A summary of what happened during the game sessions:

September 28, 2001 - Session 16

The group awoke, refreshed from their slumber in comfortable beds or on an only slightly-less comfortable floor, with bedding scrounged from the other rooms. After some discussion, it was decided to make the attempt to go down the hole where the others had obviously gone. The problem was in how to get down. While Sana could fly due to her wings, the others would need to use rope or have spells cast upon them to slow their descent. Ezhno definitely needed a spell, as he was too heavy to support himself using ropes.

It was decided that everyone save Sana and Ezhno would climb out on ropes, secured but only left hanging about halfway down into the cavern, and then let go of the ropes, at which time Sana would cast Featherfall upon them, and they would be able to land safely. Once they were down, Ezhno would maneuver himself out the hole and also begin to fall, then Sana would cast another Featherfall spell on him, then get back into her armor (which can hinder her spellcasting), and fly herself down with the others. Hildegaarde simply shifted herself back into her eagle form, and flew down at her own pace.

Fortunately, all went well, and in short order, the group was down at the bottom with no incident, without even being attacked. Sana made a lighted item for anyone who wanted one. A brief search around the landing area discovered no tracks, and ranging slightly farther out produced a few chips in the stone on the ground.

Jon let Ezhno choose the4 direction to head, and he chose to head upriver, along the bank. After going a good distance forward, neither he nor Winter, who was in the lead with him as he had the best vision of anyone in the group, had spotted any sign of the bugbears, the gnome, or any of the reported others Gleam had mentioned. Jack and Margaret caught sight of some charred firewood a slight distance away from the path, but it was not recent, not being warm. The path was trecherous and the going was slow, but they continued on.

The group continued to the edge of the wall, where sunlight came in through some openings in the ceiling, and shone down on the floor. Jack noticed that it seemed to almost be some sort of pattern, a glyph of some kind, perhaps. But the sun wasn't in the right position. Hildegaarde circled until she gained enough momentum to fly straight up the largest opening, and then shot up and vanished from sight.

While the others were searching the walls and floors and investigating the lights, Ezhno decided to figure out how deep the water was here. It was flowing rather quickly and came in from the side of the mountain with very little clearance, so he got a large, heavy rock and tied a rope to it, then tossed it in to determine the depth. It was about 15 feet deep, he determined, and did in fact have a fast current.

While waiting for Hildegaarde to return, Jon asked Sana to cast light on an arrow and send it to the far side of the river, which was about 70 feet wide. She did so, and the light illuminated an area on the other side of the river, but no creatures or enemies waiting for them, nor any obvious exits.

Hildegaarde returned then, and shifted back into herself. She had Olivio with her, the owl companion she had earlier. She said she saw no signs of the bugbears, but did see an exit on the far side, just beyond the reach of Sana's lighted arrow. Rather than exit immediately, the group decided to search the cavern more completely. Some further discussion on the nature of the glyph that might appear if the sun was in the right position, but since they had no idea what was the right time of year, or the right glyph, it was determined that it would not be time well spent.

They continued along the wall of the cavern until they hit the wall, and then proceeded back toward the house. They made it all the way to the far wall without incident, finding themselves just under the house. It was then that Jon stumbled slightly, the rock beneath him slipping, and he put out a hand to the wall to steady himself. The wall felt odd, or rather, the space and the area around it felt ... wrong. He moved over to the wall and began to walk up it. Gravity shifted on the wall, to where the wall was "down". Which explained the waterfall's change of direction uphill...it was simply moving in the normal direction for gravity there.

The group spent some time exploring this new phenomenon, and in the process found some chips in the stone, that upon investigation, appeared to have been made by someone attempting to put grappling hook up on the wall, and it not quite "sticking" to the wall with the change in gravity.

Well, with half of the cavern explored, and the other half on the other side of the river, the problem arose of how to get across the water. Margaret said that she had a spell that could lower the water in a portion of the river, allowing them to cross. It would still be about a foot deep, but it would be navigable for a short period of time. They decided to cross at the waterfall, with Sana flying across to meet them. Ezhno conducted an experiment to see if Sana, a few feet away from him, would reach out and touch his hand as he was on the wall, and he would see if there was any change in the gravity. They touched, and there was no difference. Fortunately for Ezhno, as he realized he was still rather high off the normal ground, and could have had a nasty fall if his gravity had changed to orient to Sana's.

Not wanting to waste a lot of time on this side, the group spread out along this side of the cavern and walked toward the other end, searching and looking as they went. They made it to the other end of the cavern, with the only thing found being the remnants of a campfire. It looked as if the others had camped over here, and perhaps thrown some of their firewood to the other side of the river, as this was across from where Jack and Margaret had found the charred pieces of wood.

They reached the end, and the exit that Hildegaarde said was there. Jon asked Jack and Rylan to go scout out the tunnel and the area around it. They scouted carefully to the end of the tunnel, where Hildegaarde was waiting. It took her a moment to see them, but she finally did catch sight of them and told them what she had seen. There was no sign of tracks or movement nearby, but she did find some tracks further down the mountainside, where a valley spread out for a good distance to the south. Jack asked Hildegaarde to go in and get the others, while he and Rylan checked out around the outside.

Hildegaarde went back to the others and lead them out. Jack and Rylan found no signs of their quarry. Once they were all together, discussion on the next course of action ensued, along with an attempt to figure out how and where their quarry went. Hildegaarde mentioned flying, which then prompted a call of action to bring the horses, left on the other side of the mountain, to this side so that they could pursue the trail. Sana flew up a goodly distance with her spyglass, and found, well at the edge of her sight, a columned opening into the mountains on the west.

More discussion ensued, whether or not this was their task, or if it was worth continuing, and eventually it was decided to keep going. Rylan would fly with Sana over the mountains and, with Hildegaarde to talk to the horses to explain what was going to happen, Rylan would cast fly on them and bring them over the mountains. He didn't have enough spells memorized to do it in one shot, as ather were too many horses, but he could do it in two stages. The others would continue down toward the valley, or at least a nearby goat track, and make as much distance as they could while the horses were being retrieved.

Rylan, Sana, and Hildegaarde set off over the mountains, and the others headed to find a trail, and a place to camp.

No quote of the evening was recorded.