Fri Aug 5 18:09:47 EDT 2022 Me, Ed, Scott, Sebastian, Steven. Last time, we met two golem makers and a bunch of dwarf canon makers. We then entered a cave by a waterfall, where we fought a couple toad guys. So, we resume in "the grotto". To the north (and west?) is a cliff 14 ft high. There's also a stream that flows north, under the cliff (opposite the direction the frog guy fled). Zoozeki uses _mage hand_ to reach around in the filthy water toad holes. First pool: a heavy chest. Second pool: another chest and some bones, and unrusted chainmail and shield. The chests are too heavy for _mage hand_, so Zoozeki tries _unseen servant_ but they're still too heavy. He grabs the (magic!) chainmail and shield though. Smudge uses a grappling hook to recover the chests. Save vs. poison (CON). Smudge saves! Inside the chest 5,000 electrum pieces and a vial of liquid. Martin fills an empty vial with poison sludge. Martin (who's resistant to poison) opens the second chest. Inside the second chest: 10,000 gp and a scroll in a wax-sealed hollow bone. Zoozeki fishes out the bones, which are human. Zoozeki does _detect magic_. Sheild +1 from an ancient empire; boss inlaid with jade. Chainmail +2. Potion from abjuration school. Bone contain a scroll from abjuration school. [Idea for M-U sub-class: slime mold wizard.] Smudge's own scouts the cliff tops. To the west is apparently nothing. To the north Smudge climbs the west cliff and doesn't find anything. He lowers a rope, and we all go up. We jump over to the north ledge. Down a passage north. The passage forks to the north and west. In both directions, the level drops off a cliff to water. To the west, we hear some bugbears complaining about "blood suckers". Eight bugbears. Zoozeki casts _enlarge_ on Kristabell. Xenon casts _haste_ on Kristabell. A giant spider wanders in. Martin casts _silence_ on the area. Kristabell attacks the spider with Rayhalt, and hits it twice for 40 damage. Back to the bugbears. We sneak up near them, Martin drops _silence_, Zoozeki _conjures_ a fire elemental in the middle of their card table, and Xenon _fireballs_ them. Only two bugbears survive. Kristabell charges. Both living bugbears pass a morale check. They both throw their hand axes at Kristabell. One ax hits. Zoozeki has the bugbear throw the two bugbears at Kristabelle. Kristabell calls her shot, Babe Ruth style. Kristabell cleaves both bugbears in half! Bugbear women and children cower in an adjacent cave. [sigh] Xenon reanimates three of the bugbears as zombies. A chest has a 3,000 silver pieces. Four goblins run out of another adjacent cave. We killed two of them, and let the rest get away. Enough with goblins. We decide to leave this cave, and check out other more interesting parts of the mountains. We retrieve our flying boat, and go poke around the outside waterfall. We take a long rest. We identify the potion as Fire Resistance. We identify the scroll as Protection from Magic. We find an eight-foot stela behind the waterfall. Zoozeki takes a rubbing of the markings on the stela. Xenon examines the stela, and determines it contains a spell higher than he can cast. He tries to learn it anyhow. He succeeds in learning _Mind Transference_. When Smudge approaches the stela, he hears this in his brain: > Ape man king > will sail across the stars > and fight a woman > and dies and is reborn > and returns to eradicate the yeti > and that's why the Yeti must eradicate the ape men. Zoozeki licks the stela, but nothing happens.