We are now deep into Wave Echo Cave

The walls of the cave are carved with scenes of elves, dwarves and humans all working together.

When we first entered, it didn't take long before we ran into the body of Gundrun's brother, Tharden Rockseaker. We stopped the body from decaying and - this might be difficult for you if you aren't familiar with magic - stuffed him into a Bag of Holding so Gundrun might be able to resuscitate him later. Tyaa took his belt of Dwarvenkind in order to use it in the coming battles.

The very first hall we walked down opened into a cavern. We disturbed a bunch of Stirges on the ceiling. Easy kills.

Monster Note: Stirge. Large half insect/half bat creatures. Swarmed around living things. Could see in the dark. Sucked blood.

We found a room Istrid could hole up in to rest. We had to clean it out of skeletons, not to mention the ooze in the hallway.

Monster Note: Have I mentioned skeletons before? We've run across them many times. They see in the dark, can't be poisoned, and one good solid hit can take them down.

Monster Note: Ochre Jelly Ooze. One of us remembered the name from our research. Could see in the dark. Fairly tough, It attacked with acid. It didn't take our crew too long to dispatch of it.

So, with Istrid safely (?) tucked away, we quickly moved on. We wanted to get to Ran and Gundrun as soon as possible. Trella argued we were moving too fast - we were leaving rooms unopened behind us - turns out she was right, we should have listened. If you see on the map, there is a large open cavern in the middle. We ran into more monsters here and creatures from those rooms ambushed us from behind.

Monster Note: Grey, ugly undead with claws. Ghasts. Their stench is so bad, it poisons you. And when wounded with their claws, you can become paralyzed. Poisoning them doesn't work.

Monster Note: Ghouls so strong they seemed made of Iron. These carried swords, and had on armour. Their bite sometimes caused paralysis.

There is something strange about the undead in this mine. They appear to be more intelligent than others we have encountered. They're silent and sneak around to get a better angle of attack. Anyway, after that fight we were exhausted and went back to Istrid's room to rest awhile before pushing further into the mine.

After a knock on the door, Trella, in her mind, sees three people standing in the hall. They tell her they want to treat with us on behalf of Mormosk. Apparently, Mormosk 'controls Wave Echo Cave'. When we opened the door, there was a blob in the hallway.

Monster Note: I know this one! An Ooze Master. They control other oozes. They are acidic. Resistant to acid, poison, cold. They have, obviously, mental/psychic type abilities. See below for more.

Well, we didn't make any kind of deal and attacked. It spat out other oozes and when cut with a blade the ooze divided into two! We eventually killed it. We made our way to the far back corner of the mine where Ran and Gundrun are held.

This is where it got hairy.

Bug bears broke out of a room and attacked us. More Iron Ghouls showed up. Three Drow attacked us. Then a giant black spider showed up. Turns out the spider was Neznar. While we're fighting for our lives, the Claw shows himself. I didn't contribute much to this fight. When the Claw grabbed myself and Winter I passed out. Istrid woke me, I'm pretty sure I imagined a giant elk in the room, then the spider attacked and I passed out again.

To make this story short, we killed Neznar. We trapped the Claw and after many hits, Skylar brought down the Mace and destroyed him. He won't be back. Good riddance!

And we have saved Ran and Gundrun!!! Ran looks exhausted, but walking.

I'm writing this as we sit in a magic Tiny Hut I have made inside one of the rooms. We have collapsed about 40 feet of tunnel at the entrance to this mine. Hopefully, this will slow down the reinforcements.

Items Found: Neznar had 2 rings and a cloak on him when he died.

. . . . Sorry, I thought I was done, but something is knocking on the door - what now?

It was zombies. We killed them. Time to go back to sleep.

It's morning now - we think - and we are about to head over to the room on the eastern side of the cave we're pretty sure holds the Spell Forge. Wish us luck.