Another map to look at.

Here is another map to look at, this one more centered on where you are. The test cave is the small cave in the center of the picture. Unfortunately, you can't look at the mountains and see where all the individual valleys are. To get an idea of scale, the two large black caves are about 50 mile apart.

Episode 1.5

Brad, Kathy, Tony, Wendell, Ernie, Greg

Gwibaen showed up right on schedule, an hour before dawn. Gwiand and Torcyn were with him. Gwibaen took the party to get their equipment. Along the way, Torcyn and Gwibaen argued. Torcyn wanted to along and Gwibaen would not allow it, claiming he was too valuable to risk. In the meantime, Gwiand gave Kathy a potion of cure light wounds and a scroll of lesser sonic orb, telling her that when she got back, that the two needed to share a nice cup of tea and look at some books together. Just before dawn, Gwibaen led the party through the front gate.


During the journey, the party openly discussed what they planned doing next, with several of them leaning towards rescuing the humans, escorting them to stonekeep and then going off on their own, mostly due to their animosity towards the dwarf. Gwibaen tried to convince them that the dwarf was not in charge of stonekeep and that, despite all appearances, the dwarf liked the party, anyway. He also told them that Gwiand was his half-sister.


Late in the morning, the group was attacked by a monitor lizard that was hiding in the bushes. It didn't last long. Later, they discovered the site of a recent battle between some Troglodytes and some Grimlocks. The party had never seen creatures like these before so Gwibaen identified them for the group. There were dead on both sides as well as tracks indicating that others had escaped, in opposite directions. He told them that they often hunt outside but night but that the two groups hate each other. The grimlocks were known for enslaving anyone they caught while the troglodytes generally just ate whoever the encountered.


That night, while Wendell was on watch, the group was attacked by four grimlocks who tried to surround the campsite. Fortunately, Wendell spotted them in time and woke up most of the group. The grimlocks were dispatched after a brief fight.


The next morning, Gwibaen, Wendell and Brad snuck up to check out the enemy camp. Gwibaen was distressed to see two additional foes, an ogre, whom the party recognized as Grunk and a large green rubbery humanoid that Gwibaen identified as a forest troll. Also present was the third bugbear, an orc cleric, an orc captain, two regular orc soldiers, three goblins and a single kobold sorcerer. The party waited and watched. Eventually the cleric gave what looked like a bag of coins to the forest troll and it loped off, heading towards the forests to the south. One orc and one goblin were on guard duty. The rest were playing cards nearby. There was also a large pit covered by a set of wooden bars.


Not long after, Grunk, who had been sleeping nearby, got up, looked around and obviously spotted Wendell. Instead of attacking, he wandered over towards the officers, performed what can best be described as a rude biological function and was sent away by the orc cleric to relieve
himself at a safe distance.


With Grunk gone, the party planned their attack. From their hiding positions, the group started shooting missile weapons, taking out a few enemies in the first round. Gwibaen, Greg, Tony and Brad moved forward and into melee. Wendell fired missiles from a safe distance. Gwibaen took out one of the orcs with his first attack, a critical hit with his short sword, but struggled after that, being hit often by the orc captain’s spiked chain and the other orc soldier’s battle axe. Greg moved forward, throwing his glowing sword as he moved, taking out opponents as he headed to help Gwibaen. He eventually reached the half-elf and the two took down the orc captain and the remaining orc soldier. Kathy took out the orc cleric with her first magic missile, then concentrated her efforts on the kobold sorcerer. Tony fired an arrow and then charged the bugbear. The two traded blows, but Tony emerged the winner, even as the kobold sorcerer shot him with magic missiles. Ernie healed Tony who was severely injured. Brad moved to head off the card players, who, unequipped, ran over to put on their armor and grab their weapons. The orc never left the table, having ended up on the bad end of an arrow. The two goblins never got in an attack, as Brad took them down before they could arm themselves.


The melee lasted for several rounds, with the kobold sorcerer being the most dangerous opponent with his magic missiles and burning hands spells. Tony and Gwibaen were both severely injured, but none of the players went down.

The group freed the captives and searched the bodies. It turned out that one of the goblins that Brad took out was not dead after all, but was faking it. He surrendered right away. There was a brief discussion about what should be done with him. Tony favored killing him, but Ernie objected. They decided to tie him up and take him with them. Tony held him at the back of the pack, with every intention of killing him when he got the chance. Tony took out a dagger and began to plant in on the goblin, but was surprised when the goblin vanished right in front of his eyes, leaving his ropes on the ground.

Episode 1.4

Tony, Brad, Kathy, Greg, Wendell, Ernie

Brad, Wendell and Greg tried to sneak up behind the two bugbears, but in classic Han Solo fashion, their effort failed at the last moment. Despite this, the battle quickly became a rout and the party spent more rounds chasing the bugbears then they spen killing them.

Searching the bugbears, they found a map with several areas marked, including a haunted mountain, a test area, an X (which they assumed was where they were) and a box. They also realized that the bugbears were two of the three that took them and their masters to the test area.

Looking over the hill to see what the bugbears were looking at, they spotted another valley blocked off by a stone wall. The wall was constructed of large rocks, rose about 30 feet into the air and contained a single large wooden door. There were crude battlements on top of the wall. Looking beyond the wall, they could see that there were more battlements on a side wall and a lush valley beyond the wall. They also noticed someone peeking out behind a battlement.

The party grabbed a dead bugbear, drug it down towards the door and called out. In response, a group of humans wielding bows appeared, led by a dwarf whose accent sounded like a bad combination of Scottish and Pirate. He told the party to put down their weapons and come inside. They complied.

Once inside, the dwarf identified himself as Ceodoc, the builder of the wall. The party also met Gwibaen, a half-elvin warrior, a Halfling name Torcyn and a late middle-aged human woman named Gwiand. Each group learned that the other was no longer affected by the donva curse. The dwarf “invited” them to sit with him and have a meal. He explained to them that his primary concern was the security of the keep, called Stonekeep, and that, for the time being at least, he couldn’t allow a group of armed strangers to run around inside the valley. He also couldn’t allow them to leave since they now knew the location of the valley and despite their best intentions, might be forced to reveal that to the orcs. The party didn’t like the situation and protested, most notably Tony, who said he would rather be dead than a slave. Ceodoc basically told them that for now, they just needed to behave themselves and earn his trust. During the meeting, Gwiand came in poring water and serving food and tried to calm Tony down, but had little success. It was accidentally revealed that the party had a map that they found on one of the dead bugbears. The map had markings for Stonekeep, the testing area, a haunted mountain and a non-descript box. Ceodoc copied the map after he told them that keeping things like this from him was not going to make him trust them. He took his copy of the map and left.

After the meeting, Tony started walking around the compound, going into buildings, searching for weapons and generally making a nuisance of himself. After going into two or three buildings, he was approached by a guard who informed him that he needed to settle down or run the risk of getting shot by some of the younger, less experienced guards. Tony wasn’t too happy about that, but he eventually agreed to behave himself.

Meanwhile, Kathy followed Ceodoc to another building. On the way over, he was joined by Gwiand, Gwibaen and Torcyn. She tried to follow them into the building, but her entrance was barred and she could not get into a position to listen in on what they were saying. They eventually emerged. Gwibaen went outside the keep. The others went in separate directions in the valley. The party eventually settled into their own building to rest.

After dark, Gwibaen came to them in secret. He told them he could get them in Ceodoc’s good graces if he helped them and in return, he would give them their equipment back. He said that the box on the map was a group of humans that had been rounded up by the orcs and that he needed their help to rescue them. They were to meet him at the front gate before dawn. The party agreed, but did not promise that after the humans were brought back that they would even stay.

Episode 1.3

Tony, Brad, Kathy, Greg, Ernie

The beetles proved no match for the party and were quickly defeated. After salvaging several of the glowing red orbs and searching the room, the group moved onward.
The next room they found was obviously a tomb. Tony began looking inside the sarcophagi and was disappointed to find that all the tombs had already been searched, the bones scattered about. Inside the room, the party also found the bodies of two crushed beetles.

Opening the next door, the group found the room to be the lair of a very large and very defensive snake. It curled up in the corner with its head some seven feet above the floor and hissed angrily at the group. Tony held his ground, hiding behind his shield, expecting it to spit venom at him. Greg stepped past him and threw his glowing green weapon at the snake ( an ability he demonstrated for the first time), striking it squarely in body. The snake responded by moving out and attacking. It bit Tony in the face, wrapped him in its coils and began to crush the life out of him.

Everyone joined in the fight, trying to kill the snake before it killed Tony. As Tony tried unsuccessfully to free himself, Kathy fired her magic missiles while Greg and Brad attacked the snake as best they could. Meanwhile, Ernie used his healing spells to keep Tony alive as the battle raged on. One final punch to the head from Brad and the snake collapsed to the floor in a heap. Tony was greatly relieved.

After deciding to take a much needed rest, the party continued to explore the dwarven complex. The next room they found was still sealed and left intact. The room contained a bed, bookshelves, a desk, a table, several chairs and an assortment of items scattered on the table including a stone statue of a cat, a metal crystal ball stand, a wooden bowl, a morning star, a glass mug, a wooden pointer (against the wall) and a lamp. On the far wall, there was some type of map carved into the stone. Tony used his forgery skills and copied the map as best he could.

When the party began to search the room, they were unexpectedly attacked by some of the items on the table - the cat, the stand, the morning star and the bowl. They proved easy to hit but almost impossible to harm. After several rounds of futility, Tony decided to just grapple with them. He seized ahold of the stone cat and wrestled it into one of the stone coffins back the tomb, where Kathy and Ernie were waiting to shove the lid closed. They succeeded and then tried again on another item. They, along with brad, ended up trapping two more items before Tony grabbed the bowl, just in time to have Greg slice it in half with a well placed strike.

Having won the battle against the overly aggressive dungeon dressings, the group went back a few rooms and explored some doors that they had left behind. These all led to deadends, circular routes and previously sprung traps. The group then scoured the dungeon for secret doors. They found several.

A secret door in the tomb, led to a treasure chest in a small tunnel. Anticipating a trap, Kathy decided to open it magically from a safe distance. She did not anticipate that the chest would come to life and attack her, which is what it did. She quickly and wisely backed out of the way and let Tony, Brad and Greg handle it. The chest proved to be easier to damage but much tougher than the tiny objects in the previous room. In the end, the party destroyed the chest and recovered the items within.

Another secret door discovered near the room with the map led to a long narrow tunnel that branch off in tow directions. One direction led to another chest. Trying to avoid a repeat of the last encounter, Tony and Brad went and retrieved a lid from one of the stone coffins and used it to crush hit the chest. The plan worked a bit too well. The crushed the, fortunately empty, chest. Behind the chest was another secret door. Undaunted by what happened to the previous chest, they repeated the same operation and dropped a stone lid on this chest as well. Using a bit more finesse (getting a more favorable dice roll), the chest was cracked, but not crushed. This succeeded in setting off the burning hands trap that guarded the chest, resulting in no one being injured. The party took the contents and moved on.

The other branch of the tunnel led to an exit that intersected a natural cave tunnel. On their right, the party could hear the sounds of singing birds and running water, an obvious exit. However, on the right, they heard the same deep voiced sad singing that they had heard a few days earlier, only much louder. Naturally, they went to investigate the singing.

The tunnel led to a very large cavern that extended beyond anyone's visual range. The deep voice stopped singing and had a conversation with them. It referred to itself as “the spirit of the mountain” and was apparently very old. It said that dwarves lived here long ago but that most of them were killed in a war with the orcs a long time ago. He said that the few that escaped were looking for a “big triangle.” He also told them that there was a settlement of humans outside the tunnel they did not take.

The party took the exit tunnel and headed in the direction the mountain spirit told them to go. They found bugbear tracks that also headed in that direction. After walking a while, they spotted two bugbears on the top of a ridge, with their backs to the party, hiding behind some rocks, apparently observing something on the other side of the mountain.

Episode 1.2

Wendell, Bob, Brad, Tony, Kathy, Greg

The party continued investigating the underground complex they discovered the previous week. The first room they entered was covered with bones, weapons and various other pieces of debris. Moving in the room at greater than half speed was dangerous. When they entered the room, they were attacked by a bugbear skeleton which rose up from the bones on the floor. They defeated it after a brief battle, discovering that, against skeletons, blunt weapons are much more effective than sharp ones.

Searching the room, they salvaged several usable items and several doors. They began opening the doors one at a time. Each of the doors they opened led to either a dead-end or a trap. Kathy found a secret door behind one of the dead ends and the party decided to head that way.

The passage they followed led to another large room, similar to the one they left, also covered with debris and skeletal remains. Tony, with his combat experience, could tell by the remains that a battle had been fought here very long ago, between a group of dwarves and a group of humanoids. The floor of the room had a large crack in it. Tony went to investigate it and found the giant centipede that was waiting for someone to attack. There was a brief battle and the centipede was killed.

After the battle, they searche

the room and found a masterwork longsword, a jump scroll and a potion. The potion had a dwarven symbol for "cure" on it. Tony, who injured by the centipede, took a chance and drank the potion. It turned out to be a cure light wounds.

The next room they searched had once been a barracks of some kind. It also had a crack in the floor and an oddly well-preserved blanket in the corner. This time, Tony took several rocks and threw them both down the hole and at the blanket. When he threw the rock at the blanket, a spider scurried out and attacked him. It was quickly dispatched. They took the blanket, which they learned was magical.

Moving on, the party found what must have been an armory. There were racks of weapons - battle axes, light hammers and dwarven waraxes - along with two armored and armed practice dummies. To the surprise of no one, the practice dummies attacked when the group entered.

The battle that followed was intense. Tony went down. Kathy and Bob both used most of their useful spells and ended up shooting arrows. Brad decided to grapple with one of the target dummies. He managed to keep it busy and unable to attack for several rounds. Greg had only recently joined the game and jumped into the fray. Then, a mysterious elf appeared (Wendell) just in time to help finish off the second target dummy.

Searching the room, the party discovered a secret passage that lead back to a part of the dungeon they had already been in. They also found several masterwork weapons - two battle axes, two light hammers and two dwarven waraxes.

After resting for two days, they moved on to the next area. They opened a door and were greeted by a half dozen beetles, each the size of a large dog, with glowing red orbs on the top of their heads. The beetles moved in for the attack.

Episode 1.1

The group began in the valley, waiting for their masters to return. Grunk, the ogre, slept nearby. The bugbears that brought them here had left several hours before, establishing their own camp a mile farther up the canyon.

While waiting, the party heard a disturbance in the dried leaves near the side of the canyon wall. Investigating, they found a snake (which they avoided) and a symbol carved into the wall. They later learned that the symbol was ancient dwarven and meant "Haven." Beneathe the symbol was an arrow pointing down the valley in the direction that the masters went.

Soon, they encountered an unexpected visitor, a kobold, who was obviously sneaking away from something. He stopped and talked to the group, telling them that two days ago, the orcs rounded up all the kobolds in his village and pressed them into the army. There was a big war about to start off in the east. The kobold was running away to hide.

Soon afterward, the masters returned. All of them were injured and two of them (both the mages) were unconscious. They ordered the slaves to attend to them. While they were unloading equipment, a very strange feeling came over the group. They could feel that they donva curse had ended. They also felt better and more confident then they had ever felt before. Looking around they could tell that everyone else in the party felt the same way.

Sensing that something had changed, Brad asked the masters to surrender. They responded by attacking him. There was brief, but bloody struggle. During the fight, Tony noticed the kobold sneaking up behind the party. Deciding not to take any chances, he charged and killed him. The party won the battle, the goblin cleric being the last to fall. They quickly gathered up all the equipment and healed the ones they could heal for they saw Grunk loping down the path towards them.

They were surprised when Grunk did not immediately attack them. Instead, he talked to them, telling them that he was surprised that they killed their masters, considering the donva curse, but that since he was likely to have to kill them himself, all they did was save him some work. The masters were here on some type of mission. They were supposed to prove themselves by killing a monster that lived in a cave at the end of the canyon. Grunk was supposed to kill the masters if they failed or tried to run away. He suggested that they take the bodies and dump them wherever the masters were going, assuming they could kill the monster. He would tell the bugbears that the last time he saw the masters and their slaves, they were heading towards the cave - not exactly a lie, but not the truth.

The party took his advice and went to the cave. There they encountered a pair of animals that walked like a human but was covered in fur. There was a vicious battle that took down Tony, Brad and Greg that was finally ended by a fortuitous bowshot from Kathy. After some frantic healing, the party explored the cave. Inside they discovered another dwarven Haven symbol and a secret door in the floor of the cave.

They went down the secret door two days later, when everyone was healed and rested. They found an ancient structure. In the hallway, was the skeleton of an orc. In the first room, there was the skeletal remains of a dwarf along with a very fragile book that contained writings that they could not read. Tony’s character destroyed the book while trying to look for pictures. Moving onto the next room, they found the door had been kicked in and that the floor was covered with the remains of an untold number of creatures.