Richfest 3:   Because Carrica is in need of a complete re-outfitting, we have returned to Blasingdell.   Zelda and Artin tell the rest of the group that anyone considering going back inside the stronghold is crazy, and they’re not going to continue such a reckless lifestyle.  They take on jobs as guards for a caravan that’s leaving.  They’ve bargained with the caravan leader to be taken on as a team, with Zelda willing to receive only normal (not sorcerer level) fees, because he only has one opening: someone who’s withdrawn from the caravan here.  Taizu and Ahb sell one flask pair of alchemist fire reagents for 15gp, to finance the outfitting.  Carrica is re-equipped, and more food bought for party and horses.  Lothar also uses some of the money to purchase metal stock and rent a smithy for long enough to make some caltrops, with the idea of using them as part of some improvised explosives (inside pouch has one reagent and caltrop; outside pouch has other reagent; tossing bundle causes caltrop, upon impact, to puncture inside pouch and mix reagents).  Tarva and Taizu have their gig and room arrangements at the Spotted Puma.  There are a lot of people in town, and the two of them make one and a half pp in tips.

The person who left the caravan meets up with the group that evening and is interested in joining.  She is Beldwyn Dargel [Jennifer Lyman], a female gnome illusionist.  

Richfest 4:  Ahb is gone most of the day celebrating Pelor’s high holy day at the temple.  There is still a large crowd in town, and Tarva and Taizu make another one and a half pp that evening..  After their gig Tarva tries her amulet, but even under both full moons together it fails to activate..

Richfest 5:  We leave town and head back for the stronghold.  Day ok, night ok.
Marching Order        Watch
-------------------    --------
Lothar                        2            
Taizu                          1
Tarva                         2
Ahb                           3
Beldwyn                    1
Carrica                      3

Richfest 6:  Day ok.  Night, 2nd watch hears growls, but nothing shows up to bother us.

Richfest 7:  Reach the stronghold about noon, re-enter the side (secret) entrance, stable the horses in the bunk room as before.  As far as we know, the only unexplored paths are off the ‘stirge’ room: either going down the stairs, or through the wrought iron gates.  Since the stirges have been coming up the stairs, that’s not our first choice.  The suggestion is made that if we get on the other side of the gates, and close them, then actually attract the stirges, we could shoot them down while not being vulnerable to attack ourselves.  Of course, the stirges might arrive before we can get through the gate, so we need to plan for that.  The flaming arrow approach still has everyone’s approval.  Someone suggests using a makeshift barrier as a shield over whoever is working on the gate.  Lothar will work on the gate; Ahb and Beldwyn will hold a barrier.  Everyone agrees to this plan.  We all move up to the room before the ‘stirge’ room, with the oil pot, the flaming torch, and the cloth-wrapped arrows all ready.  Of course, we have been cautious during that walk, not being willing to assume – just because all the monsters had been cleared out once – that therefore the hallways and rooms are safe now.  But we encounter no baddies, not even any sign that anyone else has been there since our last time.
Tarva suggests that it would be useful to have objects on which permanent Light spells have been cast (and then kept enclosed until needed) so that everyone could have one, and critical time needn’t be spent during combat in casting light spells.
 
1: From the doorway, we all rush at high speed towards the gate; Taizu, Carrica, Tarva, and Beldwyn all reach the gate;  Ahb and Lothar are within 20’ of the gate.

2: Beldwyn unveils her permanent torch;  Taizu, Carrica, and Tarva set up to shoot flaming arrows; Ahb and Lothar reach the gate;  Lothar examines the lock he finds on the gate.

3: Beldwyn casts Enlarge on a wooden crate top;  Beldwyn and Ahb hold the crate top to shield Lothar.

4: Carrica hears buzzing, says, “They’re coming;”  Taizu says, “Cast Light over the chasm, any one who can;”  Ahb casts Light on a copper piece and tosses it to the edge of the chasm;  Taizu casts Dancing Lights in a line across the chasm.

5: Lothar continues working on lock.

6: We all hear a “Urrrgh!” as the gate lock shatters.

7: Two stirges appear from the chasm; Taizu shoots and kills one; Tarva shoots and kills the other; Beldwyn puts her end of the ‘shield’ down and goes through the gate into an unfinished (bare rock) ‘cave’.

8: Taizu and Carrica act as rear guard while Lothar, Ahb, and Tarva go through gate;  Taizu and Carrica pick up oil and torch (one each) and back through gate.

9: Four more stirges rise, attack;  One gets through the gate before Beldwyn finishes pulling it closed, attaches to Taizu;
Beldwyn casts Hold Portal (good for 4 minutes); Taizu kills stirge on him;  Carrica shoots but misses; Ahb moves slightly down passageway, followed by Tarva, casts Light on a pebble, tosses it further down passageway, we see crates.

10: Taizu shoots and kills another stirge;  The other two stirges flee down chasm (stairway).

The passageway ends up leading back to the previous room with the well, used for a staging area; these crates seem to be more like those we’ve already seen.  The striges being smart enough to run away when they saw they couldn’t get at us, while we took pot shots at them, was not part of the original plan; clearly we won’t be able to just attract their attention and pick them off.  Since the only remaining path is down the stairs where the stirges come from, we agree to wait until tomorrow for that, when various spells have been replenished.  We go back to the bunk room to rest and spend the night.  Ahb Restores Taizu’s constitution and hit points.

Reaping 1:  Even if they’re smart enough to run away, we figure the stirges will come investigate sounds coming from ‘upstairs’.  And it would be better to meet the stirges on unequal (in our favor) ground.  So we go back through the undressed rock passageway to the inside of the gate and start making noises.
 
1: Four stirges fly up stairway; Carrica misses; Tarva kills one; Taizu kills one; Remaining two stirges fly at gate then fold wings, trying to dive through: one kills self on gate, the other hits Carrica for –1 Constitution.

2: Three more stirges appear; Carrica kills stirge on her; Tarva misses; Taizu kills a new one; Beldwyn kills a new one.

3: Carrica misses; Tarva kills the last one.

We wait five minutes but no more stirges appear.  Ahb casts Protection on herself and goes out of the gate to act as bait.  We wait another five minutes.  Still nothing.  Ahb casts Light on a pebble and tosses it to the base of the stairs: sees the start of a corridor, but no stirges show up.

250 ep fight.

We start down the stairs.

1: Four stirges swoop at us, hitting Carrica (for –1 Constitution) and Tarva (for –2 constitution) and attaching, missing Taizu and Ahb.

2: Lothar kills the one attacking Ahb; Taizu kills the one attacking him; Stirge on Carrica drains another –1 constitution;  Stirge on Tarva drains another –2 constitution and, being full, disengages;  Tarva misses; Carrica hits the one on herself for 1.

3: Taizu kills the one on Carrica;  Stirge which was on Tarva gets away.

We continue on down to the bottom of the stairs, put our backs to the wall.  Beldwyn uses Moving Lights to explore the cavern that opens up here.  Within 100’ a stream crosses the cavern floor, and then the cavern splits into two passageways.  We move to the stream and cross it.

The stream enters and exits through fissures in the cavern walls, each tall enough to have an air gap over the stream.  We go down the left hand, larger passageway.   Carrica says she smells bear, but then she sees something not bear-like, just at the edge of the light.  Lothar moves up to use his night vision, while Beldwyn watches the rear.

1: Scaly skimpy humanoid throws javelin at Lothar, misses;  Lothar charges, misses.

2: Humanoid hits Lothar for 3; Taizu sees something beyond Lothar; Ahb sees it also;  Tarva backs to wall to cover the group against a simultaneous stirge attack; Carrica changes from bow to sword.

3: Taizu shoots and hits the humanoid; Lothar kills the humanoid; Many more skimpy, scaly humanoids appear; along with a bear which hits Ahb for 13; Beldwyn runs towards fight, casts a Web spell on the bear; Ahb hits bear for 21;   The web catches fire from Carrica’s torch, and Carrica takes 5 damage; Carrica hits humanoid for 4.

4: Taizu hits humanoid for 9; Lothar charges humanoid , hits for 14, kills; Bear hits Ahb for 19;  Humanoid bloopers, slips while attacking Lothar; Beldwyn Magic Missles bear for 7; Ahb retreats to behind Carrica; Carrica criticals on bear for 21; web fire burns bear.

5: Taizu throws alchemist fire at bear but misses; Lothar kills humanoid (and sees three additional branches to the passageway);  Bear hits Carrica for 26; Beldwyn casts Flaming Sphere but bear dodges;  Tarva shoots arrow at bear and kills it; Ahb heals Carrica for 18; Carrica misses on humanoid.

6: Taizu misses;  Lothar charges and kills last humanoid.

400 ep fight. 

Nothing on the bodies; bear cage is empty.  We follow the cut stone passageway (in wall between stream and bear cage) for fifteen minutes until we emerge outside in a forest.  Carrica is fairly sure she knows where we are relative to the main entrance.  We return to the scene of the last fight and look at the new passageway branches, two to the left of (what seems to be) the main passageway and one to the right.  Leftmost is a short curve to a dead end, nothing there.  Next one goes slightly further then Tees into the main passageway.  Follow it back (ignoring the extension of the main passageway for now) to the last branch, the right hand one.  Following it 30’ we reach a cave room with a lot of mold in it.  Also a human-sized skeleton with a gleaming sword.  We suspect that the mold is Yellow Mold, which releases poisonous spores when disturbed.  Someone knows that fire can destroy Yellow Mold, and we decide that we couldn’t retrieve anything flammable in the room anyway.  Tarva volunteers to start a fire and run away.

Back in the passageway, Ahb casts Restoration on Carrica for 3 constitution points (fully healed) and Tarva for 2 constitution points.  Beldwyn casts Resistance on Tarva to improve her chance to survive any fire she does catch.  Carrica ties a rope around Tarva’s waist; Lothar, Carrica, and Taizu hold one end of the rope, ready in case they need to drag Tarva out to the passageway.  Tarva goes down the entrance way, tosses a Molotov pouch, and runs.  Fire burns some but not all of the mold.  Ahb goes safely to the skeleton and takes the sword, sees a second mold-encrusted body.  So we repeat the process, burning the rest of the mold.  Find a helmet with silver etching and some plate mail.  Decide that’s enough for today – way low on spells, and take the side passage out, then walk around to the front entrance and in to the bunk room.