After much pointless deliberation I finally convinced the group of guilders that were interested in heading out today to come with me to the southgate and continue exploring the building where we’d cleared out some cave fishers. I really wanted to get that all measured and mapped out properly. I modified one of the wheels on my carriage to measure the distance we traveled. I think that is a great invention that will eventually be put on all carriages. Just imagine being able to easily look and see such information as how long you’ve been riding for the day or how many miles you’ve been using the same set of wheels and do they need to be replaced yet? Great potential. But I digress.

Sevearn felt too exhausted after yesterday’s activities to drive my carriage today. She felt since I was only heading out to take measurements and Erik was coming that I’d do fine on my own. Getting wet from the rain and mist didn’t seem to bother me as much as it did yesterday. I guess I was just too excited from having my first taste of battle and adventure yesterday slaying the cave fishers to notice such inconsequential things as the weather. I think I am really going to enjoy this.

So, it was left to Erik, Lyreth and companion, Jan, Phae, Calro and I returning to the southgate. Oh, and “Zip” finished getting his initial work done with his alchemy lab back at the guild hall so he decided to join us. I’m glad he did. His explosives were quite impressive.

When we got to the Temple (as I’d discovered it must be from some research I did in Gilgrol the Wizard’s mobile library) we discovered we were a bit hasty in our conclusion that the cave fishers were the primary occupant. A very upset gargoyle accosted us and claimed we’d killed its pets. We may live in very liberal times, what with the dwarves living on the surface and orc halfbreeds living in harmony with the other races, but I don’t think fearsome monsters like gargoyles really have the kind of right to lay claim to such historical monuments as these. Between Zip’s bombs and Erik doing a flying leap right off the side of the bridgeway, the gargoyle didn’t stand a chance.

We quickly moved on to exploring the interior of the temple. We didn’t get very far before we came across a nest of giant centipedes. Disgusting creatures. Again, Zip and Eric dispatched them. The rest of us did our part as well. I even got one of them with a dart… I don’t think it did much more than distract it so Erik could cleave it in half.

Through the centipede nest we went down some stairs and into another room where we discovered some long forgotten automatons still futilely trying to follow their instructions of manufacturing extra parts for their repair. Zip and I managed to shut them down, a mercy really, we loaded them up on the wagons to take back to Gartanu. I think we might be able to repair one or two of them. They really are just fascinating constructs.

We had just finished with loading when Zohrell sensed an aproching storm and we felt it would be best to get back to the safety of Gartanu for the rest of the day. After checking in on my sister to see if she was feeling better, I spent the evening visiting with Gilgrol and reading through a few books. I hope the storm passes soon and we can make another trip out in the next few days.