Fleeing the Ashtakarh City Guard into the sewers, our heroes head southwest hoping to find an outlet to get them out of the city. The guards start down the rope only moments behind them. The sergeant orders a female elf (who had recently spurned his romantic advances, leaving him with bruised testicles) to lead the guardsmen down the rope. The guards climb down the rope at about twenty-foot intervals. As soon as Perla del Mar Corso touches the bottom, the Guard second in line above her is snapped up in the jaws of a giant dire crocodile. The next two guards already on their way down the rope are shaken loose and fall to either death or serious injury. Perla joins the party in flight from the giant crocodile. Meanwhile, the City Guard abandon their dead (and their presumed dead) and close the grate sealing the sewers.

After escaping the giant crocodile, some hear an odd tapping noise coming from ahead in the sewers. A few moments later the team finds themselves battling with a giant centipede. Attempting an acrobatic maneuver to run around the centipede Vindahr narrowly misses being bitten, but succeeds in getting behind the monster. With considerable luck the team kill the centepede with minimal injuries to the party. [The party members receive xxx XP each for defeating the Centipede.] One not-so-wise party member decides to pull off a centipede leg as a souvenir and keep it.

Moments later, apparently drawn by the noise and the smell of blood, many rats the size of large dogs show up looking for some easy food. The party leaves the rats to deal with the centipede carcas.

Continuing southwest the party finds the sewers do indeed empty outside the city, but the way is blocked by very heavy metal bars. (Apparently intended to keep things from making an unauthorized and sneaky entrance into the city.) Backtracking their steps, they look for another way out of the sewers.

After the hoard of rats consume the centipede, a few follow their noses and come after the leg of centipede that is with the party. The party dispatches the three rats with little difficulty. [All PCs receive xxx XP.] The team decides to try one of the smaller side tunnels they have observed. There they just barely miss being swept away by the weekly flushing of the sewers. Along this smaller tunnel, they find their way blocked by a giant, sleeping snake. With their retreat blocked by a torrent of rushing water they crawl into and down a fissure in the side of the tunnel and into the ancient, burried city beneath Ashtakahr.

A short while later more rats follow the smell of dead bug meat. After slaying four more rats, the leg of centipede is thrown at them and a fifth rat grabs the leg and scurries off into the darkness with it. [All participants receive xxx XP.]

Traveling through alleyways and halls that were covered over, but not collapsed, the party makes their way through the ancient ruins. What few bodies are found are decayed to nothing more than dust and small bone fragments. Eventually, Throm finds the ruins of a church of Heironeous. Most of the beams and timbers inside the church are caved in, all but completely isolating the altar from the available entry. Exerting all his strength, Throm moves aside two such beams allowing him to crawl to the altar where he finds a sword, immaculate and apparently untouched by the countless centuries the old city has been burried.

Boldly and without thought, Throm reaches forth and grasps the sword, and freezes as though by electric shock. While the rest of the party observes Throm apparently frozen by an electric trap, Throm finds himself floating in space with a vast vista of stars above and below, left and right, and ahead and behind him. The soundless words form in his mind, "Throm. You must pass three tests."

In an attempt to help his electrified companion, Lucius grabbs Throm and gets zapped by a lightening bolt that hurls him across the chamber and slams him into the far wall. Lucius receives third degree burns on his hands and is knocked out cold.

A few minutes later, Throm moves. The electricity that had him frozen is now gone and Throm stands there holding the Sword of Heironeous. Throm is dazed and very weakened by his ordeal. Much that he once knew now seems gone from his mind. His special knowledge he learned as a cleric seems forgotten. He knows that he now answers a higher calling. [Throm is converted to a paladin by devine intervention. He loses all levels and previous XP. However, Throm receives xxx XP for passing his test for Paladinhood.]

The party rests for the night in the ruined church, baracading the entrance against further rodent scavaging. After their night's rest, the party continues their exploration of the ruins. Attempting a southerly direction brings them to a door that has withstood tons of rubble for centuries. After a few kicks against the door, the dry and decaying wood cracks, and creaks, and bows outward toward the heroes. The party wisely runs very quickly away as the door gives way and tons of dirt and rock fill the corridor. Perhaps next session, they will try the northerly passage.