#55 - The path to "The Temple"

The party of 3rd level character reaches the trail that Venos had described to them.  He had told them of a secret outpost known as "The Temple".  Pale Moon uses this as a hide-out, and a meeting place with their goblin allies.  Venos told them that they should search the swamp in a certain area for wooden walk-ways.  These walk-ways would lead to the temple.

The find that a halfling rogue called "Lightfoot" has followed them on their journey.  He wants to join in the party.  He is seeking a potential reward from White Skull if he can give them information about the location of "The Temple". 

The party finds a dry niche in the swamp where they can take an extended rest.  And while doing so, Malkir, explores on his own.  On the trail, he encounters two zombies.  He finds them on his own at first, but after suffering some wounds, he decides to retreat back to the camp.

Later the party finds these same zombies and destroys them. 

They come to a fork in the road.  To the left, the trail continues, but seems to end in a gate in the distance.  The trail goes off to the right as well.

This trail is a walkway of wooden slabs.  In many places, it has tall rails, designed to keep out swamp creatures. 

The party decides to explore the trail to the right.  They encounter a patrol, 4 goblins and 2 worgs.    The goblins let our war cries and the worgs bare down on the party.  A fight ensues.  The party dispatches the goblins and worgs, and disposes the bodies in the swamp.

The return to the other branch of the trail, and stealthily approach the gate.  Behind the gate is large guard post, staffed by an ogre, two goblins and 2 worgs. 

The party decides to leave the trail and sneak past the guard post. 

As we leave off, the party has successfully sneaked under the guard post.  But they have aroused the suspicion of one of the worgs.

20 points of experience awarded.  For finding the temple trail.  For fighting the zombies, and the goblin patrol.  No experience awarded yet for the guard post. 

Boggs Town #1 - Prince Kellen's Island

a party of 5 characters (human pally, half-elf rogue, half-elf bard, elf ranger, gnome sorcerer) agreed to work for Prince Kellen in exchange for passage to Boggs Town in Terra Malatia.  They agreed to two years of servitude.

They were transported by ship, along with a halfling librarian named Seymore.  Along with the passengers, the ship carried its crew and many crates filled with books.  Seymore is the keeper of the Prince's book collection.  He is escorting it to a new home being built for the prince in the new world.

The ship arrived after 3 weeks.

The party went ashore and met Olga.  A leather armored dwarf, as wide as she is tall, with long blond braids and thick mutton chops.  Ogla tells the party that she is their new boss.

She takes them over the hills from the shore where they landed, to a valley that has been cleared of trees.  Workers have constructed a barn and barracks.  They are clearing the land for a farm, and construction has begun on a large mansion.  There are many laborers working to build the farm, a troop of guards, and a captain of the guards.

Olga's job is to explore this island that The Prince has chosen.  And the party work for her in doing that.

One morning Olga calls the party to one of the fields and informs them that they will be playing a game of "capture the flag".  Against two suits of animated armor, and two flying swords.  This is a deadly exercise in combat training.  The party defeats the animated objects, but suffers some serious wounds in the process.  Olga is very critical of the parties choice to fight the objects to the end, rather than sending a runner to get the flag.

The party takes an extended rest to heal.  The next morning they depart to check out a strange rock formation on a western beach.  Some rocks in the shape of a creature have been spotted from afar.  Ogla wants to know what they are.

The party goes to the beach by canoe, rather than crossing over land.

Turns out the rock formation is a gargoyle.  It guards a stone slab, built to seal up a cave entrance.  The slab has writing on it, in some ancient language.

The bard sneaks up to the slab and casts "Comprehend Language".  It says
"Beware!!  Enter not this cave.  Fearsome creatures dwell beneath".

The Paladin and Rogue choose to move the stone slab, arousing the gargoyle, and releasing a swarm of rats.

The party battles the rats and gargoyle, succeeding in the end.  But they use all of their spells in the process.  They decide to take an extended rest on the beach.

Awarded 33 points of experience.  For combat against the gargoyle and rats.  For combat in the "capture the flag game".  For the skill challenge of canoeing to the beach.  For discovering the cave entrance.

#54 - Breakdown

Merl summoned Perra, Lenny, and Valaran to the secret room in the basement of the magic shop.  This room is essentially like a giant bag of holding.  It is a pocket of space in another plane of existence.  Because of the size of this secret room, it is slightly unstable, and unlike a normal bag of holding, its location is possibly discoverable by others.

Merl has observed cracks forming in the outer walls of the room, and is concerned that someone might be trying to break in.

Sure enough, the crack breaks open.  In comes a strange looking Wizard and a party of orcs.

Also, the crack in the room caused its magic to become very unstable.  Random objects appearing and disappearing.  The shape of the room changing.  Party members and foes being randomly teleported across the room.

The party secured the crown, and took it through the exit, while engaged in battle with the orcs and wizard.  The party was victorious.  However, Merl was badly injured, the room destroyed, and the strange wizard escaped.