We also had lots of snacks as usual.  We had lots of bowls of various nuts and chips and even some skittles, Nick’s favorite.  The hummus with pita is pretty hard to resist too.

We readied ourselves for battle.  Melisandra cast a stinking cloud just on the other side of the bridge which blocked the sight of all but one of the orcs so they were unable to attack.  They moved in closer to us to avoid the stinky cloud and attack.  My first shot was at Toothack which hit him so hard, he fell off of the boar and onto his ass.  The boar charged at Duggin and knocked him into the river.  He made his way back to shore safely and avoided being caught in the fast moving current that led to a waterfall.  After we took out one of the orc guards on top of one of the towers, I made my way up the tower to get combat advantage on the orcs below.  After killing all the orcs, we had access to enter the keep.  Before we proceeded any further, Adarray cut out the boar’s husks, tail, and belly.

We spotted a black dot in the sky that was hard to make out.  Melisandra was barely able to make out what looked like a ship.  A ship that might be used to travel between planes.  We all shuddered at the thought of what it could be transporting.

We continued walking down the hallway and could hear dwarven voices. They spoke to us saying, “Whoever you are, be wary. The orcs lie in ambush ahead.” We proceeded down the hallway and could see two bowls of fire at the end of the hall with two orc arches behind it. I felt a large battle with orcs in our near future. Adarra blessed us all before we continued any farther. We heard dwarven chanting coming from a door on the right, the same dwarves that had spoken out to us before. 10 more orcs suddenly appeared, coming at us from all directions. Melisandra attempted a ray of frost but it fizzled and fell to the floor which froze causing anyone to stepped on it to slip. The chanting dwarves were listening to our fighting and cheering us on to victory.

We entered the room where the dwarves were huddled. They had the same chain tattoos as the fallen dwarves we had seen earlier. They were formed in a circle in the corner of the room performing a protection ritual. One of the dwarves spoke up and said, “Thank the Gods, we’ve been waiting for you, hand over the artifacts.” We all looked at each other in confusion. They too seemed confused by our puzzled looks so they introduced themselves as Gwendar, Duggin, Serka, and Rigden, the protectors of the pit. We figured they were talking about the pit which we had come across yesterday. We asked more about the pit and they explained a Stonefang Titan is imprisoned and would break free if the four artifacts are not recovered and placed into the colored circles surrounding the pit. They said the artifacts were pieces of the titan, a rib, an eye, a heart, and a hand. Serka held the rib and we were in possession of the hand. We would need to recover the other two artifacts from the orcs.

Each artifact had different magical powers when placed in the circle. The heart, when placed in the red circle reduces the strength of the titan. The rib, when placed in the green circle weakens the titans defenses. The eye, when placed in the orange circle weakens the titan’s sight. The hand, when placed in the purple circle gives power to control the titan. We decided to help the dwarves and place our artifact in the circle if they placed their rib in the circle as well. We had to say, “Stonefang I bind you” when placing the artifact.

We had two other artifacts to find and Duggin requested to come with us to help. He walked with us further through the pass. We walked for over 6 hours and then felt a cool breeze coming at us. The tunnel turned and then opened up and we could see stars. We finally made it through the tunnel! We star gazed for a few minutes then headed back into the tunnel to get some rest before proceeding.

Besides that we had our usual before dinner snacks.  A cheese plate, tortilla chips and salsa, grapes, nuts, and puffed veggie sticks.

We came across a door propped open by a dead female dwarf. It looked to be a secret door. Winston found a pair of greaves on the body of the dead dwarf. Melisandra peeked around the door to find several more dead bodies littering the floor. The dead dwarves had tattoos of chains all across their bodies including their hands and face. We didn’t recognize the markings but thought they could be followers of Torog.

We decided to investigate the secret room. It was very dark except for a bit of light coming from beneath the door at the end of the hallway. We heard some low grunting noises coming from the other side of the door. One was lower than the other. Rhed hurled himself at the door, breaking it down. We found 4 orcs and 2 bears on the other side. The was a stairway on the other side of the bears that went down about 80 feet. While attacking one of the orcs, Winston’s sword flew out of his hand and landed in Rhed’s side. Rhed shot Winston a dirty look but kept fighting. The bears were tough and strong. They dealt some good damage. Rhed got the idea to pull out the stone to take control of one of the bears. He successfully took control and ordered the bear to attack the other bear. The control didn’t last very long but it was helpful. After the bears were dead, Draven skinned one for its pelt. We recovered 60 gold and an elven silver ring with emeralds.

We continued on down the stairway. There were several scenes painted on the walls all the way down that told a battle story. There were two piles of bodies at the bottom of the stairs, one for dwarves and one for orcs. The bodies had already been looted. We went down the hallway to the left first. It turned off to the right and continued on but the walls beyond were more rough. We decided to turn back and check out the other end of the hall. It too took a similar turn. Melisandra made herself invisible to scout around without anyone seeing her. She spotted 2 orc archers patrolling the hallway, a large chamber with a pit and an altar on either side. The chamber also had 4 magical circles on the floor of different colors and an ogre talking to an orc troll shaman. She hurried back before her invisibility wore off to report what she saw.

The archers came at us from all directions. The two that were patrolling and 4 more from down the hall. Another earthquake shook the mountain. Rhed and Winston both fell down and the ogre that was coming at us fell down and back into the room he came from. Draven shot some of his poisonous darts at the ogre which slowed him down a little. Melisandra got close enough to the chamber to identify the 4 colored circles. Stepping in the circles provided different bonuses. Green gave +2 to armor bonus, red gave regen equal to your level, yellow gave +2 to attack, and purple gave +2 to defenses.

We had the chamber surrounded and took the orcs out one by one. The shaman was an ornery one. Even after killing him, he got back up again. Only acid or fire damage could kill him for good. Fortunately, Melisandra had just the thing to take him out. After we killed everyone, we searched the bodies and the chamber. We found the altars to be of Torog and Moradin. We found 150 gold, a waterwalk ritual, and an iron coffer on the orcs. Rhed used his mighty strength to rip open the coffer. 250 gold pieces and 15 platinum pieces rolled out of it. It was more money than any of us had seen. There’s so much we could do with it. First on the list is getting components to raise the dead just in case one of us falls during battle.

We celebrated Dusty (Rhed)’s bday.  I got him a new set of red/black dice which seemed to work pretty well for him that night.  I brought some root beer, sesame sticks, and peanuts to share.  For the main course, we had BBQ’d hot dogs with Macrina buns provided by Olivia.  We didn’t let the rain stop us from BBQ’ing. Dusty brought a couple of apple desserts, an apple crisp and an apple pie. Unfortunately I only had room to try one and went with the apple crisp which was delicious.

Rhed was first through the door and as soon as he walked into the hallway he heard a click as if a trap was just set off.  Darts came flying out of some slilts in the wall to the left and Draven was hit by one.  We hurried through the hallway to avoid getting hit by more darts.  We all huddled at the end of the hallway which made a turn to the left.  Rhed continued to lead us through and another trap was set off. A huge blade swung down from the ceiling which nicks Rhed in the arm.  The blade stopped in the middle of the hallway and blocked us from going any further.  Together, Rhed and Winston were able to lift the blade and Rhed grabbed one of his javelins and stuck it underneath the blade to hold it up so we could go through.

We spotted a couple of piles of steel laying in the middle of the hallway up ahead.  As we got closer, we found they were actually steel cobra constructs which turned out to be very poisonous.  Any hit from them seemed to release their venom so the fighters were suffering.  Melisandra passed her amulet to Winston to give him poison resistance.  After taking out the snakes we proceed down the hall and find a door labeled “Control Room” in Dwarven. 

This time Winston was first through the door and spotted a huge lever on the other side of the room that looked to be what we need to pull to open the door leading out of here.  We saw turrets up against the wall on the left which are what spit the darts at us in the other hallway.  On the right was a large steel door.  That’s not all that we found in the room though, two humanoid automatons with a hammer in one hand and a clamp in the other were also waiting for us.  Winston kicked one of them from behind which knocked him into a crack in the floor, probably caused by the earthquake.  While fighting the other automaton, Draven fell 30 ft down the hole and landed next to the other automaton.  Draven tried to climb out but the automaton grabbed onto his leg and pulled him back.  Melisandra jumped down into the hole to rescue him.  After they were safely out of the hole we were able to use our ranged attacks to take him out. After the two automatons were down, I was able to disarm the turrets so they wouldn’t hit us on the way out.

Winston opened the steel door to find a giant automaton standing there.  It seemed unable to move.  We found an awakening ritual written on it, written in dwarven.  After doing the ritual, we would have 5 minutes of control over him.  We figured this is how we would be able to pull the lever.  Before activating him we decided to turn the turrets back on so we could use them to attack anything that comes through the door when the lever is pulled.  Rhed performed the ritual and ordered him to pull the lever.  The first and second attempts failed but the third time was a charm.

We could hear the big stone door opening and 3 of us ran over to the turrets and looked through the slits to see if anyone or thing came in.  We spotted  an army of orcs move in.  There were at least 16 orcs of all kinds: savages, reavers, and even a bear warrior.  Rhed and the giant went down the hallway to fight them off while 3 of us shot at them through the turret slits.  Melisandra cast some of her area spells at them and nearly took all the minions out with a single spell.

One of the lead orcs pulled out a stone and suddenly the giant was no longer under Rhed’s control but in control of the orc.  We were able to contain the orcs in that first hallway so we were able to take them all out shooting through the slits and with the turrets.  After killing the controller of the giant, he froze and was no longer being controlled.

We recovered the stone the orc used to control him and found it to be Stone Fangs Grasping Hand which has a daily power of domination and increases your strength.  We also found a valuable opal under the eye patch of the bear warrior.

I brought some cheese and crackers. Nick and Olivia also brought some tasty cheese, crackers and other snacks.  We had licorice, chex mix, peanuts, chips, and hummus.  Then Kelly went and made us some yummy potato skins and tater tots.  Have I mentioned I love potatoes?  Yeah, so my belly was happy.  Lee brought some nice pear sake to wash down the snacks.  We cleared off the food from the table and did some playing for a while before our stomachs could handle some bbq chicken sandwiches and pasta.

About half way there we came across an abandoned outpost with two buildings. We didn’t find anything but some old tools. Beyond the buildings was a river with a bridge that was in pretty bad shape. I saw a huge shadow fly by but when I looked up I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly, two hippogryphs flew over us. Melisandra immediately cast a ray of ice at them and they fell to the ground, immobilized. Not long after the hippogryphs showed up, some giant archer fish started spitting at us from the river. They had such spitting power that I couldn’t get far enough away from them and soon I was bloodied. Rhed came to my aid and healed some of my wounds. It didn’t take long for us to take out the immobilized hippogryphs. I finished one off while Rhed finished off the other.

The ground rumbled. I shot my arrows at the fish from as far away as I could get while the guys got up close to swipe at them with their swords. Draven fell into the river and almost went down the waterfall while fighting one of the fish but was able to pull himself back to shore. We finally killed all 5 of them and continue on our way.

We entered the tunnel through the mountain. It was dark but luckily Rhed bought a torch that never goes out to light our way. Creatures hovered around some dwarf corpses on the ground and ate at their flesh and bones. We killed several stirges.

The ground shook again, more violently than the last. It was an earthquake! A crack opened up on the ground and three of us took damage from it. Five death jump spiders crawled out from a crack in the ceiling and jumped at us and bit hard. We managed to make it through and found some goodies. I got a nice elven cloak that fit perfectly. We also found a black pearl that we should be able to sell for at least 500 gold.

A little further up the road we reached the Thirsty Dragon. It was a small town. There were dwarves wandering around and tents set up all around. A two story inn was on the right and some barracks were on the left. Everyone slowed down and looked our way when we rode into town. A man named Brenermeer road up to us on his horse to introduce himself and welcome us to the town. He said we were welcome to stay at the inn or pay him to pitch up a tent. We decided on the inn. Tarik talked us into having some drinks at the tavern. Some world famous bartender was serving up some special drink called “dragon’s bite”. I have to admit it was pretty tasty. It was an expensive drink, made with elven limes and dragon fire brandy.

While in the tavern we met Rangrim Glinshield, the owner. He bought us another bottle of dragon’s bite and tells us a story. He told us about a keep they had on the other side of the mountain that was overtaken by the Severed Eye Orcs so they had to leave hastily and left some of their own behind. He wants us to help them regain control of the keep and save their friends if any are still alive. If we do this for him, we would gain an ally which could be very helpful. The road to the keep goes through the mountain instead of over the pass as the other road does. Not many people know about this other route. The path is sealed and can only be opened from this side so the orcs cannot come through.

He told us a little about Mortimer. He said orcs won’t even go there. He described it as a “hive of scum and villains”. It’s full of monsters from other planes and indescribable horrors. He didn’t make it out to be a very pleasant place. We weren’t sure it was a place we should venture alone so Draven asked if the dwarves would be able to assist us and he agreed. Though most of the dwarves were currently in the Westernlands and wouldn’t be returning until they regained control of the keep.

We spent the night at the inn, each having our own rooms for a change.