Upon entering Farthis and checking the environs, the party visited the local gin mill looking for, of course, information. Working on this information the party visited The Kleb for an entertaining dinner party. After our interview with The Kleb, Kyril and Flint hopped the wall at the Kleen’s complex in an attempt to reconnoiter the hops gardens with explosive consequences, ending with the party taking shelter inside the Kleen’s house. While hiding the party found a trap door and a hatch among the hops bines and headed below ground. Currently the party is exploring the complex beneath Farthis.

Farthis Tavern and Brewery#

Locals, non-locals and men-at-arms from the caravan.

• Helm Hammerhand
  • drunkenly slurring that he’d been hired by Guldar Heel to locate rare objects/items/ fluids for spell components and experiments these included hobgoblin blood and black dragon acid
  • Guldar Heel always needs materials and components to fight and control demons
  • Trying to collect his payment, Helm was refused entrance to the tower by a gnome understudy and now nobody answers at the door. Met Melios in Farthis who then proceeded to drink him under the table - Melios has been in Farthis!
• Arkadios
  • “There is a plague in the south, between Farthis and Portown.” Looking for a cure?
  • Arkadios asked the barkeep for information about the hops gardens in town
  • the hops gardens are owned by the Kleen family who mostly keep to themselves. Gentry?
  • apparently this Kleen family also has (or has had) business with Guldar Heel.
• tavern barkeep, talking to Kyril
  • knows nothing about The Kleb except that he’s a weirdo. Could be a not-so-distant relative of Gonchar’s.
  • The Kleb has been there for quite a long time and does indeed have business with Guldar Heel.

The Kleb#

• “kooky”-looking place, red walls, gnome statues all over, round, iron sign over the door.
• The Kleb entertained the party with food and conversation while accoutered in red and gold robes with white face paint.
• human, at least in outward appearance, could have been an illusion.
• human and gnomish servants
• the interior of The Kleb’s abode seemed to “shift” and be somehow different every time one paid attention - sometimes small, sometimes large, etc.
• Upon leaving the dinner party, The Kleb gave Lycovyne an arrow covered in runes, saying something like “if you get to Guldar Heel this may be of use.”

Kleen Compound#

Kyril and Flint successfully climbed the walls around the Kleen’s property, attempting to reconnoiter the area. As soon as they touched down from the wall they were met by 2 spellcasters - immediately, as if they knew in advance where we would be found, achieving surprise. A male and a female spellcaster, apparently.

• Male spellcaster (MU) casts web ensnaring Flint, but not Kyril (who saved); Kyril casts faerie fire on both spell casters successfully.

• Kyril loses an entangle spell due to a successful magic missile hit from the MU.

• Kyril drops fog, then casts obscurement; the female spell caster (a cleric) commands Kyril to " leave", which he did.

  Arkadios looked out the door toward the Kleen compound to check on Kyril and Flint. Hearing rather a scuffle and seeing flickering lights and a growing cloud of fog centered on the compound, he raised the alarm with the party who then sallied forth in support of their fellows.

• Apparently, the entire party made it over the spiked wall successfully; Gonchar, in the growing fog, nearly attacked Arkadios; Lycovyne hacked Flint free.

• MU attacks Arkadios with a glowing ring which produces a physical charge; cleric “touches” Arkadios for 6 points (cause light wounds); Arkadios misses the cleric; Menka casts sanctuary.

• initiative win

• Menka casts bless; Gonchar hits MU for 16 points (ouch); Arkadios finishes off the MU; cleric shrieks in fury and successfully casts hold person on Arkadios - Arkadios is held.

• initiative win

• Gonchar hits the cleric; the cleric attempts to flee; Gonchar gets a “free shot” but misses.

• initiative win; fog dissipates (or at least we removed ourselves from it); Kyril confronts the cleric who replies “I will not surrender unless I can leave” - she is allowed to leave; Kyril finds a way into the locked house and the party follows with Gonchar dragging the corpse of the MU.

Kyril cast detect magic on the MU’s hacked, messy corpse, discovering magic bracers, a cloak, a ring and a bag(?). The building is a small, 4-room house and we found no traps. We did however find 2 potions and two magic user scrolls in a bedroom!

The party then left the house to search the fragrant gardens for an entrance to the underground complex and could see the townspeople milling around outside the wall in a crowd growing both in volume and in numbers. Time to seek a safe haven! Searching the gardens, the party found a large trap door.

Kleen compound loot!

• bracers (magic), Arkadios
• cloak (magic), Lycovyne
• ring (magic, hard alloy with a ram’s head), Menka
  • Ring of the Ram
  • UA III.C.2 pg 93 (note special recharge instructions)
• bag (?, magic)
• 2 magic user scrolls, Lycovyne
• 2 potions, Lycovyne

The Underground Complex#

With the door unopened, Flint checked the trap door assembly for traps but failed to find them. Arkadios and Lycovyne open the door carefully and the party peers into the black abyss revealed. A rope hangs downward into the darkness. Having infravision Kyril, Lycovyne and Flint descend the rope while Menka, Arkadios and Gonchar wait above.

Once Kyril, Lycovyne and Flint get a little ways down the rope the rest of the party follows, the humans in complete and utter darkness, with Gonchar last in line to close the hatch above. (wasn’t there a ring of feather fall used here somehow?) We all climbed down the rope without incident. The PCs with infravision seeing nothing dangerous in the chamber, Menka lights a torch.

The room has a large rune carved into the floor, 4 wall sconces and an 8’ humanoid statue in front of the (east or west??) door. Menka sticks the torch in wall sconce 1.

The Clay Golem and the Arrow#

As soon as the party moves outside the rune (which apparently we dropped down in the middle of) the statue comes to life (of course!) and moves quickly to attack, apparently guarding the (western?) door. The moving statue is made of gray clay - a clay golem.

Gonchar “hit” the clay golem with a +1 sword but does no damage. Kyril then “hits” the clay golem with a +1 staff but does no damage (a staff is not a blunt weapon?). This continued for rather a while with no end in sight, then Kyril broke out his clay and cast stone shape to form a rock cylinder around the clay golem, temporarily impeding it.

The party breaks down the door behind the golem (in the western wall??) and exits the room in haste. As soon as the party leaves the room the golem becomes quiet and ceases its bashing upon the stone cylinder.

The party found itself in a 10x10 marble room with a chest in the corner and a chute in the center of the room with rungs embedded in the side. A few feet down the chute the light disappeared into inky blackness. Flint checked the unlocked chest for traps but didn’t find them. Fearing conflagration, Lycovyne and Gonchar hid in the chute bravely while Arkadios, with his bracers on, opened the chest. Loot!

• long sword, Arkadios
• small pouch containing powder, Lycovyne
• potion, Menka
• cloak/piece of cloth, Kyril
• ring, Flint
• 435 GP (72 for each PC)
• 3 large gems, one each for Arkadios, Gonchar and Flint (the Greedy Three)
• arrow (magic, singular?), Lycovyne

The party rested for 8 hours and then, with nowhere else to go, went down the chute as before with the party members with infravision leading the way. The chute terminated in the ceiling of a hallway 10’ above the floor (map location 1). The party was able to safely drop the remaining distance.

The party dropped into a dark hallway. Arkadios fired up a bulls-eye lantern and the party moved on through crumbling hallways covered in pale moss.

The passage lead west for “many hundreds of feet” and then turned north. Continuing north for 60' we found a pile of bones. Bleached white by time, they were also too small to be human. Possibly goblin or kobold at some point in the past.

60’ north of this pile of bones the party hit a dead end (2). There is a rune upon the end wall which has been burned into the stone. The rune meant nothing to the party. Upon examination, Menka found a secret door, praise Thoth! Gonchar found a toggle switch embedded in the door and Arkadios toggled the switch, “apparently doing nothing”. Lycovyne volunteered to cast read magic on the rune/ wall but needed to rest first to memorize the spell. Lycovyne memorized the spell but the ogre encounter (below) caused him to delay casting it and it still has not been cast on the wall.

An Ogre and Some Ghouls#

While Lycovyne rested the party was stumbled upon by an ogre carrying a sack full of smaller creatures - battle began. We quickly bested the brute and beat him down. The ogre begged for his life, offering a gem in trade, but Gonchar refused the offer and finished him off. ( No lawful good PCs? Just curious. )

Ogre loot!

• large gem, Gonchar
• 78 GP, 13 per PC

The ogre was carrying a bag full of gibberlings. When released these monsters lived up to their name and fled down the long hallway to the east. The party followed them at a more sedate pace.

60’ down the hallway we reached an intersection with a passage going north. Taking this passage we found a door at the end of the tunnel, which Gonchar kindly opened with his head. This door opened into an 80x30 room (3) with large, crumbled columns and a pit in the center of a room containing a trap that has already been released.

Continuing east down the hallway another 100’ we reached a closed, unlocked door which opened easily, probably from continuous use. This door opened into a very large room (4) with 4 large, crumbling, unrecognizable statues, crumbling masonry and an ancient altar at its center. While we searched around the room 3 ghouls wandered in and menaced the party, only to be turned by Menka, praise Thoth!

A Troll And Some Gibberlings#

In the southern wall was a door which lead to a small, dusty chamber. The chamber housed 3 large spiders and their webs, which we left alone. There was also a door in the eastern wall which opened into a hallway continuing east. Following this hallway, we reached a door that was closed but unlocked and opened easily, as if from continuous use. This door opened into a 50x50 room (5) that smelled terrible. The party entered and was assaulted by the awful smell as well as nasty chattering, ghastly howls and a loathsome gibbering. There are large openings in the ceiling that look like nests. Warrens, actually.

The party was surprised by 15 goblin-sized creatures dropping from the ceiling and attacking, followed by almost a score of their gibbering brethren. Battle began. Lycovyne successfully caught 9 of the foul beasties in a web spell and the rest were dispatched by the party in short order. The notes do not account for all the beasties but do contain these stats:

• 26 beasties total (2 w/ 6hp, 9 w/ 5 hp, 15 w/ 4 hp)
• Gonchar killed 4,
• Menka killed 3,
• Arkadios, Kyril and Flint killed 2 each

After killing off the last of the gibberlings the party found a debris-clogged alcove in the eastern wall of the room. This alcove held a door which led into a very, very large cavern (6). An enormous cavern with a boulder and some sort of accompanying structure to the east. The structure seems to be made entirely of gibberling bones and crumbled utterly when kicked. While searching the area, the party encountered a troll which was dispatched with aplomb. In a small depression in the center of the cavern the party found some treasure.

Loot!

• 1 scroll (magic), 1 ring (magic)
• 1 small shield (magic)
• 2 gems, 2 potions and 185 GP (30ish each)
• 2 daggers and 2 swords (non-magical)
• banded mail (magic)