======Eighty-fourth session - 15 September 2006 - Godstone======

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In attendance:

| Chris | [[Roderick]] | Cleric/18 |
| Dave  | [[Aramil]]   | Ranger/17, Horizon Walker/1 |
| Jim   | [[Bigby]]    | Wizard/15, Archmage/3 |
| Ken   | [[Vincent]]  | Rogue/13, Ranger/2, Wizard/3 |
| Kurt  | [[Pavo]]     | Dwarf Sorcerer/1, Fighter/10, Dwarven Defender/6 |
| THF   | [[Flint]]    | Svirfneblin Druid/15 |
| Val   | [[Kesi]]     | Monk/16 |

**//22 March 1109//**

With the cloying miasma of the nearby Drow temple clouding his consciousness,
[[Roderick]] convinces the party that spending the night here is a bad idea.  So,
they head a few hundred yards up the tunnel until they find a spot wide enough
to unroll their bedrolls.

While the spellcasters rest, [[Kesi]] stands guard while the "night" passes
uneventfully.  After the rest period, the spellcasters prepare their spells for
the "day" and ready to head out.  While preparing breakfast, a squad of Trolls
attacks - but as the tunnel is narrow, the party cannot bring all their attacks
to bear.  Nevertheless, they kill the first four - which causes the remaining
four to flee.  [[Vincent]] pursues briefly, but decides not to distance himself from
the party too much, and so lets them escape.

The group hurriedly finishes their morning routine and [[Roderick]] casts his Find
The Path spell so they can resume their travels.

Leaving the temple behind, the party heads down the tunnel from where the Trolls
came.  After about a half hour, they emerge through yet another illusory wall
into the bottom of a small chasm adjacent to a perpendicular tunnel, whose floor
is about at eye level.  They follow [[Roderick]]'s path up onto this new tunnel and
off to the left.

Within minutes, they spot a bridge ahead that is manned by Drow guards.  After a
brief debate on how they should cross the bridge, they decide to simply pay the
expected toll and not attempt any trouble-making.  However, as they reach the
bridge, [[Roderick]] realizes that the path veers to the right and drops into the
100-foot-deep chasm that the bridge spans.

Without knowing what the Drow guards will do with this kind of "non-standard"
crossing, they pay the toll and then [[Bigby]] uses his Greater Dimension Door to
teleport the party to the bottom of the chasm.  He continues these jumps for the
duration of his spell, pausing only briefly to get a bearing and verify that
[[Roderick]]'s path continues in the same direction each time.  In the end, this
serves three purposes quite effectively: They avoid pesky questions and
interference from the Drow guards, they slip past a large nest of Carrion
Crawlers, and they cover almost a mile of tunnel in less than a minute.

At the end of [[Bigby]]'s spell, the party finds themselves in a medium-sized
tunnel, having left the chasm behind a few jumps into the spell.  Back on foot,
they continue following [[Roderick]]'s path for another five miles until his spell
is finally exhausted.

Having not thought to memorize a second Find The Path spell, [[Roderick]] is forced
to resort to using a scroll (his only one for that spell).  However, since they
fear the trek may continue on for more than three hours, they decide to gamble
with higher-speed travel.  To this end, [[Roderick]] casts Wind Walk and pushes the
gaseous party down the tunnel at triple their normal walking speed.

As fate would have it, the party finds what turns out to be the end of the
tunnel after only two more miles.  Using his magical wind, [[Roderick]] pulls the
party back as soon as he realizes they have stumbled into a large cavern.
However, the party's loud wind and dramatic arrival alert a group of Ogres and
Trolls to their presence.  [[Roderick]] dismisses the spell, returning everybody to
solid form.  A fierce combat with the Ogres and Trolls ensues - which is soon
joined by a pair of Drow Captains, a Large Gauth, a trio of disintegrating
"Annihilators", and a spell-casting Beholder.

In the end, the party is victorious against the lesser creatures and manages to
drive the Beholder back into its lair and kill it.  The only creatures left
alive are the two Drow Captains who surrender immediately.

In addition, the party discovers that there is a major source of magic buried
behind 100 feet of rubble behind the Beholder's lair.  They assume that this is
the portal they are seeking.

XP awarded: 3,000 for [[Bigby]], [[Roderick]], [[Aramil]], [[Vincent]], and [[Flint]]; 4,000 for
[[Pavo]]; and 5,000 for [[Kesi]].