Insight: First day in this world, in the ruins of the temple of where Arachnea was imprisoned, we found some insect skulls. They were the same skulls as the insects we encountered when we freed the slaves.

Oh yeah, this is going to take five years … real time.

Now back to our story.

Marpenoth 27

Nick goes with Holbroke to Drachensberg. Holbroke plans to pose as a blacksmith. We agree on time/place to meet. Holbroke tells us to be careful, that there are big lizards arounds these parts. Nick stays invisible always. He's flying, invisible, and spots some dinosaurs of in the distance. A T. Rex fights a triceratops.

The 10 billionth app was downloaded from the Apple Apps Store. Some girl in England. Her mom kept hanging up on the vice president of marketing.

We encounter a barrier blocking our way to Drachensberg. It appears to be natural and seems to divide Drachensberg from the rest of the land. We find our way over the barrier. There seem to be no dinosaurs on this side as far as Nick can tell.

Holbroke plans to come up the coast, same path as a caravan, to "look for work". We debate on whether we should all go into town or Just Nick and Holbroke. Donegal, Brandon, and I take our ship out and go fishing for a while.

The town is not too busy. About 500 people here. A mayor's office but no temples.

Marpenoth 29

Nick spends a few days scoping out the town like he's planning a heist or something. Mostly adobe brick buildings. Most people fish for a living. Seems like a normal town. Orcs come here occasionally to buy supplies. People are fearful of them but they don't make trouble.

Loren is worried that Drake and Jamie will gang up in her in the X-box. Tim is intervening.

Nick follows the orc party out of town. The orcs go to the slavers fort outside of town. A large ditch in front of the main gate (a drawbridge spans the ditch). The wall is about three stories high. Nick flies above it. There's an inner gate, and then a courtyard. Not many people here to full man the fort. The second story of the gatehouse seems to be unoccupied for the most part.

Nick flies about one hundred feet up. Several hobgoblins, orcs, few people on the roof of the outer gate. No one in the outer courtyard. Twelve people on the second gate. The inner courtyard has buildings close together with wooded planks between the buildings. Most, if not all, buildings are two stories.

Two months later …

Nick is still scoping out the fort and the DM still hasn't provided an understandable description.
The rest of us rent a small flat and we pose as fishermen. Donegal pulls the cart to unload our ship.

Eventually some meaningful event grabs our attention. We find out there is dropoff point down the coast. That is where the caraven arrives and leaves. No one in town ever thought to ask why they use that spot to land. They always goes to the keep. Sometimes to come into town on their way out.

A few days later, while hiding near this manmade pier, a ship arrives and drops anchor just offshore. A while later the caravan shops up with their six carts. A large boom lifts the carts and horses onto the ship.

A week later.

Last watch. It's a new moon. A ship arrives. Someone standing on the deck, opens a bullseye lantern and points it southeast.

A-Ha. The path to the manmade pier does not end at the pier but continues along the coast. Funny we never noticed that before.

The ship is signaling someone off to the southeast who signals back. They have people ready to deliver to the fort. Nick thinks the people being brought to the ship are drugged - about 40 people in all. Nick follows the ten hobgoblins and two humans who lead the slaves to the ship as they return back down the path, turn off and go towards a hidden cave. Some funky creatures guard the cave entrance.

Nick spends a great deal observing the cave and how to get there from the path.

In our boredom, we attack the cave. We sneak in, finding a hobgoblin dozing off. Donegal kills it. A second goes for the gong but Brandon kills it. We follow the cave. We're in a twisty-turning passage. We can all see in the dark. We hear voices off in the distance, sounds elvish. Nick moves in to listen. There is a firepit with something cooking over it, twelve hobgoblins, and two drow. Oh yeah, there's also a gong. A passage leads away beyond the firepit.

Nick casts a fireburst spell. We move in when we see the flash. First kill goes to me but we're all dropping them easily. Most are blind. Nick cuts the gong and lowers it to the ground. One of the drow pulls out a bow to shoot at Nick. Donegal moves in to the drow. We finishs then off quickly. I don't think any of us were even touched. The final drow falls over without striking the gong. Weve successfully taken out the guard post.

Sneaking again. I'm pretty sure we're heading back towards the fort. A few hundred yards and there is sunlight streaming down from an opening. There is a ten foot hole in the ceiling of the cave. Nick flys up but is sure this opening is not visible from the ground, too much overgrowth.

Insect tracks go down one passage. Insect, human, other tracks go down the other passage. A giant (man-sized) bee decends down from the opening above and flys down the insect only passage. A few minutes later, another buzzing, and another bee, covered in pollen, decends from the opening and flies down the same passage. A few more minutes and a bee come walking down the passage and flys up through the opening above.

We go down the other passage, the one with the human and insect tracks that goes towards the fort. We come to a small room that has three other passages. One passage has only insect tracks, one has boot tracks, and the third goes towards the fort. We go into the insect passage to the southeast. The giant bees must have come this way. A hundred yards later, we hear some clicking in the distance. Another intersection with four more passages. There are some giant ants. We realize this is all natural passages and creatures. We won't find the honeycomb hideout.

Backtrack to the previous room, the one beyond the room with the hole in the ceiling. We go down the boots only tunnel. It led downwards for over an hour. We decide this is not the way and go back.

Now the last passage which we suspect leads to the fort. We pass some secret doors but we are not aware of it. A few hundred yards and the floor becomes worked stone and there are few tracks here. Another eighty feet there is a passage. We can go forward or turn right. There is something growling to the right. Maybe some guard dogs. Nick flys down. There are bars and some wolves behind them.

Twenty more feet forward is a door. Twenty feet past the door is another door to the right, or we go straight.