Eve Viscerator, the Bugbear Captain, turns to Sartan and growls, “I don’t like you. But you’re a warrior. I’m a warrior. We were adversaries. Now, we’re allies. I don’t like you, but I respect you. And we have a common enemy, that bastard wizard.”

The quickly discuss what to do next, and decide that as Eve is badly injured, they return to the lab to perhaps find a healing potion. They turn to the gate and a immediately greeted by the grinning face in the glass. The creature readies another riddle when Sartan suggests the just smash the glass. Eve takes a mighty swing with her morning star. Jagged chunks of green glass fly and a greening smoke billows forth. It quickly clears, and there before them is a small green-skinned creature with fluttering wings. It darts past the startled pair and runs, laughing down the corridor. With the “gatekeeper” gone and the glass broken, the gate opens freely. Sartan and Eve pass through and find that they are unable to lift the second gate. They search the lobby for a lever or other mechanism to raise the gate and find none.

Within the room, Cycek and Coriander stand guard near the bottom of the stairs. Cycek goes up the stairs to try and find a way to open the gate, also to no avail.

Across the room, Mishok and Davros become aware of voices coming from the lobby at the top of the stairs. A rough, hobgoblinesque voice shouts down, “Oy! Who’s down there!? Intruders! We’re gonna get you!” They hear the clanging of metal and then arguing among the voices, “Get this gate open!” Davros yells, threatens, and taunts them. Then the rogue and his cleric companion make their way across the room, where they join the search for a way to open the gate. Mishok realizes that he has the ratcheting contraption and they use it to bend the bars wide enough for Sartan and Eve to pass through. In an attempt to gather their gear and make a run for it, they form a “bucket brigade” and begin passing as much as they can grab from the work bench and up the stairs. The hobgoblin guards, along with Longdick McGee, make it down into the room and begin firing arrows. Eve, their captain, orders them to stand down, but the hobgoblins are defiant. One fires an arrow at Eve and she loses her temper, throwing javelins at her disobedient soldiers. The wires, of course, present quite an obstacle to ranged weapons, and the javelins twang uselessly amid the steel webbing.

Sartan, however, grabs one of the fire arrows from the pile of gear and fires a perfect shot. The arrow catches the hobgoblin right in the neck, and bursts into flame, blasting a gaping wound that kills the armor-clad soldier. Davros seriously wounds another one, while Mishok brings down the sacred flame on one as well.

Sartan Finally kills one of the wounded hobgoblins with a precision arrow shot to the eye. With that, Longdick and the remaining hobgoblin turn and flee. Meanwhile, Cycek hastily pours three random liquids and some bone powder into a glass vessel, intending to throw it at the opponents across the room. However, seeing the opponents instead fleeing, he rolls the glass sphere down the nearby corridor. The glass shatters and there is a flash, and a splash, and a coating of grease appears on all surfaces at the center of the hallway.

The room temporarily free of combatants, the team re-outfits itself with its gear. But, before long, another contingent of guards emerges from atop the western stairs. Eve successfully gains control of this bunch, and they guard the room while the party rests. After a bit of healing, they also set about looting and damaging the room. All the mechanical spiders are captured. Wires are cut with bolt cutters. Gems and liquid-filled spheres are taken. The large central gem is taken. And the glowing orb is taken. It is wrapped in a cloak, so a single shaft of light shines forth like a flashlight beam.

There is a discussion regarding what the next steps are, and what their goals are. Coriander remarks that she fears for Wendella’s safety. She believes that Della is in too deep, and may have made a pact with an evil being. She may have become a warlock. Eve is friendly toward Wendella and does not want to see her get hurt. She agrees to help the party get her home. But, her goal is to exact revenge on Ekso, and maybe even make this stronghold her own.

The group proceeds up the east stairs and are led by Eve to a door up the corridor.

She pounds several times, calling out for Wendella, who does eventually answer the door. Eve tries to talk to her, encouraging her to go home. But Wendella slams the door in her face. They post guards at the doors to her room, and they go looking for Ekso.

They enter Ekso’s private suite through the dining room, and then begin looking around his room. They notice several curious items, including a spell book, and a catalog of contraptions from Frandlehoobin and Son. Sartan tries to block up a “mousehole” opening with walnuts.  The scene ends as they investigate a strange levitating rod.

Two ghouls, released from their cell by the clockwork spiders, make their move toward any living thing they can hope to get their claws into. Ekso, injured and disengaging from combat with a parting magic missile strike at Sartan, Cycek, and Mishok, moves toward one of the approaching ghouls. A thick mist suddenly envelopes the wizard and ghoul, obscuring both from view. Ekso emerges beyond the baffled ghoul, and then hustles out of the room and down the corridor.

Sartan helps himself to the scimitar and shortbow held by the hypnotized goblin, Longdick McGee. Mishok frees himself using the keys which his commandeered spider has lifted from Ekso. He slides them across to Sartan’s cell, who releases himself and then in turn slides them down to Cycek. Sartan releases Longdick from his hypnosis and advises that he run for it – which he does.

Cycek opens the gate to Coriander’s cell and cuts her free from the magical webs, using the dagger she had used to stab Ekso. He gathers up the tangled webs and lunges for the nearest ghoul. He slaps an armload of webbing over the ghoul’s head, and then stabs it in the side with the dagger. It flails at the webs, tangling its claws, enabling Cycek to deliver another vicious cut to its neck. Coriander casts a mage armor spell on Cycek, enhancing his protection from harm. She then sends a frost ray into the face of the ghoul. It immediately goes rigid and drops.

Across the room, Davros and the goblin, Greaseball, are engaged with the second ghoul. Davros climbs into the rigging to gain advantage over the ghoul, and puts a couple of arrows in the creature. Greaseball, attacking with his scimitar, fares less well and falls before the ghoul’s furious claws. Davros then, having returned to the ground, fells the beast with another arrow, and takes the scimitar from the fallen goblin. He also captures and deactivates a spider.

Sartan releases Mishok from his bonds and the two cross to the west side of the room. Mishok manages to grab another spider along the way, leaving only four of the mechanical arachnids to handle the work of calibrating the web of wires and spheres so carefully arranged in this room. Sartan complicates their job by hacking one of the cables and then strumming all the ones within reach as he moves through the room. This distracts the spiders from attacking, as they turn their attention to damage control.

Mishok and Coriander investigate the workbench and discover their gear and weapons are piled up there, having been rifled through. Coriander tosses a bow and a quiver of arrows to Cycek who prepares to pursue Ekso. Sartan, seeing movement on the western stairway, goes up the stairs to investigate. He realizes that the bugbear captain, Eve Viscerator, just barely clinging to life, is struggling to open the gate at the tops of the stairs. He takes a shot with a goblin bow, and misses pathetically. Sartan then heads up the stairs, close to the bugbear, only to have a gate fall from above behind him, trapping him in a small space with the wretched creature. A greenish glass hemisphere is set in an iron ring in the center of the wrought iron gate at the top of the stairs. A wicked little face looks out from it and in a thin, whiny voice, acknowledges Sartan as a stranger, and suggests a game of riddles. As punishment for an incorrect answer, Sartan is torched with a flame shooting out of a nozzle in the wall. Cycek offers another solution. He conjures a goodberry, and throws it up to Sartan. Sartan gives it to Eve to revive her, in an attempt to gain an ally. It seems to work. As an authorized individual, she reaches for the handle and opens the gate. The two emerge into a lobby-like room.

Across the gem lab, Longdick McGee has fled up the opposite stairway. Davros pursues him. He opens the gate and steps into a lit room decorated like a lobby. There are comfortable chairs and end tables, a rug on the floor. He catches sight of the goblin headed up a passageway, and he stealthily follows. After a couple of turns, he sees that Longdick has entered a larger room, from whence he hears the harsh voices of at least three creatures speaking. Having seen enough, he returns to the gate, only to find it locked. He calls down to his team to let him in. Mishok, climbs the stairs and lets Davros back into, but the commotion seems to have drawn attention. As the pair reach the bottom of the stairs, they hear rough shouts coming from the room Davros had just left.

As the session ends, Sartan and Eve are in the “lobby” at the top of the west stairs, with a gate locked behind them, and an evil face leering at them from a glass globe welded into the door. Cycek and Coriander are standing guard at the foot of the west stairs. Mishok and Davros are at the foot of the east stairs, as unidentified voices approach from above. The remaining spiders scurry around, trying to adjust an array that is quite out of whack. Ekso is nowhere to be seen.

The scene opens with Davros descending the shaft, not yet having reached the room itself. It has begun to rain, and the rope is becoming wet. The sound of voices from above necessitates haste. Mishok is engaged in combat with the goblin guards and, wounded, is beset by mechanical spiders. Sartan stands amid the severed cable and the shattered pieces of the spider he dispatched with an axe blow. Ekso accompanies Cycek up the hallway, back towards to lab, praising his resourcefulness while surreptitiously uttering the words of a Charm spell. Cycek succumbs to the spell and views Ekso as a friend and ally. He urges Ekso to come meet his colleagues. 

Davros, continuing his descent, has some trouble with the rain-slicked cables, and takes a minor fall, but successfully reaches the floor. Meanwhile Sartan and Mishok slay two of the goblin guards but not before Mishok is taken down by goblin and spider attacks. He drops to the floor unconscious and Sartan and Davros move to rescue their fallen comrade. The remaining panicked goblin guard heads back into the hallway, frantically reporting the battle to his boss, Ekso.

Cycek and Ekso emerge into the lab. Ekso bellows “desist!” and all the mechanical spiders stop moving. The howling ghouls even quiet somewhat at the sound of his voice. Cycek administers life-saving first aid to Mishok while Ekso surveys the scene. He is clearly pleased at the sight of the daylight shining from above, but he is also distracted by the damage and disarray of his carefully calibrated structure. He instructs his remaining goblin guard to be rid of the bodies of his dead coworkers. Sartan approaches the central gem in its cradle, and threatens to smash it with his axe. Ekso assures him that his forces will stand down and suggests that there can be a peaceful resolution to the situation. Ekso seems to recognize Sartan, although Sartan does not recall ever having met him before.

While Mishok is brought back from the verge of death, Ekso launches into a monologue about his efforts to bring this ancient part of the world back to its former glory. He is astonished at the party’s success at opening the portal that had thwarted his efforts for so long. He heaps praise upon them, suggesting that there may be an opportunity for them to join his team. Working to repair the damage, he takes hold of the severed cable, hold the ends together, utters indiscernible words, and the cables re-knit into one continuous piece. The mechanical spiders return to him, and one by one he depresses their buttons, closes them up, holds them to his forehead, and recites new commands. The spiders disperse and begin to re-tension the wires.

His initial repair work done and introductions made, Ekso invites the reluctant party to join him for lunch. Cycek, still under the effects of the Charm spell, encourages his wary colleagues to accept this invitation. He leads them to another passageway. Davros, Sartan, and Mishok very cautiously follow at a distance. Passing one of the empty cells, they see a pile of gear, weapons, and outerwear. Davros, being a rogue at heart, reaches through the bars and grabs a quiver of 6 crossbow bolts. Once Ekso has proceeded out of sight down the hallway, Coriander calls out to Davros from her cell. The gear in the other cell is hers. She encourages Sartan to grab her dagger, which he does. He runs halfway across the room and slides it across the floor and into her cell. Meanwhile, Ekso is patiently coaxing his guests into the dining room. The room is dwarven stone construction with a stone table in the center, surrounded by 8 chairs. There are a series of ancient tapestries hanging on the walls depicting creatures with wings and horns and bearing similar indecipherable dwarvish runes to those on the lid of the Star Portal.

Sartan insists upon a need to relieve himself. There is a facility for such bodily functions in a curtained-off corner of the adjacent room. Ekso assigns a goblin guard to keep Sartan company. Casually looking around the room, Sartan sees a bed, book shelves, a desk, chairs, and the top of a spiral stairway leading down. The spiral stairway encircles a sculpture of a winged, horned figure.

Back in the dining hall, all are seated, and shortly the east door opens. A young woman clad in black, grey, and red enters with a small two-headed dog on a leash. Ekso rises and introduces her as Wendella. She has black, spiky hair and a red 8-pointed star either tattooed or painted on her forehead. He tells the party that she is no longer a child in need of her foolish parents, but rather a grown woman with a mind of her own. He says she is referred to by some as the “Princess of the Undead” but he dislikes the name. He regards the “undead” as more alive than the living. They have twice the life, and thus she should be called “Princess of the Double-Live.” Expounding on this theme, she asserts that she has made a pledge to a being of great power and it is her obligation to help bring him into this world.

The conversation goes on in this vein until suddenly the party awake in a different place. As they observe their new environment from behind bars, they come to realize that they have been drugged. The seem to have slept for some time, and are now in individual cells along the perimeter of the Gem Lab. They also seem to have been relieved of their weapons and gear. They see Ekso about his work at a stone workbench at the west end of the room. Cycek finds a jagged edge on the iron frame of the cell door and begins working at cutting the bonds that secure his hands behind his back. He is in a cell immediately adjacent to that of Coriander. They speak to each other in Elvish, and begin hatching a plan. She is unsure, but suggests that she can cast an illusion to draw their captor close to the cell door, and then stab him with the dagger. It seems unlikely to work, but worth a try. Meanwhile, Davros, Mishok, and Sartan all seek ways to cut their bonds as well. Mishok, his hands behind his back, realizes that he still as the mechanical spider in his back pocket. He is able to remove the device, and then with great effort, step his feet through his linked hands and bring them to his front side. Having watched Ekso reprogram such a device, he holds it to his forehead and commands it to steal the keys from Ekso’s belt. He releases it and it sets off on its way.

During this time, a tall charred figure enters from the west side of the room. It is Eve Viscerator and she is in bad shape. She reports to Ekso that there has been fighting on the perimeter with guards from the city. The guards have been routed, but her forces have taken losses. She begins to tell of four assholes who climbed the cliff and did THIS to her. Ekso turns an eye toward the cells and she follows his gaze. Realizing that the captives are the ones who wounded her, she flies into a rage a lurches toward Cycek’s cell. Ekso commands her to stand down, but she continues. He puts a hand to her shoulder, speaks some words, and the bugbear captain goes rigid, trembling and smoking, and finally collapses to the ground. He commands the aghast goblins to haul her out of here.

This commotion spurs Coriander to act. She casts an illusion of a huge gem on the floor just outside her cell, as if, perhaps the dying bugbear had dropped it. Ekso’s eyes go wide and he turns and reaches for it, but he suddenly realizes that it’s an illusion. Coriander casts a ray of frost that envelopes Ekso, to no avail. He resists the spell, and enraged begins to verbally assault Coriander. Cycek momentarily distracts him and she uses that moment to stick the dagger in his side.

The goblins, who have begun dragging away the blackened carcass of Eve Viscerator, stop in their tracks at the sound of their boss’s bellow. Before they can act on his behalf, Sartan and Davros begin taunting them. They come close to Davros, who tries to convince them to release him. One refuses, but the other is nearly swayed. One goblin, by the name of Longdick McGee crosses the room to confront Sartan, who has during this time, managed to escape his bonds. Sartan finds that he still has his hypnotic fidget spinner and he puts the unlucky goblin into a trance.

Mishok calls upon the sacred flame and brings flash after flash of fire upon the bleeding wizard, who is no longer cool or collected. He is shouting and raging now. Ekso wounds Coriander with a magic missile and then binds her to the bars of the cell with a web. He also exhales a poison gas into Cyceks face. While Ekso struggles in front of Cycek’s cell, Mishok’s spider appropriates the keys and begins to bring them back to his new master. One more blast of fire causes Ekso to retreat. Cycek, also having cut his bonds, removes a boot and hurls it at Ekso, striking him in the ass.

Across the room, the goblin named Greaseball has been persuaded by Davros, that he is better off releasing the party because otherwise he’s going to end up dead, just like his bugbear captain. Greaseball unlocks Davros’s cage, just as two mechanical spiders unlock and open the cell containing two enraged ghouls.

The party takes some time to recover from their battle with the ogre. They spend some time resting and tending to their wounds, while the ogre rampages outside, hurling rocks at random, hoping for a lucky hit. Once they resume their explorations, they notice old footsteps in the crust of snow remaining in the shadowed passage way. They wend their way into the center of the structure. Using their rope, they haul Cycek to the top of the wall, so that he can survey the scene. He sees the overview of the concentric circles comprising the structure. He sees the frustrated ogre still stalking about on the plateau. And he gets a good view of the object at the center of this structure. It is a carved, circular platform about 2 feet high. It’s stone surface is engraved with an 8-pointed star, set amid a series of concentric and tangential rings of various sizes. Returning to the ground, he and the rest of the party inspect this artifact more closely. They recognize the geometric patterns and runes as resembling the demon-head carving on the head of the key they retrieved from the narrow passageway at the back of Ursula’s cave. Mishok recognizes the runes as being dwarvish of origin, but they seem strange and are unreadable. They attempt to lift the stone. They insert the key into a slot in the center of the slab and turn it. This releases a handle at each point of the star, which flips up from underneath the lip of the slab. Again, they try and fail to lift what they assume to be a lid of some kind. Next, they try to rotate the slab. It takes some effort, but it does begin to move. As they rotate the object, fissures open in its surface and the lid divides into 8 panels which open iris-style, revealing a six-foot-wide shaft leading straight down. A bright point of light pierces the dark roughly 100 feet down the shaft.

As the party contemplates their next move, the ogre renews its attempt to connect with a rock, and they hear the grunting of the beast and the crack or stone as his hurled missiles smash against the walls of the stone structure. They decide to lower Mishok down the shaft to investigate. About 90 feet down, the shaft opens into a large room. An bright glowing orb hangs about 10 feet below the opening, and the room is filled with a complex web of rods and wires. Mishok, with his short statures, feels that although he might be able to release himself from the rope and alight on the wire structure, he could not do so without being disruptive to the structure. This is of particular concern because he detects movement among the cables. Mishok returns to the surface and reports his findings. Cycek, being taller and more nimble descends next. He sees that the movement Mishok reported are a number of spider-like creatures that seem to be attending to various adjustments and tensioners on the wires. He carefully climbs into the upper rigging, and lets go of the rope. He sees below him, and directly below the glowing orb, another circular pit in the floor. The light strikes a gem that is suspended in a cradle between the light source and the pit. Shafts of light emanate from the gem, striking other smaller orbs set among the cables throughout the room. A brighter beam shoots straight down the shaft. He manages to reach the floor without attracting undue attention from the spiders. However, as he gets his bearing, two goblins step out from a passageway to the east, and shout “Who the hell are you!?” They are shocked at the presence of this unexpected visitor. They order him to lay down his weapons and they will take him to their boss. He expresses a willingness to go see his boss, but will not relinquish his weapons. A moment later, two other goblins, equally shocked, emerge, from another passage at the opposite end of the room. They reassert the demands of the other goblins, and Cycek complies. He lays down his weapons, which ones of the goblins collects, and they take him into custody. Although they are unpleasant little creatures, and somewhat rough with him, they lead him without episode through the web of cables, toward the southwest corner of the room. In passing, he notices a couple of barred cells in the south wall of the room. One of them contains a creature resembling those that they had fought in the tunnels beneath Avita Ploughman’s barn back in Duskhaven.

Meanwhile Mishok descends into the web again. As he originally guessed, he has a more difficult time climbing from the shaft into the rigging. He falls, hitting several taught cables before he is able to catch himself. He takes injury and also sets the whole web to vibrating and shaking. As he regains his grip on the cables, he sees the spider-like creatures scurry about, attending to tensioners, but several move swiftly toward him. One one draws near, he is able to discern that these are mechanical devices modeled after spiders. He sees Cycek disappear into a passageway, in the custody of four goblins. He gets to the floor as quickly as he can, but is soon beset by mechanical spiders, attempting to bite him.

During this time, Sartan is moving down the shaft, and Davros is becoming aware of raised, hoarse voices outside the structure, and rocks continue to fly over the wall, sometimes smashing nearby and raining shards down upon him.

Mishok reaches the floor and begins moving toward the place he last saw Cycek. He is bitten by a spider and suffers not only piercing damage, but also poison damage from its venomous fangs. He manages to grab one of the creatures, and with his mechanical acumen, notices buttons on the top and bottom of its carapace. Depressing both at once, the legs and head retract into the body, and it becomes a motionless brass disk. He pockets this item.

Sartan, upon reaching the floor moves toward the northwest of the room. Here, he sees another cell with a screaming, haggard creature. One of what Mishok was able to identify as a ghoul. A woman’s voice cries out from another cell.

Davros is able to begin his descent after Sartan is off the rope. But not before he is hit in the head by a shard of rock. He hears more angry voices approaching as he climbs over the edge of the pit, and starts rappelling down.

The goblins have taken Cycek down a hallway into a room lit by oil lamps and set up as a library. There are tapestries on the walls, several chairs and tables, and about eight sturdy wooden book cases. Moving through this room, they take him into the private chambers of a tall, thin man who stands before them. The goblins tell him they caught this intruder in the “Gem Lab” and don’t know how he got there. He dismisses them, and engages Cycek in dialogue.

He speaks in a deep, deliberate cadence. He introduces himself as Ekso. Cycek is forthright in telling who he his, why he is there, and how he got there. Ekso expresses surprise that Cycek and his friends have arrived via the “Star Portal.” He also assures him that Wendella is safe and is where she should be, although he seems disdainful of Anton and Willa Strongbow’s concern for their daughter. Ekso feels there may be a place for Cycek on his staff. An operation such as this could use talented individuals like Cycek, and he offers to pay much better rates than anything the mayor and his wife could. Cycek wants to check on the safety of his friends. Ekso agrees to accompany him back to the “Gem Lab” and see if they can locate his companions. He puts a  hand on his shoulder and leads him back through the library, the way he had come. One goblin remains in the library, holding Cycek’s swords. 

Sartan has investigated the woman’s voice. He discovers that she is Coriander, the half-elf investigator that had preceded them out of Duskhaven. She tells Sartan that she was hired by Councilman Donnwald to find Wendella. She had interviewed Carver’s mother, and was sent on a similar trajectory, seeking Carver in the blufflands, but she was captured by Hobgoblins and imprisoned here. She has been here a day and is unable to use her magic because her hands are bound. She turns her back to the bars, so that Sartan can reach her rope-bound hands. He cuts them with a dagger. Immediately after this, he is attacked by a mechanical spider. Another spider is approaching the ghoul cell. Sartan hacks at that one with his axe, shattering it, and also cleaving through one of the wires. It parts with a sharp twang, and a small glass orb attached to it shatters. The entire web-structure shudders.

The other three goblins emerge from the hallway back into the lab. They see Mishok and are again shocked. Mishok is badly injured at this point, but he pulls out his crossbow and puts a bolt into a surprised goblin’s chest.

Ghouls are howling and raging. The light from the glowing orb is pitching and flashing wildly as the wire structure recoils from the axe blow. Goblin are yelling, and a bloodied dwarf is readying an appeal to his god for assistance. Cycek and Ekso proceed up the hallway and are about to emerge onto this scene of chaos as the session comes to a close.

After an hour of rest at the top of the stairs, the party decides to move cautiously up the trail. They come upon a series of old stone arches jutting out from the cliff wall on their left. Some of them are partly crumbled, with fallen keystones and chunks of stone wall laying about. One arch is intact, and upon examination, they discover a tripwire at shin-height, running up a series of eyelets to some type of unidentified device nestled into a crevice near the top of the arch. With rough terrain around the arch, and 4 horses to lead across, they decide to ditch the horses so they can proceed more carefully on foot. They return the horses to the foot of the stairs and come back to carefully pass under the arch. Cycek and Davros scout ahead and soon discover a goblin attempting to hide in the rocks just off the trail. They confront him and and persuade him to come out of hiding to talk. He is reluctant to talk, but seeing an opportunity to profit, he warns them of trouble ahead, and sells them a length of rope and spikes to help them climb the wall. He mentions his boss “Eve” as well as someone he refers to as “Zoey.” Their business concluded, he quickly scrambles back into hiding near the edge of the cliff. When Davros investigates, he sees the goblin scaling the cliff down to the lower plain.

Deciding to climb, they set up their climbing rig at one of the damaged arches. After a bit of trial and errors, including some injurious falls, three of the party make it to the top. As the three pull up Cycek using their rope, a band of goblins and hobgoblins led by a huge bugbear come down the trail and launch arrows at them. The bugbear “Eve Viscerator” is huge and aggressive. She shouts at the figures atop the cliff and throws her javelin, to no effect. The party returns fire, beginning with Sartan throwing one of the glass vials they had taken from their would-be assassin a couple days earlier. The vial shatters and a cloud of black smoke billows out, immediately killing two goblin archers. One of the hobgoblins drops to his knees while the other three are wracked by coughing. The bugbear boss is unaffected and defiant.

The party, having the high ground, launches a barrage of arrows, and Mishok brings down the sacred flame, quickly decimating the attackers below. Eve and the remaining two hobgoblins run off and take cover. Eve is riddled with a arrows and smoking from the severe burns she suffered.

Their opponents routed, the party moves on through a landscape of trees and rocks, catching sight of a black structure in a clearing ahead. The tree cover diminishes as they approach the structure, which appears to be a low, cylindrical shape (like a massive hockey puck). They split up, one pair moving clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise around the perimeter. Mishok and Cycek discover an opening in the north side of the stone, while Sartan and Davros discover a massive ogre and a pair of goblins rushing them from the woods to the southwest. Sartan moves to engage the foes, while the others go into the opening in the stone. They discover a roofless passageway following an interior perimeter of the stone. Davros receives a grave arrow wound, but also fells one of the goblins. Deciding that flight may be a better option than combat, Sartan and Davros move toward to north, with the fast-moving enemy in pursuit. Blows are exchanged, and Sartan and Davros are both brought to the brink of death. But, they manage to get into the relative safety of the stone structure. The ogre hurls one of the goblins up over the wall, but to little effect as that goblin is soon slain. 

The session closes with all party members inside the interior passage, and a bellowing ogre just outside an opening that is happily too narrow for it to enter.

Having attended to the gravely wounded Carver and Davros, the band of adventurers takes some time to investigate (loot) the bodies of the fallen. Aside from very few coins and mundane weapons among the personal effects on the bodies of Hack’s cronies, they also take possession of an unusual pair of glasses that had been worn by Berniece. She also carried a number of high quality, but relatively small sapphires, and a silvered warhammer. Additionally, they lift the silver I.D. badge off the uniform of Officer Greene. 

Carver has fallen into a state of profound grief over what has transpired. He collapses to the ground, wracked with sobs and cries out “Why did this have to happen? I never meant for anybody to get hurt!” He states that he knew some of those guys since he was a kid. And he never should have taken that gem. He blames himself for what happened. Ursula, in bear form, cradles Carver and tries to comfort him. She, in turn, is distraught for having nearly killed her beloved, and is in tears herself.

During the 15-20 minutes of these macabre activities, Hack and his surviving crew members have mounted their horses and crossed the river. Ursula lifts Carver and carries him back to her cave with the party following close behind. They bed down for an uneventful night, recovering the best they can from their injuries.

They wake before dawn, and choose to spend some time exploring a tunnel at the back of the cave. Cycek squeezes through a tight passageway and discovers a small, locked chest. He slides it out through the opening to Davros, so that he could attempt picking the lock. Davros is successful in his attempt, but upon opening the lid, a burst of acid sprays out, dealing massive injury to him, as well as to Sartan standing nearby. Within the chest is a cache of precious sapphires, and a wicked looking key, with a demonic face on its handle and jagged-looking blades.

Taking more time to recover from this latest injury, the party converses with Carver before taking their leave of him and Ursula. Carver has reluctantly agreed to stay with Ursula, while the party goes on in search of Wendella. Questioned by Cycek, Carver provides more background on his situation with Hack. He tells a story of having been given the massive gem, in a case of mistaken identity, by a goblin who approached him at his job at the Stoneyard. He kept the stone, meant for his brother, in the hopes he could use it to win back Wendella from the mysterious stranger whom she met at the visitors center library. Carver explains how he came to understand that Della and this man had common interests in their areas of study. She was impressed by his worldliness and knowledge. And Carver believes she went with him on some kind of research expedition up in the bluffs, indicating an anomalous circular structure shown on the map.

The party studies the map and decides to pursue this lead, by following the trail back north around the tip of the bluff. They pass by the scene of the previous night’s fight, and as the head around the back side of the bluffs, they notice some evidence of recently disturbed rock, as well as a couple of dented metal buckets, and a rusty pickaxe.

When the travelers approach an ancient stairway ascending to the next tier of bluffs, they pause, suspicious of a large rock they see at the top of the stair. Mishok cautiously proceeds partway up the stairs, only to be shot with a crossbow bolt. As the rear guard moves to take defensive positions, two more shots are fired from rocks near the top of the stairs. Cycek and Davros return fire from cover. Meanwhile, two heavily armored hobgoblins, crowbars in hand, lever the huge rock over the lip of the top stair. It bounds down the stairs with a crash, narrowly missing Cycek. Cycek and Davros bring down two goblins with arrow shots, and the two hobgoblins turn and run.

The team, again injured from this encounter, loot the bodies of the two goblins, and decide to rest for an hour. Their rest period ends at around 7am.

The party, in the company of Carver and Ursula, are ambushed by Hack and his cronies. A battle ensues in which several of Hack’s posse (Piglet, Bignose, Mr. Wig, Oily Mack, and Officer Greene) are slain, as well as Berniece, her Death Dog, and one of two goblin archers who had taken pot shots from atop the rocks. Carver and Davros nearly die, but pull through thanks to the quick actions of Cycek and Mishok. Ursula had apparently been charmed by the dwarf-lady Berniece, leading her to turn on the party, and delivering a pair of near-fatal blows to her beloved Carver. Davros, despite the miraculous curative powers of Mishok, remains afflicted with disease caused by the Death Dog’s bite. Hack, Skids, Shaggi, Troutman, and Skinny Mini retrieve their horses and seek to flee across the ford with the gem in-hand. One of the goblins escapes into the rocks. 

The party consider their options for finding shelter for the night as daylight fades and they prepare to attend to the fallen.

The team leaves the gemologist shop slightly before noon, and head farther into town to talk to Carver’s mother at the grocery store where she works. She is kind but somewhat exasperated that more people are here looking for Carver. She tells them that the mayor and his wife, accompanied by armed guards came to her home looking for him several days ago. Then, a woman named Coriander came looking for him just yesterday. She does not like how the mayor has always had a negative view of Carver. She believes that her boys’ background, as half-orcs and the product of rape, should not be held against them. It made Harven (Hack) into an angry, aggressive man, whereas Carver over-compensates to the point where he is so nice that he is taken advantage of. And she thinks Wendella may be doing just that. And she did not trust this woman who claimed to work on behalf of the city. She told both of them that Carver had taken employment on a merchant caravan headed north. Sartan explains to her that they met Hack and they wonder why he is so angry with Carver. She says that there has always been bad blood between them because of their different personalities and the perception that Carver has always been favored. She comes to trust the party, and hopes that they can actually help find Carver and bring him back. She gives them a map that he left behind in his room, and four liver/onion/limburger sandwiches on rye. She also mentions that she has given Carver a family heirloom, a chain and locket, for luck.

Outside the grocery store, they are immediately confronted by Hack and his friends. he yells at them for bothering his mother, and they retort “what do you care, you haven’t seen her in years!” A fair point to which he has no answer, but to ask again what they want with her. He figures they are looking for information about Carver. He insists they they go together to find Carver. He asserts that he and Bignose have the kind of skills they will need. The party tells him, they are going to the police station first and that he should go get his horse and they will meet him there. He relents and goes off to get his horse.

The party picks up their steeds at the 3 Javelins stable. Then they inquire at the police station about the body they brought in last night. The first officer they speak to says that, they were unable to identify the body and they don’t believe him to be local. The body has been sent to the morgue.They ask what he thinks about Hack. the office says he thinks he is an upstanding individual despite his reputation as a brawler and troublemaker. Upon further questioning, the officer is obviously somewhat uncomfortable and says he will have to ask his boss. he goes into an office, and a second senior office comes out shortly thereafter. This officer knows them, having met them the previous day. They ask him if he thinks it wise to travel with Hack. He looks around, and says in a hushed tone, “If I were you guys I would involve as few people in this town as you can. It’s a small town, but a complicated one. Why do you think the mayor brought in outsiders to do this? If you are supposed to meet Hack here, I suggest you get going now before he arrives. And go by the North Road. People will see you leaving, it will be no secret. But Hack will probably leave out the back of the Stoneyard and take the trails called the “Thieves Highway.”

With that, they head north out of town. About an hours and half out of town, they identify the trail that should take them to the river crossing. They cross the river and come to a fork in the road at the tip of the bluffs. Here they are confronted by a huge, angry bear. It rushes toward them, but stops short, towering 10 feet tall and roaring at them. The party handles the situation calmly and with much delicacy. Cycek approaches the bear with liverwurst sandwiches as a peace offering, while Sartan, noticing a silver chain around its wrist calls out names of people he suspects this bear might recognize, “Carver, Lolly, etc.” The bear continues to make threatening gestures, but does not attack. The parties tentatively draw nearer. They perceive that this is a female bear. The party continues to make peaceful gestures, until finally the bear turns and runs behind a rock. Cycek moves closer with another sandwich, and before long a transformed creatures come out from behind the rock. No longer a “natural” looking bear, this is now sort of a fur-covered bear-human hybrid. It says in a throaty bark, “You know Carver?” They respond in the affirmative. She responds, “Follow!” And takes off at a run down the trail. The quartet follow on horseback, until the fleeing figure disappears into a cave in the cliff face.

Davros keeps watch outside while the other three cautiously head down the narrow stone tunnel. They hear a voice calling out for help!. The voice turns out to belong to Carver himself who has been held captive by Ursula the werebear. He asks to be released. Cycek is reluctant, not wanting to earn the ire of the powerful bear-woman. Shortly, Ursula, now in human form, emerges from a side cavern and expresses her unwillingness to let Carver go. She says he’s safe here. He’ll get hurt out there. He begs her to let him go. He says he cares about her, but he can’t stay. He promises to come and visit. He wants to go with the party to find Wendella. She finally relents with the condition that she will travel with them to make sure he is safe. Cycek says she can have him back after they find Wendella. All in agreement, the party, now of six, sets out north on the trail in the late afternoon.

Hack and one of his ruffian pals toss the bodies of the two dead creatures into the pit. The fight has gotten his blood up and he is ready for more. He exhorts the party to come join him down in the pit. He says “Dell set Bernice and me up with some more exotic creatures. Let’s have some fun!” The party turns down the offer. Hack offers the ultimatum “It’s either fighting of drinking. If you’re not up for the fight, let’s go back to the bar!” The group reluctantly agrees. Back at the Yur Inn they have a halfhearted drink, and weasel their way out. Luckily, the horse they left tied up outside the bar, with their gear, has remained unmolested, and their personal items unstolen. 

They are on their way out of the West End, in the wee hours of the morning, when an arrow comes from out of nowhere and strikes Mishok. He is badly wounded. The perceptive Davros and Cycek are able to see a dark figure on a roof top. Thinking fast, Davros moves to the wall closest to the shooter, out of view of the shooter and begins to climb. Cycek takes a position in the shadows of a building across the street. Sartan hastily pulls Mishok out of the line of fire, and takes and arrow between the shoulder blades for his effort. Cycek fires one of the flametip arrows, and against all hope, hits the assailant dead-center in the chest. The arrow head bursts into flame, and the figure tumbles off the roof and lands in a heap on the cobblestone street. The adventures find a young man clad in black leather armor, with a fist-sized smoking crater in his chest. They load the body on the back of their horse, but first discover some interesting items on his person, most notably 2 sealed glass vials of a black liquid. Moments later, 2 city guards emerge from the main boulevard and inquire what is going on. They recognize the party from their earlier visit to the headquarters and know that they are here searching for Wendella. The accompany the group back to the HQ and take possession of the body. The night shift captain tells them they will open an investigation and recommend an armed escort back to the 3 Javelins.

They meet Randall Roanstol, the owner of the 3 Javelins and brother of Willa Strongbow. He provides his views on the situation, insinuating that Wendella might not be so innocent, and her disappearance may be more complicated than her merely running off with her boyfriend. He agrees to do them the favor of having their rented horse returned to Duskhaven. They spend the night in peace without further incident.

They sleep late that morning after having been on the go for nearly 24 hours. They chat with three young men, Ace, Brace, and Caso, who give them a little bit of intel on Wendella and Carver. They also mention the reported massacre at the Erhurr farm southwest of town, and that there are rumors that goblins have moved into the old “Slave Pits” in a ravine not far from there. After breakfast, they set out on foot to make some inquiries, stopping first at the alchemist where they gain some insight about several of the items they have acquired over the previous few days. The alchemist identifies the whitish powder as ground bone, although he cannot be certain what kind of bone. The black candles are tallow candles, made from animal fat, and typically a more rustic utilitarian item found on a farm, whereas in a city household, more refined beeswax candles are the norm. He does wonder about their greasy quality and black color. The mandrake root is a fairly common, although somewhat expensive item with both mundane and arcane properties. He is most taken aback by the sealed glass vials with a black liquid. It looks like the type of thing the Assassins Guild might deal in, and not a reputable store like his own. They buy a dose of Philter of Love.

Next, they visit the gemologist. Coincidentally, they encounter a giddy Frandlehoobin coming out of the store. He just sold the blue-green gems for a good price. It turns out there’s a bit more a market for them than he had anticipated. He tries to sell them a roll of Silver Cloth of Practical Adhesion, but they decline. Davros in particular wants to kick the little gnome, as he feels that he has been cheated. The gemologist tells them that, yes, there is a market for the blue-green gems lately. But he asserts that they are a vaguely similar, but completely different mineral than the Shadowfust Sapphire that the region was once known for. Large or clear specimens are very rare these days, but even a small one is valuable. A large, clear Shadowfurst Sapphire is reputed to have an unmatched ability to harness the power of light. These gemstones that are currently moving through the marketplace are similar in hue but quite inferior in quality.

The late morning departure, with the sky clearing, and a few good slugs of healing hooch makes for a pleasant journey compared to the weather and battles of the last couple of days. In the mid-afternoon, they encounter the roadside stand of a Gnome named Frandlehoobin. He and his young son have a number of strange gnomish items for sale. After much haggling, the party leaves with several noteworthy contraptions such as the Escape Balloon, the Gooey Grabber, the Unbreakable Leg Trap, a Hypnotic Fidget Spinner, and some firecrackers. This was, in part, financed by a trade for some of the blue-green gems that had been looted from the bandits a couple nights before.

They arrive at the gates of Duskhaven after dark. They are disrespectful to the guards, and are about to be turned away, but the guards realizing that these are the team being contracted to find Wendella, relent and bring them before the Mayor. The gate guards escort them through the town square, past a looming warrior statue, and turn the party over to the care of the Mayor’s Elite Guard who then escort them inside the Mayoral Tower. Mayor Anton Strongbow and his wife Willa have summoned them here to conduct an investigation for which they feel their own constables are not well suited. The Town Council, not the mayor’s office,  is in charge of the town guards and constables, and Mayor Strongbow feels they have not shown themselves to be sufficiently competent or motivated to have made progress in Wendella’s return. The couple give the party some background information about Wendella, along with a physical description: a slight young woman, with black hair that has been cut short and spiked to stand straight up. They suggest that they look for her boyfriend, Carver, of whom Anton has an unfavorable view. They also mention, but dismiss the rumor that goblins have moved into the region southwest of town. They give them a note they found in Wendella’s room which reads.:

“Dearest W,

The stars will align, our paths will join, and we will be together soon. Come to me in our secret place. Seek safe passage. I’ll see you soon, my love.

XO”

They offer payment of 500gp, as well as use of horses, and lodging in the 3 Javelins Inn.

Although it is dark, it is not terribly late, so when they take their leave of Anton and Willa, they decide to visit the seedy bar at the other end of town, where they figure they might find Carver. They wisely seek the escort of town guards, which they obtain quickly and easily since the City Guard headquarters and Mayoral mansion share the same structure, the Old Guard Tower.

It takes about half an hour to cross town and they arrive at the Yur Inn. They leave the 2 guards outside and go in boldly calling for Carver. They are confronted by an angry beast of a man who turns out to be Hack, Carver’s brother. He and the party share a couple of drinks and he declares that he wants to find Carver too. “He took something of mine!” A few rounds later, midnight approaches, and Hack invites the party to enjoy the spectacle and gambling opportunity of a dog fight at the old gravel quarry of the grounds of the Shadowfurst Stoneyard. They witness two hideous, almost ape-like beasts tear apart a trio of dogs, and then turn and tear down the barricades. The crowd (including the guards who came along to enjoy the show) turn tail and run, while the party and Hack fight off the marauding creatures. Cycek and Davros put a couple of arrows in the creatures, slaying one, while Hack finishes the other with a vicious swipe of his sword.