Trap is often found working in the local tavern. He also takes odd jobs repairing and to a small degree (very small), building some traps for the purpose of protecting things. He only does a job if he is recommended by a previous employer. Trap tells everyone that no trap is a guarantee, but only an attempt at preventing someone from taking things. He never asks what is being protected, is very professional, but again is getting bored with small town life, and is looking for ideas, types, and styles for new traps.

Cause of death: smooshed by a hill giant after removing his armor and leaping out from behind a tree.

I normally don’t keep a journal, but I decided to do this in case something happens. I know my companions well enough to trust them, and I think we will get out of here alive.

The day started out slowly enough, a nice leisurely walk from town to this ancient mansion. I’m still not entirely sure why we came, it definitely seemed like a good idea at the time. Upon exploring the upper levels, we encountered a couple of large spiders. They weren’t much of a problem. In the basement is where the fun began.

After being attacked, Fafnir was able to put a couple of goblins to sleep. That done, the third was easily dispatched. Note to self here, I think Fafnir believes I’m a thief despite my protests to the contrary. You’d think after disarming his butter churn he’d know better. Anyway, when I saw the fourth one try to sneak out a secret passage, I knew it was my time to work. I let the others kill the goblins that were sleeping while I searched for the device that allowed the door to open. After that, things got kind of interesting.

Down the first flight of stairs, Drusilia (who seems to have a bit of confidence in me), noticed something funny about the one wall. After a while of looking, I was able to open a door and found the one goblin that ran. Ghelt went to fight, I tried to bet on her, but no one was willing to gamble over it. I knew she’d win, and apparently so did everyone else there.

We came across a few unlocked stuck doors, Ghelt helped to open them. All they were was empty rooms. Except one. One had another door. After I opened the door, I noticed some runes on the floor (which I still need to mention to Fafnir, maybe in the morning). Then two strange beings came out of the room and started attacking us. I decided to set a trap of my own. I had Fafnir douse the doorframe in oil, and told everyone to leave. When the creatures were close enough, I set the oil on fire. It didn’t seem to hurt them, so we ran. When we noticed that we weren’t being chased, we went back to look. It turned out that the things were trapped in their room. (Probably grounded.)

Well, we explored a little more, and found five closed cells. Four were not locked or trapped in any way, so I didn’t check the fifth (my mistake). I sprung a gas trap (which is now detailed in my other book). No real damage done, except to my pride. At first we didn’t find anything different about this room, but I was certain, and after a little bit, I found a secret door. We’re going down in the morning, as for now, my watch is over.

I hope to write again soon,

Beu ‘Trap’ Greenbottle

We started out all right, went down the trap door (after taking it off its hinges). At the bottom, there was a lot of crypts. The walls were lined with them. After searching a bit, we discovered that the newest one was dated 161 years ago. Talk about old. We followed a hall of them for a while, then came to a room with two different sets of stairs leading down. We took the one to the right because it stank really badly. (Group decision, not mine). We were then attacked by zombies. I noticed that all the crypts were open (yes a lot of them, lost count in the 300s). There were only 2 human zombies, and some rat zombies. After we dispatched them and looked around, we found 2 things of interest. 1: there was a cave in that the dwarf said looked intentional. 2: a still sealed tomb with a sun symbol that looks like it belongs to Pelor. I was all for breaking the seal, but was out voted. We then went back to the other room, and down the other stairs, and that’s when things got interesting.

We found a bronze door with Nerull’s symbol on it. After searching the door, I noticed a strange mechanism. I tried to disable it, but was unsuccessful. I fell into a pit trap much to the obvious delight of my companions (it was kind of funny though). There was a dead duergar dwarf stuck on some spikes so I searched his body for good stuff. I found a shiny axe (I was told it was made of mithral) a sling and bullets, and 11 gold coins. Not bad. Istus decided I was not to disarm the trap, so we improvised on our way across it.

We found an altar, and a statue of Nerull in this room, and when we got too close, we were attacked by skeletons. I’m not sure what happened then, I was fighting one then the next thing I know I’m handed an axe, and I hit Nerull’s statue. I promptly dropped the axe, and backed away. My companions finished that skeleton for me. They checked the rooms the undead came out of, and found nothing. We went down one of the 2 doors left. We found a torture chamber, more undead locked in cells, a bed room, and a ghoul in a secret room, I burned him to death, but lost my lantern. We then found 2 gold candlesticks, a femur bone with runes on it, a chest with 100 gold, 100 silver coins, and 3 gems. Here the spell casters needed rest, so we’re holding up for now. We have a couple of loose ends to finish up, I just hope I didn’t lose my job, I forgot to tell my boss I was going to be gone for a couple of days.

Well, the rest we needed so badly was delayed by Ghelt deciding to take her priestly duties one step further—she decided to start making a holy symbol for herself out of some of the coins she had and shape them with her metalworking tools on the altar floor (hammering very loudly too!!). Crazy dwarf! I was afraid that she’d alert more of the undead creatures that might be lurking about! Fortunately, when the coin smashing on the altar floor didn’t work, Ghelt decided to try going back to the ghouls bedroom and hack off a piece of the bedpost to whittle into a holy symbol. I then gave Ghelt my inkpot and quill so she could draw Moradin’s crest on her new holy symbol—hopefully it will work for her when we need it!!

I’m not sure whether the hammering of the coins or her slicing the bedpost apart woke the creatures, but we soon had more undead coming our way—very slimy disgusting ones I might add—looked like zombies! The new intruders broke through a door we forgot to wedge shut. Stupid me! I’m supposed to be a professional and I still forgot to make sure all the doors were secure. After Fafnir and I threw our daggers at the first zombie who came through the door, Drusilia tried turning the foul creatures while Ghelt charged and slashed at the lead undead. Who knows which attack killed the nasty beast, but it fell to the ground dead, leaving only two more of these putrid creatures for us to dispatch. Apparently Drusilia was able to turn the remaining zombies, because they both turned tail and began to shamble back down the passage behind them.

After I pulled the daggers from the lead zombies corpse, I followed my companions down the passage to chase after the remaining creatures. As I near a turn to the left of the passage, I hear what sounds like Drusilia screaming for Ghelt!!! Oh gods! What now? I forget about exploring some doors that are along the corridor to my right and decide to stand behind Fafnir who is near the corner. I peek around the corner and see Drusilia and Ghelt entering a room filled with more zombies! Yikes! Can this get much worse, there’s at least seven or eight more in the room!! Fafnir says that we should stay back here and “hold the line”. I’m with him!

Somewhat paralyzed with fear, I stand behind the gnome and try to watch for anyone sneaking up behind us. Unfortunately, when I turned back to say something to Fafnir, both him and I hear one of the doors in the corridor opening behind us. Nuts! We don’t need this! I start to turn around and feel a stabbing pain in my side as a human ghoul with sharp claws attacks me. He is dressed in elegant but tattered robes and is fixing me with an evil grin, while yellowish drool runs down his chin! I don’t like this at all! I barely remember to grab my sword from its scabbard and brace for an attack, when I am suddenly pushed out of the way by Drusilia. My hero! She whacks at this new threat and with the help of Ghelt (who has moved up to our position by this point) dispatches this undead monstrosity.

We then proceeded as a group into the room that the ghoul came out of. We don’t find very much other that some rotting clothes and broken furniture. Drusilia does find one interesting thing in the room, however. She discovered a leather bound book between the mattress and the bed frame. It appears to be some sort of journal. Hopefully it will mention what the heck happened here.

Our group then heads back to the altar room to hopefully get some sleep. We decide to push the altar in front of the door that these undead came through. I helped Ghelt and Drusilia push the altar—with much effort and a smashing thud—down the stairs and in front of the door. Unfortunately, I think we set off some sort of magic trap when we moved the altar because now I feel a little bit queasy. Drusilia and Ghelt are really looking a bit on the sickish side! I wonder what happened? We then settle down for the night while Drusilia reads from that journal. Maybe it has some useful info in it. Anyways, she’ll fill us in tomorrow if it’s important. I’m gonna bed down now. Hopefully, we won’t get any more unexpected guests barging in on us!

This was a very long day. Were taking a couple of minutes to pack up our new friends’ stuff, so I’m going to write this now. At least as long as I can lift this pen.

We finished off the mansion, and found ourselves in a cavern occupied by a bunch of Zombies(probably the ones turned earlier). We finished them off easily enough, and Drusilia found a rope. It was tied to a box with 2 vials of something. Fafnir said they were magical, but didn’t know what they did.

Then we got on a raft (Ghelt didn’t like that much.) and, after fighting some cross currents, made it to the other side in one piece. On the other sore, was a natural (or so I was told) rift in the opposite wall. We followed that for what seemed like hours, and came to a split in the path. We went left, and I was almost impaled by a spear that came out of the wall. We went on more carefully. The path eventually led us directly into Dim Forest. We decided to go back and try the other path just in case (and much to my relief). We followed it down to a dark cavern. While inspecting it, these living spikes started to fall on us. I kept one as a pet. He was fun. We did have to run for our lives, and went back to the forest to go home.

A little way down the trail, we encountered an almost dead human. He told of how his party was attacked by humanoid spider things. So we healed him gave him a dagger, and went after his friends. A little ways into the woods, we saw a guy swinging a stick at a very big spider, bigger than me. I was going to throw spike at it, but Ghelt killed it first. Then everyone started arguing about the guy’s weapon. Personally, he can continue to believe his stick is a sword if he wants to, we had things to do. So Ghelt and I left.

Ghelt got all tangled up in some webs a little later. I was fighting a spider when I lost consciousness. When I came to, it was over, and Spike was dead. I did find a cocoon, but it was only filled with little spiders. Continuing to follow the drag marks, we came to a ravine. The trail ended here, so we went in. A few feet down, we were attacked. We killed several spiders, and humanoid spider things. But the people we were looking for weren’t there. So we kept looking. Finally we found the humanoid spider thing in charge. I say this because it used magic on us. We all damaged it, but it was my shot that finally killed it.

Down a side passage way we found a room with cocoons and bones everywhere. The people we were looking for were in there. We also found their stuff, and a iron chest. I checked it, but didn’t find that damned needle trap. I was hit twice with it, and now have almost no strength. So I’m writing now while everyone else gets ready to go. This pen is almost to heavy for me to hold, so I’ll say bye for now I’ll write again later.

Well, I know it’s been a few days (9 I know) but I just wanted to let you know that we’re going out again. So to get you up to date, we got out of the ravine just fine. Had a little scare for a moment, but nothing major. We returned to the path with the 3 people we found, and the one we left there was happy to see us all alive, and really nothing a little rest couldn’t cure.

We arrived back in Smallville early in the evening, and went right to the inn/tavern. I sent someone to get the local druids to help heal the injured travelers and us. After some catching up and stuff, one of the widowed ladies came in and wanted us to rid her house of some evil spirits. No rest for the weary.

It turned out that her house wasn’t haunted, it was infested with stirges. We killed them eventually, cleaned up the house and lied to the old lady telling her the evil was gone.

The next day, we divvied up the treasure. A good amount at that. I got all kinds of stuff, and convinced Ghelt to teach me how to fight better. I could use the lessons. Now we’re going after what we believe the people at that old mansion thought The Heart of Nerull is. I’m not quite sure what that is, but it sounds interesting. In my other book is about 5 or 6 pages, front and back, of diagrams of all my new traps I found. I hope to fill it this trip.

Well, we’re stopping for lunch now, and what an eventful day. We set out yesterday, the five of us, and close to evening, we came across a farmhouse. I’m thinking great, we’ll have a place to stay tonight. That was not to be, it was ransacked, and by the looks of things, done recently. There was a trail leading out into the woods, and I wanted to go right away, I was getting bored. The party, however, decided to stay and rest outside. Go figure.

The next morning we followed the trail. It lead us up the mountains, and into a cave that had a pile of skulls in front of it. We entered, but in the low light, I was unable to locate the alarm and it went off. Their was a huge fight, I got to kill some goblins and there was a ogre or something that was first to die.

Afterwards, we looted everything, and now we’re eating lunch and going off to where we originally planned to go. This is going to be fun.

I’m writing this really quick for a reason. It’s very possible I won’t make it back to town. We traveled for a couple of days with only one real incident, and a little scare. We fought spiders, Four Feather was antagonizing a bear, and wolves were howling a lot at night. Now, we seem to be entering orc territory. We know this because of the border marker they placed on the path. If I don’t make it out of here alive Fafnir may keep my lock picks, and the rest of my companions may do what they will with the rest of my belongings. I do hope to write again, but I somehow doubt it.

Man, and I was sure we were all going to die. Well, it didn’t go as planned, but we freed the slaves. The orc settlement actually was a mining thing. I got to kill 5 orcs and I only used 6 arrows. It was great. I did try to free the slaves first, thinking that they would help, but after the first one, I realized it was useless, so I decided to help fight. No sooner did I head for the battle than 4 orcs came at me. They dropped one after the other. Then I shot another in the back. He ran, the coward. When he did turn around, he said something, then fell over dead with my arrow in his heart. I love my new bow. I think I’ll call it Never Miss.

Well anyway, we found out that the orcs are being lead by some wizard, so we are going to deal with it while going to get the Heart of Nerull. Wish us luck.

Well, today was interesting so far. We left the slave camp, and went towards the outpost. We stood on top of a hill discussing what to do next when Korin decided to go off by himself. Being a fellow halfling and all, I went with him. We checked 3 of the 50 some odd huts, and they were empty and unused, so we decided to try the tower. The door wouldn’t open, and there actually was no lock. The nerve of some people. We tried to get a rope up so we could scale the wall, but before we did several orc zombies came after us. After a lot of fighting Fafnir decided to use his potion and climb up with the rope and tie it off. We all got to the top okay, and decided to look around. I’m still not sure why everyone left me in this room, but I think I found some neat stuff.

I got a new toy today. We started off with a big fight, I was busy looking for something and missed all the fun, but I found a cool book. It went boom when I opened it. I wasn’t hurt though. We decided to sleep for a day, and then finished searching the top floor. One door hit me with lightening, so I knew there had to be something in there, but all I saw was trash. After searching through the room I found this short sword with a symbol of Pelor on it. The ground floor was empty, so we went to the basement. In one room, we found 2 undead things. I raised my new toy, and yelled, “Die Fiend!” and attacked. Others came in after to help fight the things. The sword did lots of damage, I like it.

We then found a scepter, got Mule, and went back to the slaves to free them. Ghelt threw the bands in the lake. We’re spending the night here. Then it’s off to the Heart of Nerull.

Well, we found a shortcut. Some of the kobolds we rescued told us they could show us a faster way, so we escorted them to their home. After a rest, the king gave us a helm, and took us to a river under ground. They told us to get in the barrels, and I did. After an eternity, and a free fall, Korin helped me out. I was exhausted, so I went to sleep. We had a strange creature attack us at night, but it didn’t last long. Fafnir was extremely angry about something.