Here we go again. In attendance this session:

1) Todd (DM)
2) Justamere (Warforged with a thing for helping gnomes) (Tony)
3) Yattannee (Human Tribal Druid)(Brian R)
4) Yoric (Half-Elf Sorcerer) (John)
5) Zathrus (Kobold sorceror in disguise) (Tim)
6) Zarrakaf (Turban wearing scout)(John S)
7) Rhiannon and Grimtooth (The crazy wolf girl and her pet wolf)(me)
8) Nailghus (Human Monk) (Chad) (Attending via voice over IP)
9) Westminster Jones (Book loving Human)(Ashby)
10 Xander (Dark Speaking Warlock) (Mike)

The game started with Zarrakaf who had returned to town to look for help. All he found there was Justamere, since most of the other adventures were attacking "another" bandit stronghold. Justamere appears to be a large man in heavy armor, but he never takes it off.

In order to get back to the moat house quickly, Zarakaf decided that they needed horses. He found a stable, with Justamere right behind him. Zarakaf took the stablemaster into the other room to discuss prices, while Justamere proceeded to get on the "king of horses" and ride right out of town. They caught up to each other near base camp.

At this point, Xander decided to break base camp. Apparently, he decided the hard part of assaulting the moat house would be over by this point, and wanted to see how it turned out. Not really one to travel the dangerous swamplands by himself, He decided to bring Westminster Jones, Zarrakaf, and Justamere with him.

Meanwhile, the group at the moat house had decided to investigate the door the spellcaster had tried to flee through before Nailghus had put an end to those notions.

Yattannee listened at the door and quickly realized another group was within preparing for battle. In an attempt at tactics, the group threw open the door and waited for the group to come to us. Unfortunately, their leader knew better than to let his troops go to slaughter single file through the door, so the first round consisted of the two groups sniping at one another.

About this time Xander and his group began to close in on the rest of the party. Xander had previously cast darkness on a stone, and he slung it into the room.

Unfortunately it fell short and plunged the party (but not their opponents) into darkness.

Yoric directed his owl familiar to pick up the stone and fly it into the room, allowing the darkness to have its intended effect. Quickly the room fell into chaos as the party ran in, attacking wildly. The group’s leader read from a scroll that doubled his height and began to brutally attack the group. Unfortunately he did not count on

the skill of the monk Nailghus, who quickly grappled and pinned him despite his size.

Battle was truly joined, and it was quick and deadly. Rhiannon cast a spell to make her oaken staff even more deadly in combat and Yattannee used a spell to take on the aspect of a wolf. Yoric used a Message cantrip to attempt to demoralize the bandits. Zathrus used one of the stolen crossbows to shoot down one of the larger bandits.

Soon enough the bandits were put down like dogs. The group began to loot their bodies and discuss what to do next.

After the battle, Justamere first noticed Zathrus in his robes. Not recognizing him as a kobold, he decided the creature must be a gnome and placed him in a specially created harness on his back. A bit confused, but enjoying the height advantage Zathrus decided to go along with it.

About this time Rhiannon got bored and wandered off. Yattannee, who was still in wolf form, followed her. The two of them continued down the stairs until they reached an alcove which contained a pouch and an ornate chest. Having no way to open the chest, Rhiannon left it. The pouch contained:

Bag of Black Pearls
Signet Ring
Brass Candleholders

Continuing further down the hall, Rhiannon, Grimtooth, and Yattannee barely spotted green slime at the end of the hallway. One by one made the jump, but Rhiannon was hit by the slime. She quickly rubbed off the slime with her cloak, which she had to discard. Wanting to warn the party she took some chalk (which she had borrowed from the now deceased Alex the Fighter) and wrote "Gren Slum" in large letters all over by the archway.

About this time the rest of the party noticed their missing members and started down the stairs. They noticed the ornate chest that Rhiannon had left and stopped to look at it. With no one to pick the lock, Xander decided to use his dark speech to shatter the lock. Unfortunately this destroyed not only the chest, but destroyed the delicate crystal inside.

Travelling further into the dungeon, Rhiannon, Grimtooth, and Yattannee walked in on an Ogre. The three of them attacked the ogre quickly, knowing their only chance was to overpower it before it killed them. Grimtooth was able to bite the creature and Yattannee pulled it down... but unfortunately Rhiannon missed with her attack and the ogre grabbed her, hoping to initiate a grapple. Things looked grim when Rhiannon suddenly began to transform, putting on about 15 lbs of muscle mass and growing razor sharp claws.she dug these into the stunned ogre's shoulders and along with the attacks of her companions Grimtooth and Yattannee was able to put the beast down.

Also at about this time the group came across the "Gren Slum". After discovering the meaning of Rhiannon's scribbles they decided to take the archway one by one. All made it past except Xander, who jumped at an inopportune moment and had a large glob fall on him. Immediately, he attempted to rub it off of him using the nearest thing he could find... his fellow party member Yoric. However, before he could put his plan into action Zathrus (guessing his intent) shot him dead in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt. This caused Xander to pass out, and his fellow party members scrapped the slime off of him. However, Justamere was confused by Zathrus' actions, and deciding he was no gnome took him out of the shoulder harness and set him on the ground.

Soon the party (carrying the unconscious Xander) caught up with the Rhiannon, Grimtooth, and Yattannee (Rhiannon was now back to normal). They searched the ogre's room and found a small cell with an injured gnome and an unconscious human chained to the wall. After a search of the room the keys to the cell and the shackles were found. Justamere immediately freed the gnome and allowed Rhiannon to free the human after some prompting. Rhiannon and Yattannee dispensed some healling, but were unable to heal everyone. With so many wounded, the party decided to block the door and rest in the room for the night. Justamere took the gnome and set up guard in the adjoining room.

It seemed like a good breaking point, so we ended the session at this point.

As always, please feel free to post with your comments or corrections. Thanks!