text: Trolls and temptations
  At the foot of the Skulls crossing control building, the party made a careful examination of the outside. Cassie's Character peering through the walls to spot a group of trolls within the main room, followed shortly by Radid slipping through an eye socket window to open the door from within. Unfortunately for Radid trolls have an excellent sense of smell and spotted him almost immediately. Quick action on his part got the doors open and the party manage to bottle neck the four trolls assaulting them, trapping then in narrow doorways and corridors and wearing them down one by one, finished off the last beast thanks to Plaedra and a well summoned pair of fire elementals.
  After clearing the top room the group descended into the heart of the dam. The came upon a scum covered pool of water in a central chamber far below. Vale Temros went in first taking the brunt of an opening attack from Grazuul, the Scrag wet pappa waiting in the pool. Three solid hits from Grazuul's trident threw Vale into uncounsciousness before chris's character could take upa defensive position. Not long after the party used ranged attacks and some well placed melee strikes to send grazuul into retreat. he dove into the pool and hid, allowing his regeneration to re-knit his damaged flesh while Filiaris methodically cleared the pool of muck.
  a couple minutes later Grazuul returned, spear in hand to continue the fight. Using her divine magic cassie's character heated his trident to a glowing heat and forcing him to drop the potent weapon and open up with claws and teeth, nearly killing Radid when he came up behind the creature to make a flanking attack. While Grazuul was occupied with Radid, chris's character dove into the pool and retrieved the dropped trident, killing the beast with it's own weapon and dragging him out of the water to stifle his regeneration.
  With the apparent threat ended the party set about exploring the chambers. Radid using his inherent water-breathing ability to explore a long air-locked access to the Storval Deep side of the dam while the rest of the party cleared away a large pile of skulls blocking one door, and peeked into a second. Within the second chamber they found a massive scorpion construct made of skulls guarding what appeared to be a scale model of the dam made of actual human skulls.
  Leaving the model and it's guardian alone for a moment the party investigated the chamber to the south, finding within two magic circles, one containing a pile of crimson dust and the other the pathetic remains of a once mighty demon. The demon challenged, offered, and finally begged for release in exchange for information on the dam and other sources of power. The party turned their back on it for the moment, seeking to solve the problem without dealing with the outsider.
  They launched a 3 pronged attack on the skull construct, shortly leaving all three members at the mercy of the beast, slowly being crushed and poisoned to death. Only the quick action of Filiaris Brindlewise saved the captured party members, paralyzing the monster while the rest of the party pried their members free and leaving the guardian to it;s task and closing the door upon it.
  Exhausted, wounded, and depleted the party barricaded themselves into a side room and set watches to rest the night. During the night the demon whispered to each member in turn, in the privacy of a telepathic communication, offering what it thought would most tempt that person into saving it from nonexistance and granting it it's freedom.
  The party figured out the mechanism of the dam, some from the demon and some from examination of the magical machinery itself. The concluded that the dam required two units of life energy to operate the safety mechanism, one from each magic circle. The party chose the path of mixed mercy, restoring some life to the demon to prevent its destruction and offering some life from Chris's character to reactivate the safety mechanisms and open the dam spill ways.
  Turtleback Ferry now saved from catastrophic flooding, the party returned to Fort Rennick. After making another care reconnoiter of the grounds they slipped into a set of hidden siege tunnels behind a waterfall in the rocky cliffs that back the fort. Staving off pursuit by the fairly stupid ogres with the help of the pixie who has been following them invisibly since the shimmerglade they slipped into the grounds of the fort. While Radid and Cassie's character mounted a distraction by lighting a wooden barracks building filled with ogres on fire the rest of the party slipped unnoticed into the lower level of the fort. With most of the ogres bedding down in the barracks for the night the keep was sparsely populated and the party made short work of clearing the first level.
  The ogres still unaware of their presence inside the keep the party has a choice: Up to the upper level containing the chapel and commanders quarters, or down to the keep dungeon to seek out potential survivors..
  Journey of Skulls
  To KIll A Scion
  The party, having defeated Mammy Graul and her brood take a day to collect themselves and with the aid of their new-found allies JAKARDROS, Vale, and Kaven head toward Fort Rennack. They make the short journey and spend some time scouting the the fort only to find it crawling with ogres and apparently well defended. Growing more and more concerned about the constantly unseasonable rain the party, over the objections of their ranger allies, decide to move further into the foothills of Storval Plateau to investigate the condition of the SKulls Crossing, the dam that holds back the miles of water that make up the Storval Deep.
  The party makes their way up the steep vally leading up to the Storval Deep and as the dam comes into view several miles ahead the can just make out several ogres chipping away at the structure. To their horror they arrive just in time to see something of the storval deep attack the ogres, tearing them off the crossing and opening the crack they had been working on. A flood of water pours over the dam, certainly not the full volume but enough to cause trouble for Turtleback Ferry downstream.
  They quickly moved up toward the dam, dedicated to finding a way to open the spillways and preventing any further sudden flooding of the Skull River. Just as they reach the lake at the base of the dam, an enormous creature came spilling over the broken portion of dam. A black rubbery tentacled horror known as Black Magga, injured from her fall over the dam and looking to vent her anger made her way directly for the party on shore.
  A quick breath of foul mist rendered the majority of the party insane, and tentacles whipped out trying to snag the tasty morsels. However through miraculous force of will the party managed to keep focus and attack the divine monster, Chris's Character fending off tentacle after tentacle while Filiaris, Cassie's character, and Plaedra attacked from a distance. After an amazing show of skill and sheer luck the party downed the beast as it attempted to flee downriver, making a quick effort to dress the gargantuine beast and recover a large quantity of her hearts blood for Filiaris to distill into enhancing potions for the party.
  After catching their breath and recovering a bit the party moves up the mountain, making short work of a guardian Ettin and a group of exhausted ogres. The party stands, tired and depleated facing the control tower of Skulls Crossing.
  Following our feast consisting of delectable gar, the band set out to inspect the swamps across the lake as there had been rumors of the ranger's leader Bayden being spotted in the area. Upon arrival we discovered that Bayden had been having romantic relations with one of the powerful fey beings living in the swamp. We found that the nymph lover of Bayden had been brutally murdered by ogres and he captured. The brutal murder left her mangled ghost haunting the swamp and has transformed the area into a horrible place of phantasm dangers and brutal illusory traps. The pixy guide we stumbled across in our exploration of the swamp proved invaluable for finding the nymph and for making our way out of the cursed swamp. I am not sure if I trust him completely as the fey can be capricious companions at the best of times and with his domain in turmoil he may be even less stable than usual…
  After narrowly escaping the swamp ghost with our lives if not my sight, we decided it would be best to head out to the fort once our blinded companions were healed. A short distance from Turtleback Ferry we came across what was an obviously bonded feline companion caught in a trap. Upon releasing the creature we soon came across the grotesque humanoid responsible for the trap. The deformed giantkin was handily sent scurrying away sans his pack of puppies, as we later find out my desire to finish the degenerate creature was well justified. Hopefully the band will heed my advice next time… The creature rescued from the trap seemed to be trying to lead us somewhere and my investigative drive demanded finding out where this could lead, possibly to a woodsman with knowledge we needed…
  I will not go into great detail describing what we found but in summary it was a disquieting discovery. The animal led us back to the farm house run by the family members of our dog whispering degenerate… The scenes we found within that house will plague my dreams for years to come… Sentient beings used as food and macabre furniture upholstery to name but a few of the depraved scenes from the house. In the end we triumphed and have sent their diseased souls to what i hope is an endless place of torment and agony… I know that there must be evil in order to balance out the forces of good but I would prefer not to trek through their filthy den. Although the more I think about it I may be more disturbed by the family than by their acts…. Their disgusting appearance and putrid personas stink of chaotic influences. Yes I am certain of it now, it is their inbred maligned discordant nature that truly repulses me. There was no rhyme or reason to their acts just ignorant and demented debauchery, they had no focus or purpose except to propagate their tumorous blight of a family…. I will be happy to see their home burn, I pray to Brigh that we killed them all…
  Or Surviving the Hillbilly Horror House
  Shimmerglen
  Following the party's encounter at the wreck of the Paradise, they returned to town and made a name for themselves. They met with the Priest-Mayor of Turtleback Ferry and arranged to donate Pink-Eye the enormous Gar to a town wide fish-roast festival sealing their good name with all involved.
  The next morning the group set out to follow up on a rumor of strange activities in the swamp across the lake from Turtleback Ferry known as the Shimmerglens. After hiring a rowboat they proceeded to enter the swamp. Things got strange almost immediately as the swamp closed in on them, ghosts and odd visions assaulted their minds, and they met a strange little Pixie desperate for help. He led them to a grove inhabited by the ghost of the mutilated nymph Myriana. After blinding the majority of the party with her presence she begged them to assist her in reincarnating her lost love Lamatar Bayden Commander of Fort Renneck.
  After returning to town and cashing in on some of their newly earned goodwill in the form of Remove Blindness spells from the mayor the party set off to investigate Fort Renneck. Upon reaching the halfway point of their journey however they were side-tracked by strange noises in the woods, the sound of an animal struggling in the trap. They released the poor creature, an obviously well trained firepelt cougar, they were approached by a singing mutant Ogrekin named Rukus and his pack of hunting dogs.
  Credit: Ben's RPG Pile, all rights reserved, etc.
  Without wasting a moment Filiaris used his signature move to reduce all 5 dogs to smoldering chunks, driving Rukus into a rage of tears. A little abuse was too much for Rukus and he ran sobbing back into the woods. The party gave pursuit, coming upon a run down boarded up farmhouse and barn surrounded by scraggly sad looking corn. They put down the guardian of the corn, a mutated pumpkin headed creature, and proceeded to investigate the barn.
  A stealthy peek through the barn door revealed three more degenerate ogrekin. A well placed fireball softened them up and the party made quick work of the three only to be ambushed by an enormous spider. A much more pitched battle ensued which left Chris's Character poisoned. In a cage in one corner of the barn were three surviving Black Arrow rangers: Naked, bruised, and battered, but still barely alive. The party restored them to health and left them to hold the fort, so to speak, in the barn while they went to investigate the house proper.
  The house made the horror seen so far was jus ta prelude to the scenes found inside the house. Legless biting man-babies, a couch upolstered with the hands and faces of missing townfolk, and closets filled with the tiny skeletons of murdered infants. The party made asystematic search of the house, which went fairly well until Cassie's Character and Filiaris ran afoul of a pit trap and ended up in the basement being kept company by an enormous plant animal hybrid creature. the rest of the party came down the pit to assist, but not before two two of them sent down the creatures gullet. The unfortunate pair managed to burn and cut their way free before finally defeating the creature.
  After taking time to clear the basement and relieve the Grauls of their treasure horde (including the equipment from the captured rangers) they moved up to confront the matron of the house. Mammy Graul turned out to be an enormously obese necromancer, floating above her broken down bed and flanked by the rotten animated remains of three of her sons. The party battled the hideous woman and drove her to a retreat, using a dimension door to retreated to the assumed safety of the barn to regroup. Unfortunately for her the rangers that were left behind got their revenge, skewering Mammy with a crossbow bolt and two spears, ending the Graul family once and for all.
  XP for present/core characters: 7680. 750 additional xp available for adventure log posts.
  Journal entry by Radid:
  Even though my plans for the Skin Saw cult in Magnimar were derailed by the Heroes of Sandpoint the end result was close enough to satisfy me. The cult was dismantled and a certain political figure was not implicated… The city remains unperturbed and stability was maintained. And without their intervention we may never have learned of the outside influences involved with this cults activities.
  Now due to the fear of our Lord-Mayor, I have been assigned the task of traveling with the adventurers to root out the source of this evil. So we have taken a river boat up to Turtleback Ferry. Upon arrival we were quick to spot many villagers sporting Thassilonian sigils tattooed upon their bodies. Further investigation discovered that these were marks of membership to a casino barge which had recently berthed near the town. We decided to investigate the barge, which was some what of a complicated issue for the rest of the group as the barge had sunk nearly a month prior to our arrival… Upon inspection we discovered that the vessel had been purposefully scuttled after having all valuable items and personnel removed.
  During our exit from the sunken barge we were attacked by a huge fish which we believe to be a local legend that we hard about in town. Luckily our brave battle mage figured out the monsters weakness. Bravely enticing the beast to engulf him through some strange magic he then proceeded to roast the creature from within! A heroic feat if I ever saw one! Now we are making our way back to town with the dead beast in tow. I think that a fish cook/meet and greet are in order… I'm interested to find out who among the town were on the vessel when it was sunk, as this could point out who may have gained from the murders….
  or The Gar's Upset Stomach
  We began this chapter with the party adjourning back to their Inn following the defeat of Xanesha. The following morning they found Ionacu missing, with most of his personal equipment gone with him and blood staining his bedding. A bit of investigation revealed that the blood was a deception and he had apparently slipped out the window in the night. While waiting to interrogate the night bartender at the inn the party made themselves an appointment with Lord-Mayor Grobaras. They earned his gratitude by revealing Xanesha's plot against him, and used that leverage to acquire a title to the Foxglove Estate midway between Magnimar and Sandpoint.
  Interviewing the night bartender didn't reveal any new information, but the bartender did tip them to the services of Radid Iryani, a private investigator operating Magnimar. They managed to gain his assistance, although the trail to Ionacu went cold.
  The party retreated to their new stronghold and set to work making it into a livable space. About a month passes before the party is summoned back to Magnimar by The Lord-Mayor. He beseeches them to lend their expertise to a problem: Travel to Turtleback Ferry and investigate the silence of the Black Arrow Rangers at the outpost of Fort Rennick. To assist them The Lord-Mayor has also enlisted the aid of the investigator Radid Iryani as well as an old friend of the party, Shalelu Andosana, a ranger at least passingly familiar with the Black Arrow company of rangers. The party agrees to make the journey and return word for no reward other than travel expenses.
  The Journey goes uneventfully until the last leg, when the party at attacked by a wild hydra crossing the Claybottom Lake to Turtleback Ferry. They make short work of the beast and complete their trip.
  The next couple of days are spent gathering information around the town, revealing a number of promising rumors. The two the party immediately follows up on are the presence of 7-pointed-star tattoos on a number of villagers and the apparent link of the tattoo to the pleasure ship Paradise and it's mysterious mistress Lucrecia. They quickly discover that the Paradise sunk a month before their arrival.
  The party rowed their way out to the wreck of the Paradise and with the help of some water-breathing magic dove down to investigate the wreck. They found the wreck full of the corpses of gamblers, nibbled into a skeletal state by the life at the bottom of the lake, but no sign of Lucrecia or the wealth the barge should have contained. Their final clue came at the bottom deck of the ship, which showed signs of an intentional scuttling.
  There was one final surprise left for the party as they exited the ship. A huge albino gar was there to meet them, hungry and aggressive. During a pitched battle Greg's character learned the danger of setting off explosions under water stunning the gar and most of the party, and shortly afterward gained intimate knowledge of the interior of a gar's stomach. Plaedra drew upon her nature magic to summon a fearsome shark to assist them and with it's help the party softened the gar up enough that Greg's Character was able to burn his way out of the beast, killing it in the process. Surely it will make a fine trophy to adorn their new stronghold, if they survive to return it there.
  The PCs present received 1000xp for the session. Also, any player who makes a character profile will get 500xp and any player who writes an adventure log from their characters perspective will receive 200xp
  Xenesha Falls
  Ionacu finds a new love.
  The most recent session concluded the second arc in the Rise of the Runelords campaign with the defeat of Xanesha, the lamia responsible for both Aldern Foxgloves reign of terror in Sandpoint and a string of ritual murders in Magnimar. The battle started when the party was confronted by a hired assassin, seeking the death of key party members in reply to the defeat of Justice Ironbriar's Norgorber cult. They handily defeated the woman through both martial skill, and the well timed use of a charm enchantment.
  After entering the clocktower the party was confronted by the flesh golem Scarecrow, a creature who has long haunted the seedier portions of Magnimar. After his defeat came the long and arduous climb up the clocktower, interrupted by the falling of one of the clock bells, and shortly after the long plunge of a certain flaming inquisitess. This only served to spur the party further and they quickly returned the favor to a faceless stalker with the aid of a grease spell. A second stalker tried to take sinda down the tower with him, collapsing the stairway under them both, but a quick thinking gnome risked life and limb diving after the falling Sinda and catching her in a featherfall spell.
  Upon reaching the top of the tower there was no sign of the lamia, but there was a large winged demon circling ready to attack. All but Ionacu quickly saw through the illusion however and the inquisitor pierced their true foe's invisibility and revealed her to the party. Ionacu was quickly charmed by the temptress nd made his best efforts to convince the party to spare the creature, but they paid no heed. They quickly blinded and corned the lamia, showing her no mercy.
  After collection their treasure and finding clues to a greater plot the party descended the tower. Where will they go next? What greater rewards have their brave deeds earned them? We shall see.