The farmer, Barak Malloran, gave the party a +1 dagger as a reward for ridding him of the giant stag beetle that was eating his crops and livestock.

In Hardby, Hefram bought four hammers. Nevil used his appraising NWP to exchange the party’s 1,000 g.p. for two topaz gems. Beldak now carries both the gems. The party spent 100 g.p. to buy two wooden crates (for the two baby stag beetles) and for a party at the tavern in Hardby to publicize their name and fame.

A young man named Myron Morliff enlisted the party’s help to get a valuable family gem from a dungeon in the swamp just outside of town.

Facts about the dungeon: Built by Myron’s great-great-great-grandfather, Silas Morliff, who was known to be eccentric and guarded his wealth enough to build the dungeon to protect it; dungeon locked, can be opened only with a special key, which Myron has just received as an heirloom upon turning 18.

The party agreed and accompanied Myron through the swamp to the dungeon. The door of the dungeon was set into a hillside, which itself was surrounded by swamp water like a moat. The party felled trees to use as bridges across the water.

They were attacked by giant frogs, but they defeated the frogs. Beldak’s dog was almost swallowed whole by a frog but managed to bite the frog’s enveloping tongue to get away.

After entering the dungeon, the party descended stairs to arrive at the beginning of a long corridor. Talmin-kun scouted ahead in the corridor to check for traps, but she failed to find a trap door directly ahead of her. She fell to the bottom of a 20-foot pit but took little damage from the fall. As the party got out a rope to let down to her, some strange ooze began pouring out of holes in the wall near her. Talmin-kun managed to grab the rope and start to climb up, but the living ooze managed to strike her quite skillfully, enveloping her. She could not even scream because of the ooze enveloping her entire upper body.  Smoke could be seen emanating from the ooze as its acidic digestive juices rapidly consumed Talmin-kun’s flesh.

Hefram dropped four vials of oil into the pit on the ooze, but the flaming oil didn’t harm it.

The party used one of the felled trees outside to cross the pit, which was ten feet long. Hefram now took the lead. At the end of the hall they found a closed door, but Hefram was able to detect what looked like another trap door just in front of it. They triggered the trap door and noticed that there were holes near the bottom of this pit, too, like the previous one into which Talmin-kun had fallen.

At this point the party went back to town to find a thief (David’s new character). The name of this new addition to the party was Vicril Dragonsbane. They also got 3 ladders.

After triggering the trap door and placing a ladder across the pit, Nevil, being the lightest, crawled across the ladder and managed to open the door.

All the party then entered the chamber ahead, but Beldak’s dog became skittish when trying to cross the ladder, so they decided to leave the dog in the corridor.

The chamber contained nothing except a sarcophagus at the far end of the room. On either side of the sarcophagus, a large face was carved in bas-relief on the walls. Hefram and Vicril carefully explored the room for traps, but when Vicril got near the sarcophagus, the two mouths on the walls shouted out simultaneously:

“Silas awake!
Intruders are here!
Fools don’t shake
When death is near!”

A human-sized mummy then came out of the sarcophagus. Orvin, Nevil and Vicril were instantly paralyzed with fear because of this terrifying undead creature.

It didn’t attack the party. Instead it went straight for Myron, whom it grabbed and dragged toward the sarcophagus, into which the mummy threw the young man. At that instant the mummy changed into a middle-aged man dressed in normal clothing–none other than Silas Morliff. He explained to the party that he had been trapped in that undead body for centuries because of a curse, and the only way he could escape it was to have a relative take his place.

Silas then turned and proceeded to head out of the room, but some of the party tried to stop him. Orvin tried but failed to grab hold of him. Hefram cast Hold Person on him, which succeeded, but at the same time Silas let off a Magic Missile spell at the dwarf, releasing three magic missiles that inflicted considerable damage on him.

Now that Myron became the mummy, he emerged from the coffin, and once again several of the party members were paralyzed with fear. Hefram successfully turned it, despite the slim chance he had.

Orvin then dragged Silas and threw him into the coffin while the mummy cowered in the corner. As expected, Silas became the mummy again, and Myron was restored to his normal self. Silas, now the mummy, stepped out of the coffin. His aura of fear once again paralyzed some of the party: All except Beldak and Myron were affected.

Realizing now what Silas was trying to do to him, Myron quickly fled the room, across the ladder and back out into the corridor, leaving the party to deal with Silas.

Now that Beldak is the only one not paralyzed, what will he do?

With Talmin-Kun trying to take on the flying harpy, and Hefram and Beldak still charmed by the creature’s song, things were looking grim for the party. Fortunately, a gnome named Nevil happened to be exploring the area at the time, heard the sounds of battle, and investigated. Talmin-Kun stumbled upon him during the fight, but  the harpy decided to turn her evil attention upon one of her charmed victims—Hefram. Swooping down rapidly, she clutched the dwarf and attempted to bite his throat. Fortunately, the dwarf managed to break away from the creature’s grasp. The harpy’s attack dispelled her charm effect on the dwarf, so he was now ready to enter the fray. The efforts of the adventurers, combined with the aid of the newcomer Nevil, brought about the creature’s demise.

After this, they searched the harpy’s nest and found a sack of gold coins, but not the children they were looking for. Finding another exit out of the cave, they went through it and found themselves on a narrow ledge that led to another cave mouth. In this cavern they found the three missing children locked in a cage but also, unfortunately, their guardians: four giant spiders. Although they were safe from the spiders in the cage, the children were obviously terrified. A vast pit took up most of the cavernous chamber, and over the top of this pit a thick mass of spider webs had been spun. The cage containing the children lay on the opposite side of the cave, at the far end of the web-covered pit. The party attacked the spiders, but the giant arachnids proved formidable foes. Although Talmin-Kun managed to throw a vial of oil on the web, igniting it and causing two spiders to fall into the pit below, this was not enough to vanquish the arachnids. With one bite their powerful poison incapacitated four of the party members. Only Beldak was unaffected, but he knew he was no match for these creatures, so he dragged Hefram and Orvin out of the cave while the spiders busied themselves with spinning his other fallen comrades—Talmin-Kun and Nevil—into webbed cocoons.

After bringing his two companions to the base of the cliff, he left his guard dog to watch over them while he went back to the town of Hardby in search of an antidote to the poison. The town mayor was skeptical of the half-elf’s claims that the harpy had been defeated, but when Beldak produced the head of the evil creature, the mayor was willing to give him some of the party’s payment. Beldak then used this to purchase seven doses of antidote for a total of 1,050 gold pieces from the town herbalist. After using the antidote and curing Orvin and Hefram, Beldak led his two revived companions back to the spider cave, where they once again attacked the spiders. Their two companions—Talmin-Kun and Nevil, who were left behind—were nowhere to be seen. Using the magic missile wand and their wits, the three were able to defeat the spiders and release the children, who were near death from fright and lack of water and food. Beldak removed 8 venom sacs from the slain spiders.

After returning the children to Hardby and receiving the rest of their reward for their efforts, the party heard of a local farmer named Barak Malloran, who had been recently complaining of some huge creature that raided his fields at night, killing some of his livestock as well as the family dog. The party convinced the farmer to give them one of his goats to use as bait, to which the farmer reluctantly agreed. Barak’s son guided the party to the lair of the creature—a huge hole in the ground. Orvin set snares on the ground in front of the hole, while the others tied 4 spider venom sacs around the goat, hoping that the huge monster would eat the goat and be slain by the poison. Beldak also dipped an arrow into one of the venom sacs.

After waiting around until nightfall, the party saw the creature eventually come out of its hole. It was a huge insect-like creature. Immediately it advanced. Two of its legs caught in the snares, so it was slowed down but kept moving toward the goat. Eventually it broke free of one of the snares, though it still moved slowly. Hefram successfully cast a Light spell on its eyes, thus blinding it. The creature managed to get to the goat and began to eat it, but the poison had no effect on it. Another strange thing happened: six small insects fell off the creature’s body and began scurrying toward the party. These small nymphs, each about a foot in size, attempted to grab hold of their victims’ legs and crawl up their bodies. These attacks served to distract the party, but not enough to stop them, and soon, between the effects of the Light spell and the party’s attacks, the creature and four of its nymphs were slain. They kept two alive in sacks.

Talmin-Kun joins the Party

The message from the runner was from the Priest Josip requesting for Talmin_Kun (TK) to join up with the party and to provide the supporting skills lacking in the group. TK is a member of the “Blackhands,” a thieves’ guild that she grew up in. Within the guild as member of the sisterhood she had many dealings with the Priest Josip in the past. After tracking the party for a week TK reached the edge of the woods just in time to witness the start of the attack by the adventures on the bandit camp.

After witnessing the magic-user’s attack on the party causing three of its members to collapse, she knew it was too dangerous to try to join up with the party in the mist of battle, so to help the group she decided that the best course of action would be to work her way around the camp. Sounds of combat could be heard as she skirted the camp just out of view, making her way to the rear of the magic-user’s hut–a feat made easier by Hefram’s previously cast Silence spell. Slipping through an unguarded window, she found herself facing the door and the back of the Magic-user, but strangely, now in a world of no sound, she had a few moments of anxiety. The view of two bandits facing back toward the hut unnerved her, but they were more intent on trying to communicate with the magic-user, allowing TK to remain unseen hiding in the background.

Meanwhile, Hefram busied himself with awaking Beldak while some of the bandits made their way across the camp toward their hidden position in the treeline. In spite of being outnumbered, they managed to wake Orvin and fight off the bandits successfully wave after wave.

Back in the hut and hiding in the shadows, Talmin-Kun watched the magic-user grow frustrated by not being able to communicate verbally. Eventually the spell-caster waved the two bandits away, silently commanding them to join the battle against the attackers, effectively leaving himself to the fate that awaited him. Her movement made easier by the masking of the Silence spell, Talmin-Kun stealthily crept up behind the unwary spell-caster and landed an expertly aimed blow to his back with her short sword. The magic-user watched in horror as the blade of the thief’s sword protruded from his chest. With a silent scream on his lips, he collapsed in front of the hut.

At the same time from across the camp, in the midst of the battle with the bandits, Orvin noticed a shadowy figure dragging the body of the magic-user into the hut, after which the hut’s door slowly closed.

As the battle raged, TK proceeded to check the magic-user’s body and the inside of the hut. She found a bag containing nine gold pieces, a dagger and a small but heavy wooden chest. Still unnerved by the total silence about her, she continued to check the door while watching the battle for the camp, making plans that if the party lost she would make her way back to the woods through the same window she entered.

A few minutes later she noticed that the battle was won by the party, for the bandits dropped their weapons and surrendered, although she could hear nothing due to the magical silence around her. “Is this silence the actions of this magic-user?” she thought to herself, watching the action through the crack in the door. She also noticed a large guard dog jumping excitedly near Beldak.

As the party secured the camp, TK continued watching from the safety of the magic-user’s hut. She thought there was no need to jump out as the party was probably still unnerved from the battle. She thought to herself, “Best I wait and let everything calm down and the party members read the introduction letter from the priest Josip. But they are missing two?” After a time, she decided it was time to introduce herself, hoping that the party would look with favor on her killing of the evil magic-user. She slowly opened the door and showed her empty hands to the party, stepping out when the party was alert and focused on her, but not in a threatening manner. She then tried to communicate, but no sounds could be heard. The party started falling back at the same time, motioning her to advance. Finally, after a few steps the world burst forth with sounds and she was finally able to introduce herself and present her letter of introduction from Josip.

Keeping the dagger, she showed the party the body of the magic-user, who she found out was named Maldor, and presented to them the bag of nine gold pieces and the small wooden chest. After consideration she tried picking the lock on the chest. Alas, her ability to find traps failed her, and she was struck by a poisoned needle, falling unconscious instantly. With no way to heal her, Hefram decided to take a chance and pour down her throat the contents of the unknown potion they had obtained in the cave. Fortunately it turned out to be a healing potion and the thief found herself in a weakened state but conscious.

After searching the camp and securing their lost wagon and gear, the party proceeded to move out, and with the seven surviving bandits in tow, they returned to the giant’s cave to gather the bodies of their fallen comrades, the orphaned orc children and the treasure they had left there.

On the way back to Greyhawk the party was attacked by ten large bugs (something she had never seen) that leaped and tried to grab hold of their victims to suck their blood with their long, sharp proboscises. Hefram immediately recognized these bugs from an earlier encounter. She guarded the horses as she fought off and wounded two of these creatures. She was caught by one, but she was saved by Beldak. Six of them attacked and sucked the life’s blood out of six of the bandit prisoners, slaying them. These, having been filled with a blood meal, leaped away. The party slew one of them as it leaped away and also killed the four that were attacking them.

Back at Greyhawk the one surviving prisoner was given over to the authorities for proper trial and hanging, and the orc children were handed over to a local orphanage. TK went back to the guild for any news as the rest of the party met at a wizard’s house to secure wand charges and an Identify spell. TK had one of her younger sisters from the Sisterhood follow the party letting her know where to find them.

Soon the party was on its way to the Greyhawk University to show a scholar named Kresimir Vollrath, professor of ancient history, the old parchment with unknown writings they had found in the tomb below the bandits’ caves. Sensing excitement from the aide, they were quickly ushered in to see the professor, who proceeded to tell the party the parchment was written in an old language used by an ancient, long-dead civilization known as Baleria, which pre-dated all the current cultures of the Flanaess. After spending some time translating the ancient language, the party learned that the words on the parchment read as follows:

The Song of Dalkar, Minstrel of Baleria

Hear now the song of the Four Sages,
The greatest among us of all the ages.
We have heard of Lyeran of the West beyond the Mountains,
of Kalkala of the Eastern range,
of Bardak of the Icy North,
and of Taramald of the Steaming South,
Who in time past led us in bravery and wisdom.
Shine they did in the corners of the realm,
Guardians they were against all woes.
Masters they were of sword and spell,
And judgments they made on nether foes.

Then came the dark one whom we do not name,
Most abominable, monarch of fright,
The master of evil, the greatest bane to good,
In darkest evil taking great delight.

Hear now the warning of the Four:
When the Four shall be made One,
The power of the key shall be unleashed.
Then can the doors be undone
and the Imprisoned One released.
But guard against this we must,
And give no enemies our trust.

The party donated the parchment to the university, and Kresimir Vollrath told them if he learned of any ruins from this civilization he would contact the party because they were obviously capable explorers if they could survive the perils of the tomb in which they found the parchment.

It was decided to restock supplies, and with all the weapons recovered from the battle, they headed out to the town of Dunhollow. Once there it was decided to visit the nearby mountains to see about the rumors of activity by thouls. They were attacked by some mountain lion, which the party dispatched, bringing back the skin.

No activity by the thouls was found, so the party then proceeded to head towards the town of Hardby, south of Greyhawk, to see about the rumor of some witch that lived in the bluffs near the town and had captured local children in the area.

After arriving in town, the party proceeded to talk to the local villagers about this rumor and learned quite a few other rumors. They also met with the mayor, who offered them 3,000 gold pieces both to find the missing children and to capture/kill the unknown monster. Provided with a guide, the party proceeded up a 100’ climb of a cliff to the entrance of a cave. In the wind they could hear a faint tinkling sound nearby.

TK volunteered to move forward, checking for traps and seeing what lay beyond the cave entrance. Not far inside the cave entrance and hidden from her view was a string. When she moved into it, a loud sound of chimes erupted into the air. Immediately she fell back to the party, warning them of this signal, and not long afterward a song could be heard coming from inside the cave. Two party members–Beldak and Hefram–become enchanted by the singing and started to walk into the cave toward the sound they regarded as so delightful. TK and Orvin tried to stop them, but the two charmed adventurers were not to be deterred and turned aggressively on their comrades. TK then ran past the rest of the party to see what was causing this enchantment. As she entered the cave once again, an arrow flew past her but missed. She then saw some kind of winged being in a female body in the back, hovering with a bow and causing this hypnotizing song. Knowing she must free her comrades for any chance of defeating this creature, she advanced toward the creature and threw her first dagger, inflicting a minor wound on the creature, but she missed with her second. Fortunately for the thief, the flying creature missed her two more times.

Will TK be able to save the party? Was Beldak’s guard dog charmed by the melodious singing? What will Orvin do? Will the party be slain by this vile creature? …

Exploring the cave, the party found where the five orc children were hiding but decided to leave them until later. They also found a key at the bottom of a barrel of water. In what appeared to be a larder room, they found the remains of a dwarf with “The Rovers” tattooed on his arm. The dwarf and the remains of various animals hung from hooks on the walls.

In another chamber they found a secret door and opened it with the key they had found in the barrel. The secret door led to another chamber with a natural sinkhole at the opposite end. The party dropped down the sinkhole and found themselves in the middle of an old, well-masoned corridor that extended in both directions but with no visible exits.

Another natural sinkhole/cave-in created a natural pit roughly halfway down the corridor. To the right of this sinkhole lay a 10-foot-wide opening leading into another well-crafted corridor, but the floor that once led to it was gone due to the cave-in, so there was no way to get to it except to somehow get over the gaping pit.

The party noticed what looked like water at the bottom of the pit: transparent and shimmering. Shooting an arrow into it showed it to be very thick and viscous, as the arrow did not sink to the bottom but floated in the midst of the shimmering liquid.

Beldak jumped over the pit and made it to treasure they had seen on the opposite side, finding a scimitar in good condition, ten bales of fine silk, a silver coffer containing gold pieces, a potion (unidentified), and a gold necklace.

Using ropes, the party attempted to get across the pit into the corridor to their right. In the process, Orvin slipped and fell into the shimmering liquid below. Upon falling in, he was paralyzed. Hefram was lowered down into the pit to help Orvin. The dwarven priest tied a rope under the ranger’s arms, and he was hoisted up to safety. During this ordeal, the armor of both Hefram and Orvin took serious damage from the acidic secretions of the shimmering ooze. Beldak then fired magic missiles into the ooze and slew it.

Afterward they all found the 10-foot-wide corridor to end in a large square chamber with an iron sarcophagus in the center. In addition, at the far end of the room was a stand on which was displayed an ivory tube. On the same wall, as well as on the two walls to the left and right, were hung three different instruments: a lute, a lyre, and a harp. All appeared very old and in bad condition. Beldak opened the ivory tube and found a very old scroll inside. Most of it crumbled into dust as he handled it, but a small portion remained. On it was written some strange runic language that the party could not understand. Beldak stowed the parchment and its tube in his backpack.

When the party opened up the iron sarcophagus, it immediately began contorting and changing shape on its own. In two rounds it formed into a man-sized iron man that attacked the party. The iron guardian proved to be a deadly foe. In the fight that ensued, Hefram was incapacitated from the damage the iron guardian inflicted with its fists, but Thelgrin used the dwarf’s healing potion to save him from near death. Beldak and Orvin also were incapacitated during the fight. Sadly, both Vartan and Thelgrin were slain by the creature.

Just when it looked like the creature was going to finish off our heroes once and for all, an earthquake suddenly occurred, shaking the ground and causing everyone in the chamber to lose their balance. Although the earthquake was an odd occurrence, it gave the party the chance they desperately needed, and they were able then to land some blows that defeated the guardian.

They noticed a small hole in the floor as well as hairline seams forming a 5-foot-by-5-foot square around it. Figuring the square to be a trap door of some kind and the hole to be a keyhole, they tried various ways to open it, but all to no avail. Finally, Hefram took one of the strings from the lute on the wall and inserted it into the hole, causing the trap door to swing open and downward.

The trap door opened onto a vertical shaft, which the party then descended. Here they found the real sarcophagus, which contained the skeletal remains of a strange humanoid creature, the likes of which they had never seen before: approximately seven feet tall with an elongated skull. The skeleton was arrayed in what must have once been a very fine robe, and in its skeletal clutch was a lyre that appeared to be in excellent condition. Beldak, being the only one in the party with musical skill, kept the instrument.

Bringing their two fallen comrades with them, the party left this underground area and returned to the upper cavern. They left the bodies of their dead comrades in the main cave where they had fought the giant and also told the orc children to remain there.

Outside, they found the remaining orcs all slain in various places. Someone or something had done them in while the party was inside the caves and underground. They also noticed that their wagon was missing. Figuring it was stolen by bandits, they immediately headed back to the road, where they were stopped by three men. One of them held out his hand to halt them and demanded that their property be returned to them. The leader told the party he knew they must have their valuables because they had made it away from the giant safely, and he ordered them to lay down their arms or he would signal others hiding nearby in the trees to attack. Hefram, deciding it would be futile to talk with them, immediately began attempting to cast a Hold Person spell. The leader immediately gave the signal, and arrows shot out from the trees at the party. The archers missed Hefram, thus failing to disrupt his spell, and most of the bandits in the road were then held immobile, while the party then defeated or drove off the archers hiding in the trees.

Following the wheel tracks from their wagon, the heroes then tracked it to a bandit camp in the woods not far from the road. Spying the camp from the cover of the trees at the edge of the clearing, they saw eight men milling about in the open as well as about eight huts arranged in a circle on the camp’s perimeter. They could not see their wagon or Beldak’s dog, though.

They decided to attack immediately. Hefram cast a Hold Person spell against three men by the fire, but unfortunately his chanting was heard by one of the men, who was standing near their position. He immediately alerted the camp. Hefram’s targets were held immobile, but more bandits then began emerging from the huts, including a robed man who cast a Sleep spell on the general area of the treeline. Hefram managed to cast Silence 15′ Radius at the spell-caster, but not in time to stop the Sleep spell, which caused both Beldak and Orvin to fall into a slumber. Hefram was able to resist, so he remained awake to the sounds of hurrying footsteps and bandit voices in the camp.

During this session, the PCs did the following:

• buried bloodshard under Beldak’s house in Dunhollow
• went back to caverns where Drazmorg was slain
• on the way, encountered and defeated four thouls (tall humanoids that can regenerate) that tried to ambush the party on the edge of the forest and from wooden platforms they had built in tree branches. The PCs learned from one of them that there is a large kingdom of their kind in the mountains to the north; claimed that they were banished because they were considered too “good.”
• defeated some shadows and skeletons below the kobold warrens; realized underground area is all cleaned out
• fought off a large group of undead surrounding Beldak’s house; realized the bloodshard acts like a beacon to draw undead
• took the bloodshard to the priest, Josip, in Greyhawk, who said he would deal with it in return for some service perhaps in the future
• while in Greyhawk, heard news of bandit activity not far to the west of the city
• bought wagon and horse
• two dressed up as old man and woman, while others hid in back of wagon, trying to lure the bandits out
• Orc in road, waving arms to flag down the wagon; orc claimed that a giant man had driven the orc tribe out of their cave home but that some orc children were now trapped in the cave; the orc pleaded with the party to defeat the giant and save their children; PCs believed the orc was telling the truth when it showed them the few surviving remnants of the tribe hiding in a gully nearby
• defeated hill giant in cave

After descending the stairs to the lower level, the characters found themselves looking down a 20-foot-wide corridor that began to slope downwards after about 25 feet. The slope continued for about 30 feet before leveling off. Two doors led off this level part—one to the left and one to the right. Just beyond the doors, the corridor began to slope downward again.

Inspecting one of these rooms, the party found them to be utterly empty but noticed one odd aspect: There was a small recess about two feet high in the top of one of the walls, running the length of the wall and forming a ledge. Hefram went up to this ledge and inspected, finding a secret door that rotated on a pivet. A small tunnel measuring about two feet high and three feet wide extended from the opening. Everyone entered this tunnel, with Orvin in the lead.

The tunnel did not go far before turning right. A short distance ahead of that point, Orvin could see an opening. Just outside the opening was a ledge and beyond that a drop. At about the same time he heard what sounded like metal scraping on stone. When he moved closer to inspect, he noticed what was making the sound: a long, low metal trough was being pushed slowly but surely toward the opening by a kobold. Once the kobold had the trough in front of the entrance (in spite of Orvin’s failed attempt to stop it), it tried to heave the trough over as if it were attempting to dump the contents into the tunnel. At this time Orvin perceived the kobold’s intent: The trough was filled with oil! In a match of strength that Orvin won, he managed to push the trough in the opposite direction, causing its contents to spill out onto the ground below with a loud splash. After this the kobold jumped off the ledge onto the ground below.

They then saw that the ledge they were on overlooked the sloping part of the corridor that lay just beyond the two doors they had seen earlier. In addition, they could see another ledge and tunnel opening on the opposite side of the corridor, directly across from them.

The party soon found that the room opposite the corridor was the same: ledge at top of wall, pivoting secret door, and narrow tunnel. Outside in the corridor, Vartan and Beldak decided to climb onto the ledge above the sloping corridor. After doing so, they threw a lit torch and vial of oil into the tunnel, setting the inside aflame. Immediately they heard screams of pain, and suddenly a kobold ran out of the tunnel and dropped to the corridor below, its legs on fire. Unfortunately for this kobold, it landed on the oil that Orvin had dumped onto the corridor earlier, and the flames on its legs ignited the oil, increasing the fiery damage it suffered. But the worst was yet to come for this kobold. As the party watched the shrieking humanoid, it suddenly stopped as if grabbed and held immobile. Immediately the kobold began to move down the sloping corridor, struggling as if being pulled against its will. The party then saw the doom that awaited the hapless creature: a pillar-like creature with a single eye and six tentacles—one of which gripped the kobold—stood motionlessly at the bottom of the slope. It was not long before the kobold was drawn into the enormous mouth of this creature and eaten alive.

Realizing they had to defeat this creature to get beyond it, the party faced it in combat. Some of them were drawn perilously close to the creature’s mouth by its tentacles, but with the help of their comrades hacking at the tentacles, they escaped the horrible fate of being eaten alive. Eventually the creature was defeated, after which Orvin cut it open and found a sizable amount of coins and jewelry inside.

The party explored a small cavernous area to the left and found the dead bodies of two larger creatures like the one they had just killed. They also fought two shadows that emerged through a metal wall at the bottom of the slope. One was slain and the other fled, and the party  noticed a crank on the left wall near the metal wall. Turning the crank caused the metal wall to slide to the right. Beyond was a large chamber from which a red, pulsating light emanated.

In this chamber was the cause of all the problems they had encountered: Drazmorg himself, the floating half-man. The party saw that the kobold who had told them about this evil man had not exaggerated: He floated in the air, and the bottom half of his body was gone. His entrails hung down listlessly from his torso. He didn’t seem to notice the party but instead flew here and there, speaking unintelligible words loudly from an open book he held in his hands. In the center of the room was a circular dais, on which rested a symbol of Nerull. The source of the pulsating red light was inside the skull part of the symbol. On the floor lay various body parts—arms, legs, heads, and so on—that quivered and flopped about.

The battle that ensued was grueling. Drazmorg was a formidable opponent, aided by magical bracers that made him difficult to hit, soaring out of the range of melee attacks when he needed to, using a wand that shot magic missiles, casting spells (one of which froze Vartan in place for most of the battle), and aided by the shadow that had fled earlier. Eventually, however, the party defeated him.

In a secret cache in the dais, the party found a large amount of coins and jewelry as well as a scroll with magic-user spells. They also destroyed the symbol of Nerull, and upon doing so they found the source of the pulsating, red light: a bloodshard, a crystal that contains potent magical properties that are unleashed when certain powerful rituals are used on it. Fearing that destroying the bloodshard would make it explode, the party put it in one of their backpacks. They also took the wand of magic missiles.

After spending some time healing and recuperating, the party joined up with two other adventurers—Orvin and Beldak—and headed back to the ruined tower. They descended a spiral staircase under the wooden trap door and found themselves looking down a long, 60-foot corridor with four dungeon cells on either side. The corridor ended in an open space of some kind. In the first cell on the left, they found a human man dressed in a dark robe and wearing a symbol of Nerull. He pleaded with the party to release him, saying that he was from town and that his captors had forced him to wear the robe and symbol. In the cell across from him was a single kobold—not undead—who also begged to be released and warned the party not to trust the man in the other cell. Dani ended up casting Command on the man to keep him quiet, and the rest of the party advanced forward.

Although the rest of the cells were empty, the open space at the end of the corridor turned out to be a chamber occupied with undead kobolds, four of whom shot crossbow bolts at the party from behind an overturned table. Beldak and Hefram moved into the chamber to engage these kobolds, while Orvin, who had been keeping an eye on the rear, noticed that the kobold back in the cell behind them was now out in the corridor and trying to sneak up on them with a drawn dagger. Orvin and Thelgrin dealt with this sneak while the others continued moving forward.

After one of the clerics turned the whole group in the chamber and made them cower in a corner, the whole party attacked and defeated them. One of them was none other than the kobold king, Merlokrep himself, wearing his crown once again but now rotting.

After this the party headed back to town, bringing the human prisoner back with them. His name turned out to be Crugal, and he was reunited with his family. While at the inn, they heard a commotion outside. It turned out to be many villagers crowding around the village gravekeeper, who lived by the cemetery about 4–5 miles north of town. He was frightened and in great distress, claiming that monsters had come up out of the graves.

Shortly after this, screams and shouts of alarm were heard not far away. Looking up the road to the north that headed out of the village, the party saw three separate packs of undead moving toward them, one group after another shambling toward the village. While they discussed a plan of action, the undead came closer, and they were able to see that they were in various stages of decay—some looking as though they had been dead for only months, others decades. The group tried to throw vials of oil at the first pack, but the vials missed and burst into flame on the ground in front of the undead.

Meanwhile, screams suddenly came from a house near the road, so the PCs went to help. Inside they saw a family facing a pack of the undead. The parents and a teenage son were trying to keep the undead at bay with chairs, while two very small children cowered in terror in a corner. The teenage boy actually recognized the undead corpse that was attacking him, shouting something like, “Uncle Jeb, no!” Before turning/defeating these undead, two of them bit the parents. Although one of the clerics in the party was able to save the father, the mother, unfortunately, was beyond help and died.

Back outside, the clerics in the party turned/defeated two groups of undead that were trying to get into the inn through the door and windows. Between the party’s efforts and those of various people in town, the undead were either slain or driven off.

The PCs then had the gravekeeper take them to the cemetery north of town. What the party saw proved that the man was telling the truth: All the graves had been opened up and emptied, and close inspection revealed that they had been opened up from within. Suspecting that some powerful spell-caster was behind this, the party asked the gravekeeper if he had heard anyone near the graveyard before the corpses emerged from their graves, but the gravekeeper said he had not.

Noticing that many footsteps led away from the cemetery into the forest, the party decided to follow the tracks. The trail was not hard to follow due to the great number of undead that had gone that way, and it led to the northwestern edge of the forest and into the old dwarven monastery. As the party was about to leave the edge of the forest, they encountered some kobolds that tried to hide in the tree branches above, but Beldak cast Sleep on them before they could spring their attack, causing them to fall to the ground from their hiding places. They interrogated one of the kobolds, who told them that the Truescale tribe was no more because of the “dark things” that came up from below and sucked the life out of them. He explained that he and his group were assigned to that location on the edge of the forest to be guards. The party convinced him to guide them to the place where they could access the lower levels beneath the kobold warren under the dwarven monastery. The kobold agreed but only on the condition that he be released once he led them to that spot. The party agreed.

After tying up the other kobolds in the branches above, their guide led them down into the kobold warren to a dead-end tunnel, where there was a huge pile of rocks. The guide explained that they had piled these rocks here in hopes of keeping out the “dark things.” The party was puzzled by this, wondering how the undead could have gone down this way, but the kobold knew of no other way to get to the area below. Orvin discovered, however, that the tracks led to a chamber elsewhere in the warren. The chamber walls were of smooth stone, and the tracks abruptly stopped at one of the walls. The party was able to discern a secret door at this location and succeeded in opening it.

The secret door led to a circular shaft that descended for about 40 feet, ending in a pool of stagnant water. One of the party descended slowly into the shaft with the aid of attached ropes. As he made his way down, he noticed that there were small, egg-shaped objects encrusted into the walls of the shaft at various spots. Each one had a hairline seam in the middle. Disturbing one of the shapes caused it to open up at the seam, revealing an actual eye that moved to and fro as if searching the area. The other “eyes” then opened up, scanning the area. The party changed the plan, then, and decided to go back to the rock pile and descend that way. They used a rope to climb down through the hole that had been covered by the rock pile and found themselves in a small, cavernous chamber. Nothing was here, so they proceeded farther. In a brief time the passage they were in opened into a large, circular chamber with two exits leading out of it—one to the north, the other to the south—and four small burial vaults sealed off with iron bars. The corridor to the south led to stairways going down …

After their harrowing experience at the old tower, our heroes returned to Dunhollow for some much-needed rest. Alas, it seems there is little rest for heroes, for they weren’t home long before tragic news from the Dunvald forest reached them yet again. A lumberjack, badly wounded, worn out from exhaustion, with grim, blood-caked wounds, stumbled into town and immediately created quite a din. Joining the anxious crowd around the bloodied man, the band of adventurers—Hefram, Thwapp, Dani, Thud and Vartan—learned that a nearby lumber camp about five miles away in the forest was recently overrun by short creatures with long tails. He alone escaped with his life.

Suspecting the marauding kobolds once again, the party set out for the lumber camp, a small settlement consisting only of a handful of buildings in a clearing. At the opening of the clearing, five human corpses were strewn on the ground along with three dead kobolds. Moving into the clearing, two noises were heard: some movement over behind a log pile just to the north and some moaning coming from a tower near the log pile. Thwapp went to investigate the area behind the log pile, positioning himself carefully behind the cover of a cart. The others discovered the source of the moaning: a man hanging by ropes from the tower, dangling about fifteen feet above the ground and severely wounded. Some of them also noticed a foul stench in the air. Even worse, they noticed that the kobold bodies seemed to have been dead much longer than the human corpses. Immediately suspecting undead, the party proceeded with caution. While they moved ahead, Thud decided to check the bodies for loot. Separating himself from the party proved lethal, for as he was looting and found some coins, they all heard a raucous, raspy voice from atop the tower cry out a word in some strange language, and immediately the three dead kobolds rose up and attacked Thud.

While Thud was engaged, Vartan turned two kobolds that were hiding behind the log pile, sending them running frantically in fear. Although Thud took some serious wounds from the kobolds, Dani, another cleric, turned the three undead kobolds he was facing, sending them running into the woods as well.

Vartan then ascended the tower and defeated the undead kobold at the top, after which Thud went up to loot the body, finding a dagger that appeared well made and very clean.

Desiring to obtain more loot, Thud decided to search all the buildings alone. Alas, this did not turn out as planned. Immediately upon opening the door to one of the crude wooden buildings, two crossbow bolts were fired at him, triggered via wire attached to the door. One of the bolts struck him, and although the damage did not fell him, the two undead kobolds lurking at the far end of the room did. Before any of the others could get to him, he was slain, though not before bringing one of the creatures down.

With the help of Vartan, Dani freed the hanging man, who identified himself as Thelgrin. Vartan cast Cure Light Wounds to heal him completely, after which Thelgrin told them an account similar to that of the wounded man back in town. He also indicated that the pathway to the north leading out of the clearing was where the kobolds had come from. Dani then convinced Thelgrin to pledge fealty to Tritherion, though he was reluctant at first.

After heading back to town and equipping Thelgrin with armor and weapons, the party headed back to the lumber camp, where they met a gnome thief who desired to join them. They followed the path that headed north for about a half-mile before they came upon another clearing with the remains of a ruined tower. The walls of the tower extended upward for only about fifteen feet, the rest of it having been destroyed somehow. Proof of this could be easily seen on the ground surrounding the tower, which was strewn with chunks of stone, rubble and debris that were overgrown with weeds. Two stone walls, each about 18 inches wide, were broken and missing pieces but were more or less intact. These ran perpendicular to the tower and parallel to each other for a distance of about 25 feet. The doors of the tower were broken, hanging off their hinges, and about ten feet off the ground (i.e., the first floor was built above ground level).

Two members of the party formed a human ladder for Dani, one standing on the shoulders of the other. In this way Dani was able to reach the top of the tower, where she saw the second floor—with holes and various debris—and the stairs leading down to the first floor. She went down to the first floor to explore it while the others remained outside. While she was investigating, she heard faint voices and footsteps emanating from under a large trap door in the center of the wooden floor and went outside to warn the others. As the party was taking time to discuss their plan of action, they heard the squeaking of the trap door being opened. After this, they continued discussing what to do, and not long afterward they saw figures moving about inside the tower.

Thelgrin and Thwapp hung back about 30 feet, while the others decided to position themselves closer between the parallel walls near the tower doors. It turned out that there were eight kobolds altogether—two archers positioned above on the second floor and six others that emerged through the broken doors. The six kobolds below split off into two groups, moving along the tops of the two parallel walls, three on either side. Meanwhile, the two archers assailed Thwapp and Thelgrin, their arrows eventually felling Thwapp. Fortunately, Thelgrin received only minor wounds and was able to apply some quick bandaging to Thwapp to stabilize the elf. Dani and Hefram rushed into the tower and up to the second floor, where they faced the kobold archers and slew them. Down below on the ground, it was a grueling battle. The gnome thief was slain, and Vartan the cleric was incapacitated and rendered unconscious. In spite of these losses, the kobolds lost more than half their number and decided this fight was not for them, so they ran off into the woods.

Here is a concise breakdown of the highlights of the campaign so far (full details can be found in the previous posts on this page):

• PCs located various ingredients in the Dunvald for a cure for a disease that was affecting inhabitants of Dunhollow.
• PCs rescued kidnapped children from marauding kobolds.
• PCs explored upper and lower levels of abandoned dwarven monastery on the northern edge of the Dunvald.
• The party formed an alliance with some disgruntled kobolds led by one named Krud-Krud, and with their help they defeated the kobold king, Merlokrep, in a lower level of the monastery. This Merlokrep was behind the kidnapping of the children. Merlokrep thought that sacrificing innocent children would stop the strange dark creatures that came up from the ground and sucked life out of the kobolds (that was how some kobolds described the situation to the PCs).
• Party heads to Greyhawk to sell some treasure and have some magic items identified. On the way, they encounter werebugs–large, man-sized, hopping insects that grapple their prey and suck their blood. The werebugs, in human form, show the PCs their village and the strange house made of earth nearby. They hope the party can locate the legendary gem hidden inside, with which they hope to purchase the cure for their lycanthropy. Unable to find any gem in the house or to figure out what it is (the house was empty and all the walls were made of some hard, impenetrable earth), they decided to research the matter in Greyhawk.
• In Greyhawk, they learn more of the strange earth-house from an old cleric of St. Cuthbert, who tells them that a sea-shard will dispel the powerful magic in the house. In return for the sea-shard, they defeat an evil priest of Nerull who had set up a foul temple in the sewers and had been abducting people from the streets in Old City with the help of wererats.
• The PCs head back to the werebug village and the earth-house, which they entered with the sea-shard. The house changed into a huge, humanoid-shaped being seemingly made of earth, which immediately made off into the forest. The werebugs found that their curse of lycanthropy was now lifted, and they were finally free of it.

Death to the Priest of Death

After resting, regaining spells and healing wounded party members, the heroes plunged back into the depths of the sewer, heading back to the evil temple. There they encountered none other than Theron Karamos himself, who sent several wererat minions against them while casting Hold Person spells on them from his personal chamber. Karamos was defeated, and despite his attempts to buy his way to freedom, the adventurers decided to turn him over to the authorities for justice. They found his secret treasure chamber which also served as his private devotional room, and after surviving a poisoned needle trap on a treasure chest, Tertius found therein several scrolls and potions as well as a significant amount of coins.

Leading off of this secret chamber was a round hole two feet in diameter. Not wanting to explore this yet, the party returned to the main temple area, where they found a corridor lined with several cells. In one of these lay bound and gagged a man wearing similar red robes as the other priests the party had encountered. This man told them that he had been imprisoned there for defection. After discovering a horrid torture chamber—in which lay the motionless bodies of the three zombies killed in the earlier battle—the PCs returned to the secret chamber. They found that the round hole led to a tunnel that opened up in a short distance to the sewer, not far ahead of the spot where they had heard voices and discovered the wererat and his father talking.

They returned to the cellar of the Greasy Goblet inn. One of the heroes went and fetched Josip Rakash, the old priest of St. Cuthbert, who came to the cellar. He took Theron Karamos and the other priest into custody. The innkeeper, Maldan Bargrove, was never proven to be involved in the affair.

Over the course of the following week or two, Theron Karamos was beheaded and his priest follower imprisoned. In return for their service, a city official identified the potions and scrolls they had obtained.

At that time they decided to return to the earth-house of the werebugs. The leader of the community, a descendant of the wizard Kalman Malroth, the man apparently responsible for the lycanthropy, accompanied the party into the house. Sure enough, the sea-shard glowed as they ascended the steps to the second floor, where the pillar was located. The glow intensified, and the sea-shard warmed up considerably. After placing the shard next to the pillar, the house began to rumble, and it was difficult to keep from falling down. The walls began to glisten and shift, bending this way and that. The floor began to slope downward, also changing shape. After fleeing the house, the party stood a short distance away and observed an incredible sight. The house continued moving and changing shape, eventually forming the figure of a two-legged humanoid about two stories tall. The strange creature yelled out, “Finally I am free!” and, reaching specifically for the descendant of Malroth, picked him up and squeezed him to death in a matter of moments. The huge monstrosity then lumbered off into the forest, but not before wreaking havoc in the village and killing a few of its inhabitants.

The party then learned that the curse of lycanthropy was lifted, for even the older villagers, who had been able to control their transformations, were now unable to change at will any longer.

Returning to the location of the earth-house, the party discovered that a descending stairway made of stone now appeared in the ground upon which it once stood. In the underground area they discovered a single room where the mummified corpse of a man sat in a chair, long dead. A journal lay open on the desk before him, and from there the party learned that this was indeed Kalman Malroth and that he had inadvertently trapped himself in that underground chamber when he forced an earth elemental to transform itself permanently into the earth-house above. He dabbled in arcane arts that were far above him, and he paid the price by entombing himself under the very object he created.

The Tower of Terror

That quest now complete, the party headed off once again. While journeying along the edge of the forest, they noticed two winged creatures flying toward them quickly over the treetops. They turned out to be giant eagles, who rapidly swooped down on them, managing to grab hold of Ak Skuldar and Hefram and carry them off. Thwapp tried in vain to stop their flight with his archery, and as the two giant birds flew off back in the direction they had come, over the treetops high above, the three companions on the ground bolted into the forest, hoping to save their comrades.

About a quarter of a mile into the forest, they discovered an old, abandoned tower. Although they didn’t know it, the top of the tower was the nesting location of the two giant birds of prey, which dropped Ak and Hefram into a large nest containing two eagle chicks.

After hearing their two companions answer their calls from atop the tower, the three on the ground rushed into the old structure. A few moments after entering the ground floor, an enormous insect-like creature erupted from the earth and attacked. They attempted to flee up the steps that lined the wall of the tower, but the creature had other plans. It attacked Tertius viciously, mangling him horribly in its mandibles. The magic-user was killed instantly.

The remaining two, Thwapp and Palex, rushed up the stairs. When they reached the third floor, they were attacked by a large spider. Fortunately they felled this creature quickly.

Meanwhile, up on the rooftop, Ak and Hefram discovered that the nest into which they had been dropped lay on top of the roof’s trap door. They flung the door open, and although Hefram was able to make it below, Ak was seized by the shoulders by one of the giant eagles. The half-orc managed to hold on to the trap door, though, and between his efforts and those of Hefram, he managed to break away from the iron grip of the eagle’s talons.

The party now had to devise a way to escape this dreadful tower. They decided to cut a hole in the floor directly above the hole from which the huge insect had emerged, soak wooden debris (of which there was plenty on that floor) in oil, cast it to the ground below and ignite it, hoping that the fire would keep the creature in its hole and thus buy time for Thwapp to lasso the body of Tertius and haul him up the stairs to the second floor.

Throwing the wood onto the floor brought the creature back out of its hole. It tried to attack them through the hole in the floor, but the party survived its assaults. After this happened two or three times, they ignited the oil while Thwapp successfully hauled Tertius’ body up the stairs. They then used a rope to climb out of the second-floor window to safety.