Almost 2 weeks ago, you were asked by Kelemis Durn, the leader of Vesh, to go to Hedrad to get information about the Serpent Amphora, a powerful artifact that the Vigils have recently come into possesion of. At the Sheer Falls, you were stopped by the Herald of Hedrada, the awesome Taurosphyinx himself. He explained that the information you want is not found in Hedrad, but rather is in a book stored in the Vault of Chardun which is located in the ruins of the SkyKeep, high in the Kelder Mountains. Since then, beset by the agents of Mormo at every turn, but propelled by the storms of Enkili, you have travelled with blazing speed here, to the base of Mount Croiganne, aka Mt. Cragmore. Exhausted, your ship sunk by one of Mormo's many Hags, you have made it to a beach just outside a small town on the banks of the Northern Hornsythwthe River.
Drying off on shore. We were able to save most of our equipment, but the larger items, like Stone's battering ram, are lost. Townspeople come to save shipwreck. Take us to a small inn, "The Anchor and the Oar." Tiny town, Drasfar, shipping port. We offer to put up the sailors at the inn as well. They give us group rooms. We all lay things by the fire to dry. Stone pays the innkeeper a platinum, who charges an extra 10% for Veshan coin.
Telryn suggests waiting a day so he can finish scribing his spell. Others say move on. Paks suggests that Miriel cast an augury. Stone says he can head out ahead of us. Sadly, the results of the augury are indecisive, but we decide to stay another day to rest and prepare. Tell inkeeper we're staying, he recommends the local general store.
Next day, third Corday of Enker. Telryn finishes scribing spell. GP scouts around the town in animal form. Miriel stays at the inn to study and bake bread. Stone meditates, then goes to store. Gets light crossbows, 40 bolts, quarter-staff, large oilcloth. Charge 10% for veshan coin, also 10% more than in a large town, as well. Change is in Bridge-City currency. Chuck buys a composite longbow. Paks buys one as well.
While in store, Landis Surefoot, the proprietor says, "Going Mountain climbing, eh?" He takes us outside, and points out the surrounding peaks: The White Maiden, Might Stardock, DaggerSpire, Little Dome and High Dome. "See that peak just to the left of High Dome, the smaller one beneath DaggerSpire? That's the one you want, I reckon, ol' Mt. Cragmore. Adventuring types like yourself always try scaling that one, looking for treasure in the ruins of the SkyKeep. Not too many make it back, either. It's an easier climb than most peaks 'round here. Not more than 10,000 feet. Stardock, well, that would be a climb. No, I think you can climb the skirts of ol'Craggy. The trouble's not the climb, not by a long-shot. No, the trouble with Craggy is all the strange creatures that haunt the place since the SkyKeep fell. It's a bad place, and that's the truth." He mentions trolls and spider-eye goblins inhabit the surrounding peaks, but on Cragmore people see all sorts of strange floating lights and nasty storms. "Can I get you some rope? I also carry the best pitons and all sorts of winter and climbing gear. The best prices on this side of the Basin!" Stone buys a waterproof belt pouch.
Back at inn, Paks talks to captain. She had some insurance, but stressed out, out of luck. Has to get back to Bridge City, and talk to the other owners of the ship.
Next day, third Madraday of Enker. Clear, crisp day. Paks gets us up early. Paks uses Stone's canvas for carrying her armor. Stone wraps bread and cheese in oilcloth. Miriel made 5 loaves of bread. Casts 2 Bread of Life on the bread and hands out, keeping 3 pieces. Say bye to Brunhiled and Dusty, she's off to the bridge city, he stays at inn - kind of looking scared at the mountain. Stone and GP (transformed as panther) scout ahead. Innkeeper gives us travel rations. Set out early.
Reach skirts of mountain fairly quickly. Trees and scrub, sandy colored stone. Lots of wild animals. Some clouds remain from storm. Way high up we see circling condors. First six hours of climb pass without incident. We make good time. Chuck tries to track to see if anyone has passed by. He sees mostly animal tracks. We're very tired now, and Chuck and Goldpetal find an outcropping we can shelter under. Set up tent. Stone doesn't feel cold at all in his white fur boots. GP finds some berry bushes while hunting for a rabbit. Miriel tells everyone to eat their bread, then casts bread of life on other three loaves, goes to sleep.
Set watches, but it's a quiet night. Next morning, Taniday. Wake up to smell of Stone's cooking. Eat and travel again. Miriel gives 2 chunks of bread to everyone but GP, keeps six. After 4 hours, part of which was downhill, reach a steep grade. We slip a lot, but finally make it to the top, and it levels out, so we make good time. When we hit the next incline, it goes much better, with Stone and Chuck going ahead and then helping the rest of us. GP climbs on his own. 9 hours have passed.
Chuck looks around. Plateau with sheer cliff off to the left. He notices a cave. GP sniffs around. Stone looks in, Miriel looks around and says "something doesn't smell right," but as she says it, Stone walks in. As he steps in, we see a form leap out at him - a surprise bullrush. He hears it coming and turns to see that it's a big troll. He yells "Troll!" and starts a flurry of blows at it, but just bruises his hands. The troll bullrushes Stone and he hits it. It fumbles, bounces off of him and falls back.
Stone steps away from the hole the troll tried to push him into, and punches him with a flurry of blows again, hitting once. GP tries to remember what he knows about trolls. Paks moves up behind Miriel. Telryn casts a flaming sphere at the troll, setting it on fire. Miriel steps back and casts cause fear, but the troll seems unaffected. Chuck steps over to where Miriel was and shoots two arrows at the troll, hitting once. The troll claws Stone with both hands, fails to bite him, and drops his unconscious bleeding body.
GP rushes in and bites at the troll, but fails. Paks moves in next to Stone; the troll tries to hit her but fails. She lays hands on Stone to heal him. Telryn cointinues to burn the troll and hits it with a magic missile as well. Miriel hits it with a searing light and calls for someone to pull Stone out. Chuck shoots his bow twice, but misses. The troll regenerates somewhat, and bullrushes GP. GP tries to bite it and fails. He picks GP up and throws him in the pit. GP lands on his feet, but finds himself surrounded by giant mushrooms, two of which begin shrieking. Another has four tentacles which try to grab him. Two hit. Stone rolls back out of the cave.
GP tries to climb back out of the pit and succeeds. The fungus swings at him and misses. The troll hits him. Paks steps around behind the troll and smites it, killing it. Telryn keeps burning the troll carcass. Miriel goes to Stone to give him two more pieces of bread. The mushrooms keep shrieking. Stone eats his bread.
GP sees four tentacles reaching towards him. He looks into the pit and sees a lot of trash and many gray mushrooms with purple splotches on them. Paks yell to Stone and Chuck about coup de grace, they say push into pit. Telryn keeps burning the troll. Everyone else waits, the shrieking continues.
GP inspects the fungus more, trying to figure out what to do to it. Paks looks around for troll treasure. She sees lots of trash, bones. The flaming sphere goes out and the troll is just ashes. Miriel calls for everyone to come out. When GP does, Miriel sees he's badly injured and feeds him two chunks of bread. He looks much better.
GP looks around for tracks but doesn't see anything. He looks up and sees flying reptiles. Paks searches more throughly and finds many Bridged City coins. She also finds a nice shield, not rusty like the other equiment. Also a book. Telryn suggests staying here tonight. Stone pours oil over the tentacled mushroom and sets it afire. Shriekers start shrieking. Cloud of black smoke comes out. Stone picks up troll skull and breaks tooth out. Paks finds a natural chimney, which doesn't look to difficult to climb. In the light of the fire, we can see more mushrooms in the pit.
Paks slides down into the pit and starts swinging at the shrieking mushrooms. Stone punches another. Chuck hops down too. They find many mushrooms, lots of trash and bones. Keep moving in and find another shrieker. Tentacles reach out for her. Telryn burns the tentacled one. Paks chops up the shrieker. They start sifting the trash for treasure. Find 4 reddish gems, a vial with a potion in it. Something which at first appears to be a bone, but turns out to be a wand. Telryn clears a space and makes the smell better. After a couple of hours, the smoke clears. Telyrn detects magic: shield, wand and potion are magic. Paks takes the shield and gives the book and magic items to Telryn. Stone identifies the stones as carnelians. Set watches. Telryn reads book - journal of people from skyekeep about final days of keep. Many pages are ruined. Telryn studies the items more and finds the type of spells. Paks tries to detect evil on the shield, but doesn't sense anything.
Surprisingly, the night passes without incident. Next morning, Stone climbs the flue. Pokes head out and sees nest. Stone ducks back down, then looks out again, carefully - seems to be a high ledge. He climbs out and walks to the edge of the nest. Sees bones and such. As he looks up, he sees a flying creature coming down to the ledge. Chuck comes out behind him.
Spire Wyvern swoops down and tries to sting Stone with its tail. It screeches as it comes in. It hits him with its tail. Stone tries to grapple it and grabs it. He punches it. He yells "out of the way" at Chuck. Chuck slides back down the rope, jumping down the last 20 feet "Ow!" Paks asks him whats up there. "A big flying lizard thing".
The wyvern tries to escape, but fails. It screams. Stone drags it over towards the flue. He hits it again. And yells "make a hole!" Chuck moves out of the way. A friend of the wyvern's shows up in response to the scream. Telryn waits. Stone feels himself slowing down. He releases the wyvern and drops back down the hole. "I've been poisoned". Paks drags stone back. Miriel heals Stone. Chuck picks himself up and draws his swords. The creatures squawk again. Chuck is deafened.
Stone is paralyzed. Telyrn activates his ring of cover and goes outside. Miriel examines Stone to see what she can do. Chuck tells us he's deafened. He watches the hole. Paks drags Stone back from the hole. Miriel tells everyone to plug their ears, then goes over and leads chuck away from the hole. GP climbs up to the ledge and sees the wyvern looking down the hole and squawking. The wyverns spot GP and swoop at him. One claws him twice, the other misses.
Telryn waits. Paks moves to the entrance. Miriel determines that Stone will recover, but there's nothing she can do. GP climbs back down 30 feet. Chuck steps out and says (loudly) "Where's GP?" He looks up and sees GP halfway down the cliff. The wyverns attack GP. One hits, scratching him with a claw.
Telryn sees the two wyverns attacking GP and shoots a lightning bolt up at one of them. Paks steps out and shoots her bow at the charred one, hitting it. Miriel setps outside. She casts a sound burst and stunns them, knocking them out of the sky. They fall, and one dies. Chuck steps over and does a coup de grace on the live one. It dies. GP climbs back up to the ledge. As he's looking around, he freezes up. He has ample leisure to study the nest. He sees debris, a piece of jewelry, and some papers.
10 minutes later, no signs of GP, and Stone is still stiff. Chuck can hear again. Chuck and Paks climb up the chimney and find GP. Chuck looks around. Sees some wyverns up in the distance. He finds a gold and pearl bracelet and a scroll. It looks like a good place to climb from. They move GP back under the ledge. Paks climbs back down to let everyone know what's up. Miriel climbs up to heal GP. Miriel meditates to learn remove paralysis. Telryn starts to identify things - determins that scroll is divine, not arcane. 3 hours later Stone wakes up. 3 hours more later GP starts moving again. 2 more hours Telryn finishes the identification.
The ring is a ring of strength +1. Boots of Winterland. Shield +1. Potion of spiderclimb. Wand of burning hands with 17 charges. Miriel scroll, GP, convert, druid scroll: sethtels servant. Paks takes the ring.
We climb for four more hours, making excellent time, as the path is pretty easy. We find ourselves in front of a nearly sheer cliff. It's getting pretty dark already. Miriel and GP want to wait until morning. Chuck looks around and finds some bear spoor. We set up camp for the night.
Night passes uneventfully. It's cold and we change into our warmer clothes. GP scouts to see if there is another way up besides the cliff. Telryn casts bull's strength and mage armor on himself. We climb the cliff slowly. We're about halfway up the mountain, getting steeper. Four more hours, another steep slope. Paks asks if anyone can see a storm coming. It looks pretty clear. We climb again, it takes 3 hours. We travel two more hours. GP and Chuck find some wild birds and kills a mountain goat, all of which Miriel cooks. Another night passes without incident.
We conintue to climb. After four hours, there's a lot of shale, and suddnely there's a rockfall. Miriel, Stone, and GP are injured in the fall, and GP slips and falls, rolling 90 ft down the slope. He's bleeding and unconscious. Stone helps Miriel climb back down to him. Miriel heals him. They climb back up again. We start climbing. We're almost at 8,000 feet, and there's snow around. Miriel, Chuck, and Telryn are panting and feeling very fatigued. Telryn asks Chester to see if anyone is following. We come across another steep grade. We laboriously climb it. Miriel and Chuck recover, but Telryn is still very tired and breathing hard. Owl comes back and says no one following, but large party of rat men other side of the mountain, higher up than us. Stone suggests going ahead of the party to see what they're up to. Miriel objects to losing two good climbers. We climb for two more hours. Telryn starts to feel better at last.
We climb for three more hours and it's getting dark. Stone shouts "look at that," pointing in the air. Two falcons swoop down at us. One at Stone, one at Paks. Chuck shoots at each of them, hitting one. Telryn magic missiles one and kills it. Miriel shoots a searing light against the other and kills it. Telryn says "Madirel's Spear, these were scythe falcons! Their wings are like blades and will cut limbs off!" Stone pokes at one with his dagger - it's dead. Stone sticks the birds in a sack. Telryn sends Chester to see where the rat men are and how far we have to go. Miriel wants to rest, but the rest of the party wants to push on.
We push on. We're all are starting to feel the effects of travelling for so long after three hours. A big fog rolls in. Paks lays hands on Telryn, who is complaining. We continue for another hour. Stone throws down his canvas and lies down. Chuck casts alarm. We rest for four hours, then start to climb again.
Three hours of climbing gets us to the top. Edge of enormous ledge, much of mountain. Spire of rock in the center, with caves. Scattered ruins of Skykeep. Fell out the sky about 30 years ago. Heaps of stone, fractured statues, bits of precious metal, old utensils. Smal portion survives still, as work of ancients was mighty. Halls and rooms, roofless. Center of ruins at base of spire, maze of natural and artifical walls. Still foggy, damp ground, overcast, smell of rain, rock, and blood. Not far from clifff face, Chuck finds charred bodies of trolls and dead rat men, looks like they fought in the last 24 hours. Follow tracks into ruins. Looking for Vault of Chardun, book in there. Nothing in the diary about that. Also looking for rat men.
Picking way through ruins following tracks. Opening of corridor of ruined walls. Lots of rubble, small amount of sunlight, no roof. Could be a defended path deeper into the ruins. Tracks lead in, couple of hours old.
Stone starts into the passageway. Paks follows him. Chuck follows. The rest of us follow. Stone keeps moving faster. Suddenly, a bunch of rat men appear on the walls, bows drawn. Paks shoots at one, but misses. "Rat men!" GP runs quickly down the corridor to the other end. A rat man fires at Paks. They look like Sysy's rat men (Red Witches: smaller with reddish fur). A rat man shoots bolts of fire at Chuck, Telryn, and Miriel. Another shoots his bow at Telryn. The next one shoots at Miriel and hits. Next shoots at Chuck and misses. Last one shoots color spray at Chuck, Telryn, and Miriel. Chuck is stunned.
Telryn runs back and tries to climb up the walls, but fails. Miriel casts cause fear on the nearest rat man. Paks shoots at a rat man and hits it. GP turns around and punches the ground, trying to use shockwave to knock one of the rat men down, but it has no effect. Stone runs at the wall and jumps up, pulling himself up between two rat men. One of them bites him. A rat man tries to shoot paks again, but misses. The next casts burning hands at paks. Another shoots at Chuck and hits. The one Miriel scared runs away. Last two draw scimitars and attack Stone, but both misses. Chuck shoots twice, but misses
Telryn tries to climb agian, but fails. Miriel casts a sound burst at the rat men on the right hand wall. The injured one dies. The other two are stunned. Paks shoots at one of the stunned rat men and kills it. GP shifts to panther. Stone grabs the two rat men next to him. One of them hits him with its scimitar. He grabs the other and jumps down with him, intentionally landing on top of it and killing it. The other rat man drops his scimitar, draws his bow, and shoots at Stone, hitting him. Chuck shoots twice at the stunned rat man, hitting once and killing it.
Telryn tries to climg again and fails. Miriel casts sound burst at the last rat man, but he avoids being stunned. Paks shots at him and misses. GP jumps up as a panther next to it; it bites at him but misses. Stone trhows a dagger at him; it goes thorugh his eye and kills him. He falls over the ledge and Stone pulls his dagger out.
Telryn succeds in climbing the wall. He searches the bodies of the rat men up there. Chuck searches the one up the wall while stone searches the two bodies. 18 veshan gp. Stone pulls a tooth out of the one he fell on. GP eats part of one of the rat men. Telryn, seeing this, is sick.
We continue following the tracks, scrambling over rocks. Emerge from behind a ruined wall, stumble over scree, shallow depression in a corner. We find a dozen slytherin corpses. Strips of furred flesh on floor and walls. Congealed splashes of blood. Here and there arm or leg neatly severed. Paks tells us to brace our weapons against a charge. Chuck notices hacked to death with very sharp weapon. Bodies too messy to tell what did it. Most body parts are present, probably wasn't eaten.
Chuck listens for birds. Telryn sends Chester up who says gathering of rat men camped around the spire. Chuck sugests going around, which we do - no one wants to wade thorugh the gore. 5 min later, narrow corridor 5 ft wide. not intended as passage way, left wall outer, right wall inner. Stone walks in, followed by Chuck, with bow ready. Miriel follows. Paks moves in behind chuck. Stone keeps moving through, faster than the rest of us. Rumble and puff of dust from wall to left. Stone is trapped in the rubble. Chuck and Miriel go to help him, but he's still buried. Telryn and GP climb over the rubble. In five minutes, we have him out and the party has reformed. Miriel heals Stone.
We conntinue to follow the trail. Few minutes later, rocks around us shimmer, the is a furious red glow in the ground in front of us, and an enormous human figure rises out of rock, with big scepter. White hair, beard and robe. Sandals covered in bone dust and blood. It's Charun!!
"Worthless fools you have failed us all! The slaves of the Hag have already come and gone, and taken with them that which you sought! Your dawdling incompetence may have doomed us all! Flee this place now, lest I smite thee in my rage!"
Telryn says that's just silly, we saw them camp. Stone looks behind the guy to see if ayone is behind him. Miriel and Chuck are with Telryn. Paks believes him and says "What can we do??" Telryn says, "This isn't real," and walks forward and into him. Paks grabs him and tries to stop him, but Telryn shrugs her off and keeps going. Telryn walks thorugh the image. Stone "Wait, it's not real?"
Keep tracking, come into a cul-de-sac, shredded rat men, six. Rubble looks like we could climb it fairly easily. Chuck and Stone examine bodies. Moment to examine, suddenly deep rumble, huge black panther jumps down on Stone and Chuck. Not really a panther, cracks on skin glowin, with weapons sticking out, they move in and out.
Telryn steps back and fires a lightning bolt at it. Paks charges at it, but fumbles and misses; she's stunned and knocked prone and flings her weapon, which lands next to Miriel, and cuts herself on it. Stone steps behind it and aims a flurry of blows at it, hitting once. Chuck does a sneak attack on it, hitting it. A blade shoots out of the beast and tries to skewer Chuck, hitting him. Its mate jumps down and attacks Chuck, biting him but missing with its claws. He cries for healing. GP bites the injured one, killing it. The energy fades from the cracks, and it looks like a shattered statue. Weapons fall out of it. Miriel casts a searing light against the other. She picks up Paks' sword.
Telryn magic missiles it. Stone tumbles away from the creature. It hacks at him with an axes and hits him. He attacks again and misses. Chuck moves around it and stabs at it with his longsword, hitting it. The creature attacks Chuck with the battle axe, but fumbles and misses. GP comes over and bites it, killing it. Miriel hands Paks her longsword and heals Chuck.
Two huge piles of weapons. Telryn detects magic, one longsword glows. Stone takes the daggers. The magic sword has draconic runes that say "hoarfrost" - as he says it, it gets very cold and injures him. Stone grabs the sword; it doesn't injure him. Chuck takes it, says hoarfrost again, and it stops being freezing. Stone gives Chuck and Paks canvas to wrap. Chuck realizse sword is +1. Stone takes battle axe.
Stone climbs up and looks over the wall at the spire. Ground dips a bit, no ruins, then mostly intact structures against base of spire. Large (~75) contingent of rat men, in circle staring out in all directions. No way to approach unseen. Midst of circle, small fire, and two rat men, different from the otheers, one 7 ft tal, dark fur, other hoooded cloak color of old blood. Leaning over small pool of water, speaking to it. We overhear the conversation the red-witch is having with a traitor in Vesh! After the convesation, the ratmen enter the nearest ruin.