SCENE 01 – Once the sun has fully risen, the party searches the abandoned village and finds an old trap door. Opening the trap door reveals a bolt hole and piled high within it is a large amount of coin, four potions, and four pieces of jewelry, seeming to have once belonged to a noblewoman. The party divides what they feel they can safely carry and then buries the rest.

The party also buries Zarka, Piety performing a lengthy service in Zarka’s memory. When going through Zarka’s belongings, Trake comes across a small device that looks like a compass, made from brass or perhaps gold. Opening the top, the inside of the lid is inscribed with detailed engraving in a language he cannot read; instead of a compass is a stone he cannot identify, but it appears to be a clear crystal of some sort. A mist forms above the compass and the crystal seems to gather all of the light from the surrounding area and focuses it into the small mist cloud. Around the crystal are markings similar to measurement or location markings found on a standard compass.The compass thrums with energy.

Spinning in a circle, the mist focuses and sends thin threads of light of various colors out, pointing due east. Trake puts the strange device into a belt pouch. Ornan takes Zarka’s bulky spell book for safekeeping.

Once the treasure is safely stowed, the party follows the pass eastward.

SCENE 02 – The mountain pass begins its descent after the village, but the elevation is still quite high. Eventually the party comes to the fork described to them by the dwarves. The device in Zarka’s belt pouch starts vibrating vigorously and, taking the device out and opening it, a thin, very bright beam of light points from the mist cloud down the left-hand path, the one Oradrad said contains the hidden alpine lake.

After some discussion, the party has decided to eschew the left-hand path and continue heading down and out of the mountains, when Jorgrim discovers the tracks of a large cave bear in the mud beside the pass. The party decides to make their way to the alpine lake instead.

SCENE 03 – The pathway leads back upwards, climbing steeply and soon ends altogether. Climbing over some boulders, the party can clearly see the lake some distance away, ringed with trees in the basin of a caldera. In the center of the lake is a small island with sparse vegetation.

The party spends a day or so hunting game, fishing, and exploring the shore of the lake. Trake discovers that the device points most strongly to the island in the center of the lake, but a faint line also points directly towards the giant stag’s head the party saw on the pass above.

SCENE 04 – Fashioning a raft, the party heads towards the small island. As they get closer, they can see that what they had thought was mossy overgrowth is in fact dark patches of long fur. The island itself appears to be made from irregularly shaped stone.

In the center of the island is a circular depression about 2ft in diameter with multiple channels in the stone emanating outwards from from it. Standing at the depression, the device now has a bright, white beam that points to a location somewhere beneath the water and about twenty feet from the island.

Putting one of the crystal swords below the surface of the water, Trake can see that the island steeply declines in the direction that the beam is pointing in. The party returns to the lake shore to discuss their next move.