The pit of the snake gods; a sexy body

First we went after Thorn into the secret passage. We came upon three horned drakes (easily defeated), but four piles of hay, from which we drew the inference that Thorn had ridden one of the drakes away from the compound. We followed the tunnel to its end, leading outside the compound to the other side of the hill. We followed the drake footprints a ways, but lost them.

Treble scouted the garbage pit in the dining room of the lodge, reporting back that he heard some hissing. Meanwhile, I freed the slaves, and Colvin helped convince them to watch Leshna while we investigated the pit. They were relieved to be freed and several of them agreed to help.

In the pit, we fought two carrion crawlers, six huge centipedes, and two spiderlike otyughs that kept grabbing Aurora. She seemed to be frustrated by this, but she held her own pretty well. When it finally looked like we had gotten a solid hold on the battle, a powerful earth elemental came onto the scene and started sending quake shocks through the region. Once all were defeated, we headed down the tunnel, ultimately finding a vast cavern... the entrance to the Underdark. Some among us have interest in pursuing this new area... but for now we have more pressing matters ahead.

The trip beneath wasn't entirely useless: we had found 100 gold in the trash, and another 300 gold in gems littering the walls of the earth elemental's lair.

After this, we went aboveboard and freed the slaves. They cheered when they heard our suggestion to take everything that wasn't nailed down, to take the boat and the wagons, and to go the nearest port town Galethspyre to sell the loot and split the proceeds. We encouraged some of them to make way to Cragwar to assist the other slaves we had left behind, telling them there was a monetary reward offered for the help.

Then, we put Leshna in the hold and headed for Woodhelm. She dropped out of the boat about an hour down the road. I was kind of pissed about it because we had already checked the hold for holes before leaving her in there, so I have no idea how she got out. I didn't have time to obsess about it for too long, however, as a group of five big, blood-red hawks attacked the ship, swooping at Treble and Phelaia and causing us to veer slightly off-course. Of course it would be this exact instant that our ship veered into a writhing cloud of dire giant mosquitoes that engulfed Brogar, Colvin, and Aurora, who were swatting themselves trying to get them off. Eventually we rid ourselves of the pests, and a bit later we come upon a boat going to the south. We weren't sure, but Phelaia suggested that it might be the boat coming to the south to pick up the slaves from the compound, and she suggested that we intercept. We talked about the best way to go about it, and ultimately decided that it would be best for me to disguise as Leshna.

I borrowed a silk dress from Phelaia and changed in privacy. As Leshna, I could feel a new spring in my step... I hadn't looked this good in ages, and it felt great. I even caught Colvin looking appreciatively. Heh. I sauntered a bit around the ship, and it helped that we had interrogated Leshna for so long, because I was much better able to affect her attitude and speech mannerisms when I leaned over the rail, showing off my new assets, and hailed the ship below. I told them that they were late, to which they seemed surprised to see me, and stammered that the slaves weren't cooperative. I asked if they were better-equipped this time, to which they replied that they weren't. At the suggestion of the others, I suggested that we had brought some recruits to help keep the slaves in line, and asked if they could use the help. They seemed relieved and docked so I could send my "recruits" aboard. I did, at which point "my" guys (Morangan, Treble, Brogar, Aurora) easily overpowered their two, and when they asked more about what was happening, I told them that we were following orders and were told to take over their ship.

We took them (Charles and George) belowground as some of the others made the ship unseaworthy. I ordered them to answer the guards' questions, and then I went aboveboard with a few of the others who were preparing to set sail. The others reported back that they learned the following: their group consisted of Alhunder (a "brilliant" leader who could raise the dead and create undead; talks to Orcus every day), ghouls, zombies, four death priests, 8 more guys about their level, and two whip-wielding guys in town and more at the gravesite northwest of town. They learned that Leshna was about the level of one of the death priests in the organization.

Now we have to figure out how to get them out of the way so we can go in and destroy their operation. I don't mind at all being in Leshna's body for awhile longer.