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Dear Journal, after attacking a giant troll with our blood thirsty Druid-Ape-like thing, we found 2 gold in the troll nest. Which I find to be sad, but I don’t want any so called karma coming around, so I guess it’s OK. We walked through the city for a while, seeing a small amount of any life, and finally we found an old building. Looked nice I guess, pretty marble columns, some looking slits in the wall, and a weird statue up top. We found it was a treasury, and we couldn’t get in because there was Abjuration magic covering the door. Gorag decided to go and climb the wall. He said that the statue had a sword that was stuck into the roof. And after thinking for a few minutes we figured out that the treasury is dedicated to the god Abadar. Abadar is the wealth god. I then ventured into the treasury in gaseous form. I found that a seal was covering the door. The seal was glowing, and had a symbol on it that represents Abadar. I looked behind the desks and noticed that coins were still perfectly stacked in their boxes. And that everything seemed to be kept in order from when it was last used. I left the building, and told the team what I had found.
We figured that the statues were animated. And that we probably shouldn’t touch anything. We forged on until it became too hot to continue. We hid in a nearby building. A few dragonflies came and left, a thunderstorm came along after the dragonflies left, then the sun came back and we continued onward with our journey. We then found a ziggurat.
We walked up the ziggurat to find paintings of merchants. And that the south-west corner of the building was broken. Mauser went to check why it was broken; there was a smell of bat guano coming from the broken area. We discovered that if we do a ritual of providing money and energy to the god Abadar, we will be able to enter the ziggurat. Mauser finished the ritual. But when he was done, light shot of a pillar, and knocked Mauser backwards. He was drained of all of his positive energy, and had lost seven hit points.
Then a giant bat flew out of the south-west end of the ziggurat. We attack the bat, but it picked up Kolgrim. Mauser jumped onto its back to help Kolgrim. Kolgrim was drained of over thirty hit points. But luckily, after smashing it against a few buildings, Kolgrim solo killed the giant bat. We found a +2 heavy shield, two potions of cure moderate wounds, a blue ion stone ring of fall, a rope of climb, and an ion stone of +2 strength. We continued on to a lighthouse. It has a lot of dead weeds surrounding it, and Mauser thought that this was all bad Ju-Ju. We are attacked by a bunch of little lizards. It didn’t take us long to kill them all off. But when we jumped over the stream to the lighthouse, we were attacked by four shadows. I immediately jumped back to the other side. Every one eventually jumped back across one after another. Gorag just made it about three inches into the water when he tried to get back across the water. He ran the rest of the way. We then ran back to the pathfinder’s campsite, and we told them everything that had happened.
We slept through the night until these mean monkeys decided to test their flaming poo on us. We ran them off and went back to bed. The next morning, we decided to go back to the lighthouse. We killed the shadows, and then found a sun blade in the lighthouse.

After fighting the gorilla, we head towards the entrance into Savanth Yhi. As we get closer, we notice a path near the river going southeast that is very well maintained. We came to a conclusion that the vines don’t naturally seem to grow into the path. The buildings a far distance away closer to the city seemed to be maintain, as if someone has recently been there.

Just off the path, I notice 3 small pools of water all next to each other, so we go decide to investigate them. We think that they are manmade since they look deep and clear; a good source of backup water for the city. After a little while, a man appears in the middle of the three pools. There are bugs crawling in and out of all the holes in his body. He yells “it’s mine” continuously. From his looks and attire, we can identify him as one of the Pathfinders. After we fight him and he disappears, we find a camp north of the water.

After exploring it, we find that the man’s name was Nareem Dares, and he looked for Savanth Yhi two hundred years ago with the other people from the Alithorpe association (Pathfinders). His journals says that he and a couple others fled from the rest of the group while in the jungle because he is evil and corrupted. He explains that there are 7 regions in Savanth Yhi. Each has one ziggurat, and it’s own way of life and leaders. He says that he saw each of the pillars on the 7 ziggurats glowing at different times.

After a little while, in the afternoon, we actually go in to the city. We go into some buildings, but skip the less important. As night reaches, we spend the night at an old but sturdy and clean armory. We call the rest of our Pathfinder group to come and stay in the armory while we investigate the city. All throughout the city there are kesh, and they seem to be fallowing us and hiding, yet not bothering us.

At dawn, we wake up to someone knocking at the door. Outside, dozens of kesh are very close to us. As they see us look at them, they calmly scamper off in different directions. We decide to move on and start the day. We come to a large tower, about 50 feet in height. The door has ruins and engravings all over it, and we think that the tower once belonged to a wizard. We think it is best not to go into the door, so Gorag climbs up to the second floor. He sees a giant mosquito in the simple room. On the next floor, he sees a swarm of mosquitoes in a room with a table with vials and an open book on it. The rest of us decide to join Gorag and go in.

Inside, Mauser blesses us and we take out the mosquito (with a stinger bigger than VV!!) and swarm. On the third floor, we find 4 scrolls: Alarm, Magic Mouth, Hold Portal, and Tongues. We also find 2 potions: Gashus Form and Invisibility, along with a book that we can study to learn a potion for free.

After leaving the tower, we get a message from the Pathfinders that they all arrived safely at the armory. We head to see more buildings. Across the river, there are many kesh jumping along the rooftops. From inside a building, we hear mumbling, and discover that it was a huge hideous monster. I turn into a giant ape. Together, we make it die.

While I am still a giant ape, I go across the river and taunt the kesh. We try to shoot at them and eventually kill 7 out of 13 of them. In their defense, they throw sticky stuff at me then light me on fire! After this goes on awhile, the rest of them scamper off and I turn back to human.

It's time to see if we can find the Pathfinder group, but we decide to check out the statues in the courtyard before leaving Tazion. This will force us to go past the wasps again, so we try to go by without disturbing them. When we get into the room, we can see the 4 statues without faces floating along the south wall. Where the face should be there is just a blue light coming from them. The 2 statues in the north of the room are on the ground, with no light coming from them. Without the light effect, we can see that the faces are smooth. This seems to be what the statues are like when no longer functioning. Flix spends some time studying one of them and as he does, the light gets brighter. He shakes his head to clear it a moment later and says he felt something trying to penetrate his mind and saw an image in his head. The same happens when Mauser tries. Despite Mauser saying he thinks it is a bad idea to concentrate on them, Gorag is determined to find out what they do and concentrates on the 3rd statue while deliberately lowering his guard. He seems to be mesmerized until I block his view and then he tries to hit me! Fortunately, he is moving more slowly then usual and can't lay and hand on me, so I didn't have to kick his butt. After a few seconds, keeping him from seeing the statue is enough for him to be free of its influence.

We decide to leave the building by climbing over the back wall out of the courtyard so that we don't have to tempt the wasps once again. We decide to leave the city through the break in the north wall, but that requires sneaking past 3 Charau-Ka guards. Everything is going alright until Flix kicks some stones while moving through the gap and they hear him. Mauser or I probably would have been heard too, but we quickly dispatch them. Unfortunately, an alarm was raised and we have to dash into the jungle with 15 of the creatures chasing us. We manage to get clear of them and find a spot to camp for the night and hear from the Pathfinder group via the Wayfinder. They believe they are about 3 days from Tazion. We need to intercept them before they get too close and further disturb the Charua-Ka.

The next day, we move back toward the edge of the forest. Mauser uses a Sending spell to Amivor to help guide the Pathfinder group to meet us and they make the forest edge by nightfall. When they arrive, the group consists of 4 agents (spell casters), 9 guards, 6 guides, 8 sherpas, and pack mules. They started with 40 and are down to 29 due to disease, desertion, and a few encounters with wild beasts. They think the Aspis Consortium had a 3 day lead on them and the Red Mantis had perhaps a week. Leading us all to wonder if anyone has been spying on us when we were in the map room.

With this many of us we leave an obvious trail, but Skyra tries to obscure our path with plant growth spells occasionally anyway. We need about 4 full days to get to the city, taking one full day to get back in position near Tazion. The trip is mostly uneventful except for some very aggressive dragonflies. We end up entering Saventh-Yhi from the northwest - it is situated in a hidden valley, which we find by following the river to a waterfall. Getting all of our gear down the waterfall is going to be the challenge. Nkechi finds a switchback path that the expedition group can take and Amivor begins arranging to get them down and to set up camp in the valley near the waterfall. We leave them to it and climb down to start scouting the city.

As we move toward the city, we come to a path that gives the choice of a rickety rope bridge or slippery looking planks spanning the rapidly flowing water. The planks are connected by a series of boulders. We also notice large birds of some kind circling above the city. There seems to be something in the water near the planks as well - at least 2 huge crocodiles. That decides it for us and we start trying to cross the rickety rope bridge. During the crossing, Mauser slips from the bridge and slams into the wall, but fortunately doesn't fall into the water below.

Apparently, VV and Flix don't grasp the concept of climbing very well. Both cross carrying a rope and then throw it back instead of securing it to help the rest of us! One time would have been bad enough, but neither of them must have been paying attention. Once we clear it up and get the rope secure, the crossing is mostly worry-free. We don't get far before one of the large 4-armed apes called a girallon steps from the jungle and sees us. The territorial beast leaps the river to attack, but Flix delivers a good Scorching Ray to it before it reaches us. Gorag decides to push it back into the river, I suppose he hoped it would lose it's footing and it works! The fast moving water carries it into the stream and VV shots it in the eye with her crossbow, finishing it.

Saventh-Yi seems to be divided into about seven districts. We can make out ziggurats near the center of each of them, topped with spires reaching toward the sky. We decide to begin in the northwestern district just to the south of where we enter the city. The serpent people from our visions weigh heavily on our minds as we get closer to structures.

After defeating the Basidirond, we all climb the ruined stairs to the next level. VV quickly notices lizard like footprints in the dust of the ziggurat. She motions for all to stop and scouts ahead. I follow to provide back up if necessary. Passing a door to the central chamber we take a peek inside. The room is circular with 4 pillars spaced about in an odd pattern. Our first thought is this must be part of the “map” to Saventh Yhi. VV also notices an argument in the next room over, and catches a glimpse of someone who looks reptilian. We move ahead and notice a small courtyard behind the ziggurat we never saw on the way in. It has a marble floor inlayed with jade and turquoise stones. There are also four statues along the wall that appear to be floating! We will have to check that out before we leave. On the far side of the central chamber we find 4 more Charau-Ka resting and apparently examining the ground. Our best guess is they are trying to stay out of sight out of mind to whoever is arguing in the next room. Before regrouping I take a look up on the third floor. Aside from the obvious, the ceiling and most of the walls are missing or broken, there is nothing much going on up here.

We rejoin the party waiting at the stairs to come up with a plan of attack. Our best bet would be to ambush whoever is arguing near the map room. Their location and demeanor suggest that they are in charge here. The trouble is how can we get in position for an ambush when the majority of the party cannot sneak very well? Mauser suggests a silence spell! How long has he had that spell while VV and I have been going off alone to scout? Kolgrim suggest Mauser center the spell on him and everyone else can just stick close.

Once cast Kolgrim rushes forward and kicks in the door! With the door gone I rush past and grapple the snake person in the hopes that the others can take out the woman he was arguing with without me. As the rest of the party fills in the room we find the silence spell has a second advantage. Both of the victims of our ambush try to cast spells in response, but fail without the verbal components! However, we also realize the “woman” Kolgrim has decided to try to grapple is also a demonic succubus. I continue to pummel the serpent folk but it is apparent that this demon is too hard to hit. Flix, Mauser, Skyra, and VV all join me in beating the lizard folk senseless while Kolgrim and Nkechi fend off the succubus. Once the serpent goes down we all focus our attention on her. I try my best to create openings in her defense by tripping her and stunning her with every attack. It takes a while but we eventually defeat her.

They were carrying:
Ring of Protection +1
Amulet of Natural Armor +1
Bracers of Armor +1
Dagger +1
Wand of Web w/20 charges
Spell book: Burning Hands, Magic Missle, Shield, Cat’s Grace, Flaming Sphere, Hideous Laughter, Scorching Ray, Spider Climb, Hold Person, Lighting Bolt, Resist Energy.
3 bright rubies

Mauser detects that the 3 rubies have strong divination magic auras. We guess that these are part of the “map” to Saventh-Yhi as well. VV also finds a small alcove at the back of the room where the plaster is peeling from the wall. After a quick inspection she finds that there is a sword embedded in the wall. We remove and appraised it only to find it is a Shatter Spike! That should fetch a high price.

In the central chamber we find the floor to be a large grid and the ceiling is crystalline. Each of the four pillars has 3 holes set in the sides. Mauser tests the size of one of the rubies against one of the holes and it immediately sticks to it and will not come out. Lets hope that was the right placement! We assume that there is at least one ruby per pillar which means we are missing one. We all decide that we should probably fight off the remaining Charau-Ka before searching the ruins for the last ruby.

Skyra wants to use her new wand of Web for this fight. Seems like as good a plan as any… We set up, she sticks them all to the floor, and we mop them up without much of a fight. No ruby though. We head up to the third floor to take a closer look around.

There are a few more Charau-Ka here and having been lulled into a false sense of security we attack them without setting up. Naturally, this group has a Gorrillian with them. The Charau-Ka fall pretty easily but Kolgrim takes the brunt of the fight as the Gorrillian rends him repeatedly. We do kill it but the party is almost out of healing spells after patching Kolgrim back together. Again, no ruby. Flix has a strange idea and decides to disembowel the Gorrillian. To our amazement, he finds the fourth ruby!

Back in the map room we place a ruby in each pillar. The room becomes a star map of the Mwangi Expanse about 10,000 years ago. Finally the location of Saventh-Yhi is revealed to us! Now that we know where to go, we wonder how far the rest of the Pathfinders are behind us. This also brings to mind the other groups following us. We really cannot leave the map here for all to see. The problem is we cannot remove the rubies. Mauser decides to smash one. The image disappears and we feel comfortable that no one else will be able to activate it. Now how do we meet up with the Pathfinders to tell them the way?

Today is the day we all decide to enter Tazion. Guarded by the evil, demon worshiping wood apes, the Charau-ka. After we have Nkechi and Vee Vee conduct a perimeter sweep, we decide to enter from the rear of the obscure opening of the fortified walls.

While scouting Vee Vee see's what looks like vine snare traps as we enter on in, she is able to disable and we go on in.

We hear a noise, 4 Charau-ka's are attacking! From the tree's they come out swinging, Dionysis spots one and has an early lunch. This is so gruesome!Sarenrae, if I survive this, many a prayers will be coming your way! The battle rages on, sling bullets and swords a swinging, Gorag and Kolgrim take out 2 more!, with Dionysis once again coming in for seconds!

Once the battle is over, Nkechi insists we move a bit swiftly. As we go we move into the opening along the wall and proceed north following it , know at least the Charau-ka won't be attacking us from the wall. A s we go walking Kolgrim trips on a stick, not seeing it, I fall into him and stumble myself. With both of us on the ground, I'm pretty sure a stealthy approach is not our to have! Once again we hike on until we approach a ruined structure, an old aqueduct.

Skirting around the aqueduct, we continue on north with no incident towards the Ziggurat/temple, believing our answers may lie inside!
We slow on down, as we do we see another group of the apes. We stop, hoping we're not spotted, sneaking away we make our getaway! An hour or so later we approach the Ziggurat from behind.

Gorag suggests we should sneak & climb on up the back, Kolgrim agrees.
Sarenrae You must be humbling me today, using skills I rarely use.
Gorag and Vee Vee go on ahead and scout. They see Giant Wasps! They are flying about towards a door with water coming out of the Ziggurat.
They seem to be carrying materials fora nest of some sorts.

We enter the southwest door,or try too It takes many attempts to budge it open.
We see a gray,stone slab as we enter in. Stone friezes are shown of the stars along the wall. After closer inspection, the stone slab is actually a map of the Moon and its phases. Representing the old Izlanti goddess - Almage.

The next area we enter, puts shivers down my spine,. I feel a lot of dark energy in here. Unholy this place is, I feel a need to cleanse this unholy place!

This room has a lot of dark murky water in it as well, Skyra takes point and fails to see something coming at her!
Kolgrim shouts! "Star Bellied Sneaches are attacking you"

I think Kolgrim's been drinking, I think he meant to say look a Swarm of Leeches! Which is no good at all!

Flix jumps in and starts burning the swarm! I throw an oil flask to encourage it! With no room to move, Gorag stands by useless in this battle. Kolgrim also hindered, stares down a wasp from the other side.

Once the battle is done, we regroup and I begin attending the wounded.
With the fire still burning Skyra takes on the most damage. With her attention on her wounds she misses the next group of leeches coming in! Nkechi shouts a warning. I can't stand for this. Calling on Sarenrae, a ray of Searing Light comes in and strikes down the next set of leeches! Thanks for the power my lord!

From the water soaked stairway we continue, leaving the south doors and reenter the Ziggurat from the southeast door.
Vee Vee attempts to open the door, lacking the strength, she calls in for back up.

Once the door is opened, we enter a chamber yellowish-brown in color. This ageless room depicts battles in the sunlight all along the walls, against the snake-like god Savanthi.More of a demon but anyway...

The room is otherwise empty, Gorag heads to next door. Being cautious, but lacking the skills, he sets off a trap! Though not his fault, Vee Vee didn't look for any either. A yellowish powder blasts him and covers him good. Yellow Mold!

Once that is over and everyone double checks doors we go on in.
Its another sunlit room with a stair case at the end.Oh no! Iron Cobras are guarding the way!

These nasty little beasties give a tough row, but we prevail in the end! Afterwards we check to see if the stairway they blocked lead to the map room we are looking for. Alas, a dead end, the stairway has collapsed in on itself.

With no where else to go we go through the door on the left, its a high arched room with a staircase made of old stone, much like the design of the previous Moon Room.

As we enter a plant monster attacks! Its a Basidirond! Kolgrim,Gorag, and Dionysis move in for the kill! With limited room Gorag does a acrobatic twist and flip to reach the monster. I give him a dose of Bull's Strength, hoping his Flurries will be enhanced.Next Nkechi, Flix, Skyra, and Vee Vee attack from the stairs.
Hurt by the plant, Vee Vee starts choking!
After many strenuous moments, Gorag defeats it with his Flurry of Blows. Damn that monks fast!
Oops! Sorry Sarenrae! I did not mean to cuss!
Once again I pray and attend the wounded with Nkechi helping as well.
Deciding to rest, we stop here...