Date: April 4, 2012
PCs: Pritchard Hood, Richard Loubeau, "Lord Zee"
Henchmen: "Ehric the Cleric"
DM: OtspIII
Summary
Hearing of a madman who returned to his village sewn into an animal costume and with a gemstone growing from his forehead, a handful of Company members traveled to the Vallée de Malaise in hopes of prying other precious jewels from the skulls of raving bumpkins. Upon arrival, they coaxed a few fragments of gossip from the six-year-old child running a general store, but failed to persuade the lad to join the Company as a monster snack hireling.
Learning that the madman had jabbered something about a local river, the party — including the warrior-adept Ehric, assigned as an aide to Richard by the Temple of Trianoma — scouted the area, where they found tracks in the red mud of the riverbank that led to a cave.
The cave proved the opening to an extensive system of caverns. Therein, the Company encounterd various weird phenomena involving rabbits. Some were drowned, others hung from the ceiling by ropes. All were oddly preserved and their flesh strangely denatured so as to burst horribly on impact.
Also present in the caves were a variety of monsters. These included a band of giant shrews — which almost made off with the delectable Lord Zee as a snack — as well as a party of gnolls sewn into giant rabbit costumes. All were slain by the party.
Next in the interminable passages and chambers was a room full of cages, one of which contained a long-suffering bear. While trying to determine what to do with the beast — put it out of its misery? Haul it to civilization and sell it to Panthalion the Fleshcrafter? — the party was ambushed by a horrid chimera of greyhound and hare, which was quickly subdued.
Further exploration led to the heart of the labyrinth. There, a gnoll shaman with a jewel set in his forehead performed some infernal rite to animate a golem-like mass of animal and humanoid corpses in the shape of a giant rabbit. The rabbit-golem also had a jewel in its forehead, a topaz as large as a fist, and that awakened the Company's cupidity. In the ensuing battle, Pritchard and Zee kept the shaman occupied while the party's more clerically inclined members destroyed the golem-monster and seized its mighty gemstone.
The shaman fled. Pritchard animated one of the corpses that had comprised the rabbit-golem, and with it in the lead they pursued their final foe. But the shaman proved too wily and elusive. With their prey escaped from the caverns and fled into the woods, the Company returned to civilization, richer in gemstone and in the wisdom that comes of being gnawed on by weird monsters in caves.
Losses and Loot
Defeated adversaries included four giant shrews, four gnolls in rabbit costumes, one demonic rabbit-greyhound hybrid, one giant bunny-shaped meat golem and one gnoll shaman. Each PC received 280xp.
The party retrieved 100sp, 3gp, 1pp, a huge topaz worth 2500gp and a potion of undead control. Each PC received a share of 839gp.