In the first session, the party fought Shipbreaker on the Desperante. Rothjeer and Xhalth used barrels of lamp oil and flaming arrows to damage the enormous beast and let them get safely into harbor. While all of this was going on, Matthus was below deck stealing everything he could, including breaking into Captain Yalar’s quarters. He stole a lot of coin, and found a strange circular stone maze artifact. The party safely made it into Fairfell port and into the Roaming Empress Alehouse, where they were bought a drink by a certain man.
In the second session, the party entered the Roaming Empress tavern and Matthus quickly robbed the man, Tomath, that had bought them drinks and then ran out of the tavern. He gained stole some gold from Tomath’s purse and went to Poorman’s Harbor where he talked to a fishmonger and learned about the city. The rest of the party lured Tomath into an alley and knocked him out then met back up with Matthus. The party travelled to the pit, convinced the guards to let them in and then started a fight with a group of gambling criminals.
	In the third session, after killing the five gamblers, the party is confronted by Ames Gere, head of the Eternal Silver criminal organization. Gere gives them no real other option besides to do a mission for him as repayment for killing the gamblers. The party agrees and spends the night in his underground hideout and gives them food and a place to rest. Most of the party is satisfied with this, but Matthus sneaks off, slips his guard, and attempts to search the place. He’s caught by a member of the Eternal Silver and a fight ensues, where Matthus is almost choked but he manages to kill his attacker, the wench, and escape another guard and make it back to the sleeping quarters. The next morning Gere is furious with the party, and insists on repayment for the death of Lumpy, the man Matthus killed. The party refuses and Gere decides to let them fight in the Arena. The party fights a desperate combat against four bears and manages to defeat them. In the fourth session the party gets sent by Gere to recover a debt from The Hangman. The party heads to the market district where they attempt to purchase potions from an old woman. Matthus attempts to steal the gold after the transaction and a fight ensues, where the party kills the old woman and confronts and escapes from a group of hedge knights that was responding to the scene. From there they make their way to Hangman’s tower where they are convinced to switch sides and join the Hangman’s side of city politics. They are sent to take over a gambling establishment in the southeast of the city. After this, Rothjeer throws rocks at several citizens of mudtown, and kills a street urchin and injures an old man. He also accidently hits a member of the Golden Crown, a mercenary organization present in Fairfell. They head to the gambling house and suss it out before eventually making a play, a desperate fight ensues but the party manages to kill Gere’s men.
The party loots the gambling house, making out with good gold and killing the wife of Jacinyth. They then head to Hangmans tower and inform Dormund about their success, and he rewards them with more gold He lets them know about an out of the way tavern in Littlegate, called the The Hall of Narwhals. The party heads there and on the way meets the gnome brothers Pebert and Monton Fizzweaver stumbling out of the tavern drunk. The party rests and the next day heads out to run errands, they call at Kadu’s Forge in the port district and Matthus orders a grappling hook and buys some ball bearings. They then run into Molly the Widow and convince her to take them back to her house to help investigate her husband and daughter’s disappearance. Once there, Xalth attacks her and the party kills her and tries to escape but runs into some local hedge knights. They surround Xalth and knock him unconscious but Matthus and Rothjeer come around the side of the house and kill the rest of them. As this happens a crowd is forming which eventually turns into a full blown riot. The party revives Xalth and does some looting before they try to escape through the crowd but run into some angry peasants, who they kill with some effort. They escape the riot and head back to the Hall of Narwhals, where they rest and then run into the Fizzweaver brothers again. The gnome brothers proposition the party with the opportunity of a life time.
In the sixth session, the party listened to the Fizzweaver brother’s proposition for a heist on the Mountains Trading company in the port district. Beneath the trading house is a vault carved in the solid rock, with a Dwarven crafted vault door and an intricate Gnomish locking mechanism. The gnomes want the parties help in obtaining Dwarven blasting powder to blow off the locking mechanism to gain entry into the vault. The party agrees to help the Fizzweaver brothers and sets off into the Port district from The Hall of Narwhals. They visit Kadu’s forge and retrieve the grappling hook that Matthus ordered. They circled around through the market district into Mudtown where they went to the Hangman Tower, where they spoke to Dormund about obtaining passes into the Dwarven District. Dormund told the party he could get them passes if they went and retrieved an important shipment that was supposed to be enroute from Farforest. The party agrees and heads back to the Port district where they question some a Coldpeak Ore & Measure noblemen about shipments of blasting powder in and out of the city. After speaking to the noblemen the party decides to attempt to steal the shipping log from the Portmaster, which they do successfully with a clever ruse involving thaumaturgy to mimic the sounds of Shipbreaker to lure the Portmaster out of his office. After returning to the Hall of Narwhals, they found that the Blasting Powder was unlikely to be onboard any ships. They did however, find a ship with a valuable cargo of rubies and spices. While the party was scouting the ship, Rothjeer picked a fight with a group of dog eating sailors. A fierce and bloody battle ensued on the docks, with the party just barely escaping a group of oncoming guards and escaping into the night of the Port District.
In the seventh session, the party returned to The House of Narwhals and rested before heading to Littlegate, where the party had to pay a 5 gold bribe to a guard named Narder to pass through. After passing through Littlegate and hurrying away from The Pit, the party went to the Hangman’s Tower where they met back up with Jamal Jackson. Jamal had been overseeing the transition of the gambling establishment and murdered a peasant in Mudtown on his way to reunite with the party. The party entered the Hangman’s palisade and sold the Shipping Ledger to Dormund for 150g. From there, the party went to the market district where Theren purchased arrows and Rothjeer purchased some wine. Then they went on to Kadu’s forge where Xalth bought a new Halberd for 25g. The party then split, with Jamal heading to the Narissa to scope out a potential heist. The rest of the party returned to Littlegate where they followed Narder to the Guards Barracks and staked it out. They followed Narder from the barracks into the Port District before he discovered their tail and he returned to the barracks quite alarmed. The party decided to wait outside The Roaming Empress tavern for Narder to arrive, which he did in force. A chaotic battle ensued where the party killed nearly a dozen guards before the Imperial Iron Guard arrived and chased them off, with the party just barely outrunning and losing the guards as they sprinted towards the Market District. With the cities bells tolling and guards and hedge knights spilling out into the streets, that is where we will begin tonights session.
In the eigth session, the party snuck their way around the top of the market district where Matthus and Theren used a grappling hook to climb the palisade wall into Mudtown. Xalth and Rothjeer were unable to scale the rope and make it over the wall, so they travelled to the gate between the market district and Mudtown and used thaumaturgy and a bribe to get into Mudtown. From there they snuck through Mudtown to the Hangmans tower where they spent the night resting and hiding. The next day, Matthus disguised himself as a women and returned to The Hall of Narwhals to find the Iron Guard had ransacked the tavern and was abusing the Owner, Emmas. Matthus quickly back tracked through the Littlegate and headed towards the Northeastern gate of the city and sent a message to the rest of the party to join him. The party bluffed their way through the city gates and out into the countryside, where Matthus used charm to obtain a traders horse. From there the party travelled eastward towards Riverbourne and attempted to rob a trading cart. The party kills the three traders but before they could loot the cart, they were ambushed by Kobolds. A hectic and fierce battle ensued where the party slew many Kobolds but were unable to prevent them from running off with whatever was in the cart. That is where we begin tonights session.
The party the Kobolds from the loot train, they rested for a shortwhile and during that the party was approached by their new member Aelar, who Mathus and Theren coerced him into coming with the party. From the party the Kobolds across the fields to a nearby wooded area with a small hil. From there the party entrance of the Kobold cave, killed the Kobolds, then charged into the cave. Inside the cave hectic and fierce battle of the darkness where they slaughter dozens of Kobolds as well as giant wolf that they were keeping in Captivity. The party successfully defeats the Kobolds in the cave and find what appears to the Hangmans shipment inside the cave, and Theren artfully takes the wolf head from the corpse of the wolf. There is a bit of dispute over the trunk of books and Xalth and Matthus get into an altercation over who gets to see the books where is Matthus is killed and then saved by Xalth, after already being in mortal danger earlier in the fight. Theren attempts to get Aelar to kill the Kobold children but he refuses and walks away into the cave, so Theren does the job himself. That is where begin tonights session.
The party begins the ninth session in the Kobold cave after successfully defeating the Kobolds. From there they made their way back to the field and rested in the middle of it, the next day the party spotted a group of mercenaries heading towards Riverbourne. Aelar attempts to speak with the mercenaries but Matthus decides to attack, killing one of the mercenaries. The rest of the party falls back into the wheat fields after the mercenaries charged them and dealt some damage. From there the party splits, with Aelar, Rothjeer, and Theren heading down to the river and sneaking their way to the bridge. Matthus and Xalth decide to stay behind and rest. Both parties head down the road towards Riverbourne, with the party of three ahead by an hour or so. Both parties decide to rest, the party of three in a field off the road. Matthus and Xalth decide they wish to sleep in a house, so approach a nearby farmhouse and attack the inhabitants. Killing both an older armed man and a young child before looting the house and resting there.  From there both parties travel down the road to Riverbourne, eventually arriving not too long after each other. The party of three see the group of Mercenaries, the Goldencrowns, have tied up their horses and entered a tavern near the entrance of the town. Theren meets up with Matthus briefly and attempts to convinces him to join back with the party. Matthus refuses, so Theren, Xalth, Aelar decide to skirt around them and head to the otherside of the town while Rothjeer introduces himself to the Goldencrown members.
The party began the tenth session with Matthus meeting a pair of Dwarves in The Broken Blade tavern and got a mission to kill a trader that was coming into Riverbourne captaining a ship called the The Star of Elysium. Matthus agrees and meets up with Rothjeer, who had just come from speaking with a member of the Goldencrown mercenary company. Together they meet up with Theren who led them to the rest of the party who were staying up at the Merry Hare and Matthus informs the party of the mission. Aelar decides to head to the Magister’s residence to speak with Magister Merek, which he does by successfully bluffing his way past the guards. The Magister informs Aelar about the presence of the Iron Guard and the Goldencrown in Riverbourne, who are here to search for murderers from the Capital. He also tells Aelar about the Gnoll problem plaguing the countryside around Riverbourne. Aelar volunteers himself and his friends to take care of the gnolls, to which Merek reluctantly agrees and sends Aelar off.  He and the rest of the party run some errands, and see that The Ironguard have handbills of some sort, likely bearing the parties description. After completing their errands and dodging some patrols, the party meets back up at The Merry Hare to rest and plan their murder of Kladu.
They go to sleep and awake early in the morning, before spreading out along the lakefront docks to await the arrival of The Star of Elysium. While they’re waiting, Aelar makes a racket with his instrument along a street in the early morning. The ship does arrive after some time, and Matthus sneaks past some guards on the lakefront before attempting to sneak onto the docks but fumbles and reveals himself. He bluffs and pretends to be the Portmaster and agrees to meet Kladu at The Maiden and Cup tavern along the lakefront. Meanwhile, Aelar’s music playing draws the anger of a neighbor and a scuffle breaks out that Rothjeer defuses by attempting to bring it to the attention of some guards, who turn out to be members of the Goldencrown mercenary company. One of them recognizes Rothjeer from his rock throwing in Fairfell and immediately becomes suspicious and demands Rothjeer come with him for questioning. That is where we begin our 11th session.
At the start of the 11th session, Rothjeer had to make a quick escape from the clutches of the leader of The Golden Crown mercenary company, heading through the streets of the city frantically dodging and bluffing his way past guards until he found a root cellar to hide in. Meanwhile, the rest of the party minus Theren head to the docks to meet the crew of The Star of Elysium as they come off of their ship. Matthus again mimics the Portmaster and attempts to convince Kladu to meet him at a warehouse on the lesser used east part of the docks. Kladu agrees before heading off to the Tavern. The party heads to the warehouse and sets up an ambush and waits. Meanwhile Rothjeer waits in his root cellar, biding his time for a bit before emerging and heading off to try and find the others. Some time passes as most of the party lays in wait for Kladu, who eventually arrives outside the warehouse seemingly slightly nervous. The party springs their ambush but quickly realize they are being counter ambushed by the Golden Crown mercenaries, with Kladu as bait. A fierce fight ensues, where Kladu is killed and so is the leader of the Golden Crown and almost all its members. Aelar is knocked unconscious by the armored leader but is quickly revived by Xalth. In the course of the fighting, one of Xalths spells caught the roof of the warehouse on fire. This fire quickly spread during the battle, and when the battle was finished the party fled the burning area into the fields to the west, with the sounds of bells tolling and shouting in the streets. That is where we will begin tonights 12th session.
During the twelfth session the party circled around Riverbourne, sneaking by some guards before re-entering the town from the top and making their way to the Broken Blade tavern. Their Matthus met with the two Dwarves who assigned Matthus the job to kill Kladu, and they paid him 50g for a job completed but also warned him of the trouble he had created in doing so. The party decides to spend the night at the tavern and all purchased rooms their and rested up with the aid of the barkeep Harry Peda. The next morning, they find the streets filled with Iron Guard and they attempt to sneak their way out of the town but are noticed and have to sprint out into the countryside. After making it some distance away from town, the party decides to head back to Fairfell and begin making their way overland back towards the Capital. After a days journey they stop to rest for the night but they’re rest is interrupted by an attack by a group of Gnolls. A fierce battle ensues where the party is nearly surrounded and overwhelmed, but they manage to fight their way out of it and kill the Gnolls and head to the road.
At the start of the 13th session, The party was making their way to Fairfell from Riverbourne and they happened upon a caravan from Dig Boldar that was heading to Riverbourne. The party was attempting to camp the main bridge over the Brass Run, and Xalth fell into the river trying to look under the bridge. He was almost swept down the river but was rescued by the rest of the party, but the books they had recovered for The Hangman were damaged by the water. After, the party decides to forgo returning to Fairfell and instead head to Grayfall in search of new fortunes. After hard travel down the southern road the party arrived at an Inn just outside the town called the The Ruby Dagger.
At the start of the 14th session the party was finishing their rest at The Ruby Dagger outside of Grayfall and then headed into the town itself. They spoke to a town guard to get some information before heading to a rundown tavern in the Ruins of Old Waybury called the Bronze Pipe. While Theren and Rothjeer went inside to find some work, the rest of the party chatted with some local peasants outside and won some money gambling. Inside the Tavern Theren and Rothjeer found a man who was interested in giving them some work. In addition to informing the party about the tale of The Reckoning, he told them about Daydark’s manor which is located some days travel down the path of Shadows in the Shadow Highlands. This rundown manor was once the seat of the proud Daydark family, but ever since The Reckoning has been in a state of disrepair. Still rumored to hold many treasures and family heirlooms, he asked the party to go there and find what they can and bring him back a taste of it. Theren and Rothjeer agreed before heading back outside to inform the rest of the party of their task. The party decided to buy some rations for the upcoming trip and headed off to Grayfalls market, all except Matthus who split from the party and snuck around the back of The Bronze Pipe. Xalth crept after him, unnoticed, and watched as Matthus lit the back of the tavern into a roaring fire. Xalth confronted Matthus, who charged past him and bowled him over and ran away. Xalth, thinking quickly, summoned water from the sky which exstinguished the flames but not before it destroyed the back wall of the tavern and killed some of the occupants. Xalth too, fled, fearing he may be blamed for the inferno.
After buying supplies, the party met back up at the southern gate and headed out of the city down the Path of Shadows. They travelled for most of the day before Matthus decided he wished to dig up some graves alongside the road, from which he found a small pouch of gold. Just as he retrieved the gold, bursting from ponds on either side of the road came two Carrion Crawlers.  A desperate fight ensued, with a majority of the party becoming paralyzed by the crawlers squirming tentacles. Xalth was knocked unconscious and almost killed, but the rest of the party and Theren in particular, came to the rescue and slayed the two beasts. After stabilizing and healing themselves, the party travelled further until they came upon a ruined house alongside the road. Their they rested till the next day and awoke in the morning and continued their travel until they reached the gates of the Daydark manor. Entering the manor itself, they crept up a set of stairs and heard the distant sounds of a woman crying…and that is where we will begin tonights session.
At the start of the last session the party entered a large room at the top of the stairs and encountered eight skeletons who held a Paladin captive. The party engaged quickly and slew the skeletons and freed the Paladin, who’s name is Gastarn Cindershow and who was captured at the manor attempting to defeat the undead. The party was undecided about the Paladin but before they could decide what they wished to do with him, they opened an adjacent room filled with zombies. Theren charged into the room and was quickly mobbed by the zombies and was saved by Rothjeer, who pulled him out through the door. A quick battle ensued where the party slew the zombies and entered the room to find several chests which they looted. The party gained a fair amount of gold in addition to several books, one of which was titled “The life and times of Zurpaxian the Wizard and Theren uncovered what appeared to be the deed to the manor itself. Before they could continue on into the manor, they heard a rumbling roar from the floors beneath that shook the house and let loose dust from the ceiling. And that is where we will begin tonights session.
The party left the room and headed to a door farther up the main room, they entered to find two dead men chained to either side of the room and another door leading on. They entered the door which led to a long hallway and standing in the hall way was a hulking undead Ogre. The party quickly engaged the Ogre, with Matthus attempting to slide underneath it’s legs but instead becoming stuck underneath. After a quick and fierce battle, the party slew the Ogre and continued on down the hallway to another section of the manor. The party returned to the room they originally looted and spent some time attempting to open the door before eventually forcing it and heading the spiral staircase. They arrive on the first floor of the manor and enter into a large chapel area which they saw from above. As they entered, they see a ghostly woman who screamed at them for intruding in her manor. The party attempted to speak with her but to no avail. Before disappearing into the floor, she animated several suits of armor along the walls which came clanking over and began attacking the party. A battle began and Matthus was knocked unconscious before becoming stabilized and the battle continued.
	The party fought a desperate battle against the animated armor before defeating them, some of the party members sustaining some serious damage. Afterward the battle was over, the party decided to attempt to rest in the chapel despite the threat of the ghostly woman. Twice times they attempted to rest and each time their rest was interrupted by various creatures, skeletons and ghouls breaking into the chapel room to attack the party. After the second interruption and hearing the shrieking cries of the ghostly woman, the party decides to head into the basement of the ruined manor to confront the ghostly woman. The party crept down the stair case and Matthus took the lead, finding the way clear but the basement in ruins. The party moved forward and opened the door in front of them which led to a large room, with the ghostly figure of Lady Daydark awaiting them. They briefly attempted to speak with her before battle began, the party attempting to strike down her ethereal form. Xalth fired a guiding bolt towards her, tearing a gaping hole of blackness in her form. The party continued to rain damage upon her while she attempted to bring the party members into her deathly state. Matthus finally struck a killing blow upon her, but not before she released a deathly wail that causes the manor itself to collapse around them as the party members collapse and drift into unconsciousness…...
They awake in the collapsed ruins of the manor basement, with several members of the party covered in debris and boulders. Xalth, Matthus, and Aelar awake and attempt to help the others. Uncovering and waking Theren and Gastarn but finding Rothjeer trapped and unconscious and crushed by a large boulder. They manage to free him but he does not awake and seems badly wounded. While the rest of the party is digging themselves out and brushing themselves off, Matthus uses his grappling hook to climb his way out of the basement to the ground floor. He spots several heavily armed members riding towards the manor and attempts to hide from them before he is spotted by the largest of them and Matthus takes off running. The rest of the party besides Xalth pulls themselves from the basement and greet the armed men and discover they are members of the Oriath guild, from which Gastarn originates. They were here searching for him, and the largest of them Vobontir Swiftblade informs Gastarn they he has important information to tell him but will not do so out in the open. He suggests the group of them travel back to Grayfall together.
While they are talking, Matthus enters the ruins of the manor through a hole in the back wall and picks his way through the dark and collapsed chamber in search of loot. He opens a door to a long hallway and is greeted by two ghouls that charge forward. Matthus attempts to use ball bearings to impede their charge but to no avail, and he quickly scrambles back out of the hole he entered through and makes his way back around the manor to the rest of the party. Vabontir and his men help Xalth and the unconscious Rothjeer from the basement. Vabontir examines Rothjeer and concludes that he himself cannot help him, and he needs the attention of someone wiser then himself back in Grayfall. The party debates their next course of action before Aelar manages to convince Vabontir to give the party one of their horses so they may use it to hitch to a wagon and travel their way back to Grayfall. Vabontir agrees and then departs with the rest of his men, riding at speed back to Grayfall.  The party travels down the road, carrying the unconscious Rothjeer before they find the wagon in a ditch and hitch the horse too it and begin travelling to Grayfall.
The party members take turns resting as they travel, and as they do they notice Rothjeers condition worsening. Rothjeer appears to be having strange, fevered dreams. Luckily, the travel along the Path of Shadows is untroubled and rather quick. The party makes it to the city by late evening and Gastarn leads the party to a house of the Guild Oriath near Brightsword Temple. They bring Rothjeer inside and the guild wakes an older man and brings him downstairs, where he examines Rothjeer and informs the party of what reagents he needs to save him. Xalth hurries off to the market district to find what is needed, and Matthus sneaks outside and attempts to steal the deed for the manor off the sleeping Theren. He is almost successful but Theren awakes and catches him in the act, and demands they fight each other for this wrongdoing. Matthus begins to run inside as Xalth returns to witnesses the scuffle. Theren chases Matthus inside and fires an arrow at him, wounding Matthus in the leg before Xalth comes from behind and sleeps Matthus. The elderly healer, seeing the commotion, casts hold person upon Theren and scolds him for the petty squabble when the life of their compatriot is at risk. After making the seriousness of the decision known, he wakes Matthus and unfreezes Theren and together the party stands around the table where Rothjeer is laid. The elderly healer burns the reagents and circles the table with some incantations and huge plumes of colored smoke engulfs the room.
Rothjeer awoke from his fevered sleep, confused and angry, and threw Xalth into the closest wall before the rest of the party could calm him down. Theren, seeing Rothjeer was okay, left the party and the guild house and disappeared into the night. The party explained to Rothjeer what had happened to him before the Guild Oriath requested that they leave the guildhouse as the favor had been repaid. The party left the guild house and ran into a drunken dwarf in the street who, after Xalth gave him some gold, guided them to a nearby tavern called The Foamy Bears. The party entered the tavern, Rothjeer and Garnstarn immediately rented rooms and headed to rest while Matthus, Xalth, and Aelar got some food and found a table to eat at. Aelar surveyed the busy tavern and set his eyes upon two tough looking Elven warriors. Aelar approached them and, after exchanging stories of adventure, the Elven warrior introduced himself as Emmador Carlyx. He offered Aelar some options for work, guarding a Caravan to Dig Boldar, or protecting a lake barge heading to Riverbourne. Emmador then departed, asking Aelar to meet him back at the Foamy Bears the next evening if he was interested.
The party spent the night in the Tavern, with Rothjeer continuing to have bizarre dreams. The party awoke, broke their fast, and decided to head to the Magisters tower. After some fast talking by Aelar, the party was escorted inside the walls and up tower to Magister Aeirhart’s office. Inside, they found Aeirhart eating breakfast with Emmador Carlyx the elf Aelar had spoken to the night before. The party requested a job to clear out the Shadow Mine south of Grayfall. Aeirhart and Carlyx were not convinced but thanks to the party revealing their adventure at Daydark manor the Magister agreed to pay the party 650 gold if they could clear the mine and he could confirm it.
After making the deal, the party headed to Grayfall proper and geared up for their coming adventure. Matthus bought some ball bearings and loaned Aelar some gold to buy a halberd. Xalth bought some reagants to allow him to cast Divining, and Rothjeer bought some nets. From there, they went to a nearby alchemist and purchased some health potions and Xalth purchased an anti-paralysis potion. Deciding they were as ready as they would ever be, they headed to the south gate of Grayfall where they found Theren waiting for them. Together, they left the city and headed south to the Path of Shadows to enter the Shadow Mine.
The party travelled for some about half a day down the Path of Shadows until they arrived at an overgrown path that led to the Shadow Mine. They took it and arrived outside the entrance to the Shadow Mine where they survey their surroundings before entering the cave. They attempt to sneak forward but Gastarn charges into the main cavern and is attacked by a dozen or more goblins. A fierce combat ensues and the party manages to slay all the goblins and they find themselves overlooking a small pit with chambers branching out to the left and right. Chained up in the pit is a hungry and thin Direwolf. Rothjeer feeds the wolf with goblin carcasses and Xalth casts Animal Friendship and brings the Direwolf into the parties friendship. As that happens, the party is attacked by two groups of Bugbears on either side of the pit. They battle the Bugbears, with the Direwolf dealing significant damage and eventually they kill most of the Bugbears and send the rest fleeing. The party advances down a side chamber to the right and goes downwards, where they find two rooms on either side of them with the doors covered in webs. Xalth burns away the webs and Rothjeer and Gastarn enter the room to find it covered in webs, and an enormous spider comes scuttling out of the darkness towards them.
The party quickly realizes that there is more than one giant spider in the room and a fierce battle begins. Rothjeer and Gastarn are already in the room, battling their way through the thick webs to attack the spiders. Matthus catapulted himself into the room, landing on the back of a spider and slicing it up furiously. While the rest of the party besides Aelyn rushed to help those inside the room. After some excellent grappling work from Rothjeer and some impressive sword work from Matthus and Theren, the party defeats the giant spiders in both of the rooms and looted a significant amount of precious bars of metal from a chest inside one of the rooms. From there the party headed right down a tunnel until they reached a large chamber filled with colorful glowing mushrooms and pools of black sludge. Matthus and Theren cautiously advanced but were attacked by the puddles of black sludge that formed themselves into gelatinous sludge forms. Matthus was hit and his armor was partially melted, causing him -1 AC. They defeated two of the sludge creatures while simulatiounesly being attacked from behind by the surviving bugbears. Despite being surrounded, the party successfully defended themselves from both enemies. From there the party back tracked deciding not to proceed any further into that cave chamber and instead headed northwards to a door seemingly led another room. The party stacked up by the door and Matthus attempted to listen through the door and discover what might be inside the room and when he threw open the door, he saw two shaggy wolflike humanoids that immediately charged towards them.
The party quickly engages the two wolflike humanoids and slays them, the whole party closing in and ganging up on them. After finishing them off, they search the room and find it to be a barracks of some sort. Matthus finds a tattered book in one corner of the room that reveals some history of the Mavete. From that room, the party moves as stealthily as possible westward in the mine and up a shaft. Theren triggers some sort of boulder trap and is stuck in a cavern with a large pond, from which emerges an enormous snake that slithers its way towards him. He attempts to squeeze his way back through the fallen boulders but is unable, but Rothjeer grabs hold of him and using his enormous strength pulls him through the boulder choke. The party retraces their path to a set of stairs which Gastarn charges up, only to encounter a large group of Hobgoblins. The party quickly follows up the stairs and engages the Hobgoblins in a fierce combat, with the Direwolf also coming to assist the party in killing the group of Hobgoblins. After finishing off the Hobgoblins, the party took advantage of Xalths healing and then moved further into the cave. They encountered an enormous well-crafted furnace in a large room which the party examined for a short while before heading westward and finding another door. Inside they heard whispered voices, which they called out too. They negotiated with the people inside and upon opening the door, they met Brulmen Valdorim who had been trapped in the Shadowmine for some time.
The party consulted amongst themselves about what to do with Brulmen Valdorim and his friends and were talking to him when an enormous Umber Hulk burrowed it’s way through the wall of the room and attacked the party. A fierce combat broke out, with the beast sending several party members running away in fear. The party quickly rallied however and fought back against the beast, inflicting great damage upon it before it retreated into the stone walls. After attempting to rest, the beast returned in the middle of their rest and attacked again. They finally slew the Umber Hulk and decided to rest inside Aelar’s Leomund Tiny Hut.
And so they did, taking a long rest before venturing out again and hearing the cries of one of Brulmen compatriots coming from the snake pool room. They ventured in but the huge snake would not appear, so they baited it out by sending Theren in alone. The enormous snake burst from the pool and almost dragged Theren under until he freed himself and the rest of the party laid into the snake with spells and sword. The snake slipped back into the water but Matthus, thinking quickly, cast sleep on the water and the snake rose to the surface where the party killed it.
From there the party headed up the stairs further into the mine while Gastarn attempted to drag the corpse of the snake with him, but he could not. The party went up the stairs and entered a hallway with a huge set of doors, which they unsuccessfully attempted to open before Brulmen produced a key an opened the door. Inside were two huge ogres and a well armored Hobgoblin with a staff who immediately began attacking the party. A desperate combat began, with the party being flanked by a group of dark cloaked figures and eventually the other ogre. With the party splitting their efforts between the two sides, they managed to kill all their foes with the help of Brulmen and the Direwolf. All were killed except the armored Hobgoblin with the staff, who just managed to apparently teleport away while he was at deaths door.
The party collects themselves after the fierce fight with magical Hobgoblin and ogres. Theren examines the main chamber and finds a mysterious note signed Z.X that details his efforts to protect the mine and reveals he has been tracking the party. From there they begin head eastward through the mine, but Theren notices a strange door in one of the hallways leading from the Ogre chamber. He calls Brulmen over to examine it and he recognizes it as a door of ancient dwarven craftsmenship, enterable only by some pass phrase spoken in Old Dwarvish. A language now mostly dead in Vehas, alive only in some of the ancient noble houses of Dig Boldar that trace their lineage back to before The Great Undoing. The party moves on across an underground stream and up a small cliff that leads to a passageway eastwards. Theren sneaks off to head down the passageway and Rothjeer is struck by another bout of visions.
	Theren creeps down the passageway and sees a dozen or so Hobgoblins in a large chamber that has a large pool of water that leads out of the cave. He overhears one of the Hobgoblins tell the group that they must detonate the cache of Dwarven Blasting powder in the mine to prevent the party from seizing control of the place. Gastarn meanwhile, has flanked around the other way. He passes a group of Hobgoblins heading south in the mine, and enters the large pool chamber from the south and promptly charges in and attacks the Hobgoblins. At the same moment, Theren decides to slip from the shadows and attack. Both Theren and Gastarn catch the Hobs by surprise and deal some damage, before the rest of the party and the hobgoblins start to attack. A fierce combat ensues, with Gastarn eventually being overwhelmed and knocked unconscious by the Hobgoblins.
	Brulmen takes the opportunity of battle to slide down the cliff into one of the boats floating in the pool and attempt to make an escape. The party quickly dispatches of the rest of the Hobgoblins and makes a choice, instead of persuing the Hobgoblins south into the mine to stop them from blowing up the place, they choose at try and attack and kill Brulmen for his perceived betrayal. They come quite close, injuring him with arrows and spells but he manages to escape the mine in his boat and out into the open. The party heals Gastarn and discusses what to do next before they hear several earth shaking booms and the mine begins to collapse around them.  They quickly hop into the remaining boats and paddle their way furiously out of the collapsing mine, just barely escaping as it crumbles behind them. They paddle to the shore in persuit of Brulemen, who’s made it to the shore before them and lamed two horses before stealing the other and galloping away.  Theren hits Brulmens horse with an arrow but it continues on.
	The party heals the remaining horses and decides on their next course of action, choosing to send Rothjeer and Xalth after Brulmen on the horses to persue Brulmen to Grayfall while the rest of the party searches the front of the mines so they can track the surviving Hobgoblins.  Both parties manage to find their quarries, with Rothjeer and Xalth chasing Brulmen down the Path of Shadows all the way to Grayfall. The rest of the party follows the trail of the Hobgoblins south down the Path of Shadows until they find what appears to be a cave of some sort, likely where the Hobgoblins were hiding. Rothjeer and Xalth arrive outside the gates of Grayfall shortly after Brulmen, who takes shelter with the guards of the town. Rothjeer is approached by one of the guards and Rothejer bluffs the guard into thinking him and Xalth are hunters who were attacked by a Wyvern, the guard is insistent that he take them to the Magisters tower so they can explain their attack to him.
In the previous session, Rothjeer and Xalth were escorted to the Magisters tower of Grayfall along with their enormous Dire wolf Draug.  Draug was left in the courtyard as the pair were brought up to the magisters office, where they saw a Captain of the Ironguard just leaving the office as they entered. The captain’s gaze lingered on the two of them before he hurried away down the stairs. Xalth and Rothjeer met the magister, who was reading a scroll with an Imperial seal, and informed him of what had happened at the Shadowmine and the destruction of the mine and the organized opposition within. The magister was saddened to hear of the mine’s destruction and informed the pair that he could not pay them for an incomplete job, but upon hearing from Rothjeer that the rest of the party was coming with more information he offered to pay for that. He also questioned the two about where they had come from and what brought them to Grayfall, where they had been before that. He informed the two that the Ironguard were in the city and looking for a group of people specifically.  Rothjeer and Xalth managed to seemingly convince him that they were not who the Iron guard were looking for, though Aeirhart did not seem totally convinced.  Despite what Rothjeer had said, Magister Aeirhart informed them that the tavern The Foamy Bears was a safe place to stay, as the lady who owned it had made a deal with the Iron Guard to stay out of the place.
	Xalth and Rothjeer had to the The Foamy Bears, seeing the Ironguard and their massive hunting dogs patrolling the streets and staying away from them as best as possible. They arrive at the Foamy Bears and enter to find it very crowded with all manner of folk. They greet the pretty elven barmaid owner, who eyes Rothjeer up and down, and they’re able to rent a single room and share it with Draug the Dire wolf. The rest of the party spends the night on The Path of Shadows, rising early to trek their way to the city. Their trip is uneventful, seeing the Wyvern stop it’s circling and fly lazily eastwards to some unknown nest in the Shadow Highlands. They arrive at the city gates and speak to the guards, who taunt Aelar the bard and tell him there’s no way he’s as good as Zane Montagu, a famous bard. The guards tell him that Zane is preforming at The Foamy Bears and if he wants to challenge him to head there. The rest of the party agrees and they arrive outside and manage to convince their way in.
	They enter right as Xalth and Rothjeer are coming up from their room, with Draug in tow. The party meets up and discusses what happened to them while they were separated. Rothjeer informs the rest of the party that the magister will not pay them for the incomplete job in the Shadowmine but he will pay them for any information involving who might have been responsible for the organized forces in the mine. The party is deciding what to do when they are interrupted by Zane Montagu, the bard. Who’s serenading the Foamy Bears. He sings a couple poems before the party antagonizes him to leave but just as he’s about to trudge upstairs, the party challenges him to face Aelar in a bard show down. He comes back down immediately and the two trade rhymes and barbs at each other, with Zane seemingly gaining the crowds attention and affection. Eventually the rest of the party grow tired with this and force him away. But not before he promises he and Aelar will meet again. After this, the party decides to send Matthus and Theren through the city to meet with magister and give him the information about the Shadow Mines. First they stop at a precious metal shop and sell they’re bars of gold and silver. They two of them see Iron Guard and their hunting dogs in the market but manage to evade them and make it to the magisters tower, where they are led up to Aeirharts office.
	They inform Aeirhart of what happened in the mine and hand over the mysterious note they found inside. Aeirhart is shocked when he reads it and quickly informs Matthus and Theren of Zurpaxian and his history in Vehas. The Magister Aeirhart finishes reading Theren and Matthus some lore about Zurpaxian and inform them that he is aware of their identities and the Imperial warrant out for their and their friends arrests and executions. But Aeirhart tells them he will not give them up to the Iron Guard but that they must leave Grayfall for the safety of it’s own citizens. He tells them of three options they can decide upon to follow Zurpaxians trail. One is to head to the Imperial Archives in Shroudport, the other to speak with a friend of his in Dig Boldar, and the other to head to Dustdrift to speak with an ancient seer at the Widows Well who has the power of aftersight. He pays Theren and Matthus 300g for the information they brought him and also warns them about the enemy they have made in Brulmen Valborrim.
	Theren and Matthus leave the magisters tower and head back towards the foamy bears, dodging the Iron Guard who are searching the town. On the way, they pass by Zane Montagu the bard who is singing an insulting poem about Aelar to the townsfolk. They manage to return to the Foamy Bears and reunite with the rest of their party and they debate their next course of action. After a vote, they decide to head back to the cave where they had tracked the Hobgoblins earlier. Afterwhich, they chose to travel to Dustdrift cross country through the Shadow Highlands. They order provisions from the fair barmaid, Larissa, who tells them it will some hours before she has them prepared. So the party sets off into the city, where Rothjeer, Gastarn, and Aelar head to the market place to sell their gold and silver bars to the same precious metal salesman that Matthus and Theren did. While they are there, the salesman tells Rothjeer that he is now willing to pay much more gold for the mysterious object that Matthus is in possession of. He also recognizes Aelar from Zane’s poems and laughs at him.
The party meets each other back at the south gate and decide to head back to the Foamy Bears to wait for their provisions to be prepared. When they enter, they see Larissa pouring drinks from a great glass jug of liquor. She tells the party it’s an extremely potent liquor that she just purchased from a travelling salesman. The liquor comes from the Shattered Isles and is distilled from a variety of ingredients found there. Gastarn and Rothjeer instantly drink some, and Rothjeer pays Matthus gold for him to drink some. Xalth examines the liquor and sees that there is a trace of Titanboa venom, a legendary creature from the Shattered Isles. The three of them become extremely intoxicated, beyond control and so do the rest of the bar patrons who drank some. The Foamy Bears becomes extremely busy, full to the bursting with extremely drunk men, women, dwarves, and elves. The night passes in a blur for those who had drank the liquor as well as those who did not. Sometime during the evenings drunken festivities, Rothjeer apparently judged a Gnome beauty or dancing contest, Gastarn had a conversation with an extremely shady character and found out some interesting information, and Matthus apparently had a midnight duel with a similar character out on the streets in front of the tavern and came out victorious. The next morning, the party awkoke some with terrible hangovers and some not. And they decided it was time to head out down the Path of Shadows towards the Hobgoblin cave, so they collected the provisions they had purchased from Larissa and in the morning light they trudged their way out of Grayfall, perhaps for the last time, and down the path south wards into the Shadow Highlands.
In the previous session the party was travelling down the Path of Shadows heading towards the Hobgoblin hideout they had discovered previously. While they were trudging down the road, the Paladin of the Oriath guild rode up on them travelling fast from Grayfall and asked to speak with Gastarn. He informs Gastarn that a Paladin by the name of Calun Jeer had found and captured a member of the Black Crypt, the same member who was responsible for killing Gastarn’s father Gorwuth. Gorwuth was the former master of the Oriath guild before his murder. The paladin tells the party where Calun Jeer and the member of the Black Crypt can be found, in a small farm across the river east of Riverbourne. He wishes them good luck and departs back to Grayfall. The party discusses what they should do, with Roth Jeer telling the party that Calun was his brother and he wished to kill him. Gastarn similarly wanted the Black Crypt member dead, but wasn’t enthused at the idea of killing the man who captured his father’s killer. As they are deciding, two Hobgoblins riding Worgs break out of the Highlands on the side of the ride and dash down the road in the direction of the Hobgoblin cave. The party finally decides to continue on to the Hobgoblin cave, travelling the rest of the day before camping in the road when night falls. Aelar summoned a tiny hut and the party piled in, except Gastarn who slept outside under a tree. During the evening, Theren works on Roth’s bear cloak, Matthus attempts to bring some magic out of the mysterious stone he carries, and Roth attempts to channel his aftersight to see a vision of his brother which he manages to do though not perfectly. The next day the party awakes, and Gastarn finds a small bag of gold placed on his lap.
	They continue onwards and travel for half of the day before they arrive near the trail to the cave, when they see the two worg riders emerge from the trail, bloodied and torn, and tear off farther south down the Path of Shadows. The party heads down the trail cautiously and attempt to sneak along the rocky path towards the cave, but one of the party members accidently sends a rock tumbling off the side of the path and it crashes into the ground below. Throwing stealth aside, they enter the cave but find the first cavern empty save for the bloody and chewed up bodies of several Hobgoblins and the body of a large troll. Sensing something is amiss, the party proceeds carefully through the cave until they encounter two huge armored trolls. They engage in combat, with Theren casting Spike Growth and Aelar farting a Stinking Cloud. Matthus, who had separated from the party, encounters another troll and runs from it but it gives chase. Eventually the party manages to defeat the three trolls, but not before Gastarn is briefly knocked unconscious and Draug the Direwolf is badly injured.
	The party ensures the three tolls they fought are indeed dead before moving on in the cave where they encounter another huge troll and the Hobgoblin spellcaster Malgroar, except his size has doubled and a fire burns in his eyes. He attacks the party with magic while the other troll charges but the party reacts quickly and kills the troll and then kills Malgroar for good, but not before Malgroar casts several powerful and damaging spells upon the group. The party is healed by Xalth before they hear voices coming from further into the cave in a blocked off section. They discover that a group of Hobgoblins had taken refuge in the back and the cave and wished to strike a deal with the party for their safe exit, offering to give them that Malgroar was seeking. The party agrees and allow the Hobgoblins to dig their way out and they receive a small key from the lead Hobgoblin, as promised, before they start making their way out of the cave. The party spots them carrying a chest however, and decide to attack. A fierce battle ensues, with Theren casting spike growth, Matthus casting grease, and Aelar using invisibility to flank the group of Hobgoblins. The party eventually kills most of them, they interrogate one of them before Roth gives him an honorable warriors death.
The party attempted to recover from their fierce battle with the Hobgoblins. They decide to attempt a long rest in the cave but only an hour passes before those on guard duty hear something coming through the cave. Scouting ahead, Matthus sees that is a group of Iron Guard, likely looking for them. Matthus tells the rest of the party to hide while he attempts to bluff the Iron Guard with a story. He leads the Iron Guard to the rest of the party, who all attempt to bluff them. It doesn’t seem to be working however, with the Iron Guard asking pretty pointed and informed questions. Thinking quickly, Roth Jeer offers them some of the exotic alcohol he obtained from The Foamy Bears owner Larissa. They stupidly accept and each drink some before making their intentions known and drawing their weapons. A fierce and desperate battle occurs where the party just manages to defeat the increasingly drunk Iron Guard, during the battle Matthus opens one of the large metal doors with his key but nothing seems to happen. After the battle is finished, the party moves into the cavern behind the door to find a large pond with a snake statue sitting in the center of it on a rock. Activating the stepping stones a few of them hop across to the center rock and find a riddle carved into a plinth below the statue. Matthus grabs one of the elements of the puzzle and an hourglass begins to start a timer. The party reasoned it out, however, and solved the riddle by feeding the statue the right items in the correct order. The statue opens up to reveal a yellow piece of parchment, and a huge egg wrapped in burlap. The party exit the cavernous room and back into the rest of the cave.
The party departs the cave and heads northwards towards Grayfall, in search of Zayn the bard who sold them out to the Iron Guard. They travel for day or so before arriving back in the city, where they question the guards as to the whereabouts of Zayn. The guard informs the party that the city is fairly empty, as most folk have headed to the other side of the lake for the Fall Festival. The party enter the city and head to The Foamy Bear, where they talk to Larissa the owner as to the whereabouts of Zayn. She tells them that he has travelled to the Fall Festival across the lake, she then leads the party to a private room and brings them dinner. The party decides to head to the Fall festival as well, but they can’t agree about what to do with Draug the Direwolf. Larissa organizes passage across the lake for the party that very night, but the smugglers ship is not big enough to hold the party and Draug. Matthus, Aelar, and Gastarn decided to cross that night while Roth, Xalth, and Theren stay behind to attempt to catch a boat the next morning. While half the party sails across the inky black lake by moonlight, the other half approaches the captain of the lake boat The Newmarket captained by one Rivon Sosk. Rothjeer and Xalth approach Sosk and ask him if he will transport Draug across the lake and to the festival onboard his ship. Sosk is intrigued and asks to see the Direwolf and pet it. He approaches Draug as it growls and backs away from him.
The party manage to calm Draug down enough to let Sosk pet him, though just barely. So as promised, Sosk allows Theren, Xalth, Roth and Draug passage across Lake Kleoth to Riverbourne on his boat The Newmarket. While they sailed across the lake in the morning sun, they encounter another boat coming the other way. As the boat comes closer, Shipbreaker suddenly bursts through the surface of the water and crushes the oncoming ship. The party members on board manage to convince Cpt. Sosk to continue on to Riverbourne, leaving the survivors of the other ship behind. Shipbreaker does not surface again, and they hear the survivors shouting as they sail away. Back at Riverbourne, Matthus, Aelar, and Gastarn entered the town and explored the festival. They separated, with Gastarn leaving to find a tavern. Matthus and Aelar get their fortunes told by a haggard old woman, who proclaims that Matthus should stay away from chickens. Matthus punched her in the face and stole her coin purse before running off into the crowd. He meets back up with Aelar and together they head further into town, where Matthus spies a well dressed man flanked by several guards and decides to follow him. Leaving Aelar, he follows the man and his guards to an upscale tavern and enters. Matthus also tries to enter but is stopped by the guards. Matthus walks a short distance away and tries to attack one with viscious mockery, but fails. The guards chase him down the street and hit him with crossbow bolts, hurting him badly. They corner him in an alleyway, and he just barely manages to escape. He finds an alleyway and licks his wounds. Meanwhile, Theren, Roth, and Xalth finally arrive in the port of Riverbourne and enter the town and explore the festival, trying out different games and learning of the Festival games. Theren and Roth decide to enter the festival games and head off to do so.
They head to the grounds of the games and witness the opening ceremonies, seeing the various contenders including Con Banemoore and Morne Fortin. After the ceremony is over, they head to sign up for the commoners tourney. They encounter a huge line at the sign up tent and begin waiting. Shortly before that, Aelar was returning to the fortune teller to give her the gold owed but saw several guards speaking to her. He approached the guards and explained he wanted to give the fortune teller some gold, but the guards intended to take it from him so he left and headed towards the sounds of the opening ceremonies. There he saw the other three standing in the line to sign up for the tourney and decided to cast stinking cloud on the line, clearing it out and causing a stampede and people to scatter. The officer considered closing the sign ups but was convinced otherwise by the Xalth, Theren, and Rothjeer. As they look for a tavern to spend some time in, they encounter Matthus on the street and most of the party reunites. They head to the Broken Blade tavern and once there Matthus reveals what he knows about the gambling winnings being held beneath them in the basement. He asks the party to help him break into the basement and steal the gold but the rest of the party, besides Aelar, will not help him. Instead, Xalth Theren and Rothjeer head off to the tournament grounds after being informed the commoners tourney was about to start. Matthus and Aelar decide to break into the basement alone, so Aelar casts invisibility on Matthus and together they sneak downstairs. Matthus picks two door locks and discover a basement room filled with various knick knacks and treasures and they begin perusing the stock.
On the tournament field, Xalth Theren and Rothjeer are all placed into the same match and begin the tourney. After a few short minutes, they manage to defeat all opponents besides each other. In the basement of the Broken Blade, Matthus and Aelar hear people coming and spring to cluster in the corner of the room. Aelar grabs a trumpet as he runs to hide, and they hear many people coming downstairs. They see several guards and overhear voices enter the basement, one of the voices quickly realizes things had been taken from the basement. The guards begin to look around the room and as one guard stares into the corner where Matthus and Aelar stand, Aelar whips the trumpet he had taken across the room. The guard sees the trumpet materialize in front of him and fly across the room. He calls out to the rest of his friends. “He’s invisible, and he’s right in front of me!!”
The guards immediately begin to search for the invisible Matthus and Aelar, swiping around the room. Both of the party members attempt to sneak their way through the guards, but mirror each other movements. Aymes Gere begins to cast magic around the room, searching for them. In attempt to distract the guards, Aelar yells out. Aymes turns towards the sound of the noise and casts a spell, but Matthus who is standing in the way, is hit instead. Matthus’s invisibility disappears and he is revealed to the room full of guards. Matthus attempts to sprint out of the room, but all the guards and Aymes Gere try to prevent him. A guard grapples onto Matthus and holds him down but Aelar, still invisible, moves around and casts thunderwave on the guard and Matthus. The blast of force sends both of them flying, but frees Matthus from the guards grasp. Aelar had now revealed himself, however, and the guards turned on him. Matthus casts grease on a group of guards turning the corner from the stairs and attempts to sprint past them, taking hits from some of them who manage to stay standing. He sprints up the stairs and manages to barely get past the two guards at the top of the stairs. Meanwhile, Aelar is beaten into unconsciousness by the guards downstairs. Matthus bursts into the main floor of the tavern, which has emptied out as people went to watch the commoners match. A few more guards are sitting by the bar. They quickly see Matthus and charge towards him, who does his best to escape their grasp but he is crunched by one of their maces and drifts into blackness.
The rest of the party, having won the commoners tournament, is swarmed by the crowd and cheered on. A tall Dwarf approaches them and introduces himself as Lord Trollstone and invites them to dinner and festivities at his encampments out in the fields that evening. The party agrees but decides they must search for their other party members Aelar and Matthus, so they head to the Broken Blade in search of them. Outside the tavern they discover a small crowd, who wish to enter but cannot. Some henchman stand outside barring the way. Xalth manages to sneak his way inside by disguising himself as a Dwarf, but the rest of the party is stuck outside, where Rothjeer slams the henchmans head into the wall and drags him inside. The rest of the party follow, they see the downstairs doors open and head down to find the basement room ransacked and destroyed. They also find a pile of items belonging to Aelar and Matthus but no sign of them. Xalth casts locate object on the mysterious stone item that Matthus had, and though it wasn’t within the distance to locate it, he could sense it was heading northwards. As the sun sets and the great party begins, the remaining party members set off after the object.
As they make their way through the busy night time streets of a Riverbourne during festival, Xalth inexplicably begins sprinting away from the rest of the party with Draug at his heels. The party follows as best they can but eventually lose him when a parade blocks their way. Defeated, the remaining members of the party decide to head to the party at the camps they had been invited too. They arrive to find the tent camps in the full swing of a massive party and they weave their way through the tents and find Trollstone’s encampment. They meet Borator Trollstone, the lord and owner of Trollstone keep, who offers the three of them a deal to win the Festival Melee as a team. He also offers to host them and their friends at Trollstone keep in Shroudport, home of the Great Archive and other ruins of the Dwarven Empire. They agree and depart the encampment, only to hear the booming bark of Draug in the distance. They run towards the sound and discover Matthus in the bush, beaten and bloody and stripped of most of his clothes.  Moments later, Xalth appears out of the forest from his disappearance and reunites with the party. The party members attempt to gear Matthus up as best they can, but he and Theren begin to argue with each other. The arguement turned into a fight, and Theren struck Matthus into unconsciousness but was immediately beset by Draug. Xalth stabilizes and brings Matthus out of unconsciousness. Matthus and Theren continue to argue and verbally snipe at each other as they head back towards Riverbourne out of the bush. Xalth uses suggestion to compel a man to give his clothes to Matthus and the party continues on through the crowded festival streets, Matthus stealing as he goes. They head to the market where Matthus just manages to steal some basic armor from an armor shop. While going through the streets, the party overhears some passersby complain about the nobleman and their party up at the magisters residence. They decide to head there, hoping perhaps to find their other lost party member Aelar.
Aelar meanwhile, awakes in a strange stone room with no windows. He is stripped of most of his clothes and constrained to his bed. After a few moments, Aymes Gere enters and tells him he will perform in a great verbal battle against his rival Zayne Montagu on stage in front of a great gala of nobles.  He is bathed and dressed in a fine silk dublet and led on stage in front of a large crowd and across from him was lead out Montagu. A titanic clash of words and wit took place on the stage, verse after verse was exchanged until it ended in a crescendo and both Zayne and Aelar attempted to kill the other. Aelar was the successful one, leaving Zayne’s lifeless body slumped on the stage in front of a roaring and gasping crowd.
The crowd begins to call for Aelar’s arrest and guards begin to move forward to do so but Aymes Gere steps up and claims his protection over Aelar. Him and his thugs quickly escort Aelar out the hall and into a series of tunnels underneath the Magisters Residence. Meanwhile, Gastarn chats to the bartender at the Jesters Hall down the hill from the residence. While drinking there he is approached by an enthusiastic young man named Leo, who volunteers to be his apprentice. At that moment, Gere and Aelar emerge from a trapdoor in the floor of the tavern and hurry out the door. Gastarn orders Leo to follow them and inform him where they go. Aelar and Aymes Gere are hustled down to the docks. Leo follows them and the thugs through the city and sees them have a confrontation with Jamal Jackson, who is working for the Hangman. Gere and Aelar continue on towards the docks, where they board a boat across lake Kleoth and into the darkness.


The rest of the party is confused as to what to do next. They’re not sure whether to proceed to the magisters residence, as some of them are wounded and need to rest. Xalth casts augery and asks advice from the divine about their course of action but the results received are mixed. They decide to give up the chase of their friend Aelar, and head outside the city to rest. They complete a nights rest in the trees outside Riverbourne, amongst the other travelers and peasants who have set up camp there. Early the next day while the party is leaving the forest they stumble upon an old man who is struggling to leave his tent. They cautiously make his acquaintance and proceed into Riverbourne together, introducing each other along the way. Xalth makes his way to find where the Derby is starting, after hearing it was to start that morning. Matthus and Rothjeer split off and look for houses to rob. Xalth makes his way to the tournament grounds and finds the derby competitors preparing for the race. Being without a horse, Xalth approaches a team of competitors and buys their horse from them in order to compete. Rothjeer and Matthus case a house that looks promising and break their way inside and creep through the hallways. However, one of them alerted the occupants of a nearby room and a man emerges in the doorway with a sword in his hand.
The man that emerges from the shadows of the house is Calon Jeer, with his faithful companion Boruth. Upon recognizing Roth, a fierce duel begins between him, Roth, and Matthus. Matthus casts grease and it immobilizes Boruth, leaving only Calon to face Roth and Matthus. Meanwhile, Xalth is prepares himself for the Festival derby. He makes a plan with Malvin, where Malvin will wait near the finish and cast haste upon Xalth’s horse. As Xalth begins the derby, racing down the streets with the rest of the competitors, Matthus and Roth are engaged in a desperate and brutal battle with Calon Jeer and his enormous magical sword Purifier. Xalth barrels down the streets on his horse, passing opponents and dodging obstacles. Simultaneously, Roth and Matthus are dodging and parrying Calon’s strikes as best as possible. Both parties suffer blows, Xalth’s horse faltering before obstacles and Matthus and Roth being struck numerous times by huge blows.  Somehow, both parties manage to rally and push through. Xalth manages to spur his horse into a second place position, passing obstacles and opponents easily. Matthus and Roth manage to strike some grievous blows of their own and dodge some of Calon’s attacks.
As Xalth races past the very house in which Matthus and Roth are fighting, they manage to strike down Calon Jeer. Roth slaying his own brother and taking up the magical sword. They also quickly behead his hapless companion Boruth. Malvin meanwhile, is in position and casts haste on Xalths horse as he passes by. This makes all the difference, and Xalth speeds past Morne Fortin and crosses the finish line to win the Festival Derby. He is mobbed by the crowd as he makes his way through the streets with Draug and Malvin, where he runs into Matthus and Roth exiting the building with their newfound spoils.
Gastarn meanwhile, had made his way to the magisters residence and gained an audience with Magister Merek. He asked him about DuBrand isle and what he was doing about it, demanding the magister aid him. The magister refused, stating he had no interest in the rumours of DuBrand island. Gastarn cursed him and said the Oriath guild would follow up on the issue themselves. Gastarn leaves the residence and heads to the docks and speaks with the port master to find information about ships that may take them near DuBrand island, he also sends out his squire Leo to find the rest of the party and inform them of his plans. Leo finds the rest of the party outside the scene of Calon’s death and informs them of Gastarns plans and requests. Matthus sends Leo into the house to retrieve Boruths severed head to bring to Gastarn. Then they make their way through the city, Roth stopping at the market to buy a potion. Xalth collects his prize winnings from the magister and makes his way to a tavern along the dockfront with the rest of the party, though Roth splits off and heads to the tournament grounds for the melee. Leo returns to Gastarn with the severed head and leads him to the scene of the crime where he investigates what happened.
Meanwhile, Malvin , Matthus and Draug stop at a tavern alongside the dock front and begin to drink and eat, intending to stay the night. Xalth and Roth make their way through the city towards the tournament grounds to participate in the melee. After wading their way through the crowd, they enter the arena and the melee tournament begins. An intense battle begins between the participants, with Morne Fortin and Con Banemoore being particularly ferocious. The combatants whittled each other down, until only a few remain, Xalth and Roth among them.  Xalth used some magic in an attempt to survive and was called out by another competitor, but ultimately did him no good. Despite an intense effort, both Xalth and Rothjeer were defeated and knocked unconscious by Morne Fortin. Mean while, Gastarn had been investigating the battle scene left by Matthus and Roth. He doesn’t find anything of interest and decides to head to the tournament grounds to watch the melee. He is in the crowd watching, cheering for his companions, and when he saw them defeated he rushed to their aid. He revived both of them and helped them through the city back to the Silver Trout tavern along the waterfront. Their they got rooms and the whole party rested that evening.
The next day, Gastarn convinces the party that heading to the island is the best course of action. So they head to the docks to speak to ship owners about transporting them to the Island, with Xalth attempting to use Suggestion to have a Captain hand over his ship. They did find a Captain who would take them near the island for a price and give them a rowboat to make the rest of the way to their island. The party agrees and heads to the market to stock up supplies before heading to the island. They arrive at the twin markets of Riverbourne and find the closest apothecary and most of them purchase health potions. Then Matthus and Rothjeer head to a blacksmith and purchase weapons and utilities. The party meets back up and heads to the docks to meet with Captain Winton, who takes the agreed upon gold and allows them onboard. Together the party departs Riverbourne and begins sailing across the lake towards DuBrand Isle.
After a few hours of sailing and talking, Matthus examines the mysterious box he took from the body of Calon Jeer. He is unable to open it however, as there is no lock. Xalth spies Matthus examining the box and with a loud boom, he casts Knock and magically opens the box. Inside is a sheet of paper with runes and numbers scrawled all over it, some sort of coded message.  As they examine the sheet, the crew mates of the ship call out that pirates are on the horizon. Several pirate ships approach the parties ship and attack, ramming their boats into the parties ship and attempting to slow it down to board. A fierce battle breaks out, with pirates and party members jumping from ship to ship to fight. Finally, all the pirates are defeated….but Shipbreaker arrives. The enormous beast attacks and attempts to destroy the parties ship. Thinking quickly, Garstarn jumps into the water and misty steps onto the creatures head and swipes at it’s eye. He succeeds in slicing the beasts eye but then is thrown high into the air and almost burnt to a crisp by a blast of steam before crashing back into the water below. Meanwhile, the rest of the party and ships crew rigged together a primitive fireship out of one of the pirates boats and they send it towards Shipbreaker. With a roar of wind and flame the fireboat strikes the blinded beast, who sinks into the water and disappears. As the party catches their breath and surveys the damage, Dubrand Isle appears on the horizon. In the previous session, the party approached DuBrand Isle on the boat. Captain Winton tells the party the time is near and has his crew begin assembling a rowboat on deck to transport the party to shore. The Captain asks for his payment for his transport to the Island, which he feels he has earned. The party debates amongst themselves as to whether they’d like to pay the man, or kill him. They eventually decide they need Captain Winton’s help if they are to ever get off the island again. They negotiate a deadline for Captain Winton and his ship to return in a few days time and look for signs of them. As they get closer to the island, an ominous storm begins to brew above and around the island. Captain Winton is unnerved and as the storm grows, he tells the party it is time for them to depart. The crew of the ship lowers their rowboat over the side and throw down a rope ladder. The party manages to climb down the rocking side of the ship, with water and wind buffeting them. From there they begin to row towards the island, quickly losing sight of the ship through the ever thickening fog. A dull horn sounds in the distance and gets louder as they approach the island.
	They attempt to steer and control their rowboat in the frothing waves, wind, water and rain rocking their tiny boat. Thunder begins to boom and roll across the roaring waves as the party desperately attempts to push forward. They manage to navigate their boat close to shore but are in danger of being dashed upon the rocks, so they row parallel to the shore looking for a spot to safely land. They spot a small river outlet and try to bring their boat on shore but fail and the rowboat is dashed on the rocks, breaking it apart and sending the party members flying onto the rocks. Gathering themselves on the shore they begin to venture into the island. Malvin makes a confession that he knew the story of this island was a fraud and it’s truly a basecamp for the Black Hand. Though visibility and hearing is severely impaired by dense heavy fog and the intense thunderstorm, they trudge through the rain to a cluster of rocks, one of which has a strange inscription on it. The horn continues to sound, more loudly and persistently.
	After the party examines the inscription, they head on further into the island towards the walls of the castle. As they move through the fog they see an enemy patrol coming their way, instead of avoiding it some members of the party attack.  They manage to lure away and kill one of the enemies, but the other manages to escape and sprint away into the fog. Fearing more enemies would be led to their position, the party headed southwards but encountered even more guards. A fight breaks out as the party attempts to eliminate the guards as silently as possible. As they’re doing so however, an enemy patrol with hounds discovers them and joins the fray. The party manages to kill all the enemies and begins to walk the ruined castle walls, probing into the deep fog. The party crept forward along the ruined walls of the castle, peering through the fog attempting to find a way forward. The ominous wail of the horn continues to echo through the rain and thunder, as a search party materializes through the fog heading right towards the group.  Some of the party moves to attack the new arrivals, while some party members move away out of sight in an ambush position. The battle begins as some of the Black Hand members see Xalth and charge forward. they begin to beat upon Xalth but Leo comes charging in and jumps down next to Xalth to help fight with his dagger. The rest of the party position themselves to join the fight, but Malvin kills the majority of the Black Hand group with a well-placed fireball. The blast of fireball drew even more attention to their position however, so the party decided to sneak their way northwards along the sides of the castle walls. They manage to evade the searchers for the time being, but discover another set of walls inside of the castle. It turns out to be a ruined tower turned into a walled camp for Black Hand members.  The occupants of the camp are taking shelter under their tents due to the pounding rain; and the party quickly devises a plan to eliminate all the Black Hand in the tents.  With Xalth casting silence, Rothjeer, Matthus, and Gastarn head down from the walls into the courtyard and begin going tent to tent, killing the Black Hand thugs. Leo, however, is frightened by the silence when he enters its radius and exits the bubble of silence and begins to scream into the night. Xalth, fearing Leo’s screams would alert more Black Hand, sacred flames Leo and kills him. The rest of the party successfully slays the surprised thugs but are themselves surprised by a Black Hand member returning from the search for the party. He spots the party and runs to raise the alarm, prompting the party to hurry their way back onto the walls and out of the ruined tower the way they came.  The Black Hand is onto them however, and a few moments later they find themselves trapped between two groups of Black Hand. A loud clanking can be heard through the fog as an enormous figure lumbers towards the party. The figure is that of a huge troll, which is being forced towards the party by mebers of the Black Hand.
	A fierce battle ensues but the party manages to not only kill the Troll, cleverely using fire to defeat it’s regenerative abilities, but the rest of the attackers as well. Afterwards, the party moves towards a house alongside the inside of the wall of the ruined castle. Entering the house they find two Black Hand members and chat with them briefly before a fight breaks out. On the body of one of the attackers the party discovers an unsent letter, revealing the Black Hands plans to shortly attack Riverbourne. The party is wet and wounded from their time on DuBrand Isle and decide they need to rest and recover. They choose this house as the place to do it and all begin to rest but are awoken an hour later by the sounds of Black Hand members outside. A few moments later, the house is lit on fire. The party scrambles to escape the burning house and manage to do so, but find their attackers have fled into the darkness.  The party decides to press forward into the castle ruins, with Gastarn separating and scouting along the top wall alone. While the rest of the party discovers a large abandoned encampment, Gastarn runs into several more Black Hand members and begins to fight but becomes overwhelmed.
	Hearing the sounds of battle, the rest of the party comes to his aid and Malvin uses a fireball to obliterate the Black Hand members. While exploring the rest of the castle grounds, they discover most of it abandoned. The party decide to rest in the abandoned camp and do so without being attacked during the night. They awake to the weather cleared and visibility improved and they discover some horses in a crude stable nearby. Matthus decides he wishes to take one of the horses and attempts to mount it but then horse will not agree, so Matthus stabs it in the side of the head. Panic breaks out and the horses dash away, but not before Rothjeer angrily puts the wounded horse out of its misery. Malvin, scouting northwards spots some Black Hand members fleeing northwards, and calls for the rest of the party to follow. They head out of the castle ruins and towards the small mountains on the island, where they discover an entrance to a cave heading into the mountain.
	They enter the cave and discover two Black Hand thugs locked out from an entrance further into the cave. The party sneak up on the duo and slay them easily. When confronted with the locked door, Xalth casts Knock and opens the door with an echoing boom. Despite the noise, the party continues on into the darkness as stealthily as possible. Malvin casts light on a rock and the group use it to scout ahead into the darkness. As they pad their way through the winding carved rock passageways the party encounters several groups of Bugbears and Blackhand thugs, who seem to be camping the tunnels. The party manages to fight their way past these groups, though with some difficulty. They continue on into the darkness through the tunnels until they hear the sound of rushing water. Creeping forward, they spy a group of Bugbears sitting around a fire as the cave widens.



The party rushes the bugbears and after a brief and vicious combat, those very bugbears lay dead upon the cave floor. The party was confronted with the problem of how to move forward in the cave, they pondered on it before deciding they needed to cross the river using the boulders as jumping stones. Matthus attempts it but falls into the water but manages to scramble onto a rock. Xalth casts levitate and manages to pull himself along the wall and ceiling to cross the river, and the rest of the party uses the river to carry them down. Once the group had scrambled up on shore aways down the underground river, thoroughly soaked except for Xalth, they discover a small alcove with a chest and supplies.  The party decides to rest here, spending eight long hours near the rushing underground river before awaking and venturing further into the winding mine tunnels.  They soon find a trail of bloody foot prints and follow them for a distance before emerging into an enormous cavern chamber with a fast flowing river cutting through the room. The party begins to probe into the darkness of the huge space, with Matthus in the lead, until a titanic worm bursts from the Earth and begins to move towards Matthus.
He beats a hasty retreat through the cave, yelling for his fellow party members to retreat with him back into the smaller tunnels. Gastarn, however, decides to attempt to jump the raging river that disappears into a gorge in the earth. He trips and falls into the icy blackness and disappears, without the rest of the party noticing. The party regroups within the tunnels and plans what to do next, realizing that Gastarn is missing they head back into the huge cavern to search for him. They do not find him however, and the huge worms bursts again through the floor and charges the party. Thinking quickly, Malvin polymorphs the horrific creature into a large beetle. Matthus scoops up this beetle and dashes to the raging chasm of water and tosses the beetle into the icy darkness where it disappears. Surprised with their good fortune the party continues on into the huge chamber, exploring its corners and discovering treasure before meeting up again at the north end. Gastarn awakes in bright sunlight on the shores of a river outside the mountain, having somehow survived a trip through the tumbling freezing darkness of the underground river.
The remaining party pushes further into the cave, discovering a large white marble door that they cannot open. Matthus also discovers a patrol of veteran Black Hand men searching for them not far down one of the tunnel passages. The four party members spring into action and after a swift but fierce combat, they slay the Black Hand members and find themselves on the shore of another swift underground river. This one has planks leading from boulder to boulder that allows passage further into the winding mine tunnels. Meanwhile, Gastarn is discovered by Draug and Answer the Owl. Draug leads Gastarn to several rowboats beached along the western side of the island before being lead back to a cave entrance by Anser. Gastarn manages to enter by tricking two Black Hand members into letting him in, then he and Draug slay them. He makes his way through the cave, retracing his steps and manages to reunite with the rest of the party. They proceed forward across the rickety planks over the swift river and arrive in a large chamber with a marble white statue. As the party approaches, the statue begins to speak. It presents a riddle to the party which they must solve to pass further, Xalth solves the riddle easily. Doors on either side of the chamber slide open and allow the party to proceed onwards, but the group wishes to take the chest that sits below the statue. As soon as they reach for it, the statue comes alive and combat begins. After a fierce fight, the party blasts and hacks the statue to rubble and dust and find hundreds of gold in the chest. The winding cave tunnels of the Dubrand mines still beckoned however.
The party proceeds forward and finds another set of rickety planks crossing the rushing river northwards. The party has some difficulty crossing however when they see the enormous eel that is swimming in the river. Xalth manages to cross first and quickly sees two guards standing sentry on a bridge. Xalth alerts the rest of the party. They attempt to sneak across the planks but the guards are alerted and leave the area to get help. The party proceeds to the right down a hallway and discover a room with a cell filled with ragged prisoners and some thugs guarding them. The thugs are slain by the party easily, who then turn their attention to the prisoners in the cell. Xalth, Roth Jeer, and Matthus demand that one of the prisoners kill another to gain the freedom of the rest. After many attempts at convincing, none of the prisoners will agree to do so. Xalth casts suggestion on Gastarn and convinces him to strip his armor and enter the cell, which is locked behind him. The party then demands that Gastarn kill one of the prisoners, but he refuses. Finally standing up for his sacred oath as a Paladin of the Oriath guild, he decides to protect the lives of the prisoners and will fight to do so.
 Roth Jeer and Matthus enter the cell and call for Gastarn to make a choice, kill a prisoner or fight them. Gastern decides to fight, but without his armor he is no match for the hulking figure of Roth Jeer.  Though he tries to defend, Roth Jeer strikes Gastarn down with several enormous strikes. The rest of the party then goes about murdering the prisoners in the cell, butchering them and covering Gastarns body in their entrails. Xalth casts spare the dying on Gastarn, who awakes in a changed state. Corrupted by the many evill deeds he had witnessed and by the events that just took place, Gastarn rises as an Oathbreaker. A paladin who has forsworn his holy oath and turned towards the darkness, which he now embraces as the party still sits in the caves beneath the mountains on DuBrand Isle.
Surprised at Gastarn’s changed rising, the party speaks with him and tries to see if he can be trusted in this new state. Not convinced, they’re content with leaving him locked in the cell but the arrival of a horde of Blackhand Veterans quickly changes the situation. A fierce battle commences with the party desperately trying to hold off the large group of veterans who flank them.  After many spells cast and blows taken and struck, the party manages to slay all of the men but one who they leave locked in the cell. They quickly hide away using Xalths rope trick spell and take a short rest in the extradimensional space. Dropping from the ceiling they interrogate the captured Blackhand member before dispatching him and then the party explores further into corridor. They discover several more cell rooms and in each cell room, Matthus gives the same options as before. In one cell full of clearly sick prisoners, Matthus enters and shoves one prisoners head into a bucket of excrement splattering it everywhere.
To the parties displeasure none of the prisoners will do exactly what they wish, and the majority of the prisoners are murdered as revenge. The party pushes onwards, taking a passageway to the north the emerges into a large room filled with many mounds and tunnels. The party stops at the entrance of this cavern and hesitate, scared of what might be living in the mounds. Only Gastarn strides out into the cave next to the mounds and immediately several grycks burst from the mounds and begin to attack him. Matthus and Malvin quickly decide they want no part of the fight and retreat back down the tunnel to the main corridor. Gastarn fights his way across the room, watched by Rothjeer and Xalth who are also attacked by Grycks. Gastarn makes it to the other side of the room safely and beckons for Xalth and Rothjeer to follow but they do not. They follow the rest of the party backwards to the main corridor and join them to westwards back towards the bridge. They soon encounter another large group of Blackhand veterans and a fierce battle breaks out. The party manages to defeat the Blackhand veterans with some difficulty, leaving the way before them free to proceed.

While the rest of the party is battling the Blackhand, Gastarn begins to explore the tunnels on the other side of the cavern. Alone in the damp darkness, he twists his way through the winding passageways until he arrives at yet another underground river. He attempts to cross it by stepping stones but tumbles into the icy water and is pushed down stream and arrives at the bank of yet another chamber. He follows another tunnel until he arrives in a huge chamber with a huge mound at the center. The mound is covered in enormous piles of bones and corpses. Gastarn, testing his luck, pushes forward into the chamber and instantly the piles of bones burst into motion. Twisting, coiling, and amassing together into one form the bones rush towards Gastarn, flying through the air at speed towards him.
Gastarn immediately sprints towards a nearby tunnel entrance and throws himself down it at speed but not before being engulfed by the horrifying mass of bones, which cuts and pierces his armor and garments, tearing into his flesh and slamming him forward. He barely manages to keep ahead of the mass of bones that pours down the tunnel behind him, snapping and clanking at him. A few times he is nearly engulfed again but he continues sprinting down the tunnel . Just as he rounds a tunnel corner and sees a rushing river ahead of him, he is once more engulfed by the bones. They snap his limbs together and begin to carry him back down the tunnel towards the charnel room of bones.
Battered, bleeding, and tired Gastarn somehow manages to break free of his constrictions of bone and hurries back down the tunnel. With the boneswarm once again in persuit, he throws himself into the icy river and disappears under the fast flowing water. Meanwhile, the rest of the party explores the left side of the bridge and discovers it is a dormitory and forge for the now deceased Black Hand veterans. They allow one man, a Captain of sorts, to pass by unharmed. The party finds much treasure and comfort in these halls, as well as new armor and weapons. They rest and eat peacefully while Gastarn surfaces on the riverbank he started at. He rests as well, though not comfortably, on the wet and dark side of the river. Both parts of the party awake at similar times and Gastarn once again tries the stepping stones but is unsuccessful. The rest of the party arrives and rescues him, pulling him up the river, and they are reunited at last. Together they press on across the stepping stones and through more tunnels until they arrive at in a large water chamber.
Assessing that the coast is clear, the party begins to proceed forward but are alarmed at the sudden appearance of a huge hydra from the water at the center of the room. A hectic and fierce fight commences and though Malvin is almost killed, Roth Jeer and Xalth’s combined power make relatively easy work of the enormous beast. It falls, headless necks flailing, back down into the black watery depths and disappears. Leaving the way ahead open.
The party proceeds forward after slaying the Hydra and enter an enormous cavern with a huge chasm in the center. A natural formation of stone bridges the chasm but the party doesn’t try to cross, instead following the caverns sides and emerging into another chamber where they discover a large scorpion guarding a door. After slaying the scorpion they proceed through the door and make their way to a room hidden by a waterstep. Inside several sets of doors they find Deseraix, sitting on a crude throne flanked by his flesh constructs. Words were exchanged, though the party didn’t seem interested in hearing them, and then battle commenced. Flames and spells flew through the room as the party battled against the wizard. After some time, they managed to defeat him and his creatures. Afetr exploring the chamber, the party found much gold and treasure as well as the key to the strange room. When they entered the room they found a large statue of a dragon upon which there was a curious inscription. After a short time examining the inscription, the enormous worm bursts through the wall.
The enormous Wyrm throws itself towards the party but collides with the marble dragon statue, at which point there is a deafening blast and wave of force. Sending the entire party and the Wyrm flying backwards. The mountain itself begins to shake and rumble and the party scrambles away from the Wyrm and back through the cavern. As the party runs the caverns are falling around them, enormous firey boulders drop from the ceiling and magma bursts and bubbles from the floor. Dodging, scrambling, jumping, and daving the party manages to hurl their way through the collapsing cavern as the Wyrm gives chase. They manage to escape the cavern and race into the tunnels, retracing their earlier steps. They race across the bridge of debris formed over the steaming river and find an exit and burst outside the caves.
Outside on the island it’s chaos, the island is choked with thick sulfurous fog and Blackhand members run screaming through the smoke. The shapes of strange creatures could momentarily be seen as well as roars and screeches. Making their way through the hectic scramble, the party arrives at the Rowboats previously scouted by Gastarn. They see their hired ship The Newmarket just about to get underway but they also see several Imperial ships arriving at the island, depositing boatloads of Ironguard. Xalth uses message to contact the Captain of The Newmarket and tells him to wait, as the party loads into the boats and loads up onto the ship. They begin sailing away from the Island but notice the ship is staffed with many tough looking Hedge Knights.
After resting and recuperating, the speak to the Captain, who asks for payment for his extraction of the party from the tricky situation. The party considers it but instead decides to take over the ship by force. A hectic battle ensues, where the Captain and all his hedge knights are slain as well as many crew members. Gastarn is levitated off the ship by Xalth and dropped into the water, where he strips his armor and clings onto his pack to float. The party damages the ship in the battle however and it circles lazily until Gastarn is close by, though he fails to reach the ship. Matthus spots a rowboat at the back of the ship and drops it into the water to try and rescue Gastarn. That where is where we begin tonights session.
The party manages to rescue Gastarn and return him to The Newmarket, but see an Imperial warship heading towards them at full speed.  They rally the remaining crew, meeting the first mate Sethwyck, and hey attempt to sail the ship away but the warship catches up to them quickly. The Iron Guard call for the party to stand down and drop anchor. The party do not stand down and ship combat begins. The warship fires ballistas and mangonels at the parties ship, but Xalth and Malvin hurl fire spells in return. The warship catches fire and slams into The Newmarket but Xalth uses wind magic to push the ship away and The Newmarket, though badly damaged, manages to escape while the Imperial warship burns and sinks behind them. The party repairs the ship as best they can and renames it The Brazen and manage to sail it down to Dig Boldar. They dock up and immediately set about acquiring the means to sell what remains of their stolen cargo. Malvin and Gastarn head for a drink in The Little Sister.  Matthus and Xalth load up their stolen cargo and head into the city to find a place to sell it.  Rothjeer heads to the market and sees a monkey on sale that he dearly wants to purchase. Rothjeer follows the men who purchased the monkey out of The Big Sister, passing Matthus and Xalth who are entering the market to sell their goods.  While Rothjeer follows the monkeys owners through the crowded streets of Dig Boldar, Matthus successfully sells his stolen cargo and nets himself and the crew some gold. While they’re leaving the market, Matthus and Xalth see what appears to be a young gryphon being transported under heavey guard. Upon enquiry, Xalth learns the gryphon is intended for one of the lords of Boldar keep. Meanwhile, after following the owners of the monkey for some time, Rothjeer pays a local vagrant to steal the monkey and run off with it. He does so but is chased by the men and intercepted by the guards but Rothjeer manages to convince the guards that the vagrant was the rightful owner of the monkey. Rothjeer takes possession of the monkey and meets back up with the rest of the party, which has congregated at the ship.
When they arrive there they find that the Portmaster is attempting to eject the Brazen from the harbor due to her unseaworthiness. He demands they either leave the harbor or have the ship repaired at the shipyards along the river, so they sail the Brazen upriver to the shipyards. They meet the dockmaster and agree on a price of 1250 gold to repair the Brazen, but the dockmaster agrees to lower the price if the party can help recoup some money from a local merchant who owes the dockmaster money.
In the previous session the party makes the way down into the Little Sister market search for Casper Cumbert, the local merchant who owes the shipyard master gold. After searching through the closing market as evening falls, the party spots Casper Cumbert packing up his stall. However, he’s in the company of a familiar Dwarf. Brulmen Valdorrim, who the party nearly killed in the Shadow Mine. As soon as they spot him, the members of the party who recognize him immediately scatter and hide themselves. Only Malvin stood there unhidden and Brulmen spotted his long neck at once and approached him After conversing for awhile Brulmen invited Malvin back to Boldar keep. They depart together out of the market.
The rest of the party emerges from the crowd and confronts Casper. Xalth casts suggestion on him, suggesting that he pay the party 500 gold to repay his debt to the shipyard master. Casper, under the suggestion, agrees and hurries off to the Middle Sister. Matthus casts invisibility on himself and follows Casper to a bank in the Middle Sister. Casper enters and the magical effects of suggestion are dispelled.  He exits looking confused and hurries off to Boldar Keep. Matthus follows and waits outside Boldar keep in some ruins by the shore. Meanwhile, the dirty long necked Malvin is led into the upper levels of Boldar Keep and scrubbed clean by a group of grubby Halfling servants. He was then led to the feasting hall, where he dined with Brulmen and other Dwarven nobles. Brulmen shows Malvin a wanted poster of the rest of the party and describes his encounter with them in the Shadow Highlands. Then Eoromund of the Earth, a member of the Sage Council and representative of the Empire, arrives in the hall and meets Malvin and Brulmen. Eoromund dispels the wild magic effects that were upon Malvin, shortening his neck and removing his stench. After talking with Brulmen and other nobles, Eoromund leaves and Brulmen shows Malvin his Gryphon beastiary. Then, he tells Malvin the dinner is over and tells him to depart Boldar Keep. He does exit the keep and meets Casper attempting to enter as he leaves, but Casper is turned away. Both Malvin and Casper walk down the road, moving steadily closer to the hidden Matthus. However, Malvin uses some magic which frightens Casper and he runs back up the hill to Boldar Keep. Malvin returns to the Cracked Cup in the little sister and meets up with the rest of the party, except Matthus who moves through the dark streets to find a house to burglarize.
The rest of the party eats and drinks at the Cracked Cup when Eoromund of the Earth enters and speaks to them. He tells them the Sage Council has been watching them for some time and is interested in the knowledge they have of Zurpaxian. He invites the party under truce to speak with the Sage Council Fairfell. He then departs leaving the party with a decision to make. Meanwhile Matthus finds a stately house to rob and clambers his way up to the second story, where he spies a woman caring for an infant. He enters the room and kills the women and robs the house, successfully finding and pilfering some gold, before he turns to the infant and silences it as well. He returns to the Cracked Cup and meets up with the rest of the party and they are introduced to a strange Dwarf named Steve and his bizarre religion.
The party discusses their strategy for the next day, with Gastarn and others planning to try again to retrieve the money from Casper. The next they arrive at his fish stall to see him collect some pay before he is confronted by Gastarn, who attempts to collect the money from Casper but forgets the name of the person who’s owed money. Casper leaves and Gastarn and Xalth follow him to a house, while Malvin orders fish to be delivered to The Brazen at the shipyard. Matthus, Steve, and Rothjeer meanwhile heads to Underhearth Bank where Matthus sells a ruby for some gold. They then head to the shipyard where they meet up with Malvin and pay Giles most of the remaining money owed for the repairing of the ship. Gastarn leaves Xalth outside Caspers house and heads to a tavern nearby to drink.
Malvin heads back to the shipyard and informs Rothjeer and Matthus of the location of Caspers house and the location of it before heading to the river port and taking ownership of the cargo of fish provisions for the journey ahead. Matthus and Rothjeer head to Casper Cumberts house and post up outside, meeting with Xalth. They all post up around the building, with Xalth using continuous minor illiusions to disguise his position in a nearby alley. Veseer wanders by and notices Xalth’s disguise in a momentary glance, but Xalth casts invisibility and does not reveal himself to Veseer. Matthus casts invisibility on himself and attempts to climb the side of the house but cannot scale the smoothed brick. So he picks the lock of the backdoor and is followed inside shortly by Xalth, also invisible. The two of them bumble their way through the back of the kitchen until they arrive near a living room where Caspers two children are playing.  Matthus moves through the room towards the front door when Casper arrives home and as soon as he opens the door, Rothjeer charges him and slams through the door. Many in the street outside witnessed this but Roth kicks the door closed and begins mutilating Caspers children before murdering his wife, all this while the crowd outside call the guards and pound on the door.
Matthus and Xalth bail out while Rothjeer heads upstairs and jumps out the window and disappears into the city. Xalth returns, still invisble, and disguises himself before dispatching of Casper and his remaining child before fleeing as the guards burst through the door. Rothjeer buys new clothes, shaves his hair, and wraps up some of his belongings before finding. News of the brutal murder of the Cumbert family travels fast through Dig Boldar and when Malvin returns to the shipyards with his fish, he is confronted by Casper Cumbert who accuses the party of carrying out the murders and voicing his extreme displeasure. The rest of the party slowly filter in, as do members of Giles’s crew and other excited city goers. Rothjeer pulls Xalth aside and gives over some of his belongings before disappearing into the growing crowd.  Giles accuses Matthus and Xalth of the murders and demands they remain to be questioned as well as pay their remaining bill. Xalth and Matthus head to the Brazen and tell Sethwyck to prepare the ship for an emergency departure, despite her not being fully repaired. The crowd grows but they can’t depart without Gastarn, who arrives with two new companions he met while drinking. Veseer and Sevas, who both have a magical presence about them.
Presumably realizing the situation that was unfolding, being now familiar, Gastarn punches Giles in the mouth as he rouses the mob to storm the Brazen. As the crew of the Brazen chop the guide ropes away, the mob begins to charge forward. Sevas casts summon lesser demons and four horrific beasts manifest amongst the crowd and begin causing havoc, tearing men apart but one attacks Gastarn. The demon is quickly slain by Sevas and Gastarn makes it onto the boat as it slides away into the water, leaving the shipyard in chaos behind them. As the sun sets the Brazen sails southwards down towards the open ocean and the exhausted party rest for the night.
The next day the Brazen sails out of the river and into the ocean, taking a wide berth of the shore. Sails are spotted in persuit in the distance however and a storm brews in front of the ship. On the advice of Sethwyck, Captain Matthus decides to push the ship through the storm in the hopes of riding it out and losing his persuers. The Brazens crew prepare the ship for storm and soon they are engulfed in an intense oceanic thunderstorm. The ship is tossed this way and that, crew are lost overboard and to lightning. The Brazen itself is damaged and takes on water but manages to limp its way through the storm and the crew repairs some of the damage. The ship still needs harboring for recaulking and repairs or it risks sinking, but the ship had been badly spun around and blown to the south out of sight of land. After travelling for a few days, eating much of what remains of their supplies. Finally land is spotted and the ship makes for a small shoal harbor but on approaching see a crowd of wild looking tribesman.
	The Brazen approaches and enters the small harbor carefully as the tribespeople drum and wave. After much careful delibration and argument, the party goes to shore on the rowboat and they walk to meet the apparent leader of the tribe. After a moment of tension, Gastarn presents the hydras tooth he had taken from Dubrand Isle mines. The leader accepts this gift and seemingly offers his hospitality to the party but before they could enjoy it, the persuing ships come straggling toward the harbor in chase. The party and their ship is caught dead and prepare for battle and so do the tribespeople, loading into their boats and rowing towards the arriving ships. The tribespeople and the persuing ships from Dig Boldar engage in combat, with many warriors climbing their way onto a ship. One other approaching ship is destroyed by the sudden catastrophic appearance of Shipbreaker in the deep water off the small harbor. Despite that, the other ships still approach and the tribes warriors now throw burning brands and torches on the closest ship as others of their kind fight on board. The ship is soon alight as Matthus climbs aboard as well after hitching a ride on an assaulting canoe. Meanwhile Gastarn, Veseer, Malvin, and Sevas remain on the beach firing spells towards the oncoming small boats. Has
Fire, smoke, and screams are everywhere in the small inlet as the fighting increases. The large oared Boldar ship is the scene of fierce fighting between Mavete and Dwarven warriors, with Matthus climbing the mast to survey the combat. Xalth boards the ship also using a series of misty steps and casts gust of wind which sends the Boldar warriors and oarsmen tumbling backwards and over the sides, while extinguishing the fires on board. The Mavete however, repeatedly slam the ship with ballista shots below the waterline and the ship begins to take on water and list rapidly.
	On the shore, Malvin gets a quick idea and casts polymorph on Gastarn and turns him into a Gryphon. After attempting to get Sevas to mount him, Veseer does instead and he takes off above the small bay. Gastarn the Gryphon and Veseer fly towards the oncoming Iron Guard ship and Veseer casts fireball on it. With a titanic explosion the heavily armed ship bursts into flames but not before the catapult on the back sends a huge rock crashing onto The Brazens deck. The Iron Guard ship crashes into one of the small islands and the men jump overboard, many on fire. Rowing toward them to meet them is a war canoe full of Mavete warriors who gleefully jump into the shallows to fight the burned Iron guard.
	The main Boldar Galley is taking on water heavily now and starting to sink when Sevas, who had manouevered his way onto the sinking ship, casts shatter amongst some remaining oarsmen and Boldar warriors. The effect is catastrophic to both the ship and those caught in the spell. Any who remained on the ship quickly jumped overboard into the water where they were weighed down by arms and armor and quickly swam down and slain by the Mavete warriors. Xalth and Matthus jump from the heavily listing ship and into the water and onto a nearby island. Gastarn the Gryphon and Veseer land on the remaining small ship in the harbor, both of them battling the crew together with talon, claws, and magic. Veseer summons a mass of writhing tentacles which rip and smother at the sellswords on board. Malvin sits on the beach and sends the occasional firebolt toward the oncoming ship. The screams of Iron Guard and Boldar warriors mix with the groaning and cracking of timber and roar of fire as smoke fills the bloodied ocean harbor.
	After more spells, steel, and blood the party and the Mavete warriors manage to slay the remaining members of the Boldar party. Gastarn the Gryphon is injured severely by the remaining Iron Guard and flies back to the main beach and leaves Vesser there before flying east towards the Brazen. However, Matthus immediately sets his sights on a nearby Mavete warrior and slays him when nobody is looking. He then begins the process of slaying more Mavete but soon the others notice and a full scale battle breaks out. Left with the unenviable choice of siding with Matthus or the Mavete, the party chooses Matthus and joins combat with the Mavete. A Mavete shaman casts control water and causes several of the party members to be caught in a dangerous whirlpool, however Veseer destroys the shaman and his boat and crew with a titanic fireball. The rest of the Mavete warriors are picked off, though several put up a strong fight.
The remaining elderely, women, and children on the beach burst into intense mourning. Then, in an apparent show of solidarity, mourning, or blood sacrifice the remaining Mavete women and elderly kill the children. Whatever the reason, appearing over the cliffs is the massive form of Skraak. A gargantuan bird of terrifying proportions, which soars its way toward the party and begins a terrifying dive. The appearance of Skraak sends the party and the Brazens crew into panic. Sethwyck, aboard the Brazen, orders the ship to sail away amidst the confusion and panic. Seeing this Gastarn the Gryphon lands upon the ship and kills Sethwyck, turns himself back into a human an orders the crew to return towards the beach. However the remaining crew swam from the beach to the ship and attempted to mutiny against Gastarn, who slays several of them but the ship, now crewless, slams into the sunken Boldar ship, fatally foundering the already damaged ship which begins to rapidly sink.
The party desperately battles the enormous Skraak, which twice knocks out Malvin and injured several of the other party members. It was only Sevas casting summon lesser demons on the back of the enormous creature, distracting it and causing it to eventually fly away, bloodied, burned and screeching. Leaving the party on the smoking, eerily quiet beach as the waves beat red against the shores.
The party stands silent on the beach, many of them bloodied or severely injured. Malvin, who was badly injured twice in the fight against the Skraak, immediately searches for a place to rest. Sevas and Veseer row and swim out to the tiny islands that form the shelter of the bay. On these islands they find several Mavete open air burial sites, covered in worn artificats and coins. With little regard for the dead, as typical for magical types, they strip the tombs of anything valuable. Sevas finds an interesting worn golden eagle figurine, which he feels like his patron wanted him to have. After returning to shore, Xalth, Sevas, and Veseer examine the remaining boat and find it in decent condition.
Sevas and Veseer aren’t interested in the boat however but corpses. Veseer, casting a spell that Sevas finds fascinating, animates the corpses of two of the dead hedge knights on the boat. With his zombies in tow, Veseer and the rest return to the Mavete camp on the beach. They forage around for supplies but don’t find anything to eat besides some fish that had previously been caught so they do their best to cook them up for supper. Gastarn, who had faced much redicule from the rest of the party for his perceived loss of The Brazen, decides on some shenanigans. Summoning the power of his new found dark patron, Gastarn takes control of one of Veseers animated dead. Veseer is affronted at the apparent show of disrespect by Gastarn. The oath broken Paladin, having played his little trick, decides to return control of the zombie to Veseer. Probably being unfamiliar with his newfound magicks, Gastarn did not realize this wasn’t possible and instead the zombies becomes masterless.
Xalth, Sevas, and Veseer all proclaim their concern of this masterless zombie interrupting their rest and threaten Gastarns person if it does so. The Zombie follows its basic instinct and attacks Gastarn, the closest creature to it. It grabs him by the throat and squeezes, injuring him before he manages to push it away across the campfire where it turns and attacks Xalth. Xalth dodges the attack from the zombie and side steps it, intent now on carrying out his word and injuring Gastarn. A battle commences between Xalth and Gastarn. Despite being struck by Xalths spell, Gastarn casts crown of madness on Xalth and uses him to attack Veseer. This brings Veseer into the combat and he rains spells onto Gastarn, who retreats down the beach. Sevas joins the combat and Gastarns concentration is broken, freeing Xalth from the spell. Together the three of them blast Gastarn down onto the sand where he lays lifeless. They tie him to a tree and Xalth, with some empathy still in his heart, casts spare the dying on Gastarn and leaves him unconscious and tied to the tree.
The party returns to their rest and the next morning they depart into the Cliffside tunnel, leaving Gastarn alone on the beach. They travel for many, many hours through winding and damp rough natural tunnels before they emerge out of the tunnel next to a waterfall. The party is overlooking a valley full of deep jungle, with the ocean visible in the distance a set of hills. They trek down the side of the mountain and approach the jungle, taking a rough cut trail through the thick undergrowth. As they travel deeper in, the lighting grows gloomier and the humidity increases. The heat is oppressive and the thick jungle is alive with the sounds of birds and other creatures. Eventually a clearing appears ahead on the trail and a hulking Mavete warrior emerges from the brush…
Confronted by this Mavete warrior, the party readies itself for combat but realizes Xalth and Draug are missing. However, instead of attacking the Mavete warrior summons forth a sunburned and ragged looking Vehasi. His name is Rurek Donzel, formerly of the Redguard, who has been living amongst the Mavete for many years. Rurek speaks both common and Mavete and is able to translate between the party and the warrior. The party manages to bluff the warrior about what happened back at the beach, blaming it all on the Empire. The Mavete warrior immediately sends out warriors to verify the truth of the matter and insists the party comes to their camp, where it is revealed that Xalth and Draug already are waiting. Once at the camp, they see a snapshot of how these Mavete live their daily lives. However, after questioning, Rurek reveals that he has been kept their against his will for many years though he has grown to enjoy it. He tells the party that it’s likely they won’t be allowed to leave either, but they won’t be killed. The Mavete know their presence is a secret there and know what will happen to them if the Empire discovers them. The party isn’t too hot on this idea and begin planning their escape with violence. Rurek notices this and decides to save both the Mavete and the party grief by leading the party in an escape from the jungle.
While the Mavete are praying, Rurek causes a distraction by luring some monstorous unseen beast near the Mavete camp and in the chaos the party escapes. Sprinting along rough trails cut through the thick, humid, jungle the party manages to stay ahead of the persuing Mavete. They reach the end of the jungle and Rurek provides the party with some scant supplies and directions before saying farewell. The party is left along a dusty and dry road, apparently south of the Scorched wastes. They must find their way onward, with little food or water seemingly available to them.
The party treks down the road towards the Scorched wastes, scavenging what food they can find and refilling their water skins from the river. After a few days travel they reach a dead wood, where they encounter a swarm of stirges, which they manage to defeat. Making it through the dead wood, they see the vast Scorched Wastes stretching in front of them.  They choose to follow the river as a safe bet but begin to run out of food. They decide to strike into the wastes for Dustdrift Citadel, braving the burning heat and fierce sand filled winds. Xalth uses magic to gain them water as they trek across the baked ground, past huge chasms and crevices. Enormous rock formations rise out of the dirt. It is near one of these that Sevas is caught in quicksand and the party is attacked by an enormous beetle. Sevas summons a great demon that crushes the beetle but then turns on the party after Sevas loses control of it. The party then battles the greater demon, which leaps around smashing Matthus and Xalth. After a quick and fierce battle, the demon disappears into the swirling dust.
Using Anser the owl as a scout, the party locates Dustdrift and after two more days of hard trekking they arrive at the gates of the Citadel and enter. The exhausted party make their way towards the closest tavern they can find which happens to be The Hellhound and the Unicorn. They approach the buxom and beautiful barmaid and order food and rooms. Sitting at a large table, they draw some attention from their fellow tavern goers as they gorge themselves on the food brought to them. After some time, a man approaches and introduces himself as Anton Brighte. He sits with the party and informs them he is a representative of Coldpeak Ore & Measure, which is a mining, surveying, and archealogical company. Brighte has been in Dustdrift for months attempting to organize an expedition to Azrakhai, a supposed ancient lost city somewhere in the Scorched Wastes. He’s been thwarted at every attempt however, with Dustdrift itself being under a strict lockdown when it comes to travelling into the wastes. Despite knowing the party and their reputation, Anton asks for their assistance in pushing this expedition forward. He asks the party to speak to Redguard Commander Harcey about outlander passes, which they’ll need to be allowed to travel into the wastes and obtain supplies.
Even if they fail to get the passes, Brighte is willing to go forward with the expedition in secret anyway. The party asks for more information and Brighte says more may be obtained from the wizard at the Tower of Dust, a member of the Sage Council named Darius of the Dust. The party agree and take a long deserved rest at the inn, next morning the party travels through the wind blown streets of Dustdrift and take inn it’s military encampment like nature. They stop at the Western Market where Sevas and Xalth purchase horses for the party and a donkey to carry pack supplies, as well as tack and bags and feed. From there they traverse through the western camp and to the Tower of Dust where they manage to finesse a meeting with Darius of the Dust. Entering the magical tower they meet Darius, an interesting and eccentric wizard. The wizard knows all about the party or at least Matthus and Xalth. Darius doesn’t seem particularly impressed with the desires of the Sage Council, despite being a member. When the party asks for information about Azrakhai, Darius offers to pass what information he can to the party and warns them about the perilous journey to Azrakhai. He offers all of this on the condition that the party retrieve the body of his old lover, which was left behind the last and only time he visited Azrakhai. The party agrees and leaves the Tower of Dust with the assurances of some information from Darius.
They head to Dustdrift Citadel itself and after requesting a meeting with Commander Harcey and waiting some time, they are admitted inside. Flanked by dozens of Redguard members they climb up to the steps to the Citadel and Commander Harcey emerges and greets them. Harcey is suspicious of the party but agrees to speak to Matthus privately when he claims to have valuable information. Being led into Dustdrift Citadel through myriad corridors until they arrive on a balcony. There Matthus spilled the beans about the Redguard scout they met far to the south, Rurik, and the presence of the lost tribes of Mavete. Harcey is shocked at the information but seemingly believes Matthus, who asks for Outlander passes in exchange for the information. Harcey strikes a different deal, offering Outlander passes if Matthus and the party will track down and kill a group of Orcs that have been encroaching on the borders of the Scorched Wastes. Matthus readily agrees and Harcey tells Matthus to speak to one of his captains in the southern market.
Matthus exits the citadel and reunites with the party, minus Malvin. Malvin has been searching for an apothecary to buy some potions, feeling invigorated in his new youthful body. He happens upon one and asks to buy some potions and is sold a questionable one for a questionable price. Upset about potentially being ripped off, Malvin casts firebolt on the counter which terrifies the merchant. The merchant runs outside screaming, calling for help, and Malvin polymorphs himself into a little bird that flutters away. He is stuck in that form until the spell wears off however. 	The rest of the party heads to the southern camp and meets the captain mentioned by Harcey. He tells them he’ll need a day to draw up their outlander passes and for his scout to prepare.
The party returns to the Unicorn and the Hellhound where they rest and prepare for the coming journey, besides Matthus who desired to find   Xalth travels to the western market and speaks to the man who sold them their horses. He ensures they’re being well treated and tells the man they need to be ready for the next morning. After spending an evening at the tavern, the rest of party heads back to the Western Market and grabs their mounts and supplies and meets back up with the Captain. He introduces the scout, Lodo, a tough and weathered looking man astride a beautiful Destrier. Leading the way forward, the party exits Dustdrift and out into the Scorched Wastes.
Following Lodo the Redguard scout the party sets off in to the Scorched Wastes. They follow a road northwards for some time until they break off it and head eastwards, jumping from points of shade to another. The heat and dust are most uncomfortable for the party to deal with, as well as the horses. After travelling for most of the day, they arrive at a set of baked dunes where they meet several other Redguard scouts. There the party learns of the Orc incursions and the tenuous hold the redguard seemingly have on the frontier. Lodo orders some of the Redguard to return to Dustdrift and inform Commander Harcey of the new developments but otherwise looks untroubled by the news. The party rests at these dunes for the day and they continue into the evening and next day. The party travels through the harsh, dry, flat landscape and eventually enter the iconic red sands of the Scorched Wastes. The heat rises drastically and so do the never ending winds that sting the face with gusts of sand. Lodo recommends the party pushes onwards through the heat of the day and eventually they arrive near the site of the Orc encampment. They party dismounts and leave Sevas in charge of the horses while they attempt to come up with a plan of action. Some of the party wishes to skirt to the east and then south to approach the camp from another angle but before they can decide on anything, Gastarn charges forward. The Orc sentries are immediately alerted and call out, so the rest of the party darts forward as well.
Two large group of Worg Riders appear on either side of the canyon and charge forward. Xalth uses fireball to great effect, obliterating both groups as they charge forward. Matthus fires off arrows towards Orcs in the distance and Gastarn attempts to use Crown of Madness but fails to do so. Malvin uses firebolt that triggers a surge of his wild magic and he is instantly teleported backwards five miles, alone on foot in the burning hot desert swirling with dust.  Veseer casts firebolts at any surviving Worg Riders that make it close. Riled up by their sudden attack, Orcs come pouring from the encampment and charging towards the party. Before the horde of Orcs comes close, a piercing cry rents the air and the enormous Skraak comes diving down towards the parties horses and scoops up Matthus’s and Veseers horses in it’s massive talons, crushing them sickeningly.
Immediately the party turns it’s attention to the gargantuan flying beast and fires of spells and arrows at it, many of which hit and cause injury. The remaining Orcs, terrified at the appearance of the colossal beast, scramble away from the battle and their camp. Sevas tries an old trick and summons a large demon onto the back of the creature, which immediately begins ripping and tearing at the Skraaks feathers. With an enormous jerk, the Skraak throws the demon from its back and also releases the two horses in its grip. The horses fall seventy feet and are dashed upon the dusty red rocks, splattering gore and viscera everywhere. Hurley the chicken was attached to the back of Matthus’s horse and as the Skraak twists up into the sky, screeching and flying away, Matthus is desperate to discover the fate of his chicken. Sevas, still in control of the demon, orders it to jump onto the cliff with Matthus on its back.
Matthus discovers Hurley injured but alive and orders Xalth to heal the chicken, which he does. Lodo the scout is shocked by the battle that just occurred before him, orcs, magic, gargantuan beasts, and demons. Despite being without two horses, he insists they return to Dustdrift after the camp is searched. The party search through the Orc camp, salvaging and looting what they can find before returning to their remaining mounts and doubling up to make the return trip. They travel back through the furious wind, dust, and burning heat. After several miles travelled, they happen upon Malvin in the desert. Thirsty and sunburnt, Malvin rejoins the party as they travel back across the Scorched Wastes. It takes them a similar amount of time to return to the Citadel, at one point they stop at a series of baked sand dunes where Lodo meets with several other Redguard scouts. He converses and stays with them as the party rests.
The party manages to arrive in Dustdrift a day or so later and most of the party immediately heads to Dustdrift citadel to speak to Commander Harcey. Malvin and Gastarn split off and head to the Hellhound and the Unicorn to rest and recuperate. The rest of the party arrive at the Citadel and wait to meet Commander Harcey, who invites the party and Lodo into the citadel to speak. Lodo gives his report, conveniently leaving out some of the more shocking details, though he looks like he wishes to speak out. Commander Harcey, impressed with the story of the battle, grants the party the outlander passes they desire, though he gives them fair warning about the dangers of the Scorched Wastes. After departing the Citadel, the party assessed what they wished to do and how they wanted to go about doing it.
They decided that finding the lost city of Azrakhai was still the ideal route, so they returned to the Tower of Dust to receive the information provided by Darius of the Dirt. He was able to provide a shief of aged and ancient parchment. Upon which there was familiar ancient dwarvish ruinic letters the party had encountered on Dubrand Isle and also a strange scratch like script. Sevas was able to use his eldritch invocation to quickly read the unknown script, which just seemed to be a simple translation of the Dwarven ruinic text above. Darius informs them that the piece of parchment will be critical for their passage into Azrakhai, and also warns them that the Sage Council is searching for them in earnest. With a subtle threat, Darius warns the party to uphold their end of the bargain they struck or he may be forced to let slip there whereabouts. After inquiring about how the party intends to reach the entrance of Azrakhai, Darius suggests they meet again with Anton Brighte of Coldpeak Ore & Measure. The party bids farewell to Darius and heads back into the town to prepare themselves for their journey to the lost city of Azrakhai.
In the previous session, the party met back up at the Unicorn and the Hellhound and conversed with each other about their upcoming plans. They couldn't do anything until they receive their outlander passes, so the next day they walk to the gates of Dustdrift Citadel. Upon entering, they meet with Lodo and other Redguard. Lodo hands over their Outlander passes but warns them to be careful and that they'll be without the Redguards help out in the wastes. After departing the Citadel with their freshly acquired passes, the party splits to attend to different business. Xalth, Sevas, and Veseer head to the market. Xalth enquires about some armor and discovers that the best armorerers in Dustdrift all work for the Redguard and are forbidden to provide services to non servicemen. Xalth manages to find out the name and location of one Redguard armorer who may be willing to work under the table, so he heads off to find him. Sevas heads to the apothecary where he meets the still-traumitized apothecarist that Malvin encountered. After a brief bit of bartering and intimidation, Sevas purchases a health potion. Throughout all of this, Veseer had been asking for someone or some place where magical items can be found. The only answer he got was that Darius of the Dust, member of the Sage Council, was the only source of magical knowledge in the town.
           So Veseer and Sevas head back to the now familiar Tower of Dust and consult with Darius of the Dust. Darius offers Veseer a spell scroll in exchange for leather scrap, after which Sevas offers him the weathered golden eagle he discovered at the Mavete burial grounds. Darius is eager to accept it and offers Sevas a different spell scroll in exchange, to which he readily agrees. Darius warns the two of them once again to be careful on their journey, to fulfill the agreement they had made to him, and that the Sage Council is now searching in earnest for the group of them. Veseer and Sevas depart from the Tower of Dust and return to the Hellhound and the Unicorn. Meanwhile, Xalth discovers the Redguard armorer at an illegal gambling site behind the Redguard mauseleum. Dice games and cock fights abound, and Xalth spies Gastarn enthusiastically participating with the rest of the crowd. Nearby he spies the Redguard armorer, cursing his luck in the cock fights. Xalth approaches and makes him a tantalizing but mysterious offer, asking to meet somewhere else more private. They agree to meet at the Hedge Knights camp and after arriving, Xalth casts an illusion of Hurley the Chicken and asks for the armourer to craft a fine set of armor for the chicken. The armorer is shocked at the illusion and the request but after consideration and the offer of gold, he readily accepts and promises to have it done by the following day.
             The rest of the party returns to the Unicorn and the Hellhound at the same time as Malvin and Gastarn are preparing to eat dinner. Anton Brighte comes over and insists on speaking to the party. After confirming with them that they have acquired the nessecary items, he confirms they'll be leaving on the expedition in the next day or so. Anton then questions the party over their past and the new additions to their party. He relates information about the current world events and old party members. Brighte agrees to several of the parties conditions, mainly expenses, as they prepare to leave Dustdrift and head out into the Scorched Wastes. In the previous session, the party made their final preparations for departure on the expedition to the lost city of Azrakhai. A huge train of wagons and carriages had assembled outside the Hellhound and the Unicorn, with more and more arriving every moment. The armorer that Xalth hired arrives outside the tavern with the chicken armor and, after checking that the armor is suitable, pays the man. The man warns Xalth that Anton Brighte had hired the Bronzeflag mercenary company to come along on their expedition.
With this new information, the party exits the Hellhound and the Unicorn and is led to the front of the convoy by a Bronzeflagged member. There they find a rickety and worn wagon pulled by two lean horses. The convoy of wagons and carriages grows, with more and more people joining onto it, until they are summoned by Anton Brighte to speak inside his carriage. Only a few of the party choose to attend Brighte, who welcomes them into his spacious and extremely well appointed carriage. Brighte reveals to the party their general route through the Scorched Wastes and that it will be a much longer journey than he had previously said and that he has misled many of the members of the expedition about that fact. The party is quite disgruntled about the exposed nature of their provided wagon and insist that it be rectified, after jealously seeing both Anton and the Bronzeflagged carriages.
Though the party members seem sceptical, they agree to lead the expedition and head back to their leading wagon.  They watch coopers, tailors, carpenters, butchers, brewers, minstrels, cart wrights, cooks, scullions, porters, herdsmen and stewards all assemble and load their goods and supplies into wagons that quickly become piled high with supplies. After a few more hours of waiting around for the rest of the caravan to form, they depart Dustdrift. The streets are full of cheering and jeering citizens and Redguard but shortly exit the city and out into the wastes. The now familiar dust and wind harry the caravan as it winds its way down from the plateau and into the flat wastes, due west.
The first two days of travel are relatively uneventful by the standards of the scorched wastes, biting wind, oppressive heat and dust plague the more unprepared members of the caravan. The half dozen members of the Bronzeflag, however, don't seem bothered at all by the conditions and are key in keeping the caravan moving. They travel in a large, utilitarian looking blockhouse carriage that is close behind the parties lead wagon. The seeming leader of the group Lt. Khan, strikes up a slight friendship with some of the party as they travel. On the third day of travel, the party leads the caravan past a scrambling of rocks and mounds of baked earth. Beneath it sits a pool of brilliantly clear water which draws the eyes of most in the caravan. Khan rides up the caravan to the parties wagon and informs them that Anton Brighte has requested the caravan be stopped so they can take on water and refresh their horses. But as members of the caravan approach the pool of water, out of from one of the mounds of baked earth comes a flying scarab. It buzzes towards the pool of water and as soon as the caravan members start taking from it, the scarabs attack. Out from the various mounds of earth come dozens and dozens of the creatures, small and large. The party springs into combat and begin pouring spells and arrows onto the oncoming Scarabs, the Bronzeflag members also quickly and fearlessly join combat against the creatures. The beetles are numerous, however, and more keep appearing from the mounds in increasing numbers. The party uses shatter and fireball spells to destroy and collapse a couple of the mounds, and slay many of the beetles. Then, bursting from a hole in the earth and rocks emerges an enormous Scarab, which clacks its enormous razor sharp pincers and charges forward.
In the previous session, the party was shocked at the sudden appearance of the enormous Scarab Queen. They immediately spring into action to destroy it, pelting it with powerful spells but even still it manages to eviscerate one bronzeflag member. All the while, smaller hive mounds appear around the stalled convoy and more scarabs emerge to threaten the helpless convoy members. It appeared the caravan was at risk of being overrun, so Matthus travels down the length of the convoy of wagons and carriages, slaying Scarabs skillfully with his bow while also getting the convoy moving and rallying the Bronzeflag members. Faced with increasingly dangerous odds, despite their best efforts, the party requests that Sevas summon a demon to attack the Scarab Queen. He does so and the now familiar enormous orange ape demon appears on the Scarab Queens back and the two begin a ferocious battle. With the Scarab Queen distracted, Gastarn casts darkness on it and the demon, obscuring the battle between the two beasts from view.
Meanwhile the rest of the party is firing off spells into the darkness and at the never ending Scarabs the scurry forth from the remaining hive mounds. After a short while of horrifying sounds from the darkened area, the Scarab Queen emerges from the darkness with the demon nowhere in sight. The enormous Scarab charges towards Gastarn, who's closest, and snaps out at him with its enormous pincers. Gastarn is snatched up and severely injured by the Scarab Queen, though the Queen itself is badly damaged at this point by both the party and its battle with the demon. Xalth finished the enormous Scarab with a blast of magic and the creature collapses, releasing its hold on the injured Gastarn. As the party attempts to finish off the remaining Scarabs. which mostly scuttle away back down into the earth, the demon ape appears out of nowhere and attacks. Though badly wounded, it charges at the closest party member but is quickly slain by the party.
The caravan halts and regroups, with the Bronzeflag members gathering the dead and burying their remains. Anton Brighte approaches, surprised and shocked by the fierce battle that unfolded in front of his eyes. Still, he manages to shake off his shock and command the caravan to continue moving after refilling their water. After reorganizing the Caravan it sets out once again with the party in the lead wagon and after travelling through the night, they stop mid day to rest in whatever shade they can find. The heat bares down on those exposed to it and the wind whips sand across the wagons and carriages. The party and most other Caravan members shelter from the elements but underneath the wagon behind them, a Caravan member sheltering from the sun unearths a strange stone sceptre. The magical members of the party quickly leap to examine it, passing it back and forth, recognizing it's clear magical nature.
But unbeknownst to them, three members of the Sage Council appear in the whipping dust and approach the party. They ask for Sevas to come forward and go with them but the party is reluctant to give him up, some of them even prepare to fight the three Sages. But after a quick speech, Sevas gives himself up and steps forward to join the sages. With a flash of light and swirl of dust, the three sages and Sevas disappear into thin air. Leaving only the burning heat and blowing sand behind.
The party gathers themselves after Sevas’s disappearance with the Sage Council, wondering to each other about his fate. Lt. Khan of the Bronzeflag rides up to warn them about the impending sandstorm which rapidly approaches the Caravan. The party hunkers down, with Veseer taking shelter in the Bronzeflag blockhouse carriage, as the sandstorm rages around them. It darkens the sky and blots out the horizon, stinging the eyes and uncovered skin.  After many hours, it finally abates and leaves the caravan half buried in the gritty red sand. As the wind battered Caravan digs itself out, the party is called to the carriage of Anton Brighte. Once inside, Brighte informs them about their first stop, a very old deserted Redguard outpost at the start of a series of dune-hills. After a fine dinner provided by Brighte, the party take their place at the head of the caravan and continue their trek into the desert. After several days of travel through the burning hot Scorched Wastes, bearing their way through the heat and dust, they arrive at the abandoned tower. The party meet with the Bronzeflag mercenaries as well as Anton Brighte, and Matthus decides to scout out the interior of the tower while invisible.
He sneaks his way into the interior of the darkened tower, straining his eyes to see in the gloom, and he makes his way towards the back of the tower. There he scrabbles up a mound of rubble and debris and comes face to face with an enormous Harpy. He immediately scrambles back down the heap of rubble as smaller harpies come swooping out of the pitch black ceiling down to perch around Matthus, who quickly hurries outside, still invisible. He informs the rest of the party and the Bronzeflag as to the occupants of the tower, and they devise a plan to cover both entrances and destroy the harpies with blasts of fire. They execute the plan and it goes quite well, with Xalth casting fireball and Veseer summoning a surge of black tentacles. As they eliminate harpy after harpy, the large queen finally emerges and swoops her way towards the party.
 In the previous session the party battled with the huge Harpy Queen, which swoops around the ruined tower and swipes out at the party. They blast it with magic, injuring it until Matthus climbs upon a rubble pile and leaps onto the Harpy Queens back, plunging his daggers into its back and dragging it to the ground and finishing the beast. With all the harpies flying away or dead, the party and the Bronzeflag explore the ruins of the tower. Xalth and Veseer explore the hatchery room, but nearly all the eggs were smashed by Veseer's summoned tentacles. Veseer manages to find one single egg that had survived and wraps it in cloth and puts it in his pack. The Bronzeflag, meanwhile, have congregated around a trapdoor in the earth covered by a metal grate. Matthus picks the lock on the metal grate, allowing the three party members to descend into the cold darkness illuminated by Matthus’s lantern. Descending a set of stone stairs, the party arrives in a darkened rough hewn cavern. Another set of stairs downward is covered by a large metal portcullis gate. The party explores the small cavern and discovers mainly old supplies but also a valuable casket of old liquor, which was very much desired by Anton Brighte. Matthus also discovers a hidden chest with gold as well as a large iron key. They use the key to unlock the portcullis gate and descend even further down the stone stairs, arriving in a large stone storage room.
They immediately notice a number of rats staring at the three of them, though Veseer uses acid splash to kill a few and they quickly scurry off. Searching the room, they find several more barrels of the old liquor and Matthus finds another chest filled with gold. Veseer discovers an ancient skeleton in the corner and raises it from death to serve him. Proceeding out the only available door, the party find a large dark circular room. The floor is strewn with bones and stone debris….and rats. The rats scurry together and gather, staring at the party as if in curiosity. Veseer again casts acid splash and kills several of them and they scatter. The party pick their way across the debris and bone covered floor and discover another large wooden door but are interrupted by several wave like hordes of rats, which twirl and flow as if one. They sweep up the bones littering the floor until they form a large figure made out of a swirling mass of rats and bones. It surges towards the party, which immediately react to attack the strange creature. Several more waves of rats appear behind the party, as if summoned by the rat beast, and they swarm towards Veseer and almost engulf him in rats. After a quick but fierce battle, the party manages to blast down the rat beast and it’s swarm with magic. Leaving only scattering rats and burning and charred rat corpses behind.
The party then proceeds through the wooden door to find a short crude carved stone hallway that leads to a large glimmering steel door. Xalth casts knock on the metal door but despite an audible click the door does not open. The deafening boom of the spell causes Lt. Khan and a few Bronzeflag to arrive, looking shocked and surprised at the scene before them. They inform the party that they have discovered the Red Vault of Heroes.
The party immediately begins to discuss amongst themselves how to break into the vault, since Xalths knock spell seemingly did not work. The Bronzeflag, being ex redguard members, didn’t take to this talk very well at all. Anton Brighte and Gastarn arrive and join the conversation and Brighte seemingly is just as interested in entering the vault as the party, much to the Bronzeflags displeasure. Khan and the bronzeflag head back to the surface in anger while the party and Anton debate how to enter the vault, with Xalth casts identify and discovers the vault door requires an attunement to open. The party and Anton suspect that only a member of the Redguard can open the door, so they come up with a plan to trick a Bronzeflag member into opening the door while drunk. They poke around the circular cavern room for some time after, trying to probe and blast open blocked passageways but to no avail.
	When they return to the surface, they find the caravan packing up and preparing to leave led by the Bronzeflag. Anton Brighte is trying his best to convince the caravan members to stay but is being thwarted by Lt. Khan and his men, who block entrance to his carriage. The party convince the Bronzeflag that they have no idea how to enter the vault and have given up trying, and Brighte convinces everyone to stay on the expedition by distributing a generous amount of gold. He also throws an impromptu party and brings up a keg of the Thunderbrew aged liquor. Once the Bronzeflag are convinced that the party hasn’t entered the vault, they too take the gold and liquor and head back to their blockhouse carriage. Matthus heads off to the parties wagon to sleep off his exhaustion, while Gastarn joins the festivities and heads to the Bronzeflag carriage to keep an eye on Khan. Xalth and Veseer watch the party unfold and the caravan members become intoxicated and they wait until only one Bronzeflag remains outside.
Sneaking off into the darkness, Veseer uses disguise self to make himself appear as Lt. Khan and then approaches the solitary Bronzeflag outside. He bluffs the drunken mercenary into accompanying him back down into the cave to the vault, under the pretense that they must check again for any sign of entrance by the party members. As the disguised Veseer heads down the stone steps of the destroyed tower, the ever present wind kicks up red dust.
Veseer disguised as Lt. Khan and the other Bronzeflag member descend below the ruined tower and arrive at the entrance to the Vault of the Red Heroes.After some brief discussion, the disguised Veseer convinces the other Redguard member to open the vault. Inside Veseer finds a small circular room with sarcopghi on either side and a raised dais with a chest on top. After quickly taking stock of his surroundings, Veseer guides the other Bronzeflag member out of the vault where the door closes after some words from the Bronzeflag member. Returning to the surface and the warm evening, Veseer slips away and removes his disguise and returns to the parties Wagon. The next day, Veseer informs the party about what he discovered in the vault and they devise a plan to enter the vault undetected.
	Grabbing ahold of Matthus, Veseer dimension doors into the vault. Both of them arrive unharmed inside the vault, which they quickly plunder. They discover several interesting magical objects before Matthus opens one of the Sarcophigi and instantly a horrific spectral warrior emerges and attacks. A momentary melee begins before Veseer quickly rushes forward, grabs ahold of Matthus again, and dimension doors back out of the vault and into the Caravan above. There the party quickly examines and identifies their spoils as various exotic magical items before they are summoned by Anton Brighte. Once at Brighte’s carriage, they are informed of the next plan of action for them and their expedition to the lost of city of Azrakhai.
	In the previous session, the party, Anton Brighte, and the Bronzeflag depart the tower camp into the barren dunehills of the Scorched Wastes. Leaving the caravan of wagons and carriages behind and instead travelling by mount, foot, and a singular wagon. Several hired porters and cooks travel along with them, carrying much of the supplies through the burning heat. Up and over the baked sand hills and down into winding valleys, the ever present wind and dust biting at the party as it travelled. After a couple days of rough travel across endless hills of baked sand, the motley party arrive near the edge of a large lake. They’re informed by Anton Brighte that to continue they must disassemble their singular wagon and use the brought lumber to build a boat to convey them across the lake to an island. On the island is where they will find further information and supplies to aid them on in their journey. The party debates amongst themselves about the best course of action to take next but distantly the sounds of drums can be heard, and Xalth sends up Answer the Owl to scout.
	Some kilometres away, the fires of an Orc encampment can be seen amongst the baked dunehills. After some discussion amongst themselves and the Bronzeflag, the party decides it’s best to eliminate the threat of the Orcs so they can proceed without concern about enemies in their rear. They set out into the night and sneak up stealthily on the Orc encampment, aided by the Bronzeflags expertise in the difficult terrain. Once the party crept close enough, they surprised the encampment with successive blasts of fire magic. Instantly the Bronzeflag swarm into the camp as an enormous Orc emerges from a burning tent. The Orc clan leader roars and charges forward and strikes out at Bronzeflag member but the massive Orc is quickly cut down by magic and sword. With the remainder of the orcs fleeing into the night and the majority of the camp on fire, the party and the Bronzeflag trudge back into the night towards the lake.
	After arriving back at the camp on the beach, the party and Bronzeflag relay to Anton Brighte about their excursion and combat with the Orc war party. Their makeshift boat being nearly completed, Anton Brighte speaks to the party about their plans to head to the island at the center of the lake. After cooking a final meal, the cook departs with his son and the mounts back to the Tower camp. The next morning, the party, Anton Brighte, and the Bronzeflag all load into the boat and take sail into the huge lake. After travelling most of the day over the lake under the baking sun, they arrive at a serene almost tropical like island at the center of the lake. Anton and a few of the party stretch their legs and head into the island, where Anton discovers a hidden cache near a clear spring. The cache contains numerous sets of climbing equipment, as well as a document that Anton Brighte hid away. Brighte claims the documents provided him with directions onward to the lost city.
	While Anton Brighte returns to the ship, the Bronzeflag and a few party members haul the equipment back to the ship. That evening, as they sailed eastwards towards a large mountain range, Lt. Khan of the Bronzeflag gives a quiet pitch to the party as to why they should side with him and the Bronzeflag over Anton. Later that evening, as they sail over the calm lake with the wind at their back, Anton Brighte quietly speaks to the party with his well known offers for their collective survival. The next morning, the party arrives at the shore beneath the mountain. After travelling most of the day, they arrive at the base of the mountain. The enormous peak towers over them, it’s sides covered in thousands of feet of jagged boulders, rock falls, scrambles, and sheer rock face. The party, Anton, and the Bronzeflag prepare for a treacherous climb.
	After much discussion the party, with the Bronzeflag, Anton, and Porters, quickly split into different climbing teams. Veseer decides that he will transform Draug into a gryphon, and him and Gastarn will fly up the mountain. Xalth decides to use levitate to climb and lay line behind him as he goes. A trio of Bronzeflag rope up and begin climbing together, looking quite skilled and comfortable. Lt. Khan and a close associate also rope up and climb, and the porters begin the climb led by a Bronzeflag.  Matthus reluctantly agrees to climb with a beseeching Anton Brighte, who for the first time looks flustered and clearly out of his element. As the expedition begins to climb, Gastarn and Veseer fly up the side of the mountain on the polymorphed Draug. However, the draug gryphon is clearly overloaded and only struggled upwards a feet hundred feet for having to land on a narrow ledge in the mountain. There, Veseer dismounts Draug and allows Gastarn to fly upwards farther up the mountain. While flying upwards he spots a cave entrance in the side of the mountain by a small plateau.
	A swarm of harpies comes pouring out of the cave entrance, beating their wings and screeching. They swarm forward towards Gastarn and the gryphon Draug. Gastarn casts dreadful aspect and the scrappy unarmored oathbreaker becomes a figure terrible to behold, many of the harpies flee back into the cave. Many more stay, however, and as the rest of the expedition slowly ascends the mountain hundreds of feet below Gastarn battles for his life. Hundreds of feet above the rest of the climbing expedition, Veseer faintly hears the sounds of the battle above. He makes the risky decision to cancel his polymorph spell, returning Draug to his Direwolf form far above, and casts spider climb upon himself. While Gastarn desperately battles the Harpies swarming him far above, Veseer begins to scale the sides of the mountain with his magical skill. Xalth and the other climbers also gain ground.
	Though Gastarn and Draug are badly wounded by the swarm of harpies, Gastarn using his lay on hands to heal Draug when he was close to death. Gastarn is beaten backwards until Veseer, with the use of spider climb, reaches the edge of the plateau and immediately casts Fireball on the swarm of harpies. The massive blast of fire kills many of the harpies but also causes several boulders to come crashing down the mountainside from above, blocking the cave mouth, and some whistling by some of the climbing teams below. With the majority of the harpies dead, Gastarn and Veseer slay the remaining ones. The rest of the expedition arrives one after the other, panting from the exhertion of the climb. As the now dozen or so members of the expedition pull themselves of the edge of the plateau and go to rest, an ominous screeching echoes from above.
	Hearing the screeching, Lt. Khan advises the rest of the expedition that it’s likely a Wyvern above them. He advises that the party should climb onwards, as it seems the only course. Anton Brighte seems particularly disturbed by the idea of continuing to climb. As Gastarn speaks with him and attempts to reassure him, an enormous sand colored Wyvern comes hurtling from above and snatches Gastarn in it’s claws. With an ear splitting screech, the Wyvern carries a yelling Gastarn off around the side of the mountain out of view. Vaseer fires off a firebolt at the departing Wyvern and hits it though not badly. Quickly convinced of the need to continue on, Anton hurries to begin climbing with Matthus up the side. Xalth and Vaseer remain on the ledge to grab a quick rest, but the rest of the party climbs on. Once the party climbs some distance, Xalth casts levitate and begins to climb with its assistance. Vaseer again casts Polymorph upon Draug, though he senses that Draug does not enjoy being polymorphed. Vaseer rides Draug the Gryphon up the side of the mountain face until he flies almost head first into a diving Wyvern. With a screech the Gryphon Draug and the Wyvern engage in aerial combat, with Vaseer launching firebolts from atop Draugs back. Below, Xalth and Matthus and the Bronzeflag also attempt to injure the flying beast. The wyvern slices at Draug and injures the gryphon draug, while also diving and ripping one of the porters clean off the side of the mountain. With a horrified echoing scream, the porter plummeted out of view and slammed into the mountainside below. Nevertheless, the party pours on damage to the beast. With both Xalth and Vaseer pelting it with firebolts and Bronzeflag members hitting it with arrows. The injured Wyvern swerves upwards with the Gryphon Draug in close persuit and the Wyvern’s wings clip the mountain, sending boulders hurtling down the mountainside. One of these boulders slams directly into Vaseer riding Draug, causing Vaseer to lose his concentration. Draug instantly returns to his Direwolf form and along with Vaseer begins plummeting straight downwards. Xalth, thinking quickly, hangs on tight to the wall and casts levitate on Draug instead of himself. Draug’s fall is arrested, while Vaseer quickly casts polymorph on himself and turns himself into a Wyvern. He manages to begin to glide, though much to the shock and cries of the members of the expedition.  During this chaos, the injured Wyvern flapped his burnt wings up the side of the mountain and out of sight. Leaving the expedition clinging periolously to the side of this mountain, thousands of feet up, in the middle of nowhere in the Scorched Wastes.
	The party decide to continue climbing, with Xalth using levitate to help Draug along up the side of the mountain. The expedition manage to climb a little farther up the wall before the first Wyvern comes hurtling down the side of the wall, screeching as it comes. The party immediately begins a battle with the Wyvern, as it claws at the expedition and strikes out with its poisoned tail. Xalth is struck, causing his concentration to be broken and Draug to tumble down a dozen feet to a small cliff ledge below. Draug barely manages to stay on the side of the mountain, while the rest of the party sends spells and arrows whistling towards the flying Wyvern. Vaseer, polymorphed as his own Wyvern, uses his claws and tails to strike out at the attacking Wyvern. They slay one Wyvern, only for the second to show up and continue the battle. After much exchanging of blows, the second Wyvern is finally sent tumbling down the mountain to a cliff edge below where it remains screeching and thrashing in agony. Battered and injured, the expedition continues to climb its way up the side of the mountain. Vaseer, stilly polymorphed into a Wyvern, flys up the side of the mountain where he transforms back into his human state. He casts spider climb on himself and easily lays the rope ling down underneath and over a particularly difficult outcropping of rock. There he finds an ancient stone tower collapsed into the side of the mountain, perched on a small outcropping of rock. After the rest of the expedition manages to make it over the side of the rock, they also climb their way to the tower and the entire expedition arrives and rests for the evening.
	That evening, both Lt. Khan and Anton Brighte again make their pitch to the party. After a troublesome nights rests in a cramped tower perched precariously on the side of a mountain thousands of feet in the air, the party continues climbing up the side of the mountain. Not long after, the party arrives at a slope that’s more reasonable to climb. In front of them lies two enormous carved stone skulls guarding a slanted path upwards along the mountain. The party, after some careful investigation, proceeds onwards down the narrow path clinging to the mountainside. To their right is a sheer drop of several thousand feet far to the narrow canyon below. The party files along the steep path until they arrive at a series of switch turns in a grove of dead trees. However, standing directly in their path lies an enormous vulture headed creature. Xalth and Vaseers quickly surmised that it was  Gypsosphinx, a highly magical and ancient creature. Well known for its extremely long life span, vast intelligence and uncanny ability to foretell other creature’s death. The sphinx eyes the party warily as they approach and calls out a riddle to them.
	The party is taken aback by the sudden intellectual challenge and it is Anton Brighte who eventually conjures up the answer. Disgruntled at his lost chance, the Gypsosphinx scrambles it’s way back up the slope aways and awaits the party. The expedition moves forward, periodically challenged with riddles by the Sphinx. Each time, one member of the party or the other manages to answer the riddle correctly. The Sphinx is pushed back each time, eventually left blocking the path onwards through the mountain where the creature offers one last riddle. The answer, guessed correctly by Vaseer, was blood. The Sphinx demands one member of the party is offered up to him as a blood sacrifice for their continued passage. After only a moment or two of quiet unease, the Bronzeflag members seize one of their own and push him forward. Consented too by Lt. Khan, who eyes his former comrade coldly, the Bronzeflag member is thrown at the feet of the Gypsosphinx which sqawks happily and quickly snatches up the mercenary in it’s enormous buzzard beak. With a horrifying scream and a woosh of wind, the Sphinx launches itself over the party and off the cliff where it catches the wind and soars downwards, the echoing screams of the Bronzeflag member bouncing off the walls of the canyon.