Fireseek 6 (continued):  Tarva FaithHeals on Taizu.  Ahb Heals Arvee, Rowan, Darred, more on Taizu, Tarva, and Horse₃.  We get through the rest of the watch.  We get through the rest of the night.

Fireseek 7:  TnT start another discussion, questioning what we think we're doing, and how we're going about it.  Arvee is disgusted, having thought this time waster was over with and out of the way.  Ahb says that all she wants to do is find where the ToEE is, after which she's willing to go back and report on it to authorities -- although she's at a loss to know which authorities to report it to: ownership out here isn't very clearcut [pretty much whoever has the power to enforce their rule is the 'rightful' ruler by authority of that force]; and all of the most viable candidates are already embroiled in wars - plural, separate - elsewhere, thus having little likelihood of being able to free up forces to deal with the ToEE for quite some time.  Tarva notes that if power provides legitimacy, then the ToEE must be the legal authority around here, and we would thus be guilty of breaking their laws.  The lawfuls in the group don't seem bothered by this [and it certainly isn't going to influence her].  The plan of searching for the temple in a large group, spiraling in on a presumed location, needs to be re-examined, TnT assert ("in winter, in the mountains," Taizu mutters).  Ahb agrees that backtracking the ambushers' trail would be a better way to find the ToEE than just wandering; also agrees that we're too big a party to sneak.  Tarva's offer to be turned avian and do a flying reconnaissance is turned down: too helpless in bird form, too far away from the party for help, and also Rowan and Darred had seen flyers which looked suspiciously purposed; meaning that an ariel recon probably is guarded against.  The plan now is to return to the ambush site, backtrack as a group until the first hint that we're getting close, then decide how to investigate from there more stealthily.

12:00 noon  We have backtracked to the ambush site.

1:00 pm  We've gone a little beyond where Rowan and Darred backtracked yesterday, and now come upon a trail that crosses the one we're following.  It has been made by huminoids, but nobody, not even our ranger, recognizes what kind of creature it would be from the tracks.  It appears to be older - having been made first, before the ambushers came this way.  Darred suggests that this is good motivation for a better arrangement of our party.  Rowan gives her horse to Neva to lead, and uses her boots to stay about 100' in front of the group.  Darred rides out to the left flank; Glendon gives his horse to Lysette to lead, and uses his boots to keep up from out on the right flank.

5:00 pm  The backtrail peters out as we enter a region of almost complete bare rock.  Tracking becomes impossible - the only solutions would be to either search around the perimeter of the rocks until a trail can be picked up again just outside of it; or else assume a straight line march (valid based on the observed path so far) across to the far side.  Since it is beginning to get dark, some thought is given to holeing up here for the night, and searching for the extenison of the backtrail tomorrow, in good light.  Tarva notes that the sky is beginning to cloud over, suggests that waiting until tomorrow might make it impossible to find the trail again.  Rowan, Glendon, and Darred (??? is this the correct set of people ???) decide to go across the rock region straight, and hope they come across the continuation that way, rather than taking the much longer task of going around the entire region.  By dead reckoning they get across, but don't find the ambushers' trail waiting for them.  Casting to their leftfor a ways, they instead come across tracks of a bear, a large bear, and freshly less than a day old.  When they've gone a ways left with no indication of the ambushers, Darred suggests they swing right instead, but that on their way back to the 'center' point, they move out from the rocky region a bit more and thus cover ground they haven't before.  The bear track, out here, makes it obvious that there were two of them.  To the right of  'center' they do come across tracks of a medium sized party.  Following it out from the rock a bit, Rowan becomes sure that this is the same group as ambushed us.  They return to the rocky region, build a small, subtle cairn to mark where the trail enters the rocks, and return to camp.

Meanwhile, Taizu has cast Leomund's Tiny Hut.  Twice, actually, so that the second one can be used to keep all the riding horses in (but there isn't room for the pack horses also).  

1st Watch  The increasing clouds have completely hidden the stars, and now a moderate snow is falling. Taizu thinks he hears a scuffling noise out there, but between the snow and dark, he both isn't sure and has no good indication of direction.  Nonetheless, he moves across to tell Rowan, who in turn goes to Darred and tells him.  While Taizu and Rowan string their bows, Darred goes into the tent and wakes Arvee, telling him there might be something outside.  Arvee has Darred cast Bull Strength on him.  Arvee goes outside, where the others are still unable to pinpoint any actual source to the sound.  Darred moves to Tarva, wakes and tells her.  He then goes on to repeat this with Glendon, while Tarva wakes Ahb.  As Darred moves out front again, Tarva goes to the horses, and Ahb to where she had place Lysette on duty, telling Lysette to go back to the hut, give Glendon back his night goggles, and then wake Neva.  Furthermore, that she and Neva are to stay in the hut, but poke their heads out every so often and  if the see anyone hurt, drag them in and heal them.  [This last isn't likely, as visibility is down to about 10', because of the snow, even for those who can see in the dark.]  Glendon comes out of the tent, sees Darred and moves to his right (placing him roughly between Rowan and Ahb).  Darred moves 20' up, away from most of the incidental noise, and can now hear that there are two sources of the shuffling sounds.  A few seconds later Darred can hear, off to his left, simultaneously with Rowan hearing, off to her right (although neither now hears both) more distinct shuffling noises.  Rowan moves towards where she thinks (amidst all the falling snow) the noise is coming from.  Glendon sees Rowan moving and in turn moves roughly parallel with her.  Darred moves to Taizu and points at where he thinks his noise is coming from; Taizu then moves to Arvee and does the same thing.

1:  Rowan hears a growl; Arvee activates his boots, runs in the direction Taizu pointed, at 90' he sees a bear, charges, hits Bear₁ for 20; Darred, following Arvee, gets to 30' from Bear₁ and sees it; Taizu, also following Arvee, sees it and yells, "Dire Bear!".

2:  Rowan hears 'her' growl getting louder, from in front of her, says "There's something coming, it sounds angry."  Ahb casts Daylight on a rock, tosses it in front of her, providing light with which to see:; Bear₂ charges Rowan, hits for 16; Bear₁ on Arvee criticals for 33, grappple fails; Tarva tosses her light stone in the general direction of the (Rowan's) growl, has it fortuitously land at Bear₂'s fee, moves 15' forward and sees Bear₂ and Rowan; Glendon casts Web on Bear₂; Arvee hits Bear₁ for 16, 16, 19; Darred casts Choke on Bear₁ for 2 points (and usual minuses); Taizu shoots an alchemist arrow at Bear₁ for 9, plus 2 alchemist fire, misses.

3:  Rowan hits Bear₂ for 13; Ahb moves 20' towards Bear₂; Bear₂ (ignoring the web strands in its fur) hits Rowan for 12, grapples, claws for 18; Bear₁ hits Arvee for 18; Tarva charges Bear₂, hits for 15; Glendon casts Magic Missile on Bear₂ for 8; Arvee hits Bear₁ for 16, 19, kills, moves 40' back towards camp, putting him next to Taizu, to whom he said, "dead bear"; Darred moves, but disoriented by the snow, heads off at an angle; Taizu tells Arvee, "Stop" and casts Blur on hm.

4:  Rowan fails to get out of Bear₂'s grapple; Ahb charges Bear₂ and hits for 12; Bear₂ rends Rowan for 16, 15, and 7, dropping her down to unconscious at -3; Tarva yells, "Rowan's down; come fight this one!", hits for 12, criticals for 20; Glendon charges with nunchaku and hits for 8;  Arvee runs for 120', through the hut with the acolytes, sees Glendon charging, runs to where Glendon was, sees Bear₂; Darred hears Tarva, moves towards her, sees Bear₂ holding a limp Rowan; Taizu runs after Arvee, also through the hut, and ends up at the horses.

5:  Rowan drops -1 to -4; Ahb hits for 6, misses; Bear₂ drops Rowan's body, hits Tarva for 14, grapples, hits for 16; Tarva drops HR, draws her dagger, hits for 5; Glendon moves to Rowan, slips his Headband of Ferocity on her (allowing her to now function as if at 1 hp), helps her move further from the combat; Arvee goes berserk, charges, criticals, kills.

342  ep.
Rowan made 9th level!

Ahb does much healing.  There is no treasure.  Rowan discusses skinning the bears for their pelts (Tarva is much in favor of this), but in this weather there isn't time to delay for that activity.
We get through the rest of the night.

Fireseek 8:  It is still snowing in the morning, and there is already a 3" deep accumulation of snow.  The snow is falling hard enough to reduce the light level to a bare gloom, and visibility to not much more than 10'.  Tarva suggests that we tie a rope between each pair of riders (or their horses); Darred suggests tying the rope ends to saddlehorns (or whatever) in such a manner that the rider can quickly release her- / him- -self from the chain, if necessary.  Of necessity, Rowan is going in front, walking, brushing the snow aside to look for the tracks we want to follow.  She also is tied off, with a long rope, to the first rider in the main group.  Flankers being both close to useless and unlikely to be necessary, Darred and Glendon are staying in line with the group.

8:00am  We break camp and leave.
8:30am  Reach the far end of the rock plate; after some searching, find the cairn they built last night, start out along the backtrail.
9:00am  Rowan is now convinced that we are indeed on the backtrail of the group that ambushed us.
9:30am  Rowan tells us that there are more tracks now than 'our' ambushers could account for - possibly they started as a larger group and split up into smaller ones along the way.
10:00am  Definately more tracks, heavier traffic.
10:30am  Tracks are now going in many different directions; Rowan can still pick out 'our' set for backtracking.
11:00am  Tracks deadend going into the mouth of a cave; Rowan says the most recent are at least 12 hours old.  The snow is still falling, is by now about 4 & 1/2  inches deep.  From more than 20' away, the rock wall cannot be seen, let alone the cave mouth.

Taizu uses his wand to cast Invisibility on Glendon, so he can do some scouting; Arvee accompanies him to the mouth of the cave.  Inside, Glendon sees that the cave seems natural, with rough walls but a smooth floor.  It is about 30' wide and runs back only 20' before reaching large wooden double doors: 8' tall and each 7' across. Above the doors is a carving of a demon's face.  Glendon also notices arrow slots, one on each side of the cave about halfway between opening and doors.  Concerned that the rooms behind the arrow slots might be manned, Glendon goes to Arvee and tells him to "Turn around and go out."  Instead, Arvee sits just inside the entrance and practices not being seen.  Glendon checks out the left arrow slot: he can see that it leads to a roughly 10' square space in which he discerns a barrel of crossbow bolts and a pair of heavy crossbows, but no people.  The right slot is similar.

Glendon leaves to tell Rowan and Taizu, who are closest to the cave mouth; then goes to Ahb, where Tarva joins them.  Ahb wants to StoneShape the walls and close the arrow slots off, but she can only do one side.  Tarva asks Glendon about murder holes in the ceiling; he didn't notice any, but wasn't explicitly looking.  Ahb starts arranging for Neva and Lysette to watch the horses outside for a while longer, and moving the rest of us inside to make decisions without snow falling on us.  Tarva catches up to Taizu just as Arvee decides he has waited long enough, and opens the left-hand door.  Both doors, since they're double, open onto a hallway which is 20' wide and 35' high, lit by torches in stone sconces.  10' down on both sides are closed doors; starting 20' down on the left is another 20' corridor; and 60' down is another set of double doors, this time made of bronze, with demonic carvings in them.  5' below the ceiling, occupying most of the center of the hallway from 10' down to another 20' back, is a platform suspended from chains anchored into the ceiling.  On it is a guard in banded armor.

0:  AirGuard₁ shoots Arvee with crossbow for 1.  Taizu (already reacting to Arvee moving towards the doors) uses his wand to cast Invisibility on himself.

1:  Arvee throws a light hammer, hits AirGuard₁ for nine, kills, says, "This looks like the place"; Rowan moves to Arvee; Taizu casts Invisibility on Tarva.

11:15am  The side corridor almost immediately becomes a long flight of steps, going up and out of sight.  About 50' along there are a pair of normal-sized doors on the left wall.  Glendon climbs to the platform, verifies that the guard is dead.  His armor has the Elder Elemental Eye 'triangle', with a solid white circle below it: this being the sigil for the Element of Air.  There is also an opening, here at the ceiling level, which must lead to the way guards get to and off this platform.  Glendon comes back down to report this.  Ahb wants to know if this is the actual ToEE, or just an outpost, sends Glendon off to explore more of the passages; warning him not to open doors, and to be back before his invisibility wears off.  Tarva takes up a position at the bottom of the side corridor stairs, to watch up that way.

Glendon ignores the stairway for now, to concentrate instead on the passageway from the guard platform. It runs along for a few dozen feet, at right angles to the hallway the platform is in, goes steeply - more ladder than stairs - down, turns left, and runs into another 20' wide corridor, again a right angles to the platform corridor, with large bronze double doors (and demonic carvings) to the left.  There is another opening at a left dogleg across this corridor, so Glendon goes to check it out.  It opens into an alcove with three doors; behind the third he can hear voices.  With his spell about to run out, he doesn't go any further down the wide corridor, but instead returns to tell Ahb and everyone. 

While he's away, Rowan and Darred check out the two side doors, verifying that, as they suspected, these lead to just the rooms behind the arrow slits.  By discussion, those rooms are neither adequate nor appropriate for holding the acolytes and horses, if we wanted to keep them safely out of the way while exploring the rest of the building.

11:30am  It's pretty clear now that this is not just an outpost.  Trying to shelter inside during the storm would be foolish: almost guaranteed that we would be discovered.  Going back outside into the storm isn't attractive either.  Tarva is concerned about Taizu, reminds Ahb that she said we'd find the place then go tell authorities.  Tarva suggests that we can still withdraw gracefully: clean up the blood on the platform, dropping the guard off the platform head first to hide the guard's damage (from blunt instrument hammer) with greater damage (from blunt instrument stone floor).  Ahb would like a consensus from the group as to what we want to do.  Arvee announces that it doesn't matter what consensus is reached, or what decision anyone else makes, he's going to trash the place.

12:00noon  Ahb decides to cast a Diviniation spell.  She asks, "Will we do well if we venture further into this temple of evil?"  After ten minutes the response comes back to her: "Glory and fame can be found within, as can your possible doom.  The dreamers dream evil dreams, and shape the world in like fashion.  It takes time to change the world, for good or ill."

While she is asking her question and receiving her reply, Glendon takes Taizu around to what he has explored, so Taizu can accurately map it.  This uses up another two castings of Invisibility. 

12:30pm Tarva, watching up the stairs, sees a gnoll come out of the closer of the two side doors, then turn and immediately go into the other door.  She alerts the others around, moves to be watching up the stairs from around the corner, rather than standing in full view.  Taizu climbs to the platform, intending to use it to shoot from, if necessary.  Ahb goes to check on the acolytes (still out in the snow with the horses).

The gnoll (Tarva assumes it's the same one) comes back out of the second door and into the first, but does a sort-of half stumble along the way.  As soon as the door is closed, Tarva stage whispers, "We're spotted."  Arvee tells her to get out of the way, so Tarva dashes across to the other edge of the corridor opening, letting Arvee have her place.

1:  Gnoll₁ through Gnoll₈ burst out of their door and head down the stairs towards us; Gnoll₂ misses Arvee; Gnoll₃ misses Tarva; Rowan shoots Gnoll₃ for 9,1, kills; Glendon shoots Gnoll₄ for 5; Darred moves 5' for a good sight line, shoots at Gnoll₄ but misses; Arvee activates his boots, hits Gnoll₂ for 17, kills, charges Gnoll₄, hits for 17, kills, cleaves Gnoll₅ for 21, kills; cleaves Gnoll₆ for 15, kills.

2:  Taizu shoots, misses, hits Gnoll₇ for 7; Rowan miss, hits Gnoll₁ for 5, kills; Tarva shoots Gnoll₈ for 7, miss; Gnoll₇ on Arvee misses; Gnoll₈ runs away 75' upstairs; Glendon springs after Gnoll₈, reaches him, Gnoll₇ AoO misses, Glendon bloopers, ends up with his back to Gnoll₈, Gnoll₈ AoO on Glendon misses; Darred casts Magic Missile on Gnoll₈ for 8, kills; Arvee hits Gnoll₇, kills.

All of them are wearing scale mail with the Air Elemental sigil, and carrying battle axes.  They also have 80 gp among them.
No healing is done, as they never touched any of us (Arvee does still have 1 hp damage from the platform guard's crossbow). 

???  Were any ep given for this?  ???

Darred goes up the stairs to the first door, opens it and finds a 15' x 30' room with twelve bunk beds, in generally filthy shape.  He listens at the next door, hears nothing, but doesn't open it.  Ahb brings the acolytes and horses into the cave mouth: still exposed to the outside, but out of the immediate snow, wind, etc.  Many of us drag gnoll bodies up the stairs (down for Glyndon) and toss them into the dorm room.  Darred goes on up to the top of the stairs and checks out what he can see there.  The corridor levels off, and immediately runs off to the right, but there is a door, closed, across the corridor from the left side of the stairway.  He comes back down without investigating further.  Glendon opens the other door, finds it is a 5' x 5' latrine, rapidly recloses the door on the stench.

1:00pm  There is still a bit of a debate about our next move: stay or go - maning that not everyone has accepted Arvee's ultimatum.  However, if we do stay, somewhere better for the acolytes and horses will have to be found.  Tarva climbs up to the platform to be with Taizu.  Darred goes to the bronze doors, hoping that somewhere beyond them will be a safe room in which we can stash the noncombatants.  He listens at the door.

O:  Darred is hit for 19 points by a crossbow bolt shot through a sliding panel in the bronze door.  A second bolt, shot through a similar sliding panel in the other door, barely misses Rowan.

1:  Rowan changes weapon to her sword, moves closer, now notices the slot in the righthand door; Taizu saw what happened, announces "They're shooting crossbows through the door", then runs down the passageway from the platform; Tarva follows Taizu; Ahb moves to the foot of the stairs, to watch for a flanking attack; Darred shoves on the door - thunk - "Arvee, it's locked"; Glendon climbs to the platform; Arvee charges the doors, bounces with 3 hp of damage.

2: Rowan moves to the side of the door; Taizu casts Invisibility on himself, then on Tarva; Tarva holds still for this; Ahb watches up the stairs; Darred uses the wand to cast Bull Strength on Arvee; the slot panels fly open, crossbows shoot, miss, panels try to close; Glendon catches up to Taizu and Tarva; Arvee hits the rightside door for 9.

3:  Rowan  thrusts through the slot on the righthand door with her longsword, but hits nothing; Taizu casts Invisibility on Glendon; Tarva moves ahead without waiting; Ahb moves to the right side of the righthand door, casts StoneShape to make the stone draw away from supporting that door, sees a large dias taking up most of a not very large room, two more bronze doors at right angles to the ones in our corridor, a human guard at each of those doors, and what might be an ogre behind the door she's just drawn the stone back from; Darred, not wanting to get between Arvee and scythe food, says "Arvee: through there, and I'll follow you", reserves for Arvee; pushed by Ogre₂, the door falls on Ahb and Darred, for 8 points each, Rowan barely skips out of its way; Ogre₂ jumps up on door on top of Ahb and Darred, hits Rowan for 16; behind the Ogre, Rowan sees a human in robes, short brown hair, run out the doors on the far side of that room; Glendon hears the door fall, says "sounds like trouble, I'm going back", runs out onto the platform, casts Magic Missile on Ogre₂ for 6, turning visible in the process; Arvee grabs the edge of the door and lifts it, Ogre₂ AoO on Arvee for 17, then Ogre₂ overbalances and falls between the door and the wall.

4:  Rowan criticals on the pinned Ogre₂ for 25, kills, then tumbles past Ogre₁; Taizu moves 60' after where he is sure Tarva has gone; Tarva moves to the bronze doors in 'her' corridor, gently tries to open them but they don't budge; Ahb crawls out from under the Arvee-held door and gets up; Darred crawls out from under the door and stands up; AirGuard₂ misses Rowan; Ogre₁ tries to shove the door on Arvee, can't; AirGuard₃ charges Rowan, misses; AirGuard₄ charges Rowan, misses; AirGuard₅ charges Rowan, misses; Glendon jumps off the platform and uses Slow Fall to soft land, goes to help Arvee lift the door; Arvee, with Glendon's help, lifts the door to vertical and then down on top of Ogre₁, knocking him back 5', which throws him against the dias, tripping him onto his back, with the door now on top of him.

5:  Rowan hits AirGuard₂ for 8, kills; moves to AirGuard₃; Taizu moves to the bronze doors, tries but fails to pick the lock; Tarva meanwhile moves to the opening into the alcove, and into the alcove itself to watch all three doors; Ahb moves to AirGuard₃, hits for 8, kills; Darred shoots AirGuard₄ for 8, kills; AirGuard₅ switches to his bastard sword, strikes at Arvee, misses; Ogre₁ tosses the door against the bronze doors (on the other side of which Taizu is trying to pick a lock), gets up; Glendon hits Ogre₁ for 7, kills; Arvee hits AirGuard₅ and kills.

134 ep.

The four humans have banded armor with Air sigil, bastard swords, small wooden shields, crossbows and bolts.  The ogres have great axes.  There are also 96 gp and four light green potions.

Ahb drags the tossed door out of the way of the other bronze double doors, opens them; Taizu, still invisible, thanks her.  Opposite the doors they came through, Darred has found the paneled slots in the other bronze double doors, and is watching out  through them against anything coming in that direction.  He can see a spiral staircase going up. The four humans have banded mail (with sigil), small wooden shields, heavy crossbows, bastard swords, one light green potion each; the two ogres each have a great club.

1:  The door at the end of the alcove opens and a human wearing black banded armor, with the air sigil, starts out; Tarva can see more humans behind him, she hits AirGuard₆ for 15, kills, turning visible in the process, says loudly, "there are more of them in here"; AirGuard₇ misses Tarva; AirGuard₈ misses Tarva.

2: Tarva hits AirGuard₇ for 12, kills, misses AirGuard₈; there is a loud clatter as five AirGuards throw their swords down onto the floor. 

64 ep.

Taizu is talking with Ahb when he hears the clatter from the swords falling.  Without quite knowing what it is, he assumes that it has something to do with Tarva, says "Excuse me" to Ahb, and hurries off, muttering something about "never should have let her out of my sight" under his breath [editorial comment: which is frightfully unfair, since he's the one who turned her invisible, after all].  Glendon, having also heard the clatter, moves towards the sound as well.  Those left in the room can see that it is octagonal shaped, with brass double doors on three sides, and a square dias, 5' tall, with steps coming up from the side we entered and from the opposite side.  Rowan tells the others in the room - Ahb, Arvee, and Darred - about the figure she saw slipping out the back doors during the fight.  Darred watches through those doors with more interest. 

Taizu moves into the alcove and sees Tarva with her sword pointed at two dead bodies and five hunched up humans.  "What happened?" he asks from beside her.  She doesn't startle, but the five AirGuards become even more twitchy.  "Um, I think they surrendered," she replies.  "Then you should interrogate them," Taizu tells her.  "Me?  Oh, but Glendon does that a lot better."  "Does what?" asks Glendon, hearing his name as he steps into the alcove.  "Question prisoners," responds Tarva.  And  then, at a sudden thought, snaps at the AirGuards: "Take off your armor!  All of it!"  Surprisingly (to her, anyway) they immediately and rapidly obey.  Her thought was that the last set of prisoners all went insane - were 'taken' - when questioned.  She'd rather that didn't happen to this group, and is hoping that separating them from their ToEE armor (and especially the sigils) will remove a conduit, and thus prevent that anti-interrogation spell from reaching them.

As they are rapidly shucking themselves, Tarva asks, "Taizu, could you check the other rooms?"  "Of course," he replies.  The middle door is not locked.  Almost as if he already knows what is behind it, he opens the door and immediately shuts it again.  "Latrine," he says needlessly; although his quick actions have kept the wafting odor to a minimum.  The  leftmost door is locked, and he realizes it will take a while to pick it.

Glendon begins to question the five AirGuards, all now naked (some didn't stop with just armor) or nearly so.  "Who's in charge here?"  'You are.'  "Who's in charge of you guards?"  'Keliell.'   "Is he the boss of all the soldiers?"  'No, only the soldiers here.'  "Where is 'here'?"  'The Temple of Air.'  "What other places are there, that Keliell is not the boss?"  'The Temples of Fire, Water, Earth.'  "Where are they?"  'They're all in this mine.'  "Who is in charge of the Temple of Air?"  'Fachine.  And Charowth is his second in command.'   "How many men does Keliell have?"   'Twenty.'   "And how many ogres?"  'Two.'   Tarva interjects, "How many wizards?"  'None.'   Glendon again: "How many teams does Keliell have out ambushing travelers?"   'None.'   "Why not?"   'Some Temples are stronger than others.'  "Which Temples are stronger than yours?"   'All of them.'   "What's on down this corridor?"  'The Arena, the Prison, the Statue Room, the Boat Landing.'   "How many prisoners are there?"  'None: Klagonsved holds all the prisoners.'  "Who is Klagonsved?"   'He's the Master of the Pit.'  "Where is the Pit?"   'You have to cross the lake to get to the Inner Fein.'  "What is the Inner Fein?"  'That's where the Masters all are.'  "How do you get to the other Temples?"   'Either way: it's all a circle.'

1:30pm  Rowan hears a wind - an incongruent sound this far inside. 

Taizu opens the door to the last room, finds a neat single-person bedroom with bed, chest, wardrobe, black rug, otherwise unfurnished.

The wind is picking up in volume; Rowan, Darred, and Arvee move out from the octagonal room into the corridor and start to shut the doors.  Then Arvee calls to tell Ahb what he's doing, and steps through the closing door to stay in the octagonal room. 

1:  Air Elemental₁ on Arvee hits him for 15, but doesn't 'fly' him; Arvee yells, "Help!", tries to activate his boots (they don't), assigns Air Elemental₁ as his Dodge opponent, hits Air Elemental₁ for 20; goes berserk; hits Air Elemental₁ for 23; one of the AirGuards says, to the others, in a fearful tone, "Petchhe must have blown the trumpet."

2:  Air Elemental₁ strikes Arvee for 16, does an extra 6, pushes him back 10', misses; Tarva demands, "What does the trumpet do?";  Arvee closes with Air Elemental₁, Air Elemental₁ AoO on Arvee for 16, hits Air Elemental₁ for 22, 21; Air Elemental₂ arrives; Rowan opens door, tumbles to Air Elemental₂;  Glendon asks, "Where is this Petchhe?";  Ahb dashes into the room and up to Arvee, Air Elemental₁ AoO on Ahb misses, Air Elemental₂ AoO on Ahb hits for 19; Darred steps into the room and casts Slow on Air Elemental₁ and Air Elemental₂ (in effect until round 6); Taizu arrives at the now open double doors, shouts, "It protects against wind!", casts Leomund's Tiny Hut; an AirGuard answers Tarva: "It summons Air Elementals;" another one answers Glendon: "Petchee is in the Temple."

3:  Air Elemental₁ strikes Arvee for 16, does an extra 7, pulls Arvee into itself for 10 more; Tarva runs to the double doors, tells a still invisible Taizu (that she's sure is there somewhere) "I'll Inspire Greatness on Rowan" (implying he should do the same on Arvee);  Arvee hits Air Elemental₁ for 23, 22; Air Elemental₂ hits Rowan for 16, miss; Rowan hits Air Elemental₂ for 11, miss; Glendon casts Web on the AirGuards; Ahb on Air Elemental₁ misses, misses; Darred casts Lesser Electric Orb on Air Elemental₂, but misses; Taizu begins to sing Inspire Greatness to Arvee, shoots a +1 arrow through Air Elemental₂, but it has no effect.

4:  Air Elemental₁ squeezes Arvee for 3, hits Ahb for 17, miss; Tarva begins to sing Inspire Greatness to Rowan, tumbles to Air Elemental₂, misses; Arvee hits Air Elemental₁ for 21, 24, kills, falls into corner for 1hp; Air Elemental₂ on Rowan misses, misses, hits for 19; Rowan hits Air Elemental₂ for 6, miss; Glendon makes it to the double doors, readies his crossbow; Ahb casts Spiritual Weapon :: Mace on Air Elemental₂ for 2; Darred casts Lessor Electric Orb on Air Elemental₂, but misses again; Taizu continues singing, singing takes effect on Arvee, moves to Arvee;.

5:  Tarva continues singing; singing takes effect on Rowan, hits at Air Elemental₂ miss, miss; Arvee gets up, does a partial charge at Air Elemental₂, hits for 23; Air Elemental₂ hits Rowan for 12, misses Tarva, hits Arvee for 14; Rowan hits Air Elemental₂ for 9, 13; Glendon fires his crossbow into Air Elemental₂, swish; Ahb's spiritual mace misses, misses, Ahb moves to Arvee, Air Elemental₂ AoO misses, heals Arvee for 29; Darred casts Melf's Magic Arrow on Air Elemental₂ for 5; Taizu continues singing to Arvee.

6:  Tarva continues singing to Rowan, hits Air Elemental₂ for 11, miss; Arvee hits Air Elemental₂ for 21, miss; Air Elemental₂ misses Rowan, hits Tarva for 14, hits Arvee for 11; Rowan hits Air Elemental₂ for 12, miss; Glendon casts Magic Missile on Air Elemental₂ for 6; Ahb's spiritual mace misses misses, moves to Rowan, Air Elemental₂ AoO for 14, Heals Rowan for 32; Darred's Slow spell wears off, Darred casts Slow on Air Elemental₂; Taizu stops singing (effect on Arvee will wear off after round 10), moves to Tarva, Air Elemental₂ AoO for 15, casts Cure Moderate for 18.

7:  Tarva continues singing to Rowan, hits Air Elemental₂ for 13, 12; Arvee hits Air Elemental₂ for 21, 25, kills.

342 ep.
Darred made nineth level!
Glendon made nineth level!


Taizu goes off to check on the acolytes and horses - they're ok, they heal Taizu for 14.  Ahb heals most everyone else.  Taizu wants to bring the horses and acolytes inside, thinks the alcove will be big enough for the horses.  Glendon goes to check on the AirGuards, finds that they have very slowly moved through the webbing to their armor, and are each holding something with the Air Elemental sigil on it.  "Drop those!" he yells at them, and they do.  Darred helps Glendon to pull each AirGuard out of the web and tie him up.  After which they go to help Taizu and the acolytes bring the horses into the alcove.

Tarva, convinced that we're going to have another fight quite soon, continues to sing to Rowan - and perforce stays near her.  Rowan repeats her concern about the human, ?perhaps a priest? she saw run up the spiral staircase.  Tarva suggests by pantomine (since she's singing) that we go after him.  Ahb and Arvee come along also.  Regretably, none of these four think to tell the other three what we're doing.

At the top of the spiral staircase the landing opens onto a large hallway.  There is an opening 40' down on the left, another 80' down on the right.  We move up to the first opening: it is 10' across, widening in 20' to a space with boxes, barrels, presumably storage.  On to the 80' on right, which has a door.  From here we can see that there is a door on the left, 30' further down, and that the hallway ends and turns left 80' from here.  Ahb listens at this door and hears nothing, Arvee opens it.  There is a room with a door and window out to a balcony, with a table placed under the window.  through the window (or door) we see that the balcony overlooks a lake occupying the caldera of a (?presumably? ?hopefully?) extinct volcano, with a peak rising from the middle of the lake.  Tarva notes that the last time we were outside, visibility was 10' through falling snow, but that doesn't seem to be happening here -- perhaps the entire caldera is underground?  We move on to the next door on the left.  Ahb again hears nothing, and Arvee opens the door into a bedroom suite with bed, two chests of drawers, rugs, table & chairs, wall hangings. 

We move on to the turn and look around it.  It opens up into a large room with a 15' high square dias in the middle.  There's another opening  to the room at the righthand next corner.  Steps up to the dias run the entire width of the lefthand side.  Along the walls are large tapestries with lifesize depictions of demonic behaviors, each more horrible than the last.  On the top of the dias are two men; Rowan recognizes one as the man she saw running away.  The other spots us and points, saying, "Look over there!" 

1:  Arvee runs across the floor and up the stairs to Chief; Ahb casts Flame Strike on Priest for 18 fire and 17 holy; Priest casts Confusion on the three of us still at the corner, but we all save; Chief strikes at Arvee with a longsword and hits for 9, 13, yelling, "Hey!  Get in here!"; Tarva, still singing to Rowan, reserves to stay with Rowan; Rowan moves to Priest, strikes, misses; Tarva follows Rowan as far as the top of stairs to dias, still within range to sing to Rowan.  Those at the top of the dias can now see that there is, in the center, a censor on a tripod, and also a bracket holding up a horn; also another set of stairs on the opposite side, and another hallway / opening at the corner opposite the one we came in.

2:  Arvee strikes Chief to subdue and criticals for 72, Chief falls down, Arvee moves to flank Priest;  Ahb moves 40' to the stairs, notices that this room has a distinct feel of unholyness about it; Priest moves to the horn, Rowan AoO for 13, Arvee AoO for 16, grabs horn and blows it; AirGuard₁₃ through AirGuard₁₈ come in through a hallway directly opposite the one we used; from the hallway that was (and still is) to our right, Gnoll₉ through Gnoll₁₂ come in, accompanied by a HalfOrc; Air Elemental₃ appears on top of the dias, strikes at Tarva, hits for 17, an additional 14, and Tarva is pulled in (her song can no longer be heard, and will run out in round 7);  Rowan hits Priest for 6, kills, partially charges Air Elemental₃, hits for 12; Tarva hits Air Elemental₃ for 12, miss.

3:  Arvee charges the AirGuards, AirGuard₁₃ AoO misses, hits AirGuard₁₃, kills, cleaves AirGuard₁₄, kills, cleaves AirGuard₁₅, kills, cleaves AirGuard₁₆, kills, growls in satisfaction; Ahb charges Air Elemental₃, hits for 8; Air Elemental₃ squeezes Tarva for 8, hits on Rowan for 18, on Ahb for 17, an additional 13, and Ahb is pulled in; HalfOrc moves to Arvee, hits for 17; AirGuard₁₇ misses Arvee; AirGuard₁₈ critical on Arvee for 8; Gnoll₉ and Gnoll₁₀ flank Rowan, Gnoll₉ misses, Gnoll₁₀ misses; Rowan hits Gnoll₉ for 12, kills, hits Gnoll₁₀ for 7; Tarva hits Air Elemental₃ for 11, 14.

4:  Arvee hits AirGuard₁₇, kills, cleaves AirGuard₁₈, kills, cleaves HalfOrc for 20, hits HalfOrc for 18; Ahb hits Air Elemental₃ for 6, misses; Air Elemental₃ squeezes Tarva for 14, Ahb for 12, hits Rowan for 20, misses; HalfOrc hits Arvee for 16;  Gnoll₁₀ misses Rowan; Gnoll₁₁ misses Rowan; Gnoll₁₂ misses Rowan;  Rowan criticals on Gnoll₁₀, kills, hits Gnoll₁₁ for 7, kills; Tarva misses, misses.

5:  Arvee criticals on HalfOrc, kills; Ahb hits Air Elemental₃ for 12, miss; Air Elemental₃ squeezes Ahb for 8, Tarva for 11, hits Rowan for 16, does an additional 7, moves her back 10', knocked down, Gnoll₁₂ AoO misses; Gnoll₁₂ on Rowan misses;  Rowan gets up, criticals on Gnoll₁₂, kills; Tarva hits Air Elemental₃ for 15, miss.

6:  Arvee moves to Air Elemental₃, Air Elemental₃ AoO on Arvee for 13, hits for 18; Ahb on Air Elemental₃ for 9, miss; Air Elemental₃ squeezes Ahb for 4, Tarva for 8, strikes at Arvee for a miss, hit for 13, does an additional 4, pulls Ahb in; Rowan drinks Cure Light for 10;  Tarva hits Air Elemental₃ for 10, miss.

7:  Arvee dirnks a Cure Serious for 27; Ahb casts Healing Circle for 17 to herself, Arvee, Tarva, Rowan; Air Elemental₃ expells all three 30', Arvee takes 13 and falls down, Ahb and Tarva take 6 and land on their feet, strikes at Rowan for 14, does an additional 3, moves Rowan 10' back, which pushes her off the edge of the dias, she lands on her feet but takes 2 points from fall (Inspire Greatness runs out);  Rowan runs back up to the top of the dias, does a partial charge to hit Air Elemental₃ for 6; Tarva charges, hits for 16, receives a deep feeling of frustration from Heart's Reach, but has no idea of what is causing HR's reaction.

8:  Arvee gets up and reclimbs steps to dias;  Ahb moves to Arvee;  Air Elemental₃ misses, misses, misses; Rowan hits Air Elemental₃ for 13, then bloopers and drops her sword; Tarva begins singing Inspire Courage, misses, misses;

9:  Arvee charges Air Elemental₃ for 16; Ahb charges Air Elemental₃ for 6; Air Elemental₃ hits Tarva for 10, hits Arvee for 12, an additional 4, pulls Arvee in;  Rowan picks up her sword, Air Elemental₃ AoO for 17, goes total defensive and backs up; Tarva singing, Inspire Courage takes effect, misses, then bloopers and hits Arvee for 6.

10:  Arvee hts Air Elemental₃ for 20, 18; Ahb criticals on Air Elemental₃ for 23, kills; Arvee falls, takes 6 hp.

777 ep.

Arvee is tying up and gagging the fighter he knocked out.   Helped by Ahb and Rowan, after which the three are searching bodies.  The HalfOrc had a chain shirt, a great axe, a thick composite bow, arrows, and a Kelly Green (Cure Moderate, says Ahb) potion.  The AirGuards have the standard banded armor with sigil, bastard swords, small wooden shields, crossbows, and 50gp among them.  The priest had an alabaster 8" long <something>, a 10" iron wand, a scroll, a morningstar, plate aromor under his robes, a shield, robes, a light crossbow and 10 bolts, 22 gold and 23 silver, a gold ring, an Air Temple symbol, and a key.  The chief, check out while stilll unconscious, had a large steel shield, black half plate, longsword, mighty composite longbow, 20 arrows, a cloak, two potions (TBD), and a key.  Hopefully he was stripped of all this before being tied and gagged.

During this, Tarva gives Rowan one of her Cure Serious potions, tells Ahb that she's going to get the others, and scurries down the hall.  She's really worried about what Taizu is going to think.  Downstairs, she tells Glendon, Darred, and Taizu that they found a Temple and captured someone else, who looks to be a higher-up.  Taizu is staring at her - perhaps glaring would be the better word.  But all he does, now, is whomp her on the head, then walk off after Darred and Glendon without saying anything.  She follows after him - leaving Lysette and Neva with the horses and the tied-up AirGurads - uncharacteristically meekish, worrying still about how much more upset he's going to be when he finds out how hurt she is: if not for Ahb's Healing Circle, Tarva would be at 1 (one) hp.

Damage:
Ahb         -43 =  -17, -13,  -12,  -8,  -4,  +17,  -6
Arvee       -90 = -9, -13,  -17, -8,  -16,  -13,  -13, -4,  +27,  +17,  -13,  -12, -4, -6, -6
Darred      none
Glendon    none
Rowan      -70 = -18,  -20,  -16, -7,  +10, +17,  -14, -3, -2,  -17
Taizu         none
Tarva         -71 = -17, -8, -14, -14,  -11,  -8,  +17,  -6,  -10