Beneath Castle Naerytar

After descending the castle stairs the group finds themselves going down a winding staircase. The step turn from wooden steps turn rough hewn stone. At the bottom they find a large natural cavern, wet, cold and lit only with a single torch.

They debate a course of action and end up waiting for more cultists to arrive and then follow them. Following a couple of cultitsts leads them to a smaller cavern in which a makeshift crane has been setup which is being used to hoist heavy loads of treasure up to a higher level of the cavern just above them. There are at least a half a dozen cultists are busily working here. Too many to take on directly. The adventurers retreat into the previous cavern to find other possibilities.

The Gray Ooze
300 XP

Retracing their steps Arno remarks at a shallow pool of water emanating from a narrow crevice at one spot of this cavern.  Following the water T'an crouches in order to pass into a chamber. On the other side he finds a larger pool of water with a small landing which is dry. On the landing is a collection of coins and gems. As T'an moves in to retrieve them he notices that everything is covered in an oily or wet sheen. Just as he is pondering the fact, the oily sheen collects before him and turns into a grey ooze. He is hit with an oozy tentacle which leaves traces of its ooze on T'an's body. The slick substance burns into his skin.

Urine apparently neutralizes Gray Ooze

The others, alerted by the noise, enter the chamber and help T'an fend off the creature, while Orvusita remains outside the entrance to keep watch for cultists. Magic spells of fire and ice do little damage and T'an's blade attacks leave his sword covered in the ooze which eats away at the metal. Fearing for his precious blade, which was his mentors, T'an drops the blade into the shallow water beside him. Soon enough the creature is killed, which leaves it's body to spread over the landing and into the water. More importantly the collection of gems is now covered in the acidic substance. The party's solution: pee on treasure pile. One by one, they wash the area in their body fluids, including Orvusita who insists that everyone turn around. all except Arno (who possibly has a prostate problem).

Deciding they can bluff their way past the large contingent of cultists, they return to the crane room. Fortunately for the group, the faint and distant sound of the wooden signal drum sounds and most of the cultists return to the castle above for their midday break. Leaving only a couple of cultists to deal with Smallfang offers to relieve them of their watch, saying they would probably appreciate the fresh air after hearing them complain of the bullywug stench of the caverns. Failing miserably at this task, stuttering and stammering and doing a poor job at convincing the cultists, the cultists seem to wise to the fact that they have never seen this particular group of "cultists" before.

Realizing their deception is crumbling rapidly, the group attacks and soon enough has killed the cultists. At the groups suggestion, Smallfang drags the bodies out of sight, into the crevice where they had encountered the gray ooze. After dragging the bodies through some of the remaining ooze and witnessing the flesh melting results, Smallfang decides to dump them into the center of the remains of the gray ooze. Hopefully the ooze will dissolve the evidence. If not then perhaps it will look like the cultists have succumbed to the gray ooze's attack.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Smallfang had such a difficult time climbing this cliff I was surprised no one decided to hoist him up using the crane. That would have been fun.

Able to move on up the steep rise and further into the cavern system, the group finds themselves in a mist filled room. After trying to discern which way to go, T'an and Smallfang fan the mist using T'an's hat and Smallfang's shield. They find that footprints definitely lead to a chamber which slopes down into a smaller chamber. This chamber seems completely empty, save for the mist which is even thicker hear. The mist creates a thick 3 foot sea of slowly roiling white which hinders the groups investigation of the room. The old man, Bohr/Darvin, senses something magical below the mist but is unable to see any details through the fog. T'an crouches down and runs his hand along the floor. There is definitely something carved into the floor. He removes some parchment and charcoal from
the now deceased Danifae's belongings and does a charcoal rubbing of whatever is on the floor.

When T'an resurfaces above the mist he holds a fine impression of a portion of a large circle with runic symbols and writing in a mixture of draconic and other languages. The group believes they have discovered a teleportation cirlcle. After much investigating and deciphering, they come to the conclusion that they need the command word. Without this word the teleportaion spell will not activate.

Deciding they can do nothing more here at the moment they move further into the caverns. they find a narrow winding path which leads them down into darkness. Smallfang pulls out his bullseye lantern and holds it in his mouth, freeing his hands for sword and shield. The old man, spiderclimbs along the cavern walls and ceilings. Encountering several bats along the ceiling, the old man retreats to climbing along the wall beside the others.

Frog Lake
850 XP

The large dark cavern they have entered holds a large subterranean lake. Near the center of the lake is a small island upon which sits a giant frog. The giant frog watches the group and as the group continues to come into the cavern, it gives a loud croak and dives into the water. The group decides danger has been averted and continues along the narrow ledge which borders the lake.

They find the ledge leads to another cave opening. This portion of the cavern is mud filled. As Smallfang's lantern is moved across the room, the group sees fast moving creatures dart in and out of the mud. Too fast to see much, but enough to give them pause.

Perhaps they pause too long, because as they crowd around the mud filled room's entrance several giant frogs emerge from the dark waters behind the group and attack. Using the cavern walls to prevent the frogs from surrounding them works as it reduces the number of attacks they have to deal with but it does mean they have to fend of wave after wave of attacks from these giant frogs. The giant frogs lunge and bite at the characters and after being bit the adventurers find themselves grabbed in the frogs mouth. Several times Arno has barely escape from being swallowed entirely.

Centipede Lair
800 XP

Eventually, the group is victorious but is injured enough that they are extremely cautious about entering a room in which they now to contain some sort of creature.

The old man, still using his spiderclimb abilities, offers to carry Arno, the gnome, across the room via the ceiling. Arno climbs onto the back of the old man, as he scurries up the walls and up onto the ceiling. As they reach the midpoint of the room, Arno's strength fails him and looses his grip. Plunging down 20 feet and landing into the soft mud, Arno is not hurt but is now buried waist deep in the foul smelling muck.

Several long centipedes, as thick as an elves forearm, climb up onto the gnome and start to bite him. The old man, still on the ceiling, sees this and drops down to aid Arno. The two continue to fend off the giant centipedes while the other can just look on. The old man, Bohr/Darvin is screaming as the creatures crawl over him and he begs T'an to shoot them off. Hesitant but eventually shrugging, T'an fires off and arrow. T'an is accurate, but not that accurate. He hits the old man square in the shoulder as the centipede creature moves around the old man's body. Deciding he can not help much in attacking the creatures T'an rushes across the room, his feet barely touch the mud and makes it to the other side of the room.

Smallfang wades into the room, his heavy feet sinking into the mud, making his movement slow and ponderous. He walks up to Arno and grabs at one of the centipedes, pulling it off the small gnome and slashes at it with his blade. When all the centipedes are pulled off Arno and killed Arno climbs up the dragonborn and clings to his chest. The old man, Bohr/Darvin is finally able to exterminate his insect infestation. They all finally are able to climb out of the muck and follow T'an who has found a flight of stairs ascending into light.

Frog Shrine
1200 XP

The stairs eventually lead back to the entrace cave they first descended from the castle into. The caverns still unoccupied by cultist workers for the moment they move back to the mist filled area. There they discover another room they had initially passed. T'an moves up the stairs cautiously and while lying down, uses his mirror to peak into the room. The room is lit with a multitude of candles, placed in niches along the rough cavern walls. In numerous other niches in the walls are placed a multitude of various religious symbols and artifacts. A hogpog of religions are represented.

At the far end of the cave is a bullywug, dressed in shaman's robes and holding a staff across his lap as he sits at a shrine facing away from the group. T'an decides to take the opportunity to stealthily cross the room and try and kill the bullywug from behind. As he strikes the bullywug looks up and the fight is begun.

T'an succeeds in knocking down the bullywug, but the bullywug calls out for help. As the shaman, Pharbles Spattergoo begins to mutter his incantation and pulls out a piece of bark his skin turns to a hardend barklike hide. The others now move into the room, while Arno and Orvusita remain at the entrance to hurl spells and arrows across the room. The bullywug shaman produces a spell which turns the entire midsection of the room into a tangle of thorns which encircles T'an, Smallfang and the old man.

It is then that several bullywugs emerge into the room in defense of their leader. The group which is in the middle of the ensnaring spike growth,  are able to get out of the tangle and T'an takes on Phablex while Smallfang produces a lightning breath attack which kills and injures several others.The fight is long and hard but eventually Pharblex is felled. The few remaining bullywugs, seeing their leader felled, take large leaps in hopes of escaping. One of them jumps right over Arno and into the outer cave. Little Arno takes chase but his little legs cannot keep up. T'an rushes by in a blur. Running up to and around the fleeing bullywug, T'an runs up along the wall and comes down in front of the bullywug bringing his sword down the the creature. The bullywug collapses into a heap but T'an decides to kick and punch at it. Not even the creatures death can halt T'an's furry.

Arno who is by the entrance of this cave can hear the sounding of the signal drum again and it is not long until the sounds of returning workers fill the caverns. Arno tells the others. They need to hurry.

T'an discovers that below the trappings of the shrine is a chest. T'an is cautious and looks first for traps. Sure enough he discovers wires attached to the chest which rise up along with wall, to the ceiling and holding several clay pots directly above him. As the group decides the best course of action on how to disable the trap, the sounds of activity increase in the outer caverns. Smallfang decides that sometimes, disabling is too much hassle. It's no big deal to take a bit of fire damage. He grabs the chest and pulls.

It's not fire.

The pots crash to the floor releasing a powdery dust that covers T'an, Smallfang and the old man. Immediately they begin to hallucinate. Smallfang still holding the chest, finds he is holding the body of his dead mother. He begins to weep inconsolably. T'an discovers his long lost dog and hugs him close petting his luxurious fur, as he pulls the body of the dead bullywug close and nuzzles it. The old man sees the body of his dead child at his feet and sees the man responsible. He wields his scythe and brings it down upon T'an. The scythe sticks into the shoulder blade of the monk.

Arno hearing the commotion returns into the room to see chaos has taken of the minds of her compatriots. Seeing this horrific scene, he is at a loss. Finally, after a few minutes he decides to splash water in the face of the dragonborn. The surprise of the cold water on his face, and perhaps more importantly the washing away of the hallucinogenic powder, brings Smallfang back to this reality. Arno takes the chest from him dropping it to the floor.

As Arno investigates the chest, Smallfang resuscitates the others in a likewise fashion. Standing back up covered in muck, grime, ooze and blood the group has rarely looked worse. Arno is happy though. He has discovered two spellbooks from wizards who were obviously more adept than the bullywug shaman who they have taken them from.

The old man, Bohr/Darvin, sends his pseudodragon familiar to hide in the mists as the cultists workers use the teleportation circle. The pseudodragon is hidden by the mist in the room with they cultists speak the command word activating the portal. "Draezir"

Deciding that a rest is in dire need, they will return to the castle above.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Sometimes its sooooo much more fun when the trap is sprung. Thanks Smallfang!

Captured
1400 XP

As the group returns to the stairs leading to the castle above, they are halted by a couple of cultists. Try to pose as fellow cultists the group does their best "Hail Tiamat" while giving the hand signal. Unfortunately for them, they are covered in gray ooze, mud (the gnome is at least half mud), and blood (T'an is profusely bleeding from a horrible looking scythe injury on his shoulder).

"Tell me again. Why are you covered in ooze?"

The questioning cultists is horrified at their appearance and calls for guards. Still trying to talk their way out of this the group digs themselves further and further into suspicion. Finally, several dragonclaw guards as well as an elf, whom they address as Dralmorrer Borngray, descend the stairs and the group soon finds themselves being manacled while the guards remove their weapons and belongings. Orvusita had taken the conflict as an opportunity to quietly retreat into the crevice where the gray ooze was found.

One of the guards removing the old man's belongings finds a rock. A simple ordinary rock and drops it to the cavern floor. The old man is incensed and frantic about the rock. The guard seeing this decides to be mean and kicks the rock. Hard. The rock bounces and rolls until it is gone out of site rolling down into the neighboring cave.

The old man flies into a rage and runs after the rock. He is stopped easily by one of the guards but using the commotion as cover, each of the other adventurers takes the opportunity to try to free themselves from their shackles. T'an easily picks one of the locks of his manacles and is actually able to manacle on the hands of the guard next to him. Arno is able to tinker with the locking mechanism enough the it releases. Smallfang uses his amazing strength to try and bend or break the manacles. He fails.

It is not long before a full out fight has broken out and the guards are on the loosing end. Orvusita has emerged from here hiding spot and just as one of the guards was running up the stairs yelling for help he is killed with her arrow in the back. Soon enough they are able to escape their bonds leaving several guards dead, two unconscious and one who has run for aid.

The group runs for the teleportation circle. Once all their they do not hesitate and speak the word, "Draezir!".

They find themselves standing between two ancient pillars of stone on the edge of a circle with three other such pairs of stones. The air is clear, dry and cold. All around them are mountain peaks and up a gravel path is a large and inviting looking hunting lodge.

A place to rest? Probably not.

Across The Mere Of Dead Men

As night falls on the Carnath Roadhouse, activity begins to quiet as members of each work crew including the cultists begin to retire to their rooms. The adventurers though have other plans besides sleep. T'an finishes sabotaging the cultists wagons while Danifae keeps watch just outside of the stables. Arno and Smallfang have each gone to begin their nights rest in their respective rooms.

Gruge Match
500 XP (half of the intended 1000 XP)

It is then that a large group of cultists emerge from their rooms. They have obviously been waiting for their chance to approach one of the adventurers alone. Fortune shines on the cultists, as it is the flippant Danifae, the drow elf who has so recently tried to rouse their anger. It is not long before Danifae is being attacked by at least a dozen of the cultist, the main one a young woman who has been driven into a rage.

T'an is drawn out of the stables by the sounds of battle and is quick to rush to the aid of Danifae but it is too late. Danifae is felled by one of the cultitst and seeing he is surrounded, T'an using all the speed he can muster runs to the stables. There he is nimbly jumps out a window in the loft and swings on top of the roof. Back in the courtyard, the cultist woman, enraged over the belief  that the adventurers are responsible for the murder of her companion. kneels over the body of the unconscious drow and stabs over and over, tears of anger and grief running down her face until her companions pull her off of the dead body.

T'an uses this moment to move across the roof of the roadhouse, hiding himself among the shadows. From there he witnesses several lizard-like humanoids loading a couple of wagons with what looks to be the crates which the cultists have been travelling with for the past several weeks. He watches them from his vantage until the finish and finally begin to leave.

After scouting the area and noticing that the cultists have since retired, leaving the body and its pool of blood staining the mud and straw in the courtyard, T'an awakens the others and tells them the news of both Danifae's attack and murder as well as the movement of the cultist's treasure. They decide to wait until morning before making any decisions.

In the morning, Beyd their employer, tells the party that he has smoothed things over with the roadhouse keepers but feels that it is safer for him if they part ways. T'an spends a good deal of the morning trying to convince Orvusita, the comely female guard that she should accompany them on their mission to avenge Danifae's death. After some awkward conversation she finally agrees.

Tracking Into The Mere Of The Dead Men

The group moves out to follow the trail left by the lizardfolk who have taken over the cultist's treasure. The morning is cold and damp with the sun a pale light behind thick grey clouds. The trail is easy enough to follow in the soft ground as it approaches and then enters dark woods. The forest floor is soft which quickly enough turns to ankle deep muck which makes the travel slow for the party, especially Smallfang who is a considerable size not even considering the massive amount of armor he wears.

Some distance into the mere, the group hears mutterings and T'an moves quickly and stealthily up until he finds an old man sitting on a rotting log talking to himself. As he watches he sees that the old man is in fact talking to a rock he holds in his hands. T'an returns to the others to tell them of the odd sight as the group notices that T'an has been followed by a pseudodragon up in the branches. As the small pseudodragon flies back to the old man the group follows it and they all meet the old man, Bohr. They ask if he has seen anything unusual, say like lizard creatures bearing crates. Bohr says that he has and proceeds to show them where as he accompanies them.

It is not long before they find an abandoned wagon and large splayed footprints which lead further in to the mire. They travel not far but it takes them considerable time to traverse the now sometimes thigh deep swampy water. They finally find stable high ground in the form of a little island which seems to mark the end of the wooded area of the mire. On the other side of the small hill is miles of swampy black water. As it is getting late and Smallfang seems intent on remaining lying down on the firm ground and rest, the group decides to make camp.

The Lizardfolk Camp
900 XP

They aren't the only ones who seem to deem this a good rest site. They find two lean-tos made from reeds and stones made to make fires on. Arno finds under some reed mats inside the shelters several oars. Oars must mean some sort of water craft so after some searching they also find several dugout canoes hidden in the bushes. After making a fire and having some rations they settle in for the night.

Unfortunately, the wet wood on the fire has produced large amounts of smoke alerting others to their presence. A large number of lizardfolk approach the area and the adventurers have to fend them off. T'an uses the smoky fire to hide within and takes advantage of the obscuring smoke to attack from. Arno, who was lying in the comfort of one of the lean-tos awakens to being attacked and is soon bludgeoned unconscious. Bohr moves around to the side of the lean-to in order to lay hands on the old gnome who has felled. Arno awakens once again and begins to melt lizardfolk with his magical acid attacks. Smallfang has also entered the smoke and is cutting down his share of lizardfolk.

One of the lizardfolk approaches the old wizard, Bohr, and in his native draconic tongue asks for forgiveness. He is not one of those lizardfolk who blindly follows what the cultists tell them to do. He gently puts down his weapon and tells the wizard of the odd alliances his folk have had to make in order to survive in the mere lately.

As the battle winds down with the adventurers none the worse for wear, after Smallfang heals those who need it, they question this lizard creature. His name is Snapjaw and he tells the group of life in the mere as of late. The cultists have the employ of both the lizardfolk and the bullywugs. The bullwugs who the lizardfolk hate have the great advantage of numbers and they use it to harass and belittle the lizardfolk. The cultists who mostly hate both creatures usually just tolerate both in order to have a labor force.

Pharblex Spattergoo

The lizardfolk's leader, a shaman named Suncaller, was recently murdered by the bullywug shaman Pharblex Spattergoo. Leaderless the lizardfolk are directionless and are easy prey for impressive figures. That is how Dralmorrer Borngray has convinced many of the lizardfolk to follow him. He is strong in the eyes of the lizardfolk as well as he has taken to trying to teach them the ways of forging metal weapons as well as giving over many of the weapons seized in the raids to them, even if they are of poor quality.

The group is convinced of his truthfulness, as the old wizard, who now seems to go by the name Darvin, uses his magic to enter the mind of this creature. They let go the two other lizardfolk prisoners and Snapjaw tells them to quietly spread the word that great adventurers have arrived to lead the lizardfolk out of servitude.

Will-O-The-Wisps
1350 XP

The group decides to attempt their nights rest again. It is not long though, that T'an and the old wizard notice moving lights in the distance. They believe it to be lantern light and carefully approach. After the lights cease their movement, T'an and Darvin try different tactics to draw out whoever is out there. They try magical distractions via prestidigitation. They try shouted threats. They try arrows. None of it to any avail. Finally, they decided to retreat. It is then that the lights move blazingly fast and attack. It turns out that the lights were really Will-o-The-Wisps. The lights attack the group with lightning attacks.

The group has trouble at first as it seems all their attacks do very little damage to these tiny lights. At least the will-o-the-wisps lightning attacks can do little to hurt Smallfang who is dragonborn and resists much of their lightning attacks. And as luck would have it Smallfangs ability to charge his weapon with divine power seems to do the trick in hurting these creatures. One by one the group whittles down these creatures and Smallfang finishes them off.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: If T'an is a kobold killing machine, then Smallfang is a will-o-the-wisps killing machine.

The group spends a couple of days, under the direction of Arno, to leash together the found canoes with reeds, wood and saplings to create a raft. After a couple of false starts (one of the canoes had a rotten bottom) they finally tinker together a respectable raft. Pushing off the move through the waterways with directions from Snapjaw.

Castle Naerytar

Soon they can see a large castle made from strong stone and sitting atop one of the taller towers, a large metallic dome of an observatory. The area just in front of the castle houses both the bullywugs and the lizardfolk. Snapjaw takes them proudly to his camp which is kept relatively neat and clean. The group passes a large pen housing several giant lizards which are used as pack animals. Inside the lizardfolk's reed huts it is warm and dry. On a stone fireplace Snapjaw shows them several metal weapons. They are obviously used and worn but the lizardfolk treat them with reverence.

As the group move back out toward the castle they pass by the living quarters of the bullywugs. In stark contrast to the lizardfolk's living area, the bullywugs live in muck, sometimes several feet deep and the entire area smells of swampy mud. Snapjaw is disgusted and doesn't hide his disdain. The bullywugs for their part sneer at the  lizardfolk.

With the aid of Snapjaw the group puts themselves forward as fellow cultists and they enter the castle. The barbican, the defensable area of entrance, is guarded by several bullywugs but the group is able to cast themselves as cultitst enough that they are ignored. They move through the barbican, keeping to the wooden planks on the floor to avoid the foul mud spread by the bullywugs.

They then pass through the causeway which is open to the towers above. The towers above have several arrow slits looking towards the causeway making for a very defensible approach. Rounding the corner and entering the castle proper, they walk into the main outer ward of the castle. There they see bustling activity of cultists of varying races as well as many bullywugs and lizardfolk.

It is the sight of a large black half-dragon at the far side of the courtyard talking to a wizard dressed in red with tattoos entirely covering his shaved head. The old wizard, Bohr/Darvin points him out to the others and calls him a 'red wizard of Thay'. Not good people. The black half-dragon is wearing an odd looking mask over his face and carrying a noticeably large sword. Smallfang announces, he wants that sword. But before long both move away out of sight into the far court of the inner ward.

It is then that they hear the sound of deep wooden drum beats. Snapjaw tells them that it was the signal for the beginning of the work day. There are several different signals throughout the day: For breaks; For the ceasing of work at the end of the day and of course in the case of alarm. The group decides that disabling the alarm should be a priority.

Snapjaw, is insistent that they follow him as he wants to show them the lizardfolk's living quarters within the castle. The group humors him and they find a small area filled with lizardfolk all trying to use a small forge to hammer out weapons and doing poorly at it. Smallfang takes pity on them and tries to school them in a demonstration but it is soon apparent that it is a losing battle. They move on.

Further inside Snapjaw shows them a not so carefully hidden stash of metal weapons that his folk have been collecting. They are dented and bent but would do if necessary.

The group moves on to try and explore the castle while they are still perceived as cultists. They climb the stairs they find in the lizardfolks living quarters only to find that one of the doors at the top of the second flight of stairs has been nailed shut with several metal spikes. The group perhaps will wait until later to explore this.

They find a great hall filled with many cultists sorting through treasure in various tables along the wall. The hall also has 4 Dragonclaw guards standing by each entrance. They also try to explore the inner ward, where both the red wizard and the black hald-dragon, persumably Rezmir, entered. Bohr/Darvin walks boldly past the entrance into the ward and is immediately greeted by a guard drake. Looking around the sees two more guard drakes approaching. The group prepares for a fight but at the last minute Bohr/Darvin attempts to placate the animals and walks carefully backwards returning to the safety of the outer ward. The drakes let him go. All the better for the group.

The group moves again to the Great Hall, the lure of all that treasure proving just too much. There they pass themselves off as just more cultists transferring treasure and follow other such cultists. After almost failing to convince a guard of their cultists status, the group follows others down the hall and into a tower that has stairs going both up and down. After waiting for another cultists to follow and show them the way, the group goes down.

The descent takes them into a large cavern system hidden below the castle.

More caverns. Probably means more death.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Not a lot of XP this session but that's what you get for skipping most of the castle :)

The Long Road To Baldur's Gate

Moving through the dark caverns of the dragon hatchery the adventurers find a hidden rope ladder rising up to the roof of the cavern. Above the climbing T'an the way is blocked by what seems to be thick carpet. He uses a dagger to stealthily cut through enough to rise a small thieve's mirror. Using the mirror he can see a nicely furnished room with a human woman sitting at a writing desk. She is dressed in the now familiar robes of the dragon cult.

Frulam Mondath's Chamber

450 XP

As she moves he catches her reflection in a standing mirror on the other side of the room. He recognizes her face from the horrible night that his monastery was attacked and destroyed but a fortnight ago. He returns back to the others as they discuss a plan. Eventually they decided to try and cut through the carpet and attack as fast as they can. This proves a bit more difficult than they had anticipated. Unable to entirely cut through before they can move through the opening, the woman, Frulam Mondath, realizes what is happening.

T'an can hear her approach above and a voice whispers in his mind. "Let Go".  He lets go. His body plummets to the ground below inflicting heavy damage on an already hurt elf. Danifae rushes below opening and lets fly a firebolt spell opening the small passage. Arno, the gnome climbs up and hurls spells against the cultist. Eventually all are able to move through the small passage and face the evil woman. All that is except Smallfang the dragonborn. He has jumped and grabbed on to the ledge above him but his strength fails him and is unable to pull himself up. Smallfang sees flashes of spell after spell unable to help.

Frulam has sent her guard to go and protect the eggs. The dragon eggs. She summons a magical weapon in her hand. A dagger with a dragon body handle. She thrusts the blade into the side of T'an. But before she can gain the upper hand in the battle the group easily overcomes her and she lies dead, as Smallfang pulls himself up and into the room.

Going through her belongings they find a writing desk littered with horribly written poems all about dragons as well as maps with annotations indicating where the cult may be headed next. As well, the notes allude to a leader, Remzir, who has graciously allowed some of his followers to keep some small bits of treasure for themselves.

The Dragon Hatchery
2,800 XP

They decide to move on and find the dragon eggs. It is not long before they come to another cavern with yet another caged in pit. They have seen this before. Smallfang, the sole member of the group without some sort of darkvision, pulls out his bullseye latern. Before he is able to scan much, Danifae rushes into the far end of the cavern, where he sees a smaller pit. Peering over the edge he discovers several kobolds lying in wait. He does not see them for long as they hurl firebombs towards him, one hitting him square in the face. They are kobolds and now the group is adept at dealing death to these creatures. They easily overcome them and grab the last one for questioning. Asked how many eggs there are he answers, "two". Danifae is not convinced of his truthfulness but they have to see for themselves anyway.

They have also dealt with drakes in a pit before and use their successful strategy again to kill the remaining drakes. It is more difficult this time though. Perhaps these drakes are better trained. They do not fall for the same tricks that the ones in the training pit did. Eventually they clear the area and find two dragon eggs. As they prepare to remove the two eggs, one of the stalagmites moves. It unfurls enormously long and powerful arms. It tries to talk to them in a broken common. It warns them to move on as it means them no immediate harm. The group wisely decides to take what they can and get out. The creature, a roper, begins slowly to move towards them as if to emphasize its meaning. They quickly retreat.

Danifae though remembers that perhaps he didn't believe the kobold, in that there were only two eggs. Perhaps there is another. He quietly returns to the cavern, keeping as far away from the last know position of the roper and uses his superior darkvision and dancing lights to look through the pit for any other eggs. He finds it hidden camouflaged in a corner. Together with T'an the two send attacks at the egg until it is destroyed. Confident in their completion of the mission of retrieving or destroying all the dragon eggs they run for safety outside this accursed cavern system.

Back safely at their modified horse drawn cart, the "tank", map in hand, they decide to follow Leosin Erlanthat's instructions of meeting at the city of Elturel. After resupplying at Greenest and giving the governor what news they could, including the fact that the treasure has been moved, they begin their travel. It is a few days before they arrive at Elturel.

Familiar Faces

Elturel is a large and orderly city open and unguarded, though is is protected day and night by a brilliant magical light which hovers high above it. Danifae finds the light difficult and must shield her face continually from the light. Soon after arriving and asking about for either Leosin, who no one knows, and for Ontharr Frume, whom everybody seems to know. They are quickly directed to a tavern, the The Old Kegs. There they encounter a large group of youngsters who are all practicing fighting with swords and fists as well as competing with bow and arrows. All seemingly to impress a large human male dressed in plate mail. Perhaps not large in stature but large in girth.

The group approaches him and he deduces by their eclectic mixture of races that they must be the group Leosin has told him of. He warmly greets them with a raised hand, which bears a tattoo of a dark dagger on its palm. The group learns that he is of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. He and a colleague are here in their usual scouting for talent. He challenges each in different ways witnessing for himself their abilities. But soon he suggests that they have important matters to discuss and brings them into the tavern. There another large crowd is surrounding a table where there is a contest of Mage Hand. An old kobold wizard is there and at the suggestion of Ontharr challenges the little gnome.

The kobold is introduced to the group as Fluff, one of the founders of the order. He sits across from Arno and summons his spirit companion, Princess, a drake. Arno agrees to the challenge and summons his familiar, an armadillo. Princess lunges forward and in one bite shatters the spirit of the small animal. Fluffy smiles, gets up, collects up the two men he has come here to take back to his world and summons a portal. Stepping through he leaves and the portal closes quietly behind him.

Afterwards the group meets with Ontharr and Leosin to discuss what they have learned. Ontharr and Leosin are of two different factions but these factions have decided to share resources as they share a common goal in finding out what the dragon cult is up to. They have tracked several raids back to the cult but have never been able to find where the treasure is going or for what purpose. They ask the adventurers to join a caravan which will probably include at least some of the cult and hopefully their ill gotten treasure. Perhaps the cultists travel along with others in a large caravan in order to hide their movements. If so the group could try to get hired on and move with the caravan, gaining what knowledge they can. Ontharr tries to convince the group that by showing their worth perhaps they in time could be considered for the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. The great responsibility for protecting the realm does come with great rewards.

With little time  to spare they acquire equipment and a few rations from Ontharr and move by river to Baldur's Gate where they can hopefully meet up with the cult and get hired on to travel in the same caravan. A boat is waiting for them and they travel day and night to make up for lost time.

Baldur's Gate

They sail down the river along the river Chionthar towards Baldur's Gate. The boat docks just outside the city and the group must disembark and walk through the city. The city is old and crowded and does not allow wagons or pack animals inside the city. They move quickly to the north gate where they are told to meet Ackyn Selebon. Ackyn, a trader who operates a business in the Outer City just outside of the walls. He gets them hired on as guards to a half-elf named Beyd and his shipment of building supplies which is going to Neverwinter.

As they sign up with Beyd and meet some of their fellow caravan mates and begin to move out, they hear that this journey will take the better part of two months. They have brought rations enough for just a few days. This was not well thought out.

Life On The Road

Life on the road is mostly tedious and tiresome as the group typically must walk all day beside the caravan. They spend the day chatting with some of the others.

They meet Noohar Serelim, a male Moon Elf merchant, and his twin brother Selvek who is mute. Noohar must do all the talking for Selvek and is not always inclined to be translator. They use a form of sign language that Danifae recognizes and Selvek then takes to chatting incessantly with Danifae after that.

T'an is taken with a beautiful young woman named, Orvustia. She has joined the caravan as a guard at the insistence of her aunt, who believes that this will broaden her horizons and make her a better person. She is quite proficient with a bow which she carries on her back, wearing little else.

They also meet Ledo Widris another young woman, but where Orvustia was slight and beautiful, Ledo is large and intimidating. She is strong and courageous though and demands much respect.

Lending A Helping Hand
1,400 XP

It is not long into the Fields of the Dead, just north of Baldur's Gate that T'an notices in a small valley below there is a wagon being attacked by a group of hobgoblins. Orvustia and T'an take turns trying to impress each other with their bow skills by targeting and hitting what they take to be the leader of the attacking hobgoblins. The rest of the group soon joins in and rescues the merchant and his guards. The merchant thankful and remorseful for ignoring the advice of his guards to join a caravan for protection gives the adventurers a reward in the form of gold. Sometimes doing good deeds does pay.

In among all of the new friendly faces in the caravan, the group keeps a wary eye on the cultists who now seem to perhaps recognize the group. In an unspoken truce the two groups keep to themselves and don't provoke anything more than cold glances.

No Room At The Inn In Dragonspear
700 XP

The night the caravan arrives at a small town of Dragonspear, it is cold and rainy. Many of the caravan try to get rooms in an inn along the roadside. Once inside though the group finds that a rude bunch of adventurers have taken up all the rooms for themselves and are having fun watching the discomfort on the travelers being turned away.

The adventurers are trying to convince Beyd, for whom the group is hired on as guards for, that he doesn't need to pay so much for so little. They could become his guards as they are more experienced and will do it for less.

This grates on the groups tired and frayed patience. Tempers flare and words are angrily tossed back and forth. Finally words to into challenges and it is not long before swords are drawn. Fortunately, the group notices that the swords the new comers wield are nothing but show pieces and with a good swing of a real weapon the props shatter. Beyd has been shown that it takes more than talk to be seasoned guards.

The Golden Stagg
500 XP

Realizing that they will need more sustenance than just a handful of rations the group organizes a hunting party when the caravan approaches a suitable area of woods. A large group of hunters is amassed and they head out.

It is not long before they encounter a large herd of deer in a clearing and several arrows are loosed bringing down four deer. When everyone enters the clearing to collect their kills they notice a large stag standing on the opposite side of the clearing. He is large with impressive antlers and a coat that shines like gold in the sun. The hunting party is excited and each believe they can take down the stag. They run hurriedly after the stag into the woods. All except our adventurers.

The stag though, seems intelligent as it returns back to the clearing steathily losing the hunters which pursued it. The group follows it closely until they are able to approach. The stag stops and addresses them in elvish. The stag transforms into an elf and after talking to the group it seems to know of their mission. He warns them that one of them will die before they are through. In hopes of aiding them he removes his bow and places it before the group. T'an picks up the bow which he immediately senses as magical.

Unwanted Attention

Arriving at a small city of Daggerford the group notices that they have taken on a new addition to th caravan in the form of a small redheaded gone female. She introduces herself as Jamna Gleamsilver. She quickly takes to talking with Arno, the old rock gnome, who is even more tongue tied then he usually is.

The others, who are not as smitten with this new gnome as Arno is, notice that she moves from wagon to wagon pressing with questions that seem to pry, gently but persistently.

Days pass again with nothing but monotony. The days become cool as the season becomes autumn and the rains become cold. The rains continue for days. This forces the caravan to halt as people seek what shelter they can.

Fungus Humongous
500 XP

Wow!Whoever painted this was sure eating some weird mushrooms.

On the morning the rain breaks it is hot and humid as the ground is saturated with several days rain. The caravan slowly wakes only to discover the ground for a good mile around the caravan is covered in small mushrooms. As the group tries to move they find that the mushrooms when crushed scream and cry as if in horrible pain. Most of the caravan refuse to move for fear of poison or out of hesitation to kill something that feels pain.

The group studies the mushrooms as best they can but at best can only determine that the mushrooms may or may not be poisonous.

Danifae uses fiery blast after fiery blast to remove the mushrooms which results in massive amounts of spores to fly into the air around the caravan. People cover their mouths and noses as best they can. Smallfang, the dragonborn, gets down on all fours and crawls along picking mushroom after mushroom as gingerly as he can. Hours pass and the mushrooms seem to grow at an alarming pace.

The group growing impatient scares several horses causing them to run through the mushrooms pulling their carts behind them. After seeing the success of this plan the adventurers move through the caravan ushering each wagon through the field of mushrooms. The screams and shrieks growing louder and harder to bare. The strategy is successful in moving the caravan through the mushrooms but at the cost of much crying and wailing of the caravan's population.

Smallfang follows the trail of trampled mushrooms leaving his several neat piles of mushrooms behind.

Who's Your Friend

After several more days of travel and T'an and Orvustia getting closer as well as Arno and the newcomer, Jamna, the group ends the day in the early evening stopping the caravan and everyone settling in and making their evening meal.

The adventurers gather around a pot of venison stew they have made when Jamna comes over. She casually sits down and takes the bowl that Arno was just sitting down with a absent mindedly stirs the stew with her dagger. Arno is only able to stutter and get out that he'll get his own stew then. Jamna tells him no, that this is his stew but she's just busy with it for a moment.

Moments later she raises the dagger with what looks like a small bit of food at the end. It could be a bit of rice or an oatmeal lump. She wipes it off and shows them a curled bit, which may be bone but carved into a curl with several barbs. Jamna explains that had this been eaten it would have eventually unfurled inside the person's guts causing tears, internal bleeding and finally painful death. All of this never tied to the stew that they had eaten.

Jamna hands back the bowl to Arno, suggests that perhaps all their bowls have been tampered with and unhurriedly walks away.

The group puts down their bowls.

Had Jamna just saved all their lives, or was it something else. T'an, whose slight of hand is fairly good wasn't convinced that Jamna hadn't placed that either in the stew or simply on the end of the blade herself. He and Danifae vow to watch her.

That evening Jamna approaches Danifae and says that she knows that they too are following the cult, as is she. She proposes and alliance of purposes. She shares that she is of a faction that also wants to put a stop to this dragon cults doings. She is tracking treasure movement and suspects that this caravan is carrying such stolen goods. She offers to help look into one of the cultitst's wagons under cover of night along with Danifae.

As Jamna runs ahead, T'an watches her from the other side of the wagons and notices her run away unseen from Danifae and transform into the likeness of Arno. Without hesitation T'an lets an arrow fly and it hits it's target in the shoulder. In a movement to quick to follow the gnome is gone but the blood trail is not. They follow it until they are able to confront Jamna. Feeling that they cannot trust this gnome T'an marks her by slicing her ear and lets her go.

Murder Mosts Foul

Finally they are simply two days away from Waterdeep and this leg of the journey is almost at an end.

Unfortunately, it is the end of the journey for someone else. The group awakes to find a commotion around one of the cultitst wagons. It seems one of the cultists was murdered in the middle of the night. Accusations are bandied about and theories proposed. Someone says they recognize the wound as a sword wound. People look about but the cultists all look to our group. Specifically T'an.

The adventurers move in for a closer inspection and it does seem a blade has ended this persons life and all traces of footprints have been carefully swept away. Nothing else is noted by the group, except the absence of Jamna.

For the next two days T'an suffers the daggers thrown from the cultists eyes at every opportunity.

Arriving at Waterdeep the caravan disbands most disappearing into the large city. The group though follows close enough the the cultists to find themselves at the other end of the city. Here the cultists are joining another caravan to take them further north. The group will also continue on north continuing to server as guards to Beyd and his wagon of construction materials.

When the cultists realize that the group is still with them and joining the same caravan the group is met with undisguised hatred.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I know there were a few more beginnings of encounters that I had placed in the campaign that evening but I started to feel like it was getting a little long. The travel was supposed to take almost 2 months but I didn't want it feeling like two months and everyone bored out of their skulls. So I ended up dropping more than a few (ok several) of the encounters that I had planned out. On paper it looked like it would go faster.
So sorry about dropping at least the two hot Swedish women you guys picked up. They had to fall by the wayside. They were evil anyway.

Carnath Roadhouse

The convoy soon arrives at a compound along the trade road which will serve as a hostelry for the night. The convoy is able to move its goods inside the large roadhouse to protect it from the elements and the more precious valuables placed in a locked room within the warehouse.

The group is content to watch and see what the cultist do as most of the convoy moves either to the kitchen for supper or retire to their rooms.

Smallfang follows his stomach to the kitchen where most of the crews are eating. A rotund human is serving food and all the while mumbling to himself. He complains that lack of sleep is driving him mad. He hears skuttling noises and whispers in the middle of the night below his kitchens. Rats. Must be rats.

The cultists move to their rooms and the group realizes that there are no locks on any of the doors. No way to lock the cultists in.

In the stables they find the convoys wagons and T'an with the aid of Arno's tools decides to sabotage the wagons by sawing part way through their axles. This awakens the four stable boys who are easily both threatened and bribed into silence.

Then adventurers brainstorm plans while the roadhouse slowly falls quiet as night falls.