• Iona - MNK3, AC 8/10, STONESKIN, INVISIBILITY
• Fandilas - FTR5 / MAG5
• Jacob - FTR4, STONESKIN
• Sarkas - CLR, AC -1
• Kek - FTR6
• Belguil - FTR1 / THF2
• Thorgard - FTR5
• Elias - ASN3

The Monastary of the Red Sun.

• The upkeep for Iona is now on the 28th.

• Thorgard GETS A DISEASE! It is an acute gastrointestinal illness that is mild.

• IT IS NOW THE NEW YEAR! The Festival of Geos is being celebrated across the Six Cities region.

Iona is a member of the Sanctum of the Yew Monastery and the leader of the Monastery is Sheris, Master of the South Wind.

They have requested of Iona to go to a placed known as the Monastery of the Red Sun, which is in the Red Sun Valley. In this Monastery is an item known as the Pericose Gem. It is rumored to lie somewhere within the grounds of this abandoned monastery but it is unknown where exactly. The Monks of the Sanctum of the Yew do not know what defenses lie within. There is rumored to be a sizable pack of Werewolves that have been there for a couple of years. More clues can also be found within Starling, where people are known to talk about the Monastery of the Red Sun.

The Werewolves may be part of a clan. A crude map given to Iona of the location. We can see that there is a swamp to the west from which it is one entire days worth of travel to get to the Monastery.

Belguil buys a silver footman's mace and Thorgard has his 9-Lives Stealer sword.

The party departs from Mombafra and arrives in Starling by the evening where we rest.

On the 2nd, we judge that we are some distance away from the Monastery of the Red Sun. We also take note that it was the New Moon on the 1st and we discuss if or how this may effect the Werewolves when we arrive.

Jacob will be on the 1st watch, Iona on the 2nd, and Fandilas on the 3rd.

The terrain going there is scrublands leading into a large swamp. We are about 10 miles from the Monastery here in Starling.

The party will set out first thing in the morning.

After some travel time, we enter the swamp and find the structure that we are looking for in the distance.

The ruins were abandoned long ago during some battle and it appears to be a tall building, about 25' high, from afar. The walls are high and we come into view of the structure from about 110 yards away. The walls are a couple hundred feet wide. The Monastery walls have taken some siege damage in the past and the stones are heavily weathered. The first thing we notice is that it is surrounded by a field of striking flowers, with petals of purple and black. We notice some white flickering dots between the purple and black flowers.

There also appears to be some sort of figure, perhaps a man, hunched over the front edge of the roof of the Monastery. He is holding a crossbow. We are unseen due to the protection of shrubbery and trees and there is not much cover in between. The swampy area is really muddy but there are no bodies of water between us and the mucky field.

The man is positioned on the wall.

We have surprise for 2 segments.

Iona sneaks up toward the wall and the rest of the group will get triple rate of fire and / or assassinations.

They have a movement of 11“, AC 5 and have 50% cover. There is an AC 1 for one figure. Kek hits for 6,1,2,and 3 damage. Elias does 5 damage and the Man's head snaps back and disappears behind the rooftop.

Iona approaches the monastary and sees something that was hidden but is quite tall. Standing in front of the entrance to the Monastery is a Great Stone Statue that has a humanoid shape, that are tribal in design. The figure has block-in arms and legs and it gazes out over the swamp. That statues appears to have sunk into the dirt.

Climbing up the wall, Iona is now on the roof and sees the dead body of a man bearing a heavy crossbow but the bolts are scattered all around. She notices a trapdoor on the side, where she came up from, that is built into the flat roof of the structure.

Kek ties up his horse and Iona's horse is tied up in the hiding spot.

The purple and black flowers surround the monastary but one of us, a gardener, can tell that they are naturally occurring. We can sense some latent magic on them but they appear to have grown without intervention.

One important detail, Iona can see that the roof does not cover the entire building. There is a great center courtyard. Inside the courtyard, it is apparent that it was once a beautiful open air garden. She can see a field of overgrown grass that is about shoulder height and those same flowers grow inside the courtyard as well.

There is a collection of stacked stones and there may have been a pond near the center that only holds dark water. Iona also spots a staircase that leads up to the roof and doors in the courtyard against the far wall.

She has gathered the heavy crossbow from the dead man, who looks like a normal man but with the build of a soldier. He has numerous arrows sticking out from his body and a crossbow bolt.

• 24 gp
• Crossbow

Kek examines tall grasses and moves to the edge of the courtyard. He notices that in the tall grass is something next to the circular stone. It is an odd blob of milky colored matter that is in a big clump, and is about man sized. It does not seem to be moving but he spots some streaks of green inside the blob. It looks ike a vegetable.

There is a second blob on the other side of the courtyard which look like a fungus, like plants.

The entire roof made of solid stone blocks that are cracked in some places. There is nothing of note on the roof but looking over the edge, we see that the flower fields continue on the back side. The structure is not entirely rectangular, there is a 60' annex in the back.

Belguil coats the top of the stairs with oil while Iona checks the trapdoor for traps. She does not find any but we all hear voices on the inside. We can't make out words but there are two voices.

The guy had been wearing a cloak and some travel clothes as well as a knife. We drag the body of the guy to the edge of the trapdoor. Sarkas casts Find Traps but there are no traps on the trapdoor. He also does a perimeter check of the courtyard. There are no traps around at all.

At this point, we are listening again for more voices. This time there is some shouting inside. The party gathers around the perimeter and Iona opens the trapdoor. Meanwhile, Elias wears the cloak from the dead man.

The floor seems to be marked with deep impressions and Iona notices the current residents of the Monastery are set up for martial training. We can tell that they are farther down the hall. We lost our chance for surprise.

We wee at a distance of 6” down thw way where there are 3 Men, who are not as Surprised as we are! They were fighting but they now see many people standing around the top. There is a 25' drop through the trap door. We prepare for a charge.

However, a minute or 2 passes and nothing comes. A couple of us notice some forces of Men climbing the south wall. 10 Men have scaled the outside wall and leap over the edge and onto the roof. The 10 Men are all evenly spaced from each other.

Iona shoots her crossbow but FIRES AT FANDILAS. She does 4 damage to Fandilas. Then the Hold Person goes off and one of the Men is now frozen in front of Belguil. The ones in front of Kek are not frozen. On the next round, Iona charges into melee her silver spear as a Sleep spell goes off. It does not effect anything. The “Men” have resisted but these are actually Werewolves!

Sarkas hits one and does 5 damage and Thorgard does 10 damage while Kek did 5 damage. They have a target AC 5 but none are felled. The one in front of Kek is a SKILLED WARRIOR but it missed Kek! All the others are attacking Sarkas. Sarkas takes 6 damage and then another 6 points. There are 2 on Fandilas and one on his Mirror Image. They did 6 damage to Fandilas and a Mirror Image is destroyed. Iona attacks with her spear and misses.

It is now round 2 of 9 on the Hold Person as Kek manages to hold off his opponent. There are 3 attacking Thorgard who hit and he takes 4 damage and then another 6 damage. Sarkas has 2 attacks on him but manages to dodge. All of the other attacks are on the Mirror Images. Only 1 Mirror Image is destroyed.

Belguil does 11 damage and another Hold Person spell holds 3 more of them! Iona attacks again in melee with her spear, missed. Protection from Evil is being cast by Sarkas and it goes off! Jacob gets into melee and does 12 damage. Kek does 4 damage and a heavy blow, 19 damage, from Belguil, ONE OF THE WEREWOLVES IS DESTROYED!

Fandilas hits one for 11 damage and Jacob KILLS one! Thorgard did 5 damage to another while Elias does 4 damage. There are a total of 5 Werewolves down.

After a Morale check, the Werewolves fight on!

Two Werewolves are attacking Fandilas but there are NO HITS! They have also missed Sarkas and Thorgard. One of them hits Kek for 6 damage. He takes another attack but this time, Kek holds him off. Both of the other Werewolves are attacking Thorgard and Thorgard blocks! A strike from a Werewolf hits and STONESKIN is gone from IONA. She was attacked by one of the Werewolves while Thorgard kills one!

Fandilas does 8 damage and Jacob also does 8 damage. Belguil notices that the flowers have been trampled where some of the Werewolves scaled the walls.

Iona makes a fighting withdrawal, moving back at 1“. Kek hits for 10 damage against their leader and Thorgard also does 10 against the leader. Elias missed while Fandilas did 12 damage and Jacob also missed. Sarkas hits for 3 damage.

On their turn, there are 2 Werewolves attacking Jacob and he takes 2 damage…except STONESKIN ABSORBS IT. Kek takes 5 damage as Fandilas casts Magic Missile. This is the 5th round of the Hold Person spell.

Against those Werewolves that are Held, we get two attacks at +4 for max damage. Fandilas attacks and does 11 damage. Kek does 8 damage. Fandilas kills one! Thorgard missed this time and Elias does 4 damage. Sarkas hits for 8 damage and the Leader attempts to flee. As he begins to run, we take more attacks doing 8 damage, 4 damage and another 4 damage. THE LEADER IS NOW DEAD.

Fandilas's last Mirror Image is destroyed by one of the Werewolves as Kek did 15 damage and Jacob did a massive 20 damage! Fandilas also did 14 damage.

All of the Werewolves are cut down and we took no losses!

We check their bodies for valuables and there are 3 javelins strapped to the leaders back.

• 3 javelins.
• Small steel key.
• Large, dark wrought iron key.
• 296 gp.

Iona has a poisoned spear still.

We search the south wall from inside the courtyard. Beneath the beds of flowers are some decorative garden stones. The garden stone in the corner has a lot of mud on it and it is partially built into the wall. We hear a loud thud of stone on stone. We took down the grappling hook and rope that were used to scale up the walls.

We must beat a 4, and we did…

The ground rumbles slightly and a woman comes from some place. There is a hideous scream that echoes across the swamp.

It appears that the stone statue outside of the front is readjusting itself. About 3' from its left shoulder is now just a pile of hairy mush from a dead Werewolf. It must have come from somewhere and succumbed to this statue!

300 yards in the distance we spot 4 smaller Werewolves running out into the swamp. They are running into the brambles. We watch as the statue dislodges itself from the ground.

Kek decides to attack it using a +1 sword but the statue strikes him and Kek takes 14 damage. Then Kek takes 12 damage and another 11 damage as he flees. The statue chases us but stops at the corner and begins walking backwards.

We open the trapdoor and see an illumination and a very tall ladder placed along the east wall. Jacob places an iron spike and ties a rope off.

This appears to be a fairly extravagant martial training area as we climb down. Iona lights a torch.

We fail to open the door at first but then, after getting it open, it reveals a chamber beyond. We instantly recognize the architectural flourish, which is customary to a chamber of the head of a monastery, a sizable chamber.

There is a worn bed and some very old dirty sheets that have been replaced with rags. At the head of the bed is a crude pillow. We also find a large chest.

Iona checks for traps and Thorgard just opens the chest which is unlocked. Nothing bad happens to him. The lid opens and we see that the chest is full of coins and a suit of chainmail.

• 900 gp
• 1,250 ep
• 1,875 sp
• 420 cp
• A suit of Elfin Chainmail.
• A treasure Map.

The chainmail is entirely made of mithral and is Elf or Half-Elf sized only. Fandilas puts it on and it fits perfectly. Elfin Chainmail is always magical but not every Elf would have it. Belguil finds a piece of parchment and a hand drawn map in charcoal which leads to a circular keep. It is not this building but located on a hill. The X is marked some distance away but we can tell only the relative position. It could be Dead Man's Stone.

We open the door revealing a dark hallway. Just outside of our illumination, we catch glimpses of something floating in the air, a seemingly random pair of stone hands. There are four pairs of hands and each has one in a fist and one, an open palm. The four pairs of hands snap towards us into a fighting position. However, we leave to avoid this fight and head up through the north corridor.

In the next aea are 8 simple cots that fill the room. One of the cots is collapsed and there is the body of a man on the ground. He is wearing travelers clothes and appears to be partially eaten. There are also some objects on the body.

• 20 gp
• 25 sp
• 80 cp
• An armband of fine cloth and leather that is decorated with jewels for flair.

We open a door on the west revealing a 30' corridor that eventually opens into a larger corridor and a chamber. There is a stone statue of a Monk in a warriors pose. The base of the statue is adorned with embossed swirls and the floor is scattered with sling stones. The chiseled base reads:

“Pericot, Master of the West Wind. A steady hand is enough. 320 AC.”

Iona looks upon the statue more closely and find it to be an impressive form but alien to her. Three other party members find that the statue bears 4 round smooth buttons near the base, near the swirls, in the center of the statue.

Iona goes to the west side of the statue and presses the button. The statue slides back slowly and silently revealing a cache.

• 300 pp
• 1,300 gp
• 2200 ep
• A regular burlap seed pouch. It contains dark colored seeds, enough of them to sew a garden.

This session is ending on the 3rd.

• 2540 gp
• 300 pp
• 3450 ep
• 1900 sp

• One of the javelins is magic but we sell it. It was worth 4,750 gp
• The armband is magic but is sold for 2,000 gp
• A Clerical Protective Device.
• The seeds are not magic but the pouch is magic. Iona takes the pouch.

Total is 9,290 gp.

• 320 gp 5,070 gp with Sarkas.
• 300 pp, 4,250 gp, 3,450 ep without Sarkas.

• 633 gp 14 sp 634 xp each.
• 42 pp 607 gp 492 sp

42 pp 1240 gp 492 ep

After some sparring, the Elfin Chainmail is +4! This goes to Fandilas.

300 pp, 1500 gp, 98.4

Totals: Iona - 2759 xp