• Maervahr - MAG 7 (Has Stoneskin)
• Sabina - Stoneskin
• Thorgard
• Fandillas - Stoneskin

• Iona is training at a Monastary called the Sanctum of the Yew to attain 4th level. As part of her training quest, she must travel to the ruined Monastery of the Red Sun to locate the Pericose Gem. The ruins of this monastery are not too distant from the village called Starling but it is rumored that it is currently controlled by a band of Werewolves.

• Shin is ready to provide us with trip to Sheel'sadorin.

• Galeria has attained level 6 after paying off her 5000 gp loan.

• Last session ended on the 2nd and there was a Restoration spell cast from a Demigod for Fandilas.

We are headed back to Taughannock Falls to locate an altar of Cine for the Wood Elves.

Maervahr uses Clairaudience on the caves and hears wet footprints and a scraping sound against the walls. It sounds like the same noises from an area where the party had previously fought the Bullywugs. From time to time he does hear Bullywug speech.

The deserted gorge had been destructed. There is no movement around the entrance to the cave, which is a winding switchback. Fandillas, Sabina and Maervahr listen at the door but hear nothing. Thorgard opens the door.

Inside, we find an arm covered in dark green sludge. After searching the area, Sabina does not find any tracks but some marks on the arm indicate a rending whoever it belonged to has been dead a while. There are some indications that it was chewed up by something that was not a normal animal.

We enter the room beyond and find it filled with feces, a debris filled den of the rats, several small rats dart away. There is also a rope that has been burned away and only the top is left. It goes down 200'. There is no sign of that it was burned by a powerful magical effect but it looks like the rope was lit on fire.

We ascend the ramp and to the east is a 10' wide corridor, 30' past the corridor on the south wall is an opening to a room. This room was illuminated at one time by braziers that have long since gone out, The ceiling is 40' high. At the far end of the room is a destroyed altar that was marked with sigils of the god GRACK. The room is about 60-70' wide and there is a huge blue banner emblazoned with the symbol of the Rat King. There is a slight smell of incense that was burned long ago and the altar has been caked in old blood. We find a concealed door behind the curtain.

Our bullseye lantern shines into a chamber up ahead where we can see wooden cots and some old cloth. We see no obvious exits and just spend about 10 minutes looking for secret doors. We find no hidden treasure and as we tap on the walls, they all seem solid.

We only hear silence through the door but inside we find a much more richly furnished room with silk blue tapestries. There are some sticks of incense lying on their sides along with some braziers that are also knocked over on their sides.

Maervahr uses his Detection of Magic psionic ability to look for any magic items but finds nothing glowing. We then shred apart the bedding, beneath which is a small hole dug into the floor and a wooden chest. Tapping along the north wall reveals a hollow sound.

The chest weighs a couple hundred pounds and has coins inside. The lid appears to be flush with the box and there are no latches. It is sealed tightly with a circular lock.

Thorgard wants to break open the lock and manages to shatter the wood and the lock after a few minutes. After the lock is removed. Thorgard opens the chest which causes a loud grinding noise and finds that it contains Electrum and Gold.

• 1400 ep,
• 800 gp.

Thorgard find that the secret door slides open as cool air comes out of the room. Maervahr shines the bullseye lantern inside, revealing a passageway that is 30' long. The passage does not look recently used. In the back of the area, the bullseye lantern indicates a spiral stair going upward.

We look for panels or stonework in the next room with the spiral stair. Thorgard detects no sliding trickery but left on the ground are some footprints. They appear to be from an Xvart, a Human and from Giant Rats moving on the floor.

The party checks the stairs and then we take them up. At the top we find an empty, unadorned room, except for a very long corridor that exits out, leading into the darkness.

We are looking for an altar to CINE but only the Elves have clues to its location. As our goal, there is only an altar to be uncovered. The Wood Elves want to know where it is.

Thorgard notices that this passage has been worked better than the Xvart passages and does not seem to be sloping. illuminates a dead end at the east end of the wall. Maervahr looks at the ground and notices a thin tripwire. He crouches down and sees that the wire is extremely sharp. Maervahr also notices a second one and sees that they are both attached to the wall about 2' above the floor.

Sabina snaps the first trip wire and it drops to the ground. Thorgard also scans the area but does not see any other wires so he slices through one of the wires which now dangles 5' up. We search the back wall.

Thorgard judges that the end of the wall slides somehow. Sabina detects an odd stone on the ground that is built into the floor itself. The stone might turn…it does, it turns clockwise. As the stone rotates only a few millimeters clockwise we find that it does turn counter clockwise. The door slides open and we also find that there are some Human and Xvart-sized footprints passing through here.

The bullseye lantern illuminates a great chamber with 4 pillars that appear to be worked the same as the hallway. The walls are carved and painted with scenes of river life, above and below the surface of the water. It appears to be like a Wizard's aquarium with some inscriptions in a language we do not know. The painted scenes are joined with rude carvings and graffiti of figures with weapons, blood and filth. Some of the graffiti is in a crude, evil looking language and covers a portion of the 30' high wall. Most of the original carved scenes have been defaced.

To the left we see a dais in the north with a shallow pool of water that has crumbled in its center leaving only the remnants of an altar. There is a 20' hall leading south from the altar and there is a lot of moisture in the air. We hear the sound of rushing water.

Maervahr senses a great anger in this area. There is such anger in it that it is projected into the mind and feels like it comes from the entire room. The altar appears to have once been dedicated to Cine.

Maervahr uses the Wand of Conjuration to detect conjuration magic but does not find any in this area. Fandillas prays to to Cine and a voice says, “You have slain a dark shaman that ravaged this place. For that, I shall grants you a boon. If you perform rites here and remove the foul defacements upon this altar, I shall grant you a second boon.”

We are now effected by a bless spell.

We take some time to repair the room and the altar to gain the boon. We clean up the shallow fountain as the altar was built upon a pool. Once we have cleaned up the area, we perform some rites. Sabina blesses the altar with her holy water and invokes the name of Cine. When she does this, she feels a sense of peace.

We spend two hours cleaning up in total and once we have completed the rite, the voice speaks again, “Fandillas of Cine, you have served the heavens and have purged the falls. When you call on aid, you will be blessed by my power. Fandillas may call on a greater strength, the magic to overcome the evil…as long as you stay true.”

Fandillas senses that he has the main greater power. In his soul, his allies could be granted the blessing of Cine as they defend the falls. The blessing must be invoked.

The anger Maervahr sensed before has greatly subsided as if his psionic burden has been lifted from the air. The anger was purged when we removed the desecrations.

We head south.

The corridor is dimly illuminated by sunlight as the cave opens up to the sky beyond. A pool of water opens up on either side…and then something moves. From the center of the pool, the water begins bubbling up as if from a natural spring until the water rushes out at great speed and drops off into the sky, forming the waterfall we witnessed outside of Taughannock Falls.

Fandillas heads down toward the water with Maervahr's rope tied around his waist. The pool itself forms around a walkway and we can see that the walkway continues toward where the waterfall drops off. Suddenly, the bubbles grow higher rising from the edges and 4 streams of water rise up.

A huge translucent Ooze Creature emerges which was the source of green tint in the water.

The Creature rises up! In the sides of its bulbous body are several tubes and pipes that extend out from its center. Claws can be seen through the water.

Two Creatures lash out at Fandillas with a charge. Fandilas has an AC 5. The water lash strikes Fandillas as it tries to pull him in but he manages to break the creatures hold. The large creature also shoots a great stream of water at Fandillas.

After being struck, Fandillas becomes blinded. However, at that moment he invokes the power of Cine and gains STRENGTH as the enemies suffer a -2 to their attacks and he also gains a Prayer spell effect.

Maervahr unleashes a Lightning Bolt spell at the creatures and both are OBLITERATED by the lightning bolt. The larger, bulb-creature takes 13 damage and is not destroyed.

After this, Maervahr casts Mirror Image. The secret door has remained open.

We escape from combat as we cannot effect these creatures!

We were on a 4-5 hour journey and we decide to head back with the chest of treasure that we found. Fandillas will get restored of his levels that he lost when we return.

The party arrives at the Wistari village and the next morning, Fandillas regains his levels. This gift was a rare boon.

We will be going back out to Taughonnock Falls on the 19th. That morning, Maervahr casts spells on the group and now everybody has a Stoneskin spell and is Invisible.

Galeria joins us, the Druid.

As we head out, we approach the Falls and Maervahr casts Strength on Galeria and Thorgard. Galeria identifies a very ancient Druidic language that describes river life. We discuss how the Water Wierds can only be destroyed by a purify water spell, which must be cast by a Druid. Based on our description, Galeria knows that the water creature we destroyed was a Vardic Grue (or Elemental Grue). This fearsome creature would attempt to insert the hose-like appendage into the nose of a victim, causing them to drown.

Maervahr casts Shield on himself as Galeria strides forth and the water, once again, begins bubbling. She casts control temperature to make it cold.

The Creatures lurch forward across the pool and blast Sabina in the water though she is not blinded. None of the creatures can strike Galeria as she keeps her distance.

Thorgard shoots an arrow but it has no effect. One of the water jets goes for Thorgard but totally misses him. The next attack strikes true and Thorgard loses his Stoneskin.

Fandilas uses the shocking grasp ring on one of the Water Weird creatures. He blasts it but it is not destroyed. Galeria finishes casting her spell and the water instantly freezes. The VARDIC GRUE is completely immobolized. The Water Weird's struggle to move.

Galeria then blasts a Water Weird while Maervahr blasts the Grue apart with a Lightning Bolt. The Water Weirds are sliced in half. Galeria can now purify them now if she can.

Maervahr can no longer sense anger in the room, just an old residual animosity. Using Detection of Magic, he can detect an extraordinary Alteration magic from the pool.

The current is too powerful to swim and if we went into the water, it would drag us toward the mouth of the caves. When we get to the edge of the path, it drops off the edge steeply. From here, we can see the West Reach of Hollow for many, many miles. Our view continues above the forest tops and of occasional, various ruins made of gray stone from the towers and keeps. Despite their great age, they appear built to last the ages.

We go along the west and east walls looking for secrets and traps but find none…then head back.

We return to the Wistari Village.

For Part 1, Sabina, Fandillas, Maervahr, Thorgard each get:

• 350 EP
• 200 GP
• 375 xp

For Part 2,

• Sabina gets 375 xp
• 1053 xp for others
• 678 Galeria xp.

THE SESSION ENDS on Frost Moon (9) the 19th, 495