Episode 2.2

Tony, Brad, Kathy, Greg, Ernie, Bob

The group returned to the valley with the body of Rothez Ash. There was a brief burial ceremony with most of the stunned residents of the valley in attendance.

Later that day, a stranger wandered down into the valley from the canyon to the south. He was a human warrior that introduced himself as Farrion. He was brought to Ceodoc and the rest of the party. Trading information, he told the party that an army of orc's had invaded the forest to the southwest. This had driven monsters out of the forest and into the mountains. Ceodoc told Tony that he would have to wait for three days in observation to make sure he was not still under the donva curse. He reluctantly agreed and spent the time in a cabin under surveillance. He emerged with no ill effects.

During that time, Kathy made a few scrolls. On the second day, Edic brought two grimlock skulls and planted them on poles in front of Ceodoc’s tower. He said they came from a new hole in the ground on the back side of a mountain, just to the east.

Remembering the dwarven runes that were in the lair of the flying creatures that had killed Rothez Ash, they decided to take Kathy to the lair so she could translate the symbols. They took Tony along, giving him a chance to further prove himself. Scouting ahead, he warned them about an upcoming danger. They were attacked by two large creatures that were some kind of bear/bird hybrid that had been hiding, obviously waiting for an ambush. Thanks to Tony’s warning, several of the characters spotted the creatures before they jumped out. Bob blinded them with glitterdust as Tony, Greg and Brad moved in to attack. One creature tried to grapple with Brad but had little success. Kathy fired off some magic missiles while Ernie healed the injured. The two creatures quickly went down in defeat.

The rest of the journey went by safely, aside from some distant wolf howls. Tony reported seeing tracks where it looked like a wolf and the two creatures they killed had met be ore the attack.

At the lair, Kathy deciphered what she could of the symbols. They paraphrased to the following:

The dwarves and elves fought a war against the orcs and humanoids. The dwarves knew they were going to loose so they built a new gate to travel to a deep underground location. The few elves that remained fled to the east to hide in a secluded wood. They left guardians behind with orders to destroy the gates if any humanoids found them. This message was left for any dwarves that might come later.

Back at Stonekeep, the party decided to investigate the area where Edic killed the two grimlocks. He took them to the spot. There was a hole in the ground, almost perfectly round, ten feet in diameter and angled downward into the mountain at about 45 degrees. They went down the tunnel about 50 feet, where it intersected a natural cave. However, before the descent, Tony called a wolf that came to him out of the wilderness. With the party’s permission, the wolf followed them into the caves.

Inside the cave, they found an area of yellow goop. Someone tossed a stone into it. The goop parted, leaving a hole where the stone hit, then began to ooze itself towards the party. Someone shot an arrow at it, which split the goop in half, both halves still moving forward. Greg threw one of his glowing blades at the goop, which divided it into a total of three parts. After that, the spellcasters took over. Several magic missiles and a fireball later, the yellow goop dried up and stopped.

They traveled only a bit farther before hearing the familiar sound of a grimlock calling out, telling them to stop and identify themselves.

Episode 2.1

Tony, Greg, Ernie, Bob

The party decided to spend at least a few days at stonekeep to rest and recuperate. They learned several things while they were there:

Bob had finally gotten over his long illness.

• Ceodoc told them that the people in the valley had built a new house for them to live in.
• A pack of wolves has been spotted watching the valley.
• Someone broke into the warehouse and stole some donva.
• The halfling barbarian, Edic, is apparently an accomplished hunter. He has brought back a few deer since arriving. He will not live in a house, prefers to be alone and sleeps outside.
• Donway, the leader of the guard, asked Tony if he could help train some of the men in how to use dwarven axes. Tony agreed.

Their visitations were interrupted by an alarm whistle. They ran to investigate and found that two ogres had scattered both the sheep and the shepherds, but were now busy battling Edic, who, despite his small stature, had charged at them with his club. Bob enlarged Tony, who charged into them with his axe. Ernie stayed back, ready to heal anyone who needed it. Bob fired off some magic missiles. The ogres were all but defeated by the time Greg arrived, having been in a different location than the rest of the party. After killing the ogres, Ernie healed everyone, including a reluctant Edic.

That night, Ceodoc posted a guard at the warehouse. The next morning, the warehouse had been broken into and the guard was missing. Only his spear remained. Tony volunteered himself and the fighters that he was training to guard tonight.

They talked to Gwiend. She said that Gwibaen was still not back to normal. He will not go into a building, sleeps outside and will let no one but Gwiend get near him.

Two different people approached the party at different times. Each told them that they had seen a “big triangle” in the caves and when they heard the party had inquired about one, they came to tell them about it. The first was one of the captives rescued from the troglodytes. He said he saw one in a large cave not too far from the troglodyte lair but he had no idea how to get to it. The second was a man who had lived in the valley for several years and was known to have periods of emotional instability. He said he saw what must have been a big triangle but that it was long ago broken.

Another alarm whistle sounded and the party ran to investigate. Two large flying creatures had attacked the sheep. They killed one and flew off with it before the party got there. They saw them land on a mountain-top not to far distant and decided to hunt them down. Edic and Torcyn, the other Halfling, insisted on going along.

They hiked for about two hours before they reached the mountain itself and began to ascend. While climbing up a rocky slope, two monstrous spiders popped out from the rocks and attacked Bob. The two spiders were killed but not before Bob was injured.

When they nearly reached the top, they got to another cliff about thirty feet high. They recognized the area as the place where the creatures had landed so they tried to get up the cliff as stealthily as possible. Bob enlarged Tony and made him invisible. Tony did his best to climb the cliff as quietly as he could. When he reached the top, he found a large covered shelf. The flying creatures were here. One was curled up against the back wall but the other must have heard something because it was right in front of Tony and heading towards the cliff. Not wanting the creature to get loose to attack his friends, Tony seized his advantage and attacked. Everyone else tried to get up the cliff as best they could. Edic scrambled up the cliff. Torcyn began to levitate upwards. Greg and Bob began to climb. Ernie stayed back in case someone needed healing. In the meantime, Tony did his worst against the two creatures, severly injuring one of them, but in the end they proved to be too powerful. Everyone who was climbing reached the top just in time to see Tony fall to the ground. His body rolled back off the cliff and landed at Ernie’s feet. Greg and Edic killed one creature. Torcyn hit the other with balls of fire. Bob glitterdusted it, leaving it blind. The blind creature tried to escape by taking to the air, but before it could get very far, Torcyn incinerated it with a raging cone of flame. Searching the shelf, they found a scroll and some coins. One section of the walls was covered with dwarven symbols, but they could not read them.

Meanwhile, Ernie tried to help Tony but it was clear that he was dead. The party climbed down from the shelf then carried the body of their dead hero back to Stonekeep.

Episode 1.11

Tony, Brad, Kathy, Greg, Ernie

Leading the three dozen or so escaped prisoners, the group made their way back to the surface. After leaving the lair and walking into the enormous cavern where they first met the troglodyte guards (episode 1.9), they were challenged by a troglodyte cleric and his entourage of soldiers and grimlock skeletons. The cleric recognized them having met them several days before in a different part of the caverns (episode 1.8). Wishing to avoid a fight when everyone was injured and few people had spells remaining, Greg quickly stepped forward and convinced the troglodytes that they had escaped from a group of grimlocks that had invaded the troglodyte lair. The troglodyte cleric bought the deception and the party escaped before he could figure out the ruse. Before leaving, the he was kind enough to point them towards the tunnel that led to the surface.

Once inside the tunnel, Tony, Greg, Ernie, Kathy and Brad moved out ahead to scout for trouble. Trouble found them as three multi-tentacled worm-like creatures attacked them from ledges above the tunnel. Gwiand had given Kathy a wand of lesser sonic orb to use to protect herself. Kathy used her new wand with good results while Ernie used what little healing spells he had left. Tony and Greg found that their weapons were almost useless against the creatures, but Brad discovered that he had no problems pummeling them with his fists. He quickly finished off two of them before chasing down and killing the third, who had decided to flee down the ledge. While he was there, he discovered some treasure - 120 gold pieces, a potion and a scroll.

Soon after, they found a small side tunnel and after Brad ventured into it for a hundred feet or so, they decided it would make a good resting place for the whole group. While resting, a fourth worm-like creature appeared, but Brad made quick work of it.

While traveling, the group encountered several forks in the tunnel and each had to make a best guess (i.e. make an intelligence check) to decided which way to go. Despite never having a unanimous opinion, they made the correct choice every time.

The next day, they reached the cave that exited to the surface. When they had previously found the cave, it was filled with grimlock and troglodyte bodies. There had been two carrion crawlers feasting on them, which they killed at that time. This time there were no scavengers to be seen, but someone animated eight of the troglodyte bodies into skeletons, which immediately attacked the party when they entered. It was a brief battle, those that were not defeated by Brad's fists or Tony's many spiked-chain attacks of opportunity were destroyed by Ernie when he turned undead.

Upon reaching the surface, the entire group made their way back to Stonekeep. The only moment of tension occurred when a large flying creature ventured too close to the group, apparently looking for a free meal. It was driven off by a pair of magic missile spells from Gwiand before it got close enough to hurt anyone.

Once back at Stonekeep, the residents seemed very happy to see that not only had the party had returned with Gwibaen, but they brought thirty or so more escapees.