Following the rough path they has seen in the sky the party headed wet, into the dangerous moors on the far side of Lake Spendlowe. They soon discovered how dangerous when they encountered wild bears, a strange jack-in-the-box things, a screaming cat and a massive bat – and all before they spotted where the Shooting Star landed. When they climber to investigate the crater they discovered that the shooting star had been removed - but Fern, the ranger, able to spot the tracks of the creatures that took it.

The tracks lead to an underground lair of Derro, small evil fey, that had collapsed when the meteor struck. The party had to fight their way through the Derro, killing those that remained, before they could claim the stone – a massive gemstone for themselves. However, they were able to save three madmen, who had been forced into servitude as slaves of the Derro.

They set off to The Tower of the Heavens, where they knew That Shafley, senior sage and keeper of the books, would be able to provide them with information about the stone. However, their path was blocked by a Giant Beaver dam, and the beavers were supported by a village of hunters whom they had allied with. Fortunately, Mulog the Druid was able able to negotiate passage with the Beavers, and one of the freed slaves turned out to be a man missing from the hunters village - so they were able to befriend the men as well.

Later they were attacked by what they thought was an evil Shadow Monk and his minions and they were concerned that the monks from the Tower of the Heavens might be against them. However, when they met the gate keeper, Hadley, they were told that Shaffley was being held prisoner in his rooms, buy his apprentice – who had turned to evil. They had to fight their way through the tower to find Shaffley, but managed to do it without killing to man innocents – instead they knocked then unconscious or stabilised them as they could, and healing them once they were tied. Some died of course, including the evil apprentice, but most of the guards and sages survived.

Shaffley told them that the Shooting star had been foretold, and that it must be taken to the Forge-Masters – who would exchange it for a book of prophecies – and that he would reward them handsomely when they returned with the books.

The Forge-Masters, turned out to be a group of deep gnomes who had found a matching prophesy and were guarding the location of the books until the Shooting Star was brought to them. After a minor skirmish, they met the Forge-Masters and arranged the transfer. However, as soon as the exchange had been completed the Forge-Masters took their leave and started to blow up their workshops. To complicate matters a pair of small dragons that the Forge-Masters had befriended were circling outside. Fortunately, the rest of the underground lair remained intact, and after a night to recuperate, Seamus the Paladin challenged the dragons to combat. A long battle ensued, with all of the party involved, and eventually the dragons were defeated - allowing the group to claim their small horde for themselves. Before they Left Marvello (the Mage) and Cal (the rogue) managed to recruit some of the Forge-Masters’ Gibberling slaves and their minimal horses to come and work for them, and Mulog managed to half-tame three massive Lizards, who had served as mounts and beasts of burden.

Back at the Tower of the heavens, Shaffley had taken back control and it was a very subdued group of sages and guards who guided the party to meet the Keeper of the Books. True to his word, he rewarded them with a magical item each as well as giving them the magical items that had belonged to his evil assistant.

Then it was back home via Hallbridges, the capital – where Sir Joromi (The Squire) congratulated them and promised to send more people to help them develop their homes.

After the buffet there were the rewards. First up was the Governor, who made them all Officers of the Order of Berhof and gave them a medal to prove it. OK, there was a bit of cash involved to, although a large part of his largess appeared to be casting a blind eye towards most of the things they took from the keep. Next up was the Abbot with a small cash reward for helping out one of his followers while they were dealing with issues at Kusnir. Then came the Laird.

The first reward went to Marvello of the von Athog family. He was awarded title to the lakeside villa that had once belonged to his ancestors – but was charged with keeping an eye on Kusnir and providing arcane advice when required. The representatives of Kusnir cheered loudly when it was first announced, but were a bit more subdued when the Laird announced That Marvello was to be Reeve of Kusnir and a minor tax was required to support the Villa. However, it appeared that the tax was to be managed locally and Kusnir just had to pay for a few staff in the villa.

The second reward was to Seamus the Paladin who was given title to a disused and ruined shellkeep just outside Kusnir. Again this was greeted with cheers, for the paladin had given over 200gp of his own money to help rebuild their village. They weren’t even surprised when Seamus was announced as Reeve of Gannaway and that the villagers needed to supply building labour and then a small retinue to service the keep once it was built. Fortunately there is enough fallen stone to rebuild the walls and the gatehouse - although there isn’t enough to build anything else there.

Fern the Ranger was appointed Warden of the East and was told that a small tower and dwelling would be built for her at Bramblewarren, a favoured stopping place for trade caravans entering Berhof from the Aldweg road. Mulog the druid was tasked with watching the marshes and swamps on the southern shore of Lake Spendlow, where he will be able to raise Giant Frogs in their natural surroundings. Stonewall the Barbarian was given another small tower, north of Gannaway and charged with watching the mountains for signs of Hob-goblins, Gnolls or Giants.

The last formal reward saw Cal the Dwarf given title to the palisaded caves that ‘The Hammer’ had liberated from the half-orc bandits. He too was charged with watching the mountains for possible signs of invasion.

Craster Strainter, a well-respected Halfling merchant from Hallbridges offered to take their goods to The Tannery where they would get best prices for their ‘loot’ and have the widest range of purchase options in the region. Seamus arranged to ride along with the caravan and visit the Temple of Iomedae, his mother house, in the suburbs of that city.

Cal took the opportunity to mingle with the two wealthy Dwarves who were there – one of whom runs a brewery, the other runs the Unicorn Inn. While he was talking about business, trade and dwarves heroes, he was surreptitiously checking their families over for a potential bride. He also used their connections to send message to the dwarven community at Melmond that he had work available for willing Dwarves.

Marvello took the opportunity to speak with his family members, telling them that now he had a home, he was minded to take a wife. While his mother just cocked her eyebrows, his two aunts were in their element and promised to scour their contact books for suitable candidates.

When they reached the keep they discovered that it had already been taken, although the sentinel guided them in through a magically sealed door in the under under croft. The lower levels had been abandoned many years previously when the last of the magical protectors (Marvello’s ancestors) had been relieved of their duties. Their first task was to overcome the magical protections installed by the magical guardians - and a small colony of Giant Ants that had found a way inside. Then they were able to fight their way through the Gnoll who had overrun the place. It was a long hard fight, but the worked their way up the floors, fighting and overcoming the garrison. As they did they managed to rescue a few of the soldiers from the original garrison and took a small group of female gnolls prisoner. Due to a mis-understanding (and some interesting grapple rolls) one of the females though that Mulog the Druid had taken her as a mate – which lead to a few awkward moments for the druid. They also discovered that the leader of the assault had been an Ogrillon who was wearing The Gauntlet - a deadly enemy to The Sentinel (the object of their previous mission) currently worn by Seamus the Paladin.

However, when it was discovered the Gauntlet forced the Ogrillion to imprison itself in a set of Sorcerous Cells that had been used as the Keep’s prison. At the same time they were disturbed by a Fire Giant and his hob-goblin army who insisted that the party return his daughter immediately, although he didn’t wait for a response before starting his attack. The party separated - Fern, Mulog and Stonewall went to lead a parley with the giant, while Seamus, Marvello and Cal tried to solve the problem with the prison. Although negotiations didn’t really get started the three diplomats, along with some help from the rescued soldiers were able to hold and dissuade the first round of the assault, while the others worked out that the Giant’s Daughter was held in one of the cells and managed to release her - stopping the assault altogether.

Then it was back to the sorcerous prison and trying to find The Gauntlet – which was clever (and powerful) enough to try and hide itself inside the cells. Eventually they forced it into the open, although now it was on the hand of a giant two headed troll! There was a short battle, before Seamus managed to touch The Sentinel to The Gauntlet and the two gloves disappeared in a blinding flash that reduced the troll to a smoking greasy smear on the floor.

They sent two of the soldiers for a relief garrison while they tidied up the loose ends, including telling the female Gnolls that Mulog had been killed in battle and setting them free. When relief arrived they made their way back to ‘civilisation’ - but were caught up in an ambush on the way. The Gnolls that had been beaten off from the assault on hall bridges, had met up with the released females - and the party were caught in a small avalanche trap. This time the Gnolls had a shaman who had access to fireballs and lighting bolts. It was a bit more of a battle than ‘The Hammer’ expected, but they won through in the end.

They were also told that, if they succeeded, they would be allowed to build and settle somewhere in Berhof. Eventually they might even get titles and bigger land holdings.

In Kusnir they discovered that people had been killed – slaughtered at random - but that the killer was leaving some obvious targets unmolested - and had left strage magical scrawls across the walls, in boold. On deciphering these, they discovered the name of the sentinel – and that he was tring to avert a greater evil. Initially investigations led them to believe the problem might be caused by some ‘little blue men’ based in camp some distance away. But then they got there, they discovered the bluemen had been chased away by a group of evil half-orc bandits. There was quite a fight, but eventually the bandits were routed and the rest of the mini stronghold cleared. That led them to Gannaway to ask more questions and then back to Kusnir to search for an old lakeside villa.

On the way they encountered a merchant train and helped a monk clear out a pair of gargoyles from a hermits cave. They were too late to save the hermit, but they did find a book that linked Marvello’s ancestors to the lakeside villa.

The abandoned Villa was only a couple of miles outside Kusnir, but had been overrun but an unpleasant selection of monsters. After clearing the top level, they entered the underground chambers to find a strange patch of darkness that could manifest strange snake-like wisps of energy - that seemed to attack straight through their armour. Eventually they realised they could kill it using magical and silvered weapons, but not before the Paladin had almost been brought low.

Beyond that were the caverns of the little blue men, who swarmed all over the party - putting their on lives on the line to protect their chieftain, priest and shaman. However, they were eventually dispatched, even when their ally, a wererat came to join the fray.

In the lowest levels they discovered an evil creature called a Skulk, that had been possessed by a minor artefact known as the Sentinel. It spoke to them telepathically and selected the Paladin to champion its cause. Now Seamus wears the glove proudly as champion of The Sentinel, tasked with securing The Aldeweg keep, situated on the borders of their barony. When they reported back to the Laird, he gave his approval to the expedition. However, before they left they took to opportunity to sell some of their 'loot' and improve their equipment. Now most of the group have purchased a hammer of some sort and the locals have started calling them 'The Hammer of Hallbridges'.