Into the Darkness (day 2-4)

When Wrackomelor pressed Jeva to talk about the fire, she weaved a harrowing tale of hearing her only friends wail as the flames melted their faces. When asked about Elara, she insisted the headmistress was a wonderful woman "who only did what was best for us orphans, no matter how much it hurt..." When asked about her horrible scars she said, "It was for my own good! She did this to us to make us better, she said". Tears followed fast. Wrackomelor did not believe her story about the night of the fire, and after Hrol detected a dim evil aura on her, he pressed her for the truth. Jeva admitted that she was detained in the basement by Elara the night of the fire for being bad. She claims she lost consciousness and when she came to, she was in the woods and the orphanage had already burnt down. The heroes decide to keep an eye on her and allow her to lead them to the kobold lair for now.

Following the tracks of the kobolds, and guided by the strange wild orphan from the forest, the heroes continue on their way to their barge from their last foray into the wood. Unsettlingly large crows loom into the branches cawing ominously as the heroes pass but otherwise not harassing them in any way. The next morning an ophidian predator crossed the path of the heroes. The moorsnake was too lethargic to attack and merely slithered away. At night, though, it slipped into camp and attempted to constrict Mrunk. The heroes dealt with the hungry animal swiftly.

As the heroes journeyed closer to the base of Droskar's Crag, the shadows of the wood deepened. When they emerged from a bleak treeline of twisted elm they caught another glimpse of the old monastery. Tall grasses and chunks of stone debris have all but overtaken this small yard. Off to one side, a wooden stable has collapsed into a mound of rotting timbers and moldy straw. The outer wall on the east side has also collapsed, leaving a ragged hole. Bits of foundation work only suggested the monastery's original layout, fading memories of a world long ago crashed under the unforgiving heel of time. When the heroes picked about the clearing they found little of interest beyond the ancient stonework and fallen stable. They found a small broken spear with a wicked barbed tip, with a slight oily residue sticking to it. When they scoured the ruins they found the top of a broken staircase half obscured by uprooted bushes. As they descended into the black, the constant woodland background noise seemed to liquefy in the murk below the surface. Replacing it was the occasional quasi-discernible whisper, moan, hiss, or intermittent echo of jangling chains.

The sub-level of this ancient monastery has a spartan interior. Smooth halls stretch between cold-stoned chambers. The stairs descended more than 20 feet below the surface and no sound penetrated from above. The monastery walls are masonry, and there are few sources of light. The monastery warps sounds in strange ways.

The stairway opened into a large rectangular chamber. The stone walls of this area were covered with intricate carvings of dwarves toiling in mines or smithies. In the center of the chamber stood the bottom half of a broken obsidian obelisk. Crude picks, hammers, and other tools lay scattered around the chamber. Kobold slaves gathered the obsidian. When the heroes arrived, two kobold slaves toiled near the west doorway, trying to drag a 60-pound chunk of the fallen monument behind them. Four kobold warriors accompanied them. The slaves used their slings and avoided melee. The warriors hissed and sputtered when they detected the heroes and rushed to attack. The heroes managed to subdue and tie up all the kobolds. When the heroes subdued the whimpering slaves (named Kibbo and Jarrdreg), they realized that they might prove invaluable, if irritating, allies. Kibbo referred to Hrol as Great Liberator and Jarrdreg applied the title of Great Lady Chief Bore-to-Snore to Seoni whom he saw cast sleep. The kobolds are lick-spittles. They know all about the "pink-skinned blood bags for the crown" and were happy to talk. According to them, the children were dragged down to the lower level. Wrackomelor, who reads Dwarven, pieced together and dusted off some of the broken chunks of the monument to read the following: "...Toil is the only true path to salvation. Those who will not work shall have their blood boiled in the Dark Furnace for all time...there is no decadent paradise awaiting us after death, as our corrupt forefathers claimed, only industrious labor in Droskar's Forge awaits the faithful, this great work is its own reward...the unfaithful, they will serve in the end, their blood and bones shall stoke the fires of our industry...the world will burn to the glory of Droskar."

As Kibbo and Jarrdreg led the way, an evil hiss rose from the darkness ahead. A floating dwarven form shrouded in full plate rounded the corner. The air about this dwarven specter shimmered eerily, and the walls and floor sizzled and smoked where it passed. The thing's boots scorn the earth, gliding a full foot above the masonry floor. It dragged a cruel bloodletter axe in the air behind it. The kobolds have seen the "flying dwarf ghost" and are terrified of it. They tried to flee at its approach. The mithral armor and glowing axe (locked to the gauntlet) approached the heroes. When the heroes attacked with a ranged weapon first they immediately noticed that it hit an invisible cube before it reached the armor. The glow shed by the axe refracted through the cube, creating a ghostly shimmer. The cube moved towards the heroes and engulfed Hrol.

Seekers of Lost Children (day 1-2)

The heroes discovered five sets of child-sized footprints meandering northwest towards the orphanage. Their first stop in their quest to find the missing children was Elara's Halfway House, the scene of the infamous dare and the last place any of the children were known to be. The halfway house stands on a small hill about 8 miles outside of town, right on the edge of the wood. Elara's motives for building the orphanage so far away from the relative safety of town are a matter of some speculation in the village. Her isolation cost her her life and the destruction of everything she built.

As the heroes approached the site of the burned orphanage, they saw its blackened husk lying atop the hill. Charred timbers are strewn among piles of caked ash and the only edifice left standing is a soot-stained stone arch. A small stuffed doll lies below the arch, her face seared off and her patchwork dress spilling dirty stuffing. Beside her, a troop of half-melted tin soldiers stand in formation, their bodies twisted and deformed by the blaze that claimed their owner's life.

There was little of interest among the debris here, but the heroes found a charred trapdoor beneath an inch of ash at the center of the ruins. The lock was melted shut, but the door was badly damaged and easily smashed open.

The heroes breached the door and the stench of rot belched forth from this rank cellar. A chipped, blood-stained oaken table rests against one wall, with all manner of blades and barbed instruments laid out on it. A single pair of rusted shackles is bolted into the opposite wall, whose bricks are stained in a bloody account of pain and cruelty. The robed corpse of a woman on the floor is the source of the reeking stench of decay.

The woman did not die by fire. An examination of her corpse revealed the nature of her death (throat torn out) and a band of discolored skin on her ring finger.

Her corpse now plays host to the brood of spiders nesting in the basement. As soon as Wrackomelor approached the carcass, a swarm of spiders scuttled from her nose, eyes, mouth, and rent throat. Their proud mother lurked in a ceiling corner and descended to protect her children. After the heroes dispatched the spiders, they found two masterwork silver daggers and a damp rotten bundle of herbs among the implements on the table.

The heroes had tracked the children this far, and when they searched the area around the orphanage, they discovered a campsite not far from the ruins. A large, makeshift tent lies shredded on the ground beside a crude fireplace of flat stones. Signs of a struggle are everywhere, with broken twigs, crushed foliage, scraps of clothing, and patches of blood on the ground. The heroes also found a few reptilian scales around the fire pit. The reptilians made little effort to conceal their tracks through the forest and the heroes began to follow their trail.

Following the tracks of the reptilians, the heroes at last entered the perilous Darkmoon Wood. Even at high noon, little light breaches the rocky eaves and thick forest canopy, making night one with day.

On their second day of travel through the forest, the heroes happened upon the fresh corpse of a large wolf. On the branches above they noticed a manticore which hadn't seen them yet, so they decided to avoid it.

The heroes resumed the tracks of the reptilians and as they were trying to figure out how to cross the river, they noticed a teenage girl stalking them. When the heroes discovered her, she introduced herself as Jeva, a traumatized survivor of the orphanage fire. She begged the party for food before breaking into tears. Jeva was the young daughter of a well-to-do family of potters living in Falcon's Hollow. Her parents dead, Jeva ended up at Elara's Halfway House. Her ragged clothing hung off one shoulder to reveal horrible scars, and she avoided questions about them.

When asked about the missing children from Falcon's Hollow, Jeva was eager to help. She witnessed the kids' abduction because she was stalking the band of children herself before the kobolds attacked them. She was happy to help the heroes find the kids, and could show the way to their lair, Droskar's Crusible.

Jeva is a rail-thin, green-eyed girl of fourteen years, although she is particularly diminutive for her age. Her mouse-brown hair is a tangle of twigs and brambles and her face is smudged with dark stains. Her back, arms, and legs are covered with brutal scars.