,284 XP for Iona and Jek.

Jek paid 700 upkeep and pays 787 gp toward his loan.

Iona pays off the loan for 1000 gp.

Jek now owes 3858 gp loan minus 787.