A year and a half passes, and it is the spring of the year 967 G.R. On a bright spring day in the city of Vichy, Deir es Mal, Master Balamar of the wizard school of divination sends out five invitations. Arriving the next evening for dinner are five young adventurers. Alcala is a young priest of Hymdel, visiting the local temple within the city. Ingomar is a student at the school of divination here in town, and knows the master. Cyrus is a woodsman, concerned with odd rumors from the neighboring forests, has come to the school for answers. Mog and Klog are two brothers from the distant south, across the Peron Mountains in the newly discovered untamed lands.
Master Balamar has a nice mansion on the northern side of the town, indicative of his status within the school of diviners. His proposal to the five young men is this: from time to time, there come problems that for one reason or another, neither the guards, nor the school is equipped to handle. Balamar has a need for “troubleshooters” who are free to look into these things. On a job-by-job basis, he is interested in hiring these fellows to act in this capacity, free to go their own way at any time they wish. They are interested, and Balamar tells them of an immediate problem he would like to hire them for. Over the past couple of weeks, the temper of Darkwood Deep, the large forest less than a day’s ride away to the east, has changed to something sinister. There have been reports of missing people and strange creatures roaming the lands. The fledgling Coalition Guard, commonly referred to as the Bluecloaks, has their hands full looking into the larger problem of this recent development and smaller issues related to it have fallen through the cracks. For instance, Balamar’s cousin Paulo has a farm a couple days to the south near the edge of the forest and the Master is quite concerned for his welfare. He would like the party to see to their safety
They agree to his proposal, and after an advance of 50gp on their wages they prepare to set out the next day. In the early day’s light, they head south along the road. They pass a patrol of Bluecloaks, who give them a friendly wave. Towards the end of the day, they can see the dark forest to the east. They also see two men in the distance, but think nothing of it. That night, however, their camp is attacked by four strange humanoid creatures. They wear armor and wield weapons, but they are burly, have hairy skin, feral eyes, and a flat nose and chin. Klog and Mog recognize them as hobgoblins, creatures that have caused trouble to the southern people. They are defeated easily.
The next day they continue towards the farms, but have an even stranger encounter. They hear the yelping of a dog near the edge of the forest, and go to investigate. There, they see a wolf writhing on the ground in obvious pain. They notice that its eyes flicker from normal yellow to a sinister red glowing and back again. After a few moments, the red dominates and the wolf stands up and attacks. The party must defend itself, and the wolf is slain. At the end of the day, they reach a stone marker pointing out the spot where a small dirt track follows the now curving the forest to the east towards obvious farm lands. They decide to camp and take the track in the morning.
The next morning, they pass a few farmsteads while heading down the track, including one that has been very recently burned down. Arriving at Paulo’s they are met with suspicion and hostility. There appears to be no love between the cousins, and Paulo complains loudly about lost business due to his black sheep cousin the wizard. Seeing that there is nothing that they may do to convince the man to leave, they set about investigating the area to see how safe it is. Cyrus visits the burned out homestead and notices the tracks of small booted feet. They agree to follow the trail in the morning. That night, with Darkwood Deep in the distance to the north, they hear a great wailing cry from deep within the forest. It shakes them to the bones.
The tracks lead the party southward, deep into the foothills of the Peron Mountains, and after a few hours they discover a badly camouflaged cave entrance. They must explore it, and rightly so after discovering the hacked and rotting body of a farmer just inside. They explore the cave system, and battle spiders whose venom weaken Mog and Cyrus. They push on, and encounter a barricade of stones, behind which are some goblins who were ready for them, having heard the fight earlier. They throw darts at Klog in the front and the battle begins. Klog and Mog have trouble fighting while standing on the stone barricade and fall several times, making it easy for the goblins to hit them. Klog and Mog are rendered unconscious during the battle, but eventually the remaining three party members kill the goblins before the last can flee. They recover some loot from the burned farm and some silver, and Alcala prepares to do long term care on the wounded party members for the rest of the day. That night, very late, Alcala hears the sounds of metal tools working on the stone further in the cave.
When they are mostly well the next day, Cyrus goes sneaking off to scout ahead. He takes a passage to the west and spots a tripwire with an alarm, but fails to see the pit beyond it and falls in. The noise starts a dog barking which draws the attention of little creatures later identified as kobolds. He manages to hide down in the pit and they don’t see him. Four kobolds cross quietly, but Cyrus hears them set up at a rock barricade at the T intersection between him and the party. He tries to muffle his grappling hook and throws it up to get out with but they hear it, and quietly move up and start shooting down at him in the pit, spotting him this second time. One crosses over and goes to get help and at this point Cyrus yells for help. The rest of the party come, but by this time Cyrus is shot into unconsciousness in the bottom of the pit. Reinforcements from both sides are here, and only Klog makes it across the pit to fight the kobolds alone. He rages and fights them as a bugbear arrives to smack the kobolds around and try to show them how it’s done. He succeeds in taking out Mog, who had just crossed the pit, with one blow but the party together takes out the bugbear, including a well-placed crossbow bolt from Ingomar. However, the last kobold manages to shoot Klog down with his crossbow. It’s down to Ingomar, a mage with 4 hp versus a kobold with 3 hp in a crossbow match, which Ingomar finally wins. The party works the unconscious party members across the pit carefully and loads them on the mules and head out of the caves to recover.
Ingomar is the one to knock on the door to try to talk to Paulo, who doesn’t like that at all, calling him unlucky and demands that he get off the porch. He slams the door and the party is left with going to the burned out farm and try to find shelter from the rain. They rest a full day. Cyrus talks with Paulo, and shows him the head of the hobgoblin. Paulo’s conviction that nothing is wrong is shaken a bit, but they haven’t been successful in trying to convince him to leave.
At noon, they are fully healed and head back to the cave. They explore some more, and kill some monstrous centipedes. That’s pretty much it, and they pull out the human remains and bury them on the Belceon family plot on the burned out farmstead. They debate staying longer. They elect to move immediately back to the intersection and the road stone marker to camp there for the night, and head back to Vichy.
They travel the whole next day, and that night they are attacked by a bunch of skeletons, and Ingomar rushes to the attack with his staff. They take him down in a round! Alcala turns them and they run off and are finished easily. They travel the next day and reach the city. They sell the loot and head to Balamar’s. They fill him in on the strange things they saw and show him the goblin head. While they are talking, there’s a knock at the door. It’s Bran Roswell, a tanner, who is the next door neighbor to Raneo, a spiritualist visiting the school. Raneo is drunk again and loud singing and crashing is heard from within his home. Bran figures he ought to tell the school, master Balamar in particular, before someone calls the guard. Raneo is a known drunk, and Balamar suggests that the party go and put him to sleep with a scroll he provides to Ingomar, and leave a note behind asking him to see the masters of the school in the morning after he sleeps it off.
Mr. Roswell leads the party to the house where they immediately go in. Klog and Ingomar rush in past dancing furniture and get separated from the rest of the party. The furniture attacks! Klog and Ingomar are nearly taken down, as is Cyrus towards the end. Finally, the furniture is destroyed and they try to use the sleep scroll. However, the drunk wizard resists its effect and the party has to knock him out. On the way back, they pass by the Bluecloak HQ. Unfortunately, a guard outside notices their wounds and questions them. Ingomar talks too much about what happened, and is told that he must return in the morning to file a full report. Balamar isn’t happy that the Bluecloaks are involved now, and leaves the matter to Ingomar.
The next morning, Ingomar goes and meets with Officer Halliwell, and gives a report of the incident and even goes further into the happenings down south. Also, Cyrus has accompanied him and adds more detail, draws a map, leaves the goblin head. Halliwell tries to recruit Cyrus after this account, and Cyrus was intrigued, but deferred answering. They sell the loot they recovered from the cave. The rest of the day is spent in recovery.
They visit Balamar early the next day, and he tells them about some escaped fire elementals, another little gift from a visiting wizard. They agree to the job of locating and dispatching them. They go to visit Bhulot, the repentant journeyman responsible for the summoning, at the school to get details. Balamar tells Ingomar, indirectly, that he needs to select some new spells and perhaps they will be given to him with approval.
Bhulot is arrogant and haughty and unrepentant in private, but all cooperation when a master diviner is present. The party wants to kill him but they finally get the information they require.
On the way back they do a sweep of the city. They find a burned out building and talk to the family there and learn about a “cat” the young daughter saw before the fire started. They track it down to a burned out area of the city where there are homeless people cooking over open fires. One fire in particular has no people and when they approach it a flaming rat attacks. They take it out easy and try to cover up by posing as “rat-catchers”. They search around and see no sign of the other elementals.
They make it, after much discussion, to the Temple of Surgyth. Cyrus maybe sees an elemental in the big bonfire. They talk to the priests there, and get little information, nor cooperation. The party isn’t sure if the Temple will be helpful or work against the party’s efforts in fighting the fire elementals. They continue searching and spot a pawprint, following it to an alley where they find an elemental fire dog. Klog kills it in one blow before anything happens.
They search and search the city into the night. By the dark of the night, they spot 3 flaming shapes near the temple of Surgyth, but the figures rejoin the bonfire when the party approaches. They try to ask the priests of fire to send the elementals home, but they refuse, citing the Will of Surgyth.
The party goes to Balamar, meeting Leuba the butler. He tells them that Raneo has been asked to leave the city by the Bluecloaks, based mostly on Ingomar’s report. He goes on to tell them a bit about the hostility towards practitioners of magic and about the strange appearance of sorcerers, those able to use magic without any study or preparation, almost as if they were magic incarnate. It is Balamar’s opinion that not all sorcerers are evil or good, just like with book wizards. They spend the whole next day staking out the temple of Surgyth, and Ingomar decides to buy a set of regular clothes and disguise himself.
Late the next night, Cyrus spots the 3 elementals leaving the temple to head into the city. He gets the party and shadows the elementals, but after some time he is spotted and battle ensues. They take the elementals out. The next day they return to Balamar for payment, and Ingomar receives some new spells. He has a new job for them. Escorting an old diviner, Master Ternado, from the school to his family in the city of Sens. The old diviner is losing his memory and can no longer function, though no one can tell him that. He thinks he’s fine. The party’s job is to see him there safely without letting him know they are there for that reason.
They leave the next morning with Master Ternado in heavy rain. They travel a whole day on the western road. When they camp, the master tells them tales of Gwynyth Daius and Myrddin in broad strokes, mentioning King Beldyn III and King Estefan, the corruptible one who formed Deir es Mal. During 3rd watch that night, a dire badger comes looking for food and is killed easily.
The next day the rain continues, and they kill a wolverine in its den. That night, they are attacked by a yeth hound. Cyrus and Klog are panicked by the baying and the rest of the party is still wounded so goes down quickly. It takes Ternado waking up and throwing 5 magic missiles to turn the battle around.
With little choice, they stay at the camp at the edge of the Silverbark forest the next day to rest. A group of 3 horseman in regular clothes ride by on the road. During this rest, they mistakenly mention to Ternado that they are his escort. He almost leaves, but he changes his mind with chagrin when he discovers he doesn’t know which direction to go in. In the afternoon, they move on and encounter a bunch of giant bees near the road. They give them a wide berth and avoid the encounter. The night passes without event.
They arrive in the city of Sens after entering the hills, but Ternado doesn’t recognize anything nor can he tell them the address of his family. Finally, they arrive and meet Janos, Ternado’s son. They sense quickly that there is a problem, and they learn that his son is in trouble at the iron mine. Sensing another job, they head deeper into the hills towards the mine the next day. They reach a marble quarry as the sun is setting. There they find a contingent of Deir es Mal militia and talk with Captain Sancho. He warns them off, saying that the trouble ahead is something they the army will deal with. Ingomar makes a mistake and tells them he is a diviner, earning their mistrust. This time, however, its not as bad as the two barbarians earn who remind the captain of the 2 year old campaign he was part of. They interview Luko, the only survivor from the iron mine, who tells them that they were attacked by hundreds of vicious, well-organized and armed creatures. They decide to continue on despite the captain’s warning and this new information. Down the road, their first encounter with this army is a small band of goblins that they dispatch.
A patrol of scouts from the marble quarry camp comes by the next morning and the party shows them the goblins they killed. The patrol moves on into the hills. After noon, Alcala heals them up and they move on. Later, Cyrus scouts ahead and finds a party of 9 hobgoblins goofing off, not paying attention. Mog rides up to try and distract them as the others sneak around in flank. It sort of works except Mog gets pegged a few times with javelins. The rest of the hobgoblins are killed with one being put to sleep by magic from Ingomar. They try and question him, but with no luck due to the language barrier. They kill it. They travel until night and camp in a hollow off the road.
They travel on down the road until they see the iron mine community, but it is before noon. They decide to hide and wait until Alcala has spells while Cyrus spies the town. They go in and look around finding the place deserted and quite wrecked. They start burying the bodies of the miners but notice that the food stores were very recently disturbed. They track footprints into the mine and go in. Soon, they hear the footsteps of someone fleeing and a merry chase through the mines ensues. Finally, almost out of breath, they chase him outside where they can, and he can, see that neither side is hobgoblins. They talk and he, Retsa, tells them about the attack of a small band of hobgoblins, who have taken many of the miners prisoners and marched them out through the hills. They surmise at this point that Luko was exaggerating. They talk about what to do, and Mog decides to lend the man his horse so he can quickly get to safety with the militia while the party chases the trail. The trail is several days old, so there is some urgency in concern for the prisoners. They set out as fast as they can for the rest of the day.
They move on in the morning. They encounter a pair of ogres in the hills which they deal with well, and continue on after Alcala prays. That night after traveling the rest of the day without incident, on first watch a patrol of three hobgoblins passes by, not noticing the camp. Cyrus investigates and makes sounds that the three hobgoblins hear and follow. Klog and Cyrus take them out easy.
The next day they move on, and even with Cyrus running point hidden, they come on the camp of Hul and his hobgoblins without knowing it. The sentry and the party fail to hide well and each are seen by the other. The battle begins with a lot of tactical maneuvering and hiding behind hills, trying to stay out of missile and spell range. Finally, the party moves up and the melee starts. No one goes down but the hobgoblins, and at the end the last two run, with one ultimately escaping. Several miners are freed, including Janos’ son. They head straight towards the city of Sens, not to the mine or quarry.
They travel for three days with the freed prisoners, with only two points of note. Cyrus has been very distrustful of the miners, ignoring them and giving them the stink-eye. On the second day, as night falls, they spot a small cave entrance in the hillside. Cyrus sneaks in but is caught unaware by the shadow in the darkness and it saps his strength. Fortunately, Ingomar was able to enchant Mog’s sword and after a long battle and strength drained from Mog and Cyrus, they dispatch it. Searching the cave, they find an old thigh bone which they bury outside the cave, hoping to put the spirit to rest.
The miners are returned to their families in Sens, and Janos pays the party what he can. Ternado doesn’t recognize them. Mog’s horse is still missing, so they must return to the marble quarry to fetch it. The local militia accompanies them to report. Only a couple days is lost in this way, and they manage to sell a hobgoblin shield to the innkeeper who hangs it on the wall of the Golden Chain.
They set out from Sens that morning and travel the whole day out of the hills. That night, they are attacked by a hideously malformed evil and noisy creature. It stayed out of the light and they could hear it start to summon another, but Ingomar threw a light coin out and revealed it so that Klog could run up and whack it, interrupting the spell. They had wisely cast magic weapon on their weapons, so they made short work of it. Cyrus takes the double bladed axe that it was wielding.
They move on the next day on the road, and then suddenly an ankheg attacks, bursting out of the ground and attacking Bloodfang the packmule. During the fight, it kills the poor mule, but the heroes finish it off. In the afternoon, they pass a contingent of 50 Bluecloaks heading towards Sens. Some wave as they pass. They reach Vichy midmorning, on the way through the city they sell their wares and buy some spell components. They take rooms at the Bag and Flagon and clean up. In the afternoon, they see Balamar and give their report. They talk about the strange creature and suggest some divination to learn more about it. Balamar borrows the axe to look at it overnight. The next day he tells them what legend lore told him: “Burning Fires! Darkness Roams! Destroying Sires! Clinging Loam! We kill! We thrash! Final chill! Blades clash! Warping touch! Hell’s clutch!”
Balamar’s next job for them is fairly straightforward, and this immediately arouses their suspicions. He has a chest waiting up at the city of Voirons, on the coast of the Atlan Ocean, at the docks with the dockmaster, Sazon. He simply wants them to pick it up and bring it back, since there was some trouble with the final delivery arrangements. He advises them very pointedly not to open the chest.
They hear that a Krewaldian caravan is due soon and they decide to wait for it first. Ulmar the merchant sells Klog a masterwork axe, and ropes him and Mog into signing a contract which he mentions in passing that he will speak with them next year about the secondary clauses of the agreement. Ingomar tries to insinuate himself into the inner circle of the merchant/wizard connections to buy magic items, but fails. They brush him off. Cyrus finds another merchant and buys a masterwork shortsword after buying the “short contract” for an addition 25gp.
They leave almost at midday and travel north up the road. A few hours out they meet a work gang of priests of Myrcon tending to the road, and one named Gurm speaks to them and blesses them. They continue on and camp mere hundreds of yards away from Darkwood Deep. During first watch, a fiendish dire boar charges out and attacks them. They have plenty of time to prepare and are able to deal with it fairly easily. During second watch, a pair of hell hounds sneaks up and tries to take out the horses. During third watch, a mob of zombies comes out to attack, but most are turned by Alcala.
They travel all day as Darkwood Deep remains right next to the road. As night settles they get very nervous based on the previous night’s events and turn into the countryside and travel at least an hour. As they are looking in the dark for a campsite, they encounter a huge viper. It poisons Cyrus and Klog very badly. On second watch, a brown bear comes investigating the dead snake that must also be dealt with.
They set out in a rainstorm the next day, and at noon the rain breaks, the wind stops, and they spot a twister touchdown to the northwest. They all freeze and panic, ready to hide in a rope trick if it comes towards them. It doesn’t and they carefully travel on all day. They camp that night, and a shadow mastiff sneaks up on third watch, getting through Mog’s watch. It bays and all panic but Alcala and his horse. He manages to nearly kill it by the time Cyrus comes back from his run and finishes it. Meanwhile, Klog and Ingomar had blundered into Darkwood Deep in their panic. They are attacked by fiendish wolves (Klog) and an ogre (Ingomar). It’s a folly of scattered people, darkness and evil. Klog has to rage and nearly dies but he finishes the last wolf as the party arrives. But then they hear a great cry, the same as what they heard by the farms. Something evil and ancient appears to be watching them and shivers run up and down their spine. As they move out, they hear the sounds of trees crashing as something huge moves towards them. They break out of the forest, bind Klog and rush into the plains away from the forest. They finally have to camp. The two barbarians are very upset with the forest. They vow to come back one day and chop it down.
They stumble their way northward the next day and are overjoyed to see the forest move away from the road as they travel north. They spot a river and soon Capri village. It has a stockade now which is manned by Coalition Guard in their blue cloaks. They talk a bit at the gate about the things they encountered and are directed to the Emerald Crest Inn. Clarena sets them up with rooms and food. They sit at a table where a grouchy man glares at them and tries to dice with them. They learn that no ship is here or expected soon since the lumber trade is bad from the Deep. They are told by the ferryman (Alcala went out alone to talk to him and returned to the inn) that Vertus a day or so down the road, is their best bet.
They head that way the next day and reach Vertus. A bluecloak guard at the gate, Sgt Dreyfuss gives Ingomar the stink eye, not buying his disguise and fake profession “scholar”. He recommends the King’s Coin Inn to them, which is a somber place. The innkeeper gouges them for 5gp each for the room and board.
They go to the docks the next day and see a Krewaldian caravan of 5 wagons loading up on a fine ship. Ingomar rushes up to do business and deals with Ursa the jeweler to buy a couple of ruby chips for an extra 50gp over the normal price. Ingomar is not happy with the contract and even makes remarks that nearly accuse the Krewaldians of being Croyan. Fortunately, nothing comes of it. They find a ship, the Whitecap with Captain Lyro, an easygoing man who takes them to Voirons for 40gp total.
They arrive in Voirons two days later and find Sazon easily. He is suspicious of them at first, but then opens up. He makes an offer to hire them to deal with some strange flying creatures just south of the city on the coast. These creatures have been harassing ships and the party thinks they can help, but only for three days maximum before they must return. Sazon offers to help find passage for them on the journey back while they are dealing with this problem. He recommends the Salty Sailor Inn. They drink grog, get drunk and pass out in their rooms.
They leave in the predawn hours to see if they can see the creatures leave their lair and then go sneak in to ambush them. But their hiding skills are substandard and they are spotted by a one, a steam mephit. The battle ensues and two of the creatures manage to summon two more. The fighting is very intense and it looks very bad for a while, but the party pulls off a victory.
They return to town and get paid by Sazon. They have signed on with Captain Yul and the River Jester, and will leave the in the morning. They have acquired the chest from Sazon, and they are very curious about it. Ingomar discovers that he can’t detect anything about it, and he is suspicious of that. They decide not to open it as advised.
They leave at dawn and travel a whole day on by ship. During the day, they learn from the captain that this new crew seems to be doing well enough, being a replacement crew for his regular guys who all got sick in Voirons. The party is rightly suspicious, and that night they watch them like a hawk. They are ready for the ambush when it comes. Wes, the leader, manages to whack Alcala good while he is on the ground, but that’s the only time they have the upper hand. The party takes them out. At the time of the ambush, they noticed riders had come up on the north bank to wait, apparently for the chest. When they see the party win the battle on the ship, they ride off into the night.
With no crew, they decide they must return back to Voirons, with the party manning the oars. Their inexperience almost wrecks the boat, but they make it by the skin of their teeth. They elect to go straightaway overland to return the chest instead of risking another boat.
Walking along the river the next day, an owlbear comes out of the forest, which has come a bit closer to the river. It hurts Mog some but they finish it. Cyrus has a bright idea and the party follows him into the woods. He casts pass without trace, and they go through the woods a bit and then back on the road. Anyone following their trail would probably see the body of the owlbear and the trail into the woods and assume the party kept going through the forest when they in truth are back next to the river.
They travel a few days with minor encounters with creatures, and they reached Vertus. Fearing that the people who want the crate are inside the city they decide to it and find a nice grove outside to conceal their camp in. That night they feel restless and they feel like they are being watched. The sharp witted Alcala spots a magical scrying sensor near Ingomar. It winks out when discovered.
That morning, at their campsite, they spot a strange stone next to a depression and three trees. A search reveals a catch that when pulled opens up the ground to stairs leading to a tunnel. They ignore it for now because of the important mission, and make a map to its location so they can return. They travel the whole day to Capri Village. Again they skirt around the village and camp in the wilderness. The night is restless, and for the first time they realize that if this continues, they will no longer be recovering spells without proper rest.
They travel past Capri village and Darkwood Deep once again is on the left as they go south. They camp for the night and during third watch, Mog fails to hear the hit squad sneak up and form around them. A wizard casts a negative energy burst and nails the whole sleeping party. The fight is very tough, and it was critical that Alcala managed to turn all the undead that served the wizard. The necromancer and Ingomar dueled in a sense, each dotting the other. In the end, Mog and Ingomar were unconscious and Klog nearly so, but then they prevail and gather the loot. Cyrus goes strips the enemy bodies and finds a purple eye tattoo on the wizard’s chest that he carves out and starts to tan. Ingomar remembers the mark as being Brynmawrian. He is happy to find the wizard’s spellbook, and discover that his name was Caedwul. A bonfire is set to burn all the bodies.
Curiosity has gotten the better of the party at last, especially after this attempt to steal the chest. They open it, and discover it contains a number of books, the largest covered in human skin and adorned with skulls, eyes and bloodstains. They can feel the evil contained within and reseal the chest quickly. They aren’t sure why Balamar would want this book, but it becomes clearer why Brynmawrians are after it.
It rains most of the next day and fog roils around the edge of the Deep as they travel. Night falls and they camp. Immediately during first watch, Klog hears something out in the dark. They fail to see the wolves until they have almost completely circled around the camp. There are three fiendish dire wolves. The party is severely wounded and spell-depleted from the earlier fight with the Brynmawrians and they are easy prey for the wolves. Only Ingomar escapes on horseback with the packmule carrying the package.
A couple of days later, Bluecloaks lead a patrol to recover the remains and belongings of the party after Ingomar makes it back to Vichy. Some are raised in the Temple of Hymdel through Master Balamar’s auspices. They split up the remaining loot from the two dead, Mog and Cyrus, whose spirits do not return.
While recovering in Vichy, they meet Sir Marius Andrei, orphaned brother of Brother Sabathius. He is down south searching for his brother. The diviners agreed to help but it will take some time. In the meantime, he could find some work to do for Balamar. They also meet Bocaccio, a scholarly priest of Epolde and fighter researching and cataloging the history of the Bluecloaks. The school suggested that he would learn much from the source of things that caused the Bluecloaks to be formed. He also is directed towards Balamar. Balamar tells them of a new job that he will soon have for them. He has a caravan of supplies for an archaeological dig site up in Tinagel, however it won’t be ready for another 2 weeks. They adjourn to the tavern to talk about what to do. Klog gets stubborn about returning north back to Vertus to explore that hidden tunnel, but he is overruled. They travel northward the whole day and have to camp next to the Deep. Just before midnight, two of the fiendish dire wolves attack and nearly take out Klog. But they kill the wolves this time.
The next two days are a haze of attacks by fiendish creatures as they move northward towards Capri Village. Here, the attacks no longer persist and they have an easier time heading northwesterly towards Vertus along the river.
They reach Vertus and use the map to find the tunnel. They enter and find a chamber with a chain golem. It nearly kills several of them, but they heal up and then go outside to rest. Before leaving, Bocaccio casts detect secret doors and finds a secret door in the golem’s room. Third watch that night, Marius spots a patrol of 10 horsemen riding around the city.
They go fresh and early in the morning back inside and use the secret door. They go deep in far enough that they are sure they are under the city. They hear a thumping sound ahead and soon encounter two mechanical creatures at a T intersection. Further on they come to what amounts to be a prison section of a dungeon. They find a locked cell containing Saszu, a female rogue. She had a horrific tale to tell. Three banedead come while everyone was talking. Alcala destroys two of them but the last is a really tough fight. The party’s weapons have very little effect on the creature. Finally, they turn it and Ingomar finishes it off with a fireball when it is clear of the party. They go outside through the tunnel to rest for the remainder of the day.
They return and enter a room with four animated suits of armor. They defeat them and recover the arms and armor and a chest of gold. They go down a corridor and find an amazing amount of prison cells. They find another banedead which Alcala destroys easily. They find a room with a fungus but wisely avoid it. In a torture chamber they deal with a wight without any difficulty, but in the following room with a pool of water, Klog gets caught and nearly drowns. Incidental damage from the party members has been really bad on Klog. During the night Alcala blows up a lone banedead that tries to sneak in the room.
They find the stairs up but stay down and explore the next corridor. They find a ritual room with a huge statue of Gaal. There, an invisible creature tries to fool them by animating the statue. It works for a round or two but Saszu spots him hiding and controlling it. Silence from one of the priests foils the creature. He flees and forms a wall of ice that blocks the party from it. Fireballs break through the ice but causes steam to flood the area, making it hard to see. The creature has to retreat with heavy wounds and there it manages to help. The creature and his new companion teleport back and hide in the fog while invisible. Alcala uses invisibility purge with great effect, but one gets a suggestion off on it making Alcala think that it was reasonable to use all his magic on the statue, effectively taking him out of the fight. They finally take it out but not after it looks really bad and Bocaccio nearly dies.
They recover the next morning, using up a fair amount of healing. They knock over the statue, making a horrible racket and drawing the last two banedead that Alcala destroys with the power of Hymdel. They search further and Marius is attacked by a mismatched pair of pants and shirt. They go up the stairs and find themselves in the upper part of an old, abandoned Temple of Gaal the Harvester. Saszu sneaks out to scout and reports some bodies and the layout of the compound. Ingomar and Marius go out and get attacked by three gargoyles, but some thinking ahead by Alcala has their weapons enchanted so they were easily defeated. The party explores the barracks and notice a bad smell. They think there is something underneath and search carefully. Bocaccio casts detect secret doors and runs around the outside of the building. He rounds the corner of the building and spots a huge garbage pile but fails to spot the otyugh hiding in it. He turns to go back and they leap out to attack, grappling him. One gets him and the other gets Alcala in their grip. They are defeated however after some fighting and neither hero is infected with disease despite the filth. They decide they need to rest and go back downstairs in the dungeon to rest in safety.
They fight some carrion crawlers, the last threat in the temple, and find nothing else. They decide it’s time to leave. Saszu wants to get her horse and they talk about what the future holds. She doesn’t find working for a diviner appealing. Too much like work, so she takes her leave and sneaks out of the gate to get her horse. The others return through the tunnels to the secret exit and their own horses.
They arrive in Capri village and decide to kick back for the rest of the day. They take the time to discuss what magic items they might make at the next opportunity.
They travel all day and are next to Darkwood Deep again. That night after midnight, they are attacked by a fiendish Large Dark elemental, which makes for a tough fight. But Marius’ new abilities including the powerful bless weapon spell makes a big difference.
They move on a full day along the forest and make camp. During first watch, three Vraath come and attack the party and completely overwhelm the poor heroes. The creatures have a psychic ability to transmit the taste of what they are eating to nearby creatures. This horrific ability would turn most men mad. Only Bocaccio survives this battle, but he has gone insane by experiencing the taste of his friends. He runs screaming off into the night never to be seen again. Only one of these creatures falls during the battle. The heroes are too wounded and they are consumed by the creatures.