I met several adventures that had just came out of the jungle on my way to work today. One of them was badly injured so I directed them to the church. I was late to work, but seeing a group like that was worth it.

I talked to the adventurers and they said they had been trying to get out of the jungle for over a year, Jenni says it should only take a couple of weeks to walk out from where they were at, but something must have went wrong. They had been looking for a lost city for nearly six months, before they gave up and started walking back out. They lost over half of their group looking for this city.

They gave me a piece of a treasure map that they had been using to search for the city, maybe we can find it someday. They say there is a magical tome hidden there, and that the city was built by celestials and then destroyed by goblins.

Day 1

    Our first day out was quite interesting, we were all so anxious to get to Stonegate that we reached the base of the mountainside well before dusk. We set up cam in what must be a fairly common area, since there was already a fire pit built here. As the darkness set in, so did the wind and the rain. I however seemed to be the sensible one and had purchased a small but quite effective one man tent. Not long into the night a horse was heard approaching. It and its rider were being pursued by a pair of wolves. Before we could get to them, the wolves had downed the horse, and were attacking both it and the rider.

As we entered into combat I buffed up Cooper with some magical armor and the proceeded to stun the wolf that had killed the horse with my Color Spray. This bought the party much needed time to deal with the other wolf that had unfortunately already killed the rider. I used my acid rays to help defeat both creatures, and when the battle was done I was very tired, but we were victorious. We found no identifying marks on the rider or horse to give any clues as to where they were from, but by now, we pretty much knew that something was wrong in Stonegate.

Day 2

    We have made it to Stonegate and it don't look good. We were attacked by the walking dead in the inn. It looks like it was a miner at one time. The whole place is empty. We slept in a storage room that night, because the town had more of these horrid creatures wandering around as darkness fell. These creatures beat on our door all night.

Day 3

    We found the innkeeper and his family hiding in the cellar of the inn. He says that the miners found something deep in the mines and shortly after that the towns folk started turning into zombies. We looked for some weapons today and managed to find a long sword for Cooper. These zombies only seem to be effected by weapons that slash. We ventured into the mines, and located a pit trap at the entrance, we managed to work our way around it after Cooper fell into it. This mine is huge, we explored one whole side and have found nothing yet. We found the drop off to some equipment down below, but there is no way down from here.

We found a map to the mine in a small building just outside. It lists the working locations in the mine, hopefully tomorrow we can search them. Things are bad. we are surrounded by hundreds of zombies, and even in the daylight now, they wont go away. Well we attacked them with fire, and killed a bunch, but they kept coming. I tried to devise a shield to get a couple people out, but they crushed it as soon as the went out the door. However this did allow the three of us remaining inside (Me, Toady and Cooper) to jump out the backside and run away. Somehow the cleric and fighter managed to escape those creatures, ( It must have been my mage armor spells) and we hid out in the inn once again.

We tried to kill a zombie that night and bit off more than we could chew. The first one was easy enough, but it turns out not all of them are plain zombies and this one creature nearly killed the fighter and was dragging him stunned towards the mines. Somehow we managed to rescue the fighter and I nearly died in the process, no more stunts like that for me.

Day 4

    We found the zombies today, working in the mines like they were normal people. We also found a hole in the wall that had been knocked into some type of chamber. We were attacked  by a creature that could pass through stone and still hurt us. Our weapons had no effect on it at all. I boosted our fighters armor with a mage armor spell (the creature could not bypass this type of armor) and then I cast magic weapon on the fighters sword.  The battle lasted several rounds, but with my spells, we were successful. The tomb was a conical shaped cave that was covered with runes of imprisonment. There was a pendant missing from a small alter, but we found the rest of the map that I had a piece of.

On the back of the map is the story of what really happened to the hidden city, its not good. The city was attacked by 9 human kings and nearly destroyed, however when it looked like the city of ***** was going to be victorious a tenth king (the red king) swept in and dealt the final blow and destroyed the city. The red king was imprisoned in this tomb, and was released by the miners.

Return to Gilhaven

    As we prepare to return to Gilhaven with our recently discovered map and newly purchased equipment we have met up with a paladin of Pelor. He had some interesting information given to him and was told that we could benefit from each others knowledge. He returned to Gilhaven with us in preparation for our journey to find the lost city.

We picked up necessary supplies, talked to our family and friends and then headed west toward the jungle. We were attacked when we made camp the first several night out by vampire spawn. We can only assume that the Crimson King has sent these to creatures after us.

Into the Jungle

    We came across a small cottage just inside the jungle. There was a little old lady living there baking pies. It seemed a bit strange, but she was nice enough and we could detect no ill intent coming from her.

At the base of a large waterfall we walked into an ambush area and had to dispatch several dozen kobolds. That night we were assailed by a spell caster from high up on the cliff face. We managed to take shelter until dawn, since the spell caster was out of everyone's range in the dark.

We encountered a were-tiger while preparing our shelter one night and would have lost the entire party if not for some quick thinking diplomacy checks by the paladin. This creature was having quite a conflict between its two alter egos, and we left the area as quickly as possible.

We found the outermost ring of the city and have begun investigating the site. Most of the stone structures are still somewhat intact. We have found a silver feather in one of the ruined structures. Toady had a vision that seemed quite pleasing when he picked it up. It was examined by the paladin as well and the conclusion was that it came from a previous resident. It was knocked loose as she was preparing for battle several thousand years ago. Very strange to find it still here after all these years.

We made our way to the base of the city and investigated the central fountain area. The whole are is overgrown with flowers and jungle. We inspected each of the 6 lower buildings and each has a large picture of some type of celestial being painted on the back wall. We encountered several creatures using one of the buildings as a base and were denied access to searching it. A battle ensued where most of the party was reduced to unconsciousness, but we managed to make a hasty retreat and hold up for the night and regroup in another of the buildings. The next day we were able to search the last building and discovered that the painting in this room was activated by our map that we had. Beams shot forth from its eyes  and pointed us to the fountain in the center of the city. Upon investigating the fountain we found that whomever held the feather could swim down into the fountain to a hidden room. We all made our way into a large hidden chamber that was still in perfect condition. After bypassing a hidden trap (detonating it on the party) we were able to explore the final area. We found several magic items and a tome of great power.

We made our way back out of the fountain and headed back to Gilhaven. On our way out we met up with the old lady again and she revealed to us her true form. He had been placed here to watch as those who were searching for the lost city came and went. His kind had been banished from ever returning to the city, and the feather that we had found belonged to his mate. We returned the feather and he gave us a container that he said would be needed on our next part of out journey. So with our treasure divided among us we made it back to Gilhaven to rest up, restock and prepare for our next journey

Search for the Book of Vile Darkness

     Our Mission: Go to Jerico hill and begin our search for the book of vile darkness. It is said to reside on an island in the crystal sea, on top of a mountain, in an open temple, within the well of souls. We make our way to Jerico hill. Cooper and Valiant sold some extra items. I purchased a familiar. Hammerfall keep is the last Dwarven stronghold in magus. All coal in the area comes from here, as well as most minerals. The dwarves make armor and equipment also. Gained passage on a ship to Hammerfall keep. The Dwarven kings brother has allowed us on the ship. Ate a very good meal on the ship tonight. Told the dwarf what we were looking for after the meal. With some extra information given to the captain, he knows the island we are looking for. The captain and the dwarf are discussing the issue. After a heated discussion the captain finally agrees to take us there. The island and its surrounding waters are supposed to be very dangerous. The surrounding waters have known pirate activity.  They will come back to pick us up they will not come to shore. They will be back in about 3.5 weeks. First night is uneventful. 2^nd day goes uneventful. The 2^nd night goes uneventful. The morning of the third day we arrive at the island. Off in the distance the island can be seen. The dwarf gave us a scroll of good conduct and passage for Hammerfall keep and its lands. 

They take us to the island in a skiff (the rowers don’t seem happy and won’t talk). We start walking the beach looking for a path to the mountain.    We have found a path to the mountain, but can not see the top. The party was ambushed by 2 large snakes and several archers. Cooper took some major damage from the archers. I cast scorching ray on the snakes twice and managed to kill one. I cast another on an archer and was able to bypass his spell resistance and kill him. Cooper scored a critical on the last one with his bow and killed it. The creatures were Yuan-Ti. They were wearing holy symbols of Mursolk. Valiant was poisoned and has lost 8 points of constitution.

Ambushed once again. 2 Yuan-Ti and one half blood. Valiant was dropped, but the cleric revived him. I killed the half blood. I’ve been shot. We are victorious.

Found a carved cave opening and killed the two guards posted here. We have been hiding the leftover items we find. Creatures snuck up on us in the hallway and attacked cooper and toady. It’s always good to have a light source out. These creatures can create darkness at will. They will remove the darkness, attack and then create it again. We have lost our cleric in the battle. We continued on up through the tunnel. We passed through a snake filled room. It opens onto the top of the mountain where there is a stone structure with a man cage attached to a chain and winch that hangs over the well. The well is very deep and it is full of swirling magic and detects as slight evil.

We encountered an 8 headed hydra within the pit and defeated it finally. We later learned that it was just an illusion since it disappeared when we killed it. The room it was in was completely empty except for a dime size impression in the floor.

We poured the vial of silver liquid that the solar celestial gave us into the depression in the floor. Writing appeared in the floor in celestial and the floor opened up revealing a pit with stairs down to a pedestal with a book on it. The paladin was nearly overcome with evil when he went to retrieve the book, but he managed to get it and put it in a bag. We think the book is the Book of Vile Darkness we were searching for.

We were rescued out of the pit by a war forged (Sirus) he told us that the ship was sank by pirates and everyone killed. We waited on the island with a fire for 3 months to be rescued. We took all of our stuff and went to Hammerfall keep. We sold all the items and split up the treasure. The dwarves raised our cleric after we talked to the king. Told us the book should be taken to a creature they call the ancient one, on top of a mountain.  Studied with a wizard for 2 months and learned the scribe scroll feat for free & 5 points in spell craft also.

Started out for the mountains, crossed the tundra. A large winter storm is approaching so we found shelter in a small overhang during the storm. We were attacked by a small white dragon. After killing the dragon we traveled to the base of the mountain and up a massive staircase to a huge set of doors. Entered the keep and met the Lammasu. Explained to him that we had a book we needed some information about. When we took the book out it fell on the floor and opened. The Lammasu roared and his helper shape shifted into a gold dragon, roared and breathed on the book destroying it.

Must find the regalia of evil and the regalia of good. Each is 3 pieces. 2 of the pieces of the regalia of evil are in the horde lands to the south of Gilhaven. Once found we can take them back to the Lammasu in Hammerfall keep to gain more information.