• Rhinock
• Maervahr - Stoneskin, Invisibility
• Jacob
• Josalyn - CLR1, Stoneskin
• Galador

Maervahr owes 700 + 350 gp Upkeep. Paid.

The party has opted for some overland exploration. We plan to see what lies to the north west of Mombafra.

• Heavy Horsemen (8)
• Heavy Footmen (5)
• Crossbow Horsemen (5)

Jacob hires 4 of the Heavy Horsemen and Galador hires the other 4. All 8 of the Heavy Horsemen are hired and under Jacob's command.

We depart on horseback and travel to the north west.

It will take us a full day to get to the first location. Our travel is uneventful so far but we are in the Mombafra patrolled territory for 3 hexes.

From here, we can see that the hills drop down into a waste. Beyond this hex there are hills, plains and more wastes. Maervahr is flying above on his Hippogriff and can see a ruin of a large settlement in the plains to the north west. It looks like it was a large town or small city at one point and there is mostly just a bunch of rubble.

A Hippogriff flies 12 miles per hour so Maervahr is able to fly out and return.

We make camp for the night and Jacob is on the midnight watch.

That evening, Maervahr flies out ahead to scout out the ruins. When he arrives at the ruin, he can see that it is a spread out settlement but there are wuite a lot of ruined buildings. Evidently, there were lots of farming and pastures out this way at one point. Most of the buildings have been reduced to rubble but they are scattered amongst the plains.

Maervahr does notice that there are two sizable structures that have not completely collapsed. One was a temple and the other is pentagonal, like a barracks, but is partially collapsed. They were not all composed of rock, which is an indication why they broke down over the centuries. Maervahr also notices several small dogs or wolves in the area and they appear to be blinking. These are wild Blink Dogs.

Maervahr returns to the group and we approach the ruined city in the morning. We see the buildings, including a pentagonal building, and they are about 3 stories tall. Some of them are still completely standing. We see nothing react to our approach.

We move up to the building and suddenly a Blink Dog appears in front of the building.

Maervahr lands on top of the building and he can see through the ruined roof. The building below has an incredibly tall ceiling and it was maybe once a coliseum but is now full of ruined seats and stairs. It may also have been an arena. Now, we see that there are 8 Blink Dogs inside and there are plenty of places to hide in here. There are staircases and passages that go around the perimeter.

Maervahr can see off toward the outside and notices that our allies have gotten to about 150 yards from the entrance. The party attempts to open the doors and Maervahr flies up to the roof. Rhinock stays back with the Horsemen as Galador opens the door.

About 20-30' away are the Blink Dogs. They are looking at him with curious eyes. Galador offers them food as they approach him and they seem to be peaceful. Galador does not see any treasure around here. Eventually he comes to the perimeter where he finds a protected box area, like a bunker for viewing the colleseum. The Dogs begin blinking in front of Galador and then they start barking. They look confused. They suddenly blink toward the opposite door, getting his attention away from the bunker.

Maervahr goes to check inside the bunker after landing below. There is a single Blink Dog inside with a nest and it looks like it is pregnant. We can see toward the back of the bunker, behind a counter, the nest is made amongst the ruins of furniture. There is also a dust and gravel covered chest. Maervahr investigates the chest.

Meanwhile, the Blink Dogs are trying to lead Galador away from it and toward the north side. As Maervahr checks the chest, though he is no Thief, he does not see any obvious traps though it does have a steel lock with a keyhole. It is a big lock.

The Blink Dogs are leading Galador toward the rest of the city and out of the coliseum ruins. Maervahr returns to his Hippogriff and flies off toward the north to see where they are leading us. A single Blink Dog leads us to just outside of another building that is not nearly as big as the ruined coliseum.

We seemed to have found an old Temple of Geos.

Inside, the place is dark and part of the roof has collapsed in on itself. The Blink Dog leads us to a location about 100 yards away from the entrance.

Jacob says that he thinks there are Displacer Beasts inside here, the natural enemy of Blink Dogs. Outside the temple, which was actually a Cathedral to Geos, we found that the door is on the ground and it is 20' away. There are pews lining the hallway. Most of the roof is collapsed in but there is still a long hall where the devoted would worship. In the dim light, we can see an altar at the far side.

As we apprach the altar, we can tell that it is not desecrated just abandoned apparently. Everyone else in the group enters the premises.

A Large Spider that is about 3' across disappears behind a corner and we see a web that is shaking slightly.

• Maervahr casts Burning Hands on one of the webs to the right.
• Jacob and Josalyn are leaving.
• Galador leaves.

From both sides come several more Large Spiders. They charge into our front lines. There are a total of 5 Large Spiders so far. They have AC 8 or 9 due to their charge and are small to medium sized.

Galador hits and does 5 damage. He is also bitten by a Spider for 1 damage and Galador must now save versus poison. HE SAVES! Rhinock is also hit for 1 damage and must save, he does so!

Maervahr cancels the Burning Hands spell in favor of staying out of the melee! Meanwhile, Rhinock gets a second attack as Maervahr goes psionically invisible.

Rhinock kills one and now there are 4 Giant Spiders in melee. Maervahr throws a dagger and then goes invisible again. They are attacking Rhinock and this time, 2 hit! Rhinock hits back for 4 damage but it lives and there remain 4 Spiders still alive. Galador hits for 9 damage, which kills one! Rhinock hits for 8 damage which kills another one. Jacob does 10 damage.

Jacob's Sabertooth Tiger bites and a claw hits for a total of 11 damage. This kills the last Giant Spider!

Maervahr does not see any more Spiders in the northern area of the temple. There is an oblong rectangular door and a lowered area behind the altar. The altar is positioned on an elevated area and there is curved seating in some areas. Hidden behind this area is an oblong trap door.

Maervahr searches around the altar, as does Galador and Jacob. We do not find anything of note but we can see how there are some thing wrapped up in cocoons. These all appear to be Blink Dogs!

Galador hacks down one of the cocooned Blink Dogs.

Meanwhile, the trap door pulls upward and Jacob tries to open it. It takes 2 tries before he gets it.

This reveals a thin staircase that goes down to an area that is too dark to see without a light source. Maervahr pulls out his lantern and his light illuminates an underground pantry. There are rotted wooden steps going down and no movement inside. Maervahr skips down the stairs, testing them as he goes down.

Down in this store room, he finds several old supplies on old shelves, a couple of crates, some wooden boxes. some sacks and a few other things. They all appear to have been eaten by rats. There is a nightstand table with a small donation box set on top. We can hear that there are some coins inside. The donation box was painted white at some point and it looks like the latch was made by a child.

Rhinock opens it.

• 58 cp
• 46 sp
• 36 ep
• 23 gp

One crate contains more small boxes and there are also 30 flasks of oil down here.

On top, Jacob further investigates the altar. The altar seems solid but he does not find much.

We start searching the store room more thoroughly and we find 2 things. Maervahr notices that there are several small body parts, like some fingers and toes only the flesh on them looks quite decrepit, even if not decayed. They are old and they look unnatural, as if they were perhaps recently hacked away with weapons. There is also a portion of a lower arm that ends into a clawed hand. Some of the meat looks moist and fresh. The bone was broken with some kind of heavy bludgeoning weapon.

We also notice that some of the mortar on the far wall is not quite connected. Perhaps this leads to some kind of hole?

After searching more, Jacob finds on the base of the altar that there is a panel that has been opened at the base. Inside the panel are a couple of racks and a small box on a shelf that is currently open. The box contains some bolts, it is 1/3 full of light crossbow bolts that are made of silver. Two of the racks appear like they can hold weapons like a short sword but they are empty.

• 8 silver light crossbow bolts.

Galador notices that the damage done to these body parts was all dealt by bludgeoning weapons. Rhinock uses a crowbar to open the SECRET DOOR!

They finally open the door…

We are not surprised!

There is a snap as all of the old mortar comes off the edge of the stone and the mortar breaks. It looks old but the door cracks open and the smell of death pours out!

The cobblestone floor goes about 10' down a hallway into the blackness. There is a grotesque sound of a creature in alarm.

Maervahr casts LIGHTNING BOLT with a surprise segment.

Out of the blackness we hear sudden movements as something begins charging out of the darkness. They move 3“ when charging.

Suddenly, 4 Ghouls emerge out of the darkness. Maervahr's Lightning Bolt misses all of them as they would need to be standing still and it is impossible to hit a moving target.

They have an AC 5 for Ghouls.

• Rhinock hits for 7 damage.
• Jacob hits for 15 damage but this does not kill!

We are overcome by a nauseous smell. Josalyn, Maervahr and Jacob take -2 to their to hit rolls.

2 of the Ghouls are attacking Rhinock, 1 is on Josalyn and 1 is on the Sabertooth Tiger. The Tiger hits and does 7 damage.

The Ghoul attacks Rhinock with 2 claws that do 4 damage, he must save versus paralyzation. He saves! On the Tiger, there is 1 bite that does 3 damage, the Tiger also saves!

Josalyn takes 2 damage but actually takes NO DAMAGE due to STONESKIN!

The Lightning Bolt spell is cast and illuminates a stone sarcophagus as the shot misses entirely and it sprays across the top. There were no eyeballs glowing in the illumination.

Maervahr casts ROPE TRICK.

We have simultaneous Initiative.

The party must his AC 4 against these Ghasts. Jacob hits for 12 damage, Galador misses and the Sabertooth Tiger hits with 2 claws for 7 damage. None of the Ghasts are slain.

The Protection from Evil spell does NOT keep Ghasts at bay, they can easily overcome it. They do 5 damage to Jacob and he is PARALYZED! It does 8 more damage to Jacob. There is now 1 attack on Galador and 1 on the Tiger. They do 4 damage to Galador and he failed his saving throw! He then takes another 8 damage and is also paralyzed!

Josalyn is the final target and takes 5 damage. JOSALYN IS PARALYZED!

Maervahr's spell is cast and he climbs up into his extradimensional space.

Rhinock hits for 11 damage, which destroys one! Likewise, there are 3 attacks on Rhinock. 2 claws hit the Tiger and it must make another save, the Tiger passes and is still up! Rhinock is attacked for 4 damage and FAILS his saving throw against paralyzation, he then takes another 8 damage.

The Sabertooth Tiger hits for 3 and 7 damage and kills another Ghast!

Maervahr casts Phantasmal Force on the Ghasts and creates an illusion to cover them in burning tar. One of the Ghasts saves against the illusion and one is bogged down by the illusion. The other Ghast completely ignores it.

The Sabertooth Tiger does 3 damage and 6 damage to one and the Tiger slays the illusion-racked one. The Tiger takes 2 damage from claws and 8 damage.

The remaining Ghast tries to lug Rhinock toward the way we entered from. Maervahr casts Web and his webbing encases the Ghast. We start pulling out Jacob and the rest of the paralyzed.

Galador and Rhinock are unparalyzed.

Rhinock could cut himself out in a turn, so he does so. Meanwhile, THE GHAST SUFFOCATES AND DIES! Maervahr retrieves his rope from the ROPE TRICK spell and ends it.

Josalyn heals herself and Maervahr burns the web. This illuminates a tomb. Rhinock has 45 hp currently and Galador has 20 hp. The Tiger is at 10 hp. Maervahr casts STONESKIN on Josalyn.

We return to the colisseum with a Ghast head and some Giant Spider parts and we present them to the Blink Dogs. The one that lead us to the temple acknowledges our victory and then leads us to the bunker area where the pregnant Blink Dog had made a nest.

The Blink Dog then leads us toward the chest where we can see that a latch and some parts of the wood have been gnawed by some creature.

We learn that there is a 63 days gestation period for a Blink Dog.

• 4 gems: 10 gp tiger eye, 1,300 gp emerald, 100 gp alexandrite, 10 gp alexandrite

Maervahr takes another moment to cast Stoneskin on Rhinock and he casts Invisibility on Josalyn.

We return to the temple of Geos to continue exploring. Once we return to the area where the Ghasts emerged from, we find an extremely dusty compact collection of sarcophagi. This burial site of 16-20 people is hidden down here, a crypt beneath the temple. We search the sarcophagi and find the following items:

• 2000 gp
• 2 gems
• 12 gems
• 11 jewelry
• 4 potions
• 1 scroll containing 7 Magic-User spells between levels 2 and 9

The party heads out and returns back to the city.

We make it back to Mombafra very late and without any further encounters.

On day 3, we sell stuff and split treasure…

10 gp base gems:

• 11 gp
• 65 gp
• 9 gp
• 10 gp
• 10 gp
• 10 gp
• 10 gp
• 20 gp
• 15 gp

50 gp base gems:

• 45 gp
• 50 gp
• 50 gp

100 gp base gems:

• 100 gp
• 100 gp

11 jewelry:

• silver ring with gemstones worth 1,000 gp
• small golden box with gems inlaid worth 8,000 gp
• jade coral wrought platinum bracelet worth 2,500 gp
• silver armband with gems worth 6000 gp
• silver chain with gems worth 6,000 gp
• ivory brooch worth 1,000 gp
• wrought silver fob worth 600 gp
• silver with gem necklace worth 1,000 gp
• platinum pendant with gems worth 7,000 gp
• gold belt with gems worth 5,000 gp
• wrought silver and gold necklace worth 400 gp

Each of us receive and take a sip of a potion.

• Jacob sips first, but it is an oil with a rainbow effect on it and does not actually sip this substance.
• Maervahr sips second and suddenly all of the flowers in the nearby garden and the grass bend toward his will.
• Rhinock sips third and discovers an oil that is the same as Jacob's.
• Galador sips fourth and sees a thin layer of particles and some gas rise from his skin.

• MAGIC USER SCROLL (id 84) 8th, 9th, 7th, 8th, 2nd, 4th, 2nd. SPELLS: Rope Trick, Deep Pockets, Dig, Monster Summoning V, Incendiary Cloud, Sink, Bigby's Crushing Hand

• Rhinock takes an oil (id 82)
• Galador takes gaseous form (id 83)
• Josalyn takes plant potion (id 86)
• Jacob's oil is id 85

• 2 gp
• 18

2041 gp xp value, this is not divided up by us.

1925 gp

Maervahr wants the 8,000 gp box.

Josaylyn gets the loose change money.

We get 1074 gp EACH.

There is a 9074 xp value.

• 4585 xp value for Josalyn.
• Galador 9648 xp, CAN TRAIN TO LEVEL 5.
• Rhinock 9348 xp.
• Maervahr 13,348 xp, CAN TRAIN TO LEVEL 8.
• Jacob 9348 xp.
• JOSALYN 2556 xp, gains 2 levels!

Jacob takes 400 less gold to give Josalyn 400 gp and 200 more xp.

It will cost Maervahr 10,500 gp for training to level 8 and he pays 10,200 gp. He now has a 1,350 gp loan for Training plus his Upkeep.

The 27th will be the date that the loan is due and Maervahr can adventure again on the 6th.

Maervahr successfully learned Polymorph Other and Dig from his new Magic-User scroll.