It was a gray and miserable day when my companions and I set out to find a secret entrance to the Inn. I had been doing my best to convince my companions to aid me in my search for the secret entrance. Many of my fellow adventurers were eager to go exploring in the Monastary, but I eventually convinced them that we could scout around for the entrance and still have time to adventure in the Monastery.

So we went to speak with Sir Yinnivax and inform him that we were setting off to find the entrance. He was glad to hear it, but he was very busy in that it he was preparing a troop of men to relieve the King’s guard. He said that he might have to lead them himself.

So we set off to find the entrance. With me were three clerics of the light, Mazlor, Alana and Sal, the monk Ja’kar, the fighter Fergus, the thief (expert treasure hunter?) Balto, and the mage Pyria. As it was a gloomy day with continuous thunderstorms, we decided to make use of the weather and scout around the inn with the further cover of night. Mazlor had come prepared with a locate object spell which he felt would help to find the entrance.
We were extremely fortunate, within a few minutes of casting his spell, he felt that he knew where the entrance was!!! Unfortunately, it was only 20 yards away from the palisade wall! Nevertheless, we had Balto use the cover of darkness and the muffling effect of the storms to sneak around and find it. We timed the patrol and found that the orc patrol circled the palisade once every half hour. With this information, we devised our plan. Balto tied a rope around a nearby stump, we covered the rope with mud to disguise it, then Mazlor cast silence 15’R on a coin so that we could clamber down the rope silently. We went two at a time and everything went as planned!! We were in the caverns below the Inn!
We then set out to explore the area to find an entrance. I consulted Jorann’s map, but found it difficult to determine our location. After many hours of mapping, one brief encounter with Sturges who latched onto both Ja’kar and Fergus. We were finally able to align Jorann’s map with our position. It should be noted here that while Jorann is my mentor and I have the greatest respect for her, her mapping skills are decidedly inept!!!
Nevertheless, we were able to find the three access points into the Inn’s basement. It only remained to try to find a concealed entrance that would be more accessible than the hole we entered by. We decided that instead of trying to escape the way we came in, we would rest here and continue exploring.
In the morning(?), we continued exploring a likely seeming branch and eventually encountered an extremely old and wizened kobold who appeared to have a giant rat farm. Instead of attacking him and his rats, we talked to him. As it turns out, this was a wise move as he showed us the way out. He had a concealed entrance inside the cover of the woods. A perfect entrance to bring in an assault force.
We rushed back to town to inform Sir Yinnivax that we had succeeded! Only to find that he had already left with the force to relieve the King’s guard. We were shown directly to the Marshal himself.
I tried explaining all that I had found, but I fear that in my eagerness, I did a poor job. Luckily, my companions were able to help out. The Marshal was very gladdened at our news and began to plan for an assault. He charged us with creating a diversion inside and, most importantly, to open the gate!
As it was going to take him about a week to summon his forces, we decided to visit Sir Reynauld at the Monastery and see what was going on there. The Marshal gave Mazlor a message for Reynauld, presumably to join in the assault.
We found Reynauld and his personal guard by the Monastery and he told us that his men were below and they had almost succeeded in clearing out the first level. They had avoided the fountain room and had encountered a headless body that they seemed unable to defeat.
We decided that we would go down and see what we could do to help …..