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Party at the start:
Mace Blackstar (Mike D.; Human Fighter)
Wilbered The Silent (NPC (normally Bob S), Human Cleric)
Castor Bean (Steve B.; Human Bard)
Trygvie (NPC, normally Steve G.; Elven Wizard)
Kane (Al G.; Human Monk)
Geia (NPC; Human Fighter)
and Malus Thunderhammer (Chris L.; Dwarf Ranger)

The session started with the party riding in the fishing boat rowed by Uzna, the chief peasant of Nudlo Village and one of his comrades.  They had decided that they would sleep in the boat while  the peasants rowed, with one of their number awake to help keep watch.  The peasants were good rowers and the journey was downstream; it was hoped that by morning theywould reach the "ruined tower," a landmark on the map they had acquired fromCirdis.  From the ruined tower, they hoped to make their way to a hiddenentrance to The Valley of the Shrines that, according to the map, was "(c)lightlyguarded."

Most of the night passed without incident.  Near morning, however,Castor heard a sound from the island.  Three human sized creatures withbat-like wings were flying towards the boat.  Castor awoke his companions. As the creatures drew closer, the players could see that they had grey,pebbled stone-like skin, horns, claws and open, slavering jaws --- gargoyles!. The players pelted the gargoyles with arrows and crossbow bolts  butthe missiles just shattered on the monster's rock-like skin.  The creatures swooped down on the boat. Malus was unable to wound the creatures with his non-magical shortswords and got somewhat clawed up.  Kane the monk did a complictated jump and tumble to try to attack and promptly fell in the water.  The players killed one on the creatures outright and it collapsed intoa pile of broken stone.  A second gargoyle was apparently destroyedby Trygvie's Fireball spell but the third got away.

After defeating the gargoyle, the players encouraged the peseants to apply themselves to the oars once again.  By morning they reached the ruined tower without incident where they disembarked.  The peseants agreed toreturn each morning to the ruined tower to (hopefully) pick up the adventurers and the slaves they had rescued.  They also said they would row out tothe island if the players lit a signal fire.

The ruins of the tower were nothing more than a simple stone ring, thirty feet in diameter.  The crumbled walls were no more than 10-20 foot tall and obviously had once been much taller judging by the quantity of rubble.  The tower interior was open to the sky -- all upper floors were long gone, and the whole was shrouded in creepers, weeds and plants.  The players engaged in a full search of the ruin.  Trygvie found a small gold plaque in a green velvet bag that had obviously been recently lost in a mud puddle near the enterance.  Malus found a few footprints of some humanoids with clawed feet who had obviously been camping in and around the tower a few days before.  The footprints led them to a small and mostly overgrown trail that led through the woods and towards the mountains to the northeast.

The players elected to follow the trail.  Walking through the woods, they saw several of the trees were festooned with thick, ropelike spiderwebs.  Although they were cautious, they saw no monsters.  After about three hours travel, they reached the base of the mountain where the trail seemed to terminate in a vine-shrouded cliff.  The players were extremely paranoid at this point and sent the bard up ahead to investigate.

In the brush at the base of the cliff, the bard found a tunnel enterancedecorated with carvings of hawks, shields and swords.  Two shatteredstone statues, one of a man and one of a woman, which appeared to have beenbattered nearly into rubble, flanked the enterance.  Listening at thetunnel, the bard could hear the gentle slap of waves of water.

The entire group came forward and enetered the tunnel.  It was about20 fett wide and 20 feet high with a roof arched overhead.  Other thaninsects, bats and lizards, they saw very little.  They went furtherand further in, going over 200 feet until they came to an area where thetunnel cut diagonally to the west and then opened up into a rough cave witha sandy floor.  The players could hear the sound of water much moreloudly and saw a broken statue of a woman with a shield and the stump ofa snapped off sword in her hands.  There seemed to be some sort of writingin blood and charcoal all over the statue and three canoes were pulled upon the beach.  The water appeared to extend back into a dark maze oftunnels.

The players investigated the writing on the statue and recognized tht mostof the writing was Orc or Goblin with a few other runes thrown in for goodmeasure.  Most of it seemed to be curses, threats and insults.  Thedwarf attempted the clean some of the marks off and a magical rune was discharged,wounding him slightly.

At this point the playersdecided to get into the canoes.  The bard andthe dwarf got into the first canoe, Trygvie, Gaia and the monk got into thesecond canoe and Mace and Wilbered got into the third.  They rowed offinto the winding tunnels of the cave and found a mazelike series of roughtunnels.  Suddenly the dwarf saw something moving in the water underneaththe canoe.  The bard stabbed at it with his spear, and, without warning,this huge crocodile-creature surfaced and tipped over the canoe, spillingboth the dwarf and the bard into the water.  Fortunately, the dwarfhad removed his armor and tied it down into the boat and the bard had stowedhis pack, but with the huge crocodile thrashing around in the water, theyboth had trouble keeping afloat.  The others attempted to attack thecrocodiles (there were apparently more than one) or help prevent the charactersin the water from drowning and a comedy of errors ensued in which anotherboat was overturned and more than half of the party ended up in the water. 

Mike D. described the situation pretty well in this passage from the discussiongroup:

Mike D.>Dude, everybody fell in the goddam water.  It was like abad Chevy Chase skit there for a while.
 
DM: "Malus and Castor fall in the water."
 
Trygvie: "I'll pull them up with my quarter staff."
 
DM: "You fail your strength check.  You fall in too.  Oh, andthe other croc is attacking the boat with Mace and Wilbred in it and tryingto flip it over."
 
Wilbred:  "I failed my check."
 
DM: "You're in the drink too."
 
Mace: "I passed.  I'll help him out.  Damn.  I rolled a one."
 
DM:  "Yeah, you fell in too."
 
Kane:  "I'll climb up the wall and over to help out.  Damn!  Failed my climb check."
 
DM: "Ummm.  You're in the water too."

The players were never quite sure how many crocodiles they were fighting,but after killing two they were no longer being attacked -- they suspectedat least one more crocodile had fled.  The water was only about 8 feetdeep, so after having gotten everyone back into a boat (or onto a capsizedboat), Castor the Bard used a spear to retrieve his waterlogged pack.

The adventure ended here for the night.

Experience:

Character
 class/race
 player
 xp at start
 xp at end
Geia
 human fighter
lvl 3
 npc
 3842
 3989
Mace
 Human fighter
lvl 5
 Mike D.
 15382
 16476
Wilbered
 Human Cleric
lvl 5
 npc
 14908
 15055
 6th level
Castor Bean
 Human Bard
level 4
 Steve B.
 10967
 12061
Trygvie
 Elven Wizard
level 5
 Steve G.
 12681
 12828
Kane
 Human Monk
level 5
 Al G.
 14482
 15176
 6th level
Malus
 Dwarf Ranger
Level 4
 Chris
 7850
 8944