The Company of Odd Fellows

Hommlett

The day of the festival arrived and the party set forth to celebrate with the town. the celebration was going strong, with many of the villagers wandering the town, taking part in many of the games that had been set up, and of course partaking in all the wonderful food and beverages. the party also tried out some of the games, Bark losing out in an arm wrestling contest to the local woodcutter (nobody wanted to arm wrestle a minotaur. Needles bested a few of the local hunters to win the archery contest. Kain won the drinking contest (a bit of cheating on his part) and Clarabelle graciously lost out on the pie eating contest. They meandered out to the grove where Alaktyrr had set up his house of worship and were pleasantly surprised to find he had made some more healing potions for them, with each of them buying two of them from him.

After a few hours of wandering around and enjoying the festival, they decided to head back to the Estate and get some rest. As they they were heading northward, they saw a blinding flash ahead of them and all of them were driven to the ground. A strong sense of unresolved vengeance washed over them before they all passed out.

They all awoke at the Estate the next day, with the soldiers keeping a worried eye on them. They were told that they were all found passed out on the road and were immediately brought to the estate. Calmer, the head cleric of Chordax said he could find nothing physically wrong with them and said they would probably be fine with bed rest. It was at this time that Domino spoke up. He told them that the presence they felt was Vorhaze, because on the Day of Wonders, the Gods can walk the earth if they so choose. No words were spoken to him but there was an immense sense of anger, and a location, An old crypt deep in the Norwoods. Domino didn’t know where it was but he had a ‘feeling’.. a sensation of being pulled. If they followed that, he was sure they would find the crypt.

The Twentieth Day of Holy Month, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Odd Fellows Hall

the Adventurers made their way back to Aethere Keep, where they informed the Duke that Duvessah was okay but they had inadvertently foiled an assassin’s plan to kill her and steal her treasure. They stayed the evening at the keep before heading for Odd Fellows Hall the next morning. They followed the Celes river northwest where they ran into a large contingent of soldiers escorting Lord Cordwell to Aethere Keep. The soldiers were leery of strangers so the party kept their distance as they passed.

they turned north and headed towards Wrenwald and The Odd Fellows Hall. When they arrived in town they could already see the changes made by freeing the townsfolk from the the tyranny of the Wrenwalds. The first thing they were told is that the townsfolk had officially petitioned to have the name of the town changed from Wrenwald to Hommlet. I word that meant ‘home’ in old Llancrest. Nobody could blame them from wanting to distance themselves from a word associated with their former landlord.

The village elder invited the party to a big celebration to mark the name change. It would be in 10 days time during The Day of Wonder and since they were a major factor in all the goods things happening to the village he was hoping they would attend. The party assured him they would be there. He shook their hands before they made their way home to Odd Fellows Hall.

They got their first surprise when they saw that The Church of Chordax had already sent replacement priests to fill the hole left by Domino’s convergence to another faith. One was a dour man named Tarjon, and the other was a younger acolyte named Calmer. They also found that Alaktyrr disagreed with the new cleric so much that he gave up the temple and set up his worship of Kamrynn in a small grove outside of Hommlet. The captain of the guard, Brekken, had been put in charge of keeping an eye on the manor since his departure.

Brekken filled them in on all that had happened since they last left. A few weeks ago, Brothers Tarjon and Calmer showed up and announced they would be in charge of the temple and had the paperwork from the High Cleric to prove it. Within 3 days of their arrival, Alaktyrr had thrown up his hands and moved out of the Hall, setting up a small area of worship in a grove right outside the town. The two new clerics have been very active in recruiting new members for the flock and now many of the townspeople have been converted to the worship of Chordax. They feel that this temple is a sign of the new strength of Hommlett and they will never be oppressed again. While others still worship what they consider the ‘Old Faith’, Kamrynn and the balance of nature. The rise of the new church has began to put a strain on some of the old friendships in the town, since the religions don’t see eye to eye.

The eighth Day of Holy Month, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Duvessah’s Tower

The Mayor of Gulltown, Teknikal Suh’Poort provided the adventurers with a wagon for their travels to Aethere Keep. When they got there they were offered a job by the Duke, Romain Instellius, to check up on a mage by the name of Duvessah, who lived in her personal tower in the Eaglewood. The Duke would consider the job payment for assistance in building Odd Fellow Hall.

With map in hand the adventurers set of to the tower. The trip took two days and was uneventful. They found the tower in a large clearing, a large set of double doors as the only entrance. approached it.

ENTRY LEVEL:

The main, and apparently only, entrance to this fortress is a large set of double doors facing to the southeast. You notice strange runic writing on the door as you approach.

The adventurers had the mage read the runes as the rest stood away from the door. When the runes were read, a Fireball exploded at the doorway. The mage dodged the explosion but still took some damage from the spell. She used the Dragonclaw medallion to heal some of her wounds. The Thief checked the door for traps and found the door unlocked and untrapped but heard sounds on the other side. On opening the door they saw a large rust monster. The Druid attacked it while the ranger took it out at range.

This room contains two large bookcases along the south and west walls of this chamber,
reaching from floor to ceiling. These are filled with various scrolls and tomes.
Along the north wall is a work table. Two shelves, one above the other, run along the north and
east walls just above the table. They hold jars and bottles containing a variety of substances.
South of the work table, along the east wall, is a statue of a muscular man, standing in an attitude of parade rest.

The party avoided the statue and moved along the south wall. They encountered another rust monster but were able to kill it before it could close. The thief was then swallowed by a carpet trapper and had to be hacked out by the rest of the party. She used the Dragonclaw Medallion to heal her wounds. The party then continued to hug the wall til they got to the door going into the tower itself. They took the circular stairs heading up.

TOWER LEVEL 2:

This level of the tower looks to be where Duvessah stores her treasures and other valuables. There are three chests in this room, one against the north wall, one one each in the south east and west corners of the room. All appear to be closed. There is also a suit of armor hanging on an armor rack against the south wall.

The adventurers, heeding the Duke’s warning that nothing should be touched, ignored the chests and continued up the stairs to the next level.

TOWER LEVEL 3:

This level appears to be a small living area set up for relaxation and meditation. There are a couple of overstuffed chairs in various places as well as large pillows strewn about. In the northern wall, is a raised stone slab that seems to be the resting place of a very small dragonlike creature that is peering at you through half-raised eyelids.

The creature didn’t immediately attack them so the mage approached it cautiously and began a dialog with it. He told the creature that they were sent to check up on Duvessah and that they meant no harm. As proof they showed that they had not taken anything of value from the tower. The small dragon decided to accompany them to her quarters on the last floor. With Dragon in tow, they moved up the stairs.

TOWER LEVEL 4:

The central stairs end at this level, but another small spiral staircase climbs to another level from here. This room is devoid of all furnishings and is completely empty except for the two strange creatures stomping around.

The party had never seen the like of these creatures before. The dragon related that they were her mistresses personal guards and she created them herself. Nobody but her could get by them, not even the dragon was allowed upstairs. The party would have to fight them to get to Duvessah. The fight proved to be tough with the mage going down from an acid attack before the party was able to destroy the Pipe Beasts. Some healing from the cleric and a potion got her up and around. With the healing out of the way the party climbed the stairs going to the last level.

TOWER LEVEL 5:

As you come upstairs into the last level of the tower, you catch a shadow out of the corner of your eye before spotting a blade coming at you.

When the thief got to the top of the stairs she was attacked by two assassins from the sides of the stairs. She moved out of the way after the attack and let the samurai up behind her where his katana and a magic missile from the mage took out one of the assassins. The other lost his heart for the fight and jumped out a window. When the party investigated they found a rope and climbing equipment. the assassin was beating a hasty retreat and had no chance to be caught by the adventurers so they let him flee.

They found the mage in a deep slumber and it took a considerable amount of effort to wake her up from her magical exhaustion. Once awakened and made aware of the threat that the assassins posed she was visibly relieved the adventurers had come along when they did. She showed them the magical item she was working on. It was a suit of armor and sword that was made especially for fighting powerful undead creatures with the ability to drain life energy. She made it for a friend, a high level Paladin named Sparrhawk who was especially fond of battling the undead. Then she made her way down to Level 2 where she opened up the one of the chests and gave each adventurer 2500gp for their help. She also gave them a scroll, ring and potion from her magical collection as way to further say thanks.

The Third Day of Holy Month, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

The Odd Fellows delivered the leaders of the Sapphire Crown to the Capt. of the Guard and the Duke personally to make sure they were going to be taken into custody. The Duke was overjoyed at their assistance and threw a small feast in their honor where they received ‘The Claw of Dragon’ medallion for their assistance in removing the slavers and bringing the Sapphire Crown to justice. He also showed them some of his finest rooms and allowed them to stay as long as they needed to heal and recover. The Odd Fellows took him up on his offer and spent a week in Newton, resting and relaxing. Kain also took this time to make another payment towards his custom Yoroi. Feeling refreshed and rejuvenated the party headed back to Gray Cliffs

When they arrived they they found Capt. Ibenre and his crew at The Crossed Swordfish Inn. They let the Captain know they were ready to sail for Gulltown as soon as he was ready. After a day of preparation the ship was ready to set sail and the Odd Fellows set out towards home.

The captain kept the ship within sight of the shoreline as they skirted the Elvenwood so the trip was mostly uneventful. They were approached by one ship of questionable reputation but a well aimed arrow from Needles convinced that captain to keep his distance. A few days after they entered Elfwood Bay. They could see Tumba Alu, the Elven port city on their left. When asked about the name, Captain Ibenre told them it meant ‘deep water’ and was also the elvish name for the Elfwood Bay as well. Soon after they made port in Gulltown, the Odd Fellows parted company with Captain Ibenre but not before he told them how they could reach him, if they needed his assistance in the future.

Not soon after, as they searched for lodgings in Gulltown, they were approached by soldiers of the watch. They told them the Mayor of Gulltown had been waiting for them, and would like to speak to them at their earliest convenience. The day was still young so they followed the officer to the town hall, where they met Teknikal Suh’poort, intrepid adventurer and now the newest Mayor of Gulltown. Teknikal and Clarabelle had known each other for years, so they hugged each other warmly before getting down to business. He told them that Duke Romain Instellius wanted to meet with them as possible. He put them up for the night, and the next morning they headed out to Aethere Keep.

The Sixteenth Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Abandoned Dwarven Mine

The party left Newton while it was still dark, heading south in their wagon, before doubling back west towards where the mine was located.

Due to Needles excellent tracking abilities they were able to avoid what seemed to be a group of mercenaries providing scouting and lookout for the mine and arrived without incident.

1. Entrance

The path dips down into the mountain where it ends with two large wooden doors securing the entrance to the complex. The doors look like they have been recently beefed up with new lumber.

Andy was sent ahead to check the door and found a particularly nasty guillotine trap that she was able to disable. The door was unlocked and as far as she could tell there was silence on the other side of the door. The party entered and entered the hallway which immediately ended in a intersection. From the intersection they could see that it went at least 30’ west and east except that just up the way in the eastern hallway was a door going north. They decided to head right to the east. As Andy approached the door she could vaguely see that the hallway went east a bit before heading southeast.

6. Dining Area

As you near this room, you can hear the sounds of varied conversations along with the unmistakable sounds of people eating. You can hear forks clanking against plates, heavy cups being set down and the occasional burp.

It didn’t take a thief to be able to hear the obvious sounds coming from the other side of the door. A quick plan of attack was formed. Domino would use Vordane to cast Hold Person in the room, Bark would cast entangle in front of the door and Needles and Andy would rain Arrows into the room while Kain and Domino kept them engaged at the door.

They kicked the door open and saw 6 men sitting around a table, two on one side and 4 on the other. Bark cast entangle and Domino made a snap judgment to cast the spell at the 4 men on the right side of the table. 2 of the 4 immediately went stiff as the spell surrounded them. But the other two jumped and began grabbing their weapons as did the other 2. Besides Domino and Bark casting their spell the element of surprise didn’t give the party first blood as all the other attacks failed. One of the fighters, a small burly halfling jumped on the table and began to taunt the party about their aim as the fighters ran into the vines, unaware of their effect on them. The Halfling was smarter than that and told the man next to him to head for the kitchen door, then took off, taking an arrow from Needles for his trouble. The Cleric followed him as the guards charged headfirst into the vines and were entangled. As the cleric went through the west hallway and the halfling went to follow another arrow from Needles found him. the guards took their cue from the Halfling and began frantically working their way through the vines toward the other door. One broke free and began moving away but was struck down by another arrow from Needles. The other guard soon joined his friend as Kain and Domino both attacked him. With everyone fleeing to the other room, Bark dispelled his entangle spell and the party began entering the room. needles ran to the opposite wall to get a bead on what was waiting for them in the east hallway. He saw that it was stairs leading down. The other party members quickly bound the two guards who were still under the hold person spell then moved to the east and kicked in the door.

5. The Kitchen

This room appears as if it was originally built as a small forge with large hoods extending from the ceiling to vent out the smoke. However it looks as if the recent guests have converted it to a kitchen, using the forges as firepits for cooking. There are some open barrels and bags of foodstuffs sitting in the corner and the smell of cooking meat permeates the room.

Domino charged in and struck one of the guards waiting for them before he could react. But the halfling was waiting to the side and took a swipe at him with his battleaxe. An arrow followed them in as Needles hit another guard, another arrow from Bark and Kain’s Katana soon finished that guard off. Andy tried to leap into the room but was literally swatted out of the air by the guards, followed by a devastating blow from the Cleric. The fight moved into the kitchen and blows were traded by both sides with Andy having to extricate herself from the battle in order to quaff a healing potion. But the party soon prevailed and the mercenaries were killed. In the kitchen they saw another hallway leading off the the northwest. They also saw another hallway leading off to the northeast in the dining room they were just in. They had Andy stealthily follow the hallway leading from the kitchen while they followed behind at a distance. The hallway climbed up some stairs before it opened into a wide chamber. Although this chamber was also lit it was not as brightly lit as both the kitchen and dining area they had just left. Andy could make out a murky opening to the north with what looked like a bridge crossing it.

.7 The Bridge

As you reach the end of the wide hallway, you can see that it opens into a large chasm that drops into the murky darkness below. There is a wide bridge that spans the chasm to an opening on the other side. However, there is a timber barricade in the middle of the bridge manned by armed troops. At first glance it doesn’t look like there is a way around the barricade.

With the rest of the party waiting in the hallway, she went north. As she went out onto the bridge she could see some sort of barricade constructed about 40’ out on the bridge itself with movement behind it. Without wanting to risk detection she snuck back to the party. The decided to work the large chamber south.

.4 Ambush Alcoves

As you walk down this large corridor you notice three evenly spaced doorways on the west side
of the wall. There are small rooms behind them that appear to be empty.

While investigating these alcoves they found that they were some sort of spell on them that made them look empty even when they weren’t. But luckily they were all actually empty behind the spell. Working their way back south they came across a a well at the end of the chamber as well as the first passageway they came across when entering the mine.

.3 Deep Well Alcove

This large alcove has a large cistern well in the middle of the floor. A newly constructed timber frame sits over it, holding a rope and large bucket that looks fairly new as well.

Since the well seemed to be getting use from the new occupants the party risked a drink and found the water refreshingly cold and clear and felt a bit more rejuvenated after drinking it. Following the hallway back to the door back to the kitched they decided to continue following the hall where it began to head southwest. At the end of a short run, it ended in a door to the southwest. After Andy checked the door they entered the room cautiously.

.2 Storage Room

This room is being used as a storage room. There are barrels of dry goods and other foodstuffs. It looks like there is enough food here to feed a small army for a few months. There is also a small beat up chest in the corner of the room.

Among the various foodstuffs they found a small chest containing 540 gold pieces and 3 gems that looked to worth about 50 gp. In the chest they also found a note that said Black Fist: For services Rendered -BL. They split up the gold before heading back to the Dining Area. There they followed the other hallway they saw where it turned north before ending abruptly at a chasm.

13. The Chasm

The original stone bridge crossing the chasm here has long been destroyed. However on the north end of the chasm there is a makeshift bridge that is in the raised position. From the looks of it, it’s meant as a means of quick egress and there are no cranks to pull it up or down, just a set of ropes keeping it in the raised position.

Their choices were to try to figure out a way to bring this bridge down or risk a fight with men behind cover on the other. Since Needles has the best aim out of all of them, he was tasked with trying to cut the rope with an arrow. After 4 unsuccessful tries he hit the rope, cutting some strands but not enough to sever it. Around the same time Andy heard something coming from below them. She peered over and saw something large coming up the chasm wall. The party drew weapons as Needles frantically tried to drop the bridge. His second shot hit the rope again, yet the bridge still held. It was then that the two monstrosities made their way over the ledge. Two enormous barbed snails made their way over the ledge and into the hallway. Both fired their barbs at Needles since he was in the front, one of them finding its mark. The snails were relentless and their bites soon left Needles near death, forcing him to make a fighting withdrawal to let Kain take his place. Kain also felt the sharp teeth of these snails but his Katana made short work and he kicked the carcass off the ledge and back into the chasm. Domino followed his lead and crushed the other snail under his mace.

another two shots and Needles was able to fray the rope enough for it to break. They were expecting the bridge to just fall, but it obviously had some counter balances on it and it came down smoothly, actually extending as it fell into the horizontal position on their end of the walkway. They sent Andy over to investigate and with her hurried movement back over the bridge they knew something was up. She told them there were 2 more snails in a room beyond the bridge, eating two hapless guards. She thought they may be able to sneak around them if they were quiet.

12. The Barracks

As you come down the hallway and round the corner you see the 5 men stopped cold in the middle of this room. What has their attention is two giant snails making a meal of two unfortunate guards who either didn’t see them or were asleep. The snails are near the south door, blocking any means of exit through that direction.

Unfortunately Domino’s less than stealthy movements caused the snails to stop their meal. With that plan blown, the party decided to seize the initiative and attack. With more room to maneuver the party was able to quickly dispatch the two snails without receiving a single wound. The passageway to the east opened into a more natural cavern where it led around the corner to the northwest. They followed the passageway where it meandered west until they saw a small alcove going north. At the end of the alcove was a trap door in the ceiling but the party was unable to reach it to get it open.

So they continued to follow the cavern as it wound its way northwest until it began to curve around south. They came to a door in the cavern wall.

8. The Armory

This hollowed out cave is being used as a makeshift armory. There are racks of long and short swords, Long bows, spears and daggers. As well as an assorted variety of leather and chain armor. There are also small barrels filled with arrows and two full quivers of arrows hanging by a peg.

All the weapons in the room were mundane with the exception of the two quivers, which radiated magic. The magically imbued arrows made them more more deadly than normal arrows (Arrows +2)

As the cavern turned south it began climbing and there were some roughly hewn stairs carved into the floor to assist the climb. There was also more light coming from that direction as well so Andy tried to be extra quiet as she worked her way ahead of the group. She came to a Wye and could see that further south was the other side of the bridge and the men manning the barricade. To the Northeast she saw a larger cavern being guarded by six men.

She went back and told the party what she saw. They were assuming that the men they were looking for were somewhere in the area to the east of them but that between the six guards and the men at the bridge they would be surrounded pretty quickly no matter who are where they attacked first. They looked at the map and kept coming back to the trapdoor they couldn’t reach and how most likely it came up in the area where the ringleaders were most likely at.

So using the last of the Potion of Gaseous Form, Andy snuck past the guards and into the room.

9. The Meeting Room

As you round the corner the passageway opens into a large open chamber. There is a masked man standing on a platform at the northern end of the chamber. He is addressing 4 other masked figures in a tone loud enough to be heard from where you are. He is expressing frustration that inside sources are telling him that the new captain is on their trail and that more desperate measures may need to be taken. One of the men in the crowd speaks up about the necessity of killing the new captain and maybe even the Duke himself. At this point everyone begins to speak at once and the conversation is lost.

She worked the edges of the cave wall trying to stay out of the light. She rounded the corner and went into the next room where she saw the trap door towards the south wall.

10. The Fallback

Another large chamber cut into the stone, but smaller than the one to the west. There is nothing of note in this area except for a square opened trapdoor near the southern wall. There
is also a pungent smell drifting from the smaller alcove to the east.

She had to wait until the potion wore off before she quietly opened up the trapdoor and lowered the rope ladder down to her waiting companions. With everyone up they decided on a plan of attack. Domino hit the ringleaders with a hold person spell while the rest of the party moved into the room. The hold person only got one of them so Andy followed behind him with her bow drawn and pointed at them. The party got the drop on the guards hitting a few with arrows but this is when things began to go terribly wrong. The guards all turned around and to a man throw flasks at the party and green explosions reigned down on them, mortally wounding Kain and severely hurting the others. The Odd fellows knew they had to close to melee or those explosive flasks would kill them, so they all moved to engage the party. However the explosions gave the ringleaders the break they were looking for so they began running towards the south west entrance. Another hold person from Domino caught two more though. Needles did the next smartest thing, he stood with one foot on one of the spellbound leaders, daring the guards to throw the fire and risk killing one of the men that paid them. The risk paid off and they decided to close to attack him. Now that the explosives were out of the picture, the party fought on and took down the rest of the men just in time for the guards from the bridge to come running in. With swords pointed at the throats of the men who were supposed to pay them, the mercenary guards surrendered. The guards and the leaders of ‘The Sapphire Crown’ were bound hand and foot but as injured as the party was, they figured it was smarter to send Needles back to Newton to get help.

While he was gone, Andy and Bark investigated the last small section of the cave they hadn’t looked at yet.

11. The Lab

The overpowering smell of chemicals permeates the air here. In the north corner of the room a small laboratory has been set up. There doesn’t seem to be anything being made at this moment but the smell tells you that it’s been used recently. In well packed crates next to the lab there are 10 corked flasks containing a green liquid.

It didn’t take an alchemist for them to figure that these were the same flasks the guards had used against them. They carefully carried the crates back to the room where the captives were being held.

Later that evening Needles arrived back with a contingent of Town Guards, who trundled the prisoners into another wagon. Once they were secure, the guards escorted the prisoners and the Odd Fellows back to town.

The Fourteenth Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Newton

An uneventful trip up the Gray Cliffs road led them to Newton a few days later. They immediately noticed a much heavier guard presence at the gate and their wagon was searched thoroughly before they were allowed in. After finally entering the town, they left their wagon at the public stables, paying a much higher stable rate than they were expecting. It was still early in the day so they went to the castle to try and get an audience with the Duke. They experienced a heavy resistance to allowing them in until the chamberlain heard who they were. Once he did, they were immediately led to the Duke’s private quarters.

He greeted them with a smile but it was obvious there was a sadness and wariness to his demeanor. When asked about the stories they heard in Gray Cliffs, he told them he would explain later, but now he wanted to hear about their trip. The party told him about the Slaver’s Fortress and how they fought a pitched battle with the slavers and their guards. All of the Slavers were killed but a few guards were left alive. The party put them in the slave pens with about two weeks worth of rations but recommended the Duke send some troops to secure them and the fortress. They told him about the Elven sailors they rescued and how Capt. Ibenre mentioned that there may be more behind this slave trade and that possibly a Kar’Tegran presence may be involved. This seemed to trouble the Duke even more but he was glad that for now, this problem had been put to rest. He called to his chamberlain to get a message to Turkey to send a small unit to Frog Island to secure it and the prisoners. He then mentioned the promise of payment and had the chamberlain bring them 3000 gold.

Now that the previous matter was closed, he told them about the events that occurred in Newton since they were last here. After they had left, The Duke tasked the Capt. of the Guard to investigate the alleged involvement of Bailey Laquin with the assassination attempt on the Odd Fellows outside of Mosquito Marsh. While Andrea was investigating Bailey she came across some information that led to an even deeper conspiracy of prominent members of the community dealing in stolen goods and illegal merchandise. Rumors in certain circles called this group ‘The Sapphire Crown’. It was while she was looking into this group that she was killed in the Farmer’s Market. While the Duke was filling them in, a man entered the room with them. The Duke introduced him as Ben Stocks, The new Captain of the Guard. It was at this point that Ben took over the story.

He told them that a break-in into Andrea’s home around the same time as her death was no coincidence. He also found Andrea’s files in his desk, as if she knew someone was after them and didn’t want to leave them in her own office. This was enough to get his suspicions up that whatever happened to Andrea, had to do with this investigation. He told nobody about this matter, and when he was appointed to her position he took it upon himself to investigate the matter quietly without telling anyone else what he knew. Ben was a ranger and scout with the military before he joined the town guard and he was able to follow some of the people named in the file without being seen. It was during a surveillance of one of these men that he was led to an old abandoned mine outside of town in the foothills to north. Staking out the mine, he saw that over the last few days the named leaders of the group, including Bailey Laquin have all left town and headed for the mine. He felt he had enough information to bring these men to justice but without knowing who he could trust, he was afraid the members would be tipped off to any organized attempts to arrest them at the mines. When he approached the Duke with his concerns, he was told of the parties imminent arrival to Newton and the Duke’s hope that they could be convinced to take on the task of bringing ‘The Sapphire Crown’ to justice. Now that they were here and he had told them the story, he asked them for their assistance. The Duke sweetened the pot by offering them another 500gp each as well as another potion of healing for everyone in the party. The party told the Duke to keep his money, they would do it just for paybacks on Bailey.

The Tenth Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Gray Cliffs

The sea journey from Frog Island the Town of Gray Cliffs was uneventful. The crew kept the ship within sight of the coast and had good winds throughout the trip. The journey gave the party a chance to recuperate from their injuries sustained during the prolonged battle inside the Slaver Fortress and the brisk sea air and warm sun allowed them to relax for the first time in weeks. They arrived in Gray Cliffs a few days later. Before heading into town, the party asked Capt. Ibenre if he would be willing to take them to Gulltown once their business with the Duke was completed. He agreed to their proposal that they hire him and his crew for the month at the cost of 600gp. He told them they could find him at the Crossed Swordfish Inn when they returned from Newton. The party sold some of the items they recovered from the fortress and purchased a small wagon to take them to Newton.

While they were selling their items and getting restocked, they were hearing of some unrest in the town of Newton. There was an explosion in the Farmer’s Market and a dozen innocent people were killed, including the Captain of the Town Guard, Andrea Grusky. Rumors were floating around that some Llancrest Loyalists were behind the explosion.

The Sixth Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Slavers Fortress

The following morning the party woke up, packed up their belongings and headed down the trap door. The passageway eventually widened out to a larger hallway that descended down a staircase before turning south into what looked like a dead end. The dead end turned out to be a cleverly hidden door that opened inward, which suggested it was intended for quick egress to this hallway from the other side.

Andy listened at the door but didn’t hear anything but decided to open the door as quietly as possible. The door was was well balanced and opened inward without making any noise. The hallway on the other side was well lit and a quick glance showed that door was at the intersection where a hall going south met a hall going East-West. Andy could see 3 armed men about 30’ down the south passageway and another 2 men about 20’ to the west where it ended. All of them looked to peering through arrow slits in the walls. A discussion in the hidden room formulated a risky plan. Use an illusion spell from Bark’s wand to hide them from the soldiers in the south hallway. then sneak out the door and take down the two guards in the south, quietly if possible. That plan fell apart when the first guard heard Andy’s approaching footsteps and turned towards them. Domino used his mace to hit them with Hold Person and they both fell to the ground. The party quickly and quietly bound them.

With the illusion spell still hiding them from the guards to the south they decided to try the same plan of attack, Andy getting in close, Needles with a arrow notched and Domino hitting them with another hold person. Andy was able to get in close but her skills weren’t needed as all three of the guards fell over stiffly as the spell hit them. Quickly and quietly the dragged them to the hidden room and bound them as well. Andy followed the hallway down to where it turned east. She saw two more guards down at the end where the hallway turned south again as well as some stairs heading down to the south. With not knowing what was down the hall or stairs, they knew they risked detection but with only two guards they were hoping to take them down quickly. Only one went down from the spell but Andy was right behind the other, silencing him quickly.

Stationing Kain and Clarabelle at the stairs the other four members worked their way down the hallway as it went south. Andy snuck down to the end and saw that there were two more guards but that this was the end of the hallway. She snuck up on the nearest guard and backstabbed him and although the wound went deep, the guard turned around surprised. Needles who was further down the hallway let an arrow fly at the other guard, killing him instantly. The stabbed guard pulled out a whistle and let lose a short burst before Andy stabbed him again, finishing him off. Not sure what the whistle entailed, Needles and Andy moved back to join the rest of the party near the stairs. Kain and Clarabelle moved to cover the hallway north and were surprised when they saw a wall open and a man in robes step out from it. He was looking the other direction as he came out and didn’t see Kain and Clarabelle standing there. Clarabelle yelled out ‘Caster!’ and loosed her Firebolt at the surprised mage. Kain ran at him with his Katana held high, his weapon cutting deeply into the mage as an arrow released by Andy struck his as well. The mage was able to dodge the second set of attacks before casting ice storm, pummelling Kain and the now melee ranged Clarabelle with ice pellets. This allowed him to pop open the secret door and slip inside. Right after two more guards rounded the corner of the stairs coming up. Bark, Needles and Domino stayed back to take on the two guards while Clara, Andy and Kain pursued the wizard. It took them a few seconds but they found the opening to the secret door and bounded in, but by then the wizard was gone through what looked to be another secret door. Meanwhile the other 3 quickly took care of the guards and when it looked like the threat from that direction had passed, moved to join the others. Andy found the secret door and Clarabelle and Kain, piled in to find the room empty, but the trail of blood leading to a door to the north. By the time they got to the hallway on the other side, the wizard had warned the barracks and guards were streaming out into the hallway. Clarabelle case one of her magic missiles at the front lines and Andy released an arrow as a major engagement in the hallway took place.

The party fought half the guards as they came through the door, Bark’s entangle making it impossible for them to move as Kain and Domino cut through their ranks. The other half of the barracks tried to flank the party but were met by resistance from Domino, Needles and Andy while Bark tossed flame bombs at any one in range. However while the party was engaged the wizard alerted the other slavers to their presence and two capable fighters joined the fight from the east while two rogues came in from the east. But the party stood fast and was able to cut them down. As they were breathing a sigh of relief another small cadre of guards came from another area and as the party was mopping them up, they were ambushed by a Lightning Bolt cast by the wizard. With no regard for his own men, it cut the last two of them down and almost took Clarabelle and Bark down as well. But both clung to life and Clarabelle fired off her last magic missile, finishing off the heavily wounded wizard.

Not sure if there were more guards or worse in fortress they quickly used as much of their healing potions and spells to get them up and running, all of them hoping they wouldn’t run into any more. Since they were nearest to the barracks, they searched it first but didn’t find much other than dirty laundry. They backtracked to the room the wizard slipped through and were able to find a not very well hidden concealed door where they came across a large chest full of gems and coins. This wound up being the only treasure they found as they investigated the fortress. But when they discovered the slave pen, they came across 6 men tied to shackles along the wall. When they were freed, one of them introduced himself as Capt. Ibenre, the captain of the ship they found docked earlier. He mentioned that they were tasked by the elven court to investigate the disappearances surrounding this area. When his men docked the ship, they were attacked by orcs and humans and all but him and 5 of his men were killed. He told them the leader’s name was Morgath who ran the group with his mistress Sharana. From what he could gather, Morgath and Sharana were both in the Barony military before being discharged for misconduct. They then put together this crew and got started in the slaving business, although from some of the things Morgath mentioned to him he got the sense that there was something bigger than them involved, possibly even Kar’Tegra involvement.

Most of the men were pretty weak so they brought some food and water in from the barracks to feed the captives. They also found most of their gear in a box in the corner of the pens. They let the men eat and get dressed while they finished searching the fortress. Besides the treasure in the wizards hidden alcove there was nothing to be found. Although they did find that some of the slavers did have some equipment of magical nature which they gathered up.

Captain Ibenre offered to sail them up the coast to the Town of Grey Cliffs, saying it was the least he could do after rescuing him and his crew from either slavery or death. The party was more than willing to take him up on the offer, avoiding the trip back through the Mire Wood and getting a chance to recuperate on the ship.

The Odd Fellows helped get the ship ready to sail, and they set forth the next morning for Grey Cliffs, leaving Frog Island behind.

The Fifth Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Frog Island

With Needles out front using his tracking skills, the party was able to avoid any unnecessary encounters in their travel to the Island.

As they approached the island they could hear the guttural voices of Lizardmen up ahead. Needles snuck forward and saw that there were a total of 10 of them, and from the looks of the shackles they were carrying, they had just brought the slavers more human captives. There was talk of circumventing them but neither Kain or Domino were having any of that. Anyone dealing in the trafficking of living creatures did not deserve to live.

The Lizardmen weren’t expecting any resistance this close to the island so were unprepared for the parties attack. Each of the characters attacked from afar and decimated the Lizardman ranks and by the time they closed to melee, there were only two left who were quickly dispatched by Kain and Domino. Early in the fight Domino used Hold Person to bring one of the Lizardman down. Now that the fight was over as a lesson to anyone else wanting to deal with slavers, they chained him using his own manacles and left him to find his way home.

The party found a small boat at the dock on the mainland and used it to cross over to the north docks on the island. After tying off the boat they worked found a path heading deeper into the island. They came to an intersection, with one path leading directly south through the middle of the island and two paths branching off towards the outsides of the island, one southwest, the other southeast. Needles found some recent footprints going down the southeast path so they chose that as the path they would take.

Working their way down the path they came to where another path intersected it. A quick inspection showed that this path led to some sort of lookout. Needles scouted ahead and saw that there were some orcs manning the lookout, obviously looking for ships or anything else moving close the island. They were set in 3 groups of 4, but didn’t seem to be too interested in their job, some were eating, others were playing dice. Needles signaled that he would take the group in the middle, Andy the group to the south and Bark, shifting into Bear form would take the group to the north. Needles and Andy’s bow struck down two of the orcs quickly. Needles was able to take another out before the rest of the orcs could react. But react they did as one charged at Bark the bear and slashed him with his longsword. Andy found herself quickly surrounded but was able to dispatch one of the orcs with her shortsword. Kain got into the fray, helping out Bark who was also surrounded by orcs. Domino soon joined him and took down another orc, thinning the ranks surround Bark considerably. Two of the orcs attacking Andy broke off and ran after Needles and Clarabelle. Needles took a deep cut before killing the orc with his bow at point blank range. Bark the bear finished off the last guy on him, allowing Kain and Domino to help out Andy. Soon they had killed all the orcs at the lookout. Bark had taken some heavy damage in bear form and as soon as he transformed back into his normal shape, Domino healed him.

They continued to follow the path as it traveled southeast. Eventually the path started turning due south. Here in a clearing they smelled something that seemed familiar to them, but not in a good way. With the rest of the party holding up, Needles scouted ahead. Moving silently he came across a lone troll gnawing on what looked like the remains of a human leg, a rusty shackle still attached to the ankle. Enraged by what he saw, he stepped back a few yards and let on of his fire arrows sail, hitting the troll solidly. The troll was angered but also shaken by the burning arrow that just hit him. As he began to charge Needles, Needles released another arrow, with another coming right behind it from Andy. Both hit the troll and he went down. The rest of the party quickly closed around the ‘dead troll’ and covered it with oil, before setting it on fire.

The party continued to follow the path south until they came to the other end of the island. Here they discovered another dock that was much more well maintained then the docks on the north side. Tied to the mooring was a beautiful medium sized sailing vessel, which looked distinctively elvish in make. The boat and docks were guarded by a small contigent of orc soldiers but the party wanted to investigate this ship and felt they could easily take down the guards. 4 of the guards were on the dock and two were on the bow of the ship.

Kain and Domino moved towards the docks, Domino using Vordane to cast hold person at the two closest orcs. One was able to shake the spell but the other immediately went rigid, locked in the spell’s effect. Andy and Needles let their arrows fly, Andy’s staggered her target but he didn’t go down, but Needles target fell forward off the end of the boat and into the water. As Kain closed in and finished off one, Needles was dropping the rest like flies, with one left standing, it through down its bow and pleaded for mercy. The party found a small holding cell in the ship and locked both the remaining orcs in there. They investigated the rest of the ship and saw that even though the ship was in overall great condition, it had recently come under attack. From the higher vantage of the ship they could see what appeared to be a small villa to the northwest of them, so they followed the trail up from there.

The villa looked as if it hadn’t been occupied in decades but did look it was built in the near past. Some guesswork on the party’s part figured that it probably belonged to the pirate leader before the island was raided. The villa consisted of a number of strong stone structures including the main house, which was painted in a color that most people would call gaudy. There was a large swimming pool in the front that was half full of murky brackish water and dead leaves. Movement in the water suggested that something had made the pool its new home and nobody was in mood to dive in and find out. They also came across a small quarters where the groundskeeper and servants lodges as well as a stable.

The ranger found some tracks leading off from the stable to the east. The tracks were a combination of human, lizardman, orc and ppossibly elf. He worked his way quietly along the edges of the trail, where he came across an wide entrance going into the hill itself.

You see a fortified dungeon entrance, with short tower-like emplacements bracketing it. You can see arrow slits in the emplacements, which would allow guards within them to fire arrows (or worse) at anyone trying to enter. The floor within the entrance is covered in sand, which has been raked into lines.

Needles made his way back to the party where he told them what he had found. This was most likely where the slavers set up shop, but getting in through the front door would be difficult. the sand was there to make sneaking through the entrance difficult. Wondering if the construction of this underground area coincided with the building of the villa, they decided to go back and give the villa a thorough once-over to see if there was a secret entrance to the dungeon somewhere in there.

DM Note: I had not planned on having a back door entrance to the slaver’s fortress but sometimes you want to reward your players for smart play instead of just bull rushing the front door.

A check of all the structures in the villa, revealed a trapdoor under some moldy hay in the stables. The party quietly dropped down into a very small, cramped hallway that would only allow them to travel single-file. Although it was hard to get their bearings, the tunnel did seem to continue in a direction that would take them towards the underground fortress. Instead of following it now, the party thought it would be better to rest for the day since it was already late afternoon, and get an early start in the morning.

The Second Day of Goodmonth, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Crooked Rock Tower

The trip from Newton back to Crooked Rock Tower from Newton was uneventful. With them traveling by wagon instead of walking the trip only took them a little over a week and because of the armed escort, they weren’t disturbed by Bandits or wandering creatures. They passed through Mosquito Marsh where they let the community know that representatives of the Duke would be occupying the tower for the foreseeable future. Everybody was glad to hear that, knowing that it would make things a little more stable for their small town.

The Odd Fellows helped Daveak and his crew get settled in before sitting down and consulting the map they took from the dead Lizardman Chief and compared it to a map they had of the Mire Wood. Comparing the two, they saw that the Lizardmen had been traveling to Frog Island, a small island off the coast of The Mire Wood with a very long and unsavory reputation. Preparing their gear they decided on setting out the next morning.

The Twenty-third Day of Aft-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Newton

the party took the small road from Mosquito Marsh west to where it joined the North-South Road and then followed it North back to Newton. How they were going to deal with Bailey Laquin’s treachery was heavy on their mind as they traveled. The trip was uneventful and they got to Newton in about two weeks. An army of mercenaries wasn’t waiting for them at the gates so they began to breath a bit easier. They got a room at the Paladin’s Horse Inn where they were able get cleaned up and get a bite off food that wasn’t cooked over a campfire. The next morning they stopped of at Grinkels and sold the remaining shields they had recovered from the lizardmen. They were of excellent quality and Grinkel was able to give them 2000 gp for the whole lot. Although they were a little alarmed when he told them they were all of Kar’Tegran make. they spent 1000gp of that at the temple to have the Mummy’s Rot removed from Clarabelle however once it was removed, Sister Myla did heal Clarabelle’s wounds for free. A trip around the corner to the Good Fortune Inn, where Clarabelle was able to sell the rare wines they found in the tower for 75 gp. Andy was able to trade the 3 diamonds she found and 500gp for a nice longbow from the Golden Forge. Even Needles admitted that it was a splendidly made bow. Kain was so impressed that he gave Morgan 1000 gp to begin the design work for his Yuroi. He spent the rest of the day with the blacksmith going over the design. At the end of the day they gathered at the Inn and met for dinner. They decided tomorrow would be a good day to pay Bailey a visit.

However the next morning they were greeted by a small unit of the town guard along with a royal courier. He handed them a scroll saying that the Duke of Llancrest, Halvdann Black would like to meet with them at their earliest convenience. They got the feeling that sending the guard with the courier meant that ‘earliest convenience’ meant right now. They quickly gathered their things and followed the guard to the castle where they were taken to the Duke’s inner chambers.

The Duke greeted them warmly and bade them to sit down. First he told them that he already knew of Bailey Laquin’s treachery and that this problem would soon take care of itself, but that he didn’t want them to commit bloodshed in his town. Secondly he also knew about how they rescued the townspeople from the Lizardman and their adventure in the tower. He was planning on dispatching a small unit of soldiers along with Daveak Glorygem, a close friend and Cleric of Eliador, and Jasim, a court mage, to occupy and investigate the tower. However he was concerned about this outfit of slavers that was supplying the lizardman armor and weapons in exchange for slaves. There had been other disappearances along the coast and he was wondering if this was related. He asked the Odd Fellows if they would consider investigating this slave ring as agents of the Duchy of Llancrest and as a reward he would make sure that not only would Mosquito Marsh stay independent, but that they would also be contracted by the Duchy for all its lumber needs. Also each of the party would receive 500 gp for their assistance as well. As a sign of good faith he gave each of the party members except Kain two potions of healing. To the Soulforged he gave two healing salves instead. After a small discussion the party agreed to his terms. He said Daveak and his men would be heading out to the tower in the morning and they were welcome to join him for that leg of their journey. The map they found in the Lizardman camp would lead them from there.

The Eighth Day of Aft-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Mosquito Marsh

There was plenty of daylight left when the party left the tower, but they were all exhausted from their ordeal so decided to set up camp for the day and then leave back to the lumber camp the next morning. Needles went into the surrounding forest to gather the ingredients needed for his healing salves and came across the remains of recent campsite. From the looks of things, it was a solitary person who set up there and they had left fairly recently, probably within minutes of the party exiting the tower. When he returned to camp he told the other party members of his findings. They came to the conclusion that whoever it was, was most likely waiting for them and that they would need to exercise caution when setting up guard duty that night and when traveling back to the camp.

The double guard duty didn’t seem to be needed as the night went by uneventfully and the party packed up the next morning and headed out. They sent Needles up ahead to scout for traps and ambushes. He didn’t come across any on the journey but did come across a single set of footsteps heading back in the same direction they were going. When he reached the edge of the forest and the outskirts of camp he saw a small band of mercenaries waiting there. He spotted the marking of the Black Fist on their armor and even though they were on friendly terms was unsure of their intentions. He made his way back to the rest of the party and informed them of what he saw. Even though they didn’t know of any reason to be worried about Black Fist mercenaries they figured better safe than sorry. Kain, Clarabelle and Domino were in the front, Bark in the middle and Andy and Needles hung back where their bows would be more effective.

When they entered the clearing it became obvious that the mercenary party was waiting on them. A human fighter in the back hailed them but didn’t come forward. That automatically put the party on their toes.

“Greetings Fine Fellows.. The Lumber Superintendent told me that you had been here recently and had left to pursue some errand deeper into the woods. I applaud you on getting these men back to work by solving the mystery of the recent disappearances. However it would seem that your former employer, now my current one finds that you would be worth more to him dead than alive. I do apologize but the contract has been signed and now must be carried out. "

All over the clearing sound of weapons being drawn could be heard…

Kain charged forward towards a small group of fighers in front of him, pulling out his Katana and Wakizashi. He crashed into them but missed with both weapons. Bark pulled forth flames from his hand and lobbed one at one of the fighters in the first group. It engulfed him in flames and fell to the ground. Needles fired his bow at what appeared to be another ranger holding a bow father in the back. The arrow struck spinning his opponent around. Andy’s arrow dropped another fighter in the front group.

The second set of fighters started launching arrows from their short bows, while the front set of soldiers began to surround Kain. A grizzled Dwarf moved forward as well to engage Kain. Domino pointed his mace at the far set of soldiers and one went stiff before falling over, his blinking eyes the only sign he was alive. An Arrow shot by someone behind the second set of soldiers struck Needles and another soldier flanked Kain, striking the samurai with his longsword. An arrow shot from another archer in the back struck Andy. The archer Needles hit tried returning the favor but his shot was wide.The leader who spoke to them before the battle moved forward but did not directly engage the party as another arrow struck Bark. Clarabelle moved forward and released her Firebolt at the leader, striking him but not doing enough damage to fell him. Bark lobbed another flame, this time at another lone archer behind the soldiers. He was also consumed by flame and fell to the ground dead. It was Needle’s turn to miss his mark as his next arrow at the other ranger went wide as well. Another arrow struck Bark and another sword slipped through Kain’s defenses. Domino waded into the fray surrounding Kain and decimated a fighter with his newly empowered mace. the leader jumped into the fight by attacking Clarabelle, giving her a slight wound with his sword. Clarabelle quickly returned the favor. Another exchange from both and the leader fell dead at Clarabelle’s feet. Needle’s next arrow took the other ranger down. The tide began to turn at that point with the party taking out the rest of the first group of fighters and what looked to be the leader of the second group. They threw down their weapons and surrendered.

The party was unsure what to do with this group that was just until recently attacking them. When Kain found how much they were being paid by the Black Fist for their service, he told him he would double it, if they worked for the Odd Fellows instead. to a man they all agreed, not only because they were being spared but because the offer was more than fair. It was a good thing these mercenaries didn’t know just how close they had come to winning that fight. They found out that the captain’s name was Bjarnni and the ranger that Needle’s killed was called Eastman. They confirmed that the contract was paid for by Bailey Laquin.

After the battle, the superintendent Risran met them and immediately apologized profusely saying he had no idea what they had intended and that Bjarrni told them that they were here to make sure the party got back to Newton safely. When he was told that Laquin was behind this assassination attempt Risran was furious. Many of the folk in Mosquito Marsh owed the Odd Fellows their life and that no amount of money was worth the debt they owed them. He told the party to get some rest and they would talk more in detail tomorrow.

The party was pretty banged up and when Domino tried to heal Clarabelle, he noticed that her wounds refused to heal. Thinking there might be more to the problem then healing, he knew she would have to refer to somebody a bit more skilled than him. They set up camp in one of the warehouses and rested for the night.

The next morning they awoke to one of the townspeople beckoning them to follow him. They did so and found a crowd of people standing around the mill. Risran was standing on a cart so that he could address the crowd. He told them that all of them owed a debt of gratitude to the Odd Fellows for saving their friends and family and for ending the threat the lizardman slavers posed. He then explained how the Odd Fellows had taken on this task at the behest of Bailey Laquin, not for money but to help another lumber town to get free of Laquin. And how had Bailey Laquin repaid them? By trying to murder them after they had did what was asked. The crowd was murmuring angrily by this point and chanting some not to kind words about Laquin Lumber. He then pointed to the Odd Fellows and said ‘Now what our new friends don’t know about us, is that we aren’t owned by Laquin, only contracted by them to deliver uncut lumber, and I say that contract is now done…who here agrees?’ A loud shout from everyone was the affirmation Risran needed. Mosquito Marsh worked for Laquin Lumber no longer.

The party met privately with Risran and told him that even though they were happy that they sided with them, they were worried about the repercussions of this move. So they chatted with the newly unemployed mercenaries and asked how they felt about staying here and offering protection to the townsfolk? They would get paid what Kain had already offered them, a 100gp bonus plus each would receive a Shield +1 that was taken from the Lizardman. They heartily agreed and the Dwarf. Dundal Ironhammer, that led one of the units was made the leader of the new Mosquito Marsh Militia. He was also given the Half Plate +1 they got from Slurra.

The Fifth Day of Aft-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Crooked Rock Tower

The party was awakened early next morning to noises coming from the cell they had laid Domino the night before. They were all shocked and surprised to see him standing up, seemingly alive and well. But it was obvious he wasn’t the same person they had laid to rest the night before. Domino’s previously shiny armor was now a dull black and there was a red scarab embossed on the front of his shield. Also the holy symbol hanging around his neck was no longer a battleaxe, but a red scarab as well.

He told them the story of how after he died, Chordax approached him and said he was still needed in the world. At that point another voice spoke to him, the same voice heard in the party’s heads after they killed the mummy. He said as an old God he demanded of Chordax payment for Domino helping to release the mummy. Chordax had to agree to allowing Domino to serve this other God as his cleric as payment. Chordax then faded away and the voice in his head said.. ‘My name is Vorhaze and you serve me NOW!’ and with that he woke up.

The party was torn, happy that Domino had been released from the realm of the dead, but unsure of the demands this god Vorhaze would put on them.

They decided to work their way back to the room where Domino met his demise. They spiked the door and sent Andy in to make sure the Iron creature would not be there waiting for them, but destroying the drummers seemed to silence the drummer as well. They found another door on the north wall hidden behind some plants.

You see stone archway about eight feet high and six feet wide, set with a large door made entirely of dark wood. The stones were roughly quarried from granite and give a cavern-like appearance to the opening.

Andy checked the door and found it locked but some pounding from Kain and Clarabelle was finally able to release it.

36. Cavern Room:

The door opens into a dark space where only shadows can be seen, giving the resemblance of a deep cave strewn with boulders.

Even with the lanterns it was hard to cut the gloom in this room, and Andy went in ahead using her darkvision to help see. She found something in the southeast corner of the room and lit her lantern to investigate. She warned the others to not enter the room since it seems that when more than one person enters, things tend to happen. An investigation found 2 other of these creatures and nothing else of value. They decided that it just wasn’t worth it to battle the creatures when there was nothing obvious to fight over. Andy moved out of the room and they left the statues where they found them.

There was two doors they hadn’t investigated yet, one in the south wall of the first corridor and the other in the room where the fought the giant creature of bone. After a quick discussion it was decided to go to the corridor and the south door there.

These double doors are covered with verdigrised copper plates, stamped by stylized lizards circling each other fluidly.

When Andy went to investigate the door she felt her hair standing up and dove away from the door, fearing another lightning bolt like the one in Marishelli’s library but nothing happened. She went back to the door and again could feel her hair standing up but nothing else. She opened the door with no other issues. Once again remembering that whatever was in these rooms seemed to be triggered by more than one person entering she went in.

^32. Amber Golem:*

A dais on the south side of the room is a translucent yellow-brown statue of a giant lizard.

With the rest of the party safely behind the threshold, the statue did not move as she entered. She investigated it and the surrounding area but like many other rooms, found nothing of value or worth investigating. She did see another door going east but confering with the map showed that it may be the opening to the same place as the door in the room they had already investigated (and killed the creature residing in it). So they backtracked back to the door. Andy checked the door again to be safe but nothing was found so she opened it.

34. The Sword:

You see a two-handed sword floating above a large dais here, engulfed in flames which rise up
from the bare marble of the dais.

The light coming off the blade was blinding and Andy had to avert her eyes quickly to not become blinded. Keeping her eyes averted from the blade she made her way around the room, checking for any traps or creatures but found none other than the sword. The party entered quietly heeding Andy’s advice to not look directly at the sword. As they approached the dais they could feel an almost alien intelligence emanating from the sword but before anyone could touch it Domino yelled out for them to stop, his voice intermingled with the voice they had heard in their head before. They all stopped as Domino approached the sword and held out his Morningstar towards it. A loud explosion soon followed knocking all but Domino to the ground. When they arose the large greatsword lay broken on the floor and Domino’s Morningstar now glowed with pale white light. When asked what happened a confused Domino replied..’He took it.. the sword now lives here.." holding up his weapon.

a battered and confused party not knowing what else to do, left the room and headed upstairs and eventually to the tower exit.

The Fourth Day of Aft-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Crooked Rock Tower

The party rose the next day, and after having a meal and checking on the prisoners in the cells, made their way down the stairs they found behind the secret door. It became obvious as they were descending that this area was even older than the dungeon level they were leaving. Andy scouted a bit ahead, and entered a large open area at the base of the passageway.

28. Mayhem:

A glowing orb in the ceiling illuminates a room some thirty feet high. This room is a scene of destruction and mayhem. What seems to be the badly damaged statue of a great two-legged lizard with a massive head full of teeth is standing amid the ruins of two large piles of bent and twisted machinery – gears, chassis, cutting heads, and other parts not so easily identified. Scattered across the floor are many stone fragments of various sizes, the largest the size of a melon; they appear to be the same sort of stone as the statue.
In the west wall is an ornately decorated, brass faced door covered in cobwebs and dust, about four feet wide and eight feet high. The walls of this room are built of yellow sandstone blocks.
In the north wall is a door made of heavy oaken planks reinforced by iron banding. Along the east wall hang a half dozen or so ragged strips of paper perhaps two feet wide and five feet long.

As the party gazed at the destruction in the room, as soon as they passed the threshold from the passageway into the room, the stone creature came to life! It turned at them and charged, roaring as it bit into Domino, picking him up and throwing him to the side.The roar seemed to slow Kain and Bark, making them take twice as long to get into position to attack. Luckily Needles was too far back to be affected and took a shot at the stone dinosaur, his arrow hitting it and causing the dinosaur to explode, showering the party with stone and dust..

The party rushed to the aid of a very dazed and beat up Domino. After checking his wounds Bark decided that Domino was in serious need of some healing and used his druid magic on him before helping the cleric to his feet. An inspection of the room found that the parts on the floor were the remains of two mechanical men similar to Argent and they must have died in battle with the creature Needles just slew. The strips of paper on closer inspection were found to be banners of some sort but in a language nobody could read.

The door immediately to the west was locked and Andy inspected the door before earnestly working at picking the lock. It took her longer than normal to pick it but soon she heard the satisfying click of the tumbler and the door popped open. But nobody was prepared for what happened next as beetles by the thousands began to pour out of the door crack and into the room, Andy couldn’t leap back in time and was covered in beetles in minutes, the party grabbed her and pulled her away from the door. Luckily it didn’t seem like the beetles were dangerous to them, except to continue to pour out of the door and scatter either beneath the north door or back up the stairs they just came down. The party backed against the east wall, afraid to move until finally in what seemed like an eternity, they stopped coming from the door, although the room was still covered in beetles. They slowly approached the door again, the beetles making a crunching noise under their feet as they moved.

29. Mummy’s Chamber:

The room is painted on all four walls with scenes from what seems to be the life of an evil woman. Many evil deeds are depicted, of which the west wall is the worst. The woman is depicted as a general, leading a victorious army; the defeated are being sold as slaves, and the buyers are horrible anthropomorphized bats from deep underground. These creatures are like men with furred bodies and the heads of bats, and they are depicted as blind, with scars where their eyes were, as if each had had its eyes plucked out. Once taken below ground, the slaves are devoured alive by the bat-creatures. The whole scene is sickening and disturbing.

A sarcophagus against the west wall opened, revealing a mummy which pointed at the party screaming ‘Free me from the curse dogs!!!’ in an unsettling woman’s voice. The party backed out of the small room as the creature rushed at them. Domino warned the party to be careful of her touch as they spread out. As the mummy lurched into the room Needles fired at it with his bow. The fire from his arrow causing the mummy to cry out in pain. Kain struck out with his katana, the mummy’s wrap seeming to resist the blade. Clarabelle seeing how Needle’s fire caused the mummy some distress, kept her sword sheathed and cast her Fire Bolt at the approaching creature. Once again it cried out in pain and focused its rage on Clarabelle, lurching forward and attacking her, giving her a glancing blow. Andy and Domino circled around her both striking out with their magical weapons and bringing the mummy low. There was a strong pulse of magic as she died and then all the beetles, alive and dead disappeared from the room. A loud voice rang out in rage, the party not sure they were hearing it in the room, or their own head..

“You have freed Zul-Rukha from her eternal torment! Her debt to those she killed far from being repaid!! I would have you mortals pay me for taking that away, but I will take that payment from those you have caged above, a slave is but a slow death for most anyways..”

Shaking their head to clear the ringing, they went back into the mummy’s room, but found nothing but the sarcophagus, which they found had holes just large enough for a beetle to escape from, or enter into.

They made their way back to the large room and the door heading north. Andy inspected it and couldn’t find anything, although the door seemed to be unlocked. The party opened the door and entered into the large room beyond.

30. Corridor:

This L-shaped corridor provides central access to the other main rooms. The ceiling is about
twenty feet high. Ahead of you is a dais set in the corner, and upon the dais is a glinting crystalline statue of a lizardman. The statue wears a feathered headdress and is armed with a spear and a stone-headed club; its arms are raised as if calling upon powers from above, toothy maw wide open as if screaming. To your right down the corridor you can just see another such dais with an identical statue; the corridor turns left at that point.

Andy inspected the statue ahead of them but could find nothing interesting about it. The party moved inside the room and had to decide what to do, go through the doors to the north our south, or follow the corridor as it turned north ahead. Looking at the door to the north..

The doors to this room are carved with stylistic representations of dragons writhing around the blade of a sword wrapped in flames.

The party knew that Slurra was looking for a sword in the Lizardman temple and the statues of Lizardmen made them think that the sword might be behind this door. After giving the door the once over, Andy retreated and let her more heavily armored friends enter first.

31. Basilisk:

The center of this room is dominated by a lifelike statue of a great lizard, surrounded by similarly lifelike statues of lizardmen in defensive poses.

About the same time that Needles noticed that the Lizard was actually breathing, Clarabelle yelled out "’Ware the creature!, Thats not ordinary lizard, its a basilisk, do not meet its gaze!’

Andy moved to the corner of the room while Kain charged the creatures, eyes averted. Even looking away he was able to land a mighty blow with his Katana while channeling his Ki. Andy’s shot went wide, Domino moved forward to assist Kain while Needles also distanced himself from the party to get an open shot, his arrow whizzing by Kain and striking the Basilisk. The basilisk struck out at Kain in pain but was unable to land a blow. Bark moved into the center of the room, looking for an opportunity to help out while Clarabelle let loose a magic missile at the creature. Both her missiles struck true and the creature roared out in pain before dying. At this point it became obvious that the lifelike statues of lizardmen were actually lizardmen struck down by the basilisk’s gaze.

The walls of this room were painted with murals,but the humid environment has caused the paint to decay; little can be seen of the original subject matter.
The doors that open into the hallway are carved on both sides with stylistic representations of
dragons writhing around the blade of a sword wrapped in flames.
The huge bronze doors set in the diagonal wall are decorated with bas reliefs of lizardmen and
other lizard-creatures glaring at interlopers. Ancient dead roots have grown under the frame, working their way in from the outside.

The party tried the door to the northwest but it was stuck solid and they speculated that this may have been the original entrance to the temple thousands of years ago when it was first built. The door going to the east appeared to go back into the L shaped corridor that they came from to the south. To be sure they decided to go through that door and back to the corridor. Doing so caused all 3 of the crystal statues to come to life, and soon they were beset on from all sides. One of the creatures attacked Andy while the other fell upon Domino. Luckily the surprise was not enough to leave the party open and none of their attacks got through.

The battle commenced in earnest and soon Andy was struck by a Crystal fist, knocking her backwards. She replied in kind by taking a chuck of crystal off its left side. The third Crystal Statue entered the battle and went after Bark striking him twice with its fists. Clarabelle went after the newest statue to enter the fray and struck it with her longsword. Needles struck his opponent furiously with his axes, shattering the statue into thousands of shards. Andy and Kain made short work of the statue attacking Domino, only leaving one statue remaining. Needles grabbed his bow and took a shot at the statue, trusting his skill to shoot into where his friends were fighting, and his skill proved true, striking the statue and leaving it wobbling. Andy stuck her shortsword through it, finishing it off.

Once the battle was done, Andy’s sharp eye noticed something in the remains of one of the statues and pulled out a nicely sized diamond. A quick check and another 2 were found. They figured each of the diamonds was worth about 500 gp. Andy tucked them away while Domino returned an earlier favor and healed Bark from the wounds he suffered at the hands of the crystal statues.

The Corridor had 3 sets of doors they had yet to check, a double-door heading south, another double-door heading east and another smaller door further north also heading east.

A decision was made to go with the closest door to them, the double-door heading east.

These wooden doors to this room are carved with a flower-bordered depiction of lizardmen in a swamp, fighting each other.

The door was checked and Andy said she was lucky not to get a splinter from how dry and cracked this door was. But not hearing anything the party opened the door and entered.

33. Bone Golem:

You see a the skeleton of a extremely large lizardman hunched in the middle of a dais on the far side of the room. It sits facing the doorway, hands on its knees; its empty eye sockets seem to be glaring at you. Claws from bears and similar creatures are hung on a thong across its chest. The skull of a giant lion rests atop its bony pate like a helmet. The smell of swamp plants and mud wafts to your noses, and this causes you to notice that the floor, walls, and ceiling seem to be damp.

As soon as the party passed the threshold of the room, the skeleton creature rose up from the dais. Needles launched an unsuccessful arrow attack but Clarabelle’s last magic missile spell struck the creature twice. Andy’s arrow struck it but the arrow did no damage, just fell useless to the floor. Bark sensing this creature was trouble, pulled forth flame from his hands and hurled it at the creature but the toss went wide. The creature moved fast and soon closed with Clarabelle, its flint hand axes a blur of movement but only striking Clarabelle a glancing blow. Kain channeled his Ki into his first strike and his Katana rang as it sliced into the bone creature. Another arrow by Needles followed striking the creature in the head with a burst of flame. Andy struck the creature with her short sword this time and had much better luck as the creature fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.

There was a door to the south but the party wanted to go back to the corridor and check the smaller door to the north also going east.

The closed doors to this room are decorated withcarvings of drums set amid a motif of bamboo and swamp plants. They are crafted from lustrous teak hinged by black-lacquered iron hinges with a heavy iron handle set in each.

Andy inspected the door and even though it was unlocked noticed the intricate way the door opened. Each latch pulled a rod from the floor, releasing the door to open.

35. Metal Lizard Room:

You see a room decorated like a swamp island, with a dark earthen mound festooned with wetland plants and bushes. A bright light shines. from a yellow globe suspended from the ceiling, which is about thirty feet high. A group of thatch huts with rawhide door flaps is centered on the mound. Sitting on stools carved from solid sections from tree-trunks are three statues of lizardmen with hide drums held between their splayed legs. The slight burbling of water can be heard.
Behind the huts you see a statue of a huge lizard-like creature with an elephantine body and a long neck and tail. It appears to be made of black iron.

As soon as the party entered the room, the lizardman statues began pounding on their drums and the large lizard-like creature behind them came to life! The sound of the thudding of the door behind them told them they were in trouble. They party knew that defeating this creature might be beyond them so they told Andy to get to work trying to get the door back open while the rest of them did their best to distract it. Needles got of the first strike, hitting the creature in the head. Domino decided to use his bless spell on the party, increasing their odds of hitting the creature. The creature lumbered forward and spewed poisonous gas cloud at the two front members, Domino and Kain. Kain was immune but unfortunately Domino wasn’t, and even though he didn’t die immediately, the poison did begin affecting him. Kain stepped forward and using the last of his ki energy, struck the iron creature another fearsome blow. Andy was having trouble opening the door so Clarabelle cast her last spell of the day, the knock spell she still had prepared. The door clicked audibly as it was released. Needles immediately backed out of the room. Domino sensing that he may not have alot of time left, called upon Chordax to further bless his mace and moved forward towards the lizard, hoping to keep it occupied while the others escaped from the room. He was unable to press the attack and missed the creature. The creature struck back and dealt Domino a deadly blow, striking down and killing the cleric. The rest of the party escaped the room while Kain fought a fighting retreat, knowing he would allow the creature one more attack before he could get out of the room. Lucky for him the creature did not hit him and he was able to move past the doorway, where immediately the drumming ceased and the iron creature retreated. The party was devastated by the loss of their cleric and friend Domino. they knew they weren’t going to leave him in that room. That is when Clarabelle had an idea. She noticed that the creature seemed to be keyed to the drumming. The door was still being propped open so Needles slipped in to where he could take a shot at one of the statues but still slip out before the iron lizard to close to his location. Once.. Twice.. Three times Needles snuck in and all 3 times is aim was true, destroying a statue and true to Clarabelle’s word, as soon as the third creature was struck down, the iron lizard no longer attacked. Warily the party re-entered the room but found that their friend Domino was beyond all healing.

They decided now would be a good time to backtrack up the cells where they left Slurra. So with Clarabelle and Kain carrying Domino, they moved through the rooms and back up the stairs. They were shocked to find that Slurra and the two other lizardman were dead, not just dead but eaten down to the bone. It was then that they remembered the words in their head after killing the mummy. Slurra had paid the ultimate price for dealing with slavers.

They covered their friend reverently before Bark used his last heal on Kain and they rested for the night.

The third Day of Aft-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Crooked Rock Tower

The party left the tower early on the second day of the lumia festival, escorting the captives they rescued back to the lumber camp. In exchange for their help, the captives helped carry the armor and weapons taken from the dead lizardmen. The party was relieved when they made it back to camp that afternoon without encountering anything but mosquitoes. They reported in to Risran, saying they had rescued some captives, employees of the camp and their families. They also gave Risran the armor and swords they had recovered from the lizardmen, with the strong suggestion that he come up with some sort of nightly armed patrol with his employees. They brought the shields back to the warehouse where Domino and Bark used their healing to bring Needles and Clarabelle back to almost full health before settling in for the night.

The next day the party rested throughout the day to try and get the entire party back to full strength. Needles did venture out to gather the herbs he needed for his salve but that was about the extent of it. They wanted to be good and ready when they left the next morning back to the tower.

On the Second Day of Aft-Lumia the party once again left for the Crooked Rock Tower. Their travels through the wood that day were uneventful and they arrived at the tower during the late afternoon. They decided to set up camp a bit further away from the tower in case their were more guards watching for them from the roof of the tower.

Early the next morning they sent Andy back in, using another 1/3 of the potion of gaseous form. She returned back to them shortly letting them know that the tower had not yet been refortified. The party followed her back to the entrance where they took the maintenance ladder down to the tower basement to keep their presence quiet as long as they could.

They followed the long stairs down into the lower level under the tower until they came to a intersection with a large open area with two doors and hallways heading off east and west.

1. The Entry Room:

This area is filled with thick, dusty cobwebs, filling the room except for the lowest four feet or so of the room. Lying shriveled on the floor is the corpse of a giant spider, a black widow it appears; lying beside it is the corpse of a giant bee. Several more insect corpses hang from the webs, bundled in more webbing. You can see two huge, translucent spiders in the webbing nearby, and possibly another one further in.

The husks they saw turned out to be just the empty husk of a spider. But as they moved away they could hear the sound of of skittering and 3 giant spiders attacked them from the webs. Luckily the party was able to handle them quickly.

The decision was made to follow the hallway going east where they came to another door on the south wall and another large area just east of it with a door going north and further down the hallway what appeared to be a double-door going south right before the hallway stopped. Andy headed back to the first door going south and did her thief checks for traps while listening for anything on the other side. After nothing was heard the party entered the room.

9. Bone Room

The walls of this room are lined with bags and bundles; you see bones sticking out of some of them, and a few piles of bones and skulls lie unwrapped here and there.

The party was already leary so it came as no surprise as they were investigating the room, that some of the bones began to join together to form 7 full skeletons. Domino rebuked them and 4 of them clattered to the floor, bones spilling everywhere. The party quickly dispatched the rest and finished up checking the room, where they found nothing but the bags of bones.

the party wanted to follow the other hallway before they checked the doors on this side so they headed back towards the west where they came back to the large alcove with a door on the west and south wall. Checking the south door and finding nothing, they opened it up and entered.

6. The Warriors Den

In this room you see a desk, a chair, an empty weapons rack and a large chest.

While Needles kept an eye on the other door in this room the rest of the party investigated the chest and desk. The chest was empty except for an old pair of broken sandals. On the desk they found a a dried up ink well laying on top of some blank parchment. There was also a note laying on top of the desk.

Walgren,
I never signed on for the killing of women and children. You can keep whatever you owe me
for your protection. I couldn’t keep it in good conscience anyways..
—Achron

They decided to continue on through the door in the room going east and after a quick inspection opened it.

7. The Warriors Bedroom
The found nothing in this room except for a rotting bed covered in rotting bedsheets. There was another door going east that was slightly open but as they approached it they heard noises from under the bed before 6 flying creatures flew out from it and attacked them. Kain cut one down and needles connected solidly with another but one of the creatures was able to bite Bark. Bark felt a little woozy but was able to fight back against the creatures poison but he yelled out a warning to the others to beware their bite. Domino killed another and Needles finished off the one he had hit earlier. Domino hit another and Andy snuck behind the last one, sticking it with her shirt sword, it survived that attack and another by Bark and lashed out at Kain, biting the soulforged but doing no other damage. Finally Needles cut it out of the air. Kain bent down to examine the creatures.. "Vorts… or as others called them, “Winged Serpents”. A nuisance to us since their poison did us no harm, but for others not immune, it knocked them out, allowing the creatures to eat while the victim still breathed’. With the creature dead, they examined the half open door to the east.

8. Warriors Armoire

This room appears to be empty. You see tendrils of gray, oozing slime come dripping down from overhead, and looking up, you can see a sickly gray fungus covering the ceiling.

Andy who was inspecting the doorway quickly jumped back thinking the dripping fungus was grey ooze but her fears were unfounded as it turned out to just be disgusting fungus of the normal variety.

With these set of rooms explored they headed back to the first alcove where they checked the door going west before opening it.

5. Storage

This room appears to be used for storage; a stack of wooden boxes is piled in the middle of the room. You notice the ceiling of this room is higher than in the hallway, probably about thirty feet.

Since the boxes in here looked precarious it was decided that Needles and Andy would inspect them since they had the best chance of dodging out of the way should one fall. This seemed to be going great until both of them came running out of the room screaming ‘GET IT OUT!’. It would seem that two giant centipedes had crawled out of the boxes and into the armor of both Andy and Needles. The rest of the party surrounded the two unlucky characters and began slapping them with their hands. Bark heard a resounding ‘splat’ as he smashed the one on Andy before it could bite her, but hit had to hit it hard enough to bruise her as well. Needles did get bit once before Domino could kill the centipede inside his shirt, but his tough orc hide was able to resist its poison. Andy and Needles reported that all they were finding was old and rusty equipment anyways so unless somebody else wanted to go back in and finish looking, her and Needles were done.

The party left the room and alcove and headed east down the hall they were at earlier where they followed it to the end and the set of double doors heading south. When Andy was listening at the door she could hear the sounds of what sounded like metal hitting stone, almost as if there were mining going on behind the door. Cautiously the party opened the door and headed inside.

11. Cell Block

The double doors open onto a ten foot wide corridor that runs south for fifty feet. The first ten feet of the corridor is featureless; then, off the east wall are four cells, each ten feet square, with grillework doors facing onto the corridor. Inthe west wall there is a door ten feet south of the entrance. At the end of the fifty feet the corridor turns west.

The sound of stonemasonry stops abruptly, and you can see ten animated skeletons round the corner at the far end of the corridor. They are holding large picks of the kind used for stonework.

Needles was in front of the party so he pulled out his axes and charged into the fray. connecting with the skeleton in front of him and shattering it into pieces. Andy fired an arrow into the crowd but failed to connect with anything, but Kain following Needles lead, waded into the fray and destroyed another skeleton. Bark also grabbed his staff and cracked a skeleton with it but was unable to bring it down. Domino attempted to turn some of these undead but they almost seemed immune to his commands and came on even stronger. the fight bogged down in the narrow room as the skeletons bunched up on one side and the party on the other. Needles slid back to extricate himself from the front lines but took a swipe from a skeletons axe in the process. Andy lobbed a burning flask of oil to the back of the skeletons but didn’t seem to do much damage to the creature she hit. Kain slid over to take Needles spot and cut his opponent in half. Bark also slid back and let Domino slide in front of him, where the cleric crushed the skeleton in front of him with his mace. Bark took a side swipe at the Skeleton attacking Kain, hitting it but not enough to stop it while Domino destroyed another with his mace. Kain then finished off his opponent. Finally Clarabelle was able to get into the fight, taking out another skeleton while Domino continued to wade into the thick of things, striking down another skeleton. But the skeletons finally were able to give some damage of their own, as a pickaxe struck Clarabelle. That was to be the final blow as Domino and Clarabelle finished off the remaining two skeletons.

With the fight done, the party pushed the skeleton bones to the side and inestigated the corridor where the skeletons came from. There they found an unfinished hallway which is what the skeletons must have been working on before they attacked the party. The investigation of the cell blocks found the remains of a dryad, a centaur and an owlbear, a very odd combination of creatures indeed. However that’s not all the party found, as they came across a very old secret door in the back of the first cell block in the room. A quick investigation showed stairs leading down that appeared to be even older than the level they were on now. The party figured those could wait until they had searched this level completely because it looked as if this door hadn’t been opened in centuries.

There was another in the cellroom going east and the party checked it over before opening it.

10. Torture Room:

You see a table to which a mechanical thing made to resemble a man is strapped. Its arms and legs have been disassembled at the knees and elbows, and you see what are apparently the missing parts piled on the floor beside the table.

The first thing the party noticed was the uncanny resemblance between this mechanical man and Kain, as though this thing on the table was some sort of descendant of the soulforged race. Kain looked troubled by this discovery. They were surprised when what they thought was a non funtional being spoke them.. ‘Hello my name is Argent, or as my master tended to call me ’Number 1’, are you here to help me?’. The party was stunned by his speech, which was very metallic sounding. much different then what they heard when Kain spoke. He then instructed the party on how to put his missing arms and legs back on and since Andy seemed to have the touch for these types of things, she volunteered to do the job. However when she first touched Argent, she went still for minutes causing the rest of the party to become concerned and pull her away from the mechanical man. She told them she was fine and that somehow the thoughts of Argent flooded through her when she first touched him. She then paraphrased to them what she had seen.

Thousands of years ago a mysterious technomancer came to the rock and caused a great tower to be raised upon it. Beneath the tower his workers carved a tunnel down through the rock, and then built a dungeon beneath the adjacent soil. Within the dungeon the technomancer created a manufacturing facility for his mechanical men, until disappearing suddenly and without any reason a few year later. A few centuries after the technomancer’s disappearance, the wizard Garand Walgren learned of the tower, and, believing that a mechanical army lay hidden beneath the ground there, he came to the tower to loot it. He never discovered the secret way into the facility, though he did capture Argent. He tried everything he knew to coerce Argent to reveal the secret way, even attempting to torture it; but Argent was still loyal to his master, and refused to tell Walgren what he wanted to know. Walgren did learn that Argent was compelled to act to save humans whenever possible, so he traveled to a nearby village and kidnapped a woman with her young son and daughter. He told Argent that he would spare the lives of his captives in return for the secret of the dungeon; when the mechanical man refused, Walgren killed the mother. Again he demanded an answer, and again Argent regretfully refused. Walgren slew the girl, and threatened the boy, but when the Argent refused yet again, he realized it was no use. So he spared the boy’s life and made him a servant in the tower. This proved his downfall ten years later, as the boy, grown to be a man, killed Walgren with his bare hands in a last final act of revenge. But Argent was left there, partially dismantled and restrained, for the boy still blamed him in part for the death of his mother and sister. The young man then left the tower.

Afterwards she had no more visions and with Argent’s help was able to put him back together. He thanked them and then before they could ask him anymore mentioned needed to check the tower and took off. The party followed the mechanical man until he took the hallway back towards the stairs going up. They backtracked to the east hall and the only door they hadn’t checked, the one in the small alcove going north.

2. Corridor Room:

The ceiling of this room is lined with the honeycomb of giant bees. An alcove in the north wall leads to ornate double doors of brass-bound oak trimmed with copper.
As you enter the area, six giant bees fly at you from the darkness.

the party wasn’t expecting the bees as they swooped in from above and the bees got a free attack on them. Luckily nobody was stung. The party quickly took down the bees afterwards before checking the door to the north. After not hearing anything, they entered the room.

3. Chapel Anteroom:

Tapestries of deep red line the walls to the left and right; each is embroidered with a white sickle moon, dripping with blood.

Domino recognized the symbol of the Goddess Esra, The Goddess of Darkness and Magic. It would make sense that from what Andy saw from Argent’s thoughts, that the wizard Walgren would be interested in the dark side of magic. Domino wanted to tear down the curtains, but when he struck them with his mace, it was as if the fabric resisted the damage. There was another door to north so the party checked it before opening it. Andy could hear the roar of something on the other side of the door, possibly a large fire. They opened up the door and entered.

4. Chapel of Esra:

A huge roaring fire burns on the dais, though there is no fuel for it to burn.

The fire burning on the dais was so loud that the party had to yell to hear each other. Also the heat radiating from the fire, made the entire room uncomfortable. Andy and Needles inspected the room but couldn’t find anything of value, and the party quickly stepped out.

It looked as if the east side of this level had been explored so the party backtracked to the west hallway where they came to another open area with a hallway heading south.

12. Corridor Room:

Scuff marks on the floor indicate that shelves about 2 to 3 feet in depth may have once lined the west wall of this now empty nook.

There was also the remains of a campsite here as well, in fact it looked as if whoever left the camp here had plans on returning to it. They rummaged through the stuff left here and didn’t find anything of any importance except for a curious note.

My good friend Slurra..
The last shipment of captives you sent to us were
exactly what we needed. I hope the armor and
weapons you received in return will meet your
expectations. I would love to continue our
relationship and would gladly provide you more
weapons in exchange for more captives. Please
bring whatever you can gather to our usual spot.
-Morgath

So the assumptions that this was the campsite of the Lizardman Chief and his guards proved correct and now they had the name of the slaver the lizardmen were selling the captives to and that the lizardman chief was named Slurra.

Following the hallway south they came to a door on the west side while the hallway continued down before stopping at a Tee. deciding they wanted to explore the hallway first they passed the door and went down to the tee. The hallway going west ended at a door and the hallway east held a door going south, and a door at the end before it turned south.

The party headed towards the door going west and had Andy inspect it. She said she could hear sounds from the other side but was unsure what it was. With weapons readied the party opened the door and surprised a group of skeletons sitting around a table playing cards.

15. Skeleton Room:

A round table is centered in this room, with a gaudy white chandelier overhead, shining down
brightly. Sitting at the table are five skeletons, apparently playing cards.

As the party rushed into the room one of the skeletons turned to them and asked ‘Care to play some 12 Hand Slap?’ before Clarabelle’s mace came crashing down on its head, destroying it. It was the parties turn to be surprised as what they they thought was the chandelier came crashing down to the table and appeared to be another skeleton. Once again Domino was unable to turn any of the skeletons and Bark and Kain were both unable to connect. Needles fired at one of the skeletons in the back, the arrow not doing much damage, but the fire that came with it was able to do a bit more damage. Clarabelle scrabbled over the table and hit another Skeleton and destroyed it as well. A Skeleton climbed onto the table to get a better shot at Bark and connected with its skeletal hand. Andy fired at another skeleton in the back with her bow, hitting it but not doing much damage. Another Skeleton climbed over the table and attacked Clarabelle, able to scratch with his bony claws. Domino, frustrated by his inability to turn the undead lately blasted the skeleton in front of him with mace, shattering pieces of it all over the wall. Another Skeleton over the table and now Kain took a hit. Needles switched to his axes and jumped into the battle but wasn’t able to connect. Bark took another good shot from the skeleton in front him. Kain popped his opponent with the butt of his katana, taking it out. bark swung his staff and knocked the one in front of him off the table where it clattered into a pile of bones. Needles jumped up on the table to finish off the last one but was unable to do enough damage to bring it down but Domino did right afterwards.

There was a door to the south in this room and after investigating it and not finding or hearing anything they opened it up.

16. Wine Room:

This room is apparently a wine cellar. Wine racks cover all the available wall space. However, there are only a few bottles of wine here. There is some broken glass on the floor just to the left of the door.

Domino knew his wines and found that 7 of the 15 bottles in the room were fairly rare and would fetch a good price if they were hauled out of here. There was an empty crate in the room and they used it to pack up the wine. The party thought that this would be a good time to take a look at their wounds and heal up. Clarabelle and Bark had a few heavy wounds from the last few encounters so Bark healed Clarabelle and Domino healed Bark.

They decided to follow the hallway east where they came to a door going north and a door going east where the hallway turned south. They decided to check the north door first.

17. Bone Room:

Wooden shelves about two to three feet in depth line the walls of this room. They are stocked with bones sorted by type and length. A wooden bin in the center holds a jumble of bones waiting to be sorted.

The party had already been down this road so when 7 skeletons formed from the bones, they were prepared. Domino turned 5 of the 7 skeletons and the other 2 were quickly dispatched. The room contained nothing of consequence, other than than the bags so the party moved on. They exited out of the room and decided to check the door going east.

18. Zombie Room:

Andy could hear something coming from the room, but it almost seemed to be right next to the door. Kain reared back and kicked the door in, hopefully to take whoever was on the other side by surprise. He was surprised when the door splintered into pieces and went flying into the room.

This room is empty except for tables lining the walls. Lying on eight of them are what appear
to be human forms covered by dusty sheets.

It didn’t take long for 4 of the human forms to rise off the tables and lurch forward to attack the party. Domino couldn’t turn any of the zombies heading for them and a fight commenced. A zombie crashed into Domino as he drove his mace into its skull, staggering the creature but not killing it. Needles hit one of the zombies in the back with an arrow but was unable to fell it with one shot. Kain also laid into his opponent with his katana but also left it standing. the zombie paid him back in full, striking Kain in the chest with its claw. Domino finished his opponent off but another zombie filled its spot. Needles fired another arrow into the last zombie in back, pinning hits head to the wall and killing it. Kain’s attacker was the next to fall, sliced in half at the waist and Domino finished off the last one with a crushing mace to the face. There was nothing else in the room so the party continued south. At the dead end of the hallway they were confronted by either going through the door to the west or the door to the east. They chose the west door and after checking and listening, they entered the room.

20. Crypt Anteroom:

This room appears to be empty, save for a huge pair of double doors centered in the south wall. They are plain but well-made, and secured with a large gold seal.

the party was struck by the ornate doors and almost didn’t see the zombies standing still against the east wall. Luckily the movement caught their eye and the were able to prepare. Needles and Andy ran to the back of the room and released arrows into the horde, hitting two of them. Kain stepped in to keep the zombies off the archers. A zombie lurched forward from the crowd and went after Bark in the back. He wasn’t counting on Clarabelle coming into the room late and she gutted the zombie with her sword. A zombie was able to get another swipe at Kain, and was becoming obvious that his wounds were getting bad. A zombie skirted Kain’s defense, going after Needles with his claws. Needles dropped his bow and switched to his axes, striking his opponent. Kain, angered at being a zombie punching bag, sliced his opponent in half with a two-handed katana stroke. Andy continued to pepper the zombie in the back with arrows while Bark used his last healing to prop up Kain. Domino crushed his opponent and Clarabelle took a huge chunk out of a particularly large sized zombie. Kain and Needles finished off another and the rest went down uneventfully.

The massive circular gold seal is engraved with strange and unfamiliar symbols. It radiates a
sensation of coldness that can be felt several feet away.

The party got a distinct feeling that nothing good was going to be behind those doors so they chose to explore the door across the hallway first before attempting to open the double doors.

19. Zombie Room
As the party approached the opposite door, it swung open slowly as if somebody was leaving the room, but nobody came out. This put the party on their guard as entered the room.

This room is furnished as an office, with a desk, a chair behind it, and large easy chair in front. A solitary figure stands behind the desk.

It was no surprise when the lone figure rose up and showed itself to be another zombie. Domino immediately rebuked it and the zombie fell to the ground, dead again.

With that room explored the party decided to get whatever was behind the large doors out of the way. Domino used his last healing on Bark and Needles used the two healing salves he made on Kain. Domino cast bless on his friends and bark readied a spell. After struggling to remove the seal and open the large door, Kain was finally able to do both and get the door opened.

21. Crypt of Walgren:

Four monstrously large undead humanoids stand guard around a sarcophagus here. The ceiling
and corners of the room are thickly hung with spiderwebs.

The party was surprised by the monstrous creatures in this room which allowed the Ogre Zombies to rush from their guard at the party, two of them swinging mighty fists and Domino and Kain, luckily neither of them were able to land one. Bark produced a flame in his hand and lobbed it at the Ogre in the back, catching it on fire. Needles seeing an attack of opportunity and a chance to thin the ranks, fired at the same zombie staggering it back with an arrow, yet it still remained standing. Kain sunk his katana deep into the zombie in front of him, but it too remained standing. The Ogre Zombie in front of Domino punched out at Domino, luckily only getting in a glancing blow. Andy also decided to make a target of the same zombie hit by Needles and Bark, and her arrow was able to finish it off. Clarabelle fired off a magic missile at the last remaining Ogre in the back, hitting it but not even fazing it while Domino also returned a glancing blow on the Zombie who attacked him. The remaining Zombie in the back closed at the door and struck Kain a wallop with his fist. Bark risked throwing another ball of flame at the zombies in close melee combat with Kain and Domino but was successful in hitting the one facing Kain, the flames engulfing it, until it fell to the ground dead. Needles followed Bark’s lead and shot the zombie in front of Domino, hitting it with an arrow. Kain decided to step into the room and face the zombie that hit him earlier, hitting it with his blade. Andy thought it would be best if she didn’t fire into combat so she put her bow away and made her way towards the fight. Clarabelle stepped into the spot recently vacated by Kain and helped him out by slicing the head off the zombie he just faced. With only one Zombie left, the party quickly finished him off.

After all that work they found nothing of any value in Walgren’s crypt but felt pretty good that they got through that encounter, relatively unscathed. Looking at their map, there was only one door they hadn’t checked so they backtracked to that hallway and checked the door. Andy could hear a faint noise but it was too hard to discern what it was. With their hands strapped to their weapons they opened the door…

13. Stirges:

A haphazard collection of wooden beams lean against the wall and lie in piles in the outhwest
corner, along with some mining tools, wooden barrels and other items.

What they also found in this room was 13 stirges and 1 Lizardman warrior dead on the floor as well as 4 emaciated lizards stuck behind a steel barred doorway to the north. The sound Andy heard was the loud ticking of some device coming from this room. A larger Lizardman approached the doorway and begged them to help him and his companions escape from this room. He explained that they had entered the room, the doors came down and the clock against the wall would begin ticking down. Not sure what would happen if the thing counted down to zero, they could push the button to reset it, but it would immediately begin counting down again. They tried everything but could not escape the room and it had been days since they were trapped in there. When the party asked him if his name was Slurra he acknowledged that he was. They said before they could help him, they would need to know as much as about the slavers, where they took the captives etc. He said he would help. While Clarabelle and Kain tried unsuccessfully to budge the bars using strength and magic, Andy found a strange set of numbers behind a barrel in the room, the number 836. Afterwards peering through the bars she asked if the dial could actually be turned and the lizardman reported that it could. She had them turn the dial so that the number 8 was on top, then 3, then 6.. A loud clank surprised them as the bar retracted back into the ceiling and an overjoyed group of Lizardmen exited the room. They were both dehydrated and starved and didn’t put up much of a fight as the party tied them up. What the lizardman failed to notice was that when the bars went up, so did a small door beneath the dial. Andy went back into the room and found a locked chest.She drug the chest out of that room and back into the room they first entered. She was able to unlock the chest and they found that it contained 2554 gold pieces.

The party led the captured Lizardman back to the cells they found earlier. There they locked them up the best they could then gave them some food and water. Slurra also provided the party with some information about the slavers they dealt with, a hand drawn map showing where they were located, a small island called Manacle Island on the outskirts of the Mire Wood. With the lizardman locked up, the party ate, set up a watch and got some rest before exploring the secret hallway heading down they had found earier that day.

The First Day of the Lumia Festival, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Crooked Rock Tower

The next morning the party came up with a plan of attack. Giving Andy a third of their potion of gaseous form, Andy was to enter into the tower while the rest of the party remained outside.

Entering through the space under the door she entered the first level of the tower.

T1. Grand Hall

The entrance hall occupies the whole ground floor of the tower. Directly ahead of you is a mechanism of some kind formed around a square shaft that appears to rise to the top of the tower and descend into the earth. To the east, which is your right as you stand in the entrance, you can see the corpses of four bugbears. They appear to have been killed within the last few hours.

She couldn’t figure out what the mechanism was but she did see that it allowed her to float up to the second level in her incorporeal form.

T2. The Workshop

A table is cluttered with spring-powered wind-up metal toys. They include: a horse and carriage, where the horse has a single wheel instead of feet, a whistle on three wheels, a boat with a mechanical figure holding oars, and a metal rat with a single wheel. A variety of other parts (gears, wheels, and scraps of metal) are scattered on the bench, along with a few simple hand tools such as screwdrivers. Above the workbench are several shelves, loaded with bottles, bags, and jars. Odd scents assault your noses as you enter the room, a mixture of musky, sweet, and acrid odors.A continuous mechanical ticking fills this otherwise silent room. On the south wall a fanciful brass clock about three feet in diameter ticks away patiently.

Stray cobwebs waft in the air, glowing in the daylight streaming in through the windows.

Something was blocking her from ascending to the next level so she descended to the first level and waited for the potion to wear off. Once it did she opened up the door and let the party into the first floor. Together they investigated the mechanism and now that she was back to normal, it took only a few moments before Andy figured out how to work it. With a loud screeching, the platform that was blocking the third floor, came down and rested at their feet. The party got on the platform and Andy touched a button and the platform ascended to the next level but made an awful racket as it went up.

The party was fascinated by the small toys they found in the workshop, and spent some time winding them up to see what they would do. They realized that they would be fairly valuable if the right person could be found, but none of them had the heart to remove them from the workshop. They got back on the platform and ascended to the next level.

T3. Guest Room
bq. Near the center of this room, there is a round table with four stools. A card game of some kind has been abandoned, and hands of cards lie face down on the table with a further pile of cards in the center. There is also a painting on each wall.

Kain was fascinated by the deck of cards, and gathered them up and put them into his backpack before they inspected the paintings on each wall.

West Wall: The Temptation of Sathrena

The scene is a royal court. A peasant woman in a plain brown dress and an apron stands at the left of the picture. Her arm is outstretched with palm outwards in a gesture of refusal, and her head is turned away, refusing to look. In the center, a king sits on a throne. He wears a jeweled crown and carries a scepter and an orb, and a sword is girt at his side. He faces the woman and beckons. To the right, a hooded figure whispers in the King’s ear.

North Wall: The Doppleganger

This painting depicts an interior scene of a house on fire. A well-muscled barbarian, naked but for a loincloth, stands in the background. His face is puzzled, his brow furrowed. In the foreground, two women clad in tigerskins face each other. They are identical, mirror opposites, but in different poses. One has her mouth open to speak, and the other has a hand on her dagger.

South Wall: Lixi’s Library

Beside a window in a library, a blonde damsel in a damask gown sits reading. Her legs are
withered and she seems to be a cripple. Outside is a verdant meadow in spring

East Wall: the Crane and the Buzzard

A buzzard pecks at a crane. The crane has a very human-like expression, wide-eyed with amazement

The only painting that was familiar was the Crane and the Buzzard since Andy and Clarabelle both remembered hearing the story when they were a child. Other than the paintings and the cards, there was nothing else to see so the party got back on the lift, and ascended one more level.

T4. Wizard’s Room

A lush bed with a red satin canopy is positioned against the south wall; it is covered in dust and cobwebs. A washstand and a dresser stand to either side of the bed. The dresser holds grooming items such as a man would use (a comb, a pair of scissors, a jar of now-hardened mustache wax, a shaving mug and brush, and a rusty razor). A tall double-door wardrobe stands open against the west wall with various clothing items lying on the floor around it. A wooden case along the east wall contains many books and scrolls.

The party was immediately intrigued by the case of books and scrolls against the east wall and immediately began searching it for anything good. It was during that time that they heard a loud crash as 8 Lizardmen entered the room through the windows. The Lizardmen were hoping for surprise but were mostly unable to achieve it. However Needles was wrestled to the ground and punched as he tried to move to the center of the room. He was then able to escape the grasp of the lizardman and stand back up. Bark threw entangle at the group coming in through the northeast window and Domino cast Bless on his friends. Once again another lizardman brought Needles to the ground pummeling him again. Andy drew first blood as her sword found its mark on the last Lizardman entering the room from the southeast, but another Lizardman grabbed her and dragged her to the ground. Clarabelle released a Fire bolt at a lizardman trapped in the vines, killing him, while Domino Struck down the Lizardman wrestling with Andy. But she was barely on her feet before another Lizardman brought her back down. Meanwhile three other lizardman pummeled the grappled Needles. Clarabelle cast magic missile at one of the Lizardmen attacking Needles and a downward stroke from Kain’s Katana finished him off. This allowed Needles to escape the hold he was in and stand back up. At this point the Lizardmen were no longer thinking of taking the party captive and decided to attack them in strength. Andy was not faring well, even though she managed to escape her attacker a sword from another lizardman tore into her body. As Andy staggered back the enraged party now took the fight to the lizardman. Kain’s Katana blazing with flame killed two of the Lizardmen back to back as Andy got back into the fight and took another down, thanks to the healing energies of Domino and Bark. Clarabelle took her long-sword to the last remaining lizardman and the fight was over. Taking a deep breath, Bark and Domino both used their last remaining healing to get Needles back to strength.

Once again they noticed the quality of the weapons and arms that the Lizardmen possessed, especially the shields. They piled them into a corner and then took the lift up to the roof of the tower. It was here that they saw the remnants of a campsite and the tied off ropes hanging down where the Lizardmen had rappelled down them before attacking them in the room below.

Andy showed them the last button marked B which the party assumed meant the tower basement. She pressed it and the lift descended past the rest of the floors to the basement where the party was again set up upon by Lizardmen.

The party wasn’t expecting this attack and was soon driven back against the wall by it’s ferocity with Needles, Kain, Clarabelle and Bark all took damage. Kain got the party back into the fight by killing the lizardman in front of him with one savage blow. An enraged Bark then transformed into his bear form pressing the lizardman in front of him but unable to draw blood through the lizardman’s tough armor. Clarabelle did find a soft spot and her sword drew blood from her opponent but he struck back quickly, wounding her back. It was to be his last attack as he was struck down by Kain. Striking with his claws, Bark finally rended his opponent to death. With 3 of the 4 lizardman dead, Clarabelle then flanked the last remaining one ran him through with her sword.

After the fight was done, the party noticed that there were 10 captives down here with them, tied together by their hands and legs. After the party freed them they found that most of them were from the lumber camp but a few others were from a small farm not far from the camp. They also told the party that the leader of Lizardmen and 4 of his guards had went down the stairs leading underground. He mentioned something about a sword but that’s all they knew.

The party knew they were pretty banged up from the all the fighting today and were in no condition to press on. They also knew they needed to get these captives back home and away from the tower. So a withdrawal seemed the wisest choice. They would bunker up on the second floor, get some rest and food, and then head out back to the lumber camp tomorrow morning. Kain volunteered to pull guard duty all night so the rest of the party and the exhausted captives could get some sleep.

The Twenty ninth day of Ere-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Mosquito Marsh Lumber Camp

The Company traveled south overland in what was becoming an increasingly warmer month. With the Lumia festival fast approaching it was looking like the adventurers would spend it chasing down lizardmen in a swamp. None of the them were looking forward to venturing into the Mire Wood in one of the warmest months of the year.

They arrived at Mosquito Marsh Lumber Camp about 8 days later to what appeared to be a veritable ghost town. The only way they knew people were there were from the cautious peeks they were getting from mostly closed doors and barred windows of the worker bungalows. They decided to head for the largest building in town, assuming it to be the lumber mill and they were correct.

They were greeted at the door by an exhausted looking man in his mid forties. When they told him who they were and who sent them, they were greeted by a string of expletives cursing the the lumber company for taking so long to send them. The man’s name was Risran Shickis and he was the foreman of the mill and he invited him into his office. When the party noticed that there was no work being done at all in the mill, Risran said that since the attacks started, he had lost many workers and the ones he had, wouldn’t leave their homes. When he was asked how many people were killed during the attacks, they got an odd look from the foreman, he them told them that the people weren’t being killed, they were being taken alive. Many of the workers and their families were being kidnapped during the night, and from what he had heard it wasn’t just from here, some of the smaller farms around the area were being attacked as well. The only thing he knew up to a few days ago was that it was lizardmen that were doing the kidnapping. However during the last raid, one of the workers managed to follow a raiding party back into the woods where he tracked them to a tower about a days march from here. It was at this point he was spotted by them and it took everything he had to get back to the camp and not be caught himself. The foreman told them the workers name, Clinton Pickett and at where they could find him.

It took awhile before Clinton would answer the door and it took the offer of more than a few gold pieces to finally convince him to help the party find this tower. They promised him they were more than capable of protecting him and told him they just needed to be led to the tower. He was free to go as soon as they found it.

The party spent the rest of the day picking up some rations from the company store and procuring some herbs that Needles needed for his healing poultices. That night, with the foreman’s permission they set up camp inside the lumber warehouse, with the watches set they settled down for the evening.

The party was awoke later that night by Andy nudging them awake. There was some movement to the southwest of the warehouse. The party quickly got dressed and moved out to intercept whoever was trying to sneak into the camp. They surprised 4 Lizardmen making their way towards the bungalows. The Lizardmen were quick to react and the battle began. Needles was able to kill one of the Lizardmen before the rest of the party was able to close with them. A long melee fight ensued and Kain was grievously injured before the rest of the Lizardmen were killed. Kain was quickly brought back to fighting shape with Needles salve and some healing from Bark and Domino. When the party inspected their foe they realized that the armor and swords they were using were of better quality than expected, especially their shields. The party stripped the dead Lizardmen of their armor and swords and brought them back to the warehouse, where they piled them in a corner and covered them with a small tarp before trying to rest for the rest of the night.

The next morning, with Clinton in tow and guiding them, they headed out to the tower. From his description they were expecting about a days march before getting there. Around mid-morning the party was surprised by what appeared to be a unicorn charging through the brush. It put its horn down and charged at Clara, striking her with its horn and staggering her back, as it ran back into the wood it just disappeared. A few seconds they could hear the sounds of hooves just before Bark was blasted by the creatures horns and hooves, this time it remained visible as it rode off. Bark remained bloody and barely moving on the ground. Needles was able to get an arrow off and it struck the creature as it ran off. The party quickly surrounded the critically injured druid and waited for the creatures return. Soon the creature came thundering back, its red eyes glaring as it bore down on Bark again, trying to get between Andy and Clarabelle. Domino quickly laid a healing on Bark As the creature charged. Andy’s swing went wild but Needles arrow sailed true, striking the creature just as it colliding with Bark, luckily only giving the severely wounded druid a glancing blow before it crashed down to the ground dead. An inspection of the dead creature found that it wasn’t a unicorn, but its evil twin, the Alicorn. Domino used his last healing on Bark to get him at least back to where he could walk. The rest of the march was uneventful and they found themselves arriving at the outskirts of the tower’s location late that afternoon. They decided a smart thing to do would be to rest, heal up and head into the tower in the morning, sending Clinton on his way. Bark was able to heal up to almost full strength and Needles gave Kain his last Salve before heading into the woods to make more.

The Twenty First day of Ere-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Town of Newton

It took the company about a week to travel from the small village of Stull to the Town of Newton. They took the small cart road south from Stull til it joined with the Freestead Road which they then followed east for the rest of the journey.

Upon arriving in Newton, they first decided to get a few rooms at the Paladin’s Horse Inn. There they were able to wash a few weeks worth of dirt off of them and get in a good meal in the common area. It was already late afternoon by this time so they voted to rest that night, then head out in the morning to take care of some business. They spent the evening talking with their fellow travelers and the locals to pick up any interesting gossip about Newton or the Barony in general. Things had settled down in Freestead since the curse was removed from Keep and the Duke there was already beginning the clean up efforts. They also heard some rumblings about Lizard Men attacking small villages outside the Mire Wood. After picking up as much information that they could, they headed off to their rooms.

The next morning, the first order of business was to sell the items they had acquired since their arrival outside the gates of the Iron Keep a few weeks ago. It took most of morning, visiting a few different shops but they were able to sell of their unneeded items, some at a tidy profit. After getting a mid-day meal, they headed over to the Laquin Lumber Company in hopes of convincing them to sell the lumber mill and the other assets in Stull.

They arrived at the Laquin Lumber Company building and after several hours of waiting, were finally able to get in to talk with the owner, Bailey Laquin. They presented him with an offer to buy out the Lumber Mill in Stull under the pretense that they were more interested in the property it was sitting on for a future stronghold. At first Bailey showed no interest in selling the mill, but the parties intimate knowledge of how bad it was struggling began to convince him. but he also came to realize how interested the party was in buying it so he presented them with his final offer.

1. 12000 gold for the Mill, paid up front or
2. 6000 gold for the mill, paid up front and their assistance in another matter.

The party knew they didn’t have enough to pay him for the full price he was asking so they went with option #2. But they counter-offered by stating they had men ready to begin work on the stronghold, so they would pay him the 6000 GP and take him up on his offer, but he had to sign over the deed to them now. If for some reason they could not take care of his problem, they would pay him an additional 10000 gold when they returned. He was hesitant but when Clarabelle explained her relationship to the Duke of Talon and that her father would guarantee the money if something would happen to them, he acquiesced.

So while Bailey had one of his employees draw up the paperwork, they discussed the ‘services’ he required of them. One of his lumber mills right outside the Mire Wood recently began being attacked by Lizard Men. It was now to the point where work at the mill was completely halted since his workers were afraid to get anywhere near the forest. He wanted them to find the source of the problem and eliminate it.

The party agreed to this job and once they had the deed to the Mill in Stull in their hands, they left Laquin Lumber and headed back to the Paladin’s Horse Inn for the night.

The Twelth day of Ere-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

The Village of Stull

The next morning the party brought the captives to the town building where they met a very somber Chriztopp Barclay. They explained to him that the threat to the town had been eliminated with the destruction of the Necromancer and the Orbs. They handed the captives over to him, letting him know that Garrett had been extremely cooperative in assisting them in destroying the Orbs. As some of the townspeople led the captives off, The party discussed what they knew about about Thaen and his goals. The mayor said he remembered Thaen as a young child, and that he had things pretty rough with an abusive father before he finally fled from his father and the town. But he also remembered the kid was always a bit strange, bringing dead creatures to school etc.

It was then that the party mentioned to the mayor that there seemed to be something going on in the town besides the recent invasion of the undead. The mayor, already tired from the loss of his family explained that the lumber mill has been struggling for many years and he was doing all he could to keep the Laquin Lumber Company from shutting the plant down and affecting bankrupting the small village. The people were also tired of owing their soul to the plant and the company store and morale around the town couldn’t be worse. The Company of Odd Fellows seemed to understand that after everything this town had gone through it needed some sort of good news for a change. They sat down with the mayor and came up with a bold plan.

1. The ‘Company’ would approach Laquin in their headquarters in Newton with a proposal to buy the lumber mill in Stull from them.
2. The ‘Company’ would give control and ownership of the Mill to the employees for a flat 25% of all sold lumber being paid to the ‘Company’ via their agent, Alaktyrr Rilyund.
3. Once the Mill was sold, the ‘Company’ would send a missive to Baron Vadarin, suggesting that he make good use of the Stull Lumber Mill to help rebuild after the destruction to the countryside.
4. They would also suggest to the Baron to set up a small outpost just outside the town, employing some of the villagers to man it.

Even with all that happened the last few days, the Mayor managed a smile as he shook the party’s hand.

The mayor immediately found a courier that could take the Company’s missive to the Baron. He invited them to his home for breakfast so they could discuss the minor details over a hot meal.

The party stuck around for a few days to heal their injuries and took the time to get to know the villagers. Even with all that had happened, the overall mood of the village was improved and may people came by to shake their hands or slap them on the back.

Soon with their wounds mostly healed the party headed out for Newton. They let the mayor know they would send word back to him with word that the deal was done and the proper documents needed for the transfer of ownership to the town.

The Eleventh day of Ere-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Lair of the Necromancer

The next day the party opened the doors Thaen’s chamber and backtracked to thw Wizard Locked door they were unable to open the previous day. Clarabelle had prepared the knock spell which would allow them to get past the wizard locked door. They didn’t run into any trouble on the way back and soon found themseelves in front of the door. Clarabelle told the party they would need to find a way to keep the door open because her spell would only bypass the spell temporarily not dispel it. There was an almost visible shimmering in the air when the spell was cast and the door was now open. There were no noises detected inside so the party decided to enter it.

(7. The Treasury)

Inside this strangely shaped room are four statues of skeletons made from a black crystal and a large chest against the south wall.

The party didn’t have much time to gawk at the crystal skeletons because as soon as they opened the door, all 4 of them came to life and advanced on the party. Needles launched an arrow into the room, hitting the front right statute, breaking a large chunk of crystal off of it. Bark did the same with the front left statue, but doing less damage than his brother. Kain also went after the front right statue, his Katana taking off a huge chunk of crystal from this statue as well. He wasn’t planning on the one in back getting to him so quickly and it connected with s solid hit from its crystal fists. To make matters worse the one he just attacked also struck out with its fist and hit him. Domino knew he needed to get in there and get Kain some relief so he jumped into the fray making a solid hit on the third statue, shattering it into pieces. The statue struck by Needles rushed at him but found Clarabelle in its way so he struck out at her instead, However she was able to dodge its dangerous fists from hitting her. Andy then rushed forward and jabbed her sword under the arm of the statue, the causing it to crack into pieces before falling apart. The last statue in the back came charging forward, aiming its blows at Domino, but he was able to block both of them with his shield. Clarabelle stepped over the statue Andy just destroyed and went after the statue engaging Domino, striking it with her longsword. As it reeled back from her attack another arrow streaked in and destroyed it. The battle was soon over as Kain finished off the last opponent. The party stopped where they were at and have Andy go ahead and check the area around the chest for traps. She didn’t find any but when checking the chest, she heard the heart stopping click just as a needle poked her. She was wracked with pain and pitched forward. Luckily Domino was able to give her some healing. She still looked pretty pale but wasn’t going to be dying anytime soon.

They checked the now open chest and found 1180 gold pieces which were divided evenly among the party before leaving the room.

It was decided that the party would backtrack to the very first chamber they came too which had a few hallways that they had not explored. There they followed the hallway heading south until it turned west and ended at a door. Andy was unable to hear anything on the other side of the door but also found the door unlocked. So without anything else to do, they opened the door and entered.

(6. The Students of Necromancy)

This room contains three beds with three small chests at the foot of each bed. The area appears to be lit with a lantern that is hanging from the ceiling. There are three men and three large insects in the room. The men are standing in the middle of the room near another insect. One of the men appears to be casting a spell on it.

As Kain charged into the room, the apprentice he was attacking saw him at the same time and moved away from casting a spell at Kain, but whatever it was it had no affect on him (fear and Kain beat the save). Andy came in and shot another apprentice with her bow, causing him to cry out in pain, his magic missile leaving his hands and striking her at the same time. The third apprentice looked around and saw the party flooding into the room and immediately through his hands up in surrender. The guy next to him wasn’t so lucky as Clarabelle’s magic missile attack dropped him on the spot. Last to enter was Needles and seeing one man with his hands in the air pointed his bow at the other, giving him one last chance to join his partner. He dropped his mace and raised his hands as well. The cleric proved arrogant and uncooperative but the younger magic user named Garrett filled the party in on the background of why the Necromancer was here.

Several weeks ago, Thaen and a cleric of the Lord of Chaos, Behiric Sholic, returned to Stull
with several zombies and the Orbs of Necromantic Power and entered the dungeon below the Mausoleum. The two necromancers have been exhuming the bodies from the cemetery and animating them with the orbs. Although Thaen had released a few zombies and skeletons on the outlying farms, they were just an attempt to put fear in the hearts of the local farmers. But a few days was when they began the attack on the village of Stull itself. It seems that Thaen once lived in this village and has hated the lumber company for destroying the woods where he wandered and played.

When asked why they were there he replied they were students of Thaen and Behiric and were told they were going to be able to learn more here then they could at the school.

When asked about the purpose of the Necromantic Orbs he told them that is an orb of negative energy that is used to create many types of undead depending on how long the orb is used on a corpse and if the orbs were destroyed, the necromancer would lose control of the undead under his power created by the orbs.

The two remaining apprentices were marched back up the hall to the chamber where they were tied up. Garrett pointed out that the other door going south would lead them to the orb and that they would need to be destroyed in order to stop the undead from spawning.

(5. Orbs Of Necromantic Power)

Using a key that Garrett handed them, they opened the door.

Upon opening the door to this room you see a strange flickering green glow in the chamber beyond. On the floor is a pile of bodies along the wall. As you watch, the bodies seem to twitch and tremble. There are two shadows of humanoid creatures moving in the room.

At the end of a large diagonal chamner they could see the two orbs flickering. As the creatures came into the light Bark yelled out ‘Ghasts!’ before summoning a globe of fire and tossing it at a ghast catching it on fire. Andy and Domino entered the room but neither were successful, Andy in her bow shot and Domino in turning them. But Needles was successful with his bow, severely staggering one ghast while Clarabelle hit the other with her magic missile. The two ghasts went at the nearest targets, those being Needles and Clarabelle. Needles was bitten and dropped to the ground paralyzed (10 rounds) but Clarabelle was able to fight off her attacker. Bark seeing his brother go down rushed into the fray stabbing a ghast with his spear, impaling it, where it died clutching the shaft. The other ghast didn’t last much longer as Andy’s arrow took it in the throat, killing it.

Bark pulled Needles into the other room while Clarabelle and Domino destroyed the two orbs with their maces. As the shattered a pulse of negative energy was felt in the room before a more positive energy rushed in to fill the void.

After talking with Garrett and showing him their map, the party concluded that this was the last of the dungeon to explore and that with Thaen and Beheric killed and the orbs detroyed, they had removed the threat to the village of Stull.

With Needles slung over the back of Kain, they exited out of the Mausoleum and headed back into town. It was getting late so they headed back to the Hotel, figuring to get some sleep before turning the captives over to the town and letting the mayor know the threat was eliminated.

The Tenth day of Ere-Lumia, in the year 400 BY

The Company of Odd Fellows

Lair of the Necromancer

The party woke up early the next morning to a gray overcast sky and a light fog rolling from the forest. They ate a quick breakfast and set out to investigate the cemetery. The cemetery sat on a small hill overlooking the town and the party immediately noticed the large mausoleum at the very top. They figured this was most likely where the trouble was coming from and headed towards it.

Upon approaching the mausoleum, you can easily see that the door has been torn from it’s hinges and is laying on the ground in front of the building. Inside is only darkness and silence.

A quick decision was made to send in Andy to investigate.

Inside the mausoleum it is quiet as the grave. The two vaults to the left and right of a bronze statue. The vaults are of Bruk and his wife Amandi and they appear to be undisturbed. The statue is of a large man sitting in a chair looking out the mausoleum door toward the village. There is a plaque informing the reader that the statue is the likeness of Bruk Stull.

A quick inspection of the mausoleum made it look to be a dead end but Needles was easily able to spot the tracks of the undead and they all seemed to be coming from here. So the party entered the mausoleum and began searching for an entrance to someplace else. The hallow sounds of the floor let them know they were on the right track they just couldn’t find the entrance. However Andy finally noticed some slight grooves in the floor next to the statute as if the statute would slide. So the party put their backs into it and pushed the statute in the direction of the scuff marks. As it finally began to slide they knew they had found a secret entrance as a set of stairs going down revealed itself.

(1. Stairs)

These stairs are made of stone and are covered in cobwebs along the walls. The center of the steps appears to be dust free.

Andy took point as they descended down the stairs. As she came down the stairs she saw movement down the hallway and signaled to the party there was trouble ahead. Soon the unmistakable clattering of bones revealed 4 skeletons protecting the hallway beyond. the party closed ranks in the hallway and moved forward, allowing the skeletons to close with them. Neither of the two front skeletons were able to get through Kain and Clarabelle’s defenses. Kain was unable to hit his target but Clarabelle crushed her opponent with her mace destroying it. Domino was unable to turn any of the remaining skeletons and the rest pressed the attack. However they were still unable to get through the two front fighters. Once again Clarabelle’s mace crashed down on another skeleton, crushing it to dust. The skeleton facing Kain was finally able to get past his defenses scoring a deep gash on his arm. Clarabelle once again struck out with her mace, bringing another skeleton down, leaving the one facing Kain remaining. Kain finally made contact with his attacker but the edged weapon didn’t have enough to bring it down but it didn’t matter as Clarabelle finished it off for him. Kain sheepishly thanked Clara for the assistance.

(2. Pit Trap)

Now that the threat was dispatched, Andy went out ahead to scout the hallway. The party heard the sound of something opening followed by a short scream ahead of them. Clarabelle’s torch showed a pit opened ahead of them and no Andy. They rushed to the edge and saw Andy at the bottom of the pit, obviously wounded (missed the trap/missed the save). A quick glance showed she wasn’t alone as something shambling was attacking her. Due to the fall and the injuries the monster was able to get a free attack on Andy but she was able to roll out of the way and avoid the creature. Not sure if was the pain from her injuries or the fear of being attacked by the undead but Andy’s swing at the zombie took its head clean off, the head landing a few feet away from her. The party used their rope to assist Andy back up and Domino healed her most grievous injuries. They crossed the pit and due to Andy’s injuries, Needles took point. Following the hallway he came to a large open area.

(3. Zombie Gathering)

This cold 20′ × 40′ area is covered in a beautiful green marble across the floor and up to the ceiling. There are four other exits in the room. However, your greatest concern seems to be the zombies that are shuffling toward you.

Needles signaled the other party members before pulling is bow off his back and firing an arrow at one of the lead zombies, setting it on fire but not killing it. Andy rushed to his side, shooting an arrow of her own but missed her target. The zombie that Needles set fire to closed on him to attack but Needles was able to dodge him right before his brother Bark ran him through with his spear. Domino came into the room but once again was unable to turn any of the undead creatures. Kain followed him and was able to strike on of the zombies but wasn’t able to dispatch it. Clara entered into the fray as well but was unable to hit her target. Unfortunately for her, the zombie didn’t have the same problem, ripping a large gash in her chest. Needles let another arrow fly, destroying a zombie in the back of the pack. Andy dropped her bow and pulled her short sword out, attacking the nearest zombie. Clarabelle dispatched one of the zombies with her long sword and Needles, risking a shot into combat, took out the zombie facing Andy. Bark then finished off another with his spear leaving one left which the party quickly took out. Domino had one healing potion left which he gave to Clarabelle to help heal her wounds.

There were 4 hallways leading from this room so the party decided to try the hallway heading north on the west end of the chamber. The hallway quickly turned west and opened up into another even larger chamber.

(4. Bruk Stull’s Rest)

This large chamber is a crypt. Along the north wall of this chamber is an altar to the Lord of Law, Eliador. The center of the room contains two sarcophagi. The sarcophagi have been opened and bones lay on the floor nearby.

As Needles entered into the room with the party a few feet behind them, dark shapes rose from the two sarcophagi in the room..Wraiths! Clarabelle acted instinctively, casting firebolt at the wraith nearest to Needles, dealing damage to the creature as the bolts struck its target. Kain went in after the same creature, swinging at it two handed with his Katana, releasing his energy into the strike. His swing struck true and the wraith screamed out in agony before dissipating into the air. Needles changed his target from the nearest wraith to the one that remained further in the room and let loose an arrow, hitting the creature in the chest (CRIT!) Andy was hoping to finish it off with a throw from her dagger but the throw went wide, Bark had better luck with his spear, striking the incorporeal creature with his magic spear, the wraith howled in anger before disappearing back into the sarcophagi.

DM Note: My group seems to have it out for wraiths. This is the second time they have encountered them and have wiped the floor with what is usually a scary creature to fight. Good rolls and high initiative were the bane of these two wraiths as well.

An investigation of the room found nothing of note or value so the party followed the hallway back to the room where they encountered the zombies where they decided to take the hall heading east. This hallway ended up in another larger chamber with another 3 hallways branching from it. The chose the hallway heading north, where it turned east again before opening into another chamber.

(9. Temple of Chaos)

In the alcove on the eastern wall of this room is an altar with a small golden statue of a many armed, faced and legged unnamed god of chaos. It appears that the eyes of the statue are small rubies. The chamber is lit with candles from the altar with give the statue a frightening aura. A man is kneeling in prayer in front of the altar.

Needles immediately saw the man kneeling at the altar and halted the party. It was quickly decided that the best course would be to take this guy out quickly. Needles notched an arrow and Andy was sent to get in behind him. Unfortunately he heard her just as just she arrived behind him. He was able to turn around but do little else. Andy was still able to connect with her short sword and Needles fired his bow hitting the unknown enemy while the rest of the party closed into combat. Domino finishing it off by casting bless on his party members. Instead of cowering in fear the man sneered at the party saying ‘Are you prepared to meet my GOD!!’ As he stepped back to cast a spell. Needles knew this guy meant business so he risked a shot into combat to try and take him out before he could release what he was casting. Unfortunately the arrow went wide and struck Andy, luckily only being a glancing blow. Just as the evil cleric was releasing his spell, Kain connected with his Katana, causing it to fizzle and the cleric to cry out in anger and pain. His smirk left him as he realized he may just be outmatched in this fight. Clarabelle sensing that the fight was going their way, pressed the attack by joining in the engagement but was unable to strike the cleric. Andy was able to get in a blow with her shortsword, dealing him an almost mortal wound. He turned towards her and struck out furiously with his War Hammer hitting her, driving her down to one knee. It was the last thing he would do as Kain’s Katana finished him off.

The party caught their breath after this fight with Domino casting his last cure spell on Andy and Clarabelle handing her her last potion after seeing she was still injured. A quick inspection of the boy combined with some detect magic from Clarabelle showed that the cleric’s weapon and staff were both magical and were stashed away for further study. (+2 War Hammer and a Snake Staff). As much as the statute repulsed them, it looked to be worth something so they packed it up as well (Worth 250gp)

There was a door heading south so the party decided to check it. Andy listened at it but didn’t hear anything but also realized the door was locked and she was unable to pick it. However even with being a stone door, Clarabelle was able to knock it open with one hard kick.

(8. Behiric’s Chamber)

This chamber is a complete mess! Inside is a bed, chest, rug and wardrobe. Clothes are spread across the room.

The room was empty except for a note lying on the wardrobe. It reads:

Beheric,
The creatures we create are not playthings for your amusement,
please desist from making them do things that do not further our goals..

—Thaen

the party backtracked to the large open chamber and decided to keep heading south. The hallway eventually turned east before dead ending at a door on the south wall. An inspection of the door found it Wizard Locked and the party was unable to breach it. Clarabelle told the party she had knock but it would not be ready until she could study it. With that the party headed back up the hallway to the chamber where they went down the remaining hallway in the northwest corner. This hallway went north then east then south before ending in a door on the south wall. Andy could definitely hear the sounds of talking and shouting coming from behind the door. The door was locked but Andy was able to unlock it quietly. Andy snuck into the room a few seconds before the other members busted in and announced their presence.

(10. Thaen’s Chamber)

Beyond the door into this room is a well appointed chamber. It contains a bed, desk, chair, rug, and wardrobe. Of greater interest to the party is the angry man who was sitting in the chair until you opened the door. Standing in the center of the room is a vile creature that can only be undead. There is a lever in the west wall.

The party was hoping for surprise but it wasn’t on their side as the man jumped up and shouted at them “Tree killers! You must die for your deeds against the forest! The dead will walk freely!” before releasing blast of lightning at the party coming through the doorway. With the exception of Andy who snuck in beforehand and was away from the door, the rest of the party caught the lightning as streaked through their ranks, lucky all were able to resist some of the damage (every character made their spell save). The only upside was that the wight was also standing between the party and the caster and it also took full damage from the spell, dying right where it stood when the party came in through the door. Needles took advantage of the chaos to release an arrow at the necromancer, striking him with an arrow. With electricity still arcing off of him, Kain charged into the room with his Katana, dealing the necromancer a deadly wound staggering him back. a few seconds later the magic missile released by Clarabelle brought the evil wizard to the ground. In the room they found the Necromancer’s Spellbook with the name Thaen inscribed in it. Clarabelle filed the book into her backpack for further study. They also found a +1 Dagger and a curious piece of jewelry that had an aura of magic about it (Scarab of Protection) on the body of the now dead necromancer. After the punishment they took from the lightning bolt it was decided they would stay here for the night. The party felt like the necromancer they just killed was the cause of the town’s problems but decided to stay one more day to make sure the trouble had been completely eradicated. Plus the wizard locked door had them all more than curious as to what was behind that door.