• Milgo - CLR3 - Scaepa STR 16, Banded Mail, Large Shield, Footman's Mace, AC 3/3 hp 16, +2 saves vs magic/mind affects
• Adaeril - FTR5/MAG4
• Rhinock - FTR7
• Jacob - FTR5

The party plans to attempt another rescue of Galador so we are headed to the south east, toward the the hills south of Trawis.

We head out.

The party arrives without any encounters, to the site of the Lion's Paw Hideout. Nobody has been here.

Adaeril and Rhinock open the front doors, Jacob too. Knowing the lock mechanism at this point, we open and unlock the door. We find a bloody hallway inside.

We pass through the area where we had previously discovered some traps in the hall. We do not set them off but this time, we have no luck on the doors. It takes us 3 turns to open the heavy stone door at the end.

Jacob still has a Sabertooth Tiger pet that he acquired with his magical ring.

We notice a foul smell at the end of the hallway and open the door to the right. Our magical swords are lighting the way for about a 20' radius around us. There are openings in the stone beyond the wall and we can see a vertical rack of arrows. These would automatically refill the device that was pointed toward the holes.

36 Arrows are removed from the trap. We can see the way it functions: the arrows fall into the bottom by gravity and a hidden mechanism slings the arrows forward.

We try the other door and find a filthy room with foul smells. There are piles of food and unidentified trash along with 4 slumped figures that are tied up against the wall.

• Galador
• Arig
• Clancey
• Keteril

We revive them and give them water…then we start taking them outside.

We are struggling with the door when we hear the muffled splintering of wood coming from behind us. There are some soft, insectoid movements in the blackness.

Adaeril casts Mirror Image and passes an unlit torch to Galador.

Skittering out of the blackness come 6 Beetles. We can see glowing red splotches, these are Fire Beetles! They are 2.5' long and are charging.

Rhinock hits one for 9 damage and Jacob does 8, Milgo does 2 damage. Rhinock and Jacob kill 1 beetle but 4 get past our defenses.

The Sabertooth Tiger also hits one of them. The Mirror Image spell goes off creates 3 images then Adaeril attacks.

In the next round, the party successfully kills all of the Fire Beetles.

We collect 18 glands that glow for 1-6 days and weigh 10 coins each. They typically can sell for a decent amount of gold.

We leave our rescued companions near the front door of the dungeon.

At this point, the Mirror Images fade out.

We make our way back to the chamber with the curtain and 2 tables and find a chamber with an old looking bed that is quite large and king size. There are two bedrolls on the ground that are unattended along with some personal things like a razor, some empty nut shells and a bowl of old water. After searching, we do not turn up anything of value in this room.

There is an unusual chill in the air of the room that strikes us, as if we are walking into a snow storm. We see the two Wolves and a Goat preserved pretty well but there are no flies in here. The chest is still opened up.

We find another room with two more bedrolls along with some whetstones and scraps of food. A long chain is stretched across the entire room and nailed in with spikes. The chain is 60' long and stretches to the door where it ends in a loop.

In the next area, we find ourselves in a supply closet full of torches, candles, boxes, rope, smells and a large amount of adventuring equipment

This is ALL of our companions' equipment!

• A Two-Handed Sword.
• A Bec-de Corbin.
• A Large Shield.

Milgo recognizes the shield as his shield and claims it! We also find a steel mirror.

Adaeril uses the Rod of Alertness but does not detect any magic except for what is on Galador.

• 3 daggers.
• 2 medium shields.
• 2x 50' rope,

We find some Lenses in a pouch.

We go through the southern door and see that the door is boarded up with spikes and unrefined wood. On the bottom of the door, there is a hole against the ground. We find wood splinters everywhere that are about 2' in diameter.

Rhinock gets all the planks off and frees up the door. We open the door. This room has been turned into an insectoid nest with 4 empty shells of Fire Beetles. The door to the right is all that we see.

We are not surprised.

The Tiger pushes through the door to defend against the Fire Beetles in the corner. The Beetles are half on the wall and half on the floor. Dirt and filth cover the floor, and there is more dirt beyond mixed with dung.

• Adaeril attacks.
• Rhinock always goes first on odd numbered rounds.

Rhinock does 9 damage to a Fire Beetle and kills it! Now there is only one left and it attacks Jacob. The Beetle missed.

Rhinock hits for 10 damage and Jacob hits for 12, killing the other one. They can see the glow of more Fire Beetle glands in the darkness. The Beetles charge us.

Adaeril misses his retaliatory strike. Jacob and Rhinock both hit and kill 2 more Beetles.

Adaeril finds an old sack filled with silver amongst the dirt and refuse.

• 150 sp

The tunnel slants upward a bit and goes further than our sword light.

We end up back in the cold room as Milgo casts Find Traps. There were some holes on the back of the wall. Adaeril searches the room and immediately finds a secret door but there is no way to open to open the door.

Milgo does not find any traps in here but there are the remains of animals that were hunted from the local area. The secret door is made of stone. Adaeril judges it is about a foot of stone thick and it comes down from the ceiling.

We start poking the hole mechanism but nothing happens. Milgo finds things under the stone table, a little switch under the lip of the table. Farther back on the table are TWO LARGE TOMES suspended by a spiked leather strap. We just happened to notice these.

Each book weighs 300 coins each.

Adaeril takes a look inside and finds that there are 5 spells inside. There is also another spellbook..Adaeril grabs both of them.

We retreat toward the entrance.

So far we have spent 3 hours and 20 minutes in the dungeon. We bring the horses inside and they are secured near the entrance.

We unload our stuff and go back to get the door open. There is a grinding sound in the room with the secret door, the wall has completely risen to reveal a snow covered staircase. There is a frost in the air and the steady sound of a winter wind.

Milgo casts Cure Light Wounds on the Tiger, healing 3 hitpoints. Jacob uses iron spikes under the stone door.

We are not surprised.

The frosty stairs are slippery so we need to move slowly to not fall upon them. The ceiling and stairs open up into a large chamber. There is a 1/2 foot of ice on the floor and it is caked on the things in the room. The first thing we notice is a strange device that takes up the center of the chamber. There are two conical metal rods that point at each other from either side. A purple beam goes between the two rods and it makes no noise. An air of frostiness comes off the beam. A copper wire is attached to three glass vats that are about 15' tall.

The one in the middle contains a 15' tall Frost Giant that is partially decayed but we can see a beating heart beneath a rib cage. The Giant looks like it has been preserved for many ages and there is no liquid on either side of them. The table in the middle is piled with books and they are frozen. Another container contains a Man wearing plate mail and he is also frozen with a sword at his side. He visibly undulates as we are not able to directly look at it.

ADAERIL USES THE ROD OF ALERTNESS.

The Rod detects a powerful magic in the room. The snow is magic, everything is magic. The body on the left side of the room is a concentrated portion of snow that has higher magical aura. It begins to form into a column and twists into itself. It begins to form into something.

The Rod of Alertness does detect that this is a creature of some sort. The party moves 3“ away on this round as the thing still forms and bursts of cold air rise up the stairs, which chills us even further.

Adaeril plans to throw a burning flask of oil and flings it at the base of the stairs. It shatters and flames rise up from the icy steps, illuminating the back of the room. A tall humanoid shape made of ice rises up. It has a beard of ice and he ethereally floats around the corner and gazes beyond the staircase, standing behind the fire.

Adaeril throws another oil flask at the creature but it does not move.

A Prayer spell has been going for 3 rounds currently as Jacob throws another oil flask. We can hear the crackling of stone as it moves toward the other wall of fire. Adaeril pours oil and prepares to light it.

Up the stairs and around the corner comes the icy humanoid. It approaches the party as the creature gets repulsed by some kind of force. It backs up a couple feet down, upon icy winds.

Adaeril lights up the oil. This causes the creature to turn and float back down the stairs. We can see that the plate mail and sword of the man in the container is now broken and twisted.

The group retreats for now.

We make it back to the entrance and prepare to leave.

With our fallen companions, we make it back to Starling in one piece. Our wounded allies did not have mounts and we arrive on the sunrise of the next morning.

• two-handed sword - 15 gp
• bec de corbin - 3 gp
• plate mail x2 - 200 gp each
• lenses x3 100 gp each
• 150 sp

Clancey is on bedrest for 1 week. Galador, who was activated on Storm Moon the 5th, 496, as well as Arig owe upkeep. Arig must take a 100 gp loan. Galador will get 3rd level Fighter training but Erias remains capped.

First Part:

• 154 gp
• 418 gp

Second Part:

• 972 gp
• 150 sp
• 1st level Spellbook of the late Qirops: Shield, Magic Missile, Jump, Read Magic, Unseen Servant.
• 2nd level Spellbook: Invisibility (both sold for 1,400 gp).

Totals:

• 2372 gp
• 150 sp

• 339.05
• 678 xp each

TOTALS FOR EACH PC:

• 676 gp
• 42 sp
• 741 xp

LORD THOMPSON is looking for the secret of the Forgotten Master's Long Life. Our group is tasked with finding some means for how he has achieved this.

• 3 Heavy Horsemen, 6 gp a day, 18 gp total.
• 5 Crossbowmen in Starling, 10 gp a day.

We plan to go exploring to the southeast and Jacob hires the Crossbowmen Mercenaries. Adaeril hires the Heavy Horsemen. Their Horses need 4 rations of food to maintain strength, which we must pay.

The party sets out and we check to the south east of the Starling hex.

We find more hills and will be searching each hex for 2.5 hours per day. We spend the last 3 hours of the day searching the hex but finding nothing we begin looking beyond into other hexes adjacent.

In the hills to the south east and the hills to the south are covered in a forest of trees. We head to the south where we must camp for the evening.

The night goes by without incident.

On the second day, we go south to the forested hills. The journey is uneventful and the forest is a mix of pines and deciduous trees. The first hour passes, and there is nothing. However, on the second hour…

Moving through the trees, we notice 3 Large Snakes!

A Heavy Horsemen stats with 1d4+3 hp. Adaeril's Horsemen have 7, 6, and 5 hp. They are wearing platemail, a shield, a lance, a broadsword, and a mace. Jacob tells the Heavy Horsemen to engage the Big Snakes

Adaeril shoots and does 6 damage. Rhinock charges ahead and strikes first hitting one for 4 damage.

These are poisonous Snakes and there are now 2 attacks on Rhinock's horse. One hits for 3 damage and must save versus poison. Rhinock's Horse dies to the poison…At this, Rhinock braces against the Snake with his shield. Jacob and our Cavalry has also joined in melee.

Jacob uses his Ring of Animal Friendship and 2 of them save but begin to flee and 1 is made docile by the ring. Rhinock hits for 10 damage while Jacob hits for 8. The cavalry hits for 5 damage and another 5. One of the Snakes is crushed,

Jacob's Pet Snake has 17 hp.

After some discussion, we know that barding for Warhorses is available for purchase. We do not see the south east hex until the forest breaks clear and we are now in the rolling hills.

Night time comes and we set up camp.

It is the morning of the 3rd day and we continue into the hills. For the first hour, we find nothing. The 2nd hour, nothing. The 3rd hour, nothing.

Going to the north east descends into a waste within the hills. It is a rocky landscape and the vegetation is brown. We see some Carrion Birds fly off and then we can see that south and then south east are more hills.

We camp in the wastes, which is basically a desert.

No encounters.

On the 4th day, we go north east and find more hills. From there we see hills to the north west, hills to the north east, and hills to the north. To the south the hills climb up to the mountains.

We are currently still in the hills and begin to explore it. We find nothing here.

Next, we go to the north east and see mountains to the south east that continue. They are not as tall as the mountains close to Great Hill. These are more like the mountains north of Gren or by High Dell. There is a lake nestled in the hills to the north east and to the north, it flattens out into a plain which is not full of tall grasses like the ones around Gren in the Sea of Grass.

We go to the north east, overlooking the lake. There are plains all around and some scrubland to the north east. We explore the area around the lake, which is a mile and a half across. Finding nothing, we head north west to the plains and begin looking…

We come across a village that is about 18” distance. It appears to be a crudely constructed village off in the distance and it is not Human. There is a palisade surrounding it and a great watch tower with a red banner, displaying a white eye.

Atop the palisade are humanoid creatures and we see some more beyond the palisade in the distance. We try to avoid these creatures and are evading. However, they did notice us.

Do they attempt to pursue us? THEY DO. These creatures might be Orcs. We have a -10% chance to avoid but at this point, a confrontation is occurring.

The party is close to the hills but there are over 100 of these Humanoids pursuing us. They are now at 15“ distance and we can clearly tell, these are Orcs.

Adaeril applies Oil of Sharpness to his sword and there is 1 dose left.

Rhinock goes to parley with the Orcs as he is a Half-Orc. They are preferred even against other Orcs for AD&D racial preference. He asks them about Orc attacks and they respond that there have not been any Orc attacks recently, these are Wilderness Orcs.

They allow us to depart in peace and we return to Starling

There is xp for the Snakes along with what we received from both parts.

• 741 xp + 120
• 861 xp totals.