• Maervahr - MAG8, Stoneskin
• Galeria - DRD7, Invisibility, Stoneskin
• Elias - ASN5
• Jacob - FTR6, Stoneskin
• Josalyn - CLR3, Stoneskin
• Thorgard - FTR5, Stoneskin
• Tartin - CLR1, AC 4/2, shld, 6“, 1-2 doors, 1-2 doors, 10,8,15,5,15,11, 5 hp, NG, Geos. Stoneskin
• Oriyan - CLR1, Stoneskin, Invisibility
• Fandillas - FTR5/MAG5, Stoneskin
• Lazathu - MAG1, Stoneskin

• HOUSE RULE: The Polymorph Other spell retains the original hitpoints of the target.

• The activation date for Tatrin is Reed Moon (5) the 13th, 496.

We are looking for Mercenaries in Mombafra.

• Heavy Footmen. Hired by Thorgard.
• Heavy Horsemen x2. These are double their normal cost.

Per the request of Jacob, Maervahr has been tasked with casting Polymorph Other. The Polymorph Other spell is cast on a bull to change it into a Sabertooth Tiger. It has between 4 HD and 5 HD and it is 90% likely to be a Sabertooth as intended. With a 16 CON, the Bull has a 95% chance to survive System Shock. The spell works and it becomes a Sabertooth Tiger. Initially, the Tiger fails its save from Jacob's Ring of Animal Friendship but then it becomes pacified. He can control 12 max HD but the ring is currently at 11 HD. The Sabertooth has 28 hp.

We have the following additions to our group:

• 2 Heavy Horsemen. Wearing platemail, a shield, a lance, a broad sword, and a mace (DMG 16).
• 2 Sabertooth Tigers.

We are returning to SHIN'S CASTLE and must travel overland through hexes. Each of these are 6 mile hexes.

The grasses are 6 feet tall or higher. We take the roads from Mombafra to Gren and it is a 2 days ride to Qarn. Along the way…

We take note that a Hippogriff is scouting around and must eat for 1 hour every 3 hours.

It is at about the time that we are halfway from Mombafra to Qarn, just outside of Riknettle. This is a luxury village and we are passing just south of Riknettle when we see a caravan coming up the road from the south. It is a MASSIVE CARAVAN, the biggest we have seen yet with over 300 people! It is a huge column with many armed people, with some in robes and numerous carts being dragged by horses. They are moving slowly due to their numbers but they do bear a number of standards, but these are not the standards of lore or wizards.

We eventually approach them on the road and they send out a a large contingent to meet us. A man in heavy plate mail and a guard along with some heavily armored mercenaries approaches.

The leader of the contingent says that they have traveled in the employ of these merchants for a long time. He says some of them can communicate without talking to each other and they are traveling to Mombafra. They are bringing a shipment of incense and silks from the south and their numbers are enormous.

We ask them, “How much for their finest silks?”

They give us an extraordinary price and we part ways.

The party arrives in Qarn.

Meanwhile, Galeria had transformed into a large Eagle and comes flying back. Although she was previously invisible, she was made visible from attacking some fish in the nearby Lake of Qarn. Her hawk claws have grasped 3 fish, specifically carp.

Qarn is a city of about 20,000 people and is known to hold at least one public execution a day.

Elias is in the crowd taking notes on the execution which is located in the Market area and he stands near the gallows. Traditionally, wine is spilled out after the execution.

Galeria the Eagle, decided to take the body of the person and fly off with it. As she does this, most of the people in Qarn are disgusted by the execution. As the Eagle which flies off with the body of the executed, they all cheer for the Eagle flying off!

Qarn is known as the center of Assassins. While in the city, Elias tries to contact the Assassins guild. He learns that back in Ornholm, there is an assassination job for someone they want killed. The job is taken.

Travel to Gren is uneventful.

It is the midday of travel when we make it to Gren, which is located on the edge of the Sea of Grass. This is a region of extremely tall grasses and it is very dangerous. The party continues on to Ornholm.

We are unmolested when we arrive in Ornholm, which is the fourth day of travel. On the fifth day is when we leave Ornholm and head north for Faier.

Elias has taken the assassination quest but during the evening, he fails the attempt. He escaped to Faier after failing the quest while trying to hide from the guards.

We are awoken and meet at the bottom of the tavern, pretty early in the day. The guards mention that they are looking for someone. They tell us that someone tried to take out a mercenary from High Dell last night and we should reconsider who we travel with.

Maervahr goes back to psionic invisibility as we leave the community, in case the locals attempt to stop us.

We travel to High Dell.

We are about halfway to High Dell when we locate a pass in the mountains that leads to the south, The pass leads to Shin's Castle.

It has been 11 months since we have been here but we recognize the worn pass from the boots of travelers and pilgrims that step this way.

We arrive at Shin's Castle and enter through the guarded ramparts. There are numerous plants and flowers of all colors and types decorating the place.

Eventually, we are able to meet Shin, a Great Androsphinx!

The light grey robes on their servants appear well kept as they lead us inside. The decor rivals some of the greatest in the six cities region. It is a beautiful palace compared even to High Dell.

Shin welcomes us inside.

He remembers who we are, of course, and tells us assuringly that we have come for what we had asked for. Shin has been here for a very long time and he mentions that a Gynosphinx was brought to the castle per our directions back when we encountered the Gynosphinx in the wilds. Shin had been looking for a mate to pair off with and becasue we had guided the Sphinx to this place, Shin is oblidged to provide the group with transport to Wyrin'wa.

Some time ago, in the cemetery of Delbo, we had found a glass obelisk necklace which we learned was a key to the treasure obelisk in Wyrin'wa. These obelisks, the construction of ancient Elves, is where they store their treasure. Treasure seekers would always get lost looking for them unless they have one of these pyramid amulets in their posssession.

Shin's servant brings out an ornate vial of oil that casts a rainbow light everywhere. Shin informs us that this oil only has a couple of weeks left of potency but it is another key to locating our transport. He continues that he has heard of our exploits and he is glad that we are alive. He has been looking forward to hearing more of our adventures.

Shin then describes the magic oil. “In the ancient days, people worshipped Sphinxes even more greatly than they do today. Thousands of years ago, people would build great statues of Sphinxes to honor them. They would do this with the blessings of the Sphinx. These statues could magically provide a link between the two, though they are rare and powerful statues. In order to use the magic of the statues, a rite must be performed on the statue.”

He says that since those times, much has been lost, However, Shin knows this rite. His own knowledge was not fully complete until he learned more from a Lammassu. When the Lammassu requested passage, he obtained the missing information. Shin did the research and was able to divine the location of a statue in the region of Wyrin'wa. We must locate a nearby statue as well, which turns out is not too far away. We must go to the north and head to the other side of the pass where will find the crumbling ruins of “NOTOSOTONO”. Notosotono is much older than even Delbo.

Because we had previously brought a piece of jewelry from Delbo to Shin, he shall also bestow this knowledge upon us. This ruined city of Notosotono is 2,000 years older than Delbo and lies only 10 miles to the north. It is there, we must go inside of the nearby Solat Peak where there is meant to be a great statue. He has found the location and his servant planted a magic cactus at the entrance.

Shin explains that he will, in private, instruct two of us in the rite to utilize the magic of the statue. Once we are ready, we will travel to Solat Peak and find the entrance to the cave. Although we have a limitation on time to find the place and perform the rite, there is no time limit on getting back once we have activated the magic.

As part of the rite, we must use half of the oil to get there and the other half to get back. The Sphinx statue will be attuned for the Elves lifetime, that is to say several hundreds of years.

Fandillas remarks that he is a descendant of someone from that forest, the great northern forest of Wyrin'wa. Fandillas knows that this treasure is open to be claimed and is not necessarily protected from outsiders by his people.

Fandillas and Maervahr are instructed on the RITE OF ATUNEMENT.

The oil can only be prepared by a Sphinx SPECIFICALLY for these unique statues, it would not work on another set of statues should we somehow find them. We are instructed and learn that the teleportation is not instantaneous. During this time, we may be vulnerable in some ways. It takes approximately a minute to activate the magic. However, the teleportation itself should be infallible unless someone had tampered with the statue. If someone were to place other magics or curses upon the statues, this might conceivably cause a problem. Shin can perform some divinations to detect the state of the statue before we depart.

For safety he will have a servant go to the nearby room in the palace. If there is anything to worry about, the servant will state a condition of the statue each morning, based on the results of their divinations. Maervahr will listen in on them using Psionic Clairaudience.

We are instructed that we can stay in the palace for a day or more if needed. High Dell is also quite nice if we would prefer the comforts of a Human city.

Shin is seen often from the parapets of the city and he prides himself on keeping the area safe so much of the area is free from much that would be inhospitable to goodly folk.

The party has not been back for 11 months but we learn that the ruins of Notosotono can attract all manner of evil beings. There was once an ancient temple of ZO inside the ruined city that they have not traveled to for quite some time.

We inquire of the servants of Shin if anyone else been looking for these locations, the Treasure Vault Obelisks of the Elves, before and they tell us that there is only one key per obelisk that is typically held by only one person in the family that uses these.

Shin says when we are near the obelisk, the Pyramid Amulet we possess will function as a Key and directional compass that should indicate the direction of the Obelisk. He tells us that he found the statue nearby through divination but once we have passed into Wyrin'wa, the amulet should activate on the other side. As long as we have it in our possession we should be able to find it.

The protective magics can be overcome by the magic in the amulet and there are typically guardians and traps inside these places, according to lore. They are designed to test us to see if we are worthy of the treasures inside.

We leave on the 7th day and find that there is no pass to get to the ruins of the city once called NESITOTONO.

We are moving at only 5 miles per day but we are still unhindered by monsters in the mountainous wilds during the travel. We find a slope going up the side of the ruined city and we do not even notice the rubble. At one time, this must have been a great city built a long time ago. We do find some boulders that do not look natural, perhaps once used during an ancient siege.

With Shins directions, we find what we are looking for. It is located near a collection of rubble. We find the enchanted flowering cactus that he mentioned, which is growing to a few feet tall and is located along the mountainside amidst the rubble.

Next to the cactus and hidden from view is an opening that is about 4' wide and 6' tall. It is evident that the mountain has been eroded. The party could have been walking up the remains of buildings during our approach.

Through this passageway, our MOUNTS will not be able to come inside. The Hirelings will not go inside either.

Galeria shapeshifts into a Dire Wolf and Fandillas casts Strength before we enter. He obtains a +7 and is now at 18/50 STR. He has a 1-4 to open doors.

We enter into the opening and find a passage to the ruined city.

We can tell easily that the cavern has been partially made of sedimentary rock that was constructed thousands of years ago. The cave was once a lava tube with igneous rock on the walls. It eventually opens up quite wide into a 10' to 20' passageway.

Our light source is Jacob's magic sword. Jacob also gives a torch to Lazathu.

The party goes down a lava tube cave which is different than what we are used to. There is an elevation change that we can detect and the dotted edge of a 3' tall elevation gain. We see a falchion on the edge of the rock that looks like it is good quality.

Galeria, the Dire Wolf, smells something. It is an earthy scent like a bramble or forest but there are no plants in the area. She also smells something decaying, like death, in here. Maervahr uses his Psionic Detection of Magic but he does not sense any magic on the falchion.

Galeria also smells something that is swamp-like. We see some brambles brushing up against something else in the darkness.

• Maervahr casts Mirror Image on himself.
• Fandillas casts Mirror Image on himself too.

Maervahr has 3 images and Fandillas has 4 images.

Something is moving along the ground like brambles and leaves and vines. We notice a couple pieces of gravel that move. That is when two conical creatures emerge. They look like cone shaped vine clusters, and they are ambulating like Shrieker mushrooms. It looks like the trees from the Festival of Geos with tendrils on their bodies. They scuttle along the ground and appear to be encouraged by the light. They are about as tall as an Elf.

The creatures have AC 7.

Lazathu attacks with a sling against the creatures, which are considered medium sized. He hits and does 4 damage. He can tell that his attack does about half damage.

Maervahr uses his Wand of Defoliation against these creatures but he must produce the wand in order to use it, which takes a round to pull it from his belt.

Meanwhile, Magic Missile is cast by Lazathu and does 3 damage as Fandillas does 13 damage from his Ring of Shocking Grasp, which utterly fries it!

Maervahr finally produces the wand and blasts them for 19 damage. One creature is turned to powder and the other one is blasted back though it is not completely destroyed.

The Dire Wolf then tears apart the creature.

The creatures left behind a trail of very fine, dead looking fungal roots. There are an innumerable number of them in a path.

One turn passes as we rest.

Galeria identifies these as CONE VINES. She knows that these creatures are mindless and they can run into us by accident. Those roots are how they get their power. They can instantly expand into the cone vines and can pull the vines inside of themselves. If the roots are separated from the creature, another of their species can grow from them.

These look like mundane plants to Maervahr but if he was able to get a specimen, he might be able to create an entangling type of spell.

All is silent right now. Maervahr checks for Piercers as we continue on.

When we get to this next room, the floor is completely covered in those same thin roots. The whole area looks like a spiderweb. They look like they could be dead foliage compared to the other roots, and this way is completely covered.

We check the torch smoke and see that it will go out in the direction from the way we came in. Fandillas takes the torch to the roots although they are less flammable than they look. Some catch on fire and they burn quickly into the darkness. After they mostly burn away, we do see another way ahead. However, we do see a small elevated area and in that area, a chest that is covered in the roots. Beyond this, the corridor continues down to the north.

Fandillas rushes ahead with Maervahr close behind. We get to the elevated platform and begin pulling the chest out from the roots so it wont catch on fire. We do this a few seconds before the flames arrive.

Fandillas goes to brush the vines off which are like thick jungle vines. Doing this, he must make a save versus paralyzation. He fails his save and the vines grab onto Fandilas. He becomes wrapped around his wrist as if held by someone who is much stronger. We do see that the small vines have thickened as they go into the darkness up ahead.

Maervahr uses the WAND OF DEFOLIATION on the vines and the vines begin to wither. We see that there are some that are a deep green and extend back into the darkness, like hoses or tubes.

Fandillas is being dragged wrist first into the darkness at 15' per round. Maervahr moves 1” and activates his wand again, but this time it blasts NOTHING.

Fandillas uses his Ring of Shocking Graps and blasts the vine for 9 damage. Thorgard charges forward as his magic longsword illuminates the way.

Meanwhile, Fandillas is being pulled into a larger creature. He is getting sucked into a Cone Vine!

There are two Cone Vine creatures up there. Thorgard SAVES versus the vines as he moves forward and attacks the creature, but he misses.

ORIYAN can burn the vines without losing his invisibility while Maervahr charges up.

Fandillas uses his ring again and shocks it for 11 damage! He then notices that something is welling up inside the creature as the vines tighten around him. The shocking grasp ring causes the vines to peel off and a purple liquid falls off from the Cone Vine. As it lands on the ground, smoke comes off the dirt. Fandillas manages to get away without hurting himself in the acid.

He also destroyed the creature with his ring! Jacob's Sabertooth Tigers charge in and annihilat the other Cone Vine creature and tears it apart.

We see a couple more passageways in the cave and an area that widens up to the right. There is no elevation gain on the left side.

Josalyn casts Find Traps on the chest, which actually effects a 30' area, but there are no traps. She tries to open the chest but finds that it is LOCKED. Jacob tries to use his mace to open the chest but it does not break the chest open. His bashing echoes throughout the cavern until the chest finally breaks in the top. There are a bunch of copper coins that spill out. We decide to dump it out to see what else may be inside. This creates a water fall of coins:

• 3,200 cp
• 4 gems (16 gp tigerseye, 10 gp tigerseye, 10 gp tigerseye, huge black opal worth 5000 gp).

We gather up the gems and decide to go left.

We move through the cavern and find some natural stone steps that go up to a steeper area. The cavern turns to the left when we see some creatures coming down at us. These are 4 half inch long GIANT CENTIPEDES!

They crawl curiously around the corner and to the edge of our light until they are 4“ away from us.

• Maervahr tries to throw a dagger at a Giant Centipede.
• Fandillas casts Sleep.

They have engaged in battle against our front line. Thorgard, Jacob and the Sabertooth Tigers are all in melee. Fandillas casts first and manages to put all 4 to sleep.

Jacob goes to harvest the poison. One dose of their venom requires a +4 to save, but a failure and they are instantly killed.

We continue west and go another 50'. There are two natural stairs that lead into the ruins of a place that once was more constructed. The drop is 6' down and then another 4'. It seems like we have gone down then back up again as we go.

We come into another 10' wide corridor that is full of loose rocks. The area looks stable to Thorgard but there is the smell of death. Whatever it was is from something that had gone into the back area. The smell was stronger in the elevated platform room and toward the entrance.

We make it to two double doors.

We hear movement in the walls and there are a bunch of places where the brick is missing. In the back is a thin tunnel. We can hear movement coming from inside many of these small tunnels and dirt is pushing out of the walls as many somethings are coming out.

• Maervahr casts Invisibility.
• Lazathu uses the Wand of Fear on the right side.

We see some kind of insects coming out of the wall. There are 12 Giant Centipedes and the party has been flanked on both sides!

They have all moved to engage.

Maervahr's spell is cast and he becomes invisible. Maervahr accidentally shouts in Oriyan's ear as he warns them about the insects…

They are all destroyed by the party!

The 1:1 time of the campaign is on hold so we can continue the encounter later.

Maervahr is up to date on his upkeep.

For the 4 Cone Vines and 16 Giant Centipedes, we get 178 xp each and the Henchmen get half.