Valla headed back to her and Grythor's home in the mountains while Grythor stayed on to ensure that the problems were over. Grythor promised to head back as soon as any final issues were resolved, as the pair wanted to ensure that no more kobolds tried to enter the land.

After a few days rest, the party talked to Sheriff Johnson to see if there was any more work to be had. The sheriff informed the party that indeed, an ogre was causing some problems up the road.

"Hey there, kids," said Sheriff Johnson, "How can I help you?"

"We were wondering if you had any more work for us," Galitus Replied.

"Unfortunately, yes," said the sheriff, "I've got an ogre problem."

"An ogre problem," asked Rick, "How so?"

"Well, there's an ogre South of town," replied the sheriff, "He normally demands a ransom to leave the caravans alone..."

"And you want us to go put a stop to it?" interrupted Galitus.

"Well, not exactly," continued Sheriff Johnson, "See, he scares away all the other troublesome sorts around there, and I've always been stretched thin. In fact, his ransom is cheaper than paying deputies to patrol the road, so it's actually beneficial to the area for me to pay him his ransom."

"That's odd," said Rick, "A really interesting story. So what's the problem, then?"

"Well," the sheriff replied, "He seems to have renegged on the deal - he's destroyed one caravan, already. The survivors made it to town, and they say it was a pitched battle - the ogre refused to listen, he just came running into the caravan, and tore it apart. It might be a rough one - ogres are tough. You want to check it out for me?"

The party members looked at each other, nodded, and Galitus said "We'll do it. We'll go check it out for you."

"Thanks," said the sheriff, "good luck!"

After some preparation, the party headed out on a day's trek to see the ogre. As the sun began to set, the party decided to press on in the dark. As they approached the site of the destroyed caravan, they noticed a smell.

"Holy cow!" cried Rick, "what in the hells is that smell?"

"Smells like perfume," replied Galitus.

"Expensive perfume," agreed tarylia.

"What is this perfume you speak of," asked Grythor.

"Never mind that," said Rick, "it's so strong it's messing up my smeller! It's affecting my ability to track!"

The party soon came upon the remains of a caravan. The caravan had been carrying assorted exotic perfumes, and those containers had all been smashed. Rick could not smell to help him track, but the ogre tracks would not be a problem to follow. Interesting to note, however, was that none of the loot or money had been taken - bodies were strewn everywhere, and it appeared that all the valuable items had been smashed, but not taken.

The party began following the ogre's path, which went down a fairly wide, but seldom-used trail into the woods. The party split up into the woods on either side of the path, with Rick scouting far to the front.

In the dark, Rick noticed a kobold scout. Rick successfully snuck up on the creature and broke its neck. Looking around, Rick saw another of the vile creatures. Rick drew back his longbow and took a shot at the creature, missing by inches. The kobold realized what had happened, and ran away.

Rick scouted further, an found the end of the ogre's tracks as they led into a large cave in a large hill.

Rick returned to the party and informed them of all that had happened.

"There's some kobolds sneaking around out here," said Rick.

"Damn it," said Bob, "More kobolds?"

"Great," moaned Galitus, "just what we need."

"It's odd," continued Rick, "They were obviously scouts. They were very close to the ogre's cave. Normally they'd steer clear of an ogre, and it's not like the ogre's being quiet about his presence."

"Well, what's the cave entrance look like?" asked Tarilya.

"The cave is set into a hill," replied Rick, "it's fairly short at this point, but gradually turns into a small mountain behind. The entrance itself is pretty narrow, maybe ten or fifteen feet wide.

"I'm not very enthusiastic about fighting an ogre in close quarters," said Bob, "any ideas?"

The party looked at each other for a bit, until Rick took the lead.

"Tell ya what," said Rick, while drawing a map in the dirt, "let's set up an ambush. The cave opens to a small clearing at the end of this path. Tarylia, you and Grythor and Galitus hang back in the woods just outside the clearing. Grythor, you and Bob get above the cave entrance and be ready with your ranged weapons. I'll try to draw the ogre out, and we can try to subdue him out in the open."

The group moved to their positions around the cave entrance. Rick cast "light" on a pebble, and tossed it into the ogre's lair.

"leave me alone!" roared the ogre.

Why have you renegged on your deal with the sheriff," called Rick.

The ogre grumbled and began muttering to himself. After a bit of this, Rick pressed part way into the ogre's cave, and again asked the ogre why he had renegged on the deal. Again, the ogre yelled at Rick to go away, but Rick persisted and pressed further into the cave, ready to run back out and lead the ogre into the trap.

Finally, as Rick got most of the way into the cave, the ogre charged. Rick deftly avoided the ogre, and hurried back out of the cave. Unfortunately, the ogre did not follow him, but only retreated back into his cave, muttering something to the effect of "if you want my soul, you'll have to fight me for it."

During the sudden rush, Rick noticed that the Ogre appeared to be diseased, and so he went back in and tried to talk with the ogre. The ogre would have none of it, and only lashed out at Rick like a wounded animal.

Rick retreated from the cave, and explained to the rest of the party of what he had seen and heard. He felt some pity on the hapless beast, but felt that "taking him down" was the only way. The disease looked pretty bad, and was not at all familiar to Rick as something he would expect to find out in the wilderness, so he suggested that subduing the ogre might allow them to get information, if not actually heal the creature.

The party entered the cave, and the ogre attacked. It was obvious that he was sick, as he dealt little damage, and seemed to stumble often. When struck himself, his wounds seemed to spray forth an ichor that immediateely made the skin of anyone it touched itch. After the ogre had been rendered unconcious, Rick poured holy water on the ichor, and watched as it exploded into vapor. This was surely not a natural disease! Such things did not normally react so to holy water.

"What do we do now," asked Galitus, "He's obviously in no condition to talk."

"Let's bind him up, heal his wounds, and take him back to town," said Rick, "Then maybe we can get him fixed up for questioning."

This seemed like a good idea, so the party patched up the ogre's wounds, bound him up, and dragged him out of his cave. The party found a serviceable wagon amongst the caravan wreckage, put the unconcious ogre on the wagon, and hauled him back to town. Galitus' cow performed the hard work of pulling the wagon, while the rest of the party walked or rode their own horses back to town.

While travelling back to town, the party tried to decide what to do with the ogre.

"We can't question him if he's unconcious," posited Galitus.

"If we can heal him, we can question him, and maybe let him go back to his cave," replied Rick.

"But how can we heal him," asked Tarylia, "healing magic seems to do nothing, and Holy Water seems to work only on a small scale."

"Well," replied Rick, "Maybe we can use a whole font of Holy Water? Maybe we could use a trough and bless it ourselves? We could dump him in after we heal him again. What do you think of that?"

The party agreed that this seemed to be a sensible thing to do, and headed on towards Terinyo.

Once back to town, the party found a large trough, and decided that this would be an excellent way to try to heal the ogre. The clerics of the party chanted incantations over the water, and over the course of an hour or so created an entire trough of holy water. Of course, all this commotion brought out the locals to see what in the heck was going on.

Rick and Tarylia cast their remaining healing magic on the ogre. With Bob and Galitus' help, Rick dumped the ogre into the trough.

While neither intended nor good, the results were spectacular. The water began to boil as the disease made contact. The holy water entered the ogre's wounds, and began to cause eruptions all over his body. With a final agonizing yell, the ogre expired as bits of his gelatinized flesh exploded out onto the ground. Onlookers were horrified as one of the town's main horse troughs was apparently ruined by exploding pieces of infested ogre flesh. It was a sure bet that no one would want their horses to drink from this trough ever again.

"Oh my God!" Cried Tarylia, "what have we done?"

"Holee shit!" agreed Rick.

"What a mess!" exclaimed Bob.

"Uuuurrrruuurrrk!" regurgitated Galitus.

"Well, crap," stated Rick, "that sure didn't work. Damn it!"

If the party thought that the festering pustulant ogre had caused a stir before, it was nothing compared to the commotion that began after the horse trough was destroyed.

Sheriff Johnson was watching as all this happened. He called over the party and said, "You kids sure know how to pee on your toes! Git that mess the hell out of here, now, before I have a riot on my hands! Oh, and you'll need to be replacing that trough, too!"

The group realized they had burnt up a few "brownie points" with the town, and immediatley loaded the ogre, trough, and all onto the wagon. As the party headed out they noticed some youngster tagging along.

"Who are you?" asked a somewhat upset Galitus.

"My name is Alexander, and I'd like to follow along, if you don't mind. I am an apprentice wizard, and might be able to help."

"It's likely to get pretty dangerous where were headed," replied Rick, "We can't be looking out for you, too. If you can not hinder us, then we don't mind if you tag along for a while."

"That's great," replied Alexander, "I've been looking forward to leaving this podunk hole. I'll stay out of your way, and help where I can."

"What in the heck are we going to do with this mess," asked Galitus.

"Shoot, I don't know," said Bob.

"It was his idea," said Grythor, while pointing at Rick.

Everyone looked at Rick, who said: "Well, I'm not comfortable just burying it, what with all the disease that might still be alive in there. I think the only way to properly dispose of the corpse is to burn it."

The party nodded, as this seemed to make good sense.

"Sooo," continued Rick, "I was also thinking that with the ogre gone, there would be a lot of nasty critters that might want to be moving in, now that he's out of the picture."

The party memebrs again nodded in unison.

"Here's what I'm thinking," rick continued, again, "If we burn the corpse not far from his cave, then maybe that will keep away a bunch of the other nasties in the area while we're investigating this unnatural disease."

"You mean," said Grythor and Bob in unison, "That you want us to haul this heavy load up the trail and burn it all the way over there?"

"I'll bet that's fifteen miles from here," said Galitus.

"Look, I'll do all the work," said Rick, "and we're headed back there anyway, right? The only one affected by this is your cow, Galitus, and he seems to be okay with it."

The cow did the most uncowlike thing, and shrugged. That settled, the party continued on towards the ogre's cave.

By the time the party reached the edge of the woods it was getting dark and starting to rain. The party decided to start the pyre before things got too water-logged to burn, as the weather looked to only be getting worse. Alexander impressed the group with his ability to magically set the wagon ablaze.

The party pulled back from the blaze and into the woods a bit to keep from being noticable. Rick lashed up a few lean-tos to keep them dry, and the party settled down for the night. The sounds of dogs and wolves seemed more distant as the fire began to produce an acrid smoke.

About midnight, Grythor spotted a young traveller coming up the road. She seemed to be acting oddly. Alexander woke up the rest of the group, and they watched as she started to warm herself near the pyre, which was now beginning to burn down. Tarylia couldn't keep from offering the lone traveller some help. The party came to find out that she was a bit of a drunken vagabond, who'd been kicked out of the tavern in Tarinyo.

Early in the morning, just after dawn, Alexander spotted a large lumbering female ogre coming down the road from out of the woods, and heading toward the smouldering wagon. She was carrying a huge two-handed battle axe. Alexander wasted no time in rousing the rest of the party.

"Shhh..." It's not spotted us, whispered Rick, as he nocked an arrow and drew.

The ogress roared out in rage as she studied the wagon's remains. It seemed she had found her lost mate, and was none too pleased at the sight of the charred cart's contents. The ogress looked about, and began running towards the party.

Rick let the arrow loose as the rest held their breath and readied for the fight. The arrow hit home hard, but only served to enrage the beast more. Bob fired as well, and caught the raging beast's attention. The ogress rapidly closed into melee, and swung into Bob hard.

The battle was hard fought, with even Galitus' bull joining the fray. Grythor circled around while Galitus moved in to strike the beast. She was ready, though, with her amazing reach, and Galitus too suffered a sharp pounding blow that nearly knocked him senseless. Somehow the party held on, and soon began to feel the healing prayers of the clerics. The fighters struck repeatedly. Grythor landed a wicked blow to the beast from behind, but its response sent him down.

In the end, the party prevailed, but there was nothing the healers could do for poor Grythor. They knew he would want them to press on. Galitus swore, as the rain continued to fall, that he would return to Grythor's dwarven home and explain his demise to Valla. Grythor's body was laid to rest not far from the battle, with the axe of the ogress laid at his feet.

As the party approached the ogre's cave, Rick again began to scout out ahead. As he approached the ogre's cave, he began to notice that things were remiss. Rick called on a squirrel nearby, and began to commune with the little tree rat. Empathically, he was able to see a strange beast that had the squirrel terrified - the body of a bear, but the head of an owl. It seemed that the owlbear was ahead, and was scaring the local woodland animals.

Returning to the party, Rick gave them the news, "It looks like there's an owlbear ahead - I don't think we can take one of those on. We need to find a path around - I'l scout ahead again, and leave trail markers behind for you to follow. Be quiet so we don't attract its attention."

Rick again took the lead. The sun began sink towards the horizon as the party followed Rick's trail markers, and had soon caught up to him. Rick was back from the treeline, closely watching the cae entrance. He looked back at the party as they approached, and motioned them to be quiet.

"What's up," whispered Galitus.

"I saw a kobold come out of the cave. I don't know if they're moving in, or what, but I'm gonna see if I can capture one to interrogate. Wait here and keep an eye on the cave entrance." With that, Rick disappeared into the woods.

Rick skulked off in the forest, and picked up the kobold's trail. Soon, he came up behind the vile beast. It was apparent that the kobold was on watch. This appeared to be a lookout, of sorts, but the little bastard was not expecting danger from his rear. Rick tossed his fishing net over the kobold, and captured him easily. "Be quiet if you value your life," he hissed in draconic. The kobold nodded emphatically.

Rick dragged the miserable beast back to the rest of the party. "Are there more," he asked the kobold.

The kobold nodded

"What are you doing here," he hissed

"We's lives here."

"Did you just move in?"

"No - we's lives here long time"

"Where is the other entrance?"

The kobold looked confused. "This the entrance."

"How do you get past the ogre?"

"We's sneaks."

"I can't argue with that. We can't let him go," said Rick, "he'll warn any others. I'll tie him up to that tree - we can finish our interrogation in the morning."

The party decide to settle down in the ogre cave for the night - to the back, they discovered a narrow crack leading further back into the depths of the hill.

"This is a good a place as any to camp, I suppose," said Rick, "let's set up a watch."

As the party began to settle down, the party suddenly heard the kobold screaming outside. "Gets its off! Gets its off!" Rick ran out to find a stirge attached to the kobold's shoulder. The creature looked like a cross between a bat and a mosquito, and was sucking the kobold's blood! Rick quickly scewered the little airborne leech, and wrapped the kobold's wounds.

"I don't want you to die," Rick told the kobold, "I will be back again in the morning. With that, he went back to the cave.

"Stirges," he said as he returned to the party, "anyone else got some fishing net?

"Sure, replied Galitus, Bob, and Tarylia, nearly simultaneousy.

"Let's tie them together & stake them over the entrance - that should keep any more out of here."

A short while later, Galitus and Rick finished attaching the nets over the cave entrance. "That should keep them out," said Galitus.

"I sure hope so," agreed Rick.

The night passed uneventfully until the moning. At about dawn, they heard the kobold screaming again. "Aaaargh! Gets its off! Gets its off!" To the party's horror, a crow had landed on the kobold's shoulder and was pecking out it's eyes!.

"Shit," cried Rick as he fought with the netting. He soon made it to the kobold, and shooed away the crow - but he was not in time to save the creature's eyes. Rick apologized to the kobold as he untied him. "I'm very sorry," he said, "I never intended such senseless torture. I will end your misery quickly."

As Rick drew his sword, the kobold ran into the woods. Rick tried to follow, but the miserable beast's trail was not to be found. Rick continued searching for nearly an hour, but could find neither hide nor hair of the creature.

"Some ranger you are," jabbed Bob with a smile, "You can't find a wounded, blind kobold when it runs away from you?"

"Crap," replied Rick, "I don't know how he did it! You wanna try to find him?"

"No," said Bob, "let's get in there and finish these little bastards off."

The party worked their way through the narrow passageway. On the other side they found a large cavern. Bob sent dancing lights around the room, and the party saw the cavern to be roughly seventy feet across, and one-hundred ten feet wide. The center of the cavern was full of water, about eight- to ten feet deep. The party worked their way around the perimiter of the cavern, carefully mapping out the area. The floor of the cavern seemed to be littered with the bodies of stirges. Two passages were found, one to the Northeast, and one to the Southeast.

"Want to check out the water?" asked Galitus.

"Heck no!" replied Rick, "You won't catch me going in there!"

"Why not?"

"Stirges drink blood, just like some bats, right?"

"Yeees," reolied Galitus, "What's your point?"

"Bats piss nearly pure amonia - I'll bet stirges do too. I'm not going into a 8 foot pool of piss water - water that'd probably burn the hell out of our eyes."

"Good point," Galitus agreed

"Besides," said Rick, "who knows what critters are living in there, and we'd probably need to strip off our armor or drown. No thanks."

"OK, then," asked Galitus, "Which tunnel should we take?

"Well," said Rick, "Let's just work our way in - I vote for the Southeast corridor."

As the party entered into the Southeast tunnel, they heard a loud "Clank! Ow!" On guard, they hurried forward to find a ugly dwarf sitting on the ground, rubbing his head. At in his hand was a dented metal helmet.

"Who are you," asked Rick, "and what are you doing here?"

"Hello," replied the dwarf, "my name is Gyorn! I was just exploring these caves when a rock hit me in the head! Who are you, did you set that trap?

"No, how did you get in here?" replied Alexander

"I came in yesterday morning. I walked in through what looked like an old ogre's cave. I just started down this passageway a little while ago. I checked out that water earlier, and there's not much in it... Made my skin itch, though! Hey, if you don't mind, could I join your group in exploring these caves? I'm a scout for my own clan, and would be happy to lead the way and check for traps and stuff!"

"Sounds good to me!" piped up 'Cyn.

"Sure, I guess so," replied Rick, "Lead on, I suppose."

With that,the group began to work their way into the rough tunnel. The tunnel took a North, and then came to a sudden precipice. The floor suddenly dropped about ten feet. "Hold," called Gyorn to the party.

Rick, Bob, and Gyorn took turns looking over the edge. "Let's set up a quick rope latter," suggested Rick, "then we can climb down and check it out. Alexander, how 'bout you and 'Cyn wait up here and cover our rear?"

"Heeey! No problem!," replied 'Cyn.

"Sure, just call if you need help," replied Alexander.

The passage quickly widened a bit, and had a couple of natural pillars rising to the ceiling. Gyorn and Galitus went to the left of the first pillar, while Rick and Bob went to the right.

"Crap!" yelled Bob, as a giant fire beetle rushed towards him. The beetle was nearly as tall as Rick, and nearly knocked Bob to the ground. Rick let loose a stirge's bite arrow, and then quickly joined the fray.

Another giant fire beetle rushed from behind the next pillar and attacked Gyorn. Galitus' heavy mace lounded with a resounding ring on the beetle's caripace, while Gyorn worked it over with his two hand axes. Tdrilya tried to close for battle, but there was no room to pass around the pillar.

Rick and Bob furiously attacked their beetle, Rick from the top and Bob from underneath. Red ichor pooled at their feet as they hammered home blow after blow. The beetle bit down hard on Rick's leg, as Bob landed a killing blow. The two rushed around the pillar to aid Gyorn and Galitus.

Gyorn went down under an onslaught of bites from the giant bug, while the rest of the fighters hammered it into a bloody pulp. Tarilya cast healing magic and fully restored Gyorn to health. Rick cast some light healing magic on himself and began gutting the beetels.

"What are you doing?" asked Galitus.

"See how their eyes glow?" Rick replied, "They will be good sources of natural light for a couple of days."

With that, Rick cut out the eyes of the beasts, and handed them out to the various party members.

"Ick!" Said Terylia, "No thanks!"

"You sure?" asked Rick, "It's dark in these caves."

"Yeah, I think I'll just follow close," replied Tarylia, turning a shade of green in the red glow from the eyes.

"Whatever," said Rick, somewhat amused, "watch out for holes in the ground, and don't knock your noggin on a stalactite!"

The group continued on. The passage quickly opened to a large cavern. As soon as the group entered the cavern, four more giant fire beetles came scrabbling out of the rubble to attack!

"Crap!" called Bob, "More of them!"

Galitus and Tarylia ganged up on one beetle while Bob, Gyorn, and Rick each fought independently. All were fighting for their lives, as these beasts were sorely agitated! The sounds of battle rang throughout the cave.

Gyorn Fought valiantly against his foe, but was knocked nearly senseless by the ferocity of its attack. He quickly recovered and chopped off one of the bugs legs. The two opponents circled one another, and launched their attacks anew.

Bob was nearly overwhelmed by his enemy, but neatly sliced loose one of its mandibles. The creature hissed in anger and reared up on its hind four legs, batting at Bob with its forelegs. Bob stepped in deftly, and cut at the beetle's legs, whiffing badly.

Rick's opponent rushed him, knocking him back into a natural pillar. With his wind knocked out, Rick nearly fell to his knees. However, a lucky strike neatly skewered the bug in a weak spot, severing its head from its body. Rick quickly staggered to Bob's aid.

The beetle put a large dent in Galitu's armor. Both Galitus and Tarylia's blows rang home on the beetle's carapice, their maces cracking the hungry beast's shell. The beetle hissed once and reared up, exposing it's softer underbelly. Galitus leveled it with a blow to the mandibles.

Galitus and Tarylia rushed over to Gyorn's aid. They arrived just in time to distract the beetle from severing his head from his neck. Gyorn's staggered form had barely blocked the last two bites, and he was still stunned from the earlier blow. The beetle straddled Gyorn's body as the two champions of Heironius swung at the beast. In a moment of lucidity, Gyorn struck at the beast's underbelly, spilling its dying guts all over himself.

Rick and Bob cut neatly into their opponent, causing ichor to squirt high into the air. Bob dealt a killing blow just as the rest of the group arrived to their aid. After the sounds of the fierce battle, the silence was deafening. Panting, Rick looked around and asked, "Is everyone OK?"

All of the men were hurt, Gyorn badly so. The healers spent the last of their healing magic on the party, and the group began to search the area. Three more small passages could be seen leading away from the area.

"Alexander! 'Cyn!" called Rick, "Come on down!"

The whole group was reunited in short order. One of the passageways lead to a "chimney" - light could be seen coming from above, but the space was too small for all but tBob the Gnome, and much to tall for him to climb. The other two lead out to a cliff edge - a precipice nearly seventy feet down into a valley.

"Doesn't look like any kobolds have been coming in this way," commented Rick.

"These should make good weapons," said Alexander as he began picking up several rocks.

"Should we rest up a bit," asked Rick, "or should we head on out?

"I'm good," said Alexander.

"Me too," agreed 'Cyn

Rick rolled his eyes and said, "I think we're in pretty good shape, but we've got no more healing magic. We'll need to be careful."

After some more discussion, the party agreed to move on to the next set of tunnels.

The party walked back towards the large, water-filled cave. They carefully climbed back up the ledge, and had gone a short way back when "Klang!" "Thud!" Gyorn went down due to a knock in the noggin. The remainder of the party went on guard, until they saw the rock swinging from a rope over Gyorn's dazed body.

"Is that the same trap you 'discovered' earlier?" asked Rick in amazement.

"I think it is," Bob replied.

"We haven't been down this way but maybe an hour," said Galitus, "How could a new trap have been set so quickly?"

"You've got a point," agreed Rick, "Damn, Gyorn, how unlucky can you get?"

Gyorn rubbed his head and replied, "See, I told you I was good at finding traps!"

"Yeah," laughed Tarylia, "But don't you think maybe there's a better way? Ar you OK?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be all right," replied Gyorn, frowning at the new dent in his helmet.

Rick helped Gyorn back to his feet, and the party proceeded back to the large cavern. As they walked towards the Northeast corridor, Rick looked up and noticed some stirges hanging from the ceiling. The stirges were asleep, so Rick took his bow and carefully skewered them, one by one. Afterwards, he put some blood in vials and very carefully packed them into his belongings.

"What in the hells are you doing?" asked Gyorn.

"I'm collectiong parts," Rick replied, "I might want to do some magical research later."

"Yeah," chirped Bob with a wry smile, "He's kinda weird that way!"

The party moved on to the Northeast tunnel - it was only wide enough to allow one person through at a time. After about thirty-five feet, the tunnel opened up enough to mostly allow ranks of two to progress forward. Several large, natural pillars were spaced around the area, giving the appearance of an artificial structure. Towards the far end of the chamber, the area again necked down to a five foot opening - much like a doorway. As the party moved through the middle of this area, they were set upon by gricks!"

The snake-like creatures seemed to come out of nowhere - Four of them, dark green with white bellies, and a sharp beak surrounded by four tentacles. They appeared in the middle of the group and attacked ferociously. One each attacked Gyorn, Bob, Tarylia, and 'Cyn.

Two tentacles lashed out, wounding Gyorn. He retaliated with his hand-axe, chopping one of the offending tentacles. Galitus bashed mightily into Tarylia's foe, but the blow seemed to bounce off the grick's body!

Tarylia deftly avoided the grick's tentacles and landed a resounding blow into the aberration's beak. The beast let out a shriek and renewed it's attack with increased ferocity, pushing Tarylia back. Galitus smashed the grick's business end, knocking it to the ground. Tarylia gave the killing blow, turning the beast into a quivering lump.

'Cyn was aghast at the creature confronting her. She let fire with her hand crossbow, neatly skewering the beast's hide. Alexander let loose a magic missile - with a loud "zap!" a flash of smoke billowed out of the creatures mouth. 'Cyn dodged three of the beast's tentacles, but was soundly slapped by the fourth. That tentacle was removed in angry retribution by 'Cyn's dagger, as she tumbled out of the creature's reach. Another magic missile from Alexander was all that was needed to finish the creature off.

Bob dodged his foe's tentacles as he swung wildly with his sword. Rick jumped to his aid, only to be smacked himself by one of the flailing tentacles. Bob dodged another attack and planted his sword into the grick's mouth.

Gyorn had his hands full, his opponent was wearing him down. Already he had two more dents in his helm, and was beginning to get worried. Galitus hurried to Gyorn's aid, and struck a mighty blow, cleaving the grick in twain. Galitus then laid hands on Gyorn, healing many of his wounds.

Bob was smacked hard by one of his opponents' tentacles, but he evened the score by chipping the aberration's beak. Rick stabbed his sword towards the aberration's mouth, but slipped on loose gravel and fell. Bob landed the killing blow, exposing the creature's brain to the air.

Panting with excitement, the party gathered together. "I'm out of healing," Said Rick.

"Me too," agreed Tarylia and Galitus in unison.

"Looks to me like we're all scraped up a bit," commented Rick, Should we head back?"

"I'm good for a bit longer," replied Bob.

"Me too," said Gyorn, "I think we should head a bit further in."

"I'm in," chirped 'Cyn.

"Me too," agreed Alexander.

"OK, then," said Rick, " let's press on a bit, then.

With that, the party reshouldered their packs and resumed their marching order. Shortly, the passageway narrowed back to a five foot wide narrows, and the ceiling rapidly began to slope down. The passage suddenly widened out to the East into a roughly oval room, about thirty-five feet wide by about twenty feet deep. The ceiling continued its rapid descent until it was only two feet above the floor, forcing everyone to stoop down to see into the room. The light of Alexander's torch played across the smooth floor of the room.

"What's that?" asked Rick, peering into the shadows playing on the far Eastern wall.

"Dunno," replied Bob, "Let's find out!" With that, Bob cast a dancing lights out into the room until it hovered over the object. Wedged into the floor was an iron-bound chest.

"I don't like it," said Rick, matter-of-factly, "It stinks of a trap."

"So, what're we gonna do, then," asked Galitus.

"'Cyn," asked Rick, "You up for some fun?"

"uuuhhhh..." muttered 'Cyn, "what do you have in mind?"

"We tie ropes around you and me," started Rick, "We give the ends to the big guys back here, and you and I crawl forward to check out the chest. I'll guard you from anything that jumps out of us, and if things go awry, then they can haul us back to here, where we can stand and fight."

'Cyn looked at Rick somewhat dubiously.

"Well," asked Rick, "Whaddaya think?"

'Cyn mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" asked Rick.

"I've heard worse ideas," said 'Cyn, "but they didn't usually involve me... Ok, let's do it!

"You guys understand?" asked Rick, "if you hear us holler, start pulling on the ropes."

"Got it," replied Galitus and Gyorn in unison.

With that, Rick securely fastened ropes to himself and 'Cyn. They got down on their hands and knees and began a belly-crawl back into the low cave. They soon approached the chest - it was sunk down into a depression in the floor, and bolted into place.

"Well," said Rick, "that's gonna be tough... Is it trapped?"

After a thorough check, 'Cyn replied "no, I don't think so."

"Is it locked?"

"Not anymore," 'Cyn replied as she finished her job.

"OK, head on back to the party, and send in Bob - we'll see if we can figure a way to lift this out of here before we open it up."

'Cyn scurried off, and in a short time Bob crawled up to take her place. "What's up," he asked.

"Let's see if we can move this chest - Might make it easier later"

After about fifteen minutes of messing with the bolts, both of their hands were sore. The bolts just wouldn't budge.

"OK," said Rick, "'Cyn doesn't think it's trapped, but how 'bout you get behind me, just in case?"

Bob moved behind Rick, and Rick opened the chest. Suddenly, four humanoid dolls leaped from the chest and began attacking Rick with tiny daggers! Rick scooted backwards in surprise as they cut at his hands and face!

"Ghaaa!" yelled Rick, in surprise, "What the!"

"Shit!" agreed Bob, as he moved to help with Rick's plight.

Rick tried to use his longsword to defend himself, but found it useless in such close quarters. Even Bob had trouble with his short sword, as the automatons split to attack him as well. Rick suffered several pinprick-like wounds to his hands and face, as he managed to brush one of the little dolls away. Bob too suffered the indignity of several small scratches as they both scuttled backwards, away from the chest.

"Help!" cried Rick, "pull us out!"

Suddenly, the ropes tied around Rick and Bob went taut as Galitus and Gyorn began hauling the two beleaguered fighters back. Rick's chin bounced off the floor as he was suddenly hauled backwards about ten feet. Bob managed to avoid that particular embarrassment, but still fell to the ground as his body suddenly lurched backwards.

As Bob and Rick somewhat ignominiously receded into the distance, the little dolls lost interest hurried back to the chest. The dolls hopped in, and pulled the lid shut behind them. As a last, parting shot, one of the dolls also made a rude gesture at the party.

"I hope you guys don't play with dolls often," chirped 'Cyn.

"Funny," replied Rick, "Besides they're action figures."

"Fire would take care of them, I'll bet," said Alexander.

"Yeah, but fire would also destroy whatever's in the chest." Rick replied. "Who wants to go in there, open up the chest, get beat up on by some dolls, and then maybe get burnt in a fire? Any volunteers?"

Nobody said anything for a bit.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Rick, "Let's get out of here."

As the party worked their way back through the tunnels, they began to talk.

"Those kobolds didn't come from there," said Rick.

"Unless that chest is really a doorway of sorts," said Alexander.

"Naah, I don't think so," replied Rick, "not a lot of signs of their activity here."

"Well, where are they coming from, then?" asked Galitus.

"Let's search the big cavern again," said Bob, "maybe we'll find something there."

The party searched through the large cavern one more time, and found nothing until Gyorn piped up. "Look at this," he said - pointing to the floor. The party gathered around and looked - there, on the floor was a piece of rope.

"I can't see anything up there," said Rick, looking at the ceiling, "it's too dark."

Alexander cast a dancing lights spell and sent it up to the ceiling. A small hole could be seen - large enough that a person could enter. Water dripped down through the hole, puddling at their feet. As Alexander steered the lights into the hole, a crossbow bolt came flying out! In his surprise, Alexander lost control of his spell and the party was again swallowed in the inky darkness.

"Well, I guess that answers that," muttered Rick. "We're in no shape to continue right now - How 'bout we head back to town and resupply before we head in?"

Everyone seemed to think this was a good idea. The party trudged back out to daylight and began the trip back to Terinyo. Alexander and Rick began discussing how to get up into the hole.

"I'm thinking we make a rope elevator," said Rick.

"How do you mean," asked Galitus with interest.

"We tie a couplle of lengths of rope through a grappeling hook, not to it like you'd normally do. Tie some knots in the rope. First person up hangs on, while the rest haul him up - like a pulley. Makes it easier for the guy going up to defend himself while the little bastards might be trying to shoot at him."

After some more discussion, the party decided this was a sensible way to get up into the hole and continued on to town. They travelled well into the night, and returned to The Copper Dragon about midnight. They all got rooms and slept well until midday. Everyone met up in the Inn for a good lunch before they split up to reprovision. The group met back up that afternoon and decided to stay the night and head out the next morning.

The party set out from Terynio towards the ogre's cave. After a restful day's travel, the saw a small being running towards them down the path. "Hold!" called Rick, "What's your hurry?"

Panting, a tattered, breathless Gnome stopped in front of Bob and Rick. "I am Dimble Glittergold," the gnome replied, "and I need help!"

"What seems to be the problem?" asked Bob.

"I've just escaped from a kobold prison!" said Dimble, "There was another in there with me, but I managed to escape!"

"Where was this prison?" asked Rick.

"Up the road a bit," said Dimble, "in a cave. I escaped the cage, crossed a river, and came down through a hole into a large cave. From there, I ran out to daylight, and have been following this road since!"

"Here," said Bob, pulling some spare clothes from his pack, "wear these."

"Thank you," replied Dimble, "Where are you headed?"

"We are coming from Terinyo," replied Rick, "and headed, it sounds, to the cave from which you just came." Rick proceeded to update Dimble on the group's recent history, up to now. "We could use a guide in the caverns, if you're willing to come along with us."

"I don't remember much," replied Dimble, "as I was just doing my best to escape, but I would be glad to come along and get some revenge. I can be of some help to you, as I am a Cleric-Bard."

With Dimble as the their group's newest member, the party travelled the rest of the way to the Ogre's cave. As Gyorn led them back into the large central cave, he came up short. "Who are you?" he asked the large, dark-skinned, half-orc that was standing in front of him in the darkness.

"My name is Ko'Nan," the half-orc replied. "Who you?"

"We are looking for some kobolds," replied Rick, "what are you doing here?"

"Don't like kobolds," replied Ko'Nan, "wants to krunch them!"

The party looked at Ko'Nan in an untrusting way. After some thought, Rick said "We're not sure we trust you, but as long as you help us and don't hinder, we will allow you to come along with us. If you like.

"Me like!" replied Ko'Nan, "Krush squishy kobolds!"

The party ventured back into the cave, under the overhead opening. Bob, Rick, and Alexander tied up a few ropes through the eyes of the grapnelling hooks. Dimble sent a dancing lights up to the opening, while Rick attempted to throw up the hook. On the second try, Rick got the hook up and solidly wedged. Bob dropped his pack and stood on a knot, ready to be hoisted fifty feet to the ceiling.

Kon'Nan and Galitus helped Rick pull on the opposite side of the rope, pulling Bob upwards. As Bob passed the ten foot mark, they nearly dropped him as several crossbow bolts flew past, two sticking into Ko'Nan's hide! Looking up, they could see three kobolds looking over the lip and cursing at them. 'Cyn let fly with a crossbow as Alexander unleashed a pair of magic missiles. A single kobold took the brunt of their attacks - his body fell through the opening and landed at the floor near there feet.

"Kobold go splat!" laughed Ko'Nan, as the fighters continued to hoist Bob towards the ceiling.

Bob made it to the opening nearly unscathed, despite the shower of bolts. He found a steeply sloping path - carved from the living rock by centuries of water. The way was slick, but he found himself some solid footing, and worked his way up the hall towards the kobolds he could see coming towards him.

As Bob scurried into the hole, Rick took position on the rope to come up behind. Ko'Nan, Galitus, and Alexander began heaving him upward. Dimble took to song, raising the party's spirits as Bob met with the kobolds in battle.

Thanks to Dimble's heartening bard song, Bob the Gnome valiantly hewed his way through several of the damned, pesky kobolds. These kobolds were seemingly "beefier" (koboldier?) than normal, taking several hits before going down. They had fired their last volley of bolts, and rushed forward with their javelins at the ready. With five killed, Bob's skills at intimidation (ever greater, as he was covered with kobold blood) were used to great effect - the scream of "I'm gonna eat your spleen!" sent many of the vile creatures scurrying. About the same time, Rick made it up the "elevator."

Rick healed Bob, and together the two finished the last remaining kobolds. The two then helped the rest of the party up into the tunnel. The tunnel was not tall, ideal for kobolds, gnomes and dwarves. The tall members of the party had to walk stooped, occasionally knocking noggins on the ceiling. A quick search found that each of the kobolds was wearing a strange holy symbol, the likes of which none of them had ever seen. It looked similar to a hand with only three elongated fingers, and was maed of gold.

Mostly healed, but with little or no reserve healing capacity (or other spells, for that matter), the party momentarily rested. After some discussion, they decided that this was a very defensible position, and decided to rest up and recharge for the next eight or so hours.

The party continued forward until the passage opened up. A large cave had formed, with a shallow river running through the middle of it from West to East. "Is this the river you crossed?" asked Rick of Dimble.

"Yes, I think it is," Dimble replied.

"Do you remember what's beyond the river?" asked Bob.

"No, not exactly," replied Dimble, "but the place I was being held isn't too far from here, I don't think."

As the party crossed the water, 'Cyn noticed something below - there was a skeleton lodged into the rocks. In his hands (and ribs) was something shiny. "Hey!" she called to the rest of the group, "there's something shiny down there!"

The party held up and peered into the water. "Looks like a skeleton," said Bob, "Hey! Quit leaning over, Rick, I don't want to swim in here!"

"I can't see," sighed Rick, rolling his eyes up at Bob.

"He looks like he has a box in his hands," said Dimble.

"Maybe we can retrieve it," agreed Alexander.

"I dunno," said Tarylia, "this water is pretty swift."

"If you tie a rope to me," said Gyorn, "I can try to retrieve it."

The party moved on up to the opposite shore and Rick tied a stout rope to Gyorn. He took off his gear and dove into the water - this was probably the first bath he'd had in years. He tried to swim out to the skeleton, but the current rapidly carried him past and Ko'Nan hauled him back. After three tries, they finally got it right, and Gyorn made it back to shore with a small iron chest in his hands.

"Got it!" Gyorn exclaimed, sputtering.

Gyorn sat down with the chest and opened it. Inside were two-hundred gold pieces and a small, red gem worth at least that amount. "Score!" cried Gyorn, passing out wqual shares to the party. He kept the gem for himself.

The party moved up away from the swiftly moving water. From above, two giant rock centipedes suddenly dropped from the ceiling! Gyorn was bitten and fell immediately to the beast's poison. The second centipede bit Rick squarely on his shield arm. Rick found he suddenly had the taste of cooked asparagus lingering in his mouth as he jumped forward into battle.

The remaining fighters jumped into the fray while Alexander fired off a pair of magic missiles into one of the dangerous beasts. Rick neatly skewered one of the giant beasts as he was once again bitten in his shield arm. This time, he was sure he tasted chocolate cake. The beast also managed to knock Ko'Nan back several feet, knocking the wind from him.

Galitus hammered his beast with his mace while Teylia healed Rick. Ko'Nan cut one of the centipedes' legs loose, while Bob deftly stabbed it in the shins. Rick's centipede was thrown back by the ferocity of the blows dealt by Rick, Galitus, and Terylia. It expired with a hiss while its mate pressed forward against Bob and Dimble.

Another magic missile assailed the centipede's carapace, while 'Cyn's crossbow sang a deadly tune. Bob stabbed again at the creature's lower regions, while Ko'Nan dealt the killing blow. The giant vermin fell like a ton of bricks, barely missing Dimble in the process. The party's healers did what they could, but no one was able to cure poison. Gyorn the Dwarf was bluish and getting cold. The party did what they could to wrap him up and keep him warm. They decided to rest a while and pray for Gyorn's health.

While Gyorn was getting bundled, Rick and Alexander went to work on the centipedes. Rick cut open their heads and filled several vials with their venom. Alexander found their scent glands and spread their scent all over the area, ensuring no other predators would come this way. With their work done, they went back to help with Gyorn.

All the party's effort was for naught, as Gyorn expired during the night. With one last, shuddering breath, his face went from haggard to peaceful. Gyorn's spirit had apparently found its way home. He had died doing what he enjoyed - exploring caves. After some discussion, it was decided to take his equipment and drop him into the river - a burial that would have his bones become one with those of the mountain could not be more fitting for a dwarf. His prized weapons and armor would stay with him, so he could use them to defeat his enemies in the netherworld.

After finisheing their sullen task, the party continued onward into the dark cavern.

Ahead were two tunnels that headed roughly North. "From which way did you come?" asked Rick.

"From the left, I believe," answered Dimble.

"All right, then," said Rick, "to the left we go."

The party had travelled no more than ten feet into the passage when a net trap sprung, barely missing Rick and Bob. Tied to the net was a kitchen pot, that clattered to the ground with an awful racket. "Well, if they didn't already know we were here," mumbled Rick. The group traveled onwards.

The passage soon opened up to a small, round chamber that was about thirty feet across. Inside were several kobolds. As the party came to the opening, two ran to a crude gate at the rear of the cavern, and began opening it. Two others fired crossbows, striking Ko'Nan with one bolt. Five more pressed the attack on the party.

The front-line fighters charged into battle, breaking up the ranks of kobold footmen. Alexander dropped one of the crossbowmen with a magic missile, while 'Cyn's crossbow began singing a song of death, severely wounding one of the gatekeepers. Amidst the chaos, the two kobold gatekeepers opened a gate, allowing three dire weasels (almost as tall as Rick) to burst forth, attacking Rick, Ko'Nan, and Galitus!

Rick stopped short, and began speaking with the nearest weasels empathically - he convinced it to run away. Ko'Nan's weasel was not so lucky, as it's spine was crushed by a mighty blow from Ko'Nan's sword. Galitus managed to push his weasel momentarily away while also blocking the attack of an angry kobold.

Alexander cast an acid splash into the face of 'Cyn's target, melting it's face into a gruesome visage of death. 'Cyn used the last of her bolts on the remaining gatekeeper, and then began hurling loose rocks found on the rough stone floor.

Tarylia pounded her kobold assailant, sending him reeling backwards. Galitus stunned the last remaining weasel with a mighty blow from his mace. Bob pressed his attack against his opponent, but suffered a cut on the ribs from the kobold's spear. Rick turned and met battle head on, with a resounding blow that nearly clove his kobold in half.

The kobolds rallied and pressed their attack, and pressed forward, severely wounding Ko'Nan and Bob. The party's front-line fighters pushed back, dropping three more of the vile creatures, while Alexander and 'Cyn successfully killed two more, yet, with thrown stones. Tarylia scored a telling hit on one of the vile creatures, and then turned to provide healing to those that needed it the most.

The remaining kobolds now feared for their lives, and began fighting like crazed maniacs. Rick and Bob each received several nasty wounds, while Ko'Nan was nearly brought to his knees. Galitus fought onward while Dimble pressed in and began hewing at the vile creatures. Soon, the last kobold was killed, and the party stood gasping for air.

"Kobolds dead," Ko'Nan began, "Ko'Nan hurt."

"You and me both, bub" replied Bob.

The healers used what magic they had available to heal the party's wounds. Soon all magic was spent, but not all wounds were healed.

Rick and Bob finished up searching the kobold corpses, finding several crossbow bolts for 'Cyn, Alex, and Dimble. They also found more of the mysterious holy symbols. Looking around, Rick asked Dimble, "Is this where you were being held?"

"Yes," Dimble replied, pointing towards the gate, "Back there."

Rick and Bob worked their way through the gate and into the darkness. In the low light, they could see that there was another cave beyond the gate - it stank of weasel feces and rotting trash. Towards the back, they found another small gate. Looking in, they could see the form of a hapless half-elf, half starved and leaning against a pillar.

"Hello?" called Rick, "Are you alive?"

"Hello?" replied Quinles, surprised at being rescued, "Who are you?"

"I'm Rick. This is Bob," replied Rick, "There're more of us back there - also a Gnome named Dimble - he told us you were back here."

"He made it out?" cried Quinles in surprise, "Amazing! The gods must be looking over him! My name is Quinles - what are you doing here?"

"We are investigating some strange goings-on," replied Rick, "mostly, though, we've been killing kobolds. If you like, we can give you directions out of here, or you can join us if you like."

"I am at your service," exclaimed Quinles, "Especially if it means I can help you kill more of these vile creatures!"

"Glad to have you aboard," replied Rick, "Come on out and we'll get you something to eat."

With that, Quinles staggered out and met the rest of the group. "Fortunately I am a cleric, so I have been able to keep myself somewhat healthy despite conditions. I can help you with such things if you need it. I am also have some knowledge of traps and the like - the area is full of them."

"Yes," replied Galitus, "Our last trap finder died of the bite of a giant centipede. Your gifts are welcome.

The party talked for a bit about the best course of action. Quinles, especially, needed some restful sleep and food, so it was decided to stay in this chamber and rest up to regain magical abilities.

The next morning, as the party was beginning to assess their situation, a cleric of Heironius walked in from the South. "Galitus? he asked, "Terylia?"

Surprised, the party lept to their feet. "Yes?" andswered Galitus, recognizing the cleric as one of the elders of his order.

"You are being called back to serve in anohter place," answered the cleric, "You and Terylia need to come with me, now."

"But what of my friends?" asked Galitus.

"Heironius calls," said the cleric, "you must now choose between your god and your friends."

Galitus and Terylia looked crestfallen. "Of course I choose my god," said Galitus, "but I care for my friends nonetheless. I don't consider myself to be of great import, but neither do I wish to leave them lacking in our quest."

"We know of your quest, Galitus," The cleric replied, "and we believe your friends can manage without you. This quest is no longer yours. I will fully heal all your friends, but then we must away."

"Thank you," said Galitus, bowing deeply to the cleric, "your grace is more than we could have asked for.

With that, the cleric went around and fully healed the entire party. If only Gyorn had not been consigned to the heart of the mountain, then perhaps he could also have been healed. When the cleric's business was done, and heartfelt goodbyes said, the cleric opened a large, shimmering portal. Galitus, Tarylia, and the cleric stepped through. The portal closed behind them, and the remainder of the party was alone.

The party sadly moved back down towards the river to take the other path - to the Northwest. The passage was steep, making travel difficult. As the part came to the top, they noticed a flickering light ahead, as if from a fire. The group walked as quietly as they could, and slowly spread out as the passaged opened into a long, narrow cavern. As they edged forward, they could see five kobolds huddled around a large fire pit. Ko'Nan skuffed his foot on a stone, making a loud noise. Suddenly, the room went dark as a kobold thorugh a large mat over the fire pit.

The party moved into battle, and three kobolds grabbed up Bob and pushed him towards the fire pit. Ko'Nan jumped to his aid, running after, but was not able to catch up with the small group. One kobold each closed with Dimble, Rick, and Quinles. Dimble jumped back and cast a dancing lights to help illuminate the area.

Now able to see, Alexander unleashed a magic missile into an unsuspecting kobold, killing it instantly. 'Cyn began firing her crossbow, hurting another kobold in the background. Rick hewed mightily into his opponent, cutting him in twain. Ko'Nan swung wildly, killing a kobold instantly. Bob struggled mightily, but to no avail, and was thrown down into the fire pit.

Two bolts stuck into Rick, causing him to yelp and look for a new target. The three kobolds that had abducted Bob turned and rushed back into battle while Ko'Nan kept moving towards the fire pit. As Ko'Nan reached in to help Bob, he too fell into the now blazing fire, sending sparks and flames towards the roof.

Rick paused and cast a create water over the pit - a couple of gallons of water suddenly appeared in mid-air and doused part of the flames, cooling Bob and Ko'Nan. Ko'Nan managed to climb out of the pit, but Bob was left in the hot ashes and smoke as he also tried to scramble out. Alexander unleashed an acid splash into the face of one of the crossbowmen, blinding it just as it sent a bolt into Quinles' leg. 'Cyn's last bolt struck home, finishing the job. Dimble danced the dance of death with one of the footmen, and found his mark against his enemy's ribs.

The three kobolds ganged up on Rick, and began to deftly administer blows. Rick was quick, however, and managed to dodge most of them. Quinles finished off his adversary and moved to help Rick. Alexander threw some more rocks, deftly beaning one of the kobolds and making it stagger.

Bob finally pulled himself out of the pit as Ko'Nan crushed one of RIck's opponents. Quinles and Rick finished off their opponents nearly simultaneously, and began looking around in an adreneline-induced fury. All the kobolds were dead, and the party was not badly hurt. The healers performed some healing magic, bringing the party back to full health. After some searching, the party found several more shortspears, a crossbow for Alexander and Dimble, and many bolts to share. Also were found more of the accursed holy symbols.

"It would seem," posited Rick, "that we have a cult of sorts... I don't recognize this symbol, though. Dimble?"

"Off-hand," replied Dimble, "I don't recognize it, either."

"Well," said Rick, "I have to wonder if it's involved with what brought us here in the first place - that crazy ogre.

"We'll find out eventually, I suppose," said Bob, "but let's just get rid of these damned, nasty kobolds. Do you notice that they seem tougher than normal? And that they have some red scales, too? Very odd."

"Yeah," replied Rick, "I noticed that, too - I didn't say anything, though, as I thought it might just be one or two. It seems, though, that most of them are quite a bit tougher. I guess we've got our work cut out for us."

"I'm low on healing," stated Dimble, "I think this might be a good time to rest and recharge for a bit."

"Yes," agreed Rick, "we seem to be using up our healing magic awfully fast. Unfortunately, We are also running low on rations. I have maybe five days' worth left. I imagine you're all in the same boat."

"Well," replied Alexander, "We know it's about a day back to town, and we can do that hungry - let's explore a few more days and then head back out if we need to."

The party agreed that this seemed sensible, and decided to bed down for a few hours to regain healing and combat magics.

After resting, the party moved on through the chamber and into a narrow tunnel. The tunnel soon came to a four-way intersection, where a large stalgmigte had been carved into an obelisk. Scratched into the obelisk were a representation of the many holy symbols the party had found and, in crude draconic, the words "This is the domain of Slazzik Balefire, Chief Peon of Tsathzar Rho."

"Well," chirped Rick, "I guess we know who our wannabe god is, now."

"And," continued Bob, "who his peon is, too!"

"Hang on," said Rick, as he began to deface the obelisk.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Alexander.

"It now says," said Rick, smiling, "Anyone that would use a back-scratcher as a holy symbol is a complete and utter moron."

"Oh," exclaimed 'Cyn, "you didn't!"

Alex peered at Rick's scratchings. "Yes he did," laughed Alexander.

"Nothing like getting a god pissed off at you," said 'Cyn.

"If he likes kobolds," replied Rick, "then he's no friend of mine, anyway."

With that, Rick walked up the tunnel to his left. Laughing quietly, the other party members followed. Soon, the passage opened up into a large cavern, with over a dozen pallets of old hides scattered about. In the southern section of the room was an impromptu armory. A dozen javelins, three crude short swords, a suit of scalemail armor, and two large wooden shields were kept in neat piles. The armor and weapons are rusted and dull, but all were in serviceable condition.

"Whoo!" exclaimed Bob, "I could use some better armor!" He went over to the scale mail, but it had been built for kobold bodies, and he could not make it work for him. "Who, in their right mind, would make nice armor custom-fit to a kobold? I mean, what's the likelihood that a kobold could have made this?"

"I dunno," said Alexander, "But I'm sick of sleeping on stone floors. If I'm not getting a good night's sleep, then neither are these little bastards!" With that, he began to urinate on one of the pallets.

Rick's eyes got momentarily big. Then he shrugged and urinated in another kobold's bed.

After the party thoroughly defiled the kobold barrack, they left the way from which they came. Coming back to the obelisk, they turned left again, towards the Northeast. The passage went some way and then turned towards the East. Soon, the passage opened up into a long, narrow cavern with natural pillars extending floor-to-ceiling. The party carefully moved in to explore the cavern, checking for any signs of kobolds.

As they passed the first pillar, two large creatures attacked! Each creature consisted of a ball-shaped body with six legs. The body was mostly mouth, with glistening-white, and very sharp teeth. The creatures nearly rolled on their six legs - it stood on two at any given time, with the other four pointing out away from it's body like a compass. The Abyssal Maw stopped right in front of Ko'Nan and tried to bite him with it's monstrous mouth. The second creature pulled up just in front of an astonished Rick, and bit down on his leg, inflicting serious injury!

Wincing in pain, Rick slashed at the beast, his magic sword showering the area with sparks as he cut into one of the beast's eyes. Bob rushed to Rick's aid and was astonished that his blows seemed to cause no damage to the beast. Ko'Nan hewed mightily at his attacker, but he too saw that his blows did little harm! Dimble stabbed at the beast with his javelin, only to have the beast bite it in half! Alexander unleashed a magic missile into Rick's beast, sending it reeling.

The Abyssal Maws were undeterred, as they pressed their attack. Rick hopped to the side, and delivered a telling blow, felling the creature where it stood. Alexander cast an acid splash into the eyes of the remaining demon, causing it to loose sight of Ko'Nan. The maw snapped at Bob, who deftly avoided its teeth.

Rick stepped up to this last demon, and hewed into the closest leg. The leg was cut completely off, enraging the beast. Dimble came up behind Rick and cast a cure light wounds on him, repairing some of the previous damage to his leg. The maw snapped again at Ko'Nan, taking a hunk from his leg. Ko'Nan bellowed in rage, knocking the maw back into Rick's swinging sword, which penetrated deep into the beast's body. The corpse fell to the ground and deflated.

"Those," said Dimble, "are creatures from the abyss. I believe that since they are extra-planar, they should have gone back to that plane. But they did not, so there is something very odd going on, here."

"Be that as it may," said Rick, "did you see how sharp their teeth are? I think I'm going to take some of these with me - they're sure to be of good use, perhaps in making a very sharp magical sword."

Ko'Nan looked at Rick with disgust. "Majik? Me not trust the stuff!"

The party searched the chambers and found nothing of interest, and so decided to rest up and heal wounds. Food was running low, so talk turned to heading back to terinyo.

"How much food do you have left?" asked Alexander, "I'm down to about a day's worth."

"I still have about three," replied Rick.

"Me too," said Dimble and Bob.

"Let's press on a bit more, and then we can turn back if necessary," said Rick. "We can head back out soon enough, I'm sure. Besides, these kobolds are eating something, so there must be something edible in here - otherwise we'd have seen more signs of their marauding outside."

"That makes sense," said Alexander, "OK, another day or two, then."

After resting up, the party struck out, back to the obelisk. Since "left is always right," they took the Eastern passage. It went a ways and then began to curve towards the South. It soon opened up into a large landing. Ahead was the river they had crossed earlier. A well-worn path continued down to the river and ended at a small, wooden dock. To either side of the path were hundreds of mushrooms - some small, some big, some very big. The largest of the mushrooms stood nearly five feet tall.

"Holy cow!" exclaimed Rick, "We're in heaven!"

"How so?" asked Bob, looking at Rick as though he was touched in the head.

"These mushrooms!" replied Rick, "Some of them are delicacies! They're yummy. Of course, some of the others are poison, but that's not a big deal. I'll cut those big ones over there up into steaks and we'll be hooked for food. They each taste a little different - this will beat the hells out of these trail rations we've been eating!" With that, Rick began to dissect one of the large mushrooms. "Come here, you guys, start loading up!" Rick handed out about twenty steaks to each party member. "You can eat them raw, but they taste much better cooked - I'll show you how tonight." Pointing to some others, Rick said "Take some of these, too, they're nice for snacking. Stay away from those, they're poisonous." While the rest of the party went about picking mushrooms and filling their packs, Rick went to work chopping and grinding some of the poinsonous mushrooms.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Alexander.

"These are a nasty ingestion poison," replied Rick, "I'm crushing up a few of these in case we might need it, later. When we're done gathering food, I'll spread a bunch on the rest, so it'll help finish off any kobolds we've missed - this must be one of their major food sources."

After they finished collecting enough mushrooms to feed them for a couple weeks, the party gathered about the dock. Peering doubtfully at the river, Bob said, "There's no boat."

"Yeah," replied Rick, "but this has been used alot..."

"That water is awfully swift," noted Alexander.

"Well," replied Bob, "It can't be one way - they didn't get into these caves from the outside."

"There was one more passage we didn't check out," said Rick, "Let's go do that before we consider going down this river."

"I'm all for that," agreed 'Cyn.

"Me too," said Dimble.

With that, the group headed back towards the obelisk. The last remaining passage made it's way southward up a very steep hill. Ahead, the party could see flickering lights. As they neared the lighted opening, two boulders suddenly came rolling down the hill! The group managed to jump to the sides of the passage, and avoid being knocked back down the hill. Ko'Nan and Rick, however, had the air knocked out of them. Crossbow bolts then began flying down the passageway towards the party. With no other choice, the group rushed the remaining twenty feet up the hill and attacked!

The group was stopped at the doorway by five kobold footmen, spears drawn and ready. The room was walled with old, moth-eaten tapestries stained with water and blood, trophies from caravans raided long ago. A short (even by kobold standards)kobold wearing tattered, bright yellow robes stained with food, water, dirt, and mud stood behind wide, low stone set into the floor near the middle of the far (southwestern). On the stone stood a single black candle set in a golden holder near an open leather-bound book. Four pallets consisting of furs and blankets were piled along the right (western) wall, while a noticeably larger pallet was at the eastern wall. Tucked next to the large pallet were a dozen black candles.

Ko'Nan, Rick, and Bob pushed their way into the room while Dimble began to sing. Alexander unleashed a magic missile into the robed figure. The figure waved his hands in the air, and seemed to momentarily shimmer. 'Cyn's crossbow twanged and it's arrow seemed to bounce off the air between the robed kobold and her.

The five footmen stopped the party's advance, gouging Rick and Ko'Nan with their spears. Alexander let fly another magic missile, hitting the robed kobold and making him frown. Rick and Ko'Nan retaliated, killing one of the vile creatures, while Bob and Quinles stepped forward and sent one more to his doom.

The kobold mage waved his arms again, and suddenly, two dretches appeared. The creatures looked rather apish, and lept up into the place of the two fallen kobolds. Their long, hairy arms pummelled Ko'Nan and Quinles, knocking them back a half-step. Rick and Bob whiffed their attacks agains the kobold footmen, while Ko'Nan barely scratched one of the dretches.

Each of the two dretches suddenly reared up on their arms, butts in the air, and farted in the face of the party! The green gas rapidly filled a rather large area, with an effect like tear gas! In a last, desparate attack, Ko'Nan felled the nasty creature in front of him, and crumpled to the floor, unconcious. Bob killed the remaining dretch, and stepped around Ko'Nan's motionless form to attack one of the three remaining kobolds.

Fortunately, the remaining kobolds were also affected by the gas, and were choking themselves. Rick felled one with a mighty blow. Quinles moved forward towards the mage, as Dimble, Alexander, and 'Cyn backed back out of the room and out of the cloud of noxious gas. They could not see through the cloud, and so had to hold their fire for fear of hitting their friends.

Bob dealt a lucky blow, skewering a kobold on his sword. He pulled his sword loose and began running towards the kobold mage. The mage, in turn, cast a burning hands at the fighters, scorching them badly. The mage and his last footman turned and raced behind one of the tapestries, running from the battle. A badly wounded Bob and Rick gave chace, only to find that their enemies had disappeared down a tiny tunnel. They saw the hunched-over kobolds disappeare around a bend, but could not follow, as the tunnel was too small.

The party remained separated by the green cloud until it finally began to dissipate. Even though the air was clearing, the noxious fumes were enough to cause anyone entering to gag. Rick held his breath ad dragged Ko'Nan from the cloud. He was alive, but just barely. The clerics healed what wounds they could, but after all magic had been spent, the party was still horribly wounded.

The party wrestled the boulders from the opening volley back up the slope and used them to block both the escape passage and the main entrance. With their backs thusly protected, the badly wounded party decided to remain in the chamber until healed. The floors here were amazingly flat, and everyone was able to get comfortable. After three full days of rest, the party was fully healed, magic was renewed, and the party was ready to go forth.

The fully rested party made their way back to the dock at the river. After some discussion, six large toadstool caps were roped together to form a large raft. All packs and heavy equipment were removed and placed in the middle of the boat. The armored party members (Rick, Quinless, Bob, and Gimble) remained on the raft, while 'Cyn, Alexander, and Kon'an held on to the sides. As the raft floated down river, Kon'an used his considerable strength to slow the raft's progress.

This worked well for awhile, until Rick and Quinless were snared in the webs of giant spiders. The two were hung by their heads and shoulders from the spiders' webs. Two large, black spiders rapidly descended towards them, and Quinles suffered many bites. Rick and Quinles both fought back, setting fire to the webs to try to break them free. Rick mortally wounded one before falling from the net. Rick could not fight the current to help Quinles, and was rapidly carried downstream. As he was swept away, he was sure that Quinles was dying. Rick heard quinles muttering that he would behead himself, rather than give the spiders the satisfaction of a meal. Were anyone besides spiders in sight, they would have been amazed at Rick's ability to swim while wearing scale armour.

In the meantime, the rest of the party was bogged down by a vicious battle with more of the giant spiders. Each of the accursed arachnids was larger than Bob, and could spit their webs long distances. Bob and Dimble tried to stand and attack, but were immediately pinned to the raft by webs spat onto them. 'Cyn and Alexander climbed into the raft. 'Cyn fired her crossbow, cruelly wounding wone of the spiders, while Alexander fired a magic missile, felling one of the beasts.

Bob and 'Cyn struggled with the webbing as two spiders ran overhead, chasing the raft. Aexander cast a burning hands at the ceiling, felling both spiders into the flowing river. One of the spiders landed upside down, and struggled to right itself. The second spider landed on its feet, and began running across the water towards the raft. Ko'Nan kicked mightily to keep the raft ahead of the spiders, but they were too fast.

The standing spider lunged at Alexander, but instead received a nasty wound, courtesy of 'Cyn's dagger. Alexander fell back and kicked at the spider, knocking it over, upside down. 'Cyn went back to work freeing Bob while Ko'Nan turned the raft and slowed its forward progress. The river now appeared to be widening (and therefore slowing), but Ko'Nan was still unable to swim the raft against the current. The river opened up into a large, underground lake. The river flowed straight through the Southern end of the lake. To the South was a beach, and flickering lights could be some way to the North. The two massively wounded spiders floated past, and eventually over the upcoming underground waterfall!

As the party floated into the lake, they barely managed to avoid being pulled back into the river and over the waterfall - they instead managed to guide their boat to the landing at the South end of the large cave. While 'Cyn was helping to extricate the crew from the webbing that covered the vessel, they were attacked by some sort of whitish/greyish thing that lived in the underground lake.

"Hey! Hey! Over here!" cried a human on a ledge across the river, near the waterfall.

"What the?" exclaimed Alexander, "Who are you?"

"I'm George!" replied the human, "Please throw me a line!"

Just as George began yelling to the party, Rick came floating down the river, his swimming prowess evident as his scale mail could not keep him down. He would duck his head under water, swim several poweful strokes, and then resurface for a gasp of air. Only now did he suddenly become aware of the waterfall, and begin yelling for help.

"Shit!" Gasped Rick, "Help!"

Alexander assessed the situation and yelled to Ko'Nan, "Ko'Nan throw a rope to that guy over there! Hang on to your end!"

Ko'nan threw a rope to George and, and together they set up a "trap" to help catch Rick as he was trying to swim in the heavy current. Thankfully, Rick didn't need the help, as he managed to swim, exhausted, to the shore.

"Crap," gasped Rick, crawling up the shore, "I'm worn out!"

George tied the rope around himself and jumped into the water. Ko'Nan hauled him to their side of the shore. "Thank you," George said, "I really appreciate it!"

Rick, George, Ko'nan, and 'Cyn were able to free Bob and Dimble from the webs. During this effort, loud thumping noises were heard in the water, and Alexander was brushed by the lake creature, but no one was harmed. Exhausted, the party pulled their raft up on the shore, and collapsed on dry land - pondering their and Quinles' fate.

Amazingly, after about a half hour or so, an exhausted and beaten Quinles stumbled onto the beach. He told the story of cutting Rick free, and then as he was about to lose hope with his situation, he had managed to handily defeat the remaining spiders and free himself. He floated down river, much as Rick had, and was also completely worn out.

Alexander looked at George and asked, "How did you get here?"

George explained that he had been exploring some upper caves and waterways when his boat had been sucked down into this cavern. The creature that attacked 'Cyn had destroyed his boat - he had, only through blind luck, made his way to a ledge in the cavern. With no light, no boat, and very little hope, he had been awaiting his sure fate when the party's boat came into the cave.

After a quick search, it was found that the landing was an entrance to a passage. This passage had had a cave-in. On further examination, it appeared that the cave-in had been partialy excavated, and that there might actually be a way to go back into the tunnel.

The party, physically and mentally exhausted, decided to spend the night on this landing. The party healed what they could, expending all magic of that type. Watches were set up, and the night began. Throughout the night, Ko'nan was haunted by very bad dreams that he could not explain, but which also kept him from regaining any health. As Ko'nan could not fit into the tunnel, he remained to guard the boat and landing while the rest of the party crawled into the tunnel.

A short way into the tunnel, Bob and Rick (ever in the lead) came across a rotting corpse. Upon a closer look, it appeared that the poor soul had been trapped in a partial cave-in, and that his legs were trapped under a boulder. As Bob began moving past, it was quickly discovered that the corpse was really a ghast, as it tried to make a grab at Bob's neck.

"Ghaa!" cried Bob.

Thinking quickly, Rick successfully turned the creature before it could do any harm. It immediately began crawling down the tunnel away from the party - apparently it had known the party was here, and had set up a trap.

"You mean 'ghast'," deadpanned Rick.

"Huh?" asked Bob.

"Never mind," smiled Rick, "let's follow it."

The party began to carefully follow after the wretched creature down the tunnel. Soon, the party passed the cave-in and could again stand up. After a short way, the tunnel led to an opening into a small cave. Peeking into the cave, Bob and Rick discovered another ghast, and a small graveyard.

Rick tried to detect undead, and noticed that besides the ghast in this room, there were at least six more creatures through a wooden door, and it seemed that the strongest of these creatures might be a wight. The ghast attacked George as he exited the tunnel, but Rick turned the creature. After Rick turned the second ghast, the party made a quick search of the area, sprinkling holy water about liberally. The tombs appeared to be quite old, as the writing on the headstones had been worn beyond comprehension. The old, wooden door was set in a brick facing, and their was another path back into the darkness. After some discussion, the party decided to go down the hallway, and temporarily avoid the undead on the other side of the door.

After a short distance in this tunnel, the party came to another cave. This cave was littered with bones that had been picked clean. In the back were the two turned ghasts, still cowering against the back wall. As the party closed in to attack the ghasts, all the bones jumped to life and formed skeletons. The party immediately found themselves in close-quarters combat, as some of the undead sprung up in their midst. The entire cave was filled with about twenty-five skeletons of various sorts - about ten of the skeletons struck themselves and burst into flames. In the midst of these undead was the skeleton of Gyorn the dwarf, whose body the party had committed to the heart of the mountain.

Bob began hewing away at the party's foes, but found that his weapons did not do the same damage as usual - his sword seemed to make only glancing blows to the skeletons' bones! Dimble turned a few more skeletons, and they ran to the back wall, trying to get away from the cleric. Rick turned as well, and managed to destroy a few of the undead with the power invoked from his god. Quinles turned a few more, then Dimble and Rick turned the rest, destroying several.

With half of the dreadful creatures destroyed, the party began to relentlessly hack on the remainder. Alexander took a nearly deadly blow, knocking him unconcious. Before he fell, he was able to magically destroy one of the ghasts. Cyn dragged him back from the melee, while Quinles healed his wounds. Dimble applied one more healing spell, and Alexander was back up, destroying the remaining ghast.

George was mainly luckless, and it seemed that only Rick, with his magic sword was doing any real damage to the skeletons - and even then, not much. Cyn, George, Dimble, Quinles, and Alexander began hurling stones at the skeletons, finding that they were able to inflict much more effective damage. Finally, after a gruelling battle, all the undead were defeated, their souls released to the place that their repective deities consign departed souls.

Unfortunatelly, the clerics of the group had all but angered their respective deities by asking for so many "turns" in such a short amount of time and required rest and prayer before tackling the remaining undead. After performing a relatively thorough search (finding only Gyorn's throwing axes), the party liberally spread holy water over the area and headed back towards the landing where Ko'Nan was waiting with the raft.

The party returned to the location of their raft, only to find that Ko'nan had disappeared. As the party's raft was still there, the only logical conclusion was that he must have been eaten by the critter in the watter while getting a drink. The party rested long enough to gain back their magical abilities, and went back into the tunnel.

The party once again passed the cave-in, and came upon a ghoul that appeared to be standing guard over the tunnel. A quick "turn" on Rick's part did nothing to help, and Bob the Gnome's initial attack did nothing either. Fortunately, Rick tried again and was able to successfully turn the abomination - the party attacked en masse, hacking the abomination to bits. The party spread out, guarding the as yet unopened door, while Rick and George went back to the site of the previous battle to ensure there were no new undead resident to threaten the party's backsides.

While the two were gone, 'Cyn checked the door for traps and such, and discovered that it was locked. With deft manual skills, she quickly opened the lock. By this time, Rick and George had returned, and the party prepared to enter through the doorway. Rick pushed the door open with his sword. Upon opening, an unearthly cold breeze blew into the room, chilling the entire party. Rick noticed that the floor and walls looked a "rusty" color, and feared that there might be a brown mold or some such covering the area. Tossing a lit torch into the area alieved that fear (The reddish stuff did not burst into flames), and brought into view several ghasts. A quick "turn" on the part of Rick and Dimble sent most of them fleeing to the back corner of the room. About this time, however, another of the flaming skeletons lit itself. By his light, two zombies could be seen, carrying what appeared to be powder kegs (with fuses). The skeleton lit the fuse of one, and the zombie began to quickly shamble towards the party!

Thinking quickly, Quinles performed a "create water" over the keg and extinguished the fuse, while Rick performed another "turn" and sent the zombie scurrying back to the rear of the room. The party dealt with the two unturned ghasts, and began using ranged weapons at the affected undead near the back of the room. Several of the undead were destroyed when the party managed to detonate the powder kegs. The final one or two were put to their final rest by force of arms. The entire area was doused in holy water, yet the unearhtly coldness did not seem to go away.

A thorough search of the area revealed a bag with fifty gems, each believed to be of the value of approximately fifty gold. The party also discovered a sword, fashioned from black metal and engraved with the likeness of a black dragon. Under Rick's scrutiny, the sword detected as magic.

"I could use a new sword," pleaded George.

"No way!" exclaimed Rick, "If I learned anything from my mom and dad, it's about magic swords! Don't try to use one until after it's been identified, because all sorts of bad things can happen. We'll keep it all wrapped up until we can get it identified - then we'll be happy to talk about what we'll do with it. With that, Rick put the sword into his pack.

George gave Rick a dirty look, but Alexander chimed in. "He's right, you know, don't have bad feelings about it, until we can identify it, we should consider it to be dangerous."

"You're a wizard," replied George, "identify it!"

"I can't," replied Alexander, "I need a pearl, and we don't have any."

George grumbled under his breath, and followed the rest of the party as they worked their way back to the raft. The party retired back to the landing to rest until fully healed and recharged. They would rest for a couple of days, then they would try to affect a crossing over to the other landing on the far shore.

On the last night, the guard shift apparently fell asleep around midnight ('Cyn). The entire party woke up at once, together. Things looked different, as though "the whole world was an inch to the left," and things seemed slightly foggy.

The party wondered that they all woke up in near simultaneity, and noticed that they also felt a bit numb and tingly in their extremeties. It soon became apparent as to what woke them up, when Bob heard a "clinking" sound back down in the recently cleared caverns.

The party lined up in the normal marching order, and worked their way back through the tunnel. Upon entry to the room with the graves, the party noticed that they seemed to be fresher than they ought to be (given that they had unearthed them only shortly before).

From down the tunnel to the back, they again heard the clinking sound. As a group, the party went to investigate. As they approached the opening, they noticed a change in temperature that caused a chill in their very hearts. The party moved on towards the back room, and saw the glowing form of Gyorn - the dwarf they had again laid to rest only a couple of nights ago.

"You've got my axe," said the apparition in a voice that was clearly Gyorn's. "What?!" replied the party in near unison. Rick confirmed that he was carrying Gyorn's throwing axe, and tossed it towards Gyorn's feet.

Gyorn caught the axe in mid-air, looked at it, and confirmed that was, indeed, his axe. "Where is my other axe?" he asked, as he walked towards the party. As a look of befuddlement crossed the paty's faces, Gyorn threw the axe with all his might, narrowly missing Bob the Gnome.

Close combat immediately ensued. It seemed that only Rick's magic weapon could do any damage to this apparition, as all the rest of the party's blows seemed to pass through the apparition. Gyorn struck Rick, causing him to turn an ashen grey and falter. Rick felt the strength leave his body and feared abother such blow. Alex rained magic missiles down upon the apparition as Dimble attempted a "turn."

The apparition seemed unimpressed and, in fact, decided that Dimble should be nearer the top of his list of things he hated. As he moved to attack Dimble, Rick landed several opportunistic attacks to the apparition's back, while Alex's scorching ray finally succeeded in killing the creature.

The party searched but found no evidense that the spectre had ever existed. As the party retreated back through the tunnel, they again heard the "chink" of armor ahead. As they entered the site of the graves, again saw a ghastly apparition of Gyorn the Dwarf. This time, however, he appeared with rotting skin and a red glow in his eyes.

The zombie again stated "You have my axe... I want my axe..." Again, the party entered into battle and fairly handily sent the zombie back to the a hopefully more permanent sleep. Interestingly, there were again no remnants of the battle, aside from scuffle marks on the floor.

Alex decided to bury the hatchet in one of the graves in the hope that the party would no longer be bothered by Gyorn's tortured soul. Soon after, though, the party heard another "chink" beyond the wooden door.

Bob charged into the room, breaking down the door, only to see a zobie likeness of Ko'Nan standing next to the armored skeleton of Gyorn the Dwarf. Again, Gyorn stated "I want my axe," while Ko'Nan asked "why do you keep disturbing us, why won't you let us rest?"

The party met the two undead in mortal combat, and finally finished them off, as Alex used the last of his combat magic to scorch the two undead. Shortly after the party finished them off, they heard a "clicking" outside the door.

Bob peeked around the corner of the doorway to see Ko'Nan's skeleton, accompanied by another ten Kobold skeletons. The skeletons immediately attacked, pushing their way through the party's guard. Soon it became apparent that the party was nearly outmatched, as even 'Cyn and Alex found themselves in close combat with the skeletons.

Cyn was knocked unconcious just as Dimble managed to successfully turn the Kobold skeletons. Alex moved to bind Cyn's wounds while the paty's fighters finished off the large, Ko'Nan-shaped skeleton. With the Ko'Nan-skelton's death, the remaining "living" skeletons all disappeared. The party doused the area liberally with holy water, and worked their way back through the tunnel, towards the river bank.

Upon entering their initial rest area, the party discovered their bodies laying around, exactly where they had gone to sleep the night before. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that they were able to pass through their bodies. With a sigh of exasperation, Alex declared that he was so exhausted that he would just go to sleep on/in his own body. Not able to think of any better ideas, the rest of the party did the same.

The party awoke sometime later... Was this some crazy dream, or some type of reality? Had the mushroom steaks eaten by the party been halucinogenic? How could they explain that all had the exact same dream. Interestingly, all party members were nearly depleted of spells, even after a full night's rest. Another night of rest would be required before they would attempt to cross the lake.

The party finished resting, and loaded their equipment onto the boat. They were ready to set out when Alexander spoke up. "Hey, wait a minute.. Let's drag back some of those corpses!

The rest of the party looked at him incredulously. "What the?" began Rick, "Why?"

"Well," answered Alexander, "Remember that critter in the lake? Maybe it's hungry. Let's feed it a bunch of stuff so it leaves us alone while we cross!"

'Cyn and dimble looked at Alexander aghast. "You can't be serious," asked 'Cyn.

"Sure," answered Alexander, "Why not? They don't need their bodies anymore, and it might protect us!"

Rick and George looked at Alexander and shrugged. "Come on," said Rick, "It's your idea, you can help cary the meat."

Rick, George, and Alexander went back into the caves and dragged out the rotting zombie corpses. Upon reaching the lake, they tossed in whatever parts weren't left behind. The party boarded the raft and pushed off - everybody piled in except Rick, who hung on the back and paddled the boat Westward into the deeper water.

The current pulled the boat towards the waterfall, but Rick's kicking soon carried them out of the main current, and they drifted past the ledge where George had been waiting to die. Thump! Something hit the underside of their raft, nearly knocking Bob overboard!

"There!" called Alexander, "I see it!"

The thing immediately dove down into the depths. Rick began kicking with renewed vigor, and the party members neares the edges helped paddle - only seventy-five feet to go, as the current pulled them towards the deeper parts of the lake. Rick was looking down and saw the beast come up towards him - he recognized it as the skeleton of a beluga whale! The skeleton-whale came up towards rick, and he hit it with a precisely-timed kick to the forehead. The whale veered off, as rick had kicked it hard enough to hurt his own foot!

The whale came around again, and Rick braced himself on the raft - only fifty feet to go! The whale came up to the surface of the water from broadside, and made directly for the raft. Rick attempted to turn the undead beast, but failed. The beast gave him as dirty a look as is possible from a skeleton, and changed course, directly for Rick!

Rick hurriedly climbed into the boat while Alexander began casting combat magic after the thing. Only forty feet to go, and crossbow bolts began to rain down on the party! From the South, five kobolds on a ledge were firing at them! Alexander quickly killed one with a magic missile, while Bob put an arrow through another's eye. 'Cyn fired her crossbow and wounded a third. Quinles and George kept paddling with all their might as Rick and Dimble both tried to turn the beast in the water.

The whale-skelton came up one more time and rammed the boat, knocking 'Cyn, Quinles, and Alexander off into the water! Rick and Dimble grabbed quickly 'Cyn and Alexander and kept them from going under. Quinles held desparately to the side of the raft. Bob turned and fired another arrow, putting down the wounded kobold - only thirty feet to go!

'Cyn and Alexander climbed back into boat with Rick and Dimble's help. The kobolds stopped firing as their bolts began to fall short. The whale struck the boat one more time, carrying Quinles away! The party fired a volley of bolts and magic at the whale to no avail, Quinles was lost! The whale soon came back and began to circle behind the raft, but it didn't come any closer - the water was too shallow! They had made it, and none to soon! The crew quickly paddled the boat up on to the shore and recovered their equipment.

Bob cast a dancing lights ahead of the party, and they carefully picked their way along the rocky shore. They could not move too quickly due to the slick mud, but they soon came to a passageway to the South. As they approached the entrance, two kobolds came running out to meet them in close combat. The kobolds were surprised by their numbers, and quickly routed.

The party carefully entered the passageway and followed it about thirty feet before it came to an intersection. Making a guess, they hurried into the Eastern passage and up the steep slope. No sooner than they had gone thirty feet, and they come under fire from two kobolds baracaded another twenty feet ahead.

Rick and Alexander each took a nasty wound from the projectiles, but the party quickly overran the defilade. Rick, George, and Bob made short work of the two kobolds. Looking around, the party realized that they had guessed correctly - this was the landing that overlooked the lake. Scattered around were the bodies of the kobolds that had fired upon them - hopefully they had killed them all before they could sound an alarm.

The party clerics healed all the party's wounds. After some discussion, the party realized that they must face the reality that they were mostly out of magic, and there seemed to be no way to go back - forward seemed to be the only option. It was decided to rest up here, on the landing, until magic was regained, and then head back down the passageway afterwards. It was time to recover magic, mourn their loss, and prepare to bring vengeance down upon the dirty little blighters' heads.

During the night, several kobold voices were heard, but not such that they could be well-understood. After a decent night's rest, the party carefully made their way down toward the nearest intersection, with Rick and Bob out in the lead. Ahead they could just see a lone kobold, posted as a lookout at the intersection. The little bastard seemed to be not paying much attention, as he was just leaning against a boulder and not even looking around. A single arrow through the throat put an end to his miserable little existence. As the kobold fell, the boulder he was leaning against moved and the breaking of glass was heard. Upon closer inspection, Rick and Bob found out (the hard way) that a cloud of poison gas had formed. They quickly retreated back to the landing, coughing all the way.

"Koff! Crap!" cried Bob, "Poison gas trap!"

"They used one of their own as a trigger?" asked 'Cyn in astonishment.

"Yeah, it looks that way," replied Rick.

"Crap," said George, "we're cut off! How do we get back around?"

"I'm not swimming," said 'Cyn, looking over the edge into the water.

"Yeah," agreed Alexander, "that thing already got Quinles."

"Let's just hang out for an hour or two," said Rick, "Maybe the gas will disperse by then."

The rest of the party agreed that this seemed sensible, so they hung out for a bit and waited. After a couple of hours had passed, Rick carefully ventured back down the ramp towards the intersection. "Koff! I wish I had a canary!" he exclaimed as he retreated back up the hill, "The gas hasn't dissipated. Koff! It's also not a very big cloud, at least so I can tell. We should be able to pass through if we hold our breath.

The party moved forward, breaths held. Unfortunately, Bob tripped and gasped, sucking in a lung-full of the gas. He was immediately weakened by the cloud, and had to be carried the rest of the way through the cloud. They stopped a short way The party held breath and hurried through the cloud, and took a sharp left turn at the intersection. They began working their way up the steep corridor, and stopped with a collective gasp about halfway up to catch their breath.

"Crap," coughed Bob, "I feel like I can barely lift my arms!"

"You OK to go on," asked Rick, pointing up the hill.

"Yeah," replied Bob, "I'm good."

Rick and Bob scouted forwad, toward the glow of a fire. Stopping just outside the entrance to another cavern, they could see several kobolds sitting around a fire, whining about their lot in life. It seemed they were unhappy about having to share glory (and loot), and how things were generally just miserable, especially since so many of them seemed lately to be getting killed off.

Rick, glanced at Bob, and then got a shit-eating grin on his face. Rick decided to add psychological operations to his repetoire of tormenting his declared enemies. He whispered (in draconinc) "My claw is coming for you," referencing the holy symbols they had found previously. There was some hurried whispering, and the fire went out.

Bob looked at Rick in astonishment, and then also got a shit-eating grin. "I can't believe you just did that," he said, suppressing a laugh.

Rick just looked back at him and smiled. The two waited for some time, and heard nothing more. The rest of the party drew near, Rick cast "light" upon a stone, and threw it into the room as he and Bob stepped through the doorway.

As they stepped across the threshold, twenty kobolds pressed forward to attack. Bob and Rick, hating the vile creatures, didn't mind this at all, and began hewing away. George pushed his way into the fray while Dimble sang, Cyn fired bolts into their stinky little bodies, and Alexander readied a spell.

Rick quickly dispatched one kobold, and waded forward battle, letting them quickly surround him. Bob cleaved through one, and killed another, while Cyn brought down one more. Alexander's Flame Sphere began rolling around amongst the kobolds, incinerating several. Intense fighting continued on for a couple of short minutes, while the kobolds were either skewered or incinerated.

Upon a more thorough search of the cavern, the party realized that this was, in fact, a bunkhouse of sorts. Muttering under his breath that "If I'm not sleeping comfortably, then neither are they," Alexander re-lit the fire and began piling in all the kobolds' bedrolls. As the fire was being stoked, George began searching around for things of interest, while Rick and Bob began walking toward a hanging curtain on the far side of the cavern.

As the two pointmen approched, they noticed that it was quite dark on the other side of the curtain. As Bob opened the curtain, Rick tossed in the stone upon which they had earlier cast the light spell. Almost immediately, someone covered the light. From the darkness came a questioning voice. Neither Rick nor Bob could understand the voice - looking towards the voice, they could see what appeared to be a dwarf, except that his skin was much darker than usual. While Rick and Bob could not discern them, it was quite apparent that there were others present in this dark room.

Rick tried several languages, until it became apparent that the Dwarf could understand draconic - although it seemed to grate on his ears.

The Dwarf asked "who are you, and what are you doing here?" Interestingly, the voice came from behind, as Cyn had begun to translate for them from the other side of the curtain. Alexander noticed this, and began walking towards 'Cyn.

"You may speak kobold," said the dwarf, "though it grates on my ears to hear it. It is easier to talk this way."

"We're here because of the kobolds," replied Rick.

"Do you serve Tsathzar Rho?" asked the dwarf.

In the meantime, Alexander was asking Cyn what was going on. She explained to him that she was translating from undercommon for Bob and Rick. Alexander began to fret, and began making ready to cast a spell.

"We don't care much about him," replied Rick, "I just hate kobolds and want to see their little corpses littering the ground."

The dwarf thought about this for a few seconds and began to smile. "If you leave now," he said, "I have never seen you."

Not wanting to enter a blind fight with an unknown number of unknown opponents, Rick and Bob began to back out the area. As they opened the curtain, the firelight from the larger room illuminated the dwarf. Alexander screamed something about Duergar, and unleashed a "scorching ray," that neatly imolated and killed the dwarf. Bob and Rick, being somewhat startled, jumped back, and readied weapons to meet the fury of four more Duergar.

The first of the dark dwarves bolted past both Bob and Rick towards Alexander. Bob and Rick each managed to get in a good swipe at him as they passed. The remaining three closed into combat with Bob and Rick. George came running from the far side of the room to attack the Dwarf closing on Alexander.

Alexander unleashed another scorching ray on the dwarf that was attacking him. This combined with the earlier wounds received from Bob and Rick finished the dwarf off. Bob hewed into his opponent, and Rick killed his with a fell blow. George closed in to aid Bob with the remaining dwarf. In short order, all the dwarves were killed, and the party rested for a short while before exloring more of the area.

Heading back out, the party noticed that the poison cloud at the intersection had still not dissipated. Holding their collective breath, the party raced through and down the only unexplored tunnel. Not long after they exited the poison cloud, they were beset by a group of twenty more kobolds.

The battle was fierce, but the onslaught of two-legged lizard-men was slowed by the close-quarters of the tunnel. Near the back of the kobold swarm stood another kobold egging them on, yelling for them to stand their ground, as the time was nigh.

With Dimble singing, and Cyn firing bolts into the kobold's midst, George, Bob, and Rick hewed into the hapless creatures, and Alexander unleashed onther flaming sphere into their rear ranks.

In short order, the kobolds' ranks were decimated. During the fray, Rick noticed that George had taken the as yet unidentified magic sword from his own pack, and was using it in this battle. Rick was momentarily worried, as he thought he saw scales on George's neck, but upon closer inspection, it appeared to be chafing from his armour. "Dude, take a bath!" said Rick as the battle finished.

The party had used the last of their magic in the battle and decided to stop here for the evening to rest. Watches were set, and the party bedded down to rest. During the night, on Bob and Rick's watch, Rick noticed a noise coming from the down the hallway. They both moved forward to investigate

"Up there!" cried Rick, pointing to two giant spiders running on the roof of the hallway. Rick and Bob both shot their bows with great accuracy, getting good hits on the spiders - but not enought to kill them or slow them down. The spiders sped past the sleeping group, and on up the hallway from whence the party had come. Bob and Rick woke the group, and they jointly decided just to stick it out for the rest of the night.

After the party was rested, they quietly walked down the hall. The party noticed that the halls became darker and darker until they seemd to absorb all light. In fact, the texture of the rock changed, too, from that of hewn stone to that of polished marble. Even when holding a torch near the wall, the party could see nothing of the walls or floor, nary a reflection. Their shadows appeared to dance on the walls, not in time with the flickering torch carried by Alexander. The party continued on until they stumbled into a huge room.

On the walls by their entranceway were two smoldering braziers, which the party relit to provide light for the area. A detect magic showed the room to be permeated with old magic, as though it had seen centuries of use in spellcasting practice. Throughout the room were large statues of good dieties, standing with their arms and legs shackled in chains.

"Huh," said Rick, "I wonder if there's anything special about these statues."

Rick broke the chains about the feet of some of these statues to no noticeable effect. The walls of the great room were carved in reliefs that told the story of a great magic user who had attempted world domination, and the darkening of the Sun itself.

"Does this make sense to any of you," asked Rick, "My history of magic users is a little muddled."

"Means nothing to me," replied Alexander.

"There was reportedly a big battle near here," began Dimble, "some four-thousand years ago. According to the stories, Cuthbert led an army against a powerful mage who had grand ideasof god-hood. According to the legends, this battle helped Cuthbert himself achieve godhood."

"Huh," replied Rick, "Maybe this was the mage's base of operations?"

"I don't know," said Dimble, "that was about all I know on the subject."

As Bob and Rick moved forward through the giant room, they noticed what appeared to be a puddle of oil on the floor. "'Cyn," called Rick, "There's something suspicious up here on the floor - could you check it out?"

'Cyn came forwar to help inspect what might be a trap. As they were inspecting the area, the "oil" pulled itself together to form three lemures. The lemures began attacking the party - Rick pushed 'Cyn out of the way, and took the hit intended for her on his own back.

As the three battled off the lemures, an "ow!" was heard from behind. George threw himself into battle, helping to defeat the demons. The battle was soon over, and they heard Alexander speaking, apparently to nothing, in an unknown toungue behind them. He would pause for a few seconds, and then say something else. On some occasions, a voice could be heard speaking back to him.

After a bit more silence, Alexander explained to the party that he had been speaking with an imp. The imp had made an offer to "watch over the party whilst they rested," which he had politely declined. Further, the imp told them that there was a white dragon in the area, somewhere, and that it as scaring away the imp's spiders, and ruining his plans for domination. The imp had also seemed to indicate that this area may be affected by a dimensional rift. Alexander further informed the party that the imp was expecting them at the Eastern doorway in exactly three days' time.

The party went on through the room to the far (North) end. The doors took them into a short hallway that almost immediately Teed. The party took a left, and shortly found a closed door to the right, at the end of the hall.

Rick heard kobolds on the other side of the door, and bashed the door down, ready to take on all comers. Bob and George piled into the room behind them, hewing into the kobolds.

The kobolds were taken quite by surprise, and three had already fallen before they managed to retaliate. The room was somewhat smallish, however, and the vile beasts could not press in more than two each to Bob, George, and Rick. They managed to poke Rick and Bob with their spears, and began to push the fighters back towards the door.

Rick and bob surged back forward. Rick hewed into a kobold, killing it outright, and Bob cleaved one in twain, continuing the devestating arc of his swing into its neighbor. George gave one of his opponents a mighty blow, but the attack was deflected by a neat parry. 'Cyn began fireing her bow into the chaos while Dimble and Alexander watched powerlessly.

The battle wore on, with the tide swinging back and forth. The kobolds' numbers were, however, fast dwindling. Soon, twenty kobolds lay dead. Further inspection of the room found little worth keeping, and showed that this was, in fact, a place of torture.

"This place is very defensible," said Alexander, "let's clean it up and rest here. That interruption with the spiders last night kept me from being able to fully memorize my spells."

"OK," answered Rick, "Somebody help me barricade the hallway."

George and Bob each lent a shoulder, and soon they had a barricade in the hallway - complete with an ireon maiden containnig a dead kobold. "it's a warning," explained Rick. The group set watches and huddled down for a few hour's rest.

Despite the smell, the party managed to get a surprisingly good night's rest. The party ventured back down the hallway from whence they had come. They went straight through the tee and into as yet unexplored territory. The hall ended in an unlocked door. As the party entered, Alexander thought he saw "something blue" fly around one corner and out of sight. Upon a slightly closer look, the room appeard to be the roughly L-shaped, with a covered picture frame on each wall, the right wall containing two pictures.

As the party spread out to investigate, they noticed that the pictures stood about three feet from the walls, held in place with large iron brackets. The party also noticed that their were chalk markings on the floors in front of these picture frames. The air in this room seemed much fresher than what had been previously encountered, and the party noticed almost immediately that the first picture on the left seemed to be flapping in a breeze - a breeze that seemed to originate inside the picture frame.

George moved towards that picture to investigate, when he noticed two kobolds hiding behind the frame. He began to mete out punishment to these kobolds, while Rick, Alexander, and Cyn worked their way towards the back of the room, searching behind each picture frame as they went. Bob moved out to cross the room when a kobold jumped from behind the picture adjacent to the one where George was mashing away, and pulled the blowing curtain back from its frame. A huge and vicious wind blew across the room, hurting Bob, nearly knocking him over. Bob managed to move out of the wind and began running towards the kobold.

About this time, about twenty kobolds appeared from behind the various pictures, and began attacking the party. Alexander and Rick, as yet not fully aware of the ensuing battle, were reading some of the various chalk markings on the floor. In essence, each of chalk writings described an element, or similar. The painting that had damaged Bob was labelled "Air," and the painting now being uncovered by the kobolds opposite Alexander said "water." A torrent of water sprayed across the room, knocking down Alexander and a couple of kobolds that had just appeared from behind his "painting"

Rick was also now engaged in combat, as the froom was slowly filling with water - he dared not step in front of "his" painting, as it appeared to be labeled "Earth" As Alexander recovered from his fall, he began walking a "Flaming Sphere" through the mass of kobolds, quickly halving their numbers. The kobolds attacking rick, however, were protected from the fire by the large torrent of water. Rick neatly halved one of the vile creatures, then opened the cover of the "Earth" picture.

Immediately, a geyser fo dirt sprang from the picture, burying several kobolds alive, burying Rick up to his waist, and creating a messy mud slurry where it met with the torrent of water. Between Cyn's arrows, Alexander's magic, and the fighter's cunning, the kobolds were soon vanquished, all but one.

Realizing that information was probably more important than personal vendettas, Rick called to his last remaining opponent. "Surrender or die!"

"You lets me live?" asked the incredulous kobold.

"For information," Rick responded.

"hokay," said the kobold, "whats you want to know?"

Rick called to the rest of the party and let them know what was going on. "Don't kill him, I promised him safe passage for information!"

"You?" asked Bob, "You gotta be shittin' me!"

"Yeah, I know," sighed Rick, "But we need some information."

"What are these pictures," asked Rick of the kobold as the rest of the group gathered 'round.

"They's portals to other places."

"Elemental planes?"

"Yes. This what I told."

"What are you doing here?"

"We's trying to master air and fire."

"What do you mean?"

"We wants to bottle it to use against enemies."

"What's with the one over there," asked Rick, pointing to one that looked like a room.

"We's not supposed to mess there!"

"But what is it?"

"Room. No one get out what goes in!"

"How 'bout that one," asked Rick, pointing to one that was blank.

"Dunno," replied the kobold, "not work. ever."

"OK, get out of here before I change my mind!"

The kobold scampered out of the room like a whipped dog. The kobolds answeres were quickly confirmed by checking all the portals. "We can pass behind the portals," thought Rick aloud, "I wonder if they're based on the frames?"

"Huh?" asked Alexander, "What do you mean?"

"Well," answered Rick, "think of this. If we ould carry, say, the fire portal with us, whenever we were attacked, all we'd have to do is pull the blanket back to burn them all."

"Yeah," said Alexander, "but look at how big the frames are - we've been in passages it wouldn't fit. And look at that wood - I'll be those things are damned heavy!"

"Yeah," replied Rick wistfully, "I guess you're right. Maybe we could pull the blankets off, though - that fire one's gotta be pretty fireproof, right?"

"Maybe so, but it might not work once it's detached from the frame."

"Yeah," Rick sighed, "I suppose you're right."

With that, Rick gathered up a couple vials each of elemental earth, water, and air. "Who knows," he said to quizzical stares, "they might be useful some other time."

While this discussion was going on, Dimble made a tragic mistake. One of the pictures just looked like a room (the one the kbolds were to stay away from). Dimble touched the picture, and was immediately teleoprted away from the group and into that room. The party could see him in the room, but he could apparently not see them.

Alexander tossed a rock into the picture. Inside, Dimble could be seen to jump and swat at his neck, where the pebble had hit him. His breath could be seen as he was obviously saying someting.

Alexander wrote a short note, tied it to another pebble, and tossed it in, again hitting Dimble. Dimble read the note and nodded back to the party. The party had set up a method of communication. The room appeared to be a storeroom of sorts, primarily filled with what looked to be spell components. Dimble found it to be very cold. There was a window leading out, but it was frosted over and above his head.

After some further messing around, Dimble performed a thorough search of the room. Dimble tossed a hard, marble-like magic component through the window, and climbed up to look out. Looking down from the window, he could see nothing but clouds - this made it appear that he was at a dizzying height. The cold wind blowing through the window was making his fingers numb, so he cast a "create water" at the opening. This successfully stopped most of the penetrating air.

Dimple became convinced that the only way out of this room was thorugh a large, locked chest. Another search through the room produced several keys, none of which fit the lock. Neither were the kobold bones he found a form of skeleton key. Dimble tried for an extended time to force the lock, but was not able to do so. He was beginning to dispair when Alexander and Cyn suddenly appeared in the room with him. Alexander searched around some more, collected some spell components, and cast "knock" on the chest. Upon investigation, the three discovered various items, potions, and Rick, who had just teleported into the room.

After collecting all that appeared useful, Alexander asked the party fighters (including George, who had just joined the party) to remove all the things from the wooden shelves on one wall. When this was complete, Alexander cast a "Scorching Ray" on the shelves to start a warming fire. As soon as the fire started, a *very* cold gust of wind extinguished the fire. Turning around, the party saw a juvenile white dragon standing behind the chest.

The dragon explained that he was lost from his mommy, and had taken refuge in this room because it was the only place he could find that was of a comfortable temperature. He further explained that he was very hungry, as all he had had to eat was kobolds, and they didn't taste very good.

"We have some mushrooms," said Alexander.

"whas a mushroom," asked the dragon.

"You can eat them," Alexander replied.

The party, sensing a potential ally/edge, shared with him some mushroom steaks - to which he took a keen liking. "How did you get here," asked Rick.

"Through the picture," the dragon replied around mouthfuls of mushroom.

"Are you stuck here?" asked 'Cyn.

"Nope," replied the dragon, holding up an amulet, "gots key!"

"I'll tell you what," said Alexander, "If you let us borrow the amulet, we'll look for your mommy and let her know where you are when we find her.

The little dragon thought about it a moment and gave the party the amulet.

"Thank you, little dragon," said Rick, tossing him a gold piece.

The dragon grabbed the shiney out of the air. Holding it with both front claws, he stared at the coin. "OooOooo... Pretty!", he exclaimed. With that, the party teleported back to the portal room.

"I'll bet that was the first part of his hoard," said Rick.

"Yeah," replied Alexander, "Maybe it'll be a good investment."

"You mean," asked Rick, "that maybe he'll remember us if we ever run into him again?"

"There is that," replied Alexander, "But I was thinking someday we might kill him and take his hoard."

Rick and 'Cyn rolled their eyse and shook their heads. "It's about time to go meet your imp, isn't it?" asked Rick.

"Yeah," answered Alexander, "I want to freak him out by actually showing up on time, too."

The party trekked back to the door at which Alexander had agreed to meet the imp, and knocked. When there was no response, they opened the doors to find a hall similar to the one they were in. Large statues of unknown people lined the sides of the room, holding up the ceiling. As the party began to move through the room, they noticed a large spider up ahead. The spider was not moving, and appeared to be frozen. Expecting a trap, the party fanned out to various points of cover while Rick took a shot at the spider. The arrow pierced the spider neatly, but the spider did not move.

Alex, who had been scanning the ceiling for other spiders noticed a giant centipede coming toward them from above. The centipede dropped from the ceiling and attacked George as Alexander unleashed a scorching ray into the beast.

Rick and Bob rushed to George's aid while 'Cyn began firing her crossbow. The creature looked away from George and bit Bob, hurting his shield arm - afterwards, he said he was sure he tasted kumquats. George cut one of the giant vermin's legs off, and quickly dodged aside to avoid being stepped on by another. Rick cut another leg loose, while Bob gave the critter a nasty poke in the snoot.

The centipede lunged again, biting Rick. Rick was sure he tasted sugar cookies, but still pressed forward, cutting loose another leg. Bob cut deeply into the beast's neck, while 'Cyn put a bolt through one of its eyes.

The centipede attacked once more, again biting Rick. Rick staggered backwards, the taste of pancakes in his mouth. George hewed into the beast, while Dimble pokked it with his javelin. Bob delivered a killing blow, nervously watching the twitching of the dead beasts' mandibles.

As the party continued on, they noticed a small passage to the right. They entered the passage, and found it littered with the corpses of several spiders. Figuring this to be the centipede's lair, the party continued on to ensure there would be no more enemies at their backs later. As the passage opened up into a library, the party was attacked by two more giant spiders and a host of kobolds.

The battle ensued, with Rick, George, and Bob quickly eviscerating the spiders. The fighters then hewed into the kobolds as Alexander began waling another of his balls of fire about the room. Rick. The kobold mage waved his hands, and Rick momentarily had the urge to run.

'Cyn fired a shot, but it deflected away from the mage. He waved his hands again, causing a bright light to flare up in her face! She was blinded, and stumbled backwards, unable to help out. Alexander steered his ball of fire through more of the kobold footmen, and towards the mage.

Dimble sang a song of victory, putting fire into the hearts of the fighters. They hewewd into and killed three more kobolds. The mage pulled out a wand and fired a magic missile at Alexander, nearly disrupting the ball of fire. Alexander steered the flaming orb closer to the spellcaster, killing another footman along the way.

The fighters each killed another footman, moving ccloser to the mage. The mage fired another magic missile into Alexander, but still did not disrupt his spell. The fireball rammed into the mage, nearly incinerating him.

After the lest enemy fell, Rick and Cyn began searching the room, as Alexander cast "Detect Magic" on the library full of books. Alexander gathered all the books that detected as magic, as Rick and Cyn found several golden "claw" holy symls, and some magic items of note.

While Alexander began to peruse the magic tomes, Rick and Cyn began a thorough search of the bookshelves - Rick looked at the titles, while Cyn checked for secret containers.

"Dang," said Rick, "These books are old!"

"What do you mean?" asked 'Cyn.

"Here, look at this," said Rick, showing her an old book written in common, "when was the last time anybody wrote or talked like that?"

"Yeah, said 'Cyn," looking at the book, "that looks pretty old."

"Even older!" exclaimed Rick, looking at a book written in draconic, "This is old, evein in terms of dragons - They don't speak like this anymore, either!"

"Well," replied 'Cyn, "If this is the Tsathzar fella's joint, then those might be about four-thousand years old, right?"

"Well," replied Rick, "I suppose so, but they're almost like new. Amazing!"

These books were old, indeed! Many of the books seemed to be textbooks on such topics as chemistry, engineering, botany, and so on. The remaining half of the books were in languages not comprehended by any party member. As the trove was so large, the party sadly packed away only a few books of immediate interest.

Meanwhile, Alexander completed a cursory look at some of the magical tomes, and decided that there was a hidden message buried in the text. None of the rest of the party was interested in staying up to decipher the text at this time, so Alexander took watch for the first time ever as the party bedded down for the night.

The night passed without event, and in the morning, Alexander declared that he believed he had deciphered the code. "It says something to the effect of 'don't trust the Elven ranger," he said.

"Good thing I'm only half-elven, I guess," repllied Rick, while giving Alexander a funny look. "I think you've been up too long. Did you find anything else useful in there?"

"Well, there's this spell," " replied Alexander, "It's similar to 'Mage Shield,' but ti seems to have a bunch of extra stuff. I'll have to study it later.

"Any cleric spells in there?" asked Rick.

"No," replied Alexander, "only mage-related stuff.

"Ahh," replied Rick, "well, hurry up, I think we're about ready to go."

Due to a lack of space, Alexander ripped interesting spell notes from tomes, such that they could be studied later, or maybe used as scrolls in a pinch.

Freshly rested, the party trekked back out to the main hallway, and began heading for the door. Rick thought he seemed to notice that the positions of the large statues might somehow have moved, but could not verify this thought.

As the party neared the door, Cyn moved ahead to check for traps. While searching, she heard the voice of the imp they had talked with earlier, grumbling and complaining. She heard only snippets along the lines of "damned adventurers! Can't be trusted!" She also heard "We'll just have to do it ourselves," and "They'll get theirs in the end," and finally, "the time is near at hand."

Cyn relayed this information to the rest of the party. They were delighted to finally be able to prepare for a fight, rather than just have the fight thrust upon them. Alexander cast several protection and strength spells on the party's fighters, as well as the enhanced "Mage Shield" on Rick. Rick asked for blessings during the upcoming battles, and Dimble prepared to confuse the imp and his allies beyond the door. The party prepared to open the way to battle.

Rick pushed the door open and charged into battle. The room was so bright, that the party had to squint, but Rick, Bob, and George each rushed into battle, killing four kobolds between them. The surprised imp and kobolds were furher distracted by Dimble's ruse - the sound of twelve fighters rushing in to battle from the other direction. Meanwhile, Alexander rolled a flaming sphere through the kobolds, accross a yellow object, and into the hedges upon which the imp was roosting.

Several things happened all at once, as all hell broke loose. The imp yelped as the magical flames singed it's skin and destroyed his resting place. The yellow object reared up from the magical hotfoot it had just been given, and crushed several screaming kobolds. The three fighters immediately retreated from battle, as the gargantuan centipede bit George, and poisoned him badly. All three made it back to the doorway, and Dimble cast "Sanctuary" upon Rick, while yelling at him not to attack anything, lest he break the spell.

Rick healed George as best he could, and assumed a defensive position in the doorway, allowing the party to use ranged attacks on the imp and centipede. Shortly, as the flames began to spread through the hedgerow, the imp pointed at Rick, and then flew back behind the hedgerow, out of sight.

Rick suddenly felt that, perhaps, he could successfully kill this gigantic centipede, when his better sense took hold. Alexander continued to burn the centipede, while the remainder of the party peppered it with arrows.

The centipede finished off the remaining kobolds, and then turned its attention to the party. It seemed unable to attack Rick, but was able to score a debilitating hit upon Dimble. The poison ran rampant through his veis, but he was still able to keep up his bardsong - inspiring the party to battle on.

The Sanctuary spell expired then, and the centipede managed to land a harsh bite on Rick, who again impressed the party with his amazing resistance to strong poison. The party quickly dispatched the monster, and then reentered the room to look around.

The place appeared to have once been a large garden, but was now a charnel house. In the ceiling were magical stones, supplying light to the plants below. The plants were all brown and dead, drained of life. What used to be thick, loamy soil was now gray and gritty, more like dust than anything capable of supporting life. A narrow, cobblestone path wound through the area. Thes path provided the only clear route through the brambles, but soon became choked with thorns and vines.

The plants in this chamber were once wildly overgrown. In death they now serve as a daunting obstacle to those who would travel across this chamber, forming a thick barrier of tough, woody brambles with long, thorny vines. The plants reached halfway up the twenty-foot tall ceiling, forming a dense barrier of branches, brambles, and gnarled roots.

"We don't know what else is in there," said Alexander, "let's just burn it all down.

"What about the smoke?" asked Bob.

"Well," replied Alexander, "some of us are hurt pretty badly, how 'bout we just retreat back out of the room, seal the door, and rest a while?"

"What if there's no place for the smoke to go," asked Rick, "then we won't be able to breathe when we come back in."

"We can be careful opening the door," replied Alexander, "If nothing else, we can open the air portal back there, and pump fresh air up the corridor.

"Well," replied Bob, "I dunno how weel that would work, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of al this cover and who or whatever might be hiding in it."

"Yeah," agreed Rick, "why not?"

The fires were already spreading rapidly along the North side, so they decided to ignite the South side as well. The party retreated ahead of the smoke back to the main hallway, and wedged the doors shut. They then went back to the library and recovered from their wounds. It seemed that it might be a few days before they were again combat ready.

All healing magic was expended as the party settled down and posted watches as normal. They were expecting to be staying for at least four days, as the fighters were badly hurt and the effects of the centipede's poison on George were quite strong.

About eight hours into their sleep, Dimble and 'Cyn began having vivid nightmares. Dimble jumped up and began yelling for the rest of the party to wake.

Grumbling, the party awoke, and Dimble described the dreams, wherein hordes of mutated kobolds were scouring the coutryside under the direction of the dark god whose holy symbols they'd kept finding. A beckoning hand had motioned to him while a voice had offered for him to go over to the dark god's aliegance. When he had refused, the beckoning hand had turned into a fist and crushed him into a world of black. A bright light shown through and his god, Garl Glittergold, informed him that the party had at most two days to save the land.

The party's doubts were put to rest when Dimble used the energy given him by his god to completely heal George - who had, unto this point been horribly wounded and sick.

Convinced, the party used all available healing magic to do what they could for their health. Mostly healed, the party set off towards the remains of the giant centipede. They were surprised to be greeted with a cool, refreshing breeze when they opened the doors - they had been expecting smoke. The breese was soon replaced by a rotting stench, however, and the party ventured into the large underground chamber.

Amazingly, the fires had gone out, and the hedgerows were not damaged much beyond the state in which the party had left them. Rick noticed that the giant centipede's armor and poison sacs had been removed. Rick gathered up some of the monster's legs, with the thought that their chitinous armor might make good leggings or bracers at some later date.

'Cyn noticed a tall, black tower to the North, over the tops of the bushes. As the plants were about ten feet tall, no one could clearly see over the tops. The party formed a "humanoid pyramid," and balanced Bob on their shoulders.

"I see a large black tower, about thirty or forty feet to our North," reported Bob. "Crap, there's kobolds walking on top of the plants!"

Bob let forth a profanity as one of the kobold's crossbow bolts impacted him in the shoulder. Bob immediately jumped from the top of the party's shoulders to the tops of the plants, and began running after the kobolds. He soon realized that he would not be able to catch up to the vile creatures, drew his bow, and neatly skewered one of them with a well-placed shot to the neck.

Rick climbed as high as his weight would allow, and called down to the party the positions of what he could see. George tossed Dimble up to the top of the vegetation, while Alexander began burning down large sections.

Rick climbed down, and proceeded to work his way through the brambles towards the tower. About the time he made it to the tower, he was set upon by two mad slashers! The hideous creatures appeared to be only an eyeball supported by six legs. The two creatures attacked with their front two legs, and hurt Rick badly. In an act of desparation, Rick pulled out the wand scavanged from the kobold sorcerer, and fired it towards the creatures.

Fwoooosh! This was a wand of "burning hands," and did a frightful amount of damage to the creatures and the vegetation in front of him.

In the meantime, Bob had finished with the kobolds, and had worked his way to the other side of the tower, where he found a clearing and a set of double-doors entering the tower. Bob dropped down to the ground, and held his position where he could watch the doors.

Dimble worked his way over to Rick, and took the wand from him. Two more of the creatures attacked him, while a few more went on past and used their sharp forelegs to rapidly cut a firebreak along the conflagration created by Rick. Dimble used the wand several more times, and healed Rick while Rick killed off the last of them with his sword.

Alexander, 'Cyn, and George took to fighting off some more kobolds that appeared above the trees, while Alexander too, was seriously hurt by some more of the mad slashers

Bob began to open one of the tower doors, but hastily jumped back as strange creature emerged. This creature was not unlike a kobold that had grown dragon's wings, and carried a masterwork axe. The thought of "dragon-kin" went through Bob's mind, but this beast's coloration was quite strange - mostly white, with red diamonds on its wings.

The creature looked around outside the door, but did not notice Bob, due to its distraction with the fire on the East side of the tower. As it began to enter the vegetation, Bob let loose an arrow that neatly pierced the creature's back, right between the wings. The creature turned and flew back to Bob, who had emerged from the vegetation, sword drawn.

"I am going to eat your spleen!" called Bob.

Rick and Dimble held their breath and ran through the fires toward the North side of the tower. They emerged from the jungle just in time to see the flying kobold attack Bob. Rick and Dimble both ran to Bob's aid, and together, the three drove the beast back into the tower, all the time taunting it about how they were going to eat its spleen.

They soon finished the creaure off, and as the light was fading from its eyes, Bob said "I told you I'd get your spleen!"

Alexander, 'Cyn, and George finally made it around the tower, and joned up with the rest. Everyone was hurt to some extent, and they decided to rest. In the meantime, they performed some minor exploration - the tower was an open space leading up about one-hundred feet, and on the East side of the room there was a stairway that lead down. The party rested for the shortest time possible, as they all were beginning to get the feeling that time was running out. They expended all of their healing magic, but it was not enough to heal all their wounds.

The party began to slowly work their way down the stairs. About half-way down the first flight, Rick discovered a tripwire. The party moved back up the stairs while 'Cyn inspected the trap. The trap appeared to be a new addition to the stonework, and a huge cleaver slammed into the floor as she set the trap off from remote.

The party again began working their way down the stairs, and Rick again discovered a trap just past the cleaver. The party again moved back to the entrance foyer, while 'Cyn shoved the winged kobold over the edge of the stairwell onto the trapped landing. Almost immediately, the steps all collapsed to form a ramp, and the body began to slide. After several moments, the party heard the body hit the bottom a little more noisily than seemed appropriate.

'Cyn descended the stairs and reset the stairs. She then disabled the trap so the group could walk, rather than slide down the stairs. The party finally reached the bottom of the stares, to find the scewered body of the kobold-like creature. There were no scewers to be seen, so the group very carefully skirted the area.

They followed a final staircase down to an oaken door. 'Cyn opened the door, and the party entered a long hallway - with walls so dark they seemd to suck the light from their torches. After some time, they came to a tee. Turning left at the tee, they came again to another large oaken door.

Opening the door, the party found a large tropical forest. The trees were similar to palms, except ner their bases they had clusters of what looked to be rubbery, white sacs that ringed their bases. Connecting the trees eemed to be a large network of roots. The roots seemed to pulsate, as did the "pods" at the base. None of the party was interested in entering the room - the mere idea gave them the heebie-jeebies.

"I'm wondering if the sacks might be the source of the disease that the ogre had," pondered Rick aloud.

"I don't know, I'm not walking in there to find out," replied Alexander.

"Let's try this," said Rick, as he nocked an arrow.

The group watched in rapt fascination as Rick let fly the arrow. It impacted one of the pods with a sickening, wet thud. On impact, the pod splattered a gleatinous, white ichor. This mass quivered for a bit, and then stopped.

"Eeeewwww!" cried 'Cyn.

"Bleah!" responded George.

"Gross!" agreed Dimble.

"Hmmmm..." mumbled Rick, "Let's try this."

Not satisfied, Rick pulled forth one of his stirge's bite arrows and removed the base plug.

Rick nocked the arrow and let fly. The arrow impacted another pod, and more white ichor drained out onto the ground and root system.

"It doesn't quite look like the stuff the ogre was infected with," said Rick, "but I'm still pretty wary about going in there. Let's see if Holy Water has any effect. Alexander, can you create a floating disk?"

Alexander created a floating disk, and Rick summoned several gallons of water to fill the disk. After a powerful blessing, the invisible disk contained about two gallons of Holy Water. Alexander guided it against some pods and ended the spell. The holy water fell onto the pod, and the pod began to quiver. Some of the roots under the pod quivered as well.

"It would seem that none of it likes holy water," observed Rick.

"Great," said George, "an evil forest. I can imagine what will try to eat us if we go in there.

The party closed, locked, and blocked the door, and turned to explore other parts of the maze.

"We can come back later, maybe, said Alexander

"I seem to remember this place form my dream," said Dimble, "I think we must clear this room to save the land."

"Let's explore a bit more and see if we can find some useful information," said Rick.

The party continued back past the last tee, and turned left again. Forty feet down the hall, they came to a locked door on the left. 'Cyn unlocked the door, and Rick stepped in as it opened out. Inside was a room smeared to shoulder height with feces. Sitting on the rim of pool in the room was an insane Duergar. He was mumbling to himself in several different languages, including common, undercommon, and draconic. As Rick understood only draconic, he used this language to greet the stranger.

"Hello," called Rick, "May we be of service?"

"Rotten kobolds!" screamed the dark dwarf, "I'm tired of kobolds!"

With that, he reached into the muck, and in one swift movement, he puled out a crossbow and shot Rick in the shoulder. Rick pulled out his bow and returned fire. His shot was true, and the duergar disappeared when the arrow hit him in the chest. Not willing to go into the feces- covered room, the party peered in to determine if the whole episode was an illusion. The arrow was not to be seen, so they closed and locked the door, and went on.

The party passed a door on the right, and came to another tee. Turning left at the tee, the party heard draconic being spoken ahead. Stopping to listen, the party heard the two voices talking more about "the ascension," and that in about two hours, the real fun would begin.

"Let's tke them," said Alexander.

"What," asked Rick and Bob.

"There's only two, let's nail them quickly and get out."

Rick and Bob looked at each other, shrugged, and charged the room. Inside, they suprised two more of the winged kobolds, and with George's help, made short work of the duo. A further search found some golden table service - one of which had a heart on it - the creatures had been ready to feast.

"It sounds like there's only two hours to go," said Rick.

"Yes," said Alexander, "I think that room with the trees is where we need to go - as much as I don't like it. I think those pods might have something to do with all this."

"Yeah, I think you're right," replied Rick, "as much as I don't want to go there, I suppose we don't have much choice at this point."

The party headed back to the room with the trees. The clerics and magic users cast a varity of strength and protective spells on the fighters. 'Cyn opened the door, and Rick strode in. As nothing horrible happened to Rick, the rest of the party followed.

A tree shivered as Rick cut open one of the pods to find a white, not-quite-gestated kobold. He skewered it neatly. Going around that tree, he skewered all eight pods in a similar manner. Alexander took a quick look and did some mental math.

"If we can keep our strength up, we should be able to do that to every pod in about an hour and a half," he said

"Well, let's get started," replie Rick.

The party split up and began opening the pods and kiling whatever was inside. They found more than just kobolds, but also elves, dwardves, humans, and other humanoid creatures. While it pained them to do it in some cases, the party realized that they had no way to save the poor souls whose bodies were being corrupted, and so carried on in grim determination.

About two-thirds of the way through their grim task, Rick noticed a large white dragon. Surely this was the mother of the little whelp they'd found in the strange room.

Alex and 'Cyn continued their gruesome task while Rick, George, Dimble, and Bob approached the dragon. As they closed, they noticed that the roots of the trees seemed to not only be holding her down, but also penetrated her skin, and were literally pumping her life out.

"Stay calm, we're trying to help you!" called Rick. "We know where your baby is, and we're trying to help you to him!"

The dragon appeared to be in pretty bad shape, and began to flail wildly as the group approached. Rick and Bob continued to try to calm her, but she was clearly out of her mind as she laid into Rick in a vicious frenzy.

Rick stumbled, but continued to try to calm her. "It'll be okay, just let us free you!" he called.

As George ran to help, a large mushroom man appeared from around a corner, and closed for battle. Dimble ran up to Rick and used his last healing spell to stabilize his wounds. Fortunately, the dragon had been severely weakened by her captivity, and could not manage to effectively strike out at Dimble.

Alex meted out severe punishment to the dragon with a scorching ray. Dimble used the wand to blast the dragon one more time, as Rick and Bob flew into battle in earnest. The dragon again attacked Rick, nearly felling him with her vicious bite. Bob landed a final, killing blow against the poor creature as George was pummeled unconcious by the mushroom man in a single, devestating blow. Dimble ran to protect Rick's back from this new threat.

Realizing Dimble's peril, Alex killed the mushroom man with his final bit of combat magic while Rick escaped to safety. With what strength they had remaining, the party finished their grizly task of killing off the unnatural creatures. By their count, there were as many as two hundred that might already have hatched.

After some more discussion, the party decided that this evil room could not be left intact. Holy water was sprinkled around the room. Dimble used the wand of flaming hands repeatedly to set the trees ablaze. The party then left the room and sealed the door behind them.

Exhausted, the party collapsed outside the door to rest.

Bob, Alexander, and 'Cyn took first watch, as the rest of the party lay down to begin the recovery process. Part way through their watch, Bob heard several kobolds coming down the dark hallway.

"Pssst! I hear noises," whispered Bob.

"What's it sound like?" whispered 'Cyn.

"Kobolds," whispered Bob in reply, "I'll scout ahead a bit."

Bob moved forward about thirty feet and pressed himself back against the unnaturally black walls, and stood in silent amazement as the kobolds walked by without noticing him.

There were five of the wretched creatures - As the last one passed, Bob cast a "dancing Lights" right on the nose of the first in line. Blinded, the first kobold yelped. The others looked towards the sudden bright light, and were also nearly blinded.

Bob attacked the last in line, just as 'Cyn let loose a bolt from her crossbow. The lead kobold died with a bolt through the neck, while the last died a grizly death upon Bob's sword. Alexander finished off two more with magic missiles. The remainng creature ran quickly away, screaming confused gibberish about wil o' whisps.

Throughout all this ruckus, the remainder of the party slept soundly. 'Cyn volunteered to keep the next watch while the party rested. She placed a candle at the location of the kobold's bodies, and backed down the hallway to watch. Midway through the shift, the candle began to flicker, and then went out.

"Psst. Bob. The candle went out," 'Cyn whispered, poking him in the ribs.

Together they listened for signs of life, but the only sound they heard was Bob's yelp as a sword came down upon his mail shirt.

Suddenly, in their midst were several Duergar, their invisibility dispersed due to their actions. Bob and 'Cyn yelled for help as they rolled out of the way of the dark dwarves' weapons. Battle was met, and as quickly as swords were drawn, battle began near the back of the party as well - the Duergar had infiltrated their ranks!

A desparate but quiet battle was fought by all but Rick, who was so exhausted that he slept through the entire thing. The dark dwarves were soon defeated, even though they had the initial advantage of surprise. One of the Duergar, hearing Bob's intimidating yells of spleen-ownership and Alexander's even more intimidating claims of being a ghost kobold, ran screaming away from the battle, leaving a sour smell behind him.

Towards the end of the battle, Rick suddenly awoke, fully healed and with all spells ready. He immediately healed George and Bob to the best of his ability and began telling the party that time was still pressing. Bob, too, told of his feeling that the evil was not yet dispersed.

The party began gathering themselves up to carry on, when they noticed that the door behind them had been opened. After some inspection, it was decided that the pitons had been pulled by one of the Duergar.

Holding his breath, Alexander looked into the room to see that all the vegetation had been destroyed by the fire, and the smoke was still thick. He closed the door and George hammered the pitons back into place, sealing the door behind them.

The group headed back down the hallway, turning back to the left. They followed their path back to the red-carpeted room where they had killed the winged kobolds earlier, and took stock of their situation. They had cleared the room, and there were no further clues to be found, so they trecked up the hallway and found another room. The entire group had misgivings about this large room. It appeared to be about one-hundred feet long by about sixty feet wide, with five large pillars running down either side. Sensing a trap, Rick threw a rock into the room, only to see it disappear in a flash as it made it about five feet into the room. From somewhere else, in the room, the party heard a clatter.

"Teleportation traps?" asked Rick.

"Not sure, wait a second," said Alexander as he began detecting magic. "I see a regular grid on the floor, it seems to make planes that go nearly to the ceiling. There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid them, and I can't dispel magic."

"Hmmm..." pondered George, "what should we do?"

"I vote we head back and check out some of the other places we've passed up at this point," replied Bob.

"I agree," said Rick, "I don't like this. I wish I had a body to throw in there."

"What?" asked Alexander incredulously.

"Look," replied Rick, "we think things are teleporting, but we don't know if it would kill living beings - or if there's some nasty critter back there waiting to eat whoever gets teleported in. I'd like to toss a live kobold through there and see if he survives."

"Well," responded Alexander, "that makes sense in a strange sort of way. We've not got any bodies, though."

"Agreed," said Rick, "Maybe we'll find some should we find that this is the only way out."

With that, the party began heading back the way from which they came, until they came to a short corridor to the left. At the end of this corridor, they found two doors, one on the right, and a sturdy, iron-bound door on the left.

After a quick check, 'Cyn delcared it locked and began trying to pick the lock.

"Shit!" 'Cyn whispered, as she nearly broke her picks. The picks made enough noise to echo down the hallway. Inside the room, the party heard some movement.

"Who's there?" came a voice from behind the door!

Bob began scraping at the door. In a high-pitched draconic he began to scream "let me in! Let me in! They're coming! Help!"

Rick smiled and stood ready while Alexander joined in in high-pitched undercommon, "Help, help! Let us in!"

From the other side of the door, the party heard a low grumbling, "Damned kobolds, go away! We're tired of your ilk!"

Bob and Alexander continued their act, screaming like hysterical kobolds until they heard the door begin to open.

"Damn it, what is the reason for this..." said the voice, as Rick bull-rushed into the room, aiming for a dark figure near the back of the room. Rick suddenly collided with an invisible Duergar. Both fell to the floor, momentarily stunned. In the room were six dark dwarves, five of whom suddenly began to enlarge!

As the Duergar closed for attack, Rick rolled back through the doorway, where Bob and George met their attacks. Protected by his friends, Rick managed to slide to safety and pick himself up from the floor.

The enemy's leader was quickly beaten down under the blows of Rick, Bob, and George. While dark dwarves hit much harder in their enlarged size, that same size proved to be a tactical blunder, as only one could fit through the doorway at a time, making them easy work for the party.

As the battle continued, 'Cyn and Alexander continued to pelt the Duergar with ranged weapons and Dimble used his Bard song to lift the party's spirits.

"What the hell?" cried 'Cyn, as she began flailing around towards the rear of the party.

"What's going on? OW!" cried Alexander as a suddenly visible Duergar tried to stab him in the back, glancing across his ribs, instead. Dimble moved to help with this new threat to the party's rear, and soon the dark dwarf was surrounded and badly hurt by 'Cyn's devastating back-stabbing skills. The dark dwarf tried to escape, but this gave 'Cyn and Dimble one last opportunity to attack - they felled the evil dwarf quickly.

Towards the front, the party felled another dark dwarf. Rick and Bob quickly pulled the door shut and used a piton to stake the door shut.

One of the dark dwarves was not dead, so the party bound him up.

"Looks like we've got your body, here, Rick," said Alexander with a chuckle.

"Great," said Rick, who looked badly beaten. "Give me a minute to rest," he said, as he sat down in the hallway.

The rest of the party watched in horror as Rick pulled out some as-yet unidentified potions. After smelling and tasting them, he said "I can't tell what they are. I'm in such bad shape, though, I'm willing to just try them." With that, he downed the first potion.

Alexander cringed as Rick quaffed the first potion, but the effect was immediately visible. Rick looked enormously better. He then quaffed the second potion, and handed the third to George, who was also badly beaten. The risk had paid off, and both were nearly fully healed.

The party prepared to enter the opposing door.

'Cyn found the door to be trapped, and nearly lost some fingers as she failed to disable the device - a sharp blade whizzed past her hand, making her eyes get big. "The trap is disabled," she said.

That looked like it coulda hurt," agreed Bob.

'Cyn rolled her eyes and replied "At least I got it unlocked."

Bob pushed the door open and entered what appeared to be a small storeroom. Immediately apparent was a large chest - taller than Bob by some amount. Behind the chest was a shelf with what appeared to be several scrolls. Several large barrels lined the walls of the room.

Alex walked over to the scrolls while 'Cyn began checking the chest for traps.

Suddenly, a Duergar became visible as he stuck his knife in Alexander's back. Alexander screamed in pain, and jumped to the side, while 'Cyn turned to meet this new threat. Bob barged into the room to help defend the pair, as the door bhind the party suddenly Burst into splinters! The dark dwarves still in the room had managed break the door open, and were attacking from behind! Rick, George, and Dimble sprang into action to protect the party's rear.

Bob worked his way into combat in the storeroom as another dark dwarf became suddenly visible. 'Cyn had her hands full as Alexander unleashed a magic missile into his attacker.

'Cyn was repeatedly unsuccessful in her attempts to deal some damage to the evil dwarves, but Bob more than made up for this. Alexander usuccessfully tried to move from harm's way, but fell under dark dwarves' blows. Enraged, 'Cyn successfully stabbed Bob's foe in the back, causing him to crumple to his knees. Bob finished him off and battle was met with the final Duergar in the storeroom. Meanwhile, 'Cyn did her best to bind Alexander's wounds.

Outside the storeoom, in the hallway, the battle raged fiercely on. Dimble began hurling insults at enlarged Duergar that came running down the hallway to join their companions.

"Come meet your Gnomish God!" he cried, as the lead Duergar missed hitting him. "Is that the best you can do," he yelled, as he dodged yet another attack. The dark dwarf was enraged, and continually focused his efforts on the noisy Gnome, as George meted out blow after blow.

Meanwhile, Rick finally finished off the last Duergar from the previously locked room, and turned to join the battles behind him. In an attempt to infuriate the enlarged Duergar and take pressure off the front-line fighters, he used one of the evil holy symbols to scratch... himself.

Bob finished off the last dark dwarf in the storeroom and also came to George and Dimble's aid.

"Surrender or die as fodder to the might of Glittergold!" Dimble cried as the first Duergar went down under George's blows.

"Convert to the greatness of Glittergold or die!" screamed Dimble, as the next Duergar's blow nearly knocked him from his feet. "Caw! You hit like a girl!" yelled Dimble at the enlarged dwarf. "Take that!" he yelled again, as he buried his spear into the enlarged dwarf's shin.

The Duergar neatly missed a shield bash in Dimble's direction, just as Bob came up from behind. "You're in trouble now, you big sissy," yelled Dimble, "the rest of my clan is coming for you! Kneel down before your Gnomish God or die!"

The Duergar became even more infuriated as Dimble sat down against a wall and put his hands behind his head. His taunting did not stop. "See, I told you so!" Dimble cried as Bob severed the last dark dwarf's femoral artery - bringing him to a swift end.

"Having fun, Dimble?" asked Bob.

"It's about time you showed up, I think he broke a bunch of my ribs," Dimble replied, "I think one more blow would've done me in... I need a better weapon."

With the Duergar all down, the group headed back to the storeroom, where 'Cyn was busy picking the lock on the Chest. "I found a very elaborate trap - it involves this potion." She handed it to Rick. "Maybe we'll find them useful, later - if they're used in a trap, they can't be good for you."

"No doubt," agreed Rick, "What's in the box?"

"Well, there's this," she said as she handed him a small box.

"Just this, in that huge chest?" storeroom.

"Well, there's this," 'Cyn said as she opened the chest the rest of the way.

The rest of the party stared in awe at would later be counted out to over six-thousand gold pieces and three-thousand silver, along with various other things made of precious metals.

While the party divied up the loot, Alexander went through the scrolls. The first crumbled to dust in his hands, but some care and a "read magic" spell showed them to be useful for later.

Finally, Rick and Dimble identified most of the potions as healing types, and handed them out appropriately. Further searching showed nothing else worth keeping, and the party began to discuss what to do next.

"What now?" asked Bob.

"Well, we're all in some stages of hurt," replied Rick, "and I'm all out of healing... We could sure use some rest."

"I can agree with that," said Dimble, "but where? The hallway's no good, and there's no room in here."

"Do the hinges on this door match up with the hinges on the broken door across the hall," asked Alexander, "If so, we can maybe just swap the doors."

"That's a good idea!" agreed Rick, "Let's check it out!"

"Don't act so surprised," said Alexander jokingly.

The doors did, indeed match, so George and Rick moved the storeroom door over to the other side of the hallway. The party used their pitons to seal the door behind them, set up their watch order, and began to rest.

Eight hours later, still with a feeling of urgency, the party emerged from the room and travelled to the only hallway they had not yet explored. They passed through the final hallway without incident, and soon came to a set of double doors set into the inky black stone. From the other side of the doors could be heard the chanting of several voices.

'Cyn quickly checked the door and found it to be neither trapped nor locked. As she moved to the back of the party, Bob, George, and Rick quietly pushed the doors open.

The entire party was simultaneously amazed and horrified by the contents of the room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were a pulsing mass of the flesh of many different species - here a beating heart, there a breathing lung, many kinds of skin, fur, and scales were stretched over portions of the mass, and it all seemed to be alive. In the center of the room stood a large altar - this also was made of living flesh, and had a live Duergar laid on top - he was being sacrificed! To either side of the altar were large candelabras. Surrounding the altar were four winged kobolds, and several regular kobolds, all chanting along with what appeared to be a kobold priestess.

George ran into the room and entered battle with one of the kobolds, hoping to break up the ceremony. It did not work, however, and the ceremony continued. He gasped in horror as the candelabra began hopping towards him - it was the deformed shape of a live kobold!

As the sacrificial Duergar was sucked into the altar, it began turning like a spit. The room began to vibrate and hum as things seemed to get blurry.

"Shit," said Alexander, "I think we might be plane shifting!"

Rick threw the potion from the trap at the altar. As the glass shateered, a large green acid fog surrounded the creatures in the room. Coughing, George worked his way back out of the fog, and continued battle with the kobold.

Alexander summoned monsters for help, and three large badgers appeared behind the kobolds. They imediately pressed forward to attack the kobolds, dealing out vicious wounds.

The kobold priestess flew over the altar to attack the party, but was immediately knocked down by two of Alexanders magic missiles. The rest of the kobolds pressed to the doorway to attack Bob and Rick. All of them were gasping and choking in the poisonous fog.

The kobolds fell, one after another and Rick hurried to help George, who was being overwhelmed. Skirting the slowly disipating fog, he neatly skewered one of George's adversaries. Several of the kobolds and one of the candelabras finished off the last remaining badger, and retreated further into the room - into a near corner that could not be seen well from the doorway.

"Holy shit!" screamed Bob as he finished off his last enemy, "Look at that spider!"

In the corner of the room, being held at bay by the acid cloud, was a twenty foot tall spider. The hideous monstrosity had ichor drooling fromits fangs, and appeared to be anticipating the taste of the various party members - just as soon as the fog went away.

"Let me see," said Alexander as he pushed his way forward. Alexander noticed that all of the remaining enemies had, through some twist of fate, lined up in their attempt to escape the cloud. He pulled one of his newly acquired scrolls from his robes and read it, casting a massive lightning bolt into the crowd. All the enemies, spider included dropped dead, their throes adding to the quivering of the fleshy room.

George finished off his last adversary, and the party carefully entered the room and waited for the fog to finally clear. When it did, Rick began chopping the altar apart with his sword. At one point, the altar actually reached out and grabbed him.

"Holy crap," he yelped, as he tore himself free, "I'm not goin' anywhere near that thing again! Alexander! Got any fire left in that stick of yours?"

Alexander used up several charges from the wand of flaming hands to destroy the altar and the room. When it looked as though the room would actually die from the horrendous damage they inflicted, the party took a quick look around for anything of value. 'Cyn collected a magic "Kris style" knife, and there were more gold holy symbols, but otherwise there was little worth keeping.

The party retreated back to the place of their last rest. The gods seemed to still be pressing them, so they rested the minimum amount of time to gain some healing.

After eight hours, the healers cast healing magics. Even though the party was not fully healed, they pressed on to the teleporter room, three duergar bodies in tow. Alexander arranged their bodies into obscene sexual positions and hurried to follow allong.

Entering the doorway to the teleporter room, George and Rick threw one of the Duergar bodies into the teleportation field. Off to the left, out of sight, they heard a loud "thump!" They threw the next body a slightly different direction, and heard another loud thump - this time it seemed to be a bit closer. They threw the last body into the room and heard a final thump - this time off to the right.

"Well," said Alexander, "Satisfied?"

"No," replied Rick, "it appears to be a teleporter all right, but we can't see what they're telporting into. For all we know, there could be another one of those giant spiders back there gobbling them up after they hit the floor. Also, smell that ozone smell? We can't tell if we'd get hurt by stepping into the fields."

"You've got a point there," agreed Bob. "I can't vouch for whether or not we'd get hurt, but how 'bout I move a dancing lights around. If we're all quiet, we might here anything that's surprised, and we might also be able to see any critters."

"Good idea," agreed Rick.

With that, Bob mentally commanded the lights to travel around the room on both sides of the pillars. No noises were heard, and nothing was seen.

"Awww, screw this," said Dimble impatiently, as he stepped into the field. He suddenly reappeared just to the party's left, at the nearest pillar. "Well, that was unexpected," he said as he walked towards the party. He immediately teleported back to the spot in which he had just been standing.

"Well, it doesn't hurt, anyway," he said, "I'm going to look around a bit and map out the field locations." With that, Dimble cast a detect magic and carefully looked around the room. "There are ten areas in the room, all surrounded by fields. The doorway you are in is one of them, the doorway at the far end is another, and the room itself is evenly split into eight areas."

"Hrmph," replied Rick, "Well, here goes!" Rick disappeared from sight as he stepped into the teleporter.

From the back right corner of the room, Rick's voice could be heard: "Shit! Kobolds!"

George, Bob, and Dimble jumped into teleporter fields. They kept jumpng into fields until they fell into combat - George and Bob arrived next to Rick and began hewing into a group of kobold elites. Dimble appeared across the room from the rest of the fighters, just behind a kobold mage and his two elite bodyguards.

The mage hit Rick with a magic missile while Dimble whiffed his backstab and alerted the mage to his presence. He was thoroughly surprised as the mage turned to meet him - this was the same kobold that escaped from them in the early parts of this dungeon! He landed a blow on the mage, disrupting his spellcasting, and deftly avoided the blows of his attackers.

The fighters were busy with the kobold elites in their corner of the room. It seemed that they were nearly impervious to the party's weapons, and dealt out heavy blows. The battle raged, but the kobolds finally started to fall as Alexander's magic missiles began to pummel them. Three of the kobolds broke free from the fight and began the teleportation journey to attack Alexander and 'Cyn.

In the meantime, the red imp reappeared, right next to Alexander. "I told you we'd return," called Alexander.

"Yes, and you are interfering with my plans!" the imp replied.

Alexander failed to avoid the imp's sting, and his leg began to burn as the poison coursed through his veins. "Why don't you come with me and be my familiar" asked Alexander.

"It is a tempting offer you make," replied the imp, "but you are not ready, yet. Maybe some other day when you are more powerful!"

Alexander zapped the imp with two more magic missiles, while 'Cyn skewered the imp with a crossbow bolt. The imp hissed at them, and tryed to flank them. As he did so, 'Cyn managed to unleash a nearly death-dealing blow to the imp. The imp hissed and fled down the hallway.

Meanwhile, Dimble fought valiantly on until he was overcome by the mage's escorts. They left him for dead in the corner, unconcious and slowly bleeding to death. The mage then turned his attention to the fighters, and summoned several more creatures to the battle

The three fighters fought valiantly, whittling the elite's numbers down to two, when suddenly the mage's summoning had them surrounded by four Lemures! To add to their trouble, another kobold elite - this one in very fancy armour teleported into the fray. The fighters hewed into their opponents until George, who was too wounded to carry on, jumped into a teleportation field and escaped.

As their opponents were being whittled down, Rick was sorely hurt by the kobold champion. He was felled as he was drinking a healing potion. Bob poured the rest into his mouth, and he was instantly concious and fighting from the floor.

A wounded kobold elite jumped away into a teleportation field, only to find himself face-to face with George, where he met his sudden, untimely death. Bob and Rick battled on, finishing off the Lemures.

The kobold mage cast a spell on himself, as three kobolds attacked 'Cyn and Alexander back in the entrance hallway. Alexander blasted the group with his wand of flaming hands, searing their flesh under their armor. The kobolds howled with rage as 'Cyn managed to tumble through their group and into the teleportation field.

The three kobolds were brought up short when Alexander told them in desparation; "Surrender or I'll break the wand." The kobolds piled onto Alexander, forcing him to the ground as he broke the wand on the back of his tackler's armor. Nothing happened. With his arms pinned and no other recourse, he cast a "flare" spell into the eyes of his opponents, dazzling them long enough for him to jump up and run into the teleportation field.

Rick and Bob had dropped the last kobold elite, just as 'Cyn and Alexander appeared behind them. 'Cyn began concentrating on the Lemure as Alexander sent magic missiles into the mage's escorts. The mage returned fire with his own volley of missiles, knocking Alexander unconcious.

Rick ran into a teleportation field - "I'm coming for you," he yelled to the kobold mage. Luckily, he reappeared right next to the kobold, and hewed into him. He blocked an attack by the escorts, and dispatched one of them to his doom.

"Stay away!" screamed the kobold mage, as Rick again dodged an onslaught of blows from the remaining escort. The mage and his escort ran into the telportation field and disappeared. Rick hurried to Dimble to stabalize his wounds.

Bob and 'Cyn had the kobold champion flanked, and 'Cyn dealt out crushing blows with her newly found knife, as she backstabbed the vile beast. As she was readying another violent attack, she felt all the muscles in her body contract as she was nearly electrocuted. Three frightened shock lizards had come down from the ceiling, and were zapping everything in the viscinity!

Rick Ran up and killed one of the lizards as George watched the kobold mage and his escort appear in the doorway and run away into the darkness. With a final swing of his sword, Bob dropped the kobold champion, and turned his full attention on lizards. The lizards let out a much weaker shock as Rick wounded the second of the three. With that, the lizards scampered away, leaving the party behind.

Rick went back to the corner and sat down with Dimble, blood flowing freely from their wounds. Rick finished patching up Dimble and then turned his attention to his own wounds. George and Bob worked their way through the teleporters while 'Cyn carried in Alexander. Once the party was abck together, 'Cyn gathered up all that was worth keeping and began setting up a trap around the spot where an enemy might teleport in.

"I'm gonna have to rest here for at least a full day," said Rick, "I'm about as beat as I've ever been."

"Yeah, I'm feeling pretty down, too," said Bob, while binding Alexanders wounds, "I think we nearly all died, here. It'd be pretty stupid of us to forge on in anything less than perfect condition."

With that, the party left 'Cyn to sit watch for a while, as she was only lightly wounded - everyone else was near death. After eight hours, the clerics cast healing magic evenly about the party, and went back to sleep. After twenty-four hours, the entire party was healed and rested - in fact, they all felt that this was the safest they had been since they'd entered this dungeon over a month ago.

While resting, Alexander had plenty of time to study the magic teleportation fields in the room. By the time the group was fully rested and healed, he believed he had figured out a pattern in the fields, allowing him to predetermine where someone would reappear when stepping into them. With this knowledge, the party quickly made it to the exit doors.

Openeing the doors, the party could see a wide, dark hallway with much odd-looking rubble strewn throught it. The rubble seemed out of place, as the hallway was in excellent shape.

"Bring me the some kobold bodies," said Rick.

"Huh," cried 'Cyn.

"This doesn't feel right," answered Rick, "where did all the rubble come from, when the hallway is in such good shape? It'd take us forever to check this out for traps - I say let's just set them off on purpose!"

Alexander and Bob agreed with this assesment, and the party went back to retrieve a few kobold corpses. Rick and George began hurling their bodies further into the rubble. As the party slowly made progress through the rouble, they began to notice that the debris was beginning to look like body parts.

"Look here," cried Alexander, "this looks like an ankle!"

George and Rick stopped their grisly task and began sifting through the rubble. "Here's a hand," said Rick.

"Here's an arm," agreed George.

"Crap," said Rick, "Do you suppose these were statues, or something worse?"

"Worse?" asked Bob.

"Yeah, like maybe... A basilisk?" answered Rick.

"Or a Medusa?" said Alexander with a shudder.

"You guys're just bastions of good cheer," said Bob.

"Well, we know we can't get out any other way," said Rick, "I guess we keep moving forward."

As they moved further down the hallway, one or two of the statues were nearly whole. Finally, Rick stopped and looked back at Alexander. "Do you suppose that if these are people who have been turned to stone, their clothes would be separate from their bodies? I mean, maybe we could chip off some clothing & find the arm underneath - then we'd know if these were really people, or merely statues."

Alexander thought about it for a bit and then replied, "I honestly don't know, but I do have a scroll of stone to flesh, here. I picked it up back in the storeroom. I suppose we can find out."

"That's a good idea," said Rick, "and if they turn out to be real people, then we might find some idea about what happened here and what might lie ahead. The question is which should we try this on?"

"That one," said Dimble, pointing to a statue that appeared to be trying to put a lid on a scroll case.

"Which one," asked Rick, "and why?"

"I recognize their clothing," Dimble replied, "they are wearing the insignia of the army of St. Cuthbert. That one is a sergeant."

Alexander read his scroll over the sergeant, half expecting it to be a waste of his scroll. Slowly, the statue turned from dark marble to dark skin.

"Huh? Where's my scroll? Who are you? Where are my men?" cried the dark man in an ancient dialect of common.

"You were turned to stone," replied Alexander, "we just turned you back. Who are you?"

"I am Goth, Goth Tallman," the sergeant replied. "What is going on here?"

"As I said," replied Alexander as he pointed to the remaining statues, "you were turned to stone."

"I remember... A great Medusa!" cried Goth. Looking at one of the broken statues he cried "that man is my guidon bearer! Can we not do anything for him?"

"I'm afraid not," replied Alexander, "he is broken - if we were to change him back, he would quickly die again."

"This is horrible, how will we defeat Tsothzar Rho?" cried Goth.

"Wait!" replied Rick, "did you say Tsothzar Rho?"

"Yes, Tsothzar Rho - he has set himself up as an evil power. Cuthbert was leading us in battle when we saw the Medusa! We must come to his aid!

"What?" cried the party in unison, "What's this about St. Cuthbert?"

"He was our leader, he is leading our armies to defeat Tsothzar Rho. His cause is righteous and Holy, and we must defeat Tsothzar quickly, before his power grows!"

"Let me get this straight," replied Dimble, "you know Saint Cuthbert?"

"Yes, I do, personally," replied Goth, "and why do you keep calling him saint?"

"Brace yourself... He has ascended to godhood," replied Dimble.

"He has?" replied Goth, "Oh.. My.. We always knew he was bound for greatness, but godhood? So soon? How is this possible?"

"I've got more bad news for you," Dimble, "that was at least four-thousand years ago."

"Surely you jest!" cried Goth, "four-thousand years?" Goth's face began to show various emotions, moving from wonder, to horror, and then to despair. "My family. Gone. My friends. Also gone. What of Tsothzar Rho?"

"Well," replied Alexander, "we have been battling kobolds and dark dwarves for a couple of weeks, now - they claim to be worshipping him. Do you know anything of this?"

"No, I know not of these kobolds of which you speak," replied Goth, "what do they look like?"

"Now," replied Dimble, "they look much like bipedal lizards, but their ancestors looked more dog-like. Their language still resembles that of a barking dog."

"I know nothing of such creatures," replied Goth, "But I must continue my mission to defeat Tsothzar Rho. I will help you for now. After, I do not know."

"Well," said Alexander jokingly, "We will take you to a temple after all is done, and maybe you can help them write new scriptures for the Cuthbert Bible."

"Don't make light of Cuthbert," replied Goth, "He was truly a great man!"

"He was just trying to ease your spirits," interjected Rick, "he was not making fun of Cuthbert, but letting you know we are here for you for now. Welcome to our group."

With that, the party sat with Goth for a couple hours, filling him in on recent history and how they had come to bring him back to life.

After Goth had been brought up on current events, the party continued on. The dark hallway soon ended at a set of double doors. Listening closely, they could hear what sounded something like waves crashing on the beach.

"Maybe we've found the way out!" cried 'Cyn, "I'm tired of being in this place!"

"Hold up," said Rick, "That doesn't sound quite like water, and we need to check the door for traps.

"Yeah, I supopse you're right," agreed 'Cyn. She checked the door and soon found what looked like five needles that were set to spring out and puncture whomever might spring the trap. Working carefully, she managed to disable the trap. "Got it," she said, "The doors're not locked, either."

Rick had noticed that the sound of crashing waves was very regular, almost exactly one minute between crashes. "Wait for the wave to hit, and then open the doors - we'll have about a minute to check out what's on the other side."

The crashing subsided, and George and Goth opened the doors. Rick looked out into a dimly-lit, hexagonal room. The room was about twenty feet in height, and one-hundred feet wide. It was filled about two feet deep with what appeared to be blood. The blood seemed to be contained by a barrier, as it did not flow into the hallway - even though its surface was well above the door sill. Forming on the far end was a wave the went floor to ceiling and was headed towards the party.

"Close the door," said Rick, and the doors were closed.

"Shit," said Rick, who then described what he saw to the rest of the party.

After some discussion, the group decided to wedge the doors open and stand behind them - this way, when the wave came crashing into the hallway, the deluge would not carry them away. After the next crash, the doors were hurriedly opened and pitons were hammered into place to act as stops. Kobold spears were also placed to further brace the doors. The party memebrs stood behind the doors as the next wave impacted the doorway.

"Well," said Rick as several gallons of blood slopped onto the floor, "That was anticlimactic. I expected a lot more to come through - the barrier must go nearly to the top of the doorway."

Nevertheless, the party waited several minutes while more blood waves crashed through the doorway. After a bit, Alexander spoke up, "Do you notice someting?"

"What's that," asked Rick.

"The floor - this black stone seems to be drinking the blood," said Alexander, "there's been enough sloshed into here to be a lot more than this puddle."

"I think maybe you're right," agreed Rick, "Let's check out this barrier for a bit." With that, rick broke one of his stirge's bite arrows and stuck it effortlessly through the barrier. Blood began to flow freely through the arrow and add to the puddle on the floor. As the next wave approached, he and Alexander moved back behind the doors.

After the wave had passed, the party began making preparations to enter the room - a door could be seen to the far left side, and they had also caught glimpses of what also appeared to be another set of double doors across the room. The group tied a robe between themselves, and the gnomes rode up on the backs of the fighters.

"Well, here goes," said Rick, shuddering as he stepped into the thigh-high blood. He noticed little bits of what appeared to be skin and hair floating in the pool, much to his disgust. As the party moved into the room, the wave pushed rick up into the ceiling, smacking him hard. Bob fell loose and also banged his head.

Alexander managed to remain on his feet. As he was able to clear the blood off of his face, he saw a small blue creature trying to cut the rope connecting him to Rick. A magic missile sent the creature flying away, a string of verbal abuse floating back to his ears.

Rick and Bob both managed to land on their feet, and saw a large, white dragon-kin kobold appear in the middle of the room. Behind, the rest of the party was still dealing with the blood-wave. Alex looked up and saw the dragon-kin, as well "Oh, shit!" he cried, "Rick! Look out!"

Rick took a golden ball from the necklace he had found in the storeroom and tossed it at the dragon-kin. A large fireball engulfed an area twenty feet in radius from the monster, hurting it badly. The creature looked mad as the fire cleared. Several kobold corpses floated up from the blood, as several live kobolds appeared about the edges of the fireball's effect. Bob ran into battle with the creatures, as they moved in to surround the party.

Behind the battle, George and Dimble were knocked down, while Goth and 'Cyn were pushed up towards the ceiling. 'Cyn successfully flipped, landing with her feet on the ceiling, and then pushed off - descending onto the back of one of the kobold attackers. She whiffed a stab at the vile creature, but then successfully stuck her magic knife in it's back, killing it instantly.

Towards the front, Alexander cast a scorching ray into the large dragon-kin, hurting it further. Bob failed to harm the creature, and took a severe pounding for his efforts. Bob ducked under the blood as Rick tossed another golden bead, blasting several more kobolds and the dragon-kin. Bob was hurt by the blast, but the blood-lake seemd to absorb a bit of the blow, keeping him from serious harm.

George lept to his feet and pressed his attack against an approaching kobold. Goth finished the vile creature by crushing its skull with his heavy mace. Bob went down under an onslaught of attacks from the enraged dragon-kin, while Alexander hit an attacking kobold with a magic missile. Rick tossed his last golden bead into the fray, and destroyed the remaining enemies.

Rick grabbed up Bob, and the party hurried back out the door from which they had come. The healers patched up the party, and then the group took stock of their situation.

"If we hurry," said Rick, "we should be able to make it over through that side door before the next wave approaches."

The group hurriedly prepared and began running accross the room as soon as the current wave broke over the doorway. They ran as quickly as they could through the blood-lake, and burst through the side door into a hallway, just as the large wave passed them by.

Gapsing for breath, they untied themselves, and began following the hallway. They soon came to a very ornate set of doors. Listening, they hear nothing bhind the doors. 'Cyn checked for traps and delcared the doors both safe and unlocked.

The healers of the party expended the last of their healing magic to help out the fighters. As close to fully healed as they could be, they opened the doors to find... Nothing. To the other side was a room made of that eerie black stone they had seen so much of. In the center of the room, they could see some faintly glowing runes on the floor.

Bob quickly cast a dancing lights into the room. Moving it forward, it came across a large, obsidian altar in the middle of the room, nearly fifty feet in.

Alexander and Rick quickly created a flaming arrow from a normal arrow and a torch head. Rick let it fly to the altar, and nothing could be seen.

"The room's empty?" asked Bob incredulously.

"Kind of anticlimactic," agreed Dimble.

The group cautiously entered the room and began to look around. Suddenly, all but Rick and Alexander fell to the floor.

"Crap!" exclaimed Alexander.

"Yeup." agreed Rick.

The two approached the altar, until they came to a large circle. On the floor was drawn a circled pentagram in blood. Alexander stopped to examine the magic writings that were beginning to glow.

"SoOo. I see you made it," said the red imp that suddenly appeared on the altar.

"Didn't I promise you we'd be back?" asked Alexader.

"Indeed you did. I'm impressed."

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to be my famliar?"

"No, I don't think so. I owe my... Alegiance to Sothzar Rho right now." With that, the imp made a gesture and many zombies began appearing from the darkness. The looked slightly famliar to the two remaining party members, as they were created from the scores they had earlier killed. "I am done here, for now," said the imp as he fell over unconcious.

Meanwhile, the remaining party memebers found themselves in a desolate place. All about, as far as they could see was a wide-open landscape with a barren, rocky ground and a blood-red sky. Not dar away, they could see several lemures comeing their way. Beyond, several more were scraping at a large, green object. The object looked similar to an oniion in shape, large and bulbous, but it was mucousy and green - it writhed as if in some sort of pain.

"What the?" Goth began.

"Crap," agreed Dimble, "Where's Rick and Alexander?"

"Uh uh uh uh," stammered 'Cyn, who was now looking at a black dragon-kin that was standing where George used to be.

The black dragon-kin looked at 'Cyn and cocked its head as if in some form af faint recognition. Then it licked its chops and began to salivate.

"Those lemures behind are doing something to that thing," said Bob, "either they're helping it, and we should kill them, or it'll be an ally, and we should kill them." With that, he sent an arrow into their midst.

Cyn quickly pulled a large gem from her poke, and gave it to the black dragon-kin. The dragon-kin looked at the stone, and then back at 'Cyn. 'Cyn began pointing over towards the approaching lemures. "Over there! Danger!" she cried, and fired her crossbow into the approaching ranks.

The dragon-kin got the idea and turned to face the attackers. It immediately breathed a stream of acid into the attacking host - to no effect.

Dimble began singing a song of triumph and glory as he and the rest of the group waded into battle. 'Cyn feared to move from her spot, but fired volley after volley into the enemy ranks as the fighters brandished weapons and closed for melee.

Alexander studied the runes frantically. "There's a protection spell, a summoning spell, and some other stuff in there," he said, "Right now, only the summoning spell is activated - I'm going to try to reverse it or break it!"

Rick looked around and saw that they were rapidly being surrounded by zombies. "Shit. I didn't want to use this stuff, because it's so valuable. But, better poor than dead!" he exclaimed as he broke a puch full of dust of disappearance over his head.

The approaching zombies took no notice of Rick as he scampered out of their way. Alexander realizing his peril tried to break the chain of the magic writing. As he did, however, blood flowed up from the floor to repair any damage he did to the spell. "Shit! I can't seem to reverse it!" Alexander suddenly disappeared as Rick broke another bag of dust of disappearance over his head.

With nothing left to attack, the zombies rambled over to the unconcious party members, and began to chew on various bits - a leg here, an arm there. Alexander cast a burning hands on some nearby zombies while Rick rushed to the altar and performed a coup de grace on the sleeping imp, severing its head neatly. "Dammit, he's not key to the spell, either!"

The party was fully engaged with the first rank of lemures. Dimble tumbled past their flank and began to strike at the creatures attacking the quivering, green thing. Upon closer inspection, the thing looked like it was getting bigger - almost as if something might be growing inside. "Kneel before the glory that is Glittergold!" he screamed, neatly whiffing a shot against the nearest of the lemures.

Goth, Dragon-George, and Bob were about to finish off the last of the front rank when the imp suddenly appeared next to the bulbous green thing. "I am here to serve you, master!" the imp cried, as it slashed furiously into the quivering, green thing.

An explosion of slippery ichor covered Dimble and an area abot fifteen feet in radius around the green thing. The green thing was no longer there, but instead stood Sothzar Rho, newly born as a god! He looked about and stretched his arms - instead of normal hands, he had three long, sharp fingers. With a quick gesture he summoned a gibberling and two unspeakable horrors!

Rick rushed over to help Alexander protect the unconcious members of the party. The zombies were preoccupied with chewing up bits and pieces, and so were easy to dispatch. Alexander cast a flaming hands and instantly destroyed four, while Rick waded into their midst and handily cut them down. Soon, there were only a couple left, and Alexander was handling them neatly.

Rick hurried over to the altar, and sat down with his back against it, facing the door. "I'm gonna see if I can find our friends!" With that, he went to sleep. Rick suddenly woke up, standing right behind the imp.

Dragon-George sprayed another stream of acid, hitting both the imp and Sothzar Rho. Both yelled in surprise and pain!

"You!" screamed Rick, as he stabbed the imp in the back, nearly dropping it. An arrow flew from 'Cyn's crossbow and neatly skewered the imp's eye. Rick sliced into the imp once more, dealing a killing blow.

Dimble was surrounded by the horrors, and could only shout insults towards Sothzar Rho. 'Cyn kept firing bolts at the god. Goth and Dragon-George were busy with the last few Lemures, ans Bob killed of his opponent and rushed into battle.

Dragon-George spat one last stream of acid onto the new god, causing him some serious pain. The horrors repeatedly stung Dimble to no real effect, as he continued to land small but annoying blows about Sothzar Rho's legs.

As Bob rushed to Dimble's aid, he was stung by one of the horrors! His body began to lose shape, and he appeared to be melting! He continued forward, but was eaten by the gibberling! The newly-born god raked Dimble horribly, nearly knocking him to the ground. The daze gnome continued fighting on valiently!

Rick stepped in and began landing crushing blows on Sothzar Rho, causing him to stumble.

Dimble screamed "You're no match against the power of Glittergold!" He wiffed another attack, and was promptly eaten by the gibberling!

Goth finally finished off his apponent, and moved in to battle with the new god. A crushing blow from his mace sent Sothzar Rho reeling backwards.

The gibberling made some funny noises, and Dragon-George became dazed, bashing randomly at those around him. He landed a crushing blow on Sothzar Rho, then on Goth, then another on Sothzar Rho.

Sothzar Rho realized his peril and began backing away, as another of 'Cyn's bolts stuck into his torso. Rick and Goth pounded Sothzar Rho, landing the killing blows as Dragon-George knocked Goth senseless.

Alexander finished off the last of the zombies, and went back to trying to deciper the spell. His ony thought was to perhaps reverse the summoning to see if it would bring his friends back. Suddenly, the runes changed colors!

As Sothzar Rho lay dying, the world began to get blurry. The gibberling ran away with Rick chasing behind. Soon, Rick caught up and killed off the horrid creature, extracting a dead Dimble and a horribly disfigured bob.

Alexander looked frantically around as the changes in colors resembled an ever-changing rainbow. The colors swirled faster and faster, dazing Alexander. A loud noise seemed to come from everywhere! Suddenly, the world went black!

The world blurred again, and a loud noise descended on the party. The horrors scurried away, and the worl went black. The party woke up in a clearing not far from the original entrance into the ogre cave. George was back to being a person, but there was no Alexander! The party searched the area for a while, but found no trace of him. Dejected about losing their friend, the party slowly made their way back to Terinyo.

Alexander woke up in a caved-in ruin. Sunlight was streaming into the same room - the walls were still mostly intact, but the roof was open to the sky. Vines and moss were growing everywhere, even on the broken altar in the middle of the room. Looking around, Alexander found no sign of his friends. Searching the room, he found some magic items, but nothing else. Carefully, Alexander worked his way from the hillside in which this room was buried, and found his way to a small town. He was about one-hundred miles from Terinyo - it would take him a week to return. He sent a messenger ahead to let the rest of the party know he was all right.

Back in Terinyo, the group had Bob fully restored to health, and Dimble resurrected. Dimble had become fanatic, and decided to raise his own church to the glory of Glittergold. As soon as he was able, he hurried off to find a place to break new ground for his fanatic sect. George, too, said his goodbyes and headed back to his homeland.

The party settled down at the Copper Dragon Inn for a well-deserved rest, and waited for Alexander's return. When he arrived, they would identify all their things. In the meantime, they began preparing for whatever might lie ahead.

This ends Charlie Campaign...