• Ondur - Paladin 1
• Morfina - Cleric 1
• Oswald - Cleric 1
• Ardruin Foehammer The Lucky - Dwarf Fighter 1 / Thief 1, AC 0 (-2)
• Reichard - Magic-User 1, AC 10

We are in Starling, a village in the Valley of the Red Sun. There is a large volcano in the center of the Valley that is constantly spewing out dark smog.

• There is a rumor that people go missing from the Thorpe of Starling fairly often and there is a Wizard residing in tower north of Starling.

• The Thorpe of Trawis has a problem of disappearing people as well. There used to be extensive activity in the Necropoli, the people that once ruled over the area had encountered strange activity in the local graveyard. It is said that within the graveyard there is treasure to be gained.

We are headed toward the Thorpe of Trawis. As we approach, we can see smoke rising from a few buildings nestled amongst some ruins.

This small community is the Thorpe of Trawis. We are greeted by a couple of people standing outside. We hear from the people similar stories as were told back in Starling. Regdar is their leader whom we meet at the local inn. He offers us food and drink and we notice a statue in the center of the town, It is a very odd shaped statue that is completely smooth and has the figure of a person with a head, arms and feet. The statue has been weathered heavily.

The people of this Thorpe have knowledge of the history of the settlement. They say since long days past, the Necropoli to the east has withstood the ages. It is dedicated to the power of the demigod called Tenn. The Necropoli was constructed hundreds of years ago and the local people are the descendants of those that constructed it. It is long since been unoccupied.

However, the the people of Trawis started seeing activity in the distance and they believe that a Necromancer has moved in and began some sort of ritual. The statue was not dedicated to the demigod Tenn originally but the people in the town still revere it as holy. They believe that it protects them from all manner of evils but despite this, some dark movements have been seen in the Necropoli…never have the Undead come into these ruins before now.

Meanwhile, the people in the Thorpe have tried to restore some of the buildings on the outskirts of Trawis. Nobody that currently lives around this community has ever witnessed these type of problems before.

The locals tell us that it is not difficult to find the entrance which is located near a pond to the south east with some marshland around it. The place lies about a half a mile to the east and from there, we can see the ruins. There is a huge number of gravestones in that area as well. The people that have gone into the graveyard are always aware of what may be hiding in the shadows.

We enter the location as described, the large graveyard to the east.

Ondur, our Paladin, does not sense any evil around the area. He is also promoting his brand, ie. presenting his holy symbol.

The lord of the entire Valley of the Red Sun, including this Thorpe, is the FORGOTTEN MASTER of the Tower to the west. He is the protector of all the settlements. None of the other races have been here as long as the Forgotten Master.

We have no trouble locating the graveyard at all which is a large collection of mausoleums. They are collected together in a group which appear to mostly be just rocks that were used as grave markers. We have to be careful not to trip over things.

The overgrown grasses are trampled to the ground in some areas, which appear to be cenetered around a central mausoleum. There are deer trails going off in many directions. The occasional whistling of wind moves across the pond to the south creating ripples. We see a set of morbid carvings inside the mausoleum as we approach and it is decorated with strange things. These carvings appears to be skeletons dancing, worshipping or performing a rite to a deity or to a ruler that is unseen. The walls are covered in these carved skeletons, all of which have a variety of poses. After some study, they look to be full size skeletons of humans.

We inspect the walls more closely. There is a stone sarcophagi in this mausoleum but it is empty other than some dust and cobwebs. We see no remnant corpses about. Further studying of the walls, it appears that these carvings were made decades or perhaps 100's of years ago. The designs do not indicate that any careful measurements. One of the skulls of the skeletons appears to have been carved with eye sockets that are studs. There is a single stud within each eye socket that appear to be made from stone…and they can be pressed.

Ardruin pushes the left side stud with a 10' pole. As he depresses the eye, a yellow tinged cloud erupts unleashing a gas cloud! There is a sulphuric smell to the gas but it does not envelop Ardruin due to his distance using the pole.

Next, he attaches a fork to the end of the 10' pole as gas continues to push forth. He presses the other right eye socket and with a click and a grind, a hidden trapdoor opens up. Once the gas settles and stops emerging, we investigate the trap door to find a spiral staircase descending into the earth.

The staircase is made of fine marble and we do not see where it terminates, it just goes down 20' before the spiral blocks further view. The Paladin detects no evil inside.

Ardruin starts descending down the spiral steps, pecking each step with his pole as we go.

The bottom of the stairs opens up into a cavern, a gloomy cavern. The smell of smoke lingers in the air and the cavern is illuminated by two lit braziers. We see multiple passages leading out going North, West, East and South East. The entire room is illuminated but other than the four passageways leading from the chamber, it appears barren.

We take a moment to listen and can hear a shouting. We hear it coming from the corridor along with a couple of voices that answer the shout. Then there are dim, muffled movements. The words sound gruff and high pitched. We can barely make out some crude words.

Suddenly, some creatures emerge with the shape and size of men with bulky arms. They charge toward us and are now 3“ away. They are each holding spears and are an average human sized creature, bearded with wild hair. They do not appear to be wearing clothing.

Oswald hits one for 4 damage and we are still within Ondur's Protection From Evil radius! Ardruin has -2 AC with this so ALL of the spear attacks miss!

Morfina hits one with her footman's mace causing 2 damage while Ondur takes 5 damage from one spear. Oswald strikes and kills one with 5 damage while the Paladin slays a second one.

There is only one in melee now and it must make a MORALE CHECK. The creatures become afraid as they fail their check and they bolt!

As they try to flee, we killed another one.

Cure Light Wounds is cast upon Ondur, healing him for 1 hp. We watch as the other creatures in the back also flee. Another Cure Light Wounds is cast and 5 hp is healed on Ondur, restoring him.

We check the bodies and see that each spear is a proper, normal spear. The creatures are identical to Humans except for a thick fur that covers most of their bodies. These ones were all males and they did carry some pouches. Each of the pouches contains:

• 10 gp
• 14 sp
• 9 gp
• 11 gp
• 5 sp

30 gp 37 sp in total.

As we search the area, we find a small pocket room with several little chunks, like a small gp in size but gray in color. These blobs that look like stones.

We are being attacked but the Attacker is INVISIBLE! Suddenly in the middle of the party, flashing out of nowhere, the Invisible Attacker brings its spear down on the Paladin. We are surprised for another segment.

The attack misses and we strike the creature, which is now visible, though the creature does not fall. It drops the weapon and its spear falls on the floor and he keeps saying “Surrender!”

We ask, “How many more of you are there?” The hairy creature counts on his fingers and flashes forth his hands a couple times. He pulls out a gray chunk from his pouch which looks decayed with black marks on it. It is a sickly gray color and he waves it at us. Reichard thinks it is part of a brain perhaps. There are multiple bite marks taken out of the brain piece that he has.

The creature says in weak Common, “We are the Yunnug. We serve Neirub, No truce unless Neirub says.” We ask it about this brain object and it responds, “The brain is food and you eat it. It's a human brain.”

Oswald notices a shadow form on the corridor at the end…actually there are several Humanoid shadows. The shadows are coming from the corridor.

We hear the phrase “real brains” as they approach. We can tell that they are holding spears. Four of the hairy Humanoid creatures holding spears look at us hungrily but they turn and head back down the corridor and eventually they disappear down the corner, out of view.

We also see some more of the hairy creatures approaching from the north.

We are charged by the creatures this time and there are 5 spear attacks on us. There are 4 attacks on Ondur and 1 on Ardruin, the Dwarf. The Protection From Evil aura also protects Ardruin. 3 of the attacks against Ondur miss as there is an AC 0 for him. One spear hits the Paladin dealing 4 hp of damage.

Morfina escapes and goes up the stairs while Ardruin keeps rolling 1's and missing.

There is another attack on Ondur for 5 damage but he hits one for 7 damage. Ardruin finally kills one!

A thrown flask of burning oil kills another one on the stairs meanwhile Ardruin kills another one!

We each kill the rest and make for the stairs to escape!

• 84 gp
• 87 sp

In the town of Starling, there is a Temple to Zo and a House of Shrines.

• 114 gp 124 sp

We each get 22 gp 25 sp, 66 xp