*** Session 3 - Scene 6  (of 9) ***

After resting up for the night, the group decides M'Balz and Adanband are too weak to continue. So they decide to stay another day. In the meantime, Gra'bir weaves some river reeds together to make a new quiver.

With the day of rest complete, M'Balz feels ready to continue. He tells Snarg to continue, who reminds him their path lies on the other side of the river. Not wanting to risk losing any more equipment, they elect to head along the river until they can ford it.

As they get ready to go, Adanband notices his signet ring is missing. He looks around the camp, but cannot find it. He mentions it to the others.

Gra'bir gets the elf to confirm he had it after they landed on shore. Adanband is suspicious of Snarg, asking him if he's seen it. Snarg describes it as nice and shiny but is evasive on whether he's seen it recently or knows where it is.

Adanband attempts to interrogate Snag, but the goblin manages to use verbal trickery to avoid getting pinned down. Snarg concludes Adanband is careless, but the elf is unconvinced. He forces his way into Snarg's pockets, finding his ring.

Snarg expresses surprise, saying the ring must have fallen in his pocket while he was helping the sorcerer. Adanband tells him not to do it again, and the goblin agrees to try and keep his pockets closed so things won't fall in them.

After traveling up the river for the day, they make camp. On Gra'bir's watch, he hears the hooves of horses off in the distance. He can tell they are coming closer, and sound like they are being ridden in formation. He wakes Adanband and M'Balz to warn them.

M'Balz instructs everyone to spread out and take cover. They attempt to hide behind the foliage near the river, but have little luck.

The riders spot the group immediately and surround them. They appear to be a group of tribal warriors, fifteen strong. Gra'bir recognizes them as the Riders of Blood, a violent splinter group of the Hanif tribe who oppose the Grand Caliph.

The leader of the Blood Riders, calling himself Jarif, tells the three to come out and throw down their weapons or be killed.

M'Balz gives the man the aliases he used with the river captain, and asks what they can do for the riders. Jarif demands all of their possessions or they will kill them.

M'Balz notes the unfairness of being stranded in the desert without anything and offers a possible agreement. He offers the man a cut of the treasure they are searching for. Gra'bir notes they are on a raid of the tower of a great sorcerer and ally of the Grand Caliph.

Jarif calls him a liar, and identifies Gra'bir as a member of the Wah'na Poq-ya tribe and says M'Balz has the look of a nobleman. He also calls Adanband soft and weak before demanding all of their possessions again or else they will kill them.

Gra'bir whispers a suggestion to Adanband to use his magic to obscure them. Jarif notices the sorcerer gesturing and readies his sword to chop the elf's head off, when the horse suddenly kicks and runs off. As it leaves, they can see Snarg stabbed the creature in the hind quarters with his dagger.

Adanband lets loose his wall of fog spell, obscuring the area. Between the fog and their leader leaving, the disarray is enough for the group to get loose and run to the river.

Despite having to swim in the dark, they manage to make it across the river without any difficulties. Other than their blankets, they managed to keep their equipment this time. They head down the river bank a bit until they find a safe place to make camp and go back to sleep.

The next day, Snarg reminds them they will only be along the river for a short time now, then soon will be crossing the desert into the mountains. Everyone is sure to get as much fresh water as they can.

*** Session 3 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The trip takes the group into the desert. As they march, they spot a circle of vultures off in the distance. M'Balz wonders if it could be the sign of a caravan.

Gra'bir says they should be cautious. M'Balz suggests sending a scout, then realizes he is the only one qualified to be one (other than the goblin, whom he mistrusts).

Approaching cautiously ahead of the group, M'Balz detects the vultures are eating off of a body of a humanoid lying on the ground. The rogue looks around carefully and approaches once he is sure there is no danger.

Getting in closer, he can see that it is the body of an elf in fine clothing, carrying a scroll case. M'Balz takes the scroll case away from the body and can tell there is a scroll inside.

Opening the case carefully, M'Balz sees the scroll is sealed with a circle of gold-colored wax surrounding a circle of black wax. He does not recognize the elaborate marking.
Looting the body, M'Balz takes the body's waterskin and searches his backpack but finds no food. He also verifies he does not recognize the man, but he can tell the body is a couple of days old apparently killed by a wound from a large, clawed animal.

Going back to the others, M'Balz gives the waterskin to Gra'bir, noting again how generous the Al-Badassi family is to its friends.

He then tells Adanband about the dead elf in the fancy clothing with the scroll case. He shows the seal to Adanband, but he does not recognize the mark either.

Adanband cannot be certain if the scroll is magic or not. He and M'Balz both agree the scroll should be opened and read. Gra'bir defers to their wisdom, being unfamiliar in such matters.

Cracking the seal, M'Balz sees that it is some sort of letter. It reads: "To the honorable Grand Vizier, I bid you greetings in good faith. The prophets behold your ascension, and you would have a high place at my table with the pearls laid before you should you find yourself in the shadows of the light of the Great Caliph Khalil al-Assad al-Zahir (short may he reign).

The time for decision draws near, and I would have your answer in 60 suns. You may send it back with this slave, or keep him for your own uses and use your pet to deliver the answer. The tent of my ear can be found at the palace of the left-handed khedive."

The letter is signed simply, "CD".

Gra'bir wonders if the letter was intended for the Grand Vizier of Huzaz, Alyana Al-Azzazi. M'Balz notes the elf was facing north, so may have been headed to Halwa instead.

Gra'bir notes he does not fully understand the politics of the city, but does appear to be some kind of appeal for allegiance. M'Balz says the slave was dressed in finery, so was the property of a wealthy man.

M'Balz theorizes the slave may have been coming from Huzaz and headed to Halwa. He believes the note is part of a treasonous plot against the Grand Caliph.

With little to go on, M'Balz feels they should get moving. He does warn the others about the large claw mark. Gra'bir believes it could be from lions living in the foothills of the mountains. The nobleman warns them all to be careful.

*** Session 3 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

Eventually the group makes their camp in the desert. They know they have at least another day of travel ahead of them before reaching the foothills.

The next day, they resume their travels. In the afternoon, Gra'bir spots some large shapes on the ground up ahead.

The group approaches carefully, but discovers they are merely the skeletal remains of camels killed by large, clawed beasts. Gra'bir again suggests an attack by a pack of lions.

The party continues to head towards the foothills, reaching them the next day. Snarg warns them to be more careful, as dangerous creatures live in the mountains. M'Balz sarcastically notes the journey up to this point has been very safe.

Snarg tells them it will take a week or more of travel south through the mountains to reach the tower. Although they are concerned about their amount of food and water, they press on.

After a couple of days of travel, they come across a stream. While happy to get water, M'Balz urges caution as dangerous animals also live near it.

Snarg advises following the stream into the mountains, though Gra'bir is concerned about animals. Snarg suggests as adventurers, they should have no problems though Gra'bir would prefer to avoid trouble.

M'Balz ultimately decides to go with Snarg's suggestion, as the risk of animal attacks is less than that of running out of water.

After a day of travel, Gra'bir spots a watering hole as the source of the stream. There is a large cave nearby. The group decides to avoid it. Several days of uneventful travel through the mountains follow.

*** Session 3 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

Snarg lets the group know they are getting near the path that leads up to his tower. He warns the others there is only way into the tower and it is said to be guarded by a dangerous beast.

M'Balz reminds Snarg he said the tower was empty. Snarg corrects him, noting he only said Salazar was not there. Snarg is expecting the tower to be guarded by monsters, traps, and other dangers; that's why he needed adventurers along.

Snarg does remind him that he is entitled to half of the treasure of Omar Dra'lah. M'Balz notes he is owed that, in addition to reimbursements for other expenses, but is reminded by Snarg he made the deal to erase that debt in exchange for helping with finding Adanband's spell book.

They decide to move up the pass in single file, with Gra'bir in the lead and M'Balz in the rear. On a ridge up ahead, he spots a large lion.

Since a single lion isn't usually aggressive, Gra'bir tells the others to ignore it but move quickly. He has Adanband keep an eye on the lion as he moves the group forward.

Just as they get near the peak the creature is sitting on, wings unfold from its back as it leaps into the air after them. Gra'bir realizes he has made a mistake – it was a manticore.

One of the tail spikes fires at Gra'bir. It hits his shoulder with the force of a crossbow bolt.

M'Balz fires an arrow back at the beast, missing it. Gra'bir readies his sword for the manticore's incoming attack.

Adanband, however, uses his wall of fog spell to cover the area. Obscured from the manticore, they decide to move forward on the path towards the tower.

When they emerge, they see a large mountain peak with the tower built into it. It has been shaped to look like a large serpent is encircling the peak, with a large head and open mouth near the top, and a set of double doors near the bottom of the tail.

Everyone makes a run for the doors. They have a large "S" in the shape of a snake, the symbol of Salazar the Maleficent. They manage to get inside and shut the door just as the manticore is about to reach them.

*** Session 3 - Session Notes ***

Sorry for the delay in posting these notes. This session actually occurred way back on Nov 21st. But between holidays and grieving from a death in the family, I just hadn't gotten around to posting these yet.

We actually haven't had a chance to game since. I was still feeling too down (from dealing with grief) so I cancelled our Dec 4th session, and then a couple of the guys couldn't show up for the Dec 18th session so we didn't end up having that either.

Anyway, back to this session. Unfortunately, the Butrus player couldn't make it that session either, so we had to proceed without him. Overall, the session was fun but it was a quick reminder that it is hard to have much of a D&D style adventure with less than 4-6 players.

Having only three players worked fine for our Cthulhubusters campaign, but the M'Balz player and I (the two most reliable of the group) are concerned and would like to find more players.

Unfortunately, we've tapped out our contacts. Everybody we know is either too busy with their other hobbies / family, isn't interested, or is one of the people we'd rather not play with because of personalities / gaming style clashes. It's just hard to find people in their 30's / 40's (our age group) who aren't too busy with family or don't already dedicate their free time to a different favorite hobby.

We have considered the "advertise for random strangers at the game store" plan, but hesitate. We get nervous about having random, potentially creepy individuals over at our houses as well as the feeling we'd not likely attract many gamers our age. But I digress.

So this session begins the adventure I'm calling "The Lost Treasure of Omar Dra'lah". It began with a quick recap of the Dra'lah brothers and Salazar, all who came from my D&D 4 campaign (Shadows over Fallcrest), as did the "evil" elves Snarg mentions.

I didn't want Snarg to put on his engineer hat and start up the steam engine, so I left it to the players to decide how to best get to the mountains where Salazar's tower was located. I actually had the whole region planned out, so different things would have occurred depending on what they decided to do.

The Moby Dick references started because I used the name of Ishmael for the captain. The M'Balz player was an English major so is always ready to reciprocate when I throw in a literary homage. He also slipped in the Star Wars one, another of his favorites, so I responded in kind.

Geer being after Snarg for money was one of the first plots I planned for the campaign. It will come up again later. Snarg making M'Balz pledge to only take his fair share of Omar Dra'lah's treasure is a foreshadowing set-up for later (assuming they actually get to the treasure).

The rumors the group hear come from my "table o' rumors" for the area. Unfortunately, they didn't get any of the more interesting ones.

The "riparian entertainments" language was an homage to Keeping Up Appearances, for anyone that didn't see that episode.

I fully admit, I made the hippo encounter far too dangerous. I should have left it to one hippo. That said, the PCs kind of sucked in the encounter so maybe it wouldn't have mattered too much.

During the encounter, many a "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" joke was made. Then the group found it a lot less funny when they almost drowned and lost half of their equipment (I had them roll an item saving throw for each). To avoid complete catastrophe, I let them find the spell book.

If this session suffered from one big thing, it was a whole host of terrible die rolls. From the combat encounters, to the item saves, to building the shelter, everything seemed to go wrong for the PCs this time.

Snarg really got the better of the Adanband character during their verbal sparring. It was pretty funny (though I'm not sure the Adanband player enjoyed it quite as much).

The Blood Rider encounter was a random encounter, but their lair is one of the planned encounters in the region. I had to have Snarg save the day long enough to allow Adanband's spell to get them to safety (after another bad initiative roll). I did take pity on them and didn't have them lose anything on the second trip across the river.

The dead slave with the message from the mysterious "CD" is part of a large plot I have going on in the campaign. More on that will be discovered in future sessions.

I actually gave a printed out scroll to the players during the session. As with the Cthulhubusters campaign (and the D&D 4 campaign before that, and my long ago Rifts campaign), I absolutely love handing out cryptic clues to players. As with all the previous times I've done this, the players couldn't make much out from the clues (though they at least understood some of the basic gist of it); hopefully they'll start putting things together more later.

The remains of the camels were a warning about the planned encounter of the lion caves (which they wisely avoided). Actually, having lions in the region confused the players a bit until I reminded them about Asiatic lions and their former habitats across Asia. I think they were a little too focused on thinking about modern African lions.

The manticore encounter was planned (he guards the tower for Salazar), but I purposely let them believe he was part of the lion cave encounter to surprise them. It worked wonderfully.

The description of Salazar's tower and it's design is purposely over the top, as Salazar was intended to be a very flamboyant villain. I wanted it to have a feeling like it came straight out of something like He-Man.

So, hopefully later this week we may yet have another session. If the Butrus player can make it, I'll have to come up with a way to get him to the tower. They could really use a healer, as the tower is naturally designed like a dungeon, full of various dangers.

*** Session 4 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 4 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

Many days ago...

Butrus hangs around the Pilgrim's Quarter during the day, looking for evidence of the Silent Starlings gang that Imam Renn asked him for help dealing with. It doesn't take long before he spots a boy cut the purse of one of the pilgrims.

The youth sneaks off into one of the back alleys. Butrus follows. As he approaches the alley, he sees the boy with another boy emptying the purse and counting the money.

Butrus slowly approaches the boys, trying to sneak up on them. He isn't quiet enough, however, and one of the boys spots him. The youth yells out, "Juda, look! Let's get out of here!"

The two begin running. Butrus chases after them. The boy apparently named Juda is quite fast, but the other boy trips and Butrus is able to catch up to him.

The dwarf looms over the youth, brandishing his mace. He tells the boy not to move, saying they need to talk. The boy seems scared, saying, "Please sir don't!"

Butrus calmly explains to the boy he is a man of faith. He says he would hate to smear his blood all over the ground. But, he continues, he is a man of faith and of the mosque and he does not like those who prey on pilgrims and cut their purses, like the boy just did.

He asks the boy what they can do about this. The youth says that he just does as he is told. Further questioning reveals the name of the leader of his gang as someone named Ihab.

Butrus tells the boy to send a message to Ihab that the Pilgrim's District is now off limits. The boy agrees to take the message to him. Butrus expresses his confidence that Ihab will be reasonable and listen, but warns that if he does not then he has other friends with various talents who may like to use their blades on young boys.

The boy agrees, saying Ihab will certainly move them somewhere else; it is a large city and there are plenty of other ways to make money. Butrus tells the youth he does not want to speak to him again.

After thanking Butrus immensely, the youth runs off in his soiled clothing. Butrus then returns to the temple to given the imam the good news and to let him know if the boys do not stop.

*** Session 4 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

As Butrus leaves the mosque, someone comes up behind him and puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. A foreign-accented voice calls out to him, saying they need to speak with him. Butrus sees that two large men stand behind him to either side; both appear to be outlanders.

Butrus asks what they wish to speak about. The outlander tells the dwarf he was with the others and asks if he knows the goblin. The priest responds by explaining about his memory loss and encountering the others on the road.

The outlander, speaking in broken language, says they need to find the goblin and asks where he went. Butrus says he isn't sure.

He asks if they want him to deliver a message, but the man says they will go looking for the goblin and Butrus will accompany them to make sure they do. The priest asks if they are asking him to go with them, or telling him.

The man asks if he has heard of Geer. He says that Geer is telling him to go, saying he speaks for Geer. Butrus maintains a genial disposition, saying that since they've asked so nicely and he is a man of faith that he will be happy to accompany them.

*** Session 4 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

The three begin at the docks, where the men arrange for a new boat to head up the river. After a day of travel, they spot wreckage of the boat Butrus' companions were on.

The next couple of days are spend scouring the area for clues that the goblin and the others survived. They do manage to locate the remains of a camp with some blankets.

The men then encounter a patrol of the Riders of Blood, who they pay for information. They find that the goblin and the other members of Butrus' group were there a couple of nights ago.

The days that follow have the three heading into the desert, following the trail of the others. Along the way, Butrus catches that the names of the men are Gulbrandr and Rudesind.

Although the others had a head start, the trio appear to catch up to them. One day they even catch sight of them in the far distance, but by the time they reach the location there is nothing but some vultures eating on a days-old corpse of an elf (who Butrus can see is not Adanband).

The journey moves into the mountains, where Gulbrandr makes a point to avoid an area that appears to be active with lion activity.

Eventually the trail leads them to a small passage between mountain cliffs. Gulbrandr does not like the look of the area. He tells Butrus to scout ahead.

Butrus advances carefully. He spots a cave up in one of the mountainsides. A winged lion creature, a manticore, appears to live in the area and seems to be guarding the pass up ahead.

Thinking quickly, Butrus looks around for a place to hide. Getting under a small rock ledge, he hides and waits for the outlanders to move in.

After a brief time, the two men do indeed head up after him. Rudesind is upset about letting the dwarf go, but Gulbrandr insists he is up ahead.

The two men bicker so much they fail to notice the manticore up ahead. It swoops down and attacks, and Butrus can hear the screams from the two men.

Gulbrandr takes one of the manticore's tail spikes in his throat. He collapses trying to breathe as blood goes everywhere.

Rudesind does better with his mace and shield, fending off the creature for a few moments. Butrus stays hidden, watching the fight.

After some fighting back and forth, the manticore grabs on to Rudesind's mace arm with his teeth and rips it off. Blood sprays the canyon walls as the man dies.

As Butrus expected, the manticore takes the dead men up to his cave. He takes the opportunity to sprint up the pass while the creature is occupied.

When he gets up, he sees the mountain tower with the doors at the tail of the snake. He quickly heads inside.

*** Session 4 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

Inside the tower, Butrus sees he is in a long, narrow hallway. His companions are lying about in the hall, resting.

Adanband is the one on guard when the dwarf comes in. He greets him with surprise, saying he didn't expect to see him. Butrus says he was expecting to see them.

The dwarf goes on to ask if they saw the manticore. Adanband says they have, pointing to Gra'bir's bandaged shoulder.

Butrus tells the elf how the creature is eating two of Geer's men, who took him along to look for the goblin. Snarg, emerging out of the shadows, expresses surprise that Geer's men were able to track them to the tower, saying it is not good.

The dwarf tells Snarg the men wanted to "talk" to him, but he isn't sure what the talk was about. Snarg tries to dismiss it as a "minor matter", telling Butrus not to concern himself. Butrus says it sounded like more than a minor matter to him, saying he didn't expect to make it out alive with the men so he's glad he escaped them and rejoined the others.

Gra'bir wakes up around this time and greets Butrus. He explains they entered the tower the previous day, but he was injured by the manticore so they've been resting up.

Everyone then decides it is probably safe to move on. Butrus tries asking Snarg about the tower, but the goblin has never actually been in it before.

The immediate hallway they are in leads north for a distance before curving to the west. Before heading out, Butrus lights his lamp so they will have two lamps when heading into the darkness.

*** Session 4 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

The group moves out, with Gra'bir and Snarg in the lead, Adanband after them, Butrus behind him, and M'Balz guarding the rear.

About halfway down the hallway, Snarg points out strange paintings on either side of the walls ahead; they appear to be murals of flames.

Butrus examines the ground carefully, noting the stones have scorch marks on them. He points it out to the others.

Gra'bir has Snarg examine the area for a trigger, but he finds nothing mechanical. He does remind them that this is a sorcerer's tower.

M'Balz suggests someone, meaning Snarg, should go down the hall first. He even suggesting throwing the goblin across.

Butrus has a better idea; using a prayer, he casts a detect magic spell. He can tell the flames are a magical ward; anyone passing through and not giving the proper incantation will set it off, causing them to immolate.

The priest can see the incantations written in magic on the wall, but he is unable to read them. Instead, he points them out to Adanband.

The sorcerer uses his read magic spell to decipher the runes as M'Balz slinks back to safety. But once the words are spoken, the painted flames seem to lower on the walls and Adanband knows it is safe to pass now.

*** Session 4 - Scene 6 (of 9) ***

As they turn the corner in the hallway, they see it continues on for a distance but also has a passage off to the left after a short distance.

Gra'bir peers down the passage and sees it ends in a door. Butrus looks around for signs of danger; he can see there are cracks in the floor that appear to be coming from the other side of the door.

He warns the others of a potential trap with the door. He can see small bits of rock near the door, as if they came from under the door. He suggests something heavy could fall on anyone who goes through.

M'Balz calls for Snarg to bring the light over and approaches to check out the door, but can find no traps on the door. He pushes the door open, there is a large room beyond.

Snarg announces his intention to move back to the rear so they can investigate. M'Balz tries to push him through the door, but the goblin slinks away. Snarg tells the others they will need to go in first, as they are adventurers and he is not.

M'Balz shines the light in the door, seeing that it is a large audience hall. The lamp can't illuminate the entire room, but he can see a long red carpet from the door leading up to a dais with a throne on it.

Gra'bir suggests looking up, but M'Balz sees nothing on the ceiling. Still cautious, M'Balz picks up some pebbles and tosses them in, but nothing happens.

The rogue slowly edges his way into the room, trying to avoid triggering any potential pressure plates. He fails, and a panel opens in the ceiling dropping a large stone on him. He manages to roll out of the way to avoid being hit dead on, but the blow still knocks him to the ground, nearly dislocating his shoulder and cracking his skull.

Hearing the crash and seeing the stone fall on M'Balz, the others carefully enter the room. Butrus can see the panel in the ceiling has closed. Being careful to avoid the pressure plate, he approaches M'Balz and uses his healing touch on him.

With everyone in the room, they look around at the fully-illuminated area. There is another door parallel to the one they entered along the wall, as well as a door behind the throne area.

Butrus is concerned about the inhabitants of the tower being altered to their presence by the trap going off. Gra'bir reminds him the tower is supposed to be uninhabited. Butrus suggests Gra'bir lead them on then.

Gra'bir wants to check the nearer door first. After Snarg confirms it is safe, the warrior opens it to find a hallway that goes on a short distance before curving to the right. He surmises that it must link back up to the other hallway they went down, suggesting this door was used by those smart enough to know the other one was trapped.

In addition, there is a passageway off to the left before the hall curves, leading to another location. Gra'bir decides to close the door and not investigate it for the moment.

They then examine the throne, but find little of value on it. It is adorned with the usual snake carvings of Salazar's style. The hall also contains several old, rotten portraits of the sorcerer along the wall along with rotten tapestries showing his sigil.

Gra'bir has Adanband look around for more magical traps, but he sees nothing. Butrus tries to talk to M'Balz about other traps, but the man is still dazed from his hit on the head.

Butrus examines the door behind the throne. It is a large stone door with a keyhole; Butrus suspects it is locked.

Praying to the Loregiver, Butrus attempts to sense evil at the door. He is given a divination that beyond the door, deeper into the tower, there is great evil. But he also senses there is a lesser evil off in the direction of the passageway off of the other door that Gra'bir examined.

*** Session 4 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The group spends some time deliberating what to do next. Eventually, they decide to go investigate the lesser evil, with the hope they will be able to find a key to open the door behind the throne.

This time, the addled-minded M'Balz decides to take the lead, with the rest of them taking their same marching positions (leaving Butrus to take up the rear).

Following the hallway, it curves around to the right to lead to an archway leading into another large room. Before they get to the doorway, M'Balz can see some old, dusty weapon racks ahead. He calls out loudly to the others.

Suddenly, the room lights up. In the center of the room is a copper automaton, carrying a flaming scimitar. It moves somewhat slowly towards the group.

M'Balz quickly looks over the room – it appears to be 25 feet wide and 55 feet long, giving him plenty of room to maneuver. He decides to make a run for it, moving along the edge of the walls to try and get around the creature, making strange noises.

Butrus elects a different tactic, telling the automaton they have been sent by Salazar to aid in cleanup of the tower. The automaton does not appear to listen.

Gra'bir lets loose an arrow, but it bounces off of the copper creature. Adanband elects to hold back, readying his staff.

The automaton points his scimitar in a path ahead of M'Balz. It creates a wall of fire that blocks his path. Seeing a door on the wall ahead of him, he decides to head inside it. He finds himself inside of a cloakroom.

With the guardian focused on M'Balz, Butrus decides to run around him the other way. Adanband wisely decides to hold back.

Gra'bir, meanwhile, grabs one of the rusty spears off of the old weapon racks and charges the automaton. The spear head shatters on impact.

Back in the cloak room, M'Balz finds that it wraps around to another opening along the same wall. The fire wall appears to have dissipated, and the creature is focused on attacking Gra'bir.

M'Balz comes up with a plan to tie his rope to his small hammer. Swinging it around, he throws the hammer at the creature, hoping to wrap it around it. But his first throw fails to reach the creature.

Behind him, Butrus is dismayed at the combat abilities of his fellow warriors. He charges the creature and smashes into it with his mace, but the blow fails to penetrate his armor.

Gra'bir tries to smash the automaton in its eye with the haft of the spear, but only succeeds in making his makeshift quarterstaff into a makeshift club as it snaps in half.

Seeing his friends in danger, Adanband charges in and attacks with his staff. But his blow has no better luck (though at least stays in one piece).

The automaton slashes out at Gra'bir. The blade grazes him, giving him a scratch along his arm.

M'Balz uses his makeshift lariat again, this time winding it around the automaton. It isn't tight, but does seem to restrict his arms a bit.

Butrus attempts another mace attack, but is fended off. Gra'bir pulls out his shield and bashes it into the automaton but also fails to be effective. Adanband's staff has no better luck.

The automaton's body then glows with heat. The ropes around him quickly burn off. He attacks at Gra'bir, but the warrior deflects the attack with his shield.

M'Balz thinks about trying to tackle the creature, but is concerned about his glowing heat. Instead, he rushes up to attack with his dagger but finds the creature's armor to be heavily plated.

Butrus calls out to Adanband to use the incantation from the hallway that put out the flames, but the sorcerer ignores him. The priest's mace also fails to strike.

Gra'bir crashes into his shield into the face of the automaton, causing it to stagger. Adanband follows it up with a solid hit with his quarterstaff, knocking it over. The heat from the automaton causes the stone to become soft, and he sinks slightly into the ground.

The automaton picks himself back up, just as M'Balz stabs him in the back with his dagger but it bounces off him harmlessly. Butrus has no better luck with his mace nor Adanband with his staff. Gra'bir, however, has better luck as it knocks into it again with his shield.

M'Balz then stabs again, this time burying the dagger deep into the creature's back. Butrus finishes off the automaton with his mace. The copper melts into the ground as the automaton is defeated.

Searching the room, the group finds little of value except for a couple of quivers they can use to replace their reed quivers.

Butrus focuses on searching the cloakroom, where he finds a ring of keys hidden behind one of the rotten cloaks.

*** Session 4 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

With the key in hand, they head back to the audience hall. Butrus wants to move ahead but M'Balz manages to slur out that he needs to rest first.

Everyone concurs that resting before continuing on would be safer, and clearly no one has come after them yet.

Looking over the rooms, they decide the audience chamber will be safest since it has doors on all entrances to it.

After resting, M'Balz feels back to his normal self, especially after he uses his healing kit to wrap his wounds.

Once everyone eats and drinks for the day, they approach the door behind the throne room. M'Balz examines the door, and claims it is free of traps.

Butrus gives the keys over to M'Balz to find the one that fits the lock. He tries to get Snarg to come near him, but the goblin uses his wits to argue why he should stay in the back.

M'Balz finally opens the door, seeing a T-intersection. To the left, it goes down a short ways then curves right. Similarly, the right passageway goes a short distance then curves right.

Hearing no noises either way, M'Balz feels it is safe and has Gra'bir lead them on to the right while M'Balz heads back to the rear of the marching order.

After a couple more curves, the hall leads to an open doorway. Butrus can smell a faint smell of sulfur coming from it. Gra'bir tries to fire an arrow into the dark room, but hears only the sound of the arrow breaking against the wall.

Gra'bir decides to move ahead and has Snarg illuminate the area with his lamp. Inside is a square room with a dome-shaped ceiling with various geometric patterns painted on the walls. There is also a foot-sized hole in the wall next to the floor that Gra'bir believes was made by a creature.

Butrus advises that the room has nothing of interest to them and they should move on. Adanband, however, wants to investigate the symbols.

He can tell the room was used (presumably by Salazar) for geomancy. As he investigates, a giant centipede emerges from the hole in the wall. The sorcerer crushes it with his staff.

Adanband can see more of the creatures trying to come out the hole. He moves in his staff to block the hole, but one of the centipedes starts crawling up it. Using his bare hand, he crushes the beast and narrowly avoids the effects of its natural neurotoxins.

Thinking quickly, Gra'bir blocks the hole with his shield while Butrus goes back to the cloakroom to get some cloaks to plug up the hole with.

*** Session 4 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

Once they are out of danger form the centipedes, they decide to go back and try the other hallway. It winds around for quite some distance until it eventually has another passage off to the right.

The side passage appears to have a finer quality stonework for the flooring. Butrus suggests they follow it to lead them closer to the treasure.

Heading down that hall, it curves around some before they see the hall has skeletons manacled to the sides of it. Gra'bir is very disturbed by them.

The skeletons make the group uneasy, but they do not animate. M'Balz is able to confirm the key ring contains keys that would unlock the skeletons, but they choose not to do so.

Instead, they ultimately decide to destroy the skeletons and use their femur bones along with the remaining rags from the armory to make some makeshift torches to use, as they are getting low on lamp oil.

The group continues to follow the hall around more twists and turns until they eventually reach a set of stone stairs leading up to the next level of the tower. They decide to head up.