The exercise in the new recruits

        I've been waiting for a long time and finally got around to adventuring again. Knowing one of the "Pras'" everyone so knows I gathered Omar, and Clepto Swiftfinger. But we needed some new adventurers to teach them the ropes a little bit. Our group managed to find a young cleric named Jona Jones, Thorn Xiloscient a warrior, Kahlen a mage, and a fighter with a name of "Cool Kid Kickhead." (Nice huh?)
        After some laughs at the absurdity of our party, we all decided to descend to Dogrum's Keep. Most of us only went there once if at all. So we left the next morning.
        At about midday we were surprised. Three ankhegs came from beneath the ground and Kickhead, Xiloscient and myself flew from our horses. Well, donkey for Kickhead. Our group decided not to follow them down. Probably wouldn't be a good idea.
        We were slowed because our horses had to double up on riders. So the night we decided to camp. During my shift with Kahlen, we heard noise in the brush. Turned out to be 21 orcs. Easily slaughtered. But, why such a large party? Lair. So we all searched. Of course, Clepto found it first. And did we find one. In a pine tree was 3 bags of gems on the ground. The rest were in the tree, with Clepto go figure. So we "retrieved" him and gathered up all the gems and all the electrum we found on the orcs. Turned out to be 52 electrum and 35(!) gems.
        The next day we headed into Lassic. Clerics needed to rest up because of the healing they administered to us. So we did.
        The following day we rode into Dogrum's at the end of the day. What we noticed were tons of bones outside the door and an odd sound inside. We finally found out that the slurping sound was a spider behind the door eating. (until we torched him)
        Something else happened. The floor panels were checkered in black, white and red. We walked on the floor and nothing happened. But we ran into things as we walked when nothing was there before. Quite odd actually.
        Searching quickly we heard noises outside of us. Rocks were being slid into the doors to seal us in. The main doors were sealed, so we ran to the back stable doors. We almost got out. But we realized giants are out there. Maybe we'd be better inside.
        So we were heading to an office room to sleep when we encountered 2 manticores. Unhappy ones. That didn't seem too much a task so we continued on to find 2 more manticores. We found the females and they went into a rage finding dead male manticores laying next to us. They perished swiftly.
        We went to main hallway to get to the office room when the main doors' rock was heaved away. We saw giant legs waiting for us. Found out, that a storm giant blocked us in to kill the manticores. We did and he stopped his storm and lightning to fly back to his castle in the sky.
        Three members of the party saw a human leg escape around the corner, so naturally we followed. The rain stopped but the ground was still soft, footprints were left behind. We tracked them into some small brush and a young human male came out yelling for his life. He said he was lost and got a huge scratch on his back. We obviously didn't trust him. Not here. So we let him spend the night with us for protection then leave him in the morning. During the night we heard scratching sounds, we learned later that the manticores were dragged out of the dungeon. But "Josh" our lost traveler was given some food and a dagger and he left.
        We know of a magic room here so we debate whether it's through the dead bodies room or in the obvious stairs coming near the main hall. We checked the great hall where the corpses are. The bodies were gone! So was the ceiling. I thought that odd, so I threw one of my continual light coated stones against the ground. It never touched the ground, it rested a foot off the ground. Illusion. We all saw it over time except for Clepto, he's a little slow.
        A large discussion came out of this whether the secret room was through the carcass filled room or in the main stairway by the entrance. So we decided to check that out first. It appeared to us as a stairway heading up. Illusion. So we walked down and saw the huge crate room with crates everywhere and no path. I thought maybe we should make our own. The first box I smash makes the entire room empty as it is. Bad idea. There's a small black dragon waiting in the middle of the room. I charge and sweep at air as I slice. Another illusion.
        We know there's a secret room here so we find it and find 10 bags inside. The last time we were here there were only 4. Not good. So the party starts opening the bags up. Well, after some time, we found out that there were only 4 bags with gold in them. 1000 gp each. The other 8 bags were trapped. Almost every character took a little explosion damage.
        We come back out of the secret room and the same dragon is sitting there looking at us. This time we just ignore it as we walk to the dumbwaiter. Kahlen, being strong, decides to walk in first. It drops. He falls a good 15 feet if not more. We all laugh and we help him control the ropes to bring the thing up. Doesn't work, go figure.
        Out jumps the group to the "Boxed" room. Same dragon again! We run by it to the stairs, which are fake to look the opposite direction.
        We run up to go to the stables to get outside to get inside to the other secret area. The party sees Josh outside. He evidently caught a deer with a dagger. Odd for a human to be capable of that but he has nothing to do with us so, oh well.
        Inside the stables are 13 kobolds. Which are fake. But the wizard at the end of the stables isn't. He demands why we're here and I try to leave and am frozen in place. He holds someone else but I was unable to see them. He laughs and releases us. He was wearing blue but changes to red. Even his face. I throw a dagger and bury it to the hilt. Nice. He goes invisible and the ceiling is crumbling. We evade only to find ourselves in a fireball. Clepto and Thorn died. I went unconscious but I heard that Omar commanded magically for the magic user to freeze while Kahlen sent some magic at him. They killed him. I was healed and during that, they found two excellent gems on him.
        We try to go back outside but realize, we can't solve the puzzles. We need wax, typical to forget this sort of thing.
        As the party we leave. But this time we take the shorter route through Clir. So we ride to Clir with our two dead bodies. We exchange our gems and resurrect Clepto, Thorn wasn't spared. Sorry about that. During the night, evidently there was a full moon, a wererat had sneaked into Omar's room and was rummaging around in his stuff. He took a potion and left when Omar yelled for help.
        We arrived home to find ourselves a little richer, (29,672 gp total) and a little more experienced. All in all, success granted again.