Members of KPD past and present met at the House of Dawn after Knightbringer posted a notice that he desired to lead a hunt. There was a bit of discussion about where we should go and how things should work as far as who was going to be partnered with whom for healing and such. Lady Echo was present with her pet Big Boy and a few people wanted to be partnered with her (wonder why?). Big Boy was a dragon. Other attendees that I can remember were Ture, Conn, Shilo, Maltz, Ailis Maeve, Finis Terre, Senterian and myself.

It was finally decided that we should take on the dangers of Hythloth. Maltz opened a gate for us and off we went. KnightBringer was the first to enter closely followed by the others we fought our way through the entrance that was filled with imps a couple of gargoyles and one or two daemons. After dispatching this first onslaught we moved deeper the majority of the group went down the hall and fought some fiery gargoyles while my partner Conn and I went down the stairs and started clearing out the hell hounds and imps that would impede the progress of the group while fighting these fiends I realized that a mages true place in combat is the rear where you can sit and watch over the warriors healing them when necessary and popping a few deadly combos on some of the more persistent enemies. (*note I truly stink in hands on combat compared to the warriors) I think Conn spent the majority of his bandages healing me during this fight. Shortly the rest of the party joined us downstairs and we moved on. We walked through halls infested with gargoyles that seemed to appear out of thin air every few seconds or so. Someone I’m not sure who yelled “Follow me! We go deeper.” We found ourselves in a hallway that was completely empty and I saw people appearing at the abbatoir in the entrance. I thought maybe they went to a different area and knew how to come out here to join us. Without giving it much thought I proceeded through the hall and suddenly found myself back at the abbatoir. Looking around in confusion I tried again and again back to the abattoir. This time I moved more slowly and noticed a faint glimmering in the floor and someone was sitting at that position saying “Cross here then move to the portrait and cross again” following these instructions I managed to make it to the bend in the hall where Ailis Maeve had caused two gargoyles to attempt to kill one another. I thought I was clear of the “start again trap” so I moved into the middle of the floor and headed for the doorway leading out of this strange passage, when I found myself once again looking at that fine abattoir at the beginning of the hallway. I negotiated the passage without difficulty this time as it was my fourth trip I rounded the corner and kept close to the wall I finally made it through the doorway and found to my surprise that I was in the first few to do so. We waited a few minutes and others made their appearance finally it seemed we had everyone assembled again and we pressed on.

We found rooms full of Daemons and Gazers we spent quite awhile fighting these things but someone opened a door that lead further in and Conn followed them we found a room that literally overstuffed with elder gazers and daemons they were banging on the door as demanding we release them. Conn looked at me and said “Get ready I’m opening that door” I tried to say something but the door was opening already and out poured the horde of monsters. Conn and I retreated down the hallway closer to the rest of the group, which was for some reason much smaller now I hadn’t really noticed before but now that I was wondering if I would survive this onslaught I took a good look and saw only Conn, Ture, Ailis Maeve, Maltz, and KnightBringer. It seems somewhere along the line around 6 of our companions decided they had had enough. I know the reason Lord Shilo left there were no members of his guild present and they are the only people allowed to heal him due to the nature of his guild.

Anyway to my surprise we cleared the hallway and moved forward again, I noticed a female adventurer not sure of her name but she had been running to the healers in our party every few minutes to be resurrected she was running down this hallway now newly resurrected and headed in our direction I followed her to see if maybe I could cover her while she recovered whatever assets she may have lost. The others in our group were once again set upon by daemons and gazers. Did someone open the door to that foul room again, I don’t know. I do know that the lady I was following opened a door at the end of the passage and some strange grey colored gargoyles came out I’m not sure who they were after because this is where I met “The Collector of Souls”.

Immediately following the grey Gargoyles a Gigantic Grayish Daemon strolled through the doors as though this were his house and we were trespassing…. I argued a bit and he backhanded me I reeled in my saddle and felt as though the world had been dropped on my head I ran before he could finish killing me. I ran down the hallway without worrying about Daemons or Gazers because The Collector of Souls was after me. I made myself invisible as quickly as possible then healed myself and ran back up the hall to try and heal as many of my comrades as I could. I noticed Ture and Conn standing side by side attempting to fight off this great beast but he dealt Ture a death blow and that attempt was stalled. Conn had to retreat down the passage because the collector nearly killed him with one blow following Ture’s demise. I lost track of Conn then as I attempted to stall this beast by casting a Flamestrike on him, the Collector however didn’t even seem fazed by my pitiful spell, which has been known to kill lesser beasts with but on strike. Ailis Maeve was busy convincing Gargoyles and Gazers to attack this giant fiend but he was brushing them aside as though they were gnats on a summers eve. A gate appeared next to us and to my relief Big Boy stepped through followed closely by Lady Echo, Big Boy immediately attacked the Collector and I went looking for Conn who had not returned from his trip down the hall. I’m not sure who resurrected Ture but he was in the fight again and our friend Big Boy didn’t seem to be fairing so well against the Collector, oh the Balron was getting weaker but despite many attempts at healing Big Boy he fell to the Balron. Somehow between Big Boys sacrifice and Ailis Provoking other beasts to attack it and our own warriors pounding on it we managed to slay the Balron. We retreated to the house of dawn where we talked a bit and divided up some of the loot we had gained, I guess that the Collector of Souls was collecting more than souls from those it had slain as there was over 12,000 gold on its corpse.

All in all it was a good adventure and finally a success with a large group.