New travelers arrive in Althofen. Phineas T. Crabstick and Sir Osric Blukhorel have come from the far north, sent by the temple of Hysor and Colonel Willem Nemelus to find Sir Sabathius and Sir Marius. Locally, Brimstone Jack and his sailing friends Marc Havoc and Xender have returned to find work from Hans, having run afoul of the curse of the Earth Priest, Broderick. They all converge on Kyle’s Caravans to meet a disheveled Hans. He is eager to see Brimstone Jack looking for a word of the missing adventurers he had hired two years ago. He is beside himself with guilt that he might have sent them off to their deaths. He would be very happy if these fellows would go and find word of the missing heroes. To amend for an earlier mistake, regret that he didn’t properly equip the first party of adventures, he throws a big horde of magic items to the new folks. He also gives them a letter of introduction to Balamar at the school of divination which might be a good place to go to help find out what happened to the missing heroes.
They leave immediately for the western road. Phineas, priest of Myrcon, and Xender work to repair potholes in the road. Near the end of the day they find a burnt farmhouse and investigate. They encounter a smoky fiend hiding in the fireplace and they fight and defeat it.
During second watch that night, three howlers circle the camp raising an unearthly howling for an hour, weakening the party’s resolve. When they finally attack, they blindside Phineas completely with two critical hits, killing him instantly. The rest of the party finishes them off and then talk about returning to town to get Phineas raised.
The next day they return to the city and arrive at sunset. They go to the temple of Hysor and meet with the septicant Franklin who agrees to raise Phineas. He recommends the Yawning Portal inn, a slightly up class establishment, for the night. They go there and Phineas buys a whole bottle of brandy. Then the inn sees an unusual visitor – Lady Pine and her entourage. She doesn’t see the party at first, but then recognizes Brimstone Jack and comes over and joins them. She buys dinner, flattering and preening in front of the party, learning some bits of information from them. After she leaves they have a discussion and Marc tries to gather information about the state of the city, the evil in the surrounding countryside, the bluecloaks and so on. The general consensus is that they don’t trust Lady Pine’s motives.
They seek out a large group of people to travel westward with for safety and Marc learns of a caravan from the Falidius Shipping Company heading to Bern, Hunsruck in two days. They sign on as guards under the leadership of Captain Jarvis. There are a few noteworthy merchants on this caravan: Yama a fat, slightly stupid, arrogant gem merchant; Silk, a fine rare lumber dealer; and a dealer of rare antiquities named Master Farel. Yama hints that he arranged for a safe journey and that the guards should be grateful to him for it.
They set out and reach Blasyn, Saarland without any incident on the road. This is a strange occurrence given the history of this particular road. The city looks like it has seen battles and even perhaps a siege. The Saarland guard and Bluecloaks that ride out to escort the caravan look battle-hardened. The caravan is scheduled to stay in the city to trade for two days. The party is released from duty for the time being and is directed to the Full Tankard Inn by talk of some of the other guards. Marc gathers information for the next two days trying to learn about the happenings in the city and about Yama. He only learns a little bit, such as that some say the forest around the city is haunted. Xender hides and studies Yama, observing that he only deals with the richest customers while his servants deal with the rest. Phineas tries to buy something from Farel, but only finds antique housewares available, though Phineas finds it strange that Farel does business in a well-guarded tent away from prying eyes. Osric seeks out the Temple of Hysor and finds that it has recently been burned to the ground with all priests lost in the horrible accident. It’s very, very strange that this has happened to a marble building, he finds.
When the caravan is ready, they depart and find the same uneventful travel though a couple of nights in the Mistgrove Forest. For a few exciting moments, the party sees red glowing eyes at the edge of the forest, but nothing attacks.
When they reach Orbe, Hunsruck, they find that the Coalition Guard barracks is huge and much larger than the regular army barracks. Phineas meets two priests of Myrcon here who are disturbed at the condition of the land these days.
Finally the caravan arrives in Bern, Hunsruck, a bustling metropolis, and home to thousands of Coalition Guard. This is the capital of Hunsruck, and home to the current Coalition Chancellor, the Conjurer King Butard. They take in the city and see the School of Conjuration, which appears to be combined with the ruling establishment. It is a huge complex of buildings on a high hill. Even from below, they can see all manner of strange creatures in and around the complex. The city holds no less than 5 castles within the walls. One of these castles is occupied by Master Berith, who they later see Yama the merchant fawning over. They stay at the Boar’s Bristle’s Inn, having been released from the guard’s contract from the caravan. They learn that most of the Coalition Guard are trained here and strangely, they are being sent North, not east or west to the trouble spots, at the direct order of the Chancellor.
Brimstone Jack decides that he wants to see the School of Conjuration and King Butard’s castle, so he climbs the hill. He marvels at the creatures he sees, and for the most part the blue-robed conjurers ignore him. When he reaches the gates of the King’s palace, however, Brimstone Jack is given pause by the guardian just inside: a blue dragon. It eyes him, and he wisely retreats back down to his companions.
They leave the city to go cross country to resume their mission. As they are leaving the city they see the blue dragon that was guarding Butard’s castle flying above the city. They worry that it is watching them, but nothing untoward happens to them. Towards the end of the day as the sun is setting they are out in the plains, in the wilderness. They spot the fin of a landshark (bulette) rise from the earth, heading to them to attack. It manages to attack the head of the paladin’s warhorse. It chomps on it a few rounds then turns to chomp on Marc to unconsciousness until the party succeeds in killing it.
They travel until they reach a forest, where a wyvern tries to snatch a rider for a meal, but fails repeatedly until it is nearly dead when it snatches Phineas from the ground and tries to fly off. Fortunately, it was low enough for Osric to charge it and slay it with his lance. They turn right and travel along the forest about a hundred yards out. That night during third watch they hear something coming in the night, walking very loudly. Phineas uses the wand of daylight and illuminates a troll. They finish it quickly, but it takes several rounds for this new party to learn about trolls and fire.
They travel along the edge of this forest heading north, believing it to be Darkwood Deep. After another day of travel, they notice that the sun is setting directly ahead: they have turned west as they edged around the forest.
After more travel, they notice that they forest is now turning southwest, and then south as the day progresses. They are confused, but decide to continue on for a couple more days. At nightfall, Phineas flies up a hundred feet to scout. He doesn’t see anything new. They push on, encountering a few strange creatures such as a manticore.
A couple of days later they spot a campfire on the horizon. Marc and Xender sneak off in the forest to scout it. They arrive in time to spot ogres ordering orcs to come get the party. They return with the orcs not far behind. The orcs are poor at sneaking, allowing the party to use ranged weapons first. Brimstone Jack and Sir Osric are deadly with their lances and horses and they wipe up the field. In the end, only one orc is able to flee into the forest, and the party only took minor wounds. They recover the arms and armor and some gold and silver at the camp. They also find a roasting human body which Osric buries some distance from the forest. Brimstone Jack throws the tents into the fire and burns evidence of the raiding party.
They travel the one more day along the forest and set up camp. They decide that tomorrow they will set out straight west cross country. That night on third watch, the sharp eared Marc hears something flying over. He screamed out and dove for cover. A red abishai devil messenger was flying over and sensed the party, especially the good paladin, and decided to attack him. They party turns the tables and fortunately Sir Osric blessed his weapon and was able to finish the creature without much fuss. During the fight, Xender revealed that he can cast clerical spells. This sparks a long discussion about honesty and roles within the party. They travel cross country as they intended the next day, as it rains steadily. They come across a dire snake which manages to kill Brimstone Jack’s horse, Stormbreaker.
They reach a road and take it, heading northwesterly. Not long later, they meet Inga and May, two old ladies who were visiting their sister Corey in Krewald, and are now returning to Dol, Deir es Mal. They have a carriage and a number of guards with them. They talk and one of the ladies gives Osric a brooch because he reminds her of a nephew. The ladies tell them how to get to Vichy, and they recommend an inn (the Wine of Heaven). They also tell them where they live in Dol and invite them to visit anytime. They reach Romont, Hunsruck, a city on the Neklar River, and part ways with the ladies. Phineas shops and buys powdered silver to bless water with. They buy some new horses, including Lightning for Brimstone Jack. The look for a river boat to sign on with, hoping to make some time they might have lost with overland travel. They sign on with the Gray Sea, under captain Bofort
Saszu is in Romont, having traveled southeasterly the past month since her adventure in Vertus. She has run out of money and gone back to her roguish ways. However, he was recently caught while working a house by Master Farthon, the owner. He decides to use her to deliver a small box to Vichy and Master Balamar instead of turning her in. She happens to be on the same boat as the party and they introduce each other and talk. Phineas and Sir Osric are eager to hear her tale when she recounts having met Sir Marius in Vertus, Deir es Mal only a month and a half ago.
They travel on the river for a few days, when they reach a river junction and Gramat, Rothland. Some of them decide to stay in town off the boat and find the Sword’s Sleep Inn. That night, Saszu is attacked by an insubstantial creature that drains her before the rest chase it off. However, Brimstone Jack and Xender had stayed on the boat and were out of the fight. Marc had learned earlier in the evening that someone had suffocated in a room here two days ago (and in fact, this particular Inn has been plagued by this creature for much longer than that, if one looks back). Marc goes down after the creature flees and rouses the innkeeper, demanding that he do something about it. The innkeeper refuses. The party resolves and threatens to tell the authorities about the attack to put a black mark on the inn. They leave the inn and return to the boat to continue their sleep.
Travel on the river continues, and to alleviate the boredom, Marc and Saszu practiced sneaking up on each other. They arrive in Roanne, Rothland and Osric goes to the temple of Hysor to report the burned out temple in Blasyn and the strange happenings that he has observed. The temple of Hysor has about 50-60 refugees from Autun there, and he hears a little bit about the troubles from that city within Darkwood Deep. He also learns that Marius passed through here a few months ago. They have fun at the Singing Boar inn, where high clientele intentionally slum it in a fake seedy inn. They learn the best route to Vichy is through Autun to Darkwood Deep, and have some thoughts about it based on the refugees. They decide to risk it.
They leave Roanne to go overland, paralleling the river to get to Autuns via Lyons. They reach the Drome river in one day with their swift horses. As they camp, Phineas has a hunch and looks for human bones, finding some just a few feet from the river shore. Meanwhile, Saszu succeeds at opening the box and finds an amulet on a gold chain. It is a black disk with swirling, moving colors that doesn’t look natural. Phineas digs up the bones and casts speak with dead to learn that this is Johann who drowned. He decides that he must take care of this and gives the bones a proper burial. They travel further, and then they see a band of armed men marching along the river towards them. As they get closer they spot blue uniforms and relax. As they get really close, however, they see that these Coalition Guard are not alive! They are fiendish undead with strangely glowing red eyes and exuding an aura of evil. Phineas turns them to great effect but only after they smite Sir Osric to an inch of his life.
After another night and another encounter with these fiendish undead; ogres this time, but at least they had much gold, they arrive at Lyons. They see black smoke rising from all over the city and in the outlying areas they see the dead bodies of guardsmen and unspeakable sulfurous mounds. The town isn’t walled, and as they ride towards the center they spot burned out temples, and see people fleeing to the boats at the docks, looting as they go. Bodies are everywhere. They reach the last bastion of defense within the city, a barricaded Templeof Epolde. They speak to the leader there, who is definitely not the high priest. The defenders are going to abandon the city with the last 50-60 armed men and at least 100 refugees, but the daylight is about gone and things are much worse at night. The party decides to stay the night at the temple to help defend and to help convince more residents to leave at first light. They want to go out to burn the bodies in the streets, but they hear that many have tried to do that and died. Whenever someone would go out alone, the ground opens up and creatures come out to attack. They decide to stay with the refugees behind the barricades.
The night comes and they strengthen the barricade even more at the Temple of Epolde, tense for the night’s activities. The party also sets up to fight as well as they can, already being severely tapped from their fight the night before with the fiendish ogres. The first thing happens around midnight. They hear crashing across the city and then a red glow soon follows. Things are burning. An abyssal ravager leaps the barricade to attack an Epolde guard, and some of the party fights it. Meanwhile, a Jovoc comes in the other side, giggling and cackling. It’s aura of retribution does horrible damage: each time the creature is wounded, everyone near it takes the same damage. This damage killed a number of refugees. The party also takes a lot of damage from the aura as they take it down. More buildings burn after that and they see thing scurrying in the darkness. Just before dawn, the building directly across the way bursts into flame. They resist the urge to rush out to fight everything they see, and wisely stay with the larger group.
The next day, they stay long enough to see the foolish folks who stayed away from the temple in the night are now dead and to see the refugees on their way. Saszu, who was at first going to continue with the party, has reconsidered her trip back westward where she had that horrible time in Vertus. She entrusts the box delivery to the paladin, the one trustworthy enough to follow through. She exacted his word on the matter and left the party to join the refugees heading east.
The party is now alone within the borders of Darkwood Deep, and now they know the stories are not made up. They feel the menace, and the evidence of the destroyed town raises no question about the danger they are in. They travel along the river towards Autun, encountering more and more fiendishly-possessed creatures: A red salad, a pack of wights who drained Sir Osric and his horse, fiendish trolls, and a fiendish black unicorn who plays games with the party; scribing “DIE” on trees, and teleporting around the party.
They get closer to Autun through the day, finding areas where the lumberjacks work. Stumps appear and the forest draws away from the riverbank. Marc steps in a puddle and his foot comes up red. Searching, they find a ripped off arm, about a week old. Further on they see smoke, more than they should. Then they see something on a tree stump with something sticking out of it. Closer, they discover that it is an armored man on the stump with a halberd driven through his chest and into the stump. The edges of the wound are blackened and his eyes are burned out. It takes a horse and a stout rope to rip the halberd from the wood. They talk about putting the body in the river but are overruled by common sense.
They arrive in Autun, finding it under the control of the Temple of Lugh. The militia and civilian government are all but destroyed, as are the Coalition Guard. The party is scanned for evil, and allowed into the city. They talk a bit with the guards and learn that the city has been under siege for almost 2 years. They head to the high temple, where they see that a fresh wall is being built around it as a last defense. When they mention that they came from the outside and may have information, they are passed up the ranks. They are met by Jeremiah, who knew Roderick, Osric’s father. He also recognizes Brimstone Jack’s name from when Croom and the others passed through. They are interested in that of course since that is their mission, but Jeremiah can’t help them much except to say that he thinks they foolishly pursued someone they shouldn’t have. He doesn’t tell them who that might be. The party learns that numerous messages have been sent by the High Temple north to Arhus and to Deir es Mal to no effect. Reinforcements have been promised, but none have come. Brimstone Jack shares his conspiracy theory about King Butard with Jeremiah, who doesn’t believe it of the Alliance Chancellor. They talk about demons, and Jeremiah tells them that he feels like he’s fought them before but can’t really remember details. He says it feels like a dream or a nightmare, but sometimes so vivid as to be real memories.
The party talks about tracking Croom and company, but the trail is 2 years old. A search of the docks yields no information about whether they had left by boat or where they might have gone. Finally, they decide they are going to risk the Deep along the road, considering that the journey out of the forest can be done in 2 days if they push hard. They stay at the Frozen Axe Inn, and prepare to leave in the predawn hours. Before they leave Marc wants blessings from priests but the party doesn’t allow a lengthy return to the High Temple. He must settle for the closest temple, which turns out to be the nearly defunct Temple of Nuath. He is met by the one lone unkempt priest, who blesses Marc for meeting challenges – May you meet great conflict! Marc is not happy but donates 160sp. They leave, despite the warnings of everyone, including the guard gates. The morning is misty and raining, vision is slightly obscured. They ride on and are swallowed by the forest. A mere 15 minutes later, they spot a fiendish ettin. Choosing not to fight, they use the horses speed to hustle down the road away from it. An hour later, they come across a fiendish Chimera with a blue dragon head blocking the road. It kills Brimstone Jack’s horse, and smites Marc. They take it down finally and recover an emerald worth 1200 gp from one of the goat horns.
At midday, they fail to spot a fiendish plant on the side of the road, and it attacks Marc wounding him bad. They had doubled up the horses so when Sir Osric moved up to attack, the plant was able to snatch Phineas into its maw and swallowed him soon after. The fight was vicious and long, and Sir Osric was swallowed himself at the end as the rest ran away. Phineas succumbed to the acid in the creature’s belly and was killed. Nearly dead, half away from running, the party charged back and succeed in finishing it finally, rescuing Sir Osric.
They heal up and argue about going back or pushing on. They decide to move on, taking the remains of Phineas with them. By nightfall they reach a natural campsite, complete with some wrecked wagons. They camp, knowing that they must rest to regain spells. During second watch, a squad of three bar-lgura attacks the party. The last one succeeds in pinning Marc and was about to teleport away with him when Brimstone finally kills it with a critical hit. They are spent, nearly dead and out of spells, but they make it to morning. They set out again after healing, missing Phineas’ power. About midday, a demon Palrethee steps out onto the road ahead of them, challenging them with the flaming longsword. They charge to the attack and it lays about it with its flaming sword, taking down everyone but Osric, including his horse, until he finally kills it. The wreath of flame around the demon was what really undid the party as they got hurt horribly each time they struck it. Osric moves the unconscious bodies into the forest a ways and prays to Hysor for help. Hysor grants him a refresh of his Lay on Hands and 3 cure serious spells. He uses these to heal his companions and horses and they rush out, hoping that Hysor’s blessing will protect them.
Meanwhile, Skarn is a student evoker of Ulrich up in Huysum, Gwynyth Raius home of the School of Evocation. He dispatches a team of 20 evokers, including Skarn, to the southlands, being fed up with the slow progress of the paladins. They are teleported to many spots around the south to determine what is going on. Ulrich has done this without the knowledge of the king, or the Alliance. Skarn appears just outside of Darkwood Deep next to the road, mere moments after the party makes their rapid exit from the horrors they faced there, heavily wounded and exhausted. He joins up with them
They travel another hour and reach Capri Village, looking for a safe place to rest. Coalition guard man the walls and patrol the city. The men scowl at the brazen Skarn the wizard, clueless of the attitudes of the southlands towards arcane spellcasters. Up north, wizards are respected and important members of society. The peasants flee from him. The party is not made welcome, but allowed in the city, until they reach the Emerald Crest, and Mistress Clarena tries to make them feel welcome. But the peasants in the common room think otherwise. The bard playing on his mandolin stops and restarts. They have to leave Phineas remains out back under a tarp, though Xender thinks of gentle repose for it. They plan on staying here 2 days. Marc mingles with the crowd and learns some things. That Coalition Guard has been coming from Vertus bringing a lot of rumors that are fueling the anti-sorcerer sentiments. Red color sorcerers in particular are causing concern, so that was fueling the stir when Skarn arrived. The townspeople are very grateful that the Coalition Guard is here, since there is no more Deir es Mal militia left. The village would have been swept away if it weren’t for the Bluecloaks. Marc also learned that the Guard has been conducting house to house searches to root out evil and they have been finding it. Some described seeing the demons that were destroyed by the guard.
The next day the party forcefully buys some common clothes for Skarn and tries to explain things to him, before they set out. On the way, they learn from one of the guards that the smoke from the center of town, which they decided not to investigate, was from the burning of a witch the night before. The guards scowl at them fiercely and let the party depart. In the afternoon, in the rain, they are now right up against the Deep as they head south to Vichy.
Though the journey is a mere two days to Vichy, they encounter more fiendishly evil creatures than they had ever thought possible: a fiendish hill giant, 4 black abishai, nad strange mutated fiendish creatures identified as kython. Just before the last fight, they encountered the burned out wreckage of a three wagon caravan. They recover many valuables from it.
Captain Flonnel, Master Yrch, and Master Frederick from the School of Divination ride out with 30 Bluecloaks to meet the party and offer protection. The diviners at first don’t reveal themselves, but later do after seeing the paladin. They admit that they have been scrying the area regularly now because of all the trouble. With this ability they are able to do precision strikes to counter every attack from the Deep. This puts the School of Divination in very good position to defend themselves. The guards watch that night. During third watch, Marc sees the diviners talk with the captain, then go off. He overhears “4 abishai”. They go off in the night, and there is about 2 minutes of fighting. They come back tending acid burns.
When they reach Vichy the next day, they see that the very beginnings of a city wall are being built, and lots of bluecloak and Deir es Mal patrols blanket the area. They ride to Balamar’s where they find three armed men and the recent construction of a guardhouse outside of his manor.
They tell Master Balamar of their mission, and all that they have learned on the way about their mission and about the area. He, in turn, tells them that he doesn’t even need to use magic divination to help them. It turns out that Sir Marius worked for him, and unfortunately, the poor paladin met his end only a few days from the city, along the very road the party just traveled. What remains were found were buried in the town’s cemetery. He gives them Marius’ belongings. As for Sir Sabathius and the other party (Croom and company), Master Balamar recently came into possession of a certain journal that speaks much about them. Along with the journal came a few scraps of paper, a map, and a strange piece of metal. Balamar hadn’t had time to study the metal at all, but he read the journal thoroughly and thinks that the party should now have it since it pertains directly to them.
It is the “cursed book of travel”, called such by some of the many people who have made entries within it. The last possessor was a certain Drake Whistlefinger, who left it behind with Master Balamar. The journal tells almost exactly where the bodies of the now confirmed dead quarry can be found. As for Drake, he went escort a caravan of supplies to an archaeological dig in Tinagel. Master Balamar suggests, fairly strongly, that the party would be best served by going to find Drake so that he can lead them to the bodies of his old companions. They stay at Balamar’s and talk for an hour. They go back to the Bag and Flagon and talk long about what they will do and theories about uncovered information.
They conclude that they might not go after Drake. The info in the book and on the map might be enough to find the Tower where they died without his help. They go to speak with Balamar and he tells them that he feels that there is trouble with the dig. He asks them to give their word to seek out the trouble at the Dig and alleviate it. He can’t locate the 5 wizards, nor Drake, by magical means and that is serious cause for alarm. He also thinks that they will find information within the dig that may pertain to the troubles around the area. In return, he agrees to upgrade their weapons to +2. They agree, however, they must return the day after tomorrow to pick up the items.
They go to the Temple of Arawn to see about raising Phineas. Phineas is raised with a donation of 1100gp from Osric. However, Phineas feels his path is a different one now from the party. He will head west and catch a ship to Arhus to wander the northern roads. He leaves his items behind with Xender. Brimstone Jack visits the temple of Fritha to see about removing the curse, but they are just unable to. However, the ranking priest at the Temple of Surgyth is of sufficient level to succeed at “burning the curse away!”
When they do finally leave northward, they must again risk traveling close to Darkwood Deep. Their journey is immediately plagued by attacks by more creatures: shadow mastiffs and a horrible huge construct of sharp metal and barbs, which kills Sir Osric before they can finish it. The party returns to Vichy to have him raised at the temple Surgyth. While they are back, they hear some locals talking about the return of The Doctor, possibly the resident of the mysterious tower at the southwest side of town. They are interested in the word of the Doctor, enough to delay their departure. Marc goes to Master Balamar’s and reports their progress and asks about the Doctor. Balamar tells him that he should leave that alone, and his tower. After hearing that the party is going west first, he asks, Ah, to the coast? And Marc says, yeah, sure. They leave west, spotting a light on at the top of the abandoned tower as they go.
They are heading completely away from Darkwood Deep, all too aware of the dangers. The journey is much different, even when they spot another forest, this one not tainted with evil. They reach Sens at dusk, the friendly guards wave them in. They stay at the Golden Chain Inn and talk with Banthon, a priest of Myrcon who has just come back from 5 years on the southern side of the mountains. He mentions Asturia, a kingdom on the rise with the banner of the white wolf. They head north a full day out of Sens and reach the Silverbark Forest at dusk. Through the forest, they have several encounters, but they are much easier to deal with, even as they reach the marsh in the middle of it.
When the trees thin as they reach the northern part of the forest, they are almost to Voiron. They move on and a few hours later break out of the forest and can see the city on the coast. They see the harbormaster in the town seeking passage. He mentions the Gull will be heading northward the next day, and they sign on for 50gp each. The three day boat trip to Ath, Tinagel is completely uneventful and they reach the new country in short order. They spot the High Temple of Concin and the horse lords in the small town. They don’t see a single Coalition Guard. They resolve to head right out. They travel the whole day along the high road southeasterly and reach a dirt track leading south, hopefully to the dig. They decide to camp and head down first thing in the morning.
The next morning they head down the track and spot a settlement. They approach the village and see burned out buildings, but no smoke. They immediately find burned warriors piled like cordwood in the barracks. Marc hears the muted buzzing of the strange half been-half fiends hiding next to the buildings, and spots them since they are poorly hidden. The battle begins, and Osric is knocked down during the course of it. They prove to be very difficult as only holy water does real damage to the creatures; the rest is regenerated. The last one tries to escape but is slowed. The party was severely wounded during the fight and they decide to retreat back to the road to rest and recover before they do any other exploration of the village. Nothing happens that night.
They reenter the village the next day and begin searching from building to building. They find the mess hall and Marc discovers the kitchen with a root cellar. Inside he finds the desiccated husk of the body of the cook. He plays a practical joke and pretends it’s an undead for Skarn and Osric. They waste a vial of holy water splashing it before they see the joke. Searching the village, they find destroyed offices, libraries, and a tower with crated artifacts and the bedrooms of the 5 wizards. They see more barracks and are quite disturbed to count 80 dead armed men and the barracks to hold at least as many workers. They have been lied to by Balamar, they conclude, when he said it was a small place with just a few workers. Nothing to worry about. They finally discover the entrance to the catacombs and also that the stables are well set up to leave their horses behind. They descend into the earth to learn what might have happened. They are loud and draw the attack of two bearded devils that they deal with easily. Then they search some more and discover a spiderlike creature playing with two vivisected bodies of jovocs (just like the creature that caused pain at the Temple of Epolde in Lyons) on the wall. It casts a couple of spells but they finish it easily and search, finding nothing.
They continue exploring around the dig, finding various things. They find the remains of battles and charred remains of evil creatures who fought each other but do not discover any reason for it. In one storeroom they find a magical guisarme, At last they enter a vast chamber with writing and images on the walls and are attacked by the strange creatures that have breath weapons. They don’t prove to be too difficult. They discover the translation of the writings on the desks that the archaeological wizards had set up and learn of the three tasks of the Bastion of the Keepers of the Lemegeton, as this place they learn was called: to guard the Brazen Vessel (the Lemegeton), to guard the Black Lord, Octavius Herodonus, and to guard the Sealed Gate of the Lost Lords of the Lower Realms.
They find that they are weakened and retire aboveground to the tower to make their camp. Osric brings the horses in the library downstairs. They spend the rest of the afternoon working on rebuilding a cart after Skarn finds a book in the library. That night, on third watch, a pair of blue, winged devils fly in. They smell the horses and the watchers wake the rest of the party. The party sneaks around, but Marc hits the squeaky stair and the devils fly up to the tower, bull rushing Brimstone Jack from the window. And this after Osric had snuck downstairs. He had to come back up. Fortunately, he had blessed his weapon and they were able to vanquish the foes.
They spend the whole next day resting. They search the offices up in the village even more and fail to find any maps or important notes. Osric finds a sense of calm here, though he can’t explain why. He interprets the feeling to mean that it is safe to rest here. They venture back down the next day and head to the west to discover what could only be prison cells. They see signs of battle and wisps of smoke. They go on and are attacked by 3 bar-lgura. They continue deeper through the cells and are attacked by three more bar-lgura. Feeling drained, they return back to the surface and recover. They work on the cart some. At dusk, there is a tremor from underground. They speculate but don’t do anything about it. Marc sets a trap to have a beam fall on anyone using the ladder to come up out of the hole in the ground. There is a battle underground that night, and the next morning they find evidence of it.
They venture back down to the prison area and a few cells down Brimstone Jack fails to spot a hiding bone devil, which sneak attacks him. During the fight, Brimstone Jack loses his +2 rapier to the slime on the creature. Fortunately, in a pile of broken weapons they find a new magic rapier!
They continue on towards the other part of the cells and encounter 3 jovoc. Fortunately for the party, the demons had poor initiative and everyone was able to scatter while Skarn threw a sonic orb which did massive damage, killing one. Brimstone kills another, taking a whole lot of retributive damage from their aura. They finish the last. They move on to another section and find a secret door leading down into darkness. They elect to explore it, finding more prison cells and noticing that a track through the dust has been created by footsteps. They reach a big metal door, closed with writing upon it, and decide to camp there. They are undisturbed, and now fully rested, they push through the door after Xender learns the language on the doors and that the writing is warnings about disturbing the Black Lord. They know that the mages have been there ahead of them so they ignore the warnings written.
They through the third door a chamber intact, with tables and chalkboards and notes. This room has been undisturbed, unlike the previous rooms where all the desks and papers were destroyed and scattered by the creatures. They see the dried up body of a giant on the floor with evidence that it died by weapons and magic missiles. They also find some bloodstains on the floor. They take the notes and wonder at where Octavius is, feeling a chill down their spine that such a powerfully villain may be free. They go back up and find an alchemical lab where the mages were studying the material of the Bastion. Skarn recovers Juthan’s spellbook. They continue on and enter a guardroom. Two amnizu are guarding this room, and they say that the party shall not pass, before attacking. The fight is very deadly as the devils cast quickened fireballs and their touch steals the mind of Brimstone Jack. More fireballs follow and Brimstone is destroyed, along with his magic chain shirt. At the last, the devils are taken down and the party retreats to the surface to consider their next move.
Late that afternoon, as they are up in the tower, a visitor arrives at the dig. Andraemon is a priest of Arawn sent by High Priest Celso Grebogi of the High Temple of Arawn. The High Temple had been withdrawn the past 20 years. They had put much energy into discovering more about Tuoo, who sent the huge army of undead against them. If it hadn’t been for Yaltan Lunchwicz, they would surely have perished. Lately, Arawn had sent dreams to the High Priest that there was a disturbance in Tinagel that may or may not have anything to do with Tuoo. He would send Andraemon as he had sent many an agent before to discover more. Armed with a fine shield and sword, Andraemon has just arrived and been welcomed into the party with some reservation. Osric Blukhorel has some animosity still against the priesthood for what they did to his family. Unfortunately, Andraemon is unable to restore life to their fallen comrade, Brimstone Jack, who is buried.
They venture back down, and go straight back to the area where the amnizu killed Brimstone Jack. They spot new signs of battle here beyond their own the previous day. They go down a passage and encounter a guarding barbed devil. They deal with it fairly easy but it calls for help and bearded devils from the nearby room come to help. The last one retreated back to the room where the rest lay in wait. Osric takes some wounds and it looks shaky, but they are able to defeat them in the end. They hear sounds down the hallway behind where the devils were guarding take great precaution as they approach, thinking it is a trap. When they finally open the door, they discover haggard and starving prisoners who they meet skeptically at first, as does the spokesman. They detect evil, and the spokesman detects evil too at the same time and they finally relax enough to talk. They lead them out to the tower, feeding them water and food. The leader is Jangle, and he tells them what he knows about his treatment by the evil creatures. Prisoners were regularly taken away, never to be seen again. The 5 wizards were taken away a week ago and the prisoners thought they heard the sounds of some kind of ritual that made the whole place vibrate. They learn that Jangle was the leader of the supply caravan that Master Balamar sent to the dig. There is one crying cracked young man that needs special treatment during this time. In the tower they talk and the journal is brought out that makes the young man fall to pieces even more. Jangles hushes him, mentioning his name, Drake, and the party catches on quickly that this is Drake Whistlefinger. Jangle suggests that he can calm him if they can find a replacement mandolin, which they do after some repairs by Marc. They decide that they must take these refugees to the nearest city immediately so they will be safe. They learn that Drake is probably quite insane, but he is able to point out Master Garanus’ tower where his comrades fell on the map for the party.
The party takes the prisoners to Ath, Tinagel directly to the High Temple of Concin without incident. The priests even thought they could do something for the poor insane Drake. The next morning the party has a much more coherent conversation with Drake. Drake refuses to go back to the dig, the tower, or anywhere else in the south. He will go straight north, perhaps to an island. Osric gives him a note to give to his family, just in case he goes that way. They buy some spare weapons in town that can be temporarily enchanted in case they run into more of the creatures that destroy weapons with their acidic skin. They head back to the dig site and arrive after dark and resolve to sneak down to the first room and listen for signs of battle, hoping to see what is going on. They hear it not long after and sneak up. Marc goes further and spots a palrethee, just like the creature that they encountered in the Deep and jovoc battling a barbed devil and more of the bearded devils with those wicked glaives. He backs out and they are lucky to find that they aren’t bothered by the battling creatures. After, they talk about it and remember the note that was found with the journal about there being in fact two races of these evil creatures. With this more recent discussion, again they notice that 20 years ago as a key time period where many things happened.
They venture down the next day and pick up where they left off where they found the prisoners. They find their way past some very recent digging that unblocked some passages, fighting more of the bearded creatures. They reach an area where the passages become more grand, and larger. They reach a pair of huge doors bearing the image of a white banner on it, the device of Hysor. Beyond, they encounter even larger doors bearing the image of a shield, the device of Duath. They pass through the two doors and enter a large room, spotting many things. On the far side of the room is yawning blackness between two pillars. In front of this are two arcs of shimmering energy, one silver and one white. In front of this has been recently drawn a pentagram of blood. At each of the points is a black iron spike, and impaled on each spike is one of the five wizards, dead with their belongings discarded nearby. Two pedestals at the left and right distant sides of the great room have some kind of object on them.
What commanded their attention first, however, was the hulking horned and winged devil, who said, “Ah, how convenient, 5 more powerful mortals with which to try the ritual again.” The battle begins, and things go very badly once the devil began to hurl fireballs and lightning bolts repeatedly. At a desperate moment in the fight, they must go to the pedestals in the hopes that whatever is there will help. They find a holy spear from Hysor on one pedestal, and a gleaming shield on the other. Andraemon dies with the last breath of the cornugon and its final fireball. They spend long hours of the day searching, learning, and debating the gate and the implications, as well as the wizardly translations of the writings on the wall. They find a map on one of the walls with three stars marking the location of the other two gates that they now know exist. One star is smack in the middle of Darkwood Deep. The other is in the middle of southern tip of the Alsasian mountains, in Croy. They resolve to identify the items, must try to get Andraemon raised, send messages to call in the cavalry from Gwynyth Raius, and then probably head out to do what they must do against the other gates. They search some more and find a false trapdoor in the middle of the room. Within, they find a staff of life apparently left by Arawn. They use it to resurrect Andraemon.
They send messages north, two, one to a cohort of Ulrich that Skarn knows, and another to the one in the temple of Hysor who sent Osric.
Message 1: “Osric Blukhorel here. Gate to Hell open. Archaeological dig 40 miles southeast of Ath. Send help immediately. Guarding it as long as we can.”
Message 2: “Attention Ulrich. Location 40 miles southeast Ath. Excavation bottom. Rift to hell. Demons. Contact Skarn. Send help. Balamar’s diviners discovered dead. Now guarding.”
Skarn gets a sending from Ulrich first thing in the morning: “Received Message Skarn Osric. Preparing Expedition. Three days. Secure area. Don’t die. Ulrich.” They have some argument of about what “secure area” means and in the end they decide to go ahead and finish exploring.
They venture out and find some empty rooms. When they get to an old weapon room, they spot many holes in the wall, which they think is a nasty trap and leave it. They find a kennel with three hellcats in it, but Xender wisely casts invisibility purge and makes the fight much easier than it could have been. They venture out of that section of the prison and head northwards. They find a room that is now a library, mostly intact and Skarn finds another spellbook. They go beyond and find the room where Marc witnessed the demon-devil battle. Here they are attacked by a pack of abyssal ravagers but defeat them, though Andraemon is poisoned and loses some strength. They move on and are attacked by a pair of jovoc’s whose aura of retribution does great damage to everyone. Andraemon is knocked unconscious. The last jovoc evilly hurts himself on his round in an attempt to hurt the party, but the damage is piddly. They elect to return to the gate room to rest before moving on.
After resting, they return back to where they left off, encountering more evil creatures, including some with the acidic skin, which they defeat. They encounter one behind a locked door which has a relief of a glittering gem with radiating lines on it. Through the third door, they find a hallway ending in a door. The relief on this door is more advanced, showing the gem again but now surrounded by men with their arms crossed. They hear guttural chanting behind this door, and know a fight is about to happen, so they take some time to prepare. Behind the door, they encounter two palrethee who have successfully gated in two more of their kind. The party manages to defeat them utterly through tactical use of the corners and Skarn’s wand of ice storm. During the fight, the lead palrethee says that they shall never learn the secrets of the Lemegeton.
They finally break the last door and find the murals describing 24 evil spirits. They find the translations of the diviners and debate about the second door. Ultimately, they go beyond and then through the last after learning about more spirits. Beyond they find a small empty room with an empty pedestal that probably held a gem at some point. They get the full translation of all the murals and debate long over history and the plans of the spirits. With a little prompting, they find the entry in the cursed book of travel mentioning Agares and match it with the 2nd spirit of the Lemegeton. They return to the gate room to keep guard and rest.
Two days later, there is a great commotion outside. Ulrich and Duke Wolfram arrive with a 100 paladins and begin setting up a permanent encampment. Osric finds them when he goes up to water the horses. He leads them down to the gate room and the storytelling begins. Ulrich learns much. He tells some too, of the Lemegeton and him finding it and the nine guardians, but in a far different place than here. They learn that the five wizards were not enough for the ritual to succeed and it would be unlikely to resurrect them. Their souls have been taken. Ulrich decked out in lots of gear and ready for war. At the end, much is revealed. When Ulrich learns that they need to find Master Garanus tower, a wizard he knows, he teleports them all there and they recover the bodies and the skull. The staff of life is used to bring the dead back to life. Croom, John Frie (now without scars), Eldrin, Gnyrll, and Cirro are now back alive. The new party donates many magic items and Ulrich gathers it all up, including Skarn’s finds and just starts handing stuff out to the naked heroes.
Then, the group sits down and begins to talk…