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.