SESSIONS 13, 14, 15 & 16 - HALLOWED BE THY GAME

[all illustrations & captions provided by Leif, Elf Ranger]

Djarel, cleric of Dawnbringer, had to be carried out of the Smoking Leprechaun after drinking half of a green-tinted beer - on their way back to the Spooky, Old Tree the party noticed some strange dirt mounds & investigating, found 4 dead groundhogmen who had some items on them - back @ the tree the party pulled together for a work party & tidied the place up & Djarel started on an altar to Dawnbringer in the spider lair - the heart of the session surrounded the party's experiment w/ the words issued from the expired spider's wounds, about knocking in the hall w/ statues - they made their way to the hall w/ the crawfishmen armor, & sure enough, after tapping one of the statues in the proper fashion, were met by an owl oracle of sorts - a Q&A transpired & the party learned much about what Eric Talbot was up to as well as other various info about the tree & surrounding area - some hallowed hash was smoked by the party back @ Djarel's altar to Dawnbringer - then they capped the night off outside the tree as Amadi did what his book told him to do (do snow angels in grass staring at the moon) - he suddenly felt rather wise, he told others to do it, & they became wiser as well - soon after, the silhouette of zombies was seen on the horizon, headed toward the wise & jolly party...

 "I am not a teacher. I am a teller," said the owl.

In response to the approaching zombies, the party, though mechanically slowed by the effects of the hallowed hash, decided to move to the winding staircase @ the back of the Old, Spooky Tree to gain elevation; w/ the two gnolls in back, the party made it a ways up the stair before engaging w/ the undead. The hallowed hash aided in their fight against the zombies, & some impressive fighting (Amadi w/ some choice knife throws were of note) was seen; however, the gnolls were ultimately destroyed by the nine zombies - finally doing away w/ the last, the party took some time out to bury the gnolls. It was then decided that the party would bed down for the night & in the morning leave for Talbot, & ultimately back into Crackenmore.

 RIP Gnollan & Mellon, 17th of the Hummingbird

So the next morning, 18th day of the Hummingbird, the party, w/ Magus this time, traveled west & south back down to Talbot. One their way, they came across an old, capsized wagon w/ weeds grown all up & around. A good search reveals a large barrel of some liquid, a beer of some sort, still in fine condition if not in better for the aging. The party decides to transport the barrels back to the tree. This takes most of the morning. Heading back, they make it to Talbot in the afternoon & gathering supplies at the General Outfitter, come into a bit of an altercation w/ one, Bronze Cooter, & his sidekick, Nasty Dog. They are told they need to leave town. The party manages to leave Bronze & nasty w/o any fighting. They make their way to the Talbot Curosity shop where they meet Stetling Conian, a quiet type. They buy numerous things, & looking more Hallowed Hash, find none, though they do score a nice stash of Nugs of Nobility. They do however manage to trade one smoke of Amadi's Flying Cloud for what Stetling says is a magic shield. Stetling seems amazed to see anyone w/ the Flying Cloud & tells them that it is an item sought out by many & he will have no trouble selling it, though he doesnt exactly know its benefits/effects. Asking about magic-users in town, Stetling tells the party they may wish to consult w/ Miss Crumbleberry, the fortuneteller, who is just next door. Information from Miss Crumbleberry seems to be a bit slight, though they do learn that a powerful magic-user named Halius lives in the Moorhouse SW of Talbot. Likewise Leif or Djarel's fortune is read (I cant remember which) where Miss C sees them inside a room of a cave where there is a cave entrance far up above them & wearing magic shoes of some sort they jump up to the entrance. Lastly, the party visits the scholar in town, Gondo Kelp, who they find is working on a book, commissioned by Furthermoor City in regard to the Cult of the Black Dog, & the Black Dog phenom in general. Gondo about falls on his face when Djarel presents him w/ the Cult of the Black Dog book found in Crackenmore. Of course Gondo had heard of the volume, though has never been able to find a copy. Djarel allows him to borrow the book for a trade. The party pick up a few books surrounding Illusion, Goblin Religion & one about a God of Healing.

 "you are in a dark place. you see an entryway. high above the ground there is a small passage in the wall near the ceiling. you are wearing air jordans."

Finally, the party retires to the Green Lantern Inn where they rent a room to store their belongings (most importantly the armor Djarel found that he wants to have resized - so far unable to locate an armorer) & the rest of the party stays in the common room.

Upon waking the next day, the 19th of the Hummingbird, the party finally makes their way toward Crackenmore, through the cemetery. After a brief skirmish w/ some strange Wolf Bats, the party rigs the statue & enters down into Crackenmore. This time, Leif notices a secret door in the second pair of alcoves. This corresponds w/ the gnoll's map. Passing through the secret door, the party finds a new section of Crackenmore; however, they also find that the gnoll map still just brings them confusion. When they wrap down around a long hallway they come upon a pack of 6 Kobolds trying to enter a door on a north wall. Surprising the Kobolds, the party has little trouble in dispensing of them, a few running down the corridor further east & disappearing through a door further down the corridor. The party decides to focus on mapping these corridors, leaving smash marks in the obsidian walls w/ a hammer. They decide not to enter any doors. Backtracking, they come upon a solo Kobold who gets a fierce stab into Telal, before the K is killed. Moving on, the party maps a number of hallways wrapping around, finding many doors, a secret door included. Things are going well w/ mapping, until something strange happens. Out front, Leif & Telal turning a passage, toward a door, soon find the floor below them turn into a short slide & they fall 40' below into a cold, cavernous pool. The trap snaps back above them.

"tellel and amadi had just hit the ground. i knew what was coming next. she appeared as a small dot in the distance. suddenly she was upon me. now she lies still."

Soon, they can see the trap open back up, & easing down, on a rope in Magus the Dwarf. As Magus slowly descends, suddenly, those left above smell a horrible stench & then see two large lizard-like creatures turning toward them from back down the corridor - a split decision is made & the rest of the party jumps onto the trap, falling through it, & all into a pile into the cold water. Telal is lucky to make it to the shore w/ his life intact after it had flashed suddenly before his eyes; the fate of Rown, cleric of the Great Church, is still not known, however. At death's door, she needs magical healing. The party regroups on the shore of the pool, now down in a cavern, shivering, wandering what further adventures this return to Crackenmore will bring...

1:20 PM, 19th of the Hummingbird, Crackenmore, Furthermoor

Note to players: feel free to leave comments regarding add'l/more detailed info you learned in game etc. May be a handy place to leave that stuff for future reference if you find yrself ever referring back to these posts

SESSION 7 - CRACKENMORE

So the two gnomes seem extremely interested in Gnolan, & Magus begins speaking w/ them, first asking if they know Common. They do not, as they come from an area far from those that speak Common. They go on to explain that they teleported here from their home, not "here" but nearby, to a place they cannot devulge; they explain that they heard of this rock from others that have ventured here & returned w/ great powers & treasures. They have been examining the rock now for 3 days, but have yet to figure it out. The party begins focusing on the glowing rock, & Leif begins rubbing it a bit, slowly, feeling a bit of tension in a small area, he breaks off a chip. The party debates about what to do w/ the chip until they have Gnolan put it in his mouth. Everyone watches as Gnolan just shrugs a bit, but then speaking to Leif, Leif notices that Gnolan's voice is slightly different slower, sloppier... A great debate arises about what to do, whether they should simply leave the rock alone, etc. The gnomes, however, who agree to guide the to an exit they know of, say they will not leave until they figure the rock out. So more chips are chipped & passed around. One by one, they decide whether to put it in their mouth or not, but ultimately all succumb to the temptation & realize how the magical rock affects them: Magus will eventually realize his CHA has lowered by 1, Amadi feels a surge that would heal all his HP, but he is already @ full, so just feels good all around, Leif eventually realizes he is stronger than before, +1 STR, Telal notices no effect whatsoever, & then Djarel is suddenly blind. The gnomes on the other hand, as far what the party can tell visually, one of them shows them a beautiful pearl gem that suddenly appeared in their hand once they put the stone in their mouth. Magus can tell it is of some value, @ least 500 gp. The gnome is extremely excited & seems fulfilled in his mission. The gnomes agree to guide the party out of the dungeon, mentioned that though they did notice some Troglodytes, they should be able to get past them. The party is eager to get back to Talbot. They follow the gnomes & within an hour & a half they are inching out of of a crevice into a field that is directly north of the Talbot Cemetery.

As the party collects themselves, they turn to find the gnomes gone. They talk about returning to town, but Djarel, still blinded, begins speaking of his warhammer left in the statue. The party agrees to guide him there to retrieve it. They move west & then down to the cemetery gates where they enter & move to where the statue of Dagwood Talbot rests. There in his left hand, he is gripping Djarel's warhammer. Someone guides Djarel's hand & when he grips it & pulls, it comes free, & a creaking can be heard from behind the statue where the door to Crackenmore is closing, rock rubbing rock. Subsequently, as the party heads back out of the cemetery, Djarel begins to perceive from his eyes, until he can fully see once back into Talbot proper. The party moves to the Green Lantern. It's 5 AM. Full of excitement, the party doesnt really wish to go right to sleep. Djarel retires to a room to worship for a while, refreshed w/ Detect Magic, he steps out & finds the others already into heavy conversation & cups w/ Goody Threeshoe. Djarel has them pile up all of their booty & casts Detect Magic on the pile. As it turns out, the shield that Djarel found, Kinchen's shield, is a magic shield (+1). Amadi, inspired & excited to study the scroll he found, insists on buying for everyone, round after round... It is quite a scene, the party slowly blitzed around the table now around 7 AM. Leif decides to venture out for a toke on some Hallowed Hash, comes back in, more drinks are had by everyone... But then, heading back out, Leif is accosted by about five men, & in his state, doesnt really catch it all, until he cant really fight back... Next thing he knows, he is in a cell of some kind & he can hear the men down a hall speaking of catching the person that robbed Lyla Dimmings. Apparently she told people it was an elvish type, that carried a bow. Otherwise, back @ the Green Lantern Inn, Djarel has a strange dream: he sees Dawnbringer, the Great Tulip, silver & yellow, wide open in the sun, & from out of it, orcs clad in black leather. He is standing behind a stone, & watching sees that they have a prisoner they are bringing out, a human prisoner, who is not moving, but whose eyes are wide. The prisoner is wearing a red vest & also has something in front of his eyes, on his nose that Djarel has never seen. As the prisoner is finally taken out, Djarel watches as he is set down & a number of orcs circle him. He reaches into a tube & pulls out a scroll of some sort & begins to unroll it... It is @ this moment that Djarel is awaken by Telal, "Djarel, get up, get up, did you hear about Leif?"

3 PM

SESSION 6 - CRACKENMORE

Magus is now back to the land of the moving & in that time also the party notices some mechanism on the north wall, w/ a lever.  After examining the lever, giddy & daring w/ his new, shiny shield, Djarel decides to pull it w/o any real discussion w/ the others.  A few seconds later they hear a massive crashing on the other side of the door.  They decide to leave the room & check it out.  Magus tries the door but fails.  Amadi steps up, twirls & gives the door a well-placed kick, opening it up...  They file into the E-W corridor, noticing a portcullis that is now to their direct east, blocking the dead end.  Also, they notice someone running their way from the W, a human, & behind the human, turning the corner, three Orcs.  Leif bolts to the northside of the corridor & whistles off an arrow @ one of the orcs, hitting it in the jugular, dropping it...  The other orcs approach after the thief nearing the others, swinging their clubs, one misses while the other strikes Gnolan in the ribs; then Magus, bumbling through like a tail back, plants his battle axe through the skull of one.  The last orc is now between them all, overwhelmed.  Having now composed himself from his flight, Telal the Thief (who the orcs had been chasing), circles around & jabs his dagger through the last orc's midsection.  The orc falls.  The party rests & Talel tells them of his previous party's demise, in some other twisted part of the dungeon.  They were lost & ambushed by orcs.  Telal was the only one to survive.  He thanks the party & joins them.

Viewing their map, they weigh their options.  They decide to head back to the secret door Leif located previously.  Leif opens the secret door & they find a relatively empty room save a 2" pile of rubble in the NW corner, chalky, white rubble, compared to the black, smooth obsidian walls.  The party spends some time searching the rubble & end up finding, @ the very bottom, a golden ring.  They put it in a bag w/ their other finds.

They exit the room & S, coming to an E-W passage.  They go W, then S, then E, S, W, until they come upon another S passage & a door on the north wall. Amadi steps up, circling, kicking; but his attempt fails; next thing Magus is barreling forward, crashing into the door, budging it open...   They enter the door & find the room quite familiar: an outcropping of cyrstalline rock shining from the NW corner.  The door shuts behind them & suddenly, Leif notices the water he had put on the floor previously appears, though not quite as much of it.  The party rolls out of the room, & once more disoriented, finds themselves in a N-S passage.  They go N, cut W, S, E, S, W, then S...  They go for a good while S, then cut E & S, coming to a door, they decide to skip the door & continue W where they pass another door, go S, then E, ultimately coming to a dead end & a door on the north wall of the corridor.  Amadi spins & kicks the door open.  The party moves into a 20' x 20' room w/ a stack of large, wood logs in the NE corner, a hole in the floor to the SE & a door in the NW wall.  Also of note is a large, iron ring protruding from the south wall, near the 3" wide hole.  After searching over the pile of wood & finding nothing, Amadi hangs his lantern down the hole a bit, but from what he can see it is just dark space, then, suddenly his lantern burns out.  Telal lights a torch & they decide to send Magus down the hole.  Using a 50' rope, they lower Magus down & after 40' he hits bottom, seeing that he is in a small room of a rough cavern w/ an opening to his NE.  One-by-one, the remainder of the party safely make their descent, leaving the rope hanging, tied to the iron ring in the wall above.  They travel NE out of the room, then S, then SW, slow through the cave, much more rugged & rocky than the corridors above.  They turn E & come to a junction where to the north they can see the cave open into an ante-chamber, & there is a glowing object on the north wall...  As they near, entering the room, they see that the glow is coming from a large, chunk of rock which appears to be mica.  It radiates magic strongly.  Suddenly, standing in the shadows just out of the glow of the radiating stone, the party notices two Gnomes standing there.  They appear to be just as surprised to suddenly find the party standing in the room.  Magus greets them in gnomish, "Howdy there, fellas."

9:30 PM

SESSION 5 - CRACKENMORE

Still within the room w/ the crystal outcropping, the party talks through what they have just experienced, not sure if this is the same room or not.  Leif takes out his waterskin & pours a bit of noticeable water on the ground.  At the same time, Amadi holds the gnoll map up to the crystal while shining his lantern at it, but nothing happens.  The party files out into the corridor around 2:20 PM, & once again find themselves disoriented.  They could have sworn that they entered this room northward from an E-W passage, but now, as the door closes behind them, they find themselves standing @ the south end of a N-S passage w/ a slight dead end to the east.  Their immediate reaction, while once more consulting their map, is that the room must be turning.  They decide to wander a bit through the corridors, taking careful notes, trying to trace back to something recognizable on their map.  This proves to be more difficult than they first thought as things just seem too different the further they get...  Moving northward, they soon enter a corridor leading to a turn eastward.  As they enter this short corridor, Leif senses something off about the western wall of the corridor.  The party halts as he searches the wall further, ultimately locating a secret door, the ridges well hidden within the smooth, black rock.  The party notes the door on their map, but choose to continue on w/ the task @ hand:  getting back to something noticeable.

They cut eastward for a good 100' before it turns south.  They follow the corridor, ultimately turning west once more which wraps them around inwardly until they funnel into another E-W passage.  The passage dead ends to the west.  The party decides to examine the dead end & go about throroughly searching it.  They locate nothing.  As they get ready to move on, turning eastward, they  notice 2 Orcs, one w/ a morning star, the other w/ a club, headed their way.  Though the Orcs dont look necessarily hostile, once they see the party bracing for battle, they ready themselves as well.

First out of the gate is Djarel, as a sudden hate for his orcish side seems to be surfacing, despising the chaotic strain of his blood, he swings his hammer w/ wild abandon @ the Orc w/ the club, getting a solid hit in there, but for only 1 damage...  At the same moment, the other Orc plants his morning star w/ a nasty thud into Magus' chest, knocking him back for a brutal 6 damage, he's just hangin on, tries to swing his battle axe in reply but misses dreadfully.  Leif then skirts around for position & feeling he has the shot, flings off an arrow @ the Orc w/ club, but things dont go as planned, & the arrow actually comes close to both Magus & Djarel but hits the rock  & splinters out.  Amadi then runs @ the Orc w/ the morning star, swirling his staff in a cyclone motion, landing a killer blow to the orc's head; it crumbles dead...  Gnollan, seeming a bit confused, rushes to Amadi's side.  The remaining Orc then swings his club @ Djarel, but misses.  Leif then having moved a bit further over, looses off another arrow, but again, this one misses, crashing into the rock wall, breaking.  Djarel has now regained his steady hand, but his rage is apparent in his face as he once again focuses his hammer on Orc flesh, this time w/ a disgustingly righteous hit the hammer folds into the Orc's face, so that when he yanks it out, the Orc's face pulls off & stuff goes everywhere, it is nasty, but effective.  They search the bodies surprised to find quite a bit of gold among them (35 gp), as well as a yellowish liquid in a vial.  Leif, still down a number of hits from the gnoll battle the day previous, grabs for the vial, remembering Magus quick drain of the last.  He smells it, the soft scent of daffodil, & then sips it, feels invigorated, then nothing.  He then drinks half of the potion, which is indeed a potion of healing, & he gains back 3 (or was it 4?) HP.  Djarel then nears Magus & begins humming & saying words no one can understand, moving his hands around, he touches Magus & suddenly Magus feels a good bit healthier, gaining back 4 HP from the Cure Light Wounds spell.

Collecting their things, the party continues east down to corridor to a door they noticed when entering the passage.  Amadi kicks the door open & they file in.  What they find is an Implement Room of sorts, everything from large iron vises, ropes, chains, mallets, unfinished arrows, wooden pegs & hacksaws, the party glances about, taking it all in.  They discuss items they may wish the leave w/.  Magus wonders over to the SW corner of the room, searching a bit deeper, where he sees a shiny shield behind some long iron bars, leaning over, reaching for the shield, he pulls it up, & while lifting it, also unrevealed is the tentacled face of a Carrion Crawler that is hidden along the base of the room behind stacks of empty barrels...  Leif gets a jump just as the Carrion Crawler slithers up, rearing up from it's prone position & pokes it in its body w/ his knife for 1 damage...  But this does not keep the Carrion Crawler's 8 tentacles from swarming & slapping Magus' dwarf figure numerous times, though he drops the shield, he is frozen otherwise, paralyzed...  But then, it's...  Gnollan! swinging his sword, missing [I cant remember if it was Leif or Gnollan that first hit the CC.  Do yall remember?] & also Amadi, sliding up, brandishing his staff once again & planting it solidly into the back of the Carrion Crawler's "head" knocking it out, dead, w/ impressive damage.  Leif congratulates Gnollan in gnollish for his efforts.  The party inspects the shield closer, noticing its exquisite craftsmanship, & also, in Common, toward the bottom, an inscription that reads, "Kinchen Forever".  The party decides to rest a bit, & so they take a load off, inspecting the items in the room, packing some of them, while watching for any change in Magus' condition.  It is about an hour later, @ 4:30 PM, when Magus begins to slowly move once more, grumbling something in Dwarvish, not happy in the slightest...

SESSION 4 - CRACKENMORE

So the party acquaints themselves w/ their new party member, the charmed gnoll & Amadi christens him, Gnolan.  They spread out & search the room, but find nothing of interest except for the other features of the room: a dais on the north wall, & lots of tables, the ones in the south of the room mainly turned over, where the battle against the gnolls took place.  The party decides to rest in the north section of the room, far from the door, w/ discussion of staying the night so that in the morning, both Amadi & Djinnger can refresh their spell abilities.  Also, there is concern for Magus' & Leif's wounds.  Discussion brews regarding the murky potion vial they found on one of the dead gnolls & Leif decides to smell it.  It smells of roses.  Magus asks to see it & takes a small sip from the vial.  He feels invigorated for a moment, but it quickly wears off.  Next thing they know, he turns the vial up & drains it.  Magically, his wounds heal up & he feels full HP once more.  Leif seems a bit irritated that he downed the entire thing, but talk turns back to whether to stay the night or not.  Djinnger in the meantime has secluded himself to the NW corner to meditate on the the Great Tulip, Dawnbringer.  Amadi on the other hand is bothering Leif to teach him some gnollish so he can start ordering Gnolan around, but Leif on the other hand is busy studying the map they found on one of the gnolls.  Leif ignores Amadi & asks Gnolan what he can tell him about the map.  Gnolan, quite simply, tells Leif that they actually just found the map in this room.  Magus & Leif then brew over the map a bit, until it is decided they will stay the night here in Crackenmore & take their chances w/ whatever lurks in the night.  They spread out & nibble @ their rations in the north part of the room & then plan a nightwatch...  But they hear something @ the door, @ the SE corner of the room, & watch as an Orc busts through, carrying a shield & a morning star.  Immediately, Djinnger, in orcish, asks, "Who goes there?"  The orc stops mid-room, grunts & then says, "What are you doing here?"  Djinnger begins threatening the orc.  Finally taking in the entire party sitting around, the orc seems confused.  Djinnger continues his threats, telling the orc if he doesnt leave now, he is in for it.  The orc backs up a bit & darts for the door.  In an impressive chain of events, Leif suddenly has his bow @ hand & almost flicks off two arrows @ the orc.  The first misses, but the second is quite a blunder, his hand slipping & the arrow not even making it off the string.  The orc gets away unscathed.  Djinnger moves to the south part of the room & spends some time barricading the door w/ a few of the overturned tables.  The party goes into sleep mode & rotate watch.  First it's Magus, then Gnolan, then Amadi, then Djinnger, & lastly, Leif, who wakes the party @ 6 AM.  For the next hour, after slight rations, Djinnger prays to Dawnbringer for Cure Light Wounds while Amadi studies his spell book for Charm Person once more.  The party collects their belongings & moves back through the SE door & into the corridor.  It is around 7:30 AM.  As they are doing this, Djinnger informs the party that he will no longer go by the name Djinnger, a nickname he never liked.  He will now go by his real name, Djarel.

The next FOUR & ONE HALF hours prove to be quite frustrating for the party.  As they exit the room, go south, & then west, coming to a south door, Leif begins using the gnoll map, but what they are seeing doesnt seem to jive w/ what is on it.  They keep on west until they spiral a bit & come upon a door, they open the door, spike it & pass through to the west, & for the next few hours, find themselves passing this spiked door, either from the east or west side, passing back through it, until @ one point they come upon a dead end...  Amazingly, they encounter no wandering monsters during this entire time, or during the remainder of their current delve...  After the dead end, they try to back track but keep getting confused by the door & @ this point arent sure which map is correct: theirs or the gnoll map, or possibly both are wrong?  The party begins to question Amadi's judgement @ this point, as he had been the keeper of their own map.  They then decide to shift the duties to Djarel, who also frustrated ["I feel like I'm playing Zork.  I have no fuckin' idea what's goin on!"], decides to pass the door versus going through it.

This eventually finds them @ another closed door on the south wall.  Leif busts it open, they spike it, & then move west until it turns north & they find themselves traveling north for quite a bit, whether it's NW, NE, a curvature, etc, they keep north wrapping around to the NE & down until they come to more doors.  Amadi busts one open they pass through, to more corridor, so they pass back through the spiked door to a pair of ornately carved oaken doors on the north wall of the corridor.  Again, Amadi busts the door open & Djarel spikes the door.  They walk into a room.  The floor is covered w/ dust, but as they tread up some of the dust they can see that the floor is of shiny substance, polished red granite.  The stone is inlaid in large blocks & extends uniformly to within a foot of each of the walls.  In the very center of the room within the floor surface are blocks of white granite within the red stone, & these form the letters K & Z w/ an ampersand between...  There is a strange reddish glow to north wall of the room when the party enter, what Amadi finds to come from some fire beetles moving around within cases that are inset in the wall.  He cannot figure out how to open them.  From the rest of the items in the room: relaxing chairs, tables, books, etc. they can deduce that this was a Library.  The party searches the room, going through the books, & also through a rack of deteriorating scrolls on the east wall.  Leif comes away w/ a book about Cosmetics.  Amadi a book on Mathematics, as well as a scroll w/ magical writing from the rack.  Magus locates a book on Weapons & Tactics, written in his native language, dwarvish, & lastly, after some deep digging, Djarel locates a curious volume titled, the Cult of the Black Dog.

Next, the party moves back south through the doors & then to the west, through an already spiked door, further west & to the north.  Here, they enter a door after Magus busts it open.  It's a room about 20' x 30'.  They file inside & Amadi's lantern sparkles off of something in the NE corner of the room.  Inspecting it, they find an outcropping of crystalline rock.  They touch it, but nothing happens that they notice off hand.  Amadi then pulls out his scroll & holds it up to the sparkle, but nothing happens.  The party then files back out of the door, but when they come out, they are confused by what they see.  Instead of what they are expecting, they are now in corridor headed N w/ a short 10' bit to the east into a dead end.  Also, as they reorient themselves, it seems the door they just left is actually to their west.  They decide to head north & then to the west & south, wrapping around more to the south until they come to a door on the north wall.  Amadi kicks the door in & they enter.  As he gets into the room & his lantern illuminates it, & the rest of party files in, they notice a sparkling in the NE corner that seems eerily familiar, like deja vu, & sure enough, they find an outcropping of crystalline rock, just like the previous room, or is this the same room?

It is 2:20 PM

MAP FROM GNOLLS

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

SESSION 3 - CRACKENMORE

[I cant do this everytime, but since we were having a bit of mapping transition, here ya go]

The star is where ya'll are @.  ANYWAY, somewhat here's what happened previously:

The party, now w/ Djinnger, made a beeline for the cemetery in search of the statue of Dagwood Talbot where in a tangled convo @ the bar Magus had heard Crackenmore could be located, if lucky...  The party moved in, still early day, glancing around, they notice some fog has moved in, they pass Sloppy Jims' grave & move across to where Leif randomly scans D. Mineral's grave...  As there is nothing odd the party moves on, noticing a statue in the distance in front a grove of trees.  However, on their way, they notice a random grave that appears much like Sloppy Jims', a newish pile of dirt w/ older dates...  Magus takes a whiff of the dirt & concludes that it is not dirt normally found in these parts, like the other dirt, the amount of minerals is only reasonable in the southern part of Furthermoor...  B/c of this the party decides to dig below the pile where they locate a wooden crate holding another midget freak, this one wearing a habit & donning a necklace w/ a spiral/tempest charm around its neck.  Amadi grabs the necklace as the others decide to toss the box back & move on their way.  The statue is indeed Dagwood Talbot's & there is an inscription that reads, "My eyes are closed only for a little while" - he seems to have once held a lantern w/ his left hand but the lantern has long been broken off & w/ his right, he is gesturing outward, as if orating, as his mouth & face match, a leader in his best moments perhaps...  The party looks around but notices nothing & heads to the grove of trees...  On the way they pass the mausoleum of Gabriel Solar which they search only to inspect the interesting engravings on two sides, one of Gabriel doing carpentry w/ large finished constructions behind him, the other, him performing on a stringed instrument of some kind, a crowd appreciative & a circle dancing behind him...  The party spends some time searching the mausoleum but find nothing peculiar.  Next, they move into the woods to find dead trees & nothing particular, stepping back on the path, a lychgate around the plot across the way to the NW...  After some discussion, the party decides to return to the statue b/c of Magus' hazy lead recollection.

On returning to the statue of Dagwood Talbot, Amadi goes to lengths of resecuring the eyeball from his pouch after cutting it out, climbing a bit on the statue to poke the eyeball @ the statue.  Nothing happens.  Amadi retreats, nods, then returns the eyeball to his pouch where it slides back into the stitching.  In the meantime, Djinnger has been studying the left hand of Talbot's statue, where it appears a lantern may have once hung.  Djinnger notices a nice gap that goes through the hand & decides to place Kumiss, his Great, Great, Grandfather's War Hammer into the hole to see what happens.  The hand of the statue grips the war hammer & the party hears a scraping noise in back.  They walk to find a passage now open @ back of the statue leading down a stone staircase.

As they move from the staircase into the passage, the first thing they notice is a splash of healthy vegetation, abnormal since the cemetery, outside of that plant monster & a strain of particular vine throughout, seems to be dead...  Secondly, they notice the black rock that the corridor is cut into...  it smooths out into something quite impressive, something none of them have ever seen...  The party moves down the corridor & coming to a heavy, wooden door, move through it, as Magus realizes it has been hacked open previously, chips falling away where a lock used to be...  Passing another alcove station, the party comes to another & suddenly from the sides come magic mouths from the walls:  "Who dares enter this place & intrude upon the sanctuary of its inhabitants?" says the east mouth, then the west mouth, "Only a group of  foolhardy explorers doomed to certain death!", then both mouths together, "Woe to any who pass  this place - the wrath of Zimbo & Kinchen will be upon them!"  The mouth then erupt in mocking laughter & then fade from view w/ no trace as suddenly as they appeared.  A short set of stairs is before them, & a number of dead bodies are sprawled about:  4 humans & a dwarf - a little coinage is had searching the bodies (7 gp & a pouch of garlic buds), & Djinnger - after catching a Detect Evil spell & sensing something off - feels tghe pull of evil to the NW...  Also, Djinnger equips himself w/ a war hammer from the dead dwarf & returns Amadi's staff.  The party moves up the stairs & looks around...  Noticing paths north, east, west, doors to the NW & NE, direct east & west passages...

They go west & follow the passage south for some time, eventually landing on a thick, wooden door.  Again, Djinnger sensing evil, this time directly to the west of the party.  Once the door is knocked in, the party moves through & Djinnger decides to wedge it w/ a spike.  The party moves south a bit then turns west until coming upon another door they enter to north, rattling it, they then move east & north until they come to the door of a Meeting, or Situation Room, it would seem.  The party busts through the door & 4 Gnolls are waiting, crouching behind tables.  Somehow, either b/c of Djinnger, or Knolls confused, the gnolls stand w/o attacking...  Djinnger begins a conversation w/ them, speaking in orc, but while @ first it seems they understand, it becomes obvious they dont.  They spread a bit examining the party.  That's when Amadi starts humming & casting off his Charm spell toward the larger of the gnolls, to the far left.  The other three gnolls then attack in a frenzy, the party moves to the south part of the room to defend.  Battle ensues, & though Leif & Magus take considerable hits/damage, no one dies.  The charmed gnoll does not join in the battle, but looks on w/ confusion.  Afterward, the party searches the dead gnolls & first off, Amadi locates a map of some kind, rolled behind the belt of one... It is crumpled a bit, but the image intact...  The others, after a deep search locate a few items & some lose gold: a bone pendant in shape of cloisonne elongated dog for 9 cp + 2 sp, an armband of silver for 6 gp & a medal ring of substantial electrum for 18 gp, also, among the pockets 23 gp is collected & finally, a potion vial of some sort is found containing a brown liquid...The charmed gnoll still seems confused, seeing the others dead, but stays nearby Amadi.