- The two engaged the Harpies with spells and clubs, killing one just before their pet ankheg arrived.  They immediately focused on the large monster and managed to take it out in only a couple of rounds.  The last harpy was beat down considerably and decided to flee. 

- Ithaca had realized that they had no real way of knowing how many harpies might remain to come after Mulner's cattle, and they needed to track them down to where they came from.  She hit the fleeing harpy with a Faerie Fire spell and the two tracked it through the night...

- The two pursued the harpy through the night, into the southeastern badlands area.  They could still hear the creature screeching in teh canyons when the made camp in a shallow cave for the night.

- The following morning, they unexpectedly encountered a pair of armed skeletons patrolling the canyons, and managed to destroy the undead without too much diffiuculty.  From there, they moved further into the canyons until they came to a large, pillar-like structure with holes throughout near where they thought the harpy had gone.  The lowest holes were about 20 feet up, and the two climbed up the rock and into them.  The small cavern they found themselves in had a number of tunnels, all of them with varying amounts of webbing inside.

- The two crawled into one of the lower tunnels and eventually fell into a larger cavern, which was home to a monstrous spider and numerous smaller ones.  After killing the biggest spider and a few of the smaller ones, the others retreated and the two found some discarded treasures among the bones in the webs below.

- The twins continued their fight against the giant constrictor snake and trying to keep Bellin out of harms way.  Just as they killed the monstrocity, the goblins that had given chase arrived and began their attack.

- As they fought off the goblins, they heard Averen - Bellin's brother - call out from somewhere above "Bellin! Grab the rope!".

- Once the goblin threat had been addressed, the group exited the cave and returned to the farm.  Rik Mulner was glad his boy was ok and offered the two the 50gp promised for solving the harpy problem as thanks for rescuing Bellin.  He told them that he'd still pay out another 50gp if they could eliminate the harpies as well.

- The two spent another couple of nights in the rancher's fields, patrolling for signs of the harpies.  On the third night, they heard the haunting singing again and found the flying devils had returned...

- The two tell the goblin chief they came for the boy - threatening to continue fighting the goblins if they didn't release him.  They managed to intimidate the chief who gave the order to release the boy.

- One of the chief's guards, however, apparently didn't approve of the decision, and challenged her authority.  This resulted in a fight between the two, during which time Ithica and Varant managed to sneak over and release Bellin.

- The duel between the goblin leaders was still going on as they made their way out of the cavern, but they were spotted by some of the spectators and pursued. 

- Running back up the tunnels into the cavern, they were confronted by the giant snake whose skin they'd seen eariler.  They began battle with the snake while they could still hear the goblins approaching from behind - and the snake wrapped itself around Varant...

- The two briefly considered whether to follow the fleeing harpy or go look for the missing kid, and decided on the latter.

- Averin, the older brother, said Bellin liked to play in the woods at the eastern edge of the farm.  He suggested they start from the south end, as he and their father were looking in the north.  They would meet in the middle and hopefully find Bellin.

- After wandering the woods for a while, they found a small cave that looked like someone had spent some time around.  Inside they found a wooden sword and some copper coins next to a dragon statue, and a collpased tunnel leading further down.

- They both ended up falling down the rocky descent into a small cavern with a massive snakeskin.  Continuing on into the tunnels, they eventually found their way into a goblin warren.  In a large chamber, they saw Bellin in a metal cage next to a boiling cookpot.

- They considered how to approach the situation for a while, until one of the goblins began making its way up to their position.  At that point, the fighting began.

- The two fought off several goblins, but were getting worn down when the chieftess of the tribe stopped the combat and demanded to know who they were and why they were invading...

- The two returned on their guild HQ in Granton where they gave their report about the mystery location and contributed their appropriate loot percentage.  The next day they went out to Rik Mulner's farm to investigate his disappearing cattle problem.

- Apparently something has been eating the cows - something with wings that made a strange, singing sound.  Mulner told them they always came at night and that their best bet on catching them was to camp out in the cow pasture.

- They spent the rest of the day setting up camp in some bushes at the top of a rise and talking about their plan of counter-attack.  A kid named Bellin came out to see what they were like, since he wants to be an "adventurer" too.

- Late in the night, the two began to hear a haunting song calling in the distance - and a little while after, heard the frantic mooing screech of a cow.

- As they ran down to where the sounds had come from, they were called to by someone from the farm - just as they began to be attacked by harpies.

- The two were able to drive off the harpies, after which point they met up with Bellin's older brother - apparently the kid is missing...

- A couple weeks after their trial adventure to Etlon's Tower, Matheus brought them a couple of new opportunities.  The first was a farmer complaining that "devils" were attacking his cattle - dragging them off and eating them.  The second was reports from a plains hunter saying he found an odd entrance to an underground complex on a hilltop in the foothills to the northeast.  The debated for some time before deciding on the latter.

- The directions the hunter provided were not especially clear, and they wandered for some time before they were able to find the hilltop in question.  During this wandering, they ran afoul of a monstrous toad that did its best to eat them.

- When the finally reached the entrance, they found it to be a spiral, stone stairway leading into a set of chambers with skeletal motifs - and something like a crypt.  While they investigated, they were attacked by skeletal warriors.  After fighting them off, they found a smashed chest with a number of coins (which they collected). 

- Down in the lowest level, they found the tomb of some kind of wizard character - holding a wand and wearing rings.  It was there that they were attacked by a more powerful skeletal warrior who almost got the better of them.  After destroying it, they decided to try to take the wand and rings the dead wizard was holding.  As they removed one of the rings, the skeleton became animated and began howling.  The two took their spoils and ran - making it out of the tomb just before the entrance collapsed.

- Ithica and Varant approached the ruined tower and found themselves attacked by giant centipedes.  With the wolf's help, they were just barely able to fight them off.

- After a short rest, they entered the table.  Inside, they found the remains of the stone statue of a human warrior, and also some strange stone stone centipedes on the stairway.  Following the stone stairway up, they found a room full of wooden debris where they encountered a cockatrice. 

- During that battle, Ithica became petrified, and did not revert even after they'd killed it.  Varant then went back to Granton for assistance. He promised the priests of the Sunfire Temple a favor in exchange for an ointment that could return petrified creatures to normal.

- Meanwhile, after about 24 hours, Ithica returned to her normal state to find her wolf had killed a couple more centipedes.  Exploring the rest of the tower, she found the chest that was supposed to contain the green gem, but just found a parchment that read "Matheus is a liar."

- Ithica met up with Varant about half way back to Granton.  The two returned to the guild and reported what Ithica had found.  Matheus told them congratulations - they'd completed the trial successfully.

- After chasing off the bandits, the twins continued on their journey eventually reaching the city of Granton.  As they made their way to the watch HQ - a place called 'the Spearhall', they found themselves on the street where monstrous tentacles were reaching up from sewer grates and attempting to grab people and pull them down.  They assisted an guardsman in fighting off the tentacles before continuing on.

- At the Spearhall they informed Captain Pommel of the kobold situation in the forest near Nettlewood, but he seemed unconcerned with problems outside the city.

- Having performed the task they were assigned, they two decided to seek out the Adventurer's Guild Tenlo had told them about.  They eventually found it - a small place on a backstreet on the south side of town.

- The two paid Varant's fee and spoke with a man called Matheus who seemed to be the guild leader.  He cautioned them that they would face real dangers if they chose to join.  When they said they were ready, he gave Varant an initial "assignment" and suggested he speak with one of the other guild members who may be able to teach him the magic he wanted to learn.

- For a couple of weeks, Varant studied with a wizard called Tyra - also a member of the guild.  In that time, she managed to teach him a few cantrips, noting that he possessed "the gift", at which point the two decided it was time to pursue the initial "mission": to an abandoned watchtower on an old road 4 days north through the forest to recover a gem.

- As they approached the overgrown towner deep in the forest, they heard insectoid chittering sounds...

- The following day, Tenlo's parents asked him to go and see Mr. Applewood, the local healer/apothecary to make sure his wound would heal properly.  Knowing Ithicca was something of an apprentice to Mr. Applewood, he came to ask her to show him the way to Applewood's cottage in the woods - and Varant decided to come along.

- Ithicca took him along the path to the recluse's house, where they found him in the back garden apparently frustrated with the state of some of his plants.  He took the three of them inside and treated Tenlo's wound and then asked them if they would accompany him further into the forest to speak with someone called Selena.  Tenlo decided he'd better return home, but Ithicca and Varant said they would go.

- When the three of them reached a remote hilltop deep in the woods, they found a small band of kobolds holding a dryad hostage.  After fighting them off and freeing the forest guardian, Mr. Applewood introduced them to Selena.  He told her that he had been wanting Ithicca to meet her for some time, as the girl showed "great promise".  Selena embraced Ithicca and bestowed a small measure of power upon her.

- When the three of them returned to town, the told more people about the kobold threat.  Most of the villagers seemed to think the encounters had happened too far away to be of any concerned, but agreed that someone could go alert the watch in the nearby city of Granton to see if they might send a military hunting party to deal with the problem.  The twins agreed to go.

- As Ithicca and Varant were preparing to set off early the next morning, their aunt gave them a satchel with some potions and special food in it, and their friend Tenlo arrived to give them their portion of the coins they'd found in the ruin.  He also told Varant that he should join the adventurer's guild in Granton.

- Along the road to Granton, they were accosted by a starving wolf.  They briefly traded blows with it before Ithicca offered it some dried meat they'd brought along with them, which it took and then ran of into the woods.

- A short time later, they were met by a pair of bandits trying to get them to pay a "toll" for the road.  The encounter turned violent, and the twins found themselves fighting some older, tougher opponents.  With some fortune they'd managed to incapacitate one, but they were extremely worn down and still facing the other when the wolf they'd met earlier leapt from the forest onto their assailant...

The kids have been wanting to play D&D again, and it was suggested that I start a game for the two of them that didn't require Sheri to be present.  I made them some classless characters that have mostly-average stats and no real skills or abilities.  They're teenagers only recently of-age, and the idea is that they will find NPCs to teach them the skills of the class abilities they want.

Characters:

- Ithicca [Hannah] :: Human (prospective druid)

- Varant [Micah] :: Human (prospective wizard)

Highlights:

- As the twins were finishing some work in the Nettlewood orchard one summer evening, Varant's friend Tenlo came to him, exitedly reporting that he'd manage to break into an old, sealed "mine" and found it wasn't a mine.  He convinced Varant to come with him to explore it, and Ithicca went along.

- At the site, they encountered an illusion of a giant figure bellowing at them and some giant rats.  They also found a hidden room that contained some old, rusty weapons and a chest filled with coins that had been hidden in some rubble.  It was then that they were attacked by kobolds and their friend Tenlo was injured.

- They returned to the village and told Tenlo's parents about the kobolds.