The map tiles have a gloss finish which means that they are compatible with dry-wipe non permanent markers, but also that they are rather tricky to photograph.
The party consists of 6 fifth-level adventurers: GIMLIT SON OF GROIN (dwarf fighter), ST.JOHN WILDBLADDER III (human paladin), BELWINA (human female ranger), KRANOVAL (half-elf magic-user), THE BISHOP OF BATHENWELLS (human cleric) and FRITO BUGGER (hobbit thief). Additionally there is Frito’s dog FIDO and KOBBE the Kobold who had attached himself to Kranoval.
The party had taken the exceptional gold statue of a naked young woman to the Temple of Freya but the Goddess explained that this wasn't the statue she was looking for, Freya is never depicted naked in the temple. She did however offer to exchange the statue for 4 healing potions, an offer which was quickly accepted. She also had information that the correct statue was now located in a cave system that led off the labyrinth and provided the party with detailed directions.
The party entered the cave with Belwina and Frito in the lead. Ahead they could see a precarious-looking rope bridge crossing a 40ft drop.
Gimlit tied a rope around Belwina and he and Bathenwells held it tightly as Belwina adventured onto the bridge.
Half way across the ravine, Belwina was attacked by 6 Giant Bats.
Belwina made it safely over the rope bridge, but she still had 3 Giant Bats to deal with, the other 3 attacked the rest of the party.
Kranoval pointed a finger at the 3 Giant Bats, he uttered a short phrase, and with a skilful flick of the wrist a web appeared just above the bats, dropping onto them and causing them to crash 40ft to the floor below.
Belwina was in trouble all on her own, so Gimlit rushed over the bridge to aid her fight against the bats.
All the Giant Bats were killed or driven off wounded, and the party could cross the bridge without more ado.
The pathway continued and there was a rather unpleasant smell, Belwina in the lead was sure that she had smelt it before, but was unsure where.
There was a small cave off to the right of the passageway which upon inspection, Belwina found to be full of mushrooms. Now she remembered what the smell was, and what the Kobolds and Goblins use to fertilise their food.
Belwina decided not to enter among the mushrooms, but when she turned to leave a Giant Centipede attacked her from behind. Its poisoned bite paralysed Belwina, so Gimlit jumped in to protect her and chopped the centipede into small pieces with his axe.
Going past the mushrooms, the pathway came to a T-junction and the party turned left where they came upon a cave with a deep pool.
Belwina entered the cave followed by Frito. They were each attacked by two Giant Beavers from the pool, but luckily the beavers did not damage.
Bathenwells remembered that he had a spell that allowed him to Speak With Animals. So the beavers stopped their attack and instead conversed with him. It was agreed that the beavers would let the party pass without trouble.
Skirting the pool, with Belwina yet again in the lead, the party encountered some Kobolds who had been alerted by the encounter with the beavers.
Belwina killed the first two Kobolds while Gimlit and Bathenwells rushed in to continue the fight. There were another four Kobolds in the cave. Protected by the Kobolds stood five identical large orange Apes each wielding a staff topped by a chameleon. This was Prupius the wizard who had been trying to learn the Polymorph spell but something went wrong and it seemed to be permanent. Prupius had cast the Mirror Image spell as a defence and he now had 4 mirror images surrounding him to aid his defence.
Prupius "opened fire" with a Magic Missile and Kranoval replied with a Lightning Bolt. The remainder of the party rushed into the cave but were contained in a huddle near the entrance which made a perfect target for Prupius's Fireball.
Seeing his shield of Kobolds being slaughtered by the party and his mirror imaged being worn away, Prupius used his Fly spell to flee over the heads of the party and out into the beaver cave. Kranoval fired a Magic Missile which winged Prupius but he continues his flight. So Kranoval chased after and got of a lucky shot just as Prupius was about to disappear out of site which killed the wizard.
As the party searched the room looking for the golden statue of the Goddess Freya but it was not to be found. They did however find a small chest with assorted coins to the value of 200 gp and a scroll with magical writing, but Kranoval could not read it as he didn't have his Read Magic spell prepared.
The party retraced their steps and went down the right hand branch of the T-junction. Here they entered a cave containing 4 Giant Rats and 4 Eererats. The fight was fast and furious, even though Bathenwells seemed to forget that normal weapons don't damage lycanthropes so he continued bashing a Wererat over the head with a normal steel mace. One of the Wererats got in a serious bite on Frito.
As the party searched the room looking for the golden statue of the Goddess Freya but it was not to be found. They did however find an unidentifiable potion and a jewelled necklace worth 250 gp.
The party returned to the rope bridge and descended down the ravine to the passageway 40ft below. As the started to walk down the passageway they noticed a deathly quiet magical silence. The continued along the passageway which opened into a room full of skeletons. In the shadows behind the skeletons they could vaguely make out the figure of a Silent Knight.
The Bishop of Bathenwells fulled out his holy symbol, held it aloft and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!". Because of the silence, there was no effect.
The party charged in, chopping the skeletons to pieces. All except Fido who was normally very effective against skeletons, but this time he seemed to be satisfied with just one femur.
Belwina charged head-to-head with the Silent Knight.
At the back of the cave, the party now spotted, the bound and gagged form of a Female Dwarf Bard.
The whole party rushed into the fight, except for Kranoval (who couldn't cast any spells because of the silence) and Kobbe (who was performing his torch-carrier duties).
Frito crept round behind the Slient Knight and started to cut the Bard's ties with his dagger.
Gimlit killed many skeletons and the charged to help Belwina finish off the Silent Kinght.
The party talked to the Bard who was called Misdora Bonrynsdōttir Oakenshield. She was not much impressed by the Hobbit that had cut her free, but was certainly impressed by the Dwarf Gimlit and the size of his weapon and the way he used it.
At the back of the cave the party also found the dead body of a thief together with a golden statue which Bathenwells assured the party was very probably of the Godess Freya.
