Here is the third edition of the D&D Game Summary.
Please refer to the first edition for character backgrounds and geography,
and to the second edition for their further exploits.


Summary of "NorCal Campaign" Part 3
-----------------------------------

This adventure has the mini-adventure "Guardians of the Tomb" which 
appeared in Dungeon Magazine issue #1 embedded in it.


ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #9--04/09/93

A New Partner: (Aug 4, 696)
    During training, Harvey went off and spent his money to buy himself
into a provisioner's shop.
    After training, the group was spending time in the tavern room of the
inn they were staying at.  While drinking and talking, a group of dwarves
came in to drink as well.  They were young (~50 yrs) and boisterous.  While
Rhodan was drinking and ignoring the dwarves, Spike went to talk to them.
    Amongst the talk they heard rumors of a reward offer in the town of
Mountain Lake in the Warka province.  The reward is being offered to a person
or group of persons that would go into a newly discovered cavern and get
rid of the dangerous creatures living there.  By plying the rumor mill, they
also found out that although a group of strong dwarves went in, only one
came out alive, and he was holding a gemstone the size of a fist!
    As talk quieted down, the dwarf Gloin approached Spike and asked if he
could accompany the group to Mountain Lake... since that was where they were
going, wasn't it?  Also, Gloin was interested in adventure with them and
learning some combat skills with Spike.  Spike tenetively offered Gloin
a place in the group.

Presto: (Aug 5, 696)
    Rhodan woke up with a serious hangover and Galen shouting up a storm in
his room.  After going to the water closet to... uh... relieve himself, he
came back to find someone in the room.  He mistakenly figured it was not
his room, and so he barged into the next room down.  This woke Melody from
her sleep (since it was her room that Rhodan barged into).  She let him go
but added a new verse to the Goblin Feet song about the drunken escapade.
    Spike took Gloin out to purchase an axe to learn to fight with, and also
to gain some information about the Mountain Lake thing.  The rumor was
confirmed by a grain merchant who just came from Untala.
    After lunch, the group as a whole met and ventured to the temple of
Hastenzi.  There, Furnes offered some wine to the god.  Next, Spike did a
similar ceremony and offered his gift... which caused a bright flash and
contained explosion of flame on the alter!
    This surprised most of the clerics there, and many of them tried to
approach Spike to find out what he did, but Furnes warned them off saying
"he's mine."  They all wanted to know what it was that Spike did...
Apparently it is a secret of the high priests as to how they generate that
kind of flash and all the lower clerics wanted to get the info for themselves!
[ Note: The dust was magnesium, a rare element that Spike learned about as
  a dwarf and a metalworker, but which is not widely known people ]

Initiation, the Second: (Aug 5, 696)
    Later that day, they led Gloin out of town for the initiation ceremony.
Before the ceremony they decided to test out Gloin's skills.  He seemed
okay with a sword, but Rhodan was able to get him good several times.  (These
were play-swords, by-the-way.)  Then he tried fighting Galen who cast a
sleep spell on the dwarf.  Gloin was very unhappy with this.  Also, they
found out that all of his previous experience amounted to killing one goblin
in a skirmish 3 months back.
    The initiation was much like the one done for Harvey.  A pit of burned
down, but still flaming, wood was there and Gloin was enjoined to run across
the pit barefooted.  Melody played the ominous music, but Furnes forgot to
douse Gloin in oil this time.  It was kind-of anti-climactic when Gloin
(after having protection from fire cast on him) just ran across the fire.

Don't Tell Me They Stopped the Cart: (Aug 6, 696)
    The next day, they got their cart ready and made for Untala.  The first
three days of the trip were uneventful.  Late in the fourth day they came
across a body sprawled in the middle of the road.  They stopped the cart
and began to scan the woodlands for enemies.  Spike got out to check the body.
    Suddenly, a flash of magic missles came out of the woods and struck down
Galen.  Shortly thereafter, bowmen opened fire from the woods, and the man
in the middle of the road began to get up.
    Several people hopped out of the cart to do combat.  Spike hopped back
in and tried to drive the horses forward and out of the ambush.  Unfortunately,
this did not work very well and he stopped the horses again.  Melody did
well, casting two sleep spells, putting down 6 bandits before a sleep spell
from the oponent mage caught her.  Furnes managed to silence spell the mage
who then fled into the woods, and he used a produce flame spell to kill a
number of the bandits.  The lead bandit was extremely tough.  Furnes used
a heat metal on him which eventually did him in, but along the way the leader
managed to nearly kill both Spike and Rhodan (the two big hit point players!).
Gloin was knocked down early as missed much of the fight.  Rhodan also managed
to cut Furnes up pretty bad in a fumbled attack.

The Hunt: (Aug 9, 696)
    When things calmed down, they decided to hunt the mage.  Rhodan, Spike and
Galen went off into the woods while the others stayed behind to heal and
clean up the bodies.
    They found the bandit camp not far away and did only a cursory seach of it.
They remembered at one point that they were fighting a mage and split up
so that a single sleep spell would not take them out.  Rhodan found the tracks
of the mage leaving the camp to the north, so they followed.  Along the way,
they passed a water-filled depression with a stone building in the middle,
but they ignored it in order to continue their pursuit.
    They knew they had found the mage when a blast of magic missles took out
the group leader, Rhodan.  Galen immediately counter-striked with a sleep
spell, and Spike ran forward to tie the mage up.  They brought the mage back
to camp as a prisoner.  He would not answer questions and was rude, so
Galen killed him and they left his body to rot.
    The next day they went into Untala.

Training: (Aug 10, 696)
    They spent a few days in town learning about Untala.  They also discovered
that the leader's sword was a +2 longsword and it was given to Rhodan.
    Then, Rhodan began training for 3rd level, and Galen trained for 2nd.
    They were too low on cash to train any of the other party members.

ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #10--04/23/93

Getting There is Half the Fun: (Sept 7, 696)
    First thing, Spike sent a letter to Harvey telling him that they had
left town and that they could be reached by sending a message to Barrington.
He was welcome to rejoin them if he wanted.  Spike also sent a letter to his
family to show off his new writing skills in Common.
    Instead of continuing on toward Mountain Lake, the group decided to
re-equip themselves and go back to the strange square building.  They spent
much of a day on the road, hid their cart, and harnessed the horses at the
bandit camp.  They were very careful because Rhodan found a LOT of tracks
around the camp, even though Furnes noted that no fires or signs of living
in the camp were present.
    They then went over to the depression.  It was roughly circular and filled
with water.  In the center (100' from the edge) was a 50' square building
with 4 entrances (one in each wall).
    Melody and Studly made to cross the lake via a boat they purchased in
Untala, but along the way the boat was ripped open by weeds in the lake.
They barely made it across and suffered only minor damage before the boat
sank.  
    They found that the building appeared to contain only one room with
some huge thing in the center of it.  Also, Studly climbed on the roof (30' up)
and found four barred up gratings in the ceiling.

Slip Sliding Away: (Sept 7, 696)
    Since the boat was lost, they looked for another way across.  Rhodan
discovered a set of stones crossing the lake set about 6 inches below the
surface of the water.  He set out to cross the lake and about half-way
across he fell in.  The weeds in the lake were razor sharp and did a lot
of damage to him as he struggled under the water with heavy armor.  Finally,
he stood up and discovered the water only 5' deep.  It took a bit more
struggling and damage before he made it to shore.
    After seeing this, the others strung a rope across the lake as a guideline
and the rest of the party came across without incident.

Don't Touch That: (Sept 7, 696)
    Inside, they found a pair of back-to-back statues 20' tall in the center
of the room.  They determined that this was probably a shrine or a tomb
rather than a temple.  The statue had writing on the base indicating this
was the tomb of Kholom the Swift and threatening them not to steal anything.
It was particularly threatening about the night, so they decided to sleep
the night outside and try things in the morning.  The night was uneventful,
and they began again in the morning.
    After some searching, they found a secret trigger in the text itself.
When pressed, a panel fell open to reveal a stone coffin under the statues.
Rhodan and Spike opened the coffin to find a single body in black robes.
Furnes detected no evil and Galen detected magic only in the walls of the
building and in the strange eyes of the statues that seem to follow you
if you look at them.  So, they eventually just closed up the secret 
compartment.
    Galen also discovered that something magical was in each of the palms
of the two statues.  Studly climbed up to find 4 statuettes (Blue, Green, Red
and Orange).  Furnes, Gloin and Rhodan went outside at this point.  Then,
Studly grabbed the blue statuette.  When he did, the four doorways 
disappeared... they were filled with rock!

Finding a Way Out: (Sept 8, 696)
    Inside, Studly collected the other three statuettes and the four statue
eyes.
    Outside, Rhodan made many attempts to climb the 30' tall walls of the
building and finally succeeded.  He then helped Gloin and Furnes up.
After failed attempts to bend the bars and to hit the bars while they were
under the effects of a heat metal, they finally tried having Rhodan be
protected from fire and bend the bars while they were under the affects of
a heat metal.  This worked and the rest of the party climbed out.
    They left the guide rope in place across the lake, and they used this to
go back across.
    They collected the horses and cart and made their way back to Untala.

On the Road: (Sept 9, 696)
    They left Untala the next day for Foxboro.  The trip was 9 days.
    When they got there, Melody studied the statuettes and found out the were
glassteel and worth quite a bit.  Studly sold them on the market and they 
used the money to train Studly to 4th, Melody to 4th and Furnes to 4th.  Also,
Rhodan took the time to earn weapon specialization in long sword.
   
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES (May 93)

    Their next obvious route is to head north and through Barrington to
the town of Mountain Lake.
    Next two gaming sessions are May 7 and May 14.