Episode 2, "Fancy Meeting You Here"
Campaign Date: IY 780 Wap 15-17
GM:Dave Nelson
Characters:
Vex, dwarf, priest-militant, level 1, LN, Pete Zollers
    Humbert, human, soldier, level 1 (mercenary NPC)
Chun, human, monk, level 1, LN, Chuck Fleurie
Blackie, sprite, illusionist, level 1, Marlon Kirton
Uff, half-ogre, barbarian, level 1, Marlon Kirton
Cletus McNasty, gnome, ranger, level 1, Dave Nelson

Log:

Wap 15th, Riverburg
Bishop Henry, of the Church of Bor in Riverburg, called in two novice members of his clergy, a monk named Chun and a dwarf priest-militant named Vex. He informed them that a mysterious stranger had been asking around town about forbidden books and about a demonic curse that lay over the ruins of Kingsburg. Henry instructed the pair to go to the ruins and investigate, lest there be some demonic horror there.

Chun, being a poor monk, received a bag of lentils to sustain him for a week. Vex went to the town bakery and secured a supply of “iron monkey” travel bread and Blue Thaddeus cheese for the trip (at a 20% official Bor’s business discount). He then bought a small cask of beer too.

Feeling that he and Chun alone were insufficient for such a dangerous task, Vex visited the Swordsman’s Guild to hire additional help. He paid the manager, Sigbert Graybush, an old warrior with one eye and a bushy mane of gray hair, 9gp for the services of Humbert, a mercenary spearman, for one month (3gp to the guild as a finder’s fee, 6gp for 1 month’s salary to Humbert, with Vex being responsible for food and lodging and with the standard 50gp bonus if Humbert were to be taken into a dungeon or other unnatural situation).

It was still early, so at 10 that morning, Vex, Chun and Humbert set off up the Old Drummond trail towards Riverburg. The trip was largely uneventful until about 4:00 when they ran into some peasants and their sheep. The peasants were having a spirited argument about how to get to Castle Wode, but the adventurers did not meddle in their business. Humbert warned Vex that it was surely death to spend the night in Kingsburg, so the party made camp on the road. Vex had Humbert do the lion’s share of the night watch.

Wap 16th, Kingsburg Ruins
When Vex, Chun and Humbert approached the ruins in the morning, they spotted a primitive shrine near the south of the town ruins. Chun sneaked up to the shrine and noticed that there were a collection of new-made tents nearby and a pile of old, burnt tents off to the side. There was some kind of ceremony taking place at the shrine, whereby a kobold shaman was presiding over a group of 8 other kobolds. Chun reported this news back to Vex. They made discussion and decided that the kobolds must be attacked and their pagan shrine defiled.

While Chun sneaked around behind the shaman, Humbert and Vex moved into position for a sudden assault. At the signal, the party sprang upon the kobolds, killing the shaman and 3 other kobolds and forcing the rest to flee. They then burned the kobold camp again. While looting the camp they found a small store of 70gp and a box that contained Blackie, a sprite illusionist, whom the kobolds were saving for a later entertainment. They released Blackie and he joined the expedition.

The party moved on to the old town square and decided to search the old dried well. At first they were stymied, since they had no rope to descend down the well, but luckily, they found a rope and grapnel under some brush nearby. In the well, Humbert discovered a secret tunnel that looked to go up under the tower hill. At this point Vex and Chun decided to pay Humbert the 50gp dungeon fee to have him accompany them into the tunnels beneath the tower.

In the tunnel leading under the town, they were blocked by 5 giant rats, 4 of whom Blackie put to sleep with a sleep spell and the fifth was killed by Humbert. The party then reached the dungeon beneath the tower (3rd level of the dungeon) and were confronted by 2 giant beetles that had fiery glowing glands on their bodies. After a brisk fight the beetles were slain and the glands pried out to replace Vex’s expiring Light spell. Underneath a secret panel in the floor, the party finds 10 copper ingots, each weighing 10 pounds.

Moving deeper into the dungeon, they surprise 3 men with torches. They attack and kill all three of them without even finding out who they were or why or how they had entered the catacombs. In the course of the fight, Blackie wounded Chun with a thrown dagger, but the wound was not serious.

Next they run into a set of 4 zombies. Vex uses the power of Bor to drive 2 of them into a corner. And the other 2 are killed after a stiff fight. The zombies were guarding 2 iron trunks, which, when opened, revealed a nice pile of silver coins and a scroll or two. Unfortunately, they had no sacks to carry off the silver, so headed back toward the room where they had slain the three humans to see if they had some sacks on their bodies.

However, on the way they were attacked by 5 wandering skeletons. The fight was hard and dangerous. But, they were rescued, first by the appearance of the Half-Ogre adventurer Uff and soon afterwards by the trusty gnome Cletus McNasty. After some hard fighting, the skeletons were destroyed. Vex and Chun asked Uff and Cletus to join forces with them to which they agreed. Blackie became overwhelmed with dread at the thought of working with a half-ogre and so departed the dungeon and flew back home. Cletus had several sacks in his possession so they skipped returning to loot the bodies.

It turns out that Cletus and Uff had been exploring the dungeon, just behind Vex and Chun, but had turned aside down a side passage. They had found a pair of treasure chests and were trying to open them when they heard Vex and Chun fighting the skeletons. All four returned to the treasure room and managed to open the chests and find some more loot, including a potion of spider climb, which Cletus got, since he was forced to taste it. They then avoided a hideous giant jelly monster and killed 5 more skeletons that were guarding a stone sarcophagus.

The sarcophagus proved to be very slow to open and while they were doing so they had to fight off more skeleton attackers. Inside the sarcophagus was a nice pile of silver coins. At this point, loaded down with a lot of silver and copper coins, they decided to leave the dungeon and returned to the roadside to camp for the night.

Wap 17th, The Drummond Trail
About 9 in the morning, while the party marched back towards Riverburg, their path was blocked by an ogre with a spiked club. The ogre wounded Uff but was soon killed. About 1 in the afternoon, Cletus spotted some goblin spies near the road. The party rushed them and killed them all, suffering various dagger wounds in the process. Near evening they re-entered Riverburg, and split up about 1000gp in treasure.