| Session Date | August 14, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | 11500 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party arrived safely in the Dwarf city of Kazakh and made their way to their quarters while Dimbul, full of excitement, ran off to do whatever it is he does (when asked, he respectfully declined an invite to leave the kingdom once again). As they refreshed themselves in their quarters, ZZ sensed that he and the otehrs were being watched. No source of the feeling or obvious danger was detected. A dispel magic did not seem to have an effect. Iban then tried casting identify on the sealed urn but got no indication of what it was. While their runner was sent o request a visit from Nali, Iban scried for the brigand-held sword (finding brigands on foot, moving in the wilderness) and the Ranger Winfrith (he was back in what appeared to be castle or other stone structure, not doing anything particularly interesting). Nali arrived shortly after. He had little new to tell them, but was pleased to hear that the party detected to obvious threats to the city from the nearby dungeon.
Their report made, the party now made a visit to the Stonespear Tavern for a celebratory drink. The place seemed much like other visits, albeit with only Dwarves instead of the more usual and eclectic clientele...save for a lone human. The party approached him and he introduced himself as Jarrik Magnusson, a Maerling from the Dominion Mountains bordering old Lormyrr. He was quite fond of Dwarves and their ale he said; he also had a penchant for fighting giants and thus this seemed like a good place to come to. The party invited him to join their next expedition and he consented gladly.
The next morning the party left Kazakh, taking the Deep Road to Ziglir, a two-day uneventful journey (I skimmed this to avoid "hours of walking" but the Dwarven badges of rank some of the party hold sped them along nicely). After a night in Ziglir, the party resumed their journey, now on the surface where the air was growing chilly even though it remained Brightleaf (October). By the afternoon they reached the fringes of the vast Grand Forest; shortly after, coming to a bridge, they were waylaid by a party of Elven soldiers. The party gave the lesser password (sulrist) and, after explaining the changed makeup of their party, were allowed to pass to the Elven city of Adrambur. Here, like last time, they were put up with few words in a hostel with good food and wine...no money changed hands. The elf city was strange and alien (even to Bel), but clearly of vast wealth and great age (without decay, though). They had not been long when their previous guide, Deomir, appeared. He had been hoping to catch them returning. He had himself returned to Manston and the Elf enclave there, but fled with his master and other elves when the city surrendered to the Giant King, adding something about treachery. Learning the aprty's intent, he offered to come with them as far as the lake to aid them getting passage.
Two more days journey through the alien land of the Kingdom of Neldoreth and the party found themselves in the port town of Sondir. Here, Deomir assisted them in negotiating for passage on a sturdy elf vessel, albeit for 100 gold coins. The next morning, they parted from Deomir who said he hoped to see them again. The ship sailed like it was on glass and the elf kingdom fell away behind them. Not long before dusk, as they could just begin to see the taller buildings of Far Andor, Jarrik descried something large flying on a direct line towards them, soon able to see that it was a dragon. The party asked the Elves if this was normal in this region and, dropping their stoicism with obvious fear, said it was absolutely unheard of for a century or more. As it began to dive towards the small elf ship, ZZ cast prayer while the wizards prepare to loose spells and the archers their arrows, joined by a few of the crew. Iban levitated away and Thunderfist took shelter by jumping out of the ship! Clearly diving to attack, the party loosed their fire at the thing, clearly hurting it but not stopping it as it passed over the ship and let them have it with a great blast of fire that engulfed the entire vessel. A second volley of arrows fell behind it as the dragon continued flying in a straight line, clearly not intending to make a second pass. The party speculated that it was probably badly wounded from arrows and lighting bolts! The ship was still seaworthy but badly damaged, with most of the elf crew slain. The party helped extinguish the many fires and helped get the ship back on course to Far Andor (after retrieving Thunderfist, of course). The party thought this dragon, a middle-sized Red, might be the same as the one that ambushed the Dwarf force near Kazakh earlier in the year, but none of them had actually seen it then. Jarrik did note that this one had a slightly whitish streak on its left flank, which might make identifying it later much easier.
The Elf ship limped to a pier at Far Andor as dark fell. The Elves did not even moor, but simply held there until the party left and then instantly departed without a word more. The local humans were rather amazed to see a party of adventurers delivered by a still-smoking elf ship! The party made their way to the Fortunate Son Tavern (I just made that up -- I usually have these sorts of things all named out but apparently missed this region) where they'd stayed before. The locals were intensely curious, but also full of their own troubles - most about the fall of Manston and the fear that they would be next in the spring. Other rumors swirled about "boiling rivers" and the like. The party, meanwhile, spread a good deal of talk about how they intended to travel to the realm of the Wood Elves to enlist their aid in the larger fight. The locals scoffed and tried to talk the party out of this "action" explaining that the Wood Debatable separated human and elf lands in this region and that the Wood Elves were very hostile to intruders. Of course, it was all subterfuge so the party downplayed such concerns. Being in bad shape all around from the dragon fire, the party spent two nights in Far Andor to rest and recover. During this time, several of them felt the same sense of being watched that ZZ had experienced. Several dispel magic spells failed to break the effect, though nothing further came from it.
Next morning, the party hired a boat to drop them on the east side of the Caron River and then headed out to the east as if striking for Wood Elf territories. Once in the woods and free of prying eyes, they turned north and made their way to the edge of the Silver Hills by nightfall, where they camped, only being disturbed by a few bears rooting around. The next morning, Iban cast invisibility 10' radius on the party and they made their way back to Castle Silver. Some scouting revealed that the intact tower of the place was manned once again. There was some discussion as to whether the secret passage used by the party previously was known (and therefore dangerous) or not. The party slipped past the stone tower and into the shed that was built up against a tall cliff face. Inside, they located the secret trap door and opened it, only to find it crawling with great spiders! Thunderfist shoved the door closed and held it as the spiders scratched and clawed at it, to no effect. After this finally ended, he opened the door quickly so that Iban could jump in and levitate down, oh, after he doused himself with oil and lit it up! Two spiders managed to slip out during this process, one of which bit Knar and poisoned him (a combination of good and bad rolls); ZZ cast slow poison and Mordecai later cured him. Meanwhile, Iban found himself in a passage choked with webs and nearly a score of spiders reluctant to attack him. He proceeded to chop them to mincemeat and cook them off without too much trouble!
Once back in, the party made their way to the room of the iron golems that previously slew Bel. A stand off of sorts developed (the sequence of events is a little confusing to me...a lot of actions and little pauses). The two golems would not leave their main chamber but the party was reluctant to attack them directly. Thunderfist tried by climbing over them to strike with his glaive-guisarm; the golem, however, hit him with a cloud of poison gas that sent him spasming (he was rescued by Mordecai). A monster summoning brought in 2 Displacer Beats to help in the fight, but they did not last long. Worse, the door the things guarded opened at one point and a little marble rolled out towards the party...and exploded, another delayed blast fireball. This killed Thunderfist outright and did a number on everyone else; worse, it healed the golems! Knar webbed that door to prevent further surprises and the party attacked the golems head on (fortunately able to do so one at a time given their method of approach). Although VERY tough, they were eventually slain. This done, the party burned off the web blocking the Lich's apparent lair. ZZ then called forth a force of evil Dwarves with his horn (and paid them handsomely in gems) while Iban sounded his Horn of Valhalla. This force was thrown into the Lich's lair to occupy his attention while the party charged in after. That fight was short. The Lich did not last long without fodder (as wizards are wont to do). Searching, the party found a very, very sizable treasure as well as a number of documents and other bits and pieces. A side room was found to be a lab and contain a number of mummies; the party slammed that door shut and wedged it.
Taking their loot, the party waited for dark and fled to the wilderness... (it was almost 2am and I was losing consciousness, so the last parts are a little vague!!)