. Caves of Chaos

While perusing the Book of Wrath Unveiled, the adventurers gain a bit of knowledge about Baphomet.

Baphomet, who is also known as the Prince of Beasts, the Trampler, the Minotaur Lord, and the Horned King. Born from the churning chaos of the Abyss near the dawn of time, Baphomet is the embodiment of savagery, one of nature’s most destructive aspects, and the catalyst that looses the beast residing in us all.The Prince of Beasts is a towering horror—a perfect fusion of humanoid and monster. Baphomet has the muscled body of a burly titan. Coarse black hair covers his hide, his feet are cloven hooves, and from his back extends a bovine tail that ends in a stinking tuft of fur. The demon prince has a brutish bull head that is covered in dark fur. Lambent ochre eyes look out from under two outward curving horns engraved with blasphemous sigils. These sigils form phrases so foul, to utter them aloud would forever darken the soul of anyone who hears the filthy words.

Baphomet exults in his muscled physique. He coats his fur with blod fat culled from his victims to accentuate his build. When he dons clothing or adornments, he does so to sate his depraved vanity and augment his appearance. He might wear bracelets,
as well as rings in his long tapering ears, his nose, and in the flesh of his torso. The demon prince dons an iron crown.

A prominent force in the corruption and subversion of mortal communities is the Horned King, Baphomet, known as the Prince of Beasts.
A demon lord of the Abyss, residing on the 600th layer, he finds the greatest
following among minotaurs. His cult is widespread and influential throughout their secluded communities.
Numerous minotaurs resist the Trampler’s allure, but the cult spreads and grows as its vile cabalists spread the faith. Baphomet’s cult threatens to consume the minotaur population with widespread and pernicious demon-worship.
Baphomet sees himself as the darkest aspect of nature—as unbridled savagery. This makes him a rival to Yeenoghu. So Baphomet wages war eternal against the Beast of Butchery.

As an agent of chaos, Baphomet demands little from his followers, preferring to let their madness and brimming evil guide their pursuits. Central to their service, though, is embracing the inner beast. Those new to the cult find their inhibitions weakened until they act without thinking, giving into their darkest desires without thought of consequence. In time, his followers fall so far they begin to manifest monstrous traits, twisting and mutating into feral versions of their former selves until they bark and howl, shrieking and hooting as they enslave and slaughter.

The minotaurs have long had a strong connection to the Prince of Beasts. Baphomet’s cabalists have a great deal more freedom among these people and can often operate in the open.
Outside the minotaur society, Baphomet enjoys a strong, though hidden, following among humans, dwarves, and orcs.

The party once more awakens stiff and sore from sleeping on the cold stone floor. It takes them a bit longer to get moving this morning. They quietly break camp, and then head back into the long corridor to explore the door and area the Demonic Gnoll had come from. This side corridor is hewn from black rock and connects three different areas. Ahead, the passage opens into a chamber while along the eastern wall, one open door and one set of closed double doors can be seen. The doors are made of black wood, and each has an iron knocker carved in the shape of a Minotaur’s snarling face. The flagstones on the floor each have the symbol of a bull’s horned skull worked into them in blood red stone. The first room beyond the open door seems to be a make shift bedroom. A flimsy table of some dark wood has been dragged in here. A bottle of ink and quill rest on the table along with several pieces of parchment. A bed and chest make up the rest of this rooms contents. Inside the chest, which they open with a key found on the body of the demonic Gnoll, they find a pair of black leather gloves, a gold necklace inlaid with diamonds and rubies, a jade bracelet with carvings of birds on it, and a small leather bag with 62 gp.
They make their way to the next room, and open the set double doors. Two tall candleholders stand on either side of the shrine’s entrance, each with a black candle set in it. Near the back wall stands a tall altar. The altar is made of humanoid bones stacked to form a four-legged table. The bones are joined with black wire. A small black leather bound book rests open on the altar.

With a sudden burst of brimstone and a sound like a whip-crack, a huge hulking creature covered in fur appears before the shrine. It roars, scraping its huge incisors together, flexes its deadly looking claws, then fixes its blood-red eyes upon the group. The Barlgura slams both fists into Gendar, then roars again. The party is surprised at how far this creature can reach, and they have a hard time getting close. With a flurry of ranged attacks they are able to defeat even this formidable beast. Once that grisly task is complete, they examine the book on the gruesome table. The book is titled The Book of Wrath Unveiled. It appears to be a treatise on the cult of Baphomet. Baphomet is a demon lord who rules the 600th layer of the Abyss called the Endless Maze. He is the Prince of Beasts and the Demon Lord of Minotaurs. Baphomet hates Yeenoghu, and the two are bitter enemies. The two have been warring against each other for as long as they themselves could remember, and both have forgotten the origin of their feud.
Finding nothing further of note, the party presses on.

24th of Eleint
The group wakes up, stiff and sore from their many battles and from sleeping on the cold stone floor. They ponder the meaning of their visitor while munching rations almost as cold and hard as the floor. They decide to listen at the set of double doors to the east. Through the cracks between the doors a horrible stench assaults their noses as they listen for any clues as to what lays beyond.
Boldly they shove the doors open to reveal a long corridor. A couple of magical torches light the corridor showing two exits, one to the north, and one to the south. The corridor ends in a room and at the far end of their vision they see cage. Dark Face with his ability to see in the dark can see several huge doglike creatures snarling and growling. They immediately start howling and barking loudly. Their teeth snapping and echoing down the stone hallway.
Suddenly a door on the south wall burst open and a huge creature like a human dog hybrid rushes into the corridor, a large bow at the ready and brown hair standing up on its neck. It sees the adventurers and heads towards the hyena cage.
Dark Face lets fly an arrow that rips through the Gnoll’s ankle, essentially hobbling the foul beast.
The group rushes forward to engage the Gnoll, but then two more even meaner looking Gnolls enter the hallway.
Gandor takes a spear to his side, and Mathers uncharacteristically teleports to behind the Gnolls. Without much difficulty they kill the Gnolls and then search the area. The first room they passed seemed to be some kind of mess hall. A pile of coins and some dice still sit on the table. The room the Gnolls came from appears to be their sleeping quarters. They find a container under the bed, dug into the floor where they find more coins and large topaz.
The stench from the Hyena cage is almost overwhelming. Rotten food, and feces are mixed with the straw several inches deep. The half starved Hyenas continue to snarl and laugh-bark at the adventurers. They decide to cut up one of the Gnolls and feed it’s body to the Hyenas. Once they are satiated Gandor attempts to befriend one. The Hyena seems to accept Gandor as a friend and they let it out of the cage. The remaining Hyenas are let free into the Well room. After that house keeping is done they head south down an even longer corridor.
They stop at the first door on the West wall of this corridor and listen again. More Hyenas bark, snarl and scrape at the door. They take their Hyena back to the Gnoll’s area and then drag another Gnoll body to the door. As they fumble with the body and try to decide how to open the door safely, a door further down the corridor bursts open and four Gnoll archers run towards them. They unleash a flurry of arrows with devastating results to Gandor and Dark Face. Gandor fires a burst of cold wind down the corridor essentially freezing the Gnolls in place. The group rushes in and finishes them off without much difficulty. Just as they finish off the last Gnoll a new Gnoll enters the corridor from the room to the east. It steps between the party and Rayrond. This Gnoll is bigger than the others, he also has many bony protrusions sticking out of his spotted fur. He is wielding an enormous flail which he slams down with violent force. The party suddenly coalesces into a finely tuned fighting machine. Mathers who previously could not hit the side of an inn with a flagon of mead is suddenly a force of warlock fury. Within a couple of minutes they destroy the demonic Gnoll. Weary from their string of battles they enter the room with the Hyenas. They find four more Hyenas and Gandor is again able to lead them out to the entrance of the Well of Demons without harm.
A strange sight awaits them inside the room where this second group of Hyenas were. An enormous Dire Boar is chained to a post in the middle of the room. His body is riddled with piercing wounds, and hyena bites. It is malnourished and extremely agitated. It tugs at it’s chain trying to keep as far away from the adventurers as possible. They feed it some more delicious Gnoll, and Gandor soothes the animal. They eventually release it into the wilds of the labrynth.
Finally they decide to rest. The rest is short lived, with Dark Face once again on watch. Pendril wakes suddenly as a short sword plunges into his side. He screams in pain and awakes the rest of the party. A Tiefling in black leather is crouched over the cleric. He scans the room, and Dark Face attacks him with Fairy Fire which lights his body with a purple glow. The would be assassin suddenly pops out of existence, but Dark Face can see the outline of his invisible body in the hallway. He chases him down and kills him. A second Tiefling attacks from further down the corridor then also disappears.
The group gathers, then heals the cleric. Eye’s of Alarm are set up around the group’s make shift encampment and they make it through the rest of the night.

After surviving the ‘trap’ the adventures made it back to the Seven Pillared Hall. A quick meeting with Orontor to show him the notes they acquired from the bodies of the tieflings. They decide to find out what Maldrick Scarmaker and his Blackfang gnolls are up to in regards to the slave trade in the area. Paldemar’s note:

To Maldrick Scarmaker, Exalted Chieftan of the Blackfangs and Chosen of Yeenoghu: Paldemar offers you the corpses of these champions as a gift of ongoing friendship, that our arrangement might continue to be mutually beneficial. May you savor their blood. Your friend and ally, Paldemar

Using the attached map and their new guide and temporary companion Surina they found the entrance to The Well of Demons. A typical dungeon corridor leads into a large, square chamber. Five columns, three set near the room’s corners and two in the middle of the chamber, rise up 15 feet to the ceiling. Each column has the face of a leering, fanged minotaur carved onto it. You notice a well in the southeastern corner of the room, and two passages lead away, one to the east and the other to the south.
As they enter this room one of the minotaur faces animates and with the deep tones of a powerful minotaur says:

Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory.
Those who prove unworthy of his attention
Shall be claimed forever as his slaves.
Those who prove worthy
Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning.
Mask, bell, blade, and tome.

Shortly after Gandor notices a humanoid form skulking behind one of the pillars. As their eyes meet it immediately races across the chamber to attack. As they engage this gruesome Ghoul the stench of death and disease wafts off it.
Suddenly from the darkness of the ceiling two incredibly thin long arms reach and claw at Gandor.A small grey creature with long thin multi-articulated limbs clings to the ceiling and grabs at the adventurers. Another grey chocker grabs at Rayrond, and thick many puckered tentacles burst through the thin tiles lining the chamber floor. With Rayrond grabbed from above and below the group fights on. At one point the chocker uses Gandor’s small body to block an attack from his loyal drake.
With Rayrond close to death due to acid leaking out of the tentacles, Pandril starts dishing out major healing. Finally there is only the Phalagar left, and the entire party focuses their attacks until severed tentacles are draped over the floor.
They toss the tentacles and the bodies of the two chokers and ghoul into the well and rest.

During the first hour of sleep, the ever alert Dark Face notices a small cat-sized shape flitting around one of the pillars. It finally approaches by crawling along the floor and stopping in front of the Drow. The creature stretches his wings, and then in a voice like a dagger scratching into stone it asks what they are doing in the Well of Demon’s. It tells Dark Face that it can answer three questions if the group is friendly to Demogorgon and not Baphomet, and if he pays either 100gp or a piece of “your life force”. Dark Face asks if it is safe to camp where they are, and the Emissary answer “I found you easily enough”. Dark Face wakens Pandril (keeper of the loot) and they ask it another question. Gandor hears them talking and wakes up.
After answering a third question the tiny imp takes their gold and disappears. They now know that this place is called the Well of Demons. Does this refer to the well in the room with them, or to a more sinister well deeper in the dungeon?

After a fitful sleep in the Narthex of the Chamber of Eyes. The party first checks out the Bath Chamber. A large pool fills the southern half of this room, which at it’s deepest is 5ft deep. A statue rises from the pool, depicting a creature that is half-woman half-serpent. Gandor for some reason swims over to it and searches it, spending an uncomfortable amount of time on the statues breasts. A 9foot tall burnished bronze statue of a Minotaur stands against the western wall. They notice an odd arcane rune on its neck.
When listening at the door to this bath chamber, Gandor had noticed the sound of chains clanging against stone and metal.
The group decides to rush in to the eastern room through the double doors. They rush through, full of vim and vigor and abruptly stop as the contents of the room come into view.
Obviously the chapel is what this dungeon is named after, the Chamber of Eyes is an abandoned shrine to Torog. Carvings of eyes cover the walls, floor and ceiling of this chamber. An idol of a horrible toadlike creature dominates the area. In the center of the floor, chains are affixed to the flagstones, though no prisoners are chained there. What causes their scrotums to shrink in fear is largest black wolf they have ever seen crouched on the floor in front of them. A full 9 feet long, it immediately growls and bares it’s dagger sized teeth at the party. A hobgoblin in the back of the room is busy oiling the chains. Several other hobgoblins are scattered throughout the chamber.


The party concentrates its attacks on the wolf, Rayrond hobbles it, and then the group takes it out quickly with some very serious fire power. The stench of burning dog hair from Mathers fire attack, fills the chamber as they move on to the hobgoblins. The druid makes a stand at the bottom of the stairs to cut off any flanking maneuvers by the hobgoblins. Panril takes out one of the goblins and then is hit very hard when three archers impale him from the balcony. The group quickly takes out the Goblin Grunts, and puts their attention onto the Archers. Suddenly The Hobgoblin Chief Krand appears from a side door, raging and sputtering he heads for the stairs to take on Mathers. The battle continues slowly with some missed attempts by our heros, and some sure strikes on the part of the remaining two Hobgoblins. Finally Krand is dropped and shortly thereafter the last archer dies before he is able to kill the summoned drake.


They search the chapel to find nothing other than a key on Krand’s body. When they move onto Krand’s bedroom they find a chest containing a +2 delvers chainmail. A potion of healing, five gems, and 450gp, 500sp.

Emboldened by their victory and loot they search the rest of the complex. With some keen eye sight on Gandor’s part they find a couple of secret doors. One leads to a stash of treasure in a corridor. A +1 Lifedrinker Scimitar, a potion of healing, three gems and 72gp.

They also find another 9ft tall bronze Minotaur statue.
Mathers suddenly recalls details of it’s rune. The Bronze Warder is created as a servant or guard by spellcasters. It obeys any orders their masters give them. A bronze warder is over 9ft tall and appears to be a statue of a minotaur warrior cast from tarnished bronze. The construct’s limbs are articulated, and it carries a great axe also made of bronze. A bronze warder is created through a ritual performed on a hollow articulated statue cast from bronze. During the ritual a command amulet is created at the same time allowing the possessor of the amulet to control the warder. New masters must speak a secret word when first donning the amulet.

The adventurers also find a contract from Murkelmor Grimmerzhul. It states that Murkelmor of the Duergar bought several slave two days ago from the Bloodreaver gang.

After realizing there was nothing more to find, the party heads back to the Seven Pillared Hall. As they enter the Halfmoon Inn, Rendil Halfmoon greats them and then provides them with a large lunch. While eating Rendil remembers a letter he received that is supposed to go to the adventurers.
Gandor suspects it is a trap from the rogue mage.

Brugg

After running for their lives, the group entered the Seven Pillared Hall. It was around noon, and the place was a bustling with new activity. Temporary trading tables were set up everywhere, selling all kinds of next to useless trinkets. The group headed immediately to the Halfmoon Inn and had a short rest. Later that afternoon they decided to stock up on some much needed artillery, so the went to the Deepgem Company. Ulthand Deepgem is an old dwarf cleric of Moradin and former adventurer who runs the Company. They negotiate for a couple quivers of arrows for 2 gp each. After Mathers makes a joke about selling Panril, the topic turns to slave traders and Ulthand’s great hatred for both Duergar and slavers. He provides them with a quiver “on the house” once he hears of their heroic rescue of the three kitchen slaves from the Horned Hold. He also lets them know that the Grimmerzhul clan of Duergar have a trading post in the Seven Pillared Hall. They trade rare ores, gemstones, liquor, poison and alchemical reagents from the Underdark for goods from the surface that they can take back to their homeland to sell. He suspects the dirty Duergar have a lot to do with the slave trading especially since they seem to have set up an out post in the Horned Hold.

As the group leaves the Deepgem offices they see the freed slaves having a heated discussion with Brugg the ogre enforcer. The group hurries over to the customhouse to find that Brugg thinks they are some kind of spies and is threatening to lock them up until the Ordinator Arcanis deals with them. Rayrond cools a heated exchange between the ogre and the druid. Just as the enforcers are leading the humans away, the wizard Orontor arrives to talk with the adventurers.
He leads them into his office in the customhouse. After a long discussion about their activities in the labyrinth over the past couple of days, Orontor asks them to find out any information about his fellow Mage of Saruun; Paldemar. He also thanks them for their help with the slave trade problem that seems to be popping up and suggests they head to a place called the Chamber of Eyes which he suspects is informal headquarters of the Bloodreavers. He provides them with directions on how to find it and tells them they will be richly rewarded for coming up with information on either the slave trade or Paldemars activities.
Orontor also provides a fresh start for the slaves in terms of new clothing and a bit of spending money. They crowd around the adventures thanking them profusely and begging them to free the rest of the slaves in the Horned Hold.

Next the group heads through the dragon door, to find their way through the labyrinths of Saruun Khel. After about half a kilometer of twisting tunnels, and split passages they find their way to the narthex of the Chamber of Eyes. A large antechamber with a 25 ft ceiling, holds two fearsome-looking statues of winged demons which squat on either side of a stairway leading to a set of double doors. Inscribed upon the doors is an image of a great eye with multiple eye stalks as well as a symbol of Torog. Heaps of rubble are scattered across the floor, and to the north a balcony overlooks the room. As they are carefully searching the room, Gandor hears a couple of voices speaking in goblin “When do you think Krand is going to divvy up the loot?”. The group quietly climbs the stairs and Rayrond unlocks the door without detection. They burst through to find two very surprised goblins. During the battle one goblin get the chance to warn his allies in the next room. A Bugbear and goblin join the fray.

Unknown to the group a fourth goblin circles around back to warn a couple of Duergar Guards. After a quick fight in which the Druid reveals his new ability to summon a Guard Drake they start to look around the area. Gandor finds a set of stairs leading north. Just as he gets to the bottom of the stairs the door at the top bursts open and a Duergar Guard rush down the stairs to attack. Within seconds he is a corpse, and the group also quickly deals with the second Duergar guard who descends the stairs. The trailing goblin turns tail and runs, but a fleet footed Rayrond follows him and knocks him prone with a dagger to its Achilles tendon. The goblin crashes to the floor and Rayrond leaps over him to block his egress. He yells back to the group for help. As they arrive the door next to Rayrond slams open, and a Hobgoblin Warcaster steps out and blasts Rayrond to the floor. It doesn’t take much to kill the goblin and the Hobgoblin. At the end of the battle, they drag the bodies into a room and search the area. They find a simple brass key on one of the goblins, and a magical belt on the Bugbear’s body.

The group decides to rest, so they set up a few magical guardians and rest their minds and bodies.

After their first encounter with the Duergar and the successful retrevial of the Skull Scepter. The group took a momentary breather and tried to decide what to do next. Some of the party wanted to continue on deeper into the Horned Hold. Others wanted to immediately depart back to the Seven Pillared Hall. After much discussion the group sent their Drow comrade, Dark Face, alone to the Hall as he could easily pass the dimwitted Orc guards. So while the rest of the group rested, Dark Face made his way to the Seven Pillared Hall. He waited at Gendar’s Curios and Relics for Gendar. After several minutes Gendar made his way back from the Halfmoon Inn and met Dark Face. Dark Face told the group that Gendar seemed suspicious that he had returned so quickly with the Skull Sceptre and that he had returned without his comrades. Gendar acted quite strangely around the Drow, but paid him promptly. Dark Face then went back to his room at the Halfmoon Inn and rested until it was time to return to the Horned Hold.
The Orcs let him enter immediately, but only two were waiting in the entry hall. One Orc followed Dark Face, and tried to protect him when he noticed the empty forge and the piercing squeal from the Eye of Alarm. The rest of the party quickly rushed out of their resting place and dispatched the Orc.
After dumping the body, and hearing from Dark Face, the group decided to check out the double doors. They entered a large hallway that doglegged to the right, and ended at another set of double doors. Next they found a storeroom full of cheese, cured meats, floor, sugar and other sundries. A small bedroom led to a kitchen in which two human slaves were cooking for the Duergar. After talking with them and waiting for the third slave to come back to the kitchen, the group insisted the humans wait in the pantry. The humans told them there were two Duergar next door and two more in a room past that.
The group decided to burst through two separate doors into the dining room in order to surprise the dark dwarves. The druid froze one dwarf to the bench he was sitting at. This expansive chamber appears to be some kind of dining hall.
Three large tables are arranged on the floor, and against the far wall a fire crackles in a large fireplace. Two gray-skinned dwarves are here, finishing their meals.
Rundarr dropped his spoon, picked up his great warhammer and smashed the table, yelling in common “Ah here’s desert”. The group started a grand fight with the two Duergar. The Duergar were skilled warrors, and made it very hard to hit them. The Druid’s spells seemed very effective. It was with great shock to the group, that after becoming bloody Rundarr suddenly grew much much larger. With renewed rage he dealt horrible blows to several of the party members. The group kept up their attacks with limited success, slowly witling away until finally with a flourish of daggers Rayrond dropped the Duergar Guard and then a little bit later the evil Rundarr fell to the stone floor and shrank back to his original size, one of Rayronds daggers still buried in his flank.

22nd of Elient

The group awoke to a grey day, and after a good breakfast headed down to the Trade Road to begin their journey to Thunderspire Mountain. Amid a wilderness of pine forest and rocky hills the mountain’s pinnacle is wreathed in grey foreboding clouds. The Trade Road, an old dwarven built highway, links the human settlement of Fallcrest with the Dwarven stronghold of Hammerfast. From the Trade Road a steep cobbled path called the Vale Road turns north and then cuts into the mountain. The road rises through a valley with sparse vegetation and ends at Thunderspire’s base.


The Vale road ends at grand entrance; a 50ft stone archway hewn out of the mountainside. Towering minotaur statues stand on each side of the entrance, glowering at visitors. A steep windy tunnel called the Road of Lanterns slopes into the heart of the mountain. Brick vaulted and 30ft wide and 30 feet tall at it’s apex. Seventy-seven demon statues each over 10ft tall stand watch along the corridor’s length.
The heart of Thunderspire’s upper level is the Seven-Pillared Hall. Run by the Mages of Saruun, merchants gather and conduct business with denizens of the deep.

The ruins of the ancient minotaur city of Saruun Khel beyond the Seven-Pillared Hall are collectively called the Labyrinth. A confusing maze of countless intersections, small passages and mysterious caverns. Some passages were tunneled by miners and bear chiseled marks, others are natural paths through the underground rock. Still others were created by monsters, either as natural byproducts of their travel or carved with crude tools. Getting lost is a very probable dilemma for the unwary traveler.

When the group entered the Road of Lanterns, they noticed at one side passage light was emitting from a room. They stopped briefly and heard a rough voice speaking common “You’re ours now Halfling. We will easily get 10 gold for you.”
Another voice respond “That’s a shame, ‘cause I am worth at least 20 gold. I will buy myself if you let me go.”
They left their horses and crept down the corridor. An ajar door provide view into a room containing several Hobgoblin Soldiers, a Hobgoblin Warcaster and a brazen Halfling. After a clever battle at the doorway, the group easily dispatched the Hobgoblins.

They are stopped at the entrance to the S.P.Hall at the Customs house(No. 2 on the map). A couple of human enforcers exam them and tell them that in order to do any trade here they need to pay 10% of all monies earned. A sour face, dark robed figure, most likely one of the Mages of Saruun watches them from a distance.

While having a bite to eat and a chat with Rendil Halfmoon, a huge ugly Ogre by the name of Brugg squeezes his way into the Inn. He chats angrily with Rendil’s aunt Erra Halfmoon and then leaves with a scowl. Apparently trying to muscle some extra ‘protection’ money from the family run business.

Later they head to Gendar’s Curios and Relics (No.15 on the map) to speak with the proprietor Gendar. He is their contact whom Bairwin instructed to pick up the stones from. He claims they won’t be there for another week and offers them a job picking up an item he claims is his. “A duergar in the Horned Hold currently possesses an ancient skull scepter that his agents had acquired in the Bone Chamber. They lost it when they were ambushed by the duergar. It clearly belongs to me. If you happen to find it I will pay you handsomely for returning it to me.” (300gp)

So they take up his offer and head South East to the Road of Shadows (No. 18 on the map)

After almost a mile of careful and ponderous searching through the maze of tunnels, following the marks described by Gendar, they come to a huge rift. The tunnel falls sharply and suddenly into pitch black on the right hand side and rises 25 above their heads. They notice a couple Orcs guarding a porticullis. They cover their lantern and come up with a plan for Mathers to impersonate a duergar with the rest of the party except DarkFace as their captives. They head to the gate and Mathers bluffs the dimwitted Orcs to let them through. Once in they head through to the next set of doors, but realize that two of the Orcs are escorting them. When they get to the doors that lead to the forge they ambush the Orcs. A quick thinking Gandor locks the doors behind them, and the group quickly dispatches the vile foes. Avoiding the doors to the forge they find a deep well, so decide to hide the bodies their.

Feeling embolded from their quick fight with the Orcs, they attempt the same rouse in the forge room. This time duergar are also present. Mathers intimidates a Duergar Scout, but the Master Smith, Urwol calls their bluff by speaking in Deep Speech. As the heroes obviously do not understand the evil duergar, they attack.
Gandor blows the scout, Urwol and an Orc back with an icy cold blast and the battle begins. After a few damaging ranged attacks by Urwol the group dispatches all but one invisible scout. They search desperately for their invisible foe. Gandor gets a sense of his location and attempts to immobolize the duergar, but he slips past. The desperate dark dwarf attempts to push past the halfling Rayrond, but is rebuffed and then the group gangs up on him. A quick search of the nearby rooms reveals a couple stashes of coins and jewels as well as the skull sceptre they were sent to retrieve.

Do they push further into the Horned Hold, or escape with their booty while the going is good?

Calendar of Harptos

Month
Hammer - Deep Winter
*Annual Holiday-Midwinter
Alturiak - Claw of Winter
Ches - Claw of Sunsets
Taraskh - Claw of Storms
*Annual Holiday-Greengrass
Mirtul - The Melting
Kythorn - Time of Flowers
Flamerule - Summertide
*Annual holiday-Midsummer
Eleasis - High Sun
Eleint - The Fading
*Annual Holiday-High Harvestide
Marpenoth - Leaf Fall
Uktar - The Rotting
*Annual Holiday-Feast of the Moon
Nightal - The Drawing Down

Each month has 30 days divided into 3-Tendays

Days are broken into loose slices:
Dawn, Morning, Highsun, Afternoon, Dusk, Sunset, Evening, Midnight, Moondark, Nights End

20th of Elient.

Confidently the group decided to continue deeper into the Kobold Hall. Mathers teleported up to the mezzanine and found the burnt remains of a couple of Kobolds. Giving the all clear the rest of the group opened the double door where the Drakes had emerged from and continued cautiously into the dark. Dark Face scouted ahead and found a large cavern with 20ft ceilings and a small central room with only 10ft walls. As he was peering around an enormous boulder fell down and started rolling around the room threatening to crush them all. Dark Face had a close call, but they managed to move out of the boulders reach. They discovered a locked room in the center of the hall.

Inside a halfling prisoner told of being attacked by the kobolds and brought here unconscious. He claims to have been raised by a group of benevolent Goblins. Goblins who want to live in harmony with all others. They healed him, but could do nothing for the other occupant of the room. The started to cautiously look around for enemies. The newcomer, Gandor the 23rd, with his keen eyesight, spotted a Kobold perched on a balcony drawing a bead on the adventurers. They started to battle and more Kobolds emerged from their hiding spots. Mathers was perched on the now stationary boulder when a large flying Drake burst out of a hallway and tried to bite him in midair. The drake was quickly dispatched and crashed into the opposing wall.
Gandor and Panril had circled around and were in a dramatic battle with the Kobold Worym Priest and his Dragonshield bodyguards. After a tough battle the adventures finished off all but one of the Kobolds. Mathers interrogated him and the Kobold said that Szatahakas was in the next room, that he was the real boss, and that the Worympriest had the key to the secret door. They gathered the key and a note from the Goblin Slavers as well as the Worym Priests +1 staff of the War Mage.
Mathers deciding that no further information was forthcoming from this Kobold, so quickly killed him.

Next Gandor checked out the corridor and above the piles of Drake dung he saw a secret key hole. They used the key and discovered an inward swinging door that revealed a set of stairs descending into the darkness. Led by Darkface the adventures pushed forward into the dark. As Dark Face poked around they discovered an enormous natural cavern that was unnaturally cold. In fact a large pool of water was frozen solid in the middle of the cavern.
Suddenly a rush of air pushed out of the darkness an a large white shape leapt to the ground and tried to attack Darkface. With quick thinking Rayrond tossed a sunrod into the cavern to reveal a nasty young White Dragon trying to get it's claws into Dark Face. A great battle ensued and at the end the Dragon lay dead before them. They gathered the treasure, including the few belongings of Gandor. A quick rest and back to the road. On the way out Gandor's keen eyes spotted several pressure plates in the room with the coffins. He safely navigated his comrades to the road where they discovered their horses and the Dwarven armorer were gone.

New Adventure: 4E

So after vanquishing Kahrel and his minions the group made it back to town, dirty, smelly sore and bloody.
A great party was held the night of their return with many speeches by Lord Padraig and other local dignitaries. ALthough Darkface was shunned by the locals due to his race.
While resupplying Bairwin offered the group a job collecting a box from The Seven Pillared Hall in Thunderspire Mountain east of Winterhaven. They searched the town for two days for any sign of the sage but he was no where to be found. So the group set out after purchasing 3 horses. On the King's Road they encountered a tragic scene. A trio of humans slaughtered at the hands of a group of Kobolds. They found the sole remaining member of the traveling party cowering inside the wagon. He claimed the group of Kobolds slaughtered his companions and stole a box containing a Green Dragon hide. The adventures left their horses and walked into the woods to discover a trail leading up to an abandoned hall. Making their way down a set of stairs they found a room containing a 10ft deep trench 4 feet deep with a glowing green sludge. They made quick work of the Kobold sentries, although one .
They made their way to the next room which was empty except for two suits of armor set up in a couple of alcoves, and 4 vandalized coffins. Mathers cleverly found a dart trap when he stepped onto a trigger plate near one of the coffins. A dart shot from the visor of the closest suit of armor and hit Mathers in the back of the neck.
Next they examined a small shrine to the Dragon god Tiamut and took the 60gp offering the Kobolds had left behind.
The next room was much more interesting. Four more coffins two on either side of another sludge filled trench. 10 ft wall at the end of the room with a short railing. The adventures discovered a Kobold game called Skull Smash when they ventured into the room and a large sludge covered rock on a rope swung down and smashed into Panril. With deadly accuracy Cliff and Karl sniped the Kobolds and Panril tossed a moltov cocktail up onto the ledge finishing off a couple Kobolds. Another Kobold opened up a set of wooden double doors and let loose a pair of Drakes. The group made quick work of the Drakes and are now planning to move deeper into Kobold Keep.

"During the 2004 Olympics, we spent some time applying the D&D rules to various events. Among our findings:

Based on height and weight, U.S. gymnast Carly Patterson would be a tall female elf, and her Russian rival Svetlana Khorkina would be a slim female half-elf. The Hamm twins are as tall and as heavy as the average male half-elf. The wrestler Rulon Gardner is in the 69th percentile for half-orc height and weight.
And sprinter Maurice Green and soccer star Mia Hamm are very close to the D&D height and weight averages for humans.

The best Olympic archers are 7th-level rangers, based on their accuracy against a Fine, stationary target 230 feet away and some reasonable assumptions about feat choices.

Weightlifter Shane Hamman? Str 23, based on his snatch weight.

A 6th-level monk with a +5 movement speed feat can hit a world record for the marathon, which is 27,687 5-foot squares long." --From wizards.com By Jesse Decker and David Noonan