Another fine winter day on top of House Kobra. The crew were sparring under the watchful eye of Captain Vixia and her temporary first mate Gul. (Birz was off on family business). When another three Drow approached, two were females Arla and Faylin, the third a mere male ,Berun ( a young blade from the Ghetto).
Arla has links to a top underworld boss, she is half Drow ,sired by an elf slave. So is of low birth , however this is of little consequence to those who live in the gutter. She has been trained in the Thieves Guild, and is looking to learn dungeoneering from her friend Kalan.
Faylin does not say much about herself...she watches and listens.
She does tend to get bored easily on long voyages, but usually finds something pleasant to do below decks with the more charismatic males.
Berun challenged Nsaar to a pistol duel for the rihgt to be gunner. Unluckily Nsaar's pistol jammed and Berun became the new Gunner.
Captain Vixia summoned the crew around her and told them of a map professor Cronk had found in an old book.
The map showed the location of a Tomb in a hidden valley in Minotaurus. A cat people village was nearby.
So the crew readied themselves and boarded the "Despair".
While flying across the Sorcerak jungle , a giant wasp was spotted off starboard, the ship wheeled to bring the ballista to bear and Berun shot down the Insect with two fine strikes.
When crossing Zirkast however , the Despair found itself in grave trouble.
A Lillend , having cast invisibility on herself, snatched the pilot and held the ship to ransom.
Leave the Dwarrows alone , or face what has befallen others".
She then dragged them to the burning hulk of the "Spiteful" of House Dragon.
Piled beside it were the corpses of the Drow crew.
Vixia ignored the warning and carried on to her objective.
To hell with warning anyone...that will put no gold in Kobra's coffers.
The Despair overflew the village and landed close to the Tomb , the scavengers were left in a small clearing in a wood , and told the ship would return on the morrow.
Approaching the entrance they came upon a party of like minded adventurers...some of them HUMAN !
The scavengers had never encountered humans before and wasted no time. Kalan fireballed them,dropping the mage and cleric at once. There was an Elf ,a Dwarf ,a Human Fighter and a Cronk thief still to deal with.
Soon though they were overpowered, the Elf being the most difficult as he turned invisible, but was soon tracked down by Kalan using a detect magic spell. A few key items were found. A Bullete shield by Gul, Magic chainmail on the Elf claimed by Kalan, potions of healing for Joruus and Berun. Also Joruus found some vials of holy water and a Holy Symbol on the dead cleric.
Gul opened the door to the Tomb with a knock spell, and the stench of death wafted from the opening.
Gul and Joruus led the way.There was adoor with a magic warning of some kind , Gul tried the door and a wave of evil magic coarsed down the corridor, He was cursed, his Strength drained from him. Luckily howver this did not matter , unless he lost his "Gauntlets of Ogre Power".
They continued through the door to a wide crossroads , with a heavy veil of magic darkness to each side and a door to the front. the started forward but were met by a horde of skeletons on each side.
These were no match for the Drow, who had equipped themselves with maces, the right tool for the job.
Another door to be dealt with, again Gul stepped forward and grasped the handle, this time he was Cursed with bad luck in battle. Gul was not having a good day...his mind was not on the job , (perhaps he was thinking of other things...he did spend a lot of time below decks with Faylin).
A short corridor presented itself next, with more writing !
Kalan then lost his senses and ordered Faylin to open the door.
A mere male ordering a female of House Kobra !!
The Affront...at least there were no other pureblood females there to witness it !
He then ordered his friend Arla to the front...who also declined the invitation with a glare.
Gul twice Cursed, agin stepped forward and opened the door................nothing happened this time.
With a sigh of relief.

The party entered what seemed to be the crypt, their was a sarcophagus and a chest . Gul spotted a secret door to.
From high up on the wall came awailing noise and three reapers flew down to slay the intruders.
Gul, Kalan, Joruus, Berun, Gorlab , Arla and Faylin survived the melee that followed.
But Zaylot fell in battle, his body stripped and discarded... as is the way with Drow.
Kalan found the chest to be empty and quipped ," it looks like Birz has beaten us to it again".
The sarcophagus was opened , and out leapt an iron viper which almost got Gorlab.
The Drow quickly surged forward and hacked it to pieces. The coffin was empty !
They took the secret door along a corridor to the real crypt.
A huge ornate sarcophagus with the relief of a large Cat hero , wearing an eyepatch of some kind was on the lid.
Two chests sat one on each side of this.
Kalan raced to one and Joruus the other.
A wraith appeared between them from the coffin.
Kalan struck out with his magic blade and Joruus threw vials of holy water.
The wraith grabbed Kalan and the others in horror could see his life force being sucked out.
Kalan broke free and doubled his efforts, and finally he and Joruus destroyed the monster.
But Kalan was left drained, a shadow of his former self.
However only slowed for a moment he opened a chest to find thousands of gold pieces, the same was in the other box.
The sarcophagus was opened, Kalan snatched the eyepatch from the cats skull, while Berun and Joruus wrestled with the sword found next to the hero.Faylin stepped up and removed a small bag on the heroes belt.
When the gold was counted it was 12000 coins. a fine haul for House Kobra.
"We shall all take a share as usual and leave some for the House" said Kalan
"How much for us" said Berun ?
"As much as we think we can get away with" said Kalan with a wink.
"How very interesting" thought Faylin...but she said nothing.
For she had a fortune in black sapphires in her pocket.
Later, the ship returned home and joined in a large raid on the Dwarrow village which harboured the Lillind.
Their homes were burned to the ground ,the males and females put to the sword , the children taken for slaves.
The Lillend was destroyed by a conjured daemon and revenge was sweet.
The Scavengers (so called by Matron Agna) found a Pseudo-dragon pining for his dead master.
It is currently in a cage in the Lab, where Gorlab spends much time talking to it and feeding it mice.
Nsaar is often found reading there to. His nightmares are getting worse.