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Night's Terror Darkens...
The companions realised they were trespassing on sacred ground. A shaman came charging through the greying mist in an attempt to chase them from his "holy place". A handful of his followers followed close on his heels, hurling missiles such as throwing axes and painted slingstones. Then they closed on mass for hand-to-hand combat wielding long bones, the shaman chanting and shaking a rattle to invoke spells of dark magic, and so on.
The party stumbled down the mountainside, desperately trying to escape of the thick curling mist which surrounded them. Finally they emerged into the river valley beneath. They made camp that night and slept uneasily. At dawn they heard the sound of wardrums. Angered at the incursion onto their ritual centre, it sounded as though the gnolls had amassed a small army and were preparing to hunt their quarry. The party was left with no option but to flee upstream in the hope of somehow evading pursuit.
The trail of the ancient road was picked up again, crumbling as it was and in ruins after not having been used in centuries. It was completely overgrown in parts with weeds and thick grass, at other times the trail could barely be made out at all. The companions ultimately decided that the river would provide a more constant means of progress.
Still they heard inhuman howlings from the south, and the beating of drums - the gnolls were not far off, and seemed to be pursuing their prey relentlessly, perhaps even closing the distance.
The hunt is on...
The next day Lana's alertness and Threy's sense of impending danger alerted the party that an ambush lay ahead on the trail ahead. Some-how a group of gnolls has circumvented their path! With the way ahead blocked, and the remainder of the enemy army behind, a face-off seemed unavoidable. With this in mind Karnus reached into his mount's saddlebag and drew out the polished Stone of Earth Elemental Control. Minutes later an earthen giant hauled itself out of the ground at Karnus's feet. With the merest thought its summoner sent the Elemental thundering into the midst of the oncoming horde, while his companions readied spells and weapons to face the oncoming ambush. The battle proved fierce, and the elemental did much to decimate the enemy number, but still many dozens of gnolls remained. The companions fought until they had broken through the gnoll blockade, whereupon they made a desperate dash upstream, while Karnus and the elemental bought them a short but invaluable headstart.
Through canny deployment of the elemental Karnus managed to hold back the party's pursuers for a short time, but decided to take a serious risk to improve his companions' chances of escape. He flew to the rear of the gnoll army, bidding the elemental follow him, then released control of the creature. Having been freed, the elemental's first thought was to kill its master, but to do so it would need to negotiate the horde of gnolls remaining between it and the blue-robed wizard. Thus, Karnus made his escape via magical flight while the elemental continued to lay waste to his opponents.
Karnus quickly caught up with his remaining party members, who by that point were a good mile or so ahead of the gnolls. They forded the river at the base of a massive waterfall, spying what appeared to be a cave opening on the far side. Wasting no time, the companions urged their mounts into the icy waters of the Foamfire River and crossed to its other side. Both Drewen and his pony took a complete soaking. It then became apparent that cave opening in fact led to an immense stairway carved into the rocky inside of the hill, leading many hundreds of feet upward.
Without a second thought they begin to climb the stone steps, leading their mounts further up into the mountains. Reaching the top of the stairs after a long and exhausting climb, the party found themselves standing atop an ancient bridge, looking down many hundreds of feet above the base of the thundering waterfall.
Looking down, the party can make out the forms of the gnoll army below, but who were not willing to cross the treacherous river and follow their prey. The companions gave cries of triumph as they watched the gnolls turn and march off downstream.
The day was drawing to a close, therefore camp needed to be made; at so great a height the wind was howling mercilessly, and the heavy waterfall drowned out most other sounds, therefore the party sought shelter for the night in a small stone tower on one side of the ancient bridge. Pushing back the double doors, they discovered a small room inside in which both they and their mounts could rest for the night. Whether their rest would be undisturbed remained to be seen. The room was bare save for two peculiar items - a wand and a magical scroll! These treasures were not without their guardians, as two metal statues (dog-headed, in the Hutaakan fashion) lumbered forward to attack the weary party.
Managing to overcome this threat, the party of seven companions prepared to camp, leaving the two magic-users to debate which of them should keep which magical treasure. Lana requested the scroll to supplement the dusty contents of her spellbook. Karnus satisfied himself with another new magical item, whose powers seemed to turn any recipient into any other shape or form - a wand of polymorphing.
Mountain trek
Lana pored over the scroll for her portion of the night's watch; her study was disturbed on more than one occasion by the flapping of leathery wings outside the tower doors. Dismissing these sounds as probably just bats, the young woman went back to her work. A short while later, Drewen relieved Lana of her duty, and took the second watch. The remainder of the night passed without incident.
The party pressed onward into the mountains the next day, where the trail became harder and harder to follow, now little more than a foot-wide ledge in many places. At intervals the way was blocked by fallen boulders, or missing in parts. Through careful maneouvring and assisting one another the companions managed not to plummet to certain doom, however their steeds proved not so fortunate - four of the party's seven mounts lost their footing and fell from the track.
At one point the companions had to descend a gorge and climb the other side to continue on their way. Drewen's mule was unable to overcome its nerves and refused to go anywhere. Rather than desert the beast on a ledge in the middle of nowhere, Karnus used a charge from his new wand to transform the mule into a more easily-transportable snail! After using the item, however, Karnus informed his companions that he had been left with a peculiar head-ache.
Not wishing to suffer the same fate as the party's horses, Lana cast a Fly spell and descended to the bottom of the chasm. Here she found a cave from whose dark interior a foul stench emanated. While her companions climbed down the chasm wall, Lana decided to investigate. She flew a short way into the cave, and willed light to appear from the end of her dagger hilt. Inside was a long, spiny-backed lizard, with long, curving teeth. Lana flew to the ceiling, trying to evade the lizard's teeth, but was bitten for a hefty amount of damage. Unwilling to suffer a second such bite, Lana flew swiftly back outside. She thought best to fly back to the opposing chasm wall and assist her companions in their own descent. She did so, and for a moment could have sworn she heard the flap of leathery wings, but after a long silence thought nothing more of it.
All seven party members now reached the bottom, and made their way to climb the opposite wall. There came a roar however as the lizard charged from its cave with teeth bared wide. The companions battled with the creature, and took some severe casualties. Wishing to investigate the beast's lair more thoroughly, Lana stepped back inside the cave but began to gag on the sickly stench of decaying flesh, and was forced to retreat. The other six began one by one to climb the wall.
Hunted still!
Drewen stayed last to make sure no other creatures disturbed the party's climb. As Threy reached the top of the chasm, Drewen set foot on the mountainside and prepared to rejoin his comrades. But suddenly there came the swooping sound of wings... leathery wings! And a massive beast charged down from the skies - a beast with the body of a lion, the facee of a man, twisted into a smiling grimace, bat wings and a curling, stinging tail! Drewen was forced to enter combat one-on-one with this foul monster, who had been stalking the party for the past 2 days now, waiting to strike when one party member seemed most isolated from his comrades.
The courageous dwarf fought valiantly but could feel his own strength sapping - he too had suffered heavy wounding from the fight with the giant lizard. The other companions could do little from such a great distance, high atop the mountainside. Lana choked back her sick feeling, and summoned enough self-control to cast one spell - a bolt of lightning streaked down the mountainside and sizzled into the monster's flesh! Drewen landed some final blows of his own, and the beast lay still at last.
The party continued on and the next day were plagued this time by a flock of griffons while trying to cross an old stone bridge. Karnus managed to distract one with a spell, but the others set upon the remaining parties and tried to push them off the bridge, where a long dark drop awaited them! Indeed Lana's horse reared in fear at the sight of the winged monsters, and threw the mage straight over the side of the walkway. Lana's foot was caught up in the bridle though, and her companions managed to pull her to safety.
At last the companions came to a long, gaping chasm, where on the other side stood a set of twin doubledoors, each over 20 feet tall and cast of ancient bronze. Lana enchanted Steven and Sligh with Fly spells, and the two sturdy fighters between them carried the remaining party members across the chasm without difficulty. Surely this was the ancient valley, the Lost Valley of Hutaaka, at last!!
The Gates of Hutaaka ... the guardian
The doors were heavy and would not budge. Lana's spells were called upon once more - with use of a Knock incantation, the green-robed mage stood at the threshold of Hutaaka and bid the ancient portals open. Creaking with age, they did so.
Once inside, however, the party stumbled upon the guardian of the Valley - a centuries old magical construct! This golem stood as high as the double doors, himself built of bronze, and an intense heat radiated from the creature's metal body. Stepping close to do battle, the thing sprayed liquid magma at the party members, from its very fingertips! At long last, through use of weapons and spells, the beast toppled to the ground, and the companions entered into the Valley proper.