• Tabansi - Half Elven Ranger
• Athazog - Half Orc barbarian
• Arkin - Halfling Rogue
• Ek’tura - Bekyar Wizard (plus Vanyolich, his Nosoi familiar)
• Derek- Cleric of Sarenrae

We follow the tracks of Sozothala back to some stone doors, which stand partially ajar.

We head back to the party for the evening, and prepare for our exploration of the entrance to the Darklands.

In the morning we head to the tunnel entrance. The only tracks going in or out are those of Sozothala. Arkin heads in, and narrowly avoids being crushed under a falling statue. Tabansi runs in, straight into an ambush of Kech who are equipped with bows and poisoned arrows.

We manage to drive the ambush party back into the tunnels, and move in after them. We encounter a room full of them, all equipped with bows. Derek flamestrikes them (twice!), charring them around the edges and singing Athazog in the process.

We eventually kill them all. In the corner of the room is the rotting dead corpse of a bat winged creature called a Sabosan.

+4,800 XP

60 doses of blood root poison. (6000gp) 100gp in gold nuggest Amythyst 50gp

Heading further down, we come across a nest of Sabosans. One grabs Tabansi, and bites him in the neck, causing him to bleed freely. There is a screech from another, deafening Arkin and Derek. One of them flaps its wings, kicking up an obscuring dust, and also some black mold which infects many of us, making us all paranoid and distrustful of each other (the same affliction Juliver had before we healed her). We all decide to leave the cave and return to the Artisans quarter, each watching their former ‘friends’ for signs of treachery. We then travel back to our own camp with Juliver, who wants us to go back into the cave. In our current paranoid state, we’re going to take some convincing… +320 XP

We use some restoration magic to try and make people better.

The next day we head back to the caverns, wearing some face masks to try and protect from any molds or gases, as well as a Life Bubble put up by Derek. Ek’Tura scouts out the tunnels with an arcane eye to give us an idea of the layout of the place.

As well as an open sinkhole leading in from above, at the back is a room with a large broken statue. There are paintings of a jungle, a city (probably Saventh’Yi) and a picture of the room itself (including a recursive painting of the painting). Walls seem to be covered in blue crystal.

Going in, we can see there is a black dust in the cracks of the walls. The place looks dark, with the risk of dangerous things lurking in the corners. The rest of the group seem too eager to go in, and I reckon they want to lead us deliberately into danger.

We climb up above the sinkhole. Tabansi sees some tracks of someone having climbed out. Athazog climbs down, followed by Arkin. Athazog then disappears off down one of the passages by himself.

Athazog explores the entire complex and can only spot 4 Sabosans behind a barrier. He climbs up to tell people. We decide to go down and explore the big room.

Athazog climbs down. Derek climbs down eventually (struggles as he’s terrible at climbing). Arkin climbs down. Arkin and Derek follow Athazog to the doors of the room. Athazog steps into the room. A stone golem standing in the alcove behind Derek and Arkin lunges out and hits both of them doing significant damage. Derek withdraws running back to the hole he entered the complex through.. Arkin withdraws and runs past the tunnel Derek was in.

Tabansi and Ek’Tura move down into the caves to see what is going on. It appears to be a stone golem, which is largely immune to all spells.

Athazog attacks the stone golem and does a little damage. Athazog takes a lot of damage and retreats into the room, followed by the golem. Ek’tura summons a swarm of 5 Lantern Archons which start shooting rays of light at the golem. Tabansi pinpoints its weak point, shoots it with an arrow and it breaks apart.

XP: +2560

Tabansi looks at the pictures, and reckons that the jungle picture shows the valley before Saventh-Yhi was built. The picture of the city seems to show this set of caves, as well as caves to half a dozen other similar places around the city.

The picture of a recursive room seems to be indented into the wall. There are some broken blue crystals on the wall in front of it.

A giant slug comes around the corner, and Ek’Tura kills it with his summoned lantern archons and an enervation spell, but not before it spits a nasty gob of acid at him..

XP: +960

It’s body blocks the entrance to the painting room.

There is a flower with large pink petals. It is Litheria Blossom, very rare. It can stop you from dying if you inhale the pollen. It gives Deathward/Deathwatch for 10 minutes. Tabansi takes it (1,400gp). Derek casts Decompose Corpse on the slug, getting rid of the body.

In the painting of the room in the painting of the room, there are six empty holes, each a couple of centimetres across. Tabansi steps out the room as Derek tries to put the broken crystals into the holes. The room is suddenly filled with fire, and Ek’Tura and Athazog fall down, dying. Only the hand of fate prevents Ek’Tura from dying outright.

As everyone else leaves the room, Tabansi pops his head around the corner. Around the edge of the mural in the stone border are Azlanti runes, seven different sets of them, but he has no idea of what they are. He leaves.

We head back to the Muse for the night to rest up. The next day we investigate some of the other caves. Artisan District - Bat critters and madness Trade District - Chimera - Water filled sinkhole. Military District - Big cavern

Go to the big cavern. Tracks of a very large animal, possibly unnatural. A large web covered crocodile comes out of the cave, getting shot at by Tabansi, charging at great speed and spewing a spray of spiders onto Athazog. Athazog runs away, Ek’Tura possesses it and Tabansi and Derek kill it.

XP: +1,920

There is more of the nasty black mold on the walls of the cavern. We decide not to go in and instead return to camp.

Derek casts 2 Restorations (costing 200gp of diamond dust each). He also does lots of channeling to heal up anyone that needs it. Also does 2 Lesser Restorations on Athazog.

The next day… Derek does 3 more Restorations to try and cure the party’s paranoia again. Derek replaces the 500gp of diamond dust from camp supplies. The camp is in a really good state at the moment.

Plan is to head to Kalabuto and try to figure out what is causing us so much difficulty, and to find a way around it.

Just as we are about to teleport, two people come running into the camp. One of them is Jask Derindi, the other is a woman. Both are unarmed and injured. Jask says that their camp has been attacked by the Aspis who have gone mad. She says her name is Karlen. They work for the Sargaven Givernment.

Derek pulls arrows out of Jask and then channels healing and channels healing on Jask and Karlan.

Tabansi moves into the Jungle to find those chasing them, and spots someone sneaking up with a crossbow. He shoots him, but fails to kill him. More attackers come out of the jungle at this point and attack the camp. Arkin charges towards one of the attackers. Derek takes a bolt that does some damage. He casts Shield of Faith, pulls out his shield and then takes a step towards the building to get some cover. He yells for Jask and Karlan to take cover and they scurry into the nearest building.

Tabansi exchanging arrow fire with the attacker he spotted. Athazog charges up to another attacker. Ek’tura produces his lion figurines and gets one lion to attack the person who fired on Ek’tura. Arkin hits the attacker in front of him. The attacker remains. Derek casts a Flame Strike against the attacker targeting him and does considerable damage but the attacker remains.

Tabansi fires on the nearest attacker to him and does a bit of damage. Athazog takes some damage from the attacker nearest him. The attacker that Tabansi arrowed, drops his bow and draws his sword and attacks Tabansi to do a little damage.. Ek’tura cast Mirror Image on himself (5 more Ek’turas appear). Derek takes more damage from the man he targeted earlier and takes a good hit whilst ducking an arrow from the opposite direction. Arkin tumbles and attacks the attacker nearest him doing a little damage. Derek Flame Strikes the same attacker and kills him. Serve the bastard right! The attacker in front of the lion does a couple of good hits on him.

Tabansi fires a couple of arrows at the nearest attacker killing him then moves towards the next attacker. Athazog takes a hit. Ek’tura’s lion claws the attacker in front of it. Ek’tura and other lion delay. The attacker fighting Arkin does a full retreat. Athazog full attacks the attacker in front of him doing a critical hit and killing him. Arkin kills the attacker next to him. Derek delays.

Tabansi is looking and listening for any remaining attackers. He can’t see any so drags the man he killed into camp. Athazog chases after the attacker se spied in the woods. He lunges in and attacks him and does a decent hit. Ek’tura summons his lion back to him. Arkin moves towards where he hears fighting. Derek cheers Athazog on.

Tabansi moves to where he can hear fighting. Athazog takes a mighty swing at the attacker but misses. Ek’tura is scanning the woods and moves one of his lions between himself and woods - just in case. The attacker panics and full retreats. Arkin and Derek delay.

Tabansi runs into the woods after the fleeing attacker and gets a shot off and takes him down.. Derek calls everyone to him (they move over) and then Derek quickly channels healing to heal everybody of the damage they took.

XP : +2880

Party talk with Jask and Karlan about what brought them to us. Jask and Karlan were on a scouting mission near the Aspis camp. The Aspis recently received reinforcements. Since then there has been civil war in the camp. The new legionnaires executed anyone who wouldn’t obey them. Their new leader has one eye and a black beard.

Jask went back to their camp, but the Aspis followed him and destroyed their camp.

There are five bodies (x5): +1 longsword Masterwork heavy crossbow Masterwork breastplate 5pp 33gp Potions: Blur, Cure Moderate (2d8+3), 2xEndure Elements Black fetched bolts

Tabansi sneaks to the Sargavan camp. There are dead bodies all over, even pack animals have been killed. Possibly a fifth of the camp are here dead. The rest presumably taken prisoner.

Sneaking over to the Aspis camp, there are a few dead bodies there but it seems to be deserted. A small group of people, not Aspis, turn up and look around the camp. Then they head out. Tabansi heads back to camp to let the others know.

We interrogate the surviving attacker. Ordered to attack by Evo, their leader. They have set up a really impressive camp in the temple district. There are a score or two of them.

Derek takes the time to learn 3 more Restoration spells and heals Ek’tura, Athazog and Arkin.

We decide to stay and defend the camp. 4 pteradons fly in. One lands and pecks at Ek’tura. Ek’tura activates a supernatural ability and everyone gets lucky (+2 on attacks) Derek casts Fireball and kills 2 of the pteradons. The second pteradon lands and attacks Ek’tura and spears its bill through him for a good hit. Arkin attacks the nearest pteradon and gets one hit killing the pteradon. Athazog rages and walks up to the pteradon. The pteradon gets an attack of opportunity but misses. Athazog takes one mighty swing and kills the remaining pteradon. Derek converts a 3rd level spell to Cure Moderate Wounds and heals Ek’tura.

XP: +640XP

Our scouts return with news of more discoveries.

Next day, Derek forces a Restoration on Tabansi who is eventually happy.

Then we go find the Aspis camp.

The camp is protected by walls with spikes. The rear of it is protected by high cliffs and ruins which are almost impassable.

Derek casts Bull Strength on Tabansi and casts Shield of Faith on Arkin and Athazog and himself. Derek gives Arkin the ring so he can cast Shield Other if needed. Derek casts Air Walk on himself.

Ek’tura and Derek cast Summon Monster V and 2 ankylosaurs appear.

Ek’tura casts Haste on the entire party and the ankylosaurs, the ankylosaurus charge at the wooden door set in the wooden wall and attack it. 1 ankylosaur hits the wall and does damage, the other doesn’t. The guards fire at the ankylosaurus and do some damage. Athazog uses his chakram to do some damage. Derek airwalks up behind the ankylosaurus. Tabansi takes a shot at one of the guards on the wall hitting him twice and doing a lot of damage. Arkin will run up and take cover behind an ankylosaur. Another guard shoots at Derek and hits doing a little damage. The guards raise the alarm. Three guards shoot and miss Derek.

Ek’tura moves up and casts a Vanish spell. The ankylosaurus try and break down the door. The first one breaks the door and enters the compound and the second one moves on through. The second ankylosaur attacks one of the guards on the wall but misses. Athazog puts away his chakram and moves up behind the ankylosaurus. Derek is about 20ft high and runs into the compound over the wall. Tabansi shoots and does a magnificent shot and kills one of the wall guards. He misses a second guard and hits a third. Arkin runs into the compound. The guards shoot at Derek who takes some hits. One guard crouches down and draws an attack of opportunity from one of the ankylosaurus which hits him with its tail. 2 guards run out of a tent. They shoot at the ankylosaurus. One ankylosaur takes some damage. 2 more guards come out of the other tent. They shoot and one hits Derek and the other one misses Derek.

Ek’tura moves up to the door and starts casting a Summon Monster spell. The ankylosaurus move up and try and hit guards (doing Smite Evil at the same time). Two guards are dazed. Athazog moves up and hits one of the guards by the tent doing a lot of damage. Derek moves over the tent and heals himself. Tabansi shoots at the guards on the wall. Arkin hits and takes down Guard 7. THEN DARYL HIT ROLL INITIATIVE AND IT ALL WENT TO POT!!! Guard 11 steps out of the tent and swings a sword at Arkin hitting him twice doing a little damage. Guard 4 takes a step away from the ankylosaur. Guard 6 shot at an ankylosaur and got one hit. Lizardman4 comes out of the tent and charges up to an ankylosaur which hits back. The ankylosaur does a great hit and stuns the charging lizardfolk. Guard 2 shoots and hits Derek. Lizardman8 charges out and hits the ankylosaur. Guard 10 uses his crossbow to shoot Arkin. Guard 1 shoots and misses Derek. Lizardman3 charges out and attacks the ankylosaur doing a little damage. Guard 5 shoots at the ankylosaur but misses. Guard 7 was dazed so can’t do anything. Lizardman6 comes out of the big tent and swipes at the ankylosaur but misses. Lizardman5 comes out of the other tent and is flanked so attacks Arkin and does a little bit of damage. Guard 9 was also dazed so does nothing. Guard 11 comes out of another tent and shoots and misses an ankylosaur.

Lizardman7 hits and misses. Ek’tura’s hound archon appears and attacks Guard 2 on the wall. Ek’tura starts summoning another monster. The ankylosaurus attack guards on the ground and does some damage. Athazog does a full round attack and does some damage. Derek Flame Strikes the group and kills on guard and hurts 4 others. Tabansi moves up and then does a phenomenal amount of damage to kill Guard 5.. Arkin hits the guard he is flanking and kills Lizardfolk15. Then attacks and damages Lizardfolk12. Guard4 takes a 5 foot step back and shoots and misses Arkin. Guard6 shoots and misses the ankylosaur. Guard2 attacks the hound archon and does a little damage. Blurry lizard8 comes out of the tent. The ankylosaur sees him coming and tries to hit him. Guard10 is going to shoot Athazog but misses. Guard1 shoots at Derek and misses. Lizard3 tries to hit the ankylosaur and gets in one hit. Lizard6 attacks the ankylosaur. Lizard11 attacks and misses. Lizard7 attacks and hits the ankylosaur.

Ek’tura’s earth elemental appears and he orders it to attack the guards. The anklysaurs attack. Guard12 dies. Guard10 dies. Then it gets a critical hit on Guard20 and Guard16 dies. The earth elemental lands one hit and one critical hit. Guard13 and Guard17 takes some damage. The hound archon attacks and misses. Ek’tura moves further into the compound. Athazog kills a guard. Derek heals himself. Tabansi moves in and shoots Guard11. Arkin rushes off and attacks Guard11. Guard4 takes a 5 foot step back. Guard6 shoots at Arkin but misses. Guard14 drops its bow and draws a sword and attacks an ankylosaur. Guard2 attacks the hound archon and hits it once but does no damage. Blurry Guard18 hits out and misses everything. Guard 1 shoots at Derek and misses. Guard11 full retreats away from Arkin. Guard13 swings wildly and manages one minor hit on an ankylosaur.

Ek’tura delays. The ankylosaur attacks Guard4 on the wall. The other ankylosaur attacks Guard13 twice and does some damage but doesn’t kill it. The earth elemental hits Guard13 and kills him. Then turns its attention to Guard14 and does some damage. The hound archon attacks Guard2 and does a good hit. Athazog moves up and hits Guard14 and kills him. Derek casts Spiritual Weapon and uses it to hit Guard1. Tabansi fires on Guard6 and takes him down. Arkin peers into the tent and sees a couple of gerallions (big 4 armed apes) guarding a chest. He moves back. Guard4 draws a sword and leaps off the wall to attack an ankylosaur. He misses with his sword but takes some damage when he hits the ground. Guard2 attacks the hound archon but misses. Guard18 attacks the ankylosaur but misses. Guard1 attacks Derek but misses. Guard11 does something.

Ek’tura wanders over and peers into a tent which turns out to be a mess tent which is empty. The ankylosaur gets a couple of hits on Guard4 who dies. The other ankylosaur hits and dazes Guard18. The hound archon hits and kills Guard2 and then moves over to Guard1. The earth elemental sees a big empty tent full of beds. Athazog moves and flanks Guard18. He gets a critical hit on him and kills him with a mighty blow. Derek moves over towards the prisoners. Tabansi shoots and kills Guard1. Arkin calls the party over to the tent.

Ek’tura praises the earth elemental and then sends it towards the building with the gorillions in. Everyone closes in. Tabansi shoots at Guard11. Arkin moves around to explore next building over. Guard11 shoots back. The garillon comes out and attacks Athazog.

Ek’tura tells his earth elemental to kill the garillion. The earth elemental hits it and does some damage. Athazog attacks and kills the garillion. Derek commands his ankylosaur to attacks the corner of the building. He makes a hole. Derek sends his Magic Weapon in to attack the garillion and moves down to ground level. Tabansi kills Guard11. Arkin investigated the other building which is empty.

Ek’tura’s anklysaur disappears. He orders his earth elelmental to attack the garillion which does some damage. The garillion attacks the earth elemental back and hits with all 4 claws. Athazog enters the building attempting to attack the garillion. An invisible person undelays and attacks Athazog with a falchion and backstabbed him doing some damage. Atahzog attacks the pirate. Derek’s magic weapon attacks the garillion and does a little damage. Derek delays. Tabansi moves closer in order to see who Athazog is fighting. He shoots at the pirate. Arkin comes back and tells us he can’t see anything and gets closer to the fight.

Ek’tura’s earth elemental attacks the garillion and does serious damage. Ek’tura casts a Quickened True Strike and an Enervation at Evo (4 negative levels). Hound archon moves up. Garillion attacks Athazog who is flanked and does a teensy bit of damage. Evo attacks Atahzog and does a huge amount of damage. Athazog 5 foot steps and full attacks Evo doing lots of damage killing Evo. Derek’s Spiritual Weapon takes down the remaining garillion.

Evo’s skull collapses and a greenish goo pours out of his eyes/nose/mouth.

Derek channels three times to cure himself, Arkin and Athazog.

+9,600XP

The party searches for magical stuff and some of Evo’s stuff glows.

Treasure found: 16 +1 long swords 10 CMW potions 10 Blur potions 16 MW crossbows 16 MW breastplate 20 potions of Endure Elements

Evo: +1 keen falchion 2 MW daggers Belt of dexterity +2 Ring of Protection +1 Silver Aspis consortium badge (50 gp) Very large diamond (1000gp) Set of keys Papers describing the various parts of the city.

He opens up the chest and it has the payroll in there for Aspis Corporation (2200 gp, 11000 sp, assorted stone art worth 1780 gp

Packhorses worth 3000gp

The party frees the Sargarvan prisoners.

We spend some time sorting out loot from the Aspis.

Arkin spots four winged apes up on the ridge line. They are probably Derhii. They are a type of monstrous humanoid which are known to serve the Gorilla King. They are particularly hostile to humans.

The Gorilla King is based at the city of Usaro, on the shores of Lake Ocata (close to Tabansi’s homeland), so Tabansi wonders why they are all the way over here.

Once it gets up high, it lets out a loud booming sound.

We talk to the merchants we have rescued, and they are planning on heading back to Sargava now that their leaders are dead. We make them an offer to join with us if any of them want to.

Tabansi and Athazog stay behind at the camp, whilst Arkin, Ek’Tura and Derek teleport to Kalabuto to try and find information about the black nasty stuff. And sell stuff. Lots of stuff.

Derek and Ek’tura both fail to find anyone who knows what the black stuff is.

Back at camp, we do some investigation of the city. Discover information about the spear in the Government section. Passive: +2 bonus on sense motive checks Find out more about Saveth’s defeat of Ydersius. She had three famous champions. They match the statues in the bird killing tower.

The others get back to camp.

The next day we head to the government district to investigate a hole in the ground that our explorers have found. There is a big cave that goes into the hillside. There are nasty black spores in there.

Arkin and Athazog head into the cave. We notice a giant venus fly trap with legs, which grabs at Athazog and engulfs him in its mouth. It then swallows Arkin, though he manages to escape. Ek’tura manages to cast Grease on Arkin that helps him. Derek dumps a flame strike on it.

Derek dumps another Flame Strike on it.

It shuffles closer to Arkin and attacks and grabs him again. Derek casts his third and last Flame Strike on the giant venus fly trap.

Tabansi shoots it with a Gravity arrow and it falls over dead.

XP: +1920

Further into the cave, is a mud encrusted corpse with plate armour, which is magical. Breastplate +2 Going round some steps which lead down into a long passage with alcoves along the sides. The walls are oozing mud which is filled with the black spores, covering the floor. Our water walking allows people to walk above the mud, but then Tabansi sees humanoid shapes ooze out of the mud and stage engulfing Arkin and others.

Tabansi shoots at one of them, but the arrow goes straight through. Shaken by the sight of the muddy forms, Tabansi moves back, yelling at the others to get out of there.

There is some shouting, and the rest of the group comes up the stairs and pile into the main cave. They wait, and claim that they didn’t see any mud shapes, but that there were a couple of mud mephits.

Athazog moves down into the corridor again, backed up by Tabansi who tries very hard to stay away from the mud. A mephit appears breathing acid on Athazog. Tabansi shoots it twice, but it doesn’t go down.

A second one comes out and breathes on Athazog again, covering him in acid.

Ek’Tura drops a web down the corridor, trying to entangle them. Derek summons a spiritual weapon.

Tabansi drops one of them as Athazog attacks the other one. A third Mephit appears and drops a stinking cloud on the front of the party, obscuring Tabansi’s sight of what is going on. Some noises drift out of the cloud, but there’s no way Tabansi is going into the mud filled corridor that is oozing with humanoid shapes.

Eventually the noises stop as the mephits are defeated.

XP: +1880

The rest of the party seem to go down the corridor, ignoring the shapes grasping at them, but Tabansi sensibly stays back, wondering whether they are in league with them. After a bit, Ek’Tura runs back to join Tabansi.

There is some muffled shouting from out of sight. There are more frantic shouts. Looking down the passage, the writhing mass of creatures just seems to become more frantic and intense.

Ek’Tura casts mirror image and starts carefully down the passageway. Tabansi casts Longstrider, then rushes down the passageway, avoiding all the oozing mud. Getting around the corner, the shouting gets louder but there is a room filled with a stinking cloud. It sounds like there is a battle going on either within or on the other side of the cloud. Ek’tura tries and fails to dispel the stinking cloud.

Tabansi moves into the cloud and finds Athazog fighting a large mud creature. Tabansi shoots it a couple of times, not doing much. It drops Athazog and grabs Tabansi instead. The cloud disperses, to reveal another mephit, flying near the ceiling. Beyond the fight with the mud creature we can see a large columned room containing a huge earth elemental. It is trying to kill Derek and Arkin.

Ek’Tura casts Blindness on the mephit, and then summons his own earth elemental, which attacks the mud creature. Athazog is able to pick up his weapon and attacks the mud creature back. Meanwhile, the earth elemental strikes Arkin down, and Derek is looking badly injured too.

Tabansi manages to escape, but is unable to move anywhere since his way back is blocked by Ek’Tura’s earth elemental. Derek heals Arkin, and the mud creature sinks into the ground. Ek’tura hits the huge elemental with an Enervation spell, which has little effect.

The huge elemental attacks Derek, but he manages to summon a wall of fire which allows Arkin and Derek to make a hasty retreat under the cover of the fire.

We all retreat back towards the exit. Ek’Tura delays a bit to see if the earth elemental follows us. It travels under the wall of fire and comes after the fleeing party, but slowly, Ek’tura decided to try one last spell before fleeing and successfully casts a possession spell on it. His body falls to the ground, lifeless, and Athazog comes back to grab his body. The party flee but realize that the elemental is not pursuing them. We eventually work out that Ek’tura has possessed the elemental and come back into the columned hall, where they examine a beautiful fountain which contains water with healing properties.

Ek’Tura finds some info from the elemental: This is the indomitable redoubt of Kalid Shar. I serve him and protect the fountain. Doesn’t know what the fountain does. Doesn’t know about the crystal rods Kalid Shar is the mud monster we fought which escaped. We suspect he lives down a hole under the mud. (which we would have fallen down if we hadn’t all been water walking).

XP: +3440

Snow and video..

We are in the Impenetrable Redoubt of Khaled Shar. There is the Argent Font here, which looks like it was added later. Investigating the font, Ek’Tura reckons that a wish or miracle would allow the font to be moved.

XP: 3,840 for finding the argent font.

The elemental tells us that Khaled Shar has a necklace with gems, which sounds like what we are looking for. We needed this to active the murial to get to the hidden city below. The elf woman smashed the ones that she used to get here.

Ek’Tura sends the elemental down the mud hole, going down 30ft until it reaches a stone floor.

We head out of the cave and return to camp to rest up.

There’s been an attack while we were away but the camp fended them off and has healed up.

We go to the flooded chamber. There are some ropes leading us down to a flooded chamber. Ek’Tura shows off by diving into the water. Not to be shown up, Tabansi dives down after him.

Athazog climbs down and gets to the floor. Arkin follows him down.

Ek’tura casts Detect Magic and sees that there is magic coming off the body floating near the ceiling (possibly the ring the body is wearing). He starts to swim towards the body.

A swarm of piranhas attacks Tabansi who is near the body. He draws his sword, and he, Athazog and Arkin start trying to kill it off whilst it nibbles at Tabansi. Ek’tura tries to swim away from the swarm but sees another one nearby. Ek’tura summons a water elemental. It arrives and unleashes righteous anger on the swarm doing two slams.

Arkin finishes off the swarm that was on Tabansi. However, Tabansi and everyone else is still bleeding heavily.

There is some magical affect which is cast on Arkin, Tabansi and Athazog. Athazog goes into a rage and attacks the other swarm. Tabansi sees some fishy humanoid creature just at the edge of vision in the murky water, and puts away his sword and draws his bow, yelling to the others that there is something there.

Tabansi drinks a potion to cure the bleeding. The large humanoid creature swims up to him and claws at him. Tabansi is not feeling well.

Athazog disperses the last of the swarm, and moves up to help fight the humanoid. Derek channels some healing, making Tabansi feel a lot better.

Derek swims up to Tabansi and heals him some more, as Tabansi and Athazog fight this large fishy thing. Something drops a slow effect on everyone.

Athazog slays the creature, then moves up the passage. He sees another creature up there, and swims back to us. Ek’Tura casts a Haste on the party. Arkin seems to be floating at the back of the cave hitting himself in confusion. He suddenly swims over to Tabansi and stabs him in the back.

The second creature swims up to Tabansi. Tabansi shoots it as it comes in, but it strikes at him. Athazog swims forward and kills it.

XP: +2,880

Ek’Tura removes the confusion from Athazog and Arkin, and Derek heals Tabansi.

Whilst moving forward, Athazog stumbles across: 4 gold ingots with 75gp each. A statue of an azlanti dancer, 700gp Golden ivory brooch in the shape of a nautilus, 500gp A pair of coral armbands, 250gp each A magical ring of protection +3 3 blue crystals inscribed with Azlanti runes of abundance.

Identifying the earlier ring, it is a ring of improved swimming.

We move further down the passage. The silt is even thicker, reducing sight to 5ft. Tabansi scouts ahead, and runs up against another creature. He moves back, allowing Athazog and Arkin to move in and attack it. It quickly swims off.

XP: +960

Following the tunnel further, it leads to the main lake in the middle of the city.

We head back to camp.

Next day we head for the temple district and the cave of insanity there.

We find a series of natural terraces at the back of the hill in the temple district. There is a grotto with a stone door leads into the hillside. There are three serpentfolk there, and as we push into the grove they begin casting spells, casting mirror image on themselves.

Derek fireballs them, though they resist. Tabansi shoots one before it gets up its images. Athazog and Arkin close with them and start taking down images, whilst Tabansi pings them with arrows. Derek damages them with flamestrikes.

Tabansi takes down one, Athazog the second. The third gets surrounded as his images go down. Ek’Tura steps in and almost kills him. Derek finishes him off.

XP: +1,920

Loot: 3x +1 shotels 6x doses of death blade poison

The door looks like it has been recently prised open. We force open the door, and head inside. There are a couple of sarcophogi, one of which has been forced open. We smash the other one open, and a spectre reaches out and attacks Athazog, sucking life energy from him..

Ek’Tura casts haste. A second and third spectre turns up. Then a fourth. We flee as everyone starts getting drained of their life energy, and head back to camp.

XP: +640

We get back to camp, feeling somewhat the worse for wear.

The next day Derek casts 2 Restorations on Athazog and Tabansi to cure their negative levels.

The next next day the party goes adventuring again back to the Caves of Madness. Derek casts a Status spell on Atahzog, Ek’tura and Tabansi. Arkin chooses not to have one cast on him. Derek casts 4 Death Ward spells on Derek, Athazog, Ek’tura, Tabansi. Again, Arkin chooses not to have one cast on him.

Looking in the crypt, there is a body of (probably) a thief laying on the ground next to one of the Sarcophagi. Tabansi goes in to have a look, and draws out the spectres, which are unable to drain his life essence. Tabansi and Athazog begin close combat with then, and Derek tries to force them into being physical, only doing one of them. Ek’tura provides artillery support from outside.

One flees back into its sarcophagus, and the others are slain.

Derek moves into the crypt and tries to move the lid. A hand reaches out and tries to grasp at him. Tabansi readies to shoot it if it tries that again. Athazog tries to smash the lid open.

Athazog smashes the lid. It drifts up out of the sarcophagus and Tabansi shoots it and Derek hits it. It sinks back into the floor, defeated.

XP: +2560

Inside the sarcophagus are some bodies turned to dust, and an enchanted trident decorated with serpents. Arkin recognises it as of ancient Azlanti origin. Ek’tura is unable to determine what enchantments are on it.

We open the main doors fully so that we have sunlight in the first room. Opening the inner doors, there is a corridor heading deeper into the crypt. Tabansi spots a secret door on one side of the passage, and beyond that seems to be a large room full of niches for corpses.

Arkin checks the door for traps, and opens it. Tabansi steps through, and also doesn’t notice the magical symbol on the passage. Fortunately it seems to have no effect on anyone other than Arkin, who falls to the floor greatly weakened.

Carrying on, we find another room full of niches. The walls are decorated with spiders, walking dead and other symbols. There is an altar of broken stones covered in ancient candles. There are two undead looking large tigers.

Ek’Tura castes haste on the entire party. Derek drops a flamestrike on both of them. Tabansi shoots one of them, and it goes down. The other one charges towards Athazog, who smacks it as it runs in. It doesn’t go down, and manages to break one of Athazog’s nails.

Derek hits in, and Arkin steps in and kills it.

XP: +960

As we move into the room, Tabansi and Athazog spots movement of another creature behind the altar. Tabansi shoots it three times as Athazog moves towards it. It pounces on Athazog, tearing into him. Derek tries to finish it off, fails, and lets Arkin finishes it off again.

XP: +480

Beyond the altar is another short corridor and inside is an octagonal room with a large sarcophagus. The lid is laying on the floor.

In the sarcophagus is a shriveled body that has dried mummified ebony skin that has been crudely marked with white ash to mark out a skeleton on it. It’s face has been painted with a skull mask, and it is clutching a bone dagger, as if it has stabbed itself in its chest.

It is wearing a golden circlet around his neck which is not magical. The dagger is magical. Derek reckons that this may have been a ritual to turn himself into some form of powerful undead, probably a lich..

The dagger is +1 wounding.

Going back to the first room, there are holes in the wall and grooves in the ceiling. We head round to the third room, which is a bit different. The floor is covered in black dust, similar to the mold that causes us insanity.

Undead start coming out of the walls and floor. Tabansi yells out a warning, though Athazog can’t see anything. Athazog is obviously in league with the undead, so Tabansi shoots him. Athazog tries to grapple him, but Tabansi dodges away, then cowers in the corner in fear.

We go back to the trap room, and Arkin is able to disable it.

XP: +2560

We head across the room. Beyond is another octagonal room with three sarcophagi and a strong smell of blood. There is a corridor the other side of the room. Two of the sarcophagi are closed, and one has been smashed open by a falling rock from the ceiling.

Our death wards and other effects have gone down by this point.

As Derek steps forward to investigate, and Ek’Tura casts haste just in case, a skinless vampire leaps out and attacks Derek. Tabansi shoots it a few times, and Athazog kills it.

XP: +3840

Treasure: +2 chain shirt Masterwork battleaxe 85gp, 320sp 9 blue crystals inscribed with Azlanti ruins of fertility Bracers of armour +4 Boots of speed. Ring of improved jumping Ring of protection +2

Head back to camp to rest up and learn from our experiences.

Derek cast a Heal on Arkin to cure him completely. Derek cast a Restoration on Tabansi to improve his condition somewhat and 2 Restorations on Ek’tura to heal him correctly. Ek’tura manages to identify the trident as a +1 returning monstrous humanoid bane weapon (good against serpent-folk!)

Next day head back to where the webby crocodile was. As we approach, there is the sound of a large creature heading towards us through the jungle.

A herd of three brachiosauruses. Ek’tura thinks about trying to possess one but realizes it won’t fit in the cave (and he won’t be able to cast spells) so we leave them alone. We make a detour and the don’t bother us.

Getting to the cave, it is full of webs as before. Some of the webs look fresher than when we were here previously. There are four boggards hiding in the webs at the back, so Derek does what Derek loves to do - he fireballs them.

Tabansi shoots at the boggards and one goes down. The others croak, causing some of us to be shaken. Another one spews forth a swarm of spiders at Arkin and Athazog. Tabansi shoots at one and takes it down. Ek’tura casts a Slow spell on them and then activates his Foretell ability to boost the party’s luck.

Arkin springs in and does a precision attack on a boggard. Derek’s Nimbus of Light does damage to the bogards whilst they stay within the nimbus. Athazog finishes off the last boggard and then cuts off the sticky tongue from the dead boggard which was still attached to him. Athazog attempts to clear the spiders off himself. Derek heals up Atahzog by converting a spell to CLW.

XP: +3,840

Treasure 4 blue crystals with Azlanti runes of righteous anger.

Ek’Tura scans ahead with an Arcane Eye spell, and sees a massive web filled cave with a huge white haired tarantula in there. There is a fine web across the entrance to the cavern, which turns out to be incredibly tough and flame resistant.

Eventually we break through into the cavern. One of Ek’Tura’s two magical lion figurines gets stuck in the webs across the entrance and the other get hit by a flung web as soon as it goes inside. Arkin runs into the room, sheltering behind one of the pillars. Ek’tura hits the spider with a Magic Missile spell (mostly to check spells can pass through the webs) and Derek puts up a wall of fire up near the ceiling next to it. It seems to not like that, then it vanishes and appears right behind Ek’tura, at the back of the party! It tries to but Ek’tura but his Mirror Image spell saves him.

Ek’Tura casts enervation on it, then goes invisible with a quickened vanish spell. Athazog pounces into its mouth and is bitten and then stuck to the floor with a tough web. Tabansi shoots some arrows at it but it has a high AC.

We attack it for a bit, and then it plane shifts out. We spend a while getting Athazog out of the webs and searching its chamber and the spider does not return..

Treasure: A gnarled old branch. - a staff of necromancy.

XP: +7680 (our first CR 14 monster!)

We head back to camp…

We have the residential district and the merchant district to explore for caves of insanity and blue gems.

Spot a formation of 8 winged gorillas flying towards us. They land on the street near to us, forming up into neat ranks and one steps forward. They don’t look aggressive.

Arkin steps forward and speaks to them. We are invited to meet Ruthazek the Gorilla King, who has come to the city. We agree to go with them.

There is a big clearing with a very large number of ape like creatures, including naked human slaves. And there is one very big gorilla sitting on a throne of bones and gold.

He invites us to a great feast. And then a contest to see who gets to rules the city. First, we have a great lunch, the likes of which Tabansi hasn’t had since he left his tribe.

He proposes three contests - a test of strength, a test of combat and a test of storytelling.

Arkin tells a story, which doesn’t go down well. Ek’Tura manages to break a bone, succeeding at the test of strength.

Athazog and Ruthazek prepare for single combat. Athazog steps in, and deals a massive blow to the Gorilla King on his first swing (54), then strikes again (25), and again (26) and again (27). Ruthazek is still standing, and strikes back with a thunderous blow (76). Athazog surrenders at that point. Ruthazek is impressed, and calls it a draw.

Derek heals both of them.

He says that we have proved our worth, and that we can have the city. However the jungle claims all, and that the jungle belongs to him.

We can see a path from here that probably leads to the cave we were looking for.

XP: +7680

Next day we go looking for another of the caves. With some effort, we find a tunnel that has been dug down into the ground, covered in vines. The tunnel looks relatively recent, less than a hundred years old. The map that led us here though is ten thousand years old. This may be an alternative entrance, or maybe someone else has been here.

Ek’Tura scrys ahead with his arcane eye. There are crates in the room, and the ground is covered in vegetation. It has possibly suffered from an Earthquake at some point. There are plants in here in the shape of animals.

The next room is partially collapsed, and is full of fungi. Beyond that is a winding corridor filled with strange plant life of black spiky plants that leads to a final room with a pool of decayed matter with a tree like growth sitting in the middle of it.

Whilst waiting outside, we find skeletons of camels.

We go inside, and fight the plant animals. They are thorny, and Athazog gets spiked by their thorns as he attacks them. Tabansi shoots one with a bow from a distance. Everyone else mostly stays back, until Arkin finally comes in. We kill them all.

XP: +2,400

The crates are old and rotted. There are dwarven runes marked on the crates.

The next room is covered in mold, lichen and fungal growths. Tabansi spots some plants that are moving around a bit, they are Basidrons. They have tendrils which give off a blue haze. Ek’Tura summons an earth elemental, that wanders it and then seems to come under the effect of the hallucinogenic effects of the Basidrons and begins trying to swim.

Ek’Tura then casts Circle of Death. All the Basidrons are killed.

Wolf sized crickets crawling along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. One pounces onto the elemental as it wanders down the tunnel.

Tabansi thinks he falls into quicksand. He stands back up and moves up into the tunnel. Arkin starts imagining that he is melting. Athazog kills one of the creatures. The elemental kills another. One jumps into the middle of us, attacking Derek. Tabansi kills it at point blank range.

Arkin screams in terror, throws his dagger to the floor and runs back towards the cave entrance.

A fourth one leaps out of hiding as the elemental pushes forward., clawing at it. Tabansi shoots it dead.

Arkin comes back, then falls to the ground with more visions.

The elemental tries to push forward, forcing its way through thick black vegetation that blocks the tunnel. Bits of the plants flake off in large chunks.

The elemental returns back to its home plane. Athazog pushes forward and sees a couple of wolf crickets hanging from the ceiling, Tabansi moves up and shoots one. The other jumps at Athazog, who hits it as it comes in. The other leaps at Tabansi, clawing at him.

Athazog kills his, Tabansi almost kills his, and Arkin finishes it off with a quick stab to the vitals.

XP: +5760

At the end of the tunnel there is a final room, with steps that lead down to a pool of disgusting rotting vegetable matter. Out of the centre of the pool is a huge tree. It is some form of deviant sea anemone that has adapted to living in sludge.

Derek fireballs it, Ek’Tura enervates it. It shuffles forward, then vomits up

Athazog steps in, and is grabbed by the things tendrils. He takes 2 Dex damage, and is dropped into the thing’s mouth. He tries clawing at it.

It grabs Tabansi and Arkin, dropping Arkin into its mouth ready to swallow him. Tabansi tries to escape, and fails.

Athazog claws his way out of the creature’s stomach, falling to the ground outside.

Ek’Tura summons a shadow demon which attacks it. Derek summons a blade barrier behind it, but it somehow dodges nimbly forward. It drops Arkin into its stomach, and starts chewing on Tabansi, who readies a spell. From the ground, Athazog claws at it and kills it. It slumps down.

Derek dives into the mouth of the creature to try and rescue Arkin. Arkin almost dies, but through an act of heroic fate is shitted out of its rear. Tabansi clambers out of its mouth and goes to rescue Arkin.

Athazog helps rip it open to try and get his sword back (along as rescuing Derek).

XP: +3,840

Athazog has 8 points of Dex damage.

Magical dwarven war axe +2 Stone of good luck Bejeweled breastplate (now rusted) with 9x 300gp emeralds. Masterwork stone hammerhead with image of bearded dwarven face.. Worth about 1500gp, or twice that to the Kakaract dwarves of the shattered range. A single blue crystal with Azlanti rune of Rest

We recover from fighting the big tree thing, head back to camp for a day to get healed and restored.

Things we have to do: Boggard cleric Rune stones in muddy place Big tower in the middle, which was Savath’s Crypt Tower that glows green in the evening in the Boggard lake One rune place we haven’t investigated

We head to the rune place we haven’t been to before. There is an overgrown path that leads into a ravine, with stone doors at the end. There are recent tracks of Charaka and Gorillas. It looks like there was an older camp, and something (human sized) has been dragged up here.

Tabansi and Arkin sneak into the ravine, and notice there are half a dozen Charaki hiding up the side, ready to ambush. Some of the vines stretching across are tied to logs.

Athazog has fly cast on him, and Arkin and Tabansi climb up to the top of the other side. Tabansi is spotted, and a spear is chucked towards him, but it misses.

Athazog flys in and attacks them. They turn out to be quite hard, and are actually able to challenge Athazog. Tabansi and Arkin get to the top. Tabansi starts raining down some arrow support, and Arkin scoots round the top towards them. Derek also flies up to give aid to Athazog.

Athazog is attacked by a squinty eyed Charaka. Tabansi shoots it in the eye, and it falls over, oozing green ichor over the floor.

They seem to be highly skilled and able to avoid Arkin’s sneaky attacks. Derek drops a flamestrike on the ones around him. Athazog continues to take some down. Arkin withdraws away from the combat, and one his his opponents runs in the jungle. The other climbs down the cliff face, heading for the stone doors.

Ek’Tura continues to do nothing.

Tabansi shoots the one climbing down, leaving him almost dead. Ek’Tura wakes up and scratches him with a magic missile, and he falls to his death. Athazog slays the last one.

XP: +4,480

We heal up, then head down to the closed doors. Ek’Tura pushes them open. We are hit by a blast of refreshingly cold air, and an ogre mage is seen floating in the middle of the cave. Tabansi shoots it, and it casts a spell back, and Tabansi suddenly realises that the ogre is actually friendly.

Athazog does a flying charge. A second ogre mage appears and cone of colds us again, making Tabansi realize they aren’t actually friendly after all, so he shoots the first one again. The first one is eventually killed, and the second one turns invisible.

Ek’Tura summons a demon which dispels the invisibility. It retreats down the passage, and seems to fade into the darkness. We head down the passage, which is full of slippery mud. People start making their way down. Ek’Tura’s demon gets caught in a trap hidden in the mud.

Tabansi picks up the light stone and throws it down the passage, but it sinks in the mud. Derek casts some light. Athazog flies down and gets to the end of the mud, seeing a strange shaped room round the corner.

Ek’tura’s demon continues down the passage, rounds the corner and is attacked by the waiting ogre mage. Arkin rushes up and joins the fight, but the ogre make kicks him really hard and knocks him to the floor.

The ogre mage that we thought was dead wakes up. Tabansi tries to shoot him, but it goes invisible. Athazog flies back and attacks it, taking it down. Tabansi starts a fire to try and stop the regeneration after Ek’tura admits he has no spells that can help. Tabansi then does a coup de grace, killing it for real this time.

Athazog flies back down the passage to attack the ogre mage. Meanwhile, five boggards and a chara-kar priest arrive and join in the fight. Derek Fireballs them, but they’re tough. The boggards are croaking and attacking with sticky tongues which don’t seem to have much effect. Ek’tura’s demon fights on and proves difficult to kill.

Then Tabansi turns round to see what the rest of the others are doing. Tabansi jumps across most of the mud to avoid the trap, and turns up ready to help the others. The fight seems to be almost over. Ek’tura hits the chara-kar priest with an enervation spell and Derek hits him with some fire seeds. Meanwhile, Athazog kills the boggards. Tabansi shoots the chief boggard and kills it. The remaining Ogre Mage escapes using gaseous form, despite Derek trying to stop him with a wall of fire.

XP: +7,040

The amulets belong to the brigands called the Carver Bush Devils, and there is a 1000gp bounty on them from Bloodcove.

+2 hide armour Masterwork heavy wooden shield +1 flaming club Bone holy symbol of Lamashtu Scroll of cure serious wounds, 9th Scroll of flamestrike, 9th 5x potions of cure moderate wounds 5x +1 morning stars 6 copper armbands 30gp Amulet of mighty fists +1

Ek’tura and Derek follow the fleeing ogre mage but are stopped by a beautiful statue, possibly of Saveth, with a magical trap on it. We pause to do some healing and plan. Derek identifies the trap as a sonic glyph of warding. He walks up under the protection of a silence spell, and fails to notice a mechanical trap which flings the statue’s spear at him, causing some damage. At least he doesn’t also take the sonic damage. Statue (1000lb), 5000gp if we can get it out.

The rest of the party catches up and Arkin and Tabansi scout ahead. At the end of a long passage is a room with two large gorillions. They see our lights and attack. They are quickly killed. One of them was scrabbling at the wall in its room before being killed - suspicious!

Arkin finds a secret door. Beyond is a nice comfortable room with tapestries and pillows and things. It looks suspicious.

Ek’Tura summons a hound archon and sends it in. It is ambushed by a Roper - a strange creature which looked like a pillar until it suddenly lashed out with tendrils which grabbed the archon and drained its strength. It quickly grabs Tabansi and Arkin and tries to drag them close enough to bite them, but the tendrils are fairly easy to sever. It bites the archon, almost killing it, and the archon loses so much strength it can no longer fight back. Athazog charges in and is grabbed but manages to make his saving throws and starts hitting the roper hard. Derek hits the Roper with a fire seed spell and gets grabbed. Ek’tura summons a shadow demon which also attacks the Roper, and finally Athazog kills it. Several party members have lost strength though.

XP: +1,920, +3,840

The Roper is dead. Tabansi cuts the tentacles off of himself, and Arkin wanders deeper into the cave, and sees a large baboon sitting on a chair. It gets up and demands to know who Arkin is. He seems to be stitched together from various different types of ape.

Derek starts casting a lesser restoration on Tabansi, then the ape thing charges at Arkin. A fight ensues.

An ogre mage appears and casts a spell, causing Arkin to fall to the ground.

Athazog kills the baboon, and green ooze leaks out of his head. The ogre mage surrenders. Apparently the baboon was the Carver Bush Devil. Turns out to have been a flesh golem.

Amulet of Mighty Fists +1 Chest of the treasure of the Makayeeki Clan 25 x gold ingots 100gp each Large sack of gold dust 850gp 2x silver moonstone bracelet 300gp each 150 gp silver and copper coins Battered brass Horn of Valhalla Small chest Potion ‘cure’ - Inflict Serious Wounds Potion ‘unlabelled’ - Invisibility Rhinohide armour Amulet natural armour +4 Boots striding and springing 2x copper armbands

Arkin finds a secret door behind the bed.

XP: +9,600

There is a room with 7 crystal prisms. Six of them have brains in them. Pipes and cables lead from the prisms to a vat of bubbling green liquid.

There is also a winged gorilla in this room. It is missing an eye., and standing in a globe of invulnerability. It then goes invisible. Tabansi tries to shoot at it, but misses completely.

Ek’Tura summons a couple of lions. We try pinging it with arrows, missing. It summons a mass of black tentacles around Derek, Ek’Tura, Tabansi, and Arkin and becomes visible. Tabansi manages to escape, and moves through to the room where the now visible gorilla is.

Derek also manages to get out, and draws his flaming sword and attacks him. Tabansi takes aim and shoots through its armour, doing significant damage. It dimension doors out of the room, so Tabansi turns into a raven and flies over the grasping tentacles into the other room where it has escaped to.

Derek air walks over the tentacles back into the outer room, and Ek’Tura orders his lions to attack it. The creature summons a wall of fire, which Tabansi runs through and takes a shot at it which doesn’t do much.

Athazog manages to break free and runs through the tentacles towards the gorilla. It tries to cast a spell at Athazog, but he resists. It steps back, then Tabansi shoots it in the eye and it dies. An intellect devourer pops out of its head.

Meanwhile, Arkin is playing with a portable hole that he found. It seems to contain an entire alchemists lab!

Athazog hits the brain. Tabansi fails to, as does Derek. Athazog finally manages to grapple it. That allows Tabansi to shoot it with an arrow, but it’s still struggling, and manages to dodge Derek’s swings with her sword. Athazog tries to pin it, but it escapes.

It manages to dimension door away, and appears near to Arkin who is still in the room. It goes invisible. It then confuses Athazog.

Ek’tura searches the ape’s body and relieves it of a necklace of crystals which look useful.

The fight goes on for ages more, with it hiding with invisibility, using confusion, dimension doors and other spells it never seems to run out of. Eventually we have to retreat, unable to do anything to it. We vow to return and defeat it another day.

Back at the camp… Amavor tells us that a strange bat winged creature attacked a shopkeeper. Tried to take over his mind.

We all get back to camp.

What the shopkeeper saw… reckon it’s a popadarma. 5ft tall humanoid, bad smell, single eye, wings, known to haunt people. They can make copies of those they have infected. They enjoy making people afraid.

We are back in camp. Derek casts a healing surge that cures the party and Lesser Restoration on Tabansi and 2 Lesser Restorations on Arkin to get them back to full health.. We plan to go back and find the intellect devourer, stocking up on spells suited to hunting such creatures.

We head back to the cave and spell up. Ek’Tura manages to detect it with divination, and it seems to be in the cave. Derek casts Fire Seeds and gives them to Arkin. Derek also cats Air Walk on Athazog and himself. Ek’tura casts an array of spells including Tough Crowd (gives everybody bonuses on will saves) on everyone and See Invisible on himself and Derek.

We head into the cave, getting over the traps. Ek’Tura’s detection then detects that it is back outside the cave. Ek’tura casts an extended Fly on himself and then starts hunting the Intellect Devourer.

He thinks it is hiding up the mountain side, in the jungle. Vani flies up with a silence cast on him, and manages to find it with his spiritsense. Fly spells are cast, and the rest of us fly up there to try and find it, without much success. Ek’Tura glitterdusts a whole area, and we can see a glittering Pteranodon perched on a tree. It dimension doors out.

We head back inside and examine the contraption and destroy the brains. Five of the brains seem to have died, and one is still ‘alive’. We make sure it is destroyed. We think these are the brains of the creatures we fought earlier which had the green goo coming out of their heads after we killed them.

The metal parts are worth 5,000gp. Crystal prisms were worth 1,000gp. After removing the brains, and fixing them again, they’re worth about 500gp. There are six of those.

XP: +3,840

We teleport back to camp. Juliva comes to talk to us, who say that a couple of people are suffering from feeblemind, caused by the popadarma (as we find out after Derek Heals them).

Tabansi looks for tracks around the edge of the camp, and finds some tracks of clawed feet, along with a lingering bad smell. . The party sets up a watch schedule: Watch 1: Arkin and Derek Watch 2a: Derek and Athazog Watch 2b: Ex’tura and Athazog Watch 3: Ex’tura and Tabansi

Early evening, there is the sound of some large creature crashing through the jungle. We hear the roar of a T-Rex, which is fast approaching. It bursts out of the jungle, and Derek hits it with a flamestrike. Tabansi shoots it in the eye with an arrow, and Athazog throws himself into its mouth, ripping out its tongue and killing it.

XP: +1,280 XP

Next day, we try to track the popadarma by magic and fail. So we head to the Indomitable Redoubt of Kalid Shar.

We find the mud elemental, and start shooting it. It wants to talk, so we stop shooting it. It talks to Ek’Tura who can understand it. Apparently it can’t summon Kalid Shar, but says it will go looking for him. It sinks into the mud.

About a minute later the mud elemental returns with Khalid Shar - a humanoid top half with a whirling muddy bottom half. He challenges us to a one-on-one combat, so Athazog charges him. We then all attack. A stone wall goes up around Athazog and Kalid Shar, preventing us from seeing what is going on there. The rest of us are left to fight the mud elemental.

Ek’Tura possesses the elemental, and falls over. We hear a shout from over the wall from Athazog saying that Khalid Shar is dead. Tabansi and Arkin start to climb up the wall to peer over the top. Tabansi clambers over and goes through the mud. There is a necklace.

Amulet of mighty fists +1

We weaken the mud elemental, release it from its possession, and tell it to bugger off. Ek’Tura summons an earth elemental, and sends it down the hole to search for stuff. It returns with a skeleton and eight blue gems (with the Azlanti rune of honest pride). We now have a complete set of all the 6 types of gems!

The skeleton also has: A bronze medallion - holy symbol of pharasma, 2,000gp

XP: +2,560 XP

Ek’tura and Vani drink from the font and are both Healed. The mud elemental asks us to send it back to its plane and Derek does so with a Dismissal spell. Ek’tura has a look at the fountain and thinks it could be relocated with a Wish spell. He also thinks it might work more than once per character but doesn’t know how (it seems to only work once). Not a big issue as Derek can now cast Heal anyway.

Back at camp, Derek Heals Arkin and Tabansi. None of are paranoid any more!

The next day, the party goes back to Artisan zone. One of their people suddenly dropped dead and green goo came out of their head. This was a couple of days ago. I guess we know who the last brain belonged to…

Since we had some free time, we decide to head over to the frog people to investigate a loose end. In the lake there is a sunken ziggurat with a strange greenish light coming out of the top. Derek casts Freedom of Movement on Arkin. At the top of the ziggurat is a wooden hut, in the hut there is a table, on the table is a big glass jar which is glowing green. There’s a toothy face inside filling it. Ek’tura recognizes it as a bound Hezrou demon. The demon talks to us telepathically and says it is an oracle of the frog people. It encourages us to ask it questions, which some of the party do. However, after it has answered three questions, it escapes from its binding and appears before us! The party attacks and Ek’tura hits it with a Dimensional Anchor spell, preventing it from teleporting away. It responds with a Blasphemy which dazes and weakens us, but the Derek uses Heal to bring us back to strength and the demon is slain without further difficulty.

XP: +2,560 XP