The party made its way back to Gallow’s Corner where they were greeted by Roycean the Beadle and another human, along with a half dozen Halfling villagers. After a brief conversation, the party was taken by Roycean in a round-about way to Haeithius’ Manor where Toman was waiting at the gate and the Lord Haethius was making his way from the Manor to the gate.

After a brief discussion in the courtyard, the party retired into Haethius’ “Lord’s Chamber” or hall where they continued their discussion about the events that had transpired. Haethius sent for the Canon of the local Church to see to their wounds; and the party gave offering to the Church of Saint Cuthbert as well.

The party entrusted Haethius with The Anvil of the Lortmil Mountains as well as a golden chalice which rightfully belongs to the Church of Rao which he placed in his vault. Haethius also aided the party in discerning which other items among those brought before him were magical. The spear taken from the female kobold was an elvish spear; and the group decided that Durin should use it. Haethius and the group also think that the wizard is seeking to control dragons based on the items found and how he was using Anyara’s elven blood and hair to make potions.

Grimm pointed out that perhaps someone had sold out Anyara when she left Ostverk; and so a plan was decided on to find out if anyone in Gallow’s Corner was also a spy for the evil wizard that knew all about Anyara’s travel and had captured her. A party was called of all the important (and not so important) within the village as well. As the festivities began to celebrate the heroic freeing of two villagers Din and Tin, the party was introduced to a new visitor to the village: a Grey Elf Magic-User named S’tir who had come to the village to discover why the northern verges of Celene had recently been raided by Kobolds.

The party began and the group met several other individuals; had items appraised and much more. None, however, seemed to be discernible as evil.

The next day, the group went into the village to take care of some business, while Grimm walked Gallow’s Corner with Haethius to see if anyone who hadn’t come to the party might be an evil agent…but Haethius’ scrying and magical detections picked up nothing.

Grimm and Belrum worked together and crashed the door open with their great strength…and came face to face with a grim giant and several kobolds! More to their surprise, there was a dwarf held captive in the chamber as well!

The party quickly set to attacking the giant, which they learned was a Verbeeg. The party faired well at first, but the giant struck hard at Kaffe and knocked her to the ground with a mighty blow of its huge ironbound wooden maul. While Grimm pulled her back, the new dwarf Durin freed himself from his bonds and aided Belrum in fighting the giant…which quickly fell to the furious assault.

Belrum was somewhat injured as well, and the party decided to take a short break to barricade the door (with the body of the giant!) and search the room. Kaffe, barely conscious and hurting badly was quaffing wine from Grimm’s wineskin to dull the pain and help her stagger back to her feet. Durin found a treasure chest under the staircase; though it did have a dead Halfling in it…half eaten!

After a short rest, and no apparent activity from outside the door, three of the party decided to venture up the stairs. They lit a lantern to better see…but were nearly surprised by the attack of a gigantic raven! The party moved against the bird rather quickly and a second bird joined the attack. Before the party could slay the giant birds, one of them actually shouted out in Common Speech “Flee Master!”.

Having a very quick look around the lair of the giant ravens, a nest was found with two eggs, surrounded by shiny electrum and silver coins and some few gems as well. Having a sense of urgency, the party ran up the stairs quickly…Durin in the lead. As he came to the landing of the final level he noticed it was somewhat lit by braziers in the room. As he rounded a corner, an evil wizard attacked him with a spell that gravely wounded him. A female kobold then attacked him as well…apparently the mate of the evil wizard!?!?

The kobold was quickly dispatched and the party thought they had the wizard cornered; but an attack that would have rung true instead simply caused an illusion to falter and fade! Belrum began moving quickly about the tower thinking the wizard invisible and finally found where the vile man was and started attacking his unseen foe as best he could. Grimm then came to the fray as well and actually landed a blow that caused the wizard to appear…but BLACK blood was on Grimm’s weapon. Another blow landed amid the flurry of attempts to kill the wizard, and the man’s hood fell away revealing he had horns coming from his forehead! With a threat upon their lives, the man-thing whirled his cloak about him and leapt out the window in the form of a bat!

Having secured the tower, the party went back down to free the halflings, and sent them hurrying back to Gallow’s Corner with news.

Exploring the room found many treasures, but the party also found chained to the top of the tower the Elven Lady Priest of Labelas Enoreth named Anyara. The party spied another patrol of Kobolds approaching the tower, and so the three dwarven warriors, still gravely wounded, ventured down to give battle again. They quickly broke the kobolds, with two attempting to flee, and three orcs set with blades bare onto Belrum and Grimm while Durin gave chase in an opposite direction.

The Durin’s kobold got away, just as he heard the dour call of Grimm shouting for aid…Belrum had fallen; slashed from behind by an orc. The two dragged their fellow back into the tower, and set about barricading the door again with the dead giant’s body; and then pulled their friend up the stairs to the wizard’s lair. Luckily, Kaffe had found Anyara’s silver holy symbol, and the priestess was able to heal the party of nearly all its wounds!

Gathering their many treasures, the raven eggs included, the party moved down to leave the tower and make their way out…and into yet another grand melee! At least a dozen kobolds awaited the party, who quickly made haste away from the crossbow wielding little dogmen and into the courtyard to make good their escape. Yet another Verbeeg was moving to stop them though, in tow a pair of orcs behind him. The party decided to make their stand in the courtyard.

Surprisingly, the two orcs left off quickly…not afraid, but as if they were simply done with the whole affair or had other places to be. They moved quickly south deeper into the hills. The party battled mightily, slaying every single kobold and the Verbeeg as well; though some minor wounds were suffered, and Grimm stood toe to toe with the giant for some time before it fell.

Having defeated their foes, and not knowing if more were yet to come; the party left off from the ruined temple and began their trek back to Gallow’s Corner.

The party has ventured south of Gallow’s Corner to the ruins of an old church of Rao that was destroyed years ago by the minions of the Temple of Elemental Evil. As they approached, they noticed that the place was obviously inhabited, as it had crude wooden fences erected around it.

Deciding to approach from the east, the party crept up to the stockade area there and found that the fence was “guarded” by a pair of sleeping Kobolds. Kaffe quietly moved through the fence and forever silenced the two kobolds, which then allowed her pair of dwarven companions to move into the fenced area as well.

Once there, the party realized that the many cages there actually held not only sheep, chickens and other livestock…but a pair of halflings as well! Instructing the pair to stay put and stay quiet, the party moved toward the door of the east wall to gain entry and hopefully to dispatch any guards in the tower over-looking the cages.

As Belrum opened the door, he realized an orc was standing guard within! Belrum, ready for combat rushed the orc and with one mighty swing, the orc’s head was crushed and its body slammed to the floor…but Belrum had noticed he had run right past two other orc guards in the hall to the north. Too late to tell Grimm and Kaffe, the two rushed in behind Belrum, Grimm quickly turning south to find the door to the tower; only Kaffe realized that the orcs were there.

The other two guards cautiously moved down the hall; but were also quickly dispatched in battle by the party. Quickly moving south to the tower door then, the party was again beset by foes: four kobolds yapped and ran down a hallway toward them. The little dog-men caught Kaffe by surprise and exacted some small revenge against her (unknowingly in truth) for the death of their companions in the courtyard; but then the four were essentially massacred by the brutal strength of the trio.

The game left off with the party ready to move into the tower; though they had discovered prior to their fight with the kobolds that the door was seemingly barred from the other side.

The party has come to Gallow’s Corner looking to both help the locals in chasing off humanoids in the area, as well as collect on the bounty that is currently being offered by the various Lords of the Viscounty on kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins and more!