| Session Date | July 10, 2015 |
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| Character's in Attendance | |
| Base XP Gained | 895 |
Morsby
The party exited the dungeon via the cavern with the stream. Arduin, not desiring to return to the town, offered to scout the area while he awaited their return. The party was fine with this and headed out without him. As they took the track down to the main road (such as it was) to the bridges, they ran into a party of nine Ogres, who immediately attacked. After an exchange of spears and arrows, a fierce melee ensued that proved to be almost more than the party could handle. Many of the fighters took significant wounds, such that the two thieves felt compelled to join the fray, Drogo by firing arrows and Parker by sneaking behind for a backstab. Parker made a superb strike - only to have the Ogre turn on her and nearly slay her with a single blow. She fled as fast as she could into the woods to escape. After a few minutes, and though things seemed to be turning slightly for the party, several called for Iban to wind the Horn of Valhalla. This he did, as ten Maerling warriors appeared and caused the Ogres to break and run. None survived as the warriors chased them down.
Once across the old dwarf bridge, the party made camp near the ridge they'd stopped near several times and passed the night uneventfully. Next day, they reached Morsby by late afternoon, having made the two thieves invisible again, much to their delight. However, though their purpose was to seek aid for Adoward, they instead opted to attend to some business, namely, carousing. Lune, Iban and Havok went wild for the night (as, apparently, did the thieves in all the confusion). Havok, sadly, invested all his worldy wealth in some sort of "investment" while Iban made such a poor showing that the townspeople have come to view him as little more than a lout and a drunkard, not good companionship to be sure.
The party ended up spending a total of three nights in town to recover from both wounds and revelry. On the first full day, they took Adoward to the Temple of Maladominus. There, the Decian (the head priest of the local church) cast exorcism for a mere 8000 silver. Later, they would learn that this seemed to work, as Adoward did not vanish once more in the night. His serious degradation in health seems permanent, however. The rest of the time in town was given over to rest, some shopping, money changing, and other minor activities. The two thieves also reappeared, apparently pleased with themselves.
When they finally departed, the party was feeling much better than they had in some time, having enjoyed several days of sleep in real beds with hot food and the like. On the road once more, they camped again in the heights between Morsby and the highlands without incident, though at one point they'd seen a flight of wyverns in the distance. Next day, as they crossed the dwarf bridge once again, they found a knot of men appear ahead of them. Clearly brigands, there was only the meagerest parley before the brigands attacked (Iban had pulled a scroll to read, which the miscreants clearly understood the danger of). A slow spell from the scroll hit many of those ahead of the party, but from behind another group appeared and began shooting arrows -- a darkness spell across the other end of the bridge reduced this threat. As the fight went on, the brigands fell fairly easily except a few leaders who were made of tougher stuff. However, in the fight, Rowan was knocked down and stunned, while Adoward (the weakling he now was) dropped his sword and it fell straight off the bridge into the mighty Blueflood below. But, the Brigands were dying rapidly and soon broke, though an officer felt a shortsword in the back from Parker as they did so. Fortunately, Lune's magic ring allowed him to drop into the swift river below and, after some work, he recovered Adoward's magic sword.
The party soon reached the dungeon and found Arduin waiting for them. Now, the full party reentered the dungeon and returned to the third level, where they continued their explorations. After some wandering, they came to a huge, domed room with a flat-topped, conical tower in the center and numerous statues. Before they could explore or examine anything, a strange song wafted through the great room. The Harpy song, as it soon became plain, drew off Iban, Parker, Rowan, Goody, and Adoward who mindlessly ran to climb the central tower as four Harpies descended on them. Havok threw a silence spell atop the tower to break the spell, as the remaining adventurers shot arrows to kill the harpies. However, things became more complicated as a medusa appeared from the north, clearly the source of the many statues. Aldeberon and Lune rushed to hit the medusa while the rest were left to deal with the four harpies. Fortunately, no one was petrified before the medusa was slain. Three harpies were also slain and the fourth driven off. It was a matter of moments only to find the secret door that the medusa had used, and beyond it the party found a goodly treasure, including some potions and a magic longbow.
Pleased, Aldeberon took a moment to burn the medusa body, and the party considered their next actions.