First the looting of the bodies. Nice necklaces and gems, magic full plate, and a magic quarterstaff.

After fretting and worry, Diren cautiously moves forward on the theory that no one further is coming out, so they're probably all dead. He creeps back, hears hoofs on stone, and finds a couple of light warhorses stabled.

Further exploration of stable and nearby room of supplies. Then through a door, into the priests room. Poshly decorated, with tapestries honoring Zuggtmoy. Checking the cabinet turns up locked case which has papers about their evil activities; these are passed to Pire and Moth to worry about.

Pire lights the tapestries on fire with the Spark spells granted by St Cuthbert. It's decided to camp for a while and rest up after that big fight. Rather than rest out in the swamp, we bring Keg the mule and Binky the warhorse down into the underground stable. After a short argument between Diren and Gnarsh over who can sleep on the couch, Pite lights it on fire too. So a smokey night is spent underground, but it is somewhat improved by sampling the priest's fine liquors and the stored provisions.

Reading the papers that night it becomes clear that this priest worked for the Temple of Elemental Evil, and has spies/allies in town - the two guys from the trading post and Zert the mercenary we met in the inn.

After resting and preparing for further delving, the party heads back into the basement again. After following a windy passage, the party encounters a burial crypt. We head in and to no one's surprise ghouls emerge to attack. A short fight later, one of the ghouls has fled in response to Pire's Turn Undead and the other 3 lie dead. A search of the crypt turns up no valuables, but a tunnel in the back of one of the burial niches leads off where the ghoul fled.

We head in and find a small cavern with a heap of bones in the center. Moth casts Detect Magic and notes something in the middle of the pile. Sifting the bone pile, we find vials of holy water, a scroll to command undead, and a potion to be invisible to undead.

And we spot a line of gold coins leading into a narrowing tunnel. Diren crawls in to see where it goes and the trail peters out after 30 feet, after only half a dozen coins. But to no one's surprise the ghoul which fled earlier attacks. Both are constrained by the tunnel, which means Diren can't dodge but also means he can easily aim for the ghoul's weak points. So he kills it off, protected by his armor.

Back tracking, check down a stairwell. Smite a giant crawfish in a pool. A bit of loot is taken. Moth recovers a scroll (in sealed case) and a pin from a underwater ledge using Prestidigitation. Diren dives into the pool to check it for more loot, but doesn't find anything more. Though the pool appears to be part of an underground stream or river.

That's it. Head out of the moathouse, leaving the cultists cache of basic supplies behind, and go back toward Hommlet. We do bring the various suits of armor from the cultists. Ambush on the way back: a ninja jumps out of the brush and stabs Diren in the gut, knocking him out. Pire heads over to heal him while the others skirmish with the ninja. After a bit of circling, the ninja ends up with his back to Binky. At a command Binky rears up to "hug" and crushes the ninja's skull.

Back to town. Talk to Rufus, telling him about the agents of the Temple. He'll have them arrested. And we can seize some horses from the trading post as reward.

Pire talks to the church elder in town as well, telling him everything. He is thanked and rewarded with a masterwork cudgel which can cast shillelagh once per day.

We spend time celebrating in the inn. The trader and Zert are arrested by Rufus's soldiers. The village elder comes by and talks to us. As a reward for dealing with the moathouse and uncovering traitors, he offers us land on behalf of the village, by the cheese maker. We mostly accept, and there's a rough plan to put a house there. Maybe have one of the locals take care of it in exchange for being able to live there, rent free.

Next day we head out for Verbobonc. We have a lot of jewelry and trade goods to sell, and want to buy some nice stuff for ourselves. On the way out, Diren draws the symbol of Fharlanghn the travel god in the dirt and pours a flask of fine brandy out on it as an offering. Pire spits on the drawing as he goes past.

It's a four day journey. Gnarsh mounted on Binky, Moth one a light warhorse, Pire on a normal horse, Spit drives a wagon drawn by a normal horse and a light warhorse, Diren rides shotgun. And Keg the mule plods along with us.

On the third night, we are ambushed by bugbears as we prepare to bed down. They are all cut down, though Gnarsh takes some heavy damage in the process which is patched up by the grace of St Cuthbert. The last day of the journey is uneventful as we head into Verbobonc.

For next time: we plan to shop in Verbobonc and do anything else requiring a big city.