Following one of the treasure maps recovered from the cultist’s room in the villa, the party sets out for a secluded, hilly area southwest of Munitio.

On their way, they encounter a strange triad of giant raspberry bushes that possess healing properties, nestled in a beautiful glade near a crystal clear brook. The party takes samples and Brennan makes a note to investigate more later.

Approaching the area indicated on the map, the party runs into and dispatches sentries for a hobgoblin camp. The cry goes up and about 16 hobgoblins attack the party. Quick sleep spells by Sextus and Yiska lay out most of the band. The hobgoblin leader, swayed by Caelia’s charm and the promise of more loot, agrees to lead the party to the monastery and fight against the other tribe of hobgoblins with whom they had earlier allied.

The hobgoblins lead the party to an ancient monastery, through its sanctuary with demonic carvings, and into the caves below. Bluffing their way past ogres, goblins and other hobgoblins, they make it straight to the king’s chambers! A fierce battle is waged, leaving all enemies dead, except for a charmed hobgoblin and a charmed ogre. Looting the area, the party withdraws from the king’s chambers only to fall down a chute leading to deeper caverns far, far below.

In the undercaverns, the party finds and kills a pair of berserker humans, some giant shrews and a pair of owlbears, while avoiding the fierce piranha birds. They stumble across a small band of humans, led by the mad “King Derwinky”, obviously lunatics driven crazy by their long isolation in the caves. The party convinces the King of its peaceful intentions, pays tribute with food, clothing weapons and armor, and in return is rewarded with the Aegis, a +2 shield. The party expresses pity for the sad cave-dwellers and determines to find some way to help them in the future.

Thorough exploration of the undercaverns leads to an ancient treasure cache, with coins, gems and various magic items. The party excitedly scoops up the loot, only to be faced with a gelatinous cube! After dealing with the strange creature the party makes its way to an underground stream. Following along it for several hundred yards, they come upon a dry landing, and are noticed by a kobold sentry!

Unable to convince the fierce kobolds not to attack, the party reluctantly kills many of them and takes the chieftain prisoner. Charmed, the chieftain warns about the kobold’s’ deity, a dragon named Mekleth. The party is unconvinced until coming across a room blasted with scorch marks and strewn with charred kobold corpses. All doubts evaporate when the party – fleeing a great roaring sound behind them – dashes into the next cavernous chamber to be faced with a huge red dragon – it is Mekleth herself, coiled upon a pile of glittering treasure!

Thanks to Caelia’s caution, the party is prepared with a plan. While Caelia parleys with Mekleth, Brennan casts Resist Fire on Werm and Unstad. The party spreads out to avoid being caught in any fiery breath. When the conversation between bard and dragon begins to flag, Caelia consults her sword Oathkeeper to determine whether Mekleth is an enemy or potential ally. Confirming the dragon’s murderous intent, the party springs into action!

Caelia fires a crossbow bolt that strikes the dragon in the face. The dogs circle the great wyrm and harry at its heels. Werm, Matia and Unstad assault the dragon directly. Fortune is with them as a surprising number of blows land, doing significant damage, perhaps boosted by the blessing and inspirational song.

Mekleth, enraged, roars out a gout of fiery breath at the three fighters near her head. All are engulfed in flames and Matia and Unstad drop immediately. Werm manages to dodge the worst of the attack, but is still badly burned. A spell from Brennan covers the dragon in faerie fire, making it easier to see (and hit) in the dim cavern. Before the great beast can breathe death on the party again,, Caelia fires another crossbow bolt. It hits Mekleth, and the great red dragon shudders as it dies, collapsing in a great scaly heap.

Brennan and Jarol set to healing Matia and Unstad immediately. Miraculously, they both survive, though Matia will need a month of bed rest and is now crippled. Unstad is doing better, but has hideously disfiguring burn scarring half of his face. The party plans another trip to Quadrivinium soon to sell loot and receive healing restoration.

Brennan sends Werm to the villa with the dogs to bring back a company of troops and all of the wagons and carts available, along with the master craftsmen and their teams. The dragon’s hoard amounts to about 40,000 gold pieces, not including some very interesting magic items and weapons. Much of it appears to be goods raided from distant caravans.

The troops and wagons arrive a day and a half later, along with Gurstag, the thief now in Caelia’s employ. While keeping watch, Gurstag reports, he observed a fight between the humanoids in the monastery. It appears many were killed and the remaining hobgoblins retreated into the upper caves. The party, recalling word of an evil cleric and human prisoners, decides to once more delve beneath the monastery to clear out the upper caves and rescue any prisoners.

Exploring one of the other monastic buildings, the party finds a demonic statue with glittering gems for eyes. Impulsively, Brennan touches the statue while examining it and a dozen doors around the chamber open to disgorge animated skeletons, from their tombs. The party soon destroys the undead, recovering a magic dagger from one of the tombs, but opts to leave the statue untouched…for now.

As the party prepares for another delve beneath the monastery, the beginnings of a defensive stockade go up and master craftsmen and their teams begin their assessment of the construction materials to be salvaged. The party heads back to the villa to rest and regroup before returning, and Sextus’ newly hired sage is able to identify most of the magic items. The party distributes some of them, as appropriate to the practical needs of the party, while others might be sold in Quadrivinium. The dragon parts – organs, blood, meat and hide – might also fetch a fair price from alchemists and mages.

Caelia begins penning an epic song about the battle with the dragon. Sextus begins reviewing the many scrolls and spell books he has accumulated and finds that he has made a breakthrough in his magical abilities. The whole party is held in awe when the dragon carcass is brought back to the villa. Brennan begins calculations on about how long it will take to strip the monastery of all of its useful construction materials. Several hundred tons of quarried and dressed stone block, tiles and columns will come in very handy for new construction projects at the villa…

Sextus is resurrected. Missing limbs are restored, ears are regrown and a whole lot of people suddenly make horses nervous.

XP from monsters: 1,965
Total gold value: 10,986

Total XP: 12951

3 surviving PCs, 7 henchmen – 6.5 shares

1992 XP for PCs
996 XP for henchmen

Treasure recovered from the villa:

1 bundle of rare fur pelts (such as ermine, mink, or sable), worth 500gp each (5 stone each)
1 rich fur cape (1 stone each), worth 1,200gp
1 rich fur cape (1 stone each), worth 1,700gp
1 sets of engraved teeth (1 stone per 100 sets), worth 50gp
2 9HD monster horns (1 stone per 20 HD), each worth 4gp per HD
2 statuettes (1 stone per 1d3 statuettes), each worth 700gp
2 statuettes (1 stone per 1d3 statuettes), each worth 900gp
3 jars of spices, worth 800gp each (1 stone each)
3 sets of engraved teeth (1 stone per 100 sets), each worth 80gp

1 Alabaster jewelry (500 gp)
1 beast parts jewelry (24 gp)
1 porcelain jewelry (300 gp)
1 wrought gold jewelry (800 gp)

Magic/Special items:

1 Potion
1 Magical Scroll
2 of what appear to be treasure maps

1 Ring

1 Short Sword

Clearing the barricade from the Hobgoblin lair allows the party access to the temple beyond. They are almost immediately assaulted by ghouls, which tear through Sextinus’s summoned warriors with little effort. They are dispatched but it is a rough fight. The party almost decides to retreat, but valor (or the promise of the treasures within the temple) spurs them onward.

More undead are encountered – a mixture of ancient skeletons of those entombed with the temple and the zombified remains of creatures from the surrounding caves. Jarol attempts to repel the horrors with the power of his faith, but at every turn (ha!) his faith falters. He is roundly mocked and resolves to do better in the future.

Finally the end of the temple is discovered and it is dominated by two large stone sarcophagi, the burial locations of the king and queen of this ancient land. Also there is a large pile of bones that begins to assemble itself at the party’s approach. To their relief the bones do not form one massive creature, but another set of skeletons – over a score in number. Jarol’s appeals to the gods are finally heard and a number of them are forced into retreat. As the rest are being dealt with, the lord and lady of the temple awake.

Brennan who moved away from the rest of the group to investigate an interesting set of roots growing from the ceiling draws the attention of the king. At it’s touch, he feels part of his life force being drained away. Werm intercedes and forced the wight away from his master.

The Queen is surrounded by more warriors summoned by Sextinus and is kept occupied while the King is dispatched. The Queen is brought down shortly after under a hail of holy water flasks. Much treasure is recovered, including a sword that quickly identifies itself as Oathkeeper, Render of Fate. He has extensive knowledge about the culture and nations of the surrounding area…as it stood thousands of years ago. So really, he has a lot of questions about current events. He also has the ability to grant wishes to his wielder, but he refuses to do so.

A set of stairs are found that lead up to a portion of the temple exposed to the sky, but concealed from the valley below. After a brief fight with stirges, a group of Harpies are encountered. Several members of the party succumb to their songs, but those remaining are able to clear the nest. The temple and all of it’s treasure belongs to the group!

After a brief rest (and word is sent to the leader of the town) the group returns to the caves. This time they find hobgoblins occupying what seems to be a temple dug into the hills. One is interrogated and much information is revealed. The Hobgoblins are working from some foreign power called the Nejamen. Like the bugbears, they are here as advanced scouts for a larger force of hobgoblins – nearly 100 in number held up in a nearby keep. They also learn the orcs and lizardmen encountered earlier were also here at the behest of the Nejamen. The looming invasion force grows by leaps and bounds. Word is sent to the Legatus, but no reaction seems forthcoming.

Finally they learn that a barricaded passage leading further into the temple was set up to prevent the undead inside from escaping. Deciding to avoid the walking dead for now, the party tackles the final set of caves – a bandit hideout.

After a brief skirmish, an accord is reached with the bandits. The bandits are hired to scout for the hobgoblin and bugbear forces, with promise of greater reward on successful return.

After taking on new retainers (including the alchemist’s apprentice previously rejected) the group sets back out to the caves. The next lair is inhabited by bugbears, Leading to some particularly brutal fights. One of the new hires is nearly killed, only surviving by the intervention of magic – losing an eye and needing a month to recover. The treasure amassed by the bugbears is surprisingly large. Questioning one of the captured bugbears reveals a troubling explanation for this – they creatures here are advanced scouts for a full tribe of bugbears – at least 50 in number. They where hired by the robed humanoids the group spotted the first time they arrived at the caves. The tribe is waiting on word from the scouts to descend on the nearby town.

After a successful foray against the lIzardmen and an abortive foray against the gnolls, the party is attacked in the middle of the night by the entire gnoll pack. The group is able to set up their defense around a doorway, limiting the number of gnolls that can attack at once. After a protracted struggle, the gnolls are finally defeated. unfortunately Caelia’s retainers Gurstag and Pulcharia are killed and Werm is badly wounded. The party retreats to town after looting the gnoll warren to recover and search for new retainers.

After the last successful outing, the group decides to hire some outside contractors as assistants. The spirits lead Brennan to Werm – an ex-legionary soldier now leper and his animal companion Lady the war dog. Caeilia, after rejecting a former apprentice alchemist hires a Gruff Dwarf™ named Gurag. After some rest, they return to the caves and begin exploring the second Orc lair.

The fights this time are harder won, and Brennan nearly dies – a jagged facial scar a reminder of his brush with death. Eventually, the lair is cleared and the chieftain is killed. A lone hobgoblin was with the chieftain – why he was meeting with the orcs and why he carried a large amount of gold remains a mystery. Victorious (and more than a little tapped out) the group returns to town.

The newly gathered party sets out in pursuit of the bounty offered by the head of the town for goblin hands – the goblins have been raiding incoming caravans. They actually don’t find any goblins, but stumble onto a network of caves set into a ravine. After observing a group of cloaked figures entering one of the further caves, they decide to explore the nearest set of caves. Many orcs are killed, a merchant prisoner is rescued and the heroes return to town much richer and mostly intact.