After making sure that the rescued badger was safely out of the excavation Vaunea started off towards Winterhaven with Galstaff and his mote of primal energy bringing up the rear. Just as the party was coming to the edge of the forest, a muttering Meek was found truding away from Winterhaven. He handed over the note that Erik and sent him off to deliver, which sought to warn Kalarel of the fall of the cultists in Winterhaven. With the kobold in tow, the party made it through the gates just after sunset and were greeted by a fairly inebriated Daelius and Pale Noon. They were seated with the caravan master, who was none too pleased by the delay but still to scared to head out on the Eastern Way until the threat was dealt with. "And Lord Padraig seems to be giving Sylvana some coin to keep us in good cheer," he said leaning forward. "I think he want us to come back this way after this whole debacle is over. If we live to tell the tale, hah!"

Word quickly spread about Winterhaven bringing Lord Padraig and many of the townsfolk to the Drunken Druid Inn. Deciding against a potentially disastrous musical performance, Rolen began weaving a captivating account of the fight with the dragon skeleton. Cheers and gasps accompanied the tale, and at the conclusion the entire tavern stood up and clapped the shoulders of the various party members. Eventually the townsfolk started wandering off to bed, and the party decided to rest before heading off to this Shadowkeep which appeared to be where Kalarel was located. Valthrun the Old was the one person to leave without a smile on his face since when he let it slip that he spoke Draconic Lord Padraig charged him with keeping Meek until a more permanent solution was found.

In the morning Galstaff studied the Sharan sending stone concealed beneath Bairwin's floorboards and confirmed that the linked pair lay in the direction of the Shadowkeep. A long day's march in an increasingly strong thunder storm eventually brought the party to the ruins of Shadowkeep, and Fizzwig came out from under the conjured bucket that had been unsuccessfully trying to keep the rain off of his head long enough to scout ahead. Finding no one about, he motion for the rest of the party to approach and they began to search the ruins. Galstaff had studied architecture in Suzail and was able to locate the entrance to the dungeon levels of the keep since there was nothing on the surface.

Once again Fizzwig crept forward, this time out of the rain and into a room with flickering torches on three of its walls. The rest of the party followed as silently as they could, and just when Galstaff remembered the magical amulet taken from the kobold ambush party a loud noise filled the air all around them. Slow to react, the party found themselves dodging crossbow bolts from the alerted goblin guards, and then flanked by another group of goblins. The adventurers soon hit their stride, and the initial onslaught was returned tenfold upon the goblins. First one goblin and then another turned tail and ran, and tet another fleeing enemy died with a tear in their eye as Rolen forced them to contemplate the senseless violence that had encompassed their life. Galstaff and Pale Noon picked of the other goblin that turned tail and ran, and the battle was over soon after.

Only the muted sounds of the thunderstorm above them remained, and the party checked the connecting passageways. Food and drink were found pilled in crates and barrels close to the stairway to the surface. Ruhsbaar and Daelius found a locked door in a room with some sleeping mats, and unable to read a poorly written note nailed to the door they kicked the door down to find another flight of stairs leading downward into darkness. Gathering the torches and and a few improvised molotov cocktails from the raided supplies, the party decided to stay on this level and head north along the hallway that one of the goblins attempted to flee along.

Just then a muffled scream of pain came from one of three doors at the end of the hallway. Hiding the lights, Fizzwig and Vaunea were able to slide in the door unnoticed and found a wide room lit only by a raised pit of glowing coals. In the center of the room they could make out a table with a goblin strapped to it, and a massive hobgoblin standing over the table with a wicked looking knife that still glowed from the heat it had absorbed in the coals. A leather mask clung loosely to this hobgoblin's face, half covering the sickening leer as he dragged the hot knife over the torso of his victim. The rest of the party upon hearing the resulting scream charged into the room, taking the hobgoblin and the few goblin guards by surprise.

Fizzwig took advantage of the surprise and jumped behind the goblin warrior who was tending to an iron maiden nearby the door, driving his dagger deep into the goblin's side before he even looked around. Finally seeing a field devoid of his own allies, Galstaff threw a scorching burst directly at the massive hobgoblin, hitting both him and the goblin archer that the partiy's torches now revealed standing at his side. Through the small door and into the room at large, the party began shifting around, flanking the only goblin armed with a spear as well as pressuring the hobgoblin and archers well within the room. Unfortunately this put Ruhsbaar, responding to a shout from Rolen, directly in front of the open iron maiden. With a great roar the hobgoblin turned his back on the tiefling paladin and charged Ruhsbaar, lifting him clean off of his feat and slamming him onto the spikes within the iron maiden.

For the next few minutes chaos reigned within the chamber. A stray molotov cocktail thrown by Vaunea started a fire in the middle of the fighting party, even catching the torture table on fire. Companions beat mercilessly on the back of the hobgoblin as he continued to pin Ruhsbaar in the iron maiden, finally weakening him enough for Ruhsbaar to push forward and out of the cruel reach of the spikes. Another goblin warrior appeared out of a dark side corridor and attacked Vaunea's back as she was concentrating on the fighting within the room. Distinguishing friend from foe became difficult, and both Rolen and Pale Noon found themselves nicked by their allies' weapons. The chaos was perfect for Fizzwig, though, who lunged from the shadows and invisibility to deal blow after blow on unsuspecting archers.

Cries of pain echoed off of the rooms walls, and only judicious healing from Pale Noon, Rolen and Baelfius kept everyone on their feet. Just when the hobgoblin looked like he was going to collapse his armor glowed a bright red and the party's attack were easily turned aside. The effect did not last long enough to turn the battle, though, and it wasn't long before the last goblin lay on the ground. Vaunea leaned against the wall, drained from using the spirit catcher to guide her strikes. The adrenaline and healing potion that had carried Ruhsbaar through the fight began to wear off, and he sagged onto a bench nearby. Daelius looked at the goblin who lay dying from both the hobgoblin's cuts and the burns sustained from the stray moloto and saw only one option, a quick death. He executed the goblin and then knelt to say a quick prayer. The rest of the party began to pick through the corpses, paying a good bit of attention to the obviously magical armor that the hobgoblin was wearing.

Down the corridor that the last goblin warrior had appeared from a few cells were found, one containing a small goblin that spoke the Common tongue. He called himself Splug and asked the party to free him in exchange for information. He drew out a crude map on a scrap piece of leather and handed it through the bars to Rolen, and the party withdrew to the main chamber to discuss.

---

OOC
The text on the map is what Splug said when he pointed to each spot, it isn't physically written.

Here is the experience:

• 200xp for clearing the immediate area of Winterhaven, to much rejoicing

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 85xp (675/8) for 3 goblin warriors and 3 goblin sharpshooters

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 110xp (880/8) for goblin torturer, 2 goblin warriors, 3 goblin sharpshooters and an IRON MAIDEN

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

OOC
Oh, and I am pretty sure that everyone has now hit level 2. If you can put a post in your character threads outlining the changes, that would be super helpful to me. And feel free to ask questions. Cheers!

How are you handling the choice of what daily/utility powers you have memorized? Are you just ticking the ones not memorized as used after an extended rest?

Go for it, the stories can often be more captivating for a larger audience than the actual gameplay. I love reading about EVE, but never would want to actually play it

I agree, it does appear that the spellbook is only used to swap your daily/utility powers out. Extended Spellbook does look retroactive (those first two sentences), but only applies to daily powers and not utility powers.

Hello all,

Floating the possibility of changing to a later time on Sunday. Currently we are starting at 9:30am Central, 10:30am EST, 3:30pm United England time. The proposal is to push it back 6 hours, which would make it 3:30pm Central, 4:30pm EST and 9:30pm Tango time. Can I get a ye or nay post from everyone? If it looks like that time is bad, I will have to create a Doodle event and we can all do the things.

Whoah, suddenly somebody speaks Goblin?!

Can you give me book and page numbers for the powers? Makes it so much easier for me to reference later. Cheers!

Can you give me book and page numbers for the powers? Makes it so much easier for me to reference later. Cheers!

Can you give me book and page numbers for the powers? Makes it so much easier for me to reference later. Cheers!

Ok, Dooble it is! Please check the times that you are typically available during the weekends. http://doodle.com/38d3ie4gvenk2nxi

EDIT: Remember to click the "Show all 24 options" to see the entire list.

Summary
Fizzwig seemed particularly fascinated by Splug, peppering him with questions about the comfort level of his cell and if there were any neat contraptions down in the dungeons, the iron maiden apparently not qualifying as esoteric enough for the gnome. The rest of the party retreated to the main room to discuss their plans, but Vaunea pointed at the still occupied gnome and said she had better keep an eye on him. Ruhsbaar collapsed on the bench in the corner of the room, silently watching as the others discussed which of the rooms Splug had drawn out looked the most promising. "Don't forget the other door just outside of here that isn't marked on this map. Maybe he left it off on purpose, we should check that first to see if we can trust Splug" said Baelfius. "Then this chief," responded Daelius. The rest chorused their assent and moved off to the door. Daelius turned to the seated monk and said,"Ruhsbaar, stay, meditate and regain your strength. Some of us are scouting more of this forsaken keep, join us when you are able. For now may Torm watch over and protect you." A weak nod from Ruhsbaar sent Daelius after the others who were already huddled around the small door just west of the torture chambers entrance.

Baelfius leaned in to the door, banging his helmet against it before declaring the room silent. Before anyone could check for traps or do a more careful check of the door, the tiefling opened it and stepped inside. Crates of rope and piles of shovels and pickaxes lay against the back wall of a small room. "Not very efficient to be placing the digging supplies so far from 'dig'," remarked Rolem. Daelius picked up a shovel and weighed it in his hand. "We should take a few just in case we need to do some digging ourselves. No telling what they are up to, but I doubt it is good." A few shovels and pickaxes later, the party moved across the hallway to the large double doors that should be leading to the goblin chieftain.

A long creak echoed down the hallway beyond as Rolen pushed the door open, but it seemed to go unnoticed as a few excited goblin voices came back towards them from down the corridor. The party dimmed their lights and moved forward, letting Rolen lead the way with his keen elven eyes. Rolen suddenly stopped and jerked his head back, but before the party realized what was happening he let out a loud sneeze. With yet another would-be ambush thwarted, the warriors charged forward, rounding a corner to a dimly lit room. Two goblins were frantically grabbing their weapons from where they lay on a table that was dominated by a metal cage similar to the ones the party had seen out by the dragon burial ground. The melee fighters payed no attention to it and instead rushed the goblins.

When Rolen entered the room he carefully surveyed the situation, and when his eyes fell upon the cage he let out a choked scream. Within the cage was a golden tinted chitinous creature and two rats, fighting for the amusement of the goblins that were doubtlessly supposed to be on guard duty. The rats were no match for the young kruthik and were quickly dispatched, but Rolen did not need to see the dead rats to know how dangerous kruthiks could be. "Kill it, before it escapes!" he shouted, knocking arrow after arrow towards it and ignoring the fierce fight the rest of the party was engaged in. Daelius once again found Rolen behind him not paying attention, and another large backswing of his greatsword clipped the poor half-elf on his shoulder. A shouted apology was cut short as the two curtains in the back of the room were thrown aside and approximately nine goblins flooded into the room screaming.

Galstaff saw the superior numbers of the goblin and decided to try improve the odds. He unbolted the cage and lifted out the thrashing kuthrik, catching a nasty bite on his hand as he did so. He then used his arcane powers to toss the kuthrik into the midst of the approaching goblins, where it began tearing at everything nearby. Daelius ran to confront these distracted goblins as Baelfius and Pale Noon held back the other wave of goblins, working in close concert.

A miffed Rolen peppered arrows into the two groups of goblin, but few of his shots connected and he seemed more concerned with composing new song lyrics on the spot than contributing to the battle at hand.



Seeing how easily Pale Noon was defeating the goblins Rolen shouted "You lot are getting beat by a halfling, how pathetic are you?" Rather than breaking the spirits of his foes, this comment broke Pale Noon's concentration as he remembered being mocked back at the warrior academy, and his next swing went wide of the mark.

Meanwhile Daelius had found himself overextended. He had pursued the goblins back into the hallway behind the curtain, but some reinforcements and an enraged kuthrik that had bit clean through his plate armor leggings were too much for him to handle on his own. Galstaff ran up to help him, throwing the kuthrik towards the reinforcements and summoning a pillar of crackling lightning between them and Daelius. Pale Noon and Rolen had flanked the reinforcements from the other side, and were able to see a fat goblin commanding the others while shooting crossbow bolts down the hallway. After taking a hit from the concentrated crossbow fire, Rolen ran nine feet to the side, out of sight of the crossbowmen but right next to the kuthrik. Pale Noon followed and let out a fearsome roar aimed at the chitinous creature, which responded with a fierce bite just below the halfling's right knee.

Galstaff continued to force the kuthrik into the goblin ranks with his mage hand, and the goblins finally overwhelmed the creature. Baelfius took care of the remaining goblin warriors allowing Daelius and Rolen to rush forward and engage the crossbowmen in the chieftain's room. They both skirted the broken carapace of the kuthrik, not truly believing it was dead and were too preoccupied by it to properly engage the crossbowmen, allowing the chief to slip back through some curtains hung on south wall of the room. Pale Noon took control of the situation, and with his voice ringing in Daelius' ears the tiefling swung his greatsword in an arc above his dead and sent it crashing through first the crossbow and then the goblin.

The battle apparently over, the party rushed forward to pull back the curtain through which the fat goblin had escaped. Only a bed and a small chest were in the corner separated by the curtain, and no sign of the goblin. Methodically banging on the walls did reveal a secret door, but no the mechanism with which to open it. The members of the party hefted the stolen pickaxes and began attacking the false wall, taking turns.

Meanwhile the chest was opened to reveal a pile of gold, and a magical scroll was found on a nearby desk. Baelfius held it up, but since he was looking at it upside down he couldn't make head or tail of it. Rolen took it from him and rotated it ninety degrees to the right, insisting it looked much more arcane this way... but it was still gibberish. Finally Galstaff held it up correctly and easily identified it as a ritual scroll for an Eye of Alarm, the same spell that the party had triggered upon first entering the dungeons.

Daelius explored the other rooms that the goblins had emerged from and found yet another storage room. He heard some strange noises coming from one of the barrels, though, and after opening it found an armed goblin who had hidden from the battle. Taken by surprise Daelius suffered an initial blow, but made short work of the goblin after that.

The party finally broke through the secret door, and after nine steps leading down to a short passage they found an exit that opened upon a dark hallway. Rolen applied his keen senses to their surroundings and declared that they were just to the east of the dungeon entrance, and that the "dig" marked on Splug's map was down the hallway to the east. The sound of a muted explosion came rumbling down the hallway from the east, and they decided to dim their lights and investigate. Loose pieces of rock started littering the hallway, and Baelfius stumbled over a piece of stone and his shield clattered against the side of the hallway. Cursing their luck the party charged forward into the room and found much of the floor broken and removed leaving a nine foot drop to the bottom of the excavation.

A single goblin was visible within the circle cast by their torches and arcane light, and it threw a ceramic pot towards them with a shout before scuttling back into the shadows. The pot exploded as it landed in the middle of the vanguard, bits of heated shrapnel penetrating their armor. Other goblins could be heard shouting back and forth in the darkness, but these were drowned out by predatory calls as two guards drakes ran out of the darkness and towards the ramp leading to the party. Daelius and Pale Noon moved to cover the top of the ramp from the leading drake as Galstaff dropped a pillar of lightning cutting the second drake off from the ramp. Seeing the second drake cut off, Baelfius jumped gracefully down from high ground and drew its attention away from the ramp and onto himself.

Ceramic jars continued to rain out of the darkness, chipping away at the party as it was forced to deal with the ferocity of the guard drakes. The first one fell as Daelius called upon Torm's divine power and struck as Pale Noon distracted it and Baelfius managed to hold his ground against the second one. Just as the party began to move down to help Baelfius, two dark shapes detached themselves from the ceiling and swooped in to attack Rolen. Taken aback by these new foes, Rolen retreated a short way down the hallway, moving out of the light cast by his companions. The two shadowhunter bats honed in on the separated half-elf, diving after him into the hallway. "Go help him," shouted Daelius, "I will go help Baelfius."

Galstaff and Pale Noon ran back to Rolen, who had grabbed on to one of the bats. Pale Noon found himself once again dumbfounded by Rolen's attempts to direct him when he shouted "Hurry halfling, give it a good fucking from behind." The three adventurers recovered from this setback and sent one of the bats fleeing into a side passage before Rolen, haloed by a light conjured from Galstaff, let loose an arrow that sent gore flying backwards and spattering Galstaff's robes. In the meantime, the goblins had run out of alchemist fire and started raining javelins down on Daelius and Baelfius from nearby platforms. Daelius attempted to leap onto one of these platforms, but weighed down by his platemail he misjudged his leap and clanged loudly off of the side of the excavation wall. Frustrated with his failure, Daelius let out a guttural roar as he threw the shovel he had been carrying at the nearest goblin, hitting it square in the face.

Pale Noon rushed down the side of excavation to flank the drake that was beginning to drive Baelfius back, and Daelius called upon the power of Torm to draw the drake's attacks upon himself. The drake narrowly missed a ferocious bite aimed at Daelius' neck, but the concentrated efforts from the party were able to bring it down before any more damage was done. One of the goblins had slipped down from the high ground, and was quickly surrounded once the drake was defeated. Rolen remained on the high ground trying ineffectively to throw both insults and arrow in their general direction. Galstaff did give one of the goblins pause when he offered to hire it for 10 gold a day, but apparently it was getting a better deal now and didn't understand why it would want to take such a poor offer. With a rude gesture from his mage hand floating nearby, Galstaff turned and threw a blast of fire down into the middle of the battle on the floor hitting Pale Noon as well as the two goblins now engaged in melee combat.

Soon the only goblin left standing was on an isolated platform, and Daelius tried his luck throwing digging implements again with less spectacular results. This barrage did give Pale Noon time to clamber up the side of platform to face the goblin. The goblin attempted to rush the halfling and push him back down into the excavated pit, but the lower center of gravity and the grappling training from the warrior college let Pale Noon reverse the rush and instead throw the goblin down. Daelius ran over, exhausted, and threw his weight down upon his sword as he impaled the dazed goblin before sliding down to his knees and offering a mumbled prayer to Torm. Not being able to see what was happening, Galstaff tried to scramble down into the pit but instead fell with a loud thump and a groan.

The party members slowly tended to their wounds and shuffled about the excavated floor, trying to determine what the goblins had been up to. The only object of interest was an apparently recently unearthed holy symbol of Selune, which Baelfius recognized as a symbol enchanted for battle. Selune was often in opposition with Shar, her evil sister deity, and this ancient symbol seemed to indicate a further connection with an ancient struggle against the shadows. What had happened here those long centuries ago?

---

OOC
Well that was a long session. I feel like the summaries are getting quite verbose, but I don't want to leave out anyone's cool stuff so I guess it is inevitable. I know I mentioned this a few times during the session and wanted to reiterate it here: I am curious to see how far the DnD 4e healing surges can be pushed and want to see if we can capture some of that adrenaline rush of being close to death from the early editions of DnD. Taking a glance at the blue bars in roll20 now, I think we are getting there but please let me know how it feels from a player's perspective. I don't actually want to kill you guys off, but I do want it to feel challenging. In regards to forum RP, I want you to stay limited to the dig site and just the five of you that were there on Sunday for now. I am planning on doing a short session with the other three on Wednesday, and I can figure out how to merge everyone back together after that. Cheers!

Experience

• 210xp (1050/5) for the chieftain's chambers

  • Pale Noon, Daelius, Baelfius, Rolen and Galstaff

• 185xp (925/5) for the dig site

  • Pale Noon, Daelius, Baelfius, Rolen and Galstaff

Exhaustion gripped Daelius as he knelt over the last goblin corpse, and it was all he could do to keep a hold of his sword. Gripping the pommel with both hands to stabilize himself, he bowed his head and closed his eyes in prayer.



Daelius remained kneeling for several more seconds and just as he was about to gather his strength to rise he felt a cool stream of air pass by him. A disembodied voice whispered in his ear, and a blurry vision came to Daelius before he blinked and it was gone. "The rift must remain closed, light bearer. Do not fail as I did." A stone sarcophagus with a knight carved in high relief and holding a sword with three diamonds set in the blade that caught and held the light, leaving three spots still swimming across his vision as he opened his eyes and stood pensively.

---

OOC
DnD IRC gambling shenanigans happened.

Summary
The rest of the party returned to find Ruhsbaar meditating in the middle of a circle on the floor and Fizzwig still chatting with Splug under the watchful eye of Vaunea. A quick council and the party decided to try and find the goblin leader who had escaped. The party returned to the last place the leader was seen and Vaunea studied the floor, eventually finding some goblin footprints under the tramplings of the party. The tracks led down into the rough caves to the south of the secret passage, and over the wooden palisade at the base of the earthen ramp leading to the cavern floor. Rolen hops over the palisade and boldly walks forward, having put the bat attack solidly in his past.

Unfortunately he was instantly beset on by the giant rats the palisade had been erected to contain, and the shadowhunter bats roosting in the stalactites quickly followed. The rest of the party flowed over the palisade to help, although Fizzwig found himself a bit distracted as he realized the rats were large enough for him to ride. Offering some rations from his pack he then leapt onto the distracted rat which promptly began running away from the fire that Galstaff was slinging around hitting friends and a few foes. The individual rats were no contest for the party, but the sheer numbers held them at bay as Fizzwig was carried further away from them.

The contest between Daelius and Rolen continued, with Rolen taunting Daelius to ignore the rat standing next to him and rush forward to help the vanguard of the party. This maneuver resulted in a fairly nasty bite in Daelius' ankle that hobbled him for the next minute. The bats continued to harass the party from the shadows, but a strange call echoed through the caves and suddenly the bats disappeared. Pressing forward the party killed the remaining rats and then edged into a side cavern that was remarkably devoid of the debris in the rest of the creeps. Vaunea lifted her torch high above her head and the ring of light reflected off of a dangerous yellow blob that surged forward.

Striking the ochre jelly with fist and javelin, the party despaired with its ability to defeat this new foe. Vaunea searched for a vulnerability, first throwing her torch into the back of Ruhsbaar before it bounced into the jelly and was extinguished. Then Vaunea recalled the fight in the kobold caves and shouted to aim at the stalactites and try to bring them down upon the jelly. A few well placed javelins and an acrobatic leap from Ruhsbaar to grab a hold of one stalactite while kicking out at nearby ones soon brought a cascade of stone missiles down upon the jelly, severely injuring it and causing it to split in two. Encouragement from Rolen and continued attacks from Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Pale Noon and Vaunea eventually brought the jelly down.

Meanwhile Baelfius and Galstaff had rushed after the strange sound that had drawn the bats off, which had ben followed with muffled cursing from Fizzwig. They rounded a corner just in time to see Fizzwig hanging from the underside of a shadowhunter bat as it carried him over a small underground lake towards an island. Fizzwig pushed away from the bat and landed with a loud splash in the lake. The ripples spread out and then the water parted in the southern portion of the lake to reveal a massive blue slime that began moving towards Fizzwig. Fizzwig sensed the grave danger and after gaining purchase on the island he turned towards the shore with his companions and made a running leap, but was struck in the back by the slime and fell short.

The shadowhunter bat that had claimed Fizzwig for whatever purpose then swooped from the darkness to attack the blue slime giving Baelfius and Galstaff time to recover the injured Fizzwig from the lake. Tossing spell, bolt and molotov rocks at the slime they began to slowly whittle pieces of it off, but it was not until the rest of the party caught up that the slime began to be pushed back. Fizzwig and Ruhsbaar both nearly succumbed to the brute force and residual poison from the slime, and the bat did fall limp upon the island as Fizzwig shouted out a dismayed "Brünhilde!" The desperate battle exhausted the party's remaining healing powers and potions, but finally the slime shuddered and lost its form.

Adorned by a new set of scars, and a knick in Daelius' ear from a stray arrow from Rolen, the party slowly checked the cave and the island in its center. Galstaff, Vaunea and Fizzwig tended to the fallen bat for reasons that the other party members could only guess at. The island had some loose coins, a small wooden cylinder containing several messages and a large steel shield with a red hued dragon adorning its face. Rolen unrolled the messages and read out loud to the party:

---

OOC
Just a reminder to try and play your character and not use too much meta-knowledge. Yes Fizzwig is interesting and his forbidden romance with Brunhilde may make a fine ballad that brings Rolen fame, but running full tilt from one side of the caves to rescue him from the trouble he managed to get himself into seemed a bit odd in the heat of the moment. Same goes for telling people OOC what the best action may be. Try to keep it in character!

Experience

• 225xp (1800/8) for the rats, slime, ooze and bats

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

Loot

• 40g

• Large Shield, adorned with a platinum-hued dragon

Summary
Although the party had not seen the sky for many hours, they knew it must be getting deep into the night. Weary from the long journey to the keep and the hours of fighting once they had arrived, they barricaded the entrance to the cavern of the blue slime. Daelius took the first watch, leaning exhausted against the cavern wall as his companions slept, deep in thought. The caverns remained quiet through all of the watches, and a refreshed party began moving in what they could best judge as late morning.

Vaunea quietly padded down the south passage she had briefly explored the previous night to see what had been down the pit. Drawing closer she saw a kuthrik's body on top of goblin, both deceased. She warned the rest of her companions to proceed with caution since the pit appeared to be a goblin-made trap and others were likely around. Soft clicking noises came from ahead and through small holes in the walls, but the party moved resolutely onward.

A total of three pit traps were tripped, first by Fizzwig and then two more by Daelius. The noise and light caused by the party eventually drew the attention of the kuthriks lairing at the end of passage, and a swarm of adolescent kuthriks rushed the party as two adults scurried into the small side tunnels in order to flank them. Daelius and Baelfius took the initial rush while Pale Noon fell back to deal with the flank, and Fizzwig had managed to squeeze through one of the kuthrik tunnels and end up behind the entire lot of them. Galstaff had been watching over Fizzwig as he entered the tunnel well back from the rest of the party, but found himself in the dark and two young kuthriks found his unattended ankles.

Spells and arrows flew from the back as sword and hammer dueled with claws, and the kuthriks began to fall one by one. Rolen, still petrified of the fearsome form of the kuthriks managed to put another arrow in the back of a companion, this time Pale Noon instead of Daelius. That was not the only friendly fire as Daelius lashed out at something that stepped on his tail, only to realize too late that it was Baelfius moving forward to support him. Soon the party was covered in ichor and the kuthriks were still. A small cache of hoarded items were found in the back of the cavern, but nothing of great note.

Realizing the caverns were a dead end, the party turned back toward the main part of the keep and the place Splug had title "Bad Place." Under the veil of the shadow amulet the party crept forward into the crypt, skirting around a room of zombies in order to get a better idea of what this area held. They soon came across a rune inscribed on the floor, and those knowledgeable in the arcanes confirmed it was some sort of magical trap or alarm, but knew nothing else. Ruhsbaar confidently stepped forward onto the rune and a loud bell chime echoed through the tunnels, reverberating deep into the minds of the party.

Ruhsbaar shook his head to clear it before turning with a smile to the rest of the party, but the smile was short-lived as he saw the blank expressions on his companions' faces. All but Daelius turned to the south and began shambling off, directly towards the room of zombies they had snuck past earlier. Alarmed, Daelius and Ruhsbaar ran in front of them and began fighting the zombies as their companions moved past them, oblivious.

One by one the companions were struck by the zombies, breaking the arcane compulsion that the rune had placed on them. The zombies were easily dealt with once everyone recovered. The party believed that the "something" that Murthog had mentioned in his notes lay to the south, and was probably the destination of the compulsion. They moved quietly forward, entering a long corridor with large stone standing sarcophagi standing against the walls. A robed figure could be seen at the end of the hallway, their back to the party and facing what looked like an altar.

Fizzwig crept forward and leapt onto the figure's back, holding a dagger to the hobgoblin's throat. It was Grak, the hobgoblin warcaster that Murthog had send to investigate, and he was taken completely by surprise. The party had failed to notice the accompanying hobgoblin escort resting in the southern alcove, and with his shout at the sight of Fizzwig the sarcophagi opened and armed skeletal warriors stepped forward into the midst of the party. Baelfius ran forward to engage the escort while the others found themselves surrounded by the undead.

Fizzwig found himself on the wrong end of first a blast of pure force and then a bolt of lightning, although he did manage to grievously wound Grak. The skeletons were easily dealt with, but their surprise let them get close to Rolen and Galstaff who were accustomed to fighting from the back ranks. Daelius charged forward to heal his tiefling ally who had been trading blows with the hobgoblin escort, and after healing him charging to deal the fatal bow to Grak as he towered over a wounded Fizzwig. The hobgobin escort was the last to fall, but the entire attention of the party proved too much for him.

The party was finally able to take in the surroundings, and noticed a matching altar in the southern alcove to the one Grak had stood in front of in the northern alcove. The southern altar appeared to be devoted to Selune, and the northern one to Bahamut. Fizzwig was poking around the altar to Bahamut when he discovered a secret compartment holding a small silver figurine in the shape of a dragon. He slipped it into his pocket as the rest of the party had turned its attention to the eastern wall, in the middle of which sat a large door. Above the door was a carved inscription, written in an old dialect of Chondathan (the native language of the region around Cormyr):

---

OOC
Late summary this week. Feel free to RP and ask questions about the room, but the door should remain closed until next session. For reasons. I vaguely remember someone mentioning level three last week, are people getting close to that milestone? Cheers!

Experience

• 150xp (1200/8) for the innocent kuthrik slaughter

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 60xp (480/8) for the zombies

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

• 100xp (800/8) for the skeletons and hobgoblins

  • Vaunea, Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruthsbaar, Daelius

Loot

• 60gp

• Small chest

• Five red gems

• Potion of healing

• Silver dragon figurine

Oye, that was pretty darn good!

Summary
Daelius pushed open the heavy steel door and the party saw a coffin on a dais. The spread out to explore the room while the paladin approached the coffin and knelt before it in prayer. A rumbling grew and coffin lid was pushed aside as a heavily armored skeleton rose up and brandished a ornate sword at them. "The rift must never be re-opened! Are you friend or foe!" said an unearthly voice.

The party assured the skeletal figure that they were trying to stop the cult, and learned that this was all that remained of Sir Keegan, the knight of Bahamut that originally imprisoned the shadow dragon Shadraxil many centuries ago. Sir Keegan fell prey to Shadraxil's machinations from beyond the veil, though, and slew his family and underlings before falling himself. In penance he was charged with guarding Shadowfell Keep for eternity, but he had been confined to his tomb by some dark and powerful force. He interrogated the party about their strength and resolve before deciding to aid them, first giving them information about the remainder of the dungeon before reaching the veil and second gifting Daelius the sword Aecris.

The party bid Sir Keegan farewell and followed his instruction on reaching the lower levels of the dungeon. Daelius kept turning Aecris over and over, feeling its weight and marveling at the pommel carved into the likeness of a dragon, and so intent was he on the sword that he did not notice the pack of zombies guarding the top of the stairs. Luckily the rest of the party covered his mistake and quickly cut down the zombies. Vaunea was traveling in the rear and being used to the outdoors was confused by the echoes cast by the fight, becoming convinced that another lot of zombies were moving in from behind. With a shout she rushed back the way they came. Pale Noon and Daelius followed in a parallel hallway, but so surprised her when the corridors intersected that she hurled a javelin at them before recognizing them, nearly slicing a finger off of Daelius' shield hand.

A rather embarrassed looking Vaunea returned to the rest of the party and the slain zombies, and they began to walk cautiously down the stairs. A cold voice hailed them, saying "Shadow seeks shadow." The party tightened their grips on their weapons when Pale Noon called out "And life fails in the dark," for he recognized the phrase from his lessons on the religion of Shar. The hobgoblin guards at the base of the stairs continued to eye them cautiously but Pale Noon convinced them at the party was there to reinforce the force on the orders of Kalarel. They were escorted to Murthog, the hobgoblin warchief, who sent them to the mess hall while a messenger was sent to Kalarel for his instructions.

Finding himself in a room full of noise and eating could not help himself, and leaped onto one of the tables to sing a ditty. The hobgoblins were less discerning than the crowd back at the Drunken Druid Inn, and as they focused on Rolen the rest of the party slipped into position around the room. At the final note of Rolen's song the party drew their weapons and began to kill the unsuspecting hobgoblins. Galstaff covered their noise by replicating Rolen's song once again while Vauena wedged the door shut, and at first the surprise worked perfectly.

With just a few hobgoblins left standing, Fizzwig flung himself onto the back of one right before Daelius cut open its throat. The dead hobgoblin stumbled awkwardly and with a shriek Fizzwig found himself pinned underneath it. Vaunea moved away from the door to help him but slipped in the pool of blood forming, and instead fell upon corpse and elicited another shriek from the pinned Fizzwig. Ruhsbaar tried to help Vaunea up, but the goliath's weight imbalanced him and he pitched forward as well, with only a weak gurgle coming from the gnome at the bottom of the pile. Daelius turned as Galstaff slew the last hobgoblin and his eyes widened as the saw just a small tuft of purple hair poking out from underneath so many prone figures. With a grunt he lowered his shoulder and pushed Rushbaar, Vaunea and the dead hobgoblin off of Fizzwig who gasped for breath and was unable to speak, an oddity to be sure.

Galstaff let the ghost sound drop and rounded a side corridor in time to see three wide-eyed hobgoblins, one of whom darted off towards Muthrog's chambers. There was only a moment to catch their breath before a horde of hobgoblins rushed down the narrow corridor leading to the mess hall. Galstaff was in his element, though, with a large number of foes and no allies in the way. Lightning and flame punished the cramped hobgoblins, and only Murthog and a few of the sturdier soldiers managed to burst through and fight the rest of the party. Galstaff became so confident he was lazy with the incantation for his force orb, and it flew off too early hitting both Vaunea and Pale Noon as they kept guard over the vanguard.

The armor of the hobgoblins that had made it through were deflecting many of the party's attacks and Daelius was grievously injured. Rolen pulled him back to heal and then took his place on the front lines as Pale Noon began shouting where the chinks in the armor were, turning the battle once again in their favor. Just then another well armored hobgoblin charged through Galstaff arcane barrage and time seemed to slow as his flail screamed towards Rolen's unprotected head. With a shout Daelius threw himself forward, catching the blow awkwardly on his shoulder. Baelfius and Pale Noon combined to bring down Murthog the warchief, and the rest of the hobgoblins morale broke and they began to flee.

Rolen walked up to the tiefling paladin as he probed his injured shoulder and offered him the health potions from the temple of Chauntea. "I have misjudged your character paladin, truly you are an honorable man."

---

OOC
The crit fails continue to provide ample amusement, so keep them coming! I think most people are hitting level 3 now, so remember to update your character sheets and post in your individual threads the changes you are making. Cheers!

Experience

• 100xp (800/8) for talking your way into the area

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea

• 220xp (1760/8) for slaying many hobgoblins

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea

Loot

• Plenty of food and water... and BEER

• 40g from the assorted coin purses of slain hobgoblins

• A heavy iron-bound chest in the warchief's chambers (locked)

The party begins to explore their immediate surroundings and find a few coins on the hobgoblins, plenty of provisions in the larder off of the mess hall, and a heavy iron-bound chest in what appears to have been Murthog's personal chambers beyond the meeting room they originally met him in.

---

OOC
Blessing asked OOC for a map of what you have seen. I think in the future I will only be providing maps of places you have not seen that are described by NPCs, so you may want to designate yourselves a map maker so have a good idea of what is going on layout-wise. For now you have a map marking the sleeping rooms (z), rooms with tables (t) and that mysterious beast room (b). Murthog's personal chambers are marked with a plus (z+). After your battle you have moved freely about in the right-half of the map (marked off by the dashed line), so feel free to RP and continue to explore over there w/o risk of provoking enemies. Cheers!

Summary
The party members collected their breath and tended their wounds. Ruhsbaar began drawing out a circle on the ground and said that he needed to meditate again before moving on. He was still deep in his trance when Pale Noon announced he was going to make sure no hobgoblins had fled, and Rolen offered to stay behind and keep an eye on the silent monk. Galstaff also decided to remain put as he paged through his heavy tome trying to decide which spells would best serve the horrors they were likely to face.

Pale Noon led the way noisily back towards the stairs they had come down, letting the torchlight from Vaunea behind him light the way. Without warning a number of hobgoblins were illuminated and two flails collided on either side of the halfling to the sound of crunching ribs. A fierce battle erupted as the entire hobgoblin guard the party had charmed their way past earlier was roused against them, and the superior numbers threatened to overwhelm them without the aid of their other comrades. The foolish gnome tried to rope several together and pull them into the well, but he wasn't strong enough and was nearly killed when the hobgoblins noticed him in their midst. Baelfius slew a hobgoblin with his infernal wrath as he rushed forward to aid the gnome when a blast of fire from behind the party announced the arrival of Galstaff who had heard the commotion.

The return of their wizard made quick work of the weaker hobgoblins when a gigantic spider rounded the corner and the party faced the "war beast" they had heard about during their first pass through the chamber. Vaunea rushed forward to calm the spider, but managed to kick one of her poisonous summoned spores into its face, enraging it. It wasn't until she managed to leap full onto its back that Vaunea managed to exert some control on the beast, and channeled its fury towards the remaining hobgoblins. One hobgoblin had been pushed into the well, and Fizzwig kept pelting it with shurikens as it clambered back up. Eventually the beast grew tired of the heavy weight on its back and threw Vaunea, but it succumbed to the injuries it had already suffered and the party once again was left surrounded by chaos. Looking over the fresh blood and ichor, the party decided it was too weak to move on and they must rest, so they returned to the still meditating monk and his guard.

Everyone took a shift watching over the others as they slept, and several hours later the party was much refreshened. Strangely the monk was still meditating, and once again Rolen offered to keep an eye on him. The party found the last remaining unexplored passage and followed it to the south. Before a large double door they saw a small table with a bell resting upon it.

Fizzwig crept through the cracked door and saw a looming statue in the center. He skirted along the wall until he saw a smaller statue in the shape of a dragon in a corner, and as he drew closer to it the doors boomed shut with half of the party still outside. A grating noise followed as the dragon statue turned to face Fizzwig, and he managed to vault behind its head before it could fully face him. He seemed delighted to be straddling a contraption so devious, and promptly dropped to its base and started pulling out bits and pieces from inside of it.

Meanwhile the rest of the party resorted to bashing on the sturdy door while their thief amused himself. After much hacking around the lock mechanism a final push from the members still outside burst the door open, but the momentum carried Baelfius deep within the room. A loud swoosh was all the warning the party had before a giant stone sword wielded by the statue in the center of the room knocked Baelfius clean off of his feet. They soon discovered the range of the trap, although a few more blows were suffered before the party edged around to the southern side of the room.

There they found a pair of cherub statues facing each other across a corridor, and as Pale Noon leaned forward to investigate one Baelfius, his head still ringing from the blow he suffered earlier decided to take no chances and struck the other with his hammer. A flash of golden light announced a magical wall separating the two from the rest of the party, and the additional pair of statues now within the range of their light joined the first two in tipping their stone jars forward and the corridor began to fill with water. Pale Noon and Baelfius made quick work of the first two statues, but even at the reduced rate the corridor was quickly filling with water and they found themselves foundering in a developing whirlpool and unable to disable the last two. The other party members watched helplessly from the other side of the magical wall until Daelius encouraged everyone to beseech the gods for intervention. Shouts to Torm and Tymora went unanswered, and it looked as though the halfing and tiefling would perish before a desperate cry from Galstaff to the slain Mystra brought a powerful presence into the room and the arcane trap faltered and failed.

The door at the end of the trapped corridor was quietly opened and beyond it the party could see a room filled with zombies. They decided to try and make use of the disabled dragon statues which could bathe a large area in flames by using Daelius as bait. Initially their plan succeeded, with a pillar of lightning summoned by Galstaff making short work of all of the weaker zombies. Then a chilling cry came from the darkness behind the zombies and a pair of ghouls leaped forward, surrounding Vaunea. Their wicked claws bit deep into her flesh and she looked dazed.

Galstaff took this moment to unleash the spell he had selected from his tome the day before, breathing a heavy mist towards Vaunea and the ghouls. The mist clung to Vaunea and her eyelids began to droop even further, but the two ghouls were unaffected. Only a divine challenge from Daelius was able to draw their attention from the vulnerable goliath. Again the ghouls surrounded their target, and this time the second ghoul managed to sink its teeth into the tiefling's leg who let out a great cry.

Taking this as his signal, Fizzwig let loose a blast of fire from the dragon statue singing friend and foe alike. It did the trick, though, and with some healing the party remained alive just barely and surrounded the two ghouls. Once surrounded they fell quickly to steel and spell. As the party moved forward past the reslain undead a blur of motion was seen flying away from them, stopping just long enough for the sharper eyed members to see a small clay dragon construct peer over its shoulder at them. Their presence was likely announced.

---

OOC
We are drawing close to the end of the campaign, so can people let me know if they think they will be missing any of the next three weeks? I would like for everyone to be around for the finale and thus I may need to add or remove some stuff here at the end to make the schedules work. Cheers!

Experience

• 162xp (975/6) for the hobgoblins and SPIDER OF DOOM

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Vauenea

• 110xp (650/6) for the room of traps, hacked to pieces rather than simply walked around

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Vauenea

• 200xp (1200/6) for the undead and their ghoul masters

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Vauenea

Summary
The party followed the passage down which the clay dragon construct had fled, descending a short flight of stairs and opening into an antechamber beyond which three glowing crystalline pillars could be seen. In the darkness along the back of the room a raspy voice was reciting incantations, and alongside the pillars two large men holding battleaxes stood facing the party with vacant expressions. Pale Noon and Fizzwig slipped off to one side, stepping cautiously over the rubble and some fallen, unmoving bodies as they circled through the small chambers along the sides of the large temple floor. The rest of the party moved slowly forward, skirting the large face of a dragon inlaid into the temple floor with a pit where its mouth should be. Twin rivers of blood flowed from the back of the room down in the gaping maw, and yet the berserkers did not flinch at the party's approach.

Suddenly the raspy voice ceased its incantations and shouted in common for the men to attack. As the party engaged the berserkers, Galstaff sidled over a few prone forms and into a corner of the room to safely throw his spells from. Just then the prone forms all around the room began moving and revealed themselves to be vampires. With a squeak Galstaff wiggled his fingers and disappeared, only to reappear all the way back at the entrance to the room. The surprise addition of the vampires dealt serious damage to the party and kept them busy while the chanting began once again.

Too late the party realized the chanting was a summoning ritual. Skeletons wreathed in fire could be seen surrounding a dark robed figure at the end of the room, and a series of fireballs flew towards the party. With the rest of the party still dealing with the berserkers and remaining vampires, Fizzwig and Ruhsbaar rushed forward to deal with this newest threat. They underestimated the power of the immolation and were severely burned before they could bring down the robed priest who had begun chanting anew. Ruhsbaar was within inches of dying and only a prayer from the charging tiefling paladin saved him from falling.

The rest of the party began moving towards the burning skeletons, and Galstaff once again found himself well behind the party but suddenly surrounded as a series of dark flowing figures burst from the open hole in the floor. The fight reached a desperate pitch as the party found itself surrounded by fast moving shadows on one side and immolating skeletons on the other. First Rolen, then Ruhsbaar, Galstaff and Fizzwig nearly succumbed to the flames. Companions threw healing potions to those in gravest need, and more than one foe was killed just as it raised its weapon to strike a fatal blow. Indeed Galstaff lay unconscious, dying to the nearby flaming skeleton and only Rolen grabbing the healing potion from his belt and forcing it to his parched lips saved him.

As much damage as the skeletons and dark creepers could dish, the party was returning in kind and finally only a single shadowy figure remained. It flitted towards the gaping maw, seeking to escape the way it had come but the paladin raised his enchanted sword and called upon it to fight or face the wrath of Torm. The figure tried to continue fleeing, but a bolt of divine energy flew from the paladin and only a pile of dust descended down into the gaping maw. The few party members that remained conscious and on their feet dragged themselves to treat their less fortunate companions, and injured groans punctuated the constant drip, drip, drip of blood as it fell into the dragon's mouth. A careful investigation of the room revealed it to be a defiled temple dedicated to Bahamut, and the corpses of what must have been the lost trade caravans appeared to be fueling the unholy ceremonies resulting in vampires and skeletons.

---

OOC
Sorry about the late post, been super busy with other stuff this week.

Experience

• 200xp (1400/7) for 2 enthralled berserkers, 6 vampires, 4 dark creepers, 4 burning skeletons and 1 bad ass priest dude

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Rolen, Ruhsbaar

The party gathered wearily above the shaft in the floor. Suddenly Vaunea felt a tug and her consciousness followed her spirit companion spiraling downward until she saw before her a large room with a towering statue of Bahamut facing a dark, swirling portal. Before the portal an arcane circle was inscribed on the floor, and Vaunea saw a robed figure prostrate within the circle. Then a soft rustle of air passed by her and the clay dragon construct landed outside of the circle and chattered something in an unknown language. The figure rose and said in Common, "They have come this far? Then I must prepare."

Vaunea blinked and found herself once again at the top of the shaft, and told her companions what she had seen. They debated on if they should press on in their weakened state, or allow both themselves and Kalarel time to prepare. In the end they decided to set a guard over the shaft and withdraw to the room just before the temple to rest. Several hours passed before the party had recovered, and Pale Noon became worried that a part of Kalarel's plan may be to flank them with some unknown force. He offered to hold the temple door against any threat while the other descended and confronted Kalarel.

The party grabbed the chains and slowly lowered themselves down the shaft. Twenty, thirty, forty feet down and finally the shaft opened up into the room that Vaunea had described from her vision. Below them, the center of the room was filled with a rectangular pool of blood separating the statue of Bahamut from the portal. A few sturdy looking skeletons were scattered about the room, and on a raised platform to one side stood Kalarel. On a platform opposite from Kalarel stood two figures with shriveled skin and a haunted visage.

"Who are you that you have come so far?" called Kalarel. Without waiting for them to reply he began speaking again, "No matter, you will meet your doom here. The Mistress of the Night will not be denied." With a roar Daelius swung from his chain and charged towards Kalarel, taking everyone in the room by surprise. Ruhsbaar was the first to recover from the paladin's sudden movement, and he leaped gracefully after the tiefling.

The rest of the party dropped into what turned out to be a shallow pool of blood. Vaunea felt a cold precision flow through her as she poured a bit of her spirit into the catcher, and loosed arrow after arrow felling skeletons with each one. Rolen shouted for everyone to try and reach Kalarel before he could unleash any unholy magics, the words leaving his voice just as Daelius reached him. The paladin had outdistanced his support, though, and the skeletons nearest Kalarel quickly closed on him and savagely attacked him, nearly killing him before help arrived.

The skeletons and pair of wights from the opposite end of the room began closing on the party from behind and Baelfius turned to face them with Galstaff at his back. Hammer and fire rang out but the pair of heroes found they were out matched and the tiefling's courage snapped as one of the wights unleashed a terrible necrotic blow upon him. As he fled one of the wights descended on the exposed Galstaff while the other moved to nearby skeletons and with a ray of necrotic energy began reanimating them.

The immediate foes assisting Kalarel defeated, the rest of the party began besieging him from all sides, even Rolen rushed forward with his sword to keep Kalarel on the defensive. Finding himself cornered, Kalarel touched the amulet around his neck and a glow began slowly to encompass his entire body. Fizzwig, previously distracted by sampling some scrolls he had found on the altar saw a shiny object becoming even shinier and leaped toward Kalarel, grabbing the amulet. With a sudden flash of light both of them disappeared and then reappeared in the center of the arcane circle by the dark portal. The portal's surface began to writhe and a soft whispher of could be heard by the shocked gnome. He began shuffling towards the portal, ignoring the shouts of his companions.

Baelfius and Galstaff were the closest to the gnome, but the wight continued to subdue the tieflings will and pin Galstaff down with bolts of energy as his own blood joined the pool on the floor. As the rest of the party rushed to reengage Kalarel, Vaunea continued sending arrow after arrow toward the wights, one, two, three hits in a row bringing their attention to her before she destroyed the on reanimating skeletons. Emboldened by this display, Baelfius let out a shuddering breath and brought his hammer high above his head before slaying the remaining wight which had been filling his mind with terror.

All eyes turned towards Kalarel and the portal, and the arcane circle had begun pulsing in time with Kalarel's renewed chanting. The surface of the portal exploded into a blaze of motions as shadowy tentacles shot towards Fizzwig, who finally recognized the danger and dove out of the way. Daelius closed in and knocked Kalarel out of the circle and towards the portal, crying out to Bahamut as he did so. A burst of divine energy came out of the statue of Bahamut's jaws and struck the portal in it center, covering the surface with a weak forcefield. A deep roar sounded from within the portal and the tentacles continued to grasp outwards, finally managing to catch Daelius, Kalarel and Ruhsbaar as the did battle just outside of it.

Prayers from the party mingled with arcane mumblings from Fizzwig and Galstaff as they hovered over the arcane circle, trying to undo its magic. The divine beam continued to grow in strength, and the tentacles, still holding their prey began to retract within the portal. Rolen, Baelfius and Fizzwig lunged for the monk and managed to pull him free, but both Daelius and Kalarel slipped closer and closer to the portal. Daelius, sensing an opportunity to drive Kalarel's evil from the world shouted out to the gods, offering his life as a sacrifice to also destroy Kalarel as he grasped Kalarel's arm. The divine energy covering the surface of the portal began to solidify, and the roar came again though slightly muffled now.

With a last dive everyone grabbed what parts of Daelius they could and with a final heave they managed to wrest him and Kalarel out of the tentacle's grasp just as the portal was sealed. Kalarel found himself surrounded with nowhere to run, but the party was not taking any chances and blade, hammer and magic flew into him from all sides until he ceased moving. Silence descended, broken only by the periodic drips of blood still falling from the temple above.

---

OOC
We are going to have a (short?) wrap-up session this upcoming Sunday, so let me know ahead of time if there is anything specific that you want dealt with before the campaign ends. As I have mentioned before, I am going to be taking a break from DMing so if someone else wants to jump in and run a campaign now is the time to speak!

Experience

• 220xp (1540/7) for the defeat of Kalarel, the skeletons and wights

Loot

• Enchanted amulet, daily ritual to return those in contact to a previously prepared arcane circle

• Magic dagger resting on the altar

  • +2 to attack and damage rolls

  • +1d6 damage on a critical hit

• Two elven cloaks on the deceased wraiths

  • +2 enhancement bonus to Fortitude, Reflex and Will defenses

  • +2 to Stealth checks