Jennifer:
We spent several days in the woods while Zora and Lux fought of Corpse Bloat, which we caught in the fight where those little bone dust bunnies bit us. The Corpse Bloat weakens your strength. We were attacked in the woods by an Ettercap and spiders, and that's when Zora was killed. Because she was still affected by corpse bloat, we thought it best to burn her body.
We were joined by Avianna, "Avi", who was traveling through the woods. A skilled woodsman, she fights with two maces. After talking with her a bit, we asked her to join us. Eugen told her she had to stand up front and fight.
We got back to the hideout and used our plank. After crossing with our fancy plank, we heard it get knocked in the pit behind us. Lux ran and jumped back over the pit to take out the skeleton that did it. We then fished the plank out and got back to business.
Lux bashed in the door, to a very sarcastic clapping from Avi. Lux's last words spoken to her were "Fuck off." We battled De Boner and another little bone dust bunny. Lux killed De Boner, but took major damage in the fight. We entered the hall and descended a short set of stairs. It opened into a room with about eight zombies and the Orc Necromancer bitch. The zombies flanked the room, and she was behind a large, 20 foot wide alter with a white hand that rose 5 feet in the air. Oso and the Orc took turns turning and rebuking the undead. Lux, raging and bull-strengthed, made a heroic flying leap over the alter to get to the orc. Unfortunately, she had only 7 hit points. She got in one good attack on the Orc, but then succumbed to the zombie's attacks. The party managed to defeat the Orc and the zombies, but it was a really tough fight.
The party explored the place, and found lots of books. At this point I wasn't paying a lot of attention, because I was generating a new character, but I think they found some opals, gold, diamonds and stuff. I think there was a book in Ancient Sueliese, and lots in orcish and Ancient Flan. The party was joined by a new person, Danay (my new character.) She greeted the party, "You must be the adventurers that left from town!" When asked who she was and what she does she said, "I'm Danay. I sneak. I get into things that I'm not supposed to get in to. I like getting people to talk and to tell me things that maybe I'm not supposed to know. Can I join you guys? I'm out to see fame and fortune - or really, pretty much anything than rotting in that god-forsaken town. They tried to get me to work a 'real job', but there's no way they can keep me there."
Buck:
The opals, blah, blah, blah were all special spell components, primarily of value to clerics.
In addition to the orc priestess and her undead, there was a flying piece of skin that ate the flesh off of Eugen and multiplied. Before any looting could be done, the party scooped up Lux's body and retreated from the complex.
We spent a day recovering, and carried Lux to the top of the mountain and left her to return to the elements in the barbarian way. We went in the next day and mopped up the remaining zombies and skin eaters. That's when we met Danay and she helped us find the opening for a secret door.
Behind the secret door was a nasty undead creature of cold who stiffened our bodies with a touch and sucked the breath out of our lungs. In an extended battle that left everyone down and dying except Eugen, who dropped the beast with an arrow.
A handful of recently looted cure potions restored everybody and now we are in the secret room with a small library. We have learned that there is a type of magic that can summon entities that provided gifts and are interested in pursuing this further.