Thursday 11th September

The Beholder floated above us, regarding us as if were small creatures trapped under a glass, it tilted slightly in the air. The eyelid of the central eye closed slightly as it regarded us, almost as if it is squinting.

We stood immobile looking up at the huge creature above us, in my thoughts I ran through all I could remember of the creature. None of it was good, it looked like two more members of the Lannister family were about to fall victim to the evil creatures that lurked within Cauldron.

The Beholder’s great mouth opened and it spoke to us, no burning death nor disintegration just words. My jaw fell open, as in a rich, deep baritone voice the creature spoke in great length to us that Terrem was not our concern and that he should not have been take from Lantern Street Orphanage.

When Owyn spoke, interrupting the creature, my heart froze for a second. Owyn tried to explain that we were here to rescue the children, all of the children and return them to the Orphanage.

The Beholder floated away from us and higher towards the ceiling at the interruption most of the eye stalks now regarded Owyn. I expected to hear screams that very moment from my right but nothing, the Beholder spoke once again, repeating that Terrem was not our concern and that it would return him to the Orphanage.

With that one of the eye stalks turned to Terrem, a beam shot out and the chains faded out of existence, another eye stalk then regarded Terrem and the child frozen in fear floated slowly into the air and towards the Beholder. When Terrem was beside the creature, it spoke once again saying that we had done a well to get through Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress in order to rescue the children, it would also compensate us for the loss of Terrem.

From the air a bag of coins fell towards us and hit the ground with the sound of coins striking each other. The bag was left as the Beholder and Terrem were suddenly drawn in to a flash and blinked out of existence with an in rushing of air. A bright dot of light hung in the air for a second longer, with what appeared to be an image of a small Terrem and the Beholder, before fading out completely.

The seconds turned into minutes as we stared first into space and then at each other, the shock of seeing a beholder had turned into amazement of surviving encountering a beholder.

Owyn broke the silence and our statue like existence when he moved forward and prodded the leather bag the beholder had thrown in front of us. As his rapier pressed against the bad he winced and half closed one eye as if expecting something bad to occur. To his apparent surprise and mine, nothing did happen apart from a clinking of coins sounding from the bag. Picking it up he hefted the bag as if trying to work out how much was in the bad from the weight alone. When he finally undid the drawstrings his face fell.

“Holy and Good Gods, Platinum”

This statement snapped us all back into the real world; we moved over to Owyn and glanced in the bag. He was right it contained just Platinum pieces, in awe of seeing such currency we seemed to freeze again, soft sobs broke my revere this time. Taking the keys Owyn had taken from Kazmojin’s body from unresisting fingers I moved towards the three remaining children still chained to the pillar.

Making sure to remember to put my sword away I approached the children trying to project a friendly image despite the gore I was covered in I fixed on my friendliest smile. As I approached the children they shrank back more and the sobbing started to intensify. I crouched down pausing in my approach and held out the keys to the children; one boy and two girls.

“Look we are here to get you out of here; we want to take you back to Cauldron and your friends. We just need you to be brave for a little bit longer, brave like have been since the bad people came. We will keep you safe I promise, that big man there with the robes is a great wizard and the lady with the red hair is a great sorceress between their magic and the swords nothing will come close to hurting you.”

I moved closer with the keys out stretched and they did not resist nor flinch when I put the keys in each collar in turn releasing them.

Standing up they stretched as Kellen and Anari approached, I smiled a wry smile as I notice Anari had not wiped any of the gore from her clothes as she normally did after a battle and had fixed a slightly aggressive expression on her face. It did look at odds to her refined Elven features but it worked upon the children.

The stood behind me peering around my legs staring in awe at these two warriors in front of them.

“We need to be moving Bran, what ever is left in this place will know we are here and with the children freed we have to be more careful than normal.”

Anari’s voice did not betray the worry that I could read in her eyes, slightly pinched and blinking slower than normal.

Owyn looked over at us and sighed, he hoisted a larger bag into the air and announced that he had managed to get another 180 golden pounds from smoky on the floor and that the Urgosh and four throwing axes should gather even more but that was nothing to what he though the full plate armour would be worth. His smile broadened then, we also got compensated to the tune of fifty platinum pieces.

Cass starts towards the door we originally entered, in that lilting voice and with a wry smile playing across her full red lips commented that no amount of treasure would be worth anything if we did not get back to Cauldron with the children.

That sobered up Owyn pretty quickly especially after Khandalar gave him a gentle push in the direction of the door. With the decision made and in unspoken group we started back towards the lift using the route we had to enter.

As we enter the room that apparently lead to the Underdark and had the statue of the Dwarven Warrior we surprised four hobgoblins entering from the door we had used and been attacked from earlier. Cass and Khandalar held back keeping the children behind them, shielding them from any attack with their bodies.

Kellen lead the charged screaming a heaving that great sword of his as he went slamming into the enemy line. The was a plume of dark red mist suddenly in the air following the arc of the shimmering blade of Kellen, the hobgoblin did not even scream as the blade cut him from groin to shoulder. With one enemy on the floor dead the sword continued the arc as Kellen twisted and again a rich fountain of blood erupted from neck of a hobgoblin as its head spun away from its body. The sword continued to the third hobgoblin, this time the blade has halted by a hastily raised sword blocking what would have surely been a third fatal blow.

With the hobgoblin’s attention on stopping Kellen from removing its head it failed to notice come up behind him and thrust his rapier deep into its back. As Owyn twisted and pulled the blade out, blood flowed out of the mouth and nose of his victim and it crumpled to the ground.

Anari and I had been running towards the hobgoblins that now lay very much dead on the floor the fourth was out of our reach and started to move away from us but not quickly enough with a snarl Cass slashed sickle across the throat of the creature. We head the blade scrape bone before the blood started flowing and the corpse fell to the ground.

I stopped my run and went back to the children and with Khandalar ushered around the blood, bodies and other bodily fluids that were now escaping. We looked at each other and then back to the children, so young to see so much blood and horror. It was not right that innocents should suffer because someone stronger and nastier wanted to prey on them and make money from their misery.

Kellen and Anari move through the door first with Khandalar and I keeping the children between us. Cass follows next, blood still dripping from her sickle. Owyn takes a moment longer as he strips everything of value he can find on the bodies. When we get to the lift the swords, sickle and staff are arranged in front of the children like a wall that would not be breached by any force.

I move to the room with the leaver and push it up and move back into position as the clanking of chains sounds moments before the floor starts to rise back up towards Jzadirune. In the minutes it takes to get complete the journey we share out the load that Owyn is carrying. Between us we are encumbered with four extra long swords, four javelins, four sets of studded armour and four shields.

When the journey finally came to its shuddering conclusion we face the door we originally entered the lift from, Anari took two strides towards the door and turned to face us all.

“This is insane there is no way we can take these kids through Jzadirune. We suffered enough in there without having three borderline catatonic children in tow, factor in the horde of treasure and equipment we are dragging around with us as well and we are really in trouble.”

Khandalar shifted from his position at the back of the group to a more central one, “So what do you suggest then, leave them here, leave our bonus here?”

His voice dripped with icy contempt, my hand started to tighten around the dagger on my belt.

“Look no one is suggesting leaving the treasure or the kids here, there must be another way out of here so I suggest we get looking.”

I smiled at Owyn’s slip in his priorities but his was the best idea, St. Cuthbert only knew we had encountered enough passages and hidden doors so far in Jzadirune. So we started searching and it did not take us long to locate not one but two secret doors. I opened one carefully and it opened into a small room, empty but for a leaver mounted in the wall opposite to the door. With nothing else to door I pushed it up and there was a dull clunking noise and then a slightly louder click.

The second door opened into a small corridor, Owyn moved cautiously into it and quickly identified a pit trap built into the floor. After several tense moments of probing the floor he determined that the trap had been disabled already. No one acknowledged my prowess in disabling the trap but that I guess is my lot within the group.

Owyn searches the corridor and quite easily identifies another secret door at the end of the corridor, finding no traps on the door he goes to open it. Kellen gently places his huge hand on Owyn’s shoulder and shakes his head and then nods to his sword. As Anari approaches Kellen, Owyn moves back and draws his own sword, the change in the group is subtle and marked we are readied for combat once again in Jzadirune.

Kellen flings the door open and both he and Anari jump out of the corridor ready for any attacker they may face. Anari seems to be quite disappointed when she motions to the rest of us that the coast is clear. As we approach Anari points out we are on the second landing of the stairs in and out of Jzadirune, a much quicker exit indeed.

We call out to the Town Guard at the top of the stairs in Keygen’s shop that we are coming out, after all it would have been most unfortunate to have fallen as suspected Underdark denizens at this stage.

As we approach them they look in amazement at the wide eyed, filthy, bedraggled but alive children. They great us well with many clasped hands and shoulders all around for us and surprisingly tender words for the children. The guards at the shop look almost sorry to see the children go when we reminded them that we really should return them to the orphanage.

As we walk from Keygen’s shop toward the orphanage we notice a small crowd of people have formed in out wake. Not surprising really as we do stand out in Cauldron at the moment, it is not often that a gore covered group walk through the streets of the city with weapons drawn forming a ring of steel around three small equally filthy children.

By the time we arrived at the stairs of the Orphanage, following in our wake was a huge crowd which was being held back by a number of the Town Guard. Anari and Cass were at the head of the party and when their feet touched down on the first step the huge double doors were flung open, the children screamed and ran forwards. We could not have stopped them if we had been so inclined. They ran into the open arms of a very tired but relieved looking Gretchen, she kissed each of them oblivious to the layers of grime they were covered in.

After Gretchen let them up with tears streaming down her face they children ran to Patch who scooped up all three in his massive arms and gave them a huge hug, a this point the magic holding the crowd in sway was broken and an uproarious cheer went up. I turned and smiled to the crowd and then followed the rest of the group up the stairs towards the children Gretchen and Patch.

After that it was all a blur, Gretchen could not thank us enough we could not explain to her sufficiently that we were glad to return the children to her. In fact I was about to tell her the troubling news regarding Terrem when I spotted him running around with the other children screaming in play and harassing Patch and the rest of the party with their games and demands for stories of Jzadirune.

Gretchen must have seen the look of on my face, the joy slipped from hers for a second as well. She explained that Terrem had been returned back to the orphanage a couple of hours earlier than our return. He had been accompanied by a mysterious veiled woman, who did not speak and without any sort of acknowledgement left Terrem standing staring into space in front of Gretchen. It was only until the woman vanished into the bustling street that Terrem suddenly sprang into life. Gretchen is convinced he and the other children have been left physically unharmed by the experience.

After a few hours of being run ragged by the children Gretchen and Patch look fit to drop a which point they call bed time for the children, which elicited a groan from the throng, including I noticed with a smile Anari. When Gretchen turns her attention to the returned children pointing out that before they retire to bed they are going to have a long hot batch with plenty of scrubbing the groan from the four drowns out what the whole group managed just moments before.

We bid each of the children farewell and with promises to return and tell more stories of monsters and dark places we walk off into the night, I do catch the noise of the doors being closed followed by the sound of several locks being put into place.

We walk through the heavy dusk filled night towards the Drunken Morkoth, our stride easy and our heads clearing in the fresh air. The streets still have some people walking them and occasionally they stop and stare at us and every so often we are pointed out by a group and there are whispered conversations.

Anari pushes open the door to the Drunken Morkoth and is instantly pounced on by our mother. We are pushed into the centre of the bar where we are hailed as the saviours of the Lantern Street children. The Drunken Morkoth erupts into cheers and again we find tales of our actions and adventures in high demand.

As the evening progresses the bar keeper Jasper Beercroft introduces us all to Lady Ophella Knowlern the owner of the Drunken Morkoth and recently arrived from her estates in Hollowsky. She praises us for our actions and appears impressed by the obstacles we had to overcome.

Tyro Aberhelm arrives a while later, showing no sign that the previous nights drinking with Fario, Fellian and Tyron will be slowing him down tonight. He raises a hand to us as he sits in his usual seat. I glance over at Jasper who quickly explains that Tyro has been permanently renting a room at the Drunken Morkoth for sometime now.

As I turn back to the bar and find a fresh mug of ale set in front of me Fario and Fellian arrive, scanning the bar quickly and noticing our party they head straight for us. They move with amazing grace and ease amongst the tables, barmaids and drunken patrons never once colliding with anyone or thing. They apologise immediately for not meeting up with us in the morning but gesture towards Tyro as way of explanation. Without hesitation they agree to accompany use back to the Malachite Fortress early in the morning, as we want to ensure that no one has been left behind by the slaver ring we destroyed.

Before retiring to by room for what was left of the night I was satisfied to note that the Drunken Morkoth was busier than recent nights and that the Stormblades had chosen to stay away.

Friday 12th September

As agreed in the early morning we met Fario and Fellian in the common room of the Drunken Morkoth. A slight smile played across my lips, cruelly perhaps, when I saw the state celebrating had left Owyn in. After preparing ourselves for the day ahead we headed out towards Ghelve's Locks once again and from there into the darkness.

The journey into the Malachite fortress was untroubled as Owyn was able to open the entrance to the secret passage by turning the empty sconce in the opposite direction that Khandalar had tried just a few days earlier that seemed a lifetime ago now.

As we stood on the platform as it descended the atmosphere changed within the group. Stances shifted, weapons were readied and Khandalar closed his eyes his mouth moving silently almost as if we were at prayer.

As the lift came to a halt Kellen and Anari rushed forward quickly by Fario and Fellian. Owyn and I shared the briefest of looks before running into the empty corridor. No creature of the Underdark rushed to attack us. Instead we greeted by the body of the creature that had once appeared to be an Ogre before death had revealed its true form and lumps of sparkling rocks that had also once moved against us.

Owyn spends some time searching the walls again. When Fario challenged this as waste of time Owyn heatedly explained that on our previous venture here we had been attacked from behind so the enemy must have had away to enter the area that was normally hidden from visitors.

As Owyn returned to his task a smile played across his face, for the briefest of moments, being attacked, I was sure was not the only reason for this vigorous search. Looking at the reaction of Fario and Fellian, I am sure they were not totally convinced with Owyn’s tale either. After a few more minutes the group were growing restless when Owyn sighed.

Khandalar no doubt playing to the new audience put on his best and most practiced sneer.

"So you finally have given up then? May we, with your blessing of course, progress with our task?"

The acidity in the voice could have burnt a passage through the black stone walls. Owyn just looked at Khandalar and smiled.

"I have stopped, as there is very little point continuing when I found the door."

With an innocent look on his face Owyn opened the previously invisible door. Kellen and Anari were first pass through the door, with Owyn and I closely behind. Fario and Fellian cautiously entered with Cass and Khandalar brought up the rear.

The passage widened and it became apparent it served two purposes, firstly as a covert conduit and secondly as an armoury. There was a large selection of both weapons and armour. Kellen found a suit of half-plate armour that would fit him. While he proceed to put it on Owyn busied himself with moving all the items no one wanted to the lift, in order to hurry him along I helped Owyn. When we had finished there was a sizable pile of weapons, including a number of swords and spears as well as a very fine and intimidating great axe.

With Kellen dressed in his new armour and Owyn happy that last spiked gauntlet was on the lift platform we moved on down the corridor until it ended abruptly with another smooth black wall. In mere moments Owyn had the door concealed in the wall open and the party quietly as possible moved in to the room beyond.

As we entered what was obviously a forge I notice a figure lying atop the large workbench in the centre of the room. As we approached weapons ready we became almost too fixated with the figure on the bench as well all take a step back in surprise when a Halfling jumps up wielding a hammer.

With the sudden noise the sleeping Dwarven female quickly rouses and rolls of the bench away from us gathering up another hammer a she completed the manoeuvre. I sheath my sword quickly and step forward with my hands up, explaining as I moved that we had been charged by the Church of St. Cuthbert to put and end to the slaving ring and rescue all the people of Cauldron that we could. I might have been stretching the truth a little bit but it would not hurt them and proved our intentions more quickly.

The Dwarf and Halfling shared a look and then put their hammers down, with that the tension that had been present was vastly diminished. The Dwarf introduced herself as Sondor wife of Lorthan, the Halfling calls herself Maple and then introduces the second male Halfling as Giner Everdown. In the initial moments of our meeting he had been hidden behind the stout legs of the bench. Unlike both Maple and Sondor he looked terrified with a haunted look and red rimmed eyes. He constantly looks between us and Maple moving closer to her and tried to make himself even smaller.

We suggested that they should leave via the lift and return to Cauldron but both Sondor and Maple refuse, in fact Maple became angry at the mere notion of leaving saying that she had scores to settle and settle the she would, just as soon as we freed her from the bench. With that she and Sondor picked up the chains that attached their ankles to the bench. They were strong and heavy chains which showed signs of being beaten very recently with a hammer the size of those currently on the bench. Owyn stepped forward and with his lock picks quickly and efficiently freed our new companions. Giner also refused to leave; he would simply not leave the side of Maple

Fario and Fellian looked more relieved at this encounter as if finding some other survivors of the kidnappings were still in the Malachite Fortress, I supposed that it gave them hope that their friend would also still be alive.

We moved through the forge and into a room that seemed to serve as a dining room for the creatures working in the slave ring, discarded pots, plates, rotting food and other waste littered the room and produced a thankfully unique smell. The five doors in the dining room, the one we had just come through and four others.

Fario snatched open the first door and Kellen sprang forward and came face to face with a carcass of meat from a creature we could not identify. There were three other such unidentifiable carcasses in the small room and nothing else. Kellen looked slightly abashed as he pulled his sword free of the carcass. Moving away from the pantry he tried the next door, this time the sword did not immediately swing the arc that usually spelt death for a creature being hit with it.

Shelves lined the walls of this small room with various food stuffs being scattered among the shelves, when Owyn spied jars of spices he suddenly got quite animated scooping them up and placing all fifteen of them in a sack and placing them outside of the door for us to pick up later. When Kellen dryly asked him is he was going to retire from this life of adventure and open a kitchen Owyn pointed out that the spices were from the Underdark and in Cauldron they could be sold for a very pretty sum. With Owyn again showing that when it came to knowing the value of obscure goods he was unmatched to the rest of us moved, shaking out heads, to the next room.

This time I opened the door, perhaps a little too casually but as we faced no opposition as of yet I was feeling more relaxed than the situation required. The scene that met my eyes suddenly switched me back on to the potential dangers that we faced, my handed tightened on my sword and the tip of it rose into the air as I moved cautiously into the kitchen.

My eyes scanned the room but kept coming back to the reason for my suddenly increased alertness, there was a body on the floor staring with lifeless eyes at the ceiling. The look on the face at the moment of death seemed to be a mix of fear and surprise. The body of the human male lay were it had fallen after having its through sliced open, blood had sprayed from the body hitting the three walls and after it fell it had spattered the worktops, the floor and the body. The giant pool of blood that had spread out from the corpse was dry and soaked into the floor.

Even in death the victim was better dressed and looked better fed than the three we had found in the forge minutes ago. The reason for this was quickly explained when Maple pushed by Kellen to look at the corpse.

“ Gryfon Malek you got what you deserved”

She spat at the body and turned to leave when I stepped in front of her the anger she had for Gryfon suddenly transferred to me. It took a couple of moments to reduce her anger to the point she would explain that Gryfon had sold out the of kidnap victims, even suggesting were to find healthy and strong people of Cauldron to the slavers. He started working as a cook and his reward while the slaving ring operated was better food, clothing and some where more comfortable to sleep.

She smiled her piercing green eyes meeting mine and chill ran down my spine when she spoke in her sweet singsong voice, “he got his true reward now, dying on his own and in shame. We take his body back with us and tell of his infamy.”

We continued to search through the Malach

Game Notes:

Large hall

Two tip traps - disabled

Bedroom

Chest containing:

Jug of wine - sour smelling
Bed roll
Explorers Outfit
Four empty sacks
Full water skin

Barracks

Capable of sleeping 32 persons
Empty
Signs of recent occupation

Apparent Guest Quarters

Empty apart from a large bed
Ransacked chest

Going back to the room in which we killed the four Goblins; two while they slept we moved through into

Horribly appointed room - Kamojin's room

Skulls of many creatures piled into niches gouged into the wall
Skins of creatures, some humanoid hand from the wall
Chair made of flesh with a dragon skull set atop it.
Dank rotting smell
Search the room and find a secret door

Kazmojin's treasury

As we move into the room Owyn is attacked by a gong (mimic)

Long hard fight with weapons getting stuck fast
Eventually Kellen delivers the fatal blow
Owyn is healed

We find three chests, which are opened with the keys from Kazmojin's body

Iron bound chest

4 large demon shaped keys
423 gp

Scorched chest with bloody smile

450 gp
silver pendant (30gp)
two potions

black with green tinge

smells faintly of carrot
(later identified as dark vision)

All of this was buried under a layer of black iron coins

Chest with dagger marked on to the lid

Thousands of small glass beads

Oak cask

2300cp

Fungal cask

700 sp
145 gp

Iron cask

5220sp
90 gp

Masterwork chain shirt (200gp)
Masterwork studded leather armour (165gp)

Claimed by Owyn

Composite short bow (200gp)

Claimed by Owyn

Silvered 2 bladed sword (100gp)

Kept by party - no named owner

Masterwork Dark wood shield (170gp)

on the shield were 180sp

Large steel shield (10gp)

on the shield was 300cp

Engraved stone bowl containing:

6 blue quartz (60gp)
4 carnelian (200gp)
4 peridots (300gp)
2 white pearls (200gp)

claimed by Khandalar

1 pink pearl (250gp)
2 aquamarines (1000gp)

Ivory horn with bloodstone (450gp)
Ash walking cane with silver handle

compartment holding a vial of minty smelling potion
worth 60gp
eventually given back to owner

Move into larger room and attacked by two hammer automatons

Battle with automatons

Nearest flicks switch
Stone scraping noise
Bran cast grease under automaton furthest away
It falls over
Cass uses Jazz (raven) to deliver electrical charges to the creature
Eventually the both get destroyed
Greased one never actually gets up

From the hammer automaton bodies

2 violet garnets (1000gp)

Small studded armour

Meryls claims it back
Originally hers

Blood encrusted chain
Bag of caltrops

kept by party
carried by Bran

2 long swords (5gp each)

one claimed by Bran

30' hemp rope

kept by party

empty back pack
3 torches

kept by party

Prison block 1

Empty

Prison block 2

Kryscar Endecott (24 human)
Devon Mysal (18 human)
Eruth Mercardi (36 human female)
Jasper Drundlesput (74 gnome male)

writing mathematical formula on the wall

16 javelins (16sp)

Torture chamber

Lady in chains on rack

Coryston Pike (35 female human)

Retired adventurer
Returned cane to her

Malachite Fortress is empty

Sack Jzadirune in the remaining rooms, suspiciously deserted since Kazmojin's timely demise we find:

Masterwork mandolin (150gp)
J Key
U Key
D Key
A Key
Spellbook

Claimed by Khandalar

Music box (200gp)
2 tormalines (200gp)
clear ioun stone

magical
no need for food or water
sold to Skie for 2000gp

203gp
silver framed mirror (15gp)
silver dragon pendant

claimed by Cass
worth 125gp

Scroll tube with two scrolls

need to be identified

10 small mail shirts (60gp)
6 framed painting (600gp)

landscapes - some not of local area or plane

Bugged out returned everyone home or to St. Cuthberts for healing.

Returned body of Gryfon Malek to fiancee, who was already engaged to someone else.

Went to the Tipped Tankerd

known haunt of the Stormblades
story going around that they had rescued the children and other kidnap victims

Bran and Cass found person starting story

He had been told the story by Cora and paid to ensure it got around

on deciding to counter the story

group came up with name of The Righteous Others

a slight on the Stormblades that we hoped would not go unnoticed

Bran stands on the bar

retells the true story, well with some added colour
puts money behind the bar for everyone

group feels good about itself

Head back to Drunken Morkoth to sleep

Bran Journal Session8