Campaign Journal:

10/4/00: The Beginning

The half-orc Ashram Feng and his halfling friend Eldane Grimmond left their homes in the City of Winds to find adventure in the west. As a final service to the thieves guild, Ash was sent to arrange a meeting between a guild member based out of Oakhurst and a representative from an alchemist. They arrived at Oakhurst and waited for two days for the representative. During that time, Eldane was busy collecting the local gossip. Nearly a month prior, two young members of the richest family in town left to explore the Sunless Citadel, a nearby ruin. They never returned.

Iryijana, the young half-elven representative of the alchemist arrived in Oakhurst two days late accompanied by Leodan Starnzalda, a mysterious follower of the Boh. After finally meeting Ashram, Iryi made her arrangements with the local guild member and received a letter for her employer which she determined was magically sealed. Over lunch, Ashram, Eldane, Iryi and Leodan discussed the local rumor about the missing scions. The bartender Garon had told them that the two missing youths were the grandchildren of Kerowyn Hucrele, the timber shipping mogul of the East. Talgen and Sharwyn went missing one month before after leaving with two friends to explore some local ruins.

Having overheard their conversation, Mr. Hucrele, Talgen and Sharwyn's uncle, approached the group and offered them a reward of if they could bring back his niece and nephew, or at least their signet rings. He offered 250gp for each of them live, or 125gp for each signet ring.

The group also asked the barkeep Garon if he knew anything else. He also remembered a man named Belak who passed through town 13 years ago with a large tree frog. Belak also asked many questions about the Sunless Citadel. He also mentioned that some local goblins sold the town a magical fruit one a year at midsummer, but told them to ask the healer if they wanted to know more about it. They also learned about another white fruit.

Eldane and Ashram went next door to talk to the healer, and learned that once a year at midsummer, the goblins offer a magical fruit for sale to the town of Oakhurst. The apple is a perfect specimen, and when eaten, it heals any ailment or wound. The healer told them to ask around during dinner at the inn for more information.

After meeting with the healer, Eldane and Ash returned to the inn and reported back to their new friends. Eldane and Ashram decided to wait until dinner to find out any other information. Iryi and the Leodan retired for the evening. Eldane and Ashram learned the following rumors.

The Old Road ran right past the ruins. There is a legend that the temple used to be used by an ancient dragon cult.

The Old Road also skirts the Ashen Plains. The Ashen Plains were rumored to have been created by an ancient dragon named Ashardalon.

A cattleherd told them that he has had experiences with a monster. He has never seen it, but when any cattle, or people, stay out after dark, they are found in the morning, dead, pierced by dozens of needle-like claws.

Talgen and Sharwyn's companions were Sir Braford, who wore shiny armor and called his sword "Shatterspike", and Karakas, a woodsman from a nearby village.

After dinner, Eldane and Ash went to bed, planning to meet up with their new friends in the morning.

10/11/00: The Descent to the Citadel

In the morning, the new companions awoke discussed their plans over a simple breakfast. They decided to make a scouting foray along the Old Road, hoping to find signs of the Citadel. Before leaving, they stopped by the general store to pick up the food promised to them by Mr. Hucrele. After a confusing moment meeting the twin daughters of the store owner, the companions were on their way.

Six miles down the old road, Ash noticed some unnatural structures in the distance. As the party moved closer, they discovered some broken columns inscribed with dwarven runes surrounding a 40 foot wide canyon. Eldane translated them as warnings to "Keep Out" written in the Goblin language. After searching the area, Eldane noticed the remains of countless old campfires, the most recent being one month old. While the others began to discuss lunch, Ash investigated the fissure and discovered a long knotted rope. At Iryi's suggestion, they pulled up the rope to ensure its condition. Satisfied with the rope's integrity, the party ate their lunch and prepared to descend into the rift.

Ash decided to go down alone to investigate. After climbing down 50 feet, he found himself on a rocky ledge high above the canyon floor. As he was investigating the narrow stairs leading down from the ledge, three Dire Rats crawled out from behind some rocks. Surprised, Ash could only let out a quick shout before the rats attacked. The closest rat sank its teeth into Ash's leg, wounding him deeply. Recovering from his surprise, Ash drew his greatsword, and killed two rats with one mighty blow. The final rat managed to bite Ash in his wounded leg before being skewered by Ash's sword.

Just as the final rat breathed its last gasp of air, Eldane reached the ledge. He had heard Ash's muffled shout when the rats attacked and hurried down the rope to help his friend. Having found his friend victorious, he relaxed and shouted up to Iryi and Leodan to come down. After they reached the ledge, Leodan channeled healing energy into Ash's wound, bringing him to nearly full strength. Ash then searched the area and found only an old firepit with ashes, old speartips and animal bones.

The companions then decided to explore the stairs leading down into the canyon. When they reached the bottom, they found themselves on the decayed battlements of a sunken citadel before the doorway to the top of a tower. As Ash went to investigate the tower door, the ground below his feet disappeared. Ash managed to twist away before falling into the newly opened pit. He then looked down into the pit as a large rat climbed out to attack him. Surprised by the rat's sudden entry, he hesitated. Leodan stepped forward from behind Ash and struck the rat in the skull with the tip of his staff. The rat was stunned but not slain, and Iryi raced in and stabbed the rat in the back with her spear, causing the rat to finally expire.

Ash jumped down into the pit to search the recently dead goblin body and found a belt pouch that contained some money. Now aware of the pit trap, the companions opened the door and entered the tower. They saw the results of a small battle. Four goblins lay dead, one of them pinned against the wall with a spear. The bodies had already been looted, so the companions moved on through the two wooden doors in the other side of the tower. Through the first, they found a stone door carved in the shape of a dragon with a keyhole in its mouth. While searching the room, they encountered another rat who managed to bite Eldane before he killed it.

Through the other door, they found a hallway with a locked door, another door leading to an empty room, and a door leading to an odd shaped room containing a broken cage, and a whimpering lump under a blanket. Leodan translated the green writing on the wall from Draconic, "Here there be dragons". After shouting a few times at the whimpering bedroll to no effect, Iryi prodded it with her spear. Immediately a small reptilian face peered out at the her, screamed, and jumped out of the bedroll running towards the nearest exit. As Iryi moved to block the hallway.Leodan shouted "Stop" in draconic. The creature stopped, looked back and said, "You speak?"

The companions conversed with the creature named "Meepo" and found that he was not a fount of information. He told them that he was a kobold, and that the dragon who he used to watch had been stolen by the nasty goblins. He offered safe passage for the party if they would come to meet "The Leader." "The leader knows, she can help you if you promise to save the dragon. Follow Meepo!" The companions finally agreed to follow Meepo to see the leader. When they finally reached the Dragon Throne room, they saw a kobold in red robes sitting on the throne surrounded by six guards. Behind the throne there is an altar containing some vials and figures, and a large dragon carved into the wall whose mouth holds a shiny key. Yusdrayl, the kobold leader spoke to the party and told them many things.

"The Outcast lives below and grows the magic fruit which he gives to his filthy servants, the goblins."
"Four people like you? They went to fight the goblins."
"If you find the dragon and return it to us, I will reward you with two items from the altar, or the key in the dragon's mouth."

The party agreed to go find the dragon, and Yusdrayl sent Meepo to go with them. Taking their leave of Yusdrayl, they followed Meepo to the hallway leading to the Goblin territory. They had been exploring for 5 hours, with one hour left on their torch, and two hours of daylight on the surface.

10/18/00 - Save the Dragon

Ashram Feng opened the door into the goblin territory and found absolutely nothing in the room he found himself in. The party entered the room and searched about, finding nothing but dirt, broken stone, rat droppings, and another door. Meepo delighted in the rat droppings while the rest of the group discussed the next door. Seeing no other decision, they opened the door and entered the next room. They found themselves looking at an old broken fountain on the right, and a carved stone door on the left. The fountain showed its age, except for a carving of a diving dragon, which retained its former beauty. The party called in Meepo to ask him if the dragon carved on the fountain hundreds of years before looked like the small dragon that the kobolds kept in their cage. Meepo was very excited, and asked the group to take the dragon back to the kobolds. He then grabbed the dragon and was amazed by it. Ash searched through the fountain, but found nothing but an old layer of muck. The door on the right was carved in relief with dragons and an inscription in Draconic, "Tana aman heka men." Leodan translated the inscription to the rest of the group as "Channel good, open the way." Not having any clue as to the meaning of the phrase, and not getting any help from his companions, Leodan attempted to open the door. As he pulled at the carvings, a large scythe swung down from the ceiling, narrowly missing Leodan’s exposed back.

Somewhat taken aback, the group moved their focus to the fountain. After a thorough search by everyone in the party but Meepo, Leodan found an inscription in Draconic, "Nainarya" which translates to "Let there be fire." After much discussion, the group hid behind the corner and Leodan said "Nainarya" aloud. As he spoke, a red liquid began to flow out of the diving dragon’s mouth and collect in the basin of the fountain. After a few minutes, the red flow stopped. Thinking that perhaps the red liquid was caustic, Ash dipped his dagger into the liquid, to no effect. Then, with another flash of creativity, he touched the liquid on his dagger to the carved stone door, to no effect. They decided to collect the liquid in a waterskin, and began to do so. Meepo, having become bored with his rat dung, looked at the liquid and dipped in his hands and tasted it. He liked the taste, and licked up a bit more. While he was at it, Eldane convinced him to scoop most of it into the waterskin. After a few minutes, Meepo become bored and went into the other room. The group continued to wander around the room, poking and prodding the stone door, trying to get more liquid out of the fountain, and discussing their options. In a moment of drama, Meepo came back into the room and breathed a cone of fire at the group, narrowly missing Leodan.

Finally, they realized that they should move on. They moved slowly north out of the room, followed by Meepo. They ignored the hallway to the north in favor of the door to the west. Finding nothing in this room except another door, Eldane opened the door and heard a loud clanging originating above the door. Ashram and Eldane moved into the room and noticed that the floor was covered in caltrops, which forced them to move carefully. Suddenly, two javelins shot from behind the 3 foot high wall in the north of the room. One of them clattered against the wall behind Eldane and Ash, but the second one speared Ash through the shoulder. Eldane quickly grabbed his crossbow, loaded it, and shot at the creature’s head behind the barricade. The creature dropped out of sight, and from behind Eldane, a rock flew at the barricade, missing the remaining creature. Then a flash of light followed a murmuring in a strange magical language as Iryi flung a glowing bolt at the green warty head. The bolt knocked the creature back, out of sight. Eldane and Ash moved carefully through the room and looked behind the barricade. Two dead goblins lay in a filthy misused room on the other side of the barricade. Leodan and Iryi cleared the caltrops into a pile, Ash took a few and stored them in his pack. The party and Meepo climbed over the barricade and searched through the muck and filth, finding nothing.

They opened the door in the room to the south and found a hallway. Listening, most of the party heard the sound of goblins shouting at each other around the corner. Eldane looked around the corner to see where the goblins were, but a 3 foot high barricade blocked his view. Ash then looked and saw four goblins squabbling amongst themselves. Trying to move quietly and hide from the goblin’s sight, the party crawled into the room and up to the barricade. Unfortunately, they were less than stealthy and the goblins lobbed javelins at them. Ash and Leodan rushed the barrier to attack the goblins, slaying them quickly, but not before one slashed Ash’s arm with its short sword.

As the last goblin fell, a shouting for help was heard from behind a door. Iryi ran to the door and jerked it open. She found a prison with three bound kobolds, a gnome in a small cage, and an elf manacled to the wall. Meepo followed and began talking excitedly to the kobolds. The rest of the group came in and Ash broke the manacles from the elf’s arm. The elf, Aster, immediately picked the lock to the gnome’s cage and then introduced himself to the party.

He had been here for an indeterminate amount of time. Caught by the goblins while on a mission for the City of Winds, he was imprisoned by the goblins and kept alive by the gnome cleric, Erky Timbers. After Aster had shared his story, Erky answered some questions for the party. "I was captured a year prior and I’ve been using my curing spells to keep myself alive. There were three human adventurer types who were imprisoned here for a few weeks a little under a month ago. Their names were Talgen, Sharwyn and Sir Bradford and they were removed on Belak’s orders. Huh? No, I’ve never heard of Karakas. Belak is an evil druid who tends an enchanted garden and harvest the enchanted fruit from something the goblins call the Gulthias tree."

After he spoke, he asked if he could join up with the party. He said he has some unfinished business with the goblins. He stripped some old armor and a short sword off of one of the goblins and was ready to fight. Aster grabbed some javelins and a dagger, and prepared himself as well. Everyone then decided to hole up in the prison and camp out overnight.

The party then awoke and examined the two adjoining rooms. One turned out to be a supply room, mostly filled with disgusting goblin fare such as Elf Pudding and brackish water, but they found five pints of oil that Eldane used to create a few torches. The other door led to a hallway with two doors, one to the side, and one at the end. Iryi went to the far end of the hall to listen at the door and immediately fell into a pit. As she fell she cast ‘feather fall’ and floated softly to the bottom. Hearing the racket, Ash ran in to help her out of the pit. After a few unsuccessful attempt to grab her hand and pull her out, Ash finally dropped down a rope just as the side burst open to reveal four goblins investigating the noise.

The goblins were quickly dispatched by the party and in searching their bodies, the party found 25 sp and 2 gp. They then listened at the door at the end of the hall and heard some screeching noises. They let Meepo listen, and he began to pull at the door shouting "Caltryx!" Aster managed to pick the lock, and then let Meepo open the door. Meepo ran in, followed by everyone else. Meepo and Aster managed to keep their footing, but the rest slipped on one of the ice patches scattered about the room and fell to the ground. As soon as they entered, they heard a screech and saw a small white wyrmling breathe a cone of ice at Meepo. Meepo fell and everyone else attacked the dragon. Eldane drank some of the potion they collected from the fountain and Leodan grabbed a cloak and managed to catch the dragon with it, and everyone else pummeled the dragon until it was unconscious. After the fight, they examined Meepo and found him to be very cold. Eldane burped up a cone of fire right above Meepo, but it had no effect except to warm the room. Erky healed Meepo until he was stable.

A few party members examined the next room while the rest discussed their next move. They found a hazy hall with similar architecture to the Kobolds throne hall. The party then decided to bring the dragon back to the kobolds over Iryi’s objections that keeping the dragon might be cool. The group managed to bring the dragon back to the Kobold leader and after some unsuccessful negotiating, decided to take the shiny key as a reward.

10/25/00 - Skipped the evening

11/1/00 - Vanquishing Momma Rat.

After returning the dragon to the kobolds, the party decided to take another crack at the locked door in the room with the fountain.  They made their way back into the room, and examined the door for any additional clues.  Only finding the inscription “Channel Good, Open the Way,” which they had previously found, they began to discuss possible meanings.

Aster began to get bored, and wandered off into the northern hallway, followed after a moment by Iryi.  He passed some old cell doors on either side of the hallway and came to a room with two pit traps spiked open, another crumbling fountain, and a door in the western wall.  Iryi followed him into the room, and then turned around to discover three Dire Rats in the hallway behind her.  They appeared to have entered from the cell doors in the hallway.  Iryi screamed to alert the rest of the party that there was trouble, but before they arrived to help, Aster and Iryi easily dispatched the rats. 

After searching the cells, Aster and Iryi rejoined their friends in the southern room.  A few minutes after he arrived, Eldane suggested channeling turning energy at the door.  They had already tried healing and blessing the door unsuccessfully.  A few minutes later, Leodan channeled his turning energy at the door and it opened with a click.

The room contained three sarcophagi and an altar carved in the shape of a dragon.  On the altar was a burning candle, a glass whistle, and a flask.  Ash began to search the room, and as he touched the first sarcophagus, it opened along with the other two, and three skeletons attacked the party.  Aster fled into the other room, hoping to avoid being surrounded, and trying to lead the skeletons out into the open.  The rest of the party jumped in at attacked.  Leodan tried unsuccessfully to turn the foul creatures away, followed by an attempt by Erky, which succeeded completely.  The skeletons turned and cowered from Erky while the rest of the party pounded them into dust.  The items on the altar were pocketed, leaving only dust.

Aster led the companions to the fountain in the north, explaining to them about the spiked open traps on the way.  When they arrived, the room and the fountain were searched.  Inside the fountain, an inscription “Nauhine,” draconic for “Let there be Death,” was found under some slime.  After a good bit of discussion, Ash told everyone to clear the room, and Leodan shouted out “Nauhine.”  As he spoke, a foul smelling mist filled the area around the fountain, causing Ash’s throat to burn with a fit of coughing.  Feeling weak, he turned away from the fountain to rest. 

Shortly after, Aster opened the remaining door and stepped inside.  He found three Dire Rats surrounding the door, and he quickly stepped back after being bitten.  Ash replaced him and he and his companions began to fight the rats.  After a few swipes, a huge rat, twice the size of her children, rushed out to protect her brood.  Alas for her, she and her progeny were soon defeated.

The party began to search through the room.  They found quite a bit of gold that the rats had taken for the shiny factor.  They also found a human corpse, which they identified as Karakas by the ring he wore.  They took his armor and supplies, which included a potion flask, some gold, and his engraved ring.  Properly laden, they decided to head into town to rest and give news to the Hucrele family. 

The party made their way into town, getting there just in time to get a room and a late dinner at the inn.  The next morning, everyone but Iryi (who decided to sleep in) went to Mr. Hucrele’s house to deliver him the news of Karakas.  He was sober at the news, but it did not surprise him.  After the party assured him that they were going to return to look for his niece and nephew, he bid them farewell.  They then visited the Blacksmith who let them know that he didn’t sell any weapons.  He did translate the incription on the whistle for them as “Night Caller.”

11/8/00 – The Cursed Dragon Priest

In this installment, our stalwart heroes return to the Sunless Citadel after painstakingly dividing the treasure that they had gathered so far.  After an easy half-day walk, and a quick climb, they arrived at the bottom of the chasm at the door to the empty tower.  They entered without hesitation, and after a quick investigation, Aster unlocked the dragon carved door with the Kobold’s key. 

He slowly entered and moved to investigate the fascinating room he found there.  The rest of the group, except Erky, followed him in.  He found a long room flanked by three broken crystal orbs on the north wall, and a glowing crystal orb on a pedestal on the south wall.  Quiet crystalline notes filled the air.  Aster immediately moved to investigate the glowing orb, and as he approached, the music coming from the orb grew louder, magically forcing everyone in the room to flee, except Leodan.  Quite surprised to be suddenly alone, Leodan searched through the rest of the room, avoiding the orb.  After a minute or so, Ash returned to the room to investigate further why he had run out so quickly, quite against his will.  As Leodan ran from the room, clutching his ears, Ash moved over to the orb and touched it.

Suddenly, the music grew to twice its volume, forcing Ash to flee as well.  Then, Aster began to throw daggers at the orb.  Hitting it soundly a few times, he gained confidence, but then fled after the music overwhelmed him.  Disgusted, Eldane pulled out his lute and began to sing a song to counter the Orb’s effect.  Taking heart from his merry song, the group was able to move into the room and ignore the music.  Ash returned and pushed and prodded the orb around the ground, until Aster moved in and destroyed the orb with a final toss of his dagger.  The music ended abruptly, and Eldane stopped his singing.

Aster began to search the door and the narrow hallway behind it.  He found an irregular spot on the floor and began to try and disable the suspected trap.  While doing so, an arrow shot out from the wall, narrowly missing Aster.  He ducked down, and tried to trigger the trap again, to see if it was a one-shot trap.  Another arrow sped from the wall to strike him in the shoulder.  OW! 

At this point, the trap was clearly marked on the ground, so everyone tried to maneuver around it.  Everyone was able to move on successfully, except Iryi, who set off the trap but was unhurt.

The next room contained only a large stature.  As Aster approached the statue, it began to speak.  “They come at night unbidden, …” It started.  Immediately, Iryi said “Stars!” and a hidden door in the western wall opened on silent hinges.  They entered this next room without hesitation, and found themselves in a hall flanked by shallow recesses containing statues.  At the end of the room was a 10 foot by 20 foot pit lined with spikes.  One of the recesses on the southern wall was empty.  Aster began to search the room, and as he passes one of the occupied recesses in the southern wall, he had a feeling that there was something there.  He looked closer, and he found a doorway to a small secret room with an inscription in draconic.

Meanwhile, Ash decided to leap the 10 foot spiked pit.  He took a running jump and flew over the pit.  As he landed, a three foot high scaly winged devil looking creature stepped out from behind the doorway and attacked him.  It hit Ash in the chest and knocked him backwards into the pit, but not before Ash got one good hit in with his trusty sword.  The rest of the party began to shoot at the devil creature, until it began to laugh.  “You broke my bindings, now I am free.  HAHAHHAHHHAHAHHAHAHHA”  It flew up towards the ceiling and then out through the door behind the party.

Ash attempted to climb out of the pit after the devil creature exited, but his hands slipped as he approached the top.  He fell backwards into the pit and sustained many wounds.  The party finally threw him a rope and he was able to climb out.  They then rigged the rope so that climbing down into the pit was much easier.  They were all then able to reach the other side, where they found a green lit room containing a single sarcophagus.  Ash began to pry the bindings off, and after a while, the coffin was ready to open.  Ash pushed the lid off, and heard a mighty roar.  From the coffin rose a nine foot tall green monster.  It began laying about with its nearly seven foot long arms, grievously wounding Erky and Ash.  Finally, the party knocked it from its coffin and began stabbing and kicking and beating the fallen creature.  This continued, until they checked it for signs of life.  They found that its wounds were healing slowly, and so they ultimately decided to burn it. 

While this was happening, the individuals not hacking at the beast searched the now empty coffin and found some treasure, including a very nicely made dagger.  After the creature had burned, and they had used 4 of their pints of oil, the companions rested for the night and attempted to heal their injuries..  In the morning, they made their way back to the empty tower at the entrance to the citadel and decided to go back to the goblin’s territory to continue their search for the Hucreles. 

As the entered the goblin’s territory, they opened a door which let off a loud bell.  They entered the door cautiously, expecting trouble, but there was no attack by the goblins.  Eldane peered around the corner into the next room, and saw two javelins coming right at him.  He jumped back, and then the party engaged the goblins.  The goblins were no match for them.

After decimating the four goblins in that room, they continued into uncharted territory.  They explored the hazy room with the pillars, and found a hallway to the north and one to the south, as well as a door to the west.  Behind the western door and the door at the end of the northern hallway, they heard the sound of a lot of goblins.  They decided to split into two groups and enter through both doors at once.  Ash burst through the door, surprising the goblins, and began to attack.  He found a group of goblins and hobgoblins, including women and children.  After killing the fighting goblins and hobgoblins, including the four who came to join the party, the group paused to consider their options.

11/15 – Short Live the King!

After defeating the guards in the main goblin camp, and searching through the rubble for anything of value, the heroes quietly decided to move into the next room.  As they opened the door, they found three hobgoblins standing just on the other side.  Also in the room were some goblins, and a bushy wooden creature.  The goblin king sat on the makeshift throne, flanked by another goblin who looked a bit scrawny.  There was a large pit in the center of the room.

The party pulled back to lure the monsters back into the other room, but the goblins and hobgoblins merely threw javelins from the other side of the door.  Aster took the long way around and tried entering from a different door.  Upon entering, Aster found himself face to face with the Goblin king and his spellcaster.

Finally, Ash forced his way into the room and began to ay about with his sword.  Aster was dodging leaping out of the way of the king’s sword, gleefully throwing daggers at the king and his spellcaster from a distance.  Iryi and Eldane dazed the spellcaster from a distance, allowing Aster to focus his attentions on the king.  Finally, all of the guards and the twig blight were defeated, with only the king and the spellcaster still standing.  The spellcaster made a final desperate leap to heal the king, but was cut down before he was able to complete the spell.  The king was slain soon after.

On searching the bodies, Eldane discovered that the ring on the goblin king’s hand was one of the two Hucrele signet rings.  After looting the rest of the room, the group decided to sleep and recover their energy.  The moved into the previous room, which had since been vacated by the goblin women and children, and they slept peacefully.

In the morning, or what they though was morning, Aster left spent some time by himself, looking at his foot.  In the night he had finally worked out a nagging problem that his grandfather had posed to him years before.  He realized that he could finally cast a Read Magic spell.  As he had suspected for years, he was able to read the runes tattooed on his foot when he was studying with his grandfather.  As he read the words aloud, a fiery pain lanced through his foot, and with a loud flash, the runes disappeared, and a book appeared on the ground before him.  He opened it and a not fluttered out.  He took his new treasure and rejoined the rest of the party.

They decided to use the vines growing on the side of the pit to climb down into the depths.  Upon reaching the bottom, the saw two cloaked figures and two potted bushes.  Upon further investigation, they found that the figures were animated skeletons, and the bushes were twig blights.  After a short scuffle, the twig blights were hacked apart, and the skeletons were turned.

Investigating the northern passage, the party discovered a large bugbear holding two dire rats on leashes.  He let the rats go and began to move to attack the party.  Eldane responded to the sight of him with a sleep spell which dropped the bugbear to the ground.  After killing the two rats, Aster easily dispatched the sleeping giant. 

11/22 – The Shadow Knows!

Moving into the eastern hallway, the party discovered a long pillared hallway with many doors along its length.  The sounds of goblins working and sleeping filled the hall.  Aster moved slowly and silently into the hall to investigate.  He opened a doorway in the north and discovered two sleeping goblins.  He attempted to sneak over and dispatch them in their sleep, but he stubbed his foot against the floor, and the goblins awoke with a cry.  Aster managed to kill one of them, but the other smashed his head with a morning-star, knocking him unconscious and left him bleeding from the scalp.

Moments after the cry, six goblins swarmed out from the rooms they had occupied to attack the invaders.  Leodan jumped in to slay the goblin which had attacked Aster, then healed aster with a quick spell.  With the rage only a year of imprisonment can create, Erky attacked the goblins and was grievously wounded.  The rest of the party quickly dispatched the remaining goblins.  Erky seemed a bit reserved after that encounter.

After searching the rooms, Aster opened a door that they found in the north-easternmost room.  Finding another door a few feet into the next hallway, aster searched for traps.  He found nothing, but heard a swishing sound from beyond the door.  Ash opened the door and burst into the next room.  A bugbear was dutifully scything some grass and trimming some glowing fungus off of the walls where it was growing.  Hearing an intruder, the bugbear attacked.  He did not survive very long.

Aster, Iryi and Leodan moved to search the room behind the door to the east, and Ash searched the room behind the southern door.  Ash found four goblins who were not happy to see him.  They had been harvesting moss until they were slain by Ash in under 18 seconds.  Aster, Iryi and Leodan found a room filled with holes in the walls.  Suddenly, a large worm creature appeared from the opposite wall.  It was glowing hot, and melted the rock it touched.  It lurched towards Leodan, but missed him narrowly.  The group quickly killed it.  Aster sliced it open, and found a large sapphire deposit in its belly.

Moving north, the party found an identical room to the one they came from.  Through the eastern door, Leodan discovered skeletons who were shoveling compost.  Channeling the power of the Boh, he destroyed the skeletons, leaving them as piles of bone.  The northern door held another bugbear, also gardening.  He was also quickly dispatched, but in the fight, Aster cast a magic missile spell.  Ash and the rest of the group were very surprised, as they had not seen Aster use magic before.

In the next room, the party found a large stature with a red tile circle in front of it.  Aster moved to investigate, and as he approached the statue, the shadow from behind the statue moved toward him.  The party began to attack the shadow creature, but weapons simply seemed to pass right through it.  Before the creature was turned by Erky, both Ash and Leodan were touched and began to feel weak.  Before they left, Eldane stood on the red tile and spoke the runes inscribed on the statue.  In a flash of light, Eldane seemed much more charismatic.

The party holed themselves in the next room which turned out to be an old library.  They rested for a half day, and searched the room for any usable material.  A couple of old scrolls, and a book on dragons were all that they found.

After resting, Eldane snuck back into the room to see if the shadow had returned.  He quickly found out that it had, and he fled quickly to the library and began to barricade the door.  The party agreed to forge its way north.

They entered a passageway which led down a few stairs, then up a few stairs, and then down a long hallway which ended at two doors.  The first door was locked, but Aster soon remedied that problem.  In the room they found many books, including a few scrolls, a book titles, Treasures of the Fire Lords, and a book written in Druidic.  They listened at the southern door and heard the sound of goblins.

With a spell, Aster changed his appearance to that of a goblin.  He stormed into the next room and told the four goblins there that Belak needed them in his study.  They dutifully obeyed and as they entered the room, the rest of the group attacked them.  The first three were slain before they could cry out, but the last yelled in goblin, “Defender of the Twilight Grove, come to our aid!” He died a moment later.