After recovering from the battle with the vampire, the party reluctantly continued onward, toward the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish.

En route, they came across an orc war party that turned out to be much tougher than the last band of orcs the adventurers ran into.

A little while later, Sytarii discovered that he had not one, but two decks of cards in his pockets. Throwing one of them down, the party suddenly found itself face-to-face with a rather large, very angry, red dragon. This was an illusion created by the card, but as they readied for battle, it was quite apparent that they took the threat seriously. Picking up the card, the dragon vanished.

Some time later, the troupe came across a hunting party of Hobgoblins. Sytarii made a grand show of summoning forth a rather large, very angry, red dragon, and the hobgoblins fled.

Finally arriving at a cave mouth, the party ventured forth, only to find themselves hopelessly lost in a labyrinth. Soon enough, they were charged by a Minotaur. And then another. After defeating them soundly, they miraculously found the way out of the maze and appeared on a rocky outcropping overlooking a large bowl shaped valley with what looked to be a city floating hundreds of feet in the air, held aloft by some horrendously loud engines.

Facing them, at the end of what looked like a dock in mid air, was a sphinx. She challenged them to stump her with a riddle. After a couple of tries and the consequent loss of intelligence, the party was able to ask a riddle she could not solve and so she summoned a flying skiff from the floating city to carry them across the gap.

Alas, our tale pauses here, to be continued next week.

After destroying the stone golem, the party headed West where the passageway became more of a tunnel through lava rock. We were entering the fire demesne.

Turning the corner, the party saw several ogres ahead. Backing up to regroup, they hatched a dastardly plan. Reyroris lead the charge as they slew ogre after ogre (after half-ogre). With seven of the great beasts laying dead at their feet, they searched the cavern to find a stash of treasures squirreled away by the ogres.

Proceeding further east, Sytarii took point as they passed some ominous looking dwarf statues. Unfortunately, distracted by the statues, he did not see the tripwire before stepping through it, only to receive a stone axe blow as the statue on the left hurled its blade forward. Noticing that one of the statues was askew, the party investigated. There efforts were rewarded when they found a secret chamber…a tomb for a pair of long dead dwarven heroes. Raiding the tomb for its valuables, the adventurers stole away with some minor trinkets and two gem-encrusted golden funeral masks worth thousands. Ganus rightly figured that these would not be as easy to cash in as much of there treasure was.

After the racket caused by the tripwire trap, a hobgoblin patrol came by to investigate. A few seconds later, the party headed toward a large intersection where they were met by two ominous looking fiery fellows. These Razerblast turned out to be surprisingly hard to kill. And when they did die, they exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. If Aria hadn’t magically held one of them, the outcome might not have been so certain. But she did, so Reyroris took him apart while the rest of the party dealt with the one who escaped Aria’s charm.

Having exhausted themselves fighting the ogres and razerblasts, Ganus pitched his magical tent and the party rested. Several hours later, some ogres came by and started bashing the tiny hut with their clubs. This brought the attention of another razerblast and not one, but two squads of hobgoblins. Seeing their foes, the party planned their attack.

In executing their plan, the party took some damage, and Aria was knocked out, our intrepid adventurers prevailed. Taking a short rest in the dwarven tomb, they healed and restored themselves.

Venturing east, they found empty caves. Hoping to find something more interesting, they returned to the big intersection and headed south. They slew a hapless pair of ogres that came around the corner, then proceeded to investigate a passage lined with doors on the north’s and south.

In the first unlocked cell, they found a Flame Guardian cultist and started a fight. Within seconds the guardian fell dead, and the cell door behind them opened and the hall filled with flame as a Flamewrath stepped forth. Another guardian and a second flamewrath joined the fight, the latter throwing fireball after fireball, only to have each rudely countered by Ganus magic. The second flamewrath fell just before it could cast one last fireball.

Alas, our tale pauses here, to be continued next week.

After dispatching the cultists in the dining room and kitchen, the party explored further into the Temple of the Black Earth.

The passage west from the dining room led to a set of double-doors. Sytarii snuck through them and immediately backed out of the room after seeing the petrified statues of adventurers scattered throughout the cavernous room. Reyroris took point and headed in to face whatever was in there. At first it seemed to be an empty cave. Then Reyroris was hit hard as a shadow flitted past. Telffid and Ganus shed some light on the situation and the party found themselves squaring off against a shadow demon. They fought hard and banished it back to the nine hells before it could do any more damage.

In a bedroom behind the cave, they enjoyed a sumptuous bed and found much treasure.

Exiting the cave they headed south, where they came upon the cultists’ apartments. Barging in, they slew two cultists brushing their teeth. Then they proceeded to slaughter several more cultists, their guard and Dynath, the burrowshark, but not before this lasts could summon his pet bulette. Arriving on the scene just after his master fell, the bulette bit into Reyroris before being slain itself.

Heading south from the apartments, the party entered the laboratory of one Miraj Vizann, a self-proclaimed mud sorcerer. After a brief dialog, Telfid surprised the sorcerer with a silence spell, pretty much ending him as a threat. Reyroris and Sytarii leapt at the sorcerer, flanking and slaying him as he gestured furiously at his stone golem to act. It did. But the party laid a hurt on it pretty quickly, slaying it in Exless than a minute.

Heading further south, the party found two more bulettes chained and sleeping lightly. After discussing what to do with them, they awoke in a foul mood and tried to break their chains in an effort to get at the party. Aria cast spike growth to keep them from moving much, but this just angered them. One broke loose and leapt forward, landing on Taban and nearly crushing several of the others. Reacting quickly, the party slew that bulette as the other broke free. This time, the party avoided the great creatures leap and butchered it before it could cause any trouble.

After nearly falling to their doom crossing a narrow bridge over a deep chasm, the party found themselves in familiar territory where they came upon the body of the ettin they slew on their first foray into the earth temple.

After finding several abandoned rooms, including the forge where they found a set of Claws of the Umberhulk, the party encountered an earth elemental myrmidon. Like a rock golem in plate armor, the thing fought hard but was slain like the rest.

In another abandoned chamber, behind the corpse of a dead gnome, the party dispatched a black pudding.

They finished clearing the temple of the Black earth by destroying another stone golem in the northwest corner of the temple complex.

Alas, our tale pauses here, to be continued next week.

Venturing down the long, winding stone staircase, the party squeezed through a narrow passage to find themselves on the edge of a chasm. As they crossed the stone bridge, they were attacked by 5 gargoyles. After smashing the gargoyles to bits, they strode through the entrance chamber to this portion of the ancient dwarven temple, and immediately came under fire from both sides as their foe launched volley after volley of crossbow bolts from the murder holes to the east and west.

Led by a burrowshark mounted on a bulette, a small band of hobgoblins threatened from the south, a team of 5 duergar were shooting from the east and a stonemelder and her guards were shooting spells and bolts from the west.

The hobgoblins were dispatched in short order by Aria’s flaming sphere. The bulette leaped into action, squishing poor Taban under its massive bulk. A fireball to the east from Ganus took care of the duergar. Yarsha, the stonemelder to the west, cast erupting earth and caused quite a bit of damage to the party and the ground. Spells were flying everywhere as Ganus, Aria, Noctavia and Yarsha pulled out the heavy hitters. Friends dropped, foes were vanquished and eventually, the party emerged victorious. Battered, bleeding and exhausted, but victorious.

Ganus pitched a magical tent for the party to rest in. Eight hours later, refreshed and restocked, Noctavia led the charge as she opened up a hole in the west wall, completely catching Yarsha and her guards flat-footed.

After defeating Yarsha, Sytarii snuck into a mess hall where the party launched a co-ordinated attack that just destroyed a pair of black earth guards and a handful of cultists.

Alas, our tale pauses here, to be continued next week.

After helping the Bargewright Inn, the party decided to revisit the Sacred Stone Monastery.  Upon arrival, they discovered that security was a little tighter than their last visit.  The kitchen staff was accompanied by armed guards, and the patrol around the monastery was on alert.  So alert that the patrol ended up chasing after Telfid, into a waiting ambush where the patrol was cut down before it could even raise an alarm. 

Deciding to solicit help from the lich, Renwick, Ganus and Sytarii snuck through the garden entrance to the monastery.  Sytarii handily unlocked the wizard-locked door to the lich’s demesne.  Ganus stepped in and started lying to the lich, which he didn’t appreciate, and told Ganus to leave.  Not having much choice, Ganus left and headed for the exit, only to get attacked by a pair of Gargoyles that had come to investigate.  Splashy and Bubbles were quite helpful in smashing the monsters to bits.

Later, inside the monastery, the party spread out while the cooks started to serve breakfast.  When all were gathered into the dining hall, and diving into a plate of kippers and toast, Ganus stepped into the hall and unleashed a fireball in the center of the room, immediately annihilating most of the monks.  Hellenrae started barking orders to the survivors, sending her guards after Ganus, where they ran into Aria and her thornwhip, which dragged them through the spike growth she had laid as a trap.  They perished as the thorns and spikes did their job.

From the northeast entrance to the dining hall, Reyroris started shooting Hellenrae, who immediately charged to confront him.  Telfid shot her in the back, ending her charge.  Meanwhile, Taban and Sytarii came in from the south entrance and started shooting and hacking the survivors until all lay quiet.  

And in less than 30 seconds, most of the population of the monastery was eliminated.  Most, but not all, the party started clearing the rooms and when they came to the main foyer, squared off against a pair of minotaurs.  

Deciding to go down the winding staircase this time, the party came across an ogre and three orogs.  Dispatching them in short order, they found a collection of keys, which Ganus pocketed.  Exploring to the north, they found an old crypt where Telfid destroyed three zombies.  Ganus’ sharp eyes noticed a gleam as the light glinted off a pair of rings one of the skeletal remains in the back of the room.

Further investigation to the northwest had the party battling a caged, blinded, crippled umber hulk that raged inside the cage, which amazingly, held firm while the party put the creature out of its misery.

Exploring to the south, the party came across some cells filled with starving, tortured, injured and sick slaves/prisoners.  After learning that the orogs made them mine the caverns, but not for anything precious.  No one knew why they mined.  Sytarii unlocked the cells and the party freed the people.  One old man with an especially gnarled, but well polished, walking stick, said to Aria, “Here miss, switch with me, I think it will serve you well where you are going,” and handed her his staff in exchange for hers.

To the west, the party found a long staircase leading down from the mines.

Alas, our tale pauses here, to be continued next week.